dishonour God and thus wrong your selves 2. Doct. That the remains of unbelief in gracious hearts do cost them many tears and sorrows There are many things that afflict and grieve the People of God from without but all their outward troubles are nothing to these troubles that come from within There are many inward troubles that make them groan but none more than this the unbelief they find in their own hearts This sin justly costs them more trouble than other sins because it is the root from which other sins do spring a root of bitterness bearing wormwood and gall to the imbittering of their souls For First The remains of unbelief in the Saints greatly dishonour God and what is a great dishonour to God cannot but be a great grief and burden to them For look as faith gives God special honour above all other graces so unbelief in a special manner both wrongs and grieves him above all other sins Unbelief in dominion makes God a liar 1 Joh. 5. 10. and even the reliques thereof in Believers doth shake their assent to his truths and promises and nourishes a vile suspicion of them in the heart and how do those base jealousies reflect upon his honour Certainly it cannot but be a grief to gracious hearts to see God dishonoured by others Psal. 119. 36. and a much greater to dishonour him our selves hinc illae lacrimae Upon this ground we may justly cry out and say with tears Lord help our unbelief Secondly The remains of unbelief in the Saints doth not only dishonour God but defaces and spoils their best duties in which they at any time approach unto God Is the face of God clouded from us in prayer hearing or receiving Examine the cause and reason and you will find that cloud rais'd from your own unbelieving hearts Are your affections cold flat and dead in duty dig but to the root and you will find this sin to lie there If the word do not work upon you as you desire and pray it might 't is because it is not mingled with faith Heb. 4. 2. No Duties no Ordinances no Promises can give down their sweet influences upon your souls because of this sin Now Communion with the Lord in duties is the life of our life These things are dearer to the Saints than their eyes Justly therefore do they bewail and mourn over that sin which obstructs and intercepts their sweetest enjoyments in this world Thirdly The remains of unbelief gives advantage and success to Satans temptations upon us Doth he at any time affright and scare us from our dudy or draw and intice us to the commission of sin or darken and cloud our condition and fill us with inward fears and horror without cause all this he doth by the mediation of our own unbelief The Apostle in Eph. 6. 16. calls Faith the souls Shield against temptation And 1 Joh. 5. 4. 't is call'd the Victory by which we overcome i. e. the Sword or Weapon by which we Atchieve our Victories And if so then unbelief disarms us both of Sword and Shield and leaves us naked of defence in the day of Battel a prey to the next temptation that befalls us Fourthly The remains of unbelief hinder the thriving of all graces it 's a worm at their root a plant of such a malignant quality that nothing which is spiritual can thrive under the droppings and shaddow of it It 's said Heb. 4. 2. that the Gospel was Preached to the Israelites but it did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it No Ordinances nor Duties be they never so excellent will make that soul to thrive where unbelief prevails You Pray you Hear you Fast you Meditate and yet you do not thrive your spiritual food doth no good You come from Ordinances as dead careless and vain-as-you went to them and why is it thus but because of remaining unbelief Use 1. Let all the People of God bewail and tenderly mourn over the remainders of insidelity in your own hearts There there is the root of the disease and surely Reader thy heart is not free of such symptoms of it as appear in other mens hearts For do but consider First What is our Impatiency to wait for mercy and despondency of spirit if deliverance come not quickly in the outward or inward straights of soul or body but a plain symptom of unbelief in our hearts He that believes will not make hast Isa. 28. 16. He that can believe can also wait Gods time Psal. 27. 14. Secondly And what doth our readiness to use sinful mediums to prevent or extricate our selves out of trouble but a great deal of Infidelity lurking still in our hearts might but Faith be heard to speak it would say in thy heart let me rather die ten deaths than commit one sin It 's sweeter and easier to die in any integrity than to live with a defiled or wounded Conscience 'T is nothing but our unbelief that makes us so ready to put forth our hands to iniquity when the rod of the Wicked rests long upon us or any eminent danger threatens us Psal. 125. 3. Thirdly Doth not the unbelief of your hearts shew it self in your deeper thoughtfulness and great auxieties about earthly things Matth. 6. 30. We pretend we have trusted God with our souls to all Eternity and yet cannot trust him for our daily bread We bring the evils of to morrow upon to day and all because we cannot believe more O Reader how much better were it to hear such questions as these from thee how shall I get an heart suitable to the mercies I do enjoy How shall I duely improve them for God What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness This would better become thee than to afflict thy self with what shall I eat what shall I drink or wherewithal shall I be cloathed Fourthly What doth the slavish fear of death speak but remains of unbelief still in our hearts Are there not many faintings tremblings despondencies of mind under the thoughts of death O if faith were high thy spirit could not be so low 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. The more bondage of fear the more infidelity Fifthly To conclude what is the voice of all those distractions of thy heart in religious duties but want of faith weakness in faith and the actual prevalence of unbelief You come to God in prayer and there a thousand Vanities beset you your heart is carried away it roves it wanders to the ends of the earth Conscience smites for this and saith Thou dost but mock God thy soul will smart for this thou feelest neither strength nor sweetness arising out of such duties You enquire for remedies and fill the ears of Friends with your complaints and it may be see not the root of all this to be in your own unbelief But there it is and till that be cured it will not be better with you Use 2.
another by intermediate Ejaculations If care of duty be once remitted you are not far from a sad change of your condition Fourthly Improve all Ordinances especially this great Sealing Ordinance for your farther confirmation and establishment Act your Faith to the uttermost of its ability upon Christ Crucified and comfort will flow in The more the direct acts of Faith are exercised the more powerful and sweet its reflex acts are like to be THE FIFTH MEDITATION UPON Joh. 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World THE scope of this Chapter is to prove the Divinity and Eternal God-head of Jesus Christ. One of those Arguments by which this great Article of Faith is confirmed and proved is the Testimony of John This testimony of John is the more remarkable because it was before Prophesied of him that when the Messiah should come this Messenger should go before his face to prepare the way for him Mal. 3. 1. Now among all the Testimonies that ever John gave of Christ none ever was or could be more full and clear than this in the Text. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sin of the World In which words are remarkable 1. The Preface to his Testimony 2. The Testimony itself First The Preface or Introduction to Johns Testimony Behold there is a double use in Scripture of this word Sometimes it 's used by way of Inâ—…ication and sometimes by way of Excitation In the first it points out the person in the last it raises our affections to him In this place it hath both these Uses Behold the Lamb of God q. d. This is the great â—…xpectation and hope of all Ages This person whom you behold is the desire of all Nations Loe this is God manifest in flesh This is the great Sacrifice the Lamb of God Never did humane eyes behold such an object before Secondly The testimony it self which must be considered two ways as it respects 1. The truth and reality 2. The vertue and dignity of Christ its object First Johns Testimony respects the the truth and reality of the object this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lamb of God the very Antitype to which all legal Sacrifices had respect and from which they derived all their value and vertue grace and truth came by Christ as he had said before ver 17. The Paschal Lamb and Lamb for daily Sacrifice were but the Types and Shadows of this Lamb of God Secondly His Testimony respects the vertue and dignity of Christ and his Blood He taketh away the Sin of the World The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Learned Critick observes answers both the Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Isa. 53. and signifies not only to bear but to bear away portando expiat expiando ausert efficitque ut remittatur By bearing sin he expiates it and by expiating takes it away or procures the mission of it The expression seems to allude to the scape Goat mentioned Levit. 16. 22. Thus Christ really and wholly takes away the sin of the world i. e. the sin of all Believers in the world for whom he was Sacrificed as Drusius well expounds it concurrent with the stream of sound Expositors So that this is a very full Testimony which John gives to Christ and it is given with great affection and admiration of him Behold yea admire in beholding the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world behold him with affections suitable to such an object Ecce persona à Deo ordinata in victimam ad expiandum peccata Behold the person appointed by God for a Sacrifice to expiate sin Now though this Scripture be very fruitful in practical observations yet it is not my purpose at this time to note or prosecute any of them except this one which rises from the praefatory particle or that note of admiration with which Johns Testimony of Christ is usher'd in Behold the Lamb of God And the note thence will be this Doct. That Jesus Christ the Lamb of God is to be beheld with admiration and affection suitable to such an object Christ is beheld by men three ways First Carnally with an eye of flesh So men saw him in the days of his flesh and despised him Isa. 53. 2. Carnal eyes saw no beauty in him that he should be desired Secondly Fiducially by the eye of Faith believing is seeing Christ Joh. 6. 40. Faith is to the Saints instead of eyes by it they make Christ present though the Heavens have received him out of our carnal sight Thirdly Beatifically by the glorified eye So the spirits of just men made perfect do by their mental eye see him in glory and all the Saints after the Resurrection shall with these Corporeal eyes see their Redeemer according to Job 19. 26 27. The sight of Christ by Faith which is all the sight of him that any man now hath or can have in this world as it is much more excellent than the first for blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe Joh. 20. 29. So it is much inferiour to the last 1 Cor. 13. 12. For now we see darkly through a glass but then face to face But though it be an inferior Vision in respect of that which is immediate and perfect yet the eye of Faith is a precious eye and the Visions of Christ by Faith are ravishing Visions and he that beholds Christ the Lamb of God by a steddy fixed eye of faith cannot but admire and be deeply affected with such a sight of him The views of Christ by Faith are ravishing and transporting views 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory It is a disparagement to so glorious an object as Christ to behold him and not wonder to see and not love him Certainly the admiration love delight and joy of our hearts are all at the command of Faith For let us but consider what ravishing excellencies are in Christ for the eye of a Believer to behold and admire First God is in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 19. He is God manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. A God Incarnate is the worlds wonder Here is Finite and Infinite joyn'd in one Eternity matcht with Time the Creator and Creature making but one Person The Lord hath Created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man Jer. 31. 22. 'T is an argument of weakness to admire little things and of stupidity not to admire great things Many Miracles saith one were wrought by Christ in the flesh but the greatest of all Miracles was his assumption of Flesh. Secondly The Wisdom of God is in Christ yea in him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Col. 2. 3. Never did the Divine Wisdom display its glorious beams in the eyes of Men
