or displeased We must dye said one of the Heathen so say I whether God be pleased or displeased with us to speak with reverence we must believe as the Cananitish Woman did when Christ called her Dog or else we sinck and perish Vse 4 Wherefore my last Use is to exhort you to seek this grace of faith that you may be able to believe God because of his own Word Job 4.41 And so to set your Seal to his Word and Works and by this be able to espy light in darkness which God is most ready to give Righteousness shall go before him and he shall set us in the way of his steps Psal 85. ult Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall look down from Heaven which words surely point at Christ and the Gospel by which God trains up sinners to believe in him to their Salvation in this World and in the World to come God preached Christ to Adam and taught him to take hold of him to his temporal and eternal Salvation Adam named his Wife Eva or Life And the promise is that we shall all i.e. Jew and Gentile be taught of God to this thing to glorifie the word of the Lord that is the essential word Christ and the written word the Scriptures God taught Noah to build the Ark concerning which one thing is most remarkable that the Door into the Ark was in the lowest story and so was under Water all the time of the Flood which surely was done on purpose to make and exercise faith purely in him which shut him in Seek faith in this height which my Text and Doctrin spake of 1 That you may be able in the greatest darkness to make light and sight The Jews in their daunces would say Blessed be thou O my Youth which hast not shamed my old Age and these were called Men of Performances Others would say Blessed be thou my old Age which hast gain-said my Youth and these were called Men of repentance Both would say Blessed is he that hath not sin'd and he that hath sinn'd and is pardoned Seek such a faith that thus you may see cause to bless God in every condition in Youth in Age in sickness in health when down and when risen again when you do not sin and when you do sin as being able to apprehend Christ and your pardon Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is pardoned blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin surely his Salvation is neer them that fear him that glâ—ry may dwell in our Land mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 58.9 10. What this kissing of Righteousness and Peace means you may see Vers 2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy People thou hast cover'd all their sin Selah The Psalmist by faith saw peace in Heaven towards the Lords People and that peace i e. All good should be on Earth to them also which keeps the heart in a ready chearful frame to serve God and to bless him in every state and therefore such a faith should be sought for Watch to preserve your faith who have this grace of graces How careful we are to preserve our eyes and much more to preserve our lives Faith is your best eyes by which you are able to look out of every hill into Heaven and faith is your best life by this we live spiritually and by this we have all the joy of our life that is worth any thing He that never saw the rejoyceing of drawing of Water never saw joy in all his life saith the Jewes so he that never saw the joy of faith which is called unspeakable and full of glory never saw joy in all his life and therefore you that have this faith and the great and unspeakable benefit of it preserve it all you can and make no shipwrack of faith and conscience and there you save all though you lose all beside Hence it is that David begs that God would draw out his loving kindness to them that knew him and his righteousness to the upright in heart with thee is the Fountain of Life and in thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 10. By which he means that God would more reveal Christ to him in his word and works for the better establishing of every grace and thus let us pâ—nt all our days that in his light we may see light and have our faith and integrity preserved for they live and dye together He that did bring the World by the Flood in oâ—ics first Chaos covered all with VVater he can and is ready to bring our faâ—len state by Christ the greatest piece of which is unbelief to some degree of restoration and bear up the Pillars thereof faith and every grace and all by his own hand And he that enabled Noah in Seven Days to furnish the Ark with all Creatures for a whole Year both for nourishment anâ— for sacr fice to weather it in all that dark time he can quickly inable us to store our Souls in this dark day with every grace to weather well this evil time and to stand compleat in all the will of God The Motives which may be used are these your own matters are or may be suddenly very dark most Mens sun claps in in this hour and every one either in point of estate or liberty or life begineth to walk in the Vally of the shadow of Death it would be well now in such times to have such a frame of spirit to keep up and to fear none ill to be able to say as David The Lord is my light and my Salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid though an Host encamp against me my heart shall not fear though War should rise against me in this will I be confident for in time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me and now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about Psal 27.1 2 3 Many Clouds are up and more still arising and some are already over-shadowing you Would it not be well if you were able indeed to say thus Though Waâ—s be though Famine though Pestilence though Imprisonment Banishment yet in all these will I be confident over these shall I be a Conqueror for in the times of these troubles the Lord will hide me and it may be now as dark and as dismal as things look shall my head be lifted up above all mine enemies round about God promised after the Flood was over that Day and Night should no more cease Gen. 8 22. which intimateth saith one upon that place that during the Forty Days Rain which made the Flood that the Day was as it were ceased and turned into Night by the great and thick Clouds and Tempests which were all over the World and Clouds and Darkness are usually
such as fear him on them that hope in his mercy Psal 33.18 The Pome-citron grows besides all waters and the tast of the wood is like the tast of the fruit saith the Naturalist But I cannot say so of faith of this faith that I am upon that it growes in every soul though almost every one will pretend to it This Flower growes in a Garden of Flowers in a state renewed in knowledge in repentance in wounds healed Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping Psal 6 8. One cleares his eyes to make this excellent eye-sight by contrite weeping There is a peculiar instruction from the Lord to learn this mystery of faith and of believing in all cases When Isaiah saw his own sin and the Peoples his heart sank Woe is me for I am undone saith the margent cut off then there flew one of the Seraphims to him having a live Coal in his hand which he had taken from the Altar and he laid it on my mouth and said this hath touched thy Lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged Isa 6.8 9. How helpful the Angels may be to others in such matters I cannot tell Consult Isa 8 18 and peruse the Dutch Notes upon these words Behold I and the Children which thou hast given me The true Emanuel Christ speaketh to the Prophet in these words and comforts him in his suffering by his own example and so all God's Children who are all lyable to like troubles So that we are to appâ—ehend that Christ is ready in strong tryals to gâ—ve us strong instruction and to comfort us with the same comforts wherewith he himself and God's Children in every Age have been comforted though this may be to some