duely on it and then walk worthy of it Now this Love of God I cannot more compendiously declare than by that of the Apostle Ephes 1.3 c. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ c. In which ye are to observe six remarkable things in Gods blessing of us for which we are to bless him 1. That God the Father of Christ is the Author of all our Blessings especially of Spiritual Blessings Election Redemption and all that flow from thence are given us upon the account of Christ by whom God becomes our Father that is by Adoption by which we have the right of Inheritance that is Salvation 2. That by the word Blessings he includes all things pertaining to Salvation because he saith with all spiritual Blessings alluding to Gods Promise made to Abraham in Christ saying In thee shall all the Nationss of the earth he blessed And therefore he will give the consummation of this Blessing at the day of Judgment to his Elect saying Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you i. e. from his Everlasting Love ver 6. 3. That the Father loves and blesseth us that is his Chosen ones and none else Vers 4 5. who declare themselves such by their Faith and Holiness and Love vers 4. 4. That these Blessings are principally Spiritual Blessings such as the Elect only receive in a peculiar and distinguishing way and that under two Considerations 1. They are not carnal Blessings though the Father denyes not these to his Children for which his Child must bless him but here they are called spiritual because chiefly such 2. They are not common spiritual Blessings neither such are temporary Faith Heb. 6. 1 Cor. 13. a great degree of Knowledge even in Spiritual things yea a taste also of the Holy Ghost and the Beginning of a pious Life c. But only saving Grace and Eternal Glory the Fruit of Eternal Election for all other spiritual Blessings follow and flow from that as the true Knowiedge of God a living Faith effectual Calling Justification Sanctification a Christian Life Love to the Saints and Life Eternal this the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Blessing as containing and comprehending all fully and perfectly 5. But there is one thing more to be noted from that word in heavenly places For as carnal Blessings have their Beginning in the Earth and there they end so heavenly Blessings come from Heaven and terminate there in Glory without end Therefore we render it in heavenly places because it notes the Place of it which is Heaven where Christ is exalted in Glory as our Head to communicate and accumulate all spiritual Blessings on his elected and redeemed Members There it 's said Cap. 1.19 to Vers ult in heavenly places in Christ All this is amplified in this first and more particularized in the second where he saith He hath quickned us together Ephes 2.4 5 6. and raised us up together and made us sit together with Christ in heavenly places All this is an high act of Divine Love toward us By which three things here and in Heaven all Grace and Glory is meant and that Saints do partake of them with and by Christ And this leads to a 6. Sixth thing wherein the Love of God to us is declared in the place afore cited Ephes 1.3 4 5. viz. in Christ by which is assigned the material Cause of all Spiritual Blessings namely Christ as Mediator and High-Priest 1. We are blessed in Christ i. e. for Christs sake and upon his account 2. In Christ by the Merits of Christ by his Obedience Passion and Death 3. In Christ as our Head from whom as such all our Blessings flow in our Souls and Bodies therefore is he called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 That is in the Person of Christ We are raised with him and sit in Heaven with him i. e. We are counted raised and sitting there by his Dignity and Glory as our Head By this Imputation the Papists Justification by Inherent Righteousness is fully confuted Also we have infinite Priviledge and Comfort that the Lord Jesus is made to us his members Righteousness and Holiness which can never be had any other way either within us or without us but in Christ our Head only and there only it is perfect and sure and all this in love For the Father hath demonstrated his love to Christ for this his undertaking and his love to us because he appointed him for us and accepts us in him Ephes 1.3 4 5 6. This is the first Branch of the fifth Use of Studying the Love of God to us in Christ in all the Causes of it and in all the Parts of it For this is a strong Motive to keep us in this Love to understand it and to believe it and to walk up to it 2. The second Branch To understand and practise our Love to the Lord answering his Love to us 1. Understand what Love that is wherewith we are to love the Lord and whereby we keep our selves in his Love to us Matth. 22.36 37. In order unto this ye are to know that the whole Worship of God consists in the Love of God Hence Ambrose saith The Love of God is the form of all Vertue yea the Head and Foundation of all true Religion The end of the Law is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.5 and Faith unfeigned There are three things that are in true Love 1. To be affected with a desirable Object upon our knowledge of it to be good 2. To be carryed out strongly in our Desires after it that we may be united with it 3. When we enjoy it to Rejoyce in it and to rest in it as in our End and Center of our Desires This the word signifies in the Original Hebrew and Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rest greatly in the enjoyment of the thing beloved as Etymologists have it Phavorinus c. So true Love contains in it Affection Desire Joy as the Beginning Progress and End of it and this will be perfect in Heaven and our Perfection and Happiness In this Love outvyes all other Grace 1 Cor. 13. We have an excellent Saying of St. Augustin to this purpose Tom. 4. libro de substantiâ dilectionis Cap. 6. This is then the rest of the Soul when it is fixed by the Love of God as to its desire nor desires any thing or Object besides but having got possession of that which it desires is wholly taken up with the Delight of it and is happy in the secure enjoyment of it Whence we are to learn wherein the true Nature of our Love of God stands that the Heart rest in the enjoyment of what it desires which it can do in nothing else And only our Love to God is true
glorious and that in an eminent manner above all the outward Worship of the Old Testament in the Tabernacle and Temple whose Glory was great and as unto external Pomp inimitable To this purpose the Apostle disputes at large 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8 9 10. This therefore is agreed that there ought to be Beauty and Glory in divine Worship and that they are most eminently in that which is directed and required in the Gospel But withal the Apostle declares in the same place that this Glory is Spiritual and not Carnal so did our Lord Jesus Christ foretel that it should be and that unto that end all distinction of places with all outward advantages and Ornaments belonging unto them should be taken away John 4 20 21 22 23 24. It belongs therefore unto our present Design to give a brief Account of its Glory and wherein it excels all other ways of divine Worship that ever were in the world even that under the Old Testament which was of divine Institution wherein all things were ordered for Beauty and Glory And it may be given in the Instances that ensue 1. The express Object of it is God not as absolutely considered but as existing in three Persons of Father Son and Holy Spirit This is the principal Glory of Christian Religion and its Worship Under the Old Testament the Conceptions of the Church about the Existence of the Divine Nature in distinct Persons were very dark and obscure for the full Revelation of it was not to be made but in the distinct actings of each Person in the works of Redemption and Salvation of the Church that is in the Incarnation of the Son and Mission of the Spirit after he was glorified John 7.39 And in all the ways of Natural Worship there was never the least shadow of any respect hereunto But this is the foundation of all the Glory of Evangelical Worship The Object of it in the Faith of the Worshipper is the Holy Trinity and it consists in an Ascription of Divine Glory unto each Person in the same individual Nature by the same Act of the Mind where this is not there is no Glory in Religious Worship 2. It s Glory consists in that constant respect which it hath unto each Divine Person as unto their peculiar work and actings for the salvation of the Church so it is described Eph. 2.18 Through him that is the Son as Mediator we have our access by one Spirit unto the Father This is the immediate Glory of Evangelical Worship comprehensive of all the Graces and Priviledges of the Gospel And to suppose that the Glory of it doth consist in any thing but the Light Graces and Privileges which it doth it self exhibit is a vain Imagination It will not borrow Glory from the Invention of men we shall therefore a little consider it as it is here represented by the Apostle 1. The Vltimate Object of it under this consideration is God as the Father we have an access therein unto the Father And this Consideration in our worship of God as a Father relating unto the whole dispensation of his Love and Grace by Christ Jesus as he is God and our God his Father and our Father is peculiar unto Gospel-worship and contains a signal part of its glory We do not only worship God as a Father so the very Heathens had a Notion that he was a Father of all things but we worship him who is the Father and as he is so both in relation to the eternal Generation of the Son and the communication of Grace by him unto us as our Father so no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him John 1.18 This Access in our worship unto the Person of the Father as in Heaven the holy Place above as on a Throne of Grace is the glory of the Gospel See Mat. 6.9 Heb. 4.16 châ—p 10.19 20 21. 2. The Son is here considered as Mediator through him we have this access unto the Father This is the Glory that was hidden from former Ages but brought to light and display'd by the Gospel So speaks our blessed Saviour himself unto his Disciples Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive Iohn 16.23 24. To ask God expresly in the Name of the Son as Mediator belongs unto the Glory of the Gospel-worship The chief of them may be reduced to these three Heads 1. It is he who makes both the persons of the Worshippers and their Duties accepted of God See Heb. 2.17 18. chap. 4.16 chap. 10.19 2. He is the Administrator of all the worship of the Church in the holy place above as its great High Priest over the House of God Heb. 8.2 Rev. 8.3 3. His Presence with and among Gospel-worshippers in their worship gives it Glory This he declares and promises Mat. 18.19 20. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them All Success of the Prayers of the Church dependeth on and ariseth from the presence of Christ amongst them He is so present for their assistance and for their consoâ—ation This presence of a Living Christ and not a dead Crucifix gives Glory to Divine worship He who sees not the Glory of this Worship from its relation unto Christ is a stranger unto the Gospel with all the Light Graces and Privileges of it 3. It is in one Spirit that we have Access unto God in his Worship and in his Administration doth the Apostle place the glory of it in opposition unto all the glory of the Old Testament as doth our Lord Jesus Christ also in the place before referred unto for 1. The whole Ability for the observance and performance of it according to the Mind of God is from him alone His communication of Grace and Gifts unto the Church is that alone which makes it to give glory to God in his Divine Service If this should cease all acceptable Worship would cease in the world To think to observe the Worship of the Gospel without the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit of the Gospel is a lewd imagination But where he is there is Liberty and Glory 2 Cor. 3.17 18. 2. By him the sanctified Minds of Believers are made Temples of God and so the principal Seal of Evangelical worship 1 Cor. 3.16 chap. 6.8 This Temple being of God's own framing and of his own adorning by his Spirit is a much more glorious Fabrick than any that the hands of men can erect 3. By him is the Church led into internal Communion and Converse with God in Christ in Light Love and Delight with holy boldness the glory whereof is expressed by the Apostle
would perswade you to submissive patience Especially make conscience of a setled discontent of mind have you not yet much better than you deserve And do you forget how many years you have enjoyed undeserved mercy Discontent is a continued resistance of Gods disposing will that I say not some rebellion against it Your own wills rise up against the will of God It is Atheistical to think that your sufferings are not by his providence and dare you repine against God and continue in such repining to whom else doth it belong to dispose of you and all the world And when you feel distracting cares for your deliverances remember that this is not trusting God Care for your own duty and obey his command but leave it to him what you shall have tormenting care do but add to your afflictions It is a great mercy of God that he forbiddeth you these cares and promiseth to care for you Your Saviour himself hath largely though gently reprehended them Math. 6. and told you how sinful and unprofitable they are and that your father knoweth what you need and if he deny it you it is for just cause and if it be to correct you it is yet to profit you and if you submit to him and accept his guift he will give you much better than he taketh from you even Christ and everlasting life III. Set your selves more diligently than ever to overcome the inordinate love of the world It will be a happy use of all your troubles if you can follow them up to the Fountain and find out what it is that you cannot bear the want or loss of and consequently what it is that you overlove God is very jealous even when he loveth against every Idol that is loved too much and with any of that love which is due to him and if he take them all away and tear them out of our hands and hearts it is merciful as well as just I speak not this to those that are troubled only for want of more faith and holiness and communion with God and assurance of Salvation These troubles might give them much comfort if they understood aright from whence they come and what they signifie For as impatient trouble under worldly crosses doth prove that a man loveth the world too much so impatient trouble for want of more holiness and Communion with God doth shew that such are lovers of Holiness and of God Love goeth before desire and grief That which men love they delight in if they have it and mourn for want of it and desire to obtain it The will is the love and no man is troubled for want of that which he would not have But the commonest cause of passionate melancholly is at first some worldly discontent and care either wants or crosses or the fear of suffering or the unsuitableness and provocation of some related to them or disgrace or contempt do cast them into passionate discontent and selfwill cannot bear the denial of something which they would have and then when the discontent hath muddied and diseased a mans mind temptations about his soul do come in afterwards and that which begun only with worldly crosses doth after seem to be all about Religion Conscience or meerly for sin or want of Grace Why could you not patiently bear the words the wrongs the losses the crosses that did befal you Why made you so great a matter of these bodily transitory things Is it not because you overlove them were you not in good earnest when you called them vanity and covenanted to leave them to the will of God would you have God let you alone in so great a sin as the love of the world or giving any of his due to creatures If God should not teach you what to love and what to set light by and cure you of so dangerous a disease as a fleshly earthly mind he should not sanctifie you and fit you for heaven souls go not to Heaven as an arrow is shot upward against their inclination but as fire naturally tendeth upward and earth downward to their like so when holy men are dead their souls have a natural inclination upward and it is their love that is their inclination they love God and Heaven and Holy company and their old godly friends and holy works even mutual love and the joyful praises of Jehovah And this Spirit and Love is as a fiery nature which carrieth them heavenward and Angels convey them not thither by force but conduct them as a Bride to her marriage who is carryed all the way by love And on the other side the souls of wicked men are of a fleshly worldly inclination and love not heavenly works and company and have nothing in them to carry them to God but they love worldly trash and sensual beastial delights though they cannot enjoy them as poor men love riches and are vexed for want of what they love and therefore it is no wonder if wicked souls do dwell with Devils in the lower regions and that they make Apparitions here when God permits them and if holy souls be liable to no such descent Love is the Souls poise and spring and carrieth souls downward or upward accordingly Away then with the earthly fleshly Love How long will you stay here And what will Earth and Flesh do for you So far as it may be helpful to Holiness and Heaven God will not deny it to submissive Children but to overlove is to turn from God and is the dangerous Malady of Souls and the poise that sinks them down from Heaven Had you learnt better to forsake all for Christ and to account all but as Loss and Dung as Paul did Phil. 3.8 you could more easily bear the want of it When did you see any live in discontent and distracted with Melancholy Grief and Cares for want of Dung or of a Bubble a Shadow or a merry Dream If you will not otherwise know the world God will otherwise make you know it to your Sorrow IV. If you are not satisfyed that God alone Christ alone Heaven alone is enough for you as matter of felicity and full content go study the Case better and you may be convinced Go learn better your Catechism and the Principles of Religion and then you will learn to lay up a Treasure in heaven and not on Earth and to know that its best to be with Christ and that death which blasteth all the glory of the world and equalleth the rich and the poor is the common Door to Heaven or Hell And then Conscience will not ask you whether you have lived in pleasure or in pain in riches or in want but whether you have lived to God or to the Flesh for Heaven or for Earth and what hath had the preheminence in your hearts and Lives If there be shame in Heaven you will be ashamed when you are there that you whined and murmured for want of any thing that the flesh desired upon
John 20.17 Go in my Brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God A power to spirituallize carnal affections Col. losâ— 3â— â— If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God set your affectiâ—n on things â—bove and not on things upon the earth Finally a power to conâ—â—rm and establish the soul in Grace for Christ being â—â—ised from the â—ead diâ—th no 〈◊〉 death hath no more dominion oâ—er him and they that are once really quickened by him shall never more become dead in sins and 〈◊〉 passes but shall continue faithful to the death and may confidently expect a joyful resurrection Christ is risen as the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Therefore there will be an Harvest at the end of the world when all the bodies of the Saints that were sown in Corruption shall be raised in Incorruption that were sown in dishonour shall be raised in Glory 6. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies greater satisfaction aboue his imputed righteousness The Apostle having spoken of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ presently declares his desire to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is through the Faith of him the righteousness which is of God by Faith Phil. 3.9 This righteousness of Christ is called the righteousness of God Because 't is that which God accepts and upon the account of which he justifies the ungodly moreover Christ himself is Jehovah the true God else his obedience and sufferings would not have been sufficient to have been our justifying Righteousness * Cur insane Sophista assâ—ris dilectionâ—m spem alias virtutes scio has esse insignia Dei dona divinitus mandata per Spiritum sanctum in nostris cordibus excitari ali Scio fidem sine his donis non â—xistere Sed nunc nobis quaestio â—st quid cujusque proprium sit Tenes manu varia semina non autem quaero quae cum quibus conjuncta sint Sed quae cujusque propria virtus Hic aperte dic quid faciat sola fides non cum quibus virtutibus sit conjuncta Sola fides apprehendit promissionem credit promittenti deo deo porrigenti admovet manum et accipit hoc proprium soliuâ— fidei opus est Charitas spes patientia habent alias materias circaquas vâ—rsantur habent alios limites intra quos consistunt non enâ—m complectuntur promissionem sed mandata exequuntur Luther Tom. 2. in Gen. p. 57. a. This Righteousness is said to be imputed and imputed by the Lord himself and that without works and this Doctrine was preached in the Old Testament by David as well as in the New by the Apostle Paul Rom. 4.6 Nay as Christ is called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 So Jerusalem the Church is called after her Husbands Name the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 33.16 to shew the reality of the imputation of this righteousness and the real and blessed benefits that follow upon it T is by this righteousness applyed by Faith that we are justifyed from all our Transgressions of the Law and from our sins against the Gospel That guilt which we have contracted by our impenitency and unbelief which are sins against the Gospel can be removed out of Gods sight only by the righteousness by the blood and death of his Son All Justification therefore before God whether our sins have been against the first or the second Covenant is purely meerly by this righteousness of Jesus Christ whereof Faith is medium applicationis a means to apply Oh the compleatness and perfection of this Righteousness of Christ there is no need of any addition He is called the Sun of Righteousness and therefore in the business of Justification all other righteousness should vanish as the Stars do at the Sun rising Let Satan rage let Rome deride and reproach this Article of imputed righteousness must stand or the Church will fall And the better Christ is known the more confidently shall we own his righteousness 7. Growing in the Knowledg of Christ implies a more constant and fiducial eying of his Intercession and the pity and compassions of him that intercedes Believers should better know this Friend and Advocate in the Court of Heaven who always appears for them there He presents to his Father what he did and suffered upon Earth and how effectual is this on the Churches behalf Though the head be in Heaven yet he is mindful of his Members on Earth and is ready to plead for them here is the ground of boldness in coming to the Throne of Grace for we have a great high Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Heb. 4.14 16. Here is the reason why the Saints Prayers are so mighty and prevalent they are backt with the Intercession of Christ nay 't is upon this that the Apostle concludes believers Salvation to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make Intercession for them 8. Growing in the knowledg of Christ implies being better acquainted with his great Power and continual presence with his Church which is so nearly related to Him Behold All Power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth at his Name every knee does bow and every tongue if it will speak truth must confess that Christ is Lord. He is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The mightiest Monarchs are more under his Power then their meanest Slaves are under theirs He has all the reprobate Angels in a Chain the Key of Hell is in his hand he commands all there and in Heaven the elect Angels are his Ministers to fulfil his pleasure He is indeed exalted far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this World but also in that which is to come Eph. 1 21. Now this Lord who is so powerful has assured his Church which is his Spouse nay his Body that he will be with her always to the end of the world Mat. 28. ult The Church therefore in spight of Earth and Hell shall last while the world lasts Let fear give way and Faith increase Believers may contemn their proudest adversaries See Zions carriage towards Sennacherib the great King of Assyria Esa 37 22. The Virgin Daughter of Sion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the Daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at ther. 9. Growing in the knowledg of Christ implies a better understanding him as Mediatour of the new Covenant so he is called Heb. 12 23. On this Covenant pardoning mercy renewing grace and eternal glory are promised Earth and Heaven the Creature and the Creator himself by himself are made over to Believers Now you must know that
all their promises are yea and Amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1 20. The Covenant was made for his sake 't was ratified and confirmed by his death his bloud is called the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13 20. his bloud being shed the Covenant stands good unto eternity Here is vast encouragement to lay hold upon the promises If you come to God and ask Lord hast thou not made promises of pardon to the penitent and believing promises of grace to the humble promises of satisfaction to the hungry Souls promises of joy and comfort to the mourners In his Word God answered Yea. If you farther add Lord Let these promises be accomplished for thy Christs sake the answer is Amen it shall be so they shall be all fulfilled 10. Growing in the knowledge of Christ implies a more earnest looking for his Word appearing The day of this appearing is appointed it draws very near being hastned by the Prayers and sufferings of Saints by the Sins and security of the World Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.37 If Christ were better known this day would be more longed for by the Saints Innocency will then be cleared all enemies more then conquered salvation will be perfected the whole Church of Christ with all its members glorified Col. 3 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Thus you see what it is to grow in the knowledge of Christ and the telling you this is indeed a directing you how to grow in this knowledge In the second place I am to shew you what properties are required in this Knowledge 1. This knowledge of Christ would grow more and more certain The Apostle speaks of Riches of full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2 2. The truths of Christ are certain in themselves the mind should understand them as most certain there should be an assurance of their certainty a full assurance of it such an assurance is a rich thing a thing of great value for 't will have a great vertue and efficacy both upon the heart and life 2. This Knowledge of Christ should more and more 〈…〉 when he sees the treasures of Wâ—sdom in Christ he should be sensible of his own folly when he views the robe of Christs â—â—ghteousness he should be sensible that his own righteousnâ—â—â— are but rags When he studies Christs fulness and Power he should be sensible of his own emptiness and weakness Finally he should see himself to be nothing when he perceives that Christ is all in all Col. 3.11 3. This Knowledge of Christ should grow more Spiritual He is not to be known after a carnal manner and therefore Popish Images are very unfit representations of him not that his flesh is swallowed up of his Divinity as Servetus dreamed but his flesh is glorified and as transcendently glorious we must now look upon him We must also know him as the purchaser and bestower of all Spiritual gifts and graces that we may be further renewed by his Spirit the Apostle â—s thâ—◠〈◊〉 be understood when â—e sâ—â—s 2 Cor. 5.16 â—â— Though 〈…〉 after the Flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more therefore if 〈…〉 in Christ he is a new Creature 4. This Knowledge of Christ should encourage to a mâ—â—◠〈…〉 upon him when we see what a sure and everlasting foundation Christ is here we should build higher and higher till the top reach Heaven there is no fear that the foundation will not bear the superstructure We may safely depend upon Christ for a lasting peace with God for perfecting the work of grace and abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom He that believes in him shall never be confirm did 1 Pet. 2 6. Let 〈◊〉 this Râ—lyaâ—â—e be called a â—â—lling faith but without scoffing at her let the Church of Christ be permitted to lean upon her Beloved while she is so weak as she is in the Wilderness of this World Cant. 8.5 5. The Knowledge of Christ should raise him higher and 〈◊〉 Christians estimation The more we know of him new beauties will still be discovered in him He is greater than Jonas a Prophet grâ—â—â—â— tâ—â—â— Solomon a King who was the most famous King of Israel He is altogether lovely nay he is the Angels wonder Heavens darling the brightness of his Fathers glory Here is no danger of an over value of an excessive love Therefore let the Spark be blown up into a flaâ—â— that may not be quenched by many Flouds of Water that may be too strong for Death and Hell it self to conquer Cant. 8.6 7. 6. The Knowledge of Christ should have a great Aspect upon whatever else is revealed in the Word of God 'T is a great matter to know the truth as it is in Jesus Eph. 4 21. The Apostle tells us that he desired to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2 2. will plainly intimate that he lookt upon other things with a respect unto Christ and indeed without such a respect what knowledge can be profitable what knowledge can be comfortable Luther said In Christs Crucifâ—◠〈…〉 Theologia cognitio Deâ— There cannot be a right knowledge of God if there be an ignorance of Christ crucified 7. The Knowledge of Christ it should be operative still in a greater measure It is inexcusable to be slothful where the Master is so good the promised assistance so great the commands far from grievous and the reward eternal The better we know our Lord Jesus we shall sâ—â—â—â— him witâ— a more perfect heart with a more willing mind Obedience is reasonable pleasant necessary we should be stedfast and always abound herein Labour shall not be in vain 1 Cor. 15 58. 8 The Knowledge of Christ should cause great glorifying and joy Well may believers who have no confidence in the Flesh who worship God in the Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus Phil. 3 3. God in Christ is become their Father and he will not disinherit any of his Children 〈◊〉 he has adopted but they shall abide in the House forever nothing shall separate them from his love The marriage union between Christ and them shall never be dissolved Mansions are preparing for them in Heaven where there is everlasting light and pleasantness and they are fitting for these Mansions and shall not be long out of them Well may they love their Lord and believing rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1 â— In the third place the Directions follow how you may increase and grow in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ The directions are these 1. Be sensible of your remaining ignorance and how great the hindrance is how great the harm is that is the effect of it You that are the Children of light and of the day have much of night and darkness in you A perfect
because he cannot be at once in all parts of his Dominions but God is omnipresent filling Heaven and Earth If thou goest up to Heaven he is there if thou make thy Bed in Hell behold he is there if thou dwellest in the uttermost parts of the Sea there shall his Hand lead thee and his right Hand shall guide thee All things are within his reach wheresoever any thing is doing or to be done there God is who is present in every place and with every person He stands at our right hands and so may well guide them so to do will cost him no travel nor trouble In him we live and move and have our being not at a distance from him not out of him but in him 2. God can easily Govern the world because of his almighty Power he is stronger than all his Word is enough to accomplish all his will The wisest of men are foolish creatures and the strongest are weak Kingdoms and Nations have frequently proved ungovernable to potent Princes Such breaches have been made as they could not heale and such tempests have risen as they could not lay Nay that man is not found in the world who hath Power sufficient to Govern himself How often doth his will rebel against his reason Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor His judgement sees and votes for that which is good but his will chooseth what is worse his sensual appetite longs for it and that must be gratified whatever the cost be We sometimes see that wise men gracious and holy men cannot curb their own passions but they take heâ—d and hurry them into great and uncomely extravagancies But now God is of infinite Power as he hath an arm long enough to reach so strong enough to rule all things He binds the Sea with a girdle and stayes its proud waves saying hither shall ye go and no further He makes the wrath of man to praise him though it be more boisterous than the Sea and the remainder thereof he shall restrain Job hath sundry passages to this purpose worthy of our remark Job 26. take some of them thus He hangeth the world upon nothing He hath compassed the waters with bounds He divideth the Sea with his Power the Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof And then he closeth thus in verse 14. Lo these are part of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him and the Thunder of his Power who can understand The Power of his Thunder is great which discovered the forrest and makes the hinds to calve what then is the Thunder of his Power when God doth but whisper a rebuke into the eare of a man that maketh his beauty to consume like a moth what then can he do nay what can he nor do when he thunders from Heaven In short his Power is irresistible and his will in all things efficacious He can master all difficulties and conquer all enemies and overcome all opposition when he hath a mind to work who shall let him he askes no leave he needs no help he knows no impediment Mountains in his way become plaines his counsel shall stand and the thoughts of his heart to all generations 3. Thirdly God is fit to Govern the world upon the account of his wisdom and knowledg His eyes run too and fro through the Earth He observes all the motions and wayes of men He understands what hath been is and shall be Hell is naked before him how much more Earth His eye is upon the conclave of Rome the Cabals of Princes and the closets of particular Persons Excellently doth David set forth the divine Omniscience Psal 139. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising and understandest my thoughts afar off Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways there is not a word in my tongue but O Lord thou knowest it altogether thou hast beset me behind and before He knows not only what is done by man but also what is in man all his goodness and all his wickedness all his contrivances purposes and designs The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it do you ask who the answer is ready Jehovah He searcheth the heart he tryeth and possessâ—th the reins Those are dark places far removed from the eyes of all the world but Gods eyes are like a flame of fire they carry their own light with them and discover those recesses run thorow all the Labyrinths of the heart they looke into each nooke and corner of it and see what lurks there what is doing there O! what manner of Persons should we be with what diligence should we keep our hearts since God observes them with so much exactness Men may take a view of the practices of others but God sees their principles and to what they do incline them Yea He knows how to order and command the heart not only how to affright it with terrours and to allure it with kindnesses and perswade it with arguments but likewise how to change and alter and mend it by his Power He cannot only debilitate and enfeeble it when set upon evil but also how confirm and fix and fortifie it when carried out to that which is good The hearts of Kings are in the hands of the Lord and he turned them as the Rivers of Water 4. Fourthly God is fit to Govern the world upon the score of his long-suffering and forbearance Those that have the reins of Government put into their hands had need be Persons of excellent and cool Spirits for if they have a great deal of Power and but a small stock of patience they will soon put all into a flame That man who hath but a little Family to mannage will in that meet with trials and exercises enough How much more he that is set over a Kingdom and unspeakably more yet he that is to Govern the world especially considering the present State of the degenerate world and how things have been ever since Sin made an entry into it The whole world now lyeth in wickedness there is not a man in it but doth every day offer a thousand affronts to God and provokes him to his face Angelical patience would soon tire and be spent and turn into such fury as would quickly reduce all into a Chaos There is not an Angel in Heaven but if there were a commission given him he would do immediate execution and sheath the Sword of vengeance in the bowels of malefactors But now to his glory be it spoken God is infinite in patience slow to anger and of great kindness Though he be disobeyed abused grieved vexed pressed with the sins of men even as a cart is pressed that is laden with sheaves yet he spares and bears and waites How loath is he to stir up all his wrath and to pour out the Vials thereof He counts that his strange work when he goeth about it his bowels do