the Book of Life than that the Devils are subject to us Luk. 10. 20. From hence it may be inferr'd that we are chosen of God Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Fourthly The least measure of saving faith is a mercy greater than most men ever partake of 'T is true God is rich and bountiful in the gifts of Providence to others they have the good things of this life many of them more than their hearts can wish Psal. 73. 7. He enricheth many of them also with endowments of the mind natural and moral knowledge and wisdom yea and adorns them with Homilitical Vertues that render them very desirable and lovely in their converses with men but there are but few to whom he gives saving faith Isa. 53. 1. Believers are but a small remnant among men Fifthly and lastly He that hath any the least degree of saving faith hath that which shall never be taken away from him all other excellencies go away at death Job 4. 21. But this is a spring that never fails it springs up into everlasting life Joh. 4. 14. A man may out-live his Friends and Familiars his Estate and Health his Gifts and Natural parts but not his Faith how great matter of joy and comfort is wrapt up in the least degree of Faith 1. Use of tryal It concerns us then to examine our selves whether our Faith be true be it more or less stronger or weaker and till we discern its truth it will yield us but little comfort I confess weak Believers are under great disadvantages to comfort small and weak things being usually very inevident and undiscernable but yet in this example before us we find weak faith was made evident though much unbelief was mixed with it Lord I believe help thou my unbelief In which words many very useful signs of true though weak faith did appear and they are very relieving to weak Believers to consider them O that we might find the like in us First His Faith gave him a tender melting heart He cry'd out and said with tears Doth your faith melt your hearts either in the sense of your own vileness or of the riches of free grace to such vile Creatures Secondly His Faith gave him a deep sense of his remaining unbelief and burdened his heart with it Help my unbelief And sure so will yours if it be but as a grain of Mustard-seed in you Thirdly His weak Faith carried him to Christ in servent prayers and cries for his help to subdue unbelief in him and so will yours if your Faith be right Oh how often do the People of God go to the Throne of Grace upon that Errand Help Lord my heart is dead vain and very unbelieving there 's no dealing with it in my own strength Father help me Fourthly His Faith made him hunger and thirst after greater measures of it Help my unbelief i. e. Lord cure it that I may believe with more strong and steddy acts os Faith that I may not question thy power any more or say If thou canst do any thing Why thus will it be with you if you be true Believers Luk. 17. 5. Lord said the Disciples increase our Faith Fifthly There was a conflict in his soul betwixt Faith and Infidelity Grace and Corruption and this very sensible to him faith inclining him one way and unbelief carrying him another and hence he speaks like a man greatly distressed betwixt the workings of contrary principles in his own soul and so you will also find it in your selves Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would 2. Use of Consolation Well then bless the Lord for the least degree of saving Faith and be not so discouraged at its imperfections as to over-look and slight the smalest working of faith in your souls This poor man was deeply sensible of his unbelief and yet at the same instant truly thankful for a small measure of Faith and so should you For First The least measure of saving Faith is more than all Creatures power could produce 'T is the faith of the operation of God Col. 2. 12. 't is the work of God that ye believe Joh. 6. 29. Yea 't is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1. 19 20. No Ministers of Christ how excellent soever their gifts are no duties or ordinances no labour or diligence of your own without this mighty power of God can ever bring you to Faith Secondly 'T is just matter of wonder and astonishment that ever one spark of faith was kindled in such an heart as thine is an heart which had no predisposition or inclination in the least to believe yea it was not rasa tabula like clean paper voâ—…d of any impression of faith but fill'd with contrary impressions to it so that it 's marvelous that ever your hearts received the stamp or impression of faith on them It was wonderful that fire should fall from Heaven and burn upon the Altar when Elijah had laid the wood in order upon it but much more when he poured so much water upon it as not only wet all the wood but fill'd the Trenches 1 King 18. 33. Just so was the case of thy soul Reader when God came to kindle faith there Thy heart was dark and ignorant neither acquainted with God or thy own condition yea thy heart was a proud heart full of self-righteousness and self-conceitedness Rev. 3. 17. Rom. 10. 3. a heart that would rather venture Eternal Damnation than deny Self and submit to Christ and yet the light of the Lord must shine into this darkness and the pride and stiffness of thy heart must be broken and brought to yield or there is no believing Beside How many and mighty Enemies did oppose the work of Faith in thy soul Among which Satan and thy own carnal reasonings were the principal 2 Cor. 10. 4. By them what strong holds and sortifications were raised to secure thee from the strokes of conviction and made way for Faith Let but the state of thine own heart as it was by nature be considered and thou wilt say it is the wonderful work of God that ever thou wast brought in any degree to believe Thirdly Though thy Faith be weak yet it is growing if it be saving faith The largest Tree was once but a Kernel or Acorn The most famous Believer at first but a weak and doubting one Be not discouraged therefore God will fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness in you and the work of faith with power It were certainly much better for you to be blessing God for a little faith praying for the increase of faith and diligently attending those means by which it may be improved and made flourishing in your souls than by a sinful ungrateful and prejudicial despondency at once to
the cup of the New Testament in my Blood which was shed for many for the remission of sin And what footing could thy Faith find for Pardon and Salvation any where else 'T is Christ Crucified that Faith claspes as the last and only hope and refuge of a poor Sinner Here all Believers drop Anchor This is that blessed object on whom they take the dead gripe or last grasp when their eye-strings and heart-strings are breaking When you see the Blood of Christ flowing forth how can Faith be silent in thy soul When he bids thee as it were to put thy finger into his side shews thee his hands and his feet there it will cry out in thy soul my Lord and my God Secondly The flowing spring of Repentance is here if there be any fire that can melt or hammer that can break a hard heart here it is Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn Nothing laies a gracious soul lower in it self than to see how low Christ was laid in his Humiliation for it Here the evil of sin is also represented in the clearest glass that ever the eye of man saw it in The sufferings of the Son of God discover the evil of sin more than the everlasting torments of the Damned can do So that if there be but one drop of Spiritual sorrow in the heart of a Christian here me-thinks it should be seen dropping from the eye of Faith Thirdly The most attractive object of love is here Put all Created Beauties Excellencies and Perfections together and what are they but blackness and deformity compared with lovely Jesus My Beloved saith the enamour'd Spouse is white and ruddy Cant. 5. 10. Behold him at the Table in his perfect Innocency and unparallel'd sufferings This is he who was rich but for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8. 9. This is he that parted with his honour first and his life next yea he parted with his honour in his Incarnation that he might be capable to part with his life for our Redemption Behold here the degrees of his Sufferings and by them measure the degrees of his Love Behold in his death as in the Deluge all the Fountains beneath and the Windows of Heaven above opened the Wrath of God the Cruelty of Men the fury of Hell breaking in together upon him and his soul surrounded with sorrow And how can this be represented and thy soul not astonished at this amazing matchless love of Christ Surely one flame doth not more naturally produce another than the love of Christ thus represented to a gracious soul doth produce love to Christ and that in the most intense degree Use 1. How naturally doth this Doctrine shame and humble the best hearts for their sinful discomposures vanity and deadness for the rovings and wanderings of their hearts even when they come near the Lord in such a solemn Ordinance as this is The Holiest man upon Earth may lay his hand upon his breast and say Lord how unsultable is this heart of mine to such an object of Faith as is here presented to me Doth such a temper of spirit suit thine awful presence Should the represented Agonies and sufferings of Christ for me be beheld with a spirit no more concerned pierced and wounded for sin O how can I look upon him whom I have pierced and not mourn and be in bitterness for him as for an only Son a First-born O the stupifying and benumming power of sin Oh the efficacy of Unbelief It was charged upon the Israelites as the great aggravation of their sin that they provoked God at the Sea even at the red Sea the place where their miraculous Salvation was wrought But Lord Jesus my hard heart provokes thee in an higher degree even at the red Sea of thy precious invaluable Blood by which my eternal Salvation was wrought O my God what a heart have I Did the Blood of Christ run out so freely and abundantly for me and cannot I shed one tear for my sins that pierced him O let me never be Friends with my own heart till it love Christ better and hate sin more Use 2. This Scripture hath also an awaking voice to all that come nigh to God in any of his Ordinances especially in this Ordinance O Christians bethink your selves where you are and what you are doing Know you not that the King comes in to see the Guests Yea you do know that God is in this place an awful Majesty beholds you All the Churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the heart and the reins and will give to every one as his work shall be Rev. 2. 23. Thy business Christian is not with Men but with God and the solemnest business that ever thy thoughts were versant about Thou art here to recognize the sufferings of thy Redeemer to take the seals and pledges of thy Salvation from the hand of his spirit imagine the same thing which is now to be done spiritually and by the ministry of Faith were but to be performed visibly and audibly by the ministry of thy sense Suppose Jesus Christ did personally shew himself at this Table and were pleas'd to make himself known in breaking of Bread as once he did to the Disciples Suppose thou sawest him appear at this Table as he now doth appear in Heaven as a Lamb that had been slain Imagine thou heardest him say Believer this precious Blood of mine was shed for thee there be Millions of Men and Women in the world naturally as good as thee that shall have no interest in it or benefit by it But for thee it was shed and for the remission of thy sins my Blood was the only thing in the world that was equal to the demerit of thy sins and it hath made full satisfaction to God for them all Thy sins which are many are therefore forgiven thee my Blood hath purchased the eternal Inheritance of glory for thee and this day I am come to delâ—…er the seals and pledges thereof into thine hand Take then the seals of eternal Salvation this day Take thine own Christ with all that he is and hath in thine arms Whatever I have suffered done or procured for any of my Saints I have suffered done and procured the same for thee Why all this is here to be done as really and truly though in a more spiritual way at this Table and shall not such business as this is fully fix and engage thy heart What then shall do it Awake Faith awake Repentance awake Love yea let all the powers of my soul be throughly awakened this day to attend the Lord. THE SECOND MEDITATION UPON Jer. 12. 2. Thou art near in their mouth and far from their reins THIS Scripture gives us the Character and description of an Hypocrite and he is here described two ways viz. 1. By what he hath 2. By what he hath not
First The Hypocrite is described by what he hath he hath God in his mouth Thou art near in their mouth i. e. they profess with a full mouth that they are thy People saith Piscator or they speak much about the Law as another senses it God and his Temple Religion with its rites are much talked of among them they have him in their prayers and duties and this is all that the Hypocrite hath of God Religion only sanctifies his tongue that seems to be dedicated to God but it penetrates no farther and therefore Secondly He is described by that he hath not or by what he wants And or but thou art far from their reins i. e. they feel not the powers and influences of that name which they so often invocate and talk of going down to their very reins and affecting their very hearts so we must understand this Metaphorical expression here as the opposition directs For the reins having so great and sensible a sympathy with the heart which is the seat of affections and passions upon that account it is usual in Scripture to put the reins for those intimate and secret affections thoughts and passions of the heart with which they have so near cognation and so sensible a sympathy When the heart is under great consternation the loins or reins are seiz'd also as Dan. 5. 6. Then that Kings Countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him and the joynts of his loins were loosed On the contrary when the heart is fill'd with delight and gladness the reins are said to rejoyce Prov. 23. 16. Yea my reins shall rejoyce when thy lips speak right things totus laetitiâ dissiliam I shall even leap for joy So then when the Prophet saith God is far from the reins of the Hypocrite the meaning is he feels not the heart-affecting influence and power of Religion upon his heart and affections as Gods People do And hence the Note will be That God comes nearer to the hearts and reins of his People in their duties than he doth to any Hypocritical or formal Professor By Gods nearness we understand not his Omnipresence that neither comes nor goes nor his love to his People that abides but the sensible sweet manifestations and out-lets of it to their souls So in Psal. 145. 18. The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him unto all that call upon him in truth Note the restriction and limitation of this glorious priviledge 't is the peculiar enjoyment of sincere and upright-hearted Worshippers Others may have Communion with duties but not with God in them But that God comes nigh very nigh to upright hearts in their duties is a truth as sensibly manifest to spiritual persons as that they are nigh the fire when they feel the comfortable heat of it refreshing them in a cold season when they are almost starved and benumed with cold Three things make this evident First Sincere souls are sensible of Gods accesses to them in their duties they feel his approaches to their spirits Lam. 3. 57. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst fear not And what a surprize was that to the Church Cant. 2. 