if you could as easily put by the coming of Christ as you can make a shift to smother the thoughts of it your hearts indeed might chear you and your condition were something like But he will come and though you be asleep in the Arms of your lusts know that your judgement sleepeth not and your condemnation slumbereth not And make what haste you can to be rich or to be honourable and such persons are not innocent make what hast you can in your career of sinning it travels as fast you and will be sure to meet you at the gates of death and hell if not sooner But it may be we think we have done this great work we are through grace acquainted with the Lord Jesus and his spirit which hath effectually wrought in us to believe in his name to love him the main is done with us and therefore sure we may have more liberty then others now Is it so but is this all that must go to watch for his appearing do we not find our hearts thrusting away from us that day and our hands fail and security setzeth upon us the Disciples were in danger to be surprized as well as others Is there any of us so liveth as that we could readily and cheerfully meet the Lord Jesus at an hours warning a daies 〈…〉 and who knoweth he shall have so much to set his house in order O there is need to press this duty upon us all brethren be our condition what it will we have yet somewhat to learn of it and shall have let us hear it as often as we can But I will leave what further may be said unto its proper place in the handling the Parable A word or two to the present occasion we are many of us now called to this sealing Ordinance And though we have been often stirrd up and taught our duty concerning it is there not need to chafe the oyl in upon our hearts our affections still Alas how often have we heard that what it findeth it sealeeth And yet do we not dare to come some of us with hard hearts with covetous hearts uncircumcised hearts I would not speak brethren to grieve the heart of any the Lord would not have grieved as they that have least cause will be most sadly assayling themselves with condemning thoughts but the Lord grant there be none found among us guilty kind As often as ever we come we hear how dangerous a thing it is to come unworthily prepared to it and yet the Lord knoweth how often we have thrust in here some of us without a wedding garment And that you have not been bound hand and fooe bound up in our grave-cloaths and cast out of his sight for ever it is unspeakable mercy O that this might melt us and humble us and though blessed be his holy name I believe there are many poor trembling souls who go about these things with trembling hearts least they should miscarry and grieve him and bring his blood upon their heads I doubt there may be some of us found whose hearts are far from such a frame had we not need then to be put in mind and remembrance again and again of these things It may be we have faith and love to Jesus Christ it may be we have humility and self-loathing it may be we have a mourning spirit over our sins that have grieved the Lord Jesus put him to all that grief for us it may be we have a thankful heart but are these graces now in action are they upon the wing how often have we been minded thereof that we must be actually prepared Alas alas haply some of us have not taken the pains with our hearts which we might and which others would have done if they had had the hearts which we have haply some of us have been striving but in our own strength and have done little haply others may have been helped in the preparing our hearts to seek him herein but by our pride or carnal confidence have lost our frame again It may be some of us brethren have not been very negligent but yet not so diligent as we ought O brethren how needful are these things bear with me if I do press you to them it is not tedious to me because I hope it is safe for you O! that I could do it with such a spirit and such bowels as the Apostle did the Lord set it upon all our hearts we are exceeding dull to believe and more dull to practise and do his will revealed to us Though the good be our own the glory onely his But I will not insist any further here the Lord give us understanding and believing hearts Now for the words of the Text. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to ten Virgins which went forth to meet the Bridegroom I shall begin according to the former method And first speak concerning Jesus Christ with respect to his Church And touching him there are many things in this Parable First he is the Bridegroom 2. His delay of his coming 3. The cry before his coming 4. The coming 5. The time of his coming at Midnight To begin with the first The Bridegroom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However it be that the scope of the parable be to stir up all men that profess the Lord Jesus to a perseverance in watchfulness to stand ready for his coming which being apprehended there is no necessity of pressing each particular in the parable yet I conceive according to our Saviour His opening of other parables we may insist upon the chief things therein as where HE would let us see what need we had to take heed What or How or Whom we Hear by the parable of the several sorts of Ground receiving the seed of the Word he not onely tells us the difference of the Grounds but what the seed is and who the Sower is or else in that parable of the good seed and the Tares he tells us particularly what is meant by each And therefore I must not here pass over this of the Bride-groom The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom The note will be The relation between the Lord Jesus and his people He is the Bridegroom and stands in that relation to his people that this is so we need go no further then this parable for who else is it that cometh and with whom they that are ready do enter into the Mâ—rriage then Jesus Christ who is our life who appearing we shall appear with him in glory Again the foolish virgins cry to him Lord Lord open to us Who is the Lord but Jesus Christ as will appear by comparing this with that speech of our Saviour Not every one that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say to me Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name in whose name but in the name of Jesus Christ and in
tenderly and freely ministred to a yoke-fellow as afterward by the opening of the parable it appears well now thus doth the Lord Jesus dwell with us as many as believe he cherisheth us and nourisheth us 1. He lay's his people in his bosom The Church is said to lay him between her breasts which only is an expression of her love to him not for that he needed any cherishing from thence as David did from Abishai when he was old he must have a young virgin to keep warmth in him This is the case here if we had not such cherishing from Jesus Christ alas brethren we should quickly be benummed and frozen and stiff and unfit for any service he calls us to where should the spouse in her fainting swouning fits lye but in her Husbands bosome this the Prophet setteth forth in another simile of a shepheard the Lambs that are feeble and are not able to go or drive the pace of others he puts them in his bosom saith the Text thence they may gather heat and so the Chicken from the wings of the Hen there is warmth and cherishing so the son of righteousness when they are spread over a soul there is healing and strength in them 2. But then they eat of his bread and drank of his cup when he was upon Earth you know he did eat and drink with his Disciples he desired to eat that Passover with them O blessed are they that eat bread with him at his Table in his Kingdom he speaks of drinking wine new with them that which is a refreshing to them is a refreshing to him as I may say what is the satisfaction of a soul brethren but when he eats the flesh of Christ and drinketh his blood when he feeds upon those real dainties and what is the satisfaction of Christ but to see this He shall see his Seed and be satisfied to see his mercy and his bowels the precious fruits of his death and resurrection made over to a soul to see them living by Faith upon them and eating and drinking abundantly to their souls satisfaction this is the satisfaction of the soul of the Lord Jesus also well he nourisheth them it is the Saints priviledge a man will not feed strangers continually at his Table nor enemies but when once this relation is made up this is the result O what filling is to the hungry and thirsty soul they shall be satisfied Fifthly which should have been before this he will purify his Church his spouse the more Communion he hath with her the more pure she is what is humbling in other Marriages is advancement in this blessed Marriage It is said that the virgins which were to come to King Ahashur were to purify themselves before they came to him much ado there was to purify them with oyl of Myrrh which they say was to make the skin smooth to clear the beauty to free them from Wrinckles and to keep it from decaying The sweet Odours were to make them delightful in their savour to make them lovely to the eye of a man so curious they were but the case is otherwise here Alas he is fain to put his comeliness upon us else we should not have beauty at all that he should desire us as you have it in Ezek. 16. And therefore the Apostle to the Ephesians he gave himself for his Church that he might purify it Though we were nasty sluttish lothsom creatures before the Lord Jesus will not have us continue so but wash us in that fountain opened for sin and uncleanness that Jordan with us to wash away our Leprosy And therefore he himself came by water as well as by blood Alas what should the Lord Jesus do with us bretbren if we should retain our swinish disposition to wallow in the myre and then think to come and lye down in his bosom No he cannot away with this he must wash away this disposition and hath done it for all that are his that now they shall no more delight in sin but if they miscarry now it shall be their grief as well as it is his he purifieth his people A sad word to such as yet mallow in their uncleanness a sign they have nothing to do with Christ An encouragement to poor Creatures who labour under the lothsomeness of their corruptions he gave himself that he might purifie to himself a Church he can do it he will do it his blood doth lye in pawn he will not lose the price of his blood nor shall his people lose such mercies as this which cost the heart-blood whatever they go without they shall not go without this Sixthly He will make them fruitful Marriage-communion is a fruitful communion This is the general complaint of the people of God of their barren hearts and empty lives but he will make them fruitful he will not have a barren spouse whether we speak collectively or distributively of the Church of Christ Collectively Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all a way that is barren and God doth not own with bringing in souls to Jesus Christ hath cause to fear whethether in such a constitution they be the Church of Christ yea or no It is true the Gentiles before they were marryed had no children and the Jews that were the marryed wife when God was casting her off grew very barren but now more are children of the unmarryed then of the marryed woman saith the Lord. But it is clearer to us to speak distributively he will make us fruitful When a man is marryed to the Law which is the strength of sin as the Apostle calls it O how fruitful is he in works of darkness and shall not Jesus Christ be as vigorous and fruitful a husband as the Law can be and sin can be Let Sarahs womb be as dead as it may yet he can make her fruitful Let a mans heart be as dead to good works as you can imagine he can renew strength again as he did Abrahams and Sarahs If he speak the word a green tree is withered if he speak the word a barren tree is fruitful the Apostle his expression we are dead to the Law saith he and so free from our former husband that we might be marryed to another even to Jesus Christ that you might bring forth fruit unto God see what riches of fruitfulness or seeds of it are in the womb of that one Text God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye alway having all-sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work minde you here is good works and abounding in them that is more yea in every good work good works of all kinds and abounding in them all And whence cometh this he is able to make grace abound towards you though if you had but a Cistern you might be drawn dry or the stream yet there is a fountain which continually overfloweth he is able to make grace abound
God would not have sadned God is exceeding tender of his peoples comfort and therefore he hath written somuch the scope of all which is that they might have consolation and their joy might be full and therefore if we by uneven walking grieve the hearts of the people of God surely we are like to smart for it it is a vexation to the righteous soul of Lot to behold the unclean conversation of the wicked but it is a grief and bitterness doubtless much more to the people of God to see the miscarriage of a David a Peter and to hear the reproach wherewith they reproach the way of Christ which fall upon them continually Secondly Not only good men but evil men are indangered to be scandalized by it and to be prejudiced against the ways of strictness and exact walking with God because they that profess it do so miserably miss it we should walk wisely towards them that are without left we fright them away from Christianity as the Papists by their Idolatry are an offence to the Iews to keep them off from coming in to Christ because they are exceeding tenacious now of the second Commandment God having purged that iniquity from them by a seventy years captivity and much longer since and so by their cruelty to the Gentiles where they go to convert them they are an offence to them and little doth a child of God know if he fall as David did how many may stumble upon him and fall head-long into hell never come to Jesus Christ upon this account Thirdly Because we have all of us erring hearts and naturally we love to wander and if the Lord have healed that affection that now it is wrought out of us yet we are apt to wander therefore so often compared to sheep I have gone astray like a lost sheep O seek thy servant c. We all like sheep have gone astray and therefore it is the more needful to be charged upon us home and deeply because we are so prone to turn a side it is a people that have alway erred in their hearts though they were his people in Covenant external yet they erred in heart who can say he doth not find many inclinations in the heart bent to backslide go out of the way and therefore it is needful to be prest upon us so much to walk exactly and see to it Fourthly because there are so many by-paths whereinto they may step awry truth is one but falshood is manifold there is error on the right hand and error on the left and but one straite path before them therefore it is two to one but they miss it and therefore they had need to use double diligence and be pressed to it to walk circumspectly to see they be exact in their ways Now for the Use then First it is to shew us that among the much profession of Chirst that is in the world there is very little power very little exact and circumspect walking men profess to walk with God but it is at a great distance they are strangers to him and he to them and no marvel The second Use and that I will a little insist upon shall be a word of Reproof and that of divers sorts and as the Lord beginneth his rebukes for sin at his own House Judgement beginneth at the house of God so will I first give the alarm to them a word of Reproof to them Alas how far short do the people of God come of this duty it is intollerable pride in the Papists that stand upon their tiptoes and talk of their works of Supererrogation as if they had done more then God had commanded and it is wretchless carelesness in us that we keep not nearer to what he hath commanded I speak not now of the many errors the most vigilant and close walking Christian will alas to his grief find himself guilty of when he maketh a diligent measuring of his actions by that rule but I speak of the carelesness of Christi ans walking wherein doubtless they might come up nearer to God if they did but stir up themselves ever and anon but we are idle we are idle and make many an idle complaint to God that wâ— are unable to do any thing which is true if we consider our selves apart from Christ Without me ye can do nothing but through him we may be able to do all things and if we be renewed in our inward man what is this but a powerful propensity of the Mind and Will towards God and that which is according to God It is not to be doubted but if Saints would but take more pains with their hearts they might have many a better frame to serve the Lord and they should not offer so many tattered sacrifices to him and if men would be but perswaded to the painful part of Christianity they may get their passions of lust more subdued which break out to the dishonour of God and shame of Christianity and therefore justly are we to be reproved if men would a little better cast their occasions and husband their time they need not be in such straits so often to neglect or slubber over their prayers And for civil things do you walk circumspectly as you might if you made it your work and study in things lawfull might not Christians have more regard then they have to the conveniency or inconveniency I am sure the Apostle had and therein he followed Christ and therein he is to be our pattern and so what is of good report and praise worthy me thinketh it is sad when there is no care unto our hearts of these things might not Christians walk at a closer scantling in point of offence the Apostle would deny his liberty in things lawful and haply we would think necessary too as the eating of flesh rather then offend his weak brother and we many times care not so we may have our wills how many we offend and so in natural things eating drinking sleeping Christians I doubt we generally too much indulge the flesh even to the loading of our minds and dulling our spirits for higher things how cometh it to pass Sabbaths are spent so sleepily but because some wil not allow themselves nor theirs competent rest the world incroacheth upon God or else they load themselves with the creatures so that they cannot hold up their heads either they are over-worked or over-charged with surfetting and drunkenness doubtless this is reducible to those great evils well the Lord reprove us for it for we are very guilty we walk very loosely in comparison of the examples of some of the Saints yea I do verily think there is many a poor blind Papist will rise up in judgement against many of us that are Professors that have more light then they 2. It is a word of Reproof of another sort that instead of walking exactly with God following him fully their hearts are devided some there are
that have the name of Christians and yet altogether neglect the honest and harmless conversation among men and are altogether taken up with some small duties of Worship and shews of Religion as the Proverb hath it Angels in the Church and Devils in the House Devils in their Callings such were the Idolatrous Iews the Prophets with one voyce do testifie against them for this thy cried The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these c. but considered not that they made this Temple of the Lord a Den of Thieves a Sanctuary to defend them a cover and cloak for their wickedness and so the Prophet again This people draw near me with their mouths honour me with their lips but are far from me and the conversation also which answers more to their hearts then to their lips it is the very counterpane of their hearts usually 〈◊〉 this an exact circumspect walking do you think thus to impose upon the holy one of Israel doth not he regard think you what your dealings are between man man and how you carry it in your Families in your Shops as well as in the publike altogether this is very reproof worthy our Saviour thought it so and all the Prophets thought it so and O that he would speak this to every carnal Gospellers heart this day Again secondly There are others that are all for morality and honesty of conversation they give every one their own they are not injurious they are no extortioners with the Pharisee they are no drunkards but for the worship of God they know nothing what it meaneth to worship in Spirit and truth this is not an exact walking with God these things you should do and not leave the other undone else you follow not God fully indeed there is many a Moralist that is rather an Atheist then a Christian but I will not stand upon this Pour out thy c. Again thirdly There are a sort that neither fear God not reverence man and yet will not indure but to be called Christians for the worship of God if they come at it in the publike there are their bodies but their hearts are gone they come to see and be seen to mind faces and fashions and so sin and trifle away the Ordinances of God in their houses nothing but hellishness all their words full of deceit and poyson their accents are oaths it is all the emphasis and grace they think of their speech their lives what are they but rottenness and fraud and pride and over-reaching they have no regard to right or wrong good report or evil report all actions are alike to them being past feeling and under a reprobate sence they cannot judge of good or evil but call evil good and good evil Is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk uprightly exactly Ah surely brethren if it be exactness it is of the devils coyning when men teach their tongues to speak falsly as in Shops many do and make nothing of it and teach their hands to work deceit and wickedness this is to walk exactly with the devil to walk as other Gentiles do whose hearts the God of this world doth mightily work to their own destruction the Lord rebuke this power of sin where ever it is Again It may serve to reprove another sort and those are they who are so far from walking circumspectly or exactly that there is nothing more the object of their scorn and contempt then this it is the drunkards song as David was and so preciseness and strictness of walking is ordinary the world cannot bear the burning and shining conversations of some of the Saints they are so cuttingly reproved by them that with those Heathens they curse the Sun that by its shining doth scorch them It is no new thing the seed of the Serpent did alway persecute the seed of the Woman and he that was born after the flesh persecuteth him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now saith the Apostle and so it is now may we say Ismael mocked Isaac and is it not so still or if it be not so bold a sin as formerly it is because the times not sinners hearts are changed they malign them still watch for their halting report say they and we will report it well remember this you that are scorners at strictness and circumspect and exact walking with God you are set down in in the scorners chair the Lord be mercifull to you for few that arrive to that pitch and take up their rest in sin that are therein setled are brought on to Christ you are the Ring leaders in the way which leads to destruction this is another The next Use then shall be a word of Exhortation to us all If it be a duty so much lying upon us then to buckle our selves to it to walk exactly O see to it I charge you all and the Lord lay the charge upon mine own soul as you will ever lift up your faces without spot and with comfort at the day of your summons and appearing before the Judgement seat so walk circumspectly I know none of our hearts but they do or may accuse us of much unevenness in our walking do you know it brethren and will you dare to continue in it I may not descend to particulars but do not your hearts smite you for looseness of spirit towards God hanging back often neglecting shuffling and cutting with God putting him off with any thing and is not this a cursed thing to do Gods work negligently to bring a female when he have a male doth not your hearts smite you for this you do not take heed to your ways lest you sin with your tongues there is much falshood therein lightness and foolishness if not poyson and destruction there nor to your feet they make haste to vanity you shun not occasions of sin as you would an infected person or family O surely if it were not so an importunate duty the Apostle would not so charge it upon Christians that make Christianity their business to walk so exactly but a little to move us to it I will add some few Considerations and then some words â—f Direction which you may look upon as an Appendix of this Use or else as a distinct Application of this Point First Motive Consider that the way wherein you walk is all overspred with snares and nets to trap you and that your ways 1. To trap you in sin 2. To trap you for sin First To trap you in sin had not the Bird need to he wary and heedfull and make good use of her sences to discover where she may light without danger when every place is full of Limetwigs is there an hook under every fair baite and had not the fish need to take heed how she biteth or nibleth lest she be taken this is the case there is a truth and a great one in it there is nothing we
neither of them that are strong men and women in Christ nor yet of such as haply natural incapacity is a great hindrance to But were we not many of us much wanting to our selves in reading meditating on the word of truth we might be much more apprehensive then we are we are in a strait indeed for some are so acute that we can scarce touch lightly enough upon things least they nauseate others are so dull we cannot dwell long enough upon them almost to make them understand something Well this is the first Argument Secondly Because men are exceeding slow to believe things O fools saith our Saviour and slow of heart to believe the things which the Scriptures c. Concerning the Messiah how he must be rejected and cut off and rise again the third day Might he not upbraid our Congregations brethren in the like manner how often have we heard the same things and it may be given assent to the truth of the same but yet are slow to believe And this Argument will stand good against the acutest hearers though they may out-run the speaker haply in apprehension they may be slow-paced enough in believing Now it is true it is not all our inculcating and pressing the same truths upon men that can work their hearts to believe until the arm of the Lord be revealed to them yet we know not when and how far he may reveal his arm It may be a little at one time and a little at another Agrippa hearing Paul once discourse of Jesus Christ was almost perswaded haply if he had had another opportunity to hear the like things again it might have proved a through work Felix trembled at the first Sermon upon Judgement to come if he had heard it the second time who can tell how far it might have wrought This the second Thirdly Alas Brethren our memories are such leaking vessels we are full of chinks hac illac difluxerimus and therefore as from thence the Apostle infers we should give the more diligent heed to the things which are spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least we run out So should we also inculcate the same truths again who is there that hath not woful experience of this other things evil and vile they have such impression upon our memories O how much ado is it to raze them out injuries are graven upon us even as with the pen of a Diamond vain words wicked speeches we have heard long since we cannot forget but a thing that is good O how much ado there is to remember it had not a riddle need often to be put into the water it will hold nothing else be not forgetful hearers of the word saith the Apostle but doers of the same how many of us are even high-way seed hearers The word is gone from us before we are out of these doors or the most part of it So the fowls of the Aire the evil spirits they steal away the word from us so that we had as much need to hear it again as when we came O saith Peter as long as I live I will put you in remembrance To do good and to communicate forget not saith the Apostle no Question they had been taught that lesson again and again and yet they were apt to forget and therefore the Apostle goeth over it again to them to put them in remembrance Fourthly It is requisite because our affections are so dull they had need to be often quickned therefore whet the word upon your children It is not one whet that will edge a dull knife but over and over with it again and again as many times in Scripture a repetition of a thing in prayer in preaching speaks the affections of him that delivereth it so it stirs the affections of the hearers Phil. 4. 4. saith the Apostle rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce is that a tautology or a vain repetition no sure the Apostle was not guilty in that kind but it was needful to stir the affection to the duty our hearts indeed are like so many dead Seas and it is not a little breath once upon us that will move but when the wind passeth often and strongly over us then it may affect us haply the word is therefore compared to the words of the wise which are like goads not the words of fools who are no orators sensless and know not what belongs to the Art of speaking rightly but the words of the wise are like goads sharp and they are to be often used we are like oxen in duty creatures that will often need to be pricked up therefore the metaphor is used therefore saith the Apostle I put you in remembrance of the things you knew before and were established in even to stir you up there is need of quickening the affections a man may deliver the same truth haply more stirringly one time then another and the spirit may breath in it one time more then in another and then the affections are stirrd indeed to purpose that is a fourth Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo Fifthly because of the unconstancy of our hearts if we be a little affected with a truth at one time how long doth such a frame continue upon us David was sensible how fleeting the frame of our hearts are And therefore though himself and his people were in as sweet a frame as any we read of almost when they offered with a perfect heart willingly and so willingly as that David rejoyced in it and blessed the Lord for it that they had hearts so to do this was a precious frame indeed yea David rejoyced at the willingness of others not envied at it saith he that the Lord would keep this frame for ever Keep this upon the imagination or figments of their hearts for ever Alas if he keep it not it is gone presently now upon Eagles wings soring by and by with our bellies cleaving to the earth Psal 119. 24. thy testimonies are my delight and 25. v. my belly cleaveth to the dust And therefore the words of the wise they are as goads and nails nails to take hold and fasten things together that they may abide and if they be driven to the head yet how quickly may it be loosened again is there not need of the same hammer to fasten it again therefore saith the Apostle Peter though you be established in the present truth already yet I Judge it meet to stir you up by putting you in remembrance Sixthly because we are so slow to do what we know which indeed is the main thing we do but build Castles in the Aire Bretheren if we hear and do not and yet who is clear in this point yea how often may we hear a practical truth prest upon us before we practise it yea when we are convinced to do it and resolved we will and yet with the Son in the Gospel
day put on your Ornaments and make ready for his appearing for while your hearts are out of order your Spirits out of frame you are not fit to meet the Lord Jesus and therefore you will hang back but so much of this Exhortation The last Application will be a word of comfort to such as through grace have yielded up themselves to the Lord Jesus or are desirous or do so to be espoused to him according to the several conditions of such creatures there may from hence be a various and strong consolation administred from this Doctrine First Then alas you will say withal your souls you close with Jesus Christ there is nothing you more gladly undertake but you know he is a righteous God most just and most pure of eys and therefore he will surely be displeased with you and you shall have little comsort yea you do finde that your fruitlesness of walking doth provoke him and therefore you are afraid sooner or later he will cast you off before you come to enter with him into the marriage O I shall one day fall by the hand of this Pride of this uncleanness of this lust or the other For Answer to this remember 1. That the Lord when he doth betroth he betretheth forevâ—r and he doth it in faithfulness so that if the saithfulness of Jesus Christ could fail who hath espoused thee thou mightest miscarry Men indeed after espousals if they discover any deformity which they knew not before may be apt to change their minds yea sometimes where there is no cause at all but their own fickleness and changableness but there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with him hath he spoken it and will he not perform it I will never leave thee saith he to Jacob until I have performed all the good which I have spoken concerning thee But a little more fully to open it 1. I say by way of Concession he may sometimes be angry with his spouse or at least withdraw himself properly he is not angry at all nor subject to any passion but he may behold that in his people for which he may sometimes put them to a little grief and make them believe that he will cast them off as you have it in many of the Psalms he may frown and hide his face from his people but as on their part every withdrawing from him is not a breach of the marriage-Covenant so neither is every withdrawing of his refreshing presence a breach of his Covenant yet when he doth so withdraw brethren alas his heart works towards his people as to Ephraim I do earnestly remember him still he may give his people sharp words sometimes which will be a cutting to the souls that are deeply in love with him but they go to his own heart as well as they do to theirs here is the difference brethren between our withdrawings from him and his withdrawings from us that are his people our hearts are many times gone in a great part to sit loose from him though not altogether for the Church when she slept her heart waked but now with him it is otherwise his heart is never gone in the least from his people onely he may speak sometimes a bitter word to them but all this while his heart is full of sweetness and love to them this is one 2. Remember this also as a pillar of the former that he hath builded and founded this espousal and union between him and his people so sure as that it can never be shaken upon the freeness of his grace and therefore it cannot be moved Upon his full knowledge of what we would be indeed if the Lord Jesus had not known what fruitless froward creatures we would prove how unthankful how unkind it had been something for a poor doubting soul to have fed his fears with but he knew long before brethren and if he had seen that he had not had bowels enough to swallow up all our unworthiness he would never have made love to us for he is God and his work is perfect he would never have begun except he had been able to lay the top-stone Again the satisfaction of the Justice of God is to the full this is that which amazeth and alrighteth many a poor soul they forget themselves and look upon their failings as those which expose them to divine vindicative justice which is a great mistake for that was once fully satisfyed in Jesus Christ and he is well pleased in him with all that can bring him in their arms if we can but come to God with Jesus Christ in our arms he hath no more to say to us all is made even in Christ there was never such a declaration of the Justice of God as in giving his own son to be a ransom a sacrifice once for all and the Apostle saith it was to declare the righteousness of God therefore he was given to be a propitiation for the remission of sins there God appeared righteous indeed that the flames of hell must kindle upon his son yea and burn to the lowermost hell in a sort that he might be satisfyed that justice might for ever lye still and be silenced as to his people it is more that Christ suffered then if thou and ten thousand such as we are should suffer to eternity we could never have paid the utmost farthing which he paid to the uttermost else he could not have saved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides we should have been long paying that we payd he at once payd all and therefore this Marriage is so founded brethren upon this satisfaction of Jesus Christ that it cannot be shaken Yea 3. As to that of afflicting his people and frowning upon them he is not forward to it he is not strict to mark what is done amiss to take notice of every slip and failing if he were we should never have comfortable moment no he is rather strict to mark what is good in us what beauty there is in us if there be but one beauty or fair place in the midst of many spots his eye and his heart is rather upon that as some observe in that of Sarah there is but one good word in her speech calling Abraham Lord all the rest savours of unbelief and yet the Holy Ghost takes notice of that So Rahab Jos 2. 4 5. Heb. 11. 31. Alas what miserable mangled Services do we offer up to our own eys there is not any thing desirable that is ought Well if there be but one sigh one groan in sincerity he is more ready to take notice of that then of all your failings and therefore is not forward to put his spouse and people to grief O he is full of kindness and tenderness to us Yea 4. It is observable that he is said to rejoyce over his people continually as a Bridegroom over a Bride not onely his heart is constant to them but it is constant in the same
that had no wedding garment upon him yet came to the Feast Sure he went no further then the externals you see he is cast out into utter darkness Now this may be called the Marriage or the Feast because here below they are necessary for us as signs of that spiritual communion the Lord seeth it good we have these royal dainties thus represented to us by visible sensible things because of our weakness and to magnifie his own condescending Grace to us to make that mysterie of salvation by a crucified Christ which all the reason in the world cannot fathom and that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard yet in a sort visible to the eye and to be perceived by the ear that we might even in this sacramental sense even touch and taste and handle as I may say the word of life 2. As they are seals and pledges of this spiritual communion being seals of the Covenant of Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the sum and substance it sealeth it up to a believers Faith and so stands us in great stead And 3. It is a means of our spiritual communion the Conduit-pipe that runs wine the dishes that hold the dainties though but gold as Kings and Princes use to be served up in such State yet it is not them we feed upon they are but the means the vehicula and therefore because they have such a respect to our spiritual communion with Jesus Christ they may be so called But secondly the internal communion with Jesus Christ is that indeed which is the Feast the Marriage-feast even here below to eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of God which giveth life and maintains life this is the Feast Eat and drink yea drink abundantly saith the Lord I shall be satisfied abundantly with the goodness of thy house abundantly satisfied watered inebriated with the fatness of thy house what is that not meerly with the Ordinances no but with Christin them beholding his might and glory in the Ordinances the mighty prevailing of the Spirit of Christ against our unbelief to quiet all our doubtings O it is this to see the good of the chosen of the Lord those choice inward refreshings which the poor believers have from the presence and powerful workings of Christ in them to the joy of faith and to strengthen against corruption to strengthen for action for suffering his will this is that they cry out after even after the living God to enjoy him And all this is but the Kingdom of God below this is but the first course as I may say of this feast For secondly The Kingdom of glory as well as the Kingdom of grace which is that now I am to speak to this is a feast a Marriage here called that is to say a Marriage-feast for what is the Kingdom of grace here below but a foretaste of heaven as Grotius upon Matth. 22. saith As in the Marriage-feast at Cana of Galilee contrary to the usual manner our Saviour kept his best wine last so it is here as by and by we shall see here the wine the spirits indeed But a little to prove this by a Scripture or two that it may appear plain ye that have continued with me in my temptation I appoint to you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom So many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven sit down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their table jesture Joh. 12. 2. they that sit at the Table are Guests But now eating and drinking in Scripture many times do signifie a feasting and so it is here to be taken and let it be noted by way of further proof that the Jews did not ordinarily drink wine except at their feasts and then they did drink abundantly if the observation of some be true as Piscator in his Schol. upon Math. 26. 29. cited by Mr. Brinsly but whether so or no sure we are they did use to drink more liberally then eat the fat and drink the sweet when it was a good day or a merry day to them for his heart was merry his heart was good and the sadness of the heart was called the evil of the heart in the Hebrew often insomuch that the ordinary word in the Hebrew for a feast is a drinking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in Ahashuerus his feast is called and Labans feast is called a drinking and it appears by the abundance of wine our Saviour made at the Marriage-feast at Cana of Galilee Therefore you shall find that the feast which Christ maketh is a feast of wines on the Lees well refined come and buy wine and milk without money and without price And so for this Kingdom of heaven this Marriage-feast at the height is called a drinking of new wine with them in the Kindgom of the Father that is to say the Kingdom of glory called his Fathers Kingdom because at that day that is to say at the day of the resurrection he will give up his dispensatory Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all And for other reasons but I must not stay upon that Well here he will drink new wine with them which is nothing else but a periphrasis of this feast this Marriage-feast in heaven The cup of blessing the cup of consolation the cup of health or salvation is the feast of Christ here below but this now must be drunk new in the Kingdom of his Father there will be a new feast of wine a feast of new wine And so much for the proof of this Now we must understand Brethren that this feast in heaven is not any corporal thing I hope it is needless to tell any of you this the heathens dream of an Elysian-field and the Mahometans of their carnal delights after death those are poor husks that will not satisfie a soul of a child of God here they are sordid and infinitely below a heaven-born spirit no it must be somewhat of as high a nature as the spring from whence they come Why you may judge what it is in the General Brethren though particularly we know not what we shall be What is the Kingdom of heaven here below but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost the sweet and spiritual communion with Jesus Christ the fellowship of his death and sufferings life and resurrection whereby we are in part changed into his Image that a man liveth upon will change him ordinarily therefore the King you know would have the children in Dan. fed with a portion of his meat generous-spirited wine will beget more and better spirits then course and cold c. So here by this communion we are changed in part though alas in how little a part But now in heaven Brethren the same communion
now the time of our working and Gods waiting is at an end God hath long waited to be gracious to us but now there is an end of waiting he seeth it would do no good as long as sinners could for sorrow or pain or death hold their vanities keep their sins their sweet morsels they would never spit them out therefore now he will wait no more though men were unready when Christ cometh yet if he would stay a while longer wait a year longer O if it might be but a Sabbath but a day what new creatures would men become they will promise fair No no the time of waiting is done he will not stay a jot they have had warning enough the cry hath past before him often enough Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him but you have not taken the warning now when he cometh and receiveth his own which were ready for him no more waiting the door is shut Though here in the Kingdom of grace God may be intreated to spare a barren tree or Vineyard a year or two longer yet when the time of waiting is at an end and he seeth nothing will do he will down with them by the roots into the fire with them so it is no time for us to work then to think of puting on Christ then if we would gather Manna it must be upon the six daies there was none to be found upon the seventh If we understand this of the day of the resurrection from the dead then it is clear as the tree falleth so it lyoth either hell-ward or heaven-ward But if of the time of death truly Brethren how ever this may sometimes through the exceeding riches of his grace be a time of repentance and faith to some yet ordinarily it is not so Alas they have enough to do to bear the weakness upon them they can mind little else or if they do return it is but feignedly for the most part with Judas and usually when a sinner hath so long trampled under foot the blood of Jesus Christ the Lord giveth them up to hardness of heart that they shall never repent or believe seeing they shall see and not perceive c. least they should be converted and he should heal them as it is there in the Revelations Let him that is filthy be filthy still let him that is an hypocrite be an hypocrite still this is fearful indeed So much for the Arguments For the Application Then Brethren What have we all of us to bless the Lord for that yet the door is not shut against us as we may hope indeed if God have sealed up any heart under hardness because of its long resisting the Holy-Ghost woful is his condition but doth he not breath now and then and stir and strive that is a good sign he hath not done with thee yet his waiting and striving time is not over he hath not given thee over yet c. What have we to bless the Lord for what are our lives Brethren good to us for in any respect besides but that we might work out our salvation make sure of God and Christ and heaven get our wedding-garment on put on the Lord Jesus for righteousness and holiness that our nakedness may not appear for heaven will not bear the nakedness of a sinner now though sinners have neglected this opportunity alas how many of us have we are exceeding busie making provision for our lusts our pride our luxury our backs our bellies provision for our wives our children but none for our poor souls and yet notwithstanding this he waiteth the door standeth open If you had many of you been cut off a year or a moneth ago and the grave had shut her mouth upon you would you not have found heaven shut against you and hell opening her mouth wide for to swallow you up Yea Brethren if this day he should come Ah I fear I fear Brethren as secure as many of us are now and sure of our conditions we should find the gate clapt against our souls O therefore Brethren bless the Lord admire his patience and long-suffering that yet draweth out our day of grace that yet holdeth his bowels open his arms open to receive us This is the first Secondly Then it may serve to lay before us the doleful condition of poor trifling creatures trifling professors that notwithstanding all the ado they make with their Lamps trimming of them and going up and down to buy they are found unready the door is clapt against them the Lord grant that none of your poor souls may ever see that woful day Brethren you will then know to your bitterness and sorrow what it is to sin away a day of grace an opportunity while the door stood open to receive you Ah surely there will nothing wound poor sinners more then this the time was I might have been happy I might have had heaven the bowels of the Lord Jesus stood open to me as well as to others but now alas it is past did it make the Lord Jesus weep for Jerusalem and was not her condition sad then and will it not make your hearts bleed O sure it cannot be but every such thought to Esau prophane Esau poor Esau when the blessing was gone he sought it with tears every thought sure of this time was I might have had the blessing but wretch that I was I sinned it away I despised it preferred a mess of pottage before it and therefore now there is no recovery of it Every thought sure in hell that heaven gate did stand open to you sinners you had as fair offers of grace and as long a season and opportunity to close with Christ as others but now they are gone will fetch blood from your very hearts and souls O the condition is sad and doleful Thirdly It shall be a word of Exhortation to us all that we would lay these things to heart It may be we have not so much minded them If this be true Brethren What need had we to look to it that we be found ready to enter which is an Exhortation I have already prest upon you there is a promise left of entering a threatning also that some shall not enter even as many as are not ready you see it here by the wise Virgins who enter and the foolish against whom the door is shut and the Apostle to the Hebrews Take heed lest any of you fall short through unbelief as those fell short the Apostle maketh that use of it to warn the Hebrews though Disciples in profession and many of them doubtless in reality such so here from this example I desire Brethren both mine own and your hearts may be quickned to look about us lest when all comes to all we have the gate of heaven clapt upon us 1. Then you that are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity have yet your filthy garments upon you your rotten
Christ from our selves by such wantonness under the beams of Grace Ninthly Then Brethren learn we not to rest in the common influences of this Sun the Lord Jesus he shineth on the good and bad Brethren but he shineth only on the heads of some but into the hearts of others as the Apostle saith the passages between the head and the heart are opened and the light seizeth on the will and affections as well as the understanding the Sun may shine on thee thou mayst have much knowledge and an head full of notion and yet be but a weed for it shines on the weeds as well as on the flowers on the dunghill as well as on the garden the dunghil never savours so bad as when the Sun beateth most on it O what steams are there then enough to poyson a man Ah Brethren the shining of Jesus Christ on some poor sinners what doth it but raise steams of lust within men are more vile more wicked their guilt greater their condemnation surer their sins more loathsom to God then any others therefore stay not here Brethren except we find that the light we receive from Jesus Christ do scatter our lusts for they will not endure the light that is saving indeed except thou find that it change thee indeed and transform thy heart into his image from Glory to Glory if thou find thou art rather changed from dishonour to dishonour from one vile affection to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle cals them all the light thou hast received is nothing Tenthly They are not friends to Christ then Brethren that would make more Suns then one what is not the Lord of Glory a glo 〈…〉 s Sun enough is there not a fulness of light in him sufficient for us all a fulness of heat and influence in him for us all but we must be flattering our selves and others into a rivalship with Christ how gross are the Papists in this point making the Saints their mediatour of satisfaction and intercession both I do them no wrong they are the words of their Missall praying for pardon by the merits of their Saints and praying to them to intercede for them yea and to the Virgin to command her son O horrid but in them it s not so much because either they are in Egyptian darkness and denied the means of light or given up to strong delusions to believe a lye but for us that have the light of the knowledge of Christ in such a rich manner among us and yet have a Pope in our bellies the indignity is much greater to Jesus Christ how prone are we to set up our own works as our Saviour who can say his heart is clean and throughly purged from this evil O that we were but ashamed of it and were able to say that we do it not in our hearts for then it s not so deeply chargable on us as I doubt it s on many of us Therefore take heed of this Brethren of setting up any spark of our own kindling or of his kindling in us in defiance to the Lord Jesus in opposition against him or partnership with him in our salvation in our comfort or peace or joy of faith if we do and give him not the whole we do much dishonour him and shall find that we much wrong our own souls No readier way Brethren to bring an eclipse then when the Moon wil be interposing between the Sun the Earth Eleventhly What enemies are they then to Jesus Christ and to Mankind that would pluck the Sun out of the Firmament would we not account him a desperate enemy that would endeavour it and are they any better are they not much worse who would pluck away our Christ from us whether they be sins or lusts within which do indeed rather cloud or eclipse at most But there are some who would even pluck him out of his throne that the Father hath set for him in Heaven in his Church such as deny the Lord that bought them such as will not yield him to be the most high God equal to the Father though Christ counted it no robbery they count it a robbery for him be equal with him Can a creature-Christ be a sufficient Christ to give light and life and healing to poor sinners will this ever satisfie any tender conscience quiet any trouble 〈…〉 ul let it go then for a damnable heresie and let us abhor it and beware of it for nothing is so gross but in these times Sathan finds some vent for it and bewail it Brethren that ever any poor creatures that expect salvation by Jesus Christ should attempt such an high indignity against him what is it but to kiss him with Judas and yet to betray him with Joab to kiss the Son and yet to stab him he that would bring the Sun down to the light and condition of the Moon were a wretched man but this is nothing to the case in hand Twelfthly Then admire Brethren the tender mercy of the Lord that would give us such a Sun the Lord Jesus the Sun of righteousness if he had left the world in a Chaos at first and never commanded the light to shine out of darkness never set any Sun in the Firmament who could have charged any thing on him But he knew what a miserable world it would it be without the Sun and how little of the beauty and excellence and perfection of his works and wisdom would appear if there were no Sun But here Brethren shining forth more of his â—enderness and bowels unto poor Sinners in a dark and dead condition through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from an high hath visited us here are the soundings of his bowels toward us indeed when we were forlorn and helpless in our selves to cause this day-spring from on high to visit us And truly for us in this Land how long have we had the Sun of righteousness risen on us and that yet it is not set that he is not altogether eclipsed by the world of iniquity that he hath stood still as it were and not hastened to a setting this is unspeakable mercy admire it bless the Lord be filled with his praises Thirteenthly Brethren Then let us be exhorted to set our selves in the warm Sun I mean to wait diligently on the Lord Jesus in his Ordinances for these are the Orb in which he moveth in his Church the Heavens and doth as it were wheel about the Church in them as the Sun in the Orb to communicate his light and heat and influences and therefore its observable that David saith I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then dwell in the tents of wickedness why saith he The Lord is a Sun and a Shield Glory and a Defence round about them therefore he would be a door-keeper in the house of God because there and then and to them he
