pollution of it Here as ye heard however Sanctification be taking sin to task in every pardoned man yet the tender man sensible of sin cannot but be affected when he finds sin in the pollution of it to remain though it be not reigning though it hath not the Throne but then with the publick Declaration of pardon there shall no blot of sin no spot no wrinkle nor any such thing remain Ephes 5.27 There shall no scar be left of these wounds that sin hath made which the pardoned sinner may bear about with him while he is here 2. While the godly are here though they get frequently pardon of sin yet they have still need of new pardon they must be pardoned over and over again and as often as they get their daily bread they must as often seek the pardon of their sins daily but the blotting out of sin in that Day shall be a Declaration of the Pardon of sin so fully that there shall be no need of a reiterat pardon they will then sin no more nor be in hazard of sinning and will have no more need of the open Fountain whereunto the pardoned man while he is here must continually resort with his foul feet to get them washen 3. The pardon of sin here is not only Transacted betwixt God and the sinner without the knowledge of the World but it is oft-times keeped up from the sense and feeling of the man that has gotten it A man that is pardoned may be keeped in fears as if he were not pardoned a man that hath his Bonds taken off him may be as if he were still bound But in that Day the Pardon of Sin shall be publickly declared in the audience of Men Angels and Devils and the pardoned mans pardon will be proclaimed and perfected in the sense and feeling of the pardoned man the Court of Heaven and the Court of the Conscience will say both one thing and there will not be a demur in the one about what is past in the other as now often there is And 4. Though sin be pardoned yet the effects and consequences of pardon are not at all times let out on the pardoned man here he may be not only keeped under Desertion but he may be under Chastisement on several accounts as I cleared to you before though he may say as the Apostle John speaks 1 Joh. 3.2 Now we are the sons of God but he must add it doth not yet appear what we shall be but in that day pardon shall not only be proclaimed and perfected in the Conscience of the man but all the effects and consequences of pardon shall flow out like a River upon him Then sighing and sorrow shall flee away and everlasting joy shall be upon his head and in his heart and these stripes that here were necessary for the back of fools shall cease and his pardon shall be written in that blessed Sentence Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Thus ye see what is imported in that blotting out of sin at the great day and from it I shall shortly recommend to you two words in order to practice one is That this may be a strong motive to you to make pardon of sin here sure when ye consider that it hath such blessed effects hereafter the rich fruit and incomes of thy fleeing to Christ for pardon here may seem to thee as we use to speak to be far from the Sheaff but there is a day coming when the advantage of it will be made known to Men Angels and Devils their Conviction what it is to have pardon for sin Thou that gets a pardon here may be looked upon as an uncouth unknown body but thou carries about with thee a Treasure that in that day will be found a Treasure indeed And therefore 2ly Ye that are fled unto Christ for pardon and have gotten pardon believed and now and then ye are feeling some of the fruits of pardon it should quicken you to long for that day wherein the effects fruits and consequences of that pardon will be fully displayed and let out on pardoned sinners It it no wonder that a pardoned man long to be home when he considers what a mercy pardon of sin will be found to be when it is laid in broad-band in that day But now I come to the 5. general Head I proposed to be spoken to and that is To clear up to you the right method of coming to close with pardon and for attaining of pardon I have insisted to tell you what a rich priviledge pardon of sin is Now any that are not stupid and senseless will say how shall I be sure of pardon that I have closed with it and win at it and that I am not deluded in so great a concern I have occasionally hinted at the chief matter of these things that I am to say upon this in the preceeding purpose I shall now gather them together and lay them in view before you that ye may order your steps aright in closing with pardoning mercy If I should speak to this in general I find many things mentioned in Scripture to the obtaining of pardon I find Faith for we are said to be justified by faith and consequently we are pardoned by Faith Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 2. I find Repentance often mentioned in this matter Mark 1.4 John preached the baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins The Apostles Doctrine was to preach repentance and remission of sins in his name Luke 24.47 Peters Doctrine is Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 The counsel given to Simon Magus is Repent of thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee Act. 8.22 3. I find also Confession of sin mentioned in order to pardon of sin Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 4. I find confessing and forsaking of sin mentioned in order to pardon Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy 5. I find prayer also required in order to pardon of sin Mat. 6.12 Christ bids the Disciples pray forgive us our debts c. But that I may speak to this purpose somewhat more distinctly and so in effect take a view of this Text and take in the 3d. thing I proposed to be spoken to in it I find that as the Apostle sums up Christianity Philip. 3.3 as running upon three things that like Letters on a Signet are drawn backward that ye may stamp them forward in your practice 1. That a man have no confidence in the flesh 2. That from that he be led to rejoyce
say it when others might forbear it yet have they not prevailed against me Nebuchadnezar got me swallowed down quick but I proved spending meaâ— and he was forced to cast up that sweet morsel The plowers plowed upon my back and they made long their furrows but the righteous Lord hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked It 's Israel's priviledge as it is Isa 51.22 23. To have the cup of trembling taken out of her hand and put into the hand of them that afflicted her c. It 's long since if it had been prestable or practicable that Israel should have been sweept off the earth Psal 83.4 There is a combination Come let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance and yet Israel is to the sore hoping in God It is true it 's dangerous to be peremptor in applying this to particular visible Churches for God has taken away his Candlestick from many visible Churches for their provocations yet there are two things that we may safely go upon in the application of this one is That where God in his glory is much concerned as having signally interposed for a people to make them his own there is ground of hope that God will not cast off that people for their provocations For this consider Exod. 32.12 and Numb 14. v. 13 14 15 16. When God is threatning to cut off his people for their provocations Moses interposes and interceeds with God O let not that be saith he Why should the Egyptians say for mischief he brought them out to stay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth because thou was not able to bring them into the land which thou promised them as if he had said Lord thou hast been eminently seen in owning this people and if thou shalt ruine them it will eminently reflect upon thy Glory as well as it will destroy them And Joshua Chap. 7. when Israel is smitten upon the account of the accursed thing â—nd he hath strong apprehensions that the Nations about will environ them and cut them off his great argument v. 9. is What wilt thou do unto thy own great Name Thou hast been eminent in owning thy people and if they shall be ruined thy great Name will suffer And Psal 74. Those complaints of the desolation of the Sanctuary and the insolency of the Enemy are closed with that How long shall the enemy reproach Shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever This is one thing then that we may hold that where God hath been eminently seen in working for a people he will see to his great Name that there be no ill report brought up upon his guiding â—â—em as if for mischief he brought them out to slay them upon the mountains And another thing we may close with which is more general that whatever God do with a particular visible Church he will never want a Church though he should take his leave of one Nation for their provocations he will go to another So long as he is a Head he will not want Members so long as he is a Husband he will not want a Spouse so long as he is a King he will not want Subjects There must be an Israel who will have ground to hope in God There are many things which might be inferred from this I might from it exhort all wisely to consider of the case of God's Israel and that they would beware of concluding that there is no hope for them in God Beware of looking upon them with a look of rejoycing over them and speaking proudly in the day of their distress Obadiâ—ah vers 12 13 There is hope in Israel though Israel were as dry bones and as dead men their dry bones shall live they shall up again and therefore take heed both what judgment thou passes on them and what thy carriage is towards them they may be laid low as for their own sins and provocations so for a trial to thee to bring out what was lurking in thy bosome before and thou durst not bring it out while thou got such an opportunity and when he hath done both he will make it appear that there is hope in Israel But to leave this I would press upon the people of God to improve this their priviledge and allowance of hope in God tine not heart cast not away your confidence which hath a great recompence of reward I press not carnal confidence or carnal hopes upon any I pray the Lord the troubles many are under may crush these but yet I would bid you cherish the hope of God's being great in Israel cherish divine hope that is bottomed on the Word ye who have it your hopes are better than other folks possessions your Bible is better than any security ye could seek without it And in deducing this Use I would in the first place recommend to you that are Israelites that ye would mind your work Isai 43.21 This people have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise Israel are set apart for celebrating Gods praise and to celebrate his praise in that particular by hoping in him when their souls are cast down and disquieted in them Thou art not at thy work in thy generation who are not shewing forth Gods praise by thy believing and hoping in him 2. Ye would remember how peremptory resolute and inplicite Israel may be and should be in hoping in God Israel must believe when she cannot see and when she cannot give a distinct account of what she believes she must believe when she cannot give the grounds of it I shall give you an account of Israels Faith and Hope in the words of Mordecai to Esther Chap. 4.14 If thou altogether hold thy peace at this time then shall there deliverance and enlargement arise to the Jews from another place But c. It would have puzled his wit and the wit of all the Israelits to tell from what airt deliverance and enlargement should come to the Jews If Esther should hold her peace how was it possible they should be delivered if God should not make use of her the Heathen in an hundred and twenty seven Provinces would soon cut them off when a decree was past to do it But though Esther should hold her peace Mordecal believes enlargement will come to Israel perish they cannot therefore delivered they must be though he could not tell from whence it should come The not considering of this is a dreadful temptation to many when Israel is low not only to cast away their confidence but to betake themselves to some sinful shift for their security but it were better for thee so long as thou hast the Bible for the ground of thy hope to hold the conclusion that Israel shal not perish 3. I recommend to Israel to consider how they may be called to stoop ere they quit their hope of delivery 2 Kings 6. Give wicked Jeboram
wroth Why The spirit should fail before me and the souls that I have made I could soon destroy them but that I may not do and therefore will not contend for ever c. And 6. The riches and fulness of his mercy may be read in this that when he lets out bowels of mercy there will be no mercy which the Creature needs will be withheld from them When Ishmael hath slain Gedaliah whom the King of Babylon had made the Jews Governour and they are afraid of the Chaldeans Be not afraid of the King of Babylon saith he for I am with you to save and deliver you and I will shew mercy to you that he may have mercy on you Jer. 42.11 12. Fear not if ye partake of my mercy I will make the Chaldeans compassionat you So Psal 106 44. He regarded their affliction when he heard their cry and he remembred his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies What follows he made them also to be pitied of all that carried them captives He needs no other instruments of compassion to his people nor bitter enemies when he will have compassion on them So Solomon prays Give them compassion before them that carry them captive 1 King 8.50 And Hezekiah when he is to keep the Passover tells the people If they turn again to the Lord their brethren and children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive 2 Chron. 30.9 Gods compassion can soon bring the compassion of men in so far as he sees it needful Thus ye see in a few hints how rich and full the mercy of God is In a word it 's a mercy for all the needs and pressures of his people a Plaister broad enough to cover and effectual enough to cure all their griefs and sores For the use of this great truth That with the Lord there is mercy I shall briefly touch on five inferences from it and leave it And 1. If this mercy of God be relative to mans misery if it be good news manifested to the Creature on the account of its misery then those who are partakers of this mercy would have much sense of their misery mercy will not relish to any but to the man sensible of his misery a pardon will signify nothing but to a Rebel that is sensible of his Rebellion And here all that I have spoken of the riches freeness fulness c. of this mercy if ye read it right will be the first Lesson ye will learn from it all this is not proclaimed for a complement but because it 's needed by the miserable And consequently thou must infer If I have a right to you mercy it must not be ordinary thoughts of my misery that I must have there must be deeps of misery in me to call for deeps of mercy in God If we thus fence the point we need not fear that it be a sleeping Pillow to the secure look what misery is in thee to close with every thing in mercy If mercy be free look what ill-deserving is in thee if pardoning-mercy be in God look what sense of unpardoned guilt is in thee if multitudes of mercies be in God what sense of multitude of miseries is in thee They that have a right to mercy must tryst it in the dust in the very pit of misery 2. From this that there is mercy with God there is ground of assurance offered and afforded to the miserable that their irrecoverable case by the Covenant of Works is not now desperat O! the blessed intimation of that Attribute to fallen man that with God there is mercy How good news was it and should it be What had been the case of Adam and all his posterity after the Covenant of Works was broken had it not been for this blest Attribute that interposed But now because there is mercy with God irrecoverable distresses are not desperate Somewhat ye heard of this from vers 2 and 4. What a deplorable case had all been in if there had been no more to be lookt for but that vers 3. If thou Lord mark iniquities O Lord who should stand But a gracious answer is added vers 4. But there is forgivenness or mercy with thee and how this is prest upon the account of Gods mercy ye have an account given Jer. 55.67 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call on him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his thoughts and let him return to the Lord Why For he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon That there is mercy in God abundantly to pardon is an intimation to the man that is in an irrecoverable condition to look again to God And in that 2d of Joel after that the Lord hath uttered a sore and terrible Judgment and hath told verse â—1 That he will utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great and strong is he that executes his word and in the by if the Lord hath a Nation to punish he needs not raise and bring in an uncouth Nation to punish them he can cause Grashoppers or Locusts do his turn after all that Verse 12 13. He bids them turn to him with all their heart with fasting weeping and mourning for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil When the Lord is setting forth and inflicting an apparent and remediless stroak this yet invites to repentance That he is gracious and merciful and therefore as on the one hand thou that slights this offered mercy and makes it a pillow to security who when thou hears tell there is mercy with God makes no use of it but rather abuses it to go on in sin O the Justice of God in the day of thy accompts will be a sad sight in comparison of mercy or justice execute on slighters of mercy will be dreadful Justice then it will be Hills and mountains fall on us and bide us from the face of the Lamb What There is little terror in a Lambs Face yea but the fight of the Lambs face in the day of compt and reckoning that he that offered mercy was a Lamb that mercy was with him will be most dreadful think on it slighters of the Gospel sit-fasts never-do-wells abusers of mercy or ye that would take mercy in the accomplishment but never give mercy employment who follow your abominations if not openly yet secretly better for you that ye had sitten all your time at the foot of Sinai than at the foot of mercy in Zion This is often told you but little laid to heart and the ofter it be told many the less it is laid to heart but the day will come when many will get Hell affrighting memories wherein ye will remember that which drops at your feet and is not noticed or is stept over and not regarded So on the other hand thou who on the account of
own cost as Isai 52.3 The Lord tells his people that they had sold themselves for nought they had made a poor Bargain or they had provocked God to sell them into their enemies hands for nought but they should be redeemed as cheap without money Isai 43.14 The Lord proves himself to be the Redeemer of his people by this that for their sakes he had sent to Babylon to get them redeemed hence and had brought down all their Nobles and the Caldeans whose cry is in the Ships or to the Ships to seek Vessels to run away when Cyrus came and turned in the River on the City And Isai 49.24 25 26. when they accounted the people of God their prey and lawful captives the Lord not only tells them that the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered but he will pay a ransome to the Caldeans for them and what is that I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine That shall be the ransome that he will give the Caldeans when he delivereth his people I shall not dwell on this in general it holds out this that they are in a sad and ill taking who are left by themselves to take Gods people to task they are as these who would go betwixt a Man and his Wife who when the friendship is made up will get little thanks and therefore they are rather to be pitied than envyed It bods little good to men when God makes use of them to be instruments of the afflictions of his people and any that ye would wish good unto pray that they may be preserved from that Pit and any ye see ingaged in it ye cannot do them a better turn than to stand in the Gapp for them and pray they may be delivered out of it for it is fatal and prodigious to be instruments of the people of Gods trouble and to be found standing in his way when he is to redeem them But in the 3d place I told you that their Delivery is called Redemption in relation to the issue of their delivery from their troubles as the Captive or Prisoner when he is redeemed or the ransom payed is set free enlarged and set at liberty to go where he will So God's delivering of a people brings freedom and enlargement a breaking of Bonds an opening of Prison doors a vindicating of them from bondage and slavery Hence the delivery of the saints is metaphorically expressed by setting of them at large or in a large place Psal 18.19 The Psalmist was hampered before when he was in trouble but he got enlargement and skiproom by God's delivering of him So Psal 31.8 David sayes Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the Enemy thou hast set my feet in a large place or room had I been amongst my enemies they had hemm'd me in but God in delivering me gives me elbow-room and Psal 118.5 I called on the Lord in distress the Lord answered me and set me in a large place or answered me in a large place for these words and set me are a supplement in the Text that is with enlargement by enlargement and freedom he delivered me So Job 36.16 Where Elihu is giving Job an account what he might have expected had he improved God's corrections aright Even so saith he would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place where there is no straitness Thou art would he say as verse 8. bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction but had thou hearkned to the instructions communicat to thee by the Rod God should have brought thee out of that strait into a broad place where there is no straitness so that in respect of the issue delivery is enlargement a giving of skuproom to them that were in bonds and pressures before And from this I would have you reflecting on two or three words 1. It imports that when the people of God are in trouble unredeemed they should be in straits and as under pressures sensible of their affliction their bonds should press them Therefore in that fore-cited place Job 36.8 Affliction is called bonds or fetters and cords and Job when he is viewing God's dealing with him says Chap. 13.27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks not only did he put him in prison for a man in prison has room to walk up and down but in prison he put his feet in the stocks importing that folks should find a pressure when God afflicts them they should be straitned when they are in the stocks stupidity is ill company when God is using means means to waken out of security and to make folk sensible and to be taking too much elbow room when folks are under an arrest of Providence it is no good evidence that he will give enlargement Job 35.15 Hypocrites in heart heap up wrath they cry not when he binds them when folks are straitned they would feel it and especially they should find their straitning that they may cry to God when he binds them Psal 107.12 He brought down their hearts with labour he brake their spirits with toil he hammered their undaunted hearts with sit-fast and sore pressures and further he dealt so with them till they fell down and there was none to help and then they cryed to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them c. That is the great design of pressures when folks are so hampered that they cannot stir their feet when they are so straitned that they wot not what hand to turn them to it is That they may cry to God and he may save them Hence 2. Many sad lamentations may the visible Church and even saints write over their own frames under pressures that they are so little affected and particularly that be they pressed never so much there is little prayer under their pressures as in that forecited place Job 36.13 When Elihu is telling what should be folks carriage when they are bound with fetters and holden in cords of affliction he tells the Hypocrites in heart heap up wrath they cry not when God binds them few folks pressures are seen in their prayers either in doubling their diligence in their duty or in their manner of going about it they have few prayers that look like distrest folks prayers O let fruitless improvers of pressures ponder at large Job 36.8 to 18. Where when Elihu has told the benefit of well improved pressures and the hazard of ill improved pressures he tells Job verse 16. Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place But verse 17. Thou has fulfilled the judgement of the wicked justice and judgement take hold on thee Therefore because there is wrath beware lest he take thee away with his stroak then a great ransom cannot deliver thee evil improved pressures will occasion sad reflections and may bring
