glory of his name in the defence of his truth and from his owne hand it deares us not we sit downe quietly under the hand of Christ as knowing whose hand it is that is upon us it is a worship of Christ and we debase our selves to worship him when we acknowledge that it is no matter what becomes of us so the will of God be done this is true worship of Christ 1 Sam. 3.18 it was a good Testimony of Elies sincerity when he heard of the wofull Judgment that God would inflict upon his houshould when Samuel had made an end of expressing the whole Judgement saith he it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good in his owne eyes wherein he fitly expresseth the poynt in hand It is the Lord let him therefore do what he will we have the Lord for our Lord and he is a Lord to us when we give him leave to rule us the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be his name Job 1.20.21 this shewes the subjection of Jobs will to God If he see it good to take all away as he sometime saw it good to give it all this patient submission of the heart to God is an undoubted argument that we have the Lord for our God had we not him for our God the heart of man would so grudge at this that evill which befalls us and would bitterly fall upon Instruments and weary heaven and earth with our moanes and cryes But I held my peace and said nothing for thou Lord hast done it Psal 39.19 a signe we have him for our Lord when in all his providences we acknowledge his good hand in it and he is our Lord if we can so sit downe and not murmure nor grudge against him according to that you read Lam. 3.29 the church complaining of her misery he tells you the frame of her spirit in such a temper the soul now sits alone and keeps silence He hath learned to bear Gods yoake he is yoaked to the will of God to his Commandements to his providence and he puts his mouth in the dust if there may be any hope he is content to lye downe under the hand of God grudges not at it but in quietnesse and silence of heart bears Gods yoak and God is then the God of our Salvation when we keepe silence before him Psal 62.1 this is a solemne worship of God when in the midst of trouble we can quietly sit down when the soul can say I wil bear the indignation of the Lord Mica 7.8 9. when we see the Lords hand in all the punishments and Judgments that befall us and we bear it willingly this is solemnly to worship him and to be wrought upon as clay in the hand of the Potter and in thus doing we have him And if the case should be that we should come to suffer for the name of Christ it is so far off from being matter of murmuring to a Christian man as that he suffers not only patiently but joyfully and if any man suffer for the name of Christ as a Christian let him glorifie God on that behalfe for the spirit of Glory and of God shall rest upon him 1 Pet. 4.14.16 When a man thus worships God patiently submitting himselfe to him and gives up himselfe in his way to be quieted by him this is a true worshiping of Christ and whoever thus worships him hath him though we cannot yet tell whether we have faith or no whether repentance or no whether any true love to God or no yet if we can finde this in us that in our hearts we thus worship the Lord Jesus so highly prize him as the chiefest of ten thousand c. In so doing we worship Christ and in worshiping him we have him but on the other side if we so look at Christ as we can prefer ten thousand other things before him and can sit downe quietly without him if we looke at Christ as a refuse commodity no worth the cheapening and we looke at our selves as the great Omegaes of the world and we would not have our names blemished with seeking after Christ but have greater businesse then that to looke after and we wil be our owne carvers if so then we do not worship Christ and then we have him not and so no redemption by him SERMON II. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life BEcause in Scripture phrase there are more wayes of having Christ requisite for the knowledge of every soul I thought it therefore not amisse to open those other wayes by which in Scripture we are said to have Christ Secondly as therefore we have him first by worshiping of him so secondly we have him by purchase this way of having Christ is expressed to us partly in the parable of the Merchant man Matth. 13.46 Who when he had found a pearle of precious price he sold all that he had and bought it that is one way of having Christ to purchase him to buy him you have the like also held out in Esa 55.1.2 every one that is a thirst come and buy without money or without price wherein the Holy Ghost calleth upon us to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in his ordinances and he makes a solemne proclamation to all to come to these waters and buy without mony Without mony why without mony or how without mony It is true should a man offer his house full of Treasure for Christ it would be despised Cant. 8.7 and when Simon Magus offered to buy the gifts of the Holy Ghost for mony it was rejected with a curse Act. 9.8 9 10 and if the gift of the Holy Ghost cannot be bought for mony how can the Lord Jesus Christ be bought for mony And yet thus much I say that many times without laying out of mony he cannot be had without parting with money we cannot get him the case so stands that sometimes the holding fast a mans mony le ts go the Lord Jesus Christ you have a famous example in the young man Matth. 