any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord And they shall find it to their sorrow as the last when God shall come to render vengeance to them for their wickednes O how wofull will their case and condition be Deut. 32.39.40 41.42 When God doth lift up his hand to heaven and say I live for ever then vengeance is not far from falling on the backs of them that go on their wickednes If he be a living God those that live in a sinfull way shall dy The soule that sinneth shall dy Ezekiel 18.20 It is a fearefull thing to fall into his hands that is a living God Heb. 10.13 Therefore methinks sure ye should take heed of God If ye have never so many adversaries in this world they may all die and then ye need feare none of them But this God that is the adversary of sinnes is a living God Wo to them that doth act as if God did not see them Secondly Seeing the life of God is infinite c. it teacheth Vse 2 us that God can give life and that in abundance both temporal and eternal And therefore though God take away the lives of his people and they dy with men yet they shall live for ever with God And this Job comforteth himself with Job 12.58 Psal 16.5.10 12. and David And in Psalme 36 9. He maketh Gods being the fountaine of life the ground of his joy and comfort For with thee is the fountaine of life in thy light shall we set light Christ's being the reserection and the life is used John 11.29 to comfort Martha And John 14 19. to Comfort all the Disciples Because I live ye shall live also So long as Christ liveth his members live So long as God liveth so long shall the Godly live The people of God that now ly in the grave are alive in God and Christ All are alive in God that are dead and shall be brought forth of their graves like toades out of their holls But the Saints shall be brought forth by Christ as their head to live with him in glory Thirdly Let Christians stand and admire the excellencie of Vse 3 Gods Majesty in this Attribute his infinite and incomprehensible life That hereby we may 1. be humbled and made low in our own eys 2. Lively in Gods service And 3. to rely upon him for life and all necessaries thereunto belonging If we can be cared for so long as Gods life shall last we need not care for any thing afterward I speak it with holy disdain to all them that know not the life of God T is true the life of a Christian is a life of trouble at best a mixture of evill with good But Gods life is infinite and eternal Hence it is that the loving kindness of the Lord is said to be better then life because when life departs we live for ever in the living God When we leave the world and are no more seen here we have a dwelâ—ing place in God for ever David is alive in God still though his flesh see corruption Let us rely upon the living God Put not your trust in Princes for their breath goeth forth their thoughts perish Nothing can do you either good or harm but the living God that killeth and maketh alive All things shall be as it pleaseth God let men say and vow and plot and confederate till their hearts ake O that we could learn this Doctrine savingly That Gods life is infinite and incomprehensible The end of the attribute of Life The Perfection or natural goodnesse of GOD. Exod. 33.19 And he said I will make all my goodness passe before thee And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee c. WE have formerly propounded unto you three things to be observed upon each particular Attribute the 1. whereof was to shew you that such and such a thing is an Attribute of God Now from this place of scripture which I have now read unto you ye may learn that goodness is an Attribute of God among many others Triplex in Deo bonitas spectari potest naturalis moralis bonitas benificentiae quae benignitas dicitur The word passeth under many acceptations and is variously taken in Holy Writ Somtimes for an increated somtime for a created goodness Somtimes for naturall goodness or the due proportion of a thing unto the rule thereof as a good tree and good fruit and good money and good wine and the like Sometimes in a moral sence goodness is taken and so created goodness is only of and among creatures to be found in men and Angels for in other creatures there is only a natural goodness to be found or at most an usefull as by the skill of man may happily be effected That properly is called moral goodness which is the essential integrity of the image of God that is the conformity of the understanding and will and of all qualities and virtues thoughts endeavours and actions whether internal or external with the rule of goodnesse to wit the holy law of God This created goodness although it be not any longer in its first integrity yet in such as are regenerated it is in some measure restored by the holy Ghost and the work of regeneration Less de div perf pag. 52. There is a generall or natural goodnes in creatures and a more special or moral goodnes Perk. Case of Conseience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And many good men and good works do we read of in scripture But this is not that goodnes that I am now to speak of either as in men or as an attribute of God Although this acceptation also of the word good be to be spoken of when I shall have finished this viz. The Morall Goodnesse of God or his holiness or chastity as some stile it But besides these two acceptations of the word good or goodnesse viz. naturall and morall there is a third which is usefull goodnesse as the Greek word used for it doth signifie And this will be found to be another attribute of God and shall be spoken of in due time There is yet a fourth viz. when the Word is taken for Mercy or sweet compassion which also in regard of God is to be referred to the attribute of Mercy For the present my work is to speak of the application of this word good or goodness to God according to the first acceptation viz. as it is taken for natural goodnesse which some call the perfection of God to distinguish it from moral goodness which is sometimes also called perfection though usefull goodnesse or benignity never hath that name put upon it nor mercy neither Yet all foure have passed under this general word Goodnesse as were easie to shew if it were to any great purpose The words which I have chosen to make my Text do seem to me to speak of this
