of the Comforts of it assign'd by God and when that Portion is exhausted we are truly full of Days whether we have lived long in the World or a little while No Man can die till then and after that 't is impossible to live It is certain that to this point we shall come and as certain that we shall not go beyond it 4. The place of our Death is limited by the purpose and pleasure of God as well as the of our Habitation while we live He prescribes not only when but where our Spirits shall reutrn to him He calls as it were to every Man out of Heaven though not so audibly as to Moses saying Die thou there upon that spot of Ground thy Carkass shall fall as God said concerning Ahab with reference to Naboth's Field which he had gotten by Murder I wil requite thee in this plat 2 Kings 9.26 One perhaps is struck in a Religious Assembly another in his Closet one in the City another in the Field one at Home another Abroad but all exactly in that place which was allotted by God's eternal Decree Our Lord could not be hurt in Herod's Jurisdiction because his last Stage was to be Jerusalem Luke 13.33 5. The means of our Death are disposed and managed by God whether natural or violent or casual means Whatsoever it be which brings us to the Grave 't is a Messenger of his sending When the Manslayer kills another undesignedly God is said to deliver the other into his hand Exod. 21.13 so when bloody Men seek after our Lives 't is as true that God delivers us into their hands also if we fall into them Him being deliver'd by the council and foreknowledge of God you have taken c. Acts 2.23 There is no Distemper which proves mortal to us amongst the many that we are incident to but what therein executes the Orders of God He who hath appointed such an Event does likewise appoint those things whereby it is brought about Diseases in the Body as well as Storms in the Air fulfil his Word 6. The manner of dying as to Slowness or Suddennes Ease or Pain is directed by the Will of God Some are snatch'd out of the World as Israel went out of Egypt in haste and cut off by a quick surprizing stroke like Sodom's overthrow in a moment Others have a lingring Departure and the Pins of their Tabernacle are loosned and pulled out by degrees God is the Supream Orderer of both for he takes away as he sees good Ezek. 16.50 Some slide out of the World like Rivers of Oil which run smooth and soft without any Bands in their Death and others die with Agony and Torture as if the Soul were rent and torn out of the Body like the casting of the dumb Spirit out of the Child Mark 9.26 And who knoweth not in all these that the Hand of the Lord hath wrought this II. What sort of Obedience we are to yield to the Will of God in this Case Here shew what is consistent with it and what are the proper and due Qualifications of it First What is Consistent with this Obedience which may seem opposite and repugnant to it Answ 1. The use of natural Remedies for the preservation of Life consists very well with our Obedience to God in dying it is the manifest Will of God that we should use them when his secret will is not to prosper them When we know not how he will do with us we know not what he hath requir'd us to do for our selves A diligent Application of Recovering means may be accompanied with our dutiful submitting of the issue to him 'T is no Rebellion against the Laws of God to follow the Rules of the Physician even in our last Sickness before we know whether it will be our last or not The Distemper'd Body ought not to be neglected though the departing Spirit is to be resign'd The Body is such an Hand-maid to the Soul that it must not like that Egyptian Servant be carelesly left when it falls sick 1 Sam. 30.31 2. Conditional Requests to God for sparing Mercy are not inconsistent with this Obedience Absolute Requests indeed are not allowable to ask Life in a peremptory Manner whether it be the Will of God to grant it to no is as sinful as 't is vain but to ask it with a becomeing Subjection to his unknown good Pleasure is what he approves though he denies to answer Our Lord himsself intreated the passing of the Cup from him if it were possible or if his Father were willing Luke 22.42 So long as there is hope there is Room for Prayer yea many Times against Hope Prayer hath prevailed While we are under God's Hand we cannot tell but that he may hear when we find that the unalterable Decree is gone forth we are to cease like those Disciples when Paul would not be persuaded saying The Will of the Lord be done Acts 21.14 3. A zealous pursuit of Holy Designs for the Service and Interest of Christ to the very last is consistent with our Obedience to the Will of God in dying It behoves us to be carrying on Religious Projects as long as we live though we should yield to dye before we have accomplisht them Though David was told that he should not have the Honour of building an House for God yet he continued his vast Preparations for it till the Time that he fell asleep While we have any being we should be aiming at further usefulnes continuing and drawing the Schemes of more good Works whether God will give us Opportunity for the performance or not It will be our Glory to dye with such Work upon our Hands for no Man ever yet but Jesus Christ was able to do all that was in his Heart to do for God Mr. N. Mather 4. The strugglings of Humane Flesh against the bitterness of Death though never altogether Innocent in us as in Christ will consist with our Obedience in dying Nature cannot receive such a Sentence in it self without some Aversion though Grace overcomes and subdues it Nature will look upon Death as an Enemy still though Grace looks upon it as Conquer'd The Mind so far as it is renewed is entirely given up to God but the Sanctification of the Spirit Soul and Body being still imperfect there will be some remaining Reluctancies These tho' not excusable from Sin are nevertheless reconcileable with Sincerity The dying Acts of Believers are not free from guilty weakness and yet are unquestionably done in greatest Uprightness There is something which pulls back but a stronger Principle which draws them forward 2. What are the due and proper Qualifications of this Obedience Ans 1. It includes a quiet expecting and waiting for God's Call Obedience to God in dying must not spring from an impatient Discontent of Living for then it is no Obedience but real unruliness of the Spirit seeking Deliverance before the Time from some burdensome Evils wherewith we are opprest
Vera Effigies TIMOTHEI CRUSO Aetat 40. 1697. T. Forster delin N. White scuÌ„lp TWENTY-FOUR SERMONS Preached at the MERCHANTS-LECTURE AT Pinners Hall By the late Reverend Mr. TIMOTHY CRVSO LONDON Printed by S. Bridge for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside MDCXCIX TO THE READER THese Sermons are some of the Reliques of one who is gone to receive the Fruit of his Labours who hath left Sowing for the sake of the Harvest wherein he is now reaping Though this is a Posthumous Piece yet it speaks out the living Praise of the dead Author whose it was without any Alteration or Addition being Printed from his own Notes If I may use the Phrase in Fashion he lived too fast not as too many do who shorten their Days by their Debaucheries and sinful Excesses but as a Taper which wastes it self to give Light to others His Bodily Constitution was too weak to undergo the Service his Soul put it to in constant Studies and hard Labour that he might Answer the Restlesness of his Mind which was always aspiring to greater Knowledge and higher Attainments whereby he laid greater load upon his Flesh than its weakness could bear and so sinking under the burden he died in the midst of his Days There is no need of my Epistle to Midwife these Excellent Discourses into the World nor had I had any hand in it had it not been to answer the Desires of some Relations of his to whom my Obligations will not allow me to deny any thing And also to take this occasion to Vindicate what I spake and published in his Funeral Sermon about the Vnion of the Spirit of Christ with the Dead Body of a Saint which hath by some been greatly stumbled at and called in question as a new Doctrine I therefore thought it Charity to such to remove this stumbling Block not by any Arguments further than what I have therein already urged but by calling in the Judgment of others in this matter and I shall look no farther back than to the Learned Men of our own Times Mr. Rutherford speaking of the Covenant of Grace Treatise of the Covenant of Grace p. 216. says It is thus Eternal in that the dead Parties Abraham Isaac and Jacob are still in the Covenant of Grace and there remains a Covenant Union between Christ and their rotten Flesh sleeping in the Dust Mr. Calamy says Morning Exercise of Giles in Fields Ser. 24. p. 548. The Bodies of the Saints shall be raised by vertue of their Union with Christ for the Body of a Saint even while it is in the Grave is united to Christ and is asleep in Jesus and shall be raised by vertue of this Union And in p. 557. If thou gettest into Christ while thou livest thou shalt die in Christ and sleep in Christ and be raised by Christ into Eternal Happiness Mr. Case speaking of the Vnion between Christ and Believers Case his Mount Pisgah first Part p. 38. says Not only in Death but even after Death this Union holds the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus that part of the Saints which is capable of sleep is not capable of Separation from Christ While their more noble Part is united to Christ in Heaven among the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Christ is united to their inferiour and more ignoble Part in the Grave their very Dust they sleep in Jesus Mr. Stedman says Stedman's Mystical Vnion of Believers with Christ p. 191. Death it self shall not separate Believers from Jesus Christ but still they are entirely in him even when they are dead As it was in the death of Christ himself though it made Separation between his Body and Soul yet it did not separate the Humane Body from the Divine So it is in the death of the Saints though it rend the Spirit from the Flesh yet it can part neither from the Son of God The very Bodies of Believers are united to Jesus when they are dead Dr. Collings on those words of our Lord Pool 's Annotations on John 11.26 He that believeth on me shall never die says Though his Body shall die because of sin yet his Spirit shall live because of Righteousness and God shall in the great Day quicken again his Mortal Body through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in him and is united to him Dr. Thomas Goodwin Dr. Goodwin 's first Fol. on Ephes 1.14 p. â—â—1 Doth the Spirit dwell in you now When you are laid in the Grave that Spirit dwelleth in you as he did in the Body of Christ I do not say in the same manner The Spirit of God did dwell in the Body of Christ in the Grave and raised it up he never left him Though his Body was a dead Carkass without a Soul yet that Body was Hypostatically united to the Godhead therefore it was called Holy One My Holy One shall not see Corruption Now the Comparison is If we have the Spirit of Christ and if he dwell in us the same Spirit shall never leave our Bodies till he hath raised us up also Nay while thy Body is dead and rotten in the Grave the Holy Ghost dwells in it And hear what a great Man of the Church of England in his Day saith Christ's Deity was united to his dead Body his Resurrection was perform'd by the Power and Spirit of the Father God reached out his hand to him and raised him up Here then is our Comfort the same Spirit of God is communicable to us the same Arm of Power may be reached out to us He will imploy the same power for us as he did for Christ Ephes 1.19 And again in p. 210. His Spirit dwells in you The Inhabitation of God's Spirit that is the Ground of our Resurrection because it is Vinculum unionis the Spirit is the Bond of our Union and Conjunction with Christ By it we are Incorporated into his Body and made Members of it Now then if our Head rise all the Members must rise with it if the Head be in Heaven the Members shall not for ever perish in the Grave This Union by the Spirit is like the touch of a Load-stone it will attract and draw us to him that where he is we shall be also It is spoken of his Hypostatical but it is true also of his Mystical Union Quod semel assumpsit nunquam deposuit Christ will part with none of his Members Bishop Brownrig 2d Vol. p. 204. And again in the same Page Our Bodies by this Inhabitation are Consecrated to be a Possession of the Holy Ghost and the Temple of God must not be destroy'd God's Spirit takes Pleasure not only in these living Temples but owns them when they are dead takes Pleasure in the dead Bones and Favours the Dust of them I could multiply Testimonies of elder Date to prove the Truth of this Doctrine and that it is no new Notion but there needs no Proof from Humane Testimony
that these Places do not intend the advancing of immediate Illumination in defiance to instituted Means the teaching of God are not to be oppos'd to the teachings of Men for even in the New Testament the teachings of Men are often mention'd as subordinate to the teachings of God He that heareth you says Christ to his Apostles heareth me Luke 10.16 And though Men are Ambassadors for Christ it is as though God did beseech you by them 2 Cor. 5.20 2. The sence of these Places therefore must be that the Effusion of the Spirit under the Gospel would be so plentiful not as to exclude humane Teaching or render it unnecessary but so as vastly to exceed and out-do it that in comparison it should be as no Teaching for Believers that are taught of God though they despise not external Ministrations yet may say to their Ministers as the Samaritans to the Woman John 4.42 Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ c. 2. Though it be in the use of outward Means yet 't is an internal discovery there is an Application not only of Words to the Eye or Ear but of Conviction to the Mind God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts c. 2 Cor. 4.6 So Paul says of himself with respect to the Time of his Conversion When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me Gal. 1.15 16. This inward Revelation is of a perfectly different kind from the bare revealing of Christ to us in the Letter of the Gospel though it be the same Christ who is reveal'd both to us and in us for in the Work of Faith God inspires the Soul with new Perceptions of Divine Objects so that there is communicated and imprinted another Sense and sight of those very Things of which we had formerly heard The Spirit secretly suggests that which we never knew concerning that which we did sleightly and superficially know All the great Transactions of God which accompany Salvation are within us unseen and unknown to any but our selves 'T is the inward Man which is transform'd and renewed in Knowledge and the Spirit who does all this for us is said to be dwelling in us 3. The Spirit Works freely in making this discovery Though we are tyed to use the Means he is not oblig'd to work by them always upon every one that does enjoy them He divides his Gifts and Graces to this and that Person severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 He is compar'd to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth John 3.8 'T is not in vain that the Spirit and the Wind have the same Name in the Original Languages of the Scriptures and in that extraordinary pouring out of the Spirit Acts 2.2 There came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty Wind which fill'd the House because as the Wind is not at the command of any Creature with reference to its moving or ceasing blowing one way or another so the Spirit of God is a free Agent in all his Operations he is under no necessity of enlightning those whom he does enlighten he does it for one and not for another in the hearing of the same Word to shew that he Acts with the highest Liberty Mat. 13.11 It is given to you to know the Mysteries c. but to them it is not given 4. The Spirit Works effectually in these Discoveries He makes dead Letters to become lively Oracles There is an Excellency of Power which goes along with the Word when he causes it to be receiv'd According to his working which worketh in me mightily Col. 1.29 The thick scales of Ignorance and Infidelity like those of the Leviathan Job 41.17 stick so close that it must be a strong Hand which removes and separates them from our Understandings There never was any saving Revelation of Gospel-Truths to any Sinner in the World from the very beginning of it without a Revelation of the Arm of the Lord Isa 53.1 But wheresoever this Arm of God is revealed the Report of the Gospel is both understood and believ'd This Omnipotent cause never fails of producing its intended Effect So Christ expresly says John 6.45 Every Man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Every Man without one Exception 5. The Spirit Works in this Case suitably to the Nature of our Faculties he does not destroy or force them but enlarge and improve them He does not put out the Eye of our Minds but open it Our foolish Hearts are naturally darkned and he does not impose upon them but clear them Every Believer can testifie this to the Honour of Christ that his sight hath not been taken away but restor'd as he boldly said to the Pharisees John 9.25 One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see We were blind before and thought that we saw now we really see and know that we were blind The Understanding of a Man is the workmanship of God and he does not overthrow that when he makes us new Creatures The Demonstration of the Spirit is such as we cannot resist and yet it offers no Violence to us The Judgment is truly convinc't and we can say We know whom we have believed 2 Tim. 1.12 6. The Spirit in discovering of such Truths Works alone and by himself There is no Conjunction or proper Co-operation of second Causes with him It is here as it was with those in Mat 20.34 Jesus touched their Eyes and immediately they receiv'd sight 'T is the touch of Christs Hand only which recovers us from spiritual blindness Nature contributes nothing to the efficacious workings of Grace and therefore 't is observ'd that many of the Holy Women whom our Lord descended from were barren to shew that they Conceiv'd not by the strength of their own Womb but by vertue of the Promise As Sarah Rebeckah Rachel c. So we are Light in the Lord Eph. 5.8 But we do not help towards the creating of it in our selves We are meerly Passive in the first Reception of Divine Light as the Eye of the Body is truly Passive in the taking in of natural Light All Light is brought into the Eye so it springs in from Heaven into the Mind which is no better than a very Dungeon of it self 3. What kind of Knowledge is that which is the Effect and Fruit of this discovery of saving Truth by God to the Soul This is the rather to be insisted on a little because it may be of great Advantage to us in the Trial of our State that we may make a right Judgment of our selves whether under the Conduct of Flesh and Blood or of the Father 1. That Knowledge which proceeds from the special inward Revelation of Divine Things is a more assuring Knowledge than any other The end of Luke's Writing his Gospel to Theophilus was That he might know the certainty of those things wherein
remains uncertain There is one Request for deliverance out of this calamitous Case which is thrice Repeaed ver 3 7 19. in the former Part of which Request there is a kind of Gradation observ'd every Time 't is mention'd Turn us again Oh God turn us again Oh God of Hosts and turn us again Oh Lord God of Hosts but the latter Part is still the same and no difference made in the Repetiton Cause thy Face to shine and we shall be saved But yet there is no Petition throughout the Psalm which is so remarkable or that seems to carry such an Evangelical Sense in it as that in the Text. For Explication there are Three Things to be enquir'd into 1. Who is intended here by the Man of God's right Hand and the Son of Man c Some think it signifies the People of the Jews the whole Common-Wealth of Israel who are sometimes collectively spoken of as one Man and a single Person others take it for the House of David and Royal Family or for the Stock and Tribe of Judah out of which our Lord was to spring but the Characters here given do much better agree to the Messiah himself if we duly consider them 1. The Man of thy Right Hand This imports one highly favoured and respected by God as Benjamin which is a Son of the right Hand and named ver 2. was his Father's darling The right Hand is a beloved Member as is intimated by the Command to Cut it off if it offend Mat. 5.30 So is Christ peculiarly dear to God his Delight and Joy from Everlasting and exalted to sit at his Right Hand a Place too great for any Creature Psalm 110.1 2. The Son of Man This is a Title most frequently given to Christ in the Gospel and in the Old Testament also Dan. 7.13 I saw in the Night-Visions and behold one like the Son of Man c. Which denotes the Truth of Christ's Humane Nature though he came not by ordinary Generation 3. One made strong by God for himself As ver 15. The Branch which thou madest strong for thy self Now as Christ is often call'd the Branch by the Prophets so he was really furnisht and endued as Mediator with extraordinary Power to serve the great Purposes and Designs of God such as could have been accomplished by no other And so it was foretold that he should be Isa 41.10 I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right Hand of my Righteousness 2. What is meant by the Thing requested let thy Hand be upon c. If we consider some other Places where the like Phrase is used we shall find it implies Influence Protection and Support as Ezra 8.31 The Hand of our God was upon us and he delivered us from the Hand of our Enemy c. Ezek. 3.14 I went in the heat of my Spirit but the Hand of the Lord was strong upon me the Prophet being then under a mighty Divine Impression beyond what other common Persons were or even he himself at other Times 3. How are we to understand the Connexion of this Petition with the following Words so will not we go back from thee It may be understood two Ways 1. As it would oblige them to the yielding of stedfast Obedience it would lay them under a special Engagement never to Revolt any more as they had done if God would grant this Request it would be a most eminent Tye and Bond upon them to the most constant and faithful Service 2. As it would enable them to yield such Obedience And this I conceive to be chiefly aimed at if God would lay such help upon Christ for them they should receive Power by that means to discharge their Duty to him better than ever heretofore though they were very feeble and wavering false and treacherous of themselves yet here would be a successful Remedy Note 1. The Consideration of Jesus Christ is very fit and proper to Minister Comfort and Relief in the most afflicted Condition That State of the Church which this Psalm hath a Relation to was very deplorable but they encouraged themselves by looking to the promised Saviour When their Vineyard was burnt with Fire and cut down ver 16. They had an Eye to him that was the true Vine whom God exercises such Care and Husbandry about that his pleasant and useful Fruit can never be destroy'd John 15.1 Note 2. It was the commendable Practice of the Church in the Old Testament Times to Pray for Christ This was according to the Precept Psalm 72.15 Prayers shall be made for him continually They pray'd for his Assistance in his Work and for his actual Mission to perform it that he might be sent into the World and that what he undertook might prosper in his Hand Nor is the Duty now out of Date of Praying for his second Coming for the Advancement of his Interest and Enlargement of his Kingdom here below But the main Scope of the Words will lead us to another Point Obs The Strength of Christ is the great and immediate Security of Believers against Apostacy from God Here I. Shew wherein lies the true Nature of this Apostacy II. Of what Concernment it is to Believers to be secur'd against it III. How is the Strength of Christ their Security in this Case IV. Why hath God order'd it so to be V. Use I. Wherein lies the true Nature of Apostacy from God The very Expression whereby the Holy Ghost does here describe and set it forth will if duely weighed give us some Light into it 1. Every failure and defect in the Exercise of Grace is not to be reckon'd as an Apostacy There is a great Difference between spiritual Decaies and Languishings and this going back from God The Soul may faint and flag in the pursuit of God and yet not be carried off so far as to steer a contrary Course As a Schism in the Body 1 Cor. 12.25 Is much less than a Separation from the Body a breach or disunion in a Church not so much as an absolute Rent and dividing from a Church so there may be Declensions in our Obedience and yet no declining from the Law Psalm 119.51 The Degrees of Grace may be remitted when the actings of Grace are not destroyed and the habits of Grace weakened when they are not abolished As the Church of Ephesus did not cease to Love yea even in Sincerity though charg'd with leaving her first Love Rev. 2.4 Christ says he had somewhat against her which is a diminishing term but he would have had much more against her if instead of an abatement of Love it had been turned into hatred These gradual Deficiencies and shrinkings of Grace are truly humbling to us and may issue worse if not carefully lookt after we have Reason to lament them and endeavour a speedy Cure of them but such a revolting from God as the Text speaks of if more than all this comes to 2. Every
the very top and uttermost point the head Stone and the full blown Flower of a Creature 's Felicity when you have said this you can go no higher now to assure us the more comfortably of our arrival to this at last we have the pledges and beginnings of it here but the way of our receiving them is to be consider'd 'T is by eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ by Faith in the Lamb slain in our Passover Sacrific'd for his Flesh could not have been eaten nor his Blood drunk if he had not died 'T is the death of Christ which we must lay hold upon for Life and Salvation the Kingdom which he appoints to us is founded here for as one says Christ hath purchased by his Death all the Legacies bequeath'd in his Testament which no other Testator does IV. Why did Jesus Christ make it his Work to restore what he took not away 1. It was a necessary work a work which must be done in order to his being a Saviour God will have restitution made one way or another his injur'd Name and Honour must be vindicated It became him c. in bringing many Sons unto glory yea it would have become him if he had brought but one to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings Hebr. 2.10 It was agreeable to his Wisdom Purity Truth and Righteousness that Jesus Christ should make compensation by his Blood for the Iniquity of Mâ—â— It was not fit nor consistent with the Perfections of Gods Nature that such Indignities 〈…〉 had offer'd should be passed by 〈…〉 without any notice taken or 〈…〉 Mercy cannot be exercis'd to the dispuragement of any other Attribute he cannot exile one to the depressing of the rest In the business of Salvation there was something else to be done besides the magnifying of Grace God had said that be would magnisie the Law and make it honourable Isa 42.21 This Law had been trampled on by every Child of Disobedience and therefore to assert and recover the Reputation of it Christ must be made under it perform what it enjoin'd and suffer what it threatned 2. It was a work impossible for any meer Creature to do so that if Christ did not it could not have been done by any Person besides him The Scripture speaks of the wicked Oppressor that he shall vomit up what he swallows down and according to his substance shall the restitution be Job 20.18 He shall refund to those whom he hath drained by rapine and Violence as far as his Estate will go But what restitution can there be when all the substance is wasted This is our case we are wretchedly poor and insolvent and have nothing to pay being reduc'd by Sin to absolute Beggary we have stoln away as far as was in our power the Crown from God and we have â—ined and plander'd our selves encroach'd upon the Rights of Heaven and wrong'd our own Souls and are utterly uncapable of making the least attonement for all this We can take away but we cannot restore When the Servant that owed Ten thousand Talents to his Lord was brought before him and could not pay his Debt his Lord commanded him to be sold Matth. 18.25 but alas we are not worth so much as our Debt amounts to If Justice should seize us it must detain us for ever we must not only be cast into Prison but kept there and our lying in Hell for ever would not satisfy God as Christ's suffering once upon the Cross SERMON XVI December 15. 1696. PSALM LXIX iv last Clause Then I restored that which I took not away 3. JEsus Christ was ordained of God to this work and in that respect there was a necessity of his accomplishing it John 9.4 I must work the work of him that sent me c. This was the work of him that sent him and therefore he could not decline it Christ could not resist the Will of the Father any more than he could cease to love him John 14.31 That the World may know that I love the Father as the Father gave me commandment even so I do His Obedience was an Evidence of his Love to God as it is of ours though there be no proportion between his and ours for no Creatures love to God was ever so strong or ever so tried Cyrus was styled the Man that executed God's Counsel Isa 46.11 but he did it ignorantly for he knew not God but the Man Christ Jesus understood his Work and who gave it him to do and design'd the Execution of God's Counsel in it as an Expression of his matchless Affection to him It became our Lord Jesus in the quality of God's Commissioner To be faithful to him that appointed him Heb. 3.2 He was put in trust with this Business and he must shew his Fidelity in performing it There is such an exact Agreement between his and the Father's Will that when God pleas'd to require his Service he could not but say Lo I come 4. Christ had engag'd to take this Work upon him which is a sort of Engagement that the Scripture more than once expresses by striking Hands Job 17.3 Prov. 22.26 So our Lord Jesus had covenanted with the Father before all Time to do that which in the fulness of Time he actually came to do Now this Agreement which bears an Eternal Date could not be disanulled or made void again as God the Father had sworn with respect to Christ and could not repent Psalm 110.4 So Jesus Christ having enter'd into such a Bond it stood firm as the Ordinances of Heaven and he could not go back from the Execution or Performance of it If the Covenant of Redemption might have been broken the whole Design might have miscarried the Counsel of Peace had been overthrown and all the Thoughts of God to us-ward had come to nothing It was upon this unmoveable Foundation that the Salvation of all the Believers under the Old Testament was built as well as those under the New so that if Christ had not made good what he undertook they that were let into Heaven must have been cast out But the Considence that God reposed in his Son could not be so defeated He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not is the Character of a Citizen of Sion Psalm 15.4 But most eminently true of Christ 5. The Infinite Love of Christ to Sinners did sweetly incline him to this Work His Delights who was the Wisdom of God were with the Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 He delighted in Mercy and in them as the needy Objects of it who otherwise were altogether undelightful The Bowels of Jesus Christ were troubled for us he could not bear to see his whole reasonable Creation in this lower World made a Prey to the Devil without interposing for the effectual Rescue of a chosen peculiar Number Our Misery was the Motive to his Compassion that swayed him to Acts of Pity when our guilt would have provokt him to