the more we are in the dark the more at a loss yea the more perplexed and confused are our Apprehensions This the Transcendency of the Doctrines and Providences of God does evince which is enough to shew how humble we ought to be when we discourse of God and how modest in our Enquiries into his Doctrines and Providences Content thy self therefore with what is clearly revealed and leave what is hid and above thee unto God Be not thou so bold as to measure the boundless Mysteries of God by thy narrow confined Understanding neither do thou presume to reject what thou canst not comprehend What is of God is above thee for God is God he is cloathâ—â— with Honour and Majesty and with that Light which is inaccessible We ought therefore to be modest when we speak of the unsearchable Doctrines and Providences of God for in them we see enough to admire but can never comprehend and when we have spent all our time to find out God and the Infinity of his Being the Mystery of the Trinity the Mode of his Workings or Operations the depth of his Contrivances about the accomplishing fallen mans Salvation and all the great Counsels of God and the Intricacy of his Providences we must come to this Close with the Apostle O! the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Quest How ought we to do our duty towards others tho they do not theirs towards us SERMON XIX ROM XII 21. Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good WHEN God first made the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 31.1 and all the Host of them looking back upon his Work as taking delight in it He saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good There was an excellent order and sweet harmony every where all the Creatures above and below making then but one Host Gen. 2.1 did conspire to glorifie their Creator and be beneficial one to another So that if man had stood in his integrity the Earth would have been a kind of Heaven to him but when he put forth his hand to take and eat of the tree of knowledg of good and evil which alone of all the great Variety was forbidden him an inundation of sin and misery broke in upon him and all his Posterity For from that one sin of his there sprung in a little time a far greater number of sins than persons out of his loins one sin still begetting another and that another till in a while the earth was filled with violence Gen. 6.11 God not willing to leave things in this woful state designed a Renovation by a Second Adam a Reconciler one that should be our peace both with God and one another that there might be peace above and peace below restored again There were two Songs sung to this purpose the one at Christs coming into the World the other as he was about to depart out of it the former by a multitude of the Heavenly Host saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace the latter by the whole multitude of the Disciples saying Peace in heaven and glory in the highest Luke 2.14 and 29.38 The subordinate means of Reconciliation is the Gospel called the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 Eph. 6.15 and the Gospel of peace This is the great Engine in the hand of God to bring men powerfully yet sweetly to God and one another There are no Arguments so powerful to perswade to holiness towards God and righteousness towards men as those drawn from Gospel-Grace The Grace of God which bringeth salvation will teach a man those lessons Tit. 2.11 12. which can never be truly learned otherwise To live soberly righteously and godly Therefore our Apostle like a wise Master-builder in his Epistles usually as may be seen particularly in those to the Ephesians and Colossians lays a good Foundation for Gospel-obedience in the Grace thereof He first sets forth the great mystery of Redemption by Jesus Christ and the Grace of God therein and then concludes with exhortation to all duties both to God and Man from the consideration thereof He doth the like here in this to the Romans For having in the foregoing part of the Epistle convinced both Jew and Gentile and concluded all under sin and shewed the only way to Justification to be by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ he comes in this and the following Chapters to engage them to their duty both to God and Man See how he doth it ver 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Your bodies that is your selves souls and bodies the body being put by a Synecdoche for the whole man He expresseth both elsewhere as due to God upon the account of redeeming-love 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods He exhorts them to many excellent duties in this Chapter upon all which the word therefore ver 1. hath a powerful influence Altho the duty here exhorted to in the last Verse be so high that it is not easie to reach unto it viz. not to be overcome of evil but overcome evil with good yet the consideration of the mercies of God mentioned above will make this appear to be but a reasonable service The point of Doctrine from this Text is Doct. That every Christian should not only take heed that he be not overcome of evil but endeavour what in him lieth to overcome evil with good It divides it self into Two Branches 1. Every Christian should take heed that he be not overcome of evil 2. Every Christian ought to endeavour what in him lieth to overcome evil with good We shall speak a little to each of these in order and make the Application of both together which done you will see How we ought to do our duty towards others tho they do not theirs towards us I begin with the first 1. Bran. Every Christiaa should take heed that he be not overcome of evil By evil understand any unkind or injurious dealing from others which may be 1. By detaining or withdrawing from us the love or the fruits thereos which by the will of God are due to us either as men or men standing in such or such a special Relation to them Or 2. By speaking or doing that to us or against us which the Law of Love or the special Relation wherein we stand unto them forbids To be overcome of evil is to be drawn by the evil Temper or Carriage of another towards us to be of the like Temper and Carriage towards him To be so provoked by an injury done unto us as to return the like again As when two contraries are put together suppose Fire and Water that
Dead quickned and peeping out of their Graves to see why they are raised as if you saw the wicked come forth fearfully amazed with vile and filthy Bodies like Toads from their holes with pale and gastly countenances with trembling hearts and their knees for horrour knocking one against another tearing their hair smiting on their breasts and crying out what is the matter What meant that loud Alarm that thundring Call that awaked us out of the deep sleep of Death Oh! the Lord is come the slighted Christ is come Come how doth he come How cloathed with vengeance with fury in his face and his wrath like fire burns before him because of his Indignation the Heavens melt over our heads and the Earth burns under our feet and all is in flames round about us Oh terrible day such as this we never saw Oh the storms the storms Oh such burning scorching storms we never saw nor felt before We have been sleeping all the night of Death and the morning is come the day doth dawn Dawn Oh it is broad day all about we were wont to wake and go to work and go to sin to swear and lye to drink and take our pleasure but now we wake and must to Hell to Pain and Punishment Now we must go from God to Devils from the only Saviour to Eternal Torments Oh what day is this What day it seems to be rather night than day for it is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm against us all Impenitent Sinners and to us all it would prove the great Damnation day When our Souls and Bodies by Death were separated it was a sorrowful parting but this is a sorer meeting the Body with doleful groans doth strangely greet its reunited Soul Oh thou cursed Soul must I be tyed to thee again with a faster knot than ever Death did heretofore part thee and me but all the pains of Hell hereafter cannot do it thou wast Commander over me and shouldst have managed thy Government better thou shouldst have used this Tongue to call upon thy Maker thou shouldest have used these Ears to have hearkned to the calls of Christ to the wooings of Grace to the entreaties of Mercy these feet to have carryed thee to the means of Grace these hands to have been Instruments of good they were all at thy command what thou biddest them do they did and whither thou commandest them to go they went Oh that I might have lyen rotten in my Grave for then I had been at rest for though in the Grave I had no pleasure yet there I felt no pain but since I have been again united to this before-damned Soul I feel intolerable punishment and I now perceive it is past doubt that it will be Eternal the Soul will give no better salutations to the Body Oh cursed flesh what alive again Must I be linked to such a loathsome lump worse than any Carrion thou didst rebel against the commands of reason and thy Appetite was pleased and thy Lusts were obeyed and all the time of Life on Earth was spent and fool'd away in feeding clothing and adorning thee and as I was led away and entic'd by thee to live with thee a sensual flesh-pleasing life so formerly sowing to the flesh now of the flesh we reap that Damnation that shall be Eternal For the Judge is come his Throne is set and all the World is summoned to appear the separation is made the Books are opened all on the right hand are acquitted and called to the possession of an Everlasting Kingdom while we are doom'd down to Eternal Torments Lo they are going with their Blessed Glorious Lord unto Eternal Glory and we with cursed Devils like cursed Wretches to Everlasting shame and pain and banishment from God and Christ and Saints and Angels for ever Look thus believingly on these unseen things as if you saw all these and a thousand times more terrible and more joyful transacted now before your eyes 2. Look directly at unseen Eternal things Many do look indirectly at things Eternal but directly at things Temporal pretending things not seen intending things that are seen in praying preaching and professing seem to have an eye to God and Christ and Heaven but they look asquint to their worldly profits credit and applause Should pray that they might see God but it is that they might be seen of Men Mat. 6.5 Mat. 23.14 But this is to look awry contrary to Solomons advise Prov. 4.25 Let thine Eyes look right on and let thine Eye-lids look straight before thee 3. Let unseen Eternal things be the first that you look at Do not first look at Riches Honours Pleasures and please your selves with purposes after that to look after God and Christ and the happiness of Heaven when sickness cometh and Death approacheth and when near the end of time begin to make preparation for Eternity Men spend their days in getting a visible state while the unseen Eternal God and Glorious Saviour and Heavens Happiness is neglected by them but it would make a considering man to tremble to think what a sight these Sinners shall have after Death hath closed their eyes when the separated Soul shall see an angry God a condemning Judge the Gates of Heaven shut against it and its self in Everlasting misery Unseen Eternal things are first in order of duration for the invisible God was when nothing was besides himself and first in order of dignity and should have the priority of our thoughts care and diligent endeavours Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you When we first take care about Eternity the things of time shall be given to us over and above but the Eternal happiness of Heaven shall never be given over and above to those that primarily look at and seek the things of time for amongst men the overplus doth not exceed in worth the things contracted for But this damnable preferring things Temporal and cursed post-poning things Eternal is the setting of God in the room of the Creature and the Creature in the Throne of God as if they would set the Heavens where the Earth doth stand and the Earth where the Heavens are and so subvert the order of things which God hath appointed to be observed in the Nature of things 4. Look heedfully at Eternity All the things that are only for time are toyes and trifles the things for an Eternal World are the grand concerns we should narrowly look to in time the gathering of Riches in time to the getting of Grace and an interest in Christ for the escaping of Damnation and obtaining of Happiness to Eternity is busie Idleness careful Negligence and laborious Sloth If God that inhabiteth Eternity looks narrowly to all our actions done in time
Christ and converse with him if he were on Earth it is better to see this pretious Christ in Eternal Glory it is worth the while to dy to have a view of your Lord-Redeemer in the highest Heavens Oh the wonderful transporting Joyes the Soul is filled with when it first cometh into the unseen but happy World when it hath the first Glorious view of its dearest Lord. Do you think it would desire to return to live in flesh upon Earth again Do you know what you do when you are so loth to dy Do you understand your selves when you are so backward to be taken out of time It is to be loth to go into Everlasting Happiness to go and take possession of unseen Eternal Glory 5. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make us more patient constant joyful in all our sufferings for Christs sake When we poar upon our seen troubles and do not look at rest after trouble when we see and feel what is inflicted upon us but do not look what is laid up in Heaven for us when we see the rage of men and do not look at the love of God our Hearts and Flesh do fail but if we set unseen Eternal things over against things seen and Temporal it will be strength unto us Against the power of Men which is Temporal set the Power of God which is Eternal and then you will see their power to be weakness Against the Policy of Men which is Temporal set the Wisdom of God which is Eternal and then you will see all their Policy to be Foolishness Against the Hatred of Men which in its effects to you is Temporal set the Love of God which is both in its self and in its effects to you Eternal and you will see their hatred to be no better than raging unreasonable madness Keep your Eye upon the unseen Torments in the other World and you will rather endure Sufferings in this than venture upon Sin and expose your selves to them Keep your Eye upon the unseen Eternal Crown of Glory and it will carry you through Fire and Flames Prisons and Reproaches for the sake of Christ Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward 27. by Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 6. This Eyeing of Eternity will be a powerful preservative against the temptations of Men or Devils a Sovereign Antidote against the Poyson of Temptation I see the Invisible God looks at me shall I then yield to the suggestions of the Devil or the sollicitations of men to sin I see there is an Everlasting state of Joy or Torment that I must be shortly in as sure as I am in this place and Satans design is to bring me to that state of Torment and if I follow him I shall be excluded from yonder glorious place from God and Christ and Saints above therefore by the Grace of God I will not yield to this Temptation but strive I will and Watch and Pray I will against the assaults of this deceitful Adversary for why should I be so foolish to lose Eternal Glory for momentary Pleasures and run my Immortal Soul into Eternal pain for short delights I do plainly see what will be the end if I do yield Damnation without end banishment from God without end I do clearly see that Stealing and Murder is not a more ready road to a place of Execution upon Earth than yielding to a tempting Devil is to Everlasting Misery 7. Such Eyeing of Eternity would wean our hearts from the things of time A sight and view of Heavens Glory would darken the Glory of the World as looking at the shining Sun over your Head doth obscure in your Eyes the things under your Feet after a believing view of the invisible God and the Glory of the place above this World would appear as a very Dunghil in your Eyes Phil. 3.7 8. as where we love there we look so the more we look the more we shall love and the more we love the Eternal things that are above the less we shall love the Temporal things that are below 8. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us more like to God and Jesus Christ it will be a transforming and assimilating look 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore when we shall see Christ who is now out of sight we shall be perfectly like unto him 1 Joh. 3.2 But we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 9. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would fill our Souls with Holy admirations of the Goodness Grace and Love of God to us When Paul had a sight of such unseen things he was in an Holy Extasie and Divine Rapture 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. When we consider the Eternal Happiness of Heaven we shall stand as Men amazed that God should prepare such things for such men and bear such Love and shew such Mercy to such as we that are so vile and full of sin and say Lord what am I that might for ever have howled in the lowest Hell that I should hope to praise thee in the highest Heavens Lord what am I that might have been in Everlasting Darkness that there should be prepared for me Everlasting Light and Joy Why me Lord why hast thou designed me and wrought upon my heart and made me in any measure meet to be partaker of such Eternal Glory Oh! the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 How pretious are thy thoughts to me how great is the sum of them Psal 139.17 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee Psal 31.19 10. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would have this influence sure upon us to set our selves under a painful skilful serious Ministry It doth much concern you for you are going to an endless Life and Preaching is the appointed means to fit you for an endless happy Life then do you choose the most lively searching powerful Preaching it is for the life of your Souls for the Everlasting life of your Everlasting Souls If you were sick and in danger of Death when your Life lies upon it you would have the advice of an able Physitian that is serious and afraid that he no way become guilty of your Death Would you like that Physitian that seems to be unconcerned and cares not whether you live or dy if he might but have his fee Or that should merrily jest with you when you are sick at Heart and near to Death if you be not
consistent with his Fathers Purpose and Honour yet all this notwithstanding he boweth his Soul and prayeth his Father to Glorify his Name so Matt. 26.39 c. His Soul trembled at the thoughts of the bitterness of that Cup we find him not Relucting at any foregoing Suffering but this amaz'd him as Mark expresseth it yet see his resolve nevertheless not my Will but thine be done Two things in times of Trouble we usually start at yet a resigned Soul will refer it self therein to the Will of God 1. The matter of the Tryal Very oft we think we could be content to bear any burden but what Providence lays upon us carrying it as if God had pick't out the very worst of Pains and Aff ictions for us We'd bear Sickness if it pleased God but cannot away with Death we 'd lay down our Lives at Gods Feet but know not to be confined in a nasty Goal Let God send any thing but Poverty or Banishment or Slavery c. The meaning of it is we would Suffer according to our own Will not Gods For to corrupt Nature any Trouble is more Eligible then what Providence fixeth upon Rachel could Die more quietly as she imagined then endure the Affliction of Barrenness Gen. 30.1 Though poor Woman she found that first as hard a Task as the second Chap. 35. 18. Was this Christs meaning when he prayed the Father to Glorify his Name doth he prescribe the Suffring or close with his Fathers Pleasure did Christ say any Cup Father but this any Death but this accursed Crucifixtion Nay but if this Cup may not pass away thy Will be done O how far are we from this Frame when we Complain our Lot is worse then any Mans. We think God hath chosen the Smartest Rod in all the Bundle for us But where is our Resignation all this while 2. The manner of the Tryal this is usually disputed Saul in his dispare will Dye but Scorns to be Slain by the uncircumcised 1 Sam. 31.4 Abimeleck too will Dye when he cannot help it but not by the hand of a Woman Judg. 9.54 And we flatter our selves as if we were willing to Glorify God by our Death only we would chuse the way of Dying The meaning is God shall be Glorified aâ— we please He shall have the Honours but we 'l prescribe the manner Indeed he owes us much thanks for our kindness Is this to Glorify God No! He is not Glorified but in the way of his Will 2. This Frame carrieth in it a Resolution of our Suffering not only into the Will of God but his Glory also O saith our blessed Lord I 'l Suffer thy Wrath and Mens Malice Rage and say thine be the Glory I 'l endure the Shame and thou shalt have the Honour Father Glorify thy Name Christ stood not upon his own Credit but the Fathers Glory 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether therefore ye Eat or Drink or whatever ye do do all to the Glory of God Ye whether ye Live or Dye Suffer or Prosper do all Suffer all for the Glory of God A resigned Soul counteth it worth his while to bear any Affliction so God be Glorified Our holy Lord here Ballanc't the Glory of God against his Sufferings what a blessed Spirit was that of the Baptist Jo. 3.30 I must decrease but he must increase he began to loose his followers when Christ entred upon his Ministry but instead of grudging at it or envying him he 's aboundantly Satisfied that his loss was his Lords gain A resigned Soul will be base in its own Eyes and be content to be vile in Mens Sight also so God be Glorified I know nothing more contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel then Affectation of Reputation to our selves nor any thing more Christian then Zeal for and desire of the Glory of God and our Lord Jesus Jo. 5.44 How can ye believe who receive Honour one of another Christ aimed at his Fathers Glory First Jo. 17.4 I have Glorified the upon Earth Here both in doing and Suffering we must design Gods Glory our turn comes not to have Glory till we be in Heaven Nay We must not only Aim at Gods Glory in our Suffering but be willing that he mannage our Sufferings to that end He always hath most Glory when he Orders the whole affair Christ doth not say Father I 'l Glorify thy Name but refers himself unto the Father do thou O Father Glorify thy Name Our Sufferings bring God no Glory unless he order them Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will there was nothing of the Will of Christ in the case further then its Submission to the Fathers Will so must we lay our selves at the Feet of God and desire him to work out his own Glory in and by us 2. We must also be willing that he make what Glory for himself he pleaseth of us and by us Some think from Rev. 11.7 The Witnesses would have finish't their Testimony too soon and laid aside the Sackcloth and Ashes before the time What know we when God hath got Glory enough by our Sufferings Nay let 's be content to bear as long and as much as he thinketh fit to be sure we cannot Glorify him too much Let him Carve for himself when his Name hath had Glory enough by us himself will ease us Did Christ hang back after his Agony in the Garden No! but thence he went to meet his apprehenders thence to the Chief Priest thence to Herod and thence to Pilate again then to the place of Execution then to the Cross then to the Grave He Suffered as long and as much as it was his Fathers Pleasure His Prayer in the Text fixeth no measure nor Time but leaveth the Stint to the Will of God Holy Job bare his several Afflictions Patiently not one but all till God had done Paul professeth that he was not only ready to be bound but Dye for the Name of Jesus Acts 21.13 And none of these things move me saith he Chap. 20. 14. If when God hath Glorified himself by my Bonds he thinks fit to get him Honour by my Death I Submit This should check our impatience and weariness in a Suffering Day how can we say Father Glorify thy Name when we would Stint him in the degree and time of our Sufferings 3. This Frame Submits the Season when we shall Suffer to the Fathers wise Determination This was the dismallest hour that ever Christ saw the Hour and Power of Darkness Luke 22.53 when Hell and the World seemed to have all possible Advantages against the Lord. And doth he say Father save me from this Hour yea but he corrects himself and with respect to that Hour puts up his request to the Father in the Text Father Glorify c. He is so far from contending about the Season that he came designedly to Jerusalem at that time to Suffer Jo. 12.9 10. But we are apt to Reluct in this case O Lord deliver us from
as well when I am sinning as when I am praying b Psal 139.1 13. Where ever I am what ever I am about whether Busie or Idle my thoughts that no Creature can know God knows them though I equivocate in my Words God discerns them Whether I draw near to God to flatter him or run away from God to escape him Thô I lay my self to sleep that I may not think of him or get into the dark where I may see nothing of him yet Gods eye is every where all this while upon me Christians be but so far sincere as industriously to endeavour to keep upon your Hearts such apprehensions of God and this alone will effectually cure you of reigning Hypocrisie and clear up your suspected Sincerity I grant some men may be so impudently wicked as daringly to Sin while they think God looks on but this is seldom and only in the heat of Temptation they cannot no they cannot nay the Devil himself cannot help them to keep up their Hearts to this pitch of impiety the most daring Sinners are but like men in a Fire-ship what thô they venturously run it in to fire the Fleet they themselves get away as fast as 't is possible so thô in their drunken frolicks they set themselves to out-face God yet when they are sober they retreat to this c Job 22.13 14. How doth God know thick Clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not d Psal 10.11 13. He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten and if he can but repell his twingeing Gripes of Conscience he not only quickly forgets them but flatters himself that God forgets him too and that he hideth his Face and will never see it And so thô he contemn God yet he hath said in his Heart God will not require it yea further e Psal 94.7 they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But men of the most seared Consciences cannot alwayes thus carry it there are some of the worst of Sinners of whom it may be said God is alwayes in their thoughts while they are awake and they sleep little they think of nothing else and yet these are far from Sincerity or the way to it I grant this for it confirms not enervates my Remedy They under horrour and despair think of God and cannot but think of him but 't is sore against their Wills they would out-run those Thoughts but the Wrath of God pursues 'em * Joh. 27.22 they would fain flee out of his hand But now to pray and strive that we may get and keep God alwayes in our Eye to be inwardly grieved that our Thoughts of God so easily slip from us so to presentiate God to the Soul as to be able to appeal to God †Psal 139.18 All the while I am awake I am still with thee and when I sleep f Psal 91.1 4. it is under the Shadow of the Almighty he shall cover me with his Feathers g Mat. 23.37 as the Hen doth her Chickens Christians those that can comparatively see nothing else with delight nor rest any where else with content they are truely Religious they are certainly sincere Let 's now consider the other extream Too many think or do what they can to make it sink into their Thoughts that Atheism is best for 'em these would be accounted men of a great Soul they scorn the Pusillanimity of Conscience they are neither allur'd nor frighted with the fore-thoughts of a future State they slight any discourse of Heaven and they laugh at the Torments of Hell they live without care in a continued Frolick and are not these the only happy men Thô they restrain their Blab they let loose their Thoughts and 't is the common language of Mens Hearts and Lives Men secretly bless themselves that they are not Religious when they see men suffer for Conscience sake all the pity they express is from their deluded Fancy But will this alwayes hold Job tells us h Job 9.4 no man can harden his Heart against God in the way of his Providence and prosper muchless sure can he set himself against God in his very being and prosper He 's really a Fool i Psal 14.1 thô the World count him a Wit that saith in his Heart i. e. he heartily wisheth that there were no God but God hath a witness within him that he can't silence but will in despight of him convince him that there is a God Never could any man yet blow out that Candle k Prov. 20.27 of the Lord which God hath set up within him It can't be expected that he who strives in his Practice to be an Atheist in his Judgment should be so ingenuous as to tell us what Convulsions of Conscience he is incurably troubled with if he would we should need no other Testimony but his own to convince him and seeing he will not I 'le only bid him first get the Mastery of his own Conscience before he decry that God that Masters it I might press him to consider the works of Creation and Providence and how unreasonable it is to expect that another should believe thy profound Arguments as thou esteem'st 'em when thou unbelievest 'em thy Self every time thou hear'st it Thunder for why should I coast about for convictions while thou carriest that within thee which neither thy self nor all the Devils in Hell to help thee can extinguish thine own Conscience man Conscience I say not anothers but thine own and thou mayst as soon tear thy Soul out of thy Body as thy Conscience out of thy Soul And while Conscience hath a being the being of God shall not be denied 'T is too true thou mayest sear thy Conscience from speaking any thing for thy good but thou canst never silence it from speaking to thy Terrour That never-dying worm will be still gnawing to make thee feel both here and to Eternity that there is a God One thing I confess I have sometimes wondered at that ever any Atheist can dye without horror the approaches of Death commonly undeceive us But when I consider that those who industriously endeavour to stupifie their Consciences while they live should in Gods Righteous Judgment be so far besotted as not to have their Consciences so much as quitch when they dye but that as they have industriously proselyted others to their Atheism they should be so far deserted of God as to leave their Companions under that Delusion till Hell undeceive ' em O! but what can Religion do for the cure of Atheism Serious Godliness in the lowest degree of it expells Atheism I grant those that are eminently Godly may be tempted to Atheism but they reckon these among Satans fiery darts and accordingly set themselves presently to quench them which thô they cannot so easily do as they imagine who have not experience of such Temptations yet there 's this palpable difference between them and