the Depths he Prayed but out of the Depths he cryed to God in Prayer with that earnestness and fervour that a drowning man presently going to sink cryes for relief if any relief may be had The general Observation which I take from this is That the kindly result of sinking and surchanging exercise in the Saints is when it puts them to Prayer and to fervency in Prayer when being in the Depths Out of the depths they cry unto God This is the general Doctrine of trouble Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee c. And that I may so far as is necessary lay the Point in broad-band before you before I come to a word of Vse I shall deduce the Importance of it in a few particulars And 1. The Psalmist's practice who is content to be at exercise doth import That sleeping and idleness is a very unsuitable posture when the people of God are in the Depths to be at any time without exercise is very dangerous for as the Animal Life is still in motion so the Spiritual Life of a Christian must still be in exercise so in particular to be without exercise in a distress and particularly to be without Prayer is yet more dreadful an idle man in a difficult lot I can compare him to nothing but to that drunken man Prov. 23.34 That is as one that lyeth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast he is a desperat man drunk with some Distemper that is not at exercise in the Depths May I add the idle man in the Depths is readily the Guilty man that draws on the Storm and the Tempest Hence we have a sad Narration Jonah 1.5 where Jonah a Godly man fleeing from the presence of the Lord in the Storm is down in the sides of the Ship sleeping and one might think in the case he was in he might have an unsound Sleep there but the Text tells he was fast asleep and shall I add that 's a sad Posture vers 6. when a Pagan Ship-master reproves a Prophet Jonah what meanest thou O sleeper saith he arise and call upon thy God That then is the first thing imported that it is a dangerous thing to be sleeping and idle in the Depths 2. That the Psalmist when he is in the Depths cryes out unto God it imports That kindly Saints whenever they come in any Distress have no refuge but God It 's with God and his Saints as it 's with a Parent and a Child in a Croud as long as nothing ails the Child he will go beside any body but when he comes in a difficulty he will leave the rest single out his Parent to protect him so I say it 's with the Saints when any thing ails them they have no refuge no shift no gate to go but God Would ye know the Character of a Child of God in Distress ye have it in that fore-cited place 2 Chron. 20.12 we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee This is the Scope of the most part of all the Psalms A Saint is no sooner put to it but he puts at God a Cross is no sooner laid at his door but he tells it 's the wrong Door and he goes and layes it at God's Door the reason of this is double partly the difficulties of the Children of God may be so great that they are left allenarly upon God It is with them as it was with that hypocritical king when he said to the Harlot if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn-floor or out of the Wine-press What will become of the Saints in many difficulties and hard cases if God step not in David looked to all Airts and could find no relief Psal 142.4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul what follows I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge Kindly Saints must therefore look unto God in every Distress partly because whatever right means they have to make use of they must either begin at God or they will find they have followed a wrong method Saul pretended to this 1 Sam. 13.12 The Philistines will come down upon me and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I must begin at God saith he and as Saul pretended to it David really practised it 1 Sam. 30.7 whatever mind he had to pursue the Amalekites that had burnt Zâ—klag and taken his Wives captive he will do nothing till he consult with God That then is the second thing imported that as the Saints are not asleep are not idle in the Depths of trouble so they have no refuge but God A third thing imported in this that the Psalmist out of the Depths cryed unto God is this that there is no case of the Saints so desperate wherein Prayer is useless ye know what was that wicked Kings Determination 2 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer and how many in Heart and Practice in difficult Cases say so it is to little purpose to wait on God to look to God The Psalmist here was of another temper out of the Depths have I cried unto thee Lord saith he he finds it to good purpose to cry unto God So Jonah 2.4 I said I am cast out of thy sight and he had as much to say for his being so as any other the Waters compassed him about and went into his Soul The Weeds were wrapped about his Head he went down to the bottoms of the Mountains The Earth with her Bars were about him yet even then he sees not Prayer to be an useless Trade wherefore he adds yet will I look again to thy holy Temple Prayer is to good purpose for all that and no wonder for there is no condition of the Saints so low no Pit so deep wherein they can be caught but an humble Supplicant will from thence reach the Throne A David buried quick in a Cave a Daniel in the Lyons Den find that Prayer can win up to God and find audience for the high and lofty One who hath the Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool hath an Eye also to them who are of a poor and of a Contrite Spirit and trembleth at his Word Isa 66.1 2. and he who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth he raiseth the poor out of the Dust and the needy out of the Dung-hill and therefore no desperate case of the people of God renders Prayer useless But 4ly That the Psalmist out of the Depths cryes unto God it imports That as there is no case so desperate as it renders Prayer useless so it imports that it is the property
of the Saints when they are right that be Prayer hopeless or not hopeless they will not quite it they will not give it over put them in the Depths It 's a great encouragement to them that they know it is to good purpose to Pray but be it to purpose or no purpose they must be about it they will not quite it that place cited in Jonah proves it let God cast him out of his sight yet will he look to his holy Temple and Pray shut him out at the Door he will be in at the Door by Prayer Tell him his difficulty is so great as Temptation will be ready to say that crying to God will do him no good it 's all a matter to Prayer he must he 'll rather sink Praying than be saved without it Psal 61.2 From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed That 's a notable word from a man in a deep Distress What could a man imagine to be discouraging that he wanted for his Case he is as far from God as the ends of the earth for his Heart he is under Perplexity his Heart is overwhelmed and yet in that condition he will cry unto God if so be he will lead him to the Rock that is higher than he come of it what will he will Pray And Heman is another notable instance Psal 88.13 and vers 14. he says Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me and vers 15. I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted I am put out of my Wits my Wit gets a rack with thy terrors and yet vers 13. Vnto thee have I cryed O Lord. No hopelesness of my undertaking no hardship I meet with could put me from crying to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee I will continue Praying and to speak after the manner of men Thou shalt be soon up but my Prayer shall be at thy Door to prevent thee That then is the 4th thing imported here not to be put from Prayer were our Case never so desperate nay not by the apprehension of drowning in the Depths though at the next Bout we should sink to the bottom But 5ly That he says Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee it imports that not only a Saint will not be put from Prayer through the greatness of his Distress but his Distress will put an edge upon Prayer when he is most fervent and made to cry out when he is in the Depths And this word Crying expressing Prayer in the Text suffer me to Explicate more particularly what it imports I intend not to Speak of it as it is generally used in Scripture but as it expresseth Prayer And I shall here offer four or five Things to be looked to by them that would continue Praying in the Depths or out of the Depths 1. It imports a Mans being Affected with that which is his Case The crying Man knows what ails him when a Man Scricks or Cryes out it is an evidence that he feels somewhat that Affects him much Thus Crying is used upon the account of Grief Ezek. 5.4 The marked Persons are such as sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the midst of the city They cry out of sad oppression from Grief And I find Crying in Prayer made us of to signifie the fears of the Supplicant Heb. 5.7 Our blessed Lord is said to offer up prayers and supplica-with strong crying and tears and he was heard in that he feared Grief and fear importing the sense of our Case the source and fountain of our Cryes a stupid Man that wots not how it 's with himself or the people of God who is like Pharaoh that knew not that Egypt was destroyed will not be a crying Man 2. This Crying imports not only a sense of ones Case but an earnest affection after that which our cryes are employed about it 's not for Triffles that a Man cryes either to obtain or avoid them at least they are not Triffles in his opinion it 's given as an estimation of Wisdom Prov. 2.3 when a man cryes and lifts up his voice for it And David cryes about that which he is affected with Ps 84.2 my soul longeth yea euen fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God It 's a token of raised Affections either to be rid of some imminent ill or hazard or to attain some excellent good that puts folk to Crying A slighting of Trouble when a Man is like Ephraim Hos 7 9. gray hairs are here and there upon him and he knows it not and a slighting of desyrable Mercies will not produce Crying for the one or to avoid the other But 3ly This Crying imports with sense of need and earnestness of Affection to be at the thing cryed for a sense of a distance Wee use to cry to folk that are far off and not within ordinar speaking or rounding and this follows well upon the former When folks are put to Pray from the Depths they will discern God at a distance from them and themselves at a distance from God it is another thing when a man is in the Depths to be within speaking terms with God as when he is at ease The children of God while they are at ease are like Sampson who thinks he hath no more ado but go out and shake himself and have God at his command but the Man in the depths will not find such an easie matter to come near God He will not only be sensible of his natural distance but of that distance he is under upon the account of his Provocations and so this Crying will take in sense of Guilt to be confessed and mourned for before God But this I shall leave because it will fall in upon the third and fourth Verses following A 4th Thing imported in this Crying is That notwithstanding of all that hath been said a Saint should cry out of the Depths with Confidence in God and of Relief from him hence the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 Gal. 4.6 It doth not prompt a Man to muter or peep or whisper his Prayer to God but to cry out with Confidence Abba Father And whatever sense we have of our need or of our distance from God or of the Guilt hath drawn it on Confidence is needfull to usher in Prayer Heb. 4.16 Having such an high priest let us come boldy The word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies let us come with an all-saying with an open mouth unto the Throne of Grace with Confidence that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need 5ly and lastly This Crying out of the depths it imports as the result of all that I have been speaking to from it a fervency of Affection when folks are not only sensible of that they need have an
estimation of it see their distance come with some measure of Confidence but an edge is put on their Affection and they are fervent and raised in Prayer for it I do not mean that Prayer with the loudest Voice is ay the most fervent Prayer when I think upon these Tones and Voices used by some in Prayer I often mind that word Eccles 9.17 the words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools It 's not the Tone though we ow the Voice to God that makes fervent Prayer to him Moses Exod. 14.15 prayed fervently he cried to God when he spoke not a Word and Lam. 2.18 Their heart cried unto the Lord O wall of the daughter of Zion But my meaning is that frequencie fervency and instancy in Prayer from the Heart is required in them that talk and cry out of the Depths ye talk of your saying of your Prayers and among the Prayers in the world many of them are but said Prayers but when it comes to crying out of the Depths your said Prayers will not do the turn our blessed Lord was never superficial in Prayer yet Luk. 22.44 it 's said being in an agony he prayed more earnestly there is a patern of Prayer out of the Depths and I wish I saw a practical Commentar of that among you which ye find Ps 107.12 13. He brought down their heart with labour they fell down and there was none to help that 's a posture that would put many to Pray and how far ye are from it if ye were awake ye would discern then they they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses So ye have heard the import of this crying out of the depths unto God As for the use of this whereof it affords divers though all along the point is practical and applys it self I know not if I dare break in farther upon it I suppose to ordinar hearers all is poyson that is spoken after the Glass but ye shall take a few words from it if this be the kindly result of blessed trouble to be put to crying to God out of the depths then ye may see what a dreadful plague it is that when people are cast in the Depths and the Spirit of Prayer is away and there is no crying out of them to God Shall I hold up to you a Glass to let you see your own foul Face in this matter Read Ezek. 24.23 And I pray you forget Judah and Israel and call this Scotland and your selves Professors in Scotland that are spoken to Ye shall not mourn nor weep but ye shall pine away for your iniquities O that is the Cop-stone of a peoples calamity when it is said to them Ye shall pine away in your iniquities and mourn and roar one towards another And will ye not get many such up and down the Land folks that are like wild beasts in a net strugling with their Calamity tatlers and talkers of their troubles he blaming him and he him roaring for the sad case themselves and the Land are in but where is their crying out of the depths to God Who have added to the weight and measure of their Prayers for all that is come over them Where will ye get a Daniel in all Scotland that for three full weeks gave himself to Fasting and Prayer Will ye have another Glass to see your foul spots in Read Dan. 9.13 As it is written in the Law of Moses all this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer to the Lord our God that we should turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth We feel well-enough all the evil that is on us and that it is come as it is written in the Law yet there is no Prayer to purpose Will ye yet take another Glass Then read Amos 4.6 c. Where the Lord tells what stroaks he had inflicted upon his people every one of them heavier than another I have done this and this to you saith the Lord and still the over-word is yet ye have not returned unto me Many folks are blyth when things rise to an height and then they think God will be seen on the Mount but they forget that continuing them in the Depths is to set them to Prayer it is the sin of the Generation that they look more to their Priviledges than their Provocations or so to their Priviledges as they forget their Provocations and lean so much weight on the righteousness of their cause as they forget that for which God hath put them in difficulties I may say on this account that fearers of God are self-destroyers O tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon that God hath taken such pains to put us to pray and repent and yet we will do any thing but Pray and Repent we will not I see no issue in this but to put off our Ornaments and see what the Lord will do with us And will ye yet take another word that may give folk a sight of their foul Face Even that Charge unjustly laid by Eliphaz against Job chap 15. vers 4. Which I doubt if we can lay so well from our door as he might Thou castest off fear saith he and restrainest prayer before God There is a threefold restraint of Prayer before God in Difficulties And I wish that one or all of them take not in the generality of the Generation we live in 1. When folk that wont to Pray give it over And what thousands are there of this stamp in Scotland and not a few in the West Countrey How many are there among us that sometimes have worshipped God in secret and now do not bow a knee to God How many have worshipped God in their Families who now have left it off And among you there are not a few such as we find by your shifting answers when you are asked thereaâ—ent a thing that rather might be expected in the barbarous parts of the Land than among you and is not Religion and Religious Duties much clipped where it had much place A Prognostick of little good when so few Families will be found having their posts sprinkled with the blood of sprinkling Now what shall I say of them that never Prayed when so many have quit Prayer that once used it O! I say it again publish it not in Gath c. That Apostasie hath so far prevailed that it hath driven many from the very form of Godliness A 2d Restraint of Prayer is in them who have keeped up a Form but alas they put me in mind of that word spoken of Pharaoh's Chariot Wheels They drive heavily There was a time when Religion was in request and then folks got borrowed Wings that they Flew with or Stilts in Religious Duties but when a man comes in the Depths he must have Divine Approbation or these will not do his turn or if he hold him by his
1. That it must be God that gives them any Delivery though they do not acknowledge him in it nor for it and consequently it is not given in Love but in Wrath there may be much Wrath in Delivery from Trouble in a sad way as well as in sending Wrath upon a wicked person by Trouble 2. Consider that any Delivery thou meets with who art not Crying to God in thy Trouble it 's but a snare to thee thou loves not Prayer in order to an issue and God in his holy Providence lets that outgate out of Trouble come as a snare in thy way that thou seest not the necessity of Prayer unto him and it 's the sadest of Snares to be put off Prayers in mister To be like these spoken of Job 21.15 Who are brought in saying what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we should pray unto him we get our turn done without him and therefore we need not Pray 3. Such as in Trouble restrain Prayer would consider that all that is owing them is but fristed it is not forgiven thou gets a proof of Gods Riches Forbearance and Long-suffering and that should lead thee to Repentance but it doth it not and thou considers not that after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of his righteous judgment Rom. 2.4 5. I can give it no better nor apposite term than what ye have 2 Kings 13.23 The Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and had respect to them because of his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them nor cast them out of his presence As yet there was a reserve in that Mercy the Judgment was to come upon them but not yet look to it then ye who in your Trouble get your turn done without God that what is fristed is not forgiven But the fourth and last word of Use I shall give you from this Note shall be this Ye that are put to Pray in Trouble I intreat you look that ye be at Crying with it I shall not resume what I said upon this the last day as that ye would be Affected with your Case that ye would be in earnest that ye would have a sense of your distance get confidence to come speed and withall a raised fervency of affection after that you cry for to God only let your Prayers look like your need of God and the greatness of your Distress Ponder that word Isa 29.13 A word which I have often cited to you This people draws near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but they have removed their heart far from me Mark the Phrase he doth not say they draw near me with their Mouth while their Heart is far from me but they have removed their heart far from me which imports that there is no more effectual mean of estranging a Soul from God than a Trade of Formal Worship it is an active removing of the Heart from God I shall only add this word that as I have spoken to them that in trouble neglect the Duty of Prayer that their Out-gates speak no good to them but Wrath and a Snare so I would have Folks cautious in judging of their liveliness or seriousness in Prayer by their Out-gates out of Trouble Ponder that place Ps 78.34 c. There ye will find a Praying People and seemingly serious they seek God and return and enquire early after him they remember he is their Rock and Redeemeer Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and lied unto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant but he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not There is a People spared and delivered when they Cryed to God when the Lord approves not of their Prayer We must therefore get another Testimony to prove our not being Formal in Prayer than Out-gate or Delivery out of Trouble A proof of Love and Compassion in Delivery may be Gods call to us to mourn over our Formality in Prayer and for our other Sins which he came over to do us good But I proceed to a third Head in this first part of the Words and that is his reflecting on his Exercise and his avowing it before God O Lord saith he I have cryed unto thee he looks back and considers what he hath been doing in Distress and finding he hath been Wrestling he layes it out and avows it before God The general which I mark from it shall be this That reflection on our selves and on our way what we have done or are doing is very necessar in all them that would approve themselves to God Such was the Psalmists practice here he looks back and finds the Depths put him to Crying and is able to give an account of it There is a twofold Reflexion that God calls for from the children of Men. One is a Reflection upon their Case what it is that they be not stupid and sensless without Consideration what their lot is Ye have that quarreled Isa 52.25 He poured out upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart and Hos 7.9 Strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth it not That argues dreadful Stupidity and Senslesness when Folks are in a low condition and do not consider and do not mind it do not lay it to Heart But there is another Reflection beside that of our Case called for and that is a Reflection on our Carriage under our Case when we have considered our Case we would Reflect what we are doing in such a case or under such Lots as Providence makes our Portion This is it the Psalmist expresses Psal 4.4 Commune with your own heart upon your bed and it is that the Lord presses upon his People Hag. 1 5. Now therefore consider your ways set your Heart on your ways This Reflection Self-searching or Examination is most necessary in ordinar a Man wors not where he is nor what he is doing in Religion if he neglect this part of it if he be a Stranger to Self-Examination he is a Stranger to his Progress or Decay in Religion his Convictions and Challenges are Confused and without Fruit. His Prayers cannot be but Confused if he Pray any it must be at Random Only the Man that is distinct in Examination can distinctly lay out his Case before God and this Examination as it 's necessar in ordinar so specially in Trouble If a Man in Distress neglect Examination he may be carried head-long in Stupidity in Passion Quarreling Fretting or other Sinful Improvements of his Trouble and as it is Eccles 5.1 He may
