Salvation is not only privative but positive Christ doth not only deliver us from Evil from Sin from the Wrath of God the Accusations of the Law and eternal Death but positively he gives us Grace and Righteousness and everlasting Life he is not only a Saviour to defend us but a Saviour to bless us a Sun and Shield Psal. 84.11 not only a Shield to keep from Danger but a Sun who is the Fountain and Cause of Vegitation and Life it is not Preservation meerly but Preferment If Christ had only delivered us from Wrath to come and been a Saviour privatively it had been more than we could expect or if he had procured some place where we might have been unacquainted with Pain or Trouble yet then he had been a Saviour but here is not only a Ransom and Deliverance but an Inheritance an Exaltation Heaven and everlasting Glory are included in this Salvation Instead of Horror and Howlings here are everlasting Joys and we shall ever be with God praising his Grace in the midst of all his Saints The Blessing is so excellent that we cannot neglect it without great danger Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation For what can we expect but that God's Mercy and Patience abused should be turned into Wrath and Fury and we cannot despise it without a great deal of Sin and Profaneness Heb. 12.16 Lest there be any profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birthright The Birthright was a Pledg of the Blessing and a right of Priesthood and Ministration before the Lord depended upon it This was Esau's by Birth and he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a profane Man for parting with it at so low a rate and thinking so meanly of spiritual Priviledges O but what Profaneness is this to despise the great Salvation that will cause us ever to be before the Lord and minister in his Presence We count him a profane Man that is guilty of Murder Theft Adultery Perjury because those Sins bring publick Shame and Contempt and because these Sins are most destructive to human Society But he is a profane Man indeed that despiseth the Gospel because it offereth such an excellent Salvation that is Profaneness to slight God's best Provision to scorn his Bowels and when the Lord hath made the Bait an Allurement so strong to gain Man's Heart yet to turn his back upon it 2. Consider the Compleatness of the Saviour Jesus Christ is so by Merit and by Efficacy and Power and so every way fitted to do us good He doth something for us and something in us Look as in the Gospel there is the History of Salvation and there Christ doth all he is a Saviour by Merit and there is the Counsel of Salvation and there he is a Saviour by Power he helps us to do the Duty on our part We have the Merit of his Humiliation and the Power of his Exaltation for us he prevails by the Merit of his Death and in us by the Efficacy of his Spirit When Christ was to save us there were several Hinderances one on God's part and another on ours there was Hinderance put in by God's Justice and a Hinderance by our Unbelief Justice requires Merit and Unbelief Power Christ was a Saviour both ways Again there are different Enemies to our Salvation which were of several Qualities God and the Law and Sin and Death and Satan and the World Now God and the Law are to be considered in a distinct rank from Sin and Death from Satan and the World God was an Enemy that could not be overcome therefore must be reconciled The Law was an Enemy that was not to be disanulled and destroyed but to be satisfied the Precepts of it were not to be relaxed or repealed but fulfilled the Curses of it were not to fall to the ground some must be made a Curse that the Authority of it might be kept up Now Jesus Christ he is made a Curse for us and by his Merit he satisfies the Law and the Justice of God Then among the other Enemies look to Satan he is not only a Tempter but an Accuser as he is a Tempter so Christ is to overcome him by his Power as he is an Accuser so Christ is to overcome him by his Merit Certainly so far as Satan is an Enemy so far must Christ be a Saviour that the Plaister may be as broad as the Sore and therefore against the Accusations of Satan he interposeth as our Advocate by representing his Merit and by bringing his Blood unto the Mercy-Seat Once again consider that our Comfort may be full Christ saves us by Merit and by Power By his Obedience and Merit he gives us jus ad rem a Right and Title to Salvation but by his Efficacy and Power he gives us Possession jus in re he was first to buy our Peace our Comfort our Grace our Glory of God and then to see that we be possessed of it and therefore we are said to be reconciled by his Death and saved by his Life He died that we might rely on his Merit and Ransom and Blood which was a Price to reconcile us to God and he lives that we might wait for his Power and so be saved by his Life 3. Consider As the Greatness of the Salvation and the Compleatness of the Saviour so the Excellency of the Gospel how it manifests and sets out this Saviour not in Shadows and Types but with clear and express Explication God bestowed many Benefits upon the Old Church which were great Enforcements to Godliness but not so powerful and effectual because they were but Shadows of Salvation Things that grow in the Shade come not to such Perfection as Things that grow in the Sun In the Old Testament they had many Blessings but they were Typical Ones and lasted but for a while they had many Saviours that delivered them from the House of Bondage led them through the Red Sea and through the Desart into Canaan delivered them from their Enemies destroyed the Nations round about them But now these were Shadows of good Things to come the New Testament shews what is the meaning of all these that we are delivered from the Devil and led into Heaven and brought to the possession of Eternal Life by Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaketh of calling Abraham out of Ur of the Caldees and separating his Seed as a People to God we can speak of Election that we may obtain the Adoption of Sons The Old Testament speaks of multiplying the Seed of the Iews as the Sand of the Sea The New Testament speaks of the multitude of Converts a great Number which none can number The Old Testament speaks of the bringing out of Egypt the New of bringing Sinners out of the Power of Darkness The Old Testament mentions the Red Sea the New the Grace of Baptism or Red Sea of Christ's Blood The Old Testament speaks of God's
Intercession for us By his Merit our Right to Heaven is purchased and by his Intercession it is maintained for us SERMON XIV TITUS II. 13 That Blessed Hope c. Doct. II. THE Hope of Christians is a blessed Hope Hope is here put for the thing hoped for as Col. 1.5 For the Hope that is laid up for you in Heaven Where Hope is put for the Object of Hope Now this Matter or Object of our Hope is sometimes called Life sometimes Glory sometimes Joy and Pleasure It is a Life that never shall be quenched or put out Iude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal Life It is a Glory that is Eternal for Duration 2 Cor. 4.17 it is called a far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory for the measure of it it is above our Conceit and Expression as much as a Creature can bear It is Joy and Pleasure without Mixture and without End Psal. 16.11 In thy Presence is Fulness of Ioy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Now this Hope is said to be blessed because it puts us into the Fruition of absolute Blessedness We cannot conceive of it now to the full when we come to injoy it we shall find it above all that ever we could conceive or hear of it As much as we see and know of it sheweth it is a blessed thing but we shall understand it best when we hear the great Voice calling us Come up and see But a little to set it before you In Blessedness there must be a Removal of all Evil and a Coacervation and compleat Presence of all that is Good As long as the least Evil continueth a Man is not blessed only he is less miserable If a Man had all things that Heart could wish for what would it avail him as Haman when he wanted Mordecai's Knee Esther 5.13 All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Iew sitting at the King's Gate Ahab had the Kingdom of Israel but yet he fell sick for want of Naboth's Vineyard If a Man were never so well fitted for a Journey a little Gravel in his Shoe would founder him As in Carriages of War though there be a great Train yet if one Peg be missing or out of Order all stoppeth Or in the Body if one Humour be out of Order or one Joint broken it is enough to make us sick or ill at Ease though all the rest be sound and whole so if there be the least Evil a Man cannot be a compleat happy Man Complaining will not suit with Blessedness Now First In the Hope that we look for there is a Removal of all Evil. Evil is twofold either of Sin or of Punishment and in Heaven there is neither Sin nor Misery 1. To begin with Sin that is the worst Evil. Affliction is Evil but it is not Evil in it self but only in our Sense and Feeling if a Man had a Dedolency it is no Pain to a benummed Joint to be scourged But Sin is evil whether we feel it or no but it is worst when we feel it not Certainly that is Evil which separateth from the chiefest Good Affliction doth not separate from God it is a means and an Occasion to make us draw nigh to him many had never been acquainted with God but for their Afflictions but Sin separateth us from God Isa. 59.2 Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear Let a Man be never so loathsome yet if he be in a State of Grace he is dear to God the Lord taketh Pleasure in him though rough-cast with Ulcers and Sores and thrown into a Prison yet God will kiss him with the Kisses of his Mouth There is nothing so loathsome and odious to God as Sin This grieveth the Saints most Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death If any Man had Cause to complain of Afflictions Paul had he was often in Perils whipped imprisoned stoned but he doth not cry out When shall I be delivered from these Afflictions O but this Body of Death was worst of all Lusts troubled him more than Scourges and his Captivity to the Law of Sin more than Chains and Prisons This is the Disposition of the Saints they are weary of the World because they are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God not only that they are suffering here whilst others are injoying God A Beast will forsake the Place where he hath neither Meat nor Rest. Carnal Men when they are beaten out of the World have a Fancy to Heaven as a Place of Retreat but that which troubles Godly Men is their Sin Well but in Heaven there is no Sin Eph. 5.27 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without Blemish There is neither Spot nor Wrinkle upon the Face of the glorified Saints Their Faces were once as black as yours but now Christ presenteth them to God as a Proof of the cleansing Virtue of his Blood And how pure and clean they are without Spot or Wrinkle the Apostle's Words that he might present it imply as if Christ did glory and rejoice in their Purity as the Fruits of his Purchase There you are freed from all Sins With much ado we mortify one Lust but Nature recoileth as Ivy in the Wall if you cut it down it breaketh out again It is much here if the Dominion of Sin be taken away there the being of it is abolished in Heaven it is not at all you will displease God no more and are freed from all the immediate and inseparable Consequences of Original Sin detraction in Duty and the like Here is no perfect Love and therefore the Soul cannot be fixed in the Contemplation of God that 's the Reason of wandring Thoughts but there the Heart cleaves to God without stragling In Heaven we shall be freed from Pride which lasts as long as Life therefore called Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 We cannot have a Revelation now but we grow proud of it 2 Cor. 12.7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Nor can there be an Influence of Grace but we are apt to be proud of it There is a Worm in Manna but then we are most high and most humble because most holy O Christians is not this a blessed Hope that telleth you of a sinless State of being like Christ in Purity and Holiness 1 Iohn 3.2 Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is What is it
the part of Physician not of a Judg he burneth us cutteth us puts us to pain but not to do us hurt not to satisfy Vengeance but to better our Hearts Hic ure hic seca Domine modo parcas in aeternum Our Afflictions are troublesome to the Flesh as Punishments are we cannot expect full Security or total Exemption from them Again they come not by chance Affliction doth not spring out of the Dust but they come by special Dispensation as Punishments also they do not come by chance Sin is for the most part the occasion of them God chasteneth them because they have sinned as we quench a Brand plucked out of the Burning or he warneth them that they may not sin again The Chastisements of the Godly serve for Examples as well as the Punishments of the Wicked But they are not properly Judicial Acts to satisfy the Law as a Judg taketh no notice of the Repentance of the Delinquent but of his Fault They are Acts of Love and a part of God's Family-Discipline Brambles are not pruned but Vines Heb. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Bastards are leftto live more at large Again they are for the exercise of Grace not for the destruction of our Persons A Judg doth not punish Offenders because he loveth them but because the Law requireth it If Corrections were Punishments wicked Men should have the greatest share Heb. 12.10 He chasteneth us for our Profit that we might be Partakers of his Holiness A Judg looketh to the Good of the Common-wealth to keep Authority and the Majesty of Government not the Benefit of the Malefactor 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World The Godly are punished here that they may not be condemned hereafter The Scripture every-where maketh it a part of our Blessedness Iames 1.12 Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation Phil. 1.29 Vnto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are Dispensations of Love Answ. 2. For Death This was the primary Effect of Sin yet it remaineth Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die But the Curse of the Law is become a Blessing of the Gospel Death is ours 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death c. all are yours Adam might have lived here happily for ever but Christ hath provided a better place for us there is a deep Gulf which cannot be passed but by Death our present Earthly Nature is not fit for that happy State 1 Cor. 15.50 Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption If Christ could have contented himself with giving us an Earthly Paradise Death had not been necessary That State in the Garden was an innocent and happy but an Earthly State These Bodies of ours that need Meat and Sleep would have sufficed for the Earthly Garden but we expect a greater Benefit and therefore we must be contented with the Way and Passage Sense and Reason telleth us that these Bodies which we now carry up and down are not fit for that State we must lay what we received from Adam in the Grave that when it is purged and renewed we may be like to Christ. The Grain liveth not except it die the Shed and old House is pulled down that God may raise a more glorious Structure If all Believers should be wrap'd up into Heaven and changed Miracles would be multiplied without need It is no Punishment to lose our Corruption and Mortality 3. The next Proposition is this That the fairest part of this Redemption is hereafter then our Happiness in Christ is perfect Luke 21.28 When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Then we are past Gun-shot and out of Harm's way We are fully redeemed from the Guilt of Sin when there is no Monument of God's Displeasure left We must be like our Head in all Conditions We are not fully freed from the Relicks of Sin till the Resurrection that we may have new Matter to glorify God when we come to Heaven Old Adam is not quite abolished till God be all in all Secondly He hath delivered us from the Power of Sin He paid the Price on the Cross therefore it is said Rom. 6.6 Our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin When Christ lay a dying Sin lay a dying and bled with him on the Cross then was Grace purchased and therefore Faith should look upon Sin as dead and actually crucified it is done in the Mystery And then he ascended and poured out the Spirit now to accomplish this Work God is satisfied and Christ's Work lieth now with Satan and our own Hearts 1. For Satan He is dispossessed and cast out at Conversion Luk. 11.21 22. When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in Safety But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth his Spoils Then Christ taketh away the Prey The Devil may trouble us but he is but a Tyrant cast out he can no more reign And by preserving Grace he keepeth possession Christ will not lose Ground when once he hath got Footing Rom. 16.20 The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly As Ioshua called unto his Companions chap. 10.24 Come near put your Feet upon the Necks of these Kings 2. As for our own Hearts He breaketh the Yoke and sets the Will at Liberty and maketh us free for God Rom. 6.17 But God be thanked ye were the Servants of Sin but ye have obeyed from the Heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to you It was a willing Bondage but now we are made a willing People then our Consent was voluntary now our Resignation is so too There are indeed some Relicks of Corruption and Opposition left there are inward Monuments of the Fall as well as outward as there are some grudgings of a Disease after a Cure but in Heaven all is perfect and even now there is not a willing Subjection but a Resistance made to Sin Vse 1. To exhort us to Thankfulness to our Redeemer Remember your former Bondage it is a woful Captivity to be under Sin Those that are under Sin are under the Curse of the Law and the Tyranny of the Devil we could have no boldness with God as a Father nor look him in the Face the Law is against us God is the Judg Satan the Jaylor our own Consciences an under-Keeper Our Fears of Death
only mentioned 3. Why seeing it is plain that the Six Commandments of the Second Table are alluded unto Defraud not is put for the last Commandment Thou shalt not Covet for of the Method wherein they are recited we need not move any doubt for Christ beginneth with the Negatives and the Affirmative Precept is put last as a thing not accurately to be stood upon 1 Question Why Christ referrs him to the Commandments The Reason of the Doubt is this Because the fallen Creature can never be Justified or Saved by his own Works Rom. 3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in his sight Tit. 3.5 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace Eph. 2.8 9. For by Grace ye are saved thrô Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast The Scripture doth always run in this Strain yea Christ himself puts Salvation upon another Score upon Believing in him Iohn 3.16 For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Why then doth Christ referr him to the Commandment I answer Christ speaketh not this as if any Man could be Saved and Justified by the Works of the Law It was far from our Saviours meaning to foment such an Error but the scope of his Speech is to shew that it is in vain to enquire for the Way to Heaven while men trust to their own Righteousness And therefore good Works and Obedience to the Law are proposed to convince him of his Impotency to humble him in the sense of his Guilt to drive him out of himself and to draw him to seek Salvation by a better Covenant or if not to leave him without Excuse That this was Christ's aim to shew him his Sin and miserable Condition and disability to be justified by the Law will appear by these following Considerations 1. It was necessary this Man should be treated in this way for the many Errors wherewith he was tainted required it As 1. To draw him again to the Service of God from those Traditions and humane Observances in which the Pharisees placed most of their Religion and Piety and therefore Christ mentions not the Traditions of the Elders but the Commandments of God 2. To draw him from the Law Ceremonial which was to be abolished to the Law Moral He mentioneth not the Ceremonial Law which the Iews strictly observed but Moral Duties 3. To beat down his Presumption whereby he believed that the Law was easie for him to accomplish such as seek Justification and Eternal Life by Works must be taught that to keep the whole Law in all Points without the least Sin is the only Way to Heaven by Works which Way to every Man now polluted by Sin is impossible There was no better Course to humble a Pharisee than by referring him to his own Covenant rightly understood to let him see the Perfection and Spiritual Sence of it and so to bring him to a Knowledge of Sin that he might learn to seek God's Favour by the Mediator who is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 That is to say The end of giving the Law by Moses was that Men might thereby be brought to the Knowledge of their Sins and so be necessitated to fly for Refuge to Christ and his Righteousness who hath perfectly fulfilled the Law for us If any Man think that this consisted not with the Simplicity of Christ's Instruction especially when such a serious Question was proposed to him What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life And that it may seem to countenance their Error who sought Righteousness by the Law to referr such to the Commandments I answer 1. Christ used the same Method that God did in giving the Law upon Mount Sinai Why did God give it then but to break a stiff-necked People trusting to their own strength by this exact Yoke of Duty which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear That seeing their manifold Guilt in which all are inevitably involved by the violation of the Law they might be burdened and condemned in themselves and so fly to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World as he was represented to them in the Sacrifice and burnt-offering That this was God's End in giving the Law see Rom. 5.20 21. Moreover the Law entred that the Offence might abound but where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Iesus Christ our Lord. And Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made Suitably here Christ having to do with a Man that was puffed up with an Opinion of his own Righteousness and Strength as if he had already discharged the whole Duty of the Law and was ready and able to do whatsoever should be further required of him in order to Eternal Life to humble him Christ referreth him to the Commandments and so layeth a ground work of convincing him of base Idolatry in loving Riches more than God and Eternal Life So that his End was not to foster and increase his Presumption but by urging the Law which he professed to stand to to convince him of his own baseness and the necessity of seeking another Righteousness 2. Practical Conviction is best and Men never see their unworthiness so much as when they are held to their own Covenant and we are so far to condescend to the humours of Men as to convince them and condemn them in their own way As Festus told Paul Acts 25.12 Hast thou appealed unto Caesar unto Caesar shalt thou go As a presumptuous Sick Man that is strongly conceited he is able to leave his Bed and walk up and down the best way to confute him is by tryal Or a Phrenetick Person or a Man that is distempered with melancholly Fancies wise Physicians indulge the Humour a little that by dealing with them in their own way they may afterwards the better dispossess them of their vain Conceits If men will go to Heaven by Doing let them know what Doing is required Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law If men will betake themselves to stand to or fall by the Sentence of the Law or Covenant of Works let them see how it will succeed with them 3. It was a Truth Christ spake If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments but we must consider his Intention Thô Mens trusting in their own Works is displeasing to God
lay hold of the second Covenant we must be dead to the Law Men are slight and careless untill the Curse of the Law puts them so hard to it that they are made to despair of getting Heaven and Salvation by Obedience to it O then they think of a New Life and a New Claim The Curse of the Law follows them close makes them utterly despair in themselves then they are fit to live unto God The Apostle tells us this is the great Use for which the Law now serveth Rom. 5.20 The Law entred that the Offence might abound Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of trangression that is to convince Sinners of their lost Estate that men might be sensible of their Sins and so forcibly constrained to make after another Righteousness None pass from one Covenant to another but they have a taste of the first I. VSE To inform us how the two Covenants agree and are subservient to one another For these two are not contrary being both Truths revealed by God they have a mutual respect the Law serveth to make Sin known Rom. 3.20 For by the Law is the knowledge of Sin and the Gospel holdeth forth the Remedy of Sin Iohn 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sin of the World The Law paints out our need oâ— Christ who is the end of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10.4 The Gospel maketh an offer of Christ that in him we may have what we could not attain by the Law 1 Cor. 1.30 For of him are ye in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption The Law discovers those Duties wherein a Man made Righteous ought to walk and testifie his Thankfulness Eph. 4.1 2. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness c. The Gospel furnisheth him with Spiritual Strength to walk in those Duties which the Law prescribeth 2 Cor. 3.6 The Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life Lex jubet Gratia juvat The Law commands but Grace helps us Thus they fairly agree and are mutually useful II. VSE To awaken our Consciences to consider upon what Terms we stand with God and by what Covenant we can plead with him by the Covenant of Works or by the Covenant of Grace If we be yet under the Covenant of Works and have not got the Sentence of the Law repealed O miserable Creatures there is no hope Psal. 130.34 If thou Lord shouldest mark Iniquity O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared If God should deal with us in a way of strict Justice according to the tenor of the Law and the Covenant of Works no Man can escape Condemnation and the Curse There is another Covenant but how will you decline Judgment according to the first Covenant 1. There is no hope of your pleading another Covenant till you own the first Covenant to be just and with Brokenness of Heart you look upon your selves as shut up under the Curse and you acknowâ—edge your selves lost and undone Sinners The great thing that this Young man wanted was Brokenness of Heart and therefore Christ would have him see himself in the Law The Heirs of Promise are described to be those that have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before them Heb. 6.18 It is all Allusion to those that fled for their Life If one had kill'd a Man by chance and not out of Malice prepense there was a City of Refuge appointed and if he fled there before the Avenger of Blood the next of kin seized upon him the Man was safe None are brought in to Christ but they come as those that have the Avenger of Blood following them they are driven and must away from the first Covenant by a deep sense of their Misery Men that are Heart-whole and have only Doctrinal Notions about the two Covenants without feeling the force of either and being driven out of themselves to ly at God's Feet for Mercy they as yet remain under the Old Covenant and need be prepared by this breaking Work Indeed Degrees are different but all feel some Trouble some with great Horror and Despair but others with Anxiousness and Solicitude the Curse is at their heels therefore they desire to be found in Christ Now have you felt any thing of the Spirit of Bondage The deepness of the Wound is not to be looked after but the soundness of the Cure but yet some Wound there will be And therefore till there be some Grief and Shame and Sorrow and bitter Remorse because of Sin a smiting upon the Thigh because of the Indignation of the Lord and humbling our selves before God we are not fit for Mercy We are not Heirs of the Promise if we do not hasten to the Hope set before us 2. They that do as yet trust to their good Meanings and Endeavours and seek Salvation by their own Doing must yield perfect Obedience to the Law of God or else they cannot obtain Eternal Life we make this to be our Covenant by sticking to any one Work of ours Gal. 5.2 3. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every one that is circumcised that he is a Debtor to do the whole Law If another Man had spoken this possibly you would have judged him rash and uncircumspect But I Paul say unto you I that have an Apostolical Authority I that know the mind of Christ I testifie this again and again that observing any one Ceremony as part of a Mans Righteousness necessary to Salvation cuts off the Observer from all Benefit by Christ he is a Debtor to the Duty of the whole Law he obligeth himself to perfect Obedience without which the Law cannot justifie any he saith it again and again that Man might take heed This trust in his own Righteousness in effect is a renouncing the Gospel Covenant Christ must be our whole Righteousness and a compleat Saviour or not at all If we rely upon any thing besides him or joyntly with him as a meritorious Cause of Salvation we lose all Hope and Comfort by Christ. This is the great Concernment of the Soul therefore to be inculcated with such Seriousness and Earnestness 3. By living in any known allowed reigning Sin shews we have no Claim to the second Covenant Saith David Psal. 19.13 Keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have Dominion over me so shall I be upright and shall be innocent from the great transgression Our Qualification under the second Covenant is not a Soul exactly perfect but a Soul sincere Now if any Sin hath Dominion over us our Sincerity is gone Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not havâ— dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace There were no cogency in the Argument
Children 2 Kings 2.24 And then for Grown men God will have Judgments for them It is a sad time and it calls for much Weeping Lamentation and Grief that we live in an Age wherein Moral wickedness abounds Drinking Whoring Swearing Murdering Stealing and such like Abominations Take this Observation God doth not usually punish in this World for Unbelief and want of Love to Christ he leaves it to the World to come but for breaches of the Moral Law he doth Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men When the two Tables are violated by Ungodliness and Unrighteousness then the Wrath of God breaks out by some notable Judgment So Heb. 2.2 Every transgression and Disobedience of Moses received a just recompence of Reward And Hos. 4.1 2. The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the Land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land by Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing and committing Adultery they break out and Blood toucheth Blood There are Sins against the Moral Law reckoned up which provokes the Lord's Anger As in Temporal Favours God expresseth love to those that are morally Righteous so in Temporal Judgments he hath expressed his Hatred against Immoralities I confess some Gospel Provocations God doth punish in this World as for Instance when men persecute the Profession of the Gospel or when they grow weary of the Gospel after they have long had it then it concerns God as Governour of the World to punish such the Good of the World being very much concerned But chiefly his Judgments are for Sins against the Moral Law of God when these are broken in our Streets there ought to be much Weeping and Lamenting before the Lord in a sense of these things 4. It Condemns those that will pretend to the peculiar Love of Christ when they are not Moral but froward undutiful in their Relations unconscionable in their Dealing and have not learned to be sober to possess their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour what do you talk of being Christians when they are not so good as Heathens Never think of the higher Mysteries of Religion of Believing in Christ and Communion with God when you live so contrary to the Light of Nature as the Apostle speaks of the Natural Branches and the Branches contrary to Nature Rom. 11.24 It is in vain to think of grafting things that are contrary to Nature if the Natural Branches be not grafted in There are certain who are doubly dear both in the Flesh and in the Lord not only in the Lord upon the Account of Religion but in the Flesh upon the Account of Nature as Onesimus was dear to Philemon when Converted Philemon 16. There were many Moral Heathens of a sweet Nature that had great Command over their Passion Many civil Carnal Men will rise up in Judgment against high-flown Christians that pretend to great heights of Faith and Love to Christ but are defective in Morals As it was said of the Men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba that they shall rise up in Iudgment against this Generation and condemn it Mat. 12.41 42. so will these Heathens Men morally Just Exact Punctual in their Dealings rise up in Judgment against many that pretend to believe in Christ Si non praestat fides quid praestitit infidelitas How should this put you to shame when those that are graceless cannot be taken Tardy in those things wherewith you are charged I say if their Moral Principles and Civil Institutions binds them to the Peace and good Behaviour and will not suffer them to do wrong and all the Laws of Christ will not confine you within your Duty how great will your Condemnation be see that you be not exceeded by them I may represent it thus when a School-boy knows more and better of Arts and Sciences than a University-man is not this a great shame to him I remember it is said of Sarah Gen. 20.16 Abimelech said Behold I have given thy Brother a thousand Pieces of Silver behold he is to thee a covering of thine Eyes unto all that are with thee and to all other thus was she reproved Here is no word of Reproof how was she reproved Why here a Pagan King dismisseth her untouched with Gifts to her Husband he provides for her safety and this was a reproof of Sarah's dissembling his Morality was a reproof to her that was acquainted with the true God and a Professor of the true Faith and yet was found tardy You are shamed and Christ is put to shame in you 5. It invites us to go so far for Jesus loved this Young Man est aliquid prodire tenus What was in this young Man Here 's his Care to seek after Eternal Life his reverend Esteem of Christ's Person his outward Conformity to the Laws of God his abstaining from all gross sins from his Youth O these are amiable Properties and Qualities and those that are endowed with them Christ loveth them Obj. But here 's an Objection How is this a Motive Christ was Courteous and Respectful to this Young Man but now he is in Heaven what Love doth Christ shew now upon Earth to those that are Moral 1. Moral Vertues will at least procure a Temporal Reward Christ loves Vertue so that he rewardeth the Shew of it it keeps off many Temporal Judgments and procures many Temporal Benefits as the Ninevites Repentance though not real kept off the Judgment Ionah 3.10 and Ahab's Humiliation kept off the Judgment in his days 1 Kings 21.29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the Evil in his days but in his Son's days will I bring the Evil upon his House It encourageth us to seek him since he rewardeth a Temporal Repentance with Temporal Favours O what will the hearty Humiliation of a true Penitent do when a Counterfeit one is thus far accepted with God And so that kind of Zeal that was in Iehu was not without its Reward 2 Kings 10.30 Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart thy Childâ—en of the fourth generation shall sit on the Throne of Israel though he did it with an imperfect Heart The Egyptian Midwives when they saved the Children of the Israelites though it were by a Lye the Lord multiplyed them and blessed them Exod. 1.20 Therefore God dealt well with the Midwives and Ver. 21. It came to pass that because the Midwives feared God that he made them Houses So Austin observes that the Romans as long as they did excell in Justice and Temperance were rewarded by God with Victory and Prosperity as long as that Empire kept honest in Civil Vertues it had eminent Success and their Common-wealth prevailed and overtopt the Nations but when they degenerated into Beasts
