is used inâ—â— ver 27. conform to that of Moses Gen. 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil continually The word indeed signifies the wise thoughts so then take the full latitude of it thus The carnal mind in its best and wisest thoughts is direct enmity against God Carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What meant by the flesh here It is the whole corrupt Nature of man and that we may know by its opposition to the Spirit not to the Spirit or Soul of a man for so it hath no thoughts nor minding these being proper to the Soul but opposed to the Spirit of God Now the Corruption of Nature is called the Flesh not without very good reason not only to signifie the baseness of it the Flesh being the more ignoble and meaner part of a Man but because the greatest part of the sins of mens lives are about sensitive objects and things that concern the Flesh or the Body it lets in temptation of sin to the Soul by the doors of the Senses and it gives the last perfection or accomplishment to sin by external acting of it The very first sin that brought in Death and Misery with it upon Mankind the pleasure of the eye and of the taste were sharers in the guiltiness of it The carnal mind Man in regard of his composure is as it were the tie and band of Heaven and Earth they meet and are married in him A Body he has taken out of the Dust but a Soul breathed from Heaven the Father of Spirits a House of Clay but a Guest of most noble Extraction But the pity is it hath forgot its Original and is so drowned in flesh that it deserves no other but to go under the Name of Flesh. It is become the Slave and Drudge of the Body and as the Israelites in Egypt made perpetually to moyl in Clay What is all your Merchandise your Trades and Manufactures your Tillage and Husbandry but all for the Body in its behalf for Food and Raiment In all these the Mind must be careful and thoughtful and yet properly they reach it not for it self hath no interest in them It is true the necessity of the Body requires much of these things and superfluous custom far more but it is lamentable that men force their Souls to forget it self and its proper business to attend these things only and be busie in them They spend all their time and their choicest pains upon perishing things and which is worse engage their affections to them They mind earthly things whose end is destruction Philip. 3. 19. The same word that 's here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Will you consider seriously that your Souls run the hazard of perishing because you consider not their Spiritual Nature When that earthly Tabernacle of yours shall fall to the ground and e're long it must your Souls must then enter Eternity and though you had as large a share of earthly things as your earthly hearts now would wish they all lose their use in that moment they are not a proper good for the Soul at any time and least at that time If you keep it all your life long busie about the interest and benefit of the flesh the Body how poor will be when thy part having provided nothing at all for it self but the guiltiness of a sinful life which will sink it into that bottomless Pit Be forewarned then for to be carnally minded is death verse 6. precedeing the Text. The carnal mind Now as Sin hath abased and degenerated the Soul of Man making it Carnal so the Son of God by taking on our Nature hath sublimated it again and made it Spiritual The Souls that received him are Spiritualized yea as Sin made the Soul Carnal Grace makes the very Body to become Spiritual making it partaker and co-worker in spiritual things together with the Soul in doing and suffering and participant of the hopes too of an everlasting reward This is the main Christian Character our Apostle gives here that they are spiritually minded and that their actions suit their minds They walk not after the flesh but after the spirit whereas before with the rest of the World they were eager in the pursuit of Honours and Profits and Worldly Pleasures Now the stream of their desires run in another channel they seek after Honour and are very ambitious of it but it is such Honour as the Apostle speaks of in this Epistle Rom. 2. 7. By patient continuance in well doing they seek for glory and honour and immortality Their mind is upon profit and gain but it is with the same Apostle Philip. 3. that they may win Christ and they account all other things loss in comparison And their desires are after pleasure too but not Carnal Pleasures those are both base and of short continuance but the pleasures they aim at are those that are at Gods right hand and for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And that path of life he there speaks of that way of holiness that leads thither is their delight Spiritual Excercises they go to not as their task only but more as their joy and refreshment And this change the Spirit of God works in the Soul making it yea and the body wherein it dwells of Carnal to become Spiritual as the fire to which the Holy Ghost is compared refines Sand and Ashes and makes of them the purest Glass which is so neat and transparent Enmity against God Sin hath not only made us unlike God by defacing his beautiful Image in us not only strangers by making us wander far off from him but enemies nor enemies only but Enmity in the abstract for that is emphatical The carnal mind is Enmity nothing else but Enmity Now this Enmity is described in the latter clause of the Text by an Antipathy so to call it or Not-compliance with the Law of God it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be to wit while it remains such There is an absolute impossibility in it to suit with the Law of God and consequently with God himself the reason lies in their opposits qualities God is spiritual and holy and so is the law as our Apostle hath it in the preceeding Chapter and the opposition he there makes betwixt his Unregenerate part and the Law is wholly true of the Unregenerate man The law is holy says he ver 12. And ver 14. It is spiritual to which too he opposes but I am carnal sold under sin Where are now those that so vilifie Grace and magnifie Nature Or shall I rather say Nullifie Grace and Deifie Nature Here is the best Elogy the Apostle will bestow upon the best of Natures Enmity against God Nay all the sparkles of Virtue and Moral Goodness in Civil Men and Ancient Heathens is no better besides many other things to be said to the Vertues of those Philosophers as ignorance of Christ by whom alone this enmity is removed I
