truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express
a people he is set out as turning his face toward them Hence in Scripture the people of God pray for the favour of God under this notion Psal 80. 3. Psal 80. 3. Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved Psal 31. 16. Make thy face to shine 31. 16. 27. 8. upon us Psal 27. 8. c. In this sense Cain spake Gen. 4. 14. From thy face I shall be Gen. 4. 14. hid id est from thy favour And it is by some learned Expositors observed that when the term favour is joyned with behold or shine c. it alwaies thus signifies Thus Psal 67. 1. God be merciful unto us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us i. e. shew us some token for good this is sometimes called the light of Gods countenance 2. The fear of God sometimes signifies Gods glorious manifestation to his Saints in Heaven 1 Joh. 3. 2. 2 Cor. 3. 16. where as the Apostle speaketh his people shall see him with open face face to face as he is c. I am inclined to understand the phrase in the utmost latitude I will or shall in righteousness behold thy favourable face in the influences of thy love in this life and thy glory in that life which is to come and accordingly it will not be different to interpret Davids beholding 1. In this life they behold the favour of God with the eyes of their mind apprehending the love of God in Jesus Christ to their souls and being perswaded of it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8. 38. I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels c. shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the life to come they shall behold the face the presence and glorious manifestations of God not only with the eyes of their minds but with their bodily eyes Job 19. 26 27. In my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Then we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. and as he is 1 Joh. 3. 13. I have now opened the former part of the text which I called Davids resolution I will behold thy face in righteousness c. And you see it comes to thus much O Lord it pleaseth thee in the wisdom of thy providence to prosper my bloody and cruel enemies they are full of riches and children yet they walk proudly and dishonour thy name they have a large proportion of the good things of this life and they look upon them as their portion let them do so As for me I am indeed in a low condition poor and afflicted and persecuted but I will look after righteousness I will labour for the righteousness of Jesus Christ and endeavour to live an holy life and conversation having respect to all the Commandments and walking closely with thee Though I be used cruelly and unjustly yet I will walk innocently and manage a just and righteous cause and so doing I will look towards thee and hope in thee Let others look after the favour of the world my business shall be to contemplate thee to meditate to fix the eyes of my soul on thee that I may have the manifestation of thy love to my soul here and that I may enjoy thee in glory hereafter This shall be my aim this my study though I do not now see thee yet if my soul be clothed with the Righteousness of thy Son if I endeavour to walk closely with thee I shall one day either here or in glory behold thy face if I do not see thy face before I die yet in the resurrection I shall see it When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness I come now to the Explication of the latter part of the text which I told you in those words I shall be satisfied The Septuagint reads it I shall be feasted 1. The word signifies a plentifull filling The word by which the Greek Interpreters translate it signifieth such a filling as the beasts are filled with eating grass you know they make themselves very full seeding meerly by sense and according to appetite under no regulation of reason Thus it is used Hosea 13. 6. According to their pasture so were they filled and their heart was exalted To this degree are souls sometimes filled in this life with manifestations of grace Thus are the souls of the Saints filled with Gods manifestations of himself to them in glory Such sometimes are the shinings of divine light upon the soul on this side of Heaven that it knows not how to bear any more it is filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory But in the other life Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for them that love him Yet even then the glory of the Sun of Righteousness will be above the glory of the brightest Star They shall be glorified with the same glory as Christ and his Father are glorified as to the kind not as to the degree of it we can receive but according to our capacity In short they shall be so filled as they shall desire no more The word signifieth perfect fulness and therefore Criticks derive it from a word that signifies seven which in the dialect of Scripture is the number of perfection Seven times a day will I Psal 119. 164. Gen. 4. 15. Pro. 24. 16. praise thee that is many times Vengeance shall be taken on Cain seven-fold She that hath born seven languisheth Prov. 24. 16. The righteous man falleth seven times a day And so in many other texts But further yet the word signifies a filing as with dainties as a man is filled at a feast a man may be filled with bread but at a feast we are usually filled with pleasant bread as Daniel calleth it So then when David saith he shall be satisfied he in effect saith I shall be filled seven times filled brim full perfectly filled as at a feast And indeed thus shall the souls of Gods people be filled but when and how are two questions which by the remaining words must be resolved When I awake saith the text or in awaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in watching or in being made to awake or to watch For the form of the words it admits this variety of interpretation The LXX read it When thou shalt appear unto me The Vulg. Lat. When thy glory shall appear unto me We will first consider the original word in its latitude of significancy and then weigh what it here importeth The word in the Hebrew comes from a roo which signifies three things 1. To make tedious 2. To watch 3. To awake The two latter alone can fit this text and betwixt those two interpretations I find all valuable interpreters divided The Hebrew properly is in watching or in awaking
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
in Eccles 7. 2. Death is the end of all Eccles 7. 2. and the living shall lay it to heart The wise man dieth as the fool Eccles 2. 16. This ceasing of godly men and failing of the faithful put David to his Help Lord Psal 12. 1. and made the Prophet of old complain that no man would considâ—r it The Apostle asserts it and also gives the reason of it Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin I take the words to have an Analogy in them and the sense to be The body shall die because of sin But although the great curse so far falls upon the best of men who are made alive by the second Adam although the decree of Heaven touching them as well as others and their house of clay be such as must be dissolved as well as others and they must undergo the common fate of flesh and blood and having been wearied with the labours of this life it is but reasonable they should a while rest in their beds in the grave yet they shall not be like those mentioned by the Prophet who shall sleep a perpetual sleep Though they Jer. 51. 39. sleep they shall awake though they fall they shall arise therefore their enemy death hath no cause to triumph over them Our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go saith Christ Joh. 11. 11. 23 24. that I may awake him out of sleep Thy Brother shall rise again saith Christ to Martha she assents to it I know that he shall rise again at the resurrection in the last day As death is called a sleep so the resurrection from the dead is called an awaking out of sleep Thus in Daniel Many that sleep in the dust shall awake Dan. 12. 2. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust saith the Apostle That there shall be a resurrection is an article of our faith and so momentous aone that it is one of the pillars upon which Religion stands If the dead rise not then is not Christ risen saith the Apostle and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain and your faith is also in vain and the Apostles are found false 1 Cor. 15. 13 14 15 16 17. witnesses for God because they have testified of God that he hath raised up Christ whom he raised not up if the dead rise not And if Christ be not risen your faith is yet in vain you are dead in your sins and they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished By this and a far greater plenty of arguments the Apostle confirms a necessity of a Resurrection It is true the Resurrection belongs to wicked men as well as to the children of God they also shall rise they shall come to judgement but the resurrection shall be so much to the damage and detriment of sinners that we shall find in Scripture the Resurrection mentioned as if it were the special priviledge of Gods people Phil. 3. 11. If by any means I Phil. 3. 11. might attain to the resurrection of the dead they are called the children of the resurrection Luke 20. 36. But I shall forbear any further Luk. 20. 36. discourse upon this Proposition remembring that I am in a Congregation of Christians of whose Religion this is one of the fundamental Doctrines Heb. 6. 2. I come to the last of Heb. 6. 2. these Propositions I told you were implied viz That in the Resurrection Believers shall be Prop. 5. satisfied with the Lords likeness By the likeness of God here I mean the beatifical vision the manifestation of God to his Saints in Heaven when they shall be satisfied with seeing him as he is and beholding him face to face I observed before to you the emphasis of the term satisfied I told you that it implieth two things 1. They shall be filled 2. They shall be so filled that themselves shall judge they have enough A man may be filled and not satisfied the glutton may be filled with meat the drunkard with wine and strong drink yet neither of them satisfied the voluptuous man may have a fulness of pleasure and yet not be satisfied the covetous man is filled with silver yet not satisfied The wise man saith There are four things that say not it is enough and there are three things that are never satisfied Many more might be added the ambitious man is never satisfied with honour the covetous man is never satisfied with gold and silver the voluptuous man is never satisfied with pleasure and the objects of his lust No sinner saies he hath of sin enough No Saint saith he hath enough of grace but especially as to all creature comforts this is a vanity which ordinarily doth attend them they fill but do not satisfie but are like the grass upon the house top which is got with a great dâ—â—l of danger and difficulty and with which the mower filleth not his arm nor be that gathereth sheaves his bosom The child of God while he lives here is ordinarily not satisfied with grace he knows in part and he prophecieth in part he is not holy enough he cannot so perfect holiness as he desireth nor ordinarily hath he those clear and constant incomes of divine love and visions of peace as he wisheth for But in the Resurrection he shall be filled he shall be satisfied 1. He shall be plenteously filled 2. He shall be perfectly filled 1. He shall be plenteoâ—sly filled Here we are fed with morsels as we are able to digest and accordingly as our wise Father seeth best for us as the Israelites were fed with Manna when we shall come in the heavenly Canaanâ— we shall be fed with milk and hony and with a flow of it 2. Secondly He shall be perfectly filled When our corruptible shall have put on incorruption and our mortal shall have put on immortality we shall yet be but finite Beings and shall not be capacious enough to receive the fulness of divine light and glory The Schoolmen though they agree the immediate passage of the soul to God when it departeth from the body yet will not allow it to be perfectly blessed before the Resurrection because they say there will remain in the soul in its state of separation a desire to a second union and while one desire of the soul remaineth unsatisfied there cannot be a perfection of blessedness but in that day that which is in part shall be done away that which is perfect being come 1. The whole man shall then be satisfied with the likeness of God Here the soul sometimes beholdeth God by spiritual contemplation by the vision of faith by spiritual reflection when God is pleased so far to indulge his child but here the eye of the body sees nothing of him in the resurrection we shall see him with these eyes in our flesh saith Job After the dissolution of our bodies the soul indeed shall with open face behold the glory
greater priviledge than this is It is the happiness of Heaven to behold him as he is to see him face to face and is this no ingagement to lay upon you to seek righteousness to tell you that if you get into a state of righteousness you shall be some of them who shall see the face of God another day in glory who shall be heirs of glory and joynt-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ Are your lusts more worth than Heaven and your carnal pleasures more valuable than the pleasures of beholding God and being satisfied with his likeness 2 Branch Lastly What you have heard may be of use to perswade you that fear the Lord to your duties under the ecclipses of divine love It is the great business of a Christian to study and know and practise what is his duty in every estate You have heard that it is the lot of Gods people sometimes to walk in the dark and see no light what their duty is under such a dispensation I have at large shewed you I beseech you that you would be consciencious in the performance of it 1. Do not murmure or repine against God he doth you no wrong 2. Do not you leave beholding God though it pleaseth not God to look upon you with such a kind aspect as possibly you dâ—sire Do not give over your waiting upon him in prayer and in all his Ordinances But on the contrary 1. Appear often before him in the righteousness of Christ and plead that with him 2. Walk close with God perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. Keep your watch take heed of spiritual sleep giving way to temptation or to your own corruptions 4. Believe for that which you do not see hope for him whom you cannot yet behold and with patience wait for the Lord Never yet was a waiting soul ashamed nor a believing soul confounded never yet did an holy soul perish Do this and satisfie your self with holy David That when you awake in the Resurrection of the Just you shall be abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and Comfort your selves with these words A Narrative of the holy Life and Death of the Lady Katharine Courten Some useful Observations upon the latter part of the Life and the Righteous Death of the Right Honourable the Lady Katharine Courten one of the younger Daughters of the Right Honourable John late Earl of Bridgewater and late wife of Will. Courten Esq I Shall not undertake the pourtraiture of this excellent Lady from head to foot partly because the circumstances of her birth breeding and education were much the same with her elder Sisters whose Copy I have given more fully so as I should but repeat the same things again partly because indeed till the latter two years of her life she was not at all known to me and partly because that part of her life was it alone wherein she made not her self known to the world It was about the first day of April anno 1650. that her Lap having received an invitation from her noble Sister whom we have formerly in this treatise discoursed of came to spend the retired part of her life with her at Chaplifield-house in Norwich Her time of health with us was about three quarters of a year the other was her dying time I will suppose that none who knew her derived from Adam will think she was not subject to like passions and infirmities with others of the same blood but as these were not such but were consistent enough with eminent degrees of grace so neither were they her pleasure but her burthen And the Apostle tells us that we have an High Heb. 4. 