each striving for the place and were it not better to be under one settled Government If there be any tendernesse of God in your hearts or light it your Consciences they cannot but testifie againsâ— your lusts these strange Lords Your lusts again they drive you on against your Conscience Thus ye are divided and tormented betwixt two your own Conscience and Affections You have thus the pain of Religion and know not the true pleasure of it You are marred in the pleasures of sin Conscience and the love of God is a worm to eat that Gourd it is Gall and Vinegar mixed in with them Were it not more wisdom to be either one thing or another If ye will have the pleasures of sin for a season take them wholly and renounce God and see if your heart can endure that If your heart cannot condescend to that I pray you renounce them wholly and ye shall find more exquisit and sure pleasures in godlinesse at his Right Hand O what a noble entertainment hath the Soul in God The Peace and Joy of the Holy Ghost is a Kingdom indeed SERMON XII Isai 26. 3. Thou shalt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee ALL men love to have priviledges above others Every one is upon the designe and search after some well-being since Adam lost that which was true happinesse We all agree upon the general notion of it but presently men divide in the following of particulars Here all men united in seeking after some good something to satisfie their Souls and satiat their desires Nay but they scatter presently in the prosecution of it because according to every mans fancy and corrupt humour they attribute that good unto diverse things And when they meet with disappointment they change their opinion of that but are made no wiser for they turn from one to another of that same kind in which their imagination hath supposed blessednesse to be And therefore they will return to that which they first loathed and rejected Is there then no such thing in the world as blessednesse Is it not to be found among men Are all mens unsatiable desires in vain Is a Creature made up and composed of desires to keep it in continuall torment and vexation of spirit No certainly it is and it is found by some All the world strive about it but the man only who trusts and believs in God he it is who carries it away from them who hath this priviledge beyond the world And why do so many misse it Because they do not see nor suspect that it is blessednesse indeed which he injoyes But on the contrair their corrupted imaginations represent godlinesse and a godly mans self-indigency and dependance on God as the greatest misery and shame The godly man hids not his blessednesse from the world No he proclaimes it when he hath found it He would that all enjoyed it with him And if there were no more to declare that it doth not consist in worldly things this might suffice they are not communicable to many without the prejudice and losse of every one But none will believe his report of his own Estate If ye would consider here is that which men toyl for compasse Sea and Land for here it is near thee in thy mouth It is not in Heaven that thou should say How shall I ascend to it It is not in Hell below that thou shouldest say Who shall descend It is not in the ends of the Earth No it is near thee in thy mouth It is not beyond the Sea but it is near in thy mouth even the word of faith which Christ preached Rom. 10. 6 7 8. And what sayes that word Believe with thy heart and thou shalt be saved Trust in God and depend on him and ye shall have peace and that perfect peace and this peace shall be kept by God himself Blessed then is the man that trusts in the Lord Psal 40. 4. Ye make a long journey in vain ye spend your Labour and Money in vain all the pains might be saved it is not where ye seek it ye travel about many creatures ye go to many doors and enquire for Happinesse and Peace but ye go too far off ye need not search so many Coasts it is nearer hand in this word of the Gospel the joyful sound It is this that proclaimes peace Peace is a comprehensive word especially in Scripture It was the Jews salutation Peace be to you meaning happinesse and all good things It is Christs salutation Grace and Peace Grace is Holinesse Peace is Happinesse and these are either one or inseparably conjoyned as one This was the Angels Song Glory to God peace on earth Luk. 2. 14. Bleslednesse was restored or brought near to be restored to miserable man by Jesus Christ and upon the apprehension of this Angels Sing It was this Christ came in the world with and when he went away he left this Legacy to his Children My peace I leave you Jo. 14 27. We lost happinesse and all men are on a vain pursuit of it since but it is found and found by one of our Kin our Lord Jesus our Elder Brother he hath found it or made it and brought it near us in the Gospel for the receiving and who so receives him by Faith and trusting in him receives that priviledge that peace He endured much trouble to gain our peace he behoved to undergo misery to purchase our Blessednesse and so it is his own and who so receives him receives it also The newes of such a peace might be seasonable in the time of warr and trouble if we apprehended our need of it It is not a peace from warr and trouble but a peace in warr and trouble My peace I leave you in the world ye shall have trouble Jo. 14. 27. and 16. at the end What a blessed Message is it that there is a peace and a perfect peace attainable in the midst of warrs confusions and calamities of the times publick and personal a perfect peace a compleat peace even compleat without the accession of outward and worldly peace that needs it not nay appears most perfect and intire in it self when it is striped naked of them all Behold what a priviledge the Gospel offers unto you Ye need not be made miserable but if you please This is more then all the world can afford you there is no man can promise to himself immunity from publick dangers or personal from many griefs and disappointments But the Gospel bids you reckon up all your troubles and miseries that ye can meet with in the world and yet in such a case if ye hearken to wisdom there is a peace that will make you forget that trouble Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her pathes are peace Pro. 3. 17. I will undertake to make thee blessed says Wisdom the Fathers Wisdom When all the world hath given thee over for miserable when
ingredient in thy Cup of Judgment for it is the greatest Aggravation of thy sin for through it Gods Name is Blasphemed If they had not known they had not had sin Pagans sin is no sin in respect of Christians If ye consider Christs Sermon Matth. 11. Ye will say Isaiah is a meak and moderate man in regard of him Isaiah calls them people of Gomorrah but Christ will have them worse and their Judgment more intolerable then theirs And that not only the profane of them but the civil and Religious like who believed not in him VVell then here is the advantage ye get of your Name of Christianity of your priviledge of hearing his VVord dayly Ye who never ponder it to tremble at it or to rejoyce in it who cannot be moved either to joy or grief for Spiritual things Neither Law nor Gospel moves the most part of you I say here is all your gain ye shall receive a reward with Gentiles and Pagans Yea ye shall be in a worse case nor they in the Day of the Lord. The civil Christian shall be worse then the profane Turke and ye shall not then boast that ye were Christians but shall desire that ye had dwelt in the place where the Gospel had never been preached It is a Character of the Nations that they call not on God and of Heathen Families that they pray not to him Jer. 10. 25. And wrath must be poured on them VVhat then are the most part of you Ye neither bow a Knee in secret nor in your Families to God your time is otherwayes employed ye have no leisure to pray twice or thrice a day alone except when ye put on your Cloathes ye utter some ordinary bâ—blings Ye cannot be driven to Family worship shall not God rank you in Judgement with these Heathen Families Or shall it not be more tolerable for them nor for you And are not the most part of you every one given to Covetousnesse your heart and eye after it seeking Gain and Advantage more then the Kingdome of Heaven Doth not every one of you as you have power in your hand oppresse one another wrong one another Now our end in speaking thus to you is not to drive you to desparation No indeed but as there was a word of the Lord sent to such by Isaiah so we bring a word unto you That which ruines you is your carnal confidence Ye are presumptuous as this people and cryes the Temple of the Lord the VVork of the Lord c. as if these would save you Know therefore that all these will never cover you in the day of wrath Know there is a necessity to make peace with God and your righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of a profession and external priviledges and duties or else ye shall be as far from the Kingdome of Heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah VVe speak of Rulers sins that ye may mourn for them lest ye be Judged with them If ye do not mourn for them in secret know that they are your sins Ye are Companions with them Many fret grudge and cry out against Oppression but who weeps in secret Who prayes and deprecats Gods wrath least it come upon them And while it is so The Oppression of Rulelers becomes the sin of the oppressed themselves Hear the Word of the Lord It were a suitable preparation for any Word that is spoken to make it take imprâ—ssion if it were looked on as the Word of the Lord and Law of our God And truely no man can hâ—ar aright unlesse he hear it so Why doth not this Word of the Lord return with more Fruit Why doth not men tremble or rejoyce at it Certainly because it is not received as Gods Word There is a practical Heresie in our hearts which rather may be called Atheism VVe do not believe the Scriptures I do not say men call it in question but I say ye believe them not It is one thing to believe with the heart another thing not to doubt of it Ye doubt not of it not because ye do indeed believe it but because ye do not at all consider it It is one thing to confesse with the Mouth and another thing to believe with the Heart For ye confesse the Scriptures to be Gods VVord not because ye believe them but because ye have received such a Tradition from your Fathers have heard it from the womb unquestioned Oh that this were engraven on your Heart thaâ— these Commands these Curses these Promises are Divine Truthes the VVords and thâ— Oath of the Holy One. If every word oâ— Truth came stamped with his Authority and were received in the Name of God himself what influence would it have on the Spirits and the practices of men This would be a great Reformer would Reform more in a Moneth then Church and Staâ—e hath done these many Years VVhy are Rulers and People not Converted and Healed for all that is spoken Here it is Who believes our report VVho believes that our report is thy own Testimony O Lord When Ministers threaten you in Gods Name if his Authority were stamped on the Threatning if men did seriously apprehend it were Gods own Voice would they not tremble When the Gospel and the joyful Sound comes forth if ye apprehended that same Authority upon it which ye who are Convinced believes in the Law would ye not be comforted Finally I may fay it is this point of Atheisme of Inconsideration and Brutishnesse that destroys the multitude makes all Means Ineffectual to them and retards the progresse of Christians Men do not consider that this word is the word of the Eternal and True and Faithful God and that not one Jot of it will faill Here is a Poynt of Reformation I would put you to If ye mind indeed to Reform let this enter into your Hearts and sink down that the Law and Gospel is the Word of God and resolve to come and hear Preachings so as the Voice of Jesus Christ the true and faithful witnesse If ye do not take it so now yet God will Judge you so at the end He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that hears not you heares not me If ye thought ye had to do with God every Sabbath would ye come so carelesly and be so stupid and inconsiderate before the Judge of all the Earth But ye will find in the end that it was God whom ye knew not SERMON IX Isai 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me saith the Lord c. THis is the Word he calls them to hear and a strange Word Isaiah asks what means your sacrifices God will not have them I think the people would say in their own hearts what means the Prophet What would the Lord be at Do we any thing but what he Commanded us Is he angry at us for Obeying him What means this Word Is he not repealing the Statute and Ordinance he had made in Israel If
particular antipathy against and refuse others But the Lord will not be so served As he will not share with the world and divide the Soul and service of man with Creatures so as Mâ—mmon should get part and he his part No if we choose the one we must refuse the other for so will he not suffer his Word and Commands to be divided There must be some universality in respect of the Gospel and the Law and a conjunction of these two or we cannot please him If Religion do not include the Gospel we are yet upon the old Covenant of Works according to which none can be justified If it do not include the Law in the Hands of a Mediator then we turn the Grace of god unto wantonness If it shut out Jesus Christ and have no use of him how can either we or our performances stand or be accepted before his holy eyes If it exclude the Law that Christ came to establish how can he be pleased with our religion Both of these offer an indignity to the Son of God The Sum then of Christian Religion is Believing and Sanctification of the spirit unto obedience that is the root and fountain this is the fruit and stream Justification of our persons and sanctification of our lives and hearts This is pure Religion and undefiled And therefore Isaiah sayes Wash you make you clean Cleanse in the only true fountain of Christs blood It is not your purifications of the Law your many washings with water and hysope It is not the blood of buls and goats can purge your consciences from dead works they do but purify your flesh but cannot wash your souls worse defiled This blood of Jâ—sus Christ is that clean water that he must sprinkle on you if you would be clean If you take any other water any other righteousness but his and wash thy self therewith suppose it be snow water that washeth cleanest thy most exact conversation yet he will plunge thee in the mire till thy own cloaths abhore thee Job 9. 