when it is so plainly confirmed by the Word of God as I have elsewhere shewed If we receive the Witness of Men the Witness of God is greater And there needs no greater Vindication of any Doctrine than the Testimony of God to the truth of it The Author of these Discourses was a Person whose Worth was well known in this City he was a Person of a sound Mind and Judgment in the great Doctrines of the Gospel and held fast the Form of sound Words carefully shunning the Paths of those By-way Men who please themselves with the fond Thoughts of such Opinions wherein they chuse to walk by themselves apart from the Community of the Saints and Churches of God None who knew him and love the Interest of Christ and the Souls of Men but must bewail the loss of such an Eminent Servant in the Lord's Work especially in such a day as this is wherein the Harvest is so great and Faithful Labourers so few But why stand I in the Door-way which leads to the Discourse it self I shall therefore no longer hinder thy Entrance than by begging a Blessing upon the Work that it may be sanctified to thy Vnderstanding for Knowledge to thy Judgment for Establishment to thy Conscience for Peace and for Joy and Gladness to thy whole Soul So Prays Thy Servant in the Lord's Work And for his Sake Matth. Mead. Febr. 2d 1699. ERRATA PAge 18. Line 9. read Duties P. 25. l. 21. r. it 's P. 28. l. 27. r. not P. 31. l. 28. r. askt P. 51. l. 15. r. Fortifies P. 52. l. 15. r. the P. 77. l. 16. r. knew P. 79. l. 21. r. of P. 104. l. 11. r. Law P. 144 l. 1. dele that l. 27. r. hardened P. 193. l. 12. dele when we are so P. 213. l. 17. r. but P. 256. l. 4. r. are P. 257. l. 12. r. Comparison P. 274. l. 13. dele and P. 315. l. 25. r. bounds P. 330. l. 6. r. Thyatira's P. 335. l. 11. r. Equivalent P. 362. l. 26. r. Scope THE TEXTS Matth. XVI 17. AND Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in Heaven Page 1 Psalm XXVI 3. For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy Truth p. 36 2 Corinth I. 20. For all the Promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen unto the Glory of God by us p. 67 Psalm LXXX 17. and 18. former part Let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand upon the Son of Man whom thou madest strong for thy self 18. So will not we go back from thee p. 95 Judges XVI 20. last Clause And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him p. 125 Acts V. 32. latter part And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that obey him p. 156 Mark X. 26 27. And they were astonished out of measure saying among themselves Who then can be saved And Jesus looking upon them saith With Men it 's impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible p. 186 Psalm LXIX 4. last Clause Then I restored that which I took not away p. 217 Gallat IV. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father p. 247 Ephes IV. 7. But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the Gift of Christ p. 279 Deuteronomy XXXIV 5. So Moses the Servant of the Lord died there in the Land of Moab according to the word of the Lord p. 311 Hebr. VII 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them p. 340. SERMON I. April 23. 1695. MATTHEW XVI xvii And Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona For Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven TO understand the occasion of these Words we must look back as far as ver 13. of this Chapter where our Lord having a mind to clear and confirm his Disciples in the Knowledge of himself makes way for it by the proposing of such Questions as would draw forth suitable Answers Accordingly 1. He asks them what was the Opinion of others concerning him Whom do Men say that I the Son of Man am Christ usually stiled himself thus Son of Man not only as an Expression of his Humility but to shew that he was the promised Seed the Person foretold under that Character in the Old Testament Psal 8.4.80.17 Dan. 7.13 And perhaps also to try the Faith of his Hearers whether they had an Eye to any more than his Humanity therefore says he here what does that World which you Converse with think of me what kind of Person do they take me to be The Answer is ver 14. Some say that thou art John the Baptist some Elias and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets Here was a diversity of Opinions about Christ and none of them right but all false and fabulous the Products of vain Imagination That Christ was John the Baptist risen from the Dead was Herods Opinion Chap. 14.2 That he was Elias was the Opinion of many among the Jews who had a mistaken Notion that Elias must first come before the Appearance of Christ Chap. 17.10 And again another sort of them thought that he was the Soul of some eminent Deceased Prophet in a new Body which was one of the wild Conceits of that dark erroneous Age. But 2. Christ asks them what was their own Opinion ver 15. Whom say ye that I am Do you concur with this blind and ignorant World or have you any better Apprehensions of me different from theirs 'T is meet that you who are my little Flock should give me some account of your particular Belief and 't is also meet that seeing you are to Preach me unto others you should first make some Confession of me your selves The Answer to this and the Person answering we have ver 16. Which because it hath an immediate Coherence with the Words now before us ought to be distinctly consider'd And 1. We may begin with the less considerable Part the Person speaking Simon Peter answered and said 'T is probable that he spake as the Mouth of the Apostles in the Name of all and that the rest agreed to this Testimony and believ'd as he said Not that he had any real Precedency or Superiority above the rest for then why should they enquire who was the greatest c. Chap. 18.1 but because he was one of the first call'd to the Apostleship and of the more esteem among them as he was of so long a standing and because he was of a very warm and forward Spirit as is evident by many other Passages 2. Here is the Thing spoken which is the main Subject of our
engages for God that all which he hath Promised shall be made good to us he was that Angel of the Lord that appear'd to Moses in the burning Bush and said to him I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham c. Exod. 3.6 He speaks in his Fathers Name and as a Person concern'd to see the Contract perform'd Now as this general Promise of God's being our God is the summ of the New Covenant so all particular Promises are included in this for if God be our God nothing cna be withheld by him nothing can be wanting to us And this new Covenant being Written as it were and Sealed with his Blood we are not more sure that that Blood was really shed then we are sure that this Covenant will be punctually kept 3. Jesus Christ is the Person to whom the Promises are primarily made As he is said to be the Heir of all Things Heb. 1.2 So is the first and chiefest Heir of Promise The Promises were made to Abraham's Seed which is Christ Gal. 3.16 Many understand that Text of Christ Mystical but I see not why Christ Personal should be shut out However other Scriptures evince the same Thing Tit. 1.2 In Hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot Lye hath Promised before the World began We did not then exist our selves therefore it must be promised to Christ on our behalf as the second Adam the Head of the Election of Grace for from him 't is convey'd to us and belongs to us no otherwise than as we are one with him Hence we read of the sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 i.e. Of Christ as the Apostle applies it Acts 13.34 See likewise Psalm 89.3 4. where David is to be understood in the same Sense On this account he is said to receive of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost for us Acts 2.33 If God break Promise with us he must be false to his Son 4. Jesus Christ is the first and main Thing promised The most Ancient and Leading Promise had a direct Reference to him The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 And when the Apostle had drawn up a List of those famous Worthies that Lived and Dyed before Christ's Time he says of them These all having obtained a good Report through Faith receiv'd not the Promise Heb. 11.39 There were several Promises which they did receive and were possest of but the Appearance of Christ in his incarnate State which was the grand Promise they liv'd not to see but dyed in the belief of Therefore when he came into the World good Old Simeon was so chearfully willing to leave it Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace c. Luke 2.29 q. d. now I have seen the verifying of thy Word in this great Point I have enough 5. The Promise of Christ was a Pledge of the Performance of all other Promises In the Time of Ahaz one of the worst of King's Syria and Israel were Confederate against Judah and God bids them not to fer nor be faint hearted but rest satisfied that they should be deliver'd and for their Encouragement so as to put their promised Deliverance out all Doubt he gives them a Sign viz Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his Name Emmanuel Isa 7.14 If your Faith can overcome this difficulty you cannot be tempted to call any thing else into Question God's Manifestation in Flesh and becoming Man is the greatest Thing that can be lookt for If this be done nothing can be left undone 'T is impossible that any Promise should be defeated if this be accomplisht as Rom. 8.32 How shall he not with him c. 6. The Execution of all Promises depends upon Christ's Purchase Whatever is promised by God is performed to us for Christ's sake as the meritorious Cause of its actual Conation Eph. 3.6 That the Gentiles should be Fellow-heirs and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the Gospel The Gospel is the means of our Participation of Divine Promises but Christ himself is the Procurer of all the good Things held forth in them We enjoy nothing but what his valuable Sufferings give us a Right and Title to 'T is hy his Death that they who are called receive the Promise of Eternal Inheritane Heb. 9.15 Terefore the Covenant is stiled a Testament which is of no Strength nor can any of the Things bequeathed in it be demanded except the Testator Dye ver 16.17 Though God be a free Promiser with respect to us yet all that is promised is deserved for us by Christ 7. All Promises issuing and proceeding from Love and Grace must needs be ratified in Christ and cannot without him Promises are Expressions of Favour as threatnings are Revelations of Wrath. Now all the Favour which God shews to us comes Streaming through Christ 't is the Love where with God hath loved him which is in us or exercis'd toward us John 17.26 He is the first Object of Divine Love the first begotten and the first Beloved The beloved Eph. 1.6 If God should look upon us out of him we must be the Objects of his Hatred and he could not speak peaceably unto us As Joseph solemnly protested to his Brethren concerning Benjamin Gen. 43.3 You shall not see my Face except your Brother be with you so we could not have one Smile or good Word or Intimation of any kindness from God unless we had Christ to recommend us SERMON VI. October 22. 1695. II CORINTH I. xx For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen unto the Glory of God by us IV. How do these Promises so confirmed in Christ tend to the glorifying of God This may be Opened two ways By considering the tendency of them on his part and on ours 1. They tend to the glorfying of God on his part who is the Author of them and this in four respects especially 1. As they tend to the glorifying of Christ the Mediator who is so much concern'd and employ'd in the making of them sure to us He is had in Honour the more by this means this renders him a precious Corner-Stone as he is called Isa 28.16 It heightens our Esteem of him as well as gives us encouragement to build upon him Now whatever is to the Glory of christ must needs conduce to the Glory of God for God is in Christ as he told the Israelites concerning the Angel whem he promised to send before them My Name is in him Exodus 23.21 Therefore the Exaltation of Christ is to the Glory of God the Father Phil. 2.11 And our Lord tells his Disciples when Judas was gone out with a purpose to betray him into the hands of his Murderers John 13.31 Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorfied in him The Glory of the Father and the Glory of the Son are indeed inseparable that which lifts up the express Image of his Person
