far from the Kingdom of God they approve things that are good but they have no mind to take hazard and lot with Christ. 5. If there should be a Profession there is no Power The Net draws bad Fish as well as good There are mixtures in the Church Many revere Godliness but were never acquainted with the Virtue and Power of it Many have an excellent Model of Truth and make a Profession as plausible and glorious in the World as possibly you can desire yet they never knew the Virtue of this Religion it never entred into their Heart 1 Cor. 4.20 For the Kingdom of God is not in Word stands not in plausible Pretences but in Power 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only but also in Power You know the State of Men were represented by Christ in the Parable of the two Sons Mat. 21.28 29 30. A certain Man had two Sons and he came to the first and said Son go to work to day in my Vineyard He answered and said I will not but afterwards he repented and went And he went to the second and said likewise And he answered and said I go Sir and went not Oh there be many that say I will go that pretend fair that are convinced so far as to make a Profession yet never bring their Hearts seriously to addict themselves to God to walk in his Ways and keep his Charge there is no real change of Heart no serious bent of Soul towards God 6. If there be some real Motions as there may be in temporary Believers for we must not think all is Hypocritical yet it is not intire Mark 6.20 Herod did many things and heard John Baptist gladly His Heart and his Profession went a great way together till he was to part with his Bosom-Lust John was safe till he touched upon his Herodias then Conviction grows furious and he turneth into a Devil Therefore take heed of meer Conviction Vse 4. To press the Children of God to express such Fruits of their Union with Christ that they may convince the World Christ prays not only that the World may be convinced but that it might be by those that are real Members of his Mystical Body that they may have a Hand to further it What are the Fruits of the Mystical Union that you may convince the World 1. Love and mutual serviceableness to one another's Good When we live as Members of the same Body that have a mutual care for one another then we shall bring a mighty Honour and Credit to Religion and can with Power give Testimony to the Truths of Christ. Acts 2.44 And all that believed were together and had all things common When Christians were of One Mind and Heart they had all things common O it is a mighty convincing thing when all those that profess Godliness labour to carry on the same Truths and Practices Divisions breed Atheism in the World The Lord Jesus knew it and therefore he prays Let them be all one c. that the World may believe that thou hast sent me We never propagate the Faith so much as by this Union Divisions put a great stop to the progress of Truth When contrary Factions mutually condemn one another it is a wonder any are brought off from their vain Conversations The World is apt to think there is no such thing as Religion and one sort is no better than another they see the World cannot agree about it therefore they stay where they are 2. Holiness and Strictness of Life and Conversation there is a convincing Majesty in it natural Conscience doth homage to it where ever it findeth it Therefore live as those who are taken up into Fellowship with God through Christ. Herod feared John Baptist Why because he was a strict Preacher No but because he was a Just Man Mark 6.20 When you live thus holily and accomplish the Work of Faith with Power then the Lord Jesus is glorified in you 2 Thess. 1.11 12. 3. When you can contemn the Baits of the World and Allurements of Sense this is a mighty Argument to convince the World that you have higher and nobler Principles you are acted by and better Hopes you are called to Tho you have not divested and put off the Interests of Flesh and Blood for you are not Angels yet you can be faithful to God and Christ. The World admireth what kind of Temper Men are made of 1 Pet. 4.4 They think it strange that you run not with them into all excess of Riot They have the same Interests and Concernments and yet how mortified how weaned are they from those Things which others go a whoring after sure they have a felicity which the World knoweth not of they dread and admire this tho they hate you 4. A Chearfulness and Comfortableness in the midst of Troubles and deep Wants when you can live above your Condition take joyfully the spoiling of your Goods Heb. 10.34 and bear Losses with an equal mind for you are not much troubled with these Things then you live as those that are called to a higher Happiness 5. To be more faithful in the Duties of your Relations The Fruits of the Mystical Union run to every part of the Spiritual Life None commend their Religion so much as those that make Conscience of the Duties of their Relations that they may carry themselves as becomes Christians Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants So poor Servants make the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ comely Tit. 2.10 That ye may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things And the Apostle saith Men that do not obey the Word may without the Word be won by the Conversation of their Wives 1 Pet. 3.1 Worldly Men have been much gained by the Lives of Religious Persons Thus you propagate the Truth by carrying your selves usefully in your Relations This hath been ever the Glory of Religion as it was in the Primitive Times Austin makes this Challenge Vbi tales Imperatores c. Let all the Religions in the World shew such Emperors such Captains such Armies such Managers of Publick Treasury as the Christian Religion The World was convinced there was something Divine in them O! it is pity the Glory of Religion should fall to the ground in our days and that the quite contrary should be said none such careless Parents as those that seem to be touched with a sense of Religion None so disobedient to Magistrates none such disobedient Children to Parents as those that seem to be called to Liberty with Christ Therefore if you would honour Christ and propagate the Truth keep up this Testimony and convince the World 6. A Constancy in the Profession of Faith You should live as if Christ and you had one common Interest Sure they believe Christ was sent from God and able to reward them else why should they sacrifice all their Interests for his sake It is said Rev. 12.11 The
Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me 2. We were redeemed is to this end For we are redeemed unto God Rev. 5.9 Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood To be redeemed unto God is to be redeemed to his Service and admitted into his favour and friendship and Communion with him to restore Gods right to us and our Happiness in the injoyment of Heaven Christ first appeased Gods wrath and restored us to a course of Service which we should comfortably carry on till we have received our wages Luke 1.74 75. That he would grant unto us that being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life 3. Our entring into covenant with God implyeth it In every Covenant their is Ratio dati accepti Something given and something required Isa. 56.4 They choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant To take hold of his covenant there is to lay claim to the Priviledges and benefits promised and offered therein now this cannot be done unless we choose the things that please him That is voluntarily deliberately not by chance but choice enter into a course of obedience wherein we may be pleasing or acceptable to him this is the fixed determination of our Souls Our faces must be set heavenward and the drift aim and bent of our lives must be for God to walk in his way Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodys a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God A man devoteth himself to God out of the sense of this love to serve him and please him in all things 4. The relations which result from our Covenant Interest There is the Relation between us and Christ of Husband and Spouse Hos. 2.19 Now the duty of the Wife is to please the Husband 1 Cor. 7.34 The relation of Children and Father 2. Cor. 6.18 I will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and daughters saith the Lord. Now the duty of Children is to please the Parents And that is said to be well pleasing to the Lord Col. 3.20 and the rather because 't is a pattern of our own duty to him Masters and Servants Ezek. 16.8 Thou entredst into covenant with me and becamest mine Acts 27.23 Whos 's I am and whom I serve They that please themselves carry themselves as if they were their own not Gods All that we are and all that we have and can do must be his and used for him in one way or another First Vse is for Reproof of those that study to please men to approve themselves to the World and to be accepted in the World that is their great end and scope 1. How can these comply with the great duty of Christians which is to please the Lord Gal. 1.10 If I yet pleased men I should not be the Servant of Christ. To hunt after the favour of men and to gain the applause of the World is contrary to the very Essential Disposition of the Saints whose great aim is to approve themselves to God however men esteem of them There is a pleasing men to their Edification Rom. 15.2 Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to Edification and 1 Cor. 10.33 Even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved But to please the sinful humours dispositions and affections of men to make this our great Scope is contrary to sincerity and fidelity in Christs Service Certainly a man ought not to disoblige others much less irritate and stir up the corruptions of others but his great care must be to approve himself to God 2. There is no such necessity of the approbation of men as of God his acceptation and the Testimony of a good Conscience concerning our fidelity in his Service is more than all the favour countenance applause or any advantage that can come by men Choose the approbation of Christ and you are made for ever 't is not so if you choose the approbation of men Please God and no matter who is your enemy Prov. 16.9 Please men and God may be Angry with you and blast all your carnal Happiness as well as deny you eternal happiness Please the Lord and that is the best way to be at peace with men Second Vse by way of self Reflection Is this your great scope and end 1. Your end will be known by your work If you labour to approve your self to God in every relation in every Condition in every business in every Imployment and are still useing your selves all that you have for God this is your trade this is your study you are still at his work that if a man should ask you what are you a doing Whose work is it that you are Imployed about You may be able truely to say 't is the Lords for whom are you studying preaching conferring praying what guideth you in all your relations to whom do you approve your selves for whom are you sick or well 2 Cor. 5.15 That they which live should not live to themselves but unto him which dyed for them and Rom. 14.7 8 9. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords What moveth you to go on with any business who supporteth you in your business can you say to God what God would have me to do I do it 2. If this be your end it will be known by your Solace So much as a man doth attain unto his end so much doth he attain of Content and Satisfaction 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have had our conversations in the World not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversations in the World You will not rejoyce so much in the Effects of his common bounty as in his special love So Psa. 4.7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time when their corn and wine increased 3. If Gods glory be your scope any Condition will be tolerable to you so as you may injoy his favour Mans displeasure may be the better born yea poverty and want your great cordial is your acceptation with God and losses are the better born as David comforted himself in the Lord his God when all was lost at Zicklag And Hab. 2.1 I will stand vpon my Watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved SERMON XIII 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every
First Let me observe to you that there is a twofold fear Filial and Servile Child-like and Slavish The one is a lawful and necessary fear such as quickneth us to Duty Phil. 2.12 And is either the fear of Reverence or the fear of Caution The fear of Reverence is nothing else but that awe we are to have of the divine Majesty as Creatures or our humble sense of the condition place and duty of a Creature towards its Creator The fear of Caution is a due sense of the Importance and Validity of the business we are engaged in in order to Salvation certainly none can consider the danger we are to escape and the blessedness we aim at but will see a need to be serious And therefore this fear is good and holy 1. But there is besides this a slavish fear which doth not further but extreamly hinder our work For though we are to fear God yet we are not to be afraid of God This is that which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposite to the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 and a cowardly fearful Spirit opposite to that Spirit of Power and Love and of a sound Mind which is the principle of all faithful Service to God They that are under the Spirit of bondage serve not God as Children serve a Father but as Slaves serve an hard and cruel Master Fear is the inseperable Companion of this Spirit which must needs be a great hinderance to our Duty because it begets hatred to God and the torment it bringeth to our selves As it breedeth Hatred to God Oderunt quem metuunt quem odimus periisse cupimus when we only dread God for his Vengeance we keep off from him as a dissolute servant hateth that Master who would scourge him for his Debaucheries The Nature of this fear is to drive us from God Gen. 3.7 10. I was afraid So because of the Torment it bringeth to us Eph. 4.18 For the legal Spirit 't is called a Spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 It hath fear and torment in it and is an Enemy to us for it banisheth all those sweet Principles which should enliven our Service as Love to God and Delight in our work which doth enliven and inspire every thing that we do with an earnest Spirit But where Love is wanting and all the Comfort that should accompany our duties 't is lost either a man doth nothing or all that he doth is in a compulsory manner by meer force and so our hands must needs be weakned in Gods Service if we be not totally discouraged For often it endeth in a Despair of pleasing or being accepted with God There is a lazy sottish Despair as well as a raging tormenting Despair Jer. 18.12 There is no hope we will walk in the Imagination of our own Hearts Cast off all care of the Souls Welfare This was the fear of the sloathful Servant in the Text and such a fear have many others in the bosom of their hearts by which they can never do any thing effectually in the business of Religion by reason of their-strong Prejudices occasioned by their own tormenting fear 2. That this fear is begotten in us by a false opinion of God that rendereth him dreadful rigorous and terrible to the Soul The Servant in the Text doth not only say I was afraid but giveth a reason of it I knew that thou wert an hard man reaping where thou hast not sowed and gathering where thou hast not strawed A parabolical speech to set forth a cruel Tyrant that doth exact upon those that are under him without Mercy and Reason Our Affections follow our Apprehensions and we either love or fear according to the inward notions that we have of God in our minds They that know thy name will trust in thee Psal. 9.10 If we had righter notions of God we would love him more and trust him more But when we conceive amiss of him accordingly we are affected to him And therefore we should take heed what Picture we draw of God in our minds for if we have only such apprehensions as render him grievous and burdensome to us these thoughts will leven our Hearts and make us either neglect his Service or do it by constraint in a very awkward and uncomfortable manner If the Devil can bring you to have a base opinion of God as cruel and tyrannical and once possess you with sowre thoughts and fretful Jealousies or harsh surmises of his Government it will turn all your love and obedience into hatred and slavish fear Therefore those that consider that Love is the great principle of Obedience should also consider that there is nothing so necessary to breed love as good thoughts of God and a due sense of his goodness in Christ come to this once and then all that he requireth and doth will be acceptable to us His Laws will not be grievous nor his Providences seem burdensom to you nor his Judgments intolerable How can you love him till you represent him as an Object of Love one upon whom you may chearfully depend for Life and Defence and from whom you may comfortably expect the Rewards of Obedience Therefore take heed of painting out God in your thoughts as an hard Master The Apostle telleth us Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him As soon as we apprehend his Being we should also pitch upon his Bounty and Goodness First That he is and then That he is a Rewarder There is in all men some Impression of a Godhead which is clearly understood and seen by the things that are made Rom. 1.20 This Apprehension of God calleth for Worship for next that God is we must believe he must be Worshipped Joh. 4.24 These two notions live and dye together they are clear and blotted out together As the apprehension of God is clear and more deeply engraven upon the Soul so is this notion of mans Duty of Worshipping God clear and imprinted upon the Soul also The one Impression cannot be worn out without the other But now want of a true Knowledge of God breedeth slavish fear fearing God in excess rather than loving him in any tolerable measure because a man naturally looketh upon God with the same eye that a Malefactor doth upon his Judge Fear is more natural to carnal men because a bad Conscience is very suspicious and our sense of Gods Benefits is not so great as the sense of our bad deservings is quick and lively Therefore naturally we have no other notions of God than as a rigid Law-giver and severe Avenger The Heathens who in all their Worship discovered the natural Sentiments of Religion that are in the Hearts of men observed this in the Straits Vt prius placarent iratos Deos c. Wrath and Anger were the first thoughts they had of a Divine Power and 't is as true among Christians Guilty Nature is more presagious of
in Christ's Name whatever we obtain is put upon Christ's Account 't is not for our Merit but Christ's so whatsoever you do to any Person in Christ's Name and for Christ's sake is done to Christ If you send another in your name if he be denyed you take your selves to be denyed if granted for your sake you think it granted to you I come now to consider Secondly The Scope These things are parabolically represented to increase our Faith concerning the Reward of Charity The Doctrine is this Doct. That one special End and Vse unto which rich Men should employ their worldly Wealth should be the help and relief of the Poor Consider 1. In the General 't is not to the Rich but to the Poor Feasts and Entertainments are usually for the Rich but Christ saith Luk. 14.12 13 14. When thou makest a Dinner or a Supper call not thy Friends thy Brethren neither thy Kinsmen nor thy Neighbour lest they bid thee again and a recompence be made thee But when thou makest a Feast call the Poor the Maimed the Blind the Lame and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just. Many truck with their Kindness they make Merchandize rather than impart their Charity This is not Charity but Merchandize 2. Of the Poor there are three sorts 1. Pauperes Diaboli the Devils Poor such as have riotously spent their Patrimonies and reduced themselves to Raggs and Beggery by their own Mis-government These are not wholly to be excluded when their necessity is extream you give it to the Man not to the Sin It may work upon them especially when you joyn spiritual Alms with temporal 2. There are Pauperes Mundi the World 's Poor such as come of poor Parents and live in poor Estate those are to be relieved There is a common tye of Nature between us and them Isa. 58.7 Thou shalt not hide thy self from thine own flesh 3. There are Pauperes Christi Christ's Poor such as have suffered loss of Goods for Christ's sake or being otherwise poor profess the Gospel these especially should be relieved Rom. 12.13 Distributing to the necessities of the Saints And Gal. 6.10 Let us do good to all especially to the Houshold of Faith There is an Order First our own Families our Parents our Children or Kindred 1 Tim. 5.8 then Strangers and among them those that profess the same Faith with us and then them who do most evidence the reality of Faith by an holy Life and then to all as occasion is offered Reasons of this Duty 1. The near Vnion that is between Christ and his People Christ and Believers are one and the same Mystical Body with Christ their Head 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so is Christ Now that Union comprizeth all When one Member suffereth all the Members suffer with it ver 26. There is a sympathy and fellow-feeling When you tread upon the Toe the Tongue will cry out and say You have hurt me They cast themselves out of the Body that have not common Joyes and common Sorrows with the rest of the Members 2. Christ hath commended them to us as his Proxies and Deputies He himself receiveth nothing from us he is above our kindness being exalted into the Heavens but in every Age he leaveth some to try the Respects of the World Oh what men would do for Christ if he were now in the flesh 'T is an usual deceit of Heart to betray our Duties by our wishes Now Christ hath put some in his place 1 Joh. 4.20 If any man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen We would be as much prejudiced against Christ as we are against the godly Poor That which your Servant receiveth by your order you receive it He receiveth your Respects by the hands of the Poor he hath devolved this right on the Poor as his Deputies Mat. 26.11 For ye have the Poor alwayes with you but Me ye have not alwayes We pretend much Love to Christ if he were sick in a Bed we would visit him if in Prison or in want we would relieve him What is done to one of these is done to him 3. 'T is a great Honour put upon us to be Instruments of Divine Providence and Preservation of others You are God's Substitutes in giving as the Poor in receiving As Gods to them we relieve and comfort them He could give to them without thee but God will put the honour of the work upon thee This is the greatest Resemblance of God Act. 20.35 'T is more blessed to give than to receive that is more God-like 'T is a great Mercy to be able and willing Luk. 6.36 Be ye therefore merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful The true advantage of Wealth is in relieving and supporting others nothing sheweth our Conformity to God so much as this Christ saith not if ye fast ye shall be like your heavenly Father or if ye pray or if ye prophesie or if ye be learned but if ye be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful Thou holdest the place of God and art as it were a God to them 4. The Profit of this Duty It seemeth a loss but 't is the most gainful Trade in the World 'T is the way to preserve your Estates to increase them to cleanse them to provide for Eternal Comfort in them 1. To keep what you have Your Goods are best secured to you when they are deposited in God's hands you provide baggs that wax not old Many an Estate hath been wasted for want of Charity Jam. 5.2 3. 2. To increase it as Seed in the Ground The Husbandman getteth nothing by keeping the Corn by him 2 Cor. 9.6 He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Deut. 15.10 When thou givest to thy poor Brother the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto All your works of Mercy and Liberality shall be abundantly repay'd Luk. 6.36 Give and it shall be given to you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over But above all Prov. 19.17 He that giveth to the Poor lendeth to the Lord that which he hath given he shall pay him again If you would put out your Money to the best advantage lend it to the Lord the Interest shall be infinitely greater than the Principal What better Security than God's He is a sure Pay-Master and he will pay them to the full great Increase for all that he borroweth an hundred for one which is an Usury not yet heard of in the World You can expect nothing from the poor sort they have nothing to give you but God is
corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness It is indeed a Question Where the Trial of a Christian lieth â—ost sensibly in Mortification or Vivification in an hatred of Sin or in the practice of Duty It may be alledged that our Nature doth more easily close with Precepts than Prohibitions We are many times content to do much if the Law require this or that we yield and consent to it but to be limited and debarred of our Delights this is most distasteful Men that love Sin cannot endure Restraints O that there were no Bonds And therefore to meet with Man's Corruption the Decalogue consists more of Prohibitions than Precepts the fourth and fifth Commandment are only positive But then on the other side it may be alledged that many that live a civil Life and do no Man wrong have no care of Communion with God and that Sins trouble the Conscience more than Want of Grace Natural Conscience doth not use to smite for spiritual Defects Sins work an actual Distemper and Disturbance to Reason It is the new Nature that maketh Conscience of Duties and of obeying God's Precepts therefore the New Nature is here most tried but yet both must be regarded 2. Both are alike disserviceable to the Work of Grace It is another Question Whether we are more hardened by Sins of Omission or by Sins of Commission For Sins of Commission it may be alledged that they stun the Conscience like a great Blow on the Head and cast Grace into a Swoon David's Adultery put all out of order 2 Sam. 12.14 Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child which is born of thee shall surely die He lay in a spiritual Swoon till the Child was born But then on the other side Neglect of Duty depriveth us of the Influences of Grace and hardens us insensibly An Instrument tho never so well in Tune yet if you let it alone it will be soon be out of order worse than if a String were broken After some great and sudden Fall into Sin theâ—â— may be a Recovery as in David's Case but it is hard to recover out of long Neglects Therefore Sins of Omission are more dangerous than Sins of Commission And if your Communion with God be not constant the Heart contracts Rust. A Key that is seldom turned is rusted in the Lock by neglect and omission of God and Duties the Heart is wonderfully hardened and estranged from God Gifts and Graces languish and perish in Idleness 2 John v. â— Look to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought Standing Pools are apt to putrify and Sins increase as well as Unfitness for Duties the Motions of the Spirit are quenched 3. Both are odious to God It is a Question Whether God hateth most the careless sluggish Person or the outwardly vicious A barren Tree cumbreth the Ground and is rooted out as well as the Bramble It is not enough that a Servant do his Master no hurt but he must do his Work An Husbandman is not contented that his Land does not bear him Briars and Thorns but it must yield him good Grain It is not enough to say I am no Swearer no Drunkard What Communion have you with God What motions and feelings of the Power of Holiness Want of Grace depriveth a Man of Happiness As you would not be damned in Hell so you should get Evidences for Heaven Negative Righteousness in abstinence from Sin the Brutes and inanimate Creatures have it is improper and lame Omission of good Duties is a more general Means of Destruction than Commission of Evil But then Commission of Evil is ever accompanied with Omission of Good but Omission of Good is not always accompanied with Commission of Evil. He that doth Evil dishonoureth God more but he that omitteth Good disadvantageth himself more Sin is more odious than Want of Grace in it self yet Want of Grace considering our Advantages may provoke God as much as Commission of Sin II. To whom he prays Holy Father sanctify them Observe It is God must sanctify us We cannot ouâ— selves and Means will not without God 1. We cannot our selves We could defile our selves but we cannot cleanse our selves as little Children defile themselves but the Nurse must make them clean A Sheep can wander of it self but it is brought home upon the Shepherd's Shoulders Domine errare per me potui redire non potui God that gave us his Image at first must again stamp it on the Soul Who can repair Nature depraved but the Author of Nature When a Watch is out of order we send it to the Workman Eph. 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works that we might walk therein Levit. 21.8 I the Lord that sanctify thee am holy It is God's Prerogative 2. The Means cannot without God It is by the Truth but God is the principal Cause Sanctification is ascribed to many Causes To God the Father as he decreeth it Jude 1. To them that are sanctified by God the Father To the Son as he merited it Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for the Church that he might sanctify and cleanse it To the Holy-Ghost as he effects it 2 Thess. 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit To Faith as it receiveth the Grace of God Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith To the Word as the Instrument of begetting it John 15.3 Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you It is the external Means But all Efficacy is of God and Grace is his Creature else what should be the reason why the same Word preached by the same Minister worketh on some and hardneth others at least it amendeth them not Lydia alone is converted because the Lord opened her Heart Acts 16.14 Man's Will doth not put the difference but God's Grace Vse It presseth us 1. To wait and look for it from God A Plant thriveth better by the Dew of Heaven than when watered by the Hand We may say as Peter Acts 3.12 Why look ye so earnestly on us as tho by our own Power and Holiness we had made this Man to walk Am I in the place of God saith Jacob to Rachel Gen. 30.2 When you look only to the Teacher's Gifts you lose the Divine Operation it may fill your Heads with Fancies and Notions but not your Hearts with Grace 2. To praise the Lord when it is accomplished 1. Cor. 3.5 What is Paul Or what is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye have believed As if Children should thank the Servants for what they have Grace maketh us more in debt you have received it from him not from your selves Not I but the Grace of God in me Thy Pound hath gained ten Pounds If you have any Holiness any
the other side the greater God is and the more glorious the greater obligation lyeth upon us to love him and serve him so that the good that we do for his sake being the more due God is not bound by any right of Justice from the merit of the action it self to reward it for here the greatness of the Object lesseneth the merit and value of the Action for whatever the Creature is it oweth it self wholly to God who gave us our Being and still preserveth it so that we cannot lay any obligation upon him Luke 17.10 When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say We are uprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Punishment is naturally due to evil doers but God is not by natural Justice bound to reward us but only inclined to do so by his own goodness and bound to do so by his free Promise and Covenant Aristotle telleth us Children cannot merit of their Parents all the kindness and duty they perform to them is but a just recompence to them from whom they have received their Being and Education much less can we merit ought of God it is his meer grace and supereminent goodness that appointed such a reward to us that grace which first accepted us with all our faults doth still crown us and bestow glory and honour upon us Vse 1. See how God doth beset us on every side to fense and bound us within our duty there is a threatning of eternal Death to â—â—vite us to go on in our way the promise of eternal Life and Glory Surely both Motives should be effectual our whole life is a flight from wrath to come and a running for refuge to take hold of the blessed hope set before us in our pursuit after eternal Life Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath We are still running further from Hell and approaching nearer to Heaven the more we hate and avoid sin the further we go from the pit of everlasting Destruction and the more we give our selves to Holiness the nearer Heaven every day our Right is more secured and our hearts more prepared More particularly we have by this conjoyned motive a great help against Temptations The World tempteth us either by the Delights of Sense or by the Terrors of Sense therefore God propoundeth this double Motive the Terrors of everlasting Death and the Joys of everlasting Life that we may counterbalance Terrors with Terrors and Delights with Delights as Luke 12.4 5 Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you Fear him On the other side Jam. 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth and been wanton ye have nourished your selves as in a day of slaughter Luke 16.25 Son remember that in this life thou receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented they are excluded from the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Or else quite cross as the World tempts us by the hopes of some sensual contentment so we may resist the Temptation by the belief of everlasting Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye Surely this should make us abstain from all sinful pleasures how much soever we are addicted to them So as the World tempteth us with the fears of some temporal vexation the believing of everlasting Life should help us to bear the evils of our pilgrimage or sufferance for well-doing 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thus are we environed on the right hand and on the left Vse 2. From this Conjunction let us learn that God is both a righteous Judge and a gracious Father 1 Pet. 1.17 If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work He hath his gifts for the godly and punishments for the wicked All our claim is Grace the punishment of the wicked is due debt the Sentence of Gods Law hath made it their due but yet our reward is not the less sure though it be more free 2. Let us consider these two Branches apart First The Wages of Sin is Death I. What is meant by Death II. How it is said to be the Wages of Sin 1. What is meant by Death There is a twofold Death First and Second Temporal and Eternal 1. Temporal Death that is also the fruit of Sin Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned Death is an Evil for Nature abhorreth it as appeareth by our unwillingness to dye Now if it be evil it must be either the Evil of Sin or of Punishment God threatened it as a punishment in case of disobedience Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die It is an Enemy The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1 Cor. 15.26 Would God give Mankind into the hand of an Enemy if he had not sinned against him Now this Evil remaineth partly that there might by some visible punishment and bitter effect of sin in this World unknown Torments are despised and many slight Hell as a vain Scarecrow therefore God hath appointed temporal death to put us in mind of the evil of sin partly for a passage into our everlasting condition that the righteous may enter into Glory and the wicked go to their own place It would make Religion too sensible if the righteous should have all their blessedness and the wicked all their punishment here therefore there must be a passage out into the other World 2. Eternal Death in opposition to everlasting Life which is the fruit of Holiness The opposite Clause sheweth what a kind of death it is This is called the second Death Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power and ver 14. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death It is called Death because death in all Creatures that have sense is accompanied with pain Trees and other Vegetables dye without pain but so doth not Man and Beast and death to man is more bitter because he is more sensible of the sweetness of life than the beasts are and hath some forethought of what may follow after Again it is called Death because it is a misery from which there is no release as from the first death there is no recovery nor returning into the present life This second Death may be considered as to the Loss and Pain First As to the Loss it is an eternal separation from
hath redeemed us to God Rev. 5.8 Rom. 14.4 For to this end Christ both died and arose again and revived that he might be Lord both of dead and living Well then we are not to live as we list but to live unto God not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh but debtors to the spirit to be led by the Spirit of God ex ordine justici justice requireth this we are the Lords 2. The benefit of this spiritual new being its self or our regeneration inferreth it For we are justified and sanctified and by both obliged and also inclined to live unto God obliged for these benefits of Christs Righteousness and Spirit given to us are such excellent benefits that for them we owe our whole selves to God if Paul could tell Philemon thou owest thy self to me Phil. 1.9 because he had been an instrument in converting him to God How much more is our obligation to Christ who is the principal Author and proper efficient cause of this grace surely we owe our whole selves and strength and time and service to him jure beneficiario as Gods beneficiaries we are in debt to him as our benefactor and not only obliged but inclined by the gift of Christs Righteousness and Spirit he hath formed us for this very thing and fitted to perform the more easily what we owe to God Every thing is fitted for its use so we are prepared and fitted for the new life and all the duties that belong thereunto Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship in Christ Jesus created unto good works The new creature is put by its proper use if we live after the flesh for all this cost and workmanship is bestowed upon us in vain if it doth not fit us to live unto God 3. Our own Vow and Covenant sworn and entred into by Baptism Baptism doth infer this debt for there we renounced the flesh and gave up our selves to God as our proper Lord Baptism is a vowed death to sin and a solemn obligation to live unto God therefore every Christian must reckon himself dead to sin Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God and Col. 3.3 5. Ye are dead therefore mortifie your members and Rom. 6.2 How shall ye that are dead unto sin live any longer therein He argueth not ab impossibili but ab incongruo for a baptized person or one that is entred into the Oath of God and being made servants of God we are bound to live in all new obedience 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God The answer of a good conscience saveth 4. In regard of the benefits we do hereafter expect from Christ our resurrection and glorious estate in heaven That is mentioned ver 11. as binding us to the spiritual life Certainly where we have received good and expect more good things we are the more obliged to obedience From the flesh we can look for nothing but shame and death but from the Spirit life and peace Therefore in prudence we are bound to make the best choice for our selves and to live not carnally but spiritually Sin never did us any good office nor can you expect any thing from it for the future it hath never done you good and will do you eternal hurt and are you so much in love with sin as to displease your God and lose your souls for it which might otherwise be saved in a way of obedience to the Spirits sanctifying motions This Argument is again repeated in the 13 th ver if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye That we might seriously consider it Can the flesh give you a sufficient reward to recompence the pains you incur by satisfying it 1. VSE is Information It informeth us of divers Truths 1. If your obedience be a debt then there can be no merit in it for what is debitum is not meritorium Luke 17.10 When ye have done all that is commanded you say We are unprofitable servants We have done that which was our duty to do We owe our selves and all that we have are and possibly can do to God by whom we live and are and therefore deserve no further benefit at his hands Put case we should do all yet in how many things are we come short Therefore surely God is not bound to reward us by any right or justice arising from the merit of the action its self but only he is inclined so to do by his own goodness and bound so to do by his free promise The creature oweth its self wholly to God who made it and God standeth in such a degree of eminency so far above us that we can lay no obligation upon him Aristotle said well That children could never merit of their parents and all their kindness and duty they perform towards them is but a just recompence to them from whom they received their being If no merit between Children and Parents surely not between God and men 2. When a believer gratifieth the flesh 't is not of right but tyrannous usurpation For he is not a debtor to the flesh he oweth it no obedience Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies Rom. 6.11 14. Sin shall not reign it may play the Tyrant Chrysostome saith That a Child of God may be overtaken through inadvertency or overborn by the impetuous desires of the flesh and do something which his heart alloweth not his sins are sins of passion rather than design and tho the reign of sin be disturbed yet 't is not cast off Our lives should declare whose servants and debtors we are for whom do you do most Your lives must give sentence for you whether you are debtors to the flesh or to the spirit If you spend your time in making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 you are debtors to the flesh If you check the flesh and tame it cut off its provisions tho now and then it will break out you are not debtors to the flesh but the spirit The flesh may rebel for a time but the grace of the spirit reigneth Some are wholly governed by their fancies and humours or the passions appetites and desires of the flesh are carried on headlong by their own carnal and corrupt inclinations to every sense pleasing object are not masters of themselves in any thing but serve divers lusts and pleasures against the dictates of their own reason and conscience Now 't is easie to pronounce sentence concerning them Others who are led by the Spirit of God to the earnest pursuit of heavenly things Now these tho so often fomented to self-pleasing and compliance with their lusts and corrupt inclinations yet the heavenly mind hath the mastery they complain of this tyranny are grieved for it troubled and do by degrees overcome it 3. It informeth us what answer
doth shine resplendently without us in the person of the Mediator and the riches of the Gospel yet the dead and dark heart of man is not affected with it John 1.5 And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not till God shine into our Hearts 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Unless this Doctrine of Gods Fatherly Love and Grace be accompanied with his illuminating Sanctifying Comforting Spirit who sheds abroad this Love in our Hearts which is revealed in the Gospel 3. The disposition thence resulting from the application of this object to us by the spirit such as the object is such are the affections stirred up in us as by Law-truths the spirit worketh conviction terrors of conscience legal contrition Acts 2.37 and thence Bondage ariseth so by the Gospel where God is represented as the Father of Mercies and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him our God and Father the Impression must be suitable this Spirit that worketh by the Gospel must needs be the Spirit of Adoption or such a Spirit as worketh a Child-like disposition in us for the Impression must always be according to the stamp 1. USE To perswade us to look after the spirit of adoption we never do seriously and closely christianize till we get it but either have a literal Christianity a form of knowledg in the Gospel without the Life and Power or a legal Old Testament Spirit To quicken you consider these Motives or Priviledges which you will have by it 1. Peace of conscience Or a rest from those troubled and unquiet thoughts which otherwise would perplex us Rom. 14.17 For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing This calm of mind differeth from the deadness and benummedness of a stupid conscience that 's a thing we never laboured for groweth upon us we know not how 't is maintained by idleness rather than by Watchfulness and Diligence and is inconsistent with serious thoughts of God and our eternal condition but this is the fruit of our reconciliation with God and those Blessed priviledges we injoy in his Family it stirreth up admiration and thankfulness 2. Liberty in Prayer For the great help we have in Prayer is from the Spirit of Adoption Zech. 12.10 I will pour out upon you the spirit of grace and supplication That Spirit which cometh from the Grace and free Favour of God stirring up Child like addresses to God Rom. 8.26 Jude 21. Building up your selves on your most holy faith Praying in the Holy Ghost Without this our Prayers are but a vain babling 3. Readiness in duty 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty They serve God with a free spirit the Holy Life is carried on with more sweetness and success not by compulsion but with ready mind Psal. 51.12 Vphold me with thy free spirit John 8.32 If the truth shall make you free then are you free indeed men are under shackles and Bondage if they have not the Spirit of Adoption they drive on heavily have not largeness of heart and love to God Heaven and holiness Psal. 119.32 I will run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart When the heart is suited to the work there needs no other urgings but if we force a course of Religion upon our selves contrary to our own inclination all is harsh and ingrate and cannot hold long 4. Comfort in afflictions Their true consolation and support in afflictions is the Spirit of Adoption Heb. 12.5 Have you forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children and therefore he pursueth it all along They that injoy the priviledges of the Family must submit to the discipline of the Family God will take his own course in bringing up his Children he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.6 7 8. while we have flesh in us there is use of the rod if God should suffer us to go on in our sins we were not legitimate but degenerate Children Children take it patiently if beaten by their Parents for their faults Pro. 9.10 Parents may err through want of wisdom their chastisement is arbirtary and irregular there is more of compassion than passion in God Gods rod is regulated with perfect Wisdom ordered by the highest love and tends to the greatest end our Holiness here and Happiness for ever and we have Christs example John 18.11 The cup which my father hath given me shall I not drink it The bitterest Potions came not from God as a Judg but as a Father are tempered by a Fathers hand 5. Hope of the benefits of the new Couenant pardon and life 1. Pardon We often forget the duty of Children but God doth not forget the Bowels of a Father our Adoption giveth us hope that he will not deal severely with us Mal. 3.17 Psal. 103.13 The relation of a Child is more durable not so easily broken off as that of a servant a Child is a Child still and therefore allowed to remain in the family when a servant must be gone Secondly For life everlasting and Glory Rom. 8.17 And if children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him 1 John 3.1 2. The Spirit of Adoption doth both incourage and incline us to wait for it Rom. 8.2 3. But what shall we do to get this Spirit of Adoption 1. 'T is certain that the gift of the spirit is the fruit of our reconciliation with God the general reconciliation with mankind was evidenced by pouring out the Spirit Personal and particular reconciliation with God is the ground of giving the Spirit of Adoption to us Rom. 5.11 We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the Atonement Therefore do what God requireth in order to reconciliation enter into conditions of peace enter into Covenant with God abhor your former disobedience cast away the weapons of defiance and love God and delight in him 2. Steep your minds in frequent thoughts of Gods fatherly goodness 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love is this that we should be called the sons of God! Consider it and admire it 2. USE Reflection Have we the Spirit of Adoption 'T is known 1. By a kind of naturalness to come to God and open our hearts to him in all our wants go and cry Abba Father The spirit of Adoption much worketh and discovereth its self in prayer to cry to our Father is an act becoming the Sons of God the manner is fervent affectionate this cry is not by the tongue but by the heart Exod.
