complaints call on God to lay more on folk to tame them better O! be sober and if ye be put in a Babel see if ye can build houses there and make your pressures as supportable as lawfully ye may without sin make them not intolerable for that is to break your back but see how tolerable ye can make them without sinning against God that ye may dwell beside your cross with silence and submission who wots but ere many days go over ye may meet with an out-gate But 2. As variety of pressures are supposed here so it expresses plenty of Redemption in God for all that variety time will not permit me to break in on that other thing that this plenteous Redemption relates to the recurring of pressures how frequently the people of God may fall under repeated pressures and may be ofter than once pressed but here for variety of pressures there is plenteous redemption He will deliver in six troubles and in seven Job 5.19 If they be assaulted on the right and left hand there is armour of righteousness for both 2 Cor. 6.7 If they be troubled on every side he can keep them from being distressed if perplexed they shall not despair c 1 Cor. 4.8 If they be troubled on every side have fightings without and fears within God that comforts those that are cast down can comfort them 2 Cor. 7.8 When thou sits down and cannot tell all thy pressures and are like a weak patient who when his wounds are opened up swerfs thy heart grows sick and thou faints He is all sufficient to afford Cordials for thy support thou cannot have so many wants but he can supply them And as the old man said to the Levit Judges 19.20 All thy wants shall be upon him Thou cannot be straitned in God though through the narrowness of thy confidence thou may be straitned in thy own bowels for with him is plenteous redemption Think upon this ye that have to do with it ye that in your pressures are left on God alone bring up a good report on him cry not up your wants above his furniture cry not up your griefs above his consolations which cannot be exhausted this would make folks life not so comfortless as oft times they make it to themselves while they cry out What will they do with this and with that it 〈◊〉 come in their way If indeed such a thing be before thee we may say as it was said to Jeremy Jer. 12 5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how can thou contend with horses If thy few pressures have laid thee by What wilt thou do with more and greater If in the land of peace wherein thou trusted they have wearied thee I shall not say thou wilt have that atheistical word What caâ— God do But what wilt thou do if it come to the swellings of Jordan But if thou keep thy eye and heart on that word With God is plenteous redemption and then ask what shall I do with my troubles I say even bear them go to God and get much from him to bear them many proofs of his power and love his all sufficiency is infinite to bear thee thorow and bod well of him and have well look down on the greatest number of pressures as tolerable in his strength I love not carnal confidence but God loves not drooping or that folk should go discouraged to their work though humble they should be They that go drooping to their work will come halting from it but though a solemn assembly of terrors should surround you hold your eye oâ— plenteous redemption in God and it shall be well with you God bless his word to you for Christ's sake SERMON XLIII Psalm 130. Verse 7. And with him is plenteous redemption And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities AS there is no searching out of the Almighty to perfection as to what he is in himself for he is higher than the Heavens as it is said of his Wisdom and deeper than the Earth So that what can we do or know Job 11.7 8. So we are as little able to comprehend or fathom all that is in him for the good of his people and what wonder when over and above all particular Promises he hath given himself away to be their God hath made infinitness their portion Here we have a taste of what riches are in him for the behove of his people That for misery in Israel with the Lord there is mercy that for bondage and slavery in Israel with him is plenteous redemption And for the particular bondage and pressure of sin He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities I have already said somewhat to that attribute of mercy in God and the last day I came to a close of this That with him is plenteous redemption ye heard that this redemption imports partly authority to interpoâ—â— and partly power to back authority to vindicat his people Ye heard also that it was called redemption on a threefold account 1. On the account of its rise and fountain that every redemption and delivery the people of God get is founded on and is the result of their great Redemption by Christ 2. It is so called with an eye to the trouble and troublers from which he redeems his Israel but without money 3. That it is so called upon the account of the issue when the Lord delivers his people he sets them at freedom and liberty he sets their feet in a large place as it is Psal 18.19 I came also to speak of the plenteousness of this Redemption The Text says that not only there is redemption but plenteous redemption with him and as I shewed it is called plenteous redemption on a double account 1. In relation to the great plenty and variety of pressures wherewith the people of God may be assaulted on the right and on the left hand with fightings without and fears within and as the Church hath it Lam. 2.22 They may have their terrors called as in a solemn day round about them but in reference to all these he hath plenteous redemption to deliver from six troubles and from seven to put on the armour of righteousness when they are assaulted on the right hand and on the left when they are troubled on every side to keep them from being distressed When perplexed to keep them from despair c. 2 Cor. 4.8 Of this I have spoken and shall not repeat It remains in the 2d place That I speak to this plenteous Redemption as it relates to the frequent relapses of the people of God into bondage through their folly after the Lord hath brought them out of former pressures they betray themselves and bring themselves under new pressures they fall in new provocations that bring them in new difficulties which puts them again and again to look up to redemption in God I shall follow out this a little in three heads 1. It is
makes him say Isai 1.13 Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting And lastly consider God in his Power and Justice that if he put forth his Dominion to call thee to account thou being considered in thy self what will the issue be but that Heb. 10.31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God where there is not a Cautioner to interpose betwixt Justice and thee consider God thus if thou would be sensible of the desert of sin 2. When thou hast taken a right look of God thy Party in his Supream Dominion Omniscience Holiness Purity Power and Justice cast up the Sum of thy Debt which thou art owing to this Party and thou wilt be like that man Mat. 18.24 that was owing ten thousand Talents Consider the Law in its spiritual sense and meaning and thou wilt find that Paul found himself guilty upon the account of his concupiscence before it came to the consent of the will and so art thou Consider that the Law condemns evil thoughts unripe and indeliberat motions and how many of these art thou guilty of Again consider the Gospel what a Mass of Duties it commands or recommends upon the account of Gospel-encouragements and what a vast count or reckoning wilt thou find over thine head Sins of commission and sins of omission sins in the seed and root and sins in the fruit against the Law against the Gospel in thy particular station and in thy general Calling O! what a dreadful count will there be if a man cast up the rate of his duty and in how many things he hath offended There will be such a Count that as Job says Chap. 9.3 That if God contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand There is not one of a thousand challenges that a righteous man can put off but he must say as David Psal 40.12 Innumerable evils compass me mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I cannot look up they are moe than the hairs of my head But 3ly When thou hast considered thy Party and the Debt which may be charged upon thee and the number of thy sins take another look of the nature of them and their aggravations from the times wherein thou hast sinned as if they have been times of light and it may be also thou hast been sinning with Zimri and Cozbi when the Congregation was weeping Num 25. When sad affliction hath been lying upon the people of God it may be thy sin hath been against as clear light as Absalom's sin was when he committed incest with his fathers concubines upon the top of his fathers house 2 Sam. 16.22 It may be when thou was under punishment and judgment for former sins to deterr thee from future It may be it was when thou was surrounded with mercies when God was drawing thee with cords of love with the bonds of a man and was to thee as they that take off the yoke from thy jaws and laid meat unto thee Hos 11.4 It may be thou hast been a person much obliged to God who hast often been refreshed with pardoning mercy he hath spoken peace to thee upon condition thou would not return to folly and yet thou hast returned to it It may be thou art one whose example hath had influence to harden many others in sin c. I cannot enumerat the aggravations of sin that Professors of the Gospel have been or are lying under but when the Account is casten it will not be found an Account of Cyphers or insignificant petty Nothings but an Account of iniquities and transgressions very hainous and dreadful all circumstances being considered I shall in the 4th place when you have considered your Party the Sum of your Debt the number of your sins in their nature and aggravating circumstances exhort you to ponder how just God is The truth of his threatnings against sin and the curse Think on that place Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them and it were to good purpose that these Chapters Deut. 28. and Lev. 16. were more frequently read and thought upon It were to good purpose that we heard Moses from Mount Sinai thundering oftner not to drive us from Christ but to him It 's a woful trick in our hearts that leads us to look over threatnings with a light eye We would consider that the threatnings will be accomplished as well as the promises and the least farthing of the sinners debt will be exacted off the sinner or off his Cautioner Thou must either do or get one to do for thee and when thou reads the threatnings think on the posture wherein thou stands And 5ly That ye may sensibly say over this assertion If thou Lord mark iniquity who shall stand I recommend to you to consider the sufferings of our blessed Lord. Consider if