what are they think you they are just in such a case as God threatneth Babylon shall be Isa 13.14 God says that Babylon shall be as the chased Roe and as a Sheep that no man taketh up This is the case of every one that is yet out of Christ exposed to be a prey to that roaring Lyon that walketh about seeking whom he may devour those that have not an interest in Christ God threatens them Hos 4.16 I will feed them as a Lamb in a large place I will feed them the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to feed signifies to let them wander Num. 14.33 God let the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for forty years together So God lets those that have not an interest in Christ to wander in the Wilderness to their own destruction Oh that God would open the eyes of those that have not yet secured their interest in Jesus Christ that they may see what they are and where they are and what danger they are exposed to So much of the first Use of Instruction The second Use is by way of Examination How nearly does it concern every one of us to call our selves to an account whether we be in the number of Christs Sheep or no otherwise we can have no comfort by this Doctrine But may be you will say to me How shall we do certainly to know that we are the Sheep of Christ and that Christ is that Shepherd that feeds us like a Flock For answer to this We cannot curiously pry into Gods decree to tell you who are not his Sheep for it may be there are many that belong to the Election of Grace that is many are the Sheep of Christ that are not yet called nor converted that are wandring in the Wildernes yet and though the Lord will not suffer them to wander to Destruction yet for the present they are not brought into the Folds therefore we cannot say who are not his Sheep we cannot say who are Reprobate we may know who are Elected but we cannot know who are Reprobated we can tell who are his Sheep but we cannot tell who are not his Sheep Now they that are his Sheep that are Converted and brought home to the Folds of Christ they may be known by these four signs First If thou art a Sheep of Jesus Christ certainly the Shepherd hath set his mark upon thee whereby he does know thee and will own thee at the great day of his appearing John 10.14 I am the good Shepherd and know my Sheep and am known of mine I know every one of my Sheep 2 Tim. 2. 19 The Lord knoweth them that are his he knows them with a distinguishing knowledg There are and will be at the great and dreadful day of Jesus Christ abundance that will claim acquaintance with Jesus Christ Oh what seeking will there be to find his favour at that great day seeking and suing and crying with tears of blood for his favour at that day many will claim acquaintance and say Lord Lord Matt. 7.22 23 Have not we prophesied in thy name have not we heard thee teach in our Synagogues have not we heard thy Messengers which thou hast sent in thy name teaching on the Lords day and on the week-day nay have not we sate at thy Table with thee in the use of the Sacrament of thy Body and Blood to whom the Lord Christ will say I know you not Why because he does not see his Mark upon them nay they themselves when their consciences are once awakened and they begin to look and search for the Mark they cannot find it upon themselves and therefore they will hear that dreadful sentence Matth. 25 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But you will say What is this mark whereby Jesus Christ knows his sheep and whereby they may know that they are his I answer This mark is the holy Spirit of God which he bestows upon every true believer 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit that is he that is united to Christ hath the same spirit that Christ hath hath one and the same spirit that Christ hath Rom. 8.9 Now if any man hath not the spirit of Christ he is none of his If any man have not this mark upon him the spirit of Christ our Saviour will never own that man for his Hence it is the Spirit of God is compared to a Seal or Mark Ephes 1.13 After ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise If thou hast received this mark this seal of the Spirit of God upon thy soul thou maist be as sure that thou art one of Christs sheep as if thou didst see thy name written in the Book of Life I but here it may be demanded But may not this Seal or this mark be counterfeited may not a man be mistaken and deceived in thinking he hath this mark the Spirit of God when indeed he hath it not To this I answer Yes it is possible for a man to be mistaken and therefore the Apostle so often presses this duty of Examination 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates And let every man prove his own works the work of grace in his heart let him prove it Gal. 6.4 Then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another he shall have rejoycing in the testimony of his own conscience and not in the witness of anothers tongue therefore we should be examining our hearts what operations the Spirit of God hath had upon our spirits whether it hath been an enlightning a quickning a convincing a heart-warming a sealing and a healing spirit certainly the healing and sealing-work of the Spirit goes together as I have formerly shewed you Many boast of the Spirit of God they question not but they have the Spirit of God but I told you the Spirit of God never sets his feal to a blank there is first some work of the Spirit of God upon the soul enlightning convincing quickning and drawing the heart to Jesus Christ So we should examine the fruits and effects of the Spirit of God upon our souls Now there are four fruits especially whereby a man may know he hath received not the spirit that is of the world but the spirit that is of God 1 Cor. 2.12 by these four effects First An unseigned love to the servants of Jesus Christ that is one effect of the Spirit of God that proves Jesus Christ hath set his mark upon him that hath it John 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another This is a mark I set upon my sheep So 1 John 4.7 8 12 Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth
is a Positive Unbelief and this is when men are ready to distrust Gods Power and his Providence and his Promises or when we do not so fiducially rest upon them as to obey the Gospel This is a Positive unbelief this is the sin which is so dangerous Now you must know this Positive Unbelief is twofold First Temporary Secondly Total or Final First There is a Temporary unbelief and this is that which may befall even Gods own Elect they may be under unbelief for a while True it is possible for an Elect Child of God to be under an act of unbelief though he cannot be brought into a state of unbelief for you must distinguish between these two between a state of unbelief and an act of unbelief A Child of God may be under an act of unbelief so you know was Godly Zachariah Elizabeth's husband he was under an act of unbelief And behold thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed because thou believedst not my words which shall be fulfilled in their season Luke 1.20 And Thomas one of the twelve Apostles he was under an act of unbelief when he said Vnless I shall see in his hands the print of the Nails and put my finger into the print of the Nails and thrust my hand into his fide I will not believe Joh. 20.25 So were all the rest of the Apostles under an act of unbelief for a while therefore our Saviour when he was risen again he upbraided them the Text says with their unbelief Mark 16.14 After he appeared to the Eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen This is a Temporary Unbelief Secondly There is a Total or Final unbelief and that is the sin of those that live in a state of impenitency and abide in that condition those that abide in their unbelief until the wrath of God abides upon them You see what this unbelief is a distrusting of Gods Power and Providences and Promises and that not for a time which may be the condition of a Child of God but when it is a Total and Final unbelief That 's the first thing for Explication Secondly By way of Explication it may be demanded Why is this such a dangerous and destructive sin that it does debar men of this Heavenly Canaan I shall give you these three Reasons of it First Because you must know it is a sin that robs God of his Glory Look as by believing we do most of all honour God for by this we set to our Seal that he is true John 3.33 He that hath received his Testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true By believing we give him the honour of his Truth and Faithfulness and Mercy and Goodness and Power Thus Abraham by believing gave glory to God in Rom. 4.20 He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God So on the contrary by unbelief we dishonour him in a high degree nay in the highest degree that can be named because we make him a Liar 1 John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave him of his Son Now what greater reproach or dishonour can be cast upon a man of worth than to give him the lye Unbelief therefore is a bold sin it steps into Gods Cabinet as I may say and it robs him of the choicest Jewel that he hath namely his Glory which he hath said He will not give to another Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another neither my praise to the graven Images The glory of God it is nothing else but the reputation that God hath in the World Take away Gods glory and the reputation that he hath among the Sons of men then with reverence be it spoken he is little worth in the eyes of men Now Unbelief is that that robs God of his Glory Secondly Unbelief is such a dangerous destructive sin because it is the first sin that ever was in the World As it is the mother of all other sins so it was the first sin whereby the Devil got entrance into the heart of man I know there is a dispute amongst Divines What was the first sin our first Parents were guilty of whether Pride or Unbelief without all doubt it was Unbelief for God told our first Parents expresly Whenever they did eat of the Tree of life they should die the death as sure as they lived they should die but the Devil he goes and tells them You shall not die Now mark they believed the Devil more than they believed God Unbelief therefore was the first sin that ever was committed in the World and as it was the first sin whereby the Devil got entrance into the heart of man so may it be said to be the root and mother of all other sins therefore says the Apostle Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Look as Faith may be said to be the Mother of all other Graces because Faith lets in Jesus Christ into the Soul and so purifies the heart Act. 15.9 And put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by Faith it applyes the purifying-blood of Jesus Christ So on the other side Unbelief may be said to be the mother of all other sins because it keeps out Christ and keeps out Grace and polutes the heart and defiles it and makes it no better than a Den for Satan to lodg in It is a good observation of an eminent Divine whom for honour sake I mention namely Doctor Sibs Look as the first return of the Soul to God is by Faith so the first departing of the Soul from God is by Vnbelief for from thence comes a departing to other sins and so unbelief being encreased the rent that is made between God and the Soul the estrangement between God and the Soul is still made wider and wider and so the Soul departs further and further and is still departing and departing from one sin to another till at last it comes to hear that fatal and final sentence Matth. 25 Depart thou cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Well therefore may Unbelief be said to be the Mother of all other sins Unbelief and Apostacy are very near akin Unbelief may in some sense be said to be all disobedience The same Greek word that signifies unbelief signifies also disobedience Col. 3.6 For these things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief or children of disobedience And well may it be said to be the Mother of disobedience for
and this turns all it toucheth into Gold Blessed is the man that by Faith can touch Jesus Christ no man ever toucht him by Faith but was healed by Grace Secondly You shall have this benefit it will yield you abundance of joy and satisfaction in the expectation of your desires before you come to the fruition of your desires You read of the joy of Faith Phil. 1.25 And the Apostle prays for the Romans that their hearts may be filled with joy and peace in believing Rom. 15.13 When Hannah had once poured out her Soul before God now her heart was quieted by Faith as if she had enjoyed her desires for the present She went away and did eat and her Countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1. Thirdly Faith will reallize all the Promises Heb. 11.1 It is the substance of things hoped for it makes things that are absent present that are afar off to be near at hand it will bring you to Heaven before you come to Heaven O what a precious grace is Faith And this is the grace you will most stand in need of in your approaches to the Lords Table Now the Lord strengthen this hand of Faith that by it we may make vigorous applications of the blood of Jesus Christ to our poor Souls who is the living bread that is able to give fit and full satisfaction to our Souls who is that living water whereof whosoever drinketh shall thirst no more CHRIST'S True Disciples ARE Doers of Gods VVill. JOHN VII 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self THese words are the words of our Saviour uttered at that great feast the feast of Tabernacles the occasion of these words was this The Jews marvelled at our Saviour as you may read Verse 15 How knoweth this man Letters having never learned That is how comes he to be so skilful in the Scriptures seeing he was never taught by man Our blessed Saviour to this Query answers two things First He tells them in the foregoing Verse the 16th verse that his Doctrine was not his own but was taught him of the Father Secondly He shews them an excellent way or means whereby they may discern truth from falshood true Doctrine from corrupt Doctrine namely by obedience to the will of God for If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self So then in the Text you may take notice of two particulars First An Invitation to a Duty Secondly An Encouragement to that Duty First An Invitation to a Duty in these words If any man will do his will that is that will do the will of God my Father Secondly The Encouragement to it in these words He shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self that is he shall know which is true Doctrine and which is false which is the Doctoctrine according to God and Godliness or what is spoken for popular applause and spoke of a mans own head and according to these two parts of the Text there are these two Doctrines that may be raised from the words Doct. 1. That the true Disciples of Christ are Doers of the will of God Doct. 2. That they that do the will of God shall know more of it and shall be more confirmed in their knowledg I begin with the first That the true Disciples of Christ or true Christians are such as are Doers of the will of God For the proof of this Doctrine take two or three places of Scripture Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven A true Child of God a true Professor of the Gospel is described by this he is a Doer of the will of God Rom 2.13 For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified that is shall be owned and accepted of God the Father So James 1.22 But be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own souls cozening your selves with false Syllogisms as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies If a man be a Hearer of the Word only and not a Doer of it he cozens himself with false arguments and the like you have in the 25 verse of the same Chapter But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful Hearer but a Doer of the Word this man shall be blessed in his deed the man is a blessed Disciple of Jesus Christ But for the better Explication of this Point there are three things I shall open to you First What is meant by the Will of God Seconly How the Will of God must be done by those that are the Disciples of Christ Thirdly Why the Disciples of Christ must be Doers of the Will of God First What the will of God is Not to trouble you with the various distinctions of the Schoolmen briefly there is a twofold will of God mentioned in Scripture the one is called a Secret will the other is called a Revealed will you have them both mentioned in one Verse Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the words of the Law Now our Saviour speaks here in the Text of the Revealed will of God and it is called a Revealed will because it is made known to us in three Books In the Book of Nature In the Book of the Creature In the Book of the Scripture First The will of God is made known unto us partly in the Book of Nature Thus many of the better sort of Heathens that had nothing but the light of Nature by the dictates of their own Conscience knew what the will of God was as appears by that Rom. 2.14 15 For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Mark the Gentiles which had not the Law that is they had not the Law of Scripture yet did by Nature the things contained in the Law The Gentiles which had not the Law of the Scripture yet by the Law of Nature did those things that were agreeable to the will of God and by the dictates of their own Consciences did some things that were agreeable to the will of God and although this light of Nature was not sufficient to bring them to Heaven yet it was sufficient to leave them without excuse Secondly This will of God is revealed in the Book of the
is that of the Prophet Jonah in the Whales belly in that remarkable place Jonah 2.2 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and said I cryed by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice If you would know a reason why God is thus ready to hear and answer the prayers of his Servants when they cry take these three or four reasons briefly First Because of Gods faithfulness He is very faithful that hath promised Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear and answer and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.15 So in Isa 65.24 And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and whiles they are yet speaking I will hear God is faithful to his promises All his promises in Jesus Christ are yea and in him they are amen Our unfaithfulness cannot make him unfaithful if we believe not he remains faithful he cannot deny himself Secondly God hears his Servants prayers Because of that compassion that is in him towards them as he is very faithful so he is very pitiful as he hath beams of Majesty so hath he also bowels of mercy and his bowels yearn towards his poor children when they cry to him Can a mother forget her sucking-child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Isa 49.15 A tender-hearted mother if she hear her little child whimper in the cradle that does not move her but if the child cry to purpose then her bowels yearn towards it she can stay no longer from it but runs in all haste to it so here when we do but whimper pray coldly God may be is not ready to hear but if we cry in prayer if we follow God with our supplications then his bowels cannot but yearn towards us Third reason Because Gods servants have Jesus Christ to pray for them We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous he is pleading our cause 1 John 2.1 And he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 Nay his very presence with the Father is our intercession he appears in the presence of God for us he appears as our advocate in our stead for our good Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us The fourth reason is this Because the servants of God have not only Christ to pray for them but they have the Spirit of Christ to pray in them Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered If you ask me But how does the spirit of God help our infirmities I answer These four or five ways First The spirit of God helps our infirmities by affecting us with them with our wants and weaknesses that being humbled and lying low at the feet of God we may be vessels more capable of mercy God will not pour in the oyl of his mercy but into the vessels of a broken heart now the spirit of God by a sight and sense of our manifold infirmities doth empty us and work in us some kind of brokenness of heart and so fits us for mercy Secondly Again the spirit of God helps our infirmities likewise by acting his own graces in us by acting those beginnings of faith and love and humility and self-denial which he himself hath wrought in us Thirdly By stirring up in us holy motions holy desires and pantings and breathings after our heavenly Father even such breathings as these Psal 42.1 2. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God when wilt thou come to me when shall I come to thee And my soul followeth hard after God Fourthly The spirit of God helps our infirmimities by working in us a childlike-boldness enabling us to cry Abba Father we can come to God as a child to a Father Father I want this I want that God is delighted to hear the moan-makings of his poor children Fifthly By restraining Satan that he may not interrupt us and distract us in holy services for this is certain we seldom go to duty but Satan still stands at our right-hand When Joshua the high Priest stood before the Angel of the Lord Satan stood at his right-hand to resist him Zach. 3.2 But now Jesus Christ he is stronger than Satan and he by his spirit does rebuke him But there is one great objection I know will be ready to arise in every one of your hearts You say God is ready to hear and answer the prayers of his poor servants when they cry to him but some will say Experience seems to deny this Gods own servants pray oft and yet they have no answer nay God is sometimes angry with the prayers of his servants Psal 80.4 O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people the prophet Jeremy he professes he cryed to God and shouted and yet God shut out his prayers and wrapt himself in a cloud that his prayers should not pass through Lam. 3.44 Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through It may be some will say I have been praying for such a grace twenty thirty years together and yet have not got it for strength against such a corruption and yet have not got it For answer to this objection you must know First Gods people sometimes pray not when they seem to pray Secondly God hears his people when sometimes he seems not to hear First Gods people pray not when they seem to pray as when they pray coldly and carelesly this is as no prayer as the Apostle said in the like case When ye come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 as if he should say irregular unprepared receiving is not receiving at all as good never a whit as never the better so here cold careless formal customary prayer is as no prayer Dan. 9.13 All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that me might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth for these seventy years hath thine hand been heavy upon us yet we have not made our prayers before the Lord our God we made a shew of praying but our careless praying may be said to be no praying Again Gods people in praying may be said not to pray at all when they exercise only gifts in prayer and have not the grace of prayer for you must know the power and prevalency of