for an instance to strike an Officer is more than to strike a private man a King more than an ordinary Officer thence it cometh to pass that a sin committed against God doth deserve an infinite punishment because the Majesty of God is infinite and therefore eternal Death is the Wages of sin But on the other side the greatter God is and the more glorious the greater obligation lyeth upon us to love him and serve him and so that good which we do for his sake is the more due and God is not bound by any right or Justice from the merit of the action its self to reward it for here the greatness of the object lesseneth the action for be the creature what he will he oweth his whole self to God who is placed in such a degree of eminence that we can lay no obligation upon him so that he is not bound by his natural Justice to reward us but only inclined so to do by his own goodness and bound so to do by his free promise and covenant of grace Aristotle said well that Children could not merit of their Parents and all their kindness and duty they performed is but a just recompense to them from whom under God they have received their being for right and merit strictly taken is only between those who in a manner are equals if not between Children and Parents certainly not between God and man Well then though sin deserveth punishment yet our good works deserve not their reward That grace which first accepted us with all our faults doth still Crown us and bestow all that honour and Glory which we expect at Christs coming But what respect then have our works to our reward Answer 1. They render us a more capable object of Gods delight and approbation For surely the holy God delighteth in his Faithful Servants Matth. 25.21 Euge bone serve Conformity to his nature and will suiteth more with his holiness than sin and disobedience 2. They qualify us and make us more capable of the rewards of his Gospel Covenant which requireth that we should accept of our Redeemers mercy and return to our obedience and continue in that obedience that the Righteous Judge may put the Crown upon our heads in that day 2. Tim. 4.7 8. 3. Works are produced as the undoubted evidence of a sound Faith they are a demonstration à signis notioribus as most conspicuous and so fit to justify believers before all the World the sprinkling of the Blood on the door posts signifieth there dwell Isralites So such an uniform course of Holiness shews that Faith is rooted in them 4. They are a measure of the degree of the reward for 2. Cor. 9.6 He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Not only Glory but great Glory with great measure So far we may go safely and less we cannot unless we would infring a care of Holiness VSE Oh then let us take heed what we do in the Body whether we sow to the Flesh or the Spirit Let us be sure that our seed be good if we would expect a good crop Now 't is seed time but then is the harvest works will be enquired after 'T is not our voice but hands like as Isaac the voice is Jacobs but the hands are the hands of Esau. Nothing will evidence our sincerity but a uniform constant course of self denying obedience 1. An uniform course it must be A man may force himself into an act or two Saul in a rapture may be among the Prophets A man is Judged by his course and walk A Child of God may be under a strange appearance for an act or so you can no more Judge of them by that than you can Judge of the Glory of a street by a sink or kennel On the otherside men may take on Religion at set times as men in an Ague have their well days the fit of lust or sin is not always upon them Psa. 106.3 Blessed are they that keep Judgment and he that doth Righteousness at all times When a mans Conversation is all of a piece his course is to please God in all places and in all things not by Starts and in good Moods 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin for he is born of God An act of voluntary sin is as monstrous as an Hen to lay the Egg of a Crow many mens lives speak Contradictions Saul at one time puts all the Witches to Death at another time hath recourse with a Witch himself Jehu sheweth his zeal against Ahabs Idolatry but not against Jeroboams 2. Constant. There is a Strait-Gate and a narrow way we must enter one and walk in the other there is making Covenant and keeping Covenant Psal. 103.18 To such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule Peace and Mercy shall be upon them and upon the whole Israel of God Faith and obedience are Conditions of Pardon and constant obedience is a Condition of Salvation 3. Self-denyingly acted Good words are not dear Be warmed be cloathed In 1 John 3.16 the Apostle speaketh of laying down our life for the Brethren of opening our hands and bowels for refreshing the hungry and cloathing the naked So proportionably when we take pains to instruct the ignorant exhort the obstinate confirm the weak comfort the afflicted Do you think that Religion lyeth only in hearing Sermons in singing Psalms reading a Chapter or in a few drowsy Prayers or cursory Devotions there are the means but where is the fruit No it lyeth in self denying obedience These are the Acts about which we shall be questioned at the day of Judgment Math. 25. Have you visited have you clothed do you own the Servants of God when the times frown upon them Do you relieve them and comfort them in their distresses Lip labour and Tongue service is a cheap thing and that Religion is worth nothing which costs nothing 1 Sam. 24.24 When we deny ourselves and apparently value Gods interest above our own then our sincerity is most evidenced and every one of us is to consider what interest God calleth him to deny upon the hopes of Glory and whatever it costeth us to be Faithful with God A cheap course of serving God bringeth you none or little comfort certainly a man cannot be thorough in Religion but he will be put upon many occasions of denying himself his ease profit honour and acting contrary to his natural inclinations or Worldly interests those that regard only the safe cheap and easy part do not set up Christs Religion but their own a Christianity of their own making Matth. 16.24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me SERMON XVII 2 Cor. 5.10 That every
God Idolatry and Prophaneness had never crept into the world if men had kept up the sense of Gods bounty Some never regard the End of Mercies which is to draw in our hearts to God therefore called the Cords of a man Hos. 6.4 being so many bonds and ties upon us What honour hath been done to God for this and that mercy I allude to that in Hest. 6.3 See how David reasoneth 2 Sam. 7.2 I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Ark of God within Curtains When the Heart is urging to Duty upon this score God hath been good to me given me food and rayment and plentiful provision for the comfort of this life what have I done for God Not only the Impenitent abuse mercy Rom. 2.4 but David lost his awe of God because he had not a thankful sense of the mercies of God 2 Sam. 12.7 8. So for corrective Providences The Body is a tender part with most men though they are sensible of the smart of the lash yet they do not consider the hand that striketh nor the deserving procuring Cause they do not look upward nor inward they do not see the hand of God in it Isa. 26.11 When his hand is lifted up they will not see look upon it as a chance 1 Sam. 6.4 Job had explicite thoughts of God Job 1.23 The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken Nor the Cause Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins If Sickness cometh if a Relation be taken away if an Estate blasted a waking Conscience looketh to the Cause For this cause many are sick and many are fallen asleep 1 Cor. 11. We should see the mind of God in his Rod. When the Israelites fled before the men of Ai Joshua looketh out for the Troubler So the Children of God search for the sin that is the cause of their trouble 2. Stupid Dulness and cold Indifferency in heavenly things Their want of Zeal and chearfulness in holy Duties they go about them heavily Dull of hearing Mat. 13.5 Cold in Prayer when they should be fervent and effectual Jam. 5.6 In all things we shew forth an heartless formality Grace is asleep in the Soul and thence cometh a sleepy profession a sleepy hearing a sleepy praying a sleepy receiving The Word that was wont to be as burning Coals leaveth no Impression Luk. 24.32 Your whole Converse with the living God is cold and dead-hearted In such a condition a man heareth as if he heard not and prayeth as if he pray'd not receiveth as if he received not and mourns for sin as if he mourned not and rejoyceth in God as if he rejoyced not looks after Heaven and heavenly things as if he sought them not and so brings little honour to God and little profit and comfort to his own soul. 3. Tedious irksomeness in Gods service They grow weary of the wayes of God Mal. 1.13 Behold what a weariness is it Amos 8.5 When will the new Moons be over and the Sabbath past Shall God do so great things for us in Christ and shall any thing which God hath commanded be grievous to us How unkind is this neither have we an hard Master nor hath he enjoyned us tedious work but all our duties have a sweetness in them Micah 6.3 Do not my words do good You carry it so as if God did not deal well with his people or were not easie to be served His Commands are not grievous and his Yoke is easie Tryals sent by him not above measure his Corrections not above our deserving therefore why should we snuff at his service Weariness and repining at Gods service is an ill sign God loveth and requireth a willing people This weariness though it doth not make us wholly abandon Gods service yet it makes us slight it and mind it no more than how to get it over any way Oh take heed then of growing weary of Religion and attending on the duties thereof to look upon these as distractions or matters by the By or interruptions of the work we would be upon They are lead much by sense and carnality that esteem nothing but what yieldeth a pleasure to sense or gratifyeth the outward Man 4. Forgetfulness of Changes and vain dreams of worldly happiness When we have a carnal Pillow to rest upon we fall asleep Psal. 30.6 7. A Christian should sit loose from all earthly things There was Leven in the Thank-offering We should be contented to dwell in Booths as the Israelites Psal. 39.5 Surely every man in his best estate is vanity 5. Carnal Complacency The peace and pleasure which you live upon is fetched more from the world than from God and Heaven and you live in quietness of mind not so much from the belief of the love of God in Christ and the hope of Heaven as because you feel your selves well in your bodily estate and live at ease and in prosperity in the world and have something grateful to the flesh Luk. 12.19 20 21. Oh! that soul is in a dangerous condition when the World is so pleasing and lovely to it that it can take contentment and delight in it without God or apart from God To many worldly prosperity is so sweet that it can keep them quiet under the guilt of wilfull sins When you have your hearts desire for a while you can forget Eternity or bear those thoughts with security which otherwise would amaze your Souls Secondly Motives 1. Your Enemy watcheth The Devil is never asleep 1 Pet. 5.8 he observeth you in all postures and watcheth all possible advantages against the Children of God and will not you stand upon your Guard and look about you 2. If you sleep you hazard your selves to the Whip or Gods severe Correction Hos. 5.15 God findeth out many times a very smart Rod to whip lazy drowsie Saints to their duty He will not suffer Grace to rust in his Children Your awakening will be sad God sent a Tempest after Jonah Some sharp cross or other will fall upon us 3. The eyes of many are upon us and shall we be slumbring and sleeping 1 Cor. 4.9 Wâ— are made a spectacle to the World Angels and Men. Miscarriages will tend to Gods dishonour 4. When Grace is asleep sin breaketh loose There is no sin but a man is exposed to in a secure Estate therefore the Devil laboureth as much as he can to cast us into this temper When David walked at ease on the top of his House little did he know the evil of his own Heart and the danger of the Temptation 5. Every lesser indisposition that hindreth any degree of Communion with God should be grievous to the Children of God If we do not take heed to the beginnings of sins further Mischief will ensue when Temptations are near importunate and constant Little sticks set green ones on fire when the thatch once taketh fire 't is hard to quench it therefore we should not rest in
of an infinite and unlimited Dignity and Authority how could the punishment of the Body by Death be proportionable to the offence committed against an infinite God An outrage done to the supream Majesty of Princes is punished more than an Offence against an inferiour person therefore there must be a time when the Body shall be raised to be capable of such a Punishment Besides how could the Soul be compleatly happy since 't was made for a Body if it should alwayes remain a Widow and never meet with its old mate again 2. It argueth from the Providence of God There are many Judgments that are Pledges that God will at length judge the World for sin as the Drowning of the old World the Burning of Sodom the Destruction of Jerusalem these are a document and proof what God will do to the rest of ungodly ones for they are set forth as an ensample Jude v. 7. The force of the Argument lyeth in this that God is the same still in one mind who can turn him he hateth the sin of one as well as the other in all his dispensations he is alwayes consonant and like himself Gal. 3.20 If he would not put up the sins of the old World he will not put off the Iniquities of the new if he punished Sodom he will punish others that sin in like manner for he is not grown more indulgent to sin than he was before Therefore if it be not now there will be a time when he will call them to an account and reckoning When Man first sinned God did not immediately execute the Sentence against him but gave him time of Repentance 'till he dyed and since he giveth every man time and space he would not have all the World be born at once and die at once but to live in several successions of Ages from Father to Son in divers Generations 'till he cometh to the period which Providence hath fixed Now as he reckoneth with every man particularly at Death so with all the world at the end of time Particular Judgments shew that God is not asleep nor unmindful of humane affairs but the general Judgment is referred 'till then 3. From the feelings of Conscience After sin committed men tremble though there be none to call them to an account as when the sin is secret and the person powerfull Conscience is under a dread of divine Justice and the solemn Process and Triumph which one day it must have hence Conscience is sensible Rom. 2.8 Felix trembled when Paul reasoned of Judgment to come Acts 24.25 There are hidden fears in the Conscience which is soon revived and awakened by the thought of this day Every guilty person is a Prisoner to Divine Justice and being held in the invisible chains of Conscience standeth in dread of a great and general Assize 4. The Conveniency of such a day 1. To vindicate Truth and Honesty from the false Judgment of the World The best Cause is often oppressed there needeth a review of things by an higher Court that that which is good may be restored to its publick Honour and evil may receive its proper Shame Christ will convince the World of his Love to the Saints when he cometh to be admired in them 2 Thes. 1.10 and when their Faith is found to Praise and Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 Thus shall it be done to the men whom Christ will honour proclaim their Pardon adorn them with Grace introduce them into their everlasting Habitations and this in the eyes of the scorning wicked as that Noble man Thine eyes shall see it but not taste of it then for their everlasting Confusion their Crimes shall be repeated in the ears of all the World and their false appearances shall be refuted 2. That the Counsels and Courses of Gods manifold Wisdom and Justice may be solemnly applauded We now view Providence by pieces but then the whole Context and coherence of it shall be set together and the full History of all the world produced before the Saints 3. Such a coming is necessary that God may fit us with all kind of Arguments against sin and so a restraint will be put upon the heart against it many times sin and wickedness is acted in secret Eccles. 12.14 God will bring every work into the Judgment with every secret thought whether it be good or evil And 1 Cor. 4.5 Christ will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the Counsels of the Heart Many make no Conscience of secret sins and if they make Conscience of Acts yet not of thoughts yet according to Christs Theology Malice is Heart-murther lustful inclinations Heart-adultery Mind-imaginations are Heart-Idolatry There may be a great deal of evil in a discontented thought against Providence Psa. 73.22 He that sinneth secretly is conscious to himself that he doth evil and therefore seeketh a vail and covering Men are unjust in secret unclean in secret envious in secret declaim against Gods Children in secret neglect Duty in secret sensual in secret afraid that men should know it yet not afraid of the great God Man cannot damn us man cannot fill our Consciences with everlasting burnings Now that we may be ashamed to commit those sins before God the day of Judgment is appointed to set these sins in order before us Psa. 50.22 I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Secondly If it be doubtful to Reason 't is sure to Faith Faith sheweth he will come The light of Faith is more certain and more distinct More certain because it buildeth upon a divine testimony which is more infallible than the ghesses of Reason and yields us a more compendious way to confute Atheism than our arguings by which we are often entangled 'T is so for God hath said it And 't is more distinct Nature could never find out the circumstances of that day It only apprehendeth the coming of a Judge but by whom this Judgment shall be managed in what quality he shall come as a Bridegroom and Lord and Husband of the Church it knoweth nothing In what manner he shall proceed and with what Company and Attendance all this we have from special Revelation Faith argueth 1. From Christs merit and purchase Would he buy us at so dear a rate and cast us off so lightly as to come no more at us surely he that came to Redeem us will come to save us if he came to suffer he will come to triumph Faith seeing Christ upon the Cross determineth I shall see him in the Clouds Would he be at all this cost and preparation for nothing and purchase what he never meant to possess It cannot be if he came from Heaven upon the one errand will he not come upon the other Surely Christ will not lose all this pains he hath taken to purchase to himself a People 2. Faith argueth from Christs Affection to us which is very great Christ is not gone in anger but about business to set all
be renounced or we are for ever miserable and why not now Sin will be as sweet hereafter as now it is and Salvation dispensed upon the same terms You cannot be saved hereafter with less adoe or bring down Christ or Heaven to a lower rate If this be a reason it will ever be as a reason against Christ and Religion because you are loath to part with this or that pleasing lust and so it will never be 3. The Suspicion that is upon a late Repentance 'T is seldome sound and therefore alwayes questionable That is no true Repentance which ariseth meerly from horrour and the sense of Hell This sensible work that men have upon them may be but the beginning of everlasting despair All men seek the Lord at length but the wise seek him in time This was the great difference between the wise and foolish Virgins one sought him in time the other out of time They would covet his favour at last Upon a Death-bed the most prophane would have God for their portion When they can sin no more and enjoy the World no longer then they cry and howl for mercy and comfort and a little well grounded hope of Heaven or eternal life But who can tell whether this sensible work that is upon them be not meerly an act of self-love and the fruit of those natural desires which all the Creatures have after their own happiness or a meer retreat others have when they can hold the World no longer We cannot say this Repentance is true nor affirm the contrary that 't is false but 't is doubtful There is but that one instance of the Thief on the Cross that truly repented when he came to die The Scriptures contain an History of four thousand years or thereabouts and yet all that while we have but this one instance of a true Repentance just at death and in that Instance there is an extraordinary Conjunction of Circumstances which cannot reasonably be expected again Christ was now at his right hand in the height of his love drawing sinners to God Never such a season as then and 't is more than probable he had never a call before then Well then let us put this necessary work of Preparation for God out of doubt betimes yea let the Children of God if they have not yet prevailed against such a Lust or lived in the neglect of such a Duty could not bring their hearts to it hitherto make speed left they be surprized and this defect in their preparation make their death uncomfortable A good Christian is alwayes converting yet not fully converted The first work is often gone over and he is still getting nearer to God by a more affectionate compliance with his whole will Doct. 2. That those that are finally refused by the Lord may yet have a desire of the Ioyes of Heaven 1. Consider them in this VVorld and in the VVorld to come These two respects are different For though Self-love be the common cause of their desiring Heaven both now and then yet there is a difference 'T is more commendable to desire it now than to desire it then though neither be an argument of any gracious Constitution of Soul 'T is more commendable to desire it now when 't is a matter of Faith to believe the World to come than when 't is a matter of Sense as when all Shadows are chased away then 't is no hard matter to convince men of things that lye within the Veil that is of the truth and worth of Heavenly things And yet if they should be convinced of this we cannot say they are gracious however they are better than meer Infidels for carnal men may desire a share in the state of the Blessed as Numb 23.10 Oh that I might die the death of the Righteous Balaam had his wishes And those that did not like Christs Doctrine but departed from him said Joh. 6.34 Lord evermore give us of this bread of life They would fain be happy When this happiness was represented unto them it may and doth stir up strange motions in the Hearts of those that are unrenewed and unchanged 2. There is a difference in the End and Vse of this desire of Happiness Now and then God leaveth these Velleities and Inclinations as a Stock upon which to graft Grace as a Spinster leaveth a lock of Wooll to fasten the next thread as Nebuchadnezzar's shape remained when he was turned a grazing among the Beasts and as Job's Messengers I alone am escaped to tell thee There are these Inclinations to happiness that are escaped out of the ruines of the Fall God by our self-love would draw us to love himself Man will not be dealt with else It leaveth men capable of Heaven the Doctrine of Life represented to them they are without excuse if they refuse it This is the use of it now but then when we are in termino it hath another use This love of their own happiness and desire to be saved serveth for this very use to make them sensible of their loss the grief of their Condemnation and lost estate is encreased thereby Now this is little thought of by carnal men because they have Oblectamenta sensus the entertainments of sense to divert their minds but when separate and set apart from all these then if they have no other punishment this is enough Surely their understanding remaineth having nothing to comfort them and allay the bitter sense of their loss But now let us see 1. How far carnal and unregenerate men desire Happiness 2. Why this is so little improved and they make so little use of it First How far a carnal and unregenerate man may desire Happiness 1. They may desire good confuse non indefinitè Happiness in the General but this desire cometh under no deliberation and choice The happiness that is offered by Christ or that Life and Immortality that he bringeth to light cometh under another consideration Good Good is the cry of the World Certainly no man would be miserable but all would be happy and live at ease Christians Pagans all good men bad men they that seldome agree in any thing do all agree in this they would have good To ask men whether they would be happy or no is to ask men whether they love themselves yea or no. 2. They would not only have good in the General but some eternal good And because this is not so evident by nature they grope and feel about for it Act. 17.26 There is an unsatisfiedness in present things and therefore they are scrambling and feeling about for some better thing As Solomon tryed all experiments so do men go about seeking for good Eccl. 7.29 Since we lost the streight line of Gods direction we seek it sometimes in one thing sometimes in another and Christ saith Mat. 13.45 46. That the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant man seeking goodly pearls And when he had found one pearl of good price he went
man can think of nothing but the Delights of the Flesh and so becometh a ready Prey to Sathan Oh then shake off Laziness and the ease of the Flesh God is at work John 5.17 the Creatures are at work the Sun is alwayes going up and down Secondly Another Cause is a Foolish Modesty and Pusillanimity Oh this should not be We should not like Saul hide among the Stuff when God calleth us forth to some Employment for his Glory 1 Sam. 10.22 or with Moses draw back when Opportunity is offered us to be useful in our Generation Exod. 4.20 God can help the stammering Tongue and will bless mean Gifts when you sincerely obey his Call Thirdly Self-love Phil. 2.21 All men seek their own things not the things of Jesus Christ. Many care not how it goeth with Chrsts Matters if their particular go right they serve their own worldly Ease Profit Credit Pleasure Fourthly Distracting Businesses or love to the World this is digging in the Earth and hiding our Talent indeed 2 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken me and embraced the present World Fifthly Fear of Danger if publickly Active for God some are so Cowardly that they are Brow-beaten with a frown cannot venture a lesser Interest cannot bear a Scoff or a disgraceful Word therefore sneak loath to own what they are or to do for Christ and his despised Cause this is not a Christian Frame Phil. 1.28 In nothing terrifyed by your Adversaries which to them is a Token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God It looketh like Christs Business he speaketh of Endeavours to propagate the Faith of Christ and to gain men to embrace the Gospel VSE Let us see if we be found in the Number of the Faithful or Vnfaithful A negligent Ministry a Gallio a careless Magistrate an idle Master of a Family a sloathful Christian is like the Servant in the Text You have your use whether you be in a publick or private Station let us be faithful if but one Talent the smallest gifts must not lye idle but be seriously exercised for Gods glory if but one your Temptations are the less Private men are not exposed to such Dangers as publick Persons It will Aggravate your Negligence if when less is required you are found idle Oh therefore shake off the ease of the Flesh that loathness to be troubled with the faithful Discharge of your Duty SERMON XIII MATTH XXV v. 19 20 21 22 23. After a long time the Lord of those Servants cometh and reckoneth with them And so he that had received five Talents came and brought other five Talents saying Lord thou delivered'st me five Talents behold I have gained besides them five Talents more His Lord said unto him Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two Talents came and said Lord thou deliveredâ—st unto me two Talents behold I have gained other two besides them His Lord said unto them Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. WE now come to the Third part of the Parable The 1. We called the Distribution 2. The Negotiation 3. The Account This Account is First Spoken in the General vers 19. Secondly More Particularly described and set forth There we shall take notice First Of the Reckoning with the good Servants Secondly With the bad one In the Passages that concern the good Servants you may take notice of the Servants Account and the Masters Approbation The account of the first Servant is in vers 20. of the second in vers 22. the Masters Approbation in vers 21 23. He entertaineth both the Servants with the same countenance and the same words 1. I begin with the general intimation of the Account ver 19. Where the Time 1. When he cometh After a long time 2. His Work what he will do when he cometh He reckoneth with his Servants First For the Time I. Doct. There is a good space of time between Christs Ascension and second coming Q. But why is this last reckoning so long delayed A. Not from any unreadiness in Christ he is ready to judge if we be ready to be judged 1 Pet. 4.5 But 1. There is a Reason on the part of the good and that is that the Number of the Elect may be gathered who live in several Ages and places and it requireth some time and pains to work upon each Soul of them for not one of those must perish 2 Pet. 3.9 And after they are converted there must be some time allowed to exercise their diligence They must have a day to work in John 9.4 and to try their Faith and Patience in Rev. 6.11 They should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow-servants and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled A certain number are enrolled for Sufferings as well as for Heaven many of which had not obtained their Crown as the High-priest tarryed within the Vail till his Ministration ended As long as there is need of Christs Intercession he deferrs his second coming 2. On the wickeds part 't is necessary they should have a time of Improvement that they may be left without excuse Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 'T is for the glory of God that he should take them when ripe Then the Angel thrusts in his sickle Rev. 14.15 Therefore they have longer time of prospering in their sinful wayes 1. Let us not make an ill use of this either to deny or doubt of his Coming as those 2 Pet. 3.3 or of slackening or putting off your Preparation as the naughty Servant Mat. 24.48 49. But let us wait with patience and hold out to the very last Saul held out till Samuel was even ready to come and so forced himself to offer Sacrifice whereby he lost his Kingdom 1 Sam. 13.8 9. If he had stayed a little longer Samuel had come So many grow weary of doing and suffering and miscarry in the very Haven We wait in ordinary things Jam. 5.7 8. Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the Husband-man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh His hastiness cannot alter the seasons so we in improving our Interests and employing our Talents should not faint Gal. 6.4 And be not weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not 2. Let us shame our selves that having so much time we have done so little work Our Master hath tarryed
be opened therefore when we are about to do any thing unworthy say as he Acts 19.40 We are in danger to be called to an Account for this day uproar there being no Cause whereby we may give an Account of this Concourse so should you We that are to give an Account how careful should we be how we use our Time Health Strength Understanding Authority Wealth and other Blessings of God The commonness of these Notions maketh them to lose their Life and Influence Therefore we should especially act Faith in Believing and urging the Soul with this Account Secondly 'T is particularly described and there 1. Of the Servants Allegation 2. The Masters Approbation 1. The Servants Allegation vers 20 and 22. The two first Servants came chearfully to their Account as having discharged their Duty faithfully and with all diligence improved the Talents received Not that in the day of Judgment good men shall make any Narrations of what they have done they need not for Christ shall do it for them they rather wonder that any thing that they have done is taken notice of as in the 37 th verse of this Chapter but all this is spoken after the manner of men and to keep up the Decorum of the Parable if it signifieth any thing it signifieth the Confidence of a good Conscience and what Comfort and boldness it breedeth in the day of our Accounts Doct. That a faithful Discharge of our Duty will give us Comfort and Boldness when our Lord cometh to reckon with us 1. There is a Confidence and Comfort that ariseth from a good Conscience or from Sanctification as well as Justification In the inward Court Conscience is one of the Witnesses as well as the Spirit of God Rom. 8.16 and much Comfort ariseth from its Testimony 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience A Carnal man is ashamed of the Grounds of his rejoycing and what it is that keepeth his Heart merry but a Godly man can own the Causes of his joy which are in the first place the Blood of Christ Rom. 5.11 We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the Atonement next the Testimony of his Conscience concerning his sincere walking But if a man can live with these Comforts can he dye with them 2. The Review of a well-spent life is a great Comfort in Death Our Lord Jesus at the end of his days when he was to go out of the World John 17.4 saith I have glorified thee upon Earth and finished the Work thou gavest me to do Hezekiah when that sad Message was brought to him that he must die and not live Isa. 38.4 that comforted him upon his Death-bed Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is good in thy sight So the Apostle Paul when he drew nigh his end 2 Tim. 4.7 8. saith I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Oh 't is a blessed thing if we can have this Comfort when Conscience puts off all Disguises and the everlasting Estate is at hand and we are immediately to appear before the Lord to remember then that we have been careful to please and honour God and done his work how sweet is it 3. In the Day of Judgment their works follow them into the other World Rev. 14.13 Their Wealth doth not follow them but the Conscience of having done well abideth with them Conscience is Heaven or Hell to us in Hell it maketh up a part of the Worm that never dyeth so in Heaven it giveth us Confidence 1 John 2.28 and 1 John 4.17 That we may have boldness in the day of Judgment Works are not Meritorious and have no causal influence upon our Salvation yet they have the full place of an Evidence and so may wonderfully Comfort and embolden our Hearts VSE Let us labour to get this Evidence The time of Death is a time that will rifle all our false Hopes You are in your Health and Strength now but how soon you may shoot the Gulph you know not we are hastening into the other World apace When you are immediately to appear before God you will have other thoughts of the World to come and the necessity of Preparation for it than you have now that which will comfort you now will not comfort you then you must look that the Devil will then be most busie to tempt and trouble you and as now he prejudiceth you against the Precepts of the Gospel so then against the Promises of it all your worldly Comfort then will fail and have spent their Allowance and become to you as unsavoury as the white of an Egg. Will this Comfort you that you have sported and gamed away your precious time that you have fared of the best and lived in Pomp and Honour Oh no But this will comfort you I have made it my business to glorifie God I have been Faithful in my place have gotten some Evidence of the Love of God It is not Riches or Greatness or any Earthly Advantage will do you good Oh 't is a Cutting Thought to the Careless and Negligent Now I must give an Account of every day and hour I have spent in this World The Improvement of every Opportunity will be called for Then all your Vanities and carnal Pleasures will be smart upon you and vex your Souls with the grievous Remembrance of them Well then can you in any measure look back upon the Discharge of your Duty There are two Extreams First Some are Presumptuous and Confident because they are not gross Sinners but what have they done for God The sluggish and unprofitable Servant was cast into utter Darkness he did not mispend his Talent but yet he did not improve it The Tree that bringeth forth no Fruit is hewen down though it did not bring forth bad Fruit. 'T is not a Negative Religion will comfort thee but a Positive and a Fruitful one You are no Drunkard no Adulterer no Prophane Person but have you been at work for God Secondly Others are Pusillanimous and Diffident because they do not arrive at the Eminency and Perfection of the highest David had other Worthies besides the first three There were two faithfull Servants one brought five Talents the other two Now the middle is of those that can see in themselves more Zeal than Formality more Grace than Corruption that for the main have made it their business to Honour God though conscious to many Weaknesses and Defects yet throughout Grace gets the upper hand according to the degrees of Grace received they are faithful with God 2. The Masters Approbation Well done thou good and faithful Servant The Faithful Servants are well accepted by Christ. First He entertaineth them
