so must they do in their lot Heaven only is one day one Spring perpetually blossoming and bringing forth fruit There is the Tree of Life that bringeth forth fruit every moneth that hath both Spring and Harvest all the year over Christians sit not down under the green tree of worldly prosperity If you do the leaves will come down about you The Gourd you trust in may be eaten up in â— night your Winter will come on so as you shall forget the former days as if they had never been We desire you to be armed for changes Are not matters in the Kingdome still going about All things are subject to revolution and change and every year hath its own Summer and Winter so hath it pleased the Lord to set the one over against the other that man might find nothing after him Eccles 7. 14. Therefore we would have you cast your accompts so as the former dayes of darkness may return and the Land be covered with mourning cloaths But would you know what is the original of the creatures vanity what is the moth that eats up the glory and goodliness of creatures enjoyments Here it is Sin and iniquities It was sin that first subjected the Creation to vanity Rom. 8. 19 20. This inferior world was to have been a durable house for an immortal soul but sin made man mortal and the world corruptible And from this proceed all the tempests and disorders that seem to be in the Creation It is this still It is sin that raiseth the storm of the Lords wrath which bloweth away the withered leaves of mens enjoyments Sin drieth up all the sap and sweetness of the creature comforts it maketh the leaves of the tree wither drives the sap away to the root hindereth the influence of Gods blessing to come thorow the veins of worldly prosperity For what is the vertue and sap of Creatures It is even Gods blessing and therefore the bread nourisheth not but the Word and Command of God Matth. 3. 4. That is a right unto the Creatures by Jesus Christ when possession of them is entered into by prayer and thanksigiving for all rightis sanctified by these and it is the iniquities of men that separateth between God and them Isa 59. 2. And when God is separated and divided from enjoyments they must needs be empty shells and husks no kernel in them for God filleth all in all is all in all And remove him and you have nothing your meat and drink is no blessing your table is a snare your pleasures and laughter have sadness in them at least they are like the vanishing blaze of thorns under a pot And therefore when God is angry for sin mens beauty consumeth as before the moth Psal 39. 11. When God beginneth to shew himself terrible because of sin poor man though of late spreading his boughs out yet all falleth and like Ice melteth as before the Sun which just now seemed as solid as stone O but David was sensible of this and could speak from much experience Psal 32. 3 4. The anger of the Lord did eat him up and dryed his moisture It might be read in his countenance all the world could not content him all the showres of creatures dropping fatness could not keep sap in him Gods displeasure scorcheth so nay is within him that no hiding place is to be found in the world no shadow of a rock among all the Creatures in such a weary Land Moses and the people knew this well Psal 90. 5 6 7 8 9. The Lords displeasure carried them away as a floud coming down carrieth all headlong with it it scorched them and made them wither as grass When God setteth iniquities before him that which is the souls secret beginneth to imprint it in visible characters on the rod and writeth his sin on his punishment then no wonder that dayeâ— be spent in vanity and grief since they are past over in his wrath Job 13. 25. Then doth a soul loath its dainty meat and then doth the Ox lowe over his fodder meat is laid before and he cannot touch it because of the terrours of the Almighty And that which before he would not once touch would not enter in terms of communing with as the Lords threatnings he must now sit down and eat them up as his meat how sorrowful soever Job 6. 5 6 7. But Secondly when sin hath prepared a man for judgement then if iniquity be added to sin this raiseth the storm and kindleth the fire to consume the combustible matter when sin hath given many blowes by preparatory corrections at the root of a mans pleasure and credit it will at length bring on a fatal stroak that shall drive the tree to the ground There are some preparatory judgements and some consummatory some withers the leaf and some bloweth it quite off some make men like the Harvest ripe to put the sickle of judgement into it The Corrruption of a land the universality of it and formality in worshiping of God ripeneth a land for tâ—e harvest of judgement exposeth it to any storm leaveth it open to the Lords wrath so that there is nothing to hold his hand and keep off the stroak But when the wind ariseth and iniquities have made it tempestuous then who may stand it will sweep away Nations and people as a flood and make their place not to know them so that there shall be neither leaf nor branch left There is often a great calm with great provocations