the second Note That what ever be the seeming success of the Saints in the deeps their supplications out of the deeps affords them a testimony It 's good news that the Psalmist dare owne this Lord thou hast cast me in the deeps but I have cryed to thee out of the deeps It 's a good Cordial to Heman while he is in the deeps Psal 88.13 But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Lord why casts thou off my soul c. And if ye ask what riches can be in this testimony that we have cryed and continue crying out of the deeps I shall pass it with the time in three words 1. It 's a token of a blest and sanctified trouble when folks are led to God by trouble that 's better than many out-gates they are blest whom when God chastens he teacheth out of his Law Psal 94.12 And the first Lesson God teacheth them when he puts them in trouble is to go to himself with the trouble It is a remarkable word that Sampson's Mother had Judg. 13.23 If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering so many such folk say if God had a mind to destroy them he would not turn them in to himself in their trouble There is more of the love of God inclining thy heart to cry to him out of the deeps than in many out-gates there is a rich blessing in it 2. This testimony is rich because it warrands a man having done his duty to cast his burden on God and in nothing to be anxious It 's no wonder a man be crusht with his trouble before he go to God with iâ— but when he goes to him he hath a warrand to cast all his cares and fears on him he hath Hannah's allowance 1 Sam. 1.18 Who being a woman of a sorrowful spirit went and poured out her heart before the Lord in his bosome and left her anxiety on God and came away with her countenance no more sad This is a practice that few of us attain unto we seem to carry our cares to God in Prayer but we bring them back with discouragement rather augmented than diminished 3. This testimony is rich because it assures the Supplicant whatever be his present success whereof if the Lord will we may speak a word in the Afternoon that he shall come speed crying out of the deeps shall be heard for Psal 9.18 The needy shall not always be forgotten the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever Israel might think God had forgotten them when they were so long in the deeps in Egypt and sighed and cryed to him by reason of their bondage but at length God heard their groaning and remembred his Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob Exod. 2.24 And ye know that word Isai 45.19 I have not said to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain He never said it in any age and he will not begin at us Take this word of Use from it labour to have this Testimony to be crying out of the deeps so as ye may avow and owne it and to be improving it labour to read love and a blessing in it to cast all your burdens on God by so doing and confidently to expect ye shall see the end of the Lord. In a word labour to find that by grace in so doing that trouble cannot take from you to find a delivery in trouble rather than a delivery out of it to find that which is of more worth than many deliveries and infinitly of more worth than any delivery can be without it SERMON IV. Psalm 130. Vers 2. Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications 3. If thou LORD shouldest mark iniquities O LORD who shall stand 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared FROM the first Branch of the Psalmist's wrestling and exercise I have spoken to these these three 1. To the deeps wherewith he was put to wrestle 2. To his cryes whereby he wrestles with these deeps 3. To his reflecting upon this his practice and avowing it before God as that which afforded him a testimony that out of the deeps he had cryed unto God Now there remains the prosecution of this wrestling and his pleading for audience in a new and doubled suit vers 2. Lord hear my voice c. While he pleads for the hearing of his voice the meaning is not that the voice is all that should be given to God I confess we should give him the voice when we can give him no more and lament that we have no more to give him but the voice but the voice that the Psalmist would have heard here is the voice of his crying out of the deeps the voice of his most fervent and earnest supplication ye see the expressions here are doubled as frequently in the Book of Psalms to evidence how earnest he was in this suit that he is not complementing with God when he is seeking access and audience to his Prayers The expressions also are Metaphorical and borrowed from the carriage of a Parent to a Child and upon the matter his suit is this Lord notice me when I pray as the Parent will notice the distressed Childs cry when he is like to ruine and let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications that goes a little further that as a Parent knowing a Child to be in hazard he will listen and hearken attentively if he can hear him cry and notice and ponder that cry and what he cryes for so he pleads with God that he would be waiting on and attentive to see and hear if a cry should come from him and that he would affectionatly ponder and notice it when he hears it For this hearing of Prayer it hath so frequently occurred before that I shall pass it and the whole Verse in three words that I may come to other things in the Psalm which I mainly designed to speak unto when I broke in upon it The first thing that ye shall mark here is that Sanctified affliction not only puts the Saints to Prayer but also that they cannot rest upon the work wrought of Prayer but they must have an answer to their Prayer I have cryed out of the deeps unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice he must be heard The sensible man when God blesses the distress he is in to put him to Prayer he doth not rest there but presses for a hearing for an answer to his Prayer and two things evidence the truth of this one is a sensible man in trouble will find it hard to be out of speaking terms with God hard to have any thing of Saul's case in his lot that when he sought God in his distress he would not answer him neither by dreams nor by Vrim nor by Prophets 1 Sam. 28.6 When folk come into trouble if they have any sense or
his salvation yet pray on there is nothing formidable in a Supplicants condition so long as he is not driven from Gods Footstool but he prays on 2. Another direction is that repulses or delays should promove humility in Supplications and Supplicants It 's here supplications that he puts up when he pleads for audience Now the poor uses supplications supplications are the Beggers are the Dyvours Language many Supplicants when they have cryed long and are not heard may be in peril to fret to quarrel to repine to bark but that 's a wrong method to come speed with God in Prayer thou ought to be the more humble the longer thou art delayed thou ought to creep the nearer the dust and come in among the poor that speak supplications And a third direction shall be from the Phrase and Metaphor in the Text as I explained it in the entry that is that there be a believing that the Lord hath an affectionat ear to listen unto and hear the cry of humble Supplicants This is imported in the very terms of the Prayer put up to God as an affectionat Parent ready to notice the cry of his Child when he is in hazard and crys for help and this is a needful direction when the Supplicant is held at the door that beside diligence and humility he entertain Faith that bods well of God Faith that when God was seeming to destroy Job made him say These things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee Job 10.13 I know thou hast a kindness for Job though thou appear terrible to me so must Faith reckon when answers to Prayer are delayed I know he will do me good though I seem not to be noticed Now I come to the third and fourth Verses wherein we have the second Branch of the Psalmist's wrestling and that is a wrestling with guilt that might hinder audience and to give you a general view of these two Verses ye shall take this Branch of his wrestling in these three 1. Ye have a very sensible and humble acknowledgment of the desert of sin in the most godly vers 3. If thou Lord should mark iniquity O Lord who should stand That is iniquities are so hainous a thing that if thou wilt mark them as a severe Judge and according to the Covenant of Works proceed with men none would be justified 2. Ye have the Psalmist's relief being thus humbled in Gods pardoning mercy on which he lays hold in the beginning of the 4. vers But there is forgivenness with thee 3. This pardoning mercy in God is amplified from the end he hath before him in letting it forth That thou mayest be feared that is not only in general because thou art a merciful and pardoning God in Christ men have access to worship and serve thee who otherwise art a consuming fire but in particular thy pardoning mercy will excite men to fear and worship so good a God that freely pardons iniquity under the weight and burden of which they could not stand For the first of these his sensible and humble acknowledgment of the desert of sin in the most godly I may touch it the more cursorily now because it will fall in when afterward I come to speak of the right way of applying pardoning mercy where I shall take a view of this Verse as it points out the right method of obtaining pardon and the qualification of the pardoned sinner calling upon God in trouble what I would say now upon it ye shall take up in these three 1. Ye have the sense of sin and guilt joyned with the sense of trouble 2. Ye have the sense of guilt meeting a godly man in the teeth when he is sent to God by Prayer in trouble 3. Ye have guilt meeting him with a terrible Aspect that if God marked it he nor none is able to stand For the first I shall give it to you in this brief Observation That in right exercise the sense of sin and guilt should go along with the sense of distress and trouble the Psalmist rests not on his being sensible that he was in the deeps but he is also lying under the sense of sin and guilt a man that hath the meer sense of trouble without the sense of sin he is no more than a beast that will feel a smart and so it is a bruitish thing to be houling under the sense of trouble without the sense of sin Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their heart when they houled upon their beds They houled for their trouble but they called not sincerely unto me And vers 16. They return but not to the most high they are like a deceitful bowe And hence Micah 6.9 The Lords voice calls unto the City hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it There must be a hearing of the Appointer of the Rod as well as the Rod it self To evince the truth of this point I shall shortly hint at some consequences that readily follows the sense of trouble without the sense of sin Not to stand upon this that readily they choise a new sin to an outgate Job 26.1 This hast thou chosen rather than affliction I shall name these three 1. Where the sense of trouble is without the sense of sin folks expects to win soon out of it There are readily a world of conceity folk that think they will win soon and easily out of their trouble Judah found the weight of trouble but not the weight of sin and when they were going to captivity they were filled with dreams of outgate Jer. 12.4 They said he shall not see our last end And Jer. 2.25 They said because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me And when they were brought very low that delusion did not leave them Ezek. 11.15 They say Get ye far from the Lord unto us is the land given in possession And Ezek. 33.24 These of them that did inhabite the wastes said Abraham was one and he inherited the land but we are many the land is given us for inheritance Whence it is clear that deluded confidence is one of the wofull fruits of the sense of trouble without sense of sin A 2d is woful bitterness and carnal distempers of Spirit if not when the trouble comes on because they trust to be soon delivered from it yet when it continues long How find ye that people Jer. 5.19 and the parallel places who are brought in saying Wherefore hath the Lord our God done all these things unto us What 's our iniquity And what 's our sin And Isa 51 20. Ye may take up the temper of such a people Thy sons have fainted they ly at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net they are full of the fury of the Lord the rebuke of thy God Ye will not tame a wild Beast by putting him in a Net but mad him the more and so are they who continue long under the
sense of trouble without the sense of sin And a 3d Consequence is a woful issue when ever delivery out of trouble comes to folk in such a posture and I find in this issue these two to concur one is their hungry starved lusts meeting with mercies do surfeit upon them as the peilled Jews when they came from the Captivity and had not quit their covetousness they no sooner came back but they eat up one another And another is when such folk are delivered out of the strait wherein they were their delivery ordinarily hath the plague of God with it Psal 78.29 c. When that people cryed for flesh He rained flesh upon them as dust and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea they were filled he gave them their desire but while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel This in short would put folk to it in shoring times to see what they are most affected with whether with trouble or with sin If ye be going with your hands on your loyns what ails you What affects you most Sin or trouble Provocation or trouble the fruit of your provocation Mark it there is much exercise in sad times when it is not about sin and the fruit of that exercise will be found wind Isa 26.18 We have been with child we have been in pain we have as it were brought forth wind Sense of sin over-weighing sense of trouble were a blest mean to cure our trouble Isa 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin when he makes all the stones of the Altar as Chalk stones that are beaten asunder the Groves and Images shall not stand up But the 2d Note I proposed to be spoken to was That sense of guilt meets him in the teeth when he comes to God The Observation is that guilt will readily meet the people of God in their approaches to him under trouble when he is crying to God out of the deeps and is earnest for audience God's marking of iniquity stares him in the face to put some stop and demurr to his access and audience and the issue he would have been at If time would suffer I would deduce this point in these four 1. A tender soul is known by many heart-smitings for sin which David was well acquaint with in the Wilderness when he cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 A very innocent thing to vindicat his own integrity yet his heart smote him a heart-smiting for sin was no dainty to him then I confess when men are at ease and are not in a tender frame they may give way to gross sins and their heart not smite them What a temper is David in when he is at ease and secure What a wide throat hath he to swallow down Adultery and Murder and to betray a part of his Army 2 Sam. 11. The sword devours one as well as another saith he it 's the fortune as we call it and the chance of War let it not trouble thee That was not like David when he was tender but however the general holds true that heart-smiting from sense of sin is a most infallible sign and evidence of tenderness and nearness to God O but the skin of a Conscience near God is thin A little thing will draw blood of it And as upon the one hand ye would try your nearness to God by this so upon the other hand ye would look upon it as poor gallantry to digest sin without a heart smiting you for it There is a generation of men who are called strong spirits gallant men and wherein doth their strength of spirit and gallantry ly In contemning the Law of God in treading upon his Authority in defying God they can commit all wickedness and sleep in a sound skin and never be troubled with it these are our Gallants but the day will come when that will be found poor gallantry and that he is the brave spirit that knows what heart-smiting for sin is and hath tenderness in his walk There is in the 2d place this in particular that when Saints go to God then their guilt readily meets them although they have little sense of guilt in ordinary yet when they approach to God in earnest their sin will muster up before them 3. Although in ordinary Addresses they may be little sensible of sin yet when a strait comes and they are sent to God then their sin will find them out though they can walk in ordinary and be little troubled with guilt yet in a distress it cross-necks them And 4ly Although wicked men do not readily meet with guilt because they are plagued with stupidity yet their guilt will meet with them and they shall find it marked by God as if when they came to God in ordinary they came to proclaim their iniquity These are the Branches of the Point which now I cannot insist on to deduce at large only if ye have to do with God and be in earnest beware of unrepented guilt the longer it be in meeting with you it will be the sadder when you and it meet and the longer it be that ye lay it not to heart to repent of it and turn from it it will be the more sad God bless what ye have heard SERMON V. Psalm 130. Vers 3. If thou LORD shouldest mark iniquities O LORD who shall stand YOU have heard that the Psalmist being wrestling by Prayer with the difficulties and plunging perplexities that were in his case vers 1 2. Doth here come to wrestle more particularly with guilt which might stop his audience and success and as ye heard he doth 1. make a sensible confession of the misdeserving of sin that if God should mark it as a severe Judge none should be justified none should be able to stand 2. Ye have his relief and refuge being thus humbled in the pardoning mercy of God upon which he lays hold in the beginning of the 4. Verse But there is forgivenness with thee And 3ly as ye heard in the end of vers 4. This pardoning mercy of God is amplified from his end and design in letting it forth That thou mayest be feared There is forgivenness with him that sinners may draw near him who in himself is a consuming fire and that pardoned sinners may be excited to fear and worship so good a God that freely pardons sin From the first of these I spake to a general Note That the sense of trouble and the exercise about it should be attended with the sense of sin and exercise about sin for the Psalmist here is exercised and taken up with both while he is crying out of the deeps he is lying under the sense of sin I confirmed this and marked some sad consequences that followed sense of trouble without sense of sin I hinted also at a