3.6 compared with Gen. 18.12 He will own a Pearl on a Dunghil the least Act of sincere Obedience though there be many failings But I must return 3. The usual ill thoughts of God are these three 1. That He is rigorous in his Commands 2. Niggardly and tenacious in his Gifts and helps of Grace 3. And as to Acceptance that he is hard to please and easie to offend All these may be gathered out of the words of the unfaithful Servant and all these lye deep in the Hearts of men against Gods Sovereignty 1. Hyppocrites accuse God of Tyranny in his Laws as if he dealt hardly with his Creatures to leave them with such affections in the midst of the Snares and Temptations of the present Life and requiring such Duty from them Certainly all that God hath required of us is holy just and good conducing not only to his Glory but to the Rectitude and Perfection of our Natures man would not be man if such things were not required of him so that if we were in our right wits and were left to our own Option and Choice we would preferre Subjection to such Laws before Exemption and freedom Micah 6.8 Are Justice Temperance Chastity Piety Patience Gives and Fetters to Humane Nature We cannot be without these and preserve the Nobleness of our being and the good of humane Societies 'T is true this lower World furnisheth us with many Temptations to the contrary but these Temptations work not by constraining Efficacy but only by inticing Perswasion and have we not more earnest Perswasions to love God and please God Are not God and Christ and Heaven more lovely Objects than all the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of the World These things do not force the will but draw your consent and surely God hath propounded more lovely things in his Covenant to draw this consent from them The great fault is in our Lust 2 Pet. 1.4 As the Poyson is not in the Flower but in the Spider 2. He accuseth God as backward to give Grace and help our Impotency and as if he did require more than he giveth This is obvious and express in the words of the naughty Servant Reaping where thou hast not sowen and gathering where thou hast not strawed But this also is an unjust charge for God requireth nothing but according to the Talents received Now he needeth not take any thing from the Creatures for he giveth all he had one Talent and God expected the Improvement but of one Let men try to the utmost and see if they have cause to make this Complaint they will find that the way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10.29 and that all these jealousies are but a slander against Gods Government Why do you complain that he would reap where he hath not sowen Is it because you would have God force you to be good whether you would or no and by an absolute constraining Power drive you out of your flesh-pleasing course Consider how unbeseeming it is the Wisdom of God that men should be holy and good by Necessity and not by Choice Vertue would then be no vertue not a moral but a natural Property as burning is to Fire And it were no more praise-worthy to mind Heavenly things than it is for a Stone to move downward 'T is true God must make make us willing but willing we must be now there is no such thing on your parts when you wilfully refuse the hopes God offereth Acts 13.46 Since ye put away the Word of God from you and judge your selves unworthy of eternal life lo we turn to the Gentiles At least you do not apply your hearts to work with God or frame your doings to turn to him as 't is in the Prophet you do not improve Means and Mercies and Providences and Helps vouchsafed And will you after all this think God a Pharaoh that requireth Brick and giveth no Straw Here 't is verified Prov. 17.3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord. We usually ruine our selves and then complain that God giveth no more Grace But do not we justifie this conceit of wicked men when we say God requireth Duty of the fallen Creatures who have no power to perform it I answer 1. We must so maintain God's Goodness as still to keep up his Sovereignty and right of Dominion Man had power which was lost by his own default but God doth not lose his Right though Man hath lost his Power Their Impotency doth not dissolve their Obligation A Drunken Servant is bound to the Duty of a Servant still 'T is against all reason the Master should lose his right to command by the Servants default A prodigal Debtor that hath nothing to pay yet is liable to be sued for the debt without injustice God contracted with us in Adam and his obedience was not only due by Covenant but by Law and immutable right not by positive Law only or Contract And therefore he hath a right to demand Obedience as the fruit of Original Righteousness 2. 'T is harsh men think to answer for Adam's fault to which they were not conscious and consenting But every man will find an Adam in his own heart the Old Man is there wasting away the relicks of natural light and strength and shall not God challenge the debt of Obedience from a proud prodigal Debtor We are found naked yet we think our selves cloathed poor yet we think our serlves rich and to have need of nothing Therefore God may admonish us of our Duty demand his right to convince us of our Impotency and that we may not pretend we were not called upon for what we owe him Man is prodigal we spend what is left lose those relicks of Conscience and moral Inclinations which escaped out of the ruines of the fall 3. God requireth it that we may acknowledge the Debt and confess our Impotency being practically convinced thereof and so humbly implore his Grace 4. God is still offering recovering Mercy and never forsaketh any but those that forsake him first 1 Chron. 18.9 If thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever 2 Chron. 5.2 If you forsake him he will forsake you Did you improve your selves and beg Gods Grace and carry on the Common work as far as you can then 't were another matter He that useth Gods means as well as he can he lyeth nearer to the blessing of them than the wilful despiser and Neglecter of them Unsanctified men may do less evil and more good than they do Therefore if they neglect the means they are left inexcusable not only as originally disabled but as wilfully graceless So that no such prejudice can lye against God he offereth grace and power and men will not have it 3. The third Prejudice is That he is hard to please and easily offended As if he did watch advantages to ruine and destroy the Creature Oh! No This cannot be thought of
God He that rewarded the Picture and shadow of duty as in Ahab 1 Kings 21.29 the first offers of it in his Servants Isa. 32.5 that regarded the returning Prodigal Luke 15.20 Isa. 65.24 whose Bowels relent presently who hath promised to reward a Cup of cold Water given for Christs sake Mat. 10.42 and that our slender Services should receive so great a Reward that beareth with his peoples weakness that spareth them as a man spareth his only Son by their failing surely he is not harsh and severe 4. These Prejudices are very Natural to us and therefore should be regarded by all This appeareth partly by the first Fall of Man Prejudice against God was the fiery dart that wounded our first Parents to death The first Battery that Sathan made was against the perswasion of Gods goodness and kindness to man he endeavoured to make them doubt of it by casting jealousies into their minds as if God were harsh severe and envious in restraining them from the Tree of Knowledge and the fruit that was so fair to see to Gen. 3. If once he could bring them to question Gods goodness he knew other things would succeed more easily for the sense of the Creators goodness was the strongest bond by which the Heart was kept to God And partly because still the Devil seeketh to possess us with this conceit that God is harsh and severe and delighteth in our ruine and casteth jealousies into our heads as if God did infringe our just Liberties by the restraints of his Law And we have the same impatiency of restraints which they had and the Flesh being importunate to be pleased we are apt to find out excuses And as the naughty Servant condemneth his Master when he should beg pardon so such is the perverse disposition of Man when we should confess our fault we will abuse God himself as Adam Gen. 3.12 The Woman thou gavest me gave me and I did eat This monstrous conceit of God we further by observing his injuries as we count them rather than his benefits We take notice of Afflictions but not of daily Mercies David had much adoe to hold his Principle Psal. 73.1 2. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean Heart But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt These thoughts are very incident to us VSE Oh then when we set our Hearts to Religion let us take heed of slavish fear And if so take heed with what thoughts of God you are leavened and that you do not draw a monstrous and horrid Picture of him in your minds Oh look upon him as full of Grace and Mercy ten thousand tim◠more inclined to do good than any Friend you have in the World The Devil governeth the dark parts of the World by slavish Fear but God governeth by Love To this end consider 1. That in his Word God representeth himself by Mercy and Goodness rather than any other Attribute Mercy is natural to him he is the Father of Mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 God is not merciful by accident but by Nature The Sun doth not more naturally shine nor the Fire more naturally burn or Water more naturally flow than God doth naturally shew mercy 'T is pleasing to him Micah 7.18 Jam. 2.13 Mercy rejoyceth over Judgment Punitive acts are forced from him but gracious acts drop from him of their own accord like Life-honey Nay God is Mercy it self 1 Joh. 4.8 God is Love It cannot be said of a man that he is Learning and Wisdom though learned and wise But God is not only loving but Love and infinite Sea of Love without Banks and Bounds It was well observed of Oecolampadius That men were taught amiss to know the Nature of God by vulgar Pictures and Representations For their fashion was then to picture God in some fair and beautiful form and the Devil in some foul ugly shape Puerorum major pars nescit quid sit Deus quid sit Sathan But he adviseth Parents if they would teach their Children to know what God is they would first teach them to know what Goodness is and Justice is what Mercy is what Bounty and Loving-kindness is per illas enim propriè quid Deus sit discimus Again If they would know what kind of Creature the Devil is they should first know what Malice is and Filthiness and what Villany and Treachery is for Sathan is a Compound of all these The best Picture that could be taken of the Devil would be by the Characters of Malice Falshood and Envy But God is Justice it self Goodness it self Mercy it self as it is expressed in Scripture 2. In Christ who is the express Image of his Person Heb. 1.3 Now Christ disdained not the Company of Sinners went about healing Sicknesses and Diseases and doing good His Miracles were acts of Relief not done for Pomp and Ostentation 3. In his Providence Act. 14.17 He left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness SERMON XV. MATTH XXV v. 26 27. His Lord said unto him Thou wicked and sloathful Servant thou knewest that I reaped where I sowed not and gathered where I have not strawed Thou oughtest therefore to have put my Money to the Exchangers and then at my coming I should have received mine own with Vsury HEre is the Masters Reply to the Servants Allegation In the words we have two things 1. An Exprobration of his Naughtiness and Sloth 2. A Retortion of his vain Excuse upon his own head If thou knewest c. Not as if the Lord did grant it to be true that the sloathful Servant had alleadged but his own Opinions and Conceits were enough to convince him 1. Here is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Concession For Dispute sake be it as thou hast said 2. The Inference Thou oughtest therefore to have put my Money to the Exchangers that at my coming I might have received my own with Vsury The Argument is returned upon himself The Bankers and Usury here mentioned are only by way of comparison and can no more be urged to justifie the putting Money to use than Behold I come as a Thief can justifie Theft or that Parable Luke 16. should justifie Fraud and Injustice the unjust Steward did wisely Non servi fraudem sed prudentiam c. Parables are not taken from those things that de jure ought to be done but de facto are done Therefore I shall not interpose any Judgment of mine upon this occasion as to that case whether any putting Money to use by lawful yea or no only observe That Christ will have his own with Usury some improvement he expects when he cometh First I begin with the Exprobration 'T was a sharp but well deserved Reproof if the bad Servant had feared this aforehand it might have been better with him shame is the fear of a just Reproof Mark the
Faith and Patience we have in one place Heb. 6.12 That ye be not sloathful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises They inherited the Promises that is the things Promised If we propound to our selves such a divine and noble end as those great and glorious things that are offered in the Promises we must use the means they had Faith so must we have they had Patience and we must be Patient First By Faith we are not to understand Confidence and relyance upon Gods Promises a probable humane Faith and Hope will not be sufficient but a firm adherence to Gods Word whatever falleth out we are sure to have enough in the Promise We must have Faith because the things Promised are invisible rare and excellent far above the power of the Creature to give The Promise is a firm and immutable foundation of our Hope we should rejoyce in it as much as if the thing Promised were in hand In God I will rejoyce in the Lord I will praise his Word or praise his Word 'till the thing Promised cometh to be enjoyed Faith 't is the substance of things hoped for Secondly For Patience Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the Promise And we must have Patience because the things hoped for are to come and at a great distance Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Besides we shall meet with many Difficulties Oppositions and Tryals all which must be overcome many things must be done many things must be suffered and we must make our way through the midst of dreadful Enemies before we can attain our End Further our Desires are vehement and we long for enjoyment which is yet to come therefore we must be patient that we may quietly wait Gods leisure Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuing in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life Thirdly The next Grace is Love Where there is Love there will be Labour Heb. 6.10 For God is not Unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love 1 Thes. 1.3 Remembring without ceasing your work of Faith and labour of Love and patience of Hope Revel 2.3 4. And hast born and hast patience and for my names sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first Love And Love is said to endure all things 1 Cor. 13.7 'T was Love made Christ to suffer Hunger and Weariness and to forbear to refresh himself for the good of Souls 't was Love made him endure the bitter Agonies of the Cross Love puts strength and life into the Soul addeth wings and feet to the Body spareth no pains nor cost Keep up this Grace and you have an over-ruling bent upon your hearts 2. VSE If spiritual Sloath be so great an evil let the Children of God take heed of it when first it beginneth to creep upon their Spirits As when they begin to Pray without Affection or fervour of Spirit to Meditate of divine things without any sense affection or fruit when they find it difficult to withdraw from carnal Company or vain Discourse and are hardly perswaded to return unto themselves and to consider their wayes and can freely let loose their thoughts and words to all manner of vanity and their Comfort is rather sought in the Creature than in God they can rarely speak of others but 't is in reflecting upon them rather than themselves when Reproofs grow burthensom and are not entertained as an help but as an injury when they give up themselves to carnal Sports and take a license for vain Recreations and so fly from the labours that are profitable and necessary for their Souls health their Zeal languisheth their Duties are not so frequent nor the means of Grace used with life vigour and affection but they are more coldly affected towards them a satiety and fulness creepeth upon them they do not so solicitously avoid the causes of sin begin to indulge the Body or the bodily life to have more admiring thoughts of the Honours and Pleasures and Profits of the World either neglect or quench the motions of the Spirit All these are the effects of a remiss Will or a fainting Heart that beginneth to tire in the wayes of God 3. VSE It serves to justifie God in his Judgments upon the careless and negligent though they be not grossely Dissolute and Prophane There is more Contempt of God in neglecters than you can at first be sensible of Hypocrites complain of the severity of God the rigour of his Law the grievousness of his Judgments they should rather complain of the naughtiness of their own Hearts they are convinced of more Duty than they are willing to perform and they are not willing because they follow after a few paltry Vanities which is a great dishonour to God 'T was not the austerity and rigidness of the Master in requiring Improvement that hindred the increase of his Talent but his own baseness being wedded to sensual delights They say The wayes of the Lord are not equal but their hearts are not right with God Secondly I come now to the Retortion of his vain Excuse upon himself The damned can have no just Complaint against God they are apt to murmur and lay their defects upon the rigidness of Gods Government or Gods Providence but in the issue the blame will light upon themselves even the things they alledge make against them He was convinced the Master expected Increase therefore he should have done what he could Luk. 19.22 Out of thy own Mouth I will condemn thee So 't is here mens Consciences convince them they ought not to live in Idleness and if they have a Master the thought of their Account should inforce them if not their own Inclination especially if a severe Master Grand the Sinners supposition it bindeth the Duty upon him and so he cuts his Throat with his own Sword as they said of Job Chap. 15.6 Thine own Mouth condemneth thee thine own lips testifie against thee Doct. No excuse shall serve the unfaithful and sloathful Servant at the day of Iudgment Let a Man deceive himself now and please himself with these Pretences as he will all his Excuses shall be retorted upon him and made matter of his Condemnation For the Judge is Impartial and Omniscient his Eyes cannot be blinded nay he can open your own Consciences and so overwhelm you with the Evidence and Conviction of your Sins that you shall have nothing to say As in the 22 th of Matthew The Man was speechless when arraigned But because the excusing Humour is very rife and many things serve the turn now which will not bear weight then I shall a little handle this Matter of Excusing In the general an Excuse is an Apology or vain Defence whereby the Sinner seeketh to palliate his
that his Labour may answer his great Work and Trust and his Rest may not infringe his Labour but help it Our first Care should be of Labour for Man in this World is born to labour Here is not the Place of his Rest and Recompence but of his Exercise and Tryal Rest is but for Labour therefore doth he rest that he may be refreshed for his Labour Six dayes are given in the Law to labour but One to rest and that Rest is not Carnal but Holy and to be improved for our main Duties Adam in Innocency was not made for Idleness Moses telleth us That God put him into the Garden to dress it That Happiness we partook of then was consistent enough with our Work He that looketh upon the Beauty of the Sun may easily collect that God lighted not such a bright Torch for Man to sleep by or to pass over his dayes in Ease and Idleness The Law that was given Man to labour remained after Sin yea Sin brought Grievousness and Burthen to it So what was a Law before is turned into a Punishment now For God told Adam That in the Sweat of his Brow he should eat his Bread In the whole course of Nature nothing is idle the Sun and Stars do perpetually move and roll up and down the Earth bringeth forth Fruit the Seas have their Ebbings and Flowings and the Rivers their Courses the Angels are described with Wings as ready to fulfill God's Commandment and run to do his Pleasure 'T were an unworthy thing among so many Examples and Patterns of Diligence for Man alone to be idle In the least Creatures God hath taught us as by the Ant or Pismire Prov. 6.6 Go to the Ant thou Sluggard Now as all Men must labour so chiefly a Christian. The Scripture compareth our Life to a Journey which is a constant Motion till it be accomplished to Threshing which is the painfullest Part of Husbandry yea to a Warfare when the Enemy is at Hand ready to fight We are alwayes to Watch and Pray If our Enemy did not alarum us yet our Master will call us to an Account for what we have done And consider the danger of Negligence It befalleth to the Idle and Negligent as those that came after the Camp in the Wilderness Amaleck smote the Weak and the Feeble in the Rear Yea God himself will be angry with us The idle and sloathful Servant is cast into utter Darkness the Foolish Virgins are shut out If God by his Prophets curseth them whom he imployeth to execute his Judgments Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently what will become of them that are negligent in working out their own Salvation Horses grow resty if they be not used and impatient of a Burden So all goes to wrack in the Soul if we are idle We should profit when we look on the Field of the Sluggard Prov. 23.30 31 34. So will my Soul be if I let it alone Oh then shake off your Sloath be not alwayes resolving never beginning the Heavenly Course Nothing can be gotten nothing kept nothing to be enjoyed without Industry The Saints in Heaven are not idle but are alwayes lauding and praising and glorifying of God for evermore SERMON XVII MATTH XXV v. 30. And cast ye the unprofitable Servant into utter Darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth IN these words is the positive Part of the Sentence the Master doth not only take away the Talent but condemneth him to Eternal Torments In them take notice 1. Of the Reason of the Punishment and then 2. The Punishment it self 1. The Reason of the Punishment is represented in the Notion and Character by which the Party sentenced is expressed The unprofitable Servant The word Vnprofitable is sometimes used in a larger and sometimes in a stricter Sense In a larger Sense 't is used for him that deserveth no Reward so 't is said Luk. 17.10 We are unprofitable Servants Sometimes more strictly and properly for the Idle and the Negligent for them that do not their Duty and make no Improvement of their Gifts So 't is taken here and in many other Places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cast ye the unprofitable Servant 2. The Punishment its self is represented by two Notions First 'T is dismal Cast him into utter Darkness Secondly 'T is doleful There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth 1. Dismal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 'T is Doleful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sometimes Hell is expressed by one of these Notions as Matth. 13.42 He will cast the Tares into a Furnace of Fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth So Matth. 24.51 He shall cut him asunder and appoint him his Portion with Hypocrites where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth 'T is notable that is the Punishment of the Luxurious Servant that did eat and drink with the Drunken and beat his Fellow-Servants and here the Vnprofitable Servant is threatned with the same though he was not riotous but negligent Sometimes by both together as Matth. 8.11 12. The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast into utter Darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth And Matth. 22.13 Take him away and cast him into utter Darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Now let us First consider the Punishment as 't is dismal Cast him into utter Darkness There are two Terms to be explained Darkness and Vtter Darkness 1. Darkness Heaven is set forth by Light and Hell by Darkness The Inheritance of the Saints is called an Inheritance in Light Col. 1.12 because that is an Estate full of Knowledge for there we see God face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 an Estate full of Joy and Comfort Psal. 16.11 an Estate full of Brightness and Glory Dan. 12.3 They shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Matth. 13.43 The Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of Heaven How base soever the Children of God appear in this World in the World to come they shall be wonderful Glorious Now the opposite State of this is set forth by Darkness as the fallen Angels are said to be held in Chains of Darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 or as Jude hath it in Chains under Darkness Jude 6. Hell is compared to a Prison or Dungeon 1 Pet. 3.19 So Christ speaketh of Hell as the Prison wherein damned Spirits are held in a wretched and comfortless Estate in a State most remote from Joy and Blessedness 2. 'T is called utter Darkness either because their Prisons or Dungeons were out of the City as appeareth Act. 12.10 or because they shall be shut from the Feast or Rooms of Entertainment Their Feasts were usually kept by Night Suppers and not Dinners and then celebrated with a great many Lamps and Candles or Torches Now those that were not only shut out from those Rooms of Entertainment but cast into Dungeons were left in a comfortless Condition That 't
his Sons Commission yet 't was not a total Omission compare 1 Sam. 2.23 24 25. And he said unto them why do ye such things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this People nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear of you ye make the Lords People to transgress If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him notwithstanding they hearkened not to the voice of their Father His Admonition was grave and serious yet 't was not enough All Israel knew their sin before Eli took upon him to reprove them secretly whereas the fact was open and he should have put them to open shame and then his Rebukes were mild and soft he should have frowned upon them punished them but his fondness would not permit that 3. Eternal here in the Text Cast the unprofitable Servant c. These sins Christ will mainly inquire after at the day of Judgment and vers 42.43 of this Chapter and Math. 7.19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire though not bad or poysonous fruit By all these Arguments it appeareth that sins of Omission may be great sins Thirdly That some sins of Omission are greater than others All are not alike as the more necessary the Duties the more faulty the Omission Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha not if a man hate but if he love not c. These are peccata contra remedium as others contra officium By other sins we make the Wound by these we refuse the Plaister Again If the Omission be total â—er 10.25 Call not on the Name of the Lord Psal. 14.3 None seeketh after God Again When seasonable Duties are neglected Math. 25.44 When I was an hungred ye fed me not 1 Joh. 3.17 He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother in need Prov. 17.16 Why is there a price put into the hand of a Fool And then when 't is easie this is to stand with God for a trifle Luk. 16.24 Desideravit guttam qui non dedit micam Amos. 2.6 They sold the poor for a pair of shoes And when convinced of the duty James 4.17 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Fourthly In many cases sins of Omission may be more hainous and more damning than sins of Commission 1. They are the ruine of most part of the carnal world Carnal men are often described by their Omissions to be without God Eph. 3.12 Psal. 10.3 4. The wicked through the pride of their heart will not seek after God God is not in all their thoughts Jer. 2.32 None stirreth up himself to seek after God And 2. Partly because these are most apt to harden us more Foul sins scourge the Conscience with remorse and shame but these bring on insensibly sleightness and hardness of heart and therefore Christ saith Publicans and Harlots shall enter into the Kingdom of God before Pharisees that rested in a superficial Righteousness but neglected Faith Love and Judgment Math. 21.31 And 3. Partly because Omissions make way for Commission of evil Psal. 14.4 They that called not upon God eat up his People like Bread They lye open to gross sins that do not keep the heart tender by a daily attendance upon God If a man do not that which is good he will soon do that which is evil Joh. 2.13 Oh then let us bewail our unprofitableness that we do no more good that we do so much neglect God and no more edifie our neighbour so that Gods best gifts lie idle upon our hands Fifthly The first and main evil of sin was in the Omission Jer. 2.13 My people have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters Jam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and inticed First inticed from God and then drawn away to sin therefore the work of Grace is to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 By Ungodliness is meant not denying God but neglecting God there our chief mischief began for when we do not look upon God as our chief good then we seek Happiness in the Creature 1 VSE To shew that if the unprofitable Servant be cast into Hell what will become of them that live in open sins that bid defiance to God 2. To condemn the unprofitable lives of many they live as if they had only their Souls for Salt to keep their Bodies from stinking Cumber the ground Luk. 13.7 Do not good in their Relations are neither comfortable to the Bodies nor Souls of others Certainly how mean and low soever you be in the world you may be useful Dorcas made Coats for the poor Servants may adorn the Gospel Tit. 2.10 3. If sins of Omission be so dangerous we may cry out with David Psal. 19. Who can understand his Errours The Children of God offend in these kind of sins oftener than in the other kind they are not guilty of Drunkenness or Uncleanness but of Omission of good Duties or sleight performance of them Paul complaineth Rom. 7.18 19. For I know that in me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good that I would I do not And should not you complain likewise A Child is not counted dutiful because he doth not wrong and beat his Father he must also give him that Reverence that is due to him Alas how many Duties are required of us to God and Men the neglect of which we should humble our selves before God for SERMON XVIII MATTH XXV v. 31 32 33. When the Son of Man shall come in his Glory and all the Holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats And he shall set the Sheep on his Right Hand but the Goats on the Left THIS latter Paragraph I cannot call a Parable but a Scheme and Draught or a Delineation of the last Judgment intermingled with many Passages that are plainly Parabolical as That Christ setteth forth himself as a King sitting upon the Throne of his Glory and as a Shepherd dividing his Flock That he compareth the Godly to Sheep and the Wicked to Goats Those Allegations and Dialogues between Christ and the Righteous Christ and the Wicked When saw we thee an hungry c. have much of the Nature of a Parable in them In these Three Verses we have described 1. The Appearance or sitting down of the Judge 2. The Presenting the Parties to be judged The former is in Vers. 31. the latter in Vers. 32 33. In
work to cast out Devils would seem to us more excellent than these mentioned as the Workers of Iniquity Mat. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works Ver. 23. Then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity Then there are many works of the same kind we must not only visit but cloath not once but often The same Faith which inclineth our Hearts to works of one kind will incline them to every kind for they all stand by the same Authority and 't is not agreeable with Sincerity to balk any of them 3. These Works must be done so heartily as that it may appear we have denyed all for Christ and love him above all or that it may appear they are fruits of Faith and Love The parting with worldly Goods implyeth our Hearts must be loosened from the love of temporal things And the Visiting of Christ in Prison which may be for Righteousness sake implyeth our Victory over our fear of Danger otherwise it argueth our Faith is weak and our Love is cold and so not sincere not prevailing over us in such a degree as will argue Sincerity There is Faith unfeigned 2 Tim. 1.5 and Loving in deed and truth 1 Joh. 3.18 Faith Vnfeigned as when Temporal things seem nothing to us and are easily parted with and Love in Deed and in Truth is to relieve our Brethren with our Goods yea to give our lives for them if need be as appeareth ver 16 17. But alas Love in most Christians is cold it will neither take pains nor be at charge much less lay down Life for them as Christ did for us do little to maintain comfort or support Christ's Servants in distress 3. The Broken-hearted Serious Christian that thinketh Works can never have enough of his care or too little of his trust that is alwayes hard at work for God and yet seeth God must do all at last He is perswaded that Grace doth not weaken his Duty but enforce it yet when he hath done all counteth himself but an Vnprofitable Servant and is still approving himself unto God more and more and yet the more he doth the more daily need he seeth of Christ No man liveth under a greater dread of the Holiness and Justice of God yet flyeth oftener to his Mercy We must comfort these 1. Consider God observeth all the Good that we do and pondereth every Action of what kind soever it be whether giving Food or Cloathing or Harbour or Entertainment or Visiting or Comforting 't will all be fruit abounding to your account Phil. 4.17 The more you abound in Acts of Communion with God or Relief towards such as are in Misery the greater will your Reward be in the last Day There is Fruit for our Account and Abounding for our Account 2. The least Actions done for Christ's sake shall be rewarded by Him for some of the Actions are more inconsiderable than the other yet if done for Christ's sake a Meals Meat a little Harbour yea a Visit is taken notice of by him He doth not say Ye feasted me ye made me sumptuous Entertainment But Ye gave me food ye cloathed me ye visited c. The least Action done for Christ's sake shall not go unrewarded Mat. 10.42 Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a Cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his Reward 3. God will pardon all their Failings Here is no mention of the evil but the good they had done An honest upright Heart is dispensed with as to many Weaknesses Mal. 3.17 I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him I come now to the Second Point II. Doct. That Christ ordereth his Dispensations so that some of his People are exposed to necessity others in a capacity to relieve them The Priviledges and Promises of the Gospel do not exempt the one from Distress nor do the Duties and Rules of the Gospel make the possession of Riches to the other unlawful In the one sort of good men Christ is hungry and a-thirst in the other sort of good men he feedeth and cloatheth them Christ is in the Giver and Receiver These want that they may have matter of Patience those abound that they may have matter of Bounty Abraham was Rich Lazarus that slept in his bosom was poor 'T is so 1. That he may shew himself to be the Governour and disposer of all things here in the world and that he giveth Honour and Riches to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.17 If these things were at the Devils disposal Gods friends should never have them 2. To shew that the bare Possession is not unlawful that 't is not the having but the ill use that bringeth so much mischief 3. That the world may know somewhat of his Favour to his People and what Prosperity he can bestow upon all if it were expedient some Diseases require Cordials others sharp and bitter Potions 4. That in the time of our Exercise we may have a Pledge what he will do for us hereafter and give us in Heaven 5. That they may be Instruments of his Providence to supply others that want House and Harbour and all necessaries as the great veins receive blood to convey it to the lesser some are kept under Affliction We sail more safely to the Haven of Salvation with an adverse wind than a prosperous VSE If it fall to your lot to Give rather than to Receive bless God in that behalf and neglect not your Duty God could level all to an Equality but he will not that you may be Instruments of his Providence to cherish them you should be a Fountain not to keep the water to your selves but to overflow for the necessity of others I come now to the Third Point III. Doct. That works of Charity done out of Faith and Love to God are of greater weight and consequence than the world taketh them to be 1. There is a Command of God requireth it Next to the great duties of the Gospel nothing more enforced to relieve the necessities of the poor is not Arbitrary but a duty required of us according to our abilities 't is Charity to them but a due Debt to God and a part of our Righteousness Stewards are to dispense the Estate by the Masters command 2. 'T is the tryal of our Love to Christ He hath made the poor his Proxies and Deputies we would cozen our selves with an empty Faith and a cheap Love if God had not devolved his right upon our Brethren 1 Joh. 3.17 But whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him If Christ were sick in a Bed we would visit him
Jam. 4.17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is Sin III. In many Cases Sins of Omission may be more hainous and damning than Sins of Commission They are the ruine of the most part of the Carnal World They are described to be without God Ephes. 2.12 Of the Wicked within the Pale 't is said Psal. 10.3 4. The Wicked through the Pride of his Heart will not seek after God God is not in all his Thoughts Of the careless Professor Jer. 2.32 My People have forgotten me Dayes without number Sins of Omission may be more hainous than Sins of Commission 1. Partly because these harden more Foul Sins scourge the Conscience with Remorse and Shame but these bring on insensibly Sleightness and Hardness of Heart And therefore Christ saith Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of God before Pharisees that neglected Faith Love and Judgment Matth. 21.31 2. Partly because Omissions make way for Commissions Psal. 14.4 They that called not upon God did eat up his People as Bread They lie open to gross Sins that do not keep the Heart tender by a daily Attendance upon God If a Man do not that which is Good he will soon do that which is Evil. Oh then let us bewail our Unprofitableness that we do no more Good that we do so much neglect God that we do no more edifie our Neighbour so that God's best Gifts lie idle upon our hands That Child is counted undutiful that doth wrong and beat his Father so also he that giveth him not due Reverence How seldom do we think of God! Every Relation puts new Duties upon us but we little regard them every Gift every Talent II. The Godly by their Fruitfulness in good Works and Acts of Self-denying Obedience They fed they refreshed they harboured they cloathed they visited vers 35 36. The question is not Have you heard prayed preached These are disclaimed Matth. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesyed in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name have done many wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity Luke 13.26 Then shall ye begin to say We have eat and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets but he shall say I tell you I know you not depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity Nay nor have you Believed Jam. 2.20 Wilt thou know O vain man that Faith without Works is dead No Christ telleth us of another Tryal Well then a Religion that costs nothing is worth nothing A Notional Religion a Word Religion is not a Christianity of Christs making Surely Heaven is worth something and it will cost us something if we mean to get thither There is more in these Works of costly Charity than we usually think of 1 Tim. 6.18 19. Luke 16.9 1 Joh. 4.19 Hereby we knew that we are of the Truth and shall assure our Hearts before him Hereby by what If we love not in Word and Tongue only but in deed and in truth Refresh the Bowels of the Poor own Brethren though with danger of our Lives Heaven is but a Fancy to them that will venture nothing for the Hopes of it What have you done to shew your thankfulness for so great a Mercy tendred to you A cold Belief and a fruitless Profession will never yield you Comfort Good words are not dear and a little countenance given to Religion costs no great matter and therefore do not think that Religion lyeth only in hearing Sermons or a few cursory Prayers and drowsie Devotions We should mind those things about which we shall be questioned at the day of Judgment Have you visited fed cloathed harboured owned the Servants of God when the World hath frowned on them Comforted them in their distresses Wherein really have you denyed your selves for the Hopes of Glory Fifthly Observe The Notions whereby their different Estate in the other World is expressed Punishment and Life See Serm. last on 2 Cor. 5.10 Page 104 105. Sixthly Observe Eternity is affixed to both Everlasting Punishment and Eternal Life See last Sermon on 2 Cor. 5.10 latter end of Page 105. and beginning of Page 106. Seventhly Observe These are spoken of not only as Threatned but Executed When the Cause hath been sufficiently tryed and cleared and Sentence passed there will be Execution The Execution is certain speedy and unavoidable See last Sermon on 2 Cor. 5.10 Page 107. Eighthly Observe Sentence is Executed on the Wicked first It beginneth with them for 't is said These shall go away into everlasting Punishment and the Righteous into Life Eternal Now this is not meerly because the Order of the Narration did so require it See last Sermon on 2 Cor. 5.10 Page 108. The VSE Is to press us 1. To Believe these things 2. Seriously to consider of them 1. To Believe them Most mens Faith about the Eternal Recompenses is but pretended at best too cold and Speculative An Opinion rather than a sound Belief as appeareth by the little Fruit and Effect that it hath upon us for if we had such a sight of them as we have of other things we should be other manner of Persons than we are in all holy Conversation and Godliness We see how cautious man is in tasting Meat in which he doth suspect Harm that it will breed in him the Pain and torments of the Stone and Gout or Chollick I say though it be but probable the things will do us any Hurt We know certainly that the wages of Sin is Death yet we will be tasting forbidden Fruit. If a man did but suspect an House were falling he would not stay in it an Hour We know for certain that continuance in a carnal Estate will be our eternal ruine yet who doth flee from Wrath to come If we have but a little hope of Gain we will take pains to obtain it We know that our Labour is not in vain in the Lord Why do we not abound in his work 1 Cor. 15.58 Surely we would do more to prevent this Misery to obtain this Happiness when we may do it upon such easie Terms and have so fair an Opportunity in our hands if we were not strangely stupified we would not go to Hell to save our selves a labour There are two things which are very wondrous 1. That any should suspect the Christian Faith so clearly promised in the Predictions of the Prophets before it was set a-foot and confirmed with such a number of Miracles after it was set a-foot Received among the Nations with so universal a consent in the Learned part of the World notwithstanding the meanness of the Instruments first employed in it and perpetuated to us throughout so many Successions of Ages who have had experience of the Truth and Benefit of it That now in the latter end of Time any