and iniquities cry Peace peace But when once the cry of it is gone up to heaven and hath engaged Gods anger against a people or person then it raiseth a whilr-wind that taketh all away Now all this belongeth to you we told you the acknowledgement of sin was yours already and a wonder it is that the complaint is not ours also Alwayes this ought to be an admonition and example to us on whom the ends of the world are fallen Therefore we would declare this unto you that sin and iniquities have judgment in the taile Now you sit at peace every one in his own dwelling and spread forth your branches But is there not much uncleanness among you We would have you trouble your carnal peace and security trouble your ease with thoughts of this And we have ground to give this warning because if there were no more but the iniquity of our holy things the formality of our service the commonness of Spirit in worship this might be enough to raise the storm You know not for what reasons to be afraid of judgement look but on original corruption look on the defilement of your religious actions and then find ground sufficient of fading away Though now you sit still and seem to be so setled as you would never be moved you dream of an eternity here you cleave in your hearts to your houses and lands you stick as fast to the world and will not part with it as a leaf to a
and doing what his Mouth hath spoken And this is established in the very Heavens Psal 89. 2. His everlasting purpose is in Heaven where he dwells And if any man can ascend up to Heaven if any creature can break through the Clouds then may his Truth be shaken His Word comes down among men Nay but the foundation of it is in Heaven and there is his Purpose established and therefore there is nothing done in time can impare or hinder it Ye think this World very sure the Earth hangs unmoveable though it hang upon nothing All the tumults confusions and reels hath been in the World have never moved it to the one side Heaven goeth about in one Tenure perpetually keeping still the same distance Nay but his Truth is more established then so Heaven and Earth depends but upon a word of Command he hath said let it be so and so it is Nay but his Word is more established of it saith Christ One jot or title of it cannot fail though Heaven and earth should fail He may change his Commands as he pleases but he may not change his Promise this puts an obligation on him as he is Faithful and true to perform it and when an Oath is superadded O! how immutable are these two When he promises in his Truth and swears in his Holinesse Is there any power in Heaven and Earth can break that double cord Matth. 5. 18. Heb. 6 18. There is no name of God but it is comfortable to some and as terrible to others What comfort is it to a godly man that trusts in his Word He is a God of truth An honest mans word is much his oath is more What shall his Word be who is a God of Truth Who though all men should be liars yet God is true Ye who have ventured your Souls on his Word ye have an unspeakable advantage his truth endures for ever and it is established in the Heavens the ground of it is without beginning the end of it without end Ye are more sure then the frame of Heaven and Earth for all these shall wax old as a garment We speak of a naked word of truth Indeed it is no naked word that is Gods Word His Works of Providence and his Dispensation to yow is a naked and bare foundation nay a sandy foundation and ye who lean so much to them is it any wonder ye so often shak and waver All other grounds beside the Word are uncertain unstable this only endures for ever The creatures goodnesse and perfection is but as the Grasse and the Flour of the Field Venture not much on your dispositions and frames thou knows not what a day may bring forth but his Truth is to all generations and it is well tryed as Gold seven times all generations have tryed it and found it better then pure Gold His Dispensations are arbitrary no rule to you he loveth to declare his Soveraignty here and to expatiat in the creatures sight beyond its conceiving but he hath limited himself in his Word and come down to us and laid bonds on himself Will he then unty them for us Give him liberty where he loves it take him bound where he binds himself How may God expostulate with this generation as these of little faith How long shall I be with you saith Christ How long will Christians tempt the Lord in seeking signs And will not rest upon his only Word and Promises O Adulterous generation how long shall I be with you and ye will not believe Is it not righteousnesse in him either to give you no signe at all or to give you a signe darker then the thing it self as he did to the Pharisees Ye will give credit to a mans word and will ye not believe Gods An honest man will get more trust of us then the True and Living God Shall he not be offended with this We declare it unto you that he is Truth it self and will not fail in his promise let that be your Castle and Refuge to enter into Mercy and Truth are two sweet companions to go along with you in your pilgrimage David prayed for them Psal 61. 