8. It is the Voice of my Beloved behold he cometh c. Certainly there is a felt presence of God which no words can make another to understand they feel the Fountain flowing abundantly into the dry pits the heart fills apace the empty thoughts swell with a fulness of spiritual things which strive for vent Secondly They are sensible of Gods recesses and withdrawments from their spirits they feel how the ebb follows the flood and how the waters abate So you find it in Cant. 5. 6. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called but he gave me no answer The Hebrew is very Pathetical He was gone he was gone A sad change of the frame of her heart quickly followed Thirdly The Lords nearness to the hearts and reins of his People in their duties is evident to them from the effects that it leaves upon their spirits For look as it is with the Earth and Plants with respect to the approach or remove of the Sun in the Spring and Autumn So it is here as Christ speaks Luk. 21. 29. When ye see the Figg-tree and all the Trees shoot forth we know that Summer is nigh at hand An appoaching Sun renews the face of the Earth and makes Nature smile The Trees bud and blossom the Fishes rise the Birds sing it 's a kind of Resurrection to Nature from the dead So is it when the Lord comes near the hearts and reins of men in duty For then they find that First A real taste of the joy of the Lord is here given to men the fulness whereof is in Heaven hence call'd 2 Cor. 1. 22. The earnest of his Spirit And 1 Pet. 1. 8. Glorified Joy or a short Salvation O what is this What is this Certainly it is something that hath no Affinity with flesh or gross corporeal pleasures but is of another nature something which transcends all that ever was felt or tasted in this world since we were first conversant among sensible objects Secondly A mighty strength and power coming into their souls and actuating all its faculties and graces When God comes near new powers enter the soul the feeble is as David Psal. 138. 3. In the day that I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Hope was low and Faith was weak little strength in any grace except desires but when the Lord comes strength comes with him Then as it is Neh. 8. 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength O the vigorous sallies of the heart to God! Psal. 63. 8. O the strength of Love Cant. 8. 6. Duties are other manner of things than they were wont to be Did not our hearts burn within us Luk. 24. 32. Thirdly A remarkable transformation and change of spirit follows it These things are found to be marvelously assimilating The sights of God the felt presence of God is as fire which quickly assimilates what is put into it to its own likeness So 2 Cor. 3. 18. They are said to be changed from glory to glory It always leaves the mind more refined and abstracted from gross material things and changed into the same Image They have a similitude of God upon them who have God near unto their hearts and reins Fourthly A vigorous working of the heart Heaven-ward A mounting of the soul upwards Now the soul shews that it hath not forgot its way home again It is with such a soul as sensibly embraces Christ in the arms of Faith as it was with Simeon when he took him bodily into his Arm. Now saith he let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation O! it would
Religion upon your very hearts and reins this will settle you better than all Arguments in the world can do By this the ways of God are more endeared to men than by any other way in the world When your hearts have once felt it you will never forsake it THE THIRD MEDITATION UPON Rom. 7. 21. I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me THIS Chapter is the very Anatomy of a Christians heart and gives an account of the most secret frames inward workings of it both as to Graces and Corruptions and this Verse is a Compendium of both for the words are a mournful complaint uttered with a deep sense of an inward pressure by reason of Sin wherein we are to consider three things 1. The person complaining 2. The matter of complaint 3. The discovery of that matter First The person complaining I find I Paul though I come not behind the chiefest of all the Apostles though I have been â—…rapt into the third Heaven heard things unutterable yet I for all that find in me a Law Never was any meer man more deeply sanctified Never any lived at an higher rate of Communion with God never any did Christ more service in this world and yet he found a Law of sin in himself Secondly The matter of the complaint which consists in a double evil he groaned under viz. 1. The presence of sin at all times 2. The operation of sin especially at some time First The presence of sin at all times Evil saith he is present with me it follows me as my shaddow doth By evil we must understand no other evil but sin the evil of evils which in respect of power and efficacy he also calls a Law because as Laws by reason of their annexed rewards and punishments have a mighty power and efficacy upon the minds of men so sin in-dwelling sin that root of all our trouble and sorrow hath a mighty efficacy upon us And this is the mournful matter of his complaint 'T is not for outward Afflictions though he had many nor for what he suffered from the hands of men though he suffered many grievous things but 't is sin dwelling and working in him that swallows up all other troubles as Rivers are lost in the Sea this evil was always with him the constant residence of sin was in his heart and nature Secondly And what further adds to his burden as it dwelt in him at all times so it exerted its efficacy more especially at some times and those the special times and principal seasons in his whole life When I would do good saith he any spiritual good and among the rest when I address my self to any spiritual duty or Heavenly imployment when I design to draw near to God and promise my self comfort and redress in Communion with him then is Evil present O if I were but rid of it in those hours what a mercy should I esteem it though I were troubled with it at other times Could I but enjoy my freedom from it in the seasons of duty and times of communion with God what a comfort would that be But then is the special season of its operation Never is sin more active and busie than at such a time and this O this is my misery and burden Thirdly The next thing to be heeded here is the discovery of this evil to him over which he so mourns and laments I find then a Law saith he I find it i. e. by inward sense feeling and sad experience He knew there was such a thing as Original sin in the Natures of men when he was an Unregenerated Pharisee but though he had then the notion of it he had not the sense and feeling of it as now he had he now feels what before he traditionally understood and talkt of I find a Law q. d. What or how others find I know not I examine not some may boast of their gifts and some may talk more than becomes them of their graces they may find excellencies in themselves and admire themselves too much for them But for my part I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present I am sure I find a bad heart in the best season a proud dead wandring hard heart I find it wofully out of order God knows and this is my misery Hence Note Doct. That the best Christians do sensibly feel and sadly bewail the workings of their corruptions and that in the very seasons and opportunities of their communion with God Bring thy thoughts Reader close to this point and sadly ponder these three things in it First In what special acts Christians use to feel the working of their corruption in the season of their Communion Secondly Why is it that Corruption stirs and troubles them more at such times than at others Thirdly Upon what account this is so great a burden to every gracious heart 1. First As to the first of these namely the special actings of Corruption in the seasons of Communion they are such as have a natural aptitude and design to destroy all Communion betwixt God and the soul Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit It 's contrary to the spirit and by reason of that contrariety a poor Christian cannot do the things that he would How many times have some Christians lamented this upon their knees with bleeding hearts and weeping eyes Lord I came hither to enjoy thee I hop'd for some light strength and refreshment in this duty I promis'd my self a good hour my heart began to warm and melt in duty I was nigh to the expectation and desire of my soul but the unbelief deadness and vanity of my heart hath seperated betwixt me and my God and with-held good things from me Three things are requisite to Communion with God in duties First Composedness of thoughts Secondly Activity of Faith Thirdly Excitation of affections and all these are sensibly obstructed by innate Corruption For by in-dwelling sin First The order of the soul is disturbed by sending forth multitudes of vain and impertinent thoughts to infest and distract the soul in its approaches to God the sense of this evil gave occasion to that prayer Psal. 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy Name How much have we to do with our own hearts upon this account every day Abundance of rules are given to cure this evil but the corruption of the heart makes them all necessary Secondly The activity of Faith is clogg'd by natural unbelief O what difficulties is every work of Faith carried through Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Mark 9. 24. It cramps the hand of Faith in every part of its work the soul sensibly feels it self bound and fetter'd by its own unbelief so that it cannot assent with that fulness clearness and determinatness that it would It cannot apply with that strength certainty and comfort it desires and thus are the
never give that repose and satisfaction to the mind as the internal Witness or Seal of the spirit doth for that may be a delusion but this cannot The witness of our own heart may amount to a strong probability but the witness of the spirit is demonstration 1 Joh. 4. 24. So that as it is the design and work of Satan to cast in doubts and fears into gracious hearts to perplex and intangle them so oppositely it is the work of the Spirit to clear and settle the sanctified soul and fill it with peace and joy in believing Joh. 16. 7. Rom. 14. 17. In Sealing he both attests the fidem quae creditur the doctrine or object of Faith and the fidem quâ creditur the infused habit or grace of Faith Of the former he saith this is my Word of the latter this is my Work and his Seal or Testimony is evermore agreeable to the written word Isa. 8. 20. So that what he speaks in our hearts and what he saith in the Scripture are ever-more concordant and harmonious testimonies To conclude in Sealing the Believer he doth not make use of an audible Voice nor the Ministry of Angels nor immediate and extraordinary revelations but he makes use of his own graces implanted in our hearts and his own promises written in the Scriptures and in this method he usually brings the doubting trembling heart of the Believer to rest and comfort 2. Query Why are none Sealed till after Believing Answ. It cannot be denied but that many persons in the state of nature and unbelief may have ungrounded confidences and false comforts built thereupon This is evident from Matth. 7. 22. Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name And Joh. 8. 54 55. of whom ye say that he is your God and yet ye have not known him And beyond all is that startling Scripture Heb. 6. 4 5. Who were once enlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come if they fall away c. But for any except real Believers to have those Witnesses and Sealings of the Spirit described above is utterly impossible and will evidently appear to be so whether we consider The Author Nature Object Mediums End and design of this work First Consider the Author of this work the Spirit of God who is an Holy Spirit as the Text calls him and the Spirit of Truth as Christ calls him Joh. 14. 17. and it cannot be that ever he should give testimony to a lye or give a false witness quite cross to the very tenour of the written word as he must do should he Seal an Unbeliever What though they be Elect yet whilst Unregenerate they have no actual interest in Christ and the Promises and therefore can have none Sealed by the Spirit Prius est praedicare de esse quam de cognosci we must be Saints befose we can be known to be so Secondly Consider but the nature of this work and it cannot be that ever an Unbeliever should be Sealed by the Spirit For assurance is produced in our souls by the reflexive acts of our Faith The Spirit helps us to reflect upon what hath been done by him formerly upon our hearts Hereby we know that we know him 1 Joh. 2. 3. To know that we know is a reflex act now it 's impossible there should be a reflex before there hath been a direct act No man can have the evidence of his Faith before the habit be infused and the vital act first performed Thirdly Consider the object matter to which he Seals and it will be found to be his own Sanctifying operations upon our hearts and consequently to our priviledges in Christ Rom. 8. 16. 1 Joh. 3. 24. The thing or matter attested is that Christ abideth in us and that we are the Children of God But no such thing can be Sealed till we believe for neither our Adoption nor Sanctification can be before Faith Fourthly Consider the mediums or instruments used by the Spirit in his Sealing work the promises are his sealing instruments and on that account he is call'd the Spirit of Promise in the Text Not only because he is the Spirit promised but as the Promises contain the spirit so the Spirit'uses the Promises i. e. clears them to our understandings and helps us to apply them to our souls but this he never doth nor can do till the soul by Faith have union with Christ for till then it hath no right in the Promises Fifthly and lastly Consider the end and design of this work of the Spirit which is to secure to the soul its peace pardon and salvation in Christ he seals Believers to the day of Redemption Eph. 4. 30. i. e. to their compleat Salvation So then it must be equally impossible for an Unbeliever to be sealed as to be saved 3. Query The next enquiry is whether all Believers are Sealed by the Spirit Answ. The resolution of this Query will depend upon several distinctions that must be made upon this matter 1. Distinction We must distinguish the different kinds of the Spirits sealing all his Sealing work is not of one kind nor to one and the same use and end There is an Objective Seal which distinguishes the person and a Formal Seal which clears and ratifies his interest in Christ and Salvation The first he doth in Sanctifying us the second in Assuring us When he Seals us Objectively that is when he Sanctifies us really by the infusion of grace he Seals us by way of distinction from other men which is one end of Sealing for though in respect of Gods decree and purpose there was a difference betwixt us and others before time 2 Tim. 2. 19. And although in regard of Christs intention in his death there was a difference betwixt us and others Joh. 17. 9. yet all this while there is no personal actual difference betwixt us and others till Sanctification do make one Eph. 2. 3. and 1 Cor. 6. 11. But the Sanctification of the Spirit makes a real difference in the state and temper of the person 2 Cor. 5. 17. and manifests that difference which Election put betwixt us and others before-time 1 Thes. 1. 4 5. And yet all this while a man may not be formally Sealed i. e. his Sanctification may be very doubtful to himself and he may labour under great fears about it 2. Distinction The seasons of the Spirits sealing must be distinguished and these are to some First Immediately upon the souls first closing with Christ at Conversion especially when Conversion is wrought at riper age and is usher'd in by a greater degree of the spirit of bondage and deep inward terrors Thus the Prodigal the emblem of a Convert so brought home to God was entertained with the fatted Calf and Musick but all
