a two-fold Kingdome attributed unto Christ The one as he is God having the same Essence with the Father and so ruling over the whole world The other as he is Mediatour and Head of the Church and so the chief Governour and Shepherd thereof in a peculiar manner The first is called his Essential and natural Kingdom The second his Dispensatory and Donative The Sacinians have occasioned this distinction For when we bring those places where Christ is said to be King and Lord to be exalted above all principalities to prove his eternal God-head They answer This is a constituted God-head Christ was not thus King till after his resurrection and therefore say they it was given him in time whereas if it were an essential attribute of God it must he had from all eternity To this it is answered That Christ as God had right to all that glory and honour which was given him in time but then as Mediatour so it was a reward at least a consequent of his obedience and humiliation So that they grant Christ did in time receive a Mediatory Kingdom and glory whereby he was made Head of his Church and to rule in with supream power and authority though from the Father neither doth this derogate from his Deity to say it was given him for it was not given him to make him more perfect only to perfect his Church and it 's a gift of such a thing which only can be attributed to God for none but he that is God can be Mediatour and Head of his Church because he that is so must be the cause of all the grace and spiritual benefits which are in the Church Secondly Christ being thus exalted as Head of the Church all Church-power is radically and fâ—â—tally seated in him So that the power to make Church-officers doth not arise originally from the people as they say civil power doth and is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on humane ordinance but it cometh from the Lord Christ. Hence Matth. 28. 18 19. when Christ had said All power is given me in heaven and earth then from this power he appoints them to go teach and baptize Thus in another place he saith John 20. 21 22 23. As my Father hath sent me so I send you whosoever sinnes ye remit c. From his Mediatorship ye see he giveth the Keys of Government to his Officers This also in a lively manner is affirmed Ephes 4. 10 11. where Christs ascension is spoken of and his glorious exaltation That he might fill all things that is appoint all things in his Church whereupon he enumerateth all Offices and sheweth that they have all their Commission from Christ and that both the ordinary as well as the extraordinary Therefore in the third place The Officers in the Church are properly servants to Christ and receive their power and commission from him It 's not the Church but Christ that hath set Officers in his Church The Church indeed may apply the person to the office but Christ institutes and applieth the office to the person The Church cannot make a Minister in this sense viz. to institute the office for then it might appoint other offices then Christ hath only it may design the person For Christ is the fountain of all Church-power and officers receive their authority from him It 's true that the Apostle saith to the Church of Corinth All things are yours 2 Cor. 4. 5. And in another place We are your servants for Jesus sake but the meaning therof is ministerially their office and the execution that was wholly for the Churches edification not that they had their power from the Church For who can think that Paul had his authority from men when he disclaimeth it so often yet he reckoneth himself in the number of those that are servants for their spiritual benefit Thirdly Although it be disputed Whether the power of appointing Officers and Laws in the Church belongeth to Christ as a Prophet or a King Some say as a Prophet he doth thus govern his Church yet it is more probable that be doth this as a King So that Christ as a spiritual King over his people doth appoint what officers what Ordinances and Orders he pleaseth so that you must know that this is part of Christs Jus regale and they come equally from the same fountain both to appoint an Officer and an Ordinance The Church can no more appoint a new Office than it can a new Ordinance a new Sacrament This is greatly to be observed because the Governours in the Church or the civil Magistrate for politick considerations have instituted new Offices and many times made the Government of the Church sutable to that of the Commonwealth equalizing spiritual Officers with Civil but this may be no more done then to appoint a new Ordinance and the reason is because both Offices and Ordinances are for supernatural effects to convert to build up in grace Now none may appoint any thing for such high ends but those only who are able to accomplish them Christ only can convert therefore he only can appoint an Officer or Ordinance for conversion Besides to appoint new Officers would redound to Christs dishonour as if he were not either wise or able enough to appoint all things in the Church necessary to attain salvation whereas the Apostle preferreth Christ above Moses That he was but as a servant but Christ as a son in the house Heb. 3. Use of Exhortation first To the Church-officer Doth he come with Christs Commission Doth he appear in his Name Then let him be sure to improve his Office according to Christs command If Paul be an Apostle of Jesus Christ then his work will be to exalt Christ our power saith he is not for destruction but edification 2 Cor. 13. It 's a capital crime for an Embassadour to vary from his Cossimission to go contrary to that This should daily lie upon our hearts To what end have I this Office from Christ Is it not to labour in his vineyard Is it not to convert souls Do not all the names which Church-officers have imploy labour work and diligence Especially these things they must take heed of 1. That they turn not the Office of Christ into matter of pride dominion and earthly interest Even the Apostle himself said Not as having dominion over your faith but helpers of your joy 2 Cor. 1. ult And the Apostle Peter forbids the lording over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5. 