comming and should call in question Gods truth it were not so grievous to be borne But this is said that such as are gratious should say as David did in his hast Psalm 116.12 all men are lyers But whence issues this that we may see the grounds of this sore evill Quest Surely either from the misunderstanding of the promises Ans or from misapplying of them Concerning the first ye must know that some promises are made with condition and limitations As assurance of salvation peace of conscience temporall blessings Now many poore soules that enjoy not these promises often call in question Gods truth or their own good estate at least not considering that God may be true and we gratious and in Christ though neither assurance nor peace of conscience nor temporal favours be our portion For these promises have conditions and limitations Such as will have assurance must give diligence to make their calling and election sure And such as will have peace of conscience 2 Pet. 1.10 must have care to walke exactly according to rule As many as walke according to this rule peace be on them c. Gal. 6.16 And surely temporals are many times reached out to gratious souls with a streight hand for ends best known to God and worth the enquiring into at least sometimes by us No marvail then ye are so forward to charge God ye misunderstand thing ye erre not considering the promises with their limitations And likewise misapplication of promises causeth much mischief for promises are misapplied sometimes to Persons somtimes to state and behaviour For the former we read Mal. 3.14 of some that complained of want of care in God to reward them that served him They said it was vain to serve God and asked what profit there was to have kept his ordinances c. They considered not that some are called Jews onely and that he is not a Jew that is one outwardly onely The promise is not made to the ceremony but to the substance of Religion Many think themselves Gods children who are not so Now shall God be charged for want of truth concerning such as he never promised any thing unto O study to make your calling and election sure and to finde that ye are the children of the promise Likewise ye that are the children of God indeed must take heed how ye be carelesse of childe-like conversation For many times though ye be sons and daughters yet if ye break out into scandalous sins or be proud of your graces or negligent about cherishing Ordinances and so faile in your due qualifications and demeanour ye may finde God otherwise in his dispensations towards you then he would be if it were not your fault But if we be well instructed in Gods nature and dealings with his people and with hypocrites and carefull to get good evidence of our sincerity such as will not shrink in the wetting and also to walk exactly and be kept in a good decorum We may be sure all good things promised shall be performed accordingly seem Devils men and nature never so opposite When no means when no means competent when weak means when means opposite do all cry down the truth of God yet God will be true and it is our duty to trust God and to rest on his bare word and promise And now let us make some Use of the truth of Gods threats Vse 3 and menaces let sinners know that the God of truth hath said ye swore against some of them Psal 95.11 Vnto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest How dare ye take Gods name in vain as all do that make him a lyar yea perjured It is a kinde of blasphemy not to fear when God threatens or believe what he promiseth When men are perfidious and violate Oaths they are in credit neither with God nor good men their very names stink and they live under perpetuall infamy What a sin is this to rank God blessed for ever with the worst of men Yet so do all wicked men in effect and by consequence for they dare do that which God forbiddeth and to the doing of which he hath made threats that are able over one think to shake both heaven and earth Go too Sirs let me close up this Use with Deut. 29.19 and 20. And the Lord set it home upon your souls And it come to passe when he heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven God is a God of truth And for the fourth and last Use of this point sith truth and Vse 4 faithfulnesse is an attribute of God let us learn to be like God men of truth take heed of falshood it argues a very wicked man and God is set against such Psal 55.23 But thou O God shall bring them down into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out half their dayes Such shall not prosper 2 Chron. 