to the end and ye see what power he had with God in Prayer for wicked Sodom God communicated his Secrets to him as one Friend to another and Abraham made Intercession to him as Favourites of Princes for Malefactors So did he for Sodom and ye know how far he prevailed for he was a Righteous man Jam. 5.16 and such a mans Prayer prevaileth much And what was Abrahams Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith by Imputation Rom. 4. and this Faith living and working XV. We keep our selves in the Love of God when we declare a publick Spirit for the Cause of God in his Church against the Enemies of it by being zealous for his Glory and valiant for his Truth in our Station Judg. 5. This is lively asserted in the Song of Deborah and Barak who after she had praised some for their appearing and others for not appearing in this Cause dispraised the Lord she praised above all for his presence with his People and for that Spirit of Love he poured out upon them in these Words vers 31. So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might Now the Reason why this publick Spirit in the Cause of God is expressed by our Love to God is this Because God is so much concerned in it 1. As to his Honour to defend and deliver his People from his and their Enemies as the Midianites were 2. As to his Power in reducing thirty thousand to three hundred Jud. 7. as in Gideons case all that lapped He as a poor Barley Cake tumbled all the Enemies down and by a small company And a Woman in Deborahs case that is by her self and Jael Judg. 4.21 destroyed Jabin and Sisera's mighty Host To omit many other instances of publick Hearts in this case signally owned by God because they signally appeared for God Thus Moses Exod. 2.11 13. Judg. 5.9 This was their Love Thus saith Deborah My Heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer themselves willingly bless ye the Lord. Zebulun and Napthali jeoparded their lives unto Death in the high places of the Field and thus did Issachar ver 15. But Reuben Gad Manasseh Dan and Asher are branded for their Cowardise I say all this appearing in the defence of all that was dear to God and them is called Love to God Therefore we may in no wise exclude this Noble publick Spirit in the cause of God and his People from the Love of God for there is no principle in the World like to the Love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.8 Deum odisse in sacris literis peculiariter illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt Maimon Which love me and keep my Commandments Illa praecipuè quae ad arcendas pravas superstitiones pertinent Grot. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pij dicti sunt Ezek. 16.33 36 37. chap. 23.5 Jer. 2.2 I remember the love of the Espousals to animate and inflame the Soul to do great things for God This Spirit was marvellous in David whose very Name was from Love Therefore it is the duty of every Child of God to pray for the Spirit of God which only sheds all divine Love abroad in the Heart Rom. 5.5 which God inspires as he pleaseth XVI A great means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is to be Sincere and Sound in the Worship of God Mark this well for herein lyes the Love or Hatred of God as appears plainly in the second Commandement Exod. 20. ver 6. Therefore Idols and Idolaters are called our Lovers Hosea 2.5 7. Jer. 8.1 Hosea 13. They kissed the Calves ver 2. Therefore our Hankering and embracing of a false Worship provokes God to jealousie Therefore the Lord deals with Superstition and Idolatry in his People after the Law of Harlots and Adulterers The Scripture is full of this Language There is no higher Act of Love in God than to espouse a People to be his own and to give them a Rule of Worship of his own Institution and to hold them to it as he did Israel And when a People follows God and serves God according to his own appointments there are no higher Acts of Love towards him in Gods account God is enamoured with such a People God in his highest acts of jealousie was inraged against his Idolatrous people Psal 78.59 They kissed their Idols giving them all the tokens of Love and Homage 1 King 19.18 Job 31.27 They burnt their Children to them as the costlyest Sacrifice as Abraham would his Isaac in Love to God but God only tryed him by it Mark 7.7 Colos 2.22 Mat. 15.2 3 6. Rev. 17.4 5. he calls them his Hephsibah and his Beulah Isa 62.4 We see it also in the instance of good Kings how the Lord prized and praised them for this very thing for Reforming and setting up the true Worship of God as David Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah how the Lord prospered them because their Hearts were right and perfect with God in this thing On the other side how he hath branded and blasted all those that were false herein For this was David a man after Gods own Heart fulfilling all his Wills which is chiefly meant in the point of Gods Worship Act. 13.22 As for the Wills of men in the Worship of God by their Inventions Traditions and Commandements he tells you he hates them and they are Abomination to him And no wonder for what intrencheth more upon the Honour of Gods Wisdom and Soveraignty than this That he doth not know best how to appoint his own Worship but must be fain to be beholding to Man for his devices and dictates in the Case This though it seems very gay is Whorish and Poysonous this golden Dress and Cup is intoxicating XVII A great Means of keeping in the Love of God is keeping up the Communion of Saints in all the parts and duties of it What this is we shall see according to Scripture The Communion of Saints is our Participation of all the good things of God in common whereunto all the Saints and only they have right consisting in our Union to God as our chiefest good this is with God as a Father with the Son and Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 2 Cor. 13.13 1. We have Communion with the Father as Children and all in the greatest Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Rom. 8.16 17. This is procured by Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 only obtained by Believing Joh. 1.12 And maintained by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 Who walk not in darkness but in light 1 Joh. 1.6 7. 2. We have Communion with Jesus Christ the Son of God By which we are made partakers of him of his Nature and of his Grace and of his Glory all which is done by Faith that uniteing and marrying Grace and this works such Conjugal Love between Christ and his Church as makes them
against their Consciences nor to take order that continual endeavours should be used from age to age to satisfy them or that the Church should be alwaies vexed with a vain controversy about needless things that if they were never so lawful might as well be let alone without detriment to the Christian Cause and perhaps to its greater advantage Yea the attempt of imposing any thing upon the Disciples but what was necessary is judg'd a tempting of God Acts. 15.10 a bringing the matter to a tryall of skill with him whether he could keep the Church quiet when they took so direct a course to distemper and trouble it But it was thought necessary and sufficient that all did unite and were knit together in the mutual love of one another and in a joynt adherence to the great mysteries of Faith and Salvation In the same case when there were so many Antichrists abroad and 't is likely Ebion with his partakers made it their business to pervert the Christian doctrine the same course is taken by the blessed Apostle St. John only to endeavour the strengthning of these two vital principles Faith in Christ and Love to fellow-Christians as may be seen at large in his Epistles These he presses as the great commandments upon the observation whereof he seems to account the safety and peace of the sincere did entirely depend This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment 1 Epistle 3.23 He puts upon Christians no other distinguishing test but whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him chap. 5.1 Is only solicitous that they did practise the Commandment they had from the beginning i. e. that they loved one another 2 Epist 5. and that they did abide in the Doctrine of Christ vers 9. The prudence and piety of those unerring Guides of the Church themselves under the certain guidance of the Spirit of truth directed them to bring the things wherein they would have Christians unite within as narrow a compass as was possible neither multiplying articles of Faith nor rites of Worship These two principles as they were thought to answer the Apostles would fully answer our design and present enquiry And we may adventure to say of them that they are both sufficient and necessary the apt and the only means to heal and save us such as would effect our cure and without which nothing will Nor shall I give other answer to the proposed question than what may be deduced from these two considered according to what they are in themselves and what they naturally lead and tend unto I shall consider them in the order wherein the Apostle here mentions them who you see reserves the more important of them to the latter place 1. The sincere love of Christians to one another would be an happy means of preserving the truly Christian Interest among us That this may be understood we must rightly apprehend what kind of love it is that is here meant It is specifi'd by what we find in conjunction with it The understanding and acknowledgment of the mystery of Christianity Therefore it must be the love of Christians to one another as such Whence we collect lest we too much extend the object of it on the one hand or contract it on the other 1. That it is not the love only which we owe to one another as men or humane Creatures meerly that is intended here That were too much to enlarge it as to our present consideration of it For under that common notion we should be as much obliged to love the enemies we are to unite against as the friends of Religion we are to unite with since all partake equally in humane nature It must be a more special love that shall have the desired influence in the present case We cannot be peculiarly endeared and united to some more than to others upon a reason that is common to them with others We are to love them that are born of God and are his children otherwise than the children of men or such of whom it may be said they are of their father the Devil them that appear to have been partakers of a divine nature at another rate than them who have received a meer humane or also the diabolical nature 1 Joh. 5.1 Yet this peculiar love is not to be exclusive of the other which is common but must suppose it and be superadded to it As the reason of it is superadded For Christianity supposes humanity and divine grace humane nature 2. Nor is it a love to Christians of this or that Party or denomination only That were as much unduly to straiten and confine it The love that is owing to Christians as such as it belongs to them only so it belongs to all them who in profession and practice do own sincere and incorrupt Christianity To limit our Christian love to a Party of Christians truly so called is so far from serving the purpose now to be aimed at that it resists and defeats it and instead of a preservative union infers most destructive divisions It scatters what it should collect and gather 'T is to love factiously and with an unjust love that refuses to give indifferently to every one his due For is there no love due to a disciple of Christ in the name of a disciple It is founded in falshood and a lye denies them to be of the Christian community who really are so It presumes to remove the ancient land-marks not civil but sacred and draws on not the peoples curse only but that of God himself 'T is true and who doubts it that I may and ought upon special reasons to love some more than others as relation acquaintance obligation by favours received from them more eminent degrees of true worth and real goodness but that signifies nothing to the withholding of that love which is due to a Christian as such as that also ought not to prejudice the love I owe to a man as he is a man Nor am I so promiscuously to distribute this holy love as to place it at randome upon every one that thinks it convenient for him to call himself a Christian thô I ought to love the very profession while I know not who sincerely make it and do plainly see that Jewes and Pagans were never worse enemies to Christ and his Religion than a great part of the Christian world But let my apprehensions be once set right concerning the true essentials of Christianity whether consisting in doctrinal or vital principles then will my love be duly carried to all in whom they are found under one common notion which I come actually to apply to this or that person as particular occasions do occur And so shall alwaies be in a preparation of mind actually to unite in Christian love with
