one glimpse thereof in the Transfiguration put Peter in a trance Christ ascended to be glorified 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend Obj. O but how can these things be how much better had it been for us to have had Christs bodily presence still on Earth What a deal of good did he by his Life Doctrine Miracles Compassion on the Poor Blind Diseased that cryed for help for themselves children and servants Lord hadst thou been here my brother had not dyed said Martha So may poor desolate souls say Lord hadst thou been on Earth still this evil and that storm had not come upon the Church or particular members of it Expedient Christ go O leave us not Answ In general Saddest providences and most terrible things whereby God answereth his People often carry a great deal of sweetness and comfort in them which we through ignorance and unbelief hardly discern Christians often loose much by poring on present or imminent evils and not looking to the sweet Result and glorious issue thereof We walk too much by sence and too little eye by Faith the things that are not seen Thus the Disciples were loth to hear that Christ must be put to death When he was buryed We trusted say two of them Luke 24.21 it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Their Faith was low not considering that he came to give his Life a Ransome for many Such fools so slow of heart are we to believe Thus when Christ told the Disciples I go my way to him that sent me They asked him not whither goest thou and therefore sorrow filled their hearts John 16.5 6 7. they did not look to the sweet Fruit which they should reap of his Departure they would have found cause of joy had they seriously considered that Christ went to his Father and their Father to his God and their God But particularly You have Christ's Word for it which should silence all objections and questioning thoughts John 16.7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away There were four Expediencies of Christ's Ascension in respect of us 1. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might in our nature as our Head and Surety take possession of Heaven for us Heb. 6.20 Whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus He had purchased the Inheritance and paid the price and he went to have seizen and possession for us John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you 2. Christ's Ascension was expedient for us that he might intercede for us in Heaven and now appear in the Presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 and that we might have that consolation 1 Joh. 2.2 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And Heb. 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession We have a constant and skilful faithful Sollicitor in the Court of Heaven pleading our cause Is the Church militant oppressed Jesus the Angel of the Covenant pleadeth How long Lord wilt thou be angry Zech. 1.12 and he is answered with good and comfortable words I am returned with Mercies to Jerusalem as it follows ver 16. The Lord Christ standeth as with a golden Censer having much Incense which he offereth with the Prayers of Saints on the Golden Altar before the Throne the Smoak of which Incense with the Prayers of the Saints ascendeth before God out of the Angels Hand When his People pray on Earth He as their Sollicitor procureth a Grant in Heaven which he sometimes sendeth down by a swift Messenger So he did to Daniel and Cornelius So that now being ascended Believers may triumph Who shall condemn It is Christ that died is risen again is at the Right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might send the Spirit the Comforter Joh. 16.7 If I go away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you The sending of the Spiriâ— to lead Believers into Truth to convince the World to help Believers Infirmities to quicken to comfort to stablish them and to abide with them to the end of the World is the fruit of Christs Ascension 4. Christ's Ascension was expedient to assure us that he hath fully satisfied Justice for the sins of his Elect and left nothing undone of the great Work which he undertook Heb. 9.12 By his own Blood he entred once into the holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us His sitting at the Right Hand of God is an evidence that he hath obtained for us Eternal Redemption In his Ascension he triumphed over all Enemies He had spoiled Principalities spoiled them of their Prey having rescued his Elect spoiled them of their Dominion and Power over his Sheep He had cast out the Prince of this World the Accuser of the Brethren and He made shew of them openly Col. 2.15 Christ having overcome Death and Hell declareth his Conquest in ascending as a Conqueror into Heaven Take the Application in four Particulars briefly 1. Christ is gone to Heaven Be not deceived by false christ's Such shall come Mat. 24.24 O remember he is not here but ascended as he told his Disciples Seek not then a bodily presence in the Sacrament The Heavens must contain him Acts 3.21 The Martyrs who burned at the Stake not for ceremonies c. as some would have it but for denying Transubstantiation or the bodily Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper however now-a-dayes some bespatter them had a sure Foundation to build on The Scripture makes it plain that Christ's Body is in Heaven 2. Christ is gone into Heaven Christians let your hearts be there Seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Why do ye grovel on Earth when Christ your best Friend is in Heaven What on Earth can satisfie or what is to be desired when Christ is gone Well may Believers desire with the Apostle Phil. 1â— 23 to be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better 3. Let us prepare for Christ's Coming from Heaven Phil. 3.20 Behold He cometh quickly in like manner as he ascended but more gloriously attended more manifest every eye shall see him Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Luke 12.37 We are left to trade with talents our Lord will come and reckon with us Mat. 25.19 Be ready for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not Luke 12.40 O let us watch 4. Lastly Be comforted Christ our Fore-runner is in Heaven He is gone but he went about our business This providence of Christ's departing looketh with a bitter aspect it is doleful to consider Christ is Gone But as Jacob's Spirit revived when he knew Joseph was alive so it is exceeding comfortable for drooping distressed souls to consider Christ hath taken possession of a