24.20 Why transgresse ye the commandements of the Lord that ye cannot prosper Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you This attribute is among those vertues which admit resemblance in the creature the faithfull God owns not perfidious children It is a mark of one that shall be with God in glory to swear to his own heart and not to change Psal 15. v. 4. that is to be true and faithful though he lose by it from these two latter places ye see that truth in man hath a twofold relation First to God for as God hath bound himself to us by promise so we have covenanted our obedience to him Remember therefore your Baptisme and take heed of walking loosly in the Covenant And secondly to man we are bound to support the credit of fidelity though with losse What a shame is it for such as professe themselves Christians to be like the Jews in Jeremy cap. 9.4 5. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour and trust ye not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbor will walk with slanders And they will deceive every one his neighbour Sacerdos est non fallet christianis est non mentietur and will not speake the truth they have taught their tongue to speake lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity It was wont to be a saying He is a Priest he will not deceive he is a christian he will not ly O how comly were it that it might be so now is rather to be wished then expected Read the Turkish History page 287. The battaile of Varna betweene Vladislaus and Amuroth And consider how God
dead 1 Pet. 4.5 God will never be wanting to his church The gates of hell much less poore worms breathing skind earth shall not be able to prevaile against it Thirdly Seeing God is infinitely and incomprehensibly holy Vse 3 Then they that will imitate God must never stand at a stay in holines they must still go on with the motto of Charl's the fifth plus ultra Once we can never be too holy I am sure of that There is one wo and feare gone of an extream in holines O if we could as well avoid the danger of being too dull and slow and backward It were well I therefore will provide some spurs Motives to labour for more holinesse some pregnant motives to stirre you up to labour to be holy yet more and more First know this for your encouragement the more holines ye have on earth the more protection may ye expect from this holy God Those Saints that have beene eminent for holines have beene also eminent for salvations God hath made such see his salvation As the three Saints Daniel the third Daniel himselfe chap. the sixth and many others Secondly Take this too the more holines the more comfort surely while men ly under sinne the face of God is hid from them our comforts usually do fall and rise together with our holines God sups and dines with his holy ones Consolation is measured to us according to our holines God and a Saint do keep one table God cannot smile upon us while we are under the breach of any one of his lawes Ye may see what became of Davids comfort upon his fall Psalme 51.11 He there cries Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me And in the foregoing tenth verse he cries for a new creation He hath so farre lost his comfort that he thought he had lost his grace Carelest walking may cause us to be dealt with all as if we were reprobates and not the elect of God For this however some idle heads may prattle I appeale to the experience of all the Saints of God whether ever they found so much comfort and enjoyment of God in their loose as in their close walking with him certainly the clouds of sinne where ever they be will make the beames of Gods favour disappeare unto the sence of that soule Thirdly The more holines the more boldnes I remember I have read a story of a Conjurer that would have the devill affright an old exact Christian But the devill told him againe T was but in vaine to meddle with him he feared nothing Holy soules feare not death though it be the King of terrours They can looke it in the face and with Mr. Lawrance Saunders cry out welcome life when they are at the stake The righteous is bold as a lion Holy Moses talks with God face to face The more holines the lesse feare A holy man knoweth that nothing can come amisse to him Fourthly The more holines the more acquaintance with God Holines makes men great favourities in the court of heaven T is but aske and have for a holy soule As it was said of Luther he could do any thing with God Surely ye cannot imagine what power holy soules have in heaven Hic vir potest quicquid vult apud Deum Elias by reason of his holines had great power he prayed that it might not rain and it rained not and he prayed again that it might raine and it did raine Holy Moses holds the hands of God Ezek. 14.14 and and God begs him to let him go If any in the world can prevaile with God it must be such as Noah Daniel and Job 5. The more holines on earth the more glory shall ye have in heaven Though God save us not for our works yet he will reward us according to them The garland there wil be greater or lesser according as the flowers we send before thither be more or lesse We must have Esaus hands if we expect Jacobs blessing Esau signifies working No good is to be expected by us without doing good He that expects to carry earth to heaven must first strive to bring heaven downe to earth It is noted by some that the same word signifieth reward and working to signifie they cannot be separated Holy souls shall dwell in Gods holy hill Holines it called by some the Suburbs of heaven and he that will enter into the City must passe through the Suburbs To conclude this motive if we be eminently holy here we shall be eminently glorious hereafter Summe up all God will protect his holy ones Comfort and