Master but the Lord Jesus Christ be under the conduct of no other Shepherd but only this O hear him fear him and follow him follow him whithersoever he goes follow him how by depending on him for direction by cleaving to him in heart and life follow him by imitation follow him by hearkning to his voice follow him by being ruled by him as before you are directed seeing he is the Lord over his own House let him Rule in his House let thy soul be his Temple wherein he may delight to dwell say Lord Rule in me as thou pleasest so I may but be thine Happy are they that are under the Government of Jesus Christ happy are they that submit themselves to his Guidance and Direction to his Law and his Spirit certainly such shall find him a merciful a meek a compassionate a tender-hearted Saviour who gathers his Lambs in his Arms and carries them in his Bosom and gently leads those that are with young Walking in Christ the Mark of our Receiving of Christ Coloss II. 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him THE holy Apostle having instructed these Colossians in the Doctrine of Christ in the foregoing Chapter arms them against Seducers and false Teachers that would have corrupted that Doctrine in this second Chapter It is not enough for Ministers to give wholsome food unto their people but they must also give them Antidotes against the poyson of corrupt Doctrines It is not enough for Ministers to feed their people but they must also fence their people against Wolves that would devour the flock Thus does the holy Apostle here he forewarns these Colossians and so fore-arms them against those Seducers that would beguile them with Philosophy with legal Ceremonies and worshipping of Angels and other such corrupt Doctrines mentioned here in this second Chapter To that end he lays down this weighty rule for them to observe As ye have therefore received the Lord Christ so walk ye in him In the Text you may take notice of two things First You have here a holy Rule prescribed in these words As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord Secondly a Practice answering that Rule here enjoyned so also walk ye in him As ye have The words will admit of a twofold interpretation Either take the sense thus As you have received the Doctrine of Christ by Epaphras who was a faithful Minister of Christ Chap. 1 7 so do you persevere in that Doctrine and live according to it this is the usual interpretation given of the words Or else they may be taken in this sense As you have received the Lord Christ that is as you have received him into your hearts by faith who is the way to eternal life so walk ye in him And as you have received grace from Christ so accordingly act that grace that you have received this is the interpretation that some give I shall stick rather to this latter interpretation in the handling of this Text. Many Doctrines may be gathered from this verse but because my purpose is to dispatch it in one Sermon as looking upon it as a seasonable Text a suitable Subject for a day wherein we have been partakers of the precious Ordinance of the Lords Supper I will name but two or three Doctrines and pitch upon the principal First As you have received Christ Jesus Observe Where the Gospel is rightly received Jesus Christ is also received with it Mark the Apostle does not say As you have received the Doctrine of Christ but Christ himself he that rightly receives the Doctrine of Christ receives Christ himself Oh then in how high reverence and esteem should we have the Gospel and what a prodigious sin are they guilty of that tread the precious Gospel under foot what a dreadful account have they to give 2 Thes 1.7 8 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Mark It is not enough to receive Jesus Christ as a Saviour but he must be received as a Lord as a Ruler also according to the tenour of my last Text Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Jesus Christ will be a Saviour to none but those to whom he is a Prince Bishop Davenant in his Commentary upon the Colossians says the false Apostles preacht Christ and their Disciples likewise received Christ but neither did the false Apostles preach him nor their Disciples receive him as Lord but they received him as a fellow-Servant with Moses therefore says the Apostle if you receive Christ rightly you must receive him as a Lord. Thirdly Here I might observe Walk ye in him That Christ is the way the living way the only way wherein we should walk The fourth and last Doctrine is that which will comprise the marrow of the Text and it is this That it is not enough for a Christian to receive Christ but he must also walk in Christ That you may understand the Doctrine aright let me open the terms to you There is a two-fold receiving of Christ an habitual and a gradual receiving of him First There is an habitual receiving of Christ of this speaks the Apostle 1 Joh. 12 To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe in his name But then secondly There is a gradual receiving of him and of this speaks the Apostle in this Chapter Col. 2.19 And not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God The whole body that is the Church of God and every Member being knit to the head that is to Jesus Christ having nourishment supplied from the head so the Members of Christ being supplied with nourishment from God increase with the increase of God Observe There is never a Member of Christ but is a growing Member there is a gradual receiving of Christ a receiving him more and more by degrees as well as an habitual receiving of him If you ask me What is the difference between these two receivings of Christ the habitual and gradual I answer the difference lies in two things First The habitual receiving of Christ is done but once the gradual is done often The habitual receiving of Christ is done but once as the Child is born into the World but once but it must be nourished and fed every day so we are spiritually born or regenerated but once but we must be nourished and we must likewise increase and grow in and up to Christ daily we must grow up to him as the Apostle phrases it grow up into him more and more Eph. 4.15 Secondly In
be more base in my own sight 2 Sam. 6.27 Lastly Act Grace humbly when you have done all that you can do say you are unprofitable servants and say with St. Paul It was not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Lastly I shall shew you in what seasons you must act Grace certainly Grace must be acted at all times but there are some special seasons wherein we must especially act Grace First Upon the receipt of some special Mercy then we should act Thankfulness more than ordinarily and say What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psal 116.12 Is Gods hand enlarged in bounty then let my heart be enlarged with thankfulness Secondly When you lye under a smarting Rod a piercing Affliction then act Faith and Patience A man usually never acts Grace better than when he is under some abasement a soul can better mannage a state of adversity than it can a state of prosperity for when it is in a state of abasement then it is at a less distance from God as Roses they are never so sweet as when they are in a Still and fire is under them never does our Graces usually send forth a sweeter favour than when God is pleased to exercise us with Afflictions David was never better than when he was under the Rod then he made those heavenly soul ravishing Psalms that you meet with in the book of Psalms The best Psalms the most heavenly and spiritual Psalms were made when David was in a low condition witness the 34 Psalm it s one of the sweetest Psalms you meet with when was it made when David was in the lowest condition that ever he was in when he was in that straight he was forced to feign himself mad 1 Sam. 21.13 See how Davids heart was enlarged in the making of this Psalm Thirdly Another fit season to act Grace in is when you receive the seals of the Covenant of Grace in the use of the holy Ordinance of the Lords Supper that is a time for you to act Grace in then should you be acting brokenness of heart for can you look upon a broken Saviour without a broken heart upon a bleeding Saviour without a bleeding heart then should you be acting Humility and say as Mephibosheth What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am 2 Sam. 9.8 Nay but here is more that thou shouldst not only look on me but set me at thy Table what a beggar a loathsom leprous beggar to sit at the Table of the King of Glory Then act Love to Jesus Christ what hath he loved me so dearly Oh how should I love him above all expressions of love and be sick of love to him Then act Faith especially for that is a grace you have most need of when you come to the Lords Table as now faith is the very eye whereby we look upon him it is the hand whereby we receive him it is the mouth whereby we feed on him says Christ except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you Joh. 6.52 53. He does not here speak of a Corporal eating of him far be it from us to have such a thought as they of Capernaum had how can this man give us his flesh to eat that man that believes in Christ he feeds on Christ Then be acting of Thankfulness after you have received the Lords Supper Oh what thanks shall I return to the Lord my God! Oh! my whole course of life should be nothing but a continual gratulation to my Father for that never-sufficiently admired gift of the Lord Jesus Christ If I had ten thousand thousand tongues I could never praise him sufficiently Then act holy Resignation of your selves up to Christ what did the Lord give himself for me I will give my self up to him was he crucified for my sins I will crucifie my sins for him Study conformity to him and that will evidence that you have Communion with him There is no more certain evidence of our Communion with Christ in his Graces Comforts Merits and Spirit c. than in our conformity to him when we resemble him in Grace here it is a certain evidence that we shall resemble him in Glory hereafter In one word do but make it your business to be acting your Grace and you may trust God for the bringing in of your Comforts the more you are active in Grace the more shall be your Comfort If we had more activity of Grace we should have more evidence of Christs dwelling in our hearts here and God would have more Glory our souls would have more peace and we should have abundance of more rejoycing in the day of our Lord Jesus CHRISTS TEMPTATION THE SAINTS SUPPORTATION A SERMON Preach'd Decemb. 9. 1657. Heb. II. 13. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted THE scope of the Apostle in the former Chapter is to prove that Jesus Christ is truly God therefore far above the Angels for says he in the fifth verse of that Chapter Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee In this Chapter the Apostle proves that Jesus Christ is truly man and therefore in that respect inferiour to the Angels Verse 9 But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour And because it might be demanded But why is it needful that Jesus Christ should be man why did he not take on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Verse 16. The Apostle give us four reasons why our blessed Saviour would be man why he took our human nature upon him First He did it for the sanctification of our nature and that reason is set down in v. 11 For both be that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one that is they are all of one and the same nature we come all from one common root Christ came from the same root that we did namely from Adam and this he did that he might sanctifie our nature Secondly The Lord Jesus Christ became man that he might in our nature and for our benefit destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil that is set down in Verse 14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil Thirdly He became man that he might deliver us not only from the hurt of death but deliver us also from the fear of death and that 's set down in Verse 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Fourthly He became man that by the experience of his sufferings in our
conversation he was unblameable he came so near Heaven that as St. Mark relates the story Mar. 10.21 Jesus beholding him loved him that is he looked upon him in a very friendly manner and pitied him that such a one should come so near to Heaven and yet come short of it by resting on his own self-righteousness he came near Heaven but yet he came short of it so Herod came near Heaven Mar. 6.20 he heard John Baptist gladly and he did many things that John Baptist bid him and yet he came short of it So you read of a Scribe Mar. 12.34 that answered very discreetly to our Saviour our Saviour tells him Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God and yet he came short of it What a sad thing was that So Agrippa Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian Act. 26.28 but yet he was not a whole Christian so he came near to Heaven but yet he came short of Heaven But here it may be demanded Quest But how far then may a man go on in the profession of the truth and true Religion and yet come short of Heaven To this I answer Truly a Professor may go so far that the hearing of it may make some of you tremble and to say What will become of me Now I shall shew you that in three particulars A man may have 1. A very glorious shew of grace and holiness and yet have no true grace at all 2. Admirable gifts and parts and qualifications and yet have no true grace at all 3. Some superficial beginnings and tasts of Grace and Holiness and yet have no truth of Grace but come short of Heaven First A man may have a very glorious shew of holiness and yet have no true grace and so come short of Heaven he may have something like grace as in a Garden Weeds may be so like good Herbs that it may be hard to know one from the other a man may have such a shew of grace that he may be thought to have grace in truth Let me give you instances in these four particulars First A man may be a fair civil carriaged man very innocent and inoffensive in his conversation one that doth not oppose the Gospel nor oppose the Truth this is something Some there are that are Lions of whom David complains Psalm 57.4 My soul is among Lions and I lye even among them that are set on fire Some there are that have Lion-like Spirits whose hearts are all set on fire that would overthrow Magistrates and Ministers and Sabbaths and Ordinances and all it is something for a man to be civil and inoffensive in his carriage that he is no Enemy to the Gospel Secondly A man may be a frequenter of Ordinances and a man may be a countenancer of Religion and an owner of Magistracy and Ministry and yet all this while have but a shew of grace and no true grace at all In Luke 13.26 27 there you have some that will say to our Saviour Lord we have eaten and drunk in thy presence and we have heard thee teach in our streets There are many that frequent Ordinances that come to the Assemblies of Gods people day after day and wait upon God in the use of his Ordinances some that honour the Ministers of God and yet for all that come short of Heaven Thirdly They may go farther they may be maintainers and supporter of Ministers both by their Persons and Purses and thus it was with Ananias and Sapphira they went and sold their possessions and laid them down at the Apostles feet and yet come short of Heaven Fourthly They may go so far not only to have a good opinion of themselves but they may gain the good opinion of others Nay they may be well thought of by those that are men of judgment those that are godly may think well of them that they are real Saints and that their names are written in the book of life as is meant by that Scripture in Psalm 69.28 where David saith Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous It cannot so be understood that a man that hath once his name written in the book of Life can have it blotted out but the meaning is this Blot them out of the book of Life that is discover their names were never written in that book discover them to be but Hypocrites though they carry themselves so fairly that for the present others do think that their names are written in the book of Life Judas carried the matter so fair that the rest of the Disciples questioned themselves rather than Judas Master is it I saith one of them Master is it I saith another they never dreamed that Judas should betray their Master Simon Magus carried the matter so fair that Philip that was one of the Deacons reckoned him to be a true Believer and was baptized and continued with Philip. This is the first particular That a man may have glorious shews of grace and holiness and yet have no true grace at all Secondly The second thing is to shew that a man may have admirable gifts and parts and qualifications that are like to grace and yet are not true grace For example A man may have an admirable gift in Preaching he may be a very able Preacher having a very acute and quick Invention a profound Judgment a retentive Memory a clear Elocution Judas I make no question was as good a Preacher as the rest of the eleven Apostles a man may preach to others and yet he himself in the mean while be a cast-away Oh we that are Preachers we may preach against Pride with proud hearts against Covetousness with covetous hearts press Self-denial with self-seeking hearts press Repentance with impenitent hearts we may preach these things and yet not feel them at all in our own hearts So a man may have an admirable gift in Prayer I do not say the grace of Prayer there is a great deal of difference between the gift and the grace of Prayer the gift of Prayer makes a man proud the grace of Prayer makes a man humble the gift of Prayer abounds in outward expressions the grace of Prayer consists in inward impressions upon the heart the gift of Prayer vents its self in publick but the grace of Prayer is most enlarged in private the gift of Prayer makes a man pray in his own strength but the grace of Prayer makes a man pray in the strength of Jesus Christ the gift of Prayer makes a man expect an eccho of praise from men but the grace of Prayer expects only the approbation of God the gift of prayer that may be lost but the grace of Prayer is never lost I say a man may have admirable gifts in Prayer excellent Expressions and seeming-impressions upon the heart some may pray like Saints and in the mean time live like Devils I am confident this deceives many Some there are that have