16. Priest who can have compassion upon our infirmities being touched with a feeling of them having been in all points tempted like as we are only without sin I shall only copy out this excellent servant of God so far as the abundant grace of God appeared in her for our consolation and our imitation of her example Six things I observed in her in the daies of her health speaking much of the grace of God bestowed on her 1. The first was her chearful quiet thankful submission to Divine Providence I have not known hardly read of any Job alone excepted whom the Lord was pleased to blow upon with a series of sharper providences than he did upon this eminent Lady he had even made her a mark for all his arrows I have often thought her afflicted condition much parallel to that of Job he had great substance dear relations an healthful body and in a moment lost the comfort of them all This noble Lady was removed from the great plenty of her Fathers house by marriage to William Courten Son and her of Sir William Courten with whom she enjoyed a plenteous estate inferiour to few subjects of England Silver was with her as dust and as the stones of the field He gave her an Husband who was to her the man of her bosom the delight of her eyes and as the breath of her nostrils he blessed them both with a numerous off spring Thus he had made her mountain to stand strong and in this height of her prosperity she began to say I shall never be moved But it was not long before the Lord hid the face of his providence from her and she was troubled First he strips off her branches taking away one child after another until only one Son and one Daughter were left unto her Then he causeth an East-wind to blow upon her estate scattering and breaking the ships that went for treasures to the Indies every year bringing some sad tydings or other of this nature until the Lord had stript her naked and her dearest Husband was not only ruined as to his whole estate but involved in an irrecoverable debt and this noble Lady who lately equalized her greatest friends in an affluence of the good things of this life became into a condition of dependance upon them and through the violence of men is separated from her dearest relation who was now constrained in a remote Land to seek himself a City of Refuge and to secure her self from the snare of an oath which she judged unnatural it was that she retired to her noble Sister at Norwich yet in all this she charged not God foolishly The Lord had given and the Lord had taken and she blessed the Name of the Lord with a meek and quiet spirit humbly kissing the Rod of God that was upon her and holding her peace because it was the Lords doing who she freely acknowledged might do with her and hers what he pleased and she could not say unto him what dost thou Yea not only so but taken up with the admiration of the goodness of God to her seen in the readiness of her noble friends to shew kindness to her and her remaining children in their afflicted state and much more affected with this than with any trouble for Gods severer dispensations to her I
mortal who with you could glory Of all those things which serve to fill your story Birth Breeding Beauty Riches Honours she Knew what there was of true felicity In these The strains of courtesie and wit What Courtship several qualities would fit She knew how to receive a Complement And to return it with a Grace when lent And one thing more she knew which was to call These Trifling Vanities and slight them all To her to live was to Read Hear and Pray Her life was but one constant Sabbath day She sometime went abroad 't is true but trode Act. 10. 38. Her Saviour's path she went but doing good Had she been Catholick in the Romish sense What stock their thrifty Church had raised hence For poorer Madams Oh! how many pair Would she alone have watch'd for unto prayer How many might have sate at Cards and sent Their Beads to her to drop for them or spent Their time at Playes and charg'd her with their share Of close Devotions she had had to spare She of Moguntia whom the Priest espied V. Gazâ—â— pia bilaria Lond. 1657. p. 67. Ex Coesarâ— l. 5. cap. 5. With troops of Devils riding all astride On her long train to Church they from her glass Came with her something tardy unto Mass Mean while where were the Exorcists to indure Upon the holy ground fiends so impure Had notwithstanding scap'd the purging fire If this rare Lady had been of their Quire Her early presence and her Zeal no doubt Had clear'd the hallowed soil scar'd spirits out The Holy-water had been spar'd her eyes Had dropt the lazy Ladies Sacrifice Fond Catholicks charge us no more that we Advancing Faith teach good works needless be This Protestant out-did you every one And yet lookt to be sav'd by Faith alone Love to your selves is what makes you so free And by your works you think to satisfie Her good deeds were no peuance yet their store Was every whit as great if not much more Than yours which are design'd in Commutation For Purgatorial paâ—ns or expiatioâ— Of some flaâ—gtious crimes Her purer love To Christ constrain'd her noble soul above Your Lott'ry deeds you 'd nere your pence throw down Did not you vainly hope to draw a Crown You put your Alms to interest for gain She lent she gave and lookt for naught again You in Devotions who were wont to go To Walsingham hence forward learn to know The way to Chapplefield there you may see The place where once this Saint abode where she So long wrought Miracles of Love Far more Than your dull Colledge that was there before Thence weeping pass to Blicklin vault and there Pay your Devotions to her Sepulchre When this is done go you and do likewise Acknowledge Christ the only Sacrifiâ—e For Sin Take Heaven upon the gift of Grace Then work as she Thus you may see the place Where she abides and a Saint Frances find Can you believe 't that was not of your mind ERRATA PAge 3. line 10. read feeble Dove p. 5. l. penult r. Dinah p. 6. l. 9. r. she p. 19. l. 12. dele ordinarily p. 24. l. 1. r. from spending p. 43. l. 13. r. Jedidâ—ah p. 46. l. 20. r. their p. 54. l. 3. r. account of p. 58. l. 30. r. Jael p. 59. l. ult r. lazy p. 64. l. 16. r. excell p. 76. l. 28. r. because p. 77. l. 1. r. these are p. 80. l. penult r. on p. 86. l. 13. r. peruse Justinians c. p. 101. l. 8. r. the loss p. 103. l. ult r. all the p. 110. l. 22. r. Paul p. 121. l. 17. r. in the Land p. 122. l. 3. r. demission p. 153. l. 12. r. custos In the second Part. In the Epist Ded. p. 3. l. 13. r. Navis p. 6. r. approve himself p. 178. l. 22. r. a p. 183. l. 8. r. Root p. 187. l. 3. the verse misquoted 30 for 39. p. 195. l. 16. r. in p. 199. l. 22. r. the p. 201. l. 32. r. eternal p. 208. l. 17. r. An hungring after p. 210. l. 2. a comma at doubting p. 212. marg r. Cant. 8. 