act as to relieve himself by an indirect course for he would not take the name of God upon him in vain he had rather die then do it Now when God hath thus drawn out the desires of the soul after grace then he gives in such a measure as shall preserve it and keep it from yielding to the temptation and Beloved it is a gratious relief to be kept in an holy and gratious frame of heart under a strong and powerful temptation 't is worthy of a Christians taking notice thereof So doth the Prophet this poor man cried and the Lord heard him Psal 34.6 Beloved if you be never so poor yet if God draws out your hearts after him in prayer you shall be kept that you shall not take any indirect course to help your selves but be able to say as David of himself this poor man cried and the Lord heard him As prayer is the desire of the soul formed into requests and petitions so crying is the importunity of the soul in prayer Petitions and requests presented to God with an humble and reverential boldness it is a wrestling with God for a blessing a perseverance in prayer with an holy resolution not to be put off Now 't is the poor that thus crys sense of want that pinches the soul joyned with some hopes of obtaining makes the soul to cry and he that crys shall be heard Divine relief shall come in to help it in this time of need Thus you see how relief comes in to a good man in the want of all outward comforts Secondly When the strength of the outward man fails And this is properly the failing of the flesh when a man is in a consumptive condition God smites the body and then the flesh wasts the beauty thereof fades and the senses grow dull and heavy The Prophet David had great experience hereof and therefore often mentions it in his Psalms Psal 38.10 my strength faileth and Psal 109.24 my flesh faileth of fatness and Psal 69.3 mine eyes fail He was brought low even to the mouth of the grave but Divine relief came in As you may see Psal 116.6 I was brought low and he helped me God sometimes raises a man from the very gates of death and gives him a new life restores him to his former health and strength But if God doth not thus by a gratious man yet he shall have cause to say the Lord is the strength of my heart in this weak and low estate and condition Divine relief shall be given to him 1. To support and strengthen him to bear his affliction with patience the power and grace of God is wonderfully seen in bearing up the spirits when the body sinks and in giving grace to exercise patience under the pains and sorrows of death you have heard saith Saint James of the patience of Job Jam. 5.11 As you heard of his corporal affliction how soarly he was handled so you have heard of his patience how gratiously he was he was supported that he could bear his affliction without murmuring or repining 't is true it made him groan I but the stroke was heavier then his groaning As he saith Job 23.2 Even to day is my complaint bitter my stroke is heavier then my groaning The spirit of a man will sustain corporal infirmities when God sustains the spirit Now patience under afflictions is equivalent to a deliverance from them to be able to bear an affliction is as great a mercy as to be freed from it if God rebukes the feavour of impatiency and thereby cures that it is as much as to rebuke a bodily distemper and thereby to cure it So you may see 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but that which is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to â—scape that ye may be able to bear it i. e. I can assure you that thus far you shall be set free from your temptations afflictions that you shal be able to bear them This is a gratious relief for there is no affliction but impatiency makes a greater affliction many afflict themselves when God doth not and many afflict themselves more then God doth their impatiency first makes their groaning heavier then their stroke and then their stroke heavier then it is in it self 2. Divine relief and strength comes into the heart of a good man in this consumptive condition to renew the inward man as the outward man decays So saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.16 Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day As God pulls down the old house the house of clay he frames and erects a new building that shall abide for ever So that a Christian may say as Peter Martyr said when he was dying My body is weak my mind is well well for the present and it will be better for the future The flesh and spirit of a good man are like two buckets when the flesh goeth down the spirit gets up he is ever best within when he is worst without when the body is going down to the earth from whence it came the soul is ascending to heaven from whence it came And you have a gratious promise for it Psal 92.13 14. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing Old age shall have green fruit upon it When â—he flesh proves the most barren the spirit is most fruitful a true Christian never flourisheth so much as when old age hath nipt the flesh and it is a lovely sight to see gray hairs a consumptive body and a withered face fat and flourishing in Holiness and Righteousness to see Summer-fruit upon an old tree in Winter-time and yet thus it is with good Christians their Winter of old age is their most flourishing time When nature is most spent grace comes to its greatest strength and perfection Faith strongest love to God and Christ most enflamed hope most lively and holiness most beautiful and sparkling the greatest beauty in the soul when the body is turning to rottenness and putrifaction When the natural breath smells of the earth the spiritual breath savours most of heaven the eye of the soul most clear in discerning spiritual and heavenly things when the eye of the body grows dim and dark the hand of faith most steady to take hold on Divine promises when the corporal hand shakes with the palsie and the feet of the soul run fastest towards the mark for the price of the high calling in Christ when the bodily feet cannot move So true it is that a Christian may say as S. Paul said When I am weak then am I strong weak in my outward man but strong in the inward 3. Divine relief comes in to the heart of a
