thine own and other mens sins thou art blessed Christ saith Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness c. Though thou findest an exceeding great want of righteousness in thee yet if thou hungrest and thirsteth after it thou art blessed Christ saith Come unto mee all yee that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest This Text is as an Alabaster box full of precious consolation If thy sinnes bee a burden to thee Christ will give thee rest if thou carriest them about thee not as a golden chain about thy neck but as an iron chain about thy feet if thou beest heavy laden with them Christ will take them off thy shoulders and put them upon his Christ saith That hee will not breake the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking flax till hee send forth judgement unto victory If thou hast grace but as a smoaking flax Christ will not quench it but assist it till it come to a great flame Christ saith That the whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick And that hee came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance If thou art a sin-sick sinner thy name is in Christs Commission hee came to save thee Christ saith The Son of man is come to save that which was lost If thou apprehendest thy self to bee in a lost condition thou art amongst the number of those whom Christ came to save The Apostle saith There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit Though thou hast much flesh in thee and art sometimes overtaken with sin yet if thou dost not walk after the flesh as a servant after his Master if thou walkest after the Spirit there is no condemnation to thee The Apostle saith If wee confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness If wee confess our sins out of a detestation of sin with bleeding hearts and a sincere purpose of forsaking them God is bound by vertue of his promise to forgive us else hee were unfaithfull The Apostle saith That hee that hath begun a good work in us will perform it untill the day of Iesus Christ And therefore if thou hast truth of grace though but as a grain of Mustard seed do not doubt but that God in the diligent use of means will inable thee to persevere I might adde Nehemiah 1. 11. where God promiseth to bee attentive to the prayers of those who desire to fear his Name And Isaiah 26. 11. Isa. 26. 3. Isa. 65. 1. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 15. Ioh. 6. 37. But I forbear Rule 6. If thou canst not apply to thy selfe for thy comfort in affliction the conditional Promises lay hold upon the absolute Promises I have formerly told you that there are some Promises conditional others absolute some to grace others of grace some to those that are godly others to make us godly God hath not onely promised to pardon those that repent but to give repentance not onely to justifie those who beleeve but to give us to beleeve not only to give Heaven to those that love him but to give us grace to love him not only to save those that persevere but to inable us to persevere And therefore if thou canst not lay hold upon the Promises to those that are godly apply those which are made to make us godly If not those which are made to those who repent beleeve and persevere apply those wherein God promiseth to give us to repent beleeve and persevere If not the conditional lay hold upon the absolute There are these differences and agreements between conditional and absolute promises 1 For Conditional promises 1 All promises of life and salvation are conditional 2 Conditional promises are the fruit of Free-grace as well as absolute It is Free-grace which inableth us to performe the conditional and Free-grace which moved God to promise such great mercies upon such conditions 3 They are the fruit of Rich-grace and Rare-mercy as well as absolute promises 4 They are of great use to quicken a lazy Christian and to incourage him to diligence for no man can obtain the blessing promised but hee that performs the condition injoyned 5 They are rare Touchstones to try our interest in the Promises For hee that neglects to perform the condition cannot challenge an interest in the blessing promised upon the performing of it 2 For Absolute Promises 1 Though promises to grace bee conditional yet promises of grace are absolute and are made by God unto Christ in the behalf of his elect children according to that of David Ask of mee and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession 2 There are no Promises so absolute as to exclude all endeavours on our part God will do the things promised for us but by us Wee work but it is God who worketh all our works in us and for us 3. Absolute Promises are foundations of industry as well as conditional The truth of this I made out in the former Sermon 4 Absolute Promises are demonstrative arguments of special election and of the perseverance of the Saints There are some peculiar ones to whom God hath promised in the use of means absolutely to write his Law in their hearts to cause them to walk in his wayes to give them infallibly and infrustrably repentance faith and perseverance The promise of the first grace and of the crowning grace is absolute And therefore the Doctrine of Special Election and of Perseverance must needs bee true 5 Absolute Promises are mighty helps to wounded consciences and rare Cordials for fainting and despairing Christians When thou art in the dark and seest no light flye from the