them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
more and more for we are setling like the Jews in an outward formal Reformation without heart Now it would be terrible if the Lord should chuse our own administration and give us according to our own heart I hope he will not But this lay heavy upon my spirit to tell you of therefore the Lord direct you to make the best use you can that if it be his blessed will this place that is the honor and glory of the Kingdom and the refuge of the Saints that the Lord would not come against it FINIS THE TABLE  Page A  Abiding  ABiding with God in evil times 72 Actions  Saints not under the Law in their actions 157 Afflictions  Afflictions of godly and wicked how different 31 Afflictions turn to the good of Saints 119 The life of Faith in afflictions 130 Saints not under the Law in regard of afflictions 150 Afflictions not to be fainted in 194 Amend  All should amend when the wicked are punished 104 Angels  Angels pry into Gospel mysterie 201 Angels good and bad do it ibid. Apostacy  Apostacy a provoking sin 11 Assurance  Life of Faith in Assurance 130 Awake  Christians duty to awake God 86 B.  Betray  Not to betray Gods cause 88 Blasphemy  Blasphemy a provoking sin 9 Blessing see latter  Bristol  Gods mercy in recovering Bristol 107 C  Christ See cleaving  Christ makes all things amiable 192 Cleaving  Blessedness of cleaving to the Lord 70 Honor of cleaving to Christ in ill times 73 Special times of cleaving to God 77 Comfort  What should help Christians comfort 175 Conceits  Vain conceits of wicked men 33 Confidence  Ground of a Christians confidence 27 Consolation  Consolation a duty 40 Four things that hinder consolation ibid. Covenant  Spiritual understanding of the New Covenant effects of it 66 Covetousness  Covetousness a provoking sin 237 Creature  The vanity of the Creature why discovered 61 Conjunction  Conjunction of those that cleave to God 70 D.  Difference  Difference of Gods dealing with Saints 36 Difference between Saints and sinners 208 Discouraged  Weak Saints not to be discouraged 143 Distrust  Distrust in times of danger to be avoided 87 Division  Division among Saints a provoking sin 9 Duty See Consolation  Four grounds of Duty 149 E.  Enemies  Assurance of victory over enemies the effects of it 64 How God destroyes his enemies 85 Equality  Equality that should be between Saints 144 Evil see good  Example  Example of Saints a ground of prayer 150 F.  Faith  Faith the want of it what it doth 40 Faith the life of it 44 Faith how God tries it 83 Faith how the just live by it 128 See Affliction Assurance Sanctification  False  False dealing 237 Fondness  Holy fondness between God and the Saints 54 Holy fondness in five things 55 Fondness wrought four ways 61 Formality  Formality in duties a provoking sin 4 See Reformation  G.  Garison see Minde  God see Hypocrisie Persecutors  Good  To call evil good a provoking sin 11 See Afflictions Work  Gospel  Gospel precepts highest 162 Gospel Mysteries to be attended 202 Gospel riches to be admired 204 Gospels simplicity 225 Government  Government how to be affected 204 Greater  How to argue from less mercies to greater 120 Grace  Grace weak how to comfort it 45 Grace what meant by it 160 Of those that are under Grace 162 Power in Grace more then the Law 164 H.  Heart  Heart hardened 8 Hidden  Saints Gods hidden ones 90 Holiness  Holiness desired on wrong grounds 41 Right laboring for holiness 198 See Comfort  Hypocrisie  Hypocrisie hateful to God 48 Hipocrites honor creatures above God 50 Hypocrisie dishonors God ibid. I.  Judg.  Saints not to judg one another 143 Judgments  Maner of Gods proceeding to judgment 2 Cause of judgments what 3 Judgments why sent 103 Ingenuity  Ingenuity of right Saints 163 Justification  How to live by Faith in Justification 128 133 K.  Kiss  Holy Kiss what 145 L.  Latter Last  Blessing of the latter times 122 First shall be last how 138 Law  Saints under the Law how 156 See Persons Actions Afflictions Gospel  Learning  Learning humane wherein useful 211 Life see Faith Sanctification  Lord see cleaving  Love  Love of God what it works 62 To love though we be not loved 181 Mutual love how attained 184 M.  Minde  Garison of the minde what 16 Mingled  The life of a Christian mingled 133 Ministers  Ministers sins provoke God 149 N.  Nature  Duties grounded in nature 6 O.  Officers  Officers sins provoke God 8 Oppression  Sin of oppression 236 Ordinance  Prayer an Ordinance of God 149 Ordinances not to be neglected 152 Ordinances needful 153 P.  Patience see waiting  Peace  Peace to be studied by Saints 196 Perpetual see Prayer Persecutors Persecution  To cleave to God in persecution 78 Persecutors design 91 God persecuted in the Saints 93 Children of the godly may prove fierce persecutors 99 Persons  Persons of Saints how under the Law 156 Power  Power that Saints have 166 The Spirit called power how 173 See Grace  Prayer  Prayer a perpetual duty 151 Prayer whence it proceeds 169 Wants of prayer how supplied 170 See Ordinance Nature Precept Example Promise  Precept  Precepts ground of prayer 150 See Gospel  Promises  Promises ground of prayer 151 Protection  Protection of God who have right to it 21 Pride  Pride how discovered 185 R.  Reflect  Reflect acts hard to man 177 Saints to reflect on their estate 178 Reformation  Formal Reformation a provoking sin 5 Refuge  God a refuge 14 To repair to God as a refuge 17 Religion  Religion wherein it consists 211 Riches see Gospel  Revolting  Revolting a provoking sin 239 S.  