peace shall be their portion even here as Psalme 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them And great shall be the peace of thy children Isaiah 54.13 No names shall be to them Psalme 39.9 If we be all for God God will be all for us If we dedicate our selves to God we shall find that he will be ours in the sweetest injoyments His special providences shall be over us others are under generall providences only Extra mundum sanctus perigrinalitur cum Domino He may carry them on his back but you shall be sure to ly in his bosome His eye his heart both are alwayes upon his holy ones for God And at last fulnes of joy at his right-hand and pleasure for evermore Quest Ans But how shall I do to thrive in holines to lanch out into his deepes I answer By daily applying your selves unto the meanes which God hath appointed be diligent in the faithfull use of Gods sacred ordinances If ye plow with these heifers ye shall find out Gods riddles of holines But when once they are slighted or abused and come to be ours and none of his as one wittily observes out of Isaiah 1.11 and 14. verses then vertue commeth not from them We should therefore labour to be lift up out of our selves and above our selves when we are about holy exercises we shall be exact in them So shall we more and more come towards that perfection of holines which is still to be laboured for though never to be attained So much for the morall goodnes of God to wit his holines The other goodnesses follow The end of the attribute of holines The benignity or Usefull Goodness of GOD. Psalm 100. v. 5. For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all Generations WE have under the good hand of our living good and holy Lord God gone through those three attributes of life goodnes naturall or perfection and morall goodnes or holines which was the last This verse is not chosen to be handled and to be spoken of for the sake of three other attributes mentioned therein viz. goodnes that is to say benignitie mercy a fourth sort as I may call it of goodnes and truth which at last will come to be spoken of also out of this
can take pleasure in such as ye be But Gods people are made comely by the holy Ghost Ninthly From the mercy of God in Christ the people of God come to have the sweetenes of ordinances while others mumble on a brown dry crust or on a chew'd gobbet that hath no sweetnes at all left in it Formall and Carnall Christians have an egge-shell but no yolke an nutshell but no kernell they heare good wordes of God but never tasted that the Lord was gratious and mercifull The Saints upon whom the mercy of God is descended find sweetenes in all religious exercises and holy ordinances They have the sweetenes of prayer preaching reading conference and when they come to break bread with the Church Mendicato hic pane vivamus annum hoc pulchrem sacritur in eo quod pascimer pane cū angelis c. Luth. in Ps Burroughs Moses choice Psal 36.7 8. they are made to be in the sweete sence of their neer relation to Jesus Christ they are in the spirit on the Lords day Ordinances are like that sealed booke we read of in the Revelation c. 5.1 Iohn wept because no man was found to open it and read it But for them that are in Christ mercy hath better provided The seales are taken away the booke is opened the nutts are brokened the kernels are to be eaten which are very sweete O t is a blessing and full of sweetenes to be joyned in union and communion with the people of God Though we beg our bread sayes Luther is it not made up with this that we are fed with the bread of angels with eternal life Christ and the Sacraments c. It is certaine the servants of God find such comfort in these prescribed practises that they would not for any good be bereft of them Neither can they possibly free themselves from the guilt of prophanesse that do not highly prize and heartily rejoyce in these things Such as do believe themselves to be members of Christs body must needes desire those ordinances that he hath appointed for the building of it up and do find thriving in grace and comfort in spirit farre beyond any creature comforts Here they meete with rivers of pleasures And thou saith David shall make them drinke of the river of thy pleasure to wit in ordinances Tenthly all particular vouchsafements come to the servants of God as a fruit and effect of mercy Somtimes they have more of this worlds goods then ever they expected and grace with all to use what they have to the glory of God and this makes their enjoyments mercys Many are crying and wishing every where for wealth and riches and outward accomodations but they are not so earnest to have grace to use them to Gods glory which plainly shews they have not what they have in mercy Vouchsafments injoyments longer then they are improved to Gods glory are not blessings mercies Now these common mercies cannot be denied so far as we have a state calling for them grace to use them to the glory of the giver We for our parts have no cause to complain we eat drinke mercies and weare them upon our backe We have mercies above and mercies beneath us mercies round about If we want one kind we have it made up in another Thou shalt have rubish to serve thy turne which God throwes away for he hath given thee gold There is no fear of having too few crusts but of having good teeth to gnaw nourishment out of them In the Eleventh place this is a choise effect of Gods mercy to have communion with God The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the fellowship of the holy