without 'em a Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools destroyes ' em What doth Religion in this Case The Truth is there needs a great exercise of Religion to carry us safe thrô Freedom from Affliction b Job 1.5 Jobs extraordinary devotion upon his Childrens ordinary rejoycing in their prosperous Condition may Convincingly instruct us that there 's more danger in Freedom from Affliction than we are willing to suspect and it is more difficult to love and fear and trust God when we have the world than when we want it so that without Serious Godliness 't is impossible to withstand the insinuating and pleasing Temptation of flattering Prosperity and unless Faith be in Exercise we cannot do it with it What then is an afflicted Condition to be preferr'd Some that have had experience of both say Yes they have been afraid to come from under their Afflictions some sick Persons have been even afraid of Health thô they desir'd it lest what they got in their Sickness they should lose in their Health But yet the continuance of Afflictions breaks the Spirits and hinders that chearful serving and praising of God which is or should be the Life of a Christian thô many are better'd by Afflictions yet none are allowed to pray for Afflictions but against them and use all good means to avoid or remove them 't is one thing makes Heaven desirable the putting an end to all our Afflictions In short c Heb. 12.11 no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous whatever be the after-fruit of it This therefore is clogg'd with Vanity But what doth Religion in this Case Serious Godliness by Afflictions becomes more Serious God makes great use of Afflictions for the working and promoting of Piety and in this I think all experienced Christians are agreed they reckon sanctified Afflictions among the choicest Providences of their lives I commend the enlargement of this by your own Thoughts out of your own experiences And thus including these three Cases as in a large Parenthesis there 's one Case more that I would cautiously speak to which the Church Catholick truly so called may have more cause than ever tremblingly to consider and to seek more satisfying resolution than I can give for it's determination VI. What man upon Earth can peremptorily assert whether Peace or Persecution be just at such a time infallibly best for the Church of Christ 'T is easily granted that we must at all times pray for and endeavour the universal both outward and spiritual Peace of the Church and this that we may at all times do any thing but Sin to avoid or put an end to Persecution but let 's consider each as in the former instances That the Peace of the Church is beyond Expression desirable he is no Christian that denyes it those that are the greatest troublers of the Churches Peace do usually proclaim their Friendship to it calling their Affection to a party Love to the Church and the welfare of their party the Peace of the Church Now thô their Charity is too narrow to contract the Church into a party their Notion of Peace is large enough they would have it commensurate with the Church So that I need not be large to prove what no body denies Outward Prosperity was so much the Blessing of the Old Covenant that some confine it to that but others upon better Grounds expect more under the Gospel for d Luk. 1.74 75. this was no inconsiderable end of Christs coming into the World to deliver us out of the hands of our worldly Enemies to serve him without affrighting fears of men in Holiness before God and Righteousness before men all the dayes of our Life Which Prosperity when the Church hath enjoyed according to Christs purchase and Promise then they have walkt in the filial fear of the Lord and in the encouraging e Acts 9.31 Comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplyed in number of Converts and increase of their Graces that were formerly converted But here as we use to say of pleasant weather 'T is pity fair weather should do any harm so 't is pity the Churches Prosperity should do any harm But alas the Church of Christian as little bear continual Prosperity as long Adversity a Calm is sometimes as dangerous as a Storm Many are the Temptations and Snares of a Prosperous condition it breeds Hypocrites Errors and Heresies spring up like Weeds in rank ground Professors are apt to grow Remiss and Careless Wanton and Secure to be too fond of the Present and to hanker after more Temporal Happiness than God judges good for them How hardly were the very Apostles awakened from dreaming of Christs temporal Kingdom and the very best of 'em from suing for great Offices at Court O the Divisions among Brethren when Pride makes them quarrelsome When the World favours the Church the Church slides into the World then their worldliness spoils their Christianity and their Christianity palliates their worldliness and so those things are mixt which can never be compounded But now Serious Godliness is the best Preservative against Surfeiting on Prosperity 'T is Grace in the Exercise and Growth that powerfully enables and necessarily provokes to improve the Churches Peace to all Spiritual advantages The Church of the Jews was never in such a flourishing condition as in Solomon's Reign and is it not well worthy our observation that the Posterity of his Servants who became Proselytes to the Jewish Religion were several Ages after his death doubly recorded by a Neh. 7.57.60 the Spirit of God above the Proselytes of former Ages 'T is Serious Godliness that keeps them humble and always upon their Watch against flattering Temptations that keeps them low in their own eyes and from despising others and what on this side great Grace could make David who had a b 1 Chron. 22.14 greater Summe of ready Money than ever any had in the World either before or since preferr that little of Scripture that was penn'd in his time before an innumerable Treasure c Psal 119.72 He had also a List of Worthies d 2 Sam. 23. never the like in the World yet he e Psal 16.3.119.63 preferrs the Communion of Saints before ' em To have our Conversation in Heaven when 't is best with us upon Earth this can only be effected by the Power of Godliness believe it Christians this is no easie matter What then Is a State of Persecution more Eligible Before I dare speak a word to this I must premise this Caution Let not Persecutors take encouragement to be more outragious in their Persecution and then scornfully tell you this is good for 'em their Pastors tell 'em 't is sometimes better for 'em than Peace This is like Julian who in every thing he did with a deep Reach and greater Malice than former Emperors to undermine and worm out the Christian Religion he still twitted the Christians with some advice
't is next to impossible to be too shye of Sin unless when Satan frights us into the omission of some duties for fear of the Sins that inevitably cleave to them In short I would have you understand this Instance to referr to Sins past not future to Sins already committed that there 's no other possible way of undoing what 's done but by Repentance not of Sins not yet committed as if I gave so much as the least encouragement to so much as the least Sin Thus understanding the instance I dare say it over again Serious Godliness will force something of good out of the Evil of Sin These are the Persons that cannot forget the Wormwood and the Gall of their Mortification x Lam. 3.19 20. their Soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in them These are the Persons that put a due estimate upon pardoning Mercy and love Christ the more for the more Sins he hath forgiven them As Christ said of Mary Magdalen y Luke 7.47 Her Sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same love little The Blessed Apostle that brands himself for the chief of Sinners z 1 Tim. 1.15 before Conversion dare own it that a 1 Cor. 15.20 he laboured more abundantly than all the Apostles after his Conversion and 't is peculiar to him to coyn words b Rom. 5.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1 Tim. 1.14 to magnifie the Grace of God in Christ Christians I beseech you let not any one take encouragement hence to Sin but let the worst of Sinners take encouragement hence to repent What thô thou hast been one of the vilest wretches upon earth thou mayest through Grace be one of the highest Saints in Heaven and the sense of what thou hast been may promote it The rising ground of a Dunghill may help to raise thy flight towards Heaven Once more Thô to your own Apprehension you have no Faith at all to believe any one word of all this nor any skill at all to know what to do yet Serious Godliness will make all this good to thee Here you see I take it for granted that one may be seriously godly who in his own present Apprehensions hath no Faith at all nor skill at all for any thing that is Spiritually good many may be in this like Moses their Faces may shine their Grace may shine to others and they themselves not c Exo. 34.29 know it Many that are dear to God live many years in the growing Exercise of Grace and yet dare not own it that they have any at all God bestows the Faith of Assurance upon those of his Children that are not able to bear up without it mistake me not as if it were not every ones duty to seek it and a great Priviledge to have assurance when others of his Children which have a stronger Faith live and 〈◊〉 without it To give you an Instance beyond all instances Our 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ who 't is certain could not want assurance yet died in as great desertion as 't was possible to befall him d Mark 15.25 with Mat. 27.46 When he had hung six hours upon the Cross He cried with a loud Voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me q. d. This is beyond all my other Torment And when he had cryed again with a loud Voice with a vehement affection and a strong Faith e Verse 50. he lay'd down his Soul But what was that he spake with such vehemency the second time f Luke 23.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father into thy hands I will commend my Spirit I will depose my Soul with thee I will thrust it into thy hands Now that Jesus Christ was under this unexpressible Desertion during the three hours preternatural Darkness 't is more than for the best of Christians to be so during their whole life which doth more than prove what I asserted That a Person of great Grace may be so much in the dark as not to see he hath any But what must he do in this case Can Serious Godliness afford any Relief Christians pray mark it these Persons they are and through Grace cannot but be seriously Godly and their serious Godliness finds 'em work enough and support enough to keep 'em from sinking They daily do what they complain they can't do g Isa 50.10 They do fear the Lord they fear nothing more than sinning against him they do obey the voice of his servants there 's none receive Instructions more Obediently thô they walk in Darkness they 'l never follow a false Fire if they have no light from God they 'l have none from any else They do trust in the name of the Lord they lye at Gods foot let him do what he will with them they do stay upon their God they come up from h Cant. 8.5 the Wilderness of the World leaning upon their beloved Religion is the whole business of their life and comparatively they do nothing else And thô they have not ravishing Comforts they have that Peace that exceeds i Phil. 4.7 all understanding that is meerly humane and that doth guard their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus against all the Stratagems and Fiery Darts of Satan Their State is good their Souls are safe and they can't but be happy in both Worlds And thus I have endeavoured to be so practical in the Doctrinal part that there needs but little to be added for the Application the Lord make that little to be like Chymical Spirits to be more effectual than a greater quantity Rouze up your selves to do your part that it may be so Vse 1 Set your hearts upon Serious Godliness This must be the first Use for you can make no Use at all of this Doctrine till you have made this Use of it Every thing without this is but an abuse of it you do not only wrong the truth but you wrong your selves what ever you say or do about it till you make it your business to experiment the truth of what hath been spoken in its Commendation and this I can assure you never any one repented of his down-right Godliness Therefore live in the practice of those plain Duties without which 't is in vain to pretend to Religion e. g. Daily read some Portion of the Old and New Testament not as your Child reads it for his Lesson but as 〈◊〉 Child reads it for his Profit Be more frequent in Prayer not as those that pass their Prayers by number but as those that pour out their Hearts to God in Holy fervour Let your thoughts be so fill'd with Heavenly Objects that you may in some respect make all things such you think of Discourse of the things of God not in a captious or Vain-glorious manner but as those that feel the Truths they speak of Receive the Sacrament not as a Civil Test but as sealing that Covenant
Word and Conscience says but the same the Scripture says Now the Comforts Believers pretend to may for methods sake be reduced to two sorts the truth and reality of both which we shall labour to evince 1. Such as proceed from the direct Acts of Grace by this sort I understand nothing else but that inward delight and pleasure which usually accompanies the exercise of any Grace or gracious performance of any Duty and is in a manner intrinsick to it And the reality of this is confirmed by the Experience of all the Saints who of them doth not find a secret sweetness delight and satisfaction in the exercise of â—aith on Christ love to God and Holiness Res jucunda est resipiscentia Luth. Nay sorrow for Sin Mortification Self-denyal have something of pleasure in them There is I dare say more pleasure in a kindly melting of the heart for sin where the sorrow is not meerly Legal but Evangelical and mingled with Love than there is in the Commission of it more in denying a mans self as to any unlawful Appetite than in gratifying himself in resisting a temptation than in yielding to it in mortifying a Lust than obeying it and how much more is there in the exercise of Faith and Love c If our natural faculties are delighted with their proper actions about sutable Objects why may not our spiritual too are they less capable of pleasure or are spiritual Operations less congruous to our faculties when renewed and spiritualized or the Objects less suited to them than natural actions and objects are to our Faculties in their meer natural state If excellent Objects and intense Operations commonly produce the greatest pleasure in our natural Powers when rightly disposed why may it not be so in spirituals too What more excellent Object than God and Christ what more noble act is there of a renewed Soul than Faith and Love what delight then may such a Soul take in closing with its chief good in those acts And so if a natural man may take pleasure in the Contemplation of natural things why may not a Saint in the meditation of heavenly If one may delight in the exercise of Moral Vertue why may not the other in the exercise of Grace If a just a generous a valiant act afford some delight to the Actor how much more an holy one If the Excuse or Applause of a natural Conscience and its testimony of our well-doing affords some delight and sweetness how much more may the approbation of a renewed Conscience yield to a renewed Soul 2. Such as proceed from the reflex Acts of Grace or mens reflecting upon and perceiving their own Graces as suppose a mans knowing he believes in Christ or that he loves God or hates Sin and this kind of comfort is no other than that which flows from Assurance which where-ever it is in Exercise alwaies brings Comfort along with it Assurance in the Act is nothing else but a Conclusion drawn by the practical Understanding of a renewed Soul through the assistance of the holy Spirit from two Premises whereof the major is of Faith the very Language of the Scripture usually some Gospel Promise For instance Joh. 3.16 Whoever believes in Christ shall have Eternal Life the minor is the language of Spiritual sence I believe in Christ the Conclusion from both is Therefore I shall have Eternal Life which following the major proposition which is of Faith and therefore inevident and consequently in a Logical sence the weaker though Theologically more strong as being more certain is it self of Faith too and therefore most certain No man that believes the Scripture will deny the Major and he that shall deny the Minor must deny all Spiritual sence and the reflection of a gracious Soul upon its own Actions and so all possibility of Assurance in any such way of ratiocination and then he may well deny the comfort of Assurance when he takes away Assurance it self And therefore there needs no more to prove the reality of this kind of comfort which is so strong and satisfactory to the Soul of a Believer that he is never at rest in himself till he have attained to it than to prove the being of that Assurance from whence it proceeds and all the Arguments which evince the one will inferr the other he that shall grant a man may be sure of Heaven cannot doubt but he may take abundant comfort and satisfaction in being so assured and that that Comfort is no Fancy And so if a man may certainly know he believes in Christ loves God above all truely fears him is pure in heart a Math. 5.8.3.6 poor in spirit b hungers and thirsts after righteousness c or hath any Grace which accompanies Salvation in sincerity in him which is an evidence of his right to and Interest in any Gospel Promise or Priviledge thereby convey'd it will amount to the same and the sight and sence of any such Evidence cannot but bring the greatest sweetness and refreshment to a gracious heart and which is as real as the delight he takes in the exercise of any of his natural faculties If a man may take much real delight in knowing his Interest in a Prince here on Earth is it a delusion when he delights in the knowledge of his interest in a Saviour in Heaven If a man be so much pleased with his being the Son of a great man may not a Believer be as much Pleased with his being a Child of God his being born of him and adopted by him If men do ordinarily comfort themselves with the hope of some worldly Inheritance they reckon themselves sure of why may not a Saint much more Rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God d Rom. 5.2 triumph in expectation of an Inheritance among the Saints in Light e Col. 1.12 When no man in the World can ever be so sure of obtaining the things of the World as a Saint may be of coming to enjoy the things of Eternity the Hope and Assurance a Christian hath is according as the Promise which is the foundation of it is but the Promise of future Blessedness is a better Promise than that of any temporal enjoyment not only because the good promised is better but because the Promise of the one is more peremptory and absolute when the other is but conditional and limited Thus much may suffice to have been spoken to the first General propounded That a true Believer may give an account of his Christianity and such a one as is satisfactory to himself and ought to be to others he may make it appear that that serious Godliness in the practice of which he lives is more than a Fancy 2. I come to the second General mentioned to give Directions and shew in answer to the Case How we may experience this in ourselves and evidence it in others There be two parts of the Question which must be distinctly spoken to How we may experience
to them that are like to give again do plainly turn Religion into Bartery and may be said to be good Traders but scarce good Christians When men appear for Religion only when and where it is countenanced or while there is something to be got by it Practice in an Employment Custom in a Trade or the favour of men or applause from them they may well be suspected if not of Fancy yet of Design and Hypocrisie But when men will do Duty and keep Gods way though they get nothing by it but frowns or blowes detriment or danger it cannot be reasonably imagined but that they have some better thing in their eye which they look for hereafter and some very Powerful Principle at present within them to support them under difficulties and prompt them to such Duties as are for ought the spectators can discern both unprofitable and hazardous 6. Labour so to carry your selves in the sight of men as to let them see that you are as much set upon gaining Heaven as getting or keeping the World Be as active as busie and shew as much concern for the things of the other life as the things of this Scarce any thing is a greater blemish to Religion or disreputation to them that profess it than their passionate and over-eager pursuit of Temporal things with a coldness and visible indifferency in seeking Eternal when they can rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of Carefulness spend their time and strength in labouring for the World nay lose the comfort of their Lives by scrambling for the things of this life and in the mean time put God off with some little superficial Service neglect some duties and hurry over others let the croud of business thrust their spiritual work into a corner of their time if not quite out of it the world indeed justle God and Christ and Heaven out of their discourse and conversation which savours of nothing but Trades and Bargains and Adventures and getting Estates and tends to nothing but the promoting a meer Worldly Interest Are these men think their carnal Neighbours in good earnest for Religion when they are so mad upon their business doth their Happiness lie in Heaven when their labour is only for the Earth can their Treasure be above when their hearts are below and their actings plainly shew that they are so can their hope of Eternal Glory be any better than a Fancy who do so little for that Glory and lay out themselves for this World as if there were no other And indeed who can judge otherwise of some men that hears their pretences and yet sees their practice And therefore Christians think with your selves How doth it become you to act if you would perswade others that you have real designs for future happiness What would you do if you did pretend to the hope of some great Estate or enjoyment in the world to convince them that that hope were reasonable and well grounded would you not act at such a rate as to make them acknowledge you were serious would you not make it your great business to attain your great Ends Do the same in the present case let men see that your belief of things to come is as real as of present things by your pursuing them as earnestly and acting as vigorously for them Nay shew a greater concernedness for them and that will be a means to convince men that you believe a greater excellency in them and that they cannot be obtained upon easier terms 7. The more you pretend to the comforts of Christianity the more mortified let your conversation be to the things of the World and pleasures of Sense and your carriage more apparently holy Let it never be said that the Comforts of the Spirit make you give liberty to the Flesh When men see that the more you pretend to spiritual enjoyments the more spiritual you are and the more pleasure you profess to find in Gods wayes the more exactly you walk in them and the less ye dare sin against him they will have little to say against you Those comforts cannot but be real which have so great so good Effects and when men see the effects so real they cannot judge the cause to be less so Whimsies and Fancies do not use to make men grow in Righteousness and Humility and Meekness and Mortification Let men see the respect you bear to all Gods Commands and they will scarce dare to question the comforts you receive from his Promises 8. Labour to make such advances in the way to Heaven as may not only be sensible to your selves but perceivable by others let your profiting appear unto all men 1 Tim. 4.15 Let your paths be as the shining light shining forth more and more Prov. 4.18 Not only grow in Grace and inward Holiness but abound in the fruits of Righteousness A sensibly thriving Religion cannot be thought to be an imaginary one they that observe the progress you make will not be able to question the grounds upon which you go When they see that as you grow older and wiser so you grow better they cannot reasonably imagine that strength of Fancy ever raised you to that height of goodness but rather suppose that you do more good than you did because you see more reason for it and have more lively hopes of being gainers by it 9. Lastly a Heb. 10.23 Be sure to persevere and hold on in the Faith you d profess and the practice of Godliness your Constancy may be a special means to evidence your reality not only to your selves but others When men grow weary of Gods wayes their Courage fails them their Zeal is out of breath it is a sign their Religion was never real but when they act uniformly under the most contrary Providences and among all the Vicissitudes and Changes of humane affairs in Conformity to the Principles they have all along professed and owned the shock of Temptations they meet with cannot justle them out of the way of Holiness nor the Enticements and Courtship of a sometimes fawning World wheedle them into a complyance with it they hope to the end b 1 Pet. 1.13 are not weary of well doing c Gal. 5.9 labour and faint not d Rev. 2.3 bring forth Fruit with patience and persevere to do so serve God as long as they have their being e Psal 104.33 live to him as long as they live at all act by the same Rule aim at the same End while they live and when they come to die in a word when opposition from men temptations from Satan nay frowns from God himself have not discouraged them nor lessened their love to him or activeness for him or diligence in his Service and at last upon reflection they approve of that good course they have now finished and have the same thoughts of God and Holiness they had before the worst of Enemies cannot but as impudently as unreasonably charge
and strengthen the Hands and confirm the Faith of your fellow Saints when they see that you believe as they believe and hope as they hope and Practise as they Practise that they are not alone nor singular in what they do Though a true Believer ought to hold on constantly in the way of Faith and Holiness notwithstanding the opposition of all the World against him yet it may be no small Encouragement to him to find others of the same mind Acting at the same rate and upon the same Grounds Quest How God is his Peoples great Reward SERMON III. GEN. XV. 1. I am thy Shield and thy exceeding Great Reward ABraham is called the Friend of God Jam. 2.23 The Lord spake with him familiarly Gen. 17.22 he was made of Gods Privy Council Gen. 18.17 And in the Text The Word of the Lord came to him in a Vision Representations of things in a Vision differ from Revelations by Dreams a Gen. 31.11 And what was the word that came to this holy Patriarch in a Vision I am thy Shield and thy exceeding great Reward Words too great for any Man or Angel fully to expound Both the Hebrew and Greek carry the Phrase very high b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am thy superabundant very exceeding much râ—ward c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Text is a Climax it riseth as the Waters of the Sanctuary higher I am thy Reward thy great Reward d Mâ—rcâ—s tua manna nimis Grotius thy exceeding great Reward There are four things here to be spoken to 1. That nothing besides God can be the Saints Reward 2. How God is their Reward 3. How God comes to be their Reward 4. Wherein the exceeding Greatness of this Reward consists 1. That nothing besides God can be the Saints Reward 1. Nothing on Earth can be their Reward The glistering of the World dazles mens eyes but like the Apples of Sodom it doth not so much delight as delude The World is res Nihili guilded emptiness e Prov. 23.5 The World is made Circular the Heart in the figure of a Triangle a Circle cannot fill a Triangle The World is enough to busie us not to fill us f Fumus Ventus sunt omnia mundana Aug. Tom. 9. Job 20.22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits It seems a Riddle to have sufficiency yet not have enough The meaning is when he enjoyes most of the Creature yet aliquid deest there is something wanting When King Solomon had put all the Creatures into a Limbeck and went to extract and still out the Spirits * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they turned to Froth Eccles 1.2 All is Vanity God never intended we should dig Happiness out of the Earth which he hath cursed 2. Heaven it self is not a Saints Reward Psalm 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Angels and Arch-angels †Ibi sunt angeli archangeli Musc saith Musculus I but though these are for a Saints comfort yet not properly for his Reward Communion with Seraphims is excellent yet can no more make a Saints Reward than the light of the Stars can make day Quest 2. How is God his peoples Reward Answ In bestowing Himself upon them f Non tantum sua sed se nobis impâ—rtit The Great Blessing of the Covenant is I am thy God The Lord told Abraham Kings should come out of his loyns and he would give the Land of Canaan to him and his Seed Gen. 17. but all this did not amount to Blessedness That which made up the Portion was Vers 8. I will be their God God will not only see that the Saints shall be rewarded but his own self will be their Reward a King may reward his Subjects with Gratuities but he bestowes himself upon his Queen God saith to every Believer as he did to Aaron Num. 18.20 I am thy part and thy Inheritance and as the King of Israel said to Benhadad 2 Kings 20.4 I am thine and all that I have Abraham sent away the Sons of the Concubines with a few Gifts but he settled the Inheritance upon Isaac Gen. 25.5 God sends away the Wicked with Riches and Honour but makes over himself to his people they have not only the Gift but the Giver And what can be more As Micah said Judg. 18.24 What have I more So what hath God more to give than Himself what greater Dowry than Deity God is not only the Saints Rewarder but their Reward g Merces idem valet quod haereditas Calvin Job 22.25 The Almighty shall be thy Gâ—d So much the Hebrew word imports h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aurum lectissimum Junius Buxtorf k Perperam impiè delirarunt qui complementum Dei Eph. 3.19 interpretati sunt plenam divinitatem quasi homines fiant Deo aequales Calv. The summe of all is The Saints Portion lies in God Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance and of my Cup i Notant Grammatici Rectionem Plurium Synonymorum auxesim denotare Q. But how doth God give himself to his people is not his Essence incommunicable A. True the Saints cannot partake of Gods very Essence an Error of Montanus and the Familists The Riches of the Deity are too great to be received in specie But the Saints shall have all in God that may be for their Comfort they shall partake so much of Gods Likeness l 1 Joh. 3.2 his Love m John 17.26 his Influence and the Irradiations of his Glory n Joh. 17.22 as doth astonish and fill the Vessels of Mercy that they run over with Joy Quest 3. How God comes to be his Peoples Reward Answ Through Jesus Christ his Blood being Sanguis Dei the blood of God Act. 20.28 hath merited this glorious Reward for them Though in respect of Free Grace this Reward is a Donative yet in respect of Christs Blood it is a Purchase Eph. 1.14 How precious should Christ be to us Had not he died the portion had never come into our hands 4. Wherein the exceeding greatness of this Reward consists Quest 1. God is Merces ampla a satisfying Reward o Perfectionem omnium honorum in se uno comprehendit Rivet Gen. 17.1 Answ 1 I am God Almighty The word for Almighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies him that hath Sufficiency God is a whole Ocean of Blessedness which while the Soul is bathing in it cries out in a Divine extasie I have enough Here is Fulness but no Surfeit Psal 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness p Spiritualem vult Foelicitatem quando Facit ad Faciem se nobis fruendum exhibeat Deui. Calvin When I awake out of the sleep of death having my Soul embelished with the Illustrious Beams of thy Glory I shall be satisfied In God there is not only Sufficiency but Redundancy not only Plenitudo
plundered him of all lifting up his Eyes to Heaven said Lord thou knowest where I have laid up my Treasure * By this delighting in God we may undoubtedly know he is our Reward What shall we do to get God to be our Reward Quest Let us see our need of God We are undone without him Lift not Direct 1 not up the Crest of Pride Beware of the Laodicean temper Revel 3.17 Thou saist I am rich and have need of nothing God will never bestow himself on them that see no want of him Let us beg of God to be our Reward 'T was Austin's Prayer Lord Direct 2 give me thy self b Da mihi te Domine Aug. O do not put me off with Common Mercies Give me not my Portion in this life †Psal 17.14 Make over thy self by a Deed of Gift to me Be earnest Suitors and God cannot find in his Heart to deny you Prayer is the Key of Heaven which being turned by the hand of Faith opens all Gods Treasures Live every day in the Contemplation of this Reward Be in the Altitudes Branch 3 Think what God hath prepared for them that love Him c Nihil in hac vita dulcius sentitur nil ita mentem ab amore mundi seperat nil sic animam contra tentationes roborat nil hominem ita ad omne bonum opus excitat quam Gratia contemplationis Bern. O that our thoughts could ascend The higher the Bird flies the sweeter it sings Let us think how Blessed they are who are possessed of their Heritage If one could but look a while through the chinks of Heaven-door and see the Beauty and Bliss of Paradise if he could but lay his Ear to Heaven and hear the Ravishing Musick of those Seraphick Spirits and the Anthems of Praise which they Sing how would his Soul be Exhilerated and Transported with Joy O Christians meditate of this Reward Slight transient thoughts do no good They are like breath upon Steel which is presently off again but let your thoughts dwell upon Glory till your Hearts are deeply affected What Lord is there such an Incomprehensible Reward to be bestowed upon me Shall these Eyes of mine be blessed with Transforming Sights of thee O the love of God to Sinners Stand at this Fire of Meditation till your Hearts begin to be warm How would the reflection on this inmense Reward conquer Temptation and behead those unruly Lusts that have formerly conspired against us What is there a Reward so sure so sweet so speedy and shall I by sin forfeit this Shall I to please my Appetite lose my Crown O all ye pleasures of Sin be gone let me no more be deceived with your sugered Lies wound me no more with your Silver Darts Th◠stolen Waters are sweet yet the Water of Life is sweeter No stronger Antidote to expell Sin than the Fore-thoughts of the Heavenly Remunerations It was when Moses was long out of sight that Israel made an Idol to worship Exod. 32.1 So when the future Reward is long out of our mind then we set up some Idol-lust in our Hearts which we begin to worship Branch 4 This may content Gods People though they have but little Oyl in the Cruse and their Estates are almost boyled away to nothing their Great Reward is yet to come Thô your Pension be but small your Portion is large If God be yours by Deed of Gift this may rock your hearts quiet God lets the wicked have their Pay before-hand Luk. 6.24 Ye have received your Consolation A wicked man may make his Acquittance and write Received in full Payment But the Saints Reward is in reversion the Robe and the Ring is yet to come May not this tune their Hearts into contentment Christian what thô God denies thee a Kid to make merry f Luk. 15.31 if he will say Son all I have is thine is not this sufficient Why dost thou complain of the Worlds emptiness who hast Gods Fulness Is not God Reward enough Hath a Son any cause to complain that his Father denies him a Flower in the Garden when he makes him Heir to his Estate g Quid ultrà quaerit cui omnia suus conditor fit Prosper The Philosopher comforted himself with this that thô he had no Musick or Vine-Trees yet he had the Houshould Gods with him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christian thô thou hast not much of the World yet thou hast God and he is an inexhaustible Treasure It was strange that after God had told Abraham I am thy exceeding great Reward yet that Abraham should say vers 2. Lord what wilt thou give me seeing I go Childless Shall Abraham ask Lord what wilt thou give me when he had given himself Was Abraham troubled at the want of a Child who had a God was not God better than Ten Sons h Quid homini sufficit cui ipse conditor non sufficit Aug. Who should be content if not he who hath God for his Portion and Heaven for his Haven Let this exceeding Great Reward stir up in us a Spirit of Activity for God Our Head should Study for him our Hands work for him our Feet run in the way of his Commandements Alas how litle is all we can do Our Work bears no Proportion with our Reward Mercedi an tantae par Labor esse potest †Verinus The thoughts of this Reward should make us rise off the Bed of Sloth and Act with all our might for God i Spes proemii solatium fit laboris Hierom. It should add Wings to our Prayers and Weight to our Alms. A slothful Person stands in the World for a Cipher and God writes down no Ciphers in the Book of Life Let us abound in the work of the Lord. 1 Cor. 15.58 As Aromatical Trees sweat out their precious Oyls So should we Sweat out our strength and Spirits for Christ Saint Paul knowing what a Splendid Reward was behind brought all the Glory he could to God 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more abundantly than they all He outwrought all the other Apostles Saint Pauls Obedience did not move slow as the Sun on the Dial but Swift as the Sun in the Firmament * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Did Plato and Demosthenes undergo such Herculean Labours and Studies who had but the dim Watch-light of Nature to see by and did but Fancy the pleasures of the Elizian Fields after this Life and shall not Christians much more put forth all their Vigour of Spirit for God when they are sure to be Crowned nay God himself will be their Crown If God be so great a Reward let such as have an Interest in him Branch 5 be chearful God loves a Sanguine Complection k Acceptior est Deo grata laetitia quam querula tristitia Bucholcer Chearfulness credits Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The goodness of the