30 31. Now when ye have washed your persons ye need not save to wash your feet sayes Christ your dayly conversation reform it in the vertue of that blood for we are not called to uncleanness but unto holiness And therefore Put away the evil of yoor doings c. God hath put away the guilt of your doings by Justification now put ye away the evil of your doings by Sanctification c. And if ye would know what Sanctification is Cease to do evil do not return to the old puddle to wallow in it Ye that are cleansed by this blood O! think how unbeseeming it is to you to defile your selves again with these things ye are cleansed from But now learn to do well ye are given up to Christ ye must be his Disciples and he will teach you Learn of me sayes Christ you need no other law almost but his example he is a visible and speaking law yet seek Judgement As ye ought to look on my example so especially ponder that word and rule of practice and behaviour that I have left behind me and given out as the law-giver of the redeemed have I redeemed you And should not I be the redeemmed and ransomed ones King Is there any society in the world wants a law order and government neither must ye who are delivered from bondage enfranchised and made free indeed Now ye should of all men most live by a law And when ye know that rule then apply it to your several vocations and callings let the Magistrat act according to it and every man according to it Religion consists not in a general notion but condescends to our particular practice to reform it You see then what we would presse upon your Consciences It is true religion that we would have you perswaded unto All men have some kind of Religion even Heathens who worship Idols but the true religion respects the true and living God Now what is it to worship the true and living God what is the service of him that may be called Religion indeed Should we be the prescrivers of it No certainly he must carve solely in that or else it cannot please him Therefore To the Law and to the Testemony if ye speak not according to this and worship not according to this word of God it is because there is no light into you Ye may have a religion before men pure and undefiled but if it be not so before God and the father I pray you to what purpose is it I am sure it is all lost labour nay it is labour with loss instead of gain O that ye were perswaded to look and search the Scriptures Think ye to have eternal life out of them and think ye to have eternal life by them who do not labour to know the way of it set down there Every on of you have a different model of religion according to your fancies and breedings according as your lusts will suffer you The rule that the most part walk by is the course and example of the world Is not this darknesse and grosse darkness Others model their duties according to their ability they will do all they can do with ease and without troubling themselves and they think God may be well pleased with that I pray you consider and hear the word of the Lord and Law of your God hath he set down here the rule and perfect patern of true Religion and will ye never so much own it as to examine yours according to it the scriptures are the touch-stone If you would not have a counterfeit Religion deceiving you in the end when ye have trusted to it I pray you try it by the word of God Oh that this principle were once sunk into your hearts I may not walk at randome if I please my self and satisfy my own will if that be not also Gods will I shall have neither gain nor comfort of it his will is manifested in his word I will search and find what God hath required of me for if I be not certain of his will I may be doing all my dayes and sweating out my life and yet losse my pains and oyl I say this word of the Lord that Isaiah calls to the people to hear V. 10. will at length judge you Your Religion will be tryed in the day of accompts according to it not according to your rules and methods ye have prescribed unto your selves Now if ye in the mean time shall judge your selves according to another rule and abâ—olve your selves and in the end God shall judge you according to this word and condemn you were ye not fools in neglecting this word The whole will of God concerning your duty may be summed up in two John hath one of them 1 Jo. 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we shoud believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Paul hath another to
ingageth both to give a shelter and refuge to the poor sinner Would a Soul be any more tossed would there be any place for wavering and doubting if Souls considered his excellent loveing kindness and great goodness laid up and treasured with him for these that trust in him Psal 36. 7. Who would not put their trust under the shadow of his wings and think themselves safe Again if his eternal power were pondered how he is able to effectuat whatever he pleaseth what everlasting Armes he hath that by a word supports the frame of the world what he can do if he stretch out his Arm And then if these two immutable things Heb. 6. 18. His Promise and his Oath were looked upon how he hath ingaged himself in his Truth and sworn in his Holiness Would not a Soul ly safely between these three what strong consolation would such a threefold consideration yield Would any wind or tempest blow within these Walls mounted up to Heaven Stayedness on God is nothing else but the fixedness of believing and trusting Psal 112. 7 8. His heart is fixed trusting in God hiâ—â—eart is established It is even the mature and ripe age of Faith Fâ—ith while it is yet in infancy in its tender years it neither can endure storms nor can it confirm us in them But when it hath sprung up and grown in that root of Jesse wheâ— it is rooted and established in Jesus Christ then it establisheth the Soul Faith abiding in him and taking root groweth confirmed as a Tree that cannot easily be moved and if you establish Faith you shall be established There are two particulars which I conceive the trusting Soul is stayed on First in the meditation of God Secondly in expectation from him of all good things When I say the Meditation of God I take in both Contemplation and Affection The most part of men have but few thoughts of God at all even those who trust in him do not consider sufficiently what a One he is in whom they believe If Faith were vigorous and lively it would put men to often thinking on him seeking to know him in his glorious Names the mind would be stayed upon this glorious object as the most Mysterious and Wonderful One How throng are mens minds with their vanities When they awake they are not still with God The Meditation of him is a burden to them Any other thing geteth more time and thoughts But Meditation addeth Affection to Contemplation Men may think long upon the Heavens and their Course but their Affections are not ravished with them But this is the Soul stayed on God when the Souls desires are towards the remembrance of his Name then Affection stayeth the mind upon what it pitcheth one And certainly the mind giveth but passing looks constrained thoughts where the heart is not Here is Davids Meditation Psal 1. My delight is in the law of the Lord. The Soul of a Believer should be constant and fixed in the consideration of God till he be wholly ingaged to admiration and wondering O Lord how excellent is thy Name Ps 8. 1. And who is like unto thee You all say that you believe in God and know his Power you know he is Good he is Merciful Just Long suffering Faithful c. But what is all this knowledge but ignorance and your light darkness when it doth not press you to put your trust in his Name You know Nay but you consider not what you know This is trusting when the mind is stayed on what it knoweth when all the scattered thoughts and affections are called home and united in one to be exercised about this comprehensive Object The Lord our God It is not want of knowledge destroyeth you but want of consideration of what you know and this is brutishness Mens hearts do not carry Seal and Stamp of their knowledge because thoughts of God and his word are but as passengers that go thorow a Land as lightning going thorow the mind but warms it not And so their practice carrieth no impression of it either How base is it for those who have God for their God to be so ignorant of him Would not any man willingly travel about his own possessions Have you such a large portion Believers and should you be taken up with other vanities Should your hearts minds be stayed on them more then the living God There is a great vanity and levity in mens minds The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men that they are vanity There is aâ— unsetledness of Spirit we cannot pitch upon that on which we may be stayed And so all the spirits of men are in a continual motion from one thing to another for nothing giveth compleat satisfaction and therefore it must go and try one after another to see if it can find in it what iâ— found not in the former And such is the inconstancy of the Spirit that it licketh up its vomit and what thing it refused it eateth it up as itâ— meat The time is spent in choosing and refusing rejecting one thing and taking another and again returning to what you have rejected Thus are men tossed up and down and unstablâ— in all their ways as a Ship without ballasting Now Faith and trusting in God is the ballasâ— and weight of this inconstant Ship It is the Anchor to stay it from being driven to and fro once men would pitch upon this one Lord wiâ— hath in himself eminently all the scattered perfections of Creatures and infinitely more if you would consider him and meditate on him till your Souls loved him would you not be ravished with him Would you not build your house beside him and dwell in the meditation of his Name This would fix and establish you in duties when I awake I am still with thee A little searching and experience discovereth emptiness in all beside and therefore is it that the Soul removeth sooner from such a particular Creature then it expected but here is one that is past finding out The more I search and find I find him the more above what I can search and find The Creatures are but painted and fair in mens apprehension and at a distance but the near injoyment of them discovereth the delusion and sendeth a man away ashamed because he trusted But the Lord God is and there is no other he is not as waters that fail no liar he is an everlasting Fountain the more you dig and draw it runs the faster he will never send any away ashamed that trust in him because they shall find more then they expected Therefore the Soul that is stayed on meditation of God and knoweth him certainly will be fixed in expectation from him Our expectation from the Creatures changeth because it is oft frustrat disappoyntment meets it it is above what is in the Creature and so it must meet with disappoyntment But as he is above our meditation so is he far above our expectation And if a mans experience answer
tree yet behold the wind of the Lord may arise that shall drive you away take your soul from these things and then whose shall they be If you will not fear temporal judgements yet I pray you fear eternal fear hell May not the Lord shake you off this tree of time and take you out of the land of the living to receive your portion There is not only an universal deadness of spirit on the land but a prophane spirit Iniquities abominable sins abound Every Congregation is overgrown with scandals and for you None may more justly complain we are all unclean sin is not in corners but men declare their sin as Sodom sin is come to the Maturity Defection and Apostacy is the temper of all Spirits and above all the general contempt and slighting of this glorious gospel is the iniquity of Scotland so that we wonder that the withered leaves yet stick to that the storm is not yet raised and we blown away Now you are like stones your hearts as Adamants and cannot be moved with his threatnings the voice of the Lords word doth not once move you you sin and are not afraid Nay but when Gods anger shall joyn with iniquity and the voice of his rod and displeasure roar this shall make the mountains to tremble the rocks to move and how much more shall it drive away a leaf You seem now mountains but when God shall plead you shall be like the chaff driven too and fro O how easy a matter shall it be to God to blow a man out of his dwelling place sin hath prepared you for it he needeth no more but blow by his Spirit or look upon you and you will not be You who now are lofty and proud and maintain your self against the word when you come to reckon with God and he entereth in judgement you shall not stand you will consume as before the moth your hearts will fail you Who may abide the day of his coming It will be so terrible and so much the more terrible that you never dreamed of it If the example of this people will not move you do but cast your eyes on Ireland who all do fade as a leaf and their iniquities have taken them away out of their own Land Shall not the seeing of the eye nor the hearing of the ear teach you What security do you promise to your selves Have not we sinned as much as they Were not they his people as we Certainly since God waiteth longer on you the stroak must be the greater provoked patience must turn fury If you would then prevent this peoples complaint go about such a serious acknowledgement of your sins search your wayes and turn again to the Lord. And let not every man sit down in a general notion of sin but unbowel it until you see uncleanness go up to the fountain head Original corruption go down to all the streams even the iniquity of holy things let every man be particular in the search of his own provocations personal and every one be publick in the general sins of the Land that you may confesse out of knowledge and sense we are all unclean c. SERMON XVIII Isai 64. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee c. THey go on in the Confession of their sins Many a man hath soon done with that A general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to You may see here Sin and Judgement mixed in thorow other in their complaint They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolat estate of captivity as to forget their provocations Many a man would spend more affection and be more pathetick in the expression of his misery when it is pungent nor he can do when he speaketh of his sins We would observe from the nature of this confession something to be a patern of your repentance And it is this When the spirit convinceth and men are serious in repentance then the soul is more searching more universal more particular in acknowledgement of sins These are characters of the Spirits work First The Spirit discovereth unto men not only sin but the loathsomeness of sin its hainous nature how offensive it is to Gods holy eye Many of you know abundance of evil deeds and call them sins but you have never taken up sins ugly face never seen it in the glasse of the holy Law uncleannesse it self because you do not abhore your selves poor and low thoughts of God maketh mean and shallow thoughts of sin You would be as Job vile ch 40. 4. And abhore your selves in dust and ashes ch 42. 6. As Gods holiness grew great in your eyes Sins uncleanness would grow proportionably Is 6. 3. 5. And here your repentance halteth in the very entry But Secondly The Spirit discovereth not only the uncleanness of mens natures and leadeth them up to original corruption but the Spirit also leadeth men alongs all the streams not only these that break out but those who go under ground and have a more secret and subtil conveyance It concludeth not only open breaches of the command under filthiness but also all a mans own righteousness though never so refined it concludeth it also a defiled garment so that the Soul can look no where but see sin and uncleanness in its ornaments and duties And thus it appeareth before God without such a covering openeth up its Soul hideth not sin with the covering of duties but seeth a necessity of another covering for all Now therefore let the most part of you conclude that you have never yet gotteh your eyes open to see sin or confesse it because when you sit down to compt your sins there are many things that you call not sin you use not to reckon your praying and repentance among sins Nay because you have so much confidence in your repentance and confession you have never repented you must see a necessity of a covering of Christs righteousness above all Faith in Jesus must cover repentance and it self both with the glorious object of it But alas how soon are many at an end of confession some particular grosse actions may come in remembrance but no more Sum up al your confessions they have never yet pitched on the thousand part of your guiltiness no not in kinds let be in number But thirdly The Spirit convinceth spiritually and particularly both it convinceth of Spiritual sins as we said last of the iniquity of holy things and especially of the most substantial duties faith and prayer John 16. 8 9. there are not many of you have come this length to see your want of prayer No your own words do witness against you for you use to say I pray day and night I believe in God with all my heart Now therefore out of your own mouth shall you be condemned when the spirit convinceth you of Sin you will see no faith no prayer at the first