and Angels in any work of God since the beginning of time as it hath done in the designation of Christ to be the Lamb of God a Sacrifice for sin Behold the Lamb of God and in him behold the unsearchable Wisdom of God in recovering the Elect perfectly from all the danger of sin and yet making sin more dreadful to them by the way of their recovery from it than ever it could be made by any other consideration Infinite Wisdom in suiting the Sinners remedy to the cause of his disease The Disease was the Pride of Man the Remedy was the Humiliation of the Son of God Man affected to be as God that ruin'd him God comes down assumes flesh and will be found in fashion as a man that saved him O profound Wisdom which from the loss and ruine of our Primitive glory which was the undoing of us soul and body takes the occasion of raising us to a far better state and settles us in it with a much better security than the former Who but Jesus Christ the Wisdom of God as he is called 1 Cor. 1. 24. could ever have ordered and over-ruled the worst of evils so as by occasion of the breach of the Law to raise more glory to God than ever could have been given to him by the most punctual observation of its commands or by the most rigorous execution of its penalties O the astonishing depth of Wisdom Thirdly The love of God is in Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! and in him behold the love of God in the highest and most triumphant discovery that ever was or can be made of it in this world 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins O here here is the love of God to Sinners he manifests love to us in our daily provisions protections deliverances and comforts That we have health when others groan under pains therein is love That we have bread to eat when others are ready to perish therein is love O but to have Christ to be a Propitiation for us when the Angels that fell were left desperate therein was love indeed All the love that breaks out in the variety of providences for us in this world in our Health and Estates in our Relations and Comforts is nothing compar'd with this love Herein is love indeed Fourthly The tender mercies of God over poor Sinners are in Christ as Christ is the mercy promised Luk. 1. 72. the capital mercy so he is the Chanel through which all the streams of Gods mercy flow freely to the Sons of men Jude 21. the mercy of God to Eternal life or his saving mercies are only dispenced to us through Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! A Lamb prepared by the astonishing mercy of God a Sacrifice for us when no Sacrifice is laid out for fallen Angels Mercy alone hath made this difference mercy opened its tender eye and looked through Christ upon us in the depth of our misery In Christ it is that the milder attribute of mercy is exercised upon us whilst severe Justice punishes them Fifthly All the hopes of poor Sinners are in Christ Col. 1. 27. Take away Christ and where is the hope of our souls 1 Tim. 1. 1. 'T is by the Blood of the Lamb that we have hope towards God In his Oblation and no where else our hope of Salvation finds footing On him it is the Anchor of hope is fixed and the soul stayed when the storms of fear and inward trouble do arise and beat violently upon it Sixthly The Salvation of our souls to Eternity is in Christ Acts 4. 12. Neither is there any other name given under Heaven by which we must be saved He is the Ark in whom we are preserved Jude ver 1. Look as the sprinkling of the Blood of the Paschal Lamb upon the Door-posts of the Israelites was that which preserved them from the destroying Angel so the Blood of Christ the Lamb of God Typified by that Blood saves Believers from the wrath to come But who can open the unsearchable riches or recount the ravishing excellencies found in Christ Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect behold and admire for ever-more the incomparable excellencies of Christ. Heaven would be no Heaven to them if they could not behold Christ there Psal. 73. 25. But my business rather lies in improving this point than endeavouring farther to unfold it for new wonders will appear in Christ if we behold him to Eternity And all the improvement I shall make of it shall be in one use of Exhortation bespeaking every one of you what ever your present condition and estate be to behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world And First If there be found among you any that are sensible of a stony hard heart which cannot relent and mourn for all the wrong done to Jesus Christ by sin whose affections are benum'd and stupified by sin so that no considerations they can urge upon their own hearts are able to thaw them cause a relenting pang for sin To such I would direct the words of this Text as the most effectual means to melt such hearts Look hither hard heart Behold the Lamb of God Consider believe and apply what is here sensibly represented and thy heart is hard indeed if it relent not upon such a view of Christ. It 's said Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn Behold the Son of God brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter for thee a vile polluted Sinner Behold the invaluable Blood of this Sacrifice shed for thee Bring thy thoughts close to this subject think who it is that was made a Lamb for Sacrifice for whom he endured all his unspeakable sufferings how meekly and willingly he endured all the wrath of God and men standing in his perfect Innocency to be slain for thee Behold he was made sin for thee who had no sin that thou who hadst no Righteousness mightst be made the Righteousness of God in him O who ever loved thee at that rate Christ hath done Who would endure that misery that Christ did endure for thy sake Would thy Father or the Wife of thy bosom or thy Friend that is as thy own soul be content to feel that for thee though but one hour which Christ felt when his sweat was as it had been great drops of Blood falling down to the ground Nay thou wouldst never taste such a cup for the saving of thine own Child as Christ drank off when he cried My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Behold how he loved thee Surely if the Rocks rent asunder at his passion thy heart is harder than a Rock if it thaw not at such a sight as this Fix thine eyes a while here and thine eye will affect thy heart Secondly Is there any among
a Concession or Permission to those wicked Instruments that shed his Blood a loosing of the chain to those Ban-dogs that compassed him about Such a Concession as was never given them before for still they were tyed up from perpetrating their wickedness and executing their malice till now and this was the hour which he often spake of My hour is not yet come But O what a dismal hour was it when it did come when Providence let loose both Devils and Men upon Christ deliver'd him over to the will of his Enemies And this was not all Christ was not only delivered up into the hands of the worst of men but which was much more terrible into the severe hands of Divine Justice to grapple with the pure unmixed and unallayed Wrath of the great and terrible God Lastly We will improve this point in a double Use by way of Information and Exhortation 1. Use of Information First The Severity of Gods Justice to Jesus Christ informs us what a dreadful evil sin is which so incenses the Wrath of God even against his own Son when he bare our sins and stood before the Bar of God as our Surety Come hither hard hearts hard indeed if this cannot break them you complain you cannot see the evil of sin so as to be deeply humbled for it fix your eyes a while here and intently consider the point in hand Suppose you saw a tender and pitiful Father come into open Court with fury in his face to charge his own his only and his most beloved Son and prosecute him to death and nothing able to satisfie him but his blood and be well pleased when he sees it shed Would you not say O what horrid evil hath he done it must be some deep wrong some heinous crime that he is guilty of else it could never be that his own Father could forget his bowels of pity and mercy yet thus did the Wrath of God break forth against his dear Son when he stood before the Bar as our Surety charged with the guilt of our sins Secondly Learn hence what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Well might Luther cry out Nolo Deum absolutum Let me have nothing to do with an absolute God Woe to them that stand before God in their own persons without Christ how will Justice handle them For if these things were done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry Tree Luk. 23. 31. Did the Son of God fear tremble sweat clods of Blood Did he stand amaz'd and fall into such an Agony of soul when he drank that cup which he knew in a few hours he should drink up and then never taste the bitterness of it more How sad is their case that must drink of that Cup for ever a Cup that hath Eternity to the bottom Thirdly How incomprehensible and ravishing is the love of God to men that would rather be so severe to Jesus Christ the darling of his soul than make us the objects of his Wrath for ever Which of you though there be infinitely less tenderness in your hearts than in Gods would lay your hands upon a Child the worst Child you have and put him to death for the sake of the best Friend you have in the world But God with his own hand delivered his Son his only Son that from everlasting was the delight of his soul who never offended him to death the most cursed and cruel death and all this for Enemies how unspeakable is this love and past finding out Fourthly Did not God spare his own Son then let none of us spare our own sins Sin was that Sword which pierced Christ O let sorrow for sin pierce your hearts if you spare sin God will not spare you Deut. 29 20. We spare sin when we faintly oppose it when we excuse cover and defend it when we are impatient under just rebukes and reproofs for it but all kindness to sin is cruelty to our own souls Fifthly and lastly If God did not spare Christ certainly he intends to spare Believers for his sake The Surety could not be spar'd that the Principal might be spar'd for ever If God had spared him he could not have spared us if he afflicts his People it is not for satisfaction to himself but profit to us Heb. 12. 10. Should God spare the rod of Affliction it would not be for our advantage So many sanctified afflictions as are spar'd or abated so many mercies and spiritual advantages are with-held from us But as for those strokes of Justice that are the effects of Gods Vindictive wrath they shall never be felt by Believers for ever All the Wrath all the Curse all the Galland Wormwood was squeez'd into Christ's Cup and not one drop left to imbitter ours 2. Use of Exhortation Did not God spare his own Son but give him up to death for us all Then possess your hearts fully in the assurance of this great truth That the greatest and best of mercies shall not be denied or withheld from you if you be in Christ. Lay it down as a sure conclusion of Faith and build up your hope and comfort upon it This takes in the second Observation and surely never was any truth better fortified never any inference more strongly inferr'd Henceforth may infer Temporal Spiritual and Eternal mercies all must be yours if you be Christs 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Oh make sure that Christ is yours and never hesitate at any other mercy For First God hath certainly a value and esteem for his own Son infinitely above all other things He is his own Son his dear Son Col. 1. 13. the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. The delight of his soul Isa. 42. 1. Nothing is valued by God at that rate that Christ is valued If therefore he spare not the most excellent mercy but parts with the very darling of his soul for us how shall he deny or with-hold any lesser inferior mercy It is not to be imagined he is the mercy Emphatically so called Luk. 1. 72. Secondly Jesus Christ is a Comprehensive mercy including all other mercies in himself he is the Tree of Life all other mercies are but the fruits growing on him he is the Son of Righteousness and what-ever comfort spiritual or natural refreshes your souls or bodies is but a Beam from that Sun a Stream from that Fountain If then God part with Christ to you and for you he will not with-hold other mercies he will not give the whole Tree and deny an Apple bestow the Fountain it self and deny you the Streams All spiritual mercies are in him and given with him Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus All Temporals are in him and given with him Matth. 6. 33. they are additionals to that great mercy Thirdly If God spared not