Saints see Weak Sanctification  Life of Faith in Sanctification 129 131 Saintship to be prized 194 Satan  Grounds of Caution against Satan 202 Security  Security why to avoyd it 140 Self-love  Self-love a provoking sin 10 Shame  Iudgments sent to shame men 103 Simplicity  Simplicity of Religion 212 Simplicity of the Gospel 223 Sin  What sins provoke judgments 3 Carriage of Saints faln into sin 43 Saints carriage in a deluge of sin 77 Aggravations of sin 240 Silent  God silent in danger why 83 Soul  The soul of God departs from incorrigible sinners 244 Spirit  Spirit powerful in Saints 166 Spirit undervalued how 167 Spirit wherein powerful 169 Spirit differs Saints and Sinners 208 Spirit how known 210 Spirit to be labored for 213 Spirits excellency 215 Spirits grieving dangerous 220 Spirit to be prized 221 See Word Teaching Work Power  T.  Teaching  Teaching of the Spirit 170 Testament  Testaments compared 188 Trouble  Trouble in Saints whence 190 V.  Vengeance  Vengeance of God against the wicked 27 Union  Union between Christ and Christians 229 Upright  Uprightness ground of it 22 Uprightness how tried 84 W.  Waiting  Ground of waiting on God 112 Weak  Weak Saints not to be contemned 141 Weak Saints their carriage to stronger 142 Weak Saints to be encouraged 196 Word  Spirit to be advanced as speaking in the Word 168 Work  Who works in and for us 172 To be ready to every good work 206 FINIS
c. God will do two things for his people in the day of his wrath against his enemies First he will make them to sing In that day shall this song be sung in the Land of Judah The world oft sing when the Saints mourn and therefore the world shall mourn when the Saints shall sing And another thing is In that day when the Lord shall open his arms as a swimmer for judgment The Saints shall have a strong City or Garison or Refuge to go to where they shall be safe We have a strong City that shall be their song Salvation will God appoint for Walls and for Bulwarks Now it shall not be an outward City or an outward Garison but the Lord will give them a spiritual Garison The salvation of the Lord shall be to them as Walls and Bulwarks So that beloved in few words this is the lesson that I would learn thorowly and would have you to learn from this Verse that In all the troubles and calamities that are in this world Observation God a sweet refuge the people of God have a sweet Refuge or a safe Garison to go into Let the judgments of God be out upon the earth upon the wicked and unbelievers never so much and let the Kingdoms be never so miserable yet the Saints have a Garison they have a sweet place of shelter of retreat and refuge and safety in the worst of times that can be in this world You shall see a blessed place to this purpose Heb. 12. 25 26 c. See that you do not turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven saith the Apostle whose voice then shock the earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more will I shake not the earth onely but also heaven And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken or moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably Beloved not to open the whole place this is that onely I would observe from it That there are times in the latter end of the world wherein the very heaven and earth shall once more be shaken That is there shall be such troubles and calamities now in the latter end of the world that men shall think that God is shaking not onely Kingdoms and Nations but Heaven and Earth the whole Vniverse and is ready to pull it down There will be such times saith the Apostle yet saith he We receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken It is a blessed place when all the Kingdoms in the world shall be shaken all the Earth and all the Heavens as it were shall be shaken too yet we have received a Kingdom that cannot be shaken The Saints are in a Garison or Kingdom that though all the world about them were shaken and totter they are safe and stand still Truly I have oft thought in my own apprehensions that the Saints differ as much from other men as if you could suppose a man to live in the middle Region where there is no wind nor storms nor tempest And you know here in all the sublunary world there is nothing but clouds and rain and storms and all weathers If one were above in the middle Region lot it rain or thunder or hail or be what it will here he is safe and quiet Just so it is with the Saints they are in the middle Region in a Kingdom that though all the Kingdoms of the world shake yet they receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken But you will say Where is this Garison that we may go into it Where is this Kingdom Salvation saith the Prophet the Lord shall appoint us for walls and bulwarks That is this Kingdom is not outwardly to be found it is not an earthly garison but it is a figurative speech that they do finde in the Lord by the holy Spirit such security and such safety as if they were in a garison that cannot be assaulted or taken But you will say How can that be This is a meer Idea or Notion which no body can understand I shall shew presently how it can be by the help of God The troubles of a man the real troubles of a man are in his minde and soul and affections Now if you could finde a way to keep a mans minde and soul and heart it were easie to keep the whole man For our trouble is not a little imprisonment or poverty