God himself laid hold upon and made ours is more nor removing a temporal Calamitv It is an eternal weight to weigh down all Crosses and Disapointments For what can present things be Is there not in the favour of his countenance that which may drown them in Oblivion Are ye like to sink here Is not God a sure Anchor to hold by And if you do not this your trouble is nothing in respect of the danger of your Soul Secure and loose lying out of God not putting this matter to a full poynt is worse nor all your outward fading Therefore we exhort you in the Lords Name to fly in to this Name of the Lord as a strong tower to run to and be safe When the Lord seemeth now to be angry with us run not away from him though he should yet cloath himself with vengeance as a Garment But First O ye poor people who have never asked this Question whether have I any Interest in Jesus Ask it now and resolve it in time If trouble come on if scattering and desolation come on and our Land fade as a Leaf certainly the Lords anger will drive you away What will ye do in the time of his Indignation All of you put this to the tryal how matters stand between God and you And Secondly if ye find all wrong do not sink in discouragement All may be amended while it is seen wrong in time Nay God taketh away outward Accomodation to make you more serious in this And it is the very voice of Rods every one fly in to your hold every one make peace with me You may take hold and do it feckfully Thirdly You who have fled to Jesus take more hold of him you are called also to renew your Faith and begin again Make peace with God let your confidence be kept fast and thus shall ye be immoveable because he changeth not God will not go from you if ye believe hold him by Faith Christ could not do great things in Galilee because of their unbelief and so be departed from them As unbelief maketh an evil heart to depart from the God of all Life and Consolation So doth it make Goâ— depart from us But Faith casteth a knot upoâ— him to speak with reverence it fasteneth hiâ— by his own Word and Promise and he cannot go by it It is a violent hand laid oâ— God I will not let thee go till thou blesâ— me Fourthly Faith and Prayer or holding oâ— God by believing in him and much imploying him needeth much stirring up unto and awaking That stirreth up himself to take hold oâ— thee Security is the moth of both these and eateth out the life of Faith and Supplication It maketh Prayer so coldrife that it it cannoâ— prevail and Faith so weake that it cannot usâ— violence Fâ—â—st security apprehendeth no evil no need A secure condition is a dream that one is eating and yet his Soul is empty Looâ— how the people of Laish were quiet and secure apprehending no evil Destruction cometh then on as an armed man Always it is much necessity that administers fewel to a mans Faith and Supplication David Psal 30. 7. I saiâ— in my prosperity I shall not be moved Nay but many say in adversity and cry peace peace where no peace is Security pleadeth innocency and then believeth immunity I am innocent therefore shall his anger turn away Jer. 2. 35. Security applyeth not sin and so refuseth the curse of sin and wages of it And thus is a man in his own eyes a lord and then he will come no more to God Jer. 2. 31. It is almost impossible to awake men by general Judgments â—o apprehend personal danger and men never stirr out of their nest till it be on fire We can behold or hear of our neighbours spoyling and violence done to them but till the voice of a cry be heard in our own Streets and Fields no body will take the Judgement to themselves It is well said that which is spoken to all is spoken to none so what is done to all in generall is done to hone The voice of a general Rod speaketh not particularly and maketh not men apprehensive of sad things and thus men are not pressed unto prayer are not put out of themselves It is onely necessity that sapps the roots of it and makes it green Secondly Security is lazy and not active putteth not forth its hand to work and so dieth a beggar for onely the hand of the diligent maketh rich Laying hold on God is a duty that requireth much spirit in it Men do not grip things well in their slumbering There is no Duty that needeth so spiritual and lively Principles If a man do not put on such a peece of resolution and edge upon him he cannot come to the wrestling of Prayer and violence of Faith Although the exercise and acting of Grace dependeth more upon the Spirit of God his present Influence then upon the Soul of man yet this is the way the Lord communicateth his Influence by stirring up and exciting the Creature to its duty as if it could do it alone Grace is one thing and the stirring up of it is another thing For when we ly by and sleep over our time and go not about tâ— matter so seriously as it were life aâ— death it is but a weak hold we can takeâ— God According to the measure of a mâ— apprehending necessity and according the measure of his seriousness in these thinâ— so will the hand of Faith grip and lay hoâ— with more or lesse violence As a mâ— drowning will be put from sleeping aâ— when one is in extreem hazard all his strengâ— will unite together in one to do that whiâ— at any ordinary time it could not do so ougâ— it to be here A Christian assaulted wiâ— many temptations should unite his strengâ— and try the yondmost O but your whoâ— spirits would run together to the saving â— your self if ye were very apprehensive of necessity The exercise of Faith is a dead griâ— that cannot part with what it grippetâ— Therefore first we must say to you it is 〈◊〉 so easy a thing as you believe to lay hold â— God there must be stirring up to it Aâ— when the Lord speaketh of our stirring our selves certainly he meaneth this like wayeâ— that he must stirr us ere we stirr our selveâ— Secondly above all be afraid of a secure condition It is the enemy of Communioâ— with God and spiritual Life therefore look about you and apprehend more your necessity and then give no rest and quietness to your self till you have imployed and engaged him Be as men flying to lay hold on the refuge set before you Thirdly It must be a time of little accesse to God and little Faith when we are all secure and no body goeth about Religion as their work and business We allow our self in it Therefore we do exhort you first to purpose this as your end to aim at and
Workmanship a vail of darknesse for a season and who can behold him when he hides himself sayes Job and though he withdraw the Covering yet what am I Who can by searching find out God If I shall examine his way what rule shall I take to try it by If I measure by my shallow capacity or by my crooked way shall I have any just account of it will my Arm measure the Heavens as his doth If I examine it or try it by himself He is high as Heaven and unsearchable Therefore it becomes us to hearken to his Word and believe its sentence of his Work when reason cannot comprehend it One thing if it were deeply engraven on our hearts would be a principle of setling our spirits in all the mysteries and riddles of providence the knowledge and faith of his Soveraignty of his Highnesse and of his Wisdome should he give account of his Matters to us He is wise and knowes his Works but is he bound to make us know them His wayes are above our thoughts and wayes as Heaven above the Earth Is 55. And therefore O Grashopper in the Earth that dwells in Tabernacles of Clay do not presume to model his ways according to thy conceptions One thing is certain this is enough for Faith all his wayes are mercy and truth to these that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal 25. 10. And there is no Way or Path of God so far above our reach and unsearchable as his Mercy in pardoning sin and this is only the satisfying answer to all your objections and scruples in these ye do but vent your own thoughts but sayes the Lord my thoughts are above youâ— thoughts as Heaven above Earth Ye but speak of your own wayes but my wayes are far above yours they are not measured by your iniquity and therefore David subjoyns Psal 25. Verse 11. pardon my iniquity for it is great SERMON III. Deuter. 32. 4 5. He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgement a God of truth and without iniquity Just and Right is he 5. They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children they are a perverse and crooked generation ALL his wayes are Judgement both the wayes of his Commandments and the ways of his Providence both his Word which he hath given as a Lanthorn to mens paths and his Works among men And this were the blessednesse of men to be found both walking in his wayes and waiting on him in his wayes having respect to all his Commandments and respect to himself in all his Works We all know in general that he doth all well â—nd that all his Comandments are Holy and Just â—ay but our practice and affections belie our knowledge and for the most part we stand crosse in our humours and affections and conversation both to his Word and Providence and this is our misery Great peace have they that love thy Law VVhat peace then can keep that heart and mind that is dayly at variance with his Statuts and Judgements when the heart would wish such a Command were not when it is an eye sore to look upon it Blessed are the meek it is good for a man both quietly to wait and hope and keep silence How then must that spirit be miserable that stands crosse unto Gods Dispensations and would limit the Holy One Do not often our hearts say I do well to be angry why is it thus with me But who hath hardened himself against him and prospered his counsel must stand and you may vex your self and disquiet your soul in the mean time by impatience but you cannot by your thought add one cubit to your stature you may make your case worse nor Providence hath made it but you cannot make it better by so doing so that at length you must bow to him or be broken Oh then that this were engraven on our hearts with the point of a Diamond All his wayes are Judgement that ye might be overcome with the equity of his Command and Dispensation and your heart and tongue might not move against them It was enough of old with the Saints It is the Lord let him do what seems good in hâ—s eyes Gods Soveraignty alone pondered may stop our mouth but if ye withal consider it is perfect Equity that rules all it is Divinâ— Wisdome thaâ— is the square of his Works theâ— how ought we to stoop chearfully unto them One thing ye would remember his wayes and paths are Judgement and if ye judge aright of him ye must judge his Way and not his single Footsteps ye will not discern Equity and Judgement in one step or two but consider his Way joyn adversity with prosperity humbleing with exalting take along the Threed of his Providence and one part shall help you to understand another There is reason in all but the reason is not visible to us in so small parts of his Way and Work A God of Truth Strange it is that his Majesty is pleased to cloath himself with so many Titles and Names for us He considers what our necessity is and accordingly expresses his own Name I think nothing doth more hold forth the unbelief of men and Atheism of our hearts nor the many several Titles God takes in Scripture There is a necessity of a multitude of them to make us take up God because we staying upon a general notion of God rather frame in our imaginations an Idol then the true God As there is nothing doth more lively represent the unbelief of our hearts then the multitude of Promises Men that consider such frequent repetitions of one thing in Scripture so many diverse expressions of one God may retire into their own hearts and find the cause of it even the necessity of it But while we look so slightly on these we must judge it superfluous and vain Needed there any more to be said but I am your God I am God if our spirits were not so far degenerated unto Atheism and unbelief Certainly that word Jehovah holds forth more to Angels then all the inculcated Names and Titles of God to us because we are dull and slow of heart Therefore wonder at these two when ye read the Scriptures Gods Condescendency to us and our Atheism and Unbelief of him they are both mysteries and exceeding broad There is not a Name of God but it gives us a Name and that of reproach and dishonour so that for every one some evil may be written down and it is to this purpose Moses draws them out in length that in the Glasse of his glorious Name the people might behold their own ugly face This Name is clear He is a God of Truth not only a true God but Truth it self to note his Excellency and Eminency in it It is Christs Name I am the Truth the substantial Truth in whom all the Promises are Truth are Yea and Amen His Truth is his Faithfulnesse in performing his Promises
and doing what his Mouth hath spoken And this is established in the very Heavens Psal 89. 2. His everlasting purpose is in Heaven where he dwells And if any man can ascend up to Heaven if any creature can break through the Clouds then may his Truth be shaken His Word comes down among men Nay but the foundation of it is in Heaven and there is his Purpose established and therefore there is nothing done in time can impare or hinder it Ye think this World very sure the Earth hangs unmoveable though it hang upon nothing All the tumults confusions and reels hath been in the World have never moved it to the one side Heaven goeth about in one Tenure perpetually keeping still the same distance Nay but his Truth is more established then so Heaven and Earth depends but upon a word of Command he hath said let it be so and so it is Nay but his Word is more established of it saith Christ One jot or title of it cannot fail though Heaven and earth should fail He may change his Commands as he pleases but he may not change his Promise this puts an obligation on him as he is Faithful and true to perform it and when an Oath is superadded O! how immutable are these two When he promises in his Truth and swears in his Holinesse Is there any power in Heaven and Earth can break that double cord Matth. 5. 18. Heb. 6 18. There is no name of God but it is comfortable to some and as terrible to others What comfort is it to a godly man that trusts in his Word He is a God of truth An honest mans word is much his oath is more What shall his Word be who is a God of Truth Who though all men should be liars yet God is true Ye who have ventured your Souls on his Word ye have an unspeakable advantage his truth endures for ever and it is established in the Heavens the ground of it is without beginning the end of it without end Ye are more sure then the frame of Heaven and Earth for all these shall wax old as a garment We speak of a naked word of truth Indeed it is no naked word that is Gods Word His Works of Providence and his Dispensation to yow is a naked and bare foundation nay a sandy foundation and ye who lean so much to them is it any wonder ye so often shak and waver All other grounds beside the Word are uncertain unstable this only endures for ever The creatures goodnesse and perfection is but as the Grasse and the Flour of the Field Venture not much on your dispositions and frames thou knows not what a day may bring forth but his Truth is to all generations and it is well tryed as Gold seven times all generations have tryed it and found it better then pure Gold His Dispensations are arbitrary no rule to you he loveth to declare his Soveraignty here and to expatiat in the creatures sight beyond its conceiving but he hath limited himself in his Word and come down to us and laid bonds on himself Will he then unty them for us Give him liberty where he loves it take him bound where he binds himself How may God expostulate with this generation as these of little faith How long shall I be with you saith Christ How long will Christians tempt the Lord in seeking signs And will not rest upon his only Word and Promises O Adulterous generation how long shall I be with you and ye will not believe Is it not righteousnesse in him either to give you no signe at all or to give you a signe darker then the thing it self as he did to the Pharisees Ye will give credit to a mans word and will ye not believe Gods An honest man will get more trust of us then the True and Living God Shall he not be offended with this We declare it unto you that he is Truth it self and will not fail in his promise let that be your Castle and Refuge to enter into Mercy and Truth are two sweet companions to go along with you in your pilgrimage David prayed for them Psal 61. 