SERMONS PREACHED ON Several Occasions SHEWING 1. The Saints Relief in time of EXIGENCY 2. The Admirableness of Divine Providence 3. A Prisoner at Liberty and his Judge in Bonds 4. The most Remarkable Man Upon Earth or The true Portraicture of a SAINT By SAMVEL BLACKERBY Minister of the Gospel at Stow Market LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church Yard 1674. To the Worshipful THOMAS BLACKERBY Esquire My honoured Patron and Kinsman with His honoured Consort Mrs KATHERINE BLACKERBY Much Honoured THose that know my Relation to you the Interest that you have in this place and those Obligations which your Kindnesses to my self and Family have laid upon me will not wonder at the Dedication of my first fruits of Printing to you You were the Instruments under God of my removal from a forraign County to this place where most of these Sermons which are now exposed to publick view were preached Under your Patronage and Wing have I now lived for the space of above ten years in many respects a comfortable and pleasurable life For here I have enjoyed a large opportunity of Preaching in season and out of season the glad tidings of Peace and the Gospel of Salvation For through Grace I can say it that I prize my Liberty in this respect above the Living and my Work though hard to flesh and bloud above any worldly advantage Here I have seen the goings of God yea power and glory in the Sanctuary Here some have been enlightned convinced and awakened out of a dead sleep and others strengthened to run the Christian Race that is set before them Here are broken Reeds and smoaking Flax yea here are some newly planted in the house of the Lord who I hope will flourish in the Courts of our God So that I make no question but many do at this day sound forth the praises of God for guiding and disposing of your Heart to take care of this great place You opened the door and the Lord hath made it effectual You sent an Earthen Vessel hither and the excellency of the power hath been of God let him have all the glory Not unto us not unto us But unto thy Name O Lord be the praise But O dear Sir Do you account it your Honour to be used still as an Instrument under God of doing good and of being made serviceable to his Church in your Stations that the Children unborn may bless the Lord for you This is the way to eternize your Name to draw down Heavens blessing upon your Person and Estate yea to attain the happiness and comfort of Soul-ravishing smiles from the well-pleased face of the great Majesty of Heaven Go on and prosper let your last works be as good if not better then your first and in all encourage your self in the Lord your God My first Subject now Printed tells you that when your Flesh and Heart fails you God will be your strength and I hope your own experience bears witness thereunto That trust that was committed to you when you was made High Sheriff of the County of Suffolk The great loss that you sustained by the Fire in the Metropolis of our Nation together with other remarkable losses and charges at the same time did require a more then ordinary influence for your support and relief But I am well assured that the chearfulness of your Countenance and wise conduct of your Affairs under those heavie pressures and burdens speak forth nothing less then a divine support and seasonable relief But to my Labours upon Psal 73.26 I have added that Sermon which I preached upon your request at the Assizes holden at Bury St. Edmunds March 27. 1669. And all I do now dedicate to you as a Testimony of my thankfulness for those many Kindnesses which you have conferr'd upon me However by this Inscription the Book is become yours with this humble and hearty desire that it may not only receive grace and favour from you but that by your diligent perusal thereof you may receive Grace from it So prayes Your most obliged Kinsman and Servant Samuel Blackerby Stow-Market Decemb 2. 1673. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Would be sorry the luxuriancy of the Press should cloy thy Stomack to take off thy Eye from a through review of this profitable Treatise here commended to thee The Reverend Author whereof did not calculate the greatest part of it for any other Meridian then his own Pastoral charge and there it had lien without exposing it to the Censure of critical eyes had not the importunity of Friends prevailed so far with him as to afford it a Midwife to bring it into the world I had the happy advantage to be an Auditor of some of the Sermons wherein I observed such Spiritual Solidity that what I then wished I now obtain the publication of such elaborate exercises for the common good I am not ignorant of the blessing of a Pulpit Dispensation accompanied with the gusts and gales of Gods Spirit Yet it is pity such a Jewel should be a Pendant on the Ear without the priviledge of a Press to leave an impression upon the Heart Grapes that have past the Press cannot but have a most delicious relish Hereby this Reverend Author living near in the Hearts and Affections of his People who have given him no small encouragement by their proficiency under his Ministry may abide with them after his translation hence and the Name of Blackerby both in his worthy Father and Son may like a box of Spikenard perfume their memorial when this Servant of God is gone following his Father to receive a Crown the reward of his unwearied Work The Author of this Treatise hath like his Master been a man acquainted with infirmities exercised divers years under bodily pressures and thereby becomes the more fit by his own experience to commend to a gracious Soul Divine Relief in the deficiency of Animal Spirits and to teach a Soul how to lean upon her Beloved coming out of the Wilderness Cant. 8.5 I have seen him divers times in the Pulpit when he had more need to have been in his Bed seeming to me reduced almost into his Socket having spent his Lamp in giving light to others yet Divine Relief hath carried him through his Work with a revival of him and the Hearts of many under his Charge so as he may say with the Apostle When I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12.9 The joy of the Lord being his strength Nehem. 8.10 For his way of Preaching I am well acquainted with it he is not ambitious of that which some call the Knack of Preaching to start some spruce Notion or crop the flowers of Elegancy This is not his vein or ought to be thy work But his dexterity lies in that which Luther terms the right Art of Preaching to hold forth Jesus Christ and free Grace in a searching way that his people may learn to swim to Heaven in a