Paul or Sylas were in prison and were to be hanged the next day for ought they knew yet they could sing The man is as his minde is if we can finde a way to fortifie and garison the soul and minde and affections it will be easie to garison the whole man But now how shall we garison the minde or soul How a man may be said to be secure and impregnable or heart and affections to use no critical distinctions how shall we garison the heart of man You shall see that in Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus There is saith the Apostle a peace of God that shall keep you or as the word in the Greek is garison you shall set up a garison in your hearts and mindes through Jesus Christ What peace is that You shall see if you compare it with the Gospel of John When our Lord Christ was going to Heaven he told his Disciples I will send the Comforter John 14. 7. among you and My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world gives give I unto you My peace I give unto you not as the peace of the world It is a legacy that we have in the New Testament from our Lord Jesus Christ that is now in heaven by the Holy Ghost there is a kinde of peace that comes into the hearts of the Saints that passeth understanding not onely the understanding of wicked men that they know it not and apprehend it not but it passeth the understanding of a godly man that hath it As we see in Isaiah there is a peace that comes and quiets and secures his soul such a peace as he never understood or did suppose could come into his soul according to that Neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor hath entred Isai 64. 4. into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that wait for him That is God sends this peace and many other blessings Such a peace as a man never conceived in his heart and this peace comes in and keeps the heart like a Castle or sets up a garison in the heart it keeps the heart and minde through Jesus Christ Therefore from that briefly you may learn a lesson or two that so I may proceed to that which remains Vse First Learn I desire and beseech
from our littleness and weakness any thing he will draw arguments of his goodness from Yet many times we are of such a temper that we will not draw one argument to move us to do that which is pleasing in his eyes Well he is a glorious God and we are like our selves Let him lay hold on my strength Let the poor bramble go and lay hold upon the wall I have strength enough to destroy and devour them but I wish that they would lay hold of my strength There is a way that all the strength that is in God thou mayest make it for thee on thy side All the power and strength that is in God is against wicked men that receive not Christ but there is a way that thou mayest make that party on thy side thou mayest make God on thy side Take hold on him that is receive Christ and then thou art in the Covenant and all belongs to thee upon that and all the power whereby he made heaven and earth and rules the sea and every thing is thy power it is for thee And make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like the expression of some people that are wondrously given to love and peace and though other people desire to quarrell yet they will not quarrell but they will be freinds there is no neighbour so mischievous but they will be friends with them in spight of their heart so sayth God Let them make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like that expression of God I will put my spirit in their hearts and they shall keep my statutes That thy soul could creep along upon this blessed wall and make peace with him and lay hold of his promise and he saith thou shalt make peace He shall cause them that come of Iacob to take root c. You see how sweet God is in afflicting his Saints how he preserves them and hears them in whipping them Here he shewes three great differences between Three differences in the afflictions of the godly and wicked the afflictions of the godly and of the wicked The first is this saith he have I smitten him as I smote those that smote him Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him That is the Lord doth not lay such a weight of affliction upon his children as he doth upon wicked people that is one thing therefore he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind No east wind blowes on the Saints for in Scripture language that is the wrath of God All the other winds are growing but the East wind is cutting and chilling Secondly it is said God will debate with them that is besotted carnall men as Pharaoh and others he layes afflictions upon afflictions upon them and they never know why it makes him a sot and he brayes him as a fool in a Morter but I will debate with him saith God I will reason the case As a father when he whips his childe will you do so again saith he And is this handsome The Lord never whips his childe but he debates with him Thirdly the issue and fruit of it All the fruit is he doth it to take away sin he will make all the stones of the Altar as Chalk-stones he will beat them to pieces that is they shall pull down their Groves and their Altars as you do Chalk-stones when you burne them and beat them in pieces This should make us sweeten our thoughts of God he is sweet in his providence in his Ordinances in his corrections we see what a good God he is how he draws water out of the Flint he draws arguments of grace and mercy and goodnesse to save wretched creatures