more and to some less as Christ pleaseth I saw by Night and behold a Man riding upon a red Horse and he stood among the Myrtles in the bottom Zech. 1 8. This phrase I saw by night signifieth saith Interpreters that they saw their restauration but it was but darkly and it was by the help of him that appeared among the Myrtles in the bottom which was Christ Finally By the wickedness of the wicked the People of God get up to this height of believing to look through all the dark Clouds of their condition Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thy heart dost thou go in to possess their Land but for the wickedness of these Nations doth the Lord thy God drive them out before thee and that he may perform the word which he sware to thy Father Abraham Isaac and Jacob 9.5 That which is the reason of God's doing a thing may be the reason of our faith and hope that it shall be done Now the very notorious wickedness of the wicked is the reason why he cuts them off and puts others in their place and therefore from the wickedness of the wicked may faith be strengthned and helped to see their overthrow and consequently the escape of the godly Hezekid saw his escape and the downfall of the enemy Senacherib by this very thing namely by their wickedness their great out rage and blasphemy and malice against God his People and worship at Jerusalem And they spake against the God of Jerusalem as against the Gods of the People of the Earth which were the work of the hands of Men. For this cause Hezekia the King and the Prophet Isaiah prayed and cryed to Heaven and the Lord sent an Angel and cut them off 2 Chro. 32.19.20 'T is good History to compare with this 1 Maccabes 7.41 Nicanor carryed himself against the Lord and his People as Senacherib and abused the Priests of the Lord and laughed at all their worship and threatned that if they did not deliver Judas Maccabeus into his hands and all his Host he would destroy the Temple and Priests and all the People And by his height of wickedness the poor Jewes saw his fall and went to God by prayer and urged the story of Senacherib to him saying O Lord when they that were sent from the King of Assyria blasphemed thine Angell went out and smote an hundred four score and five thousand of them even so destroy thou this Host this day that the rest may know that he hath spâ—ken blasphemously against thy Sanctuary and judge thou him according to his wickedness And as they prayed so God did destroy them all and they smote off Nicanor's Head and right hand and hanged them up towards Jerusalem So let all thine Enemies perish O God and so let all thy People learn to pray and to believe Amen FINIS BOOKS Sold by Dorman Newman at his Shop at the King's Arms and Bible in the Poultry Quarto THe Christian Man's calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business wherein the Christian is directed to perform in all religious duties natural actions particular vocations family directions and in his own recreations in all relations in all conditions in his dealings with all Men in the choice of his company both of evil and good in solitude on a week day from morning to night in visiting the sick and on a dying Bed By George Swinnock Mr. Caril's Exposition on the Book of Job Gospel Remission or a Treatise shewing that true blessedness consists in the pardon of sin By Jeremiah Burroughs An Exposition of the Song of Solomon By James Durham late Minister in Glasgow The real Christian or a Treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God in drawing the soul to Christ being opened according to the holy Scriptures some things required by our late Divines as necessary to a right preparation for Christ and a true closing with Christ which have caused and do still cause much trouble to some serious Christians and are with due respect to those worthy Men brought to the ballance of the Sanctuary there weighed and accordingly judged to whâ—ch is added a few words concerning Socinianism By Giles Firmin sometimes Minister at Shalford in Essex Mount Pisgah or a Prospect of Heaven being an Exposition on the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians By Tho Case sometimes Student in Christ Chuâ—ch Oxon and Minister of the Gospel The vertue and value of Baptism By Zach. Croftâ—n The Quakers spiritual Court proclaim'd being an exact narrative of a new high Court of Justice also sundry errors and corruptions amongst the Quakers which were never till now made known to the world By Nath. Smith who was conversant among them Fourteen Years A Discourse of Prodigious abstinence occasion'd by the 12. Months fasting of Martha Taylor the fam'd Darbyshire Damosel proveing that without any miracle the texture of humane bodies may be so altered that life may be long continued without the supplies of meat and drink By John Reynolds Octavo and Twelve Vindiciae Pietatis or a vindication of godliness râ—mâ—â—e imputation of folly and fancy with several directâ—ons for he attaining
Christ which hath an Arm like God Omnipotent By the which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 It is a very strong Prison and very filthy in which we are by nature and who can go into this Prison to preach there but Christ The Doors are all Iron and Iron-bars and Bolts upon them If any one could go into these Prisons and preach 't would have spoken the state the less deplorable but for as much as none can but Christ himself it speaks the Prison in which man is by nature very strong and terrible 'T is a great heap of filth and a very great Dung-hill indeed which all the Carts in the World imployed about at once could not carry away no none but an Infinite strength Then was a fiery Sword turning every way to keep out Adam from the Garden and from communion with God and from eating of the Tree of Life the Seal thereof and surely this misery of Man is great upon him and this fiery Sword terrible that none can sheath it and take it away and bring Man into Paradise again and communion with God but the Omnipotent Power of Christ If any could have taken away that brandished Sword or if an Angel from Heaven could have done it and have taken Adam by the hand and have brought him into the Garden of delights i.e. of communion with God the misery had not been so great They are great and fearful diseases which none in this World can cure no nor none in that World above though much more populous than this but one even Christ himself Let the Inhabitants of the Rock sing let them shout from the top of the Mountains Isa 42.11 This is spoken of them that lived in the Wilderness of Arabia among Stones and Rocks Ishmael's Posterity where nothing but wild Beasts and Devils haunt the Inhabitants were like the Country they dwelt in their Hearts Rocks and Mountains and Legions of Devils and cursed Spirits haunting them Now O how mighty must he be that drives a Wilderness How mighty must he be that bids or commands the Inhabitants of these hard Rocks to sing and melt with joy Secondly Learn that we are much obliged to Christ and God for laying the help of such desperate Diseases on one so mighty The Apostle John wept that there was none found worthy to open the Book nor to read it nor to look thereon and he wept much and when one was found out how the tone is changed They that wept much rejoyced much and sung a new Song saying Thou are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy Blood out of every Tongue and Kindred and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5.4.9 The opening not only of one Book but of all the Scriptures and the heart too much weeping there is among sinners about this and none is found worthy that is anointed and accepted of God to this service but Christ and he hath bought his skill dear with his own heart blood he was slain to get this art and ability Worthy art thou to receive Power