House The next day Mr. Goodman the Minister of the Parish meeting the young man walking about his ground asked him how he did he answered very well but before the Minister was gone far from him his bowels fell out which he carried in his hands got to his house sent for Mr. Goodman bitterly bewailed his sin against his Father and so died And Dr. Taylor in his great exemplar tells us of another that upon discontent with his Father wisht the House might be on fire if ever he came any more into his Fathers House Afterwards coming in it was fired indeed and this wicked Son only consumed I could multiply instances of this nature for indeed the Righteous Judgement of God hath multiplied them But this only for a taste Thirdly Heathens will rise up in Judgement against you and condemn you They never had such precepts nor presidents as you and yet some of the better natured Heathens would have rather chosen death than to do as you do You remember the story of Croesus his dumb son whose dear affections could make him speak when he saw Croesus in danger though he never spake before yet then he could cry out O do not kill my Father But what speak I of Heathens the Stork in the heavens yea the Beasts of the earth will condemn the disobedience of Children Fourthly These are sins inconsistent with the true fear of God in whomsoever they are found That a man is indeed which he is in his family and among his relations He that is a bad child can never be a good Christian. Either bring testimonials of your godliness from your relations or it may be well suspected to be no better than counterfeit Never talk of your obedience to God whilst your disobedience to the just commands of Parents gives you the lie Fifthly A parting time is coming when death will break up the family and when that time comes Oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be When you shall see a Father or a Mother lying by the wall what a cut will it be to remember your miscarriages and evils They are gone out of your reach you cannot now if you would give them any satisfaction for what you have done against them but oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be at such a time Surely this will be more insupportable to you than their death if the Lord open your eyes and give you repentance and if not then Sixthly What a terrible thing will it be to have a Father or Mother come in as witnesses against you at Christs Bar As well as they loved you and as dear as you were to them in this world they must give evidence against you then Now what a fearful thing is it for you but to imagine your Parents to come before the Lord and say Lord I have given this child many hundred reproofs for sin I have counselled perswaded and used all means to reclaim him but in vain he was a child of disobedience nothing could work upon him What think you of this Inference 2. Have you such a pattern of obedience and tender love to Parents then children imitate your pattern as it becomes Christians and take Christ for your example Whatsoever your Parents be see that you carry it towards them becoming such as profess Christ. First If your Parents be godly O beware of grieving them by any unbecoming carriage Art thou a Christian indeed thou wilt then reckon thy self obliged in a double bond both of grace and nature to them O what a mercy would some children esteem it if they had Parents that feared the Lord as you have Secondly If they be carnal walk circumspectly in the most precise and punctual discharge of your Duties for how knowest thou O Child but hereby thou maist win thy Parents Wouldst thou but humbly and seriously intreat and perswade them to mind the waies of holiness speaking to them at fit seasons with all imaginable humility and reverence Insinuating your advice to duties or trouble for their evils rather by relating some pertinent History or proposing some excellent example leaving their own Consciences to draw the conclusion and make applicaâ—ion than to do it your selves it 's possible they may ponder your words in their hearts as Mary did Christs Luk. 2.49 51. And would you but back all this with your earnest cries to Heaven for them and your own daily example that they may have nothing from your selves to retort upon you and thus wait with patience for the desired effect O what blessed instruments might you be of their everlasting good Inference 3. To conclude let those that have such Children as fear the Lord and endeavour to imitate Christ in those daies account them a singular treasure and heritage from the Lord and give them all due incouragement to their duties How many have no Children at all but are as a dry tree And how many have such as are worse than none The very reproaches and break-hearts of their Parents that bring down their hoary heads with sorrow to the grave If God have given you the blessing of godly Children you can never be sufficiently sensible of or thankful for such a favour O that ever God should honour you to bring forth Children for Heaven What a comfort must this be to you what ever other troubles you meet with abroad when you come home among godly relations that are careful to sweeten your own family to you by their obedience Especially what a comfort is it when you come to die that you leave them within the Covenant Entitled to Christ and so need not be anxious how it shall be with them when you are gone Take heed of discouraging or damping such Children from whom so much glory is like to rise to God and so much comfort to your selves Thus let Christs pattern be improved who went before you in such eminent holiness in all his relations and left you an example that you should follow in his steps The THIRTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXIII XLIII And Iesus said unto him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise IN this Scripture you have the third excellent saying of Christ upon the Cross expressing the riches of free grace to the penitent Thief A man that had spent his life in wickedness and for his wickedness was now to lose his life His practice had been vile and profane but now his heart was broken for it he proves a Convert yea the first fruits of the blood of the Cross. In the former verse he manifests his faith Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom In this Christ manifests his pardon and gratious acceptance of him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In which Promise are considerable the Matter of it the Person to whom it is made the Time set for its Performance and the Confirmation of it for his
say to you of this place You are a people that were born under and bred up with the Gospel It hath been your singular priviledge above many Towns and Parishes in England to enjoy more than 60 years together an able and fruitful Gospel Ministry among you The dews of Heaven lay upon you as it did upon Gideons Fleece when the ground was dry in other places about you You have been richly watered with Gospel showers You with Capernaum have been exalted to Heaven in the means of Grace And it must be owned to your praise that you testified more respect to the Gospel than many other places have done and treated Christs Ambassadors with more civility whilst they prophesied in Sackcloth than some other places did These things are praise worthy in you But all this and much more than this amounts not to that which Jesus Christ expects from you and which in his name I would now perswade you to and oh that I the least and unworthiest of all the Messengers of Christ to you might indeed prevail with all that are Christless among you 1. to answer the long continued calls of God to you by a through and sound Conversion that the long suffering of God may be your salvation and you may not receive all this grace of God in vain O that the damned might never be set a wondering to see a people of your advantages for Heaven sinking as much below many of themselves in misery as you now are above them in means and mercy Dear friends my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved Oh that I knew how to engage this whole Town to Jesus Christ and make fast the marriage knot betwixt him and you albeit after that I should presently go to the place of silence and see man no more with the Inhabitants of the World Ah sirs methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hand of an holy violence upon you methinks he calls to you as the Angel to Lot saying arise lest ye be consumed and while he lingred the men laid hold upon his hand the Lord being merciful unto him And they brought him without the City and said escape for thy life stay not in all the plain escape to the Mountain lest thou be consumed Gen. 19.15 How often to allude to this hath Jesus Christ in like manner laid hold upon you in the Preaching of the Gospel and will you not fly for refuge to him Will you rather be consumed than endeavour an escape A beast will not be driven into the fire and will not you be kept out The merciful Lord Jesus by his admirable patience and bounty hath convinced you how loath he is to leave or loose you To this day his arms are stretched forth to gather you and will you not be gathered Alas for my poor neighbours Must so many of them perish at last what shall I do for the daughter of my people Lord by what Arguments shall they be perswaded to be happy what will win them effectually to thy Christ they have many of them escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour They are a people that love thine Ordinances they take delight in approaching to God thou hast beautified many of them with lovely and obliging tempers and dispositions Thus far they are come there they stick and beyond this no power but thine can move them O thou to whose hand this work is and must be left put forth thy saving power and reveal thine arm for their salvation thou hast glorified thy name in many among them Lord glorifie it again 2. My next request is that you will all be perswaded whether converted or unconverted to set up all the duties of Religion in your families and govern your Children and Servants as men that must give an account to God for them in the great day O that there were not a prayerless Family in this Town How little will your Tables differ from a manger where beasts feed together if God be not owned and acknowledged there in your eating and drinking And how can you expect blessings should dwell in your Tabernacles if God be not called upon there Say not you want time for it or that your necessities will not allow it for had you been more careful of those duties it 's like you had not been exposed to such necessities besides you can find time to be idle you can waste a part of every day vainly Why could not that time be redeemed for God Moreover you will not deny but the success of all your affairs at home and abroad depends upon the blessing of God and if so think you it is not the right way even to temporal prosperity to engage his presence and blessing with you in whose hand your all is Say not your Children and servants are ignorant of God and therefore you cannot comfortably joyn with them in those duties For the neglect of these duties is the cause of their ignorance and it is not like they will be better till you use Gods means to make them so Besides prayer is a part of natural worship and the vilest among men are bound to pray else the neglect of it were none of their sin O let not a duty upon which so many and great blessings hang fall to the ground upon such silly not to say wicked pretences to shift it off Remember death will shortly break up all your families and disband them and who then think you will have most comfort in beholding their dead The day of account also hastens and then who will have the most comfortable appearing before the just and holy God Set up I beseech you the ancient and comfortable duties of reading the Scriptures singing of Psalms and Prayer in all your dwelling places and do all these conscientiously as men that have to do with God and try the Lord herewith if he will not return in a way of mercy to you and restore even your outward prosperity to you again How ever to be sure far greater encouragements than that lye before you to oblige you to your duties 3. More especially I have a few things to say to you that have attended on the Ministry or are under my oversight in a more particular manner and then I have done And First I cannot but with deep resentments observe to you the goodness of our God yea the riches of his goodness Who freely gave Jesus Christ out of his own bosom for us and hath not withheld his spirit Ordinances and Ministers to reveal and apply him to us Here 's love that wants an Epithete to match it Who engaged my heart upon this transcendent subject in the course of my Ministry among you A subject which Angels study and admire as well as we Who so signally protected and overshadowed our Assembly in those dayes of trouble wherein these truths were delivered to you You then sate down under