flourishing in the Courts of God under that plenty of Heavenly Manna that hath been rained down upon me and those soul-fatting Ordinances I have partaken of Thus improve your remembrance how you have received and heard When you find your hearts to grow dead and cold O then say Was it wont to be thus Where are those high estimations those lively affections those holy resolutions that seriousness of spirit those powerfull Impressions and gracious Effects of the Word and Sacraments that I have found in and under them Oh let this consideration excite you to this Duty in the Text and make this use of former Gospel-enjoyments and the good you found in them to shame and humble you that you have made no better improvement of them 3. A third Benefit of remembring how you have received and heard is That through the blessing of God upon it it will be a means and help to keep from sin in practice It will be a special Preservative against the Infection of the sins of the dayes and times into which you may be cast As you desire to be preserved from sin make conscience of this duty and it will be a means to recover you again when you have fallen into sin Psal 119.9 11. Hiding the Word of God in his heart was a means to keep David from sinning against God Attending to the Word of God is prescribed by him as a means to cleanse the wayes even of a young-man This will keep you from being superstitious profane and loose when others are so but if once you forget what and how you have received you will soon swim down the stream with others and quickly be over-run with sin Peter first forgot the word of warning Christ had given him and then he soon forgot himself and his own duty and fell into that foul sin of denying his Lord and Master Oh therefore remember how you have received and heard and improve your Remembrance of it to preserve you from falling into sin and to recover you when you are fallen When you are tempted to sin say I have been otherwise taught I have not so learned Christ I have been warned against these and these sins As Peter's forgetfulness of Christ's words was the cause of his fall so it was the remembrance of what Christ had spoken that helped to raise him up again when he was fallen And you should endeavour to improve the remembrance of the Words of Christ unto this end 4. A fourth Benefit of this Remembrance how you have received and heard is That it will be a spur to quicken unto Duty and a means to excite and strengthen Grace 2 Tim. 1.6 2 Pet. 1.12 13 14 15. 2 Pet. 3.1 2. In all these places you will find that this Remembrance of what men have received and heard is a means to stir up the gifts and graces of God's Spirit in them When you remember what you have received from God in Ordinances and in the performance of holy Duties it will make you desirous to converse in them and to love them the better the longest day you live You will say It is good to be here you will never be weary of waiting upon God whilst you retain a favoury remembrance of the sweetness power and efficacy you have found and felt in the Word and Ordinances of God And this will be also a means to increase and strengthen Grace in the Soul Grace in the Soul is nourished by the same means by which it is begotten Those Promises that inclined the heart to believe at first will now being remembred and fed upon by Faith raise Faith to higher pitches and degrees Remembring your former experiences of God's helping you when you have been in straits will help you to trust in God in future straits and tryals Labour therefore to remember and to make this use of the remembrance of what and how you have received and heard to quicken you to a more constant attendance on God in Ordinances and to increase and strengthen Grace in your souls 5. The Remembrance how you have received and heard will be of great use and advantage to your souls for it will keep up in your judgments an high estimation of and in your affections a sincere love to those precious Truths and those plain pure powerful dispensations of Ordinances you have partaken of even then when by sickness or any other hand of God upon you you may be deprived of the actual enjoyment of them If God should remove Ministers and Ordinances from you or you from them that you cannot enjoy them as you have done yet the very remembrance of them will be precious when you remember what heart-warmings you have had under them Labour to make this use of the remembrance of old Truths and former Enjoyments to make you esteem and love them 6. A sixth Benefit of remembring how you have received and heard is That it will keep up in you earnest and hungring desires after and stir up in you a mighty Spirit of Prayer for the keeping and restoring when you have lost them those precious Truths and Ordinances wherein you have found so much of God It will cause you to say with the Disciples Lord evermore give us this Bread It will and should cause you to cry to your Father for the Bread of Life to say as the Psalmist Psal 42.1 2. Psal 63.1 2. David remembred what he had seen of the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary and this sets his soul a longing for the restoring again of those blessed opportunities he had been priviledged with O make this use of this Remembrance how you have received and heard to cause you to wrestle with God in Prayer for the continuance and restitution of those comfortable Sabbaths and Sacraments that pure and powerful Preaching Praying and Administration of Ordinances God hath vouchsafed It was this remembring of what and how he had received that made that holy Martyr Bishop Latimer cry out Lord restore the Gospel once again to England And in such or the like cases it should make you and will make you pray that God would restore the Liberty of his Ministers and the Power and Purity of his Ordinances and try you whether you would not through his Grace improve them better than you have done 7. A seventh Benefit of this remembring how you have received and heard is that it will bring into your souls the comfort and sweetness of former Truths and Ordinances It will be as the rouling of a sweet morsel under your tongues You may hereby reap the benefit of former Sermons and Sacraments many years hence Many times Truth is more sweet and makes a more powerful impression on the soul in the meditation and repetition of it than it did at its first delivery And so it may do in you if you be careful in the practice of this duty 8. And lastly The remembring of what and how you have received and heard may and
will bear up you hearts under and fortifie them against all Sufferings and Persecutions you may meet with in the wayes and for the sake of Christ when you shall remember the warnings Christ hath given you John 16.1 2. and the grounds of comfort you have found in the Word of God Improve your remembrance of Truths for this end So much for the Motives to stir up to the practice of this duty in the Text. And these eight last particulars may serve also to direct you what use you should make of the remembrance of what and how you have received I shall proceed to add some few Directions to direct you how and after what manner you should remember what and how you have received 1. Direction Remember what and how you have received and heard Thankfully Oh be thankful Christians that you have enjoyed the Word and Ordinances of God so long and that with so much plainness power purity and plenty Though you should never enjoy them more yet you have cause to bless God that have enjoyed the Word Sacraments Ministers so long above not onely your desiâ—â—s but also your expectations Especially be you thankful that have received Christ and Grace through these that you have received Grace before you have lost any of the means of Grace that Christ and your souls have met before you and Ministers have parted 2. Direction Remember how you have received and heard Penitentially and sorrowfully 1. Penitentially and sorrowfudly That you prized and improved Truths and Ordinances no better got