like manner David took his leave of Ittai 2 Sam. 15.20 Mercy and Truth be with thee Such was Christ's valedictory Prayer for his Apostles John 17. for Grace to be kept from the evil of sin ver 15. for Sanctification ver 17. for Unity c. Prov. 3.13 15. and 4.7 Wisdom i.e. Wisdom to Salvation Grace is the principal thing Reasons of the Point 1. Grace promoteth the highest end of man which is 1. the Glory of God to which end we were born and for which cause we came into the world 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God Grace helps to serve God acceptably Heb. 12.28 Grace teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly c. Tit. 2.11 2. Reason teacheth to live as men Grace as Christians it enableth to every good work teacheth us to do our duty to God our neighbour to our selves It reacheth to pray acceptably to hear as the Word of God to keep Sabbath to shew mercy to forgive injuries to do all in obedience which maketh much to God's Glory 2. Reason Grace is the best thing for it promoteth the Salvation of the soul which is the best part Sin is the plague destruction of the soul 1 Kings 8.38 Grace healeth sanctifieth saveth the soul Sin infecteth every part faculty Grace sanctifieth all Sin blindeth the eye hardneth the heart poisoneth the affections corrupteth the life defileth deformeth the whole soul Grace enlightens the eyes softens the heart cleanseth beautifieth purifieth maketh lovely what Sin had made odious Eph. 2.5 By Grace ye are saved 3. Grace is the best thing for it makes a man better beneficial to others Riches honours prosperity render few better many worse Grace maketh bad Parents good and good ones better better Children better Husbands Wives better Ministers People Masters Servants better Neighbours Friends better in all Relations Without Grace a man is unprofitable hurtful Lions Bears are wicked men called in Scripture yea Dogs Swine for their brutish qualities Grace rectifies the crookedness of nature Emollit mores c. sweetens mens manners suffers them not to remain wild A heart taught by the Grace of God is full of pity and compassion sheweth mercy the hand helps relieveth the tongue speaks to comfort edification no corrupt communication is heard but gracious words from gracious hearts Col. 4.6 Paul wrought upon by Grace preacheth the Faith he once destroyed Gal. 1.23 Onesimus before Grace received was unprofitable but now by Grace converted is become profitable as his name imports Philem. 10. 4. The Excellency of Grace appears hence It renders a Christian acceptable to God as well as useful to man And that is the highest of a poor Christians ambition that he may find favour in the sight of his God that his services and sacrifices may come with acceptance before God Mal. 3.4 Parts gifts commend us to men only Grace giveth us favour approbation with God And this is the other branch of the Schools distinction Gratiae gratum facientes which they prefer to Gratiae gratis dâ—luâ—ta It is the prayer of the upright heart not of the voluâ—ble tongue that is God's delight Prov. 15.8 The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him that call upon him in truth Psal 145.18 But the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God Prov. 15.8 5. Grace is the best thing because it lasteth longest it endures for ever Riches are not for ever nor doth the Crown endure to all generations Prov. 27.24 Pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11.25 Carnal mirth is soon at an end like the crackling of thorns Eccl. 7.6 But Grace abideth 1 Cor. 13.13 And now abideth Faith Hope Charity 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 6. Grace is the best thing because it helpeth in time of most need Heb. 4. ult 1. Grace helpeth in time of affliction it comforteth quieteth the heart Psal 27.13 I had fainted unless I had believed Grace giveth interest in God who is a present help in trouble It interesteth in Gods Power Wisdom Mercy Goodness Grace can look up to God see him smile when men frown see him at peace in mans hatred Stephen looked up saw Heaven open Christ ready to receive him Paul saw the Lord encouraging Acts 23.11 Be of good chear Paul 2. Grace helpeth in the hour of death Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death When there is no comfort in Riches Offices Friends vain is the help of man Grace disarmeth the King of Terrors O Death where is thy sting Death is welcome to a gracious person as a messenger sent to conduct him to his Father's house to his own Country to his best Friends to Jesus Christ whom his soul loveth Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. 3. At the day of Judgement Grace will find favour will make the Judge our Friend our Advocate Grace will cloath the soul with Jesus Christ his Robes his Righteousness Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments Rev. 16.15 1. Use of Instruction 1. Take notice what a Blessing it is to enjoy the means of Grace to live in a valley of Vision to sit under a powerful Ministry to have the benefit of good Education religious Parents their Instruction and holy Example to have Bibles Catechisms Sabbath-dayes and Sacramental-dayes the Market-dayes for Grace by the blessing of God upon which the soul may be converted and â—e be made wise to Salvation Happy is that people that are in such a case yea thrice happy are they who improve the means to the Ends aforesaid happy we if we know in this our day the things that belong to our peace 2. Then the best pains labour cost that any of us can bestow is to lay out our selves in the getting of Grace that time is best spent which is spent for Grace With all thy getting get Understanding Prov. 4.7 saith Solomon And a greater than Solomon hath told us That Godliness is the best part Luke 20. ult Mary hath chosen the good part c. Whilest others are laying up riches that perish treasures that vanish away clothes that wax old gold and silver that rust Christians are storing their hearts with Grace Whilst others are making their Lands and temporal Estates sure Christians are making their Calling and Election sure Whilst others are laying hold on advantages for this present life Christians are laying hold on Eternal Life 3. The best portion Parents can lay up for their Children is not riches worldly greatness but Grace the favour of God interest in Christ and the Covenant of Grace The best Trade they can teach them is the fear of the Lord to keep holy the Lords Day to flie Vice to follow after Vertue to exercise them in Godliness The second Use is of Reproof To reprove the too slight esteem men have of the Grace of
Christ as ver 1. more flesh than spirit Motives to grow in Grace 1. That we may answer not frustrate God's expectation Luke 12.48 Where much is given there much is required Isa 5.3 I looked for grapes and well he might expect store of fruit of a Vineyard so husbanded 2. Much Grace will produce much Obedience greater Faith greater Obedience and that hereafter will conduce more to the glory of God Rom. 4.20 Abraham being strong in Faith gave glory to God The more Grace the better lives will Christians lead whereby God is more glorified John 15.8 Hereby is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit 2. Much obedience wil be more to our own comfort for God will reward every one according to his works 1 Cor. 15. ult Knowing your labour not to be in vain in the Lord. If there be degrees of Glory sure they are bestowed according to improvment of talents here He that had gained ten pounds had Authority over ten Cities and he that had gained five pounds was made Ruler over five Cities Luke 19.17 19. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 2. Here in this life God usually metes to us as we measure to him according to our obedience so is our comfort Luke 6.38 Where no care of obedience no comfort little Faith little comfort hence Christians of little Faith little obedience are much disquieted about their comfort and assurance 3. We need much Grace to conquer many corruptions great lusts to resist strong temptations Some sins like those Devils are not easily cast out Matt. 17.21 It is by Faith Christians overcome the world 1 John 5.4 but a little Faith will hardly overcome the temptations on the right hand from worldly prosperity temptations on the left hand persecutions of the world it must be a strong Faith that must stop the mouths of Lions subdue Kingdoms quench the violence of fire Heb 11.35 small strength of Grace will be more like to faint in the day of battel than conquer strong opposition Prov. 24.10 If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small 4. There be hard lessons to be learned hard duties to be performed in Christianity whereunto is requisit more store of Grace Some stick at easie duties how will they go thorow with harder Who cannot hold out with soot-men how will they run with horse-men They who are tired with family duties how will they perform those of self-denial heart-examination mortification which are as the cutting off the right hand or plucking out the right eye How will they love their enemies forgive injuries fobear revenge to the performance of which Christians need pray as Luke 17.4 Lord increase our Faith If God bid us do some great thing as to lay down our lives we ought to refuse none of his commands How much less ought we not to stick at duties of so easie a nature 5. Christians may be brought into great straits out of which to extricate themselves they need store of Grace much Faith more wisdome great courage Let not your hearts be troubled saith Christ to his Disciples sorrowing for his absence John 14.1 How shal they remedy that Ye believe in God Believe also in me Some Faith they had already but they will need more to prevent trouble of heart Hab. 1.2 The Prophet complains of bad times violence and spoil all along that Chapter How shall the iniquity of times be helped See Chap. 2.4 The Just shall live by Faith the best remedy for sad times then they must have Faith store of Faith that intend to live upon it when times are so bad that Believers have nothing else left but Faith to live upon In great storms we need great courage â—est we sink Psal 112.7 He shall not be afraid c. his heart is fixed 6. The best evidence of truth of Grace is growth If plants grow if young cattel thrive be sure they live when Christians thrive not are as ignorant now as they were seven years ago are as luke-warm c. they may suspect whether ever they were born again or began to live the life of Grace Helps to grow besides those which belong to the former branch of Exhortation which may be useful here 1. Beware thou judge not thy self strong when thou art weak nay when thou hast no Grace at all as is too usual Laodicea-like Rev. 3.17 Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods c. Prov. 13.7 There is that maketh himself rich yet hath nothing Thou maiest have long time enjoyed the means yet not have made answerable progress in practical Godliness Some children go to school seven years yet arrive not at so good degrees of learning as others do in half that time Israel in their wilderness wanderings spent neer forty years in going eleven dayes journey Deut. 1.2 Heb. 5.12 Some at sixty years Profession are inferior to others of sixteen who for the time they have had to learn ought to be teachers of others had need one teach them the principles of Religion and have need of milk c. 2. Beware thou never entertain a conceit of having Grace enough nor ever stint thy self to a certain measure of Grace of worldly riches a man may have enough and surfet but of Grace thou canst not surfet canst not be too greedy thou maist love the world too much canst not love Christ too much canst not have too much humility too much meekness zeal so it be according to knowledge here the proverb is most true Store is no sore much Grace will be no burden 3. Be sure thou live be in Christ for dead things grow not in Christ is all fulness of him must we receive John 1.16 in him are all treasures of wisdom and knowledg The branch cannot grow that is cut off from the stock John 15.4 no more can ye except ye abide in me Christ is Author and finisher of our Faith and all Grace to him must we be united receive influence from him have much recourse to him communion with him 4. Be very humble ascribe all thy sufficiency to God He must be as the dew to Israel ere he can grow as the Lilly Hos 14.5 8. from me is thy fruit found God hath great respect for humble Persons because they will be most thankful and ascribe all their fruitfulness unto God which proud Persons arrogate to themselves Therefore God will teach the meek hath respect to the lowly giveth more Grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 5. Improve what thou hast exercise Grace received exercises in Learning Scholastick disputatious declamations speaking Latine increase learning Acts intend habits The more a child exerciseth his writing reading the better he will write and read the more a Christian putteth forth acts of Piety Charity Mortification Prayer c. the more Pious and Gracious he will prove himself To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundance
one glimpse thereof in the Transfiguration put Peter in a trance Christ ascended to be glorified 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend Obj. O but how can these things be how much better had it been for us to have had Christs bodily presence still on Earth What a deal of good did he by his Life Doctrine Miracles Compassion on the Poor Blind Diseased that cryed for help for themselves children and servants Lord hadst thou been here my brother had not dyed said Martha So may poor desolate souls say Lord hadst thou been on Earth still this evil and that storm had not come upon the Church or particular members of it Expedient Christ go O leave us not Answ In general Saddest providences and most terrible things whereby God answereth his People often carry a great deal of sweetness and comfort in them which we through ignorance and unbelief hardly discern Christians often loose much by poring on present or imminent evils and not looking to the sweet Result and glorious issue thereof We walk too much by sence and too little eye by Faith the things that are not seen Thus the Disciples were loth to hear that Christ must be put to death When he was buryed We trusted say two of them Luke 24.21 it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Their Faith was low not considering that he came to give his Life a Ransome for many Such fools so slow of heart are we to believe Thus when Christ told the Disciples I go my way to him that sent me They asked him not whither goest thou and therefore sorrow filled their hearts John 16.5 6 7. they did not look to the sweet Fruit which they should reap of his Departure they would have found cause of joy had they seriously considered that Christ went to his Father and their Father to his God and their God But particularly You have Christ's Word for it which should silence all objections and questioning thoughts John 16.7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away There were four Expediencies of Christ's Ascension in respect of us 1. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might in our nature as our Head and Surety take possession of Heaven for us Heb. 6.20 Whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus He had purchased the Inheritance and paid the price and he went to have seizen and possession for us John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you 2. Christ's Ascension was expedient for us that he might intercede for us in Heaven and now appear in the Presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 and that we might have that consolation 1 Joh. 2.2 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And Heb. 