c. for thou wast slain And being thus how much are we bound to this Physician for our eyes and for his eye-salve as to the light of the Scriptures and the way to any good which we have I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in Paths which they have not known I will make darkness light and crooked things straight this will I do and not forsake them And who this is by whom God will do this see Isa 42.6.16 compared namely Christ To lead a blind Body from place to place and to do so all Day long all the Year long yea all the Life long and never to be weary how wonderfully is Man obliged to Christ and to God that hath given him to such a work Who is not tier'd to lead a blind Body a Day Thirdly Learn that it is dangerous to reject Christ because he is the appointed and proper remedy of our fallen state There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but by the Name of Christ As there is but one Faith one Baptisme so there is but one Lord Ephes 3.5 There being no more Doors to go out from our filthy state we had need to take heed that we do not neglect it the shame of our nakedness will by such a course appear The marshy places will not be drained or healed Ezeh 47.11 i.e. we shall remain unhealed and die in our sinful state our sin will remain Ye are come to Mount Zion not to Mount Zina and to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel See then that ye refuse not Him that spake Moses was a Mediator of the old Covenant and could do little Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and can do all the Services of our fallen state and fulfill the great and precious promises of the New-Testament to us He that rejected that Mediator which spake on Earth died for it Heb. 12.25 How much more will they who reject this Mediator which now speaketh from Heaven to us If Christ be only he which blesseth us and turneth Jew and Gentile from their sins and God hath only raised him from the dead for this end to bring Salvation from afar and we reject all it cannot be taken well either by God the Father or by Christ his Son Vnto you first God having raised up his Son hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquity Act. 3.26 As if the Apostle had said God hath been at great cost and pains to part with his only Son to die and then to raise him from the dead and all for this end to bless you Jews and to turn you first and then the Gentiles from their sins and so to make them and you eternally happy If you shall reject all this love of God and love of his Son it will fall heavy he will conster it that you have no mind to be turned from your sins but to continue in them and so you shall for ever and die and perish in them He that is filthy shall be filthy still Vse 2 Try your selves Is Christ become actually yet a remedy to you Hath he delivered you from the body of this death Then as you have long groaned under the want of it so you are much taken with the mercy in any measure obtained with the freeness of it that the Waters which cleanse you should come to you through such a golden Pipe as the Blood and Wounds of Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle is much taken with this that the Pipes of his cleansing should be laid through the sides of Jesus Christ so costly a conveyance
have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart Psal 38.8 Secondly As God brings all afflictions for kind and quality on Men yea on good Men that is afflictions spiritual and temporal inward and outward on soul and body So he brings all afflictions for quantity and degree that is afflictions very great and of long continuance Were they not great and sore things done against Job Whilst he was yet speaking there came another and saith the Fire of God is fallen from Heaven i. e. A great Fire and hath burnt up the Sheep and the Servants and I only am escaped to tell thee Poor Job now indeed that Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven should be rained upon him as upon Sidom that so he might judg himself to deserve no better than the wicked Sodomites did What a degree of high Trial and what a great Twig in the Rod was this Yea God saith of the Devil that he moved him against Job without cause to swallow him up Job 2.3 that is saith the Margent when the Devil had nought against him nor able to bring his own malicious designs to pass against him yet read Satans Second Commission So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his Foot to the crown of his Head and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withall and sate down amongst the ashes and then his friends poured Gall and Vinegar into his Cup which altogether made his afflictions of the greatest magnitude indeed the greatest I think that ever meer Man had David tells us of the Lyon and the young Lyon upon him Psal 17.12 and of such as did set their mouths against the Heavens and bark and bite all good Persons and things and therefore the Lord's People returned hither that is when they could get no shelter from the wicked and Waters of a full Cup were wrung out to them Psal 73.10 And full Cups of misery speak the greatest punishments for degree and quantity Secondly God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men as great and sharp so of long continuance It hath been a sharp Winter this and of long continuance so doth God make in other matters some times Some Rivers * As Nilus that ancient River had their beginning with the World and so it may be will have their end not till the World ends And some afflictions have their beginning as soon as we and will have no end till we have yea some Rods extraordinary begin with some good People as soon almost as they begin to be and end not till they end their lives It is God's threat that if all his Laws be not observed and his glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God be feared and reverenced And who can call God his God but God's Children that then he will inflict upon his People great Plagues and of long continuance and such he did inflict and such he hath said in the new Testament also will fall out great troubles and of long continuance so long as if he heard no Prayers that every ones faith and patience shall faint and fail When the Son of Man shall come shall he finde saith upon the Earth Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove that is always so the next words expound it Mine eyes fail with looking upward GOD gave no answer that his faith was quite spent O Lord I am oppressed and bear all the burden alone Vndertake for me lend me a hand What shall I say he hath spoken unto me and himself hath done it and therefore it will never be undone I shall go softly all my Years in the bitterness of my soul Isa 38.14 15. That God inflicts punishments great punishments and of long continuance upon good People read 1 Kings 22.27 And the King of Israel said put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace His warrant you see had a long date Thus God sometime let loose wicked Men upon the best of his to fasten their teeth and scarce ever let go their hold till they have pluckt out their throats to lay them fast in all extremities like Joseph and there let them lie long till even their skin and bones rot And as God lets Men deal thus with their body so he lets the Devil sometimes deal thus with their Soul worry them and worrry them long even all their days 'T is but GOD's Commission given to the Devil and he will do it as 't is God's Commission given to wicked Men to torment and then they do it and without his Commission a Dog could not bark or shew his teeth against any child of God The Plowers plowed upon my back and they made long their Furrows Psal 129.3 And woe is me that I remain in Meshech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar my soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace Psal 120.5 6. God excommunicated Nebuchadnezar Seven Years and made him a Companion for Beasts and so sometimes he excommunicates his own People and makes them companions as David in Arabia with Black mores with Devils those black Fiends of the lowest Hell and so long The Reasons of this Point are these First That God may shew his Soveraignty I will not say hâ—s Justice We have all sin'd even the best Men and therefore God may bring all afflictions and miseries upon the best But I rather choose to say that God may shew what an absolute Lord of all He is and can set up what Man he will to be his mark to shoot at and then take him down and set up another Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head saith David Psal 40.12 Usually less than this number are our afflictions when most and therfore where God shews soveraignty he also sheweth justice Israel would none of me Psal 81.11 Therefore where God pronounced to Ammi I will have none of this People he was just as well as absolute and peremptory in his will Sometimes God smites a sinner as Joab smote Amasia under the fist Rib so as that he smites him not again maketh an utter end at a blow and no cause visible no more than in other of the Sons and Daughters of Men and of his People This properly we call soveraignty Thus may be smite any one for we have not any one of us all the priviledge of Antwarp who have two marts lasting six weeks apiece during which time no Man in his Person or Goods can be arrested No man hath such priviledge for a day in order to God he can arrest Person Goods and Life when he pleaseth and yet in all so that none can charge him with injustice Secondly Doth thus bring all afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men to try integrity The Sea pulleth up from its bottom all excrements as
matter Thus we are by nature of no more reason than a wilde Ass and yet as unturnable as that Creature The old Man is proud and wilful yea presumptuous yea of enmity and despight if resisted as Lions and Dragons are spitting their some and poison as Cats in the face of all that contradict 'T is said of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he became head-long Act. 1.18 He was so in his life for he would on in his work of betraying Christ though convinced by Christ's own preaching and told to his Face that he should betray him And so are the ways of corrupt nature carried head-long He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the froward are carried head-long Joh. 5.13 And all this continually as the Blackamore that cannot change his skin No place better sets out the bad property of natural corruption then that Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil and only evil and that continually For such a visible as well as audible Sermon as Noah preached of 120 Years long would surely have turned them from their sins had they not been desperately obstinate and so continually of which God was sensible and complain'd and was grieved at his heart that he made man And shall God so much lay to heart the depraved state of a man and man himself not lay it to heart at all Fourthly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the consequence of it It is a body of death a body of this death that is it disposeth us to all the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come And therefore doth the Apostle cry out here in my Text as one utterly loft O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. And they likewise who were prickt at heart by the Apostle Peter's preaching with the sense of their sinful state Cryed out Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Which are Scriptures of purpose to shew that we should be deeply sensible of the evil consequence of corrupt nature as it will destroy Soul and Body Judas is called a Childe of Perdition and so are we called Children of wrath by nature that is such as are not under mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pitied as the expression is rightly rendered in the Queens translation 1 Pet. 2.10 Now how are Malefactors affected with the consequence of their evil way when they are going to the Gallows especially when they have no hope of mercy when they be not under talk of mercy and pardon Now our natural state is death without all mercy that is the sentence pronounced upon it if the state so abide a carnal state it is death without all mercy and every carnal man should speak of himself as the Apostle Peter doth as one not under mercy or as one that hath not yet obtained mercy but lies lyable as a Prisoner condemned every hour to Execution I take it that their attonement day spokeâ— of Levit. 23.27 Wherein they were to afflict their Souls upon pain of death had principal reference to their state of sin by nature that body of sin which they brought into the World with them which exposed them and us all unto death and all misery in this World and that to come and if it be so then you have the Point in hand proved and the reason of it why we should be deeply sensible of corrupt nature as well as of all that flowes from it because God commands it and commands it upon great penalty We die for it else unless we afflict our Souls under the sense of our fallen state and Gods displeasure belonging thereunto that Soul which doth not so well die for it their afflicting day was a day to go to the Root and to cast salt and brine upon the springs of wickedness which if they did not the wrath of God seized on their Roots Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade Men saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.11 We perswade Men. To what Answ To look well about them that they be not found in their carnal state when Christ cometh to Judgment So that the deepest sense of this thing should be upon us that can possibly be as if we were now going before the Judgment of quick and dead and all in our sins or as if we were going to the Wedding of a great Prince and had not one rag on our backs to cover our nakedness Vse I Learn from hence that if we should be sensible of natural corruption then of all actual transgressions which are but as streams from this Fountain If we should mourn over the evil Womb then over all the evils which this VVomb brings forth And yet what twins and what tens and what great man-sins and provocations doth this evil VVomb bring forth every where at this day and yet who lays to heart either Mother or Children I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done every one turns to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Jer. 8.6 Vse 2 Woe and alas how much are the most liberal reproved who are past feeling as to both natural corruption and all actual transgressions yea even the fowlest and greatest Giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all iniquity with greediness and drink in all abominations as the Fish doth Water So far from sense of all sin either in the heart or in the life that all such frame of spirit is scoffed at If a man do but cast the least discountenance on the greatest sin What you are a Phanatick and ready as Swine to turn and tear and rent such as cast such Pearls before them as wholesome and seasonable reproofs and are as the wilde Ass that snuffeth up the wind and in the heat of her lust cannot be turned away Febris accedit the mad Feavour will and must have its course though Heaven or Hell bear upon breaking off or going on They say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant To talk of a body of death Lord what strange language would this be now adays and if a Man should chance to sigh as the Apostle O wretcheà man that I am What will become of me that Hellish cordial I doubt would be readily administred God dam-me thou wilt do well enough Never was it such a God-daring time for wickedness If it be such a God-damning time as persons pâ—ay Hell will be full of Souls indâ—ed for many Ages surely as this Men have made their hearts as an Adamant that they may not repent and seared their Consciences with a hot Iron that they may be sin-proof and not fall before the greatest wickedness nor the greatest judgment of God That capital curse I fear is inflicted