godliness The whole Gospel is called Titus 1.1 The truth which is after godliness and 1 Tim. 6.3 A Doctrine which is according to godliness Because it delivereth the exact and most perfect way of serving God The Lord Jesus was desirous that this Doctrine should take place in the World therefore he himself was pleased to assume our Nature to preach it to us So for his Precepts they all prescribe an universal adherance to God and dependance on him that we may not be carryed away by the false Offers and Delights of Sin but may live in perfect Obedience to God and Justice and Charity to Men. Besides the word discovereth all the cheats and fallacies we put upon our selves to keep us from all impure mixtures of worldly and carnal aims it discovers the crafty pretences and the most insinuating and cunning contrivances to disguise and hide Sin Heb. 4.12 For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart In short the whole aim of it is That we may please God and be beloved by him Iohn 14.21 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him The Promises call for the greatest purity and cleanness of Heart and Life 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holyness in the fear of God So the Threatnings Why doth Christ tell us of Torments without end and ease of a Pit without a bottom of a Fire that shall never be quenched but to make Sin more odious and hateful to us Surely not to terrifie us but to sanctifie us for his Government is rather by Love than by Fear Now whosoever wistly considereth the Christian Religion he will soon discerne that it was framed and set afoot by one that loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity 2. His Priestly Office consists in his Oblation and Intercession As the High Priest under the Law did both offer Sacrifice and intercede for the People Now what was the intent of Christs Sacrifice but to put away Sin Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That is not only to destroy the Guilt but the Power of it There are Three things in the Death and Sufferings of Christ to make us hate Iniquity and so by consequence to love Righteousness First By way of Representation Secondly By way of Impetration Thirdly By way of Obligation 1. By way of Representation His bitter Sufferings are an instance of Gods great Wrath against Sin and Sinners For if Christ must thus be handled rather than Sin shall go unpunished it warneth us to be very cautious how we meddle with the forbidden fruit When we remember his bitter Agonies his accursed shameful Death we should cry out Oh odious Sin This is the meaning of that expression Rom. 8.3 And for sin he condemned sin in the flesh That is by a Sin-Offering or the Sacrifices of Christ he hath condemned Sin he hath left a brand or mark of his Displeasure against Sin which should induce us to be very cautious and watchful against it For if these things be done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry 2. By way of Impetration and Purchase Christ came not only to expiate the guilt of it but to get it out of our Hearts As he pacified the Wrath of God so he purchased the Spirit in which Sense our old man is said to be crucified with him Rom. 6.6 Namely As Grace was obtained whereby it might be crucified Now we are sluggish and cowardly if we tamely yield to our Lusts and pretend want of Power when it is want of Will to cast them off 3. By way of Obligation by this great instance of his Love to induce us to kill our Love to Sin 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed Since he hath borne the weight of our Sins and endured the Wrath due to them in his own Person if we have any esteem of Christs Love certainly we would not spare our most beloved Lusts nor be still alive to Sin and dead to Righteousness nor wittingly and allowedly do the least thing that is offensive to him Ezra 9.14 Should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst câ—nsumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping 3. The next is a King He is one whose Heart was so set upon the Love of Righteousness and the Hatred of all Iniquity that he would come as a Prophet himself to teach the sinful lost World how to become Holy again And as a Priest to dye for the guilty World to reconcile them to God surely he was fit also to Rule and Governe the World There are two parts of Government Laws and Actual Administration His Laws are all good and equal the same with his Doctrine As he giveth notice of these things as a Prophet so he giveth charge about them as a King Of his Laws we need not further speak but the Administration is under our Consideration Now in the Righteous ordering the Affairs of his Kingdom he sheweth himself to be one that loveth Righteousness and hateth Iniquity As the Laws are good and equal so the Administration is right and just The Administration of this Kingdom is two-fold Internal and External 1. Internal Christ is set over the Church of God as a Glorious Head and Chief who is to recover a lost People unto God His Internal Administration is either effective or remunerative 1. Effective by his preventing Grace as he changeth our Hearts bringeth us into his Kingdom worketh Faith in us and maketh us willing Subjects to him Conversion is one of his Kingly Acts wrought in us by the efficacy of his preventing Grace otherwise we cannot enter into his Kingdom Matth. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Col. 1.13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Till he subdue the Power of Sin and Sathan in our Hearts we shall still groan under that Tyranny Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God 2. Remunerative By the Rewards of Godliness here and hereafter Here Rom. 14.17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in
the Holy Ghost Peace of Conscience increase of Grace joy in the Holy Ghost They shall not want incouragement who seriously set themselves to love Righteousness and hate Iniquity 2 Pet. 1.11 For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Hereafter Heaven is the Portion of the sanctified Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified He doth sanctifie all that believe on him and then give them Eternal Life 2. External in the course of his Providence Christ hath set up a Government wherein he will favour and protect those that walk uprightly Psalm 11.7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright But with the disobedient God is angry every day Psalm 7.11 Only it is the day of Gods patience God is preparing himself Well then we must neither rebel against his Government nor distrust his defence For Christ administreth Justice in his Kingdom defending the good and destroying the wicked and he will in time earnestly espouse the cause of all Holyness and Righteousness II. I come now to the Unction of Christ which is the consequent fruit of the former God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows There you may observe 1. The Author of this Unction God even thy God 2. The Priviledge it self to be anointed with the oyl of gladness 3. The Partakers of this Priviledge or the Persons to whom it is applyed One Principal and Singular who hath the Preheminence and that is the Mediator others Inferiour and in a lower degree of participation called here his fellows Let us a little explain these things 1. The Author of this Unction God even thy God Is this spoken to him as God or Man It may be true in both senses As to his Divine Nature he is God of God or as it is in Iohn 1.1 The word was with God and the word was God As to his Humane Nature he is a Creature made of a Woman and so God is his God as he is the God of all flesh But especially is this spoken of him as Mediator so Christ is one of Gods Confederates There is a Covenant between God and him Ioh. 20.17 I go to my father and your father to my God and your God The Sum of the Covenant was that after he had suffered here upon Earth and satisfied Gods Justice by being made a Curse for us he was at length to be raised out of the Grave and exalted to his Regal Power in Heaven All that belongeth to a Covenant is found in this Transaction between God and Christ. 1. God propoundeth the Terms or demandeth of his Son that he lay down his life and for his labour he promiseth that he shall see his Seed that God shall give him many Children Isa. 53.10 He shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands 2. The Son consenteth and saith A body hast thou prepared for me Loe I come to do thy will Psalm 40.6 7. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened burnt-offering and sin-offering thou hast not required Then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me Here the Eternal Son of God doth agree and contract with his Father to performe that perfect Obedience to his Laws and to offer up himself such a Divine and Spotless Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World as was necessary for the Expiation of Sin 3. Christ hath not only consented but doth with all Joy and Delight set about this whole Will and Counsel of God and go through with the Work and Office assigned unto him very chearfully and heartily till he had brought it to a good End and Issue Psalm 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God! yea thy law is in my heart 4. After this ready and willing Obedience he is to plead the Covenant Psalm 89.26 He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God and the Rock of my salvation Psalm 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Upon this there is 5. Gods Answer God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows And Psalm 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool Thus doth the Scripture lisp to us in our own Dialect or in such Language as we can best understand concerning that Bill of Contract or transacted bargain between God and Christ from all Eternity wherein Christ undertaking perfectly to fulfil the Will of God and to performe all Active and Passive Obedience even unto Death had the Promise from God that he should become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that obey him The Redemption of Sinners is not a work of yesterday nor a business of chance but well-advised and in Infinite Wisdom contrived There was a preparatory agreement to that great work before it was gone about and therefore it should not be slighted by us nor lightly passed over 2. The Priviledge it self to be anointed with the oyl of gladness It noteth his solemne Exaltation and Admission to the Exercise of his Office By Oyl all agree is meant the Spirit by which Christ was anointed Luke 4.18 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me 1. Christ was anointed at his Conception in his Mothers Womb when he was sanctified by the Holy Spirit For the work of the Spirit was not only to forme his Body out of the substance of the Virgin which Nature could not do of its self but chiefly to preserve it from Sin and endow it with the gift of Holyness From which time he grew in Wisdom and Grace as well as in Stature Luke 2.52 And Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man 2. Again Christ may be said to be anointed at his Baptisme which was the visible consecration to his Office when the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove Matth. 3.16 17. and Iohn 1.33 once more 3. He may be said to be anointed at his Ascension when he received of the Father the Promise of the Spirit to pour him forth upon his Disciples Acts 2.33 Therefore being by the right hand of God eâ—alted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear This I take to be the Sense here his Glorious Exaltation at the right hand of God where being possessed of all Power he joyfully expecteth and accomplisheth the fruits of his Redemption I am the more confirmed in this 1. Because the
proper Lord Psal 119 45. I will walk at Liberty for I seek thy Precepts To will and do things pleasing to our Creator Preserver and Redeemer Again if man have a Liberty it must be such a Liberty as leaveth him in a capacity to pursue his chief good and last end The more we are restrained from this the more we are in Bondage the less the more free Certainly the reasonable Nature is under a defect as 't is restrained and disabled from the Fruition of God or seeking after it For man was made for this end and is so far fettered as he is kept from it but this is little minded all our desire is to live at large and to have none to controul us 3. It proceeds from the Nature of Christs Laws 1. They are spiritual 2. They require self-denial 1. They are strict and spiritual Precepts which require the Subjection of the whole Man to Christ Thoughts Desires Inclinations as well as Actions The Law is Spiritual but I am Carnal saith the Apostle Rom. 7.14 That is it requireth inward Purity as well as external Conformity Now men will rather endure any external Burdens how heavy and hard soever than Christs spiritual Yoak Take for an instance the Pharisaical Institutions and Christs Law For the one 't is said Mat. 23.4 They bind heavy Burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens Shoulders They had little Compassion on the People and therefore imposed rigorous and severe Ordinances upon them But Mat. 11.30 Christ saith My Yoak is easie and my Burden is light Yet at that time there were more Proselyted to the Sect of the Pharisees than embraced the Doctrine of Christ Men will part with any thing sooner than their Lusts Micah 6.6 7. Perform costly Sacrifices deny many of the feelings of Nature and all that they may keep their beloved Sins The sensual nature of Man is such that it is loth to be crossed which produceth Prophaneness and Dissoluteness and men ingulph themselves in all manner of sensualities because they are loth to deny their natural Appetites and Desires and to row against the stream of Flesh and Blood So the young man is said to walk in the ways of his own Heart and the sight of his Eyes Eccles. 11.9 But if Nature be to be crossed a little 't is done by some only for a while and in some slight manner and this produceth Hypocrisie Isa. 58.5 To bow down the Head for a day like a Buâ—rush If this will not quiet Conscience we are apt to exceed in outward observances and rigorous impositions or macerating the Body by some by-Laws of our own and this produceth Superstition Col. 2.19 Touch not tast not handle not We place our Religion in abstinence from such Meats or in such Penances and exterior Mortifications and so he bound in Chains of our own making â—hus these three great evils Prophaneness Hypocrisie and Superstition grow upon the same Stem and Root But when Christ requireth us to serve God in the Spirit to subdue the Hâ—art to him this we cannot endure Therefore in all these ways of Religion wherein men walk who would not have Christ to Reign over them you may still observe they check at his spiritual Laws 2 Christ by his Laws requireth self-denial Mat. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me We are to deny our own Wit and our own Will Our own Wit or Wisdom so faâ— as it is conâ—rary Christianity 1 Cor. 3.18 Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this World let him be a â—ool that he may be wise To condemn our own former Life wherein we so much pleased our selves our own Will For none are longer to be at their own dispose 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your Body is â—he Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are nâ—t your own Now men are so averse from this that it is a kind of a Mâ—racle that any are brought to deny themselves and subject all their thoughts and desires to Christ. I. Vse is Information 1. It sheweth us whence all the Contentions arise which are raised about Religion in the World Some may ignorantly mistake things and some proud Wits may oppose Christs Prophetical Office contradict the Mysteries of our most Holy Faith some may lessen the Merit of his Sacrifice but the most general Errour is Men will not have him to Reign over them All the corrupt part of the World oppose his Kingly Office many that are right in Doctrine are yet Carnal as to Practice They acknowledge the Redemption of Christ and Justification by Faith but will not make straight steps to their Feet and live by Christs Laws I am sure this is the great damning Sin in the Orthodox And as to Doctrine in the reformed part of the World Alas what will it avail you to cry up his Merits while you cannot endure his strict spiritual Precepts This is to set the Saviour against the Lawgiver the Priest against the King 2. It informeth us how much they disserve Christianity that will hear of no Injunctions of Duty or mention of the Law of Faith or of the New Covenant as a Law Besides that they take part with the Caâ—nal World who cannot endure Christs Reign and Government they blot out all Religion with one dash If there be no Law there is no Government nor Governour no Duty no Sin no Punishment nor Reward for these things necessarily infer one another A Governour inferreth a Government and all regular Government is by Law how shall the Subjects else know what is Sin and Duty for Verum est index sui obliqui The Law that stateth Duty doth give us the Knowledge of Sin and without a sanction of Penalties and Rewards all is but an Arbitrary Direction which we may observe or neglect at our Pleasure and no harm or good come of it Now these are horrid and uncouth Notions that stab Religion at the very Heart 3. Iâ— informeth us What a difficult thing it is to seat Christ in his spiritual Throne namely in the Hearts of all faithful Christians The Voice of corrupt Nature is We will not have this Man to Reign over us And till we are brought under the Government of Christ other Lords have Dominion over us as the Prophet speaketh Isa. 26.13 And they will not easily quit their Possession We are ruled by the â—evâ—l the Flesh and the World The Devil and we must be rescued from him before we can be brought into the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 Now there is old Tugging and Wrestling to rescue the prey out of Satans hands The World Christs ransom respected that Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself that he might deliver us from this present evil World And so doth the Application of this Salvation by the Spirit for till we get rid of the
which he hath prepared for us This is the Salvation from whence Christ is chiefly denominated our Saviour and that which we are to endeavour and look after throughout our whole life Sermon II. on Luke Xix. 10 For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost Secondly I AM to prove that this was Christ's great end and business 1. It is certain that Christ was sent to Man in a lapsed and fallen estate not to preserve us as innocent but to recover us as fallen The good Angels are preserved and confirmed in their first estate they are kept from perishing and being lost And so would Adam have been saved if God had kept him still in a state of Innocency but our Salvation is a recovery and restauration being lost and undone by the fall Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God That is lost the perfection of our natures and the consequent priviledges 2. Out of this misery Man is unable to deliver and recover himself Not able to reconcile or propitiate God to himself by giving a sufficient ransom to provoked justice Psal. 49.8 For the Redemption of the Soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that is if it should lie upon our Hands And Man cannot change his own Heart Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Iob 14.4 There is no sound part left in us to mend the rest this is a work for the Spiritual Physician We have need of a Saviour to help us to Repentance as well as to help us to pardon 3. We being utterly unable God in pity to us that the Creation of Man for his glory might not be frustrated hath sent us Christ. First he was from the Love of God predestinated to this end from all Eternity to remedy our lapsed estate Iohn 3.16 God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life He was from all Eternity appointed by the Father to save sinners Secondly He was spoken of and promised for this end in Paradise presently after the fall Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head Thirdly He was shaddowed forth in the Sacrifices and the other Figures of the Law therefore said to be the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 Fourthly He was prophesied of by the Prophets as one that should Make his Soul an offering for sin Isa. 53.10 As the Anointed one that should be cut off not for himself but to make an end of Sins and make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness Dan. 9.27 28 29. Fifthly He was waited for by all the Faithful before his coming as the consolation of Israel Luke 2.25 And behold there was a Man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was Iust and Devout waiting for the Consolation of Israel Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad 1 Pet. 1.10 Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you Sixthly In the fulness of time the Son of Man came not at first to judge or sentence any but to save the lost World Luke 9.56 For the Son of Man is not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them John 3.17 God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved The erraâ—d of his first coming was to offer Salvation to the lost World and not only to offer it but to purchase it for them Iohn 12.47 I came not to Iudge the World but to save the World All these places shew that at his first coming he laid aside the quality of a Judge and took the Office of a Saviour and a Mediator As a Prophet to reveal the way of Salvation As a Priest to procure it for us by the merit of his Sacrifice As a king powerfully to bring us to the injoyment of it He did not come down to punish the ungodly World as Gen. 18.21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of all it which come up unto me And so to put an end to transgression But he would come with an offer of Peace and Salvation and during this whole dispensation leaves room for Faith and Repentance Seventhly When he was upon Earth you find him conversing with sinners as the Physician with the sick to heal their Souls and when the Pharisees excepted against this familiarity as if it were against decency that so great a Prophet should converse with the poorest and worst he sheweth it was needful for their cure When they objected Luke 15.2 This Man receiveth Sinners and eateth with them He defendeth himself by the Parable of the lost Sheep and lost groat and lost Son So here when they murmur at him for being Zaccheus his Guest he pleadeth his Commission and great Errand into the World So when a Woman that was a sinner washed his Feet with her Tears he preferreth her before Simon a Pharisee Luke 7.44 45 46 47. He pleadeth his being a Physician of Souls When he sate at Meat with Matthew a Publican Mat. 9.12 So those that would have the Adulteress Stoned he said to them Iohn 8.7 He that is without sin among you let him cast the first Stone at her He spake many Parables against those that were conceited of their Righteousness and despised sinners Luk. 18.9 The Parable of the two Sons Mat. 21.28 29 30 31. Now all these shew that his great work was to bring lost sinners to Repentance that they might be saved Eighthly After he had offered himself through the Eternal Spirit that he might purge our Consciences from dead works he went to Heaven and sate down at the Right Hand of God that he might powerfully apply his Salvation Therefore it is said Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his Right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of Sins So that still he is upon the saving dispensation till he come to Judgment then all are in termino in their final estate where they shall remain for ever Ninthly The Ministry and Gospel was appointed to give notice of this 1 Iohn 4.14 And we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World Well then If Christ had not been willing to save us he would never have laid down his Life to open a way for our Salvation nor would he have sent his Ambassadours to pray and beseech us to accept of his help Vse 1. Information 1. How contrary to the temper of Christ they are who are careless of Souls We should learn of Christ to be diligent and industrious to reduce the meanest person upon Earth that is in a course
Verse 8th The word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart It 's in the Mouth to know it and speak of it it 's in the Heart as written there by the Spirit that we may do the duty it requireth of us with ease and sweetness 'T is in thy Mouth to Confess and in thy Heart to Believe and Practise VVhen the New Covenant is spoken of as opposite to the Covenant made with them when they came out of Egypt it is said sometimes to be put into the Mouth and sometimes in the Heart The words are Isa. 59.21 As for me This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my VVords which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy seed nor out of the Mouth of thy seed's seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Meaning thereby That his Spirit and Word shall continue with them as a Church to direct them in all necessary things This for the Mouth Now for the Heart see another Promise Jer. 31.33 And this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People Well then The Excellency of the Gospel-dispensation is set forth by Two things 1. It 's more easie to be known and understood and carried in the Memory for the Word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth The drift of Moses his Speech tendeth to shew that they should have a New Covenant the Tenour of which was known and easie to be expressed by all those who were acquainted with it 2. It 's more easie to be practised 'T is not in our Mouths onely but in our Hearts which are inclined by the Holy Spirit to obey it so that the New Creature may undertake the duty it requireth of us by the assistance of God and do it sincerely though not exactly Secondly The sense of what it saith 't is explained and exemplified 1. Explained Verse 8. This is the word which we preach namely the Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of sins by Jesus Christ. 2. Exemplified Verse 9th That if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Confession with the Mouth there answers to the Word is in thy Mouth believe with thine heart that implieth Faith And Christ's being raised from the Dead is instanced in rather than any other Article of Faith because that proveth all the rest and is the great evidence of the truth of Christianity Doctrine That the way of acceptance with God or obtaining Salvation is so clearly stated in the Gospel that we need not be in doubtful suspence or seek out another Religion wherein to find it or other satisfaction than God hath given us in his Word The sense of this Point I shall give you in these Propositions First That it is the weightiest matter in the VVorld to know how to be accepted with God as to pardon and life Man being a guilty Creature needeth pardon and the Soul dying not with the Body we desire to know the way of life or what shall become of us when this frail life is at an end Certain it is that we are haunted with guilty fears for we are through the fear of death all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 There are some troubles of Mind in all of us about our acceptance with God not always felt indeed but soon awakened Trembling Souls who know what God is and what themselves are and are conscious to former guilt and present unworthiness cannot easily settle in a confidence of God's Mercy to them especially when they come to die The fear of death raised our trouble before but when death cometh indeed these stings are increased 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is sin and these stings of Conscience are justified by the highest reason which is the Law of God not occasioned by our melancholy conceits only It 's an Amazing consideration to us to think of entering into an unknown World and to stand before the righteous bar of an impartial Judge That it is very hard to undergo death with a steady confidence and to incourage our fearful and doubtful Minds to lanch out into Eternity common experience verifieth I pray consider Christians that our present condition is a state of darkness and fear and these fears are caused by sin and justified by the Law of God and revived by death and the thoughts of the other World And therefore there is not a weightier business than to establish our fearful and doubtful Minds in Peace that we may comfortably wait for the Mercy of God unto Eternal Life Secondly That is the best Religion which doth most provide for this Peace and Rest of Soul So that if a man were at liberty to choose and were consulting what Religion he should choose this Consideration must guide him where he can find true Peace and Rest for his Anxious Soul So the Prophet directeth them Ier. 6.16 Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your Souls And by this Argument Christ inviteth us to himself Mat. 11.28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls And the Apostle commendeth the Gospel upon this account Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Iesus It is easie to lull Conscience asleep for a while either 1. By Carnal Pleasures Prov. 9.17 Stolen Waters are sweet and Bread eaten in secret is pleasant For a while they seem so but the vertue of that Opium is soon spent Or 2. By a false Religion but within a while we shall soon find that is so far from being our cure that it is a great part of our disease no false Religion is consistent with right Thoughts of God Therefore the Woman of Samaria assoon as she began to have an awakened Conscience enquires after the true Religion Iohn 4.20 Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship An awakened Conscience will be careful to lay the ground-work of Religion sure A false way of Religion always breedeth scruples and is accompanied with no sound Peace Or 3. In the superficial observances of a true Religion Mat. 19.20 All these things have I kept from my Youth up what lack I yet A false Righteousness will not give true quietness to the Conscience there is something lacking and the Soul sits uneasie Therefore nothing but coming under the Power of the
the Heart and may be determined partly by the object or matter believed partly by the subject of it or the acts of the Soul towards it First The Object or Matter believed is in short this That there is a God Heb. 11.6 That God having made Man he hath right and power over him to govern him by his Laws James 4.12 There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy That Man failing in his Obedience he and all his Posterity are subject to the wrath and vindictive Justice of God Rom. 3.19 That all the World may become guilty before God Ephes. 2.3 And were by nature children of wrath even as others That such was God's Love that to recover Man out of this wretched condition he sent his own Son into the World John 3.16 That Iesus Christ who was the Son of God died for our offences and rose again for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 That is died to expiate our sins and rose again to convince the unbelieving VVorld of the Authority and Dignity of his Person and Offices and also of the truth of his Law and Covenant that having died and rose again he hath acquired Novum Ius Imperii a new right of Command and Empire over the World Rom. 14.9 For this cause he both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord of dead and living That is have full power and dominion to dispose of us dead and living That Christ having this full power and dominion over all flesh hath established and enacted a Law of Grace or New Covenant wherein Pardon and Righteousness or Title to Life is assured to Penitent Believers Mark 16.16 Whosoever believeth shall be saved And Luke 24.47 And that Repentance and Remission of sins be Preached in his Name to all Nations And shall actually be bestowed upon all that obey him Heb. 5.9 But those that refuse this Christ shall be eternally miserable John 3.19 This is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil This is the sum of what is to be believed Secondly It may be determined partly by the Subject of it or the acts of the Soul about it The Subject is the Heart both Understanding and Will The Understanding Assents to all this as true both what is said of the Person of the Redeemer and his Covenant and accordingly disposeth the heart of Man to carry it self towards both 1. To the Person of the Redeemer We Thankfully and Broken-heartedly receive him to the ends of the Gospel or to be to us what God hath appointed him to be and do that for us That God hath appointed Him to do for poor sinners To be our Lord and Saviour Iohn 1.12 Col. 2.6 as Lord to obey him and as Saviour to depend upon him and trust our selves in his hands for our happiness whatever befalleth us 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day 2. Towards the Covenant which he hath appointed as the Law or Rule of Commerce between us and God There are Promises and Precepts Commands and offers of Grace 1. For the Promises you heartily accept them as the greatest Happiness that can be bestowed upon you and depend upon them as things that surely will be performed for there comes in the consideration of true and good 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a true and faithful saying Ephes. 1.13 In whom ye trusted after ye heard the word of truth as true doubts are opposite to them as good carnal inclinations 2 For the Precepts and Duties required you bind your selves to perform them upon these hopes whatever it cost you And there comes in also the nature of Faith Sincere Resolution and Absolute Self denial Sincere resolution to perform what God hath required that you may obtain what he hath offered which is called a giving up of our selves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 And absolute Self denial or Selling all for the Pearl of Price Mat. 13.46 And so that Faith which is made such a difficult thing to explain as it were a Bugbear to affright poor Christians from all thoughts and study about it is made easie and facile to the understandings of the meanest Christians who must live by it and be saved by it This then is believing with the Heart Secondly What is Confession with the Mouth A solemn outward declaration that we take Christ for our Lord and Saviour or that we believe what is revealed to us concerning God and Christ and our duty to him This is necessary because the Promises of the New Covenant run in both strains of putting the word in our Heart Ier. 31.37 and putting it in our Mouths Isa. 59.21 The Saints Prayers are That God would not take it out of their Hearts Psal. 119.36 nor out of their Mouths Verse 43. Take not the word of Truth utterly out of my Mouth And the nature of their duty to God requireth it for a Man is first to embrace the True Religion to receive it with his Heart and then he is to profess it or express it with his Mouth for no Man is to conceal and keep his Religion to himself Our Tongues and our Bodies were given us to shew forth that acknowledgment and Adoraâ—ion of God which is in our hearts He that denieth God or Christ with the Heart doth not believe in him or Worship him with the Heart So he doth not Worship God with his Tongue and Life who doth not outwardly profess and honour him As he hath given us an understanding that we may know him so he hath prepared for us a body wherewithal to profess him and our esteem of him Isa. 45.23 To me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear Which is again repeated and established as our duty in the Gospel Phil. 2.10.11 At the Name of Iesus every Knee should bow And every Tongue confess that Iesus Christ is Lord. But more distinctly to open this confession with the Mouth 1. The matter to be confessed is the great truths which we do believe God Christ the Covenant of Grace Eternal Glory and Happiness And the lesser truths in their season at other times Rom. 14.22 Hast thou Faith have it to thy self before God 'T is not meant of the necessary Articles of the Christian belief but things of a doubtful disputation If we know more than others in these things yet we must not needlessly trouble the Church or offend the weak to the danger of their Souls and hindrance of greater truths And yet in these things you must not deny the smallest truth 2 Cor. 13.8 We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth For though the thing we contend for be small yet sincerity is a great matter and to profess our Assent or Consent to what we neither count true nor can well approve of is to come under a
ever we think of it When this Lamb of God was killing the Creatures were all in amazement the Earth trembled the Rocks rent the Sun was eclipsed Oh how great is the stupidity and dullness of our Hearts that we can no more seriously think of it Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High-priest of our Profession Iesus Christ. Serious Meditation is like the Concoction of Meat in the Stomach 2. Behold him with Application Iob 5.27 Hear it and know thou it for thy good Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things Excite thine own Heart surely this was for my Sins if I have an Heart to receive Christ and make use of him for this End and Purpose Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me And 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you 3. Behold him with an Eye of Faith Isa. 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Iesus Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Faith gets such a clear sight of things as if we had been by when he suffered and paid this Ransom 4. Behold him with an Eye of Repentance and brokeness of Heart Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born It was thy Sins that pierced him therefore behold him and mourn 5. Behold him with an Eye of Thankfulness as the great Instance of God's Love who would by so costly a Remedy procure our Pardon and Happiness 1 Iohn 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the prâ—pitiation for our sins 6. Behold your Suffering and Crucified Saviour with an Eye of Love so as to love him the more O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Love is Crucified Ignatius quò vilior eò charior The more vile and humble he was the more dear he should be to you Let it perswade us to a real Love to allow him a Dominion and Lordship in our Hearts that is real Love to obey God Rom. 5.8 God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us This Love must beget Love 1 Use. To press you to behold the Lamb of God behold him as a Sacrifice for Sin whose Blood applied doth quiet the Conscience and turn away the Curse These Words present the more glorious Spectacle and Object not to your Sight but to your Faith not to your Senses but to your most serious and intimate Consideration The Object is Christ Crucified the only true propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin the chief Point of Christian Knowledge and the most powerful Means of the Creatures Good Oh behold him look not at Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper but at the Lamb of God 2 Use. To press you to take and eat Christ and receive him out of God's hands by Faith He is the Lamb of God God designed him for this Work when Man had no way to help himself 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world God tendreth him to you now Take and Eat God the Party offended hath authorized Christ to be a Mediator say then Lord thou hast appointed thy Son and sent him into the World to be a Ransom for our Souls he is now offered to me Lord I come to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood We must eat him so as to feel the Virtue of both changing our Hearts and comforting our Consciences changing our Hearts other Food is changed into our Substance this changeth us 2 Cor. 5.17 He that is in Christ is a new Creature Comforting our Consciences Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Is God unwilling to give Christ Or is Christ unable to do his Work A Second Sermon on JOHN i. 29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World Doctrine 2. THE great Work of Christ the Lamb of God is to take away the Sins of the World 1. What is meant by the World 2. In what manner Christ taketh away the Sins of the World 3. That this is the great End Work and Scope of Christ's coming into the World I. What is meant by the World Why is there such a capacious and comprehensive Word used Since it is clear that all the World have not benefit by Christ for many of them die in their Sins Answ. 1. To shew the difference between the Lamb of God and the Sacrifices of the Law the old Sacrifices were only offered for the People of Israel but Christ's Death hath a larger Extent to People of all places Iews and Gentiles 1 Iohn 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world And in all Ages from the beginning of the World to the end Rev. 13.8 He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world The Lamb of God is of an universal and perpetual Use. 2. To shew the sufficiency of this Mediatorial Sacrifice it is of such a full and overflowing Merit that it becometh a Foundation for a tendry of Grace to every Creature Here is a Ground-work and Foundation laid for the truth of this Proposition Mark 16.16 That whosoever believeth shall be saved So that here is a great Invitation and Incouragement for every oppressed Soul if Christ taketh away the Sins of the World put in for a share thou art a Member of the World Paul creepeth in at the back Door of the Promise 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Christ would not have Sinners exclude themselves but attend upon him for this Benefit Therefore he would have his Grace set forth in the most comprehensive Terms that all that find themselves Sinners may stir up themselves to find benefit by him 3. Those Elect ones who have actual Benefit by this Sacrifice may be called The World partly because of their Number take them all together and they are many and therefore called World Rev. 7.9 I beheld a great multitude which no man could number c. And partly in regard of God's Estimation though they are few they are as good as all the World to him And partly because they will one day be set apart from the rest of Mankind and make a peculiar World of themselves II. In what manner doth Christ take away the Sins