of them 'T is hard to avoid being assaulted by them 't is harder many Times to escape being overcome Wheresoever we are we find our selves like the Prophet in Dathan 2 Kings 6.14 Compass'd about with a great Host Every Friend of God hath many Adversaries always besieging him and often solliciting and labouring to seduce him from his Obedience to God When Solomon was Old and when one would have Thought he should have been the more confirm'd in the pure Religion his Wives who were therein the Instruments of Satan turned his Heart after other Gods 1 Kings 11.4 The Devil manages his Point with so much subtilty as even to make use sometimes of sincere mistaken Christians to Hand his Suggestions to us as Acts 21.4 When Paul by a Divine impulse was going up to Jerusalem there were some Disciples who said that he should not go through the Spirit they knew what he would suffer there if he went and as carnal Men they dissuaded him from it The Old Man within and Old Serpent without us make it very difficult to keep our Way 2. How much danger they incur by Apostacy if they should be left to be guilty of it Three Particulars will give us a sufficient discovery of this 1. They must needs at the present lose all comfortable Communion with God How can they that go back from him have any Enjoyment of him How can they that go out from the Presence of the Lord suppose that his Presence should follow them in their degenerate Course Must not he that turns his back upon God acknowledge it the natural Fruit of his won Ways if the Face of God be hid from him The Lord is with you while you be with him 2 Chron. 15 2. But if we forsake our own Mercies do we imagine that they will not also forsake us God's backsliding Children have sadly Experienc't the Truth of this by lying long under their Father's frowns he hath suspended the sweet Manifestations of himself and they have not known where to find him even after they have come to themselves again 2. They can never see the Kingdom of God unless they remember from whence they are gone back and return and do their first Works While a Man is in a Road of Apostacy he is quite out of the Way to Heaven and 't is impossible ever to reach the End without returning into the Way None are further off from the Kingdom then they that once seem'd to be the nearest to it and afterwards Revolt None more hateful to God than such as have once express'd much Love as a Prince is most provoked by those that first appear very zealously for him and then turn maliciously against him God hath said If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 God will never endure such an one to stand in his sight that dare to quit and renounce his Service after the hath been for a season employed in it 3. If they come back to God again as undoubtedly they will if evey they were truly Converted to him it must be by very bitter and sorrowful Repentance With what Indignation does the Apostle speak 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot And is there not as much Cause for the same Holy Indignation against a Man's self after he hath done so The Case is the same as to all others Sin 's of such a kind which are more than common Defilements When backsliding Israel was about returning The Voice of Weeping was heard upon their high Places Jer. 3.21 How plentifully should we sow in Tears when like those Jews we have been scattering our Ways to strangers How should we sit in the Dust go softly be covered with Confusion and lye down in our Shame in the Sense of what we have done when we have done so wickedly He that can pass over a foul Apostacy with little remorse and sleight Humiliation is under a Delusion if he think that God hath graciously receiv'd him III. How is the Strength of Christ our Security in this Case Answer in five Things 1. Omnipotence belongs to Christ on the account of his Godhead and this shall be exerted on the behalf of them that believe as there is occasion Prov. 8.14 I have Strength They are the Words of Christ who is brought in speaking under the Name of Wisdom It is not meant of any created borrowed Strength such as Angels are said to excel in but infinite essential Strength the Strength of God for he is God The mighty Angels are his 2 Thess 1.7 made and govern'd by him to wait upon him and Minister to him but he himself hath a nobler and greater Character The mighty God Isa 9.6 Yea the Almighty Rev. 1.8 The Almighty Son of an Almighty Father yet not another but the same Almighty God a distinct Person invested with all the glorious Properties of the same Nature Here lies the Argument which Christ himself used John 10.28 None shall pluck them out of the Father's Hand because he is greater than all and consequently none shall pluck them out of Christ's Hand because he and the Father are one The Strength is equal because the Essence is undivided 2. Christ was anointed with Power as Mediator the Improvement whereof is not to his own Advantage but the Advantage of those that believe in him He that travail'd in the greatness of his Strength declares himself Mighty to Save Isa 63.1 Therefore we read of God's raising up an Horn of Salvation for us Luke 1.69 An Horn intimates Strength Christ is a mighty Saviour and our Salvation is the End and Scope of his being so He had a Spirit of might resting upon him Isa 11.2 Great and singular Abilities for his special Work communicated to him and the Fruit of all redounds to us Hence he is call'd Emmanuel the strong God with us not only so in himslef but as our Redeemer as 't is said in the Case of the Deliverance of the Jews from Babylon which was figurative of a greater and more excellent Deliverance their Redeemer is strong Jer. 50.34 3. Christ hath destroy'd the Power of the Devil by a Power Superiour to him This is meant by his dividing the Spoil with the strong Isa 53.12 Snatching of poor Captive Souls as a Prey out of the Teeth of the Devourer which being once rescued are never given up again The Devil was the strong Man armed that kept his Palace and his Goods were in Peace but our Lord who was stronger than he came upon him and overcame him and took from him all his Armour wherein he trusted Luke 11.21 22. None but Christ the Prince of Life was able to do such Execution upon the Prince of this World whose Slaves and Vassals we naturally are But this being done by Vertue of Christs Victory we also shall be finally Victorious Satan would have despis'd our utmost Opposition if the Son of God had
not foil'd him first now we may despise his Our Triumphant Friend hath left us a Conquer'd Enemy to deal with so that through him strengthening us we may tread down Strength 4. Christ by the matchless Efficacy and Merit of his Blood hath purchas'd for us Confirming Grace and the perpetual Presence of the Spirit with us Not only our access into that Grace wherein we stand but our standing in that Grace whereinto we have Access is by Jesus Christ Rom. 5.2 He hath engag'd positively that the Spirit shall not only be given to us but abide and dwell with us John 14.16 17. And he hath engag'd for nothing but what he hath effectually procur'd The Sufferings of the best of Creatures are weak and worthless but the Death of Christ is of such Infinite force as to make it impossible for any one whose Sins he hath dyed for to dye in Sin By one Offering he hath perfected for ever them c. Heb. 10.14 We have deserv'd to fail of the Grace of God he hath deserv'd the Continuance of it we deserve to be as Chaff which the Wind drives away Christ hath deserved that we should be as Mount Sion which cannot be removed His Blood is that which Answers all Things 5. Christs prevailing Intercession secures to us the needful actual succours of Grace while we are here in this World There is a great deal which depends upon this Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost such as come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Christs Everlasting Intercession is mention'd as the Reason of Christs Ability to save to the uttermost Indeed all Christs Pleadings are irresistible God can deny him nothing which he asks therefore he is called by the Name of Israel Isa 49.3 A Name which was given to the Patriarch Jacob upon the success of his wrestling with the Angel for it may be more eminently applied to Christ what was said of him That by his Strength he hath Power with God Hos 12.3 Christ produces his strong Reasons which the Father cannot but hearken to So that if he Pray for Peter that his Faith may not fail it is impossible that it should If he Pray for our being kept we cannot be lost SERMON VIII January 14. 1695. PSALM LXXX xvii xviii former Part. Let thy Hand be upon the Man of thy right Hand upon the Son of Man whom thou madest strong for thy self 18. So will not we go back from Thee IV. WHy hath God order'd it so that Believers should be secur'd against Apostacy by the Strength of Christ The Reasons of the Divine Will in this Case may be such as these Six following 1. This agrees with God's general Design of heaping all the Glory possible upon Jesus Christ. Never was such Honour and Majesty laid upon any Creature nor was indeed fit to be laid upon any as was laid upon Jesus Christ This was a Part of the Message which the Angel brought to his Virgin-Mother concerning the Son whom she was to conceive and bear He shall be great Luke 1.32 He was that Son of Man whom God resolv'd peculiarly to magnifie and advance above all That all should be beholden to him and have their Dependance on him I will set him on high says God Psalm 91.14 He shall be the Head of my Family in Heaven and Earth he shall be as the firt-born among many Brethren I will give him an universal Preheminence and put all Things in a State of necessary subjection He shall be the Joseph to whom every one's Sheaf shall bow down and whom all in my House shall be nourish'd by and receive their subsistence from This was the Glory which the Father determined from Everlasting to give to Christ to make him the unmovable Center of the whole Creation of God Eph. 1.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ c. that nothing should be firm or steady but what is brought into him The Tenure of all the Good that we enjoy is therefore in Christ In the Lord have Irighteousness and Strength Isa 45.24 What we have in Him we hold by Him alone What is given for his sake is secur'd by his means that he may be every way glorious 2. This suits with God's Design of Grace in our eternal Election for we are chosen in Christ Eph. 1.4 Therefore 't is sit that we should be also preserv'd in Christ Jude 1. God's chusing of us is a giving of us to Christ 't is often exprest so in Scripture and therefore who so fit to be their Security as he to whom they are given Christ hath the Christ hath the Care of all whom the Father chuses and he is to give account of them at last They are committed to him and will be demanded from him and therefore where should stength be lodg'd for their support and establishment so properly as with him John 6.39 This is the Father's Will who hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again c. to prevent their being finally lost God gives 'em to Christ this is God's End and Aim but how shall the Loss be prevented except we have Strength and Stability from Christ whose Charge and Trust we are That God's Foundation might stand sure he lays his own Son for a Foundation Every Stone in the Building rests upon Him or else there would be no difference between them and those that are out of the Building for he must keep those that are in it from dropping out It would have been a vain thing to constitute Christ the Head of God's Elect if God had not also appointed that the Elect by his Influence should be inviolably maintained to the very last 3. 'T is necessary that we should be sccur'd against Apostacy by the strength of Christ because he is the First and the Last in our Sanctification He stiles himself the Beginning and the End Rev. 21.6 So he is not only in himself but with respect to the Work of Grace in us He begins it and compleats it the Author and Finisher of our faith Heb. 12.2 i.e. The Firist Author and Finisher of it Now 't is impossible that he should be so without being our Establisher and Preserver all the time between From the First to the Last we must be upheld by him or else all that is wrought in us will quickly come to nothing If he do not strengthen his own work it will be soon destroy'd tho' it be his own Psal 68.28 Stengthen O God that which thou bast wrought for us Another Hand is not able to preserve what his Hand produces The best Beginnings will have the worst Endings if any thing less than the Power of Christ have the Management of them So that Christ will lose the Glory of our begun Sanctification unless he undertakes for our setled Confirmation and
to have the greatest Advantages and Helps for Heaven beyond those that are of an Inferiour Rank and therefore if their Salvation be so difficult they concluded that Others might Despair of it 3. The Poor have their Temptations also and fall into divers Sins as well as the Rich and there are other Things which must be acknowledg'd to be Impediments and Obstructions in the way to Heaven as well as Riches so that they thought if one stumbling-block was so fatal and pernicious the rest might be as bad and then all Mankind must be in a miserable Cafe 2. Christ's own Explicatiln of this Doctrine ver 27. Jesus looking upon them faith with Men it is impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible Here are Three Things to be considered 1. The general Ground which Christ speaks upon That all Things are possible with God This is a Notion which shines clear by natural Light the Being of God is not more demonstrable than this that Infinite and Unlimited Power belongs to him This is plentifully confirm'd in Scripture Job 42.2 I know that thou canst do every Thing Jer. 32.17 There is nothing too hard for Thee And Luke 1.37 With God nothing shall be impossible If there were any Thing which God could not do which is fit to be done and becoming or consistent with his other Perfections he could not be God 2. The Particular Truth which he laies down and builds upon this Foundation With Men it is impossible that either the Rich or any other Person should be sav'd but not with God We must mot measure God's Power by our own because this is marvellous in our Eyes we are not to think that 't is so in his Zech. 8.6 Though Man cannot withdraw his own Heart from an inordinate Desire and Pursuit of such Temporal Enjoyments yet God can enable as to do it Though we cannot recover our selves out of this Snare of the Devil the strong God can perform it for us He can give us other Hearts than what we have by Nature and produce such a change in us as we know not how to suppose where Corruption makes the greatest Opposition he can Conquer it so that a Poor Man shall be Rich in Faith and a Rich Man Poor in Spirit 3. The Posture and Aspect of Christ in delivering this Truth He looked upon them i. e. the Disciples and said c. There seems to be a double Reason for this 1. Christ hereby discovers his Knowledge of their Thoughts and the most secret Passages of their Conversation For what they said in the foregoing Verse they did not speak so as that he might hear it but among themselves or as the words import one to another 2. Christ hereby points out them as singular Instances and Examples of the Truth which he had proposed For as there were Holy Men under the Old Testament who were nevertheless rich in this World such as Abraham Lot Job c. And Zaccheus under the New Testament a rich Publican was converted to Christ Luke 19.2 So these Disciples upon Christ's call had left all and follow'd him ver 28. following the Text and their All was as much to them as the rich Man's larger Estate can be to him So that in them was this saying of our Lord fulfilled Observ The Overcoming of the Difficulties of Salvation must be resolved into the Almighty Power of Divine Grace Here I. Shew What are the chief Difficulties of Salvation to be