vale of Siddim slimy and slippery full of Lime-pits and pitfals snares stumbling-blocks laid on purpose to maim and to mischief our souls But now he that truly fears God comes off without great hurt he keepeth his heart with all diligence he watcheth the very thoughts and motions of his heart he will not suffer vain thoughts to lodge there but labours to wash it from all filthiness that so he may perfect holiness in the fear of God This fear of God weeds hypocrisie out of the heart pride arrogancie and every secret way of iniquity Job was a man fearing God and therefore he durst not once to think lustfully upon a maid this was that which made him to refrain contemplative wickedness Job 31.1 And then 3. As this holy fear of God cleanseth the Head and the Heart so it cleanseth the Hands too it keeps the Life and Conversation pure Prov. 3.7 saith Solomon there Fear the Lord and depart from evil The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil that Beloved is the definition of the fear of God Eschewing of evil is not onely put as an effect of the fear of God as when 't is said of Job Chap. 1.1 that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil but it is put I say in the very definition it self of the fear of God 't is the nature of this fear of God to depart from evil not onely from habitual and inward but likewise from outward and practical evil from publike as well as from private and secret evil See what Jehoshaphat saith in his charge unto his Judges when they were going their Circuit 2 Chron. 19.7 Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts q. d. This fear of God if it be upon you if it be radicated and rooted in your hearts will teach you to forbear Bribery and iniquity with your hands It was the fear of God Beloved that reined in Joseph from condescending to the wicked motion of his wanton Mistress though he might have committed that folly and the world have been never the wiser I can proceed no further at present in the tryal of this holy fear of God Examine your selves by what hath been said If with those godly ones here in my Text you are men and women truly fearing the Lord then this fear of God hath had this cleansing influence upon you and hath cleansed your Heads Hearts and Hands Secondly As this holy fear of God cleanseth the Head Heart and Hand from sin so doth it no less frame the heart to the doing of duty and that 1. towards God 2. towards men For as you heard before the fear of God is a very extensive and comprehensive grace it includes the whole duty of man not onely his Negative duty what he ought not to do but his Positive duty too what he ought to do In the first place then this holy fear of God frames the heart to the performance of its duty towards God And here I shall instance onely in two duties 1. It perswades the heart to believe God and his Word The Scripture noteth this expresly of the Patriarch Noah Heb. 11.7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark c. Moved with fear what is that i. e. with a reverent fear of that God that spake unto him Noah's heart being touched with the true fear of God believed God even in those things which were not as yet seen he believed those forewarnings of God concerning the judgment he purposed to bring upon the world and accordingly prepared an Ark whereby he saved his houshold and condemned the wicked world Thus the Israclites possest with this filial fear believed God and his servant Moses You may see this clearly Ezod 14.31 And the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses Pray observe it well the people feared the Lord c. As Faith may be and is the ground of holy Fear so holy Fear may sometimes draw forth acts of Faith it will make a man tremble as much at the Threats of his Word as at the Strokes of his Hand And then 2. As it frames the heart to a believing of God and his Word so likewise to an obeying of God and his Word the holy obedience of his revealed will Psal 103.17 18. saith David there But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto childrens children to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them He describes you see them that fear God to be such as keep his Covenant and remember his Commandments to do them A soul truly fearing God is afraid to disobey God his heart with David's will stand in awe of Gods Word And hence 't is that in Scripture sometimes you finde the fearing of God and keeping of his Commandments sometimes fearing God and working righteousness joyned together The former you may see Psal 119.63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts Of them that fear thee and keep thy precepts a man cannot fear God but he must observe his precepts So again Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man The connexion of these two shews us that the fear of God is a principle of obedience they that fear him will keep his commandments yea they do so in an Evangelical way though they cannot attain unto yet they wish well to exact and accurate obedience The later you shall finde Acts 10.35 But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him A man fearing God will be active and doing he will be working righteousness and that which is good And thus have you briefly heard to what particular duties this Fear frames the heart towards God I am to shew you in the next place how and in what duties it draws the heart in reference to Man The Fear of God hath a double bond in it a bond of Obedience to God and a bond of Love to Men. Well then in the first place the true fear of God is ever joyned with love unto our brethren The Apostle puts so much of Religion or of the fear of God for they are both one in the love to our brethren as that in one place he makes it all Religion yea the very definition of the fear of God Jam. 1.27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world This is Religion and pure Religion i.e. This is a great branch and part of Religion 't is a
second text that I shall press upon such as these is that of the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 2.20 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the later end is worse with them then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them 'T is better that a man never put his hand to the Plough then after he hath done it with Lot's wife to look back through fear and dastardliness It were more safe yea more tolerable and excusable and that not upon a few Considerations But I shall stand no longer upon this first Use onely give you the third text and so proceed unto a second Use of the Point Rev. 21.8 But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers add whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyers shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Why are the fearful first named before unbelievers murderers whoremongers The reason is because the Spirit of God held them worthy to be set in the front and to lead the Ring-dance as it were of such wicked ones as should be hurried into hell By fearful saith Mr. Diodate in his Annotations he intends such as through carnal and base fear dare not to own or at least to profess the Truth of God in corrupt and loose times And thus far of the first Corollary or Deduction from this Point I come now to the second 2. Is it so That the servants of God must labour to shew themselves best in worst times Be we then all provoked to set upon the practice of this most necessary and yet much-neglected duty labouring to shine forth in evil times like that lamp Gen. 15.17 that shined out in the smoakie furnace or like that bright star that shewed it self in the midst of darkness Matth. 2. Oh let our piety patience appear then most when impiety and violence do most prevail As the colder the air and the harder the weather the more the fire scorcheth so let our zeal by an holy Antiperistasis then flame out and break thorow all impediments when most oppugned and opposed Beloved what though we should finde few or none that will set in or side with us in this important work in this One thing necessary yea what though all men should forsake us yet the Lord will stand by us and strengthen us as he did those sweet souls here in my text who feared the Lord and thought upon his Name Lift up therefore the hands that hang down and the feeble knees let us even in the loosest and prefanest times advance with a holy undauntedness of spirit toward that incorruptible and never-sading crown that is reserved for us in heaven like fishes retaining their natural sweetness in the salt sea like Salamanders which live unscorcht in the fire like Oyl that will over-top all other liquors but not commingle with them If we profess our selves to be such as fear the Lord let us ever hold a constant counter-motion to the course of the world and the corruptions of the times let us keep our consciences good and unspotted as our best and chiefest treasure Now because this is a duty of great difficulty and very uncouth to flesh and bloud take along with you these following Rules or Directions for your assistance I shall run them over briefly and so conclude First Re-inforce upon your Consciences those precepts which were recited in the confirmation of this Point and withal consider the equity and reasonableness of those commands Know that there is not any one command of God but is holy just and good had we but eyes to see it and to take notice of it Rom. 7.12 saith the Apostle in that place The law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good Whatsoever contrariety or antipathy there is between the commands of God and the hearts of men and women it proceeds not from any injustice or unreasonableness in the commands but from the corruption and depraved disposition of men and womens own hearts Who will not say and acknowledge that the most are ever the worst why then should we go against common sense and universal experience nay the Scripture which is the Word of truth and verity tells us plainly that the way to hell is broad and most beaten the gate that leadeth to destruction is wide and many enter in at it but the way that leadeth unto life is straight and narrow and few finde it Now who doth not judge it better with a few to go to heaven then with a multitude to pass down to hell Christs flock hath been ever found to be a little flock Luke 12.32 when the wicked on the other side fill the country This the purblinde Philosophers saw and therefore they say Sapiendum cum paucis we should be wise though with a few Diogenes thought he should do best when he did least what the most did Vive ut pauci saith another Live as the fewest live It was a brave answer of Liberius in the Primitive times who when he was urged by Constantius to forsake the Truth of God and to vote for Arrianism by this Argument Art thou wiser then all the world he very honestly and discreetly replyed The Truth is no whit prejudiced by my singularity and aloneness in standing out In a word it matters not how small the number be if godly nor how great if ungodly Multitude is not much to be stood upon So then this is the first Direction Lay to heart the commands of God and the holiness and reasonableness of the commands and hereby through mercy you may in the first place be assisted in the performance of this great incumbent duty I come to a second Secondarily If you would stand up for God and his Truth in evil corrupt and degenerating times then study the great Art or Lesson of Self-denial learn to say Nay to all those persons or things though never so dear or delightful that would cool thy courage for Christ or take thee off from this godly practice Mark 8.34 saith our Saviour there Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself Now there are three or four particulars which we ought to deny our selves in in this case The first is carnal and fleshly Reason if that should perswade us as 't is apt to do to a forbearance of our holy resolution by the fear of what may follow if that should dictate or suggest unto us as 't is Eccles 7.16 the place before mentioned Be not righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self i.e. Be discreet and wary and stand not so strictly upon terms of Conscience why shouldst thou incur needless danger Stop thine ears unto this
Heb. 12.28 Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Fear you must know is a comprehensive word it is more then a particular grace it contains Faith and Love too though perfect love casteth out tormenting fear 1 Joh. 4.18 yet perfect love casts in obeying fear When Abraham had offered up his son Isaac that was a work of mighty faith but yet when God commends him for it he doth not say Now I know thou hast a great faith but Now I know thou fearest God Gen. 22.12 Fear is all duty 't is every grace it carries every particular duty and grace in the womb of it Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man or a◠is in the Hebrew This is the whole man this is that which maketh a perfect and a complear Christian a Christian indeed But then thirdly and lastly as the true fear and service of God are in Scripture sometime conjoyned so are they likewise confounded and taken promiscuously the one for the other as reciprocal and convertible terms fearing of God is worshipping or serving of God You may see this clearly by two texts of Scripture conferred or compared together Matth. 4.10 saith Christ there to the devil Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Compare this now with Deut. 6.13 and there you shall have it thus exprest Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his Name That which in the one place is worship in the other is fear So again Matth. 