Conscience is seen in the gladness of the Countenance Let the Birds of Paradise sing for joy Shall a Carnal man rejoyce whose hopes lean on earthly Crutches and shall not he rejoyce whose Treasure is laid up in Heaven Be Serious yet Chearful A dejected Melancholy temper as it unfits for Duty especially Praising God so it disparageth Heaven will others think God is such a great Reward when they see Christians hang the wing and go drooping in Religion 'T is a sin as well not to rejoyce as not to repent But how can I be chearful I am reduced to great Straits Object Let God take away what he will from thee Answ he will at last give thee that which is better As Pharaoh said Gen. 45.20 Regard not your Stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours So I say Regard not your Stuff be not too much troubled at the diminution of these earthly things for the good of all the Land of Heaven is yours In the Fields of Sicily there is a continual Spring and Flowers all the Year long an Emblem of the Jerusalem above where are Flowers of Joy alwayes growing There you shall tread upon Stars be Fellow-commoners with Angels and have Communion with the blessed Trinity Let the Saints then be glad in the Lord in God are Treasures that can never be emptied and Pleasures that can never be ended If God be an exceeding great Reward let such as have hope in Branch 6 him long for Possession Though it should not be irksom to us to stay here to do Service yet we should have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy longing till the Portion comes into our hand l Veni Domine Jesu ut ad te veniam veni dulcedo mea emancipato Animam hanc ut te Marito suo fruaatur Roll. This is a temper becoming a Christian content to live desirous to dye Phil. 1.23.25 Doth not the Bride desire the day of Espousals m In Visione Dei ut primi veri amore Dei ut summi boni consistit Corona Aug. Rev. 22.17 Did we but seriously consider our Condition here We are compassed with a body of Sin we cannot pray without wandring we cannot believe without doubting should not this make us desire to have our Pass to be gone Let us think how happy those Saints above are who are solacing themselves in God while we live far from Court they alwaies behold the smiling face of God while we drink Wormwood they swim in Honey while we are perplexed between Hope and Fear they know their Names are enrolled in the Book of Life while we are tossed upon the unquiet Waves they are gotten to the Haven Did we but know what a Reward God is and what the joy of our Lord means we should need Patience to be content to stay here any longer Let such as have God for their exceeding great Reward be living Organs Branch 7 of Gods praise n Gratias agere possumus referre non possumus Aug. Psal 118.28 Thou art my God and I will praise thee Themistocles thought he was well required by the Graecians for his Valour when they took such notice of him in the Olympicks saying This is Themistocles God counts it Requital enough for all his Love when we are grateful and present him with our Thank-Offering and well may we stand upon Mount Gerizim Blessing and Praising if we consider the Greatness of this Reward that we should be made Heirs of God and that this surpassing Reward is not a Debt but a Legacy and that when many are passed by the Lot of free Grace should fall upon us let this make us ascribe Praise unto the Lord. It is called the Garment of Praise Isa 61.3 The Saints never look so comely as in this Garment Praise is the Work of Heaven Such as shall have Angels Reward should do Angels work The word Praise comes from an Hebrew Râ—dix that signifies to shoot up p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Godly should send up their Praises as a Volley of shot towards Heaven shall you live with God and partake of his Fulness in Glory break forth into Doxologies and Triumphs long for that time when you shall join in Consort with the Angels those Quiristers of Heaven in sounding forth Hallelujah's to the King of Glory Such as are Monuments of Mercy should be Patterns of Thankfulness 3Vse Consolation Will God himself be his Peoples Reward this may be as Bezar-stone to revive and Comfort them 1. In Case of losses they have lost their Livings and Promotions for Conscience sake but as long as God lives their Reward is not lost Heb. 10.34 I cannot be poor faith Bernard as long as God is rich for his Riches are mine Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia Whatever we lose for God we shall find again in him We have left all say the Disciples and followed thee Mark 10.28 Alas what had they left a few sorry Boats and Tackling what were these to their Reward they parted with movable goods for the unchangable God All losses are made up in him we may be losers for God we shall not be losers by him 2. It is Comfort in Case of Persecution the Saints Reward will abundantly compensate all their Sufferings Agrippa being laid in Chains for Caius when he came after to the Empire released Agrippa out of Prison and gave him a Chain of Gold bigger than his Iron Chain So God will infinitely remunerate them that suffer for him for their Waters of Marah they shall have the Wine of Paradise The Saints Sufferings are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a while 1 Pet. 5.10 their Reward is for ever they are but a while in the Wine-press ever in the Banqueting-house q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys The Hebrew Word for Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Weight the weight of Glory should make Affliction light the enjoying of God eternally will cause Christians to forget all their Sorrows One Beam of the Sun of Righteousness will dry up their Tears after Trouble Peace after Labour Rest Then God will be all in all to his People 1 Cor. 15.28 Light to their Eye Manna to their Tast Musick to their Ear Joy to their Heart O then let the Saints be comforted in the midst of their Trials Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the Sufferings off this present time are not Worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us 4 Vse Terror to the Wicked Here is a Gorgons head to affright them They shall have a Reward but vastly different from the Godly the one shall be rewarded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Plagues in the Bible are their Reward Prov. 10.29 Destruction shall be to the Workers of Iniquity God is their Rewarder but not their Reward Rom. 6.23 The Wages of sin is Death They who did the Devils work will tremble to
and we are made up of nothing else but Dependency and Frailty Luc. 22.61 Now this active principle is chiefly Faith and Love Faith working by Love Faith gives us union to Christ and maintains that Union Now as we are kept by Faith so we and our Faith are kept both by the power of God to salvation 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Our Inheritance is kept in Heaven for us and we are kept in Earth for it till we possess it in Heaven Quis custodiet ipsos custodes We should be poorly and Miserably kept if the Lord were not our keeper How did Adam keep his Estate and the Angels theirs and Esau his Birth-right and the Prodigal his Portion when all was trusted in their own hands One lost all for an Apple and another for a Mess of Dainty Broth and another for his carnal pleasures but happy Believers whose All is in better Trustees hands 1 Pet. 4. ult even the hand of a Faithful God IV. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must keep himself free from the Love of the World because the Love of this World is contrary to the Love of God 1 Joh. 2.15 16. and therefore inconsistent with it 1. Because the Love of the World and its Trinity or threefold Lust is a dangerous Heart-thief it Steals away the Heart from God as Absolom stole away the Hearts of the People from David by his Kisses 2 Sam. 15.5 6. and Flatteries Hos 4.11 What the Prophet speaks of Wine and Whoredom is true of all other worldly things 2. The Love of the World makes God jealous because Worldlings make an Idol of it and it is the worst Idolatry being that of the first Commandement Mâ—t. 6.24 So is Covetousness and Mammon when the Heart is inordinate upon Creatures Silver Gold Relations that is our Treasure Luc. 12.34 Colos 3.5 Therefore saith the Lord take heed and beware of Covetousness Luk. 12.15 A double caution all little enough And of this nature is Luxury and Epicurism also Phil. 3.18 19 20. Drunkenness the Love of Pleasure more than God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Belly-gods Nay thus it is likewise in the inordinate Love of Children which is soon done and they become Idols and God in his jealousie breaks them 1 Sam. 2.21 or breaks us for them as he did old Eli honouring his Sons above God And he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me Math. 10.37 saith Christ 3. Because the Love of the World is a Choak-pear to all that 's truly good as is clear in the Thorny Ground Math. 13. v. 7.22 Experience teacheth this universally and the nature of the things being contrary one to the other and killing one of another * Like the Torment of Mezentius putting the Living to the Dead which corrupts and kills the Living one being Spiritual and Heavenly the other Carnal Sensual and Destructive yea both are destroyers of each other Rom. 7.24 Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Do not we see what mortal Enemies worldly men are to Divine things The Word saith the world lyeth in wickedness the Devil is the Prince of the wicked World and ruleth in the children of disobedience it feeds the Flesh and nourisheth the carnal part and is not subject to the Law of God nor can be Rom. 8.7 Yea it is a deadly thing to the Soul Rom. 6.6 Gal. 5.17 Rom. 8.13 Gal. 6.14 Gal. 2.20 Gal. 5.24 and such deadly things are these two Lovers that is these two Lusts that they hunt for the life of each other fighting against each other to the death and the quarrel alwayes ends in the death of one or th' other If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live See the Scriptures in the Margin 4. The Love of the World hath Sorcery and Witchcraft in it when once men drink of the Worlds Cup they are intoxicated We read of Simon Magus how he bewitched the People Act. 8.9 We read of Jezebels Witchcrafts 2 King 9.22 Nahum 3.9 Rev. 17.2 3 4. Falsus fallax est mundus exterius aurens interius lutens N. N. and Babylons Sorceries and Witchcrafts and it is joined with the Works of the Flesh Gal. 5.17 to ver 21. Sixteen in number Rev. 22.15 Maxima totius orbis venefica The greatest Witch in the world is the World Her Honours are bewitching Honours Her Delights and pleasures are bewitching Her Riches and Profits are bewitching How then is the Love of the World consistent with Gods Love Therefore for the Love of God love not the World 5. The Love of the World makes Men Apostates from Christ So it made Demas 2 Tim. 4.10 and so it hath made thousands more and thee among the rest if thou lookest not well to thy Self 6. Psal 17.14 Phil. 3.18 19 20. Because the Love of the World makes men take up their Heaven on this side Heaven Of those men the Apostle could not speak without Weeping This is like the Prodigal that preferred a Tavern and a Brothel-House before his Fathers House Luc. 15.13 V. He that will Love God and keep himself in the Love of God must not be a Self-lover there is no greater Enemy to the Love of God than to Love our selves 2 Tim. 3.2 Mark the place for it is a remarkable place He tells you of perilous times a coming and there gives nineteen marks of such men as make the times perilous Of all which Lovers of themselves leads the Van for where once this Principle prevails it opens a Floodgate to all Sin and shuts the door upon all Holy Motions If Self be beloved admired and idolized it is the worst Idol in the World this is an Idol in a secret place continually adored this is Dagon set above the Ark and a Man above God and provokes to jealousie this perverts the course of Nature and Gods order who is one God and uppermost and only to be adored and men set up themselves in Gods Throne and Ungod him by deifying themselves and for one God they set up millions of gods as many gods as Creatures This is mans misery by losing the Integrity wherein God made him and seeking out many Inventions And when the Lord Christ came into the World he he speaks our Love and wooes us for it and commands self-denyal as the first Lesson to be learned in his School Mat. 16.24 25. Mat. 10.37 whereby the great Stumbling-block to Gods Love is taken away VI. If ye would keep your selves in the Love of God be very shy of Sin both in the Risings of it and as to the Temptations to it For the love of God and the love of Sin are more contrary to each other than Heaven and Hell Because they are Morally contrary Rom. 8. 1. Sin is Enmity against God in the Abstract 2. Sin is hatefull
extinguish all worldly love And this is an infallible sign of the love of God in the Soul for they two are contrary and mortal Enemies one to the other and seek the destruction of each other The reason is plain 1. They differ in their Rise and Offspring one is Heaven-born Gal. 5.17 the other is Earthly 2. They differ in their Quality one hates what the other loves 3. They differ in their Objects One loves God the other loves the Creature 4. They differ in the Means of their Attainments one minds the Will and Word of God to follow that only the other minds the Wills and Lusts of the flesh to fulfill them Ephes 2.2 and to make provision for them Rom. 13. last v. 5. They differ in their End The love of Creatures is disappointed and lost the Love of God enjoyes him for ever Psal 42.1 2. and rests satisfied in that enjoyment and not before 6. Consider thou canst never keep thy self in the Love of God if thou art not quit and utterly disengaged from the love of the World in the Lusts and Vanities of it by thy inordinate desires and hankerings after it God never comes into the Soul till the World go out Taulerus and then the Soul moves nobly when it moves to its Principle This makes the Circular motion of the Heavens to be most Noble because it returns alwayes to the same point where it began Thus Noah's Dove found no rest out of the Ark but returned to it after long fluttering about because it found no food among the Carrion but the Raven did and therefore abode by it A Bird as long as it flyes aloft in the Air is free from the Fowlers Gin but when it lights down on the ground and falls a picking in the Earth then is nearest unto danger Thus it fares with men of the Earth O poor Soul saith St. Aug. how dost thou debase thy self thou lovest earthly things and thou art better than them thou admirest the Sun and thou art more beautifull and excellent than the Sun only God is above thee and thou wert made to love him only A Child of Heaven and a Son of the Earth differ in this as much as Heaven and Earth Phil. 3.18 19 20. 2 Pet. 3.10 The Ground is cursed and this World shall be burnt up why art thou enamour'd with it Therefore the Lord imbitters the Worlds Breasts to his Children that they may be weaned and no longer suck of them and then when the world begins to be bitter to us the Lord begins to be sweeter to us Math. 17.4 When Peter had found some Sweetness on Mount Tabor he was loth to come down and would dwell there above the World in that heavenly Company That Wife never truly loved her Husband that loves her Jewels above him Did not Israel do so when they made a Calf of the Jewels God gave them and a God of that Calf and themselves Beasts in worshipping of it What abominable Idolatry what Apostasie what Ingratitude is here 1. All that hath hitherto been said of this great Duty of Keeping our selves in the Love of God is Practical and carryes Application with it containing true signs of such as keep themselves in Gods Love What is that but a great Use of Examination of our State and of our Practice 1. Whether we are in the Love of God 2. Whether we do indeed walk so as to keep our selves in it Be not deceived compare your State Heart and Life with these Rules be serious and solemn in it 2. You have had by way of contrary sufficiently hinted the cross Practice of the greatest part of the World herein who keep themselves out of Gods Love by keeping in an evil State of Enmity between God and them And though God hath long beseeched them by his Embassadours to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 yet they will not but stand out in open defiance against God Job 21.14 and desire not the knowledge of his wayes they preferr the Love of men before the Love of God They preferr the love of Money and carnal Delights before the love of God Luk. 8.14 2 Tim. 3.4 They hate the Knowledge of God they hate the People of God they hate the Wayes of God they love those that hate God and whom God hates Can these think themselves in the Love of God Can they keep themselves in the Love of God before they are come into it And this carryes in it a Use of Reprehension Conviction Discrimination and Lamentation all of them respectively O mind and consider it well 3. We have a Use of Exhortation The Text is properly such a Use It contains a Duty to be practised all your Life perform the Duties of that State study what doth please God Qui in amore Dei se custodiunt suaviter habitant instar apum in alvearibus in favis meilis ut Sponsa in finu Sponsi Cant. 1.2 3. cap. 2.4 5 6 12 13. take heed of that which doth offend God shun all that is inconsistent with the Love of God Meditate on the happy Priviledge of such a State Thou art a Candidate of Heaven a Favourite of God such are out of the reach of danger they have a sweet Calm and Sun-shine in their Conscience They have a pleasant Spring of singing of Birds and like the fragrant smell of a Garden of Spices and the fill of Divine Flagons in Christs Banquetting House Cant. 4.16 Cap. 5.1 4. If thou keep thy self in the Love of God thou needest not to fear the Hatred of men This is to be feared of all that are not in the Love of God Those that are in Gods love have no cause in the world to fear worldly mens hate they have the strongest security against it 1. From the Power of God which is omnipotent Gen. 15.1 2. From the Promise of God which is faithful and never fails Rom. 8.31 to 39. Heb. 13.5 6 8. 3. From the Eternity of Christ the same to day as yesterday and for ever He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what man can do unto me Read Deut. 33. and the four last Verses God will be a wall of fire about those that are in his Love Zach. 2.5 Read Deut. 32.9 10 11 12 13 14. What higher expressions can be uttered to set forth the tender love of God to his People while they are under his Wing Will ye have more consider that of the Prophet Isaiah in Chap. 60.5 As one whom his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted And when ye see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb 5. If ye mind this Duty aright to keep your selves in the love of God 1 You must labour to understand the love of God to his Elect truely and then meditate
Love 'T is Carnal 2. Love your Children truly tenderly but yet take heed that you do not over-love them But when is that Certainly when you Love them more than you Love God and Christ you over-love them But who does so I shall not charge you but give me leave to ask you a question or two Tell me when your Gods Glory and your Child 's good are neerly concern'd for which doth your zeal most hotly glow Are not your Affections most fiery where they should be most cool and where they should burn there they freeze Doth not your Heart make you believe it Loves God and gives him Pledges of your affection while it secretly doats chiefly on the dandled Child Like some false Strumpet that entertains her Husband with her Eyes and on the mean time treads on the Toe of her Paramour Do you not often think you love God enough and when your Child most yet but enough nay never enough your head heart hand purse mandrakes five messes breasts bowels All but little enough too little for your Child your Idol is it so as to your God So to Love our Child as thereby to lesson our Love to God yea or to equalize it with our Love to God is not only indulgence but idolatry And an Idol of Flesh and Blood is to be abhorr'd as well as that of Wood or Sone Assuredly the best way to quench this exorbitant Love to Children on Earth is to set your Hearts and Affections more on your Father in Heaven on God his Christ Spirit Word wayes rewards Luk. 10.32 Isa 33.6 1 Pet. 1.24 25. Look but directly on that Sun and thine eyes will quickly be dazl'd to these glittering glow-worms here below Make that invaluable Pearl but thy Treasure and thou wilt lightly esteem these Bristol-Stones Take but Christ fully and wholly into thy heart and bosom and thou wilt quickly yield thy Child 's proper place is but thy Foot or Knee In a word If God in Christ be thy God indeed thou wilt abhorr the thought and practice of making thy Child his Corrival 3. Love your Children but Love them wisely give e'm your Hearts into their Bosoms but not the reins on their necks When you do so at the same time mount them on your fiercest Beast furnish them with Switch and Spur but without bit or bridle and then do but pause and think soberly of the period of their full carier Love 'em I say but still be careful to maintain that just authority and preeminence that God hath given you over them A Parent that hath lost his Authority is as salt that hath lost its savour Like the Logg sent from Jupiter every frog in the Family apt to leap upon him And remember it fond Parents there is nothing in the world that renders you more vile cheap contemptible in the eyes even of your Children themselves when they begin to put forth the first buds of Reason nothing that layes your authority more in the dust and exposes you to the foot and spurn of your Child than sinful Indulgence A foolish man dispiseth his Mother Prov. 15.20 His Mothers folly made him a Fool of a foolish Child he at length grows up into a man but a foolish man and this foolish man despises his Mother If you are Fathers then take care of your Honour if Mothers be sure to carry it so as to preserve in your Children that awful respect and reverence which they owe you Mal. 1.6 Heb. 12.9 4. Love your Children but love them in God and for God Love his image in them more than your own In a word Let Gods Spirit be the Principle Gods Word the Rule Gods Example the Pattern and his Glory the end of your dearest Love to your dearest Children Love them as God Loves his Children But How 1. God so loves his Childrens persons as that he infinitely hates their sins Nay because he loves their persons for that very reason he hates their sins Bacause I love my Child therefore I hate the Toad that I see crawling on his bosom God doth infinitely love his People and yet in this Life he shews more hatred against the Sins of his own People than he doth against the Sins of any other men in the World 1. Here He afflicts all his own people for sin one way or other Every Mothers Son of them Heb. 12.6 8. Job 10.14 Isa 31.9 48.10 but is patient towards the wicked le ts them run riot without controll Psal 50.21 13.5 2 Pet. 2.9 2. When he intends to bring a general judgment on a Nation he uses to begin with his own people Isa 28.18 1 Pet. 4.17 Jer. 25.17 18. Luk. 21.10 11. 3. When he makes any an Example unto others of his Hatred against sin makes choice of his own people before wicked men Isa 8.18 1 Cor. 4.9 1 King 13.24 33. 4. Judgments more sharp on his own people than others Psal 89.7 Lam. 1.12 Dan. 9.12 2. All this he doth out of the purest eternal and unchangeable Love that he bears his Children God chastens and corrects his Children that he may keep them from sinning as others do and as themselves have done and from perishing for ever in their sins as others shall He meddles not with thorns and briars but prunes his Vines that they may no more yield such sour Grapes He casts his Children as Gold into a Furnace here to refine and purifie them that he may not be forced to cast them as stubble into an Eternal flaming Oven hereafter And this in Love Exo. 4.24 Job 7.17 18 19. Psal 119.71 75. 89.30 to 38. Jer. 59.7 Lam. 3.33 Hos 4.14 Am. 3.2 Heb. 12.6 7. Rev. 3.19 1 Cor. 11.30 32. And now Parents as you have seen your Heavenly Father do do you In his strength follow his Example 1. Love your Childrens persons and because you love them hate their sins The sins of those most whom you Love most You see your God doth so Be not so blinded as that you can see no fault in them nor so madly doting as to delight in their Blemishes to kiss their Plague-sores Nor so Indulgent as to be loth to grieve or displease them when grossely Criminal Especially 2. Let your holy strictness shew it self against those whom you most affect TELL them Child I Love you and therefore I cannot will not behold the least iniquity in you Hab. 1.13 So Christ acted towards his beloved Disciples Mat 15.16 17. 17.17 Tell 'em you cannot will not pardon them Exo. 23.21 Let them know that you can be Angry and if words will not do the Rod shall and that you can make that Rod smart Exo. 4.24 Tell them though they may presume to provoke you to bewail them you will not suffer them to provoke God to Hate them Isa 63.10 Psal 78.58 59. and that you had rather hear them cry and see them bleed yea and dye here than hear them howl and see them burn'd and damn'd hereafter
the Ministry of the Gospel promotes a mans own Salvation in so far as the work of Christianity is woven in with the right discharge of the Office of the Ministry Many Ministers can say that if they had not been Ministers they had in all appearance lost their Souls The Subject of the Ministers work is the same with that of a Christian's and above all men should he be careful of his Heart and Intentions that all be pure and spiritual No man in any work he is called to is under so strict a necessity of dependance on the influence and assistance of the Holy Ghost both for Gifts and Grace And are not all these great helps unto our own Salvation 2. The Second advantage is thou shalt save them that hear thee There is little hope of that mans being usefull to save others that minds not his own Salvation And therefore the Apostle puts them in this order thy self and then them that hear thee This description of the People them that hear thee saith that the principal work of a Minister is Preaching and the principal benefit People have by them is to hear the Lords Word from them though there be a seeing i. e. of their holy Conversation that is also useful Phil. 4.9 But the Apostle knew no such Ministers as were only to be seen in worldly Pomp and Grandeur and seldom or never heard Preaching Thou shalt save them The great End of both Preaching and Hearing is Salvation and if Salvation were more design'd by Preachers and Hearers it would be more frequently the effect of the action Thou shalt save them Thou shalt by the Lords blessing on thy Ministry be successeful in converting Sinners and in building up of Saints in Holiness and Faith unto Salvation Not that Ministers are of themselves able by all their Endeavours to carry on this great End they are only Gods Tools and Instruments 1 Cor. 3.6 7. Concerning this 1. We find that the Lord hath appointed this great Ordinance of the Gospel-Ministry for this end the Saving of men Eph. 4.11 12 13. It is through their Word that men believe Joh. 17.20 And Divine appointment of the Means declares both it to be usefull and the End to be hopefull 2. He hath also given many Promises of his presence blessing and success to follow and attend them whom he sends on this great Errand Christs first calling of the Apostles had this Promise in it I will make you Fishers of men which not only declared what that Imployment was he call'd them unto but it assur'd them of success in it At his leaving of them Matth. 28.20 he promised to be with them unto the End of the World and this Promise is as good to us as it was to them 3. He hath also revealed much of his Mind about Ministers Duty in order to this end of Saving men This also makes the End more hopefull 4. We find that the Lord doth qualifie and fit them whom he makes successeful He makes men able Ministers of the New Testament the Word of Life 2 Cor. 3.5 6. And still according to the success the Lord hath a mind to bless a man with gifts and qualifications and assistance are proportionably given The Apostles that had the greatest Harvest to gather in were made the strongest Labourers and though in a far inferiour degree the same method is observed by the Lord in dealing with and by ordinary Ministers It 's true that alwayes the most able and learned Ministers are not most successeful yet generally the most skilfull Labourers are most blessed Neither are the most Learned and able men for parts most fit and skilful in dealing with Souls at all times Now having opened the words we shall return to the Question to be resolved By what means may Ministers best win Souls In speaking to which I shall first shew What this Text saith unto this purpose 2ly And then give some further account thereof from other Scriptures 3ly And apply it both to Ministers and People 1. What this Text speaks about this matter It looks two wayes upon this Question 1. It gives a direct Answer unto it and points forth Duty 2. It gives an encouraging Promise of the good Effect and Fruit of the discharge of the Duty I shall carry on both together 1. Take heed unto thy self Wouldst thou be a saved and successeful Minister take heed unto thy self Such Warnings imply alwayes a Case of difficulty and danger wherein he is that gets them Take heed unto thy self in these things 1. Take heed that thou be a sound and sincere Believer The importance of sincere Godliness in a Minister is written in the deep wounds that the Church of Christ hath received by the hands of ungodly Ministers It hath been made a question Whether an ungodly Man can be a Minister but it is none That such men are in a most desperate condition Matth. 7.22 23. Depart from me not because you ran unsent or preach'd Error instead of Truth or preached poorly and meanly all great sins in themselves but because you work iniquity the usual expression of intire ungodliness What use the Lord may make of the Gifts for great Gifts he gives to the worst of men of ungodly men even in the Ministry of the Gospel is one of his deep Paths But no man can reasonably imagine that a walker in the way to Hell can be a fit and usefull Guide to them that mind to go to Heaven If a man would have peace in his Conscience and success in his work of the Ministry let him take good heed to this that he be a sound Christian There is a special difficulty for a Minister to know his Grace Gifts and Grace have deceived many with their likeness although the difference be great both in it self and to an enlightened Eye 2. Take heed to thy self that thou be a called and sent Minister This is of great importance as to Success He that can say Lord thou hast sent me may boldly adde Lord go with me and bless me It is good when a man is serious in this Inquiry It is to be feared that many run and never ask this Question so is it seen in their speed and success Jer. 23. I sent them not therefore they shall not profit this people at all is a standing rule to this day These things if found may serve to satisfie a Ministers Conscience that Jesus Christ hath sent him 1. If the Heart be filled with a single desire after the great end of the Ministry the Glory of God in the Salvation of men Every work that God calls a man to he makes the End of it amiable This desire sometimes attends mens first Conversion Paul was called to be a Saint and an Apostle at once Acts 9. and so have many been called to be Saints and Ministers together If it be not so yet this is found with him that Christ calls that when he is most spiritual and serious