spirit Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur Are uprising and down-lying with a gratious soule This is a mercy indeed It is said of Charles the greate that he spake more with God then with men Ah Sirs why should it not be true of us Brethren it concernes us much to look after this fruit of mercy By this mercy we stand in times of temptation and triall A soule high in communion with God may be tempted but will not easily be conquered such a soule will fight it out to the death O this is a choise mercy It is Iacobs ladder where you have Christ sweetly comming downe into the soule and the soule sweetely ascending up to Christ It was a mercy vouchsafed to holy and patient Iob upon the dungil that he knew that his redeemer lived and behold how he conquers the Devill both in blacke and white Communion is a reciprocall exchange betweene Christ and a gratious soule And of this mercy there is a continuall ground in a gratious soule for either I shall be praying for what I want or praising him for what I have by both which I have oppertunity to keepe my acquaintance and hold communion with the Lord my God Communion with God brings all Gods attributes to us for our use upon occasions Great is this mercy vouchsafed to the Saints and servants of God Lastly From this mercifull disposition to lost believing mankind life everlasting comes He hath granted to them a life as long as his owne Now heere I am at a losse Thousands of millions of yeeres as holy writ teacheth us and the spirit maketh us to believe is not time enough in Gods esteem to vouchsafe fullnesse of joy these pleasures must be for evermore O this perpetuity O this eternitie O this life everlasting I conclude then that God is merciful that mercy is an attribute of God Men in desperate conditions may meete with mercy for with the Lord there is mercy What more desperate condition then to be fallen in Adam's I could tell you many things of other miseries and dangers creatures have been in and neere unto and have met with a mercifull God Moses like to be drowned The male Jewish children to be ruined and so by consequence in time the whole nation Cruel bondage upon them all The heads of Gods people on the block by Hamans plot mentioned in Hester The three Saints commonly called the three Children in the fiery furnace Daniel in the Lions Den. The Thief upon the Crosse even as it were droping into hell Yet Gods mercy was seen in saving all these In extremities is the Lord seen Though the blow were as it were in the giving to the whole Church by Haman yet when the people of God made worke upon earth by prayer and humiliation that made worke in heaven and the issue of it quickly came downe And when Christ will be exalted for his mercy he will convert one upon the Gallowes and save a thiefe at the last cast And therefore we may conclude upon this attribute of mercy that it is in God That God is a God of mercy a God full of mercy a God that delights in mercy a God that is ready to shew mercy a God that is never weary
the mind and a delight in ignorance Want of subjection and conformity in the will and rebellion withall Want of holines in the affections and pronesse to evill An aiming at a mans self in all actions or rather the disease of the soule is satisfied A fullfilling the desires of the flesh Ephes 2. verse 3. Let us fasten here a litle A blind mind an ignorant soule is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 And therefore though God forbid men of this frame to love the world yet they will love it still they have no heart no stomack to God and his wayes This is the frame of the spirit of an unholy man And therefore they that are such make not God the end of their thoughts word or actions No nor indeed themselves as creatures such is the blindnes of their mind and perversnes of their spirits Sicke soules must be humour'd or else they are quite undone they think although in truth it fares with such as with men and women that have sick bodies that use to long for that which will prove their bane Their lust make them fooles They have no understanding the eies of their mind are put out They fashion themselves according to their lust in their ignorance They are as blind as beetles They are like a man that is sick of a feaver that must have could drink and other things which his disease cals for though it kill him These will rather dy then yield to God and hug that snake in their bosome which will sting them to death at last And thus ye see what unholines is T is true gracious men may slip they may be overtaken in a fault but it doth cost them deare If Peter deny Christ he will weep bitterly If David step aside as he did in the matter of Vriah he will water his couch with his tears and make his bed to swim But as for these poor unholy souls their case is sad and dismal Never tell me say some of holines and exactnes I will not no I will not I will dy rather What holines is Such we read of in Jeremy As for the words that thou speakest we will not do And again Let us not give heed to any of his words Well Sirs sith there are among you such as will not heare us speak of God to you Yet we will not cease to speake to God for you And now let us see what holines is Three things in the soule It is indeed the restoring of all these defects which I have spoken of to you But before I go any further in that matter let me shew you three things in the soule First the substance thereof Secondly the faculties or powers of the soule Thirdly the qualities of these faculties Ye have a fit resemblance of these in an