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession We have a constant and skilful faithful Sollicitor in the Court of Heaven pleading our cause Is the Church militant oppressed Jesus the Angel of the Covenant pleadeth How long Lord wilt thou be angry Zech. 1.12 and he is answered with good and comfortable words I am returned with Mercies to Jerusalem as it follows ver 16. The Lord Christ standeth as with a golden Censer having much Incense which he offereth with the Prayers of Saints on the Golden Altar before the Throne the Smoak of which Incense with the Prayers of the Saints ascendeth before God out of the Angels Hand When his People pray on Earth He as their Sollicitor procureth a Grant in Heaven which he sometimes sendeth down by a swift Messenger So he did to Daniel and Cornelius So that now being ascended Believers may triumph Who shall condemn It is Christ that died is risen again is at the Right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might send the Spirit the Comforter Joh. 16.7 If I go away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you The sending of the Spiriâ— to lead Believers into Truth to convince the World to help Believers Infirmities to quicken to comfort to stablish them and to abide with them to the end of the World is the fruit of Christs Ascension 4. Christ's Ascension was expedient to assure us that he hath fully satisfied Justice for the sins of his Elect and left nothing undone of the great Work which he undertook Heb. 9.12 By his own Blood he entred once into the holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us His sitting at the Right Hand of God is an evidence that he hath obtained for us Eternal Redemption In his Ascension he triumphed over all Enemies He had spoiled Principalities spoiled them of their Prey having rescued his Elect spoiled them of their Dominion and Power over his Sheep He had cast out the Prince of this World the Accuser of the Brethren and He made shew of them openly Col. 2.15 Christ having overcome Death and Hell declareth his Conquest in ascending as a Conqueror into Heaven Take the Application in four Particulars briefly 1. Christ is gone to Heaven Be not deceived by false christ's Such shall come Mat. 24.24 O remember he is not here but ascended as he told his Disciples Seek not then a bodily presence in the Sacrament The Heavens must contain him Acts 3.21 The Martyrs who burned at the Stake not for ceremonies c. as some would have it but for denying Transubstantiation or the bodily Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper however now-a-dayes some bespatter them had a sure Foundation to build on The Scripture makes it plain that Christ's Body is in Heaven 2. Christ is gone into Heaven Christians let your hearts be there Seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Why do ye grovel on Earth when Christ your best Friend is in Heaven What on Earth can satisfie or what is to be desired when Christ is gone Well may Believers desire with the Apostle Phil. 1â— 23 to be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better 3. Let us prepare for Christ's Coming from Heaven Phil. 3.20 Behold He cometh quickly in like manner as he ascended but more gloriously attended more manifest every eye shall see him Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Luke 12.37 We are left to trade with talents our Lord will come and reckon with us Mat. 25.19 Be ready for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not Luke 12.40 O let us watch 4. Lastly Be comforted Christ our Fore-runner is in Heaven He is gone but he went about our business This providence of Christ's departing looketh with a bitter aspect it is doleful to consider Christ is Gone But as Jacob's Spirit revived when he knew Joseph was alive so it is exceeding comfortable for drooping distressed souls to consider Christ hath taken possession of a
our minds Hearing and receiving Truths and Ordinances is not the All of a Christians duty There must be also as the Text tells us a remembring how we have received and heard In handling this Doctrine I shall observe this method 1. Prove the Doctrine from Scripture 2. Explicate it and therein shew both what it is to remember and what it is we are to remember 3. Give reasons of the Doctrine 4. Apply it First For the Scripture-proof of this Doctrine see this duty enjoyned to Israel Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. and the particular directions there given were in order to the furthering of this great Duty in the Text namely remembring how they had received and heard This duty is further pressed Prov. 6.21 Prov. 7.1 2 3. Isa 42.23 Who will hearken and hear for the time to come Now if men should hear for the time to come then they must remember what they have formerly heard for no more will be ours in the time to come but what we shall have at least a savoury practical remembrance of And as this is a duty commanded so it hath been conscientiously practised by the Saints of God See the great care of David in the discharge of this duty Psal 119.11 15 48 97. And so also the Virgin Mary Luke 2.51 and in many other places is said to have pondred and laid up the sayings of Christ in her heart The Memory is the storehouse and treasury of the soul in which her spiritual treasures are laid up There are three things saith * Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick one we should be very careful to keep in our remembrance former sins to make and keep us humble former mercies to make us thankful former Truths and Ordinances to make us faithful 2. The second general is to explicate the Doctrine and there first to shew what it is to rememâ—er That I shall but name First To remember is to recollect and call to mind This is our duty in reference to what we have received and heard We must recollect call to mind and ruminate upon Divine Truths formerly received we must as it were chew the cud This is the way to make sound and clean Christians It is the simisitude Chrysostom useth They were clean beasts under the Law at least that was one requisit to make them so that chewed the cud and he is like to make a holy spiritual Christian that delivers Truth to his Memory whilst he hears it and is able and careful to call it to mind again afterward Secondly To remember what we have received and heard is not only to recollect but also seriously to weigh and consider Truths and bring them home to our hearts by particular application 3. The third general is to shew to you what it is that Christians are thus to remember This I shall open under two heads First shew it is the duty of Christians to remember what they have received and heard for the matter 2dly how they have received and heard as to the manner First It is the duty of Christians to remember what Truths and Ordinances they have received and been made partakers of And if any ask what Truths should be remembred I answer That every Truth of God is precious and ought to be treasured up by us in our hearts No one Truth ought carelesly to be let slip The very fragments of Divine Truth should be taken up that none of them be lost The very dust of Gold is precious There is not the least Truth that ever any of you heard or received but may be of use to you at some time or other But there are some Truths which we should be most especially carefull to remember namely the main Foundation-Truths and such as are most necessary to Salvation 1. It is the duty of Christians and a special means both to keep and recover them from formality and deadness in Religion to be very careful to retain in their memories those Fundamental Doctrines and Principles of Religion they have received and heard that are contained in the Scriptures and have been opened confirmed and applied from them in expounding preaching catechising and such other Ordinances as you have enjoyed You must labour to remember old savoury-Truths that you have heard many years since Christians should chew them over again by meditation This is the course Christ directs his Church to in the Text to recover them from deadness in Religion He doth not bid them look after new Notions and high Speculations for these will but puff up the minds of men and not enliven them but he bids them remember how they had received and heard The like direction Paul gives to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.13 14. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast received of me c. The vital Doctrines of Faith in Jesus Christ and concerning the Person Natures Offices and Benefits of Christ with the Truths depending on these Oh! these should never be forgotten by those who have received them And also the vivifical Doctrines of Repentance from dead works Love towards God and our neighbours You have heard these Truths opened confirmed and applied to you many and many a time both from the mouths of former Ministers now dead and gone and such whose labours you have occasionally enjoyed And I trust that we also whose Ministry among you is now towards a period may say as Paul when he was taking leave of the Ephesians Acts 20.20 21 26 27. though we acknowledge in great weakness and with many mixtures of sin Well beloved It is your duty to remember these Truths you have heard and the rather because time may come either by reason of the hand of God in a way of sickness upon you or God may send a famine or if not a scarsity of the Word upon a People for their sinful abuse of former plenty and then when you may not have so frequently and abundantly the Word afresh opened and applied to you it will be of great use to remember what and how you have received and heard If old Errors should be broached under the notion of new Truths Christians should bring them to the standard of God's Word according to that Isa 8.20 of what you have received and heard If any shall go about to cry up Doctrines of conditional decrees mans free-will falling from Grace or the like if you remember what you have heard you will be able to say We have not so learned Christ 2. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from deadness and formality of Religion to remember as the Doctrines of the Gospel they have received and heard so also what they have received and heard in and from the Word of God concerning the Worship of God and the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and to bring all things imposed and practised in Divine Worship to the Rule of God's Word to enquire whether they be such things as have the warrant of the Command of Christ or practice of
the Apostles of Christ It hath been the design of Satan and the work of the corrupt hearts of men in all Ages to be making Additions to the Commands of Christ and to be mingling mens Inventions with the Institutions of Christ in matters of Worship Churches are very apt to degenerate from plain Spiritual Worship and the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ into a name to 〈◊〉 a meer outward form of Religion and a gay and pompous way of worshipping God such as may most please the flesh and fancy of men Now in such a case it is the duty of God's People to remember how they have received and heard They should remember that God hath said he will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.23 24. and what Christ hath said Mat. 15.3 10. and Mark 7.7 8 9. Reade these Scriptures at leisure This was Christ's Doctrine And when the Church was very much degenerated God bids them Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein Not the old paths of Custom Tradition the opinion and practice of forefathers but those wayes that are as old as your Bibles are as the Word of God and the Gospel is for these are the good old way Other wayes may be old but not good When things of mens devising are put upon men and crowded into God's Worship Christians should run to their Bibles and ask Was it so from the beginning Did Christ and his Apostles preach pray administer and receive Sacraments thus how did they appoint them to be dispensed Christians should account it wisdom enough to follow their direction and example Certainly they worshipped God decently yet they contented themselves with what they had received of the Lord without making additions of their own When any thing is obtruded upon God's People in matters of Worship they should try all things by the Word of God It is a saying of Cyprian to this purpose in an Epistle of his Si canalis aquam ducens subito deficiat nonne ad fontem pergitur c. If the Conduit-pipe or Cistern which was wont to give forth water plentifully suddenly stop do not men go to the Fountain to find out the cause whether the Fountain be dry or the veins stopped c. Sic â—â—portet facere Dei sacerdotes si in aliquo nutaverit aut vâ—â—â—llaverit veritas ad originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam traditionem revertamur c. Let us return to the Word and Gospel and Apostolical tradition that which is truly so called and can be proved from undisputable authority to be such This is a safe Rule and the way to keep Churches from corruption and rightly to reform them if they be in any thing corrupted 3. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from spiritual deadness to remember what they have received and heard for the directing of their practice and ordering of their conversations They should remember practical Truths the Commands Counsels Exhortations Directions they have found in and heard from the Word of God These should be had in everlasting remembrance They are to be remembred by Christians all their dayes and never to be forgotten Though some notions should through weakness slip out of your minds yet practical Truths should be written not in the dust but on your hearts as on marble engraven as with the point of a diamond never to be razed out Oh Beloved many many of these have you received and heard You have been pressed unto publick family secret relative duties you have been directed how you should hear reade pray confer receive Sacraments how you should carry your selves as Magistrates Ministers People Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants in commerce traffique and dealings with men Oh remember these things And especially if such times should come when you may not hear so much and often of these things as heretofore you have done 4. It is the duty of Christians to remember the reproofs and warnings against sin they have received and heard The remembrance of these will be a means to keeâ—â—ou from sin You have been many times warned to take heed of sin as a most venemous Serpent and the most inveterate enemy both of God and of your own souls God hath sent his Messengers rising early to warn you to take heed of all sin You have been warned to beware of Prophaness Sabbath-breaking Error Superstition yea and of Hypocrisie Formality Deadness Apostacy you should remember what and how you have received and heard so as to take heed of these and all other sins and especially when you shall be in an hour of temptation when these sins may be rise common and grow in fashion 5. It is the duty of Christians and a means both to keep and recover from deadness to remember the forewarnings they have had of God's Judgments You have been told of God's Judgments against sin in general and against such and such sins in particular You have been told of Afflictions Sufferings Persecutions that you must look for You have been told of these in the written Word and by Gods Ministers And you should especially remember these when you see Judgments coming or feel them already executed Remember those warnings in the Word of God John 16.1 2 3 4 33. Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 O Christians you have been forewarned that Error in Judgment Wantonness in Opinion and Practice under the Gospel loathing of Manna would bring a famine of the Word that decayes in and leaving of first Love would cause God to remove his Candlestick that deadness and formality would cause God to come as a thief in the night to take away the Gospel and all your precious things O therefore Christians when you see such Judgments coming or feel them upon you remember what and how you have received heard and this Remembrance will be a special means to bring you to Repentance 6. And lastly It is the duty of Christians 〈◊〉 â—emember the comforts they have received in and heard from the Word of God those grounds of comfort precious Cordials and strong Consolations you have read and heard to bear up your hearts under the sence of sin and apprehensions of God's wrath and in a time of dissertion and against the fierce and fiery assaults of Satan the strength of corruption weakness of grace difficulty of duty as also under afflictions from God and sufferings and persecutions from men This will be a means to keep the hearts and hopes of Christians alive in the saddest conditions they can be brought into It will be of great use in an evil day And thus I have shewed you what it is for the matter Christians are chiefly and especiallp to remember Secondly For the further explication of the duty in the Doctrine I come now to shew how for the 〈◊〉 Christians are to remember how they have received and heard And this is more expresly spoken of in the Text