sins pardoned and healed were back-slidings only thou must be content to endure something for the healing of those fearful wounds thou hast made in upon thy soul for there is no wound cured in a moment nor without any anguish and all that he laies upon thee is nothing the smart is nothing though the plaister lie long upon thee before it be healed to draw the sore to a head to break it to draw it to heal it there will be some time but he will heal thee poor sinner if he have made thee weary of this sin desirous of healing indeed And for you that are crying out of broken bones it may be there are some whose condition this is that do fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servants it is the greatest fear of thy soul to displease the Lord to grieve him happy soul with whom it is thus but thou art over-cast thou art clouded thou seest no light thy bones are broken thy spirit is wounded O who can bear a wounded spirit Be of good chear man remember this hath he not promised it that he will arise upon them that fear the Lord with healing in his wings he will heal those broken bones and the flesh wherein there is no soundness by reason of thy sins he will heal it and he is doing of it though thou art not sensible of it he pittyeth thee and knoweth how to pitty thee for himself was ecclipsed though the Son of righteousness that he might know how to pitty them that suffer in the like kind for the time to come he knoweth thy frame what thou canst bear and he will not let thee sink O thou of little faithâ— though he may fright thee as he did his Disciples the cloud will be over again only thou must wait for him he knoweth what it is to be without the light of his Fathers countenance as well as thou and he knoweth what thou canst bear therefore be not discouraged man and beside thou hast his promise for it only look to it that thou fear him that thou put not forth thy hand to iniquity that thou say not with that wicked King Why should I wait for the Lord any longer he that shall come will come in the best season When the mercy will be most sweet and seasonable himself may have most glory by it and thy soul most refreshing O but saith another I am not healed I doubt then for alas I find though haply I break not out as before to uncleanness actually yet I have eyes full of adultery still I find the dispositions and inclinations and yieldings of my heart strong to mine own iniquity still some to one and some to another â—or answer to this Is this thy burthen thy grief that it is so dost thou loath thy â—elf for it dost thou hate it wouldst thou fain have it rooted up thou art healed in the greatest part there is the core fetched up from the bottom though the wound be not altogether healed up it is the work of longer time then haply God hath been dealing with thy soul but be of good chear man lay thy self under the Sun of righteousness labour to improve the Covenant of grace wherein he shines most gloriously he hath promised he will circumcise thine heart and thou shalt be able to love the Lord with all thine heart and that he will subdue all iniquity for thee and see if he be not as good as his word in his own time which is the best time We have already endeavoured to open the main promise in this bundle and apply it with what advantage the Lord and your own hearts can tell you have heard at large that Jesus Christ is a Sun of righteousness and that he will ariâ—e with healing in his wings upon them that fear him So that there is Christ promised light and heat and healing reviving and quickning promised and through him And now we are come to speak to the liberty which is promised with Christ which is none of the least considerable Appendices of our justification through his blood and though you have not long since heard somewhat upon this subject however if you hear but the same things the Spirit of the Lord may breath where and when it pleaseth we may meet with him sometimes in hearing the same things that at another time he hath not been found in And ye shall go forth This is principally as I told you spoken to the Jew to the Jew first but also to the Gentile as all the Gospel promises they were first preached to the children of the Kingdom when the Gentiles were strangers from the Covenant of promises but now the Lord hath made them nigh in the blood of his Son that were afar off in Christ all the promises are Yea and Amen to them as well as to the Jews I told you at the first that we are not to confine promises made to times and persons except by unavoidable neceâ—sity where the matter promised is such and the promise such as can agree to no other time or person no persons or peoples condition can become like to theirs to whom the promise is made or are not capable of the thing promised as the promise of the Messiah to come of David and that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed c. therefore this is a promise concerning all the people of God as their conditions become alike yea all that fear the Lord in any of these senses we have already spoken to By going forth here some understand a going forth of this life or a going out of the grave which is a prison indeed to some though not properly so to the Saints but a place of repose until the appearing of Jesus Christ So Alap citing Tert. and Jer. the reason is because they took that which is spoken of the day of the Lord in the foregoing verse of the day of Judgement That day which should burn as an Oven but I do rather conceive that it is not meant of the day of the last Judgement but the day of the fearfull desolations of Jerusalem out of which yet the Lord did deliver and save his own people and the rather I conceive so because of the growing up like Calves of the Stall promised afterward now if that be the day there is no room then to grow any higher to spread any further but as the tree is cut down so it lies there is then in the words a promise of an inlargement from under restraint wherewith their spirits were bound up as I may say and were imprisoned and this we shall see I hope is very great only take here the note of observation from the words The Lord Jesus rising upon a soul brings inlargement to that soul or people ye shall go forth For the prosecution of this I shall propose this Method First give you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quod that it
you see the spirits conveighed from the head to the lowest parts it is by mediation of the other parts between the head and the foot before it cometh thither it passeth through some others I know the Lord Jesus is not bound up to any instruments he can teach by his own Spirit yea and always doth sometimes without means sometimes breathing in the means and this is most ordinary and therefore something we must look to it that we supply every one of us you have heard it is the end of all Christian Society to build up one another and it is the end wherefore the Lord intrusteth us with such Talents to lay them out for the good of others whereby our own Talents grow in the using and we are instruments in the hand of God to improve others hath the Lord then revealed himself to thee thou wast in an horrible pit where there was no standing thou sunkest yet lower and lower hath the Lord set thy feet upon the Rock what then wilt thou keep this alway to thy self when called to speak of it mind you Christ and David they speak of it what God had done And many shall hear and fear and shall trust in God it encourageth them wherefore doth Paul so often speak what he had been and he had obtained mercy O that others that should come after might believe and never be discouraged by their sins though never so great And so the Psalmist Again my soul shall make her boast in God the humble shall hear thereof and be glad this poor man cried to the Lord and he heard him No sooner did Andrew find the Messiah but he tels Simon O we have found the Messiah And so Philip saith to Nathaniel and the woman of Samaria she no sooner had the knowledge of Christ O she was full she was big until she was delivered O come and see the man that told me all that ever I did is not this the Christ I would saith the Apostle that your hearts might be knit together in love and comforted c. that to this end you should know what conflict I had for every one of you wherefore are we delivered out of temptation but to set up way-marks O take heed how you come there warn others that they come not neer such a temptation when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren and therefore comforted that we might comfort others and therefore indued with knowledge that we might feed many Now truly Brethren as the Apostle saith of the solemn meeting so I may say of the occasional meetings together it is not for the better many times but for the worse and how a sad a thing is this when Saints shall meet together to have so sweet an opportunity of stirring up one another to love to good works that either we shall spend the time in foolish talking and jesting and looseness and looseness of Spirit I tell you Brethren observe it you little know what hurt you do your own souls by this lightness nor what hurt you do to others do you never reflect in the evening what you have been doing what company you have been in what you have done what you have gotten methinks it should make our hearts ake to consider this day through the lightness and frothiness of my Spirit I have not only sinned my self but drawn others to it this is not to grow nor to help but hinder one another Or else we are discoursing of the world of this and that bargain or else raking into the infirmities of others and pleasing our selves with that specially of those that are not altogether of our minds whereby our spirits are imbittered not to stir up one another to bowels and compassions to them How many such opportunities doth the Lord put into our hands and we have no heart to them shall I beg of you and of the Lord this day that there might be a labouring either to do or receive some good O think every moment ill spent in the Fellowship of the people of God that is not thus improved and indeed if our hearts and mouths be not set a work thus they will be working upon somewhat which is worse to the grieving and wounding of our spirits and grieving Gods Spirit Thus much for this Exhortation also The last Vse then shall be a word of comfort to every poor believing soul that it may be from what hath been said may be discouraged If it be thus that such as upon whom the Lord Jesus is arisen they are in such a growing condition then what shall I think of my self alas I am weak am very feeble am at a stand c. For answer I shall say a few things First There are several states and statures in Christ there are babes in Christ and such as have need of milk and not strong meat as the Apostle saith ye have need of milk I could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal as to babes in Christ that is to say such in whom the flesh was very strong and prevailing So the Apostle John writeth to all the Saints under three states some were babes some young men in their strength and vigour some old men Fathers of grown experience in the waies of Christ Fathers in Israel and Mothers in Israel some are but just entred into the School of Christ some are of a middle form some of the highest some are but gotten within the door of the house of God and happy it is for them that are but once within for then they shall go further and further Others are gone further into the inner Chambers and are acquainted with the Lord Jesus in the most inward manner What then wilt thou conclude that because thou art not a man the first day or presently therefore thou art no child of grace No suppose thou art but a child and weak and every temptation over-turns thee draweth thee aside yet remember thou art a child though thou be not a strong deeply rooted Cedar yet thou art planted it may be lately though yet for the time we might be men spiritual perfect as the Apostle saith to bear the wisdom of God in a mysterie and yet are babes it is matter of humiliation but not of despair Secondly Another is this that the people of God though they are in a growing condition yet it is not so to be understood as that every moment they grow they have their declining fits trees and plants you know have their Winters and children have their sicknesses and fits when they are at a stand though afterward haply they shoot out so much the more for it and so many times the people of God do they are under a distemper for a while and decline and a man would think they were even withering and dying but it reviveth again many times grace in the hearts of the children of God through corruption are like the light of a candle
Several Works OF Mr. IOHN MURCOT That Eminent and Godly preacher of the Word lately of a Church of Christ at Dublin in Ireland CONTAINING I. Circumspect Walking on Eph. 5. 15 16. II. The Parable of the ten Virgins on Mat. 25. from ver 1. to ver 14. III. The Sun of Righteousness hath healing in his wings for Sinners on Mal. 4. 2. IV. Christs Willingness to receive Humble Sinners on John 6. 37. Together with his Life and Death Published by Mr. Winter Mr. Chambers Mr. Eaton Mr. Carryl and Mr. Manton With Alphabetical Tables and a Table of the Scriptures explained throughout the whole LONDON Printed by R. White for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street near the Inner-Temple Gate 1657. To the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy FLEETWOOD and the Lord HEN. CROMWELL My Dear and ever Honoured Lords THough you love not applause nor I can give titles to men lest in so doing my Maker should cut me off Yet must I perform my duty to God and to you in bearing witness to the truth as it is in Jesus and effectually and exemplarily dwels in you Your piety faithfulness zeal towards God tenderness to the Saints in whom is aliquid Christi your ardent love to the faithful Ministers of Christ and to this our dear Brother departed with his dearly beloved consort and children challengeth no less at my hands who was my Partner and Fellow-helper in the work of the Ministry an earthen Angel and an heavenly Mortal that I may so speak of whom I may say as the Apostle of that Brother his praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches I have seldom known of his years a head better hearted or heart better headed The enlargement of whose heart was the enlargement of his abilities He was a burning and bright shining star in the Firmament of our Church holy for Doctrine and Piety but shining with a borrowed light from the Sun of Righteousness which he was very sensible of For he did not offer to God that which cost him nought but gave up himself wholly to the Ministry of the Word and Prayer and the Lord was with him Who did not only as he said lay it on but with a warm hand rub it in I have sometimes thought when I have come into the Congregation that the Church-meeting-place was filled with the smoke of Gods presence such a power there was that went along with the word for he first did then taught and taught and did again Acts 1. Mat. 5. living over in the week time that which he preached to others on the Lords day as the Priest did of the Shew-bread which was set upon the Table which none but themselves might feed upon his life being a Commentary upon his Text and doubtless the Word is as efficacious to a gracious dispenser as to any of his hearers This is that which made his Ministry so efficacious Mat. 21. John wrought no Miracles but acting in a way of Righteousness he was more prevalent than if he had wrought Miracles for to obey is more than to work a Miracle as Luther said Hence it was that in him all Miracles almost met in one the blind see the deaf hear the dumb speak the lame walk the leapers are cured and the poor are evangelized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and turned into the mould of the Gospel not only the word delivered up to them but they delivered into the form of the word His style did piscatoriam simplicitatem olere savoured of Fisher-like simplicity as Chemnitius said he did not sore aloft in high expressions shooting over his hearers but did condescend to the capacities of the meanest which is an excellence in any A garish attire doth not become a chast matron neither doth the affectation of humane eloquence become a grave sober Minister of Jesus Christ as much affection as you will but no affectation for nothing affected affects nihil affectationum afficit aeger non querit medicum eloquentem sed sanantem We say of a Diamond quicquid absconditur perditur whatsoever is hid of it is lost those Rethorical flourishes are like the painted glass in the windows that make a fair shew but hinder the light therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. because the Gospel is glorious we use plainness of speech But that which was the glory of all in this our dear Brother was this I may boldly say his labours were crowned with the conversion of many souls which is an evident sign of the truth of the Ministry by which they were converted He was sweetest as Christ towards his latter end for he was not as a staff behind the door but being planted in the House of God and enjoying Communion with many precious Saints he grew fast whereas many with Thomas Joh 20. 24. absenting themselves have fallen short of that intimate Fellowship and Communion with Christ they might have attained to But he was not like Joshuah's Sun that stood still nor Hezekiahs Sun that went back but like Solomons Sun shining more and more to the perfect day neither did he set in a cloud as many that have ecclipsed Gods glory and therefore he ecclipseth theirs but sets gloriously in this world and riseth I am perswaded more gloriously in another therefore well may I cry out bitterly lamenting his death as that Prophet did My father my father the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof or as David concerning his son Absalom O my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my son my son for I may truly say it hath been no small trouble to me that the Lord should take away this eminent instrument in the prime of his daies and leave me behind being a dry barren tree and declining fast as the dresser of his Vineyard but as in the means of grace God grants them to some that will not make use of them but denies them to others that would for his waies are unsearchable even so he takes away some more hopeful instruments and leaves behind such as are less hopeful To prevent that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incident to many that we might live above all having our hand upon the stern of duty and our eye on the Star Christ My Lords I present to your serious view this piece of this our dear Brother transcribed by his beloved Consort which though it hold forth the state of the Virgin-Church to come in the latter daies yet is it very suitable to the present times in which you may see like Peters Cock he claps his wings and calls upon others to waken out of their drunken sleep When the Cocks begin to crow the day begins to dawn when the Cocks crow young and old we say its clear day but when they hasten to their roost with the sweet chirping birds Cant. 2. night draws on Now the Lord look back upon us as he did upon Peter And give us to remember our Rulers even
whose hearts began betimes to be knit unto him and here likewise the Lord was pleased to water his labours with the dew of his blessing But me thinks I see a black cloud arising this bright star who shined full clearly and comfortably unto others is now himself eclipsed and He who was a skilful Pilot to direct others through the splitting Rocks and swallowing Gulphs is now himself plunged into the great deep the Lord persecutes him with his tempest and makes him afraid with his storm all his waves and his billows go over him But what might be the occasion of so sad a desertion 1. The folly and the vanity of his youth though not stained wiâ—h irruptions into grosser evils 2. His too far yielding at Oxford with those impositions which grate upon conscience and scourge it with severe remorse 3 The Lord would hereby ripen him and make him the more fiâ— for himself and service He must be frost-bitten that so he may be the more mellow and his fruit of a more delicious taste There are no Preachers so experimental spiritual powerful couragious awakening convincing converting compassionate comforting as those who have passed through the Pikes and have been sorely batâ—ered with showers of Hail-stones There are none so expert at binding up the broken bones as those who have been broken upon the wheel and made to roar out by reason of the disquietness of their hearts They know how to speak a word in season unto him that is weary who have themselves been weary and heavy laden sighing full sadly and groaning full heavily under the cold hill clouding and cutting expressions of Gods displeasure They know how to speak peace unto distressed consciences who have themselves been soundly frighted with the sounding of the Trumpet and the Alarm of War There are no Trees so firmly rooted as those that have been sorely shaken and made to bow and bend with the stormy wind and tempest of the wrath of the Almighty The scales many times stick so close even unto the Seers eyes that they will not be rub'd off but with a rough hand and a sharp file But will the Lord contend for ever will he be alwaies wroth Surely no and that lest the spirits should fail before him and the souls that he hath made There is a lifting up after a casting down The Lord turns for him his mourning into dancing gives unto him beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and with a soft hand wipes away the tears from his swoln eyes The instrumental means of scattering the darkness and distress that lay upon him and of restoring the former beams of light with which he was wont to be refreshed were the reading of Mr Tho. Goodwins Child of Light walking in darkness and other of his Treatises So that now we have the Lord shining on him in a way of consolation as he on others in a way of instruction and information About the 25. year of his age being resolved to change his condition and discoursing with a friend about it there was proposed unto him Hester the daughter of Mr. Ralph Marsden Minister of West-kerby of note and useful in his generation whom he afterwards took to him to be the companion of his life But before the consummation of the marriage the people of West-kerby Mr. Marsden departing this life gave him a call which upon examination and supplication being found to be of God was complied with The seed of Gospel counsels being sown with a diligent hand did not long lie buried under the clods but sprang up and put forth it self in visible fruit whâ—ch was a farther clearing of the â—all and chearing of the heart of this pains-taking Husband-man It s no new thing for external and bitter afflictions to accompany the sweet honey of Gospel-consolations How often do dashing showers fall upon mellifluous Hives and the fairest flowers that grow in Gods Garden How often are the labouring bees assaulted with a tempest whilest abroad and bringing home provisions against the ensuing winter What more usual then Sun-shines mixed with blustring winds and wetting rains Two Villages of the Parish of West-kerby are sorely visited with the Pestilence and the Lord scatters abroad the black tokens of his displeasure the product of which was many fasts tears prayers importunate requests that the Lord would shew unto his people why he thus contended with them Mr. Murcot hath his ears opened to instruction This thundering Providence awakens him to a more exact scrutinie and narrower search into his heart and waies and is now perswaded that he had been too lax and general in the administration of the sealing-Ordinances so that he resolves to forbear and draw back his hand unless the known godly will combine which occasioned many Fasts Conferences Debates However he perseveres in preaching work and waits on Providence to see how the Lord will dispose and encline the peoples hearts An Irish Lord quartering at West-kerby being bound for Ireland was observed to be a prodigious swearer belching out most horrid Oaths in great abundance Tidings are brought to Mr. Murcot in the morning as he is going to celebrate a solemn Fast The work of the day being over Mr. Murcot being lately with God in the Mount and now grown warm in his cause and quarrel is impatient of brooking these high dishonours that were done unto his Majesty Wherefore taking with him a friend he rides the same night six miles to a Magistrate procures a Warrant the trembling Constables at first are astonished to think of approaching in such a way to guilty greatness but being animated by Mr. Murcot they serve their Warrant which provoked a new rage to the multiplying of fresh oaths even without number to the great amazement of the standers by Notwithstanding the boisterous menaces and outrage of this great man his horses were seized on and kept till he paid 20 which was employed as a stock for the poor of the Parish so wickedly liberal was this Lord unto them This exemplary Act of Justice procured and prosecuted by Mr. Murcol's active zeal so danted and overawed his Lordship that during his abode there he held his mouth and tongue as it were with bit and bridle The prsence of a siâ— punishing Magistrate hath in it a co-ercive and restraining vertue so that the most debanched and profligate sons of Belial are afraid and confined with n some bounds of moderation who if remote and at a distance they lift up their heads with a mighty confidence and finding the reins lye loose upon their shoulders rush into all manner of wickedness as the Horse rusheth â—nto the battle Mr. Murcot wanted the advantage of a Magstrate upon the place had no other sword to fight withal save that of the Spirit yet such was his Integrity Gravity Austerity and his Activity in informing and exciting Magstrates to punish Offenders impartially that the people round about him had
requested especially by the godly who afterwards employing Mr. Walter Cooper whose affairs called him up to Dublin by him made a solemn address to the Church and importunately intreated a supply out of their store The matter is debated the Lord sought in the thing but no inclination appears of parting with him But above all Mr. Murcot addresseth himself in private to a more serious and penetrating consideration of the matter Some few of those many particulars which he spread before the Lord and weighed in the Ballance of the Sanctuary are here presented for the rest are unhappily lost Encouragements to continue still at Dublin Discouragements 1. ENjoyment of the Ordinances 1. VNsuitableness for so populous a place by reason of his youth and weakness 2. Plentiful converse with many fellow-Christians and their watchful eye over him which being young he needed 2. Haply not having an interest in the affections of the Generality of Gods people Encouragements to go to Cork Discouragements 1. THeir great need and extream want 1. WAnt of the Ordinances there 2. Their ardent desire to enjoy him 2. Vnfitness to engage in matters controversal 3. The pressing importunity of the Commissioners 3. His heart not enclined after seeking God  4. Want of such a Magistracy at Cork as would publikely and professedly own the waies and worship of God and back the Ministry of the word by its Power and Authority In vain doth a Minister preach up the morality of the Sabbath and the necessity of a religious observance if the Magistrate draw not forth the sword of Justice and severely punish its prophane violators who either lie lurking in blind corners and swine-like prefer a little nasty puddle before the clear and crystaline waters that-flow from under the threshold of the Sanctuary or like so many vagrants and vagabonds in the earth wander up and down the high-waies and fields being more delighted belike with the singing of hedge-birds then with the tinckling of their feet who bring the glad tidings of peace What avails it to invade drunkards and swearers with a whole squadron of Scripture arguments if a Magistrate seeing and hearing their villanous outrage be not presently awakened and startled into an holy indignation and unbended resolution to make them smart for their offences and by this means preserve from future eâ—ormities It s sad when a Justice of Peace shall take his denomination from holding his peace when he should speak and plead for God and from being at peace with sin and sinners whose whorish foreheads and brazen brows should be battered into a more modest softness and whose unruly hands and feet should be bound and hampered with the cords of the Law O that Psalm 101. might be seriously perused and conscienciously practised by men in power I might then expect the savour and face of Religion in those Places that are now over-grown with unbounded Barbarism and rooted Prophaneness The result of all is briefly this a Resolution to continue still at Dublin unless taken off by a clearer Call then this Some time after Joseph Eyres came out of England to Youghall upon the account of his own personal concernments and rosolved after the expiration of some moneths to return to London but preaching occasionally at Cork the inhabitants desire his stay and exercise of his Ministry amongst them and so much the rather because at that time the Ministers of the County of Cork were generally articled against A Petition was presented to the Authority there which to the sadning of the souls of the righteous met not with a desired compliance However Mr. Eyres was ingaged to continue there till addresses should be made to the superiour powers at Dublin In order hereunto a Fast is appointed Dr. Worth Mr. Hacket and Mr. Eyres preached and prayed the product of which was an unanimous Resolution in the people to send Mr. Mark Taylor a man of known integrity zeal for God and love to the Truth to Dublin with a Petition to the Commissioners of Parliament the tenour of which was an humble request that they might have Mr. Murcot and Mr. Eyres settled amongst them The Commissioners are more inclinable to Mr Murcots removal then the Inhabitants of Dublin who are loath to part with a clear and steady light in times of distraction confusion and doleful defection from the Truth Wherefore the City Petitions the Authority for his stay yet are willing to spare him for two moneths so that Mr. Taylor hath his company down to Cork and the people of that and other places the benefit of his Ministry whose doctrine dropping as the rain and distilling as the dew caused a greenness and verdure to appear upon some parched mountains of Pride Vanity Prophanness and a Reflourishing in such precious plants as were now in a languishing condition for want of these refreshing showers which after a time of drought were the more welcome to them and the more fruitfully improved by them During the time of his abode at Cork and visible success there an unhappy Accident fell out whereby the minds of the attentive people who now began to look about them and to mind the things belonging unto their peace were wofully distracted and the free progress and passage of the Gospel impeded and that was his engagement with Dr. Harding about Infant-Baptism an account whereof take under his own hand sent in a letter to a friend in Dublin A brief Narrative of the discourse between Dr. Harding and Dr. Worth and my self and the occasion thereof FOrmerly Dr. Worth and some others had a conference with Dr. Harding and some others touching infants Baptism and being not satisfied herewith Dr. Harding did provoke Dr. Worth to a further debate about it And to omit many other passages not worth the mentioning Vpon Thursday May ' 19. after my Sermon at Peters Dr. Harding publikely produced a Question which before he had sent to Dr. Worth and bore the people in hand he was willing to dispute it with Dr. Worth and that Dr. Worth was unwilling though indeed the Question was such a confused heap that it is no wonder if neither Dr. Worth nor any other rational man would undertake it viz. Whether the practise of Dr. Worth and other pretended Ministers of Jesus Christ in England Scotland and Ireland in sprinkling of Infants were according to the mind of Christ and so be proved and approved by the Primitive Churches or to this purpose I am sure for all the substantials of it If Dr. Worth undertake this then every rational man sees what confusion he is involved in if not then the people must believe he declines disputing with him It is doubtful Dr. Harding did not much matter which way it had gone he had his ends either way I conceive Dr. Worth declined his Question as stated by himself and offered to dispute upon either of these two viz. 1. Whether any Infants ought to be baptized holding the Affirmative 2. Whether persons duly baptized
of so great weight 7. But negligent in preparation to holy duties publike and private 8. How empty and vain in discourses and unprofitable 9. How distempered in hearing publikely and in conferences with the Church 10. Vile thoughts even in the time of reading and meditation which are deep hypocrisie 11. Yet back-slidden even since the last Lords Supper 12. Yet little pure love to the Saints as Saints 13. Yet not a sensible heart of the dishonour of Christ in these times 14. Yet not a tender nor believing heart in holding out the word of reconciliation 20. In preparation for the Supper-Ordinance he would bring himsels unto the Test and to say the truth was very clear in the discovering and making out of his own condition being well acquainted with the way of Gods dealing with the soul and with the way of the souls closing with Christ Instance April 3. 1653. upon search I find 1. My self an undone creature 2. That the Lord Jesus sufficiently satisfied as Mediator the Law for sin 3. That he is freely offered in the Gospel 4. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy heartily consent that he only shall be my Saviour not my works or duties which I do only in obedience to him 5. If I know my heart I would be ruled by his word Spirit Behold in a few words the summe and substance of the Gospel 21. The Lord blessed his enquiries with gracious returns when he set himself seriously to clear up his interest in him Instance October 30. 1652. As I was questioning and searching whether I were a child of God or no me thought this was suddenly spoken in me or to me If I be not thy Father what am I then to thee Am I an enemy to thee which did much affect and melt my heart through much mercy In preparation for the Lords Supper Jan. 1. 1652. as I was upon the same Question within my self whether I was a child of God yea or no me thought this was suggested within me If I be not thy â—ather why dost thou follow me so hard and breath after me which also did much affect my heart at that time 22. He got ground on his corruptions and his grave-cloaths fell off apace while he was yet alive Several daies I find good recorded and no evil Instance Good Evil. In morning read a long Hebrew Chapter in closet-duty not altogether without his presence studied for my Sermons and the afternoon spent much what in preparation of my self for the Lords Supper and not altogether without his presence for blessed be his name he humbled me and melted me in the â—ight of my own vileness  About 7. weeks before his translation returning from London he found his Family in a languishing condition by reason of a feavourish distemper which had crept in among them It being the Lords wont to send some forerunning waves to dash against and wet us before he send that mountainous one with which he will overwhelm us His youngest child save one departs this life on Friday night being the 11. of Nov. 1654. How often are the little Lambs taken from the sides of their dams from whom they received life and carried to the place where they met with their deaths An hopeful branch must be lopt off before the Root it self dry up and wither Saturday morning that Chapter came to be read in course which contains Davids Fasting and mourning for his child whilst it lived c. Comparing his own condition with that of David he said Davids mourning went before but mine must follow after The duties of the Family being over he retires again into his study keeps the day as a Fast and being awakened by this affliction is put upon serious self-reflexions and searching endeavours to find out the cause of this smart-stroke of Gods hand an account whereof taken out of his Diary you have as follows God taking away my little babe Job November 11. 1654. Searching my waies c. 1. Not returning according to his multiplyed mercies to us not thankful enough the heart not endeared to him 2. More lax in watching over my thoughts 3. A foolish stupidity and security before this blow from the the Lord far from waiting for changes Jonah-like fast asleep 4. An unnatural heart to him and the rest insensible of his pains 5. Grown very slight in the Lords service though wofully distracted and dead in every duty almost yet not sensible of it nor humbled under it had lost of that spiritualness and heavenly-mindedness once I had through grace 6. Partial affection to the sons more then to the daughters therefore God took this away and smote the other His wife would have had the Funerals deferr'd till Munday but he would not give way saying I have other work to do tomorrow At even the people being come together he accompanied the Corps unto the grave into which he was observed to look very wishly as if he had been curiosly looking for a resting place for himself shortly to lye down in and had thus bespoken his dead child I shall shortly come to thee but thou shalt not return to me Coming home he was very raised and chearful and comforted his wife with this saying among many others Come love he has but got the start of us It being my work to track him and tread upon the print of his heels I must follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death which was not so frightful to him in its approach as to me uncomfortable in its description The time of his departure is at hand and no wonder He was ripe betimes and therefore gathered and taken into Gods Granary He had done his work and must therefore go to receive his wages and this I may be bold to say that he did God more service in a little time then many others whose line of life was twice as long as his He cannot be far off from his center because of the swiftness of his motion He was alwaies much upon the wing but towards his latter end he was wont to soar very high and took many a turn in Paradise every day and would be often hovering about the Casements of the Star-chamber which having delightfully peept and pryed into he came down again though not without much regret and grief yet solacing himself with this consideration that he should shortly meet the Lord in the air and then be ever with the Lord. During the time of his pilgrimage and abode in the Lords Vineyard he served his God and his Generation with all his might He ran faster then others and was therefore sooner out of breath He screwed up the peggs so high that the strings of his several faculties crack and can hold out no longer He did with so much vehemency and contention of spirit continually stir up himself to take hold on God and followed so hard after him that he sunk under the burden of his own
men run headlong to the pit of destruction and the way to hell be thronged as broad as it is and some sinners can scarce have room to go together in it this is no warrant to him he walks not exactly that resigneth himself up to follow the steps of the most in his journey whether his way and theirs lye together or no so far as their way lyes together he can walk together with them but when they part fare them well he is for them no longer so may we in things civil yea and many externals of holy worship which are common to Saints and sinners walk together have fellowship with them but when their ways depart we must shake hands with them if we would walk exactly it is careless loose heedless walking when a man shall follow his company more then his way Noah was upright and walked with God though all flesh had corrupted their way that was no warrant for him to do it and though he was likely to be derided for his singularity it matters not he must mind his way though he be alone in it rather then wander for company sake and so Lot and Caleb a man would have thought those many waters rushing as they did I mean the peoples violence drawing one way had been enough specially considering with what rage it was threatning to stone him to have born one poor Caleb and Ioshua down the stream no they had another spirit they must bear up against it let the hazard be what it will in such a case they are called to it this is exact circumspect walking except men be circumspect indeed they are in danger many times to be drawn aside by following the company of others 2. Yea exact walking excludeth also the following the examples of the Saints any further then they follow Christ and here is yet more need of circumspection for when we have some eminent Saints persons in admiration we are apt many times to be pinning our faith upon their sleeve and dancing after their pipe to take their examples in the gross and by it to be led into gross mistakes so the weak brethren looking upon the stronger the more knowing as fit to be their guides and seeing them eat things offered to Idols because they knew an Idol was nothing this incouraged them to do the same though they made a breach upon their consciences by it here now through weakness they mistook their way and warped that might be lawful for the strong that might not for the weak which stumbled whether they might eat them or no yet they would venture upon it leaning upon the examples of the strong and so they went aside you know what force the example of Peter had to draw others in when he dissembled and did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but halted as I may say between two he vvould eat vvith the Gentiles but when some came down from Iames then he withdrew so many of the Iews and Barnabas also was drawn away by their dissimulation but Peter was to be blamed as the Apostle hath it he compelled by his example the Gentiles to vvalk as the Iews did and yet himself being a Iew did vvalk vvith the Gentiles before and they were to be blamed for being drawn aside they did not vvalk uprightly as the vvord is before therefore Paul propounds his example not vvithout its limitation Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ now this is exact walking indeed to follow the sootsteps of the flock of the Saints both before us and contemporary with us yet where they run out of the way and over the hedge set about us not to follow them which requireth much circumspection indeed This is the third Fourthly Exact walking is when a man mindeth not only the external part of the rule but the very inside and spirit of the rule he mindeth and eyeth and endeavoureth to come up to it and so the word in its notion seemeth to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from going from the bottome to the top of the rule the Law is spiritual saith the Apostle It is spiritual brethren reaching the very inwards of our souls the frame and disposition of our hearts all the very first motions of the soul before any tickling by them or consent to them those come under this rule and therefore a man that walks exactly he labours to answer the Law in this and he is labouring with his heart to bring it to such a frame as this and therefore he setteth not up his rest as most do in an outward conformity to the Law of Christ except he can get his heart framed by it nor will an inperfection in the frame of his heart satisfie him and therefore nothing but the resurrection of the dead will be his rest this is to walk exactly accurately indeed and so in duties to mind not only the matter but the manner and circumstances it is not enough to work righteousness except he rejoyce and work righteousness to give except he do it with singleness of heart simplicity and chearfulness it is not enough to pray except he do it in the Spirit and with affection and faith and fervor of Spirit it is not enough to admonish reprove except he do it in season with bowels of compassion and Wisdom and discretion so tempered as that it may not miscarry through such a defect in them O this is to walk exactly indeed Fifthly To walk exactly then is to carry an even course toward heaven not to walk at peradventures and by fits and starts making many balks in our obedience it is to follow God and to follow him fully when we will not leap over an hedge to avoid a foul step but keep to the way that is set before us so in the Proverbs Turn not to the right hand nor to the left the meaning is not that no man walks exactly if he live not without sin for in many things we offend all but by such a backwardness vve mean some eminent notable miscarriage to the wounding of their consciences or dishonour of God and offence of others this is to vvalk exactly indeed God doth not stand too strictly with his people the tenure of vvhose course is vvithout such balks and notable turnings aside though sometimes they may fall in such a manner and degree yet he acconnts them exact vvalkers as David and Peter and Moses and Hezekiah and the rest the meaning therefore is that the tenure of a mans life is to be vvithout such eminent fallings or he cannot pass for an exact vvalker vvith God and vvhen ever a man so fals in that particular he doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as David vvas upright except in the matter of Vriah so then this is the Fifth an exact vvalking is an even vvalking he that ploweth exactly doth not every foot make a balk Sixthly He that vvalks exactly doth make it his work so
when thou hast heaped up Gold as the dust and Rayment as the clay and withall hast gotten a wound in thy Soul a worm in thy Conscience the rot and canker eats into thy soul what hast thou gotten who will be the wiser man when the sins whereby thou hast gotten this beginneth to stare like so many devils in thy face though thou hast builded thee an house a fair house and chambers by wrong and he that dwels in a tent is contented with a meaner condition with a good Conscience when the stone beginneth to cry out against thee out of the wall and the timber out of thy chambers and thy ears are full and thy heart full of the cry of thy sins and guilt whereby this hath been gotten who will prove the wise man then O surely Religion maketh not men fools Secondly It may be a word of retortion and serve to fasten the folly then upon the wisdom of the World Wordlings think the people of God fools for their preciseness but the Saints know them to be fools will ye believe when the Lord speaks do not harden your hearts now and say thou speakest falsly in the name of the Lord. Read that passage of the Apostle and tell me what you think then The Wisdom of the World is foolishness with God is not God the only wise God and do you think the Lord can be mistaken though we that are poor weak creatures like your selves may be mis-judge yet sure the Lord cannot he is wisdom it self and it is foolishness with God he judgeth it so and believe it they are wise whom he maketh wise and they are fools and that is folly whom he accounteth so by the rule of contraries it followeth if to walk circumspectly be to walk as wise men then to walk loosly and at large is to walk as fools according to our Text I will give you but two or three Demonstrations of their folly it may be the Lord will convince some poor creature of the folly of his ways First It is folly for men to pitch upon a wrong end to place their happiness in any thing but the chief good indeed now this is evident enough too plain that men of the world they do place their happiness in worldly things they have their god to worship as well as the Saints The lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life to which the Apostle reduceth all that is in the World their pleasures their riches their honours these are their ends to which they drive on all their designs and here they rest and sit down and look no farther many of them now is not this a gross mistake and grievous folly to end so low as the earth and what the would can afford which will appear if we consider 1. That none nor all these things will run parallel with the souls to eternity therefore if they could make a man happy as long as he enjoyed them yet afterward they would then encrease his misery when they leave him fuisse faelicem miserum It is perishing bread uncertain riches many times they make wings and are gone even he himself outlives them a miserable happiness that a poor mortal creature can out-live if not yet the soul out-lives them he can carry nothing away with him saith the Text the poor soul must appear in its nakedness before â—he Lord Judge at that day of appearing after death and soul and body to eternity after the Resurrection shall never be the better for them alas the remembrance then of your pleasures and honours and riches will be but a sting to your souls to eternity that such enjoyments you had and used them no better 2. As they continue not so while a man can keep them they cannot they do not satisfie the soul if any man could Solomon might have pickt out an happiness out of them when he had so much wealth to procure them so much wisdom to improve them so gave himself to find out but the sum is vanity of vanities not only vain but vanity and vanity of vanities and all is vanity the greatest vanity they are empty there is no substance in them they will not satisfie the soul there is no sutableness between such earthy things and a spiritual being nor equality between their greatest vastness and the largeness of a soul they can never fill it and therefore it can never rest but the more a man hath the more he would have still drinking doth but increase their thirst and therefore well might the Psalmist bebeast and befool himself for setting such an esteem upon them So foolish was I and ignorant and even as a beast before thee when he thought them to have more in them then they had and therefore that they were the happy men that flourished and it was in vain for him to cleanse his heart c. Secondly If they should or do propound a right end yet they miserably miscarry in the means towards this end For First There are some that are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge at all and if men make God and Heaven their end is this the way to it will the way to the devil and the way to hell bring a man to Heaven and yet this is the course that most men run as if men would be saved by contraries and were Christians by antiphrases because they are most unchristian surely Brethren the Spirit of God and the Scriptures every where hath determined sin to be folly and calleth sinners fools therefore we read of working folly in Israel so much now if one part of Wisdom be to aim at the right end surely Wisdom agreeth notwith it self if this be another part of Wisdom the Wisdom to do evil which indeed is improperly called wisdom but it is a cursed skill and ingenuity which men have whereby they are more industriously wicked this is so far from Wisdom that it is the very height of folly Again Secondly It is the Wisdom of the World to get a name of Christianity and therewith satisfie themselves take the power who will so they have the name and pass for Saints gain is their godliness and when they have gotten the gain by it the Godliness they care not to walk in but in their pleasures of sin the shew of Religion is profitable but not the reality it is burthensom is not this folly with a witness can the Shadow be profitable and not the Substance the Shell and Husk and not the Kernel can that be profitable whose Praise is of men and not that whose praise is of God Again As the top and crown and quintescence of their folly they are wiser in their own conceit then several men that can render a reason as he spaaks of the sluggard and such are all those that will not be at pains for God and for Heaven if men might devote all the
true sound saving durable grace in their hearts the Lord grant Brethren this be not the case and condition of many a glorious professor among us our age hath given as large a testimony to this truth as ever time did Thirdly When the cry came and they went to trim their Lamps all of them the foolish Virgins Lamps were gone out verse 8. The wise their Lamps had need of triming as the Lamps of the Sanctuary were to be trimed every day every morning they gather some dross and filth which would dim the light but now the others they were quite gone out when they had most need of them they failed them And indeed such a thing is an empty profession it will not carry a man through all conditions as we shall have occasion to speak afterward O how sad a condition will every hypocrite be in when he falls under such a disappointment of his hope then which to a reasonable creature there cannot be a greater vexation he thought he was as fair for heaven as another and yet when all cometh to all in the hour of need the Lamps quite extinguished put out in obscure darkness the beginning of that utter darkness where their portion is like to be for ever Fourthly The foolish Virgins then are on the begging hand and the wise on the denying hand and they send them to buy of them that sell Here I know not that we are to press every particular as if the foolish were so foolish as to beg grace of the wise to have a part of others except the Papists who will have no other Church of Christ but themselves by no wise and then that to go to their Merit-mongers and Indulgencers and the Church-treasure for righteousness rather then to Jesus Christ Nor is it any harshness if the Saints deny them for alas brethren it is not in them to give lest they have not enough for themselves and them also there is no super-erogating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say the speech is defective an ellipsis of the refusal and the reason only is here given others read it thus least there be not enough for you and us go to them that buy and so there is no such defect the sense is the same Who is it that selleth but Jesus Christ indeed and that without money and without price as you have it in that place of Isaiah But we may look upon this answer not as a monition or serious advice what to do but ataunt rather a derifion of them go to them that buy and so it suites wonderful well with the Papists now go to your Merit-mongers to buy So Eliah cry aloud he is a God either in a journey c. So the Prophet to Babylon threatning ruine upon her thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels let now thy Astrologers Star-gazers monethly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee That which is plainly and undenyably held forth to us therein is that the foolish Virgins are to seek their grace when they should use it then they see they have none whatever they deceived themselves with before the Lord grant this prove not our condition to any of us Fifthly that while they are thus unready for the appearing of Christ and go to buy the rest that had oyl that are ready enter into the joy of their Lord when once the time cometh there is no longer delay but as many as are ready he takes in with him and then the door is shut it is shut against all those that are unready have their work to do when their time is gone when they expect 〈◊〉 glory they want their grace when they would have the Crown they 〈…〉 begin their race Ah Brethren if this prove the condition of our selves sad will it be with us that others shall enter in that we thought in no better a condition then our selves and our selves shut out because we are not ready he will not then stay any longer he hath waited upon us long enough Sixthly Yet the foolish Virgins though they have no oyl and their Lamps be out they come and they cry Lord Lord they cry with earnestness to have the door opened Ah Brethren you that now content your selves with a meer formality and nothing will stir you up to be zealous and to amend then you will cry either at your death-bed at that summons or at the judgement O Lord Lord open to us the strange presumption and confidence in poor sinners hearts though they know they have no oyl yet will expect to enter into heaven though they know they have loytered and trifled away their time of getting grace yet they would have admittance they would have heaven in the end though they care not for working out their salvation with fear and trembling they leave that to others to do yet expect the salvation in the end as well as they And see how far hypocrites may go they come to the very gate and there they cry Lord Lord open to us but all in vain Seventhly The answer the Bridegroom giveth them Verily I say unto you I know you not there is need of an asseveration to press it upon them their confidence was so high that they should enter in with the Bridegroom What take all that pains to provide Lamps to take them to go forth to meet him to raise themselves up to trim them yea afterward to go out to get oyl and yet shut one this will hardly down with them Verily saith our Saviour whatever you may presume upon and vainly hold up your hearts with be assured I know you not O this is a word will kill the stâ—uâ—est hearted sinner when it cometh to the pitch and the most swel 〈…〉 g confident hypocrite in the world it will make his heart sink within him like a stone I know you not and therefore there is no reason I should let you in I never knew you though they had neglected to acquaint themselves inwardly with Christ to procure his favour for that is the knowledge Words of understanding with the hebrews are pregnant and carry or are big with affection also I know you not so as to approve you to favour you so 〈…〉 y as to admit you Yea I never thus knew you 〈◊〉 have I known saith the Prophet concerning Israel that is to say so known as acknowledge owned favoured Now I say the hypocrites will scrape acquaintance with Jesus Christ O they are the people and they have served him and worshipped him and kept Sabboths to him and Preached in his name and heard him preach and now not know them This how strange will it prove to many a poor creature Aâ—blessed souls that know the Lord Jesus or rather are known of him And sad is the condition of such as shall thus be shaken off by Jesus Christ and shaken into hell indeed You have the Parable though many more