of trouble without the sense of sin is ill company and will breed many distempers which the sense of sin joyned with the sense of trouble will bear down and prevent And 4. If even the most godly man be thus lyable to punishment for who can stand if God mark iniquity and even for his ordinary failings consider what is the godly mans case when he falleth in grosser out-breakings If when thou looks upon thy dayly escapes through ignorance rashness precipitancy short-coming in duty thou art made to lament and say Lord I cannot stand before thee if thou Lord mark iniquity how may the lamentation be hightned when thou falls in grosse sins and spots and by them causes the enemy to blasphem and the truth is were folk more frequent in laying to heart their ordinary escapes and infirmities it would be a mean to caution them against out-breakings in grosser debordings but when these are not laid to heart and mourned for it provokes God to write it with some vile blemish and I shal add if the Lord mark iniquity and a godly man cannot stand what shall become of a wicked man who hath no interest in Christ if a David suppose he hath been the penman of this Psalm be trembling and sinking under the Burden of iniquities what a posture should monsters for prophanity who declare their sin as Sodom be in I confess they are not troubled with sin because they forget that they have immortal Souls but their trouble is coming They see godly men plunged and perplexed under apprehensions of wrath when they are free of grosse out-breakings and they are not affected with all their impieties but O! what a witnes is that against them who walk as monsters among men and are never troubled ponder that word 1 Pet. 4.17.18 The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it begin at us what shall become of them that obey not the Gospel of God and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If godly men dare not think of standing before God marking iniquity how can these monsters for prophanity and ungodliness think to look God in the face marking their iniquities But now I proceed to the second General in the Text and that is the refuge to which the Psalmist betakes himself when he is thus humbled and abased under the sense of the dreadful deserts of sin But there is forgivness with thee That is thou hast declared thy self to be a pardoner of sin on gospel-terms and this forgivenness is with thee that is it 's thy peculiar right in opposition to all pretenders None have a right to pardon but thou and it 's thy right when the Law and our own Consciences do condemn us to stepin and forgive and therefore though upon account of the Covenant of Works I cannot think of standing before thee I betake my self to the refuge that forgiveness is with thee There is a General Word that I might here mark that is That there is a remedy in God for all difficulties under which the Saints are humbled and abased as insuperable for when in the 3. verse he hath said If thou Lord should mark iniquities who can stand There is a But a reserve an exception added Forgivenness is with thee There is indeed a hopeless case but here is a remedy for it in God so that there is no case how hopeless soever it be that is desperat if folks go to God with it But this I leave and pitch upon the main point in the Text That there is pardoning mercy in God for sin and this is the only refuge to a sensible sinner oppressed with sin and guilt It 's here the Psalmist's only refuge and ease when he cannot think of standing before God marking iniquity It 's Job's only refuge Chap. 7.20 21. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Thou may set me as a mark against thee and make me a burden to my self but all that will not make thee reparation Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity and it 's the happiness of fallen Man not that he is sinless or able to satisfie Justice for his sin but that he is a pardoned man Psal 32.1.2 c. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is pardoned blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity This we would not need to insist on to prove it if souls were in the Psalmists posture here if souls knew what it were to be under the burden of the debt of Sin there would be no happiness to that to have sin pardoned God would be to them a matchless God upon this account Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he would be a matchless God upon the account of his pardoning iniquity whatever other proof of Love he should give or withhold Now because this is a most important and weighty Gospel point of Truth The pardoning of Sin and I know not when I may fall upon it in a Catechetical way I purpose to quite my ordinary way and to insist upon this head The pardon of â—in which would give me occasion to speak to several things for information of judgment and to set you to your duty I shall reduce what I intend to say on it to these Heads 1. What is Pardoned 2. Who they are that are Pardoned 3. What the nature of this Pardon is 4. When Pardon passes in favours of the Sinner whether it be irrevocable 5. What is the right method of the Application of Pardoning Mercy which will lead me to the last thing in the Text That forgiveness is with God that He may be feared These and the like through the determination of the Scriptures may be of special use to you 1. What is it that God doth pardon it is sin or iniquity so the former verse and this collated holds forth It 's the iniquities under which he is groaning in the former verse for which there is forgiveness with God in this verse so in that forcited place Mic. 7 18. He pardons iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage and Psal 52.1 2. It 's sin iniquity transgression that is pardoned covered not imputed to intimat that sin under whatever name it be expressed is that which God pardons Now to prosecute this I shall not fall upon many descriptions of sin and its nature it shall suffice us to know that sin is the transgression of the Law and that of the Law of God neither the crossing of folks humors will make a man a sinner James 4.11 12. There are a number of rigid Censurers that would make their Will a Law to all or have all to walk by their rash Judgment whereas there is but one Law-giver who is able to save and destroy
have spoken to the Consideration of the Author of Pardon who it is that pardons sin and whatever hand Ministers have in this or what ever hand private persons have in it in remitting injuries done to them yet the Text determins God still to be the principal Creditor it 's with thee says he It 's with thee alone that forgivenness is I entered upon the 3d thing I proposed to be spoken to which is the main thing in thing purpose that is to inquire after the nature of this pardon what this forgivenness of sin which is with God imports and after a brief touch upon some passages of Scripture whereby pardon of sin is expressed I proceeded negatively to tell you what it is not where I shew that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with mens forgetting of sin and taking a pardon to themselves as also that sin is not to be lightly looked on as a thing that God lightly passes by when he pardons it for he pardons none but upon satisfaction made to his Justice by sinners surety likewise that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with Gods forbearing or not inflicting punishment for it for a time for they may be long forborn who yet may be unpardoned and whose forbearance is no sign of Divine Approbation Further it was cleared that the pardoning of particular sinners and their restoring in favour is not to be confounded with a National pardon conferred on a Nation whom he may pardon and yet punish And lastly it was cautioned and cleared that we should not confound the pardon of sin with the removal of sin in the pollution of it for though God strike at the guilt and power of sin both together yet whereas pardon of sin is attained before Death some filthiness of Sin will remain in the pardoned Sinner as long as he is in this life and pardon of Sin may consist with the sight of the filthiness of Sin for which the Sinner is abased before God daily And this leads me positively to point out what pardon of Sin imports all that I shall say to it in general before I break in to tell you more particularly what it is shall be this ye shall distinguish in Sin these two There is in Sin a blot or pollution of the Soul and a defaceing of God's Image thereby And there is in Sin a guilt that is an offence done to God by the violating of his Law whereby the Sinner becomes obnoxious to the punishment that He hath threatned in his Law These two are clearly distinguishable among men a child running in a puddle polluteâ— himself and by so doing he becomes guilty of transgressing his Parents command and is lyable to their correction or punishment Now as to these two the guilt and the blot of Sin there are diverse and distinct Operations of God conversant about them for as the blot of Sin begins to be stricken at in Regeneration so that work is carried on by Piece-meal in Sanctification till Sanctification be perfected and end in Glorification Regeneration and Sanctification are the Acts of God conversant about the Blot and Filthiness of Sin but pardon of Sin takes not away the beeing nor the Filthiness of Sin as Antinomians say but it takes away the guilt of Sin and the guilt of Sin being pardoned the Sinner is delivered from the Punishment that his guilt deserves and this is also distinguishable among Men for a person having committed an enormous crime that crime continues still a filthy thing and evidences a naughty disposition yet when that crime is pardoned the man that committed it loses not their favour against whom it was committed and is freed from the punishment that it deserves So a Child that hath puddled himself in a mire suppose the Parents forgive the offence the filth that he hath got in the mire sticks to him still till it be washed away another way So I say pardon of sin takes not away the filthiness of sin but the guilt of sin And this I mention not meerly for speculation and information of the Judgment but it says something for their Advantage and Encouragement who in the sense of sin are flying to Christ for pardon that they be not scarred by the pollution of sin from relying on him for the pardon of guilt A tender Soul so long as it finds the blot of sin it will readily doubt if the guilt of sin be taken away but if we take up pardon Scripturally the guilt of sin is done away by pardon though the blot of sin remain I confess the blot of sin must not remain unmourned for it must not remain unsubdued or without an endeavour to subdue it yet it may remain when the guilt and violation of the Law of God by Sin is pardoned and past that sin may be near thy sight in the blot and pollution which pardon hath put far off as to the guilt of it Jer. 50.20 In those days and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought and there shall be none and the sin of Judah and they shall not be found Why For I 'le pardon them whom I reserve only let me add that that thou who grips to the pardon of guilt when yet thou finds the blot of sin remaining and art mourning for it remember that pardon must not be only a simple exemption from punishment but that it is only a Restitution into his Favour whom thou hast offended Thy pardon must not be an Absalom's pardon that brought him back to Jerusalem but he saw not the King's face Thou must not satisfie thy self with that but thou must be accepted and come into favour that was David's prayer Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce and verse 12. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me by thy free Spirit But of this I will have occasion to speak in the progress therefore I leave it And having given you this general Notion of Pardon I shall proceed to batter it out a little for the clearing of four Questions 1. How the guilt of sin can be separated from the blot of sin and the sinner pardoned 2. Whether in pardon the obligation to punishment be so taken off as the pardoned man falleth under no Chastisement for sin 3. Whether the real passing of Pardon be one in the Court of Heaven with that which is in the Court of Conscience or if the truth of pardon depends on the intimation of it to our hearts 4. Whether what the Lord pardons He pardons Irrevocably or whether upon the Contracting of new guilt the former pardon be made void to the pardoned man These four Questions I shall touch upon as briefly as I can and sure I am these of you whose plight anchor pardon of sin is ye will not weary to hear them
be humbled for pardoned sin Though God be good and gracious in pardoning sin we should be severe on our selves for provoking him Though the pardoned mans Count be cleared he must ly in the dust for that he offended God and brought so much wo and vexation on himself And further this will follow upon it that God by afflicting the pardoned sinner invites him to mortifie sin daily that he may not fall in the like sin again Yea and further when he afflicts the sinner with an eye to sin that is pardoned he invites the sinner to more and more thankfulness to him for the pardoning of it when he considers what-ever afflictions or rods be inflicted yet his pardon is ensured to him These are some of the blessed ends why the Lord with an eye to pardoned sin is pleased to let out afflictions and chastisements upon justified persons and it is upon this account that chastisement with pardon is put in the Covenant Psal 89.32 That however he will not take his loving kindness from his children nor suffer his faithfulness to fail yet he will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes therefore we would mind this well It is no great wonder that Antinomians say God chastens not the Saints at all upon the account of sin for they say God sees no sin in them to chasten but let us not deceive our selves but when the rod is laid on let us hear the voice of the rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6.9 Ye have heard that all afflictions comes in by the door of sin and therefore it 's a sweet study under afflictions to be sensible of sin Ye have heard that God may send afflictions on justified persons to prevent sin and to waken them out of security and put them to repentance when sin is committed to imprint upon their spirits the folly of their wanderings and the bitterness that follows sin to caution them for the future against relapsing in sin to stir them up to mortifie sin c. These are better Lessons than the dreams of Antinomians that God hath no respect to the sins of his children when he afflicts them And yet I shall add a third word more for Caution against their error that is That Gods afflicting of Saints with an eye to sin doth not at all clash with that which they assert that the afflictions of the godly are for the trial of their faith That they are meerly for the trial of their faith we deny that they are for the trial of their faith we grant For though afflictions be for the trial of faith yet they are also for other ends as before they repent to stir up to repentance in order to pardon and after repentance to humble them and caution against sin and for producing other effects yet they are still trials of faith whether they will adhere to God yea so much the more trials of faith are they as we have not only trouble to graple with but guilt that brought on the affliction It is easier for faith to hold its feet under a cleanly trial than when affliction is lying on and conscience of guilt is staring us in the face And therefore we shall easily grant providing the mind of God in other ends of affliction be not neglected That when we have done all we should look on the trial of faith as a main end of affliction and when in affliction we cast away confidence we miss a main end and imped the good that we might get by affliction The time having prevented me and I cannot win to the other two Questions whether the truth of pardon depends on the intimation of it to our hearts and whether pardon be it revocable so that guilt makes not former pardon void though it needeth pardon and ought to be mourned for I shall not now break in upon them The Lord bless his Word to you SERMON XIII Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee THough I have insisted long and may insist yet some while upon this great priviledge the forgivenness of sins yet ye may know that I am not upon an unnecessary Subject I am upon a Subject that will be found absolutely necessary for you to make your Testament comfortably with and with the cordials thereof ye may digest any bitterness that occurreth in your empty pilgrimage These general Heads on which I am now treating they want not their ground in the Text and Context That which is pardoned to which I have spoken the Text tells that it is iniquity there is forgivenness with thee of these iniquities which if thoâ— mark who can stand The Author of this benefit of pardon is expresly held out in the Text There is forgivenness with thee and the benefit it self the nature whereof I am now inquiring after is held out in that term of forgivenness There is forgivenness with thee Now concerning this having cleared negatively what it is not I told you particularly that pardon takes not away the filth and beeing of sin but the guilt of sin God in pardoning the sinner remits the offence done to him by the violation of his Law and restores the pardoned sinner to his favour and exempts him from the deserved punishment of sin and in pursuance of this I spoke to two of four Questions which are needful to be discussed for clearing the nature of remission I cleared to you that though guilt be inseparable from the filth of sin yet the sinner might be pardoned though the filth of sin remain and how that his pardon did not take away the desert of sin considered in it self but that it takes away that desert and guilt as it results on the person sinning so as it never taketh effect upon him so that though the person fled unto Christ for refuge be troubled not only with the pollution but with the guilt of sin yet he needs not be afraid for it takes no effect against him since he has betaken himself to the City of Refuge And to confirm this I gave you several Scriptural expressions of pardon which may quiet the Conscience and be ground of peace that although the filth of sin and the inherent desert of sin remain yet pardon is a real security to the pardoned sinner 2. Another case or Question which I spoke unto was that seing pardon frees the pardoned man from obligation to punishment whether or not doth or may the Lord pursue a pardoned justified man with any chastisement or punishment for sin and there not to resume what I spoke unto you the last afternoon I gave you some grounds of refutation of the Popish Doctrine who will have the fault or guilt remitted when the punishment is retained which is to say that sin is remitted and it 's not remitted And upon the other hand I cleared to you against the Antinomians how that as all trouble came in by the door of sin and that the Lord may and doth chasten
Holiness and Jealousie of God that he will not be affronted in the matter of his service and worship it calls for Fear and reverence it is a strong Argument used by the Apostle to press us to serve God with Reverence and with Godly Fear Heb. 12.29 For our God says he is a consuming fire and that which Moses said to Aaron when his two Sons were slain burnt up with fire which went out from the Lord for offering strange fire before him This is the thing which the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come near me and before all the people I will be glorified I will either be honoured by them or I will be honoured upon them that draw near me and take my Name in vain Well then have ye any thing of this Fear of God will ye kythe it by your serving him Mal. 1.6 A son honoureth his father and a servant his master if he be a Father where is his honour and if a Master where is his fear stand ye in awe of God that do misken him all your time do ye fear him that never take a spare hour to pay homage to him that will not bow a knee to him But I shall add the service that ye pay to God I pray you look how it is ballast with fear that it turn not in presumption and if ye have need of an intimation of Mercy to correct your fear that it degener not in despondency Ye come to God's House to Worship him but how few of you when ye come here have said How dreadful is this place would ye have your Character take it from Jude verse 12. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear ye come before God ye join in the publick Exercises of Gods Worship but without any impression of the fear of God more than if all we did while we are together had no relation to him O be ashamed that the fear and awe of God doth so little ballast and season your service and worship But in the 2. place we come to take a look of this purpose with an eye to the Scope There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared says the Psalmist then the fear of God more tender walking being more frequent and serious in duty to God more reverence of his service it is the kindly product of a heart that hath on right terms closed with Christ in pardoning mercy a fear to offend God a reverential fear in his Worship and service And hence I shall lay these few particulars before you and close 1. Which is the main thing in the Scope come and try by this if ye have been closing a-right with pardoning mercy see what is the consequence of it and that will tell you Are ye closing with pardoning Mercy to make your boast of it that ye may sin on and sleep more securely That is all the Dream that some have in their head of God's goodness and mercy in pardoning sin to take in a new Swack but thou that does so turns the Grace of God unto lasciviousness and offers a contempt to pardoning Mercy which the Gracious God will not brook But O! here is the blessed Fruit of pardoning Mercy to be more tender in thy walk more afraid of sin more diligent in Duty the further God is pleased to put thee in his bosom the greater distance thou keeps with what may provock him the more freely he forgive thee the more thou delights to be active in his service find many Scriptures that gives an account of the overcoming goodness of God towards ingenuous Souls not only that Psal 85.8 He will speak peace to his people and to his saints but let them noâ—â—urn again to folly but that of Hos 3.5 The goodness of God the Object of their Faith makes them fear him and his goodness and that of David 2 Sam. 7.27 Who when he gets a promise of building him a House the kindness of God sets him on fire as it were and puts wings to his Prayer Thou O Lord of hosts God of Israel hast revealed to thy servant saying I will build thee an house therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee and Hezekiah Isai 38 15. When the Lord had spoken of his delivery he will not wax wanton but he will walk softly all the fifteen years added unto his dayes in the bitterness of his soul and when the Lord falls in upon Ephraim with sweet converting Grace and turns him Jer. 31.19 after he is turned he repents after he is instructed he smites on his thigh he is ashamed yea even confounded because he hath born the reproach of his youth see to it ye that grip to pardoning Mercy and lay claim to it I am so far from envying you that I say the Lord say so too But O! let it be seen in your tenderness in your reverential fear and awe of God in the constraining power that the love of Christ hath on you if ye believe that he died for you will not his love constrain you to lâ—ve to him 2 Cor. 5.14 And ye that are tender will ye not be afraid that that kindness of God ye lay claim to is either a lie in your right hand that produces not somewhat like this or that ye are in a plagued condition that the goodness and kindness of God works not upon you 2. If pardoning Mercy be let out that God may be feared it puts me in capacity to answer the Cavillations of the profane they live in the contempt of holiness they have a prejudice at it they see no form nor beauty in it wherefore they should desire it What shall they get if they turn fearers of God They see no advantage by it but loss But shall I say to thee if thou looked rightly on it thou would be ashamed to owne any such Cavillation Piety has no enemy but an ignorant there is none that ever knew Piety that would give it the Character thou gives it if pardoning Mercy work up a love to holiness in men and make them to fear him thou that has a prejudice at holiness evidences that thou art not a partaker of it and why would thou tell all the World that thou knows not what this pardoning Mercy means thy contempt of holiness proclaims that all thy iniquities are bound upon thy back If ever thou had layen at Gods Foot stool and been lift up with pardoning Mercy saying to thee Son or daughter be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee it would put an edge upon thee to pursue after holiness and therefore let me intreat you who are profane and entertain a prejudice at holiness not to publish your own shame and by your contempt of the fear of God and his service to declare ye are yet without the pardoning Mercy of God But from this ye shall take a 3. word If closing with