spiritual Head and then tho her pains be never so many her throws never so quick and sharp she may be confident that all shall go well with her either in being safely delivered of the Fruit of her Womb as the Lord's reward out of his free love r Psal 127.3 or having her Soul and that of her Seed eternally saved being taken into covenant with the Almighty God Å¿ Gen. 17.1 7. so that in the issue she will at last with all humble adoration yeild that it could not have been possibly better with her than to have been in that condition of subjection and sorrow in breeding bearing and bringing up of children 'T was this Faith for the substance of it which the pious childing Women mentioned in the story of our Saviours Genealogy did exercise a continuance wherein is required of every just Christian Woman that she may live by it in the pains which threaten death For by this Principle she may be the best supported and derive Vertue from her Saviour for the sweetning of the bitterest cup and strength for the staying her up when the anguish of bringing forth her first child is upon her t Jer. 4.31 as Sarah the notable pattern of pious Women in this case did concerning whom it is recorded u Heb. 11.11 By faith Sarah her self receiv'd strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised A staying and living by Faith upon Gods Providence and Promise will revive the drooping spirits of otherwise weak and fearful Women in their good work of child-bearing for the multiplying of the Church with those whom God will save So that tho impending danger to Mother and Child may make even good women to quail when their pangs as so many touches of Gods dâ—â—pleasure against sin are upon them yet by Faith they can fetch relief out of the faithfulness of the Promiser as Sarah did and out of this good word he hath recorded in my Text or that more general by the Prophet David w Psal 55.22 with 1 Pet. 5.7 He will sustain or take care of those that cast their care and burden upon him with the like Hereupon the upright woman tho frail can resign up her self to God being fully perswaded with the Father of the Faithful x Rom. 4.11 That what he hath promised he is also able to perform in his own time and way which is ever the best And one * Mr. Oliver chap. 13. p. 139. now with God speaking largely to this matter in his Present to Teeming Women hath very well observ'd 'T was his will that in their Travail there should ever be while the World stands that most eminent instance of his power Indeed that I may say which made the great Heathen Physician Galen after a deep search into the Causes of a womans bringing forth a child to cry out Oh miracle of Nature Hence in her low estate the pious Wife who lives by Faith above Nature when she spreads her hands and utters her doleful groans before the Almighty concludes It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good y Jer. 4.31 1 Sam. 3.18 2 Sam. 15.26 Luke 22.42 If it seems good unto him then to call for her life and the life of her Babe she can say Lord here am I and the child which thou hast given me as the Prophet speaks upon another account z Isa 8 18. She trusts to that good and great promise a Gen. 3.15 That the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head and therefore comforts her self that the Serpents sting is took away by him that is born of a woman And tho the Birth of her Child may cost her much more sorrow than it doth her Husband yet as Manaoh's Wife she may have a secret intimatiom b Judges 13.3 9 23. from the Angel of the Covenant of and in her safe deliverance one way or other which her Husband knows not of and which will abundantly compensate all her sorrows If she hath been in such a condition before she can say c Rom. 5.4 Psal 63.7 Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and so by Faith conclude Because thou hast been mine help therefore will I trust in the shadow of thy wings This saving Faith I might farther shew doth presuppose and imply Repentance and express it self in Meditation and Prayer 1. It doth presuppose and imply Repentance which from a true sense of sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth cause a loathing of our selves for our iniquities d Ezek. 20.43 and 36.31 which is a very proper exercise for a child-bearing woman who is eminently concern'd antecedently to bring forth fruit meet for repentance e Mat. 3.8 that God may receive her and the Fruit of her Womb graciously upon her hearty turning from sin and returning to and trusting in him Child-bearing Women should fruitfully remember the Sentence acknowledg rightly Gods displeasure against sin and humble themselves very particularly before him who doth in mercifulness infinitely surpass all the Kings of Israel that he may shew special favour to them For as a woman newly delivered of her Child is not out of peril whilst that Physicians call the Secundine and the Placenta or part thereof remains so neither if there should be remaining any known sin unrepented of could she upon good grounds expect to be saved from her groanings One of the Ancients * Nazianz. doth set forth Repentance by comparing the Soul to a pair of writing Tables out of which must be wash'd whatsoever is written with sin and instead thereof must be entred the characters of Grace And as this spiritual washing is very necessary for all f Jo. 3.3 5. Tit. 3.5 so be sure it is specially necessary for those women who are apt to be over-curious in the washing of their Linnens for their lying in that the purity of the outward be not preferr'd to that of the inward Man 2. This saving Faith doth usually express it self in those women who are really espoused unto Christ and in whom he dwells by Meditation and Prayer which are also very requisite for the support of child-bearing ones at the approaches of their appointed sorrows 1. Faith doth express it self in Meditation and so by bringing the Soul to contemplate upon God doth as Wax is softned and prepared for the Seal make the heart soft for any sacred characters or Signatures to be imprinted upon it Hereby an Hand-maid of the Lord when she awakes is still with him g Psal 139.18 in heartning Soliloquies The good woman seriously thinking on the Sentence of the Almighty That sorrow should be multiplied in her conception and bringing forth children h Gen. 3.16 reflects upon her self and considers well how her portion of afflictions in a Federal state is allotted to her by
without 'em a Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools destroyes ' em What doth Religion in this Case The Truth is there needs a great exercise of Religion to carry us safe thrô Freedom from Affliction b Job 1.5 Jobs extraordinary devotion upon his Childrens ordinary rejoycing in their prosperous Condition may Convincingly instruct us that there 's more danger in Freedom from Affliction than we are willing to suspect and it is more difficult to love and fear and trust God when we have the world than when we want it so that without Serious Godliness 't is impossible to withstand the insinuating and pleasing Temptation of flattering Prosperity and unless Faith be in Exercise we cannot do it with it What then is an afflicted Condition to be preferr'd Some that have had experience of both say Yes they have been afraid to come from under their Afflictions some sick Persons have been even afraid of Health thô they desir'd it lest what they got in their Sickness they should lose in their Health But yet the continuance of Afflictions breaks the Spirits and hinders that chearful serving and praising of God which is or should be the Life of a Christian thô many are better'd by Afflictions yet none are allowed to pray for Afflictions but against them and use all good means to avoid or remove them 't is one thing makes Heaven desirable the putting an end to all our Afflictions In short c Heb. 12.11 no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous whatever be the after-fruit of it This therefore is clogg'd with Vanity But what doth Religion in this Case Serious Godliness by Afflictions becomes more Serious God makes great use of Afflictions for the working and promoting of Piety and in this I think all experienced Christians are agreed they reckon sanctified Afflictions among the choicest Providences of their lives I commend the enlargement of this by your own Thoughts out of your own experiences And thus including these three Cases as in a large Parenthesis there 's one Case more that I would cautiously speak to which the Church Catholick truly so called may have more cause than ever tremblingly to consider and to seek more satisfying resolution than I can give for it's determination VI. What man upon Earth can peremptorily assert whether Peace or Persecution be just at such a time infallibly best for the Church of Christ 'T is easily granted that we must at all times pray for and endeavour the universal both outward and spiritual Peace of the Church and this that we may at all times do any thing but Sin to avoid or put an end to Persecution but let 's consider each as in the former instances That the Peace of the Church is beyond Expression desirable he is no Christian that denyes it those that are the greatest troublers of the Churches Peace do usually proclaim their Friendship to it calling their Affection to a party Love to the Church and the welfare of their party the Peace of the Church Now thô their Charity is too narrow to contract the Church into a party their Notion of Peace is large enough they would have it commensurate with the Church So that I need not be large to prove what no body denies Outward Prosperity was so much the Blessing of the Old Covenant that some confine it to that but others upon better Grounds expect more under the Gospel for d Luk. 1.74 75. this was no inconsiderable end of Christs coming into the World to deliver us out of the hands of our worldly Enemies to serve him without affrighting fears of men in Holiness before God and Righteousness before men all the dayes of our Life Which Prosperity when the Church hath enjoyed according to Christs purchase and Promise then they have walkt in the filial fear of the Lord and in the encouraging e Acts 9.31 Comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplyed in number of Converts and increase of their Graces that were formerly converted But here as we use to say of pleasant weather 'T is pity fair weather should do any harm so 't is pity the Churches Prosperity should do any harm But alas the Church of Christian as little bear continual Prosperity as long Adversity a Calm is sometimes as dangerous as a Storm Many are the Temptations and Snares of a Prosperous condition it breeds Hypocrites Errors and Heresies spring up like Weeds in rank ground Professors are apt to grow Remiss and Careless Wanton and Secure to be too fond of the Present and to hanker after more Temporal Happiness than God judges good for them How hardly were the very Apostles awakened from dreaming of Christs temporal Kingdom and the very best of 'em from suing for great Offices at Court O the Divisions among Brethren when Pride makes them quarrelsome When the World favours the Church the Church slides into the World then their worldliness spoils their Christianity and their Christianity palliates their worldliness and so those things are mixt which can never be compounded But now Serious Godliness is the best Preservative against Surfeiting on Prosperity 'T is Grace in the Exercise and Growth that powerfully enables and necessarily provokes to improve the Churches Peace to all Spiritual advantages The Church of the Jews was never in such a flourishing condition as in Solomon's Reign and is it not well worthy our observation that the Posterity of his Servants who became Proselytes to the Jewish Religion were several Ages after his death doubly recorded by a Neh. 7.57.60 the Spirit of God above the Proselytes of former Ages 'T is Serious Godliness that keeps them humble and always upon their Watch against flattering Temptations that keeps them low in their own eyes and from despising others and what on this side great Grace could make David who had a b 1 Chron. 22.14 greater Summe of ready Money than ever any had in the World either before or since preferr that little of Scripture that was penn'd in his time before an innumerable Treasure c Psal 119.72 He had also a List of Worthies d 2 Sam. 23. never the like in the World yet he e Psal 16.3.119.63 preferrs the Communion of Saints before ' em To have our Conversation in Heaven when 't is best with us upon Earth this can only be effected by the Power of Godliness believe it Christians this is no easie matter What then Is a State of Persecution more Eligible Before I dare speak a word to this I must premise this Caution Let not Persecutors take encouragement to be more outragious in their Persecution and then scornfully tell you this is good for 'em their Pastors tell 'em 't is sometimes better for 'em than Peace This is like Julian who in every thing he did with a deep Reach and greater Malice than former Emperors to undermine and worm out the Christian Religion he still twitted the Christians with some advice