no more good by them grew no more in grace under them gained no more power against corruptions or ability to do and suffer by them while you did enjoy them 2. Remember how you have received sorrowfully if you have lost or should lose any of your opportunities When the Wayes of Sion mourn sure the Sons of Sion should mourn You should be sorrowful for the Solemn Assemblies the reproach of them should be a burden unto Christians You should remember your Gospel-enjoyments with tears as those Psal 137.1 2. even weep when you remember Sion As the Psalmist Psal 42.3 Chrstians in such a case should bewail the loss of Ordinances and of so many of God's Ministers 3. Christians should especially remember Gospel mercies Penitentially in the want of them when and that they by their sins have helped to sin them away by their unfruitful and unworthy walking Know Christians they are the sinnes of Ministers and People that stop the mouths of Ministers and deprive a People at any time of any of the tokens of God's presence You should in such a case and condition with sorrow of heart say we once enjoyed comfortable dayes of the Son of man but by our deadness spiritual wantoness and unfruitfulness we have now sinned them away 3. Direction Remember what and how you have received Affectionately and Practically It is not a meer notional but an affectionate and practical remembrance of Truths received and Ordinances enjoyed that I now press to Remember them with burning and inflamed hearts So remember Truths as to practise them to love Truth and to live in Truth and Ordinances so as to live up to them so as to have pure hearts answerable to pure Ordinances the power of Religion in your conversation sutable to powerful administrations Remember the Word of Truth to direct your practice even as a Compass to sail by in a troublesom Sea a dark night and as a copy to write after So remember what you have heard as to set on the practice of duties you have been exhorted to and directed in and to avoid the sins you have been warned against So remember as to improve your remembrance of Truths to those eight Uses before specified namely as an Antidote against error in Doctrine corruption in Worship to humble for keep from sin quicken to duty make you prize love pray for long after the Word for your comfort and support under Sufferings Having given you some Directions how you should remember what and how you have received and heard I shall now close this Doctrine by adding some Means and Helps to enable you to the performance of that duty I have been exhorting you to 1. A first Means or Help to enable to remember what you have received and heard is Labour after a sincere love to the Word Ordinances and Ministers of Christ Love Truth and you will the more easily remember it You will not suddenly or easily forget that you dearly love Affection is a very great help to Memory Receive Truth in your love and affection and then you will keep it in your minds and memories A man will remember what his mind and heart is set upon A special means to keep Truths in your heads is to labour that they may be engraven in your hearts Look upon the Word and Ordinances of God as your Treasure and you will be sure then at least practically to remember it Men scarcely forget where they have laid their Treasure or their Jewels though they may where they have laid things of lesser moment Love doth and will renew and revive the object loved in the mind and in the thoughts Affection to Divine Objects is the safest Lock and Key to secure Spiritual Treasures Psal 119.97 David loved the Law and then he could do no other but make it his meditation all the day long 2. A second help or means to enable you to remember what and how you have received and heard is Application to apply and appropriate Truths and Ordinances to your own souls Labour to insure your interest in Christ the Covenant of Grace and the great Truths of the Gospel and that will much further your remembring of them You will be careful to remember what you look on as your concernments Though men may forget others business they will hardly forget their own especially if they be matters of great concernment a matter wherein their whole estate is concerned or a matter of life and death And such are the things you have received and heard in the Gospel When you hear the Word say there God spoke to my soul Men forget truths because they are apt to put them off to others and not to look on themselves as as concerned in them Oh therefore look on thy soul as concerned in what thou hast heard and received and this will help thee to remember it 3. A third means to help you to remember what you have received and heard is Serious and frequent meditation and contemplation on what you have heard This is a great help to memory Divine meditation fixes Truths in the head and fastens them in the heart Luke 2.19 she kept those things because she pondered them Be therefore much in meditation 4. A fourth means to further your remembrance of what you have received and heard is Holy conference This Moses directs to as a means to keep the things of God in the heart Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. This
commendation that great hath been the incouragement we have found among you from God from you and from our Honourable Patron From God in his remarkable Providence in bringing us first among you in vouchsafing his Gracious Presence to and with us since and in giving in some considerable fruit of our weak unworthy labours for we may say that a great door and effectual hath been opened though of late there have been many adversaries And great hath been the encouragement we have received from you also from your great affection to us and especially from your ready entertainment of our Labours and forward and chearful submission to the Ordinances of Christ that have been dispensed among you which though it cannot but add much to our grief in parting from you yet it is no small addition to our comfort also We have also received much encouragement and many undeserved respects from the honourable Patron of this Place for all which we heartily bless God and no less heartily pray that God would recompence his and your respects to us a thousand fold into his and your bosomes And I trust we can in sincerity say for our selves that we have not sought yours but You and that it is not the loss of our places and outward accommodations that trouble us but the loss of our opportunities of serveing our God your precious and immortal souls in the work of the Gospel It grievs us to think of the shares and temptations you may meet with for when the Shepherds are smitten the Sheep are like to be scattered If God shall send such among you as wil in the main be faithful to God and your souls it will afford much hearts-ease to us and satisfaction to our spirits We have for above eleven years preached to you by our publick labours God now calls us and many others to preach to you by our silence And the very silence of so many Ministers if blessed by the Lord may prove the most powerful and effectual Sermon to People that they have had This speaks Gods displeasure this bids both us and you look into our and your hearts and wayes what it is that hath provoked God to send upon us this sad dispensation