19.21 to 24. Where our Saviour shewes how hard a thing it is for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven because it is hard for a rich man to part with all that he hath when God calls for it at his hands so that without mony sometimes Christ cannot be had And yet for mony he cannot be had it was upon the point of mony that the Lord Jesus parted with the Pharisees Luke 16.11.12 If you be unfaithfull with the mammon of iniquity who will trust you with true treasure if you use not outward things well who will give you saving grace in Jesus Christ so that sometimes for want of spending of money in a right way many a man looses the Lord Jesus so that though Christ cannot be had for money yet sometimes without expence of mony he cannot be had For opening of
a woman in true conjugall affection looke at no more but at the very bare man True love to Christ wherein it is if there be true love in her towards him she is content to have him though she have nothing else but his person so if our hearts be truly set upon Christ we are content to have him though wee should never see good day with him though wee should never see peace of conscience with him though no comfort of grace in him yet would the soule say that is truely affected to Christ give me Christ and I have enough who or what is there besides Christ What is there Why there is variety of excellent graces But whom have I in earth but thee As if ye should put all other things in comparison against or with Christ they are nothing to him then surely you have Christ But how much will this discord from the fellowship of Christ the Sonnes and Daughters of men who when they see the costlinesse of the wayes of Christ they will neither seeke after Christ nor his benefits But as for pardon of sin as it passeth all understanding so it passeth their desires And for peace of conscience they hope they have a good conscience or if not they doe not search to know it and as for the graces of the spirit and subduing of lusts they have a good hope and beleive as well as the best And for the Kingdome of glory they hope if God grant them mercy they shall come to heaven at the last These men are far from having the Lord Jesus and life in him they are so far off from seeking the Sonne as that they do not so much as seek those mercies and benefits which in Christ are conveyed to their soules they neither have him nor none of his They say to the Almighty depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy law Job 21.14 of such God saith They would have none of me Psal 81.11 not only have him but none of him that is nothing that was his not any saving benefit of his the world we would have but none of those choyce and heavenly blessings of Christ no pardon of sin no peace of conscience no care of Christianity or faithfull Ministery no feare of God nor keeping of his Commandements deare hearts for us how shall we ever conceive that ever we should have life in Christ when we doe not so much as desire the very benefits of Christ which yet a man may desire and loose all too and when a man hath not so much as an affection to the things of Christ it is very dangerous But secondly when a man is in this case that there is a desire in a man after the benefits of Christ more then after Christ himselfe all this while you want that sincerity upon which Christ wil give us a comfortable meeting and speake peace to our soules we are not yet come to that condition as in which he wil say My wel-beloved thou art all faire and there is no spot in thee he yet sees not a true conjugall affection in us towards him so as that though we should never finde grace nor glory by him yet he is the chiefe desire of our soules Suppose a woman should see a man that hath a desire after her but he chiefly aimes at her estate to provide for himselfe and looks no further wonder not if she should say to him You seek not me but mine she may wel rid her hands of him in such a case and truly so is the case here between us the Lord Jesus so long as he findes that we come to him and seek and pray and wrastle and what would we have Oh pardon of sinne and peace of conscience and power of grace to be but as other Christians are that we could pray and beleeve as they doe and finde such comfort as they have and this is the thing that the soule is chiefly set upon now all this while that we come thus to Christ we must not think that Christ is to blame if he tarry a little longer then we expect for we may seek him and not finde him because we seeke not so much him as his benefits and the rich treasures of grace and mercy and peace that are layed up in him without measure the greatest part of the world doe not love their soules nor the Lord Jesus so wel as to love him for his grace and goodnesse sake but yet among better men there is a world of selfe love many a man would have his sinne pardoned because he would have his conscience at quiet we may thanke our selves for such affections as these not but that such affections may spring from the grace of God for men by nature never dreame of such things as these be but yet though such affections may spring from the grace of God yet you shall ever finde such