instrument of musick there is the instrument the strings the harmony Now ye must know when Adam fell the substance of his soul was the same afterward that it was before The devils have the same substance in hell that they had when they were in heaven Neither are the faculties of the soule lost by the fall but only the good qualities are defaced that which we call the image of God As first for the understanding knowledge Collos 3 10. And have put on the new man Saith the Apostle there Which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him where we may easily gather that holy souls are knowing souls understanding what was lost is found again And then secondly for the will and affections Ephes 4.24 And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes and true holinesse knowledge is opposed to ignorance an ignorant person is an ungodly person And holinesse and righteous to concupiscences and the lusts of the old man To which if yee add one thing to wit sincerity and truth and an aiming at Gods glory then ye have the body of holinesse So now ye see that an holy frame of the soul standeth in the absence of the contrary evill and a positive quality and habit of goodnes Some set it forth thus Holinesse respecteth God immediately and is contained in the duties of the first Table Righteousnes respecteth man and the creatures and compriseth the duties enjoyned in the second Table Truth respects the manner how both the former are to be practised These make a perfect harmony in all the faculties of the soule and are that created holinesse which is communicated from God as first to Adam in his creation so since to all regenerated ones A seventh motive to move us to labour for holines Be exhorted I say again to get holiness and let me adde one consideration more to stir you up to labour for holinesse viz. That the most holy men are the least fearing men Paul was of great courage he had much holinesse 1 Thess 2.10 Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblamably we behave our selves among you that believe Therefore when the Viper leapt upon his hand he feared not Polluted souls are full of fear Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul 1 Sam. 13.12 And Herod feared John knowing that he was a just man and an holy Mark 6.20 Magnas vires habet pietas Godlinesse hath great strength The righteous also shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 so Prov. 28.1 The righteous is bold as a Lyon Nehemiah was an holy man and would not fly Should such a man as I flee saith he Nehemiah 6.11 If God be sanctified by us he will be a sanctuary to us If Fortitude were of such high account among Heathens when it was but a virtue what esteem should it have as a grace Do but get holinesse and ye need not fear of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against you round about as David did not Psalm 3. v. 6. Though 40. men binde themselves with an oath against a holy man yet they can do him no harm If Nebuchadnezzar theaten the fiery furnace to the 3 Saints in Daniel yet they will behold An Deus est in mundo pro nihilo Card. borrom Silentiarius Si Deus mei curam non habet quid vivo Daniel 3. from the 13. verse to the 19th A holy man need not fear any thing Holinesse will carry a man through the world He that knows himself to be one of Gods holy ones May bid defiance to all fears and dangers whatsoever Holinesse arms a man with armour of proof against all fears What said a Cardinal being told of great danger is God in the world for nothing And another if God have not care of me why do I live And now Christians arm your selves against fears by holinesse fears of the world fears of death which God knows how soon may seize upon us God will
this in his minde can chuse but be astonished who can hold teares in the consideration of so great mercy That God would send his Sonne out of his owne bosome even him who thought it not robbery to be equall with God Phillip 2.6 ver 7. to be made of no reputation and to take upon him the forme of a servant and to be made in the likenesse of men Rather then man should be utterly lost That he I say of infinite majesty with the father and Holy Spirit wanting nothing who created all things whom so many millions of Angles serve and who in a moment of time is able of nothing to create infinit other more excellent then men to worship him should be borne in a stable laid in a mangre that man wretched man the lowest of rationall nature next of kind to the bruite beasts addicted to earthly things void of heavenly uncleane unthankfull rebellious in whom there was nothing worthy of love many things worthy of hatred and punishment Should be freed from everlasting damnation and raigne eternally with God in glory Here is a rare effect and fruit of mercy indeed If a man riding a long the high way should find a poor raged louzy wretch almost dead groveling and wallowing in blood and dirt and beholding this wofull sight should alight from his horse and take up this poore creature carry it upon his back or in his arme to some house and take all possible care for its washing dressing and recovery and in the meane time have his horse stollen by thieves himselfe persuing beaten and wounded should yet rejoice that he hath saved the life of the poore creature would not such a man be noted for a good man a mercifull man Beloved bretheren this is nothing in comparison of what Jesus Christ hath done for us He did lay aside his glory and tooke part with our even with the worst miseries and all in mercy to deliver us from hell