doth incourage me to hope that the Printing and Reading of them will be so too You have them and the rest Printed as they were studied and penn'd but I cannot say as they were preached The Matter is the same I but they may want something of their heat and life unless a diligent reading of them be attended with the Spirit of Life As the Subjects are various so various motives and impressions upon my Spirit put me upon preaching of them at Stow. And in all I hope I was under a Divine Conduct For 1. When I perceived my Ministerial Labours and Employment were necessarily augmented and did exceed my first engagement and expectation my Flesh and my Heart began to fail So that I was ready to say with the Apostle Who is sufficient for these things and therefore could not fix upon a Text in all the Book of God more suitable then Psal 73.26 both to my self and also to others who at that time had their failings of Flesh and Heart also 2. When I had experienced the power and presence of God with me so that the Hearts of many both in the Town and Countrey seemed to be knit to me upon a Spiritual account I was then throughly convinced that it was the Wheel within the Wheel that brought me hither and therefore made choice of Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels or the Mystery of Divine Providence as a fit Subject to treat of in this place And afterwards contracted the chief of the matter contained in many Sermons into a narrower compass and preached it in a more eminent place I am not altogether insensible that this precious Liquor broached and drawn forth in studying and preaching hath passed through an impure Pipe This Heavenly Treasure hath been put into an Earthen Vessel and therefore may have received some hurt and detriment yea have a taste thereof But I hope that the sense of your own imperfections and failures in spiritual undertakings for we are all as an unclean thing and our Righteousness as filthy rags will be an effectual enducement to you to plead with God on my behalf that what is mine therein may be pardoned and on your own behalf that what is his he will so own as to make it powerful upon your Spirits whilst you are reading and meditating thereon in order to your present and eternal advantage I bless the Lord for any fruits of my Labours in preaching among you and if the Lord shall please to lengthen out my Life to see an increase thereof by Printing I shall say with David I will praise him yet more and more Yea then I shall have gained my end in this New Work and say with the Apostle in reference to both What is my crown and glory are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus However Gods glory your spiritual advantage and publick service to the Church being the marks I aim at in this Undertaking If I spend my strength for nought and in vain at present yet surely my Judgement is with the Lord and my Work with my God and when I am rotting in my grave the Seed which hath been sowing in Stow many years may spring up and bring forth a plentiful and glorious harvest The Lord grant that none of you do make it evident at the last that you are either of the number of high-way hearers thorny-ground or stony-ground hearers But that you all may be good-ground fit and prepared to receive the Seed that God hath yet to sow among you by the hands of his seeds-men so that though they sow in tears yet at last they may reap in joy As for my self I shall not cease to pray yea to beg the prayers of others that the Gospel may still run and be glorified among you that this Son of Light Glory and Grace may never set upon you in a cloud and that your glorious day of Gods visitation in mercy may not wind up in a dark and dreadful night of darkness and desolation I can do no less at present then put you in mind of and publish the kindness of God to you and to my self in you for that distinguishing mercy of God that is written upon Sâ—ow in a very fair and legible Character even to the admiration of many that live near us yea to strangers also whose occasions have invited and drawn them hither insomuch that some very judicious persons have expressed their Hearts to me in these and such like words That there is scarce a Town to be found in many miles distance so eminently blessed and that in many respects What they have said upon Report I shall now publish upon my own observation and experience and that in some particulars 1. That there is so much Brotherly love and union of Heart among you in order to Spiritual and Evangelical ends although some difference in Judgement as to some Circumstances 2. That in the space of almost eleven years there hath not been one that professed Godliness in the Town that hath separated from the publick preaching of the Word 3. That when the Arrows of the Pestilence flew thick round about us God preserved us 4. That under your Peace and Liberty you have wonderfully thriven and prospered in your worldly Estate so that there is a new face upon the Town 5. That God hath given you a more then ordinary Spirit of Zeal for his Glory and of Charity towards the Souls of young ones in the Town Witness the Agreement and Subscription of many of you for the Education of poor Children and a strict observation of the Lords Day 6. I must not forget your Kindness to my self And that 1. In your Unanimity of Spirit to receive entertain and encourage me at my first coming among you 2. In your frequent Visits and Night-watchings with me in my Sicknesses and sore Afflictions 3. But especially in your daily remembrance of me at the Throne of Grace and constant attendance upon the Word preached in publick I have often said it that my Life hath been given in to the Prayers of my people And let the Reader know that I account it no small favour and smile from Heaven that I live among a praying people Though all of them be not yet many are Now Gentlemen and Neighbours for all these Favours I return you my hearty thanks and as a Testimonial thereof I must tell the World that I bless the Lord for his providence in my Removal hither and in continuing me thus long among you and do not repent me of the hard Labour Afflictions Trials and Temptations which I have endured here The Lord grant that our mutual Love may not only continue but increase and that our winding up may be better then our beginning For then shall we triumph in glory and sing Halelujahs together for ever and ever For this end he shall not cease to pray for you who is Your Servant in the work of the Gospel Samuel Blackerby Stow-Market Decemb 2. 1673.