such things were done to the green tree what will be done to the dry And there a man that hath any sense of sin will read the dreadful desert of sin when he considers that wrath for sin made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And how his Holy Nature abhorred that Cup and put him to pray that it might pass from him and how it made him in his agony sweat drops like blood when thou judges of the desert of sin by that thou wilt stand then and more sensibly think that thou wilt not be able to stand before God marking iniquity for if such things were done to the green tree when his Holy Humane Nature suffered so much being supported by his Divine Nature what will be done to thee who art a dry Tree out of him If God would speak home these things to your hearts ye would Subscribe to that Verdict Solomon hath Prov. 14.9 that they are fools that make a mock at sin nay that they are distracted that are lying under the guilt of sin and can take rest in themselves till they see if a remedy can be had till they come to that which follows in the Text But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared There are some particular inferences that I intended to have spoken to from this point but the time being past I quite them Only remember that which I have been upon what hath been spoken to you of the dreadful desert of sin a Doctrine that is very necessary but little laid to heart by many of you Ye have got the Gospel-knack among you and have learned to talk of sin and of making Christ a refuge against it But I dare not account all Gold that glisters nor look upon all them as real Converts that can talk in a Gospel-Dialect in Irwine I would drive none of you from Christ if any of you find your need of a Saviour
the Depths he Prayed but out of the Depths he cryed to God in Prayer with that earnestness and fervour that a drowning man presently going to sink cryes for relief if any relief may be had The general Observation which I take from this is That the kindly result of sinking and surchanging exercise in the Saints is when it puts them to Prayer and to fervency in Prayer when being in the Depths Out of the depths they cry unto God This is the general Doctrine of trouble Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee c. And that I may so far as is necessary lay the Point in broad-band before you before I come to a word of Vse I shall deduce the Importance of it in a few particulars And 1. The Psalmist's practice who is content to be at exercise doth import That sleeping and idleness is a very unsuitable posture when the people of God are in the Depths to be at any time without exercise is very dangerous for as the Animal Life is still in motion so the Spiritual Life of a Christian must still be in exercise so in particular to be without exercise in a distress and particularly to be without Prayer is yet more dreadful an idle man in a difficult lot I can compare him to nothing but to that drunken man Prov. 23.34 That is as one that lyeth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast he is a desperat man drunk with some Distemper that is not at exercise in the Depths May I add the idle man in the Depths is readily the Guilty man that draws on the Storm and the Tempest Hence we have a sad Narration Jonah 1.5 where Jonah a Godly man fleeing from the presence of the Lord in the Storm is down in the sides of the Ship sleeping and one might think in the case he was in he might have an unsound Sleep there but the Text tells he was fast asleep and shall I add that 's a sad Posture vers 6. when a Pagan Ship-master reproves a Prophet Jonah what meanest thou O sleeper saith he arise and call upon thy God That then is the first thing imported that it is a dangerous thing to be sleeping and idle in the Depths 2. That the Psalmist when he is in the Depths cryes out unto God it imports That kindly Saints whenever they come in any Distress have no refuge but God It 's with God and his Saints as it 's with a Parent and a Child in a Croud as long as nothing ails the Child he will go beside any body but when he comes in a difficulty he will leave the rest single out his Parent to protect him so I say it 's with the Saints when any thing ails them they have no refuge no shift no gate to go but God Would ye know the Character of a Child of God in Distress ye have it in that fore-cited place 2 Chron. 20.12 we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee This is the Scope of the most part of all the Psalms A Saint is no sooner put to it but he puts at God a Cross is no sooner laid at his door but he tells it 's the wrong Door and he goes and layes it at God's Door the reason of this is double partly the difficulties of the Children of God may be so great that they are left allenarly upon God It is with them as it was with that hypocritical king when he said to the Harlot if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn-floor or out of the Wine-press What will become of the Saints in many difficulties and hard cases if God step not in David looked to all Airts and could find no relief Psal 142.4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul what follows I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge Kindly Saints must therefore look unto God in every Distress partly because whatever right means they have to make use of they must either begin at God or they will find they have followed a wrong method Saul pretended to this 1 Sam. 13.12 The Philistines will come down upon me and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I must begin at God saith he and as Saul pretended to it David really practised it 1 Sam. 30.7 whatever mind he had to pursue the Amalekites that had burnt Zâ—klag and taken his Wives captive he will do nothing till he consult with God That then is the second thing imported that as the Saints are not asleep are not idle in the Depths of trouble so they have no refuge but God A third thing imported in this that the Psalmist out of the Depths cryed unto God is this that there is no case of the Saints so desperate wherein Prayer is useless ye know what was that wicked Kings Determination 2 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer and how many in Heart and Practice in difficult Cases say so it is to little purpose to wait on God to look to God The Psalmist here was of another temper out of the Depths have I cried unto thee Lord saith he he finds it to good purpose to cry unto God So Jonah 2.4 I said I am cast out of thy sight and he had as much to say for his being so as any other the Waters compassed him about and went into his Soul The Weeds were wrapped about his Head he went down to the bottoms of the Mountains The Earth with her Bars were about him yet even then he sees not Prayer to be an useless Trade wherefore he adds yet will I look again to thy holy Temple Prayer is to good purpose for all that and no wonder for there is no condition of the Saints so low no Pit so deep wherein they can be caught but an humble Supplicant will from thence reach the Throne A David buried quick in a Cave a Daniel in the Lyons Den find that Prayer can win up to God and find audience for the high and lofty One who hath the Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool hath an Eye also to them who are of a poor and of a Contrite Spirit and trembleth at his Word Isa 66.1 2. and he who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth he raiseth the poor out of the Dust and the needy out of the Dung-hill and therefore no desperate case of the people of God renders Prayer useless But 4ly That the Psalmist out of the Depths cryes unto God it imports That as there is no case so desperate as it renders Prayer useless so it imports that it is the property
Now what shall be said of guilts meeting with wicked men I shall say two words to this and leave the Note One is let a wicked man live never so long without minding his guilt let him have Ordinances and keep up a form of Worship This is to be adverted to that the wicked man never comes into God's presence to worship or pray to him but his iniquity is marked as if he had made a Proclamation of his sin Ponder that Process Isa 1.15 and the foregoing Verses Bring no more vain oblations saith the Lord incense is an abomination to me the new Moons and Sabbaths and calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new Moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Thou that dare come before God without the sense of thy guilt God may look upon thee as proclaiming thy guilt And another word to the wicked shall be this that when ever a day of distress and trouble meets them though all of them will not be honoured with repentance and pardoning mercy they shall find that they have made a very sad bargain Take it in that word Jer. 2.19 Thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee But I leave this Note and come to the third Observation that is that when Guilt and Conscience meets sin will be otherways looked upon than men ordinarily do or if ye will have it more distinctly take it thus That the right sense of sin will lead the sensible man to see that in sin that none even the most Godly can stand before God if God deal with them in strict Justice according to the Covenant of Works That is the very marrow of this Verse If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who should stand No man no not a godly man nor any other can stand And although I may if the Lord will have this purpose to resume when I come to speak of pardon and the application of pardon from the next Verse following yet this being an important truth a verity of great weight ye will bear with me though I dip a little more in it than is my ordinary What I would say on it I shall from the Text deduce to you in six particulars which I hope shall give a hint of what at the first view is more material in the words And 1. Take notice of something supposed here that is God's marking of iniquity If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity where he makes a supposition of God's marking iniquity not that any Question or doubt is to be made of Gods Omniscience that he sees and knows all things and particularly mens sins he hath an exact knowledge of them all as when one marks things most narrowly Neither is there any supposition or question to be made of Gods seeing of sin in the godly so as to be displeased at it Antinomians would be at this they would have no sin seen in them but the scope of this Psalm evinces the contrary God notices the godly mans sin as well as others till he flee to pardoning mercy through a Mediator And David though a godly man acknowledges this Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight But the meaning of this the Lord 's marking of iniquity may be taken from the parallel place Psal 143.2 where it is thus expressed Enter not into Judgment with thy servant That 's the marking of iniquity spoken of or supponed in the Text and in short the importance of the Phrase is Gods marking of sin according to the Covenant of Works and in the rules of strict Justice and without looking on the sinner as in a Surety In this respect Gods marking of iniquity being accompanied with absolute holiness perfect purity and justice he cannot away with it nor with the sinner because of it as Psal 5.4 5. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquity And Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity God thus marking iniquity according to the rules of strict Justice and without looking on the sinner as in a Cautioner cannot away with it and consequently will punish it Job 11.11 He seeth wickedness also will he not consider it In order to punishment for so that Phrase is Expounded Psal 10.14 Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thine hand And it is Jehu's remark of Ahab 2 King 9.26 Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons saith the Lord and I will requite thee in this plat saith the Lord. The marking of iniquity this way is to men dreadful and ye will find in Scripture that it is a dreadful sight of trouble that some gets when it represents God thus as marking sin to pursue and punish it as in that poor widow 1 King 17.18 O thou man of God saith she to the Prophet art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my Son That was a sad sight of trouble and of sin in trouble and Moses in that tragical business in the Wilderness when calamities are falling thick upon that people it is a sad sight of them that he gets when they speak Gods marking of sin Psal 90 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance Thy inflicting of calamity tells us that thou art marking iniquity So much for the first thing supposed here God's marking iniquity 2. Consider here somewhat proposed That if God mark iniquity as a severe Judge according to the strict rules of Justice to punish it and accordingly do punish it the guilty man cannot stand before him This Phrase is equivalent to that Phrase in the parallel place Psal 143.2 If God enter into judgment with men no man living can be justified in his sight And a sinners inability to stand before God is a Phrase frequently made use of to point out the dreadful desert of sin as Psal 5.5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Ezra 9.15 We are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this Psal 1.5 The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous And Psal 76.7 Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Rev. 6.16 17. The great day of the Lambs wrath is come and who is able to stand And to this also
destroyes us not how often might he say as he said to Moses of Israel Exod. 32.10 Let me alone that my wrath may wax bot against them and that I may consume them that I may sweep them away from off the earth and yet he doth it not how often might he do with us in this World as he did with Sodom and the old World and yet he bears with us How often might he make the visible Church a terror to it self and all the World and how often might he make the Saints a burden to themselves and yet great is his goodness that he spares a sinful VVorld and sinners in it And upon another account it commends God and that is that he lets not the sinfulness of his People make void their interest in him but notwithstanding their sinfulness allows them to call him Father That though they be dayly by their repeated provocations iniquities and transgressions drawing Rods forth from his hand yet that doth not make void the Covenant Psal 89.32 33. That he will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with stripes nevertheless his loving kindness will he not utterly take from them nor suffer his faithfulness to fail O! but the study of our sinfulness would make dayly a new wonder to us it would not be common news but a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And as we grow in the study of our sinfulness the sweeter should these Truths that holds out the remedy of sin grow and continue SERMON VIII Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared AFter that I had spoken to this godly man his humbling sense and fight of the desert of Sin in the third verse I have begun to speak to this remedy of pardoning mercy with God upon which he layeth hold and I took up the words in that General Note That there is pardoning mercy in God for Sin and that is the only refuge for sinners sensible of the burden of sin and of the desert of sin and told you that I have a purpose if the Lord will to prosecute this Point in the resolution of several Questions which yet may be reduced to a few General Heads Which were hinted at That which now I am upon is the consideration of that that is pardoned Sin Iniquity or Transgression where I spoke to one particular that all Mankind have sinned and done that which will need a pardon They have iniquities even the most godly which makes them when they are sensible of them to look upon it as good news to hear of pardon That which I further proposed to be spoken to was 1. That as all have sinned so sin is a crime a debt a burden that men stand in need to rid their hands of 2. That sin is a debt that man cannot satisfie but must have it done away by Remission it must consequently follow That the unpardoned Man is in a woful plight And 3. That if this be a Debt that can only be done away by Pardon then to a sensible man this will be the chiefest of good news That there is forgivenness with God As to the First of these and the Second in Order proposed to be spoken to on this Branch when it is granted that all have sinned the stupid and carless will look lightly upon it wherefore it is to be considered in the next place what sin is to the right discerner it 's a crime which since he cannot expiat hath need of pardon It 's a debt which since he cannot satisfie hath need of forgivenness This imports that to be lying under the burden of sin is no light matter to a man that knows his case through sin I shall take notice of the Notion under which sin is expressed Luk. 11.4 with Matth. 6.12 Where sin is called our Debt I shal no insist here to clear that every mans sin is his own Debt contracted by himself in his own Person or in the common Root Adam and that he hath not others to blame for it Though as Adam did lay over his sin on the Woman which God gave him so is every one ready to do yet when God and the Sinner reckons he will find that he must reckon for his Sin by himself or by a Surety but waving that that sin is called a Debt it is not to be understood that Man is oblidged to sin for Obedience is that which is required and which we are oblidged to pay to God but what is imported in this metaphor I shall lay open before you in these four 1. A man that is adebted and not fulfilling his Bond is lyable to the Law so the Law of God is an hand-writting against sinful man oblidging him either to do his Duty or to satisfie Justice for his Fault or if he cannot do that and there be no other remedy to undergo everlasting punishment in hell 2. The Debt is heightned by this that all the means offered to Man of directions threatnings promises opportunities power and abilitie to do good in the time and station he lives in Gifts and qualifications for that end and Talents for the not improvement of which he becomes Debtor to God and his sin is hightned thereby 3. As sin resembleth a Debt so it is a Debt above all other debts a man under the debt of Sin is in a more dreadful plight than any under other debt he may be able to pay it and though he be broken he may come up again But a man under the debt of sin can never pay again a man under debt if he cannot pay he can shift his Creditor But for a man under the debt of sin there is no shifting of God his Creditor Psal 139. Whither shall he go from his spirit Or whither shall he flee â—rom his presence Again though a man be under debt and not able to shift his Creditor yet his Creditor is not always in a readiness to attach him though he be in his view because he is not in a legal capacity to reach him But we are in God's reverence every moment Again other Debt reaches the Body only this Debt of Sin reaches the Soul also And to add no more other Debt may reach a man with inconveniences in his Life but when he is dead his Debt is payed But the punishment of this Debt reaches a man chiefly after this Life all these clear that Sin is a Debt above all other Debts And I shall add 4. That Sin may well be compared to a Debt on this account that Sinners while they fall upon a right method of seeking pardon they much resemble an ill Debtor an ill debtor desires not to hear of his accounts far less to sit down and cast them up so it is with these ill Debtors they put the ill day far away They cannot hear of a day of compt and reckoning nor to sit
pardoning mercy sets hearts on work to fear God and to tenderness in the study of holiness then ye may see how many of the Children of God do cut the throat of all their endeavours after holiness and to walk tenderly through their not closing with pardoning Mercy I suppose some have the Conscience a sad Monitor unto them a sad Wan-rest within doors for want of tenderness and some would fain be at serving and worshipping of God and yet they cannot win at it but look if thou leaves not thy encouragement behind thy hand in not closing with pardoning Mercy and by so doing not only cuts thy self short of the Joy of the Lord which is thy strength but provocks God to blast thy study of holiness that thou would put in his room or in the room of his pardoning Mercy But thou that would be keeped fresh and green in thy pursuit of holiness here is thy method that thou must follow first wrap thy self in the bosom of pardoning Mercy and then try thy work and thou shalt find it more delightsome and go better with thee than when thou leaves this encouragement behind thee lay thy self in his bosom for pardon and O! but that will make thee fear him much and love him much that woman Luke 7 that bad much forgiven her loved much and had abundance of tears to wash Christ's feet her closing with pardon did so melt her heart and so would it thine closing with pardoning Mercy would heal palsie hands and feet and make thee work walk and run it would kindle that love that is strong as death and that jealousie that is cruel as the grave the coals whereof are coals of fire that have a vehement flame and bring it to that that many waters cannot quench or the floods drown or contemn all that would compet with it I dare not offer to insist the day being shortened but as on the one hand they who fall asleep on pardoning Mercy as the bride of Christ may some times take a nap but wakens and sets to her feet again would know they make not a right use of pardoning Mercy but sin grievously and if they sleep on they evidence that they cheat themselves in that matter and these that love not holiness proclaim they were never partakers of it so upon the other hand thou that loves holiness but cannot win at it close better with pardoning Mercy as that which will strenthen and encourage thee and by waiting on the Lord in this way thou shalt renew thy strength mount up with wings as eagles run and not be weary walk and not be faint Now to our God be praise and glory through Jesus Christ SERMON XIX Psalm 130. Verse 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning YE heard when I entred upon this Psalm that the first six Verses contain the wrestling and the exercise the Psalmist was under as the last two Verses contain his victory and issue and his improvement of it For his wrestling and exercise it consists as ye heard of three branches ye have him wrestling with the difficulties and plunging perplexities in his case these he expresses under the Metaphor of depths and his wrestling with them is by fervent wrestling and crying to God in Prayer verses 1 2. 