keep those his Father gave him in this world Ioh. 17.12 to raise up the Saints again in the last day Ioh. 1.54 are all these with many more I might name the effects of the meer humane nature Or were they not performed by him as God-man and besides how could he as Mediator be the object of our Faith and religious adoration if we are not to respect him as God-man But I long now to be at the Application of this And the first inference from it is this Inference 1. That it is a dangerous thing to reject Iesus Christ the only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Alas there is no other interpose and skreen thee from the devouring Fire the everlasting burnings Oh! it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God And into his hands you must needs fall without an interest in the only Mediator Which of us can dwell with devouring Fire who can endure the everlasting burnings Esa. 33.14 you know how they singed and scorched the green Tree but what would they do to the dry Tree Luke 23.31 indeed if there were another plank to save after the Shipwrack any other way to be reconciled to God beside Jesus the Mediator somewhat might be said to excuse this folly but you are shut up to the Faith of Christ as to your last remedy Gal. 3.23 You are like starving Beggars that are come at the last door O take heed of despising or neglecting Christ if so there 's none to interceed with God for you the breach betwixt him and you can never be composed I remember here the words of Eli to his prophane Sons who caused men to abhor the offerings of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.25 If one man sin against another the Iudge shall Iudge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him the meaning is in common trespasses betwixt men the civil Magistrate takes cognisance of it and decides the controversie by his authority so that there is an end of that strife but if man sin against the Lord who shal intreat or arbitrate in that case Elies Sons had despised the Lords Sacrifices which were the sacred Types of Christ and the stated way that Men their had to act Faith on the Mediator in Now saith he if a man thus sin against the Lord by despising Christ shadowed out in that way who shall intreat for him what hope what remedy remains I remember it was the saying of Luther and he spake it with deep resentment nolo deum absolutum I will have nothing to do with an absolute God i. e. with God without a Mediator Thus the Divels have to do with God but will ye in whose nature Christ is come put your selves into their state and case God forbid Inference 2. Hence also be informed how great an evil it is to joyn any other Mediators either of reconciliation or meritorious intercession with Iesus Christ. O this is an horrid sin and that which both pours the greatest contempt upon Christ and brings the surest and forest destruction upon the Sinner I am ashamed my Pen should English what mine Eyes have seen in the writings of Papists ascribing as much yea more to the mediation of Mary than to Christ with no less than blasphemous impudence thus commenting upon Scripture What is that which the Lord saith I have trode the Wine-press alone and of the People there was no Man with me true Lord there was no man with thee but there was a Woman with thee who received all these wounds in her Heart which thou receivedst in thy Body I will not blot my Paper with more of this but refer the learned Reader to the Margent where he may if he have a mind to see more be informed not only what blasphemy hath dropt from single Pens but even from Concels to the reproach of Jesus Christ and his Blood How do they stamp their own sordid works with the peculiar dignity and value of Christs Blood and therein seek to enter at the Gate which God hath shut to all the World because Jesus Christ the Prince entred in thereby Ezek. 44.2 3. He entred into Heaven in a direct mediate way even in his own name and for his own sake this Gate saith the Lord shall be shut to all others And I wish men would consider it and fear lest while they seek entrance into Heaven at the wrong Door they do not for ever shut against themselves the true and only Door of happiness Inference 3. If Jesus Christ be the only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men then reconciled Souls should thankfully ascribe all the Peace favour and comforts they have from God to their Lord Iesus Christ when ever you have had free admission and sweet entertainment with God in the more publick ordinances or private duties of his worship when ye have had his smiles his Seals and with hearts warmed with comfort are returning from those duties say O my Soul thou maist thank thy good Lord Jesus Christ for all this Had not he interpos'd as a Mediator of reconciliation I could never have had access to or friendly communion with God to all eternity Immediately upon Adams sin the Door of Communion with God was lockt yea chain'd up and no more coming nigh the Lord. Not a Soul could have any access to him either in a way of communion in this World or of enjoyment in that to come It was Jesus the Mediator that open'd that Door again and in him it is that we have boldness and access with confidence Eph. 3.12 we can now come to God by a new and a living way consecrated for us through the Vayl that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.20 the Vayl had a double use as Christs flesh answerably hath It hid the glory of the Sanctum Sanctorum and also gave entrance into it Christs incarnation rebates the edge of the divine glory and brightness that we may be able to bear it and converse with it and it gives admission into it also O thank your dear Lord Jesus for your present and your future Heaven These are mercies which daily emerge out of the Ocean of Christs blood and come swiming in it to our Doors Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. Inference 4. If Jesus Christ be the true and only Mediator both of reconciliation and meritorious intercession betwixt God and Men how safe and secure then is the condition and state of Beleivers Surely as his mediation by sufferings hath fully reconciled so his mediation by intercession will everlastingly mantain that state of Peace betwixt them and God and prevent all future breaches Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 it 's a firm and lasting peace and the Mediator that made it lies as a lidger in Heaven to maintain it for ever and prevent new jarrs Heb. 9.24 there to appear in the presence of God for
Could ministers could Angels have done that for the which I did And when I had quickned thee and made thee a living soul what couldst thou have done without my exciting and assisting grace Couldst thou go on in the way of Duty if I had not led thee How wouldst thou have waded through the deeps of spiritual troubles if I had not born thee up Whither had the Temptations of Satan and thine own corruptions carried thee before this day if I had not stood thy friend and come in for thy rescue in the time of need Did I ever fail thee in thy extremities Did I ever leave thee in thy dangers Have I not been tender over thee and faithful to thee And now for which of all these kindnesses dost thou thus wrong and abuse me Why hast thou wounded me thus by thy unkindness Ah thou hast requited my Love And now thou hast eat the fruit of thy doings Let the light now be darkness Thy Songs turned into howlings The joy of thine heart the light of thine eyes the health of thy countenance even the face of thy God and the joy of salvation be hid from thee This is the fruit of careless and loose walking To this sad issue it will bring thee at last and when it is come to this thou shalt go to Ordinances and Duties and find no good in them no life quickning comfort there When thy heart which was wont to be enlarged and flowing shall be clung up and dry when thou shalt kneel down before the Lord and cry as Elisha when with the mantle of Elijah he smote the water Where is the Lord God of Elijah So thou where is the God of Prayer Where is the God of Duties But there is no answer when like Sampson thou shalt go forth and shake thy self as at other times but thy strength is gone then tell me what thou hast done in resisting quenching and grieving the holy Spirit of God by impure and offensive practices And thus you see what engagements lie upon you from the Spirit also to walk uprightly and keep the issues of life pure I could willingly have enlarged my self upon this last branch but that I find a Judicious hand hath lately improved this Argument to which I shall refer the Reader Thus God hath obliged you to circumspect and holy lives Secondly You are under great engagements to keep your lives pure even from your selves as well as from your God As God hath bound you to purity of conversation so you have bound your selves And there are several things in you and done by you which wonderfully increase and strengthen your Obligations to practical holiness First Your clearer illumination is a strong bond upon your souls Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as Children of the light You cannot pretend or plead ignorance of your Duty You stand convinced in your own consciences before God that this is your unquestionable Duty Christians will you not all yield to this I know you readily yield it We live indeed in a contentious disputing Age. In other things our opinions are different One Christian is of this Judgement another of that but doth he deserve the name of a Christian that dare once question this truth In this we all meet and close in oneness of mind and Judgement that it is our indisputable Duty to live pure strict and clean lives The grace of God which hath appeared to you hath taught you this truth clearly and convincingly 2 Tit. 11.12 You have received how you ought to walk and to please God 1 Thes. 4.1 Well then this being yielded the inference is plain and undeniable that you cannot walk as others in the vanity of their minds but you must offer violence to your own light You cannot suffer the corruptions of your hearts to break forth into practice but you must slight and put by the notices and rebukes of your own consciences Iam. 4.17 He that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Yea sin with a witness Aggravated sin Sin of a deeper tincture than that of the ignorant Heathens Sin that sadly wastes and violates conscience Certainly who ever hath you have no cloak for your sin Light and Lust strugling together great light and strong lusts these make the soul a troubled Sea that cannot rest Oh but when masterless Lusts over-bears Conscience this impresses horror upon the soul. This brake Davids heart Psal. 51.6 Thou hast put knowledge in my inner parts q. d. Ah Lord I went against the rebukes of conscience to the commission of this sin I had a watchful light set up within me I knew it was sin My light endeavoured lovingly to restrain me and I thrust it aside Besides what pleasure in sin can you have Indeed such as for want of light know not what they do or such whose consciences are seared and past feeling they may seek a littâ—e pleasure such as it is out of sin but what content or pleasure can you have so long as your light is ever breaking in upon you and smiting you for what you do This greatly increases your obligation to a precise holy life Again Secondly You are professors of holiness You have given in your names to Christ to be his Disciples and by this your engagement to a life of holiness are yet further strengthened 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The name of Christ is called upon you and it 's a worthy name Jam. 2.7 It 's called upon you as the name of the Husband is called upon his Wife Isa. 4.1 Let thy name be called upon us Or as the name of a Father is called upon his Child Gen. 48.16 Let my name be called on them and the name of my Fathers Well then you bear the name of Christ as his Spouses or Children and will you not live sutably to your name Every place and relation every title of honour and dignity hath its decorum and becomingness Oh how will that worthy name of Christ be blasphemed through you If you adorn it not with becoming deportments Better you had never profest any thing than to set your selves by your profession in the eye and observation of the world and then to pour contempt on Jesus Christ by your scandalous conversations before the Chams of the world who will laugh at it I remember it was a Memento given to one of his name by Alexander Recordare nominis Allexandri Remember said he thy name Alexander and do nothing unworthy of that name O that 's a heavy charge Rom. 2.24 Through you is the name of God blasphemed among the Heathens Unhappy man that ever thou shouldst be a reproach to Christ. The herd of wicked men they are ignota capita men of no note or observation They may sin and sin again drink swear and tumble in all uncleanness and it passes away silently the world