3. This tyranny in the Church by the Officers thereof hath been a fatal destruction thereunto When the Sunne hath been in the Eclipse sad alterations must needs follow say Astrologers As not into pragmatical domination so neither may they turn it into earthy and worldly advantages setting up their own name their own greatness or their own worth thereby which the Apostle often disclaimeth But we are to walk even as Christ himself in his office who
sought not himself neither did he mind his own will or his own glory And certainly the higher the Office is the greater will thy account be and thy condemnation the heavier Oh the dreadfull account that is to be made at that day concerning this talent 2. Of laziness and idleness For the work is of great consequence The bloud of souls will speak more terribly than the blood of Abels body How severe was the master in that Parable of our 〈◊〉 to him who hid his talent in a napkin Luke 19. 20. he is called an unprofitable servant and must be cast into utter darkness Use 2. To you that are the people If we have our Commission from Christ then take heed how you reject the Word we speak from him The Apostle makes a comparison between him that refused Moses speaking and Christ speaking and saith How much forer punishment shall he be thought worthy of Heb. 10. 29. Every Sermon your condemnation will rise higher upon you Think not that our words will passe away No God saith by the Prophet They shall not return in vain for if it be not a saving and converting word it will be an hardning and condemning one No wonder if our Saviour spake one Parable to this very purpose and concludeth Take heed how you hear Mark 4. 24. The second thing observable from this relative consideration is That the Apostle intending to beget awe and esteem in the hearts of those he wrote unto he mentioneth his Office and from whom he had it An Apostle of Jesus Christ This was a greater glory saith Chrysostome then if he had styled himself any temporal Officer in the Civil State For he doth saith the same Father as if one next to the Emperour should write to a certain people giving himself that title of honour which was next to the Emperour Thus doth Paul The Apostle of Jesus Christ. This could not but astonish and startle all his opposers and enemies yet if you do consider with a worldly respect what Christ himself was and so any Officer under him you must judge it the most contemptible and despicable thing that can be that which a carnal man would have been ashamed to own for Christ himself was called The Carpenters sonne and bred up at Nazareth a most despicable place and his outward condition was so low that he saith He had not where to lay his head And as for his Apostles what repute they had in the world Paul himself telleth us when he saith They were accounted the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 13. Yet see how the Apostle glorieth in this title as that which might justly awe the consciences of those to whom he wrote From this observe That those things are of high account and respect in the Church of God which in the world are very despicable and despised As That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abominable before God Luk. 18. So that which is abominable and loathsom before men is highly esteemed with God We might instance in many things First Christ who is the Head of the Church and the chief corner-stone yet he was rejected by those who by their Office was builders Yea Christ crucified was accounted foolishness to the Gentiles Insomuch that had not God promised Christ To give him the Nations of the Earth and had actually lifted him up above all principalities and powers We should have thought there would not have been one City much lesse one Nation especially not so many Nations adoring him as God We may truly say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Christ is called by the Apostle The King of Kings and Lord of Lords which 2 Tim. 5. 16. Drusius saith was the Title and Style of the great Kings of Persia but who except the Christian would admire Christ more than the Persian King Therefore it was a wonderfull work upon those Wisemen of the East that they should come and bring such presents and worship Christ though an Infant whom they found in a mean place at Bethlehem and in the meanest place there but where God giveth spiritual eyes there is a spiritual excellency discovered where the world seeth nothing but contemptibleness Secondly For the Officers of Christ In worldly considerations how low and despised are they But to those who are spiritual and acknowledge the Order and Institutions of Christ they esteem them as the Stewards of God and the Ministers of Christ insomuch that it 's the cause of contemning Religion when their Office is despised Paul was so received by the Galatians