2. Ye have him wrestling with the Conscience and sense of guilt that obstructed his audience put back his Prayers and offered to crush his hopes and with that he wrestles in the 3 and 4. Verses by taking with the dreadful desert of sin by laying hold on God's pardoning Mercy and carrying alongst with him God's end in letting out pardoning Mercy to sinners even that he may be feared and of this subject I have been speaking at great length and I must exhort and intreat that though a close be put to Preaching on it that yet ye may not give over the minding of that Doctrine it is that which will be your great Pasport pardoning Mercy if ye obtain it when ye come to grapple with the King of Terrors and go through the dark valley of the shadow of death Now in the two Verses read ye have the Psalmist in the third place wrestling with delays of answers to his Prayers or the delays of the out-gate prayed for and these he wrestles with by confident patient affection at waiting on God I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope c. And this purpose also we have cause to look unto because it gives an account of a Christians constant exercise in time he that would be a Christian indeed it is not enough that he pray in difficulties that he take with the desert of sin and look to pardoning Mercy when Conscience challenges him but when he hath done all that he must persevere in so doing and wrestle with the delays of answers to his Prayer he must give a proof of the patience as well as of the Faith of the Saints he must be a follower of these who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises There is a general Remark which will make way to the purpose contained in the words which I shall insist on a little that is That perseverance and constant waiting on God in his way is the great task of Saints and the Touchstone of their sincerity in all other exercises and duties This tryes how well breathed the Saints are and what is their integrity in other exercises that they are at sometimes even that they be constant bide by it wait on God and persevere in waiting on him in his way notwithstanding they meet with delays And that I may unfold this General to you ye shall with me take a threefold look of this perseverance 1. Look upon it in general as it is opposed to Apostacy backsliding giving up with the ways of Religion 2. Which will deduce this General more fully and particularly ye shall take a look of this perseverance as it imports a constant Tenor and course in waiting on God and seeking of God in opposition to folks phrases fairds and hot fits at some times wherein they are but fleeting And 3. Which will lead me to the particular in the Text look on it as it is opposed to wearying sitting up or falling by from employing God and waiting on him if they be delayed especially in sad dispensations and exigences they meet with For the first of these Perseverance in general as it is opposed to apostasie back-sliding and giving up with the ways of God and godliness I shall not dwell much on that Doctrine The necessity of it appears in the Promises made unto it Mat. 24.13 It is he that endures unto the end shall be saved and Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters it is always to the overcomer that the Promise is made though I
seasonable mixtures sweet reserves and exceptions in the lots of saints And as there are mixtures in their lots so in their frames wherein we will find confidence seasoned with deep humility as in Abraham Gen. 18.27 I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord who am but dust and ashes Gloriation seasoned with the sense of being nothing 2 Cor. 12.11 In nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles though I be nothing Nearness to God seasoned with a sight of their own pollution Isai 6.5 Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips c. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts Job 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhore my self in dust and ashes Thus ye see what a sweet mixture the frame and way of the saints is made up of when right and this in the Text is to be adverted That patience in our waiting be seasoned with affection lest our waiting turn to indifferency There are many pretend to be waiters but what wait they for Their heart is not affected with it Affection must still be keeped on foot and meek and patient must our waiting for God be Therefore look to it Let not folk deceive themselves in thinking that they have this patience and waiting that I have been speaking of when they have nothing but a coldrife indifferency stupidity loitering and lying by in that waiting What Mercies do folk want but they pretend to wait for them from God and yet their Conscience will bear them witness their heart was never affected with the want of them nor drawn forth after the enjoying of them they cannot say Their soul doth wait As upon the one hand true patience must temper the edge of right affection that it over-reach not or run it self out of breath So on the other hand it would be adverted that while patience is tempering affection affection be not feeding on the breasts of security carelesness indifferency stupidity that with these Virgines Mat. 25. While they are waiting for the coming of the Lord they do not fall asleep or slumbering that 's an abuse of patience in waiting when it is suffered to degenerat in stupidity and indifferency In a word that ye may know what is meant by the Saints soul-waiting for God I shall give it to you in what is represented in the people of God in the Captivity upon the one hand we find a Command is sent unto them Jer. 29.5 To build houses in Babylon and dwell in them to plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them take wives and beget sons and daughters that they might be increased and not diminished and to seek the good of the place whither they were carried captives and pray for the peace thereof that is that they should be as careful as they might without sin to make their captivity tollerable that was to wait for God when their cankered haste and fretfulness was done away And yet on the other hand compare that with Psal 137.1 By the rivers of Babel we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Sion we hanged our harps on the willows in the midst thereof when they required of us mirth we said how shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land if I forget thee O Jerusalem c. A soul-waiting affection is aloft in them although they made their distresses as tolerable as they might without sin and were warranded so to do yet they would not suffer their patience to degener in indifferency they would not suffer their affection to fall asleep and forget that which their Captivity had deprived them of and therefore the people of God in difficulties waiting for God they would still have somthing of that frame Lam. 1.7 Jerusalem remembred in the day of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old before the people fell into the hand of the enemy Wait for God there is good reason for it Be patient and meek Why not But O! in your waiting let it be seen that affection is aloft when thou art ready bitterly to resent God's depriving thee of mercies or detaining them from thee guard against that let bitterness be banisht but guard also against stupidity and senselesness that they come not in the room of it but let thy soul be waiting But I proceed to a 2d Observation from this Head and that is a general which I deferred to speak to when the last day I spoke to this waiting and it now comes in seasonably The Psalmist not only gives an account what he is doing but how he is doing Though he be delayed and mercies be keeped back yet he dare avow he is waiting for the Lord yea that his waiting for God is of the right stamp that his soul is waiting that in his waiting he keeps off both the extreams of passion and haste and of careless stupidity and indifferency The Observation then is that it is not only a commendable thing in Saints to be able to give an account of what they are doing especially in sad times but it is comfortable to themselves when they are able to give an account of what they are doing and that they are in the way of their duty it is so to the Psalmist here that he can say he waits and his soul waits for God This Point I shall speak to in these four because it is and will be your work if ye be serious 1. That work is our great business 2. That work acceptable to God in a low condition is attainable 3. That as it is attainable so a man may know he hath attained it 4. That it is comfortable to him when he knoweth it and dare avow that he is acceptably employed A little to these four as time will permit And first I say work and duty is our main business when our lots are saddest One would think it had been a more seasonable and a more near concerning Question for the Psalmist to be now looking what God is doing when he had been crying out of the deeps taking â—ith guilt pleading for pardon but he looks to what he himself is doing we would alway as I hinted before fain be at the Throne and have the guiding of the world or have God taking our advice what he should do in it and how much of folks time and spirit who are serious is taken up in scanning of providence but O! fix this that duty is ours event is Gods duty is our task and we should leave it to God to make of us and duty what pleases him yea more it is one of the great ends why sad times and lots passes over us that we may give a proof what we think of duty when it wants present success whether we will take duty for a reward to it self whether a man will bless God go the world as it will that he is