15.9 saith Christ there In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Now the Prophet Isaiah from whence that Scripture is taken expresseth it thus Isa 29.13 at part Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men They worship me according to the precepts of men saith Christ Their fear is taught by the precepts of men saith the Prophet So that fear and worship or fear and service are identical one and the same thing And thus have you here the Point confirmed by Scripture That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God I shall now answer an Objection and so proceed unto Application The Objection is this briefly How do you say That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God or that the service of God and the fear of God are coupled together yea that they are one and the same thing whenas in Scripture we are required to serve God without fear as namely Luke 1.74 by this text it appears that the service of God and the fear of God do not commingle much less are one and the same thing If our service must be done without fear how then do fear and service go together This is the Objection Beloved by way of answer we must learn to distinguish of Fear Qui benè distinguit we say benè docet he that distinguisheth well teacheth well There is a hellish fear and there is a holy fear a slavish fear and a son-like fear The hellish or slavish fear is such as slaves have of those or towards those to whom they are in bondage 't is a respect they carry to those in whose power and under whose command they are they do indeed that which is enjoyned them but they neither love their commanders nor take any complacencie or delight in that which is commanded them what they do they do by coaction and enforcement and in fear of the whip Such is the fear of God in reprobates and in wicked men they are stricken with a kinde of awe of Gods great and terrible majestie they do even tremble at his judgements they do it may be what is required but their obedience proceedeth not out of any love to God or out of any true affection to the service Thus Cain Esau Pharaoh Ahab Judas and others feared they had some apprehensions of the terrour of the Lord and that wrung something from them in which otherwise of themselves they took no manner of delight Cain cast down his countenance Esau wept Pharaoh let the children of Israel go Ahab humbled himself Judas repented as I could shew you from several Scriptures But then secondly there is a holy filial and childlike fear and 't is a fear to offend arising out of the sense and feeling of the love of God as when the experience I have had in mine own soul of Gods merciful and gracious dealing with me makes me to entertain a fear lest I should abuse his love and turn his grace into wantonness and do ought that might displease his Majestie as I shewed you before in the opening of the Doctrine And this kinde of fear may be where is the greatest and firmest yea the most respective love as betwixt the father and the son the husband and the wife This distinction of Fear being thus premised it will be easie to untie the knot or to solve the Querie When we are required to serve God without fear we are to understand the foresaid hellish servile or slavish fear When Zacharies meaning in that Luk. 1. is this whereas the face of God is naturally a terrour to us even as the face of a Judge is to a malefactor and whereas our services are so full of defects and blemishes as that we can have no courage to present them unto God nor hope that he will accept them This is the end of our Redemption that being certainly perswaded of the favour of God in Christ and of remission of sins by him this servile and slavish fear must be laid aside and we may come boldly unto the throne of grace and comfortably assure our selves that God for Christs sake will accept even our imperfect and scant measure of obedience This servile fear now and the true service of God cannot stand together yea they are opposite and contrary one to another But now when I say in the Doctrine That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God and that the fear and service of God are joyned together I intend as I told you before a holy filial child-like and reverential fear and with such a fear every true servant of God fears God The fear and the service of God are put together and must ever go together nay without it we can never serve God truly and as we ought to do And thus having answered the Objection I should in the next place proceed unto Application The Uses of the Point shall be three 1. For Information 2. Of Examination 3. Of Exhortation But the ordinary time being spent I shall adjourn the prosecution of them unto the after-noon Let this suffice for the present The first Use shall be for Information Is it so That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God Why then it will in the first place follow by
way of Consectary That all such as are void of the holy spiritual and reverential fear of God are no better then graceless and irreligious persons And hence 't is that in Scripture you finde this often made the Note or Character of a childe of Belial That there is no fear of God before his eyes Abraham looks upon Gerar as a place or people that was destitute of all goodness as a place wherein he could not be safe upon this account because the fear of God was not amongst them Gen. 20.11 where he saith Because I thought Surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wifes sake Thus David describes the whole man Psal 36.1 There is no fear of God before his eyes They have no impediment in the way of their lust who have once cast off the fear of God As they are unready to do or say any thing that is good so are they ready to do or say any thing that is evil As they can easily restrain themselves from duty so have they no restraint upon them from iniquity This Abraham knew and so he could not think himself secure there The profession I confess of some wicked men may say that they fear God but their transgressions or trade of sin saith that there is no such matter We may interpret this text of the wicked mans saying thus three ways Some say it with their mouthes and are not ashamed to utter their defiance against the fear of God 2. All wicked men yea the most modest of them say it in their hearts they are inwardly enemies to the fear of God And very many in the third place say it in their lives Now all these saith David are wicked men if once the fear of God be cast off all wickedness is let in at the same door at which the fear of the Lord goes out any sin or abomination may enter Nay you shall finde yet further that after a large enumeration of other abominations found in mens hearts and lives the Spirit of God names the want of this holy fear of God as the mother and cursed root of them all You may see this in Mal. 3.5 What are not men yea what woâ—nt they be when once they are destitute of the fear of God Sorcerers Adulterers Swearers Oppressors and what not The judge spoken of Luke 18.2 is therefore termed unjust because he feared not God There was in a city a judge which feared not God Wanting the fear of God what should keep him from injustice So again Rom. 3.11 12 13 and the following verses There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit c. Now mark the conclusion in the 18 verse There is no fear of God before their eyes This brings up the rere as it were as to entertain the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 The word here used for beginning signifieth not onely the beginning but the top the chief the head and highest perfection of a thing now as the fear of God is both first and last the beginning and end of holiness so to cast off the fear of God is the beginning and ending of all wickedness the upshot of all wickedness a man that hath cast off the fear of God is desperately wicked But you will say Are there any people so barbarous is there any person so brutish that feareth not God Beloved I confess there is nothing more natural then to stand in awe of a Deity Hence it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in the Greek tongue hath his name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear as some derive it and sometime the Scripture useth the word fear or terrour for God as you heard in the morning and the reason is because of the fear that is confessedly due unto him But that all fear not the true God or that they do not fear him with a holy spiritual and filial fear and so consequently are none of his is more then evident I shall clear these things unto you distinctly 1. All men fear not the true God but something else which they substitute and set up in the room place and stead of God Some fear idols and devils 1 Cor. 10.20 some the Queen of heaven Jer. 44.17 Some fear disgrace so Saul 1 Sam. 15.30 some danger and displeasure of great ones as Pilate who feared if he released Christ according to his conscience Cesar would pull his Purple over the ears and kick him off the bench Some fear the loss of goods as the rich young man who went away sorrowful when he was required to sell all that he had Some fear the loss of their liberty as those who forsook Paul the prisoner and were ashamed of his chain 2 Tim. 4.16 where Paul saith At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me And then some again fear the loss of life shrinking in the shoulder when call'd to bear the cross of Christ Thus I say men fear any thing besides what they should fear I mean God the proper object of this and of our other affections Well then 't is clear you see that all men fear not the true God that God who is alone to be feared And the second is as evident Those that profess to fear the true God how few of them are there to be found who fear him in truth who fear him with this noly filial and spiritual fear which is the fear I now speak of If so what means the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen which we hear what mean the Oaths Drunkenness the Sabbath-breaking the Uncleanness the Pride that we see and hear to be amongst us Beloved if the true fear of God were amongst us all do you think that these vices could rule and reign amongst us as they do Doubtless they could not these sins are inconsistent and incompatible with a true and holy fear Alas how little of this reverential fear of God is there in the hearts of most men The Psalmist in the fore-mentioned 36 Psalm in the beginning of it makes this good both in respect of evil to be avoided and of good to be performed My minde gives me saith he and I am verily perswaded having taken some observation of the wicked mans way that there is no fear of God in his heart The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes But what is the ground of this perswasion may it not be a rash and uncharitable censure that David passeth upon him No saith he I will prove what I say both from his thoughts words and actions 1. From his Thoughts He makes no scruple or conscience at all of evil thoughts he
thinks that thoughts are free and therefore suffers them to rove and wander any way He deviseth mischief upon his bed he formeth frameth and contriveth it inwardly in his heart 2. I prove it from his words saith David They are stout against God as the words of those wicked ones before my text were Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord. And then 3. From his deeds in the later part of the fourth verse He setteth himself in a way that is not good he abhorreth not evil Leave some sin perhaps he may out of some politick ends and respects but loath and abhor it that he doth not This now is the disposition of all wicked men in reference to that which is evil their very thoughts words and actions are grosly and abominably wicked and this sufficiently sheweth that they have no fear of God before their eyes And as this is true in reference to Evil so likewise in respect of that which is Good I shall shew you this in a word and so conclude this first Use A wicked person saith the Prophet hath no fear of God before his eyes because he hath left off to do good vers 3. later part of it With these miscreants before my text he accounts it a course of no benefit or profit to be religious he sees it not needful to seek to the Lord he restraineth prayer saith Eliphaz Job 15.4 What Eliphaz here speaks is true of a wicked man in thesi a wicked man restrains or lessens prayer but not true in hypothesi as referr'd to Job this was true in the Doctrine but not in the Application Now Beloved to cast off Prayer is to cast off God he that lives without prayer in the world lives without the fear of God in the world and hence you finde the heathen that know not God and the families that call not upon his Name joyned together or indeed rather the same Jer. 10.25 Much more might be said in this partilar but what is already spoken is enough to make this manifest namely That all men do not fear God in a holy and spiritual manner and so by direct consequence are no true servants of God but graceless and irreligious persons And this shall serve for the first Use the Use of Information I now proceed unto the second And that shall be an Use of Examination Is it so as you have heard in the Doctrine That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God Let us then call our selves to an account and so learn to settle the soundness of our gracious estate by securing this unto our own souls That we are men and women truly fearing God Without this we can never ascertain our own hearts that we are the true and faithful servants of God unless we be fearers of God we cannot say that we are the servants of God But then you will say How may I come to know whether or no with those sweet and gracious souls in the text I am a man or a woman truly fearing God Now to the end that I may give you satisfaction in this Querie I shall lay down some Notes of Trial whereby I desire all that hear me this evening to prove their present estate and condition whether they have this holy fear of God implanted in their hearts yea or not The way that I shall prescribe for Trial shall be taken from the concomitants or if you will from the effects or that lovely train of heavenly graces that guard and attend the true fear of God In the first place then where there is the holy fear of God there is purity and holiness Psal 19.9 saith David there The fear of the Lord is clean clean nor onely formally and in it self but effectively i.e. it makes the man clean and keeps him clean it stands as a Porter at the door of the soul If you should come to a Princes Court and see a great croud about the door you would say The Porter is there he stops and examines them if at another time you see all going in as fast as they please you will say The Porter is out of the way Thus where the true fear of the Lord is all is kept within compass we examine what goes into our hearts and what comes out 't is as it were an armed man or Centinel at the gate which questions all and stops every one from entring that is unfit it stands as a watch-man on the tower and looks every way to see what is coming unto the soul But more particularly this holy and reverential fear of God cleanseth 1. The Head 2. The Heart 3. The Life or Conversation A word or two of each of these I shall not hold you longer then the ordinary time 1. It cleanseth the Head the Judgment the Understanding and intellectual part of man and therefore saith the Psalmist Psal 111.10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdâ—m of true spiritual and saving wisdom it will according to the measure of it dispel the mists and fogs of Errour that cloud the Understanding And what is the reason of it the Reason is because it is the property of this fear to make men humble the true fear of God is an humbling grace Now an humble man can never be an Heretick 'T is true he may erre in his judgement but 't is but shewing him his Errour and he will quickly yeeld and subscribe to Truth This heart-humbling Fear wo'nt suffer him to be contumacious or obstinate Rev. 14.7 saith the Angel there that had the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth Fear God and give glory to him Give glory to him i.e. as some expound the place Give glory to him by abdicating and abjuring your heretical conceipts and erroneous opinions A man that hath his heart possess'd with the lively fear of God will not cannot stubbornly persist in any Errour such a man will be convinced and taken off when other men are wedded unto their own opinions The fear of God hath an excellent influence this way 2. It cleanseth the heart too it preserves the soul in general and keeps it holy O Beloved this true and holy fear of God is a golden bridle to the soul when it would run out unto any evil it is like the banks to the sea which keeps in the raging waves of corruption when they would overflow all Prov. 14.27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death i.e. either from sin which is spiritual death or from damnation which is perpetual and eternal death the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from both these snares of death Where this fear is not there the heart is ready to joyn with every evil and so to fall into the jaws of every death Satan that mighty hunter hath laid snares for our poor souls in all places The way of this world is like the