the severity of the Law that when it is once offended it will never be made amends again by all that we can do It will not discharge the sinner for all the sorrow in the world Indeed if a man be in Christ sorrow for sin is something and renewed obedience is something God looks upon them favourably and accepts them gratiously in Christ but out of him they signifie no more than the intreaties and cries of a condemned malefactor to reverse the legal sentence of the Judge You may toyl all the day of your life and at night go to bed without a candle To that sense that Scripture sounds Isa. 50. ult Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled this shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow By fire and the light of it some understand the sparkling pleasures of this life and the sensitive joys of the creatures but generally it 's taken for our own natural righteousness and all acts of duties in order to our own justification by them before God And so it stands opposed to that faith of recumbency spoken of in the verse before By their compassing themselves about with these sparks understand their dependence on these their duties and glorying in them But see the fatal issue ye shall lie down in sorrow That shall be your recompence from the hand of the Lord. That 's all the thanks and reward you must expect from him for slighting Christs and prefering your own righteousness before his Reader be convinced that one act of faith in the Lord Jesus pleases God more than all the obedience repentance and strivings to obey the Law through thy whole life can do And thus you have the first special fruit of Christs Priesthood in the full satisfaction of God for all the sins of Believers The FIFTEENTH SERMON GAL. IV. IV V. But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons THis Scripture gives us an account of a double fruit of Christs death viz. the payment of our debt and the purchase of our inheritance First The payment of our debt expressed by our redemption or buying us out from the obligation and curse of the Law which hath been discoursed in the last exercise Secondly the purchase of an inheritance for those redeemed ones expressed here by their receiving the Adoption of Sons Which is to be our present subject Adoption is either civil or divine Of the first the Civil Law gives this difinition that it is A Lawful Act in imitation of nature invented for the comfort of them that have no children of their own Divine Adoption is that special benefit whereby God for Christs sake accepteth us as Sons and makes us heirs of eternal life with him Betwixt this Civil and Sacred Adoption there is a twofold agreement and disagreement They agree in this that both flow from the pleasure and good will of the Adoptant And in this that both confer aright to priviledges which we have not by nature but in this they differ One is an Act imitating nature the other transcends nature The one was found out for the comfort of them that had no children the other for the comfort of them that had no Father This Divine Adoption is in Scripture either taken properly for that act or sentence of God by which we are made Sons or for the priviledges with which the Adopted are invested And so it 's taken Rom. 8.23 and in this Scripture now before us We lost our inheritance by the fall of Adam we receive it as the Text speaks by the death of Christ which restores it again to us by a new and better title The Doctrine hence is DOCT. That the death of Iesus Christ hath not only satisfied for our debts but over and above purchased a rich inheritance for the children of God For this end or cause he is the Mediator of the New-Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 9.15 We will here first see what Christ paid Secondly what he purchased Thirdly for whom First What Christ paid Our Divines comprize the vertue and fruits of the Priesthood of Christ in these two things viz. solutio debiti acquisitio haereditatis payment and purchase answerably the obedience of Christ hath a double relation ratio legalis justiciae the relation of a legal righteousness an adequate and exactly proportionated price And it hath also in it ratio super legalis meriti the relation of a merit over and beyond the Law To object as some do the satisfaction of Christ was more than sufficient according to our Doctrine and therefore could not be intended for the payment of our debt is a senseless cavil For surely if Christ paid more than was owing he must needs pay all that was owing to divine Justice And truly it is but a bad requital of the Love of Jesus Christ who beside the payment of what we owed would manifest his bounty by the redundancy of his merit which he paid to God to purchase a blessed inheritance for us This overplus of satisfaction which was the price of that inheritance I am now to open is not obscurely hinted but plainly expressed twice in Rom. 5.15 But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath abounded or flowed abundantly unto many So vers 17. For if by one mans offence death raigned by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more they which receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the overflowings or abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall raign in life by one Iesus Christ. In both which places Christ and Adam are compared as the two roots or common heads of mankind both agreeing in this property of communicating their conditions to those that are theirs yet there is a great deal of difference betwixt them for in Christ the power is all divine and therefore infinitely more active and effectual He communicates abundantly more to his than they lost in Adam So that this blood is not only sufficient to redeem all those that are actually redeemed by it but even the whole world also And were there so many worlds of men as there are men in the world it would be sufficient for them also and yet still there would be an overplus of value For all those worlds of men would rise but to a finite bulk but this blood is infinite
Historie to great indignation against Pilate the Jews and the rude and bloody Souldiers and could not contain himself but cried out as the Bishop was reading O that I had been there with my French-men I would have cut all their throats who so barbarously used my Saviour To allude to this When the Believer considers and remembers that sin put Christ to all that shame and ignominy that he was wounded for our transgressions he is filled with hatred of sin and cries out O sin I will revenge the blood of Christ upon thee thou shalt never live a quiet hour in my heart And Secondly It produces an humble adoration of the goodness and mercy of God to exact satisfaction for our sins by such bloody stripes from our surety Lord what if this wrath had seised on me as it did on Christ what had been my condition then If these things were done in the green tree what had been the cafe of the dry tree Sometimes representations and not common ones are made of the Love of Christ who assumed a body and soul on purpose to bear the wrath of God for our sins And when that surpassing Love breaks out in its glory upon the soul how is the soul transported and ravished with it crying out what manner of Love is this Here 's a Love large enough to go round the heavens and the Heaven of heavens Who ever loved after this rate to lay down his life for enemies O Love unutterable and unconceivable How glorious is my Love in his red garments Sometimes the fruits of his death are there gloriously displaied Even his satisfaction for sin and the purchase his blood made of the eternal inheritance And this begets thankfulness and confidence in the soul. Christ is dead and his death hath satisfied for my sin Christ is dead therefore my soul shall never die Who shall separate me from the Love of God These are the fruits and this is the nature of that remembrance of Christ here spoken of Secondly What aptitude or conducency is there in this Ordinance to bring Christ so to remembrance Much every way For it is a sign by him appointed to that end and hath as Divines well observe a threefold use and consideration viz. as it is memorative as it is significative and as it is instructive First As it is memorative and so it hath the nature and use of a pledge or token of Love left by a dying to a dear surviving friend And so the Sacrament as was said before is like a Ring pluckt off from Christs Finger or a Bracelet from his Arm or rather his Picture from his Breast delivered to us with such words as these as oft as you look on this rememember me Let this help to keep me alive in your remembrance when I am gone and out of your sight It conduces to it also Secondly As it is a significative sign most aptly signifying both his bitter sufferings for us and our strict and intimate union with him Both which have an excellent usefulness to move the heart and its deepest affections at the remembrance of it The breaking of the Bread and shedding forth the Wine signifies the former our eating drinking and incorporating them is a lively signification of the other Thirdly Moreover this Ordinance hath an excellent use and advantage for this affectionate remembrance of Christ as it is an instructive sign And it many waies instructs us and enlightens our mind particularly in these truths which are very affecting things First That Christ is the Bread on which our souls live proper meat and drink for Believers the most excellent New-Testament food It 's said Psal. 78.25 man did eat Angels food He means the manna that fell from Heaven Which was so excellent that if Angels who are the noblest creatures did live-upon material food they would choose this above all to feed on And yet this was but a Type and weak shadow of Christ on whom Believers feed Christ makes a royal feast of his own flesh and blood Isai. 25.6 all our delicates are in him Secondly It instructs us that the New-Testament is now in its full force and no sustantial alteration can be made in it since the the Testator is dead and by his death hath ratified it So that all the excellent promises and blessings of it are now fully confirmed to the believing soul. Heb. 9.16 17. All these and many more choice truths are we instructed in by this sign And all these waies it remembers us of Christ and helps powerfully to raise warm and affect our hearts with that remembrance of him Thirdly The last enquiry is how Christ hath hereby left such a special mark of his care for and love to his people And that will evidently appear if you consider these five particulars First This is a special mark of the care and Love of Christ in as much as hereby he hath made abundant provision for the confirmation and establishment of his peoples faith to the end of the world For this being an evident proof that the New-Testament is in its full force Matth. 26.28 this is the Cup of the New-Testament in my blood it tends as much to our satisfaction as the legal execution of a deed by which we hold and enjoy our estate So that when he saith take eat it is as much as if God should stand before you at the Table with Christ and all the promises in his hand and say I deliver this to thee as my deed What think you doth this promote and confirm the faith of a Believer if it do not what doth Secondly This is a special mark of Christs care and Love in as much as by this he hath made like abundant provision for the enlargement of his peoples joy and comfort Believers are at this Ordinance as Mary was at the Sepulcher with fear and great joy Matth. 28.8 Come Reader speak thy heart if thou be one that heartily lovest Jesus Christ and hast gone many daies possibly years mourning and lamenting because of the inevidence and cloudiness of thine interest in him that hast sought him sorrowing in this Ordinance and in that in one duty and another if at last Christ should take off that mask that cruel covering as one calls it from his face and be known of thee in breaking bread Suppose he should by his Spirit whisper thus in thine ear as thou sittest at his Table dost thou indeed so prize esteem and value me will nothing but Christ and his Love content and satisfie thee then as sweet lovely and desireable as I am know that I am thine Take thine own Christ into the arms of thy faith this day Would not this breed in thy soul a joy transcendent to all the joys and pleasures in this world what thinkest thou of it Thirdly Here is a signal mark of Christs care and Love in as much as this is one of the highest and best helps for the mortification of the
their signal lest they should mistake the man For they aimed neither at small nor great save only at the King of Israel The King of glory Here was much ado you see to take a harmless Lamb that did not once start from them but freely offered himself to them Fourthly and Lastly When was this treasonable design executed upon Christ And it was executed upon him while he stood among his Disciples exhorting them to prayer and watchfulness Dropping Heavenly and most seasonable counsels upon them While he yet spake lo Judas and with him a multitude came with swords and stave Surely 't is no better than a Iudas trick to disturb and afflict the servants of God in the discharge of their duties This was the Traytor and his Treason thus it was executed and at this time Hence we observe DOCT. That it was the Lot of our Lord Iesus Christ to be betrayed into the hands of his mortal enemies by the assistance of a false and dissembling friend Look as Ioseph was betrayed and sold by his brethren David by Achithophel his old friend Sampson by Dalilah that lay in his bosom So Christ by Iudas one of the twelve A man his friend his familiar that had been so long conversant with him He that by profession had lifted up his hand to Christ now by treason lifts up his heel against him He bids the Souldiers bind those blessed hands that not long before had washt the Traitors feet In the point before us we will First Consider Iudas according to that eminent station and place he had under Christ. Secondly We will consider his Treason according to the several aggravations of it Thirdly We will inquire into the Cause or motives that put him upon such a dreadful hellish design as this was Fourthly and Lastly We will view the Issue and see the event of this treason both as to Christ and as to himself and then apply it First As for the person that did this he was very eminent by reason of that dignity Christ had raised him to He was one of the twelve A person retained not in a more general and common but the nearest and most intimate and honourable relation and service to Jesus Christ. There were in Christs time several sorts and ranks of persons that had