And Job 23.10 when he cannot get a sight of God on the right or left hand yet saith he He knows the way that I take when he trys me I shall come forth like gold c. What I would say from this is to leave a check at their door whom the dispensations of providence dings from all their confidence if God delay the Psalmist he will avow that he waits but so silly are we that there is nothing the storm blows against but we are ready to question it whereas if we see it be fair before the wind we question it not at all so silly spirits are we and so full of byasses O! lament this and know that duty is knowable and avowable in the saddest of dispensations for the Psalmist can say I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait And 4. As duty is attainable and knowable so it is very comfortable to a man to know it It 's good news to this tost Psalmist that he dare say I wait my soul doth wait it 's good news for the present Read often believe and improve that word Eccles 8.12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God because he feareth before God The very present reward the Eccho of a good Conscience is sweet and comfortable that the people of God can say Our hearts are not turned back nor our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death Psal 44.18 O! How sweet an Eccho hath that in a mans bosome and a man that in a sad condition will not be made up in the testimony of a good Conscience it is righteousness with God to smite him with a rod dipped in his own guilt Look to it and make it your study to have this ground of comfort when others fail It 's good when a man can say I am sore broken yet my heart is not turned back I am in the deeps yet my soul waits I cannot win at him yet my feet have held his steps his way have I kept and not declined and as this is sweet and comfortable for the present so will it be found for the time to come when the waiter on God in duty shall be made to say and sing as it is Isa 25.9 Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation I shall say no more but when all costs are reckoned it shall be found that a doer of duty waiting for God shall be no loser but a great gainer and it shall never be grief of heart to him that he made it his work to wait on him in his way when others declined As I closed the last day with that word Blessed are all they that wait for him so do I this day whatever he do to them whatever delays or difficulties they meet with they shall find that it will be found a rich mercy to be found waiting for God and upon God in their duty keeping his way and not declining therefrom I say no more but the Lord bless his Word that ye have been hearing for Christs sake SERMON XXV Psalm 130. Verse 5. And in his Word do I hope I Told you that as the two former Verses speak to one of the excellent Priviledges of the godly man to wit the remission of sins So the 5 and 6. speak to a most necessary though a most difficult task of the godly man to wait for God that godly men give a proof of their subjection to him and faith in him by their waiting for him notwithstanding they meet with so many delays and disappointments Somewhat hath been spoken to three principal Heads of Doctrine in these Verses 1. The Psalmists exercise he is a waiting man he is put to wait and he doth wait where ye heard that if God delay the Saints and put them to wait it is their duty to wait not only not to be hasty but if they hing on they would look their waiting be not poisoned with freâ—fulness passion and bitterness but seasoned and adorned with meekness and patience I spoke 2. to the object of his exercise I wait for the Lord where ye heard that the eyes of the waiâ—ing man must be taken off all things and set on God not only when all second causes forsake him but when these things that seemed to promise relief seem to be against him he must notwithstanding wait on God and keep his way and have all his expectation in God or God himself must be his expectation and he will be no loser by this if God himself be his great expectation he will easily make up the want of all other things In the third place I spoke to his affection in waiting my soul doth wait where beside that general that we should be able to give an account what we are doing in difficulties when we are exercised with delays Ye heard that true waiting lyes in the midst betwixt bitterness passion haste fretfulness on the one hand and stupidity and indifferency on the other hand The right waiter for God as he is not fretful and passionat so neither is he sleeping and careless he so waits as his soul doth wait his affections are aloft prizing and looking out for these things he is waiting for Now in the 4. place I proceed to consider his support in waiting What made him thus wait affectionatly confidently and patiently He Answers and in his word do I hope He hoped in the word of God and therefore he waits for God It 's not to great purpose to trouble you here with an exact distinction betwixt Faith and Hope Faith looks to the promise and gives a present subsistence to the thing promised as the word is Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Hope looks to the performance of the good things promised Faith closes with the promise as true and is comforted in that which is contained in it Hope looks out till God come and make out what Faith sees and closes with in the word of promise In this place Faith and Hope may be taken promiscuously or indifferently in his word do I hope that is I wait till God make out to me that he hath promised in his Word or take it a little more distinctly in his word do I hope It will import that having closed by Faith with the good things in the word of promise he looks out for the accomplishment of them so that he hath not only Faith bene believing and closing with the Word but he hath hope looking out till God make his Word good to him I might here take notice of this that waiting on God though a man had no other evidence is ground of hope when a man is in a difficulty and sore put at and
presumptuous dreaming on the account of any good he finds in himself but he is a man put out of himself to consider what is in God That with God there is mercy If I should offer to prove this by adducing Scripture testimony I should triffle by your time needlesly it is so clear through the tenor of the Scripture that the rejoicer in Jesus Christ presupposes no confidence in the flesh that it is in God and God alone that an Israelite finds ground of hope and therefore I rather choose to deduce the Point into a twofold inference And 1. From this be directed to try upon the one hand your confidence and hope by your humility as on the other hand your humility by your hope these two are inseparably connected that the one cannot be found without the other Upon the one hand any encouragement that is gotten by Faith and hope must not highten our estimation of our selves a puffed up hope is a very great Solecism for though thou be helped by hope to glory in God yet discovered infirmity in thy self will keep thee low though thou be lifted up by him thou will be keeped in the dust in thy self not to see more in thy self but to see more in him to make up thy beggars wants and therefore thou must beware that thy confidence and hope lessen thy humility And on the other hand thou would try thy humility if it be of the right stamp and not a lazy proud carnal discouragement thy humility if it be of the right stamp will not tempt thee to cast away thy confidence and hope though thou be still kept low when thou art discovered to be a dyvour and a rebel thou will not refuse a pardon a thing wherein gracious souls are much defective that if they be not kept up in the wind of their attainment they are broken in their hopes but a humble man must be a hoping man and must reckon that all that he sees and finds in himself must not put him from his hopes but if he wanted these things he finds in himself he should have no work for his hope and blessed are they that find humility and hope encouragement and abasement to worke to one anothers hands when the byass of one of these graces lyes towards the furtherance of the other it is an evidence of a blest frame otherwise a proud hope or a hopeless humility will be found to be of little worth A 2d Inference from the Point is if Israel be called to hope on the account of what is in God and with God if he be called to hope upon the account of mercy in relation to his misery then Israel cannot be undone so long as there is enough in God to do his turn but is still to hope O! may Israel say what have I to hope in Hope saith the Psalmist for there is infinite fulness in God For with God there is mercy Israel ye need not cast away your hope confidence so long as there is any thing in God to bottom it And might I break in here on it O! what a blest communion and stocking together to speak so is there betwixt God and his people ye know that God the Father Son and holy Ghost did always share with his people in all their lots Isai 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted Zech. 2.8 He that touches them touches the apple of his eye Jer. 32.41 He rejoyceth over them to do them good with his whole heart and soul Ye know our blest Cautioner took on our nature to share with us in all our sinless miseries He was tempted in all things like as we are but without sin Heb. 4.15 Now he that shared once with us in suffering and always in sympathy makes a common good of all the fulness that is in him for his people that what he hath is forthcoming for them and O! the rich Promises that we have of this Hath the Father appointed him a Kingdom it will do him no good if they share not in it Luke 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed to me Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also because I live I will not leave you dead Joh. 17.24 Father I will that these whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my throne even as I overcame and am set â—own with my Father on his Throne see what delight he hath to communicat in loâ—s with his people and so it is in exigencies that befal them if they sit in darkness he will be lâ—ght to them if they be foolish he will be their wisdom if weak he will be their strength if in captivity and bondage he will be their Redeemer In a word if he have they shall not want and if it be in God and promised it shall not fail if it be in the house among them it shall be forthcoming to Believers and hopers in God I pray you learn to reckon this gate ye cannot tell what may be your work and exercise ere ye go from off the stage and I have no commission to recommend carnal confidence to you but the Israel of God may speak bigg in him and boast their enemies that seing their Head is above the water though they be doucked they cannot drown that all the attempts of enemies come now too late to frustrat Christ's designs unless they can bring him back again and set him before their bar He has answered all challenges and charge against his people and therefore none can be heard to plead against them they may say Shall tribulation distress persecution famine nâ—â—edness peâ—â—l or sword shall any of these separat us from the love of Christ Nay in all these we are more than conquerors They come too late to harm the Saints for he has spilt their sport and game who was dead and is alive for evermore and hath the keys of hell and death he hath duâ—g the teeth out of their heads he hath drunk the poyson out of all cups can be propined to them And for duties and undergoing difficulties I shall give you that blessed directory of the Apostle's who 2 Cor 3.5 sayes We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves and yet Phil. 4.13 sayes I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me I cannot think a good thought of my self and yet through Christ strengthning me I can do all things and this condescendence of the Apostle to his insufficiency to think a good thought gives a sad check to many that never put Christ in their undertakings but at a dead lift and therefore in such exigents provock him to desert them in ordinary miskenning him but were we left on him in ordinary and employing him in all things whether duties or difficulties it were a door of hope