desire now that when you come home you would commune with your own hearts and compare your selves with and apply your selves to these sundry probational Notes And this shall suffice to be spoken of the second Use the Use of Examination I shall enter upon the third and proceed as far in it as the ordinary time will permit And that shall be a Use of Exhortation Is it so That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God Learn we then hence these two duties First to get the true fear of God and then secondly to grow up in this grace more and more I begin with the first of these Let every one of us labour to have our hearts seasoned and possessed with this grace in the words of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 19.7 Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts Give we all diligence for the attainment of this grace Now for the better performance of this duty I shall first lay down some Motives for your encouragement secondly prescribe some Means for your assistance The Motives shall be five or six all which I shall run over with as much convenient brevity as may be 1. 'T is but just equal and reasonable that we should fear the Lord our God seeing he hath so frequently commanded it and so often in his Word called upon us for it Besides what texts have formerly in this discourse been alleadged to this purpose let me at present for your encouragement commend unto you two or three more Psal 22.23 Psal 33.8 Psal 34.59 Luke 12.5 Observe well what Christ saith there But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you Fear him He commands this fear twice you see in one verse Nay as this fear is enjoyned so doth it of right appertain to God 't is his due as he is the proper the sole and onely object of it Job 25.2 Dominion and fear are with him i.e. they are with the Lord or they are the Lord. Psal 76.11 Jer. 10.7 So that you see 't is an act of justice to fear God When we have done the utmost that we can this way we have done but our duty 2. As this duty is just and reasonable in respect of God so 't is a grace needful and necessary for us This is that grace which enableth us unto all Christian duties it frames the heart as you heard before both to the shunning of vice as also to the embracing of vertue 'T is the beginning of wisdom and the instruction of wisdom 't is a fountain of life without it we can neither begin or end any spiritual work 't is the beginning of all and the end of all 't is totus homo all of man without it there can be no compleatness in Christianity and therefore saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.1 that we must perfect holiness in the fear of God The heathen Sages as Seneca Socrates and others they were wise men in their generation they had many excellent and lovely gifts but failing of this coming short of the true fear of God all the other did them no good they found out indeed many excellent things but they missed of this Pearl of great price That wish of the Lord is very observable Deut. 5.29 Oh that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Intimating thus much that if their hearts were once seasoned with this holy fear then they would be able to do his will and to observe his commandments Without this fear of God we shall never be able to keep one of the commands of God So that you see 't is needful to the Inchoation Continuation and Consummation of of grace 't is the beginning middle and end of true spiritual wisdom 3. As this holy fear of God is needful for us so 't is gainful to us and profitable for us too 'T is true the profane miscreants above my text blasphemed to the contrary vers 14. Ye have said It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts I but the godly in my text were of another minde What the Apostle speaks of godliness is as true of this holy fear of God for why they are the same indistinct thing now saith he 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come This we may verifie and truly say of the fear of God It hath the promise of this life c. 1. Of this life Prov. 19.23 The fear of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied he shall not be visited with evil Security from evil in general is promised to them that fear God they shall be delivered from the hurt of it though not always I confess from the smart of it They shall be delivered from the evil of sin for why as Solomon speaks Prov. 8.13 the former part of the verse The fear of the Lord is to hate evil They shall be delivered from the evil of pain and sorrow too to which purpose tends such texts as this Psal 91.5 6 7. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come night thee So again vers 10 11 12 13. Nay they that fear the Lord shall not onely be delivered out of all evil but they I and theirs too shall be made partakers of all good Eccles 8.12 saith the Preacher there Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him God will be good to his Israel even to them that are of a pure heart Prov. 22.4 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life The fear of the Lord you see doth not want its present reward of riches honour and life One would think this were enough to provoke any man to turn spiritual purchaser I but the Scripture expresseth this reward yet further Psal 34.9 10. Oh fear the Lord ye his saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing I but what shall our poor children do when we are gone may some say well enough Psal 37.25 saith David there I have been young
irreligious persons having not the fear of God before your eyes your heads hearts and hands must needs be full fraught with sin there can be nothing but wickedness in you and wickedness issuing from you and believe it unless God shew you the more mercy and put his fear into your hearts before you die you must expect for indeed nothing else can be expected but all the miseries torments and tortures which are the just reward of all such graceless persons and profane wretches as want this holy fear From all which you are utterly unable to free your selves You will be able neither to abide it no nor yet to avoid it And this is your very condition if there be any truth in this Book of God here in my hand I could out of this Book lay out your estate into several branches your present and future miserable estate I profess unto you in the presence of God a man would not be in your case for a million of worlds if there were so many and this you your selves would confess if God should ever season your hearts with his fear But I won't at present trouble you with particulars Do but go a little part from your families when you come home and set your hearts upon the meditation of what hath been spoken unto you in general as to your condition being without the fear of God and this very cogitation or meditation upon your present case may be a means if God will but bless it to any of you to pull you out of it and of your procurement of this grace But then secondly as you are to reflect upon your selves so likewise should you meditate upon God let your thoughts be busied about him and consider how he is 1. Represented unto you in his Word 2. How he stands described in his works You will say it may be What is spoken of God in his Word that may perswade our hearts to fear his Name Friends there are divers things recorded of God in this Book that should prevail with you to fear before him As first of all he is transcendent supereminent and surpassing in majesty and glory And hence 't is that the Psalmist infers a necessity of his fear Psal 76.4 saith Asaph there Thou art more glorious and excellent then the mountains of prey or the mountains of triumph as 't is in the Hebrew i e the kingdoms of this world which tear spoil and prey upon one another like wilde beasts or more particularly the flourishing Assyrians with their goodly Monarchy Thou art more illustrious glorious and excellent then all these What then see verse 7. Thou even thou art to be feared And again verse 11. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared Let you hearts then in the first place stand in a holy awe of God because of his great glorious and terrible Majesty Secondly consider God as armed with infinite power and might the Word bespeaks him able to reward you if you do fear him and able to punish you if you fear him not Servants you know fear their masters because they have power over their flesh over their bodies I but God hath power not onely over your bodies but over your souls too and therefore you should fear him You have this inference to the fear of God implied if not expressed Mat. 10.28 God is said to be able to consume your body and soul in hell-fire Oh therefore fear him upon this consideration Thirdly consider God as Omnipresent and Omniscient as one that beholds and takes knowledge of all that we think speak or do Prov. 5.21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord he pondereth all his goings God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one saith all eye to him all things are naked and open Heb. 4.13 Psal 139.8 9 10. and following verses Jer. 12.27 29 23. It was this very meditation that kept Joseph in a holy fear of sinning against God Gen. 39.9 And then lastly consider God too as infinitely just and singularly careful to punish sin and this may be a means to beget this holy fear of God in your hearts who would not fear before this just and impartial God! See to this purpose that sweet song of the triumphant Saints Rev. 15.3 4. Nay yet a little further if you would have your hearts seasoned with the holy fear of God consider him as he is presented to you in his works his hanging the heavy and massie body of the earth upon nothing Job 26.7 his setting bounds to the proud waves of the sea Hithereto shall you come and no further Upon this account would the Psalmist have us to fear God You may reade it Psal 33.5 6 7 8 9. 2. Turn your thoughts upon those particular judgements God hath executed upon others for our warning and caution Psal 119.120 saith the Prophet there My flesh trembleth for fear of thee I am afraid of thy judgements When one childe is whipt in a School the rest will tremble Thus should it be with you when you see others punished This is the second particular meditation which may serve as a means to bring you unto this holy fear which I have so much spoken of I come to the third and last and with this I shall conclude this present discourse 3. All you that are yet void of this holy fear of God meditate in the third place upon the general judgement and the unconceivable terrour of that last and dreadful day when as the Apostle speaks the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the element shall melt with fervent heat the earth also with the works that are therein shall be burnt up Knowing the terrour of the Lord in that day I do earnestly perswade you to fear the Lord in this Felix though a Pagan trembled when Paul discoursed of this great day Acts 24.23 nay the devils themselves shake and tremble when they think of it and won't you How is it that you can think of that day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God and who do not fear before him The Preacher upon this very ground namely because then God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness perswades us to fear God 't is Eccless 12 13 14. And thus have I shewed you what means you should improve for your obtainment of this holy fear And truly if God had revealed unto me any more excellent way then you have already heard I do so much desire your everlasting good as that I should not conceal it from you Let this therefore suffice for the first branch of the Exhortation which hath been directed to those who are yet without a holy fear of God in their hearts I should proceed unto the second and reflect then upon you whose hearts are already seasoned
with joy fear love and all spiritual graces which give strength to the inner man it enables us to command the winds and storms of our sinful lusts and irregular passions By the power of this Spirit we may eject and cast out all Satans temptations quench all his firy darts In a word by the mighty energie and efficacie of this Spirit we are enabled to every good word and work And hence 't is that sometimes the Spirit of God is called The power of the most High Luk. 1.35 36. the Spirit of power too 2 Tim 1.7 But why the power of the most High why a spirit of power Because of that effectual power which the Spirit puts forth into the hearts of the elect not onely for their conversion from sin to grace but for their confirmation and growth up in grace and in this fear of God So that now Beloved unless we do grow up in the fear of God more and more we do as much as in us lies to frustrate Gods end in sending to us his Spirit nay we cannot conclude that we have as yet received the Spirit And then in the fifth and last place 't is to this end likewise that God hath given to us and continued to us his holy Ordinances Look as the sun and rain are given to make plants to grow so the Ordinances are given to make our souls to grow in grace and in this holy fear of God more particularly for this purpose it is that God hath 1. given us his Word and 2. his Sacraments 1. His Word is given us to make us fruitful Isa 55.10 11. Hence is it that the people of God are compared to grass and tender herbs which grow and flourish which are fed and bring forth fruit when watered with the rain 't is Deut. 32.2 A godly man saith the Psalmist is like a tree planted by the rivers of water Psal 1.3 he is planted and placed where Gods Ordinances are and what then he bringeth forth his fruit in his season 1 Pet. 2.2 saith the Apostle there As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby They are ignorant of the intent and end of the Word that do not grow by the Word The Word is appointed not onely to beget us but also to make the Saints perfect For this you have an excellent text Eph. 4.11 12 13. The end of the Ministery is not onely to plant grace but to strengthen grace and therefore you shall finde that when the Apostles had established Churches they returned to confirm the disciples hearts Acts 4.21 22. And then secondly as to this end God hath