5. p. 217. l. penult r. hath done p. 222. l. 18. r. in p. 232. l. 4. blot out do p. 240. l. 9. r. to p. 240. l. 21. r. face TO THE Honourable Memory OF THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Chapplefield in Norwich NAtures Endymion whose Lyntean eye Did's Mistress secret Cabinet descry Who plants describ'd from Leb'nons Cedar tall Unto the creeping Hysop on the wall Who seeing Knowledge puffeth up might vaunt His held in capâ—te by special grant From the Lord Paramount who virtue vice Nature and Art what not did enterprise Remits the search t' a more sagacious mind Saying A vertuous woman who can find One of a thousand men no female mate Sure God dâ—d Male and Female good create And though the strong man armed first attaqueâ— The weaker Sex and her his Engine makes Yet God to countermine makes her also The Magazine of Arms and Champion too An Achillean Spear to wound and heal Right Weapon-Salve cause both of woe and weal And now through grace goodness in man and woman Without exception doth enter common Vertue is not monopoliz'd but mean Nor 's Phoenix masculine but Epicene Here was a Vertuous Woman Solomon Might here have had for his Deucalion A Pyrrha one where each becoming grace Ambitious of an advantageous place To shew it self agreed in one Tense To make themselves a noble residence Here you might see greatness and couâ—tesie In-laid and counterpointed equally There 's Modesty like to the Morning Rose Which Phoebus tyring doth but half disclose 'Bove them with eyes lift up and bended knee Is Closet-piety This you may not see That 's Charity on her attendant stands With chearful aspect free and open hands She in th' old dress which there you standing see Waiting on her is Madam Constancy And that below which hangeth down the crest Humility which graceth all the rest If Vertue need an adventitious praise Beauty and Honour here did lend its bayes Heroick Vertue from prolifick womb Of Noble blood by th' holy Spirit doth come If Rarity Encomiums may indite O' th' better side she was an Heteroclite Not many Noble called chosen ones All goods are rare Pearls are call'd Unions Goodness impal'd with greatness is indeed A Noble Vine and wholly a right seed How O Vinedressers for the Vine laid waste Whose shadow was so sweet whose fruit did taste So gratefully 'T is cut up branch and root Nor slip nor cion left again to sprout The comfort 's this she is no withered gourd A Tree of Righteousness Plant of the Lord By him transplanted she more fruit shall yield In the Elysian than in Chapplefield To the Illustrious Memory OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Capplefield in Norwich OH for a Sea of tears for tears of blood Oh! for an hundred eyes to weep a flood Of waters
he foreknew such a day he believed it he hoped for it and rejoyced So Hearing in Scripture often indeed most ordinarily signifieth much more than bare hearing viz. hearkening attentive hearing believing obeying So for words signifying Passion Thus the wrath and anger of God in Scripture when it is threatned doth not only signifie Gods just will to punish but also his acts of vindicative justice I will bear the indignation of the Lord saith the Prophet because I have sinned against him That is I will bear those punishments which the wrath of the Lord hath brought upon me So here The fear of the Lord doth not only signifie an inward awe and dread of God caused by the Spirit of God in the hearts of creatures upon the apprehension of Gods Majesty Greatness Power Glory Goodness or other Attributes but it also importeth all those external acts all that outward deportment and behaviour which naturally flow or which according to the divine rule should flow from that principle So that the woman fearing Jehovah is not only she who in the contemplation of the Majesty Power Greatness Glory Justice and Goodness of God reverenceth and dreadeth him carrying in her heart a continual awe of the great God of Heaven and Earth which makes her heart and thoughts stoop and bow at the meditation or hearing of him in consideration of that infinite Majesty Glory Greatness and Power which naturally require that homage from every reasonable nature but also in the whole of her conversation in all her actions both before and towards God and men in obedience to that principle of Religion Fear exerciseth her self in all things to keep a good conscience void of offence not daring to do any thing which may provoke this God to displeasure whom she thus dreadeth and being exactly careful to do all things which and as he commandeth This is the woman fearing Jehovah so far as we have yet discovered her But this is not all which this term importeth Once more 3. It is very ordinary as in other Writings so in holy Writ by a figure called Synechdoche to express a part of a thing for the whole Look as the Philosopher saith of moral virtues Virtutes sunt concatenatae the Virtue like beads are all strung in a chain and none can properly be denominated virtuous who in some degree or other hath not all habits of virtue So I may say in matters of grace The graces of Gods Spirit are in a chain too Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of the chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. A man cannot have one but he must have all of them nor from a single habit can any be denominated a gracious person in regard of this concatenation of grace It is ordinary in Scripture to find a gracious person expressed Synechdochically under the notion of one singular special habit of grace especially some one more principal operative habit Now of all habits there are none more operative than those of Fear and Love None that take more hold on the souls or whose influence upon it is more evident Hence in Scripture it is very ordinary to find an holy gracious person expressed under the notion of one fearing God or one that loveth God Divines have observed that the former is more common to the Old Testament which gives account to the Church of God under its Paedagogical estate when the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace was more terrible and the latter to the New Testament where it is more sweet Thus the grace and godly conversation of Obadiah 1 King 18. 5. of Job Job 1. 8. of the whole body of severer professors Mal. 3. 16. is expressed and so very frequently and in the New Testament where the dispensation is more sweet and gentle it is more ordinary to express the same things under the notion of believing and loving 1 John 4. 21. He that loveth God John 21. 15. Simon Son of Jonas James 2. 5. lovest thou me Jam. 1. 12. To them that love him 2 Tim. 4. 8. Those that love his appearance So Rom. 8. 28. and in many other places But yet though as the Apostle speaketh we be come now to Mount Sion and we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of Adoption teaching us to cry Abba Father And as the Apostle saith Perfect love casteth out fear Yet those texts must not be understood of an awfull reverential fear and dread of God such as even the holy Angels have Nor yet of that filial fear of God which every child of God hath and must carry with him even to the gates of Heaven but only of servile slavish fear for even under the New Testament we shall find the servants of God expressed under this Notion A godly man in Thesi is thus described One that feareth God and worketh Act. 10. 35. Act. 10. 22. Righteousness So also Act. 13. 26. Cornelius in particular is thus described A man that feareth God and we shall find that the fear of God is so eminently necessary to the constitution of a godly man that any wickedness by warrant of Scripture may be presumed of those that want it Abraham thus excused himself to Abimelech for his not trusting his people with his life and the honour of Sarah I said the fear of God was not in this Gen. 20. â—1 place And on the other side Joseph gives this as a sufficient security to his brethren that whatever they feared he would do them no wrong This do and live For I fear God Gen. 42. 18 So that you see it is but a reasonable figurative way to express the whole of inherent grace under the notion of The fear of the Lord and to express the whole course practice and exercise of godliness under this single habit or act as a common head and this I think enough to have spoken for the explication of the subject in the Proposition and to give you the true notion of a woman or a person fearing the Lord or as the Hebrew phrase in the Text is The fear of the Lord. It is in short An eminently gracious godly woman Or if you will you may take it more largely thus A woman or a person who being possessed of all the graces of the holy Spirit of God communicated in regeneration and being grown up to some degree of perfection in those spiritual habits eminently lives in a diligent caution and taking heed of whatsoever is contrary to the holy will of God and a diligent and exact performance of all those duties of an holy life and conversation which those sacred principles command and produce in obedience to the whole revealed will of God This is the woman of whom this text speaketh The Woman the fear of Jehovah Let me now come to the second thing to inquire what is said of this person That which in short is said of