receive it i. e. To acknowledge receive resign entrust and subject our selves unto God in Christ revealed in it 2ly And of how vast importance this is towards our establishment the confirming fortifying and uniting of our hearts and our joynt preservation in our Christian state the main thing we are to design and be solicitous for we may see in these particulars 1. Hereby we should apprehend the things to be truly great wherein we are to unite That union is not like to be firm and lasting the center whereof is a trifle It must be somewhat that is of it self apt to attract and hold our hearts strongly to it To attempt with excessive earnestness an union in external formalities that have not a value and goodness in themselves when the labour and difficulty is so great and the advantage so little how hopeless and insignificant would it be The mystery of God even of the Father and of Christ how potently and constantly attractive would it be if aright understood and ackowledg'd Here we should understand is our life and our all 2. Hereby we should in comparison apprehend all things else to be little And so our differences about little things would languish and vanish We should not only know but consider and feelingly apprehend that we agree in far greater things than we differ in and thence be more strongly inclin'd to hold together by the things wherein we agree than to contend with one another about the things wherein we differ 3. Hereby our Religion would revive and become a vital powerful thing and consequently more grateful to God and awful to men 1. More grateful to God who is not pleased with the stench of Carkasses or with the dead shewes of Religion instead of the living substance We should hereupon not be deserted of the divine presence which we cannot but reckon will retire when we entertain him but with insipid formalities What became of the Christian interest in the world when Christians had so sensibly diverted from minding the great things of Religion to little minute circumstances about which they affected to busie themselves or to the pursuit of worldly advantages and delights 2. More awful to men They who are tempted to despise the faint languid appearances of an impotent inefficacious spiritless Religion discern a Majesty in that which is visibly living powerful and productive of suitable fruits Who that shall consider the state af the Christian Church and the gradual declining of Religion for that three hundred years from Constantines time to that of Phocas but shall see cause at once to lament the sin and folly of men and adore the righteous severity of God For as Christians grew gradually to be loose wanton sensual and their leaders contentious luxurious covetous proud ambitious affecters of Domination so was the Christian Church gradually forsaken of the divine presence Inasmuch as that at the same time when Boniface obtained from Phocas the title of universal Bishop in defiance of the severe sentence of his Predecessor Gregory the great sprang up the dreadful delusion of Mahomet †Brerewood's Enquiries And so spread it self to this day thorough Asia Africa and too considerable a part of Europe that where Christians were twenty or thirty to one there was now scarce one Christian to twenty or thirty Mahometans or grosser Pagans And what between the Mahometan infatuation and the Popish Tyranny good Lord what is Christendom become when by the one the very name is lost and by the other little else left but the name 4. Hereby we shall be inabled most resolvedly to suffer being call'd to it when it is for the great things of the Gospel the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ clearly and with assurance understood and acknowledg'd Such a faith will not be without its pleasant relishes 'T is an uncomfortable thing to suffer either for the meer spiritless uncertain unoperative notions and opinions or for the unenlivened outward forms of Religion that we never felt to do us good in which we never tasted sweetness or felt power that we were really nothing ever the better for But who will hesitate at suffering for so great things as the substantials of the Gospel which he hath clearly understood whereof he is fully assured and which he hath practically acknowledged and embraced so as to feel the energy and power of them and relish their delicious sweetness in his soul And thô by such suffering he himself perish from off this earth his Religion lives is spread the more in the present age and propagated to after ages So seminal and fruitful a thing is the blood of Martyrs as hath alwaies been observ'd And as such a faith of the Mystery of the Gospel appears to have this tendency to the best firmest and most lasting union among Christians and the consequent preservation of the Christian Interest this mystery being more generally considered only So this tendency of it would be more distinctly seen if we should consider the more eminent and remarkable parts of it The mystery of the Redeemers person The Emmanuel God uniting himself with the nature of man His Office A reconciler of God and Man to each other His Death as a propitiatory sacrifice to slay all enmity His victory and conquest over it wherein is founded his universal Empire over all His triumphant entrance into Heaven whither he is to collect all that ever lov'd trusted and obey'd him to dwell and be conversant together in his eternal love and praises How directly do all these tend to endear and bind the hearts and souls of Christians to God and him and one another in everlasting bonds Thus then we have the answer to our question in the two parts of the Text. The former pointing out to us the subjects of our union with the uniting principle by which they are to be combin'd with one another The other the center of it with the uniting principle whereby they are all to be united in that center Vse And what now remains but that we lament the decay of these two principles And to our uttermost endeavour the revival of them 1. We have great cause to lament their decay for how visible is it and how destructive to the common truly Christian Interest It was once the usual cognisance of those of this holy profession See how these Christians love one another and even refuse not to dye for each other Now it may be How do they hate and are like to dye and perish by the hands of one another Our Lord himself gave it them to be their distinguishing character By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another Good Lord what are they now to be known by And what a cloudy wavering uncertain lank spiritless thing is the Faith of Christians in this age become How little are the ascertaining grounds of it understood or endeavoured to be understood Most content themselves to profess
duely on it and then walk worthy of it Now this Love of God I cannot more compendiously declare than by that of the Apostle Ephes 1.3 c. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ c. In which ye are to observe six remarkable things in Gods blessing of us for which we are to bless him 1. That God the Father of Christ is the Author of all our Blessings especially of Spiritual Blessings Election Redemption and all that flow from thence are given us upon the account of Christ by whom God becomes our Father that is by Adoption by which we have the right of Inheritance that is Salvation 2. That by the word Blessings he includes all things pertaining to Salvation because he saith with all spiritual Blessings alluding to Gods Promise made to Abraham in Christ saying In thee shall all the Nationss of the earth he blessed And therefore he will give the consummation of this Blessing at the day of Judgment to his Elect saying Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you i. e. from his Everlasting Love ver 6. 3. That the Father loves and blesseth us that is his Chosen ones and none else Vers 4 5. who declare themselves such by their Faith and Holiness and Love vers 4. 4. That these Blessings are principally Spiritual Blessings such as the Elect only receive in a peculiar and distinguishing way and that under two Considerations 1. They are not carnal Blessings though the Father denyes not these to his Children for which his Child must bless him but here they are called spiritual because chiefly such 2. They are not common spiritual Blessings neither such are temporary Faith Heb. 6. 1 Cor. 13. a great degree of Knowledge even in Spiritual things yea a taste also of the Holy Ghost and the Beginning of a pious Life c. But only saving Grace and Eternal Glory the Fruit of Eternal Election for all other spiritual Blessings follow and flow from that as the true Knowiedge of God a living Faith effectual Calling Justification Sanctification a Christian Life Love to the Saints and Life Eternal this the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Blessing as containing and comprehending all fully and perfectly 5. But there is one thing more to be noted from that word in heavenly places For as carnal Blessings have their Beginning in the Earth and there they end so heavenly Blessings come from Heaven and terminate there in Glory without end Therefore we render it in heavenly places because it notes the Place of it which is Heaven where Christ is exalted in Glory as our Head to communicate and accumulate all spiritual Blessings on his elected and redeemed Members There it 's said Cap. 1.19 to Vers ult in heavenly places in Christ All this is amplified in this first and more particularized in the second where he saith He hath quickned us together Ephes 2.4 5 6. and raised us up together and made us sit together with Christ in heavenly places All this is an high act of Divine Love toward us By which three things here and in Heaven all Grace and Glory is meant and that Saints do partake of them with and by Christ And this leads to a 6. Sixth thing wherein the Love of God to us is declared in the place afore cited Ephes 1.3 4 5. viz. in Christ by which is assigned the material Cause of all Spiritual Blessings namely Christ as Mediator and High-Priest 1. We are blessed in Christ i. e. for Christs sake and upon his account 2. In Christ by the Merits of Christ by his Obedience Passion and Death 3. In Christ as our Head from whom as such all our Blessings flow in our Souls and Bodies therefore is he called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 That is in the Person of Christ We are raised with him and sit in Heaven with him i. e. We are counted raised and sitting there by his Dignity and Glory as our Head By this Imputation the Papists Justification by Inherent Righteousness is fully confuted Also we have infinite Priviledge and Comfort that the Lord Jesus is made to us his members Righteousness and Holiness which can never be had any other way either within us or without us but in Christ our Head only and there only it is perfect and sure and all this in love For the Father hath demonstrated his love to Christ for this his undertaking and his love to us because he appointed him for us and accepts us in him Ephes 1.3 4 5 6. This is the first Branch of the fifth Use of Studying the Love of God to us in Christ in all the Causes of it and in all the Parts of it For this is a strong Motive to keep us in this Love to understand it and to believe it and to walk up to it 2. The second Branch To understand and practise our Love to the Lord answering his Love to us 1. Understand what Love that is wherewith we are to love the Lord and whereby we keep our selves in his Love to us Matth. 22.36 37. In order unto this ye are to know that the whole Worship of God consists in the Love of God Hence Ambrose saith The Love of God is the form of all Vertue yea the Head and Foundation of all true Religion The end of the Law is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.5 and Faith unfeigned There are three things that are in true Love 1. To be affected with a desirable Object upon our knowledge of it to be good 2. To be carryed out strongly in our Desires after it that we may be united with it 3. When we enjoy it to Rejoyce in it and to rest in it as in our End and Center of our Desires This the word signifies in the Original Hebrew and Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rest greatly in the enjoyment of the thing beloved as Etymologists have it Phavorinus c. So true Love contains in it Affection Desire Joy as the Beginning Progress and End of it and this will be perfect in Heaven and our Perfection and Happiness In this Love outvyes all other Grace 1 Cor. 13. We have an excellent Saying of St. Augustin to this purpose Tom. 4. libro de substantiâ dilectionis Cap. 6. This is then the rest of the Soul when it is fixed by the Love of God as to its desire nor desires any thing or Object besides but having got possession of that which it desires is wholly taken up with the Delight of it and is happy in the secure enjoyment of it Whence we are to learn wherein the true Nature of our Love of God stands that the Heart rest in the enjoyment of what it desires which it can do in nothing else And only our Love to God is true