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
no other way to do it so doth God imbitter our conditions in this World that so all the sweets which we have here we may use them as if we did not and possess them and they not possess us and our hearts David had many bitten upon his condition before he could say I have behaved my self as a weaned Child When the World was first crucified to Paul then at length he became crucified to the World when God whips us in this and whips us in that takes away this and takes away that then by degrees he takes away our hearts too and sets them upon better things but usually good things first die from us before we become so good as to die from them There is no labourer in Egypt that lifts up his eyes to Heaven they are almost angry with the Sun it doth so scorch them Few labourers in and after this World do lift up their eyes to Heaven much whilst the Sun-shine of prosperity is hot upon them but rather angry and vexed and cumbred with one thing or other that the World doth not tumble in fast enough Few in health and wealth are heavenly In those days was Hezekia sick unto death Isa 38.1 In those days When was that see the Chapter foregoing Assoon as he had obtain'd that great deliverance from the Assyrian by Prayer and all quiet now least he should grow as David when his War was ended sensual and wanton God smites him with the Plague and bids him set his house in order for he must die David being hunted up and down as a Partridge and poured from Vessel to Vessel what a Heavenly Man is he and when this is over what a carnal Man is he I am tossed to and fro as the Locust mark what follows My Knees are weak through fasting Psal 109.23 When we are tossed much then we fast and pray and go to Heaven much upon our Knees We read in History of an Emperor strangled putting on his Royal Robes nothing more choak the seeds of Grace and Heavenly life than the prosperity of this World and therefore usually one way or other God kills all things here to kill us throughly to all here The Apostle bids us endure hardness as good Souldiers In hard states and conditions grace best thrives and the most noble things and souls to be found Vse 1 Learn from hence what a great God we have to do with who can flat our conditions with all miseries in a moment as the Sea sometimes makes breaches upon the Land and swallows up Towns and Cities no more to be recovered I will have mercy upon the House of Juda and save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by Horse nor by Horse man Hos 5.7 As God saves without bow or sword so he can destroy without bow or sword even with his own hand from Heaven many ways Of which I will say as one doth of Mary's being with child by the Holy Ghost Mirari licet rimari non licet Such dealings of God may be wondred at but curiously search'd into they may not It may be said of God and the Engins he useth against Men as Hushai saith of David and his followers Thou knowest that David and thy Father be mighty Men and they be chaffed in their minds as a Beat robbed of her Whelps in the Field 2 Sam. 17.8 God sometimes when he sets upon the Sons of Men is as fierce Creatures chased and chafed and robbed of their young very fierce and so are all the Engins which he useth How fierce was Shimei against David and threw Stones and cursed him God hath set him on saith David We are made a spectacle or Theater saith the Margent to Angels and to Men and I think God hath sent us forth last for this sad service as appointed to death and slaughter in all that is dear 1 Cor. 4.9 It may be God hath appointed the best of Men in these last Days to the worst of deaths and calamities to close up a long and evil Day and that the Pit should as it were shut its mouth upon the Christians of these last times as the Whale upon Jonah Which should make us tremble and stand in awe daily to consider what a great and holy God we have to do with Secondly Learn what need we have of grace who are lyable to such floods of Evils yea of much grace Noah moved with fear being warned of God prepared an Ark and went into it and where else could he have lived in those great storms and floods which came upon the World Surely Gods storms and waves will beat much in these last Days If all of them may come over any Man then all of us need an Ark and to hast unto it that we be in a state of favour with God by Jesus Christ All our estates may fail us a Fire of God from Heaven may consume them All our Friends may fail us yea all our hearts may fail us Mens hearts failing them for fear What then will be a Cordial to keep us but the favour of God and a state of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ be with our Spirits Nine several times in the Ten first Verses of Pauls first Epistle to the Corinthians is Jesus Christ named saith one that hath well observed to note who it is that is all in all in storms for a Saviour yea indeed in all conditions It is Jesus as the same Observator saith that is made Mel in ore Bernard melos in aure Jubilum in Corde Jesus Christ in all conflicts is hony in the mouth Something like that terrible Monarchy of the Greeks 〈◊〉 bâ—fore Christ's coming in the Flesh will be before his coming again harmony in our ear a Jubile or great joy in our hearts when all the waves and billows of afflictions beat upon us yea when these Waters come into our Souls when Prophesie and prosperity failed the state of the Jews they had nothing to live upon but that promise that the desire of all Nations should come The Echo and the Pool of Bethesda under the great Tirannies of Antiochus and the Greek Monarchy these were the stays of their hearts that Christ would come and so by faith did bear up and he did come Floods may yea red Seas may break out and we may flote in our own blood therefore an Ark is very needful and that we be in it well in it by faith nothing but Christ can be a Jesus a Saviour to us all other things will but rather hasten and heighten the Floods upon us as the more riches and honour and the things of this World we have the more shall we be a fit prey for evil times and Persons What got the Caesars by their high advances Nisi ut citius interficerentur Grace therefore is necessary and speedily necessary The Flood which swallowed up the first World is called a Dart. Methusalah the
quiet place above where he is at the right hand of his Father and we are great gainers by all our losses and troubles if they produce a Heavenly spirit Servus perâ—se non est persona sed res possessio Domini sui saith the Civilian A Servant that is under all considerations servant ceaseth to be a Person in a sort and is a Mans goods and the possession of his Master We are under all considerations the servants of God and therefore we should be as his House and as his good and possession our Souls should be swalloâ—â—d up in Him and in Heaven we should not be our own in any thing but his altogether and attending still upon Him with all our thoughts words and actions as Servants which are not their own Let us make a vertue of necessity Where can we be quiet in this world or how long and therefore let us be much in Heaven with Christ which is best of all FINIS GOD'S Troops Invading MAN Being A SERMON ON Psal 42.7 8. 