Christ the best mercy but delivered him up for us all when we were his Enemies then certainly he will not deny lesser mercies when we are reconciled and made Friends to him And this is the forcible reason of the Apostle which even compels assent Rom. 5. 9. Much more being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him In a word Fourthly and lastly If it were the very design and intention of God in not sparing his own Son to open thereby a dore for all mercies to be let in upon us then 't is not imaginable he should with-hold them He will not lose his design nor lay so many stripes upon Christ in vain Some shall surely have the benefit of it and none so capable as Believers When God spared not his own Son this was the design of it and could you know the thoughts of his heart they would appear to be such as these I will now manifest the fierceness of my Wrath to Christ and the fulness of my Love to Believers The pain shall be his that the ease and rest may be theirs the stripes his and the healing balm issuing from them theirs The Condemnation his and the Justification theirs The Reproach and Shame his and the Honour and Glory theirs The Curse his and the Blessing theirs The Death his and the Life theirs The Vinegar and Gall his the sweet of it theirs He shall groan and they shall triumph He shall mourn that they may rejoyce His heart shall be heavy for a time that theirs may be light and glad for ever He shall be forsaken that they may never be forsaken Out of the worst of miseries to him shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them O Grace Grace beyond the conception of the largest mind the expression of the tongues of Angels THE SEVENTH MEDITATION UPON Mark 9. 24. And straight-way the Father of the Child cried and said with tears Lord I Believe help my Unbelief THE occasion of these words is to be gather'd from the Context and briefly it was this A tender Father brings a possessed Child to Christ to be cured with a Sipotes a doubting question If thou canst do any thing have compassion upon us and help us Words imparting much natural affection and tender love to his Child Have Compassion upon us and help us If the Child be sick the Parent is not well What touches the Child is felt by his Father And as they import his natural affection to his Child so also his own spiritual disease or the weakness of his Faith His Child was possest with a dumb Devil and himself with unbelieving doubts and suspitions of Christs ability to cure his Child The Child had a sick body and the Father an infirm soul. Satan afflicted one by a possession and the other by temptation ver 22. Christ returns his doubting language upon himself ver 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth q. d. Dost thou doubt of my ability to heal thy Child question rather thy own ability to believe for his cure If he be not heal'd the cause will not be in my inability but in thine own infidelity Which he speaks not to insinuate that Faith was in his own power but to convince him of his weakness and drive him to God for assistance which effect it obtain'd for immediately he cry'd out and said with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief O how good is it for men to be brought into the straights of affliction sometimes Had not this man fallen into this distress it 's not like that he had at least not so soon arrived either to the sense of his grace or the weakness of it In the words we may note these three parts First A profession of his Faith Lord I believe Secondly A sense of the weakness of his Faith Help thou my unbelief Thirdly The affection with which both were uttered He cried out and said with tears If these tears proceeded from the sense and feeling of divine power inabling him to believe as some think than they were tears of joy and would inform us of this great truth That the least and lowest measure of true Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it If they proceeded from the sense of the weakness of his faith then they give us this note That the remainders of unbelief in the people of God do cost them many tears they are the burdens and sorrows of gracious souls 1. Doct. That the least and lowest measure of Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it The Apostle in the 2 Pet. 1. 1. calls it precious Faith and it well deserves that Epithet for the least and lowest degree of saving Faith is of invaluable excellency as will appear in these particulars First The least degree of saving faith truly unites the soul to Jesus Christ and makes it as really a branch or member of him as Moses Abraham or Paul were All saving Faith receives Christ Joh. 1. 12. Indeed the strong Believer receives him with a stronger and stedier hand than the weak one doth who staggers doubts and trembles but yet receives him and consequently is as much interessed in the blessed priviledges flowing from Union as the greatest Believer in the world Such are Christs complacency in our persons and duties his sympathy with us in our troubles and affections and our interest in his person and purchase And is not this matter of exceeding joy Is it not enough to melt yea overwhelm the heart of a poor Sinner to discover and feel that in his own heart which entitles him to such mercies Secondly From the least degree of saving faith we may infer'as plenary a remission of sin as from tht strongest The weakest Believer is as compleatly pardoned as the strongest Act. 10. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things All that believe without difference of sizes strength or degrees the least as well as the greatest the Believer of a day old as well as the Fathers and Worthies of greatest name and longest standing Loe then the least measure of faith intitles thee as really to the greatest blessing as the highest acts of faith can do 'T is true the stronger the acting of faith is the clearer the evidence usually is but interest in the priviledge is the same in both If then thou canst discern but the weakest act and smallest measure of faith in thy soul hast thou not reason with him in the Text to cry out and say with tears Lord I belive Canst thou receive and read this Pardon the pardon of such and so many sins and not wet it with thy tears O it's matter of joy unspeakable Thirdly The least degree of saving faith infers thy Election of God and if that be not matter of melting and transporting consideration nothing is O it 's matter of more joy that our names are written in
Yet let not poor Christians so mourn as those that have no hope or ground of comfort even in this case For First Though there be remains of unbelief in you yet you have infinite cause to bless God that they are but remains You once were in unbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. i. e. under the full power and dominion of it Had God cut you off in that state you mast certainly have perished This is the disease but that was the death of your souls Secondly Though unbelief be in you yet it is not in you per modum quietis by way of rest as it is in all unbelievers but by way of daily conflict and as a burden too heavy to be borne Now though the sin be sad yet the sorrow for it is sweet and your conflicts with it brings you under a very comfortable sign of grace Rom. 7. 21. Thirdly This is a disease under which all Christians do labour more or less There is not a heart so holy in all the world but is in some degree tainted and infected with this disease And this hath been evident not only in all Christians of all sizes but in all the acts of their faith Jobs faith triumphed in cap. 13. 15. yet had its eclipse and fainting fit in cap. 19. 20. Abraham was a most renowned Believer a great pattern and example of faith oh how high a pitch did his faith mount to in Gen. 22. 3. and yet there was a time when it fainted and failed him as at Gerar. Gen. 20. 2 9 10 11. David in Psal. 27. 1. 23. was not like David in 1 Sam. 27. 1. The faith of Peter shone out like the Sun in a glorious confession Matth. 16. 16. and yet was not only beclouded but seemed to be gone down and quite set in Matth. 26. 69. though it afterwards recovered it self Forthly 'T is not this or that degree of unbelief that damnes a man but the power and dominion of it that damnes him Indeed your comfort much depends upon the strength of your faith but your salvation depends upon the truth of it Most Christians come to Heaven with a weak and doubting faith but few with their sails fill'd with a direct and fresh wind of assurance Fifthly There is enough in Christ to help thy unbelief Lord said this poor man help my unbelief He is an excellent Physitian and knows how to relieve and cure thee Go to him and groan out thy complaint tell him thy heart is pained and troubled with this disease thou shalt find him a faithful skilful and merciful Saviour Sixthly It 's but a little while before this with all other diseases bred by it in thy soul shall be perfectly healed Sanctification is a cure begun Glorification is the cure performed and compleated The former hath destroy'd the dominion the latter will destroy the existence of it in thy soul When you come to Heaven and never till then will you find your selves well and at ease in every part And thus much of the second point There are some general observations arising from both parts of my Text considered together viz. The thankful acknowledgment of his faith and the sorrowful sense of his unbelief It shall suffice for a conclusion to this Meditation only to note them and they are these First That the deepest sense of sin must not exclude an humble and thankful acknowledgment of the grace of God in his People 'T is the fault of most to hide their sins and the fault of some to hide their graces Secondly Acceptance of our persons and duties is a pure act of grace There 's no duty performed in a perfect act of faith all is mixt with unbelief in some degree the Honey and the Comb are mixt together Cant. 2. 8. No duty as it comes from us is pure Thirdly Justly may we suspect that faith for a false faith which boasts of its own strength but never mourns in the sense of unbelief Where there are no conflicts with sin there can be no sound evidence of sincerity Fourthly Believers must not wonder to find strange vicissitudes and alterations in the state of their souls Sometimes a clear and sometimes a cloudy day Sometimes they have their Songs in the night and sometimes their bitter Lamentations If you ask why is it thus the answer is there are twins within you contrary principles strugling in your souls and it is no wonder at all to find peace and trouble hope and fear light and darkness taking their turns and sharing your time betwixt them THE EIGHTH MEDITATION UPON Psal. 40. ver 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart CAsting my eye upon this precious Text I find it perplext and darkned with variety yea contrariety of expositions The Jews and Socinians generally refer all to David denying Christ to be the person here spoken of Others refer the whole Psalm to Christ but the best expositors refer it partly to David and partly to Christ. That this Paragraph in which my Text lies refers to Christ is plain from the Apostles allegation of it in Heb. 10. 5 6 7. In this and the two former verses there lie three great points of truth which you may take up in this order First The insufficiency and rejection of all legal Sacrifices as things of no vertue in themselves to satisfie God or save men ver 6. these thou wouldest not i. e. thou never didst appoint them to be the means of salvation farther than they signified and pointed at me and now must vanish when I come in a body of flesh according to that Col. 2. 17. Secondly The introduction of a compleat and sufficient means of redemption ver 7. Loe I come Thirdly The suitableness and agreeableness of this work of redemption to the heart and will of Jesus Christ vers 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart or as it is in the Hebrew in the midst of my bowels In the words we are to note two things viz. First The rise and spring of mans redemption Secondly The acceptableness and suitableness of it to the heart of Christ. First The rise and first spring of mans redemption the will and pleasure of God So it pleased the Lord to appoint and order it that a remnant of poor lost Sinners should be saved The execution and accomplishment of this good pleasure of God was that part which by agreement and consent was committed to the Son and is here call'd a Law or command laid upon him And answerably the death of Christ is represented as an act of obedience Phil. 2. 8. and respected Gods command for it Joh. 10. 18. This Commandment have I received from my Father referring to the Covenant of Redemption which was betwixt them from everlasting and this was the rise and first spring of our Redemption by Christ. Secondly You have here the gratefulness and suitableness of this
