God undervaluing a Pearl of such price trampling under foot a Jewel more worth than the Gold of Ophir How long O ye simple worldlings will ye love simplicity How long will ye rise early set up late eate the bread of carefulness and all to load your selves with the thick clay of the world the dust and dung of the Earth and in the mean time neglect Saving-Grace Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Isa 55.2 It is chiefly for this that the Wisdom of God chargeth worldlings with folly who yet applaud themselves for the only wise men Luke 12.20 21. So is he i. e. a fool like the rich man in the Text that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich to God Hearken I beseech you ye despisers and abusers of the Grace of God be convinced of the worth of that ye so neglect 1. God himself is stiled The God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of Hope Rom. 15.13 The God of Patience Rom. 15.5 He it is that sanctifieth justifieth pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin 2. It is Grace which God reserveth as a portion for his Children his peculiar People his best Friends 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee James 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith Abraham gave gifts to the Sons of the Concubines but the Inheritance he reserved for Isaac So God gives the Earth to the Children of men earthly blessings Psal 115.16 but Grace and the good things of Heaven are his Childrens portion Esau had the fat of the Earth but Jacob the Dew of Heaven 3. It is Grace which Saints desire long for labour for above all things and are satisfied with Psal 4.6 Lord lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us this is better than abundance of Corn and Wine Psal 63.5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness 4. Grace is the end of every Ordinance The Word is called The Word of Faith The Word of Grace Rom. 10.8 Acts 20.32 The Ministry is The Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 The Gospel is The Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 The Dispensation of the Grace of God Ephes 3.2 Prayer is a coming to the Throne of Grace for this end That we may find Grace Heb. 4. ult The Sacraments in their right use do seal and confirm Grace Rom. 4.11 5. It is Grace which Satan chiefly aimeth to rob Christians of by tempting to sin he seeketh to withdraw us from Grace He tempted Job to drive him from his integrity He desired to sift Peter that his Faith might fail him Luke 22.31 He walketh about seeking whom he may devour by spoiling them of God's Grace By all which appears the excellency of Grace the greater is their sin who undervalue it The third Use is of Comfort for the poor and needy Christians who are troubled at their outward wants Hearken O thou poor soul art thou afflicted at thy poverty nakedness sickness yet art rich in Grace is not that better than gold health beauty strength friends favour of Great Ones O be thankful say as Mat. 11.25 Father I thank thee c. the lot is fallen to thee in a goodly place thou hast a pleasant heritage I am sure thou wouldst not change conditions with the wealthiest healthfullest beautifullest graceless person in the world Others have the nether springs of earthly riches thou hast the upper Springs of heavenly Treasures Others have the blessings of God's left hand the fulness of this world thou hast Benjamins Portion a double Blessing even the Blessing of the Right hand the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Say as Psal 116.12 Last Use is of Exhortation 1. To graceless persons That they would above all things labour after Grace Joh. 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth i. e. not so much as for that which endureth Motives 1. Grace is most excellent There is an â—ttractive vertue in things of worth If carnal eyes were but opened to see the Excellency of Grace Mirabiles sui excitaret amores It would ravish the soul in desires after it But Grace's Beauty is internal so is not discerned but with spiritual eyes The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Psal 45.13 Our Life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 1. That which maketh the possessours of it excel that is truly excellent The Righteous is more excellent than his neighbour What makes him so but Grace as much as the brightest day excels the darkest night the star a cloud heaven earth so much a gracious Christian excels a graceless person 2. Grace prepares and fitteth for Glory so do not riches they often hinder Coelum non capit magna onera Portantes God many times strips his People of riches lest the love of them should retard or hinder them in their heavenly Journey Mark 10.23 How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God! Which in the following verse our Saviour explains thus How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! implying It is hard to have riches and not to trust in tâ—â—m 3. A third excellency of Grace is Iâ— satisfies as well as sanctifies the heart It fills the soul with content in the absence of created comforts I have enough saith Jacob now Joseph is alive I have enough saith a gracious soul now God is reconciled now Christ is mine Thy favour is better than life Psal 63.3 4. The benefit comfort of Grace is eternal the riches of Grace are durable Prov. 8.18 Other riches perish Eccles 5.14 they accompany their owners but to the grave at furthest there they leave them whereas Grace accompanieth the soul in death and after death to all eternity 2d Mot. From the necessity of Grace Bread is necessary to this life Grace is much more to life eternal Without it the best sacrifices are not accepted Prov. 21.27 Without it we cannot withstand our enemies 1 Pet. 5.9 Whom resist stedfast in the Faith Without it we shall not be able to bear the Cross ye have need of patience Heb. 10.36 By Faith the Saints endured affliction were tortured had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment Heb. 11.25 35 36. Without Grace we can neither suffer nor obey the will of God not go on comfortably in a Christian course Heb. 11.8 By Faith Abraham obeyed In a word without it we cannot be saved John 13.8 Except I wash thee thou hast no part in me Christ came by water and blood by water to regenerate by blood to justifie Sâ— Dr. Sibbs 3. It is possible for them that have no Grace with care and diligence to obtain it It is the priviledge of New-Testament-times to be seasons of more plentiful Grace than were the Old-Testament-times for so is that place to be understood John 7.38 The holy Ghost was not yet
given because Jesus was not yet glorified Whether we take the holy Ghost there for gifts and spiritual endowments or the Efficacy of the Spirit accompanying those gifts in neither sense was the holy Ghost given so plentiously before as after Christ's Ascention on the day of Pentecost and afterwards Eph. 4.8 When he ascended on high he gave gifts unto men God the Father reserved the â—aâ—â— donative of his Grace for honour of his Sons Ascention unto the last times as the Gospel-times are called whereby so many millions of souls have been converted to Christ So then it being our lot with Capernaum to be lifted up to Heaven in regard of spiritual enjoyments take heed with the same people lest we be cast down to Hell for want of good improvement of so high priviledges Take with us therefore these brief Directions that we may not fail or come short of Grace 1. Be sure thou have an high esteem of Grace for God will not cast his Pearls before Swine carnal people that prize them not We may easily over-value these sublunary things bestow more serious thoughts labour sweat time money on them than they are really worth But we cannot possibly set too high a rate on Grace which we are bidden to covet follow or pursue seek ask knock for strive for 1 Cor. 12. ult Heb. 12.14 2. This estimate we shall not set upon Grace except we be sensible of our want of it We need not seek a thing we have in our hands Most men perish through lack of Grace which they seek not labour not for because they perswade themselves they have it already Be thou poor in spirit destitute blind naked If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth liberally viz. to them that ask so in sence of want God is not like unto man in this respect Men send gifts and presents where is least need and so for them they that are poor may be poor still Semper eris pauper si c. God giveth Grace where most need is He feedeth the hungry he inviteth the poor Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth Survey the state of thy soul when thou goest to Prayer to the Word Saâ—â—ament As when you go or send to the Market you consider what is wanting that supply may be made When thou goest to God's Ordinances thy Spiritual Market enquire what is lacking and there pour out thy heart to God put up earnest cryes for the work of Grace and Conversion for a new heart God hath promised no less than the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11.13 i. e. that ask so as in that parable our Saviour teacheth with fervency and importunity 3. See thou hunger and thirst after Grace keep a continued desire and longing after it for so the Participle implyeth Matth. 5.6 Blessed are they that are hungring and thirsting Psal 143.6 My soul thirsteth after thee as the thirsty Land How is that When the Earth is chapt and gapes through long drought it never ceaseth gaping and craving till the Heavens hear the Earth according to Hos 2.21 So let the thirsty soul do Psal 123.2 As the eyes of a servant c. so our eyes wait on the Lord until he have mercy on us 4. Delay not the time take the first opportunity slip not one Market-day to gain so excellent a Commodity Seek the Lord while he may be found call on him while he is nigh When Shops are shut up it is too late to make our Markets Many are afraid of having Grace too soon they are loth to be holy too soon to be sanctified too soon as if Grace were a burden But why not rather fear we lest we should come too late as did the foolish Virgins who dearly rued it as all shall who in this their day will not know the things of their peace 5. If thou wilt have Grace be content to buy it though without money without price in buying you part with one thing for another whereof you have more need so must thou here though heavenly commodities are not to be valued for Silver you know what Simon Peter said to Simon Magus Thy money perish with thee c. yet must thou part with that which it may be thou valuest above Silver i. e. thy lusts Isa 2.20 Idols of Silver costly sins must be parted with of them thou hast no need if thou part not with them they wil ruine thee if thou cast not them away they will cast thee away Sin and Grace reigning sin a way of wickedness is inconsistent with Grace God and Belial the Ark and Dagon will not agree under the same roof The Spirit of God is a holy pure delicate Spirit will be grieved and at last will be gone if that unclean spirit the Devil be entertained by a voluntary resignation of thy heart to the love of any course of sin or impiety If the blessed Spirit of Grace will vouchsafe to be thy guest O prepare him a lodging as Paul writes to Philemon ver 22. of that Epistle Purge thy self from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 6. Diligence in the use of means constant attendance on the Ordinances of Grace is necessary to the obtaining of Grace Frequent daily the Throne of Grace by fervent prayer wait duly at the posts of wisdoms house by attentive hearing the Word make conscience of sanctifying the Lords day be not thou absent from Gods house when he deals his dole of Grace and Blessing to his People use the society of Gracious persons whose communication is savory and their words minister Grace to the hearers and be constant in exercises of Godliness follow Pauls counsel to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate on these things continue in them give thy self much unto them that thy profiting may appear The diligent hand maketh rich when drowsiness clotheth a man with rags which is as true in spiritual as in temporal things 2d Branch of Exhortation If Grace be the best thing in the world let Christians that have Grace already labour for further degrees of it Grow in Grace 2 Pet. 3.18 Grace and sanctification is not perfect at once but hath its several ages and periods of growth We read of the Embrio or the forming the new man in the womb Gal. 4.19 The new-born babe 1 Pet 2.2 little children 1 John 2.13 young men ib. aged Christians ib. and Psal 92.14 shall bring forth more fruit in old age To this purpose are the commands in Scripture to abound more and more 1 Thess 4.1 that your love may abound Phil. 1.9 alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult They are likewise commended who are rich in Grace and fruits of holiness Matt. 15.28 O woman great is thy Faith Matt. 8.10 I have not sound so great Faith no not in Israel So on the contrary dwarfs in Christianity are blame-worthy Matt. 6.30 O ye of little Faith 1 Cor. 3.4 Are ye not yet carnal that is babes in
I leave you all in the Arms of Jesus Christ Shall I leave any of you wedded to your sins and lusts Shall I leave any of you glued to the world and not espoused to one Husband even Jesus Christ Shall my liberty to preach Christ to you cease before you can all say of him My Beloved is mine and I am his O that if it were the will of God it might not be so Brethren my hearts desire and prayer for you is that you may be saved My earnest request and suit to you this day is that you will come to Jesus Christ and be married to him for ever Have pity upon me cryeth sorrowful Job in another case Have pity upon me O ye my friends the Hand of the Lord hath touched me Have pity upon me O my People have pity upon your afflicted grieved dying Pastor And this is the pity I crave at your hands that you would none of you rest in a Christless condition but expect Blessings and Blessedness only through Christ that whether I come again to you or be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye prize and love Christ fervently that ye obey him sincerely constantly and universally having respect to all his Commandments that ye set a high estimation and stick close to his Truths that ye abhor Evil and account Gospel-administrations glorious that ye stand fast in the Faith and abound in every Grace Unum erat c. said Monica to her son Augustine It was one thing for which I desired to live a little longer that I might see thee a Christian ere I dye So say I to you this day whose cheeks I see bedewed with tears If my heart deceive me not I desire my Natural and Civil life a little longer that I might see you Israelites indeed and grown in Grace I seek not yours but you O my Flock I labour not to draw you after me but after Christ So far am I from murmuring at this sad providence exercising me this day that I bless God who bringeth good out of evil that hath given so many of his Ministers opportunity and hearts to confute those Scandals cast on them by unstable souls of being Hirelings Baals Priests greedy Dogs Balaams loving the wages of unrighteousness Diotrephes and loving preheminence preaching for filthy lucre supposing Gain to be Godliness c. from whom men ought to withdraw themselves Let such as are guilty answer as they can Let Baal plead for himself We are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth against them that commit such things That God who hath so far rouled away our Reproach can in his due time make our Righteousness shine forth as the noon day Only my Beloved let me not have cause to take up such sad complaints of you that I have bestowed on you labour in vain that I have piped and ye have not danced that I have mourned and ye have not lamented that ye have not believed my report that ye will not come to Christ that ye might have life that I come in my Fathers Name an Embassador in Christs stead and ye receive not my Message but if another come in his own name him ye will receive that ye are easily perverted marvelous soon shaken See Gal. 1.6 7 8 9. and your minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ to fall in love with will-worship and empty things of mans devising but will not be converted nor fall in love with Christ nor take his yoke upon you Good People add not thus to my affliction but let me have joy of you that I may say Ye are my Crown and Rejoycing Now I live seeing my Peoples souls are alive and prosper and have their hearts established with Grace so as they cleave with purpose of heart unto God escaping the temptations and pollutions of the world and running like the River Arethusa through the salt Sea yet keep their sweetness and the Word of God abideth richly in them Monica Leapid for joy at Augustine's conversion Cumulatius c. My God hath done abundantly for me that I see thee his Servant So let me have cause to rejoyce and say My God hath granted my desire letting me see you that were serving divers lusts serving the Lord Christ and you that were dead in sin spiritually alive and you that were Swearers fearing an Oath and you that were lost found And you that were haters of Holiness following Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Sirs think not that Angels or some from the dead should ever come to invite you to Christ and testifie these things neither may you expect Christ himself in bodily presence to preach to you when he was on earth He went about doing good calling sinners Come unto me Follow me If any man will be my Disciple let him follow me but now his work is in Heaven where he is about his Peoples Business pleading their Cause Nay you may not expect me to be preaching to you any longer but once more I am here tendering to you Jesus Christ I come a wooing in behalf of my Lord and Master who was dead and is alive and behold he liveth for evermore In his Name who was preaching of old by his Spirit in Noahs time to souls that by their obstinacy and disobedience are in prison in Hell 1 Pet. 3.19 I come to tell you that Except you Repent ye shall all likewise perish and except you believe ye shall be damn'd Mark 16.16 that unless you obey Christ ye will fall short of eternal Salvation and if ye have not the Son ye have not Life I come to tell you of your poverty and blindness of your nakedness misery without Christ that all your hope will perish unless it be built on Christ the Corner-stone and that you can obtain no Blessing but through Christ 'T is recorded that the dead that Sampson slew at his death were more than they whom he slew in his life To allude to it O that this my dying Sermon might shake the rotten pillars on which souls have built their hopes of Heaven short of Christ that more sins might be mortified and more souls quickened and converted than ever by any Sermon in the course of my Ministry that now at the end of the liberty of my publick Ministry you might all be the seals thereof being pricked to the heart and feeling the weapons of our warfare mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Joseph's Brethren thought evil against him but God meant it for good to save much People alive And O that this sad breach betwixt us this day might occasion some poor souls to say Periissem nisi periissem I had been undone if I had not been undone The smiting of the Shepherd and scattering of the Sheep was