they have received they lose all they have and all they hope for All they have viz. Their present endeavours and all they hope for their future Reward 1. They lofe all they have all their praying reading hearing and communicating and humbling themselves before God all this will be lost if they do not persevere does not God himself say so Ezek. 18.24 When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness he does not speak there of one truly and really righteous in a state of grace one that is savingly righteous when he turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die So that a man loseth all he hath done in the business of Religion Saith Hierom We must be judged not by our past but by our present condition As the Tree falls so it lyes as death leaves us so shall judgment find us 2. He loseth all he hopes for too for the Crown is promised to none but to those that do hold out Be thou faithful to the death and thou shalt receive a Crown of life Rev. 2.10 Christianity is compared to a Race Let us run the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 Now as in a Race it is not enough for a man to begin well but he must hold out else he loseth the Gole so is it in the Race of Christianity therefore saith the Apostle so run that you may obtain not only run but so run that you may not lose the Gole 1 Cor. 9.24 2. Such as Christs love is to us such must our love to Christ be Christs love to us is a constant and unchangeable love whom he loves he loves to the end John 13.1 The Lord Christ is not only the beginner but the finisher of our faith Heb. 12.2 He did not leave the work of our Redemption imperfect but he held out until he came to consummatum est till he cryed out upon the Cross it is finished Reason Third may be this Christians must hold fast the grace they have received because Apostatizing and turning our backs upon God is a most dangerous damnable soul-destroying sin 1. It is dangerous in the Original of it it springs from four bitter roots 1. It springs from Infidenlity or Unbelief take heed saith the Apostle lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelies in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Unbelief is a damnable sin where it is not bemoaned bewailed and striven against but reigning unbelief is a damnable sin so saith our Saviour Mark 16. ult He that believes not shall be damned And he that believes not the wrath of God abides upon him for ever John 3. ult Now this Infidelity makes the soul depart from God and it makes God depart from the soul It was a great observation of an eminent Divine now with God Look as the first return of the soul to God is by Faith for Faith sets the Soul in joint it brings Christ and the Soul together so the first departing of the Soul from God is by unbelief for from thence comes a departing to other sins and this departing to other sins encreaseth our unbelief and unbelief being encreased the rent or breach between God and the Soul is made wider and wider till at last the Soul comes to a total departing from God and then God totally departs from the Soul and says Depart from me thou cursed wretch I know thee not Now this same Apostacy it springs from Unbelief 2. This Apostacy springs from Hypocrisie for usually Hypocrisie ends in Apostacy as I have told you often Judas the Hypocrite proved Judas the Apostate Amaziah did that that was right in the eyes of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 25.2 therefore Amaziah the Hypocrite proved Amaziah the Apostate In Psal 78.37 it is said there Their hearts were not upright neither remained they stedfast in his Covenant Why were they not stedfast why did not they keep constant to the ways of God to the Vows and Covenants made with God their hearts were not upright where grace is sincere it will be lasting but that which is counterfeit will be lost whatever is counterfeit is fading 3. It springs from Pride and Presumption when men think they have grace enough and holiness enough and have gone far enough in the way to Heaven this is the root of Apostacy there is a gradual as well as a total Apostacy the Saints and Servants of God may be guilty of gradual Apostacy so Peter was though not of total Apostacy it was Peters presumption that was one principal cause of his fall lofty Cedars are thrown down with a Tempest when the lower Trees in the Valley stand firm and fast So likewise lofty Christians high in their own conceits many times nestle themselves on high and their fall is great whereas Christians that walk humbly are supported and preserved Look as a man that gazeth at the Stars looks up on high quickly catches a fall because he looks not to his feet So a man that is highly conceited in his own opinion lifts up his head on high many times catches a feaful fall it is just with God to leave such men to try them Hezekiah though a very gracious King yet when his heart was listed up with Pride 2 Chron. 32.25 the Text saith God left him to himself to try what was in his heart in ver 31. That Solomon speaks of falling into misery is as true of falling and declining in grace Prov. 16.18 Pride goes before destruction and a haughty Spirit before a fall 4. Apostacy springs from Covetousness and worldliness look as the seed in the thorny ground it brought nothing to perfection because it was choaked with the cares riches and pleasures of this world as you may read in the Parable of the Sower Luke 8.14 So it is here where the heart is stuft with covetousness and the cares of this life that is usually a forerunner of a fearful fall Demas hath forsaken me having embraced this present world what was the ground of his Apostacy but his worldliness and selfishness so that Apostacy is dangerous in the Original of it Secondly It is damnable in the effects of it for 1. This puts Jesus Christ to open shame in Heb. 6.6 Apostates crucifie Christ afresh and put him to open shame for by falling away from him we do as much as tell the world we have found his service that it was an unprofitable service the service of the world is better than his service and that we have not found in Christ what we expected when we turn our backs on Christ and go to the world we do as much as openly proclaim the world is a better Master than Christ is When Soldiers forsake their
in the Law blameless As to his outward man he was blameless none could say that black was his eye yet all these Priviledges he esteemed loss and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ And then consider who it was that did undervalue them it was Paul a Scholar a man of Parts a man of no mean City but of the City of Tarsus in Cilicia Acts 21.39 It was Paul that was not a Novice in Religion that knew not what he said but Paul the Aged that was well experienced in such things that knew very well what he said it is he that passes this account of all things in comparison of Jesus Christ I says he esteem all these Priviledges and if I had a thousand times as many more I would esteem them but loss and dross and dung as nothing in comparison of Christ Oh how invaluable was Jesus Christ to holy Paul that was a Believer But for the better understanding of this Point that we may see how excellent and precious Christ is to a Believer how highly he is prized by him First It may be demanded Who are those Believers to whom Christ is precious Secondly Why is Christ so precious to them First Who are those Believers to whom Christ is precious I answer Not they that have only an Historical Faith of Christ to know that there was such a Saviour that came into the World and that he was God and Man and that he is able to save to the uttermost those that come to him Nor they that have only a temporary Faith such a Faith as they had which you read of in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13 They that received the seed into stony places the same are they which hear the Word and anon with joy receive it but they have no root and for a while believe but in time of temptation and persecution they fall away Luke 8.13 Not they I say that thus have only an historical Faith or only a temporary Faith but they are said to be Believers that are contented to take Jesus Christ upon his own terms to receive him as their King and Priest and Prophet they that can be content to close with him and to cleave to him as to the work of their Salvation and that can say with Job Though thou kill me I will put my trust in thee Job 13.15 In a word They are said to be Believers that can rest and rely upon Jesus Christ that can cast their Souls into his Arms to sink or swim with him to live or die with him to be saved or damned with him it is the true Believer the Text here speaks of when the Apostle says here To you that believe he is precious you must not understand it of a formal believer neither must you understand it of a hypocritical believer you must not understand it of those that have a false Faith but of those that have a true Faith I told you not long ago which some of you may remember out of that Text Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith That there was a false and counterfeit Faith as well as a true Faith for example I told you First That that is an easie Faith that is easily let into the Soul without any work of conviction contrition and humiliation That Faith that hath no tears nor prayers nor earnest endeavours paid for the purchase of it is cheap ware and not worth a farthing Secondly That Faith that is an idle and an ineffectual Faith that is never working upon the precepts of God to obey them nor on the Promises of God to embrace them nor on the Threatnings of God to tremble at them Thirdly That Faith that is an unthriving Faith that never grows under the means of Grace True Faith is a growing Faith 2 Thess 1.3 says the Apostle We are bound to thank God always for you Brethren as it is meet because that your Faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth Fourthly That Faith that is a loose and licentious Faith that Faith that hath room for Christ and room for any reigning lust also room for Christ and room for the World and the things of it when a man can pretend love to Jesus Christ and yet live in a known sin whereas the true Faith purifies the heart Acts 15.9 And put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith To them that have such a Faith this false counterfeit Faith this easie idle unthriving loose and licentious Faith to them Christ is not at all precious they see no beauty at all in him But they that have this true Faith that is ushered in by conviction and humiliation that is a growing Faith an operative and working Faith this holy Faith as it is called in the 26 verse of the Epistle of Saint Jude But ye Beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost To them that have this true Faith to them Jesus Christ is precious and they are the Believers the Text here speaks of So much of the first who are those Believers to whom Jesus Christ is precious Secondly Why is Jesus Christ so precious to such Believers You see who they are but why is he so precious to them so highly prized by them Divers reasons might be rendered I shall give you these five or or six First Jesus Christ is so highly prized by Believers because they see the indispensable need that they have of him that without him they are lost dead damned and undone for ever therefore they prize him because they know they cannot live without him They know that a condemned Prisoner hath not more need of a pardon a poor beggar that is ready to starve in the streets hath not more need of food nor a naked man more need of cloaths nor a sick man more need of a Physitian than they have of Jesus Christ and therefore they prize him They know they are foolish yea folly it self therefore they have need of him to be their wisdom to guide them they know they are guilty Sinners therefore they know they have need of his Righteousness to clear them they know they are poluted and defiled Sinners therefore they have need of his blood to purifie them they know they are exposed to the wrath of a Sin-revenging God and the curse of the condemning Law and the condemnation of the second Death therefore they have need of him to be their Redemption They know that they are infinitely indebted that they owe to God a debt of ten thousand Talents which they are never able to discharge and therefore they have need of Christ to be their Surety they know they are weak and able to do nothing without him without me says Christ ye can do nothing and they know Christ is their strength as well as Redeemer and that through Christ they can do all things Phil. 4.13
the Holy Ghost may have but it is that Knowledg that is darted into the Soul by the Holy Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.9 10 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The Apostle speaks it of the Kingdom of Grace as well as of the Kingdom of Glory Man doth not know the work of the Spirit of Grace upon the heart but saith he in the words following God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And it is the Spirit of God that is said to guide us into all truth John 16.13 That is the first thing in the Description it is a saving work of the Spirit of God Secondly It is a Knowledg whereby a Believer hath received satisfying light First A Believer hath received light The truth is none doth know the Truth aright but he that believes it therefore believing and knowing the Truth are joyned together 1 Tim. 4.3 Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth Thirdly I note this whereby a Believer receiving satisfying light But what is that light may be some of you will say that may be called satisfying light I answer and shall give you an account of it in these five particulars First That is a satisfying Light that is joyned with a powerful Conviction upon the Conscience when the Spirit of God doth eonvince us of sin and of Righteousness and Judgment John 16.8 That is a satisfying Light when the Spirit of God breaks in upon the Soul with such an irresistible Light that a man cannot gainsay it or withstand it for example When the Sun is risen in the morning a man then knows it is day and if a thousand should say to the contrary he would say I know it is day Such is the light of the Spirit of God it is an irresistible light it breaks in upon the heart with that power that the heart cannot gainsay it Secondly That is a satisfying Light which settles and stablisheth a man in the present Truth that he will not be removed from it When a man is rooted in the Faith setled and stablished in Jesus Christ then he hath received a satisfying Light Thirdly That is a fatisfying Light when a man can act Faith upon that light he hath received and make bold adventures for the Truth that he hath embraced when he can act Faith upon it so did those three Worthies in Daniel 3.17 they had received such satisfying Light that God was the true God and his Worship the true Worship that they ventured a Furnace for it say they If it be so Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King but if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship thy Golden Image which thou hast set up Fourthly That is a satisfying Light which will enable a man to discern between Truth and falsehood though Errour be masked with never such fair pretences yet notwithstanding a man shall be able to discover that Errour and abhor it and though Truth be eclipsed with never so many false Glosses and Interpretations and never so much opposed yet a man can discern it and close with it and cleave to it Fifthly This is a satisfying Light that will enable a man to reconcile some seeming differences that are in the Scriptures Let me give you an instance in one or two those two places compared together Gen. 6.6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart but in Numb 23.19 it is said God is not as man that he should lye neither the Son of man that he should repent Now a man that hath this satisfying Light he knows how to reconcile these two places thus Repentance in God is not a change of his Will but of his Work God is said to repent after the manner of men because he doth those things that man doth when he repents Let me give you another instance Saint Paul tells us Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law But Saint James he tells the quite contrary James 2.25 Ye see then how by Works a man is justified and not by Faith only Now a man that hath satisfying Light he reconciles these two thus Saint Paul he speaks of justification before God and Saint James he speaks of Justification before men We are justified before God by Faith only we are justified before men by works Again they may be reconciled thus Faith doth justifie our Persons but good works doth justifie our Faith Good works are no part of our Justification but only a proof of our Justification Lastly In the Description I say this A Believer having received a satisfying Light gives up his understanding resolvedly to those Truths that are revealed to him But you will say When doth a man give up his understanding resolvedly to those Truths revealed to him I will tell you First When he is resolved to part with every sin that the Word of God disallows and condemns though it be as dear to him as his right hand or his right eye and when he can practice every Duty that the Word of God commands though it be never so difficult As for Example the duty of Mortification and Self-denyal and contempt of the World when he can purifie his heart by believing and obeying the Truth 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit And it is said of many of the Priests that they were obedient to the Faith Acts 6.7 And St. Paul said Acts 26.19 that he was not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision Secondly A man gives up his understanding resolvedly to the truth when he can plead for the truth and not plead against it Saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.8 For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth Doctor Taylor the Martyr in Queen Maries days he laid down his life for this truth That it was lawful for Ministers to marry I know said he that it is not a fundamental truth but because I know it is the truth of God rather than I will part with any truth I will part with my life So then when a man can thus resolvedly give up his understanding to the truth that he will part with his life rather than part with the truth then hath he attained to this certainty of Knowledg indeed And thus you see the Description of it and have the Point opened now let me make Application of it Vse 1. If this be a certain truth That they that do the Will of God shall not only know more of Gods
prayer doth not consist in the neatness of the phrase nor in the redundancy of rhetorick nor in curious oratory it consists not in outward expressions but it consists in the humility of a spirit wounded and looking up to God it consists in this God looks at this the frame of the spirit not at the outward expressions in prayer a man may by the strength of parts have an excellent gift in prayer and yet not the grace thereof If you ask me How may a man know the difference between the gift of prayer and the grace of prayer I answer briefly you may know it by these particulars First The gift of prayer vents it self in publick more than in private but now the grace of prayer vents it self more in private than in publick it will enable a man in his private closet to pour out his soul before God when there is no witness but his heavenly Father and his own conscience Secondly You shall observe the gift of prayer puffs a man up with pride but now the grace of prayer makes a man very lowly and base in his own eyes the more grace a man hath in his heart the more base he will be in his own account even in his greatest enlargements Thirdly The gift of prayer makes a man pray in the strength of his parts but now the grace of prayer makes a man pray in the strength of Jesus Christ Fourthly The gift of prayer expects an eccho of commendation from men but now the grace of prayer that expects only an approbation from God Fifthly The gift of prayer vents it self in outward expressions but the grace of prayer consists in the inward impressions upon the heart not the outward expressions of the mouth Sixthly The gift of prayer will quiet the heart for the present but it doth not purifie the heart it will quiet the heart it will stop the mouth of a chiding conscience which otherwise would be rating at us if a man neglect prayer as a gift his conscience will be unquiet but now the grace of prayer will not only quiet but purifie the conscience The second part of the answer to the objection is this The objection was this Experience seems to deny this truth that God is ready to hear and answer the prayers of his people I have a second answer and that is this God may be said to hear and answer the prayers of his people when he seems not to hear as we may seem to pray when we do not pray so God may be said to hear when he seems not to hear for example First God seems not to hear when he hears when he puts our prayers into his book and our tears into his bottle when he hath a book of remembrance for our prayers when our prayers are upon the file though for the present we do not see them answered Acts 10.4 God speaks to Cornelius there Thy prayers and alms are come up for a memorial before me Cornelius was ready to think I have prayed thus long I have lost all my labour I see no fruit no benefit of them but saith God to him Thy prayers are in remembrance they are upon the file for all that Secondly God hears when he seems not to hear namely when he is fitting us for the mercy he intends to bestow upon us God makes his people wait for a mercy as appears out of those words Isa 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth away his face from the house of Jacob and will look up And God says that he will wait that he may be gracious Isa 30.18 God waits opportunities to bestow mercies when they are most seasonable when his people are fitted for mercy A man that is about to pour in some precious oyl into a glass if he see some dirt at the bottom of the glass he stops his hand for the present says he Let the glass be washt first then I will pour in the oyl so if our hearts be once washt and fit ro receive the mercy we beg then God will bestow it Jer. 4.14 Oh Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayst be saved when we wash away our sins by repentance and are fit for mercy then God bestows it on us in the mean time he hears though he seems not to hear Thirdly God hears when he seems not to hear when he hears according to our wants though not according to our wills when he bestows upon us that which is better than that we pray for Psalm 34.10 The greedy Lions shall lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing if it be good for them they shall not want it if peace and plenty and prosperity were good for them they shall not want it but God would bestow it upon them but if they would abuse their peace and plenty and prosperity to pride and presumption then the denial of them would be a great mercy God sometimes denies that in mercy to his children which he grants in anger to wicked and ungodly men it is better a thousand times to be under the frowns of Gods favour than under the smiles of his vengeance it is better to weep with Christ than sport with Satan its better to be a corrected child than a cockered bastard If we want chastisement whereof all are partakers then are we bastards and not sons Heb. 12.8 it s better to be chastised of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world than spared with the world and condemned to all eternity A man at the first view would wonder at Gods dealing with Paul and his dealing with Satan Satan begged that he might have liberty to tempt Job God answered Satan and gives him leave Job 1 Go thy way and tempt him Paul on the other side he earnestly begged to be free from the buffetings of Satan he begged thrice that God would remove the thorn in the flesh and this was all the answer he could have for the present 2 Cor. 12 My grace is sufficient for thee Why may some say doth God answer Satan in his request about Jobs sufferings and not Paul in his request about the Devils buffeting him why was God more ready to gratify Satan in his request than Paul in his who was a chosen vessel A man would wonder at this but if you observe it well Paul was heard in that he was not heard and the Devil was not heard in that he was heard First Paul was heard in that he was not heard for he was heard to his advantage though he was not heard in the letter of his request he beg'd that the thorn in the flesh might be removed Gods answer was My grace is sufficient for thee God in giving him supporting grace under the temptation gave a fitter mercy for Paul than the removal of the temptation because God saw that Paul by reason of the multitude of his Revelations had need to be kept humble therefore