relation to Christ. There were secret Disciples men that believed but kept their stations and abode with their relations in their callings There were the seventy also whom Christ sent forth but none of these were so much with Christ or so eminent in respect of their place as the twelve They were Christs family day and night conversant with him it was the highest dignity that was conferred upon any and of this number was Iudas The Antients have much extolled the Apostolical dignity Some stiled these twelve pedes Christi the feet of Christ because they as it were carried Christ up and down the world Others oculi Dei the very eyes of God they were his watchmen that took care for the concernments of his name and Gospel in the world Others mammae Ecclesiae the breasts of the Church They fed and nourisht the children of God by their doctrine Now to be one of this number one of the twelve what a dignity was this 2. Yea he being one of the twelve was daily conversant with Christ. Often joined with him in prayer often sate at his feet hearing the gratious words that came forth of his mouth It was one of Austins three wishes that he had seen Christ in the flesh Iudas not only saw him but dwelt with him travelled with him eat and drank with him And during the whole time of his abode with him all Christs carriages towards him were very obliging and winning yea such was the condescention of Christ to this wretched man that he washed his feet and that but a little before he betrayed him 3. He was a man of unsuspected integrity among the Apostles When Christ told them one of you shall betray me none thought on him but every one rather suspected himself Lord is it I saith one and so said they all But none pointed at Iudas saying thou art he 4. To conclude in some respect he was preferred to the rest For he had not only a joint commission with them to preach the Gospel to others though poor unhappy wretch himself became a cast away but he had a peculiar office He bare the bag i. e. he was Almoner or the Steward of the family to take care to provide for the necessary accommodations of Christ and them Now who could ever have suspected that such a man as this should have sold the blood of Christ for a little mony that ever he should have proved a perfidious Traytor to his Lord who had called him honoured him and carried himself so tenderly towards him and yet so it was lo Judas one of the twelve came and with him a multitude O whither will not a busie Devil and a bad heart carry a man Secondly But what did this man do And what are the just aggravations of his fact Why he most basely and unworthily sold and delivered Christ into his enemies hands to be butchered and destroyed and all this for thirty pieces of silver Blush O Heavens and be astonished O Earth at this in this fact most black and horrid aggravations appear First Iudas had seen the majesty of a God on him whom he betrayed He had seen the Miracles that Christ wrought which none but Christ could do He knew that by the finger of God he had raised the dead cast out Devils healed the sick He could not choose but observe and see the raies and awful beams of divine Majesty shining in his very face in his doctrine and in his life To betray a man to sell the blood of the poorest innocent in the world is horrid but to sell the blood of God O what 's this here 's a wickedness that no epithete can match yea Secondly This wickedness he committed after personal warnings and praemonitions given him by Christ. He had often told them in general that one of them should betray him Mark 14.20 He had also denounced a dreadful wo upon him that should do it vers 21. The Son of man goeth indeed as it is written of him but wo to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed good had it been for that man if he had never been born This was spoken in Iudas his presence And one would have thought so dreadful a doom as Christ passed upon the man that should attempt this should have affrighted him far enough from the thoughts of such a wickedness Nay Christ comes nearer to him than this and told him he was the man For when Iudas who was the last that put the question to Christ asked him Master is it I Christs answer imports as much as a plain affirmation Thou hast said Matth. 26.25 Moreover Thirdly He doth it not out of a blind zeal against
him and his truth when we are required lawfully so to do i. e. when we are before a lawful Magistrate and the questions are not curious or captious when we cannot hold our peace but our silence will be interpretatively a denying of the truth finally when the glory of God honour of his truth and edification of others is more attainable by our open confession than it can be by our silence then must we with Christ give direct plain and sincere answers It was the old Priscilian error to allow men to deny or dissemble their profession when an open confession would infer danger But you know what Christ hath said Matth. 10.33 Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven Christ will repay him in his own coin It was a noble saying of couragious Zuinglius what deaths would I not choose What punishment would I not undergo Yea into what vault of Hell would I not rather choose to be thrown than to witness against my Conscience Truth can never be bought dear nor sold cheap The Lord Jesus you see owns truth with the eminent and instant hazard of his life The whole cloud of witnesses have followed him therein Revel 14.1 we our selves once openly owned the waies of sin And shall we not do as much for Christ as we then did for the Devil Did we then glory in our shame and shall we now be ashamed of our glory Do not we hope Christ will own us at the great day Why if we confess him he also will confess us O possess your thoughts with the reasonableness of this duty Inference 3. Once more hence it follows That to bear the revilings contradictions and abuses of men with a meek composed and even spirit is excellent and Christ like He stood before them as a Lamb he rendred not railing for railing he endured the contradictions of sinners against himself Imitate Christ in his meekness He calls you so to do Matth. 11.28 This will be convincing to your enemies comfortable for your selves and honourable for Religion And as for your innocency God will clear it up as Christs was You have heard the illegal trial of Christ how insolently it was managed against him well right or wrong innocent or guilty his blood is resolved upon 'T is bought and sold before hand And if nothing else will do it menaces and clamours shall constrain Pilate to condemn him Whence our second note was DOCT. 2. That though nothing could be proved against our Lord Iesus Christ worthy of death or of bonds yet was he condemned to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang till he died For the explication of this I shall open the following particulars First Who gave the Sentence Secondly Upon whom he gave it Thirdly What Sentence was it that was given Fourthly In what manner Christ received it First Who and what was he that durst attempt such a thing as this Why this was Pilate who succeeded Valerius Gratus in the Presidentship of Iudea as Iosephus tells us in which trust he continued about ten years This cruel cursed act of his against Christ was in the eighth year of his government Two years after he was removed from his place and Office by Vitelius President of Syria for his inhumane murdering of the innocent Samaritans This necessitated him to go to Rome to clear himself before Caesar. But before he came to Rome Tyberius was dead and Cajus in his room Under him saith Eusebius Pilate killed himself He was a man not very friendly or benevolent to the Jewish nation but still suspicious of their rebellions and insurrections this jealous humour the Priests and Scribes observed and wrought upon it to compass their design against Christ. Therefore they tell him so often of Christs sedition and stirring up the people and that if he let him go he is none of Caesars friend which were the very considerations that prevailed with him to do what he did But how durst he attempt such a wickedness as this however he had stood in the opinion of Caesar What I give Judgement against the Son of God for 't is evident by many circumstances in this trial that he had many inward fears and convictions upon him that he was the Son of God By these he was scared and sought to release him Ioh. 19.8 12. the fear of a Deity fell upon him his mind was greatly perplext and dubious about this prisoner whether he was a God or a man And yet the fear of Caesar prevailed more than the fear of a Deity he proceeds to give sentence O Pilate wast thou not afraid to Judge and Sentence an Innocent a known Innocent and one whom thou thy self suspectedst at least to be more than man But see in this predominancy of self-interest what men will not attempt and perpetrate to secure and accommodate self Secondly against whom doth Pilate give Sentence against a Malefactor No his own mouth once and again acknowledged him innocent Against a common prisoner No but one whose same no doubt had often reached Pilates ears even the wonderful things wrought by him which none but God could do One that stood before him as the picture or rather as the body of innocency and meekness Ye have condemned and killed the Just and he resisteth you not Iames 5.6 now was that word made good Psal. 94.21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the Righteous and condemn the innocent blood Thirdly But what was the sentence that Pilate gave We have it not in the form in which it was delivered But the sum of it was that it should be as they required Now what did they requires why crucifie him crucifie him So that in what formalities soever it was delivered this was the substance and effect of it I adjudge Iesus of Nazareth to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang til he be dead Which sentence against Christ was First A most unjust and unrighteous sentence the greatest perversion of Judgement and Equity that was ever known to the civilized world since seats of Judicature were first set up What! to condemn him before one accusation was proved against him And if what they accused him of that he said he was the Son of God had been proved it had been no crime for he really was so and therefore no blasphemy in him to say he was Pilate should rather have come down from his seat of Judgement and adore him that sit there to judge him Oh it was the highest piece of injustice that ever our ears heard of Secondly As it was an unrighteous sentence so it was a cruel sentence delivering up Christ to their wills This was that misery which David so earnestly deprecated Psal. 27.12 O deliver me not over to the will of mine enemies But Pilate delivers Christ over to the will of his enemies men full of enmity rage and malice whose greatest pleasure it was to glut
reallize and if it do so it must needs overcome the heart Ah Christian canst thou look upon Jesus as standing in thy room to bear the wrath of a Deity for thee Canst thou think on it and not melt That when thou like Isaac wast bound to the Altar to be offered up to Justice Christ like the Ram was caught in the Thicket and offered in thy room When thy sins had raised a fearful tempest that threatned every moment to entomb thee in a Sea of wrath Iesus Christ was thrown over to appease that storm Say Reader can thy heart dwell one hour upon such a Subject as this Canst thou with Faith present Christ to thy self as he was taken down from the Cross drencht in his own blood and say these were the wounds that he received for me This is he that loved me and gave himself for me Out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul. Out of these stripes my peace When we hang'd upon the Cross he bore my name upon his breast like the high Priest It was love pure love strong love to my poor soul to the soul of an enemy that drew him down from Heaven and all the glory he had there to endure these sorrows in soul and body for me Oh you cannot hold up your hearts long to the piercing thoughts of this but your bowels will be pained and like Ioseph you will seek a place to vent your hearts in Thirdly Faith cannot only reallize and apply Christ and his death but it can reason and conclude such things from his death as will fill the soul with affection to him and break the heart in pieces in his presence When it views Christ as Dead it Infers is Christ dead for me then was I dead in Law Sentenced and condemned to die eternally 2 Cor. 5.14 If one die for all then were all dead How woful was my case when the Law had past Sentence on me I could not be sure when I lay down but that it might be executed before I rose Nothing but a puff of breath betwixt my soul and Hell Again is Christ dead for me then I shall never die If he be condemned I am acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth it 's Christ that died Rom. 8.34 My soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler I was condemned but am now cleared I was dead but am now alive O the unsearchable riches of grace O Love past finding out Again did God give Christ to such miseries and sufferings for me how shall he withhold any thing now from me He that spared not his own Son will doubtless with him freely give me all things Rom. 8.32 Now I may rest upon him for pardon peace acceptance and glory for my soul. Now I may relie upon him safely for provision protection and all supplies for my body Christ is the root of all these mercys He is more than all these