blessed them again and again yea and they shall be blessed Psal 112. 1. Blessed iâ— the man that Psal 112. 1 2 3. feareth the Lord v. 2. His seed shall be mighty on the earth v. 3. Wealth and riches shall be in his house Again Psal 128. Blessed is he Psal 128. â— that feareth the Lord. v. 2. Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee thy wife shall be as a fruitful Vine by the sides of thy house thy children like Olive plants round about thy table Behold thus shall he be blessed that feareth the Lord. In short this fear of the Lord is the same with what the Apostle calleth Godliness of which he saith that it is great gain having the promise of this life and of that which is to come It is the same with seeking the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof Matth. 6. 32. as to which the promise is made and all other things shall be added unto you It is true such are the mysterious dispensations of infinitely wise providence that we do not see all these things falling out to be the particular portion of every one truly fearing God in this life but the promise of these things is theirs and he who hath promised they shall find both able and faithful only they must also allow him to be only wise one who is so indulgent a father that when his children want bread will not give them stones nor Scorpions instead of Fish And his meer indulgence it is guided by his infinite wisdom which is the cause that the things promised in these promises are often not given to his children in specie but in the value They should have these things if their wise father did not see they would be losers by them if they have them not that he may not seem guilty of breach of promise for he cannot lye nor repent they are made up in things infinitely better and such exchange is no robbery or else they have a satisfied mind in the want of them and godliness with contentment iâ— great gain It may be they have them not at their own desire having prayed as Agur that God would give them neither poverty nor riches but food convenient for them Thus I have largely demonstrated the Proposition and made it good to you that upon all rational accounts which way soever we look to make up a judgement The man or woman fearing Jehovah is the most excellent person and the fear of the Lord is the most excellent quality or habit You heard before what pretences other persons or things haâ—â— to any degrees of excellency and you have heard now what transcendent superlative excellency these persons or things have above them how according to the dialect of the text they ascend above them all But I have yet a third thing to do which will give a further evidence to this truth 3. I have before considered those other excellencies in their full latitude of worth supposing them not at all subject to vanity nor liable to any rebatements from their true value by reason of any accidents which may depretiate them I must now take another view of them in their state of vanity and shew you what both Reason and Religion shew necessary to be rebated from the true value of them and then consider whether the fear of the Lord be under such a subjection yea or no if not this will be and that no slighty further evidence That the fear of the Lord is the most excellent thing and the person fearing the Lord the most excellent person For this I have a foundation in my text Favour saith Bathsheba is deceitful Beauty is vain Favour i. e. the favour of men whether of great men which is the spring of honour or of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vulgar which is the spring of same credit and reputation This is deceitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lye a meer falsity Beauty is vain we translate it in concreto but it is in the Hebrew in the abstract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanity Vanity it self that is most vain It were easie to shew you by a plenty of witnesses that the words in the Hebrew are both of vast signification and ordinarily used to express the utmost emptiness or unworthiness of things either upon the account of the Nothingness of them in reality or the Emptiness of them as to the satisfying our expectations Or the Sin and Corruption which ordinarily cleaveth to them and attendeth them Or the uncertainty and inconstancy of them Or their perishing nature or any other accounts For indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are words generally used in Scripture either to express things of nought or things that are sinful and so worse than nought But I will reduce my discourse to some certain heads and in some few particulars shew you the emptiness and vanity of all other appearing excellencies in some few particulars You have heard that all their excellency lieth either in the approveableness of some of them such as are the intellectual and moral vertues to the Reason of a man Or in their usefulness and subserviency to our comfortable subsistence in the world or in this That they are the gifts of God by which he maketh one person to differ from another But the falshood now and the vanity of all those things for which we must rebate lieth chiefly in these things 1. They are far bigger and more glorious in appearance than they are in reality 2. They are such as never fill and satisfie the mind of the person that is possessed of them 3. They are many of them at least dangerous snares to our immortal souls 4. They are all of them subject to eclipses mutations and changes which when they fall under the former advantages which any person had from them will not recompence the disadvantages which he or she will have from their disappointments in the lots or abatement of them 5. They neither at all help or make us to excel in the most needful time I 'will speak something to each of these 1. I say Those other things are far bigger more and more glorious in appearance than they are in reality Thus they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Any thing which seemeth to be something and is nothing or which seemeth to be more than indeed it is so far as it cometh short of what it seemeth to be so far it is no better than a falshood and meerâ—lye I will not instance in all those other things which I mentioned as raising the price of men and women each above other that were too large a work I will instance but in some few of them Take that pretty thing which we call Beauty it is indeed in appearance a great thing Doth not the vain woman think so who in the morning beholding her own reflection in her
child of God may be distinguished from that slavish and astonishing terrour which may fall upon the vilest persons in the world Let me have your patience to add a word or two to this before I shut up this branch of Application 1. In the first place take a carnal man who hath in him no more than a natural dread of God he is seldom or never affected at the lifting up of the hand of God only when it falls down heavy upon himself Look as men in correcting their children they lift up their hands first in order to their stroke so the great God is set out to us in Scripture Take the vilest of men they tremble when the hand of the Lord is upon them in some remarkable judgement that they feel the smart of Gods Rod but they seldom take notice of Gods hand lifted up Isa 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see c. There are three waies by which Gods hand may be said to be lifted up 1. In the comminations of his Word applied by his Messengers God in his Word hath revealed his wrath plentifully against sinners Now it is Gods usual method especially as to Nations and such Nations where the Name of God hath been published as of old to raise up his Prophets to give people warning so more lately to raise up some Ministers amongst such a people faithfully and powerfully to apply the threatnings of Gods Word to such a people Now here Gods hand is lifted up This now the child of God that truly feareth him will see and take notice of and suit himself accordingly You see it in the instances of almost all the good Kings of Judah But others will not see this lifting up of Gods hand Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet Ahab conmands Elijah to prison and so doth Zedekiah serve the Prophet Jeremiah 2. Again the hand of God may be said to be lifted up when God sendeth either some lesser judgements as fore-runners of greater or else by some signs in nature doth indicare iram declare his wrath Now this lifting up again of the Lords hand the natural man will not see There is that which God chargeth the Jews with by his Prophet Amos ch 4. 