all that rise against thee to do thee hurt be as that young man is 5. And what sayes King David to this Methinks I hear him say Psal 81.1 c. Come my dear People Come and let us sing aloud unto God our strength and make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2. Take a Psalm and bring hither the Timbrel the pleasant Harp with the Psaltery 3. Blow up the Trumpet as in the new Moon as on a solemn feast day 4. Let this be a Statute for Israel for this is the day that the Lord hath made we will rejoice and triumph in it The King shall joy in thy strength and greatly rejoice in thy Salvation The Lord is known by the judgment that he hath executed the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgaion-Selah Is this the Io Triumphe wherewith he makes the Earth to ring again No but on the contrary the poor Father being as it were Thunder-struck with the words of his Blackmore forgets that he was a King and Father of his Countrey looks like Jephthah when he met his devoted Daughter and as if bereav'd of all Comfort breaks out into a flood of tears and into such an indecent Lamentation as no Records either Sacred or Humane can parallel The King was much moved and wept v. 33. and as he went he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son My just Indignation at this more than Womanish Transport forbids me to descant on it I shall barely lay before you Joab's smart Repartee whereby he endeavour'd to stop this Deluge 2 Sam. 29.5 6. Joab said to the King Thou hast this day shamed the faces of all thy Servants which this day have saved thy Life and the Lives of thy Sons and of thy Daughters and the Lives of thy Wives 6. In that thou lovest thine Enemies and hatest thy Friends For thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither Princes nor Servants For this day I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died this day then it had pleased thee well And thus we have seen the Malady Turn we now to the Remedy The Plague-sore has been open'd now for the Bunch of Figgs II. What may gracious Parents best do for the Conversion of those their Children whose Wickedness have been occasion'd by their own sinful Indulgence 1. Reflect seriously on your heart and wayes Begg and begg sincerely earnestly believingly constantly of the Lord effectually to convince you of the great sinfulness and mischief of your Indulgence and to humble you deeply for it O cast your selves at the foot of God lament it weep over it mourn as Doves before the Lord when you see if indeed you can see and fondness hath not quite put out your eyes Pride Stubborness Profaneness Averseness from God all sorts and degrees of sins and corruptions break forth in your Childrens Lives And that 1. With respect to your Children And this 1. Not only as the natural roots from whom all this their Lewdness springs They drew it from the Womb and breast They were poyson'd in the very Spring Psa 51.5 Job 14.1 15.14 25.4 This consideration only if no more to see your Children rotting sinking dying with a loathsome Disease which they drew from your Loins were enough to rend your hearts and Caul But 2. By your wretched Indulgence you have added much fuel to this flame you have heated your Furnace seven times hotter Your Indulgence hath fomented yea inflam'd their Wickedness You have heightned their feavour into a Plague and that worse a thousand times than that of the Body which ends in a temporal Death but this is of their Souls and is like to sink them for ever into a gulph of fire and brimstone 2. With respect to God The Lord was wroth with the Serpent and curs'd him for ever because but an instrument us'd by Satan for corrupting our first Parents though no cause at all of it Gen. 3.14 May not the Lord be much more angry with us and cause his Wrath to smoak against us that have not only been instruments really to convey this Poyson and corruption of nature into our Childrens bosoms but the principal occasions of of their superadded Wickedness You see on both these accounts matter of deep Humiliation 2. Love your Children hearken indulgent Parents I say it again Love your Children Yea Love them I say not more but better than ever yet you Lov'd them you can never Love them too well You may and have Lov'd them too much One saith well None is to be Lov'd much but He only whom we can never Love too much Love them with all the kinds degrees properties of Love before mention'd 1. Love them so as to be tender of their Bodies their outward man let that want nothing that is necessary convenient comfortable suitable to their age or quality but above all Love their Souls their inward man The Cabinet must not be neglected but the Jewel is to be most regarded The Ring is to be only esteemed but the Diamond in it most highly to be prized The Love of our Childrens Souls is the very Soul and Spirit and Elixir of True parental Love If we truely Love their Souls we shall unfeignedly desire and vigorously endeavour their Spiritual and Eternal Salvation If you Love their Souls indeed your Hearts desire and prayer to God for them will be that they may be saved Rom. 10.1 You will put forth your utmost affections and strength to lift them up out of that pit of Sin and Misery in which they lye and to raise them into and fix them in a state of Grace If we do not really grieve to see our Children lye weltring in their Sins of Ignorance unbelief folly profaneness and so under the power and paw of Satan If we do not faithfully labour to preserve them from perishing but suffer sin upon them pretend what we will let us shew never so much Love with our mouth God sayes we really hate them in our Hearts Lev. 19.17 See how Solomons Parents exprest their Love to Him Prov. 4.3 4. I was my Fathers Son tender and only beloved in the sight of my Mother 4. He taught me also and said unto me Let thy heart retain my Words keep my Commandments and Live If you Love them indeed and in truth you will you can have no greater joy than to see your Children walking in the Truth Joh. 3. Ep. 4. That foolish Son who is now an heaviness to his Mother being made Truely wise will make a glad Fatther Prov. 10.1 Oh what a lovely sight what a Soul-ravshing object in a godly Parents eye is an hopeful Timothy an obedient godly Joseph Prov. 23.24 25. Well then Love your Children and in the first place their precious Souls If you find your Love and care goes out more for their Bodies than Souls so far mistrust your
shall damn a man which he more hateth than loveth and had truly rather leave than keep and sheweth this by true endeavour XI The best man hath much evil and the worst have some good but it is that which is preferr'd and predominant in the Will which differenceth the Godly and the wicked He that in estimation choice and life performeth God and Heaven and Holiness before the world and the pleasure of sin is a true godly man and shall be saved XII The best have daily need of Pardon even for the faultiness of their holiest Duties and must daily live on Christ for pardon XIII Even Sin against Knowledge and Conscience are too oft committed by regenerate men for they know more than others do and their Consciences are more active Happy were they indeed if they could be as good as they know they should be and love God as much as they know they should love him and were clear from all the Relicts of Passion and Unbelief which Conscience tells them are their Sins XIV God will not take Satans Temptations to be our Sins but only our not resisting them Christ himself was tempted to the most heinous Sin even to fall down to the Devil and worship him God will charge Satans blasphemous Temptations on himself alone XV. The Thoughts and Fears and Troubles which Melancholy and natural Weakness and Distemper irresistably causeth hath much more of Bodily Disease than of Sin and therefore is of the least of Sins and indeed no more Sin than to burn or be thirsty in a Fever further than as some Sin did cause the Disease that causeth it or further than there is left some power in Reason to resist them XVI Certainty of our Faith and Sincerity is not necessary to Salvation but the Sincerity of faith it self is necessary He shall be saved that giveth up himself to Christ though he know not that he is sincere in doing it Christ knoweth his own Grace when they that have it know not that it is sound It is but few true Christians that attain to certainty of Salvation for weak Grace clogged with much Corruption is hardly known and usually joyned with fear and doubting XVII Probability of Sincerity and Trust in Christ may cause a man justly to live and die in Peace and Comfort without proper certainty else few Christians should live and die in peace and yet we see by experience that many do so The common Opinion of most Church-writers for 400 years after Christ was that the uncontinued sort of Christians might fall from a state of Grace in which had they continued they had been saved and therefore that none but strong confirmed Christians at most could be certain of Salvation and many Protestant Churches still are of that mind and yet they live not in despair or terror No man is certain that he shall not fall as heinously as David and Peter did and yet while they have no cause to think it likely they need not live in terror for the uncertainty No Wife or Child is certain that the Husband or Father will not murder them and yet they may live comfortably and not fear it XVIII Though Faith be so weak as to be assaulted with doubts whether the Gospel be true and there be any Life to come and though our Trust in Christ be not strong enough to banish our Fears and Troubles yet if we see so much evidence of Credibility in the Gospel and Probability of a better Life hereafter as causeth us here to fix our Hopes and Choice and to resolve for those Hopes to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and let go all the world rather than sell those Hopes and live a holy Life to obtain it this Faith will save us XIX But God's Love and Promise through Christ is so sure a ground for Faith and Comfort that it is the great Duty and Interest of all men confidently and quietly to trust him and then to live in the joy of holy Trust and Hope XX. If any man doubt of his Salvation because of the greatness of his Sin the way to quietness is presently to be willing to forsake them Either he that complaineth is willing to be holy and forsake his Sin or not if you be not willing to leave them but love them and would keep them why do you complain of them and mourn for that which you so much love If your Child should cry and roar because his Apple is sowr and yet will not be perswaded to forbear to eat it you would not pity him but whip him as perverse But if you are truly willing to leave it you are already saved from its damning guilt XXI If you are in doubt of the Sincerity of your Faith and other Graces and all your Examination leaveth you uncertain the way is presâ—ntly to end your doubt by actual giving up your self to Christ Do you not know whether you have been hitherto a true believer you may know that Christ is now offered to you consent but to the Covenant and accept the offer and you may be sure that he is yours XXII Bare examining is not alwayes to be done for assurance but labour to excite and exercise much the grace that you would be assured of The way to be sure that you believe and love God is to study the promises and goodness of God till active Faith assure you that you believe and you love God and Glory till you are assured that you love them XXIII It is not by some extraordinary act good or bad that we may be sure what state the soul is in but by the predominant bent and drift and tenor of heart and life XXIV Though we cry out that we cannot believe and we cannot love God and we cannot pray aright Christ can help us without his grace we can do nothing but his grace is sufficient for us and he denieth not his further help when once he hath but made us willing but hath bid us ask and have and if any lack wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not with former folly but gives his spirit to them that ask him XXV This sin called the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is the sin of no one that believeth Jesus to be the Christ nor of any that fear it no nor of every infidel but only of some few obstinate unbelieving enemies for it is only this When men see such miraclâ—â— of Christ and his spirit as should or could convince them that he is of God and when they have no other shift they will rather maintain that he is a Câ—njuâ—â—r 〈◊〉 wrought them by the Devil XXVI Though sinful fear is very troublesomâ—â—nd not to be cherished God often permitteth and useth it to good to keep us from being bold with sin and from those sinful pleasures and love of the world and presumption and security which are far more dangerous and to take down pride