7. O prepare thy mercy and truth to preserve me Who will not ly safe within these everlasting Arms what power can break through And this he promised to himself Psal 57. 3. God shall send them out c. Mercy made so many precious Promises and Truth keeps them Mercy is the Fountain and Sourse of all our Consolation and Truth and Faithfulnesse conveighs it to us and keeps it for us It is these two that go before his Face when he sits on a Throne of Majesty and makes himself accessible to sinners Psal 89. 14. and so they are the path way he walks in towards those who seek him Psal 25. 10. But this sweet and Precious Name that is as Oyntment poured forth to these who love him how doth it smell of death to those who walk contrair to him He is a God of Truth to execute his Threatnings on those who dispise his Commands and though ye flatter your selves in your own eyes and cry peace peace even though ye walk in the imagination â—â— your heart yet certainly he is a God of Truth I pray you read that sad and weighty word that will be like a Milstone about many mens necks to sink them in Hell Deut. 29. 20 21 Ye who add drunkenness to thrist whose rule of walking is your own lust and whatsoever pleaseth you without respect of his Commands and yet flatter your selves with a dream of peace know this for a truth the Lord will not spare thee he that made thee will not have mercy on thee his jealousie will smoak against thee and all the eurses written in this Book shall ly upon thee and thy name shall be blotted out from under Heaven It was unbelief of Gods Threatning that first ruined man â—â— is this still that keeps so many from the remedy and makes their misery irrecoverable The Serpent brought them to this question Hath God said ye shall die And then presently the question intertained becometh a conclusion ye shall not surely die Thus ye see how the lyar from the beginning was contrair to the God of Truth And he murdered us by lying of that God of Truth And it is the same that shuts out all hope of remedy Ye do not as yet believe and consider that curse that was pronounced against Adam but is now also inflicted upon us Therefore there is no solid belief can be of the promises of the Gospel And ye who think ye believe the Gospel do but indeed fancy it except ye have considered the true curse of God on all flesh But if any man have set to his seal that God is true in his Threatning and subscribed unto the Law Then I beseech you add not the unbelief of the Gospel unto your former disobedience He is a God of truth in Promises and Threatnings It is
strange how untoward and froward we are a perverse generation we do not believe his Threatnings but fancie we receive his Promises or else believeing his Threatnings we question his Promises But know this for a truth his last Word is more weighty and the unbelief of it is most dangerous Ye have not keeped his Commands and so the curse is come upon you do ye believe that If ye do then the Gospel speakes unto you The God of Truth hath one word more He that believes shall be saved notwithstanding of all his breaking of the Law if ye do not set your Seal to this also then ye say he is not a God of Truth ye say he is a liar And as for you who have committed your Souls to him as to a faithful keeper and acquiesced unto his Word of Promise for Salvation think how unsutable it is for you to distrust him in other lesser things Ye have the promise of this life whoever hath the Promises of the life to come Therefore do not make him a liar in these He is a God of Truth and will let you want no good thing Say to the righteous it shall he well with him what ever be Let Heaven and Earth mix through other yet ye may be as Mount Sion unmoved in the midst of many floods because of the Promises Without iniquity who doubts of that say ye What needs this be added who charges him with iniquity or sin Nay but stay and consider and you shall find great weight in this It is true none dare charge him openly or speak in expresse terms against his Holinesse yet if we judge of our own and others practices and dispositions as the Lord useth to construct of them if we resolve our murmurings impatience self-absolutions and excuses to hold off convictions into plain language if we would translate them into a Scripture-style certainly it will be found that the most part of men if not all use to impute iniquity to God and accuse him rather then take with accusations laid against themselves And therefore the Lord useth to go to Law with his people he who is the Judge of the world that cannot do unrighteously he who is the potter and we all the clay yet he so far condescends to us for convincing us as sometimes to refer the controversie between him and his people to other creatures as Micah 6. 12. He calls the mountains and the foundations of the earth to judge between him and his people and sometimes he appeals unto their own consciences and is content though judge to stand and be judged by these who were guilty as vers 3 and Jer. 2. vers 5 and 31. All this supposes that when the Lord would endeavour to convince them of iniquity they did rather recriminat and took not with their own faults This is a truth generally acknowledged by all He who is the judge of the world doth no iniquity But O! that ye considered it till the meditation of it were engraven on your Spirits the seal of Gods holinesse that ye might fear before him and never call him to accompt for his matters Who can say I have purged my heart from iniquity Among men the holiest are defiled with it and so are all their actions But here is one that ye may give him an implicit faith so to speak he is a God of truth and can speak no lie be does no iniquity and cannot do wrong to any man Would there be so much impatience amongst you and fretting against his dispensations if ye believed this solidly Would ye repine against his holy and just wayes were it not to charge God with iniquity Your murmuring and grudging at his dispensations is with child of blasphemies and he who can search the reins sees it and constructs so of it You say by interpretation that if ye had the government of your own matters or of Kingdoms ye would order them better then he doth how difficult a thing is it to perswade men to take with their own iniquity O how many excuses and pretences how many extenuations are used that this conviction may not pierce deeply But all this speaks so much blasphemy that iniquity is in God Ye cannot take with your own iniquities but ye charge his Majesty with iniquity Just and right is he Is this any new thing was it not said already that he is without iniquity and his wayes judgement But alas how ignorant are we of God and slow of heart to conceive him as he is therefore is there line upon line and precept upon precept and name upon name if it be possible that at length we may apprehend God as he is Alas our knowledge is but ignorance our light darknesse while it is shut up in the corner of our mind and shines not into the heart and hath no influence on our practice And the truth is the belief of divine truths is almost no more but a not contradicting them we do not seriously think of them as either to consent to them or deny them Is there any consideration amongst us now of Gods justice and righteousnesse though it be frequently spoken of And what advantage shall ye have if ye do not consider them O how hard is it to perswade mens hearts of this that God is just and will by no means acquit the guilty there are so many delusions drunk in in mens hearts contrary to his truth Let no man deceive you be not deceived with vain words know ye not saith our Apostle these are strange prefaces would ye not think the point of truth subtile that there needed so much prefacing unto and yet what is it even that which all men grant Gods wrath comes on the children of disobedience but alas few men consider but deceive themselves with dreams of escaping it though men know it yet they know it not for they walk as if they knew no such thing Alwayes however this is of little moment to affect our spirits now yet in the day that God shall set your iniquities before your face and set his justice also before your eyes O how sad and serious a thing will it be then If these two verses were ingraven on our hearts Gods justice and holinesse our corruption and vilenesse I think there would be other thoughts among us then there are SERMON IV. Deut. 32. 5. They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children c. WE doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives It might seem strange to us that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth and they to be so rebellious and perverse if our own experience did not teach us how free his choise is and how long-suffering he is and constant in his choise His people are called to a conformity with himself Be ye holy for I am holy Lev. ch 19. and 20. and to a difformity and separation from
into it thaâ— if none of the world should be of that mind he would not change it Though all should walk in other ways he would choose to be rather alone in this then in the greatest croud of company in any other Now I say when we have such a Coppy cast us a man of excellenâ— parts in sobriety and sadnesse choosing that way which all in words confesse to be the best should not this awake us out of our dreams and raise us up to some more attention and consideration of what we are doing The words you see are the holy resolution of a holy heart concerning that which is the chiefest Good You see the way to happinesse and you find the particular application of that to Davids Soul or of his Soul to it We shall speak a word of the thing it self then of the commendation of it then of the application of it For the thing it self drawing near to God it gives us some ground to take a view of the posture in which men are found by nature far off from God Our condition by nature I cannot so fitly expresse as in the Apostles words Epâ— 2. 12. Without Christ Aliens from the commoâ— wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World A deplorable estate indeed hopelessâ— and helplesse No hope in it that is the extremity of misery the refuse of all conditions Without Christ and without God O! these are words of infinite weight Without those without whom iâ— is simply impossible to be happy and without whom it is not possible but to be miserable without the Fountain of Light Life and Consolation without which there is nothing but pure darknesse without any beam of light Nothing but death without the least breathing of life Nothing but vexation without the least drop of consolation In a word without these and wanting these whom if you want it were good to be spoyled of all beeing to be nothing if that could be or never to have been any thing Men will seek death and cannot find it O! what a losse and deprivement is the losse of God which makes death more desireable then life and not to be at all infinitly preferable to any beeing Now it is true that the bringing in of multitudes within the pale of the Visible Church is some degree of accesse and nearnesse to God for then they bâ—come Citizens as to external right in the Common-wealth of the Church and have the offers of the Promises made to them in respect of which visible standing the Apostle speaks of the whole Church of Ephesus But now ye are made near who were far off v. 13. notwithstanding that many of them were found afterwards to have left their first Love Rev. 2. But yet Beloved to speak more inwardly and as your Souls stand in the sight of God The generality of those who are near hand in outward Ordinances are yet far off from God in reality without God and without Christ as really as touching any Soul feeling as those who are altogether without The bond of Peace and Union was broken in Paradise sin dissolved it and broke off that nearnesse and friendship with God and from that day to this day there hath been an infinite distance and separation betwixt Man and God The steps and degrees of it are many There is darknesse and blindnesse in mens minds Such ignorance naturally possesseth the multitude so that it wholly Alienats them from the Life of God Eph. 4. 18. For what fellowship can Light that pure Light have with such grosse Darknesse as is among us This certainly is the removal of that Sun of Righteousnesse from our Souls or the imposition of the Clouds of transgression that makes it so dark a night in the Souls of Men. And then there is nothing but enmity and desperate wickednesse in the heart of man and this keeps the strong hold of the Affections Rom. 8. Jer. 17. There cannot be a further elongation or separation of the Soul from God then to turn so opposite in all inclinations and dispositions to his Holy Will For the distance between God and us is not local in the point of place For whither shall we go from him who is every where And thus he is near hand every one of us but it is also real in the difformity and repugnancy of our Natures to his Holy Will But add unto this that being thus separated in Affection and disjoyned as it were in natural Dispositions we cannot draw near to God in any Ordinance as the Word Prayer c Though we may as that People draw near with out lips and ask of him our duty and seem to delight to know him Yet there is this natural incapacity and crookednesse in the heart of man that it cannot truely approach unto the Father of Spirits with any Soul desire and delight But their hearts are removed far from me Isa 6. 9. Mat. 4. 12. I think men might observe that their Souls act not in Religious businesse as they should but that they remove their Souls many Myles distant from their Bodies and they cannot keep any constancy in this approach of Prayer to God cannot walk with him in their Conversation or carry him along in their Meditation But there is one point of estrangement and separation superadded to all that there is no man can come near to God without an Oblation and Offering of Peace That there is no approaching to him but as to a consuming Fire except we can bring a Sacrifice to appease and a Present to please him for our infinite offences There the difference stands we cannot draw near to walk together till we be agreed And truely this unto man is impossible for we have nothing so precious as the Redemption of our Souls nothing can compense infinite Wrongs or satisfie infinite Justice Now this seems to make our nearnesse again desperate and to put men furthest off from Hope Notwithstanding this is the very purpose of the Gospel Preached from the beginning of the World to remove that distance and to take impediments of meeting out of the way For that great obstruction the want of a Sacrifice and Ransome the Lord hath supplied it he himself hath furnished it And it was the great designe carried on from the beginning of the World But as the Sun the nearer he is the more the Earth is Enlightened so here first some dawning of Light appears as a Messenger of Hope to tell that the Redeemer shall come that the True Sacrifice shall be slain then still the nearer his own appearing the clearer are the Manifestations of him and the great designe is more opened up till at length he breaks out in Glory from under a Cloud and shews himself to the World to be that Lamb of God that should take away the sins of the World And now as the Apostle to the Hebrewes speaks Chap. 7. 19. The Law made nothing perfect but