〈◊〉 ye unlord the Law so the word signifieth 6. By taking some solemn time to meditate of and admire the excellency of his Person and the fulness of his Redemption In Heaven this will be our great Work there they praise the Lamb for ever-more Rev. 4.10 11. The four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sat on the Throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Honour and Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They do not slight their glorious Work All the Glory they have is God's meer Bounty they hold it by Grace and magnify it by Grace So Rev. 5.8 The four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of the Saints There is the Employment of the Church Militant and Triumphant Harps which are Instruments of Praise belong to Souls already glorified as Vials full of Odours belong to Believers on Earth The Earth is the true place of Prayer as in Heaven we shall be employed in Eternal Thanksgivings All the Church is yielding Homage to Christ It is the Study of Saints Ephes. 1.16 I cease not to give Thanks for you It was Paul's constant practice he breathed nothing but Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Our Thoughts of Christ should be sweet to us we should have ravishing apprehensions of him from day to day ravishing thy Heart with the excellency of Christ. Vse 3. Is Consolation to them that desire to glorify Christ. It is a singular Prop in your Prayers in every Address you have an Interest in Father and Son They are mine saith the Lord I loved them with an everlasting Love They are mine saith Christ I redeemed them with an everlasting Redemption And will not God provide for his own and Christ for his own Can he that hath the Father and Son miscarry and doubt of Audience You have the Father who is the Original Fountain of Blessing and you have Christ who is the Golden Pipe and Conveyance But especially in your last Address when you lie on your Death-Bed you know Christ's own Plea John 17.4 5. Father I have glorified thee upon Earth I have finished the Work that thou hast given me to do And now Father glorify thou me with thy self with the Glory that I had with thee before the World was It is a sweet Evidence What doth God look for from the Creature but Glory Objection 1. But you will say I cannot glorify Christ in my Addresses to God and cannot come with an Assurance becoming his Purchase I Answer 1. When we cannot apply let us disclaim Lord we come not in our own Names our own Worth and Desert which is none at all we come in the Merits of Christ we know there is no other Name under Heaven Hosea 14.3 In thee the Fatherless findeth Mercy that is every Person that wanteth a Guide Relief and Support Though we cannot say Father yet we can say we are Fatherless we have none to help us 2. If we cannot speak of the Love that he beareth to us for Christ's sake yet let us plead the Love that he beareth to him Christ's Name is very dear and precious in Heaven being God's beloved Son Lord for the Love that thou bearest to Christ We are his Clients though we cannot say we are his Members Though I cannot say Thou art mine yet I may say He is thine a Mediator of thy setting up God might have refused us if Christ had not Letters Patents from Heaven and his Commission under the Broad-Seal of God John 6.27 Him hath God the Father sealed Lord he is thy own authorised Mediator Moses was refused that interposed of his own accord Exod. 32.32 33. I have nothing to bring thee but a Mediator of thine own It is a prevailing Argument Object 2. Alas there is little that I do for God my Station is private Those in the Magistracy and Ministry that are in an eminent Sphere of Activity they may glorify Christ they do his Work upon Earth but what do I do I Answer 1. God will be glorified by every Man in his Way and Place John 17.4 Father I have glorified thee upon Earth I have finished the Work that thou hast given me to do We must not speak of our Rank Christ is glorified by thy diligence and Faithfulness in thy private Place a Man-Servant or a Maid-Servant 1 Cor. 7.22 He that is called in the Lord being a Servant is the Lord's Free-man being redeemed from the thraldom of Satan and servitude of Sin he doth glorify Christ. Titus 2.9 10. Exhort Servants to be obedient unto their own Masters and to please them well in all things not answering again Not purloining but shewing all good fidelity that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things Godly Servants what an Ornament are they to the Gospel By the first Inlets of Religion into a Family it is made beautiful and lovely in the Eyes of Carnal Men who esteem the Doctrine by the Life and Practice of the Professors of it Servants in those days were bought and sold like Beasts The Lord doth not esteem Men by the Places they hold but by their Carriage in them 2. There is no Station so private but thou mayest do something for Christ to bring up thy Children in the Nurture of the Lord to instruct thy Servants thy Neighbours thy Fellow-Servants Zeal is like Fire or like Leaven it will spread and diffuse it self Object 3. I have laboured but to little purpose Answ. Success is not thy Work but God's We must mind our Duty and leave the success to God we shall not be responsible for lack of Success but want of Endeavours Isa. 49.4 Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my Judgment is with the Lord and my Work with my God It was a complaint of Christ himself his Ministry was without Fruit yet not without Reward We may have the Crown of Faithfulness if not the Fruit. A Minister is like a Fountain that always runneth whether they will hear or whether they will forbear So must you act in your Families Object 4. I was never called to Martyrdom I doubt I shall not glorify him I Answer 1. Wish not for Troubles but leave them to God and when they come take up his Cross. Simon of Cyrene was compelled we must not chuse our Cross but bear it Christ himself did not carry his Cross till it was laid upon him we must not seek it but take it up not brew our Cup but drink it When a Cross meeteth us in our way which we cannot escape without Sin or breach of Conscience we must bear it 2.
that live far from Court never saw their King yet they enjoy the benefit of his Government and are bound to Allegiance Christ is as meek as gentle as easy to be intreated as ever Vse 3. For the conviction of them that please themselves in fond Wishes and Excuses they think that if they had lived in the Days of Christ's Flesh and had heard his Words full of Grace and Wisdom it could not have been but they should have believed in him they would never have crucified him as the carnal Jews and never have rejected his Person and Doctrine Thus they bind the Efficacy and Vertue of Christ to his Corporal Presence as if it would have been a greater Advantage to them than his Spiritual A great deceit of the Heart this Plea proceedeth upon a false Supposal as if Christ's Virtue depended upon the nearness and distance of Place if there be any difference now in Heaven he is most apt to work because he is entred upon his Royalty and the actual Exercise of his Kingdom The Apostles themselves when they had Christ's Presence were more gross dull and carnal but afterwards they savoured nothing but Heaven and Life Eternal And again it is usual for Men to dislike present Dispensations and betray their Duties by their Wishes Alas if Christ were now present in the form of a Servant what sorry entertainment would most give him We think we should not have done what the Jews did in probability we would have done worse you grieve his Spirit as much as they did affront his Person the Malice of the Jews was more gross but ours is as inexcusable Besides there is a natural Reverence that even Hypocrites will bear to their Godly Ancestors Mat. 23.29 30. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because ye build the Tombs of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the Righteous And say If we had been in the Days of our Fathers we would not have been Partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets Dead Things and Persons do not exasperate and cross present Interests The Prophets that lived in their Ancestors Days were out of sight no eye-sore to present practices their Speeches were not personally directed to them The worst Men usually honour the Dead but are injurious to the Living As much as we detest the memory of Annas and Caiphas so do they of Korah Dathan and Abiram The Name of Judas is not more odious to us than Ahab to them therefore our detestation of the Jews or longing for the Person of Christ is no Argument of great devotion to him SERMON XV. JOHN XVII 11 And now I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee Holy Father keep through thine own Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are III. THE next Point is taken from that Clause But these are in the World Christ's apprehensiveness of the danger of Believers in their worldly State In managing this Argument 1 st I will open the Danger 2 ly Why God permitteth it 3 ly Christ's apprehensiveness of it 1 st To open the Danger There is Danger from within and from without within are Lusts and without are Temptations they are subject to many Infirmities and exposed to infinite Dangers and Temptations 1. From within If we could live as Fish in the salt Sea fresh without any taint of saltness without receiving a savour from things without the Danger would not be so great 2 Pet. 1.4 Having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Last the Root of the Matter is within us The World without would do no harm were it not for the World in our own Hearts Pleasures Honours Profits are dangerous Snares but not to an Angel When John reckoneth up the Contents of the World be doth not reckon up the Objects but the Lusts 1 John 2.16 The Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life Satan is our Enemy the World is the Bait but our Heart is the Traitor Baalam could not hurt Israel till he corrupted them by Whoredoms The worst Enemy is within us we carry the Danger in our own Bosoms We must look for Blows in the World but inward Ulcers are worse than Wounds because the Evil is inward and the Constitution of the Body helpeth it Sins are more dangerous than Troubles because they are aided by Nature 2. From without The World is an Evil Place both in regard of Sin and Misery we are sure to be vexed or defiled to be corrupted by the Favours or discouraged by the Frowns of it In the World we have a great many Enemies there is the God of the World and the Powers of the World and the Men of the World and the Things of the World 1. There is the God of this World This Country in which we dwell it is the Kingdom of Satan Christ's bitter Enemy He is called the Prince of the World John 12.13 not by Right but the World hath made him so Can God's Children live long in Peace in the Kingdom of Satan He cannot endure to lose one Corner of his Empire therefore frowns and flatters and seeks to corrupt or discourage the Saints 2 Cor. 4.4 The God of this World hath blinded the Eyes of them that believe not Titles are suited to the Matter in hand Satan blindeth most as the God of this World the Creature is but suborned Satan is at the back of it and lieth in ambush to surprise our Souls Is not the Hand of Joab in all this The Devil is in the Snare The World is Satan's Chess-board we can hardly move back or forth but the Devil sets out one Creature or another to attack us either by fear causing us to draw back or by the love of some worldly Creatures alluring us out of the Lists wherein we should walk 2. The Powers of the World usually they are set against Christ and therefore at the latter end of the World they shall be broken and dashed to pieces The World is a Country wherein the Church is a Stranger every Man fearing God is like a strange Plant brought from a far Country hath much ado to grow The Wicked are like Nettles and Thistles that grow without ploughing or watering because they grow in their own place but the Soyl and Air of the World doth not suit with the Saints one time or other they are nipped here is no kindly Weather for them A Christian is not only a Stranger but an Unconformist to the World Rom. 12.2 And be ye not conformed to this World but be ye transformed in the renewing of your Minds In every Age there is something or other started up for his Trouble and Exercise In his Father's House he is taught to do otherwise and this putteth him upon trouble If God giveth the Church a little rest it is but like a well-day out of the Fit of an Ague to recover strength for
those that stand upon the Shore to say to those that are tossed upon the Waves Sail thus They are tugging for Life the Cause is beyond our Direction and their Choice But these Persons are to be pitied yet counselled Besides God's Power we mingle much of our own Obstinacy and Peevishness as Rachel would not be comforted Jer. 31.15 We are to invite them to Christ and they are bound to hearken Their present Duty is to come for Ease Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and ye shall find Rest for your Souls That is the only gracious Issue of Soul-Troubles as Christ cried My God on the Cross they are not exempted from believing But others are to be chidden It is a sad thing that Christians should not have the Wisdom to make use of their own Felicity We often hug a Distemper instead of a Duty as if God were better pleased with dolorous Impressions Lam. 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men Not with his Heart so it is in the Hebrew It argueth ill thoughts of God Baal's Priests gashed themselves to please their Idols but God delighteth in the Prosperity of his Saints Men think there is more of Merit and Satisfaction in what afflictive it is a kind of Revenge they take upon themselves God hath required Sorrow to mortify Sin but not to satisfy Justice he would have us triumph in Christ whilst we groan under the Body of Death O consider Sowrness is a Dishonour to God a Discredit to your Profession a Disadvantage to your selves a Grief to the Spirit because you resist his Work as a Comforter Besides there is much of Ingratitude in it Complaints and Murmurings deface the Beauty of his Mercies As a Snail leaveth a frothy Slaver upon the fairest Flowers so do unthankful Christians leave their own Slaver upon the rich Mercies of God vouchsafed to them in Christ when they are always complaining and never rejoycing in God they leave the Slaver of their Murmurings upon them as if all were nothing If a King advance a Man and he always is sad before him he is angry Nehem. 2.2 Why is thy Countenance sad seeing thou art not sick This is nothing else but Sorrow of Heart Then I was â—ore afraid Because Men are prejudiced against Godly Joy let me tell you it is a Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy c. In the Garden of Christ there groweth other Fruit besides Crabs It is a great Privilege of Christ's spiritual Kingdom Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy-Ghost It is an Help in the spiritual Life Nehem. 8.10 The Joy of the Lord is your Strength It is as Wings to the Bird that makes you flie higher a sad Christian hath lost his Wings Well then consider these things Besides your unfitness hereby for your Duty the Unchearfulness of Professors darkneth the Ways of God and brings a Scandal upon Christ's spiritual Kingdom What cause have you to be always sad It must be either your Afflictions or your Sins For Afflictions if your Eyes were opened and earthly Affections mortified you would see no cause of Grief It can never be so ill with a Christian but he hath matter of rejoycing Nothing can deprive you of God of your Interest in Christ. Job 15.11 Are the Consolations of God small that they cannot counterballance worldly Afflictions Your Discontent cannot be greater than your grounds of Comfort It is true Nature will work Afflictions are bitter in the Root but the Fruit is sweet to a spiritual Palate Heb. 12.11 No Chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous it doth but seem bitter carnal Sense is not a fit Judg. But then for your Sins I confess Joy is proper to God's Children behaving themselves as Children but what shall we do when we have sinned I answer There is a Time to mourn and this is the Season of it If her Father had spit in her Face should she not be ashamed seven days Numb 12.14 It is good to be sensible of the displeasure of a Father Ay but in this Heaviness there should be a mixture of Joy Tho there be a Time to mourn yet Rejoyce evermore Great Heaviness without a mixture of Joy is sinful In this sence we should not mourn without hope We have to do with a God that is not implacable he mixeth Love with his Frowns In the midst of Judgment he remembreth Mercy and therefore we should mix Joy with our Sorrows Jer. 3.14 Turn O back-sliding Israel for I am married to you God doth not forget his Relation to us and so should not we Come again and I will make up all Breaches between you and me A Believer may fall grievously but not finally He doth not fall so but that God takes hold of him and we should learn to take hold of God Labour to recover your former Condition that you may freely rejoyce again by this means Love is renewed and strengthned 2. The other Sort are those that would rejoyce but do not provide matter of Joy Christ saith That my Joy may be fulfilled in themselves But in whom He had pleaded their Interest They are thine he had spoken well of them to the Father I am glorified in them Alas the Joys of others are but stollen Waters and Bread eaten in secret Frisks of Mirth when Conscience is asleep A Man cannot rejoyce in God till he hath some Interest in him 1 Sam. 30.6 David encouraged himself in the Lord his God when all was lost at Ziklag pray mark his God Tolle meum tolle Deum Take away mine and take away God God is better known in praedicamento Relationis quà m in praedicamento Substantia God in his Nature is terrible God in Covenant is sweet Habbak 3.18 Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation When all things fail a Child of God runneth to his Interest The Object of Joy is Good but not Good in common but my Good Excellency and Propriety are the two Conditions of the Object of Joy Therefore holy Joy is not every one's Duty but theirs that have an Interest in God There are some Duties proper to the Saints that suppose such a State and Interest Prayer and Hearing are common Duties the Obligation lieth on all the Creatures it is the Homage they owe to God but now they are not immediatly bidden to rejoyce All are bound to provide matter for Joy but not all to rejoyce Carnal Men are for the present under Wrath liable to Hell Bondage is their Portion therefore clear up your Interest if you would rejoyce in God Men delight in their Children because they are their own Vse 5. To raise your Minds to the exercise of this Joy We should be more careful than we are to maintain our Peace and Joy To help you I shall shew First What Reason
answerably to it Dependance should beget Observance Phil. 2.10 13. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure When we do not thrive under his Custody it is scandalous God will takeaway the Hedg let the Boar of the Forest come in and eat them down Vse 2. To press the Children of God to two Duties Dependance Confidence 1. Dependance 1 Chron. 20.12 We have no might against this great Company neither know we what to do but our Eyes are up to thee We must profess that we do not stand by our own strength but are as a Staff in the Hand of a Man or a Child in the Hand of the Father Psal. 70.5 I am poor and needy make haste unto me O God thou art my Help and my Deliverer make no tarrying O my God God is honoured when we acknowledg him for our Guardian 2. Confidence that he will preserve us in that Grace to which he hath called us in Christ. There will be shakings and wandrings as a Tree fastned at the Root is driven to and fro with violent Blasts There may be an interruption of the Acts of Grace as a Man in a swoon or as stunn'd by a great Blow but he is alive so there may be particular Falls but we shall not fall constantly readily easily As in a Land-flood the Meadows may be overflown but the Marshes are drowned every Tide Preservation from damning Sins is sure and certain Christ hath asked it God is able to keep us Happy are they that have an Interest in Christ's Prayers and that have God for a Guardian therefore wait upon God with Hope in the midst of Temptations 6. I observe from the last words the Evil from the evil One or evil Thing it lieth indifferently 1. From the Evil One. Observe Satan hath a great hand in the Evils that befal us in the World both Afflictions and Sin He instigateth our Enemies and inflameth our Lusts. 1. He instigateth our Enemies Christ said Luke 22.53 This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness Rev. 12.12 The Devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time If you could behold with bodily Eyes this evil Spirit hanging on the Ears of the great Men of the World and of the common People to animate them against the Saints you would more admire the Work of God that you do subsist 2. He inflameth our Sins and Lusts. 1 Cor. 7.3 Lest Satan tempt you for your Incontinency The Sin is ours but Satan joins with it and makes it more violent As in Storms and Tempests when Matter is prepared the Devil maketh them more formidable Vse 1. Let Persecutors take heed the Devil is near and they are guided by him tho they see him not Rev. 16.14 They are the Spirits of Devils working Miracles which go forth to the Kings of the Earth 2. Here is Advice to the People of God 1. To beware of Sins that you gratify not Satan with the displeasure of God Do you think Peter would ever have given such Advice to Christ as he did if he knew Satan had been in it Would carnal Men ever lie if they knew the Devil filled their Hearts Acts 5.3 Why hath Satan filled thine Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Would Men sin so freely if they knew the Hand of Satan was in all And if the Lord should give you over to his Power if he should give Satan charge over you how far might he hurry and carry you 2. Let this teach you dependance upon God so much the more Ephes. 6.12 For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against spiritual Wickedness in high Places We have to do with the Devil as well as Men and therefore have need to look up to God And this is thy Comfort O Christian that God is stronger than Satan 2. From the evil Thing that is the evil of Persecution keep them from being destroyed till they have accomplished their Ministry Observe God keepeth his Saints temporally till their Work is ended by a Special Providence He delivers them from Diseases and from the fury of Men as long as he hath any Service for them in the World Therefore when ever you have escaped any visible and sensible Danger when you are come out of a terrible Disease or kept from the Fury of Men improve it accordingly it is for Service But rather it may be understood of the Evil of Sin keep them from the Evil. And so the note is That Sin is the greatest Evil. Christ doth not say keep them from Trouble No let them ride out the Storm but keep them from the Evil of Sin SERMON XXV JOHN XVII 16 They are not of the World even as I am not of the World IN this Verse Christ repeateth the Argument used in the 14 th Verse This Repetition is not idle and of no use it is Christ that speaketh The Reason of the Repitition may be conceived either with respect to the Disciples the Persons for whom and in whose hearing he prayed and so it is to inculcate their Duty Or with respect to God the Person to whom he prayed and so he urgeth their Danger For in the 14 th Verse he shewed this was the Cause why the World hated them now he maketh it the Reason why he prayeth for them that they may be kept Keep them from the Evil They are not of the World even as I am not of the World 1. In the general Observe That Repetitions of the same Point are sometimes necessary Phil. 3.1 To write the same things to you to me it is not grievous but for you it is safe Repetition of the same things is tedious and irksome to Nature but profitable to Grace It is tedious to Nature partly out of an itch of Novelty Most Men have but an adulterous love to Truth they love it while it is new and fresh there is a satiety that groweth by acquaintedness the Israelites grew weary of Manna tho Angels Food Partly out of the impatiency of Guilt Sores cannot endure to be rubbed again and again frequency of Reproof and Admonition is like the rubbing of a Sore grievous to a galled Conscience John 21.17 Peter was grieved that he should say to him the third time Lovest thou me as reviving his Apostacy bringing to remembrance his three-fold denying of Christ questioning his Fidelity Sinners do not love to be suspected or urged much it reviveth Guilt and maketh it fly in the Face of Conscience none are weary but they that cannot endure to be remembred of their Duty But it is profitable to Grace First To cure Weakness Secondly To further Duties First To cure Weakness Our Knowledg is little our Affections changeable our Memories weak our Attention slight 1. Our Knowledg is little narrow-mouth'd Vessels
know and no sin but what you are truly desirous to get rid of so that the chiefest care of your hearts and endeavour of your lives be to serve and please God and it is your daily desire and endeavour to please God and master its rebellious opposition to the Spirit and you so far prevail that for your drift and course you are not led by the Flesh but the Spirit then you are sincere and upright with God otherwise you must not think every striving will excuse you if it be such a striving as may consist with the dominion and customary practice of sin There are few Wretches so bad but they may have some wishes that they could leave sin especially when they think of the inconveniences that attend it and Conscience may strive a little before they yield but they live in it still A Christian striveth but cannot be perfect there are infirmities but the convinced sinner striveth but cannot live holily there are iniquities This striving hindereth not the dominion of sin because he doth not conquer and master it so far but that it breaketh out in a gross manner his striving cometh not from the renovation of the Spirit but the conviction of his Conscience which is ever condemning his practices 2. Positively when we obey it and follow it and do that to which sin inticeth us For the end of sins Reign and Empire is our Obedience the commands and urgings of it are in vain if you obey them not but rather rebuke and suppress them Now we may obey bodily lusts two ways First By the inward consent of the mind for what sins you would do you have done in Gods account though the outward Act follow not Mat 5.28 He that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart though you be impeded and hindered in the Action The life and reign of sin is in the heart in the love of the heart though it may be it may not appear in outward deeds Restraint is not Sanctification Practices may be restrained by bye-ends but if you like the sin in your hearts you let it reign and do not oppose it by gracious motives Your hearts are false with God if his Empire be not set up there Therefore obey not the lusts of the body that is consent not to them if they arise and bubble up in your hearts let them be disowned and disliked We are to abstain from fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 before they break out into our conversation for the governing of the heart and the regulating of the life are two distinct acts of our obedience to God they are required indeed the one in order to the other but you must be careful of both Your love to God and his Law must be shewed by abominating the motions that would draw you to the contrary Psal. 119.113 I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love The first motions are sins for they proceed from corrupt Nature we had none such in Innocency and the consent is a farther sin because then you begin to give way to its reign The delightful stay of the mind sheweth our love to it these pauses of the mind come from sin are sin and tend to further sin Jam. 1.15 Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Secondly The Execution of these Motions by the Body when sin is brought to her consummate effect Micah 2.1 Wo to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hands This is a sign of the reign of sin too much room being given to sin in the heart that it obtains a mastery there it violently and effectually commands our practice which if it be a scandalous enormity it makes sin to reign for the present Lesser evils steal into the Throne by degrees and leaven us with a proud worldly or carnal frame of heart but gross sins invade the Throne in an instant at least for the present making fearful havock and waste of the Conscience and the repeated acts shew our state II. That Christians are strictly obliged to take heed that sin get not Dominion over them 1. By the Light of Nature which is in part sensible of this disorder which hath invaded all Mankind namely an inclination to seek the happiness and good of the Body above that of the Soul The very make and constitution of man sheweth his Duty man is composed of a Body and a Soul both which parts are to be regarded according to the dignity of each the Body was subordinated to the Soul and both Soul and Body unto God his Flesh was a servant unto his Spirit and both Flesh and Spirit unto the Lord but sin entring defaced the Beauty and disturbed the Harmony and Order of Gods Creation and Workmanship Man withdrew from subordination to God his Maker seeking his happiness without God and apart from him in earthly and worldly things and also the Body and Flesh is preferred before the Soul and Reason and Conscience enslaved to Sense and Appetite Understanding and Will are made bond-slaves to the lusts of the Flesh which govern and influence all his actions his Wisdom Mind and Spirit as it were sunk into the Flesh and transformed into a brutish Quality and Nature This many of the wiser Heathens saw and sought to rectifie Maximus Tyrius calls our Passions and Appetites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tumultuous Populacy or common People of the Soul which must not be left to their own boisterous violence but be kept under the Law and Empire of the Mind Philo the Jew calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Woman part in Man in opposition to Reason which he maketh to be the Masculine part Simplicius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Child in us which needeth more stayed heads to govern it And some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Foot part of the Soul as it is a monstrous disorder if the feet be there where the head should be so it is for us to serve divers lusts and pleasures when we should be governed by Reason The Stoicks generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bestial part in us which they counted the Man as if the Beast should ride the Man as Socrates expresly calls Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rider or Chariot-driver as the Body and bodily Inclinations the Horses Now if the Light of Nature taugh the Heathens who knew little of the cause and malignity of this Vitiosity and Disorder to observe this and labour under it surely Christians are more strictly bound to curb the flesh and moderate the lusts and passions of it We know more clearly what an evil it is to love the Creature above God the Body more than the Soul the World above Heaven Riches Honours and Pleasures more than Grace and Holiness as the Light of Christianity befriendeth
are ashamed now that is now ye know better things but what fruit then nothing but toils and gripes and fears and sad twinges of Conscience for what other thing can be expected of him that every day liveth within a step of Hell The Devil hath one bad property which no other Master hath how cruel soever and that is to plague and torment them most who have done him most continual and faithful service those that have sinned most have most horrour and every degree of carnal indulgence hath a proportionable degree of fear and shame and punishment I speak nothing all this while of the wasting of Estate and Health of the loss of Credit and Interest of the cost and pains which the Drudgery of sin puts men upon many suffer more hardship in Satans service than any man in Gods their sin costs them dearer than any Martyr ever endured to go to Heaven Lastly the reward of all is everlasting destruction Rom. 6.21 For the end of these things is death but being made free from sin and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life After all your time and strength hath been spent in the pursuit of Vanity what is the issue but everlasting horrour and punishment O then when you see the bait remember the hook when you hear the Serpent hiss see its sting and reckon that everlasting death is attending the eating of forbidden fruit When it seemeth most pleasant to the eye let not the Pomps and Vanities of the World intice you into a forgetfulness of God before whom you must appear as your Judge nor of your immortal Souls which must one day be rent from the embraces of the Body and will survive them and be commanded into the everlasting Regions of Light or Darkness Ease or Sorrow Hell and Heaven are not matters to be trifled with nor should we easily hazard the feeling of the one or the loss of the other 3. The mischievous influence and hainous nature of reigning sin appeareth in this that it rendreth your sincerity questionable yea rather it is a sure note of a carnal state where it is habitual There will be Pride Earthliness and Sensuality dwelling stirring and working in the best of Gods Children but it hath not its wonted power over them Christ will not reckon men slaves by their having sin nor yet by their daily failings and infirmities nor by their falling now and then into foul faults by the violence of a temptation unless they settle in a constant trade of sin and set up no course of Mortification against it Though there be not a good man upon earth that sinneth not yet surely there is a difference between the Regenerate and Unregenerate there are some whose spot is not as the spot of Gods children Deut. 32.5 There is a difference between sins God gave the Priest under the Law direction how to put a difference between leprous persons some of which were unclean others clean Lev. 13.38 39. there was some Leprosie that spoiled the skin but did not fret the flesh which the Priest was to pronounce clean God sheweth himself hereby merciful to the infirmities of his people not esteeming every spot and deformity in them as malignant sin so vers 23. If the bright spot stay in his place and spread not it is a burning boil and the Priest shall pronounce him clean to wit from the contagion of Leprosie which signified that though the signs and marks of sin which God hath healed by Forgiveness remain still yet if they spread not that is reign not in our mortal bodies they shall not be imputed to us but forgiven because we are not under the Law but under Grace On the other side if the spot were turned bright and deeper than the skin the Priest was to pronounce him unclean vers 25. And if it did spread much abroad the Priest was to pronounce him unclean it was the plague of leprosie vers 27. And again we read in vers 44. When the Priest was to pronounce him utterly unclean his plague was in his head if â—o infirmity there be added malignity and presumption it maketh the sinner a spiritual Leper in the sight of God and he did rend hi cloaths and make bare his head and cry out Vnclean unclean vers 45. importing thereby humble and penitent acknowledgment or broken hearted representing of our sin and misery or sense of our own plague and grief and he was to dwell alone till he was healed v. 46. that is he was deprived of Communion with God till a through Cure was wrought in him As it was in the Ordinances of the Law so it is true also in the Gospel there is a difference between sins and sins and sinners and sinners there is a difference between dimness of sight and blindness between numness and death between want of sense and want of life between slumbering and sleeping between slipping into a ditch and tumbling our selves headlong into the mire so there is a difference between infirmities and iniquities a failing out of ignorance and weakness and some powerful temptation and a running headlong into all ungodliness Gods Children have their failings but a burning and earnest desire to be freed from them in others there is a wallowing in sin without any care of remedy in the one it is a failing in point of particular Duty in the other a Rebellion Judas and Peter both sinned against their Master the one denied him the other betrayed him the one was overcome by fear the other inclined by covetousness of a little money the one plotted the other was surprized a purpose and a surprize are two different things the one went out and wept bitterly the other was given up to raging despair David did not make a trade of Adultery nor bathe himself in filthy lusts Noah was drunk by not knowing the force of the juyce of the Grape they do not lye in this state but seek to get out of it by Repentance closer discoveries I reserve to the Use. 3. My next Argument is the unsuitableness and uncomeliness that sin should reign in Christians who are Christs and should live to him and for him It misbecometh them as they profess themselves to be Christs We have no power to dispose of our selves being wholly his by Purchace and Covenant First By Purchace 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price Quod venditur transit in potestatem ementis The buyer hath a power over what he hath bought We were lost sold away had sold our selves against all Right and Justice but Christ was pleased to redeem us and that with no slight thing but his own Blood Now how can you look your Redeemer in the face at the last Day If you have any sense and belief of Christian Mysteries you should be afraid to rob Christ of his Purchace 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them