things might have been observed to you and by a curious eye more distinctly to you Yet pro modulo I have endeavoured to make it plain to you And I hope so plain as that now every understanding is able to take up many Doctrinal Observations from them thus explained For the Application or inference from all Watch therefore for you know not That we shall make use of likely in some of the Applications of some of the observations from the words There is much variety in them and I had hoped to have reached one at least from the connexion of this parable with that which goeth before he inculcates the same thing upon them by another parable which he had taught them immediately before The first Doctrine shall be from the consideration of the words with what went before much of the former Chapter was spent before in stirring them up to watch for the appearing of Jesus Christ by a double Argument Taken from the end of such as watch the end of such men is blessedness and peace blessed is the man whom the Lord shall find so doing And the end of such as watch not but presume upon his delay to give liberty and the reins to their lusts they that have time enough to repent he will come in a day he thinketh not off and will cut such a servant asunder Beloved the former Arguments the uncertainty of his coming c. one would have thought now here had been enough said upon this argument for what could be more plainly spoken and what more cuttingly and pressingly then this Are there any weightier Arguments then lif and death the best of lives even a life of blessedness and the worst of deaths a portion with hypocrites who have the Free-hold and sink deepest into the lowermost pit and there is no question there was no affection wanting in Jesus Christ when he spake to his Disciples and therefore it may seem considerable and it is so surely that sometimes he is pleased to prosecute the same Argument again all along through this whole Parable and the next is not much unlike it neither It is requisite to inculcate and beat upon hearers the same truth the same things again and again Surely if it had not been so the Lord Jesus would have spared this pains he did all things well and as he was no niggard so he was no prodigal of his pains if he would not have the Fragments of the bread to be lost he would never crumble away the bread of life in vain to no purpose but that there was a necessity for it and sure we may follow his example safely herein for there is nothing extraordinary in it but rather a great condescention in Jesus Christ stooping to the weakness and necessity of his hearers his Disciples he spake as never man spake and therefore if it had been sufficient at any time or for any person to tye themselves up to such a strictness of speaking as never to repeat the same things again surely it had been sufficient for him who spake as never man spake with that Authority and Majestie and commanding efficacy many times but yet you see he is pleased to go over and over things again and again and to inculcate and beat things upon his Disciples We need not go further then our Saviour his example for it for as he said of Goliahs sword there is none to that So there is no pattern to this of Christ the great feeder of his people with knowledge and understanding who stands and feeds them in the strength of the Lord. And I doubt not but many of you can make it out from many other instances in his example how he did often beat the same things upon his Disciples how often doth he press upon them that of humility Learn of me I am meek and lowly And except you be converted and become as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom and so in his washing his Disciples feet How much ado hath he with them to beat upon them that his Kingdom was not of this world but spiritual they would be fitting some on his right hand some on his left hand and he told them often his Kingdom was not of this world that he came to suffer and not to raign among men and so how often doth he press it upon them the Doctrine of love one to another or takes not up with once one exhortation as if that would answer the end of his coming to reveal to his Disciples the whole counsel of God which he had heard of his father no but again and again he presseth it upon them It is given as a command to Parents I wish we that are parents and have children who have souls either to be saved or perish would remember it thou shalt whet these things upon them saith the Text these things which I command thee this day shall be in their heart I if we were of Maries spirit to lay up the words there or Davids to hide the Commandements in our hearts or took Pauls advice let the word dwell richly in us if we had a treasurie there we should have to draw forth continually as occasion serveth And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up c. diligently teach them the word is whet them upon them It is not the drawing the knife over the whet-stone once that will set an edge upon it but often again and again The best of us are too like children in understanding and had need of it or at least many of us I shall give a few Arguments to consirm it and then Apply it First The understanding is very dull in many though there be som it may be more acute to whom it may be a dulling to beat their earsoften with the same things yet for the most part Brethren we are dull of understanding childrens capacities we have you know the Disciples were so our Saviour upbraideth them with it and yet they were good men do you not yet understand are ye also yet without understanding And when he was risen from the dead he expounded the Scriptures the Prophets concerning his death and resurrection alas until he opened their understanding though he had often told them this had preached it to them again and again and even before his death immediately and alas yet they understood not until he opened their minds But you will say this was before the pouring out of the spirit there was more need then but that unction that teacheth us all things was given in so large a measure c. I answer It is true the spirit is given now in a larger measure and therefore the greater shame is the dulness of our capacities many of us I speak not of all Brethren
doth grate upon It may be brethren to come a little nearer thou hast long heard of coming to Jesus Christ that thou mightest have life and thou hast been as much woed and intreated as many others and thou art even weary of this lesson What ado is here about coming to Christ what do we not come to him do we not follow him Ah dear friends It is the work of your whole lives and why may it not be the work of our whole lives yea it is to be feared thou with whom so sweet a word relisheth no better that thou hast never known the worth of it experimentally Be not deceived brethren you may be mistaken and far enough off from him when you think you come to him but suppose you are come to him may you not draw nearer then you are come have you not many back-slidings Do you not miss a stroke sometimes and are carryed down the stream the Lord knoweth how far and had you 〈◊〉 need of hearing then of coming to Christ renewing your acquaintance with him Alas Brethren if many of us had not had this truth beaten upon us often we had never come to him canst thou tell how often thou hadst in the Gospel a crucified Christ held out to thee before thou hadst a heart to look on him and mourn over him and over thy self whose hands have been imbrued in his blood here thou hast seen him here crucified and there crucified in this Sermon and that Sermon in this Sacrament and that Sacrament and yet alâ—s thy sullen heart would not bleed now if thou hadst never heard of him more it had not been prest upon thee any more what had become of thee if notwithstanding all this thou hadst been sealed up in hardness and unbelief for ever What narrow-mouth'd bottles are we receiving now a drop and then a drop though much be poured out many times little staies or if our heads fill our capacities being large apprehensions quick and memories strong how little is it that sinketh any further there is need of pressing and boring and unspeakable mercy it is if at last the passage between head and heart be opened that so what we have known long it may be yet now we may come to know after another manner even as we ought to know it not to be puffed but humbled to be warmed melted changed by it How often Brethren have we had the Doctrine of love pressed upon us even as John had nothing else in his mouth almost my little children love one another my little children love one another when he could not go as the story saith of him and can we hear it so often but there is somewhat yet to learn that we have not learned may we not grow in it abound in it more and more as the Apostle saith to them even the Thessalonians Ah where is a heart wherein it abounds love to Christ love to his people a little unlikeness to our selves in a thing of no great moment is able to quench our love so far it is from being as strong as death a little earthly enjoyments a house a wife a company of sweet children pretty taking vanities they have such a hold upon our hearts that they stifle our desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ O we see not nor have learned how far better it is to be with him is there not more to be learned by us all in this point And if we can or do love the Saints in whom the Image of Jesus Christ is alas may we not do it more fervently then we do if there be some fervor appearing may we not do it with a purer heart meerly because Christ hath loved them who is the beloved of our souls what meaneth else our having the faith of Christ with respect of persons what meanth else our loving men more for their gifts then for their graces for the common then the special inspiration of the spirit upon them Do we not know men after the flesh and yet haply are ready to be wearie of the Doctrine of love What needeth so much ado to press it upon men the Lord shew us our shortness and humble us under it But I will come a little nearer to the purpose in the Text and the thing in hand which lies before us the Ordinance to which some of us are now called for this of watching for the appearing of Jesus Christ I might have raised indeed a closer observation and more particular when I had finished this but I would not hold you too long upon this which is but the coherence of the words we shall likely meet with it before we have done with the Parable And that is the necessity of pressing this great duty of watching for the appearing of Christ much upon people for this is the thing here our Saviour so muchin sists upon and often in many other places What I say to you I say to all watch And so Luk. 12. 35. Surely there is somewhat more in it then ordinary The duty is more spiritual then ordinary and then our carnal hearts are as hardly drawn to it as a Bear to the stake It hath many a time I know been prest upon us all to get ready and stand ready to wait and watch for his appearing Have we done it How many of us brethren if Christ should come this day would be found sleeping some dead asleep upon the lap of the pleasures and honours and riches of this world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be disturbed we never dream of his coming Would men think you if they had learned this lesson dare to multiply incumbrances in the world upon them and with so much diligence be casting out their roots in the world as if they would never be pluckt up as if their portion were here below how often have we been warned in the name of Jesus whos 's the warning is take heed your hearts be not over-charged with surfeting and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day take you at unawares hath this sunk with us have we made conscience any of us to ease our selves of any unnecessary incumbrances that we might wait upon him without distraction What day almost brethren goeth over any of our heads or what hour of the day wherein we shall be ready to open if he should knock for us Alas some of us brethren care not how long he defers his coming if he would never come we should be the better pleased for our hearts tell us it will be a woful day to us we have no oyl in our vessels we have no grace in our hearts nor any do we look after we know we are not in him nor are we solicitous to be found in him we are for our building and planting and rejoycing in our youthful vanities and leave these serious things to melancholly Spirits Ah dear friends had not this truth need to be prest upon you your danger is great
means though the Spirit alway is the great wooer and worker in this kind I say the Spirit by their word doth work to the revealing of a poor creature breaking that enmity that was in the heart to Jesus Christ So the Apostle I have espoused you to one Husband so we read it which Beza disalloweth not but he readeth optavi Erasmus adjunxi the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have joyned them to the Lord saith he Eras velâ—t ea quae glutine aut ferrumine comittuntur but yet me thinks saith Beza the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I might present you as a pure virgin to one Husband c. confutes is speaking afterward of a nearer joyning to Christ then now therefore he readeth it I have fitted you for the Lord wherein 1. Is a reconciling of the persons to Jesus Christ We beseech you saith the Apostle be ye reconciled to God In Christs stead we do it as if he did beseech you himself we pray you be reconciled and O that we could do this brethren but with such bowels as the Lord Jesus or as this Apostle did We are soon answered and take a denyal of you for you practice a denyal and we are too easie to take it O I beseech you saith the Apostle be you reconciled Alas poor sinners you are enemies to Christ and how will an enemy be marryed to an enemy while such you think you are not enemies and you are not so indeed in word and profession but in your deeds you are enemies You do nothing but wound and tear his name and are you not then enemies you hate the strictness of his ways and his people that walk in them and are you not enemies you are in love with your sins which were the very speare at his heart the knife that butchered him and are not enemies Ah! how many such here this day Now our work is to intreat you first to be reconciled as for his part he is ready to forgive and forget all and to look upon you as if you had never had offended him if you had but hearts given you towards him as his is towards you 2. Not onely but then there is the espousing brethren and that is when there is a mutual promise past between the Lord Jesus and the soul he will be a Husband to thee and marry thee to himself and thou wilt be faithful to him wilt never follow other lovers any more Thou wilt be his and his alone if he be pleased to be thine Now the Gospel which we preach is the word of this faith It is indeed the spirit brethren which is received by the hearing of faith by the word of faith as the Apostle spake that doth perswade a soul to this to close with him to take him upon his own terms He will be his virgin now for ever 3. There is yet further an adorning her when so espoused and so fitting her for him to be presented him a pure virgin That I might present you not only chaste but all manner of purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is nothing else brethren but the integrity and uprightness of the soul the abounding of the soul with all the graces of the spirit wherein there is a growth by degrees And this is the work of the servants of Jesus Christ a part of their fitting of them for him To labour to carry on his work so in his peoples hearts that they may be adorned and meet for such a Bride-groom There are but two things more to be hinted before I come to the Application of this And the next is The manner of this espousing or betrothing but before that we must note That as there was a betrothing of virgins some time before the compleating of the marriage which custom is commendable you know Joseph had Mary espoused to him before he took her to his family as compleatly and fully So among the Heathens also placuit despondi nuptiis hic dictus est dies saith the Comic Terent. only to the faith of the marriage Now they were counted by the people of God and by the Law man and wife Husband and wife * It was death for them to violate that betrothing as well as if they had been never so compleatly and solemnly marryed whereby it appears God would have them look upon it as a perfect marriage though the consummation of it were not until afterward the taking of her home and solemnly engaging de presenti as they say So here the consummation of this marriage is deferred a while as you have it in the very Text at last at midnight the cry was Behold the Bridegroom cometh and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage that is to say into heaven Then when Isaac took Rebecca and brought her into his Mothers Tent and became one with her more neerly she became his wife indeed so hereafter when he takes us into his fathers house brethren when he takes us into Heaven there is the marriage consummated indeed But for the manner of his espousals First remember this in all He doth it freely For alas Brethren what can the Lord Jesus now if he come into the Congregation this day see in any of us that he would take for his spouse what can he see in us there is nothing desireable nor lovely in us we are like poor Infants cast out in our blood not washed nor salted but stinking loathsom the navel not cut nor bound up cast out to the loathing of our person Ah Brethren while poor sinners are in their sins they smell not the loathsomness of their souls they have stinking nostrils to which the savour of sin is suitable and therefore they smell it not we are as persons that have been long in a filthy Jakes or Dungeon and by continuance of it we feel it not it is so habitual or indeed connatural to us but now bring a man out of this place a little while and put him into it again O then how loathsom it is to him yea bring him to the door of it O it is ready to sink him so it is in this case you see it not poor creatures O that such of us as the Lord hath made sin loathsom to could tell how to pitty you but sure you will finde it so if ever the Lord Jesus do espouse you he will first let you know what you are to whom he doth this Alas what can he see in us brethren or hath he seen in any of us that he stands in this relation to for birth you have nothing but baseness The Devil is our Father and his works we will do I mean as to corruption that is within us whence is it but from Satan For Beauty there is none but all deformed wounds and bruises and putrified sores full of corruption that stink and are loathsom and what beauty can there be in such a
would have if it be in truth let the other accomplishments be less or greater so the soul O thy self thy self give me Christ or else I dye What wilt thou give me if I go Christ less wilt thou give me a name riches a portion in this world a fellowship with thy people in the Ordinances yea grace it self if it may be given without Christ O none but him none but him Well thus now thy Lord works a poor soul to close with him so that choosing Christ for himself while we have him we are well enough If a man follow him for Loaves when they cease farewell Christ or for riches or prosperity when that ceaseth all is gon They will not go to prison with him they will not suffer with him no they never intended it but to have such a Christ as to be kept from those things Well this is not sincere nor upwright which is wrought in every heart whom the Lord doth thus espouse to himself which may serve for a word of tryal to us all I have onely a word to speak to the solemnity of the Marriage-Feast you see Marriages used to be made with feasting it being a time of rejoycing so Sampson he made a Feast seven days that was the manner it seemeth and so Laban saith to Jacob fulfil her week the solemnity of the Marriage And our Saviour himself was at a marriage-feast at the first miracle that he wrought And though this feast it seems was rather at the compleat marriage then the espousal yet this Feast is at his espousal and continueth until the consummation and yet a greater feast to be expected The Kingdom of Heaven saith our Saviour is like a King that made a Marriage-Feast for his son and bid the Guests Here he speaks I take it of the administrations of grace in the visible Church of Christ for one was there that had not a wedding-garment O Brethren A Feast of Fat things of Wines on the Lees well refined a Feast the Lord maketh saith the Prophet Their Feasts were rather in drinking then eating and therefore they had their name in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A drinking a Feast so Ahasuerus feast a drinking And so the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a drinking together so here brethen such dainties are provided as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the heart of man as a man that never tasted hony though he may hear speaking of it cannot conceive what it is Eat my friends and drink ye yea drink abundantly saith he in the song It is observed by some that Matthew calls it a dinner and Luke calls it a supper both indeed for we dine and sup with him and he with us in the Administrations of his grace and those sweet communions that we have with him while he sitteth with us at the Table as not long since you heard Yea we have continually brethren such as are believers indeed have continual meat at his Table as Mephibosheth at David his Table a dayly portion the things of the day in its day so we our daily refreshings from his presence so Jeconiah had his portioâ—n from the Kings Table dayly Some say the dinner is here but the supper in Heaven and this not comparable to that now we have flagons but there will be springs and Rivers or rather an Ocean of wine to all eternity here we drink and take in the comfort there the comfort takes in us we enter into the joy because it cannot enter into us O blessed is he that shall be brought brethren to the supper of the Lamb forever and forever Lastly The consummation of this marriage when the Bridegroom cometh to take his Bride to himself to take her now from among the pots wherein she hath lien to take her now nearer to himself to his bosom indeed now she hath had some smiles from him to keep the heart alive now and then a Kiss but then continual embraces Now and then he hath met with her here and there and then withdraw again but then we shall be alway in the glorious light of his countenance O Brethren If a smile from Jesus Christ will sweeten the bitterest cup of Affliction here below yea very gall and wormwood it will sweeten the mouth and fill us with comfort what will it be then when nothing but pouring out of love upon the soul to eternity and when there shall be no bitterness at all to abate it and no mixture no interruption no fear of losing that sweet and ravishing communion with him Oh heaven will be Heaven indeed But so much for the Doctrinal part Now for the Application First then I pray you let us be more serious in taking notice of the great transcendent love of Jesus Christ to such as we are that we should be made a spouse to him O brethren what condescention is this he being so high and we so low such poor abject creatures Alas conception fails us brethren comparison fails us for there is no proportion between an infinitely glorious God and vile dust and ashes Who regardeth a drop of a Bucket or thedust of the ballance they are poor contemptible things who desireth a poor worm or an Ant every one trampleth them underfoot and thinketh he doth them no wrong though he never gave them no being alas brethren we that are less then nothing in comparison of him that he should set his love upon us and become espoused to himself how shall we conceive of it much less speak of it You would think it much for one of you brethren one of us to have our hearts drawn out thus to a poor abject forlorn maid lying in the street that we must take her to a nearer relation to a bosom-communion and fellowship this were strange but for a â—rince to do so is yet more strange but all is nothing to this of the Lord Jesus to our souls It was Condescention for the Cedar to marry the Thistle as it was ambition for the Thistle to seek to the Cedar O such thoughts if they rise they are even stifled in the very birth A begger will not fall in love with a King she thinketh it is impossible to compass it there is no hope and therefore no desire and truly I think it is as rare for a King to fall in love with a begger he is so far above her and hath objects more suitable to himself to set his love upon so that it would be one of the wonders of the world if such a thing should be why brethren much more then this is acted dayly while the Lord Jesus the King of Kings the Lord of Lords maketh love to such poor worms as we are and yet it is not wondered at It is true we think our selves something and therefore we are the less taken with it Tell a Pharisee how great Condescention it is for the God of Heaven
so humble Abigail and from Bâ—az so humble Ruth and shall not this love of Jesus Christ infinitely greater then all humble such poor filthy creatures upon whom he hath set his love Thirdly Let us hence take notice then of the many precious priviledges of the Saints We live much below them because we study them not keep not the relish of them upon our hearts I mean endeavour not so to do the Lord give us hearts now lifted up to him First then As many as by believing are espoused to Jesus Christ they are one with him in the nearest union Surely it is not for nothing that the H. Ghost delights so to set forth the believers relation to Christ by this of a spouse to a husband you know that this is the nearest union among men of one person to another Kindred are near a man his children his brethren they are usually called their bone and their flesh as the men of Judah spake to David we are thy flesh and thy bone but this is aâ— a greater distance but now in Marriage two persons that were strangers one to another never saw the face one of another within a little while by this Ordinance of God are brought to such a nearness as that Father and Mother and Children if they had any before yet they are not so near to them they shall leave Father and Mother and be joyned to their Husband here this union is the stranger by how much greater the distance between the persons were and how much the closer the union is now it is made the distance was great whether we respect the dignity of the person there was no proportion a King and a Beggar are but a shadow and a dark one too to set forth this a King and a worm to take it and lay it in his bosom is nothing to this but chiefly in respect of enmity of mind alas that such as we are at the deadliest feud haters of God and of Christ not only strangers but enemies through evil works that those should be brought so near to Christ as to be made one with him this is something indeed An impotent and weak enemy that could do nothing against him not so much as move any longer then he upheld us and yet we should be look't upon indeed a potent enemy happily in policie may be concerned to such an union but a weak enemy rather would be trampled under foot But then the nearness of the union man and wife are one flesh saith the Apostle but he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit The union of soul and body is nearer then of man and wife if too bodies could be acted by one and the same soul this were a near union indeed Why the Lord Jesus and the saints are one and the same Spirit whereby they are knit together in love this is a near union indeed Is this a light thing a small thing to be made so near the Lord of life and glory even the Children of Israel a people near to him who is like them that have Christ so near them of that are so near him Secondly There is a sweet Communion and Fellowship ariseth upon this a blessed imparting now of all his fulness to such a soul all that is Christ's is now yours his righteousness yours therefore the Holy City the name of it is called the Lord our righteousness Now his honour is yours where he is King you are Queen as in the old custom with the Romanes they used to say where you are Caius I am Caia saith the woman where you are Lord I am Lady be the poor Creature never so contemptible yet marrying with a noble person it dignifieth her with a rich person it enricheth her because she hath an interest in all But beloved that though this be matter enough to insist upon if I could enlarge things for fear of being too tedious There is fellowship-Communion between the Lord Jesus and the soul that others know nothing what it meaneth the Lord Jesus is more open hearted to them his secrets are with them they are the hidden Manna and they again are most free to power out their souls to Jesus Christ into his bosom to power them out like water as he will hide nothing from Abraham so Abraham will hide nothing from him such a confidence hath the poor Believing soul that he speaks boldly freely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with speaking all so the original word properly imports that which none else in the world shall know they will make known to Jesus Christ they can be more free with him then any other And not only because he already knoweth the heart as I conceive but out of a sweet confidence they have in him and experience of his bowels yerning over poor souls in such a Condition so that if he knew not all that was in their hearts they would out of this freedom open it to him Yea the Lord Jesus he dyed our death and grieves our griefs and we rise his resurrection and rejoyce in his rejoycings he partaketh with us yea indeed bears the heavier end and all indeed of our miseries and we partake of his joys the oyl of gladness we are anointed with But this is the second Thirdly another is the cohabitation of Christ with his people I will dwell with them and I will walk in them when the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven the Church of the Jews shall come in then he will especially dwell in them then the Tabernacle of God is with men but now saith the Apostle that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith though he be absent indeed in some respect at the right hand of his father absent in body yet he is present in spirit as the Apostle saith of himself as he would have us to be in Heaven have our hearts there and so to dwell there to have our conversations there our love there and where the heart is there the man is Animus non est ubi animat sed ub i amat well we then dwell with him and he dwels with us with him will I dwell saith the Lord. It is a Marriage duty to dwell one with another and if a believer have an unbelieving yoke-fellow if he or she will live with the believer they must not put them away they must not depart from them so it is here the Lord Jesus dwels with his people and this is no small priviledge to the Husband the Bridegroom at hand alway ready to pity and compassionate us in our sufferings within or without But this the third Fourthly he nourisheth and cherisheth them No man hates his own flesh saith the Apostle but he nourisheth it and cherisheth it as you have it there in Nathan's parable one poor Ewe Lamb and he laid it in his bosom and it did eat of his bread and drink of his cup by which are meant all manner of supplies
deep hypocrisie that is in mens hearts or if they had do I think they were to use it but serve Gods holy ends in following Christ his example who suffered a Devil though a white one he was indeed in the likenes of an Angel of light yet he did suffer him in his family until it broke out into scandal There is much in this one reason 1. What deep hypocrisie may lurk in the hearts of men under a plausible profession so that men can suspect nothing many times as you see Ananias and Saphira Simon Magus and others Judas carried it so cunningly and seemed so zealous and full of charity O why was this waste c. when the Spirit of Christ went with his spirit and saw his fetches and deep ends he said it because he had the bag and was a thief the more he had to row in the more bold he might make with it and it would the less be mist but his paint was so exact and so near the life that the Disciples took him to be as real as themselves any of them rather suspecting themselves then him his heart was too deep for them to fathom Because 2. They had not such an infallible spirit given nor have any of the Churches now such a spirit given whereby to know the secrets of mens heart nor do I find that the Apostles had such a spirit given them now and then indeed they had some secret things and actions revealed to them but not that incommunicable property of God to search the heart I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Peter indeed had that private action and falshood of Ananias revealed to him and from thence he concluded Sathan had filled his heart in that he lyed against the Holy ghost but what is this to the searching of the heart and this that was revealed was but for an act now and then in Acts 10. He knew not that there were men sent for him from Cornelius until the Spirit of God told him and revealed it to him so that he had not that knowledge which he had of secret things not made known in an ordinary way by sense he had it not habitually but by several acts Or if they had such a spirit which none can prove they did not act by it in admitting persons for then such as those would never have been admitted Yea 3. If the Church had such a spirit it is very likely she were not to act by it in admission For our Saviour himself though he knew whom he â—ad chosen and knew from the beginning who should betray him yet he did admit him that he knew would prove a Devil and therefore he acted therein according to his humanity and to leave us a pattern that though we may suspect happily such or such a person and not savour them according to that discerning which God hath given us of the spirits of men yet if not scandalous not to reject them making such a profession of Christ as according to charity and Scripture-rules we ought to hope well of And methinks there is somewhat in that Parable of the tares though while in the blade they were scarce discernable from the wheat yet it seemeth by the Parable that now they were come to such a growth as they did discern them therefore came with that Question whether they should pluck them up and yet he would not have if so they were not thorns and thistles and such as would altogether choak the Corn though they might hinder it if only Hypocrites though discovered if they can be discovered without prophaness and scandal they are not to be pluckt up from among the good Corn and hence it is that there are good and bad in the visible Church though the bad seem to be good all are Virgins but all are not wise virgins For the Application of this We may hence take notice of the great indulgence of God and the largeness of his grace and the riches of his patience and long-suffering to poor Creatures in that he takes many as his own within the verge and comprehension of this his Covenant that never really partake of the saving benefits of the Covenant So you know it was with Israel though they were as the sand of the sea yet a remnant should be saved All are not Israel that are of Israel that is true and yet they are of Israel though they be not Israel that is as true Now that the Lord should admit of such to be of Israel that never were nor are like to be Israel this is largeness of bounty Alas how many wild Olives are graffed in among the branches which remain and partake of the fatness of the Olive the priviledges and ordinances and gifts of God bestowed on his Church for edification and yet shall be cast out as branches broken off dryed and withered shall be taken away as barren and unprofitable and burn for ever if thou continue not in this goodness thou shalt be cut off It is not the manner of men to plant such in their vine yards as they know will bring forth nothing but leaves no fruits but sowr the grapes of Sodom and yet this the manner of God to such as shall be cast out into utter darkness yet should be admitted to be the children of the kingdom 2. That he owneth many as separated to himself in such a way before they come to own him and though they dwell under his shadow and shine and in droppings and dew of heaven yet a long time bring forth nothing do nothing but abuse his grace and this riches of his goodness and yet at last notwithstanding all he should go on to separate them to a nearer holiness to himself seize upon their hearts put another principle and seed into them whereby they should be fruitful for the time to come Ordinary experience teacheth us this how many years many a poor formal Professor hath walkt under the means of grace and passed for a Saint and yet hath been in the gall of bitterness but the Lord out of his infinit mercy and rich grace hath healed him afterward It is no question it is the case of some that that very grace which they have so long hypocritically pretended to and abused was that at last which seized upon them Why but you will say this is no priviledge nor mercy to be members of Christ his visible Church if we therein enjoy not Christ and for our Children to be owned as those separated to Christ and yet though Children of the kingdom and be cast out for none are like to sink so low into hell as those which are cast out of the kingdom such as so often abuse mercies and Gospel-grace tendered to them I answer It is true the name of the Lord our God is great and fearful as in that place of Deuteronomy And the nearer a people have been drawn to Christ within the
drunk the cup of the Lord and it hath been a cup of deadly wine to thy soul thou hast eaten and drunken thy judgement and condemnation so often that thou art even stupifyed and past feeling it is to be feared it not onely argues a desperately hard heart to come and look upon Christ crucifyed held out in those Ordinances as our meat and drink to nourish us and not to relent but it hardens us so much the more Thou mayst yet come oft ento receive the Supper of the Lord but as often as thou dost it thou dost but more deeply poyson and fill thy soul O! Brethren that the Lord would let us see this day whether this be our condition and we have rotten hearts covered over with a glorious profession that we might not dare to draw near for we cannot have a Wedding-garment upon us brethren if we have not the habits of grace if we have not Christ for righteousness and holiness how can we act that grace which we have not Thou art fit for any thing else but for the worship of God thou art fit for thine own occasions and fit to serve the Devil to be at his beck but not to worship God in those Ordinances remember remember brethren though you may have somewhat now to answer us when we preach this word and to answer your own consciences and can make a shift to silence them when they tell you though you have a profession and name and are reckoned among the Saints yet you never were born again never did put on Christ indeed you cannot have a wedding garment though you may brethren deceive your selves and us and take this and that for a wedding-garment when the Lord Jesus shall come and ask you how comest thou in hither without a wedding garment thou hadst not a dram of grace thou never puttest me on for righteousness in believing how camest thou hither how durst thou be so bold as to draw nigh to my table to meddle with my precious blood and body broken for sinners when thou haddest not a wedding garment on you shall then be speechless it shall be so evident O take him bind him hand and foot hang these Ordinances and priviledges which he hath so long abused my blood and body which he hath eaten and drunk that is to say Sacramentally the signs of them as those in 1 Cor. 10. they did all eat the same spiritual meat c. and yet most of them perished sink him sink him he hath trampled my blood under his foot counted it an unholy thing else he would never have cared to have come with an unholy heart to it therefore now I will trample his soul in my fury unto the lowermost hell O! how this will sharpen the teeth of the gnawing worm to eternity O how this will inrage the flames of those everlasting burnings therefore consider this your sad condition let it be a terrible word to you the Lord give you hearts to tremble at it And in the last place Let us take heed how we rest and lean upon a profession and a name Methinks there needs no more Arguments to move us then what hath been spoken already What folly is it for a man to hang his weight upon that which he is told will break and then he falls into an irrecoverable gulf O! that we had that alway sounding in our ears in the seventh of Mat. Lord Lord open to us we have done this and that heard thee preach done wonderful works they were visible Saints surely at least and yet he calls them workers of iniquity which they might do in secret acts with pretences for God but intending themselves What if Simon Magus had had that power to give the gift of the Holy Ghost and had done it and replenished his purse by it for likely he that would have bought it would have been as ready to have sold it again he might have past for a Saint but what would his end have been O Brethren consider your latter end the Lord teach you that one point of wisdom that so in time 〈◊〉 may flee from that wrath to come But so much for this Doctrine also Verse 3 and 4. And they that were foolish took their Lamps and took no oyl with them But the wise took oyl in their vessels with their Lamps WE may read a wise man or a fool in his actions and so here the foolish took no oyl with their Lamps and what more foolish then that For the opening of the words I shall not need to say much by the Lamps I understand here a profession of Jesus Christ a name a shew the Apostle speaks of the Saints as light-bearers they should be burning and shining lights as John was Light there is and sometimes appearing heat even in formal professors as you see in the case of John how zealous for God And Judas a man would have thought him zealous when he said Why is this waste but it is like the light of the glow-worm touch it and it hath neither light nor heat they are indeed sparks of our own kindling as it is in that place of Isaiah the sparks there may be the action of Devotion and Duty which may be elicited or educed by the help of nature and of education and custom the conscience being enlightened by the Law of God in some measure and self-love working somewhat in men will put them on to do something to quiet their Consciences but alas these sparks quickly go out and the Lamp is put out in obscure darkness There may be also somewhat of Common-grace some enlightning of the minde and some kinde of affection as the second ground received the word gladly and Herod heard John gladly but a great difference between these and the Disciples who receiveed the word gladly the one rejoyced happily in that which in the word is suitable to a carnal appetite as the Eloquence as those in the Prophet thou art to them as one that plays on an Instrument but the other rejoyced in that of Christ which is therein found So the Bee is pleased with the Flower the Sheep with the Blade the Bird with the Seed and the Swine with the Root But new for the oyl in the vessels what is that The foolish took no oyl in their vessels with their lamps By this I understand brethren the oyl of the Spirit ye have received an anointing the Spirit of grace and the grace of the Spirit of Christ the Spirit dwelling in us there is a Cruse opened that will never be drawn dry like the Fountain of waters or Rivers springing up with eternal life it never sails By this then I understand the true saving work of grace in the heart a receiving of the Spirit of grace the Spirit of Christ by faith as the Apostle speaks by the hearing of faith by the Gospel the word of faith which was blessed to the working of saith in
that this is folly but the world counteth this the greatest folly that can be to make so much ado about the soul-affairs to trouble themselves so much about the interest in Christ they are the wise men that have heads deep and large to compass their designs for the world and to have a profession of Christ the thing may be of some use but the thing it self it is but a burthen they will never trouble themselves with a Lamp and a Vessel full of Oyl besides it is enough to have a Lamp But surely Brethren the Lord judgeth otherwise you see who is the fool in Christs sense and what will it avail if a man the world account him a wise man and he himself deem himself a wise man and Jesus Christ accounteth him a fool he never giveth names for nothing they are sure to answer them sooner or later the easiest course Brethren is not the wisest then the Sluggard were the wisest man 2. It may serve to reprove and convince us of much folly then that is among us Stultorum plena sunt omnia all Proressions are ful of fools and none more then the Profession of Jesus Christ for the higher the end the greater the folly in pretending to it and missing of it I doubt brethren all the Congregation are full of such fools as these are it appears to be so in the Prophets time Who is wise saith he and he will consider these things c. and Prudent and he shall know them Who is wise by this interrogation there is implied a paucity of them as in that Who is there among you that walks in darkness and seeth no light they are not very ordinary so again Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed May I not take up the Prophets complaint now and say who in this Congregation is wise who so wise as to consider their latter end to provide for it not to rest in a name in a profession Some I doubt not but there are who are able to produce their Evidences Christ in them the hope of Glory but are they so many as were to be wished brethren do you not take up short of Jesus Christ rest in the means as you have heard before 3. Then it shall serve to stir us up to awaken us to look about us for that is one thing also which that interrogation imports to stir us up to Consider our wayes and our Condition and State Whether we have this oyl in our vessel as well as in the Lamp surely Brethren For Motives 4. This is a very pressing one which our Saviour covertly giveth in the Text they were foolish virgins which took no oyl and the Prophet Who is wise and he will consider these things for men would not be counted fools of all things men had rather be wicked and counted so then be counted fools and will rather shew their wit in froth and jests and over-reaching then be counted fools you know the affectation of wisdom was the first temptation and ever since vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild Asses Colt we are most stupid Creatures and yet would have a name to be wise and are indeed contented to be fools in Gods account rather then we would not be wise men in our own account and the account of the world desperate fools this is cum ratione insanire if any thing be O brethren if we would be wise indeed take the advice of wisdom it self or the wonderful Councellor take heed of resting in this Condition without oyl in your vessels he is wise indeed that is wise in the latter end that thou mayst be wise in the latter end he that liveth in reputation of a wise man he thinketh himself so and dyeth a fool in the account of God himself and all others this is the fool in grain the more care to get and keep our vessels full of oyl the more wiser we shall approve our selves 2. Dear friends Consider seriously now You think you follow Jesus Christ and your Lamps are burning but what a sad disappointment will it be and confusion For hope disappointed confounds a man as it is in Job they are confounded because they hoped you hope for heaven now if you be disappointed and your Lamps go out in obscure darkness just when you have the most need of them O how will you be able to bear it O therefore whatever you do labour to get this oyl make sure of this brethren never give the Lord over follow him up and down in all the wayes of grace until thou have gotten thy vessel full thy heart filled with grace with his fear his love with humility self-denial O look to it that thou close with Christ that you do not mistake somewhat else instead of him beg the Spirit Brethren to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and you may have all grace to abound towards you and in you that having an al-sufficiency alway in all things you may abound in every good work your hearts being ful there being a Spring to eternal life that your Lamps may never be put out but you may appear wise in your latter end which trieth indeed which are the wise and which the foolish Virgins O be diligent in improving all the Ordinances for that end received ye the Spirit by the works of the the Law or by the hearing of Faith You have heard it is the dew wherein the Manna descends it is the vehiculum we come to hear all of us O take heed how you hear with what hearts you come before him and how you attend to this word do you know in what part of it the Spirit will descend will come upon the heart at which Sermon in which part of the Sermon O brethren if we come with vessels full conceited with Pride full of Earth stopped up with the world how can we expect this oyl should be poured into us therefore Come labour to bring your empty vessels to the Lord in his Ordinances for it is observable as long as there was an empty vessel the oyl run in the widows case and so it would be here he never sent a poor empty broken Spirit a poor Creature poor in spirit to come humbled and trembling in sense of its wants and worthlesness he never sent them away empty when the vessel is full he will not pour out the oyl it would be lost there is no room to receive it Again Labour to number your days brethren that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom to this wisdom to salvation this is a rich piece of skill that is not to be learned but in the school of Christ to number our days Consider the shortness of our time how short we cannot tell for ought we know this night he was a fool in grain
a carelesness in us for if he came more speedily what is the language Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye whether he be a swift witness against men or whether he tarry all is one if he do not speedily execute the Sentence which is past upon men evil doers their hearts are fully set in them to do wickedly and if he do threaten to come speedily and avenge himself upon them let us eat and drink for to morrow c. forgetting the after-clap that after death cometh judgement do not then pretend brethren this for your selves and lay the fault upon God as Adam did and all the sons of Adam are ready to do Say not then If God had threatened as he did Niniveh Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown yet forty days and thou shalt come to judgement sinner thou wouldst have repented as well as they did no but as Abraham speaks to the rich man in the parable if they will not believe Moses and the Prophets they will not believe though one rose from the dead So in this case if thou wilt not repent and believe though the coming of Christ do tarry a while I will be bold to say thou wouldst not repent if thou shouldest know that within forty days or forty hours thy soul should be taken from thee the fool in the Gospel when he thought he had many years before him and goods laid up for them he nourished his heart as in a day of slaughter and when it was told him that this night his soul should be taken from him do you think the fool had so much wisdom to repent we read it not nor do I see any cause to think it A second sort which are to be reproved or convinced of sin are such as mock at the coming of Christ It is a prophecy of the last days in the last days there shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were since the beginning of the world That these are the last days if we had no o her Argument the impudence of many now adays denyinng resur ection and judgement and any such things as these are are too clear a proof of it Observe Where is the promise of his coming a promise to the people of Christ for he cometh to give them the Crown of righteousness having fought their fight and finished their course c. but a threatning to the sinners of the world as that the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Well you tell us of a glorious appearing of Christ but where is it we see no alteration all things continue as they were there is no sign of such a coming O what wretched Athiesm is in the heart brethren that because the hand of God doth not presently seize upon us therefore we make a mock at it thinking there is no such thing O this unbelief is the ground of all departing from God do not your actions proclaim this that you expect not his coming you rather make a mock at it you make so light a matter of sin of the most horrid sins Yea some that seem not to Question his coming though I think that is the ground of it their secret unbelief that there will be any such or no they do even provoke the Lord and pluck him out of his place they challenge the God of heaven that say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one draw nigh and come that we may know it that we may feel it for we fear it not this is the language of the men that declare their sin like Sodom heed it not stout-hearted sinners that set God at defyance bid him do his worst they will abide all that cometh rather then they will part with their lusts wherein they walk as the Apostle hath it they would fain see who shall controul them who should cut their Cart-ropes and Cords of vanity wherewith they draw iniquity and toyl and tear themselves like horses in the drudgery of sin Well I will speak a word or two to all these it is a terrible one indeed the Lord give us trembling hearts at it First However long it seems to stay it will come before thou art ready for it and for all this gallantry of spirit that sinners cloath themselvs with the stoutest-hearted sinner that heareth this word when that cometh shall quake and tremble What cared Belshazzar for the God of Israel he thought it was nothing to carouse in the vessels of the Sanctuary but you see with two or three words writing what an Agony it wrought him into Amos 5. 18. You desire the day of the Lord poor creatures you do not know the day of the Lord is darkness and not light your hearts will dye within you like stones when it cometh upon you Observe it brethren usually those that are the most stout-hearted in setting the Lord at defiance are most dejected when it cometh I will the Atheist say if this were true that this day would ever come it were something but we see no appearance of it Why Brethren are you such Atheists I hope there is none such here but will own the Scriptures to be the word of the living God and how often have you it there written he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ and God is not slack as men count slackness as some count it as if he would never come believe it believe it Sinners your judgement lingers not and your damnation slumbereth not but travels as fast as you do and it will meet you one day and seize upon you O if God should send such a hand to write upon the wall of the Taverns where men are carouzing c. mene mene thou art weighed c. this night shall thy soul c. Deut. 5. 5. He that believeth not these things is an Atheist indeed worse then the Devil himself who believeth and trembleth James 2. 19. But me thinks reason it self should evince it and teach us that the first Principle of all things made himself the end of all things He that is first must also be the last and therefore such as would not serve that end and honour God here he will honour himself upon them he must needs be righteous and give every one according to his works Now Sinners do not receive according to their works many times here but they are lively and grow old and are mighty in power their seed are established before them c As it is in that place of Job their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them they have no changes and therefore they fear not God they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave
that is to say without any tedious sickness such as Job had and therefore they encourage themselves in their evil ways they say what profit is there if we should pray unto him we prosper as well as any who is the Almighty that we should serve him Let him depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of his ways whereas a Job a Paul that are upright fearing God eschewing evil exercising themselves to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men they shall be plagued every morning God shall take them by the neck and shake them to pieces and pour out their gall upon the ground and break them with breach upon breach Now brethren if Sinners were not reserved to a day of judgement and destruction that they should he brought forth to the day of wrath how would the Lord be righteous and just it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you â—but to you that are troubled rest with us Again Thirdly Remember this Thou despis 〈…〉 the riohes and long suffering of God not knowing that this goodness leads thee to repentance It hath a tendency thereto God is not slack but is long-suffering to us not willing any should perish he waits to be gracious Sinners he giveth you space to repent though he tell you not how long that space shall continue that while it is called to day you might hearken to his voice Now instead of turning to the Lord you despise this his patience let him wait upon whom he pleaseth you desire him not to wait upon you but let the day of the Lord come that you may see it because you prosper and your brests are full of milk and your bones watered with marrow as it is in the Original you make a scoff at the judgements of God and mock at all his terrors as if nothing concerning you What is this but not only to break the yoke of Christ and his Cords of obeisance but the Cords of a man and of love wherewith he draweth sinners towards Repentance it followeth in the text that such men treasure up wrath against the day of wrath after their own hardness and impenitent heart let them put off the day of judgement as well as they can they do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath treasures of wrath are abundance he stores up treasures as we do sin God seals up such mens sins among his treasures indeed you fill up many bags and apace as a few great stones will fill a bag over little stones will do nothing heightens your sins more then this the despising the goodness and patience and forbearance of God riches and treasures of goodness and long-suffering abused and perverted to a wrong end to encourage your hearts to strengthen your hands to sin Swell the treasures of the displeasure which hangs over your heads every moment Ah dear friends that God would give some poor hard-hearted Sinner a trembling heart at this word I doubt it is some of our cases do you know what you do Sinners you heap up sin they are gon over your head I that is not al you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath that day when all the treasures shall be broken open the Sluces opened and the tyde of streaming vengeance shall carry away poor sinners to that bottomless gulf O who may abide this day No Nor do not think You shall have worse then other men and you hope not so bad you never yet sinned as some others have done you bless God you are no Drunkards nor Extortioners you never sinned as Sodom nor as Gomorrhah suppose so Yet it may be more tolerable for them then for many of us who shall despise this long-suffering of God and the riches of his goodness to us The Lord of that servant that encourageth himself to sin upon his Lord his delaying his coming he will come in a day when he looks not for him and he will divide him asunder Either rend his soul from his body whether he will or no this night shall thy soul be taken from thee Sinners are not willing to part with theâ—r souls and no marvel when they behold hell from beneath moved for them Or else he will separate them from himself and the Congregation of his people for ever they shall not stand in the Congregation of his people though here they were mixed together Or else he will bring upon him the most exquisite tormenting evils as men sawn asunder or as Agag or as they Dan. 3. 29. So in the Evangelist And give him his portion with Hypocrites as some gloss it they are the free-holders of hell the lowest place they have for simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas and therefore they shall receive double even according to their deeds See brethren we may be his servants in name and profession and he may commit to us the Stewards office also and if this be our own end a sad word for us as well as for you for loose and contentious and ungodly Ministers and yet notwistanding perish with deepest destruction if we despise this long-suffering toward us 3. Again It reproveth such as of prophaness of their spirits upon every slight occasion will be calling upon God to judge them appealing to him nothing more ordinary in prophane mens mouths then this the Lord judge them Yea more fearful indeed so fearful that I hardly think the Devil himself would so speak for they believe and tremble that God would damn them calling for that day upon every little vexation when men suspect them or censure them for any thing they would clear themselves and to that end use such fearful imprecations as these Ah wo be to them that say let the day of the Lord come what if the Lord should take such men at their word and put an end to his long-suffering and say Well judge thee I will this hour thy soul shall be taken from thee would they not be in an other Note you need not call for it it will come fast enough 4. It reproveth such as out of a conceit they have of their own innocency they will be calling for that day Job himself was blame-worthy that he presseth so much upon this O that I might come to him where I might find him that I might come even to his seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments I would hear the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me And so again Chap. 13. Withdraw thine hand far from me and let not thy dread make me afraid then call thou and I will answer thee charge upon me what thou canst of wickedness or prophaness and I will clear my self or let me speak and answer thou me let me be the Plaintiff saying out the sad condition of my soul and do thou answer me justifie thy
proceedings with me Though he did well to retain his integrity and justifie that before men yet it was too much boldness to offer to enter into judgement with God and so earnestly to desire that day Alas brethren when he shall bring to light the depths of our hearts that we never saw who shall stand before him at his coming thus to lay us open if he enter into judgement with us indeed 5. It reproveth another sort and those are they that when their Consciences are a little galled happily by the Word or some other way they are ready to cry out for the day of the Lord they think mans judgement and mans day is very hard and harsh and hope to be relieved by this day of Jesus Christ doth the Lord make his Ministers sometimes sons of thunder and is not he the Father the God of thunders then is your day brethren so dreadful that you cannot bear it if while he sitteth to purge as a refiners fire you be scorched with that so that you cannot abide the day of his coming do you think to help your selves by putting yourselves upon the everlasting burnings It is true the word of God is a fire and if it get into a sinners Conscience it will scorch and burn and make the soul even fâ—y again but what is this to the flaming vengeance wherewith the Lord Jesus shall be clothed when he appeareth and his coming is you think we handle you roughly sometimes and you shall find more tender usage from the Lord Jesus O he is more merciful full of bowels indeed he is so infinitely more merciful but you will find him to be infinitely just as well as merciful Sinners he hath a Go ye Cursed as well as Come ye blessed to pronounce he will handle you more weightily then Creatures can if you be not ready for his appearing If you cannot bear the smoke of the bottomless pit over which you are held it may be sometimes will it be a mending your condition to leap out of the smoke into the fire It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God therefore it may serve to reprove such as would hasten this day of the Lord and yet can have no hope the Lord knoweth in the Evil day The next Vse shall be then to stir us up every one to wait for this day this coming of Jesus Christ specially the people of God You that hope for mercy in that day as he prayeth for the house of Onesiphorus what should we do but wait for it Yet indeed it may reach the Condition of all whether good or bad If he delay his coming then wait for his coming Onely the waiting of the people of God is somewhat of a different nature And therefore let me speak a little distinctly to the waiting of the Saints of God for that day wrerein there are two or three things included as several branches of this duty 1. There must be a love and desire to this coming of Jesus Christ and this presupposeth that that day and the coming of it will be good to the people of God for we cannot love or desire or will any thing evil under the formality of evil be a good day a day of transcendent gladness of heart when the Bride shall be taken by the Bridegroom presented to his father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing when there shall never be any estrangement between the Lord Jesus and the soul any more never any withdrawing any clouding any disturbance of peace any more will not this be a good day when our grace shall be all glory then shall we appear with him in glory And therefore Job speaks after this manner I know that my redeemer liveth c. in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another therefore it is the same body by the which and not a new one which never had union with the soul before though my reins be consumed within me so we read it that is to say though inwards as well as outwards are consumed in the grave yet I shall see him but though is not in the Original and therefore it may be read without my reins are consum'd within me the reins are the s 〈…〉 of the desires therefore I have such desires after that day that even my reins are spent in them and consumed by them this is going forth to meet him indeed It is not every Christian that can desire this but such as are ready for his appearing whereof afterwards But then Secondly 2. In this waiting there is an Act of faith also to be put forth cast not away your confidence that believe there will be such a day it is certain though it be future though we see it not yet because he hath said it therefore believe it and if we so believe we shall not make hast that is to say more hast then is meet press hard forward toward the Mark Phil. 3. 13. 14. we ought to do but we should not take any indirect course to bring our selves to it so much the sooner as some by a dispatching themselves under a temptation when faith is overwhelmed or else by such cruel macerating of the body to beat it down that the frame of it should be quickly be dissolved though we should be weary of the body of sin and we cannot well be weary of it yet faith now should eye that glorious liberty of the sons of God and it maketh it present It is the substance of things hoped for it giveth it a being already and therefore this also is implied in this waiting And then 3. In this waiting brethren for his appearing which is proper to the Saints there is a patient continuance in the waiting a patient continuance in well-doing the Apostle mentioneth there should be desires not a fit and start but a Continuance in them and so a drawing out the acting of faith believing that day will come which shall put an end to all our fightings without and terrors within when we have need of patience when we have done all that we might receive the recompence the promise of temptation whether inward or outward our patience is put to it very sore yea and in a fit of ravishment with Christ then we would have no delay but in heaven we would be even that very moment and those holy flames are sweet but yet if the Lord see it good for Paul to continue in the Body and he must yet undergo more for Christ before he come to raign with him why he is satisfied and so ought we to wait patiently for this his appearing The Virgins waited it should seem and were forward and ready but their patience held not out as it should therefore labour for this But then Secondly For the waiting of Sinners Wait for this day for it will it come
to pass that your Churches your Families your hearts are so choakt with tares and weeds What could we answer him should we have a word to say for our selves well the Lord affect our hearts with it so much for this Vse The next use of the point shall be a distinguishing word between the sleep of Formalists sinners and the sleep which is incident to the Saints the people of God the wise Virgins slept their sleep and the foolish theirs and however in the expression there seems to be no difference yet there is a difference sure between them to be found for it may be this may trouble some poor souls who may think because they sleep therefore they are surely of the foolish Virgins And others may be emboldned and their hands strengthened What the best sleep as well as others therefore though this be my Condition yet all shall be well I would therefore add a word or two to this First Then remember this Sinners at the best and Hypocrites at the best their hearts are asleep and the Saints at the worst their hearts are awake indeed in naturals we use to say when a person is ready to drop asleep his heart is asleep already but it is not so in Spirituals with the people of God Judas when he was at the best that ever he was before he discovered his covetousness in the business of the poor he was unsound at the heart his heart was dead indeed it is a dead sleep that is upon their hearts and yet he walkt up and down as men in a deep sleep sometimes will do in a strange manner but his heart was asleep Now Peter he he fell asleep too in the matter of his denial of Christ but his heart was awake though the senses were closed up for a time yet when the Son of righteousness broke forth upon him lookt upon him you see he presently waked so the Church I sleep but my heart wakes in the deepest sleep of the Church of Christ the heart is awake there are divers apprehensions of this Some understand it thus I sleep but my heart wakes that is to say Christ who is as the heart to the Church the seal of life and vital spirits he wakes or else taking the Church Collectively she sleepeth but the heart waketh that is to say she may miscarry in some lesser matters as External but in the main the fundamentals the heart of religion in that she never fals altogether But we shall speak to it as it respects particular persons as wel as the general as doubtless it doth I sleep but my heart waketh the Church was Lazy and drousie slumbred and slept but yet not so but that the heart was awake it was not a dead sleep and this will appear if we consider two or three things 1. The Church then hath a Conscience not altogether past feeling but in fome measure awakened and then 2. The will and affections not altogether lost and gone in such a Condition 1. Then the Conscience that hath yet some stirring and that will appear because 1. The Church here knew the voice of her beloved even when she was asleep when he came and called to her my love my dove my undefiled open to me She now knew the voice of Christ so many a drousie soul that is slumbering and sleeping knoweth the hints and motions of the Spirit which he hath but alas hath not power to obey for sleep hath so overcome them security hath so seized upon them that though they hear yet they do not as me thinks in that very business of Jehoshai which I have thought strange of when his Conscience was awake he would hear the voice of the Lord in Micah he thought all the rest of the Prophets of Baal were false he would have the Word of the Lord from the mouth of a true Prophet a man would have thought now he should have done it presently being an upright hearted man also no yet if you read the text you shall find he went with Ahab notwistanding here he had a Conscience awake plainly but yet he did not obey he was so far engaged now to Ahab not only in affinity but his word was out and his honour at stake and though Conscience likely might check him for the thing as well as put him on to enquire of a true Prophet yet those Lusts now love to his own honour and carnal interest and affection laid him asleep he went up notwithstanding well this is the case in this place Can we not many of us set our seals to this truth how often in a fit of security have we had Convictions and Checks we have heard the voice of Christ open to me my love let my word have rooâ— in thee this thou dost is not pleasing to me O why wilt thou shut me out deal so unkindly with me yet your persons asleep though we hear many things we heed them not much but turn upon our beds as the door upon the hinges and cannot get off 2. Conscience is so awake usually in the people of God as to tell them they are asleep they have somewhat secretly whispering them in the ears that they are not in the right way they are slothful or sluggish David I think was in a deep a sleep as any that we read of yet I can hardly think but David had this within him some grudgings and misgivings that all was not well with him at that time But because happily this may be common to them with Hopocrites except they be very fast asleep indeed therefore I will rather insist upon the third 3. I say usually the People of God as they know they are asleep when they are asleep so they complain of it they rest not so questionless sinners do usually there is nothing disturbeth them so far as to complain of it I sleep saith the Church but my heart is awake it appeared the heart was awake indeed because she complained of it as a man that is droufre and cannot keep his eyes open he naps and nods it may be and wakeneth again or if he apprehend himself in danger to have any pressing business upon him if he sleep longer it is unquietly his mind is troubled with the thing and it wakes him often and he wouldshake it off but cannot laboriosius dormiunt quam vigilant saith one â—o our Annot. So the Conscience might then when asleep lash them stir them up many times tel them they do amiss prick them for it Nowan Hypocrite will hardly complain of his sleepiness not in reality â—f it be a practice that may â—et him off with men to be whining and complaining he will complain happily more to men then to the Lord but this poor Creature that sears the Lord his sleep O it lieth like lead at his heart he groans under it But then for the Will that also is awake in part when a Child of God sleepeth It was so with Paul
a Mariner near his port rowleth up his sails or as a piece of cloth rowled up one turn more and we are turned into the grave What then It remaineth that they that buy be as if they possessed not and they that have inheritances by Lot also be as if they enjoyed them not they that have wives as if they had none for the fashion of this world the Scheme the Mathematick figure of this world passeth away Was it not this which cast Solomon into such a sleep He offended by women though the wisest King So Mat. 24. 37. They eat they they drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some observe It is a word used most properly of beasts living sensually in the delights of the slesh they feed themselves without fear as the Apostle Jude hath it out of measure and so in time there is a season for all things c. make not provision for the slesh c. O that there were more sobriety brethren and moderation among us appearing among us there would not be so much sleeping 6. Take heed of any sin unrepented of of continuing in it for surely that will damp the soul and cast it into a sleepe as you see in the cafe of Jonas David the brethren of Joseph O specially of such sins as stupifie and seal and harden sins of a high hand and against light against mercy with a high hand these are dangerous 7. Be often stirring up your selves as the Apostle speaks to Timothy stir up the grace of God that is in thee the gift in thee as fire under the ashes A man that is drousie had need to shake himself as Sampson did Ah brethren there is a carnal mind in us all which is death it deadens all that is good within us And except we do often stir up our selves labour to keep upon our hearts some quickning Considerations to press them home to hold them to the soul we shall do what we can we shall sleep or at least slumber And beg with David O quicken me according to thy word Alas life is his and all quickning and renewing grace is his therefore we should lye much before him for this mercy if we would not sleep indeed So much for this Use The next Vse of the Doctrine shall be an awakening word It may be brethren many of us that have this word alas are asleep and had need to be shaken and O that the Lord would even do it for us Alas It is not our word will do it it dyeth in the Ear and goeth no further as a bullet whose force is spent dyeth reacheth not the mark except the Lord add an Almighty force to it it will do nothing But I shall endeavour alittle this work by offering some considerations to you You that lye upon your beds 1. Remember in the first place that if Jesus Christ come while you are in this sleep you will be found unready what do you think that a sleeping will put your hearts into frame to meet the Lord Jesus with Surely no One of these two things will befal you either your works will be quite undone you will have your grace to get when you should enter into glory or never Or else if you have it not to get you will not have it in its brightness and lustre as Ornaments upon you ready to open to him to enter with him either your Lamps will be out or else they will be to trim when you should enter O that the Lord would inforce this Argument and his own exhortation Luke 12. 35. Stand ready therefore with your loyns girded and your Lamps burning wayting for his coming that you may be ready Do you think this can be comfortable to you 2. Do but consider seriously what danger we are in when we sleep when we give sleep to our eys and settle our selves to it when we strive not against it First The Philistims will be upon us as they were upon poor Sampson If Satan and our hearts can but sing us asleep then the Philistims are upon us as they were upon him and at last you see how sadly they destroyed him you see what danger Saul was in when he was asleep David might have taken his life from him And Sisera by a poor woman perished when asleep And so Ishboshâ—th when asleep Surely brethren the devil never lulls us asleep believe it but he hath some desperate design upon us which he cannot do when we are awake What danger were the Disciples in when they were sleeping when they should have prayed they were just entring upon the pikes and they were asleep and see what fearful work there was they were all scattered from him and Peter how fearfully he denyed him Could Satan think you ever have brought Lot to that wickedness if he had not been fast in a deep sleep It was strange sleepiness in him to drink so much of the wine Excess overthrew him Surely brethren if ever there were an hour of temptation this is one If it might be tolerable at any other time yet not at this for hell is broke loose the devil is come down and hath great wrath because his time is short O how he hunts after poor souls and who are so like to be drowned as poor creatures asleep Secondly Then God usually doth for sake a soul if he fall asleep As you see in the Canticles her beloved was gone he wayted upon her a great while she would not awake when she got up he was gone O what a sad case was Saul in When God had forsaken him answered him not by Vrim or Thummim and the Philistims were upon him it made him out of his wits almost Ah dear friends If the Lord being provoked by our unkindness giving our selves to sleep do let loose sin this or that lust upon us to worry us And himself depart and stand and see what the latter end will be this will be sad thou cryest to him he will not hear but is as one asleep to thee because thou wast as one asleep to him O what will you do in this day Thirdly Then he is least able to act grace when he hath most need of it because the spirit is withdrawn from him Jesus Christ is departed from him he cannot resist a sleeping he hath no strength A weak woman may drive a nayl through the Temples of a most valiant General then O what advantage hath Satan against us and sin against us The least temptation then 〈◊〉 too hard for us we have no strength to resist come what will come we are naked to receive the thrust And but that the Lord stays the hand of Satan that it shall not reach the heart how quickly would he give such sleeping souls their deadly wound 3 Consider yet further how we put the Lord Jesus to it to prick us and stir us up lest we should lye sleeping and sleep the sleep of death They say the Eagle will
there may be a sleeping habit of grace though it be not in act the soul is not able to act it for the present As the wise Virgins though it was a part of folly for the wise Virgins to sleep yet we may not without great wrong to them and the grace of Christ in them call them foolish Virgins there is a vast difference between them If a man should have made a judgment of David in his backsliding what would he have thought of him or of the Disciples when they were so heavy at such a time as that was and that after they had been reproved for it and stirred up again and again we would have judged likely O sure it would prove a deadly Lethargy or there were scarce any hope concerning them O no saith our Saviour though he reproved them sharply yet some sugar he mixed with the vinegar the Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak he did not unsaint them because of their sleepiness no more should we And indeed brethren the difficulty is so great to distinguish between a sleep and death in sin sometimes that we had need to suspend and be exceeding tender in judging Physicians themselves have much ado sometimes to discern whether there be life in the body they are much put to it and yet it appears there is life therefore let us be tender in judging leave it to him who can discern whether the life be within them yea or no. Lastly A word of Comfort to the poor people of God that alas find themselves very apt to fall asleep and shake themselves with Sampson again and again and yet are apt to lie down upon the lap of a Dalilah again they know not what to think of themselves whether they can be alive to God having hearts so desperately sleepy Yea it may be though they have lost the sweet smelling presence of Jesus Christ many times by their sleeping yet they have slept again and cannot keep themselves awake his smiles have been many times turned into sharp rebukes their honey into gall and sometimes by terrible things in righteousness they have been awaked and yet they are sleeping again sometimes they have been confounded and ashamed and have had nothing to say when the Lord hath rebuked them and yet they are asleep again O what can I think of such a Condition as this I do believe the Closets of some poor Creatures can bear witness to many a sad complaint of this kind Well I answer to this Far be it from me brethren to sow pillows under any mans Arm-holes or to make a bed for any to sleep upon the Lord forbid there should be a heart so wicked as to make such an use of what is to be said to such poor discouraged souls We are in a strait indeed we cannot give a Saint their portion but the wicked are snatching at that nor the wicked their portion but the Saints are catching at that specially discouraged hearts and many times applying all to themselves that never was intended for them But if any dare abuse it be it upon them I must speak a word of refreshing to poor souls that are even wearâ—ed with a lazy sleepy heart 1. Then remember this That it is possible for a man or woman that is truly in the state of grace yet to be overtaken with sleep therefore it is a Conclusion without any good premises that sure thou art no Child of God no wise Virgin because thou art so often slumbering and sometimes fast asleep As carnally secure Creatures do deceive themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concluding because the wise Virgins slept therefore they are wise Virgins though they sleep so on the other hand do the people of God deceive themselves by a like false reasoning concluding they are foolish Virgins certainly because they sleep All are not wise that were asleep for some were foolish and therefore the carnal creature may sleep the sleep of the foolish all were not foolish that were asleep and therefore thou mayst be a wise Virgin and yet overtaken with sleep they both agree in sleeping or slumbering it is common both to wise and foolish therefore thou canst not make it a distinguishing or differencing note of thy Condition which is common to both sorts Only the degrees and circumstances the antecedents and concomitants of this sleep are those which distinguish as you have heard and I hope remember the wise if they sleep usually get oyl into their vessels first they sleep but they sleep by candle-light they suffer not their Lamps to go out they sleep but their hearts weak c. Well it is possible though thou sleep thou maist be a wise virgin 2. How knowest thou thou sleepest and how cometh it to pass that it is a burthen to thee Thou complainest of it and to such onely we speak brethren I must tell you such as yield not up to it such as love not sleep but it is tedious to them but whence is this Surely it is because thy heart is awake as the spouse saith this is not a total sleep O thou hast cause to bless the Lord that he hath kept so much as thy heart awake that sleep hath not seized upon all If once the heart be asleep all is gone therefore be thankful for that that there is any thing kept awake thy Will thy Affections 3. I you will say if I could see my heart is awake it were something but my hear sure is asleep my confidence doth not much trouble me for it my will hath been to blame for I have even setled my self to sleep thrown my self upon my bed of security shut the windows winked with my eys put off my cloaths I have slighted and neglected those acts of holiness from time to time of worship or which should have been as my garments upon me therefore sure I am willing to sleep yea more he hath often stirred and moved by his spirit to awake me and I have drowsed and turned like a door upon the hinges with the sluggard ready to cry a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep O sure my heart is asleep as well as my self I I cannot say with the Church I sleep but my heart waketh O what shall I say or what shall I do I answer however it may be thy Will hath been in fault and asleep in part if it be not awaken in a good part how comest thou to be thus sensible of thy sleeping and slugg shness of it what mean all those sad and lamentable moanes thou makest to the Lord in secret if thou be not sensible of it I hope it is so with some of us Are we not then sensible O sure the Will is not altogether asleep yea the prevailing part is awake 4. Remember this for thy comfort If thou canst not see clearly as happily under distemper thou canst not neither thy heart be asleep or awake yet the Lord
heart of the Lord is most widely opened This should be matter of deep humiliation to us all that we are so apt to sleep when we have most need to be awake The other Doctrine gave us a humbling word but this much more If we consider these two things 1. The more grace we have received the worse we grow turn the grace of Christ into wantonness for usually at the first when the soul is awaked out of its dead sleep O how hard it followeth after God it giveth no sleep to its eyes nor slumber to his eye-lids until he find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob in the soul Well it is true the Lord hath done something for that poor soul he hath opened his eyes to see the want of Christ and touched his heart so that now he followeth him and cannot but follow him this is unspeakable mercy But now when the Lord hath done much more for the soul hath poured upon it his Spirit given the oyl of gladness as well as of grace that then it should fall asleep the more engagements of Love the Lord Jesus lays upon the soul the more liâ—tless the more lazy it should grow The Apostle took it unkindly and well he might the more he loved them the less he was beloved and this could not but shame them if they had any ingenuity and may not the Lord Jesus take it as unkindly that the more he loveth us the less he should be loved of us as his love groweth hottest our love should grow coldest O for a spiritual ingenuity that we might lie down in shame before the Lord continually for this O what ungodly hearts c. and how unkind may poor creatures be and are they who have received greatest kindness from him Paul labored more abundantly because grace bad more abounded toward him then others We are prone to it if we be not left to it the more grace we have received the more listless to grow which ariseth noâ— from the nature of grace but from self-confidence and resting in our receivings which lays us fast asleep a man that hath one talent improveth it but he that hath ten lays it to sleep c. 2. What a shame is it for us that when we have most need to act our grace we have the least use of it for what was grace given us for brethren but for action not to lie idle and rust for want of using but to exercise it for his glory our own comfort and others good Now how do we fall short of these ends when we cannot use it in our greatest need is in those times before mentioned how would a man be ashamed that is or should be a man of his hands and when there is not such need he can sence and use his hands exactly to defend himself or offend his enemy but when he cometh to it indeed that his life is in danger he is in a deep sleep as the Psalmist speaks and none of the men of might find their hands A man is very rational at all other times only at a pinch when he hath more then ordinary need of it he is a very child and can do nothing this is a great shame The Saints that have received much grace and therefore should act strongly for God what a shame is it that when temptation cometh or when any more then ordinary occasion to exercise their grace they are like Children sleeping in their Cradles can do nothing Then If this be so Let us learn never to trust our hearts when they at the best in their highest frame most spiritual most enlarged Alas they are like a deceitful Bow it seemeth firm until you come to draw it but when you have need of it draw it it will deceive you fall asunder he that trustoth in his own heart is a fool saith the wise man and who more likely to know then he who beside the Spirit whereby he spake had had experience what a sad thing that self-confidence and security had been how fatal it had proved to himself be sure brethren if there be any time more then another that we need our hearts to be present or graces to be in act they will be asleep our corrupt part will cloud them and bear them down Do but observe it if it be but to watch one hour with Christ in an holy duty as prayer or the like It is strange but it is true our hearts will be less present then then at any thing else Let the duty be done or before it begin and you shall not be troubled with such a stream of vain and impertinent if not sinful thoughts but once go about this duty and O how do they thrust upon the soul and how lively sometimes when there is not so much need are the affections and how dull and flat are they then therefore trust not any frame you have at any time received for indeed it will prove a broken reed even grace it self if you lean upon it it will fail you and pierce you also Then what need had we brethren to ply the Throne of grace to sit down by the fountain and fulness of life and quickning influence even Jesus Christ David did even when he was at the best frame as in penning the 119. Psalm when do we find more flaming affections towards God and Heaven and his Law and Worship so strong as to break through all oppositions of men and Satan and Corruption and yet how sensible was he of his falling flat even in the midst of such a rapture O quicken thou me quicken thou me according to thy Word saith he alas this vigor will not continue except thou supply it with continual refreshing and renewing of strength And so in that place O that thou wouldst keep this upon the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts for ever alas else he knew if there were a like occasion for a free spirit in the service of God and his Temple it would be far from them O therefore ply the throne of grace brethren live by the faith of the Son of God Faith will draw water out of the wels of salvation And O what need had we to keep in with the Spirit of grace lest he leave us in a time of need It is true when we aprrehend a danger or an hour of temptation coming and the soul be any thing awake O then what mean it will make for the presence of the Spirit but brethren he deals with us as we deal with him If when we have peace and a calm and in our ordinary waking we slight him and sit loose to him believe it in our time of greatest need he may justly stand at a distance from us and let us see what our own strength is and what can we do without him O therefore let us take heed of grieving this holy Spirit which is that Spirit
c. and that day come upon you as a snare A snare you know is a sad thing and that which suddainly and unavoidably seizeth upon the poor beast or bird they are taken in an evil snare when they are sleeping and so brought to ruine this is the case it cometh on them like a snare like a Net from on high as snares rained from Heaven no avoyding them or else as a snare hid when men think nothing or the beasts are at their prey and delighting themselves in that before they are aware the foot or neck is in the snare and there is no breaking of it it is too strong a snare 4. Then usually hypocrites and sinners are at the worst and the people of God after their awaking and stirring up will be at the best sinners at the worst when they have setled upon their Lees in security and sleep for a while the foolish virgins never 〈…〉 d a heart awake towards God their heart never answered that Call Awake thou that sleepest their eys indeed were opened and they walkâ— up and down as men may do when the heart is asleep they had their Lamps some shew some formality but now when this day surprizeth them all is gone their form perisheth or at least will stand them in no stead their Lamps were gone out and therefore this is the very nick of time wherein the Lord Jesus will surprize hyporrites and give them their recompence of reward The people of God that sleep it is true they are unready when the Cry cometh but O how will this humble them to be found sleeping and what is the top of the Ladder but humility when will the â—oul be fittest to eâ—alt Christ but then and so when their Lamps are trimmed up again they will shine more bright then before and therefore then also will be a time for his coming to them 1. Then by way of Application this may inform us how it cometh to pass so many in the midst of their plots and purposes are taken away without any hope in their death surely every man would be happy they would have heaven but they think it is time enough to look after that when they have nothing else to do O if they had compast such a thing such a Land and such a House gotten such an inheritance then they would lay down these things and prepare for heaven and so the milk of their breasts and marrow of their bones they lay out upon their youthful Lusts and think their old age time enough to mind those serious things But the day cometh upon them at unawares and snatcheth them away in his wrathful displeasure in the midst of their endeavours for the world plucks them away from their place and it knoweth them no more Go to ye that say we will go to such a City and buy and sell and get gain whereas they know not what is in the womb of a day hence it is that so many perish from the way they are cut off in the midst and never reach their expectations and so remedilesly perish This day cometh upon them as a snare when they are sitting like so many Birds pluming themselves feeding and sporting and singing it cometh upon them and they are carryed away to their place Ah dear friends what sottish stupid and strange presumption possesseth poor sinners hearts as if they were of the Counsel of God as if they knew the number of their Moneths before hand as Hezekiah did and therefore might make bold to lavish out week after week upon their lusts do you know whether this night the snare will come upon you O that Sinners could but lay these things to heart that they might not perish like Beasts overtaken iâ— an evil snare but this is but the first 2. It will be a word of Reproof of the boldness of some who take upon them to know the time and many wanton wits have dared to sport themselves in so serious a thing to foretell the year one placing it upon 1533. others upon 1657. Alsted Chronol 1494. Piâ—us Mirandula upon 1905. Nicol. Cusanus upon 1700. and many others See Trap upon Mat. 24. 36. Many whereof time hath already refuted the grounds are weak of many of them this is to be wise above what is written vain man would be wise and herein he sheweth himself a wild Asses Colt indeed to pry into the secret which God hath kept in his own power no no it is unknown the day and hour the longer or shorter time there is no limiting of it by us it will be at midnight when men least suspect ordinarily but enough of that 3. It may teach us further that when we least expect it it is likely to be nearest to us a man would think this should be a startling word to all poor sleeping sinners you put away the evil day the day of the Lord far from you it is never nearer to you than then never are men usually more unfit for that day then when they put it far from them and never is it usually more near to them then at that time It is observed in nature that usually before an Earthquaeke cometh to swallow up men there is a great calm the air is quiet and the wind lies before the great rain fals When was the Old World more near destruction by that day of judgement from the Lord then when they thought least of it put it farthest off were most secure It is observed the Flood came in the Spring-time when the Spirit of God began to renew the face of the earth they had as fair a hopeful a fruitful year as before though there was one doubting Noah among them that dreamed of a dry winter yet when they were most secure most deeply secure then the Flood came when things were in their prime and their hopes of corn and wine and oyl in their flower the Flood came and swept them away And so Sodom when the Sun arose upon it what fairer ground of hope of a fair day doubtless they expected it they put off the day but then it was nearest to them So Laish secure before ruin and Agag so when they cry peace peace they shall do well God proclaims war against them by his Messengers Think of it brethren with your selves how stand your hearts affected in respect of this day are you not secure do you wait for it believe it the less you fear it the more cause you have to fear it or the less hope and love and desire and waiting there is in any of us to it the more cause we have to fear it for it usually seizeth upon men at midnight Is it not midnight with some of us dost not thou sleep thy fast thy dead sleep nothing will awake thee thou makest a mock of all these things The Lord give you but an eye to see for the snare is even coming upon you it is nearest to
such persons of all others 4. It will be a word of Terror then to all hypocrites and formalists and all sinners in that this day of the Lord will surprize you and come upon you at unawares What maketh death so terrible to poor sinners when they come to it but the judgement which followeth it so that let a sinner have warning of it and it is terrible but when it cometh upon a sudden and unexpected this exceedingly addeth to the terror of it it amazeth astonisheth O what a terror must it needs be to the old world that when their hopes were in the spring in their verdure then all on a sudden the world was on a flood the fountains of the deep and the clouds above conspired to swallow them up And will it not be think you as great an astonishment when the world at the end shall look for nothing less and before they are aware the world shall be on a flame about their ears O then the sinners in Sion will be afraid and fearfulness will surprize the hypocrite put as good a face upon it now as you can How terrible is a sudden storm upon the poor Mariners which they never lookt for they are all inveloped in darkness the clouds and seas seem to come together How terrible was the coming of Gideon upon the Midianiâ—es on a sudden at midnight when all asleep likely to see and hear so many Trumpets blowing so many pitchers clattering so many Lamps burning such a cry the sword of the Lord and of Gideon all on a sudden O how terrible it was it put them besides themselves they knew not what to do they thrust their swords in one anothers bowels O that we had but hearts to believe how terrible a day it will be to us if it overtake us as a snare Yea surely it will have somewhat of amazement terror in it to the people of God themselves that shal be found sleeping with whom it shall be midnight in respect of security And though they may avoid the ruine and destruction of the day they shall have a share in the distraction and terror of it but poor sinners poor hypocrites poor formalists shall have the amazing terror and never come to themselves never recover themselves but perish for ever by it 5. Then knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men to this watching which is the main thing intended in the Parable And concerning which you have heard somewhat already having spoken so largely to the Privation or defect of this watching in the slumbering and sleeping of the Virgins Nor do I intend to insist largely upon this watching here only here I suppose it most naturally falls into this main part of the Parable Watching here is as much as diligent taking heed to our selves that that day come not upon us at unawares As a man that watcheth against an enemy is surprized he takes diligent heed so our Saviour take heed to your selves that that day come not upon you as a snare so take heed to your selves and the flock over which the Lord hath made you overseers c. Watch therefore saith he for after my departure grievous wolves will enter As a party of soldiers when they would take diligent heed to themselves lest they be surprized by their enemy they watch they express it that way so here then The Exhortation is brethren to us all To take diligent heed to our selves lest we be surprized by the coming of Jesus Christ for we know not when he will come there is no determined time and if we take not diligent heed it will come upon us unawares You have had some of the Motives to press this duty heretofore or the Caution against sleeping I pray you remember how you cannot be too often put in mind of them surely our Saviour cometh over with it so often again and again you have heard the danger you are in while you sleep But we will rather take up a Consideration or two from hence First the difficulty of the duty so continually to take so diligent heed If the good man had known what hour the thief would have come he might more easily have watched to have prevented him it is much more easie to hold out such a watch for a while then constantly now every hour being in danger because we know not what hour he will come this is more difficult which should not discourage us but whet us on to double diligence Jam per periculum animâ— Alexandri It is an easie thing to be a Christian as many are lazy droans listless sleepy Professors that alas alas would scarce ever be found upon their watch when ever he should come But it is a matter of great difficulty and will work all your faculties to the utmost to watch for his appearing 2. The dreadfulness of the thing if you be surprized would you have Jesus Christ find you with your ornaments laid aside find you naked how will you hold up your heads and look him in the face either you will perish with the foolish Virgins and I doubt that will prove the portion of many of our souls or else you will be saved but you must run through fear through some shame confusion distraction when you are taken unawares Besides you are not of the night but of the day saith the Apostle that that day should not take you at unawares 1 Thes 5. 5. And otherwise we give not God the end of his dispensations which is that we might watch What then should we do surely brethren There are two things specially for us to do according to the scope of this Parable which our Saviour thus applyeth because the foolish Virgins and the wise both by their sleeping suffered such loss the one lost all their precious souls all the world not being able to recover them the other lost their comfort and sweet peace and quiet and had much coniusion in their latter end the soul being in a hurry to make ready when it should go forth to meet the Lord Jesus should have nothing else to do but to dye Therefore this watching being opposed to both their sleeping I conceive there are two things specially in it First That you be sure to have your oyl in your vessels ready that we have grace in our hearts Take heed to your selves diligently then in the name of Jesus Christ that you give not sleep to your eys nor slumber to your eye-lids give not the Lord nor your souls rest until you have this Communication of Christ to your poor souls how many poor hearts that hear this word have not a dram of grace though you have long had a name to be Christians yet that hath been all Brethren What do you mean can you dye comfortably hopefully except you have grace in your hearts this oyl this Spirit of grace dwelling in you will any thing else enable you to lift up your faces before him but his
2 Tim. 4. 14. And have we not too much sad testimony of it in our days such as indured much affliction and persecution from the opposers of Gods people yet now have turned their backs upon that truth for which they suffered 2. Consider yet further they may continue so long as though they fall asleep with the wise Virgins yet to rise again with them they may be deeply seized on by security and a man would think that then an hypocrites profession should come altogether to an end he should never open his eye more and yet you see the foolish Virgins after this the Cry awaketh them as well as the wise Virgins and they bestir themselves as well as the wise to trim their Lamps their Consciences had been awaked before though their hearts were never throughly awaked Some Will and Affections they â—ad but never through and prevailing against the â—lesh well that which was awake fals asleep and yet it holds out to be awaking again and trimming up their Lamps again as if none were more likely nor fairer for heaven then they until they find upon the tryal alas they were going out Well then brethren we may continue through changes of times through changes of our own hearts we may have sleeping fits and rise again out of them and sâ—ir up our selves trim our Lamps and yet prove but foolish Virgins Eighthly a foolish Virgin or an Hypocrite may carry it so as that the Saints have a good esteem of them yea the most searching of Gods people as some have a more piercing eye and can see further into an Hypocrite then others can as the case may stand but indeed some hypocrisie is of so fine a thread that it doth eâ— fingere aciem oculorum some Hypocrites are double and treble guilt so that they are not so easily discerned to be copper until it come to wear off and it holds long the Disciples of our Saviour even he that lay in his bosom could not discern who was the Traitor by any thing that appeared they had as good thoughts of Judas as they had of themselves there was their simplicity and love and yet he proved but a Judas he walked with them ate the Passover with them if not the Supper with them Thus we may have a name to be alive among the people of God and yet be but dead as it is said of that Church in the Revelations And so the wise Virgins you see walked hand in hand with the foolish they pass for all alike and no marvel when a man hath so much knowledge such good and stirring affections so full of action for Christ walks so unblamably suffer for Christ hold out so long no marvel if the people of God in love which thinketh no evil do judge well of such persons Ninthly and lastly they may also upon all these grounds foregoing have a very great confidence of the goodness of their own condition the foolish Virgins had admittance into the fellowship of the wise walked with them with their Lamps burning and shining we find not that they suspect themselves at all until at last they awake out of this sleepy condition of theirs and then they see their Lamps are gone or going out I deny not but an hypocrite may sometimes be self-condemned as the Apostle speaks of Hereticks after the first and second admonition reject for fundamentals are so clear that if he â—earken not to the first and second admonition according to the Rule of Christ in clearness and meekness held forth then he must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of himself If our own hearts condemn us saith the Apostle God is greater then our hearts But yet others may go on and not suspect themselves There is a Generation saith Solomon that are pure in their own eyes as they judge of themselves yet are not washed from their filthyness It is worth the noting that all the Disciples were more forward to doubt their conditions then Judas for they all asked Is it I Lord is it I and our Saviour was fain to set it on with a terrible threatning It were better for that man that he had not been born and then he cometh out with it Master is it I thou hast said it saith Christ if he suspected himself before yet he kept it close however The hypocrite may hold fast his duties gifts and performances as his house when it beginneth to totter he may hold them by his teeth as it were as the godly man holds the practise of them and will not let them go so a hypocrite holds his confidence in them and will not let it go The world giveth him a good testimony the Saints they bear witness to him Satan he applauds him his own heart flatters him no marvel if he build a confidence upon all this and therefore the foolish Virgins here how confident were they not only not suspecting their condition all this while but when they saw that their Lamps were out yet they go and cry for mercy with what confidence Lord Lord open to us though now they saw they had been hypocrites all their daies yet so high were their hopes and confidence You see then Brethren a hypocrite may go very far So much for the Doctrinal part For the Application then of this Doctrine How sad is their condition if a man reach to all this and yet fall short of heaven What shall we say of many of us that have nothing almost of all this to say for our selves have not so much as Lamps so much as a profession of Christ It is true we have the name of Christ upon us but what have we else If a man may have so much knowledge and fall short what shall we say to such as have no knowledge of God in Jesus Christ as sottish and ignorant as if they never had heard of Christ of heaven or hell almost It is true a less measure of knowledge for the quantity may prevail more upon a mans heart then a greater sometimes but where there is no knowledge of God Jesus Christ will come in a terrible manner against such as know him not as well as those that obey not his Gospel It may be you have some knowledge yet alas where is your affection you fall short of hypocrites in that how many in this Congregation that never knew what one heart-pang for sâ—n meant do not dissemble before the Lord didst thou ever mourn either Legally or Evangellically And so for desire have you thus desires toward the Lord and his waies are they such a delight to you thou hast heard his word many a hundred times and didst never taste any sweetness any savour or relish in it at all Say are not many of us so far from delighting to draw nigh him it is the most burthensom day in all the week the Sabbath is we care not how seldom it cometh but I hope better things of you in