appointed his Word so to this end likewise hath he instituted and ordained the Sacraments as they signifie seal and exhibit unto those that are within the Covenant of grace the benefits of Christs mediation so do they confirm and strengthen grace this doth the Sacrament of Baptism and this doth the Sacrament of the Lords Supper this is the very use and end of them Though indeed the Papists tie the grace of God inseparably to them and make the opus operatum matter of sufficient virtue and ascribe Divine power to the very outward signs or elements yet 't is most clear and certain that Jesus Christ set them up in his Church to the end that through the co-operation of his Spirit they might be effectual unto our spiritual growth as I could shew you at large were it needful And thus have you heard what Reasons there are why you whose hearts are already seasoned with the holy fear of God should grow up and abound in this grace more and more I come in the last place to the means whereby we may be assisted and enabled to and in the performance of this weighty but yet incumbent duty And here I might in the first place urge upon you a careful conscionable and faithful improvement of the foregoing Ordinances the Word and Sacraments which as I told you but now were ordained to this very end and purpose Did you but holily employ your selves in the Word and Sacraments you that have this holy fear of God already put into your hearts would grow up and abound in the same yet dayly more and more But I shall enlarge no further upon them There is one Ordinance of God more which is very conducible unto this great end A Word or two of that and so I shall conclude this second Point If you that already fear God would thrive and proceed in this grace why then make a constant and an assiduous use of faithful and fervent-prayer desire God who is able to make all grace to abound who is the finisher as well as the author of grace that he would cause this great and comprehensive grace to abound in you Jam 1.5 saith the Apostle there If any of you lack wisdom let him ask it of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him This if doth not argue doubt but onely inferreth a supposition But why doth the Apostle speak with a supposition is there any man that doth not lack wisdom I answer such expressions do more strongly aver and affirm a thing such suppositions imply a concession as Mal. 1.6 A son honoureth his father and a servant his master If I then be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear q.d. you will grant I am a father and a master So here If any of you lack wisdom let him ask it of God you will grant you all lack wisdom The Apostle I confess if you look upon the circumstances of the text by wisdom intendeth wisdom or skill to bear affliction but yet we may also take it generally for every grace If any of you lack wisdom i. e. if he come short of or be defective in any grace let him ask it of God God will have every thing to be fetched out by prayer He is the sountain yea an unexhausted fountain of all grace and therefore saith the same Apostle in the same Chapter verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning Pray mark Every good and every perfect gift all spiritual blessings 'T is true all common gifts come from divine bounty but the Apostle here intendeth special blessings as appeareth by the attributes of them in that he calls them good and perfect as also because these best suit with the context as every good so every perfect gift i. e. such as do any way conduce to our perfection not onely initial and first grace but all the progresses in grace not onely the beginnings but the gradual accesses of them All these now are from God from above from heaven and if perfection and growth in every grace is from above why then likewise in this grace wherein I am now perswading of you to grow
perfect Thus more generally But more particularly as to the grace in hand considering that to fear God is a supernatural gift go to God for it and pray with David Psal 86.11 later part of the verse Unite my heart to fear thy Name q. d. my heart of it self is wofully divided and scattered up and down upon lying vanities Oh now do thou unite my heart to fear thy Name The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make my heart one i.e. apply it onely and constantly to thy fear let not my heart be divided between thy fear and things of a lower consideration let it not be floating between two different ways as if I had two hearts but unite my heart to fear thy Name let the fear of thy great Name be the one onely thing that my heart is carried after Eliphaz alleadgeth the neglect of this duty of prayer as the reason why men cast off this fear of God 't is saith he because they restrain prayer from God Job 15.4 He that throws up the duty of prayer nay he that shortneth or abateth prayer for the word garang in the Hebrew signifieth not onely to withdraw or keep back but to lessen and diminish So that I say whosoever holdeth prayer from God or lesseneth and abateth prayer must never expect to grow up in this grace Nay to fear God and to seek God are frequently in Scripture especially in Psal 34. used for one and the same thing as you may observe if you will but compare together verse 9. and 10. of that Psalm this being the ready way to that Do but see in the last place concerning the benesits and contents of the new Covenant Ezek. 36.37 one clause of which covenant is this I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Now saith the Lord verse 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them And thus Beloved have you heard the means both how you may get this holy fear of God as also how you may grow up in this grace more and more I am loth by reason the time is almost spent to enter upon a new Point at this present and therefore in the last place I shall adde some few signs of this growth and so commend you to God and to this Word of his grace Well then here the Question will be How a soul may come to know whether or no he do thrive in this grace And here in the first place I might touch at that which was spoken of both in the Motives and in the Means 1. A man may know it by his conscionable use of the Means and Ordinances of growing If we will but measure unto God in sincerity in Hearing Reading Praying and Receiving no doubt but God will measure unto us in the plenty of his blessing We need no more doubt whether our souls do grow in this grace if we can bring constant affections to the means then we need whether the bodies of our children would grow if they have good Nurses and do suck the brests well To this purpose tend such Scriptures as these Isa 64 5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy ways Those that remember thee in thy ways what is that i.e. in thy glorious diâ—pâ—nsations we may refer it either to the dispensations of the rod or to the dispensations of the Word Thoâ—e that remember God in either of these ways those that make a holy use of either them will God meet Thou meetest those that remember thee in thy ways And what will he shake them onely by the hand no he will shake â—hem by the heart too he will bless his Ordinances to their hearts and make them profitable and of great consequence to their growth as 't is yet more fully expressed Mic 2.7 later part of the verse Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly i. e. My words will do good to him and as other good so this good it will make him grow as you have it 1 Pet. 2.2 So then that is the first sign of growth 2. We might discern this further by our disrelishing of sin by our distasting of the world According to the measures and degrees that the sweetness of sin decays and abates in us doth grace grow and thrive in us As there is no vacuum in Nature so neither is there in grace As corruption increaseth so this grace of the fear of God increaseth 3. We may know this likewise by our faith and confidence in God Jer. 17.7 8. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit q d. he shall grow 4. We may know it by our constancy and frequency in good works either of piety or mercy for saith our Saviour in this case Matth. 13.12 Whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath 5. We may know this likewise by our frequency in communion with God by our delight in drawing neer to him this is the way to grow up to an holy temple in the Lord and in the Lords temple you may be sure all will prosper well I might enlarge upon these several symptomes but the ordinary time is spent and therefore a word or two more and I have done In the sixth place we may try our growth in this grace by our humility look as we thrive in the one so do we thrive in the other God hath promised not onely to give grace but to give more grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 But he giveth more grace or he giveth abundance of grace Humble persons shall not onely have a being in grace but they shall receive increases of grace 7. And then last of all we may know likewise whether we grow in this grace by our love and affection to the godly This love is the very bond of perfection Col. 3 14. 'T is not onely a means of that true and perfect union which ought to be among believers but 't is a means of their growth yea and a trial of their growth too in any other grace And thus have I finished this Point as also the first property or periphrasis of those godly ones here in my text they were such as feared the Lord. I should now proceed unto the second they were such as thought upon his Name But of this another time For the opening of which property I shall consider 1. An Object 2. An Act. The Object The Name of God The Act Thinking
of the righteous is onely good So again Pro. 12.5 The thoughts of the righteous are right What is that why the meaning is that he feeds his thoughts upon the best objects and if worse break in as sometimes they will he justles them out again rids the room of them and will not suffer vain thoughts to take up their residence or lodging within him An instance hereof you have in David Psal 119.113 David was a man as you may finde thorowout the Book of the Psalms whose heart was much set upon God Psal 16 8. he was a man very much busied in holy and heavenly meditation the ways and words and works of God were the chief objects of his meditation as you may finde almost every where Another example of this you have in the Church Isa 26 8. 'T is said of these godly ones in my text that they feared the Lord and thought upon his Name and saith the Church here The desire of our soul is to thy Name and to the remembrunce of thee i.e. to all the signs gages and testimonialls which thou bast given us of thy grace by thy words works or the like the desire of our soul is to the remembrance of these or we desire to remember these in our whole souls To the same purpose is that of the Church Psal 44.17 18 19 20. So that now from all these Scriptures and many more it appears clearly that it is and should be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and upon the things of God Take one text more which shews that this should be the practice of all that fear God as it is so it ought to be their practice they are enjoyned to it by command as namely Phil. 4.8 whence you may perceive what the objects of our thoughts ought to be the things that we think upon must be true honest just pure lovely and of good report they must be heavenly and spiritual things And so again Col. 3.2 Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth The word for set your affections in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we may render it minde or think upon supernatural things upon things that are above things that are of a heavenly and celestial concernment And thus you have heard the Point made good from Scripture I shall in the next place give you the grounds and reasons of it and proceed therein further as far as time will permit Well then in the first place they that fear God will be thinking upon his Name their thoughts will be taken up with and exercised about the things of God because they know that God knows the secrets of their hearts as he that makes a Watch knows every winding and turning in the Watch so he that made our spirits and is the father of our spirits knows all the motions and contrivances of our spirits Nay 't is the sole priviledge of God to know the thoughts the heart is his peculiar which none can unlock or look into but the most High Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the reins Now what is the heart that God searcheth or what doth God search for in the heart The heart is nothing else but the treasury of our thoughts and God searcheth for nothing else there but our thoughts either simple as they are in our meditations or compound as they are in our affections David you shall finde ascribes this glory to the Lord Psal 139.2 O Lord thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down sitting and mine up rising thou understandest my thought a far off i. e. thou knowest all my outward motions but is that all no saith he thou knowest my thoughts afar off Our thoughts are evident to God even before they are Our thoughts are said to be afar off when they are not thought yet then they are as nigh to God as they are to us when we are thinking them even actually present to him Nay our thoughts are as audible to God as our words are to men he hears the language of our spirits and what our hearts say when our tongues are silent One man knows not the meaning of another mans thoughts while he is speaking unless he speak his thoughts as some do not but now let the tongues of men be never so cross to their hearts and what they speak not a light to discover but a shadow to darken their thoughts yet God knoweth them 'T is said of Christ in the Gospel Matth. 9.4 that he knew their thoughts and this was an unanswerable argument of his Divinity or that he was God Onely God or as Christ was God man can reach the thoughts of man and he knows as well what is in them as what is without And this the godly well know and hence 't is in the first place that they are so thoughtfull of his Name But then secondly Psal 44.17 18 19 20. the godly will be thinking upon God out of love and strength of affection to his Name 'T is the nature and property of love to set the thoughts awork upon the thing or object beloved according to that in the Proverb Animus est ubi amat non animat the minde of a man is not where it lives but where it loves Pray observe that passage Cant. 1.3 the later part of the verse Thy Name is as oyntment powred forth therefore do the virgins love thee Christ hath his name both in Hebrew and Greek from ointments and these three words Messiah Christ and Anointed are all one in signification Now when the holy Ghost in the mouth and ministery of his faithful servants shall take of Christs excellencies as it is his office you know to do and hold them out to the world when he shall hold up the Tapestry as it were and shew men the Lord Jesus Christ with an ecce virum behold the man that one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus when they shall see him in his Natures in his Offices Works and in the blessed effects of all when his Name as oyntment is poured forth this cannot but stir up wonderful love in all good souls therefore do the virgins love him By virgins we are to understand the faithful so called for their spiritual chastity They love him for the odours of his good oyntments and out of their dear love and respect which they bear to him they will be continually thinking upon him they have tasted and seen how good the Lord is they have heard it not onely by the hearing of the ear but their hearts are experimented in it God hath shed abroad his love that part of his Name in their hearts by the holy Ghost and therefore they cannot chuse but love him back again and loving him be much in contemplation or meditation about him 3. The Saints are set upon thoughts of Gods Name because they are instructed and enabled thereunto