of grapes if there be but one cluster If there be but one Cherry on a tree it shews there is some life in the tree one Cherry upon a tree it shews there is life as well as if there was twenty Pounds upon it one Cherry shews that it is a living tree and a man will not cut down that tree The Lord Christ will cherish the least beginnings of grace if there be but a spark of grace in the soul he will not quench it but blow it up into a flame Look as Physicians deal with diseased Patients they do not administer purging Potions according to the greatness of their distempers but according to the strength of their Patients So the Lord Jesus Christ deals with his own children not according to the diseases and distempers that are in them not according to the distempers of their sins but according to the measure of their strength he will not lay on them more than he will give them strength to bear These are the reasons of the point Before I come to the Application of the point Because this is Childrens bread and Dogs are ready to snatch at it that yet have no right to it therefore for the explication of the point there are these three Quaeries that would be satisfied First What an Infirmity is Secondly What are the causes of those Infirmities Thirdly What are the signs and symptoms of those Infirmities First What an Infirmity is An infirmity briefly in the soul is this Some sickness or indisposition of the soul that arises from the weakness of grace Or an Infirmity is this When the purpose and inclination of the heart is upright but a man wants strength to perform that purpose when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Matth. 26.41 when a man can say with the Apostle To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Rom. 7.18 When the bent and inclination of the soul is right but either through some violence of corruption or strength of temptation a man is diverted and turned out of the way As the needle in the Seamans Compass you know if it be right it will stand always Northward and the bent of it will be towards the North-Pole being jogged and troubled it may sometimes be put out of frame and order yet the bent and inclination of it is still Northward This is an infirmity That 's the first Secondly What are the causes of these Infirmities there are divers causes you must know of our infirmities as First An infirmity may arise from want of age for want of time to gather strength The Lord Christ you must know hath Lambs in his Fold as well as Sheep and he hath plants in his Orchard as well as stronger Trees and Babes as well as strong Men. Now says the Apostle I write to you Babes and little Children because your sins are pardoned for his name-sake 1 John 2.12 Observe there that remission of sin is bestowed not only upon young men that are strong to resist temptations not only upon aged men that are well experienced in the ways of grace but it is bestowed even upon Babes I write unto you little Children because your sins are pardoned for his name-sake Secondly Our infirmities may arise also from a want of the means of grace either when men want milk or the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 or have but little of it Thirdly Infirmities may arise from some secret corruption that was undiscovered in our first conversion This may be an occasion of an infirmity for that may both weaken the soul and exceedingly distemper and disquiet it Fourthly Our infirmities may arise from forsaking sound and solid truths and disquieting our thoughts with doubtful disputations as the Apostle calls them Rom. 14.1 when men trouble their heads with trifles or with matters of less moment and in the mean while neglect the marrow of Religion even as little Children that forsake wholsome food and feed on green apples and so put their bodies into distempers Fifthly Our infirmities may arise from this when our affections are too much carried out after the World and the things of the World for certain it is look how much the soul is carried out after the world so much the weaker it is the stronger our love to the world is the weaker is our love to Jesus Christ and to grace and spiritual things Sixthly Our infirmities may arise from the not right ordering of our company dead company dead and barren company many times make dead and barren hearts Seventhly Our infirmities may arise from our losing our first love remitting of the zeal and intention and forwardness that once we had in the ways of grace when we grow loose and slothful in the service of our God and do not stir up the grace of God that is in us 2 Tim. 1.6 Exercise you know encreaseth strength but want of exercise many times occasions weakness When a man prays coldly hears the word of God coldly communicates at the Lords Table coldly The more coldness there is in the performance of the Duties of Religion the more weakness there will be in the soul These are the causes of our infirmities Thirdly It may be demanded What are the signs and symptoms of an Infirmity briefly I shall give you these four First Where there are infirmities there is spiritual life though there be want of spiritual strength this is a certain sign of an infirmity You know there is a great deal of difference between a dead man and a weak man a dead man that hath not life and a weak man that hath life and wants strength It cannot be said of any wicked man that he is a weak man but he is a dead man neither can it be said that he does any thing weakly but he does it wickedly Observe what our Saviour speaks of a bruised reed he speaks of it as a thing that yet hath some life in it for a reed though it be exceeding weak that it is shaken with every wind yet by the side of the water it grows it hath life in it Make this sure to thy self that thou hast life in thee or else the comfort of this Doctrine cannot belong to thee if so be thou hast life in thee though thy Grace be weak yet if thou hast life it is but an infirmity But you will say How may I know I have life in me I answer You may know it thus First Thou mayst know it by thy spiritual feeling thou wilt feel what hurts thee thou wilt feel sin to be a great burthen and thou wilt groan under it and thou wilt bemoan thy self like Ephraim Jer. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God surely after that I was turned I repented and after that
I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Secondly Thou mayst know it by that spiritual strife and combat and conflict that is in thee certainly there will be a conflict in thy soul because there are two contrary principles there put water to water or fire to fire and there is no conflict but put water and fire together and there will be a great conflict So corruption will not strive with corruption but where there is Grace and corruption in one soul there will be a combat and conflict the Flesh will lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 Thirdly Thou mayst know thou hast life in thee by thy spiritual crying thou wilt cry out for deliverance from danger and evil O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Thou wilt make this the chief subject of thy suit and supplication to God from day to day O that once I might be freed from a base whorish backsliding-backsliding-heart that continually is departing from God Fourthly If thou hast life certainly that grace thou hast though it be but weak though it be but little though it be but as a spark yet it shall prevail against corruption for wherever the Lord Christ enters into the soul to dwell there he comes like a Conquerour and he brings forth Judgment unto victory Matth. 12.20 That is his Government shall be victorious over all the opposition of sin and Satan Grace like oyl will be uppermost if there be but a spark of Grace in thy heart it shall not be quenched but it shall rather increase more and more and at last shall grow up into a flame as the fire of the Lord that came upon Elijahs offering 1 Kings 18.38 consumed the burnt-sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench Grace is a fire that comes down from Heaven though there be but a little spark of it at first yet by little and little it will lick up all the water of our corruptions and consume our sins Grace will grow stronger and stronger and corruption weaker and weaker That is the first symptom of an infirmity If there be spiritual life in the soul but if there be not spiritual life there is no infirmity Secondly The second Sign or Symptom of an infirmity is this That may be said to be an infirmity when some particular action crosses the main intention of the heart If thine eye be single if thy heart be upright if the Byas and bent of thy soul be towards God then all the obliquity or all the swervings in thy life are but lookt upon as infirmities For example A good Archer that is handling his Bow may-be his eye is right and his aim is right but through the weakness of his hand or the distemper of his Bow he may miss the Mark that is an infirmity So here if thy eye be right towards Gods Commandments if thy intention be to please God if the bent and byas of thy soul be God-ward not sin-ward then all the rest of the obliquity or swervings that are in thy actions are lookt upon but as infirmities As a Traveller for example in his journey if he set his face the right way and he be enquiring the way and willing to follow the way or if when he goeth out of the way he check himself though he may miss of the way through ignorance or may be seduced by some that told him wrong yet that may be said to be but an infirmity So here when thou canst set thy face towards Heaven as the children of Israel and Judah are described Jer. 50.5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten When a man thus sets his face towards Heaven then his wandrings out of the way if they be beside the intention of his purpose and mind are lookt upon but as infirmities David was out of his way when in a fury he would be avenged on Nabal for his churlishness when he said God do so to me and more also if I cut not off Nabal and every one that belongs to his Family yet when Abigail a wise Woman comes and tells him he was out of his way how glad was he and stops his course and said Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with my own hand 1 Sam. 25.32 33. See the difference between the sin of Judas and the sin of Peter Judas you know he sinned with deliberation and his intention was stark naught his intention and purpose of betraying his Master was to inrich himself he was a Thief and nibled money out of his Masters Bag therefore his intention was naught But on the contrary look on Peter when he thrice denyed his Master it was a great sin too but it was without his intention or purpose certainly Peter had no intention at all to deny his Master but it fared with him as a man that is writing with his Pen in his hand and writing a straight Line but it may be some body comes and joggs him on the Elbow so he makes a crooked line against his will Or as a man that is shooting at a Mark but some body comes and joggs his Elbow and makes his Arrow to go awry thus was it with Peter This is the second Sign or Symptome of an infirmity Thirdly That is an Infirmity when a mans judgment is kept sound and upright that he does not approve of any sin when no sin hath any allowance or approbation in his heart this was the fruit of John Baptist his Preaching Isa 40.4 Every Valley shall be exalted and every Mountain and Hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain that is those that are converted by John Baptists preaching they would not look on crooked things as plain or plain things as crooked that is they would not defend or justifie themselves in sin but look upon sin as sin and duty as duty and they would not look upon the ways of God as crooked but straight they were indeed crooked to them before because their judgment was not sound but now they look upon them as straight and all his ways to be equal ways A child of God will be sure to commend that duty which yet he cannot practise and he will be sure to condemn that sin into which yet he often slips and falls and that because his judgment is right duty will be duty in his eye and sin will be sin in his eye though through infirmity he may fail in the one and fall into the
2 Cor. 1.4 5. The grace of God is given for this end to dispence to others Fourtly A fourth reason is this If you do not act your graces God shall lose his glory and his glory should be dearer to you than your liberty and all your outward comforts It is a true speech of him that said the truth of grace doth save my soul but the acting of grace makes for the honour of God the truth of Grace makes for my safety but the acting of grace makes for the service of God in the place I am in Now a child of God hath the glory of God lying near his heart says a child of God I would lose my life rather than the end of my life I would be usefully spent for God for the honour of God for the name of God in living in suffering in dying rather than to enjoy all the honours or pleasures or treasures that the world can afford Thus you see the point opened and made good to you Now for the Use of it and there are three Uses I shall make of it First By way of Information If they that have grace must be acting and increasing of it then certainly it follows That they that have no grace had need to get it If they that have received Christ Jesus must walk in him then they that have not received him certainly they have great need infinite need to close with him O the miserable and doleful and damnable condition of all those that for the present are in a Christless condition in a graceless condition no tongue of men or Angels is able sufficiently to express it no tears of blood can sufficiently bewail it If any of you die in such a condition you must resolve to die everlastingly and to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. you must resolve to be satisfying of a sin-revenging God in hell and yet never be able to satisfie him you must be always dying and yet never die Rev. 6 And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them This will be the condition of all those that die Christless that die graceless that have not received Christ into their hearts and that have not got grace into their hearts oyl into their lamps they shall be alway dying and yet never die O with what weeping and wailing and wringing of their hands and tearing of their hair and renting of the cawl of their hearts shall they cry out O that I might dye and dye and never have a being more O that I might dye the most cursed the most tormenting the most painful death that ever creature on earth dyed so I may but dye But this is the misery of all misery I live to dye and must live eternally This is the condition of all those that have not got Christ in their hearts O then why do you rest in such a condition one week nay one day O if ever there were any love to your souls kindled in your breasts any desire of salvation wrought in you any care of escaping those unconceivable tortures and torments resolve to receive Jesus Christ upon his own terms and say O Lord rule in me as thou pleasest so I may be but thine resolve to receive him as a Prince as well as a Saviour It was a point I pressed upon you with all my might from Acts 5.31 Receive Jesus Christ to give you repentance as well as remission of sins He is a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and forgiveness of sins He gives repentance before he gives remission if he gives nor repentance for sin he never gives remission of sin O resolve to trade for him some of you know no other trade but to treade in the world to be tumbling up and down in dirt and clay and to provide for your Families a Heathen man may do as much as you do O that you would be perswaded to drive a Trade for heaven for grace for saving-grace That which Solomon speaks of wisdom I may say of every grace Prov. 4.7 Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding So say I grace is the principal thing therefore with all thy getting get grace It is no matter though thou be poor in the World if thou beest rich in grace If thou shouldst be rich in the World and get thy Coffers full of gold and silver yet if thou get no grace in thy heart it had been better that thou hadst never been born Secondly By way of reproof Here is a just and sharp reproof even of Gods own children that have received Christ and yet do not walk in him do not walk worthy of him in all well-pleasing that have received grace and yet do not act grace but rather wrap it up like a Talent in a Napkin I cannot speak it without indignation How many Christians are there some of whom I am really perswaded they are the Servants of Jesus Christ yet they are sick of a spiritual Lethargy Appoplexy they are in a spiritual slumber a man in an Appoplex hath his reason he is a reasonable man but he cannot make use of his reason what is man the better for his wealth if he does not make use of his wealth so what am I the better for grace if I do not make use of it for the glory of God and the good of others In Matth. 25 you read the five wise Virgins slumbered as well as the five foolish It is a sad thing when even Gods own children true Professors shall be slumbering yet the five wise Virgins slumbered as well as the five foolish Yet this is the condition of the Servants of God at this day I can hardly meet with any but their grace is suspended they are fallen asleep their activity for for God and their acting of grace is lull'd asleep I pray God he do not thunder against us as once the Mariners did to Jonah What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not Jonah 1.6 When the wind roars and the waters rage and the storms arise and there is but a step between thee death and thou asleep is it not a shame for thee to be snorting when the ship is in danger of sinking so may it be said of all us who are asleep in security I pray God that he do not awake us with a rushing wind It may be the rod may come sooner on us than we are aware and a sharper rod than we are aware of Oh that I could but awaken my own soul then I might hope to help to awaken you out of this spiritual slumber then you would say to me as David did to Abigail Blessed be God and blessed be thou that hast given me this counsel this day 1 Sam. 25.32 33. Blessed be God that thou hast awakened me out