Calls his Sheep hear his Voice and know not the voice of strangers give him your eye look unto him and be saved give him your hand and feet to do what he commandeth and come when he calleth give him your knee to bow to him not meerly in a complement but to submit to his Laws and obey him as King and Lord especially give him your hearts let him be enthroned there Lift the everlasting Doors that the King of Glory may enter With the tongue you must confess and with the heart believe that you may be saved And take him for yours for ever abide for him for many dayes Beware of Apostacy by which Judas lost the Blessing and went to his own place You see Brethren al blessings are to be expected only through Christ I beseech you go home and work these things on your hearts by meditation wrestle for a Blessing say Lord Jesus who blessedst thy Disciples bless me even me also I will not let thee go unless thou bless me cry to him as the blind lame and diseased cryed when he was on earth Jesus have Mercy on us and believe that he is able willing and ready to bless you As for me God forbid I should cease to pray for you that the Lord would put his Blessing on you One thing further let me mind you of That you be much in blessing God for his Love and Faithfulness in giving his Son and ascribing Blessing and Praise to the Lord Jesus for all spiritual Blessings and for going to Heaven blessing his People Especially I charge you be careful to spend the Lords Day which is precious time which he hath sequestred and set apart for himself in a thankful Commemoration of Jesus Christ his Grace and Compassion to poor sinners and not in sports and past-times study what you shall render to him in lieu of such superlative and incomparable Love and in a due Sanctification of the Lord's Day endeavour that the Name of Christ may be remembred through out all Ages The third and last Use is Consolation for I would not leave you comfortless 1. Here is abundant Encouragement to poor sinners to come to Christ you that have trembling hearts and dare scarce look up to Christ by reason of your sins lest he call you Dogs and cast you out who are ready to say There is indeed Consolation in Christ and he hath Blessings enough to bestow but they are not for me let me tell you it is good to be humble and sensible of your own vileness but not to be faithless and unbelieving for unbelief is highly derogatory dishonourable to Jesus Christ and wrong to your own souls a rejecting of your own mercy I could also tell you it is the most unreasonable thing for you to question Christ's pitty and tenderness towards poor heavy laden sinners after that he hath from Eternity had his delights with the sons of men Prov. 8.31 And in Noahs time he was preaching to save souls would they have believed and obeyed He sent all his Prophets of old to testifie remission of sins to all that believe in Him Acts 10.43 The Prophets testifie his tenderness Consult Isa 55. the seven first verses Ho every one that thirsteth He will abundantly pardon Isa 40.11 He shall gather the Lambs and carry them in his bosome Isa 42.3 A bruised Reed shall he not break Isa 61.1 2 3. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure that the wicked should dye Psal 72.12 13 14. He shall save the souls of the needy You have his own Testimony John 6.37 Them that come to me I will in no wise cast out You have the Experiences of the Saints recorded for your encouragement The Apostle Paul who was a Persecutor and confesseth himself the chief of sinners yet he obtained Mercy The thief upon the Cross though before he reviled Christ yet praying obtained a very gracious Answer Nay consider what Christ hath done to shew himself in good earnest to save souls He knew what a bitter Cup he must drink yet Loe I come he became our Surety and longed to have our debt paid and his People redeemed Luke 12.50 He was wondrously straitned till his Baptism of Blood was accomplished He hath sent his Apostles after such signal Manifestations of Grace to testifie it And in his Name my Beloved I am this day declaring to you That he is very willing and ready to receive any that will come to him and would gather you as a Hen doth her Chickens under her wings never did any find him backward nay He is more willing to bless you than you are to receive his Blessings It 's some satisfaction when men will come that he may see the travel of his soul Isa 53.11 He taketh it ill that we are so backward in coming He loved the young-man that came running kneeling enquiring Good Master what shall I do c. and had the young-man liked the terms the match had been made the breach was not on Christ's part Nay Luke 15. he sheweth there is joy in Heaven over one repenting sinner in three Parables Draw near then thou drooping dejected soul come and see not only the Hands and Feet of thy Saviour put not only thy hands into his pierced Side But behold the heart of thy Redeemer behold thy Lord lifting up his Hands and Blessing and see if there be not ground to cry out My Lord and my God Had you seen Him after sweating drops of Blood for you ascending with such Expressions of hearty Love could you have doubted Had you seen his Hands lifted up in blessing his People on Earth at his last farewel could you doubt of his willingness to bless you 2. Here is Comfort for the People of God amidst all the Curses and Persecutions of the world Be not afraid no matter who curse so Christ bless Psal 109. Let them curse but bless thou Christ's Blessing is your Pavilion from the strife of tongues For first Christ blesseth effectually Psal 37.22 when Christ will bless men cannot let Secondly Irrevocably When Christ blesseth men cannot reverse it Balaam could not curse Israel when God had blessed The Blessings of Christ are without Repentance Men now cry Hosanna anon crucifie but they whom Christ blesseth shall be blessed everlastingly Thirdly he blesseth such as bless his Servants and curseth them that curse them Gen. 12.3 Fourthly He blesseth his People for mens cursing 2 Sam. 16.12 Fifthly He turneth the Curse into a Blessing Deut. 23.5 Sixthly He hath variety of Blessings Blessings of the Dew of Heaven and of the Deep Esau cryed Hast thou but one Blessing bless me also O my Father But Christ's Blessings are an Ocean never exhausted He is a Sun full of Light after so many thousand years emanation of Blessings and irradiation of the World therewith he is as full as ever He is a Fountain always flowing and ever full He hath national Blessings pardon of sin
one glimpse thereof in the Transfiguration put Peter in a trance Christ ascended to be glorified 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend Obj. O but how can these things be how much better had it been for us to have had Christs bodily presence still on Earth What a deal of good did he by his Life Doctrine Miracles Compassion on the Poor Blind Diseased that cryed for help for themselves children and servants Lord hadst thou been here my brother had not dyed said Martha So may poor desolate souls say Lord hadst thou been on Earth still this evil and that storm had not come upon the Church or particular members of it Expedient Christ go O leave us not Answ In general Saddest providences and most terrible things whereby God answereth his People often carry a great deal of sweetness and comfort in them which we through ignorance and unbelief hardly discern Christians often loose much by poring on present or imminent evils and not looking to the sweet Result and glorious issue thereof We walk too much by sence and too little eye by Faith the things that are not seen Thus the Disciples were loth to hear that Christ must be put to death When he was buryed We trusted say two of them Luke 24.21 it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Their Faith was low not considering that he came to give his Life a Ransome for many Such fools so slow of heart are we to believe Thus when Christ told the Disciples I go my way to him that sent me They asked him not whither goest thou and therefore sorrow filled their hearts John 16.5 6 7. they did not look to the sweet Fruit which they should reap of his Departure they would have found cause of joy had they seriously considered that Christ went to his Father and their Father to his God and their God But particularly You have Christ's Word for it which should silence all objections and questioning thoughts John 16.7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away There were four Expediencies of Christ's Ascension in respect of us 1. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might in our nature as our Head and Surety take possession of Heaven for us Heb. 6.20 Whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus He had purchased the Inheritance and paid the price and he went to have seizen and possession for us John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you 2. Christ's Ascension was expedient for us that he might intercede for us in Heaven and now appear in the Presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 and that we might have that consolation 1 Joh. 2.2 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And Heb. 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession We have a constant and skilful faithful Sollicitor in the Court of Heaven pleading our cause Is the Church militant oppressed Jesus the Angel of the Covenant pleadeth How long Lord wilt thou be angry Zech. 1.12 and he is answered with good and comfortable words I am returned with Mercies to Jerusalem as it follows ver 16. The Lord Christ standeth as with a golden Censer having much Incense which he offereth with the Prayers of Saints on the Golden Altar before the Throne the Smoak of which Incense with the Prayers of the Saints ascendeth before God out of the Angels Hand When his People pray on Earth He as their Sollicitor procureth a Grant in Heaven which he sometimes sendeth down by a swift Messenger So he did to Daniel and Cornelius So that now being ascended Believers may triumph Who shall condemn It is Christ that died is risen again is at the Right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us 3. It was expedient for us that Christ should ascend that he might send the Spirit the Comforter Joh. 16.7 If I go away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you The sending of the Spiriâ— to lead Believers into Truth to convince the World to help Believers Infirmities to quicken to comfort to stablish them and to abide with them to the end of the World is the fruit of Christs Ascension 4. Christ's Ascension was expedient to assure us that he hath fully satisfied Justice for the sins of his Elect and left nothing undone of the great Work which he undertook Heb. 9.12 By his own Blood he entred once into the holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us His sitting at the Right Hand of God is an evidence that he hath obtained for us Eternal Redemption In his Ascension he triumphed over all Enemies He had spoiled Principalities spoiled them of their Prey having rescued his Elect spoiled them of their Dominion and Power over his Sheep He had cast out the Prince of this World the Accuser of the Brethren and He made shew of them openly Col. 2.15 Christ having overcome Death and Hell declareth his Conquest in ascending as a Conqueror into Heaven Take the Application in four Particulars briefly 1. Christ is gone to Heaven Be not deceived by false christ's Such shall come Mat. 24.24 O remember he is not here but ascended as he told his Disciples Seek not then a bodily presence in the Sacrament The Heavens must contain him Acts 3.21 The Martyrs who burned at the Stake not for ceremonies c. as some would have it but for denying Transubstantiation or the bodily Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper however now-a-dayes some bespatter them had a sure Foundation to build on The Scripture makes it plain that Christ's Body is in Heaven 2. Christ is gone into Heaven Christians let your hearts be there Seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Why do ye grovel on Earth when Christ your best Friend is in Heaven What on Earth can satisfie or what is to be desired when Christ is gone Well may Believers desire with the Apostle Phil. 1â— 23 to be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better 3. Let us prepare for Christ's Coming from Heaven Phil. 3.20 Behold He cometh quickly in like manner as he ascended but more gloriously attended more manifest every eye shall see him Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Luke 12.37 We are left to trade with talents our Lord will come and reckon with us Mat. 25.19 Be ready for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not Luke 12.40 O let us watch 4. Lastly Be comforted Christ our Fore-runner is in Heaven He is gone but he went about our business This providence of Christ's departing looketh with a bitter aspect it is doleful to consider Christ is Gone But as Jacob's Spirit revived when he knew Joseph was alive so it is exceeding comfortable for drooping distressed souls to consider Christ hath taken possession of a
given Him the Tongue of the Learned to speak a word in due season to him that is weary anointed Him to comfort them that mourn and he giveth his Disciples a Cordial to keep them from swooning and fainting something to allay their grief and bear up their hearts they could ill let him go except he bless them and He giveth them a rich Legacy My Peace I give unto you John 14.27 and here a Blessing which proved very effactual to turn their grief into Joy For it followeth in the next verse after my Text They returned to Jerusalem with great Joy 5. Jesus Christ would have all his People know That He will pour down Showrs of Blessing on his Church and People to the End of the World This Blessing at his parting shall prevail on all Ages to the strong Consolation of Believers The Efficacy of it abideth and shall be on the head of Joseph on the top of the heads of such as are chosen out of the world Christ's good Will was not only to his Disciples but also to all that shall believe through their word John 17.20 6. Jesus Christ ascended Blessing that he might arm his Disciples against Persecutions and Difficulties which they must afterwards encounter He knew they must meet with much Contradiction in preaching of the Gospel that they must seal his Truths with their Blood and drink of the Cup which he drank And to animate them he will have them eye-witnesses of his Ascension and as Elijah let his Mantle fall on Elisha he lets a Blessing alight upon them 7. The Lord Jesus would declare That he hath taken away the Curse from his People and hath Authority to bless Gal. 3.13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us that the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles Christ by his Death and Sufferings hath turned the Curse into a Blessing blotting out the hand-writing against us and as Conquerours use to give gifts so He in his Ascension gave and pronounced Blessings among his People It was his Coronation Day the Day of the gladness of his heart he was entring into his Ivory-Palace with gladness where all the Host of Heaven must ascribe Glory to Him And He will have some of his Oyl of Gladness run down upon his Members here on Earth 8. Lastly Jesus Christ would well fill up all Relations in which he stood to his Disciples and be as good and better in point of Love and Faithfulness in such Offices and Relations than ever any was Four sorts of Offices and Relations used to bless especially at parting 1. Parents did bless their Children so did the godly Patriarchs and Job and David c. 2. Masters their Housholds and Servants Abraham blessed his Servant Gen. 24.7 3. Kings and Rulers blessed their People Moses Solomon Hezekiah and Esther prayed for their People Melchisedec King of Salem blessed Abraham Gen. 14.18 Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God 4. Ecclesiastical Officers Priests and Levites and Prophets under the Law Melchisedec Priest of the Most High God blessed Abraham And Ministers extraordinary and ordinary under the Gospel bless People Now Jesus Christ stood in such Relations to his People He is their Father Isa 9.6 Heb 2.13 14. and puts the Blessing of a Father on them their Master and blesseth the Houshold of Faith Their King and fulfilled that Type of Melchisedec's Blessing Heb. 7.1 6. As Prophet and Priest yea Apostle and High Priest of our Profession at his entring into Heaven he with hands lift up imparteth a Blessing on his People I come now to make some use of this point And first Seeing the Lord Jesus went to Heaven blessing his Disciples let us all learn of him to bless and not curse yea to bless them that persecute us Rom. 12.14 Here you have an exact patern the best Teacher follow his steps Render not railing for railing but contrariwise Blessing for ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a Blessing 1 Pet. 3.9 Here is a fair Copy to write after a good Lesson well becoming true Christians When Christ was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not 1 Pet. 2.23 His last farewel was Blessing Alas Christians we know not what spirit we are of for trivial injuries ready to be calling for fire from Heaven and to have our tongues full of deadly poyson and set on fire of Hell Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we man made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing My Brethren these things ought not so to be Jam. 3.8 9.10 O consider for the moderating of our spirits and tongues Jesus Christ suffered Contradiction of sinners was spit upon and had the highest injuries and greatest affronts offered him and though he could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels to have aided him yet he came as a Lamb to the slaughter and opened not his mouth nay he prayed Father forgive them Luke 23.34 His own Disciples shewed a great deal of unbelief and disobedience forsook him in the hour of darkness and had many ambitious thoughts and much selfiish discourse yet his Love covered a multitude of faults so as he blessed them at parting O let the same mind be in you that was in Christ be meek and lowly be courteous and pittiful forbearing one another and forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Let the Fruits of the Spirit Love and Peace and Meekness be found in you and abound 2. Use Christ going to Heaven solemnly blessing should teach us to expect all Blessings from Heaven only through Christ and that all the Blessings of the New-Covenant are dispensed by the hand of the Mediator only in him shall men be blessed Mens blessings are but blanks cyphers vain and of no value except Christ bless There is that blesseth himself in his wickedness saying I shall have peace Deut. 29.19 but in vain God's anger will smoke against that man There is no peace to the wicked The wicked flattereth himself Psal 26.2 but his iniquity will be found to be hatefull There are that bless the covetous but the Lord abhoreth them Psal 10.3 A sorry bargain to have mâ—n acquit and the Lord held guilty mans blessing will stand in little stead when the Lord shall say Depart ye cursed It is not in all the creatures to render him a blessed man whom Christ doth not bless To proceed There is no blessing to be had from God but only through Christ Christ is the Emmanuel through whom there is peace on Earth and goodwill towards men he is the true Mercy-Seat with the wings of the Cherubims spread over it whence the Lord will commune with his People He is the true Jacobs Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven from the top whereof the Lord declareth he is his Peoples God and will be with them in all places whithersoever