conditional Promises to the absolute say Lord thou hast not onely promised to give pardon to those who repent but thou hast exalted Christ for to give repentance Thou hast not onely promised to justifie those who beleeve but to give grace to beleeve Lord fulfill thine own promise unto thy servant c. Object All my fear is that these absolute Promises do not belong to mee Answ. Take heed of making desperate conclusions against thy selfe Say as the King of Nineveh Who knoweth but God may turn and have mercy Exclude not thy self Neither man nor Angel can say thou art excluded No man ought to beleeve himself to bee a Reprobate as I have shewed these promises belong to all that can lay hold on them as they are tendred As the brazen Serpent belonged to all those who were able to look upon it so do these Promises to all that can by faith look up that they may bee healed Say as the four Leapers in another case If I go on in unbeleef I am certainly damned And therefore I will venture upon Christ I will flye to
perdition Hee that seeks things below shall have his Heaven below The Apostle saith expresly that they who minde earthly things their end is damnation Therefore let mee once again repeat it Take heed lest you bee like the Thorny ground Let not the cares riches and pleasures of the World choak the good seed that is weekly sown in your hearts 8 Let it bee your morning and evening thought what shall become of you to all eternity and labour so to use things temporal as not to lose the things that are eternal Remember that this life is a moment upon which eternity depends and according as you spend this moment so you shall bee for ever happy or for ever miserable Remember that the pleasures of sin are but for a moment but the punishments of sin are everlasting 9 Look upon Sin as the greatest 〈◊〉 evils greater than poverty imprisonment banishment or death it selfe chuse the greatest Affliction rathe◠than commit the least sin If Hel◠were on the one side and Sin on the other chuse rather to go into Hell than to sin against God For Sin is a greater evill than Hell because it is the cause o◠Hell and more opposite to God who is the chiefest good than Hell is For God is the Author of Hell which hee hath provided for all unbeleevers and impenitent persons But it is blasphemy in the highest degree to say That he is the Author of Sin Look upon Christ as the greatest good greater than health wealth liberty or life Love Christ more than you love your estates or lives Hee that loves Christ more than the world will not forsake Christ to imbrace the world Hee that fears sin more than affliction will not sin to avoid affliction 10 Rest not contented with that measure of grace you have attained unto but labour to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that the Scripture doth not only perswade you to get into Christ but to grow up into Christ not only to bee Righteous but to bee filled with the fruits of Righteousness c. Remember that saying of Christ To whom much is given of them much is required God hath given you much you have plentiful means of salvation and you have had them for many yeares hee expects from you not onely good fruit but much good fruit not only thirty-fold and sixty fold but an hundred-fold Where the Husbandman bestows most cost hee expects most fruit The more a Merchant adventures by Sea the greater return hee looks for God hath done more for you than for many others and therefore hee expect that you should do some singular thing for him Hee looks you should be more humble more heavenly more knowing than others If the Sun should give no more light than a little Candle to what purpose hath God given it so much light If you that have Sun-like abilities do no more good than those who have but half your abilities to what purpose have you them It is a true saying As our gifts increase so must our account increase You shall answer at the great day not only for your gifts but for the measure of them Remember that God doth not only require service from you but service proportionable to the means and mercies you injoy Hee that hath but one Talent shall answer but for one but you that have five or ten Talents must bee answerable according to the quantity as well as the quality of them 11 Labour to diffuse those graces which God hath given you and to communicate them to those with whom you converse True grace is of a spreading nature and therefore compared to leaven which diffuseth it self into the whole lump and to Salt that seasoneth all those things with which it is mingled Assoon as the woman of Samaria had found out the Messias shee leaves her water-pet and goeth into the City to tell others what God had done for her Assoon as Cornelius had received the Message from the Angel to send for Peter hee calls together his kinsmen and neer friends that they together with him might bee made partakers of Gospel-grace A true Christian is like a Needle touched with the Loadstone A Needle truly touched draweth another and that will draw another and that another Whosoever hath his heart truly touched by effectual grace will labour to convert others and they others Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter And Peter being converted will labour to strengthen his Brethren There is a natural instinct in all creatures to make others like themselves as fire will turn all things that come neer it into fire and there is a spiritual instinct