comfortable and chearful estate endeavoureth what he can to disturbe them though he cannot destroy them besides the weighty and burthensome afflictions where withall many gracious hearts are sometimes ready to be overwhelmed had they not secret supports under their oppressing tryals To these and to all Christians the Apostles exhortation is to rejoyce in the Lord Phil. 3.1 And to rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and again to rejoyce Chap. 4. verse 4. who layeth it down as a character of the true spiritual circumcision to rejoyce in Christ Jesus as well as to worship God in the spirit Phil. 3.3 Joy is a fruit of the spirit as much as love faith and other graces among which it is numbred Gal. 5.22 And it is essential to the kingdom of heaven and the state of grace in the soul which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.17 How then should all that are justified by faith and have peace with God through Christ Jesus rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God by Christ and in Christ himself the hope of glory Who is there among all the people of the Lord that is not ashamed to say he doth not love Christ and doth not so far at least testifie his faith as to declare his desires to beleive in him Beloved doe ye love the Lord and beleive in him and can ye not also rejoyce in him Oh that I could say of all beleivers as Peter of the beleiving Jews and the greatness of their joy in the incorruptible inheritance and in Christ 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love and in whom though now ye see him not yet beleiving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Chear up your spirits and lift up your heads and hearts ye drooping Christians for your departure unto Christ is at hand and your salvation is nearer then when ye first beleived And ye that are rich in faith and heires of the kingdom look unto the hope set before you and endure a little shame here yea glory in your tribulations and rejoyce in your sufferings for your redemption draweth nigh Know ye not in whom ye have beleived who is able to keep what ye have committed to his charge and to save you to the uttermost And rejoyce that ye are made partakers not only of the sufferings of Christ but of his glory who is ready to receive you into his bosom and to give you possession of a glorious inheritance prepared reserved and secured unto you having made you sons and heires and appointed you to be Kings and Priests unto Christ and his Father Secondly for the furtherance â—nd help of your joy in the Lord make your calling and election sure For hereby an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 11. It is an uncomfortable state for a Christian to hang between heaven and hell and in a moving ballance betwixt hope and fear therefore we ought to give diligence in the searching our hearts and examining our hopes that our evidences may be clear and our hopes lively through the assurance of hope and understanding Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 They that beleive have the evidence and witness in themselves the spirit it self bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God Rom. 8.16 But we must not expect the witness of the spirit of God without the preceeding witness of our own spirits whereby our evidences are first signed and afterwards sealed by the spirit of promise For hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 1 John 4.13 Unto which knowledge we attain by our reflexion upon the fruits of the spirit within us as an earnest of the purchased possession for us So that our evidence ariseth and appeareth by a diligent scrutiny and inquisition into the work and principles of grace within us and that by bringing the word to the heart and judging the heart by the word by comparing truths with experiences and experiences with truths from which premises the enlightened and sanctified conscience draweth the sweet conclusion of life and peace And were we not too much strangers to our selves and guilty of neglect and careless presumption in the matter of our assurance we might raise our comforts to a higher pitch and maintain a better grounded joy and confidence then we doe who are ready to content our selves with naked desires weak and staggering hopes or at most with a questionable probability of our salvation yea how many professors are there who by the difficulty of the work of gaining assurance either discourage and cool their affections to it or else by a conceit of an impossibility thereof voluntarily and totally neglect it But ye Beloved build not your hopes and comforts upon slight and shallow foundations but stirre up your selves and by all unwearied paines resolve to clear and ballance your accounts for eternity especially making your calling sure and your evidence sound concerning the truth of conversion and regeneration This will be the strongest hold under Christ's protection in the time of temptation to retire unto and to preserve and releive your hearts and hopes when Satan shall beat you out of all other Forts and outworkes of defence and confidence cause you to retreat to your main-guard of conversion evidence To this end call to mind the birth day of grace wherein you suffered the pangs and throws of the new birth and recount the experiences of Gods first love to you and your first love to Christ How discernable was your change when God turned you from dismal darkness to his marvellous light and raised you from the jawes of death and hell unto the joyes of heaven and salvation when he comforted you in your despair and anointed you with joy and gladness in the time of your sorrow and mourning when your imprisoned and confined hearts were enlarged and the Devil bound up from torturing holding you captive under his tyrannical and malilicious power when the day of light and understanding dawned in your hearts and the glorious Sun of righteousness arose with healing to your wounds and health to your souls But take heed of satisfying your selves with this that you have been converted to the Lord but for the strengthening of your confidence in him and clearing your interest in his love bring forth of the treasury of your hearts things new as well as old for the more testimonies the stronger evidence anst the surer comfort Therefore trace the foot-steps of Christ's spiritual and powerful dispensations towards your souls in the process and continued course of mercy and his preventing assisting and supporting grace and reveiw the pillars and monuments you have set up in your hearts for remembrance of special kindness and remarkable