any way in such a way that if we were Judges we would condemn our selves The Lord sweeten your hearts and raise up your souls to apprehend his mercy Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 28 15. Because ye have said we have made a Covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement c. We have made agreement with hell NOt that they said so but God brings in their thoughts as in Iob Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy laws That is the difference between Gods book and mens books men write books according to the words of men but the word of God is according to their thoughts Here are four or five things noted of wicked men Four things observed of wicked men 1. Their v. in conceits First we have made say they a covenant with death and with hell we are at an agreement The meaning is not that they did draw writings between them and hell for hell will make no agreement but the meaning is they were assured in their conceits that they should be delivered from hell and death and misery As a man that hath made a Covenant for his land c. and hath got witnesses to it he hath made sure he hath it in black and white so there was a foolish confidence in them they assured themselves that they should escape as if death and hell had given them an acquittance and had sealed it and there had been Covenants drawn between them and the Devill That is one thing But saith God Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand That is you shall see that all those conceits are but vaine Just as if a man should go and make a Covenant with his neighbour and buy his land and he should never tell his neighbour that he would sell it this agreement would be broken and the Covenant would not stand So you build Castles in the aire you make a Covenant and agreement in your conceits that you are safe and you hope the best and God is mercifull but the day will come when all this will be done away As Iob saith it is just as a Spiders web that is a fine thing that she hath been working all the week and then the Maide comes to make clean the house and all is taken away with one stroak of a brush Another thing is the Lord compares them here to Illustrated in two comparisons Compa ∣ rison 1 people that would hide themselves by the sea side where the tide comes up As you see sometimes when the tide is low there are green medows and bushes before it be high spring and there they hide themselves and the water comes and overflowes their hiding place If they stay there a while and it may be are asleep the tide comes and drowns them all Do ye not think a man were mad that should go and hide himself in a hole of a bridge and sleep when the tide was low and then the tide come in and overwhelm him So it will be with thee if thou receive not Iesus Christ We have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves Mr. Calvin saith they may be compared to little
Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working What is the meaning of that That that made the Prophet cry out that the Lord was wonderful in Counsel and mighty in working it was this to see the harmony between Gods Works in his Books and in his Creatures O who would think when a man is plowing that there were such a mystery there that he should fetch a glorious mystery in afflicting his Saints from a little Cummin This also is from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderfull in counsell and excellent in working that he reveales his blessed will in his book and gives such a glorious copy of it in the creatures that we may understand the one by the other Thus have I shewed you a little of the meaning of the word of God in this Chapter as I understand Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God YOu shall finde that in the Scriptures especially Consolation a duty in the New Testament we are commanded to comfort one another as much as to exhort and more then to reprove It is very ordinary Comfort one another Though the other duties to the Saints in the New Testament are full of consolation The Apostle from every argument would have us draw comfort from the coming of Christ and every thing almost There are these four things that I shall speak of Four things hinder Consolation that hinder the consolation that might be in your souls If I take away those hinderances it is as much as if I did positively comfort Im ∣ pediment First The first is I will not say you want faith but you have a faith of the Law and not of the Gospel You believe in God but not in Christ My meaning is this your saith is begotten and bred according to the doctrine and principles of the Old Testament It is good and true but it is bred and nourished according to the principles and strain of the Old Testament which old Testament saith the Apostle is done away You need not stumble you know my meaning your faith is not yet come clearly according to the strain and course and frame of the New Testament You will say There is but little difference between the old and the New Testament Look how they be opposed 2 Cor. 3. Gal. 2. and in the Hebrews that is the main business to shew the difference between the old and New Testament Now that your faith is so it will appear three ways Which appears three ways First there is a Heathenish desire of sanctification of holiness Holiness is a blessed thing and there are none desire more earnestly sincerely to be holy then the Saints in the New Testament Holiness is upon the bridles of the horses