patience and such like And thereby also they do give to us to understand that we are especially to wish and desire the good of the soules of those whom we love and are bound to love that they may have saving grace in their soules and an increase of it here in this life and that they may be eternally saved hereafter in heaven And there is good reason for it Reason Because indeed saving grace here in this life and salvation hereafter in heaven is the most excellent thing that can be desired or enjoyed saving grace in the soul is proper to those whom God loves in special manner and gives it to none but to such as belong to Gods election And it sweetens all other good things of this life and makes them truly comfortable without which they are but accursed vanities and vexations of spirit Eccles 2.11 as the Preacher speaks yea saving grace in the soul yeelds comfort and rejoycing of heart when all other things in this life can yeeld none at all as in the midst of trouble sorrow and perplexity and in the hour of death And therefore doubtlesse saving grace here in this life and salvation hereafter in heaven are the things that we are especially to wish and desire in the behalf of those whom we love and are bound to love But may some say It may be that those whom we love Quest and are bound to love belong not to Gods election Are we bound to wish saving grace and salvation to them I answer Answ That they belong not to Gods election is a secret and unknown to us and we are not to meddle with that we are to follow the Will of God revealed which enjoyns us to desire the good of those whom we love and are bound to love especially the good of their soules even to wish them saving grace here in this life and salvation hereafter in heaven We see then a Duty that concerns us laid before us Vse and we are to take notice of it and to put it in practise it is a duty little thought on or little regarded by many we can many of us wish well to such as we love and are bound to love to our children and friends in respect of their bodies and outward estate we can wish them health and wealth and outward prosperity that they may live in health and may thrive and come forward in the world and may prosper in their outward affaires these things we can wish them out of the strength of natural affection which indeed we are bound to wish unto them that they may so live and so do by the use of all good means But alas here is our failing and fault few there be that make it the earnest desire of their hearts and the chief wish of their soules That their children servants brethren friends and such as they love and are bound to love may have saving grace wrought in their soules that they may come to have saving knowledge of God saving faith and saving repentance and may come truly to fear the Lord. Indeed sometimes men for form and fashion break out and say God give grace to my child to my servants and such like and God blesse them with his grace and God make them his faithful servant which are good speeches but this is but a flash and a vanishing wish it ends with a breath and in speaking of it it is not seconded with a careful use of all the good means as it ought to be Now then know it whosoever thou art thou must especially wish and desire the good of the soules of those whom thou lovest and art bound to love that they may come to saving knowledge saving faith and saving repentance and may come truly to fear God and thy desire must be true sound settled and constant seconded with the careful use of all good means within the compasse of thy place and calling that serve to work saving grace in them as teaching and instructing them counselling them comforting them and praying for them and sending up thy wishes to heaven for them And to help us forward in this duty consider we these two things First If we make it the earnest desire of our hearts and the chief wish of our soules that those whom we love and are bound to love may have saving grace wrought in their soules we are therein like to God himself and we follow his example for thus doth the Lord himself wish to his people Deut. 5.29 Oh that there were such an heart in them or who will give them such an heart as to fear me and to keep all my Commandements alway as if he should have said It is the chief desire of my soul that they had such an heart Secondly If we earnestly and heartily wish saving grace to the soules of those whom we love and are bound to love it is a good evidence that we have true saving grace in our own soules and that we feel the sweetnesse and comfort of it in our own soules For certainly they that find the sweetnesse of saving grace in their own soules Act. 11.23 24. cannot but wish it to others and delight to see it in others they that truly fear God themselves cannot but wish that others did as Paul said to Agrippa Act. 26.29 would to God that not onely thou but also all that hear me to day were both almost and altogether such as I am If then we would be like to God himself and a better example we cannot follow and if we would have good evidence that we have true saving grace in our own souls we must be mindfull of this duty not onely to wish good to the bodies of those whom we love and are bound to love but especially that they may have saving grace in their soules here in this life and salvation hereafter in heaven and carefully use all good means serving to that purpose Let us now go on to further matter offered to us from this Verse For I could wish my self to be separated from Christ for my brethren that are my kinsmen according to the flesh We are further to consider that the Apostle as I have shewed in this wish of his to be separated or accursed from Christ had respect not only to the conversion and salvation of the Jews out of his love to them but he had also therein respect to the glory of God and to the glory of Christ He could have wished himself if it had been possible separated and cut off from salvation purchased by Christ and from all hope of it and to have been damned for ever in hell not onely for the good of the Jews that they might have been converted and saved but also for the greater glory of God and of Christ That God and Christ might thereby have had the greater honour and glory whence we are given to understand thus much and the point further offered to us from this wish of the Apostle is this Doctrine