hope in God And for the other Branch of this Bondage Misery and Trouble I cannot tell you how many ways wicked men wander in ere they stand in need of Redemption out of it from God Only I would lead you in a few steps of their ill improvement of the misery they are under through sin In one or mo of which the generality may read their Portraict And 1. It is the wickeds first seâ—â— hand to secure themselves against all apprehensions of trouble or misery the song they would fain essay to sing is that Psal 10.6 They have said in their heart they shall not be moved for they shall never be in adversity and for that end they foster their atheism and deny a Providence Would ye have a character of wicked mens first essay ye will find it Ezek. 8.12 and 9.9 The Lord seeth not the Lord hath forsaken the earth When they would commit all abominations this is their cordial against misery Zeph. 1.12 They are settled on their lies they say in their heart the Lord will neither do good nor evil They neither fear him nor his Providence But a 2d step is this if they pretend to owne a Deity and acknowledge a Providence they will admit of no intimation of any displeasure from God against them or their way do what they will If ye would waken a quarrel and make them your enemy tell them God is angry with them for their sins and will be about with them they will be about with you they dow not endure to be told of their faults or of God's wrath and anger I cannot give you this step more distinctly than in that Jer. 5.12 When the Prophets spoke to them the word of the Lord they would not let it light that it was God's minde They have belied the Lord saith he and said it was not he neither shall evil come on us neither shall we see sword or famine What will ye then do with the Prophets that say the contrary verse 13. The Prophets shall become wind and the word is not in them Thus shall it be done to them they will be in their tops as wronging God that tell them of Judgement for their sins A 3d step of their wandring if all this do not the turn if God fulfil the words of his Servant they have yet another fend and it is to grow as stupid and senseless as they can make themselves under vengeance this ye find deduced Isai 42.25 The Lord hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew it not it burned him yet he laid it not to heart And Hos 7.9 As the result of many a debausht rant from the beginning of the Chapter Ephraim is smitten with stupidity strangers have devoured his strength and he knows it not yea gray hairs are here and there on him yet he knows not When vengeance cannot be holden off the next sanctuary is stupidity But 4 If stupidity will not do the turn but God will smite and they must find it they will put on a hight and greatness of spirit that if any breach come they will repair it Isai 9.9 There is a generation that say in the pride and stoutness of their heart the bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones The sycamores are cut down but we will change them into cedars when they cannot avoid the feeling of Gods stroke they will set to it to make it up A 5th step of their abusing or woful improvement of their misery and bondage is if they find that what God hath built God will throw down as it is Mal. 1.4 They will run away to their carnal dreams and confidence that God will owne them as Jer. 12.4 When great calamity comes upon them on this very account they say He may well shore he will not lay on or if he lay on he will not see us ruined he will not see our last â—nd There is yet a 6th step when all their essays misgive upon their hand instead of taking themselves to the waiting mans posture to look up to God in the sense of their misery for redemption they turn desperat and hopeless their high flowen carnal expectations resolves in desperation Jer. 2.25 Thou said there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go And Jer. 18.12 They said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Their hopes that God will spare resolves in desperat hopelesness in the issue like these whom Isai 22.12 The Lord calls to weeping and mourning to baldness and girding with sackcloth They give themselves to joy and gladness slaying oxen c. saying Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die All these steps of the wickeds wandring I have laid before you that in a brief view ye may see the sinful byasses of folks hearts in their woful way of improving the bondage and misery they are under that any of you who are delivered from it may bless God and be thankful to him and may mourn over them that are walking in any of their rods or over their precipieces But I said I had also somewhat to say to the Israel of God that are called to hope in God and allowed and warranted to hope in him and shall briefly touch three or four short words to them 1. When an Israelite of God is broght under bondage from which by no means he can extricat himself but needs redemption from God he is bound to consider and reflect on the way how he came there This is the first thing he would think on how he has sold himself into that bondage Isai 50.1 Thus saith the Lord where is the bill of your mothers divorcement whom I have put away or which of my creditors is it to which I have sold you Behold for your iniquities have ye sold your selves and for your transgressions is your mother put away It is a very useful and profitable meditation for them that find the yoke of their transgressions wreathed about their neck to sit down and consider how they came thither how either by giving way to temptation presenting baits to them have taught it to be their captain and given it the mastery over them or how by their folly and provocations they have wreathed that yoke on themselves from which they cannot rid themselves nor get leave to walk haughtily 2. An Israelite is then called to consider the holy hand of God in making him feel the bitter fruit of his folly in this his bondage Many not only give way to temptations of sin but delight in it and God leaves them under the power of it till they lament that their folly and therefore when we are under bonds we would reflect not only on the bringing of our selves in that bondage but on our
we should silence all clamors about trouble with being throng about guilt that we should look on troubles and afflictions as things that we may get home with whether we be rid of them or not but we should look on redemption from sin as a thing absolutly necessar For without holiness none shall see God and that we should not take every trouble of mind for kindly exercise of Conscience for sin we should not let Conscience be sleeping in the bosom of a Delilah while there is a clamour made about trouble and that because it will not be suffered to sleep there without interruption Now to follow out this a little more particularly I shall offer you four or five words from the Text about their right exercise whose trouble is about sin or some Characters of them who have ground of hope that God will redeem them from all iniquity And 1. which is more general they that would approve themselves to God in their exercise about sin must learn to look on sin as a burden whereof they would be rid as a bondage from which they need redemption In the right Israel of God that is rightly exercised about sin no grievance goes so near the heart as that of sin The want of a delivery from trouble if they could be delivered from sinning under it or from having their corruption irritat to sin more by it it would be to them an outgate and they would drink and forget their misery if they could get sin shaken off if they could get that weight laid aside and be made light to run the race that is set before them What will ye say to this ye to whom wickedness is sweet and who hide it under your tongue who spare sin and forsake it not who count it not a bondage but a liberty surely to a true Israelite sin is the most unsupportable burden 2. They that look aright on sin as on a burden whereof they would be rid they must look on it as an iniquity abominable and hateful He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities and as the phrase is Psal 32.5 Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Some sins may be troublesom or vexatious and folk would not care to be quit of them on that or some other carnal account but there is none rightly exercised with sin that do not weary of it as hateful abominable and ugly in God's Eyes Thou may desire to be quit of one sin because it crusheth another sin but that is no evidence of a right groaning under the pressure of iniquity till it be groaned under as loathsom to God 3. As they that are rightly exercised about sin look on it as a burden and as iniquity so all of it is hateful and abominable as such I might here if I would follow it out point out to you that there is an all of sin in every one of mankind that there is an all of sin even in Israel who are allowed to hope in God a notion that David notices Psal 140.