by his holy Spirit who is their domestick Monitor and sweet inhabitant 'T is true what the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God The meaning of it is that all our strength and help lies in him we daily finde a want in our selves and God as it pleaseth him le ts out from his sufficiency unto us now a little and then a little we are ever receiving from him and enabled by his Grace and Spirit to do what is done I say the Spirit disposeth the heart to this holy meditation and that two ways 1. By enlightning the heart 2. By enlarging the heart But the time being past I shall refer what remains to some further opportunity 1. I say the Spirit enlightens their hearts The first and primary work of the Spirit is to beat out as it were new windows in the dark souls of men and to put in a principle of new light thereby giving the soul some signs of God some sense of his sweetness some glimpse of his glory And hence 't is that the holy Ghost in Scripture is sometimes called a spirit of wisdom and understanding a spirit of counsel and of knowledge Isa 11.2 sometimes a spirit of wisdom and revelation Eph. 1.17 sometimes a spirit of illumination Heb. 6.4 Now the Spirit is so called from this effect which it hath upon the heart because the Spirit causeth a spiritual and heavenly light to shine about our mindes by which spiritual things are made manifest to the eye of our understanding as by the light of the Sun bodily things are made manifest to the eye of our body The Spirit saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.10 searcheth the deep things of God and reveals them to us and shews us the back parts of God though somewhat obscurely as through a grate onely or darkly as through a glass In this life we know but in part And then 2. The spirit having possessed the heart he enlargeth or wideneth the heart towards God and the things of God it enables us to captivate our thoughts to the obedience of Christ to conform them to the severaignty of his grace to the rules of his Word and the remembrance of his Name Nay 3. The Spirit sanctifieth the heart and so puts it upon a continual fresh succession of holy thoughts The whole spirit soul and body of a Christian is sanctified thorowout God writes his Law in their hearts stamps his image upon the spirit of their mindes makes them partakers of the divine nature erecteth a new nature a blessed frame of grace And hence have they an ability given them of holy thoughts and meditations for as the man is so will his thoughts dispositions meditations and affections be Hence is that of the Prophet Isa 32.8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things shall he stand A man of a noble liberal and generous spirit will carry his heart out after worthy and noble things Nay hence is that of our Saviour Matth. 12.35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things As from the old and unregenerated heart proceed evil thoughts so from the new and sanctified heart proceed holy and sanctified thoughts gracious considerations of and holy reverend respects to God and to his Name That is the third Reason of the Point It is and should be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and upon the things of God because the Spirit doth to this purpose enlighten their understandings and possesseth and sanctifieth their hearts 4. But then last of all it is and should be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and the things of God because all that truly fear God stand in a marvellous neer and dear relation unto God Neer relations you know will minde one another God and his servants are neerly related he is their friend and father their God and guide their Prince and portion their shield and their exceeding great reward Nay Beloved he is their all in all the stay and the strength of their hearts for ever and therefore it cannot be but their hearts must run much upon God and upon the things of his kingdom Nay a little further every faithful servant of God every true believer hath resigned and given up his name to God he hath devoted himself to his fear Mark what holy David saith Psal 119.38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear Believers have as it were sworn themselves to the service of God I am thy servant I am thy servant saith the same holy David oftentimes in the Psalms they love the Lord with all their soul with all their heart and with all their strength and as for the Name of God they flie unto it in any difficulty and distress as unto a Garison and strong Fort or Tower Prov. 18.10 The righteous know that the Name of God is so deep that no Pyoner can undetmine it so thick that no Cannon can pierce it so high that no Ladder can scale it and hither they run for refuge Nay they walk in this Name as in a Garden or Gallery Mic. 4 5. We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever they resolve to walk in the Name i. e. By the Laws and under the view of the Lord their God who is God of gods and Lord of lords they rejoyce and delight in it as in all treasure Psal 119.14 Now brethren sum up all together in a word and then you shall finde the force of this Argument Can the fearers of God rejoyce in his Name run unto it upon all occasions walk in it and yet not minde it and yet not have their hearts set upon it This is impossible Can they I say vouch him for their God set him up for their Soveraign converse with him as a friend and yet not think upon his Name this cannot be well conceived And thus you hear what the grounds of the Point are Let us now make some Use of it I shall improve it four ways 1. For Insormation 2. For Increpation 3. For Examination 4. For Exhortation In which Uses I shall proceed so far this day as time will permit I begin with the first the Use of Information 1. Is it so That it is and should be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and upon the things of God Take we then hence notice That those who do not habitually daily and diligently think upon God that make not his Attributes Ways Ordinances Worship and Honour the matter of their meditation these I say are excluded out of the number and society of the true fearers of God Yea the want of this holy and heavenly meditation is laid down in holy Writ as the Badge Cognizance or Character of
wicked man saith to God Depart from me This I could evidence to you in sundry passages and practices of wicked men but for brevity sake I will exemplifie onely in that one set down in that text Job 21.12 Wicked men make it appear that God is not in all their thoughts because they desire not the knowledge of his ways As the ways of a wicked man are always grievous to God so are the ways of God always grievous to wicked men therefore they desire no acquaintance with no knowledge of them they are a very loaching to their souls they are rough sharp sad and unsuitable to their spirits and genius Wicked men as they think are provided of better ways of ways more easie smooth plain pleasant and therefore they have no manner of desire to Gods ways we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The word in the Hebrew signifying desire is rendred also to take pleasure or delight in because those things which we delight in are most desired by us and when they say We desire not the knowledge of thy ways more is intended then the bare negative of their desire we may resolve this Negative into an Affirmative thus We dislike yea we hate the knowledge of thy ways But what are those ways of God which finde so little acceptance entertainment with wicked men In general by the ways of God he intendeth not those ways in which God walketh but those which God hath made for man to walk in as namely the ways of his providence and outward administrations the ways of his commandments or those rules of life in and by which we ought to walk and regulate our whole course the ways of his Works the ways of his Word the ways of his Worship wicked men desire not the practical or experimental knowledge of these And thus much of the first Use I come to a second Use and that shall be a Use of Increpation 2. Is it so that it is and should be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and upon the things of God This Point looks sadly and sowrely upon such as think basely unworthily and dishonourably of God upon such who in stead of holy and heavenly entertain atheistical blasphemous unbelieving and rebellious thoughts I shall give a touch upon each of these and so come to a third Use Some have gross earthly and terrene conceits of God they become vain in their imaginations about him as those spoken of by the Apostle Rom. 1.23 Thus ignorant persons who fancy God to be some old man sitting in heaven with a Crown on his head and a Scepter in his hand administring his kingdom as an earthly Prince Others though they conceive God to be a spirit and not a bodily substance yet they in their thoughts rob him of his essential and inseparable Attributes 1. Some deprive him of his Omnipresence thinking that God is not present in all places David could say Psal 139.7 8 9 c. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea c. but now wicked men on the other side are brought in speaking of God as if he were shut up in heaven and had nothing to do in the world Job 22.12 13. Is not God in the height of heaven and behold the height of the stars how high they are And thou sayest How doth God know can he judge thorow the dark cloud So again Psal 44 7. Some deny in their hearts his Omniscience as if God did not know all the transactions of men Psal 10.11 David speaking of the wicked mans thoughts tells He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it So much the Prophet Isaiah insinuateth in that wo which he denounceth against wicked men Isa 29.15 Wo unto them that seek deep to hide counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us Some deprive God of his justice thinking that although they proceed in the practice and often repetition of sin yet God will not punish them according to the cominations and threatnings of his Word If you doubt whether or no there be any such imagination in mans heart reade Deut. 29.19 where Moses saith And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkenness to thirst Nay saith David Psal 10.3 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth or we may reade it The covetous blesseth himself So much is implied in that of the Lord unto the Jews Jer. 7.9 10. Will ye steal murther and commit adultery and burn incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom ye know not and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my Name and say We are delivered to do all these abominations Some again think unworthily of God by denying his providence whereby he ordereth and disposeth of all things in the world as if God regarded not his people as if he cared not which way things go So did these wicked ones above my text so did they of whom the Prophet Zephaniab speaks Zeph. 1.12 that say in their heart The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Others again rob God of his purity and holiness they conceive God to be wicked as themselves are because he keeps silence at their sins Psal 50.21 or else because he doth not presently execute wrath upon sin and sinners Eccles 8.11 Others and not a few conceive God to be made up altogether of mercy they think he will save them and not destroy the works of his own hands though they live never so wickedly Others deny the truth of God and make him a lyer as if God would not accomplish either what he hath promised to his people or threatned against his enemies so did those wicked ones of whom the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Others in the last place do not onely think basely and unworthily of God but they think thoughts against him such thoughts as are directly opposite to his Name they take up high and haughty imaginations such as exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ of which thoughts you reade 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Nay they have thoughts of high treason and open rebellion against heaven saying as Pharaoh did Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice or as they Psalm 12.4 With our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is lord over us or as they Jer. 44.15 16 17. As for