neither the Word of God which is as a piercing fire and as a sword to divide between the joynts and the marrow Jer. 23.29 cannot humble them Nor the exhortations of the Word of God which are as soft rain and dewe Esay 55.10 11. cannot mollifie them nor afflictions can better them surely then the Lord hath a purpose to destroy and root them out and they are near unto utter destruction when the Lord withdraweth the grace of repentance and of amendment that they are not humbled by the denunciation of the Word of God nor mollified by the exhortations nor bettered by afflictions nor by any means the Lord vouchsafeth unto them surely the Lord maketh it apparant that their destruction is present and at hand and this is to be considered by every one of us It is a point that we have stood upon formerly for the matter and substance of it that those whom God doth harden it is a sign of their reprobation and therefore I passe by it onely upon occasion of this truth some Objections are to be answered Object As happily some may say why the Lord doth not will the death of a sinner he doth so make it manifest by his Prophet Ezechiel in the 18. chapter and the 23. verse Have I any desire that the wicked should die no He rather willeth that they should live if he return from his wickednesse And so in the last verse Have I any delight in the death of the wicked saith the Lord God no cause him to return and live I have no delight nor desire in his death And again the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is given in Scripture to God it sounds forth nothing but Essence and being yea and everlasting being He is called Jehovah because he hath his being of himself and the Nature of God is Essence and being and he giveth Essence and being to all things Now death and destruction make things cease to be that already are death in man utterly overthrowes destroyes and ruinates life how can it then be that God doth purpose to destroy and extirpate any man seeing death and destruction come not from God Answ To answer this first we must know that the Prophet Ezechiel in the place alledged speaketh of penitent sinners mark what is precedent and in the sequel verses and you shall easily see it and then death and destruction God willeth it not neither shall they die eternally And again we must distinguish between the absolute will of God and Gods recompencing will simply God doth not will death for death came by sinne as Rom. 5.12 But God doth will death as a Just judgement for sinne As a Judge simply willeth not the death of an offender as he is a a man but as he hath committed the fault and the offence so God in his just Judgement doth will the death of a sinner as a recompence for their sinne Again it is true that the Name of the Lord doth send forth nothing but essence and being and an absolute subsistence The Lord is life and being of himself and from him every thing hath life and being yet notwithstanding the Lord can withdraw and withhold life and being at his own good will and pleasure Psalm 104.28 29. saith David If thou take away their breath they perish and die life is in thy hand and man returneth to dust again but to passe from that Again For this purpose have I stirred thee up that my name might be declared throughout all the earth That is that the praise and the glory of my Justice appearing in the ruine and Destruction of so mighty a King rebelling against me might be propagated and spread abroad throughout all the Corners of the world and every where spoken of getting my self a name in thy destruction the point hence is this That God will have glory in the confusion of wicked hard hearted Doctrine and impenitent sinners they that live in their blindnesse of mind hard heartednesse and impenitency the Lord will have glory and glorifie himself by them such as go and walk on stifly stubbornly and rebelliously in their sins God will have glory in their everlasting confusion and utter destruction Psal 50.17 Consider this you that hate to be reformed so he describeth them for saith he in the 22. verse he will tear you in pieces he giveth it them as a Caveat and forewarning Consider this you that forget God for he will tear you all to pieces Again in Rom. 2.5 Thou saith the Apostle after thy hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heapeth unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the indignation of the just Judgment of God As if the Apostle had said Thou hard-hearted wretch that goest on and continueth in thy sins thou dost but heap up wrath against the day of wrath when the Lord will revenge himself upon thee and execute his wrath and vengeance to the full thou whose heart is as it is said in Jer. 5. as hard as a stone and as Adament the Lord will get himself glory by thee and in Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for his own glory sake yea even the wicked for the day of evil as if he had said howsoever hard-hearted and impenitent sinners do contemptuously rebel and refuse to yeeld glory to the Lord yet even those wicked reprobates are made for the glory of God as well as others and they are appointed to the day of vengeance the Lord will have his glory in their Destruction they will not glorifie God in their lives he will have glory in their confusion and destruction and good reason there is for it Because the good which God aymeth at in the doing of all his actions Reason intentions and purposes is the advancement of his own glory and the Lord doth delight in that as in his chiefest glory yea the Lord can bring good out of evil glory out of shame he can bring glory in the confusion of the wicked and assuredly the Lord will not lose his glory by them he will not lose his chiefest happinesse but he will be glorified one way or other Oh then consider it you that dare go on in your sins and do continue Vse 1 and daily increase in your grosse evils and fearful sins that live in most unnatural and wicked evils as in pride and in swearing their mouthes are full of oathes and of unclean and debauched evil speeches and in their drunkennesse and Sabbath-breaking and usury and the like though they do not say with Pharaoh VVho is the Lord yet they kick against the holy Word of God and they set light by the threatenings of it when they are denounced against their particular evils they make put a pish and a tush of it and so they live in open contempt of the great honour and glory of God and this is the lives of many amongst our selves they hate to be reformed though they hear their sins beaten against and they told of them
much as they can the very Conscience that is placed in the heart of man it is a plain evidence that there is a God and so let this suffice to stop their mouthes Is this so that the conscience is thus placed in the soul of man as a Vse 2 witnesse to whatsoever it is that man doth will or think or speak or affect or do surely then it must follow that it cannot possibly be that any man or woman should sin without witnesse though they sin never so secretly though it be in the very secrets and inwards of their own hearts that none can discern but God alone the Conscience discerneth it and seeth it and taketh notice of it and will manifest it in time if they have but an evil thought against God his Church or Children the conscience is a witnesse to that very thought indeed men presume upon it and do account it no sin if they can do it in a secret corner and have a dark place to act it in from the sight of men as Job 24.15 The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight and then disguiseth himself and saith none eye shall see him Alas though thou couldest hide thy sin from all men and Devils yet thou canst not hide it from God nor from thine own conscience that will one day come in as a witnesse against thee and lay thee open to the sight of men and Angels unlesse God give thee repentance The Conscience of man is a tell-tale it will lay it open and witnesse against thee Indeed I confesse that the mouth of the conscience may be muzzeled and sometimes be choaked and fail in doing the office of it to bear witnesse or a man