of my sloth and security The third and last Use it is for Exhortation If so be it is not enough for Christians to receive Christ and to receive grace but they must be walking in Christ and they must be acting of their grace then I beseech you to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle here I cannot give you the exhortation in better words than these in the Text As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Oh be walking in Christ Oh be acting of your grace Oh be stirring up your selves to take hold of God Oh be stirring up the grace of God that is in you Oh be active Christians be not sleepy Christians be not dull drowsie dead-hearted in matters of everlasting salvation You have but little time to spend and you have need to spend it well every day brings you nearer your graves Oh that every day might bring you nearer to God God is continually acting for you he is an overflowing and an ever-flowing Fountain of goodness God is continually renewing his mercy upon you Jesus Christ is continually interceding for you the Spirit of God is continually knocking at the dore of your hearts And is God acting for you and will you act nothing for God Secondly consider Wicked men they are continually acting for Satan continually doing the Devils drudgery what a shame is it that wicked men should take more pains to go to hell than Gods children should take to go to heaven Judas was as busie as could be that night to betray his Master plotting and contriving how to betray Christ into the hands of the Jews when the rest of his Disciples were sleeping Judas was waking to do the Devils work I beseech you let not wicked men rise up in judgment against you let not them be more vigorous and active in the work of sin than you are in the work of grace and holiness Thirdly consider If you be not acting your graces God may justly leave you to be acting your corruptions if you be not acting one way you will be acting another way if you be not acting grace be sure the Devil will set you on work to be grinding of his grist The mind of man is like a Mill it is always grinding Chaff or Wheat if you be not doing Gods work you will be doing Satans work On the contrary see what the Apostle says Gal 5.16 This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh Be walking in the spirit be acting the grace you have received then you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh though it is true those lusts of the flesh and cursed corruptions will be stirring in you yet you will never fulfil the lusts of the flesh It may be you may be drawn to act them to be sold under sin as the poor captive is carried into captivity against his mind and will so you may be held under sin and carried captive by it but you will never willingly fulfil the lust of the flesh But then may be you will say What means or helps or directions can you prescribe to this end that we may act grace Briefly in answer to this and so I have done First I will shew you in whose strength you must act grace Secondly In what manner you must act grace Thirdly In what seasons you must act grace First in whose strength you must act grace I told you before no man can do it in his own strength therefore you must go out of your selves and run to the Lord Jesus Christ Hos 11.3 I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their Arm. God does not only give us spiritual life but he also gives us strength He did not only give Ephraim life but he gave him strength I taught Ephraim to go leading them by the arm I remember the speech of Sampson Judges 16.20 when his locks were cut off the Text says And he awoke out of his sleep and said I will go out as at other times before and shake my self and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him I may apply it thus Many times we set about duty in our own strength and we think to do such and such duties as before but alas when the spirit of God is withdrawn we are as weak as Sampson was when his locks were cut off On the contrary Let the King sit but at his table then our Spicknard sendeth forth the smell thereof Cant. 1.12 that is let Jesus Christ be but with us then our graces which are compared to Spicknard send forth a sweet smell If the wind blow upon our Garden that is the spirit of God working in the soul Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the spices thereof may flow out Cant. 4.16 then the spices will flow forth If the Sun shine upon the Marygold how soon does the Mary-gold open Oh make sure of the presence of Jesus Christ with you say Lord let me have thy grace with me as well as thy grace in me Secondly I will shew you how or in what manner you must act Grace First You must act your Graces evenly not by girds and starts Walking we say is an equal and even Motion some there are that are very forward that will run for a quarter of a mile then they sit down having run themselves out of breath this is the case of many forward Professors Oh they seem for a while to be very zealous God-ward and Grace-ward but then they faint and flag and grow weary of the ways of God See what the Prophet David says Psal 119.112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always even unto the end That is a right acting of Grace indeed a man that resolves to keep Gods statutes alway to the end Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end in verse 33 of the same Psalm Secondly As you must act Grace evenly so you must act it orderly that is you must not turn aside either to the right hand or to the left This is one of Gods own commands Deut. 5.32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left Thirdly You must act your Grace Evangellically to do all your duties from Christ by Christ and to Christ from Christ as the Root by Christ as the Rule and to Christ as the end Let Christ be the Spring let him be the Guide and let him be the Centre of all your actings Fourthly See that you act all your Graces likewise couragiously that you may say Nothing shall daunt me or discourage me in the way that I have undertaken As David in the business of his dancing before the Lord which was an evidence of his exceeding great zeal when Michal scoft at him savâ— he I will yet be more vile than thus and
she was continually haunted with Satans temptations said she Satan I am but a weak woman I am not able to answer all thy cavils and objections but I will turn thee over to my Advocate I have an Advocate in Heaven to plead my cause and after that she was never solicited by him So do you turn over thy case to thy Advocate as a poor Client does that has got a learned and faithful Advocate leaves his cause with him turn over all to thy Advocate that appears in the presence of God continually for thee Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us he appears as our Advocate And if God do not answer thee speedily or if he do not answer thee in the Letter of thy request yet if thou canst but get such a frame of heart as those three Worthies had Dan. 3.17.18 Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery-furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship thy golden-image which thou hast set up So do thou say to Satan God is able to deliver me out of thy hands but yet if he do not I am resolved I will not yield unto thee Satan but I will lye at the feet of God and look up If God do but give such a gracious frame of spirit as this thou mayst be confident this Text shall be fulfilled to thee and that heaven and earth shall pass away before this truth shall pass away held forth in this Doctrine That Christs sufferings and temptations stir up in his heart a compassion to succour and relieve us in our sufferings and Temptations Fear of missing Salvation or the way to obtain Salvation HEB. IV. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it IN the last Text that I opened unto you out of 2 Tim. 1.10 And hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel I shewed you That the Salvation of God or eternal Life and Salvation was revealed to the sons of men by the preaching of the Gospel and how infinitely we stand indebted and engaged to our God for our Gospel-mercies and Priviledges that we are in a capacity of getting our souls saved that we sit not in darkness and in the shadow of death as others do that we are not aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel the Church of God as other are that we are not strangers to the Covenant of Grace Ephes 2.12 and strangers to the mysteries of Salvation and the way of Salvation revealed in the Gospel Certainly Brethren we shall never know how much we are indebted unto God nor can ever praise him enough for our Gospel-mercies until we come to Heaven That I aim at in the choice of this Text is to shew you and if it be possible to make you sensible of the infinite and unconceiveable danger of missing this Salvation this eternal Life that is held forth in the Gospel Let us therefore fear lest c. For as I shall shew you by Gods assistance if any of us who have the means of Salvation tendered to us in the Gospel and that hope of Salvation and the way to Salvation if any of us should come short of Salvation it were better a thousand times that we had never known the Gospel for none shall have a deeper place in Hell than they that have had Gospel-opportunities and have not known in that their day the things that belong to their peace And certainly the tears of Hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of Heaven the loss of Salvation Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it For the connexion of this or the coherence of these words with the former Chapter take it thus briefly If you look upon this Epistle to the Hebrews with a discerning eye you shall see that the scope of the Apostle is to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ in his three glorious Offices of a King of a Priest and of a Prophet and to shew his Dignity and Preheminence above the Angels in Chap. 1 above Moses in Chap. 3 above Aaron in Chap. 7. Now the Apostle proving in Chap. 3 the Dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ above Moses although Moses was the most eminent man that ever lived upon the earth there was none that ever had more acquaintance with God talking with him familiarly as a man talks with his friend and therefore he was said to be a King in Jesurun yet the Apostle proves the Dignity and Preheminence of Jesus Christ above Moses in Chap. 3.5 6 saith the Apostle And Moses verily was faithful in all his house that is in the Church of God as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Jesus Christ as a Son over his own house and therefore Christ is far above Moses And he takes occasion from hence to lay down this serious Exhortation to these Hebrews and in them to all succeeding Christians that they should take heed that they do not harden their hearts against the voice of Jesus Christ in ver 15 of the foregoing Chapter To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Harden not your hearts against Christ against the voice of Christ in his Word that this Exhortation might take the deeper impression the Apostle puts them in mind of a dreadful example of Gods wrath and indignation executed upon the stubborn Israelites in the Wilderness they hardned their hearts they believed not his Word and therefore God was so offended with them that their carcasses perish in the Wilderness yea the Lord took an Oath he sware that they should never enter into his Rest Having laid down this dreadful example of Gods wrath in ver 17.18 of the foregoing Chapter thereupon he infers this serious admonition That all Christians should take heed that they run not into the same danger that they did and that they do not deprive themselves of that eternal Rest that is laid up in Heaven as the Israelites deprived themselves of the Rest of Canaan Let us therefore saith the Apostle fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it So then in the Text you may take notice of these three particulars 1. You have a serious Premonition or forewarning in these words Let us therefore fear 2. You have the ground or foundation of this Premonition in these words Lest a promise being left us of entring into his Rest 3. A dreadful danger discovered in case this warning be neglected in these
fine voluble Tongues in Prayer that a man would think them to be Angels in prayer but look into their lives and O how crooked are they in their paths and conversation So A man may have the gift of Government so much prudence and policy a man may be such a deep Polititian that he may be able to ballance the affairs of a Kingdom and yet have no grace at all that was the case of Achitophel he was so prudent and politick in his counsels that he was esteemed as an Oracle of God 2 Sam. 16.23 And yet for all this such a one may come short of Heaven and that may be said to those men that have those parts and gifts and qualifications and are not sanctified that have the gifts of preaching and praying and Government which was said to Simon Magus Thy money perish with thee so they and their gifts and parts and qualifications perish with them Thirdly Again you shall see in another particular how far Professors may go and yet come short of Heaven namely he may have some superficial beginnings and tasts of grace and holiness and yet have no truth of grace and so come short of Heaven let me shew you this in these four particulars 1. He may be able to give his assent to the truth he may consent to this truth That the Bible is the word of God and that he believes it is so so Simon Magus did Acts 8.13 the Text saith that he believed 2. He may have so much knowledg as may move his affections with joy that he may rejoyce in the word that he knows thus the Pharisees They rejoyced in John Baptists light for a season John 5.35 And it is said of the second ground in the Parable that they received the word with joy Luke 8.13 And God speaks of the Hypocrites Isa 58.2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did rigteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to God and yet all this it was but like a Land-flood that is quickly dryed up or like a flash of lightning which quickly passeth away 3. He may have such a tast and superficial beginning of grace that he may be moved so much at a Sermon as to have some kind of purpose and resolution of amendment of life 1 Sam. 26.21 you may read there that wicked wretch and Hypocrite Saul had sometimes good purposes and resolutions Then said Saul I have sinned Return my son David for I will no more do the harm he was convinced in his conscience that it was out of malice that he did persecute that innocent Servant of God so it may be you may have some Drunkard when he lyes under the smarting Rod of Gods displeasure to vow that he will never be drunk more 4. A man may have this tast and superficial beginning of grace that he may attain to some external reformation he may escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 2.20 A natural carnal man an Hypocrite may get so much soap out of the Word of God as may wash his outside but yet he may return to the mire again because he is a Swine still he may be washed like a Hog on the outside but yet he is a Swine still Hypocrites may abstain from many sins out of a slavish fear and perform duties out of by-respects Jezzabel fasted the Pharisees prayed and gave alms Felix feared and trembled here was the beginnings and tasts of grace these tasted of the heavenly gift Heb. 6.4 they had a tast of the water of life but they spit it out again But then it may be demanded What is the reason that a Professor may go so far in the ways of Christianity and yet come short of Heaven For answer I shall give you reasons for all these three particulars First A Professor may go thus far in the way to Heaven and yet come short of Heaven for these two reasons 1. Because there is some failing in his profession his profession wants either root or sincerity or love to Jesus Christ It may be his profession wants root he hath taken up the profession of Religion but he was never yet humbled the Plow of humiliation never went deep enough he was never convinced of the indispensible need that he hath of Christ to say Give me Christ or I dye he was never convinced of the evil of sin of the burden of sin of the loathsome nature of sin of the Hell that is in every sin Or it may be he wants Sincerity he takes up Religion for by-ends or for self-interest or it may be he follows Christ for the Loaves for indeed there are but few that follow Christ for Christs sake It was the complaint of Austin Jesus is seldom sought for Jesus sake And as God complains Zech. 7.5 When ye fasted and mourned did ye at all fast unto me even unto me Ephraim is an empty Vine bringing forth fruit unto himself Hos 10.1 Or it may be his profession wants love now love is an inward principle and where the inward principle of love is in the heart there profession never fails Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity But now it may be outwardly he hath some love to Jesus Christ as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of his Hearers or God to him concerning them Son of Man the children of thy people come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but will not do them for with their mouths they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Ezek. 33.30 31. And the Lord Christ may say to them just as Dalilah said to Sampson How canst thou say thou lovest me when thy heart is not with me Judg. 16.15 That is one Reason 2. A second is this Men may go so far in the way to Heaven and yet come short of it because though they have an outward lamp of profession yet they have no oyl in their lamps that is no reality they have not that faith that works by love they have not that repentance which teacheth them more mortification which crucifieth the flesh these are the Reasons of the first Branch Secondly It may be demanded How comes it to pass that men may be so confident that they are in a state of grace and yet come short of Heaven The reason is this because of their own self-flattery and self-delusion They think themselves something when they are nothing and so deceive themselves they think themselves rich and increased in goods and stand in need of nothing whereas they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked They think they have grace when indeed they have none they think their Grace is true when it is but counterfeit they think
1.6 Thirdly Consider the time of running is but short but the time of your Reward will be eternal if you do not come short of this eternal Rest but hold out and run to the end of the Race If you can but say with the Apostle 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have been faithful unto the death I have not wickedly departed from my God as David speaks Psal 18.21 If you be not Apostates but hold out to the end know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. O the unconceivable Reward O the invaluable and unconceiveable Bliss of all those that come to this eternal Rest The tongue of Men and Angels is not able to express it I beseech you on the one side fear the loss of it and on the other side let the consideration of that eternal happiness quicken you to do the utmost of your endeavours to attain it If you had ten thousand lives to spend in the service of God if you had ten thousand Estates to lay down at his feet if you could do as much as all the Apostles did and all the Martyrs did or suffered let me tell you the fruition of Jesus Christ one day in glory will recompence it all The Lord work these things upon our hearts that every one of us here present may fear exceedingly and continually lest a Promise being left of entring into his Rest we should forsake the Promise and by forsa ing the Promise should come short of eternal Happiness The persevering Saint shall be the Crowned Saint REV. III. 11. Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy Crown THE seven famous Churches of Asia mentioned in the three first Chapters of this Book of Revelations had this honour put upon them to have seven Epistles sent unto them immediately from the Lord Jesus Christ himself and as they were the glory of the World while they stood fast to God and to his Truth so were they after their declining from God and his Truth made the Monuments of his anger and indignation The words I have now read unto you are part of the sixth Epistle written from the Lord Jesus Christ to the Church of Philadelphia wherein as he was a faithful Witness and one that knew their spiritual Estate better than they knew it themselves therefore he sets down in his Epistle something by way of Commendation Consolation Exhortation Something is set down here by way of Commendation in ver 8 I know thy works behold I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it By open door may be meant either a free and full liberty and opportunity of spreading the Gospel as the Apostle uses that phrase 1 Cor. 16.9 For a great door and effectual is opened to me and there are many adversaries or else by open door may be meant a door of Hope in reference to Eternity that door of Heaven that sin had shut against us is by the merit of Jesus Christ opened to us Oh blessed are they that have this door opened to them by Jesus Christ who is the Door the Way the Truth and the Life but says he Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name This is by way of Commendation though she had but a little strength yet because she improved it and did not deny the name of Christ was not an Apostate Church this our Saviour puts upon her account of Commendation 2. Here is something also by way of Consolation in ver 9.10 Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not that is I will discover their Hypocrisie I will make them known to be what they are and reveal to whom they do belong I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee that is I will subdue thy Enemies under thy feet and let them know that I have loved thee and in ver 10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth Here is marvellous comfort Jesus Christ never brings his Children into a Wilderness but he goes with them when they go through the fire and through the water he will be with them I will keep thee and I will uphold thee says he Then in the third place Here is something by way of Exhortation in the words of the Text Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy Crown In which words there are two things considerable 1. A Duty pressed 2. Motives expressed The Duty pressed is Constancy and Perseverance Hold fast that which thou hast The Motives expressed are two the one is drawn from the suddenness of Christs coming to Judgment Behold I come quickly the other is taken from the danger of losing their Crown set before them That no man take thy Crown 1. For the Duty pressed Hold fast that thou hast keep it with might and main use thy utmost endeavour to keep what thou hast What was that this Church had which Christ exhorts to hold fast It had both the profession and possession of true Religion Now this true Religion consisted in two things in purity of Doctrine and in holiness of Life and Conversation both these this Church had she had purity of Doctrine as I shewed you out of ver 8 Thou hast kept my Word and hast not denied my Name thou hast kept my Word Then for holiness of Conversation she had not denied Christs Name in the midst of Persecution Thou hast kept theword of my patience Now says our Saviour that which thou hast that true Religion thou profesest maintain and keep hold fast against all opposition both in profession and practice hold fast the truth thou hast embraced and hold fast the grace that thou hast received So then the Doctrine I shall commend to you hence is this Doct. That Christians must hold fast both the Truth and the grace they have received with Constancy and Perseverance There are two branches in this Doctrine which we might make two Propositions The first this That Christians must hold fast the truths they have received with Constancy and Perseverance The second this That Christians must hold fast the grace they have received with Constancy and Perseverance I begin with the first That Christians must hold fast the truths they have received with Constancy and Perseverance For the proof of this consider that place 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Model or that Plat-form of Gospel-Truths those fundamental Truths which the Apostle had wrapt up in a bundle to be received and embraced