he is nearer and dearer to God than any other gift Oh what a blessed happy comfortable state hath he now brought my soul into To conclude did Christ endure all these things for me then it 's past doubt he will never leave nor forsake me It cannot be that after he hath endured all this he will cast off the souls for whom he endured it Here the soul is Evangelically broken by the considerations of the mercys which emerge and flow to it out of the Sea of Christs blood Fourthly and Lastly Faith cannot only reallize apply and Infer but it can also compare the love of Christ in all this both with his dealings with others and with the souls dealing with Christ who so loved it To compare Christs dealings with others is most affected He hath not dealt with every one as with me Nay few there are that can speak of such mercies as I have from him How many are there that have no part nor portion in his blood That must bear that wrath in their own persons that he bare himself for me He hath kissed me over other mens shoulders He hath reached a pardon to me over other mens heads He espied me out and singled me forth to be the object of his love leaving thousands and millions still unreconciled Not that I was better than they for I was the greatest of sinners Far from righteousness As unlikely as any to be the object of such grace and love My companions in sin are left and I taken Now the soul is full The heart grows big too big to contain it self Yea Faith helps the soul to compare the love of Christ to it with the returns it haâ—h made to him for that love And what my soul hath thy carriage to Christ been since this grace that wants a name appeared to thee Hast thou returned love for love Love suitable to such love Hast thou prized valued and esteemed this Christ according to his own worth in himself or his kindness to thee Ah no I have grieved pierced wounded his heart a thousand times since that by my ingratitude I have suffered every trifle to justle him out of my heart I have neglected him a thousand times and made him say is this thy kindness to thy friend Is this the reward I shall have for all that I have done and suffered for thee Wretch that I am how have I requited the Lord this shames humbles and breakes the heart And when from such sights of faith and considerations as these the heart is thus affected it affords a good argument indeed that thou art gone beyond all the attainments of temporary believers Flesh and blood hath not revealed this Inference 1. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences then sure there is but little faith among men Our dry eyes and hard hearts are evidences against us that we are strangers to the sighs of faith God be merciful to the hardness of your hearts How is Christ and his love flighted among men How shallow doth his blood run to some eyes Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountains of tears for this What monsters are carnal hearts We are as if God had made us without affections As if all ingenuity and tenderness were dried up Our ears are so accustomed to the sounds of Christ and his blood than now they are become as common things If a child die we can mourn over our dead but who mourns for Christ as for an only Son We may say of faith when men and women sit so unaffected under the Gospel as Martha said of Christ concerning her brother Lazarus if thou pretious faith hadst been here so many hearts had not been dead this day and in this duty Faith is that burning-glass which contracts the beams of the grace and love and wisdom and power of Jesus Christ together reflects these on the heart and makes it burn but without it we feel nothing
savingly Inference 2. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences the surely then proper order of raising the affections is to begin at the exercise of faith It grieves me to see how many poor Christians tug at their own dead hearts endeavouring to raise and affect them but cannot They complain and strive strive and complain pump and draw but no love to the Lord comes no brokenness of heart comes They go to this ordinance and that to one duty and another hoping that now the Lord will affect it and fill the sails but come back disappointed and ashamed like the troops of Tema Poor Christian hear me one word possibly it may do thy business and stand thee in more stead than all the methods thou hast yet used If thou wouldst indeed get an heart Evangelically melted for sin and broken with the kindly sense of the grace and love of Christ thy way is not to force thy affections nor to vex thy self and go about complaining of an hard heart but set thy self to believe reallize apply infer and compare by faith as you have been directed and see what this will do They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn This is the true way and proper method to raise the heart and break it Inference 3. Is this the way to get a truly broken heart then let those that have attained brokenness of heart this way bless the Lord whilst they live for so choice a mercy And that upon a double account First For as much as an heart so affected and melted is not attainable by any natural or unrenewed person If they would give all they have in the world it cannot purchase one such tear or groan over Christ. Mark what characters of special grace it bears in the description that 's made of it in that forementioned place Zech. 12.10 Such a frame as this is not born with us or to be acquired by us for it 's there said to be poured out by the Lord upon us I will pour on them c. There 's no hypocrisie or dissimulation in these mournings for they are compared to the mourning of a man for his only Son And sure the hearts of parents are not untouched when they behold such sights Nature is not the principle of it but faith For it 's there said they shall look on me i. e. believe and mourn Self is not the end and center of these sorrows It is not so much for damning our selves as for piercing Christ they shall look on me whom they have pierced and shall mourn so that this is sorrow after God and not a flash of nature as was discoursed from the former point And therefore you have cause to bless the Lord whilst you live for such a special mercy as this is And Secondly As it 's the right so it is the choisest and most pretious gift that can be given you for it 's rancked among the prime mercies of the new Covenant Ezek. 36.26 This shall be the Covenant A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh What wouldst thou have given sometimes for such an heart as now thou hast though it be not yet as thou wouldst have it And however you value and esteem it God himself sets no common value on it for mark what he â—aith of it Psal. 51.17 the sacrifices of God are a broken heart a broken and a contrite spirit O God thou wilt not despise i. e. God is more delighted with such an heart than all the sacrifices in the world One groan one tear flowing from faith and the spirit of Adoption is more to him than the Cattle upon a thousand hills And to the same sense he speaks again Isai. 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build to me and where is the place of my rest but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word q. d. all the magnificent Temples and gloririous structures in the world give me no pleasure in comparison of such a broken heart as this Oh then for ever bless the Lord that hath done that for you which none else could do And what he hath done but for few besides you The TWENTY SIXTH SERMON ACT. II. XXIII Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain HAving considered in order the preparative acts for the death of Christ both on his own part and on his enemies part we now come to consider the death of Christ it self which was the principal part of his humiliation and the chief pillar of our consolation Here we shall in order consider First The kind and nature of the death he died Secondly The manner in which he bare it viz. patiently solitary and instructively droping divers holy and instructive lessons upon all that were about him in his seven last words upon the Cross. Thirdly The funeral solemnities at his burial Fourthly and Lastly The weighty ends and great designs of his death In all which particulars as we proceed to discuss and open them you will have an account of the deep abasement and humiliation of the Son of God In this text we have an account of the kind and nature of that death which Christ died as also of the causes of it both principal and instrumental First The kind and nature of the death Christ died which is here described more generally as a violent death Ye have slain him and more particularly as a most ignominious cursed dishonorable death ye have crucified him Secondly The causes of it are here likewise expressed and that both principal and instrumental The principal cause permitting ordering and disposing all things about it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God There was not an action or circumstance but came under this most wise and holy counsel and determination of God The Instruments effecting it were their wicked hands This foreknowledge and counsel of God as it did no way necessitate or enforce them to it so neither doth it excuse their fact from the least aggravation of its sinfulness It did no more compel or force their wicked hands to do what they did than the Mariners hoising up his sails to take the wind to serve his design compels the wind And it cannot excuse their action from one circumstance of sin because Gods end and manner of acting was one thing their end and manner of acting another His most pure and holy theirs most malitious and daringly wicked Idem quod duo faciunt non est idem To this purpose a grave Divine will expresses it In respect of God
Luk. 22.28 And were all resolved so to do though they should die with him Matth. 26.35 These were the persons Secondly But were they as good as their word did they indeed stick faithfully to him No they all forsook him and fled These Sheep were scattered This was not indeed a Total and final Apostacy that 's the fall proper to the Hypocrite the Temporary believer who like a Comet expires when that earthly matter is spent that maintain'd the blaze for a time These were Stars fixed in their Orb though clouded and overcast for a time This was but a mist or fog which overspreads the earth in the morning till â—he Sun be risen and then it clears up and proves a fair day But though it was not a total and final Apostacy yet it was a very sinful and sad relapse from Jesus Christ as will appear by considering the following aggravations and circumstances of it For First This relapse of theirs was against the very Articles of agreement which they had sealed to Christ at their first admission into his service he had told them in the beginning what they must resolve upon Luk. 14.26 27. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannnot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Accordingly they submitted to these terms and told him they had left all and followed him Mar. 10.28 Against this ingagement made to Christ they now sin Here was unfaithfulness Secondly As it was against the very terms of their admission so it was against the very principles of Grace implanted by Christ in their hearts They were holy sanctified persons in whom dwelt the love and fear of God By these they were strongly inclined to adhere to Christ in the time of his sufferings as appears by those honest resolves they had made in the case Their Grace strongly inclined them to their Duty their corruptions sway'd them the contrary way Grace bid them stand corruption bid them fly Grace told them it was their Duty to share in the sufferings as well as in the glory of Christ. Corruption represented these sufferings as intolerable and bid them shift for themselves whilst they might So that here must needs be a force and violence offer'd to their light and the loving constraints thereof which is no small evil For though I grant it was a suddain surprizing temptation yet it cannot be imagined that this fact was wholly indeliberate nor that for so long time they were without any debates or reasonings about their Duty Thirdly As it was against their own principles so it was much against the honour of their Lord and Master By this their sinful flight they exposed the Lord Jesus to the contempt and scorn of his enemies This some conceive is imported in that question which the High Priest asked him Ioh. 18.19 The High Priest then asked Iesus of his Disciples and of his Doctrine He asked him of his Disciples how many he had and what was become of them now And what was the reason they forsook their Master and left him to shift for himself when danger appeared But to those questions Christ made no reply He would not accuse them to their enemies though they had deferted him But doubtless it did not a little reflect upon Christ that there was not one of all his friends that durst owne their relation to him in a time of danger Fourthly As it was against Christs honour so it was against their own solemn promise made to him before his apprehension to live and die with him They had past their word and given their promise that they would not flinch from him Matth. 