overcome II. How this must be resolved into the Power of God's Grace III. Why it must be so IV. Use 1. What are the chief Difficulties of Salvation to be overcome Ans There is the Difficulty of Believing This is primarily necessary to Salvation and yet one of the hardest Things in the World to be done aright The Counterfeits of Faith are frequent and feisable enough but they that imagine unfeigned Faith to be an easie matter know not what it is 'T is commonly said That we readily believe what we wish to be true but this is a very great mistake we have several Instances in Scripture to the contrary When Jacob's Sons at their second return out of Egypt told their Father that Joseph was yet alive and Governor of the Land his Heart fainted for he believed them not Gen. 45.26 When Christ shew'd his Disciples his Hands and his Feet they believed not for joy Luke 24.41 We are often slow in believing what we are most eager in desiring So we may sometimes believe that which appears to be more incredible or is indeed more difficultly credible and yet still doubt of easier and lesser things as Lazarus's Sisters believed that their Brother would rise again at the last Day and yet question'd his being raised after four Days John 11.24 with 39. Now if Men stick and hesitate at the least things it shews the Work to be much more difficult than if they stumbled at the greatest But more particularly the Work of Faith is difficult at first and then living by Faith and at last dying by Faith 1. The work of Faith at the beginning of the Christian Life our first believing is difficult when we come out of a state of Sin into a state of Grace A Soul that is deeply convinced of its own Guilt struggles with great Discouragements in laying hold of Divine Forgiveness He that effectually declares this unto Man needs to be an Interpreter one of a thousand that is says Dr. Owen Christ himself Job 33.23 Whatever vain Men may talk of being perswaded by reason that God is reconcilable the Sinners own Conscience when truly awaken'd by the Commandment coming home argues with a great deal of strength against it He that is pursued by a sense of Sin and fear of Wrath is far more apt to run into downright Despair than to fly for Refuge to the Hope which is set before him The threatnings of deserved Vengeance are much rather regarded than the free Promises of Remission As God said to the Jews with respect to their backslidings into Idolary Jer. 5.7 How shall I pardon thee for this So the poor convinced Sinner that hath his high and hainous Provocations set in order before him is ready to cry How shall God pardon me for these T is a Mystery which he knows not how to apprehend a comfortable Doctrine but he cannot embrace it 2. Living by Faith for this the just must do after the Sinner is made Righteous by the Obedience of Christ he must still go on from Faith to Faith as the Righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 1.17 Now this is no light matter whatever the Speculation be in their esteem who never arrived to any real Exerprience the Practice is not To live by Faith in the midst of various Temptations and Tryals of Darkness and Desertion of cross Providences and cutting Rebukes is an hard saying to Flesh and Blood Is it indeed an easie thing to believe that we shall be
Promises are convincing Arguments of Man's utter Impotency to any spiritual good his Commands do not more plainly signifie our Obligation to Duty than his Promises do our Weakness in Discharging it When God bids us walk in his Statutes that shews how we are bound to do it when he says he will Cause us to walk in them Ezek. 36.27 This shows that we are not able of our selves to do it IV. Vse There are several Things which we may from hence be informed of and exhorted to 1. There are some things which we may be informed of from hence As 1. They make very light of Salvation who think to work it out by their own Power They cannot suppose it to be a difficult Thing but that which may be atchiev'd with little labour or trouble And whereas the Principles of those who attribute all to the Grace of God are charg'd with countenancing of laziness and looseness it may much rather be retorted upon those who hold the contrary Opinions Such as ascribe all to themselves are the Persons that take least Care and Pains in the Matters of Religion as if God's Children were born without Travail and the Kingdom of Heaven taken without Violence Men that Judge after the Flesh cannot indeed be imagin'd to Judge otherwise For the Eyes of our Vnderstanding must be enlighten'd that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of his Power c. Eph. 1.18 19. 2. Our spiritual Adversaries would find no Difficulty in destroying us if we were left alone We have so little might against them that we should be an easie Prey to them if we had not one to stand by us who is infinitely mightier than they The Devils believe this Doctrine which the Pride of Man opposes they know they can out-do and over-match us if we had not Omnipotence on our side When our Lord tells Peter that Satan desired to have him the meaning is that he would have tried a single Combate with him unguarded by the powerful Intercession of Jesus Christ for that was it which turn'd the Scale and prevented Peter's overthrow Poor Believers are as much despis'd by the Powers of Darkness as Gideon's young Son was by the two Kings of Midian Zelah and Zalumnah Judg. 8.21 Job himself would not have come off with so much Honour and Victory as he did if God had not put Strength into him Chap. 23.6 3. This hints the true Reason to us how it comes to pass that the same Believers are baffled by some Difficulties and yet Triumph over others What hardships is a Child of God carried through and made more than Conquerour over at one Time who at another Time is almost overwhelm'd and his Courage gone How does God at one Time help us to bear the Enjoyment of greater Plenty without being hurt by it than we can at another Time As the Net which was let down at Christs Command broke with the multitude of Fishes Luke 5.6 And after the Resurruction Christ orders the Draught as before and so many were caught that they could not pull them to the Shore John 21.6 And yet the Net was not broken v. 11. 4. How vastly does Grace make us to differ from what we are by Nature I am a Child says the Prophet Jer. 1.6 Easily shaken and thrown down but what says God ver 18. Behold I have made Thee this Day a defenced City and an Iron Pillar and brazen Walls c. Without me you can do nothing says Christ John 15.5 I can do all Things through Christ that strengthens me says Paul Phil. 4.13 What a Difference is here So great that there cannot be a greater doing nothing and doing all things Such is a Difference between a sorry naked Man and a Believer obtaining help of God Though our own Right Hand cannot save us the Lord at our Right Hand will save so as none shall hinder 5. The best Assistance we can give to any of our Brethren in Soul-troubles and straits is leading them to the Rock that 's higher than our selves We are vain helpers except we do as Jonathan did to David 1 Sam. 23.16 Strengthen one another's Hands in God 'T is our Duty to Comfort the feeble-minded and support the weak 1 Thess 5.14 But how shall we do this By shewing them where the Strength of Salvation is So the Prophet expounds the Apostle Isa 35.3 4. Strengthen you the weak Hands confirm the feeble Knees say to them that are of a fearful Heart be strong fear not behold your God will come and save you Holy David was very Ambitious of doing this Service to the World viz. Shewing God's Strength to the Generation and his Power to every one that was to come Psalm 71.18 2. There are some Things which from hence we should be exhorted to As 1. You who have liv'd all your Days in Sin repair to Almighty Grace for Cure The oldest Sores are heal'd by Christ as well as the freshest Wounds He is an able Physician and though your Case would puzzle every one else he will certainly recover you Diseases of the longest Continuance how stubborn soever are easily helpt and remov'd by him He loosed the Woman whom Satan had hound eighteen Years Luke 13.16 He made the Man whole that had an Infirmity thirty eight Years John 5.5 His Miracles of Grace are wrought not only on Young Sinners but many Times Elder Persons 2. When you are brought into a State of Salvation think of the remainder of your Work without uncomfortable Terror The Difficulties in our Passage to Heaven oftentimes breed too much Affrightment as the Soul of the People in their Journeying through the Wilderness to Canaan was discouraged because of the Way Numb 21.4 They had little Reason for this whom God had already deliver'd out of Egypt and the like may be said of you whom God hath with a mighty and out-stretched Arm rescued from the very brink of Hell 3. Let Everlasting Strength be a Motive to your Everlasting Trust Isa 26.4 As Martha said to Christ concerning her Sister That had left her to serve alone bid her that she help me Luke 10.40 So do you boldly claim God's promised Assistance at the Throne of Grace where you cannot be more humbly Confident than Welcome Intermitting of a steady Reliance upon him is as much your Folly and Sin as presuming on your selves What can be meant by that Precept of being strong in the Lord c. Eph. 6.10 If we may not take hold of God's Strength and use it as freely as if it were our own While others faint and are weary and utterly fall you that wait upon the Lord i. e. continue depending shall renew your Strength Isa 40.30 31. 4. Look upon it as your absolute Duty to despair of nothing that needs to be done either for or by you Your own insufficiency is no Plea for doubting in any Case whatever Let the weak say I am strong Joel 3.10 Paul is our Pattern he did say so
the utmost Revenge This is that Love of Christ which passeth Knowledge Eph. 3.19 A Love which is and will be the Matter of endless Admiration which the saints in Heaven are always magnifying but can never fully comprehend 'T is sometimes called the Grace of our Lord Yesus 2 Cor. 8.9 1 Tim. 1.14 Which is not meant of the Grace communicated to us but that Grace in him which is the Fountain and Spring of all such Communications We are not only to consider the Love and Good-will of the Father in sending but the exceeding Kindness of the Son in coming which his Desire of and Zeal for our Salvation promoted him to 6. Jesus Christ was willing not only to purchase a new Title for us to our forfeited Blessings but to purchase a new Title to us for himself This is expresly said to be one Part of his Intention and Design Rom. 14 9. To this end he both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living He was Lord of all upon the old Account of Creation for he could not lose his Propriety and Dominion when Ahaz Reign'd so wickedly and committed all manner of Abominations and for that Reason was delivered into the Hand of the King of Syria the Lord his God is said to do it 2 Chron. 28.5 The Lord was his God by right still though he sinfully renounc't and disown'd him But now Jesus Christ was resolv'd to be our Lord upon a new Account of Redemption that he might lay claim to us not only as the Lord that made us but as the Lord that bought us We are now the ransomed of the Lord Isa 35.10 His purchased Possession Eph. 1.14 By the Payment of the same inestimable Price he hath regain'd all that Sin and Satan had snatcht and torn from us and likewise acquir'd a further Interest and Right in us such as will be acknowledg'd by all his saved ones to his Eternal Praise 7. The Powers of Darkness would have been Triumphant if Christ had not baffled and defeated them by this glorious Persormance It was a great Satisfaction to their Malice and Rage after they were banisht out of Heaven and cast down to Hell to involve all Mankind by one successful Temptation in the same Ruine with themselves and so prevent God from rejoycing in any of his Works on Earth When Judgment was executed upon them never to be revers't they thought it made some amends that they had drawn the whole Posterity of Adam at once into the fatal Snare The Devil gloried over poor miserable Man as his Conquer'd Vassal and lawful Captive having subdued this undone World to himself as a kind of Tributary Province where he might Drink his fill of the Blood of Souls But this Performance of Christ hath disappointed him of the Fruits of that Victory For he hath divided the spoil with the Strong Isa 53.12 And destroyed him that had the Power of Death Heb. 2.14 Jesus Christ hath pluckt his Sheep out of the Teeth of the Devourer and pull'd down the Banners which he had set up and made him give up his Slaves as the Fish that had swallowed Jonah vomited him alive upon dry Land 8. Christ knew that his blessed Performance would not only be a Benefit to Man but turn to the Advantage of Elect Angels also At the same Time that he came about restoring Work for us he might also do confirming Work for them And this their Case requir'd Angels wanted an Head of stability as well as Men a Mediator of recovery they stood in need of his Support as well as we of his Salvation his Blood was necessary for us as actually fallen his Strength necessary to them because naturally mutable All Things in Heaven and Earth were to be gather'd together in one even in Christ Eph. 1.10 They could not safely meet in any other Center but so as to be in danger of being shaken off again We that had left our first Estate were to be reduc'd and brought back to it they that had kept their first Estate were to be fixt and establisht in it Here was a double Work to be done by the same Hand and the same Hand hath done both Christ hath interpos'd for our Restauration and for their Security for the remedying of our Apostacy and the Prevention of theirs The Heart of our dear Lord is set upon the multiplying of Acts of Grace from the Throne to the Footstool that high and low may be taken in V. Vse I. Information Many Things to be learnt from hence As 1. If it were Christs Work to restore what he took not away we may see a vast difference between him and the best of those that were Types of him Some of the greatest Types of Christ were in some Things contrary to him as well as in all Things Inferiour There was not a more eminent Type of Christ in the Old Testament than David the Person speaking in the Text insomuch that Christ is frequently set forth under his Name Isa 55.3 and in many other Places Now this David was so far from doing as Christ did i. e Restoring what he took not away that he confesses the contrary of himself in the Case of his numbring the People for which seventy Thousand of them dyed by the Pestilence 2 Sam. 24.17 He spake unto the Lord when he saw the Angel that smote the People and said Lo I have sinned and done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done Let thy Hand I pray thee be against me c. Our Lord Jesus might have inverted these Words these Sheep have gone Astray indeed and turned every one to his own Way but what have I done Let not thy Sword be awaken'd against me but them They have deserv'd to suffer but wherein have I offended David's Sin punisht upon the People and the Sins of the People upon Christ 2. The unspotted Holiness of our Lord Jesus is not in the least blemisht by the Imputation of our Sins to him He is not at all the less guiltless in himself because our Iniquities are laid upon him We may with sufficient tenderness preserve the Honour of our great Redeemer as one undesiled and separate from Sinners without departing from this important Truth of his being made Sin for us for the Holy Ghost affirms both this and that he knew no Sin in the same Breath 2 Cor. 5. ult He was far from being personally conscious of Sin yet so far charg'd with it as to be accountable in our stead for it When the Scape-goat which had all the Iniquities of the People put upon his Head was sent away by the Hand of a sit Man into the Wilderness He that let him go was to wash his Cloaths and bath his Flesh in Water and afterwards to return into the Camp Lov. 16.26 And so the Priest was to do after the sprinkling of the Blood of the Heifer Numb 19.7 And the man that burnt her ver 8. To