and to bring us to glory Stand amazed O ye sons of men If ye did but consider what ignorance of God athisme brutishnes and hellish cruelties are in Christendom and ye must think there is much more out of it ye would conclude that the world is in a most miserable condition being God is righteous And therefore to do as hath beene a little said for the salvation of such must needs proceed from unspeakable mercy even the mercy of a God To this head is to be referred the bitter passion of our blessed Saviour His nakednes and poverty his hunger and thirst his labours and hardships of life his reproaches and persecutions his buffetings and spittings his whipings and prickings of thornes his agony and bloody sweat all kindes of opprobies and dolorous sufferings even unto the accursed death of the crosse And this is the first effect of Gods mercy Christ Incarnation Behold next the revelation of the mind of God by this Lord Jesus Christ so Incarnated Heb. 1.1.2 God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by by the prophets hath in these last dayes spoken to us by his sonne John 17. ver 3. If to know God the only true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ be life eternal which who dares question Then it must be another rare fruit of mercy to ignorant blind sotish brutish mankind to have such a glorious Sunne to shine that people that sit in darknes and in the shadow of death may have their feet guided into the wayes of peace and salvation And truly herein English men have a great share in this mercy that when so many places in the world are without the sound and saving discoveries of the Gospel have such as no nation under heaven doth or ever did goe beyond us scarce any surely very few ever enjoyed the like But that we may be somewhat taken with his effect of mercy let us looke into it somewhat further by the consideration of two things about it First The condition the world was in when Christ came The condition that the world was in when Christ came and then his comming and behaviour for the enlightening thereof For the first the whole world except a very few was ignorant of Christ and of its maker of divine providence and the government of the world of the end of good and evill to wit eternall life and eternal death heaven and hell How few then and yet indeed tooke notice of the soules immortality the evill of sinne both in regard of his wages and work sorrow deformity the worth and beauty of exact walking The devill the Prince of darknesse being the God of this dark world held all as he doth the greatest part to this very day under his government and discipline behold deadly darknes was upon the face of the whole earth incomparably worse then the darknesse that was in Aegypt mentioned Exod. 10.21 All their beauty was deformity their potency wealth and eloquence with which they flourished were of no worth because of no efficacy to the obtaining of eternall life or freedom from hell Now in this misery and blindnes in which the whole world in a manner lay The Lord Jesus moved with mercy and pity came into this dark and blind world dispelled these darknesses with his discovery of the mind of his father He detects errors opens the frauds tyrany of the Devil illuminates the world and shews them the author of all things his power providence mercy justice the reward of good men in graffed into Christ and the punishment everlasting prepared for ungodly men and unbelievers This light shone three yeers and halfe in the person of the son of God in the flesh in diverse townes and villages in the wildernesse in thâ— mountaines in the fields on the land and on the sea of Galilee publiquely and privately in houses and in Synagogues in the Temple and in the streets in all places upon all occasions The excellency of this light it contained nothing but what was profitable to salvation for the manner it was plane and familiar that all might be capable of it It was pure and perfect enlightning the understanding reforming the soule excluding sinfullnes and iniquity directing in piety righteousnesse and sobriety composing the whole life and conforming the whole man within and without to the divine will and eternall love of the most holy God This was done by Christ in the flesh his humanity was the instrument made use of in the administration of the Gospel of salvation And therefore nothing can be desired for matter or manner that is wanting this mystery of salvation coming out of so good a hand The very particulars insisted on by Christ in his sermons have in them sublimatie and beauty He commandeth selfe-deniall the renouncing of all the world for his sake a patient taking up of the crosse the love of our enemies The Lords prayer not to be used as a charme but to