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold on me so that I cannot look up they are more than the hairs of mine head And O but they that are well acquaint with their own heart that are often upon a self-examination and search and do not live strangers to themselves they will find greater and greater abominations there Whither do they turn them but they will find pollutions in their omissions and commissions in reference both to Law and Gospel in reference to mercies received and corrections inflicted c. But that which I am upon is That Israel looks upon all sin as iniquity A partial opposition of sin is a self-deceiving undertaking a sacrificing of many sinful delights to one predominant a burning of many Cities to save one Zoar will not be taken off saints hands as a right opposition of sin As far as iniquity extends so far must their groaning under and opposition to it extend 4. They that are rightly exercised about sin will find it a pressure that needs a redemption that is a pressure that they 'l not get shaken off till God interpose There is some other thing in delivery from iniquity than for a man to think he will go forth as Sampson and shake him as at other times No a man will be put to look to God to attain it I confess painfulness in the use of means is our duty and it will never be taken off our hands for us to say that iniquity is our burden and hurtful to us so long as we are not using means to be rid of it No there must be endeavours on our part to cast out these Devils by Fasting and Prayer and though it were to beat down the body and bring it in subjection as the Apostle does 1 Cor. 9.27 in the exercise of Mortification that must not be wanting but it fears me there is little of the painful work of Mortification to be found among Christians in those days profession is the broadest thing in Religion among all and next to that some positive duties but for the serious study of Mortification to get Satan trode under foot to be above corruption O! how few Christians can have a sober testimony on that account And yet shall I say it that next to thy closing with Christ and making him thy City of Refuge thy painfulness in Mortification will be thy great Test But that which I am now on is to lay before you that on the one hand slipt in Mortification I had almost said sleeped in Mortification of sin is much to be suspected when some iniquities that had power over you seem to be subdued but ye never did any thing to subdue them ye would remember that parable Mat. 12.43 of the unclean spirit that goes out of a man many Devils go out that are not casten out that is he withdraws to take the man from off his watch and to surprize him to put himself in a capacity to return again to his house whence he came out with seven other spirits more wicked than himself But further as slipt in Mortification will not hold water so on the other hand when we have used all pains to mortifie and subdue sin our endeavours will not prove effectual though Prayer and Fasting be our duty and the use of other means till God come and give redemption from it It is God only that hath power over iniquity yea it may be that he hath a judicial hand in it and hath past a sentence making it thy plague as well as thy sin that till thou know the plague of thine own heart and look up to him for delivery from it as a plague thou shalt not be rid of it And therefore as on the one hand thou must be at pains to get the burden and bondage of sin shaken off that Naphthali may be a Hind let loose so on the other hand thou must not mistake though thy pains be not effectual as to that thing but
on stroaks from which folks will not easily come to be delivered O how oft may we write that over ill improved pressures which ye have Psal 81.13 O that my people had hearkened to me and Israel had walked in my ways I would soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries And Isai 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandment then had thy peace been as a river c. It must be otherwayes with pressed saints than it is with others It is a sin and a shame that so many ruines are under saints hands not improved but a double sin shame that they should increase under their hand and an evidence they have not been improved But a 3d word most directly from what I have spoken on this branch is this That if every delivery be a redemption and enlargement Then it calls the people of God to be comforted and enlarged under every mercy and proof of love how mean soever it be The Lord who calls men in the day of adversity to consider calls them in the day of prosperity to be comforted and joyful in any measure of redemption that they meet with Eccl. 7.14 And it 's marked by Nehemiah and others when God had brought Israel into the land of Canaan and gave them abundance of good things they delighted themselves in his great goodness Neh. 9.25 a practice very rare among God's people proofs of love particular redemption trists them which calls them to rejoyce in God and his goodness and yet they are where they were when they got them their mercies are little seen upon them by any enlargements given them and what wonder therefore that mercies be withholden from them who cannot be worse with the want of them than when they have them they droop when they have and they droop when they want the having of them is no enlargement to them and this they mourn not for as a sin they are better at picking quarrels at them than at being thankful for them which speaks a proud unsubdued selfie disposition I shall not stand to discuss the shifts and pretexts that folks make use of in their byasses in setting no value on Redemptions bestowed on them many a time their own spirit is a spirit of bondage when God allows on them a spirit of liberty It is not the want of allowances from God but the want of enlargement of heart a slavish servil disposition that makes a spirit of bondage when it is not Gods allowance Sometime they pretend the smalness of the mercy to undervalue it when they rather proclaim the want of humility in themselves The humbled Church Lam. 3.22 Under many pressures sees That it is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed if our mercies be compared with our lustings or deservings they will be great and admirable mercies And sometimes the cloud of continued pressures hides the sight of partial Redemptions but certainly every evidence of mercy remembred in wrath is a redemption and should be delighted in and our heart should be enlarged in receiving it as such in a word it is an evidence of a blest disposition when whatever be folks lots they love not to cast out with God they love not to fish faults with his Providence to miscal a mean mercy how insignificant soever it be to their sense and when they are content to pick up their mercies amongst the crouds of their crosses that these shall not tempt them not to be comforted in the meanest mercy and who knows but such a frame if it were studied might prove a door of hope to the increase and growth of favours they that delight to commend mercies shall find them grow Now I have done with the accounts on which deliveries are called Redemptions In the third place it remains that I should speak a little to the plentifulness of these redemptions With him there is plenteous redemption Ye heard the last day when I was speaking of the mercy of God That God is full of compassion and plenteous in mercy Psal 86.5 15. That he has manifold mercies Neh. 9.19 and that he is abundant in goodness Exod. 34.6 Here He is plenteous in redemption and this hath relation to these two 1. To the variety of the pressures the saints may be assaulted with for plenteous redemption speaks plentiful pressures 2. To the recurring of these pressures that when folk are brought out of them they fall in them again through their own folly There is plenteous redemption with God in relation to both For the first The variety of pressures wherewith saints may be assaulted There is somewhat 1. Supposed here That not only the Israel of God may have pressures but a variety a great many of them Hence Eliphaz Job 5.19 Supposing Job a penitent says God should deliver him in six troubles and in seven a number of perfection 2 Cor. 4.8 The Apostle says we are troubled on every side and Ch. 6.7 He tells There is need of the armour of righteousness both on the right and left hand there is no hand we can turn us to would he say but there is need of armour Chap. 7.5 Troubled on every side without are fightings and within were fears and in a word the Church tells us Lam. 2.22 That God had called as in a solemn day her terrors round about her in the day of Gods anger no pressure was wanting and there was a convention of them 1. Hence from this that variety of pressures are the lot of the people of God it doth on the one hand point out that they are ill to tame ill to hold like a wild ass snuffing up the wind it is not easie sisting them except they be hedged in on all hands hard wedges tells there are hard stone or timber to be divided and they who have many pressures may sit down and lament over their dispositions that less would not do their turn many might steal more quietly in to heaven were it not for their dispositions that are so wild and ill to be tamed Though yet I shall add the more pressures thou hast if thou could improve them well thou has the more doors open for mercy and occasions to get meat out of the eater 2. From it I would have many folks learning to silence their murmuring and complaining many have learned a gad of crying ere they be toucht there be many who though there be pressures be such as many of the people of God would count an outgate yet there is no biding of their complaining O! what would many of you do if ye were put in Job's case who in one day was stript of all that he had and the next day of his health and quietness of mind and yet he was born through it is a great evidence of mortification to be enabled to bear pressures well to make little din of grievances much din and crying under them tells there are many boyls to be let out and many
an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I knovv that it shall be well with them that fear God How will ye prove that because he fears before him but it shall not be vvell with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shaddow because he feareth not before God No approbation lyes in the bosom of forbearance Another Scripture that gives a dreadful refutation to them that take forbearance for pardon is that Psal 50.21 These things thou hast done and I kept silence thou thought that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this all ye that forget God lest I tear you in peices and there be none to deliver There is a refutation of all the wicked mans dreams anent God and his forbearance And if ye would have a third Scripture take the forecited place Rom. 2.4 5. Thou despisest the riches of his goodness forbearance and long suffering not knowing that it leadeth thee to Repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath Thou may treasure up other things as thou will for thy advantage but thou shalt find thou treasurest up wrath to thy ruine thou may think because thou prospers in Sin God approves of thee as the saying is prosperum faelix scelus virtus vocatur Wickedness is called a virtue because it thrives yet remember that forbearance is no Pardon 4. In taking up the nature of pardon negatively Consider That God's pardoning of particular Sinners whereby he restores them in favour is not to be confounded with National Pardons which God gives to Nations This pardon is many times spoken of in Scripture though by analogy we may draw them to a particular pardon So the scope of that place Num. 14.19 runs another way than to particular Persons and respects a National Pardon Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people sayes Moses according to the