the World it cannot be imagined that God should use such an Artifice 1. That God governeth the World by the Hopes and Fears of another Life is evident not only by the Tenour of the Christian Religion where the Covenant between God and Men is established by such Threatnings and Promises but by the Consent of all Nations where Government is secured and upheld by such a Perswasion Now if the Soul be not immortal and there be not firm Reasons to induce us to believe that it is so why hath such a Conceit been rooted in the Minds of Men of all Nations and all Religions not only Greeks and Romans but Barbarians and People least civilized They all received this Opinion from Hand to Hand from their Ancestors and the nearer Men trace it to the Original of Mankind the more clear and pressing hath been the Conceit thereof Lapse of time which ordinarily decayeth all things hath not been able to deface it out of the Minds of Men the Sense of an immortal Condition after this Life hath ever been accounted the great Bridle upon the World and being spread throughout the Universe hath with all Forwardness been received among all Nations and hath born up against all Encounters of Sin and hath maintained it self in the midst of those Revolutions of humane Affairs wherein other Truths are lost 2. There is a Necessity of this Government as suting best with the Nature of Man which is much moved by the Hopes and Fears of Good and Evil after Death That Man is governed by Hopes and Fears common Sense teacheth us That the Hopes and Fears of the present Life are not sufficient to bridle carnal Nature and withstand Temptations and keep us in the true Obedience and Love to God to the End Experience also sheweth because for the Satisfaction of our Lusts we can dispense with temporal Evils as the Lecher in the Proverbs chap. 5.11 And thou mourn at the last when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed Besides if it were so that these Motives of temporal Good and Evil were sufficient Man were more to be feared than God which killeth and stabbeth all Religion at the Heart for Man useth this Engine of temporal Punishments and Inconvenience they do Execution on those that break their Laws Now Christ teacheth us Luke 12.4 5. I say unto you my Friends Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you Fear him 3. The Necessity of it appeareth to meet with secret Sins such as Fornication privy Atheism Malice Adultery Murder Perjury Hypocrisy Treachery Theft Deceit He that believeth not a Life after this may secretly carry on these Sins without Impunity Man cannot see the Heart or make Laws to govern it therefore no Man can know or punish these secret Sins therefore if Men can but hide their Sins they are safe So for the Sins of Men powerful in the World for who can call them to an Account here for their Filthiness or Cruelty Iob 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked and to Princes Ye are ungodly There is no Restraint to those who have none above them and all secret Wickedness would be committed without Fear So that to deny the Immortality of the Soul or a Life after this would take away all Honesty and open the Flood-gates to all Villany and evil Practices Who would make Conscience of entire Obedience to God enter in by the streight Gate walk in the narrow Way row against the Stream of Flesh and Blood work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling and consecrate their time to God if there were no other Life after this nor Happiness to be there expected Alas we plainly see the contrary Who are so lewd and hardned in their Sensualities as they that are tainted with this Conceit That not only the Denial but the Forgetfulness of this Estate worketh this Effect They make the best of the present Life 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to Morrow we shall die Such Atheistical Thoughts are very common Ver. 33. Be not deceived evil Communication corrupts good Manners But a deep Sense of this immortal Estate is the Fountain of all Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness and all that is vertuous and Praise-worthy hath been done in the World upon this Account Therefore who are the better Men those that believe the Immortality of the Soul or those that believe it not And who are likely to be in the right wicked Wretches or holy serious and considering Men. 4. The Duties which God requireth of us shew it Man is obliged to divers Duties which are difficult and displeasing to the Flesh and which we should never perform without a serious Belief of the Soul's Immortality such as these to forsake the sinful Pleasures of the World to mortify and tame the Flesh diligently to exercise our selves to Godliness to suffer the Loss of all outward Comforts yea of Life it self All these are commanded the Mortification and keeping down the Body Col. 3.5 Diligence in the Heavenly Life Phil. 3.13 14. Forâ—itude and Patience under the greatest Trials as Moses is propounded for an Example Heb. 11.24 25 26. Not to faint in the greatest Tribulations 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Yea to expose Life it self Luke 14.26 Now would God who is so loving to Mankind bind us to displease the Flesh and enjoin us so many Duties which are harsh and troublesome yea some of them hurtful and detrimental to the Body if he had not provided some better thing for us Would he all whose Precepts are for our good and who hath made Self-love so great an help to our Duty be so hard to us but that he knoweth how to recompence this Diligence and Self-denial He saith Take no thought for your Life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your Body what ye shall put on Matth. 6.25 But he saith Keep the Soul with all diligence Deut. 4.9 Would he be so earnest in pressing us to look after the Soul and strengthning and adorning the inward Man if the Soul were to perish with the Body Surely if all depended upon the Body the Body should be more cared for but it is quite otherwise Scripture and Reason shew the Body is only to be cared for in Subordination to the Soul and that our chiefest Work should be to furnish our Souls with Knowledg and Grace And they are the worthiest Men who do most busy themselves about divine and heavenly things whereas they are the basest who care so much for the Body and make a business of those things which they should do only by the by Certainly if there were an end of us when the Body faileth we should abhor nothing so much as Death desire nothing so much as the good of the
the way of Life that keepeth Instruction but he that hateth Reproof erreth They wander far and wide that hate to be brought into the right way Prov. 12.1 He that hateth Reproof is brutish Why because he despiseth the great Help of Mankind and so is carried away with his base and impetuous Desires and will not hear Reason to the contrary Prov. 13.18 Poverty and Shame shall be to him that refuseth Instruction but he that regardeth Reproof shall be honoured As unwilling to go on in a wrong Course after he seemeth to be ingaged in it and he shall be honoured as one that is prudent Prov. 15.5 A Fool despiseth his Father's Instruction but he that regardeth Reproof is prudent He is wise at the second hand though not in his first Choice yet in rectifying his ill Choice Nay Prov. 15.10 Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way and he that hateth Reproof shall die Better be corrected than die and perish for ever God's Reproofs and Rebukes at the last Day will be very severe and amazing And ver 31. The Ear that heareth the Reproof of Life abideth among the Wise that is forsaketh the ill Company which misled him and betaketh himself to better Guides Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy Our Case without Repentance is desperate for when we have hardened our selves in an evil way the Lord overtakes us with a sudden Destruction Vse 3. It exhorts us to set upon this Duty There is need of it Which will appear if we consider the Infirmity of Nature that is to be restrained a blind Mind to be enlightned a drowzy Heart to be awakened Vehemency of Passions to be curbed and great Allurements to Sin to be withstood Say not with Cain Gen. 4.9 Am I my Brother's Keeper Thou art so do it then with Love lest you do the Work of an Enemy under the Vizard of a Friend No Hatred or ill End must put you on this Business for when you rebuke Sin with Sin you increase it Again there is need of it for it will prevent many Evils as Censuring and Detraction and speaking ill of others and Invasion of the Ministry this is one great Evil that heretofore hath reigned among us many little Pratlers that had no Gifts set up for Ministers this Itch would soon be cured if Men would mind necessary Duties such as Meditation which is a Preaching to themselves Family-Instruction and Brotherly Reproof Vse 4. Direction to perform this Duty Many Graces are necessary hereunto as Zeal for God Love to our Neighbour and Courage Avoid Pusillanimity that you be not hindred by your Fears this is the way to prevail And if you prevail not you must mourn and pray as Lot 2 Pet. 2.8 For that righteous Man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their ungodly Deeds Jer. 13.17 But if ye will not hear it my Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride and mine Eye shall weep sore and run down with Tears SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19 SERMON I. 1 COR. XV. 19 If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable IN the Context the Apostle is disputing for the Truth of the Resurrection this way of Reasoning is deducendo ad absurdum by shewing the Absurdities that would follow upon the denial of it 1 st The first Absurdity is mentioned ver 13. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then Christ is not risen In all things he is a Pattern to his People if the Head be risen so shall the Members also 2 d Absurdity consequent upon that is mentioned ver 14 15 16. And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain yea and we are found false VVitnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the Dead rise not for if the Dead rise not then is not Christ raised Whole Christianity would be a Forgery and whatever was preached by the Apostles and believed by them vain and frivolous if Christ be not risen 3 d Absurdity ver 17. And if Christ be not risen your Faith is vain you are yet in your Sins That the new Covenant and all their Confidence about Remission of Sins upon Repentance would come to nothing 4 th Absurdity That those that had lost their Lives for Christ would perish eternally and would have nothing to recompense this Loss ver 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished 5 th Absurdity is in the Text If all our Hopes in Christ were terminated with this Life Christians were the most wretched sort of Men in this World If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable But these are such absurd Thoughts that every Christian should abhor them with Indignation In the Words we have 1. A Supposition If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ. 2. An Absurdity thence inferred VVe are of all Men most miserable Doct. That the Calamities of the Godly in this Life shew that we have much more to hope for from Christ in the Life to come I. I shall state the Point in what Sense it is said that Christians are of all Men most miserable if there be no Life to come II. Confirm and prove it by shewing the Validity of the Apostle's Reasoning 1. For the Supposition 1. This is supposed that Affliction and Misery is the common Burden of the Sons of Adam In the present Life all are liable to Misery some more some less We walk through a Valley of Tears live in a groaning World none have such an uninterrupted Current and Stream of worldly Felicity but that they have their Crosses and Afflictions These things are common to Man We are told in the Book of Iob chap. 5.7 Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upward And Iob 14.1 Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of Trouble None can reasonably expect to be absolutely exempted from the common Lot of humane lapsed Nature Though Life be short yet it 's long enough to be vexed with many Sorrows Few and evil have the Days of the Tears of my Life been saith old Iacob Gen. 47.9 Since they are evil it is well they are but few Most Men little consider of this that they come into the World to bear Crosses but rather imagine they come hither to spend their Days in Pleasure at least they do not mind the true Cause of their Troubles nor the proper Remedy The true Cause is Sin Man's Transgressions are the Door by which it entred And the proper Remedy is the Grace of God in Jesus Christ. Well then whatever may be the particular and various Dispensations of God towards Men yet to be miserable in some sort and
Principle is That God is none of those things which are seen but something more excellent And in the second Commandment we have God's invisible Nature for Images are forbidden upon that ground because God cannot be seen Deut. 4.12 You saw no Similitude only you heard a Voice The third Principle is That God hath a care of Human Affairs and judgeth with Equity And in the third Commandment you have the Knowledg of Human Affairs even of a Man's Thoughts ascribed to God for that is the Foundation of an Oath Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain The chief intent of that Commandment is to forbid Perjury it also forbids rash Swearing and mentioning the Name of God without Reverence for in an Oath God is invoked as a Witness as one that hath Knowledg even of the Heart there his Omniscience is acknowledged And in an Oath God is appealed to as a Judg and Avenger there his Justice and Power is acknowledged For the fourth Principle That this God is the Creator and Governour of all things that are without himself that is established in the fourth Commandment by the Law of the Sabbath For the Sabbath at first was instituted for this very purpose to meditate upon God as a Creator a Day on purpose is instituted to keep up the Memorial of the Creation of the World Well then you see what is the Foundation of Godliness Now out of these speculative Notions practically flow of their own accord to wit That God alone is to be worshipped obeyed honoured trusted And as far as we set up other Confidences or are ignorant of the Excellency of the true God or so far as we deny God his Worship and Service or serve him after an unworthy manner by superstitious or idolatrous Worship or carelesly and hypocritically or so far as we have gross Opinions of his Essence or exclude the Dominion of his Providence or cease to call upon his Name so far we are guilty of Ungodliness as will appear more fully hereafter The second Question What it is to deny Vngodliness Denying is a word that properly belongs to Propositions We are said to deny when we contradict what is affirmed but by a Metaphor it may be applied to Things which the Will refuseth as some are said to deny the Power of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 when they check and resist it and will not suffer Godliness to work tho they take up a Form of it Now there 's a great deal of reason for that Phrase whether we look to the inward Workings of the Heart or to the outward Profession which they made in those days 1. If you look to the inward Workings of the Heart all things are managed in the Heart of Man by rational Debates and Suggestions and we deny when we refuse to give Assent to ungodly Thoughts Suggestions and Counsels Before Sin be fastned upon the Soul there is some ungodly Thought some Counsel which when we suppress and will not hearken to those Thoughts which Sin stirs up we are properly said to deny it Every Corruption hath a Voice If Envy bids Cain Go kill thy Brother he hearkens to it Ambition speaks to Absalom thus Go rise up against thy Father and Covetousness speaks to Iudas Go betray thy Lord So Ungodliness hath a Voice Carnal Affection urged by Satan bids us neglect God or serve him in a slight manner mind thy own business favour thy self Corruption awakened by Satan will sollicite to Evil. Now suppressing and smothering such Thoughts and Suggestions with Hatred and Detestation is fitly exprest by refusing to hearken to Sin 's Voice or denying Vngodliness 2. Some ground there is for the Expression if we look to the Custom of those Times In making an outward Profession probably here is some Allusion to the ancient manner of Stipulation When any came to be admitted into the Church there were Questions propounded to him Abrenuncias Dost thou renounce Credis Dost thou believe Spondes Dost thou promise to walk before God in all holy Obedience And the Person answered Abrenuncio I do renounce Credo I do believe and Spondeo I do undertake This was that which Peter calls The Answer of a good Conscience towards God 2 Pet. 3.21 when in the presence of God they can answer to all these Demands SERMON IV. TITUS II. 12 That denying Vngodliness c. Secondly NOW let me open the thing it self In Ungodliness there is something Negative and that is denying God his due Honour and something Positive and that is putting actual Contempt upon him I. For the Negative Part when God is denied his Honour Now to find out how this is done let us a little enquire what is the special and peculiar Honour which God challengeth to himself It stands in four things To be the First Cause the Chiefest Good the Supream Authority and Truth and the last End And therefore when we do not acknowledg him to be the First Cause the Chiefest Good the Supream Authority and Truth and the last End we rob him of the Glory of his Godhead and are guilty of this which the Apostle calls Vngodliness I shall go over these Branches First God must be honoured as the First Cause which giveth Being to all things and hath his Being from none and so we are bound to know him to depend upon him to observe his Providence and to acknowledg his Dominion over all Events or Things which happen in the World And so far as any of these are neglected so far are we guilty of Vngodliness Well then under this Head 1. Ignorance is a Branch of Ungodliness and I name it in the first place because it is the Cause of all our Disorder in Worship and Conversation This is the first cause of all Wickedness to be ignorant of God The Apostle seconds the Observation 3 Epist. Iohn 11. He that doth Evil hath not seen God Certainly he that makes a Trade of Sin hath not a right sight and sense of God he knows not God A true sight and sense of God keepeth the Soul from Sin There is nothing that keeps in the Fire of Religion nor maintains Respect between Man and Man nothing that preserves Honesty and Piety so much as right Thoughts and Apprehensions of God But now generally People are ignorant of God they know him as blind Men do Fire A Man that is born blind can tell there is such a thing as Fire because he feels it warm but what a kind 〈◊〉 thing it is he that never saw it cannot tell So the whole World and Conscience proclaim there is a God the blindest Man may see that but little do they know of his Nature and Essence what God is according as he hath revealed himself in the Word Look as the Athenians built an Altar and the Inscription was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God Acts 17.23 so do most Christians worship an unknown God And as Christ taxed the Samaritans John 4.22
abridg them of their Liberty and take upon us to condemn their Garb I confess it is a Sin to condemn what God hath not condemned There are two sorts of Superstition Positive when we count that holy that God never made holy And Negative when we condemn that for sinful which God never made sinful Therefore what Rules can be given to trace and find out the Sin The Abuse will be best discovered by considering the Use. What are the Ends of Apparel They are diverse either for Necessity to defend the Body against the Injuries of the Weather therefore they that discover their Nakedness sin against that or else for Honesty or Modesty to cover that Deformity of the Body which was the Fruit of Sin or else for Profit such Apparel as sutes with our Callings and Course of Life or for Frugality according to the Proportion of our Estate that we may not waste the good Gifts of God that should be kept either for Family-Uses or for other good Uses or for Distinction of Persons of Age Sex and Rank Deut. 22.5 The Woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a Man neither shall a Man put on a Woman's Garment for all that do so are Abomination to the Lord thy God By these Ends the Abuse may be conceived 1. It is a foul Abuse of Apparel and Ornament when Men and Women disguise Nature and seek to mend that which God hath made by patching painting and other Varnishes of Art Iezebel is infamous in Scripture for Painting and dare any sober Woman that pretends to be a Christian put her self into her Garb and Fashion They reprove God that seek to mend Nature Cyprian saith It is a Dislike of God's Work So Tertullian before him They dislike God's Workmanship in their own Faces and consult with the Devil how to mend it That which is natural is from God and that which is artificial is from the Devil How shall God own them at the last Day when they are ashamed of his Workmanship Will thy Maker own thy disguised Face He will say this is not the Face that I made We should appear before Men with no other Face than we would appear before God with at the Day of Judgment Would I have God see me thus disguised patched and painted Doth not Conscience startle at the thought of it when God shall come to take knowledg of all the Works he hath made wouldst thou appear then with these Spots and artificial Varnish 2. Addictedness to Fashions certainly that argues such a Levity that doth not sute with the Gravity of Religion That there is a Sin in Fashions is plain by Isa. 3. where the Holy Ghost is pleased to give us an Inventory of the Wardrobe of the Women among the Jews for what Reason but to shew they were vainly addicted to Fashions So Zeph. 1.8 I will punish the Princes and the King's Children and all such as are clothed with strange Apparel God takes notice of Pride in Apparel though it be in Courtiers Nobles Princes and Kings Children their new and strange exotick Garbs therefore much more is it evil in private Persons and those that are of an inferiour Rank But you will say if we must not follow the Fashion of what Date should our Habits be Should we go back as far as Adam to clothe our selves with Skins and Leaves and run back to the Rudeness of former Ages I answer There may be as much Vanity and Affection in being too much out of the Fashions of the times and places in which we live as in being too much in it therefore our Liberty in this kind is to be determined by the general and received Custom of the gravest and godly wise It stands not with Christian Gravity to be first in a Fashion and affect that which is new nor to take it up when it is only the Fashion among those that are light and vain they are not to be imitated for that 's conforming our selves to the Fashions of the World which the Apostle disproves Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this World The Apostle speaks in the Business of long Hair and when he had spoken what an unseemly thing it was for a Man Ruffian-like to go with long Hair 1 Cor. 11.14 Doth not Nature it self teach you that if a Man have long Hair it is a Shame to him He adds ver 16. But if any Man seem to be contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Which seems to carry this Sense that if Women will come with their Nakedness into the Congregation and if Men will wear long Hair and if any Man or Woman will contend and say the thing is indifferent and they have a Liberty in this kind this is the short Answer We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Therefore the general and received Custom of the Churches of God ought to be a Law in all such Cases Mark the vain World is not to give you a Precedent but the Use of the Churches and the Practice of godly Christians and their Sobriety 3. When our Apparel exceeds the Proportion of our Callings and Abilities There is more due to Persons of a higher Rank than to those of inferiour place Matth. 11.8 They that wear soft Clothing are in Kings Houses It is more commendable in them that stand before Princes than in others and therefore our Rank and Place and Estate must be considered It is a wrong to the Family and the Poor when our Garments exceed our Abilities Nay but take them both together though they do not exceed our Abilities yet if they exceed our State Place and Calling it is a Sin As for Instance For Ministers who should be mortified to the Glory and Pomp of the World it is not fit for them to shine in Bravery as others do So for Ministers Wives the Scripture is pleased to take notice of Women in that Relation above all other Women 1 Tim. 3.11 Their Wives must be grave sober And for Servants it is odious to see them strive to be in a Garb exceeding their Station and to do as others of better Rank and higher Place As Habits were given for Necessity so for Distinction of Ranks and Orders of Men and as odd a Sight it is to see an Inferiour exalting in Pomp as to put the Attire of the Head upon the Feet and Shooes on the Head 4. When it sutes not with Modesty and Chastity Garments were given to cover Nakedness and the Deformity that was introduced by Sin Therefore the Apostle saith Let the Women adorn themselves in modest Apparel with Shamefac'dness and Sobriety not with broidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or costly Array 1 Tim. 2.9 And therefore the leaving the Breasts naked in whole or in part is a Transgression of this Rule they uncover their Nakedness which they should vail and hide especially in God's Presence As the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 11.10 The Woman ought to have Power on
went triumphing into Heaven and in like manner he will come again Dan. 6.10 Daniel went into his House and his Windows being opened towards Jerusalem he kneeled upon his Knees three times a day and prayed and gave Thanks unto his God Daniel had reason to look towards the Temple tho ruined because of the Promise of God to his People that prayed towards the Temple so now and then we should look up to Heaven there is Christ above within the Heavens We are called often to lift up our Hearts to God and our Eyes to Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour there 's our Treasure and our Jesus Vse 3. Of Trial. It is good to see how we stand affected towards this Appearing Nothing can content true Christians in the World Do we look beyond it Whither is the bent of our Hearts how is it with them 1. If there were this Looking there would be Preparing A Man that expecteth the coming of a King to his House he will furnish his House accordingly and make all things ready Surely you look for no Body when you do not sute and prepare your selves to entertain them When the House is sluttish and the Kitchin cold do you look for great Guests What are we to do to prepare our selves for Christ's coming 1. Judg your selves 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates By judging your selves God's Act is anticipated 2. Get into Christ. Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus They that are in Christ need not fear God's Judgment you may set Christ's Righteousness against Christ's Judgment Guilty Felons desire not the Judge's Presence Art thou in the Case wherein thou wouldst be found of him 2 Pet. 3.14 Be diligent that you may be found of him in Peace without Spot and blameless 3. Walk strictly We are between the two Comings of Christ his first and his second Coming let us live Soberly Righteously and Godly When a Man is providing Matter of Condemnation for himself can he be said to look for Christ's Coming 2. How do you entertain Christ for the present in your Hearts and in his Ordinances Can a Man slight Ordinances and expect Christ's second Coming A Woman that never careth to hear from her Husband cannot be said to desire his Coming So if Christ has often knocked at the Door of our Hearts and we will not give him entrance how can we be said to look for his Appearing SERMON XVII TITUS II. 13 And the glorious Appearing c. I Proceed to the Manner of his Appearance the glorious Appearing The Note is Doct. II. That Christ's second Coming to Iudgment will be very glorious Here I shall shew I. How glorious it will be II. Why it will be so glorious I. How glorious it will be You may conceive of it if you consider the Preparation for his Approach the Appearance it self and the Consequences of it First It will be glorious in regard of the Preparation for his Approach The Scripture mentions two the Trumpet of the Arch-Angel and the Sign of the Son of Man 1. There is that great Noise of the Voice of the Lord that begets a Terror in the World which is ministerially managed by an Arch-Angel though the Power and Success be of God That great Noise startles the Dead in their Graves and summons all the World to appear before Christ's Tribunal There 's much spoken of this in Scripture 1 Thess. 4.16 For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God Matth. 24.31 He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of Heaven to the other Some expound this Trumpet Analogically some Literally Analogically some think it only signifies the Power and Virtue of Christ by which all the Dead are awakened out of their Sleep and forced to appear before his Tribunal and they say it is therefore exprest by a Trumpet because the solemn Assemblies of Israel were wont to be summoned by the sound of a Trumpet But why may we not take it Literally for the audible sound of a Trumpet Look as at the giving the Law the Voice of the Trumpet was exceeding loud so such an audible Voice like the Voice of a Trumpet is there when Christ comes to Judgment to require an Account of the performance of the Law which is as it were a terrible Summons to all the World and a near Sign of his coming Look as at his first coming Christ had his Fore-runner and Harbinger Iohn the Baptist the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness The Kingdom of God is at hand so at his second coming Christ hath his Fore-runner an Arch-Angel that shall sound a Trumpet which maketh his Coming glorious because it shall awaken and startle all the World This Sound shall be heard all the World over by the Dead as the Prophet speaks Ezek. 37.7 8. of a noise and clattering among the Bones and Bone ran to Bone and then they were clothed with Flesh and Sinews so such a noise shall there be among the Bones when Christ comes to Judgment Here in the Church God speaks in a stiller Voice but it is not regarded He speaks by his Angels and Messengers they sound the Trumpet to the Spiritual Battel they pipe but few dance till by his mighty Power he raiseth Sinners from the Dead So at the last Day God hath his Messengers there is the Arch-Angel that is to manage the Ministerial Excitation and the mighty Power of God accompanies it to make the Dead live and awaken out of Sleep 2. There is a Sign of the Son of Man that is spoken of Mat. 24.30 Then shall appear the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory What it is we cannot certainly tell until Experience manifests sure we are it must be such a Sign as shall make the World sensible of his Approach Some think it shall be some strange Star such as there was at his first Coming the wise Men were conducted to Christ by a Star this is but a meer Conjecture Others suppose it shall be the Sign of the Cross which shall appear in the Heavens because that is Christ's Badg by which he was known here in the World The great Subject of the Gospel is Christ crucified therefore it is called the Word of the Cross and so they think the Sign of the Cross shall be imprest upon the Heavens in the sight of all the World To confirm the Conjecture they urge the Appearance that was made to Constantine in his War against Maxentius the Tyrant and Persecutor
was lost The sinking Disciples cried Lord save us we perish Mat. 8.25 It is long e're God bringeth us to this we never look after Christ till we are ready to perish and be undone Why should we make choice of a Saviour but in case of Danger Faith necessarily implies this a renouncing our selves not in Words but in the Temper and Frame of our Hearts You cannot practise swimming on shore or on the firm Land but then we strive to swim when we are ready to perish in the Flood so when you are utterly lost in your selves then you will look after Christ. 2. Be earnest with God for an Interest in Christ and for the Manifestation of it cry out with David Psal. 35.3 Say to my Soul I am thy Salvation You must chuse Christ as a Saviour Faith is a Consent to take Christ as God offers him you must consent to the Articles of the Covenant of Grace that you will have no other Saviour but Christ Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul And go to God that he would ratify your Choice by his Consent desire God that he would say Amen that Christ might be thy Saviour You had better be a Beast than a Man if you have not an Interest in this Salvation The Death of a Beast is the end of his Wo and Labour but then yours begins The greatest part of Salvation is to be delivered from Evil to come therefore be earnest with God that your Interest in this Salvation might be cleared up SERMON XIX TITUS II. 14 Who gave himself for us c. IN this Paragraph I have observed 1. The Teacher 2. The Lesson 3. The Encouragements to Learning The Teacher is the Grace of God The Lesson is the whole Duty of our Heavenly Calling The Encouragements to Learning are twofold some taken from the Hope of eternal Life and some from the End and Effect of Christ's Death I have finished the former and now come to the latter sort taken from the End and Effect of Christ's Death So that whether we look forward or backward we still meet with Obligations to Obedience Forward there is a glorious and blessed Hope backward there is a great Obligation established upon the Creature The Lord Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity Certainly there is a lawful use of Hope that hath a great Influence upon Grace but the great Principle of the Gospel is Gratitude and Thankfulness to Christ therefore let us look upon this second Encouragement We enter upon other Services out of Hopes but we enter upon Christ's Service out of Thankfulness and Gratitude it is an ingenuous Service In this Verse you have 1. Christ's Act He gave himself for us 2. His Aim to redeem us c. And this is express'd partly by the Privative Part to redeem us from all Iniquity and partly by the Positive Part of it and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Here is Redemption and Sanctification I observe it the rather because both parts are suted to the Exhortation There was the Privative Part denying Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and sutably hereunto we are redeemed from all Iniquity then the Positive Part living soberly righteously godly So Christ did not only die to free us from Hell but to make us holy where we have the inward Constitution to purify unto himself a peculiar People and the outward Conversation or the Sign and Manifestation of it zealous of good Works All these things are Arguments to enforce the Matter in hand There is the Act of Christ Shall Christ die for us and we cherish his Enemy Shall he be our Saviour and we hug and cherish that which is contrary to him Worldly Lusts and Ungodliness in the Heart Then his Aim he died to free us from the Bondage of Sin therefore they that would have their Sins live are said to put their Redeemer to Shame and make his Kindness void Then Christ died to make us a peculiar People and shall we live as the rest of the Multitude do We expect great Benefit from him therefore certainly we must be holy and not pick and chuse how we would have him a Saviour unto us I begin with the first thing Christ's Act He gave himself for us that is to be an Expiatory Sacrifice he gave himself to die for us Iohn 17.19 I sanctify my self for their sakes that is set apart my self as a Sacrifice 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a Ransom for all The Point is Christ's Willingness to suffer for the fallen and lost Creature I. I shall demonstrate it by some Expressions by which it is discovered II. Give the Grounds why Christ gave himself by such a willing Resignation to be our Propitiatory Sacrifice to be a Ransom to God I. For the Expressions of his Willingness And there I shall begin with his Eternal Longings to be with the Sons of Men before ever there was Hill or Mountain in the World Prov. 8.31 Rejoicing in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. Mark long before ever the World was Jesus Christ was feasting himself with the thoughts of his own Grace and what he would do for Men. He desired the making the World and fixing the Bounds of our Habitation that he might be with us there was his End Angels were the Workmanship of his Hands as well as Men nay in their Frame and Constitution they were more noble Creatures than Man yet Christ doth not say My Delight was to be with Angels but with the Sons of Men. I was thinking of the Day I should come into the World and die for Men and purchase exceeding Grace for them The next Expression is Psal. 40.7 8. when God's Decree came to be express'd and made known to the Church see what Christ saith Lo I come In the Volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to do thy Will O my God yea thy Law is within my Heart For the understanding of this place you must know the Divine Justice is there introduced as proposing its Demands God in his Justice as it were speaking thus to Christ Son I am weary of Sacrifice and Burnt-Offerings Hitherto I have shewed my self gracious to the World whilst Burnt-Offerings stood now I resolve to shew my self Just as the Apostle explains this Rom. 3.26 To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just As long as God accepted of Burnt-Offerings he was a God of Patience and Forbearance and not willing to execute his Wrath upon Creatures Burnt-Offerings served the turn But saith God the World shall know though I pardon yet I will be just therefore now you must take a Body Man's Blood is tainted and you must be formed in fashion like one of them and stand in the Sinner's stead I shall expect from you Satisfaction for every Elect Person you must give your Cheeks to the Nippers and your Back to