as if he had been an Angel from Heaven Yea Christ himself They would have pulled out their eyes to have pleasured him And we see in the after ages of the Church how much the Ministers of Christ were had in esteem insomuch that it greew unto an excesse Now though the carnal worldly man beareth no such respect to them yet those who are led by Scripture doe highly esteeme them and that for their workes sake Thirdly The Duties prescribed by Christ they are such as the world condemneth either for folly or pusillanimity as Faith in Christ alone for salvation self-denial readiness to take up our Crosse To love our enemies to do good to those that hate us Are not these such things that the magnanimous and gallant spirits of the world do disdain Fourthly The priviledges and encouragements which Christ also inviteth with they are not such baits as will take in the world Psal 4. Who will shew us any good that is the vote of the world As for the light of Gods countenance justification and assurance of Gods grace these things they do no more esteem than the Swine doth Pearl Lastly The due execution of the Censure of the Church upon just grounds to cast out the impenitent sinner This the world contemneth but yet you see how powerfully it wrought upon the Incestuous person And Matth. 18. when our Saviour had said He that would not heare the Church must be like a Publican and Heathen lest they should despise this he saith Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Use of Exhortation To admire the power and wisdom of God who hath kept up Church-officers Church-ordinances in the world when there are no outward pompous motives to perswade thereunto SERM. VIII In what sense Paul saith of himself He was an Apostle by the will of God Shewing likewise how all Church-Offices and Priviledges come meerly from the will and good pleasure of God 2 COR. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God c. VVE are now to consider the last particular in this Inscription as it is divided to us and that is the impulsive Cause or rather the Manner how Paul obtaineth this Apostleship which is said to be by the will of God Here is much comprehended in this expression for hereby is declared That it was
as David when banished from the publick Ordinances lamented it more than banishment from his own house and land and native countrey Thus they cryed out with him As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so pant our souls after thee O God You see then it 's a duty to be of a Church Hence because a Church is a company we are diligently to attend to what is our duty as we are a Church and this you had need hear of often For you must know you are under a two-fold consideration One Absolute as a private and single person and so you have several duties to attend unto 2. Relative as you are a member of a Church or part of such a Society and so there are choice and special duties Your solemn Church-duties such as hearing praying and all other publick worship are to be preferred above all private He can never be a good Christian that is not a good member of that Church he is of As in Politicks it's acknowledged he cannot be bonus vir which is not bonus civis not a good man that is not a good Citizen Now certainly here is a wonderfull neglect and general fault in all our Congregations we attend not to our Church-duties to our Church-communion what God doth require of us as a Society as a spiritual Company there would not be that neglecting of the Assemblies those wicked and ungodly meetings to be drunk to be carnally merry and jolly which are directly contrary to Church-meetings Nothing doth so resemble Heaven as the Church Assemblies spiritually performed and to such meetings God hath promised his more peculiar presence and assistance But of this more in its time In the next place there is added in the Doctrinal Description That it is a Company of persons called of God by the preaching of the Word Wherein are considerable the Efficient Cause and the Instrumental The Efficient is God Called by God And first In that they are said to be called by God This implieth these things 1. That it 's the meer goodness and grace of God that makes a people to be a Church Therefore they are thus named Ecclesia The Grecians called their Assemblies so because of some humane Authority gathering them together but the people of God are called a Church because God calls them So that as there is a difference between a garden and a wilderness the one is naturally so but the other is planted by art and industry nature doth not of it self especially since mans fall bring forth gardens and choice flowers but there is great art and culture required thereunto Thus it is with the Church men are made the Church by Gods grace but they are the world of themselves The world and the Church are two opposites God makes the one and is present in a special manner there but sinne and Satan make and rule in the other When the Psalmist said It is he that hath made us not we our selves we are the sheep of his pasture Calvin understands it of their Church making it was the goodness and power of God that made them so Hence it is that it is often compared to and called the Kingdom of Heaven because it's original is from Heaven and their Laws and Ordinances are heavenly Thus you see to be made a Church is not by our humane will and power as men make themselves Cities and Corporations but by a special grace of God 2. When therefore we are said to be called by God that doth