shouldest be afraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man which shall be made as Grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth c. Consider then that Men have no power of our present Life but by the appointment of God and beside that we have another Life which is infinitely more precious than this a Life spiritual and which is the begining of eternal Life and this is altogether out of their danger Col. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God It is hid And wicked Men cannot so much as see it how then should they take it from us seeing it is hid and that not meanly it is hid with Christ in God What then shall become of it read the next verse and read it to your comfort for there is abundance in it if you look right upon it When Christ who is our Life shall appear we likewise shall appear with him in Glory They that are in God being united to him through Christ can never by any power be separated from him it is an indissoluble union death it self that is the great dissolver of all other unions civil and natural is so far from untying this that it consummates it it conveys the Soul into the nearest and fullest enjoyment of God who is its Life where it shall not need to desire that God would command or send his loving kindness as it were at a distance it shall be then at the Spring-head and shall be satisfied with his Love for ever c. SERMON VII PREFACE WHerefore do you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfies not says the Prophet Isaiah 55. 2. All Men agree in this that they would willingly meet with some satisfying good and yet if you look right upon the projects and labours of the greatest part shall find them flying from it and taking much pains to be miserable And truly considering the darkness that 's upon the Soul of Man 't is no great wonder to see these miss their way and continue wandring that hear not the voice of the Gospel to recal them and and see not its Light to direct them But this is somewhat strange that where true happiness and the true way to it is propounded and set before Men so few should follow it in good earnest If the excellency of that good did not allure them yet one would think that their many disappointments in all other things should drive them home to it How often do we run our selves out of breath after shadows and when we think we have overtaken them and would lay hold on them we find nothing and yet still we love to befool our selves even against our own experience which we say uses to make Fools wiser still we chuse rather to shift from one vanity to another than to return to that Sovereign good that alone can fill the vastest desires of our Souls rather to run from one broken Cistern to another as the Prophet calls them yea and to take pains to hew them out than have recourse to that Fountain of living waters One main thing that makes Men thus rove and wander is that they do not reflect upon their own course nor themselves what 's the main end they aim at and then see whether their way be suitable to that end If they would be happy as who would not then sure things that are empty and uncertain and certainly perishing will not serve the turn And truly as this thought would be seasonable at any time so especially to us in these times wherein besides the common uncertainty of outward things there is an apparent visible hazard that Men's Lives and Fortunes are likely to be put to Will you make advantage and gain of your trouble Thus the looser you find other things tied to you and as it were upon a running knot secure that one thing and your portion in it which is worth all the rest yea far above them all and that alone which can be secured and made certain wanting this what though you had Peace and Health and all imaginable prosperity you would still be miserable being liable to the wrath of God and eternal destruction But if once united to Christ and in him reconciled to God and intitled to Heaven what can fall amiss to you You shall have Joy in the midst of Sorrow and Affliction and Peace in the midst of War yea and Life in Death But think not to attain this assurance while you continue profane and godless not seeking it in the way of Holiness for there alone it is to be found and withal beg it of God by humble prayer Psal. CXIX 136. Rivers of Waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law LOve is the leading passion of the Soul all the rest follow the measure and motion of it as the lower Heavens are said to be wheel'd about with the first We have here a clear instance of it in the Psalmist testifying his love to God by his esteem and love of the Law or Word of God what is each of the several verses of this Psalm but a several breathing and vent of this love either in it self or in the causes or in the effects of it where he sets forth the excellencies and utilities of God's Law there you have the causes of his love his observing and studying it his desire to know it more and observe it better these are the effects of his affection to it The Love it self he often expresseth verses 47 48 113. and verse 140. Thy Word is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it And verse 127. I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold But as scarce accounting that love which can be uttered how much it is verse 97. He expresseth it most by intimating that he cannot express it O how I love thy Law Hence are his desires which are love in pursuit so earnest after it Amongst many that is pathetical verse 20. My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgements at all times Hence likewise his Joy and Delight which are love in possession verse 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as in all riches And verse 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word We have his hatred of things opposite which is loves antipathy verse 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love And 163 verse I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love And in the 139 verse you shall find his zeal which is no other but the fire of Love stirred up or blown into a flame My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words And to omit the rest in the 158 verse â—is love to the Law shews its sympathy in sorrow for the violation of the Law I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not