and that under two heads 1. They are to remember how Truths have been delivered to them and Ordinances dispensed amongst them 2. How and after what manner they have received and imbraced the Truths and Ordinances of God First It is the duty of Christians to remember how the Word of God hath been preached and Ordinances dispensed to them and that in these four particulars 1. Christians should remember how plainly and in what simplicity of the Gospel of Christ the Word Sacraments and other Ordinances have been dispensed how close and home the Word of God hath been brought to their hearts and consciences This the Apostle Paul often minds those of to whom he writes and this as a means to keep them from being taken with flourishes external pomp and empâ—â— things in Religion 1 Cor. 2. five first verses As if he had said to them as I may say to you You have not been fed with gingling expressions meer flourishes of Rhetorick or empty speculations but with plain and wholsom Truths you have had Ordinances not in the dress of mens inventions but in the simplicity of the Gospel 2 Cor. 2.17 4.2 Paul was very jealous lest men should be drawn from the simplicity of Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 3. So that I say the remembrance of the plainness and simplicity in which the Gospel hath been dispensed among men will be a means to keep them from being taken with a meer outside Religion and way of Worship 2. It is the duty of Christians to remember how purely you have received and heard with what purity the Word Sacraments and other Ordinances have been delivered and dispensed without the mixtures of mens inventions how you have received the sincere milk of the Word without sophistication and Sacraments without any of the sinful additions of mens own devising Thus you have received them in the Scriptures thus Christ and his Apostles delivered them and so have faithful Ministers their successors endeavoured to do 1 Cor. 11.23 24. That which I have received of the Lord I have delivered unto you Paul though an Apostle added nothing of his own head 2 Cor. 2.17 and 2 Cor. 4.2 Oh Christians it is your duty to remember this and will be a means to make you in love with and adhere to pure Ordinances and fortifie you against all sophistications of them when you see men corrupting of them or adding to them 3. It is the duty of Christians to remember how powerfully they have received and heard with what power the Word hath been preached and Ordinances dispensed among you not so as to tickle your ears and please your fancies but to reach your hearts come home to â—nd work upon your consciences how the Gospel came to you not in word but in power 1 Thess 1.5 commending it self to your consciences as the Apostle phraseth it 2 Cor. 4.2 Hath not the speech and preaching of the faithful Ministers of Christ among you in some measure been as Paul saith his was not with enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and in power 1 Cor. 2.4 Have not you found the weapons of your spiritual warfare such as Paul mentions 2 Cor. 10.4 5. even mighty through God Oh! Christians should never forget this but continually remember it all their dayes 4. It is the duty of Christians to remember how plentifully they have received and heard in what great plenty they have enjoyed the Word and Ordinances of God Oh Christians you should remember what dews yea showers of heavenly Manna God hath rained about your tents ye have not been straitned in God If you be straitned it is in your selves even in your own bowels The heart and mouth of God yea and the hearts and mouths of God's Ministers they have been opened and enlarged to you 2 Cor. 6.11 12. You have had the Word in season and out of season the Word frequently preached and Sacraments frequently administred you have had line upon line and precept upon precept Christians should remember how much planting and watering they have had You should remember Christians what great pains cost and charges God hath been at with your souls to bring you home to himself at the first and to make and keep you lively and fruitful ever since O keep this for ever in your minds as a means to make you lively and fruitful Secondly It is the duty of Christians to remember as how Truths and Ordinances have been dispensed so also how and after what manner they have been heard received and imbraced by them This will be a means to keep the heart lively and to keep from degenerating into deadness and formality in Religion and in the Service of God And this in several particulars 1. It is the duty of Christians and a means to keep and recover them from deadness to remember how seriously with what seriousness of spirit they attended on the Service of God and holy duties at their first entertaining of them Christians at first are wont to wait on Ordinances as matters of great weight and moment yea as matters of life and death to read hear pray meditate receive Sacraments as for their very lives and as if every one were the last they should enjoy So those hearers of Christ received the Word Luke 10.48 they hung upon his lips received the Word as the Word of God Christians this should be remembred by you especially when you grow slighty and formal you should say to your souls It was not wont to be thus with me I was not wont to hear play receive Sacraments in this formal manner This remembring how you have received will be a means to keep your hearts lively and to cure you of spiritual deadness 2. Christians should remember how they have received and heard namely with what high estimations and appreciations of the Word and Ordinances you heard and received them how highly you prized the Word and the Dispensers of it how you ran after them as those who see the Sun but one half of the year are ready to run after it and even to adore it upon its first approach Did you not esteem the Ambassadors of Christ even as the Angels of God How beautiful were the feet of them that bring glad-tydings Were you not ready to do as those Galatians Gal. 4.15 When at any time you seel your estimations to abate of the Word Ordinances and Ministers of Christ Oh then remember how you have received say to your hearts Are Ordinances worse than they were Is there any change in the Word or rather am not I grown worse Is not the change in my own wretched heart The remembrance of this will be a means both to keep and recover you from deadness 3. It is the duty of Christians to remember with what lively affections they heard and received the Word and Ordinances of God the difficulties they were ready to break through to enjoy them the fight of afflictions they were ready to
endure So Christians you should do as you are exhorted Heb. 10.32 Remember what baths of godly sorry and compunction of spirit you found in hearing what earnest pantings after Christ and his Ordinances Could you not once say as the Psalmist Psal 42.1 2. 63.1 2. 84.1 2. Remember what flames of Divine Love to God Jesus Christ and his People you once felt burning in your hearts Remember those Raptures of Joy you have felt while you have been with joy drawing Waters out of the Wells of Salvation Remember with what delight and complacency you conversed in holy duties what zeal you had for God and his Ministers how even the zeal of Gods house eat you up O when you begin to feel your affections cool and grow flat say Why am I thus Is not God and Christ as lovely and desirable the Wayes of God as delightfull and pleasant as ever Such a remembrance how you have received will be a means to keep up a lively frame of heart in most dead times 4. Christians should remember with what readiness of mind they heard and received the Word of God with what holy resolutions to obey the Truth and to give up themselves to be guided by it and to walk with God to live and die in Gods wayes and for them too if God called them to it Thus God's People have received the Word So did those mentioned Isa 2.2 3. Acts 10.33 and so have you if ever you received it savingly Oh remember this as a means to quicken you when you find holy resolutions to cool in you 5. Christians should remember with what impressions upon their hearts they have received the Word and Sacraments Oh remember Christians what impressions Truths and Ordinances were wont to leave upon your hearts what work they made in your souls what wounds were given to sin what heart-meltings and heart-revivings you have found while one while your hearts have been melted yea even dissolved into penitential tears and another while filled with raptures of spiritual joy What workings of Faith Love Desires Hath it not been thus with you sometimes Christians Oh remember this to quicken you when you grow dead and can yea do sit under Ordinances with few if any such impressions as these are 6. And lastly Remember with what efficacy you have heard and received the Word and Ordinances of God You should remember what gracious effects have been wrought in and produced on your souls by these Oh Christians you should remember what good you have got by the Word Sacraments Prayer Communion of Saints what communion with God you have enjoyed in them and what of God you have received by and through them what quicknings what comforts you have been made partakers of while you have been attending upon them Have you not found the Word and Sacraments and other Ordinances of God wounding yea killing your corruptions enabling you to overcome temptations strengthening of grace enabling you to duty Hath not God spoken Peace to your souls in and through these Hath he not administred comfort to your souls in times of dissertion under sore afflictions against most bitter sufferings and most hot and fiery persecutions Oh remember this to keep your hearts alive in and your love warm and lively unto those precious Truths and Ordinances you have received so much good through how much soever they may be despised and scorn'd by others SERMON II. Preached Lords-day July 6. 1662. Rev. 3.3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent c. BEloved when I entred on this verse in my coâ—â—â— of the Friday-Lecture I little thought that I â—aâ—â— so short a time to preach among you I hoped I shoâ—â— have enjoyed some further opportunities for some â—ew weeks at least as long as the Act of Vniformity â—llowes But it hath pleased God by his wise and holy Providence to order it otherwise I being suspended from preaching here from this day forward for Non-conformity how regularly or legally on mans part I shall not dispute but leave to the righteous God to determine I desire that both you and I may not eye man but God in this dispensation I did not think to have preached my Farewel-Sermon to you from these words but having begun this Text and finding the matter of it so seasonable and suitable to rhis sad occasion I shall by God's assistance proceed in the handling of it Being probably like to preach no more unto you I judge it very seasonable to leave the Exhortation in the Text with you to call upon you that you would remember what and how you have received and heard and 〈◊〉 hold fast those wholsom Truths you have heard and those precious Ordinances at least the remembrance impressions and gracious effects of them that you have enjoyed and been priviledged with and also to repent of those sins which have provoked and may further provoke God to come on us as a thief to take away many of his Ministers from among us The words as I have already shewed are Christs counsel to a languishing Church and to decaied Christians to repair decaied Godliness and Religion in a Church and in the hearts and lives of particular Christians which renders them more seasonable to these days we live in and to the condition of many of our souls I have already opened the Doctrine and confirm'd it by several Scriptures Namely That it is the duty both of Churches and particular Christians and a special means to recover them from formality decaies and deadness in Religion and the exercise of Grace to remember what and how they have received and heard I should now proceed to give you the reasons of the Doctrine but I shall chuse rather to reserve them to the Application and then press them as Motives to inforce the Counsel and Exhortation grounded on the Text and Doctrine and so shall immediately proceed to Application Vse 1. The first Use is of Information 1. It informs us that there is somewhat more required of Christians than bare hearing of Sermons receiving and partaking of Sacraments and other Ordinances It is not enough to hear and receive but it is the duty of Christians also to remember what and how they have received and heard what good they have got by and what communion with God they have injoyed in the use of the Word and Ordinances 2. It informs us what it is we are to make the rule of our Faith Practice namely the Word of God contained in the Scriptures and the Truths you have heard rightly grounded theron They ought to be the Standard to which we should bring all Doctrines preached all things introduced into Divine Worship and imposed upon us in practice Bring all things to this Test It is your duty to search and study the Scriptures and bring all things to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these it is because there is no light in them
You must not believe every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God When either Doctrine or Worship is corrupted in a Church the way to reform both is not to fly to humane Authority or Antiquity but to the golden Rule of the Word this is the only safe Rule Other rules may erre but this is infallible Vse 2. The second Use is of Reproof To reprove forgetful hearers such as seem very eager in hearing and receiving Divine Truths attending on Gospel-Ordinances but are not careful to remember what and how they have received and heard such who return not on the things they have heard but leave all behind them Such as a Divine expresseth it who come from Duties as from a Grave where they leave their dearest Friends behind them not as from a Dole from whence they carry somewhat with them Of such hearers as these the Apostle James speaks Jam. 1.22 23 24. Yet I speak not here of that forgetfulness which proceeds meerly from weakness which is bewailed and is the burden of their souls This is indeed an infirmity to be bewailed yet deserves rather pity and compassion from men than reproof but the forgetfulness this Doctrine reproves is that which proceeds from carelesness when men do not make conscience of the duty pressed in the Text namely remembring how they have received and heard Vse 3. But the third and last Use of this Doctrine which I shall further make and insist on is a Use of Exhortation To exhort all of you to the practice of the Duty in the Text. Oh labour to remember what and how you have received and heard I am like no more to speak to you publickly in the Name of the Lord. Let me therefore leave this Counsel and Exhortation with you as that which may be of great use to you in hours of temptation that may come upon you I beseech you Beloved by the mercies of God in the bowels of Christ and out of the respect you bear to your own precious and immortal souls that you would labour and endeavour to remember those soul-saving Truths and precious Ordinances you have received heard and enjoyed and those impressions you have felt upon your hearts from them Oh be not forgetful hearers let not the Truths of God slip out of your minds Beloved I may say to you there is scarce any Truth necessary to salvation but you have heard of it once and again from some or other of Gods Messengers that have been sent unto you though not without the mixtures of sin and weaknesse as to the instruments which God in mercy pardon You have heard what God is and how he will be worshiped even in spirit and in truth and not according to the inventions and traditions of men you have heard the Doctrine of God's Decrees and of his works of Creation and Providence opened and applied You have heard of the sinful and miserable condition of a man in a natural condition You have heard