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B09729
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An antidote against desperation and presumption. or, A consideration of that most solemn oath of the Lord God in Ezek. xxxiii. by Charles Phelpes.
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Phelpes, Charles.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing P1971D; ESTC R181759
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103,519
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256
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than all Saints and Angels in Heaven or on Earth his beloved Son in whom he was well-pleased and one whom he loved before the Foundation of the World Yea and though also he was the Holy One of God one who knew no sin who did no sin neither was Guile found in his mouth One that never displeased his Father at any time but always did those things that pleased him yet notwithstanding all this when he himself bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree he was wounded or tormented for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him Yea it pleased the Lord to bruise him he put him to grief Isa 53. 3-5 6-10 When God made him sin for us who knew no sin God spared not his own his proper Son but delivered him up for us all Rom. 8. 32. And though he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring God spared him not but brought him into the dust of death He did not spare him for his crying as it were or though he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears as Heb. 5. 7. But whence came this to pass that God dealt thus with his Son Was it because he loved him not No that could not possibly be but surely it was because of his infinite Purity and Holiness and hatred of our sin which was laid upon him And so much our Lord plainly signifies when he saith O my God I cry in the day-time but thou hearest not c. But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel As if he should say Thou art such a perfect Hater of Sin that thou must punish it where-ever thou findest it Yea though it be laid upon One who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners c. Psal 22. 1 2 3 14 15. Though he was a Lamb without blemish and without spot yet our Iniquities being caused to meet together on him he suffered for them the just for the unjust being put to death in the flesh c. 1 Pet. 2. 24. and Chap. 3. 18. Though he prayed O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass c. Yet in that it did not pass from him we may behold most clearly and most comfortably Gods severity against sin for that was the day of the vengeance of our God In which he took vengeance of our Inventions in the flesh of that most innocent and spotless One and which Day of Vengeance is now proclaimed in the Gospel to comfort all that mourn as Isa 61. 1 2. According to what the Apostle saith what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin or by a Sacrifice for sin condemned sin our sin in the flesh to wit of his own dear and most innocent Son Rom. 8. 3. with 1 Pet. 3. 18. Herein then we may most plainly behold the infinite Holiness of the Lord God and the hatefulness and abominableness of Sin to his Majesty even in the Cross and Sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he can never be reconciled thereto Nor doth he hate it because he hath forbidden it simply But he therefore forbad it because it is so detestable and loathsom to his Infinitely Pure Nature for he is Holiness it self Holiness essentially Amos 4. 2. with Chap. 6. 8. Oh then when we read in the Holy Scriptures or here there-from of the Graciousness of the Holy God towards us Sinners of Mankind And how loath he is with our Destruction when we have propounded or proclaimed to us this good News That God swears that as he lives he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked Let us not then pervert what is right or imagine he thus swears in favour to mens sinful ways and doings No far be it from us to make such a wicked use of such a Blessed Doctrine For there is no meat for our lust in the Glad-tydings of the Glorious Gospel Let us not then say and conclude That because God is good to All therefore we shall have peace though we walk in the imagination or stubbornness of our heart to add drunkenness to thirst for then the Lord will not spare us But then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie will smoak against us c. Deut. 29. 19-25 But let us wisely consider That his Goodness leadeth to Repentance Rom 2. 4. And his long-suffering is and is to be accounted Salvation The very end and design of God in the very exercise thereof is That we might receive the love of the truth so as to be saved thereby from our sins and vanities 2 Pet. 3. 9 15. Rom. 2. 4. The grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire Tit. 2. 11 12. Heb. 12. 28 29. Look we then unto Jesus Christ the Great and Fundamental Witness of Gods kindness and pity to sinful Mankind And yet also the clear Testimony of Gods Infinite Purity and hatred of Sin And be we saved And to that end wash we our hearts from wickedness Isa 45. 21 22. Jer. 4. 14. Look into the Clefts of this Rock Remember and consider how this holy and just One humbled himself and became obedient unto Death the death of the Cross that shameful painful and accursed Death for our sins to the end that we being dead to sin might live to righteousness And therein we shall see the vileness and odiousness of sin that we may flee there-from as from that which is most pernicious and destructive to us Indeed we are all naturally very prone and apt to turn the Grace of our God into lasciviousness and to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof by occasion of the riches of Gods goodness displayed in the Gospel Hence the Apostle when he had been largely declaring the love of God to Sinners in that while we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly And that God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us And that where sin abounded there grace abounded much more c. Rom. 5. He then sees in needful to give Answer unto an Objection which he judged some would make or did make against that Doctrine he had preached Or to refute and remove an evil Inference some would draw from his right and good Sayings and therefore thus proceeds What say we then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Whereby he gives us to understand That too many would be ready thus to abuse the words of Gods Grace fore-declared by him But he rejects such a Conclusion with greatest Detestation God forbid saith he far be
AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST DESPERATION AND PRESUMPTION OR A Consideration of that most Solemn Oath of the Lord God in Ezek. XXXIII 11. By CHARLES PHELPES For the Breach of the Daughter of my People am I broken I am black astonishment hath taken hold on me Is there no Balme in Gilead Is there no Physician there Why then is not the health of the Daughter of my People recovered Jer. 8. 21 22. Cast away from you all your Transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O House of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turn and live ye Ezek. 18. 31 32. LONDON Printed by T. I. for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1680. E. Libris Biblioth Eccles Cathedr Petriburâ— TO THE READER Christian Reader THere are two very great and most dangerous Rocks in the Sea of this World which ought to be most carefully and heedfully avoided and escaped by us that we may at last safely arrive at that blessed Haven of Rest I mean Heaven and eternal Happiness That is to say Desperation on the one hand and Presumption on the other On one of which the most of the Sons of Men even in the Professed Church also do split their souls and thereby drown themselves in endless and everlasting misery and sorrows And oft-times when they are convinced of the evil and would endeavour to secure themselves from the danger of the one they fall foul upon and make shipwrack of their souls upon the other Somewhat like unto our Types in former times who by listening unto the evil Report of the many discouraging Spies were first greatly discouraged and even Despaired of ever getting to Canaan And all the Congregation lifted up their Voice and cried and the people wept that night And all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron And the whole Congregation said unto them would God that we had died in the Land of Egypt or would God we had died in the Wilderness c. Numb 13. 28-33 and ch 14. 1-4 But when they were convinced of that provoking Iniquity of theirs and confessed they had sinned by their unbelief Then as is related in the same Chapter they fell into the other extream of Presumption And before the time and against the Commandment of the LORD they presumed to go up unto the hill By means whereof their enemies smote and discomfited them Numb 14. 40-45 Deut. 1. 27-32 with ver 41-44 Now all these things happened unto them for Types or Ensamples and they are written for our Admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. 10-12 To the end we should not fall or miscarry after the same Example of Unbelief and Disobedience as Heb. 4. 11. And as the Scriptures are excellently useful and powerful in general to deliver us from erring in mind or way on the right hand or on the left and to make us wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus as Isa 30. 20 21. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. So is this Scripture in particular which is the subject of the following Treatise in which is contained the most Solemn Oath of the Lord God an excellent Light and Pilot to discover unto us and deliver our souls from the danger and peril of the two fore-mentioned Rocks And to cause us to sail most safely and securely in the middle way and at last to bring us into the Bosome or Bay of Abraham as Luke 16. 22. with Act. 27. 39. For I. The former part of it is a most powerful Antidote against the mortal and maligne Disease of Desperation In that the Lord God swears by his life that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked indefinitely considered Is not this Balm of Gilead and this supremely excellent Physician there most vertuous and powerful to heal this deadly Distemper Why then is not the health of the Daughter of God's people recovered as Jer. 8. 21 22. If any say There are many able consciencious and experienced Doctors who maintain and earnestly contend for such Opinions as are inconsistent herewith and opposite hereto As to say That the greatest part of Mankind was Reprobated or past by before they were Born And that God hath therefore some secret Pleasure in their Destruction That Christ did not taste death by the Grace of God for every Man but for the fewest of Mankind for the Elect only As they speak That God doth not give that Grace to all whereby they may be saved c. To this and all the rest of this nature that can be said I may give answer and say as Elihu did to Job God the Almighty God is greater than Man then sorry sinful Man Job 33. 12. And shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are high Job 21. 22. And besides where are those Doctors who plead for these strange and spurious Notions that dare swear as the Lord God here doth and say As the Lord liveth these Doctrines are true and sound and the Lord God hath pleasure in the Death of the greatest part of the wicked Surely how daring and adventurous soever they are in asserting or pleading for their divers and strange Doctrines there are none that I have heard of that are so confident of the verity of them as most solemnly to swear They are the undoubted Truths of God Or if any should so be whether is it meet in the sight of God to hearken unto them or unto the Lord God of Truth judge ye for without controversie the witness of God is greater than the witness of any man or men whatsoever 1 John 5. 9 10 11. And indeed it is a matter of great and weighty moment and concernment unto men to know and heartily believe the kindness and love of God our Saviour to manward and to the greatest sinners thereof whilest it is called to day and how unwilling he is with their Destruction To the end they may be preserved or delivered from Desperation And that both 1. Because there is in men at sometimes however or in some cases to wit when their sins are set in order before them and judgments are feared or felt by them a too great propensity and readiness to fall thereinto As is strongly intimated to us herein In that when the Lord charges the Prophet to acquaint his people That at what instant he should speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom he hath pronounced turn from their evil he will repent of the evil that he thought to do unto them Now therefore saith the Lord Go to speak to the men of Judah and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem saying Thus saith the LORD behold I frame evil and devise a device against you Return