disquietment enough to it self his thoughts are his Tormentors I know some men are by a stronger Understanding and Moral Principles somewhat raised above the vulgar and speak big of a constancy of mind but these are but flourishes an acted bravery somewhat there may be that will hold out in some trials but far short of this fixedness of Faith troubles may so multiply as to drive them at length from their posture and come on so thick with such violent blows as will smite them out of their Artificial Guard disorder all their Seneca and Epictetus and all their own calm thoughts and high resolves The approach of Death though they make a good Mâ—en and set the best Face on 't Or if not yet some kind of terrour may seize on their Spirits which they are not able to shift off But the Soul trusting on God is prepared for all not only for the Calamities of War Pestilence Famine Poverty or Death but in the sadest apprehensions of Soul above hope believes under hope even in the darkest Night casts Anchor in God reposes on him when he sees no light Isa. 50. 10. Yea though he slay me says Job yet will I trust on him not only though I die but though he slay me when I see his hand lift up to destroy me yet from that same hand will I look for Salvation M. B. My desire is to stir in your hearts an ambition after this blest Estate of the Godly that fear the Lord and trust on him and so fear no other thing the common Revolutions and Changes of the World and those that in these late times we our selves have seen and the likelihood of more and greater coming on seem dreadful to weak minds but let these perswade us the more to prize and seek this fixed unaffrighted Station no fixing but here where we make a Vertue of a Necessity Oh! that you would be perswaded to break off from the vile ways of Sin that embase the Soul and fill it full of Terrours and disingage them from the Vanities of this World to take up in God to live in him wholly to cleave to and depend on him to esteem nothing beside him Excellent was the answer of that Holy man to the Emperour first essaying him with large proffers of Honour and Riches to draw him from Christ. Offer these things says he to Children I regard them not Then after he try'd to terrifie him with threatning Threaten said he your effeminate Courtiers I fear none of these things Seek to have your hearts established on him by the Faith of Eternal Life and then it will be asham'd to distrust him in any other thing Yea truly you will not much regard nor be careful for other things how they be 't will be all one the better and worse of this moment the things of it even the greatest being both in themselves so little and worthless and of so short continuance Well chuse you but all reckon'd and examin'd I had rather be the poorest Believer than the greatest King on Earth How small a Commotion small in its beginning may prove the overturning of the greatest Kingdom but the Believer is Heir to a Kingdom that cannot be shaken the mightiest and most victorious Prince that hath not only lost nothing but hath been gaining new Conquests all his days is stopt by a small Distemper in the middle of his course He returns to his Dust then his vast designs fall to nothing in that very day his thoughts perish But the Believer in that very day is sent to the possession of his Crown that is his Coronation day all his thoughts are accomplisht How can you affright him Bring him word his Estate is ruined yet my Inheritance is safe says he Your Wife or Child or dear Friend is dead yet my Father lives You yourself must die well then I go home to my Father and to my Inheritance For the publick troubles of the Church doubtless it is both a most pious and generous temper to be more deeply affected for these then for all our private ones and to resent common Calamities of any people but especially of Gods own people hath been the Character of men near unto him Observe the pathetical strains of the Prophets bewailing when they foretel the desolation even of Foreign Kingdoms much more for the Lords chosen people still mindful of Sion and mournful for her distresses Jer. 9. 1. and the whole Book of Lamentations Psal. 137. If I forget thee O Jerusalem Pious Spirits always publick as even brave Heathens for the Commonwealth So he in that of Horace Little regarding himself but much solicitous for the publick Yet even in this with much Compassion there is a Calm in a Believers mind How these agree none can tell but they that feel it finds amidst all hard news yet still a fixed heart trusting Satisfied in this Deliverance shall come in due time Psal. 102. 13. And that in those Judgments that are inflicted man shall be humbled and God exalted Isa. 2. 11. and. 5. 15 16. And that in all tumults and changes and subversion of States still his Throne is fixed and with that the Believers heart likewise Psal. 93. So Psal. 29. 10. The Lord sitteth upon the floud Yea the Lord sitteth King for ever Or sate in the Floud possibly referring to the general Deluge yet that then God sate quiet and still sitteth King for ever He steer'd the Ark and still guides his Church through all So Psal. 46. throughout that whole Psalm In all Commotions the Kingdom of Christ shall be spreading and growing and the close of all shall be full Victory on his side and that 's sufficient Of this a singular example is in Job who was not daunted with so many ill hearings but stood as an unmov'd Rock amidst the Winds and Waves In this condition there is so much sweetness that if known a man might suspect himself rather selfishly taken with it than purely loving God such joy in believing or at least such peace such a serene calmness is in no other thing in this World nothing without or within a man to be named to this of trusting on his goodness he is God and on his faithfulness giving his promise for thy Warrant He commands thee to roll thy self on him The holy Soul still trusts in the darkest apprehensions if it is suggested thou art a Reprobate yet will the Soul say I will see the utmost and hang by the hold I have till I feel my self really cast off and will not willingly fall off If I must be separated from him he shall do it himself he shall shake me off while I would cleave to him Yea to the utmost I will look for mercy and will hope better though I found him shaking me off yet will I think he will not do it It is good to seek after all possible assurance but not to fret at the want of it for even without these assurances