26.35 Peter said to him though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee Likewise also said all the Disciples This made it a perfidious relapse Here they brake promise with Christ who never did so with them He might have told them when he met them afterwards in Gallilee As the Roman Souldier told his General when he refused his petition after the war was ended I did not serve you so at the Battle of Acteum Fifthly As it was against their solemn promise to Christ so it was against Christs heart melting expostulations with them which should have abode upon their hearts while they lived For when others that followed him went back and walked no more with him Jesus said to these very men that now forsook him at last Will ye also go away There is an Emphasis in Ye q. d. What ye that from eternity were given to me Ye whom I have called loved and honoured above others for whose sakes I am ready and resolved to die Will ye also forsake me Ioh. 6.67 What ever others do I expect other things from you Sixthly As it was against Christs heart melting expostulations with them so it was against a late direful example presented to them in the fall of Iudas In him as in a Glass they might see how fearful a thing it is to apostatize from Christ. They had heard Christs dreadful threats against him They were present when he call'd him the Son of perdition Ioh. 17.11 They had heard Christ to say of him good had it been if he had never been born An expression able to scare the deadest heart They saw he had left Christ the evening before And that very day in which they fled he hang'd himself And yet they fly For all this they forsake Christ. Seventhly As it was against the dreadful warning given them in the fall of Iudas so it was against the Law of Love which should have knit them closer to Christ and one another If to avoid the present shock of persecution they had fled yet surely they should have kept together praying watching encouraging and stengthening one another This had made it a lesser evil but as they all forsook Christ so they forsook one another also For it 's said Ioh. 16.32 They should go every man to his own and leave Christ alone i. e. saith Beza every man to his own house and to his own business They forsook each other as well as Christ. O what an hour of temptation was this Eighthly And lastly this their departure from Christ was accompanied with some offence at Christ. For so he tells them Matth. 26.31 All ye shall be offended because of me this night The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you shall be scandalized at me or in me Some think the scandal they took at Christ was this that when they saw he was fallen into his enemies hands and could no longer defend himself they then began to question whether he were the Christ or no since he could not defend himself from his enemies Others more rightly understand it of their shameful flight from Christ seeing it was not now safe to abide longer with him That seeing he gave
And this it doth three ways First Ignorance disposes men to enmity and opposition to Christ by removing those hinderances that would otherwise keep them from it As checks and rebukes of conscience by which they are restrain'd from evil but conscience binding and reproving in the Authority and vertue of the Law of God where that Law is not known there can be no reproofs and therefore we truly say that ignorance is virtually every sin Secondly Ignorance enslaves and subjects the soul to the Lusts of Satan he is the Ruler of the darkness of this world Eph. 6.12 There is no work so base and vile but an ignorant man will undertake it Thirdly Nay which is more if a man be ignorant of Christ his truths or people he will not only oppose and persecute but he will also do it conscientiously i. e. he will look upon it as his duty so to do Ioh. 16.3 Before the Lord open'd Pauls eyes he verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Christ. Thus you have a brief account what and whence their ignorance was and how it disposed and prepar'd them for this dreadful work Hence we learn Inference 1. How falsly is the Gospel charged as the cause of discord and trouble in the world 'T is not light but darkness that makes men fierce and cruel As light increases so doth peace Isa. 11.6 9. The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the fatling together and a little Child shall lead them they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea What a sad condition would the world be in without Gospel light All places would be dens of rapine and mountains of prey Certainly we owe much of our Civil Liberty and outward tranquillity to Gospel light If a sword and variance at any time follow the Gospel it 's but an accidental not a direct and proper effect of it Inference 2. How dreadful is it to oppose Christ and his truths knowingly and with opened eyes Christ pleads their ignorance as an Argument to procure their pardon Paul himself was once fill'd with rage and madness against Christ and his truths It was well for him he did it ignoranâ—ly Had he gone against his light and knowledge there had been little hope of him 1 Tim. 1.13 I was a Blasphemer a Persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief I do not say it 's simply impossible for one that knowingly and malitiously opposes and persecutes Christ and his people to be forgiven but it is not usual Heb. 6.4 5. There are few instances of it Inference 3. What an aweful Majesty sits upon the brow of holiness that few dare to oppose it that see it There are few or none so daringly wicked to fight against it with open eyes 1. Pet. 3.13 Who will harm you whilst ye are followers of that which is good q. d. who dare be so hardy to set upon known godliness or afflict and wrong the known friends of it The true reason why many Christians speed so bad is not because they are godly but because they do not manifest the power of godliness more than they do Their lives are so like the lives of others that they are often mistaken for others Cyprian brings in the wicked of his time thus scoffing at Professors Behold they that boast themselves to be redeemed from the tyranny of Satan and to be dead to the world how are they overcome by the Lusts of it as well as other men Look as the poverty and meanness of Christs outward condition was a ground of their mistake of him then so the poverty and meanness of our love to God heavenly mindedness and mortification to this world is a disguise to professors and a cause why they are no more owned and honoured in the Consciences of men at this day For holiness manifested in its power is so awefully glorious that the Consciences of the vilest cannot but honour it and do obeysance to it Mark 6.20 Herod feared John for he was a just man Inference 4. The enemies of Christ are objects of pity Alas they are blind and know not what they do It 's pity that any other affection than pity should stir in our hearts towards them Were their eyes but open they would never do as they do We should look upon them as the Physitian doth upon his sick distempered Patient Did they but see with the same light you do they would be as far from hating Christ or his waies as you are Simul ac desinunt ignorare desinunt odisse as soon as they cease to be ignorant they cease to hate saith Tertullian Inference 5. How needful is it before we engage our selves against any person or way to be well satisfied and resolved that it is a wicked person or practice that we oppose You see the world generally runs upon a mistake in this matter O beware of doing you know not what For though you do you know not what Satan knows what he is doing for you He blinds your eyes and then sets you to work knowing that if you should but see what you are doing you would rather die than do it You may now do you know not what but you may afterward have time enough to reflect on and lament what you have done You may now do you know not what and hereafter you may not know what to do O beware therefore what you do DOCT. 2. That there is forgiveness with God for such as oppose Christ out of ignorance If all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men then this as well as others Matth. 12.31 We are not with Theophilact to understand that place of the certainty of pardon much less with Origen of the desert of it nor yet with Iansenius of the facility of it but rather of the possibility of forgiveness It shall be so to some it may be so to you even those whose wicked hands had crucified Christ receive remission by that blood they shed Act. 2.23 38. compared I have two things here to do First To open the nature of forgiveness and shew you what it is Secondly To evince the possibility of it for such as mistakingly oppose Christ. For the First Forgiveness is Gods gracious discharge of a believing penitent sinner from the guilt of all his sin for Christs sake It 's Gods discharge There is indeed a fraternal forgiveness by which one man forgives another so far as he is interessed in the wrong Luk. 6.37 there is also a ministerial forgiveness whereby the minister of Christ as his mouth and in his name declares the pardon or ministerially applies the promises of pardon to penitent offenders Ioh. 20.23 but none can
the Parent wrapt up in another Skin O the care the cost the pity the tenderness the pains the fears they have exprest for you It 's worse than Heathenish ingratitude not to return Love for Love This filial Love is not only in it self a duty but to be the root or spring of all your other dutys to them Thirdly Obedience to their commands is due to them by the Lords strict and special command Eph. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise Filial obedience is not only founded upon the positive Law of God but also upon the Law of nature For though the subjection of Servants to Masters came in by sin yet the subjection of Children to Parents is due to them by natural right therefore saith the Apostle this is right i. e. right both according to natural and positive Law However this subjection and obedience is not absolute and universal God hath not devested himself of his own authority to cloath a Parent with it Your obedience to them must be in the Lord i. e. in such things as they require you to do in the Lords authority In things consonant to that divine and holy will to which they as well as you must be subject and therein you must obey them Yea even the wickedness of a Parent exempts not from obedience where his command is not so Nor on the other side must the holiness of a Parent sway you where his Commands and Gods are opposite In the former case the Canonists have determined that the command must be distinguisht from the person In the latter it 's a good rule My Parents must be loved but my God must be preferred Yield your selves therefore chearfully to obey all that which they lawfully enjoin and take heed that black character fixed on the Heathens who know not God be not found upon you disobedient to Parents Rom. 1.30 Remember your disobedience to their just commands rises higher much higher than an affront to their persons and authority it 's disobedience to God himself whose commands second and strengthen theirs upon you Fourthly Submission to their Discipline and rebukes is also your duty Heb. 12.9 We had Fathers of our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence Parents ought not to abuse their authority Cruelty in them is a great sin but wrath and rebellion in a Child against his Parents is monstrous It 's storied of Aelian that having been abroad at his return his Father asked him what he had Learned since he went from him he answered you will know shortly I have learned to bear your anger quietly and submit to what you please to inflict Two considerations should especially mould others into the like frame especially to their godly Parents The end for which and the manner in which they manifest their anger to their Children Their end is to save your souls from Hell They judge it better for you to hear the voice of their anger than the terrible voice of the wrath of God To feel their hand than his They know if you fall into the hands of the living God you will be handled in another manner And for the manner in which they rebuke and chasten it is with grief in their hearts and tears in their eyes Alas it 's no delight to them to cross vex or afflict you Were it not meer conscience of their duty to God and tender love to your souls they would neither chide nor smite And when they do how do they afflict themselves in afflicting you When their faces are full of anger their bowels are full of compassion for you and you have no more reason to blame them for what they do than if they cry out and violently snatch at you when they see you ready to fall from the top of a Rock Fifthly Faithfulness to all their interests is due to them by the natural and positive Law of God What in you lies you are bound to promote not waste and scatter their substance To assist not to defraud them Who so robbeth his Father or Mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer Prov. 28.24 This saith one as far excells your wronging another as parricide is a greater crime than man-slaughter or as Reubens incest was beyond common fornication God never meant you should grow up about your Parents as suckers about a Tree to impoverish the root But for a Child out of a covetousness after what his Parents have secretly to wish their death is a sin so monstrous as should not be once named much less found among persons professing Christianity To desire their death from whom you had your life is unnatural wickedness to dispose of their Goods much more of your selves without their consent is ordinarily the greatest injustice to them Children are obliged to defend the Estates and persons of their Parents with the hazard of their own As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are Children of the youth Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them They shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemy in the gates Psal. 127.5 Sixthly And more especially requital of all that love care and pains they have been at for you is your duty so far as God enables you and those things are requitable 1 Tim. 5.4 Let them learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to play the Stork to imitate that creature of whom it 's said that the young do tenderly feed the old ones when they are no longer able to fly abroad and provide for themselves Hence those that want bowels of natural affection to their Relations are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 worse than Storks O 't is a shame that Birds and Beasts should shew more tenderness to their Dams than Children to their Parents It 's a saying frequent among the Jews a Child should rather labour at the Mill than suffer his Parents to want And to the same sence is that other saying your Parents must be supplyed by you if you have it if not you ought to beg for them rather than see them perish It was both the comfort and honour of Ioseph that God made him an instrument of so much succour and comfort to his aged Father and distressed family Gen. 47.13 And you are also to know that what you do for them is not in the way of an alms or common Charity For the Apostle saith it is but your requiting them and that 's Justice not Charity And it can never be a full requital Indeed the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 12.14 That Parents lay up for their Children and not Children for the Parents and so they ought but sure if providence blast them and bless you an honourable