know not what it is to be almost gone and blown out at the brink of obscure darkness know not what that mercy is but such as have been made to believe that God would cast them into the bottomless pit that he would utterly destroy them and forsake them O how sweet a truth must this needs be that though their flesh and heart fail them yet God will never fail them whatever he may seem to do for a season but so much for this Doctrine The second Doctrine is this When a Believers profession groweth so low and he is declined specially at such a time it is his duty to trim his Lamp to renew his profession to look after a restoring So here they arose and trimmed their Lamps when the Cry came and this did the wise Virgins as well as the foolish Concerning the foolish Virgins I have nothing here to say nor shall I trouble my self or you with what haply might be spoken of the Hypocrites trimming his Lamp wherein it differs from the Believers The wise Virgins trimming I have spoke the last-day to that purpose shewing how far they might go But I will speak here to the wise Virgins because I would not dwell too long upon these things So you find Solomon his declinings were great and that at his latter end but he arose again and repented as appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs c. written after this his backsliding as is generally conceived And so the Church of the Philippians their love and care of the Apostle suffered a nipping a winter and had ceased to flourish as formerly but they renewed it again It hath flourished it again saith the Apostle Eurychus may fall down and almost beat his life out of him but it is still in him and there must be means used to draw it forth as there is pains taken with Trees that have a fit of barreness come upon them Spiritual life runs to the heart and there appears little or nothing without sometimes as conquered men do from their outworks to the Tower but it must be brought forth again we have a command for it to those two Churches in the Revelations Sardis had a name to live and was dead likely the most of them were dead and yet there were some things remaining which were ready to die and these must be strengthened the things which remain which were ready to die for their works were not perfect before God O it was hypocrisie that did eat them out of their life of Godliness it s a consuming thing indeed And so the Church of the Laodiceans their love was waxed Luke-warm neither hot nor cold neither dead altogether nor lively now saith the Lord be zealous therefore and repent But you will ask me here What it is to trim these Lamps that is here required I will speak but to two or three particulars First then In the trimming of the Lamp there is usually a supply of the Oyl if it wanted as when it hath burned long if it be not supplyed the oyl being spent it will not live except it be supplied And it was high time for these Virgins now to be awaked hereunto they might else have slept until all had been spent and the Lamp had gone out as well as the foolish grace being but a Creature it liveth by a continual supply of the Spirit of grace the first cause of it So then in the trimming of the Lamp there must be a fetching in of more grace a recourse to the fulness that is in Jesus Christ for the Lamp is ready to languish or dye else for want of oyl 2. There is a stirring up also of the grace which doth remain some oyl remaineth that must be made ready the ready passage between the Vessel and the Lamp the heart and the conversation it must indeed be cherished for being little haply it is ready to dye like a spark among much ashes stir up the gift that is in thee there is none that stirreth up himself to lay hold upon God The wick in the Lamp must be raised it being burned low so it is in this case It may be in such a declining condition of a poor soul there is more grace lying deep and low lying asleep in the habit more then the soul is aware of this must be stirred up faith stirred up and love to Jesus Christ and his people stirred up 3. In the trimming of the Lamp there is a taking away the filth and the dross that it gathers and snuffing the wick which would hinder the light and burning of it that it would be very dull and dim Now what is this brethren but the putting away those iniquities repenting of those evils whatever they have been that have thus far prevailed against their profession that security that carnality that self-confidence those things which laid them asleep which choaked the Lamp that it could not burn Whenever we are under any declining do but search and see commune with your own hearts and you will find there is some evil which lies close some soil we have gathered and hereby the spirit of grace hath been grieved and he is departed from us Now this snuff must be taken off deal not gently with it this filth and dross must be removed if we would trim up our Lamps For the Application then of this briefly in a word It may serve to stir us up every one to this duty If our Lamps be at present or shall hereafter come under any declining Alas brethren do we not slumber and sleep often and neglect all this while the trimming of our Lamps and will they not quickly burn low and dim and need a serious trimming of them I doubt this duty will be incumbert upon us and required of us oftner then we are aware of Do we know how soon the Bridegroom will come his voice goeth before him we have often heard but have we trimmed our Lamps to this day are our professions more glorious then formerly And for Motives hereunto consider First Such a restoring is a thing feizable hough the duty be thine yet the work is Gods he engageth to help yea to do it indeed he restoreth my soul saith David and it is for his own name sake for the glory of his Grace David had many decays and backslidings witherings and faintings but God restored his soul still and he is as ready to do it for his people now as ever he was therefore do not say alas this is a work too difficult or hard or there is no recovery my Lamp is so near extinct as there is no hope for me he that kindled it at first is able to restore it It is indeed a work of some difficulty and will cost you something but yet it is feizable Peter was at as low an ebb as ever poor Believer was what was become of his profession and yet Peter is recovered and after the recovery
is wonderful ready to help in such a case above what we can conceive for it is he indeed in case of such backslidings that puts words into his peoples mouths when they have nothing to say and cannot look up nor hold up the head for shame nor look their God and Father in the sace they have so grieved him and shamed their profession yet then the Lord puts words into their mouths in that fourteenth of Hosea It is the very case of the Prodigal for he was a Son and therefore calls God Father in his return denyeth not the relation nor calls it in question notwithstanding his unworthy carriage towards him but he had mispent all as sadly as thou hast done likely and yet when he came and returned his Eather giveth him the meeting and runs and falls upon his neck and kiseth him and was ready to make up all again therefore go to him be earnest with him and see if he make not your Lamps to shine again gloriously and swallow up that glory in his greater glory his presence for ever Verse 8. And the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out IN this Verse we have another part of the Parable wherein we have upon the awakening of the conscience of these hypocrites and formal professors and the discovery of their condition their request to the godly their Application of themselves to them and the reason of that request The request Give us of your oyl the reason of it for our Lamps are gone out The reason being first in order of nature as the cause of the other the root from whence the request doth spring we will begin to speak a little to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are extinct or they are going out and yet we have not a supply to keep them alive they are gone and for their own part they had no oyl in their vessel to do it with the Note from this Clause is An hypocrites profession will not carry him through all Conditions These foolish Virgins made a shift to satisfie themselves and blind the world with their Lamps which they carryed and went as far with them a great while as the wise did but the end is that which differenceth persons conditions as the Holy-Ghost speaks by the Psalmist Mark the perfect man behold the upright the end of that man is peace he doth not say mark the perfect man for in his life time he hath such a distinguishing Character his life is peace and the other is trouble No but the end whatever his life hath been before his end is peace This is a clear case his profession will not carry him through all conditions and that for these two reasons One of them will be sure to meet with them all for either 1. Their profession fails them before the day of death and so carries them not through or else 2. At death First then ordinarily I think it is a truth that a formality or profession of Christianity if there be no more doth fail a man and is discovered to others and to himself so that though he hath rested upon it and made it his hope heretofore yet now it fails him Here you see it is the very case when the cry came to prepare them to awake them that they might fit themselves for his appearing which is infinite mercy that he did not rather surprise them while they were in this sleep and security Now I say before the Bridegroom himself came actually to fetch them that were ready it is discovered to themselves and they see they are hypocrites And it is discovered to others that their Lamps are gone out they are themselves made the Publishers of their own shame therein You know Judas was discovered unmasked before his death and laid open to be what he was indeed a thief a wretch a traytor And so those many Disciples that followed Jesus Christ he knowing their hearts not to be right delivered such a trying word as gave them offence and they went backward and walked with him no more And the Reason of this is very plain Because they have not a spring within to feed their profession As far as the spring they have or the wet or mire they move by little as far as that will carry them they will go but then not a step further A beast and a servant or a child follow a man the one followeth him for a bottle of hay so soon as he laies that down before him he goeth no further after him but the son followeth him home and will not be shut out by any means As haply now while Religion thrives he will be on the Sun-side of the hedge where it is warmest he is a Summer-bird suppose now a time of tribulation come for the word sake will he abide No he withers as the sandy ground in the 13. Matth. Will he delight himself in the Almighty and alway call upon God No their profession are like Jobs friends deceive him in the day of trouble as a brook and as the stream of a brook they pass away like a loud flood make a great shew run very fiercely carry all before it for a time but it is presently dryed up because it hath no spring to feed it as some note that in Peru there is a diurnal-River which runs in the day with a great stream but in the night the channel is dry because in the day the Sun melteth down the Snow upon the Mountains and that maketh a great stream but in the night it ceaseth In grace now it is otherwise there is a principle within there is the Spirit of grace dwelling in the hearts of Believers and this supplyeth them continually there is a new nature and that is a thing durable But Secondly If it fail not before death as here it doth yet some passions being longer then some Joas◠held out long yet he was discovered before death but suppose they continue longer yet usually they will not carry them through death men may make a shift to live by a form but they cannot dye by a form indeed affliction opens many mens eyes to see that they were but rotten counterfeit gold will not endure the fire or not the seventh fire at least fire is of a searching nature and yet notwithstanding some they pass this tryal and are not discovered until death and then it fails them If Balaam dye his own death and not the death of the righteous what a miserable creature will he be And death doth open many mens eyes O what labouring is there then many times to be spared a little that they may recover strength before we go hence and be no more seen All the life time they thought all was well but now they find they are deceived their Lamps are gone out O brethren the valley of the shadow of death is full of such damps as every Lamp will not
endure every profession will not abide but it overcometh them But haply they may go down quietly and go away with confidence in their conscience a strange confidence have many poor blinded hypocrites whose consciences are seared Yet Thirdly Be sure brethren It will not carry them through the Judgement after the death the Judgement we may make a shift to pass through this world and haply delude our selves and think all is well and through death and yet never dream of our misery but if we be hypocrites be sure that a form will not endure to appear in Judgement before the ever lasting burnings the consuming fire There the Lord will examine mens hands what ever their professions have been and their hearts as it is said of Tiberius when he examined a fellow that pretended to the Crown he was so confident and cunning he could not trap him in his words at last he examined his hands and finding them hard with labour he found him to be but a servile mechanick fellow he was then so startled saith Mr. Caryl that he had no more to say So the Lord will examine mens works then and the principles of their works from which they acted and they shall be forced to confess they are hypocrites and their mouthes shall he everlastingly stopt depart from me ye workers of iniquity you tell me ye have preached in my name or prophesied c. let me see your hands you are workers of iniquity For the Application then What a terrible word to all formal professors who have only a Lamp a form of godliness but deny the power of it in heart and in their conversations Let all such if any such be here present know First Your profession will fail you sooner or later You think when you have done so many duties you have acquired such gifts and such supposed graces of the spirit and 〈…〉 w all is well these are enough to lift you up to heaven a Tower a Ladder that will reach to heaven But alas it is not so it is but a Castle builded in the air they are lying words you trust in who cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these You are his people and have his Ordinances a fine web a spider weaves takes great pains spins it out of her bowels but alas it never cometh to any thing it will not make a garment to cover their nakedness from the Lord Jesus Hypocrites rest in a formality and some observances of the Law as if it were their hope that should secure them from all storms and injuries whatsoever but alas it will not these things will fail Secondly Is it not worthy observation also that an hypocrite if he go to decay in this life his hypocrisie be discovered he decaies quickly suddenly more suddenly then another man ordinarily therefore he is compared to a Bull-rush that withers before any other plant when they are once blasted cursed as God doth curs them many times alas the next day they are gone and withered as the tree that was dryed up by the root which the Disciples wondered at a sad thing to-have leaves without fruit a form without power the withering curse doth light upon them soonest sooner then prophane persons and how quickly are they withered they are like the grass upon the house top that withereth before it groweth up Thirdly It will be sure to sail a man when he hath most need of it as in the hour of temptation the hour of affliction the hour of death and the hour of judgement in all these usually it fails as a man standing him in no stead◠as the brooks run in the winter when there is no need of them but in Summer when the traveller is ready to perish for thirst then are they dryed up in that place of Job Like the Apples of Sodom if a man come to touch them would be refreshed by them they turn to dust poor creatures think they have faith until an hour of temptation or affliction when they should act it then they have none So they think they have love and bowels but when an opportunity is offered and they have most need of them then they fail like the house there in Matth. 7. It was builded as fair to see to as another as the wise mans house and served him while it shone upon his Tabernacle but when once the storms arose the winds came and the waves beat against it alas it fell and great was the fall thereof Fourthly that which will set an edge upon all the former is the sad disappointment of the hypocrite or formalist in all this for his hope is cut off like a spiders web there are two Pillars he leans upon as Sampson upon the Pillars in the house the Jachin and Boaz What are they but the good things of this world and life eternal and alas both fail him For the good things of this life they many times leave him the mire and the water which made the Bull-rush to grow they are dryed up what is become of his hope then he leans laies hold on his house and is loath to let it go but let him hold it as fast as he can yet down it must go when the Lord cometh to manifest his displeasure against him Secondly For things eternal those he expecteth and is as high until he be discovered to himself in his expectation of heaven as any other but alas he is but in a golden dream all this while as an hungry man dreameth he eateth c. but it is nothing but a fancy when he awakes he is never the fuller but rather vexed so much the more being disappointed for a man to have his hope cut off is the greatest cut in the world nothing breaks the creatures heart more then this O how great hope may a Minister be raised to being an instrument in the hand of God to save others that he also shall be saved they themselves have means to castout the Devil and shall they go to the Devil It is indeed the very emphasis of damnation to be cast down from such a height of hope to be so near to heaven in their hopes and yet miscarry O how should this make us afraid of hypocrisie and formality which is ready to creep upon us how bitter a thing is it in the end to hypocrites yea to the people of God in their way when God opens their eyes to behold it in its colours therefore let us be exhorted every one of us to take heed of it lest it be found in such prevalency among us as to denominate us hypocrites believe it brethren If we be hypocrites our duties will not commend us to God be they never so many never so plausible because our hearts are not changed which is a notable sign of an hypocrite he doth much duty but never reacheth to a better heart is not changed
and from the power of Satan to God while they are under darkness they are under the power of Satan he can lead them whither he pleaseth for they know not whether they go as the wise man speaks And that is the reason surely that Antichrist that first-born of the Devil by might and main keepeth his Proselytes in the dark takes away the Key of knowledge from them he knoweth if once the light should break in upon them it is very great hazard but they would break out from him from that bondage and slaverie that they are in to him therefore Satan will be exceeding industrious and how will he fill a poor creatures heart with false reasonings concerning his Condition O if there be any stirring or conviction at any time how doth he labour to lick them whole again to make up the breach the Word hath made in their consciences himself will turn Preacher and pretend to the tongue of the Learned to speak a word in due season and put on the garb of an Angel of light and preach peace peace O he is a cunning dauber specially having our hearts on his side and therefore as ready to be beguiled as he is to deceive us 3. From the similitude of a form of godliness to the godliness it self It is true life cannot be pictured but yet a man may be drawn so to the life as by a dim sight or by the help of a mist cast before the eyes and wires whereby such poppets may move we can scarce discern it from a man Similitude is the mother of mistakes therefore the Romans made their Ancilia so like to that which they say fell from heaven that if any might steal it he might seem to one to be mistaken how like brethren is gilded brass to gold how like may a Bristoll-stone be to a pearl how like to a Saint was Judas the Devil is Gods Ap◠and he will imitate his work And therefore for sincerity it self he hath a◠counterfeit which looks as like it as can be As when men shall seem most self-denying for Christ or forgo all and give away all they have to the poor as if they would become mendicants indeed this is very much and yet they might do this give all to the poor and give their body to be burned and yet not have love to Jesus Christ can there possibly be more love shewn then in this and yet you see there may be counterfeits in that also This is the third Argument And they do from hence deceive themselves Such as will run from Sermon to Sermon and with much seeming delight hear the word of God are affected moved but they do it not deceiving themselves with a paralogism a false reasoning for they are ready to conclude O surel should not have such a desire to be up early and seeking after Christ as they think though indeed they seek him not nor his face but somewhat else in the Word they should not delight in approaching to God as you have heard if there were not theroot of the matter in us but they look not at the doing of the Word the main thing and therefore they delude themselves with this self-reasoning So the fool building his house upon the sand from the foundation upward they are as like one another as can be and as likely to stand out a storm and therefore they reason from hence surely they shall hold out if the wise mans hope will shelter him theirs will shelter them But alas here is a paralogism they look not at the different foundations the one upon the rock the other upon the sands the one receiving Jesus Christ but as Jesus it may be the other as Jesus and Lord the event sheweth that a deceived heart was their undoing Fourthly Because alas the hypocrite usually is not much in searching of himself Surely if Gods knowledge of the heart be set forth to us as a searching of it it will imply so much we should search our hearts else we shall never know them for he speaks after the manner of men with a special respect to the heart-knowledge there they search as men do for hid treasures for what they would find and lyeth secret A cunning cheat looks like an honest man until he be searched into and throughly 〈…〉 ed a slight examination will not find him out and so truly will many a rotten heart go for an honest and good heart until there be a search Hypocrites are like Sepulchres which appear not they are fair and beautiful being painted without but it appears not what they are within if you would see what a Sepulchre is indeed you must break it up and down into it with a Candle search it out there you shall find loathsom rottenness dead mens bones Now I say an hypoerite oridinarily is not diligent in this work and therefore his heart deceiveth himself and this ariseth from several grounds Haply 1. He is too sloathful he is not one of the diligent laborious Christians that will take pains in this work If an overly view of mens hearts would do every one would search but to rifle every corner of their hearts and when the heart turns the back tergiversatur is loath to answer to the Queries which are put to it but flings an hundred waies up and down and no hold of it at all now in such a case he is a diligent Christian indeed that will not be bastled but will urge it home upon the heart and will have an answer better or worse and thus from time to time an hypocrite will hardly take pains in this great work and therefore no marvel if his heart deceive him and he be hid form himself 2. Haply he is confident of himself as in the place of Job and who almost are men of more flourishing hopes then the hypocrites were there any deadly doubt of their condition then the Pharisees and yet were there any more rotten then they were they thought if there were any men should go to heaven they were the men men of such knowledge as they were and such duties and strict lives as they were was it possible they should miscarry and you see how bold they are to plead it at the last day as in that 7. of Matth. Now that which a man thinketh he hath already or thinketh he is sure of he will not trouble himself to enquire after it it is but needless labour If a man be sure as he thinketh he hath his groat he will not light a Candle and seek it 3. Because haply they have sometimes some of them misgivings of heart sometimes hypocrites may and therefore they may be loath to come to search they suspect themselves some do and yet not so strongly but that they have a false hope to ballance their fear and to prevail A Bankrupt he that suspects it hath no mind to cast up his accounts he had rather do any thing they may I
to Jesus Christ every weight and the sin which so easily be setteth us as the Apostle saith If we come with the world rooted in our hearts it is five to one but we shall be tryed as the young man in the Gospel was and as that other was the Foxes have holes c. you hear no more of that forward man afterward O but we are young and therefore we may have time enough before us it is time enough for us to look after grace many years hence No my brethren it is your duty to remember your Creator in the daies of your youth while the milk is in your breasts and you have some strength to lay out upon Christ The first-fruits were not to be delayed to be paid Exod. 22. 29. A young Samuel seasoned so young a young Timothy they may be eminent servants of Jesus Christ when others at the same years are but beginning to enter upon the work Besides is not thy life as uncertain as anothers do you not see that young men dye even as the old and young men are like to perish as well as old if they be not found with oyl in their Lamps and young men may enter with the Bridegroom as well as old if they be found ready And therefore I pray you for Christs sake do not so deceive your selves but while it is called to day young and old hearken to this voice of God and put noâ— off this main work any longer Alas but you will say my case is the case of these foolish Virgins I have long made a profession and I have my grace to seek and therefore there is no hope for me a gray-headed sinner who have trifled away my time You know some were called at the 11. hour Brethren and indured not the heat of the day with others and yet miscarried not while the day of grace lasts there is hope and while the Lord knocks by his Spirit and Word there is hope that to us appears to be a day of grace and that thy spirit is moved is yet a further Argument And therefore be of good courage if he have given thee a heart now at last to look after him and though thou lingeredst with Lot until God was even fain to pull thee out of the burning the everlasting burnings thou haste so much the more cause to magnifie the grace of Christ toward thee that he would after so much abuse of the day of grace look upon thee at all and when thou wert as a dry stick no strength nor vigour to serve him at all therefore God could have no eye at thy service nor any thing thou wert like to do but meerly to exalt his grace and therefore for ever thou maist more easily Conquer over-that temptation of resting in any thing in thy self priding thy self in any thing of thine own and give him the glory of all in an humble walking before him The second demonstration of their folly is that they went to the creature for grace They said to the wise give c. It is a note or point of great folly to seek unto the creature when men have neglected to seek to Christ then to go to the creature for grace you see this is the practise of foolish Virgins how far we may urge this I cannot tell but me thinks we do not put it too far if we may stand upon it at all Whether they would now at last being sensible of their want of the oyl in the vessel the grace in the heart they would have some of that oyl which they had in their vessels or whether only somewhat to make their Lamps burn as they did before it appears not nor yet what their highest â—nd was in it appears not if they aimed not at the highest end Gods glory and their own salvation as the ultimate end then they were grosly foolish in that respect for to miss the end is the most fundamental point of errour and folly but if they be supposed to aim right yet there is this Argument of their folly in the very Text which shall be all I will say for the confirmation of it They take not the right means for the accomplishing that end and therefore they are foolish for wherein doth folly consist else but chiefly in this they find not out or use not the right means for the attaining of a right end Now was this a right means to go to the creature to the wise Virgins for oyl Give us of your oyl this argues either desperate ignorance that they knew not whither to go to get oyl that they were ignorant of the Fountain of Israel the fulness that is in Jesus Christ from which fulness his people receive grace for grace and such blindness as this to be in men that profess Christianity it is very strange and argues great stupidity and folly or else if they did know it they had no heart to go to him they would not if they could get it otherwise well and good and bring oyl to him they had hope of acceptance but they would have none from him and this would argue a worse kind of blindness But of these things we will not spend our conjectures nor in such uncertainties Whatever the case is sure it is that they went not to him but to the creature for their oyl from the Sun to the beam from the fountain to the stream and so to the broken Cistern and is not this folly This then will teach us thus much That the Papists are as like these foolish Virgins as they can look poor creatures those merit-mongers and money-changers that fill the Temple of God do not some of them sell and others buy their pardons and indulgences do they not go to the Church-treasure of merit to make up what is wanting of their own and not to Jesus Christ in the hour of their necessity I know not what some of them may do and some others I believe may be wiser in this thing but surely many poor creatures are led away with this wicked error I cannot call it better Surely Brethren If any be the foolish Virgins to the life the Papists are some of them if they be true to their Principles 2. It may serve to reprove many among our selves that put off all the work which concerneth their souls live as if they cared not for God nor regarded him at all the people of God and Ministers of Christ are the object of their scorn or disregard they sleight them above others but when an hour of destruction cometh O then when they are ready to dye the Minister must be sent for and he must speak a word of comfort right or wrong they are ready to think I doubt that as much is in it as in a Popish Absolution according to their conceit then as if it were in their power or they were in Christ's stead to give them grace they hang much of their confidence upon
them This is just like the foolish Virgins Brethren the Lord deliver poor souls from such an end as God made with them as you have it in the Parable here It is the way indeed to stop our mouths to hang too much upon any creature 3. It may be we are a little better instructed many of us then to think that men can give grace But it may be we expect it from Ordinances which alas are but empty pipes though they be golden and precious pipes this opus operatum sticks closer to us then we are aware many of us I doubt If men did not look for it from Ordinances would they not labour to bring better frames of heart with them and bring the Lord along with them to the Ordinances that his presence might fill them Well let us take heed of this Brethren sit not down by broken Cisterns for they all say it is not in us the Word saith and Prayer saith and Receiving saith it is not in us we can give no more then we have we are but the means And therefore let us all learn to be wise in this point to salvation go where it is to be had to the Fountain his fulness Jesus Christ is the Olive Tree he that emptieth himself into the golden pipes O therefore in all our wants of grace make out to him eye him in every Ordinance the fatness and sweetness must come from the root and not the branches therefore look to it Brethren that we be in him abide in him live by faith in him in Ordinances above them Yea when we have most refreshings in them remember who it is that hath filled them lest when all is done we prove our selves but foolish Virgins But so much for this Doctrine Verse 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEre we have the wise Virgins answer to the foolish Virgins request their request was that they might have some of their oyl because their Lamps were gone out to this the wise Virgins answer wherein we must note concerning the reading of the words they may be read two waies either by way of redundancy yiélding to the cutting off that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but go you rather to them that sell and then the words are read thus lest there be not enough for you and us go you rather to them that sell Or else by way of Elypsis they are read and then the defect is to be supplyed as in our translation not so lest there be not enough for you and us not so are not expressed in the Original but are supplyed as you see they are written in another Character Such defective speeches are ordinary in Scripture as in that of Abraham and Sarah when Abimilech asked him What saist thou that thou hast done this thing and he said because I thought that surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake here somewhat is to be supplyed his resolution to dissemble his wife that is concealed and supposed and only the reason expressed and so it is here Now which way ever we read the words the sense is the same still and in both the denyal is implyed and but implyed yet necessarily implyed for without it the sense is not full nor clear as if we should read them thus lest there be not enough for you and us but go and buy for your selves there is not a compleat sense but read them either of the other waies and the sense is full and plain as by adding the denyal as in our Bibles not so lest there be not enough or else by cutting off that but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus lest there be not enough for us and you go and buy for your selves here the denyal is implyed also and must be understood But because generally they are read as in that translation by the most learned and godly as Beza Grotius So then the denyal being here necessarily supposed and supplyed from thence I would take up this Note They that go to the Saints for grace for oyl are like to have a denyal Here at last they went to them when they had spent their time and opportunity of getting grace they go to the wise Virgins for grace but they were too wise to give an yielding answer to such a request Indeed so far is that rock the Lord Jesus higher then we that we are exceeding prone rather to take up nearer and any where ready to hang our hopes upon every hedge You see the Prodigal as long as ever he could hold out he would never come unto his Father The poor man in the Cospel brought his child to the Disciples first to have him healed before they went to Christ until they found them empty that they were Physitians of no value healing was not in them and so it is with us all If we can have grace by any other means we would not come to Christ such is our natural enmity against him such is our despondency many times when we come to be sensible of our condition But alas every creature if they understand themselves must needs say it is not in me to give as Peter said in another case of healing Why look you upon us as if we had healed this man by our holiness But let me give you some few considerations to make it out and then we will apply it First then It is above their fulness though many a child of God have a great fulness of grace indeed be ye filled with the Spirit and not with wine saith the Apostle and so that you may be filled with all the fulness of God there may be an abounding of grace yea of all grace towards them that in all things alway they might have an all-sufficiency though I think there are but very few that here below do know by experience such a fulness by comprehending the height and depth and breadth and length of this love of Jesus Christ but suppose every child of God be thus filled every wise Virgin sooner or later yet it is not a fulness of redundancy that is to say such a fulness as that from it there can be spared any thing for another as we shall add by and by It is but the fulness of a Cistern not of a Fountain which can still shed abroad and be full still So it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in Jesus Christ All fulness that of his fulness we might receive grace for grace Of his fulness he is the fulness of the Sun the fulness of a Sea of a Fountain and such is no creatures fulness there can be no redundance Secondly As their fulness is not enough so also have they not a strength and power to communicate of their grace to another no more then a man can devide and part his life between him and another that is dead it is above his power and therefore in Scripture usually it
but this is not in our power and therefore no marvel if they that go to the creature for grace they miss of their purpose For the Application this reproveth then the Papists who take upon them to give or which is worse to sell grace to sell merits to sell pardons of sins past yea and for sins to come also are these like wise Virgins they would not take upon them to give any of their oyl to the foolish if any were wiser then others me thinks they should be afraid to buy and sell heaven and pardon and merit the Church of Rome indeed is not like the wise Virgins This gave such offence to Luther he could not brook it but it was a great occasion of his casting off the Antichristian yoak Do but consider two or three things wherein it may appear how much they are too blame in this respect 1. They take upon them the office of Christ intruding into those things which are above them he inviteth Come to me and I will give you rest I counsel thee to buy of me wine and milk without money or money worth No say they come to us to our treasurie of merit though they pretend to make the blood of Christ the substractum the bottom of their treasurie which to me maketh the matter so much the worse the abuse of the name and blood of Jesus Christ to so high a wickedness as selling and buying pardons for money being most abominable Christ calls poor sinners to him and they call them to them so that they usurp the power and authority of Christ Let them see to it 2. Yea that which is given freely by Jesus Christ they would sell for money for money they would sell pardons for never so many years to come strange prodigious fopperies are there reported concerning them Without money and without price but they will have money for their Pardons Indulgences Was not this a Declaration infallable that Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity because he would have bought the gifts of the Holy-Ghost for money yea the power of giving the gift of the Holy-Ghost to others and is it not more dangerous then to buy or sell the grace of God that which is saving for money to pretend to it for do it they cannot Simon Magus his great guilt was this that he would have the power of giving the gift of the holy Ghost as the Apostles had that so he might make a rich trade of it to sell it to others as he himself had bought it and truly those that will buy in such cases will not stick to sell O how much more then are these men in the gall of bitterness that shall sell grace sell pardons sell merit for money Surely the wise Virgins refusing to give would much more have abhorred this to sell the Gifts of the holy Ghost for money What got Gehezi by making that which was free mercenary 3. They wrong the Saints exceedingly such as were so indeed whose merits they pretend to sell for if they were wise Virgins they had none to sell if they were foolish none can question it but they had none at all and if they were wise and had never so much yet they had none to sell none to give Surely God is not more tender of his Name in any thing then in his Grace not more tender of wrong any where then here and his people are not more tender or should not be more tender any where of wronging him then here in his Grace And therefore surely those that are Saints indeed will be little beholding they shall have little thanks for their labour 4. Besides that They do but delude poor souls and so bring their blood upon their heads alas poor deluded creatures they make account they are enriched out of a treasury of the Church and their iniquities are done away and to their woful and everlasting confusion they will find one day this hath but increased their guilt and condemnation Wo be to them that go down to hell with the blood of so many poor deluded Creatures upon their heads the Devil deludes men makes them believe he giveth them great things great sums of money and when all comes to all they prove but leaves thus do they carry on poor souls in a golden dream until they awake in hell in remediless ruine Well If there be any such here that heareth this word I would advise them and intreat them to take the Apostles advice to Simon Magus O pray if it be possible that this thought of your heart may be forgiven it is that you should either buy or sell give or receive from the Creature this Grace which is proper to Jesus Christ and to him only to give you have infinitely wronged a gracious Saviour you had need to bleed over him to mourn over him to be deeply humbled indeed for it Again How should we then bless the Lord that we are delivered from this Antichrist darkness and bondage that it is given to us through rich grace to see this that we should not go to the Creature but to Jesus Christ Our Fore-fathers were under this bondage brethren many of them and so might we be but that Grace hath made the difference and what had become of us then he hath shewed us whâ—â—â—s good and what is right when they are left in Egyptian darkness and what is the best thankfulness for this brethren but to improve this our privledge that we have a Fountain fulness to go to who cannot who will not say that he hath nothing for us that he hath but enough for himself for he hath enough for us all being the Olive-tree the fountain the Sun of righteousness What should we do but make use of Jesus Christ and much use of him he hath much to give he hath a fulness of great redundancy and he hath a commission to give it and power to conveigh it and a heart as long as his power and commission to give and to give freely to every poor Creature that cometh If you go to men brethren you are like to have a denial the wise Virgins they say they have it not to give if any be so foolish and proud as to think they have any to give you and you so foolish as to believe them alas you are but deluded but the Lord Jesus will neither deny you nor delude you you shall have if you come to him buy wine and milk yea this oyl of grace yea you shall have abundantly he came that his people might have life abundantly Eat and drink abundantly my friends saith he there in the Canticles and freely shall you have it without money or moneys worth be as poor as as you may be it is all one you shall have enough to enrich you and no delusion but a reality O who would not then go to the fountain rather then to a dry
all as we have heard then no man surely hath any grace to spare For the Application then It is a reproving word to as many as are ready to think they have enough The Papists tell us of works of supererrogation and I believe that piece of Popery may cleave to some of us faster then we are aware but let us take heed of it when we begin to be so full as we think we run over and could spare any of what we have and we may therefore sit down and breath us Believe it this is the way to make the Cruse of oyl give over running as long as they had an empty vessel the Cruse ran but when all were full it gave over God will not in vain pour out this precious oyl of his Spirit to have it lost upon proud Creatures and bury the Glory of his Grace in an unthankful proud heart That Ancient could say and likely by experience Si dixisti sufficit periisti and may not many of us say so did we ever get good by it it is the ready way to go backward to tumble to the bottom again when we think we are got high enough higher then this or that Christian the Apostle saith God resists the proud but he gives Grace to the lowly The Heathen could say even Plato that a proud man is void of God without God God is far from his thoughts and he is far from the favour of God and indeed so it is God knoweth such a man afar off at a distance he shall have no close familiar communion with God Well the Lord reprove us as many as are guilty in this kind 2. It may serve then to press with the Apostle forward toward the mark of the prize c. O how lazy are most Professors who walk as if they never cared whether they reach perfection or the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ as if we were unwilling to grow too like heaven for fear we should be taken from this earth sooner then we are willing to depart O what earthly heavy drowsie spirits have we how slowly do we drive What is heaven nothing in our eye the enjoyment of Jesus Christ nothing to us that we make no more haste toward him O then as the Martyr said haste after as fast as we can Take heed of such a thought you have been diligent long enough you may now slack your pace you are pretty well for one believe it brethren nothing will sooner quench the spirit then this nothing will sooner damm up the fountain and shut out the light you can never have too much It may be you have through rich mercy what carrieth you in some measure through your present condition you know not what you shall meet with believe it before we die we shall have exercise for every degree of our Grace our Faith our Love we shall have nothing over It may be with thy measure which is less thou maist make a hard shift to get to heaven but why should we not all press after a more abundant entrance into Glory which will be much more for the Glory of his Grace and much more for the comfort of our souls Well then place that behind you brethren which we have attained as Jehu in his furions march caused the Messengers as he reached them to turn behind him still and so went on let not our eying what Grace we have received be any further then to thankfulness take heed of poring on them to pride for that is the way to decline who knoweth how much one thought of pride doth cast us behind hand if the Lord take the advantage for he resisteth the proud above all others cast them behind then stay not rest not until we come to the resurrection of the dead And then In the last place It may be an encouragement to some poor trembling hearts who it may be when they hear this word are ready to lament themselves If this be a truth that they that have most grace have none to spare what a condition then are such as I in who have so little If they have occasion to use all and little enough sometimes What will become of me who have so little like a grain of Mustard-seed If the Cedars of Lebanon have no strength over much but are ready to be blowed up by the roots all they can do is but to stand to the utmost What shall such a bruised reed as I do in the contrary winds of temptation and corruption First then do not judge amiss of thy condition thou thinkest such a one is so so eminent for grace an Oke of Bashan a Cedar God judgeth not as man judgeth thou mayst have more humility and more love to Jesus Christ there may be more sincerity truth in the inward parts in a poor creature that hath little parts or gifts to make a glittering to dazle the eyes of men Herein lies the strength or weakness of the soul indeed Look to this then and gaze not so much upon glorious outward appearances 2. Remember that thou are not accepted for the greatness of thy grace inherent God doth not give his Spirit and such graces in a greater and a smaller measure to some then to others and then accept accordingily he accepteth in Jesus Christ and every poor believing soul doth enjoy whole Christ his righteousness fully imputed to them Therefore this is your acceptance and herein you are alike blessed be the Lord that in this which is the main thing he maketh no difference between the strong and the weak though one man may more strongly and clearly apply him and have more of the comfort yet thou mayst with a trembling hand hold him as surely or rather he will hold thee if thou canst not hold him for the imbraces are mutual between Christ and a poor believing soul 3. If thou have not so much as another thou shalt not likely have so great tryals so great things to do with it thou shalt not be tryed above what he will enable to bear and he will make a way to escape also If his grace be sufficient for thee in all conditions what matter is it only press hard after more and more whatever thou hast reached too and at last thou shalt attain the end of thy hope the salvation of thy soul and in due time thou shalt reap if thou faint not Verse 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEre is the third part of the answer of the wise Virgins to the foolish Virgins question Which is not to be understood as a serious advice from the wise to the foolish directing them to the ready course to procure oyl to themselves except we could understand by them that sell Jesus Christ or Father Son and Spirit who selleth and would have us buy of him without money and without price Isa 55. 1. for the Bridegroom Jesus Christ seemeth to be distinguished here from them that sold
to this readiness a making the calling and election sure by adding faith to faith and grace to grace as it is in that place of the Apostle Peter Then when Simeon had gotten Jesus Christ into this arms of his faith as well as of his body and saw his salvation with the eye of faith as well as of the body then he cryeth out Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Now he was ready to enter into glory And so the Apostle Paul had such a perswasion and therefore he was ready henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of glory c. 2. There goeth many times if not alway to this abundant entrance as a readiness or preparation to it an earnest waiting of the soul for its change a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better There is many a poor heart when the body of death weigheth them down and tryeth them groan earnestly and could be contented to dye that sin might dye with them As Sampson said let me even dye with the Philistians if no other way will destroy their lusts But alas when they are to seek in point of assurance they look upon death as a dark passage that leadeth them they cannot tell whither this maketh them fly back this kills those desires nippeth them as soon as they put forth they come to no maturity But now when a man hath the right art of believing notwithstanding his body of death he groans under as the Apostle that yet he is perswaded through Christ it is pardoned and shall be utterly dissolved and not hinder him then he can bless the Lord and desires with Paul to be dissolved So many of the Patriarks it is said of them they dyed full of daies satisfied with daies that is to say they lived as long as they desired they had now a desire to be at home knowing that while they are present in the body they are absent from the Lord from that near and sweet and full Communion with him whereof they have had a little taste and earnest but if they know not that they shall be present with him by departure but for ought they know more separate from them no marvel if they go to death with drawing back Yet I deny not but a child of God may be ready before he desire it And may desire it before he be ready for this entrance I say a child of God may be ready before he desire it as in the case before mentioned and upon other grounds as Hezekiah and David that I may declare thy power to this generation may be ready and not have such an assurance but he is not ready for an abundant entrance until the Lord come with a full sealing of his love to his heart 2. He may desire it before he be ready as in some passionate impatient fit as Elijah 1 King 19. 4. weary of his life the King persecuting him and thinking he should fall by his hand would have God take away his life from him but he had not yet done his work And so Job God had not yet done with him he must pass through more changes and prosper and flourish again and hold forth his name to that generation before he departed he had not done his work But I speak of the serious settled well-grounded frame of a Believers heart upon a sound perswasion of the Love of God in Jesus Christ and a knowledge that he hath finished his course then for such a one to wait for his change when the blessed hour will come is a part of readiness for an entrance an abundant entrance into glory But this is not the portion of every child of God many Suns set in a Cloud c. For the second thing which are the arguments of the point they are such as these First because else Gods work would be in vain he hath prepared an inheritance for the Saints a Kingdom prepared before the world was and his work upon our hearts what is it but to prepare us for this Kingdom as the Apostle speaks he that hath wrought us to this self-same thing is God he hath wrought us to it there is no suitableness between heaven and an ungracious heart a glorious Kingdom and a vile filthy spirit therefore the Lord takes much pains with us to purge us to himself to purifie us to adorn us with the rich graces of his Spirit and all is to work us to heaven to salvation to prepare us for this entrance and therefore when God hath done this shall his work be in vain surely no not a soul that is so wrought up by the Lord to a heavenly frame and temper and nature that shall miss of an entrance when it is thus prepared else Gods work were in vain the greatest work of God 2. Because else the Lord Jesus would fail of his purchase and prayer for his poople who did buy us at so dear a rate as his own most precious blood was it think you to suffer us for ever to be at such distances from him whom he so dearly loved did his love to us draw him out of heaven to us and will it not think you draw us to heaven to him he will not have his Spouse that he hath redeemed with his blood to be absent from him any longer then is needful for his Fathers glory and their good It is a fruit of his death and of his prayer Father I will that where I am there they may be for they are the fulness of Christ and he accounteth himself as I may say imperfect without them and therefore he will have them there Indeed Brethren so dear is the heart of Jesus Christ to his people that he would not suffer so long an absence at so great a distance from them but that there is a necessity in it though at his first pitching his love upon us he looks at nothing but notwithstanding all blackness and deformity and loathsomness his love overcometh all Yet before they come to this Communion and fellowship with him they must be purified with spices and odors as those were for the King of Assyria and for other holy ends 3. Because else the promise of God and hope of the Saints would fail and heaven and earth shall sooner fail then the word of promise Christ hath promised not only to give life but eternal life God hath promised to give not only grace but glory there is a Crown laid up in the purpose and promise of God and if they should miss of this they would be made ashamed of their hope now this cannot be the Psalmist prayeth that he might not be ashamed of his hope which is virtually a promise it shall not be never any yet were disappointed that hoped upon right grounds Indeed if men make Promises to themselves of heaven let them live after the imaginations of their hearts or whether they truly believe or
they come to see to it in some measure 2. Others are ready and know it but are not so thankful for it have not the sweetness of their condition so fresh upon their spirits because they do not oftentimes review their condition 3. There are many that are unready and think themselves ready and O how is it likely it should be better with them until they come to know how the case stands with them will any go to buy Gold that they might be rich or white Rayment that they might be cloathed untill they see they are poor and naked surely no. 4. Others are unready and though their hearts misgive them they are unready yet they care not much for it or else they know not how it is with them and they are contented to be ignorant Now except the Lord perswade us all brethren to look into our state it is never like to be better with us such as we are such shall we be found at the appearing of Christ yea every day farther and farther off Therefore shall I beg of you brethren that you would consider it set some time apart it is the weightiest business you have to do in the world you will have a time for all other necessary things your eating drinking managing your civil affairs and is the soul-concernment the least that you should so slight it Well then wil you this day retire your selves deal effectually with your hearts what if this night you should be taken away or you should never see Sabbath more are you ready for the coming of Jesus Christ I doubt our hearts would answer no alas our work is to do alas how many poor souls that have not a week a moneth haply to live yet have not one dram of Grace O put that question have you this oyl have you the Spirit of Grace and Supplication given to you have you Christ dwelling in you and transforming and changing you into his image from Glory to Glory Ah dear friends what mean our loathsom conversations then what mean the vileness of our hearts the fulness and rottenness and sin that is there are you mortified in any good measure or no It may be you have forsaken the pollutions of the world but is the heart of sin killed hath it its deaths wound out of which continually the life and spirits of sin are emptying are you weary of it do you loath it and your selves for its vileness O do not deceive your selves Again Are your Graces lively It may be thou hast a spark but it is buried in the ashes Indeed I doubt brethren these times of prosperity to the Church bury more Christians alive then any days that ever we saw why now are we ready are our Lamps burning our loins girded O how active and stirring and lively are the Graces of the Spirit in some over they are in others you are so far unready for the coming of Jesus Christ and so far it will be uncomfortable to you besides do ye live by faith above all this for righteousness else we are not ready Is this the top of all that we might be found in him saith the Apostle search and see take heed you have to do with desperately wicked and deceitful hearts Again Are we ready for the abundant entrance how few of us have this perswasion our calling and election is not made sure we do not know what would become of us if God should call for us how can his coming be comfortable to us we are so far from waiting for his coming that every thought of it goeth cold to our hearts that which should most warm us refresh us O brethren let me beg of you for Jesus sake no longer to slight this great and necessary work give your hearts no rest until you see whether you be ready or no. Suppose you shall find your selves unready it is better to know it in time then when it is too late now there is hope if you be not ready you may obtain mercy you may make the more haste to get ready that that day may be a blessed a comfortable day to your souls 3. Then brethren If we be not ready for his appearing shall I beg of you brethren for Jesus sake and for your poor souls sake that you would now resolve whatever business be done you would not leave this at six and sevens It is the one thing necessary you have to do nothing will yield you a dram of comfort nor arm your hearts against the fears of death but this nothing will give you entrance into Glory but this Indeed if riches would be an entrance or he that keeps the doors and openeth and no man shutteth could be bribed with the multitude of gold it were somewhat for men to heap it up as the dust and raiment as the clay if men were admitted according to their glorious apparrel or if the riches of the head and treasuries of humane knowledge would do it Scholars might do well to spend all their time in searching after that and none or little or none to make ready for the appearing of Jesus Christ but surely brethren surely you will find nothing will find an entrance but readiness for his coming The Lord give you believing hearts this day how unwearied are men for other things which are trifles and will not profit and not one hour in an hundred spent seriously with their own souls And though some men have more time then others yet surely brethren he that is most busie must find time for this great work or misearry O therefore labour press hard after it use all means possible you must take pains brethren such unready hearts as we have will not be had in readiness without much and constant pains-taking As a Garden that is quickly overgrown with weeds it must be taken pains with again and again so here c. And so in keeping an house clean and ready there must be pains taken with it Ah brethren except your souls follow hard after Christ you will never find him to your comfort The Lord touch your hearts and then you shall find him Again you will say Why I hope I am ready Well then labour to maintain this readiness Alas how soon is the sweetest frame lost think not I have now done the main work therefore you may take more liberty then other men now you may indulge your selves take more ease more liberty about the world then other men Alas brethren how soon will the world and cares of it overcharge you how hard a thing is it to buy as if you possessed not to use it as if you used it not and if you be overcharged with the cares of the world this day will overtake you at unawares Yea I tell you brethren if that day take you at unawares as I doubt if it should come at any day upon us it would take many of us when we are overcharged O ease your selves of some of your burthen have