Christians that know how chearfully Christ came from the bosom of the Father to die for them What have we to leave or lose in comparison with him What are our sufferings to Christs Alas there is no compare there was more bitterness in one drop of his sufferings than in a sea of ours To conclude your delight and readiness in the paths of obedience is the very measure of your sanctification THE NINETH MEDITATION UPON Zech. 22. part of ver 10. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born THIS promise is confessed to have a special respect to the Jews Conversion to Christ. It was in part accomplished in the Apostles days Acts 2. 37. yet that was but a specimen or handsel of what shall be when the body of that Nation shall be called But yet it cannot be denied that all Christians find the same pierceing sorrows and wounding sense of sin when God awakens them by convictions and brings them to see the evil of sin and the grace of Christ that is here exprest concerning them at their conversion The words present us with three very remarkable particulars in Evangelical repentance viz. First The spring and principle of it Secondly The effects and fruits of it Thirdly The depth and measure of it First The spring and principle of Repentance exprest in these words They shall look upon me whom they have pierced This looking upon Christ is an act of faith for so it is described in Scripture Joh. 6. 40. Isa. 45. 22. and it respects Christ crucified as its proper object yea and that by them not only as their Progenitors involved them in that guilt by entailing it on them but as their own sins were the meritorious cause of his death and sufferings They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Secondly The effects and fruits of such an aspect of faith upon Christ is here also noted They shall mourn and be in bitterness i. e. it shall melt and thaw them into Godly sorrow it shall break their hard and stony hearts to pieces The eye of faith shall affect their hearts for indeed Evangelical sorrows are hearty and undissembled tears dropping out of the eye of faith Thirdly and lastly The depth and measure of their sorrow is here likewise noted And it is compared with the greatest and most piercing sorrows men are acquainted with in this world even the sorrow of a tender-hearted Father mourning over a dead Son yea an only Son and his first born than which no earthly sorrow is more penetrating and sharp Jer. 6. 26. Hence the Note will be Doct. That the sufferings of Christ are exceeding prwerful to melt Believers hearts into Godly sorrow The eye of faith is a precious eye and according to its various Aspects upon Christ it produceth various effects upon the hearts of men Eying Christ as our compleat Righteousness so it pacifies and quiets the heart eying him as our pattern so it directs and regulates our actions eying him as our sacrifice offer'd up to divine Justice for our sins so it powerfully thaws the heart and melts the affections By meltings I do not only understand tears as if they only were expressive of all spiritual sorrow for it is possible the waters of sorrow may run deep in the heart when the eye cannot yield a drop There be two things in Repentance Trouble and Tears The first is Essential the last Contingent The first flows from the influence of faith upon the soul the last much depends upon the temper and constitution of the body It is a mercy when our tears can flow from an heart fill'd with sorrow sor sin and love to Christ and yet it often falls out that there is an heavy heart where the eyes are dry But that there is efficacy in faith to melt the heart by looklng upon the sufferings of Christ for sin is undoubted and how it becomes so powerful an instrument to this end I will shew you in the following particulars First Faith eyes the dignity of the Person of Christ who was pierced for us how excellent and glorious a Person he is In the Captivity it was for a lamentation that Princes were hanged up by the hands and the faces of Elders were not reverenced Lam. 5. 12. We read also the Lamentation of David 2 Sam. 3. 38. as he followed Abners Herse A Prince and a great man is fallen in Israel to day But what was Abner and what were the Princes of Israel to the Son of God Loe here by faith the Believer sees the Prince of the Kings of the Earth the only begotten of the Father equal to God in nature and dignity he whom all the Angels worship hanging dead upon the cursed Tree Faith sees Royal Blood the Blood of God poured out by the Sword of Justice for satisfaction and reconciliation and this cannot but deeply affect the believing soul. Secondly Faith represents the severity of Divine Justice to Jesus Christ and the extremity of his sufferings and this sight is a melting sight The Apostle tells us Gal. 3. 13. he was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Curse and Execration for us It relates to the kind and manner of his death upon the Cross which was the death of a Slave servile supplicium a free man was priviledg'd from that punishment It looks upon and well considers the sad plight and condition Christ was in in the days of his Humiliation for us It 's said of him Matth. 26. 38. he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undequaque tristis surrounded with griefs exactly answerable to his name Isa. 53. 3. a man of sorrows Let him look which way he would outward or inward upward or downward to Friends or Enemies he could behold nothing but sorrow and what might increase his misery Another Evangelist saith he was sore amazed Mark 14. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It notes such a consternation as makes the hair of the head stand upright horripilatio A third tells us his sâ—…ul was troubled Joh. 12. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unde Tartarus a word from whence Hell is derived and denoting the anguish and troubles of them that are in that place of torments And the fourth tells us he was in an Agony Luk. 24. 44. all expressing in several emphatical notions and metaphors the extremity of Christs anguish and torment This cannot but greatly affect and break the Believers heart Thirdly But then that which most affects the heart is Christs Undergoing all this not only in love to us but in our room and stead He suffered not for any evil he had done for there was no guile found in his mouth Isa. 53. 4 5. but the Just suffered for the Unjust 1 Pet. 3. 18. It was for me a vile wretched worthless Sinner It was my Pride
my Earthliness the hardness of my heart the corruption of my nature the innumerable evils of my life that brought him down to the dust of death He was made sin for us who knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. Who can believingly eye Christ as suffering such pains such wrath such a curse in the room of such a Sinner such a Rebel so undeserving and so ill-deserving a Creature and not mourn as for an only Son and be in bitterness as for a first-born Fourthly Faith melts the heart by considering the effects and fruits of the sufferings of Christ what great things he hath purchased by his Stripes and Blood for poor Sinners a full and final pardon of sin a well-settled peace with God a sure title and right to the eternal Inheritance and all this for thee a Law-condemned a Self-condemned Sinner Lord what am I that such mercies as these should be purchased by such a price for me for me when thousands and ten thousands of sweeter dispositions must burn in Hell for ever Oh what manner of love is this Fifthly Faith melts the heart by exerting a three-fold act upon Christ Crucified First A realizing act representing all this in the greatest certainty and evidence that can be These are no devised fables but the sure and infallireports of the Gospel Secondly An appying act he loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood Rev. 1. 5. Thirdly and lastly By an inferring or reasoning act If Christ died for me then I shall never die If his Blood were paid down for me then my sins which are many are forgiven me If he was Condemned in my room I am acquitted and shall be saved from wrath to come through him O how weighty do these thoughts prove to believing souls 1. Use for information 1. Then sure there is but little faith because there is so much deadness and unaffectedness among Professors A believing sight of Christ will work upon a gracious heart as a dead Son a beloved and only Son uses to do upon a tender Fathers heart Reader was it ever thy sad lot to look upon such an heart-rending object Did'st thou ever feel the pangs and commotions in thy bowels that some have felt upon such a sight Why so will thy heart work towards Christ if ever thou believingly lookest on him whom thou hast pierced 2. Infer Then the acting and exercising of faith is the best expedient to get a tender heart and raise the dead affections We are generally full of complaints how hard how dead and stupid our hearts are we are often putting such cases as these How shall I get a broken heart for sin How shall I raise my dead heart in duty Why this is the way no expedient in all the world like this Look upon him whom thou hast pierced 'T is the melting Argument 2. Use of Examination But that which I especially aim at in this point is for the tryal and examination of thy heart Reader in the point of true Evangelical Repentance which is thy proper business at this time And I will go no further than the Text for rules to examine and try it by 1. Rule All Evangelical Repentance hath a supernatural spring I will pour out the spirit of grace and they shall mourn Till the spirit be poured out upon us it is as easie to press water out of a Rock as to make our hearts relent and mourn There are indeed natural meltings the effects of an ingenuous Temper but these differ in kind and nature from Godly sorrow 2. Rule Godly sorrows are real sincere and undissembled They shall mourn as for an only Son Parents need not the help of an Onion to draw tears on such accounts O! their very hearts are pierced they could even die with them Sighs groans and tears are not hang'd out as false signs of what is not to be found in their hearts 3. Rule Evangelical sorrow is very deep so much the mourning for an only Son a first-born must import These waters how still soever they be run deep very deep in the bottom channel of the soul. See Act. 2. 27. They were cut to the heart 4. Rule Faith is the instrument employed in breaking the heart They shall look and mourn This is the Burning glass that contracts the beams and fires the affections 5. Rule Lastly The Wrong sin hath done to God and the sufferings it hath brought Christ under are the piercing and heart-wounding considerations They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn The piercing of Christ by our sin is that must pierce thy soul with sorrow THE TENTH MEDITATION UPON John 6. ver 55. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed IN this context our Lord Jesus Christ makes a most spiritual and excellent discourse to the Jews about the nature and necessity of faith in him taking the occasion thereof from the Bread which a little before he had so miraculously multiplied and fed them with raising up their minds to more sublime and spiritual things and letting them know that Bread how sweet soever it was was but a shaddow of himself infinitely more sweet and necessary These words are a proposition in which are these three things observable First The subject my Flesh and my Blood Secondly The Predicate it is Meat and Drink Thirdly The manner of Predication it 's Meat indeed and Drink indeed First The subject my Flesh and my Blood i. e. my Humanity this is meat and drink true spiritual food If it be demanded why he had not said I am meat and drink indeed but rather chuses to say my flesh and blood is so the reason is evident saith Learned Camero because if you take away Flesh and Blood from Christ he cannot be Food or Life to us For in order to his being so he must satisfie God for us and obtain the Remission of our sins but without shedding of Blood there is no Remission Now for as much as by the offering up of his Body and shedding of his Blood he hath obtained pardon and life for us therefore his Flesh and Blood is call'd our Meat and our Drink that by which our souls live Which brings us to the second thing Secondly The Predicate it is meat and drink i. e. it is to our souls of the same Use and necessity that meat and drink is to our natural life which cannot be sustained or continued without them The life of our souls as necessarily depends upon the Flesh and Blood of Christ as our natural life doth upon meat and drink Yet beware of a mistake here the Flesh and Blood or the Humanity of Christ is not the Fountain of our spiritual life but the Channel rather through which it flows to us from his Divinity By reason of his Incarnation and Death Righteousness and Life comes to us Thirdly The manner of
Predication is very Emphatical it is meat indeed and drink indeed which notes two things First Reality in opposition to all legal shaddows and types Secondly Transcendent excellency far surpassing all other food even Mannah it self which for its excellency is styled Angels food My Flesh is meat indeed i. e. true substantial and real food to souls and choice excellent and incomparable food Hence observe Doct. That what meat and drink is to our bodies that and much more than that the Flesh and Blood of Christ is to believing souls Two things require explication in this point First Wherein the resemblance or agreement lies betwixt the Flesh and Blood of Christ and Meat and Drink Secondly Wherein the former transcends and excels the latter 1. Query Wherein lies the resemblance and agreement betwixt the Flesh and Blood of Christ and material Meat and Drink Sol. The agreement is manifest in the following particulars First Meat and Drink is necessary to support Natural life we cannot live without it Upon this account Bread is call'd the Staff and Stay i. e. the support of the natural spirits which do as much lean and depend upon it as a feeble man doth upon his staff Isa. 3. 1. But yet how necessary soever it be the Flesh and Blood of Christ is more indispensibly necessary for the life of our souls Joh. 6. 53. Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Our souls have more absolude need of peace and pardon by Christ than our bodies have of meat and drink Better our bodies were starved and famished than our souls damned and lost for ever Secondly Meat and Drink are ever most sweet and desirable to those that are hungry and thirsty It is hunger and thirst that gives value and estimation to meat and drink Prov. 27. 7. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and so it is in our esteem of Christ Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink When God by illumination and conviction makes men deeply sensible of their miserable lost and perishing condition then ten thousand worlds for a Christ. All is but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Christ Jesus Thirdly Meat and drink must undergoe an alteration and lose its own form before it actually nourishes the body The Corn is ground to pieces in the Mill before it be made Bread to nourish us And Christ must be ground betwixt the upper and neither Milstones of the wrath of God and malice of men to be made Bread for our souls The Prophet saith Isa. 52. 14. His Visage was marr'd more than any mans He did not look like himself the beauty and glory of Heaven but the reproach of Men and despised of the People Oh what an alteration did his Incarnation and Sufferings make upon him Phil. 2. 6 7. Quantum mutatus ab illo Fourthly Natural food must be received into our bodies and have a natural Union with them and Christ must be received into our souls and have a spiritual Union with them by faith or else we can have no nourishment or benefit by him An empty Profession a meer talkative Religion nourishes the inner man just as much as the sight of meat and our commending of it doth our outward man It 's Christ's dwelling in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. our receiving of him Joh 1. 