the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace and of the means of our recovery by Christ alone You have had Christ set before you in his Person Natures Offices Obedience Sufferings You have heard many other both Theoretical and Practical Truths set before you in Preaching Expounding Catechising and by these you have been antidoted against Popish Socinian and Arminian errors and many others Oh labour to remember these keep them by you as a choise treasure lay them up in your heads and hearts that you may be able to bring out of your treasury things both new and old O! let not any of the Truths of God slip out of your minds or be as water spilt upon the ground Ministers must dye but let not the Truths of God dye in your hearts Ministers may be forcibly parted from you and have their mouths stopt as ours and many others are and are like to be yet let not the Word of Truth depart out of your minds when we are gone Let the Word of God even that Word of his we have spoken to you in his Name abide with you for ever Let it live with you and let it dye with you also Oh let truths be written on your hearts as with the point of a Diamond never to be razed out A stony heart is a grievous plague but an iron memory is a great mercy Oh therefore remember what you have heard in point of Doctrine and remember also the counsels and directtions you have had given to you as to the performance of publick family secret relative Duties Remember the warnings you have had against sin Sinners you have been warned against your sins Thou Drunkard Swearer Sabbath-breaker Vnclean person thou enemy to Godliness thou scoffer at and persecuter of Religion yea you Formalists Hypocrites that rest in civility morality or outside-performances you have been warned of the danger of your condition of the wrath of God hanging over your heads for these sins of the necessity of repentance for and from your sins and of faith in Christ if ever you be saved Remember the fore-warnings you have had of God's Judgments of the things you now fear yea feel Have you not been told many a time Christians what wantonnesses in opinion and practice the deadnesses worldlinesses decaies carnal policy divisions of Professors would bring upon them And you that are Saints remember what soul-refreshing comforts you have had in and from the Word of God Remember how plainly purely powerfully plentifully the Word of God hath been preached and Ordinances dispensed among you And remember also with what seriousness of spirit high estimation holy affection readiness of mind strong resolution powerful impressions you have heard and received the Word and Ordinances of God and what Gracious effects you have found of them Now to press this Exhortation as a lesson I would leave with you I shall first lay down some Motives 2ly Some Directions 3ly Helps to inable to performance of this duty The Motives shall be what I might have laid down as Reasons of the Doctrine Mot. 1. The first Motive to stir you up to this Duty of remembering how you have received and heard is this That the Truths you have heard and Ordinances you have partaken of they were not of use only for the time past or present while you were or are hearing or receiving of them but they are of use a great while after The Sermons you have long since heard and Sacraments you have received may do your souls good the longest day you live The vertue and use of the Word and Ordinances may and doth often put forth it self long after the participation of them and therefore you should remember them that you may bring them forth for use in the time to come which you cannot do if you let them slip out of your heads and hearts The Truths of God are as Treasuries and storehouses which are not onely for present use but for time to come for men to live on
will bear up you hearts under and fortifie them against all Sufferings and Persecutions you may meet with in the wayes and for the sake of Christ when you shall remember the warnings Christ hath given you John 16.1 2. and the grounds of comfort you have found in the Word of God Improve your remembrance of Truths for this end So much for the Motives to stir up to the practice of this duty in the Text. And these eight last particulars may serve also to direct you what use you should make of the remembrance of what and how you have received I shall proceed to add some few Directions to direct you how and after what manner you should remember what and how you have received 1. Direction Remember what and how you have received and heard Thankfully Oh be thankful Christians that you have enjoyed the Word and Ordinances of God so long and that with so much plainness power purity and plenty Though you should never enjoy them more yet you have cause to bless God that have enjoyed the Word Sacraments Ministers so long above not onely your desiâ—â—s but also your expectations Especially be you thankful that have received Christ and Grace through these that you have received Grace before you have lost any of the means of Grace that Christ and your souls have met before you and Ministers have parted 2. Direction Remember how you have received and heard Penitentially and sorrowfully 1. Penitentially and sorrowfudly That you prized and improved Truths and Ordinances no better got no more good by them grew no more in grace under them gained no more power against corruptions or ability to do and suffer by them while you did enjoy them 2. Remember how you have received sorrowfully if you have lost or should lose any of your opportunities When the Wayes of Sion mourn sure the Sons of Sion should mourn You should be sorrowful for the Solemn Assemblies the reproach of them should be a burden unto Christians You should remember your Gospel-enjoyments with tears as those Psal 137.1 2. even weep when you remember Sion As the Psalmist Psal 42.3 Chrstians in such a case should bewail the loss of Ordinances and of so many of God's Ministers 3. Christians should especially remember Gospel mercies Penitentially in the want of them when and that they by their sins have helped to sin them away by their unfruitful and unworthy walking Know Christians they are the sinnes of Ministers and People that stop the mouths of Ministers and deprive a People at any time of any of the tokens of God's presence You should in such a case and condition with sorrow of heart say we once enjoyed comfortable dayes of the Son of man but by our deadness spiritual wantoness and unfruitfulness we have now sinned them away 3. Direction Remember what and how you have received Affectionately and Practically It is not a meer notional but an affectionate and practical remembrance of Truths received and Ordinances enjoyed that I now press to Remember them with burning and inflamed hearts So remember Truths as to practise them to love Truth and to live in Truth and Ordinances so as to live up to them so as to have pure hearts answerable to pure Ordinances the power of Religion in your conversation sutable to powerful administrations Remember the Word of Truth to direct your practice even as a Compass to sail by in a troublesom Sea a dark night and as a copy to write after So remember what you have heard as to set on the practice of duties you have been exhorted to and directed in and to avoid the sins you have been warned against So remember as to improve your remembrance of Truths to those eight Uses before specified namely as an Antidote against error in Doctrine corruption in Worship to humble for keep from sin quicken to duty make you prize love pray for long after the Word for your comfort and support under Sufferings Having given you some Directions how you should remember what and how you have received and heard I shall now close this Doctrine by adding some Means and Helps to enable you to the performance of that duty I have been exhorting you to 1. A first Means or Help to enable to remember what you have received and heard is Labour after a sincere love to the Word Ordinances and Ministers of Christ Love Truth and you will the more easily remember it You will not suddenly or easily forget that you dearly love Affection is a very great help to Memory Receive Truth in your love and affection and then you will keep it in your minds and memories A man will remember what his mind and heart is set upon A special means to keep Truths in your heads is to labour that they may be engraven in your hearts Look upon the Word and Ordinances of God as your Treasure and you will be sure then at least practically to remember it Men scarcely forget where they have laid their Treasure or their Jewels though they may where they have laid things of lesser moment Love doth and will renew and revive the object loved in the mind and in the thoughts Affection to Divine Objects is the safest Lock and Key to secure Spiritual Treasures Psal 119.97 David loved the Law and then he could do no other but make it his meditation all the day long 2. A second help or means to enable you to remember what and how you have received and heard is Application to apply and appropriate Truths and Ordinances to your own souls Labour to insure your interest in Christ the Covenant of Grace and the great Truths of the Gospel and that will much further your remembring of them You will be careful to remember what you look on as your concernments Though men may forget others business they will hardly forget their own especially if they be matters of great concernment a matter wherein their whole estate is concerned or a matter of life and death And such are the things you have received and heard in the Gospel When you hear the Word say there God spoke to my soul Men forget truths because they are apt to put them off to others and not to look on themselves as as concerned in them Oh therefore look on thy soul as concerned in what thou hast heard and received and this will help thee to remember it 3. A third means to help you to remember what you have received and heard is Serious and frequent meditation and contemplation on what you have heard This is a great help to memory Divine meditation fixes Truths in the head and fastens them in the heart Luke 2.19 she kept those things because she pondered them Be therefore much in meditation 4. A fourth means to further your remembrance of what you have received and heard is Holy conference This Moses directs to as a means to keep the things of God in the heart Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. This
commendation that great hath been the incouragement we have found among you from God from you and from our Honourable Patron From God in his remarkable Providence in bringing us first among you in vouchsafing his Gracious Presence to and with us since and in giving in some considerable fruit of our weak unworthy labours for we may say that a great door and effectual hath been opened though of late there have been many adversaries And great hath been the encouragement we have received from you also from your great affection to us and especially from your ready entertainment of our Labours and forward and chearful submission to the Ordinances of Christ that have been dispensed among you which though it cannot but add much to our grief in parting from you yet it is no small addition to our comfort also We have also received much encouragement and many undeserved respects from the honourable Patron of this Place for all which we heartily bless God and no less heartily pray that God would recompence his and your respects to us a thousand fold into his and your bosomes And I trust we can in sincerity say for our selves that we have not sought yours but You and that it is not the loss of our places and outward accommodations that trouble us but the loss of our opportunities of serveing our God your precious and immortal souls in the work of the Gospel It grievs us to think of the shares and temptations you may meet with for when the Shepherds are smitten the Sheep are like to be scattered If God shall send such among you as wil in the main be faithful to God and your souls it will afford much hearts-ease to us and satisfaction to our spirits We have for above eleven years preached to you by our publick labours God now calls us and many others to preach to you by our silence And the very silence of so many Ministers if blessed by the Lord may prove the most powerful and effectual Sermon to People that they have had This speaks Gods displeasure this bids both us and you look into our and your hearts and wayes what it is that hath provoked God to send upon us this sad dispensation The silence of Ministers calls aloud on us all to humble our selves under the mighty hand of God It bids us repent of our sins the causes of Gods Judgments It calls on you to prize and improve Ministers and Ordinances better if God shall continue restore or further afford them to you Yea Ministers silence should cause People to speak the more and louder to God in prayer for the continuance and restoring of Ministers and Ordinances to them When you do not hear so much and often from God in preaching let God hear the more and oftner from you in prayer Ply the Throne of Grace Give God no rest till he make Jerusalem a Praise in the earth And as our silence should make you speak the more to God so also the more and oftner one unto another in holy conference to provoke to love and to good works And I beseech you Brethren pray for us What ever God may do with us or whithersoever we may be driven we shall carry you in our hearts and when and while we remember our selves to God we shall never forget you but present you and your souls concernments daily unto God at the Throne of Grace in our prayers And we earnestly beg this of you as that you would remember what we have spoken to you in the Name of the Lord so that you would remember us to God and let us have a room and share in your hearts and prayers When you get into a corner to pour out your hearts before God carry us to God upon your hearts Do not forget us but lift up a prayer to God for us your we hope we may say faithfull though weak unworthy Ministers who have laboured among you in the Word and Doctrine I shall say no more but conclude with these two Scriptures the one Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those that are sanctified The other Scripture is that request of Paul to and prayr for the Hebrews Heb. 13.18 19 20 21. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly But I beseech you the rather to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that Great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen SERMON III. Phil. 2.12 Wherefore my beloved as ye have alwayes obeyed not as in my presence onely but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling BEloved I am now it seems to bid you Farewell and I rejoice I have this one opportunity more of preaching to you Though it is sad to think of parting if my poor pains might have been any way profitable amongst you yet I cannot wonder that here the course of my publick Ministry is stopt When I first came to you I expected to have dwelt in silence and to have been free among the dead long ere this day Now this is like to be the last Sermon I shall ever preach to you here my hearts desire and earnest prayer to God is That more good may be done by this one than hath been done by many Sermons past That if you that see me this day should see me here no more yet you might have cause to bless God for what you shall now hear even while you have a day to live The words of a dying friend are wont to make a deep impression so should the words of a departing Minister Beloved I am confident that both you and I must give an account of this dayes Work to the Judge of all the World Wherefore I would be so serious even in all I say unto you as if I were immediately to give up my account to God and I desire and beseech you in the fear of God and for the love you ow to your own souls that you would as seriously attend to what shall be spoken This Exhortation of the Apostle even now read unto you depends on and is inferred from what goes before as appears from the Illative Wherefore The Apostle having spoken of the humiliation and obedidience of Christ as he was obedient unto death v. 8. and of his glorious exaltation that followed thereupon he presseth these believers to obedience and continuance therein from Christ's example and the blessed end thereof viz. their own Salvation Note The Life of Christ is a Christians Copy An exact an
