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A42680
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XXXI sermons preached to the parishioners of Stanford-Rivers in Essex upon serveral subjects and occasions / by Charles Gibbes.
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Gibbes, Charles, 1604-1681.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing G644; ESTC R25459
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268,902
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472
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our Spirituall Voiage towards Heaven and our Christian Warfare The Presence of God is All in all without God's Presence we can doe nothing though we should have all the furniture of wit strength wealth and the assistence of men yet should we not be able to goe one step forward in the way to Happiness we of our selves should not be sufficient to think any thing as of our selves for all our Sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 Yea our Adversary the Devil would easily devour us if the Lord should depart from us On the other side If God be for us who can be against us Neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall prevail against us The auxiliary force of God's Presence makes a Believer in Tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness peril sword to be more then a Conquerour even to triumph and to glory in the Lord as knowing that his Riches exceed Croesus his wealth his Glory Solomon's glory and that he may truly say without Thrasonicall vaunting Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come All are mine I being Christ's and Christ God's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Thus did the Psalmist express his apprehensions of the benefit of God's Presence in relation to his Safety Comfort and Happiness That he restored his Soul and led him in the paths of Righteousness for his Name 's sake Yea though he did walk through the valley of the shadow of death he would fear no evil for God was with him his Rod and his Staff did comfort him Psal 23.3 4. That his Goodness and Mercy should follow him all the days of his life vers 6. That he would shew him the path of Life in his Presence was fulness of Joy at his right hand Pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 As to be near such a King as Solomon was counted so great a Happiness that the blessedness of Solomon's Courtiers was magnified with admiration by the Queen of Sheba so much more blessed are they that are acquainted with God and are near to him In his Favour is their life Psal 30.5 The light of his Countenance is better then life it self Man being Animal sociabile a sociable Living creature needs Society it is most joyous for him to be with them whom he loves and who love him and can help him But such is none now in comparison of God and therefore no Company to a Holy heart like to God's David's Soul thirsted for God panted after him to come and appear before him But his Tears were his meat day and night in his absence from God and it was as a Sword in his bones to be reproached with this demand Where is thy God When God hid his face he was troubled Which comes to pass by our departing from God and that brings me to the II. OBSERVATION That the committing of great and enormous Sins endangers the Privation of God's Presence It is true that God sometimes to try his most upright Servants doth withdraw from them the light of his Countenance not out of Indignation against them for any great Transgression committed by them Thus he dealt with Job when he exercised his Patience which made him expostulate the matter with God Job 13.24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy vers 26. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Iniquities of my youth And Heman the Ezrahite Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy Face from me But this casting off and hiding God's Face is but for a time and not in wrath but like a Father's dealing with his Child when he for a little while sequesters himself to make experiment of his Child's Affection and to excite him thereby to seek him the more earnestly Nevertheless even this also tends to bring them to the acknowledgment of their Sins therefore the Prophet Hosea 5.15 brings in God thus saying I will goe away and return to my place till they acknowledge their Offence and seek my Face in their Affliction they will seek me early Even Job wanted God's Presence till he confessed himself vile and repented abhorring himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 But there is a more direfull Casting out of God's Presence with utter Forsaking so as to cast a people or person out of his sight for ever by leaving them to be a Prey to those who waste and oppress them as when he threatned Jerem. 7.15 to cast the Jews out of his sight as he had cast out all their brethren the whole seed of Ephraim which he accomplished in the Babylonish Captivity as it is Jerem. 52.3 Through the Anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah that God cast them out of his Presence especially because of all the Provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withall 2 King 23.26 And indeed though Manasseh repenting was not utterly and for ever cast out of God's Presence yet by reason of the hainousness of his Sins the Lord brought upon him and his people the Captains of the hoast of the King of Assyria which took him among the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon 2 Chron. 33.11 And David himself when he had by his great Transgressions provoked the Lord to Anger in the matter of Vriah the Hittite found God's favourable Presence so removed from him that in his House he suffered by his Children great Calamities which were inflicted by God to shew his Indignation so that though he were not Filius Irae a Child of Wrath cast away with utter Dereliction as a Reprobate yet he was Filius sub Ira a Child under Wrath for that present which made him dread his Danger and to be thus importunate with God not to cast him out of his Presence And indeed in case of great Sins committed presumptuously against Warning or Conscience enlightned and continued in with Impenitency it is inconsistent with God's Holiness and Honour to afford his Presence it being contrary to his Nature and Glory to countenance Evil who is not a God that hath pleasure in Wickedness neither shall Evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all workers of Iniquity Psal 5.4 5. He is of purer eyes then to behold Evil and cannot look on Iniquity Hab. 1.13 As it is with a gallant Prince who cannot brook a base Coward or a neat and cleanly Nobleman who cannot endure in his company a sordid and nasty Sloven but will thrust or keep such out of his presence so it is with God When a Man or Nation have defiled themselves with such odious Iniquities as God abhors till they be washed with true Repentance and new cloathed by putting on the Lord Jesus there is no hope of finding God ready to admit them near to him Wherefore