Psal 119.57 142.5 Jer. 10.16 the same with Jer. 51.19 word for word and Lam. 3.24 Secondly For explanation I shall both give you the sense of the word and also shew you in what respect God is a portion In the Hebrew word there is a Metaphor taken from the old custom of dividing inheritances in which every heir had his part given him by lot and that was called his portion so Josh 18.5.6 In like manner God is Israels portion A division is made of heaven and earth of God and the creature the men of the world have their portion in the world Psal 17.14 and the Israel of God have God for their portion Now a portion notes out a mans All All he hath to live upon for sustenance content and satisfaction But God is the godly man's All. Deus est unde vivant Aug in Psa 119.57 He lives upon God God is his sustentation content and satisfaction Though God sometimes is pleased to give much of the earth to a godly man as he did to Abraham Lot c. yet that is not their portion not their All. And therefore saith the Psalmist Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 viz. as my portion And so when God takes away all a Christians earthly substance he takes not away his portion Job lost all his earthly goods and yet Job lost not his portion God was his All still When God gives riches in abundance to a godly man 't is but God in those riches God in lands Dat deus portionem in terra viventium sed non aliquid a se extra se Aug. in Psal 14.2.5 God in money God in All and therefore these may be all taken from him and yet he keep his portion still In like manner if a godly man have never so much of the world he is not satisfied therewith unless God be his too When Luther had many gifts sent him by good friends he turn'd himself to God and said That God should not put him off with these things As an heir though he have money cloathes and victuals yet still looks after the inheritance 't is so with a good man Secondly In what respect may God be said to be a portion Ans A portion hath three properties in it and all attributable unto God First a portion is a good Matt. 7.11 and hence a mans estate is called bona because it consists of several good things Thus God is a portion for he is good Psal 100.5 Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good Nay God is the chief and highest good not only good but goodness it self All good in created beings is a participation of Divine Goodness For there is but one efficient exemplary and final goodness that from whence good comes according to which all good things are made and to which all things tend The goodness of God is not only the Original copy and first Idea according to which God drew all things but the highest good whereunto all things do tend as their ultimate end So Rom. 11 ult For of him and through him and for him are all things Secondly A portion is a suitable good Men do not give Stones and Scorpions Poison or Prisons to their Children as a portion Matt. 7.11 Thus God is a portion For he is a sutable good Nothing so sutable to the state of man and the nature of the soul as God is Name what you will riches honours pleasures in the world are not these are heterogeneal things The soul of man is spiritual and subline Such a good is God and whatever the soul pants after it is enjoyable in him Hence God is resembled and set out by such things as man stands most in need of and are the most delightful to the heart of man 1. God sets forth himself by the element of water so Esay 33.21 Now water is a refreshing creature to the spirit of a thirsty man Esay 32.2 2. God is also life Psal 36.9 now what is more suitable or convenient unto a dead man then life a dead man can't have true content and satisfaction nothing can sustein and keep a dead corpse from putrifaction and corruption but life All beings sink and perish without life They are comfortless and miserable without life I but that soul that enjoys God hath life his presence quickens a dead soul to the life of God the life of holiness and the life of happiness So that he that enjoys God is eternally sustein'd and can never die So John 6.50 to 57.3 God is also set forth under the notion of light Psal 27.1 a thing most comfortable and pleasant and exceeding suitable to the state of man Darkness shuts up a man in misery but light brings him forth Man is brought into the world in a state of darkness and never seeth the light of life until he comes to God Psal 36.9 In thy light shall we see light In a word God is that which the soul stands in need of to render it happy and glorious Whatever the soul wants it must have from God It is he alone that gives grace and glory and when he hath given both himself must be all in all or else the soul can't have content given what you will to a thirsty heart and yet it is not content unless you give him that which is convenient for thirst 'T is not gold nor silver that will satisfie him No he must have drink 't is so in all other cases In like manner a soul that hungers and thirsts after God cannot be satisfied without the enjoyment of him Thirdly A portion is an adaequate and proportionable good Every legacy is not a portion A portion as was hinted before is a mans livelyhood his All. Now a mans All must be proportioned to a mans necessity it must be enough to live upon Thus God is the Saints portion he is enough the soul needs no more then God to live upon God may well be the Saints All for he is All-sufficient Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God or God All-sufficient God is pars abundantissima sufficientissima The soul that enjoys God may truly say as Esau to his brother Jacob when he offered him a large present Gen. 33.9 I have enough Brother or as the prodigal said of his Father there is bread enough and to spare Luk. 15.17 there is not only enough but much to spare in God The soul is of a vast capacity all the world can't give it enough I but God can and yet when it is satisfied he hath never the less still The heart of man is ever craving and begging until it be filled with all the fulnes of God and then it is quiet That man that takes up his rest and saith within himself I have enough I need not ask any more I may leave off praying and seeking is either very ignorant of the dimensions and fulness of God or else is very proud and self-conceited For let a man
draw never so much yet the well is deep and there is as much as ever was O the bottomless goodness of God! O the inexhaustible fountain of Divine perfection No heart is able to fathom or contain it Demonstration Q But how comes God to be the Saints portion First it flows from Gods free donation God hath given himself to his Saints That is properly a mans portion that his father gives him Now because God can give no greater good then himself therefore he gives himself to his Saints God is their Father and they must have a portion from him and God cannot think any thing below himself a portion for them He can give the world to his enemies I but he gives himself to his children Hence it is said that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psal 4.3 and the Lord hath chosen Jacob for himself Psal 135.4 even as a man takes a child and adopts him makes him his own and then gives him a portion so doth God 1 John 3.1 and Rom. 8.17 Now what is the inheritance but God himself Nothing below God is the inheritance of Christ who is the Son and nothing less then God is the inheritance of Saints who are Gods younger children but this is not by humane purchase but