The silence of Ministers calls aloud on us all to humble our selves under the mighty hand of God It bids us repent of our sins the causes of Gods Judgments It calls on you to prize and improve Ministers and Ordinances better if God shall continue restore or further afford them to you Yea Ministers silence should cause People to speak the more and louder to God in prayer for the continuance and restoring of Ministers and Ordinances to them When you do not hear so much and often from God in preaching let God hear the more and oftner from you in prayer Ply the Throne of Grace Give God no rest till he make Jerusalem a Praise in the earth And as our silence should make you speak the more to God so also the more and oftner one unto another in holy conference to provoke to love and to good works And I beseech you Brethren pray for us What ever God may do with us or whithersoever we may be driven we shall carry you in our hearts and when and while we remember our selves to God we shall never forget you but present you and your souls concernments daily unto God at the Throne of Grace in our prayers And we earnestly beg this of you as that you would remember what we have spoken to you in the Name of the Lord so that you would remember us to God and let us have a room and share in your hearts and prayers When you get into a corner to pour out your hearts before God carry us to God upon your hearts Do not forget us but lift up a prayer to God for us your we hope we may say faithfull though weak unworthy Ministers who have laboured among you in the Word and Doctrine I shall say no more but conclude with these two Scriptures the one Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those that are sanctified The other Scripture is that request of Paul to and prayr for the Hebrews Heb. 13.18 19 20 21. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly But I beseech you the rather to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that Great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen SERMON III. Phil. 2.12 Wherefore my beloved as ye have alwayes obeyed not as in my presence onely but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling BEloved I am now it seems to bid you Farewell and I rejoice I have this one opportunity more of preaching to you Though it is sad to think of parting if my poor pains might have been any way profitable amongst you yet I cannot wonder that here the course of my publick Ministry is stopt When I first came to you I expected to have dwelt in silence and to have been free among the dead long ere this day Now this is like to be the last Sermon I shall ever preach to you here my hearts desire and earnest prayer to God is That more good may be done by this one than hath been done by many Sermons past That if you that see me this day should see me here no more yet you might have cause to bless God for what you shall now hear even while you have a day to live The words of a dying friend are wont to make a deep impression so should the words of a departing Minister Beloved I am confident that both you and I must give an account of this dayes Work to the Judge of all the World Wherefore I would be so serious even in all I say unto you as if I were immediately to give up my account to God and I desire and beseech you in the fear of God and for the love you ow to your own souls that you would as seriously attend to what shall be spoken This Exhortation of the Apostle even now read unto you depends on and is inferred from what goes before as appears from the Illative Wherefore The Apostle having spoken of the humiliation and obedidience of Christ as he was obedient unto death v. 8. and of his glorious exaltation that followed thereupon he presseth these believers to obedience and continuance therein from Christ's example and the blessed end thereof viz. their own Salvation Note The Life of Christ is a Christians Copy An exact an
have I proved that God hath made and can make the Restraint of the Ministers of the Gospel fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel it self Before I fasten upon any Application I should interweave three or four necessary Cautions 1. The Restraint of Ministers doth sometimes fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel Yet this doth not at all extenuate or lessen the sin of them that restrain them If I be lifted up sayes our Saviour meaning upon the Cross I will draw all men unto me Joh. 12.32 A case somewhat like this that I have been-speaking to yet this did not at all lessen the sin of the Jews in lifting him up they did it wickedly Acts 2.23 although God determined and ordered it mercifully God makes wicked men many times to usher in good things and happy events to his People though they do wickedly in so doing And indeed they do evil in bringing good things to pass To be the Mother of a good event or success is something indeed but to be Midwife to it is no more than the wickedest wretch in the world may be The Devil himself doubtless hath been a means to speed many a soul to Heaven and yet he is in Hell himself 2. This doth not excuse a People from Repentance who have sinned away their Teachers The Restraint of the Ministers of the Gospel is in it self a Judgment and inflicted by reason of the unthankfulness and unprofitableness of a People And whatever work God can make of our sins that matters not it is our work to repent of them 3. This doth not excuse the prayers of God's People for the enlargement and restitution of their Ministers God will do this happily he will make it to fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel yet this doth not shut out Prayer The Gospel you see was accidentally furthered by Paul's imprisonment yet he calls to the Faithful to pray for him and so pray for him that he might be restored Heb. 13.19 Nay though you were sure you should see them restored yet the liberty of Christ's Messengers in the Gospel is of so precious concernment that you ought to pray that they might be restored the sooner So the Apostle speaks there 4. Although God can and although he should make the Restraint of his Ministers to fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel yet they ought to be sensible of it and humbled under it as a great affliction not upon their Congregations only but upon themselves too My dear Brethren in the Ministry let us lay to heart our own unfaithfulness negligence insufficiency our own sin who had such a prize so long in our hands and it hath been like a prize put into the hands of fools that knew not how to improve it or at least did not improve it Oh how good were it to be here in Pulpits in Congregations if it pleased God! But we must arise this is not our rest And God knows whether our Places must again know us any more God is our Witness before whom we stand we should gladly redeem our Liberties in the Gospel with any thing on this side sin But it 's held at too dear a rate We must part with it And what have we more Only let God pardon our sins which have robbed us of so precious a Jewel and make it to fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel If the Prophet Joel call Gird your selves and lament ye Priests howl ye Ministers of the Altar Come lye all night in sackcloth ye Ministers of my God