conscientious respect unto it Force and Fear rule all This is that Discipline in whose execution the blood of an innumerable company of Holy Martyrs hath been shed that wherein all the vital Spirits of the Papacy do act themselves and whereby it doth subsist and although it be the Image of Jealousie or the Image of the first Beast set up by the Dragon yet it cannot be denyed but that it is very wisely accommodated unto the present State of the Generality of them that are called Christians amongst them For being both blind and carnal and having thereby lost all Sense and Experience of the Spiritual Power of the Rule of Christ in their Consciences they are become an Herd not fit to be governed or ruled any other way Under the Bondage of it therefore they must abide till the vail of Blindness be taken away and they are turned unto God by his Word and Spirit for where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there alone is Liberty SECT VII Unto the foregoing particular Instances with respect unto the Church I shall yet add one more general which is indeed comprehensive of them all or the root from whence they spring a root-bearing Gall and Wormwood And this is concerning the Catholick Church What belongs unto this Catholick Church what is comprized in its Communion The Apostle declares Heb. 12.22 23 24. It is the Recapitulation of all things in Heaven and Earth in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.10 His Body his Spouse or Bride the Lambs Wife the glorious Temple wherein God doth dwell by his Spirit An holy mystical Society purchased and purified by the blood of Christ and united unto him by his spirit or the Inhabitation of the same spirit in him and those whereof it doth consist Hence they with him as the body with its head are mystically called Christ 1 Cor 12.12 And there are two parts of it the one whereof is already perfected in Heaven as unto their spirits and the other yet continued in the way of faith and obedience in this world Both these constitute one family in Heaven and Earth Ephes 3.15 In Conjunction with the holy Angels one Mystical-Body one Catholick Church And although there is a great difference in their present state and condition between these two branches of the same Family yet are they both equally purchased by Christ and united unto him as their Head having both of them effectually the same principle of the life of God in them Of a third part of this Church neither in Heaven nor in Earth in a temporary State participant somewhat of Heaven and somewhat of Hell called Purgatory the Scripture knoweth nothing at all neither is it consistent with the Analogy of Faith or the promises of God unto them that do believe as we shall see immediately This Church even as unto that part of it which is in this world as it is adorned with all the graces of the Holy Spirit is the most beautiful and glorious effect next unto the forming and production of its Head in the Incarnation of the Son of God which Divine Wisdom Power and Grace will extend themselves unto here below But these things the glory of this State is visible only unto the eye of Faith yea it is perfectly seen and known only to Christ himself We see it obscurely in the light of Faith and Revelation and are sensible of it according unto our participating of the graces and privileges wherein it doth consist But that spiritual light which is necessary to the discerning of this Glory was lost among those of whom we treat They could see no reality nor beauty in these things nor any thing that should be of advantage unto them For upon their principle of the utter uncertainty of mens spiritual estate and condition in this world it is evident that they could have no satisfactory perswasion of any concernment in it But they had possessed themselves of the notion of a Catholick Church which with mysterious Artifices they have turned unto their own incredible secular Advantage This is that whereof they boast appropriating it unto themselves and making it a pretence of destroying others what lies in them both temporally and eternally Unto this end they have formed the most deformed and detestable Image of it that ever the world beheld For the Catholick Church which they own and which they boast that they are instead of that of Christ is a company or society of men unto whom in order unto the constitution of that whole society there is no one real Christian grace required nor spiritual Vnion unto Christ the Head but only an outside profession of these things as they expresly contend A Society united unto the Pope of Rome as its head by a subjection unto him and his rule according to the Laws and Canons whereby he will grant them This is the formal reason and cause constituting that Catholick Church which they are which is compacted in it self by horrid Bonds and Ligaments for the ends of Ambition worldly Domination and Avarice A Catholick Church openly wicked in the generality of its rulers and them that are ruled and in its State cruel oppressive and died with the blood of Saints and Martyrs innumerable This I say is that Image of the Holy Catholick Church the spouse of Christ which they have set up And it hath been as the Image of Moloch that hath devoured and consumed the Children of the Church whose cryes when their cruel step-mother pittied them not and when their pretended Ghostly Fathers cast them into the flames came up unto the ears of the Lord of Hosts and their blood still cries for vengeance on this idolatrous generation Yet is this pretence of the Catholick Church pressed in the minds of many with so many Sophistical Artifices through the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive proposed with the allurements of so many secular advantages and imposed oftimes on Christians with so much force and cruelty that nothing can secure us from the Admission of it unto the utter overthrow of Religion but the means before insisted on A spiritual light is necessary hereunto to discern the internal spiritual beauty and glory of the true Catholick Church of Christ Where this is in its power all the paintings and dresses of their deformed Image will fall off from it and its abominable filth will be made to appear And this will be accompanied with an effectual experience of the glory and excellency of that grace in the souls of those that believe derived from Christ the sole head of this Church whereby they are changed from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. The Power Life and sweetness hereof will give satisfaction unto their souls to the contempt of the pretended order of dependance on the Pope as an head By these means the true Catholick Church which is the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all growing
up unto him in all things who is the head despiseth this Image and Dagon will fall to the ground when this ark is brought in yea though it be in his own Temple SECT VIII In the farther opening of this Chamber of Imagery we shall yet if it be possible see greater Abominations At least that which doth next ensue is scarce inferiour unto any of them that went before It is a principle in Christian Religion an acknowledged verity that it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ especially as united in Churches to propagate the faith of the Gospel and to make the doctrine of it known unto all as they have opportunity yea this is one principal end of the constitution of Churches and officers in them Mat. 5.13 14 15 16. 1 Tim. 3.15 This our Lord Jesus Christ gave in special charge unto his Apostles at the beginning Mat. 28.19 20. Mark 16.15 16. Hereby they were obliged unto the work of propagating the faith of the Gospel and the knowledge of him therein in all places and were justified in their so doing And this they did with that efficacy and success that in a short time like the light of the Sun their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 And the Gospel was said to be preached unto every Creature which is under Heaven Col. 1.23 The way therefore whereby they propagated the faith was by diligent laborious preaching of the Doctrine of the Gospel unto all persons in all places with patience and magnanimity in undergoing all sorts of sufferings on the account of it and a declaration of its power in all those vertues and graces which are useful and exemplary unto mankind It is true their Office and the discharge of it is long since Leased Howbeit it cannot be denyed but that the Work it self is incumbent in a way of duty on all Churches yea on all Believers as they have providential Calls unto it and Opportunities for it For it is the principal way whereby they may glorifie God and benefit men in their chiefest Good which without doubt they are obliged unto This notion of Truth is retained in the Church of Rome and the work it self is appropriated by them unto themselves alone unto them and them only as they suppose it belongs to take care of the propagation of the faith of the Gospel with the conversion of Infidels and Hereticks Whatever is done unto this purpose by others they condemn and abhor What do they think of the primitive way of doing it by personal Preaching Sufferings and Holiness Will the Pope his Cardinals and Bishops undertake this work or way of the discharge of it Christ hath appointed no other the Apostles and their Successors knew no other no other becomes the Gospel nor ever had Success No they abhor and detest this way of it What then is to be done Shall the Truth be denyed Shall the work be wholely and avowedly laid aside neither will this please them because it is not suited unto their honour wherefore they have erected a dismal Image of it unto the horrible reproach of Christian Religion They have indeed provided a double painting for the Image which they have set up The first is the constant consult of some persons at Rome which they call congregatio de propaganda fide a Counsel for the Propagation of the Faith under the effect of whose consultations Christendom hath long grieved And the other is the Sending of Missionaries as they call them or a Surcharge of Fryars from their over numerous Fraternities upon their errands into remote Nations But the Real Image it self consists of these three parts 1. The Sword 2. The Inquisition 3. Plots and Conspiracies By these it is that they design to propagate the Faith and promote Christian Religion And if Hell it self can invent a more deformed Image and Representation of the sacred Truth and Work which it is a counterfeit of I am much mistaken Thus have they in the first way carried Christian Religion into the Indies especially the Western Parts of the World so called First the Pope out of the plenitude of his power gives unto the Spaniard all those Countreys and the Inhabitants of them that they may be made Christians But Christ dealt not so with his Apostles though he were Lord of all when he sent them to teach and baptize all Nations He dispossessed none of them of their Temporal Rights or Enjoyments nor gave to his Apostles a foot breadth of Inheritance among them But upon this Grant the Spanish Catholicks propagâ—ted the Faith and brought in Christian Religion amongst them And they did it by killing and murthering many millions of innocent persons as some of themselves say more than are alive in Europe in any one Age. And this savage Cruelty hath made the name of Christians detestable amongst all that remained of them that had any Exercise of Reason some few slavish Brutes being brought by force to submit unto this new kind of Idolatry And this we must think to be done in obedience unto that command of Christ Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel unto every Creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned This is the deformed Image which they have set up of Obedience unto his holy Commands whereunto they apply that voice to Peter with respect unto the eating of all sorts of Creatures Arise Peter kill and eat So have they dealt with those poor Nations whom they have devoured But Blood Murder and unjust War as all War is for the Propagation of Religion with persecution began in Cain who derived it from the Devil that Murderer from the beginning for he was of that wicked one and slew his Brother Jesus Christ the Son of God was manifesâ— to destroy these works of the Devil Heb. 2. And he doth it in the world by his Word and Doctrine judging and condemning them And he does it in his Disciples by his Spirit extirpating them out of their minds hearts and ways so as that there is not a more assured Character of a Derivation from the Evil Spirit than force and blood in Religion for the propagating of it The next part of this Image the next way used by them for the propagating of the Faith and the conversion of them they call Hereticks is the Inquisition So much hath been declared and is known thereof that it is needless here to give a Portraicture of it It may suffice that it hath been long since opened like Cacus's Den and discovered to be the greatest Arsenal of Cruelty the most dreadful Shambles of blood and slaughter that ever was in the World This is that Engine which hath supplyed the Scarlet Whore with the blood of Saints and the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus until she was drunk with it And this is the Second way or means whereby they propagate the Faith
pacifie the Consciences of sinners any more than the Blood of Bulls and Goats could do it under the Law yea any more than the Lustrations and Expiations of Sin amongst the Heathen could effect it Wherefore they have at length formed a more stated and specious Image of it to serve all the turns of convinced Sinners and this is a Purgatory after this Life that is a subterraneous place and various means where and whereby the Souls of men are purged from all their Sins and made meet for Heaven when the Lord Christ thinks meet to send for them or the Pope judges it fit to send them to him Hereunto let them pretend what they please the People under their conduct do trust a thousand times more for the purging of their Sins than unto the Blood of Christ But it is only a cursed Image of the vertue of it set up to draw off the minds of poor sinners from seeking an interest in a participation of the efficacy of that blood for that end which is to be obtained by faith alone Rom. 3.25 Only they have placed this Image behind the curtain of mortality that the cheat of it might not be discovered none who find themselves deceived by it can come back to complain or warn others to take care of themselves and it was in an especial manner suited unto their delusion who lived in pleasures or in the pursuit of unjust gain without exercise of afflictions in this world From these two sorts of persons by this Engine they raised a revenue unto themselves beyond that of Kings or Princes for all the endowments of their Religious houses and Societies were but commutations for the abatement of the fire of this Purgatory But whereas in its self it was a rotten Post that could not stand or subsist they were forced to prop it with many other imaginations for unto this end to secure work for this Purgatory they joyned the distinction of Sin into mortal and venial not as unto their end with respect unto Faith and Repentance not as unto the Degrees of sin with respect unto the aggravations but as unto the nature of them some of them being such namely those that are Venial as were capable of a purging expiation after this life though men die without any repentance of them And when this was done they have cast almost all the sins that can be named under this order And hereon this Image is become an Engine to disappoint the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and to precipitate secure sinners into eternal Ruin And to strengthen this deceiving security they have added another invention of a certain storehouse of Ecclesiastical merits the keys whereof are committed to the Pope to make application of them as he sees good unto the ease and relief of them that are in this Purgatory For whereas many of their Church and Communion have as they say done more good works then were needful for their salvation which they have received upon a due ballance of Commutative Justice the Surplusage is committed to the Pope to commute with it for the punishment of their sins who are sent into purgatory to suffer for them then which they could have found out no engine more powerful to evacuate the efficacy of the blood of Christ both as offered and as sprinkled and therewith the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning faith and repentance Moreover to give it farther countenance as one-lie must be thatched with another or it will quickly rain through they have fancied a separation to be made between guilt and punishment so as that when the guilt is fully remitted and pardoned yet there may punishment remain on the account of sin For this is the case of them in Purgatory their sins are pardoned so as that the Guilt of them shall not bind them over to eternal damnation though the wages of sin is death yet they must be variously punished for the sins that are forgiven But as this is contradictory in it self it being utterly impossible there should be any punishment properly so called but where there is guilt as the cause of it so it is highly injurious both to the Grace of God and blood of Christ in procuring and giving out such a lame pardon of sins as should leave room for punishment next to that which is eternal These are some of the rotten Props which they have fixed on the minds of persons credulous and superstitious terrified with guilt and darkness to support this tottering deformed Image set up in the room of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to purge the souls and consciences of Believers from sin But that whereby it is principally established and set up is the darkness ignorance guilt fear terrour of conscience accompanied with a love of sin that the most among them are subject and obnoxious unto being disquieted perplexed and tormented with these things and utterly ignorant of the true and only way of their removal and deliverance from them they greedily embrace this sorry provision for their present ease and relief being accommodated unto the utmost that humane or Diabolical craft can extend unto to abate their fear ease their torments and to give security unto their superstitious minds And hereby it is become to be the life and soul of their Religion diffusing it self into all the parts and concerns of it more trusted unto then either God or Christ or the Gospel Spiritual light and experience with the consequents of them in peace with God will safeguard the minds of Believers from bowing down to this horrid image though the acknowledgments of its divinity should be imposed on them with craft and force otherwise it will not be done for without this there will a strong inclination and disposition arising from a mixture of superstitious fear and love of sin possess the minds of men to close with this pretended relief and satisfaction The foundation of our preservation herein lies in Spiritual light or an ability of mind from supernatural illumination to discern the Beauty Glory and efficacy of the purging of our sins by the blood of Christ when the glory of the wisdom and grace of God of the love and grace of Christ of the power of the Holy Ghost herein is made manifest unto us we shall despise all the paintings of this invention Dagon will fall before the Ark and all these things do gloriously shine forth and manifest themselves unto believers in this misterious way of purging all our sins by the blood of Christ Herein will ensue an experience of the efficacy of this heavenly truth in our own souls There is no man whose heart and ways are cleansed by the blood of Christ through the effectual application of it by the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of the Gospel but he hath or may have a refreshing experience of it in his own soul and by the power which is communicated therewith he is stirred up unto all that exercise of Faith and all those duties
noluerint Adamum adorare Hoc suum peccatum non potuit celare Satan Luther Tom. 3. p. 82. b. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us says the beloved Disciple Joh. 1.14 He had a true body and a reasonable soul which soul of Christ considering its nearest union to the Divine nature and the light and joy and glory it must needs be full of may be look't upon by Milions of Degrees as the highest of Creatures and the chief of all the ways of God The Holy Ghost took care in the conception of Christ that his human nature should not be in the least defiled and his whole life was perfectly free from sin he did no evil neither was guile found in his mouth and his heart was alwayes pure And having taken mans Nature God is well pleased with that nature in Christ The man Christ Jesus always did those things which were pleasing to the Father The Sons of men may come with boldness to this Mediatour who is bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh He bears good will to men as the Angels sang aloud at his Nativity Man may be confident of a kind reception since Christ is so near akin to them and was in all things excepting sinful infirmities made like unto them that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest to make Reconciliation for their Iniquities Heb. 2.17 Christ is man and this man is Gods greatest favourite far greater than Joseph to Pharaoh or Mordecai to Ahasuerus Extra Christum oculos aures claudatis Vbi Iesus est ibi est totus Deus seu tota divinitas ibi Pater Spiritus Extra hunc Christum Deus nusquam invenitur Deus in carâ—e illa sic apparet ut extra hanc carnem coll cognosci non possit Luther Tam. 4. p. 491. a. He has the highest place in Heaven as well as in his Fathers heart let Saints search into his truth and they will find matters of unspeakable encouragement Here is the way to know the Father to worship him acceptably and to attain to fellowship with him here and for ever 3. Growing in the knowledge of Christ implies a more plain discerning and ful perswasion that he was foreordained to be a Redeemer Christ was the person pitched upon from eternity to be the Saviour of the Elect of God 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was foreordained befoâ—e the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you He is therefore caled the elect One in whom Gods Soul delights There was a compact and agreement made between the Father and the Son The Son agrees in fulness of time to be made of a Woman to take a body to offer up himself without spot to God and the Father promises eternal Life and Salvation and that he should have a Church givâ—â— him out of the world though the world is faâ—â—en into wickedness upon which Church this eternal life is to be bestowed The Prophet Zachariah tells â—s of a Counsel of Peace between the Lord of Hâ—â—â— and Christ whose name is the Branch Zach. 6.12 13. And the Apostle speaks of the promise of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before the world began Tit. 1.2 This promise may very well be conceived to be made to the Son that he should give eternal life to all that were given him of the Father And when the Saints behold that Christ is the Person from eternity designed to be a Saviour they may include that God hath a love to them a care of them and a purpose of Grace towards them from everlasting and how securely and sweetly may they rest upon the blessed Jesus not doubting but he is a person every way fit and sufficient to finish that work of Redemption which he undertook according to the appointment of his Father 4. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a greater insight into his sufferings It is not without reason that the History of these is so largely penned by all the four Evangelists certainly there is much in his Crucifixion which it concerns Believers to pry into The sufferings of Christ were great and that both in his body and in his soul his body was in a bloody sweat and his soul was amazed sore and full of heaviness and sorrow and in an Agony before he was condemned and fastned to the Cross but then all the pain and shame which he did undergo his Death was violent and accursed and just before he breathed out his last his Father hid his face his sufferings were unconceivably increased by a dreadful desertion which made him roar out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me When Christ died the sins of the whole Church were laid upon the head of the Church how many stings then had the death of Christ Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we haâ—e turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all And if all were laid upon him none shall be laid to the charge of them who believe in him But how came it to pass that Christ did not sink under such a burthen The first sin of the first man was enough to sink all the world into Hell how could Christ bear up under all the sins of so great a multitude The reason is because he is God the blood of Christ is the blood of God how loud does it cry for Pardon and Salvation and how easily does it drown the cry of sin for vengeance The blood and sufferings of Christ applied and relyed on by Faith justifie the sinner silence Satan the accuser purge the conscience from dead works and open a way into the holiest of all by the Cross of Christ we are to climb up to the Throne of Glory The more the death of Christ is studied the Spirit will be more contrite the heart more clean the conscience more calm and quiet The death of Christ puts the sin to death but delivers the sinner from it 5. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a more fruitful eying of his Resuâ—rection and going to his Father Hark to the Apostle Phil. 3. 10. That I may kâ—â—â— him and the power of his Resurrection The Justice of God had Christ under an â—rrest and hath cast him into the Grave as â—nto a Prison and if he had not fully paid the debt of those whose surety he became it would have held him in prison to this hour If Christ were not risen faith would be vain the guilt and power of sin would refrain But being risen true believers are delivered from sins punishment and power Sin and death and Satan are triumphed over Know that there is a very great power and vertue to be derived from the resurrection of our Lord. A power to raise a drooping Spirit When Christ was riseâ— dâ—e sends this Message to his Disciples that they might be well assurâ—â— his God was theirs his Father their Father
compleat in all the will of God Col. 4.12 The Believer in Christ notwithstanding all weaknesses and remainders of indwelling sin is much safer than innocent Adam in Paradise because Christ has engaged for believers that they shall endure to the end and that he will give them eternal Life and none shâ—â—â— pluck them out of his hand and the hand of his father In such hands they must need be safe indeed 7. Improve this Knowledg of Christ with reference to comfort T is He that sends the Comforter who abides with the Church for ever Joh. 16.7 The Church and the Churches comfort are built upon the same Rock Christ Your Consâ—lation then will be strong if you fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you Heb. 6.18 You that are Saints well may you rejoyce in Christ Jesus since by him you have received the atonement Peace he has left you for a legacy a peace that will abide in the midst of the greatest outward troubles a comfort that most abounds when sufferings are most aboundant 2 Cor. 1.5 Consider the Lord Jesus and be filled with everlasting consolation and good hope through grace How strong is his hand how tender his heart how unchangeable his kindness Jesus is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 8. Improve the knowledge of Christ with reference to his Churches enemies He is above their match and he will make them know it they cannot hide their counsels from him who searcheth the Reins and Hearts and they must needs at last be disappointed and worsted for Christ will Reign till all his foes be made his footstool Heb. 10.13 Julian the Emperour wanted neither Policy nor Valour nor an armed power and yet of a suddain he had a deadly wound given him and cries out Vicisti Galliaee O Galilean so he called Christ thou hast overcome me This will be the end of the stoutest and proudest of the Churches Adversaries Christians are as dear to Christ as the Apple of his Eye They are bold fellows that will venture to give Christ a blow on his very eye this affront will not be born long and what a deadly stroke will this judge of the world at last return Mirabili modo fit dum mors Christum devorat devoratur dum occidit occiditur dum vincit vincitur Luther Tom. 4. p. 679-b 9. Improve the knowledge of Christ with reference to Death He has grappled with Death and has been to hard for it he has taken away its Sting which was the worst thing in it and is ready to deliver from that Bondage which the fear of Death causes Heb. 2.15 The Apostle having eyed Christ and the Resurrection insults over this last enemy 1 Cor. 15.53 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Christ has sanctified the Grave into a bed of rest and to use Luthers expression Mors est 〈◊〉 vitae Death is the Gate to life and immortality The dying Christian when he lifts up his eyes to his Lord and Saviour he may say then with Laurentius Noâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 non habet the night of Death hath no darkness in it but is an entrance into the light that is everlasting 10. Improve the Knowledge of Christ with reference to Eternity So vast and endless a thing may well be of an amazing consideration and when â—â—ce in Eternity thâ—â—â— is no correcting of mistakes Look therefore unto Jesus 〈…〉 prove you and to keep you sincere and without offence unto the last And when Time is just come to an end behold your Lord entered into everlasting joy himself and ready to receive you into the same Christ is none already as your forerunner nay as your representative and has taken possession of the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance Heb. 6.20 do you gladly follow him as knowing that when this earthly house of your Tabernacle is dissolued you have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Quest How may our belief of Gods Governing the world support us in all wordly distractions SERMON XIII PSALM XCVII 1 2. The Lord reigneth let the Earth rejoyce let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof Clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his Throne THE State of affairs is oftentimes and so it is at this day so involved and confused that we need not wonder if we see men of wisdom greatly perplexed in their spirits and almost sunk into discouragement The best of Saints whose hearts are most furnished and fortified with grace would be of all others most subject to discomposure were it not that they feel peace and comfort flowing into them from the remembrance and sweet consideration of a God above What good man could possibly have any tolerable enjoyment of himself or possess his Soul in patience while he observes the scentrick and irregular motions of things below the restlesness tumblings and tossings of the world desireable comforts and delights blasted in a moment afflictions and troubles breaking in with a sudden surprize order quite subverted Laws violated and the edge of them turned against those that are faithful and peaceable in a Land and all things indeed turned upside down Wickedness rampant and Religion opprest The spurious brood of Babylon cloathed in Scarlet and prospering in the world when at the same time the precious Sons of Zion comparable to the finest Gold are esteemed as earthen pitchers yea broken potsherds and so thrown upon dunghils or cast into Prisons and filled full with the contempt of them that are at ease these things I say would soon break his heart did he not see him who is invisible and firmely believe a wheel within a wheel an unseen hand which steadily and prudently guides and directs all things keeping up a beautiful order where reason can discern nothing but at ataxie and confusion Those that are conversant in the sacred Scriptures do find that the flourishing state of ungodly men and the afflicted condition of gracious Presons hath proved to some of the Saints so hard a knot as they have gone to God for the untying of it and to others it hath been the occasion of so furious and violent temptations as had almost tript up their heels and broken the neck of their Religion Upon that very score holy Asaph was almost ready to conclude he had in vain cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocence But if we will repaire unto the Sanctuarie and consult the divine Oracles and believe them when they tell us that the eternal God our God is the Rector and Governour of the world it will revive our Spirits reduce our Souls into their right frame and preserve them in a due composure when the scene of affairs is most ruffled To entertain you with a discourse upon this choice and seasonable subject is the work allotted me at this time and the Question now to be discust and answered
his principal end is himself degenerated into a Beast The inferior and subordinate end is the good of the Communities the happiness and welfare of the whole Country the peace comfort and prosperitie of all the People over whom Governours are set The supreme Magistrate is to his Dominions what the Head is to the body natural and so influence belongs to him as well as preeminence he is engaged to think contrive study care order and provide for the comfort of the body and all the members of it Paul saith Rom. 13 4. He is the Minister of God to thee for good for a fourfold good as learned Partus saith 1. In bonum naturale for natural good that he may secure thy person and life from danger and thy outward Liberty comforts and enjoyments from the Sons of violence 2. In bonum morale for moral good that he may curb thy unruly passions and base lusts and restraine or hinder them from breaking out into vitious and enormous practices 3. In bonum civile for civil good that he may preserve publick Society and keep up common honesty and Justice 4. In bonum spirituale for spiritual good that he may defend the true Religion that which is pure and undefiled before God and the Father and keep up and encourage the Worship of God which is warranted by the Scripture And all this is according to the word which doth direct and command that we should pray for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them we might lead peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness and honesty So that the end of Government is the securing peace and quietness and the encouraging of honesty and godliness 2. In all Government there is supposed a power sufficient for the ordering of things unto these ends not only natural power but also moral Authority lawfully come by for without that there can be no just right and good Government Magistrates therefore are called Powers Rom. 13 1. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained by God Lawful Governours are invested with Authority and Power there are put into their hands the Scepter to rule and the Sword to protect and punish as there is cause They have a legislative Power to make Laws and issue out commands which shall oblige their Subjects they have a right to do this so they use their power rightly and obedience is due from their People obedience to all their just and lawful commands they ought to rule in the fear of God and their Subjects ought to obey in the fear of God Rom. 13 5. Ye must needs be subject and that not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake as knowing that this is the will of God concerning you and when any wilfully fail herein they contract guilt and break their own peace And as there is an Authority to enact Laws so a Power to suppress the Rebellions and animadvert on those that are refractorie and stubborn and also to defend reward and encourage all persons studious and careful of performing their duty Where all this Power is not there is a miserable defect in the Government which will in time dwindle and come to nothing and confusion and every evil work step up in its place 3. In Government this Power is reduced into act there is a prudent seasonable exerting and putting forth of the Power in order to the attaining of these ends This is the complement of all for it is folly for any to make that his end which is quite out of his reach and that Power is in vain which always lyes dorment Power is not put into the Rulers hand meerly for ornament but for use It is no other than a trust committed to him therefore though he be a Magistrate over men yet he is a Minister of God and is obliged to serve his great Lord according to the best of his skill and to act toward the end formerly mentioned As he is advanced to high and honourable places so he is engaged to great and excellent work Rom. 13 4. He is not to bear the Sword in vain and it may be said He weareth not the Crown in vain he holdeth not the Scepter in vain not for nothing not for a meer shew an empty Pageantry but for a good end for excellent and noble purposes The Crown and Scepter are not so glorious as that for which he is advanced the Sword committed to him must be drawn against the enemies of God and truth and holiness he must be an Avenger to execute wrath not upon the pious and peaceable that would be an abuse of his Power but upon them that do evil Thus have I shewed you what Government is Viz Using of lawful Power for excellent ends The second thing propounded was to prove and evidence to you that God doth Govern the world As he made it at first so he doth still uphold and order it In a Nation you know there are many inferiour Magistrates and under-Officers yet it followeth not but the King is supreme who authorizeth influences directs and limits them by his Laws There are upon Earth many Governours various forms of Government yea the Angels in Heaven are ministring Spirits employed in special and weighty matters But all of them are set up and set forth by God and fulfil his pleasure God himself sits at the helm and steers the course he overrules and orders all from the highest to the lowest For the evidenceing hereof take these following particulars 1. First the light of nature hath discovered this and by the glimmering thereof though it burn dimly as a Candle in the Socket many among the Heathens have been led to the knowledg of it and constrained to acknowledg it It must be granted that they groped and were exceedingly in the dark differing much one from another in their Sentiments about the Deitie and his Providence Some plainly denyed a God some owned and asserted the being of a God but denyed the creating of the World but that it was from everlasting or rose up through a fortuitous concurse of atomes Some granted that the World was of God as of the first cause yet he did not see nor observe what is done in it among men Some held he doth indeed see all things that are and be done in the world but he is only an insignificant idle Spectator who minds and regards nothing Some were of opinion that God doth not attend to the meaner and inferiour Creatures nor take any cognizance of small inconsiderable matters but only superintended the affairs and concernments of mankind Doth God take care of Oxen Some did again assert that God did look after and care for all things yet he acted only in a way of common general influences and by second causes doing nothing immediately and by himself Others again on the contrary side did affirm that God doth immediately and by himself so work all