necessarily suppose a terminus from which we are called It 's a company of persons called out from the world wherein once they were Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. doth oppose the world and the Church together and the world is said to be without God then when he gathers a Church He calls them out of the world as Lot was called out of Sodom which was ready to be destroyed with fire and brimstone or as a man is called out from an house that is ready to fall into its fulnes and this it is that makes it to be such an admirable priviledge and blessedness to be of the Church For the world is sure to perish is sure to be damned there is no abiding therein as if an Israelite had continued in an Aegyptians house when the destroying Angel passed by he was sure to be killed Thus there is no way but of damnation in the world without this Ark of the Church every one must necessarily perish But this is that which should make all our hearts ake and tremble at to consider That though the Church be called out of the world yet it 's almost degenerated into the world again Look over the face and conversation of all Churches Are they not become the world Is not a garden made a wilderness Is not the lusts the prophaneness the ignorance the impieties that are in the world to be found in the Church like wise And what hath been the sad occasion of so many to say Our Congregations are no Churches that a man cannot with a good conscience stay amongst you or have communion with you Is it not because of the universalimpiety they see amongst us As if the Church of God which is like the Ark in other things were in this also that all kind of things unclean as well as clean swine as well as sheep vultures as well as doves were to be taken into it We see as it hath been Gods work to turn the world into Churches so it hath been the Devils work to turn the Churches into the world again But wo be to the wicked man that is so in the Church of God God will be sure to punish you A nettle or weed in the garden is sure to be plucked up whereas in the wilderness it may grow and never be medled with SERM XIII Concerning the Efficient Instrumental Formal and Final Cause of a Church 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church at Corinth VVE are describing the nature of a particular visible Church and in that have discussed the Efficient Cause with the manner of his efficiency expressed in those words Called of God what is implied in that hath been examined only there remaineth a necessary distinction to be attended unto of Gods call that it is two-fold either External only or External and Internal also or an Effectual and Ineffectual Calling For though this distinction be hated by some men yet the Scripture is very clear That there are many called who yet are not chosen and when he saith called it is not meant only actively on Gods part as some were called but yet refused and would not so much as outwardly profess obedience but called is to be understood passively on mans part so that he giveth some outward conformity to Gods call There is an external reception and submission to it but yet there is no true inward sanctification Insomuch that some who are called the children of the Kingdom shall be cast forth and they
exhorteth all that hope in God Psal 31. 24. To be of good courage and God shall strengthen their hearts Of all temptations none are so grievous to be born as those which arise from Gods withdrawing of himself and hiding of his face from us then we apprehend no promises do belong unto us then we question very principles and so are like a ship tossed in the Sea without Pilot or Anchor Therefore spiritual fortitude to withstand these strong assaults is above all required How many have sunk irrecoverably into this pit of destruction So that unlesse Gods power settle us unlesse that compose our hearts we can as well remove mountains as this sad and sainting spirit of ours Lay then fast hold on Christ thou canst not sink in these waters if his arm doth uphold thee Thus Timothy is exhorted To be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 1. there is his duty to be strong but how must he come to have this strength It is by Jesus Christ you would think the exhortation were superfluous for why must I be strong if it be the grace of Christ that must enable me But the exhortation is usefull howsoever for hereby we are taught our duty as also to go out of our selves renouncing our own strength and laying the faster hold upon Christ himself To this purpose we have the like exhortation Ephes 6. 10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might when he had before laid down several precepts then knowing how impotent and unable we are he saith Be strong in the Lord. Here you see what we are commanded but it is the power of his might that is his mighty power that must confirm us and where this is present then we wonder how we are carried through such temptations led through such wildernesses as we have been we stand and admire to see what red Seas we have gone thorow and how the waters have yeelded unto us Thus Paul I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4. 13. Fourthly Divine hope doth exceedingly conduce to stablish the soul upon the promises as you heard from those admonitions of David to his soul Hope thou still in God Faith is carried out to the truth of God and hope to the mercy and power of God and therefore he that hopeth in God is got into the Ark while others float in the waters Heb. 6. 