discover and act all manner of vexation fretfulness reluctancy and opposition under the anguish of its hopeless condition And this may be demonstrated if one consider the nature of a carnal heart and spirit and the tendency thereof which doth naturally end in this degree of sin 1. There is a natural enmity in every carnal soul against God which remaineth for ever in it where grace doth not subdue and mortifie it The carnal mind is enmity to God Rom. 8.7 And it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be So that this enmity is discovered in this life by acts of sin and wicked workes done by carnal men against the holy and righteous will of God and consequently abiding in the soul after death it will in like manner manifest it self to eternity the Soul being wholly void of all sanctifying and renewing grace Secondly This enmity will more fully act after dissolution by the total withdrawing of the spirit of God whereby in this life it was limited and restrained God setteth bounds to carnal men in this life to keep the world in some degree of peace for the more quiet habitation of his people without which their lives on earth would be altogether disquiet and uncomfortable through the rage and fury of the wicked But in hell there is not so much as restraining grace to dam up the fountain of corruption from breaking out and flowing forth in its full strength and liberty Thirdly the greatest sufferings whatsoever have no power to suppress or destroy corruption and carnal enmity as in themselves considered It is a sanctified affliction through the love of God that purgeth and taketh away sin from his children who by his chastisements are made partakers of his holiness But the torments of hell are the execution of the fierce wrath of God wherein there is not the mixture of one dram of love God intending the destruction and not the salvation of the soul in taking vengeance upon it So that the sinful habits and habitual enmity of the soul are increased and blown up to the highest degree of malice by despair under eternal punishment Fourthly To this we may also add that to be given up to sin is one of the greatest Judgements of God and therefore may be a part of or at least an adjunct to the torments of the damned God sometimes punisheth sin with sin by hardning the heart for its hardness and searing the conscience for its senselessness and giving up to believe a lye for not receiving the love of the truth as also he gave up those Idolaters who imprisoned the natural light and knowledge of God to uncleanness vile affections and a reprobate mind Rom. 1. Now the highest degree of sin God giveth up a carnal man unto in this life is the sin against the holy Ghost which is to sin with malice and to doe despight unto the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 When a reprobate heart shall grow to that hardness in sin as to sin under conviction and to revenge it self upon God and the spirit of God by committing sin upon the account of sin or because it is sin otherwise it cannot be a wilful sinning after receiving of the knowledge of the truth This being the highest degree of sin upon earth the formality whereof is malice and revenge we may easily be perswaded to believe that hell is full thereof where this malice is more stirred up by despair under these torments then it can be in this life and where the souls of the wicked vent their malice against God by blaspheming and cursing him to his face which is the proper discovery of it as desperate malefactors sometimes in their torments curse both Judge and Executioner And foâ— the proof of this I shall only argue thâ— the case from two or three Scripture instances First of Job whom Satan supposed to be but a hypocrite and temptâ—… God to afflict him with this confidence that he should curse him to his face Joâ— 1.11 The Devil well knew what over whelming afflictions would work upon carnal and sinful heart even to curse Goâ— to his face and had not Jobs sinceritâ— through the power of God upheld anâ— preserved him the Devil had had his design and Job had cursed God as well aâ— the day of his birth Another is of thosâ— wicked ones of whom the Prophet â—…saiah speaketh Isai 8.21 And thâ—â— shall pass through it hardly bestead anâ— hungry and it shall come to pass that wheâ—… they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God anâ— look upward Whence it appeareth thaâ— when God upon earth punisheth a people for their wickedness with some extream calamity under which they despair looking upwards and seeing no help the wickedness of their hearts will through madness and malice break out into cursing of their King and their God whether true of false Which appeareth yet more clearly in the prophesie of the powring forth of the vials of the wrath of God upon the Antichristian party in several plagues and punishments for their final ruine and overthrow Rev. 16.9 And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory And verse 11. They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their paines and their sores and repented not of their deeds Likewise verse the last They blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great Much more will a sinful soul blaspheme in hell where despair is the torment of those torments Which Christ himself seemeth to put out of all question speaking of the sufferings of hell when he saith There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Math. 8.12 and 13.42 50. That is against God through fretfulness and malice for so the phrase of gnashing the teeth is taken in other Scriptures Psal 37.12 The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth So the Jews did upon Stephen Acts. 7.54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth So that as the Saints in heaven bless God with Praises and Hallelujahs so the damned in hell howl under pain and curse him and thus in hell sin shall be perfected as well as grace in heaven every wicked and graceless soul shall sin under suffering while it is suffering for sin Lastly Hereupon the wrath of God is further provoked and heightned by the actual sin of a wicked and desperate soul under its torments So that to make this everlasting punishment of a damned soul in hell unspeakable miserable the sufferings thereof are not only eternal as they are the just reward of sin committed in this life against an infinite God whose justice can never be fully satisfied but by the eternity of the punishment but they are also for ever increased and renewed by enraging provocations of malice and