by Divine gift For alass all the gold silver in the world is not to be weighed against God as a sufficient price All the nations of the earth are but as a drop in the bucket and as the dust in the ballance Nay as nothing and counted to him less then nothing No this is an inheritance not to be bought by any finite price Nay whatever thou valuest the most yet comes infinitely short of a sufficient price Wert thou more righteous then the Angels or Adam in innocency yet all thy good works would not bring thee in a ray of Divine glory by way of merit Why else had not the Apostate Angels and Adam in innocency the presence of God for their sustentation to keep them from falling but to evidence this truth that mans righteousness cannot purchase the enjoyment of God 2. This flows from a Saints self-denying resignation A true Saint denyes himself in all but God and to him he resigns up himself Self-denial outs a man of all earthly goods in point of affection and affiance and carries him to God alone for sustenance content and comfort So Psal 73.25 A true Christian dare not own any thing as his All but God He hath a true right to all that he enjoys as to use but he doth not account it as his portion No he resigns himself to God as his life and All So David Psal 27.1 God is my life i. e. I live upon God and have all in him I betake my self wholly to him and to him only So Psal 62.1 the word rendred truly signifies only i. e. I betake my self to God alone I go no whither else and the truth is none but a true Christian knows the emptiness of the creature and the fulness of God and therefore he alone lets all go for God Those things which are the wordlings gain a Saint accounts loss for God now when a man hath thus outed himself of All for God he would have nothing at all to live upon if he did not fix on God as S. Paul said 1 Cor. 15.19 If our hopes were in this life we were of all men the most miserable What to loose earth and heaven together To deny a mans self in all worldly advantages and not to have a God to lay hold on This is most sad No therefore the Christian is so wise as to make an happy exchange to forsake all for God and having forsaken all for God God takes him to himself Hence is that gratious promise Hos 14.3 The fatherless shall find mercy God is the portion of none but spiritual Orphans he becomes guardian to none other Mercy in God supposes misery in the creature Now when the soul becomes the most wretched and miserable in its own sense then it is an object of mercy Matth. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for their is the kingdom of God 3. God is a Saints portion by way of fruition he enjoys God truly here and fully hereafter God is not only round about his people as their wall of protection but he is in their hearts as their life and well-head of eternal comfort and satisfaction 1 John 3.24 He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him There is a mutual inhabitation they dwell each in other and so enjoy one another So vast is the soul of man that nothing but God can fill it and therefore God dwells in a Saint so immense and incomprehensible are the dimensions of God that nothing is able to hold them and therefore a Saint must enter into and dwell in God Hence is that prayer of the Apostle for the Ephesians Chap. 3.19 that they might be filled with all the fulness of Christ So that of our Saviour Matt. 25.21 The more an earthly portion dwells and lodgeth in the heart the more it sinks and destroyes the man but this is our life and salvation our glory and our heaven to be full of God Gods indwelling in the soul is its resurrection and exaltation Esay 57.15 16. Now for the right understanding hereof you must know that this indwelling of God in the soul is not essentially as the God-head dwelt in the humane nature of Christ and made up one person but mystical and spiritual 1. By lively impression 2. By gratious influx First God dwells in the heart by lively impression God stamps his own image upon the heart and so lives in it as the father lives in his child a soul conform'd to God is a soul full of God Then is the soul taken up into the life and light of God when it is made like to God holy as he is holy Then God lives in the heart when a spirit of holiness is planted in the heart and when the lines of his glory are drawn upon it so saith the Apostle 1 John 4.12 16. God is love The love of God is his image he that loveth truly and sincerely he dwelleth in God and God in him There are some that dream of an immediate vision of God they see him in his Essence but saith John No man hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and we in him i. e. If the image of Divine glory be enstampt uppon our hearts and appears in its lively acts of grace and goodness love and sweetness then have we true and close communion and fellowship with the Father So 1 John 1.7 If we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another This is to see God know him and enjoy him for the soul to be made like to him transformation of the soul into Divine similitude gives it the fullest enjoyment
good man in a consumptive condition to consume waste and destroy that body of death that he carries about him Bodily weakness and sickness sanctified is purgative that as the body wasts and consumes so sin wasts and consumes for God will not suffer sin to outlive a Saint sin shall not enter into heaven with a Saint for that would marr his joy there as well as here And therefore God first purges that out before the soul can enter in corruption cannot inherit incorruption though God doth crown the grace of a Saint with glory yet he will not crown the sin and corruption of a Saint with glory Heaven is an holy and glorious place and will not hold any but holy and pure ones 't is the pure in heart that shall see God Heaven is a place for none but triumphants for such as have fought the good fight of faith and won the field and conquered Sin Satan and the World and put them to flight I but here a Christian is militant and must encounter these three potent Adversaries let him but worst these and then he will not fear Death though it be the King of terrors and rereserved for the last In this now the power of grace is clearly seen for that directs the Arrow that Death shoots at the outward man that it shall strike through the very heart of Sin Satan and the World that these shall be dead to him as well as he dead to them No sooner doth a good man feel a wound in his body but if sanctified if grace flows in sin is wounded also that lies a bleeding in him This is that which makes the children of God to rejoice in bodily weakness and insirmities because when sanctified through grace it is a means to weaken the power of sin in them For a true Christian bears an unfeigned and implacable hatred against Sin and therefore like to Sampson can be content that the house may be plucked upon his own head that his enemy Sin may die with him It is with the body spiritual as in the body natural there are some Diseases that must be starved out so long as the body is pampered the disease is nourished it must be brought very low or there will be no cure 'T is so with the body spiritual there are some sins in good men that must be starv'd out So long as there is strength in the outward man they will be stirring and active God therefore is pleased to bring the Body low that the Soul may get mastery and power over them Or like to some Rebels in a Castle that will never yield as