in all as that they left almost no place for second Causes Thus poor Creatures were they divided among themselves having their understandings miserably darkened But many among the Heathens yea their most learned men and of their most famous Sects Platonists Stoickes Pythagoreans did own the Divine Providence and Government and so did the Poets also and for particular Persons the learned Plato Seneca Tully with many others subscribe thereunto Hence it is that they call God the Rector and keeper of the world the Soul and Spirit of the world and do expresly compare him to the Soul in the Body and to the Master in a Ship who doth command rule direct steer and turn it what way and to what port he himself thinks good But so much may suffice for that I pass on 2. Secondly the Sacred Scriptures do abound wâ—th testimonies which may afford us full satisfaction in the point When he was about to punish the world for the wickedness of them that dwelt therein and to sweep away the inhabitants of it with a Flood he took care that all mankind should not be destroyed But Noah and his Family were preserved yea and some of all the general species of animals too that so Seed might be continued upon Earth and that in the ordinary way of Generation which was a famous and eminent instance of Divine Providence and its ordering and Governing the World Besides that attend to these passages of Scripture Job 5 9. God doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number He giveth rain sâ—nd water sets upon high those that be low disappoints the devices of the craftie taking them in their own craftiness and carrying the counsel of the froward head-long Isa 45. I am the Lord and there is none else I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Psal 34 16 17. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the Earth The Righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their distresses Ephes 1 11. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will Not onely some things those which are momentous and stupendious such as strike men with wonder and amazement but all things all is of God and all not according to the will and pleasure of others but according to his own eternal Counsel Dan. 4 34 35. His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom is from generation to generation and all the Inhabitants of the Earth are accounted as nothing and he doth according to his will in the Armies of Heaven and all the Inhabitants of the Earth who are counted as nothing and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou Mat. 10 29. Are not two Sparrows sold for a Farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Heavenly Father Scriptures to this purpose might be multiplied I will add but one more Psal 103 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven and his Kingdom ruleth over all But further consider 3. Thirdly God hath a most unquestionable right to order and Govern the world it doth properly appertain unto him The belief and acknowledgement hereof doth necessarily follow upon the owning of a God to own such a being as God and yet to deny or question his right to Govern is a gross absurditie That being which we call God is the first highest noblest and incomparably the most excellent Being of all infinite and unchangeable in all perfections and therefore he hath a right to order others that are not so Man is endued with reason and understanding and so is the most noble and excellent creature in this lower world therefore it pleased his great Creator to put the Lordship into his hand and to give him Dominion over the Fish and Fowl and every living thing that moveth upon the Earth the Psalmist tells us He hath put all things under his feet How much more then is an absolute and universal Rule due to God whose understanding is infinite and in whom are all the inexhaustible unfathomtable treasures of wisdom and knowledg Besides that consider God as the Fountain of Being the first cause and original of all Being The world and all things in it are the works of his Hands He made them and fashioned them and seeing He made all seeing by his power and for his pleasure all things are and were created it is highly reasonable that all things should be ordered directed and disposed of according to his pleasure Hath the Potter power over the clay so as to make of it a Vessel of honour or dishonour and hath not God much more power over his Creatures If a Father hath an undoubted right to rule his own Children and a Master to order his own Family it cannot rationally be questioned but God hath a right to rule all the Persons and Creatures in the world for we are all his off-spring and of him the whole Family both in Heaven and Earth is named of him it was made and by him it doth consist Who can be so impudent and brutish so much sunk below man and run so cross to the principles and dictates of right reason as to deny him a right to give Laws to them unto whom he gave life It is highly decorous every way fit that he from whom all things had their being and unto whose power and goodness they own their continuance should appoint them all their ends and direct their steps and cast their lines and cut out their works and overrule all their actions 4. For God to Govern the world is no dishonour to him it doth not unhandsomely reflect upon his divine Majesty nor cause the least Eclipse or diminution of his most excellent Glory It is true as I before hinted unto you though some men cheerfully acknowledged a Governing and overruling Providence over humane actions and affairs yet they conceived it extended not its self to more vile and contemptible creatures or to minute and inconsiderable things Jerom though a learned and holy man seemed to be of this opinion for he grants a general order and disposal how such an innumerable multitude of Fishes should breed and live in the Sea and how brutes and creeping things should gender upon the Earth and with what they should be maintained but he fancieth it a solecisme to debase and bring down the Majesty of the ever blessed God so low as to mind and order the breeding and death of gnats or to concern himself about the number of flyes and fleas that are upon the Earth or how many Fishes swim in the Sea and Rivers or which among the smaller ones should become a prey to the greater for they did fancy this to be altogether unworthy and unbecoming of God judging of him by earthly Potentates who take State upon them and trouble not themselves with any but
the more weighty and momentous affairs of their Dominions and leave things of smaller importance to their inferiour Officers But this is not the manner of the God of Jacob nor doth he count his care of the meanest and most minute beings to be any reflexion upon him unless it be of honour and glory Therefore he expresly tells us in his Word that the young Lyons seek their meat of God that he giveth to the Beasts their food and to the young Ravens when they cry He cloathes the Lillies and Sparrows are not forgotten by him not one of them falls to the ground without him the vâ—ry hairs of our head are numbered he knoweth our wanderings counteth our steps and puts our â—â—ar into his Bottle And what dishonour can all or any of this be to him is it possible that his doing so should render him cheap to the children of men nay it is not enough to commend him to all wise and thinking persons that he is so great a God as that he can extend his care to so many millions of Objects and so graciously condescending as to look after the lowest of the works of his hands Surely since iâ— was not unworthy of his divine Power to make the meanest Creature it cannot be unworthy of his goodness to maintain and order it If his eternal Power and Godhead are clearly seen in the things that are made then his goodness doth likewise display it self in providing for them and his wisdom in Governing and directing them It is true he humbles himself when he beholds those things which are above much more when he regards those that are here below but that humbling of himself is glorifying of himself and it doth deservedly commend and endeare him to his People Psalm 36 6 7. O Lord thou preservest man and beast how excellent is thy loving kindness 5. Lastly Our God is abundant in mercy and goodness He is the Father of mercies and a God of compassions and as that doth render him fit to Govern the world so it may work in us an assurance that he doth and will do it Shall we fancy him like unto the Ostrick concerning which it is said Job 39 14. That she leaveth her Eggs in the Earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild beasts may break them she is hardned against her young ones as if they were not hers Thus to do is utterly inconsistent with the divine goodness to fancie such a thing of God would be to blaspheme him He hath a love and kindness for the works of his hands as such and that will carry him out to a caring for them and ordering of them The world will love its own and doth not God much more A good Prince who is the Father of his Country and deserves that name will to the best of his skill guide and rule his Kingdom at the helm whereof Providence hath placed him that his own honour and his peoples welfare might be secured and promoted That man deserves not the place nor name of a Master who neglects to make provision for his own Family and keep up order in it That is an unnatural Father unworthy indeed to be called man who doth not according to his best knowledg and abilitie mind his children and Govern them Now tampius nemo tam Pater nemo none is so good as God none such a Father as God no love comparable to his love All that love which may be found in the Creatures is but a drop from his Ocean a spark from his flame and as I have said all the world is his own and all that is therein the works of his hands He built this huge and stately Fabrick and he furnished it with all its Inhabitants from the highest and most glorious Angel to the meanest and most contemptible Insect and how can we possibly think otherwise but that the pitty and love which he hath for the works of his own hands will draw out his wisdom and power and care for the ruling and directing of them For any one to deny this care nay to hesitate about it would be an unworthy base disparagement dishonour and affront to him The third thing we have to do is to shew how our belief of Gods Governing the world may support us in all worldly distractions this is a great question very seasonable and of singular use and that we may draw out the sweetness of this truth and fetch comfort from it we must consider these following particulars 1. Gods accomplishment for the work 2. The extent of his Government 3. The properties thereof 4. Several things relating to the Church and its living Members First God is most fit and accomplished for this great work It is indeed a business too hard for a Creatures hand to dispatch and a burden too heavy for a created shoulder to bear up under some ambitious Princes have been and are said to be aspiring afteâ— an Universal Monarchy which they never did nor never shall attain it is bigger than their graspe a thing too high and too hard for them And indeed those Princes which rule well and mind their work and duty find the Crowns which they have are lined with cares enough to make their heads ake and their hearts too sometimes But to Govern the world is a thing utterly impossible to a created Being not only to the wisest man on Earth but also to the highest Angel in Heaven None can Govern the whole world but He that did create it Creation is peculiar to God the greatest Angel cannot create the smallest spire of grass nor a contemptible flea no not the least atome The most minute drop of being can proceed only from him who is the Original and Fountain of all Being So the Government of the whole world is peculiar to God because there is so much contraritie in it so many antipathies things lye so cross men have unruly passions they interfere in their several interest and while they are carrying of them on quarrel and jossle one another and who but God can order all and direct them to most noble and excellent ends who but God can take these several scattered sherds and unite them together in one curious and amiable piece of workmanship who but God can take these jarring discords and turn them into an admirable and delightful harmonie That God is perfectly accomplished for the work so that he can not only do it but the doing thereof will be no pain nor trouble to him may thus appear 1. He is an immense Being Heaven is his Throne and the Earth his footstool Those that have many Irons in the fire business scattered up and down must needs suffer some of those Irons to cool some of that business to lye by neglected because they themselves are confin'd and limited Creatures Some things may be amiss and out of order under the Government of the most prudent and pious Prince
prevent and cure Spiritual Pride SERMON XVI 2. COR. XII VII And least I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations there was given me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me least I should be exalted above measure THE case that calls for resolution and falls under our present consideration is what we must do to prevent and cure spiritual pride Pride is said to be Spiritual in a double respect 1. In respect of its Object when that is something which is spiritual as gifts graces priviledges c. for it may be differenc't from fleshly pride which is conversant about more carnal objects as strength beauty riches honours or the like 2. In respect of its Subject which is the heart or spirit of man there is its proper Seat And so all pride whatsoever be the object of it may be said to be spiritual To prevent and cure are terms that may be thus differenc't the former respects more especially the actings of pride the latter the habit of it in the heart Pride is an evil and a sore disease some call it the tumor or timpany of the Soul it is dangerous to all it is deadly to some The scope of this discourse is to prescribe proper remedies against it Mâ—rc 1 23. and 5 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is a man acted or agitated by a Diabolical Spirit These words of the Apostle Paul are the fundation upon which I shall build He speaks a little before of a man in Christ that had a wonderful Viâ—ion or revelation from God Bâ— a man in Christ he means either a man united to him or else a man that was extraordinarily acted and transported by him Some expound it by that passage in Revel 1 10. where the Apostle John says he was in the Spirit on the Lords Day That is he was extraordinarily acted and transported by the Spirit Farther by this man in Christ the Apostle means himself because he is speaking of his own priviledges and enjoyments he chuseth to speak in the person of another A good man is always backward to speak any thing in his own praise he knows it savours of pride and folly that it should come out of another mans lips and not his own therefore he never doth it but when 't is necessary for the hand of God and the vindication of his truth And as he is always backward to it for he is ever modest and self-denying in it therefore the Apostle speaks of another Person when he means himself I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago Some think the Apostle had this rapture or revelation he here speaks of at the time of his first conversion then he lay 3 days and 3 nights in a kind of extasy and did neither eat nor drink Several at their first conversion to God have found such raptures and ravishments as they have had cause to remember all their life after and such as they have not experienc't again during the whole course of their lives Others for the good reasons to long here to insert are of opinion that the time of this revelation was after his conversion yea several Years after it During the time of this extraordinary Vision or revelation he was caught up to the third Heaven for he calls it as some think with respect to the Heavens under it The air in which we breath is the first therefore the Fowls of the air are call'd thâ— Fowls of Heaven the Starry Firmament is the second and the place of the Holy Angels and Glorify'd Spirits is the third Others don't like this distribution of the Heavens and indeed we can speak of them but conjecturally This third Heaven which the Apostle was caught up to he calls Paradice v. 4. for he doth not speak of two raptures but of one and the same only he doubles it to shew the certainty of it Heaven is elsewhere in Scripture call'd Paradice in allusion to that excellent and diligent Garden that Adam was put into before his Fall Our Saviour said to the repenting thief thou shalt be with me in Paradice The way and manner of this rapture he possesseth himself to be ignorant off Hence he says it that whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell That is whether he was caught up Soul and Body together or in Soul only The Soul is not so ty'd to the body but that for a season it may be separated from it and afterwards return again to it While he was in this condition he heard unspeakable words such as he neither could nor might utter it was not lawful for him possibly he was forbidden God saw not all that meet to be communicated to a world of Sinners which was allured and indulged to this one eminent Saint This divine rapture or revelation was like to be an occasion of self Exaltation to the Apostle he was in danger of being exalted above measure by means thereof This he mentions twice that it might be the better minded It is the nature of pride as it is of Fire to turn all things into fewel to feed its self The holyest Saint on Earth is not secure from spiritual pride if one should come down from the third Heaven and bring this imperfect nature with him he were still in danger of this Sin To prevent this Sin in the Apostle least he should be exalted in himself as he had been exalted by God there was given him a thorn in the Flesh this prick't the bladder of pride and kept him from being trust up through the abundance of revelations By whom was this given him By God himself it was by his wise ordination or permission The love of God to his People is wonderfully seen in his preventing mercies particularly in his preventing their falling into Sins as here by putting a thorn into Pauls Flesh he prevents the pride of his heart This is thâ—â— mercy for which David prays and for which he also prayseth God T is as great a mercy to prevent our committing of Sin as it is to pardon it when it is committed But what was this thorn in the Flesh which was given the Apostle to prevent spiritual pride and self exaltation Various are the conjectures of Interpreters about it The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but this once used in all the New Testament it signifies a sharp stake upon which malefactors of old were fastned when executed As also a pricking thorn that runs into a mans flesh or foot as he goes through woods and thickets Some think that this thorn in the flesh was a fleshly lust some evil concupiscence that the Apostle felt to be active or stirring in him Others think that we are thereby to understand some sore temptation of Satan a blasphemous or Atheistical suggestion or injection this is a pinching thorn indeed and hath made many of the Souls of Gods People to bleed Others understand it
their hunger that arâ—â—ed 〈…〉 an 〈…〉 dependance under God upon the Charâ—ty of otâ—â—â— for theiâ—â—aily bread see how they are described Job 2â— 7 8 〈…〉 â—â—â—se the nakeâ—◠〈◊〉 lodge without cloathing they have no coveâ—ing in the 〈◊〉 and â—re wet â—ith the showers of the mountains and embrace the rock 〈◊〉 â—ant of a sheâ—â—er These are â—oor indeed that have not a Bed to 〈◊〉 nor a Hâ—â—se to hide their heads in This is Poverty in the loâ—â—â— degree and yet thus low did our blessed Saviour stoop of whom 't is said he became poor 2 Cor. 8.9 that we through his poverty might be made rich Mat. 8.2 The Foxes have holes the Birds of the Air have nests but the Son of man hath not whereon to lay his head Those Stars also of the first magnitude of whom the world was not worthy were destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.38 Thus you see what this Poverty is and had this good man made a full period here Give me not poverty I question not but every one in this Assembly would readily have subjoyned his hearty Amen 2. The other Extream is Riches neither Poverty nor Riches Now as Poverty speaketh Penury and Scarcity so Riches speak Plenty and Superfluity Psal 73.10 when God causes Waters of a full Cup to be wrung out to us 'T is remarkable what you find by way of encouragement to a chearful communicating to the necessities of the indigent Luke 6.38 Give and it shall be given to yoâ— You shall be no losers by your Charity Thaâ—'s somewhat agreeable with that of Solomon Eccl. 11.1 Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days but that 's not all â—â—â—e's an insurance of great advantage viz. good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosoms Giving is one of the best ways for thriving But that which I quote this place for is to decypher out to you what is meant by Riches viz. a plentiful portâ—on of these worldly accommodations not only enough for â—â—cessity but for superfluity though as I shall shew you thiâ— mâ—â—t be considered with a distinction that which may denominate one man rich may be but a mean or poor estate for another He would be but a poor Prince that should have no larger a Revenue tâ—â—â— a â—icâ—â—eâ—ant Thus you see 〈◊〉 thâ—â— good man declines he would not have Poverty nor Riches if 〈◊〉 to his choice he would not lie so low as the poor nor yet sit so hâ—â—â—â— as the rich he would not go naked or be clad with Rags nor yet sâ—â—â—mptuous as to go in Robes 2. Next follows tâ—â—â—ositâ—ve Part of his Request he would neither have Poverty nor Ricâ—es What then Why says he Feed me with food convenient for me â—hich Râ—â—â—â—st is not to be restrained as if it were only a Petition for a Supply for the Belly but as including all temporal and worldly Necessaries as that Request in the Lords Prayer Mat. 6.11 Give us this day our daily bread But it is not the quality or particular kind of temporal Blessings that we are so much concerned to enquire after as the quanâ—ity how much he begs of the things of this world Now the consideration of what hath been said of the two Extreams Poverty and Riches both which he declines will be a sure guide to lead us into the trâ—â— mâ—aning of his Request which must certainly be this neither Poverty nor Riches what then Why a middle portion such a condition allotted him by divine Providence that might fall between both those Extreams Food convenient so we translate it a competent or convenient allowance so much of this world as might raise him above contempt and yet not so much but that he might still be kept below envy Statute-bread so much as the Law of Nature Necessity and Conveniency allows for the enabling him to discharge his Duty in the place wherein God hath set him Quicquid ad victum vitam fovendam tuendam est necessarium Secondly We should next consider the Arguments upon which he grounds this Choice Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain These Reasons though they differ in their nature and manner of expression yet they center in one and the same thing Why not Poverty nor Riches Why a middle condition between both The reason is because such a condition is in it self most subservient to Gods Glory and our own spiritual and eternal welfare It is possible a poor Estate may be best for some and a plentiful Estate for others These may be the Conditions in which some may bring most honour to God and most promote the welfare of their better part but this is accidentally otherwise in it self a middle Estate is the most sutable to the carrying on these high and noble ends I should now give a more particular Account of the several Arguments here specified I will be brief First Let us a little examine his Plea against Riches which he declines upon a double account 1. Not Riches Why Lest I bâ—â—â—l and deny thee q d. being filled and every way furnished with variety 〈◊〉 Creature-enjoyments swimming in a Sea of Plenty and swell'd with a fond conceit of my own self-sufficiency and independency upon any on earth I should also be induc'd to disown my dependency on the God of Heaven This one would think is a strange Consequence Deum irritant confidenter ob summam felicitatem quam largitur iis Merc. Hos 13.6 highly irrational that a multitude of Benefits should be a means to make us unmindful of and disrespectful to our great Benefactor but so it happeneth through the depravity of our Nature that the better and more bountiful God is to us the worse and more forgetful are we proue to be of God according to that of the Prophet According to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me Nothing is more ordinary than to lose a sense of God in a crowd of Creature-enjoyments Deut. 6.11 12. Deut. 8.10 11 12 13. Quorsum orarem aut sacra frequentarem Merc. Psal 10.14 as appears by those Cautions of old When thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt from the house of bondage Here is the first evil Consequence Atheism in Heart 2. Next follows Irreligion and Prophaneness in Life and say who is the Lord quid mihi cum illo What have I to do with God 't is below great men it suits not with their Honours to be found upon their knees to God in Prayer through the pride of their countenance they will not seek after God 2. His Argument against Poverty or least I be poor and steal and take the name
effectually of sin of the sin of Nature and the Nature of sin all these little appendices and appurtinances of Vanity will fall and drop of course For this was our blessed Saviour's method Mat. 23.26 Mat. 12.33 Cleanse the inside of the cup or platter and the outside will be clean also And if we could as supernatural Grace only can make the Tree good the Fruit would be good by consequence Direction X. Whatever fashions of Apparel you have found a temptation to your own souls when worn by others in prudence avoid them You may reasonably suspect that what has been a snare to you will be so to another For tho all are not guilty of the same actual sins yet all have the same seeds of sins in them And what has awakened your Pride and Lust may awaken the same Corruptions in your Neighbour Direction XI Let all your indifferences be brought under the government and guidance ef Religion Indifferent things in their general Natures are neither good nor evil but when Religion has the main stroke in managing and ordering them it will make them good and not evil Advise with Gods Glory what you shall eat what you shall drink and what you shall put on That will teach us to deny our selves in some particulars of our Christian Liberty Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do else 1 Cor. 10.31 do all to the glory of God Than which all the Masters of the Art of Eating all the Mistresses of the Science of Dressing cannot give you a more approved Directory Direction XII Use all these indifferent things with an indifferent affection to them an indifferent concern for them and about them Treat'em value 'em as they deserve Cloathes commend us not to God nor to Wise and Good Men Why are we then so solicitous about them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them The Apostle in consideration that the Time is short would have us use this World as not abusing it because the fashion thereof passes away Yet a little while and there will be no use 1 Cor. 7.31 because no need of them But God and the World are commonly of contrary Judgments and that which is highly esteemed among men Luke 16.15 is oftentimes an abomination to him Lukewarmness is a Temper hot enough for what is neither good nor evil How great then is our sin who are stone-cold in those matters wherein God would have us fervent in Spirit but where he would have us cool and moderate all of a flame Direction XIII Lastly Seek that honour chiefly which comes from God only The World is never so wise or so good that we should much value its good word or approbation but oftentimes so bad and foolish that its commendation is our reproach What evil have we done that an evil World should speak well of us To be accounted honourable by him and made beautiful by him is true Honour real Beauty In his Judgment stands our absolution or condemnation in his Sentence our life or death to him and by him we stand or fall What a wretched honour is it that we receive from it Apparel which is no part of our selves and for which we are beholden to the trivial skill of a Taylor or Attire-woman but the true Reason of the affectation of these Vanities lies in that of our Saviour How can ye believe that seek honour one of another John 5.44 and seek not the honour that comes from God only Considerations to press to such a cautelous walking that we partake not in the sinfulness of strange Apparel I. Let us seriously consider How Apparel came into the World Sin brought in Shame and Shame brought in Apparel and Apparel has at last brought in more Sin and Shame The old Riddle has here found an Oedipus Mater me genuit peperit mox filia matrem In the state of Primitive Integrity Man was cloath'd with Original Righteousness He wore the glorious Image of him that created him in knowledg righteousness and true holiness But sin has now stript him of his glory and expos'd his shame to the view of God his Judg. How great then is that Pride when we are proud of what should abase us How vile that glory that glories in its shame It was good advice of Chrysostome Homil. 18. in Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the wearing of our Apparel be a perpetual Memorial to us of the good things we have lost and an Instruction what penalties mankind is liable to by disobedience For as Gregory Nazianzene reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. de Mort. If says he we had continued the same we were at first created we had had no need of a coat of skins the divine Image shining in our souls And therefore Chrysostom's Inference is very clear Tom. 6. p. 241. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cloaths were not given us to set forth our beauty but to cover that shame that proceeded from nakedness But Tertullian excellently prosecutes this argument Si tanta in Terris moraretur fides quanta in Coelis merces ejus expectatur nulla omnino vestrum sorores ex quo Deum cognovisset De hab Mulieb in initio de sua id est foeminae conditione didicisset laetiorem habitum nè dicam gloriosiorem appetisset ut non magis in sordibus ageret squallorem potius affectaret ipsam circumferens Evam lugentem poenitentem quo plenius quod de Evâ trabit ignominiam dico primi delicti invidiam perditionis humanae omni satisfactionis habitu expiaret If there was as much Faith on Earth as there is reward for it in Heaven there 's none of you since the time she knew God and understood her own condition that would have affected a joyful much less a splendid Garb but rather have lien in sackcloath and ashes carrying about her an Eve within that laments and repents that so she might compensate with the most mortified habit that she derived from the first Eve I mean the scandal of the first sin and the odium of having been the Ruin of Mankind Alas what pleasure could we take in these Vanities did we consider them as the Effect of so sad a Cause And what would the Gold of Ophir the Pearls of the Ocean the Jewels of the Indies signifie to a soul that was taken up with Reflections on its Exile from Paradise and the loss of God's Image II. It deserves to be laid to heart how we came into the World how we must go out and how we shall rise again Holy Job confessed that when he was reduced to beggary he was somewhat better than when he was born Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither i. e. to the Earth the common Mother of us all And we may add Naked shall I rise again I shall see my Redeemer at the last day with these eyes but I