for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of our God Joel 1.13 How may I call upon my self and the rest of the Ministers of my God to lament when the food of our souls the Bread of Life is withholden from the Congregations of God! O Lord seeing thou hast afflicted us affect us also with our affliction that we may know this Rod and thee that hast appointed it and accept of the punishment of our sin Application Doth God sometimes make the Restraint of his Ministers to fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel Learn we then to admire the infinite Wisdom Power and Mercy of God who over-ruleth and disposeth of things to the good of his People even contrary to their own natural tendency brings such eminent good out of such apparent evil enlargement out of imprisonment light out of darkness day-break out of dungeons the Gospel out of the Goal Who can do thus but the God whom we serve What shall we need to doubt the Arm of God in who can do this 2. See then how vain and bootless the design of men and Devils are against the interest of the Gospel and how little to be feared If God can make such things as these fall out to the Gospels furtherance then what can be an hinderance Oh admirable security to be interested in the Power and Wisdom of God! what shall hurt him whom God harbours what shall scorch him whom God shadows What need they fear from worldly policy who belong to that God who crosseth the nature of things and makes them bring to pass not what they would but what he list 3. This may administer matter of support to the Ministers and People of God who do this day in England let loose their souls to sorrow and sink under their own haviness There is indeed matter of mourning but my Doctrine stands by you here and bids not mourn as men without hope neither Is not this my Friends the common ground both of your and my sadness this day is not this it that troubles us even to think of the wayes of Sion lest they should mourn the precious and eternal Gospel lest it should be hindred If that be it so here God can make these things to fall out to the furtherance of it And O that he would do so O that God would so bless the Church we live in with Peace and Truth and Piety that we may never be mist nor our names never be remembred more that you may never have cause to complain for want of us nor we once to open our mouths against them that shut them Now that this sad dispensation may indeed fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel let me in the last place exhort my self and you to do our parts towards it Here now I should run over the wayes whereby I told you these things might fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel some of which cocern Ministers others the People 1. Let Ministers improve this respite lay in stock furnish themselves better that when God shall again if yet again set them over his Houshold they may be Scribes instructed to the Kingdom of God and as Stewards bring forth things new and old for the maintenanc of the family Let us give attendance to reading and exhortation not neglect the gift that is in us meditate upon the Scriptures give our selves wholly to them that our
is no pleasure But to come to the Text. It may be considered either with relation to what goes before and to the scope of the Psalm and so it is an argument enforcing the Petition for deliverance drawn from the ill consequence which would follow if God should permit his enemies thus to insult viz. that hereby the Godly would be ashamed and confounded they would stumble and take offence at his sufferings Or it may be considered absolutely and so the Text is a Petition That God would prevent that sad consequence of his sufferings by his seasonable deliverance or some other way In the words thus considered observe first to whom the petition is directed viz. to God described by a double Title the one of Majesty Lord God of Hosts the other of Mercy God of Israel 2. For whom it is made and that is the Godly described by a doudle practice of theirs viz. those that wait on God and those that seek him 3. The matter of the Petition and that is That such might not be ashamed and confounded 4. The motive that induced him to make this Petition or that which gave occasion of it and that is included in those words for my sake or as the Original in me that is because of my grivous sufferings and calamities The words are plain and need no further opening Divers observations would arise from each branch but I shall only name three Observe 1. God's People are waiters on and seekers of God This I pass by 2. The long and grievous afflictions of God's eminent Servants are apt to stumble and confound others even the truly Godly 3. A Gracious soul fears and prays against the evil influence that his sufferings might have upon others The second of these I chiefly aim at in prosecution whereof I shall 1. Shew that it is so 2. What it is that men stumble at in the Saints sufferings 3. Whence it comes to pass 1. That it is so Scripture abundantly bears witness and experience confirms it Did not Job's Friends sadly stumble at his sufferings though not in being a shamed and confounded yet in censuring and condemning him for an hypocrite as appears in their debates with him As David was well nigh gone and had almost slipt at the consideration of his own sufferings and the wicked's prosperity Psal 73.2 13 14. so he declares that others were stumbled upon the same account even his People i. e. the People of God ver 10. But what need we multiply instances when we have one in stead of all viz. the sufferings of Christ himself at which not only others but even his Disciples and Apostles themselves did sadly stumble Peter denies and forswears him others of them stager and question whether he was what he had declared himself the Redeemer of Israel Luke 24.21 all forsake him The Sword awakes against the Shepherd and the Seep are scattered Zech. 13.7 Thus it hath been in all ages of the Church though I deny not that the blood of the Martyrs hath been the Seed of the Church yet that Seed hath not sprung up ordinarily till following ages as for that present age wherein they suffered their falling into troubles did cause others to fall off and depart from them The Cross hath been and will be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to many men will shun that way wherein they see others plunged and sticking in the mire Therefore hath the holy Ghost laid in much for the prevention of this mischief This seems to be the scope of Psalm 37. 