the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth of our mouth Thus Beloved and many other ways which I might name do wicked men think dishonourably of God Now as I told you in the beginning of this Use the Doctrine which I have in hand looks very wishly and sowrely upon all these As it excludes them out of the society of the fearers of God so it brings them under heavy wrath guilt and punishment God will one day discover and lay open before the whole world angels and men those vile thoughts that wicked men have had of him and against him in their hearts he will set their iniquities in order before them and their secret sins in the light of his countenance as 't is Psal 90.8 he will bring every one of these secret thoughts into judgement Eccl. 12.14 And that none might be ignorant of this he makes proclamation thereof as it were in open Court by the voyce of his holy Prophet Jer. 6.19 I desire all those that are guilty of sinful thoughts against God to observe this text well and to lay it home unto and upon their hearts this evening Hear O earth behold I will bring evil upon this people even the fruit of their thoughts The heavy wrath and vengeance of Almighty God is both the just desert and the certain issue and event of evil thoughts inward distempers and mental abominations shall not go unpunished And this shall suffice to be spoken of the second Use the Use of Increpation I proceed to a third and shall make what progress in it the ordinary time will give me leave and that shall be a Use of Trial and examination to every one that hears me this evening 3. Is it so that it is and ought to be the practice of all them that truly fear God to meditate diligently upon God and upon the things of God Let then every man and woman learn hence to make an estimate of his and her spiritual estate by the quality and disposition of their thoughts For 't is most certain that as the man is such are his thoughts and as the thoughts are habitually and ordinarily whether good or evil so is the man Thoughts are called the possessions of the heart Job 17.11 The thoughts of my heart in the Original 't is the possessions of my heart Now they are called possessions of the heart two ways 1. In a passive and 2. in an active sense Passively because thoughts are possessed by the heart the heart doth inclose and hold our thoughts the heart is the proper vessel and receptacle of thoughts the heart naturally is the soil and seat of thoughts there they are planted and there they dwell And then they are the possessions of the heart actively for as thoughts are possessed by the heart so thoughts do possess the heart Thoughts are full of activity they trouble and they comfort the heart Look what our thoughts are such is the estate of our hearts if our thoughts be quiet our hearts be quiet if our thoughts be unquiet our hearts be unquiet if our thoughts be joyful our hearts rejoyce if our thoughts be sad our hearts are sorrowful And therefore 't is said in the Gospel Luk. 24.38 Why are you troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts i.e. Why do troublesome disconsolate thoughts arise in your hearts 'T is as natural for thoughts to arise in the heart as 't is for water to rise in a spring or fountain Christ did not chide because thoughts but because such thoughts did arise in their hearts We cannot hinder our thoughts from thinking no more then we can hinder the fire from burning or water from wetting They are the possessions of our hearts and being the possessions of our hearts we may easily judge of our estate and condition by them Purity in the inward parts is the most sound and infallible evidence of our fearing God Whatever evil is practised or committed in the life proceeds from the heart Mat. 15.9 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts c. So again on the other side whatever good is acted in the life proceeds from the heart Out of the heart says Solomon are the issues both of life and death And therefore I say again Examine your estate by your hearts and by your thoughts which are the possessions of your hearts Now there are two ways how a man may try his thoughts 1. By the causes of them and 2. By the effects of them A word or two of each and so I shall conclude 1. Try your thoughts by the Causes of them Are they put in by God and his Spirit doth the Spirit of God raise them up in your hearts or else are they injected and cast in by the devil And so I might enlarge my self in shewing when our thoughts are formed and framed in us by the Spirit of God and when thrust in by the devil but that would be a field too large for me and therefore I briefly pass it by 2. Try your thoughts by the matter and substance of them Are they holy heavenly and gracious Carnal men are projecting how to spend their days and moneths in buying in selling and getting gain the fool in the Gospel is thinking of enlarging his barns of pulling down his houses and building greater Luk. 12.17 18. this is that which engrossed all his thoughts One Apostle describes such men thus Minding earthly things Phil. 3.19 another thus Having an heart exercised with covetous practices 2 Pet. 2.14 With covetous practices i.e. with earnest contrivances how to promote their gain and earthly aims But now men and women fearing God they are for gracious projects they are thinking how they may be more thankful saying with David Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me They are thinking how they may be more holy and spiritual how they may be more useful and serviceable to God how they may be more fruitful in every good word and work So that I say in the second place try your thoughts by the matter of them 3. Try them from the form and fashion of them Are they notional floating and accidental or are they studious sollicitous and diligent thoughts Do you sit as it were in the door of your hearts on set purpose to entertain good thoughts as Abraham was wont to sit in the door of his tent to entertain strangers or do they fall in onely by the by collaterally and besides the intention These holy men in my text did not onely think upon Gods Name casually or by chance but they did it seriously and in good earnest and stayed up their hearts against all discouragements 4. Examine your thoughts by the duration and continuance of them Are your good thoughts fixed setled constant and permanent or are they flitting fugitive transient and temporary onely as soon
mine But this acceptation of the words is not for my present turn and therefore in the second place you may take them thus with Mr. Ainsworth in his Annotations upon the place How precious are thy thoughts i. e. The thoughts that I have of thee the thoughts that are raised out of my heart up to thee Oh how precious are they Divine meditation Beloved is a very heaven upon earth 't is an having of one foot already if I may so speak in the porch of heaven 't is a fore-taste of eternal life 't is to the Saints as the fiery chariot was to Elijah by it they are transported from earth to heaven in their spirits nay so far ravished in their thinking upon Gods Name as that sometimes they know not those things that are before them they minde not those persons that are about them but being in the body they are as it were carried out of the body with spiritual ravishment they taste such incomparable sweetnesses in the good Name of God as that they are not able to express them even as the chewing of our meat makes us to taste much more sweetness in it so this heavenly practise of meditation causeth us to feel much more sweetness in the Name of God Meditation ever brings with it delight therefore see how David doth knit them together Psalm 119.15 16. I will meditate in thy precepts and will have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy statutes I will not forget thy Word That holy object about which a mans thoughts are much conversant he cannot but take much delight and complacencie in As it argues love to the object Psalm 119.97 so I say it argues delight in the object And then in the last place to conclude the Motives this is an exceeding profitable and advantageous duty and that divers wayes I will name onely two or three of them 1. Meditation turns the promises into marrow it not onely tasteth but cheweth the promises and manifestations of God unto his people and therefore 't is not onely sweet and comfortable as I told you before but it is profitable too Read Psalm 63.5 6. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches As there is all manner of pleasure so is there all manner of profit in the believing meditations of God they make the promises as a Royal feast to faith Meditation is not onely an effect of faith but 't is an excellent means to strengthen faith 2. 'T is profitable for the avoiding of evil Meditation prevents the intrusion of vain and sinful thoughts of foul and fleshly lusts which otherwise would swarm in the soul it leaves the devil no room for his black and hellish suggestions for his blasphemous injections It defeats the world which otherwise would be ready to catch us to get in to defile our hearts Nay 3. It promotes our spiritual good hereby we get into acquaintance with God the fountain of all goodness hereby we attain unto a greater measure of spiritual wisdom grace holiness we prove tall and experienced Christians filled with all knowledge Nay this holy meditation in a word is profitable to others for why it fits us for holy and Christian conference Thus and many other ways is this Exercise profitable Well then you have heard what an encouragement there is to the practise of this dudy I come in the next place to shew you the means whereby you may be enabled to the performance of it The Means shall be of two sorts 1. Negative 2. Positive By Negative I intend those sins or impediments which we must labor against if we will fruitfully think upon the Name of God In the first place avoid Pride and a conceitedness of a sufficiencie in your selves to conceive of God or to think of any thing else that is good You have heard before what the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 3.5 Pride hinders the right improvement of every holy duty and communion with God in every holy duty God indeed hath promised to impart himself and his secrets to the humble Psalm 25.9 but God will have no acquaintance with proud persons he looks upon them afar off as the Psalmist speaks This causeth a mans going out from God indeed but it hinders his drawing nigh to God as in other exercises so in this of holy contemplation God commonly leaves such to doat and busie their brains about Questions and vain Disputations which tend to nothing but strife and ostentation See what the Apostle speaks of a proud and self-conceited man 1 Tim. 6.4 5. He is proud what follows knowing nothing but doating about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envie strife railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the Truth supposing that gaine in godliness From such withdraw thy self It is just with God to leave proud hearts to unprofitable studies 2. If you will religiously meditate upon the Name of God take heed as of Pride so of Passion Passion carries us out of our selves and carries us too from the business and duty before us As an angry mans discourse runs wilde so his thoughts and cogitations run wilde also As the passions of the Concupiscible appetite and intemperancies of youth carry a man beyond his bounds and therefore the Prodigal repenting is said to come to himself Luk. 15.17 so likewise do the passions of the Irascible appetite Anger disorders and discomposeth the spirit Passions in the minde are like a tempest in the air which do exceedingly disturb the minde Many a man like a ship at sea hath been over-set and sunk with the violent gusts and whirlwindes of his own spirit As a turbulent heart can neither hear nor pray as it ought so so neither can it think or meditate as it ought Passion unfits the heart to and for any religious duty Well may such a one exact folly as Solomon speaks but I warrant you while he is thus distempered he wo'n't lift up many holy thoughts these do require a sedate and quiet spirit free from the confused hurrie of troublesome passions And therefore in the second place see that you eschew passion And then 3. If you would conscionably perform this duty beware of earthly-mindedness Worldliness or earthly-mindedness divides and distracts the heart fills it with noysome lusts but indisposeth it to the thinking of God or upon the things of God This corruption if nourished will eat all manner of goodness out of the heart The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 7.32 33. But I would have you without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world how he may please his wife Implying that an excessive and an immoderate engaging of the heart in the world is
one main cause why a man cannot take care for the things of the Lord as he ought to do such a man such a woman cannot attend upon the Lord in any duty without distraction Mat. 6.24 saith our Saviour there No man can serve two masters i. e. two masters of contrary interests and who issue forth contrary commands Every wicked man serves more masters then two he is a servant to lust yea he serves divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 but yet he serves not that One who is infinitely better and more deserving our service then all and serving Mammon he cannot serve God as he ought in any service and therefore not in that which I am now speaking of Col. 3.2 Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth q. d. If your thoughts run upon the things of the earth they wo'n't carry you out after things above And thus much of the Negative means or rather the hinderances of this holy meditation I come in the next place to speak of the Positive helps and with them I shall conclude this days publick Exercise 1. If you desire to think upon the Name of God then begin the day with the thoughts of him and of his mercies renewed upon you not onely every morning but every moment This seems to be Davids constant course from such texts as these are Psal 5.3 Psal 59.16 Psal 88.13 and the like you may finde in many other places that to begin with the thoughts of God in the morning is the way to put the soul into an heavenly frame and temper the whole day following We have a saying amongst us that the morning is a friend to the Muses Aurora Musis amica i. e. the morning is a good studying time I am sure the morning is a great friend to the Graces 't is the best time to begin our thoughts and meditations it will dispose the heart to and for communion with God all the day after And withal remember to close up the heart with God when you go to bed at night and if possibly you can fall asleep out of some heavenly meditation So will your heart be in a better plight when you awake He that thus raketh up fire over-night as one saith shall finde fire again in the morning That is the first Means to the Duty in hand 2. Guard and watch over your hearts all the day long that they be not drawn from God or from the thoughts of him either by any corruption from within or temptation from without Prov 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence defend it from all inroads and incursions from the flesh world and devil Keep but the heart well in tune and then it will not so easily go out from God Beloved if you suffer your hearts to be scattered up and down upon earthly vanities it will be far to seek when you should wait upon God either in Prayer or Meditation as a wilde horse turn'd to range up and down into a wilde Common that can hardly be taken when he should be sadled As you should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long so should you be raising elevating and winding up your hearts to God all the day long You should hold communion with God even in the duties of your particular callings and civil employments Phil. 3.20 saith the Apostle there Our conversation is in heaven The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conversation in the Greek is properly rendred thus Our civil life or our civil conversation is in heaven q. d. we exercise our general callings in our particular we go about earthly businesses with heavenly mindes extracting by a Divine Alchymie heavenly mediâ—â—â—ionâ— out of earthly objects and occasions And I conceive there is something to this purpose in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.39 where he saith Brethren let every man wherein he is earth abide with God How doth a man abide with God in his particular calling not onely by keeping within the bounds and limits of that calling wherein God hath placed him but also executing the duties of it as in the sight of God by minding God in the several passages and occurrences of it This also is to abide with God in our