while are not perceiv'd to be do not therefore cease to be we may be taken into the number of the Sons of God and yet want the Manifestation of our being such Rom. 8.19 I speak not this to discourage any in the least from looking after the clearing up of these Matters as much as can be to their own Souls but to prevent those from being too much discouraged who are yet kept in the dark by God that they may not conclude positively against themselves but rather take Courage with the Church under the hidings of God's Face But thou art our Father Isa 64.7 8. IV. How is this Priviledge of a Believer's Sonship improve'd by the Spirit 's help The Text seems to have a special Reference to Prayer and to our Challenging and Pleading of this filial Relation in that Duty I shall endeavour the opening of this Point in these eight Things 1. That the Spirit of Christ is particularly promis'd and given as a Spirit of Supplication Zech. 12.10 His Influence is eminently needful in this Service We should never sind in our Hearts to Pray one acceptable Prayer to God throughout our Lives if the Spirit did not put it into our Hearts first We cannot speak to God in any Language which he will hear upon any occasion whatsoever without the Spirits Direction They are all vain Words which are not of his Teaching the froth and scum of Man's Invention which however esteemed among Creatures here below bears no Price at all in Heaven Every Petition which the Father receives is dictated and drawn up by the Holy Ghost God never inclines his own Ear but when he thus prepares our Hearts Except this Advocate be at Work in us there is no finding of Audience with him And therefore they that prophanely renounce all Supplication in and by the Spirit as some have done may as well go a little further and lay aside all Supplication in general for whatever Prayer they pour out is as Water spilt on the Ground 2. Effectual Prayer such as the Spirit teaches and helps us in is put up to God as a Father Jesus Christ is a Pattern to us and if we examine the style of his Prayers we shall find that they are all grounded upon this Relation Mat. 11.25 I thank thee oh Father c. which Title is repeated ver 26. Even so Father c. John 12.27 Father save me from this Hour Father glorifie thy Name And no less than six Times over Chap 17. Again in the Garden Mat. 26.39 O my Father if it be possible c. Yea some of his last Words upon the Cross were in the same strain when he came to give up the Ghost Luke 23.46 Father into thy Hands c. And that we might not think this was proper and suitable to him only the Directory which he gave to his Disciples is so likewise After this manner Pray ye Our Father c. Mat. 6.9 When the Scripture speaks of making Supplication to our Judge Job 9.15 We must understand it of Praying that he would not deal with us as a Judge Psalm 143.2 Enter not into Judgment c. 3. The Praying Dispositions of Children are first infus'd into them by the Spirit Every Babe in Christ is furnish'd with them and as he increases in spiritual Strength and Stature they grow up with him Children naturally apply themselves to their Parents for what they want rather than to other Persons and this also is natural to all the Children of God 'T is a part of their new Nature which is the Work and Product of the Spirit He that hath not a Divine Principle in him which leads him to call on the Father deserves not to be call'd a Christian Assoon as the Soul is born again it crys and its cry is immediately to him whom it is born of This cry is renewed every Day several times in a Day for there is an Habit of this kind emplanted in the Soul which puts forth it self in frequent Acts. The Spirit 's quickening is always accompanied with inward groaning so that where no such groans are we may be sure that Death hath Dominion still and the Man hath not begun to Live 4. The Spirit fills the Mouth with Arguments in the very Act of Prayer such as are fit to be us'd and urg'd to a Father Holy and humble Argumentations with God are truly the very sinews of Prayer wherein its great Strength lies It does not so much consist in the bare proposing of our Requests to God as in the alledging of proper Pleas for God's answering and fulfilling of them Such as that of the Church Isa 63.15 Where is the sounding of thy Bowels and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained This is Connected with their Claim of God as a Father in the next Words twice ver 16. A fatherly Relation speaks Tenderness and Compassion Psalm 103.13 Like as a Fasther pitieth his Children c. Whoever are void of Pity Fathers are wont to put on Bowels or if the Fathers of our Flesh should be unnatural the Father of our Spirits cannot be so and therefore this was a very apt and agreeable Plea which the Spirit of God hath Register'd for us Whatever you need to have done intreat of God to do as becomes a Father 5. The Spirit enables us to go to God as a Father with Confidence for whom can Children repair so freely to as to their own Parent Whom can they with so much certainty expect Relief from as from him that begat them Therefore as we have Access by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 2.18 So we are said to have boldness and access or access with boldness Chap. 3.12 The Command of God is to ask in Faith to trust him and depend upon him for the seasonable Accomplishment of all our regular Desires and this dependance is as much our Duty as Subjection is and it is every whit as difficult yea as impossible to be perform'd without the help of the Spirit 'T is far easier to utter many thousands of Petitions before God than to lift up one to him believingly But when the Soul is strengthen'd with all might by the Spirit in this Duty all the workings of unbelief are instantly subdued Doubts and Fears of our Acceptance and Success are made to vanish like Shadows that fly away upon the Appearance of the Sun 6. The Spirit instructs us how to Address our selves to God as a Father with becoming Reverence There must be a mixture of this with our Considence or else we abuse our Priviledge instead of improving it The same Spirit is a Spirit of the fear of the Lord as well as of Faith Isa 11.2 We are not to make so bold with God as not to stand in awe of him The Freedom which God allows us in his Presence is not a rude Familiarity this is not Child-like for a Father ought to be respected by those that descend from him He must be consider'd as a
pleased by his Almighty Vertue to Work the Cure and with an irresistible Hand to turn it to himself 2 Tim. 2.25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance c. No Instruction will do if he against whom they Sin do not give them to repent III. How is this Grace the Gift of Christ as the Text affirms it to be Ans In six Things 1. All Things are deliver'd unto him by the Father to him as Mediator Mat. 11.27 All things are given into his Hand John 3.35 And he hath the disposal of them according to his own Pleasure he may with-hold or dispense every Thing as he sees good The Son quickeneth whom he will Chap. 5.21 He is empower'd to give Eternal Life Chap. 10.28 Chap. 17.2 And this Eternal Life is founded in spiritual Now the ground-work is his as well as the Head-stone the first-fruits of Grace as well as the Harvest of Glory the Gift of Righteousness it self as well as the Crown of Righteousness Chap. 4.14 The Water which I shall give him shall be in him a Well springing up into Everlasting Life Christ hath so large a Trust and Commission from the Father that nothing is excepted out of it 2. The giving of Grace is one of his essential Royalties as a King To give only corruptible Things is to give as the World giveth the Men of high Degree scatter their Favours of that kind among those that are below them but it agrees with the Majesty of Jesus Christ to bestow that which is of an incorruptible Nature a Principle of Grace and Holiness in the Hearts of his People Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour to give Repentance c. He would be a Prince without Subjects a meer Titular Prince if he did not by his own Grace bring them into Subjection and keep them in it He never ruled in any Heart which he did not first Conquer rebellious Sinners would never submit and yield themselves to his Authority if he did not make them willing in the day of his Power Psalm 110.3 3. Christ is given to be an Head of Influence as well as of Government to his Church Therefore said to be the Head of the Body Col. 1.18 Now as every Part of the natural Body derives Spirits from the Head so every Part of the mystical Body gracious Influences from Christ There is an effectual working from him throughout the whole Eph. 4.16 And how is this effectual working but by the Communication of his Grace to the various Members This 〈◊〉 what Paul experienc'd and gives an account of with Reference to his own first Conversion 1 Tim. 1.14 The Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Paul's Heart was full of unbelief and hatred before but the prevailing Grace of Christ in whom he was chosen before the World planted Faith and Love in the room of them 4. 'T is the Work of Christ to furnish those whom be unites and espouses to himself with Beauty and Ornaments fit for his Embraces and wherein does this Beauty consist and what are these Ornaments but a Participation of his Grace Some are ready to cry is a deformed filthy Sinner meet to lye in Christ's Bosom But I would Reply who makes the Sinner meet besides Christ himself He can have no complacency or delight in such an one continuing as he is but his Manner is to impart a commending loveliness where he loves As Rebeckah was adorned with Jewel's of Isaac's giving Gen. 24.53 So it was granted to the Lambs Wife that she should be arrayed in fine Linne c. of his preparing Rev. 19.8 For as the imputed Righteousness of Christ so the inherent Righteousness of Saints is his Gift whom they are married to 5. Christ hath the right of distributing Grace as the Effect of his Purchase He hath bought it with his Blood and therefore may confer it on whom he pleases as we know that every one may do what he Will with his own and what we buy at a valuable Price is undoubedtly our own Upon this score all Grace is the Grace of Christ 't is his just Propriety and he hath â—â—â—ain'd it at the dearest Rate which could be demanded He gave himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. Eph. 5.25 26. Our Sanctification was one end of his Sufferings and as it was he that suffer'd so 't is he that sanctifies Christ merited Grace for us by his Death and therefore the dispensing of it is his due 6. The Spirit of Grace is sent by Christ and supplies his Place John 16.7 If I depart I will send him to you So that he Acts as in Christ's Name and on his behalf and consequently what the Spirit does may be attributed unto Christ and what he divides to every Man may be very well look't upon as allotted by Christ whose Spirit he is for so he is called the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.17 18. There is the very Heart of Christ in all the Spirits saving Operations they are directed by his Infinite Wisdom and Care to all those whom he laid down his Life for As he shed forth the Holy Ghost at Pentecost Acts 2.33 So the pouring of him out at all Times is his continual Providence still IV. After what manner is this Grace given to every one that belongs to Christ Answ Negatively and Positively I. Negatively I. This Grace is not given to all by the same Instruments and Means 'T is most usually by the Word of Grace but sometimes by the Rod of sanctified Affliction 't is oftnest by the Sword in Christ's Mouth but it may be by the Fan in his Hand Ordinarily 't is by the Preaching of Christ's Embassadors but sometimes the edifying Discourses of Private Christians may Minister Grace to the Hearers Eph. 4.29 Again though it be by the same Gospel yet God makes use of several Publishers They whom he sanctifies through the Truth are Converted by several Persons There are many spiritual Fathers some are begotten in Christ by the Ministry of one and some by another 2. It is not given to all at the same Age or Period of Life As in that Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard some were called at the third Hour some at the sixth some at the ninth some at the eleventh Some are sanctified from the Womb filled with the Spirit like John from their very Birth Luke 1.15 Others it may be wear out almost all their Lives and are even dropping into the Grave before they are brought home to God Some are planted into Christ in their tender Years like Paul when a Young Man others not born again till they are Old when the evil Days come And therefore it is not so material or requisite for us to know when we felt the first workings of Grace as to be sure that we feel it 's real workings