in all converted Christians to convert others It is as natural to a true Christian to make others true Christians as it is for a man to beget a man True grace is not only of a communicative but of an assimilating nature See then that you labour by seasonable and religious admonitions and exhortations by communicating of experiences and especially by the shining pattern of a holy life and conversation to bring all those with whom you converse unto Iesus Christ. That man hath not grace in truth who puts it in a dark Lanthorne 12 Labour to bee good in your Relations good Husbands and good Wives good Parents and good Children good Masters and good Servants Remember that that man cannot bee a good man who is not good in his Relation Hee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Husband or a good Child or a good Father c. Shee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Wife and so of the rest and the reason is Because the same God who commands the Husband to love God commands him to love his Wife the same God who commands the Woman to obey God commands her to obey her Husband There is the same stamp of Authority upon our duties towards our Relations as upon our duties towards God therefore bee sure to make conscience of relative duties 13 Ioyn works of mercy and charity together with your profession of piety and holiness For God hates a penurious niggardly and covetous professor of Religion Let that saying of David abide upon your hearts God forbid I should serve the Lord with that which cost mee nothing God hates your obedience to the first Table if it bee not joyned with obedience to 〈◊〉 second Works of mercy and charity ar◠made in Seripture the touchstones 〈◊〉 the truth of our piety and holiness This is pure Religion saith the Apostle and undefiled before God and the Father to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world If any man say saith St. John I love God and hateth his Brother hee is a liar for hee that loveth not his Brother whom hee hath seen how can hee love God whom hee hath not seen An
even as hee is pure 1 John 3. 3. And I trust that I am kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded that hee is able and willing to keep that which I have committed unto him which is my immortal soul. Thus I have according to the Apostles exhortation endeavoured to give a reason of the hope that is in mee What have I but what I have received The desire of my soul is that God may have all the glory And if I bee deceived the Lord for Christs sake undeceive mee and grant that if I have not true grace I may not think I have and so bee in a Fools Paradise And the Lord that is my heart-maker bee my heart-searcher and my heart-discoverer and my heart-reformer Amen FINIS Books Printed and are to bee sold by Iohn Hancock at the first shop in Popes-head Alley next to Cornhill A Book of Short-writing the most easy exact lineal and speedy method fitted to the meanest capacity composed by Mr. Theophilus Metcalf professor of the said Art Also a School-master explaining the Rules of the said Book Another Book of new Short-hand by Thomas Crosse. A Coppy-book of the newest and most useful hands with Rules whereby those that can read may quickly learn to write To which is added Brief Directions for true Spelling and Cyphering c. Four Books lately published by Mr. Thomas Brooks Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets New Fish-street 1 Precious Remedies against Satans Devices OR Salve for Beleevers and Unbeleevers Sores being a companion for those that are in Christ or out of Christ that sleight or neglect Ordinances under a pretence of living above them that are growing in spirituals or decaying that are tempted or deserted afflicted or opposed that have assurance or want it on the 2 of the Corinthians the 2. and the 11. 2 Heaven on Earth OR A serious Discourse touching a well-grounded Assurance of mens eeverlasting happiness and blessedness discovering the nature of Assurance the possibility of attaining it the Causes Springs and Degrees of it with the Resolution of several weighty Questions on the eighth of the Romans 32 33 34. verses 3 The Vnsearchable Riches of Christ OR Meat for strong Men and Milk for Babes held forth in two and twenty Sermons from Ephesians 3. 8. preached on his Lecture nights at Fishstreet-hill 4 His Apples of Gold for young Men and Women AND A Crown of Glory for old Men and Women Or the happiness of being good betimes and the Honour of being an old Disciple clearly and fully discovered and closely and faithfully applied 5 His String of Pearles OR THE Best things reserved till last Preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Blake late wife of Mr. Nicholas Blake Merchant The Covenant of Gods Free Grace unfolded and comfortably applyed to a disquieted or dejected soul on the 2 of Samuel 23. 5. By that late Reverend Divine Mr. Iohn Cotton of New-England Darkness discovered or the Devils Secret Stratagems laid open shewing the way to end controversies in Religion written by Iacobus Acconcius and translated into English A brief Description of the Presbyterian Government approved by divers godly Divines and humbly presented to the consideration of the Assembly A Treatise of Civil Government by Robert Spey A Glass for the Times briefly confuting divers errors in Religion The Ruine of the Authors and Fomenters of Civil War as it was dilivered in a Sermon before the Parliament at their monthly Fast by Mr. Samuel Gibson sometime Minister at Margarets Westminster and one of the Assembly of Divines The New Creature with a Description of the several marks and characters thereof by Richard Bartlet A Learned Speech by Sir Francis Bacon in Parliament quinto Iacobi concerning the Scottish Nation A Mirrour for Christian States or a Table of politick Vertues considerable amongst Christians by E. Moliner Doctor of Divinity A Treatise of the external works of God 1 In General on Psal. 135. 