O then exercise this when you have lost that Admonition 2. Secondly Take the right method to recover the sweet light which you have sinned away from your souls Do not go about from one to another complaining nor yet sit down desponding under your burden But First Search diligently after the cause of Gods withdrawment Urge him hard by prayer to tell thee wherefore he contends with thee Iob. 10.2 Say Lord what have I done that so offends thy spirit what evil is it which thou so rebukest I beseech thee shew me the cause of thine anger Have I grieved thy spirit in this thing or in that Was it my neglect of duty or my formality in duties Was I not thankful for the sense of thy love when it was shed abroad in my heart O Lord why is it thus with me Secondly Humble your souls before the Lord for every evil you shall be convinced of Tell him it pierces your hearts that you have so displeased him And that it shall be a caution to you whilst you live never to return again to folly Invite him again to your souls and mourn after the Lord till you have found him If you seek him he will be found of you 2 Chron. 15.2 It may be you shall have a thousand Comforters come about your sad souls in such a time to comfor them This will be to you instead of God and that will repair your loss of Christ. Despise them all and say I am resolved to sit as a Widow till Christ return he or none shall have my love Thirdly Wait on in the use of means till Christ return O be not discouraged Though he tarry wait you for him for Blessed are all they that wait for him The THIRTY FOURTH SERMON JOH XIX XXVIII After this Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled saith I Thirst. IT is as truly as commonly said death is dry Christ found it so when he died When his spirits laboured in the agonies of death then he said I thirst This is the fifth word of Christ upon the Cross spoken a little before he bowed the head and yielded up the Ghost It is only recorded by this Evangelist and there are four things remarkable in this complaint of Christ viz. the person complaining The complaint he made The time when And the reason why he so complained First The person complaining Iesus said I thirst This is a clear evidence that it was no common suffering Great and resolute spirits will not complain for small matters The spirit of a common man will endure much before it utters any complaint Let us therefore see Secondly The affliction or suffering he complains of and that is Thirst. There are two sorts of thirst One natural and proper another spiritual and figurative Christ felt both at this time His soul thirsted in vehement desires and longings to accomplish and finish that great and difficult work he was now about And his body thirsted by reason of those unparalleled agonies it laboured under for the accomplishing hereof But it was the proper natural thirst he here intends when he said I thirst Now this natural thirst of which he complains is the raging of the appetite for humid nourishment arising from the scorching up of the parts of the body for want of moisture And amongst all the pains and afflictions of the body there can scarcely be named a greater and more intolerable one than extream thirst The most mighty and valiant have stooped under it Mighty Sampson after all his conquests and victories complains thus Judg. 15.18 And he was sore athirst and called on the Lord and said thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Great Darius drank filthy water defiled wâ—th the bodies of the slain to relieve his thirst and protested never any drink was more pleasant to him Hence Isai. 41.17 Thirst is put to express the most afflicted state When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them i. e. when my people are in extream necessities under any extraordinary pressures and distresses I will be with them to supply and relieve them Thirst causes a most painful compression of the heart when the body like a sponge sucks and draws for moisture and there is none And this may be occasioned either by long abstinence from drink or by the labouring and expence of the spirits under grievous agonies and extream tortures which like a fire within soon scâ—rch up the very radical moisture Now though we find not that Christ tasted a drop of liquor since he sate with the Disciples at the Table after that no more refreshments for him in this world yet that was not the cause of this raging thirst but it is to be ascribed to the extream sufferings which he so long had conflicted with both in his soul and body These preyed upon him and drank up his very spirits Hence came this sad complaint I thirst Thirdly Let us consider the time when he thus complained When all things were now accomplished saith the Text i. e. when all things were even ready to be accomplished in his death A little a very little while before his expiration When the travailing throws of death began to be strong upon him And so it was both a sign of death at hand and of his love to us which was stronger than death that would not complain sooner because he would admit of no relief nor take the lest refreshment till he had done his work Fourthly and Lastly Take notice of the design and end of his complaint That the Scriptures might be fulfilled he saith I thirst i. e. that it might appear for the satisfaction of our faith that whatsoever had been predicted by the Prophets was exactly accâ—mplished even to a circumstance in him Now it was foretold of him Psal. 69.21 They gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and herein it was verified Hence the Note is DOCT. That such were the Agonies and extream sufferings of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Cross as drank up his very spirits and made him cry I thirst If I said one should live a thousand years and every day die a thousand times the same death for Christ that he once died for me yet all this would be nothing to the sorrows Christ endured in his death At this time the Bridegroom Christ might have borrowed the word of his Spouse the Church Lam. 1.12 Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by See and behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Here we are to enquire into and consider the extremities and agonies Christ laboured
the dear Son of God came from the blessed bosom of the Father assumed flesh brake by the strength of his own Love through all discouragements and impediments laid down his own life a ransom for their Souls for whom he Lived Died Rose Ascended and lives for ever in Heaven to intercede to live holy to Christ as Christ lived and died wholly for them O Brethren never was the Heathen world acquainted with such arguments to deter them from sin never acquainted with such motives to urge them to holiness as I shall this day acquaint you with My request is to give up both your hearts and lives to glorifie the Father Son and Spirit whose you are by the holiness and heavenliness of them Other things are expected from you than from other men See that you turn not all this grace that hath founded in your ears into wantonness Think not because Christ hath done so much for you you may sit still much less indulge your selves in sin because Christ hath offered up such an excellent sacrifice for the expiation of it No no though Christ came to be a Curse he did not come to be a a Cloak for your sins If one died for all then were all dead that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 O keep your lives pure and clean Don't make fresh work for the blood of Christ every day If you live in the Spirit see that you walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That is saith Cornelius à Lapide very solidly Let us shape and order our lives and actions according to the dictates instinct and impulses of the Spirit and of that grace of the Spirit put within us and planted in our hearts which tendeth to practical holiness Oh let the grace which is in your hearts issue out into all your Religious Civil and natural actions Let the Faith that is in your hearts appear in your prayers The Obedience of your hearts in hearing The Meekness of your hearts in suffering The Mercifulness of your hearts in distributing The Truth and Righteousness of your hearts in trading The Sobriety and Temperance of your hearts in eating and drinking These be the fruits of Christs sufferings indeed and they are sweet fruits Let grace refine enoble and elevate all your actions that you may say truly our conversation is in Heaven Let grace have the ordering of your tongues and of your hands the moulding of your whole conversation Let not Humility appear in some actions and Pride in others Holy seriousness in some companies and vain frothiness in others Suffer not the fountain of corruption to mingle with or pollute the streams of grace Write as exactly as you can after your Copy Christ. O let there not be as one well expresses it here a line and there a blanck Here a word and there a blot One word of God and two of the World Now a Spiritual rapture and then a fleshly Frollick This day a fair stride to Heaven and to morrow a slide back again towards Hell But be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long Let there be a due proportion betwixt all the parts of your conversation Approve your selves the servants of Christ in all things By pureness by knowledge by long suffering by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned by the Word of Truth by the power of God by the armour of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.6 See then how accuratly you walk Cut off occasion from them that desire occasion and in well doing commit your selves to God and commend Religion to the World That this is your great concernment and duty I shall evidence to your conscience by these following considerations That of all persons in the world the Redeemed of the Lord are most obliged to be holy Most assisted for a life of holiness And that God intends to make great Vse of their lives both for the conviction and conversion of others Consid. First God hath most obliged them to live pure and strict lives I know the command obliges all men to it even those that cast away the cords of the commands and break Christs bonds asunder are yet bound by them and cannot plead a dispensation to live as they do Yea and it is not unusual for them to feel the obligations of the command upon their consciences even when their impetuous Lusts hurry them on to the violation of them but there are special ties upon your souls that oblige you to holiness of life more than others Many special and peculiar engagements you are under First from God Secondly from your selves Thirdly from your Brethren Fourthly from your enemies First God hath peculiarly obliged you to purity and strictness of Life Yea every person in the blessed Trinity hath cast his Cord over your Souls to bind up your hearts and lives to the most strict and precise obedience of his commands The Father hath obliged you and that not only by the common tie of Creation which is yet of great efficacy in it self for is it reasonable that God should create and form so excellent a piece and that it should be employed against him That he should plant the Tree and another eat the Fruit of it But besides this common engagement he hath obliged you to holiness of life First By his wise and merciful designs and counsels for your recovery and salvation by Jesus Christ. It was he that laid the corner stone of your salvation with his own hands The first motion sprang out of his breast If God had not designed the Redeemer for you the world had never seen him he had never left that sweet bosom for you It was the Act of the Father to give you to the Son to be Redeemed and then to give the Son to be a Redeemer to you Both of them stupenduous and astonishing Acts of grace And in both God acted as a most free Agent When he gave you to Christ before the beginning of time there was nothing out of himself that could in the least move him to it When the Father Son and Spirit sate as I may say at the Counsel Table contriving and laying the design for the salvation of a few out of many of Adams degenerate off-spring there was none came before them to speak one word for thee but such was the divine pleasure to insert thy name in that Catalogue of the saved Oh how much owest thou to the Lord for this And what an engagement doth it leave upon thy soul to obey please and glorifie him Secondly By his bountiful remunerations of your obedience which have been wonderful What service didst thou ever perform for him for which he hath not paid thee a thousand times more than it was worth Didst thou ever seek him diligently and not find him a bountiful rewarder none seek him in vain unless such only as seek him vainly Heb. 11.6