12. our eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Joh. 6. 53. i. e. the effectual application of Christ to our souls by faith that makes us partakers of his benefits Fifthly Meat and drink must be taken every day or else natural life will languish and spiritual life will never be comfortably maintain'd in us without daily communion with Jesus Christ If a gracious soul neglect or be interrupted in its course of duties and stated times of prayer it will be quickly discernable by the Christian himself in the deadness of his own heart and by others also in the barrenness of his discourses And in these things stands the Analogy and agreement of the Flesh and Blood of Christ with meat and drink 2. Query The next thing is to open the transcendent excellency of Christs Flesh and Blood above all other food in the world and this appears in four particulars First This Flesh and Blood was assumed into the nearest Union with the second Person in the blessed Trinity and so is not only dignified above all other created Beings but becomes the first receptacle of all grace intended to be communicated through it to the Children of men Joh. 1. 14. Secondly This Flesh and Blood of Christ was offered up to God as the great Sacrifice for our sins and Purchase of our peace Col. 1. 20. Eph. 5. 2. and so it is of inestimable price and value to Believers The humane Nature of Christ was the Sacrifice the divine Nature was the Altar on which it was offered up and by which it was dignified and sanctified and made an Offering of a sweet smelling savour to God Eph. 5. 2. Thirdly This Flesh and Blood of Christ is the great medium of conveyance of all blessings and mercies to the souls and bodies of Believers It lies as a vast pipe at the Fountain-head of blessings receiving and conveying them from God to Men Col. 1. 14. 19. So then it being united to the second Person and so become the Flesh and Blood of God it being the Sacrifice offered up to God for Attonement and Remission of sins and the medium of conveying all grace and mercy from God the Fountain to the souls and bodies of Believers how sweet a rellish must it have upon the pallate of faith Here faith may tast the sweetness of a Pardon a full free and final pardon of sin than which nothing in this world can be sweeter to a Sin-burdened Conscience Here it tasts the incomparable sweetness of Peace with God a Peace which passeth Understanding the breach Sin made is by this Sacrifice made up for ever Col. 1. 20. Here it tasts the unexpressible sweetness of acceptation with God and an interest in his favour a mercy which a poor convinced soul would give ten thousand worlds for were it to be purchased Yea here it rellisheth all the sweet Promises in the Covenant of grace as confirmed and ratified by this Sacrifice Heb. 9. 5. So that well might he say my Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed the most excellent New Testament-food for Believers 1. Use of Information First See here the love of a Saviour that Heavenly Pelliâ—…an who feeds us with his own Flesh and Blood You read Lam. 4. 10. of pitiful Women who eat the flesh of their own Children but where have you read of Men or Women that gave their own flesh and blood for meat and drink to their Children Think on this you that are so loth to cross and deny your flesh for Christ he suffered his
perpetual We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 7. Long therefore to drink that new Wine in the Fathers Kingdom The Spirit and the Bride say came and let him that heareth say come even so come Lord Jesus come quickly THE ELEVENTH MEDITATION UPON Cant. 8. v. 6. Set me as a Seal upon thy heart as a Seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death jealousie is cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame THIS Book is a sacred Allegory the sense thereof is deep and spiritual Our unacquaintedness with such Schemes and figures of speech together with the want of spiritual light and experience makes it difficult to be understood but the Allegory being once unfolded by reason of its affinity with the fancy truth is more easily and affectingly transmitted both to the mind and heart St. Augustine assignes this reason why we are so much delighted with Metaphors and Allegories because they are so much proportioned to our sences with which our reason hath contracted an intimacy and familiarity And therefore God to accommodate his truth to our capacity doth as it were embody it in earthly expressions according to that of the ancient Gaballists lumen supremum nunquam descendit sine in dumentâ—… Heavenly truth never discendeth to us without its vail and covering The words before us are the request of the Spouse to Jesus Christ and consist of two parts viz. 1. Her Suit which is earnest 2. Her Argument which is weighty Her earnest suite or request to Jesus Christ Set me as a Seal upon thy heart as a Seal upon thine arm The heart of Christ notes his most dear inward and tender affection his Arm notes his protecting and preserving care and power The last naturally follows the first what men dearly affect they tenderly and carefully protect And by setting her as a Seal upon his heart and arm she means a sure and a well-confirmed interest both in his love and power This she would have firmly sealed and ratified and that this is her meaning will plainly appear from The Argument with which she enforces her request For love is strong as death jealousie is cruel as the grave c. By Jealousie we must understand her fears and suspicions of coming short of Christ and his love q. d. What if after all I should be deceived What if Jesus Christ do not love me with a special love O these fears and suspicions are intolerable torments to her she cannot bear them they are cruel as the grave insufferable as coales of fire which have a most vehement flame q. d. Lord if thou leave me in the midst of these jealousies of thy love I shall be but a torment to my self I shall live as one upon the rack or in the flames Hence the note is Doct. That there is nothing in this world which true Christians more earnestly desire than to be well assured and satisfied of the love of Jesus Christ to their souls In the meditation of this point two things must be inquired into 1. Why this assurance is so desirable 2. How it may be obtained Why the assurance of the love of Christ is so desirables in the eyes of true Christians And among others there are two things that especially make it so viz. 1. The sweetness of its enjoyment 2. The difficulty of its attainment The sweetness of its enjoyment which is unexpressable and inconceivable for it is a mercy above all estimation It is 1. The riches of faith 2. The rest and ease of the heart 3. The pleasure of life 4. A Cordial in death 5. A sweet support in all troubles 1. It is the very riches of faith the most pleasant fruit which grows upon the top branches of faith The Scripture tells us of an assurance of Understanding hope and faith All these graces are precious in themselvcs but the assurance of each of them is the most sweet and pleasant part Knowledge above knowledge is the full assurance of knowledge Hope above hope is the full assurance of hope and faith above faith is the full assurance of faith The least and lowest act of saving faith is precious above all value what then must the highest and most excellent acts of faith be Certainly there is a sweetness in the assurance of faith that few men have the privilege to taste and they that do can find no words able to express it to anothers Understanding The weakest Christian is exalted above other men but the assured Christian hath a preference before all other Christians 2. It is hearts ease the very Sabbath and sweet repose of the soul. Thousands of poor Christians would part with all they possess in this world to enjoy it but it flies from them The life that most of them live is a life betwixt hopes and fears their interest in Christ is very doubtful to them Sometimes they are encouraged from sensible workingâ—… of grace then all is dashed again by the contrary stirrings and workings of their own corruptions Now the Sun shines out clear by and by the Heavens are over-cast and clouded again But the assured Christian is at rest from those tormenting fears and jealousies which my Text speaks of that are as cruel as the grave and as insufferable as coals of fire in a mans bosom He can take Christ into the arms of his faith and say My Beloved is mine and I am his Return to thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee 3. It is the pleasure of life yea the most rational pure and transporting pleasure What is life without pleasure And what pleasure is there in the world comparable to this pleasure For let the sealed and assured Believer consider and compare and he must needs find a joy and pleasure beyond the joy of the whole Earth If he consider well what he is assured of it is no common mercy but Christ himself and his love a mercy incomprehensible by Men or Angels Eph. 3. 19. Put Christ into the sensible possession of a Believer and joy is no more under his command for that time he can no more refuse to rejoyce than he that is tickled can forbear to laugh and especially when his thoughts are exercised in comparing states and conditions either his own with other mens or his own now with what it was and what it shall be To think with thy self thus I am assured of Christ and his love my interest in him is sealed but this is a mercy few enjoy besides me There be millions of souls of equal value with mine by nature that shall never enjoy such a mercy as this Yea the time was when I my self was far from it in my unregenerate estate Lord how is it I had not then been sealed to Damnation O 't is well with me for present that I can call Christ my own and yet it will be better and better My condition will
mend every day I am now in Christ and it is but a little while before I shall be with Christ and arrive at the full satisfaction of my very heart O what pleasure doth every glance backward or forward give to the sealed soul 4. It is a Cordial in death and there is none like it This will make the soul triumph over the grave take death chearfully by the cold hand welcome its grim Messengers and long to be gone and be with Christ. Dark and doubting Christians may indeed shrink back from it and be affraid of the exchange but the assured soul longs to be gone and needs patience to live as other men do to die When one was asked if he were willing to die his answer was Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Let him be loth to die that is loath to go to Christ. The sugar of assurance sweetens the bitter cup of death and makes it delectable to a Believers rellish 5. In a word it is a sweet support in all the troubles and afflictions on this side the grave Let the assured soul be cast into what condition the Lord pleases be it upon a bed of sickness yet this gives his soul such support and comfort that he shall not say I am sick sin being forgiven the soul is well when the body is in pain Isa. 33. 24. Let him be cast in to a Prison here 's that will turn a Prison into a Paradise Act. 5. 41. Let him be pincht with any outward want this will supply all As having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. Thus you see how desirable it is for its own excellency And as it is desirable for the sweetness of its own enjoyment so also from the difficulty of its attainment all excellencies are lockt up under many difficulties but none like this it is indeed easie to presume an interest in Christ and cheat a mans own soul with a dream and fancy of our own Creation but sure it 's hard to get a sealed clear title to Christ and his benefits and there be among others three things that make it difficult 1. The corruptions that remain and daily work in the best hearts these are evermore puzling and scaring the poor soul with fears and doubts about its condition Grace teacheth men due severity to themselves and fear of their own deceitfulness makes them think no hearts are like their hearts especially whilst they compare other mens outside with their own inside as generally they do O how do our own corruptions every moment raise mists and clouds that it is a wonder we ever should have one clear beam of assurance shining into such hearts as our hearts are 2. The multitudes of mistakes and cheats that are frequently committed and found in this matter makes upright hearts the more suspicious and doubtful of their own conditions O when they read Matth. 7. 22. that many will say to Christ in that day Lord Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name c. It scares them lest they also be deceived 3. The grand importance of the matter makes poor souls fearful of concluding certainly about it O when a man considers that the whole weight of his eternal happiness or misery depends upon the resolution of these Questions Am I in Christ or am I not It will makâ—… him tremble to determine In a word assurance is not in our power or at our command There be many holy humble diligent and longing souls to whom it is denied It is arbitrarily dispensed by the pleasure of the spirit to whom he will and such favours are rare even among true believers the more therefore it is to be valued and desired by all as the Spouse doth in this place And so much to the first thing Upon what account the assurance of Christs love is so desirable in the eyes of Chrians In the last place let us consider how this mercy which is so desirable may be obtained and this is our proper work and business at this time You are now come to a sealing Ordinance instituted on purpose for this noble end and Use. O that we could pray and plead for it as the Spouse here doth Set me as a seal upon thine heart as a seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death jealousie is cruel as the grave c. Now in order to the attainment of this most desirable mercy take a few necessary hints of your present work and duty in the following directions 1. Direction Would you be well secured of Christs love to you and that you are set as a seal upon his heart then exercise and manifest more love to Christ and let him be much upon your hearts If it be clear to you that you have true love to Jesus Christ you need not at all to doubt but you are in his heart and in his love I love them that love me Prov. 8. 17. And surely you have now before you the greatest motive in the world to inflame your love to Jesus Christ. Behold him as he here represented to you wounded for your iniquities yea sacrificed to the wrath of God for your Peace Pardon and Salvation O what manner of love is this Behold how he loved thee If Christ's love draw forth thine it will so far clear thy interest in his love as it shall engage thy heart in love to him 2. Direction But seeing the activity of your love will be according to the activity of your faith therefore in the next place I advise you to make it the main work and business of this hour to exercise your faith upon Jesus Christ set your selves this day to believe the more strong the direct acts of your faith shall be the more clear and comfortable its reflex acts are like to be There are three distinct offices or imployments for your faith at this Table viz. 1. To realize 2. To apply 3. To infer from the sufferings of Jesus Christ. 1. Realize the sufferings of Christ for you and behold them here represented in a true glass to the eye of faith See you that Bread broken and that Wine poured out As sure as this is so Jesus Christ endured the Cross suffered the Wrath of the great and terrible God in his Soul and in his Body upon the cursed Tree for and in the room of poor Condemned Sinners Your faith for the one hath as much yea more certainty than your sense hath for the other This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. and without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh c. 2. Apply the sufferings of Christ this day to thine own soul. Believe all this to be done suffered in thy room and for thy sake He offered not this Sacrifice for his own sins but ours Isa. 53. 9. Heb. 7. 27. He