Commandments Now this I cannot do till my heart be more enlarged and that cannot be but by thy hand When thou shalt enlarge my heart Present this suit often 't is in his power to do it for thee he can stretch and expand thy straitened heart can spread and hoyse the Sails within thee and then carry thee on swiftly filling them not with the vain air of Mans applaufe which readily run a Soul upon Rocks and splits it but with the sweet breathings and soft gales of his own Spirit that carry it straight to the desired Haven Findest thou Sin cleaving to thee and clogging thee cry to him help Lord set me free from my narrow heart I strive but in vain without thee still it continues so I know little of thee my affections are dead and cold towards thee Lord I desire to love thee here is my heart and least it fly out lay hold on it and take thine own way with it though it should be in a painful way yet draw it forth yea draw it that it may run after thee All is his own working and all his motive is his own free Grace Let who will fancy themselves Masters of their own hearts and think to enlarge them by the strength of their own stretches of speculation they alone they alone are in the sure and happy way of attaining it that humbly suit and wait for this enlargement of heart from his hand that made it SERMON XVI Rom. VIII 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth c. OTher Men may fancy and boast as they please but there are none in the World but the Godly alone that are furnisht with sufficiency strong supports and comforts against all possible hazards and of these doth the Apostle treat most freely sweetly and plentifully in this Chapter He secures Believers in their Christ touching these two great evils After Condemnation and present Affliction that the one cannot befal them and the other cannot hurt them For their immunity from the former they have the clear Word of the Gospel and the Seal of the Spirit and that former Priviledg made sure as the far greater doth secure the other as the lesser They are freed from Condemnation and not only so but entitled and insured to a Kingdom and what hurt then can affliction do yea it doth good yea not only it cannot rob them of their Crown but it carries them on towards it is their High way to it if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Yea all things to the Children of God do prove advantage severally taken in their present sense they may seem evil but taken jointly in their after issue their working together are all for good In their simple Nature possibly they are Poison yet contempered and prepared they shall prove Medicinal All these things are against me said old Jocoh and yet he lived to see even all these were for him The Children of God are indeed so happy that the harshest things in their way change their nature and become sweet and profitable This much by their Prayers that have a Divine Incantation in them they breath forth the expressions of that their Love to God by which they are Character'd them that Love God And that is put on their hearts the impression of his Love to them to which they are here led by the Apostle as to the Spring-head of all all their Comforts and Priviledges flow thence yea all their Love and their Faith appropriating those Comforts and Priviledges Yea the very Treasury of all together Jesus Christ himself is the free Gift of this free Love he as the greatest ascertains all things besides an unspeakably less verse 32. These two are such mighty Arguments that no difficulty nor grief can stand before them The Love of God He is with us who then against us All the World it may be but that all is nothing once it was nothing it was that God that is our God that loves us and is for us that made it something and if he will it may again be nothing and as it is at its best it is nothing being compared with an other gift that he hath bestowed on us and having bestowed that sure if there be any thing in this World can do us any good we shall not want it He that spared not his own Son but gave him to the Death for us will he not with him give us all things And to close all he makes these two great Immunities good to us in Christ he fixes there we are freed from all fear of Condemnation or of being hurt by Affliction No Accusation nor Guiltiness can Annul the Righteousness of Christ and that is made ours no Distress nor Suffering can cut us off from the Love of God and if it cannot do that we need not fear it all other hazards are no hazard that being sure And in confidence of this the Apostle gives the Defiance casts a Challenge to Angels to Men to all the World upon these two points Who shall Accuse Who shall Separate Accuse to God or Separate from him Whatsoever times may come the hardest that any can apprehend or foretel i◠these two be not sufficient furniture against them I know not what is Men are commonly busied about other events concerning them and theirs what shall become of this or the other and what if this or that fall out but the Conscience once raised to this enquiry the Soul being awake to discern the hazard of Eternal Death all other fears and questions are drowned and lost in this great Question Am I Condemned or not Is my Sin Pardon'd or no And then a satisfying Answer received concerning this all is quiet the Soul reposes sweetly on God and puts all its other concernments into his hands Let him make me poor and despised let him smite and chastise me he hath forgiven my Sin all is well That burden taken off the Soul can go light yea can leap and dance under all other burdens Oh! how it feels it self nimble as a man eased of a load that he was even fainting under Oh! Blessed the man whose Sin is taken off lifted from his shoulders that 's the word Psal. 32. 1. laid over upon Christ who could bear the whole load and take it away take it out of sight which we could never have done they 'd have sunk us for ever That one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jo. 1. signifies both and answers to the two Isai. 53. He hath born our grief and carried our sorrows lifted them away Oh! how sweet a burden instead of this is that ingagement of Obedience and Love to him as our Redeemer and that is all he lays on us if we follow him and bear his Cross he is our strength and bears both it and us So then this is the great point the hearts ease to be Delivered from the Condemning weight of Sin And