heightned it shall be so powerful as that we shall be like him indeed then shall we be like him this we know saith the Apostle I will instance in a few things Brethren Then will there be the love of Christ manifested to us It may be thou hast had thy heart touched with him and thou knowest not what aileth thee poor soul but follow him thou must thou canst not give him over thou art sick of love for him but thou hast scarce ever had a good look from him little of his love or as thou thinkest none Now Brethren will it be the Love of God in Jesus Christ to us that will be the feast indeed O thy love is better then wine it is better it is spirits it is life it is that which giveth life and keepeth life and fetcheth life again when it is even going this then is the feast the love of God in Jesus Christ to thy poor silly soul that thou lookest upon as neglected by God and neglected by men no man careth for thy soul Believe it Brethren you that follow Christ thus you shall have a time of making out his love to you and this will be the feast the Love of God will answer all the dainties that can be devised a compleat feast it is virtually all Even among men you see Love will turn a dinner of hearbs into a feast O how much more then where Love it self is the filling of every dish 2. The souls joy in this love not to speak of the souls returns of love again and praises hallelujahs to eternity which are the fruits but the joy in this Love it consists here in joy in that place to the Romans can it chose but be joy to a poor soul think you to see the heart of the Father opened to us in Jesus Christ his bowels of Love all shed abroad upon us therefore the Kingdom of heaven is so expressed by joy enter thou into thy Masters joy or the joy of the Lord. But to speak a little to soul-heightning considerations of this feast in those particulars that we might get our hearts in love with heaven with this feast First consider It is now Brethren to be more immediate then here below it is new wine the most excellent in its kind that is reserved until the last the excellency of this feast of wine in heaven will appear by this among other considerations That the Communion shall be more immediate Dulcius ex ipsofonte waters are most sweet out of the Fountain immediately now God shall be all in all when the Kingdom is given up to him he shall be instead of all Ordinances Now indeed the Conduits run wine and we may drink and that freely but yet it is not so immediately we are indeed not fit for such a condition we must make use of them until he come again use these shadows and types So that the communion is not so immediat 〈…〉 N 〈…〉 e see him not as he is but then we shall saith the Apostle 〈…〉 more through a glass darkly and sullyed glass by our polluted breath our corrupted hearts do sully Ordinances else we should see him much more brightly then we do but there shall be no more need but face to face If the beauty of Christ his love do take us so when we have but dark hints of it as a face in a dim glass O what will it be when we shall see him as he is we shall not need the pipes any more but even go to the Fountain the Rivers the Seas of Love 2. More sincerely it is now altogether without mixture Alas Brethren we now eat the Lord Jesus our Pass-over and feed upon his love but all the while it is with sowr herbs there is a mixture of grief when we look upon our crucified Saviour Crucified by us and for us and so his love is better then wine now to us but alas there is some gall or Vinegar mixed with it some sin some temptation some affliction without that weakens the comfort the soul might take in the love of Jesus Christ But in heaven there shall be none Brethren no mixture at all here the Lord giveth us a cup of trembling to drink a cup of mixture that is to say ready prepared wine and his people drink round of it usually and he seeth it necessary there must be some Acrimony some salt to keep us from corrupting before we come to our glorified state and so be able to bear that his love without any mixture at all of the contrary No anger the meat sweet the sauce sweet the wine sweet the bread sweet 3. More fully infinitely more fully if I may so speak of that which a finite though a glorified creature is capable to receive Now we have a drop or two Brethren but then our fulness then the narrow-mouthed vials shall be enlarged to receive more fully and to express more fully to Jesus Christ again in his high and everlasting praises What is that which cometh through the Conduit to the Fountain the Sea it self Ah Brethren here we are at a loss we do not know what the Lord hath to pour out upon us the fulness of his Love in Jesus Christ so as that we shall be swallowed up It is so much here that the Apostle admireth it behold what manner of love is this that we poor worms should be called the sons of God then they shall admire much more but alas the measure doth not appear it cannot enter into the heart of man it is too narrow and the love too great it cannot enter into his heart to conceive Some of the Saints have had so much of love manifested and joy in that love that they have been fain to beg of God to hold his hand they could hold no more and so great as to quench the flames that they could not hurt nor pain them they could feel nothing O sure this was a flood that could put out such flaming torments But yet this is nothing it appears not what we should be at thy right hand there is fulness of joy and so much as that the Saints are said to enter into it it cannot enter into them they are swallowed up O this will be a full feast indeed here there will be an abundant drinking And it must needs be so Brethren if we consider 1. What it is that maketh this feast or first that it is a feast it is not an ordinary meal Now you know men at a feast do more liberally provide for their friends here below it is a feast indeed but nothing to this 2. Who provideth this feast it is not a poor mans feast but the feast of a King such a feast you see Ahashuerus made for his Princes now a King will make a feast like a King Princes have their names from liberality and free with a free spirit thy Princely spirit all those as a
the evil savour of their sins upon them such as have their prison cloaths their rags by the exactest righteousness that ever creature performed upon them no no you must first come to Jesus Christ have these bolts knockt off He it is that looseth the prisoners you must first have your â—ilthy garments taken away from you and be robed with the royal apparrel such as is put upon them whom the King of Heaven delights to honour with so near an aporoach to himself for ever you must have the savour of his Oyntments anointing â—our head his Spirit poured out upon you first brethren as they used to annoint their heads with sweet oyl at their seasts before you can come to that feast sinners do not think you shall croud into heaven in the condition you are in but be perswaded in the Name of Jesus Christ first to come to him to get your hands and hearts and all washed in innocency it self in the blood of the spotless Lamb else believe it there will be no entrance for you 2. There is an external communion also which men that have no more but a profession may have eating the spiritual bread and drinking the Sacramental feast brethren which the Saints ought to come to have communion with the Lord Jesus and his people will until he come again it is not an indifferent thing Do this in remembrance of me and as often as you do it ye keep in remembrance the Lord his death until he come Now brethren we do immediatly invite you to come to Jesus Christ to close with him that you may be washed and cleansed through faith in his blood and have your hearts purified by faith in him and then to this Sacramental Communion with Jesus Christ which is a sign and pledge of this Marriage-feast in heaven as plainly our Saviour tels his Disciples I wâ—ll henceâ—oâ—th drink no more of this fruit of the Vine until I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Well this is but the first Secondly brethren that by your now coming in to Jesus Christ you do as I may say take up your room in your places before hand at his Table in his heavenly Kingdom In which respect the Saints now are said to sit together in heavenly places and hereby you will come to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection and Ascention and his Work in heaven which is to prepare a place for his people and as I may say to keep it for them and as one sweetly expresseth it wriâ—ing as I may say every ones name over his Mansion over his Place even with his own blood that none shall take it from them over their heads If Jesus Christ prepared not a place for you in heaven now brethren you will find no room at his Table Therefore now brethren Let me press this Exhortation upon you that you would come to him now even now while it â—s called to day it is his voyce brethren that speaks to you O that your ears were bored to hear the fatted Calf is killed the Lord Jesus is Crucified for sinners the Wine is mingled all is ready there wants nothing now but your coming to Dine and Sup with Jesus Christ yea indeed but your opening to him he knocks he will come to you to feast with you bring his royal dainties with him and his wine of the Kingdom his Royal Wine with him O his love which is better then wine if you will but open to him O do not nectere moras now can the Lord Jesus brethren find in his heart to have his blood poured out to become royal Wine indeed full of spirits sweet and cordial to a poor fainting soul to give his own flesh to eat which is bread indeed it is virtually all dainties therefore the Scripture setteth it forth by Wine and Milk and Honey and Bread and Marrow and Fatness the fat of the Kidniâ—s of the Wheat by Apples and Flagons Is he willing brethren to be the Feast to be fed upon and shall we not come O therefore come where the Carkass is follow not your Carrion any more the stirâ—king loathsome delights and pleasures of sin for a season Be ye no more drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit of Christ saith the Apostle be Inebriated as some read it abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his House and with the flowings of his heart towards you poor sinners But me thinketh now I hear the returns that sinners make to Jesus Christ to this invitation say some I have a feast already Stoln waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant and shall we forsake these delights we have in the world for we know not what Ah poor souls you know not what you say if this be the language of your hearts If you mouths were not much out of taste you would never judge sin a sweet thing a poor child of God that hath his taste healed though but in part he drinketh nothing in the world so bitter to him as sin that which goeth down so merrâ—ly with many Were not the Israelites mouths much out of taste when they preferred their Onions and Garlick stinking things of Egypt before their sweet their heavenly Manna their Angels bread fit for them to eat or which came by their Ministry 2. Remember this brethren though it be sweet to the taste it turns to bitterest gall as the Wise man speaks of wine that moveth it self aright it sparkles is lovely sweet to the taste at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adâ—er Behold such are all the delights of sin and whether you believe it or no now you shall be sure to feel it after a little season for your pleasures are but for a season So that you know not what you say if any thus excuse himself for coming Again Shall you change for you know not what Indeed you do not know for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive before he hath had experience of it himself O that I might but perswade you brethren to make a tryal and if you do not find one days communion of Jesus Christ be not worth a thousand with your companions in sin then believe not this Gospel any more there is much sweetness indeed in the breasts of the world to a wordly Pallate O what drink golden drink do poor Earth-worms drink and this is their Nectar Believe it brethren if the Lord do but bring you and set your mouths to the wounds of Jesus Christ set your mouths to the sweet promises of pardoning grace and purging mercy to draw from them strong consolation you will find the other but Gall and Wormwood to you O let them perish saith Galeac and his money with him that preferreth all the world before an hours communion with Jesus Christ I pray you therefore do not
excuse your selves with them in the Gospel I have bought this and that and I cannot come I have so many Custodiums I cannot mind these things I have so much to do in the world and it is to be minded A poor ditch-water that is preferred before this Wine of the Kingdom will dross and dung meat and husks which is Swines meat nourish your souls to eternal life make as much account brethren of these things as you will to slight now the matters of eternity time will come when you would give all the fruit of your labours if it were a thousand times more for one sight of Jesus Christ one taste of his love one hours communion withhim before you go hence and be no more Alas But some will say I am a poor sinner the vilest filthy creature lame and blind and have all my life time been feeding with Swine upon husks and swill and trash these delights of sin and pleasures of the world O my days are consumed in sin and doth he invite such as I and may I come Yea brethren you find the poor lame and blind from the hedges and high-ways side were invited to his feast if you come but to Jesus Christ he will open the eys of the blind he hath eyeâ—alve for you and he will be legs to the lame and cloathing to the naked if you do but come to him put on Christ It is not any other infirmities which will abide upon the best of Gods people in part that can exclude us or cast us out but only the want of the wedding Garment if a man be never so well furnished otherwise as he thinketh O therefore come Brethren the Feast is made for such as you you are invited to it the simple the man void of understanding that is to say the sinner for sin is folly in Scripture-phrase you are invited to turn in this day to the Feast the Marriage-feast which is begun here upon earth but will end in heaven therefore be not discouraged Ah but you will say I have no such appetite to the Feast to hunger and thirst and is there any invited to come to it but such as have an appetite what shall they do there I answer no marvel thou hast no great appetite until thou hast more communion with him if thou hast had any And no marvel if thou hast no appetite if thov hast never been with Jesus for thou hast so long lived upon trash that it takes away the stomack to the sweetest and wholsomest food in the world But withal remember this who ever will is invited to come brethren and take freely It may be thou dost not find poor sinner such a strong desire such a breaking of soul for longing but hast thou a Will wouldst thou have Christ wouldst thou have his body this meat indeed this blood this drink indeed this wine of the Kingdom and begin this Feast this Marriage-feast upon earth why dost thou not take him then come and take it freely O that this might be the day of his power to many of your poor souls that you might become a willing people that you might have a heart to close with him to take him upon his own terms that you might begin your heaven upon earth your communion with Jesus Christ I will but add one word more and that is this It is no indifferent thing whether you close with this invitation or no there is a necessity lies upon you to come to the Marriage-feast except you resolve upon it to perish for ever God he was wroth and sent forth his armies to destroy c. Ah what gnashing of teeth will there be to poor sinners in hell when they shall see their neighbours who heard this Gospel with them sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob at the table of Christ in his kingdom and themselves cast out Ah brethren I beg for you a believing heart you must either feast with Christ or starve for ever with Satan and his Angels and then not a drop will be had to cool your tongues now flagons are tendered you now wine and milk without money and price now rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand and fulness of joy is promised you is held out to you cometh a begging to you Ah then then brethren shall you beg for a drop and shall not have it rivers of burning brimstone will be your bathing when the Saints are swallowed up of those rivers of pleasures at his right hand then will you be chewing upon your gall and wormwood then will you be breaking your teeth upon your gravel when the Saints are drinking this new wine in the kingdom of their Father with Jesus Christ Ah think of it brethren think of it you have now your good things many of your eyes stand out with fatness you spend a world upon your lusts live like Epicures wantonizing in the abundance of your enjoyments how woful will that sentence be Son remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things and now thou art tormented hadst thy wine and drinking unto drunkenness now the stings of it abide upon thee the Saints have their worst first and the best kept until the last but you have your consolation in this world and the wine of astonishment will be your portion for ever if you will not be perswaded Therefore take your choice brethren I set life and death before you and consider of it How will you escape if you neglect this great salvation you may now be received to the Feast the door stands open it will not alway be so it will be shut against you O how will you answer it another day before the Lord Jesus if you now trample under foot his blood and precious offers of his Grace though by the hand and mouth of a poor worm like your selves Thirdly Then Brethren let as many as have received power to believe in the Lord Jesus and so are admitted to the beginning of this Marriage-supper upon earth to inward fellowship with Jesus Christ in the Graces of his Spirit and merits of his death and resurrection labour brethren to prepare your selves for this Feast in heaven by feeding heartily upon these dainties upon earth the more men eat and drink the more their stomacks are extended usually and the more they will receive surely it is so in spirituals the more a soul feeds upon Christ and the more abundantly he drinketh the more he may it enlargeth the desires Hitherto saith our Saviour you have asked nothing little or nothing Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full the more abundantly the soul is satisfied with the goodness of the house of God the more will the mouth be opened to receive now as our capacities do enlarge so much the more fitter are we for this Marriage-feast O therefore let us not come to the table of the Lord brethren this sign and
away their time in the world spending their strength for that which profiteth not labouring for the meat which perisheth which will not endure to eternal life you see the world was that which kept them from coming to the Feast in the Gospel one could not have while another could not have while a man cannot have two treasures except he had two hearts two contrary treasures earth and heaven both and where the treasure is there will the heart be also therefore Brethren while men are so altogether taken up with the world they cannot but neglect the main thing and so are found unready â—et worldlings hear this word and tremble if any others be likely to be found unready you are the men Even the people of God themselves if they be unready in part it is the world likely will put them out of order off the hinges take heed saith our Saviour your hearts be not at any time overcharged with the cares of this world because there is no time but that day may overtake you and then you will be taken unawares therefore much more a man that is drowned and buried in the world he will be sure to be unready Secondly Such as do but dally with God and Religion and the things of eternity they spend themselves and their strength to feed a formality to put forth broad and pleasant leaves and there is all but for faith and repentance and the great works of a Christian they scarse ever meddle with them at all they go to the creature here with the foolish Virgins go to the opinions of others to the graces of others to their flattering parasite Preachers to be seared and daubed up such as these are likely to be found unready none in more danger then a formal professor Thirdly Such as fail in the midst of their Christian course as you see these Virgins did usually such are hardly recovered again for you see how they wandered up and down from mountain to hill from creature to creature and come not to Jesus Christ So in the Gospel when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man c. Such are like to the Laodiceans spised out of the mouth of God which none returneth to again the Dog returneth to the vomit but not a man our time is fruitful in experiences of this kind you see the door is here shut against those Virgins which failed I mean it of a total Apostacy not partial declinings such the Saints themselves had the wise Virgins but the other lost all true saving grace they had none their form their profession it went out and then they were in darkness could not expect the coming of their Lord with their Lamps burning So much for the opening of it The door is shut the meaning of this is no more but that an entrance into heaven is denyed unto them that are not ready there is no mansion made ready for them that are not made ready for these mansions the Lord Jesus he is the door into the Church the Kingdom of grace and into the Kingdom of glory as you have beard they that enter must enter in by Jesus Christ have access by him now he will shut the door that is to say shut up his bowels and tender mercies for ever though they have been opened to poor sinners here upon earth then they shall be shut up he will have no more compassion on them but when they cry and call shut out their prayers they have clapt the door of their hearts and lockt them against him and now will he shut up his heart and lock it against them for ever Time was when the Jews might have found Jesus Christ but now saith he ye shall seek me and shall not find me but shall dye in your sins Indeed Brethren the door may be shut against a man here on earth after Gods waiting upon a people to be gracious to them he sware in his wrath they should never enter into his rest which was a type of heaven And so those that were invited to the feast they shall not taste of my dainties saith the King for they are not worthy If men refuse and reject the Gospel either professedly or in practise no marvel if the Lord turn the key of heaven gates upon them and they be shut out without any more hope for ever For the Arguments to confirm this a little First Because this feast in heaven admitteth no Guests without a wedding garment without holiness no entrance into heaven no man shall see the Lord except the Lord Jesus have known them and they have known him which is life eternal for so the Apostle puts them together we know that we know him or rather are known of him else Brethren there is no entrance he knoweth no man will acknowledge none then but with a wedding-garment here in the administrations of the Kingdom of grace a person may creep into the feast withont the wedding-garment indeed for the word preached it is for all but the distinguishing Ordinances men may be admitted to haply though they have no wedding-garment as you have it in that place of Matthew but he shall not abide there but shall be cast out he will bind him hand and foot and cast him out though he â—eaveth the admittance of them into the visible Church and visible communion in his ordinances to us who can judge but according to appearance and by the rules of charity yet himself cometh and vieweth the guests and who are fit to be owned as the guests of heaven that shall have entrance there he whose eyes are a flame of fire or like it piercing into the inwards of our souls to see what our spirits are cloathed with And if he takes it so ill of them that creep into the Communion of his Saints and Ordinances here below without a wedding-garment Surely then he will never admit any to this feast of new wine to eternity without such a wedding-garment Secondly Another Argument or Consideration to make this out may be this they that are unready shall not enter the door shall be shut upon them because they have neglected despised the Lord Jesus who is the door and hath the key of David and openeth and shutteth therefore now they shall be rejected the door hath stood open all the day long all the day long hath he stretched out his hands to a rebellious and gain-saying people he would have gathered them and they would not therefore now he will not now he will despise them as they have despised him and there is all the reason that can be that they that would have none of Christ by whom alone there is access to the Father and to this glory that he should have none of them neither they have resisted the motions of his Spirit the Holy-Ghost offering to convince them and now he will resist them clap the door against them Thirdly Because
just in the very harbour this is the saddest of all the rest many a storm they have ridden out they have indured many a wave and to split themselves in the very harbour within sight of the land as a man miscarrying just at the gate of the City of Refuge O how high must such mens hopes have been and how low will their hearts sink now when so â—adly disappointed hope so disappointed maketh ashamed confoundeth the soul as Esau his hopes were at the highest when he came with his Venison to his â—ather this will kill the heart O Brethren above all others hypocrites will be cloathed with the deepest confusion because they have been men of the fairest hopes for heaven Therefore it is said he went away sorrowful for it must needs be so for he was a man of more light then others and surely had a conviction that Jesus was the Messiah that it would be advantagious to have him and therefore coming so near to him and yet put back he went away sorrowful another man would have made nothing of such a repulse hypocrites have great enlightnings and they have had a taste of the heavenly gift as I may say as Israel had a bunch of grapes to taste the sweetness of Canaan and encourage them to go in to possess it O this when God turned them back into the wilderness for their rebellion that they should perish there was a great aggravation of their misery if they had never come so near it and never tasted of it they had not known what they had lost what they had deprived themselves of So here surely Brethren hypocrites have many a taste they have some glimmerings of heavens light and glory somewhat they have to draw them on to the very borders therefore for them to be turned off here and shut out O sure it will much aggravate their misery Ah wretch that I was to come so near take so much pains for heaven and yet that I should miss it will be the doleful ditty of hypocrites to eternity Thirdly It may teach all young beginners that are now as I may say starting in the race that is set before us that you look to it Brethren you be so furnished as to be able to run so as to obtain you are now launching into the deep O look to it there be not a privy leak somewhere though it be but small yet it may make a shift to sink you even at the very haven of heaven Ah dear friends it will be worth your pains to look into the truth of your condition though it cost you many an hour many a hot and cold fit yet give it not over be sure of this one thing that you be bottomed on Jesus Christ and have his Spirit to dwell in you his fear put in you according to the Covenant of grace and then you shall never depart from him you shall never fall short If once you be but in him you shall enter in with him the reason why these foolish Virgins entred not they were not in Christ they had nothing but their own account their own profession and what they could rap and rend and get from the creature alas this was nothing though it might carry them thus far it would not make way for their entrance into glory therefore let me beg of you to make this one thing necessary sure neglect this and all is nothing Fourthly It may teach all of us even such as have not only begun but gone far taken much pains for heaven to tremble and fear lest for want of a little more we fall short Ah dear friends if we would offer violence to heaven it must be while we are here when the door is shut it is too late therefore now let us press and spare no pains and look to these two things 1. That what we do we do it in Christ and for Christ else what do we differ in our work from the glistering Sinners among the heathens And 2. That our hearts be changed and made better and growing liker heaven every day then other else they will nothing avail us at all we shall be shut out notwithstanding all our prayers preaching gifts performances priviledges nothing but an interest in Christ and an heart sanctified by him will give entrance into heaven but so much for this Doctrine Another Note I will take up from the Virgins crying to God now when they saw the Gate of heaven shut against them That the hearts of sinners are full of self-confidence and presumption That they could have an heart to cry to Jesus Christ to open the door to them when it was shut it is strange presumption and boldness indeed for they had not one word to say for themselves why they should have entrance but only Lord Lord open c. in respect of any pleadings of Faith or the Covenant of Grace they were dumb not a word of this but if they had any thing to say it was such as those in Mat. 7. had to say for themselves he had preached in their streets and they had eat and drunk in his presence so here Lord Lord open to us why we had Lamps burning until a little before thy appearing we walked in fellowship with them that are truly admitted now into thy presence we have endeavoured to get some oyl to renew our Lamps though alas they found none but however they would have heaven this is very strong impudence and confident presumption that is in the hearts of Sinners the Lord Jesus turns them off and they will not be turned oâ—f now they will offer violence to the kingdom of heaven when it is too late Whence ariseth this Haply out of the ignorance whereupon heaven is to be had upon what conditions or else out of the presence of their eternal misery now they see they are sinking to hell they begin to cry out for opening of heaven Gate to them now the Gate is shut upon them they never cried before but I will not insist upon this Only a word or two of Application First then it is no marvel brethren if sinners are so full of boldness and presumption now let us tell them that we will set life and death before them as you have had it set before you many a time every Sabbath every opportunity almost alas they care not for it they hang out a flag of defiance against God they have made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell and this they make account shall stand let the Lord say what he will though he tell them he will break that Covenant he disanulleth it in the day he heareth it for both they and death are under his command and therefore he may disanull their Covenant he is Soveraign over them all yet they believe it not they rage and are confident for when the very overflowing scourge cometh upon them they are so confident to go and cry to God
think it is for carnal end for your corn and wine and oyl that you howl upon your beds you little think when you pray and seek after God it is for ends meerly that you might spend these things upon your lusts that you may appear to be some body be esteemed among men be of esteem among the Saints Well Brethren carry it as covertly as you can so that your own souls are juggled into a delusion it may be yet be not deceived God is not mocked men are apt to be deceived and think that their secrets of sinning their bread eaten in secret their morsels under the tongue shall never be discovered but the Lord seeth all this he knoweth you throughly he searcheth the hearts and tryeth the reins of the sons of men Secondly because he knoweth you therefore he doth not know you he approveth not of you it may be men do approve of you your praise may be among the Churches among the Saints but yet your praise may not be of God he loveth you not savours you not with that favour that he bears to his people indeed some love Jesus Christ had to the young man in the Gospel that was but near to the Kingdom of God he doth not disallow of a form and profession it hath its use the leaves of the trees of righteousness they may be for healing to others an holy profession and walking to the appearance of others may win others to Christ and yet a man may perish when all is done and a profession may serve as a Motive to quicken up themselves to look to the power if the power of godliness be not good and necessary why do men take up a form and if it be good why rest they in a form and neglect it but if there be no more he will not know such a man he doth not know him Thirdly What ever you dream of now he will pronounce that sentence upon you at that day O that dreadful sentence that he knoweth you not he never knew you Ah dear friends if the Lord would but single out any one of us and tell us we are the men what agonies would it put us into Ah Brethren this will make sinners ears tingle to hear this word from the Lord Jesus O let fearfulness surprize the hypocrites yea I tell you this will make your hearts to bleed and your heart-strings crack within you this will pierce you through with the sorrows of hell Ah dear friends if the voice of his Messengers discoursing of righteousness temperance and Judgement to come be so great as to make a Foelix a great man a stout hearted sinner tremble that was not converted O what will it be when the sentence is pronounced against them from the Lord himself for while you hear Preachers though it be terrible when the conscience is opened yet there is a Cordial at hand but when once pronounced by the Lord Jesus there is no more remedy if one word from the Lord Jesus when the Souldiers came upon him and he asked them whom they sought I am he saith he this struck them to the ground souldiers in such Garrisons in Countries kept by the sword they were won by use to to be men of stoutest spirits that would dare sometimes the very Devil himself and yet one word from Jesus Christ's mouth struck them to the ground O Brethren surely this word of sentence will speak men not to the ground but to the lowermost pit It will speak them dumb forthwith that they have nothing to say for themselves It will speak them into confusion and amazement it will speak them into the flames of hell in a moment O this roaring of the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who may abide If the Law was so terrible in the giving what will it be in the execution You read how the Mountains shook Moses himself trembled but the sentence of the Law is nothing to the sentence of the Gospel as this condemnation of hypocrites will be it is to men that have in appearance owned Christ followed him done much in his name and yet he will profess he never knew them they pretended acquaintance with him now but he will never own them You then Brethren that have only a semblance of holiness you seem to have somewhat and have nothing then shall be taken from you that which you seemed to have then your vizard will be pluckt off you pretend to be friends of Christ and of his people to be his Father Brethren and Mother but now will he profess he knoweth you not you that preach in the name of Jesus Christ and do not preach for his name for his glory but for your own he will not own you he will say to you he knoweth you not you rest in this your form this you are ready to plead and not stay your selves upon him he will not know you O but we do lean upon the Lord so you say but mark that of the Prophet you lean upon the Lord and say the Lord is among us and yet they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity the heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire that is to say their tongues may be hired to say any thing pass any judgement right or wrong and yet lean upon the Lord say you lean upon the Lord and yet will be drunk swear lye cheat over-reach be filthy and unclean allow your â—elves in c 〈…〉 mplative wickedness be sure the Lord will not know such You that regard any iniquity never so little never so secret in your hearts believe it the Lord will not own you he will not know you he will not here own you much less will he when it cometh â—o the judgement It may be thou mayest soar a higher pitch in respect of parts and gifts and confidence and pretend to live higher then other men as many men of higher dispensations they say now do but yet as the Eagle when at the highest pitch hath a learing eye after her prey below so have they such a learing eye a lingering heart after their iniquity and their mouths water at it but for shame O surely Jesus Christ will never own such fear and tremble at this word as many as it concerneth O how will such souls be filled with amazement when they made no other reckoning but to come to heaven if any men in the Countrey should be saved a man would have thought they should have been the men they have done much suffered much wrought wonders c. and yet when all comes to all the heart was never right with God and therefore the heart-searching Judge will never own them never care for them become of them what will he will never know their souls Secondly then it may be for a searching word to poor creatures O be not deceived God is not mocked he knoweth a Balaam to be a Balaam
is a Sun in a special manner O Brethren have you not experience of it where and how come in your warmings on your spirits is it not in the Ordinances of Christ doth he not breath there and feed there with his people if a man should be so peevish as that he would not have the Suns influence except he did shine in his chamber did move there or shine on the earth or move there were he not most justly deprived of them Here Brethren here in the Word preached and heard in the Seals and Prayer and all the Ordinances of Christ he will be found of his people and above others in private be much in maditation of the sweetness the riches of his love to poor Sinners such as thou art this is to set our faces Brethren towards the Sun O how will this clear the eyes of an Eagle indeed one that is gloriously born of heaven though Owls are blinded by it How will this Brethren darken the beauty and glory of all things here You complain of earthliness and you are fast glewed to the world O beg of God that he would turn your eyes toward himself toward the Lord Jesus behold this Sun in his strength and glory and see if this do not make all things else dull to you to have no excellence in them in comparison of Christ that you shall cry out none but Christ none but Christ O Brethren this would make us sparkle like Diamonds lying under the influence of the Sun it s for want of this that Christians are like Diamonds in the dirt this will make us sparkle as Moses face did shine this Brethren is the way to contract the beams as in a burning glass and set the heart on fire with love to Jesus Christ then our affections will flame then shall we be a zealous people of good works otherwise not Fourteenthly Arise then and shine thou poor fearing soul that liest in the dust be inlightned lift up thy eyes thou that languishest and thy spirit is ready to faint within thee thou art even dying and couldst with fears of thy condition Oh thy light is come is not the Sun in the Firmament though he may be clouded from thee what though there be much darkness in thee of ignorance of discomfort thou walkest in darkness and seest no light the Sun may be up though it appear not it may be day with thee poor soul and thou a child of light and of the day though thou beholdest not the Sun nor the bâ—â—ms from the Sun if thou hast not the light of the Sun the light of his countenance thou mayst have the influence of the Sun notwithstanding that reacheth the parts where the light cometh not And be not discouraged at the enemies of Christ what though the clouds of ignorance errour prophaness and idolatry gather together and seem to threaten the Sun Alas how soon can he dispel them consume them with the brightness of his glorious appearance what if the Dogs do bark at the Moon the Church or at Christ the Sun will that hinder him in his course what though the People when they are scorched with the heat of the Sun as some Pagans are do curse the Sun can they hinder his course O no as a strong man he will run his race and who shall hinder it and those that will not be made fruitful he will burn up and consume therefore be not discouraged and thou that hast much deadness and coldness and hardness be not discouraged there is influence enough in Christ go to him labour to act faith on him set thy self under his influence wait on him in his Ordinances and see if it come not into thee to warm to melt to make fruitful in the work of the Lord. Now for the second which is that Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness But lest I should dwell too long on the Text if I should at large handle every part therefore I will rather sum up several things in one Observation and its this Vnto them that fear the Name of the Lord the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings or dâ—th arise with healing in his wings Wherein I will labour to unfold several things and then come to the Application of all to our selves First then What is meant by them that fear the Lord here in this place of the Prophet I conceive by the coherence of the Text that hereby are meant such as when the Prophet had denounced the fearful threatnings of Judgement The day of the Lord to be as a fire oven to consume the stubble c. they were afraid they feared the Lord and his judgements they were apt to be too much dismayed at it but he tels them that to them it should be a day of healing and liberty and light and refreshing to his people The people of God may and ought to be afraid of the judgements of God when they hang bound up in a black cloud but yet in the womb of a threatning and so Josiah was afraid and rent his clothes and humbled himself his heart was tender and he did tremble at this fearful word the judgement threatned against Hierusalem A stout stubborn brawny hard heart never melts nor moveth but such as those are afraid or else if judgement do break out and the decree bring forth the clouds pour out upon Sinners then they are afraid So David was afraid of the judgement of God executed on Vzzah and afraid of the Angel of the Lord. Now to such as these the Lord promiseth a Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing such fear hath torment in it and anguish and therefore hath need of healing but is this to be restrained either to their persons or to their conditions surely no the prophesies are Divine they are of the nature of the author with whom 1000 years are but as one day therefore we are to allow to them a greater latitude such as is agreeable to them they are not fulfilled punctually at once but have springing accomplishment and germinant throughout many ages though the height or fulness of them may refer them to some age and of all other prophesies it is most true of that of Christ with respect to the saving vertues of his blood to his people therefore for persons we must not confine it to them no nor for things to that sort of fear which seemeth to be meant by the series of the context but this as all other promises of God are applyable to any condition of poor creatures to which its suitable As that of Joshuah I will never leave thee is applyed to want in outward things and to encourage them to walk without covetousness Therefore Secondly Fearing of God may be meant such as God hath begun to work on hath convinced them of sin and of wrath by reason of sin there is a fear wrought in such an heart as the poor Jaylour came
in Winter the earth seemeth to be languishing and all things withered and dead when the Sun returneth how doth it heal it To it s here Beloved it is the Word and Spirit that opens the earth moistens the earth sweetly refresheth it calls forth the fruits thereof The fruits of the Spirit they are called as the fruits of the earth are called the precious fruits put forth by the Sun and by the Moon which shines by a derived influence from the Sun how precious are the fruits of the Spirit Brethren love meekness joy in the Holy-Ghost humility self-denyal these are the precious fruits put forth by the Sun the Lord Jesus by his Word and Spirit beating upon our barren hearts indeed he maketh the barren Wilderness to become a garden of God Again he healeth he reviveth the spirits which languish and are ready to go out as the poor Birds that in the Winter are hard put to it and some lye you hardly know where as if they were dead or dying when the Sun returneth how doth it refresh and revive their little spirits that were left before The night brings a heaviness and burthen along with it to the body but the morning when the Sun ariseth how doth it enliven and lighten Oh! so it s in this case many a poor soul can say by experience that when darkness hath been long on them they have no light no comfort no refreshing no breathing of the Spirit to their apprehensions in his Ordinances on their hearts O how have hands hanged down and their knees feeble and knock one against another for feebleness and that which was within them was ready to dye But now no sooner hath the Lord Jesus the Sun of righteousness looked on them but they have had their ankle-bones strengthened the joy of the Lord is their strength as Neh. 8. but I intend not here much to expatiate only these two or three things First then the first thing in this healing which is brought under the wings of the Sun of righteousness is pardon for our sins who forgiveth all-thy iniquities and healeth all-thy diseases these are exegetical one of another or may so be looked on Sin Brethren cuts off a creature from God and so maketh a wound which now is healed and made up when they are pardoned Make the heart of this people fat and let their ears be heavy their eyes closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their hearts lest they should be converted and I should heal them which Mark reads thus lest they should be converted and their sins be forgiven them So then forgiveness and healing are all one and its one thing surely included in that of the Prophet Hosea I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely the justification freely by his grace as the Apostle calls it Poor sinner thou that ever knewest what sin was what a wound it was to thy soul knewest that thy pardon is a healing to thee So then this arising with healing in his wings is by his Spirit in his Word he conveyeth the blood of Jesus Christ the merit thereof maketh it over to the poor soul that believeth to the doing away of all the guilt So as a Sun of righteousness properly he healeth and this is the first Secondly He taketh away also the anguish and trouble that did arise from sin to the soul as when a wound is healed you know the anguish and smart is taken away though while it is healing it may be when searched and tented there will be smart and sore yet afterward it s taken away by degrees I know some of you have felt and haply some at present may feel the grief of your wounds O! how they will throb and beat and burn and smart sometimes broken bones are nothing to a broken heart nor the broken flesh any thing to a broken bone the Lord heals the broken in heart he bindeth up their wounds I have seen his waies and will heal him saith the Lord he speaks to the condition of a poor disconsolate soul under the wrath of God He was wrath and smote him yea he hid him and was wrath O how this troubles a poor soul he cannot but have his heart full of darkness and terrour and trouble that hath the face of God hidden from him well saith the Lord though he did walk frowardly before me gave me not my ends in smiting him yet I will heal him and wherein doth this healing consist Alas in restoring joy and comfort to him the poor soul now was over-whelmed with sorrow his heart now was ready to sink and fail within him and lest it should so do he will heal him and how is this but by his Word and Spirit therein which is the comforting Spitit he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him Here is a healing indeed the healing of broken hearts and broken bones it s the work that the Father sent the Lord Jesus for into the world in an especial manner that he annointed him for poured out the Spirit upon him annointed him with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that he might speak in due season that he might bind up the broken spirits Now the Lord Jesus Brethren our dear Saviour he delighteth to do this will and work of his Father O! he loveth to be doing with broken hearts And O that we had some work for the Lord Jesus this day he is among us now to see if there be any heart in this condition that he may heal us it s his delight to do it Well this is a second he hath his cordials as well as his purgatives his lenitives as well as his corrosives Thirdly he cometh with healing under his wings as to take away the anguish so also to purge away the filth of it to heal the running putrifying sore that it may not run and defile and pollute all that a man taketh in hand How much more saith the Apostle shall the blood of Christ purge our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God With corrosives he eats down the proud flesh and the dead flesh he dryeth up the bloody issues then the person was healed when she touched Christ but the hem of his garment This is that which troubles many a heart more then the guilt of their sins and indeed the returning and recoyling of sin on them again and again occasioneth the questioning of their peace and comfort that they have had O how one cryeth out of this sin and another of that sin and walks heavily and sadly Well the Lord Jesus he will arise with healing under his wings for all these distempers Fourthly and lastly another healing is the taking away his anger manifested in outward calamities or diseases in a people or person I will heal their back-slidings and love them freely for mine anger is
be stirred because that maketh him sensible of his condition O! such a mans condition is very dangerous and is not this the case of our souls Brethren O! what malignity is in sin the poyson and filthyness and hurt of all diseases and wounds are little enough to set it forth by and how sensible are we of a wound of a disease of the body how insensible of the diseases of the soul Well in order to a healing the Lord give us a feeling But this is but the first But a little further to open the nature of sin on this occasion which our Doctrine administers to us that which is to be healed you have heard is sin and that which needeth healing is either a disease or wound they are correlatives that you have heard already it is therefore compared to many sorts of diseases wounds and putrifying sores and bruises But now I will speak a little Brethren to the ill qualities and consequences of sin considered as such which may tend to turn our hearts against it for the time to come First then there is pain and anguish in most diseases and in every wound and bruise and especially in cankerings festered sores this is a proper passion of a disease to have pain and truly Brethren so hath every sin a pain with it first or last it is true the cup of pleasures goeth down merily with Sinners but when it s down it is a cup of trembling to them do but look on Gain when he had sinned in pouring out his Brothers blood he quenched his bloody thirst but kindled a fire in his bowels which did consume him Oh every one that meeteth me will kill me fear hath torment as John saith and see how full of fears a poor sinner is The wicked flee when none pursueth the very stones and beasts being at enmity with them they fear they shall be murthered by each of them And how did Foelix tremble when Paul disputed of righteousness temperance and judgement to come as long as they can keep out the sight of God as they think they are well But bring a Sinner and set him as it were in the face of God let him but look on him as a righteous Judge of all the world and most mighty to execute his pleasure on Sinners and then tell me whether the stoutest hearted-sinner do not quail as usually at the hour of death for truly for the most part men seldom seriously eye their condition before then How did the Jaylour spring in trembling in the Acts Ah the Sinners in Sion are afraid Fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Alas the stubble will not endure before the fire no more can sinners endure to look on God as a consuming fire it maketh the very heart ach except altogether hardened from his fear to behold him because they know themselves guilty and lyable to those burnings There is saith the Apostle a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Can a poor condemned Prisoner look on the Iudge think on the Tree on which he must be hanged on the fire but with fear and trembling Can Belshazzar read his sentence on the wall the hand-writing but with terrour his knees knocking one against another Ah Brethren methinks Sinners that are yet in their sins should not read a leaf in the Bible each leaf concerneth him is 〈◊〉 doom but he should even smite his thighs together there is so much terrour and fear accompanying sin Memoria testis ratio index timor carnifex saith Bern. As the Saints have some antipasts of Heaven a bunch of Grapes before they come to Cannan an earnest of that joy unspeakable and full of Glory so doubtless Sinners they have some hours of darkness coming on them some wrings and gripes of a guilty conscience that sometimes made some of them run to an halter to a sword for ease none knoweth the hell of a guilty conscience but such as have felt it Oh the wrackings the distortions of the Soul The pulling of the very heart in pieces and the rending of the very Bowels in pieces with these imprisoned passions in the Soul But secondly Even in sinners that repent Brethren though the wound be then healing there is pain also you know Now the Lord Jesus cometh in mercy to rouze the soul to shame it out of its evil courses and is shame nothing a man cannot hold up his head he is confounded ye are now ashamed saith the Apostle of the things which ye have done before can you look back on your former vain and filthy conversation and your hearts not be ashamed your consciences not be ashamed there is inward shame and confusion though it appear not outwardly So in that place of Ezekiel Thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed that thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee There will be a godly sorrow which works repentance and never was there any repentance without sorrow there 's a pricking of the heart and pricking in the reins Acts 2. 37. There is no rest in the flesh by reason of the sin and broken bones That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Is it not sin that turns away the face of God and what then can arise to the soul but trouble Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled This is the first thing there is pain in sin and trouble it troubles our hearts and troubles our houses as it did Cains troubles the City and Country troubleth Israel Secondly In sin Brethren or accompanying it there is weakness and indisposedness when it s but growing on us it seizeth on the spirits the vigour first So how lazie and listless are we for divers days befâ—â—e it do appear and much more afterward Morbus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How wonderfully doth sin unbefit us for duty we even move to it as an arm or foot out of joynt when a man endeavours to bow it one way it falls quite another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust where they are in prevalency they are like to wens in a mans body which suck up the strength nourishment that which should supply the rest of the members it turns to its own swelling So doth pride turn that which should humble us that which would inflame our hearts and melt us to it self and so weakens us keepeth our love at an under that we cannot so livelily vigorously serve the Lord. We complain of our weak hands and feeble knees our indisposedness to the service of God believe it this is the reason of it sin unmortified this makes men reprobate to every good work men of no judgement no dexterity at all to