excellent Copy indeed for us all to write after Learn of me sayes he And what grace what virtue is there that ye may not learn of Christ Never was there such love to God and man like that which wrought in the heart of Jesus Christ Never was there self-denial or humility comparable unto Christs Never any zeal any holiness like Christs O beloved no danger of our being too holy too precise since it 's impossible but that when we have done our best we shall fall far short of out Copy here They that censure Christians now and charge them with over-much strictness and making too much ado in Religion much more that these had they lived in his dayes would have found fault with Jesus Christ But I have no more to say to these here who are enemies to the power and strictness of Christianity onely a word to you my Friends Don't ye think much to bear reproaches for Christ here who hope at last to appear with him in Glory We would be like him in his glorified estate what reason then we should be conform'd to him in humiliation and in an holy conversation But let this serve as touching the coherence In the words themselves you may observe I. A weighty Exhortation Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Where you have 1. The duty it self Work out your salvation And 2. The manner how it must be done with fear and trembling II. The manner how the Apostle presseth this Exhortation 1. By a sweet compellation My Beloved 2. By a prudent commending of their former course as ye have alwayes obeyed III. Another Argument may be couched in these words not as in my presence onely but now much more in my absence i.e. Though ye have not me present with you yet God is present with you and the eye of the Lord is on you still And this would further evidence your sincerity that what you have done in Religion was not Pharisee-like to be seen of men if you obey and work on not only in my presence And indeed it is a work of necessity and as much need you should follow it close now as ever yea much more in my absence sayes he While I was with you I was most willing and ready to do what in me lay to promote your Salvation but now if you have not so much help from me as when I was amongst you ye had need take the greater pains your selves Children that were but too careless while their Father was with them had need learn to take care when he is gone My Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Copy hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Brethren But I shall not stay at the compellation which you so frequently meet with As ye have alwayes obeyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some read it O◠with Grotius we may understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 2 Thes 1.8 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 2 Thess 3.14 obeyed the Gospel or obeyed the Word As ye have alwayes obeyed Obeyed what Loquiter de obedientia non erga improrum hominum traditiones sed erga Deum ejusque Evangelium sayes Zanchy He speaks not of obedience to the traditions of sinful ungodly men but of obedience to God and his Gospel Ye have obeyed alwayes i. e. from the time that you first received the Gospel Not but that they had fallen into many particular acts of disobedience even since their conversion but they now no more followed a course of disobedience as they had done before Their desire will and purpose care and study was constantly to obey Note That good beginnings must be seconded and backt with good proceedings and crowned with an answerable conclusion It 's not enough to begin but we must end in the Spirit For this the Church of Thyatira is commended that her last works were more than her first Rev. 2.19 O Christians you that have set forth that have entered into the ways of God go on I beseech you You have had a Name to live and more than a Name I trust Religion has flourished in this Town the Lord grant it may flourish still O may it take such deep root in your hearts that all opposite power let men and devils do their worst may never be able to pluck it up It follows Not in my presence onely i. e. while I am among you calling earnestly upon you to follow your work but now much more in my absence that you have fewer helps and greater hinderances Note also by the way That Christians are not sure they shall always have Gods Ministers at hand When the means of Grace are brought to a place none can say how long the same shall be continued As when the children of Israel were encamped and had pitched their Tents they could not tell how soon the fiery pillar would move and call them forth again Now how does this blame the folly and security of the most who are careless of improving Gods Ministers while they are continued amongst them Indeed this minds your poor Ministers at least that have been yours of their falling short Oh may we not remember our faults this day Oh our want of diligence that we have done no more good while we have had opportunity that it has not been our meat and drink to feed the souls of others so much as it ought to have been Brethren we will not excuse our selves we dare not the Lord is lust in threatning at this day to lay so many of us aside who have laid out our selves no more for him and the good of souls But have you nothing to charge upon your selves who have been our hearers The Lord knows whether in the course of our Ministry we have vented our own fancies or have not declared the will and mind of God to you and whether you have heard and received it as the word of God I hope it has been our desire not to with-hold any thing that was profitable and has it been your care indeed to profit Oh! I must tell you it grieves us at heart to think that we shall leave so many of you in gross ignorance after means of knowledge that we should leave so many of you in prophane courses after many plain reproofs that we should leave so many of you strangers unto Christ who have heard so much of him and have been so oft invited perswaded and pressed to come in to him And howsoever many will think there is no loss of us yet one day you will see what your souls have lost who have enjoyed Gods Ordinances though dispensed by never so weak and contemptible instruments and have not regarded to improve them Here I would have spoken a word to others of you who have got something though not so much as you might have done Let what hath been wanting in your former proficiency be made up as it were in after-humiliation and repentance And if you are conscious to your selves that your unprofitableness
halting from the reigning power and predominancy of corruption The former is found in the Godly but it is their grief and burden Peter upon a sudden push of temptation halted down and fell fouly into a denial of Christ and that with such circumstances as might make any Christians ears glow and tingle to hear recited Mat. 26. yet afterwards he was far from applauding himself herein He went out and wept bitterly As one of the Ancients sayes of some that fell through weakness in time of Persecution Vicit eos paena non avertit perfidia negarunt semel sed quotidie confitentur negarunt sermone sed confitentur gemitibus ululatibus flecibus liberis non coactis vocibus They denied in word but afterwards confessed with sighs and groans and tears The Faithful sometimes halt through infirmity but it is their grief Others that halt deliberately far unlike them neither can they fairly pretend sorrow for it Alas it is their choice they approve of it and think themselves in taking their liberty in having so great a latitude about the matters of Religion much wiser then those who are more precise and strait-laced But so much for Explication to shew what it is to halt in Religion and how many wayes men are subject to it Now that is very sad and sinful you have as much affirmed Hos 10.2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty God will be served with all the heart and with our whole soul and to divide it betwixt Him and others is a thing He cannot endure He cannot brook It were easy to produce other Scriptures that speak to this purpose but we shall have occasion to make use of them in the following discourse therefore I wave them here to proceed to the Demonstrations of the Point And I shall evidence the great evil of halting in Religion 1. From the nature of the thing it self 2. From the whence it proceeds 3. from the consequences and effects Demon. 1. Halting in Religion must needs be exceeding evil that considered in it self is directly opposit and contrary to God from whom the true Religion is derived and unto whom it returns It is both contrary to God's Nature and to his Mind and Will Contrary to Gods Nature He is still the same with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning Now how unlike to God are they that are off and on ever and anon changing one thing to day another to morrow yea it may be seemingly devout while on their knees but vain and prophane when on their feet Good and upright is the Lord. Thou most Upright Thou most Upright dost weigh the path of the just Then surely they are contrary to him who are for crooked ways The Lord that is faithful Isa 49.7 Heb. 10.23 He is faithful in all his promises to us How unlike to God are they who are false in their engagements playing fast and loose with him And how contrary this halting in Religion is to God's Mind and Will you may learn from what is said of those Mongrel-Worshippers 2 King 17.33 34. In v. 33. it is said They feared the Lord and served their own gods But in v. 34. They feared not the Lord. Such serving of God is as no serving of him There 's one But which takes off the lustre of all Amaziah did He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord BUT not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 He began well but afterwards turned away from following the Lord v. 27. So we find this as a Blot in the story of some of the good Kings whose Acts are recorded in Holy Writ Such and such a one reigned well did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord only the high places were not taken away And here they fell short Demon. 2. Halting in Religion must needs be very evil which comes from such ill causes Such as the cause is such is the effect Now here I shall not insist on the Fall of mankind which is indeed the prime cause of all that halting in Religion which is in the World I shall not stay at that sinning sin the corruption of mans nature which was consequent upon his fall which makes way for all those sinful warpings crooked windings turnings in the course of our conversations But I will come to some more particular and nearer causes And so this halting I am speaking of is either from a bad head or from an evil heart or from both 1. From a bad head As we may see those that are troubled with the Vertigo c. that have bad heads how ill they can guide their feet Thus corruption of the judgement false Principles received into the mind cause the soul to halt and turn aside Many Hereticks of old thought it lawful enough to bow their bodies to an Image to an Idol so that they kept their hearts for God But this was doubtless a false Principle They whose hearts were true to God in Israel would not so much as how the knee to Baal Many of them taught It was enough to believe with the heart that confession with the mouth was not necessary Though as Anastas Sinait wel determines to be restrained by any fear of persecution a libera fidei confessione est quaedam species Abnegationis Not to confess Christ is to deny him No mean betwixt these Matth. 10.32 33. Some hold it lawful enough to profess the contrary to what they believe Jura perjura secretum prodere noli Whereunto the Doctrine of equivocation and mental reservation maintained by the Jesuits is as near a kind as may be The Christians in Justin Martyrs time were of other Principles We had rather dye sayes he for the Confession of our Faith than either lye or delude those that examine us otherwise we might readily use the common saying Jurata lingua est animus injuratus est My tongue only is sworn my mind unsworn Such principles as these they were far from approving of Some hold that men may be saved in any Religion It is not very likely that such should stick to the true But such are the false principles that teach men to play fast and loose with God These would teach men to deny Christ with Peter but not to repent with Peter Further many halt from a doubting Conscience or from an erring Conscience and it is sad being left to the conduct of but a doubting Conscience Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin That man halts in his course who is drawn to this or that sed titubante Conscientia as Beza terms it with an hobling hesitating Conscience The Apostles Rule v. 5. is Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Again how sad is it being led by an erring Conscience Indeed such a soul is in a miserable strait Ordinarily it is a sin to follow Conscience when it erreth When Conscience determines that to be a sin which is a duty or that to be
sincere Love to Christ be a distinguishing character of a right Christian then surely there be but few right Christians for there be few that love Jesus Christ in sincerity 1. There be many complemental lovers of Christ that say They love him withal their heart as the Papists who wear his Picture and bow to a Crucifix yet crucifie him afresh in his Saints the superstitious persons who cringe and make low courtesie at the rehearsing of the syllables of the Name Jesus yet do they not blaspheme that worthy Name by their unchristian practices Do they not take his Name in vain whilst they seem to shew reverence to his Name Did the Jews honour Abraham really to whose memory they pretended much respect We have Abraham to our Father say they we be Abrahams Seed Joh. 8.33 To whom our Saviour answers ver 39. If ye were Aâ—â—ahams Children ye would do the Works of Abraham If these men loved Christ with all the heart they would not hate whom he loves darely nor persecute his faithful Members nor take his Name in vain How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me said Dalilâ—h to Sampson Psal 78.36 They did flatter with their mouths and lyed unto him with their tongues 2. There are that love Christ but not with a transcendent Love they love Him a little but the world much more 2 Tim. 3.4 Lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God Joh. 12.43 They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Can that man be said to love his wife with a conjugal Love that loveth another woman above her Can those be said to love Christ sincerely that love themselves or their lusts and prefer them before Christs Commands that make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts contrary to Rom. 13. ult Do they love Christ or filthy lucre who laugh in their sleeves and applaud themselves in their covetous practices whilst the Minister is preaching against his covetousness Luke 16.14 The Pharisees who were covetous heard these things and they derided him Do they love Christ or money better who are so void of charity that though they see a Brother or Sister naked or destitute of daily food yet will neither fill them nor warm them nor give those things which are needful to the body but hide themselves from their own flesh Christ will one day confute their fond pretences of love to himself to be meet self-delusion when they shall hear from the mouth of Him the Judge Depart c. for I was hungry and ye fed me not c. 3. There are Christians that love Christ as a Saviour but not as a Prophet as a Priest but not as a King Do these love him in sincerity 〈◊〉 Christ divided Did the Harlot love the Child with the love of a Mother who would have had it divided Solomon was wise enough to discern she was not the true Mother that had not the bowels of a mother And the Lord Christ who is greater than Solomon whose eyes are as a flame of fire Rev. 1.18 Who tryeth the reins and heart will easily perceive that man is no lover of Christ in deed and truth whatever he may affirm in word and tongue who divideth between Salvation and Sanctification who opposeth one of Christ's Offices to another who refuseth to take Christ's Yoak upon him will not stoop to the Scepter of his Rule and Government though 't is a Golden Scepter of