Actions and Accidents two things considerable 1. The Action for example such a Text was handled such a charitable Action done such a Man brake his Leg was drunk or the like 2. The Inference or Observation to be gathered from thence for all Events whether good or bad are intended by the wise God for mans Instruction Now the Memory lays up the former and can retain it a long time but the Lesson which we should learn from it that 's neglected that 's forgotten 2. Things Hurtful to us to wit Injuries These usually stick in the memory when better things slip out If any body hath spoke or done evil to us the memory is trusty enough about these As one says we can remember Old Songs and Old Wrongs long enough yea those whom we profess to forgive yet we declare that we cannot forget them Not but that a man may have a natural remembrance of an injury so that he have not an angry remembrance of it As our heavenly Father himself remembers all a Believers sins but puts away his anger so we may rationally remember them but we must spiritually forget them for else the remembrance of them generally doth us a great deal of hurt but no good at all it cools our love weakens our trust and prepares us for revenge as did Amnon towards Absolon 2 Sam. 13.32 3. Things Sinful thus we can remember a filthy Story seven years when we do forget a saving Sermon in seven hours And herein the Memory is the great Nurse of Contemplative wickedness and represents to the idle and sinful heart all the sins it wots of with renewed delight and so strengthens the impression and doubles the guilt Ezek. 23.19 She multiplyed her Whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth wherein she had played the Harlot in the Land of Egypt The depraved Memory is herein fitly compared to a Sive that lets the good Corn fall through and reserves only the chaff by which its plain that the Faculty is not lost but poyson'd So that in this respect we may say as Themistocles did to Simonides when he offered to teach him The Art of Memory rather says he teach me The art of Forgetfulness for the things which I would not I remember and cannot forget the things I would 2. The cortuption of the Memory stands in Forgetting those things which we should remember But these things being so exceeding many great and useful though I cannot enumerate them yet I shall comprize the chief of them in these following general heads 1. Our Creator and what he hath done and what he hath done for us Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth And yet whom do we more forget Jerem. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number And our Forgetfulness here is most inexcusable because we may see taste and feel him every moment forasmuch as he is not far from every one of us seeing in him we live and move and have our Being and yet we can make shift to forget Him which shews the great Craze we had by the Fall And then the great things which he hath done to wit in the Works of Creation and Providence especially for his Church these we early forget but should remember Psal 77.11 I will remember the Works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of Old And particularly what he hath done for us the many and great Mercies and Deliverances especially the most remarkable of them which every good Christian should have a Catalogue of in his mind or in his Book Deut. 8.2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy GOD led thee these Forty Years c. 2. Our Redeemer and what he hath suffered for us Never was there such an Instance of free and transcendent Love in the World as that the Eternal Son of God should give himself to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin and yet we that can profess of far less kindnesses from men that we shall never forget them can forget this else he had never instituted the Lords Supper on purpose to keep up the solemn and useful Remembrance thereof which Remembrance sets a work all our Graces our Faith Love Repentance Thankfulness c. And without the frequent Use of this Ordinance where it may be had a defect will be forced in these Graces for the greatest things wear off with time and Holy David himself found cause to charge it uopn his Soul Ps 102.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits c. 3. The Truths of Religion especially the most weighty Malach. 1.4 Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servants which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments And of these the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.12 13 15. he would put the Christians in remembrance though they knew them that they might be established in present Truth yea he would stir them up by putting them in remembrance as long as he lived The Doctrine of God of Christ of the Creation of the Fall of the Covenant of Grace of Faith Repentance the Resurrection as in my Text and Judgment to come these things should be so ingrafted into the hearts of Christians that they should know and remember as well as their own Names or the rooms of their Houses and yet it is a shame to find how easily and almost utterly these things are forgotten by too many How few do we find that have been long Hearers of Gods Word that can give any tolerable account of the Nature of that Faith by which the Soul lives 4. The Duties of Religion The Scripture that so often requires us to remember them plainly implies that we are apt to forget them what 's the meaning of that Exodus the 20 Chap. Verse 8. Remember the Sabboth to keep it holy but that we easily forget it we are surprized by it it returns ere we are aware so that Heb. 13. Verse 2 3 16. which is called by some a Chapter of Remembrance be not forgetful to entertain Strangers Remember them that are in Bonds to do good and to Communicate forget not All which as they shew our duty so do they imply our defectiveness herein though to forget those and such like are as absurd as if we did forget to eat or sleep For as Christians we live by Faith and breath by Prayer so to forget to repent to believe to pray and to discharge the duties of our Relation Callings and all other duties toward God and toward men is to forget Christianity it self 5. Our Sins As there is a culpable so there is an useful and necessary remembrance of them when we remember sin to renew our love to it that 's damnable but when we remember it to loath it and to loath our selves for it that 's saving Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember
experience Many have come by the help of God to remember more and better than they did before and why should not you increase the number of such proficients It is not fit for a Christian to despond in any such case but to be up and doing When a Ship leaks it is not presently cast away for says the Master this Vessel may yet do me Service you have leaking Memories I but being careen'd they may be much more serviceable than ever they were Obj. O but I shall never attain any Memory Ans I tell you despondency spoils all Indeavours neither do you sit thus down in other cases If your Body or Brain be weak you will try experiments you 'l go to one Physitian after another as long as you have a penny left be not then more careless of your noblest parts The cure is possible at least in some good measure 2. It is Reasonable that your Memories which have bin sinks of Sin should become Helps to Heaven All our faculties are given us for this end and is it not highly reasonable that they should be so applyed It is apparent that our Memories have bin grievously perverted and therefore as we have yielded our members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so we should yield our members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Rom. 6 19. Seeing God hath given us a noble faculty should we neglect or abuse it can others remember the world and their lusts and shall not we remember the holy things that refer to a better world nay can we remember a thousand unprofitable hurtful and sinful matters and not those things that do most nearly and highly concern us It is intolerable 3. This is Necessary It is an unquestionable Duty That fundamental Law propounded in the Old Testament Deut. 6 5. and confirmed in the New Matt. 22 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind doth oblige us to strain every faculty to the utmost in Gods behalf One end also of Christs coming into the world was to repair our depraved faculties and shall we suffer him to dye in vain The Text I am upon shews how necessary it is as a means of Faith and Salvation We find by experience that this faculty is miserably corrupted and therefore it is undoubtedly necessary that it be renewed Obj. We can do but what we can let it be never so necessary Ans And I pray how far have your indeavours travelled in this business have you carefully used the fore-mention'd means and continued in the use of them no no your impotency is wilful you cannot because ye mind it not or else certainly if inherent grace were weak assistent grace would be ready at your service 4. A good Memory is very helpful and useful It is not a vain thing that is thus prest upon you For 1. It is a great means of Knowledg For what signifies your Reading or Hearing if you remember nothing It is not eating or drinking but digesting your food that keeps you alive and so it is in this case Prov. 4 20 21. My son not only attend unto my words incline thine ear unto my sayings but keep them in the midst of thy heart Then are they life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh 2. It is a means of Faith as is plain in my Text unless ye have believed in vain For though Faith doth rest purely on the Word of God yet when the Word and works of God are forgotten Faith will stagger Hence our Saviour saith Matt. 16 9. O ye of little Faith do not ye understand neither Remember the five Loaves of the five thousand c. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit whereby Satan is foiled but if this Sword be out of the way by reason of Forgetfulness how shall we conflict with this Enemy 3. It is a means of Comfort If a poor Christian in distress could remember Gods promises they would inspire him with new life but when they are forgotten his Spirits sink Our way to Heaven lyes over Hills and Vales when we are on the Hill we think we shall never be in our dumps again and so when we are in the Valley we fear we shall never have comfort again But now a faithful Memory is a great help Psal 77 10 11. But I said This is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right Hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old So also Psal 119 52. I remembred thy Judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self 4. It is a means of Thankfulness We are all wanting in this Duty of Thankfulness and one cause thereof is forgetfulness of the mercies of God Hence ungrateful men are said to have bad memories What abundant matter of thanksgiving would a sanctified Memory suggest to every Christian Hence holy David calls upon himself Psal 103 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits By which forgetfulness and such other means it comes to pass that Praise and Thanksgiving hath so little which should have so much room in our daily devotions 5. It is a means of Hope For experience works Hope and the Memory is the Storehouse of experience therein we lay up all the instances of Gods goodness to us heretofore Lament 3 21. This I recal to mind therefore have I hope Hence they who do not trust in God are said in Scripture phrase to forget him And one reason of mens impatience and dejectedness in trouble is assign'd by the Apostle Heb. 12 5. And ye have forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him 6. It is a means of Repentance For how can we repent or mourn for what we have quite forgotten As therefore there is a culpable remembrance of Sin when we remember it in kindness so there is a laudable remembrance of Sin when we remember it with displeasure Ezek. 16 63. That thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more But alas we write our Sins in the Sand and foolishly imagine that the eternal God forgets them just as soon as we though in such cases he hath said and sworn Amos 8 7. Surely I will never forget any of their works 7. It is a means of Vsefulness No man should nor indeed can be singly religious when one spark of grace is truly kindled in the heart it will quickly indeavour to heat others also so for counsel we are born we are new born to be helpful unto others Herein a good Memory is exceeding useful out of which as out of a Storehouse a wise Christian may bring forth matters both new and old Such may say Psal 44.1 Psal 48.8 We have heard with our Ears and