7. Deep calleth upon deep at the noise of thy Water spouts all thy Waves and thy Billows are gone over me 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the Day time and in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my Life Psal 42.7 8. Deep calleth upon deep at the noise of thy Water spouts all thy Waves and thy Billowes are gone over me Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the Day time and in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my Life I Have been already on these words and have given their sense and have made one Observation upon them and pursued it to an end Another Observation I purpose to make at this time which is that I especially aim at which is this That Faith looketh thorough the darkest and most dismal and difficult things All troubles saith this Prophet do as the Sea swallow me up and yet the Lord maketh an escape for me I shall have opportunity to praise him and pray to him as the God of my life That is he who hath saved my life the life of my Soul and Body David was as much disappointed from Men of all help as exercised by God with straits and difficulties Surely Men of lowe degree are Vanity and Men of high degree are a lie Psal 62 9. And yet observe how he speaks viz. How long will you imagine mischief against a Man You shall be slain all of you as a tottering fence and as a bowing wall shall ye be When he was left in the lurch by every one high and low yet he saw by faith the downfall of all his enemies yea he saw that it was neer and that as a swell'd rotten wall they would soon throw down themselves though none should touch them nor thrust them Before your Pots can feel the thorns he shall take them away as with a Whirl-wind both living and in his wrath the righteous shall joy when he seeth the vengeance he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth Psal 58.10 What a great fear the whole Host was in when Goliah came forth daily and insulted and blasphemed and yet then David by faith saw over him yea saw his speedy down-fall Then said David thou comest to me with a Sword and with a Shield but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the Armies of Israel whom thou hast defied this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I will smite thee and take thine Head from thee and will give the Carcases of the Hosts of the Philistins this day to the Fowls of the Air and to the wild Beasts of the Earth that ye may know that there is a God in Israel 1 Sam. 17.45 Moses saw all the fin and misery that Israel would plunge themselves into after his death how they would wax fat and kick and run to new gods and that all manner of miseries would come in upon them at this Door and that they would bring themselves into an utter lost condition as to all outward appearance and yet then saith he the Lord will do like himself The Lord will judg his People and repent himself for his Servant when he seeth that their power is gone and none shut up nor left Deut. 32.36 This great and free goodness of the Lord shall shame them for trusting in Idols and abusing such a gracious and mighty God which is the sense of the following words Holy Mr. Ainsworth upon Psal 1â—0 4 observes that Coles of Fire may be kept under Juniper ashes a whole Year together and surely there be things if we could skill them by which soul-heat and life and so all the senses which belong to it might be preferred long and very strong not only for a Year but always and able to encounter all cases and conditions though never so dark and difficult I will open this Point particularly to you and shew you the truth Per Partes by Parts Faith can look through matters temporal though of the darkest and most difficult nature 'T was a great Flood which drowned all the VVorld all Gods waves then passed over Man-kind indeed And yet Noah by faith stem'd that Tide and saw another VVorld and his safe landing in it 'T was a great strait and temptation to Abraham when called to leave his Country and Kindred and to go to a Country so remote and so wicked as Canaan was and to live alone in the midst of such a People and yet by faith he saw his way and God before him and that he should live then more safe than in hâ—s own Country Likewise a great Temptation it was when God called him to offer up his only Son and yet by faith he saw through that thick Cloud and that God was able to raise him from the dead It was a dark Day with David when Absalom was up against him an Ahitophel his VVives Grand-father Bathshebas Grand-father and yet turned against David to the Conspirators by which the conspiracy grew strong yet by faith he saw thorough this and was quiet in the midst of this great tempest as you may see Psal 3 5 6. which was Penn'd upon that occasion I laid me down and slept I awakened for thou Lord sustainedst me I will not be afraid of ten thousands of People that have set themselves against me round about Arise O God and save me for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the Cheek bone thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly By which it is evident that he saw the ruine of that great Army and his own safety in the midst of all that danger and this by faith The Waters of the Flood abated but one Cubit in Four Days when they began to
give him a stone This is reason But much more can faith help it self by experience I am a man in authority and I say to one man go and he goeth and I say to another come and he cometh c. This is experience and faith is wonderful weak indeed when it cannot thus help up it self experiences are such sensible and such impressive things upon all powers within and without O ye of little faith do ye not remember the five loaves and how many Baskets ye took up Mat. 16. Christ takes it for granted that faith is very little and very weak indeed when it cannot help it self by experiences things which the Man hath had done for him in his wants He delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim The Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way he hath sent that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 9.17 Doubtless that experience which he had of such an escape going to Damascus advantaged his faith all his days to look thorow and to run thorow all the storms and perils which afterward he met withall Some great sickness the Apostle Paul had by the ill usage of Men who oppressed him and yet God preserved and how he raised faith by experience to look thorow all evils present and to come see 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We would not have you ignorant of the troubles which happen'd unto us in Asia how that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired ever of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead who deliver'd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Mordecai is called Pethakia because saith the Jews he opened and expounded all matters and understood 70 Languages Experience may be called Pethakiah it doth so interpret all Ridles and dark matters both of the word and works of God it explains and interprets 70 and 70 Languages if there be so many worth the interpreting it makes a Man with ease and triumph to look thorow and over all before it though never so dark and difficult as David over Goliah and Zerubabel over that great Mountain which was before him and Joshuah the High Priest over sin and Satans occasions Is not this a brand pluckt out of the Fire Fourthly By Prayer doth a believer come to this good eye-sight to look thorow all dark and difficult matters When I cry to thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Psal 56.9 David had cryed to God as one once did a little before an engagement and he knew he should have the day and that his enemies would turn their backs great clearing of fight is made by prayer and tears in dark days to see thorow matters A little wind overthrows not only Houses but States and Kingdoms saith Seneca A little of this wind I mean the pantings and prayings of God's People to Heaven overthrows Persons and Nations indeed and is a sure prognostick of good to