may lay violent hands upon his own conscience and as it were cut the throat of it for a time his conscience being asleep or benummed for custome in sin taketh away the feeling of the conscience for a time and as One saith well The light of the Conscience may be shadowed because it is not good but quite extinguished it cannot be because it cometh from God and is of him in the heart by the hand of God it may be asleep and benummed but it will awake either in the day of affliction or in the hour of death when the Conscience will be raised and awakened and will then not spare to witnesse against thee or if it be so that thou dost dye without any sense or feeling of sin thou dyest like a senselesse stone as it is said of Nabal his heart dyed within him so it may be thy heart may be so hardened as that in the hour of death it hath no touch of conscience at all yet know this though thou dyest so yet thy conscience dyeth not it is a natural faculty of thy soul it cannot dye and though it touch thee not in the hour of death yet the day will come when the Judgment of the Lord cometh it will come and appear before thee and then it will speak and not spare it will witnesse against thee the sins that thou hast done in hugger-mugger and in secret and thy dissembling and close dealing either with God or man thy Conscience will not then spare to speak against thee And therefore in the fear of God take notice of it and let this ground of truth teach us to take heed of presuming to sin because we are in the dark whether Usurers or those that travel up and down from Ale-houses to Taverns in the night to commit sin their consciences go with them And in this respect take we heed of dissembling of hypocrisie of double dealing in the sight and presence of the Lord thou mayst blear the eyes of men and deceive them but thy own conscience will not be blinded it will bear witnesse even of thy bosome sins and although it may be mute for a time yet it will speak and that aloud too before the Judge of all the world Let this therefore work inward soundnesse and truth in the heart that our Consciences may witnesse good before God of us who knoweth the inwards of thy heart and soul The Apostle addeth further That the Holy Ghost did testifie with his Conscience My Conscience witnesseth with me in the holy Ghost that is as it is rectified and guided by the holy Spirit of God to witnesse with me holily and truly as it is ordered by grace and sanctified to that end and purpose so then the Conclusion is this Doctrine That the Conscience of man doth then onely witnesse with him holily and truly and to his comfort touching the things that is said or done by him when it is rectified and guided by the holy Ghost it is the conscience and the conscience sanctified that is a true a holy and a comfortable witnesse to man when I say with the Apostle the Conscience beareth witnesse in the Holy Ghost it is that conscience that is a true and a holy witnesse touching good thoughts words or actions the Conscience regenerate holy and sanctified is only a conscience that is a comfortable witnesse Reason For why such as the Conscience is such is the witnesse and testimony of it now a natural conscience is impure polluted and defiled Titus 1.15 to the unbelieving and defiled is nothing pure but the mind and conscience is defiled even the conscience of a natural man witnesseth impurely unsound and uncomfortable onely the conscience regenerate and sanctified that is purged and purified by faith Act. 15.9 faith purifieth the heart and that conscience so purged and purified is only a true and a holy witnesse and that Conscience that is so regenerate and sanctified by grace it giveth witnesse and testimony of that righteousnesse which is called the righteousnesse of the conscience and is ever joyned unto it namely it giveth witnesse of a true and sound and constant purpose in the heart seconded with a holy endeavour and careful use of all good means not wittingly nor willingly to sin against God in any thing but to labour to please God in all things whatsoever this is the witnesse of a pure conscience Heb. 13.18 We are assured that we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honestly and this was the witnesse of the Conscience of the good King Hezekiah that he was able his conscience being regenerate even upon his death-bed to say Now Lord remember how I have walked before thee-with an honest and a good heart Esay 38.3 he had walked before God with a perfect heart in the truth of his soul here was a regenerate heart that thus testified how he endeavoured not to sin against God but to please him in every thing so that by this it appeareth to be a truth that the Conscience of man then doth only witnesse holily and truly when it is rectified by grace then is it a holy witnesse of our thoughts words and actions Vse This serveth to discover unto us that many deceive themselves even touching this witnesse the
comfort both in life and in death Let us then never rest untill we be grieved for the miseries that lye on the bodies of others but especially for the evils on the souls of others and such as do appertain unto us that we be not like stocks nor stones but that we mourn for the sinnes on the soules of others Now from these words the Apostle where he saith he grieveth for the rejection of the Jewes some move this question Whether the Apostle might lawfully be grieved for the rejection of the Jews it being according to the appointment of the Lord. But the question Quest arising from hence concerning our selves is this seeing we are to be grieved for the known miseries of others the question may be Whether we may be grieved for such persons as suffer just punishments for their evil deeds brought to the place of execution when the hand of God is in punishing of them for their evil doings or no Now to this I answer Answ That we are to put on tender bowels of pity commiseration and compassion towards all that be in any distresse and under the punishing hand of God in any thing whatsoever they be though never so vile and sinful though they be monsters in regard of the outrage of sin yet as they be the creatures of God as they bear the Image of God and be reasonable creatures and are partakers of the same nature with us so we are to put on tender bowels of pity and commiseration towards them though they be never so vile or wicked Thus we find Samuel mourned for Saul Samuel as a Prophet foreseeing the evil that was like to fall upon Saul both in the losse of his Kingdom and the losse of his life in so desperate a manner he grieved for him as we may read in the 1 Sam. 16.1 The Lord biddeth him no longer to mourn for him yet he did in regard of the miseries that he saw lye upon him thus we are to mourn for all be they never so vile as they bear the image of God and are men and women like unto us but as wicked persons undergo just and deserved punishment for their offences either against God the good estate of the Church or the good estate of Religion we may in that respect be so far from grieving mourning and pitying of them that we may rejoyce and joy in it yet not pleasing our selves in the smart or pains of others be they never so vile but for the manifestation of Gods Justice because we love God and the glory of God is dear unto us therefore we may and ought to magnifie and justifie the Name of God in cuting off of such men as be Jesuites and Seminary Priests we may be so far from sorrowing for them as that we may rejoyce in it and glorifie God in cutting off of such wicked Imps as in Psal 58.10 11. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the revenging hand of God upon such and men shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth on the earth God himself desireth not the death of any so he saith I delight not in the death of a sinner yet God was pleased with the punishment of the wicked according to the rule and course of his Justice so we must not delight in the punishment of any as he is a creature of God and beareth the Image of God like unto us but we are to look upon the glory of Gods Justice and to magnifie and to glorifie him in such persons being destroyed that seek the hurt of Gods glory Gods Church or Gods Religion For then we are to rejoyce but not in their punishment as they are men of the like nature with us In the next place we are to mark that the Apostle saith not nakedly and barely that he was grieved and sorrowed for the rejection of the Jewes but doth affirm and say that he had great heavinesse and continual sorrow for the rejection of the Jews his heavinesse and sorrow was not small nor vanishing but it was great and heavy such as is a womans travelling with child for so the word sorrow signifieth a vehement great and heavy sorrow for their rejection Now what was the cause the Apostle grieved for the rejection of the Jews because he loved them for this was a manifestation of his love his sorrow and love held sympathy and proportion hence the observation is thus That true love unto any person Doctr. or thing causeth heavinesse sorrow and grief in the heart upon any known just occasion of grief given from that person or thing so loved and according to the measure of love to any person or thing so is the measure of grief or sorrow upon any known just occasion of grief from that person or thing so loved our grief is answerable and proportionable to our love the more we grieve for any person or thing the more we love them this we see is clear from the example of the Apostle that was grieved for the rejection of the Jews out of his love to them and this is manifest by other places as in Gen. 37.34 we read when good Jacob that holy and just man had just occasion given unto him for sorrow and heavinesse as he thought for his son Joseph he thinking verily his son was devoured by wild beasts as they did give him intelligence though false it is said that he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and sorrowed for him exceedingly yea the Text saith that when his children came about him to comfort him he would not be comforted in regard of the evil he thought had befallen his son Joseph he grieved a long season and would not be comforted so also in 1 Sam. 20.34 Jonathan was very sorrowful and exceeding heavy for David because his Father Saul had reviled him such was his love to David so also we find that the good man Nehemiah had a heart full of sorrow and grief and humbled himself in weeping and fasting when he heard of the evil that was upon the Church and the people of God it made him break out into weeping and humbling his soul Nehem. 1.6 yea his sorrow and heavinesse was so great that he could not dissemble it he could not keep it in his bosome it appeared in his very countenance yea and that so apparantly that the King said What is the matter Nehemiah why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick Sure I perceive that this is nothing else but sorrow of heart Nehem. 2.2 In John 11.36 the Jews said when they saw Jesus weeping for Lazarus Behold how he loved him they could thereby conjecture his love to him so 2 Cor. 2.4 The Apostle saith in great anguish of spirit he wrote to them and in many tears that they might perceive his love unto them his true and hearty love and anguish of his soul went together so that the point is clear That true love unto
vouchsafed unto them as the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants the giving of the Law and the service of God c. that they were the seed of the Patriarks and which is yet more that Christ himself as touching his humane nature was descended from them doubtlesse a matter of great honour Vse Which should teach us Not to hate the Jewes as many do onely because they are Jewes merely for the very name and title of being Iewes which name is amongst many so odious that they think they cannot call a man worse then to call him a Jew but beloved this ought not to be so for we are bound to love and honour the Jews as being the ancient people of God to wish them well and to be earnest in prayer to God for their conversion we are indeed to hate their obstinacy in rejecting of Christ and his faith but ought to love them in respect of their ancient and honourable priviledges especially that they were once the people of God that Christ himself came of their race and line and if we hear of the conversion of any of them we are bound to love them so much the more if they once come to receive and heartily to imbrace the Gospel of Christ for though believing Jews and Gentiles are one body in Christ yet are the Jewes our elder brethren and the Gospel was first offered and preached unto them Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not saith our Saviour in his first Commission granted to his Disciples Matth. 10.5 6. but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel so that the Gospel was first preached to the Jews as the Apostle speakes Act. 13.46 and from them it proceeded and descended unto us Gentiles so that all believing Jews are to be honoured and beloved of us as being our elder brethren and the people of God yea we are to wish them well that are yet uncalled and unconverted and earnestly and heartily to pray for their conversion Again In that the Apostle addeth this limitation concerning the flesh or according to the flesh Hence we are plainly taught the truth of Christs Humanity which is an article of our faith and a fundamental truth of God which we are to imbrace upon pain of damnation and from hence the observation is this Doctrine That Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God was truly incarnate and truly became man consisting of a body and a reasonable soul in all things like unto us onely without sin The holy Son of God did assume and take upon him the nature of man became true man consisting of a true body and reasonable soul and not imaginary onely yea that he had the properties of a true body as longitude latitude altitude visibility and circumscription as also the properties of a reasonable soul as understanding will and affections Yea further Jesus Christ took upon him the common infirmities of the body and soul of man such infirmities as appertain to the whole nature of man as hunger thirst yea he was subject to be sorrowful angry c. Joh. 1.14 the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us that is the eternal Word of the Father the second person in the Trinity even he was made flesh which plainly sheweth the truth of his humane nature So again Rom. 1.3 where the Apostle speaking of Christ the Son of God saith that he was made of the seed of David concerning the flesh or according to the flesh And in Gal. 4.4 saith the Apostle When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his son and that son that is made of a woman even that eternal son of God made of a woman a plain demonstration of Christs humanity so in Phil. 2.7 The Apostle saith that Christ was made like unto man and found in shape as man Now indeed some in ancient time perverted this Scripture and abused it to say that Christ had a heavenly body and imaginary body like unto man he had a body of an imaginary substance but this is contrary to the meaning of the Text as you may gather by the context for the meaning is that Christ Jesus had the same properties of a body and soul as other men as seeing smelling tasting feeling hearing and the like and subject to the like properties and infirmities as we are as to hunger thirst anger yea to death it self as we may see in Philip. 