praise when the waters overflowed their enemies but they soon forgot his works or made haste to forget them they waited not for his counsel but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desart Now in opposition to this it 's the great mercy of Saints when not only they hold out as it may be to the end and get their souls for a prey but they endeavour to be solid fixed constant equal to draw out as ye speak an even threed of a godly walk not but that they have their ups and downs of comfort and abasement but they guard against their brashy fairds and fits and against their being at a hight now and sinking again as low And the grounds why ye would guard against this fleeting unstable disposition are 1. A fleeting temper is not to be trusted to that which light unsolid hearts are at in a faird they are not wise that lean to it God at the first view tells Israel their goodness was as a morning cloud or as the early dew Hos 6.4 promising fair but passing away And when they make their great ranâ— Deut. 5.27 Who but they for obedience O saith the Lord v. 29. that there were such a heart in them I know them better than themselves do I know they want that heart they profess to be solid and constant in their obedience to me 2. This fleeting disposition would be guarded against because these hot fits that folk sometimes have in the way of godliness will be a dreadful witness against them when they turn their back upon it What a sad check is that Christ gives to the Jews Joh. 5.35 John was a burning and a shining light and ye rejoyced to walk in his light for a season Who but John for a time to you but ye soon tyred And see how the Apostle beats home a reproof for this Gal. 4.14 My temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected but received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Where is then the blessedness ye spake of c. Where is that heat and edge now 3. This fleeting disposition would be look'd to because these unsolid fits have no present access and acceptation as they are not lasty so they are little noticed for the time Hos 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud c. What shall I do with that What service can I have of it What is in it to be noticed For thou aâ—t unstable as the morning cloud is soon dispelled and the early dew soon evanishes 4. This fleeting humour would be guarded against because besides it 's not acceptance with God it keeps folk that they know not the good of godliness It 's not faiâ—ds and brashes that will bring home the real advantage of piety Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the former and latter rain upon the earth And Joh. 8 31 32. When there were many that professed to believe on Christ he saith to them If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free if ye hold at that which ye profess ye shall find the good of Religion and be Disciples to me From all that I have been speaking on this folks would learn not to be cheated with brashes and fairds of this kind it may be folks please themselves in an ill course because now and then their minds have been under dwams and they have had their fits and motions and they should beware of slighting these lest folks be given over to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels but such folk should look to it ye that are brashie either hot and frazie or key cold There is much of this in a natural temper that in some skips from hot to cold from liveliness to deadness and holds at nothing But that ye may learn to be still the same in so far as is attainable in this state of misery I would recommend to you partly that ye would labour to fix your selves on rational principles know what ye are doing and the grounds whereon ye go when ye close with Religion be as Peter Joh. 6.68 When many went back Lord saith he to whom shall we go for thou hast the words of eternal life And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the living God Stuff thine heart solidly with rational and solid grounds to go upon in Religion and these put in the hand of God will be a constant spring to feed thy diligence 2. To these rational grounds add solid resolutions that as Barnabas perswaded the Christians Acts 11.23 Thou may with full purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord it must not be a surprisal like one in a passion that sets thee on to seek God but a solid fix'd purpose of heart And when thou hast laid down rational grounds and backed them with solid resolutions thou must in the 3d place wait on God it 's he that must unite thy heart to fear his Name Psal 86.11 It 's he that can gather the fleeting heart and fix it on the nail that 's fastened in a sure place It 's he in whose hand thou must put all thy resolutions and purposes as David who when he hath resolved well Psal 17.3 Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress Concerning the works of men I have by the words of thy lips kept me from the paths of the destroyer He adds v. 6. Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not These are resolutions that are settled and backed with needy dependence on God else though thou were never so well fixt in thy resolutions they may prove like Sampsons Cords when thou art assaulted with a new temptation These few directions through the blessing of God may fix you in the way of godliness prevent fleeting unconstancy debording and deviating from it But now in the 3d place to give you a look of perseverance as it is opposed to wearying lying by sitting up and it may be the taking of many sinful shifts on delayes and when difficulties are met with that is when a needy person goes about the means frequents the Ordinances and gets nothing his Word is a sealed Book the Preaching of the Gospel is under a Cloud when they go to God in Prayer they come no speed they are not heard and it may be wrath meets them in the teeth such may be strongly tempted to give over and weary and it 's in opposition to this the Psalmist will wait on God and in opposition to such temptations we are to fix this truth that no delay we meet with in Gods way ought to cut our perseverance short No delay should
he had not done without cause all that he had done in it And doth not the evil improvement of Trouble and folks security and negligence under trouble justifie God in the long continuance of trouble when we are ready to cry how long Lord how long shall this calamity last The Lord may retort it upon us Why will ye die O house of Israel For as it is Jer. 44.10 The Lord may say They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my Law A sight of this that God keeps a sincere serious godly man so long waiting on under delays for comfort and out-gate may silence the clamors of them who are not yet begun to think on a suitable walk under their troubles and the right improvement of them But 3. If the Lord for the ends before-mentioned may long delay his people and keep them waiting in trouble take heed that Faith the great support of Patience fail not in that exigent as I told you in the deducing of the Doctrine the great thing tryed in the people of God under delays is their Faith whether they will believe his word and therefore when Faith is tryed look that it be not found drossie when Faith is weighed see that it be not found light I speak it because I find the Faith of the Saints has gotten sore shakes under delays when they have been put to wait on Psal 116.11 I said in my haste all men Samuel Gad and others that had told me I should come to the Crown and Kingdom are liars And Jer. 15.18 while speaking to God hath a dreadful word when he reflects on the Promises God made to be with him in his Ministry says he Wilt thou be to me altogether as a liar and as waters that fail When we find so strong Cedars so shaken we would look well to it that our Faith be not brangled and that Faith be not brangled we would beside be looking well to the Atheism of our hearts for there is a seed of Atheism in every bosom that if the Lord put us hardly to it and make not out that Promise Isai 48.10 I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction It may put us to tremble what stuff may boil up in our hearts and they are not sicker in the matter of their Faith that are not mourning over their heart-atheism but beside that I say we would guard against wrong conceptions of the Promise as that wherein the great stumbling lies as to this matter when we conceive more to be in the Promise than we are allowed and make a carnal Commentar on a Spiritual Text and as the saying is The Bell to clink as the fools think As also we would beware of limiting God to our time but give him his own time to make good his Promises These that are not mourning over the Atheism of their heart that are not cautious in understanding the Promises a-right and are not leaving God to his own time for performing them may take a snapper in their Faith when tryals are continued But a fourth word of Use shall be this That ye would learn to read Gods delays aright delays make discoveries and that is the exercise of many folk Jer. 8.15 We looked for peace but no good came and for a time of healing but behold trouble But if thou would read aright Gods delays I shall shortly offer thee these four and wise confiderers will find them to be the work of the generation 1. If thou read delays aright thou will find that God calls thee to exercise and that the best thing within thee as in a storm best Anchors and Ropes and the best things of the Ship are brought out so in a Trial when he delays he calls thee to exercise the best things in thy bosom and if God call thee to exercise Grace bring not out Corruption though at first thou may cast a scum of Corruption Grace is to be brought out afterwards If he call for Affection meet not his Call with Bitterness if he call to Diligence do not intertain that Call with Idleness remember God by delays calls for the exercise of Graces affections and diligence in his people 2. If thou read delays aright Thou will read That every days delay is a new Tryal and I may add every moments delay is a new Tryal When thou art carried through the day thou must not take that for surety that thou wilt through the next day without Self-denial and needy dependance The day may discover that which the foregoing day did not discover and the morrow may discover that which lies hid this day and therefore though thou may set up one Ebenezer at every step of thy way and say hither to hath the Lord helped Remember that thou art not yet off the stage and thou must not think because thou art hasted with the Tryal thou art better buckled to bear it but know there is still a necessity of Self-denial and needy-dependance lest the length of Trial discover that which the greatness of the Trial did not discover 3. If thou would read delays aright read in them a Call as I said in the Explication of the Doctrine to die to and to be above Time and the Consolations in Time then men go through Afflictions rightly when they read Their light afflictions which is but for a moment worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while they look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.17 Then men will be patient and stablish their hearts when they consider that the coming of the Lord draws near Jam. 5.8 In a word when God exercises with delays that is an useful Preaching which ye have 1 Cor. 7.29 This I say brethren the time is short he touches the Glass and lets them see it is near run out It remaineth that both these that have wives be as though they had none they that weep as though they weeped not they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not One serious look of Time and Eternity will break many a snare that mens Corruptions expose them to while under trouble they meet with delays But 4. If ye would read delays rightly this is to be read in them that well improved delays are full of rich advantages Thou art keeped under continued difficulties and delayed as to comfort or satisfaction external in thy personal and privat concerns and as to what relates to the publick and it may be thou wins not to inward sensible comfort but if thou were thrifty thou mayest find many things granted in the delay or denyal of that which thou would be at as much humility mortification to Time and the things of it communion and fellowship with God and though some particulars be delayed if these were pursued after and in any measure attained times of delay would not be looked on as
on and not be hasty under delays I shall offer four considerations to perswade you to it And the 1. which relates to what I spoke before of Faith is that ye would remember that delayed success is not denyed success so long as the Word speaks good news That the needy shall not always be forgotten that the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever Psal 9.18 There is no cause why our hearts should envy sinners but that our hearts should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long For surely there is an end and our expectation shall not be cut off Prov. 23.17 So long as the Word speaks thus we are to bless our selves in it that delayed success is not denyed success and that therefore all that God hath promised were it never so long betwixt the promise and the performance will certainly come to pass as is marked in the Book of Joshua 23.14 That of all the good things which the Lord had promised to that people and many a time there seemed to be an utter impossibility of the performance of it not one thing had failed but all did come to pass A man that hath good things laid up for him in the Scripture though he be put to wait for them he needs not make a cheap Market of them they will be found forth-coming to him And Isai 60 22. The Lord will hasten it in his time which is alway the best time the Lord will afford mercy and grace to help not when we will but in the time of need Heb 4. ult He will make out his mercies in the time when they will be found double mercies for their seasonableness Psal 94.18 When I said My foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up And as he will thus in due time make out all that he hath promised so in the mean time he will not deny support to them that wait on him it may be he let temptations such as are common to men ly on But 1 Cor. 10.13 He is faithful and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able to bear but will with the temptation make a way to escape that they may be able to bear it It may be when they are crying for a good account of a messenger of Satan sent to buffet them that he remove it not but he will make out that My grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 That then is one Consideration to perswade you to waâ—t on That delayed success is not denyed success 2. This may press and perswade to on-waiting that if we be doing our duty we may very safely trust the love and wisdom of God with the time of doing us good There are three things which I have had occasion sometimes to hint at to you that I shall now resume in reference to this We may and ought to wait 1. Because God never comes out of time look things never so desperat-like to make up all that was looked for men may come out of season but God never comes out of season although it were come to that that there were nothing but dry bones in a Valley he can make these dry bones to live Ezek 37. Although there were no Witnesses left And O but it 's sad to see a decay of a faithful Ministry and few laying it to heart many going off the Stage and few coming in their room though they were killed after three days and an half they shall rise again and ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud and their enemies shall behold them Rev. 11.11 When thou hast said thy strength and thy hope is perished from the Lord it is as easie for him to make all things well as when thou hast all probabilities that things shall be well 2. We may safely remit the proofs of Gods love to himself if we consider he never delays so long but we may be getting good of delays It 's true thou may be ready to tyre fag and weary and look on thy continued trial as a lot thou wilt get no good of and thereupon turn idle or ly down and die but the longest trial if improven shall yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 If we were thrifty we might be getting good of every moments delay 3. We may and ought to wait and submit to the wisdom and love of God and trust him for good under our delays on this account that he never delays so long but he is able to give a satisfactory account of his delays Thou wilt say Why doth he delay so long from comâ—ng to comfort or give an out-gate But he can convince thee with satisfying reasons that his delays were needful When as it is Hab. 2.3 sense says The vision tarries he can make thy faith say Tarry for it because it will surely come and not tarry he can make thy self say he doth not tarry even when thy sense says he doth tarry This for the second Consideration for perswading you to wait on God under delays and not to be hasty 3. A third Consideration to perswade to waiting in opposition to making haste is That they that are sweet to wait would look if they be busie at work and at the work they are called to This is a needful diversion which I would offer to such folk were they busie in making use of long and feeding storms they would make less dinn in waiting for an issue of them but they would be ready to say rather Alas let him tarry never so long he will come ere I be ready for him ere I have reaped the blessed fruit of the dispensations of his providence that I am under And therefore a wearier and a hasty person under delays doth proclaim that he is an idle person not about his work for not only as ye know work is a mean to take away langour but in particular the thrifty improvement of a hard lot would make folk wonder that God should come to them at all 4. To perswade you to wait and that ye would not be hasty if none of the former Considerations will press you to it remember the Soveraignty of God and that ye are his Creatures when thou wearies to wait consider what thou art a bit of nothing a dependent bit of beeing to be made or not made formed or marred at his pleasure if he hath given thee a back why may he not lay on a burden and continue it on so long as pleases him Wherefore serves thy beeing in the world but to be at his disposing and to be what seems good to him This Argument prevailed with Job that was put otherways to it than any of us he was stripped in an instant of all that he had and sitting down on the dust he says Chap. 1.21 Naked came I out of the womb and naked shall I return God gave and God hath taken blessed be the Name
of the Lord. And Chap. 2.10 he says to his Wife Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil O! there is a stooping to Soveraignty in the greatest straits and shakes that ever befell any except our Lord Jesus and that Argument is made use of by him to his Disciples in the matter of timing mercies Acts 1. Lord say they wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel He answers It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Proud dust miskens it self when it dare offer to prescribe to God and were Soveraignty more studied and practically improven in the lots that befall us and in their continuance we would often find matter of a song where we make a quarrel Now as these Considerations might press waiting in opposition to hastiness so there are some other Considerations that serve to press meekness and calmness of spirit in opposition to bitterness and fretfulness and among many I shall only name three 1. Meekness and sweetness is commendable on this account that it takes the poison and sting out of all our lots The Apostle Rom. 12.21 when he hath been speaking against passion and fretfulness at our neighbours that angers us he hath a very speaking word that he closes with Be not overcome of evil as if he said ye think your self victorious when ye have gotten your crop and spleen wracked on crowing over them that have wronged you but ye are far mistaken the soil is yours ye are overcome of evil ye are slaves to your own corruption in venting your passion and bitterness So is it here it 's fretfulness and bitterness that poisons any sad lot we are under Lam. 3.19 When a man remembers the affliction and the misery and the wormwood and the gall and hath them still in remembrance his soul sinketh in him but when he gets victory over these he says It 's of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not He that had said before that his soul was removed far from peace and he forgot prosperity he finds prosperity among his despised and undervalued lots It 's not your continued crosses and long delays that is your affliction it 's your bitterness that is the poison and sting of them all and makes them so afflicting It 's with you as with that man Solomon speaks of Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord When he hath perverted his way he would blame God for his own unthrift There is no outgate of a Cross comparable to this the coming off with a meek mind as that word Psal 55.18 holds out He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battel that was against me O! look to the peace of your mind under continued difficulties let not that break Ye know not what affliction means till ye get an imbittered mind which will make a Mole-hill a Mountain nay will create a Cross to it self yea is a Cross in it self and can contrive a Cross where there is none even when a man is convinced his lot is good Set him in a Paradise of pleasure his imbittered mind will make it a torment to him therefore look on an imbittered mind as the greatest sting and poisoner of all that can befall you and guard against it 2. It may perswade folks to study meekness and calmness of spirit when they consider what an imbittered fretful disposition portends what doth it import and portend to a man I shall tell you it portends mo and sharper rods to tame that wild and imbittered heart to humble that fretful disposition a man who though he hing on yet is fretful cankard bitter all that he meets with in his lot is the wormood and the gall to him he is like a feverish man that hath something in his stomach that must be purged his taste is marred which makes that which is sweet bitter and though thou belong to God yet as it is said of wicked men if thou walk contrary unto him he will walk contrary unto thee Levit. 26. And thou may expect seven times more yoke upon yoke cross upon cross till thou be tame and subject thy self to him In a word so long as a man is in a bitter frame he evidences that the medicine God hath given him hath never won to the root of his disease and he may look for a harder potion 3. It may perswade to the study of meekness and to set against bitterness to consider that bitterness is unreasonable Isai 45.9 Wo to him that strives with his Maker let the pot sheards strive with the pot sheards of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou He is the Lord to whom who can say What dost thou Ponder that word which I have often occasion to mind you of Job 18.4 He teareth himself in his anger a lively and pathetick description of a fretful disposition he would eat himself in his anger but shall the earth be forsaken for thee and shall the rock be removed out of his place Is there no more ado but turn all the wheels of providence up-side down when ye take the pett When such a goodly thing as thou art not pleased with it says Bildad to Job O fretful body wilt thou sit down and ask who should guide the world Who should have the Throne Whether God or thou Whether should he guide thee or thou guide thy self Whether wilt thou yield to God or have him yield to thee Shall not God brusk his Throne and Government but thou like a Child of Belial envyeth it Nay further let me plead for God bitter body what ails thee what would do thy turn Thou can name many things thou wants and would have but thou knows not where thy disease lyes it is within thee that ails thee let God cut thee short of favours or restore them to thee put thee in trouble or deliver thee it will not cure thee thou wilt never want a cross so long as that base lust of bitterness abides in thee unsubdued that which was a lust in the enjoyment of favours will turn a lust in the deprivation of them change thy case every day it will not ease thee thou art like a sick man that crys for drink but it doth not slocken him the cooling of his blood and purging of his distemper must do that therefore look on bitterness and fretfulness in your frame as a most absurd irrational thing Now as these Consideratious should perswade you to look on the excellency and advantage of waiting on God in opposition to making haste and to fretfulness severally So I shall shut up both with a general Word pressing waiting from the advantages that generally results from it and I can give you no better thing to command it than that of our Lord Isai 30.18 Blest are all they that