whom a praying spirit is given and makes in the heart an assurance of good coming My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me then observe what he saw Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the Earth Psal 63.8 9. Whether that were Hell or the Grave or both 't was well the Church and David were rid of them Prayer is an Ordinance by which the Soul goeth to Heaven and then gets a new life and strength before it comes down again Christ found the blessing of this Ordinance oft and hath surely sanctified it to all his for the same end to lift up their heads and hearts above all troubles He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God the Rock of my Salvation and I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.26 The whole course of Nature began with the motion of the Heavens and continues still vigorous according to the continued motion of them Now as the motion of the Heavens is to the whole course of Nature so is Prayer to all the graces of the Soul and to the whole course and state of the new World it is this that sets all graces a going and going true and strong let weather be what it will Hence are those pertinent words of David Trust in the Lord at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 He maketh these subservient one to another faith to prayer and prayer to faith as indeed they are Would you trust in the Lord at all times then pour out your souls to God Would you pour out your souls to God and pray alway then trust in the Lord at all times Hence it is that the Apostle Paul when he had spoken at a great height of faith Who hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver c. You also helping together for us by Prayer 2 Cor. 1.11 Prayer mounts faith upon its high places and faith mounts prayer and makes one pray in his praying Unbelief is soul-fainting and prayer is a fetching fresh life from the Fountain of Life Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Psal 13. that is Soul and Body Vse 1 Learn from hence that if faith looketh through the most dark and difficult things then where faith is not troubled People and distressed People must needs be at a great loss especially in great distresses yea the truth is in every little distress every little tryal will sinck them in whom is no faith I cannot well give the reason of it some things contemptible are very vertual to cure great diseases of which none are able to give a reason Unless this that faith twines it self with God to do for Man and all other natural abilities bear up little because they lead not the sinner out of himself but to trust in some thing of the Creature and very little burdens will break the back of a meer Man though his reason and parts and outward helps may be many Saul was bid to stay till Samuel came to him and Samuel stayed but a little beyond his time consequently his tryal was but little and he falls upon things and ways unlawful to his ruine He that believes not will make hast because he cannot see through any strait The Philistines were neer and thou didst not come and therefore 't was in vain for me to wait so Saul reasoned within himself and so will every Man that is destitute of faith Achan having no faith could not forbear but would be providing for himself when as God was before them and
the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him If giving way to unbelief in the least had been pleasing to God he would not have made the promise first to our Parents before he came to pronounce the curse upon them Now giving way to unbelief consists in two things construing all things in the worst and hardest sense our own matters towards God and God's matters towards us I have been a stubborn rebellious â—retch and surely God will never have mercy upon me Observe Moses upon thâ—s theme Destroy not this People remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not on the stubbornness of this People nor to theiâ— wickedness nor to their sin Deut 9.27 Ne respicias ad dutitiem the hardness that is the â—mâ—eâ—â—tency of this People but thy Covenant with Abraham And this is the great thing only to be eyed by poor guilty wretches O sirs such and such sins were nothing if I could be humbled for them but I am of a very hard heart Be it so yet should you believe in the word of promise that is in that God which hath said he will give a heart of flesh This People hath finn'd and they cannot repent saith Moses do not therefore look upon them for there is no loveliness in them but look upon thy promise to Abraham to be a God to him and to his Seed and what cannot a God do to mend the heart of man Lamech having made himself guilty of Polygamie reflected upon the sin of Cain as is thought of which Loin he was and consters himself a far more guilty wretch than Cain for that Cain had only slain one and that only his body but Lamech had destroyed many soul and body both by his evil example which now so generally was followed in the World and a hastner of the worlds destruction so that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold for his fin Lamech surely for his fin was to be avenged seventy times seven fold this is the sense of this Scripture as an able Expositor judgeth Sure I am that thus do poor guilty wretches please themselves to look upon all their sins in a very multiplying glass and to see them greater than any others and so conclude that if such and such despaired I have much more reason and this is no other but giving way to unbelief The Jews observe much how the providence of God complyed with the fire upon the Altar that it never went out they say that the Rain of Heaven though never so great never did put it out so we should much observe how the Lord by his Providence in his Word and Works complies with the weakness of our faith to strengthen and to preserve it that it go not out quite out and not be severely catching at every thing to weaken and to destroy our faith as if God's thoughts were as narrow as ours Secondly Way is given to unbelief when all wit and parts are used to argue down faith And the Angel of the Lord did wonderously and Manoah and his Wife looked on But the Angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah nor to his Wife then he knew it was an Angel of the Lord And Manoah said to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.19 20. God sometimes doth wonderously own us in all our ways and holdeth up our hearts evâ—n by sense he is so for us in every thing Another while he seems to be as much against us and Manoah that did look on and see God do wonderously seeth him no more and now the improsperous Man concludes that he shall die And just thus do many when God upholds them not by sense but with draws and seems to be as much against them as for them then conclude surely God is our Enemy and will destroy us and all is naught Sineca saith that there is no universal thunder I may say so in morals When God doth most against wicked Men yet some things of kindness he doth as we see in the example of Pharaoh And so on the other hand there is no universal Sun shine when God doth most for any Child of his yet he shall have exercise and tryal enough one way or other and therefore to argue when things do not run so stilly and calmly as they did that therefore God doth not respect us is to give way to unbelief The people of Israel as they were espying out their way met with many difficulties And they turn'd and went up the way of Bashan and Og the King of Bashan went out against them and all his People And the Lord said to Moses fear not for I will deliver him into thine hand and all his People and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon King of the Amorites Num. 21.33 'T is just thus spiritually as a tempted Christian is spying out his way to Heaven out starts some Og some strong lust or Devil and