they go Gen. 28.12.13 We read Ruth 4.5 At what time the Kinsman must have the inheritance he must have it at the hand of Ruth to allude hereto You can never inherit the Blessing unless you be espoused to Christ Ye shall not see my face said Joseph except your brother be with you So here no seeing the face of God with comfort nor prayer heard nor person accepted nor sin pardoned no souls reconciled no Blessing obtained but through Christ Prayers are but as howlings if they be not put up in the Name of Christ the only Mediator Read Heb. 12.18 c. you shall find the misery of souls without Christ but their happiness being come to the Mediator of the New-Testament Out of Christ we have to do with God from Mount Sinai in thunderings and lightnings in tempest and terrible voices but through Christ from Mount Sion whence better things are spoken than Abels blood spake So Ephes 2.12 c. Without Christ and afar off without God having no hope strangers to the promise But through Christ made nigh reconciled fellow-citizens with the Saints of the household of God the partition-wall broken down he is our peace God is a terrible Judg a consuming Fire to men out of Christ but in him a Gracious Father reconciling this world to himself not imputing iniquities Ephes 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings But how or for whose sake Why in Christ only on his account In him we have redemption the remssion of sin ver 7. God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Ephes 4.32 Jesus Christ is the Light of the world without which darkness horrour and perpetual confusion had been upon all mankind the onely Foundation to stand against Hell gates no other Name given whereby we can be saved The way by which we draw near to God with hope to speed is consecrated through his blood the grand encouragements we have in our addresses to God are Christ's Merit and Mediation Jesus Christ is the only door at which God giveth his dole of Blessings and by which we can enter into the Fathers presence and favour He is the gate of Heaven He is all in all My dear People The time of my departure from you not voluntary but constrained seemeth now at hand possibly I am speaking the words of a dying man and may see your faces no more in this place 't is my comfort I have not kept back any thing that is profitable for you nor shunned to declare to you all the Counsel of God But have to my ability taught you to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded for so runs my Commission Mat. 28.20 And let me tell you I dare not exceed knowing that terrible Commination Deut. 18.20 The Prophet that shall presume to speak a word in my Name which I have not commanded him to speak even that Prophet shall die And Mat. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so he shall be called the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven The Scripture tels me what things I must teach and exhort And if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting c. 1 Tim. 6.1 2. Could I find the things which it is probable are shutting the mouths of many hundreds of learned consciencious Ministers expressed in or by good consequence to be drawn from the Scriptures which I am sure are sufficient to furnish the Man of God throughly to every good work 2 Tim. 3.17 I would not for a World divest my self of the Liberty of my Ministry nor bereave my self my wife and little ones of our Livelihood nay I would willingly practise them and teach you so to to I this day appeal to the most High with the Prophet Jer. 17.16 As for me I have not hastened from being a Pastor to follow thee O Lord thou knowest Most gladly would I have continued preaching Christ Jesus the Lord furthering your Faith and Joy and driving on the great Marriage between Christ and your Souls but sure I am my Lord needeth not my sinning to carry on his Work amongst you neither will I charge him with unfaithfulness nor his Word with deficiency in pretending to mine own faithfulness in the Ministerial Function but I 'le patiently commit my self to Him that judgeth righteously endeavouring to follow his steps who became poor that we might be made rich and suffered greater things for me than I can do for him On Him I desire to be found waiting and keeping his Way who hath the giving of the Opening of the Mouth and is thereby known to be the Lord Ezek. 29.21 He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth can if he please restore our Liberties and pleasant things if not here am I let him do what is good in his fight The Will of the Lord be done Why should I part with you repining or murmuring at a churlish unkind World whilst it is evident the World hated him before it hated us and my Text tels us that Christ blessed his Disciples at his parting and Ascension Now the Lord Christ who went to Heaven blessing bless you this day with the best of Blessings the sure Mercies of David and lasting Benefits of the everlasting Covenant The Lord Jesus the good Shepherd who gave his Life for the Sheep be your Shepherd and cause showers of Blessings from Heaven on your Souls Bodies Children Families and Estates And God even the Father for Christ's sake grant that you and I who are this day parting with grieved hearts may at last meet with joy having all tears wiped from our eyes and every sad thought taken from our hearts to be ever with the Lord at whose right-hand are pleasures for evermore And God the holy Ghost abide with you and me to guide us into Truth to stablish us in the Truth and comfort our hearts unto the end of the world The Lord be with you all And are we parting Suffer I beseech you this word of Exhortation In the last day that great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cryed If any man thirst let him come to me and drink John 7.37 The Apostle at Troas ready to depart the morrow preached long at his parting with the Elders of the Church of Ephesus who must see his face no more how fervently did he preach and pray Acts 20. Two of Luthers wishes were That he might have seen Christ in the flesh and have heard Paul preach But my Brethren what tongue can express the worth of their Farewel-Sermons Though I be a weak earthen vessel a reed shaken with the wind yet shall not my mouth be open and my heart enlarged when I must preach to you no more And am I leaving you My Beloved and longed-for how gladly would
and peace and plenty Zech. 3.8 9 10. The whole 72 Psalm sets out Christ's Blessings Would you have a Land rid of Idolatry and Heresie Zech. 13.2 After the Promise of Christ as a Fountain open the Lord engageth the names of Idols shall be forgotten and the false Prophet shall pass out of the Land Would you have blessings on a Congregatition Good Teachers and all their abilities and success are from Christ Eccles 12.11 Ephes 4.11.12 He hath a Blessing for the habitation of the Just Prov. 3.33 Riches and Honour are his Prov. 8.18 All fresh Springs are in him He hath plenty of spiritual Blessings being the store-house of his Church where it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell From him flow Acceptance Ephes 1.6 Justification and Pardon Mat. 9.6 1 Cor. 6.11 Sanctification Acts 3.26 Illumination Col. 2.2 All the Treasures of Knowledge are hid in Him and He openeth the eyes of the Blind He is the Author and Finisher of Faith full of Grace by Him we have Adoption of Children Ephes 1.5 These are rich Blessings Moreover through Christ we have interest in the Promises 2 Cor. 1.20 and right to all our Comforts and Priviledges 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All are yours and ye are Christ's Briefly Through Christ you have Everlasting Blessedness Heb. 5.9 Rejoyce then in Christ Jesus O ye Upright ye are the blessed of the Lord who went to Heaven blessing Read over your Charter Priviledges through Christ what is there wanting that heart could wish for your selves your Children this life or a better Yet consider further with me Christ went to Heaven blessing and Acts 1.11 In like manner will he come again How will Christ do you think bless his People at his second Coming What a joyful meeting will there be of the Lamb and his Spouse decked and adorned with Graces how will he welcome his Bride when he cometh again to receive her to abide with him who left her whilest full of spots and wrinkles so kindly he then took a few apart and blessed them but then at his second Coming Gather my Saints together Earth and Sea must give up their dead and never a Saint be lost but raised at the last day Christ blesseth Believers at death receiving their souls making their bodies rest in hope but at His appearing he will bless them with a glorious Resurrection making their vile bodies like his glorious Body Phil. 3.20 Saints bodies shall then be glorious spiritual strong and incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. No more hunger and thirst nor cold and weariness no more crying nor saying I am sick nor pain nor death Christ will set them at his Right hand and bless them with a sentence of Absolution Come ye blessed of my Father Well may the afflicted Church on earth tossed with tempests cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly Oh! what a time of refreshing shall that be Act. 3.19 how shall the Saints then sing Halelujah Blessing Honour and Praise be given to the Lamb and to Him that sitteth on the Throne O joyful Day when our Lord Jesus who went to Heaven With his Hands lifted up in Blessing shall come to carry his People blessed triumphantly in Heaven Into the hands of this Lord Jesus I commit you my Dear People SERMON XI Psal 69.6 Let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel The Psalm for the main substance of it is Davids prayer for deliverance from the grievous oppression of his cruel enemies yet it so relates to David that many passages do also respect Christ of whom David was an eminent Type so the 9th verse is applied part of it John 2.17 and the rest of it Rom. 15.3 and so may more passages in it be applied This Petition for deliverance whether you refer it to David or Christ is 1. Propounded in the beginning of the first verse Save me 2. Prosecuted and urged with divers Arguments whereof the first is drawn from the greatness of the calamity under which he lay ver 1 2. Secondly From his long waiting and earnest crying his throat dried his eyes fail ver 3. â— Thirdly From the number and nature of his enemies more than the hairs of his head and they very malicious and injurious hating him causelesly forcing him to unjust restitution Under which also is couched a 4th Argument viz. his own innocency as to the matter wherof he was accused and for which he was hated and persecuted ver 4. Notwithstanding which innocency of his as to the particulars wherewith he was charged by men â—e yet justifies God in permitting these evils to befal him for this I take to be part of the sense of the 5th vers O God thou knowest my foolishness and therefore I cannot justifie my self before thee nor accuse thee of injustice for permitting it to be thus with me Though the words may seem also to look another way viz. to be Davids appeal to God concerning his innocency in those particulars q. d. Thou Lord who knowest my foolishness from whom my sins are not hid knowest my innocency in the things whereof I am accused By the way take this Note Obs When men oppress and pesecute most unjustly yet there is cause to justify God in suffering it to be so God's Justice is executed upon us by their injustice if men falsly accuse us yet God can truly charge us When Job had to deal with men he will maintain his integrity against their accusations chap. 27.4 5 6. but when he hath to deal with God he acknowledgeth his sin will not stand upon his own justification he will not plead but supplicate chap. 9. throughout The Prophet Jeremiah grants the conclusion chap. 12.1 though he defiers to debate with God about the prosperity of the wicked and about God's permitting them to oppress and trample upon his People If any of God's People think they have hard measure from men that they are wrongfully and injuriously handled as to some particular yet let them eye God and confider their carriage towards him and they shall find cause enough to say as Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us lesse than our iniquities deserve It may seem hard that the poor Messengers of Christ who desired nothing more but libery to speak to fouls that they might be saved and have daily bread should be deprived of this liberty livelyhood upon such ground as were not necessary to be imposed by others of which themselves cannot submit to without losing the peace of their conscience and credit of their Ministry yet who so innocent that he cannot see reason enough to justifie God alas there is so much unfaithfulness luke-warmness negligence laziness and a thousand other miscarriages to be found in us as may abundantly justifie God in this dispensation though he seem to spit in our faces and to lay us aside as a vessel wherein there
perfect Rule see how they have agreed or disagreed Look your faces daily in the Glass of God's Word and then you shall see how many spots are upon them This very thing would make and keep us humble while we live and shew us the shortness of our own wayes and drive us to Jesus Christ who hath perfect Righteousness The Swan is a proud bird but when she looks at her black feet she mourns The reason why most are so self-conceited of their own goodness is because they look upon themselves in present abstinence from sin or in present good mood and never look back upon former sinâ—â—â— In a word Let your sins be ever before your eyes 4. Beware of earthly-mindedness Let it not be your only care to get the things of this life 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world VVe are prone by Nature to mind Earth and nothing else But consider that those that are earthly-minded are enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 19. There are many of whom I tell you weeping who are enemies to the Cross of God viz. those who mind earthly things Such persons frustrate Christ of the end of his dying He died to purchase an heavenly treasure for us he arose and went to Heaven that we should imitate him If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Earthly persons undervalue the death of Christ he died to purchase Heaven they care for Earth more than Heaven Again Earthly persons will have a sad end Their end is destruction Phil. 3.19 Seeing such men put away Salvation from them whilst on Earth at last they shall be put away from Salvation Again Things below are neither a suitable nor a satisfying portion Not suitable your souls being spiritual these earthly not satisfying your souls having infinite desires whereas these are finite your souls everlasting these fading 1 John 2.17 The World passeth away When we have got never so much it may leave us we must leave it Again Earthly-mindedness is Idolatry Col. 3.5 And Covetousness which is Idolatry That which men desire love and delight in most even so much as to make it their portion that is their God Now we know that no Idolater shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Be exhorted in the words of Christ John 6.17 Labour not so much or chiefly for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Luke 10.41 42. Be not with Martha careful about many things so as in the mean time to neglect the one thing needful 5. Be convinced that God is the best portion and make him yours You are never in a safe condition till you can experimentally say Who is there in Heaven but God and who is there on Earth I can desire besides God Psal 73.25 26. Labour to say with the Psalmist Psal 31.14 I said thou art my God And with Thomas My Lord and my God To this end get an interest in Christ receive him by Faith He that hath the Son hath the Father also God promiseth it as a special priviledge to be the God of any person or People I will be their God Jer. 31.33 When God is yours Pardon of sin is yours I will remember your iniquities no more He wil accept and delight in your persons The Upright are his delight He will take pleasure in all your services Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy face and hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Your Prayers Praises Alms c. shall come up before God as Incense Acts 10.4 Phil. 4.18 He will alwayes be with you in every place in every condition When you are in your own and when in a strange Country when you are in prosperity when in adversity Moreover all the Promises are yours When God is yours the Covenant is yours of which the Promises are so many branches If you be troubled with the sence of sin he can pardon you if assaulted with corruptions he can strengthen you If you be sad he will comfort you if you be sick he will be your Physician if weak he can strengthen you If darkness be upon your steps he can cause the Light to shine upon your paths If you are in wants he can supply you his is the Earth and the Fulness thereof if in Prisons he will visit you and cause you to sing with Paul and Silas He is an omnipresent Good and an omniscient Good a willing and omnipotent and a sure good Men may take away your Friends or you from them but they cannot take away your God your Estates but not your God your liberty but not your God your lives but not your God God will be a satisfying Good whilst you live a comforting and supplying Good when you dye an Everlasting Good after Death Above all things then get a share and interest in this God for he is the best Good none like him and as the Wise Man saith of Wisdom so let me say of God Get God get Christ God is the principal thing therefore get him and withal thy gettings get an Interest in Christ 6. Get your hearts possessed with an awe dread of Gods all-seeing Eye Walk with a constant fear of God upon your souls Prov. 23.17 Be thou in the fear of the Lord all day long whatever you think speak or do consider God stands by and sees and hears all he knows what thou thinkest and actest even in thy bed-chamber This consideration wrought mightily upon Davids spirit which made him express himself in this manner Whither shall I go from thy Presence whither shall I flee from thy Spirit there is not a thought in thy heart nor a word in thy tongue but lo he knows it altogether Psal 139. Per totum Many would be the advantages of such a temper it would keep us from many a sin we run into Prov. 16.6 By the fear of the Lord â—â—en depart from iniquity yea this is prescribed as a Remedy against all sin in general Exod. 20.20 That his fear may be before your eyes that ye sin not The reason why men do commit secret sins is Because they think no eyes sees them When Satan tempts thee saying Thou art alone the door is lockt the windows shut then say Oh but God sees me the darkness and the Light are both alike to him To this end beg of God he would maintain in your soul more of an actual sence of his Presence plead that Promise in which he saith I will put my fear in them that they may not depart frrom me Jer. 32.40 Unless God renew the fence of his Holiness and Omnipresence we shall groâ—â— atheistical and very secure 7. Serve God according to his Mind and Will neither add nor diminish in God's Worship do what he bids us all he bids us and no more Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it add not to it nor