Security on the contrary it is the only thing that doth eminently ennoble and embolden the Soul for all adventures and services Base fears and doubtings wherein some place much of Religion and many weak Christians seem to be in that mistake to think it a kind of holy spiritual temper to be questioning and doubting I say these base fears can never produce any thing truly generous no height of obedience they do nothing but entangle and disable the Soul for every good work perfect love casts out this fear and works a sweet unperplexing fear a holy wariness not to offend which fears nothing else And this confidence of Love is the great secret of Comfort and of Ability to do God service Nothing makes so strong and healthful a Constitution of Soul as pure Love it dares submit to God and resign it self to him it dare venture it self in his hand and trust his word and seeks no more but how to please him A heart thus composed goes readily and chearfully unto all services to do to suffer to live to die at his pleasure and firmly stands to this that nothing can separate it from that which is sufficient to it which is all its happiness the love of God in Christ Jesus That is indeed his love to us but so as it includes inseparably the inseparableness of our love to him for observe the things specify'd as most likely if any thing to separate us Shall tribulation distress c. Now these especially being endured for his sake cannot immediately have any likely Visage of altering his love to us but rather confirm us in it but these shall not separate us neither by altering our love to him by driving us from him and carrying us into any way of defection or denial of his Name and so cut us off from our union with him and interest in his love and that is the way wherein the weak Christian will most apprehend the hazard of Separation Now the Apostle speaks his own sense and would raise in his Brethren the same confidence as to that danger No fear not one of these things shall be able to carry us away these mighty Waves shall not unsettle our Faith nor quench the flame of our Love we shall be Victors and more in all but how Through him that hath loved us This his love makes sure ours he hath such hold of our hearts as he will not let go nor suffer us to let go our hold all is fast by his strength He will not lose us nor shall any be able to pluck us out of his hand Jesus Christ is the Medium of this love the middle link that keeps all safe together betwixt God and Man so close united in his personal Nature and the persons of men in and by him to the Father So here it is first called the love of Christ and then in the close the love of God in Christ the Soul first carry'd to him as nearest but so carry'd by him into that Primitive Love of God that flows in Christ and that gave even Christ to us as before And this is the bottom truth the firm ground of the Saints perseverance which men not taking aright must needs question the matter yea may put it out of question upon their suppositions for if our own purposes and strength were all we had to relie on alas how soon were we shaken So the love of God in Christ is not only here mentioned as the point of happiness from which we cannot be removed but as the principle of firmness that makes it self sure of us and us of it and will not part with us Now it is no pride in a Christian but the truest humility to triumph and glory in this This is it that makes all sure this is the great comfort and the victory of the Saints He that loved us and bought us so dear will not lightly slip from us yea upon no terms will he let us go unless some stronger than he is meet with him and by force bereave him of us which we know is impossible He and his Father who are one in themselves and in their strength and one in this love are greater and stronger than all and he that once overcame for us always overcomes in us Thus he lets tentations and tribulations assaule us and this neither unargues his love nor endangers his right to us yea it doth but give proof and evidence of the Invincible firmness of both He suffers others to lie soft and sit warm and pamper their flesh at leisure but he hath nobler business for his Champions his Worthies and most of all for the stoutest of them he calls them forth to honourable Services to the hardest Encounters he sets them on one to fight with Sickness another with Poverty another with Reproaches and Persecutions with Prisons and Irons and with Death it self and all this while loves he the less or they him Oh! No he looks on and rejoices to see them do Valiantly 't is the Joy of his heart no sight on Earth so sweet to him and 't is all the while by his subduing and in his strength that they hold out in the Conflict and obtain the Conquest And thus they are the more endeared to him by these Services and these Adventures of love for him and he still likewise is the more endeared to them certainly the more any one suffers for Christ the more he loves Christ as love doth grow and engage it self by all it does and suffers and burns hotter by what it encounters and overcomes as by fewel added to it as to Jesus Christ by what he suffered for us we are the dearer to him so he is to us by all we suffer for his sake Love grows most by opposition from others whosoever when it is sure of acceptance and the correspondence of mutual love in the party loved Above all this heavenly Divine Love is strong as Death a velâ—ement flame a flame of God indeed as the word is and many waters cannot quench it not all these that here follow one another Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword yea in the midst of these I say it grows the Soul cleaves closer to Christ the more attempts are made to remove it from him though killed all the day long This passage from the Psalm is most sit both to testifie that Persecution is not unusually the lot of the Saints and to give instance of their firm adherence to God in all troubles as the Church there professeth and if the Saints in that dispensation could reckon in such a manner much more ought Christians upon a clearer discovery of the Covenant of Grace and their union with God in Christ. The Saints are as in a common Butchery in the World yet not only as Sheep for the Slaughter but sometimes as Sheep for the Altar men thinking it as Sacrifice They that kill you says our Saviour shall think they do God service yet even this