7. O prepare thy mercy and truth to preserve me Who will not ly safe within these everlasting Arms what power can break through And this he promised to himself Psal 57. 3. God shall send them out c. Mercy made so many precious Promises and Truth keeps them Mercy is the Fountain and Sourse of all our Consolation and Truth and Faithfulnesse conveighs it to us and keeps it for us It is these two that go before his Face when he sits on a Throne of Majesty and makes himself accessible to sinners Psal 89. 14. and so they are the path way he walks in towards those who seek him Psal 25. 10. But this sweet and Precious Name that is as Oyntment poured forth to these who love him how doth it smell of death to those who walk contrair to him He is a God of Truth to execute his Threatnings on those who dispise his Commands and though ye flatter your selves in your own eyes and cry peace peace even though ye walk in the imagination â—â— your heart yet certainly he is a God of Truth I pray you read that sad and weighty word that will be like a Milstone about many mens necks to sink them in Hell Deut. 29. 20 21 Ye who add drunkenness to thrist whose rule of walking is your own lust and whatsoever pleaseth you without respect of his Commands and yet flatter your selves with a dream of peace know this for a truth the Lord will not spare thee he that made thee will not have mercy on thee his jealousie will smoak against thee and all the eurses written in this Book shall ly upon thee and thy name shall be blotted out from under Heaven It was unbelief of Gods Threatning that first ruined man â—â— is this still that keeps so many from the remedy and makes their misery irrecoverable The Serpent brought them to this question Hath God said ye shall die And then presently the question intertained becometh a conclusion ye shall not surely die Thus ye see how the lyar from the beginning was contrair to the God of Truth And he murdered us by lying of that God of Truth And it is the same that shuts out all hope of remedy Ye do not as yet believe and consider that curse that was pronounced against Adam but is now also inflicted upon us Therefore there is no solid belief can be of the promises of the Gospel And ye who think ye believe the Gospel do but indeed fancy it except ye have considered the true curse of God on all flesh But if any man have set to his seal that God is true in his Threatning and subscribed unto the Law Then I beseech you add not the unbelief of the Gospel unto your former disobedience He is a God of truth in Promises and Threatnings It is
particular antipathy against and refuse others But the Lord will not be so served As he will not share with the world and divide the Soul and service of man with Creatures so as Mâ—mmon should get part and he his part No if we choose the one we must refuse the other for so will he not suffer his Word and Commands to be divided There must be some universality in respect of the Gospel and the Law and a conjunction of these two or we cannot please him If Religion do not include the Gospel we are yet upon the old Covenant of Works according to which none can be justified If it do not include the Law in the Hands of a Mediator then we turn the Grace of god unto wantonness If it shut out Jesus Christ and have no use of him how can either we or our performances stand or be accepted before his holy eyes If it exclude the Law that Christ came to establish how can he be pleased with our religion Both of these offer an indignity to the Son of God The Sum then of Christian Religion is Believing and Sanctification of the spirit unto obedience that is the root and fountain this is the fruit and stream Justification of our persons and sanctification of our lives and hearts This is pure Religion and undefiled And therefore Isaiah sayes Wash you make you clean Cleanse in the only true fountain of Christs blood It is not your purifications of the Law your many washings with water and hysope It is not the blood of buls and goats can purge your consciences from dead works they do but purify your flesh but cannot wash your souls worse defiled This blood of Jâ—sus Christ is that clean water that he must sprinkle on you if you would be clean If you take any other water any other righteousness but his and wash thy self therewith suppose it be snow water that washeth cleanest thy most exact conversation yet he will plunge thee in the mire till thy own cloaths abhore thee Job 9. 