those that are most abased in their own Minds 3. Go to God in Christ by Prayer for this blessed Gift It was never denied to any one that sincerely sought it in this Way Direct your Prayers particularly to Christ himself to whom the Dispensation of Grace is committed Remember his Words to the Woman of Samaria John 4.10 If thou knewest the Gift of God and who it is c. thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given c. He is as willing to bestow it as he is able believe this and apply to him accordingly We may err in the restraining of all our Worship to the Father as if none were due to the Son Why should not we address as well to our Lord Jesus to renew our Spirits as Stephen to receive his Spirit 4. Resolve not to be satisfi'd or dismiss'd without this Gift This may be safely resolv'd and 't is a Resolution very pleasing to God If you do but say with full Purpose of Heart as Jacob did I will not let thee go c. He cannot wrest himself out of your Hands but you must assuredly prevail If you give God any rest you may look for a Refusal if you can be Content without Grace you will never receive it The Rich who feel not the Extremity of Want are but indifferent Beggars and therefore God sends them empty away Luke 1.53 Take hold of God's Feet and go not from his Throne of Grace till you have obtain'd what you go for 5. Be found in the ordinary Road of receiving as the People that brought their Sick into the Streets and laid them on Beds and Conches in the way where Peter was to pass Acts 5.15 They that are desirous of the Alms of spiritual Wisdom must attend at Wisdoms-gates where the Alms are generally given out 'T is wicked Presumption to expect Grace from God in a careless neglect of the Means of Grace They that trust in them and they that forbear to use them are both far from the Kingdom of God If Faith comes by hearing 't is our Duty to wait for it in Hearing and not to think that it should be wrought by Miracle 6. Put away as much as lies in your Power all that tends to hinder this Gift of Grace Though you are unable to qualifie your selves for it unable to prepare the way of the Lord in your own Hearts yet to do what you are able to do is certainly such Advice as you ought to take You cannot mortifie the inward Love of Sin but you can keep your selves from many outward Acts of Sin You cannot it may be overcome some Temptations when you are in them but you can chuse whether you'will run designedly into them Now he that pretends to look up to God for Grace and at the same time wilfully obstructs it by his own contrary Practise is a gross and shameful Hypocrite 2. To those that are truly gracious What shall they do 1. Do not disown this Gift This is mistaken Modesty and real unthankfulness We ought not to make our selves Poor when we have great Riches as if we were hir'd by the Accuser of the Brethren to bear false Witness against our selves The Saints that are in Christ Jesus gratifie the Father of lies as much by saying they have no Grace as by saying they have no Sin For a Man to proclaim his own goodness is a fault on one Hand to deny it is an extream on the other Hand The Apostle hath directed us to the true medium Rom. 12.3 I say through the Grace given unto me to every Man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly c. 2. Be sure to acknowledge it as a Gift Be not pufft up with that which comes down from above If thou didst receive it why dost thou Glory as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4.7 As we are not to boast of things without our measure so things within our measure are no just ground or matter of boasting If God hath given that to us which he hath not to others what Reason have we to be proud of it If we had earned it by our own Industry and Labour Activity and Diligence we might have some Cloak for spiritual Pride but as it is we have none at all 3. Take heed of lusting to Envy against those that go beyond you There is a sifnul Emulation in holy things a repining at that wherein we should Rejoyce a secret Grief that others do so well instead of an hearty shame that we do no better For the Cure of this remember all is given and if your Gift be less than another Man's you must not murmur and complain as if God had done you any wrong Bless God that some have the Grace which you want and by that means are more serviceable than you 4. Do not think however that a little of this Grace is enough or any measure short of Perfection Be still crying Give give continue still sucking at the same 〈◊〉 till you are fill'd with all the fulness of 〈◊〉 This is no evil Covetousness but that which is requisite and laudable We are not only oblig'd to endeavour the preserving and cherishing of the Grace we have but to look after increase and the getting of more And we are encourag'd to this because the first Grace is a Gift which makes way for more Mat. 25.29 To every one that hath shall be given c. 5. Exercise Faith upon Jesus Christ for constant Succour and Assistance in all your Times of Need. Whatsoever Service or Suffering you are called to you cannot have occasion for more Grace than he hath to impart He is able to make all-Grace abound towards you 2 Cor. 9.8 And let the difficulty be what it will his Grace is as sufficient for you as it was for Paul under his sore and grievous Bussetings Chap. 12.9 How low soever your Stock be his is not to be exhausted and that which is most impossible to your weakness is most easie in his Strength 6. Lay out faithfully all that you receive for the Good and Benefit of others as well as your own It would be better not to be entrusted with any Talent than not to employ it to the utmost Advantage God gives us nothing but what we are to Profit withal and it would be sad if we should give the worst Account of the best Gifts Whatsoever is bestow'd upon any Member in Particular should be so manag'd as that it may be some way useful to the Body in general 1 Pet. 4.10 As every Man hath received the Gift even so Minister the same one to another as good Stewar◠〈◊〉 c. The Grace of God is manifold and 〈…〉 are differing but all is to be ministred by us to others and by others to us we are Stewards of his Grace and if we be not good Stewards we shall never be Heirs of his Glory SERMON XXI
we have no other Evidence of invisible future Things but only our Faith thomas who would not believe what he saw John 20.25 tells Christ We know not whither thou goest John 14.5 'T is indeed an unknown Land and the way through which we pass to it is dark and gloomy without the enlightning Discoveries of Faith This alone will clear up all and so it is with every Believer as with Abraham Hebr. 11.8 By Faith when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance obeyed not knowing whether he went SERMON XXII August 24. 1697. DEUT XXXIV v. So Moses the Servant of the Lord died there in the Land of Moab according to the Word of the Lord. III. WHY we should thus die in Obedience to the Will of God There are many Reasons for it 1. God is Supream and Absolute Lord. He hath the highest Proprietyin us and the most unlimited Dominion over us Behold as the clay is in the Potters hand so are you in my hand O house of Israel Ezek. 18.6 He forms every Vessel as he pleases and is at liberty to break his own Workmanship without controul so the same God whose power produces hath a right to dissolve our Substance He is the Father of our Spirits and they are his peculiar Off-spring and therefore ought to be entirely at his Command He created and infused them and on that account may justly call for them whenever he will 'T is but like the Stream's going back to its Fountain like the Rivers returning turning to the Sea whence they came and the Sun 's hasting to the place where he arose Eccles 1.5 7. We know nothing of God as we ought to know if we know not this that God hath a far greater Interest in us than we have in our selves And that it belongs to him and not to us to govern and appoint all those things which do concern us It was almost in the same breath that David said Thou art my God and my times are in thy hand Psalm 31.14 15. We destroy his Deity if we deny his Sovereignty we renounce him as our God unless we submit to him as Lord of our Lives If he may not determine the Period of Life why should he manage any of the Affairs of it And if we exclude his Providence why should we admit his Being 2. We have the Character of God's Servants and profess Subjection to him but we contradict this Character and Profession except we die in Obedience to the Will of God 'T is observ'd that Moses is never call'd the Servant of the Lord in all his life time till now that he came to die because hereby he did most remarkably approve himself such though he had performed many great and excellent Services to God before He that is another Man's Servant must be content to be called off from his present Work and Station at his Master's pleasure they that are under the Yoke are not to be the Disposers of their own Time or rather we may say they have no Time which is their own but what is allowed them We are under a stricter Law to God and he that calls Himself a Christian does thereby acknowledge it we are not our own but the Lords both living and dying and therefore there is as much reason for our dying as for our living to the Lord and as little reason for our dying as for our living to our selves Rom. 14.7 8. It was Paul's earnest desire and hope that Christ should be magnified in his Body whether by life or by death Phil. 1.20 And this became him as a Servant of Christ ver 1. For we are falsly so called and assume a Name which our Pactice does not agree to if his Will be not a Rule to ours in every thing and particularly in this grand and important Point of Life and Death 3. OUr Lord Christ when he took upon him the Form and Quality of a Servant was our Example in this Case He became Obedient unto death even the death of the cross Phil. 2.8 A Death so circumstanced wih the most tremendous Aggravations as we can never be call'd to be obedient to yet he did not refuse or decline it as he might have done when his Hour came His Life was not taken from him but he laid it down of himself because he had received such a Commandment of the Father John 10.18 It was a free and voluntary Act he gave up the Ghost in the strictest sense as is plain from all the Passages going before his Death It was in the prospect of its near approach that he said to his Disciples Arise let us go hence John 14.31 The words were spoken where Christ had celebrated his last Supper but the place which he speaks of removing to was the Garden where he knew that he should be betray'd and apprehended Chap. 18.4 Jesus knowing all things that should come upon him went forth c. He boldly and chearfully met the Enemy whom he could easily either have shun'd or defeated He was able to escape this Death but would not and therein is a pattern to us who have no such power 4. God never give a Commission to Death nor lays his command upon us to die but when 't is really the fittest Season for us to obey him in it To speak strictly an untimely Death is never permitted by God we are never suffer'd to die when it would be better for us to live Infinite Wisdom and Grace will not permit it and he that resigns himself to their Conduct is sure to die when it is best that he should The Scripture is express Psalm 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints This may be most clearly expounded and understood by comparing with Psalm 72.14 which is a Psalm for Solomon as Type of Christ He shall redeem their Soul c. and precious shall their Blood be in his sight so precious that when it is fitter to be spar'd than spilt he will certainly preserve it Though God can kill or keep alive as he will he does not act after an Arbitrary manner he never turns a Saint to destruction when it would be good for him that his Soul should be held in Life We do not indeed see the Grounds and Reasons of God's acting and therefore our Thoughts are not as his Thoughts but it would be very strange if we must not trust God further than we yet see because we shall see hereafter though not now 5. In our Obedience to this command of God there is the greatest reward There is a great Reward in the doing of every one but above all in this There 's no Act of Obedience so profitable to our selves as this if we consider the Glory Honour and Peace which immediately follows If a Servant desireth the Shadow Job 7.2 Why should we be unwilling to enter into our Rest and receive our full Reward when our Work is
the World before he hath answer'd the End and dispatch'd the Business for which he was born into it A comfortable Death does not suit with a slothful and careless an useless and unprofitable Life He that hath neglected his Duty to himself or to others in his place may very well b backward and unwilling to die Job begs that it would please God to destroy him and crys Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One chap. 6.9 10. 5. Clear and State your Accounts every day set them in Order for their Confusion will cause your Distraction when you come to die Seriously examine and reflect upon your daily Walk and Course and do not leave those Miscarriages to be budled up in a general Repentance when they are forgotten which when they are fresh you may and ought to be particularly humbled for The more diligent and exact we are in this case the less Advantage will Satan have against us A Man can but scarcely die well as the Apostle speaks of being scarcely saved 1 Pet. 4.18 who hath any thing else to do when his hour comes 6. Beware of grieving the Spirit and clouding your own Comforts Though full Assurance be not absolutely necessary to the yielding of this Obedience in Death yet our Obedience must needs be very defective where some degrees of Assurance or good hope through Grace are not gotten and maintain'd 'T is very hard to resign without some Evidence that God will receive us very hard to let go our Temporal Life when we can lay no hold upon Eternal therefore the Advice is needful Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God do nothing that may tend to prejudice or weaken your sense of it 7. Live upon the Death of Christ as the only Foundation of your warrantable Trust Though you do walk before God in Truth you will find the need of something else to depend on for your Title to Glory Some think that there is a Gospel Mystery in Moses's dying short of Canaan and Joshua's leading the People into it viz. to intimate to us That the Works of the Law will bring none to Heaven but Christ by his Blood hath open'd our way to it He that builds his Hope of Salvation upon any thing which he hath done must either perish or pull down all again 8. Look up to Heaven for Divine Instruction in this great Point It was Moses's Prayer to God so teach us to number our days that we may apply our Hearts c. Psalm 90.12 The numbering of our Days aright is no Vulgar Arithmetick nor can we learn it without a more than ordinary Tutor No Man ever died like Moses here according to the Word of the Lord but what was taught of God to do it He that gives out the Command must guide our Spirits to obey it If we can do nothing for God of our selves least of all can we die to him without him SERMON XXIII October 1. 