soules to detaine the grace of God in unrighteousnesse and out of selfe love use them all to their owne ends and looke not that God may be glorified in and by them nor that his wil be done but oh that the soule might have peace and that sinne might be pardoned and there it rests When our desires is chiefly set upon spirituall gifts if wee loose much comfort and fellowship with Christ that else we might have had we must not marvell at it for our desires are set not chiefly upon Christ but upon the things of Christ our desire is not after the person but after the goods and benefits of Christ Observe the Apostles expression Rom. 8.32 He hath given us his owne Sonne he doth not say he that hath given us peace and pardon of sinne will not he give all other things also Or wil not he give us Christ He reasons not from Christs benefits to Christ but thus he reasons He that hath given us his owne Sonne will with his Sonne and after his Sonne give us all other things At the second hand comes in all these benefits of pardon of sinne and strength of grace and power against our lusts c. these things come in as attendants upon the former and therefore if God give us first to looke at Christ that in him we have life of justification and sanctification and consolation eternall glory peace and grace and all then we have him and life in him else we may have the outward comforts but stand long enough at Christs Bed-chamber doore before he let us in Let it therefore be a word of direction and exhortation to every soul that desires to have that truth of life and peace and grace wrought in his heart that wil never dye have you respect chiefly to the Lord Jesus Christ and long and seeke more after him then after all Spirituall blessings and much more above all worldly blessings If you shall therefore refuse Christ because you thinke he is but a melancholly person you wil never have him if you stand upon
the sword of the Spirit whereby Kings are bound in chaines and Lords in Iron bonds and such honour have all the Saints he would have all the Saints of God to invest themselves with this honour that they might speake of such glorious excellent things as their words might be like to a two-edged sword to cut asunder the hearts of great Princes to bring Kings and great Lords in chaines of horrour and anguish of soule and conscience such chaines as out of which there is no redemption but by the high words of the Saints by the high promises of God to speake peace to the soules of Princes but let the high threatnings of God be in their mouthes the high Commandements of God in their mouthes and those wil binde Kings in chaines and Lords in fetters of Iron and then let the high promises of God the spirituall promises of grace be in their mouthes to set Princes at liberty and to teach their Senatours wisedome A strange kind of combination in the Spirit of grace wrought in such hearts they can call upon their hearts to be lifted up to the high things of God nothing then too great for them to exercise themselves in no Mercies nor Judgements too great no not the unsearchable counsell of God the depths of the Mysteries of God nothing is too high for them it will be prying and looking into the secret counsells of God and yet both together with most modesty when the soule is most lifted up in the wayes of God yet at the same time he lookes at himselfe as nothing and yet notwithstanding so far forth as God will be pleased to reveale it to him hee will bee searching into the deepe things of God and yet all this will hee doe with a very modest spirit Thus you have seene six combinations severally of the gracious affections that are not to bee found in nature no not set upon civill objects much lesse upon spirituall but upon civill objects they cannot be so combined together Seventhly The seventh combination of graces there is another combination of vertues strangely mixed in every lively holy Christian And that is Diligence in wordly businesses and yet deadnesse to the world such a mystery as none can read but they that know it For a man to rise early and goe to bed late and eate the bread of carefullnesse not a sinfull but a provident care Diligence in worldly busines and yet dead to the world and to avoid idlenesse cannot indure to spend any idle time takes all opportunities to be doing something early and late and looseth no opportunity go any way and bestir himselfe for profit this will he doe most diligently in his calling And yet bee a man dead-hearted to the world the diligent hand maketh rich Prov. 10.4 and you read of the godly woman that she riseth while it is yet night Prov. 31.27 And of this ye read Prov. 15.13 and 18 19.27 Now if this be a thing which is so common in the mouth of the holy ghost and you see was the practice of the greatest women then upon the earth the greatest Princes in those times the more gracious the more diligent and laborious in their callings you see it will well stand with the life of grace very diligent in worldly businesse And yet notwithstanding the very same souls that are most ful of the worlds businesses the more diligent they be in their callings yet the same persons are directed to be dead with Christ Col. 3.1 2 3. Set not your affections upon things below but on things that are above for we are dead with Christ Meaning dead