purified as a covetous Man loves his Treasure or a proud Man his Jewels and Honours Give me leave to illustrate it by a few Scriptures where the World and the Saints are compared The World are said to be not a People 1 Pet. 2.10 How so not for want of Prowess or Policy or Pomp or worldly Splendor or civil Arts or Crafts many times in these things they excel the Church but they are said to be not a People that is in God's Account and Esteem they are but a confused Heap of Nations spilt upon the Earth by a general and looser Providence In Isa. 55.5 There is another Emphatical Expression Behold thou shalt call Nations that thou knowest not and Nations that know not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God It is spoken to Christ It is a strange Expression Is there any Terra incognita any Land that is unknown to him The meaning is which thou hast no more taken notice of nor taken Care of than a Man doth of those whom he never knew a People of no Esteem and Respect with God as if he had taken no notice that there were any such in the World So Acts 17.30 The times of this Ignorance God winked at In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he overlooked them The Vulgar read it despiciens he did despise them and our old Translation is better than the new God regarded them not It is usually taken to signify God's Indulgence that he did not deal so strictly with the World because they had so little means to keep them from Sin whereas the Scope carrieth it quite otherwise in another Sense God overlook'd or lightly passed over those times not caring what became of them that then lived before they were his peculiar People he overlooked and regarded them not but let them go on in their Sins though not unpunished Thus you see Foreigners to the Church are Strangers to God and wicked Men are as if they were not not in regard of God's general Providence so they are sustained and regarded he preserves Man and Beast not in regard of calling them to an account for their Sins they that are sometimes called no People are at other times called the People of his Curse But in regard of Value and Esteem as to special Communion with him they are not at all But now look upon the Terms that are bestowed upon the Church and Godly those that are purified Iames 1.18 they are called the first Fruits of his Creatures Under the Law the first Fruits were the Lord's Portion so all that are regenerated and called to Grace are the Lord's Portion Oâ—cumenius glossâ—th upon the Place the World is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Creature but the Church is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Possession the World are his Goods and they are his Treasure The vast Territories of the blind World are but as a Common and Heath which God doth not look after but the Church is as a Garden inclosed in regard of his Love and special Dispensation Heretofore this was the Privilege of Israel to be God's Portion it was confined to them and that 's the Reason of that Expression Isa. 19.25 Assyria the Work of my Hands and Israel mine Inheritance or Portion God made all People but he chose these for his Delight and Habitation It was confined to them heretofore but it is not confined now the People of any Nation may be preferred to this Estate Those that are purified where-ever they are they are the Lord's Treasure and People But why doth the Lord esteem them as his peculiar People I shall give Reasons with respect to every Person of the Godhead 1. Because of God the Father's Choice he hath picked and culled them out of the World and therefore he esteemeth them above all others See what the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People Therefore a peculiar People because a chosen Generation they are set apart singled out of the World for himself So Psal. 135.4 The Lord hath chosen Jacob for himself and Israel to be his peculiar Treasure He hath called them out and left all the World besides God's Choice puts a Value upon things Common Gold and Silver is not of such Value as that which was consecrated and dedicated to God Nay Gold and Silver was not so good as Goats Hair that was consecrated to the Uses of the Tabernacle The Dedication of a thing to an holy Use inhanceth the Price of it Now those that are chosen are consecrated and set apart by God for himself The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psal. 4.3 And therefore of greater Value than all the World because designed by God to be his Portion 2. Because of Christ's Purchase they are bought at a dear Price 1 Pet. 2.9 A purchased People that is the marginal Reading The Saints are valued not from themselves so much as in Christ he hath put Honour upon us as Adam put a Disgrace upon us Adam sold us for a Trifle but Christ did not redeem us at so cheap a Rate Ye are redeemed not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold c. but with the precious Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. We prize that which cost dear Christ was given in Ransom for us therefore doth God prize us 3. Because they are Vessels of the Spirit 's forming God delighted in all his Creatures they were all good the Product of the Spirit 's Incubation Gen. 1.2 The Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Water But much more doth he delight in the new Creature his Workmanship in Christ Eph. 2.10 Partly because there is more goes to form the new Creature than the old and partly because their Being is more noble than the Beings of all other Creatures in this lower World 1. There is more goes to form them there is discovered more Wisdom more Power more Goodness The new Creature discovers more of his Power than the old It was a wonderful thing the making of the World and disposing of the Creatures into so many several Forms and Ranks a mighty Effect of God's Power but as there was no Help so there was no Lett or Hindrance nothing to oppose God's Work as nothing to facilitate it But when God comes to frame a new Creature there 's a Spirit of Rebellion and Opposition Then more of his Wisdom The Gospel is a better Theatre whereupon to see God than the World In the World there is much of his Wisdom but much more in the Mystery of Grace and in all his Transactions to bring Man to a purified State therefore here 's his special Delight Then for his Mercy Goodness and Love A great deal of Love God shewed in making Angels out of nothing but in some Sense there is more Love shewed in sanctifying Man for in the former there was no Hindrance to his Goodness but
Fathers were Idols and not Gods But how can it stand with the Providence of the true God to permit it and forsake Mankind so long Those Times of Ignorance God over-looked sent them no Means nor Messengers then but now he doth And so he teacheth them and us that it is not sufficient to follow the Religion of our Fore-fathers unless they had followed the Will of God If God over-looked them and vouchsafeth you more Grace you must not be prejudiced by the Tradition but improve the present Advantage 2. He as much as in him lieth taketh off the Prejudice of the Practice of former Times by a prudent and self-censure As also elsewhere 1 Cor. 2.8 Which none of the Princes of this World knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 3. He insinuateth that Ignorance doth not wholly excuse those that err but rather commendeth the Lord's Patience Secondly The Duty of the present Time 1. The Duty pressed is Repentance The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance is a returning to our Wits again We were sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish Tit. 3.3 When the Conversion of the Nations is spoken of it is said Psal. 22.27 All the ends of World shall remember and turn unto the Lord as if they were asleep distracted or out of their Wits before the Light of Christ's Gospel shined into their Hearts not making use of common Reason We never act wisely nor with a Condecency to our reasonable Nature till we return to the Love and Obedience of God 2. This is here represented not as an indifferent and arbitrary thing but as expresly and absolutely commanded God's Authority is absolute if he hath commanded any thing Contradiction must be silent Hesitation satisfied all Cavils laid aside and we must address our selves to the Work speedily and seriously without delaying or disputing or murmuring God doth not advise or intreat only but commandeth or interposeth his Authority Now to break a known Command especially of such weight and moment is very dangerous Luke 12.47 That Servant which knew his Lord's Will and prepared not himself neither did according to his Will shall be beaten with many Stripes James 4.17 To him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is Sin A Man in the dark may easily err and go astray but while we know better and what is the express Will of God concerning us we must set our selves to do it 3. As universally required all Men every where not only Iews but Gentiles and not some sort of Gentiles but all you Athenians and all the World this universally bindeth Some must turn from their Idols but all from their sinful Ways Whosoever will not repent when God calleth for Repentance they smart the more for it Impenitency under the Means is the worst sort of Impenitency I may say as Christ Luke 13.5 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish II. The Argument or Motive Which we considered 1. As propounded 2. As confirmed First As propounded Where note 1 st The Time He hath appointed a Day wherein he will judg the World 2 dly The manner in Righteousness 3 dly The Person By that Man whom he hath ordained These Circumstances must be opened and then we must consider how they make an Argument For opening the Circumstances 1 st The Time appointed but not revealed He hath appointed a Day The word Day is not taken strictly for such a space of Time as is usually signified by that Notion but it is put for a certain fixed space of Time The Work cannot well be dispatched in twenty four hours There is Iudicium discussionis Iudicium retributionis a Judgment of Search or Trial and a Judgment of Retribution Tho by the absolute Power of God they may be commanded into their everlasting Estate in an instant yet the Causes of the whole World cannot be discussed in an instant especially when God designeth the full Revelation of his Justice in all his Proceedings with Men. Therefore the Apostle calleth that Day the Day of the Revelation of the righteous Iudgment of God Rom. 2.5 When this time will be we cannot tell for God hath not revealed it Mat. 24.36 But of that day and hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven but my Father only And therefore it is Curiosity to enquire and Rashness to determine Acts 1.7 It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power It is enough for us to believe the thing which is not strange to Reason that God should call his Creatures to an account Natural Conscience is terrified with the hearing of it Acts 24.25 As Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Iudgment to come Felix trembled And the same guilty Fears are incident to all Mankind Rom. 1.32 Knowing the Iudgment of God they know also that they who have done such things as they have done are worthy of Death That we are God's Subjects is evident to Reason because we depend upon him for Life Being and all things that we have failed in our Subjection to God in denying the Obedience due to him is evident by the universal daily and sad Experience of the whole World that Error and Sin will not take place to all Eternity but that there must be some time when the Disorders of the World shall be rectified is a Truth that easily maketh its own way into the Consciences of Men but is fully determined by the Gospel 2 dly For the manner He will judg the World in Righteousness that is then the whole World shall receive the fruit of their Doings whether they be good or evil But doth God ever judg the World otherwise than in Righteousness I cannot say that for far be it from the Iudg of all the Earth not to do right Gen. 18.25 He never doth any thing unjustly or unrighteously now but then he will fully manifest his Righteousness He now judgeth the World in Patience but then in Righteousness There is a difference between a defect of Justice and a Transgression of the Rules of Justice There is no Injustice in God's Dispensations of present Providence but yet there is a Defect or not a full measure or manifest Demonstration of his Justice shewed now on the godly or the wicked Therefore it is said Eccles. 8.14 There be just Men to whom it happeneth according to the Work of the Wicked and again there be wicked Men to whom it happeneth according to the Work of the Righteous He doth not pass this Censure upon the wise and righteous Providence of God but either speaketh according to the Judgment of Flesh and Blood which is apt to judg hardly of so strange a Distribution or according to the visible Appearance of things when evil things happen to good Men or good things to evil Men. For outward things being not absolutely good and evil are dispensed promiscuously and in the day
of Trial God hath his end in these things for humbling and exercising the good and hardning the wicked But in the day of Recompence then it shall be only ill with them that do Evil and well with them that do Good and the Retributions of his Justice shall be fully evidenced 3 dly The Person By that Man whom he hath ordained meaning thereby Christ. But why doth he call Christ Man rather than God 1. Partly with respect to the Gentiles Incapacity to apprehend the Mystery of the Trinity or the Incarnation of the Son of God and it concerneth us to dispense Truths as People are able to bear them as Christ taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were able to bear it Mark 4.33 Therefore Paul would not offend them by Doctrines which they could not yet understand You will say the Resurrection was as offensive Answ. That was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the first Points of the Apostolical Catechism Heb. 6.1 2. Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the dead and of eternal Iudgment So that the Apostle could not preach the very Rudiments of Christianity if he had not mentioned that 2. Christ is to discharge this Office in the visible Appearance of Man As the Judgment was to be visible so the Judg. The Judgment is not to be acted by the Father or the Spirit but by Christ in the Human Nature Therefore his coming is called an Appearance Tit. 2.13 Looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudg shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his Appearance And when the Judgment is spoken of Christ is often designed by this Expression the Son of Man Mat. 24.30 They shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory And Mat. 16.27 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works He is the visible Actor in the Judgment sitting on a visible Throne that he may be seen and heard of all and the Godhead doth most gloriously manifest it self by the Perfections of his Human Nature 3. This Power is given to Christ as a Recompence of his Humiliation For therefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name That at the Name of Iesus every Knee shall bow of things in Heaven and things i◠Earth and things under the Earth Phil. 2.9 10. which is at the day of Judgment Rom. 14.10 11. We shall all stand before the Iudgment-seat of Christ. For it is written As I live saith the Lord every Knee shall bow to me Then all Creatures in Heaven Earth and Hell are to own the Soveraign Power and Empire of the Crucified Saviour Some do it willingly as the elect Angels and Men others do it by constraint as the Reprobate and evil Angels when they are forced to stand before the Tribunal of Christ to receive their final Doom and Sentence This is the last Act of his Kingly Office and the Fruit and Consequent of his Humiliation Therefore this Christ spake of when he stood before the Tribunals of Men Mat. 26.64 Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the Right-hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven The despised Man who was before them as a Criminal in their repute summoneth them to answer before his Tribunal at that Day when his Shame shall be turned into Glory and the Scandal of his first Estate shall be fully taken off and those that despised him as Man shall be forced to acknowledge him as God Secondly The Subsequent Proof Whereof he hath given assurance to all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead I hat is a sufficient Testimony to convince the whole World The Resurrection is a Certain Proof and Argument of the Dignity both of Christ's Person and Office It is an Attestation to his Person Rom. 1.4 Declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead To his Office and Doctrine Iohn 5.27 28 29. And hath given him Authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done well unto the Resurrection of Life and they have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation How doth this make Faith to all the World for that is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answ. God hath not given Faith to all Men but he hath given an Argument to all Men that is a ground of Faith from whence Faith may evidently conclude that Christ is our Judg for he hath raised him from the Dead Where is the force of this Demonstration Others were raised from the Dead as Lazarus and the like and yet they are not Judges of the World I answer Christ died in the repute of Men as a Malefactor but God justified him when he would not leave him under the Power of Death but raised him up and assumed him into Glory thereby visibly declaring unto the World that the Judgment passed upon him was not right but that he was indeed what he gave out himself to be the Son of God and the Judg of the World to whom Power is given over all Flesh to save or destroy them If he live with the Father in Glory and Majesty it will necessarily follow that he was not a Seducer but that Holy and Righteous One by whom God will execute his Judgment Secondly What Influence this hath upon Repentance 1. The very Day appointed inferreth a necessity of Change both of Heart and Life For how else shall we stand in the Judgment who have broken God's Laws and are obnoxious to his Wrath and Displeasure If we should never be called to an account for what we have been and done here in the World we might then freely indulge our selves in all fleshly Delights and do what we please But this is a Principle of Fear and Restraint that for all these things God will bring thee into the Judgment Eccles. 11.9 Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgment None of us can hide or withdraw our selves from that great Tribunal before which we are to give an
cause them to see their Misery and Impotency by the Law To Evidence this I will shew 1. What is the Covenant of Works 2. I will prove that all Men by Nature are under this Covenant 3. This is that Covenant which Natural Conscience sticks to 4. This Covenant rightly understood is the most ready way to convince a Iusticiary or to prepare Men for Christ. First What is the Covenant of Works I Answer It is the Covenant made with Adam in Innocency in which life was promised under the Condition of perfect Obedience to be performed by a man by his own Natural strength The Parties contracting in this Covenant are God on the one side and Man Created in the Perfection of Nature on the other side God and Adam with all his Posterity And the terms of this Covenant are perfect and unsinning Obedience and this perfect Obedience to be performed by us by our own strength Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them That is the Law Covenant only promiseth Life to him that observeth what the Law prescribes and so hath perfect inherent Righteousness of his own it offers Life upon no easier terms than constant universal perfect Obedience Now the Sanction and Confirmation of this Covenant is by a terrible Curse explained by the Apostle Gal. 3.10 As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The Law pronounceth a Curse upon every Man who fulfills it not in every Tittle and every jot of it and who continues not so to do from the first minute of his Life to the hour of his Death which fallen Man can never do And therefore as long as he is under this Covenant he remains under God's Curse and Wrath. If he omit any thing that is required or commit any thing that is forbidden so that thô he should but once Sin he is under the Curse Secondly I shall prove that all Men by Nature are under this Covenant till they be reconciled to God by Christ. This Covenant concerns all Adam's Children untill they have a new Claim in the Second Adam for God contracted with Adam as a publick Person representing all his Posterity and so it concerns not him only but all his Heirs Take them in their Infancy they are under this Covenant therefore they are said to be by Nature Children of wrath as well as others Eph 2.3 All Men are under the deserved Curse of the Law by reason of Sin Or take them in their grown Estate Iohn 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not in the Name of the only begotten Son of God that is because he is not freed from the Covenant of Works and the Curse of the Law by the Son of God Every Unbeliever is condemned already by the Sentence of the Law which they lye still under before they lay hold upon Christ the only Remedy for their deliverance The Sentence of the Law stands in force till you get it repeal'd by Christ. And some men will find that this Covenant is in force against them at the Day of Judgment â—or then there will be proceedings against them according to it All the World are judged according to one of these two Covenants Iames 2.12 13. Some shall be judged according to the law of liberty others shall have Iudgment without mercy Impotency doth not free any of Adam's Sons from this Covenant because this Impotency was contracted by our own Sin and doth not make void God's right as a Creditor doth not lose his Right by the Debtors Inability to pay him If a Man bind himself and his 〈◊〉 to pay such a summ of Money and he will vainly spend his Patrimony and so render himself unable to pay it he and his Heirs are still liable to a Process as long as the Debt remaineth unpaid or unremitted We and all ours are bound to perfect Obedience for the future and to make satisfaction for Sin past which we that are poor Creatures sold under Sin are never able to do Therefore this Covenant doth absolutely put us into such a State as that there is no Remedy for us but by flying to Jesus Christ. Thirdly This Covenant is that which Natural Conscience worketh on and seemeth most so to do so that when we urge Men with this Covenant we do but beat them with their own Weapons When the Covenant of Works was made with Adam all Mankind were then in his Loyns it was made with him in their Name and therefore Men by Nature do still retain a deep Impression of this Covenant as appeareth in that as soon as Conscience is awakened it judgeth Men according to this Covenant As Rom. 1.32 The Apostle speaks of the Heathens Who knowing the Iudgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death The benummed Consciences of Heathens when they came to themselves they were afraid of Judgment according to the tenor of this Covenant And the same is seen in the endeavour of a Natural Conscience to do something that may make a shew of Good Works and a tolerable plea by this Covenant as in that Pharisees Plea Luke 18.11 12. I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican Christ speaks it of those that trusted in their own Righteousness the Pharisee brings a little Trash a few inconsiderable things I fast twice a week I give tithes of all that I possess and this is his Righteousness Again That Natural Conscience works towards this Covenant seems plain by the strange Affectation of the Righteousness of Works which is in all Mens Hearts and unwillingness to hear of any other Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God A Man would fain have a Personal inherent Righteousness in himself he is loth to be beholden to any other He would patch up any Righteousness of his own and is prone to trust in it a proud Creature will not submit Nay even the Regenerate God's own Children thô they are well instructed in the Righteousness of Faith and sufficiently see the Impossibility of a Righteousness of Works thô they have been under brokenness of Heart yet they are ever lingring after this Covenant with a Natural Desire of it and to rest in their own Duties And that was the Reason of that Expression of Luther Every one of us hath a Pope in his own Belly something that pleads there for the Merit of Works Fourthly This is the most ready way to convince a Iusticiary and to prepare Men for Christ by a sight and sence of their own Sin and Misery and Impotency by this Covenant and this for several Reasons 1 Reason Because every Man is apt to flatter
if Men under Grace could live under the Dominion of any one Sin they are shut up by the Curse we must look to Christ and give up our selves to him This Man in the Text had the Love of the World reigning in his Heart and Christ turns him away and afterwards it is said he went â—â—way sad III. VSE To instruct us if we would be prepared for Christ what we must do we must study the Law the Purity of it and the binding Force it hath on all under it 1. We must be able to understand it Christ saith to the Young man Thou knowest the Commandments he appealeth to him as to one that had some Knowledge of the Law Those that live in the Church should not be ignorant of the Commandments or Law of God but well acquained with them God complaineth Hosea 8.12 I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing To be Strangers to the Word of God little conversant in it and to make little use of it is a great Affront done to God We should acquaint our selves not with the Letter only as little Children learn it by rote but with the sence and purpose of it 2. Meditate often thereupon Psal. 1.2 His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and Night Deep and ponderous Thoughts have most Efficacy without a Study of the Law Men are without the Law while they have it Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once Who more zealous for the Law than Paul Gal. 1.14 I profited in the Iews Religion above many my Equals in mine own Nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my Fathers but while he did not ponder of it he was without the Law 3. Judge your selves by it One great use for which the Moral Law serveth is to bring men to a sight and sense of their Sins and Imperfections and humble them before God Rom. 7.7 I had not known Sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet and to undeceive them of Conceits of their own Goodness and Righteousness Look into thy Bill what owest thou 4. Beg the Light of the Spirit to shew thee thy Sin and Misery Rom. 7.9 Whâ—n the Commandment came in the Light and Evidence of the Holy Spirit Sin revived and I dyed Men that have the Letter of the Law may be without the Light and Power of it Without the Spirit we guess confusedly concerning things as the Man that saw men like Trees walking and have but general cursory confused Thoughts SERMON IV. ON MARK X. v. 20. And he answered and said unto him Master all these have I observed from my Youth YOU have heard of a necessary Question propounded by a Noble Young man to Christ What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life We have spoken to Christ's Answer Now in this Verse we have the Young man's Reply All these have I observed from my Youth wherein there is expressed or pretended at least 1. An Vniversality of Respect to the Will of God All these have I observed 2. An early Beginning to do so from my Youth He was still a Young man but by these words from my Youth he means ever since I had the use of Reason as soon as I begun to distinguish between Good and Evil strait and crooked Certainly this Answer were good if it were true Some goodness there is in it therefore we will observe something from it for it is said in the next Verse when he had answered thus Iesus beholding him loved him First It is good in the first Respect as an Vniversality of Obedience is pretended and I may drop this Note Doct. They that would keep the Commandments must observe not only one but all It is true of the Law of God as it belongeth to the Covenant of Works or to the Covenant of Grace 1. As it belongeth to the Covenant of Works Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them Every Sin the least is damnable by that Covenant and deserveth a Curse if he should omit any thing required or commit any thing forbidden the Curse seizeth upon his Throat So Iames 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all As one Condition not observed forfeits the whole Lease therefore it concerns this Legalist to make good his Plea and Conceit of Perfection by the Law to say All these things have I done 2. But is not the Covenant of Grace more favourable No it gives not allowance to the least failings but binds us to make Conscience of all as well as of some 1. Because the Authority is the same Exod. 20.1 God spake not one or two but all these words they are all ratified by the Great God and Law-giver So that the same reason that moves us to one moves us to another also that we do it out of Conscience to God we must walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1.10 That we should obey Parents keep the Sabbath not Steal be careful of his Institutions not worship him by an Idol this is pleasing to God and so is that 2. The Heart can never be Sincere when we can dispense with any thing which God hath Commanded And you cannot have the Testimony of a good Conscience approving your Sincerity when you allow your selves in the least Failing Psal. 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandments I confess it is chiefly meant of our final Judgment But in all Conditions in the World if we would be found faithful with God and not lest to shame we must respect all his Commandments Luk. 1.6 Zachary and Elizabeth were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless And saith David Psal. 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me If you would not break your Confidence and freedom of Heart when you come to God in Prayer but come with Assurance of Welcome and Audience not one Sin must be regarded When we set up a Toleration in our own Hearts and dispense with any one Duty it is either some Pleasure or Profit or Honour that maketh the Duty contrary to us but this will not stand with Sincerity that any petty Interest or Affection of ours should be preferred before the Will of God for these Men do not serve God but their own Lusts when they will only obey God so far as Pleasure Honour or Profit or some Lust will permit them to yield Obedience to him 3. God giveth Grace to keep all Wherever he Renews and Sanctifies it is throughout he fills the Soul with the Seeds of all Grace so as to dispose and encline us to every Duty
Tongue a deaf Ear or a lame Leg certainly you ought much more to bewail the want of Grace We murmure at outward Defects which is a taxing of Providence it being a fruit of the Lord's Dominion belongs to our Care Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. 22.6 Dye the Cloath in the Wooll and not in the Webb and the Colour is more durable God works strangely in Children and many notable things have been found in them beyond expectation 3 It prevents many Sins which afterwards would be a trouble to us when we are Old O many think that the Tricks of Youth are long since forgotten and forgiven but alas the guilt of them may fly in our Faces afterward nay tho' they be pardoned and the Persons reconciled to God The Sins of Youth trouble many a tender Conscience in Age witness David Psal. 25.7 Remember not the Sins of my Youth And Iob Chap. 13.26 Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth A Good man may remember old Sins with new fears that they are not pardoned While it is eaâ—ie to Sin it is easie to believe the pardon of Sin marvel not at the Expression while we are Young and Sin freely we think God will forgive those Sins and they will soon be forgotten but as a Man grows up into more tenderness of Conscience and into a greater Awe and Sense and Esteem of God's Holiness what a Holy God he serves he finds it the more difficult to believe the pardon of Sin Good Men have with much bitterness of Soul called to mind the Sins of their Youth when they see the Sins of their younger days are so many and the breaches of God's Law so innumerable whereby they have offended God that either through Ignorance or Inconsideration they have so sinned against God that they have much ado to believe the pardon of the multitude of their youthful Sins New Afflictions may awaken the sense of old Sins as old Bruises may trouble us long after upon every change of Weather There are some that feel the Sins of their Youth in their Bodies when the Pains and Aches of their miserable Age are the Fruits of their youthful Vanities and Intemperance as it is said Iob 20.11 His bones are full of the Sins of his Youth which shall lye down with him in the dust They carry the marks of their youthful Sins their Bones feel them till they lye down in the Dust. Nay God's Children that have repented and God hath been reconciled to them through Christ they have many a bitter remembrance of their youthful Follies and Vanities that make their Hearts ake at the Thoughts of them Ier. 31.19 Surely after that I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my Youth Therefore upon these Considerations certainly it is very good to begin with God betimes that it may not be a disadvantage to us after God shall call us to Grace for though the Lord may bless the Education of Youth with Supernatural Grace yet youthful Vanities may prove very bitter in the remembrance of them when we grow old VSE This is spoken to reprove us because we always think it too soon to begin with God Where is this timely Care and Forwardness Alas we cannot say All these have we kept from our Youth but when we come to look to the Commands of God we may say All these have we broken from our Youth While they are Young most Men live prophane and without all fear of God Certainly there was some Goodness in this Mans Speech and that occasioned me to observe it for Iesus beholding him loved him But was it true All these have I kept from my Youth In a Sence it was true in regard of outward Conformity but not true in regard of that perfect Obedience which was required 1. It was true in regard of outward Conformity Externally he had kept them all thô not in the just extent of the Law yet he was as to Men unreproveable being no Adulterer no Murderer no Extortioner no Thief he did not lye certainly in this Profession he made he spoke as he thought and out of Simplicity and Error rather than Deceit the Man lived blamelesly and did no body harm and therefore saith All these have I kept from my Youth Outward Obedience and Conformity to the Law is a good and commendable thing in it self yea necessary and required of us but we are not to rest in it but to escape the Vices and Pollutions of the World is so far Praise-worthy There are many that are openly prophane and wicked in Life Swearers Drunkards Sabbath-breakers these come short of this Young man who yet came short of the Kingdom of Heaven What will these say for themselves will they pretend that their Heart is good Can a pure Fountain send forth impure Streams If the Heart were good would the Life be so naught If there be light in the Lanthorn will it not shine forth If there be Grace in the Heart it will appear 2. It was not true in regard of that perfect Obedience which the Law requireth and so he ignorantly and falsly supposed that he had kept the Law well enough and done all those things from his Youth The Falsity and presumption of this Answer will appear by considering 1. What the Scripture saith of the State of Man by Nature Gen. 8.21 The Imagination of mans Heart is evil from his Youth And he saith All these have I kept from my Youth O how much do they forget themselves that boast of their own Perfection 2. The Falsity of it appears by the sence of the Commandment produced Thou knowest the Commandment saith Christ Do not commit Adultery c. which will reach the most perfect man upon Earth It was a Command of the Second Table which wrought such Tragical Effects and that stirr'd up those Stings of Conscience and Agonies of Heart in Paul Rom. 7.7 I had nan known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet and thereupon he groundeth that General Verse 14. The Law is Spiritual but I am Carnal sold under Sin 3. The Falsity will appear by comparing him with other Holy Men of God how differently do they express themselves from this Man that was so full of Confidence Compare him first with Iosiah who when he heard the Law read he rent his Cloaths 2 Kings 22.11 and here Christ recites the Law Thou knowest the Commandment and this Young man saith All these have I kept from my Youth O what a difference is there between a tender Self-judging Heart and a Conceited Justiciary A tender Conscience is all in an Agony when it hears the Law and will smite for the least failing as David's Heart smote him for cutting off the lap of Saul's Garment