73. To this purpose are recorded both dreadful threatening against those that should be ashamed of Christ or his Members in their sufferings such as Mark 8.38 and also precious promises to those that should boldly own and openly profess him Mat. 10.32 Luke 12.8 all which intimate that there is a propensity in the best to fall into that sin Hence it is that the Apostle cautions his Thessalonians that none of them should be moved by his afflictions 1 Thess 3.3 Let me only subjoyn this here which I desire you to carry along with you through my whole discourse That all do not stumble in the same kind some are weakned and discouraged and so either fall off or play Nicodemus his patt others having promised themselves a fair gale of prosperity which should waft them over safe speedily to the heavenly shoat when they see others tossed with an Euroclydon conflicting with the winds and waves ready to be swallowed up or dasht in pieces upon the rocks of affliction make a retreat resolving to venture no further upon that tempestuous sea so Demas and others in Pauls time Some again stumble by passing hard censures upon those whom they see too meet with hard measures in the world These and divers other wayes which we shall occasionally touch upon though the Text points cheifly at one way do men stumble at the sufferings of the Godly 2. Let us enquire what it is that men stumble at in reference to the Godlies sufferings and we shall find chiefly three things all which may be fairly implyed in the Text. 1. Sometimes men even the Godly stumble at the persons so afflicted are ready to think hardly of them as Jobs Friends of him because God deals hardly with them How ordinary is it for men to pass harsh censures upon those that fall under heavy afflictions and there 's good reason for there being upon every mans heart an indelible impress of God's vindictive Justice they know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.32 the Judgement of God and that he is the Judge of the world to inflict punishments on offenders knowing also that this Righteous Judge cannot will not pervert Judgment hence they conclude that those so severely and signally punished must needs be guilty of some grievous enormities or monstrous impiety a clear instance we have in the censure those Barbarians passed upon Paul when they saw the Viper leap and fasten upon his hand Acts 28.3 4. Now this impression of the Divine Justice remaining upon the Godly as being indeed a part of their sanctification they sometimes forgetting that afflictions are the portion of God's People and that they are part of the childs portion are ready to judge those to be none of God's Children who are thus afflicted Nor do men this way only stumble at the persons of the Godly in afflictions but which is more ordinary they are shie of owning them stand at a distance from them forsake them See Psal 69.8 2 Tim. 4.16 This was our Saviours own case Isa 52.14 53.23 All in Asia even Phygellus and Hermogenes turned away from Paul 2 Tim. 1.15 Onesiphorus is almost the only man who was nor ashamed of his Chain verse 16. It is so in any kind of affliction Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris But one of the saddest kinds of stumbling in this respect is when those that should be Comforters turn Censurers when the Godly
the Prophet said to Elisha 2 Kings 2.3 Knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head to day So know you not that your beloved Minister is a going As they said to David Psal 42.10 Where is now thy God So to you Where is now your Minister whom you almost made a God of This will be a sword in your bones such Reproaches added to your loss will be ready to break the heart of those who prize their faithful Ministers as they ought to do to whom they are as Chrysostome to his People equally necessary as the Sun in the Firmament But it is your part to arm your selves with Courage and Patience and to observe that double Rule of Solomon Prov. 26.4 5. Answer not a Fool that is do not render Reproach for Reproach or Railing for Railing nor yet be put besides your Patience or Constancy which is his design Yet answer him according to his folly that is chide and rebuke him let him know that there is no such cause of rejoycing in the loss of a faithful Ministry that he shall one day know the worth of that Mercy which now he dis-esteems and undervalues 3. Though it must be acknowledged one of God's sadest Dispensations to take away a faithful Ministry to send a Famine of the Word yet this must not discourage us so as to make us desist from Holiness bless God that you ever had such a Mercy and got good by it bewaile sin that hath deprived you of it but take heed you do not upon this account turn aside as Joash when good Jehojadah was dead and as the Israelites when Moses was gone rather call to mind what we have spoken for your Confirmation give diligence when we are gone to have the things in remembrance which you have heard from us and as an encouraging Word with which I shall conclude assure your selves that even this sad Providence is within the compass of those things in the Promise which shall work for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 The loss of a Faithful Minister may be sanctified to effect that good in and for you which the Enjoyment hath not You mistake if you think we have done Preaching no we are only called to preach to you out of the Pulpit of the Cross and I hope it may be said of us as of Abel Heb. 11.4 though we are dead we yet speak And why may it not be hoped that our Preaching out of that Pulpit may be more effectal than out of this That 's a comfortable Word to those that can apply it 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul all are yours i.e. they are ordained for your benefit all God's disposals of us whatever you may think are for your advantage and through Grace I shall in confidence thereof say with the Apostle Phil. 2.17 If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your Faith I joy and rejoyce with you all May but my Sufferings attain their end which is your Consolation and Salvation I shall through Grace bless God in making use of me to that purpose In the mean while that is a staying Word to my soul Luke 13.33 It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem that is be taken away before he hath done his work I know God is not tyed to one way he can make our silence speak louder and more effectually than all our Sermons have done To conclude then let me resume my request to you all Let none of you stumble or take offence at our Sufferings Let me humbly use the Words of our blessed Saviour Mat. 11.16 Blessed is he that is not offended in us Let not our Enemies rejoyce or censure us let not our Friends sorrow as without hope but let all wait and observe the issue and I doubt not but God in his own time will manifest to the world that his intentions even in this thing were good towards his faithful Ministers and waiting People that this shall be as a Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap to purifie the Sons of Levi that this shall be the fruit even the taking away of Jacobs sin Isa 27.9 and that the Lord will not forsake his People nor cast away his Inheritance but Judgement shall return unto Righteousness and all the Upright in heart shall follow after it Psal 94.14 15. As for the third Doctrine That a gracious soul fears and prayes against the evil Influence that his Sufferings might have upon others I shall as God enables put it in practice on your behalf and shall take up the Psalmists Words Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed for my sake O Lord God of Hosts Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel SERMON XII John 16.33 These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the world IN the begining of this chapter the Lord Christ telleth his Disciples what they shall suffer in the world that when sufferings came according to his prediction they miâ—ht not be offended at but rather confirmed in the Faith of the Gospel and telleth them the reason why they shall undergo these sufferings from the world from verse 1. to verse 5. 