Grace and his Yoak is easie and his Commandments are not grievous Christ came to set us an example That we should walk in his steps he came not only to suffer and dye for our sins but to rule over us to take upon him the Government of his Church Isa 9.6 He shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever Luke 1.33 The Gospel is his Royal Law Jam. 2.8 which he establisheth in his Kingdom and to which he expecteth a conformity in all his Subjects The Turks own Mahomet's Law for their Rule and live up to it The Jews receive Moses Doctrine and live exactly according to the letter of it and the sence they have of it And how can those Christians be said to love Jesus Christ sincerely who profess to receive his Doctrine as a Rule but walk contrary to it 4. There are Christians who love Christ not for himself but for something else Some follow him in hope of gain as Judas Demas like those mungrel people that went along with Israel out of Egypt Exod. 12.38 which were the first that fainted and set them on murmuring and lusting Numb 11.4 Some followed Christ for the Miracles they saw him work and professed to believe John 2.24 but he did not commit himself to them because he knew their hearts were not right with him Some followed him Joh. 6.66 but took offence at his Doctrine and so went away Who ever follow Christ for by-ends love him not in sincerity not for himself but as boyes and idle persons love many holidayes not for Holiness sake or Saints sake but for playes sake So these love Christ for commodity sake or credit sake which respects when they faile there is an end of such love Use 2. The principal Use of this Doctrine had need be for tryal Let every one that nameth the Name of Jesus Christ prove the sincerity of his Love Give me leave to perswade you my Beloved as to try your Faith in so your Love to Jesus Christ Gal. 6.4 Let every one prove his own work so shall he have rejoycing in himself c. 1. Christ will not take good words a fair profâ—ssion of friendship for sincere Love He tryeth reins and heart Rev. 2.23 His eyes behold his eye-lids try the Children of men Metaph a palpebris pressis From them that press down their eye-lids that they may look wishly narrowly He will weigh our Love in the Ballance of the Sanctuary and quickly espie if it be too light He can distinguish between flattery and sincere love 2. Many pretenders there are in the world but few unfeigned lovers of Christ Mat. 25.44 Lord when saw we thee an hungry c. Lord we have been in thy Name Baptized we have worn thy Livery we have heard many a Sermon we have been oft feasted at thy Table as Luke 13.27 yet the answer is sad I tell you I know not whence you are depart from me c. Had these loved the Lord with an unfeigned Love they had not received so harsh a doom which they might easily have understood had they in time taken a tryal of their Love 3. Our hearts are also false and deceitful in this very point of love to Christ Peter was as confident of his sincere love to Christ as we can be though all men should deny yet he would dye first yet ye know what proof he made Insomuch that afterwards John 21.15 when our Saviour put to him this question Lovest thou me more then these he being taught more
glorious House incorruptible Inheritance and a biding Kingdom for us We have an Advocate with the Father our Redeemer liveth and we shall see him All his Enemies shall be made his footstool Christ is glorified his Members however vilified on earth shall be like Him and abide with Him and He will be admired in his Saints He is gone to prepare a place for us and will come again and receive us John 14.3 And thus much briefly for this first branch Christ Ascended The second is Christ blessed his Disciples at his Ascension But may some one say How did Christ bless them I answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To bless is to speak well So Christ alwayes spake well Never man spake like Him Grace was poured in his lips and gracious Words proceeded out of his mouth But it hath a more special Importance 1. To bless is to acknowledge the Blessedness and Perfection of another So the greater is blessed of the less So with the tongue we bless God even the Father and our Souls bless the Lord. 2. To bless is sometimes to pray for a Blessing So Isaac blessed Jacob when he prayed God give thee of the Dew of Heaven Gen. 27.27 And God Almighty bless thee Gen. 28. The 1st and 3d. Thus Jacob blessed Josephs Sons when he prayed The Angel that redeemed me from all evil bless the lads Gen. 48.9 16. 3. To bless is to pronounce a blessing and that either in the way of an ordinary Ministry Thus Aaron and his Sons were to bless the People saying The Lord bless thee and keep thee c. Numb 6.23 So Simeon Levi and Judah Issachar Joseph and Benjamin were appointed to stand upon Gerizzim to bless the People Deut. 27.12 Or else by an extraordinary Spirit of prophesie So Jacob blessed his Sons when he told them what should befal them in the last dayes Gen. 49. And Balaam prophesying the prosperity of Israel is said to have blessed them altogether Numb 24.10 4. To Bless is to make blessed to give as well as speak a blessing So Israel was blessed effectually Numb 22.12 Curse them not for they are blessed Thus there are Blessings spiritual and Blessings temporal Blessings of basket and store c. 5. To bless is to set apart from a common to a holy and spiritual use So Christ blessed the Bread when he set it apart to signifie his Body Mat. 26.26 Now when Christ blessed his Disciples the four last of these acceptions of Blessing may very well be comprized and intended The gesture used in blessing them lifting up his hands may well suit with pronouncing of a Blessing in way of prayer The Gifts and Graces poured on them soon after his Ascension speak the efficacy of his Blessing and that it was not empty words but Spirit and Life And it is evident that at his Ascension he set them apart and gave them a Commission to go and preach the Gospel Other Texts might be cited proving that Christ's Ascending did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak well to his Disciples as Mark 16.17 18 19. and Acts 1.8 9. But the Text so fully assureth us that Christ lifted up his hands and blessed just at his Parting and Ascension that we need no other Confirmation To come then to the Reasons why Christ Ascended blessing The two main springs whence his Blessing slowed are his Love and his Faithfulness which two were the reasons of his Humiliation and Transactions He loved his Elect and He was faithful to him that appointed him Heb. 3.2 Out of Free-grace and Faithfulness He laid down his Life a Ransome for many He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood Rev. 1.5 His Father had appointed Him and promised Him to bless and he faithfully performed it He came to bless and went to Heaven blessing There are eight special Reasons or Ends which Christ had in his eye in blessing his Disciples so solemnly when he was leaving Earth to go to his Father 1. He would assure his Disciples that his affection to them was the same now at parting as they had found it from his first choosing them they might have thought it strangeness had he gone and not left a Blessing behind him after all his kindness and compassion And this is one end to which are directed all those gracious and comfortable Expressions recorded in the 12 13 14 15 16th Chapters of John with that pathetical Prayer John 17. shewing him as tender-hearted towards them at last as ever He displayeth his Banner of Love over them in this gracious Valediction going to Heaven Blessing 2. Jesus Christ would have his Disciples and all that should believe in his Name to know that he carried the same Heart to Heaven with him that he had on Earth so that though his bodily presence was removed yet his Love continued and he would be as mindful of them in his Kingdom as ever he had been on Earth And this is another End of his gracious Expressions at and a little before his Ascension He knew how ready they might be through weakness and temptation to question his care and doubt of his Love as the Israelites about Moses Exod. 32. As for this Moses we wot not what is become of him He would not have them think Now Jesus Christ is gone and his Mercy is at an end he hath forgotten to be gracious and so sink in despairing thoughts No He assureth them John 16.26 I say unto you I will pray the Father for you rest satisfied question not but I will remember you and set you as a seal upon my Heart as a seal upon mine Arm I will carry your names engraven on my Brest-plate and make intercession for you and here he would assure them of lasting Love in parting from them with the most notable expression of it He solemnly blessed them 3. Jesus Christ would have his People assured that he is the Messiah the promised Seed in whom all Nations shall be blessed Gen. 18.18 The Apostle mentioneth this Covenant with Abraham Acts 3.25 26. and sheweth that Christ came to bless in pursuit of that Covenant and to fulfil Scripture It was prophesied of Christ Psal 72.17 Men shall be blessed in Him And Blessing was his beginning and conclusion in his Ministry upon Earth the beginning of his first Sermon and the close of his Last 4. He blessed them that he might not leave them overwhelmed with grief nor swallowed up of sorrow at his departure John 14.1 18 27. I will not leave you comfortless let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid He knew the loss of his Presence might strike cold to their hearts The Children of the Bridechamber might mourn alas the Bridegroom is taken away they might cry after so good a Teacher and Master My Father my Father the Horsemen of Israel and Chariots thereof and sorrow most of all that they must see his face on Earth no more Well The Lord God had
perfect Rule see how they have agreed or disagreed Look your faces daily in the Glass of God's Word and then you shall see how many spots are upon them This very thing would make and keep us humble while we live and shew us the shortness of our own wayes and drive us to Jesus Christ who hath perfect Righteousness The Swan is a proud bird but when she looks at her black feet she mourns The reason why most are so self-conceited of their own goodness is because they look upon themselves in present abstinence from sin or in present good mood and never look back upon former sinâ—â—â— In a word Let your sins be ever before your eyes 4. Beware of earthly-mindedness Let it not be your only care to get the things of this life 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world VVe are prone by Nature to mind Earth and nothing else But consider that those that are earthly-minded are enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 19. There are many of whom I tell you weeping who are enemies to the Cross of God viz. those who mind earthly things Such persons frustrate Christ of the end of his dying He died to purchase an heavenly treasure for us he arose and went to Heaven that we should imitate him If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Earthly persons undervalue the death of Christ he died to purchase Heaven they care for Earth more than Heaven Again Earthly persons will have a sad end Their end is destruction Phil. 3.19 Seeing such men put away Salvation from them whilst on Earth at last they shall be put away from Salvation Again Things below are neither a suitable nor a satisfying portion Not suitable your souls being spiritual these earthly not satisfying your souls having infinite desires whereas these are finite your souls everlasting these fading 1 John 2.17 The World passeth away When we have got never so much it may leave us we must leave it Again Earthly-mindedness is Idolatry Col. 3.5 And Covetousness which is Idolatry That which men desire love and delight in most even so much as to make it their portion that is their God Now we know that no Idolater shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Be exhorted in the words of Christ John 6.17 Labour not so much or chiefly for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Luke 10.41 42. Be not with Martha careful about many things so as in the mean time to neglect the one thing needful 5. Be convinced that God is the best portion and make him yours You are never in a safe condition till you can experimentally say Who is there in Heaven but God and who is there on Earth I can desire besides God Psal 73.25 26. Labour to say with the Psalmist Psal 31.14 I said thou art my God And with Thomas My Lord and my God To this end get an interest in Christ receive him by Faith He that hath the Son hath the Father also God promiseth it as a special priviledge to be the God of any person or People I will be their God Jer. 31.33 When God is yours Pardon of sin is yours I will remember your iniquities no more He wil accept and delight in your persons The Upright are his delight He will take pleasure in all your services Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy face and hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Your Prayers Praises Alms c. shall come up before God as Incense Acts 10.4 Phil. 4.18 He will alwayes be with you in every place in every condition When you are in your own and when in a strange Country when you are in prosperity when in adversity Moreover all the Promises are yours When God is yours the Covenant is yours of which the Promises are so many branches If you be troubled with the sence of sin he can pardon you if assaulted with corruptions he can strengthen you If you be sad he will comfort you if you be sick he will be your Physician if weak he can strengthen you If darkness be upon your steps he can cause the Light to shine upon your paths If you are in wants he can supply you his is the Earth and the Fulness thereof if in Prisons he will visit you and cause you to sing with Paul and Silas He is an omnipresent Good and an omniscient Good a willing and omnipotent and a sure good Men may take away your Friends or you from them but they cannot take away your God your Estates but not your God your liberty but not your God your lives but not your God God will be a satisfying Good whilst you live a comforting and supplying Good when you dye an Everlasting Good after Death Above all things then get a share and interest in this God for he is the best Good none like him and as the Wise Man saith of Wisdom so let me say of God Get God get Christ God is the principal thing therefore get him and withal thy gettings get an Interest in Christ 6. Get your hearts possessed with an awe dread of Gods all-seeing Eye Walk with a constant fear of God upon your souls Prov. 23.17 Be thou in the fear of the Lord all day long whatever you think speak or do consider God stands by and sees and hears all he knows what thou thinkest and actest even in thy bed-chamber This consideration wrought mightily upon Davids spirit which made him express himself in this manner Whither shall I go from thy Presence whither shall I flee from thy Spirit there is not a thought in thy heart nor a word in thy tongue but lo he knows it altogether Psal 139. Per totum Many would be the advantages of such a temper it would keep us from many a sin we run into Prov. 16.6 By the fear of the Lord â—â—en depart from iniquity yea this is prescribed as a Remedy against all sin in general Exod. 20.20 That his fear may be before your eyes that ye sin not The reason why men do commit secret sins is Because they think no eyes sees them When Satan tempts thee saying Thou art alone the door is lockt the windows shut then say Oh but God sees me the darkness and the Light are both alike to him To this end beg of God he would maintain in your soul more of an actual sence of his Presence plead that Promise in which he saith I will put my fear in them that they may not depart frrom me Jer. 32.40 Unless God renew the fence of his Holiness and Omnipresence we shall groâ—â— atheistical and very secure 7. Serve God according to his Mind and Will neither add nor diminish in God's Worship do what he bids us all he bids us and no more Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it add not to it nor