at duty I shall say no more of it but thrice happy they who esteem of duty abstract from all comfortable events yea more it were a good prognostick that good events would not be long withholden if folk were diligent at duty but who are still poring on events I may without breach of charity say that these are the idlest folk and foreslow their own mercy But 2. As duty is the great business so duty acceptable to God is attainable in the worst of times in the lowest of conditions I need not stand on the general how it's Gods mercy to his people that they may well be deprived of comforts or comfortable issues but they are not put out of service they can never want acceptable work to put their hand unto and if they be turned idle from the work of their Calling and Station their idleness is a work with submission to God But that which I am upon is that the difficulties of the Lords servants and people are never so great but duty acceptable to God is attainable My soul waits saith the Psalmist he wan at it I confess times and dispensations may soon fall forth to be such that hypocrites will think duty to be impossible Isa 33.14 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites they are afraid out of their wits Who shall dwell with devouring fire c. Who can hold their feet Who can stick by duty in such critical dispensations of providence I confess also things may come to that that Balaam hath speaking of the calamities to come on the world Numb 24.23 Alas who shall live when God doth this Such a time may come that it may be a wonder to consider how folk can stand how they can fend when storms are so boisterous and thick and temptations and snares so many And I shall add further that which our Lord hath Mat. 24.22 Vnless these days should be shortned no flesh should be saved he means both that none should be saved from cutting off by judgment and none but they should be in peril to be eternally lost by seduction but for the elects sake these days shall be shortned outward trouble and seducing snares may be so many and impetuous that if God put not some Bridle upon them no flesh should be saved But yet when I have said all this I must resume the point that in the worst of times duty acceptable to God is attainable through his strength A sincere man depending on God may win to say I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait This I mark to give a check partly to the discouragements of Gods own people who in sad times lose heart and hand I confess I may say to the discouragement of this generation that which Jeremiah hath Chap. 12.5 If thou hast run with footmen and they have wearied thee how then canst thou contend with horses and if in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst they wearied thee how then wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan If any ordinary difficulties scarr this generation from duty what would they have done if they had met with the difficulties that many before the Throne met with But be as it will it 's thy great sin as discouraged to ly down and die as if there were no work for thee The Psalmist here in his practice hath witnessed that in the saddest of difficulties duty acceptable to God is attainable if duty be set about in Gods strength though humbling it may prove it shall not be impossible if thou believe all things shall be possible partly to leave a sad check at their door who upon difficulties and the impetuousness of snares and temptations take a dispensation to themselves to go wrong to leave Gods way and joyn in evil courses How many are there that in difficult and snaring times for all that the Bible hath said against such and such sins and sinful courses yet take them by the end and say there is no hope and it 's for no purpose for men to essay to keep their integrity or think to hold off and not imbrace such a course The storm blows so hard but you that take a dispensation to your selves so to do in difficulties know that there will be witnesses found to testify against you that in the worst of times duty acceptable to God is attainable But the 3d thing I proposed to be spoken to is That as duty is attainable so a man may know he hath attained it he may win not only to wait for the Lord and with his soul to wait but to know and avow it that with his soul he doth wait This if I might insist on it would again branch it self out in two or three things 1. In order to this knowledge it is necessary that folk be at self examination asking what they are doing Ye may take many woful counsels with your selves having sorrow in your heart daily it may be and yet not come speed but were ye enquiring What work am I at and examining it that were a ground of a right walk to be serious in that It 's the Lords complaint Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done Every one turneth unto his course as the horse rusheth into the battel And 2. When we set about this Examination we should know that we have need of the spirit of God to go along with us and assist us in it we have need of that spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 We have so much presumption and security on the one hand when we are at ease ready to cheat us and on the other hand when we are in trouble so much discouragement to amaze and break us that in both conditions self-examination would desire a manuduction a leading by the hand by the Spirit of God that they get not a back-set in either And 3. Tender walkers examining and assisted by the Spirit of God may come to know they are in duty acceptable to God and their integrity in it to say their soul waiteth I am at my duty and am acceptable to God in it It may be sad that trouble should discover so much guilt and so many imperfections in our best things yet still no dispensation of providence or delay should take away the testimony of our integrity and that we are waiting upon him in his way what-ever providence be an enemy to it is never an enemy to integrity There is a weakness hinted at in that word Psal 69.4 though few be obnoxious to it Then I restored that which I took not away Some may be ready to father that on themselves whereof they are not guilty but the people of God Psal 44.17 hold fast and avow their integrity in a sad time All this is come upon us say they yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant c.
yet he is born up in waiting on God for an out-gate he cannot quite nor give over he cannot go to another door for relief that 's a good evidence that there is ground of hope in such a mans lot For certainly Psal 9.18 the needy shall not always be forgotten the expectation of the poor shall not perish for â—ver And he that never said to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain Isai 45.29 he never engages a heart to wait on him in vain Their very waiting on and not giving over is if they could but discern it a sufficient refutation of their temptation to diffidence and despondency But I shall leave this and look on the words another way and these two principal Doctrines are obvious from them to any capacity 1. That waiting on God needs the support of Faith and Hope 2. That Faith or Hope must have the Word of God for its ground The first of these is clear in that he says I wait because I hope The other is clear from that he says in his word do I hope For the first of these That waiting on God needs the support of Faith or Hope Patience and On-waiting will never be gotten well cherisht without Hope or Faith a man that would keep waiting on God would keep Faith and Hope on foot So doth the Psalmist here while he tells that he waits because he hopes And hence it is that in Scripture we find a frequent conjunction of Faith and Patience as Heb. 6.12 The followers of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises Rev. 13.10 Here is the faith and the patience of the Saints they must go together Rom. 8.25 If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it It 's hoping for that which is not seen that draws along a patient waiting for it 1 Thess 1.3 True patience is called the patience of hope that patience which is the product of hope And to add no more ye have them conjoyned Heb. 10.35 36. Where in the first place the Apostle says to them Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath a great recompence of reward and then he adds to good purpose Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Intimating it is to no purpose to speak of patience if folk cast away their confidence thus ye see how these two Faith and Patitience or Patience and Hope are linked together in Scripture to tell that patient waiting on God hath need of the support of Faith and Hope And if we should follow out this a little more distinctly we will find that the brangling of Faith and Hope cuts Patience short when a mans Faith or Hope fails he gives over waiting on God his Patience is gone as in that wicked King 2 King 6.33 Who when God by the Prophet had promised delivery would not believe it but says This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer Fraâ— once he cast off confidence he gave over waiting on God And to clear this further see Jer. 2.25 and 18 12. In the one place when the Lord is perswading his people to keep his way they say There is no hope and what follows on that They say We have loved strangers and after them will we go And in the other place when they say There is no hope they add But we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Thus ye see how on the one hand the brangling of Faith and Hope cuts the throat of patient waiting for God and on the other hand Faith and Hope entertained keeps life in patience to wait still on God Ye know what is said of Hezekiah 2 King 18.5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that was before him Trust in God made him singular and in nothing doth the singularity of a Christian appear more than in this the drawing forth of his Faith in patient waiting on God in difficulties 1 Sam. 27.1 When David gives over confidence he gives over patience and waiting and goes down to the Land of the Philistines but look upon him again as a Believer holding fast coâ—fidence what says he Psal 27.13 I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Nothing but Faith kept me from giving over But now as Psal 116.10 I believed therefore have I spoken attaining to believing he dare subjoyn as v. 14. Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord. Thus ye have the point generally cleared that patient waiting on God needs the support of Faith and Hope To break it a little smaller and bring it nearer you I shall branch it out in these two 1. That the trials of the people of God may be such as only Faith can see an out-gate And 2. When they are so Faith will see an out-gate and enable a man to wait on God for the out-gate For the first I say The trials of the people of God may be such and so ordered for their greatness sharpness darkness and continuance that an out-gate will be the object of Faith only and not of Sense nor Reason A mans trials may be such that if he will betake him to Sense and carnal Reason to see if there will be an end of the Lord he will give it over if Faith step not in and take him off the hand of both A waiter for God here under difficulties must be a hoper else he will not wait on we are generally called in the whole course of our life to walk by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by faith and not by sight but especially in great and eminent trialls and difficulties when they are of a long continuance to prove that we are among the just that live by faith Hab. 2.4 with Heb. 10.38 I might instance this both in the greatness and in the long continuance of trials In the greatness of trials which may be such as Faith only can see an issue 3 Cor. 1.8 In the trouble that came to us in Asia we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we dâ—spaired even of life and had the sentence of death in our selves And why That we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead We were put to it to imploy Faith in our deadly difficulties else we had been gone So Jonah 2.4 is put to say I am cast out of sight till Faith holding a grip of God bids him look again towards his holy Temple Sâ— Abram Rom. 4.19 hath all probabilities his own dead body and the deadness of Sarahs womb against the thing promised and what gave the issue only this he was not weak in the
faith he staggered not at the promise through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And Paul Rom. 8.24 when he had told that we are saved by faith adds but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Hope and Faith are only for things invisible to any other sense or faculty And for the continuance of trials it is clear that it's Faith must see the issue as Hab 2.2 with Heb. 10.37 Write the vision and make it plain on tables that he may run that readeth it speak out my promise why For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry to sense wait for it c. And how shall this be done The just shall live by faith If it be enquired how it comes to pass that the Lord puts the mercies of his people so far out of sight by the greatness and long continuance of trouble That it is only Faith that can discern the issue I shall briefly clear this to you in four words 1. He doth it that he may acquaint his people with the solid truth of his promises that he may let them see and bring them to know experimentally that his promise is not a blaâ—lume but though all things in the world were against us it 's a true word it 's a tryed word like silver purified seven times in the furnace Psal 12.6 and shall have an accomplishment The longer folk rest on the Bible and the more they try it they will esteem of it the more It 's of Divine Authority to which I shall speak a word afterwards when I come to that of the Psalmist where he calls it his Word 2. For this end the Lord gives this work to the faith of his people that he may acquaint them more and more with himself in whom they believe that when they are put to the Bible to live by faith in his Word they may study his Divine Attributes his Veracity that cannot lie his Omnipotency that in greatest difficulties can commad deliverance to his people his infinite Wisdom that can by contraries bring out his Wisdom about their delivery and by this means they have a great advantage when they are brought to know God the Author of the Promises better Hence Psal 9.10 â—t's said They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee They that know him will put their confidence in him And Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 said For the which cause I suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed How is that For I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him to keep against that day therefore I am not ashamed therefore my confidence succumbs not 3. The Lord by giving Faith this work brings his people experimentally to know the worth of Faith and that 's a necessary Lesson we will not â—y get Sailing near the Shore within sight of Land but must Lanch forth into the deep that Faith may be put to it and in this case what advantage is it to know the worth of Faith Psal 27.13 I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living What had become of me if I had not believed And that gave him to know the worth of Faith which had an excellent advantage And Psal 28.7 My heart trusted in him and I was helped I never tryed Faith but it brought me some ease and relief though not a compleat out-gate And 4. The Lord give faith this work that he may get much glory of his people by their dependance hoping and believing Thus Rom. 4.20 Abraham was strong in the faith giving glory to God Thou thinks it would honour God much if thy mouth were filled with songs for deliveries sweet comforts love-blinks c. I grant these are sweet and speaks his praise but God is more honoured by believing when thou wants these and hath only his naked word to lean to thou then glorifies God more eminently though not so satisfactorily to thy self when thou sticks by believing in continued difficulties when thou art tempted to cast away confidence All I say from this Branch and come to the 2d shall be to tell you that were these things believed we would not be so ready to stumble whatever our difficulties were when sense and carnal reason were laid by and non-pluss'd with want of all appearances and probabilities of an issue But who are they who when they are left on a word of God do not find themselves at a loss and as ye use to speak at the next best whereas if we considered that this were God way to exercise his people with such great and continued Trials that their Issues and Out-gates from them may be the Object of Faith and not of Sense or carnal Reason and particularly were this studied our being holden long at work hinging on would not tempt folk to weary and give over waiting on God a thing which many of us have cause to mourn for and many fear that if God refine us with silver we will discover more than we thought had been in us O consider it that ye stumble not weary not fret not quite not your confidence in great continued troubles it is an evil not so much to be dung from your confidence as to take the pet to cast it away and give way to discouragement and lie down and die But to press this I come to the second Branch in the Point That as the Tryals of Gods people may be such as only Faith can see an out-gate so when they are so Faith if it be chearfuly employed will apprehend a promised delivery in greatest difficulties it will make a man wait on God in the saddest exercises without succumbing and to say this with the Psalmist I wait c. for I hope in his word If a man be living by Faith and so a just man Though the Vision tarry to sense it will make him wait for it and expect it because at the appointed time it will speak and not lie And for the grounds on which this truth is founded amongst others take these three 1. That let Tryals be never so great and long continued they alter not the ground of Faith the ground that Faith goes on still continues the same Whatever befal the people of God they get not a new Bible or a new God all the gloomy days that past over them has not blotted out one Promise or Attribute of God and these things they see in God and his Promises in a fair day they may see them to be the same in a foul day now if the ground be the same if the Promises be the same if God be the same if our Rock have not sold us Faith closing with that ground must wait for a delivery were the Tryal never so great and long continued
use to speak ye will find him in another tune Psal 116 10. I believed therefore have I spoken Not only esteeming of faith for his own use but a man that dare commend it to others as Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. All that I shall draw from this Head shal be first to recommend to the people of God who have hard pulls in time to assay this Trade of trusting in God and hoping in him it hath not an enemy but an ignorant one that 's a stranger to it that knows not the worth that is in it the rich advantages that follow it were it more tryed it would have more to commend it therefore let it be more your study and thou that would set about the Trade of believing and hoping in God must not take the report concerning faith and hope from every fit of a temptation thou must lay thy account to meet with many a fiery dart and with many a reproach cast upon thy confidence and to have thy self counted a fool for cleaving to that way but hold at it and the more thou do so thou shalt like it the better not only wilt thou not need any to commend it unto thee but thou wilt commend it to all that will take thy advice and counsel And 2. They that have been essaying faith and hope and have gotten good of it they would be afraid in any after-assault they may be put to to bring up an ill report upon the way of faith and hope thou may let these that never got good of it suspect it but thou that hast been helped to believe and wait on God and hast seen an end of the Lord and found the good of believing that can with the Psalmist Psal 28.7 say My heart trusted in him and I am helped How guilty must thou be if thy faith and hope be to seek in a new strait If after thou hast found the good of believing thou be put out concerning it in a new trial when that Song is cast up Psal 107.1 O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever who-ever let that Note ly by the second Verse tells thee Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy Who ever have a slender opinion of faith and hope it ill becomes thee to have it who has tryed it and has found the good of it or to be to seek in esteeming of it in a new trial But now I proceed to the 4th thing I proposed to be spoken to from this Exhortation that is the consideration of the persons who they are to whom this hope in God is recommended Let Israel hope in the Lord saith he Hope in God is not an Anchor that will be budded on every one It 's true none are secluded from coming to seek a right to hope in the right method and due order but there is an hope of the hypocrite that will perish that will be like the giving up of the Ghost and that hope is only for fair weather and for little to do but this hope of the Saints is the peculiar allowance of the Saints at all times Now for what is mean'd by Israel here I shall not deny but in the first place we are to understand that Nation of Israel a peculiar people to God who in various Ages while they continued a Church and Nation were meeting with work for their hope and with many rich advantages and proofs of the good of hoping in God and in the latter days when as it is Rom. 11.26 All Israel shall be saved they shall find this made out to them that they may hope in God But it is not to be restricted to them only since their off casting there is an Israel come in their place as the Apostle tells us Rom. 9.6 That they are not all Israel which are of Israel all that Nation were not true Israelits in Gods account So Phil. 3.3 There is a circumcision even among the Gentiles who do worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh And Gal. 6.16 he tells There is an Israel of God Gods peculiar people of whatsoever Nation upon whom walking according to the Rule of the new Creature given them there shall be peace and mercy Again we may consider Israel either Collectively or Distributively Consider Israel Collectively for the Church of God correspondent to the ancient Nation of Israel Then by Israel we are to understand the invisible Church the society of Gods converted Elect through the World yet not excluding particular visible Churches who partake of the priviledges of the true Israel of God according to their purity and the number of true Israelites that are among them Again Israel taken Distributively takes in every Child of God who in his own place according to the tenor of the promises made to Israel hath no less ground to hope in God than Israel taken Collectively hath In the prosecution of this Head three things occurr to be spoken to 1. That Israel is a Society that is allowed to hope in God 2. That this hope is the common allowance of all and every one that is indeed an Israelite as well as of the Body of Israel in general And 3. That it concerns every one that would claim to hope in God in all exigencies to make it sure that they are true Israelites indeed and may put their names in those passages and promises wherein Israels priviledges are contained For the first Israel are a people that however matters go have ground to hope in God however things fare in the world or whatever may be said of the desperat case of others Israel is a Society that may still hope in God Hence when Ezra Chap. 9 is laid by with mourning for that generation that had mingled with the abominable Heathen a godly man Chap. 10.2 comes and tells him It 's true we are guilty yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Had such a thing fallen forth among others it had been a presage of dreadful news but in Israel there is hope of pardon hope of redress hope of making up this breach in Israel things otherwise desperate are not hopeless Jer. 31.15 17. Though in Israel there be a Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are not She looks upon it as needless to offer to comfort her when her Children are gone yet even when they are not and she thinks that rationally she refused to be comforted Verse 17. There is hope in thy end saith the Lord that thy children shall come again to their own border It 's Israels priviledge that she can say that none else can say It 's Israels Song Psal 129. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up may Israel now say She might