of us free-born if any by nature should have been free-born surely the seed of Abrahâ—m according to the flesh but our Saviour tells them their liberty was but imaginary if the Son did make them free they should be free indeed this is the third Fourthly by tenure and usurpation there is a bondage also as we see it in the case of Israel in Egypt they were bond-men in Egypt and they made them serve a hard bondage it is called the house of bondage they made them serve with rigour so saith the text in all manner of service the design of the King being to weary them out by degrees and yet to advantage himself by their service while they were wearying out this was their wise dealing with them lest they should be too hard for them and truly of this nature is the bondage wherein the people of God themselves are in part though the Devil have no title to them the price being paid for them to the justice of the Father yet he as a tyrannical â—aylor loath to let them go and therefore he loads them with chains laies heavy temptations upon them and sin rageth to lose its servant and therefore tyrannizeth and the Law in the members carryeth captive to the Law of sin and this is one great grief to the poor child of God that though sin do not raign in their mortal bodies yet it tyrannizeth over them and with a strong hand many times holds them down so as that they are not able to stir hand nor foot but more of this afterwards Now for the parts of this bondage with which the parts of that liberty or freedom we are to speak of will run parallel We shall devide this bondage into these two general parts it is either to sin or else to the black concomitants which are very many we shall particularize some of them and thereby our liberty will the more plainly appear First then for sin it is clear we are in bondage to sin either totally or in part all of us by nature altogether in bondage for we are sold under sin and though it be true that sin is only a privation of good and disposition to evil and so properly cannot be said to rule over us yet by a prosopopeia we are said to be in bondage to it therefore we are said to be sold under sin sold under it and therefore in Scripture it is that sin is called an old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts and this old man it is that hath the poor sinner under his power and ruleth him with subtilty O they are deceitful lusts â—he counsels of sin the fetches and tricks and devices depths and methods of a sinful heart who knoweth Brethren he carryeth it so slily that many think themselves at liberty as free-men as any the world hath yea so free as to promise to others liberty and yet themselves in the mean time are the servants of sin and not only so but theâ—â— are Laws of sin which carry a strength with them and the poor creature under them must obey them and these Laws are nothing else but the wills of the flesh as the Apostle calls them an arbitray government here beginneth and takes it rise Hoc volo sic jubeo c. saith the imperious person If a sinner begin to question what reason there is in such an act he is prompted to sin bloweth out the candle hoc volo c. let my will be a reason I will have it so So many lusts so many wills and is it not a bondage to be under these Ye were saith the Apostle the servants of sin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you and so in several other places whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin You talk of being Abrahams seed and never being in bondage this is nothing to my purpose I speak of a bondage to sin and he that commits it is the servant of it he that works it industriously is a drudge to his lusts as alas how many of us are and he that curiously works it is an Artist O with what art can some mon lye and cheat and cozen and play the hypocrites these are the servants of sin O when one fulfills the lusts of the flesh and of the mind maketh provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof This man is a servant of sin the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye the pride of life the love of profits the love of pleasures and the love of pride when men give themselves up to satisfie these study their lusts how to fulfill them this is a bondage under sin with a witness Now blessed be the Lord the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath delivered us as many as believe from this bondage so the Apostle breaks out pathetically Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you now saith he being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness and this is set forth by our death to sin ye are dead saith the Apostle to the Col. and your life is hid with Christ in God now death puts an end to all bondage 〈◊〉 as Job speaking of it the small and great are there in the grave and the servant is free from his Master A woman saith the Apostle speaking of sin of the Law with respect to sin as afterward we shall speak somewhat she is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if he be dead then she is free So it is in this case death breaks all the iron yoaks and brazen gates therefore saith the Apostle he that is dead is freed from sin not as the vulgar and some read is justified as if our justification and sanctification were confounded for here the Apostle is speaking of our Sanctification or the death of sin crucifying the old man of being buried with Christ in body and so dead to sin now saith he he that is dead is free from sin the Con. is comprehended in the Antecedent he is freed actually from sin Sin shall not have dominion over you saith the Apostle no iniquity shall have dominion over you Thus believers are freed from sin whereas before we were under a cruel bondage you that have experience of this liberty what it is to be freed from your former lusts which you served foolish and hurtful lusts the Lord teach you to prize it But secondly now for the Con. of this bondage to sin there are many and very dreadful which every poor sinner is under which are also as parts of this bondage First then hence it is that we are in bondage unto Satan that we are under his power that we are in bondage by nature to him as the Jaylor it is clear the Spirit that now
people Fifthly There is another part of bondage under a slavish obedience that is to say such an obedience to the Law of God as nothing but a slavish fear is the principle of it and truly this puts on men to do many things they know it is written Cursed is he that continueth not in every thing that is written in the book of the Law to do it Now this sticks with the poor soul God requireth me to love him with all my heart with all my soul with all my strength and if I do not I am cursed therefore now he buckles a little to it as far as such terrors will carry him but alas he is not able to do it like a slave that doth his task while his Master stands over him with a rod or because he is sure to be beaten if he do it not not out of any love to the Master nor to his service at all what a grievous bondage is this Let but any Apprentice that hath a hard Master whom he serveth meerly out of fear as the Egyptians did their task because if they did them not they must be beaten and this maketh the yoke very heavy and uneasie also it pincheth exceedingly Now when the Lord Jesus cometh to a soul he breaks this yoke the Law genders to bondage the curse of it hath the very seeds of bondage in it Now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul letteth him see that he hath undertaken for him not only the curse of the Law being made a curse but hath set his love upon him hath paid all the debt will take him to be his son no more as a servant O now when the soul beginneth to be sensible his condition is changed that he is a Son and now hath not a cruel hard Master to serve but a Father that will pity and spare where he falleth short of his duty let him do his best this doth much facilitate the work maketh the yoke easie and the burden light his Commandments are no more so grievous to the soul as they were before Now the Law of Christ is a perfect Law of Liberty to him before it was a Law gendring bondage for alas before it was only preached to the ear and that under the penalty of such a curse now it is written in the heart now there is an eccho in the soul resounding Thy will Lord will I do when he speaks any thing as the Law of love was upon the heart of Christ in the work of our Redemption now his Law is in our hearts and therefore we delight to do his will in some measure I delight in the Law of God after the inward man as the Apostle saith as a Servant it may be for a while under his Master hardly used yet afterward he changeth his manner of dealing with him offers him great immunities it may be to be of a Servant Son in Law to the King O now the Servant will be bored he will now become a willing servant and not be dragged to obedience by terrors and fears any more but willingly yieldeth up his members weapons of righteousness to holiness now the service is hearty and free his people shall be a willing people in the day of his power O saith the Apostle Ye were the servants of sin but now thanks be to God ye have from the heart obeyed the form of doctrine delivered to you from the heart that is to say out of love it cannot else well be from the heart for whom we dread with a slavish fear we hate and while the soul looks upon God as such a Judge as a cruel Master and his Law a cruel bloody Law nothing but blood and ruine to them that come not up unto it there is a hatred of God it is impossible to love him or his service and then the service such a man doth it is not from the heart a man may serve sin and yet do some service to God out of a slavish fear as most unbelievers do therefore they pray and therefore they read and therefore they do many things and yet serve sin but they never obey from the heart until this work be done the Law of love be written in their souls now you shall go forth you shall obey no more out of fear but out of love this is a Fifth Sixthly From the terrors and fears before a mans conversion which usually seize upon the creature in order to it for truly before the Lord hath to do with our hearts we are so dead asleep with the opium of sin that there must be somewhat to rouse us to awaken us usually there is a spirit of bondage which works fear and dread and terror in the soul that is to say when the Spirit of Christ breathing in the Commandment maketh sin appear to be sin exceeding sinfull and opens some of the terrors which sin doth breed in it witnesseth to the poor creature that he is in a state of condemnation that there is no way but one with him O now the soul beginneth to be amazed and startled and knoweth not what to do this runs him to the heart he had many afflictions and troubles in the flesh before never any came so near as this and no marvel because the Spirit of Jesus Christ hath wounded him at the very heart Brethren the Law of God is as I may say an Habeas Corpus or rather Animam apprehends or claps up a soul as I may say puts him in prison and therefore the Apostle useth that expression mind you the Scripture hath concluded all under sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath shut us up together all concluded under one prison in one dungeon that the promise which is of Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe but before Faith came we were kept under the Law I pray you minde it we were kept as in a Garrison as the Learned interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being shut up together unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed it is just as it is with a Prince he proclaimeth Pardon to all his Rebellious Subjects but withall he sendeth out his Messengers his Pursuivants to apprehend throw in prison keep under Bolts and Shakles as many of them as he can apprehend this is not contrary to his mercy nor proclamation of Pardon but in order to it subordinate to it that so his Pardon offered might be accepted they might sue for it So it is here the Law doth thus shut up a soul as I may say as when there is an High-way open for a man to walk in but he will go another way there it is hedged up at last he is so hedged in he cannot tell which way in the world to get out again O then if he could but finde the open way he would go in it So it is in this case the Lord maketh
sin but it prevails not to for sake it O no if any of all this would have done it what need the Lord Jesus then be annointed for that work to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound surely the Lord would do no nothing in vain but so much for this Application Then it may teach us the vanity of all conceit of liberty or freedom or going forth before the Lord Jesus come and shine upon a mans soul then they shall go forth not before what is the reason that the most of men can satisfie themselves with their condition as they do but they have some conceit they are at liberty were sinners perswaded that they are under the dominion of sin and Satan c. could they eat or drink or sleep what a fearful thing would we think it if the Devil had but power over our bodies to carry them whither he pleased to shatter and shake them at his pleasure but what is this to the having power over the soul over the will the affections the mind by keeping them in blindness and yet sinners do not believe they are in such a bondage but think they are free nor do I think there is any one thing doth keep more poor creatures in bondage then this they think they are free but let us see a little the vanity of such conceits First Some are so gross as to think they are born free when as you heard before We are born the children of wrath we are all born in the house of bondage in the Prison House and therefore we as well as our Parents are under bondage Can a slave bring forth any other then a slave If many of us look to the Rock whence we are hewen as the Prophet speaks we shall find that our very Parents were the servants of sin and it may be lived and died so and what then were they the slaves to Satan and can we be Christ his Free-men by Birth It cannot be surely It is very strange that men that know their Parents to be loose wicked prophane earthly carnal crearuâ—es that yet should bear up themselves with this priviledge they are born free they are Christians by birth such men little know what goeth to make a Christian can the bond-woman bring forth children that are free Secondly Others have a fairer pretence for it then this they think they are free by birth because they had faithful believing parents we have Abraham to our Father and we being his seed how can we be in bondage I must confefs Brethren this is something to me for as Satan hath servants born in his house in his kingdom so the Lord Jesus hath in his if bond-men were born bond-men and servants were born in the house then God hath servants also born to him and his servants are free in that sense that they are his servants and therefore it is remarkable in that of Leviticus they must let their servants go free and their children also for they are my servants saith the Lord whom I brought out of Egypt which was a Type of our spiritual bondage mind you the Lord calls them his servants his children as well as others only note here two or three things for the clearing of it First that this is by grace and not by nature for by nature and natural generation no man can beget nor woman bring forth any child that is free no though they themselves through the riches of grace are made free yet their children by nature are the children of wrath as well as others yea though they belong to the Election of grace and be saved whether they die in infancy or come to the acknowledgment of the truth and believe as the Apostle did yet by nature they are the children of wrath a sad condition our poor children are in by nature if parents did but well lay it to heart but what then doth this hinder but that by grace they may be free though by nature they are bound as the Apostle himself by nature was a child of wrath under the curse of the Law that is to say and in bondage but by grace he was free and why might not the Lord by grace make him free sooner if he pleased as well as later is it not all one with him can he not make children free as well as men if he please are not men purely receptives in the first grace and are not children as passive and receptive as any But secondly there is a freedom invisible and saving and a freedom visible and both by grace the freedom invisible when a soul is actually set at liberty from the power of sin and the bondage of his corruptions or else visible when there is ground for our judging they are so freed now many are visibly free that are not invisibly free at all so there is many an hypocritical professor that carries it so like a free-man of Christ that it would puzzle the most discernable spirit to discover that he is under the bondage of sin or Satan and yet he is so invisibly haply but visibly he is free that is to say appears to be so appears to be in Covenant with God for that is the freedom therefore where-ever Christ is spoken of as to preach liberty it is said still he is given as a Covenant to the people so many appear to be in Covenant and so visibly are such that invisibly are not and so the children of such holy parents who are in Covenant with God are visibly free though invisibly they may be in bondage that is to say they are in visibly in Covenant with God that is to say we have ground to judge charitably and hopefully of them that they are in Covenant with God and if they so die that they are â—aved by vertue of that Covenant there which for my own part I know no other revealed way of salvation and therefore if we deny them this we must either say there is no grounded hope of their salvation and I would be loath to be such a durus pater infanâ—um to deny all visibility of salvation to them Or else we must say the Lord hath left nothing upon record whereby we might have any comfort concerning little ones that die in that condition which what an impeachment it were to the wisdom grace of God in Christ I wish men would impartially consider And if they will say they may be saved can it be without the invisible grace have they not corrupt natures and the seeds of all sin in them and can any unclean thing enter into heaven and therefore sure they must be freed from sin and will we grant them the invisible grace that they come under that which is narrower and shall we deny them that which is larger would you think that man himself that should yield that a man may be in the Kings bed-Chamber but he may
of one as well as another grace which he hath begotten in the soul so that if a man find he thinketh he groweth in faith and thinketh he groweth in love and yet grow not in zeal for the glory of God groweth not in tenderness of heart and plyableness to his will this is not a right growth Alas how many of us then do not grow in grace indeed Seventhly Though there be an uniformity in growth yet we must not so understand it that every member groweth in the same measure with another and yet may grow also in its due proportion and so also in respect of graces there may be somewhat of truth in it but to speak the more distinctly First consider the members of the Church of Christ and our selves if we be such indeed though all the members of the Church of Christ do grow yet they do not grow all alike in the same measure the Apostle saith according to the effectual working in the measure of every part so that you see each part hath a measure every member hath not the same relation the same office in the body and so doth not require the same measure of strength or the same quantity or greatness Yea if it have a greater quantity then is meet it is a burthen and an hindrance as if the joynt of a finger should grow as much as the joynt of a mans knee would it not be monstrous and yet both joynts grow but each according to its proportion so that they grow all â—que but not â—qualiteâ— one as well as another but not one as much as another uniformiter and yet difformiter if every finger were as big as an arm what an hand would there be holding no proportion to the body though the rest grow this over-groweth its proportion It is true every child of God is not a David nor a Paul nor is every one called to those great undertakings that they were the more eminent places in the body of Christ we have the more we must look to it that we grow If a man be a Magistrate or a Minister I tell you Brethren it is not enough that they be as other men in grace and yet alas then what disproportion do some of us make in the body of Jesus Christ that stand in that relation to the body and yet O how do other members over-grow us Brethren they are not to be blamed for their growing so fast but we for our growing no fa 〈…〉 er nor any more proportionable to our relations for a Magistrate to have no more courage nor zeal then another man that is not called so to put it forth is unsuitable and so for wisdom and knowledge and so for Ministers are we as arms in the body and have scarce the strength of a little finger O how can we work for Christ do the works of our conditions if you see some eminent as blessed be his name there are eminent and have their measure of growth to their condition you should be followers of them follow after as hard as you can therefore Ministers should be ensamples to the flock in faith in puriry in holiness 1 Tim. 4. 12. an example to believe in word in conversation in faith in purity c. But alas Brethren may we not rather some of us take examples therein how weak is our faith yet I say where there are such of eminency and thou canst not reach them yet be not discouraged because thou canst not get so much light as the eye hath be not discouraged it is required there more then in another nor so much strength as an arm a leg when thou art it may be but as a little finger only there may be a proportion yea I will tell you Brethren pitty us pray for us Magistrates and Ministers for I do verily believe there are none fall so much short of our proportion of growth in grace according to our relations as we do But this is but the first And then secondly for the graces in every believer now the measure of every grace its growth as I think is much more hard to determine whether all graces do grow according to the proportion of the growth of any one of them that is to say whether love to God and zeal to his glory do grow according to the measure of every mans faith and so patience according to the measure of his faith indeed I am at a stand here if that one habit of grace did beget another faith did beget love it would be the more clear because then according to the strength of the causes the effect would be a strong cause a strong effect the habits of grace in us being not voluntary agents but I take it for granted that the efficient cause of all grace one as well as another is the same Spirit of the Father and the Son it is the supply of the Spirit as the Apostle calls it whereby we grow in any grace now the Spirit of God being a most free agent is not tyed up by a necessity of nature to work alike upon the same heart to the increase of every grace though he do work to the growth of every grace yet whether he doth equally work to the increase of them all So that what proportion of grace a Believer hath in one grace he hath the same proportion of strength in another is doubtful specially since the Lord who works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure knoweth what tryals he hath for every one of us some in one kind some in another some greater tryals for their faith and some for their self-denyal and some for their love may accordingly work but this is not so much material if we can find we grow in every grace of the Spirit whether we do grow alike in the measure of love as in the measure of faith or zeal or spiritualness as it will be very hard to judge considering how hard it is to judge of the strength of our habits by their acts which may accidentally be inter 〈…〉 itted and interrupted and considering whatever knowledge we have at the best of the faculties of our souls and their workings and so of the habits of grace in them So I take it 〈◊〉 is not so much considerable if we could come to know it only if we be sure we grow in all and that we grow according to the measure proportionable to our condition or relation to the body this the seventh Eighthly and 〈…〉 stly that I shall speak to the opening the nature of this growth in grace growth here hath no determined 〈◊〉 until death until we come actually to the spirits of just men made perfect in nature there is a determinate time for growth in quantity which is properly growth about thirty years the causes of it I leave School-men to dispute it is not so proper for us in this place in nature there is in this life yea haply
is in this case though a mans gifts and grace rise never so high and over-flow at his lips at his actions to make others also fruitful and to grow yet if there be not a continual supply from the Fountain would it subsist would it not languish therefore this is the comfort that he is an Author of it I the Lord hast thou not heard hast thou not known that I the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth faint not neither am weary and therefore though you faint and languish yet I faint not saith the Lord I will renew your strength therefore and ye shall run and not be weary though now you cannot lift up your heads therefore this is the first reason It must needs be perfect every good and every perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights if any be more perfect then another sure they are the gifts of his grace but this is but the first The second Reason may be an auxiliary to the first The Lord will perfect the work of grace he beginneth and therefore there is such an increase as the Apostle calls it the increase of God now why is this because he hath appointed a measure of a fulness of stature to be attained by us before we be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light a child while a child is scarce able to mannage an inheritance he knoweth not what it meaneth and so for a weak Christian and therefore mark you what our Saviour saith ye must be converted and become as little children else you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God he saw some pride and swelling and ambition of their spirits well faith our Saviour this must be fetched out of you one way or other either by love or by the rod or both before you will be fit to enter into glory O how heavenly and sweet do the Saints generally grow before the Lord takes them Brethren if so glorious a building as the temple of God be intended will every rough stone a rough-hewn-Christian be fit to lay in that building O no surely those knotty pieces shall be plained and smoothed and pollished before they be laid in that glorious Temple in heaven remember it I say Brethren there is a meetness for heaven and though haply many of us care not for it we would not be too meet for it lest we be taken to it before we be willing to part with the world never fear that while thou hast such a heart it is well if thou be not so far from it that thou never come thither thou needest not fear coming thither too soon But there are two causes which seem to call for a word here to open them First what will you say then to persons that it may be no sooner are converted but they dye what time have they to grow in grace and to come to this meetness of the inheritance of the Saints Remember what was said before that growth is not alway in all of the same pace What if God will create one Adam in perfect stature the first day and the rest grow to it by degrees why may it not be so what if some grow as the Lâ—â—lies shoot up quickly much in a night and others are longer about it if all must grow and come to this fittness before he take them and so if the Lord be a whole year turning water into wine in his ordinary way of providence which is wonderful and at another time though not so often do it in a moment who shall say to him what dost thou this is as perfect wine as fit to be drunk as rich and full of spirits as the other so the thief upon the Cross he made a large progess in a short time for I tell you to believe in the Lord Jesus and confess him and at such a time as that was was no small power of grace when himself was under the agonies of death and Christ under disgrace and the shame of the Cross and crucifying and dying yea under the displeasure of his Father crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when he was forsaken of his Father in a sort and forsaken of all men yeâ— and of his own Disciples also none of them then durst openly â—cknowledge him and crucifying at that time Peter had denyed him they all fled from him before though some of them stood and looked on yet if they had been put to it at that time it is a question what they would have done therefore our Saviour in tenderness towards them would have them be let go as you have it when himself was taken now at such a time as this when heaven and earth looked black upon our blessed Saviour to own him to despise the shame of the Cross at the first dash and to reprove his fellow that was crucified with him it was a great measure of faith I le tell you Brethren it is like he that wrought that in him had wrought a like measure of love when he told him he should this day be with him in Paradise what such a wretch as I that all my life time have lived so wickedly and now am dying under my guilt and in one day at the last moment to be translated into a glorious Kingdom O this could not but surely much enlarge his heart in love to the Lord Jesus and that is the perfection of the Law and so we see some Christians that grow more in a moneth in a year or two then many do in many years some are foolish children that stick long in the place of breaking forth some make haste and run much in a little time and therefore this hinders not but all should grow to their measure appointed of God before they come to heaven And for the children of Believers how can they come to this pitch you will say how can they grow â—o such a height of growth for answer First It is worth the noting that even they who deny them the priviledges of the Covenant of grace which are visible and outward in the Church of God yet dare not profess whatever they think to the contrary but that they are saved or may be saved and profess tender thoughts of them they are not such duri patres infantum as to exclude them out of the Kingdom it was the Disciples fault you know and so it may be good mens now to hinder them from coming to Christ they thought they were but troublesom guests to him they were capable of little and therefore forbad them but they got a rebuke for their labour what saith our Saviour is it not clear enough even from the old Scripture for there were no other then written and they had means to know that they did belong to Christ and the Kingdom else he would not have reproved them Do you not know to such belongs the Kingdom of God you might have known and ought to
worse as the Apostle saith evil men and seducers grow worse and indeed we must know this Brethren we do grow either better or worse as haply afterward we shall have occasion to speak to at large either the house of David groweth stronger or the house of Saul either the flesh or the spirit prevails in the hearts of the people of God there are two sorts of persons whose condition is under this consideration First Such as have profest the name of Jesus Christ and yet alas though they were green for a while now their leaf is fallen their light is gone out they are fallen from their place of standing among the Saints in appearance never was there an age more fruitful in such barrenness then this is alas like a Fir-tree shaken with the wind they lose their fruit yea are turned up by the roots and now are become as a dry stick fit for nothing but to burn the latter end of such men is worse then their beginning they are trees twice dead not only dead by nature but have lost their profession which was a visible life whereby they did appear to men to be alive and is there any hope of such a tree living again truly Brethren very little I have oberved it and I wish I could look upon it with a more trembling heart that such men as these grow worse fall off and decline they are the saddest hard-hearted desperate prophane wretches afterward or the most besotted worldlings and seldom are they recovered I know not whether I may speak to any such at this time I hope the best things of you if there be any such let me tell thee thou art in a more dangerous condition then those that never knew God to this day Secondly Such as never yet had appearance of being planted into Jesus Christ and so no growth in them but are yet in their naturals know this day you are growing worse and worse the Gospel doth not return in vain you are worse every day then other every Sermon then other the Gospel is a savour of death to death to you as there is nothing doth condemn sinners like to the Gospel rejected so nothing doth harden sinners more then the Gospel and those precious promises which men give the hearing to day by day but alas that is all Isaiah the most Evangelical Prophet he cometh with a make you the ears of this people heavy that hearing they might hear and not perceive If the Son be not kissed when he is offered to sinners but they turn their backs upon him he will be angry if the more worthy person be suitor and be denyed and slighted and the heel lift up against him will not this provoke him think you surely it will therefore God doth usually give up such to a reprobate mind yea even for despising the light of nature much more the Gospel and giveth them up to hardness of heart you shall ordinarily see where the Gospel cometh at the first among a people it works more mightily then afterward at first though men are prophane yet they have not had the Sun-shine to harden the Clay into a Brick the Word of God this Gospel and means of growth it is as fire the coals of love and either they do melt or else burn sinners into stones and bricks and sear their consciences that they are even past feeling hence it is we have so many desperately wicked persons among us O how sad a condition is this Brethren to be growing worse and worse under the greatest mercy and love that the Lord manifesteth to any Sinners in good earnest do you think it is the way to heaven to grow worse and worse or the way to the Chambers of death Thou knowest thy self to be a more desperate prophane wretch then formerly making no conscience of that which heretofore thy soul it may be hath trembled at now it goeth down without regret or else if not in open prophaneness if thou meltest away in secret wickedness that no eye takes notice of and art worse and worse what will the end of these things be the Saints that grow they grow up into the likeness and image and glory of Christ they grow up into him and thou growest up into the likeness of the Devil up in t 〈…〉 im What will become of you O that sinners would but lay these things to heart if heretofore thou wast overtaken with a sin it may be it was some trouble to thee now thou wilt work the works of the Devil thy will is ingaged and so much the more haynous the sin is what can you expect Brethren O that God would open sinners eyes that they might but see whether they are going what they are doing and they could but consider what bitterness this will be in the latter end to grow worse and worse The next Vse shall be then Brethren to take an account of our selves whether we grow or go backward yea or no this is not the work of every day Brethren for it will hardly be discernable if we daily should put our selves to the tryal we should do nothing else it would eat up that time and those endeavours to grow which ought to be laid out upon it that so it may afterward appear a man that should spend every day in casting up his whole Books to see how he groweth in his estate would hâ—nder himself of those endeavours to thrive that must be used else he cannot thrive besides this growth is not the work of a day usually though sometimes it may be so but of moneths or a year or so if a man should sit by his tree or set his eye upon his child to behold his motion or growth he would lose his labour it is better seen afterward as in another place afterward shall be spoken besides if we should daily judge of our growth and try it alas what inconstant judgements should we make of our condition for some daies we are up and some daies down it may be some daies under the power of a temptation and other daies set at liberty from them sometimes the Merchant maketh a losing bargain sometimes a winning sometimes his cash cometh in and sometimes he is all in disbursments therefore he must not he cannot judge of his estate whether he prosper or thrive by this or that day but after a while he should look to it cast up his Books see how it standeth Brethren it is impossible to perswade a Merchant except he be Bankrupt and knoweth it is so and therefore hath no mind to look upon his misery else I say you cannot perswade a Merchant but he will take his set times for perusing his Books casting up his accounts and not let it run too long neither for fear of the worst and if any should advise him to the contrary he would take him to be his enemy suspect him for one that would undo him and yet alas how easie
thee yet wave all come clearly off it and alone cast thy self upon the waters commit thy self to the deep where no bottom is to be felt this is growing in the root indeed Thirdly In humility this is another which indeed doth follow upon the other and must needs do so for nothing emptyeth more then faith nothing layeth the soul lower and indeed this is the prospering grace of the soul that soul that is lifted up as the Prophet saith is not right within him Learn of me saith our Saviour for I am meek and lowly O when the soul is thus low then it is hungry and thirsty and poor in Spirit and then it sucks from the Lord Jesus then a taste of his love is sweet to the soul then the Spirit being ready to yield to God in every thing to do all his will God is ready to yield to the soul in every thing that he requireth agreeable to his will how do we grow in humility Brethren examine this it is the first and second and third and every step of Jacobs Ladder dost thou find that whereas thou wast wont to over-look and undervalue in comparison of thy self now rather thou thinkest in good earnest that every one fearing God is better then thy self because of the vileness of thine own heart thou seest before thou couldst not bear a reproof but if thou didst not turn and all to rent him that reproved thee though with never so much mildness yet thou wouldst snarl and quarrel and be ready to cast as much as that came to into his own teeth that reproved thee now if thou be reproved thou hast nothing to say but fearest thy heart it may be too true of thee now it is welcome thou lovest them that reprove thee so much the more Brethren it may be heretofore you would be apt to complain of your selves and of your own vileness and make sad mone and yet if another speak but an ill word of you yea if they speak no more of you then you deserve you could not bear it now if they speak ill of you art thou ready to lay thy hand upon thy mouth sure the Lord hath bid them speak evil and there is cause enough for it and they cannot say worse of me then I am O here is a growth in humility before thou wert ready to envy every one that had more gifts or more grace more of the hearts of Gods people then thy self now thou art ready to say with Moses enviest thou for my sake thou canst sweetly submit to his disposal of thee the least thou hast is more then thou deservest O this is that which obtains much of the Lord when thy heart is in such a frame it is fit to receive so Jacob he was less then the least of his mercies it was an argument wherewith he pleaded with the Lord thou art content to be any thing though in never so mean a degree of service to him so be he will be but thy Father and own thee if thou mayst not be with him in the transfiguration upon the mount if thou mayst be but a Disciple if thou mayst not get within the cloud with Moses nor be a Benjamin yet if thou mayst be a Son and a Subject though no Favourite this is that thou art contented with O here is a growth Brethren search and try are we come to this pitch or how far are we gone herein is it better with us then it hath been in this respect But then secondly we must try whether we grow upward yea or no as well as downward and this I shall consider according to the chief faculties of the soul the mind and the will and speak somewhat to each of them And first for the mind the understanding 1. Do you find Brethren that you grow and increase in the knowledge of his will that the darkness that is upon your hearts naturally doth vanish by any degrees do you find the vail doth wear thinner that was upon your hearts that you begin to behold the Lord Jesus with a more open face then before time was when you were babes in understanding are you new men and women or are you past the state of babes Alas I doubt if the treasuries of our hearts were laid open we should find them very empty of this heavenly knowledge how few can bring out of their treasuries both new and old This will appear in these two things specially First if you be apt to be tossed up and down with every wind of Doctrine and are not-stablished in the present truth but your minds are floating and hovering and ready to settle upon any thing that is presented to you though contrary to what you have received it is a sign that you are but children in understanding how easie is it to deceive children to put upon them Counters instead of Gold to make them part with the one for the other and how easie is it to lead captive silly-women as the Apostle calls them that are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth a weak eye that cannot discern between things that differ hath not his senses exercised to discern it is very easie to put one thing upon them for another truly Brethren these times have the name for times of great light and greater knowledge then there was before and I do believe that knowledge shall encrease by going too and fro but yet for all that mens eyes are very weak they cannot discern between light and darkness but put darkness for light for what is the ground of all errour is it not the ignorance of the Scripture and the power of God and was there ever any times more fruitful in errour then these are Alas Brethren what strangers are many of us to the very principles of Religion if examined in them that pretend to such high discoveries and revelations of Christ in our times such have need of milk and not of strong meat the wisdom of God in a mysterie is a riddle to them the Apostle spake it to them that were perfect that is to say grown men and women in opposition to babes Well then look to it if you find your selves easie to be shaken to turn with every wind of Doctrine like a weather-cock it argues you are but children but babes you may perswade a child to any thing to be of twenty minds in an hour because alas he hath no sound well-grounded knowledge of any thing you may perswade him to part with his meat his drink for a toy or by some pretended loathsomness in it that is not and so it is with poor weak ignorant souls how do we see many cheated out of Ordinances out of duties out of close walkings with God as things of no moment by the cunning craftiness of them who lie in wait to deceive It is a sad thing to see persons that should be of greater knowledge then
ordinary that in things so much controverted as they are now a daies can in a few daies time be so tost with a wind of Doctrine as to take up a strange a contrary practise this easiness to forgo our principles argues we are childish and weak Secondly Are we grown in understanding you will find it by this thou wilt not be so ready so easie to take offence as heretofore thou hast been alas before men are acquainted with the waies of God at all you see they are offended at every thing they see the Jews were offended with the meanness of Jesus Christ his descent that he was the Carpenters Son he was not like to be the Messias alas it was the weakness of their understanding they did not consider those Scriptures where it is said there should be no beauty in him that we should desire him and that he should come meek and lowly riding upon an Ass and so they were offended at his Doctrine when he told them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood they could not conceive of it and many of his Disciples went backward and walked with him no more And so sinners O they stumble at every thing in the people of God when they consider them and pry into them and find they miss it and fall in their duties they are prejudiced strongly against the waies of God upon this score alas it is ignorance they know not that they have a corrupt principle within whereby they are laid open to sin when lust and temptation meeteth except the Lord do wonderfully keep them they expect they should be as the Angels in heaven altogether spotless and pure even while they are upon the earth and therefore they are offended And so a weak child of God that is newly come on to grace alas every little thing in the way they stumble at for this offending is nothing else but stumbling upon a thing so as to hurt themselves by it either by being drawn to sin thereby being encouraged to sin thereby or else by being grieved at it without cause you know a child cannot get over that which a man maketh nothing of but he stumbleth and falleth so the Apostle where he discusseth of the use of indifferent things saith he All men have not this knowledge that an Idol is nothing and therefore if some weak ones see a Brother that is strong eat of that which was offered to an Idol which he knoweth to be lawful for him to do he is offended at it this argues weakness now have we found it so that we have been apt to take offence at any thing at every thing in others almost and now we can bear it argues we see more clearly the grounds of such actions but thus much for this Secondly Another part of this growth upward I place in the will which is indeed the main the commanding faculty of the soul and indeed wherein the main of faith doth lie and of other graces as of tender-heartedness and the like dost thou find then that heretofore thy will was more unsettled and wavering being as I may say halting between two thou wast not able to come up so fully to such a resolution for God and for Christ as to trample all under-foot for them thou wouldst have them but either hadst some reservation in such a case thou wouldst be saved now thy resolution breaks through all whatsoever this is growth indeed A man of a weak resolution for Christ alas if a temptation come to deny him the allurements of the world he forsakes him with Demas and imbraceth the present world or the frowns of the world he draweth baâ—k to perdition or else is foiled with Peter or at least much abated in his zeal groweth to a more indifferency of Spirit would joyn Christ and Moses together with the temporizing Jews to keep themselves from being persecuted and as Peter himself afterward alas his resolution was not yet so strong as afterward for fear of the Jews he did forbear to walk with the Gentiles as before he had done and so was an offence to them Ah dear friends it may be some of us can tell the time when for fear of men we have sadly miscarried is it better with us now have we now more courage have we for fear of shame come to Christ with Nicodemus by night and now are we not ashamed of Christ nor of his Gospel As the Apostle he was not ashamed of it though it were persecuted and though his meanness of speech were despised his preaching in a suitable manner to the subject which is a great part of a Preachers duty he was not ashamed Well then now consider doth the Lord give thee such boldness such courage such resolution of heart as to hold fast the Word of his patience the suffering-truth it may be we may be tryed in this point if we be not grown we shall miscarry as heretofore we have done Alas Brethren a little touch with a finger a little blast will blow a c 〈…〉 d over and over but if we be grown we shall find greater resolutions against sin to avoid the occasions of it do you find Brethren O the yielding frame of your hearts to sin to weakness every day it is weaker then heretofore and done away that now you can peremptorily deny a lust deny a temptation O you may not do this and sin against God! then we are grown in the will indeed and the more strong we grow in these resolutions the more we grow in this respect but if we cannot cease to sin Brethren we are where we were it may be we may be sometimes affected a little with our sins upon a flash or pang but have no power nor strength to resist our wills our wills are as weak as water to any thing that is good and against sin we grow not Brethren Again as thus downward and upward so see how we grow in fruitfulness we have spoken at large to that subject that we must bring forth fruits or else we cannot escape the Axe now I speak of the measure of the growth therein a young tree of the first year cannot be expected to bear so much as when better grown no more a young Christian here I would only mind you of two things First that we bring forth more fruit that is that we do more for God then we have done and for his people and for our own souls it may be thou hast heretofore but now and then prayed to God dost thou now do it more often it may be three times a day with Daniel and David It may be heretofore thou gavest but little to the relief of the poor Saints and others in distress dost thou now give more and more proportionable to thy estate as the Lord hath blessed thee for that is the proportion which the Apostle maketh and so where heretofore thou didst speak but now and then a savory word now
dost thou grow in that is thy communication much more seasoned and savoury is it all savoury tending to minister grace to the hearers heretofore thou hadst it may be scarce a thought of God in a day now he is the object of the workings of thy soul the thoughts of him are pleasant to thee this is an high condition it argues thou hast grown thou art in a growing condtition but this is not all Brethren Secondly Is that more fruit you bring forth better then it was before is it more mellow then formerly or if thou bring forth no more in number is it more in weight for God takes not our services by number but by weight and it is a sottishness of the poor blind Papists to think that God is pleased with their much speaking with pattering over so many Avy Maries and Pater Nosters or principles of the Doctrine of Christ I wish our practises be not too like theirs It may be heretofore thou couldest not enlarge thy self in prayer and now thou canst and thou thinkest thou art much grown it may be in bulk but not in goodness are thy prayers now more the breathings of the Spirit of Christ within thee and less of thine own Spirit O how much strange fire mingled with our sacrifices and strange incense strange zeal even our own passions instead of a zeal for God! Now Brethren is our zeal and fire more pure coming down from heaven even from the Spirit of Jesus Christ warming our hearts Look to this do we find that we grow more spiritual in duties in prayer do we act our faith more strongly wrestle with God in spirit more then in words children are apt to be taken with bables and pictures and flowers in the corn and we wâ—th sweet and quaint expressions but now have we learned to worship him more in spirit and in truth to know that the great work of our duties lie in the frame of our hearts toward God in prayer in preaching in hearing of the Word It is childishness Brethren for one never to be well or to place so much in it to be alway upon the lap and dandled do we find that now we would rather be made serviceable to him and do it with more pure hearts more pure ends not for our selves but for his glory we ask not gifts parts grace to spend it upon our lusts as heretofore not â—or our own peace that we might take our ends but that we might be fitter instruments in his hands for his glory not for our own praise and honour among men O look to this I tell you there is nothing sticks closer to us then this now doth this sowrness crabbidness of our fruits wear away by degrees is it better with us in these respects then before this is a sign of growth indeed I will add but one more and that shall be this Dost thou â—ind that thou growest by the opposition thou meetest with in the work of grace either from without or from within or any way whatsoever First I say from opposition without grace will grow and gather strength and this either from men or from the Lood from men when they oppose the way of God wherein we walk we must look to it that we grow so much the stronger for that is the nature of grace Brethren as when Paul preached the faith which once he had destroyed and the people were amazed saith the Text and they spake of him as a changling is not this he that wasted them that called upon his name in Jerusalem but Saul waxed so much the stronger and confounded the Jews that dwelled at Damaseus proving that this was the Christ As the fire they say is hotter by antiperistasis in coldest weather the Palm-trees they grow like as you heard in the proof that raiseth it self up under a weight of opposition Well look to this Brethren I do not mean an Ish 〈…〉 elitish spirit that is against every one and every mans hand against it and that a man should out of a cross crooked disposition do any thing or vex and gall persons that oppose them but grace will then be stirred up as the fire by the wind that bloweth it this way and that way it is in vain to blow it out to offer it for it increaseth the flame there is no resisting that Spirit whereby the Saints a 〈…〉 ted look to it is it thus with us or do we find that opposition from men doth cool us discourage us dishearten us so that we dare not own the Lord Jesus and his truth and way Truly it is to be feared it is not right with us Secondly From the Lord there is some opposition sometimes he wrestleth with us Jacobs wrestling with God implyeth some opposition of God as I may say he wrestled with him let me go saith he this stirreth him up so much the more earnestly to lay hold upon him when the Lord would take his leave of him and you see the poor man in the Gospel when he was rebuked for crying after Jesus Christ he cryed so much the more earnestly and so our Saviour when he was in that great agony or striving under the displeasure of his Father saith the Text he prayed so much the more earnestly So the Lord doth sometimes hang back or hide his face that he might draw out more and more his peoples hearts toward him as a Fisher draweth away his bait to make the fish follow it the more eagerly Well consider this now do we thus grow even by opposition if the Lord say to us we are dogs not fit for childrens bread can we conclude the worst against our selves and yet gather upon him for the crums at the least But then there is opposition from our selves from within and that is from the rebelling of our lusts they rise and swell and many times over-bear us we are foiled do we grow by this this may seem somewhat strange that the acting of sin should tend to the encreasing of grace for that we must know that it is not proper for every act of sin properly doth strengthen the habits of sin and the stronger sin is in the soul the weaker grace is like to be as the more the water cools the less heat there is remaining in it but it is by accident as water cast upon a coal-fire at present it seemeth to put it out but afterward it burns so much the hotter and fiercer So grace takes occasion hereby to stir up it self so much the more to set it self so much the more in opposition to it it maketh a child of God so much the more humble so much the more watchful and full of prayer if it be right with them and neither sin nor Satan gets by this at all So if Peter be tost in that sieve of vanity that temptation and fall O how it humbles him and how afterward it fetcheth him off his own bottom how valiant he