of the Church yet there is a desire of holiness in the soul that is legal faith that by the earnest desire of holiness a man may see the frame of his faith to be legal There may be a thirst that ariseth from a Feaverish distemper of body that is not good Therefore truly a man may desire holiness more then happiness as you are wont to express it He may desire holiness and to avoyd sin more then Hell it self and any thing in the world He may say he would not for a world but overcome his lusts and O that I could overcome my frowardness and my pride and yet it may be a Heathenish kinde of thirst I have known people that have gone every day to hear and have wept and desired holiness and yet out of a Heathenish desire of holiness Why what is the meaning of this how comes this about The soul resolving to be justified and to finde favor with God partly by the righteousness of Christ and partly by some grace not that it hath but that it hopes to have Therefore the soul as a Feaverish man reacheth out and layes down this conclusion I must be holy and there are some things if I could reach them then I should be well and so the Feaver grows higher and higher And God crosseth him for it is against the way of the Gospel God will do no good to us if we go contrary to his glory Therefore if we weep our hearts out we shall not have it for it is a designe of our own saith God You will not be content with the righteousness of Christ but you will have something to make it up you will believe and be holy but you shall go my way or not at all Now a Saint that is according to Gods minde first upon believing in Jesus Christ and his righteousness his soul is fully satisfied and he is at peace He saith Lord whether I be holy or not I see a full righteousness in Jesus Christ to justifie me and to sanctifie me and pacifie my conscience And Lord here I am Thou knowest that I have nothing but my old nature thou art wise all my sins are done away do with me what thou wilt If thou wilt put me to pain or into poverty or into Hell or suffer me to go in rags all my life long do so As a godly man said If pride and frowardness must have its work though I had rather go to Hell for the time yet here I am I rejoyce in my spirit because I am accepted of thee So here is a desire of holiness but it is not Heathenish as if a man could have no assurance and comfort in his soul till he had gotten such a degree of grace These are Feaverish desires Secondly It appears to me that your comfort is not right that your faith is not according to the Gospel because of the startlings in your conscience after sin That when God suffers the soul to be overtaken and to fall the soul startles that is horror seizeth presently upon the conscience and hardness upon the heart there is a startling that makes a man that he cannot go on in his calling that makes all his neighbors take notice of him as if he were not his own man Take it as a general rule the most and the greatest dangers or the most dangerous errors border nearest on the most glorious light It is blessed to startle at sin and to desire holiness but I say there is a Heathenish desire of holiness and startling at sin that argues That the conscience is not quieted in Christ Object You will say when a Saint falls into sin shall he take no notice of it Answ Yes and have no peace till he have poured out his soul to God But yet as a Son to a Father and his assurance is whole still Thou art my beloved father and all that is befaln me thou hast suffered it and hast a hand in it I confess Father I am an unhappy childe there is never a member of thy Son Christ that thou hast more trouble with then with me there is none of them so vile and so the heart is all wholly poured out
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
own mercies as Ionah saith to imbrace some lust or other either to imbrace the world or to fall to wantonness or drunkenness or any thing else and so to bargain as Esau that sold all his blessed title in the new Testament and in Jesus Christ for a mess of pottage Beware of that prophaneness for prophaneness is not onely when men commit gross evils as we say but this is a prophane man though he be a Professor and walk civilly that though but in his heart is willing to exchange the blessed estate that God hath called him to for the best happiness in the world There are many prophane men that are not whoremongers and drunkards but are ready every day if the devil come to cheapen to give up their birthright for a mess of pottage Take heed you sell it not if you did understand it rightly you would not sell it for ten thousand worlds that condition and happiness that God hath called you to All the things in the world that can be presented to you are nothing to the peace of the Kingdom of heaven be they what they will in themselves and yet you hanâ—er after ambition or lusts or somewhat and go sell your birthright for a root of bitterness for a mess of pottage for base things I say and I am sure there is no Saint here that knows what the happiness of a Christian in the new Testament is but will say so that all the glory and riches and happiness in the world is no more in comparison of the riches and happiness of a man estated in Christ in the new Testament then a mess of pottage is compared with an inheritance Therefore beware of it desire the Lord to deliver you from a prophane heart Thirdly here is another Use that the Apostle 3. To encourage weaklings makes of it therefore