6 8 9 10 11. God sometimes shews his signs in the Heavens and alters the course of nature as an indication of his wrath Of this nature was the Ecclipse at our Saviours death the Ensis flammivomus seen hanging over Hierusalem many prodigious Comets and other signs taken notice of by all Histories before Gods eminent pouring out of his wrath upon a place Take now a child of God when he sees these things he is afraid though he dare not venture to give a particular judgement of them yet they make him to tremble and reverence God as believing he is doing some terrible work c. 3. A third way whereby Gods hand may be said to be lifted up against a person or Nation is when God makes some other like sinners examples of his vengeance Our Saviour taught us this when he made to his Disciples that improvement of the Judgement of God fallen upon the Galileans and upon those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell telling the people that except they repented they should all likewise perish Now a man or woman truly fearing God takes notice of these liftings up of Gods hand and fears but usually another never trembleth till the vengeance of God overtakes himself he puts the evil day far from him and will give no heed to such lesser judgements as usually forerun greater nor yet will he take notice of any signs of Gods approaching wrath nor mind the beginnings of it upon others But this is but the first thing and not universally in all points true But 2. Secondly If he doth at all take notice of any of these things he feareth with a superstitious or with a meer servile fear Fear much prevails according to the natural constitutions Persons naturally melancholick are prone exceedingly to fear and where you find natural men thus complexioned it is not extraordinary to find them affrighted sometimes at the signs or beginnings of Divine Vengeance but one of these two faults their fear hath It is either 1. Superstitious Or 2. Meerly slavish Superstitious without any ground at all from the words of God Such are these fears raised by Astrologers and Star-gazers and vain observers Thus it is given as the character of a wicked man That he feareth where no fear is Psal 53. 5. i. e. where Psal 53. 5. there is no true ground of fear no true and just ground And Prov. 28. 1. He fleeth when none pursueth him Or else 2. His fear is a meer servile fear and that in a very great excess God threatens his people that in case they were sound disobedient 〈◊〉 would Lev. 26. 36. send a faintness upon their hearts and the sound of a shaken leaf should chase them And such ordinarily is that fear of Judgement which falls upon the hearts of natural carnal men Or if not a judicial punishment yet a meer excess of natural passion 3. Though a natural man may fear Divine Judgements yet his fear never brings him closer to God A carnal mans fear of Gods Judgements hath many effects upon him and those very various according to the different temper of persons Some are made by it desperate and to defie the God of Heaven as Julian the Apostate they say threw up his Dagger to Heaven and cried Vicisti Galilee Thou hast overcome me O thou Galilean Others their fear hath such an influence upon that like those rebellious Israelites Jer. 42. they will presently resolve to remove from that place which God makes the Theatre of his Judgements Thus in times of Plague or other contagious Diseases or War they will remove from their habitations Yea though upon a rational view of things a prudent man would see no great cause for it Fear upon others hath such an effect as Nabals fear had upon him to kill him his heart upon it saith the text grew dead as a stone Others it may be their fear hath an influence upon to bring them to some hypocritical humiliation So Ahabs fear made him walk softly and put on sackcloth But the fear of Judgements never hath such an operation upon a meer carnal man as to make him take up any serious thoughts of searching what the quarrel is which God hath against him and throughly humbling himself before God for his sins which have been the cause of his wrath and to turn from them by any serious resolutions or indeavours after reformation This was the influence that Josiahs fears had upon him Indeed you shall see the difference betwixt the best of natural men in their fears of Judgements and the child of God in those two instances of Ahab and Josiah Ahab was a most wretched Prince God sends a Prophet to him â—1
King 21. 19 20 21. to tell him in short that God would ruine him and his family and all that belonged to him v. 27. Ahab hears those words he rends his cloths puts sackcloth upon his flesh fasteth lyeth in sackcloth and goes softly Here 's the best of a carnal man if his dread of God in his Judgements worketh thus far and to a temporary abstaining from some gross sins it is all you read not a word of Ahabs tending to inquire of the Lord not a word of any cordial humiliation or resolved reformation 2 King 22. 11. Josiah findeth the Book of the Law and heareth there of the wrath of God he rends his cloths so did Ahab but he resteth not here v. 13. He tends to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people and for all Judah c. was this all No chap. 23. He sets upon a real and effectual reformation with all his might Thus you see how the dread and awe of God upon the heart of a child of God doth not drive him from God but unto him it doth not stupifie but quicken him it doth not put him upon a formal temporary particular reformation but upon a fixed real general reformation Pharaohs fear flartled him and put him upon sending to Moses to pray for him and put him upon some good thoughts and resolutions at present but yet Pharaoh notwithstanding this was one who feared not the Lord. But thus much may serve to have spoken to this branch of Application I come now to the last branch I will shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation I will reduce all to three particulars 1. To such as have not this fear of God in Exhort their hearts to perswade them to labour for it 2. To such as have this fear of God to perswade them 1. To labour to grow in this habit and exercise 2. To live like excellent persons and to shew they have this excellent blessing 3. Lastly To the men of the world in general to perswade them 1. To an undervaluing of all other excellencies 2. To a true value of this excellent thing and these excellent persons 3. To give them of the fruit of their hands and to suffer their works to praise them in the gates In the first place let me press a word of 1 Branch Exhortation upon such as yet fear not Goâ— to perswade them to it It is a frequent precept in holy Writ Levit. 19. 14. Fear thy God I am the Lord ch 25. v. 17. 43. Eccles 5. 7. Matth. 10. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Rev. 14. 7. Eccles 12. 