to all these earthly things and all the comforts here below they are not our life but our life is hid with Christ in God and therefore to this world are we dead And Paul therefore so speakes of it Gal. 6.14 The world is crucified to me and I unto the world the very same men that are so crucified to the world yet the spirits of those men though their affections be in heaven yet their labours are in the earth Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven but our imployments is here upon the earth diligently taking paines in our callings ever very busie in outward imployments Observe the Ante learne her wayes and be wise Prov. 6. be busie like Antes morning and evening early and late and labour diligently with their hands and with their wits and which way soever as may be the best improvement of a mans tallent it must be imployed to the best advantage and yet when a man hath laboured thus busily yet his heart and mind and affections are above he goes about all his businesse in obedience to Gods Commandement and he intends the glory of God and he thereby sets himselfe and his houshold at more liberty for the service of God in their places and so though hee labour most diligently in his calling yet his heart is not set upon these things he can tell what to doe with his estate when he hath got it Say not therefore when you see two men labouring very diligently and busily in the world say not here is a couple of worldlings for two men may do the same businesse and have the same successe and yet a marvellous difference between them the heart of the one may be dead to these things he looks at them as they be indeed but crums that fall from the childrens table he lookes not at them as his cheifest good but the bread of life the spirituall food of his soule that is the thing which he cheifly labours after another man places his happinesse and felicity in them and makes them his cheifest good and so there is a manifest difference between them So then you see seven combinations of graces that are in the life of holinesse and all of singular use in this kind Eightly the last vertue is a single one and that is love of enemyes Love of Enemies I say unto you love your enemies Matth. 5.44 that you may be the children of your heavenly Father Love your enemies This very grace whereby we doe love our enemyes it hath a contrary worke to nature for naturally this we shall finde to be the frame of our hearts towards our enemies we are cold and undisposed to doe any good office unto them very hard and cold and frozen towards them Those who are our enemies we take no pleasure in them but now in such a case as this the love of a Christian will come and warme the heart and thaw this cold frostinesse that is in our soules whereas before a man was cold toward his Enemies his heart now begins to reflect upon him in pitty and compassion and instead of hardnesse his heart now melts and is made soft within him to see what ill measures it could have put upon its enemies But on the contrary side the same hatred in a man that is towards his enemyes it makes a man of an hot
of knowledge Was there ever any soul so desperately ignorant think you as to take the place of a Minister and not have skil to read no but these had no knowledge to teach the people the meaning of the Law of God whose lips should preserve knowledge and at whose mouth the people should seek the Law Mal. 2.7 8. Vse 3. To teach all that beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ diligently to be conversant in the Writings of Iohn and of the Apostles Shall the Holy Ghost have a Pen to write unto us and shall not we have a hand to receive these Writings and by faith to behold and beleeve them Shall he take care to write us Letters from Heaven from the Lord Jesus Christ indicted by the blessed Spirit and written by the hands of faithfull Scribes who were carried to all truth and shall they write them to us to continue to the end of the world and shall not we attend to them These be written to every soule that beleeves in Christ for if written to them that beleeve in Christ then every beleever may say These writings are written to me to thee and to me and therefore let us carefully read and attend to them And therefore doe not neglect a Letter written by such precious Scribes and from the hand of a gracious God that directed them to us but if written to us and for our instruction and learning let us heare and read and obey and looke at them as the chiefest blessings and ornaments of God vouchsafed to us Among all the meanes of grace put up these writings as the Oracles of God for our instruction Rom. 15.4 Whatever was written aforetime was written for our instruction and edification as well as for them that lived in ancient times how much are the Church of Rome to blame that lock up these Epistles from the common people in strange Languages and if they understand not Latine they must not read unlesse with license or in a strange Tongue heavie will the curse of God fall upon them they may as well read a Fable to them as the Scripture yea many times the Priests themselves understood not the Latine that they read it was given to them as a clasped booke they were not able to expound it but say that ignorance in the people is the Mother of Devotion and therefore both fall into the ditch