this should encourage poor weak Professors that are every day ready to faint Wherefore saith he lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make strait steps to your pathes least that which is lame go out of the way The meaning is poor souls that are beaten out as it were as a ship in the sea all the week with temptations and afflictions and injuries and reproaches and threatnings and persecutions that their hands almost fall that they are ready to say as David I have washed my hands in innocencie in vain This is the way to keep up thy spirit Labor as Paul prays Phil. 1. to know the riches of thy calling to understand the glorious condition that God hath called thee to here I speak not of that in heaven hereafter but the glorious estate here if thou hadst eyes to see it and a heart to judg of it then you would not be so tormented all the week long with a few temptations and afflictions and so be ready to give up as David said I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul so I shall one of these short days prove an hypocrite a prophane man I am so haunted with temptations and so followed with sins and lusts No beloved study that blessed estate what Mount Sion what the heavenly Ierusalem is that City of the living God that God hath called you to and that will support thee Then that I may conclude Lastly this is the use 4. To study peaceableness the Apostle would have us make of it to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see see God That is if you do understand aright your spiritual condition the happiness of it which is unspeakable then surely you will be peaceable people you will be at peace with all men for this is a general truth to me that our frowardness doth generally arise from some distemper of our own souls within I mean when a man sees that God is angry with him he is angry with others that is certain alway if God look strangely upon him he will look strangely upon others if God quarrel with him he will quarrel with others but if God smile upon the soul and shed his love into the heart and set his love upon him he will not be angry with any that are without I mean with a carnal anger that is the reason that when a mans ways please God the stones of the street shall be at peace with him Did you ever see the stones of the street angry with you but the meaning is when a mans ways are cross with God and he hath a guilty conscience a guilty soul hath no true peace he is ready almost to fall out with the stones in the street he quarrels with his servant with his horse with every thing because he hath an unquiet spirit within when a man pleaseth God the stones shall be at peace with him that is he shall be at peace with every thing Why so because there is an infinite unspeakable quiet in his own soul That is the reason we have so many Professors among us that are so bitter and cruel to others some they call Presbyters and some Independents and divers other Professors you may pick them out in every Congregation that are so sharp and terrible to others if they cross them or dissent from them never so little What is the reason because there are abundance of Professors that have one foot on Mount Sinai they walk by the Covenant of Works they have patched a feined rotten peace in them with God in Christ and so many times there is blackness and darkness within therefore they are ready to wrangle and quarrel with others without But God hath called us to Mount Sion where is that where the swords are turned into Pruning hooks and the speares into Ploughshares sighing and sorrow is gone away and there is no ravenous beast there meaning the glorious estate of the Saints in the purity of the light of the Gospel all our ravenous spirits shall be taken away for it is impossible that soul that hath the love of God shed into it and the peace of God rightly planted in it it is impossible but that soul should be milde and calm and meek and merciful and loving and courteous to all and be at peace with all and peaceable to all And for holiness Follow holiness saith the Apostle this would make you holy if you did understand your condition rightly O if you were perswaded that God did love you from eteruity and that his Son did die for you and that you and he are as really one as he is one with his Father and that all the treasures that are in Christ are yours c. this would inevitably work in us a holy frame of heart and disposition Therefore the Apostle usually calls on us to be holy from such motives I beseech you by the mercies of God and by the consolations of the Spirit do this and that and leave that and the other evil That is the reason we are lame in holiness because our principles are so