13. God calls to you Fear God Solomon calls to you Fear God Our Saviour calls to you Fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The Angels in Heaven call to you Fear God All the Prophets and Apostles call to you unâvoce and this is that which they say Fear God The meaning of this you have heard Not only dread the great and living God in the secrets of your hearts but let all your conversation savour of this fear so comport your selves in your whole carriage both towards God and towards your neighbours as you may evidence to the world not only that you have a natural sense of that infinite distance which is between your Creatour and you and the power that he hath over you but that you may shew that you have this gracious habit of fear wrought in you and that you fear God in the Scripture phrase You see this is a great picce of the will of God concerning you pressed upon you again and again in holy Writ Give me leave to inlarge a little in pressing it upon you I shall first give you some Arguments Secondly I shall offer you some directions in the case from the text And what I have said furnisheth me with two great Arguments 1. This is Wisdom This is Grace Job 28. 28. â—â—e fear of the Lord that is wisdom Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge That man who hath nothing of the fear of God in him hath nothing of God nothing of the Grace of God in him On the other side that person who hath in him the fear of God hath all that is an holy that is a gracious man There can be no more said of any than that he or she are persons not fearing God Nor can there be better said of any that he or she is a person fearing God 2. Secondly You have heard a person fearing God is the most excellent person in the world Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Others may call themselves excellent and the men of the world may call the proud happy but the truly happy the truly excellent person is one fearing God I might add a third 3. This is the only person who deserveth to be praised and whose works will truly praise him Let others be commended and admired for beauty for riches and honour and another for learning as the end of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments So that person that truly answereth this end and doth fear God and keep his Commandments will upon the best evidence which is that of Scripture and reason appear to be the person that is most worthy of praise and commendation Now if I could say no more than this to engage any to this study yet in other things this would be enough Every one naturally desireth the things that are excellent and is naturally covetous of honour and praise Would you have that which is in it self most excellent that which will make you above all others excellent that which most truly deserveth praise and will make you the truest objects of praise Oh get this fear of the Lord Give me leave to add another Argument or two 4. In the fourth place Consider the many Promises made in Scripture to the fear of the Lord Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth daies Prov. 14. 26 27. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15. 16. Little with the fear of the Lord is great gain v. 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ch 22. 4. By the fear of the Lord are riches Psal 112. Psal 128. are full of Promises to the man that feareth God The things promised in these and those many other Promises annexed to the fear of the Lord are such as every one defireth Who would not have long life riches and honour Either you believe the Scriptures or you do not believe them if you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God you must assent to whatsoever Propositions are revealed in them as Propofitions of eternal and
earned hath he not given you the penny you contracted with him for why are you angry then why discontented why lift you up your voice against Heaven 2. Again How many thousands are there in the world who have as creatures as much claim to God as you for whom the Lord hath not done so much for as he hath done for you He hath given them portions in this life and hath sent them away they have pleasure riches honours c. but no faith no hope nothing of grace no interest in Christ they are dead in trespasses and sins perishing to all eternity You only want a spiritual banquet the most want spiritual bread yet creatures under the same natural capacity that you are 3. Though in one sense you be not sealed yet in another sense you are sealed You read in Scripture of the sealing of the Spirit Ephes 1. 13. chap. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. We usually interpret those texts of Assurance because seals are used for confirmation But possibly there is another sense as agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost A seal you know leaveth the signature or impression of it upon the wax the wax hath the image of the seal upon it The Lords renewing and stamping his Image upon the soul is a sealing of it to the day of Adoption There is a seal of Regeneration and Sanctification as well as a seal of Assurance and though the latter sealing be infinitely sweet and pleasant to the soul yet the former is that which fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven Without holiness no man can see God Is there not as much think you of the operation of the Spirit seen in sanctifying quickening strengthening a soul as in comforting it and assuring it of salvation Is it our great mistake that we will look upon nothing as the fruit of the Spirit but joy and peace certainly the renewing and sanctifying of the soul is as much the operation of the Spirit and the strengthening and quickening of the soul in the performance of duty or in the resistance of corruption is as much the fruit of the Spirit in the soul as comforting and refreshing the soul is 4. If God hath thus far inabled you viz. to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness he hath given you the necessaries of salvation the things which accompany salvation What you want is only what a soul may want and yet get to Heaven Faith and Holiness they are the necessaries to salvation a soul may go to Heaven without Joy and Peace without Faith and Holiness there is no salvation When God hath given you the bread of life have you not reason to be satisfied Though you want that banquet with which he sometimes is pleased to entertain the souls of his people The Example of this rare and eminent servant of God might have at once as to this thing have instructed and reproved many unthankful discontented and repining Christians It had pleased the Lord to strip her naked of most of her creature comforts he had sent such messengers as he sent to Job to her one after another till at last death came to assure her all as to this life was gone she was under a sad and inexpressible trial of affliction It is true in this sad and afflicted state as to her outward concerns she had her lived intervals some glimmerings of divine light sometimes Joy came over night but sorrow came again in the morning the clouds returned after rain That word Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory often refreshed her but her adversary was busie her comforts inconstant her assurance little yet she lived in hope and blessed God and was thankful she endured violent pains and in her suffering acted a strong saith and in the saddest distempers would cry out Oh Sir Satan would have me let go my hold on Christ but I will trust in God till I die Though he kills me yet I will trust in him tell me I pray Sir may I not She died in hope her very last words were I hope I hope to make good that of the wise man that the righteous man hath hope in his death and by hope I doubt not but she is saved and now seeing what she hoped and with so great patience waited for Heark and be ashamed thou murmuring and unthankful Christian that art not so much as she disadvantaged from the providence of God yet canst not tell how to be silent because thou wantest consolatory manifestations Vse 3. In the third place What you have heard in this discourse may be useful to us for Consolation 1. On our own behalf 2. On the behalf of others 1. As to our selves concerning our dark hours The people of God are ordinarily very jeolous of their Saviours love and very suspicious of their own sincerity they know not how to trust as the one nor be confident as to the other without the incouragement of comfortable reflections nor how to believe they shall go to Heaven if they go not to it in the fight of it The wise man saith a man knoweth not love nor hatred by all that is before him in this life so that none ought to determine of himself in this case from any external dispensatious of providence A Christian may be poor and afflicted and yet a favourite of God and as he ought not to judge himself from these more external dispensations so neither ought he to judge himself from the want of sensible manifestations to his inward man The child of God may walk in darkness Job David Heman Asaph all had their dark hours if therefore that be our lot yet this is no ground of discouragement to us no ground for any sad conclusion against our souls as to their best interests 2. Again what we have heard affords us a great comfort against the fear of death The Scripture calleth death The King of terrours Job 18. 