long as any Provision is left 'T is so with Sin it will not yield as long as corrupted Nature yields any Provision to it And hence it is that sickly and weakly Christians are the most mortified Christians 4. When a good man is in a consumptive condition and begins to put one foot in the grave it pleaseth God to give in such clear evidence of his love to him and so full an assurance of his interest in eternal life that he even longs for a dissolution He was a child of Grace and an Heir before but now God makes him an Heir apparent Now so clear a light shines into his Soul as doth manifest his adoption and Sonship so that he can cry Abba Father which he could not do before I deny not but a true child of God may die in a cloud and not fee the light of life untill it comes in Heaven I but it is not alwaies thus but sometimes God is pleased to reveal his well pleased face to the Soul at the last and not before that she can say He is come he is come Some Christians are like to Swans that never sing but a little before their death their comforts and joyes come in at the last The Holy Ghost is the Guardian of a Christians comforts and sometimes he deals with them as a Guardian doth with an Heir who is committed to his trust When the Heir is come to age and is to enter upon his Estate then the Guardian gives him in his Evidences to preserve and keep himself Even so sometimes when a Christian is to enter upon the Inheritance of Eternal Life the Holy Ghost throws him in Evidences for it that he may carry them along with him thither 'T is true 't is the duty of all Christians to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure but some are fain to wait a long time before they can attain to this comfort and then when they are leaving Earth they have a glimpse of Heaven When their earthly house of this tabernacle is crumbling down upon their heads then God shews them his Building An House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens and this is a gratious relief to a dying Christian for it is a beginning of Heaven to have a sight of Heaven it is comfort enough to have an assurance and evidence of these unspeakable joyes into which the Soul e're long shall enter The Soul may then say as he said when he lay upon his death-bed putting his hand to his heart Hic sat lucis Here is light enough This is that which makes sicknes and weakness so sweet to a Christian For though the Rod smarts yet he tastes Honey at the end of it that opens his eyes as it did the eyes of Jonathan to see the salvation of God It is a most soveraign antidote against the sting of death that it can't kill or destroy the Soul although it doth the Body No messenger is more welcome than this that comes to call him home 5. In all the weakness and consumptive condition of a good man God doth act the part of a tender-hearted Nurse to him and doth tend him even as a Nurse doth a bed-rid person who is committed to her care and is not this much Surely he shall be admirably well lookt to whom God tends Now that God doth thus is clear Ps 41.3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness The Hebrew signifies to turn and so Arias Montanus renders it As Bed-makers use to turn and toss the Bed to and fro that it it may be easie and soft to lie upon so doth God deal with a good man when he layes him upon the bed of languishing he mitigates and moderates the affliction that it may not be so painful and terrible to him as else it would be No Nurse can do that for a sick and weak person that God can and doth for a good man When a Nurse hath turn'd the Bed and made it as soft as she can that the sick man finds a little ease and refreshment yet the Bed will quickly grow hard again and the man as weary of it as before But when God comes to make the Bed in our sickness he moderates the pain and gives rest to the bones Many a time when those that
interest in God And therefore do not conclude against thy self for though thy hand of faith be grown so weak that it can't take fast hold on God yet Gods hand is strong and that will hold thee fast So saith the Prophet nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand vers 23. God held him fast when he was ready to drop from God He had lost the sense of his interest in God I but his interest in God was not lost God was his God though he did not know it And so God may be thine thou mayst have a sure interest in him although thou canst not find the prints of Gods feet in thy soul nor trace him in his ways of goodness towards thee And know this that it is better for thee to have an interest in God although thou knowest it not then to have strong presumptions and be deceived The want of sense and feeling of our interest in God is no sin though it be a great affliction Christ himself was without sense I he was so deep in it that when he was upon the cross he cried out Why hast thou forsaken me I but a groundless presumption is a sin and leads to eternal ruine None ever perished for want of faith of evidence but hundreds perish for want of faith of adherence Oh blessed is the man who believes and sees not that can say with Job Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Though my flesh fails and my heart fails yet I will believe that he is my strength and portion for ever Thus I have answered this case and so made way to application Vse 1. Hence we may infer the sad and woful condition of those who have no interest in God for they that have no interest in God can expect no relief from God in a time of necessity Wicked men have their failings their flesh fails them sometimes and their hearts fail them but no relief comes from God at those times Of all men they are most to be pityed for there is no help no relief for them If I be wicked saith Job woe unto me Job 10.15 i. e. If I be wicked I can expect no mercy no comfort from God Nay hear what God saith himself to such Esay 65.13 Therefore thus saith the Lord behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall bowl for vexation of spirit The meaning is God will not afford them any comfort or relief in times of distress When God invites his own servants to feast with him they must be shut out And if God helps not who can No without me ye shall bow down saith God Esay 10.3 The wounds of the wicked are desperate wounds there is no cure for them Mark that of Job for what portion is there from above and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity The latter verse is an answer to the former and the sense is this all the portion and inheritance that the wicked can have from God above is destruction and a strange punishment Job 20.2 3. God is the strength and portion of a godly man when his flesh and heart fails him but the wicked have no other portion from God then utter destruction a strange punishment So Job 20.27 28 29. The heavens shall reveal his iniquity and the earth shall rise up against him the increase of his house shall depart and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed to him by God Here is heaven and earth set against him the heavens shall reveal his sin and the earth shall punish him for his sin But is there no relief for him in God No This is the portion of a wicked man from God The case of such a man must needs be very black and dismal when heaven and earth and all the creatures therein are armed against him and mustred up by a Divine Hand Where can he have any relief then If God were for thee 't is no matter what sets it self against thee But if God be