2. He acquainteth them with his departure out of the world and that they should want his company and counsel verse 5.6 3. Yet Christ telleth them it is for their advantage that he goeth away implying he should do them more good in Heaven than on Earth especially in sending the Comforter verse 7. And here he sheweth the Spirits Office as to the world from verse 7. to verse 12. Secondly to them from verse 12. to vers 16. and and in the 16th verse he bringeth his discourse to a conclusion 4. We have the Disciples enquiring after the meaning of this discourse of Christs from verse 17. to verse 20. To which he answereth in declaring the sorrow they shall have after his departure and that it shall end in joy yea such joy as they shall not be deprived of verse 20. to verse 23. I will see you again and your hearts shall rejoyce This coming again was by the Comforter and when he came they should have joy because a full return of Prayer ver 23. to verse 28. 5. Upon this discourse the Disciples profess their understanding of Christ's meaning verse 29 30. 6. You have Christ's discourse upon this foretelling their leaving of him at his passion and their sufferings in the world and the peace they should have in him from ver 31. to the end In the Text observe 1. Christ's Assertion That in the world they should have tribulation 2. His Exhortation To be of good chear 3. The Motive to this Christ telleth them he hath overcome the world Doct. 1. That Christ told his Disciples in the world they should have Tribulation Explicat 1. What is ment by Tribulation 2. What is meant
eighth verse of this last chapter and thence he uttered these words Junius thinks that the waiting called for in that verse is patiently to bear their Captivity in Babylon and chearfully to expect their Deliverance therefrom and so then all that follows is to give them grounds of hope that it was but a temporary Captivity not a final Divorse they should be in a state of Suspension as Absolom from God's presence for some time but not of Abdication or Exhaeredation sequestred interdicted not ejected disinherited So much for the Book in which my Text is and its coherance with the words of its neighbourhood In the Text there are two general parts viz. First An Implicit Prediction of a doleful Calamity which should befal this People And secondly An Explicit Promise of a Rich Mercy to be bestowed upon them In the Prediction implyed there is a double Calamity intimated to be coming and that is first A Loss of their Spiritual Priviledges which was the Advantage of the Jew Rom. 3.1 2. 9.4 5. By Solemn Assemblies are meant their several Conventions at those set times which God had appointed them viz. on the weekly Sabbath the new Moons the stated Feasts and Fasts which they were bound to observe Deut. 16. begin For the Solemn Assembly i. e. for the lack want of the Solemn Assembly The phrase is a concise form of speech usual in the Hebrew tongue and is in this Text to be understood as in Isa 32.12 They shall lament for the Teats for the pleasant Fields for the fruitful Vine i. e. for the spoil loss and want of them Our Translators do sometimes where the words are no more in the Original than they are here supply to shew the sense of the expression One while lack as in Gen. 18.28 Wilt thou destroy all the City for lack of five And another while want as in Lament 4.9 stricken through for want of the fruits of the field And so it would have done well if it had been supplied here Furthermore in that it is here expressed indifinitely The Solemn Assembly it is to be understood universally of All Assemblies so that it was a total deprivation they had not one left Secondly The Reproach under which their Assemblies lay as under a burden as our Translators put into the margent Which was an additional aggravation of their Affliction adding Gall to their Wormwood Harm and Scorn are seldom divided The Church is seldom laid low but it is spit upon as well as trod upon If Sampson be in the Philistines hands he must be brought forth to make them sport And this is very irksome Shame is the heaviest part of a cross Heb. 12.2 13.13 If God had only stripped them of their Glory it might have been easier born than to have their Glory turned into Shame If they had only wanted good words from God that sometimes they had heard it might have been born but to hear evil words from men yea to hear the good wayes of God evil spoken of this was intolerable The Reproaches what they were you will hear anon So much shall serve for the Prediction implied I proceed to the second general in the Text viz. The Promise expressed And therein is considerable 1. The Promise it self I will gather i. e. bring you to your Land and to your Assemblies again to enjoy them in more peace power and purity than formerly as the precedent verses and some other parallel Scriptures which will be touched on by and by do shew 2. The persons to whom this Promise belongs The Promise as other parts of the Word is to be divided not thrown about carelesly it is childrens bread and so not for dogs Now the persons that are interested in this Promise are described 1. Generally such as are of the Church who are of Thee but because deceit lies in Generals the Church doors are far wider than Heaven gates All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 Therefore 2dly more particularly They are characterized by their carriage under the Calamities mentioned viz. Their sad resentment of those Calamities they were sad losses to them they took them to heart they wept under their Loss and groaned under the Reproach That are sorrowful for the Solemn Assembly c. I thought some years since I had a call to speak to the latter part of this Text and did so I wish I could say I have no cause now to call my thoughts to the first words of this Text upon which I do intend now to insist and the Doctrine is this Doct. 1. The want of Solemn Assemblies is a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation to all Church-members Ordinances should not be parted with with dry eyes The Child surely is either very sullen or very sick that cryes not for the breast The Doctrinal part requires an Answer to two Questions and then the way is open for Application The first Question is What it is to be sorrowful for the want of Solemn Assemblies And the second Question is Why Church-members should be sorrowful for their want of them Quest 1. What it is to be sorrowful c. I answer It consists in two things 1. It is inwardly to lay this to heart as a very great and a grievous want and loss If even bad men will like dogs howl under the want of Corn and Wine Hos 7.14 should not the Lord's Children mourn under the want of Spiritual Bread and their better Refreshings If ever we will have a spirit of heaviness sure it must be when God brings a Judgment upon us so near to a Spiritual Judgment Next to the withdrawment of Grace surely is the removal of the Means of Grace Artaxerxes concluded that Nehemiah had sorrow of heart Nehem. 2.2 and indeed so he had The heart must cry in such a case as this Lam. 2.18 We must be both serious and sincere Here is no room left for Crokadiles tears We must not be such mourners as Ishmael but rather such as they in the verse fore-going Jer. 41.5 6. Our bowels our bowels should be troubled we should be pained to the heart as Christ was when he beheld the Shepherdless People Matt. 9.36 How oft in the Book of Lamentations doth the Prophet touch upon this as the Lamentation It is as I may say The Lamentation of that Book of Lamentations it is the burden of that doleful ditty as you may observe in reading of it Eli held up till the Taking of the Ark was mentioned 1 Sam. 4.18 but when that is mentioned his heart dies within him this put him into an extasie of grief and overwhelms him every word that that Messenger brought made his heart-strings no doubt to crack but mentioning the Ark that broke his heart It may be easily believed that his heart was broke with the Arks captivity before his neck was by his fall off his Seat 2. It is outwardly to express this inward Grief and that some such wayes as these First