the Popish Religion is a loose and licentious Religion a Sintolerating Religion for the Pope can dispence with murthering of Princes and the like if it will promote his interest forbidding Priests marriage and yet suffering at the same time Stews and Brothel-houses It was a saying of Sir Walter Raleigh Were I to chuse a Religion for liberty and wickedness I would chuse the Popish Religion therefore in Gods fear hold fast the truth against Popery And hold it fast likewise against the errour of Arminianism which advances mans free-Will above Gods free-Grace And hold fast the Truth against Socinians that deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ In brief be rooted setled and established in the present truth stick close unto the Word of God as David did stand for it plead for it chuse to lose Liberty Estates Comforts Life and all rather than to part with the Truth David made the Truth his Inheritance Now as Naboth said to Ahab The Lord forbid it me that I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee 1 Kings 21.3 Could he say so of a temporal Inheritance and shall not we say so of a spiritual Inheritance which is transmitted to us by the blood of Martyrs Shall the Ministers of the Gospel have cause to complain as in Jer. 9.3 And they bend their tongue like their bow for lyes but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth Shall we deal with the truth as the Priest and Levite did with the man that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among Thieves left him wounded and half dead nay dying in the streets Hath God said Buy the truth and sell it not Prov 23 and shall we sell it for our lusts and profits God forbid Consider who it was that abode not in the truth it was Satan a Lyar who hath no truth in him John 8.44 Even so all wicked men are said to be destitute of the truth and to hold the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 that is they strive against the light of truth in their hearts those common principles of truth which they had in their understandings they suppressed and choaked that so they might sin more freely but God forbid that we should do so Will not this make the Spirit of truth to forsake us when we forsake the truth What an heroical resolution was that in holy Paul 2 Cor. 13.8 For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth Oh what an honour is it to a Christian when truth hath such soveraignty in his heart that it is dearer to him than his own life Tit. 1.9 Holding fast the faithful Word Hold forth the word of Life and hold fast the word of Truth hold forth the word of Life by a true profession and conversation and hold fast the word of truth by courage constancy and resolution 1. But may be you will ask me What means may we use thus to hold fast the truth I answer briefly 1. Embrace the truth not only in the light of it but in the love of it what you love you will be sure not to part with Oh get your hearts fired with love to the truths of the Gospel that you may say Lord I love thy truth exceedingly 2. Love not the truth for the person's sake but love the person for the truths sake love no mans parts or person to admire him and be a folower of him farther than he follows Christ Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 saith the Apostle It was a great fault in Barnabas Gal. 2.13 that he was carried away by Peters dissimulation by his admiring Peters person so much by his resting and relying too much upon Peter he fell into Peters errour 3. Be ever jealous of your own strength and trust not too much to your own ability this will provoke God to leave you to your selves and then you will fall fearfully 2 Cor. 12.10 For when I am weak then am I strong when I am weakest in my self then am I strongest in a Saviour but when I am strongest in my self in my own opinion then am I weakest in a Saviour no man stands by his own strength for by humane strength can none prevail 4. And lastly Get your hearts established with grace Heb. 13.9 It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace be ballasted with grace as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies A Ship that is well balasted is not so ready and apt to reel as one that is not and when the Apostle puts in a caveat against unsetledness and falling from grace what means does he prescribe 2 Pet. 3.17 18 Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ says he O that you and I could grow more in grace O that we could grow more in the practical part of Religion in our hearts and houses in our lives and conversations I beseech you therefore hearken to this first Exhortation and Duty here prest upon you namely to hold fast the truth you have received hold it fast in your memories in your affections and in your conversations so much for the first branch of the doctrine That Christians must hold fast the truth they have received with constancy and perseverance I come now to the second Proposition or second branch of the Doctrine that is this Christians must hold fast that Grace that they have received with constancy and perseverance For the proof of this the Scripture is abundantly plain and pregnant in Psal 119.23 Teach me the way of thy Statutes O Lord and I will keep it to the end Matth. 24.13 He that endures to the end he shall be saved it is not setting our feet in the way of Christianity but it is a continuance in that course that will bring you to the end of your hopes the salvation of your souls So in Heb. 3.14 We are made partakers of Christ saith the Apostle if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end this will be an evidence that we are partakers of Christ indeed if we persevere and continue in the grace we have received to the end of our days so we are commanded to serve the Lord not some few days but all the days of our lives Luke 1.75 He that puts his hands to the Plow and looks back saith our Saviour is not fit for the kingdom of God Luke 9. ult and in John 8.31 If you continue in my words then are you my disciples indeed without this perseverance we are but nominal not real Disciples But if you ask me Why must Christians continue in grace and hold fast the grace they have received Hear but some Scripture Arguments strongly pleading for this truth First Unless Christians hold fast the grace and holiness
General it is a dishonour to him 2. Then it is damnable in the effects of it because it puts Religion to open shame it makes the Name of God to be blasphemed Rom. 2.24 It is a scandal to the weak it staves men off from the profession of Religion and it opens the mouth of Adversaries to speak evil of the ways of God thus it is damnable in the effects Thirdly It is destructive in the end and issue of it for First God will reckon Apostates amongst Reprobates God will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity those that turn aside to their crooked ways Psal 125. ult Lead them forth that is put them in the same condition with the most profligate and scandalous sinner that is 2. Their latter end shall be worse than their beginning as our Saviour shews in the Parable Mat. 12.43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man and returns again he brings seven Devils more and the end of that man is worse than his beginning The Apostle tells us in 2 Pet. 2 and the two last Verses It had been better men had never known the way of holiness than having known it to turn aside from the holy commandment it fares with them according to the Proverb the Dog is turned to his vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Before I come to make Application of this truth there is one doubt to be resolved You say Christians must hold fast the grace they have received Why may some say Can a man that hath received saving grace lose that grace he hath received To this I answer No He cannot lose saving-grace totally or finally this is Mary's part which cannot be taken away Mary hath chose that good part which cannot be taken away Luke 10.42 The Apostle saith he that is born of God sins not cannot sin to death because the seed of God as a principle of spiritual life abideth in him 1 John 3.9 therefore he cannot sin unto death the righteous are said to be built on an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.25 that is he abides unmovable in grace till grace be turned into glory and the reason of this is saving-grace bestowed upon the Elect is built on four immutable and unmovable Pillars 1. The love that God bares to his people it is an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love we are very fickle and unconstant in our love to God but God is not fickle or unconstant in his love to us 2. The Covenant of grace is a stedfast Covenant so saith David in the last words of that sweet Singer of Israel when he was to leave the world He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant sure and stedfast and ordered in all things 2 Sam. 23.5 It is a Covenant sealed with the blood of Christ therefore it is called the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 this everlasting Covenant cannot be broken True indeed sin may break the peace of the Covenant but it cannot break the bond of the Covenant of Grace it may break the peace of the Covenant Psal 89.31 If thy children break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with a red and their iniquities with stripes but I will not suffer my faithfulness to fail my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth 3. The third Pillar is this the Power of God which is irresistible and unconquerable on this Pillar our blessed Saviour builds the salvation of his Elect John 10.29 My father that gave me these sheep is greater than all and none can take them out of my fathers hand and on this Pillar St. Paul built his hope of Salvation He is able to keep that I have committed to him he is able to keep my depositum 2 Tim. 1.12 4. The fourth Pillar is the Intercession of Christ and his intercession is a prevailing intercession Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Whence was it that Peter though he fell fearfully yet he did not fall finally because our Saviour prayed for Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Luke 22.31 But mark though this be true That saving grace once wrought in the heart cannot be lost for it is built on these four immutable Pillars the Love of God the Covenant of Grace the Power of God and the intercession of Christ yet it is possible for a man in the state of grace to have his declinings as I shewed you not long ago he may have his declinings in regard of the measure of grace and the comfortable feeling of grace and in the operations and vigour of his grace First A child of God may lose the former heat and fervency that he had The Church of Ephesus fell from her first love Secondly He may lose the comfortable feeling of Grace David prays Restore to me the joy of thy salvation 3. Grace may be as a spark of fire covered over with a heap of ashes that yields neither light nor heat and so he may lose the vigour of his grace therefore Christians should take heed of these declinings and should hold fast the grace they have received Now to make some Application 1. By way of Reproof How justly taxable and reprovable are they that do not hold fast the grace they have received but fall from their first love Oh how many back-sliders are there many that did begin well but they are weary of well-doing the Lord awaken them out of their drowsiness know you not it will be bitterness in the latter end will you lose all you have and all you hope for God forbid Therefore to close up this Point with a word of Exhortation I beseech and exhort you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ That you will hold fast the grace you have received the savour of Religion that you have got the principles of Religion and the practice of a holy Conversation hold fast these Take heed of Apostacy as you love your God as you love your Souls as you tender your own everlasting Salvation be not found in the number of those that draw back to perdition but be stedfast and immoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult That you may persevere and not be weary Let me give you these three or four helps 1. Be not content with a notional and traditional Faith for such a Faith will change as the time changes but labour for a divine well-grounded lively working effectual Faith experimental Faith such as the Samaritans had Now do we believe say they not because thou toldst us this is the Christ but because we have heard him our selves and we know indeed this is the
little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but 〈◊〉 everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee 〈…〉 Lord thy redeemer Isa 54.7 8. Application Therefore it serves exceedingly for the encouragement of the godly our afflictions are but for a moment do but set against your present Affliction the glory that it brings after and against light afflictions a weight of glory and against momentary affliction eternal glory and what comparison is there between them none at all but 3. I come quickly It may be taken in a way of Judicature I come to call men to account to return to every man according to their works therefore see that you hold fast what you have received and continue constant to the end and you shall be sure to receive a rich and Royal Reward Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every one according as his works shall be Rev. 22.12 Heb. 10.37 Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Be patient therefore brethren stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh Jam. 5.8 But here it may be objected Our Saviour spake this above sixteen hundred years ago The coming of the Lord draws nigh And yet he is not come to Judgment To this I Answer A thousand years in Gods account is but as one day we count moments long because we are but poor short spirited creatures But God that is of an eternal duration he counts a thousand years but a very small moment all that space of time should be small to them that know the greatness of Eternity Do but think of Eternity and alas a thousand of years are but as a moment But observe here when our Saviour speaks of coming to Judgment he fixeth a Behold before it Behold I come quickly it teacheth us this Doctrine Doct. Christs coming to judgment is a matter of infinite concernment and requires our most serious consideration Behold Consider what I say I am coming to judgment There will therefore be a day of Judgment that is certain this is called the great day in ver 6 of the Epistle of Saint Jude and in 2 Tim. 4.8 That day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and it is called a day of Judgment because then every one shall receive a final sentence either of absolution or condemnation But why is this a matter of so great concernment I answer because Eternity depends upon it it will be a final determination to every soul to an everlasting and unchangeable condition of endless bliss or wo O this Eternity it swallows up all our thoughts if it were seriously considered it were enough to make the most prophane and profligate sinner to turn the strictest Saint that ever trod upon earth Therefore to make some Use of this Live in a continual expectation of Christs coming But some will say This day of Judgment cannot be so sudden for the Jews are not yet called and Antichrist is not yet come down I answer and O that this Answer might sink into your hearts Though the world should continue a thousand years yet there is a particular Judgment as well as a general every mans deaths-day is every mans dooms-day It is appointed for all men once to die and after that the judgment As soon as the Soul departs out of the body then it is judged the Soul is judged then either to Heaven or Hell therefore thy day of death will be the Judgment-day to thee when ever it falls though it falls this week before the next Oh that you and I could be affected as Jerom was Whether I eat or drink or whatever I do methinks I hear the Trumpet sound in my ears Arise ye dead and come to Judgment Therefore let your whole lives be a continual Preparation for that great day get those graces that may present you without spot or blot before Gods Tribunal Get 1. The precious grace of Faith for that puts on the Royal Robe of Christs righteousness and in that Robe you will stand undaunted 2. Get Repentance from dead works be purifying your selves more and more as he is pure Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the day of refreshing shall come Act. 3.19 3. Get a Christian and constant care and diligence in your general and particular callings Blessed is the man whom his Lord shall find so doing This is the first Motive drawn from the suddenness of our Saviours coming I come quickly Another Motive and of that a few words and I have done That no man take thy Crown The danger of losing the Crown But here it may be demanded What is meant by Crown I answer Either the Crown of Gospel-Ministry or else the Crown of eternal Life First God honoured this Church with a very glorious Ministry so that the very Adversaries the seeming Jews did worship that is did submit themselves to this Church and acknowledg Her to be beloved of God God honoured this Church with a very glorious Ministry Then it may be meant of the Crown of life as Mr Perkins well observes upon the Text Rev. 2.10 I will give thee a Crown of life But here it may be demanded Can the Crown of Life be lost To this I Answer In the visible Church there are Hypocrites as well as sincere Christians Now Hypocrites may lose the Crown because they never had a title to it they never had a title to the Crown of Glory a man must have an interest in grace before he can have a title to the Crown of glory For others that have grace begun in their hearts you must know such cautions as these are are to quicken them 2 John 8 Look well to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Heb. 12.15 Beware lest any of you fall short of the grace of God Or it may be such cautions are put in to let you see that if you are left to your selves you would let go grace and lose glory and all To shut up all If a Gospel-Ministry be a Crown Oh that you and I would learn to prize a Gospel-Ministry more than we have done it may be God will teach you to know the worth of it by the want of it hold it fast remember God can give the Gospel to another Nation that may be will bring forth better fruit than we have done and when the Gospel is gone our glory is gone then we may say The Glory the Glory is departed from England But then 2. If there be a Crown of glory laid up for them that do hold out then receive that Exhortation a Text I opened in many Sermons on Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Therefore take hold of God by Faith Be much in prayer be much in wrestling