the ruines of other mens disadvantages as if it were any point of praise in us that they are worse like men that stand upon a height and measure their own Altitude not from their just intrinsick quantity but taking the advantage of the bottom whereby we deceive our own selveâ— I remember a word of Solomons that impoâ— how dangerous a thing it is for a man to refleâ— upon or search into his own Glory Prov. 2â— 27. It is not good to eat much honey So for me to search their own glory is not glory To suâ—fet in the excesse of Honey or Sweet thingâ— drives to vomite and cloyes the Stomach verâ— 16. Though it be sweet there is great need yea the more need of Caution and Moderation about it So for a man either to searcâ— into his own breast and reflect upon hiâ— owâ— excellencies to find matter of Gloriation or studiously to affect it among other and enquire into other mens accompt and steem of him it is no Glory it is a dangâ—rous and shamful Folly Now this is not only incident to Natural Spirits upon their coâ—siderations of their own advantages but â—ven to the most gracious upon the review â—â— Spirituall Endowments and Prerogatives It is such a subtil and insinuating Poyson thâ—â— it spreads universally and infects the moâ—â— Precious Oyntments of the Soul and as were Poysons the very Antidot and Couâ—terpoyson So forcible is this that was first dropped into mans Nature by Satans envy that it diffuses it self even into Humility and Humiliation it self and makes a man proud because of Humility The Apostle found need to caveat this Rom. 11. 18 19 20. Boast not be not high minded but fear thou standest by faith And Chap. 12. 16. Mind not high things Be not wise in your own conceits And 1. Cor. 8. 2. If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing as he ought to know All which gives us a plain demonstration of this that self gloriation and complacency in reflection upon our selves is both the greatest Ignorance and the worst Sacriledge It is an Argument of greater ignorance for a man to think he knows then not to know indeed It is the worst and most dangerous Ignorance to have such an opinion of our Knowledge Gifts and Graces For that puffes up swells with empty Wind and makes a vain tumor And then it is great Sacriledge a robbing of the Honour that is due to God For what hast thou that thou hast not received That appropriating of these things to our selves as ours is an impropriating of them from their right Owner that is God 1 Cor. 4. 7. For if thou did apprehend that thou receivedst it where then is glorying I would desire then that whenever you happen to reflect upon your selves and observe any advantage either natural or spiritual in your selves that you may think this word sounds from Heaven Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom And so not the Learned man in his Learning nor the Eloquent man in his Speaking nor the Ingenious man in his Quicknesse nor the Good man in his Goodnesse All these things though sweet yet will surfeit Gloriation in them is neither Glory nor Gain neither Honourable nor Profitable Then the Stream of Gloriation flows in the Channel of Bodily Gifts as Might Strength of Body Beauty and Comlinesse of Parts and other such Endowments which besides that it is as Irrational as the former in Sacrilegious Impropriation of the most free and Arbitrary Gifts of God to our selves It is with all absurd in that it is not so truely our selves These bodily Ornaments and Indowments do not perfite or better a man as a man They are but the alterable qualities of the Vessel or Tabernacle of a man in which other-baser Creatures may far excell him How many comely and beautiful Souls are lodged within obscure and ugly Cottages of Bodies of Clay which will be taken down And the great advantage is that the Soul of a man which is a man cannot be defiled from without that is from the Body though never so loathsome or deformed The vilest Body cannot marre the Soules beauty But then on the other hand the most beautiful Body is defiled and deformed by the filthinesse of sin in the Soul And O! how many deformed and ugly Souls dwell into beautiful and comely Bodies which truely is no other thing then a Divel in an Image well carved and painted Christians you had need to correct this within you even a self-complacency joyned with despiseing of others in the consideration of these external Gifts God hath given you What an abominable thing is it to cast up in reproach or in your hearts to despise any other for natural Imperfections Such as Blindnesse Lamenesse Deformity or such like Let that word sound alwayes in your Eares Who made thee to differ from another Boast not thy self c. But there is as strong a Stream runs in the third Channel as in any Gloriation arising from these outward and extrinsick differences that the Providence of God makes among men such as Riches Honour Gain c. You find such men Psal 49. 6. Prov. 18. 11. And 10. 15. That which a godly man makes the Name of the Lord that is the ground and foundation of his confidence for present and future times that the most part of men make their Riches That is their strong City and their high Wall their Hope and Expectation is reposed within it This is the Tower or Wall of Defence against the Injuries and Calamities of the Times which most part of men are building and if it go up quickly if they can get these several Stones or peeces of gain scraped together into a heap they straight way imagine themselves safe as under a high Wall But there is no truth in it it is all but in their imagination and therefore it comes often down about their Eares and offends them instead of being a Defence Let a man câ—eep as it were from of the ground where the poor lie and get some advantage of ground above them or be exalted to some Dignity or Office and so set by the shoulders higher then the rest of the People or â—et grow in some more aboundance of the things of this life and strange it is what a vanity or tumour of mind instantly follows He presently thinks himself some body and forgeting either who is above him to whom all are Worms creeping and crauling on the Foot-stool Or what a sandy Foundation he stands upon himself He begins to take some secret complacency in himself and to look down upon others below him He applauds as it were unto himself and takes it in evil part to want the approbation and plaudite of others Then he cannot so well endure effronts and injuries as before He is not so Meek and condescending to his Equals or Inferiours While he was poor he used intreaties but now
narrow bounds of time So that now all his Providence is to lay up some perishing things for some few revolutions of the Sun for some few morrows after which though an endlesse morrow ensue yet he perceives it not and provides not for it And all his Glorying and Boasting is only upon some presumptuous confidence and ungrounded assurance of the stability of these things for the time to come which the Wise Man finding much folly in he leaves us this Counsel Boast not thy self of to morrow with a most pungent reason taken partly from the instability and inconstancy of all these outward things in which men fancy an Eternity of Joy and partly from the Ignorance we have of the future events For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth This Boasting is an evil so predominant among men that I know not any more universal in its Dominion or more hurtful to us or displeasing to God If it could be so emboweled unto you as that you might truely discern the many monstrous conceptions of Atheism and Irreligion that are in it it were worth the while But I shall not digresse upon the general head I had rather keep within the limits of the Text. Self-boasting you see is that which is here condemned and the very Name is almost enough to condemn the Nature of it But there is another particular added to restrict that Of to morrow Of all Boastings the most irrational and groundlesse is that which arises from presumption of future things which are so uncertain both in themselves and to us It is worth the observation that whatever be the immediat and particular matter and occasion of mens Gloriation yet Self is the great and ultimat Object of it It is Self that men Glory into whatsoever created thing be the reason or occasion of it Boast not thy self of to-morrow Here we might stand and take a look of the crookednesse and perversnesse of mans Spirit since his departure from God Self-love and Pride were the first poyson that the malice of Satan dropped into mans Nature and this is so strong and pestilent that it hath spread through the whole of mankind and the whole in every man Every one is infected and all in every one What are all the disordered affections in men but so many Streams from this Fountain And from these do mens Affections flow next So that there is nothing left uncorrupted and free of this abominable and vile ingredient All flowing from Self and returning to it again which is both sacrilegious and unnatural There is heinous Sacriledge in it the spoyling of the Glorious Divine Majesty of his Indubitable Prerogative and Incommunicable Right of all the Glory and Honour of his Creature There is no usurpation like this for the Worm that crawls on the Footstool to creep up to the Throne and as it were to King it there to Deifie and Adore it self and gather in all the Tribute of Praise and Glory and Love that is only due to the Lord God Almighty and invert and unpropriat these to our selves which is as if the Axe should boast it self as if it were no Iron or the Staff as if it were no Timber Hence it is that of all evils in mans Nature God hath the most perfect Antipathy and direct Opposition against Pride and Self-love because it is Sacriledge and Idolatry in the highest manner it striks at the Soveraignty and Honour of Gods Name which is dear to him as himself it sets up a vile Idol in the choicest Temple of God that is in the Heart And this is the Abomination of Desolation Other evils strike against his Holy Will But this peculiarly points at the very Nature and Beeing of the most High God and so it is with Child of Blasphemy Atheism is the very heart and life of it And then it is most unnatural and so monstrous and deformed For consider all the Creation though every one of them have particular Inclinations towards their own proper ends and so a Happinesse suitable to their own Nature yet how diverse how contrary soever they be there is no selfishnesse in them They all concurre and conspire to the good of the whole and the mutual help of each other If once that Poyson should infect the Material World which hath spoyled the Spiritual let once such a selfish disposition or inclination possesse any part of the World and presently the Order Harmony Beauty Pleasure and Profite of the whole World should be Interrupted Defaced and Destroyed Let the Sun be supposed to boast it self of its Light and Influence and so disdain to impart it to the lower World and all would run into confusion Again I desire you but to take a view of this Humour in anothers Person For we are more ready to see others evils then our own and how deformed is it So vile is self-seeking and self-boasting that all men loath it in others and hide it from others It disgraces all Actions how beautiful soever It is the very bane of Humane Society that which looses all the Linkes of it and makes them crosse and thwart one another But alas how much more easie is it to paint out such an evil in a deformed Visage then to discern it in our selves And how many will hate it in the Picture who love and entertain it in their own persons such deceitfulnesse is intermingled with most desperat wickednesse I verily believe that is the predominant of every man good and bad except in as far as it is mortified by Grace O! the turnings and windings of the Heart upon it self in all the most apparently direct Motions towards God and the good of men What serpentine and crooked Circumgyrations and reflections are there in the Soul of man when the outward Action and Expression seems most regular and directed towards Gods Glory and others Edification Whoever of you have any acquaintance with your own Spirits cannot but know this and be ashamed and confounded at the very thought of it Self-boasting Self-complacency self-seeking all those being of Kin one to another are insinuated into your best Notions and in fect them with more Atheism before God then the strongest pious Affection can instill of goodnesse into them How often will mens Actions and Expressions be outwaâ—â—ly cloathed with a habit of Condescendency and Self-denyal And many may declaim with such Zeal and Vehemency against this evil and yet Latet anguis The Serpent is in the bosome and his venome may be diffused into the Heart and the poyson of Self-seeking and Self-boasting may run thorow the Veines of humble like Carriage and Passionate Discourses for Self-denyal Oh that we could above all things establish that Fundamental Principle of Christianity in our Hearts even as we would be his Disciples truely and sincerely and not in outward resemblance to deny our selves to renounce our selves and our lusts to make a whole Resignation of our Love Will Glory and all to him in
mens Projects are cast beyond that time that is measured out in Gods Counsel And what a ridiculous thing must that be to him if it be not done with submissive and humble dependence on him In a word Time is with Child of innumerable things conceived by the Eternal Counsel of God Infinite and inconceiveably Various are these Conceptions which the Womb of Time shall at length bring forth to Light Every Day every Hour every Minute is travelling in pain as it were and is delivered of some one Birth or another and no Creature can open its Womb sooner or shut it longer then the appointed and prefixed Season There is no miscarying as to him whose Decrees do properly conceive them tâ—ough to us they seem often Abortive Now joyn unto this to make the Allusion full as long as they are carried in the Womb of Time they are hid from all the World The Womb is a dark Lodging and no Understanding nor Eye can pierce into it to tell what is in it till it break forth And therefore Children born are said to come to the Light for till then they are to us in a Cloud of darknesse that we cannot tell what they are So then every Day every Hour every Moment is about to bring forth that which all the World is ignorant of till they see it And Oh that then they understood it We know not whether the Morrows or next Hours Birth may be a proportioned Child or a Monster whether it will answer the Figure and Mould that is in our mind or be mishapen and deformed to our Sense Mans desires and designes may be said to conceive for they form an inward Image and Idea within themselves to which they labour to make the Product and Birth of Time conformable And when it answers our preconceived form then we rejoyce as for a Man-child But for the most part it is a Monster as to our Conception it is an Aberration from our Rule It is either mutilate and defective of what we desire or superfluous or deformed which turns our expectation into vexation and our boasting into lamentation But the truth is Time brings forth no Monsters as to the Lords Decrees which are the only just measures of all things It may be said of every thing under the Sun as David speaks of himself in the Womb My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously formed in the lowest parts of the Earth c. Psal 139. 15. His Eyes see all their substance Yet being imperfect and in his everlasting Book all their Members are written The Portraicture of every thing is drawn there to the Life and these in continuance are fashioned just as they were written and drawn and so they exactly correspond to his pre-conception of them whatever deformity they may have as to us yet they are perfect Works and beautiful to him SERMON VIII Isaiah 1. 