pulls not from him they part with life Ay why not this life is but a death and he is our life for whom we lose it All these do but increase the victories and triumphs of Love and make it more glorious as they tell of her multiplying labours to that Champion they are not only Conquerors but more than Conquerors by multiply'd Victories and they gain in them all both more honour and more strength they are the fitter for new adventures and so more than simple Conquerors We overcome and are sure not to lose former Conquests but to add more and Conquer on to the end which other Conquerors are not sure of oftentimes they out-live their own Successes and Renown and lose on a sudden what they have been gaining a whole life time not so here We are secured in the Author of our Victories 't is through him that hath loved us and he cannot grow less yea shall still grow greater till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Having given the Challenge and finding none to answer and that all the most apparent are in a most Rhetorical Accumulation silenced Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword c. He goes on confidently in the triumph and avers his assurance of full and final Victory against all imaginable power of all the Creatures neither Death nor Life nor the fear of the most terrible Death nor the hope or love of the most desirable life And in the height of this Courage and Confidence he supposes impossible Enemies Angels Principalities c. unless you take it of the Angels of Darkness only but if it could be possible that the other should offer at such a thing they would be too weak for it No sense of any present things or apprehensions of things to come not any thing within the vast circle of the World above or below nor any Creature can do it Here Sin is not specify'd because he is speaking of outward oppositions and difficulties expressly and because that is removed by the former challenge Who shall accuse That asserting a free and final acquittance of all sin a pardon of the curse which yet will never encourage any of these to sin that live in the assurance of this love Oh! no and these general words do include it too Nothing present nor to come c. So it is carried clear and is the satisfying comfort of all that Jesus Christ hath drawn after him and united in his love 'T is enough whatsoever they may be separated from the things or persons dearest in this World 't is no matter the Jewel is safe none can take my Christ from me and I safe in him as his purchase none can take me from him And being still in his love and through him in the Fathers love that is sufficient What can I fear What can I want All other hazards signifie nothing how little value are they of And for how little a while am I in danger of them Methinks all should look on a Believer with an emulous eye and wish his estate more than a Kings Alas poor Creatures rich men great men Princes and Kings what vain things are they that you embrace and cleave to whatsoever they be soon must you part can you say of any of them who shall separate us Storms may arise and scatter Ships that Sail fairly together in fair weather thou mayest be removed by publick Commotions and Calamities from thy sweet Dwellings and Societies and Estates c. You may even live to see and seek your parting At last you must part for you must die then farewel Parks and Palaces Gardens and Honours and even Crowns themselves then dearest Friends Children and Wife must be parted with And what hast thou left poor Soul that hast not Christ but that which thou wouldst gladly part with and canst not The condemning guilt of all thy Sins But the Soul that is in Christ when other things are pull'd away he feels little or nothing he cleaves to Christ and these separations pain him not Yea when that great Separatist Death comes that breaks all other unions even that of the Soul and Body yet so far is it from separating the Believers Soul from its Beloved Lord Jesus that on the contrary it carries it into the nearest union with him and fullest enjoyment of him for â—ver SERMON XVIII Isaiah LIX 1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear OUR vain minds are naturally fruitful in nothing more than in mistakes of God for the most part we think not on him and when we do it we fancy him according to our own affections which are wholly perverse and crooked Men commonly judg it a vain thing to spend much pains and time in Worshipping him and if they are convinc'd in this and tied to it by the profession of his Name then they think all Religion is a Shell of external diligences and observances and count it strange if this be not accepted In the former Chapter we find this in the Prophets contest with the people about their Fasting and their opinion of it he cuts up their Sacrifices and lets them see what was within the skin was sound and look'd well but being opened the entrails were found rotten And here he enters into another contest against the Latent Atheism of their hearts who after their manner of seeking God not finding him and not being delivered are ready to think that he either cannot or will not help and rather rest on that gross mistake than enquire into themselves for the true cause of their continuing Calamities they incline rather to think 't is some Indisposition in God to help than what it truly is a want of Reformation in themselves that hinder it It is not likely that they would say thus not speak it out in plain terms no nor possibly not speak it formally and distinctly within not so much as in their thoughts and yet they might have a confus'd dark conceit of this And much of the Atheism of mans heart is of this fashion not formed into resolv'd Propositions but Latent in confus'd Notions of it scarce discernable by himself at least not search'd out and discerned in his own Breast there they are and he sees them not Not written assertions but flying fumes filling the Soul and hindering it to read the Characters of God that are writ upon the Conscience Impenitency of men in any condition and particularly under distress is from the want of clear apprehensions and deep perswasions of God of his Just Anger provok'd by their Sin and of his sweetness and readiness to forgive and embrace a returning Sinner his Soveraign power able to rid them out of the greatest trouble his Ear quick enough to hear the cries yea the least whispering