after it had for a long time been possessed by another this Favour was granted to Captives when carried into a foreign Country but denied to Fugitives that ran away out of Treachery or for some Crime afterwards it was inlarged to those that were driven away by Famine or removed themselves whilst an inundation of Enemies whom they could not resist possessed their Country they had a Right of entring again upon their Houses and Lands though by reason of their long absence they were possessed by another This was the case of the Shunamite who having left her Country for seven years to avoid the Famine her House and Land was seized on 2 Kings 8 9.5 which upon intercession was restored This is not directly the case in hand only so far that other Lords have had Dominion over us which is not only by our departure from the Lord but by our Rebellion only in reason his Right should be owned by Repentance and Resignation of our selves to his use and service 1 Thess. 1.9 Ye turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God So much for the third Consideration that morally speaking there are but two Masters Sin and Obedience 4. That by yielding our selves to obey either of these we become servants to the one or the other If we yield our selves to obey sin we are servants of sin and by yielding our selves to obey God we become servants of God 1. I shall speak of Sins Servants and two things I shall say of them First That they enter upon this Service voluntarily indeed and draw this woful slavery upon themselves but not by solemn Contract and Covenant the Servants are ashamed of their Master and will not owne themselves to be what they are for they are cheated into their slavery they are inticed and drawn away Jam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed They yield themselves to obey sin by voluntary inclination but not by express Covenant they are not forced but inticed and willingly put themselves into this bondage but they do not openly profess it but their course of life sheweth it their hearts are upon evil and so they are Rebels and Enemies to God and refuse his blessed Government Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled Secondly The second thing which I observe is That they are not only Servants in legal Reputation or so accounted before God as Joh. 8.34 Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin but they are so by woful Captivity or a sad Necessity they have brought upon themselves for they are deprived of all liberty to help themselves 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage Our service to God is a debt of Duty their serving sin is a debt of Fatal Necessity He is a Free-man that hath right and power to dispose of himself or his own actions or imployments but he is a servant that is at another mans beck and disposal and cannot do what he would be it de Jure or de Facto Now then the servants of sin though it is true de Jure of Right they should do it yet de Facto they are very slaves to their brutish affections and have no power to resist Temptations or come out of their wretched condition when they have some mind to it and are convinced of better 2. Of Gods Servants I observe two things First That they become so not only by voluntary Inclination but open Profession and express Covenant God will have no servants but who deliberately adhere to him and by choice bind themselves to walk in his ways 2 Cor. 8.5 They first gave up themselves to the Lord anâ— unto us by the will of God a voluntary surrender is necessary So Isa. 66.4 They chuse the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant and v. 6. They joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him This deliberate voluntary choice is expressed in a solemn Covenant-resignation God is not a Master to be ashamed of but may and must be publickly owned Secondly Our consent or yielding our selves to obey is not enough but it must be verified and made good by a continual course of actual obedience on our part for besides the yielding up of our selves to obey his servants ye are whom ye obey Many make Covenant with God but do not keep Covenant with God they will and purpose but do not perform It is known whose servants we are not only by our consent but our continual practice if we live in a constant careful obedience to God we are his servants though conscious of many failings The Tryal of our Case mainly runneth upon two things the Bent of our Hearts and the Drift of our Lives our Choice and our Course We read of some that said All that the Lord hath commandeth us we will do and God answered Deut. 5.29 O that there were such a heart within them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always They are now in a good mood promise fair Therefore it is not enough to yield up our selves to God unless we imploy our selves for God for besides the purpose and inclination there must be a constant practice and study to please him 5. Both sorts of Servants receive wages suitable and proportionable to the work they have done 1. Of Sin unto Death The Servants of Sin bring upon themselves eternal Death Sin and Death go hand in hand in all the Methods of his Justice God hath put them together Jam. 1.15 Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Now this should be thought of by us when Satan and your own corrupt Hearts shew you the Bait Faith should see the Hook this will be Death or I am going about that which in its Nature doth expose me to eternal Death The fear of temporal Death inflicted by the Magistrate restraineth much of the evil of the World and keepeth men from things forbidden by him and is not God more to be dreaded There is but one Law giver that is able to save or to destroy that hath potestatem vitae necis aeternae Jam. 4.12 and shall not we fear and reverence him Sinners that go on wilfully in their sins seem to make nothing of dying eternally 2. Of Obedience into Righteousness that is if we be the faithful Servants of God we shall have the reward of eternal Life not only non-condemnation or freedom from eternal Death but the everlasting possession of Glory and Blessedness There is none of us can say that God bids us serve him for nought or to his loss he propoundeth endless Rewards and Punishments to procure obedience to his Laws as he will punish the wicked with endless Miseries so he will
2 Cor. 6.1 We then as workers together with him beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain We frustrate the Method of God when we suffer the Gospel to be cast away upon us but to receive subjective Grace in vain is worse as this is a closer Application as a Power put into our hearts and we make the choicest gifts of the Spirit idle and unuseful Vse Is to perswade us to make our new Obedience more clear and explicite 1. By manifesting the Change 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new 2. By out Growth and Increase 1 Thess. 4.1 Furthermore then we beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more 3. By exceeding in a course of Holiness as ye did before in Sin 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all Reasons 1. It is not an indifferent thing whether ye be eminent in Obedience yea or no. God maketh a great matter of it as appeareth by his strict injunctions Psal. 119.4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently By his ample Promises Deut. 11.26 27 28 29. Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse a blessing if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day By his Punishment of the Disobedient 2 Thess. 1.8 9. To take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power By the Example of Christ Heb. 5.8 9. Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him You have gained a great point when you are perswaded of this 2. That the Government of God is not for the Rulers benefit but the Subjects welfare It is as the Physicians Prescriptions the Pilots Steerage to direct us to our Happiness the Parents Education Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children for ever 3. That after Grace received there is still the weakness of our flesh The Mind in part is blind and ignorant in the corrupt Will there is a back biass Passions are turbulent Temptations of Sense and Appetite are incessant and powerful therefore watchfulness and caution are not unnecessary the Heart is very treacherous 4. The Honour of Grace is much concerned in our activity and zeal for the new Creature is formed for somewhat Eph. 2.10 We are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them SERMON XX. ROM VI. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness IN this Verse the Apostle rendreth a Reason why they should add to Righteousness Holiness as they had before added Iniquity unto Iniquity because Righteousness had no whit of their service then therefore sin should not have any jot of their service now they had devoted themselves to God He layeth before them the wretchedness of their carnal Estate in two Notions 1. They were Slaves to Sin 2. Strangers to Righteousness This latter he expresseth by this Phrase Free from righteousness 1. What it signifieth 2. Why used here 1. What it signifieth A man may be said to be free from Righteousness two ways First De Jure so no man is or can be free from Righteousness for every Creature is under a Law and an Obligation of Duty to God Saul proclaimed That whosoever would encounter Goliah his house should be free in Israel 1 Sam. 15.25 meaning not a total exemption from Obedience but have certain Regalities bestowed on his Family a Subject remaining a Subject cannot be altogether freed from Duty to his Prince Now Man being Gods Creature is also his Subject and therefore of Right â—e neither is nor can be free from Righteousness Secondly De Facto they carried themselves as if they were free never busied themselves with thoughts of God nor regarded to walk holily before him 2. Why it is put here to shew we must not divide our Service but abstain as strictly from sin as we did before from all good you must serve Righteousness as before you served Sin When you were under Sins yoke Righteousness had no power over you and now you are under Christs yoke the power of sin must at least be considerately weakened Doctrine Those who become Servants of God should be as free from Sin as before they were from Righteousness 1. I suppose that there is a Liberty which is a Perfection of Humane Nature and a Liberty which is a Defection from God That Liberty which is a Perfection is to be willing and ready to perform our Duty to God Psal. 119.45 I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts that Liberty which is a Defection or a Revolt from God is properly Licentiousness rather than Liberty and that is a desire to live as we list to be free from the bonds of Duty Psal. 2.3 Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us 2. They that most labour for this carnal Liberty are the most wretched Servants of Sin because they are overcome and led Captive by it and wholly give up themselves to obey sin so 2 Pet. 2.19 Whilst they promise themselves liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption The flesh seeketh its peace and quietness which it cannot injoy but by giving it self over to its lusts and so they are pleased with this servile condition and remain in this Bondage though it be the worst of all 3. That the Servants of Sin or those who are under the yoke of sin carry it as if they were free from Righteousness that is to say either by way of Neglect or by way of Resistance First By way of Neglect they made no Conscience did not so much as think what was holy and pleasing to God as some go on carelesly not considering what they do nor whereunto it will tend These are said to despise their ways Prov. 19.16 He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul but he that despiseth his ways shall die Some care not how they live but are carried on by their own blind lusts Righteousness or a Conscience of their Duty hath no power over them they do not consider of their actions much less take care to mend their course Secondly By way of Opposition and Resistance for they are said to be free from Righteousness that are opposite and averse from it as the carnal mind is enmity to the
in the way of worldliness all their toiling and excessive care and pains are for the worldly life in short they follow after earthly things with greatest earnestness and spiritual things in an overly formal and careless manner A carnal man may do many things in Religion which are good and worthy Man that hath an Appetite hath also a conscience tho the flesh is importunate to be pleased and unwilling to be crossed that it giveth way to a little superficial duty that conscience may be pacified and so its self may be pleased with the less disturbance Religion is but taken on as a matter by the by as you give way to a servant to go upon his own errand Nay sometimes the flesh doth not only give leave but it sets them a work to hide a lust or feed a lust to hide a lust from the world as in Hypocrites as the Pharisees made their worship serve their rapine Matth. 3.14 Or from their own consciences every man must have some Religion therefore the flesh alloweth a few services that it may the more securely possess the heart 't is not for the interest of the flesh to have too much Religion nor none at all the carnal life must have some devotion to cover iâ— that men may take courage in sin the more freely Or feed a lust pride or vain-glory may put men on preaching or praying before others Phil. 1.16 17. The one preacâ—eth Christ out of contention Or give alms Matth 6.1 take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of men and a sacrifice may be brought with an evil mind Prov. 21.27 The devil careth not what means we use so he may have his ends that is to keep men in a carnal condition 3. That make it their scope end and happiness That is our scope and end that solaceth our minds and sweetneth our labours that which they aim at is to be rich and great in the world or enjoy their pleasure without remorse Phil. 3.19 Whose end is destruction whose God is their belly they mind earthly things That is our God which lieth next our hearts to which we offer our actions and from which we fetch our inward complacency be it the pleasing of the flesh or being accepted with God all their delight and contentment is to have the flesh pleased in some worldly thing this giveth them a joy and rest of mind and quencheth all sentiments of Religion and delight in God they that aim at Pardon Grace and Glory no worldly thing will satisfie them God and Heaven are preferred above all the Pleasures Honours and Profits they can enjoy here Psal. 4.7 Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than at the time when their corn and wine increased But 't is otherwise with the carnal for their hearts run out more pleasingly after some worldly thing and when they obtain it it keepeth them quiet under the guilt of wilful sin and all their soul-dangers and forget eternity because they have their hearts desire already Luke 12.19 20. And I will say to my soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said unto him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall these things be thou hast provided And the peace and pleasure which they dayly live upon is fetched more from the World than from God and Christ and Heaven the flesh is at ease and hath nothing to disturb it and they designed the conveniencies of the flesh in their whole lives this is their principle their chief scope and aim whatsoever he doth he still designeth the contentment of the flesh or some temporal good that shall accrue to him Thus you see who live after the flesh Where no contrary principle is set up to check it where 't is our daily work to please the flesh and our great scope and solace to have it pleased 3. What is this death that is here threatned ye shall dye Surely the natural death is not intended for that is common to all both to those that please the flesh and those that crucifie the flesh Heb. 9.27 'T is appointed for all men once to die And besides to the godly it is matter of comfort a thing which they should rather desire than fear 1 Cor. 3.22 Death is theirs therefore death is but a softer word for eternal damnation yet used with good Reason the Apostle saith Ye shall die rather than ye shall be damned first because death to the wicked is an inlet to their final and eternal misery 'T is dreadful to them not only as a natural evil as it puts an end to their worldly comforts but as a penal evil Heb. 2.14 15. Who are all their life time subject to bondage through fear of death because of the consequences of it then their torment beginneth Secondly because 't is more liable to sense We know hell by faith and death by sense now that notion that is more known affects us more all abhor death as a fearful thing Briefly then this death consists not in an extinction and abolition of the creature but in a deprivation of the favour and presence of the blessed God who is the fountain of all comfort and the everlasting pains and torments which the soul and body being cast out of Gods presence feeleth in hell all that weeping and gâ—ashing of teeth that bitter remembrance of what is past the acute sense of what is present that despair and fearful looking for of the fiery indignation of the Lord what the Scripture speaketh of 't is all included in this word ye shall die 't is in short to be separated from God and Christ and the Saints and Angels and to have eternal fellowship with Devils and damned Spirits together with those unknown pains inflicted on us by the Wrath of God in the other world 3. It would not be sufficient to restrain men from sin if God should only threaten temporal death and not eternal every murtherer would venture to execute his maliee every adulterer follow his lusts and voluptuous man his swinish and brutish pleasure if it were only to endure a short pain at death and then be free from misery for ever after We see how offenders venture on mans punishment and how many shorten their days for their vain pleasure therefore unless the death were everlasting the world would be little awed by it unless the bitterness be greater than the present sinful pleasure therefore eternal torment is that which God threatneth and will surely execute on the sensual and carnal so that the sinner hath no hope to escape unless by repentance and breaking this course of living after the flesh Secondly Now by way of Confirmation We must shew the fit Connexion between these Two Things the carnal living and this terrible Death and there we must shew you 1. That this threatning is every way consistent with the Justice and Wisdom
exercised with many vexations and sorrows But the relicks of the corruption were his greatest burden not when shall I come out of these afflictions but who shall deliver me from this body of death 2. By endeavours and striving against it There may be some dislike of sin in a natural heart for conscience will sometimes take Gods part and quarrel against our lusts otherwise a wicked man could not be self-condemned and hold the truth in unrighteousness but checks of conscience are distinct things from the repugnancies of a renewed heart a wicked mans conscience telleth him he should do otherwise when his heart inclineth him to do so still But a renewed heart hateth sin and therefore there is a constant earnest endeavour to get it subdued and doth watch pray plead for God use means dare not rest in sin or live in sin Yea 3. Prevail against it so far that the heart is never turned away from God to sin 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God His heart cannot easily be brought to it he looketh upon it as a monstrous incongruity Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God! 2 Cor. 13.8 For we can do nothing against the truth and Acts 4.20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard There is a natural cannot and a moral cannot the natural cannot is an utter impossibility the moral cannot is a great absurdity the new life breedeth such an aversion of heart and mind from sin such constant rebukes and dislikes of the new nature A Child of God is never in a right posture till he doth look upon sin not only as contrary to his duty but his nature they have no satisfaction in themselves till it be utterly destroyed 3. As a spirit of love the great work of the spirit is to reveal the love of God to us and to recover our love to God for the spirit cometh to us as the spirit of Christ by vertue of his redemption now the infinite goodness and love of God doth shine most brightly to us in the face of our Redeemer in the great things which he hath done and purchased for us and offered to us we have the fullest expression and demonstration of the love of God which we are capable of and which is most apt to kindle love in us to God again Rom. 5.8 God commendeth his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and 1 John 2.1 2. My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world and Eph. 3.18 19. That you may be rooted and grounded in love and comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and may know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledg Now the spirit attending this dispensation surely his great work and office is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts Rom. 5.5 and Gal. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father That being perswaded of Gods fatherly love we may love him again and study to please him Therefore nothing doth stir us up against sin so much as the sense of Gods love in Christ shall sin live which is so contrary to God Shall I take delight in that which is a grief to his Holy Spirit cherish that which Christ came to destroy Live to my self who am so many ways oblged to God displease my father to gratify the flesh Alas how many read and hear of this who are no way moved into an indignation against sin 'T is not the love of God called to mind by a few cold thoughts of ours that worketh so but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the spirit that melts the heart maketh us a shamed of our unkindness to God and stirreth up an hatred against sin 6. After conversion and the spirits becoming a spirit of light life and love to us after grace is put into our hearts to weaken sin still we need the help of the spirit partly Because habitual grace is a created thing and the same grace that made us new creatures is necessary to continue us so For no creature can be Good independently without the influence of the prime good all things depend in esse conservare operari on him that made them In him we live and move and have our being Acts 17.28 If God suspend his influence natural agents cannot work as the fire cannot burn as in the case of the three Children much less voluntary and if there be this dependance in natural things much more in supernatural Phil. 2.12 13. Will and Deed are from God first principles of operation and final accomplishment Partly because in the very heart there is great opposition against it there is flesh still the warring law Rom. 7.23 gratia non totaliter satiat The cure is not total as yet but partial therefore they need the spirit to guide and quicken and strengthen them Partly as it meeteth with much opposition within so it is exposed to temptations without Satan watcheth all advantages against us and the soul is strangely deluded by the treachery of the senses and the revolt of the passions and our corrupt inclinations when temptations assault us so that unless we have seasonable relief how soon are we overtaken or overborn Adam had habitual Grace but gave out at the first assault A City besieged unless it be relieved compoundeth and yeildeth so without the supply of the spirit we cannot stand out in the hour of trial Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man Secondly The necessity of this Concurrence and Co-operation 1. Of the Spirt with us 2. We by the Spirit 1. Of the spirits work we cannot without the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body 1. From the state of the person who is to be renewed and healed A sinner lying in a state of defection from God one that hath lost original Righteousness averse from God yea an enemy to him prone to all evil weak and dead to all spiritual good and how can such an one renew and convert himself There is no sound part left in us to mend the rest 'T is true he hath reason left and some confused notions and apprehensions of good and evil but the very apprehensions are maimed and imperfect and we often call evil good and put good for evil Isa. 5.20 However to chuse the one and leave the other that is not in their power We may have some loose desires of
transgressions which he hath committed he shall live and not die The one is removed the other asserted the one is the wages of sin the other the fruit of Gods Mercy and free Gift death we naturally abhor and life we naturally love therefore the one is threatned the other promised 2. To prove it by reasons 1. If we partake with Christ in one act we shall share with him in all If dead with him we shall live with him Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall live with him That is if we imitate Christ in his Death then we have sure grounds of believing that after his example we shall have a joyful Resurrection to eternal life he had said before v. 5. If we be planted into the likeness of his Resurrection That is be first raised from the death of sin to the Life of Grace and then the Life of Grace shall be swallowed up in the Life of Glory 2. The mortified soul is prepared to enjoy the heavenly life as being weaned from worldly and sensual delights Col. 1.12 Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the Saints in light There is a double meetness first a meetness in point of right secondly a meetness in point of congruity and preparation of heart the one respects Gods Appointment those who are qualified according to the Covenant the other the suitableness of our affections 1. They are in respect of God deemed meet and worthy whom God vouchsafeth to account worthy Thus he doth the mortified as we proved before he then that would live when he is dead must die when he is alive 2. Preparation of heart Heaven would be a burden to a carnal heart that hath no delight in Communion with God or the company of the Saints or an holy life What would he do with Heaven A Turkish Paradise would suit better with such sensual and brutish souls now those who are dead to the flesh and the world do the better relish those things which are heavenly 'T is not their trouble but their happiness they have the consummation of their hopes and aims 3. They desire this life and groan and wait for it Which desires groans and longings being stirred up in them by Gods Spirit will not be in vain They cannot be satisfied with the Wealth Pleasures and Honours of the World they must enjoy something beyond all these things and that is God and here they enjoy him but imperfectly The more the flesh is mortified our desires to love know and enjoy God are more kindled in us Now by this these are marked out as heirs of promise for God infuseth the desire that they may be satisfied and where they are laborious they will certainly be satisfied for otherwise God would intice us to the pursuit of an happiness which he never meaneth to give 4. God promiseth it to the mortified the more to sweeten the duty Those that think it is easie to forsake sin never tried it Mortification is of an harsh sound in a carnal ear to contradict our carnal desires and displease the flesh which is so near and dear to us will not easily down with us God might exact it out of Soveraignty but he propoundeth rewards If we must pass thorough a streight gate and narrow way it leadeth unto life Matth. 7.14 Sin is such a disorderly thing and doth so invert the course of a rational nature that we should part with it by any means but especially when the case is so stated that we must live or die for ever This motive should work upon us because of our Desires and Fears 1. Our desiâ—es Corrupt nature will teach us to love our selves and so to desire happiness which we cannot enjoy if we live not for the dead are neither capable of happiness nor misery tho we are unwilling to deny the flesh or renounce the Credit Profit or Pleasure of sin or grow dead to the world or worldly things yet we are willing enough of life and happiness therefore God promiseth that we desire that we may submit to those things which we are against as we sweeten bitter Pills to Children that they may swallow them down the better they love the Sugar tho they loathe the Aloes So God would invite us to our duty by our interest if Mortification be an unpleasing task it conduceth to our life Prov. 8.35 36. He that findeth me findeth life saith Wisdom and he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul and he that hateth me loveth death Who would be so unnatural as to wrong his own soul To murder himself to court his own death and destruction 'T is not only against the Dictates of Grace but the desires of Nature There is nothing can be supposed to enfeeble this Argument but these Two things 1. Mens vehement addictedness to their carnal courses that they will rather die than part with them 2. That this life which the Promises of the Gospel offer is an unknown thing it being to be injoyed in the other world Both are truths yet the Motive is still forcible 1. How addicted soever men are to any outward thing yet to preserve life they will deny themselves Job 2.4 Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life It was a truth tho it came out of the Devils Mouth Nothing is so dear to a man as his own life men will spend all that they have upon the Physitian to recover their health Luke 8.43 Yea they will hazzard the members of their own body cut off a Leg or an Arm for preserving life and shall not we part with a lust to get life Who would sell his precious life at such a cheap rate as the pleasing of a vain and wanton humour 2. But this life which is not a matter of sense but of faith is not likely to be much valued Answer There is some inclination in the heart of man to eternal life nature gropeth and feeleth about for an eternal good and an eternal good in the enjoyment of God Act. 17.27 as blind men do in the dark Tho man by nature lyeth in gross ignorance of the true God as our Lord and Happiness yet the sense of an Immortality is not altogether a stranger to nature such a conceit hath been rooted in the minds of all Nations and Religions not only Greeks and Romans but Barbarians and People least civilized they have thought so and been solicitous of a life after this life Herodotus telleth us that the ancient Goths thought their souls perished not but went to Zamblaxis the Captain of their Colony or Founder of their Nation and Diodorus Siculus of the Egyptians that their Parents and Friends when they died went to some eternal habitation Moderate Heathens when they are asked about Eternal Life and Judgment to come as to Judgment to come they know it not but this thing they know that the condition of men and beasts is different but what their
covenant of nature which concerned both Jew and Gentile or the first administration of the covenant of Grace made with the Jews only First the covenant of nature which we are all under naturally breedeth Bondage and shyness of God we are sensible that we are his creatures and so owe him duty and subjection that we have fail'd in our duty to him and therefore lye obnoxious to his wrath and punishment Heathens that had but some obscure notions of God felt somewhat of this Bondage Rom. 1.32 They knew the judgment of God and that they which commit such things are worthy of death They stood in dread of angry justice and not only they but all mankind are under it Rom. 2.15 according to that natural sense which men have of religion so is their Bondage more or less still under fear of death and the consequents thereof This sense or conscience of sin and wrath which the breach of Gods law hath made our due is so ingrained in the nature of man that he cannot disposess himself of it The Apostle compareth it to the bond of marriage which is indissoluble till one of the parties die Rom. 7.1 2 3. The conscience of man is either married to the law as its husband or Christ as its husband not to the latter till it be dead to the former v. 4. Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye might be marrid to another even to him that was raised from the dead Well then this Bondage is the effect of the law or covenant of Nature impressed upon the heart of man and ariseth from a consciousness of guilt and obnoxiousness to Gods wrath and displeasure because of Gods broken covenant Secondly The first administration of the covenant of grace That bred a spirit of Bondage witness that allegory Gal. 4.22 to 26. Abrahams two Wives did represent the two Covenants the first and second administration of the Covenant of grace The first gendred to Bondage men of a servile spirit doing what they did not out of love but slavish fear 2 Cor. 3.9 But if the ministration of death written and ingraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness excel in glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Gospel was dark and had little efficacy to change the heart of man it did little allay and vanquish this shyness of God rather increased it as it conduced to revive the knowledg of God in their minds and held forth the ransom and way of appeasing Gods angry justice obscurely and darkly rather shewed our distance from God Israel was Gods first-born and so his heir but an heir in non-age Gal. 4.1 2. Their ordinances was a Bond ours an Aquittance but what is this to us Answer Much every way 1. That we may bless God for the greater advantages that we have to breed a Child-like spirit in us by the new Covenant where the Lord who is offended by sin is propitiated by the death of Christ and willing to admit man into his presence and bless him that God as a Judge driveth us by the spirit of Bondage to Christ as Mediator that Christ as Mediator by the spirit of adoption may bring us back again to God as a Father and then having God for our Father we may have Christ for our Advocate and the Spirit for our Comforter and Sanctifier to inable us to observe the Gospel precepts of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and so be made capable of the promises of pardon and life one covenant maketh us sensible of the grace of the other Christ dealeth with us as children of the family requiring duty from us upon reasonable and comfortable terms 2. Because those that live under the Gospel-dispensation and have not received the power of it may be yet under a spirit of bondage and cherish a legal way of religion In every one that entertaineth thoughts of Religion Law and Gospel are at conflict in his heart as well as flesh and corruption this is clear by Gal. 5.17 18. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would but if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law as spirit and flesh do lust against and constantly oppose one another and labour to suppress and diminish each other so do Law and Grace those that are slaves to their sinful lusts and are not inabled by the spirit of the new Testament to do in some measure what the rule injoyneth have their comforts obstructed and while sin reigneth the law reigneth Rom. 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but grace Partly by its iritating power and Partly by its condemning power leaving them under a fear of condemnation and urging them to do what they cannot do 3. The Children of God by regeneration and adoption while sin remaineth may have somewhat of bondage remaining in them Look as under the Old Testment when the ingenuous and noble motives of the Gospel were in a great measure unknown there was somewhat of a free spirit in the Eminent Saints Psal. 51.12 though but sparingly dispenced so under the Gospel dispensation there are many sad and drooping Christians who do not improve the comforts provided for them and when they are called upon to rejoyce in the Lord always Phil. 4.4 rather go mourning all the day long but 't is their fault The people under the law dispensation were either the Godly or the wicked or the middle sort the eminently Godly then had a free spirit the wicked were either terrified or stupified the middle sort who were touching the righteousness of the law blameless Phil. 3.6 had a zeal for outward observances but not according to knowledg Rom. 10.2 were meerly acted by a legal spirit so under the Gospel there are the eminently Godly who evermore rejoyce 1 Thes. 5.16 or at least are swayed more with love than fear the weak Godly who have much of their ancient fears and the love of God in them is yet too weak to produce its effect though this love to God do prevail over sin yet not ordinarily over fear of punishment but much of that influences their duties more than their love to God There is too great aversness in their hearts from God and Holiness and they seek to break it by the terrors of the Lord. Not sin but fear is predominant Thirdly Is this spirit of Bondage good or bad I answer 1. We must distinguish of the three Agents in it This Bondage cometh partly from a good cause the spirit of God breeding in us a knowledg of our Duty and a