somthing when they are nothing and so deceive themselves They take Gifts for Grace and the common for the saving works of the Spirit Presumption goes with them for Faith and a little sorrow for Sin is Repentance They do not distinguish between the Form and Power of Godliness betwixt a blockish Stupidity and true Peace of Conscience Thus I have told you many but not one half of the evil Effects of Pride let me proceed a little farther in this Discovery Pride makes men censorious and uncharitable Proud persons are very prone to judge and censure others especially if they differ from them in Opinion a little matter will make a proud person to count and call such Hypocrites or Hereticks he no sooner espies a Mote in their eyes but he thinks it a Beam he would have others to think the best of him but he himself will think the worst of others Again it makes men Whisperers and Back-biters Such are joyn'd by the Apostle Paul with proud persons Those who are proud don't only censure others in their hearts but they reproach and defame them with their Tongues they hope by speaking evil of others they shall be the better thought of themselves they endeavour to build their own Praise upon the Ruines of others Reputation Again it makes men dislikers and haters of Reproof Proud persons are ready to find fault with others but they do not like to hear of their own faults Solomon says of a Scorner that is a proud person as ye heard before that he doth not love one that reproves him Prov. 15.12 and in another place he says that he hates him Though the Reprover was his Friend before yet now he counts him as his Enemy Herod imprison'd John for telling him of his Sin though before he reverenc'd him Again Pride makes men heretical One says of Pride Haereticorum mater Superbi◠Aug. that it is the Mother of Hereticks Simon Magus that great Haeresiarch was a very proud man the Gnosticks the Manichees the Eunomians were all noted for Pride the latter vainly and blasphemously boasted that they knew God as well as he knew himself Experience teacheth that if any Infection of Heresie comes into a place those that are proud do soonest catch it Mark those says one that are turn'd any where from the way of Truth and see if they were not proud and conceited persons Again it makes men Separatists and Schismatical There are such persons amongst the professing People of God though all are not such that go by that Name These are they says Jude that separate themselves They went out from us says the Apostle John because they were not of us Proud conceited Christians are not contented to come out and separate from the unbelieving Idolatrous world but they will separate also from the true Church of Christ and cast off all Communion with them who hold communion with him they will say to those that are holier than themselves Stand off for we are holier than you Oh 't is Pride that is the chief Cause of all Church-Rents and Divisions We may thank Pride for all the Factions and Fractions that are in the Churches of Christ at this very day Again Pride makes men Hypocrites It prompts them to put on a Vizard and Mask of Religion and to be in appearance what they are not in reality Proud persons love the praise of men more than the praise of God and therefore they are more careful to seem religious than to be so indeed they more study to approve their ways to men than they do their hearts to God Again Pride makes men malicious and wrongful Proud persons are forward to do wrong but backward to bear or endure it they expect that others should forgive and bear with them but they will not forgive or bear with others they require an eye for an eye and render evil for evil nay sometimes evil for good A proud person careth not whom he wrongs or betrays so he may accomplish his own ends he makes no bones of Falshood Slander Oppression or Injustice if he apprehend it necessary to his own honour or ambition Again it makes men Murmurers and Complainers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud persons find fault with their Lot and are discontented with their condition they think themselves wiser than God himself that in some things they could mend what he doth or hath done They suppose they could guide Gods hand and teach him knowledge if they were of his Counsel they could give him direction for the better governing of the world in general and for the better ordering of their own conditions and concernments in particular Again Pride makes men to slight the Authority and Command of God Proud persons don't only oppose their wisdom to Gods wisdom but their wills also to Gods will they not only disobey but despise the Commandment of God and say at least in their hearts as that proud King Who is the Lord Jer. 2.21 that we should obey his voyce or as those proud ones in Jeremiah We are Lords and will come no more to thee The Prophet calling the Israelites to hear and give ear Jer. 13.15 17. he immediately subjoyns and be not proud and by and by he adds If ye will not hear my Soul shall weep in secret places for your pride Again it maketh persons to establish their own righteousness and to set that up in the room of Christ's righteousness Proud persons will not submit themselves to the righteousness of God so it is exprest in the Epistle to the Romans God hath provided a righteousness for sinners of the Children of men such as is every way sufficient to justifie and save them and that is the righteousness of his Son What he did and suffered may by Faith be imputed and made over to them as if they themselves had done and suffered it so that as by the disobedience of Adam they were made sinners by the obedience of Christ they might be made righteous and as Christ was made sin for them so they may be made the righteousness of God in him But such is the Pride of mans heart that he will not submit to this way of Justification and Salvation he will not be beholden to another for that which he thinks he hath in himself he will not go abroad for that which he thinks he hath at home A proud Sinner sees no need of a Saviour and thinks he can do well enough without him Thus I have set before you two Decads of the evil Effects of Pride I might have given you as many more May all serve to shew you the sinfulness of this Sin 2. Be throughly perswaded that this Sin of Pride is in your selves that Direct 2 you are deeply guilty of it and in great danger by it Though you see it to be a sin and a great sin yet if you do not see it to be your sin and that 't is in you in a prevailing and dangerous
renders them comly in the sight of men yea and in the sight of God too As the Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit so the Ornament of an humble and lowly spirit is in his sight of great price Indeed all along this was the great Requisite in the People of God The main thing that he required of them was to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with and before him so the Prophet informs us Mic. 6.8 To do justly and to love Mercy that is the Sum of all Duty to man to walk humbly that is the Sum of all Duty to God 8. Set before your eyes the Examples of humble and lowly Persons Direct 8 Some are greatly influenc'd by Examples more than they are by Precepts 1. Look upon the most eminent Saints that ever were upon the earth and you will find they were most eminent for humility Jacob thinks himself less than the least of Gods Mercies David speaks of himself as a worm and no man Agur says that he was more brutish than any man The Apostle Paul says of himself 1 Tim. 5.15 Eph. 3.8 that he is the chiefest of sinners and less than the least of all Saints How does that great Saint and Apostle vilifie and nullifie himself Bradford that holy man and Martyr subscribes himself in one of his Epistles a very paintâ—d Hypocrite The Apostle Peter said unto our Saviour Depart from me Luke 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for I am a sinful man O Lord a man that is a great sinner Thus the heaviest ears of Corn do always hang downwards and so do those Boughs of Trees that are most laden with fruit 2. Look upon the Angels of God the elect Angels they excel in strength and so they do in humility likewise they readily condescend to minister unto the Children of men that are abundantly inferior to themselves they take charge of them and bear them up as it were in their arms Are they not all ministring Spirits says the Apostle to the Hebrews The Interrogation is an Affirmation The greatest Angels do not disdain to minister to the least Saints When they have appeared to men they have utterly rejected the reverence they would have shewn them and have openly declared themselves our fellow-servants that we and they have but one common Lord. 3. Look upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself he is the great instance of humility though he was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet he was made in the likeness of men and took upon him the form of a Servant and made himself of no reputation or as the word signifies he emptied himself of all his Glory he sought his Fathers glory and not his own yea he humbled himself so as to become obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross The very Incarnation of Christ is condescention enough to pole both men and Angels what then was his Crucifixion When you feel any Self-exaltation then remember and reflect upon Christ's Humiliation and think how unsutable a humble Master and a proud Servant is a humble Christ and a proud Christian This alone through the Spirit 's assistance is sufficient to bring down the swelling of the Spirits Direct 9 9. Use all Gods dealings with you and dispensations towards you as so many Antidotes against this Sin You hear they are design'd by God I pray you let them all be improv'd by you for this very end and purpose Hath God shined into your hearts and given you the knowledge of his Glory in the face of his Son Jesus Christ says Judas not Iscariot How is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self unto us and not unto the World Hath he quickned and saved you from Sin and Death Say then By Grace we are saved not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Is Grace and Life preserved and increased which was at first infused into your Souls give God the Glory Say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be the praise Yea let all Gods outward Dispensations have this operation upon you Let Mercies humble you if God gives you worldly wealth and honour and lifts you up above others in Estate or Esteem say as David Who are we Lord and as Jacob We are less than the least of thy Mercies Let Afflictions humble you if God lays his hand upon you then lay your mouths in the dust if he smites you upon your backs do you smite upon your own Thighs We are call'd upon in Scripture to humble our selves under the hand of God 2 Chro. 33.32 You read of Manasseh how when he was in affliction he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers May your Afflictions have the like effect Direct 10 10. Be much in the Duty of Prayer Give thy self to it If Pride doth not hinder Prayer Prayer will subdue Pride and whilst thou art in this Duty make this one of thy chief Petitions that God would cure thee of this evil disease Some are ready to wonder why Prayer in all cases is one of our chief Directions and Prescriptions they may as well wonder why Bread in all Meals is one chief part of our Food Why Prayer is the principal thing that calls in God to our Assistance without whose help we shall never be able to master the Pride of our hearts This was the course the Apostle took when he was like to be exalted above measure he besought the Lord thrice that is often a definite Number for an indefinite he did not only pray that God would take the Thorn out of his Flesh but that he would also cure the Pride that was in his heart he knew if the Cause were taken away the Effect would cease Oh for this do you beseech the Lord again and again pray and that earnestly that God by his Spirit would help thee to mortifie the Pride of thy Spirit be humbled as Hezekiah was for the Pride of thy heart in times past and pray as Paul prayed that God would prevent and cure the Pride of thy heart for time to come Desire God to use what Preservatives and Medecines he pleaseth so that the Cure be effected Beg of God that he would help thee on with this Ornament and cloath thee with Humility he hath promised to give Grace to the humble do you pray that he would give you the Grace of Humility Quest Wherein is a middle worldly condition most eligible SERMON XVII PROV XXX VIII IX Remove far from me Vanity and Lies give me neither Poverty nor Riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain MY Text presents you with a short yet very pithy Prayer of Agur concerning whom