Glory by Christ Jesus make you perfect stablish strength settle and confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ I now come to make some improvement of the Point And because I want time and strength to speak more fully to it I shall limit my self onely to one branch of Application Vse And I beseech you Brethren suffer the word of Exhortation O that my Counsel might be acceptable to you this day That if indeed I should never have liberty of preaching to you more yet this Word this Exhortation of mine mine did I say nay this Exhortation of the Apostle might ever be fresh in your thoughts and as it were continually sounding in your ears O whatever you do or leave undone be â—ure to look after your main business to work out your Salvation And now what I might have brought in as Reasons of the Doctrine I shall offer to you here as Motives to enforce the Exhortation to press you to the duty 1. Consider there is no work you can set your selves about so necessary as this to work out your Salvation Either do this or you do nothing Leave this undone and you are undone for ever You know the wages of the slothful and unprofitable servant Cast him into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If we are loth to be at any pains for Heaven this slothfulness shall be scourged at last with the endless insufferable pains of Hell Though there were never so many Lions in the way to Heaven yet should we resolve to go on and otherwise we are sure to fall into the Lions mouth that our souls shall be made his prey 2. Consider the work of our Salvation sticks no where if it stick not at us it sticks not on Christ's hand O how did he sweat at this work the purchasing of Salvation for us It drave him into a bloody sweat yet he went thorow with his work And now he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to him and he would be the Author of eternal Salvation unto all that obey him Heb. 5.9 This blessed work sticks not on the Father's hand who is willing all men should be saved first coming to the knowledge belief and obedience of the Truth God excludes none from Salvation who are willing to be saved in that way the Gospel sets forth He excludes none who exclude not themselves The work sticks not at the Spirit neither who is so oft moving and perswading yea striving with us to set about this good work How unreasonable a thing is it now if the work sticks on our hands who are most concerned to promote it Oh how strange if it should stick here 3. Consider this is the end of all the labours of God's Ministers They are sent from God to shew you the way of Salvation They are God's Stewards and Overseers to call you to and direct you in your work Ah Beloved it 's well if so many of them as are now like to be laid aside be not therefore taken off their work to punish the negligence of the most because Hearers have been too mindless generally of their work Verily this will be unprofitable for you that your poor Ministers should have bestowed on you labour in vain Though we would bless God for any the least success for blessing our endeavours unto any yet surely we should have had more comfort at this day could we have seen more good done that souls had less need of us 4. Consider that diligence in working out of your Salvation would not obstruct but rather promote and bring a blessing on other works you have to take in hand Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness let your main care be laid out that way take most thought for your souls and for the life to come and all these things shall be added unto you Believe it Sirs Godliness is the greatest gain for that it hath the promise both of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 See Deut. 29.9 5. Again have not many of us done something this way already If we would not lose the things we have wrought then let us go through-stitch with out work O let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not O my Friends how sad it is to faint and tire in the way to Heaven As it 's the portion of such to lie down in sorrow Let us therefore fear as the Apostle exhorts in Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any should seem to come short of it That we should have been once in a fair way for Heaven but since we were not careful to hold on our way and therefore have fallen short at last O how would such thoughts eternally torment us Blessed be God I may say in reference to many of you as the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5.12 That this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand Wherein if you continue and persevere you shal ere long see the work of Grace in your souls crowned with Glory And I am perswaded am confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in many of your souls will perform will carry on the same unâ—il the day of Jesus Christ And therefore gird up the loins of your minds up and be doing for now is your Salvation nearer than when first ye believed 6. I add but this one consideration more The more pains you are at here in your life-time in working out your Salvation the more peace and comfort may you expect in the hour of death The rest of the labouring man is sweet They that now are taking most pains for Heaven when they come to dye enter into peace indeed O the vast difference betwixt those who in fear have wrought out their salvation here and those that have wrought out their destruction without fear We shall see a difference betwixt these one day And as I have told you often I tell you this once more It is better better a thousand thousand degrees to go toiling and sweating to go sighing and weeping yea or bleeding to Heaven than to go slugging and sleeping or to go singing and dancing to Hell Now perhaps some of you are ready to say These are weighty considerations and we are now convinced how much it is our duty and our wisdom to set about this work and therefore we resolve upon it if you would give us the best direction you can about it Here I would close up this subject with some directions but first let me give you two or three necessary cautions 1. Take heed of having your heads hearts and hands too deeply engag'd in the World They that make that their great study and business to be rich in this World take a ready way to destroy their souls 1 Tim. 6.9 Many in
their over eager desires to embrace this present World have let Heaven go have lost that for ever 2. Take heed of following mens examples further than you see them to follow the Rule of God's Word the world is ever ful of bad examples if we would walk safely we must walk by Rule If we think it enough only to do as the most there is little hopes of our working out our salvation Matt. 7.13 The word of Christ must judge you hereafter O let it guide you here As many as walk according to this Rule peace shall be upon them and mercy In matters of Religion of Salvation believe none follow none further than there is ground for their opinions and practices in God's written Word Were we to follow mens examples or mens traditions in matters of Religion besides the Scriptures then will not this follow viz. That the Scriptures are not a perfect Rule as the Papists teach that it must be eeked out with unscriptural traditions and the commandments or documents of men And do but once admit this and we shall have no certain Rule at all 3. Take heed of consultiâ—â— here with flesh and blood In the matters of our Salvation not the Flesh who is ever at that Master spare thy self but Conscience informed out of God's Word must be our Counsellor Our souls interest and our carnal interest are many times cross to one another Hence it is our Saviour so much insists on the duties of self-denial and taking up the Cross Yea he further tells us He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it You know great works are seldom perfected at a small charge A rich Mine it will cost a man something before he comes to it but when he has found it it soon recompenseth him for all his former pains and expences both Heaven and Salvation is such a Treasure though we should lose all our earthly comforts this would certainly repair all our losses and make and enrich our souls for ever 4. Take heed of delaying to set to this work Oh! have we not delayed too long Have we not lost time and lost special opportunities lost such advantages for carrying on this work as for any thing we know we may never enjoy again It is high time now to awake out of sleep to shake off Spiritual sloath to apply our selves to the work in good earnest who knows but the day of our visitation the time of our life and of God's patience may be very near an end It may be the eleventh hour However the longer it is ere we set to our work the more difficulty we shall find in it I now come to the Directions 1. See that you understand your work Be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Yea study to be filled with the knowledge of his Will Rest not in good meanings My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge Hos 4.6 â—ee here though bare knowledge cannot save one yet many a one is destroyed for lack of knowledge Beloved though we may not be permitted to preach publickly yet I know not that it would be any crime for us to instruct such in private as repair to us for assistance and advice O that poor souls were as ready to make use of us as we are willing to afford them the best help we can 2. Be sure your Ground-work be good Build on the Rock Christ so indeed you need not fear but your Work will stand Other Foundation can no man lay If ye build besides this Rock or build partly on Christ and partly on your selves the work will come to nought We are quite lost and ruined in our selves that we must be taken off from our own bottoms brought out of our selves to Jesus Christ or we cannot be saved 3. Do all in Christ's strength Phil. 3.13 This way the Apostle Paul went to work Then the work of our Salvation is like to go forward when we have Christ the Saviour putting to his helping hand and joyning with us O as ever you would have your work to prosper be sure you take Christ along with you 4. As Noah being moved with fear fell to work and prepared an Ark to the saving of himself and of his house so let us work out our Salvation with fear We should have a reverent fear towards God to quicken us to duty and to awe and make us exceeding serious in duty Again we should have a jealous fear of Satan and our own sinful deceitful hearts to look narrowly to them who like Sanballat and Tobiah will do but what they can to hinder and take us off our work 5. Labour much with God in prayer Thus there were hopes the work would be going forward Observe what immediately follows the Text It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure When it could â—â—â—aid of Paul Behold he prayeth then was Ananias â—â—nt to confirm him that he might receive his sight and be filled with the holy Ghost Acts 9.11 17. The Work is great to work out your Salvation and it is possible you may want some helps you have had yea and meet with greater hindrances new difficulties in it O pray in strength to carry you thorow It may be you shall not have liberty to hear so much to quicken you the more to prayer You may have fewer hearing-opportunities that you shall have more time to pray 6. Up and be doing when you can find the Spirit at work in your hearts Attend to the motions of God's Spirit This is a special season not to be let slip when we have an offer of his co-operating Grace 7. Do all as in the sight of God Set the Lord ever before you Eye-service is a fault in our servants condemned Eph. 6.6 but a vertue in God's servants Indeed could we but ply our work while God's eye is on us we should never be idle or ill-employed 8. Let out the strength of your spirits in the weighty matters of God's Law and not about trivial unnecessary things Such things as God no where requires of which he sayes In vain do they worship me after the traditions of men If we make our selves busie in building hay and stubble on the Foundation our work shall be burnt and we shall suffer loss 9. Improve the day time God hath alotted to you wherein to work The day of Grace O that we had known our day we have had a large space and a fair season of working granted to us and yet I am afraid that as to the most of us little of our work is done The consideration of our former loss of time should cause us henceforward to double out diligence Now let not a day pass over your heads wherein you do not some way further thâ—â—â—â—â—rk of your salvation Especially improve the Lorâ—â— Day Sabbath-dayes are dayes of resting from outward labours from
is the singular goodness of God to his People in blessing them where no hope is and his remarkable Judgement upon the Wicked their Oppressors in making void their great hopes and frustrating their wicked works by making his Church the true Palm-tree Quae sub pondere crescit The more load you lay on the less they feel it Nay instead of groaning under it they grow under it So that it seems that Promise made to the Church Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail is a meiosis They shall not only not prevail against it but it shall even prevail against them That Promise in Mark 10.30 is not made good only to the Children of God in their comforts but even to the Church of God in its Children an hundred fold with persecution I know not what power there is in sufferings over the spirits of men but I believe it may be said of some Martyrs as of Sampson that he killed so that they have converted more at their death than in their lives The Book of Martyrs is not wanting in examples of that kind And as their sufferings work by way of affecting so their courage and constancy in suffering work by way of convincing convinces the very Adversary of the goodness and righteousness of their cause All men will wonder and judge it a strong delusion indeed if men should adventure to dye for Humour or Fancy However though the way how it comes to pass is not so clear yet the thing is undeniable And when we have done our best to find out the reasons of it yet the Hand the extraordinary Hand of God must be owned and confessed to be in it 2. That the afflictions that are upon a Believer do alwayes fall out to his advantage 1. To the advantage of his comforts Tribulation doth at some distance work Hope Rom. 5.3 4. Now Hope is accompanied with great Consolation Believers are bidden to rejoyce when they are made partakers of Christs sufferings 1 Pet. 4.13 And to count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 And sure I am the Children of God have found by experience that as God hath encreased their Afflictions so he hath sensibly multiplied their Comforts which sayes Dr. Preston somewherâ— is the meaning of that Promise Mark 10.30 they shall receive an hundred fold with Persecutions i. e. the more their Tryals abound the more their Comforts shall abound It is ordinary with our gracious God to make up outward and temporal losses with inward and spiritual supplies and to recompence outward trouble and affliction with inward refreshings and consolations He usually appeareth most to his People when the world and the good things thereof are least in sight Though he may seem to speak roughly to them many times by his providences as Joseph to his brethren yet at the same time he puts corn into their sacks comfort into their souls yea and that so much the more comfort too 2 Cor. 1.5 as the sufferings of Chrâ—st abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2. To the advantage of their Graces These God exerciseth confirmeth and enlargeth by afflictions Tribulation worketh Patience Patience Experience Experience Hope Rom. 5.3 by this lust comes to be purged out Psa 116.67 Temptations resisted Sin prevented Duty performed Earth despised Heaven desired Self denied and Christ Exalted The enemies of God's People hack and hew them by oppression reproaches persecutions Why this doth but furbish their Graces square and fit them to be a spiritual building unto God The Devil tempts them to destroy and damn them And hereby they are brought nearer to God set upon the greater watchfulness gain the better experience and are brought into an higher esteem of the blood of Christ Afflictions do one way or other fall out to the advantage of a Believers Graces 3. To the advantage of their Glory Though God do not properly reward men for their suffering yet happily it may be said he will reward according to their sufferings If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him saith the Scripture and it seems that according to degrees of sufferings God will give degrees of Glory What shall we have says Peter that have suffered such things that have forsaken all and followed thee verily says our Saviour every one that hath forsaken houses c. shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting life but ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matt. 19.27 28 29. It will not repent thee Christian of thy low mean despised afflicted condition in the world when every affliction thou hast suffered for Christ shall be as a Sparkling-Jewel to give a luster to thy Crown of Glory Doubtless if there be degrees of Glory as we have reason to conclude there are Gods suffering Servants and amongst them especially his Martyrs shall sit down in the chiefest Mansions and the highest Rooms in the Kingdom 3. That the sufferings of Gods Ministers in the general do many times fall out to the furtherane of the Gospel Here are two things that I might speak to 1. Afflictions make them the better Christians It may be that through great intentness upon publick administrations and constant cares and pains in feeding the Flock the Shepherds may sometimes have neglected themselves and the state of their own souls It may be they may not have studyed their own hearts nor attended the particular concernments of their own souls so as they might have done as though one should say in Solomons words whether it be the direct meaning of them I do not say Cant. 1.6 They have made me keeper of the Vineyard but mine own Vineyard have I not kept And it may seem good to God by afflictions to bring them home to set them a task to do in their own hearts to quicken them to the study of their own souls 2. Affliction makes them the better Ministers And that will be for the advantage of the Gospel No such Ministers as they that are train'd up in the school of affliction It was meet says the Apostle that the Captain of our salvation should be made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 And indeed to allude to that even these Captains in the Church-militant even our Ministers are much perfected and qualified for their work by sufferings How shall he be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of others who is not tempted as they are to allude to the Apostle Heb. 4.15 Spiritual afflictions conflicts temptation do excellently qualifie a Minister of the Gospel and enable him to comfort the afflicted succour the tempted strengthen the weak answer objections resolve doubts and to rescue from Satan those that are taken captive by him And troubles from without these do also through the blessing of God and the Spirit of God sanctifying them make the better Ministers too Who can instruct unto Faith and Patience and Hope better than they whose condition in the world hath