against thee 't is no matter what is for thee it will not help thee If misery and destruction be all the portion that God will allow thee there is nothing then can save thee If this be all thou hast to live upon to eternity thou wilt have a miserable living of it Vse 2. Hence all those that have interest in God may fetch comfort here is a well out of which all good men may draw the water of consolation with joy And what can afford greater comfort to you then this Doctrine doth that divine relief shall be administred unto you in time of your necessity when your flesh fails and your heart fails God will be the strength of your heart It is a great comfort to a Merchant-adventurer to have an assurance from the Ensuring Office that his Adventure at Sea shall be made good to him in case the Ship miscarries Even so it may be to a childe of God to have an assurance given him that if all fails him without and within he shall have relief from God Why this Text and Doctrine gives thee an assurance hereof and therefore as Job said hear it diligently and let it be your consolation You may take comfort in your greatest discomforts that you shall have comfort If there be enough in God to relieve and help you you shall not want relief Obj. But the doubting Christian may say I could take comfort in this truth had I not walked so unworthy of that former relief I have received from God I can truly say the Lord hath magnified the riches of his grace upon me but I have abused it and it may be just with him to cast me off for ever He hath helped me when I was in a low condition he hath strengthened me when I was in a weak state but I have not made suitable returns thereunto and therefore how can I expect relief Ans Now to such I have five things to say 1. The unsuitableness of a believer to and his unworthiness of relief cannot stop the current thereof As divine relief is not administred to us upon the account of our worthiness as if we did merit it so our unworthiness of it nor unsuitableness to it shall not prevent it Thy miscarriages may cause God to correct thee with failing of thy flesh and of thy heart but cannot cause God to cast thee off if thou hast an interest in him No that love that moves him to correct thee for thy good will also move him to relieve thee when thou art under the rod of correction
things though promised in the word can be effected because they are not able to conceive of the way nor know the means whereby they shall be effected Turn to 2 Kings 7.1 2. and there you shall find this fully exemplified For there 't is said that when Elisha told the people of Samaria that the famine should be turned into plenty An atheistical Lord answered That if God should make windows in Heaven might this thing be I but see how his Atheism and unbelief was reproved Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not taste thereof And most full is that of the Prophet Es 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see But they shall see and be ashamed And indeed oft times it falleth out thus that those providences that do not work to mens conviction and conversion do work to mens confusion at the last Fourthly and lastly Hence it is that the faith of believers bottom'd upon a divine word is honoured and confirmed 1. 'T is honoured for hereby faith is tried and holding out is commended That faith that can trust God upon a bare word of promise and rely upon unseen providences is an honourable faith And therefore is Abraham so much commended for his faith because he followed God in the dark at a word of command And against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according to that which was spoken so shall thy seed be Rom. 4.18 And indeed as true faith gives glory to God as you have it ver 20. so God gives glory unto faith So you may see 1 Pet. 1.7 That the trial of your faith which is more precious then Gold tried in the fire may be found unto praise honour and glory at the appearance of Christ 2. As 't is honoured so 't is confirmed Divine promises give faith its esse its being through divine influence and providential administrations gives its porro esse a further being He that believes in God unseen will trust him more upon experience of his fidelity in performing his word So Psal 9.10 They that know thy name will trust in thee A literal knowledge of God a knowledge by report and hear-say may cause faith to flutter I but a knowledge of God by experience will cause it to fly yea to towre aloft with strength Now that I may wind up the Doctrinal part of this divine proposition Give me leave to say that that which doth confute carnal reason disappoint carnal confidence reprove unbelief honour and confirm the faith of Gods elect must needs be a Soul-amazing glory Applicat 1. Infer Is it so that the providence of God is like a wheel within a wheel then this speaks dread and terror to the wicked for this one wheel within the wheel counterworks them in all their waies and workings the wheel within the wheel is above all wheels Take it in Scripture language in the thing wherein they deal proudly God is above them Exod. 18.11 The providence of God waits upon all the counsels devices and imaginations of Ungodly men to detect and frustrate yea to turn them upon their own heads to their eternal woe and grief So saith David Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Alas there is no man that plots any evil against God his ordinances appearances and truths but puts his feet into a snare out of which he is not able to extricate himself On some God lets their conscience loose to be their own tormentors with intolerable horrors and terrors and so he dealt with Cain Sometimes he arms the creatures against them even the least as well as the greatest That treacherous man Phillips who betrayed Mr. Tindal was devoured of Lice Sometimes God leaves them to themselves as the executioners of his divine vengeance Judas went forth and hang'd himself Nay sometimes the immediate hand of God falls upon them and ruines them When they cry peac peace to themselves then sudden destruction breaks forth upon them The wheel within the wheel turns their own counsels and plots upon their own heads 2. Infer Is it so then this doth administer abundant matter of unspeakable comfort to the godly 'T is a breast full of the milk of spiritual consolation whereat thou mayest suck and be abundantly satisfied So you may see Psal 16.8 9. I have set the Lord alwayes before me therefore my heart is glad A clear sight of God in Christ is a heart-rejoycing sight and so to behold God in his administrations as the wheel within the wheel that turns all things about to his own glory and our eternal good this is a taking and a comforting object The word of promise is a Christians daily food and the works of providence are his cordials and banquets wherewith God bears him up and keeps him from fainting Many a Soul would fall into a swoon if he were not stayed with these Apples and comforted with these Flaggons I shall say to you as Job to his friends Hear diligently and let this be your consolations Job 21.2 So I say observe consider and meditate upon the providences of God and let them be your consolation and that both in your doing and suffering the will of God whilst you live here Let this bear up animate and fortifie your Spirits against all fear and discouragements that you meet with in your Christian course When God calls you forth to perform hard difficult and discountenanced duties call to mind