together Quest Vse 4. Serves to be some direction to every carnall man you say if these Scriptures be written but to beleevers will you not allow ignorant carnall men to read this part of the Word of God Ans Even they have thus much benefit by the Word first Carnall men have benefit by the Word whatever is expounded to them from this Word may be effectuall to bring them on to salvation but faith comes by hearing Secondly These Scriptures when they are read they are a profitable and helpfull meanes to get knowledge though that knowledge I beleeve reach not to salvation Thirdly it is a meanes to put people in remembrance of what they know though it be not to salvation And lastly it kindles in them some desires to know these things that they might understand them though that be rare I dare not reckon the Eunuch among the ignorant and unbeleevers Act. 8.30 31. and that were a blessed use if men shall read the Scripture and complaine for that they cannot understand them and shall be stirred up to desire a Guide to help them to see and understand what they before understood not and so be brought on to some knowledge it were a blessed use of the Scriptures And besides they are of this use they are of singular benefit to discover to people what sinne is and open to men what morall and common vertues be and so are a meanes to preserve people in a forme of godlinesse whereby they know that Magistrates are to be obeyed Ministers reverenced Parents honoured Murder not to be committed the Sabbath not to be prophained God only to be worshipped the body of these things they see are to be done and these evils eschewed they are a meanes to keep people in good order and to prepare them to a better understanding of the Ministery of the Gospell that shall at any time be blessed to them so that some profit there is hence to them that want faith but the principall thing the Apostle aymes at is this I write unto you that beleeve on the name of the Son of God But further I say to you that are not yet brought on to beleeve let this be your instruction diligently to attend to what you heare from these words for you may say and truly you may read every day a Chapter or two and read them over againe and againe and spend many houres about them and in prayer too and yet no nearer salvation then at the first I say not not nearer salvation for you are stirred up to many duties but when you see you have read much and prayed much and yet get little hold of the saving grace of Christ how should this provoke all that live without meanes of grace to give diligent heed to that Ordinance of God in which faith to salvation is wont to be conveyed and that is an use that may be of notable efficacy to stirre them up to heare diligently those who are destitute of the knowledge of God let them be the more diligent to seeke after more meanes in the Ordinances of God Vse last It is an use to all those that do indeed beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus to be not only carefull to read but to read these Scriptures in hope of finding those very blessings for which these Scriptures were written and sent us Were they written that you might be taught truly you make an il use of reading if you know no more at last then at the first you may wel say you are unprofitable if you doe not observe something from your reading and if they were written to stir us up to be doing good you make an il use of reading if it bring not forth some profitable fruits yea if by reading these Epistles you might beleeve and be humbled comforted and your joy might be full in reading then truly you should not rest till by reading you finde some measure of faith strengthened in you to an holy feare of God in whose presence you stand and whose word you take in hand and finde your hearts take comfort from what you doe read since they were writen for your sakes that beleeve and for your sakes onely if you shall be negligent to read them shall you not take this blessed Ordinance of God in vaine and therefore read them and read them diligently and profitably for the blessed ends for which God hath written them that you may finde the blessed fruites of them Now we come to speake of the end for which he wrote them that you might beleeve on the name
up our prayers as our mediator As the great master of Requests and he dresses and perfumes them from all that sinful frailty and coldnes that usually accompanieth our prayers he perfumes with the merits of his own sufferings and so presents them before the father with his own worth in his sight and so they come to be accepted in the sight of God so you read Rev. 8.3 howsoever that may be verified in some tipe of Christ on earth yet especially it is meant of Christ in heaven he perfumes the prayers of the Saints and expresseth his owne will to the father as beseems the majesty of the Sonne of God And as a Mediatour he perfumes our unsavoury prayers and presents them to his father so as they become accepted in his sight Simile As if an elder brother should set a child one of his younger brethren to get his father a posie of flowers and the child out of ignorance should gather some weeds and put in it And the elder brother gathers out the weeds and sprinkles the flowers and then presents them in the childs name to the father So doth Christ to us while we