and demolish the strong-holds of Satan The conscientious Physitian when he seeth thâ— health and life of the Patient committed to him how diligent is he in watching with and attending his Patient how curious exact in observing the pulse the symptomes workings nature and strength of the disease how careful and diligent to apply proper Remedies and Physick sometimes Corrosives sometimes Cordials and all to restore health and prolong life to his Patient How much more diligent should Ministers Physicians of souls be in observing the several Maladies and Soul-diseases of their People and to apply proper Remedies so many persons so many patients so many sins so many diseases some are brutish and unteachable some are weak others dull some perverse and many ungrateful How should they endeavour to make the brutish to understand to confirm the weak and make them strong to quicken the dull and make them zealous and fervent to allure the perverse and and make them tractable to win the ungrateful and make them kind what is the body to the soul or life temporal in a troublesome world to Life Eternal in unspeakable Happiness the Excellency of the object should heighten our esteem and double our diligence Pretious pretious Souls lie at the Stake One Soul is of more value than ten thousand worlds Jesus Christ shed his pretious Blood for the Redemption of souls but not for the honours dignitys riches of the world Now either Heaven or Hell And how should the joyes of the one and the torments of the other and the eternity of both add indefatigableness to our labours unwearied vigilancy to our perspective care invincibleness to our courage irrefragableness to our arguments â—â—d steep our perswasions in tears and all to keep you from lodging your selves in everlasting burnings and bring you to an Enjoyment of the beatifical Vision of the blessed God! In this decriped age of the world the Devils seem to be possessed with some spirits worse than themselves they turn every stone they improve the dregs of their malice the height of their power if by any means by secret perswasions by hostile invasions by strange delusions turning themselves into Angels of Light that they may drag one soul to Hell and shall not Ministers take much more pains to bring them to Heaven Paul was unwearied in his doing invincible in his suffering How many Cities and Countries did he enlighten with the Gospel Jerusalem Illyricum Damascus Arabia Antioch Arhaja Cilicia Cyprus Epirus Galatia Mysia Lycaonia Pamphilia Physidia Phrygia Selutia Syria Troas Ministers should make the Salvation of Souls their study their care their imployment their practice their whole business We must wait on our Ministry Rom. 12.7 give our selvs continually to it Acts 6.4 We must fulfill our Ministry Col. 4.7 The soundness fatness fruitfulness of the Flock is an honour to the Shepherd The recovered health strength life of a sick weak dying patient is an honour to the Physician It is the glory of Kings according to the rules of the great States-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ease and heal their Cities and Kingdoms of those miseries and calamities they groan and languish under to secure their present peace and prosperity to enlarge their bounds and of small to make them great If the Roman Emperour gloried when he said of Rome Lateritiam inveni marmoream reliqui I found it built with Brick but left it built with Marble So it is a great honour for Ministers to do much good to their People to strengthen the diseased to heal the sick to bind up the broken to bring back that which was driven away and seek that which was lost Ezek. 34.16 When of Lead Brass Iron and Tin they make them Gold and Jewels for God when of Lyons they make them Lambs of Rebels they make them loyal Subjects beating their spears into pruning hooks and swords into plowshares when of a barren Wilderness they make them a fruitful Vineyard How exceeding great will that Glory be which God will give at the last day unto his faithful Ministers when they shall stand forth before God his Angels and all men Andrew bringing with him his Achaians whom by his Ministry he hath gained unto Christ John with his Asians Thomas with his Indians Peter with his Jews and Paul with his Gentiles and all the pious and faithful Ministers of Christ with all the Children God hath given them in their respective Ages and Generations and these shall be to them a Crown of Glorifying in the presence of Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thes 2.19 and the time for the accomplishing of all this at the longest is very short Death if no other providence may sooner than they are aware of throw them into an incapacity of doing any more good unto their People how should they labour to do much in a little while the grand importance of the work the numerous and potent enemies that oppose and hinder it the uncertainty and shortness of time to do it in should make us wonderfully diligent say and do with Paul We seek not yours but you accounting the winning of souls to Christ our greatest gain and glory Sed heu Quantum distamus ab illo how many say in their practice We seek not you but yours seek the fleece and neglect the flock How do Ministers run and ride cap and cringe to get Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments to multiply to themselves Church-revenues heaping Steeple upon Steeple as the Gyants of old Pelion upon Ossa and upon both these Olympus to fill their Coffers to maintain their Pomp their full Tables to provide portions for their Children or which is worse to administer more abilities of greater sinning against God and this great and necessary work undone the diseased not strengthened the sick not healed the broken not bound up that which was driven away not brought back that not sought which was lost Wâ— to such Shepherds of Israel of England and of all Christian Kingdoms in the world that feed themselves that eat the fat and cloath themselves with the wooll but feed not the Flock but with force and cruelty rule over them Ezek. 34.2 3 4. How desperate and dreadful is that Charge God layeth upon the Priests of Judah his Watchmen are blind they are all ignorant they are all dumb Dogs they cannot bark sleeping lying down and loving to slumber yea they are greedy Dogs that can never have enough they are Shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for gain from his own quarter Come say they I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Isa 56.10 11 12. Time will not suffer me to open and enlarge upon these words I leave them to your meditations and observations pardon my trespassing upon your patience the pains is mine the profit is yours 2. If Ministers are not certain of a continued
Refidence amongst their People be you then exhorted to make good use and improvement of present Gospel-Enjoyments you are not sure of a constant enjoyment of pious able and painful Ministers and the uncertainty of the future should make us lay in store of provision at the present lest by neglecting present opportunities we run our selves upon the damage of a future necessity The Jews were togather twice so much Manna on the sixth day as on other dayes because on the Seventh there was none to be found The Mariner hoiseth Sails to the present seasonable and right Gales of Wind. The Husbandman layeth hold on the present seasonable weather for the reaping and gathering in of the Fruits of the Earth And all of you in Summer lay in Provision for Winter Present Opportunities neglected may not in the future be enjoyed No Manna could be found on the Seventh-day the Wind turns and stands contrary the Summer is ended no harvest no reaping in Winter A People that enjoy a faithful and painful Ministry have the Manna of God's Word falling round about them they have the pleasant Gales of God's Spirit to waft them nearer to Heaven they have an harvest day of and pleasant seasons to make provision for Glory but if you neglect present Seasons you run desperate hazzards and adventure your precious souls upon great uncertainties He that sends his Embassadours to day may call them back to morrow God hath threatned his Spirit shall not alwayes strive with men The tongue that is speaking to you this day will be tyed up and silenced before the next Sabbath How miserable would it have been with Egypt in the seven years of Famine if there had not been vast provisions and innumerable store laid up in the seven years of plenty How miserable would they be pintched with hunger and cold in winter who have not laid in full and sutable provisions in Summer How miserable will they be in a famine of God's Word who have made no provision in times of plenty To be without Ministry and Ministers without World and Ordinances is the most miserable and destructive want in the world Where there is no Vision the People perish A People without a Pastour are without a Watchman to warn and awaken them without Lights to enlighten them without Guides to direct and lead them without Salt to season them without Physicians to heal them without Shepherds to watch over them to feed and defend them and the condition of such must needs be a miserable condition And to have such are as spoken of in Isa 56.10 11 12. blind and dumb covetous and greedy and drunkards or such as are mentioned in Ezek. 34. that are dispersers of the Flock not dispensers of the Word and Ordinances with force and cruelty to rule over you will be your cross not your comfort The actions of publick persons are very influentiall as is the Praetor such are the Citizens as is the Pedagogue such are the Children as is the Pastor such are the People like People and like Priest and how can there chuse but be Whoredom in Ephraim and Defilement in Israel when the Priests commit lewdness Am. 6.9 10. No wonder if that people be made a prey and brought to nought whose Watchmen are blind whose Preachers are dumb whose Champions are lame whose Physicians are sick whose Salt is unsavory whose Teachers are untaught whose Guides are ignorant of the Way whose Pastours are Impostors whose Pillars are Pollars fleecing but not feeding the Flock Doth not hence spring the ruine of the Church the contempt of the Ministry and all Church Orders and Ordinances the corruption of manners a sinck of sin and deluge of prophaness the starving of Charity the debasement of Religion the hazarding of your Graces the endangering of your soules for ever And for a Christian now to order his conversation aright it requires that God's Word should dwell richly in him in all Wisdom and to be preserved safe and found in infecting times it is expedient and necessary that he be fraught with the impregnable Cordials and Plague-expelling Antidotes of God's most holy Word This was the Preservative and Security of that good King Psal 119.11 I have hid thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee Therefore my Brethren for the glory of God for the honour of Christ the credit and ornament of your Profession the rejoycing of your dying Minister and your own Salvation See that you walk in the strength of that Doctrine and Word I have almost for the space of these four years delivered unto you as the Prophet Elijah in the strength of the Cake until you come unto the Mount of God 1 Kings 19.8 That whether I come again unto you or be absent yet I may hear of your affairs that your conversation be as becomes the Gospel that ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel Now I have done with the Sore A Ministers Departure from his Poople I should now shew you the Plaister and apply it But of this by and by SERMON XIV Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified These words I have told you are part of Pauls Valediction to his Beloved Ephesians the Parts and Arguments whereof I have briefly shewed you In the words you have a twofold Remedy in opposition to a twofold Malady The first Malady was Affliction and Persecution mentioned in ver 29. for which the Apostle prescribeth God as the Sovereign Cure and Remedy And now I commend you to God The second Malady is Infection and Heresie mentioned ver 30. for which the Apostle prescribeth God's Word as the best Preservative and Remedy And now I commend you to God and the Word which Remedy is further implified by the title given to it Grace the Word of his Grace 2dly From the precious effects and benefits of the Word first Edification secondly Life Eternal in these words which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified Then the relative name Paul gives to the Ministers of Ephesus Brethren from which word you may remember I gave you this Observation Doct. That true and real Christians are Brethren It is not only true in respect of Ministers but of all Christians Pastors and People I have demonstrated it briefly and briefly improved it by way of Application But then secondly from the Provision of Security and Comfort that Paul commendeth his Ephesians to at his departure you had this Doctrine Doct. That God and the Word of his Grace is the best Security and Comfort a departing Minister can commit his People unto You may remember I took this Doctrine in two and gave you this Note or Doctrine Doct. That Ministers cannot alwayes expect a continued and uninterrupted Residence amongst their
Son Is he a pleasant Child Since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him and I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord. And this tender compassion is not a bare pitty but an helping relieving succouring Pitty Many have compassion but want ability to help and succour others have ability to help but want compassion but God hath both Mercy to pitty and Ability to help and save his People and therefore we have frequently an Act of Deliverance joyned with an Act of Mercy When Hazael King of Syria oppressed Israel all the dayes of Jehoahaz the Lord was gracious unto them and had compassion on them and would not destroy them 2 Kings 13.22 23. And the reason why God did not destroy the Jews in the Wilderness was because of his Mercy But he being full of Compassion for gave their Iniquity destroyed them not Psal 78.38 Mercy steps in and pleades prevailingly against Justice for the preservation of a People And this Compassion of God God's People have pleaded with him for deliverance Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowels and Mercies towards me are they restrained O Lord thou art our Father and our Redeemer Isa 63.15 16. This Mercy is a sin-pardoning-Mercy And this will be a refuge to fly unto when ye are pursued by an accusing condemning Conscience for sin committed this is a Cordial of greater comfort than sin a cause of sorrow a Plaister of a larger proportion than the wounds of sin upon your Conscience it as far excells thy Scarlet-dyed sins as the distance is betwixt East and West As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Psal 103.12 compared to the height of heaven above the earth As the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is Mercy to them that fear Him Psal 103.11 And again My thoughts are not your thoughts nor my wayes as your wayes for as the Heaven is higher than the Earth so are my Wayes higher than your wayes and my Thoughts than your thoughts and therefore he will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 8 9. Compared to a Sea that can swallow and cover Mountains as well as mole-hills Mic. 7.19 This Sea of Mercy covered Noahs Drunkenness Lots Incest Davids Adultery and Murder Mary Magdalens Whoredom Peters Denial of Christ and Pauls Persecution and covers the mountains and multitudes of sins of all God's People in all ages of the world and will be a Refuge for your security against the guilt of sin if you flee unto it this is a Refuge to secure you against the violence of the proud Psal 86.14 15 16. This is a Mercy so lasting that is everlasting In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting Kindness will I have Mercy on thee saith the Lord Isa 54.7 8 9 10. Christ is so merciful a Shepherd as in the dayes of his flesh he had compassion on the multitude because they were sheep without a Shepherd and now he sits upon the Throne of Glory he hath not laid this tenderness to his Church aside but will either provide fresh supplies or support and preserve his People under want of ordinary means by an extraordinary manner And to this Mercy I commend you that as a shield will defend you from the Curses Divinations Inchantments Anathema's of your enemies that will destroy your Persecutors pitty you under all your pressures redeem you from your miseries â—ecure you against the guilt of sin committed and provide for your want and relieve you by some ordinary or extraordinary way 3. This is to commit you to the greatest fidelity They that will defend and secure others must be faithful as well as merciful Faithless defenders are worse than open pursuers they rob us of the safety we expected and expose us to the danger we least feared Jaels peace was Sisera's death And how often did faithless Dalilah attempt to betray Sampson to the Philistines Judg. 16. And David must not lodge in Keilah because the Inhabitants would deliver him up 1. Sam. 23.11 12. Ahabs Children lost their heads by the unfaithfulness of their Guardians 2 King 10. How many famous and strong Castles well-fenced Towns and formidable Armies have been destroyed by the treachery of faithless Guards Commanders Open fields have more security with Faithfulness than the strongest walls with Treachery Nothing safe committed to the custody of faithless persons Orphans wronged and defrauded your Estates imbezeled your Persons betrayed your Lives exceedingly endangered and what comfort or security can there be in such Guardians or Protectors But to be committed to such Keepers whom Favour cannot win nor Preferments corrupt nor Rewards bribe nor Fear nor Threatening nor Dangers discourage but remain resolute and faithful against all is great Security and Comfort And such an one is God He is the faithful God faithful to make good his Promises faithful to preserve whatsoever is committed to him The Apostle would not have committed the Ministers the Affairs and Concernment of the Church of Ephesus to God if he had not been a faithful God Christ when he dyed said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And Peter exhorts the afflicted Christians in his dayes to commit their souls unto God as unto a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 And how many Martyrs when they have become whole offerings to God have given their souls in charge to God Father into thy Hands I commit my spirit whatsoever is laid up in the hands of God is safe and secure He cannot be bribed by Promises Rewards or any other way to surrender any thing that is committed to his custody He is faithful to the least Beast of our Herds to the least hair on your heads Luke 21.18 And if he be faithful in the least he will not be unfaithful in the greatest He is faithful to keep your persons in dangers not to give you up to the rage and ruine of your enemies The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the Earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his Enemies Psal 41.2 And David prayes that God would secure him against false Accusers Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies for false witnesses are risen up against me Psal 27.12 He is faithful to preserve you from Temptation He binds up Satan that he cannot tempt you when he would and when he gives Satan leave to tempt yet God will be your refuge in the temptation God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear but with the temptation will find out a way for your deliverance 1 Cor. 10.13 Thus he prayed that Peters faith failed not Luke 22.31 his Grace was sufficient for Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 he is