10 11. c. Hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear unto the Word of the Lord ye People of Gomorrah IT is strange to think what Mercy is mixed with the most Wrath-like Stroaks and Threatnings There is no Prophet whose Office and Commission is only for Judgment Nay to speak the truth it is Mercy that premises Threatnings The entering of the Law both in the Commands and Curses is to make sin abound that Grace may superabound So that both Rods and Threatnings are the Messengers of Jesus Christ to bring sinners to him for Salvation Every thing should be measured and named by its end So call Threatnings Promises call Rods and Judgements Mercies Name all good and good to you if so be ye understand the purpose of God in these The shortest Preaching in the Bible useth to expresse it self what it means though it be never so terrible This is a sad and lamentable beginning of a Prophets Ministery The first word is to the Heavens and to the Earth A weighty and horrible regrate of this People as if none of them were to hear as if the Earth could be more easily affected then they The Creatures are taken witnesses by God of their ingratitude and then who shall speak for them If Heaven and Earth be against them who shall speak good of them Will their own Conscience No certainly it will in the day of Witnessing and Judging precipitate its sentence and spare the Judge the labour of probation A mans enemy shall be within his own house though now your Consciences agree with you Nay why doth the Lord speak to them Because the People consider not because Consciences have given over speaking to them Therefore the Lord directs his Word to the dumb Earth Yet how gracious is he as to direct a second word even to the People though a sad word Iâ— is a complaint of iniquity and backsliding and such as cannot be uttered Yet it is Mercy to challenge them yea to chasten them If the Lord would threaten a man with pure and unmixed Judgements if he would frame a threatning of a Rod of pure Justice I think it should be this I will no more reprove thee nor chasten thee And he is not far from it when he sayes why shall ye be stricken any more c. vers 5. As if he would say it is in vain now to send a Rod ye receive no correction I sent the Rod that it might open your hearts and eares to the Word and seal your instruction but to what purpose is it Ye grow worse and worse Well the Prophet campares here Sin and Judgement and the one far surmounts the other Ye would think a desolate Countrey burnt Cities Desolation made by Strangers a sufficient recompense of their corruption and misorders of their forsaking and backsliding Ye would think now if your present condition and the Lands pressed you to utter Jeremiahs Lamentation a sadder then which is not almost imaginable ye would think I say that you had received double for all your sins And yet alas how are your iniquities of infinite more desert All that were Mercy which is behind infinite and eternal punishment that there is room left for complaint it is Mercy that there is a remnant left it is Mercy Now to proclaim unto this People and to convince them that their Judgement was not severe He gives them one word from God And indeed it is strange that when the Rod is sent because of the despising of the Word that after the despising of both Word and Rod another word should come Alwayes this word is a Convincing Word a Directing Word and a Comforting Word These use to be conjoyned and if they be not alwayes expressed we may lawfully understand them We may joyn a Consolation to a Conviction and close a Threatning with a Promise if we take with a Threatning Jonahs Preaching expressed no more but a Threatning and Denounciation of Judgement but the people undeâ—stood it according to Gods meaning and made it a Rule of
the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4. 3. This is the wiil of God even your sanctification And these two make up this text so that it units both Gospel and Law The Commandment of the Law comes forth and it is found that we have broken and are guilty that we cannot answer for one of a thousand the Law entring makes sin abound our inability yea impossibility of obedience is more discovered well then the Gospel proclames the Lord Jesus Christ for the Saviour of sinners and commands us under pain of damnation to believe in him to cast our souls on him as one able to save as one who hath obeyed the Law for us so that this command of believing in Christ is answerable to all the breaches of the Law and tends to make them up in Christ When he proclaimed the Law on Mount Sinai with terrour that which ye hear exprest is not his first Comandment which ye are in the first instance to obey for all these we have broken but it hath a Gospel-command in its bosome it leads to Jesus Christ and if ye could read the mind of God in it ye would resolve all these commands which condemn you and curse you into one command of believing in the Son that ye may be saved from that condemnation And if ye obey this command which is his last command and most perremptory then are the breaches of all the rest made up the intent of all the rest is fulfilled though not in your obedience yet in Christs which is better then ours Believing in Christ presents God with a perfect righteousness with an obedience even to the death of the Cross When a sinner hears the holy and spiritual sense of the Law and sees it in the light of Gods holiness O how vile must he appear to himself and how must he abhor himself What original pollution what actual pollution what a fountain within what uncleanness in streams without will discover it self Now when the most part of men get any sight of this presently they fall a washing and cleansing themselves or hiding their filthiness And what water take they Their own tears or sorrows their own resolutions their own reformations But alas we are still more plunged in our own filthiness that is still marked before him because all that is al 's foul as that we would have washen away What garment do men take to hide themselves ordinarily Is it not their own righteousness Is it not a shirt of some duty that is spread over transgressions Do not men think their sins hid if they can mourn and pray for a time Their consciences are eased by reflection upon this But alas thine iniquity is still marked Shall filthiness hide filthiness Thy righteousness is as a vile garment as a menstruous cloth Isa 64. 6. as well as thine unrighteousness how then shall it cover thy nakedness Seing it is so then what is the Lords mind concerning our cleansing seing stretched out hands and many prayers will not do it what shall I do The Lord hath shewed thee what thou shalt do and that is that thou do nothing in relation to that end that thou shouldst undertake to wash away the least spot by all thy repentance yet must thou wash and make clean and the water is brought new unto you even the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin wash in this blood and ye shall be clean And what is it to wash in this blood It is to believe in Christ Jesus to lay hold on the all-sufficient vertue of it to trust our souls to it as a sufficient ransome for all our sins to spread the covering of Christ his righteousness over all our righteousneses and unrighteousness as having both alike need to be hid from his holy eys Jesus Christ came by water and by blood 1 Jo. 5. 6. by water to Sanctifie and by blood to Justifie by the power and cleansing vertue of the Holy Ghost to take away sin in the beeing of it and by the vertue of his blood to take away sin in the guilt and condemnation of it Now I conceive he presses a twofold exercise upon them in this washing and both have relation to the blood of Jesus Christ to wit repentance and faith If they be not all one yet they are in this point inseparably conjoyned Repentance waters and saps the roots of believing which otherwise would dry up Therefore in stead of outward forms and ceremonies of Religion he presseth them to inward sorrow and contrition of heart for sin that they might present an acceptable sacrifice to God a contrite heart This is more pleasing then many specious duties of men without Psal 50. 7 c. But when I press upon you repentance do not conceive that we would have it preparatory to faith that ye should sit down and mourn for your sins for a time till your hearts be so far humbled and then ye might come as prepared and fitted to Jesus Christ This is the mistake of many Christians which keeps them from solid settling We find it ordinary souls making scruples and objections against coming to Jesus Christ because of want of such preparations of measures of humiliation and contrition which they prescribe to themselves or do behold in others and so they sit down and apply themselves to such a work applyes their consciences to the Law and curse and they find in stead of softning hardness in stead of contrition of spirit more dulness and security At least they cannot get satisfaction to themselves in that they seek and thus they hang their head over their impenitent hearts and lament not so much that repentance is not as that they cannot find it in themselves Alas there are many diseases in this one malady If it were imbowelled unto you ye would not believe that such a way were so contradictory to the Gospel For first ye who are so have this principle in your hearts which is the foundation of it I cannot come to Christ so unclean I must be a little washen ere I come the most gross uncleanness and hardness of my heart must be taken away and so I shall be accepted Alas what derogation is this to the blessed Saviour What absurdity is it I am too unclean to come to the fountain I must be a little purged before I come to this fountain that cleanseth from all Sin I pray you why was the fountain opened was it not for sin and uncleanness And this thou sayes by interpretation If I were so and so humbled then I might come and be worthy to come when the want of such a measure debars thee as unworthy Doth not the having of it in thy estimation make the worthy And so ye come with a present in your hand to Jesus Christ with a price and reward to him who gives freely Again thou denyest Christ to be the only fountain of all Grace and so it is most dishonourable to him If thou would have repentance before
thou come to him where shall thou have it will thou find it in thy heart which is desperatly wicked will thou seek it of God and not seek it in the Mediator Jesus Christ God out of a Mediator will not hear thee In a word there is both extream sin and extream folly in this way great sin because it contradicts the tenure of the Gospel it dishonours the Lord Jesus the exalted Prince as if he were not the fountain of all grace it is contrary both to the freedom of his grace and to the fulness of it also it is great folly for thou leaves the living fountain and goes seeking water in a wilderness thou leaves the Garden where all herbs grow and wanders abroad to the wild Mountains And because thou canst not find what thou seeks thou sits down and weeps beside it Repentance is in Christ and no repentance so pleasing to God as the mournings and relentings of a pardoned sinner but thou seeks it far from him yea refuseth him for want of that which thou may have by choosing him Therefore we declare this unto you that whatever ye be whatever ye want if ye think ye stand in need of Jesus Christ embrace him If ye be exceeding vile in your own eyes and cannot get repentance as ye would to cleanse your selves here is the fountain opened and ready to wash into Yet this we must tell you that no sinner can believe but he that repents not because repentance is required as a preparation to give a man a warrand and right to believe I know no ground of faith but our necessity and the Lords promise and command unto us but because no soul can truly flie in to Jesus Christ to escape sins guilt but he that desites to be delivered from sin it self And therefore the most part of you fancy a faith which you have not because there is no possibility that men will come out of themselves till they be pressed out by discovered sin and misery within your woulds and wishes after Christ and salvation that many of you have are not the real exercises of your souls flying unto him for salvation If ye did indeed turn in to Jesus Christ your hearts would turn the back upon sin and these sins ye seek remission of Now all the defire that many men have of Christ is this I would fain have his salvation if I might keep my Sin I would gladly be delivered from the guilt of sin if he would let me keep still the sin But will Christ make any such bargain Iâ— this blood only wash from sin oh how many ly in their sins and wallow in their filthiness There is a generation clean in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30. 12. Oh that ye believed this If ye be not now washed eternity shall find you unclean And woe to the Soul that enters eternity with all the pollution of its sins Can such a soul enter into the high and Holy place the clean City No certainly it must be without among the Dogs and Swine it must be kept in darkness for ever It is then of great importance that ye be washen from your filthiness Now I ask you Is it so or not are ye made clean and washen from the guilt of your sins every one of your almost will say so and think so and yet sayes the Scripture There is a generation pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed Is there a generation such Is there any such Oh then think its possible you may be mistaken in the opinion of your own cleanness do any conceive themselves pardoned and yet are not so think it is possible you may have deceived your selves espccially since ye have never examined it but are there so many so a whole generation the most part of mâ—n then as you love your souls try for it is certain that most part of you must be deceived Is there a generation in the visible Church not washen and yet every one thinks himself clean then certainly the most part are in a great delusion will ye then once examine whether or not ye be deluded with them It shall be your peace to know it while it may be amended But how comes it to pass that so many hearing of the Gospel and lying near this fountain are not cleansed I think ccrtainly because they will not have a through cleansing they get none at all All men would love Christs blood well to pardon sin but who will accept of the water to sanctifie them from sin but Christ came with both Shall this Blood be spent upon numbers of you who have no respect to it but would still wallow in your filthiness Would ye have God pardoning these sins ye never throughly resolve to quite But how is it that so many men are clean in their own eyes and yet not washed I think indeed the reason of it is they make a kind of washing which they apprehend sufficient and yet knows not the true Fountain We find men taking much Sope and Nitre when convinced of sin or charged with it and thereupon soon absolving themselves If ye ask their grounds they will tell you they â—epent and are sorry for it they purpose to make a mends and they think amendment a gooâ— compensation for the past wrong They wilâ— it may be vow to drink no more for a year afteâ— they have been drunk They will confess theiâ— sin in publick and all this they do without having any thought of Jesus Christ or the end oâ— his coming and can absolve themselves froâ— such grounds though in the mean time Chrisâ— come not so much as in their mind And therefore are they not really washed All thy righteousness is unclean before God and thy repentances defile thee and yet because of some sucâ— Duties thou deceivest thy self and art clean iâ— thine own eyes These have some beauty in thâ— eyes and thou puts them between thy filthinesâ— and thy eye and so conceives that thou aâ— clean I think a reason also why many meâ— are clean in their own eyes and conceive thaâ— God hath pardoned their sin is because they have forgotten it It is not recent in their memory and makes no present wound in their Conscience And therefore they apprehend God such as themselves they think he hath forgotten it also But Oh! how terrible shall it be when God brings to remembrance and sets our sins in order before us Ye think God cares not for your sins that he forgives them because he is silent at them Psal 50. 21. But the Lord shall one day set them before thee and thou shalt know they were still marked beforâ— him Ye who have washen in this Blood ye may rejoyce for it shall make you clean every whit Your iniquities that so defiled you shall not be found O! the precious vertue of that Blood that can purge away a souls spots All the Art of Men and