the Mercifulness of God in that he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and Vnjust Matth. 5.45 But his Mercies are most abundant to his own People chiefly to his Elect who are therefore termed Vessells of Mercy Rom. 9.23 on whom he bestows Mercies most freely He saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion vers 15. On them he bestows the sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 Not by works of Righteousness which they have done but according to his Mercy he saves them by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 He keeps Mercy for thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments Exod. 20.6 Yea for their sakes he doth often shew Mercy to and spare those that are disobedient in respect of outward Judgments Thus Moses stood in the Gap and turned away his Wrath from the Children of Israel Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed David supplicated for Jerusalem and the Angel of the Lord put up his Sword and the Pestilence was stayed Daniel prayed and obtained the Return of the Jews from Captivity And thus still God does to his People in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He doth not always chide nor keep his Anger for ever Psal 103.9 He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7.18 And this brings us to the IV. OBSERVATION That God's Mercies and Compassions fail not To this purpose is that the Lord saith Isa 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great Mercies will I gather thee In a little Wrath I hid my Face from thee for a moment but with everlasting Kindness will I have Mercy on thee saith the Lord. And indeed the Mercies of God to his Elect are as himself is eternall As they arise from himself so are they of interminable duration as himself is His Electing Mercy was before the World was his Redeeming Mercy before we were his Calling and quickening Mercy when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses his Pardoning Mercy when we have gone astray his Confirming Mercy when we are ready to slip his Comforting Mercy when we are ready to despair his Raising Mercy when we shall be returned to the Earth his Saving and advancing Mercy when we shall stand in Judgment and have no other Plea for our selves but his free Mercy when Time shall be no more His Mercy therefore is indeficient because it helps us when we are in the lowest Condition We count him a sure Friend who fails us not when we are at the lowest ebbe in the greatest Streights in the extremest Necessity And thus doth God who remembred us in our low estate for his Mercy endureth for ever Psalm 136.23 When our Pressure is great so as that the Enemy hath inclosed us and we know not which way to escape as Pharaoh did the Israelites at the Red sea even then he redeemeth us from our Enemies for his Mercy endureth for ever vers 24. Even then when we have none to help he helps us When he seeth his People's power gone when there is none shut up or left Deut. 32.36 when the Enemy is most insolent the Danger greatest our Hearts fail us we despond and despair when we say Our way is hid from the Lord and our Judgment passed over from our God when we conclude that we are cast out of the sight of his eyes and say with our Saviour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when in our own account we are free among the dead like the slain that lie in the Grave whom we think he remembers no more but they are cut off from his hand yet even then his Compassions fail not They neither fail in their Duration nor in their Constancy nor in their Efficacy nor in their Seasonableness but when there is a Necessity when it is for his People's greatest Advantage they then appear effectually Yea sometimes when we are insensible of our Danger when we are disappointed of those Supports we relied on when we are out of Hope when perhaps we are secure and know not how near our Affliction is when the Judgment comes in a way that is not perceivable as when the Arrow of God flieth by day and the Pestilence walketh in darkness and the Destruction wasteth at noon-day In these and all other cases wherein there is no Help nor Deliverance but in and from God yea when there is no reason to expect any no not from God himself yet even then his Compassions fail not he comes in opportunely and shews Mercy efficaciously And therefore justly in the next place V. OBSERVATION The Non-consumption of God's People their Salvation is ascribed by them to his indeficient Mercy onely to his Compassions that fail not David thus begins one of his Psalms 89.1 2. I will sing of the Mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy Faithfulness to all generations For I have said Mercy shall be built up for ever thy Faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very Heavens And Psal 117. he saith O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People for his mercifull Kindness is great towards us and the Truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise ye the Lord. And the 136. Psal throughout is one continued Invitation to give Thanks to God for his Mercy endureth for ever 26 times repeated Consonant whereto is that of the Prophet Isa 63.7 I will mention the Loving-kindnesses of the Lord and the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great Goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his Loving-kindnesses In the New Testament the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Magnificat sings thus My Soul doth magnify the Lord for that his Mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his Mercy Luk. 1.46 50 54. Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people to perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers vers 68 72. John Baptist was to give knowledge of Salvation unto his People by the Remission of their Sins through the tender Mercy of our God vers 77 78. In a word this was the main in the holy Songs of the Ministers of the Temple to give thanks to the Lord because his Mercy endureth for ever 1 Chron. 16.41 And in like manner Jehosaphat when he had consulted with the people appointed Singers unto the Lord and that should praise the Beauty of Holiness as they went out before the Army and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever 2 Chron. 20.21 And the same Commemoration of