that after this life when all promises are fulfilled Obj. there is no use of fidelity I Answer that we may distinguish the property from the exercise of it or else and rather This I say Sol. to all eternity there is use of Gods fidelity for that his saints continue in their blessednes is by vertue of his promise and fidelity where some also have said there is some kind of faith that lasts in heaven which they call the faith of depency This truth I say will stand when all that oppose it or slight it shall fall and such as doubt of it shall be without Fides depenetiae Numb 23.19 God is not a man that he should ly nor the sonne of man that he should repent shall he say and not do or shall he speake and not make it good Malachy 3.6 For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed And the Apostle James saith with him is no varablenesse nor shadow of turning Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithfull God which keepeth Covenant mercy with them that love him c. Proofs are plentifull in the history of the Scriptures Gods truth and faithfullnes is the ground of the Saints security and the sinners destruction And this must needs be in God who first knows what hee saies to be good and fit and truth in a logicall sence of which ye have already heard and therefore he need not repent he hath no after thoughts And Secondly He hates and threatens and punisheth the want of faithfulnes in others Ezekiell 17.15 16. Shall he prosper shall he escape that doth such things or shall he breake the covenant and be delivered As I live saith the Lord God surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king whose oath he despised and whose covenant he brake even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall dy Now put these two together First What God saith is so good and true according to the just rule as that he hath no cause to alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth Secondly that he hates and punisheth faithfullnes and want of truth in others and it will be surely concluded that God is a God of truth and faithfullnes Now what God saith is either by way of menace or promise as may be abundantly read in Scripture and of both it is true as it is written of the law Mat. 5.18 One jot or title shall in no wise passe from it till all be fulfilled God watcheth over his word to perform it It is a note of Mr. Capel upon the fifth verse of the first of Zachary Your fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever That the power of Truth of Gods word depends not on any mens persons nor is limited to one age Their Fathers were dead that were threatned and the Prophets were dead too that did threaten them but the truth of their prophesies was not buried with them but was in every point fulfilled according to their preaching That follows v. 6. But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers And they returned and said like as the Lord of hoasts thought to do unto us according to our ways according to our doings so hath he dealt with us It is confessed by them selves the hand of God upon them did draw a confession from them that they were punished as God had threatned as they had deserved and they returned that is were convinced better advised as Mal. 3.18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Men will know one day to their sorrow that God is a God of truth not a word goes out of his mouth but is exactly performed Yea circumstances exactly observed ye find Gen. 15.13 a promise made to Abram that after foure hundred yeares his seed should be freed and come out of the land of Bondage with great substance And compare that place with Exod. 12.41 And ye shall find great exactnes And it came to passe at the end of the foure hundred and thirty yeares even the selfe same day it came to passe that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Aegypt The Lord is most true yea truth it selfe And all his promises in Christ are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 He is a faithfull witnes and whatsoever he hath spoken shall be accomplished so that though the heavens decay and wax old like a garment though the sunne lose his light and the moone be turned into blood though the earth tremble and quake and the foundations of the mountaines be moved and shake yea though heaven and earth and all things therein contained perish and pass a way yet all that God hath threatned or promised shall be accomplished God is Jehovah he hath his essence and beeing in and from himselfe alone giveth beeing unto all things else especially to his word and promises And therefore for the First Use Let the people of God be confident upon this truth of God Light is sowen for the righteous and Vse 1 joyfull gladnesse for the upright in heart Psalme 97.11 And Gods Testimonies are very sure Psalme 93.5 He hath promised to all beleevers and repentant sinners that he will in Christ Jesus pardon all their sinnes and will receive them into his grace and favour and that he will be a sunne and shield to them and that no good thing will he withhold from them And therefore let us believe and rest upon our Saviour Christ alone for salvation truly repenting us of all our sinnes and build upon Gods truth that though our sinnes be never so many and grievious yet the Lord will pardon and forgive them and though our distresses and misery be never so great and woefull yet he can and therefore will because he is a God of truth deliver us from all Truth and faithfulnes is one of Gods names a part of his title let us not therfore call it into question it is a great dishonor to God It is an errour in the foundation to subsistitute fals objects either in religion or in christian conversation We must not build upon works but rely upon promises made by the God of truth God can neither endure fals objects nor a double object His faithfulnes or truth must be our shield buckler And therefore in the second place Ps 91.4 this reproves our doubtings somtimes churlish enough concerning the truth faithfulnes Vse 2 of our gratious God who yet is ever will be without falshood Titus 1.2 A God that cannot ly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet is often charged with breach of promise to his children by his very children 2 Pet. 3.4 5. If only scoffers walking after their owne lusts should say where is the promise of his