and remember those assistances which he hath provided in the Covenant of Grace and exhibited to his servants of old when he hath called them forth to such duties You know it was an hard and difficult work for Joshua to succeed Moses in the conduct of Israel into the Land of Canaan he was not only to meet with much opposition from the Inhabitants of Canaan but to conflict with the frowardness and perverseness of Israel Joshua could not expect better usage from them then Moses had had experience of Yet observe how providence did fortifie and encourage him Josh 1.7 first Verses And turn to Hebr. 13 5. You shall find the same laid in for all Christians for the future This may be our consolation that God will not leave us nor forsake us but be with us for our assistance as he was with Moses and with Joshua in their work How God did manage and assist his servants at all times in every work whereto he hath called them Scripture speaks fully and largely Read Ezek. 2.6 Ezekiel met with briars and thorns they were with him in his work and yet saith God to him be not afraid What difficulties and discouragements did the Apostles and servants of Christ meet with in their dispensing the Gospel all along the primitive times I but how mightily were they assisted and carried through all Read Act. 13.45 46. The more they were opposed the boldeâ— they were
John 1.13 born not of blood or as in the Original not of bloods nor of the will of man but of God Many men boast and brag much of their parentage and the family or house they came out of Such a Duke such a Lord such a great person was their Father or Grandfather and such a great person is their brother or their uncle or near allies But alas what is this to a mans being born from above to come out of the family of heaven to have God for thy Father and Christ for thy Brother and near ally the other is not to be named with this No were thy earthly parents beggars from door to door and thou born naturally upon a dunghil yet if thou hast God for thy Spiritual Father thou art more nobly descended then all the great ones in the world if they are not born from above as well as from beneath I tell thee thy relation speaks thee noble and honorable 2. Look upon him as to his education and breeding and see how he is disciplined and trained up and you must needs be taken therewith He is remarkable for that there are many that will boast of their breeding if not of their birth And indeed there is as much to be considered in that if not more then in the other And therefore Alexander the Great thought himself as much bound to his Tutor as to his Father because the one gave him his being but the other his well-being the one was the instrument of life and the other fitted him to live in the world Why Beloved a godly man hath not only the best birth but the best breeding for as he is born of God so he is taught of God Whoever is the usher or sub-tutor God is the Master-teacher So John 6.45 It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God And 1 Thes 4.9 Ye are taught of God to love one another Now if God undertakes the work it must needs be admirably well done those must needs be well taught that have God for their teacher for as he teacheth men the best things that can be taught and learnt so he teacheth them in the best way that can be used not only in the best method but also with the greatest efficacy and power he makes them such as he teacheth them to be and causeth them to do that which he teacheth them to do And in all enricheth and ennobleth the minds and spirits of his Disciples with such kind of learning and knowledge as is not to be found in the whole world he makes them all experimental Scholars in the great and profound mysteries of Heaven So that there is not one in all the world that can be a match for the meanest Scholar in his School No take a man that with Bereugarius is able almost to dispute de omni scibili or with Solomon to unravel Nature from the Cedar to the Hyssop yet a poor Soul in the lowest form in Gods School that is taught of him is able to baffle and to confound such an one if once they come to engage in the matters of Heaven 'T is very true Beloved Humane Learning ought not to be despised Humane Arts and Sciences are brave ornaments to the mind and are very useful in many respects I but not to be compared with divine and heavenly light and knowledge If Humane Learning be as the Ring Divine Learning is as the Pearl or Diamond in the Ring and far exceeds it in worth and excellency 3. Look upon him as to the complexion of his Soul and the air of his Countenance And indeed as a man may read much of the complexion of another mans Soul in the air of his Countenance so did Jacob in Laban's which put him to the flight So there is much glory and beauty in the Soul and Countenance of a godly man Solomon saith Wisdom makes the face to shine how much more doth it make the Soul to shine for that is the seat thereof Mark that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image Now if there be beauty and glory in the Original there must needs be beauty and glory in the Copy else the Copy will not be any wayes answerable to the Original And therefore saith Christ to his Church Cant. 2.14 Let me hear thy voice and see thy countenance for pleasant is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Yea he is so taken therewith that it puts him as it were into a rapture it ravisheth his Soul or takes away his Heart as the Hebrew signifies Cant. 4.9 And indeed a gracious Soul is a lovely and amiable Soul the greatest beauty in the world She stands not in need of a black patch to set her off or to commend her to others 4. Look upon a godly man as to his life and conversation and you must needs say that he is very remarkable for he is one that walks with God in the way of God even in that way that leads to the fullest fruition and enjoyment of God Nay he is one that lives the life that God lives in some measure for he lives a life of holiness and that is the life that God lives 'T is true he lives on the Earth but his conversation is in Heaven where his God and his Treasure is Yea 't is true he lives in Flesh but not after the Flesh for whilst he lives in Flesh he lives in the Spirit and walks in the Spirit and so turns the life of Nature into a life of Grace Now the more excellent the life of any being is the more remarkable and admirable is that being What is it that renders an Angel so admirable but because he lives an Angelical life And what is it that advanceth a man above a beast but because he lives a better life then a beast doth I speak now of men that live like men and not like bruits and so that advanceth a godly man above all other men because he lives a better life then others do The life of Reason is better then the life of Sense but the life of Grace and Religion is far better then the life of Reason Had I but time to set it forth in some particular instances this demonstration would carry a strong conviction with it into the hearts of any unbyassed hearers and cause them to confess that none upon the face of the earth live such honourable and noble lives as Saints do Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable Rule even the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable pattern Holiness of life is the power and virtue of Christ expressed to the life 't is the Divine nature manifested in Humane flesh 't is the Spirit of God breathing through corporal acts Holiness of life is the