2.8 he became obedient to the death even to the death of the Crosse he did eat and drink and sleep and was subject unto sorrow and heavinesse yea even unto the death so that that place rightly understood is a strong argument to prove the truth of Christs humanity that he was like unto us sin excepted It was needful that Christ Jesus the Son of God should take flesh upon Reason 1 him consisting of a true body and soul like unto us First of all to accomplish the promise of God which he had made in Gen. 3.15 the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head here is a Promise made and for the accomplishment of this promise it was needful that the Son of God should take flesh upon him Secondly it is needful that he might suffer for sinne in his body and Reason 2 soul that which the whole Church of God had deserved by their sinnes so saith the Holy Ghost Heb. 2.9 that he might suffer death which he could not have done had he been onely God and so that he might appease the wrath of God in that same Nature wherein God was offended man had sinned and man must suffer for sinne either by himself or in Christ and therefore needful it was that the eternal Son of God the Mediatour of the Covenant that he should be not onely God but Man also consisting of a true body and soul like unto us excepting sin onely First this being a truth it serveth to discover unto us an errour Vse it serveth for the confutation of some erroneous opinions that are contrary to the truth of Christs humanity for it is an Article of our Faith and must be defended namely that of the Manichees and likewise of the Anabaptists for they affirm that Christ Jesus took his body from heaven and passed through the womb of the Virgin as through a Conduit or Pipe and took not her Nature upon him Beloved this must teach us to renounce this opinion and not onely this which hath been confuted by our Ancient Divines long agone but also the opinion of our adversaries the Papists For howsoever they grant unto Christ a true Natural body they dare not deny that but that he was born of the Virgin Mary yet in truth they overthrow the truth of his body how in that they give unto the body of Christ such properties as cannot agree to a true body what are those why they give to the body of Christ to be invisible to be uncircumscribed to be
issued and sprung from that ever springing fountain of the free love of God Exod. 19.4 he carried his people upon Eagles wings he did favour and do them good from time to time and so in Deut. 30.10 he chose Jacob and the seed of Jacob and brought his seed out of Egypt by a mighty power and Deut. 4.37 he turned the curse of Balaam to a blessing Numb 23.5 when Balaam thought to curse the people of God God turned it to a blessing so I might instance in many particulars how the Lord manifested his love unto his people one for all Joh. 3.16 where Christ saith God so loved the world or his chosen in the world that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life the free love of God was it that moved God to send his Son to be a Saviour unto them Indeed I grant that Gods chosen now believing in Christ they have the pardon of their sins and they have all good things vouchsafed unto them for Christ his sake even for Christ his sake God is pleased to vouchsafe unto them pardon of sin and all other dependents thereon for we must know that though God out of his free love decreed to make Christ a means and a Saviour by whom and through whom men should have pardon of their sins conveyed unto them that he should be the conduit and person that they should receive it by yet the fountain and chief ground is Gods eternal love so that the first cause the first ground of all good things that come unto Gods chosen here and hereafter in heaven it is Gods free love and his free good will and pleasure though Christ be the means of conveyance Because God being most free as he is liberrimum agens he will not have Reason 1 any good thing come from any thing out of himself Because no good can be given above the good will and pleasure of God Reason 2 Christ himself saith so that we have nothing but the free and eternal pleasure of God so that this plainly sheweth Gods free love is the ground of all good things First of all this Doctrine doth put down a main difference plain and Vse 1 manifest between Gods love unto us and our love unto others we love others in respect of some good some worth we see some good quality some excellent and worthy thing in them which doth attract and draw our love unto them we see some beauty some wit some learning some strength or the like that draweth our love unto them and knitteth our hearts unto them and indeed we are bound so to do to love others in respect of their beauty wit learning and the Image of God in them in any manner Now with God there is no such matter our love is bounded and grounded and set upon some excellency or worth in the creature even our very enemies but with God there is no such matter his love is not stirred up nor caused by any good worth or excellency in us or any goodnesse in us no not by any thing out of himself Indeed I grant God loveth his own Image being renued in us and the more we are renued of God the more holy the more religious the more pleasing to God and the more dear and pretious to him God loveth his own Image in us actually but the cause of that is his eternal free love so that though the Lord love us we being renued and holy and righteous yet the cause is his eternal free love which proceedeth not from any thing out of himself but onely his free good will and pleasure Is this so that all good things in this life and the life to come do proceed Vse 2 from the good will and pleasure of God Upon this ground we must learn then to indeavour in every good thing we enjoy yea in the good things of this life that we have and possesse to see Gods love unto us in them to see in the bread we eat the apparel we clothe our selves withal and the good things we enjoy to see Gods love unto us It is not sufficient for us to know that the outward good things of this life are good things in themselves blessings of God a man may go so far by the very light of nature to know that meat and drink