Particularly I have laid Jacob the first Israelites prayer before you that ye may learn to write after his copy that ye may feed on it and bring the first fruits from Heaven by intercourse with God in Prayer rightly regulated and ordered God bless his Word to you for this end SERMON XXXV Psalm 130. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for c. THE Psalmist as ye have heard when he sees through his own wrestling he cannot will not be but publick-minded to the Lord 's Israel and if he hath gotten any good in wrestling with God under difficulties guilt and delays of comfort or issue the very good he hath gotten enlargeth his heart and makes him publick-minded towards others and what ever be the hight of his own enlargement he doth not forget that Faith and Hope will be still necessary neither doth he forget that there is a constant warrand for Faith and Hope in God and that they are of so universal and constant use and what-ever others may think of that exercise or whatever it might be he himself thought of it when he was in the midst of the trial yet he now in his practice makes it out that these who try Faith and Hope most will esteem them most and will be most confident in recommending them to all others of the Lords people That which now I am upon is the consideration of the persons to whom hope in God is recommended it is to Israel whether we take them Collectively or Distributively one by one ye have heard that hope in God is the common allowance of all the people of God Not only is Israel a society that may still hope however matters go or what-ever their case be but hope in God according to the nature and tenor of the promises is the common allowance of all and every one of them and in pursuance of this I broke in upon that great point and our duty that seing however hope be the coÌ„mon allowance of all every one of Israel yet it is their allowance only who are Israelites indeed Therefore these that would claim to that allowance of hope in God they would make it sure that they are Israelites indeed that though they be not all Israel that are of Israel yet that they are Israelites in the spirit though not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God And forbearing to speak abstractly of the marks of regeneration I offered two things to be spoken to for clearing up who they are who are Israelites indeed and may claim to this allowance One is the occasion of Jacob's getting this name of Israel when he was with God in Prayer to which I have spoken and led you through some Characters of Israelites indeed who have ground of hope in God which I gathered from his Prayers Now I am to touch a little upon that other thing I proposed to be spoken unto to find out these Israelites to whom hope in God belongs and that is the Character given to them by way of Explication who they are Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel and who are there Even such as are of a clean heart I shall not offer to make any common place of this but in reference to my scope in following forth this point as ye heard the last day that the Israelite indeed is a praying man so ye would take a look here of an Israelite indeed First as a self-purifying man one that purifies his heart An Israelite indeed his great work is about his heart he is one that desires to look as God doth 1 Sam. 16.7 Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart and so doth the Israelite indeed he desires to have that Character Rom. 2.28 Not to be a Jew outwardly or to have that circumcision or baptism which is outward in the flesh but to be a Jew or Christian inwardly and to have that circumcision and baptism of the heart to be one in the spirit and not in the letter to be one whose praise is not of men but of God An Israelite indeed is one whose great study is to keep the heart with all diligence as Solomon enjoyns Prov. 4.33 for out of it are the issues of life 2. A true Israelite in looking after his heart is a man that finds very much pollution there and that needs to be cleansed and purged He is a man that the further he goes in searching after himself he finds still the greater and the greater abominations He is a man that though he bless God as he hath reason that he is kept from outward out-breakings yet when he looks within himself he never wants that which makes him humble and to carry a low Sail so long as he finds his heart a Cage of unclean Birds He is a man in whose ears doth sound aloud that word which ye have Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee He is one that abomâ—nats and is sensible of the manifold pollutions of his heart not only upon the account of the many and gross evils that he finds there of the suspitions of hypocrisie and formality in the performance of duties that he is afraid he please himself with or on this account that his heart should be Gods Throne and kept at the Brides Chamber for the Beloved and he finds it no such thing but further upon this account and consideration that he finds his heart can act more wickedness in a short time than many bodies could commit for a long time 3. The sense that the Israelite indeed hath of his heart-pollutions appears in his endeavours to be cleansed from them that he may have his heart washed from wickedness He is a man that will not pay God with a sighing and going backward he is not satisfied that his pollutions he knows them and his uncleannesses are with him No no he must be further benn nothing but bosomewashing heart-cleansing will satisfy and he must be set seriously on work to that and whereas other folk take their Faith their Hope and Confidence to play them with all the stock that he hath of Faith Hope and Confidence or that he can win to he puts it out to help to purge his heart according to that word Act. 19.5 Purifying their hearts by faith It not only imports that the Israelite indeed finds that there is no way of purging he heart but by Faith in Christ But further if he get any Faith he sets it on work to purifie his heart And 1 Joh. 3.3 He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure If he get any hope of being made like Christ his sense of the pollution of his heart is such that it sets him on work to purify the heart 4. This endeavour of a true Israelite will not be altogether in vain and without success but he may win
hope in God And for the other Branch of this Bondage Misery and Trouble I cannot tell you how many ways wicked men wander in ere they stand in need of Redemption out of it from God Only I would lead you in a few steps of their ill improvement of the misery they are under through sin In one or mo of which the generality may read their Portraict And 1. It is the wickeds first seâ—â— hand to secure themselves against all apprehensions of trouble or misery the song they would fain essay to sing is that Psal 10.6 They have said in their heart they shall not be moved for they shall never be in adversity and for that end they foster their atheism and deny a Providence Would ye have a character of wicked mens first essay ye will find it Ezek. 8.12 and 9.9 The Lord seeth not the Lord hath forsaken the earth When they would commit all abominations this is their cordial against misery Zeph. 1.12 They are settled on their lies they say in their heart the Lord will neither do good nor evil They neither fear him nor his Providence But a 2d step is this if they pretend to owne a Deity and acknowledge a Providence they will admit of no intimation of any displeasure from God against them or their way do what they will If ye would waken a quarrel and make them your enemy tell them God is angry with them for their sins and will be about with them they will be about with you they dow not endure to be told of their faults or of God's wrath and anger I cannot give you this step more distinctly than in that Jer. 5.12 When the Prophets spoke to them the word of the Lord they would not let it light that it was God's minde They have belied the Lord saith he and said it was not he neither shall evil come on us neither shall we see sword or famine What will ye then do with the Prophets that say the contrary verse 13. The Prophets shall become wind and the word is not in them Thus shall it be done to them they will be in their tops as wronging God that tell them of Judgement for their sins A 3d step of their wandring if all this do not the turn if God fulfil the words of his Servant they have yet another fend and it is to grow as stupid and senseless as they can make themselves under vengeance this ye find deduced Isai 42.25 The Lord hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew it not it burned him yet he laid it not to heart And Hos 7.9 As the result of many a debausht rant from the beginning of the Chapter Ephraim is smitten with stupidity strangers have devoured his strength and he knows it not yea gray hairs are here and there on him yet he knows not When vengeance cannot be holden off the next sanctuary is stupidity But 4 If stupidity will not do the turn but God will smite and they must find it they will put on a hight and greatness of spirit that if any breach come they will repair it Isai 9.9 There is a generation that say in the pride and stoutness of their heart the bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones The sycamores are cut down but we will change them into cedars when they cannot avoid the feeling of Gods stroke they will set to it to make it up A 5th step of their abusing or woful improvement of their misery and bondage is if they find that what God hath built God will throw down as it is Mal. 1.4 They will run away to their carnal dreams and confidence that God will owne them as Jer. 12.4 When great calamity comes upon them on this very account they say He may well shore he will not lay on or if he lay on he will not see us ruined he will not see our last â—nd There is yet a 6th step when all their essays misgive upon their hand instead of taking themselves to the waiting mans posture to look up to God in the sense of their misery for redemption they turn desperat and hopeless their high flowen carnal expectations resolves in desperation Jer. 2.25 Thou said there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go And Jer. 18.12 They said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Their hopes that God will spare resolves in desperat hopelesness in the issue like these whom Isai 22.12 The Lord calls to weeping and mourning to baldness and girding with sackcloth They give themselves to joy and gladness slaying oxen c. saying Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die All these steps of the wickeds wandring I have laid before you that in a brief view ye may see the sinful byasses of folks hearts in their woful way of improving the bondage and misery they are under that any of you who are delivered from it may bless God and be thankful to him and may mourn over them that are walking in any of their rods or over their precipieces But I said I had also somewhat to say to the Israel of God that are called to hope in God and allowed and warranted to hope in him and shall briefly touch three or four short words to them 1. When an Israelite of God is broght under bondage from which by no means he can extricat himself but needs redemption from God he is bound to consider and reflect on the way how he came there This is the first thing he would think on how he has sold himself into that bondage Isai 50.1 Thus saith the Lord where is the bill of your mothers divorcement whom I have put away or which of my creditors is it to which I have sold you Behold for your iniquities have ye sold your selves and for your transgressions is your mother put away It is a very useful and profitable meditation for them that find the yoke of their transgressions wreathed about their neck to sit down and consider how they came thither how either by giving way to temptation presenting baits to them have taught it to be their captain and given it the mastery over them or how by their folly and provocations they have wreathed that yoke on themselves from which they cannot rid themselves nor get leave to walk haughtily 2. An Israelite is then called to consider the holy hand of God in making him feel the bitter fruit of his folly in this his bondage Many not only give way to temptations of sin but delight in it and God leaves them under the power of it till they lament that their folly and therefore when we are under bonds we would reflect not only on the bringing of our selves in that bondage but on our
delighting in these sins that procured it 3. The scope of the Point leads me to press this that when an Israelite is in misery and finds the hand of God pursuing him he would take another look of things than to look upon them as insuperable though he cannot expede himself yet with God there is redemption when thou hast essayed to shake off the yoke of thy transgressions that thou hast wreathed on thy own neck and hast laboured in the very fire and wearied thy self for very vanity as the word is Hab. 2.13 Sit not down hopeless look not on thy case as not only deplorable but desperat call not thy wound grievous and thy bruise incurable for with God there is plenteous redemption to break these bonds that to thee are insuperable Only remember in the 4th place that thou take the right way to an out-gate thy bonds will sit fast by thee not only till thou resent thy folly in drawing them on but till thou run to him to set thee at liberty the language of all thy bondage and the bonds wherewith thou hast bound thy self thou may take up in that Psal 107.13 when he brought down their heart with labour and there was none to help then they cryed to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses Thou art brought in bondage through thy folly thou uses means to be out of it but thy difficulties continue insuperable every essay thou makes to be quit of them miscarries but see that it be not because thou art not at the right door with them no marvail they continue till thou come to him with whom is plenteous redemption So much for the 2d Point That the man put and allowed to hope in God is under such a bondage of sin and misery as he cannot extricat himself out of it till God interpose and redeem him The 3d Observation implyed in that which is supposed here anent hopers in God is that of all bondage and slavery the bondage of sin is the greatest to the Israel of God to the man that is called and allowed to hope in God On this account it is that the Psalmist doth not content himself to say There is plenteous redemption with God in the general but there must be a particular Promise subjoined That he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities That there be redemption in and with God will not content an Israelite except there be in it a redemption from sin because redemption from sin is Israel's great business and affair I shall not need to confirm the truth of this either from Scripture proofs or instances where we find the Saints especially troubled with sin amongst the croud of their exercises sin hath been their great exercise Nor shall I need to stand to give reasons of the Point as that sin is the greatest evil the fountain whence all our misery and bondage flows and they that seek relief from their bondage without seeking redemption from sin are like these that seek to dry up the stream miskenning the fountain But passing these I shall speak a word first in general and then in particular to the Israel of God how sin is taken up by an Israelite in a right frame as the greatest bondage and slavery In general I recommend more conscience making of sin and more exercise about sin a thing I fear little in practice amongst the generality ye will get men in times of difficulty with their hands on their loins having pangs and crying out as a woman in travail by reason of affliction who will have very few thoughts of sin and less exercise about it there is oft times much trembling of mind where there is little trouble of conscience or none and ye would beware of confounding these two A mans mind may be troubled and confounded and put through other when he hath the answer of a good Conscience as being at peace with God through the blood of Christ and a mans mind may be troubled when his conscience is asleep and hath no exercise for sin and therefore in times when there may be much anxiety and vexation in folks mind about dispensations of Providence let not the great business be trouble but sin and whatever ye meet with take that along with you Isai 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin The conscience of sin and exercise about it would take away the clamour diâ— that 's about trouble a conscience troubled about sin will soon justifie God in inflicting any trouble on body or mind and will say as Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve And a man at peace with God though he have tribulation in the world and exercise of Conscience for sin yet in Christ he shall have peace but a vexed and discontented mind about trouble without any exercise or trouble of conscience for sin may make a man evil company to himself bad enough company to others whom he hath to do with in the world SERMON XXXVIII Psalm 130. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy c. HOpe in God as it is the mans wealth who confesses himself to be a pilgrim stranger on the earth for he is saved by hope not an hope that is seen for then it should be no hope Rom. 8.24 So there is no undertaking that the saints may have more encouragement for than to hope in God it is that which many times comes between them and sinking and giving it over as in the Psalmist Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted in me hope in God for I shall yet praise him and whereas the world may think the hope of the Saints a blind guess and say of their souls there is no help for them in God and temptation within or probability without may confirm or seem to confirm the worlds verdict yet to a right discerner it hath a fair field to go on and a broad board to feed on Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy c. I am yet as ye may remember detained on some truths imported here concerning right hopes in God As 1. That on the account of emptiness and misery at home they are left upon God with whom there is mercy 2. That upon the account of bondage and pressures from which they are not able to extricat themselves they are left on God with whom is plenteous redemption And 3. That among all the pressures necessitating them to look to God for Redemption There is none pinches them so hard and sticks so close to them as sin so that there is need of a particular Promise of redemption from that I left in the morning with a general word from the last of these That sin and the bondage we are under through sin should be more our exercise