of Faith There were Moralities among the Heathens far more exact than are to be found among many Christians As Dogs excell Man in acuteness of smell and sense it is their Perfection so do many Heathens excell abundance that go for Christians in Temperance Justice Meekness and a command of their Passions they that were never acquainted with Christ and the Spirit were civil and harmless therefore to be a meer Moral Man certainly is not enough Paul saith of himself before he was acquainted with Christ that he was as touching the Righteousness which is of the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 And the Apostle hath taught us to live Godly as well as Soberly and Righteously in this present World Titus 2.12 There is a living in Communion with God as well as being fair to Men and therefore a Man may be civil and harmless but such as are not Vicious rather than Vertuous and Gracious the meer Rational Life is one thing and the Spiritual Life another thing Then take the Comparative part they live better than others so did the Pharisee Luk. 18.11 God I thank thee I am not as other men are yet Christ saith Mat. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Among Blind men the Purblind is a kind of King and guide of them all A man may not be as bad as others and yet not so good as God requires Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work and then he shall have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another It is a miserable thing when a Man hath no other Ground of Confidence but the Sins of others he is good because others are worse he hath no rejoycing in himself but only from the sinfulness of others Or suppose that a Man be better than himself was heretofore there is a Moral Change as well as a Supernatural a Reformation as well as a Regeneration As a wanton Young Man that came in to Zenocrates his Lecture half drunk with his head crown'd with Rose-buds and when he heard a Discourse of Temperance he was converted by his Lecture and betook himself to a sober Course So a Man may cast off his Youthful vanities and may be changed from being Riotous to be more sober and yet be far from Grace A Sow washed is a Sow still What is short of Regeneration is short of Salvation Therefore do not think because of a civil orderly Life you do enough this is a sottish Principle and keeps us from the Righteousness of God 2. Here is another of their Errors They are born and bred up in the bosom of the Church and true Religion and because they are Baptized and profess the Faith of Christ therefore they think they ever had Faith and a good Heart towards God and do not see why or from what they should be Converted It was a wonderful thing to Nicodemus to hear that a Man should be Born again as strange as if a Man should enter again into his Mothers womb John 3.4 They are wholly Ignorant of any Change of Soul or State and mind it not So the Jews when Christ told them of being made free from the Bondage of Sin Iohn 8.33 We be Abrahams Seed and were never in Bondage to any man how sayest thou Ye shall be made free Alas Men neglect their inward Spiritual Estate and are not sensible of setting their Souls free from the Fetters of Lusts and Carnal Affections that they may pursue their chiefest Good Nothing so hard and heavy as Spiritual Bondage and yet is little known and little discerned in the World They live in the Bondage of Sin with as much delight as Fishes in their own Element and all this while they are pufft up with Carnal Dreams of their own Priviledges and Worth These are the Men that are said to need no Repentance Luk. 15.7 that is in their own Conceit those that do not see why or from what they should be Converted 3. They own no difference between a State of Nature and a State of Grace they know no such thing as passing from Death to Life and therefore are never troubled about it All the Lord's People are holy Numb 16.3 and it is factious to make such Distinctions they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed difference between the clean and unclean Ezek. 22.26 As if all were of one Lump and all should fare alike and therefore think themselves as good as the best 4. That those that are blameless before Men and well spoken of in the World need not doubt of their acceptance with God O No God's Tryal is one thing and Mens another Men see no further then the Outside but God regards the frame of the Heart 1 Sam. 16.7 Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Therefore thô a Man cannot be justly taxed before men yet this is nothing before the All-seeing God Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Non dicit cum hostibus tuis sed cum servo tuo David doth not say Lord enter not into Judgment with thine Enemies but with thy Servant 5. Another sottish Maxim is That petty Sins are not to be stood upon They shall do well enough if they never Sin more nor worse as the Omission of good Duties in their Closets or Families lesser Oaths vain Speeches idle Sport whereas Christ saith By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Mat. 12.37 Light things may weigh heavy in God's Ballance Well then until the Soul be dispossessed of these sottish Conceits it cannot be but they must overween their own Righteousness and think too well of themselves and of their Estate before God Thirdly Self-love is the Reason of it Prov. 16.2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the Spirits A Man is very Blind and partial in his own Cause and will not own any Opinion and Conceit against himself There is an Emphasis in that his own Eyes surely Man would favour himself and be friendly to himself we have a double Instance of this in Scripture Iudah was severe against Tamar when he thought her to be with Child by another Man Gen. 38.24 Bring her forth and let her be burnt But when she shewed him the Tokens the Ring the Staff and Bracelets and that he was the Man then he becomes gentle enough So David when his own Story was represented to him in the case of a third Person that took away the Ewe-Lamb from the poor Man he says in a heat As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye 2 Sam. 12.5 but when the Prophet closeth with him and told him Thou art the man all this is spoken to thee he was more calm All this is spoken to
of present things Micah 2.2 Covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage First they covet and then they will stop at nothing but break out into all that is unseemly Let Iudas but inchant his thoughts with the pleasure of a supposed Gain that he can make of his Master and he will soon come with a Quiâ— dabitis What will you give me Gehazai let him but affect a Reward and he will disâ—onour God and lay a stumbling block in the way of a new and Noble Convert Let Achan's Heart be tickled and pleased a little with the sight of it and he will be purloyning the wedge of Gold and Babylonish Garment Let Baalam hear of Gold and Silver and he will curse Israel against his Conscience and venture tho' there be an Angel in the way to stop him Ahab will consent to Naboth's Blood when his Vineyard is in the chase Ananias and Saphira will keep back part of what was dedicated to God if they look upon what they part withall Simon Magus will deny Religion and return to his old Sorceries that he may be some great one among the People So that there is no Sin so foul but the Love of the World will make it plausible and reconcile it to the thoughts of Men. 2. It incapacitateth us and makes us uncapable of doing Service to God in our General and Particular Calling 1. In our General Calling 1. It destroys the Principle of Obedience which is the Love of God 1 Iohn 2.15 If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him The great Principle which sways and enclines the Heart to do the Will of God is Love now the Love of the World and the Love of God are contrary and inconsistent Love any thing besides Christ and you will soon love it above Christ Why Because the Love of God is a Stranger and Forreigner the Love of the World is a Native 2. It is contrary to the Matter of our Obedience The Commands of God and the Commands of Mammon are contrary Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon God saith Pity the Afflicted relieve the miserable venture all for a good Conscience seek Heaven in the first place with your most ardent Affection with your most earnest Diligence But now Mammon saith Be sparing of your Substance follow the World as hard you can stick at nothing Lye Steal comply with the Lusts of Men and then you shall be rich Well now he that is ruled by Mammon whose Eyes the God of this World hath blinded that is enchanted with the Love of worldly Goods he can never serve God he loves Wealth above all he trusts it above all he serves it more than God himself thô his Tongue dare not say Earth is better than Heaven and that the things of this Life are better than everlasting Blessedness and therefore they shall have more of his Heart and care yet his Life says it he can part with God for the Matters of this World In short it unfits us not only for one Duty but for all Duties required of us God's Laws are for Respects to God Neighbour and Self This inordinate Love of the World denies what is due to God what is necessary for our Neighbour and what is comfortable for Our selves A Man that loves the World is unthankful to God unmerciful to his Neighbour and cruel to himself 3. It slights the Encouragements of Obedience which are the Rewards of God As it weakeneth all our future Hopes and depresseth our Heart from looking after Spiritual and heavenly things They despise their Birth-right Heb. 12.16 and when they are invited to the Wedding Matth. 22. they preferr their Farm Oxen and Merchandize before the rich Feast of Grace which God invites us to 2. He that loves the World will break with God in the Duties of his particular Calling for the World's sake What manner of Men ought Magistrates to be Exod. 18.21 Such as fear God men of truth hating Covetousness not only not covetous but hating Covetousness for let this once possess his Heart it will make him base and act unworthily nay for a piece of Bread will that Man transgress Then for a Minister what a poor meal-mouthed Creature will it make him One Qualification of a Minister is 1 Tim. 3.3 Not to be greedy of filthy lucre If his Heart be set upon that it makes him sordid low-spirited flattering and dawbing to curry Favour with Men more intent upon his Gain and Profit than the saving of Souls See the work of a Minister 1 Pet. 5.2 Feed the flock of God that is among you taking the oversight thereof not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind What a low flat Ministry will that be that is inspired with no other aim but Outward Profit If that be their Inducement to undertake and their prime Encouragement to discharge the Work of their Calling how soon will they strain themselves to please men especially Great ones and writhe themselves into all postures to sooth the Humours and Lusts of others as Balaam 2 Pet. 2.15 Who loved the wages of unrighteousness and therefore would fain curse the People whom God blessed This base powerful imperious Lust will draw men to very base and unworthy Actions Saith God Ezek. 13.19 Will ye pollute me among my people for handfulls of barley and pieces of bread to slay the souls that should not dye and to save the souls of people alive that should not live by your lying to my people that hear your lies That is to say what will you declaim against the Good and harden the Evil in their Evil and comply with the fashions of the World thus to humour Men So if a Man be a Master of a Family Prov. 15.27 He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house VVhat a burden and trouble will he be to his Servants and all about him In short It 's Love of the VVorld that makes one an oppressing Landlord another a false Tradesman and an ill Neighbour that makes him study Iniquity of Traffick Ezek. 28.5 By thy great wisdom and by thy Traffick hast thou encreased thy riches So that it is the Pest and Bane of Humane Societies 3. It hinders the Receiving of Good and those Means of Reformation that should make us better A Man that is under the power of worldly Lusts is prejudiced against whatever shall be spoken for God and for the Concernments of another World Luke 16.14 The Pharisees also who were Covetous heard all these things and derided him If the word stir us a little and Men begin to have some Anxious thoughts about Eternal Life these Thorns which are the Cares of this World will choak the good Seed and
Work and Business and the good of the Body should be looked after in an inferiour and subordinate manner The good of the Body is Meat Drink Wealth Honour these things are to be look'd after in our passage to Heaven The Good of the Soul is the Chief Good and so should be looked after as our Great End and Scope and the Good of the Body minded only as a Means Man was made for Earth in his passage and way to Heaven but his Home and Happiness is in Heaven where he is to enjoy the Blessed God among his holy Angels and those Blessed Creatures that dwell above in the Region of Spirits This was the End for which Man was Created and while Man continued Innocent he had a Heart enclined and disposed towards God as his chiefest Good he sought the Good of his Soul and was to Love him and Fear him and Serve him and Depend upon Him as the Fountain of his Happiness But by the Fall Man was drawn off from God to the Creature to seek his happiness there They have forsaken the Fountain of living waters and hewed them out Câ—sterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 Not only Adam in his own Person but all his Posterity are turned from God to the Creature Now Man in his pure Naturals is enclined to the Creature which conduceth to the Satisfaction of the Earthly part and not to God wherein the happiness of his Soul lyes This will be evident to you if you consider that thô the Soul be Created by God yet it is Created destitute of Grace or Original Righteousness and being destitute of the Image of God or Original Righteousness it doth only accommodate it self to the Interests of the Body and seek the happiness of the Body For where there is not a Principle to carry us higher it can only close with things present and known such as are the pleasures of the Body and the Interests of the Bodily Life and so forgets God and what concerns the Enjoyment of him And so it is said Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind or favour the things of the flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Therefore take Man in his pure Naturals as destitute of Grace his Soul forgets it's Divine Original and so conforms it self to the Body and only seeks it's Welfare and Happiness and thence proceeds all our mindlesness of God and averseness to him our unruly and inordinate Appetites of Temporal things and the Confusion Weakness and Disorder that is seen in the Life of Man and all his Operations and Faculties Hence comes that dullness and slowness that is in his Understanding to conceive of Spiritual things his acuteness in Back and Belly Concernments He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1.9 He is sharp-sighted in all things that concern the present World but cannot see things to come and until the Lord make a gracious Change upon him he sees nothing of the worth of Salvation or of a need of Christ and making any serious preparation for Eternity Hence comes that averseness of Will to what is truly Good that he cannot endure to hear of it Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And while the Soul is so it hath such a bent and proneness to that which is evil or what concerns our Interest in the World Hence it is that our Memories are so frail and slippery as to that which is good and so tenacious of that which is evil Good things easily slip from us as clear water thro' a Grate but Evil things as slime and mud stick with us Hence comes his Affections to be like Tinder to take Fire at the spark of every Temptation the Affections are awakened and stirred presently but in Holy things they are like Fire in wet Wood that needs much blowing and much Excitation Hence it is that in the Course of our Lives we take up with the Interests of the present World and make no provision for a better Life We are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Tim. 3.4 and forsake God for the present World 1 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken us having loved the present world Well then by a Natural Constitution we are utterly at a Loss the Soul being destitute of a Principle that should carry it to look after Spiritual things as it 's great Scope and Interest it â—holly purveys and caâ—ers for Bodily Pleasures and the Honours and Profits of the present Life Herâ— lyeth the great Difficulty in the way of Salvation 2. This Addictedness to present things is encreased by our Converse in the World So that besides Natural Inclination there is inveterate Custom whereby this Inclination to Carnal Satisfactions such as Riches Pleasures Easâ— Safety and Sensual Delights is strengthened and deeply engraved in us The first Years of a Man's Life are meerly governed by Sense and the Pleasures of the Flesh are born and bred up with us by which means we come to be stiff and settled in a Carnal Frame Custom is another Nature and therefore the more we are accustomed to delight in any Course of Life we are weaned from it with the greater difficulty Ier. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil Every Act disposeth the Soul to the Habit and after the Habit or Custom is produced every new deliberate Act adds a stiffness of bent or sway unto the Faculty wherein the Custom is seated So that by degrees we grow into an Obstinacy and strength of Will in a Carnal Course which is called hardness of Heart or a Heart of stone in Scripture A Man is ensnared by his Customs whatever they be for an Addictedness in the General to Carnal Satisfactions brings a Slavery upon us So if Men be addicted to this or that Carnal Satisfaction it brings Slavery upon them as a Man that is given to Wine Tit. 2.3 Not given to much wine The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ensnared by Wine or a Man that is given to Women 2 Pet. 2.14 Having eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from Sin Men by the Tyranny of Custom become so Impotent to resist their Lusts that the satisfaction thereof becomes their very Element out of which they cannot live It is their Eden and their Heaven their very Paradice tho' at length indeed they find it to be their Hell And of all evil Customs Covetousness or Worldliness is most dangerous because it is of more Credit and of less Infamy in the World and besides it doth multiply it's Acts most and works uncessantly And therefore we read of Hearts exercised with covetous practices 2 Pet. 2.14 Their Hearts are always running on the unworthy things of this present World Now while
keepeth up Joy in the Soul and no Violence of Temptation is able to break it and remove us from the Truth Rom. 8.24 25. We are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it They are Confident that in God's Time they shall have Salvation and final Deliverance tho' it be not to be seen any where but in God's Promise by Jesus Christ. Well then the fewer External Comforts we need the stronger is our Faith the more the weaker Weak Christians must be carryed in Arms dandled on the Knees fed with sensible Pledges and ocular Demonstrations or else they are ready to faint 2. The Imperate Acts or Effects of Faith they are produced by Vertue of this Property Faith's prevailing over Sight and Sense I shall name four 1. To promote Holiness and reduce us and reclaim us from the false Happiness Surely none will accomplish the Work of Faith with Power and so glorifie God and Christ in the World that is live in all holy Conversation and Godliness but those that have that Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen those that live always as in the sight of an Invisible God are the thorow Christians What greater Check can there be to Temptations to Sin than to live always in the Sight of an Invisible God Gen. 39.9 Or to Temptations to the World than an Invisible Glory Or to the Troubles and Molestations of the World Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us And 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light Afflâ—ction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory If Godliness expose us to Difficulties Molestations and Troubles Faith seeth the Final Rest Glory and Happiness If we are inclined to the Honours and Pleasures of the World Faith seeth the most shining Glory will soon burn out and end in a Snuff Psal. 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad And 1 Ioh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever If Sense present the Bait of present Profit Pleasure or Honour Faith seeth the Final Shame Ignominy and Loss and so we are guarded on all sides against Right-hand and Left-hand Temptations This is a General I shall speak of more particular Effects 2. To keep the Heart tender and in awe of God's Word Surely 't is a Blessed frame of Spirit and very useful to us to tremble at the Word of God Isa. 66.2 To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word And to stand in awe of his Word Psal. 119.161 My heart standeth in awe of thy Word Now this can never be unless we have that Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen for many times the Word threatneth Evils which are not likely to come to pass if we look to the visible face of things and all that part of God's Discipline is lost unless we can believe unseen things See Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the World and became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith The World was then in a Jolly Condition and little dreamt of a Flood The Earth flourished as much as ever and there was Building and Marrying and Planting but God had told him of an universal Destruction of all things by a Deluge therefore he admonisheth the careless World and provideth for his own and Family's Safety So we read of Iosiah when he heard of the words of the Book of the Law he rent his Cloaths 2 Kings 22.11 We do not read of any actual Trouble that was then in the Land or any Danger nigh When an Age is very corrupt and ripe for Judgment God giveth Warning But alas few take it or lay it to Heart for the World is led by Sense and not by Faith they are not affected with things till they feel them Few can see a Storm when the Clouds are in gathering but securely build on the present Ease and Peace tho' God be angry But in the Eye of Faith a sinful Estate is always dangerous therefore they fall a Praying and humbling themselves and cry to God mightily and use all means of Safety while a Judgment is but yet in its Causes 3. To support us against the greatest Dangers and Terrors Heb. 11.27 By Faith Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible To depend upon God's Aid and Succour in a time of great Extremity and Danger needeth a strong Faith as to appearance he was ready to be swallowed up being pursued by a wrathful and Puissant King The Sea was before him the Egyptians behind him and the Craggy and unaccessible Mountains on each side but the Terrors of Sense may be easily vanquished by those Invisible Succours which Faith relyeth upon An Invisible God can bear us out against Visible Dangers 4. To teach us how to carry an equal Mind in Prosperity and Adversity in Prosperity when we are born up by the Chin we have but too much Confidence and when we are lessened and but short in the World we are full of Diffidence and distrustful Fears Psal. 30.6 In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved When a Child of God hath gotten a Carnal Pillow under his Head he lyeth down and sleepeth sweetly dreaming many a pleasant Dream of uninterrupted Felicity in the World but if God taketh away his Pillow from under his Head then he is as diffident as formerly confident then God will be favourable no more God is the same his Promises the same the Covenant the same the Mediator the same but our Condition is changed because we look to things seen live upon things seen and still imagine of things according to what we see and feel So for supplies of Maintenance and Provision if we have them not in View and sight how little can we depend upon God If Sense be against the Promises the Promises do us but little good How few can comfort themselves in God when all faileth Hab. 3.18 or make his All-sufficiency their Store-house Gen. 17.1 No they must have a full heap in their own keeping How few can take his Promises for their Heritage Psal. 119.11 No they must have Lands and fixed Revenues or else they know not where to have Food and Raiment for themselves and Children How few can be contented to trust the Purse in God's Hands and be contented to take their daily Allowance from him which yet is a necessary Point of Faith of
is that which the Apostle calleth the Power of Death and the Terrors which follow upon it Heb. 2.14 15. That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage The Devil hath no Power as a Judg to condemn Sinners He is not Dominus Mortis the Lord of Death but Minister Mortis the Minister of Death For being condemned of God the poor Sinner is put into his Hand that he may either terrify or stupify him and so more and more involve him in the Curse of God's broken Law and also he may hasten his Death and everlasting Destruction 2. Satan hath a Tyrannical Usurped Power So the Devils are called Rulers of the Darkness of this VVorld Ephes. 6.12 the blind idolatrous superstitious World And Satan is called the Prince of this VVorld John 14.30 And the God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 God made him an Executioner but we make him a Prince a Ruler and a God Now Christ as a Priest disannulleth his legal Power by his Death and the Merit of his Sacrifice And Christ as the true King and Head both of Men and Angels pulls down Satan as an Usurper delivers the poor captive Souls out of his Power And as a Prophet he discovereth his Cheats and Delusions 2. His Works There is a twofold Work of Satan the Work of the Devil without us or the Work of the Devil within us 1. The Work of the Devil without us is a false Religion or those Idolatries and Superstitions by which Satan's Reign and Empire is upheld in the World This is destroyed by the Doctrine of the Gospel accompanied with the all-powerful Spirit of God And therefore when the Gospel was first preach'd by Christ's Messengers the Devil fell from that great and unlimited Power which he had before in the World Luke 10.18 I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven 'T is an Allusion to his first Fall as Lightning flasheth and vanisheth and never recollecteth it self again So Iohn 12.31 Now shall the Prince of this VVorld be cast out When Christ did first set upon the Redemption of Mankind the Apostles went abroad to beat the Devil and hunt him out of his Territories and they did it with great Effect Therefore this is made one Argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the Truth of the Gospel John 16.11 He shall convince the VVorld of Iudgment because the Prince of this VVorld is judged The silencing of his Oracles the suppressing of his Superstitions the destroying of the Kingdom of Wickedness and Darkness was an apparent Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel The old Religion by which the Devil's Kingdom was supported every-where went to wrack no more the same Temples the same Rites the same Gods all was made to stoop and bow before God as worshipped in Christ. 2. There is the Work of the Devil within us This concerneth the recovering particular Persons out of the Snare of the Devil who were taken captive by him at his Will and Pleasure Here we must distinguish between the Purchase and Application The Purchase was made when Christ died Col. 2.15 Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a Shew of them openly triumphing over them in it that is on his Cross. Christ's Death was Satan's Overthrow then was the deadly Blow given to his Power and Kingdom This was the Price given for our Ransom and the great means of disannulling all that Power Satan had before The Application is begun in our Conversion for then we are said to be turned from Satan unto God Acts 26.18 To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Then we are rescued out of the Devil's Clutches and adopted into God's Family that being made Children we may have a Child's Portion III. That in this Conflict his Heel was wounded bitten or bruised by the Serpent 1. Certain it is that Christ was bruised in the Enterprize Which sheweth how much we should value our Salvation since it costs so dear as the precious Blood of the Son of God incarnate 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold c. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot He thought not his whole Humiliation from first to last too much for the overthrowing of the Devil's Kingdom nor any Price too dear to redeem poor captive Souls 2. But how was he bruised by the Serpent Certainly on the one hand Christ's Sufferings were the Effects of Man's Sin and God's Hatred against Sin and his governing Justice for it is said Isa. 53.10 It pleased the Father to bruise him Unless it had pleased the Lord to bruise him Satan could never have bruised him On the other side they were also the Effects of the Malice and Rage of the Devil and his Instruments who was now with the Sword's-point and closing Stroke with Christ and doing the worst he could against him In his whole Life he indured many outward Troubles from Satan's Instruments for all his Life long he was a Man of Sorrows wounded and bruised by Satan and his Instruments Iohn 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do he was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth because there is no Truth in him But the closing Stroke was at last then did the Serpent most eminently bruise his Heel When Iudas contrived the Plot it is said the Devil entred into him Luke 22.3 Then entred Satan into Judas Iscariot being one of the Twelve When the High Priest's Servants come to take him he telleth them Luke 22.53 This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness The Power of Darkness at length did prevail so far as to cause his shameful Death This was their Day 3. It was only his Heel that was bruised It could go no further for tho his bodily Life was taken away yet his Head and Mediatory Power was not touched Acts 2.36 This same Iesus whom ye have crucified God hath made both Lord and Christ. Again his bodily Life was taken away but for a while God would not leave his Soul in the Grave Psal. 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption The Counsel and Purpose of God concerning Man's Redemption had then been wholly frustrated For if Christ be not risen your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins 1 Cor. 15.17 Once more tho Christ was bruised yet he was not conquered When the Jews and Roman Souldiers were spoiling him and parting his Garments then was he spoiling Principalities and Powers And when Satan and his Instruments were triumphing over the Son of God then was he triumphing over all the Devils in Hell for by Death he
of our discharge but as he dyed for our offences so he rose again for our justification Rom. 4.25 As having perfectly done his work As the Eather delivered him to Death so he brought him back again from the Dead The Apostle layes a great weight upon this Rom. 8.34 Yea rather that is risen from the dead There is some special thing in Christ's Resurrection comparatively above his Death which hath influence on our Justification Was not Christs Death enough to free us from Sin Yes but the visible evidence was by his Resurrection It is as it were an acquittance from those Debts of ours which he undertook to pay As Simeon was dismissed when the Conditions were performed and Ioseph satisfied with the sight of his Brother Gen. 43.23 He brought Simeon out unto them 2. Christs Office is allowed so that he is the great shepherd of the sheep that is the Blessed Saviour into whose hands God hath put his Flock to be justified sanctified and saved and from whom we may expect all that comfort which a flock hath from a good and faithful Pastor We are put into his hands as he is Mediator not by way of alienation for they are in the Fathers hands still Iohn 10.29 My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand But oppignoration laid at pledge in his hands A Shepherd is not Lord of the Flock but as a Servant to take care of them They are not his as Mediator by way of Original Interest and Dominion but in point of trust and charge He hath an Office about them and giveth an account of them at the last day He is sometimes called simply without any addition The shepherd 1 Pet. 2.25 Ye are returned unto the shepherd and bishop of our souls Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The good shepherd as Iohn 10.11 And here The great shepherd and the chief shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 because of the Dignity of his Person and Office And surely if we put our selves into the hands of this Shepherd we can lack nothing Psalm 23.1 The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want We may look for all manner of supplies from Christ. 3. God is so far appeased that there is a new Covenant procured and constituted called here the everlasting covenant partly because it shall never be repealed and continueth unalterable and the called obtain by it the title and possession of an Eternal Inheritance Heb. 9.15 They which are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance And partly because Christs Blood is the foundation of this Covenant and the vertue of it never ceaseth therefore this Covenant is Everlasting also and made effectual and able to obtain its ends which is the Eternal Salvation of sinful Man once converted and reconciled to God This Covenant also is called the Covenant of Gods Peace because it is a publick Demonstration that God is pacified Isa. 54.10 But my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed Ezek. 37.26 I will make a covenant of peace with them Partly because in this Covenant this Peace and Reconciliation is published and offered to us that Man may not stand aloof from God as a condemning God So it is said Eph. 2.17 Christ came to preach peace to those that are near and to those that are afar off Acts 10.36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel preaching peace by Christ he is Lord of all Partly because in this Covenant the terms of this Peace between us and God are stated God bindeth himself to sinful Man to give him Remission of Sins and Eternal Life begun by the Spirit and perfected in Heaven upon the Conditions of Faith Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God and Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out as our Entrance and new Obedience as to continuance Heb. 5.9 He became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him IV. How we come to be Interested in this Peace and Reconciliation or the conveyance of it to us For this Peace may be considered as to the Impetration and Application of it 1. As to the Impetration and laying down of the price that was done by Christ on the cross Therefore it is said 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself Then was God propitiated and the Merit and Ransom interposed by vertue of which we are pardoned and reconciled 2. As to Application when God is actually reconciled with us and we enter into his Peace and are restored unto his Favour This may be considered either as to the first gift God is never actually reconciled to us nor we to him till he give us the regenerating Spirit that is our receiving the atonement Rom. 5.11 It was made on the Cross but received at our Conversion and Regeneration Or else it may be considered as to the further measure of his sanctifying Grace called here perfecting us for every good work and working in us that which is pleasing in his sight This is given with respect to our reconciled Estate as we are actually at Peace and in Covenant with God 2 Cor. 5.17 18. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ. The summ is this At the Death of Christ there was such a foundation laid that we need no other ransom nor propitiation He hath so far satisfied Divine Justice that he hath obtained the New Covenant The first Grace is given us meerly with respect to the Merit of his Sacrifice for Christ purchased the Mercies promised and power to performe the conditions Farther Grace is given us because we are already reconciled unto God which is a ground of the greater Joy and Confidence For our actual Reconciliation giveth us a title to all consequent acts of Friendship which can be expected or received For in Gods way we shall have further Sanctification and after that Salvation V. The Reasons why all increase of Grace comes from God as the God of Peace 1. From the Giver God will not set us up with a new Stock of Grace till satisfaction be made for the breach of his Law We must not look upon him as pars offensa the Offended Party but as Rector Mundi the Governour of the World Private Persons may forgive offences as they please but the Governour and Judge of the World would not pass by the offence of Man till the ends of Government be secured or that the Law fall not to the ground which it doth not whilst God standeth upon the satisfaction of Christ and the submission of the Sinner The right of passing by a wrong and the right of releasing a punishment are different things Because punishment is a common Interest