Consider that he hath promised Life Eternal to Believing and then say Tho I saw his hand as it were lift up to destroy me yet from that very hand will I expect Salvation for I have his word engaged for it that if I believe I shall be saved I do not say that a Soul under temptation can assure it self that God is already reconciled to it and herein possibly lies oftentimes the mistake for this reflex act of assurance though it be our duty to seek after it it self is rather a gift and reward than a duty but the direct and proper act of Faith is of perpetual use and necessity and then most when there is least sense of assurance and it is no other but a recumbency or reliance rolling over of the Soul upon free mercy That which breeds us much perplexity is That we would invert God's order If I knew say some that the Promise belonged to me and Christ were a Saviour to me I could believe that is to say would first see and then believe But the true method is just contrary I had fainted says David unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. He believed it first and saw it afterwards And in this same Psalm labouring to still his disquieted Soul by elevating it above his troubles to look upon his God he says to it Hope in him now and ere it be long thou shalt praise him for the help of his counâ—enance even while his countenance is with-held And thus Faith ought to triumph over Spiritual fears and difficulties 2. How incongruous is it that outward dangers or trials should over-match it will you trust God upon his Word for Salvation and Eternal Happiness and be diffident for the safety and needful Blessings of this Temporal Life which life in comparison is but a moment and the best things of it but dross Consider that you dishonour Faith exceedingly and degenerate from the believing Saints of former Ages Indeed the Promises of this Life and that which concerns it though Godliness with them yet they are not so absolute nor are they so absolutely needful for you but considering the Wisdom and Love of your Heavenly Father learn to compose your minds by it I will not be afraid though ten thousands of the people set themselves against me round about says David Psal. 3. 6. And lest you think him singular in the 46 Psalm it is the joint-voice of the whole Church of God We will not fear though the earth be removed and the mountains be cast into the midst of the Sea Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof There is a river the streams whereof make glad the City of God The holy place of the tabernacle of the most high God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved That is the way to be immoveable in the midst of troubles as a Rock amidst the Waves When God is in the midst of a Kingdom or City he makes it firm as Mount Sion that cannot be removed When he is in the midst of the Soul though Calamities throng about it on all hands and roar like the Billows of the Sea yet there is a constant Calm within such a Peace as the World can neither give nor take away On the other side what is it but want of lodging God in the Soul and that in his stead the World is in the midst of mens Hearts that makes them shake like the leaves of Trees at every blast of danger What a shame is it seeing natural men by the strength of Nature and help of Moral Precepts have attained such undaunted resolution and courage against outward changes yet they that would pass for Christians are so soft and fainting and so sensible of the smallest alterations The advantage that we have in this regard is infinite what 's the best ground-work of a Philosophers constancy but as moving sands in comparison of the Rock that we may build upon But the truth is That either we make no provision of Faith for times of Trial or if any we have we neither know the worth nor the use of it but lay it by as a dead unprofitable thing when we should most use and exercise it Notwithstanding all our frequenting of God's House and our plausible profession Is it not too true that the most of us either do not at all furnish our selves with these spiritual arms that are so needful in the militant Life of a Christian or we learn not how to handle them and are not in readiness for Service as was the case of that improvident Souldier whom his Commander found mending some piece of his Armour when they were to give Battle It were not amiss before Afflictions overtake us to try and train the mind somewhat by supposing the very worst and hardest of them To say What if the Waves and Billows of adversity were swelled and flowing in upon me Could I then believe God hath said I will not fail thee nor forsake thee with a heap of negations in no wise I will not he hath said when thou passest through the fire and through the water I will be with thee These I know and can discourse of them But could I repose and rest upon them in the day of Trial put your Souls to it is there any thing or person that you esteem and love exceedingly say What if I should lose this Is there some evil that is naturally more contrary and terrible to you than many others Spare not to present that to the imagination too and labour to make Faith Master of it before hand in case it should befal you and if the first thought of it scare you look upon it the oftener till the Visage of it become familiar to you that you start and scare no more at it nor is there any danger in these thoughts Troubles cannot be the nearer by thus thinking on them But you may be both safer and stronger by breathing and exercising of your Faith in supposed cases But if you be so tender spirited that you cannot look upon Calamities so much as in thought or fancy how would you be able for a real encounter No sure But the Soul that hath made God his stay can do both see it in that notable resolution of the Prophet Habakkuk 3. 17. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord God is my strength And in David Psal. 23. 4. Yea says he though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staff they comfort me You see how Faith is as Cork to