6. 2 In Particular on Gen. 1. 2. 3. Of Gods actual Providence By George Walker B. D. late Pastor of St. Iohn Evangelist Church The Expert Physitian Learnedly treating of all Agues and Feavers essential whether simple or compound confused Erratick and Malignant shewing their different Nature Cause Signe and Cure written originally by that famous Doctor in Physick Bricius Bauderon and translated into English by Doctor Wells Licentiate in Physick by the University of Oxford To bee sold by by Iohn Hancok at the first shop in Popes-head Alley next to Cornhill 1658. Books lately Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Sign of the three Crowns over against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside A Learned Commentary or Exposition upon the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians by Dr. Richard Sibbs published for publick good by Thomas Manton Folio There is newly come forth Mr. William Fenner his Continuation of Christs Alarm to drowsie Saints with a Treatise of Effectual Calling The Killing Power of the Law The Spiritual Watch New Birth A Christians ingrafting into Christ A Treatise on the Sabbath which were never before printed bound in one Volume Fol and may bee had alone of them that have his other Works as well as bound with all his former Works which are now newly printed in the same Volume Truth brought to light and discovered by time or an Historical Narration of the first fourteen years of King Iames in 4 â— Mr. Robinsons Christians Armor in large 8 â— Book of Emblems with Latine and English verses made upon Lights by Robert Farlie small 8 â— Grace to the Humble as preparation to the Sacrament in five Sermons by Dr. Iohn Preston Picturae Lâ—â—ventes or Pictures drawn forth into Characters 12 â— A most Excellent Treatise containing the way to seek Heavens Glory to flye Earths Vanity to fear Hells Horror with godly Prayers and the Bell-mans Summons 12 â— Iohnsons Essaies expressed in sundry Exquisite Fancies The one thing necessary By Mr. Thomas Watson Minister of Stephens Walbrook 8 â— Sion in the House of Mourning because of Sin and Suffering being an Exposition on the fifth Chapter of the Lamentations by D. S. Pastor of Upingham in the County of Rutland Groans of the Spirit or the Trial of the Truth of Prayer A Handkercher for Parents Wet-eyes upon the death of their children or friends The Dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living in several Treatises viz. On 2 Sam. 24. 10. on Cant. 4. 9. on Iohn 3. 15. on Iohn 1. 50. on Isa. 58. 2. on Exod. 15. 11. Never Published before By Samuel Bolton D. D. late Mr. of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Peoples Need of a Living Pastor at the Funeral of Mr. Iohn Frost M. A. 〈◊〉 Mâ— Zach. Crofton A Treatise against the Toleration of all Religions By Mr. Tho. Edwards Chatechizing Gods Ordinance in sundry Sermons by Mr. Zachary Crofton Minister of Buttolphs Aldgate London the Second Edition
and comforts under soul-troubles There is no Monarch can furnish his table with such variety of delicates as God hath furnished his Word with variety of comforts 2 The Word of God is not only the Magazine of all true comfort but the Fountain from whence it is derived All the comfort that you receive by reading of good books is fetched out of this Book All the refreshings that the Ambassadors of Christ administer to you are borrowed from this Fountain As the King of Israel answered the woman that cried out saying Help my Lord O King If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee So will all the true Ministers of Christ say to any distressed soul that cries out for comfort How can wee comfort you if the Word of God doth not comfort you All our comforts must bee fetcht from thence 3 It will comfort us at such a time when no outward thing can comfort us And that is when wee are under soul-agonies and when our soul sits upon our lips ready to depart when wee are sailing into the Ocean of Eternity then even then the promises of the Word will comfort us When gold and silver Father and Mother Friends and Physitians are miserable comforters then will one promise out of the Word fill us full of joy unspeakable and glorious 4 The Comforts of the Word exceed all other Comforts for they are pure and purifying sure and satisfying they are soul-supporting soul-comforting and soul-ravishing they are durable and everlasting The comforts of the world are not worthy to bee named that day in which wee speak of the comforts of the Word They are not consolationes but consolatiunculae At best they are but bodily unsatisfying and transitory Many times they are sinful and soul-damning 5 The Word of God is not onely a Magazine and a Fountain of comfort but also a touchstone by which wee must try all our comforts whether they bee true and real or no. All joyes hopes and assurances must bee tryed by the Word and if not rightly grounded thereupon are false and soul-delusions 6 It is as an Apothecaries shop or a Physitians dispensatory out of which wee may fetch all manner of Medicines to cure all the diseases of our souls Art thou spiritually lame blinde or dumb c. The Word will open blinde eyes make the dumb to speak and the lame to walk If dead in sins and trespasses the Word when it is the sword of the Spirit will quicken thee It is as a corrasive to eat sin out of thy heart therefore David saith I have hid thy Word in mine heart that I might not sin against thee 7 It is a spiritual Armory out of which wee may fetch all manner of Weapons to conquer the Devil and his temptations 2 Corint 10. 