is with the Body for these united make one person whereas the personality of the Spirit is incommunicable but that the Holy Spirit performs such Offices in a believing Soul as have some resemblance and are some way correspondent to what the Soul does in and for the Body and which the Scripture expresses in like terms and this we find frequently the Spirit is said to quicken and act those in whom he dwells they have new life and motion by his inhabitation Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you The Apostle having signify'd in the former verses that our Union with God and Christ is by the Spirits dwelling in us he expresses what may be expected from this inhabitation Christ's Spirit dwelling in us will quicken our mortal bodies will be a principle of Life in them quickning them to a new Life a Life of Holiness The same Spirit as he quickens so he acts those in whom he dwells who are therefore said to be led by him ver 14. For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God they are excited directed enabled to act like the Children of God by his Spirit dwelling in them so Ezek. 36.27 And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them the Spirit which I will put within you shall make you active in my wayes So much for the first Proposal II. What encouragement have we from Christs Prayer that this Vnion II. Observ and the Blessings relating thereto shall be vouchsafed Answ Our encouragement in general is the full assurance given us that his Prayer is prevalent for what he desired the particular grounds of this assurance are more particular encouragements There are several things requisite to a Prayer which when they concurr the Word of God assures us that it will prevail 1. When the things desired are according to the Will of God 1 Joh. 5.14 2. When the Person praying hath a special Interest in God and duly improves it There are some whom the Scripture declares God will not hear Joh. 9.31 Psal 66.18 Prov. 28.9 3. When the persons prayed for are such as the Lord hath some particular favour or respect for There are some for whom the Lord will not hear the best of his Servants interceding on their behalf Jer. 7.16 11.14 14.11 Now in the Prayer of Christ there is a concurrence and that in a transcendent manner of all those things that render a Prayer undoubtedly prevalent 1. The things that he prayed for were consonant to the Will of God in every instance He knew what was the Fathers Will in its full extent and discerned it with the greatest clearness and certainty for as he is God he is one with the Father of one and the same Essence and Will and as he is man he had in him all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge a fulness of the Spirit of Revelation so that he did perfectly apprehend what was the good and perfect and acceptable Will of God He did not only know this in particular instances by general rules of Scripture as we do but had the conduct of an Infallible Spirit and that alwaies not sometimes only and in some things as holy men of God the Prophets and Apostles had it but in every Act and Word And as he perfectly and infallibly understood what was agreeable to the Will of God in all points so he gave himself up intirely to the most exact observance of it without varying without the least shadow of mistake or deviation This was the end why he came into the World Joh. 6.38 This was his constant practice Joh. 5.30 in his Sufferings and Actings and in his Prayers this was his delight Joh. 4.34 Now since he presented nothing in his Petitions but what was his Fathers own Will desired nothing but it was his Fathers Will to grant we may be as certain that his Prayer was granted as we are sure that the Lord will comply with his own Will For the Second It will be apparent by shewing who it was that prayed and how he prayed of which take an account in some particulars 1. This was the Prayer of the Man Christ Jesus who was Holy Harmless and separate from Sinners he was a Lamb without spot or blemish and so was this Offering the pure Eye of God could see no blemish in him or it His requests were not prejudiced by any antecedent guilt nor tainted with any impure mixture either apparent or secret nor chargeable with the least defect in Fervour Faith Affectionateness c. It was a sinless Prayer in all respects and so such a Prayer as was never offered to God on Earth since the Foundation of the World and Sins entring into it It was not liable to the least exception no not at the Tribunal of strict Justice and so could not but be acceptable and prevalent Nay it was not only clear from every the least speck of sin but was the product of admirable Holiness such as is not to be found in the Holyest Soul or Spirit Saint or Angel He had it in larger measures in an higher degree and in a more excellent way Some tell us that if all the Holiness that is in all the Angels and Saints were united in one subject it would fall short of that which is in Christs Humane Nature However it is taken for granted that the capacity of his Soul was wonderfully enlarged by its personal Vnion with the Godhead far beyond the capacity of any other finite-Being and all this capacity was wholly filled with Holiness it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Saints and Angels receive it as Vessels of small measure but in Christ it is unmeasurable Now all this Holiness was exerted in this Prayer and diffused through it Grace in him was not acted sometimes intensely sometimes more remisly for remisness seems to import some culpable effect but was put forth on proper occasions and particularly in this Prayer in its full power and vigour Upon this account this Prayer was the Holyest Offering that ever was presented to the most Holy God either on Earth or in Heaven and therefore could not but be most acceptable to him and accordingly prevalent and succesful 2. It is the Prayer of him who is God of him who is God and Man in one person As the Blood of Christ is said to be the blood of God Act. 20. by the same reason the Prayer of Christ may be said to be the Prayer of God And though it be properly the Act of Christ's Humane Nature yet this Nature being personally united with the Godhead it is upon that ground duly ascribed to
own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things how can he not be freely willing to give us any thing at his Sons request when he loved us so as to give the Son himself for us Vse Since it is thus What greater encouragement can we have for our Faith and Prayers than this Prayer of Christ What can be a firmer ground of hope or more effectually raise our expectations of what is here prayed for that is of all wherein our happiness is concerned for the Prayer doth comprize all that is requisite to make us happy here and for ever I. What support is there that Faith doth need or can have which it may not here meet with Is it the infinite Mercies and Compassions of God Why this Prayer not only engages the Mercy and compassions but the Justice and Righteousness of God it is a Righteous thing with God to grant the requests of Christ Is it the Covenant of Grace or the great and pretious promises Why he that here prays is the Mediator of the Covenant in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen Is it the Humiliation of the Son of God Why this is a signal instance of his Humiliation where he who hath Heaven and Earth and all Creatures at his Command offers himself in the form of a Servant and presents these particulars in the posture with the voice and in the Words of a Supplicant Is it the Obedience and Righteousness of Christ Why this was in him a meritorious Act of Obedience he prayed as one made under the Law and this was one way whereby he fulfilled the Righteousness of it Is it the Death and Sufferings of Christ Why this is the ground upon which his Prayer proceeds ver 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified those for whom I offer these requests are no other than those for whom I offer my self a Sacrifice Is it the intercession of Christ at the right hand of the Father Why his Prayer on Earth and Intercession differ but circumstantially and the Circumstances which make the difference make no less for the support of Faith he prayed for the same Persons and for the same things too for which he intercedes and it is the same Person that both prayed and intercedes he is in both the Son of God and the Son of Man too The difference is that in his Intercession his Sacrifice is presented as already offered in his Prayer it was presented as ready to be offered but it was no less effectual before it was actually offered than after Besides he prayed in the state of Humiliation he intercedes in the height of his Glorious Advancement but his Exaltation in Heaven is the effect of his Prayer on Earth ver 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was in short his Prayer was his Intercession begun and his Intercession is the continuing of his Prayer for it hath the Essence of a Prayer being the presenting of his Will and Desires to the Father on the behalf of his People Lastly is the Word of him who is Truth it self a support of Faith Why this we have also in reference to Christs Prayer John 11.41 42. Jesus lift up his eyes and said Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me and I know that thou hearest me alwaies You see what supports Faith hath from this Prayer even all that is requisite to raise it to a full assurance if not all that is possible II. What qualifications would you desire in one that pleads for you to make you confident that his plea will be successful and prevalent You may find a concurrence of all these and that far more transcendently than in any in whom you would have the most confidence For First He hath Power no less than all all power is given him in Heaven and Earth Matth. 22.18 He hath power to prevail with the Father and power to order all Creatures in Heaven and Earth into a subserviency to what he desires He is willing and earnestly desires the happiness of his People and all that tends to it and these desires flow from the wonderful Love of an Infinite God and the greatest compassions of a perfect man united in one person and so from an affection altogether unparallel'd such as cannot be found in Heaven or Earth save only in the Lord our Redeemer and Advocate Farther he hath Authority he was called to be an High Priest Heb. 3. and obliged by that Office to pray for his people Heb. 5.1 7. and being faithful in the discharge of it could not but be successful therein his Honour is engaged and depends both upon the Execution of his Office and the success of it The Father called him to be an High Priest and so to pray for his People he would not have called him to it but with a design to comply with him in it and to be prevailed with by it Besides he hath right and pleads for nothing but what he hath right to obtain pleads for nothing with the Righteous God on our behalf but what he hath purchased with that which is of infinite value Also he hath Interest the greatest imaginable as much Interest as is possible he makes not this address to a Stranger or a Friend or a common Relative but to his Father one who loves him as himself Joh. 5.20 He hath as much Interest in him as in himself and can prevail as much with him as with himself and can no more be denyed by him in what he desires than he can deny himself for they are both one Joh. 10.30 I and my Father are one they have not only one Interest and Design but one Essence and Will What Christ wills the Father wills Christ directs us to say to the Father when we pray thy Will be done and the Father saith to Christ praying for us thy will be done for it is no other than his own Will and Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than one jot or tittle of it shall not be fulfilled Lastly He had a personal a particular respect for every of his Servants in his Prayer It is as comfortable and will be as effectual and gives as much assurance of success as if now in Heaven he did pray for every of us by name The High Priest under the Law carried the Names of the Twelve Tribes upon his Breast when he vent into the Holyest to intercede for the people he was herein a Type of Christ the great High Priest and his People were so in his Mind and Heart while he made these requests that his Prayer reached every individual no less effectually than if he had petitioned for each of them by Name These severals duly considered are enough if any thing in the World be so to advance Faith unto the height of Confidence that those for
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
must be damned or saved for ever might understand in things necessary to Salvation what we mean and aim and drive at it hath made me tremble to hear some soar aloft that knowing men might know their parts while the meaner sort are kept from the knowledge of Christ and put their matter in such a dress of words in such a stile so composed that the most stand looking the Preacher in the face and hear a sound but know not what he saith and while he doth pretend to feed them indeed doth starve them and to teach them keepeth them in ignorance Would a Man of any Bowels of compassion go from a Prince to a condemned man and tell him in such Language that he should not understand the conditions upon which the Prince would pardon him and the poor man lose his Life because the proud and haughty Messenger must shew his knack in delivering his message in fine English which the condemned Man could not understand but this is course dealing with a Man in such circumstances that call for pity and compassion Paul had more Parts and Learning but more self-denyal than any of these when he said 1 Cor. 2.1 And I Brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing Words of mans Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 2 Cor. 3.12 Seeing then we have such hope we use great plainness of speech 13. and not as Moses which put a vail over his face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished Some put a vail upon their words that people of mean Education that yet have Souls that must be damned or saved cannot look into those truths that shall never be abolished but what is this but a cursed preferring their own parts and praise before the Salvation of Eternal Souls and the preaching themselves and not Christ which will not be their praise but shame at the Eternal Judgment when some shall plead they stand there condemned because the Learned Preacher would not stoop to speak to them of Eternal matters in Language that they might have understood 4. This Eyeing of Eternity would stir us up to improve our Interest in God and Men for a continual succession of Men in the Ministerial Function In God by Prayer that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth Labourers into his Harvest In men whether such as have Children of pregnant parts studious and bookish serious in Religion and inclined to this Imployment that they would give them to God and give them Education in order to it which would be the Honour of Parents to have such proceed from their loins that shall be Embassadors to call the blind ungodly World to mind Eternity to escape Everlasting Damnation and obtain Eternal Life or whether they be such as have no Children so qualifyed or disposed yet have riches to be helpful to such as have such Children but not an Estate to bring them up for there is a necessity of a standing continued Ministry Men in all Ages are hasting to Eternity those that were our Ancestors in former Ages are already there and have taken up their Lodgings where they must for ever dwell and we are following after them and what a mercy is it that we have the Gospel preached unto us wherein we have directions how to escape Everlasting Torments and obtain Eternal Joyes in the other Eternal World to which we are a going and those that shall live after us when they have been upon the stage of this World awhile shall follow us and our Fathers into Eternity and give place to those that follow after them thus this World doth often change its Inhabitants What is the Life of Man but a coming into time and a going out into Eternity Oh how needful is it then that while they make their short stay on Earth they should have preaching Ministers to warn them of Eternal Misery and teach them the way to Eternal Glory Those that are now engaged in the work will shortly be all silenced by Death and Dust and how desirable is it that your Children and posterity should see and hear others preaching in their room and the Honourableness of the Office might allure young men to encline unto it is it not an Honour to be an Embassador of the great Eternal God to propound Articles of Everlasting peace between him and Everlasting Souls What is buying and selling Temporal Transitory things in comparison of a calling wherein it is mens work and business to save Souls from Eternal Misery and to bring them to the Eternal Enjoyment of the glorious God Thus in some few particulars we have shewed the Influence that the Eyeing of Eternity will have upon us in what we do Do you so Eye Eternity and the rest here for want of room omitted you shall by experience find out which will be better than knowing of them in the notion only because they are told you The Conclusion of this Discourse shall be some particular uses omitting many that it would afford 1. Is there an Eternal State Such unseen Eternal Joyes and Torments Who then can sufficiently lament the blindness madness and folly of this distracted World and the unreasonableness of those that have Rational and Eternal Souls to see them busily imployed in the matters of time which are only for time in present Honours Pleasures and Profits while they do neglect Everlasting things Everlasting Life and Death is before them Everlasting Joy or Torment is hard at hand and yet poor sinners take no care how to avoid the one or obtain the other Is it not matter of lamentation to see so many Thousands bereaved of the sober serious use of their Understandings That while they use their reason to get the Riches of this World they will not act as rational men to get the joyes of Heaven and to avoid Temporal Calamities yet not to escape Eternal misery Or if they be fallen into present Afflictions they contrive how they may get out of them if they be sick reason tells them they must use the means if they would be well if they be in pain Nature puts them on to seek after a Remedy and yet these same Men neglect all duty and cast away all care concerning Everlasting matters they are for seen pleasures and profits which are passing from them in the enjoyment of them but the unseen Eternal Glory in Heaven they pray not for they think not of Are they unjustly charged Let Conscience speak what thoughts they lye down withal upon their pillow if they wake or sleep fly from them in the silent night what a noise doth the cares of the World make in their Souls With what thoughts do they rise in the Morning of God or of the World Of the things of time or of Eternity Their thoughts are
in their Shops before they have been in Heaven and many desires after visible Temporal gain before they have had one desire after the Invisible Eternal God and Treasures that are above What do they do all the day long What is it that hath their Endeavours all their labour and travel Their most painful Industry and unwearied diligence Alas their Consciences will tell themselves and their practices tell others when there is Trading but no praying Buying and Selling but no Religious Duties performed the shop-book is often opened but the sacred book of God is not looked into all the week long O Lord Forgive the hardness of my Heart that I can see such insufferable folly among reasonable Creatures and can lament this folly no more Good Lord forgive the want of compassion in me that can stand and see this distraction in the World as if the most of Men had lost their wits and were quite besides themselves and yet my Bowels yearn no more towards immortal Souls that are going to unseen miseries in the Eternal World to see distracted men busie in doing things that tend to no account is not such an amazing sight as to see men that have reason for the World to use it not for God and Christ and their own Eternal good to see them love and embrace a present Dunghil World and cast away all serious affecting and effectual thoughts of the Life to come to see them rage against the God of Heaven and cry out against Holiness as foolish preciseness and serious Godliness as Madness and Melancholy Alas These Men are Brutes in the shape of Men for like the very Beasts they live by sense and are led away by a sensitive appetite The Brute takes pleasure in his present Provender and feels the smart of the present Spur or Goad and so do sensual Sinners find sweetness in their present pleasures and profits and do complain of present pain and sickness but of pains to come and joyes to come that are Eternal they have no care nor serious thoughts Better such had been Toads and Serpents than rational Creatures for as they mind no future things in the other World so they are not Subjects capable of Eternal Punishment or Everlasting Happiness they are not so provident as the Ant that in Summer lays up for Winter and while the warm Sun doth shine provides for a cold and stormy day but Men that have Immortal Souls are only for this present World but do not provide for a stormy day that is a coming nor for an Eternal state to which they are hasting Let us call the whole Creation of God to lament and bewail the folly of Man that was made the best of all Gods visible works but now by such wickedness is bad beyond them all being made by God for an Everlasting state and yet minds nothing less than that for which he was principally made O Sun Why is it not thy burden to give light to men to do those works and walk in those wayes that bring them to Eternal Darkness O Earth Why dost thou not groan to bear such burdensome Fooles that dig into thy Bowels for Gold and Silver while they do neglect Everlasting Treasures in the Eternal World O ye Sheep and Oxen Fish and Fowl Why do ye not cry out against them that take away your present Life to maintain them in being but only mind present things but forget the Eternal God that gave them Dominion over you to live upon you while they had time to mind Eternal things but do not O ye Angels of God and Blessed Saints in Heaven were ye capable of grief and sorrow would not ye bitterly lament the sin and folly of poor mortals upon Earth Could ye look down from that Blessed place where ye do dwell and behold the Joy and Glory which is to us unseen and see how it is basely slighted by the Sons of Men if ye were not above sorrow and mourning would not ye take this up for a bitter lamentation O ye Saints on Earth whose Eyes are open to see what the blind deluded World doth not see do ye bitterly take on let your Heads be Fountains of Water and your Eyes send forth Rivers of Tears for the great neglect of Eternal Joyes and Happiness of Heaven Can you see Men going out of time into Eternity in their Sin and in their Blood in their Guilt and Unconverted state and your Hearts not moved your Bowels not yearn Have ye spent all your tears in bewailing your own sin that your Eyes are dry when ye behold such monstrous madness and unparallel folly of so many with whom dayly ye converse Ye sanctifyed Parents have ye no pity for your ungodly Children nor sanctifyed Children for ungodly Parents O my Father my Father by whom I had my Being is going to Eternal Darkness Alas for my Mother my dear Mother that carryed me in her womb that dandled me upon her knees that suckled me at her breasts that did delight to break her sleep to quiet me when I was froward to look to me when I was sick that bound my head when it was pained that wiped mine eyes when I did weep and my face when I did sweat because of my Disease this my Mother is forgetful of her own Immortal Soul was more troubled for me when she thought I was near my Grave than for her self though near to Hell when I was young she took care for me for things Temporal but for her self neither young nor old for things Eternal Ere long she will be dead and I am afraid and damned too Ere long she must go out of time and for any thing I can perceive being Ignorant and fearless of God and unmindful of Eternity her Soul will go into Eternity of Torments O how loath am I to have such thoughts of one so near so dear unto me Oh it is the cutting of my Heart it is bitterness to my Soul I had rather dye than she be damned and yet it is my feares she is hasting to Eternity of Wo for to my observing Eye she is taken wholly up with the cares and pride and vanity of this Life and apparently regardless of that Eternal World Why do not also ye that are Parents that have a belief of an Everlasting State take on and bewail the doleful state of your ungodly Children that in their sinful courses are posting to Eternal pains What my Son the Son of my Loins the Son of my Womb Did I bear him with so much sorrow and shall he be a castaway Did I travail with him with so much pain and brought and nursed him up with so much labour and must he be for ever fuel for the Flames of Hell Have I brought forth a Child to be a prey to Devils and a Companion with them to all Eternity Oh my Son my Son what shall I do for thee my Son my Son Thus whatever Relation Neighbour Friend or Acquaintance you have
of the Creature as Water and Wine are mingled together so that the Nature of them both is lost in that mixture For it is not thus with Angels in Heaven or the Glorifyed Spirits there for they still retain their own distinct Nature and Being though they are in the Highest Communion with God Neither is it thus between the Humane and the Divine Nature of Christ as if these two were mingled together and did lose their proper and distinct Natures in each other though the Humane and Divine Nature of Christ have a most near Union and Communion with each other But this Communion it is a Sacred and Mutual Intercourse that is between God and his People whereby they go forth and act in the Divine exercise of their faculties towards him and he comes forth in the Communication of himself in Light Life and Love to them II. I next proceed to speak of some Distinctions about Communion General II with God 1. Communion with God may be considered either with respect to this World or the World to come the one is Imperfect the other is perfect one is Mediate the other Immediate the one is Inconstant and often interrupted the other is constant fixed and uniform without any Interruption for ever 2. This Communion with God hath higher and lower degrees both in the Nether and Vpper World Both among the Saints here below and the Saints and Angels above As there are Orders of Angels in Heaven and some nearer to the Throne of God than others and receive higher Communications of God to them so it is with the Saints made perfect in that Heavenly State 3. This Communion with God is either Internal or External By Internal I mean that sacred Intercourse between God and the Soul which is managed only in the inward Man And by External I mean this Communion with God managed in some External Ordinance of his Worship in the Communion of Saints General III III. I next proceed to shew how this Communion with God is attained and then maintained I answer in General It is attained only in that way which God himself hath appointed thereunto The Heathen did aim at having Fellowship with their Gods and therefore they built them Temples to dwell in Erected Oracles for them to speak to them by and they built Altars to sacrifice to them and appointed Priests to be their Mediators or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers of Friendship between them and their Gods they used several Charms to bring their Gods to them and keep them with them they made use of various Modes and Rites of Worship which they thought best pleased their Gods and whereby they might invite their favour to them and presence with them Yea they worshipped several Creatures though not as Gods but yet that in worshipping them they might have some Communion with those Gods that they thought did preside over those Creatures they Worshipt as Vulcan over the Fire Neptune over the Sea Ceres over the Fruits of the Earth c. But notwithstanding these vain apprehensions of the Heathen by such means to have Fellowship with their Gods yet the Apostle says they sacrificed to Devils and not to God and had Fellowship with Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 I would not saith he that ye should have Fellowship with Devils But the ways of this Communion as I said must be those which God himself hath appointed the principal whereof are Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Spirit 1. By Jesus Christ who was figured upon this account by Jacobs Ladder that stood betwixt Heaven and Earth as the Person wherein Heaven and Earth are united God and Man have Communion with each other who was also figured by the Temple whither the people came up to meet and have communion with God and God with them And particularly by the Mercy Seat where God promised to meet his people and commune with them and therefore the Apostle addeth here in the Text Our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for on our part all our access to God is by him Eph. 2.18 Through him we both have an access unto the Father 2. All Gods approaches to us are also through him All that Light Life and Love which God communicates to his people is through him alone And we have this Communion through Christ with God First By virtue of his Incarnation He assumed our Nature into Union and Communion with God and so made way for our Persons Secondly By virtue of his Life he lived here in the World considered either in the Holy Example he hath left us to walk by or the Doctrine that he here preached by both which he did guide and lead Men in the right way to Fellowship with his Father Thirdly By virtue of his Death and making reconciliation for us by his Blood for if there had not been a Reconciliation and an agreement made between God and us we could never have had Communion with him How can two walk together if they be not agreed 1. This Communion with God it is some lower entrance into the Holyest of all in this World and this is said to be by the Blood of Jesus as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.19 Fourthly By vertue of his Resurrection whereby Believers come to be raised up to newness of Life Rom. 6.4 And it is only in this New Life that we have all our Communion with God the Old Man in us is not capable of it nor the Powers of Nature till they be renewed raised and quickned through the power of Christs Resurrection Fifthly By vertue also of his Ascension into Heaven from whence descends upon Believers a Divine Influence and Power through Faith whereby they are carryed up above this World and ascend up to Heaven and into Communion with God as the Apostle argues Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right hand of God Sixthly By virtue of his Intercession For this is one great thing that he Intercedes for with his Father in Heaven that his People might have Union and Communion with them as appears by what Christ prays for John 17.21 in the behalf of his Disciples that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us and so have Communion with us so that all these things I have spoken concerning Christ ye see tend to this great end to bring up the Saints of God into this Communion with him 2. This Communion with God is also by the Spirit of God as the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.13 14. speaks of the Communion of the Holy Ghost The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost The Grace of Christ and the Love of God are communicated by the Holy Ghost So that all our Fellowship with the Father and the Son are by the Spirit Now the Spirit doth effect this Communion with
Would you then have Communion with God you must not abide in Ignorance but read the Scriptures Enquire into the Mysteries of the Gospel and know the way of coming to God and Communion with him by Christ Jesus and to an Everlasting Communion with him in Heaven And Thirdly Truth is Light and Error is Darkness Take heed therefore of false Doctrines especially such as may tend to the obstructing this Communion with God Take heed of Socinian Doctrines in denying Christs satisfaction the Trinity and the Godhead of Christ c. Take heed of Popish Doctrines which tell you of other merits besides the merits of Christ other satisfaction other Mediation and other Headship of the Church besides Jesus Christ c. Take heed of the Leaven of Quakerism which sets up the Light of Nature for Christ and cast off the use of those Ordinances which Christ hath appointed for our Communion with God Take heed of the old Pelagian Doctrines that set up the Power of Nature and are since revived under other Names to the denyal or neglect of that help of the Spirit which is necessary to our Communion with God And lastly I said Holiness is Light and Sin and Wickedness are Darkness He therefore that would have Communion with God must break off from his Sin betake himself to a course of Godliness and Holy walking with God In the Apostles time rose up a Sect of carnal Professors who would talk high of Fellowship with God and yet walk after the Flesh and indulge their Lusts Whom he is thought especially to referr to in this Chapter that they thus walking in Darkness cannot have Fellowship with that God who is Light The next branch of the Exhortation I direct to such as are in the practice and experience of this Communion with God First Maintain it in what Constancy you can The fewer interruptions are admitted therein so much the better Take heed of violent passions take heed of distracting Cares take heed of Diversions from Duties and Ordinances you ought to attend unto Take heed of the snares of bad Company of the influence of bad Examples of the carnal Counsels of your own Heart of any Complyances against your Consciences of any doubts and disputes in your Mind about the Fundamental Principles of all Religion especially that Christian Religion that you make profession of And watch over the Levity and instability of your own minds which of it self alone may hinder our constancy in this duty Yea and the very lawful Affairs of our calling especially if much incumbred may interrupt us herein Secondly Advance it to an higher degree That your Communion with God may grow up into a greater intimacy such as the Church the Spowse of Christ is represented to have in the Book of Canticles He that can attain it let him attain it In Jacob's Ladder which stood betwixt Heaven and Earth there were many rounds In an high Mountain there are several degrees of ascent At Mount Sinai the people stood at the bottom some of the Priests and the Seventy Elders of Israel went up a little way but Moses was at the top Let us ascend this Mount as high as we can only know it is not Mount Sinai but Mount Sion we must ascend to have Communion with God And be not discouraged if you meet with some difficulties in your ascent through the Natural bent of your Hearts towards things below The sweetness and advantage you will reap herein will abundantly recompence all the labour and endeavours after it And may not some eminent degree of Communion with God be expected of such as do not only live in the times of the New Testament but have had a long standing in the Church of God that your growth herein may in some measure be proportion'd to your time and advantages for it And that which should quicken you the more is the present Complexion of the times both at home and abroad We know not what dayes are coming Mens Hearts are failing them for fear of what Evils are coming upon the Earth as our Saviour foretold Matth. 24. now nothing will so fortifie the Soul against an evil day and an hour of Temptation as this Communion with God This will sweeten a Prison sweeten Poverty sweeten Banishment sweeten the very sorrows of Death This sweetned the Martyrs sufferings of old that Fellowship they had with God in those sufferings wherein they had fellowship also with Christ in his Death Now let these things put you on to this great work And be not discouraged because of the infinite distance betwixt God and us He is come down to us in our own Nature in Christ that we may have access to him and his terror not make us afraid And hear what he speaks himself to our encouragement Isa 57. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite Spirit c. The most high God thus humbleth himself to men But God is invisible Object and how can I have Communion with one whom I see not It s true We cannot have a sensible Communion with Him Answ as Men have with one another but Spirits that are invisible have converse together as well as sensible Creatures God is a Spirit and the Soul of Man is a Spirit and so may be capeable of Communion with that God who is a Spirit Had not the Apostle Communion with invisible things when he saith We look not to the things which are seen but to the things which are not seen And doth not the Apostle Peter say Whom having not seen you love 1 Pet. 1.8 And is not Faith the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 And though in himself he is invisible yet he made himself visible in Christ who is the Image of the Invisible God Col. 1.15 Vse V V. Having spoke of this Communion with God I shall add one Use about the Communion of Saints We know it is one of the Articles of our Creed And that which the Apostle in this Chapter exhorts to These things have we written to you that ye may have Fellowship with us with us as Apostles and with us as Believers So that the fellowship of Saints comprehends their fellowship with the Father and their fellowship with the Son and their fellowship with the Apostles and from thence fellowship with one another All Saints and Churches that hold fellowship with these three ought to have fellowship among themselves To bring in new Doctrines or new Rules of Worship not delivered by the Apostles is to forsake Communion with the Apostles The terms of Communion laid by the Apostles for the Churches of Christ ought to be kept inviolable in all Churches to the end of the World and be the Foundation of their Communion among themselves And for my part I can hold Communion with any Church where these are maintained though there may be some Circumstantial differences either in