guilty of this sin of unbelief yea or no. I know every one of you will be ready to plead Not guilty Oh we do believe the Word of God and pity we should live if we did not believe the Word But let me tell you This is an inward secret lurking sin therefore not easily discerned But that you may know whether you be guilty of this sin or no I will give you these four plain undeniable Scripture-Evidences the Lord make you your own Judges in this particular First When men do slight the invitations of Jesus Christ slight the proffers of his Grace it is a token there is unbelief in the bottom for where Faith is once wrought in the heart there is instantly and readily a closing between Christ and the Soul there is a ready closure as there is between the Load-stone and the Iron When Jesus Christ says to a poor sinner Come to me though thou art weary and heavy laden the Believing Soul closes presently with Christ and answers Come thee Lord I I will creep to thee upon my hands and feet When Christ says to it again Do this or Do that the Soul says again O Lord give me strength to do what thou commandest and command what thou wilt But now when you find in you a backwardness to entertain Jesus Christ in your hearts this is a certain and undeniable evidence of your unbelief and is not this your sin Alas alas let Jesus Christ be tendred in the Ministry of the Word from day to day let him be proffered in the sweetest anst softest terms of Perswasions and Exhortations let Ministers use their best Art and Arguments to woo entreat invite and beseech you to accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is tendred to you in the Gospel and yet alas we poor Ministers can get no audience I speak of the most of you not of all scarce one of ten scarce one of a hundred will hearken to this Gospel-invitation to come unto Jesus Christ and to submit to him and to take him upon Gospel-terms Our Saviour complains in John 5.40 And ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Though I would give you life a life of Righteousness a life of Grace a life of Glory Yet you will not come to me that is You will not believe in me you will not embrace me you will not submit to me you will not solace your Souls in me Let the World call and you run straight let the flesh call and you obey it straight in the lusts of it nay let Satan call and you readily hearken to him but you will not hearken to me Just so may the Ministers of the Gospel at this day complain Lord Thou sendest us upon this Errand to bring Sinners in to thee thou sendest us upon the same Message Abraham sent his Servant to get a Wife for his Son Isaac Abraham gave his Servant Rings and Jewels and Bracelets to bestow upon her that would be Wife to Isaac So our Lord sends us with Rings and Jewels and Bracelets we have many Motives and Arguments to invite Sinners and to perswade and draw them But Lord we can do no good in our Ministry we tell men of the unsearchable Riches of Jesus Christ and what an unvaluable portion they shall have in him but they will not believe Lord Who hath believed our Report Now when there is a slighting of those invitations and proffers of Gospel-grace it is a certain token of Unbelief And that 's the first Sign or Character of Unbelief Secondly When men undervalue Christs Person and Portion this is a token of unbelief We tell men of the Beauty of Christs Person that he is white and ruddy white in his Innocency and ruddy in his Passion the choisest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 and that there is nothing in him but brightness and sweetness and beauty and fulness and all sufficiency yet men believe it not They see no beauty in him why they should desire him Isa 53.3 Nay What is thy beloved more than other Beloveds say they Cant. 5.9 So when we tell men of the invaluable portion they shall have by the Lord Jesus Christ those unsearchable Riches the riches of his Merits and the riches of his Spirit and that rich and royal Redemption and that they shall have whatever their hearts can desire we tell them of this they shall have a portion of grace Jesus Christ will give them grace for grace for every grace in himself he will give them part of it by his Wisdom they shall be made wise by his Holiness they shall be made holy he will give them a portion of Glory a Crown of Eternal glory to them that love him but because they see not this Portion this Crown of glory they will not believe it they will not believe further than they see they are all for present pay Demas hath forsaken me having embraced this present world They will have good things for the present as for future expectations they regard them not Where there is an undervaluing of Christs person or portion there is a great deal of unbelief Thirdly When men are secure and fearless it is a certain effect and sign and symptom of unbelief for Faith breeds fear Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noah being wanned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the World and became heir of the righteousness which is by Faith Faith makes men fear But now when men do nto stand in awe of God of the great God that is within us without us above us about us when we do not walk as in his eye nor walk as in his presence when men do not stand in awe of the Word of God and say with David Psalm 119 161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word As if he should say I more stand in awe of thy Word than of all the Princes of the World When men are so over-awed by the Word of God as that they dare not sin against God for the Word of God stands as a Schoolmaster stands with a Rod in his hands over a Boy so that he dare not act any untowardness When men are not over-awed by the Word but they sin and spare not they sin and grieve not this is a token of their unbelief they do not believe God is Omniscient Omnipresent they do not believe his Justice they do not believe his Truth Where men are thus fearless and secure it is a plain token of their exceeding great unbelief Fourthly A fourth Sign of unbelief is this when men profess one thing and practice another thing when their practice crosses their Profession this is a certain token of reigning unbelief Let me give you some instances For example You profess God to be your Soveraign Lord and King and Law-giver and that you have but one Law-giver which is
work of Grace in us Thirdly The Graces of the Spirit which likewise are purchased by him are precious Graces Faith is a precious Grace as it is called 2 Pet. 1.2 Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious Faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that the tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth The tryal of Gold is the worst thing that belongs to Gold and the tryal of Faith is the worst thing that belongs to Faith yet saith the Apostle The tryal of your Faith is much more precious than that of Gold 1 Pet. 1.7 So Repentance that is a precious Grace because it is Repentance unto life as the Apostle calls it Acts 11.18 When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted Repentance unto life And Hope that is a stedfast Grace it is the Anchor of the Soul And Love that is a lovely Grace it brings the Soul into nearer Communion with God Then Wisdom that is a precious Grace a shining Grace A mans wisdom maketh his face to shine saith Solomon Eccles 8.1 And Job speaking of Wisdom saith he Job 28.12 13 But where shall Wisdom be sound and where is the place of Vnderstanding Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it found in the Land of the Living it is of more price than Rubies it is of an invaluable price And Humility that is an honourable Grace And Fear that is a preserving Grace And Patience that is a supporting Grace And Perseverance that is a Crowning Grace All these Graces are precious Graces and they are all of them bestowed upon us meerly upon the account of Christs merits Fourthly The Priviledges that we have by Jesus Christ they are precious Priviledges U-union with him and Communion in his Life and Death and Resurrection and Comforts access to God the Father and that with boldness Fifthly The Promises that are sealed by his blood they are precious Promises promises for this life and promises for the life to come that Promise That all shall work together fer good to them that love God a big-bellied promise as I may so say All things work together for good and our prayers and our persons shall be accepted Lastly The Inheritance that he hath purchased for us is a precious Inheritance An incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven In brief Such is the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that compare him with the most precious things that can be named and you shall see they are but vile and base in comparison of him For Example 1. The Souls of men and women they are said to be precious but Oh how infinitely precious is Jesus Christ whose blood is a valuable and equivalent price for the Souls of all the men and women in the world 2. Light is said to be precious Christ said of himself I am the light of the world John 8.12 Light is precious to those that are in a Dungeon of darkness Now says Jesus Christ I am the light of the world 3. Truth is precious so precious that we are to buy it at any rate and sell it at no rate Jesus Christ says of himself I am the Truth John 14.6 4. Fountains and Springs of water are precious in hot and dry Countreys Oh the Lord Jesus Christ he is the Well of Salvation Isa 12.3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the Wells of Salvation 5. Bread is precious to those that are ready to perish a man will venture the getting of bread with the hazard of his life Lam. 5.9 We get our bread with the peril of our lives Now Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life John 6.48 6. Balm and Balsom is precious His blood is the only Balm that can cure wounded Souls so precious is the Lord Jesus Christ that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth are but a picture of that beauty and preciousness that is in him he is the Abstract and Epitome of all perfections how precious must he needs be to whom all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth do contribute all their Excellencies to make him excellent and glorious Thus you see the Point opened Now for the Uses of it First By way of Information Is the Lord Jesus Christ so infinitely precious you may see then why the Souls of men and women are so precious because they are purchased by a precious Saviour purchased by his precious blood Hearken O sons of men why are you tumbling up and down in dirt and clay why do you not raise your hearts and thoughts higher and higher seeing that you have such precious Souls that are capable of a precious Inheritance why do you not look after a precious Covenant of Grace â—ealed to you and precious Promises confirmed to you by the blood of Christ why do you not look after that precious Pearl the Lord Jesus Christ who is worth more than ten thousand worlds Oh the baseness of the heart of man that should prefer dirt and dross and dung before him who is so infinitely precious that they should so undervalue their precious Souls that cost such an invaluable rate for their Redemption Secondly By way of Information see the horrible greatness of the sin of Unbelief that makes the Sinner undervalue this precious Redeemer Says Jesus Christ You will not come to me that you might have life John 5.40 Oh bewail your Unbelief that keeps Christ and your Souls a precious Christ and your poor Souls at such a distance Thirdly By way of Information take notice what a blessed condition they are in that have gotten the Lord Jesus Christ into their Souls If the Lord bestows this gift of all gifts this precious Christ upon you Oh it is more than if he had given thee the World nay then if he had given thee ten thousand Worlds for thy portion O rejoyce in thy portion for as soon as ever thou art a Believer thy heart is made a Cabinet for this precious Pearl the Lord Christ for He dwells in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 Oh manifest to the World the brightness of this Pearl let some lustre of Jesus Christ shine in thy Conversation shine through this Cabinet as Light shines through a Lanthorn The second Use is by way of Exhortation And here I must but name some few particulars answerable to the Explication of the Doctrine I insisted on more largely and there are several Duties I would briefly commend to you and the Lord give you hearts and me a heart and every one a heart to close with this precious Truth tendred to you in reference to this precious Redeemer First If Jesus Christ be so precious in his person as being God and Man then learn to honour him admire and adore him for This is the will of God the Father that all should
Heaven the red leaf that was the blood of Jesus Christ the black leaf that was the torments of Hell You may look into Hell by contemplation and meditation that you may prevent Hell to all Eternity you may meditate upon the blood of Christ and steep as it were your souls in it by meditation it may be it may soften them It is said of the Goats blood when nothing can soften an Adamant the blood of Goats can the blood of Christ that can soften your hard hearts when nothing else can Thirdly A third thing you can do you can sorrow more and mourn more than you do there is none of you but can sorrow and mourn for outward losses loss of Friends as Husband and Wife or Child perhaps for the loss of a Horse what canst thou mourn for the loss of a Child and canst thou not mourn for the loss of a Soul when one Soul is worth all the Kingdoms in the World If any of you have lost a good Bargain or mist a good Market you can grieve for this O methinks you should mourn for this how many Market days have I lost for my Soul I have burnt out many a precious light and spent out my precious time and can you not mourn for the loss of such a Bargain as this is Suppose one of you should be sent for before a mighty Monarch and should be impeach'd of high Treason before him how would you tremble to appear before so mighty a King that hath power in his hands to cut you off instantly O you and I must appear before the great Judg of Heaven and Earth the King of Kings that knows all the sins and Treasons that ever we have committed and you should bless God if you are cast into fear and thereby be brought to mourn and grieve and sorrow for your sins Job 23.16 For God maketh my heart soft and the Almighty troubleth me that is soft by troubling of me Fourthly There is never a one of you but may leave gross and scandalous sins which I prove thus you can do it for fear of men and you may do it much more for fear of God A prophane Swearer if he be in the company of a Godly grave Minister he can refrain his mouth from vile talk he can forbear his Oaths and blasphemous Speeches and obscene expressions An Adulterer if a boy be but in the Room of seven years old he will forbear to act his uncleanness until the boy be out of the Room If you can forbear gross sins for fear of men much more can you do it for fear of God If a boy can say his Lesson with a Rod certainly he can do it without a Rod if you can abstain from gross sins for fear certainly you can do it without You read of the hypocritical Pharisee he abstained from gross sins Luke 18 God I thank thee saith he I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers c. Fifthly Though it is true a man in a state of Nature is dead in trespasses and sin yet then at that time he may do many good works works morally good works materially good he may fast and pray and give Alms therefore it is that Daniel speaks to Nebuchadnezzar Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Dan. 4.27 Certainly the Prophet Daniel would never have spoken so to him if it had not been in his power to do it The Apostle speaking of the Gentiles though they wanted the knowledg of the Law and had not the Law saith he Yet they did by Nature the things contained in the Law they were a Law to themselves which shews that the works of the Law are written in their hearts Rom. 2.13 14. They that are in an unregenerate estate they may pray they may make Conscience of praying in their Families though they cannot pray as they should yet they may pray as they are able they may fall down at the feet of God and say Lord I am a poor sinful wretch I cannot please thee praying or not praying thou hast promised to give the spirit of prayer to them that ask it Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Say Lord give me thy Spirit to break my hard heart take any way with me so my proud heart may be humbled and hard heart broken that I may welcom Jesus Christ to my Soul that I may believe in him and cast my Soul upon him So that Beloved I put you upon no more than you are able to do you may suffer the word of Exhortation you can ponder and weigh the Word in your own hearts you may sorrow and mourn for sin you may abstain from gross sins and you may do those works that are morally good do what you can do men are not damned because they can do no better but because they will do no better Matth. 23 O Jerusalem Jerusalem I would have gathered thee as a Hen her Chickens under her wings but ye would not If there were no will there would be no Hell saith St. Austin Do what you can set upon works of Holiness and Piety strive and put forth your strength to the uttermost endeavour of your Souls to get your hearts humbled to see sin and to sigh for it to grieve and groan for it lay your conditions to heart be feelingly apprehensive of that wrath that sin hath kindled of that Justice that sin hath provoked of that Mercy that sin hath abused of that vengeance and anger that sin hath deserved to be inflicted O were we but thus humbled we should have cause to bless God to all Eternity I shall close with one word to those that have been under a spirit of bondage that have been convinced awakened as this Jaylor was that have had their broken bones that have felt the burden of sin and it may be lie under that burden at this day O be you comforted it s better to be broken here than hereafter it is better to be convinced here than convinced hereafter it is better to be humbled here than for God to humble the Soul in Hell to all Eternity God will make thy Valley of Achor a Door of Hope Hos 2.15 Thou that art humbled now shalt be exalted and thou that mournest now shalt be comforted CHRIST THE Bread of Life John VI. 35. And Jesus said unto them I am the Bread of Life he that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst THis Chapter contains in it that admirable and Heavenly Sermon of our Saviour concerning the Bread of Life wherein you may take notice of three parts First The occasion of this Sermon that was the Peoples following of him because they did eat of the Loaves and were filled Verse 26. Secondly The Sermon it self and that is
Creature viz. by the works of Gods Creation and Providence as the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse So that the light a man may have by Gods works in the Creation and by his works of Providence which the Heathen had this Book of the Creature is enough to leave him without excuse much of Gods will may be read in this Book Thirdly It is called a revealed will because it is made known to us in the Book of the Scripture of this speaks the Apostle Heb. 13.21 Saith he make you perfect he prays that God would make them perfect in every good work to do his will that is his will revealed in the Word of God for there doth the will of God most clearly appear therefore when our Saviour saith here in the Text He that doth his will that is he that obeys his Word and he that makes the Word of God to be the Rule of his walking Gal. 6.16 To as many as walk according to this Rule peace be upon them and upon the Israel of God The Word of God that is the Rule we should walk by this is the Pattern or Prescript of Gods revealed will That 's the first Particular Secondly It may be demanded How or in what manner must the will of God be done For answer to this for the right manner of doing the will of God there are these seven things required First The will of God must be done knowingly Solomon saith expresly Prov. 19.2 Also that the Soul be without knowledg it is not good All the Services that a man doth either out of Will-Worship or out of blind Devotion it is but like the cutting off of a Dogs neck as the Prophet speaks Isa 66.3 And therefore the Apostle bids the Romans first to prove and know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12.2 Secondly The will of God must be done believingly By Faith it is said that Abel offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 It may be Cain offered the very same Sacrifice that Abel did yet Abel's was accepted and Cain's was rejected because Abel offered in Faith and Cain did not For without Faith it is impossile to please God Heb. 11.6 You cannot do the will of God without Faith because it is Faith that brings Jesus Christ in its arms and so makes both our Persons and Prayers accepted No man can come to the Father but by me saith our Saviour John 14.6 And we are said to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God how by Jesus Christ they are acceptable only by Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 Therefore a man must do the will of God believingly Thirdly The will of God must be done graciously from a principle of grace from that which is called an inward Principle as the Apostle shews expresly Circumcision avails nothing no outward priviledg can make us acceptable with God but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please Gtd Rom. 8.7 8. A man that is not yet in the state of grace cannot do the will of God acceptably the will of God must be done graciously from a gracious principle Fourthly The will of God must be done cordially it must be done with the heart Prov. 23.26 My Son give me thy heart What is not done with the heart God reckons as not done at all therefore the first and great Commandment is this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength and whatever ye do in word or deed do it heartily as to the Lord Col. 3.16 17. And the Apostle exciting Servants he bids them Obey their Masters not with eye-service but as doing the will of God from the heart Ephes 6.6 Fifthly The will of God must be done sincerely without any sinister or self-respect a man must have upright ends and aims in doing the will of God for God look at our aims as well as at our actions 2 Kings 10 Jehu did the will of God in destroying the Worshippers of Baal and destroying the Children of Ahab God commended Jehu for doing his will but yet notwithstanding because he aimed at the setling of himself in the Kingdom more than seeking the glory of God therefore God looked upon it but as murther and said he would avenge the blood of Jezerel on the house of Jehu Hos 1. A man may do that thing that God would have him do and yet be punished for the doing of it if his aims and ends be not upright Whatever ye do whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 The Pharisees fasted and prayed but it was for vain-glory and it was but to cloak their wickedness and iniquity by a fair colour or pretence of piety they made long Prayers and in the mean time devoured Widows houses Matth. 23.14 Sixthly The will of God must be done fully Numb 14.24 And my Servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him and hath followed me fully him will I bring into the Land But may be you will say When doth a man do the will of God fully or follow God fully I answer First When he doth not do it with a divided heart Hosea 10.2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty When a mans heart is divided partly for God and partly for the world then he doth not follow God fully Secondly Then a man follows God fully when he hath respect to every Command of God as well as to one Command Psalm 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Thirdly When he doth not retain any one sin in the love liking and approbation of it but he hates every false way Psal 119.104 You read that God was weary of their New Moons and their solemn Feasts My Soul hates them saith God Isa 1.14 Yet these New Moons and Solemn Feasts were of Gods own institution and appointment But why doth God hate them then the reason is this saith God Because your hands are full of blood full of cruelty and oppression vers 15. Therefore they do not do the will of God truly that retain the love of sin in their hearts and this makes their Services rejected Seventhly The will of God must be done constantly Psalm 119.20 My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgments at all times So here a man must have respect unto the will of God at all times but there are three times especially wherein God calls us to do his will First In a time of prosperity when the World with the lusts and