Angels could not reach this This Redemption and Cleansing was precious and would have ceased for ever But this Blood is the Ransome this Blood cleanseth and so perfectly that it shall not appear not only to mens eyes but also Gods peircing Eye Sinners quite your own righteousness why defile ye your selves more When your eyes are opened ye will find it so here is washing apply your selves to this Fountain And if ye do indeed so if ye expect cleansing from Jesus Christ I pray you return not to the puddle Ye are not washen from sin to sin more and defile your self more If ye think ye have liberty to do so ye have no part in this Blood SERMON XI Isai 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil c. THere are two evils in sin one is the Nature of it another the Fruit and sad Effect of it In it self it is filthiness and contrair to Gods Holiness and abasing of the immortal soul a spot in the face of the Lord of the Creatures that hath far debased him under them all Though it be so unnatural to us yet it is now in our fallen estate become as it were natural so that men agree with it as if it were sunk and drunk into the very soul of man The other is the guilt and desert of punishment and obligation to it All man hate this but they cannot hold it off They eat the Tree and Fruit of Death they must eat Death also They must have the wages of sin who have wrought for it Now the Gospel hath found a remedy for lost man in Jesus Christ He comes in the Gospel with a twofold blessing a twofold vertue a pardoning vertue and a sanctifying vertue VVater and Blood 1 Jo. 5. 6. He comes to forgive sin and to subdue sin To remove the guilt of it and then the self of it Gods appointment had inseparably joyned them And Christ came not to dissolve the Law but to establish it If he had taken away the punishment and left the sin in its being he had weakened the Law and the Prophets That conjunction of sin and wrath which is both by divine appointment and suitable also unto their own natures must stand that Divine Justice may be intire And therefore he that comes to redeem us from the curse of the Law hath also this Commission to redeem from sin and all transgressions of the Law Rom. 11. 26. and Gal. 3. 13. He that turns away the wrath of God from men turns also ungodliness from them which provoked his wrath And so he is a compleat Redeemer and a compleat Redeemer he had not been otherwayes If he had removed Wrath only and left us under the bondage of sin it had not been half redemption he that commits sin is the servant of sin But this is perfect freedom and liberty to be made free from sin for it was sin that subjected us to wrath and so was the first Tyrant and the greatest The Gospel then comes with a joyful sound unto you but many of you mistake it and apprehends it to be a Doctrine of Liberty and Peace and that unto sin But if it were so it were no joyful sound If there were proclaimed a liberty to all men to do as they list no punishment no wrath to be feared I would think that Doctrine no glade news it were but the perpetuating of the bondage of a reasonable soul But this is glade news a delivery and freedom proclaimed in the Gospel but what Not unto sin but from sin and this is to be free indeed We ought more to Jesus Christ for this then for redemption from Wrath because sin is a greater evil then wrath Yea wrath were not so if sin were not Therefore he exhorts to wash and wash so that they may make clean Take Jesus Christ for Justification and Sanctification imploy both the Water and the Blood that he hath come with But because all men pretend a willingness to have Christ their Saviour and their sins pardoned through his Blood who notwithstanding hate to be reformed and would seek no more of Christ Therefore he branches out that part of the Exhortation in several particulars All men have a general likeing of remission of sins but renouncing of it is to many a hard Doctrine they would be glade that God put their evils out of his sight by passing them by and forgetting them But they will not be at the pains of putting away their evils from his sight And therefore the Gospel which comprehends these two united is not really received by many who pretend to be followers of it This is his Command that ye believe Some pretend to obey this and yet hath no regard of that other part of his Will even their Sanctification And therefore their Faith is dead it is a fancy If ye did indeed believe and receive Christ for pardon of sin it were noâ— possible but your Souls would be ingaged and constrained to indeavour to walk in all well-pleasing But it is an evident token of one that is not washed from his sin and believes not in Christ if he conceive within his heart a greater latitude and liberty to walk after the flesh and be imboldened to continue in sin because of his Grace and Mercy And yet such are the most part of you Upon what ground do ye delay repentance Upon what presumption do ye continue in your sins and puts over the serious study of holiness till a more fit time Is it not from an apprehension of the Grace and Mercy of God that ye think ye may return any time and be accepted and so ye may in the mean time take as much pleasure in sin as ye can seing ye may get leave also for Gods Mercy I pray you consider that you have never apprehended Gods Mercy aright ye are yet in your sins and certainly as yet are not washed from them Put away the evil c. When the Spirit convinces a Soul he convinces a man not only of evil doings but of the evil of his doings Not only of sin but of the sinfulness of sin And not only of those actions which are in themselves sinful but also of the iniquity of Holy things I think no man will come to wash in Christs Blood till this be discovered If he see much wickedness many evil doings yet he will labour to wash away these by his own tears and repentance and well doing As long as he hath any good Actions as Prayers Fasting and such like he will cover his evil doings by them He will spread the skirts of such righteousness over his uncleannesse and when he hath hid it from his own eyes he apprehends that he hath hid it from Gods also He will wash his bloody hands with many Prayers and thinks they may be clean enough We see blasphemers of Gods Name use to joyn a prayer for forgivenesse
the Living Fountain it proceedeth from There is no other thing can be made sure all besides this is uncertain and this only is worthy to be made sure Nothing besides this can give you satisfaction Are your hearts asking within you how shall this peace be attained If you desire to know it consider these words whose heart is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee It concerneth you much to know well what this is that your eternal peace depends on Trusting in God is the leaning of the Souls weight on God the Soul hath a burden above it heavy and unsupportable and this the truster casteth upon God And so he is a loadened and weary man whom Christ exhorteth to come to him and he shall find ease for his Soul Matth. 11. 28. Prov. 3. 5. Leaning to our self and trusting in God are opposed Psal 22. 10. Trusting is exponed to be a casting upon God Psal 25. 1. It is called a lifting up the Soul to him This one thing is included in the bosome of Trusting and Believing that a man hath many burdens too heavy for him which would sink him down The Believer is such a one as Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. 12. O Lord we have no might against this great company neither know we what to do O Lord I have an Army of iniquities against me a great company compasseth me about An Army of Cursâ—s al 's numerous as mine iniquities both are innumerable as the Sand of the Sea I have no might against them neither know I what to do Nay the Lord is against me his wrath is like the roaring of a Lyon what can I do agaiâ—st him The first beginning of trusting in God is distrusting our sâ—lves And untill a man see his duty and burden beyond his strength his burden greater then he can bear you will never perswade him to come to Jesus Christ and lean on him We will not preacâ— any such Doctrine as to discharge any to coâ— to Christ till they be wearied and loaden For when a man conceiveth that he wanteâ— that weariednesse whither shall he go to fiâ— it Is there any Fountain but one Jesâ— Christ both of Grace and preparations to it any such be But this we preach unto yoâ— that unâ—â—l you be wearied and loaden you wiâ— not cast your burden on Jesus We need nâ— discharge you to come till you be such for ceâ—tainly you will not come This is the desperâ— wickednesse of our hearts that we will neveâ— forsake our selves till we can do no better Utill men be as David I looked on the right hanâ— and there was none would know me refuge failâ— me certainly they will not cry to God Mâ— will look round about them before they wiâ— look up above them they will cast the burdeâ— of their Souls upon any thing upon their owâ— sorrow and contrition upon their resolution â— amend upon external Duties and Priviledge upon civil Honesty until all these succumb under the weight of their Salvation and then iâ— may be they will ask after him who bare oâ— griefs I would not willingly speak of preparations to Faith because it putteth men upoâ— searching something in themselves upon fashioning their own hearts and trimming them tâ— come to Christ wheras there is nothing caâ— be acceptable to him but what cometh froâ— him But I think all that men intend whâ— speak of preparations may be gained this waâ— by holding out unto men the impossibility oâ— â—oming to Christ till they be emptied of themselves Not that the one is a thing going before to be done by us but because they are all â—ne it is one motion of the Soul to come out of â—t self and in to Jesus It is one thing really to â—istrust our selves and to trust in him And by this means when the true Nature of Faith it â—elf is holden out men might examine themselves â—ather by it whither they have it nor by the preparations of it But to come to our purpose when the Soul is pressed under burdens of sin and misery of duty and insufficiency and inability to do it then â—he Gospel discovereth unto the wearied Soul a place of reposing and rest The Lord hath established Christ Jesus an ensigne to the people these who seek unto him shall find his rest glorious Isa 11. 10. When there is discovered in us all â—mptinesse and inability yea impossibility to save our selves or perform any duty then are we led to Jesus Christ as one who is come with grace and truth in whom it hath pleased the father all fulness should dwell And the turning of the Soul over upon him is trusting in him You would not mistake this trusting in the Lord in its first and most native acting is not always perswasion of his good-will and love in particular No the Soul meets first with a general promise holding out his good-will in general and the Soul closeth with this a thing both good and true as faithful in it self and worthy of all acceptatiâ—n This is it that we must first meet with an â—ll-sufficient Saviour able to save to the uâ—â—ost all that come to him and the Souls acâ—epting of that blessed Saviour on the termes he is offered this is believing in him and trusting to him as a compleat Saviour Now when the Soul hath disburdened it seâ— upon God and set to itâ— seal to the truth oâ— tâ— promises in the Gospel for Salvation If tâ— Light of the Spirit shine to discover this unâ— it that it hath laid hold on his strength whoâ— able to save to the utmost then it becometh peâ—swaded of his love in particular and this is râ—ther the Sealing after believing then believing â—self When once men have hazarded their Soâ— upon his word and trusted in him then thâ— may trust in him for all particulars He thâ— hath given his Son for us will be not with him gâ— all things This therefore is the continual â—course of a Believer from discovered emptineâ— and insufficiency in himself to travel unto tâ— fulnesse and strength of Jesus Christ that hâ— strength may be perfected in weaknesse Yâ— when all things seem contrary and his dispeâ—sation writes bitter things against us yet ouâ— we to trust in him Job 13. 15. There is a peâ— of wilfulness and violence in Faith that will loâ— allways towards his word whatever be threâ—ned to the contrary Now from this Faith in God floweth a câ—stant dependance and stayedness on him Tâ— are stayed on him because they trusted in him â— Faith discovereth in God such grounds tâ— it may lean its weight upon him without wâ—vering and changing It considereth his poâ—er his good-will and his faithfulness Hâ— able to perform he is willing to do it and he is faithful because he hath promised His greatness and power is a high Rock higher then we that Faith leadeth us unto His love and good will in Jesus Christ maketh an open entry and ready access to that Rock And faithfulness
he is our kinsman nearest of blood to us Now you know â—he right of Redemption belonged to the kinsâ—an Lev. 25. 25. And therefore when the nearest kinsman â—ould not redeem Naomi and Ruths parcel of â—and Booz he did it as being next And â—uitable to this our Lord Jesus when others as â—ear could not and were not able He hath â—one it and taken Men and Angels to witnesse that he hath first Redeemed us that he miâ— Marry us as Eph. 5. That he hath purchâ—ed us to be his Wife And indeed the vâ— word imports this Goel a Redeemer â— Kinsman passing under one word So Iâ— I know that my redeemer or my kins-man live And because our Kins-man therefore nâ— interested in our Redemption For for end he became partaker of flash and blood with children that be might destroy our greatest enâ— Satan and redeem us Heb. 2. 14. And besiâ— he hath right to Redemption as the Churcâ— Husband because he must mediat between and all others none can reach her except please or prosecure a plea against her as in case of the Wifes making a vow if her â—band consented not it was void Num. â— But if he heard of it and held his peace it â— confirmed Now the Lord Jesus hath knâ— this Deplorable Estate we are Captives iâ— And he hath testified his utter dislike of binding over our selves to Death and reâ—ing our selves to Satan And therefore â— bondage in which we are detained is not â—firmed and ratified but he hath right remâ—ing to Redeem us from the hand of all our â—mies But then he alone hath Might â— Power to do it for God hath laid help on â— and made him able and mighty to save â— the uttermost It was not Gold or Silver â— Corruptible things Suppose the whole â—â— were turned into Gold or precious Stones â— must give person for person and one persoâ— quivalent to all his own Life his own Blâ— for us And the value of this was infinitely raised by thâ— stamp of his Divinity put upon it the King for the Servant one that knew no sin for sinners yea God for man This superads infinit Worth and makes it an over-ransom and over-purchase a ransom to buy our persons from Hell a purchase to redeem us to our Inheritance Heaven that we had lost and these two stiles it gets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now you see the great Difficulty is overcome and taken out of the way Christ being made a Curse hath purchased a redemption from the Curse of the Law Gal. 4. 