19. it is compared to the Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth within the vail By this we see that hope doth notably settle the soul Faith indeed and hope are two sisters and twins and look so like one another that we can hardly make the difference yet faith establisheth the soul upon the promises by apprehending them as present so that the soul is in as holy a manner secure as if it were already in Heaven But hope doth settle the soul on Gods promises as the things promised are future and to come For seeing between Gods promises and the accomplishment of them there happen so many crosse providences in appearance yea so many difficulties and seeming impossibilities are in the way we need some divine grace to overcome all these and that is hope compared excellently to an Anchor for as that doth fasten the ship which otherwise would be tossed up and down and in danger of splitting upon every Rock so the soul of the most godly man is tossed up and down with such sad temptations that did not this hope bear up the heart all would fail within us But this spiritual anchor exceedeth all material ones for this is sure and stedfast Sure so that no outward violence of storms can break it and stedfast in respect from within there is nothing without or within that can disanuâ—l this But then whereas other anchors are fastened into the earth this is in Heaven in God and invisible things A godly mans hope cannot be seen by the bodily eye Take heed then of weakning this grace of hope it 's an excellent corroborater of the soul staying it up with that glory which will be revealed hereafter Lastly Another habitual principle whereby God doth exceedingly establish the heart on the promises is Spiritual joy and heavenly consolations This is one great reason say Divines why Angels and Saints in Heaven are so confirmed in that estate that nothing can tempt them off from God they never will be weary of the presence of God even because they are filled with so much infinite delight and joy that they cannot desire any better thing than God Now the godly they have the beginnings of these consolations here upon earth for by the spirit of adoption they are so filled with joy and delight that all the world is no more than an husk unto them they look upon the world as a wildernesse and Heaven as the Canaan So that spiritual consolations when wrought in the soul are like a mighty pillar to bear up the heart Hence the Apostle prayeth 2 Thes 2. 17. That God would comfort their hearts and stablish them First Comfort and then establish How hardly is the heart dejected and full of despondent thoughts established But comfort and joy is oil to the wheels Thus Nehemiah spake Neh. 8. 10. Be not ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength So much sinfull grief as thou lettest in it is like the letting in of waters at some leak in the ship it may sink the ship at last Blesse God therefore for any gladnesse of heart for any consolations of soul through the Spirit of God these support the soul these make it rejoyce in the midst of all afflictions It is true sometimes the people of God for wise and holy ends are deprived of them but when they are vouchsafed they come like pleasant gales of winde to carry the ship to its Haven In the next place As God doth positively establish by these habitual principles so also by the actual motions of his Spirit upon us There is not only habitual grace but efficacious grace whereby the Lord worketh in us both to will and to do How many times do the principles of grace like Christ in the ship lie asleep in us insomuch that till they be awakened we are in danger of shipwrack Therefore when the Apostle exhorteth us To work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 13. he giveth a wonderfull reason for it 's God that worketh in you to will and to do and that of his good pleasure So that the confirming power of God lieth chiefly in this in actuating those habitual principles within us whereby we depend upon God continually as the beams of the Sun do upon the Sun This Doctrine Pelagians and Papists cannot relish but certainly if God come not with efficacious actual help as well as habitual the instances of the fals of Gods people in all ages will palpably declare they are undone
instances what weaknesse is upon the best if the Lord forsake them but for a while Peter was so confident of his immoyeablenesse that he thought though all others should deny Christ yet he would stand it out but how sadly did he fall to the great bit ernesse of his soul Thus the godly appear sometimes like Trees in the winter which though having some life in the root yet outwardly have no apparent difference from those that are stark dead and all is because they have not that establishing grace they use to have Let not then the strong man in grace glory in his strength nor the swift man in the wayes of Heaven glory in his swiftnesse and fervency for he is alone supported by the power of God Yea which is the more observable you may see them falling and staggering in those particular graces wherein they seem to be most corroborated Abraham is the Father of the faithfull and yet he discovered much carnal fear in Abimelech's countrey Moses was the meekest man upon the earth yet in what a froward passion when he struck the Rock which so provoked God that thereby he had onely a sight of Canaan and was not permitted to enter thereinto Peter is noted to have the greatest fervency and zeale of all the