and maintenance is a blessing of God and there is no comfort in this knowledge no we must be able to know that these good things come out of Gods free and eternal love and to be blessings unto us in particular and that they flow out from Gods free and eternal favour wherewith he had loved us before the world was and that they coming thus we may use the Apostles form of thanksgiving Ephes 1.3 blessed be God our heavenly Father who hath blessed us with all heavenly and with all temporal good things with this health with this wealth this apparel but some may say how is that to be done I answer Labour thou in the first place to get thy part in the blood of Jesus Christ labour thou to apprehend and apply the merits of Christ his death and obedience to thine own soul by a true saving faith and never rest untill thou hast a true and a saving faith to apply and to apprehend the merits of Christ to thy soul for in Christ alone is the spiritual right and title of all good things applyed to Gods chosen Secondly having gotten this labour thou to find that the outward good things of this life they do stirre thee up and provoke thee forward to love God to fear God to walk humbly before the Lord and to be thankful unto his holy Majesty the outward good things of this life thou hast a true right and title unto them and are means to help thee forward in the wayes of God and to walk humbly before the Lord thy meat thy drink thy apparel are means to help thee forward to thy salvation and to further thee in the way of salvation And it is not with thee after the manner of the men of the world to abuse the good things of this life to vanity and pride to set out their hearts in pride of apparel garishnesse of attire riot and excesse as some do that a man may say and easily discern there is a proud person however you will say under a russet coat may be a proud heart yet a man may say where there is smoke there is fire It breaketh out in their foreheads and foretops and in their long shag'd ruffian-like hair and in their exteriour parts a man may say they are clothed with cruelty and pride hangeth as a chain about their necks Psal 73.6 and their houses and lands are priviledged places for all manner of abomination impiety and ungodlinesse and no man may speak against them especially being men of place and authority great men their greatnesse doth priviledge their places and houses for all manner of impious and abominable courses
and the reason why the Lord is thus pleased so to do is this Because that so they might have both space and time of repentance given vnto them Reason and that they might hereby be stripped of all excuse and may have nothing to plead for themselves they shall have their mouthes stopped in the day of the Lords visitation Therefore the Lord is pleased to vouchsafe the means of mercy of grace and of repentance that they might have nothing to plead for themselves and they still despising the riches of Gods mercy of his patience and of his bountifulnesse Romans 2.4 which is manifested in the means of grace that leadeth unto repentance which is still sounding in their ears and still goe on in sinne so that when they come before the Judge of the World they can have nothing to say they cannot say if we had had such and such means and such time we would have amended but they have all means and they despising the bountifulnesse of God are left without excuse Object But happily some may say it seemeth it is but in vain that God giveth wicked men a time and space of repentance and sendeth his Gospel unto them and invites and cals them to amendment because the Lord having decreed their everlasting destruction they can never come to repentance therefore it seemeth a vain and an idle thing in God may some say to give unto them time and space of repentance and to crie out unto them come out of your sins turn to God repent of your sins and here is mercy for you God having decreed their destruction they can never come to repentance Answ It is true indeed God having decreed the everlasting destruction of reprobates they can never come to repentance and yet it is not in vain that God is pleased to give them space and time of repentance and to invite and call them and crie unto them Oh sonnes of Men when will you turne unto God For though the Lord is not bound together with the means of grace to give grace and to make the means effectual for the conversion of Reprobates yet thereby the Lord doth manifest and make it to appeare that he doth approve of the worke of Conversion and of Repentance in all men yea the Lord doth approve of the work of Conversion in Reprobates as a good thing in it selfe and hence it is in 2 Peter 3.9 it is said God will have all men to come to repentance Hath God decreed some to destruction and yet will have all men to come to repentance in his will approving and it is not in vaine that God calleth for it thereby approving of the work of Conversion in Reprobates as a good thing in it self and thereby he leaveth them without excuse Object But if any plead and say alasse they cannot doe otherwise God denying his grace unto them what can any man doe They cannot but continue hard hearted and obstinate If God denie his grace they cannot doe otherwise but continue hard hearted and obstinate To this I answer Answer it is true indeed that God denying his grace men cannot possibly come out of their sinnes to Repentance and amendment of their lives yet for all this God doth reprobates no manner of wrong at all in calling upon them and approving of that work in them he is not to be taxed because in the beginning before man was created God was not bound to create man in holinesse in the estate of Innocencie which he made them and much lesse is the Lord bound to restore these things unto them they having lost them they having forfeited the bond they having wilfully and rebelliously deprived themselves of these things having wilfully broke the Covenant and made a defection and a falling away from God so that God is still cleare and doth them no wrong at all Vse Is it so that God is so patient toward wicked sinners and such as are appointed to everlasting destruction that he forbears them and of a long time they provoking him to anger everie minute of an houre when he might throw them down to Hell Oh then let men and women whosoever they be that go on in their sins let them not thinke that they are in no danger of the wrath of God and punishing hand of God because God beareth with them and doth not speedily execute his vengeance upon them and cast down his thunderbolt upon them Oh let them not think that therefore they are free from the wrath of God though beloved it is a common Conceit of wicked and ungodly persons even of such as goe on in the practise of known sinnes of drunkennesse of uncleannesse to imagine within themselves that they are in no such danger as the Preacher will make them believe no saith a wicked and gracelesse wretch let the Preacher speake his pleasure and threaten me with the curse and the vengeance of God to light upon my soul and bodie and threaten me with damnation What need I fear Why for all this I am sure I thrive I goe on and I prosper I have good successe in the world he telleth me of the curse