13.14 The Lord needeth no interpreter between him and the hearts of his children he that heareth without earts can interpret our desires tho not uttered by the tongue desires are strong cries Psal. 10.17 Thou hast heard the desires of the humble Psal. 38.9 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee This crying is opposite to that careless formality and deadness which is in other mens prayers this crying to God as one that is able and ready to help us is a great fruit of the spirit of Adoption 't is a childlike boldness 2. A childlike ingenuity in the course of obedience to him both in our abstaining from sin as the Rechabites are an Emblem Jer. 35.6 We dare not break the commands of our father And in a ready diligence in our obedience 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of God constraineth us for we thus judg if one dyed for all then were all dead c. The Will of our Father is instead of all Reasons Christ ever urged this This is the will of my Father John 6.26 38. So to Christians 1 Thes. 5.18 This is the will of God in Christ concerning you 1 Thes. 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification That 's enough beyond all enforcements 3. As to the inheritance they are very chary of it and will not hazzard the hope and comfort of it upon easie terms Heb. 12.16 Let there not be found a prophane person as Esau who sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage 1 Kings 21.3 And Naboth said to Ahab The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my Father to thee 3. USE is Direction to us in the Lords Supper This is the seal of the new Covenant the Table which God keepeth for the entertainment of his family the feast for souls Gods Children are sure of Welcome 't is childrens bread we eat we come hither both to remember the grounds of our Adoption and to receive the comfort of it we come to meditate on the fatherly love of God and to get a new tast and experience of it in our own souls here we have special communion with him as children with a Father we come for a further participation of the spirit for we all drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Here we look up unto God and in our hearts cry Abba Father We bind our selves also to perform the duty of children by new resolution to submit to his fatherly government both in his Laws and Providences to his commanding and disposing will and lift up our hope for the eternal inheritance SERMON XXIV ROM VIII 16 The spirit its self witnesseth to our spirits that we are the children of God IN the Words we have 1. The Priviledg assured That we are the children of God 2. The double Testimony by which it is confirmed The spirit its self beareth witness to our spirits or if you will here are Testes Testimonium the thing witnessed That we are the children of God and the Witnesses they are two the spirit its self and our spirits And in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every thing is established The spirit its self is the Holy Ghost and our spirits are our renewed consciences Doct. That our Adoption into Gods Family is evidenced by the testimony of the spirit to our spirits 1. I shall shew you the Worth and Value of the Priviledg 2. Speak something of this double Testimony by which it is assured to us For the first It is certainly a great Priviledg for we are excited to consider it with wonder and reverence 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 'T is a blessed Priviledg questionless to have God for our Father and Christ for our Elder Brother and Heaven for our Portion what can we desire more And this will appear to you if you consider 1. The Person adopting The great and glorious God who is so far above us so happy within himself and needeth not us nor our choicest love and service who had a Son of his own Jesus Christ the only Begotten of the Father who thought it no robbery to be equal with him in Power and Glory Phil. 2.6 A son that was the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 The son of his love Col. 1.13 In whom his soul found full complacency Prov. 8.30 I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him If men adopt 't is in orbitatis solatium a remedy found out for the comfort of them that have no children Seldom was it heard that a Father who had a Son should adopt a Son therefore it heightens the Priviledg that God should vouchsafe to poor creatures such a dear and honourable relation to himself 2. The Persons who were adopted Miserable sinners who were once strangers and enemies Col. 1.21 Children of Wrath even as others Eph. 1.3 Who had cast away the Mercies of their Creation and involved themselves in the curse now that strangers should be taken into the family and put in the place of children and dealt with as children that enemies should not only be reconciled but have liberty to own the Blessed God as their Father in Christ that children of wrath should be called to inherit a blessing that those who had so often offended God and were become slaves to Satan should be called into the liberty of the children of God this is that which we may wonder at and say Behold what manner of love is this 3. The Dignity it self compared 1. With the honours of the World David saith 1 Sam. 18.23 Seemeth it a light thing to you to be a Kings Son-in-law We may with better reason say Is it nothing to be taken into Gods Family and to become Sons and Daughters of the Most High God all relations may blush and hide their faces in comparison of this All the splendid Titles which are so Ambitiously affected by the World are but empty Shews and gilded Vanities and do much come short of this priviledge both in honour and profit therefore 't is a greater instance of the love of God than if he had made us Monarchs of the World or if a man could deduce his Pedigree from an uninterrupted Line of Nobles and Princes Alas how much better is it to be born of the Spirit than of the froth of the Blood and to have a Title that will be our Honour and Interest to all Eternity than to be distinguished from others by a Title that will cease at the Graves Mouth 2. Compared with Gods relation to other creatures there is a Relation between God and all his Creatures as he gave being to all so he hath an Interest and Propriety in all Sun and Moon and Stars are called his Servants Psal. 119.91 All Creatures are subject to the Law of his over-ruling Providence But Man is under his proper Government Adam by the Covenant of Works was
all persons and hath the hearts of Men in his own hands and performeth all things according to his own will He knoweth their Persons Necessities and Temptations and if we trust him for our Heavenly Inheritance we may trust him for our daily Maintenance which he vouchsafeth to the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Field yea to his Enemies while they are sinning against him dishonouring his Name oppressing his Servants opposing his Interest in the World he that feedeth a Kite will he not feed a Child He that supplieth his Enemies will he not take care of his Friends those of his own Family Indeed he chooseth rather to profit us than please us in his Dispensations but 't is your duty to refer all to his Wisdom and Love 3. Eternal Blessedness is also the fruit of this Adoption Rom. 8.17 If sons then heirs coheirs with Christ as soon as we are taken into Gods Family we have a right to the blessed Inheritance and the right and hope that we have now is enough to counterballance all Temptations Alas what are all the carnal pleasures and delights of Sin which tempt us to disobey our Father to those blessed things which he hath provided for us in Heaven 'T was Esau's Profaneness to sell his Birth-right Heb. 12.16 So all the fears and sorrows of the present Life Luk. 12.32 Fear not little flock 't is your fathers good pleasure to give you a kingdom if we have the Kingdom at the last 't is no great matter what we suffer by the way but hereafter we shall fully receive the fruits of our Obedience Rom. 8.23 We our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies In Heaven we have the fullest and largest demonstration of Gods love and favour 'T is Love now and Grace now that he will take us into his Family and Imploy us in his Service But then 't is another manner of Love when taken not onely into his Family but Presence and Palace where we have not onely a Right but Possession not onely some remote service and ministration but everlastingly injoying delighting and praising God Secondâ—y We now come to the proof and testimony of our Interest in this Priviledge The spirit beareth witness with our spirit Here let us 1. Open the double Testimony 2. What the one superaddeth above the other 3. The necessity of their conjunction to our full comfort 1. The Nature of this double Testimony and there first let us begin with that which is more known to us and understood by us and that is the Testimony of a renewed conscience Let us consider it as conscience and as renewed 1. As conscience There is a secret spy within us that observeth all that we think or speak or do Rom. 2.15 Their conscience bearing them witness and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing Now this conscience must not be slighted partly in respect of our selves because 't is so intimate to us 'T is a spy in our bosoms and can give a better judgment of us and our actions than any thing else can The judgment of the world by way of applause or censure is foreign and grounded upon appearance therefore not so much to be valued 1 Cor. 2.11 The spirit of a man which is in him knoweth the things of a man Who knoweth more of us than we do our selves And this witness cannot be suspected of partiality and ill will for what is dearer to our selves than our selves Therefore if our hearts condemn us what shall be said for us 1 John 3.20 21. For if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And partly because of its relation to God 't is called the candle of the Lord Pro. 20.27 'T is Gods Deputy Judg and in the place of God to us and therefore if it doth accuse or excuse it is to be regarded for it is before Gods Tribunal that it doth condemn or acquit us 'T is his sentence that we are to stand in fear and dread of to whom doth it accuse us but to God whose Wrath doth it fear but Gods even then when there is no outward cause of dread and fear Conscience is the Vicegerent of the supreme Judg partly because of the rule it goeth by which is the will of God by which good and evil are distinguished which is either revealed by the light of Nature or the light of Scripture the light of nature Rom. 2.14.15 For the gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law to themselves which shew the work of the law upon their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another The Apostle proveth the heathens had a law because they had a conscience for conscience ever inferreth some rule and law by which good and evil are distinguished The light of Scripture comprehendeth either the Covenant of Works or the Covenant of Grace Works and so conscience condemneth all the world as guilty before God Rom. 3.19 and there is no escape from this sentence but a regular appeal and passage from Court to Court Psal. 10.3 4. If thou shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified where poor condemned sinners may take sanctuary of the Lords Grace and humbly claim the benefit of the New Covenant Grace wherein the penitent believer and those that sincerely obey the Gospel are accepted The legal conscience condemneth all the world but the evangelical conscience aquitteth us if we sincerely and thankfully accept the new covenant that is if we take the priviledges offered for our happiness and the duties required for our work therefore 't is said 1 Pet. 3.21 Baptism saveth not the puting away of the filthiness of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience toward God Not the bare Ordinance but the Covenant which is sealed by it And what doth the Covenant require Accepting the Lords offers and resolving to obey his commands 2. As renewed By nature conscience is blind partial stupid but by grace it 's made pure tender and pliant and more able to do its office The spirit is not said here to witness to our heart but to our spirit that is to conscience as renewed and sanctified now such a conscience implieth these things 1. Some knowledg of and consent to the new covenant for without knowledg the heart is not good Pro. 19.20 It erreth in point of law and rule and therefoe cannot well witness in the case And 2. Consent there must be for we cannot claim Priviledges by a Charter which we never accepted Therefore Isa. 56.4 And chuse the things
of ours cannot be received into Heaven till they be changed and immortalized vers 53. This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality As a man to build his house better razeth it to the very bottom so God will have the body resolved into dust before he will set it forth in this new fair Edition As the creature is dissolved that is delivered from the Bondage of Corruption first the creature is set free and discharged from being obnoxious to change and alteration so we must first die then be raised in Incorruption which should make us the more ready and willing to submit to the appointed course and not only even dare to die but to be willing to dye since Death puts an end to sin and all our calamities and is the gate and entrance by which we pass into Glory 2. Doct. That the liberty to which Gods people are reserved is a glorious liberty Here I shall first speak of the liberty of Gods children in this life 2. The glorious liberty in the world to come for the one is a step to the other for 't is called a glorious liberty to distinguish it from the liberty of Gods children here in this world which is not glorious but gracious to shew how it exceedeth this estate in glory Therefore I must shew 1. What is the liberty of Gods children in this world 2. What in the world to come 1. What is the liberty of Gods children in this world There are three practical notions in which man is greatly mistaken Misery and Happiness Wisdom and Folly Liberty and Bondage Misery and Happiness Men count none miserable but the afflicted none happy but the prosperous because they judg by the present ease and commodity of the flesh Wisdom and Folly we all affect the repute of Wisdom Job 11.12 Please our selves with a false shew of wisdom neglecting what is true and solid which is to be wise to salvation Liberty and Bondage Man accepteth of a false liberty rather than none every man would be at his own dispose live as he list whereas the true liberty must be determined by our condition as creatures by our end as creatures that are in pursuit of true happiness To think the only true liberty is to be at the command and controul of none above our selves or to live at large according to our hearts desire is to affect a thraldom and bondage instead of liberty therefore it concerneth us to state exactly what is the liberty of Gods children now it either relateth to our duty or to our felicity 1. To our duty and so our liberty must he stated by these four Things 1. It must be such a liberty as becometh a creature who is in subjection to God 'T is not a power to live as we list but a power to live as we ought to affect a power to live as we list and to be accountable to none is to revive the arrogancy of Adam and to sup up again the poyson of the old Temptation ye shall be as Gods Gen. 3.5 'T was mans Original Ambition to be at his own dispose and Lord of his own Actions to think and speak and do as he pleaseth Psal. 12.4 Our tongues are our own who is Lord over us And the Rebellion of the Libertine World is set forth by casting off the Yokes and Cords of Duty Psal. 2.3 Let us break their â—ands asunder and cast away their cords from us Meaning there the Laws of God and Christ who are impatient of any restraint But this is a liberty cannot be justified for since man hath principium finem A principle upon which he dependeth in his Being and Operations and an end unto which he is appointed he must wholly give up himself to the will of another and his liberty lyeth in a readiness to comply with Gods commands who is his proper Lord to whom he is to subject himself and to give an account of all his Actions So that mans true liberty is Gods Service Psa. 119.45 I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts To will and do things pleasing to our Creator is the only liberty proper to us 2. It must be such a liberty as will leave us in a capacity to pursue our chief good and last end For all creatures are by natural instinct carried to their last end and the more fettered and restrained from this the more they are in Bondage the less the more free which holdeth good in all creatures but principally in the reasonable Certainly the reasonable nature is dishonoured and debased and under a defect as 't is disabled from the fruition of God or seeking after it we are in Bondage as we are captivated and intangled with the love of inferior things and so perverted and diverted from the pursuit of true happiness The restraining of our irregular desires is not Bondage but the gratifying of them for that is a snare to us Men live in sin with as much delight as Fishes in their own Element yet they are in bonds still as they are detained from God and turned aside from him our liberty is our power over inferior things and our Bondage is their power over us 1 Cor. 6.12 When we love God with all our hearts and serve him with all our minds we are free Liberty in the root implyeth an inclination to God as the supream Object of our love In the first Act In a power of chusing the means whereby we may injoy him In the second Act in an exercise of this power or in an actual pursuing the end by these means The elective power and a governing our Actions in order to our great end is our liberty the Angels that immutably and indeclinably adhere to their last end are freer than us who may err from it Well then None are such slaves as they that cannot use the means which should make them happy but imploy their whole time in seeking after Pleasures and Honours and Profits like dissolute Servants who being sent by their Masters to a Mart or Fair to buy Commodites spend their time and money in some Inn or House of Entertainment by the way and neglect their Fair or Mart to which they were sent to imploy their Money to the best advantage So we are inslaved by the way and neglect our main business 3. It must be such a liberty as will suit with the dignity of a rational creature as man is For that is the liberty of a man when he acteth with a condecency to the reasonable nature Man was at first made to be happy his happiness consisted in the Fruition of God and his subjection to him was no captivity and restraint but rather a part of that blessedness but we became bondmen not only by breaking the Law of God but by disordering the constitution of our Souls by submitting conscience and reason to our lusts so suffering the beast to ride the man for the rule of
in the world than he who hath God for his God Christ for his Saviour and the Spirit for his Comforter and Heaven for his portion Partly because there is so much help from God either he hath already obtained strength from God which he doth not improve or may obtain strength from God which he doth not seek after God prayed unto giveth deliverance or support Psal. 138.3 In the day when I cryed thou answerest me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul And partly because of the mischiefs which follow this fainting There is a two-fold fainting first there is a fainting which causeth great trouble perplexity and dejection of spirit Heb. 12.3 Lest ye wax wears and faint in your minds Weariness is a lesser fainting an â—â—gher degree of deficiency in weariness the body requireth some rest or refreshment when the active power is weakned and the vital spirits and principles of motion dulled But in fainting the vital power is contracted and retireth and leaveth the outward parts lifeless and sensless When a man is wearied his strength is abated but when he fainteth he is quite spent These things by a metaphor are applyed to the soul or mind A man is wearied when the fortitude of his mind or his spiritual strength is broken or beginneth to abate or his soul sets uneasie under sufferings but when he sinketh under the burden of grievous tedious and long afflictions then he is said to faint The reasons or grounds of his comfort are quite spent Now this is a great evil in a child of God for the spirit of a man or that natural courage that is in a reasonable Creature will go far as to the sustaining of foreign evils Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity And 't is supposed of a Christian that his spirit is â—ound and whole being possessed of the love of God and therefore though his natural courage be spent which goeth on probabilities yet his faith and hope should not be spent which goeth on certainties nor be overmuch perplexed about worldly troubles as if his mercy were clean gone or his promise would fail therefore a Christian should strive against this Psal. 77.7 8 9 10. Will the Lord cast off for ever Will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies And I said this is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High 2. There is a fainting which causeth dejâ—ction and falling off from God Surely this worse becometh the children of God Revel 2.3 Thou hast born and hast patience and hast laboured and hast not fainted This maketh us cast off our profession and practice of godliness and so cuts us off from all hope of reward Gal. 6.9 Ye shall reap in due time if ye faint not 'T is not taken there for some weariness or remisness or perplexity which may befall Gods children but a total defection When troubles discourage us in our duty 't is a step towards it and tendeth to Apostacy which Christians should prevent in time Heb. 12.12 13. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet less that which is lame â—e turned out of the way We often begin to faint and lag in Heavens way being wearied and vexed with the oppositions of the carnal world reproaching threatning and persecuting us but when we begin to waver we should look to it betimes and rouze up our selves that we may resolve to go and finish our race and not lose the benefit of our former labours and sufferings 2. Consideration That in his weakness if be we left to our selves we cannot support our selves This appeareth partly because they that have but a light Tincture of the spirit give up at the first assault Matt. 13.21 When tribulation ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Offers of pardon of sins and eternal life affect them for a while and ingage them in the profession of godliness but when once it cometh to prove a costly business they give it over presently and partly because the most resolved if not duly possessed with a sense of their own weakness soon miscarry if not in whole yet in part witness Peter Matth. 26.33 34 35. Christ had warned them that such afflictions should come as the stoutest should stumble at them and fall for a time but Peter being conscious to himself of his own sincerity could not believe such weakness to be in him but God will soon confute confidence in our own strength as the event of his fearful fall did evidently declare partly because they that seem to be most fortified not only by Resolution but strong Reasons may yet overlook them in a time of Temptation As Eliphaz told Job Chap. 4.3 4 5. Behold thou hast instructed many and hast strengthened the weak hands thy words have upholden him that was falling and thou hast strengthened the seeble knees But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled 'T is one thing to give counsel and another to practice it and there is a great deal of difference between tryal apprehended by our Judgement and felt by our sense John 12.27 Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour When well we easily give counsel to the sick They that stand on shore may direct others when strugling with a Tempest And besides we know many things habitually which we cannot actually bring to remembrance being overcome with the sense of present evils and grace that seemeth strong out of tryal is found weak in tryal and faileth when we should most act it and partly because those that do not wholly despond but are yet wrestling are plainly convinced that they cannot conquer by their own strength Jer. 8.18 When I would comfort my self against my sorrow my heart fainteth within me The tediousness of present pressures doth so invade their spirits that they find themselves much too weak to grapple with their troubles They assay to do it but find it too hard for them Now after all these experiences of the Saints Where is the man that will venture in his own strength to compose his spirit and overcome his own infirmities 3. That when we cannot support our selves through our weakness the spirit helpeth us We speak not of the necessity of the holy spirit to our regeneration but confirmation After grace received worldly things set near and close to us and the love of them is not so quite extinct in us but that they have too great a command over our inclinations and affections that we cannot overcome our infirmities without the assistance of grace which Christ dispenseth by his spirit And 't is not enough for us
the Holy Ghost himself is the principal cause of all who doth create this faith love and hope and still preserve it and order and actuate it The Soul worketh powerfully and sweetly by an earnest motion and inclination towards God SERMON XXXV ROM VIII 26 Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered WE now come more distinctly to shew what the Holy Ghost doth in Prayer 1. He directeth and ordereth our requests so as they may suit with our great end which is the injoyment of God For of our selves we should Pray only after a natural and humane affection which sets up its self instead of God and self considered as a Body rather than a Soul and so asketh Bodily things rather than Spiritual and the conveniencies of the Natural Life rather than the injoyment of the world to come Let a man alone and he will sooner ask baits and snares and temptations than graces and helps A Scorpion instead of Fish and a Stone rather than Bread we take counsel of our lusts and interests when we are left to our own private spirit and so would make God to serve with our sins and imploy him as a Minister of our carnal desires as 't is said of them in the Wilderness Psal. 78.18 They tempted God in their hearts by asking meat for their lusts Our natural will and carnal affections will make us Pray our selves into a snare In the Text 't is said We know not what to pray for as we ought And in the 27. v. He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God not only with respect to his will but his Glory and our eternal good so that human and earnal affection shall neither prescribe the matter nor fix the end To Pray in an Holy manner is the product of the Spirit and the fruit of his operation in us Faith and Love and Hope are more at work in a serious Prayer than human and carnal affection which referreth all its desires and inclinations to the Bodily Life 2. He quickneth and enliveneth our desires in prayer There is an holy vehemency and fervour required in Prayer opposite to that careless formality and deadness which otherwise is found in us These are the groanings which cannot be uttered spoken of in the Text. Groaning noteth the strength and ardency of desire when there is a warmth and a life and a vigour in Prayer Oh how flat and dead are our hearts oftentimes when we want these quickening motions A flow of words may come from our natural temper but these lively motions and strong desires from the Spirit of God T is notable that the Prayer which is produced in us by the spirit is represented by the notion of a cry twice 't is said teaching us to cry Abba Father not with respect to the loudness of the voice but the earnestness of affection Crying for help is the most vehement way of asking used only by persons in great necessity and danger a prayer without life is as incense without fire which sendeth forth no perfume or sweet savour The firing of the Sacrifices was a token of Gods acceptance so when warmth of heart cometh from Heaven God testiâ—ieth of his gifts 3. He incourageth and emboldneth us to come to God as a Father This is one main thing twice mentioned in Scripture Rom. 8.15 We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father and Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father A great part of the life and comfort of Prayer consisteth in coming to God as a reconciled Father Now this is seen in two things 1. Child-like confidence 2. Child-like reverence 1. Child-like confidence or a familiar owning of God in Prayer when we come to him as little Children to their Father for help in their dangers and necessities Christ hath taught us to say our Father and in every Prayer we must be able to say so in one fashion or an other not with our lips but with our hearts by option and choice if not by direct affirmation Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask it We forget the duty of Children but God doth not forget the mercies of a Father Let it be the voice of our trust and hope rather than of our lips 2. With child-like reverence in an humble and awful way God that hath the title of a Father will have the honour and respect of a Father Matt. 1.6 If this should breed lear and reverence in us at other times it should much more when we immediately converse with him 1 Pet. 1.17 If ye call on the father who without respect of persons judgeth every man God will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him Heb. 10. so Phil. 3.11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trâ—ubling Our familiarity with God must not mar our reverence nor confidence and delight in him our humility and serious dealing with God in Prayer is wrought in us by the spirit in whose light we see both God and our selves his Majesty and our vileness his purity and our sinfulness his greatness and our nothingness 2 The necessity of this help and assistance 1. The order and oeconomy of the divine persons sheweth it In the mystery of redemption God is represented as our reconciled God and Father to whom we come Christ as the Mediator through whom we have liberty and access to God as our own God And the Spirit as our guide Sanctifier and Comforter by whom we come to him God is represented as the great Prince and Universal King into whose presence-chamber poor petitioners are admitted Christ openeth the door by the merit of his Sacrifice and keepeth it open by his constant intercession that wrath may be no hindrance on Gods part nor guilt on ours for otherwise God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 and sin divides and separates between God and us Isa. 59.2 Then the spirit doth create preserve and quicken and actuate these graces in the exercise of which this access is managed and carryed on Otherwise such is our impotency and aversness that we should not make use of this offered benefit Eph. 2.18 For through him we both have an access by one spirit unto the father The injoyment of the Fatherly love of God is the highest happiness in which the Soul doth rest content Christ is the way by which we come to the Father and the Spirit our guide which causeth us to enter in this way and goeth along with us in it We cannot look right to the blessed Father but we must look to him through the Blessed Son and we cannot look
upon the Son but through the Blessed Spirit and so we come aright to God 2. That prayer may carry proportion with other duties All the Children of God are led by the spirit of God Rom. 8.14 as in their whole conversation so especially in this act of prayer Look as in common providence no creature is exempted from the influence of it for in him they all live move and have their being exempt any creature from the dominion of providence and then that creature would live of its self So as to gracious and special providence you cannot exempt one action from the spirits influence for we live in the spirit and walk in the spirit Gal. 5.25 We sing with the spirit and hear in the spirit and serve God in the spirit so we pray in the spirit only there is a special regard to this duty because here we have experience of the motions of the renewed Soul directly towards God and so of the comforts and graces of the spirit more than in other duties 3. Because of our impotency We cannot speak of God without the Spirit much less to God 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost That is on him as the Messiah and Redeemer of the World 'T was a deadly state the Redeemer found us in to lessen mans misery was to lessen the grace of Christ so we must not extenuate the Honour of our Sanctifier we can neither live nor work nor walk nor pray without the Spirit The help is not needless if we consider what we are and what prayer is what we are who are enemies to our own happiness and holiness and Prayer which requireth such serious work surely the setting of our hearts and all our hopes upon an invisible Glory and measuring all things thereunto is a work too hard for a carnal sensual creature that is wedded to present satisfactions and without this there is no praying in a spiritual manner they that love sin will never heartily pray against it and they that hate an Holy Spiritual Heavenly life can never seek the advancement of it Now this is our case we may babble and speak things by rote or we may have a natural fervency when we pray for Corn Wine and Oyl and Justification and Sanctification in order thereunto we may have a Wish but not a serious Volition of spiritual and heavenly things which is the Life and Soul of Prayer 4. With respect to acceptance Psal. 10.17 When thou preparest the heart thou bendest the ear Rom. 8.27 He knoweth the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God God knoweth what is a belch of the flesh and what is a groan of the Spirit every voice but that of his Spirit is strange and barbarous to him he puts us upon holy and just requests he hath stirred them up in us as a Father teacheth a Child to ask what he hath a mind to give him 3. Cautious against some abuses and mistakes in prayer 1. This is not so to be understood as if the matter and words of prayer were immediately to be inspired by the Holy Ghost as he inspiried the holy men of God in their prophecying and penning the Holy Scripture We read 2 Pet. 1.21 That holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And we may say Holy Men pray as they are moved by the Holy Ghost but yet there is a great deal of difference between both these partly because they were immediately moved and infallibly assisted by the Spirit so moved and extraordinarily born through that they could not err and miscarry they were free from any fault failing or corruption in the matter form or words wherein this was expressed all was purely Divine But in our Prayers we find the contrary by sad experience Partly because it had been a sin in the Prophets not to have delivered the same message which they received of the Lord both for matter manner and method but it is no sin in a Child of God against the guidance and governance of Gods Spirit to use anoâ—her method than he used To contract and shorten or to lengthen and inlage his Prayers as opportunity serveth and yet the Prayer is the Prayer of the Spirit that that is directed ordered and quickned by the Spirit 2. This is not to be understood as if we should never pray till the spirit moveth us The Prophets were not to Prophesy till moved by an extraordinary impulse for they were not bound by the common law of Gods servants or children to see visions or to prophecy but we are not to stay from our duty till we see the spirit moving but to make use of the power we have as reasonable creatures Eccles. 9.10 Whatever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might and to stir up the gifts and graces that we have as believers Isa. 64.7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee 2 Tim. 1.6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee and in the way of duty to wait and cry for the necessary influences of the Lords Spirit Cant. 4.16 A wâ—ke O north-wind and come thou south wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow forth let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits And to obey his sanctifying motions Psal. 27.8 When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek 3. We cannot say we have not the Spirit of Prayer because we have not such freedom of words as may give vent to spiritual affections If there be a sense of such things as we mainly want that is Christ and his graces and an affectionate desire after them and we address our selves to God with these desires in the best fashion we can that we may have help and relief from him and you are resolved not to give him over till you have it you have the Spirit of Grace and supplications tho it may be you cannot inlarge upon these things with such copiousness of expression as others do Therefore let us consider what is the Spirit of Prayer and how far doth he make use of our natural faculties I conceive it thus A man is convinced that his happiness lyeth in the injoyment of God that there is no injoynment of God but by Christ till he be justified and sanctified and walk in Holy obedience to him The Spirit of God upon this changeth his heart and 't is set within him to seek after God in this way 1 Chron. 22.19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God And Psal. 119.36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies Now because the will without the affections doth not work strongly but is like a ship without sails affections are the vigorous and forcible motions of the