or make their Requests to God for some Extatide Transports and Enlargements in a Duty or Covet unfit degrees of Gifts or Abilities for Duties taking that to be Grace which may be a gift consistent with a lost Condition and suppose these things never acquested by them must it thence follow That the Face of God is hid from them Oh what a pass must God be at with these Mens Souls when they must take him for their Enemy or for a discontented and distasted Friend unless he will to humour them transgress the stated Methods of his Dealing with Mens Souls If their Natural strength and fervour do but decay through Age or Sickness or other accidental Weaknesses or if God touch them in their Darlings here as Interests Relations Possessions or cast them upon some unwelcome straits though for their good Oh then they think him gone from them in deep Distast and Wrath when as these things rather insinuate Demonstrations and Assurances of Gods Faithfulness and Favour to them than any hard Thoughts of or bad Designs upon them See then that you be sure that God hides his Face from you indeed before you proceed to infer Discouragements or any ways to countenance your own Despondencies and any Jealousies or hard thoughts of God Bâ—t yet 't is to be acknowledged That God sometimes doth hide his Face indeed Isa 64.7 And that either 1. Totally as to the Damned in Hell so as never to shew it more to them again but this is nothing to our present Case or else 2. Partially as to those on Earth who are either 1. Unconverted or 2. Converted Persons The former are not here concerned but the latter and as to Converted Persons such as are truly Gracious God is said to hide his Face from them when he removes his Candlestick from them Rev. 2.5 or when they rather only see than really feel and are bettered by the Light and are scarce sensible of either Savour or Power in Gods Ordinances or of any Improvement in or of themselves thereby or when they have not any free Intercourses with God in Holy Duties but ever find themselves to be deadned and straitned in the Addresses of their Spirits to God in his Holy Ordinances of which their Jealousies are increased by their being Conscious to themselves of much Barrenness Wantoness and Ingratitude under their Sanctuary-priviledges Or when they are terrified with Storms and Tempests in their own Breasts through pressing Fears and multiplied Distractions But here let them consult Gods Word and Providences and their own Consciences together and thus debate this Matter with themselves What makes thee think O my Soul that God now hides his Face from thee Is it what is and hath been common either to Mankind or to the Generation of the Just or something peculiar to my self and unusual to others Is it any thing that can make it Evident that I either yet was never truly Gracious or that Gods Grace is now Extinct in me Have I an Heart for God and hath he none for me Is any thing inflicted on me inconsistent with Gods Saving Love to me Have my Afflictions Deadned me to God and Holiness or cut off the Entail of his Covenant-Favours upon me Are there noe Cases and Instances of Gods Eclipsed Face paralel to or much beyond my own to be discerned in Abraham David Job Lot Christ or others See James 5.10 Heb. 5.7 9. Job's Friends got nothing but Reproofs from God for their inferring Gods Contempt of him from what God laid on him It is much to be Observed That Gods dearest Favourites have had the sharpest Exercises and great Darkness and Disconsolateness on their Spirits at sometimes or other for the sensible Comforts and Refreshments of Religion are seldom found the Daily Fare of the exactest walkers with God under Heaven and yet how often are these Eclipses greatned by their Fancies or Follies And then by their Misrepresentations of God to themselves how oft and much is he Dishonoured by them But let these things be well considered by Gracious Souls 1. God doth not always nor ever totally hide his Face from them whom he hath Changed and Transformed through Grace 2. That when at any time 't is hid from them 't is not hidden in so much Wrath but that Mercy shall prevail at last 3. Nor can it ever be so dark with them but that some Remedies and Refreshments may be had from the Name the Son and the Covenant and from that of God within themselves which they ought not to undervalue overlook or to deny or to quit the Acknowledgments and Comforts of Nay I may boldly say it that at the worst more of Gods Face doth or may appear to them and shine upon them than is at any time hidden from them I mean more of that Face which is discernable here on Earth for otherwise it is but very little of Gods Face that the best Men see at most in this World if compared with what is to be manifested in Eternity unto the Heirs of Glory And therefore is it yet a shameful thing both to be pitied and blamed in gracious Persons that every intermission or retreat of sensible Joys and Favours shall so enrage their Fears and Sorrows as that Gods tenderness and faithfulness shall presently be Arraigned and his most gentle Discipline heavily Censured strangely Agravated extravagantly Resented and most immoderatly Bemoaned by them Yea and that before they have well understood what ails them and unto what degrees their so bemoaned Eclipse hath reached Come then my Soul deal fairly with thy Self and God and tell me what is it that God hath now denied thee How far hath God denied it What of God is it that thou once hast seen but canst not now What hinders the present sight or the recovery of what before hath been thy Strength and Joy Do not mistake Gods Looks and Heart nor in a pet charge God with what he is not guilty of nor say too hastily why better with me formerly than now Direct IV. Let him remove and shun all that provokes God thus to hide his Face Isa 59.1 2. Lam. 3.39 40. no Counsel nor Encouragement will or can avail that Soul for Trust or Conduct which neglects its stated Work and Watch which God enjoyns it to and expects from it The Spots and negligences of Gods own People are displeasing to him and he will turn his Face away from what he loaths and hates Many a dreadful frown and glance from God had David when he had defiled his Soul and Body with Lust and Blood The matter of Uriah left that blot and sting upon him and to his Family which made it evident how unsafe it is for even gracious Souls to play the wantons Complaints and Prayers can neither expiate nor commute for those miscarriages and neglects which God forbids and hates nor will it be found sufficient that we make some enquiries after God or pathetical and mournful declamations against
the wicked not the Graces of the godly Sinners cannot endure the Light of the Truth nor the power of Holiness in the Lives of Saints and therefore quarrel with them but are those Saints to be blamed for such troubles as only accidentally and by reason of the corruptions of others arise on their doing but their Duty Is a Bridge to be blamed for troubling the Water because keeping its place it stops the Waters passage and is the occasion of its swelling and roaring Are Sheep to be blamed for incensing the Wolves Or Doves for provoking the Hawks Truly just such incendiaries are Gods Children in the places where they live they disquiet their Neighbours only by the good things they enjoy which others love and covet and fain would get from them or by the good they do which wicked Men hate and fain would hinder in them The quarrels of the ungodly World with the Holy Seed among them are but like that of Cain with Abel he slew his Brother because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous 1 John 3.12 3. The Sinners of a Nation are really the weakness of it It is they of whatsoever Party or Sect or persuasion they are that troubles any People and occasions their dangers and procure their ruin Righteousness exalts a Nation Prov. 14.34 it is Sin that is a reproach to it that humbles it and brings it down Wicked Men are they that betray Nations and Kingdoms expose them to Gods wrath subject them to his judgments Did Noah bring the Flood upon the old World or did the wicked of it by their wickedness Did Lot bring down Fire from Heaven upon Sodom or did the Sodomites do it by their own lewdness Did Jeremiah by his Preaching or Baruch and Ebedmelech and those few other godly in Jerusalem by their Praying and Weeping and Mourning bring on the Captivity of that People or did not they themselves by their Idolatry their Prophaneness their Swearing their Sabbath breaking their polluting Gods Ordinances their shedding Innocent Blood c. were the Apostles and primitive Christians the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans or were not the unbelieving Jews by their rejecting Christ and persecuting those that adhered to him I deny not but the Sins of the best of Saints may sometimes contribute to the bringing down judgments upon others Jonahs Sin raised a Tempest upon the Mariners chap. 1. and David numbring the People brought the Plague upon them 2 Sam. 24. God will not only manifest his own Holiness by punishing them that are dearest to him when they Sin against him but teach them more care watchfulness against Sin when they find how far the direful effects of it are extended unto others And yet what is this to the numerous instances on the other side Which doth ordinarily do most mischief the Sins of the truly godly which are fewer and lesser and mourned over and repented of or the Sins of the prophane the Hypocrites the Impenitent May we not say that if the Sins of the one have slain their Thousands those of the other have slain their Ten-Thousands The greatest danger any can be in is to be liable to the displeasure of God who is Holy and cannot endure to behold iniquity powerful and able to destroy those that offend him can Arm and Commission innumerable Enemies against them raise the Posse of Heaven and Earth upon them let flie Thousands of Arrows at them and command what judgments he please to consume them And who are they that do ordinarily make a People naked and lay them open to the Wrath and Revenge of God Is it they that love God or they that hate him the obedient or the rebellious they that please him or they that provoke him they that intercede with him or they they that defie him they that mourn for the abominations of a Land or they that commit and encourage them they that tremble at his judgments or that dare his vengeance In a Word they that hinder all the Sin they can or that hinder all the good they can they that dare not be wicked or that will not be Holy 4. It is the Interest of any People where God hath a Seed of righteous ones to favour them and make much of them They are their best Friends that are Gods Friends They should favour them most whom God favours of whose good things they partake for whose sakes they are preserved receive many a mercy enjoy many a privilege escape many a judgment It is their interest to be kind to those that have most interest in God most power with him and can get most of him What Society of Men but usually favours them most whom their Prince favour most and they think it their interest to do so They know they may need them and many a good turn they may do them They that are the greatest among Men and sit at the upper end of the World may need the help of the Faith and Prayers of the meanest Saints they may need them to interpose with God for them and ward off his blows or remove his plagues and when he hath no respect to a People for their own sakes yet he may for the sake of his Servants among them 5. It is folly in any People to Persecute them that are truly Religious That is but to fall foul upon their Friends and then they lie open to their Enemies or are indeed their own greatest Enemies to pluck the Stakes out of the Hedge and turn the Vineyard into a Common to pull up the Sluces and then there is nothing to keep out an Inundation of evils to pull down the Pillars and then the House comes tumbling about their Ears It is indeed but to dig their own Graves to make way for their own destruction by destroying those that are their preservers For by this means they lose 1. The benefit of the Saints Prayers When Men go on maliciously to abuse and oppress the godly among them God may refuse to hear even their Prayers for them The Jews persecuted Jeremiah slandered him as a Traytor Jer. 37.13 smote him with their tongues devised devices against him 11 19. put him in the Dungeon and God would not hear his Prayers for them Their posterity persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ and though his Prayers were heard for many of them converted Acts 2. and afterward by the Preaching of the Apostles yet when they still persevered in their persecuting those very Apostles their Prayers could not prevail for them but God gave them up first to hardness of heart and blindness of mind Acts 28.26 and then to their Enemies Sword Or God may stop the mouths of his Saints that they shall not so much as pray for them he may as was before intimated straiten them and withdraw from them When they begin to open their lips for those whom he hath appointed for destruction Nay he may set their Hearts to pray against them
commanded Solomon to be made King Benaiah said Amen the Lord do so Or when in Imprecations of evil as Numb 5.22 the Woman tried by the Water of Jealousie which sprinkled on the Curse it blotted out the Curse if she was Innocent if Guilty her Thigh presently rotted she was to say Amen Amen let it be so if I be Guilty and let it be so if I be Innocent So at the end of the Curses Deut. 27.10 and all the People shall say Amen they are loath to have the Curse come therefore they are commanded there to say Amen but they need no command to Seal the Blessings with Amen all are apt enough to Beleive and Wish them But here is a double Amen which hath the greater Emphasis and requires greater Attention and Intention of mind as Neh. 9.5 Bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and Blessed be his Glorious Name which is exalted above all Blessings and Praise Ever and Ever is answered by Amen Amen or let it be ratified in Heaven so on Earth And the Jews say that he that pronounceth this Amen as he ought is greater than he that Blesseth in the Name of the Lord he that pronounceth this Amen with all his might the Gates of Heaven flie open to him But there are Three evil Amens they call the 1. Abbreviated in the first Sillable or Letter and whoever so pronounceth it as to hasten his Amen his Days shall be soon passed 2. There is Amen cut off in the last Sillable suppressed 3. There is the Pupillar or Orphan Amen when it is pronounced at random impertinently and unseasonably without Understanding Prayer or Praise foregoing and so there is no Father to beget Devotion in them and so 't is an Orphan Amen and his Children shall be Fatherless that pronounceth such a lifeless Word and a Fatherless Amen But he that with knowledg and fervour pronounceth this Amen his Days shall be prolonged upon Earth as Buxtorff relates 2. Now I am to give you some considerations and arguments for the use of this Amen and the manner of it and they are Seven 1. It is lawful and laudable publickly to use it because it is connatural to Prayer and Praise I do not lay the lawfulness of it upon a Persian decree or a positive Injunction set on things no ways connatural to the Action for that is forced Meat and turns a Mans Stomack and his Conscience There is no need for a Rubrick by the Men of the great Synagogue or a Canon to command a Man to blush when it is only the natural passion that will command it So when the heart is warm in Prayer with serious and earnest affections a double Amen doth as naturally flow from us as Milk from a Mothers Breast to her Suckling and Amen comes from Amen which signifies to Nurse as if it were if not the Mother yet the faithful Nurse of lively Devotion Assent to Repetitions is essential unto Prayer and it is not signified publickly but by our Amen Not that we are obliged to speak it always and with a loud Voice quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur Tert. what Lungs had we need to have if God hear us for our loudness But when the heart is affected we see here how the People stood up and lift up their hands to Heaven naturally signifying they would lift the Name of God with all their might but they cast down themselves bowing down their Heads and worshipping the Lord with their Faces to the ground who can hold his Breath from a groan or sigh when matter and affection meet together The Israelites here could not withhold their hands nor Hannah hold still her Eyes when earnest in Temple Prayer nor can a zealous heart hold the Tongue from moving to an Amen at the end of Prayer and Praise There is no Child of God that can say our Father but lower or louder he must and will say Amen The Jews in time of Incense called themselves mutes in deep silent Prayer when they praised God on Instruments Semivocates but when in open Prayer and Praises then they were Vocates in their Amens 2. We have the practise of the Old and New Testament Beleivers for our example In Moses you had it in Numbers and Deuteronomy and David oft useth it in the Psalms yea this double Amen Psal 41.13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen God was Israels God accepting their Praises hearing Prayers fulfilling promises and this for Ever and Ever and be it Eternally ratified Amen and Amen to all Generations Psal 106.48 the same words are repeated with this exhortation let all the People say Amen Hallelujah And they had the same Praises and Petitions to offer therefore the same conclusion is suitable So the Prophet Jeremiah speaking of Gods Oath to give Canaan to the Jews says Oh Lord Amen or be it so Jer. 11.5 so Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 how can the Idiot the private Man who knows only his own private single Language say Amen to Prayer or Praise in another Tongue which not only imports the custom but the manner of saying Amcn to be with Faith and Understanding Eph. 3.21 to him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen Yea Jesus Christ a greater than Moses Prophets and Apostles adds this conclusion to his perfect form of Petitions in Matth. 6. so in his Book of Revelations chap. 5 14. the Four Beasts and Four and Twenty Elders who represented tho whole Church of Jews and Gentiles together cry Amen Yea that innumerable Company of those Triumphing Souls who had white Robes and Palms in their Hands as Victors over Temptations with the Elders and Angels fell on their Faces and worshipped God saying Amen Blessing and Glory and Honour and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Power and Might be unto our God for Ever and Ever Amen Rev. 7.12 So at the fall of Babylon as the Voice of many Thunders and Waters the Church cries Amen Hallelujah The Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth and hath Avenged the Blood of his Servants Rev. 19.4 Yea it lasts unto the mariage of the Lamb Rev. 22.20 still when the Bridegroom comes the Church cries Amen come Lord Jesus come quickly 3. Amen after Prayer and Praise is the Mans consent judgment and approbation of what is offered unto God it is the setting to of our Seal to all and our putting our Hands to bear a part in the Praises and to have a share in the Petitions It imports the desire of our Soul which is the formality of Prayer now all these are essential to these Duties and the pronunciation is but the publication of our reward Sense which is very significant in publick Worship Hearing is but the formal Sense in conceiving the Petitions but Speech brings them forth and is a more open profession and a more Masculine expression of Devotion Lamen 3.41 let us lift up our hearts
with our hands to God in the Heavens When the heart is intensly elevated to God it carries the Hands and the Voice along with it it Acts all the Body from the Center as Tertullian Phraseth it bona conscientia eructat ad superficiem he lifts up his Soul Psal 143.8 and Body too to God as they lifted up the Mincah or Heav-Offering and waved it before the Lord the Soul will work the body into Simpathy when it is earnest indeed that which made the Veins of the Body to open their Mouths in drops of Blood as Christ his Prayer in his Agony did Luke 22.44 will certainly make us open our Lips Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaks Luke 6.46 4. This Vocal Amen is as it were the Epitome and summ of all our Petitions and Praises to God 't is the Center which all those Lines are drawn towards It is all the Duty vertually reduced to one word and point Yea it is the repeating and ecchoing or redoubling of all over again As the Mercury behind the Glass it reverterates the lively Image of all preceding Devotion It is a drawing the Arrow to the Pile by a strong ejaculation qua toto corde deum petimus in Bellarmines Phrase whereby the whole heart is darted up to God It is a stirring up our selves to take hold of God Isa 64.7 It is taking aim and directing our Prayer to him and looking up Psal 5.3 as if they would hand up Gods Praises to him and stand ready to receive his Mercies with open Hands and Mouths It winds up all together in one bundle many are willing to have God forgive their trespasses but cannot so readily forgive others we may be free for God to give us daily Bounty and Bread but cannot make it as Meat and Drink to do his Will Men will easily accept of Gods kindness not so roundly pay their tribute of Praises Such cannot roundly Pray nor say Amen Ah Lord and Amen are two long Prayers in few words managed by the whole Soul and thus it is an Amen with an Hallelujah when we seek God with all our hearts then we find him Jer. 29.13 5. Amen rightly pronounced is an intense Act of Faith or it involves a strong Faith The Hebrew Verb in Niphat signifies to be firm stable and strong and in Hiphil it signifies to beleive and trust and indeed we cannot beleive or trust to any thing but that which is stable invariable and immutable So that there are two Declarations made by this Amen 1. That God is firm and immutably true in himself and his word 2. That we will not only beleive his Truth but trust to his veracity and build upon it as the Prophet doth both Jer. 11.5 this is a laying hold on Gods Strength Isa 27.5 as we see Abraham Gen. 15.6 he beleived God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehermen Gods Truth is beleived his veracity trusted to Israel twisted about both these as Abraham did he wrestled with God and prevailed The Jews say Amen habet tres nucleos hath Three Kernels the one is of an Oath the Second of Faith the Third of Confidence as Bunto says on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When we have confessed our Sins we do by our Amen say all is true and we have deserved Gods displeasure we beg pardon of them and so beleive God hath promised Pardon to the Penitent we trust our selves with God in Christ and beleive that he will Pardon our Sins as all others that cast themselves upon his promised Grace 6. The unanimous pronunciation of Amen is an assurance that God will accept our Praises and answer our Prayers So as the Soul comes off with Luther's Vicimus we have prevailed Mark 11.24 what things soever ye desire when you Pray beleive that ye receive them and ye shall have them nay 1 John 5.15 If we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions we desired of him We ought to beleive we shall have them either in kind or value and infinite Wisdom and Goodness must be Judge in that Case alone Matth. 18.19 if two of you agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven If any single Soul Pray in Faith it shall be heard much more if two have a Symphony as the word imports they shall be answered how much more when the whole Congregation is in Harmony and unanimously cries Amen when the whole Congregation meets as one Man Ezra 3.1 and the multitude of Beleivers are of one Heart and Soul Acts 4.32 God will say Amen to such Amens They are as it were a bath col the Eccho and Voice of God from the Mercy-Seat Sanctorum vota sunt oracula Gods Spirit stirs up such Prayers and they shall not be denied The Soul like Luther says fiat voluntas mea as Men make their Wills in the Name of God Amen it shall be thus for once let my Will Oh Lord be done Heavens Gate is open to this united Knock. 7. And lastly This unanimous Amen of Faith strikes terror on the Enemies of the Church whether Devils or Men. When the Romans had Conquered Philip and the Grecians and Flaminius caused Peace to be proclaimed to the Grecians there was such a Shout says Plutarch that the very Crows and other Birds fell down to the ground the Air was so rent and shaken And when the Church of God Terrible as an Army with Banners gives her unanimous Voices of Amens not only Satan falls like lightning from Heaven Luke 10.18 but Simon Magus by Peters Prayer is fetch'd down when he attempted to flie in the Air as if he had been the Holy Dove and Power of God as Ecclesiastical Story relates And Socrates tells us that upon Theodosius his Prayers and his Armies the Barbarians Captain was smitten with a Thunderbolt and his Soldiers by Fire As the Turks Mined the Eastern Empire of the Romans by Fire Smoke and Brimston i e. by Guns and Gun-powder Rev. 9.17 when the Church is united in hearty Amens it is like the Shout that the Israelites gave when God and his Ark came into the Camp which was such a great sound that the Earth rang 1 Sam. 4.5 for then God is gone up with a Shout Psal 47.5 to answer the Prayers made for the Salvation of his People This makes the hearts of their Enemies to melt and tremble as the Philistins did As Hierom expresseth it the hollow Idols and their Temples that were empty did Eccho and Rebound the Churches Amens so as their Fabricks shaked Thus when the Shophar lovely Trumpet sounded the Seventh time upon the Seventh day Josh 6.20 the Walls of Jerico fell and so shall the Gates and Walls of Babylon by the Preaching of the Gospel on the Lords Days and the Prayers of the Saints The united Breath of Gods People sends a blast upon their Enemies the Trumpet blew and the
moment and must be tormented for ever What if they have Pleasures and carnal Delights for a season they must be under the heavy wrath of God for ever You might stand and see all their mirth at an end but their sorrow never will have end all their joy is but for a moment as the crackling of Thorns under a pot but their misery will be endless misery Let them laugh a while they shall weep for ever let them rejoyce for a season their mirth shall be turned into heaviness their Temporal rejoycing into Everlasting howling and the Eternity of Joy will be more than a recompence to the afflicted Saints whatsoever their Sufferings for Christ and Conscience be in this World A supposed case might be an help in this Temptation Suppose then that you were poor and full of pain for so long time or rather for so short that you should fall asleep and after you awake should be poor no more nor afflicted any more but have a Life of manly delights afterwards Suppose again another man were compassed about with all manner of accommodations costly Dishes to please his Palate beautiful Objects to delight his Eyes all manner of Musick grateful to his Ears many Servants to attend him all standing bare before him and bowing the knee in Honour to him and all this and much more he were to enjoy as long as he could abstain from sleeping but assoon as he doth fall asleep he should be taken off his Bed and cast into a Furnace of boyling Lead or scalding Pitch I demand which of these two Mens Condition you would choose I know it would be the condition of the former and not the latter this and infinitely beyond this is the case in hand you are afflicted till you fall asleep and then you shall be afflicted no more but live a life of Joy for ever the Wicked prosper till they fall asleep and they cannot long keep open their Eyes but Death will come and close them then the justice of God will arrest them and then Devils will seize upon them and they shall be cast into a Lake of burning Brimstone where they shall have no rest night nor day but the smoak of their Torment shall ascend for ever and ever Exercise your thoughts in this manner and have an Eye unto Eternity and you will more easily and successfully overcome such Temptations to murmuring and discontent from the different dispensations of the Providence of God here in time to good and bad 3. Such eyeing of Eternity would have great influence for the well improvement of our time Time is to be valued in order to Eternity because we go out of time into Eternity and that which should make every Man in time most concerned out of time into Eternity of Misery or Glory Oh! what a pretious thing is Time it is beyond the worth of Gold or Silver because we might do more in time in reference to Eternity than we can do by all our Gold and Silver Jewels are but Toyes in comparison of pretious Time Many are saving of their Money but are prodigal of Time and have more of Time then they know what to do with when others find so much to do that they know not what to do for time to do it in Oh Fools and blind what were an Hundred years to make preparation for Eternity Oh sluggish careless Sots Do you ask how shall we pass away the time Might ye not with more reason ask how shall we prevent hasty time from passing away with such winged motion Or if that cannot be prevented How shall we improve our time that is so fast a posting from us Blind World Do any Men in thee enquire How shall we spend our time It is easily answered in Praying Repenting begging for Grace the pardon of Sin the favour of God and peace with Him and fitness for Eternal Life Had the Damned in Hell the time that once they had and you now have do you think they would ask what they should do to pass away the time Their cry rather is Oh hasty time whither art thou fled Why didst thou move so fast while we sate still Or why in time did we so swiftly run in ways of Sin as if we could not have sinned enough before time was past and gone When we had a God to serve and Souls to save and an Everlasting State to make preparation for we like Fools did say How shall we spend our time But now our time is spent and past and gone and now the question is which never can be answered How shall we spend Eternity which never can be spent no not in enduring Ten Thousand Thousand Millions of Years in pain and punishment for when they are past it is as fresh and as far from ending as it was the first moment it began then Eye Eternity and you cannot but improve your time 4. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us careful how we die because Death is our passing out of time into Eternity Death is dreadful to the ungodly because it opens the door into Everlasting Misery gainful to all endued with saving Grace because it lets them in to Everlasting Happiness Did you that are yet Christless Impenitent and Unbelieving see whither you are going and where you must within a little time take up your Everlasting Lodgings what fear and trembling would seize upon all your joynts and when by sickness you perceive Death to be approaching you would cry out Oh Death forbear forbear stay thine hand and do not strike for if thou cut me down in this condition I drop into Eternal Misery there is nothing but this single thred of my frail Life between me and endless wo and if this be cut or snapt asunder I sink in to irrecoverable Misery without all hope of ever coming forth Could you but see a Soul the next hour after its separation from the Body what a taking it is in what wo what despair it is filled with would you then live without Christ go to bed without Christ and rise and trade and still remain without an Interest in Christ What mean ye sirs to make no provision for Death that is so near so very near when you are as near to going into an Everlasting World as you are to going out of this Transitory World and your Souls be dragged sooner by Devils into Hell than your Bodies can be carryed by Men unto your Graves Awake arise repent and turn unto the Lord for if you sleep on in sin till you sleep by Death you will be awaked by the flames of Hell and then though you be under the power of Eternal Death you will sleep no more and rest no more for ever And Death is as gainful and desirable to a Gracious Man as it is terrible to the Ungodly for it lets him into unseen Eternal Glory to the sight of Christ unseen to us on Earth How willing would you be to go a Thousand Miles to see