convinced the Jews Acts 18.24 28. Do not therefore fear the weakness of your parts or learning This God to whom I commit both can and will make you baffle your learned adversaries as of old if he see it good But if he deny you ability to speak for it he will give you an heart will courage and strength to suffer for the Truth 2. Here is a fulness of the Gifts of Grace Gifts without Grace may adorn us but never sanctifie and save us Grace is of indispensable necessity no Grace here no Glory hereafter Holiness is the Suburbs Heaven is the City and as we pass through the Suburbs into the City so through Grace we must pass into Glory Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God And without Holiness no man can see the Lord. Now here is a full and free Fountain to furnish you that want All the glorified Saints in Heaven were once by nature as empty of Grace and Holiness as any of you now are and from this Fountain they have been supplied and God is the same still in the freeness fulness and willingness to communicate his Grace to every hungring and thirsting soul There is nothing wanting but a spiritual sence of your want of it your misery without it and an earnest desire and endeavour after it Such are invited Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come And let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him come and take of the Water of Life God doth not only invite you but earnestly desire that you would come The full breasts of the mother are in pain until they be drawn by her babe And these full breasts seem to be in pain until you come and therefore makes an open and general Proclamation that every one that comes should have a full and free supply Here is a fulness of veriety without price Isa 55.1 Ho every one that is athirst come come ye to the Waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy Wine and Milk without money and without price Here is a Fountain full open and free to every thirsting soul for the Poor as well as for the Rich for the Mean as well as for the Noble for the Simple as well as for the Wise It is open and free to Parents and Children to Masters and Servants Here is a fulness of variety and all kinds of Grace He is the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 Here is Grace to enlighten your understandings Grace to bow and make obedient your stubborn wills Grace to soften your hard hearts and make your benummed consciences tender Grace to untie your tongues and make the dumb to speak for God and to God in prayers and praises to him Here is Grace for every condition for Liberty and Imprisonments for Peace and Persecution for Sickness and Health The fulness suitableness and freeness of this Fountain is not only security and comfort against your wants but your weakness and decayes of Grace also It may be many of you have upon your serious retirements and contemplations of your spiritual estate such perplexing and disponding thoughts as these complaining How shall my weak Graces be preserved from perishing in the midst of so many and strong corruptions within me how can my weak Graces endure the terrible assaults and furious onsets of Satan how can they hold out in these long temptations how can I a poor weak and bruised Reed stand in tempestuous winds when the tallest Cedars in God's Labanon have been sadly rent and broken how can this smoaking flax but be wholly extinguished when so many bright flames have been quenched by the floods of affâ—â—tions It is impossible that a spark of fire should be kept alive in the midst of a Sea And how much more will it be thus with me when for ought I know I may want the publick Ordinances of God from whence as from an Armory I was supplyed with Furniture and Armor against Temptations from whence as from a rich furnished Shop I was supplied with Sovereign Cordials to relieve and succour my weak and fainting Graces Can the babe live when the food is withheld or such given as is unsuitable not nutritive How shall I a weak Babe in Christ live when I want the sincere Milk of God's Word or husks given me instead of the bread of my Father's house True it is Sirs that Grace in the midst of many and strong Corruptions within and Temptations without is like a spark of fire in the midst of the Sea And when the means of spiritual life and growth are removed life and growth must decay but what is impossible with men is possible with God He is a Fountain of Grace to support and strengthen your weakness as well as to supply your wants He that suffered the towering Cedars of his Labanon to be broken with mighty winds can keep thy bruised Reed from being broken He that suffered the bright flames of Love and fervent Affection in others in part and for a time to be cooled can keep thy smoaking flax from being quenched He that creates something of nothing that brings good out of evil can and will preserve thy weakest Graces in a Sea of corruptions he that preserves the weakest Babes in Nature will preserve his smallest Babes in Grace Yea here is that God that will glorifie his Power in your weakness and after ye have suffered a while make you perfect strengthen stablish and settle you 1 Pet. 5.10 You nor your Graces are not in your own keeping they and you are kept by the mighty Power of God to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.8 God is stronger than all and no man nor any thing shall pull you nor your Graces out of his hand John 10.29 30. This Grace will sustain you in all your distresses and make the Twelling Jordan and Red Sea of Affliction foordable and carry you through He will send supplies in every siege and make his Grace sufficient for us in all our buffetings He will proportion his dealings to your strength or strengthen your shoulders according to your burdens Here is Grace to make the weak strong for strong corruptions strong temptations strong difficulties not only to encounter with them but to conquer and subdue them This Grace is Armour of proof Reproach-proof Prison-proof Tribulation-proof Death-proof this will make you to rejoyce in Tribulation that you are accounted worthy to suffer for the Name of JESUS In a word it is a Fountain of Grace both for supply and strength to bear your charges till you come to Glory 7thly To commit you to God for Comfort and Security is to commit you to him who stands in the fulness and sweetness of all Relations to his Church and People Relations are of the smallest Entity but of the greatest Efficacy The bowels of love tenderness and affection of an Husband a Wife of Parents and Children are of
God's Grace is great Comfort and Security for a departing Minister to commend his People unto This is the second part of the Remedy I shall be brief herein Now I commend you to this Word 1. Because it is of indispensible Necessity Happiness is the great principle Nature hath implanted in every creature all its motions are in tendency to its rest and tranquility Now the happiness and chiefest good of the rational Creatures is God who is the Fountain and supream End of all good to enjoy him is an Heaven to his People here on Earth and the Heaven of heavens to Saints and Angels to behold and enjoy his beatificial Vision And though the light of Nature works of Creation and Providence do manifest that there is a God his Goodness Lordship and Sovereignty over all as to leave men inexcusable Rom. 1.19 yet are they not sufficient to give that Knowledge of God and his Will which is necessary to Salvation 1 Cor. 1.21 2.13 14. How little doth the Book of Nature teach us what an one God is that there is a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity three Persons and but one God every of the three Persons God the Father God the Son God the holy Ghost God yet not three Gods but one God! How little doth it teach us how this God will be worshiped how little doth it acquaint us with the excellent state of our Creation our miserable Apostacy how God came to be displeased with man and how he must be reconciled it tells us nothing of our Redemption from Sin Satan the Wrath of God by the Incarnation Death and Suffering of the Son of God it saith nothing of the Day of Judgement and Resurrection of our Bodies it tells us nothing and though it may possibly acquaint us with an immortal State yet what that Happiness is and what that Misery is how we came to be deprived naturally of that Happiness and how it must be recovered and who they be that shall enjoy it it saith nothing all which must be known before they can be believed Rom. 10. and they must be believed before we can be saved John 3.16 And therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and by divers manners to reveal himself and declare his Will to his Church Heb. 1.1 and afterward for the better preserving and propagating the Truth and for more sure establishment comfort of the Church against the corruptions of the flesh the malice of Satan and the World that she be not drowned in prophaness dejected by persecution blinded by ignorance misled by errours poysoned by heresies superstition and idolatry it pleased God to commit the same to writing which makes the sacred Scriptures most necessary those former wayes of God's revealing his will to his People being now ceased The Sun is not more necessary to enlighten warm and make fruitful this inferiour the World than the Word of God is for the World better to want the Sun in the Heavens than the Word of God in the World 2. I commend you to this Word because it is a compleat Word it is perfect as well as necessary such is the perfection of this Word that nothing is to be added to it nor diminished from it Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the Word I command you nor diminish from it Yea if an Angel from Heaven should preach and reveal another word than this he is accursed Gal. 1.8 9. God threatens that if any man shall add to the things wrote in his Word to add to him all the Plagues wrote in the Book And if any man shall take away from the Words of the Prophecy God will take away his part out of the Book of Life Rev. 22.18 19. all which Commands and Threatenings had not been given if God's Word had not been perfect it is compleatly perfect for the information of our understanding and will in things to be believed and for our direction in things to be avoided and practised 2 Tim. 3.17 18. All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto every good Work This teacheth you all things necessary to be known and believed in order to Salvation that there is a God and what an one this God is it teacheth you that there is a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity that there is three Persons and but one God every one of the Persons God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost-God yet not three God's but one God It teacheth you what an one God is in his Attributes in his Works of Nature and of Grace This tells you what was our Primitive Excellency and Happiness in Creation our Deformity and Misery in our Fall This perfectly declares our Redemption from Sin Satan Gods Wrath by the Incarnation Death and Passion of Jesus Christ the Son of God that as Mediator and Redeemer he is the Priest Prophet and King of his Church what he hath done suffered and purchased for Us Pardon and Justification Peace with God and Reconciliation Adoption Grace and Glory It assures us of a Day of Judgement and Resurrection of all Persons from the Grave Of the blessed Estate of the Godly of the Misery of the Ungodly and the Eternity of both This directs you in things to be avoided all Duties of your several Relations to be practised Duties of your general and particular Calling Duties of Piety in the first Table Duties of Righteouss Charity and Temperance in the second Table as Husbands and Wives as Children and Parents as Masters and Servants according to your Relations of Consanguinity Affinity Friendship and Neighbourhood and therefore we are commanded to lay the Word up in our hearts richly in all Wisdom Col. 2.16 and to speak of it to our Children when we sit down in our houses walk by the way when we lye down and when we rise up Deut. 11.18 19. Yea Kings and supream Authorities of a Nation must reade in this Book all their dayes that they may fear God and administer Justice and Judgement to the People that they may relieve the Oppressed to be Encouragements and Defenders of the Good and Terrours to Evil-doers 3. I commend you to this Word because of its daily Usefulness and Profitableness every day and in every condition it is useful and profitable unto you and very suitable 1. It is a Light to enlighten and guide you How useful and comfortable is Light to man shut up in a dark Dungeon How useful and beneficial is a Light to a Traveller when the night is very dark the Moon and Stars covered with pitchie Clouds the way very miry and dirty dangerous by pits and precipices and easie to be mistaken By nature your souls are like a dark Dungeon having no saving knowledge of God of your selves your sin and misery nor of Christ the Sovereign Remedy But this Word
assures you are kept by the Power of God to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 6. It is a Word to revive and quicken you in soul-deadning times and in soul-deadning sins The Faith of God's People begins oftentimes to stagger when the proud are called happy and they that work wickedness are set up and they that tempt God are delivered Mal. 3.14 15. This staggered Jeremiah Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal treacherously Chap. 12.1 And David when he saw the ungodly prosper in the Earth that they are not in trouble as other men that they are not plagued like other men said He had cleansed his heart in vain in vain had he washed his hands in Innocency Psal 73.5 12 13. but when he came into the Sanctuary of God and consulted the Word of God then he understood their end v. 27 28. Read to this end and purpose Psa 37. and consider it well and it will revive you under these dispondencies of soul When Afflictions like waters upon fire fall on you and deaden your Graces and Comforts this Word will revive you and them this is my comfort in my affliction Thy Word hath quickened me And again Unless thy Law had been my delight I should have perished in my affliction Psal 119.50 92. And sin committed will deaden your Comforts your Graces Great sins are like a great blow upon the head astonishes a man layes him in a swond so great sins lay your Graces Comforts in a swound but this Word will revive you be as Aqua vitae to you David's sins of Adultery and Murder laid him in a spiritual swound well nigh for the space of a year if not all out a year or more he repented not of his sins in all this time but when Nathan the Prophet came to him with the Word of God David then revived 2 Sam. 12. And so for comfort under sin 7. This Word is an Antidote of Sovereign Efficacy to preserve you in the worst of times When a man lives in an Air in a City in a Town in a Family that are infected with the Plague he will take a Cordial to fortifie himself against the Infection Infection of an house with the Plague is dreadful to the Inhabitants and to have the Plague-sore upon the body is a sad affliction but to be infected with the Plague in our souls is worse that brings temporal this eternal death unless cured or prevented Now you live in an infected and an infecting world amongst corrupting and corrupted persons and the danger is great but here is a word that will fortifie you against evil examples promises preferments threatnings and sufferings and keep you from sin make you good in bad times healthy and strong in a bad air I have hid thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119.11 8. This Word will edifie and build up in Grace As we by a constant feeding upon our food of infants a foot long we grow and increase to be men and women of a full stature So when we are babes in Christ new born this Word by a daily feeding upon it by Faith doth nourish us until we come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ our Graces grow and are increased and strengthned according to our feeding upon it Here is Milk for babes Wine for the faint strong meat for them that are strong Christians The builders of an house cut their timber and square their stones and add timber to timber and stone to stone until the house be built up So saith the Apostle this Word is able to build you up it cuts off the remaining knots of sin and polisheth you from the remainders of corruption until you be made fit for the Temple of God in the highest Heavens 9. It will give you an Inheritance amongst them that are sanctified It gives not by way of merit and purchase but it shews you not only the Kingdom of Heaven but points out the way and directs you to it It doth not only shew and lead you that way but fits you for Heaven Unless we be fitted for Heaven we cannot come thither The Lepers must not enter the Camp so long as the Leprosie was upon them And no unclean thing shall enter into Heaven Rev. 21. ult The Temple of Solomon was all squared and fitted in the field before it was brought together to be built up So you must be fitted in the field of Grace before you can be laid in the Temple of Glory This Word then sanctifieth you purgeth the corruptions the sins of Nature this Word strengtheneth and increaseth your Graces it makes you holy with Saints here and will make you happy with them hereafter it brings Heaven and Glory into your souls here and will bring you into Heaven and Glory hereafter and give a possession of that Inheritance which was prepared for you before the foundation of the World purchased for you by the Blood of Jesus an Inheritance far better than all the Crowns and Kingdoms of the World one corner of it is better than a thousand Worlds for firmness purity duration certainty and scituation An Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens for you 1 Pet. 1.4 where you shall have the best society them that are sanctified Abraham Isaac and Jacob all the Prophets Apostles and Children of God both Minister and People shall be gathered as Wheat and safely reconded in the Garners of Glory There shall be no Ishmael to deride and scoff our devotion no Esau to pursue us no Pharoah to oppress us no Ahab to persecute us no Doeg maliciously and falsly to accuse us no Judas to betray us no Devil to tempt us no Sin to wound us All tears shall be wiped away from our eyes and we shall enjoy Him whom to enjoy is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Now my Brethren to this Word that is of such indispensible necessity such compleat perfection and of daily use and advantage as being abundantly filled with all suitable Excellencies and Remedies for your souls in every condition I commend you Here is Light to enlighten and guide you a Touchstone to manifest Doctrines what they are unto you Here is a weapon to defend your selves and conquer your enemies Here is Rain to cool you to soften you to refresh you Here is a Cordial to comfort you to revive and quicken you an Antidote to preserve you Here is Liberty to free you Fire to purge you Food to nourish you your Magna Charta wherein your Laws Priviledges and Immunities are enrolled a Treasury of Comfort a Testament full of Legacies your Souls preservative from Sin and preparative to Glory I have done with the Doctrinal part I come now to the Application And though I have spent my self and happily