this can be done unless we believe him to be present and conscious to all that we do or say for all else is but an empty formality Therefore when we pray we must remember that we converse with him that searcheth the heart and knoweth what and how we ask as 1 Kings 8.39 Hear thou in thy dwelling place and forgive and do to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men All the faith the seriousness the comfort of prayer dependeth upon the belief of this for who would call upon him of whom he is not perswaded that he heareth him or be serious in a duty that knoweth not whether God regardeth yea or no or what comfort can be taken in having prayed and made known his desires to God unless he be perswaded those prayers come unto the ears of the Lord of Hosts So for hearing the word that which bindeth us to reverence is that we are in the sight of God Acts 10.33 We are all here present before the Lord to hear all things which are commanded thee of God otherwise men will come to see and be seen rather than to be taught and instructed God is every where but he is especially there where his ordinances are and we are to be so seriously attentive as if God himself did speak to us by oracles when his message is brought to us otherwise it will have no effect upon us 1 Thes. 2.13 Ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe 2 Cor. 5.20 As though God did beseech you by us We lift up our hearts to him and set him before our eyes as having to do with God himself this only begets seriousness in hearing So for the Lord's Supper which is a middle duty between the word and prayer and compounded of both we hear God tendring his Covenant assuring us of his blessings promised and commanding us to fulfil the requisite duties that we may be capable of them We promising and praying by resolving and promising testify our consent to the Covenant thus stated by prayers and groans our dependance Now there is no Covenanting with one that is absent you will say he is present in his institution he is so and that is an help to faith therefore visible signs are appointed to be an instance of Gods presence with us but all his internal work is immediately transacted between our souls and God himself We look on him as present that seeth and heareth all Deut. 10.12 'T is to the soul God speaketh I am thy God Psal. 35.3 Say unto my soul I am thy salvation And the soul spake unto God Thou art my portion saith my soul. Either as to promise of obedience Psal. 119.57 or dependance Lam. 3.24 Two outward witnesses are conscious to what is done between God and our souls So Psal. 16.2 O my soul thou hast said unto God thou art my God upon this inward soul covenanting do all our priviledges depend and if God knoweth not all things nor engageth his heart to draw nigh unto him How can this be 2. From the danger of dissembling with God in acts of worship or putting him off with feigned pretences The Scripture sets forth three phrases a mocking of God a lying to God and a tempting of God A mocking of God Gal. 6.7 Be not deceived God is not mocked That is Impune there is no escaping the accurate search of the all-seeing God Ananias Saphirai's sin was hypocrisie in keeping back part of what was devoted They would seem liberal and pious as others who were joyned to the Church and so by a part of godliness seek to be excused from the whole And whilest they observe externals neglect internals own Religion when profession is not costly put on a garb of devotion at times but lay it aside ordinarily do what is plausible to men but neglect what is acceptable to God now this is called a lying to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 Why to the Holy Ghost rather than the Father and the Son Because of his special precedency and inspection over Church-Affairs Acts 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act 15.28 For it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things They pretended to do it by his instinct as all Christians that pray profess or pretend to pray by the Holy Ghost Oh! Observe this many make a false confession of faith or promise of obedience this is called a lying not to men but to God Acts 5.4 Oh then we should be exceedingly fortified against hypocrisie in worship 't is to think to deceive God whom we profess to be Omniscient nay 't is a tempting of the Spirit of the Lord v. 9. How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord A putting it to the proof whether he will discover us or no now rather than run this hazzard it concerneth us greatly and thoroughly to be possessed of this truth That God searcheth the heart 3. There can be no true worship unless we be deeply possessed with a thorough sence of the infinite knowledg of God 1. There can be no faith unless the worship be performed and tendred to God as an all-seeing Spirit Heb. 11.6 Without faith 't is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him If God know me not nor in what manner I serve him 't is all one whether I serve him religiously or with a cold faint formal worship for he seeth not with what heart I go about it if we pray and think to be never the better for praying there can be no life in prayer for a perswasion to be heard and accepted must be at the bottom of all duties therefore all that would serve him diligently must believe that he is Omniscient and knoweth all things 2. There can be no reverence For 't is all one to pray to an Idol and to a God that heareth not and seeth not yea 't is worse for they were perswaded of a Vertue or a Divine Power belonging to their Idols therefore all your worship will be but a conformity to the common custom and fashion Ezek. 31.31 They come before thee as thy people cometh and sit before thee as thy people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness 'T is but a shew of Devotion USE Is comfort to sincere worshippers 1. God knoweth their persons that there is such a man in the world the desires of whose soul are to the remembrance of his name 'T is an usual temptation which haunteth the
of a deaf ear nonattentiveness to Gods providence made way for the prevalency of Atheism and Idolatry in the world There are two propositions that if well minded and improved would preserve a lively remembrance of God in the hearts of men That all good cometh from God James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights And all evil from God Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it And that any notable effect in either kind is a sign and witness of an invisible power If men would not look upon all things that befall them as meer chances they could not sleep so securely in their sins but God would have a greater testimony in every mans bosom that he hath a care of human affairs and is a rewarder of such as please him and an avenger of such as do offend him The question about this improper calling is What is the use of it or whether it be sufficient to salvation 1. Though the works of Creation and providence reveal a God yet these natural Apostles Sun Moon and Stars say nothing of Christ and there is salvation in no other Acts 4.12 They did teach the world That there is a God and that this God must be served and will be terrible to those that serve him not And possibly that God was placable or willing to be appeased because of the continuance of the Creation and the manifold mercies we lost or forfeited by our Apostacy and defection from him The Apostle saith 't is an invitation to repentance Rom. 2.4 Yet the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Son of God and of Redemption purchased to lost sinners through him is a mystery which the greatest wits in the world could not understand but by Gods revealing it in his word 2. The use of this call to those that have no other but barely it is to leave men without excuse Rom. 1.20 And that it might prevail to work some restraint of sin and to promote some external reformation in the world for the good of mankind Rom. 2.14 3. Those who have a louder call in the word are the more obliged to regard this call and invitation by the works of Gods creation and providence The call by the word is more perfect and more pressing and suited more to work upon our thoughts the object being more clearly and fully propounded to us yet this latter call is not privative but accumulative it doth not nâ—ll the duty of the former call or make it wholly useless to us but helps us to interpret it the better and we need all helps Faith doth not withdraw it self from natural knowledge and make it useless to us though we are to exercise our selves in the law of God day and night yet we must not overlook the works of Creation and Providence and whilest we study his word neglect Gods works for they are a confimation of our faith and a great occasional help to our love as appeareth by the instructions which the holy men of God gather thence witness David his night-meditation Psal. 8. Thy moon and thy stars And his morning-meditation Psal. 19. The Heavens declare the glory of God The glories of God which we read of in the word are visible in the Creation and though David preferreth the book of Scripture yet he doth not lay aside the book of Nature We must use the world as a glass wherein to see the glory of God he hath not the heart of a man in him who is not stricken with admiration at the sight of these things the glory of the heavenly bodies and the wonderful variety of all creatures and besides there is none so good but he needeth the mercy and direction of God to invite him to a more frequent remembrance of him How happy are they that have such a God for their God How miserable they that make him their Judg and Avenger 2. The proper calling is the voice of God in the word of his grace inviting sinners to Christ. This is called his distinctly calling Eph. 1.18 That ye may know what is the hope of his calling And the high calling of God in Jesus Christ Phil. 3.14 And again That our God would count you worthy of his calling 2 Thes. 1.11 And explained 1 Cor. 1.9 Faithful is he which hath called you into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now this is a more close and full discovery of God than is to be found elsewhere God calleth and inviteth some by the creatures only others by his grace in Christ. But this being calling most properly taken Why is it not vouchsafed to all I answer 1. God is not obliged to send the gospel to any 'T is his free dispensation Rom. 11.35 Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced to him again God doth not send the Gospel by necessity of nature or any pre-obligation on the creatures part but meerly of his own grace which worketh most freely and sendeth it where it pleaseth him 2. All have more knowledge of God by nature than they make good use of Rom. 1.21 When they knew God they glorified him not as God And till men improve a lower dispensation why should they be trusted with an higher If a vessel will not hold water you will not trust wine or any more precious liquor in it 2. Gods gracious invitation of lost sinners to Christ which properly is his calling them is either external or internal external by the word internal by his Spirit 1. External by the commands and promises of the word requiring such duties from them and assuring them of such blessings upon obedience Thus Wisdoms Maidens are sent forth to invite guests to her palace Prov. 4.2 And the kings servants to call them to the marriage feast Matth. 22.9 And so far they prevail in their message that many present themselves God would not leave us to a book but hath appointed a living Ministry 2 Cor. 6.10 2. Internal not only by the word but by his Spirit and the checks of their own conscience which is a nearer approach of his grace and power to us By the motions of his Spirit How else could it be said Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man And Acts 7.51 Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost And also by their consciences sollicâ—ting them to the performance of their duty and challenging them for the neglect of it 'T is natural duty Rom. 2.14 15. The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law to themselves which shew the works of the law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or excusing one another And for acceptance of the Gospel-Covenant 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things If our heart condemn us not
of God as not in Christ so not in us the head was to bear his share and the members their share and because the cross and sufferings are a means conducing to conformity to Christ in holiness and happiness for whom he did foreknow c. In the words observe 1. The way God took in bringing his children unto glory by conformity to Christ in those words To be conformed to the image of his Son 2. The grounds of this conformity set forth by two words foreknowledge and predestination whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate 3. The reason of this conformity to Christ that he might be the first-born among many brethren that is that he might have the priviledge of the elder Son or the true and proper heir the elder Son was to be the head of the family and lord of all the rest of the brethren Let us explain these things 1. The way and end aimed at to conform us to the image of his Son That is in resemblance to Christ that we might enter into glory the way by which Christ entred by a life of sufferings and hardness 2. The grounds of this conformity Gods foreknowledge and predestination The first of these terms implieth his gracious purpose to save us foreknowing here is chusing or taking them for his own from all eternity 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God That is according to the eternal purpose of his love to them For having all Adams posterity in his eye and view he freely chose them they were in a sort present to God and in his eye before the foundation of the world so that his foreknowledge is his purpose to do them good the other word predestination is his appointing them to come to glory by the way of faith and holiness for to destinate is to appoint or order means to a certain end and to predestinate is to appoint aforehand and this predestinating is used of Gods act because when man willeth or chuseth or ordereth any thing it presupposeth an antecedent goodness in the things which he willeth or chuseth or an antecedent conveniency in the thing ordered to the end to which it is appointed which is prudent destination but when God chuseth or willeth or ordereth any thing he causeth this goodness or conveniency to be in it and therefore 't is properly called predestination Well then observe Not things but persons are here spoken of whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate his foreknowledge implyeth his favour and his choice John 10.14 I am the good shepherd that know my sheep and am known of mine and verse 27. I know them and they follow me And his predestination is his appointing them to come to such an end by convenient means sometimes 't is applied to priviledges sometimes to duties to priviledges because of the conveniency of antecedent and subsequent priviledges so Eph. 1.5 He hath predestinated us to the adoption of children 't is fit we should be made children before we have a right to a childs portion therefore God by predestinating us to the adoption of children maketh us fit to obtain the inheritance Sometimes to duties as to faith Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life believed and in the text to holiness he did predestinate us to be conformed to the image of his Son that is by predestination he bringeth it to pass that in time they do resemble Christ. The order and course of Gods saving the elect must not be broken he hath decreed and forecasteth by what means he will bring them to glory in short foreknowledge and predestination agree in that both are eternal but they differ in the formality of the notion foreknowledge noteth his choice or the purpose of his love predestination his decree to bring things to a certain end by certain appointed means and so he did fore ordain and design them by conformity to Christ in life and suffering to come to coelestial glory and thus by foreknowing he did predestinate and by predestinating he did fore-know 3. The reason of this conformity to Christ that he might be the first-born among many brethren That is that he might have the honour due to the first born the first born was lord of the rest of the family Gen. 27.31 I have made him thy lord and the rest of his brethren have I given to him for servants The first born gave to the rest of his brethren a share of his fathers goods reserving to himself a double portion Deut. 21.17 Now this is applied to Christ who is Lord of the Church or head of the body Col. 1.18 and heir of all things Heb. 1.2 And by vertue of this relation to the Church he must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first it in all things or as we translate it he must in all things have the preeminence Col 1.18 in our conflicts and tryals he is the captain of our salvation Heb. 2.10 in holiness he is our pattern or copy 2 Cor. 3.18 primum in unquoque genere est mensura regula Coeterorum in our glory and blessedness he is our forerunner Heb. 6.20 having actuali◠taken possession of that felicity and glory which he spake of to his followers so that Christs honour is reserved and believers are comforted whilest they follow their Head and Leader in every state and condition Doct. That the elect are in time distinguished from others by being conformed to the image of Christ. 1. Wherein this conformity to Christ consisteth 2. Why this is the distinction between the elect or called according to purpose and others 1. Wherein this conformity to Christ consisteth I answer In Three things 1. In sufferings and afflictions In our passage to a better estate As by the bounty of God we tast somewhat of the world to sweeten our pilgrimage so also somewhat of the evil of the world to make us hasten our journey and herein we are made conformable to Christ who was a man of sorrows Isa. 53.3 This must be expected by us for John 15.20 The servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted me they will persecute you also Art thou poor none of us is so poor as Christ was Hast thou many enemies he had more and was pursued with greater malignity It must be patiently indured by us 1 Pet. 2.21 Because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps we that look for his glory must bear his cross Now he calleth us to no harder lot than he himself endured or to go in any part of rough way that he hath not trod before us surely they that fancy to themselves an easie life free from all kind of sufferings and molestations must seek another leader 2 Tim. 2.11 12. If ye be dead with him ye shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him We must be like him whom we have chosen for our head and chief in
for being loyal to his Prince and the Laws or doing his duty to Parents or because he will not bear false witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or because he will not disown a brother 1 John 3.16 This man is a martyr to God as well as he is a martyr to Christ that suffereth for mere Christianity which I would have you to note that you may see how much this precept of God of laying down our lives for his sake doth conduce not only to the interest of Christianity which is a supernatural truth but to the good of humane society to which even nature will subscribe and I do it the rather that you may not think Jesus Christ our Lawgiver was bloody or delighted in the destruction of men when he required that all who would enter into his profession should hate their own lives when just and convenient reasons did call them thereunto no by this law he did not only try his servants but preserved a principle of honesty in the world and provided for the comfort of them who being instruments of publick good do often make themselves objects of publick hatred Alas What comfort could they have in promoting the good of the world and venturing themselves magnanimously upon all dangers if God had not provided some better thing for them All that I shall add as to particular truths and duties is this partly by way of caution to the persecuting world that they may consider how much guilt they incur when for questionable things so I must speak to them they run the hazzard of opposing the most faithful servants God hath in the world Usually 't is the conscientious that suffer most others can easily leap out of one sort of profession and practise into another or else wriggle and distinguish themselves out of their duty by many crafty evasions whereas the conscientious are held in the noose meaning to deal with God and the world without equivocation or evasion in all simplicity and godly sincerity And shall these be the object of your hatred and severest persecution It argueth an heart aliene from God and too full of venomous malignity against the better part of the world Partly by way of advice to the persecuted which is double First abate not of your zeal for he that is not faithful in a little will not be faithful in much Luke 16.10 A good man dareth not allow himself in the least evil the world counteth him more nice than wise but God will not count him so tho he should fail in the application of the general rule yet God will reward him according to his sincerity 't is a love error Secondly not to censure others that see not by his light in this case capiat qui capere potest he that can receive it let him receive it The general rule is the bound of our charity but the particular application is the rule of our practice as long as they own the general rule tho they have not insight into these lesser things Phil. 3.15 16. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall even reveal this to you Nevertheless whereunto you have attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things They may sincerely oppose the same things that we assert and we sincerely assert the same things which they oppose now whether we oppose or assert let every one be firmly perswaded in his own mind and with a modest mind bear the dissentiency of others nothing will allay the differences in judgment but a mutual submission to this rule and meekly holding forth light to others 2. By a due foresight of and resolution against all known dangers 1. A due sight or fore-thought of the dangers Christ will have us sit down and count the charges and make him a good allowance as men do in building and warring Luke 14.18 For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he be able to finish it And v. 31. Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and considereth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet hm that cometh against him with twenty thousand If we dream of nothing but ease and prosperity we flatter our selves our very Baptism implieth a notion of working and fighting and we must consider what the work and warfare will cost us Rom. 6.13 Yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God as arms and weapons of righteousness and the graces of the spirit are called armor of light Rom. 13.12 that is our warlike attire Christ himself when he was baptized was consecrated as the Captain of our salvation and therefore presently upon his Baptism he was assaulted by the Devil his Baptism was an engagement to the same military work to which we are engaged a war against the Devil the world and the flesh he ingageth as the General 1 Joh. 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we as common soldiers his baptism was the taking of the field as General we undertake to fight in our rank and place and can we expect that this conflict can be carried on without sore blows you must know therefore what it is to irritate the Prince of darkness and the powers that join with him and resolve to follow to the conflict even to death or else we would be excused in a part of our oath of fealty to Christ. 2. By a resolution against all known dangers it will cost us loss of credit 1 Cor. 4.13 We are made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things unto this day Used as the unworthiest creatures in the world as the sweeping and filth of the City many were cast forth as unworthy to live in any civil corporation or society of men It will cost us loss of estate Heb. 10.34 And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was pretence of law against the Christians yet much rapine used in the execution of it The word signifieth it was violently rent and torn from them Nay not only so but they suffered loss of life and limb and were forced to seal their profession with their blood and till we come to that resolution we are not compleatly faithful with Christ Heb. 12.4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin As soon as we are regenerate we renounce the Devil and the world and bid defiance to these things our life is a continual warfare Now if we have a reserve that as soon as it cometh to danger of death we will give over we are not as yet thoroughly resolved to be Christians The promise runneth Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to death and I will give thee a crown of life The same duty is required of us
6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe we shall also live with him So 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the Love which God hath to us Mark 't is a thing to be believed and that with a Divine Faith Qu. But how can this be you will say since I have no Divine Testimony and Revelation for it that I shall be saved Answ. If I take any thing upon mans Testimony that is Credulity if I take it upon Gods Testimony that is Faith Now I have Gods Testimony in the general that whosoever believeth shall be saved And particulars are included in their generals Look as with that faith that believeth the Commandments Psal. 119.66 I believe that it is the will of God that I must not steal I must not Commit Adultery dishonour Parents because God hath said so to all and every one though not to me by name So with that faith which I believe promises I believe they belong to me though my name be not expressed in Christs Charter and Deed of grace if I have the qualification annexed The qualification I discern by Spiritual sense the benefit of the promise I expect by faith even salvation to me 't is a matter to be believed upon supposition that I am converted and brought home to God As in this Syllogism All the dead shall rise Peter is dead ergo the Conclusion is de fide it belongeth to faith though it be not expresly written in Scripture the first Proposition is evident by faith the second by sense and yet the conclusion is de fide So here all that heartily come to God by Jesus Christ shall be saved this is written in Scripture but I do so that is evident by Spiritual sense the Conclusion is de fide I am bound to believe that I shall be saved if it be so upon supposition the Conclusion doth arise from premises one whereof is in Scripture the other evident by Spiritual sense Therefore It is of faith Only let me give you these cautions 1. The particular certainty of our eternal Salvation is not equal in certainty and firmness of assent to that assurance which we have about the Common object of faith the promises of the Gospel Because some things are believed absolutely and immediately other things are believed only mediately and upon supposition as they suit with things believed immediately The promises of the Gospel are totally and immediately revealed in Scripture But that I shall be saved in particular dependeth upon an Argument whereof one part is in Scripture the other ariseth from reflection upon and observation of a mans heart and ways the Conclusion is certain according to the verity of the second Proposition 'T is absolutely certain and evident by faith that whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life But that I believe in Christ with a saving faith 't is not so certain though certain it may be I have greater assurance that God is faithful and true then that my heart is upright Therefore greater assurance of the general truth that the true believer shall be saved then I can have of this that I am a true believer 2dly As our assurance of our own interest or particular Salvation is not so strong as our assurance of the truth of the Gospel So 't is not so absolutely necessary For firm adherence to Gospel promises with a resolution of obedience is the qualification absolutely necessary to the Pardon of sins Justification of our persons or our acceptance with God But assurance of our own Salvation though it be comfortable 't is not absolutely necessary The humble and broken heart God will not despise Psal. 51.17 Many poor Souls that want assurance are tenderly beloved of him owned by him as heirs of Salvation and their good works accepted in Jesus Christ that do only resolvedly adhere to Gospel promises and seek after God in the way of an humble obedience yea though they write bitter things against themselves 3dly Assurance of the Word is sooner gotten than assurance of our interest assoon as the Word entreth upon yea before it can have any thorow efficacy upon our hearts we receive it as the word of God or else 't would not work upon us 1 Thes. 1.5 1 Thes. 2.13 Assurance of our own Salvation is not usually got at once but by degrees after we have had some experience of a setled and habitual devotedness to God and grace hath been well exercised and approved in manifold duties tryals and combats Rev. 2.17 To him that evercometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and this establishment of heart will come after conquest and some experience in afflictions 3dly 'T is propounded as a common priviledge You and I and all the suffering Servants of God we know When we prove the possibility of assurance from the experience of the Saints recorded in Scripture as put case Job 19.25 26. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him at the last day or David Psal. 23.1 or Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 8. From all which instances there ariseth this Argument That which hath been may be The Papists answer That these were extraordinary cases that they had by special priviledge and revelation But there is no reason for such exemptions For the Faith of every Believer is as acceptable to God as the Faith of a Prophet or Apostle 2 Pet. 1.1 Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The object laid hold upon is the same Christs Righteousness there we are upon equal terms So Exod. 30.15 The Covenant by which we hold is the same But chiefly take notice of these three things 1. They assert their own assurance upon grounds common to all the faithful as the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 The Righteousness of God or his veracity in keeping promise 2 Tim. 4.8 Gods Power and All-sufficiency to maintain and uphold them in all Tribulations 2 Tim. 1.12 They that build upon the same grounds they may have the same certainty 2. They speak as taking in Believers together with themselves to shew that 't is a common case as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are always confident And St. John taketh in others 1 John 5.19 We know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness So that here is nothing singular challenged or intimated 3. Whatever was written was written for our comfort and learning That we might be incouraged by the grace given to them to look up to God with the more hope for the same priviledges Paul who was one of the Instances saith That he was set out as a Pattern unto them that should afterwards believe 1 Tim. 1.17 Though his humiliation were extraordinary yet he had his comforts in an ordinary way by the Ministry of Ananias I come now to the fourth Consideration
will never be day The possibility removeth prejudices aggravateth their evil choice Jonah 2.8 They that observe lying Vanities forsake their own mercies they are called their own because they might have been theirs By following vain Courses they deprive themselves of happiness which might have been theirs 'T is their own by offer God did not seclude and put them away but they did seclude and put away themselves Judge themselves unworthy of Eternal Life Acts 13.46 And 't is an incouragement when their Consciences are touched with any remorse Salvation is yet possible When there is but a slender possibility yet use the means Acts 8.22 Repent and pray c. If perhaps or if it be possible 2. To others there is a probability or a probable hope of Eternal Life This is more than possible as when men begin to be serious or in some measure to mind the things of God but are Conscious to some notorious defect in their duty or have not such a soundness of Heart as may warrant their claim to Everlasting Blessedness almost a Christian not far from the Kingdom of God As those that have the Grace of the Second or Third ground they receive the Word with joy but know not what tryals may do they have good sentiments of Religion but they are choaked or obstructed by voluptuous living or the cares of this world Now some such things may befall weak believers they dare not quit their hopes of Heaven for all the world though not actually to claim it or say it is theirs Now probabilities must incourage us till we get a greater certainty for we must not despise the day of small things This state must not be despised Christ will not despise smoaking flax 3dly A Conditional certainty which is more than probable or possible That is when we set our selves in good earnest to perform the Conditions required in the promises of the Gospel And upon the hopes offered to us deny our selves Sacrifice our Interests heartily exercise our selves to Godliness Such a certainty is described Rom. 2.7 Rev. 2.10 I am sure to find Salvation and Eternal Life if I continue in this way and by the grace of God I am resolved to continue Much of the Life of Christianity lyeth in this kind of certainty I do not doubt of the rewards of Godliness ex parte Dei No I know that the rewards of Godliness are sure and stedfast by his promise To doubt of that would detract from the Truth Goodness and Power of God But ex parte nostri my own qualification is not so positive and clear that I can determine my own right but I have support and some comfort in this way This Conditional hope and certainty is absolutely necessary to all acts of grace 4thly There is an actual certainty or an assured sense of our qualification and so of our Interest which admits of a latitude it may be not only full or not full firm or not firm but interrupted or continued The full hope removeth all doubts and fears and that which is not full hath some doubts accompanying it but the certainty prevaileth and is more than the doubtings We should Sail to Heaven with full Sails and get as much sense of the love of God and hope of eternal life as possibly we can an abundant entrance We should clear up our Right and Title and be able to say We know And I am persuaded Rom. 8.38 We should come and take possession of the Blessings of the Covenant and say all this is mine by the promise of the faithful God We use to say I know where I am but I know not where I shall be A Believer who hath assured his estate before God knoweth where he shall be as truly as he knoweth where he is He knoweth by Faith that he shall live with God for ever and what he will do for him to all Eternity in the performance of his Holy Covenant 3dly What reasons there are why we should attend upon this Work 1. Because 't is for our greater comfort not only to be safe but to know that we are safe Some have Salvation belonging to them but they know it not As the Child liveth before he knoweth that he liveth As Jacob said of Bethel Gen. 28.16 God was in this place and I knew it not So it may be said of many Christians Christ is in them and they know it not are not aware of it Oh how happy they if they knew their own happiness What delight would the hope of glory raise in their hearts How full of tears and despairs was Hagar when yet there was a Well nigh her Gen. 21.16 How pensive were the two Disciples going to Emmaus when yet Christ walked with them but they knew him not Luke 24.15 16 17. How bitterly did Mary weep at the Sepulchre when yet Jesus stood by her John 20.14 15. So many poor disconsolate Christians apprehend that Christ is at a distance when as yet they will not or cannot see him Therefore though our condition should be safe 't is not so comfortable till we get assurance 2. This certain confidence of our actual right and future possession cannot be had without diligence Such a Jewel will never drop into the mouth of the lazy negligent Soul 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Pet. 3.14 Heb. 6.11 If we would have not a groundless but a rational hope not a rash and probable but a firm and certain hope not a certain only but a full hope and this to continue without interruption We must buckle to it serve God in good earnest It will never be gotten and kept with sloath it may be gotten and kept with diligence As you neglect your duty so far the sense and comfortable assurance of your qualification may abate Gods best Children are sometimes remiss whereupon follow clouds and desertions to their great discomfort God in wisdom withdraweth comfort to quicken them to their Duty Well then 't will not come with a cold wish or a slight prayer or an hasty sigh or a faint and lazy pursuit Grace needeth to be much exercised than shall bring peace Exercised in Duties John 14.21 23. Exercised in Afflictions Those lazy pretenders that never made a business of it and yet hope to go to Heaven as well as the strictest they do but deceive themselves with an hope that will at length leave them ashamed Foolish presumption costs a man nothing like a Mushroom that groweth up in a night or as Jonahs Gourd Behold thou didst not labour for it The less men exercise themselves unto Godliness the more confident for exercise would discover their unsoundness A peace that groweth upon us we know not how and is better kept by negligence than diligence is not right 3. We should attend upon this work with all diligence because though we get it not we shall not labour in vain the very endeavour will keep us awful and serious and it may be we shall get Heaven whilst we are
profession without any fears of persecutions and sufferings as Heb. 3.6 Whose House we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of hope firm to the end And in the 14. verse For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end And again Heb. 10.35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompense of reward In all which places confidence noteth a bold owning and avowing of Christ or fearlesness and courage in our Christian profession arising from our certain perswasion of and dependance on Christ rewards in another World The great use of Faith is to fortify us against all Temptations and difficulties and inconveniences that we meet with in our passage to Heaven even against Death it self Then are we confident when born up against all dangers and sufferings There is a like word used John 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the World Gods Children may be bold or of good cheer in the midst of all their afflictions for Faith assureth them the end shall be Glorious Therefore we are bold perform our duty and pass on in our pilgrimage with a couragious and quiet mind This couragious confident encountering with trouble is the immediate fruit of Faith Because Faith inableth us to look to the end of trouble and our Salvation as sure and near 2. 'T is seen also in a generous contempt of all the baits and pleasures of sense and the delightful things in this World and cheerfully carrying on our duty though the flesh would tempt us to the contrary Faith is an obediential confidence and the strength of it is seen in checking of Temptations Or an affiance on God as it draweth our hearts after better things than that the world offereth We can more easily want and miss the contentments of the flesh and the pomp and ease and gratification of the present Life So that to be confident is to be prepared and resolved to do those things which God commandeth though with denial of those sensual good things which the flesh craveth as to endure what happeneth in the way to Heaven so to refuse and reject what hindreth us from it For we are exercised with tryals both on the right hand and on the left and we need the Armour of Righteousness both on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6 7. Our way to Heaven lyeth per blanda aspera As the terrours of sense are a discouragement to us so the delights of sense are a snare to us confidence hath an influence upon both it breedeth a weanedness from the baits of the flesh and a rejection of what would divert us from the pursuit of Eternal Life and is much seen in mortification 1 Cor. 9.26.27 I run not as one that is uncertain therefore I keep under my Body As if he had said I am confident therefore I am mortified contemn the allurements of sense As they dyeted themselves for the Isthmick games Hope to get a Crown of Laurel made them look to their bodies that they were in fit plight for the race There 's much more confidence of an Eternal Crown 3. There is another branch of this boldness that carryeth the name of this confidence also And that is Child-like Freedom with God in prayer Eph. 3.12 We have access with confidence and boldness through the Faith of him And 1 John 3.21 If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And 1 John 5.14 And this is our confidence that whatsoever we ask of him he heareth us And Heb. 10.19 Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the Holyest by the Blood of Jesus An Holy boldness with God in Prayer or a filial Child-like access to God in Prayer for obtaining what he hath promised There is a shyness of God His presence reviveth our guilty fears As David when he had sinned hung off from the Throne of Grace Psa. 32.3 Or as Adam run to the Bushes when he heard the voice of God in the Garden Now this is done away by Faith in the promises This Holy comfortable addressing our selves to God by Christ is a great branch of this confidence it imboldeneth us to go to him in Prayer and to trust in him and expect Salvation from him In the hour of his extremity he is not to seek of a God to pray to or a Mediator to interceed for him or a Spirit of Adoption to inable him to fly for help as a Child to his reconciled Father having been frequently intertained and accepted by him 4. The last and greatest of all is confidence at his coming 1 John 2.28 When he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming We feel the comfort of it when we seriously think of Death or when God summoneth us into his presence 2 Kings 20.3 I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart We know that we shall receive a Crown of Righteousness at his appearing Before they look for it and wait for it with confidence A Christian should cherish no other Confidence but what will be approved then what will hold out then If our Confidence cannot bear the thoughts of it and supposition of it how will it bear the day its self 4. The Properties of this Confidence 1. 'T is an Obediential Confidence or Affiance for he that hopeth for mercy is thereby bound to Duty and Obedience for mercy must be had in God's way and we cannot depend upon his Rewards unless we regard his Precepts 1 Pet. 4.19 Commit the keeping of your Souls to him in well doing We come to the one by the other yea the one breedeth the other Psal. 119.166 Lord I have hoped for thy Salvation and have done thy Commandments Dependance certainly begets observance and if we look for all from God certainly we will be faithful to him and keep close to his ways 'T is a lazy Presumption not a Christian Confidence that consisteth with disobedience both the Promises and the Precepts are the Object of Faith Psal. 119.166 I have believed thy Commandments Our believing the one breedeth Confidence in the other our believing the other breedeth Obedience but they must both go together if there be any difference in believing these by a right Faith 't is weaker in the Promises than in the Precepts because the Precepts commend themselves to our Consciences by their own Light and Evidence the Promises contain meer matter of Faith and lye farther out of the view of Sense and Reason Well then if we believe these Laws to be God's Laws and these Promises to be God's Promises our sense of duty will be at least equal with our hope of mercy Certainly Confidence and relying upon the Mercy of God for Salvation may be less than our care to walk in Obedience ordinarily greater it cannot be 2. This Confidence must be well rooted that fear of