4. It is that little Brook out of which every David may fetch five smooth stones to destroy the Devil These five smooth stones are five texts of Scripture three of these Christ took out of the brook of the Word by which he subdued the Devil Mat. 4. 4. 7 10. 8 It is the Sun of the Christian VVorld As the Sun is the light of the Natural VVorld and without it the World is but a Chaos and a Dungeon full of darkness So is the VVord of God the light of the spiritual world without which a Christian is under an eternal night Therefore David saith Thy VVord is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Psal. 119. 105. What would all the World avail if no Sun to illighten it and what comfort would all the wealth of it afford us if no word to instruct and counsel us For this is the Christians compass to sail to Heaven by his staffe to walk withall to Heaven his spiritual bladders to keep his soul from drowning The Cork to keep up the net of his soul from sinking Afflictions are like the lead of the Net which weigheth it down but the Word is as the Cork which keeps it up that it sinks not So saith David in the Text Unless thy Law had been my delights c. Vse If the Word of God bee of such invaluable excellency absolute necessity and of such admirable use 1 Let us bless God exceedingly for revealing his will unto us in the Word It was a great honour and priviledge to the Iews that to them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. And it is our great happiness that wee have not only the same Oracles of God which they have but an addition of the New Testament for the clearer discoverie of the mysteries of salvation unto us If God be to bee praised for every crum of bread we eat much more for giving us his VVord which is the bread of life and the only food of our souls Blessed bee God who hath not only given us the book of the Creatures and the book of Nature to know himself and his will by but also and especially the Book of the Scriptures whereby wee come to know those things of God and of Christ which neither the Book of Nature nor of the creatures can reveal unto us Let us bless God not only for revealing his will in his VVord but for revealing it by writing Before the time of Moses God discovered his Will by immediate revelations from Heaven But wee have a surer word of Prophecy a Pet. 1. 19. surer to us than a voyce from Heaven For the Devil saith the Apostle transforms himself into an Angel of light Hee hath his apparitions and revelations hee is Gods ape and in imitation of God he appears to his Disciples and makes them beleeve it is God that appears and not the Devil Thus hee appeared to Saul in the likenesse of Samuel And if God should now at this day discover his way of worship and his Divine Will by Revelations how easily would men bee deceived and mistake Diabolical delusions for Divine Revelations and therefore let us blesse God for the written word which is surer and safer as to us than an immediate Revelation There are some that are apt to think that if an Angel should come from Heaven and reveal Gods Will to them it would work more upon them than the written word but I would have these men study the conference between Abraham and Dives Luke 16. 27 28 29 30 31. Habent Mosen Prophetas c. They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not profit by them neither would they profit by any that should come out of Hell or down from Heaven to them For it is the same God that speaks by his written Word and by a voyce from Heaven The difference is only in the outward cloathing and therefore if Gods speaking by writing will not amend us No more will Gods speaking by a voyce O bless God exceedingly for the written Word Let us cleave close to it and not expect any Revelations from Heaven of new truths but say with the Apostle
Gal. 1. 8 9. Use 2. Let us prize the word of God above gold yea above fine gold Let us read it diligently reverently praying to God to give us the same spirit that wrote it to inable us to understand it and conscientiously to practise it Let us make it the joy and rejoycing of our heart and as it is in the Text Let us make it our Delights but of this I spake in the former point The onely motive I shall now use to perswade you to make the Word your Delights shall bee this in the Text. Because it will keep you from perishing in the time of your greatest affliction It will comfort you when you have most need of it that is under heart-sinking-afflictions and at the hour of death and it will comfort you when all outward comforts and creatures fail It wil bee food to strengthen your weake Faith Physick to cure the remainders of corruptions it will bee a Cordial to revive your drooping spirits and fainting souls It will make you more than Conquerors over all temptations and distresses Quest. But now the great Question is How a childe of God ought to manage and make use of the word of God so as to make it a Conduit of support and comfort in the day of his greatest Afflictions Answ. To bee able to do this there is a great deal of spiritual wisdom and understanding required For the word to many people is like Sauls Armour to David which was so cumbersome to him that hee could not wear it There are many know not how to use the Word so as to bee comforted by it As the woman of Samaria told Christ Ioh. 4. 