diminish from it we may not close with added substantial parts of worship Whatever power a Church hath about natural Circumstances they have none about the substance of worship either to add or take away by putting in or putting out To add new Ordinances or parts of Worship is a breach of the second Commandment The Pharisees ered on this hand Mat. 15.19 teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men they pressed Gods Commandments as indifferent and mens Traditions as necessary God commanded to Honour Father and Mother they teach contrary to this ver 4. this was a diminishing They teach that the washing of hands before meat the cleansing of cups c. as necessary to Salvation this was to err by addition See Rev. 22.18 To add in God's Worship is to make our selves wiser than God and to accuse Christ of unfaithfulness in God's House Moses was a faithful Minister in God's House much more was he who was Mose's Master Well be sâ—re in all your worship that it be according to the Parâ—â—â— shewed in the Mount viz. according to â—he â—â—â—script and Standard of the Scriptures 〈◊〉 very dangerous to offer strange fiâ—â— such as God commands not Levit. 10.2 Give not God cause to say to any of us Who hath required this at your hands 8. Be spiritual and zealous in God's Service Take not God's Name in vain either by vain praying hearing or reading Bring your hearts to and keep them at prayer I will pray with my spirit Psal 25.1 Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Prayer consists more in the elevation of the understanding and desires than in the lifting up of the eyes and hands and so bring your hearts to the preaching and hearing of the Word Rom. 1.9 Paul served God with his spirit in preaching and we should serve God with our spirits in hearing When Paul preached Lydia's heart was opened that she attended to the things spoken by him Acts 16.14 When God's Embassadours deliver their Embassy imploy your understandings to discern your memories to retain your wills to choose your affections to love and delight in your consciences to apply what you hear And so sing Psalms with your heart as well as with your voice Col. 3.16 Singing with Grace in your hearts to the Lord. God complains of those who bring their bodies before him but leave their hearts behind them Isa 29.13 They draw near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but their heart is removed far from me this is a mocking of God Therefore be fervent in spirit when you serve the Lord rest not in bare enjoymment of the Means but get Grace by the Means Labour to enjoy the God of Ordinances in the Ordinances of God God is much displeased with eareless heartless and superficial worship If we offer ignorant heartless and distracted prayers will he accept them Cursed be the Deceiver that hath in his flock a Male and voweth and facrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1.13 14. Well then rest not in a formal customary way of serving God serve him out of Conscience and give him your heart in every duty 9. Maintain an high esteem and make great Conscience of the Lords-Day Keep the whole day holy morning and evening It 's not said remember to keep part of the Sabbath Day But keep the Sabbath viz. the whole Sabbath holy sanctifie it in private as well as in publick in your own houses as well as in Gods House in your Closets as well as in your Families do not only keep a Rest but sanctifie that Rest How By Meditation meditate on the Sabbath of that Sabbatism that remains for the People of God Heb. 4.9 Muse upon the Joys of Heaven which are pure spiritual constant and perpetual Think of the sweet Company you shall have even Angels and Saints besides God and Christ whose Presence makes Heaven Dwell upon your Immunities and Freedom from Sin Temptations of Satan and the World from troubles as Sickness Poverty Crosses and every thing that makes your life uncomfortable Imitate the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ by raising your hearts from Earth and ascending into Heaven by spiritual Comtemplations Moreover continue the day by reading and singing of Psalms attend upon God in publick also let not private duties hinder you from publick neither strive to attend so much upon publick Ordinances as to abridge your selves of private secret Opportunities I think those Christians do much wrong themselvs who spend all the day in attending upon publick prayers and hearing I would not have you strive to hear four or five Sermons a day unless you can take so much time besides as is necessary to meditate of and apply what you hear so order the day that secret Communion with God may fit you for publick and publick Ordinances fit you again for private and secret converse with God It is not much eating but eating moderately and digesting what we eat that encreaseth strength Two or three Sermons seriously heard and ruminated upon in secret do more good than ten Sermons heard without meditation Brethren what shall we think do those sanctifie a Sabbath to the Lord who hear a Sermon and a few prayers and then go to the Alehouse they who drink sleep sport walk or work away the Sabbath all these are forbidden Isa 58.13 Thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight not finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words nor doing thine own works Again Christ and his Disciples did not spend this Day partly in religious Exercises and partly in Recreations or Workings John 20.18 and Acts 20.7 we find there that Christ came amongst the Disciples on the First day and that Paul and the Christians used to spend this Day in Prayer preaching and receiving of Sacraments Moreover God will bless us inwardly and outwardly if we conscienciously observe it Isa 58.14 He will curse us inwardly and outwardly in soul and body if we prophane it See Jer. 17.27 Well then my Brethren do not prefer a Holy-day before the Lords-Day It s sad to think that hundreds should more scruple to work on a Saints-day which is of humane institution than on the Sabbath which is of God's Sirs you of this place have got shall I say an undeserved name of more than ordinary piety but I assure you that if you fall to neglect and prophane the Sabbath as some of our neighbours do you shall lose your very Name I should be very sorry to hear when I am gone that you should prove a Sabbath-breaking-People 10. Make great Conscience of Prayer family and secret Let your houses be Houses of Prayer Those families are called Heathenish Families that call not upon God Psal 79.6 Power out thy Fury upon the Heathen the Families that call not on thy Name Let God have a morning and an evening Sacrifice from you Under the Law God called for the first Fruits and there was a Feast of Ingathering or of the Last Fruits
thy walls are continually before me 9. Expect and prepare for Troubles A Christian's way to Heaven is not alwayes strewed with Roles Piety hath heen persecuted from the beginning of the world Wicked Cain killed righteous Abel because Abel's deeds were righteous Ishmael persecuted Isaac even in Abraham's family Christ left this Lesson to his Disciples when he left the world John 16.2 These things have I told you beforehand that ye should not be offended They shall excommunicate you from the Synagogues Yea the time comes when he that kills you shall think he doth God service If you resolve to follow Christ you must resolve to bear his Cross after him as Simon did Forgo the love of friends rather than the love of God 2 Tim. 3.12 Christ doth not always call His do die for him but he expects they should be willing and prepared to do so if he require it See Luk. 14.26 27. Whosoever leaveth not father and mother cannot be my Disciple Leaveth not that is in affection and disposition and when the time comes in execution and reality Every Christian must be an habitual Martyr though all are not so actually To this end lay up suffering Graces as Faith Love Patience c. get your hearts warmed with a sense of Christs love to you in doing and suffering so much for us let your love be so vehement that many waters may not be able to quench it and then sit loose to every creature A man will with ease part with that to which he is dead already 10. Prove all things 1 Thess 5.21 Take not upon trust do not jurare in verba Doctoris believe any Doctrine meerly because such an one delivers it as is cryed up in the world for some-body Be like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily to see whether the things they heard were so or no. Whoever shall preach to you if he brings any Doctrine or adds any new Article of Faith try them Every Christian hath a Judgment of discretion left him whereby he may try whether that which is pressed upon him either for belief or practice be according to the Analogie of Faith We must not rest in a blind implicit faith it 's for Romanists to believe as the Church believes and what it is the Church believes they understand not Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to that it is because there is no light in them And so if they preach any new Worship bring it to the Touch-stone see if it be not without Warrant from the Scriptures try whether it be not gilded Superstition or will-worship under the cloak of Decency and Order If any scruple arise in your minds and you not able to satisfie your selves consult with able Christians or some able and faithful Guide Seek knowledge at the Priests lips even in private as well as publick All is not Gold that looks like it See what the great Doctor of his Church saith Matth. 23.7 9. Call no man Rabbi that is do not tye your Faith to his Dictates do not believe because he saith it Many dubious and controverted things are creeping even at this time into the Church therefore â—â—y them Satisfie your minds and judgments before you proceed to practice Be sure that what you do shall have God's approbation Worship God from Judgment not from Presidents 11. Be frequent and diligent in reading and meditation For ought I know this may be one of the greatest helps we may have 1 Tim. 4.13 Take that advice of Paul to Timothy Till I come give attendance to Reading So till God's Ministers be returned to you again give attendance to Reading When you cannot have Scriptures read and preached in God's House then make a Church of your own house Phil. 2. Paul commends himself to Philemon and the Church in his house this is a high Commendation of him that he had Domesticam Ecclesiam a house-hold Church As Calvin in loc In Mal. 4.4 we meet with this Exhortation Remember the Law of Moses my Scrvant which I commanded to all Israel with the Statutes and Judgements Doubtless they had been commanded frequently before this time to remember the Commandments of God therefore there is a peculiar reason why the Prophet repeats it and concludes his Prophecy as it were with this Exhortation the reason is this Malachi was the last of the Prophets after him the Jews were not to have any more Prophesying till the coming of the Messiah he knew how prone they were to follow the dictates of their own hearts and to walk in their own inventions to swerve from God's Institution as how soon did Israel fall to Idolatry when their Prophet Moses was absent from them but forty dayes Exod. 32.1 2 3. he therefore adviseth them in this interim to attend to the Law of God delivered by Moses and the Writings of the Prophets which were as Commentaries upon that Law that they would continue to reade and meditate and act according to that Law till the great Prophet should come Brethren I cannot say that we that are about to be silent are the last Ministers you shall hear no I suppose you may have others succeed us whose Apprehensions and Judgments concerning the things in controversie may be different from ours and may suffer them to condescend to and close with more for the continuance of their Opportunities than others can Now if God doth provide you a Successor if he be one that speaks according to the Law and prophesies according to the Analogy of Faith I would not advise you to separation from publick Ordinances no when they may be had in God's Way when the preaching of the Word is sound and the Substantials of the Ordinances observed and may be enjoyed without sinful Appendixes though you should take pains to fetch them or go some considerable way to enjoy them they are to be prefered before private exercises But this I say if it should be your hard lot after our departure from you to be deprived of publick Ordinances at home and to be out of a capacity to enjoy them abroad then I say you may freely and comfortably close with the advise propounded In this fore-mentioned case let the Bible preach to us when Ministers cannot when we cannot hear living Prophets let dead Prophets preach to us I mean this see what good you can get out of the wholesome Discourses of God's departed Prophets Many Ministers preach by their surviving Works when they themselves are in their Graves by their works though they be dead do yet speak Let the Bible be your rule alwayes refer to that in things to be believed and in things to be practised Scholars use to study their Rules well and then they cannot do amiss 12. Endeavour to walk in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost This was Christ's advice to his Disciples when he was about to leave them John 14.1 Let not your hearts be troubled In the world ye shall
eighth verse of this last chapter and thence he uttered these words Junius thinks that the waiting called for in that verse is patiently to bear their Captivity in Babylon and chearfully to expect their Deliverance therefrom and so then all that follows is to give them grounds of hope that it was but a temporary Captivity not a final Divorse they should be in a state of Suspension as Absolom from God's presence for some time but not of Abdication or Exhaeredation sequestred interdicted not ejected disinherited So much for the Book in which my Text is and its coherance with the words of its neighbourhood In the Text there are two general parts viz. First An Implicit Prediction of a doleful Calamity which should befal this People And secondly An Explicit Promise of a Rich Mercy to be bestowed upon them In the Prediction implyed there is a double Calamity intimated to be coming and that is first A Loss of their Spiritual Priviledges which was the Advantage of the Jew Rom. 3.1 2. 9.4 5. By Solemn Assemblies are meant their several Conventions at those set times which God had appointed them viz. on the weekly Sabbath the new Moons the stated Feasts and Fasts which they were bound to observe Deut. 16. begin For the Solemn Assembly i. e. for the lack want of the Solemn Assembly The phrase is a concise form of speech usual in the Hebrew tongue and is in this Text to be understood as in Isa 32.12 They shall lament for the Teats for the pleasant Fields for the fruitful Vine i. e. for the spoil loss and want of them Our Translators do sometimes where the words are no more in the Original than they are here supply to shew the sense of the expression One while lack as in Gen. 18.28 Wilt thou destroy all the City for lack of five And another while want as in Lament 4.9 stricken through for want of the fruits of the field And so it would have done well if it had been supplied here Furthermore in that it is here expressed indifinitely The Solemn Assembly it is to be understood universally of All Assemblies so that it was a total deprivation they had not one left Secondly The Reproach under which their Assemblies lay as under a burden as our Translators put into the margent Which was an additional aggravation of their Affliction adding Gall to their Wormwood Harm and Scorn are seldom divided The Church is seldom laid low but it is spit upon as well as trod upon If Sampson be in the Philistines hands he must be brought forth to make them sport And this is very irksome Shame is the heaviest part of a cross Heb. 12.2 13.13 If God had only stripped them of their Glory it might have been easier born than to have their Glory turned into Shame If they had only wanted good words from God that sometimes they had heard it might have been born but to hear evil words from men yea to hear the good wayes of God evil spoken of this was intolerable The Reproaches what they were you will hear anon So much shall serve for the Prediction implied I proceed to the second general in the Text viz. The Promise expressed And therein is considerable 1. The Promise it self I will gather i. e. bring you to your Land and to your Assemblies again to enjoy them in more peace power and purity than formerly as the precedent verses and some other parallel Scriptures which will be touched on by and by do shew 2. The persons to whom this Promise belongs The Promise as other parts of the Word is to be divided not thrown about carelesly it is childrens bread and so not for dogs Now the persons that are interested in this Promise are described 1. Generally such as are of the Church who are of Thee but because deceit lies in Generals the Church doors are far wider than Heaven gates All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 Therefore 2dly more particularly They are characterized by their carriage under the Calamities mentioned viz. Their sad resentment of those Calamities they were sad losses to them they took them to heart they wept under their Loss and groaned under the Reproach That are sorrowful for the Solemn Assembly c. I thought some years since I had a call to speak to the latter part of this Text and did so I wish I could say I have no cause now to call my thoughts to the first words of this Text upon which I do intend now to insist and the Doctrine is this Doct. 1. The want of Solemn Assemblies is a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation to all Church-members Ordinances should not be parted with with dry eyes The Child surely is either very sullen or very sick that cryes not for the breast The Doctrinal part requires an Answer to two Questions and then the way is open for Application The first Question is What it is to be sorrowful for the want of Solemn Assemblies And the second Question is Why Church-members should be sorrowful for their want of them Quest 1. What it is to be sorrowful c. I answer It consists in two things 1. It is inwardly to lay this to heart as a very great and a grievous want and loss If even bad men will like dogs howl under the want of Corn and Wine Hos 7.14 should not the Lord's Children mourn under the want of Spiritual Bread and their better Refreshings If ever we will have a spirit of heaviness sure it must be when God brings a Judgment upon us so near to a Spiritual Judgment Next to the withdrawment of Grace surely is the removal of the Means of Grace Artaxerxes concluded that Nehemiah had sorrow of heart Nehem. 