diminish from it we may not close with added substantial parts of worship Whatever power a Church hath about natural Circumstances they have none about the substance of worship either to add or take away by putting in or putting out To add new Ordinances or parts of Worship is a breach of the second Commandment The Pharisees ered on this hand Mat. 15.19 teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men they pressed Gods Commandments as indifferent and mens Traditions as necessary God commanded to Honour Father and Mother they teach contrary to this ver 4. this was a diminishing They teach that the washing of hands before meat the cleansing of cups c. as necessary to Salvation this was to err by addition See Rev. 22.18 To add in God's Worship is to make our selves wiser than God and to accuse Christ of unfaithfulness in God's House Moses was a faithful Minister in God's House much more was he who was Mose's Master Well be sâ—re in all your worship that it be according to the Parâ—â—â— shewed in the Mount viz. according to â—he â—â—â—script and Standard of the Scriptures 〈◊〉 very dangerous to offer strange fiâ—â— such as God commands not Levit. 10.2 Give not God cause to say to any of us Who hath required this at your hands 8. Be spiritual and zealous in God's Service Take not God's Name in vain either by vain praying hearing or reading Bring your hearts to and keep them at prayer I will pray with my spirit Psal 25.1 Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Prayer consists more in the elevation of the understanding and desires than in the lifting up of the eyes and hands and so bring your hearts to the preaching and hearing of the Word Rom. 1.9 Paul served God with his spirit in preaching and we should serve God with our spirits in hearing When Paul preached Lydia's heart was opened that she attended to the things spoken by him Acts 16.14 When God's Embassadours deliver their Embassy imploy your understandings to discern your memories to retain your wills to choose your affections to love and delight in your consciences to apply what you hear And so sing Psalms with your heart as well as with your voice Col. 3.16 Singing with Grace in your hearts to the Lord. God complains of those who bring their bodies before him but leave their hearts behind them Isa 29.13 They draw near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but their heart is removed far from me this is a mocking of God Therefore be fervent in spirit when you serve the Lord rest not in bare enjoymment of the Means but get Grace by the Means Labour to enjoy the God of Ordinances in the Ordinances of God God is much displeased with eareless heartless and superficial worship If we offer ignorant heartless and distracted prayers will he accept them Cursed be the Deceiver that hath in his flock a Male and voweth and facrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1.13 14. Well then rest not in a formal customary way of serving God serve him out of Conscience and give him your heart in every duty 9. Maintain an high esteem and make great Conscience of the Lords-Day Keep the whole day holy morning and evening It 's not said remember to keep part of the Sabbath Day But keep the Sabbath viz. the whole Sabbath holy sanctifie it in private as well as in publick in your own houses as well as in Gods House in your Closets as well as in your Families do not only keep a Rest but sanctifie that Rest How By Meditation meditate on the Sabbath of that Sabbatism that remains for the People of God Heb. 4.9 Muse upon the Joys of Heaven which are pure spiritual constant and perpetual Think of the sweet Company you shall have even Angels and Saints besides God and Christ whose Presence makes Heaven Dwell upon your Immunities and Freedom from Sin Temptations of Satan and the World from troubles as Sickness Poverty Crosses and every thing that makes your life uncomfortable Imitate the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ by raising your hearts from Earth and ascending into Heaven by spiritual Comtemplations Moreover continue the day by reading and singing of Psalms attend upon God in publick also let not private duties hinder you from publick neither strive to attend so much upon publick Ordinances as to abridge your selves of private secret Opportunities I think those Christians do much wrong themselvs who spend all the day in attending upon publick prayers and hearing I would not have you strive to hear four or five Sermons a day unless you can take so much time besides as is necessary to meditate of and apply what you hear so order the day that secret Communion with God may fit you for publick and publick Ordinances fit you again for private and secret converse with God It is not much eating but eating moderately and digesting what we eat that encreaseth strength Two or three Sermons seriously heard and ruminated upon in secret do more good than ten Sermons heard without meditation Brethren what shall we think do those sanctifie a Sabbath to the Lord who hear a Sermon and a few prayers and then go to the Alehouse they who drink sleep sport walk or work away the Sabbath all these are forbidden Isa 58.13 Thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight not finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words nor doing thine own works Again Christ and his Disciples did not spend this Day partly in religious Exercises and partly in Recreations or Workings John 20.18 and Acts 20.7 we find there that Christ came amongst the Disciples on the First day and that Paul and the Christians used to spend this Day in Prayer preaching and receiving of Sacraments Moreover God will bless us inwardly and outwardly if we conscienciously observe it Isa 58.14 He will curse us inwardly and outwardly in soul and body if we prophane it See Jer. 17.27 Well then my Brethren do not prefer a Holy-day before the Lords-Day It s sad to think that hundreds should more scruple to work on a Saints-day which is of humane institution than on the Sabbath which is of God's Sirs you of this place have got shall I say an undeserved name of more than ordinary piety but I assure you that if you fall to neglect and prophane the Sabbath as some of our neighbours do you shall lose your very Name I should be very sorry to hear when I am gone that you should prove a Sabbath-breaking-People 10. Make great Conscience of Prayer family and secret Let your houses be Houses of Prayer Those families are called Heathenish Families that call not upon God Psal 79.6 Power out thy Fury upon the Heathen the Families that call not on thy Name Let God have a morning and an evening Sacrifice from you Under the Law God called for the first Fruits and there was a Feast of Ingathering or of the Last Fruits
when the whole harvest was gathered in Oh let God have the first and last of every day How shall your Families be distinguished from your Stables if you do not sanctifie them by Prayer The Creatures which God hath given us for our use they eat drink work and sleep now if we call not upon God daily what difference would there be betwixt our houses and our stables And so enter into your Closets Mat. 6.6 and pray unto your Father which seeth in secret Have you no secret sin to bewail no secret request to put up no particular Mercy to praise God for which you would not have others to know of Is it not a rare Priviledge that we may have liberty to prefer our private Petitions to the King of Heaven every day that we may confess our faults beg pardon ease our heavy hearts by laying them open before that God who will neither upbraid us for our weaknesses wants nor sins Brethren be constant spiritual and fervent in Prayer and it will prove like Sauls Sword and Jonathans Bow which never returned empty Do not hearken to the excuses of flesh and blood which are many but attend to God's Command the Example of Christ and his followers which will oblige you in point of duty and to the Sweetness and Benefit of it which may encourage and allure you 11. Think much of and live in preparation for death walk now and then amongst the Tombs live every day as dying men Get into such a Condition as would fit us for Death every hour Dye daily Deut. 32.29 Oh that you were so wise as to consider your latter â—â—d Dying thoughts would not be a little advantageous they would keep from sin What sin this hour when thou mayest die next they would keep us from doting upon the world from pride of life Why art thou proud of hair and beauty when both shall be turned into dust ere long Shall you and I idolize a coloured piece of clay who though now it proudly and haughtily treads upon the Earth within a few dayes shall it self be trodden upon as mire and dirt O get to be in the number of those servants whom Christ when he comes shall find so being and so doing The Prophet said to Hezekiah Set thy house in order I say to you Set your souls in order against the hour of dying The want of this is of ill consequence for hence it is that men go on securely in sin live as Atheists without God idolize the World and never look to the state of their souls 12. Prepare for Judgement make your Answer ready Put the case before-hand to your selves say with thy self I must ere long appear before the Tribunal of God what can I answer what can I say for my self at that day Who is it that will be Advocate or have I an Advocate that will speak for me how shall I come off shall I stand or shall I fall what will be my sentence Brethren be like him who thought he heard this voice alwayes sounding in his ears Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment The Apostle Paul thought seriously of it and lived as one to be judged 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to give an account of the things done in the body whether they be good or evil 13. Be often thinking of Eternal Death Walk now and then upon the brinks of Hell get your hearts affected with the reality and greatness of Hells torments Meditate with thy self what Hell is say with thy self Can I endure to lose the smiles of God how shall I endure the frowns of an infinite Majesty If God's terrors have distracted his Friends on Earth what will they do with me if I go to Hell Think what a torment it wil be to be shut out of the company of Saints to see Abraham Isaac Jacob Peter Paul and the rest of the Disciples and Servants of God in all ages in the Kingdom of Heaven and you your selves shut out and what a vexation it will be to be amongst none but damned wretches How canst thou endure to hear the Saints singing praises in Heaven and thou thy self roaring in the infernal Pit Often think of the Worm of Conscience How shall we endure to have Conscience alwayes setting our sins before our eyes It 's a burden now to lie under the gallings of an accusing Conscience O consider that Conscience will continually gnaw and fret in Hell It will be alwayes telling thee of thy sins the place where the time when the persons with whom and all the circumstances that aggravate thy sin Such a time remember thou wast overcharged with Drunkenness such a time thou blasphemedst the holy Name of God with Oaths and Curses Such a time in such a chamber with such a person thou wast wanton and impure Remember what means of Grace thou hast enjoyed what and how many Sermons thou didst or mightst have heard how many able Ministers lived and dyed in thy time Remember will Conscience say what Instruction Reproof and Corrections thou hadst from thy Parents Tutors and Covernours yea remember thou wast not far from the Kingdom of Heaven thou didst fully expect to have gone thither and now thou must be tormented in this flame Again think what a misery it will be to be there where is no mercy where there will be pain without ease sorrow without any joy despair without any hope eternity without end O Eternity Eternity Eternity Often to think of eternal death is the way to escape it If you would not descend into Hell really descend into it mentally If you would not be in Hell by possession be much in it now by meditation This would make us jealous and put us upon trying the state of our souls lest it should unexpectedly be our portion to be amongst the Devil and his Angels for ever 14. Begin betime to be Religious Put not off Holiness Righteousness and Sobriety till old age 1 Kings 18.12 It 's written in commendation of Obadiah that he feared the Lord from his youth It 's King Josiah's honour that while he was yet young he began to seek the Lord God of his fathers 2 Chron. 34.2 3. It 's Mnasons honour that he was an old Disciple Acts 21.16 he began betime and continued till old age Timothy knew the Scriptures from his youth Consider we know not whether old age will be granted us to be religious in be religious whilst ye may The sooner we set upon Piety the sooner we shall honour God and the better God will take it He will remember the kindness of religious youth And by minding Religion soon we may be secured from many sins which others run into and so be secured from the smart and torment of Conscience which old sinners find at Conversion 1. The longer we continue in sin and profaness the more sorrow contrition and humiliation we are like to meet with if ever we be changed Old Oaks must
have Tribulation but be of good Comfort As you should be humble in Prosperity so quiet and chearful in Adversity Carry an even frame in each state Let your Moderation be known unto all men even in bearing Afflictions Be not overmuch cast down with any trouble Let the Enemy see that you have been with God by the Gladness of your Countenance You 'l discredit Religion by too much drooping Let not others say You serve a hard Master God that knows all things knows what condition is best for you and how to deal with you Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes Though Adversity and the Wicked may intermeddle with your outward comforts and take them away yet let them see you have inward Joyes with which they cannot intermeddle nor take away 13. Esteem and approve Time as a precious Commodity Husband Opportunities for Soul-Advantage When you have spare hours improve them in Reading Meditation and Prayer Redeem Time from sleep your callings and recreations in order to Heaven Men usually work sleep and recreate more than necessity calls for and then cry out they have no time for holy Exercises Oh what would damned spirits give for two or three of those hours which we throw away Oh how would they spend them would they sleep play or work them away Nay how would they Pray Read and Repent more in one hour than we do in many Brethren the time is short your work is much you have God to honour your Relations to watch over your own Evidences to make clear O then redeem precious Time do not throw it away Ephes 5.16 15. Contend earnestly for the Faith Jude 3. Maintain fundamental Truths I do not mean that you should fall a wrangling with every one you meet The Apostle indeed takes notice of some men that place their Religion in fightings of Words in conflicting with the Air in janglings and disputings about things they understand not 1 Tim. 1.5 6. Some place their Religion in being of this and that Opinion and indeed they are meer Opinionists Our meaning is this When the Enemies of the Church labour to root up the necessary and very foundation Truths of Christianity that we should stick to them As Paul he did earnestly contend for the Doctrine of Christ being the Messiah against the Jews He maintained the Doctrine of the Resurrection against the Saduces The Doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness against the Teachers of the Law He doth strongly and vehemently maintain Divine Worship against the idolatrous worship of the Athenians And so should we contend opportunely and wisely with tongues and lives Contend against Justification by Works against Idolatry rather than God's Honour should be given to dumb Idols give your honour to the Dust Consider fundamental yea every Truth hath been confirmed by no less than Miracles preserved in a miraculous way and sealed in the Blood both of Christ and of Martyrs Never then sell the Truth but buy it 16. Get longing Desires after the Enjoyment of God in Heaven Let your hearts be often sending sighs thither Long till you be at home Groan earnestly till mortality be clothed with Immortality 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Say as he When shall I come and appear before God Long till you be in Heaven that so you may have constant Communion with God's Angels and Saints that ye may be wholly freed from sin and made perfect in Holiness Let your Conversation be in Heawhilst you are on Earth To this end get more acquaintance with Heaven Study till you be convinced that it is and what it is Understand what that Happiness is that Saints enjoy there When you have got minds informed and hearts affected with it often muse and meditate of it This heavenly Conversation is very sweet it will comfort us when we are never so sad Well may the soul say Now I am full of sin O but then no sin I am now sold under sin O but then I shall be free Now I dishonour God but then I shall honour him altogether Now I am in continual fear of falling into sin but then I shall be past all danger Now I am in continual sorrow but then all tears shall be wip'd away Now I am kept in bondage through fear of death but then there shall be living and no more Death and so no more fears of it Moreover this would teach us to understand the World When we do experimentally taste Heavens Joyes we shall despise Earths Pleasures when we seriously think of that Friendship and Communion we shall have with Friends in Heaven even God Christ Angels and Saints it will wean us from Friends on Earth and make us more willing to leave them And when we think of Heavens Honour we shall undervalue the honours and scorn the contempt we meet with in this world Get now and then upon the top of Pisgah and solace your selves with a view of the Heavenly Canaan Having now given you an account of those main Duties and Counsels that relate more immediately to God and your souls I shall briefly give you the sum of those Counsels I have to leave you about things that relate more nearly to you and others with whom you converse and have to do The first is this 1. Discharge domestical Duties Study and perform the Duties that every Relation calls for Act as Christian Parents and Christian Masters towards your Children and Servants bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord call on them to reâ—d the Scriptures frequently that even of Children they be acquainted with that which will make them wise to Salvation keep them to a form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 hold them to the Principles of Religion Catechisms are called A Form of sound words because they keep the Judgment and Affections sound they help to discern betwixt Truth and Error fit and prepare for hearing of the Word preached and for the receiving of the Lord's Supper For want of this we may observe notorious ignorance in grown youth and old men also For want of this how many that are Fathers in years are meer Children in understanding Again pray with and for your Children and Servants and set them to pray by themselves for this end give them time convenient do not so much forward them in your service as to hinder them from serving God your Servants have God to acknowledge honour and serve as well as you they have sins to be pardoned corruptions to be subdued Graces to beg wants to be supplied and souls to be saved as well as you and will you make them throw their souls over-board to secure your goods And so study to carry as Christians in every other Relation Carry as Christian Husbands and Christian Wives are directed and ought to do that the Gospel of Christ be not blamed upon your account And so you that are Children and Servants as you expect your Parents and Masters should discharge their duties towards you so it is expected you should