Eph. 2.8 and you cannot of your selves believe So Saint Peter he bid Simon Magus pray that his sins may be forgiven him and yet notwithstanding no man is able of himself to pray in an acceptable manner saith the Apostle We know not how to pray as we ought but the Spirit helps our infirmities Rom. 28.6 But the Arminians they stretch the Objection yet a little further and argue thus Object If God commands us to do what we are not able to perform then this is cruelty in God and they give you an instance For example say they If you tie a mans hands and bid him work or cut off his legs ard bid him walk this is a great deal of cruelty so say they If God bid us do his will and we have no freedom nor ability to do his will then this is cruelty in God To this I answer It is true indeed if God should tie our hands or cut off our legs then this Objection would be of some weight but God doth not do so God at first made man upright he gave us ability to do his will but if we have lost that ability we cannot blame God but our selves our destruction is from our selves our inability to do Duty is from our selves Secondly I answer Natural and unregenerate men though they cannot work grace in their own hearts yet they may do something in a tendency to grace they may wait on the means of grace they may hear as they are able and pray as they are able and do Duties as they are able they may wait upon God as they did in Acts 2 when they cryed out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved 1 Cor. 14.24 25. They may come to the Assemblies of Gods Saints as that ignorant and Unbeliever did though for the present he was in a state of ignorance and unbelief yet by hearing the Word preached he was convinced and converted Men are not damned for Can-nots but for Will-nots men are not damned because they can do no better but because they will do no better Thirdly I answer Though we do not work with God yet God will not work without us God saves no man against his will God carries no man to Heaven as a Sack is carried to the Market on Horse-back but God saves a man by bowing and bending his will and of unwilling making him willing Saint Austin saith Qui sine auxilio tuo te Creavit contra voluntatem tuam te non salvabit He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee Fourthly I answer this Objection of the Arminians thus When our Saviour saith He that doth the will of my Father he shall know of the Doctrine and he supposeth that such a man hath grace in his heart that doth enable him to do the will of God Though it is true an unregenerate man hath no freedom of will to do good yet this is a certain truth that the regenerate so far as they are regenerate have freedom of will to do good Now for the Use and Application of this Point briefly First By way of Information If the Disciples of Christ are or should be Doers of Gods will then it follows he that would be a true Disciple of Christ must be a self-denying Christian it was that I proved to you at large in many Sermons upon Luke 9.23 He that will be a true Christian must be a self-denyer but why so it appears plainly If the Disciple of Christ must be a Doer of Gods will then First He must not do his own will but he must deny himself in that he must not walk in his own way he must not live by his own rule he must not prosecute his own ends but he must do all according to the will of his Lord and Master Secondly If he must do Gods will then he must not fulfil the will of the flesh and of the mind Ephes 2.3 They that are Christs Disciples have crucified the flesh together with the affections and lusts of it Gal. 5.24 Thirdly If he must do Gods will then he must not do the will of men he must not seek to please men Gal. 1.10 Or do I seek to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Fourthly If he must make the will of God his Rule then he must not make Providence his Rule nor the impulse of the Spirit as they are usually called First He must not make Providence his Rule 1 Sam. 26.7 8 9 David he had opportunity of killing Saul who was his deadly enemy Saul was now asleep in the Cave he might have said Surely here is the Providence of God he hath put my enemy into my hand but David would not make Providence his Rule because he had not a Warrant from the Word of God to do any such thing I would have you to remember this Rule To follow Providence without the Word is dangerous to follow it against the Word is damnable but to follow Providence with the Word that is safe and warrantable Neither must the impulse of the Spirit be the Rule of your walking David had so strong impulse on his Spirit to destroy Nabal and his Family for his churlishness to his Soldiers being in distress because he would not spare them necessaries when he sent unto him that he said God do so to me and more also if I leave any of Nabals Family and not cut off all that pisseth against the Wall 1 Sam. 25. But upon the good counsel of Abigail Nabals Wife he recollected himself and saw that it was not the will of God that he should do so but he blessed God that he had diverted him from his purpose Secondly Learn another Lesson by way of Inserence and that is this The life of true Religion consists not in saying but in doing it consists not in profession but in practice When a man hath the Word of life in his mouth and the life of the Word in his Conversation then he is a Christian indeed It 's not the talking but the walking Christian not he that talks of the way to Heaven and that talks of Christianity but he that walks in the way that leads to Eternal life This will prove you to be Christians of a right stamp Thirdly Learn this Lesson That the will of God is the perfect Rule of Righteousness A thing is therefore good because God wills it for God cannot will any thing that is not good all his ways are equal though our ways are unequal all his paths are righteousness therefore whatever God commands it must therefore needs be good because he wills it Fourthly Learn this Lesson If Christians must be Doers of Gods will then it follows that whosoever is proud stubborn and disobedient willingly resisting the Commands of God such certainly cannot be the Disciples of Christ they that fulfil their own wills and they that walk in their own ways and after their own wills
Saviour Jesus Christ These two go together if you grow in grace certainly you shall grow in knowledg if you grow in obedience certainly your obedience shall encrease your knowledg in the mysteries of God For the Explication of the Doctrine two Queries there are that would be satisfied First How or in what respect our obedience shall encrease our knowledg Secondly How it comes to pass or what reason can be rendred why the obedient Christian shall know more of Gods will For the first How or in what respect our obedience shall encrease our knowledg He that obeys the will of God shall know more of his will How shall he know more I answer The knowledg of an obedient Christian shall be encreased in three respects First In regard of its Subject Secondly In regard of its Object Thirdly In regard of the Manner of it First The knowledg of an obedient Christian shall be encreased in the Subject of it or the Seat of it where it is placed as I may call it now the Seat of knowledg is the mind of man the intellectual part of man his intellectual faculty shall be enlarged by his obedience it shall be made more capable of receiving Heavenly truths than it was before God will enlarge that mans understanding whereas before he was but a Babe in knowledg and understanding now he shall be a grown man whereas before he could not digest Milk now he shall be able to digest strong Meat whereas before he was but faint and feeble in knowledg now he shall be strong like David Zech. 12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David Secondly The knowledg of an obedient Christian shall be encreased and enlarged in the Object of it the Object I call those matters or things that are to be known such a one shall know more truths more mysteries of Godliness more of Gods secrets he shall have more manifestations of the Spirit of God revealed to him more discoveries of Truth from day to day it is that which God hath promised Isa 11.9 The Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea The Prophet speaks of a larger measure of knowledg and further discoveries of truths than was wont to be made Thirdly The knowledg of an obedient Christian shall be encreased in regard of the Manner of knowledg he shall know the Truths of God in a better manner than he was wont to do How is that you will say I answer and shall give you an instance in five particulars First He shall know truths more inwardly Secondly He shall know truths more experimentally Thirdly He shall know truths more transformingly Fourthly He shall know truths more powerfully Fifthly He shall know truths more satisfyingly First An obedient Christian shall know truths more inwardly more feelingly than he was wont to do not only have a bare apprehension but such a knowledg as shall take an impression upon his heart and therefore this inward knowledg is compared to seeing and to tasting and to smelling First It is compared to Seeing Eph. 3.8 9 Vnto me who am less than the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the Vnsearchable Riches of Christ and to make all men see not only know but see what is the fellowship of the mysterie which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who Created all things by Jesus Chuist The Italian Translation renders it that all men may see what was the dispensation of the Mysterie which was hid from the beginning of the World which God was pleased to hide in himself from the beginning of the World that all men may see I quote that Scripture to prove that inward Knowledg is compared to Seeing and Seeing is more than a bare Report according to that of Job Job 42.15 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee I abhor my self in dust and ashes Secondly This inward Knowledg is compared to Tasting 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious Tasting is more than Knowing and Tasting is more than Seeing If all the Orators in the World should describe what the sweetness of Honey is they could not do it so well as a man that tasts it Now the Soul comes to tast the sweetness that is in Jesus Christ Notional knowledg is one thing and Tasting knowledg is another thing they have a feeling experimental knowledg in their own hearts That is another Thirdly This inward Knowledg is compared not only to Seeing and Tasting but it is compared to Smelling also Isa 11.3 And the Spirit of the Lord shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord So the words are read but the Hebrew phrase carries it thus and so it is in the Margin of your Bibles The Spirit of the Lord shall make him of quick scent or smell in the fear of the Lord That is a man that is once taught by the Spirit of God that is taught of God as our Saviour useth the Phrase such a man shall scent and smell and savour and breathe out nothing but holiness As our Saviour it is said of him All thy garments smell of Myrrh and Aloes and Cassia Psalm 45.8 And because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is as Ointment poured forth Cant. 1.3 Look as the Ointment that was poured on our Saviours head left such a scent or smell behind it that the whole house was filled with the savour of it John 12.3 So is it in this case a man that hath once received the Spirit of God and is taught by the Spirit of God such a man shall have such a sweet savour of the knowledg of God that it shall be able to diffuse it self to others 2 Cor. 2.14 The Apostle Saint Paul blesseth God for this that he caused them to triumph in Christ and made manifest the savour of his knowledg by them in every place And our Latin word for Wisdom Sapientia it hath its derivation from this it is a savoury Knowledg So that this inward Knowledg is more than bare apprehension it is you see compared to Seeing Touching and to Smelling Secondly He shall know truths more experimentally than he did before and this is that you read of John 4.42 It is the speech of the Samaritans to the woman that had left her Water-pot and went into the City of Samaria and declared to them of the City what she had heard and seen concerning Christ Now say they we believe not for thy sayings for we have heard him our selves and know that this indeed is the Christ the Saviour of the world And thus likewise did the Disciples make a Confession of Christ John 6.69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Job 42.5 6. Secondly This Knowledg is a reflective knowledg it makes a man turn in upon his own heart it makes a man to be wise for himself Prov. 9.12 If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self There is many a man that knoweth how to teach others but yet he cannot teach himself Job 5.27 Lo this we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good In the Hebrew it is Hear and know it for thy self Thirdly This assured Knowledg is an experimental knowledg for it will make a man read some Sculpture or ingraving of the Spirit of God upon his own heart that his heart will be Christs Epistle written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God 2 Cor. 3.3 The truth is my Brethren and I would have you to remember it that all the truths of God to a carnal and unregenerate man are Mysteries No man for example knows what Repentance is but the repenting Sinner no man knows what Faith is but the true Believer no man knows what Regeneration is but he that is regenerate no man knows what Union with Christ is but he that is united to Christ no man knows what it is to have Communion with Christ in his Life and Death and Resurrection and Graces and Comforts but he that hath felt them in his own heart no man knows it savingly until he knows it experimentally A sick man doth better know what his disease is than all the Physicians in the World because he feels it A blind man may talk of Colours that never saw them A hungry man may talk of a rich Banquet that he never tasted of But now this is sure knowledg it is an experimental knowledg Fourthly It is a heart-warming knowledg other knowledg a notional knowledg is but like the light of the Moon it enlightens indeed in a dark night but it doth not warm But now this assured Knowledg is like the light of the Sun it doth not only enlighten you but it heats and warms your hearts it will make you in love with Jesus Christ and to long for more Communion with him in Grace here and in Glory hereafter Thirdly You may know this certainty of Knowledg by the Effects of it and I shall name but these two First This assured Knowledg will make you to hold fast the Name of God notwithstanding all the opposition that you meet with it will make you stick to the Truths of God Psalm 119.31 I have stuck unto thy Testimonies O Lord put me not to shame In Rev. 2.13 God speaks to the Church of Pergamus Thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denyed my Faith even in those days where Antipas was my faithful Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth Thou hast kept my Name there in the midst of opposition Secondly It will make a man run any hazard rather than part with the Truth See the courage of Saint Paul Acts 20.24 The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying Bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so I may finish my course with joy The truth is a little light if it be spiritual will make a man to resist temptations that the allurements of the Flesh and the World and the Devil shall not biass him and carry him away On the contrary a great light if it be not spiritual will yield to every temptation and hence it is that sometimes you see a man of weak parts stand out in an hour of temptation and tryal when a man of strong and great parts if he wants this spiritual Light falls fouly and fearfully A man that hath once got this assured knowledg of the Truth he will say I will lay down my life rather than I will part with the truth another man that hath not received this Light how will he shift and shuffle and temporize and part with the truth and swim with every stream and sail with every wind How will he be a double-minded man in all his ways and will be carried about with every wind of Doctrine Vse 3. Now to shut up all with this one word of Exhortation I beseech you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you would labour for this full assurance of Understanding that you would be rooted and setled and established in the truth get a setled understanding Now to press you to this let me use but these two Motives The first is this The truth is there is no proper Knowledg where this certainty is wanting it is at the best else but matter of conjecture See an instance in Saint Paul before he had this spiritual Light in Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth It was but his thought and conjecture whereas when a man hath once gotten this certainty of Knowledg then he understands the Scriptures indeed Luke 24.45 Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures And you may observe in the Parable of the Sower and the four Grounds three whereof were naught and one good of the three first it is not said that they received the Word with understanding but only the fourth Ground heard the Word and received it with understanding Matth. 13.23 A second Motive is this it will be of singular use to you in erroneous and backsliding times it will be of singular advantage to your poor Souls when you shall have that Knowledg that you can discern Truth from Error and Gold from Copper and Food from Poyson Our Saviour here in the Text speaks of it as the Priviledg of a Believer or obedient Christian that he shall be able to discern true Doctrine from false Certainly in such times as we live in wherein the Name of God is so much blasphemed and the Truth is eclipsed and the Sun of the Gospel is so much darkned by those fogs and mists of Error it is a singular Priviledg for a man to have a setled knowledg in the Truth that he may not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine But it may be you will say What course must we take to get this certainty of knowledg I shall tell you that in three words First If ever you desire to have this full assurance of Knowledg you must resolve to walk humbly with your God Psalm 25.9 The meek will be guide in Judgment and the humble will he teach his way Secondly Strive to be growing Christians That is an excellent Scripture Hosea 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Thirdly If you would get this full assurance of Understanding I cannot give you a better direction than the Text gives you which our Saviour here prescribes you do but the Will of God that is