of God because I break the Sabbath yet I thrive I goe forward I have good successe in my businesse Oh let them take heed you are onely under Gods long patience and Gods long suffering and there is but a step between thee and Hell if death come you must to hell without repentance there is but a hairs breadth between you and hell It is a common saying forbearance is no acquittance you are but spared as the Amorites Genesis 15.16 Vntill your sinnes be at the full and you fil up the daily measure of your sinnes and then commeth the hand of God down upon you in a fearful manner and the longer that God is a striking the more fearful is his blow and the more deadly after long forbearance as Solomon saith Eccles 8.12 13. Though a sinner doe evil an hundred times many times together yet it shall not be well with him in the end howsoever he may thrive and grow great and prosper in the world and have blessings powred upon him abundantly yet it will not goe well with him in the end Nay I beseech you remember Gods patience abused it turneth into fury and into rage and Gods mercie despised and neglected Patientia lasa fit furor not leading to repentance becommeth judgement mercilesse Now is the day of grace and mercie is offered unto thee while the Lord giveth thee means of grace and of mercie but there will come a day of wrath and of vengeance upon thee it will come certainly and without mercie and without pittie now is the time of patience and of long forbearing Now is his voice calling upon you if you make a pish and a tush at it the time will come when the Lord will rise up in wrath and vengeance and bring woe unto your soules Again for a second use this being so that God
him He appointeth the drops of rain to fall in this place and not in that so he doth cause the dew of his Word to fall upon the clay the Gentiles in Matth. 10.6 into the Cities of the Samaritans enter not and in Acts 16.6 7 we find that Paul and Timothy they were forbidden of the holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia Yea when they had a mind to goe to Bythinia the Spirit of God would not suffer them but sent them to Macedonia Acts 16.9 Come over into Macedonia and help us so that the outward preaching of the Word it is vouchsafed to some and not to others as when Christ lived upon the face of the earth the bodily eyes of all men were not opened but onely some and others remaine blind some blind persons were left in their blindness And the dead bodies of all were not raised though some were at the death of Christ so dealeth the Lord with the minds and souls of men he onely out of his gracious pleasure doth open the minds of some men and make them to see know and understand and believe by the preaching of the Word according to his gracious pleasure therefore we may resolve upon it as a certain truth that God doth call men out of the estate of nature into the estate of grace effectually out of his free grace and mercy Vse 1 If this be so it is not then upon foreseen merit that God doth call men effectually and doth work upon them powerfully by his Spirit that is the error of the Papists they hold indeed that the election of God and consequently the revelation of the truth of God it is upon their merit foreseen because God doth foresee some worthiness in them we are to renounce this as a gross Popish errour yea the truth now made known unto us being duely considered and thought upon it beareth strongly against that position that is held by some that redemption wrought by Christ is universal that Christ died for all men universally without any exception of any Now not to stand upon this erroneous position which is a dangerous errour in the ground of it it making the sin of men the sins of the world death and hell to be stronger then Christ that Christ should die for all men and yet some of those men goe to hell a fowl and a gross errour besides this it cannot stand with the truth now delivered that Christ died effectually for all men without exception of any for if so be Christ did die for all men generally and universally then doubtless all are acquainted with it savingly as a benefit belonging to themselves such as are redeemed assuredly God doth bring them to the saving knowledge of their redemption Now this is not so the preaching of the Word and plain experience doth tell the contrarie for God out of his mere good will and pleasure doth call none effectually but such as are redeemed by Christ and so all men are not for then they should savingly be brought to the knowledge of their redemption but all are not so for as in the time of Christ all men that were blinde had not their eyes opened so all have not their minds enlightned and therefore universal redemption wrought by Christ is a meer fancie of the brain of man forged in hell and there is no truth in it to say that Christ died for all and if we rest upon this we shall finde a deceiving ground of comfort Howsoever some will say how shall we comfort a poor soul a prisoner that is to be executed but by telling him Christ died for all upon what ground No Christ died not for all Again is it so that God worketh freely upon the minds and souls of men out of his free grace and mercy Oh then such as find themselves to be in Vse 2 the number of the called of God and throughly wrought upon by the power of the preaching of the Word that are brought to the saving knowledge of God in Christ they are bound to acknowledge the riches of his free grace and mercy and be thankful unto God for the same Consider it thou that hast good evidence of thy effectual calling that art transformed and changed and brought into a new mold and fashion consider with thy self that many are left in their natural ignorance and unbelief yea many are given over to Popish superstitions many living in the same place frequenting the same means hearing the same sermons sitting in the same seat with thee they remain ignorant in their blindnesse of minde and hardnesse of heart but God hath given thee not onely his Word and Gospel preached but a heart enlightned to receive it therefore thou hast cause to magnifie the mercy of God for this blessing of all blessings And learn thou to break out and say Lord what am I that thou shouldest vouchsafe unto me such a mercie I see thousands in their natural estate and ignorance I was born and brought forth in sinne like other men and have increased and multiplied my sinnes exceedingly my unthankefulnesse is great and my unworthinesse greater and yet thou hast vouchsafed mercy unto me above many thousands Lord thou art gracious and merciful unto me Thus we ought to be stirred up our selves to magnifie the mercie of God in that many thousands are given to Popish superstition and God hath given thee a flexible heart to his Word Oh thou canst not be sufficiently thankful for so great a favour As he saith also in Hosea I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved COme we now to the very words of the text to enter into the bowels of it In these words as I have shewed you we have a double description of the Gentiles First of their estate before their calling when they were not the people of God by nature Secondly of their condition after their Calling that they were now become the people of God and beloved of the Lord hence then first of all appeareth the estate of man by nature as yet unconverted and not wrought upon by the Spirit of God through the preaching of the Word and Gospel hence the Doctrine is this Doctrine That men who are in their natural estate as yet not effectually called and as yet not wrought upon by the Spirit of grace by the preaching of the Word and Gospel are in a miserable estate and condition they are not the people of God nor beloved of God so saith the Text and we find that that the Scripture setteth out the miserable estate and condition of men in their natural estate by many notable speeches in Rom. 5.6.8 it is said that they were sinners in a high degree ungodly yea enemies unto God and unto Christ such as are in their natural estate they are enemies unto God and there is open defiance between God and them and they may look that the Lord shall deal with them as a professed