merciful bowels to deal about them according to their ability and as there is cause and a cruel unmerciful disposition is a shrewd token that such an one has not obtained mercy But more of this afterward 5. And Lastly The Objects of this Mercy are described to be tender walkers according to the Rule and Pattern set before them Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Their tender walk puts them not without Mercies mister The more tender they are in their walk they see the more need of mercy and this keeps them under the drop of mercy So much for the Object of this Mercy that is with God and for the characters of them to whom it is exprest which would be looked to by all of you who would be partakers of it I proceed now in the 3d place to speak to the properties of this Mercy which will help to unfold the nature of it a little more distinctly and among all the Properties that might be assigned to it a little briefly to these five 1. This would be fixed that the mercy of God is a real mercy Ye will get fair weather and complemental mercy enough in the World mercy professed where it is not and where it kythes not in any effect ye will get mercy enough like that Jam. 2.15 When a brother or sister is naked or destitute of daily food men that will say to them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but they give them nothing needful for the body The whole world as one says are like Histrionicks counterfeit masked persons and in nothing more than in their pretences and professions of mercy but the mercy of God is a real mercy a mercy that folk may lippen to if ye enquire for it in the inward affection what can be required but it is adduced to express it Isai 23.15 It is exprest by sounding of the bowels Jer. 31.20 By bowels being troubled or moved Hos 11.8 By the turning of the heart within and repentings kindled together All these expressions are to point out how cordial and real the Lord is as to the inward affection of mercy and for the Effects of it men want rather eyes to discern them than the mercies themselves Even his own people are straitned in their own bowels how to keep the proofs of mercy when his heart is enlarged to bestow them and yet they never want a proof of his mercy while they have a room in the Hospital of his Heart and Faith to believe that they are in the Hospital of his Compassion that is an evident proof how real his mercy is 2. As his mercy is real so the Scripture tells it is that wherein he delights Mic. 7.18 He retains not his anger for ever Why Because he delights in mercy No but he delights in himself and in all his Attributes and in the manifestation of them in the World but in a peculiar manner in his mercy upon divers accounts He may be said to delight in it partly on the account of the frequency of his merciful dispensations and manifestations in acts of mercy For works of Judgment towards his people are his Work his strange Work and his Act his strange Act. Isai 28.21 But the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 35.5 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant c. Psal 25.10 Again he delights in mercy because there is nothing flows from him but that which may invite not hinder sinners from coming to him being objects of his mercy It is true he willeth the death of sinners for sin to glorifie his Justice Yet Ezek. 18.23 He hath no pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should return from his ways and live Nothing flows from him to seclude any from his mercy that will not seclude themselves even when he strikes it is to drive to his mercy when he afflicts the language is Turn you and live why will ye die O house of Israel Again he delights in mercy because all the good he doth to his people he doth it not grudgingly Many a good turn among men is as ye speak spilt in the doing But the good that he does to his people he does it with his whole heart and soul Jer. 32.41 He acts mercy toward his people to speak so as one in his own Element and as going about a work that is kindly to him if I may so word it And lastly he delights in mercy because to speak after the manner of men he hath no pleasure that his people should ever raise any cloud betwixt his mercy and them the people of God cannot do themselves a greater wrong nor him a greater unkindness if ye understand it aright than by their provocations to incapacitat him to manifest his mercy towards them But mistake not this for he hath a Soveraignty in his grace even when they in a manner necessitat him to keep up the acts of his mercy and to afflict them hence when they go onfrowardly in the way of their own heart his tender mercy will make a stepping-stone of impediments that are put in its way Isai 57.17 Because he delights in mercy he will come over all these impediments to do them a good turn freely And that is a 3d property of this mercy it is a free mercy it is a mercy bestowed without money and without price But this as I told you the last day is comprehended under the notion of Grace that is imported in the Goodness of God in that it is freely given And therefore Exod. 33.19 cited Rom. 9.15 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy compassion c. And it 's not in him that wills nor in him that runs but in God that shews mercy There is no place for disputing here Why he will have mercy on such and such and not on others it is an act of his royal prerogative in grace that none can hinder for who can hinder him to do with his own what he will A 4th Property of this mercy with God is That it is an eternal mercy I do not mean that any creature that gets not an Interest in the mercy of God in this life may look to be partaker of it after this life that was the Opinion of Origen that Devils and damned men and women should at length share in the mercy of God Either thou must grip mercy here or thou hast done with it eternally But to them that close with mercy here it is an everlasting mercy Hence is that over-word of the 136. Psalm His mercy endureth for ever and Psal 103.17 His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him from election to their eternal glorification so David finds that his tender mercies and loving kindnesses have been for ever of old And the Church Lam. 3.23 finds It is of the
Lords mercies that they are not consumed because his compassions fails not And David sings Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life It is an everlasting and eternal mercy There is a 5th property I intended to have spoken to and that is the fulness and riches of this mercy but because I am to speak a little more to that I shall leave it and the Use of the whole Doctrine to the afternoon God bless his word unto you SERMON XL. Psalm 130. Verse 7. For with the Lord there is mercy c. WHen some time is spent in speaking of the Mercy of God we are very far from sowing pillows to the Armholes or from making Kercheffs to the heads of the secure although I confess many do break their necks upon this blessed refuge of God's mercy and it will be their double condemnation that the mercy and goodness of God that should have led them to repentance was an occasion of their hardning in mischief Consider but the Scriptures design in speaking of that mercy that is with God that it is partly to leave Rebels and Wanderers without excuse when mercy is in their offer and they will have none of it And partly and especially to be the great cordial of the miserable man who when he is under all pressures that are ready to sink him hath this for his refuge that with God there is mercy as in Psal 13. who when he is troubled with soul-perplexities and desertion with apprehensions of being cut off and that his enemies should insult over him hath this for his cordial vers 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy and the sweet result of that is added My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation and vers 6. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me that will be the sweet issue of the misterful mans trusting in Gods mercy Now ye have heard somewhat of the nature of this mercy in general somewhat of the peculiar objects of it and under what names and notions mercy is holden out and ensured to the godly man I have also spoken somewhat of the properties of this mercy that it is a real mercy that wherein God delights and that it is free and eternal and before I come to the use I am to speak a little to the fifth A 5th property then of mercy with God is that it is a rich full and infinite mercy a mercy to reach all the miseries and needs of his people as to the riches and fulness of his mercy the Scripture very plenteously speaks of it it is said of God that he is rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 He is said to be plentiful in mercy and full of compassion Psal 86.5 His mercies are manifold mercies Neh. 9.19 So they are called great mercies Neh. 9.31 Psal 119.156 Isa 54 7. And Dan. 9.18 It 's great mercy that Ushers in a supplication we do not present our supplications before thee for our own righteousness but for thy great mercies It is said further that he hath not only tender mercies that are very compassionat and condescending but he hath a multitude of tender mercies Psal 51.1 Psal 69.16 He is said to have abundant mercies in that 1 Pet. 1.3 He hath mercies in such abundance that they are infinitly above the mercies of man when David had it in his choice whether he would have three years famine or three moneths fleeing before the enemy or three days pestilence 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us now fall saih he into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let us not fall into the hand of man And to add no more it is said of Gods mercies Psal 103.4 That he crowns us with his tender mercies c. That is partly he surrounds his people with proofs of love on every hand as a Crown compasseth the head that they cannot turn them about but mercy compasseth them about as with a shield as it is Psal 5.12 And partly his mercies put respect and honour on his people as if they set a Crown on every Saints head and made them Kings and Priests unto God as David says Psal 18.35 Thy gentleness hath made me great Thus I have let you see how copiously the Scripture speaks of the fulness and richness of this mercy and that I may let you see it in some particular evidences and instances consider 1. That the mercy of God toward his people is a mercy to pity them when no eye pities them when they are the object of contempt and abhorrency as Ezek. 16 when they are cast out into the open field lying polluted in their blood having no eye to pity them then it is a time of love and he saith to them Live and he spreads his skirt over them that is rich mercy to take the refuse of the earth and make them the objects of his special mercy 2. His mercy is full and rich in giving a vent to it self even when he is letting out severity his mercy manifests it self even when he lifts up his hand and is striking in inviting them whom he strikes to turn that they die not as Job 10. when he is destroying him as he apprehended after he hath enumerat some common providences about him he says vers 13. These things thou hast hid in thy heart I know that this is with thee I know there is some other thing in thy heart than what I can read in thy dealing 3. The riches and fulness of this mercy appears in pitying and passing by the peevishness and waywardness of his people especially when they take with it and be moan it in that they have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Isai 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on in the way of his heart and what follows I have seen his way and will heal him and will restore comfort unto him and to his mourners I am God and not man I am a merciful God I 'le misken my petted people and heal them I 'le not prosecute this quarrel 4. The riches and fulness of his mercy appears in his fetching an Argument from his stroaks to pity his people a stroak extorted out of his hand to pity his people a stroak inflicted in justice mercy will make it an Argument to pity the afflicted Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear son Is he a pleasant child For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still my chiding and contending with him hath wakened my bowels towards him I will surely have mercy on him 5. The fulness and riches of this mercy appears in this that he considers tenderly the consequences of his pleading if he quarrel with them mercy tells him he may soon get the victory but that will lose him his people therefore he will forbear Isai 57.16 I will not contend for ever nor will I be always
hopelesness in thy condition runs away from God take heed what thou dost thou looks on thy case as incurable and what will thou do with it If thou run away where will thou go next Thy case must either break thee or thou will grow stupid under it and besides if thou run away thou reproaches the mercy of God so far as thou can while thou runs from him with any condition how desperat and irrecoverable so ever and will thou bring up an ill report on his mercy as if there were no cure in it for thy case When thou should rather sing as David Psal 13.5 In opposition to every hopeless like case But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation O then take heed that thou reproach not nor bring not up an ill report on this rich full mercy in God by running from it whatever thy condition be 3. Come here all ye that are making mercy your refuge under all your pressures miseries troubles temptations desertion or whatever ail you that know no other door to knock at but mercy in God ye have no song but that one which David had Psal 13. before cited and that I can never often enough repeat though God seem to forget him for ever and hide his face for ever from him though when he takes counsel in his soul he hath sorrow in his heart daily though his enemies had exalted themselves and said they had prevailed over him and reâ—oyced and the sleep of death seems to approach he hath nothing to all that But I have trusted in thy mercy Take a look how richly thou art made up that trusts in this mercy Remember the song that follows in that Psalm â—nd thou will not find it an heartless shift My heart says â—e shall rejoice in thy salvation I will sing to the Lord because â—e hath dealt bountifully with me And the Psalmist sings Psal 31.7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy Why For thou hast considered my trouble thou hast known my soul in adversity I got acquaintance with thee in adversity which otherwise I had not been capable of therefore I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy and consider that sweet song Psal 136.23 Who remembred us in our low estate Why for his mercy endureth for ever or as Hezekiah hath it Isai 38.27 He loved my soul from the pit of corruption That is the word in the Original His love and mercy have an Adamantine vertue to draw a soul out of the pit of corruption when he remembers us in our low estate consider thou that hast made mercy thy refuge how sweetly it can kep a deep distress Psal 69.15 Let not the water flood overflow me hear me O Lord for thy loving kindness is good turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies And Psal 86.14 O God the proud are risen up against me and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul but thou O Lord art a God full of compassion gracious long suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth O turn unto me and have mercy on me Consider what a good account of very hopeless tryals mercy will give Jam. 5.11 Ye have heard of Jobs patience and have seen the end of the Lord and what was the end of the Lord even this That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy O but they are sad difficulties which tender mercy and pity in God will not afford relief unto and therefore think not your self in a poor plight who have mercy for your refuge who have no song to sing But I have trusted c. 4. When ye have closed with and are made up by this mercy look how ye improve it and do not abuse it I confess the want of the faith of mercy in a strait is an estranging thing Zech. 11.8 My soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me but when thou grips to mercy see what influence it hath on thy heart for warming it for putting it in a sweet and tender frame on thy part may I say it I defie folk to abuse mercy taken by the right handle O the alluring melting constraining perswading power that is in mercy rightly closed with and O that folk could win to this gate of making use of mercy Rom. 11.1 The Apostle in pressing holiness saith I beseech you brethren by the mercy of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice c. And I may allude to that Phil. 2.1 If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercy fulfil ye my joy If folk knew what overcoming mercy means they would let it be seen in a tender walk Thou talks of mercy yet thou art not overcome with it thou art not melted nor made more tender by it what a cheater of thy self and abuser of mercy art thou Remember the abuse of outward mercies will make a sad dittay Ezra 9. If after all these we break his commands But ah what shall be said when folk pretend to special mercy and abuse it But 5. Among other Uses that ought to be made of believed and closed with mercy this is one That we learn to be merciful Luke 6.36 We must be merciful as is our heavenly Father even in loving enemies c. Ye heard in the morning from Mat. 5.7 That it is the merciful that obtain mercy And that Parable of the man that had much forgiven him and would not forgive his fellow servant but cast him in prison Mat. 18.23 It was a sad evidence that he was not pardoned himself In a word thou who art much in mercies common it will make thee of a merciful meek temper which is that pressed Tit. 3.2 That we should speak evil of no man be no brawlers c. but gentle shewing meekness to all men seeing we our selves were sometime disobedient deceived serving divers lusts But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost A boisterous malitious unmerciful temper in any is but a poor Evidence that such live under the drop of the multitude of the tender mercies that are with God But the time being ended I leave this great Point and you to the rich blessing of this merciful God To whom be glory SERMON XLI Psalm 130. Verse 7 For with the Lord there is mercy THe Songs of the people of God while they are within time are made up of very mixed Notes yet in this they are sweet that their over-word or last word is still the best of it Poor and needy are they and may they be yet they are thought upon by God Troubled they may be but not distrest perplext but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but
the second main Point to encourage Irsael to hope in God that with him is plenteous redemption I proceed now to the 3d Observation that at the entry to these words I proposed to be spoken to That what God is or what is in God is put forth by God for the behove of his people according as they need it I gather this from the connexion of the two Verses with God there is merey and with him there is plenteous redemption and what follows And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity If he have mercy to compassionat them in their misery and if he have authority and power to vindicate them from bondage it shall be seen in their actual deliverance The point is plain and obvious Gods all-sufficiency his furniture for the need of his people shall not be wanting but put forth actually as he sees good for the behove of his people If he have plenteous redemption he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Hence it is that in Scripture we have not only an account of furniture in God if I may so word it for his people That with him is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and of promises wherein God engages himself to put forth that furniture for their behove but the Scripture gives an account of his actual putting forth that mercy and power for them Jer. 31.10 There are news to be sent and publish'd in the Isles afar off and what is that He that scattered Israel will gather them and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock and what more For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he It 's spoken of as a thing done and on this account David in his Prayer promises himself a good day Psal 35.9 My soul shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoice in his salvation all my bones shall say alluding to that Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice who is like unto thee that delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him yea the poor and the needy from him that spoils him I am would he say looking for a Song when not so much as a broken bone shall be dumb but all shall get a voice to sing praise for actual redemption I shall not need to stand to prove this from the all-sufficiency of God from his love and affection to his people and from his fidelity that cannot lie Nor will I break in on the particular inferences of this point now Only in general be not vexed take it not ill though ye be put to and kept at a task to keep a good report in your hearts of God when temptation says as Psal 77.7 8 9. The Lord hath cast off for ever and will be favourable no more his mercy is clean gone c. When temptation says what means this and that in my case If all this mercy and redemption be with God and thou may then have a hard steek of work to keep up a good report of him when so many Hell Fire-brands are going thick and three-fold Be encouraged and comforted in this that a day comes when actual redemption shall take all these off thy hand and thou shalt not have it to say only That with God is redemption in opposition to thy troubles but he hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he Be comforted in this ye that are engaged in a task to keep up a good report of God against prejudices The time is coming when he will leave you little to say to his commendation when he shall come and relieve you and make actual redemption give the lie to all mistakes and prejudices whatsoever SERMON XLIV Psalm 130. Vers 8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities I Am now ye see towards the close of this Psalm which hath detained me so long upon the account of the riches and universal usefulness of the matter therein contained Ye may remember that after that Exhortation to Israel to hope in the Lord I came to the motives encouraging them so to do wherein somewhat was spoken to what is supponed concerning the Israel of God called to hope and allowed to hope in God that they are under the sense of misery needing mercy and under the sense of bondage needing plenteous redemption and in particular under the sense of the bondage of sin putting them in need to be redeemed from all their iniquities and in speaking to what is proposed for the encouragment of such to hope in God I hinted somewhat concerning these two great truths That with God there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption You may remember that I told you there be two words further to be gathered from this 8. v. One is that what is in or with God it shall be put forth for the behove of his people as they have need he shall redeem Israel and another is That it 's in particular Israels great mercy that God shall be a Redeemer to him from all his iniquities For the first of these I brake in on it on the close of the mornings Exercise that what is in or with God shall be put forth for the behove of his people as they need it and they shall find it made forth-coming to them as they need it for if there be with him plenteous redemption he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities I left at a general word of Use from this That we should not take it ill to be kept at a task of bringing up a good report on God against all prejudices and whatsoever temptation suggests of him for the time is coming which the Lord will hasten in his time that he will leave us little to say to his commendation his own performances will say so much and declare him to be exalted above all blessing and praise The time is coming that they shall not think shame of it that if we may so word it have spoken good of him behind his back and would not take a report of him but from his Bible But to follow out this a little for the comfort of them that are looking for the accomplishment of what is in or with God for the behove of his people I shall lead you to a fourfold direction in order to this and endeavour to put a close to this Scripture The first direction is this That ye would study to be well acquaint with the Word to be well acquaint with what God hath declared is in him for his people The Bible should be a well-finger'd Book in gloomy times David knew well what he was doing when he made the Statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage and the reason why I press this acquaintance with the Word is to help you to prevent a double hazard there is on the one hand the hazard of ignorance