but now London must there my wrath shall be poured out The Lord grant that it may not be so but I greatly fear it Secondly The Lord brings them to imprisonment the Lord took them prisoners Verse 11. The husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days And then comes their plunder Their houses shall be turned to others with their fields and wives together For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this Land saith the Lord. O if the Lord should say This is the City to be visited and make war against it and then take you prisoners take the aged men the Aldermen Common Councellers and all prisoners and then plunder all and say their fields and their wives shall be turned to others That were sore that you should not onely lose your goods but your fields that your houses and trades and shops should be taken away and your very wives Thus the Lord did with others I will not say that he will do so with you Now there were stumbling blocks in Ierusalem before it was destroyed so there are in this City it is filled with stumbling blocks every little difference in opinion is a stumbling block that some men become Atheists because every Saint doth not agree one with another And then there is the fear and horror that did fore-run this misery Verse 24. But in a word the course that the Lord would have them take and that therefore I shall speak of that you may beseech the Lord that this poor City may prevent those evils One thing is the Lord would have them seriously and sincerely humble themselves before him to acknowledg their sins and bewail them Verse 26. Saith the Lord O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an onely son Not a formal day of fasting and humiliation for that is almost become all form but really humble thy soul and call upon the Lord that the Lord would be pleased to turn away his wrath Then the second thing laid down is That we should hearken to instruction Be thou instructed O Jerusalem least my soul depart from thee be ready to hear the Word of the Lord be ready to hearken what Gods will is how he may be glorified and we preserved Then thirdly here is a word that I exceedingly desired to open but I must but name it Verse 16. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls saith the Lord. This is the way to save you Stand in the wayes ask for the old way What is the meaning of the old way That is Iesus Christ That was the old way of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Iesus Christ and the way of righteousness and holiness and truth He alludes as I take it to the Patriarchs for that is called the old world and the old way Saith he Ye are not like your fathers heretofore Abraham he was not covetous and full of oppression they were willing to hear that which was for their good and they were not the worse for their afflictions Look to the old way and labor to get such a Spirit as the Saints had heretofore that were in Iesus Christ What of all this notwithstanding this counsel that the Lord had given them what if they will not turn to him what if they will not amend Then there is a terrible word that we read of in Verse 8. Lest my soul depart from thee It is not sin onely that makes Gods soul depart from a people nor their hardness nor wickedness but when they refuse all means and helps then his soul departs from them Therefore Be instructed saith he lest my soul depart or lest my soul be disjoynted as it is in the Margin What is the meaning of that It is a terrible word we have that word expounded in Ierem. 15. 1 2. See what it is for to have Gods soul to go from a people I beleeve that Gods soul is not gone from us if we will hearken to him and do not give our selves up to wrath and rage against Gods people Then said the Lord to me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde or my soul could not be towards this people There is before the ferventest blessed prayer for this people that I know in the Book of God Ieremy prayes And now their destruction was coming saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel should come before me my heart could not be on them I have put them out of my heart my minde and soul is gone from them I will never be troubled more with them What follows Cast them out of my sight let them go forth And if they say Whether shall we forth Then thou shalt tell them such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword such as are for the famine to famine and such as are for captivity to captivity Let them go whether they will some of them will be hanged some killed some to the sword some starved they can come to no good because they are gone out of my sight My heart and soul is from them that is the last gasp that is hell above ground Therefore the sum of all is That we hearken to God for these things were not written for Ierusalem onely but for our instruction God hath laid down their sin and wickedness and their oppression and the blessed remedy that they should have taken and if we take it not but go on in our wickedness we see what we may expect That when that shall come on us which God if it be his will forbid you may remember that you were told before I have one thing in my sad and serious thoughts to comfort me that this shall not befal this City and that is this That the Lord delt with them according to the administration of the Old Testament and so went by Cities and Nations but now every man and every person that calls upon God is respected in every Nation and City whatsoever But this comes in and cools it wonderfully and puts me to a non-plus If we in this City did go according to the administration of the New Testament I am perswaded that the Lord would not send desolation upon the City but because we would go according to that old administration we have chosen it and said so and do so Now as they chose that administration to deal with God he chose that to deal with them for the Lord will deal frowardly with the froward the Lord will deal with men according to their own law Those that sin against the Law of Nature shall be punished so those that sin against the Law of Moses shall be punished so those that go according to the administration of grace shall be delt with accordingly Now we are going according to the old administration