11. The Well is deep and thou hast nothing to draw with So may â—I say The word of God is a deep Well it is a Well of salvation but it is deep and the deeper the sweeter but most people want Buckets to draw with they want a spiritual Art to fetch out of these Wells of salvation divine supportation and consolation and therefore to help you in this great work you must know That the word of God may bee divided into three parts Into Commandements Threatnings and Promises And though a Christian must not neglect the commanding and threatning word yet if ever hee would make the word a Channel of Divine comfort hee must study the promising-word for the Promises are a Christians Magna Charta for Heaven All comfort must bee built upon a Scripture promise else it is presumption not true comfort The Promises are pabulum fidei anima fidei the food of faith and the soul of faith As faith is the life of a Christian so the promises are the life of Faith Faith is a dead Faith if it hath no promise to quicken it As the Promises are of no use without Faith to apply them so Faith is of no use without a Promise to lay hold on And the great reason why the people of God walk uncomfortably in their afflictions is because they do not chew the Promises they are rare Cordials but as a man cannot taste the sweetness of a Cordial unless hee chew it no more can wee receive any spiritual refreshment from the Promises unless wee meditate on them The promises are as a Mine full of rich treasure but as Mines unless wee digge deep into them wee can never get the gold and silver hid in them no more can wee injoy the soul-ravishing comfort of the promises unlesse we digge into them by a serious consideration of them They are as a garden full of rare flowers able to sweeten any condition But because wee doe not walk in this garden and pick out these flowers hence it is that wee live so disconsolately and dejectedly under our afflictions There are many rare stories declaring the comfort that some of Gods Saints have received from the promises in the day of their distresse Mr. Bilney that blessed Martyr was much wounded in Conscience by reason of the great â—n hee committed in subscribing to the Popish errors but hee was much comforted by reading those words 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the VVorld to save sinners of which I am the chief Beza was supported under his troubles by the words of Christ Iohn 10. 27 28 29. Mr. Bolton tells us of one that was upheld under great affliction and comforted from Isa. 26. 3. Of another from Isa. 57. 15. I knew a young maid that went triumphantly to Heaven by the refreshing shee found in that well known Text Matth. 11. 28. and many that have been wonderfully cheared by reading the eight Chapter of the Romans and by that Text 1 Ioh. 3. 14. VVee know that wee have passed from death unto life because wee love the Brethren The truth is there is no promise but if God bee pleased to illighten it and shew us our interest in it will afford a Harvest of joy It is with Promises as it is with Sermons That Sermon which once heard did not at all work upon us the same Sermon heard at another time may exceedingly affect us And the same Text of Scripture which sometimes doth not at all comfort us may at another time convey much comfort to us Two men troubled in conscience may both of them read the same chapter and hear the same Sermon and one of them may have his troubled minde pacified and the other continue troubled and the reason is because the Spirit of God makes the Word effectual to one and not to the other How often hath a distressed Saint read Mat. 11. 28. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Ioh. 10. 27 28. Isa. 26. 3. Isa. 57 15. 1 Ioh. 3. 14. and found no comfort in reading of them But if the Spirit of God did come in and open his eyes to behold the rich mercies wrapt up in these promises and his interest in them they would fill him with comfort above expression And therefore if ever you would make the Word of God Gods instrument to conveigh support and comfort to you in the time of soul-sinking afflictions you must study the promises and pray unto God that his Spirit may irradiate them and shew you the fulness of them and your interest in them Quest. How must wee improve the promises so as to make them spiritual bladders to keep us from being drowned in the deep waters of Affliction Ans. You must doe three things 1 You must make a Catalogue of the Promises 2 You must seriously ponder and meditate on them 3 You must apply them to your own souls as belonging to you in particular 1 You must make a Catalogue of the Promises you must gather them up as they lye scattered in the Word into a spiritual Nose-gay and binde them together You must doe as they that gather up ends of Gold and Silver you must lose none Every promise is as a ray of gold as a Star in the firmament And