man are far greater then the evils on the body though it be Famine and Pestilence because the evils that be upon the souls of men they are simply evil things and such as in themselues do make men subject to the wrath of God and power of the Devil which no other outward misery can do of it self indeed a mans behaviour therein may make him lye open to the wrath of God and power of the devil but the evils on the soul of man do make him lye wide open unto it And I may safely say that the hardnesse of Pharaohs heart was a heavier and a greater Plague unto him then all the plagues of Egypt besides for these are the most fearful evils and make a man lyable to the wrath of God and power of the devil and therefore doubtlesse this we may resolve upon that the evils that be upon the hearts and souls of men are especially to be grieved for Vse This concerneth every one of us to take notice of and we are to labour to put this duty in practice and I must tell you withal it is a duty wherein many of us are defective and wanting and come far short of and the most may justly be reproved and taxed in this particular that we have not grieved for the evils that be upon the souls of men and women we can grieve for the miseries that be upon the bodies of men and outward estates and we can bemoan and bewail them and shew forth a greater measure of sorrow and grief for those and sometimes weeping especially if they be our friends and near and dear unto us as we are bound unto by speciall bonds as our Father Mother wife brother or sister or friends or such like we can shew forth a great deal of sorrow for them but the miseries that lye upon the souls of others though they be never so near or dear unto us few there be that are touched and moved with this evil to draw yet a little nearer thou canst grieve if so be thou hearest thy son thy brother or thy friend near unto thee prove a bankrupt or an unthrift and decay in worldly things or if thy child or servant or any other be suddenly overtaken by some accident and some hand of God as strucken blind lame or the like thy heart is full of sorrow for this and indeed so thou oughtest to be But let thy brother thy friend thy own child thy husband or wife that lyeth in thy bosome be one that is given to sin to live in ignorance drunkennesse swearing and the like thou art touched nothing at all with this thou art grieved for their bodies but let thy husband be an ignorant person or an hard-hearted person thou art not touched with it at all we grieve not for the miseries that lye upon their souls and this sheweth the cursednesse of thy heart that thou art an hard-hearted person and according to the cursednesse of thine own heart thou respectest not the hardnesse of the hearts of others and it is a plain evidence and demonstration of thy heart that it is not right in thee it is an argument that thou art but a carnal person and enlightened onely by the light of nature and that thou hast not in thee the life of true grace that ought to be in a Child of God therefore in the fear of God take notice of this duty and learn we to find this in our selves that we be grieved for the miseries that be upon the soul especially those that we are bound unto by special bond as for the ignorance of thy father or mother thy wife thy child or servant that they will not be reformed and for the evils that lye upon their hearts and soules we must showr down tears for them that have the means of salvation and yet will not turn unto God yea thy heart and soul must be pierced through with grief for thy neighbours even such as live in thy own Land and Kingdom with thee as the miseries that lye upon the souls of poor men and women that have not one that is able to teach them the Word of God we should cry to heaven and send up sighes and tears for them and intreat the Lord to send forth Labourers into his harvest they want it they live in darknesse and blindnesse and never touched in Conscience for the same but go on with an high hand in sin and this should grieve our soules We should mourn in secret and seek unto the Lord by prayer with sighes and groans that the Lord would be pleased to send forth such as would labour amongst them and bring them out of the darknesse they are in thus we are to mourn for the known evils that lye upon the souls of others Haply the Lord may threaten us with Judgment and Dearth and Famine which we may justly look for yea the Famine of the Word of God For men that live in their sins without touch of Conscience this should grieve us exceedingly Now then to stirre us up to the practise of this Duty first of all consider Motive 1 If so be we be grieved for the evils that lye upon the souls of others it is a plain evidence that we have our soules enlightened and our eyes opened and are not ignorant and blind persons but have a true sight and discerning of evils and of the nature of evil things we are able to see and discern what is the cause of evil namely sin Secondly it will be an evidence unto us that we are truly sorrowfull Motive 2 and that we are truly humbled for our own sins if we can mourn for the sins of others And hence it is that you shall find that such as have been the most notorious sinners if once they come to be wrought upon and to be converted they come to be the most pitiful and compassionate persons in the world to others they see the uglinesse of sin and have felt the weight and burthen of it and they have the greatest grief in their hearts for the sins of others Motive 3 And thirdly it will be an evidence that we have true grace and true faith in our hearts and souls not a counterfeit but a true faith and that we are truly zealous for the glory of God and especially grieved for the sins of others that cannot grieve themselves even for those that live in the farthermost part of the world that have not the preaching of the Word that live in ignorance and blindnesse And to shut up all in one word of Exhortation If then we would have a good evidence that we are not such that have our eyes shut up like Balaam but that we have a true sight and discerning of the nature of evils and if we would have good evidence that we are truly touched and humbled for our own sins and have true faith and grace in our soules and are truly zealous of the glory of God this will yeeld us true