our selves if any sins lie near our hearts and prove predominant in our conversations The Crimes whereby we have disgusted God must be repented of detested and rejected He that would trust in God and gain the views and comforts of his Face should throughly hate deeply resent and carefully watch against what God can take no pleasure in but hath entred his protest against repent and do thy first Works was grave and sober Counsel Rev. 2.5 Begin then with thy self and end with God and work thy self up to his Will and thou shalt see his Face with Joy Sin will raise Clouds and Storms and cause no small Eclipses of Gods Face where ever it enters is countenanced and prevails An heavenly Mind and Life must be recovered exercised and preserved and practical resolutions must be renewed and kept in their inviolable vigour whither God sensibly smile or not upon us Who ever mourns not over and watches not against what God abhors will find his seeing Gods Face with Joy to be too strange and great a Miracle to be expected from him He that contemns the ways and will of God can look for nothing but to be contemned by him 1 Sam. 2.30 the Laws of Peace and Favour must be kept Sins must be broken off by Righteousness and Repentance or else Gods Face is to be seen no more Direct V. Let him consider well how far God is unchangeably the God of gracious Souls Psal 89.30 34. Levit. 26.40 45. the Tenor of Gods Covenant is to be studied throughly and well understood to prevent extravagant or defective trust 'T is true Gods promises are large and his relation fixt Psal 84.11 Isa 41.10 God will be so far always theirs as to be ever mindful of them and of his Covenant with them to be duly provident for their good so as to prevent all that may truly harm and ruin their resigned Souls and Persons Rom. 8.28 2 Cor. 16.9 to be truly though wisely compassionate towards them in all their dejections and temptations 1 Cor. 10.13 Mich. 7.18 Isa 30.19 41 17. He will neither over-burthen them over-work them nor overlook them and he will be always so far theirs as to exemplifie the Power and Riches of his All-sufficient Grace and Goodness in them Rom. 9.23 2 Thes 1.10 12. God will refine and save their Souls renew their Strength and cloath them with his Righteousness and Salvations and give them such Encouragements and Supports as may be needful for their present State and Work Isa 40.31 2 Cor. 4.16 18. Col. 1.11 12. 1 Thes 5.23 24. Let them but act like gracious Persons and all Grace shall abound towards them and he will see that their Integrity and Uprightness preserve them whilst therein they wait on him Pardoned Sins refined Souls accepted Services Prayers and Persons with great Victories Tryumphs and Salvations at the last Gods Spirit in them his Presence with them and his Eternal Glory for them when time is folded up and reckoned for all these shall joyfully convince them in what respects and to what purposes God is immutably and will be their God Rom 8.31 39. But if they look or hope that God should be so far theirs as to keep them from afflictions and the fiery Tryal or to feast them continually with sensible consolations and clear views of Heaven and of his glorious Face or immediatly to give them what they ask at their discretion or to prevent all manner of perturbations in their Souls and all distempers in their Bodies Brains and Fancies or to redress miraculously what may be cured and relieved otherwise they have no promise for this For where hath God engaged that Grace must do the Work that is consigned to natural means or that Miracles must effect what an establisht Course of ordinary means may bring Men to Even in the sealing Age when Miracles were so multiplied we find that ordinary means were used in their just extent Moses must send for Jethro Cornelius must send for Peter Philip must turn Instructer and Interpreter to the Eunuch Manna must only be continued until the Israelites could Plow and Sow Why then should any one conclude that God hath hid his Face unless unreasonable and extraordinary expectations be accomplished If Parts be weak if Gifts be mean if Memory be frail through disadvantages of Age or Weakness if passionate Fervours be abated through those declensions which are entailed on Mortals by a setled decree must we infer from hence that God hath hid his Face from us and holds us for his Enemies unless he change the ordinary Course of Nature And as to Soul concerns and exercises what if our Spirits be disquieted through the Soul or expectation of sharp Tryals and Distresses What if Satan bluster in our Souls What if strange Suggestions like fiery Darts be cast into us What if we be strongly urged to such imaginations as God himself knows to be odious and ungrateful to us Must we from hence suspect or think that God disclaims us and renounces all his merciful relations and regards to us Hath God engaged any where that our War with Satan shall end before we dye Can militant Christians be discharged from this warfare before they have finished their Course Whilst you resolve and strive you Conquer and God abides your God till you give up the Cause and fall in love with what your God abhors and slights see Heb. 4.14 16. was not the great Jehovah the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ as much in the extremities of his Agonies and Conflicts as either before or after them But he never was so much his God as to excuse him from his bitter Cup and his contest with the Devil and this World The same I may also say of Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 9. Gods Covenant and not your thoughts or hopes must tell how far Direct VI. Let him consider and improve what God affords to help and quicken trust in him Psal 27.9 Rom. 15.4 13. God hath his part and Man hath his to do not that God needs him but because he hath laid him under Law unto himself and suited his remediating Duties to his Faculties and Circumstances Trust is a compounded Act and Duty made use of assent consent and reliance and it respects veracity goodness and fidelity in the object trusted in Let then the gracious Soul look upon God as fit and willing to be trusted in as actually engaged and concerned for him when he is his God and as faithful when thus related and engaged For God both can and will effect all that he undertakes yet he expects that gracious Souls shall fix their deepest thoughts upon what he hath given them to fix and raise their trust upon Idleness doth no good the thinking and industrious and resolved Soul thrives much whilst meer complainers cheat and dispirit themselves and trouble others dishonour God and scandalize and dishearten Men. It is here as it is in Nature God feeds us he
must be so by actual calling John 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me Or as not yet actually in being in the World but in the loyns of their Parents whether Saints or Sinners God may have a Seed even among the Children of wicked Men and as sometimes he may pass by the Children of gracious Men the Parents may be a Seed of God and Children not so sometimes he may overlook the Parents and take the Children the Parents may be wicked and the Children holy God is a Soveraign and may chuse where he will and sometimes he pitcheth upon the most unlikely Subjects a wicked Ahaz may have a godly Hezekiah for his Son and a good Josiah a wicked Jehoiachim for his This distinction I lay down because though I understand the Doctrine in the first place of the religious actually in being among a People yet not only of them God sometimes acting for a Nation with respect to those he is to have among them This premised I come to shew in what respect the godly may be said to be the strength of a People and this I shall by a little following the Metaphor in the Text. The Holy Seed is here called the Substance or Stock of a People so that in what respect the strength of a Tree is in its Stock in those or several of them the strength of a People is in the Religion of them 1. The Stock of a Tree is the most firm and durable part of it when the Leaves are shaken off the Branches many of them drie and withered nay though it be close Lopt and all the Bows cut down yet still it continues and lives keeps its place and retains its Sap. So it is with the truly religious at least as to their Spiritual State as we intimated in the explication of the Text when Hypocrites and Temporaries drop off from the Body of Professors and quit their Stations in a Church and their religious Profession yet the godly still continue hold their own keep their standing They are all united to Christ the Root as well as to teach other in the Body and as parts together of the same Stock and so are preserved and continued in Life by Sap derived to them from the Root the constant supplies of the Spirit and Grace of Christ In this respect we may say he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 1 John 2.17 and they that have an Unction from the Holy One abide in him verse 20 27. 2. The Stock is that which propagates its kind cut off all the Bows and yet the Stem will shoot forth again send out new Leaves and Fruit and Seed from which other Trees will come So here the righteous propagate their righteousness communicate to others beget Children to God are Spiritual Parents and have a Spiritual Off-spring How many Children come in upon their Parents Covenant not only as to outward priviledges in the Church but as to real Grace The promise is to them and their Children Acts 2.39 and as it takes place in all of them as to Church Membership so it doth in many as to Saintship And besides how many are wrought on by their instruction won by their example awakened by their admonitions overcome by their persuasions How many have cause to bless God for religious Parents religious acquaintance religious Instructors as well as godly Ministers who have been instrumental in their conversion Thus when many particular Branches of righteousness are plucked off as to their temporal State in this Life yet the Holy Seed continues the Stock is pepetuated in a succession of righteous ones Men usually spare the Tree for the sake of the Stock Isa 65.8 As the new Wine is in the Cluster and one saith destroy it not a Blessing is in it A Man finds a Cluster or two of Grapes on a Vine and by those few perceives that there is Life in the Tree and some hopes of more fruitfulness hereafter and therefore doth not cut it down so will I do says the Lord for my Servants sake that I may not destroy them all he spares the rest or many of them doth not destroy them all for his Servants sake for the sake of the righteous among them Job 22.30 according to marginal reading The Innocent shall deliver the Island which suits best with the following Clause it is delivered by the pureness of my hands Eliphaz tells Job before what advantage he should himself have by returning to God and acquainting himself with him verse 21. from whom he supposes him to have departed and to be estranged by sin and here he tells him what benefit should redound to others his goodness should not only do good to himself but keep off evil from them For the better understanding this take two things by way of Concession and a third by way of Position 1. I grant that the religious part of a People may not always be active as Men in a natural or civil way in delivering them or keeping off evils from them they may have no proper and direct efficiency in it for 1. Sometimes they may want power and ability for it they may be but few and inconsiderable for Number the Holy Seed may be very thin sown there may be but a few Grains of Corn among a great deal of Chaff but a little Wheat among abundance of Tares Or those that are may be weak and low as to their outward condition in the World for not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1.26 and so may be in ill case to contribute much by an active concurrence to the help of others 2. Sometimes they may be simple and unskiful in outward affairs want that Wisdom and Worldly Policy which might be needful in many Cases for the warding of imminent dangers or removing incumbent troubles Not many wise Men after the Flesh are called as well as not many mighty or noble Saints may be wise for their Souls prudent and knowing in the Misteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and yet but Babes in other things The Wisdom they have is from above Jam. 3.17 respects things above and they may be meer Ignoramuses in any thing else 3. They may have no hand in publick affairs no share in the Government nor be intrusted or made use of by those that are in Power they may be suppressed and brought into bondage by others as the Israelites were in Aegypt and the Jews in Babylon they may be so much in suffering by others that they be in no capacity of acting for them 4. Sometimes Gods Judgments upon a People may be such as no Instruments and so not the holiest Men among them can keep them off by any natural efficiency and all attempts in such a way may be in vain Such was the destruction of the Old World by the Flood and of Sodom by Fire and Brimstone and of several places by Inundations Earthquakes c. 2. I grant that sometimes the