calling and this we must do if we will be conscionable to the duty enjoyned 3. Would you have your thoughts to be set upon the right object upon God and goodness with these godly ones here in my text Then hold a strict hand over your thoughts be often in and upon the examination of them Evils you must know begin first in the thoughts Mat. 15.19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies First evil thoughts and what then murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies Evil thoughts are set in the front of this black Roll. When God would express the wickedness of the old world he saith Gen. 6.5 That every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was onely evil continually The imagination gives shape to every thing that the minde works upon The reason of Atheism is Blasphemy in the thoughts the reason of worldliness is some wicked thought that lies hid in the bosome and therefore saith God Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts You must not onely mark your way but your thoughts trace every corrupt desire every inclination every affection every transient motion whatever passeth thorow your hearts in the whole day call it to an audit set upon the tryal of it Our thoughts are even infinite nimble slippery and therefore we had the more need to watch them and to set upon the search of them and having found of what nature they are and of what tendencie they are cherish the good and check the bad One evil thought one sinful cogitation being uncontrolled and given way to O how may it vex and disquiet our hearts when we come to lie upon our death-beds As David dealt with his wayes so do you with your thoughts I considered my wayes saith he so do you your thoughts 4. If you would think of God and the things of God then heighten your love to God and the things of God Strong affections make strong impressions and cause great thoughts of heart A man cannot but think much of that which he loves much and therefore saith David in Psalm 119. verse 97. O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day q. d. I do abundantly love thy law I do love it so greatly as that I cannot well express how greatly I love it O how I love thy law and therefore 't is that I am so much in the meditation of it Be sure of it that our infinite wandrings and woful trifling away of our golden hours in idle and evil thoughts is caused very much by our coldness and luke-warmness in our love to God and the things that are of divine concernment Would we but
prefer God and the things of God incomparably before all other things whatsoever would we once make supernatural and heavenly things our chief portion and treasure then would our hearts be chiefly set upon them and our thoughts mostly run on them See what our Saviour saith Matth. 6.21 Where your treasure is there will your heart be also 5. And then in the last place to this end make use of Prayer too You know that God is both the heart-maker and the heart-mender desire him to put your souls into a spiritual frame and temper to direct your hearts unto the remembrance of his Name Pray for your selves as David did once for his people 1 Chron. 29.18 Oh Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare our hearts unto theâ— In like manner let us pray Lord keep thy Name for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of our hearts and prepare our hearts unto thee or as he prays Psalm 19.14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer Pray that God would raise up your hearts and ravish your hearts that you may so meditate upon his Name that you may have respect unto all his ways I should come to give you some Rules or Directions concerning this holy meditation But of them God willing the next time Now because circumstances bear such a weight in every action as that they either make or mar it before I speak of the form and manner of our thinking upon the Name of God I shall deliver a word or two concerning the circumstances of Meditation There are two circumstances to be heeded in this duty 1. The circumstance of Time 2. The circumstance of Place I begin with the circumstance of Time Though it cannot be denied but that a Christian should have dayly converse and communion with God he should be alwayes ejaculating and raising up of his heart to heaven saying with David Psalm 36.4 later part of the verse Vnto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Though he ought to take occasion even from those things which do occur and offer themselves unto his outward senses to aspire and climb up to God in his heart yet without doubt every Christian should redeem some â—it and convenient portion of time and set it apart from other employments that so he may solemaly and seriously think upon the Name of God he must not onely do it occasionally but he must appoint some time or other on set purpose that he may the more thorowly discharge this necessary duty at which time he should concentre and draw as it were into one point all the powers and faculties of his soul and command them to attend this heavenly exercise as much as may be without distaction And I suppose Beloved it were no great task to fetch in the practise of some of the holy men of God this way Isaac went out to meditate at the eventide Gen. 24.63 'T is conceived Isaac did this usually though at this time peradventure more earnestly by reason of that important business he had in hand which was his marriage It seems that Isaac did ordinarily go forth about even-tide which was saith Mr. Ainsworth at the ninth hour of the day with us the third hour in the afternoon about three of the clock to meditate This was Isaac's set-time for meditation as I say 't is generally conceived So David the Name of God and the Word of God was his meditation all the day Psalm 119.97 and in the night Psalm 119.55 yet there are some texts which lead us to think that David had his set and solemn times for this purpose amongst others I will instance onely in that one Psalm 139.18 the last words of the verse When I awake I am still with thee Some indeed refer this to the last resurrection and give out David's meaning to be this When I arise out of my grave I shall be still with thee I shall ever be with the Lord. But we need not to force the text as David had other set-times to meditate upon God so the morning was one of them When I awake out of my sleep or as soon as I awake out of my sleep I am with thee in holy meditation So that Beloved ye are not onely to maintain a constant communion with God in this duty but there must be some time laid aside on set purpose for this duty The second circumstance that I shall speak of is the circumstance of Place and here as I spake of the time so I may speak of the place for holy meditation As at all times we should think upon the Name of God so in all places not onely in this place appointed for the publick service of God but in all other places in your houses in your shops and places of trading at board and at bed at home and abroad But yet for preventing of distraction and considering that Satan is ready to take all advantages against us labouring might and main by outward objects to distract and divide the faculties of our souls with impertinent or unprofitable thoughts yea with sinful and corrupt thoughts therefore I conceive it necessary that the place where we meditate most seriously and solemnly should be retired and secret The devil well knows how neer and familiar earthly things are to our senses and how remote and far distant heavenly and supernatural things are therefore he would fain work upon our carnality by presenting earthly objects and by them would fain convey to our hearts earthly-mindedness and so bereave us of the benefit of meditation So that I say to prevent the policie and malice of the devil 't is best whenever we desire in good earnest to set upon this duty to withdraw our selves into some private place into our chambers studies or closets What our Saviour speaks concerning the duty of Prayer we may apply unto the duty of holy meditation Matth. 6.6 When thou prayest enter into thy closet so when thou meditatest enter into thy closet withdraw as much as may be from the noise and clutter of the world do it as privately and reservedly as may be I might give you some instances for this too Isaac did it in the field as you may finde in the text before alledged Gen. 24.63 he was private in meditation and soliloquie Upon this passage of Isaac I finde one to have this observation Domitian saith he about the beginning of his Empire usually sequestred himself from company an hour every day but did nothing the while but catch Flyes and kill them with a pen-knife but Isaac sequestred himself from company to a better-purpose he improved his solitariness for deep meditation and soliloquie David performed this duty in his bed Psalm 63.6 and therefore saith he Psalm 4.4 Commune with your own heart upon your bed And thus
have I given you a word or two concerning the circumstances that are to be considered in and about this duty Before I come to the form or manner of performance I might speak something of the matter or substance of the duty But I shall onely hint at this because I have spoken already to this purpose in the opening of this part of the text And thought upon his Name That which we think upon must be the Name of God A little word but of large extent We must think upon all that is possible for us creatures to know of God think upon his Essence think upon his Attributes Wisdom Power Justice Mercy Infiniteness Holiness Omniscience Omnipresence c. We must think upon his Ordinances Ways Word and Worship think upon his workâ— whether common to the world as creation and providence or as more proper and peculiar to his Church as Election Redemotion Justification Sanctification Upon these must we think and whatsoever is comprised under the Name of God But I pass by this and come unto the more particular directions I desire you to observe these following Rules in reference unto Meditation 1. Think upon God primarily chiefly and in the first place Let the Name of God have the first-fruits of your thoughts begin with God in the morning as David did in the place fore-alleadged Psalm 139.18 and as the Church did Isai 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within 〈◊〉 will I seek thee early i.e. I have not onely thought upon thee in my most retired thoughts but thou hast had my first as well as my last thoughts I ended with thee at night and I began with thee in the morning Oh Beloved as 't is a sweet thing to close our eyes so 't is our duty to open our eyes and to begin the day with God I shall not stand upon this because I spake something to this purpose in the Means That rule of our Saviour is general and therefore holds here Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness Let heavenly things or objects have the priority superiority and principality in your thoughts No doubt but 't is lawful for us to think of our necessary businesses but we must think of them in their proper place and season secondarily subordinately and in the second place Be sure that God have the Primitiae and first-fruits of your thoughts But in the second place 2. Think upon the Name of God sollicitously and carefully and with all your might So much is implied in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 6.33 The word seeking includes pain toil and labor not an idle velleity or a supine and lazie wish If we urge the extent of the word it notes so to require or exact as doth an importunate disputer in the Schools or a violent tormentor on the Rack This Greek word implyeth the same that the Hebrew word hashabh doth in my text it carries with it as I told you in the opening of this phrase the intention of the minde I confess that with Martha we are apt to trouble our heads about many things apt to turmoil our spirits with fretting vexing carking and corroding cares and thoughts of the things of this life quite contrary to that Gospel-precept Mat. 6.31 Phil. 4.6 This I say we are prone and ready enough unto Oh that we could but more largely more affectionately more carefully and industriously think upon the things of God! This is a duty of the first Commandment yea this is that first and great Commandment Thoushalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy minde and with all thy might This duty of meditation upon the Name of God requires much earnestness 3. Practise this duty chearfully readily and willingly The worldly man needs not to be invited to minde his profit the voluptuous man his pleasure or the ambitious man his honour these they do naturally and what men do naturally that they do freely and willingly Oh but how many invitations and inducements must Christians have to this duty how averse from it how backward are we unto it We can think of any thing more easily and readily then we can think of God and the things of God I beseech you that fear God to consider that God loves not to strain upon any neither regards he an involuntary or unwilling service 'T is said indeed 2 Cor. 9.7 later part of the verse God loveth a chearful giver And what is spoken of that service is as true of any other God loves to see us set upon our duties chearfully and with a willing minde this is acceptable and delightful to him Isa 1.19 Psalm 110.3 God expects a free and a Princely spirit from his people towards his service Exod. 35.5 A true worshipper of God is not thrust and driven on by an outward written Law but findes a law written in his own heart They who have felt the day of Divine power are not acted by humane power by the coertions and ordinances of men they are under no constraint in this duty of meditation especially but that of the love of God and of Christ If God shall delight in what thou doest let it be thy delight and recreation to think upon his Name I must not stand long upon these particulars because I see the time hasteneth away Well then in the fourth place 4. Think upon God soberly not thinking to pry into Gods secrets further then he hath been pleased to reveal them Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us This is one of those places which in the Hebrew is marked with a special note to the end that we should take special notice of it As we must not think of our selves beyond sobriety according to that of the Apostle Rom. 12.3 so neither must we think of God beyond sobriety or above what is written of him if we do we shall quickly lose our selves and be swallowed up in a Maze or Whirl-pool of errours Ye may sooner drain the Ocean with a shell or spoon then the perfections of God with our largest understandings Job 38.22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail There are secrets in Nature which were never entred into by Art the treasures of the snow and of the hail descend upon us but we cannot ascend into the treasures of them We cannot enter into natural things how then shall we enter into spiritual how shall we enter into or our thoughts comprehend the God of spirits 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath propared for them that love him and if the things that God hath prepared for man are not yet entred into his heart how can God who hath prepared these things enter into his heart And therefore be modest and sober keep within the bounds of the Word in your divinest contemplations 5. Think of God spiritually To frame any gross carnal or earthly image of God in our mindes or to represent him to our understandings by the similitude or likeness of any creature whatsoever this is plain idolatry forbidden in the second Commandment See what God saith Dâ—ut 4.15 16 17 18. Nay this was a chief part of their Hellenism or Gentilism of whom the Apostle speaks Rom. 1.23 However this may be very helpful to us in our thoughts of God to conceive of him as of God in Christ Christ is as the author to the Hebrews tell us Heb. 1.3 The brightness of his glory and the expross image of his person Christ is as it were the ladder of ascention by which we may climb up safely unto God Doubtless we may six our mindes upon the humane nature in which the Godhead dwells bodily and to which 't is personally united And under any other character or resemblance we may not think of God 6. Think upon God reverently We are bid to serve him with fear Psalm 2.11 i.e. with a holy filial and reverential fear If we do not thus think upon his Name we take his Name in vain we defile and pollute his Name Thus those wicked Priests spoken of in the beginning of this Prophecie of Malachi are said to despise the Name of God yea to pollute it and why was it why because they thought that any thing was good enough for God Mal 1.6 7 8. Beloved the Name of God is a great dreadful and terrible Name and therefore we had need to think of it with prepared hearts and composed affections While we think upon his Name let us awe his Name and dread his Name But I can enlarge my self no further the time being past And therefore in the last place 7. Perform this duty constantly not onely primarily sollicitously chearfully soberly spiritually and reverently but perpetually and constantly These godly ones here in thy text as they did not confer together onely once or twice but often so they often thought upon the Name of God they did it habitually it was their usual practice We should never give over thinking upon the Name of God until our thinking upon his Name be impoved to and for practise Hos 6.3 saith the Prophet there Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord i.e. We shall experimentally know the Lord if we shall prosecute knowledge and not content our selves with measures already attained And so much for this Point and for this time FINIS
quaking of the members of the body The second is the shaking of the bones The third is the standing up of the hair The fourth is the paleness or wanness of the countenance The three first of these appeared upon Eliphaz at the appearance of his vision Job 4.14 15. He trembled his bones shook and the hair of his flesh stood up This natural fear we cannot justly blame because every thing by the instinct of Nature endeavours the preservation of it self and fears the contrary provided it do not degenerate into the second which is carnal fear Carnal fear now is that which is carried after the creature more then after the Creator We read of it Isai 51.12 13. Or else 't is the dread of the Creator as a Judge the apprehension of his severe wrath and punishment and not from a true hatred of sin and this we may call A servile or slavish fear Thus Felix feared Acts 24.25 he feared that judgment to come which Paul reasoned of This fear ariseth partly from a defect of faith in the power and providence of God and partly from want of holy and spiritual fear which I am to speak of in the third place Spiritual fear is a holy affection awing the whole man to obey the whole will of God it makes us loth to displease God by sin by reason of his great goodness and mercy and for the great love which we bear unto righteousness Of this we read Psal 130.4 where 't is said But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared And again Hos 3.5 and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the later days This holy and filial fear is called spiritual in three respects amongst other 1. In regard of its object which is God who is a spirit and the Father of spirits And hence 't is that God is sometimes expresly called fear Gen. 31.53 later part of the verse And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac i.e. by that God whom his father Isaac feared And Psal 76.11 Vow and pay unto the Lord your God let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared In the Original it runs thus Bring presents unto fear Then 2. This holy fear is called spiritual from the principal efficient author of it which is the holy Spirit of God who is sometimes called a spirit of fear Isa 11.2 And then 3. Spiritual in respect of those spiritual effects which it produceth or worketh in the heart of man I shall name three of them very briefly First of all it doth spiritually enlarge the heart towards God Fear under a natural consideration shuts and straitens the heart and makes a man less then he was in all his abilities but spiritual fear or fear spiritualized makes a man more then he was and better then he was it doth exceedingly enlarge the heart toward God and therefore you shall finde fear and enlargement put together Isai 60.5 where the Prophet speaking of the holy fear which should follow that glory of the Church in the abundant access of the Gentiles to the Gospel he saith Then thoushalt see and flow together and thine heart shall sear and be enlarged because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee Secondly this spiritual fear is a bridle to restrain us from sin An example of it you have in Joseph Gen. 39.9 And then thirdly as 't is a bridle to restrain us from sin so 't is a bond to hold us to duty it will constrain us unto well-doing Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me q. d. The more you fear me the closer will you keep to me None live so near God none obey God so much as they who fear him in this manner And thus have I given you the sorts and kinds of fear Now the question will be Which of these three fears we are to understand in the Doctrine when we say That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God why Beloved we are to understand the later hath his heart seasoned and possessed with the holy spiritual filial and reverential fear of God And thus much for the Explication of the Point I come in the next place to the Confirmation of it This Point shall be made good unto you three ways 1. In that the Scripture doth decipher or characterize the true servants of God under the notion of the fearers of God and that not onely here in my text Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another c. but elsewhere Take two or three texts more Prov. 4.2 He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him i.e. He that is sincere and upright in the service of God he that serves him truly and with a perfect heart is such a one as feareth the Lord the fear of the Lord is upon him nay he is in the fear of the Lord all the day long So again Mal. 4.2 But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall You that fear my Name is opposed to the proud and wicked in the first verse of the chapter For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up that it shall leave them neither root nor branch Unto you i. e. who are my servants And Acts 13.16 Then Paul stood up and beckening with his hand said Men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience Many other Scriptures might be alleadged unto the same purpose where to fear God is set down as a circumlocution or periphrasis of them that truly serve God When the holy Ghost would express a true servant of God he expresseth him in this variation He is one that feareth God But then secondly That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God may be proved thus in that the service of God and the fear of God are in Scripture conjoyned as two inseparable or individual companions the Spirit of God doth often make them go hand in hand together Josh 24.14 Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the floud and in Egypt serve ye the Lord. Mark it well fear the Lord and serve him intimating that where there is not the fear of God there is there can be no true service performed unto God Reade Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Fear and service are here coupled together A fearless heart is always a graceless heart Fear is that affection with which we must worship and serve God
their own That is worth your diligent observation to this purpose which you finde 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will manifest the counsels of the hearts What are more dark or hidden then mens inward thoughts we may call them hidden things of darkness yet even these will God bring to light these will he make manifest at that day The Apostle as I conceive speaks this for the encouragement of the Saints he encourageth them to the very duty I am now upon though they have been called hypocrites and disgraced though they have had the dirt of a thousand scandals cast in their faces yet there is a day coming when God will take an account of your thoughts your reproaches shall be wiped away and your thinking upon the Name of God shall be brought in open view And then fourthly as God will in justice recompense wicked men for the evil and sinful managing so he will in mercy reward the fearers of his Name for the right and holy management of their thoughts When David entertained but a thought or purpose of building an house for God although God forbade him to do it yet he rewarded that thought and determination of David in his seed 2 Sam. 7.16 So when the Prodigal purposed with himself to return home to his Father you may see how it was rewarded Luk. 15.18 19 c. and therefore saith the Apostle in the text before alledged 1 Cor. 4.5 later part of the verse Then shall every man have praise of God What every man Will God praise those who are praiseless will he praise the proud and covetous the drunkards and unclean will he flatter men in their sin and sow pillows of commendation under their elbows No the Apostles meaning is every man that is praise worthy every good and faithful man every true believer all sincere and honest hearts whose thoughts counsels and meditations have been aright every such a man shall have praise of God And thus you see that this duty is necessary as also how many ways 't is necessary in respect of God This is evident likewise in the text that I am now upon But then in the second place this thoughtfulness upon the Name of God is needful in regard of our selves Hereby in the first place we shall evidence unto our own souls and consciences that we are men and women truly fearing God This is in my text set down as the property or distinguishing character of holy and godly men that they thought upon his Name Nay they are conjoyned inseparably they were such as feared God and thought upon his Name Those beasts under the Law which chewed not the cud and divided not the hoof were not to be eaten of they were unclean I could give you divers significations and applications of dividing the hoof and chewing of the cud Willet in his eleventh Question upon this Chapter alledging many I shall at present speak onely of that which conduceth to my purpose The parting the hoof in twain signifieth the right discerning of the Word and Will of God when we are able to judge of it not carnally but spiritually 2. Chewing of the cud signified the serious meditation of the Name and Law of God day and night which is the food of our souls Well then as those beasts were unclean which divided not the hoof and chewed the cud so those men and women are spiritually unclean unholy and unsanctified who do not discern spiritual things and often recal them to their mindes to meditate or to ruminate upon them 2. This duty is needful in respect of our selves because thoughts are the original and principles of action meditation is the rise and fountain both of communication and conversation of words and of practices it causeth the stream or current of both these to run either clear or muddy The progress or method to action is you must know in this manner 1. The Thoughts do excite and stir up the Affections Affections do kindle upon Thoughts as Tinder doth upon the striking of a spark of fire 2. The Affections they carry and command the Will even as windes do the ship 3. The Will commands all the inferior powers to execute or to put in act that which the Thoughts have suggested the Affections seconded and it self accepted Now then forasmuch as thoughts carry such an influence and tendencie unto action good Reason why we should holily and religiously employ them Thus far of the second Motive to the duty I shall run over the rest with more brevity and proceed as far in them as the remaining time will give me leave Well then in the second place serious and diligent meditation upon the Name of God as 't is a needful so 't is an excellent duty such a duty as will transform us into the image of God from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 saith the Apostle there But we all with open face bebolding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. As we by looking upon the glory holiness and excellencie of God so likewise by meditating upon the glory holiness and excellencie of God are changed into the same image i. e. we are made conformable unto him we receive as it were the engravings of holiness upon our souls by meditating upon the holy One. As by a good concoction and digestion our meat is incorporated into and assimilated unto us so by meditation which is spiritual concoction we are assimilated and made like unto that Name upon which we meditate We read Exod. 34.29 that when Moses had been with the Lord upon the mount his face did so shine that Aaron and the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him Beloved as long as a man is in the duty of holy meditation as long as he is thinking upon the Name of God he is with God he is in communion and fellwoship with him and Oh this will set a glistering lustre and brightness upon his heart it will cause the face of his heart to shine Let me tell you for your encouragement that the way to be an excellent Christian is to be a holily contemplative Christian Holy meditation will render you with the Kings daughter all glorious within I shall enlarge no more upon this In the third place and so I shall conclude for the present Holy meditation is a sweet and comfortable exercise David met with marrow and fatness honey and honey-comb yea with surpassing delight and pleasure in this duty and therefore saith he Psalm 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the sum of them We may take the words two ways 1. How precious are thy thoughts i.e. how sweet and precious are these thoughts of mercy which flow from thy heart to me which pass from thy soul to