greatness of thy mercy as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even untill now I have pardoned according to thy word sayes the Lord but truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. I have pardoned but yet I will punish and vindicat mine honour So that passage Psal 78.38 But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not when they deserved That was a pardon of the Nation or a National Pardon Now a National Pardon amounts only to this when the Lord forbears to root out a Nation as the Lord threaten â—o Moses that he would root out Israel in that forecited place Num. 14.12 That he would Dis-inherit them and make of him a greater Nation and a Mightier than they when he keeps them in their own Land as he did Israel and does not root them out or when he continues with them the priviledge of a Church though he plague them and weed out a godless generation from among them as he did out of Israel that in the space of 38 years time there was not a man of them left that were 20 years old and upwards when they came out of Egypt save Caleh and Joshua So the Lord may pardon a Nation and yet punish them he may by his Judgments weed out the generality of a Generation and send them to the Pit which may consist with a National pardon when he doth not cut off the Nation or suffers them to enjoy the priviledges of a Church But the pardon of a particular Sinner is when he sits down at God's Footstool and Judges himself and closes with Christ for righteousness and that 's another thing And 5. In taking up the nature of pardon Negatively We must beware of confounding the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin the prosecution whereof would lead me to speak Positively wherein pardon of Sin consists to the guilt and pollution of Sin and the different acts of God about both but because that will give the rise to other Questions I shall remit it to another occasion only here ye shall distinguish these three The filth of Sin the power of Sin and the guilt of Sin The filth of Sin is the foul stain that Sin leaves behind it The guilt of Sin is the Offence done to God and the Obligation to punishment resulting thereupon the power of Sin is the Tyrrany that Sin exercises over the Sinner Now when I say we are not to confound the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin ye would understand it aright I grant that God strikes at the guilt of Sin and the power of Sin both at once which is this in plain languege that a pardoned sin must not be a reigning sin where the vertue of the blood is applyed for pardon the power of the blood will also be applyed for the subjugating of sin and putting it from the Throne and therefore in the by ye may take it as a noble evidence of pardon when sin is subdued or if it be not subdued yet ye are engadged against your own sinful disposition that it prevails not with your consent but for the filthiness of sin though it be stricken at as soon as any of the former Regeneration layes the Ax to the Root of that Tree yet it remains in the Saints till death make the separation Paul Rom. 7. Hath a Law in his members rebelling against the Law in his his mind till Death but the pardon of sin is attainable before death and given in Justification and afterward upon the justified persons Repentance for particular faults and therefore consequently it is not to be confounded with the removal of sin sin may be pardoned and pardon of sin is consistent with the sight of the filthiness of sin for which the soul is abased before God dayly after Regeneration though sin doth not reign and that 's it wherein the pardon of sin consists even in the taking away of the guilt of sin and the souls obligation to wrath though the filth of sin remain SERMON XI Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee I Am now insisting upon the refuge to which the man abased with the conscience of sin betaketh himself who when he hath reflected upon Gods proceedings in strict Justice according to the tenor of the Covenant of Works with sinners and who when he hath found that if God should thus mark iniquity none even the most godly should be able to stand he subjoyns this as a blest aftergain in mans deplorable case But forgivenness is with thee In prosecution of this great truth that there is pardoning-mercy with God to be a relief for Self-condemned sinners I have spoken to two of the five heads that I proposed to be spoken to upon it 1. I have spoken to the Consideration of that which is pardoned that is Iniquity Sin or Transgression or call it by what name ye will 2. I
have spoken to the Consideration of the Author of Pardon who it is that pardons sin and whatever hand Ministers have in this or what ever hand private persons have in it in remitting injuries done to them yet the Text determins God still to be the principal Creditor it 's with thee says he It 's with thee alone that forgivenness is I entered upon the 3d thing I proposed to be spoken to which is the main thing in thing purpose that is to inquire after the nature of this pardon what this forgivenness of sin which is with God imports and after a brief touch upon some passages of Scripture whereby pardon of sin is expressed I proceeded negatively to tell you what it is not where I shew that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with mens forgetting of sin and taking a pardon to themselves as also that sin is not to be lightly looked on as a thing that God lightly passes by when he pardons it for he pardons none but upon satisfaction made to his Justice by sinners surety likewise that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with Gods forbearing or not inflicting punishment for it for a time for they may be long forborn who yet may be unpardoned and whose forbearance is no sign of Divine Approbation Further it was cleared that the pardoning of particular sinners and their restoring in favour is not to be confounded with a National pardon conferred on a Nation whom he may pardon and yet punish And lastly it was cautioned and cleared that we should not confound the pardon of sin with the removal of sin in the pollution of it for though God strike at the guilt and power of sin both together yet whereas pardon of sin is attained before Death some filthiness of Sin will remain in the pardoned Sinner as long as he is in this life and pardon of Sin may consist with the sight of the filthiness of Sin for which the Sinner is abased before God daily And this leads me positively to point out what pardon of Sin imports all that I shall say to it in general before I break in to tell you more particularly what it is shall be this ye shall distinguish in Sin these two There is in Sin a blot or pollution of the Soul and a defaceing of God's Image thereby And there is in Sin a guilt that is an offence done to God by the violating of his Law whereby the Sinner becomes obnoxious to the punishment that He hath threatned in his Law These two are clearly distinguishable among men a child running in a puddle polluteâ— himself and by so doing he becomes guilty of transgressing his Parents command and is lyable to their correction or punishment Now as to these two the guilt and the blot of Sin there are diverse and distinct Operations of God conversant about them for as the blot of Sin begins to be stricken at in Regeneration so that work is carried on by Piece-meal in Sanctification till Sanctification be perfected and end in Glorification Regeneration and Sanctification are the Acts of God conversant about the Blot and Filthiness of Sin but pardon of Sin takes not away the beeing nor the Filthiness of Sin as Antinomians say but it takes away the guilt of Sin and the guilt of Sin being pardoned the Sinner is delivered from the Punishment that his guilt deserves and this is also distinguishable among Men for a person having committed an enormous crime that crime continues still a filthy thing and evidences a naughty disposition yet when that crime is pardoned the man that committed it loses not their favour against whom it was committed and is freed from the punishment that it deserves So a Child that hath puddled himself in a mire suppose the Parents forgive the offence the filth that he hath got in the mire sticks to him still till it be washed away another way So I say pardon of sin takes not away the filthiness of sin but the guilt of sin And this I mention not meerly for speculation and information of the Judgment but it says something for their Advantage and Encouragement who in the sense of sin are flying to Christ for pardon that they be not scarred by the pollution of sin from relying on him for the pardon of guilt A tender Soul so long as it finds the blot of sin it will readily doubt if the guilt of sin be taken away but if we take up pardon Scripturally the guilt of sin is done away by pardon though the blot of sin remain I confess the blot of sin must not remain unmourned for it must not remain unsubdued or without an endeavour to subdue it yet it may remain when the guilt and violation of the Law of God by Sin is pardoned and past that sin may be near thy sight in the blot and pollution which pardon hath put far off as to the guilt of it Jer. 50.20 In those days and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought and there shall be none and the sin of Judah and they shall not be found Why For I 'le pardon them whom I reserve only let me add that that thou who grips to the pardon of guilt when yet thou finds the blot of sin remaining and art mourning for it remember that pardon must not be only a simple exemption from punishment but that it is only a Restitution into his Favour whom thou hast offended Thy pardon must not be an Absalom's pardon that brought him back to Jerusalem but he saw not the King's face Thou must not satisfie thy self with that but thou must be accepted and come into favour that was David's prayer Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce and verse 12. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me by thy free Spirit But of this I will have occasion to speak in the progress therefore I leave it And having given you this general Notion of Pardon I shall proceed to batter it out a little for the clearing of four Questions 1. How the guilt of sin can be separated from the blot of sin and the sinner pardoned 2. Whether in pardon the obligation to punishment be so taken off as the pardoned man falleth under no Chastisement for sin 3. Whether the real passing of Pardon be one in the Court of Heaven with that which is in the Court of Conscience or if the truth of pardon depends on the intimation of it to our hearts 4. Whether what the Lord pardons He pardons Irrevocably or whether upon the Contracting of new guilt the former pardon be made void to the pardoned man These four Questions I shall touch upon as briefly as I can and sure I am these of you whose plight anchor pardon of sin is ye will not weary to hear them