13. But yet there is another poynt of vast distance I may say con trariety and enmity between us and him he is Holy and undefiled all fair and no spot in him We are wholly defiled and depraved by sin our Souls are become the habitation of Devils and a Cage of every unclean and hateful Bird In a word he hath not only our Enemies to overcome but our own hearts to conquer and our Enmity to take away This makes the widest separation from him Now he filled up much of the Distance with his taking our flesh and he removed the great Difficulty by dying in our flesh his Humiliation to be a Man brought him nearer us And his further Humiliation to be a Dying Crucified and Buried Man brought him yet a step nearer us But nearer he cannot come for lower he cannot be except he were a sinner which would marr the whole design and take away all the Comfort of his liknesse to us Therefore since he hath come so low down to us it is suitable we be raised up one step to meet him And so the Exaltation of sinners shall make up all the Distance and bring the two parties to that long since designed and long desired meeting Now for this end and purpose the Son undertakes the Redemption of his Church from sin and ungodliness al 's well as wrath And therefore you have that which is expressed as the Character of the redeemed in this Vers It is exponed as the great point or part of the Redemption it self by the Apostle Rom. 11. The Redeemer shall come to Sion to turn all ungodliness from Jacob. And so his end was not only to be partaker of our Nature but to make us partakers of the Divine Nature And therefore the Father out of his Love to this businesse he promiseth to send his Spirit to dwell in our hearts to make the Word sound in our Mouths and Ears and the Spirit to work in our hearts and this Exaltation of sinners to the participation of the Holy Spirit together with Christs Humiliation to partake of our Flesh makes up the full Distance and bringeth Christ and his Church to that holy patient Impatience and longing for the day when it shall be Solemnized in Heaven The Spirit within us sayes come and the bride sayes come even so come Lord Jesus And he waits for nothing but the Compleating and Adorning of all the rest that there may be one Jubilee for all and for ever Now I wish we could understand the Absolute and free Tenor of Gods Covenant There is much controversy speculative about the Condition of the Covenant about the Promises whither Absolute or Conditional And there is too much practical Debate in perplexed Consciences about this how to find something in themselvs to fit and fashion them for the Redemption But truely if we would not disjoyn and dismember the Truth of God but take it all intirely as one great design of Love and Metcy revealed to sinners and so conjoyn the Promises of the Covenant into one bundle we would certainly find that it hath the Voice of Jacob though it seem to have the Hand of Esau we find an absolute most free and inconditioned sense when there is a conditional strain and shadow of words in some places The truth is the turning of souls from ungodliness is not properly a Condition exacted from us as a Promise to be performed in us and the chiefest part of Christs Redemption And though some abuse the grace of God and turn it into wantonness and liberty Yet certainly this Doctrine that makes the greatest part of the glad news of the Gospel to be Redemption from sin and the pouring out of the Spirit is the greatest perswasive to a godly Conversation and the most deadly enemy to all ungodliness I thought to have spoken more of that third thing I proponed but take it in a word This was always proponed to the Church as the strongest Cordial it was given here as the greatest Consolation in all their long Captivity that this Redeemer was after wards to come whose Vertue was then living and present to the quickning and comforting of souls It was thought enough to uphold in a most desperat strait To us a child is born Isai 8. I wish we could take it so Certainly it was the Character of a Believer before Christs coming that he was one that was looking and waiting for the Salvation
as the â—â—n you would wash by it Secondly the uncleannesse of mens practice maketh unclean performances unclean hands make unclean prayers Isai 1. 15. When men go on in sin and use their members as instruments of unrighteousnesse against God and guiltinesse is above their head unrepented of and unpardoned then whatever the members act for God in religious Duties it must be also abominable for will God take prayers from such a mouth thaâ— cursing cometh out of Isai 3. 10 11 12 Shall sweet water come out of one Fountain with bitter Or can a Fig Tree bear both Thistles and Graps Certainly profane Conversation must make unclean profession And therefore your coming to the Church and Ordinances your praying in your Families or such like must of necessity be defiled since out of the same mouth cometh cursing railing lying filthy speeches Your tongues are so often imployed in Gods dishonour to blaspheme his Name to slander your Neighbours to reproach the Saints that all your prayers must be of the same stamp and al 's bitter as the other stream of your actions When you stretch forth your hands to make many prayers to take the Bread and Wine shall not God hide his Face from such hands as are unclean with many abominations some murdering some abusing their Neighbours some Sabbath-breaking some filthinesse how oft have your hands and feet served you to evil turns And therefore your good turns will never come in remembrance Nay believe it you cannot be heard of God while you cover any offence And this I may say in general even to the Saints any known sin given way to and intertained without controlment without wrestling against it hindereth the acceptation of your solemn approaches If your heart regard iniquity shall God hear Ps 66. 18. No believe it the least sin that you may judge at first venial and then give it toleration and indulgence shall separat between Gods Face and you Your prayers are abomination because of such an idol perked up in the heart beside God that getteth the Honour and Worship due to him and God must answer you according to it Ezek. 19. 1 3 4. God will not be enquired of such as give allowance to sin Ezek. 14. 2 3 4. And on the other hand no sin how great and hainous soever can hinder Gods gracious acceptation when Souls fly unto Jesus and turn their back upon sin or giveth it no heart allowance And to the multitude I say all that you do or touch in a Duty must be defiled because your whole way is unclean Hag. 2. 12 13 14. Think you to sin all the week thorow and worship God on the Sabbath will you lie swear commit adultery rail and curse and come and stand before me saith the Lord No certainly you cannot be accepted And will you hate reformation in your lives and yet take his Covenant in your mouth and call your selves by his Name Christians And shall not God challenge you for that al 's much as for your swearing and cursing and lying c. Indeed the Lord putteth all in one Roll and you need not please your selves in such things Psal 50. 16. Jer. 7. 9 10. For it is all one to you to go to Tavern to drink and come to the Sermon to blaspheme Gods Name and call on it because the profanity of the one defileth the other and the holiness of the other cannot make you holy Thirdly the natural mans performances want the uprightness reality and sincerity that is required it is but a painted Tomb full of rottenness within it is but a shadow without substance for he wanteth the spiritual part of worship which God careth for who will be worshiped in spirit and truth Joh. 4. 23. Now what is it that the most part of you can speak of but an outside of some few duties soon numbered You hear the preaching and your hearts wander about your business You hear and are not so much affected as you would be to hear some old story or fable told you A stage play acted before this generation would move them more then the Gospel doth So that Christ may take up this Lamentation We have piped to you and you have not danâ—ed lamented to you and you have not mourned You use to tell over some words in your prayers and are not so serious in any approach to God as in twenty other things of the world Whatever you plead of your hearts rightness and have recourse to it when your conversation cannot defend you yet your hearts are the worst of all and have no uprightness towards God for you know that what Duties you go about it is not from an inward principle but from Education or Custome or constraint Are you upright when you are forced for fear of censure to come here or to pray at home Is that sincerity and spiritual worship And for the more polished and refined professors you have this moth in your performances and this flea to make your Oyntment to stink that you do much to be seen of men therefore what little fervour of spirit is in secret Duties There you may measure your altitude and your life And O how wearisome how lifeless are secret approaches you would not have many errands to God if you thought no body looked upon you And for spirituality it is a Mystery in all mens practice Who directeth his Duty to Gods Glory If you get some flash of liberty you have your desire But who misseth Gods presence in Duties which a world will approve Who go mourning as without the Sun even when you have the Sun-shine of Ordinances and walketh in the light of them And fourthly though your performances had uprightness of heart going alongs and much affection in them yet all are filthy because of want of Faith in Jesus Christ When you make your Duties a covering of your sins and think to satisfy Gods Justice for the rest of your faults by doing some point of your Duty then it cannot choose but be polluted in his sight And this very thing was the cause of Gods rejecting the Jews righteousness even because they did not look to the end of the Mystery Christ Jesus Did not pull by the vail of Ceremonies to see the Immaculat Lamb of God slain for sin And therefore doth the Lord so quarrel with them as if he had never commanded them to do such things Isai 1. 12 13. Who hath required these things at your hands bring no more vain oblations all is Abomination Even as God should say to you when you come to the Church who required you to come Who commanded you to come to hear the Preaching What have you to do to pray What warrand have you to communicat All your Praying Hearing Communicating is Abomination who commanded you to do these things Would you not think it a foolish Question You would soon answer that God himself commanded you and will he not let us do his bidding Indeed this
say it as you use to say I pray both day â—d night Nay but count after this rule and â—ere will be found few prayers in Scotland alâ—it you reckon up both privat and publick â—nce scrape out of the compt the prayers of the â—ophane and scandalous whose practice deâ—eth their prayers And again blot out the â—ayers of mens tongues and mouths when â—arts are absent And again set aside the â—ormal dwyning coldrife indifferent suppliâ—tions of Saints and the prayers that carry no â—eal of Gods Name and Attributes on them â—rayers made to an unknown God And will â—ou find many behind No certainly any of â—ou may take up the complaint in behalf of the â—and There is none that calleth on thy Name or â—ew to count upon You may say so of your â—elves if you judge thus I have almost never â—rayed God hath never heard my voice and â—ou may say so of the Land This would be a â—ell spent day if this were but our exercise to â—nd out the sins of our duties in former humiliaâ—ions If the Spirit did so convince you as to â—ot out of the roll of Fasts all the former If â—ou come this length as to be convinced solidly â—at you have never yet prayed and mourned for â— I have lived this long and been babling â—ll this while I have never once spoken to God â—ut worshipped I knew not what fancied a God like my self that would be as soon pleaseâ— with me as I was with my self If the Lorâ— wrought thus on your hearts to put you â—â— your own righteousness you should have moâ— advantage in this then in all your Sabbaths anâ— Fasts hitherto Secondly Although the Lords hand be upoâ— them and they fade as a leaf and are driveâ— into another Land yet none calleth on his Name This maketh the complaint more lamentablâ— and no doubt is looked upon as a dreadful sigâ— and token of Gods displeasure and of sorâ— stroaks Daniel an eye-witnesse confirmeth thâ— foretold truth Chap. 9. 13. All this is come upon us yet have we not made our prayer to the Lord oâ— God Well may the Lord make a supposition and doubt of it Lev. 26. 40 41. After so many plagues are come on seven added to seven and again seven times more and yet they will not be humbled And when it is even at the door neâ— to utter destruction and consumption he addeth If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they take with the punishment of sin c. We need ask no reason of this for bray a fool in a morteâ— his folly will not depart from him Prov. 27. 22 Poor foolish man is a foolish man folly is born with him folly is his name and so is he He hath not so much wisdom as to hear the voice oâ— the rod and him that appointeth it Poor Ephraim is an undaunted heifer Nature is a bullock unaccustomed with the yoke and so it is chastised more and more Jer. 31. 18. Man is like aâ— untamed beast as the horse or as the mulâ— Threatnings will not do it God speaketh once yeâ— twice and man perceiveth it not Job 33. 14. God instructeth by the Word and men receive no instruction All the warnings to flee from the wrath to come are as so many tales to make children afraid He saith in his heart I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my own heart Since therefore he will not incline his ear to the Word God sendeth his rod to seal the Word and yet men are so wilde that they sight with Gods rods and will not submit to him A yoke must be put on Ephraim a bridle in mens mouths Psal 32. 9. They will put God to more pains then speaking and it shall cost them more pain For he that will not be drawn with the cords of a man love and intreaties must be drawn with the cords of a beast and yoked in a heavy yoke Yet men are unruly and the yoke groweth the heavier and sorer that they strive to shake it off An uncircumcised heart cannot be humbled How can the Leopard change his spots no more can my people return to me Jer. 13. 23. It is strange that a people so afflicted will not take with the punishment of their iniquity but will say in their heart Wherefore come these things upon me But here it is how can an uncircumcised heart be humbled God may beat on men with rods as on a dog but he will run away from him still the more Isai 9. 13. Nay it may be there will be more stirring after God and more awaking by the first stroak of affliction then when they are continued and multiplied The uncouthness of rods may affect people something but when his hand lyeth on but a little custome breedeth hardness aâ— more and more alienateth spirits from him Now we need no more to seal this truth â—â— our own experience I think never peopâ— might speak more sensibly of it It hath beâ— the manner of the Lords dealing with us to â— fair means to gain us to threaten before he laâ— on to give a proclamation before his stroakâ— And yet it hath been our manner from oâ— youth up to harden our selves against him anâ— go on in our own way Therefore hath thâ— Lord after long patience laid on sad stroaks anâ— smitten us yet have we not turned to him â— may be when the chastisement was fresh aâ— green some poured out a prayer and in trouble visited God Isai 26. 18. but the body of the Laâ— hath not known him that smote them and nâ—ver ran into their hiding place but the temptâ—tion of the time like a flood hath carried them awâ— with it And for the Lords children how soâ— doth the custome of a rod eat out the sense â— it and prayer doth not grow proportionably â— the Lords rods The Lord hath expected thâ— some might stand in the gap and interceed yet fâ— or none called on his Name General correction of the Land have made general apostacy froâ— God not a turning in to God So that we maâ— say we never entered a furnace but we havâ— come out with more dross contracted dross iâ— the fire Mens zeal and tenderness hath beeâ— burnt up reprobate silver may God call us We have had so much experience of the unprofitableness of former afflictions that we knoâ— not what the Lord shall do with us We thinâ— it may be the Lords complaint of Scotland Why should you be afflicted any more you will revolt more and more Isai 1. 5. What needeth another roâ— You are now all secure it is true because you are not stricken Nay but what needeth a rod for it cannot awake you all the fruit of it would be not to purge away sin but to increase it General judgements will prove general tentations and will alienate you more from me and make you curse God and the Covenant And indeed the truth is we know not what