then is he ready to fear and despair and mistrust all and conclude all is naught and will be worse and worse which is arguing down faith from sense and giving way to unbelief The High Priest was train'd up against the day of expiation to learn how to take up his handful of Incense and lay it one the Altar and so how to order himself in every thing and was kept in a Room of purpose separated with abstinence so should you rather conster that you are training up to your Priestly work by your tryals how to take up your handful of Incense I mean the Promises and lay them on the Altar Christ and so make a sweet Saviour of rest to God and to your Souls That you may not upon any account give way to unbelief know that you cannot do so and be innocent that is free from sin in so doing There are two things that are indispensable duties as long as we live and that is to wait on the Lord and to keep his way to which the blessing is certainly fixed and no difficulty shall make it void The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged What is the use to be made of this read the next words Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Psal 37.32 33 34. There are two parts in Religion faith and obedience that we walk in all Gods ways and yet not rest in this but in Christ by faith and this we ought in all weathers to do and the good event of these is certain God will exalt us to inherit the Land flowing with Milk and Hony i.e. All good God will give us a lift to the possession of all that he hath promised And therefore it is to destroy all Religion and the recompence of reward too
joyned together in the Scripture-phrase Our Day through many Clouds and Storms is very dark especially to some and yet the Day may more cease and become universally dark that what it is to any one at this Hour for calamity that it may be universally in one sense or another And when things are thus universally dark that every ones day is ceased it will look like a Dooms-day indeed and if you cannot look thorow the Clouds of your condition now How will ye do then If ye cannot run with the Foot how will ye run with the Horse The Jews hold that such as made not use of the Flood but continued in their unbelief were punished with scalding Water in Gehinnom And surely they that make not use of present Clouds and Storms upon their condition to get faith to wrestle well with these and to fit them for worse will be scalded indeed with those Waters which yet may overflow us The wo Trumpets are for the Idolatry of the Christian Empire As our own Personal matters are dark so are the matters of the Christian World dark in most parts though not so generally and universally as they may be I will give you two Scriptures to express my self in in this matter The one is Amos 5.12 13 14. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins they afflict the just they take bribes they turn aside the poor in the Gate from their right therefore the prudent shall keep silence for it is an evil time hate the evil and love the good establish judgment in the Gate it may be the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph Sins are now in the Christian World mighty and manifold oppressions of the just surely were never greater and yet must be silent must not Petition nor complain and all this is done Ex anima heartily yea with great malice and rage that reacheth up to Heaven God's wrath and rage is so provoked by this as we feel at this day that it is doubtful who of us will escape when he shall go on in his judgments for these things Therefore thus saith the Lord wailing shall be in all Streets and they shall say in all the High-ways alas alas and they shall use the Husband-man to mourning and all Vineyards shall mourn hate the evil c. It may be the Lord God will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph Sinners are so mighty in the Christian World and so many and repentance and faith so rare and scarce hating the evil and loving the good c. That judgments when they further come Famin Pestilence Sword surely they will sweep clean that we shall have cause to use the Prophets phâ—ase Wailing shall be in all Streets and they shall say in all the High-ways alas alas and it may be some of us shall escape If such as have most faith be brought to their may be by reason of such general calamity what will they be brought to who are wholly destitute of faith when such Floods overflow The other Scripture to set out the state of the Christian World at this day is Rev. 13.6 7. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them which dwell in Heaven and it was given unto him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations and all shall worship him whose Names are not written in the Book of Life The Anti-Christian world is at these heights of sin blaspheming the matters and People of God and at Warre with them shedding their blood and their success it seems will be general power will be given them over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and then when there is no Nation to flee to under Heaven when the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land i e. all places and corners of the World shall be shaken what need will there be of faith to flee to God In the Generations when the Son of David cometh say the Jewes the Scholars of the wise shall be rare and as for the rest of the People their eyes shall fail for sorrow and grief and great afflictions and soar decrees shall be so renewed that before the first is ended the second shall come Saith others of them In the week of Years in the which the Son of David shall come the first year that shall be fulfilled to wit I rained upon one City and not upon another Amos 4. In the second year The arrows of Famine shall be abroad In the third year the Famine shall be so great that Men Women and Children yea good and godly Men shall die c. I do not make this as Scripture but as I see a congruity in them to the Scriptures they are not be slighted Now what of all this is approaching upon the Christian World and at the Door I know not sure I am faith yea the faâ—th of David in my Text against such a dark hour would do well Thirdly Get faith this faith I am treating of or else you will be of little or no use one to another VVhen Senachetib came into Judea Hezekiah sets Captains of VVar over the People And gathered them together to him in the Gate of the City and spake comfortably to them saying Be strong and couâ—agious be not afraid nor dismay'd for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be more with us than with him with him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battel And the People rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah King of Juda 2 Chro. 32.6 7. How wonderful useful was Hezekiah by his faith to the whole Nation in that strait He put a fresh life and soul into them had he sunk they had all sunk with him and so the enemy and the wrath of God had justly preyed upon them all The Arabians if their King be sick all fain themselves sick too as Homines ad Jervitatem parati saith the Historian When Persons in place are sick of unbelief of a faint weak spirit in difficult matters all about them more than fain themselves sick too they are so in earnest and more down than ashes And truly ones use lost is more than the loss of ones life What a dead living Man is a useless Man and yet so shall we be unless we get the faith of this Scripture I am upon in some measure and the faith of this evil time wherein we live The evil spies made the hearts of the People to melt The Levites which kept the Doors were to try the offerings and God will try every Man by his offerings that is by his use Quest If you now ask me How shall I obtain such a faith A. I answer It is the proper adjunct of such a staâ—e a renewed state The eyes of the Lord are on