and unworthy wretches who disdain and slight such reports of mercy and the rich mystery of Gods good will towards men in Christ which the Angels admiring bow themselves and stoop down to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 Hearken O ye unbeleivers Is it not a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners whereof ye are the chief What is the meaning of so many publique Assemblies every Lords day and our occasional comings together upon this or any other providential call what is the meaning that so many are set apart and make it their study and labour to preach unto you whom ye openly see in their Pulpits spreading their hands and hear them with so much zeal and fervency crying aloud spending their very strength and hazarding their healths and life it self in their unwearied paines Is it not Christ whom we preach and in whom ye say that ye beleive How can ye beleive that wallow in the mire of your unclean and polluted conversations How can ye beleive that commit iniquity with greediness and blush not at your open sins and profaneness How can ye beleive that make the world your God and prefer the trrash of the earth before the treasures of heaven How can ye beleive that seek the honour and praise and favour of men more then the honour that is of God that ye may be great upon earth and get a name which shall be written in the earth Is it not true that all men have not faith ye say ye beleive and ye have faith can your faith save you can a dead faith a feigned faith a fruitless and a workless faith save you Can ye prove or shew a true faith without workes Give me leave to try your faith in regard of the object of it Doe ye beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ Doe ye beleive in that Christ who from the beginning was promised to the sore-fathers who saw his day and rejoyced who in the fulness of time appeared in our flesh made of a woman and under the law and took upon him the form of a servant who suffered so much shame and reproach by the contradiction of sinners and at last an accursed death the death of the cross for the satisfaction of divine justice and appeasing of the wrath of God so highly provoked by the sins of men who arose from the grave having overcome and broken the bands of death to assure unto us our justification who lastly ascended into the highest heavens and is there interceeding for his people and ruling and reigning till he overcome all his enemies whence he shall come again and appear the second time without sin unto the final judgement of the world and the full salvation of all that beleive in him Why then do ye say in your selves or is it not the language of our unbeleiving hearts who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ from above and who shall descend in to the deep to bring up Christ again from the dead What strange fancies have ye in your mindes of Christ and beleiving in Christ Is not your faith a fancy O that the word of faith were nigh unto you even in your hearts the word of faith which we preach And that ye would beleive our report when we preach Christ and him crucified as we have evidently set him forth crucâ—fied among you Besides if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed it would soon manifest its self by the growth of it and the fruits that proceed from it It would be a Christ prizing faith a heart purifying faith a world conquering and crucifying faith it would be a Saint loving and a soul humbling faith it would work in you the fear of God and the fear of sin a love to the truth and to every ordinance of Christ it would make conscience tender and the heart sincere and upright with God yea it would render holiness beautiful and lovely and all the wayes and commands of the Lord delightful and easie besides it would make future things present and present things absent and as if they were not and yet the beleiving soul inherits all things and possesseth all things The exercise of faith is a pleasant joyful and glorious act through the transcendent and unspeakable excellency of Christ the object thereof Now if these things be a mystery unto you and your hearts wholly strangers unto them look into the Gospel more seriously and acquaint your selves further with the riches of the mystery of Christ even the riches of mercy and the unsearchable treasures of Christ and be no more faithless but beleive If ye were but sensible of the wants of your souls as ye are of the straights and necessities of your bodies it would not be so hard to perswade you to come to Christ the great treasury of all supplies who hath gold for the poor and eye-salve for the blind and white rayment for the naked Rev. 3.13 Now are not ye thus poor and blind and naked and consequently wretched and miserable And how freely doth Christ offer himself to become all fulness unto you who is made of God unto all that beleive wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 what sure foundation can ye build upon if Christ be not the corner stone and rock of your trust and confidence and to whom will ye goe for eternal life if ye refuse him and reject the counsell of God by persisting in unbeleif and impenitency I can assure you from the word of God that other foundations can no man lay then is laid by Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 To day therefore whilst it is called to day harden not your hearts refuse not him that speaketh from heaven lest you perish in your unbeleife but lay hold upon this strength of God that ye may make peace with him ye shall make peace Isai 27.5 For he is our peace by whom we have access with boldness unto the throne of grace and he is able to save unto the uttermost all those that come unto God by him Heb 7.25 O sinners beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall be saved every soul of you your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquity shall be remembred no more and receive him who is ready to receive you and to bless you with all spiritual blessings that ye may be the children of God and heires of the promises and of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven Secondly The exhortation is also to all Christians for to such my text hath a more special relation even to those who with their hearts beleive and love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity who though peradventure they cannot so freely with Saint Paul desire to depart yet in case of departing unfeignedly desire to be with him And because