30 31. Now when ye have washed your persons ye need not save to wash your feet sayes Christ your dayly conversation reform it in the vertue of that blood for we are not called to uncleanness but unto holiness And therefore Put away the evil of yoor doings c. God hath put away the guilt of your doings by Justification now put ye away the evil of your doings by Sanctification c. And if ye would know what Sanctification is Cease to do evil do not return to the old puddle to wallow in it Ye that are cleansed by this blood O! think how unbeseeming it is to you to defile your selves again with these things ye are cleansed from But now learn to do well ye are given up to Christ ye must be his Disciples and he will teach you Learn of me sayes Christ you need no other law almost but his example he is a visible and speaking law yet seek Judgement As ye ought to look on my example so especially ponder that word and rule of practice and behaviour that I have left behind me and given out as the law-giver of the redeemed have I redeemed you And should not I be the redeemmed and ransomed ones King Is there any society in the world wants a law order and government neither must ye who are delivered from bondage enfranchised and made free indeed Now ye should of all men most live by a law And when ye know that rule then apply it to your several vocations and callings let the Magistrat act according to it and every man according to it Religion consists not in a general notion but condescends to our particular practice to reform it You see then what we would presse upon your Consciences It is true religion that we would have you perswaded unto All men have some kind of Religion even Heathens who worship Idols but the true religion respects the true and living God Now what is it to worship the true and living God what is the service of him that may be called Religion indeed Should we be the prescrivers of it No certainly he must carve solely in that or else it cannot please him Therefore To the Law and to the Testemony if ye speak not according to this and worship not according to this word of God it is because there is no light into you Ye may have a religion before men pure and undefiled but if it be not so before God and the father I pray you to what purpose is it I am sure it is all lost labour nay it is labour with loss instead of gain O that ye were perswaded to look and search the Scriptures Think ye to have eternal life out of them and think ye to have eternal life by them who do not labour to know the way of it set down there Every on of you have a different model of religion according to your fancies and breedings according as your lusts will suffer you The rule that the most part walk by is the course and example of the world Is not this darknesse and grosse darkness Others model their duties according to their ability they will do all they can do with ease and without troubling themselves and they think God may be well pleased with that I pray you consider and hear the word of the Lord and Law of your God hath he set down here the rule and perfect patern of true Religion and will ye never so much own it as to examine yours according to it the scriptures are the touch-stone If you would not have a counterfeit Religion deceiving you in the end when ye have trusted to it I pray you try it by the word of God Oh that this principle were once sunk into your hearts I may not walk at randome if I please my self and satisfy my own will if that be not also Gods will I shall have neither gain nor comfort of it his will is manifested in his word I will search and find what God hath required of me for if I be not certain of his will I may be doing all my dayes and sweating out my life and yet losse my pains and oyl I say this word of the Lord that Isaiah calls to the people to hear V. 10. will at length judge you Your Religion will be tryed in the day of accompts according to it not according to your rules and methods ye have prescribed unto your selves Now if ye in the mean time shall judge your selves according to another rule and abâ—olve your selves and in the end God shall judge you according to this word and condemn you were ye not fools in neglecting this word The whole will of God concerning your duty may be summed up in two John hath one of them 1 Jo. 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we shoud believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Paul hath another to
each striving for the place and were it not better to be under one settled Government If there be any tendernesse of God in your hearts or light it your Consciences they cannot but testifie againsâ— your lusts these strange Lords Your lusts again they drive you on against your Conscience Thus ye are divided and tormented betwixt two your own Conscience and Affections You have thus the pain of Religion and know not the true pleasure of it You are marred in the pleasures of sin Conscience and the love of God is a worm to eat that Gourd it is Gall and Vinegar mixed in with them Were it not more wisdom to be either one thing or another If ye will have the pleasures of sin for a season take them wholly and renounce God and see if your heart can endure that If your heart cannot condescend to that I pray you renounce them wholly and ye shall find more exquisit and sure pleasures in godlinesse at his Right Hand O what a noble entertainment hath the Soul in God The Peace and Joy of the Holy Ghost is a Kingdom indeed SERMON XII Isai 26. 