was Incarnate for you Isa. 9. 6. For us a Child is born to us a Son is given His death was for you and in your stead Gal. 3. 13. He was made a Curse for us and when he rose from the dead he rose for our justification Rom. 4. 25. and now he is in glory at the right hand of God he is there for us Heb. 7. 25. He ever lives to make Intercession for us It was the pride passion earthliness and unbelief of thy heart which Jesus Christ groaned bled and died to procure a pardon for 3. Infer from the sufferings of Christ those conclusions of faith that tend to assurance As thus Did Christ die for me when I was an Enemy then surely being reconciled I shall be saved by his life Rom. 5. 10. Again Is Christ dead for me then I shall never die eternally Nothing shall separate me from the love of God it is Christ that died Rom. 8. 34. 3. Direction Mourn over all those sins that cause the Lord to hide his Face from your souls Have you grieved the Spirit by your sin O be grieved for it this day at your very hearts cover the Table of the Lord with tears Look upon him whom you have pierced and mourn as for an only Son Though there be no merit yet there is much mercy in a broken heart for sin and there is no such advantage to get your hearts broken as this is which is now before you When the showeth of Repentance is fallen the Heavens over thee may be clear and the Sun shine out in its brightness upon thy soul. 4. Direction In a word pour out thy soul to God in hearty desires for a sealed and clear interest in his love this day tell him it is a mercy thou valuest above life Thy favour is better than life Psal. 63. 3. Tell him thou art not able to live with the jealousies and suspicions of his love thou art but a torment to thy self whilst thy interest in his love abides under a cloud Beseech him to pity thy poor afflicted soul which hath lain down and risen so long with these fears and tremblings and been a stranger to comfort for so many days Tell him how weak thy hands have been and still are in duties of obedience for want of this strength and encouragement Engage thy soul to him this day to be more active chearful and fruitful in his service iâ—… it will please him now to free thee from those fears and doubts that have clogg'd thee in all thy former duties O cry unto him in the words and with the deep sense of the Spouse in this Text. Set me as a seal upon thy heart as a seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death jealousie is cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of fire c. THE TWELFTH MEDITATION UPON Eph. 3. 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge THE knowledge of Christ and of his love is deservedly in this place set down among the desiderata Christianorum the most desirable enjoyments of Believers in this world This love of Christ had centred the Apostles heart he was swallowed up in the meditation and admiration of it and would have all hearts inflamed and affected with it as his was Some think the Apostle speaks Extatically in this place and know not how to make the parts of his discourse consistent with each other when he puts them upon endeavours to know that love of Christ which himself confesses to pass knowledge But though his heart was ravished with the love of Christ yet there is no contradiction or inconsistency in his discourse He doth earnestly desire for the Ephesians that they may know the love of Christ i. e. that they might experimentally know his love which passeth knowledge that is as some expound it all other sorts and kinds of knowledge yea and all knowledge of Christ which is not practical and experimental Or thus Labour to get the clearest and fullest apprehensive knowledge of Christ and his love that is attainable in this world though you cannot arrive to a perfect comprehensive knowledge of either Mens humana hoc capit non capit atque in eo capit quod rapitur in admirationem as others reconcile it The note from it is Doct. That the love of Christ surpasses and â—…anscends the knowledge of the most illuâ—…inated Believers The love of Christ is too deep for â—…y created understanding to fathom â—…is unsearchable love and it is so in â—…ivers respects It is unsearchable in respect of its â—…tiquity No Understanding of man â—…an trace it back to its first spring it â—…ows from one Eternity to another â—…e receive the fruits and effects of it â—…ow but O how ancient is that root â—…at bears them He loved us before â—…is world was made and will contiâ—…ue so to do when it shall be reduced â—…to ashes It is said Prov. 8. 30 31. â—…hen he gave the Sea his decree when he â—…ppointed the foundations of the Earth â—…en was I by him as one brought up with â—…im and I was daily his delight rejoycing â—…lways before him rejoycing in the habitaâ—…le parts of his Earth and my delights â—…ere with the Sons of men The freeness of the love of Christ passes knowledge No man knows nor can any words express how free the love of Christ to his people is It is said Isa. 55. 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts The meaning is My Grace Mercy and Love to you is one thing as it is in my thoughts and quite another thing when it comes into your thoughts In my thoughts it is like it self free rich and unchangeable but in your thoughts it is limitted and narrowed pincht in within your straight and narrow conceptions that it is not like it self but altered according to the model and platform of Creatures according to which you draw it in your minds Alas we do but alter and spoil his love when we think there is any thing in us or done by us that can be a motive inducement or recompence to it His love is so free that it pitched it self upon us before we had any loveliness in us at all When we were in our blood he said unto us live and that was the time of love It did not stay till we had our Ornaments upon us but embraced us in our blood in our most loathsome state and of all seasons that is the season of love the chosen time of love Ezek. 16. 7 8. Christ loved us not upon the account of any fore-seen excellency in us or upon any expectation of recompence from us Nay he loved us not only without but against our deserts Nothing in nature is found so free as the love of Christ is our thoughts therefore of this love going beyond all examples and instances that are found among men quickly lose themselves in an immense Ocean of free grace where they can find neither bank
soul to him We have known and believed the love that God hath to us 1 Joh. 4. 16. 19. When Christ had forgiven much to that poor Woman that had sin'd much and manifested pardoning mercy to her soul O how much was her love to Christ inflamed thereby Luk. 7. 47. Secondly Renewed care and diligence follows the Sealings of the Spirit Now is the soul at the foot of Christ as Mary was at the Sepulcher with fear and great joy He that Travels the Road with a rich treasure about him is afraid of a Thief in every bush This is exemplified in the Spouse who had endured many a sad day and night in Christs absence and sought him sorrowing but when she had regained his felt and sensible presence it 's said Cant. 3. 4. I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go She doth not as one speaks lay by diligence as if all were done but is of new taken up with as great care to retain and improve this mercy as before she was solicitous to obtain it Whether a Believer want or have whether he be seeking or enjoying there is still matter of exercise for him in his condition Thirdly Deep abasement and great humblings use to follow the eminent appearances of God to the souls of men Lord said that Disciple how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world Joh. 14. 22. When God Sealed the Covenant to Abraham to be a God to him at this Abraham fell upon his face Gen. 17. 1 2 3. Never doth a soul lie lower in the dust and abhor it self than when the Lord makes the most signal manifestations of his grace and love to it Fourthly Increased strength follows the sealings of the Spirit New powers enter into the soul and a sensible improvement of its abilities for duty or ever I was aware saith the Spouse my soul made me as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6. 12. Now the wheels of the soul being oyled with the joy and comfort of the Spirit run nimbly in the ways of obedience The joy of the Lord is your strength Fifthly Sealings of the Spirit inflames the desires of the soul after Heaven and makes it long to go home Nothing makes death so undesirable to the Saints as the doubts and fears that hang upon their Spirits about their condition Were their evidences for Heaven clear and their doubts resolved they would as the Apostle speaks desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. If once the great question of our interest in Christ be throughly decided and all be clear betwixt us and our God we shall find Life the matter of Patience and Death the object of desire Sixthly and lastly Improved Mortification to the world flows naturally from the Sealings and Assurances of the love of God to our souls It is with our souls after such a view of Heaven and a sealed interest therein as it is with him that hath been gazing upon that glorious Creature the Sun when he comes to cast his eye again upon the Earth all things seem dark and cloudy to him He sees no beauty in any of those things because of that excellent luster which he lately beheld We know saith the Apostle that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens there 's Assurance or Sealing For in this we groan earnestly desiridg to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven There 's the natural effect of it 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. Uses The point speaks to three sorts of persons viz. 1. To those that have not yet been Sealed 2. To those that once had but now want this comfort 3. To those that enjoy the comforts of it First To those that yet want this mercy who have not been formally Sealed by any assurance of their title to Christ but all their days have been clog'd with fears and doubts of their condition To such my Counsel is First That you be not quiet under these uncertainties but pant after the assurance of peace and pardon Say unto Christ as the Spouse did Cant. 8. 6. Set me as a Seal upon thy heart as a Seal upon thine arm Pant after it as David did Psal. 35. 3. Say unto my soul I am thy Salvation How can you look upon such precious promises and not dare to tast them How can you hear others speak of their satisfaction peace and assurance and be quiet until you also have attained it What is it that hinders this mercy that it cannot come home to your souls Is it your neglect of duty O stir up your selves to take hold of God Is it want of a through search and examination of your estate O let not thine eyes find rest till that be fully done Is it some special guilt upon thy soul that grieves the Spirit of God Be restless till it be removed I know this mercy is not at your command do what you can do but yet I also know when God bestows it he usually doth it in these ways of our duty Secondly To those that once had but now want this blessing who say as Job 29. 2 3. O that it were with me as in days past The darkness is the greater to you because you have walked in the light of the Lord. The sum of Christs Counsel in this case is given in three words Rev. 2. 5. Remember Repent Reform First Remember i. e. ponder consider compare time with time and state with state how well it once was how sad it now is Secondly Repent mourn over these your sinful relapses sure you may challenge the first place among all the mourners in the world Your loss is great O better to have lost the light of your eyes than this sweet light of Gods countenance your sin hath separated betwixt you and your God O mourn over it Thirdly Reform Do your first works again O Christian consider thy heart is sunk deeper into the world than it was wont to be Thy duties are fewer and thy zeal and affection to God much abated Return return O back-sliding soul and labor to recover thy first love to Christ what-ever pains it cost thee Lastly To those that do enjoy these choice and invaluable mercies the Sealings of the Spirit First Take heed that you grieve not the good Spirit of God by whom you are Sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4. 30. He hath comforted you don't you grieve him The Spirit is a tender and delicate thing you may quickly deprive your selves of his joy and peace Secondly Be humble under this advancement and dignity If your hearts once begin to swell look out for humbling dispensations quickly 2 Cor. 12. 7. This treasure is always kept in the Vessel of a contrite and humble heart Thirdly Keep close to duty yea tack one duty to