1697. HEBREWS VII xxv Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them THE Glorious Office of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is the Subject of great part of this Epistle and the Apostle's main Scope and Design is to shew the superlative Excellency thereof beyond the Legal Priesthood which he does at large in various respects In the two immediate foregoing Verses he compares Christ with the Priests under the Law in reference to their Mortality Verse 23. They truly were many Priests many one after another because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death they were dying Men and how well soever they discharged the Duty of their Places yet in a few Years they left it to those that survived them and knew it no more themselves the Ministers of the Old Testament had their appointed time when their Breath went forth and returned not again as you find that the Ministers of the New Testament have now in their Generation But ver 24. this man or this Christ the Anointed of the Lord whom the Apostle here speaks of for the word Man is not in the Original but supplied by our Translators because he continueth ever hath an unchangable Priesthood his Office does not pass from him to another he hath no Successors in it whom the Exercise of it is committed to but he still manages it in his own Person and will perpetually do it Hereupon that comfortable and encouraging Inference and Conclusion is drawn up in the words of the Text Wherefore he is able c. Whcih words if they were to be cast into our usual Forms of Argument would run thus He who ever lives to make Intercession is able to save to the uttermost But Jesus Christ ever lives c. Therefore he is able c. There are many important Truths lying in this Text but all may be brought within the compass of this one Observ Christ's eternal Life and Intercession in Heaven in an infallible Proof of his Infinite saving Power Here I. I shall enquire into the Thing which the Apostle undertakes to prove The infinite-saving-Power of Jesus Christ II. Into the Evidence which he proves it by The Eternal Life and Intercession of Christ in Heaven With the distinct Uses which may be made of both these I. As to the thing which the Apostle here sets himself to prove viz. The infinite-saving Power of our Lord Jesus The Text it self will lead us to the opening of two Things under this Head The nature of this Power and the extent of it How he is able to save and how far even to the uttermost First With reference to the nature of this Power How is Christ able to save This may may be stated in the following Propositions 1. There is a Power which belongs to Christ as he is God In this as in all other Divine Perfections the Second Person is equal with the First Rev. 1.8 I am the Almighty The very same unlimited boundless Power appertains both to the Father and the Son Therefore when Christ had asserted That none should pluck his sheep out of his hand John 10.28 he confirms it by this That his Father is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of the Father's hand ver 29. Now if any should go about to deny the Consequence the next words will clear it I and my Father are one ver 30. If my Father is greater than all so am I if he be able to secure and preserve the Sheep so am I for he and I are one we are one in Essence and Nature and so all the same glorious Perfections which are inherent in him are in me likewise But this though it be a great Article of Faith and a great support to Believers does not seem to be that which the Apostle hath so much an Eye to in this place for he is now speaking of his Ability to save
under the Notion of our High-Priest 2. There is a given delegated Power which belongs to Christ as he is Mediator a Power received and entrusted with him from the Father God's laying of help upon him for us implies the furnishing and qualifying of him to afford and dispense that help to us So we read Psalm 89.21 With whom my hand shall be established mine arm also shall strengthen him Again Isa 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold c. There was such a mighty Presence and Influence of God with and upon his Son Jesus Christ in the Execution of his Mediatory Office as enabled and empower'd him to all that this Office required Therefore he attributes the Work which he did to the Father and calls them the Works of the Father John 10.37 and argues from them as plain convincing Testimonies that the Father had sent him chap. 5.36 The Power which he had from God to do such things was a demonstration of his Commission The Son of himself consider'd in this Capacity as the Father's Servant and Messenger dispatched from Heaven about the great Business of our Salvation could do nothing ver 19. but his God was his strength he that appointed him this Service gave him Ability to perform it 3. This Power of Christ is determined by the Father's Pleasure It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.19 All Fulness therefore a Fulness of Power as well as Merit but we must suppose it to be all exerted and put forth as is pleasing to the Father also The Power given unto Christ can never be thought to be employed by Christ against the Mind and Will of him that gave it God and Christ go hand in hand as it were in all their mighty Acts of Grace with one consenting Will. John 5.21 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will not in opposition to the Father's Will but in conjunction with it He came not to do his own will but his that sent him chap. 6.38 It was his delight to do this and impossible that he should do any thing contrary to it This does not import any insufficiency or weakness in Christ but the regularity and exactness of his Obedience 4. Christ's saving Power with respect to us takes in his Sovereignty and Dominion over all Creatures which is for our Advantage We have the benefit of his universal governing Power in order to our Salvation He that is exalted to be our Saviour is a mighty Prince whose Kingdom reaches ever where to every thing that he hath made He that carries his Lambs in his Bosom hath all the things in the world put under his Feet he hath all the Wolves that would tear and destroy them in a Chain and they cannot touch so much as the Fleece of any of his Sheep without his permission All power is given unto him in Heaven and in Earth yea and in Hell too Matth. 28.18 He hath power over all flesh John 17.2 whether Devils and wicked malignant Spirits over all that seek our burt or that give us any cause of Terror He hath a Command over all Creatures that disposal of all Events and he can make every one of these not only not to hinder and obstruct but positively to promote and further our Salvation The whole Administration of the Affairs of Providence which is committed to Christ serves to this very purpose 5. The saving power of Christ to all that have experience of it does necessarily include a great and extraordinary mixture of Compassion We must conclude his Pity equal to his Power and united with it or else no Soul would ever be saved by it His infinite Ability to relieve us would be of small Comfort to us if he were not touched with a feeling of our Infirmities We have an hint of this chap. 2.18 He is able to succour them that are tempted the same Greek word both there and in the Text. Now 't is manifest from the Context there that Christ's being able to succour implies not barely a Power but a fitness and readiness to do it a compassionate Inclination by reason of his being tempted Now though Christ be no longer so tempted for he sits on the right hand of the power of God Luke 22.69 yet his Bowels are the same If he wanted those Bowels his Power would be dreadful we could only look upon him as our Destroyer able to cast us Soul and Body into Hell able to inflict Wrath upon us to the uttermost but we could have no thoughts of Peace or hopes of Mercy 6. There is a destructive Power of Christ which always does and must accompany this saving Power In magnifying his saving Power to us there is a necessity of letting out his destructive Power against our Enemies If he saves our Lives and ransoms them what follows O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 We cannot be delivered from Death but Death must be unstung and consequently destroy'd This is the last Enemy but all the rest are dealt with in like manner Hebr. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death i. e. the Devil The chosen and called of God cannot escape if the Devil do if they obtain Salvation in Christ he must be destroy'd not as to his Being but his Power And the Works of the Devil must be destroyed also 1 John 3.8 There must not remain so much as one of them as is said of that total overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea when the Israel of God were saved out of their hands Exod. 14.28 Secondly With reference to the extent of this Power How far is Christ able to save The Text makes the Answer even to the uttermost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are two things intimated by this Phrase The Perfection of that Salvation which Christ is able to work and the duration of it 1. His being able to save to the uttermost notes Perfection He is able to save fully absolutely and compleatly so that nothing more needs or can be done Christ without us and Christ in us does all that belongs to this work of our Salvation He gives a right to Salvation and a meetness for Salvation He justifies perfectly he Sanctifies wholly what the Law could not do that he as the End of the Law not a destroying but a perfecting End hath done Particularly 1. He saves from all Sin or else that indefinite expression could hardly be sav'd from an Equivocation which the Spirit of Truth abhors Matth. 1.21 He shall save his People from their Sins i. e. from all their Sins not one excepted for as to the unpardonable Sin he saves his People from that preventively because none of them shall ever be suffer'd to commit it He is able to save from the greatest Sins as from the least from Sins of the blackest Aggravation and the deepest die He
Substance of the things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 When their Constitution was most flourishing and all those external Appointments were kept up to their very height they had not an High-Priest that ever lived to intercede for them but were obliged to the Mediation of Christ and now they have no Sacrifices nor Holy of Holies to carry the Blood of the Sacrifice into those weak and feeble Grounds of Carnal Confidence are quite taken away Moses in whom they trust and whose Rules they pretend to follow will be their Accuser instead of being their Advocate as Elias made Intercession against Israel not for them 2. What a vile Reproach do they cast upon Christ that employ and make use of other Intercessors besides him The Apostle argues Christ's Power to save from his living to Intercede they who advance and prefer others to this Work do really charge him with Insufficiency Hath he trode the Wine-Press alone and is he not able to perform this business of Advocacy alone Did he redeem us by himself and must he have Partners in his Pleading Work The first was rather more difficult than this last and therefore if he must be assisted in this we may with more reason suspect his needing of help as to the other and consequently we may doubt whether he himself can be the Author of Eternal Salvation to us So that the Antichristian Doctrine of multiplied Mediators between God and us tends to subvert our Faith and opens the door to Infidelity 3. We may learn hence that Jesus Christ tho' taken from us and made higher than the Heavens is not the less mindful of us or less compassionate towards us When the chief Butler was restor'd to his Place he forgat poor Joseph in Prison Gen. 40. ult but Christ's Care and Affection is not lessened by his Exaltation He hath a more tender regard to our Infirmities than any of our Fellow Creatures that are still in Flesh can have as the Brain where all the Nerves which are the Instruments of Sence are terminated is the chief Seat of all Perception so the Mystical Body though one Member may feel the Wrong done to another yet the Head is most apprehensive of it He hath left the World indeed but is as sollicitous as ever for them that are left behind John 17.11 Now I am no more in the World but these are in the World c. 4. Our daily renewed Guilt though Ground of humble Walking ought not to destroy our Comfort or be matter of Discouragement Christ's Intercession would not be continued if there were not continual need of it Some Men weary the Kindness of their Friends by plunging themselves over and over in fresh Dissiculties and so they must be delivered again and again as Prov. 19.19 This is not irksom or uneasy to Christ for though we are every moment Offending one way or other he does not leave off Interceding For if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ c. 1 John 2.1 5. The Preservation of those that are in Christ is very much owing to the Intercession of Christ for them If we receive any Advantage by the Prayers of one another how much more by his What a helpless and hopeless Condition should we soon be in if our Lord Jesus did not confirm his Love towards us by praying the Father for us Our standing in the Grace of God is a Fruit of his sitting at the right Hand of God So some interpret the Life of Jesus being made manifest in our mortal Body 2 Cor. 4.10 11. q. d. We are supported to go through such Exercises and Tryals by the mighty Influence of our Living Saviour 6. Let this embolden us to ask in Faith and quicken us to Pray with greater assurance Having such an High-Priest to introduce us to God we may comfortably plead the Causes of our Souls before him The Prayers of Saints go up as a Memorial and sweet Perfume by reason of the Incense that Christ offers with them Ask of me and I will give thee is the Father's Language to the Son Psalm 2.8 as if he were to fetch out the Grace and Blessing of the Promise by Prayer And the same terms are proposed to us Ask and it shall be given you Matth. 7.7 What can we have more Yea Christ himself will see it done whatever is ask'd in his Name he hath said it twice I will see it done Matth. 14.13 14. 7. Let this be a Motive to us to live to Christ and plead for him as we can while we are here in the World 1. Let us live to Christ who thought it not enough as Mr. Clarkson says to lose one Life for us on Earth but he also improves another in Heaven for us What can we do less then take Paul's Motto and make it our daily Rule To me to live is Christ Phil. 1.21 2. Let us plead for Christ with God and with Men. 1. With God While he intercedes for us let us pray for him i. e. for the Prosperity of his Concerns here in his lower Kingdom This is to be done-continually and without ceasing Psalm 72.15 as the Prophet is our Example For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest c. Isa 62.1 2. With Men. Christ's Intercession on our behalf in Glory will shamefully upbraid our ungrateful Silence if we can quietly suffer his Name to be Blasphemed and his Gospel scoffed out of the World Their Confession of Christ is no better than a Denial that have nothing to say for him in such a Case The Spirit of Christ is his great Advocate here in the World and therefore if we walk in that Spirit Christ's Honour and Interest will be duly regarded by us FINIS BOOKS Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three-Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel FOrty Nine Sermons on the whole Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians by Monsieur Daille Minister of the Reformed Church in Paris Folio Sermons and Discourses on several Divine Subjects by the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson B. D. and sometime Fellow of Clare-Hall Cambridge Folio A Body of Practical Divinity consisting of above One hundred seventy six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster by Tho. Watson formerly Minister of Stephen Walbrook Folio The Support of the Faithful in Times of Persecution or a Sermon Preach'd in the Wilderness to the poor Protestants in France By M. Brousson an Eminent Minister who was broke upon the Wheel at Montpelier Novem. 6. 1698. Quarto The Fountain of Life opened or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatoral Glory containing Forty two Sermons on various Texts Wherein the Impetration of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished by his Covenant Transaction mysterious Incarnation