Iehovah so saith Ieroboam Now where the Devil can get such a Party in the Church as shall not only set up but be mad upon Image worship who do more visibly promote his interest than they 3. That which is ascribed to Satan is bloody cruelty or seeking the destruction of Christ's most faithful Servants For he is called a Murderer from the beginning John 8.44 And Cain is said to be of that wicked one and slew his Brother And wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous Iohn 3.12 Enmity to the power of Godliness came from Satan and where ever it is incouraged and notoriously practised they are a party and confederacy of men governed and influenced by Satan Now where shall we find this Character but in Antichrist's confederacy Rev. 13.15 He caused that as many as would not worship the Image of the beast should be killed And again Rev. 17.5.6 The woman whose name was Mystery was drunken with the blood of the Saints and the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus And it hath been eminently fulfilled in the blood-shed of Germany France England and other Nations and all this to extinguish the Light and suppress the truth of Christ. O how many seeming Christians hath Satan imployed in these works of cruelty When once he had seduced the Church to errours and corrupted the Doctrine and Worship of Christ he presently maketh the erroneous Party Instruments of as cruel and bloody persecutions as were ever commenced by Infidels and Mahometans Witness their Murders upon so many thousands of the Waldenses and Albingenses whom they not only spoiled but slaughtered with all manner of hellish cruelty Some of their own Bishops complained they could not find Lime and Stone enough to build prisons for them nor defray the charges of their food The World was even amazed at their unheard of cruelties smoking and burning thousands of Men Women and Children some in Caves others at the Stakes and many other ways butchering them proclaiming Croisades against them and preaching the merit of Paradise to such bloody Butchers as had a mind to root them out Driving also multitudes to perish in Snowy Mountains What desolations they wrought in Bohemia what horrible Massacres in France What fires they kindled in England What cruelties they executed in Ireland and Piedmont If we should be silent Histories will speak and tell all Generations to come how little this Faction of Christians have of the Lamb-like Spirit of Christ Jesus and how unsatiable their thirst is for the blood of upright righteous men And then consider where the Sathanical Spirit ruleth and whether we have cause to be inamoured of Blood and Fire and Inquisitions 4. That which is ascribed to Satan is that he is the God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 And again the Prince of this world John 12.31 John 16.11 He playeth the God and Prince here and sensual and worldly Souls are easily seduced by him The riches honours and wealth of this world are the great Instruments of his Kingdom And the men of this World whose portion is in this life are his proper Subjects As Christ is head of the Saints So is Satan of the wicked ungodly ambitious world St. Austin distinguisheth of two Cities of Ierusalem the City of God and Babylon which is the Incorporation which belongeth to Satan And therefore when you find any party of Christians who are of the World speak of the world and the World heareth them 1 Joh. 4.5 They that are to try the Spirits may soon see what to chuse and what to forsake Certainly the case is not doubtful where the head of that State without any warrant from Christ and with the apparent detriment and loss of Christianity exalteth himself above all that is called God and affecteth an ambitious tyranny and domineering over the Christian world both Princes Pastours and People And to uphold this Tyranny careth not what havock he maketh of the Churches of Christ and where the whole frame of their Religion is calculated for secular honour worldly Pomp and greatness 3. That it is God's purpose to set up one Kingdom and demolish the other not only in the hearts of particular men but in Kingdoms and Nations and Publick Societies Jesus Christ was appointed to be not only King of Saints Rev. 15.3 but King of Nations Jer. 10.7 And therefore not onely erect to himself a Throne and a government in the hearts of his People but to have his Religion owned and countenanced and supported by Nations and Kingdoms and publick Societies of men When Christ was promised to Abraham it was said Gen. 18.18 All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him not only Persons but Nations So Isa. 55.5 Nations that knew not thee shall run to thee Isa. 60.12 The Nations and Kingdoms that would not serve thee shall perish Rev. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. When Christ sent abroad the Apostles he said Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations They were not only to gain upon single persons but bring Nations to a publick owning of Christ. There is a personal acknowledgement of Christ when we receive him into our hearts Iohn 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God An Ecclesiastical acknowledgement of Christ when the Church as a Society is in visible covenant with him Ezek. 16.8 I sware unto thee and entred into covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine A National acknowledgement of Christ when his Religion is countenanced and supported by nations and befriended with the Laws and constitutions of Civil Government This is a great advantage Christ pray'd for it Iohn 17.21 23. That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us That the world may believe that thou hast sent me I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me By believing there is meant common conviction He had promised it before Iohn 16.8 When he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Iudgement It is a great advantage when the Potentates of the Earth set open the doors to Christ and are careful of his interest in the world 4. When true Religion is thus received such an advantage should not be lost or carelessly looked after Partly because it is with much adoe that Christ gets up in the World not only by the labours of his Servants but by their deep sufferings As the Chief Captain said to Paul With a great sum obtained I this freedom Act. 22.28 So this Liberty was not only purchased by the Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. But with the expence of many oâ— his Servants lives who counted not their interest dear
if they had their Hearts at command in a moment Or how can they come before God with that Confidence Reverence Humility and Fervency that is required in Holy Prayer when they come reeking hot from their worldly Occasions Then for the matter of these Prayers There are certain common Blessings which we and others continually stand in need of and for which we are continually to pray as the increase of Faith Patience Meekness Love and the like Do you desire these things God will not reject the desires of an humble contrite Heart Many things we desire and lawfully may desire which are not matters of that moment that we should acquaint God with them or seek to interest Providence in them we do not expect nor is it needful to require any special work of his for the performance of them it is not seemly so to do as in a lawful Game a Man may desire to win rather than to lose but it is not fit he should make a Prayer for it Object But if another pray and I join with him how do I find it in my Heart Ans. This is principally meant of personal secret Prayer when we uncover our own sore confess the Plague of our own Heart 1 Kin. 8.38 Then the rule is we must fit and proportion our Words to our Matter and both Matter and Words to our Minds and Hearts A Sermon on Psalm L.5 Gather my Saints together those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice THIS whole Psalm setteth forth the erection of the Gospel Church and the Ordinances thereof Though the Gospel Kingdom came not with observation that is with external pomp and glory yet much of the Majesty of the divine presence was discernable in it Clearly in the frame of the Psalm you may observe a rejection of the legal worship and an establishment of the Christian service and the spiritual oblations which belong thereunto Yet the expressions do rather represent Christ as coming in the Majesty of a Judge than a Lawgiver for three reasons I suppose 1. Because there was judgment exercised on the Iews for refusing to submit to Christ and enter into the Gospel state 2. Because in the Prophetical writings the two comings of Christ are frequently mixed his first coming in humility with his last coming in glory to judge the World 3. Because those Laws and Ordinances which were given by Christ at the erection of the Gospel Kingdom will be the matter about which we shall be judged at the last and universal day of Doom For these and other reasons is Christ represented as a Judge summoning the World into his presence that the actions of men good or bad may be examined that it may be known who have resisted and despised the Messias and who have subjected themselves to him that the former may be punished and the other rewarded We shall all one day be brought into the judgment about the covenant we have made with God by Sacrifice So much is intimated in the context In the words Observe 1. God's charge to his Officers to summon the Court Gather my Saints together 2 The description of the parties who are to appear in the judgment My Saints that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice 1. His charge to his Officers whether Angels or others None can hide themselves but they must all appear before the Tribunal of Christ for God will have them all brought together from the four Winds or Corners of the Earth 2. The description That have made a Covenant The word signifieth cut a Covenant In Covenants the sacrifices were cut asunder and the Persons contracting went between the divided parts As God bid Abraham take an Heifer and a Ram and a She-goat Gen. 15.10 And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another and at evening ver 17. a smoaking furnace and a burning Lamp passed between those pieces And Ier. 34.18 They have not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before me when they cut the Calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof The meaning of this rite was an Imprecation so let them be cut asunder that shall break this Covenant The Heathens Sic à Iove feriatur is qui sanctum hoc fregerit foedus ut ego hunc porcum ferio Let Iupiter strike him dead that breaks this Holy Covenant as I strike this Swine Thus are we said to cut a Covenant with God Now this Covenant is said to be made by Sacrifice For 1. There is no covenanting between God and sinful Man without a Sacrifice And 2. No Sacrifice will serve the turn to make the Covenant effectual but only the blood of Christ by which his Justice is satisfied and Wrath appeased Doct. That God's People or Saints are such as have made a Covenant with him by Sacrifice For so they are described here Two things I must speak to 1. About making a Covenant with God 2. Why no Covenant can be made with God without the interposing of or respect unto a Sacrifice I. About making a Covenant with God Sometimes a Covenant is said to be made by God and sometimes made by us It is made by God as he hath appointed it and stated the terms of it and unalterably fixed them Though there be a condescention in the Covenant Form and therein God carrieth himself as a God of Grace yet in fixing the term so unalterably God carrieth himself as a Sovereign Psal. 111.9 He hath commanded his Covenant for ever We must take the Covenant as God hath left it not bring it down to our fancies and humours Our making Covenant respects our stipulation or binding our selves to perform the conditions required on our part when we heartily accept the Covenant as stated by God In every Covenant there is ratio dati accepti Something given and something taken God will be our God and we must be his people Heb. 8.10 This is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their Mind and write them in their Hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People Now God makes this Covenant 1. With respect to himself 2. With respect to us 3. With respect both to himself and us 1. With respect to himself To shew the freeness and sureness of his Grace 1. The freeness of his Grace He might have required obedience from us out of his Soveraignty as he is our Creator and we are his Creatures and given no other reason of his commands but this I am the Lord without any promises or contract made with us But the absolute command of God though it might exact obedience from us yet it doth not carry such motives in its bosom to incourage us to perform it as the Covenant There was so much of Grace in the first Covenant though the condition of it
much brokenness of Heart Cold thoughts of Sin beget but cold thoughts of Christ For every mans value and esteem of the Remedy is according to his sense of the Misery If we are not deeply affected with our lost Condition Christ is of little use to us It is the câ—ntrite and broken Heart which doth most relish the Grace of the Redeemer 2. Sacrifices were figures of the Mercy of God and the Merit of Christ viz. of his Death and Obedience Heb. 9.13 14. If the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God So Heb. 10.5 6 7. Wherefore when he cometh into the World he saith Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me In burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for Sin thou hadst no Pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God So that the Sacrifices were to represent Christ to them without which they did little else than qualifie for legal Priviledges Therefore it behoved every one that would make Covenant with God to own the promised Messiah the Surety who died for Sin and the great Sacrifice of Atonement the Lord Jesus Christ. And is not this incumbent upon us who would make and renew Covenant with God What is required of us in the Eucharist but to bless God for all his Mercies especially the gift of his Son to die for us That which was promised and prefigured is now accomplished Surely the Death of Jesus Christ is the only true means of Redemption and Propitiation for Sin which must be acknowledged with all joy and thankfulness 3. They were Obligations to Duty and that worship and Obedience which we owe to God For a man by offering a â—east did in effect devote himself and all his Power and Strength to God The Worshipper was to Consecrate himself wholly to his Service So Rom. 12.1 I beseech you by the Mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy and Acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service This was the Interpretation of the rites of the Law and the reasonable part of that Worship And are not we to give up our selves to God with a sincere firm Resolution of new Obedience Thus for our Humiliation the Sacrifices revealed our Misery for our Consolation they propounded the Remedy of Grace and in order to our Sanctification they taught us gratitude and new Obedience But their chief and first Relation was to Christ without whom our Misery had been in vain discovered and Holiness of Life to little purpose required for we have all from him I. Vse To press you to enter into Covenant with God especially being incouraged thereunto by the Atonement and Reconciliation made by Christ. You have no Benefit by it till you personally enter into the Bond of it It is true God being pacified by Christ offereth Pardon and Acceptance on the Conditions of the Gospel but we do not actually partake of the Benefit till we perform those Conditions Though the price be payed by Christ accepted by the Father yet we have not an actual Interest through our own default for not accepting Gods Covenant The Covenant of Nature lieth upon us whether we consent or no because that is a Law but this is a Priviledge and therefore we must man by man make out our Title and Claim What shall we do 1 Bless God for this Grace That when man had irreparably broken the first Covenant and fallen from his State of Life and all the World left under guilt and a curse Rom. 3.19 All the World is become guilty before God That God took occasion by this Misery to open a door of hope to us by Christ 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And hath set up a new Court of Righteousness and â—ife where Sinners may appear where Grace taketh the Tâ—rone and the Judge is Christ and the Rule of proceeding is the Gospel and upon Faith and sincere Obedience we may be accepted O let us run for refuge to this Court take Sanctuary at this Grace Heb. 6.18 Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us The Lord standeth with Arms open to receive us if we will but acknowledge our Iniquities Ier. 3.13 Only acknowledge thine Iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God 1 John 1.9 If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness Judge and Condemn our selves for them 1 Cor. 11.31 If we would judge our selves we should not be judged With Penitent and Contrite Hearts the self-condemning Sinner is acquitted Luk. 18.13 14. The Publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his Eyes to Heaven but smote on his Breast saying God be merciful to me a Sinner I tell you this man went down to his House justified rather than the other For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted 2. Own Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer of the World and the Fountain of your Life and Peace For till we own the Mediator of the Covenant we have not the Benefit of the Covenant Though his Blood be shed 't is not sprinkled on us Heb. 12.24 And to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel Nor can it be pleaded by us with any Comfort and Satisfaction Therefore you must own him Iohn 20.28 My Lord and my God At least prize and esteem him Phil. 3.8 I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. And use him to the ends for which God hath appointed him Iohn 1.16 Of his fulness have all we received and Grace for Grace And 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sancâ—ification and Redemption Let him be to you what God hath appointed him to be and do for you what God hath appointed him to do for Poor Sinners Micah 5.5 This man shall be the Peace that is in him alone will we seek it this is the Blood of the Covenant 3. Devote your selves to God to serve him and please him Isa. 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the House of Israel And Ezek. 16.8 I entred into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Now this must be done sincerely Not only with a Moral Sincerity not to dissemble but with a Supernatural Sincerity Deut. 5.29 O that there were such
that kept not their first Estate but left their own Habitation he hath reserved to Everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Iudgment of the great Day They were not contented with the place they were in but would be Independant of themselves Equal to God by Usurpation and Robbery and so instead of Angels became Devils But Christ is not God by Usurpation but God by Nature He was not thrust down but came down 2. His Exinanition and Abasement Which is 1. Generally set forth 2 Particulars are mentioned 1. Generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made himself of no Reputation in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He humbled himself ver 8. 2. The Particulars are His Incarnation mean Life and accursed Death Let us stand a little and consider this Condescention by comparing the terms That the Creator should stoop so low as to become a Creature and go down from the form of God to the form of a Servant from Equality with God to Subjection to Men from being Lord of all to a State of Obedience and that Obedience carried on in the way of the most perfect self-denial Obedient to the Death and that Death cloathed with all the circumstances that might make it grievous it was painful ignominious and accursed I shall insist only on the general Description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made himself of no Reputation emptied himself lessened himself in the next verse humbled himself Doct. That the Lord Iesus did for our sakes empty lessen and humble himself I shall open three things 1. How far Christ was lessened 2. That this was his own voluntary Act. 3. That this was for our sakes I. How far Christ was lessened It chiefly lieth in these two things 1. Obscuring his Godhead 2. Abatement of his Dignity 1. His Godhead was obscured by the interposing vail of our Flesh. He did empty himself of that Divine Glory Splendour and Majesty which before he had Not by ceasing to be what he was but by assuming something to himself which he was not before viz. the Infirmity of the humane Nature which did for a time hide his Divine Glory so that little of it did appear and that to some few only that narrowly observed him Iohn 1.14 We beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father To the generality it was otherwise Isa. 53.2 He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him there is no Beauty that we should desire him As the covering in a dark Lanthorn hideth the Light from shining forth so did the Humane Nature obscure his Divine Glory For he assumed not this Nature as it shall be in Heaven perfectly Glorified but as it is now since Sin entred into the World cloathed with manifold Infirmities He came in the form of a Servant not of a Glorified Saint The Apostle Rom. 8.3 calleth it The likeness of sinful Flesh the Estate and Condition of his assumed flesh was exposed to all those Infirmities which in us are the Punishment of Sin Though he continued still Infinite Eternal and Omnipotent and in his greatest Abasement was still the Lord of Glory yet his external Habit and Appearance was that of a mean afflicted man and the Divinity though not separated with-held its influence to leave the Humane Nature to suffer whatever the Humanity was capable of As it exposed the Soul to desertion so the Body to all manner of Sufferings and Death it self 2. His Dignity was lessened And there was a Depression of the Glory of his former State That which the Romans called capitis Diminutio a lessening of State and Condition The Eternal Word set himself at nought lessened and humbled himself from the Condition of being Lord of all to that of a Subject and Ordinary Man Gal. 4.4 But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law From a Judge of the World he became a Party It was a Condescention of God to take notice of mans Misery Psalm 113.6 Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth Much more to make a Party in it and to be found among the miserable Three steps of Condescention we may eminently take notice of 1. That Christ Who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God is made less than God Iohn 14.28 My Father is greater than I compared with Iohn 10.30 I and my Father are one As Mediator Incarnate he undertook an Office designed him by God and obeyed him in all things They are one in Essence yet the Father was greater than he not as he was God but Man and Mediatour and in his present State of Humiliation For he bringeth it there to prove that by departing out of the World then he should be exalted to a more glorious Estate than that in which he was during his abode upon Earth because the Vail should then be laid aside and that Glory which he had with God before the World was made should fully appear Iohn 17.5 And now Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was 2. That he was not only lesser than God but lesser than the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.7 Thou madest him a little lower than the Angels or for a little time the time that he spent here on Earth Man is Inferiour to an Angel as Man in the Order of Being much more as Mortal for the Angels never die therefore his very Incarnation and liableness to Death was a great lessening of his Dignity Though the Incarnation of Christ was the Exaltation of our Nature yet it was the Depression and Humiliation of the Son of God God could stoop no lower than to become man and man could be advanced no higher than to be united to God 3. That in the Humane Nature he was depressed beyond the Ordinary Condition of Man For he came in such a form and course of Life as was beneath the ordinary rate of Mankind Psal. 22.6 I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the People So Isa. 53.3 He was despised and rejected of men a man of Sorrows and acquainted with griefs and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not As a vile and abominable Creature both despised and rejected scarce deemed worthy the Name of a man or to have any converse and fellowship with them It is in Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leaving off of a man as if we should say the very list and fag-end of Mankind so low and mean that the Nature of man can hardly descend lower Mark 9.12 The Son of Man must suffer many things and be set at nought it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made nought worth or nothing Thus did he appear in
true Religion will give rest and quiet to the Soul Thirdly That the Christian Religion doth abundantly provide for true Peace of Conscience and Ease of Mind 1. Because it discovereth the Matter of true Peace 2. The Way how it may be attained 1. The Matter of true Peace is Pardon and Life or sufficient Provision to appease our guilty fears and satisfie our desires of Happiness 1. Man being Gods Creature and therefore his Subject and having faulted in his Obedience and Subjection to him and knowing the Judgment of God counteth himself worthy of Death Rom. 1.32 And this fear of Death and Vengeance that ensueth it is â—o ingrained and implanted in the Conscience that unless some fit course of 〈◊〉 and Justification be propounded and that with good Authority man is 〈◊〉 restless and troubled and knoweth not what to do to get rid of the 〈…〉 Soul Micah 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my Transgression the fruit 〈…〉 for the Sin of my Soul Now the great design which the Scriptures 〈…〉 to set forth a grant of Pardon upon Gracious and Commodious Terms 〈…〉 will but accept of it It is the excellency of the Christian Religion above 〈…〉 Religions Micah 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity 〈…〉 by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his 〈…〉 ever because he delighteth in Mercy If the Question were put to you which 〈◊〉 put to the Spouse Cant. 5.9 What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved What is there in Christ above other Gods of the Nations that you make so much 〈◊〉 about him What is it draweth your Hearts so to love him and cleave to him in the greatest Hazards and Extremities This you might Answer He hath set afoot a pardoning Covenant so suited to the Necessities of Man and the Nature of God that all the World cannot shew the like 2 For the other Matter of our Peace a fit Happiness to satisfie our Desires Man having an Immortal Spirit gropeth about for an Immortal and Eternal good Acts 17.27 or such an Estate in the other World as may comfort him against the labours and sorrows and the frailty and shortness of the present Life All Nations have a conceit of the Immortality of the Soul if at any time they doubt of it they cannot wholly blot the sense of it out of their Hearts Surely all desire it and it would give much ease to their Mind if it might be undubitably made out to them that there is such an Immortal Estate They that fully knew it not were pleased with the shadow of it and sought it in fame they would not have their Memory die with them As those that want Children take Pleasure in little Dogs and Cats so did they embrace a poor Shadow for the Substance To be sure most men die Anxious and when they leap into Eternity they know not where their feet shall light But now it is said 2 Tim. 1.10 That Christ hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel He hath made a clear Revelation of that which was not so certainly known before The Heathens guessed at it sometimes they seemed to see it and sometimes doubted of it as men travelling sometimes see a spire of a steeple before them at a distance and anon they lose the sight of it again and so cannot tell certainly whether they see it yea or no. The Law like a Dumb-man made many signs and set forth Eternity by long Life and Heaven by Canaan But now the Gospel clearly speaketh it out and scattereth all the Mists and Clouds about Eternity 2. The Way how we surely may be made partakers of Pardon and Life and there it telleth us First What Christ hath done Secondly What we must do Christ hath sufficiently laid the Foundation and all that we must do is but to apply what he hath purchased and provided for us 1. What Christ hath done The Word that is nigh thee referreth to things already done for us Christs Death and Resurrection 1. His Incarnation and Death for Christ needeth not to be brought down from Heaven any more He once descended from Heaven and was made Flesh and dwelt among us for a double end Partly to reveal these things to us and the way how to obtain them with sufficient Evidence and Certainty One great Errand that he had in the World was to reveal the Will of God to lost Mankind for their recovery and to bring them to the fuller Knowledge of God and the Pardon of Sins and the Truth of the Unseen World and the way thereunto Luke 1.77 To give Knowledge of Salvation unto his People by the Remission of their Sins And not only so but partly also to be a Mediator and Reconciler between God and Man and lay down his Life as a Sacrifice for Sin and a ransom for Souls Eph. 5.2 Who hath given himself for us an Offering and Sacrifice to God Mat. 20.28 He gave his Life a ransom for many We have both Heb. 3.1 Consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Iesus Christ. Well then herein lay the Advantage of the Gospel above the Law that required all to be done by us but the Gospel referreth us to things already done for us by another who was sent from God to reveal his Fathers will to us and to redeem us to God He suffered the Penalty due for our breach of the Law there is nothing required of us but our thankful Acceptance and hearty consent to follow Christs Conduct and Direction well then he needeth not be brought down from Heaven any more or descend to help and redeem the World 2. His Resurrection and Ascension For that is the second Question Who shall descend into the Deep to bring up Christ again from the Dead No that needeth not He is risen already and gone again to Heaven to assure us of the Truth of his Doctrine and the value of his Sacrifice and the reality of the other World For he himself is entred into the Glory he spake of and so giveth us a visible Demonstration of the Truth and reality of it And also he is sate down at the right Hand of God that he might apply Salvation to us by his powerful and all-conquering Spirit But it is the Resurrection we must chiefly insist upon for God by raising him from the Dead hath declared him to be a sufficiently authorized Messenger and set him forth to be the Person to be believed in heard and obeyed in his Name When Christ was crucified and buried though a Grave stone was sealed and a guard of Souldiers set to watch it yet Angels appeared and rolled away the Stone and spake to those that enquired after him Yea Christ himself often appeared to his Disciples conversed with them forty days instructed them in things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and then went to Heaven and poured out the Spirit and for an
against the Soul as they bring a servitude and a brawn and a deadness upon the Heart Tit. 3.3 We our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures c. As we are apt to love them more than God 2 Tim. 3.4 Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God As they bring a brawn and a deadness upon the Heart and so make it uncapable of that sweet consolation which the Spirit worketh in us 2. When the Heart is mortified and subdued to God there is no such pleasure as the contempt of Bodily pleasures Quam suave mihi subito factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum How sweet is it to me to want the sweetness of these trifles In some diseases it 's a pleasure to eat Dust when the disease is cured it 's abhorred as a filthy thing It is our distemper that leaveth the carnal rellish so strong upon us get rid of your distemper and you will be ashamed of your brutish satifactions it is a diseased Mind that looks after them 1 Use. To remove prejudice Men usually judge Wisdoms ways to be sower and bitter whereas they yield great joy and pleasure to those that walk in them Here is peace for their Consciences and pleasantness to satisfie their Affections Who live the pleasant life they that walk upon the brink of Hell every moment or they who being justified by Faith are made Heirs of Eternal life who look every day when God will translate them into his immediate Presence They that satisfie their Lusts by breaking God's Law or they that provide for the Peace of their Consciences by observing and keeping it Who are like to be most satisfied in their Object they that love a vain uncertain world or they that live in the love of God If Men would but come and try what it is indeed to believe in Christ to live in the love of God and the hope of Eternal life their prejudices would be soon confuted Object But you will say your Spiritual delight is but a fancy it seemeth to be hard to forsake what I see what I feel what I taste what I love for a God and a Glory which I do not see and it may be never shall see I Answer It is no wonder How can you see when you have no Eyes Faith is the eye of the Soul Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and ver 27. By faith he forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 2 Pet. 1.9 Whom having not seen ye love in whom tho' now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And how can you hope to see while you are carnal and your Hearts do not suit with these things or ever experienced this Joy But beg the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1.17 18. That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and return you to him Illumination and Inclination conduce both to your cure For this Holy Delight cannot be forced nor drawn forth by bare Commands and Threatnings When the attractive goodness of the Object is represented by the Spirit the Heart must be suited to it and then you will find this joy 2. Use. To reprove two sorts of People 1. Those that can find no pleasure in an Holy life that is no ground of pleasure Is not God a delectable Object Is not Salvation by Christ a delightful speculation or such a Glorious Mystery as cannot be found elsewhere Are not the promises of Heaven comfortable things If a Man should adopt you into the succession of a Crown VVould it not please you And is not God's promise more sure Is not Communion with God a pleasing exercise Heathens pretended to Secresie with their gods as the greatest Felicity Needeth a Christian pretend it Hath he not liberty to open his Heart in secret Do you ever come from your Sports with such a chearful Soul as you come from your Duties Many have repented of their carnal Mirth never any of their Godly Sorrow VVhich is better to fill the body with Diseases which is the part gratified by Sin and is more Wasted than Gratified or to enrich the Soul with Graces To deny the clamours of the Flesh or the importunities of Conscience Or which is all one to offer Violence to our Lusts or to our Consciences 2. It reproveth them that live as if there were no pleasure in a course of Holiness When others go merrily to Hell will you go drooping to Heaven I pray whose Work are you about Whither doth your Journey tend Are you sad because you have left Sathan's service Was he a good Master to you Or because it is now a part of your business to tame and subdue the Flesh Will that yield any thing more satisfying than the love of God It could yield you nothing but Vain Pleasure that when gone is but as a Wind nay it proves a Whirlwind in the Conscience or is it because you have renounced the World Is not Heaven better Is God wanting in such Wordly supplies as are necessary for you Or is it because you thrive no more in holy Endeavours Is not God's Grace sufficient for you Was he ever backward to do you good whilst you were labouring and striving to approve your selves to him Hold up your hearts the way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10.29 3. Use. To press you to make trial Resolve upon an holy and heavenly course and then you are in the ways of Wisdom Psal. 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Trust him upon his Promises before all be confirmed to you upon Experience To this end consider 1. We invite to Pleasure not to Labour or to Labour seasoned with Pleasure And Pleasure is the lure that draweth all the world By sensitive Pleasure men are perverted Iam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed By holy pleasure he is perfected 2. We invite you not to pleasure only in another world but pleasure during service Psal. 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of Life in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore But now that we may not be tired with expectation There is pleasure not only in the end but in the way and path 3. We invite you to Continual Pleasure Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce In Worldly Joys there are vicissitudes and subalternations Now we rejoyce and anon we weep there is joy when a Child
the Creation and upon the Seventh Day he Rested So Christ will not come down till he had finished the Work of Redemption on the Sixth Day and on the Seventh he Rested in the Grave and Rose early in the Morning on the First Day of the Week to shew the Truth of his Satisfaction And the Holy-Ghost his Work is perfect all the time of his Life he continueth increasing our Graces but in the everlasting Sabbatism when Sin shall be no more his Work is brought to an end And then he shall present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Iude 24. But what were the Reasons why Christ would not give over till all was perfected 1. Love to his Father Iohn 18.11 The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Christ loved the Father with unspeakable Love and was in like manner beloved by him Therefore when this Cup was put into his hands by his Father he would drink it off to the very bottom 2. Love to the Church Eph. 5.25 26. Even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word c. And Rev. 1.5 6. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood The Church was given for a Spouse to Christ but we were polluted and defiled with Sin he would not only cleanse it but make it a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5.27 Christ loved the Church and therefore it was not grievous to him to wash it with his Blood Because Iacob loved Rachel he served seven Years for her in Heats and Frosts by Night and Day and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her Gen. 29.20 So the Son of God loved the Church and therefore endured all these Indignities and grievous Passions 3. He had respect to that eminent Glory set before him Heb. 12.2 Looking to Iesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now sate down at the right hand of the throne of God Though the Way was rough the Prize was excellent and so he run through all the Pain and Shame and attained the eternal Crown of Glory He endured cruel Pains in his Body and bitter Sorrows in his Soul such as never any Man did suffer never any Angel could have born as he did so dear did it cost our Saviour to make a Propitiation for our Sins That which in all this did strengthen and encourage him was the Joy set before him namely that happy and glorious Estate which followed upon his Sufferings so that his Burden was made the lighter and his Sorrows much abated Oh let us think of this 'T is not a lessening his Love to us for he needed not to put himself into this condition Herein he was our Example to teach us how to sweeten the Cross and as our Mediator he is gone to Heaven to prepare a Place for us Iohn 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to my self that where I am there ye may be also 2. Let it raise in us a Confidence of the Benefits purchased For Christ expresseth himself as a Conqueror and in a kind of Triumph over the Devil and all the Enemies of our Salvation The Wrath of God is appeased Rom. 5.9 Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him The Law is satisfied Gal. 4.4 5. God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Satan is vanquished Iohn 12.31 Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out Guilt is removed Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Sin is subdued Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Death is unstinged 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. Oh Death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. The Curse is removed Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Surely where Christ beginneth he will make an end We cannot have too high Thoughts of the Blood of Christ Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the â—lood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your consciences from dead works to serve the living God Let us stand still now and behold the Salvation of God and Eccho to Christ's Cry It is finished it is finished What can the Law crave more than the Blood of the Son of God What will make us perfect as appertaining to the Conscience if this will not Being justified by his Blood we shall be saved from Wrath through him Christ hath so far obtained Pardon and Acceptance for us that he hath made an end of Sin for all that are willing to accept of his Grace upon God's Terms 3. Let it quicken us to Perseverance in our Duty notwithstanding Sufferings till all be ended that when we come to die we may be able to say Iohn 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness If Christ out of Love to us would finish the Work of our Redemption What shall separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.39 4. It teacheth us how to comfort our selves in Death It finisheth all our Labours and Sorrows as Christ sheweth when he was about to give up the Ghost Isa. 57.2 He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Believers have a Joy set before them as well as Christ. The Wicked cannot say It is finished their Evils are then begun 5. Let us believe Things to come The Event sheweth that all these Things were true which the Prophets had so long before foretold The Holy-Ghost cannot be deceived nor can God lie We are certain that Things yet to come shall be fulfilled as well as these which are past Those who lived before Christ's time had not such an Experiment of God's Truth as we have We have seen the Coming of Christ let us so fix our Minds on future Things as to draw them