14. And the Apostle saith that even Gods people through the fear of it are all their life time Heb. 2. 14. subject to bondage It is the common portion of all the Sons of men It is appointed for all men once to die and it is our great interest to arm our selves against the fears of it you have heard from the former discourse 1. That death is but a sleep 2. That it is not a perpetual sleep but a sleep from which we shall awake 3. That at our awaking out of that sleep we shall be satisfied with Gods likeness 1. I say first death is but a sleep It is not an annihilation of a man that misapprehensions of it make it terrible to a man in his natural capacity It is not to the child of God the securing of a person to the Judgement of the great day In this notion unbelievers have reason to consider it what is it then It is but a sleep This gentle notion
Lord shall separate him to evil out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this Book of the Law c. None can hope for the savour of God here or hereafter but those only who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and who live an holy and righteous conversation before God declining all manner of sin and wickedness and doing the whole will of God and such who in this course of life through the grace of God inabling them shall be found believing in God and waiting for him in those waies of holiness and well pleasing in his sight Others indeed may pretend that they hope but indeed could you look into the secrets of their souls you would find them without any true hope not attending to the eternal concerns of their souls while they are in health and at liberty they are perfectly careless neither hope nor fear much when God alarums them with a conviction a terrour of conscience or a sickness that looks as if it would determine their daies then they begin to consider and as drowing men lay hold of every rush every twig never considering whether it hath in it strength enough to bear them they lay hold upon every thing as a ground of hope God made them and therefore they hope he will not damn them as if Hell were prepared for none Christ died for all as if supposing that were true all therefore should be saved They have been good Church-men paid every man his own they have been no drunkards no swearers c. These and such like foundations of hope they lay but saith Job Where is the hope of the Hypocrite when the Lord takes away his soul And again Job 8. 11 12 13 14 15. Can the Rush grow up without mire or the Flag without water while it is yet in its greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the Hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a Spiders web he shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not indure 2 Branch Again as I before hinted to you what you have heard must be cautiously understood and practised by Gods people I told you that such as fear the Lord such as are inabled by him to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness though they see not Gods face in visions of peace though they live though God calleth them to die in the dark yet they should be satisfied but how satisfied you have also heard not so as to sit down and think they have enough and never look after the light of Gods countenance no this is impossible it is their duty to be so far satisfied as not to murmure not to repine but not to be so satisfied as not to cry and pray unto God for further discoveries of himself unto their souls But it is more than time I should shut up this discourse Vse 5. Lastly This Doctrine may be applied by way of Exhortation and it looks upon all persons 1. Vpon unrighteous creatures Such as are in a state of sin without the imputed righteousness of Christ without any care of themselves as to a righteous conversation That they would return from the vanity of their courses unto God and labour for a state of Righteousness There are many Arguments in Scripture to inforce this The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11. But I shall only insist upon what I find in the text You have heard what I mean by righteousness and may easily apply what I have already said to inform you what it is to be in a state of righteousness viz. 1. To be clothed with the righteousness of him who is the Lord our Righteousness 2. To lead a conversation holy in every thing and conformable to the mind and will of God Watching against sin and all temptations to sin and watching to all duty both those of an holy communion with God and those of an holy conversation before God Two great Arguments to inforce this Exhortation may be drawn from my discourse 1. This is the only way to behold the Lords face No way to behold Gods face in this life but in righteousness No hopes hereafter to behold his face in glory but in righteousness Men may please themselves with dreams and flatter themselves with vain hopes but no man in this life seeth any thing of God no man enjoyeth any thing of God but the righteous man The Lord heareth not sinners the Lord accepteth not the unrighteous person nor can any without righteousness ever hope to behold the face of the Lord in glory Those who are not clothed with the righteousness of Christ shall indeed behold the Lords face in the day of Judgement but it shall be his angry face and it shall be against their will that they behold the Lords face then for they shall hide themselves in mountains and rocks and dens and shall cry to the mountains and to the rocks to fall on them and to hide them from him who sitteth on the Throne They indeed shall be filled but it shall be with their own waies for the recompence of their hands shall be given them and with the Lords wrath and vengeance on them for their sins for this they shall have at the Lords hand they shall lye down in sorrow Those alone who while they lived beheld the face of God in righteousness shall enjoy any thing of God here or in the life which is to come They only shall hear that blessed sentence Come you blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you This is my first Argument 2. It is no small thing that righteous persons have enough in this life even in their darkest hours to give them satisfaction A sinner hath not enough when he is at the fullest to give him a satisfaction his eye even then will not be satisfied with seeing nor his ear with hearing nor his hand with griping he will never have enough yet in his life he takes his portion Son remember saith Abraham in that Parable Luk. 16. 24. that in thy life time thou hadst thy good things But now see the state of a child of God take him when he is lowest he hath what is reasonably enough to give him satisfaction it may be he hath not at all times his overflowings of joy his spiritual superfluities as I may call them but he hath the perpetual feast of a good conscience Are not these two things enough to perswade some soul into a study and lâ—bour after righteousness is it nothing to have communion with God to behold his face it is the happiness of the blessed Angels to be ever beholding the face of God and certainly man is not capable of a