2.2 and indeed so he had The heart must cry in such a case as this Lam. 2.18 We must be both serious and sincere Here is no room left for Crokadiles tears We must not be such mourners as Ishmael but rather such as they in the verse fore-going Jer. 41.5 6. Our bowels our bowels should be troubled we should be pained to the heart as Christ was when he beheld the Shepherdless People Matt. 9.36 How oft in the Book of Lamentations doth the Prophet touch upon this as the Lamentation It is as I may say The Lamentation of that Book of Lamentations it is the burden of that doleful ditty as you may observe in reading of it Eli held up till the Taking of the Ark was mentioned 1 Sam. 4.18 but when that is mentioned his heart dies within him this put him into an extasie of grief and overwhelms him every word that that Messenger brought made his heart-strings no doubt to crack but mentioning the Ark that broke his heart It may be easily believed that his heart was broke with the Arks captivity before his neck was by his fall off his Seat 2. It is outwardly to express this inward Grief and that some such wayes as these First
Assemblies we want the things to be enjoyed done received in the Publick Worship Oh the Blessing that is in this cluster surely a cluster of Blessings It is a Mercy that comes not alone nor goes away alone We may say of these Mercies when they come as she of Gad Behold 〈◊〉 Troop and when they go On how much do they carry away As to instance 1. In the want of them we want our dearest Enjoyments such as are 1. The gracious Presence and Visits of the God of Heaven the Day of our Visitation sets with them Luke 19.42 44. The Publick Assemblies are God's Chambe◠of Presence Cain going from that quarter of the World where God had his Church is said to go from the Presence of the Lord Gen. 4.14 16. Is it nothing to be without God in the World Is it nothing to be deprived of the sight of his Goings in the Sanctuary Is it nothing to want his Walks amongst his Candlesticks Seemeth it a small thing to us to stand under Suspension Did Mary weep when she supposed they had taken away her Lord John 20.13 and shall not we when our Lord is clearly withdrawing himself Will a departing God fetch never a tear Depart from me will make weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth and that thou maist fear since the Departures of a God do not affect thee 2. Open Vision and the benefit of the Gifts of God's Ministers whom God hath endued with Gifts to profit withal for the edifying of the Body of Christ for the perfecting of the Saints Solemn Assemblies are the Orbs wherein these Stars shine they are the Candle-sticks in which these Lights are set up When the Ark was taken the Priests fell too When we want our Signs we want our Prophets too When no Solemn Assemblies then are our Teachers driven into Corners Some have thought it more elegible to lose the Sun than these Stars Is it a matter to be passed by without Regard to see Lights put under Bushels to lose the Treasure that is in these Earthen-vessels to lose so many faithful Guides that were as Eyes to us in the Wilderness of this world Oh to want their Counsels their Comforts the Fruit of their Studies Temptations Intelligence from Heaven The beautiful feet of them that publish glad Tydings turned from us calls for sad hearts when we cannot hear the joyful Sound let both God and man hear sorrowful sighs and groans Reade Acts 20.36 37 38. People know little of the Reality of spiritual Relations whose hearts are not touched with the sense of spiritual breaches Read and apply to this head 1 Sam. 3.1 Psal 74.9 3. The Communion of Saints which is the nearest resemblance of Heaven that is upon Earth When Assemblies are gone then the Sheep are scattered Oh how many times do God's People experience warmth by the affections of others What will the coals do when they are pulled one from another Oh what is it to want those gladsome Calls Let us go up to the House of the Lord come let us go to the Mountain of the Lord's House Oh to want opportunities to unite our strength in prayer to gather about God and besiege Heaven and make a common cry Father pitty Father help Single Prayers are heard but bands of Prayers vollies of Prayers these have the honour to prevail with Heaven God shews his Condescentions to his People when they twist their Prayers and with one consent stir up themselves to take hold on him and hang upon him Christians have great need one of another as the members of the body have of each other and except there be an increase of influences from him that is instead of all we shall be very poor and weak and unfit for our duties when we want the supply of the joynts God's Plants are quite different from other plants for God's Plants thrive best when they are the nearest together Oh this true good Fellowship what a sad world is it when it is broken up Read Eccles 4.9 10 11 12. Heb. 10.24 25. especially Psal 42.4 In that Psal 42.4 you may see what our frame ought to be under this Loss When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the Multitude I went with them to the House of God with the Voice of Joy and Praise with a Multitude that kept Holy-day 4. A special and main help of the Sanctification of the Lord's Day The seventh day is the Sabbath of rest an holy Convocation Lev. 23.3 the Sabbath is the Meeting day for God's People Meeting to Hear to Pray to Praise to receive the Supper truly if there be no holy Convocation it will scarce be an holy Rest if no holy Assemblies there will be many sinful Assemblies there will be Assembling by Troops in other houses there will be routs of Sporters and surely it is no less dangerous to sport upon God's holy time than to play and sport with holy things if no Assemblies Let Assemblies go and God's holy Rest will be troubled and not sanctified Sabbaths will not be known they will be forgotten when People have no Sabbath-journeys to go viz. no Ark no Tabernacle to go to they will even have some week-day journey to go on that Day High-wayes on that Day will soon be occupied when the Ways of Zion mourn And doth not that loss cal for tears that makes way for the breach of a Commandment at which Religion in its Power and Peace will go out Reade Jer. 17. from ver 19. to the end 2. In the want of Assemblies we want our highest imployments we are taken off from Angelical work Nehem. 9.6 The Host of Heaven worshippeth thee From work that is at once our Duty and our Honour our Holiness and our Happiness They are truly called Priviledges Psal 65.4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach to thee 1. In these Solemn Assemblies the standing Imployment of Christians is most gratefully performed Such as are Prayer and Praise and the like for Prayer somthing hath been hinted and for Praise like Musick it is most melodious when it consort Psal 107.32 Let th m Exalt him also in the Congregation of the People and Praise him in the Assembly of the Elders Psal 111.1 I will Praise thee Lord with my whole heart in the Assembly of the Upright and in the Congregation There is a sweet savour goes up to Heaven with Prayers and Praises that come from Assemblies as seems to be hinted in that expression in Amos. 5.21 I will not smell in your Solemn Assemblies God is fallen out with a People when he cannot away with their calling of Assemblies and the Solemn Meeting is a grievance as some reade that Text Isa 1.13 2. In these Solemn Assemblies the extraordinary imployment of Christians is most acceptable such as is Fasting and Prayer not to mention holy Feasting Thanksgiving Prayers in Assemblies help at dead lifts and in extraordinary cases Samuel will
in at this door the Flesh desires its liberty and thou art ashamed to cross the course of the generality and to out-run thy neighbours and then to be reproached for a Puritan a Precisian or the new-name of a Fanatick and when thy affections are thus hampered and intangled then thy judgment must needs strike in to maintain them 2. Have a care therefore in the next place of thy judgment that it be not leavened with any vulgar Error as if all Holiness were but Hypocrisie and the worst livers might repent when they are dying and God would have mercy on one as well as another c. By which uncouch notions many poor creatures gull themselves into everlasting Misery Have a care especially that you suffer not your judgments to be overmuch swayed by the observations of some mens practice Perhaps you may ere long see many Professors now pretending to Exactness then to put off their vizards and to discover the falseness of their hearts by the looseness of their lives And I wish you may know no Teachers that shall preach up Holiness and Exactness in the Pulpit and pull it down by the evil example of their own prophane conversations or oppose and persecute it in those that seriously study and endeavour to put it in practise By observation of these things many who will not take the pains to weigh them in the Ballance of the Sanctuary are gulled into a belief 2 Pet. 2.1 2. that either Religion is but a cheat or at least that it is not expected whether by God or man that they should put in practise those things which are taught them out of the Scriptures Take heed of this as a soul-destroying Prejudice Branch 2. The second Branch of this Use will afford matter of caution against Discouragements If you have begun to walk circumspectly take heed of drawing back your foot from walking in that way Having begun in the Spirit never think you can be made perfect by the flesh Gal. 3.3 What though the way be rugged and you meet wiâ—h Poverty Disgrace Prisons and Deaths therein Christ knew before-hand as well as you what it would cost you to be exact Christians and yet hath so strictly required it that if you set your hands to the plow and look back he will deem you unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 9.62 I must not enlarge upon every particular I shall conclude this point with one word of Consolation to such as are Conformists to this Rule of the Apostle That if they suffer for being circumspect and exact in their Conversations they really suffer as Christians and then as the Apostle Peter saith 1 Pet. 4.16 so say I If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf Yea let them rejoyce and be exceeding glad yea let them count it all joy Indeed you cannot suffer in a better cause If a man suffer for evil doing there is matter of shame and sorrow if he suffer meerly for an opinion there is many times cause of doubting which may damp his comfort but if a man suffer for Righteousness sake he hath such an undoubted witness of the Truth and goodness of his Cause that neither Men nor Devils can overthrow the Evidence thereof and thereby cause his Comforts to wither and fail him I have now finished the first point The second is this Doct. 2. That a loose Life is a fools Life This the Apostle doth clearly imply when he saith Walk circumspectly not as Fools By a Loose Life we mean such a life as is not tyed up and limited by the bonds bounds of Gods Word and so may be bowed and bended to suit and comply with all companies times occasions and principleâ— whereby it stands in direct opposition to that Circumspection Exactness or Preciseness which the Apostle in the Text calls for That such a Loose Life is a Fools Life will appear if we consider how irrational and brutish a life it is neither answering nor attaining the end of life whereby it becomes void of all true Comfort and will certainly end most miserably But for brevities sake I must forbear to enlarge upon these things and that the rather because the Folly of such a Loose Life will be sufficiently demonstrated by the evidence of the next Proposition which is this Doct. 3. That he is the wisest man who walks most circumspectly and lives most exactly Passing by at present many other Scripture-Proofs I shall here record only three sayings to this purpose of the wisest of meer men Prov. 10.8 The wise in heart will receive Commandments i. e. He that doth not only pretend to Wisdom but hath it rooted in his heart will make it to appear by this that he will so receive God's Commands as to obey them and live by them Prov. 23.19 Hear thou my Son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way This is a Precept for the attainment and exercise of true Wisdom which is by guiding his heart and consequently his life in the way of God's Commandments Prov. 28.7 Who so keepeth the Law is a wise Son I know that there are many pretenders to Wisdom Among the men of the world he ever accounts himself the wisest man who is most ingenious to accomplish such designs as tend most to the satisfaction of those particular lusts whereto he is addicted So among the Covetous he is accounted wisest who can heap up most wealth Prov. 28.11 Among the Ambitious he that â—â—n clime to the highest pitch of honour Among the Voluptuous he that can find out the choicest wayes of pleasing the sences But these are but meer pretenders for in truth this their way is their folly and upon all their wisdom we may write Solomons Motto Vanity of vanities all is but vanity and vexation of spiritt God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world yea he will destroy the wisdom of the wise bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent 1 Cor. 1.19 20. Where then is wisdom to be found and where is the place of understanding Job 28.12 28. Behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Prov. 15.21 He is the only man of understanding that walketh uprightly and knows how to order his Conversation with Circumspection and Exactness This in the general but for further demonstration of this Truth in the particulars Reason 1. He that walks most exactly is the wisest man because therein he doth best for himself The wise Man saith Prov. 9.12 If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self Truly whatsoever wisdom any man may seem to have yet if he be not wise for his own good he is but as we say Penny wise and Pound foolish and that no man can be wise for his own good who gives himself over to a loose irregular and sinful life is evident from this and several other Texts of Scripture Prov. 8.36