often yearne and his repentings are kindled together In the 11. Hosea 8.9 He seemed to stand with his hand stretched out as one resolved to give a consuming blow but he laid aside his Weapons of indignation and in the greatness of his compassion cryed out How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Judah how shall I make thee as Adâ—nah how shall I set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man Thus we see God is accomplished for the Government â—f the world In the second place let us enquire concerning the extent of Gods Governing Providence how far and unto what it reaches And take this in general The whole world and whatsoever is contained within the compass of Heaven and Earth are ordered by him as his Family the Church is regarded and cared for by him as his endeared Spouse and all thâ— Saints as his children All men even the worst and vilest with all their actions and all Creatures even the meanest are ordered by God and directed to their appointed ends But we will descend to particulars First The governing Providence of God extends it self to all Creatures whatsoever have being both animate and inanimate the greatest and the least He rules the Stars the Influences of Pleiades and the Bands of Orion are from him He causeth the Sun to shine sets him daily and anual Journeys and when he pleaseth stops him in his course and turns him back when he comes out of his Chamber as a Bridegroom or a Giant refreshed with Wine He makes small the drops of Rain and causeth them to fall upon one City and not upon another he feeds the Fouls and musters Caterpillars Locusts Flies as his Armies Angels are his Servants absolutely at his beck ready to execute his Will and by him they are sent forth to minister unto his Children and to punish his Enemies He hath enraged Devils in a Chain and both confines them and imploys them as he himself thinks good He suffered one to be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets He permitted Satan to do much against Job yet kept him from touching his Life He cast Devils out of the possessed and gave them leave to enter into an Herd of swine He governs men too keeping Abimelech from violating Sarahs Chastity and Laban from touching Jacob's Liberty or Goods and Esau from offering violence to his Life the meanest Creatures are the Objects of his Cure and the noblest are overruled by his Power Secondly the Governing Providence of God extends it self to all motions and actions without him we can do nothing as a special assistance is necessary to gratious Acts so is a general concurse to natural ones unless he support we cannot stir a step nor strike a stroke nor speak a word nor form a thought God suspends the Creatures Actions when he pleaseth thus he kept the Fire from burning the three Children that were thrown into it when put into its greatest rage He stopt the mouths of Lions and kept them from preying upon Daniel when hunger was feeding upon them And it was he that taught and commanded the rapacious Raven to forget it self that it might carry food to a Prophet God orders and directes actions to ends never designed by the doer yea he makes the most vile and wicked actions subservient to most excellent and most noble ends Adams sin issued in the glorifying of Gods name in a mixt way of Justice and Mercy Pharoahs Cruelty made Israel multiply so that the more they were deprest the more they flourished Romes persecutions have been Sions Enlargements and the bloud of the Martyrs the Seed of the Church Josephs Brethrens selling him was a step to his preferment in the Court of Pharoah and a sending him before to preserve the use of his Father and of his Family The crucifying of our dear Jesus was the saving of Believers and by his most pretious bloud which the Jews and Romans most wickedly spilt were all the Elect of God redeemed from Hell and everlasting destruction The King of Assyria thought of nothing else but to destroy and câ—â—t off Nations not a few but God sent him as an Executioner of his Justice to punish an hypocritical Nation and the people of his wrath Thus God doth not only uphold his Creatures in their Beings and assist and strengthen them in their Actions but he doth also direct order and overrule those actions so that their product and issue shall be admirable wicked men have base and sordid ends in the Commission of Sin but God hath holy ends in his permission thereof while they gratifie their Lusts he fulfills his pleasure and while they act like Devils He acts like God i. e. like himself Thirdly This Governing and overruling Providence of God extends it self to all issues and results of things both good and evil the lot is cast into the Lap but the Disposal thereof is of the Lord. He is the Fountain of all the good and comforts which we enjoy for which we are under everlasting Obligations to praise his Name and not to sacrifice to our own Net That the House is built we owe more to God than to the Workmen and in the preservation of the City God is more to be thanked and acknowledged than the Watchman It is unquestionably mens duty to follow their Callings and mind their business and study good Husbandry for the sluggard shall be cloathed with rags and the prodigal will be glad of husks but if after all endeavour and care an Estate comes in it is more of Gods sending than of Mans fetching The Blessing of God makes rich and not mans diligence without it when you are sick it is your wisdom and duty to send for the most able skilful and faithful Physitians and to follow the method and use the means which they prescribe but when your Distempers are removed and your Health is restored you are beholden more to God than to Men and means for notwithstanding them your Souls would dwell in silence if the Lord himself were not your help The Battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift nor doth promotion come from the East or the West but the Lord pulleth down one and setteth up another So for evil things we are too prone to rest in second Causes and care not to look so high as God but whether we take notice of him or no there is no rod under which we smart but Gods hand lays it on Eliphaz tells us 5. Job 6. Affliction cometh not forth from the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground i. e. they do not come by chance though many things be contingences yet all things have a cause to us indeed they are casual but to God they are certain He himself foresaw and fore-appointed them There is nothing of Fortune
but all is of Counsel Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it i. e. any penal Evil any afflictive Evil. There is not sickness nor pain thou groanest under not a Loss thou meetest with not a Cross that pinches thee but thou maist write the Name of God upon it He creates Darkness as well as Forms the Light When things run cross to mens desires and Interest and expectations they grow teachy and froward and quarrel at this and that but let this silence them and work them to an humble and patient submission that all is of God Israel rebelled against the House of David thereupon Rehoboam armed Judah and Benjamin to bring the Kingdom again to him stay said God ye shall not go up nor fight against your Brethren the Children of Israel return every man to his house for this thing is of me all good is of God that obligeth us to thankfulness and grateful acknowledgments all Evil is of God and that should teach us humbly patiently and silently to submit I was dumb said David and opened not my mouth because Lord thou didst it In the third place we shall enquire after the Properties of Gods Government or the manner how he orders and governs all things take that in these few particulars 1. God doth govern the World misteriously so the Text tells us Clouds and Darkness are round about him as there are mysteries in the word so in the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things hard to be understood many riddles which nonplus and puzzle men of the largest and most piercing Intellectuals 23. Job 8 9 10. Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him but he knoweth the way that I take God knoweth our ways and counteth our steps but the wisest of men do not know all Gods ways His way is frequently in the Sea and his Charriot in the Clouds so that he is invisible not only in his essence but also in the design and tendence of his operations those that behold him with an Eye of Faith do not yet see him with an Eye of Understanding so as to discern his way and whether he is going Paul assures us his judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out Some of them indeed are obvious plain and easie we may upon the first view give a satisfactory account of them we may read righteousness equity mercy goodness love in them because written in Capital Letters and with such beams of Light as he that runs may read them But others of Gods ways are dark and obscure so that they are out of our reach and above our sight He that goes about in them so trace Gad may quickly lose himself They are like that hand-writing upon the Wall which none of Belshazzars wise men could read or give the interpretation of There are arcana imperii secrets of State and Government which are not fit to be made common But this may be our comfort though God doth not now give any account of his matters nor is he obliged thereunto yet he can give a very good and satisfactory account and one day his people shall be led into the mistery and though many things which God doth they know not now yet they shall know them afterward and when they know they shall approve and admire both the things and the reason and the end they shall then be perfectly reconciled to all Providences and see that all were worthy of God and that in all he acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as did highly become himself 2. God doth govern the world wisely He did indeed threaten it as a dreadful judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem Isa 3 4 that He would give children to be their Princes and Babes should rule over them not meaning children in years for Josiah a child was one of the best of their Kings but children in understanding such as had no prudence nor skill nor conduct knew not how to hold the Reign nor use the rod nor direct the course It is certainly fatal to the world when a young heady and foolish Phaeton is got into the chariot of the Sun Whither will not fiery steads carry an Ass and others with him but into destruction when an ignorant unskilful Pilot â—â—ts at helm the passengers of the Ship will soon be brought to their last prayers But God is wise in heart yea infinite in wisdom All the treasures of wisdom are in him and no wisdom is to be found in Angels or men but what came from him and all that were it united in one would not be comparable to what is in him The very foolishness of God is wiser than men There are two things of which wisdom consists and both are in God most eminently Knowledg of the nature of things and prudence to dispose and order them God knows all things perfectly and orders them all exactly all things are naked and opened before him and almost curiously and accurately mannaged by him Men in place of authority and power do sometimes mistake and miscarry doing many things amiss David was so ingenuous as to acknowledg it I have sinned greatly in that I have done I have done very foolishly But in all things God acts very wisely He is not a man that he should erre or repent ever since the Creation all things have been done with that unreprovable exactness that if the world were to begin again and the affairs of it to be acted over again there should not be an alteration in a tittle All hath been so well that nothing can be mended Those dark and obscure passages of Providence at which good men are startled and by which all men are posed are most excellent and curious stroakes and as so many well plac'd shades which commend the work and admirably set off the beauty of Providence That is a great Scripture most worthy of our very particular notices Ephes 1 11. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his will which words plainly speak these two things 1. The independency of God in his operations He asketh not leave of any neither Men nor Angels He is not beholden to them he doth not advise with them he cannot be forced nor hindered by them He acts not according to their will â—ut his own and fulfils all his pleasure 2. The wisdom of God in his working He doth all according to his counsel He is a God of Judgment a most judicious God and all his works are done in judgment the whole plot was laid afore hand It is said of God Isa 28 29. that he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working this latter necessarily follows upon the former He must needs be excellent in working because he is wonderful in counsel All that he doth is the result of a most admirable judgment and mature counsel The Holy Prophet therefore was ravished