there be no cry for Ordinances that have run the pure blood of the Grape shall true good-fellowship have no more mourners for the loss of it 3 dly Will not the want of trading fill many mouths with complaints and many houses with sorrow Deborah mentions Judg. 5.6 the not occupying the high wayes as a sad calamity T is said of Babylon Rev. 18.11 The Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buyeth their merchandize any more Will not some places want their weekly Market in season preaching and their extraordinary Fairs out of season preaching Are not some great traders for Heaven in some places shutting down their shop-windows and should not this affect us 4thly Cannot any of us bemoan men and things that are much missed Physicians Lawyers wise Neighbours faithful Friends O Sirs what can be more missed than Ordinances what Physitians Comforters and Counsellors have they been to us how many a time had we been at a loss if not the Ordinances to go to as David Psal 73.16 17. Ordinances are publick Advantages It is a bad Husband indeed that is not missed a bad Parent that is not missed but how are good ones missed Verily they that misse their Ministers least need them most 5thly Are we not apt to over-sorrow if we be crossed in our desires or lose our desirable things shame thy heart with such instances as Ahab can he go to his house heavy and displeased for want of a conveniency and I lose a thing so necessary without regret Can Amnon be sick for Tamar and pine away And can I carry as if I could be and do well enough without the loves of Christ in his Ordinances So much for this first part of my Errand I now pass on to the second part of my Errand and that is to those that have under this Losse special and singular cause of mourning c. 1. Mourn you upon whom the Ordinances have been lost whilst they were amongst you The best should mourn for who hath improved under Ordinances as they might But how should they mourn that have been almost in all evil in the midst of the Congregation and Assembly Prov. 5.14 Oh if any of us be yet on this side a Saving-change as how many are How sad is it to see the Womb of Ordinances shut up Oh to have the Bridge drawn up the Portcullis let down and thou not got within but left to the roaring Lyons mercy is a sad case Oh to have for any thing you know the Market done and they that have sold Oyl making their last calls to the Customers that have too long passed by shutting up shop and thy Oyl yet to buy Oh for God to seem to say to a place I have done with you they are joyned to their lusts let them alone The night of the Day of Salvation is to none so black and dark as to them that have not known the day of their Visitation Christ weeps over such a People Luke 19.41 42. How should such a People weep over themselves The passing of Harvests and the ending of Summers is of them most to be lamented that have cause to say we are not saved Jerem. 8.20 They have cause to use those words in Jerem. 6.4 Wo unto us for the Day goeth away for the shadows of the Evening are stretched out Mourn you from whom the Word is going in word before it is come to you in power 2dly Mourn you that may in a more than ordinary manner look upon your selves as the Forfeiters of such Mercies that have thrust them away Which of us can say in this case our hands are clean Who is not accessory to the death of God's Servants But there are some that are the principal and of whom it may be said This breach be upon you Give out the lot and you will find especially to sorts of men taken viz. 1. Slighters of Ordinances And 2. Such as have been slighty in them Therefore 1. O you slighters of Ordinances mourn How careless were you to feed besides the Shepherds tents have ye not been as those that turn aside have you not chosen corners rather than Assemblies have you not listened to any body that hath said Loe here is Christ Oh! have not many of you turned under pretence of Corruptions of the Church till you can see no Church at all in being How many little petty Congregations set up and Reforming Assemblies withdrawn from Is it any wonder if so many Churches come to none Is it any wonder if a Land in which there was so great a forsaking find a great forsaking in the midst of the Land Isa 6.12 'T is high time to draw the Cloth when the Table wants Guests and to break up School when the Scholars come not at it It was the manner of too many to forget the Assembling of themselves Heb. 10.25 Too many had lost the way to their Fathers House The Ministry that were your main burdens God is easing you of many of them God is by this Dispensation I think confuting that wild Generation that cryed down the Ordinances But Wo worth them that put the Almighty upon such a way of Confutation that may cost many their souls and hath cost many their livelihood But these men will not hear me the Lord speak to them Read and apply to this head 2 Chron. 29.6 7 8. 2. Oh you that have been slighty in them whilst frequenters of them mourn Oh you that have not come to them as Solemnities with serious hearts you that have made some stir in your approaches to God in some Ordinances as a Sacrament c. but have not put on the wedding Garment for all Ordinances O mourn We would not cloath our selves for them and so we are stripped of them We mocked God when we should have served him and so he will not be mocked we were but as a People and therefore not so much as a People we had but a Name to live and therefore we must not have so much as a Name our hearts have been elsewhere whilst in them and no wonder if such a People know they had Oh sad that it may be said they had a Prophet among them Ezek. 33.31 33. how have we lost our hearts in them how little have we fought to see Jesus by them and to touch him in them No wonder if an Ark go into Captivity when the Ark of God is looked at and after and not the God of the Ark. Oh how we have gloried in our Priviledges and have looked after the Power of them Oh our bare hearings Oh our barren receiving of Sacraments Oh our seeming desires after Church-Purity and our little care of Heart-Purity Oh our few out-cries against our corrupting of Ordinances by the sinful mixtures of Distractions base ends c. Oh how much of man how little of a Christian in our approaches to God! How much was the Price of the Gospel fallen even half in