expressions of his love and faithfulness unto you if you can yet read them in Scriptures not defaced or blotted out through unthankful for getfulness Take also a new survey of the carriage of your hearts towards the Lord. What have been your desires after him how have ye trusted in him and cleaved to him what communion with him what delight in him what service have ye done for him how faithful have ye been to him what have been your private affections in duty and your publique zeal in your profession how have you improved his talents and encreased your spiritual stock of grace what growth in meekness self-denial patience faith love knowledge holyness and purity what is the present frame of your hearts after so much means and seasons of grace so long enjoyed Is it more humble more heavenly more unmoveable and fixed upon God And lastly are ye more fruitful and abounding in the work of the Lord Thus can ye manifest the truth of grace by the exercise of it the growth and fruitfulness of it hereby your joy shall be full and Christ's joy shall dwell in you John 15.11 What a glorious evidence hereby had the beleiving Thessalonians to whom the Apostle Paul writeth in their commendation that their faith grew exceedingly and their love one towards another abounded 2 Thes 1.3 Happy are they that can ascend this mountain of assurance and take a sight as from Mount Pisgah of the heavenly Canaan crying out with Saint John in admiration 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God therefore the world knoweth us not But if your evidences are lost or hardly legible for the renewing ard preserving of them take this next direction Direct III. Thirdly Then perfect holiness to the highest degree attaineable upon earth This is the Apostles counsel drawn from the great priviledges and promises of grace 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And because we deny that any man can be perfect so as to be without sin and all infirmities upon earth for if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8 Therefore take this necessary caution of proposing any measure unto your selves thereby to limit your utmost endeavours after the greatest measure of grace ye can possibly attain unto for therefore we have a perfect example set before us even God himself that we should be perfect as he is perfect Mat. 5.48 And also of Christ that he that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk even as he walked 1 John 2.6 That though we are not perfect yet with Paul forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before we may press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 14. Wherefore beloved laying aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you run with patience the race that is set before you looking unto Jesus the Authour or Leader and the finisher of your faith Heb. 12.1 2. And since ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God with whom ye hope to appear mortifie your members which are upon the earth and crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof labour to conquer all your corruptions to purge out the reliques of the old leaven and to wash your hearts from iniquity and the vanity of your very thoughts and desires Be exceeding careful to suppress and quench every motion arising from the flesh and to avoid whatever may defile the conscience and thereby cloud your comforts and darken the light of your inward joy and peace And I beseech you that ye would walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing in obedience to every command and the strictest rules of the Gospel and that as ye have at any time heard how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more 1 Thes 4.1 That ye may at last stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God working out your salvation hereby with fear and trembling Phil. 2.14 Col. 4.12 Wherefore add to your faith vertue to and vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness charity that ye may not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ and tho rather give diligence herein that ye may make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.5 6 10. Direct IV. Redeem your precious time and the seasons of grace for the time is short saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 The time of life is short the of health and strength is short and consequently the time of grace and the opportunities thereof are short Therefore see that ye walk circumspectly or exactly redeeming the time or season because the dayes are not only short but evil Eecl 5.15 16. And that not only in regard of the temptations and snares thereof but of the perils and afflictions the troubles and tribulations that attend the last dayes of the world Our Saviour knowing the day of his working and ministery to be short having but a while to remain upon earth took all occasions to finish his Fathers work who sent him into the world John 9.4 I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work And is not your night Christians coming on and your Sun near setting when the light of this present life shall vanish and give place to the darkness of death O that ye would keep an eye upon and the swiftness of that motion which will suddenly have measured your appointed race And be not slack in the work of the Lord but double and redouble your diligence that ye may be ready for the Masters call and the Bride-groomes coming What a blessed condition is that soul in that can say with Saint Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 7. I am now ready to be offered up and my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith But is it not otherwise with many poor souls who could wish for another life to be renewed unto them for the discharge of their trust they have neglected the improvment of mercies which they have sleighted the filling up of that space they have idly squandred the gathering in of experiences which they have pretermitted and for the laying in of a store and stock of grace and wisdom by such rich advantages of trade and heavenly gain and profit which they have lost and over slipped Who now begin to look back with shame and sorrow upon the time of youth and strength and the yeares of plenty and fulness of the bread of heaven bewailing their folly in not providing for the yeares of famine wherein they will be glad of the gleanings of