gather up Petitions here and there and as we thinke for the best and some truth and work of grace there is in them yet some weeds of sinfull folly then Christ takes them out of our hands and pulls out the weeds and sprinkles them with the blood of his crosse and the merit of his sufferings what he hath don and suffered for us And so by this means it is not possible that our prayers should be rejected Vse 1. It may serve to teach us all As ever we desire we or ours might speed well so to learne to pray well No one can speed ill that can pray well If you can but pray you neede aske no more for you and yours If you or yours can pray well they have enough let them but speake and speede pray and have seeke and finde Oh woman bee it unto thee even as thou wilt In such a case God will accept you so farre as to carry you in among the treasures of his grace the store-house of his mercy and there for to fill you with what you would have And bring but your desires large enough and open your mouthes wide enough and hee will fill them The woman was to blame shee borrowed no more vessells so long as you have but a mouth to pray especially an heart open and enlarged to desire much at Gods hands you shall neede no more mercies but this you have enough If God give you an heart to pray you want nothing And therefore of all blessings begge this blessing That you may learne to pray Note this you shall neede no more mercy for this nor another World I pray you consider what I have said in this behalfe Doe but observe First Take heede you bee not of a double minde of a wavering minde James 1.6 take heede of wavering That is when a man halts betweene two opinions When hee knowes not whether hee had better cleave to God or to the World loath to deny himselfe and yet would be some body But if a man bee of a wavering minde let not such a man thinke he shall obtaine any thing at the hand of God hee must bee of such a minde and heart as by which he must cleave fast to the Lord. As Barnabas exhorted them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord Acts 11.21 and if so with full purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord you doe pray in some measure of faith And then may you sooner learne what God hath commanded you to do Psalm 119.4 5. And this you shall finde of much consequence that according as we hearken to Gods commandements so God hearkens to our requests look with what eare you listen to him with the same eare he listens to us If he see that we give up our selves to observe every word of God then shall we never be confounded If God see you have a tender heart to all his commandements he will have as tender a respect to all your desires And therefore be carefull as first to grow to a free-hearted giving up your selves to Christ so listen duly to what God commands and then God will have a tender respect to every one of your petitions when this is your first aime then may you have respect to other things God will then satisfie your soules in revealing to you his granting of all your petitions Vse 2. Of Comfort to every soule that hath given up it selfe to Christ and do thus call upon his name this is the confidence all such have they shall be satisfied according to their wills many a soule that hath received a spirit of prayer is many times much discouraged And what is the matter Why this and that I have prayed for but my faith is faint within mee for want of the thing I desire Why but bee not discouraged heaven and earth shall faile but the word of God shal never faile do but consider what it is thou hast asked and know there is no prayer of thine but it stands upon record in heaven and God waits and staies but for a fit and seasonable time Notable is that speech in Daniel At the beginning of thy supplication the commandement went forth It was sent forth to grant thee thy request but it was hindred so many daies that it could not be don till now from the beginning the prayer was heard and the answer was decreed but it must have a time to be wrought Dan. 12.10 Looke as you see a man that makes a petition to a King the King grants the Petition the same day it is asked but it must passe from the privy Seal to the great seal and so be a good while before the businesse be gone through with truely so the first day that any soule seekes to God in Christ for any blessing God hears in heaven only it must passe through the hands of some Angells they must see it done means and creatures must be wrought upon something must be done before our petitions be granted notwithstanding our prayers be accepted SERMON XV. 1 JOHN 5.14 15. And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we aske we know that we have the petitions we desire of him NOw to come to a second Note Doct. 2. Such as beleeve on the name of Christ for salvation may be confident and certain of the hearing and granting of their petitions There is a double Act and a double Object the double Act is confidence and knowledge And the double Object is first Hearing of our petitions And secondly the granting of our petitions and both expresly distinguished in the Text. And so the poynt will be evident Such as beleeve on the name of Jesus Christ for salvation for of them he speakes in vers 13. they may come to a confident and certain knowledge of the hearing and granting of their