his Soul keeping it from sinking in the deeps of Afflictions Yea that big word which one says of his morally just Man is true of the believer Si fractus illabatur orbis Though the very Fabrick of the World were falling about him yet would he stand upright and undaunted in the midst of its ruins In this confidence considered in it self we may observe the Object of it The loving kindness of the Lord. 2. The manner or way by which he expects to enjoy it The Lord will Command it 3. The time in the day His loving kindness He says not return to the House of God for deliverance from the heavy oppression and sharp reproaches of the Enemy which would have answered more particularly and expressly to his present griefs but his loving kindness And the reason of thus expressing himself I conceive to be two fold 1. In the assurance of this is necessarily comprised the certainty of all other good things This special favour and benignity of the Lord doth engage his Power and Wisdom both which you know are infinite to the procurement of every thing truly good for those whom he so favours Therefore it is that David chuses rather to name the streams of particular mercies in this their living Source and Fountain than to specifie them severally Nor is it only thus more compendious but fuller too which are the two great advantages of Speech and this I take to be the other reason 2. A Man may enjoy great deliverances and many positive benefits from the hand of God and yet have no share in his loving kindness How frequently doth God heap Riches and Honour and Health on these he hates and the common gifts of the Mind too Wisdom and Learning yea the common gifts of his own Spirit and gives a fair and long day of external prosperity to those on whom he never vouchsafed the least glance of his favourable Countenance yea on the contrary gives all those specious gifts to them with a secret curse as here as he gave a King in wrath to his people so he often gives Kingdoms in his wrath to Kings Therefore David looks higher than the very Kingdom which God promised him and gave him when he speaks of his loving kindness In a word he resolves to solace himself with the assurance of this though he was stript of all other comforts and to quiet his Soul herein till deliverance come and when it shall come and whatsoever mercies with it to receive them as fruits and effects of this loving kindness Not prizing them so much for themselves as for the impressions of that love which is upon them and it is that Image and Superscription that both engages and moves him most to pay his tribute of praise And truly this is every where David's temper his frequent distresses and wants never excite him so much to desire any particular comfort in the Creature as to intreat the presence and favour of God himself His saddest times are when to his sense this favour is eclipsed In my prosperity I said I shall not be moved And what was his adversity that made him of another mind Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled This veriâ—ies his position in that same Psalm In thy favour is Life Thus in the 63. Psalm at the beginning My Soul thirsteth for thee in a dry Land where there is no water not for water where there is none but for thee where there is no water Therefore he adds in the 3. verse Thy loving kindness is better than Life and all that be truly wise and of this mind will subscribe to his choice Let them enjoy this loving kindness and prize it that what ere befalls them their happiness and joy is above the reach of all calamities let them be derided and reproached abroad yet still this inward perswasion makes them glad and contented as a rich Man said though the people hated and taunted him yet when he came home and lookt upon his Chests Egomet mihi plaudo domi With how much better reason do Believers bear out external injuries what inward contentment when they consider themselves truly enricht with the favour of God And as this makes them contemn the contempts that the World puts upon them so likewise it breeds in them a neglect and disdain of those poor trifles that the World admires The Sum of their desires is as that Cynicks was of the Sun-shine that the rays of the love of God may shine constantly upon them The favourable aspect and large proffers of Kings and Princes would be unwelcome to them if they should stand betwixt them and the sight of that Sun And truly they have reason What are the highest things the World affords What are great Honors and great Estates but great Cares and Griefs well drest and coloured over with a shew of pleasure that promise contentment and perform nothing but vexation That they are not saâ—isfying is evident for the obtaining of much of them doth but stretch the appetite and teach Men to desire more they are not solid neither will not the pains of a Gout of Strangury or some such malady to say nothing of the worst the pains of a guilty conscience blast all these deligâ—tâ— What relish finds a Man in large Revenues and â—â—aâ—ely Buildings in high Preferments and honour able Titles when either his Body or Mind is in anguish And besides the emptiness of all these things you know they want one main point Continuance But the loving kindness of God hath all requisites to make the Soul happy O satisfie us early with Goodness or Mercy says Moses That we may rejoyce and be glad all our days Ps. 90. 14. There is fulness in that for the vastest desires of the Soul satisfie us there is solid contentment that begets true joy and gladness and there is permanency all our days It is the only comfort of this Life and assurance of a better This were a large Subject to insist on but certainly the naming of his loving kindness should beget in each heart an high esteem of it an ardent desire after it And if it do so with you then know that it is only to be found in the way of holiness He is a holy God and can love nothing that 's altogether unlike himself There must always be some similitude and conformity of nature to ground kindness and friendship and to maintain it that saying is true idem velle idem nolle firma amicitia What gross self flattery is it to think that God's loving kindness can be towards you while you are in love with Sin which he so perfectly hates How can the profane Swearer or voluptuous Person or the Oppressor and Covetous or the close Hypocrite worse than any of them rest upon the loving kindness of the Lord in the day of troubles No sure But the terror of his wrath shall be added to all their other calamities and they shall find it heavier than all the