necessity and distress O be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful take him for oâ—â— pattern and there will be continual room for growth and increase So the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians that as they abounded in other graces so they would labour to abound in this also Ah where are bowels Brethren towards one anothers souls with what tenderness did the Apostle stand over the souls of those poor people warning them day and night with tears And our Saviour over Jerusalem now I tell you again weeping saith the Apostle O that God would give such a heart to us and such a heart to his people indeed there is little tenderness and bowels one towards another little pittying one another while under temptation we can rather raise our hearts one against another stomack one another entertain prejudice one against another upon this account but a spirit of meekness and love and tenderness in restoring setting one another in joint if we be faln is not found among us or very little O labour to grow here and then to abound in works of mercy to give and give much liberally and do it with a tender heart an upright heart out of obedience to God not for ostentation But fifthly Labour to grow in softness of heart to see the stone wasting day by day I do not mean by softness of heart only an aptness to melt into tears for many an one may have a soft heart that cannot weep at all though most dispositions are apt to it and where it is it is a sweet expression of the heart towards Christ often-times though I must tell you there may be much of this and yet much hardness of heart many tears shed and it may be upon the consideration of sin and yet the heart hard to this day the softness of the heart Brethren lies most what in the plyableness and yielding of the spirit to God when we are ready to do all the will of God as David I have found David my servant one that will do all my will that is ready to say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Now alas there is many a wretched heart that it may be under a passion weeping at the apprehension of sin and yet go away and return to it again and again the heart is not plyable but stubborn wherein did lie the hardness of Pharaohs heart it lay in this that he would not harken to the Lord nor let Israel go though he had had so many judgements and so many deliverances yet all would not soften his heart no the iron sinews in his stiff neck they remained such still though sometimes he seemed to relent yet alas no sooner the hand was off but the heart was more hard then before he strouted it out and would not yield to let Israel go So when the Lord heapeth mercy upon mercy to melt out the sâ—one in the heart to make it like wax to the fire to the mould to be put into a fashion and it may be sometimes it draweth a few tears from the eyes but the heart is never the more plyable to God And so he cometh with rod upon rod blow after blow and yet doth it gently and all to foften and make the poor creature more plyable to him it affecteth a little sometimes but is not the heart as stubborn as unteachable as far from yielding to God in all things as before O this is the softness as a piece of joyners work it is all glued together one part to another Now then it is dissolved and broken when the glue the soder is melted and one piece falls from another so it is here our hearts and their sinful objects are glued together by carnal affections now then the heart is said to be broken to a softness when these affections are dissolved when our hearts and our objects of sin fall asunder each from the other labour to grow herein Brethren Sixthly To be more spiritual in holy duties more inward in our Communion with God you have heard this spoken to in the tryall O labour then to grow in spiritualness in prayer to pray with more faith with more fervency with more purity of heart not to ask any thing to spend it upon our lusts In meditation to keep closer to it without distraction and so to read to hear to do all these duties in a better manner but enough of this already Seventhly In your holy walking with God and with your selves as the Apostle saith we be seech you Brethren by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how ye ought to walk and please God so you abound more and more when a man walks with God alvvay setteth the Lord as before his face as the Psalmist speaks then he vvill be able to vvalk pleasingly to him vvhen by faith he seeth him that is invisible that is to say God to be present vvith him and knovveth him to ponder his vvaies O hovv eareful shall vve be then of our thoughts as vvell as of our vvords and actions and this vve do by faith believing his presence vvith us and his all-seeing eye to be upon us still upon our hearts and all their vvorkings according to the prevailing of these persvvasions and the constancy of them upon our spirits vvill our vvaies be ordered such a man vvill not dare to harbour vain thoughts in his heart though they vvill rudely rush in as a ruffian may rudely offer violence to a chast Matron she vvill not endure it so it is here O no I dare not as Joseph you see and then vvalking vvith our selves by more and more restection upon our selves upon our actions our waies the very truth is the want of this is the great cause we grow so little or if we do that we can take so little comfort in it herein lies the excellency and glory of a man above a beast that he can recoyl upon his own actions therefore labour to improve this O be more in it reproving your selves when you find you have done amiss whip those vain thoughts which pass through your souls and give them their Pass exhort your selves stir up your selves comfort and chear your selves in your God which you cannot do except you be much in this part of an holy walking even reflecting upon your selves and your own state Eighthly and lastly that I shall speak to shall be this To labour to grow more and more in that assurance of your relative grace your adoption the growth and other grace its true is a great help unto it but labour to improve it to that end how chearfully might many a poor soul walk if they did but know the things which are freely given them of God O beg the Spirit to be a witnessing a sealing-spirit to you more and more And do the same diligence saith the Apostle to the full assurance of hope unto the end we do content
then ordinarily and indeed I do desire to pitty such as yet cannot see this but this is not all Secondly There is the use and improvement of the Ordinances which is much more necessary then the other desire the sincere milk of the Word milk for sweetness and nourishing and sincere without mixture of errour or humane wisdom Alas Brethren if we come not to it with desires get our affections up when we come to it and look not to it that we digest it when we have heard it we are not likely to grow by it Alas alas no marvel we are so lean in our souls some of us as if God bad in heavy displeasure sent the curse upon us what is the matter we come to hear the Word but with what affections come reeking out of the World into it with our heads and hearts full of it the stomack is full already there is no room for the Word to take place in our hearts and we are much for hearing but digest but little Ah Brethren this meditation upon what we hear we are all of us short in that is the man that groweth indeed as in the first Psalm he shall flourish that meditates day and night For my own part I am perswaded that upon a Sabbath-day it is not so much how much we hear to spend our whole time in it that there is no time left for chewing upon it for working it upon the heart by meditation No plough-man would do so think he never plougheth and soweth enough and never maketh use of the harrowing Alas much of it is stoln away he hath little increase we go â—ow out of the presence of God and into the world again over head and ears without any care to work the Word upon our souls how can you expect to prosper in your souls you may have fat purses but you are like to have but lean souls you digest not your meat a Physitian will tell you it is not how much you eat but how much you digest that tends to health and growth And so for the other Ordinances of the Supper there is meat indeed and drink indeed but do we look to it to improve that Ordinance for strengtheuing of faith to get our graces up our appetites up our faith our love upon the wing when we come to act faith and love in the Ordinance to draw from the Lord Jesus to drink and drink abundantly Alas wisdom hath killed her beasts and mixed her wine and furnished her table among us and we come indeed but without wedding-garments many times and without appetites and so we are cast out and instead of receiving Christ more and more of him we are more hardened Satan entereth into some poor souls Ah no marvel then if they grow not in grace If we had not the fat things of the house of God Brethren it were something but the Lord hath not denyed them to us his table is richly furnished the dainties are the same though the Maidens that are sent forth now to call you are weak and unworthy that should not derogate from the esteem of the feast now what can we say for our selves if we will play with our meat if we will not fall on when we come to it if we matter not for digesting it where Brethren will the guilt lie O be humbled for that we have neglected this salvation so much as we have done though it may be we have not mist an opportunity yet that we make no better use of them then we have done that is the first step to a reformation of it Do you think this vvere a pleasing carriage of a child vvhen he is poor and lean and ill-favoured his Father provideth a rich banquet royal dainties for him setteth them before him intreateth him to fall on he complains of his vveakness and faintness and yet vvill not eat this is frovvardness it is not pleasing to God vvho hath so richly provided for us to hear his people complaining alvvay of their vveakness in faith and vveakness in love and all graces of the Spirit and though he hath provided such dainties for them in his Ordinances as never eye savv nor any tasted but a Believer and they might be fat and flourishing if they vvere not vvretchedly vvanting to themselves they complain and complain but never mind it to eat to feed to improve the Ordinances for this their grovvth I have spoken the more largely here because I knovv Brethren I knovv it is our ovvn vvretched neglect of our selves in this case that is the great cause of our vvant of grovvth Fifthly Another help shall be this labour to get the distempers of your souls healed that hinder your grovvth it is impossible vvhile a man hath a Woolf in his flesh or a greedy vven that sucks all the nourishment from the body that he should grovv Alas every one of us can best tell vvhere our diseases are Some have obstructions betvveen the head and the heart the passages are not opened and so they grovv indeed in the head but the heart is poor and dry and vvithered all notion and no affection hovv little affection have vve the most of us nothing ansvverable to vvhat vve apprehend of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ all is not vvell vvith us Brethren Alas hovv many of us have surfeited of the vvorld and the comforts thereoâ— and so our appetites are lost to these dainties and fat things of the house of God vvhereby we should grovv up like Calves of the stall O for Christs sake and as you love your souls take heed of the vvorld and love of it Ah vve little knovv hovv close it sticks to us and hovv indiscernably it insinuates it self upon us It may be we consume all upon our lusts make all we have received but a stepping-stone to raise our proud spirits upon how apt we are to be admiring our selves this was well done and that was well done by us instead of admiring rich grace to such poor dust and ashes as we are this dammeth up the fountain Brethren this provokes God to withdraw his Spirit and presence and alas what can vve do then then vve see vvhat vve are Well if we would grow we must begin at the right end we must labour to get these lusts that do prevail down if a child have such a disease as the Rickets or some other disease upon it you may give it all the nursing and tending and feeding that can be it will never grow uniformly but all runs into the head It is in vain to complain of the want of growth the way is to go to the Physitian get some prescription for the healing of the disease and so we must look to it Brethren if any object come between the Lord Jesus and your hearts and so interrupt the sweet and saving influences of Christ from you you cannot grow you see that shrubs in the Wilderness that never see where good cometh or
see it by experience in all things what low minds what poor and weak apprehensions they have that are exercised upon low objects never rise higher what heightens the mind of a Prince but the thoughts of a Kingdom What difference is there between the mind of the meanest Mechanick and the deepest Polititian Such difference must there needs be between the heart of a man that is poring alway upon low things and God is very little dwelt upon It is said of Moses that is the ground of it he waxed great saith the Text not only in body but in mind and Spirit he waxed strong in Spirit was a man of a great mind his eye was upon him that is invisible the great God Jehovah Elohim who giveth being to his promises keepeth Covenant with his people and is Mighty Almighty can do what he will do in heaven and earth and all deep places This made him so great therefore he was above the fears of the Kings wrath he cared not for it Before indeed he was afraid and fled he then had not had so much converse with God and contemplation of him and knowledge of him as afterward he had Well then you say your faith is weak you know not how to get it strengthened lift up your thoughts to this great object do but peruse his name a little now and then yea often the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful c. See if there be not an abundance there to swallow up all thy doubts and fears O thou art a miserable creature it is true but he is a merciful God and thy misery is but the misery of a creature and his mercy is the mercy of a Creator a God and what are thy thoughts of thy misery when thou hast aggravated it to the height as much as can be they are but finite thoughts and his thoughts of pardon and mercy they are the thoughts of a God infinitely above thy thoughts either of misery or mercy if his thoughts of mercy and pardon were not more then ours we were in a sad condition for then they would never answer his thoughts of our misery which are infinitely above ours of our own misery Alas but I am the most vile unworthy wretch in the world O you know not what I am alas is it for such an one as I to believe Suppose so he is gracious O it is most free infinitely free what he giveth he looks for nothing at thy hands only acceptance O but sure I have wearied out his patience he hath waited upon me so long he is long suffering O but I have such an abundance of sin my heart is so full there is an abundance of goodness abundantly pardon in him yea and truth also c. Alas but I shall never hold out nor keep my heart with him I shall quickly back-slide But he it is that keepeth mercy for thousands O if our hearts were but much in meditation of God his name the Lord our righteousness and this name his works the great things that he hath done how would it raise our spirits to believe and how would it increase our love to him and our fear of him There is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared we should find a very great influence upon all our Graces to increase them even from the greatness the fulness the riches of this Object O his Almighty Arm whereby he laid the foundations of the heavens and earth and hanged the earth upon nothing and what then though thou be nothing he can lay a foundation of eternal comfort and an heavenly Kingdom as well as the earth upon nothing and bestow his riches of Grace as well as his power and wisdom upon nothing therefore labour much to improve this great Object O it will take the heart much off these poor little nothing vanities of the world it will make us contented with our portion it will arm us against all the fears of men and lights of the world what will it not do if the Lord be pleased but to breath upon our endeavours in fixing our hearts upon this so high an Object Eighthly Another is to use the Society of growing Christians there is much in the communion of Saints which presupposeth an union maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it self in love as the Fellowship of the Graces of the Spirit and their co-operation or working together doth help to strengthen the whole so the Fellowship of the Saints tends very much to building up So the Church When they continued together daily with one accord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one consent with one heart then the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved and not only so but hereby the hands of the people of God are strengthened and their spirits quickened the fire groweth to a flame when many brands are laid together if there be but one live coal and many dead ones lay them together and there will be an increase of the heat he that will walk alone and apart from the communion of Saints I do believe shall quickly know by his own spirit what the want of them is but now there are some that are move growing and grown then others are alas how many are under diseases the world or somewhat as bad that they are at a stand proced not or rather decline there is little to be got by the fellowship of such no no the people that we find are so full they are over flowing continually their lips feed many they are bringing out of the good treasury of their hearts things both new and old they are still telling what the Lord hath done for their souls or still they are stirring up others you shall receive something still if your own hearts be not out of frame to receive O how the example of a lively sensible diligent close-walking Christian will provoke us as the Apostle saith Your charity hath provoked many it will put us upon it to follow harder after God To do the same diligence with them to the full assurance of hope to the end wherefore else are the experiences and examples of the Saints in Scripture written what David found and Jacob found by experience of God in prayer wrestling with him and what their fallings cost them both but that they being dead might yet speak to us and with us and we might converse with their living examples though themselves be dead even as faithful Abel being dead yet speaketh and why should there not be such a Fellowship of Saints to communicate what they have found of God I do believe Brethren some of us may with thankful hearts bless the Lord that ever we saw the faces of some of his people that we have by their examples and by their words been much quickened much stirred up much provoked therefore if we would grow converse with such if thou be weak in faith find out some of the
have not heard saith the Apostle And Faith cometh by hearing and therefore it is called the word of Faith and therein the righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith thereby wherein even in the Gospel preached of which the Apostle was not ashamed by the preaching thereof poor creatures were brought to believe in the Lord Jesus and so the righteousness of Christ was revealed therein to them and conveighed to them by Faith I know not what course the Lord holds with the Heathen to whom the Gospel is not preached by men like themselves nor hath the Lord given us a positive account of his dealing with them and therefore I meddle not with it but this is the ordinary way of Gods working of Faith in them who come to be capable of hearing the Word and understanding of it therefore usually if God intend to bring on such a soul or such a soul he will bring them under the Word either to dwell under it or the Word accidentally to be among them It is observable that in Pauls conversion only he himself heard the voice of him that talked with him not the men that were with him because God intended this vision for Paul and not for them they are said in another place to hear a voice but not the voice of God but the voice of Paul and wondered to hear him speak and heard no body speaking to him hearing then of God is hearing him speak in his Word for it is he that speaks therein Secondly By the hearing may also be understood yet further some whisperings and motions and secret workings of his Spirit which many a man hath many times in hearing of the Word the Spirit passeth by and breatheth in the Word upon one soul and upon another putting on the soul to fasten upon such a a truth or such a truth as sweet and precious inwardly speaking to their understandings that they are sure the men concerned in such a threatning in such a promise and this is a part of Gods striving by his Spirit with rebellious sinners that do not believe nor obey Now this is a more inward hearing then the former some sit under the same Sermon and the Sword of the Spirit maketh no more entrance upon them then upon a brazen wall and it must be a sharp sword indeed that must divide an heart of stone many a blow is laid at a sturdy Oak an old grown sinner before his heart beginneth so much as to shake and this is the second Thirdly Then for the learning which is the main thing which goeth before the coming to Jesus Christ this I take to to be when the Lord not only by his Messengers maketh his word plain before us lays it to our Consciences as the Ax to the root of the Tree but when he opens our understandings plucks open our eyes to behold the light teacheth us indeed he teacheth a poor soul in special these two or three things 1. That he is lost a son of perdition for ought he knoweth many a poor Creature in the Ship like Jonas though ready to sink he was asleep if the Ship had sunk it had been all one to him they come and awake him up thou sleeper dost thou not see thou art sinking thou art dying thou art perishing so the Spirit of the Lord Jesus takes a poor sleepy dead sinner by the understanding tels him thou art the man condemned wrath abideth upon thee particularly what dost thou mean wilt thou have the flames of hell about thy ears before thou wilt stir a foot what wilt thou bring the blood of Jesus upon thy head thus the Spirit cometh and shaketh a poor soul out of his sleep in sin he never dreamed what his condition was before this is the Spirits convincing a man of sin setteth his sins in order before him setteth a man upon the search into his condition then represents all his sins in their bloody guilt and condemning nature every one of them with a mouth like hell ready to swallow him up this is a part of the cords of a mans convictions 2. It teacheth him yet further now no longer to lie securely in that condition if he continue here he must perish therefore now he beginneth to look about him O what shall I do to whom shall I turn my self is there no hope of pardon no mercy for me O what shall we do said they in Acts 2. to be saved if the Ship be sinking now it is time to look about for a Plank a Mast something to lay hold upon something to stop the leak if now Brethren granadoes be cast into the soul and be broken and tearing all to pieces the very flames of hell have caught hold upon such a poor creature there is no delay now the Spirit of the Lord working with a mans natural principle for self-preservation puts him on to enquire for somewhat to quench it now he beginneth to cry out fire fire in his soul O he cannot hold it 3. It teacheth yet further and the poor soul learneth this also effectually that there is no help for him in the creature neither in himself nor in any other if he take the quintescence of all his works which we usually before have a high esteem of and temper them together alas they will not make a balsom for this wound now all the Spirits in all the Creatures in the world if they could be extracted I mean the comforts that might arise from the enjoyment of them would not keep the poor languishing soul from fainting and dying waters of the fullest cup let them overflow never so much if a man have rivers of pleasures in the enjoyment of creature-comforts honours relations parts learning gifts whatsoever they be alas the poor creature is now taught they will not quench this spark that is gotten into the conscience I mean they will not allay the trouble of his spirit will not heal the wounds of his spirit so that now he knoweth not what to do the Hart they say if smitten with an arrow goeth to her herb to cause the arrow to fall out and other creatures being poysoned stung sick distempered run to their cure by a natural instinct but now when God hath shot this arrow into a poor soul it wounds too deep sticks too fast for the teeth of any creature to pluck it out or for the vertue of any creature yea they are so far from healing that rather the consideration of them are as oyl to the flame to vex and wound so much the more well this is much to be taught he that learneth this effectually and not in the notion only goeth far there are many convinced of their wounds their bleeding dying condition but they imagine there is help to be had in something else they run to a duty of their own as if a day of fasting would make amends for all run to this or that unfaithful Shepherds that will
alas they are but bottles themselves if Christ be not in them and there found to a soul and sought by a soul they are dry and sapless when many a rich man in hearing a Sermon hath a qualm cometh over his heart and he beginneth to be a little sick of sin which the Word hath lanced and it strikes to the heart what doth he do alas he chears himself with this Surely if I were such a sinner God would not regard me God would never have blessed me as he hath done therefore this is but a foolish melancholly fit The drunkard and the wanton can eat and drink and sing and dance down twenty such pills as these though they troubled them a little at the first they make a shift to claw it off The civil good-natured man though he see and know himself to be a sinner yet he is none of the worst he doth much good in the place where he is yea he prayeth and heareth and keepeth Sabbaths and thinks this shall make amends for all and so walks in the sparks of his own kindling but alas the end of these things will not be rest for they shall lie down in sorrow and shall have it from the hand of God too then who can resist it when lifted up or heal his blow when it is given I tell you Brethren I doubt this is the grand imposture of most of our hearts for it can hardly be but we must sometime or another be convinced our condition by nature is very sad and forlorn and men are not men if they be not carried forth to seek some course-for their escaping and how few alas reach the Lord Jesus therefore we mnst needs stick somewhere short of him Ah the Lord grant that none of us who think upon more probable grounds then others and others think so of us too that we are such as come to Jesus Christ that we sit not down in any thing on this side him for if we do we perish Therefore I say the soul that cometh to Jesus Christ goeth out of all alas if he have never so much of the world profits pleasures at will he is as rich as another and hath as much content in relations suitable to his hearts as another and it may be as much in praying fasting hearing using of the Ordinances as another and yet all this is nothing to him satisfieth him not he cannot take up with it they are but husks they will not satisfie however they may fill Thirdly There is a coming unto Jesus Christ it is not a going towards him but a coming to him this is builded much what upon the willingness of Jesus Christ to receive them this desire after him haply more fitly may be annexed to the power of Christ to save to the utmost O when the soul knoweth this O then that I had him that I were in him but now when the soul cometh to understand is perswaded he is willing to receive all that come Well then the Spirit quickning perswading the soul resolves I will venter upon him I will go and cast my self upon him and bear my self upon him hang all my weight upon him and this also he is taught of God this is imprest upon his Spirit by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus this is the drawing nigh yea not nigh to him but coming unto him this is the touch of faith if it be never so secret a touch of faith that others take no notice of yea that a poor soul through the fears and troubles that are upon him and earnestness of Spirit to have all quieted and cleansed and done away forthwith thinketh he doth not he hath not touched the Lord Jesus yet he may have touched him and be come unto him if he be carried out in his affections indeed and in truth beyond all count all as nothing as dung and dross as an hungry man would prefer a piece of bread before much riches he cannot eat nor drink gold nor silver and so it is here he is resolved upon it that he will lie at the pool of Bethesda his eyes shall be up and are up to him he will hang on him not let him go except he shake him offâ— into hell O this is a soul indeed that cometh to Jesus Christ Fourthly He cometh to him with words too at least heart-words if not words of confession I will wrap up these things as fast as I can I doubt I stay too long in the first part words of confession and words of petition of confession so the poor Prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son O I have sinned from the womb conceived in sin born in iniquity I have sinned before thee not regarding thy all-seeing eye desperately against light against knowledge against mercy against the blood of the Lord Jesus against all that grace whereby thou hast waited upon me to be gracious O I am no more worthby to be called thy sun O I am not worthy to lift up mine eye toward heaven saith the poor Publican I am not worthy to come near to the Temple to come among the company of the people of God but stands afar off and there acknowledgeth his vileness Ah so it is with many a poor soul he deserveth not to be owned by the Lord nor by any of his if he fall upon me as a mill-stone to grind me to power he doth me no wrong Secondly With words of petition to him that he would have mercy upon us that he would pardon and heal and give himself to us indeed that he would be our God a soul that is throughly sensible of his want of Christ cryeth our after him not with a still listless desire but the heart maketh a noise unto the Lord O give me Christ or else I dye Lord Jesus save my poor soul else I perish O sin is ready to swallow me up O the grave and hell are ready to shut their mouths upon me save me or else I perish as they to Christ the waves and billows of thy displeasure are the shaking and breaking of many poor souls O what mone many times will a poor soul that wants the Lord Jesus make to him lead me to the rock that is higher then I O how he sucks the promises and every argument he can fetch out of them he cometh with it and laies it before the Lord yea every letter of his name the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful c. he pleadeth to the Lord O thy name is great to the ends of the earth therefore pardon me O mine iniquity is great therefore pardon thy faithfulness thy mercy thy promise thy dear Son the highest pledge of thy love that came to save sinners the price is paid the greatest part is done already all that a poor soul can find he will then make use of before the Lord and
wish it may be thou hast relations estate name as good as others yet thou canst not be satisfied all is nothing without interest in him thou runnest from Ordinance to Ordinance from one Congregation to another from reading to prayer yet findest no satisfaction in all I will say to that soul Thou hast an evidence and a clear one too he hath indeed received thee or thou wert never able thus to breath after him and though he may hold thee off for a while yet he will not shut thee out Thirdly Hath the Lord made thee willing indeed to have him to receive him as King and Saviour to be purified by him subdued to him as well as saved by him Alas I know not whether I am or no if not what then meaneth all thy stuffing thy bed with groans What mean those Rivers of tears shed over him what meaneth thy following so hard after him What is it possible that any man should make such heavy moan as some poor souls do for Jesus Christ and yet not be willing to have him If thou wouldest not have him me thinks thou wouldest rather run away from him then run after him what ascending is there up into this tree and that tree as the Lord Jesus passeth by in an Ordinance to get a sight of him and yet the poor soul will not be perswaded that he would have fain have the Lord Jesus when one sight of him would be so refreshing to them O go away rejoycing and triumphing in the Lord Jesus that ever he hath looked upon thee to make thee willing in the day of his power for surely thou art a willing soul who art so affected towards him and this willing Brethren surely is the very receiving of Jesus Christ it is the closing with him thus taking with one hand Christ for pardon and giving up a mans self to him with the other hand which is the thing thy soul groans for now if Christ Jesus be so willing to receive poor sinners and thou be so willing to receive him what can interpose to hinder or break the match surely nothing Fourthly Thou must be content to wait a while haply before thou have the comfort of thy coming to Christ before I say thou shalt suck the sweetness that floweth from him to thy soul for thou hast broken thy bones with sin which brought wrath upon thy soul as David complains O there was no rest in his bones and they must have a time to knit again A man will rather lie upon his bed a Prisoner a few daies then be a Cripple all the daies of his life therefore they say a Horse leg is incurable if broke he will not endure to be bound to lie quiet Submit to the Chyrurgians hand and skill the Lord Jesus will do it it is doing but alas such broken bones heal but slowly through many humors by reason of the abundance of sin in the soul may be it will be the longer but wait Remember the pains that Elijahs servant took to go up and down that steep hill Carmel with wearyness seven times and brought news of nothing at all until at last he sees a little cloud which filled the heavens So it may be with thee and it will recompence all at last there will be abundance of rain to refresh thy weary parched soul Fifthly Be frequent in acting of faith putting forth the acts of thy willingness to receive the Lord Jesus if he be willing to receive thee for hereby the habit of faith will grow stronger the little grain of Mustard-seed thou shalt see take strong rooting and spread it self and then the acts will be stronger and those will yet again strengthen the habit and by this means the grace will appear more visible So that at the last thou shalt even feel in thy very soul that thou dost believe if thou often put forth this act of recumbency upon him casting thy self upon the Lord Jesus into his arms at his feet and see if thou find it not that at last thou have not this witness in thy self that thou dost believe in the Lord Jesus And then happy soul thou mayest take the comfort of that condition Thou shalt never be cast out FINIS The first Table contains the General and Particular Heads as they follow in their order in the preceding Subject Circumspect Walking A Christians Wisdom THe Text opened Page 55. out of which this first doctrine is raised That it is a duty Christians are strictly charged with to walk circumspectly ibid. But first there is enquired what it is to walk circumspectly Here you have first the Matter of a Christians conversation expressed by walking which includes all a mans actions 1. Spiritual 2. Civil 3. Natural 55 56 This Latiude appears 1. In that walking is a motion 1. From other Principles 2. By other Rules then the men of the world walk by ibid. 2. There is a Terminus a quo from whence they walk and that is from sin ibid. 3. A Terminus ad quem and that is to God in Christ 57 4. This Motion is a progressive motion 5. It is a constant Motion 6. It it a pleasant ibid. Secondly Here you have the manner of this walking Circumspectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now to this exact walking 1. There must go a Rule 57 2. Knowledge to understand and wisdom rightly to apply the rule 58 3. Keeping close to the rule 1. In not following a multitude as most do 59 2. In not following the Examples of the Saints further then they follow Christ 60 4. There must be a mending not only the external part but the inside and the Spirit of the rule 61 5. Carrying an even course towards heaven ibid. 6. Making it a mans work to walk exactly with 1. A watchful eye 2. A trembling heart The second thing in the words of the Text That it is a duty so strictly charged upon the Saints proved 63 The Reasons of the third thing in the words of the Text. Why this duty is charged upon the Saints viz. to walk circumspectly 1. Because they are the children of the light ibid. 2. Because their steps are more eyed then other mens 64 1. In regard of God himself 2. In regard of men 1. Many men watch for their Halting 2. Some men are scandalized by their uneven walking Either good or evil Men. 65 3. Because all have erring hearts and naturally love to wander ibid. 4. Because there are many by-paths whereinto they may step awry 66. The first Use shews that among the much profession of Christ there is little power ibid. The second use reproves 1. The People of God that come short of this exact Walking 2. Those that instead of following God fully have their hearts divided 67 1. Some that content themselves only with the shews of religion 2. Some that are all for morality and honesty of conversation 68 3. Some that neither fear God nor reverence Man ibid. Thirdly Those are reproved
that make exact walking the object of their scorn The third Use is for Exhortation to buckle to this duty of exact walking 69 From whence follows the Motives As 1. The way wherein to walk is all overspread with snares 70 1. To tempt into sin 2. To Tempt for sin ibid. 2. The necessity of it unto the end 71 3. The difficulty of it 72 4. The love of many waxes cold ibid. 5. God hath much honour by it 73 6 Others may be drawn to a liking of it ibid. The Directions herein how to walk exactly are 1. Labouring to get an heart sensible of wandrings 74 2. Setting the heart always as in Gods presence ibid. 3. Letting the Word of God dwell richly in the heart 75 1. In all wisdom 2. In all understanding 4. Applying the rule to a mans ways ibid. 5. Enquiring of God in every serious undertaking 77 6. Looking to Humility ibid. 7. Taking heed of squint-eyed ends ibid. 8. Taking heed of halting between two 78 9. Fore-casting what temptations to meet with in the ways of God ibid. 10. Labouring to Arm with a strong perswasion of Gods Al-sufficiency ibid. Now then Plead not against the difficulty of this circumspect walking 79 For first by how much the more difficult by so much the more exexcellent it is ibid. 2. There is nothing so hard but diligence will overcome if the soul be in Christ For 1. Then it hath a fulness of strength 80 2. It hath in Christ all the Promises ibid. The second Doctrine That it is a proof of Christian Wisdom to walk circumspectly Proved ibid. 1. From Places of Scripture 81 It is further confirmed 1. In that it is wisdom to propound a right end ibid. 2. To provide and make use of the right means ibid. 3. To take the nearest and easiest way 83 4. To suit and shape a mans course according to the exigence of his condition 84 5. To do it in its season or time 85 6. To go through sâ—itch with the work ibid. 7. To take a Course for the fullest enjoyment of the last end 86 8. To make sure the title of inheritance 87 The Application serves 1. To wipe off that slandering imputation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The false accuser of the Brethren c. Casts upon Religion 89 2. To retort folly upon the wisdom of the world 90 1. In Pitching upon a wrong end ibid. Considering 1. That all these things here will not run parallel with the souls to eternity 91 2. That these things while they are kept here do not satisfie the soul ibid. 2. In miscarrying in the right means 92 1. In being wise to do evil 2. In being satisfied with the bare name of Christianity 3. In being wise in their own conceits Now then Let the sons of true wisdom justifie her by a circumspectual walking 93 1. Labouring to cease from their own wisdom 94 2. Begging the Spirit of wisdom more earnestly 95 And it will be found that he will guide them by his Counsell And afterwards receive them to Glory The first Alphabetical Table containing the principal heads and matter in the foregoing Treatise of The Parable of the ten Virgins A ADmissions into Christs fellowship and communion they who are stricter herein then Christ would have them are to be blamed pag. 93 Affections in man are dull 22 Afflict his people Christ is not forward so to do 86 Afflictions are said to be a cry 201 Allegory what is it 2 Angels what are they called 192 Angry sometimes Christ is with his people yet not properly 81 Antichrist that we are delivered from him we should bless the Lord for it 308 Arch-angels voice the fore-runner of Christs general coming to Judgement is understood to be a cry 200 Awake the time of it 188 Awake that the people of God have been kept so in a time of need is double and treble mercy 195 Awakened to be by God should sweeten his severest dealings towards us 205 Aims our own they must be as high as heaven 253 B Beginners young are to look that they be able so to run as to obtain 382 To Believe things men are exceeding slow 21 Believers profession may decline 240 Believers profession growing low it is their duty to renew it 256 Breaches take heed of making them 98 Bride who this is 35 Bridegroom Christ stands in that relation to his people 33 Bridegroom Christ Jesus is he if you consider 1. His Birth 2. His Beauty 3. His Riches 4. His Honour 5. His Power 6. His lovely disposition from p. 38 to 40 Bridegroom and Bride the causes that concur to the making up their relation between them 41 Bridegrooms coming is to be desired 81 C Change in us to true wisdom must be great 118 Christ and the Church are related See Bridegroom Christ Redeems his people and woes them from p. 41. to p. 44 Christ hath satisfied all that can be demanded 49 Christ makes the soul give up it self to him 1. Considerately 2. In truth sincerely 53 Christ laies his people in his bosom 63 Christ owns many before they own him 97 Choice what is it 74 Choose not the prosperity that is expected to accompany Christ 74 Nor his graces but himself first 75 Church visible hath two sorts in it 9 Church visible compared to ten Virgins ibid. p. 10 Church visible is made up of visible Saints 87 Church and the world they are too blame that make no difference between them 92 Church visible hath in it some good and some bad 94 Church what she should do when Members become scandalous 99 Closing not with Christ the danger 69 Closing with Christ the Motives to perswade 70 Coming of Christ that he doth delay it is proved by Scripture 120 Coming what is meant 121 Coming in what sense Christ is said to delay it p. 122. and in what sense not to delay it 124 Coming of Christ such as abuse and mock at it reproved and a word to mind them from 130 to 137 Coming of Christ something noted thereupon 198 Coming of Christ ordinarily is at midnight 208 Communion in this life is twofold 353 Conditions two there are that usually wither mens professions 245 Conscience hath yet some stirring 158 Cry goeth before Christs coming what this is put for 6 Cry what is it taken for 197 Cry what is noted by it 199 And what it is ibid. Cry its relative consideration and wherefore there is such before Christs coming 201 202 Cry of such before the coming of Christ what use to be made thereof 206. and the danger if it be not done ibid. D Day of the Lord must be waited for by the Saints 137 Day of the Lord how sinners must wait for it 139 Day of Christ coming is like to be nearest when least expected 214 Day what is concerned by it 279 Declinings may be in the people of God even near their end 243 Declinings in Gods people should teach us many things 246 Delay
must needs perish God will not be merciful to them Isa 27. He hath a controversie because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hos 4. and where no vision is the people perish they perish for want of knowledge which cometh by vision and yet it is not knowledge alone will stand them instead the Devils are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that for their knowledge and yet are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their malice thou mayst have enough then to light thy Lamp and yet have no Oyl in thy vessel remember this Secondly A Hypocrite may have not only knowledge but his affections may be stirred also he may be warmed in the Lamp before it be extinguished there was heat as well as light Some have light without heat such are meer notions others have heat without knowledge and this is not good so far but the Hypocrite he may have light and he may have heat and affection also and yet be a foolish Virgin when all is done Let me speak a little to some affections among many others which they may have As 1. They may have sorrow for sin being convinced of it and what it exposeth them unto How doth Darius when he had signed the Decree against Daniel and his kingdom lay at stake his people would rebel if he executed not the Decree he laboured to deliver him he was sorry for what he had done and he could not rest nor sleep that night and early in the morning cometh with a lamentable tone to him O Daniel servant of the living God art thou yet alive There may be a spirit of bondage to fear or witnessing to a man that he is in a condemned state which is not succeeded with a Spirit of Adoption Sinners you may have your Consciences so galled sometimes with the Law that you cannot rest but cry out of sin O sin sin what a bitter thing is sin yea so far may this sorrow prevail that it may make you vomit up your sweet morsel make you make restitution with Judas God may so fire the Coal you cannot hold it in your bosom any longer the fire of Gods wrath upon Judas even melted his pieces they were too hot for him to hold and yet but a Judas still And I tell you brethren this is much a strong effect of those troubles 2. There may be some desires and seemingly earnest desires after things really good and which bring to salvation as those there in that place of John were they not much affected when they cried out Lord evermore give us of this bread As very a wretch as Balaam was yet he had his wishings and wouldings O that I might die the death of the righteous c. O how beautiful are his Tabernacles c. he seemeth to be taken with them or desires to enjoy that communion and fellowship with them in their Ordinances how beautiful are they And the young man in the Gospel had he not good desires and is it not said our Saviour loved him for that good that was in him though not with that special love of pitty to save him that we read of his desires carried him out far and yet never reach heaven I doubt not brethren but many of us this day have sometimes some good desires and you would have it go well with your souls you may cry out sometimes with the multitude O Lord evermore give us this bread you would be loath to part with the Ordinance of Christ it is good but all this may be in you and yet you may be hypocrites foolish Virgins O that you could lay it to heart 3. There may be also some hope we read often in Job of the hope of the Hypocrite he hath certainly an hope for heaven else he would never be at so much pains as many a Hypocrite is at as you shall hear afterward would the foolish Virgins think you have done so much as they did if they had not had a hope when hope expireth all endeavour giveth up the ghost with it 4. There may be also a joy and delight in holy things as those that kindled a fire of their own in that place of Isaiah saith the Text They walk in the sparks of their own fire that is to say they delight themselves in it And surely brethren the Galathians when they would have pluckt out their eyes for the Apostle they had no ordinary rapture upon them and yet alas how did they apostatize some of them And is is not sad to see in our days many that the Ministers of Jesus Christ whom he hath made instruments of God to their souls they have been as dear to them as their eyes and what is it come to with many of them are they not come to cast off all what shall we think brethren of such in such cases According to the hope so is the joy if the hope be sound so is the joy if the hope be false so is the joy which springs from it the Lord hinders it not haply doth not damp and overcast the soul and O how Satan endeavours to water such a plant as that is for what more available to lay a soul asleep then this he hath joy in holy things this is an high attainment indeed they take delight in approaching to God And we read in Heb. 6. that such as fall away may have a taste of the joy of the world to come such a temporary faith the light of it doth convince and shew us things worth the rejoycing in and then a false hope of a title to them when it is no such matter it will raise the spirit to rejoyce Well this is no ordinary pitch of affections and yet but a Hypocrite the stony ground received the word with joy and they rejoyced in John Baptists light for a season Thou art unto them as one that hath a pleasant voice c. 5. There may not onely be those affections and others but the fervor of them a mans affections may seem to be boyled up to a great height Zeal for God seemeth to be much this is Jehu his case how hot and zealous was he for God and so Judas seemed very zealous of good works when he would have had the box of oyntment spilled Ananias and Saphira seemed to have more heat of love then others to sell their possessions to be with the forwardest and yet you see what became of them and so may we brethren Not but that zeal is exceedingly to be commended and lukewarmness is the most loathsom temper to the Lord he will spue such a man out of his mouth yet there may be this fire which is not of Gods kindling The false Apostles did zealously affect those Christians to whom the Apostle writeth they seemed to be men of more then ordinary love and warm affections to their souls but yet they were but false Apostles they did it enviously to work the Apostle
out of their hearts so to hinder this work among them Well remember this such as are more forward then others are there may be heat as well as light and yet but foolish Virgins but hypocrites when all is done Thirdly An hypocrite he may be careful in avoiding much sin not only in an imperfect will which is overcome by an interest such as Herod and Darius had who were wretches though not so properly hypocrites but an hypocrite may go as far as they surely they may forgo their Idolatry and gross wickedness as Simon Magus left his Sorceries and these virgins therefore they are called virgins though foolish virgins likely though I will not build much upon it but yet we see the unclean spirit may go out of a man for a time and yet enter again he may forsake his gross pollutions and yet return to that folly again wallowing in them as the swine and the dog in that second of Peter there is an escaping the pollutions of the world and yet notwithstanding a returning to them again he that stole stealeth no more I was a drunkard may some one say but now I thank the Lord I am none I was a filthy wretch but now I am filthy no more this is very far and yet all this may be but hypocrisie a profession and no more in the end we may appear to be foolish Virgins Fourthly An hypocrite may have conflict within himself concerning sins that others can take no notice of and this is more then the former there may be an inward regretion and re 〈…〉 ctanâ—y against our secret evils the Conscience being inlightened and di 〈…〉 ng â—hose vain thoughts should be abandoned this pride of heart is loathsom against God it quarrels with the Affections and Will if it be a sin a man would keep and so there is a busle in the soul and many of us may mistake our selves and think it is the lusting of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh in us when it proveth nothing so Fifthly They may also do much many duties services be much in action not Napkin up their Talent but act and act much as the foolish virgins you see they went as far as the wise for ought appears step for step Did not Judas act as well as the rest following Christ up and down going forth to preach the Gospel as well as the rest did not Jehu act in an high manner for God Come and see my zeal for God he did much more then many would do And did not Joash reform much in Jehoiadahâ— time he was zealous for the Temple of the Lord and blamed 〈◊〉 Priests they were not so forward as himself was and yet what 〈…〉 d he at the last have we not fearful examples in our own times how many diligent Christians as they seemed to be and yet alas how went they out yea truly I will say one thing more sometimes there may be a doing very great self-denying actions Was not that a self-denying action of Rehoboam and far greater then this of Jehu he had an Army ready to fight with Israel when they revolted 180000 fighting men and yet when the word of the Lord came and told him it was of God and bid him cease he obeys though a kingdom lay at the stake and he was in so fair a posture for it and yet he is but a Rehoboam still and one that forsook the Law of his God when he was strengthened though before he made much of the servants of the Lord. Sixthly An hypocrite may have the assisting inlarging presence of God with him in his service They had preached in the name of Christ his presence had been with them also and yet you see they are cast out It is said of Saul that he had another spirit given him from that day forward a spirit to gift him for the government and when God had rejected him and his service the spirit departed from him and an evil spirit vexed him he had a more then ordinary presence of God with him and yet but a Saul a wretch many a Minister that preacheth your souls to heaven and salvation may perish himself he may have great gifts given and much of Christ his presence with him in the exercises of them and yet perish for all this As the Nurse though for the present eats dainty fare not for her own sake but the sake of the great mans child whom she nurseth So may it be with us the Lord prevent us with his loving kindness And you that are Christians God may give you a gift of Prayer a gift in conferring you may be eminent therein God may assist you much therein It is for his peoples sakes that he will build up thereby refresh thereby your selves may perish notwithstanding O brethren Is not this faâ— that an hypocrite may go Seventhly He may hold out very long and yet in the end prove but an hypocrite and this is the saddest of all the rest and this you see plainly here in the Text the foolish Virgins had well nigh gone to the end when the Cry came they were found with the wise indeed in a sleeping condition but they were as forward as they for externals had not their Lamps gone out it is strange to 〈…〉 der that Judas should be such a rotten creature at the heart and yet should follow him so far many of his Disciples were quickly offended at him and went backward and never walked with him again but Judas went far it may be we may think the better of our selves for our continuance so long in the ways of God it is good if it be right in the root so that it hold oâ—t to the end Hypocrites may hold until they come as I may say within the sight of heaven or the pâ—ice of the Goal and then they tyre and give up Joash how long did he continue following God it was a long passion considering it was not a new nature in it that was the principle a torrent without a Spring to feed it to run very long indeed and so it may be with many a poor soul do but consider under this head two things 1. They may continue and weather out a persecution endure the storm and yet perish in a calm may have indured persecution for Christ his sake for his name and cause and yet alas fall short as for instance the third sort of ground it was not scorched with the Sun when it was up but continued and yet alas brought not forth fruit to perfection for the Thorns choaked it he not only withers like the Bull-Rush before other hearts but sometimes like a tree he continueth and abideth the heat of the Sun Job 8. 17. And that Alexander that indured so much for the Apostle hazarded his life for him Act. 19. 32. is thought by some to be that Alexander which did him much evil of which he complains