3. Thou shalt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee ALL men love to have priviledges above others Every one is upon the designe and search after some well-being since Adam lost that which was true happinesse We all agree upon the general notion of it but presently men divide in the following of particulars Here all men united in seeking after some good something to satisfie their Souls and satiat their desires Nay but they scatter presently in the prosecution of it because according to every mans fancy and corrupt humour they attribute that good unto diverse things And when they meet with disappointment they change their opinion of that but are made no wiser for they turn from one to another of that same kind in which their imagination hath supposed blessednesse to be And therefore they will return to that which they first loathed and rejected Is there then no such thing in the world as blessednesse Is it not to be found among men Are all mens unsatiable desires in vain Is a Creature made up and composed of desires to keep it in continuall torment and vexation of spirit No certainly it is and it is found by some All the world strive about it but the man only who trusts and believs in God he it is who carries it away from them who hath this priviledge beyond the world And why do so many misse it Because they do not see nor suspect that it is blessednesse indeed which he injoyes But on the contrair their corrupted imaginations represent godlinesse and a godly mans self-indigency and dependance on God as the greatest misery and shame The godly man hids not his blessednesse from the world No he proclaimes it when he hath found it He would that all enjoyed it with him And if there were no more to declare that it doth not consist in worldly things this might suffice they are not communicable to many without the prejudice and losse of every one But none will believe his report of his own Estate If ye would consider here is that which men toyl for compasse Sea and Land for here it is near thee in thy mouth It is not in Heaven that thou should say How shall I ascend to it It is not in Hell below that thou shouldest say Who shall descend It is not in the ends of the Earth No it is near thee in thy mouth It is not beyond the Sea but it is near in thy mouth even the word of faith which Christ preached Rom. 10. 6 7 8. And what sayes that word Believe with thy heart and thou shalt be saved Trust in God and depend on him and ye shall have peace and that perfect peace and this peace shall be kept by God himself Blessed then is the man that trusts in the Lord Psal 40. 4. Ye make a long journey in vain ye spend your Labour and Money in vain all the pains might be saved it is not where ye seek it ye travel about many creatures ye go to many doors and enquire for Happinesse and Peace but ye go too far off ye need not search so many Coasts it is nearer hand in this word of the Gospel the joyful sound It is this that proclaimes peace Peace is a comprehensive word especially in Scripture It was the Jews salutation Peace be to you meaning happinesse and all good things It is Christs salutation Grace and Peace Grace is Holinesse Peace is Happinesse and these are either one or inseparably conjoyned as one This was the Angels Song Glory to God peace on earth Luk. 2. 14. Bleslednesse was restored or brought near to be restored to miserable man by Jesus Christ and upon the apprehension of this Angels Sing It was this Christ came in the world with and when he went away he left this Legacy to his Children My peace I leave you Jo. 14 27. We lost happinesse and all men are on a vain pursuit of it since but it is found and found by one of our Kin our Lord Jesus our Elder Brother he hath found it or made it and brought it near us in the Gospel for the receiving and who so receives him by Faith and trusting in him receives that priviledge that peace He endured much trouble to gain our peace he behoved to undergo misery to purchase our Blessednesse and so it is his own and who so receives him receives it also The newes of such a peace might be seasonable in the time of warr and trouble if we apprehended our need of it It is not a peace from warr and trouble but a peace in warr and trouble My peace I leave you in the world ye shall have trouble Jo. 14. 27. and 16. at the end What a blessed Message is it that there is a peace and a perfect peace attainable in the midst of warrs confusions and calamities of the times publick and personal a perfect peace a compleat peace even compleat without the accession of outward and worldly peace that needs it not nay appears most perfect and intire in it self when it is striped naked of them all Behold what a priviledge the Gospel offers unto you Ye need not be made miserable but if you please This is more then all the world can afford you there is no man can promise to himself immunity from publick dangers or personal from many griefs and disappointments But the Gospel bids you reckon up all your troubles and miseries that ye can meet with in the world and yet in such a case if ye hearken to wisdom there is a peace that will make you forget that trouble Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her pathes are peace Pro. 3. 17. I will undertake to make thee blessed says Wisdom the Fathers Wisdom When all the world hath given thee over for miserable when