any temporal Accident The discourse between Modestus a Governour under Valence and Basil the Great in Naz. his twentieth Oration is very notable to this purpose when he threatned him with banishment I know no Banishment that know no abiding place here in the World I cannot say that this place is mine nor can I say the other is not mine where ever God shall cast me rather all is the Lords whose Stranger and Pilgrim I am Every place is alike near to Heaven and thither I am tending This is to carry our selves as Strangers and Pilgrims Indeed to be more indifferent as to the good things of this life and to take them as God sendeth them but Heaven will make amends for all Many times the World proveth a Step-mother The ground that bringeth forth Thistles and Nettles of its own accord will not bear choicer Plants But 't is your comfort you shall be transplanted Heb. 10.34 From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross 1 John 3.1 A Prince that travaileth abroad in disguise may be slighted and ill treated but you have a Glorious inheritance reserved for you therefore this should be your comfort and support 5. Beg direction from God that you may go the shortest way home Psa. 119.19 I am a stranger upon Earth hide not thy Commandments from me It concerneth a stranger to look after a better and a more durable estate there is no direction how to attain it but in the Word of God and there is no saving understanding of it but in the light of his Spirit this we must earnestly â—eâ—k that in every thing we may understand our duty that we be not found in a false way Saved as by fire 1 Cor. 3.13 Make an hard shift to scramble to Heaven 6. Get as much of home as you can in your pilgrimage in the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies In Ordinances Matth. 26.29 But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Meditation Word Prayer and Communion of Saints 2. Doct. The main reason why a good Christian counteth himself not at home is because he is absent from the Lord while he is in the Body I shall here enquire 1. How believers are absent from the Lord. 2. Why this maketh them look upon the World as a strange place and Heaven as their House 1. How are believers absent from the Lord When he dwelleth in them as in his Temple and there is a near and close union between him and them And he hath promised that where two or three are gathered together in his name he is in the midst of them I answer Christ is with us indeed but we are not with him He dwelleth in us by his grace and influenceth us with quickening and strength but he is at a distance we can have no personal converse with him though there be a Spiritual commerce between us But in Heaven we shall be translated to Christ and injoy the fulness of his grace here we walk by faith and not by sight as it is in the next verse In short our Communion with Christ is 1. Not Immediate 2. Nor full 3. Often interrupted 1. 'T is not Immediate We see him now as covered and vailed in Ordinances and Providences but then we shall see him Face to Face In providences we injoy him only at the second or third hand Hosea 2.21 22. I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and the Earth shall hear the Corn and Wine and Oyl and they shall hear Jezreel The mercy and goodness of God passeth from Creature to Creature before it cometh to us So in Ordinances all that we have from him is by the means of the Word and Sacraments there we shall injoy him without means and without these external helps for there God will be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 We shall then ever be before him in his Eye and presence And in his presence is fulness of joy Psa. 16.11 Our Communion with him is not a fancy but indeed 1 John 1.3 Truly our Communion is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. But this commerce is maintained at a distance he is in Heaven and we are upon Earth 't is maintained by Faith but then all is evident to sense 2. Now 't is not full There is a defect both in the Pipe and the Vessel we cannot contain all that he is able to give out nor can the means convey it to us the means are as narrow conduits from the fountain or as Creeks from the Sea the fountain could send forth more water but the pipe or conduit can convey no more The Sea could pour a greater floud but the Creek can receive no more When God dispenseth himself by means either in a way of punishment or blessing he doth not give out himself in that fulness and Latitude as when he is all in all In punishing the wicked here he punisheth us by a Creature A Giant striking with a straw cannot put forth his strength with it So in blessing no Creature nor Ordinance can convey all the goodness of God to us Therefore now we have an imperfect power against sin imperfect peace and comfort in our Consciences an imperfect Love to God but when our Communion is Immediate then will it be full we converse with Christ without lett and impediment and he maketh out himself to us in a greater latitude and fulness then now 3. Our Communion with Christ is often interrupted but in Glory we shall injoy his company for ever and shall have constant and near fellowship 1 Thes. 4.17 We shall be ever with the Lord. That day is never darkened with Cloud or night we shall meet and never part more all distance is gone and weakness is gone and we shall everlastingly abide before his Throne 2. Why Gods Children count themselves not at home till they are admitted into this perpetual society with Christ 1. Because this is the blessedness which is promised to them And therefore they expect it and thirst after it John 12.26 Where I am there shall my Servant be 'T is our duty to follow him where ever he leadeth us here And 't is our happiness to be with him for ever hereafter We often look upon the Happiness of Heaven as it freeth us from all pains and torments No The chiefest part is to be with Christ. Our Glory and Happiness consists much in being in his company So when he maketh his last will and Testament John 17.24 Father I will that those whom thou hast given me may be where I am and behold my glory That 's it He prayeth they may be brought safe there and be happy for
by the power and influence of Faith 'T is not enough to have Faith but we must walk by it our whole Conversation is carryed on and influenced by Faith and by the Spirit of God on Christs part Gal. 2.20 I live by the Faith of the Son of God a lively Faith There living by Faith is spoken of as it respecteth the principle of the Spiritual Life here walking by Faith as the scope and end of it there as we derive vertue from Christ here as we press on to Heaven in the practice of Holyness In short walking noteth a progress and passing on from one place to another through a strait and beaten way which lyeth between both So we pass on from the earthly state to the Heavenly by the power and influence of our way our way is through all Conditions we are appointed unto and through all duties required of us 1. Through all Conditions By honour and dishonour evil report and good report afflictions prosperities 2 Cor. 6.4 5 6.7 8. Whether despised or countenanced still minding our great journey to Heaven Faith is necessary for all that the evil be not a discouragement nor the good a snare Evil Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us Good 2 Tim. 4.10 For Demas hath forsaken us and loved the present World 2. All duties required of us That we still keep a good Conscience towards God and towards man Acts 24.15 16. In this Faith and Hope Reasons 1. Walking by Faith maketh a man sincere because he expecteth his reward from God only though no man observe him no man commend him Matth. 6 6. Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Yea though all men hate him condemn him Matth 5.11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my names sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Now this is true sincerity when we make God alone our pay master and count his rewards enough to repair our losses and repay our cost 2. It maketh a man vigorous and lively When we consider at the end of our work there is a Life of endless joys to be possessed in Heaven with God that we shall never repent of the labour and pain that we have taken in the Spiritual Life 1 Cor. 15.58 Always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Phil. 3.14 I press towards the mark because of the high prize of the calling of God in Jesus Christ. The thoughts of the prize and worth of the reward do add Spirits to the runner 3. It maketh a man watchful that he be not corrupted with the delights of sense which are apt to call back our thoughts to interrupt our affections to divert us from our work and quench our zeal Now one that walks by Faith can compare his Eternal Happiness with these transitory pleasures which will soon have an end and everlastingly forsake those miserable Souls who were deluded by them As Moses Heb. 11.24 25. By Faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season 4. Walking by Faith will make a man self denying having for Heaven in his Eye he knoweth that he cannot be a loser by God Mark 10.21 Forsake all that thou hast and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven So the 29 30. Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left House or Brethren or Sister or Father or Mother and Children and Lands for my names sake but he shall receive an hundred fold 5. Walking by Faith maketh a man comfortable and confident a Believer is incouraged in all his duty imboldened in his conflicts comforted in all his sufferings The quieting or imboldening the Soul is the great work of Faith or trust in Gods fidelity A promise to him is more than all the visible things on Earth or sensible objects in the World it can do more with him to make him forsake all earthly pleasures possessions and hopes Psa. 56.4 In God I will praise his word in God I have put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me So Paul Acts 20.24 But none of those things move me neither count I my Life dear unto me so I may fulfil my course with joy Save the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying that bonds and afflictions abide me Did wait for him every where I make no reckoning of these things I maketh us constant Have ye fixed upon these hopes with so great deliberation and will you draw back and slack in the prosecution of them Have you gone so far in the way to Heaven and do you begin to look behind you as if you were about to change your mind Heb. 10.39 The Apostle saith Phil. 3.13 I forget the things which are behind reaching forth unto the things which are before The World and the flesh are things behind us We turned our backs upon them when we first looked after Heavenly things Heaven and remaining duties are the things before us if we lose our Crown we lose our selves for ever Use is to shew the advantage the people of God have above the carnal and unregenerate The people of God walk by Faith against the present want of sight How do the World walk Not by Faith they have it not nor by the sight of Heaven for they are not there and so continuing never shall be there So they have neither Faith nor sight what do they live by then They live by sense and by fancy by sense as to the present World and they live by fancy and vain conceit as to the World to come Live in their sins and vain pleasures and yet hope to be saved Here they walk by sight but not such a sight as the Apostle meaneth they must have something in the view of sense Lands Honours pleasures and when these are out of sight they are in darkness and have nothing to live upon But now a Christian is never at a loss let his Condition be what it will Suppose God should bring him so low and bare that he hath no estate to live on no House to dwell in yet he hath an inheritance in the promises Psa. 119.111 Thy Testimonies I have taken for an heritage for ever And God is his Habitation Psa. 90.1 A full heap in his own keeping is not such a supply to him as Gods alsufficiency Gen. 17.1 That 's his storehouse But his great Happiness is in the other World there is all his hope and his desire and he looketh upon other promises only in order to that SERMON XI 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be
The Godly will be brought in as one evidence to make them manifest parâ—ly as they endeavoured to do them Good Heb. 11.7 Noah condemned the World and the Saints shall Judge the World 1 Cor. 6.2 Now by their conversations hereafter by their vote and suffrage And partly as they might receive good from them As the Godly relieved Luke 16.9 And neglected Mat. 25. As they might have been visited and cloathed the Loins of the Poor Blessed Job Chap. 31.20 10. The circumstances of their evil actions Jam. 5.3 Your Gold and Silver is caâ—kered the â—â—st of them shall be a witness against you The circumstances of your sinful actions shall be brought forth as arguments of conviction Hab. 2.11 The stone shall cry out of the Wall and the beam out of the Timber shall answer it Though none durst complain of oppressors yet the materials of their buildings shall witness against them A kind of Antiphony heard by Gods justice The stones of the Wall shall cry Lord we were built by rapine and violence the beam shall answer true Lord even so it is the stones shall cry vengeance Lord upon our ungodly owner and the beam shall answer woe to him because his house was built with blood though all should be silent yet the stones will not hold their peace Vse 1. If we must appear so as to be made manifest Oh then let us take heed of secret â—in and make Conscience of avoiding it as well as that which is open for in time it will be laid open Achan was found out in his Sacriledge how secretly soever he carryed it Joshua Chap. 7. Ananias and Sapphirahs Sacriledge in keeping back part of what was dedicated to God Acts 5. Gebazi in affecting a bribe 1 Kings 5.26 Went not my spirit with thee Meaning his Prophetick Spirit Doth not God see and will not he require it Alas we many times make conscience of acts but not of thoughts and yet according to Christs Theology malice is heart-murther lustful inclinations are heart Adultery proud Imaginations are heart-Idolatry and there may be a great deal of evil in discontented thoughts and repinings against Providence Psal. 73.22 shall we repent of nothing but what man seeth Eph. 5.12 It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret A serious Christian is ashamed to speak of what secure persons are not ashamed to practice if they can hide it from men the all seeing-eye of God layeth no restraint upon them uncleanness usually affecteth a vail of Secresy but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 'T is said God will Judge them because usually this sin is carryed so closely and craâ—tily that none but God can find them out but certainly God will find them out none can escape Gods discovery all things are naked in his sight Let no man then Imbolden himself to have his hand in any sin in hopes to hide his Counsel deep from the Lord and his works in the dark Isa. 29.15 God knoweth the thoughts of the heart afar off and Psa. 139.2 Whither shall I go from thy presence and whither shall I fly from thy Spirit God knew what the King of Assyria spake in his secret Chamber 2 Kings 6.12 Knew the secret thoughts of Herods heart which it is probable he never uttered to his nearest friends concerning the murthering of Christ Matth. 2.13 But to end this consider the aggravations of these sins that are secret and hidden although to be an open and bold sinner is in some respects more then to be a close private sinner because of the dishonour done to God and Scandal to others and impudency in the sinner himself yet also in other respects secret sins have their Aggravations 1. The man is conscious to himself that he doth evil therefore seeketh a vail and covering would not have the World know it if open sins be of greater infamy yet secret sins are more against knowledge and conviction To sin with a consciousness that we do sin is a dreadful thing Jam. 4.17 You live in secret wickedness envy pride sensuality and would fain keep it close This is to rebel against the light and to stop the mouth of conscience which is awakned within thee 2. This secret sinning puts far more respect and fear upon men than God and is palliated Atheism What unjust in secret unclean in secret Envious in Secret disclaim against Gods Children in secret neglect duties in secret sensual in secret Oh then wicked wretch thou art afraid men should know it and art not afraid God should know it What afraid of the eyes of man and not afraid of the Great God Thou wouldest not have a Child see thee do that which God seeth thee to do A Thief is ashamed when he is found Jer. 2. Can man damn thee Can man fill thy Conscience with terrours Can man bid thee depart into Everlasting Burnings Why then art thou afraid of man and not of God 3. The more secret any wickedness is it argueth the heart is more studious and industrious about it how to contrive it and bring it about as David plotted Vriahs death And Joshua 7.11 They have stolen and dissembled also and even put it among their own stuff And Acts 5.9 How is it that ye have agreed together to Tempt the Spirit of God In Secret sins there is much Premeditation and Craft and Dissimulation used 2. VSE is to shew the folly of them who rather take care to hide their sins then get them pardoned 1. God hath promsed pardon to an open confession of sin Prov. 28.13 He that hideth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy He hath promised it in mercy but bound himself to perform it in righteousness 1 John 1.9 If we confess and forsake our sins he is just and faithful to forgive them David pleadeth it Psal. 51.3 Cleanse me from my secret sin for I acknowledge my transgression And God doth certainly perform it to his Children When David said I have sinned 2. Sam. 12.13 against the Lord Nathan said the Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die And this he acknowledged with thankfulness Psa. 32.5 I said I would confess and thou forgavest This is the right course which men should take confess their sin with grief and shame and reformation we have not our quietus est till this be done 2. Notwithstanding all this man naturally loveth to hide and cover his sin Job 31.33 If I have covered my transgression as did Adam by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom More hominum so Junius Hos. 6.7 They like men have transgressed the covenant 'T is in the Hebrew like Adam or Adams name is mentioned because we shew our selves to be right Adams race by hiding and excusing our sin First From men we hide them as Saul dealeth with Samuel 1 Sam. 15.13 15. Gehazi with Elisha Ananias and Sapphira with Peter Acts 5.8 They
rest Evil is best stop'd in the beginning If when first we begun to grow careless we had taken heed it would never have come to that sad issue it doth afterwards an heavy body running downwards gathers strength by running and still moveth faster Look then to your first breaking off from God and remitting your watch and Spiritual fervour 'T is easier to crush the the egg than kill the serpent He that keepeth a house in constant repair prevents the fall and ruin of it When first the evil heart beginneth to draw us off from God and to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin then we must Heb. 3.12 13. humble our Souls betime that we may stick close to Christ. 2. By way of recovery where there hath been a decay Take the advice of the Holy-Ghost Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art faln and repent and do thy first works 1. A serious consideration of our condition in those words remember from whence thou art faln Recollect and sadly consider what a difference there is between thee and thy self thy self living and acting in the sense and power of the love of God and thy self now under the power of some worldly and fleshly lust Consider what an advantage thou hadst against Temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh when love was in strengh and how much the case is altered with thee now how feeble and impotant in the resistance of any sin Say as Job Job 29.2 3. Oh that it were as in the months past In the day when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head Or as the Church Hosea 2.7 It was better with me then than now In our returning we should have such thoughts as these I was wont to spend some time every day with God 't was a delight to me to think of him or speak of him or to him now I have no heart to pray or meditate 'T was the joy of my Soul to wait upon his Ordinances the returns of the Sabbath were well-come unto me But now what a weariness is it Time was when my heart did rise up in arms against sin when a vain thought was a grief to my Soul why is it thus with me now Is sin grown less odious or God less lovely 2. The next advice is repent That is humble your selves before God for your defection 'T is not enough to feel your selves faln many are convinced of their faln and lapsed estate but do not humble and judge themselves for it in Gods presence bewailing their case smiting on the thigh praying for pardon 'T is a great sin to grow weary of God Isa. 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob Thou hast been weary of me Oh Israel And Mich. 6.3 Oh my people what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testify against me His honour is concerned in it therefore you must the more feelingly bewail it 3. Do thy first works We must not spend the time in idle complaints Many are sensible that do not repent Many repent i. e. seem to bewail their case but languish in idle complaints for want of love but do not recover this loss by serious endeavours You must not rest till you recover your former seriousness and mindfulness of God 'T is one of the deceits of our hearts to complain of negligence and not redress it The Nazarite who had broken his vow he was to begin all again Numbers 6.12 So you that have broken with God you must do what you did at first conversion let your work be sin-abhorring every day and ingaging your heart anew to God And make no reservation but so give up your selves to the Lord that his interests may prevail in your hearts again above all sinful and vile inclinations or whatever hath been the cause of the withdrawing your hearts from God and the decay of your love to him SERMON XXVI 2 Cor. 5.14 For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus Iudge that if one dyed for all then were all dead WE come now to the fifth case of Conscience about loving God with all the heart a thing often required in Scripture the original place is Deut. 6.5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy Soul and all thy might 'T is repeated by our Lord Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and all thy mind But in Mark 10.30 And Luke 10.27 With all thy heart and all thy Soul and all thy mind and all thy strength This sentence was famous 't was one of the four Paragraphs which the Jews were wont to write upon their Phylacteries and fastened to their door posts and read in their houses twice a day Mark here is variety of words sometimes three words are used and sometimes four some go about accurately to distinguish them by the heart interpreting the will by the Soul the appetite and affections by the mind the understanding and by might bodily strength All put together with that intensive particle all imply great love to God Now a doubt ariseth hereupon how this is reconcilable with the defects of Gods Children and the weaknesses of the present state Yea it seemeth to confine our affections that there will be love left for no other things For if God have all the heart and all the Soul and all the mind and all the strength what is there left for Husband Wife Children Christian Friends and other Relations Without which respect humane society cannot be upheld and preserved The doubt may be referred to two heads 1. The irreconcilableness of the rule with present defects 2. The confinement intimated is destructive of our respect to our natural comforts and relations 1. Concerning the first how it is reconcileable with those many partibilities and defects of Gods Children I answer First By distinguishing this sentence may be considered as an exaction of the Law Or as a rule of the Gospel 1. As an exaction of the Law And so it serveth to shew us what duty the perfect Law of God requireth compleat love without the least defect All the heart all the Soul and all the might a grain wanting maketh the whole unacceptable As one condition not observed forfeiteth the whole lease though all the rest be kept That this reference is not to be altogether slighted appeareth by the occasion A Lawyer asked him a Question tempting him saying Master which is the great Commandment of the Law Matth. 22.35 Now Christs aim was to beat down his confidence by proposing the rigour of the Law Luke 10.28 This do and thou shalt live The best course to convince self-justiciaries such as this Lawyer was thereby to rebate their confidence and to shew the necessity of a better righteousness And so 't is of use this way for a double end First To convince us of the necessity of looking after the grace of the Redeemer Secondly To
of liberty What debtor would not be discharged How glad is an honest man to be out of debt What guilty Malefactor would not be acquitted Oh let it not seem a light thing in your eye We have lost our Spiritual relish if it do Oh prize a pardon apprehend it as a great benefit sweeter than the honey and honey comb VSE 3. It should engage us to love God Luke 7.47 Her Sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little SERMON XXXVI 2 Cor. 5.19 Not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation DOct. One great branch and fruit of our reconciliation with God is the pardon of sins Reasons 1. Because reconciliation implyeth in its own nature a release of the punishment of sin or on Gods part a laying aside of his wrath and anger as on ours a laying aside of our enmity and disobedience Isa. 27.4 Fury is not in me Anger in God is nothing else but his Justice appointing the punishment of sin and he is said to be reconciled or pacifyed when he hath no will to punish or doth not purpose to punish And therefore fitly is this part of the reconciliation expressed by not imputing our trespasses Especially because our reconciliation with God is not the reconciliation of private persons or of equals but such as is between Superiours and Inferiours a Prince and his rebellious Subjects Parents and their disobedient Children the Governour and Judge of the World and sinning mankind And therefore not to be ended by way of agreement and composition but by way of satisfaction humiliation and pardon Satisfaction on Christs part humiliation on our part pardon on Gods When persons fall out that are in a private capacity the difference may be ended by composition they may quit the sense of the wrong done to them but the case is different here God is not reconciled to us meerly as the party offended but as the Governour of the World A private man as the party offended may easily remit a wrong done to him without requiring satisfaction or submission according to his own pleasure As Joseph was reconciled to his Brethren But here God is not considered as the party offended meerly but as the Supream Judge who is to proceed according to Law When the Magistrate forgiveth there must be a stated pardon and so God is to find out a way how the Law is to be satisfied and the Offendor saved by releasing the punishment in such a way as the Law may not fall to the ground and that is not without the satisfaction of Christ and the submission of the sinner and the solemn grant of a pardon A private man may do in his own case as pleaseth him but there is a difference in a publick person The right of passing by a wrong and the right of releasing a punishment are different things because punishment is a Common interest and is referred to the Common good to preserve order and for an example to others 2. This branch is mentioned because this was the most inviting motive to bring the Creature to submission and to comply with Gods other ends To understand this reason consider 1. Among the benefits which we have by Christ some concern our felicity others our duty some concern our priviledges others our service qualities rights The internal qualities and graces are conveyed and wrought in us by the sanctifying Spirit the rights and priviledges are conveyed to us by deed of gift by the Covenant of grace or new Testament Charter or Gospel Grant As the one frees us from a moral evil which is sin the other from a natural evil which is misery of the one sort is holiness and all those divine qualities which constitute the new nature Inherent graces Of the other sort are pardon of sins Adoption right to glory adherent rights and priviledges Now God offereth the one to invite us to the other by the Gospel as a deed of gift or special act of grace God offereth the one upon condition we will seek after the other which deed of gift cannot take effect till we fulfil the condition We cannot have remission of sins till we have repentance 'T is true he giveth the qualification as well as the priviledge repentance as well as remission of sins Acts 5.31 But he giveth it this way He giveth repentance offering remission that 's the natural way of Gods working The appointed means to draw mans heart to the performance of the condition As the Spirit doth work powerfully within so he useth the word without Well then if we would have the benefits by Christ we must have all or none repentance as well as remission Faith as well as Adoption and Justification and Holiness as well as a right to Glory For Christ in all the dispensations of his grace looketh at Gods Glory as well as our interest Therefore if we come rightly to the covenant and expect grace by our redeemer we must come with a true heart in full assurance of fatih Heb. 10.22 2. The one is the first inviting and powerful motive to the other Partly our desires of happiness which even corrupt nature is not against are made use of and apt to gain upon us to a desire of Happiness God would leave some inclination and desires to happiness in the heart of man that might direct us in some sort to seek after himself Act. 17.27 That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him Nature catcheth at felicity we would have impunity peace comfort glory we are willing as to our own benefit to be pardoned and freed from the curse of the Law and the flames of Hell we are naturally willing of justification but naturally unwilling to deny the flesh and to renounce the credit profit or pleasure of sin and to grow dead to the World and worldly things But these other suit with our desires of happiness Therefore God would in reconciling the creature go to work this way promise that which we desire on condition that we will submit to those things which we are against As we sweeten pills to Children that they may swallow them down the better they love the Sugar though they loath the Aloes So here God would invite us to our duty by our interest and therefore in reconciling the World to himself he would first be discovered as not impuâ—ing their trespasses to them 2dly Partly because of our fears as well as our desires of happiness God taketh this way The grand scruple which haunteth the creature is how God shall be appeased and quit his controversie against us by reason of sin Micha 5 6. Wherewith will he be appeased and what shall I give for the sin of my Soul There is a fear of death and punishment which ariseth from these natural sentiments which we have of God Rom. 1.32 Knowing the judgment of God that they which
where 't is not to be found in this creature and that but still meet with vanity and vexation of Spirit like feavorish Persons who seek ease in the change of their Beds 5thly The fruition of God Be reconciled to him and in time you shall be admitted to see his face This is the end of all For this end Christ died for this end we are sanctified and Justified and adopted into Gods family and for this end we believe and hope and labour and suffer and deny our selves and renounce the World 'T is Christs end Col. 1.21 22. And 't is our end 1 Pet 1.9 And will certainly be the fruit of our Reconciliation Rom. 5.11 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life 4thly The Fourth Motive is the great dishonour we do to God in refusing it You despise two things which men cannot endure should be despised their anger and love For anger Nebuchadnezzar is an instance who commanded to heat the furnace seven times hotter Dan. 3.19 For love David when Nabal despised his courteous message Now you despise the love and wrath of God as if they were inconsiderable things not to be stood upon 1. The terrour of his wrath as if not to be stood upon But do you know the power of his anger and what a dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Can you think of an eternity of misery without horrour One that hath been a little scorched in the flames of Gods wrath dareth not have slight thoughts of it Oh! Christians as you would escape this blackness of darkness eternal Fire and the Horrible Tempest which is reserved for the wicked flee from wrath to come 2dly His Love Thou despisest his Christ as if his purchase were nothing worth thou despisest his Institutions which are ordered with such care for thy good Oh! What Horrible contempt of God is this that thou refusest to be friends with him after all his intreaties and condescension How will you answer it at the last day In Hell thy heart will reproach thee for it 2dly To those that have been reconciled with God before Be yet more reconciled to God get more testimonies of his favour lay aside more of your enmity I have Four things to press upon them 1. To renew your covenant with God by going over the first work of Faith and Repentance again and again from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.17 Not questioning your estate but bewailing your offences Joh 13.10 And renewing your dedication to God The covenant is the covenant of Gods peace Isa. 54.10 This covenant needeth to be renewed Partly because of our frequent breaches T is not a work that must be once done and no more but often We have hearts that love to wander and need Tye upon Tye. Therefore renew the Oath of your Allegiance unto God We are apt to break with him every day Partly That you may give Christ a new and hearty welcom into your Souls We are Baptized but once but we receive the Lord's supper often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 's our Business there to make the bond of our duty more strong and to tie it the faster upon our Souls 2dly To increase your love to God That 's reconciliation on our part Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy Soul and all thy mind Luke 10.27 With all thy strength some add might Now we grow up into this by degrees Love with all thy mind The mind and thoughts are more taken up with God Of the wicked 't is said Psa. 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts And Job 21.14 They say unto God Depart from us For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Now it must be otherwise with you Psa. 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. You must still be remembring God Love with all the heart Let will and affections be more carried out to God that your desires may be after him your delights in him and valuing the light of his countenance more then all things Psa. 46.7 Prizing communion with him An Hypocrite doth not delight himself in God but a sincere Christian will Psa. 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple Psal. 37.4 Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart And testify it by conversing much with him and thirsting after him when they cannot injoy him Psa. 63.1 2. O Lord thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee In a dry and thirsty land where no Water is To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary With all thy strength That is you are to glorify him and serve him with all the power and capacities that you have with Body Time Estate Tongue Pleading for him acting for him not begrudging pains and labours not serving him without cost 3dly A third thing is keeping covenant The Scriptures that speak of making covenant speak also of keeping covenant Psal. 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his â—â—â—â—nant and his Testimonies And Psal. 103.17 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his Righteousness to Childrens Children to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them 4thly A thankful sense of the love of God in our reconciliation glorying in grace admiring of grace To preserve this is the great duty of a Christian. This keepeth alive his love and obedience 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Rom. 5.8 God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us SERMON XL. 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him HEre he amplifieth that Mystery which was formerly briefly delivered concerning the way of our reconciliation on Gods part namely that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses to them By shewing what was done by God in Christ and the benefit thence resulting to us Here is Factum and Finis Facti First Factum and there take notice 1. What Christ is in himself he knew no sin 2. What by the ordination of God He hath made him to be sin for us Secondly Finis facti and there observe 1.