there be no cry for Ordinances that have run the pure blood of the Grape shall true good-fellowship have no more mourners for the loss of it 3 dly Will not the want of trading fill many mouths with complaints and many houses with sorrow Deborah mentions Judg. 5.6 the not occupying the high wayes as a sad calamity T is said of Babylon Rev. 18.11 The Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buyeth their merchandize any more Will not some places want their weekly Market in season preaching and their extraordinary Fairs out of season preaching Are not some great traders for Heaven in some places shutting down their shop-windows and should not this affect us 4thly Cannot any of us bemoan men and things that are much missed Physicians Lawyers wise Neighbours faithful Friends O Sirs what can be more missed than Ordinances what Physitians Comforters and Counsellors have they been to us how many a time had we been at a loss if not the Ordinances to go to as David Psal 73.16 17. Ordinances are publick Advantages It is a bad Husband indeed that is not missed a bad Parent that is not missed but how are good ones missed Verily they that misse their Ministers least need them most 5thly Are we not apt to over-sorrow if we be crossed in our desires or lose our desirable things shame thy heart with such instances as Ahab can he go to his house heavy and displeased for want of a conveniency and I lose a thing so necessary without regret Can Amnon be sick for Tamar and pine away And can I carry as if I could be and do well enough without the loves of Christ in his Ordinances So much for this first part of my Errand I now pass on to the second part of my Errand and that is to those that have under this Losse special and singular cause of mourning c. 1. Mourn you upon whom the Ordinances have been lost whilst they were amongst you The best should mourn for who hath improved under Ordinances as they might But how should they mourn that have been almost in all evil in the midst of the Congregation and Assembly Prov. 5.14 Oh if any of us be yet on this side a Saving-change as how many are How sad is it to see the Womb of Ordinances shut up Oh to have the Bridge drawn up the Portcullis let down and thou not got within but left to the roaring Lyons mercy is a sad case Oh to have for any thing you know the Market done and they that have sold Oyl making their last calls to the Customers that have too long passed by shutting up shop and thy Oyl yet to buy Oh for God to seem to say to a place I have done with you they are joyned to their lusts let them alone The night of the Day of Salvation is to none so black and dark as to them that have not known the day of their Visitation Christ weeps over such a People Luke 19.41 42. How should such a People weep over themselves The passing of Harvests and the ending of Summers is of them most to be lamented that have cause to say we are not saved Jerem. 8.20 They have cause to use those words in Jerem. 6.4 Wo unto us for the Day goeth away for the shadows of the Evening are stretched out Mourn you from whom the Word is going in word before it is come to you in power 2dly Mourn you that may in a more than ordinary manner look upon your selves as the Forfeiters of such Mercies that have thrust them away Which of us can say in this case our hands are clean Who is not accessory to the death of God's Servants But there are some that are the principal and of whom it may be said This breach be upon you Give out the lot and you will find especially to sorts of men taken viz. 1. Slighters of Ordinances And 2. Such as have been slighty in them Therefore 1. O you slighters of Ordinances mourn How careless were you to feed besides the Shepherds tents have ye not been as those that turn aside have you not chosen corners rather than Assemblies have you not listened to any body that hath said Loe here is Christ Oh! have not many of you turned under pretence of Corruptions of the Church till you can see no Church at all in being How many little petty Congregations set up and Reforming Assemblies withdrawn from Is it any wonder if so many Churches come to none Is it any wonder if a Land in which there was so great a forsaking find a great forsaking in the midst of the Land Isa 6.12 'T is high time to draw the Cloth when the Table wants Guests and to break up School when the Scholars come not at it It was the manner of too many to forget the Assembling of themselves Heb. 10.25 Too many had lost the way to their Fathers House The Ministry that were your main burdens God is easing you of many of them God is by this Dispensation I think confuting that wild Generation that cryed down the Ordinances But Wo worth them that put the Almighty upon such a way of Confutation that may cost many their souls and hath cost many their livelihood But these men will not hear me the Lord speak to them Read and apply to this head 2 Chron. 29.6 7 8. 2. Oh you that have been slighty in them whilst frequenters of them mourn Oh you that have not come to them as Solemnities with serious hearts you that have made some stir in your approaches to God in some Ordinances as a Sacrament c. but have not put on the wedding Garment for all Ordinances O mourn We would not cloath our selves for them and so we are stripped of them We mocked God when we should have served him and so he will not be mocked we were but as a People and therefore not so much as a People we had but a Name to live and therefore we must not have so much as a Name our hearts have been elsewhere whilst in them and no wonder if such a People know they had Oh sad that it may be said they had a Prophet among them Ezek. 33.31 33. how have we lost our hearts in them how little have we fought to see Jesus by them and to touch him in them No wonder if an Ark go into Captivity when the Ark of God is looked at and after and not the God of the Ark. Oh how we have gloried in our Priviledges and have looked after the Power of them Oh our bare hearings Oh our barren receiving of Sacraments Oh our seeming desires after Church-Purity and our little care of Heart-Purity Oh our few out-cries against our corrupting of Ordinances by the sinful mixtures of Distractions base ends c. Oh how much of man how little of a Christian in our approaches to God! How much was the Price of the Gospel fallen even half in
O mourning soul is it nothing that there is no change in the Covenant of Grace though it may be thou thinkest there is a great alteration as to the Means of Grace Thy Teacher is where he was though some of thy Teachers be removed It is he that taught thee by them and he can teach thee without them Thou hast before seen cause to magnifie him because he did All by the Instruments and now thou mayest see cause to omnify him that can be to thee instead of all Instruments Christ Jesus is in Office and in exercise of his Office as Prophet when some Officers may be discharged John 5.17 Christ works if some others may not can you not find all that you have lost in that one Title of Christ The great Shepherd of the Sheep Heb. 13.10 If you should be brought so low as to see no Temple yet may you find a Temple in the Lamb Rev. 21.22 Some think that Promise of God to this mourning People Ezek. 11.16 That he would be to them as a little Sanctuary is not only a Promise of protection but that he would from himself also make some supply of Temple-Ordinances I will be a little Temple to you I will be instead of your City-Walls and your Temple-Priviledges 2. As for future Hopes there is room for an If I shall find favour in his eyes 2 Sam. 15.25 The Prophet Ezekiel dare not conclude against dry bones living Ezek. 37.3 11 12. The Text is a promise of gathering a mourning People If it be asked May we apply such Promises I Answer Yes sure we may with giving God that liberty he hath reserved to himself That he will either give us the very thing or that which is equivolent The Promises are a cōmon stock What Peter saith of Scripture There is no Scripture of private interpretation I may with a little change say of Scripture-Promises they are not of private application Nay if that be true which some upon good grounds affirm That the Church then was typical and the times that passed over her then were typical of that state of the New-Testament Church in its latter age then I say these Promises are as much ours as theirs Act Faith therefore on this Promise if God hath pricked thy heart and fear not to conclude that either God will find us a room in his House on Earth or give us the Mansions that Christ hath prepared for us in Heaven Either we shall be gathered thither where we have enjoyed Ordinances or into Heaven where we shall need none which is best of all O let our scatterings unite us O let us be sowing Goodness and scattering Religion wherever we come compare Acts 8.1 4. with chap. 11.19 And pour out our hearts in those words with which the Jews conclude both in writing and in reading the Lamentations of Jeremiah in Lam. 5.21 wherewith I will conclude this mournful discourse Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned Renew our dayes as of old Amen SERMON XVII Ephes 5.15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil THe Apostle having in the former part of this Chapter given the Ephesians warning to avoid that Looseness Prophaneness and Disorder in their lives and conversations which would exclude them out of the Kingdom of Heaven In this verse he comes by way of inference to direct them what course they should take In which words we have several things well worthy our consideration As 1. The Duty enjoyned and that with a note of earnestness See that ye walk circumspectly q. d. have a care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accurate exactte be sure what ever ye do that ye walk exactly And this Duty he amplifies 1. Negatively Not as Fools And 2. Positively But as Wise 2. Here is a special part of the Duty particularized Redeeming the time 3. Here is a reason of the Command or a motive to the performance of the Duty Because the dayes are evil The words thus considered are very pregnant and will without much midwifery bring forth these very many useful and seasonable Observations Doctrine 1. That a truly Christian Conversation is an exact Conversation Doct. 2. That a loose Life is a Fools Life Doct. 3. That he is the wisest Man that lives most exactly Doct. 4. That specially in evil Times we have need of much spiritual Wisdom for the right ordering of our Conversations Doct. 5. That it is a special part of Christian Wisdom to redeem Time Doct. 6. That the worse the Times are wherein we live the more it concerns us to redeem Time and to live exactly and wisely Doct. 7. That to live loosely and lose Time and Opportunities of good when times are evil is the veriest Folly in the world Here are rich Materials for a large Fabrick and I would gladly make the best of them for your advantage but I am confined not self-confined as formerly but by a necessity imposed upon me I say I am confined to such narrow straits of time that though it be a Treasury of such precious Truths as deserves a long and serious view yet I shall be constrained to crowd much in a little room and to give you but an half-fight of these Jewels and so put them up again but this I 'le do I will open the Cabinet and shew them to you as I can and so leave them with you in hopes you will take a more full and considerable view of them afterwards And so I shall begin with the first Doct. 1. That a right Christian Conversation is a circumspect exact Conversation a strict and precise Conversation wherein a man endeavours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go to the top and walk upon the very ridge of his Rule As Paul Phil. 3.12 13 14 15. who laboured not only to see at a distance but to hit the very Mark of Christianity While he was a Jew he was strict and precise in that way he was of the strictest Sect of Religion Acte 26.5 And so when he was converted to Christianity he did not throw off his strictness and preciseness but guided it by the Rule of Christianity and exhorteth the Ephesians and all other Christians in the words of the Text to do the like I should not doubt easily to convince your judgements and understandings of this Truth but because strictness is a thing that is every where spoken against the hardest task will be to perswade your wills and affections to embrace this Truth I shall endeavour both by this ensuing Demonstration 1. Christians have a Rule to live by and this Rule is the Word of God This is that Rule mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 6.16 God hath not left man like brute beasts in a Forest As soon as he made man in the world he gave him a Rule to walk and live by Gen. 2.16 17. And as an Emblem of this spiritual Enclosure he left not our
thereby taken away from the evil to come And then 3. The shortning of this life doth but the sooner bring them to a Life of Glory in Heaven Indeed if their condition were the same with the condition of the ungodly if they lost Heaven and Earth the lives of their souls and bodies together If their death were an eternal death and the end of their temporal miseries the beginning of eternal torments it were a very sad argument but the case is not so bad Whatever they lose for Christ in this world shall be recompensed a thousandfold in the world to come with eternal Life Now lay all these things together and consider that this strictness or preciseness is commanded by God and is most sutable to the Rules of Christianity And dost thou profess thy self a Christan a Disciple of Christ a Servant of God and one that lives in hope of everlasting Life and hast thou not yet learn'd to forsake all deny thy self take up thy cross and follow Christ Certainly if thou be a Christian indeed and hast received that Wisdom which is from above none of these things will move thee neither wilt thou count thy life so dear to thee as for the saving it to forsake the holy Commandment Having now vindicated this Truth from those Objections that might seem to weaken it I proceed to give a brief hint what use may be made of it Use 1. If they that live most exactly are the wisest men then it is so far from being a shame to live exactly Psal 119.6 that it tends much to the justification and commendation of those that so order their conversations And certainly the world is much mistaken in their censure and judgment concerning them They think it strange that all do not run to the same excess of riot with them 1 Pet. 4.4 and speak evil of them as fools and mad men because they willingly forgo the pleasures and advantages of this present life for things future and invisible but the end will make it sufficiently to appear who are the fools and who are the wise men Therefore 2. Be exhorted and perswaded to exercise this piece of wisdom Wisdom it is and that of the best sort for it is Divine and Heavenly Wisdom So the Apostle tells us Jam. 3.17 That Wisdom which is pure and full of good fruits comes from above it is saving Wisdom In 2 Tim. 3.15 the Apostle tells us that the Scriptures are able to make a man wise to Salvation in as much as they were given by God to make men pefect throughly furnished unto all good works Labour then for this Scripture-Wisdom and search for it as for hid treasures it alone shall abide and the good fruits thereof remain with thee to Eternity when all other wisdom in the world shall perish and by its fall shall ruine the owners and professors thereof I have now finished the third Observation I must use much more brevity in those which remain and so I pass to the fourth which is this Doct. 4. That then especially in evil times we have much need of spiritual wisdom for the circumspect and exact ordering of our conversations Thus the Apostles Argument runs Walk circumspectly and redeem time because the dayes are evil This is a duty at all times but especially in evil times it is both a Duty and an Advantage That we may understand what is meant by evil times or Dayes we must know that there are two sorts of evil First The evil of sin whereof Devils and men are the only authors Secondly The evil of punishment or misery in this sence it is used in Jer. 17.17 18. Amos 6.3 and though sin be the meritorious cause of this evil and Devils and Men yea and good Angels also are made use as instruments of it yet God takes it upon himself as the Author thereof Amos 3.6 Thus the Times or Dayes are evil First When they are sinful Times such times as our Saviour foretold Mat. 24.11 12. When false prophets should arise and deceive many When iniquity should abound and the love of many should wax cold Secondly The Dayes are evil when they are full of trouble and misery These evil Dayes of both sorts are either 1. Common by reason of that sin and misery which are incident to every mans life Eccles 12.1 in respect whereof Jacob told Pharoah that the dayes of his life had been few and evil Gen 47.9 2. Or special When both sin and trouble do abound in more than ordinary measure Again these evil Dayes are either 1. General When both sin and misery do more than ordinarily abound in the World or in a Kingdom 2. Or particular When a man 's own particular life hath been extraordinarily full of sin and trouble The Apostle in the Text doth principally respect the special and general sinfulness and troublesomness of the times but in what kind soever the dayes are evil the evilness of them is an argument for circumspect walking and exact ordering of our conversations For if the Times be sinful 1. In sinful Times there is much liberty and encouragement to sin The Multitude run to sin the stream goes that way and it is an easy thing to go along with the stream but it is certain that the stream will carry a man to perdition So that if we would not perish in sinful times we must strive against the stream by circumspect walking These are those perillous Times from the authors whereof the Apostle warns Timothy to turn away 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5 6. 2. In Sinful Times there are many temptations and enticements to sin in which respect the Apostle calls such dayes evil dayes and therefore adviseth at such times especially to put on the whole Armour of God that we may be able to stand and keep our selves unspotted from the pollutions of the world Ephes 6.13 If the Times be evil in respect of the trouble and misery that attends them Then 1. In Times of Trouble and Misery a man hath most need to get and keep peace of conscience Oh! it is a sad thing for a man to be lost as much with storms of guilt within as with waves of trouble without But there is no getting or keeping true peace of conscience without circumspect and exact walking The fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace Jam. 3.18 2. In Troublesome Times a man had most need to get and keep the love and favour of God and thereby an interest in the Promises of this life or if those be forfeited yet to be sure of an interest in the Promises of the Life to come But this cannot be done without circumspect walking for it is only Godliness that hath the promises of the life that now is and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Use How preposterous and foolish a course is it then for any man to think to secure himself from the evil of the times by complying with the times to comply with the evil