out an Happiness for himself and be sufficient to himself for his own Blessedness without any Dependance upon God Now when Man was thus fal◠off from God God was disobliged from providing for him and so Man is left to his own Shifts But alas how ill doth he provide for himself This being the very thing intended in the Text I shall a little more amply dilate upon it in several Propositions 1. When Man fell from God he fell from him tanquam à principio fine from Dependance upon him as the first Cause and respect to him as his chief Good and last End His Dependance was loosened because he distrusted God's Provision for him and would be a God to himself his own Principle Rule and End live from himself to himself according to his own Will So that Self-love came in the Place of Love to God he that before sought nothing but God began now to seek himself and thought he should find in himself what he lost in God 2. Man being once off from God never of himself cometh on again but rangeth infinitely being guided by his own Will and Wit Ionah 2.8 They that observe lying Vanities forsake their own Mercies Man being fastened to such Objects as he liketh keepeth a-loof from God whom he liketh not and will not come at him as long as he can make a shift without him Ier. 2.31 We are Lords we will come no more unto thee And though he wandreth hither and thither he finds no Rest for his Soul for he seeketh Happiness where it is not to be found in the Riches Honours and Pleasures of the present Life 3. Though he meet with often Disappointments yet he is unwilling to return even after God hath shewed a Remedy and brought Life and Immortality to Light in the Gospel in which Way he may have Peace and Happiness and so Rest for his Soul God hath shewed us the way to Rest Ier. 6.16 Ask for the old Paths where is the good Way and walk therein and ye shall find Rest for your Souls Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you Rest. But yet Man is for his shifts still till God changeth his Heart and giveth him Counsel in his Reins and disappoints him in his worldly Inventions and Pursuits by blasting the Creature or occasioning some Wound in his Conscience God speaketh often in his Word but it is disregarded till he speak by real Arguments and speak to the Quick so as to force an hearing till he take away their Comforts or take away their Use of them by some languishing Sickness or Anguish in their own Conscience or both by smiting them with a Rod dipp'd in Guilt When thou with Rebukes dost correct Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth Psal. 39.11 So that then they see the Fruitlesness of all their Inventions their vain Pleasures costly Buildings great Honour and Riches how little these can stead them against the Wrath of an angry God So loth is Man to submit to God's Remedy he laboureth all that he can to patch up his sorry Happiness and is very unwilling to confess his Misery he turneth and windeth every way and seeketh Help from the Creature before he will be brought to implore Aid from Grace he will use all Means within his grasp and reach till his Despair teach him to return from whence he fell and that it is better to seek God's Favour than continue his vain Pursuits Hosea 2.7 I will return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now Secondly Why many Inventions 1. In opposition to that one streight Line which leadeth to true Happiness Christ telleth us One thing is necessary Luke 10.42 namely to serve and please God and enjoy him for ever To enjoy God and please him is that one thing which is enough But Error is manifold though there be but one Path to Heaven yet there are many ways of sinning and going to Hell Every Man hath his several Course and Way of sinning Isa. 53.6 All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own Way According to the several Constitutions and Business and Affairs of Men. Velle suum cuique est nec voto vivitur uno As the Channel is cut so corrupt Nature in every Man findeth an Issue and Passage No Sin cometh amiss to a carnal Heart yet some are more kindly and sutable one is worldly another sensual another proud and ambitious It is our Wisdom to observe our own Haunt and the tender Parts of our Souls Psal. 18.23 I was upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity All Sin is but carnal Self-love disguised or many with respect to the successive entertainment of divers Sins Titus 3.3 Serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Sins take the Throne by turns by Age and Experience Men grow weary of former Vanities but others are adopted into their room and so their Lusts are but exchanged not abrogated Now we are fallen from our primitive Happiness we multiply Means and Laws yea at the same time the Pleasures of the Flesh draw the Sinner several ways James 4.1 Whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not hence even of your Lusts which war in your Members Desire of Riches contradicts Idleness and the toilsom Cares and Labours of this World that Ease which the Flesh affecteth disgraceful Lusts are contradicted by Ambition and Pride 2. Many Inventions in opposition to that Simplicity and Singleness of Heart which Original Rectitude did include The Heart of Man was originally of one constant uniform Frame but now instead of Simplicity there is a Multiplicity The Heart now is never right till it be one with God Therefore David prays Psal. 86.11 Vnite my Heart to fear thy Name He begs a Heart intirely fixed upon God which as our great End uniteth all our Affections in this one Scope that we might please him and enjoy him as our chief Good and last End That fixeth Man's Mind which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual Uncertainties and distracted by a Multiplicity of Ends and Objects that it cannot continue in any composed and setled Frame No one part of our Lives will agree with another A divided Heart breedeth an uncertain Life Iames 1.8 A double-minded Man is unstable in all his Ways The whole not firmly knit together by the Power of the last End running through all So that our Lives are a meer Lottery the Fancies and Appetites we are governed by being jumbled together by Chance The Heart by natural Corruption is loosed from God and distracted with variety of vain Objects which offer themselves to our Senses The Interest of the World and Flesh is taken into competition with God and whilst the Heart rangeth abroad it is such a variable and double Heart as will never be true to God And while Men are tossed from one Dependance to
plentiful Life of Worldliâ—gs with the forfeiting of the Soul the Pleasures of Sin for a Season with the Pains of Hell 4. The fourth sort of Comparison which the Scripture directs us unto is Temporal bad things with Eternal good things and that is the Case we have now in hand Thus Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the Sufferings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Sufferings for the present may be very great but the Glory that is revealed to us and shall one day be revealed in us is much greater as there is no Comparison between a little Flea-biting or the prick of a Pin with eternal Ease and Rest or the trouble of entring by a strait Gate or Entry into a glorious Palace 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory The Sufferings of the present World are leves breves light and short not in themselves but in comparison with eternal Life In themselves they may be some of them very sharp and grievous and some also very long and tedious but look what a Point is to the Circumference that is Time to Eternity and what a Feather is to a Talent of Lead that are present Evils to future Glory and Blessedness All this is spoken to shew that it is better to be miserable with the People of God than happy with his Enemies and that we should not be drawn away from Christ neither by the comfortable nor troublesom things we meet with in the World 6. This Happiness which Christ hath proposed is at the general Resurrection or Christ's coming to Judgment for that is the Point which the Apostle is now discoursing of There is a distinction between the Good and the Bad at Death when the Spirits of just Men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 and the Spirits of the Wicked are sent to Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 The Soul dieth not with the Body but some go one way some another the Souls of just Men to God's Palace of Glory where they are with Christ and the Souls of the Wicked to the Prison of Hell But this Retribution is not sufficient for two Reasons because it is private and doth not openly vindicate the Justice and Holiness of God and it is but on a part the Soul and not the Body 1. Because it is private and dispensed apart to every single Person Man by Man as they die Certainly it is more for the Honour of God to bring his Judgment to Light as the Prophet speaketh Zeph. 3.5 Every Morning doth he bring his Iudgment to Light Here the Love of God towards the Good and the Justice of God towards the Wicked is not brought into the clear Light nor at Death neither the Mouth of the Pit is not visibly opened nor the Glory of Heaven exposed to view But then this different Respect is more conspicuous when the Justice of God hath a publick and solemn Triumph and his Enemies are branded with Shame and Ignominy and the Faith of his Elect found to Praise and Honour and the one are publickly condemned and the other justified by the Judg sitting upon the Throne Acts 3.19 That your Sins may be blotted out when the Times of Refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord. 2. As it is upon a part the Soul only The Bodies of the Holy and the Wicked are both now sensless and moulder into Dust in the Grave and till they be raised up and joined to their Souls can neither partake of Wo or Weal Pleasure or Pain The Soul though it be a principal Part is but a Part the Body essentially concurreth to the Constitution of the Man and it is the Body that is most gratified by Sin and the Body that is most pained by Obedience and therefore the Body which is the Soul's Sister and Coheir is to share with it in its eternal Estate whatever it be Therefore that we may not be in part punished nor in part rewarded there is a time coming when God will deal with the whole Man and that is in the Day of Christ's solemn Court and Audience when all the World shall be summoned before his Tribunal 7. The Apostle proveth this because the Righteousness of God's Government will not permit that his People should be accounted of all Men most miserable To clear this I shall shew First In what sense the Apostle saith If there were no Life to come Christians were of all Men most miserable Secondly How this will not consist with the Righteousness of God's Government First In what sense the Apostle saith If there were no Life to come Christians were of all Men most miserable I put this first Question that we may not mistake the Apostle's meaning when he pronounceth Christians to be of all Men most miserable if our Hopes in Christ were terminated with this Life Take him right and therefore 1 st Negatively 1. It is not to deny all present Providence or watchful Care over his oppressed People No. Eccles. 3.16 17. And moreover I saw under the Sun the Place of Iudgment that Wickedness was there and the Place of Righteousness that Iniquity was there He meaneth not in the Mountains of Prey only but in the Tribunals of Justice there was Iniquity and Wickedness I said in my Heart God shall judg the Righteous and the Wicked for there is a Time there for every Purpose and for every Work So again Eccles. 5.8 If thou seest the Oppression of the Poor and the violent perverting of Iudgment and Iustice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Both these Places shew that there is a Providence though God for a while permit his meek and obedient Servants to be oppressed and in the Eye of the World they seem to be forgotten and forsaken and utterly left to perish yet in due time God will exercise a righteous Judgment on them and their Enemies The like you have Psal. 58.11 So that a Man shall say Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth It is not meant of hereafter but now It is many times found that Godliness and Holiness are Matters of Benefit and Advantage in this World abstracted from all Reward in another Life The World is not governed by Chance but by a wise and a most just Providence It may be God doth not relieve the Oppressed so soon as Men would yet in due time he will not fail to shew himself the Ruler of the Affairs of Mankind So that this is not his meaning to exclude all present Providence 2. Not to deny that we have such Benefits by Christ here in this World as not to make our Condition more valuable than that of the Wicked We have Hopes by Christ of the Pardon of Sins and that is
a Blessedness Psal. 32.1 Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Of Communion with God 1 John 1.3 And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and his Son Iesus Christ. And that maketh way for a full Joy and countervaileth temporal Evils We have not only an Interest in the Love of God but a feeling of it in our Souls Rom. 5.3 4 5. And not only so but we glory in Tribulations also knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us All things are sanctified to us as we are sanctified to God Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his Purpose But yet this is not all therefore the Apostle saith If in this Life only we had Hope we are of all Men most miserable 3. The Apostle's Drift is not to compare Wickedness and Godliness as abstracted from the eternal Reward as if a wicked Man were more happy than an afflicted godly Man No Christ's Worst is better than the World 's Best Godliness and Holiness is amiable or a Reward it self Better be good though miserable than bad though prosperous For Holiness and Godliness though abstracted from all Reward in another Life is an Excellency and Perfection of humane Nature Psal. 16.3 But to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my Delight Prov. 12.26 The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour It is an Honour put upon humane Nature to have the Image of God impressed upon it The more good we are the more orderly we live and agreeably to Reason and those Souls with which we are created And the Actions which the Law of Christ calleth for at our hands are fittest to be done by us if they were not commanded nor ever should be rewarded in us 2 dly Positively and so 1. The Apostle speaketh not of their inward Enjoyments but their outward Estate which no way seems to answer God's Covenant-Love nor governing Justice For the Calamities of the Godly raise two Doubts 1. How this doth stand with the Love and Goodness of God to his People This was the Psalmist's Temptation Psal. 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean Heart It is a most certain and a most infallible Truth that God is abundantly gracious and kind and not only faithful and just to all his sincere Servants But we are under no small Temptation to doubt of the Truth of this when they are under severe Scourges and Chastisements or exercised with continual Afflictions and others live in Pomp and Luxury and all manner of secular Felicity 2. But the other Temptation to doubt of God's governing in Righteousness was Ieremiah's Temptation Ier. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord yet let me talk with thee of thy Iudgments Wherefore doth the VVay of the VVicked prosper VVherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Certain it is that God is righteous yet when his People are in a sad Condition and their Enemies thrive and prosper by their wicked Courses their Minds are troubled for to appearance none are in a worse Condition than they that love God most and serve him best till he be considered not as to his external but eternal Estate 2. The Apostle's meaning is that a Man cannot rationally be induced to submit to Christianity and in defiance of all Temptations to lead an holy godly Life without the expectation of the Happiness of another World The Temptation lieth in things present and our Strength lieth in a due Reflection on things to come Faith must guide us that Sense may not mislead us and so when the World 's Best and Christ's Worst are brought into competition the Soul is the better enabled to make a right Choice Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the Recompence of Reward It is the Hopes which Christ offereth in a better Life which strike all Temptations dead Now in case this should not be the Apostle pronounceth Christians to be of all Men most miserable upon a fourfold Account 1. Because their very present Comforts would seem to be but a fantastical Impression or a fanatical Illusion For our whole Religion would be a Falshood if the great Promise be Chimerical or a mere Dream and Supposition 1 Iohn 2.25 This is the Promise which he hath promised us even eternal Life And so how can we imagine but that all the Comfort which we take in the Pardon of Sins Communion with God and the sense of his Love are mere Conceit and vain Imagination 2. Because their future Hopes and Trust would be utterly disappointed and they deluded in their greatest Expectations 1 Tim. 4.10 Therefore we both labour and suffer Reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all Men especially of those that believe It is our Hope in God through Christ or the Assurance of an eternal Reward which is the only ground of our suffering patiently any thing that befalleth us He is the Preserver of all Mankind but hath promised eternally to save those that believe and obey him Therefore if there were no World to come Christians would not only be disappointed of their great Hope which is the worst kind of Vexation but draw a Suspicion upon all these Advantages that we seem to reap by Christ and enjoy here upon Earth 3. Their earnest Desires would not be fulfilled if there were no Blessedness to come We may prove eternal Life by the Disposition and Instinct of Nature towards Happiness in general yea eternal Happiness which if we should not enjoy that Desire were in vain but God doth nothing in vain The Apostle intimateth this universal Desire in all rational Creatures they all grope and feel about for an eternal and infinite Good Acts 17.27 That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us Other Creatures besides Man are satisfied with what they have here but the Soul of Man is satisfied with nothing but the eternal enjoyment of what is good an immortal Estate an infinite Good this is the universal Inclination of all Mankind Whence cometh that Desire to be so universal if there be nothing to satisfy it Where is this Immortality that we seek after not in temporal Enjoyments Riches Honours and Pleasures they perish and we perish Yea the Lust of these things passeth away in time 1 Iohn 2.17 The World passeth away and the Lust thereof Not in surviving Fame that is a Shadow like the Pleasure which those take who want Children in playing with little Dogs and Puppies It lieth in the eternal Enjoyment of God But we urge not this now
is the Object of the Expectation 2. Their Respect to it they seek it Seeking implies two things 1 st An hearty Desire 2 dly An earnest Endeavour in the Use of Means 1 st An hearty Desire For seeking is the earnest Desire of a thing lost or absent The seeking of this Glory Honour and Immortality implieth an earnest Desire of it as appeareth by Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above which is further expressed by Set your Affections upon things above And this is not a slight Desire but such a Desire as prevaileth above the Desires of other things Such an Affection to them as is not controuled by other Affections Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness First that is so as our Pursuit of other things doth not cross our Affections to these Many desire Heaven and Glory but they are soon put out of the Humour and take up with the Pleasures and Honours and Profits of the World and they become Slaves to their fleshly Appetites and Senses and the good things here below 2 dly Seeking implieth Diligence and an earnest Endeavour such as the Woman used that sought her lost Groat Heb. 13.14 Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come If we desire it and long after it something must be done in order thereunto As our Desires are greater so our Endeavours will be greater than after worldly things For to seek is to bestow our earnest Care and serious Diligence upon it See how it is expressed in Scripture by Labour John 6.27 Working and working out Phil. 2.12 By pressing towards it Phil. 3.14 By striving Luke 13.24 Because we meet with Opposition You must not think to come to the Injoyment of this great Happiness with Idleness and cold Wishes No we must be at Pains and such Pains as Flesh and Blood will count hard Labour Well now we may from hence conclude the first part of the Mark of the Heirs of Promise 1. By the Object they are distinguished from the wicked and carnal part of the World who covet the Honours Riches and Pleasures of the present Life but these are ingaged in a more noble Design they seek Glory and Honour and Immortality That is they seek not Vain-glory but labour to make themselves truly glorious honourable and immortal 2. Again from the Object and Act together they distinguish themselves from all Infidels and Unbelievers for they seek Glory and Honour where it is to be found and in the way wherein it is to be found and so go upon sure Grounds They are ascertained by the Truth of God's Word and depend upon it that if they seriously set themselves to obey and honour God in the World they shall have Glory and Honour with him 1 Sam. 2.30 Those that honour me I will honour John 12.26 If any Man serve me him shall my Father honour And elsewhere Upon this they are certain 3. By the Seriousness of the Act they distinguish themselves from Hypocrites or partial Believers Those that have a slight Sense of Eternity will desire Glory and Honour and Immortality but to desire it so as that it shall be their top Care to desire it so as that all other things should be lessened in their Opinion Estimation and Affection to desire it so as to labour after it in the first Place this is the Disposition of the Sincere only They can withdraw the Vail of Sense and look to the Glory that cometh from God only They prize it above all the Glory of the World and resolutely chuse it for their Portion with an habitual and thorow Consent of their Wills and the Drift and Aim and Bent of their Lives is to be for God and their Salvation and this is first and chiefly sought after in all their Indeavours Secondly The Means and Way wherein they seek after it by patient Continuance in well-doing A good Design without a good Way is nothing and therefore next to a right End we must chose a right Way and if we desire Salvation we must mind the right Way thither Now in the Way and Means three things are considerable Here is 1. Well-doing 2. Continuance 3. Patient Continuance If one of these be wanting all cometh to nought If Well-doing be wanting our Perseverance is but an Obstinacy in things sweet and pleasing to the Flesh and our Patience but a carnal Self-denial nothing conducing to our great End If Well-doing be regarded yet if there be not a Continuance or a Continuance only when we are put to no Trial then the Benefit is lost All three must concur 1. For Well-doing Let us state that first that we may not be mistaken The World is filled with ill Notions every Man applaudeth himself in his own Course be it never so vain The Covetous the Ambitious the Dissolute when they thrive in their several ways they will think they do well Psal. 49.18 Though whilst he lived he blessed his Soul and Men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy self A Man 's own self-deceiving Heart measureth Good and Evil by his present Condition in the World The brutish Worldling applauds himself in his own Course when it succeedeth The Glutton thinketh he doth well when he maketh much of and cherisheth and pampereth himself The Ambitious applaudeth himself in his good Fortune The Prodigal when he spendeth thinketh he doth well And the Covetous when he spareth thinketh he doth well and contrary Persons will say so Ay but there must be another Rule than the Fancies of Men that is Well-doing which really turneth to our eternal Good To do well is to obey Righteousness to obey the Truth for it is opposed to those that violate the Light of Nature and wrangle and dispute away that true Religion which is offered for their Cure and Remedy 1. To do well is to obey Righteousness or to act agreeably to those Obligations which lie upon us with Respect to our Relation to God others and our selves There are but three Beings in a moral Consideration God Neighbour and Self Paul's Adverbs are suted to them Titus 2.12 Soberly Righteously and Godly As to Self-government of our Fancies and Appetites we are to live Soberly in an holy Weanedness and Moderation in the midst of all present Delights and Comforts As to our Neighbour we are to live Righteously in all Justice Truth Mercy Fidelity in our Relations as Parents Husbands Subjects Children Wives As to God we are to live Godly in an holy Subjection to him and intire Dependance upon him and Communion with him So to do well with Respect to God is to behave our selves as to one that is so excellent powerful and good and upon whom we depend so much not breaking his Laws for all the World As to others Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do even so to them Matth. 7.12 Not only Negatively to prevent the Wrong but Positively to do
how shall we think ever to be Partakers of an Estate so disproportionable to our Merit and Condition Therefore because our Privileges in Christ are so great and wonderful we need not only God's Word but also his Oath 4. Partly because we our selves are so false and fickle in all our Contracts with one another especially in our Dealings with God that we need to be bound with Promise upon Promise and Oath upon Oath and all little enough to restrain and hold us within the Bounds of Duty Man is changeable and breaks Vows and Covenants and Promises and snaps them a-sunder as a Thread and Tow is burnt a-sunder with Fire and will not be held with any Obligation It is a Greek Proverb Children play with Nuts and Men with Oaths It is too often so Perjury though it be monstrous and barbarous and dissolves the Bonds of humane Societies and Confederacies yet it is no rare thing in the World especially in the latter times they are said among other Sins to be infamous for Covenant-breaking 2 Tim. 3.3 Truce-Breakers c. Thus we deal with one another But if we should be more faithful to Men for the Safety of our Interest yet how often do we break with God and compass him about with Lies 2 Sam. 23.5 He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure We are false and fickle when God is sure To Day we promise to Morrow we fail what Vow did we ever make to God and kept it Now we are apt to judg of God's Promises by our own It is usual with Man to transform God into his own Likeness and to muse of him as we use our selves The Heathens did it grosly and by a sensible Picture the Apostle chargeth it upon them Rom. 1.23 They changed the Glory of God into an Image made like to corruptible Man They shaped God into the Picture of Man and still according to the particular Genius and Fancy of each Nation The Spartans being a Warlike People painted their Gods in Armour suting most with their Disposition the Ethiopians painted their Gods black and their Devils white because they were a black People But now we do it all spiritually Psal. 50.23 Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self We judg of God by our selves and draw a monstrous mishapen Picture of him in our Minds as if he were revengeful fierce fallacious fickle and changeable as we are Therefore to meet with this Sin doth the Lord so often disclaim the Dispositions of a Man that we should not fancy him according to the Lineaments of a Man Hos. 11.9 I will not execute the Fierceness of mine Anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not Man As if he had said Do not measure me according to your Model I am not revengeful as you are and changeable as you are this is not my Fashion So Isa. 55.8 9. For my Thoughts are not your Thoughts neither are your Ways my Ways saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Ways higher than your Ways and my Thoughts than your Thoughts You see the Distance between Earth and Heaven is so wondrous great that the Earth cannot reach it with its Mountains Cedars Turrets Smoak and Vapors it is so great that a Star of the Heavens as big as the Earth seems to be but a Spangle so infinitely more are the Workings of my Thoughts and my Heart different from your Thoughts and your Heart More particularly and sutable to the present Case Numb 23.19 God is not a Man that he should lie neither the Son of Man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken it and shall he not make it good Man is as unstable as Water his Point varieth according to the different Posture of the Times and Situation of his own Interest and Advantage but it is not so with me saith the Lord. Men say and do not but God's Yea is always Yea and his No is always No. This was the Speech of Balaam who was called a false Prophet not from the matter of his Prophecy but only from his Aims But if you will have it from a more authentick Hand you have it out of the Mouth of Samuel 1 Sam. 15.29 The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a Man that he should repent Mark the Reason for he is not a Man To be a Man and to be changeable is all one Certainly the frequent Inculcation of such Passages in Scripture sheweth that we are apt to measure Infiniteness by our own scantling and size And therefore this being Man's natural Thought God in a Condescention and by way of Check is pleased to give the Creature this Assurance we have his Word and his Oath So that if we would but afford him the Favour we use to shew to an honest Man we have no ground of Diffidence and Distrust 5. Another Cause of this Unbelief is Enmity to the Gospel There is a natural Contrariety in our Hearts both to the Privileges and Duties of the Gospel and because we hate it we do not easily believe it The Pride of Man's Heart sets him against the Privileges of the Gospel and carnal Liberty against the Obedience of it Man is a proud Creature and would be self-sufficient he is loth to be beholden to God as a proud Man loves a Russet Coat of his own better than a Silken Garment that is borrowed of another Thus the Apostle complains of the Jews Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish a Righteousness of their own have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God There needs some Submission and bearing down of the Pride of Man all is borrowed here Christ is all and doth all he hath merited for all and suffered for all Now this sutes not with the Pride of Man's Heart who would be sufficient to himself and establish a personal Merit in himself And then especially is this Pride bewrayed when a Man hath any thing to trust to and rest in as civil Righteousness or a formal Profession it is a hard matter then to bring Men to submit to the Righteousness of God to come hungry and thirsty for Christ's Righteousness There is no Pride so deadly and mischievous and opposite to the Gospel as the Pride of Self-conceit and Self-sufficiency yet this is natural to us therefore God doth not only say but swear that we shall never enter into his Rest unless we take this course and run to this Hope that is before us And as Pride opposeth the Privileges of the Gospel so carnal Liberty opposeth the Obedience of the Gospel Men are loth to stoop and submit to God's Terms Christ is to be Lord as well as Saviour Now the World will not hear of Laws and Restraints You know the Nations were all for casting away the Bonds and Cords
Psal. 2.3 Let us break their Bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us In the latter Ages of the World it is foretold in the Prophecies of Scripture that the Church is in danger of turning to Libertinism we cast away Yoke after Yoke till we have left Christ nothing but an empty Title How busy are Men now to find out a North-East-Passage a nearer cut to Heaven and therefore the Lord swears and ratifies the whole Tenor of the Gospel by an Oath to meet with our Enmity and natural Contrariety which makes us so apt to misbelieve 6. Another Cause why those that are touched with a sense of Sin suspect God's good Affection is a Jealousy of Assurance or a secret fear of presuming All the Doubts and Scruples of a troubled Conscience come to this Issue and may all be referred to this Head a fear of presuming Many will plead the number of their Sins and how many Affronts they have put upon the Grace or God Some will plead the Greatness and the Aggravations of their Sins Relapses into Sin Sins against Light against the Advantages of Grace but they all end in this one thing a fear of being too bold with the Comforts of the Gospel and that Comfort doth not belong to Persons in their case This is the Cable-Rope which keeps them from floating out amain upon the Ocean of God's Mercy as if the Lord delighted in their Grief rather than in their Assurance and Satisfaction Usually thus it is with disturbed Consciences Trouble that is once swallowed is hardly got up again and Men think Sadness is more pleasing to God than Comfort and that Doubts sute with a Christian Frame rather than Confidence and so they hug a Distemper instead of a Duty Therefore the Lord is fain to swear that certain it is Nay it is not for nothing that this makes the Heart of Christ so joyful that we live upon the Provision he hath made for us Iohn 15.11 These things have I spoken unto you that my Ioy might remain in you and that your Ioy might be full This is the very Aim of God's Oath he would shew as I shall further clear by and by that our Assurance is more pleasing to him than our Doubting that he is better pleased with our Comfort nay tho it rise up to strong Comfort than with our Sorrow Thus you see that Diffidence and Incredulity is deeply rooted in our Nature yea Believers themselves are liable to many Doubts out of the Relicks of Atheism and Unbelief that yet remains in them Secondly I am to shew that we are apt to suspect his Truth in keeping his Promise When Straits and Difficulties come and things go cross to our Expectation we had need of more than God's single Word There is not one of an hundred that lives by Faith and can bottom his Comfort on a single Promise and can rejoice in the Lord his God when outward Supports fail We are led altogether by Sense and therefore in cross Providences we look upon Promises as words of course and are apt to say Where are his Promises and the Soundings of his Bowels and where is the ready Help which God hath promised in the time of Trouble And therefore as a Prop to the Soul he hath backed his Promise with an Oath Mark it Christians it is very usual even with God's dearest Children to unravel their Hopes and to question all upon a cross Providence as David Psal. 116.11 I said in my haste All Men are Liars Why doth David retract that Charge and impute it to his haste The Apostle saith Rom. 3.4 Let God be true and every Man a Liar We are changeable Creatures our Beings are a Lie to day we are and to morrow we are not and so our Promises are a Lie we say and do not and therefore why doth David impute it to his haste as if he had spoken something that were untrue Certainly there was some blame in the Expression for he acknowledgeth it was spoken in haste The Speech hath respect to those Messages and Assurances which were brought to him from the Mouth of God by Samuel Nathan and other Prophets They comforted him with God's Promises and now he was Thunder-struck blasted with some sore Affliction far enough from the Case of a Man that had many Assurances from Heaven now all Men are Liars Prophets and all Once more Psal. 31.22 I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine Eyes nevertheless thou heardest the Voice of my Supplications when I cried unto thee God hath cast off all care of David he doth not look after a poor banished Man which wandreth up and down in the Wilderness a poor Flea that is chased and hunted to and fro Such Pets and Passions of Distrust such irregular and unbelieving Thoughts usually have we upon any cross Providence when Sense contradicts the Promise Always we find Sense and Distrust making Lies of God therefore a single Promise will not serve the turn but we need an Oath Surely if God hath sworn we may wait upon him Doubts now God hath passed his Oath do but accuse him of Perjury And therefore you shall see the Oath of God hath always been the Refuge of the Saints even in the worst of Times when they seemed most of all to â—lour upon their Hopes and Expectations Hab. 3.9 The Affairs of the Church were at that time desperate but saith the Prophet Thy Bow was made quite naked according to the Oaths of the Tribes even thy Word Selah God for his Covenant and Oath 's sake revived the Affairs of the Church when they were at a desperate pass It is there expressed in the Plural Number Oaths because they were often renewed with the Church and they are called the Oaths of the Tribes because this was the Church's Treasure because of the Oath God made with the Tribes for it is not meant of the Oaths the Church made with God Look as the Covenant of Abraham is God's Covenant made with Abraham and the Mercies of David were God's Mercies bestowed upon David So the Oaths of the Tribes are not taken actively for the Oaths which the Tribes deposited with God but passively for the Oath God deposited with the Tribes that is the Church God took this Bow out of the Case and bestows the Arrows of his Vengeance upon the Adversaries of the Church That this Exposition is true it appeareth in what follows even thy Word Selah There is his Word and that confirmed by an Oath the two immutable things these relieve the sinking State of the Church It goes ill with the Church along time that we might have Experience what God can do Look what Florus said of the State of Rome Romani praelio saepe victi bello nunquam The Romans were often overcome in Battel but never in War So of the Church they go by the worst in some particular Cases and in some particular Times that we might try God and