Didst ever give a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple and not receive a Disciples reward Matth. 10.42 Hast thou not found inward peace and comfort flowing into thy soul upon every piece of sincere obedience Oh what a good Master do Saints serve You that are remiss and unconstant in your obedience you that are heartless and cold in duties hear how your God expostulates with you Ier 2.31 Have I been a Wilderness to Israel or a Land of darkness q. d. have I been a hard Master to you Have you any reason to complain of me To whom soever I have been straight handed surely I have not been so to you Are the fruits of sin like the fruits of obedience Do you know where to find a better Master Why then are you so shuffling and unconstant so sluggish and remiss in my work Surely God is not behind hand with any of you May you not say with David Psal. 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts There is fruits in holiness even present fruit It is a high favour to be imployed for God Reward enough that he will accept any thing thou dost But to return every Duty thou presentest to him with such comforts such quicknings such inward and outward blessings into thy bosom so that thou maist open the the treasury of thine own experiences view the varieties of encouragements and Love-tokens at several times received in Duties and say this I had and that I had by waiting on God and serving him Oh what an ingagement is this upon thee to be ever abounding in the work of the Lord Though thou must not work for Wages yet God will not let thy work go unrewarded For He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love Thirdly Your Father hath further obliged you to this holiness and purity of life by signifying to you as he hath frequently done the great delight and pleasure he hath therein He hath told you that such as are upright in the way are his delight Pro. 11.20 That he would not have you forget to do good and to communicate for with such sacrifices he is well pleased Heb. 13.16 You know you cannot walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing except ye be fruitful in every good word and work Col. 1.10 And oh what a bond is this upon you to live holy lives Can you please your selves in displeasing your Father If you have the hearts of Children in you sure you cannot O you cannot grieve his spirit by loose and careless walking but you must grieve your own spirits too How many times hath God pleased you gratified and contented you and will not you please and content him This mercy you have asked of him and he gave it that mercy and you were not denyed in many things the Lord hath wonderfully condescended to please you and now there is but one thing that he desires of you and that most reasonable yea beneficial for you as well as pleasing to him 1 Phil. 27. Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Iesus Christ. This is the one thing the great and main thing he expects from you in this world and will not you do it Can you expect he should gratifie your desires when you make no more of grieving and displeasing him Well if you know what will please God and yet resolve not to do it but will rather please your flesh and gratifie the Devil than him pray pull off your vizards fall into your own rank among hypocrites and appear as indeed you are Fourthly The Father hath further obliged you to strictness and purity of conversation by his gratious promises made to such as so walk He hath promised to do great things for you if you will but do this one thing for him If you will order your conversation aright Psal. 50. ult He will be your Sun and Shield if you will walk before him and be upright Gen. 15.1 He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from him that walketh uprightly Psal. 84.11 And he promises no more to you than he hath made good to others that have thus walked and stands ready to perform to you also If you look to enjoy the good of the promise you are obliged by all your expectations and hopes to order your lives purely and uprightly This hope will set you on work to purge your lives as well as your hearts from all pollutions 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Fifthly Yea He hath yet more obliged you to strict and holy lives by his confidence in you that you will thus walk and please him He expresseth himself in Scripture as one that dare trust you with his glory knowing that you will be tender of it and dare do no otherwise If but a man repose confidence in you and trust you with his concerns it greatly obliges you to be faithful What an engagement was that upon Abraham to walk uprightly when God said of him Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord q. d. as for this wicked generation whom I will speedily consume in my wrath I know they regard not my Laws they will trample my commands under foot they care not how they provoke me but I expect other things from Abraham and I am confident he will not fail me I know him he is a man of another spirit and what I promise my self from him he will make good And to the like purpose is that in Isa. 63.78 I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lie or fail me so he was their Saviour Here you have an ample account of the endearing mercies of God to that people ver 7. and the Lords confident expectations of suitable returns from them ver 8. I said i. e. speaking after the manner of men in like cases I made full account that after all these endearments and favours bestowed upon them they would not offer to be disloyal and false to me I have made them sure enough to my self by so many bonds of Love Like to which is that expression Zeph. 3.7 I said surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction Oh how great are the expectations of God from such as you I know Abraham there 's no doubt of him And again they are Children that will not lie i. e. they will not fallere fidem datam Break their Covenant with me Or they are my people that will not shrink as
takes little notice of it Their wicked actions make but little noise in the world but the miscarriages of professors are like a Blazing Comet or an Eclipsed Sun which all men gaze at and make their observations upon Oh then what manner of persons ought you to be who bear the worthy name of Christ upon you Thirdly But more than this You have obliged your selves to this life of holiness by your own Prayers How many times have you lifted up your hands to Heaven and cryed with David Psal. 119.5 Oh that my waies were directed to keep thy Statutes Order my steps in thy Word and let no iniquity have dominion over me vers 133. Were you in earnest with God when you thus prayed Did you mean as you said or did you only complement with God If your hearts and tongues agreed in this request doubtless it 's as much your Duty to endeavour as to desire those mercies and if not yet do all those prayers stand on record before the Lord and will be produced against you as witnesses to condemn you for your hypocrisie and vanity How often also have you in your Prayers lamented and bewailed your careless and uneven walkings You have said with Ezra chap. 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and even blush to look up unto thee And do not your confessions oblige you to greater circumspection and care for time to come Will you confess and sin And sin and confess Go to God and bewail your evils and when you have bewailed them return again to the commission of them God forbid you should thus dissemble with God play with sin and dye your iniquities with a deeper tincture Fourthly And lastly to add no more you have often reproved or censured others for their miscarriages and falls which adds to your own obligation to walk accuratly and evenly Have you not often reproved your erring brethren or at least privately censured them if not duly reproved them for to these left handed blows of secret censurings we are more apt than to the fair and open strokes of just and due reproofs and will you practise the same things you criminate and censure others for Thou that teachest another saith the Apostle teachest thou not thy self Rom. 2.21 So say I thou that censurest or rebukest another condemnest thou not thy self Will your rebukes ever do good to others whilst you alow in your selves what you condemn in them And as these reproofs and censures can do them no good so they do you much evil by reason of them you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self condemned persons and out of your own mouths God will Judge you For you need no other witness than your selves in this case Your own tongues will fall upon you Your censures and reproofs of others will leave you without plea or Apologie if you look not to your lives with greater care And yet will you be careless still Fear you not the displeasure of God nor the wounding and disquieting your own consciences Surely these things are of no light value with you if you be Christians indeed Thirdly You are yet further engaged to practical holiness upon the account of your brethren who are not a little concerned and interested therein For if through the neglect of your hearts your lives be defiled and polluted this will be thrown in their faces and many innocent and upright ones both reproached and grieved upon your account This mischievous effect holy David earnestly deprecated Psal. 69.5 6. Oh God thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of Hosts be ashamed for my sake Let not them that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel q. d. Lord thou knowest what a weak and foolish creature I am And how apt to miscarry if left to my self and should I through my foolishness act unbecoming a Saint how would this shame the faces and sad the hearts of thy people They will be as men confounded at the report of my fall The fall of one Christian is matter of trouble and shame to all the rest And when they shall hear the sad and unwelcome news of your scandalous miscarriages which will certainly be the effect of a neglected heart and life they will say as David concerning Saul and Ionathan tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon c. Or as Tamar concerning Ammon and we whither shall we cause our shame to go And for them they shall be as the fools in Israel Thy loose and careless life will cause them to estrange themselves from thee and look shy upon thee as being ashamed to owne thee and canst thou bear that Will it not grieve and pierce your very hearts to see a cloud of strangeness and trouble over the countenances of your brethren To see your selves disowned and lightly esteemed by them This very consideration struck a great favorite in the Persian Court to the very heart It was Vstazanes who had been Governour to Sapores in his minority And this man for fear denied the Christian Faith and complied with the Idolatrous worship of the King And one day saith the Historian sitting at the Court-gate he saw Simon the aged Arch-Bishop of Selucia drawing along to prison for his constancy in the Christian Faith and though he durst not openly owne the Faith he had basely denied and confess himself a Christian yet he could not choose but rise and express his reverence to this holy man in a respective and honourable salutation but the zealous good man frowned upon him and turned away his face from him as thinking such an Apostate unworthy of the least respect from him this presently struck Vstazanes to the heart and drew from him many tears and groans and thus he reasoned with himself Simon will not owne me and can I think but that God will disclaim me when I appear before his Tribunal Simon will not speak unto me will not so much as look upon me and can I look for so much as a good word or look from Jesus Christ whom I have so shamefully betrayed and denyed Hereupon he threw of his rich Courtly robes and put on mourning apparel and professed himself a Christian and died a Martyr O 't is a piercing thing to an honest heart to be cast out of the favour of Gods people If you walk loosely neither God nor his people will look kindly upon you Fourthly And lastly Your very enemies engage you to this pure and holy life upon a double ground You are obliged by them two waies viz. as they are your bold censurers and your watchful observers They censure you as hypocrites and will you give them ground and matter for such a charge they say only your tongues are more holy than other mens and shall they prove it from your practice They also observe you diligently Lie at catch and are highly gratified by your miscarriages If