the Life to come let us dig the Pit and tarry till God fill it with Rain from Heaven 2. In case of Difficulties Wants Distresses the naked Promise must be ground of Hope and Comsort to you though it seem to be contradicted in the Course of God's Providence when it is neither performed nor likely to be performed you are to go by his Word whatever his Dispensation be Rom. 4.18 Abraham against hope believed in hope And David saith Psal. 56.4 In God will I praise his Word in God I have put my trust I will not fear what man can do unto me So Verse 10. In God will I praise his Word in the Lord will I praise his Word The best holdfast Faith can have on God is to take him by his Word though he withholdeth Comfort and Deliverance from us yet we may praise him as long as we have his Word His Dispensation giveth no Satisfaction yet the Soul can find Rest and Contentment in his Word Well then if the Word be an impregnable Bulwark against all Fears and Dangers and Comfort against all Wants and Distresses your Faith is grown for the more simply our dependance is upon the Word of God without sensible Encouragements the stronger is our Faith 3. When all the Trust we have in God concerning the Comforts we expect by the way is still referred to the great Blessing of Eternal Life We are to trust God by the way for our Protection and Defence as well as for the Reward at the end of the Journey by swimming in the shallow Brooks we learn to venture in the great Ocean but still in subordination to the main Blessing This is the great Comfort Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom And our Faith in the Word tendeth to this Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our Learning that we thrô patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Therefore strength of Faith is hereby determined 4. Because the Word is not only our Charter but our Rule The strength of Faith is known by this If we value the Word of God as it maketh us wise unto Salvation therefore we delight in the plain Word without the Ornaments of wit as painting in Glass Windows hindereth the Light Every thing communicateth to it 's own Nature Heat causeth heat Cold causeth cold Ministers speak as the Oracles of God and so the People receive SERMON V. ON 2 THESS I. v. 3. Your Faith groweth exceedingly and the Charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth Fifthly WE come to the Fifth Property of Faith which is an high Value and Esteem of Jesus Christ I mention this 1. Because Faith in the New Covenant mainly and distinctly respects Christ Acts 20.21 Testifying both to the Iews and also to the Gentiles Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ. Why Repentance respects God I shewed you lately because from God we fell and to God we return We fell from him as we withdrew our Allegiance and sought our Happiness elsewhere we return to him as to our Rightful Lord and proper Happiness But Faith respects the Mediator who is the only Remedy of our Misery and the Means of Eternal Blessedness He opened the way to God by his Merit and Satisfaction and actually bringeth us into this way by his Renewing and Reconciling Grace that we may be in a Capacity to please and enjoy God and that 's the reason why Faith in Christ is so much insisted on as it begets a Title to the Blessings of the New Covenant It hath a Special Aptitude and fitness for this work of our Recovery from Sin to God partly because a guilty Conscience is not easily settled and brought to look for all kind of Happiness from one whom we have so much wronged Adam when once a Sinner was shy of God Gen. 3.10 Guilt is suspicious and maketh us hang off from God Psal. 32.13 And if we have not one to lead us by the hand and bring us to God we cannot abide his Presence 2. Partly because the Comfort of the Promises is so Rich and Glorious and the Persons upon whom it is bestowed so unworthy that it cannot easily enter into the Heart of a Man that God will be so Good and Gracious to us unless we have a sound Belief of his Merit who hath procured these Mercies and Hopes for us 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore since Sense and Reason could look for no such thing 2 strong Faith is necessary 3. The way God hath taken for our Deliverance is so supernatural and strange that nothing but Faith can receive it Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And Rom. 8.32 He spared not his own Son but gave him to dye for us 4. The chief of our Blessings lye in another World and Nature cannot see so far off 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off Unless we believe Christ and his Message to us we shall never entertain these things 5. For the present Christ's People are assaulted and afflicted with so many Difficulties and so seemingly forsaken and Temptations to Unbelief in this lower World are so manifold and pressing that we can take no Comfort in the New Covenant unless we have Faith in Christ who is able to maintain and defend us till he hath brought us home to God 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day 6. Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of his free Gift Faith and Grace go always together and are put as Opposites to Law and Works Rom. 4.16 Therefore 't is of Faith that it might be of Grace And Eph. 2.8 By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God Faith establisheth the free Grace and Favour of God or his Condescention to us in the New Covenant wherein Pardon and Life are offered to Penitent Believers What we receive by the Grace of God in Christ cannot be of Right or such as we may Challenge by Vertue of Obedience to the Law upon that Account He might Condemn us but he doth Accept us upon these New Terms which Christ propounded of his meer Grace and therefore Faith solveth the Interest of Grace in our Pardon and Salvation 7. Because the Duties of the New Covenant are opposite to the bent of the Carnal Heart which is set upon Liberty and Uncleanness Rom. 8.7 The Carnal mind is Enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And nothing
will bind us but Faith in Christ to whom we must give an Account in the Solemn Judgment Acts 17.30 31. He commandeth all men every where to Repent because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the VVorld in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead In which Words I observe four things 1. That God requireth of all that will submit to the Gospel Repentance and New Obedience 2. That the binding Consideration is that the Judgment of every Man's Estate is put into Christ's Hands who in the day appointed will declare and determine every Man's right and qualification 3. That the Efficacy of this Consideration dependeth on the strength of our Faith or Belief in Christ. 4. That the strength of our Faith dependeth on that Assurance given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woe be to those that now refuse Christ or do not Believe him so as to Obey him 2 Thes. 1.8 In flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. 8. 'Till we believe in Christ all his Offices are useless to us and therefore without Faith he will do us no good Who would learn of him that doth not believe him to be the great Prophet sent of God to teach the World the way to true Happiness Who would Obey him that doth not Believe that he is our Lord that he hath Power over all Flesh at whose Judgment we must stand or fall Who would depend upon the Merit of his Obedience and Sacrifice and be Comforted with his gracious Promise and Covenant and come to God with boldness and Hope of Mercy in his Name and be confident that he will Justifie and Save who doth not believe that he is a Priest who once made an Atonement and doth continually make Intercession for us In the dayes of his Flesh all that would have Benefit by Christ he did put them to this Question Whether they did believe he was able to do it To the Father of the Possessed Child Believest thou that I am able to do this Mark 9.23 to Martha Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye Believest thou this So still it holdeth good this is the most necessary Grace that maketh way for all other Respect to Christ. Secondly That this Respect is an high Value and Esteem of Christ above all other things That Faith implyeth an Esteem of Christ is plain by that of the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.7 Vnto you therefore which believe he is precious And that it is a Transcendental Respect and Esteem so as that all other things are lessened in our Opinion of them and Estimation of them and Respect unto them in Comparison of Christ appeareth by other Scriptures as Phil. 3.8 I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ He had counted and did count as not repenting of his Choice he could deny his own Honour Ease Profit and Estate his own every thing but his own God and his own Christ so Matth. 13.45 46. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant-man seeking goodly Pearls who when he had found one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it The Pearl was accounted of great Price if he would sell all things for it Christ is so dear and precious that the most excellent things are not dear and precious when they are to be ventured for his sake Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my Course with Ioy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospel of the Grace of God No Faith but this will allure and draw our Hearts to Christ and no Faith but this will keep our Hearts to him there being so many other things either to keep us or to draw us off from him Nothing but this Transcendentall Respect begets the close adherence to Christ. Now I will shew three things 1. That Christ hath deserved this Esteem 2. That Faith only will give it him 3. The Notes or how this Esteem of Christ will shew it self 1. That he Deserveth it And that 1. By what he is in himself the Son of God and the Saviour of the World This is the chief ground of our Respect to the Mediator Acts 8.37 38. If thou believest with all thy Heart thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God So Martha maketh her Confession of Faith Ioh. 11.27 Yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God that should come into the World So Peter in his own Name and the Name of his Fellow Disciples Ioh. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the living God This is the ground of adherence to him and dependance upon him that he whom the Christian World hath hitherto called their Saviour is the very Son of God appointed by God to execute the Office of King Priest and Prophet to the Church This giveth us ground to adhere to him and vanquish all Temptations 1 Ioh. 5.5 Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God The most part of the Christian World leap into this Opinion and the Name of Christ is prized but his Office is neglected there is a fond Esteem of his Memory but no real Improvement of his Grace Quandoquidem panis Christi jam pinguis factus est tractatur in Conciliis disceptatur in Iudiciis disputatur in Scholis laudatur in Eclesiis questiosa res est Nomen Christi But this is the true ground of a Christian's Esteem when soundly perswaded that he is the Christ. 2. What he hath done for us Christ requireth not so much at our Hands as he himself hath voluntarily performed for our sakes He pleased not himself that he might promote the Glory of God and our Salvation Rom. 15.3 He became poor that we might be rich 2 Cor. 8.9 He was obedient to the death even the death of the Cross that we might have Life Phil 2.7 He was made sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made a Curse for us that we might have the Blessing Gal. 3.13 Doth he require so much of us 'T is grievous to the Flesh to be crossed but he hath suffered greater Sorrows and Agonies that we might have Eternal Life 3. What he still doth for us He is our Life Gal. 2.20 You live upon and by his Life Ioh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also We use him not as an Instrument which is layed by when our turn is served
chief good and last end and all goeth to wrack and disorder for the whole Life is seasoned by it They call the Proud Happy and therefore envy them 2. It includeth this Principle That 't is in vain to depend upon God in a course of Duty and Holiness that we may shift better and carve better for our selves Mal. 3.14 Ye have said 't is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances Psal. 73.11 12 13. And they say how doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches verily I have cleansed my heart in vain Lastly It includeth an Opinion of our own Worth and Merit as if we deserved more at God's hands as if all Happiness were but our due Debt which destroyeth all Humility Luke 17.10 When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do 1. Use to reprove us and humble us for this envying the wicked It appeareth partly by our troubling and vexing our selves so much at the sight of their Prosperity we are so dejected at it as if God had done nothing for our Souls as all our Happiness were gone and lay in outward things We should chide our selves for this Psal. 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Partly by our questioning Providence and murmuring against Providence as if all things were not under the Government of God Exod. 17.7 They tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord among us or not Judges 6.13 If the Lord be with us why then is all this befall'n us or as if we had deserved more than he giveth us Isai. 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledge partly by our proneness to chuse their ways and weariness of the good course wherein we are engaged Alas How have we lost our way and been hurried to and fro in this time of Tryal like light chaffe As Cyprian observeth de lapsis Ad primum statim verbum minantis inimici fidem suam perdit nec prostratus est persecutionis metu sed voluntario lapsu seipsum prostravit c. We give out at the first Assault yea before assaulted at the very Blast and Rumor of a Temptation 2. Envy them not Let it enforce the admonition of the Text Now for Remedies Let me 1. Recommend those three radical Graces Faith Fear and Love 1 Faith that we may see afar off and look beyond the present condition 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off Faith sheweth us there are other good things after this life with which these present unstable good things are not to be compared nor so much as called good things The use of Faith is to be Heb. 11.1 The evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for Some are of so weak a sight that without their Spectacles can scarce see any thing except those that are so bulkey and great that they are not only seen but felt but if they use their Spectacles they can see afar off In a Perspective-Glass Men can discern Ships at Sea at a great distance All carnal Men see nothing but these corporeal things which Dogs and Horses see They know 't is good to eat well and drink well and sleep well increase by Trade or follow after vain pleasures but Faith giveth an Eagles Eye that can see beyond all the Clouds of the lower World an Invisible God and Heaven at a distance Yea Faith is necessary to see the vanity of present things Psal. 37.35 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree Yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found that we may not look too much to Sense and Appearance that we may not judge rashly of matters as they shew for the present But remember all Flesh is Grass and the Glory of Man as the Flower of Grass 2 The fear of God is necessary Prov. 23.27 Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of God all the day long Fear is always necessary that we may be sensible of his Providence to suppress all Murmurings and to moderate our desires of earthly things to keep us as with a Bridle from putting forth our hands to iniquity 3 ly Love is also necessary Love to God and his ways Psal. 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them they do not easily stumble So to Men 1 Cor. 13.5 Charity envieth not We are apt to be grieved at the good of others and their preference before our selves We should rejoyce in others good as our own 1 Cor. 12.26 The members should have the same care one for another and whether one Member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it 2. A due estimation and value of our Priviledges tho' Spiritual and future They are not worthy of the Favour of God that do not prefer it above all worldly things whatsoever even one drachm of his Love Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures in Aegypt For he had respect unto the recompence of reward In the darkest times of trouble you are in a better state than they A Christian sees nothing under the Sun truly great and worthy his Envy nothing worthy to be compared with what he injoyeth in Christ. 3 ly A sound Judgment about Providence and a right Interpretation of God's dealing with us If the Just should be always prosperous and the Wicked always miserable Religion would be a matter of Sense So on the contrary if the Just should have always evil and the wicked always good 't would tempt to despair therefore Providences are mixed The present state is a state of Faith we are justified by Faith we live by Faith we walk by Faith now the state of Faith requireth this that the manner of God's Government of worldly Affairs should neither be too perspicuous nor too obscure but be carried on in a middle way as the Morning is a middle thing between the darkness of the Night and the Light of high Noon For if it were too clear Sense would do all there would be no need of Faith If it were too obscure Faith would be too much discouraged therefore the Righteous are not always happy and the wicked always miserable 'T would not be a dispensation suitable to God's end which is to try our Respects to him Yea the Fear and Hope of Temporal Reward would be the greatest Motives to keep the Law of God and Men compelled to
own rather than chuse that which is good Therefore that Men may understand that the Good and Evil of the World is not our last reward or punishment our greatest Happiness or greatest Misery God doth not always comfort the Just with these good things nor punish the Wicked with the contrary Evils On the one side if Good Men were always miserable what a grievous Temptation would this be to the weak we should then think I have cleansed my hands in vain Therefore God mixeth the Dispensation of these outward things Though Piety be the only way to obtain them and to have them by Promise and with satisfaction and a Blessing yet sometimes he giveth to his Enemies that which he denieth to his Children that he may exercise our Faith and Patience and sometimes he punisheth the Wicked and delivereth the Godly that he may shew his Providence Well then a right judgment about Providence would much stay our Hearts Two-things you may be confident of First That no evil can befall you without God's Hand and Counsel It must first pass through the Hands of God before it can reach you For as nothing can be done against his Will so nothing without his Will The hairs of your head are numbred Matth. 10.30 The Divel asked leave to go into the Herd of Swine Now this is a great comfort that you do not fear the Sword if you do not fear him that weareth the Sword God can stop all evil and will when 't is for our Profit and his Glory For he loveth us more than a Mother her only Child If thou hadst an Enemy that hath a purpose to take thee away by poison and he could not any ways do it but by telling thy Parents of his purpose and asking their leave yea and must have the Poison given them by them wouldest thou be troubled and perplexed For how could it be that thy Parents would conspire with thine Enemy to thy death This is the case God loveth his People gave his only begotten Son for them neither Men nor Divels can do any thing against them without God's leave Secondly God being Just Wise and Good doth dispense all Humane Affairs with great Wisdom Sweetness and Equity The Judges of this World when they have the Guilty in their hands do not presently pass Sentence but proceed Gravely and with mature Advice examine Witnesses consider the Cause seek to draw out the Truth by Confession and then afterwards at a certain Day pass Sentence So God now heareth Accusations divers Complaints examineth Witnesses prepareth all for Judgment and in time all things that seem to be in trouble and confusion are put into an orderly frame A Sermon on PROV X. 20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth THere are three Operations of Man his Thoughts Speeches and Actions by these we are discovered and these we should make Conscience of Two of them are represented in this Scripture Words and Thoughts and we cannot make Conscience of the one unless we make Conscience of the other for the Tongue will follow the constitution of the Heart The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth In the words observe I. The Things opposed The tongue of the just and The heart of the wicked II. The Price and Value of each Choice Silver and Little worth 1. For the first we must enquire why Tongue and Heart are opposed Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Matth. 12.34 So that if we would prevent the Evils of Speech we must cleanse the Heart The Tap runneth according to the Liquor wherewith the Vessel is filled if the Heart be little worth the Speech will be vain and frothy 2. The Value and Worth the one is as choice refined Silver the other is little worth This Metaphor sheweth that an unsanctified Heart is a drossy Heart there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Expression it doth a great deal of hurt I begin with the first part The tongue of the just That is the Words and Speeches which he uttereth with his Tongue And more particularly it is opposed to a flattering Tongue Vers. 18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips A detracting Tongue to him that uttereth a Slander to a prattling Tongue Vers. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but now The tongue of the just is when a just Man speaketh like a just Man Then the Predicate it is as choice Silver both for internal Purity and external Profit and Use Prov. 8.19 My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my Revenue than choice silver It is refined and worthy to be attended unto and embraced and in this sense 't is true Verba valent sicut nummus its Acceptableness Value and Profit is intimated in this Similitude Doctr. That a good Man speaking or behaving himself as a good Man will and should confer and discourse with others to Edification I shall prove it I. From the quality of the Person here described it is a just Man By that Term is meant 1. A renewed Man for naturally our Lips are polluted Isa. 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Sin in the Tongue is most frequent and that not without difficulty avoided It proceedeth from the corruption of the Heart and discovereth the Pollution which lyeth hid there and by venting increaseth it The Orator said of some body Nullum unquam verbum quod revocare vellet eum emisisse That he never uttered a word that he desired to retract But surely he meant it of the Art of Speaking not of the Grace of Speaking at best it was but a false flattery The Corruption of Men by Nature is otherwise described by the Apostle Rom. 3.13 Their throat is an open sâ—pulchre with their tongues have they used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips This is Man's true Character as he is in his natural Estate and whatever Gifts of Eloquence and plausible Speech they are indowed with yet this doth but hide Corruption not cure and mortifie it The pure Lip is the fruit of God's converting Grace Zeph. 3.9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent And as the powerful Change which Grace worketh in us is shewed in other things so in the Tongue also 2. A Man furnished with knowledge of the Things which concern his Duty for every renewed Man is an inlightned Man For it is said Prov. 15.2 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness Unless a Man understand his Duty how shall he speak of it So Prov. 17.7 Excellent speech becometh not a fool in the Hebrew it is The Lip of Excellency Ignorant
these little ones a Cup of cold Water only in the Name of a Disciple he shall in no wise lose his Reward The Smalness and Meanness of the Benefit Help and Refreshing done to any in Christ's Name shall not make it lose its Estimation and Recompence This though hardly credited by the unbelieving World is very true Verily I say unto you and he shall in no wise c. they are emphatical Expressions But now the more eminent Services which are carried on with Hazard and Difficulty and very considerable Self-denial surely they shall not fail of their Recompence Whatever we lose for Christ we shall receive again with infinite Advantage Mark 10.29 30. And Iesus answered and said Verily I say unto you there is no Man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospel's but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mothers and Children and Lands with Persecution and in the World to come eternal Life He shall in this Life in the midst of his Persecutions and the time of his Trials and Troubles have an hundred-fold not in kind an hundred Wives and Mothers as Iulian and Nero scoffed at the Christians but in Value in Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and the Satisfaction of having discharged his Duty But God will not rest there in the World to come he shall have eternal Life Now then the Argument groweth upon our Hands If self-denying Obedience would be not only Man's Loss but utter Ruin and he be made miserable by his Duty without any Recompence God would not only be not the best but the worst Master and they that suffer the Loss of Life and all things by the Cruelty of their Persecutors would be utter Losers by their Faithfulness and Obedience to God which is contrary to the Experience of all Mankind and all that natural Light and Sense of Religion that is in Mens Hearts Surely Christ would never proselyte us to a Religion that is our undoing nor shall any of his People be Losers by him or they that venture the most for him be in the worst Condition and therefore there must be another Life wherein he will fulfil the Good he hath promised and execute the Evil threatned 2. From the Nature State and Condition of Man 1. He is God's Subject not left at Liberty to break or keep God's Laws at his own Pleasure which he would seem to be if no harm would come to it yea present Good and Profit For we see here the Wicked live a Life of Pomp and Ease and often have their Will upon the Godly and oppress them at their Pleasure their Wickedness is their Advantage Now this is not only a great Discouragement to the Gracious and Heavenly-minded but would quite destroy all Obedience if there were not Assurance of a better Estate Therefore God expresses himself as particularly ingaged to punish such as flatter themselves with Hopes of Impunity though they go on in their Wickedness Deut. 29.19 20. And it came to pass when he heareth the Words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst. The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousy shall smoke against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven They that add the moist to the dry and the dry to the moist So Zeph. 1.12 And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with Candles and punish the Men that are setled upon their Lees that say in their Heart The Lord will not do Good neither will he do Evil. And on the other side he considereth the Case of the Faithful that they have an opposite Principle against their Duty within their Hearts which must be always curbed and suppressed and they meet with many Temptations from the Oppositions and Reproaches of those that like not that sort of Life which they addict and apply themselves unto and therefore if they have not sufficient Motives to keep them in the Love of God and Obedience to the End how shall they bear up against all these Blasts of Persecution when all the World is against them They need both their Cordials and their Solaces from another and better World Therefore God assureth them that their Fidelity and Obedience shall not be lost that they are blessed already and shall be perfectly blessed hereafter Jam. 1.12 Blessed is the Man that indureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him 1 Pet. 4.13 But rejoice in as much as ye are Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding Ioy. That is that these Sufferings are sure Pledges of the Glory that shall insue Their Joy is suspended while the Glory of Christ is under a Vail but when he is manifested to the World they shall be manifested to be the Children of God Alas otherwise what would become of the best Servants God hath in the World when they are hooted at by the Clamours of the wicked Rabble and pursued with sharp Laws and exposed to great Difficulties and Hardships if they had no Life to live but this The bare Sense of our Duty would not support us in this State of Imperfection if there were not a great Recompence of Reward set before us So that the Perswasion of another Life is necessary to secure our Duty 2. Man is bound to be upright and sincere in God's Service or to get such a Constitution of Soul as to resolve to adhere to God whatever Temptations he hath to the contrary Our Lord describeth the good Ground to be that good and honest Heart which having received the Word keeps it and brings forth Fruit with Patience Luke 8.15 This was a Principle not denied by many Heathens who esteemed the love of Honesty and Goodness better than this mortal Life with all its Appurtenances and thought that a Man was never sincere nor throughly honest till he did abhor the Practice of any Villany and Impiety more than Death and those things which were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely good a Man ought to love them more than Life and lose Life rather than omit their Practice Now such Principles whether they saw it yea or no do necessarily conclude and infer a Life after this much better than this is and an Estate of Torment much worse than Death to those that have lived and died dishonestly For every thing that hath a Being doth by an indispensible Law of Nature desire the continuance of its Being but most of all its Well-being or the bettering of
its present Estate Therefore every Man if there be not a Life after Death is bound to seek the Preservation and Continuance of this Life above all things in the World besides and to do that no Device would be dishonest or Practice amiss But all they that have ever heard of the Name of Vertue abhor this Principle as base and odious That a Man should make what shift he can though never so base and wicked to maintain and save his Life no Means used to this end are to be accounted foul for nothing is so ill as Death nothing so good as Life But if this would destroy all Honesty and Vertue then certainly we have Hopes and Fears of another Life If you will say No Vertue is a sufficient Recompence to it self at what rate soever it be purchased and maintained yet what is there to countervail all the Losses and Grievances it exposeth us unto such as the loss of Life and Limbs Vertue is a sufficient Reward to it self Spe non Re in Hope not in the Thing it self but so far as 't is the only way to everlasting Communion with God who is our exceeding great Reward or so far as the assured Hope of a better Life after Death is inseparably connexed to the constant Practice of Godliness in this Life And to do Good merely for Goodness sake without any Eye or Respect to the Reward is a Strain of Devotion contrary to that Doctrine which is taught us by Christ and his Apostles 3. With respect to Man's Comfort and Solace in his Troubles which ariseth from reflecting on our future Reward when all things go across to us here Comfort one another with these Words saith the Apostle 1 Thess. 4.18 Now what Words were those The Belief of a blessed Resurrection of those that died in or for the Lord that is by occasion of the Faith of Christ he thought that Consideration sufficient to yield Matter of Comfort or Support to them These are Consolations proper to Christians because they are sure as depending upon Christ's Word and they are congruous and sutable because their Hearts are set upon these things not upon a vain World but a blessed and glorious Estate that Christ hath offered and himself is entred into and when we get thither our Affections will be satisfied Desires granted and Hopes fulfilled So that still the Apostle's Reasoning is strong If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable For our Consolations which are fetched from the other World are our proper Consolations 4. With respect to the Credit and Esteem of God's Servants in the World It is neither for the Glory of God nor the Safety of his People that the most eminent Vertue and Goodness should lie under perpetual Infamy God's Servants do not only suffer hard things but their Names are cast forth as evil Now this is not for the Honour of God because it reflects upon him when the Children of Wisdom are represented as Sons of Folly in checking their Lusts venturing their Interests and renouncing their All for their Fidelity to Christ as if they did foolishly in running into such Inconveniences when they might spare themselves and sleep in a whole Skin Now it is a great Dishonour to God that his wisest and most faithful Servants should be accounted Fools and an humorous odd sort of Men that needlesly trouble themselves and others This hardneth the World in Sin and would quench and destroy all Zeal for God if there were not a time coming when the Wisdom of the World shall be seen to be the greatest Folly and that there are no such Fools as those that imploy their greatest Abilities in attaining present Pleasure Profit and Preferment but those are the wisest Adventurers who have sold all to promote the Glory of God and gain Christ who look not upon things as they appear now to the sensual and deluded World but as they will be found at the last Day when all things shall be seen in their own proper Colours Neither is it for the Safety of the Saints who though they seek nothing but the Publick Good are traduced as the Troublers of Israel and their Way condemned as factious Singularity Therefore it is a great Satisfaction that we have hopes that things shall be reviewed and that which is good be restored to its publick Honour and the Godly who prize a good Name above all earthly Interests shall have their Faith found to Praise and Honour and Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 That the Trial of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with Fire might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ. Vse 1. It sheweth us how much it concerneth us to be assured of the future Estate It is the Life of our Religion it bindeth our Duty upon us by the strictest Tie and doth also establish our true and proper Comfort If we may have hope of better things from Christ in another World not only in our Calamities but by our Calamities we should not have such dark and doubtful Thoughts about Eternal Blessedness but live more in the clear Foresight of it by Faith and the Foretaste of it by Hope especially should this support us in two Cases in sharp Afflictions and in Death 1. In sharp Afflictions We are apt to take scandal and offence at the Sufferings that befal us for Righteousness sake but consider not only the Promises of Christ but that our very Persecution is an Argument of our final Deliverance The opposition of ungodly and unrighteous Adversaries is to them an evident Token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Phil. 1.28 That they are wretched and obdurate People and run on to their own Destruction but that you are sincere and penitent Believers who are not drawn away from your Fidelity to Christ by any Terrors whatsoever It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only an Argument to confirm the Hopes of the Gospel but a Mark and Token of your Sincerity it confirmeth your Right Well then though our Afflictions be smart and grievous let us comfort our selves with these Hopes You are not to look to present things but future not to what is applauded in the World but what Opinion Christ will have of them at the last not to what you feel now but what you shall enjoy hereafter Though all things appear with Pomp and Glory on the World's side and Terror to the Saints yet this Scene is soon withdrawn and present Time is quickly past like a Dream or piece of Phantastry and then there is an utter Inversion of things Shame is on the Wickeds side and Honour put upon the Saints and the Shame and Glory are both eternal and when they enter into everlasting Torments we enter into our Master's Joy and the Children of God that are derided and vilified in the World are then approved and justified