Apostles and yet how surprized with cowardize and sinnefull feare In these graces of all other you would not have thought they should stumble and and fall But behold how it is the arme of the Lord that doth beare us up Secondly This truth is demonstrated from those wonderfull dispensations towards his best servants Many are the temptations that they are assaulted with and all this is to shew their impotency to them to discover their infirmities to them that so they may be humble alwayes in their own eyes Thus Abraham and Jacob they were in constant exercises no sooner were they delivered from the Lion but a Bear met them one wave followed another And what was the end of all this but to keep them in continual dependance and waiting upon God David also was constantly in a wildernesse where no water was and Gods end herein was to make him see his salvation was in God alone Yea Paul himself though by the grace of God he was so preserved that after his conversion we read of no other extraordinary fall he had yet lest hereby as also from many other glorious priviledges he enjoyed he should be puffed up above measure 2 Cor. 12. he had the buffetings of Satan and a thorn in the flesh to make him go out of himself and to rest on Christ only So that Gods end in putting them upon these trials is to instruct them wherein or in whom their strength doth consist Thirdly That it is God alone who doth stablish the most holy will appear If you consider how great the power subtilty and malice of the Devil is who is set against them more than any others As Christ told his Apostles Satan had a desire to sift them as wheat Luk. 22. 31. Thus the Devil doth with the greatest violence oppose those that are more esteemed for gifts and graces than others These like Uriah stand in the fore-front of the battle for if they â—alâ— if they become a stumbling block and a reproach God is more dishonoured wicked men are more hardened then if many weak Christians should fall and therefore those that are remarkably godly they are to be so farre from high-mindednesse and self-confidence that indeed they are to be in the greatest fear and watchfulnesse for it is such as thou art the Devil aimeth at The trees full of fruit have the greatest violence made upon their boughs Now alas what is a godly mans strength to the Devils violent assaults and subtil insinuations if God did not strengthen him What defence hath a sheep against a roaring Lion Observe that reason expressed 1 John 4. 4. You have overcome Antichrist saith that Apostle but why Because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world In you that is emphatical It 's Christ dwelling in us that keepeth off Satans victorious power and all his instruments Thus also 1 John 5. 5. It is faith that overcometh the world which alwayes relieth on a power without us for faith as it is a grace doth not but as it receiveth strength from Christ As the Vine and Ivy are not supported of themselves but by those trees they lean unto Fourthly It is plain that God alone doth establish the most able believers from that providence of God whereby he many times leaveth such to themselves that in their own experience and acknowledgement of others they may see all help is from God alone This truth the godly are not alwayes so practically convinced of as they should be Hence they are apt to be puffed up sometimes with secret delight and complacency in themselves for which God doth leave them to themselves that they thereby falling may know what they are of themselves and what they are by the grace of God Thus it is noted of Hezekiah a man full of integrity in Gods wayes 2 Chron. 32. 31. God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart Even this good man did not know how base false and deceitfull his heart was and therefore God left him and we see the blessed effect of this mercifull desertion vers 26. Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart Is not here then a plain instance that God many times in much mercy leaveth the godly to themselves that so they may have full sentiments of this truth upon their hearts This also was the case of Peter who did not answer his name of a Rock in this case and had the Church been built on him as the Papists boast it had fallen all into pieces for it was Christs looking upon him that recovered him not any strength of his own But how cometh Peter thus to stumble and fall It was because of his self-confidence and presumption in his own power yea some have said that Christ left him meerly to himself not for any preceding sinne in Peter but only by way of meer dispensation that hereby an example of humility and holy fear might be left upon record to all ages But that Peter's sinne of gross confidence did deserve this graduall dereliction is more than probable only we grant that as God doth sometimes tempt so also forsake sometimes for sinnes antecedent sometimes from his meer soveraignty and holy wisdome thereby to teach man that which otherwise would not be acknowledged It is indeed a Rule that Deus neminem descrit nisi prius deseratur God forsaketh none that doth not forsake him which may be granted as true if we speak of a desertion by way of anger and punishment but of a desertion by way of mercy and triall or thereby to make way for greater dispensations of his glory so it is not alwayes true
addeth Above all things my brethren Swear not above all things look to your tongue set a watch before your lips that you be not found guilty of this sinne And whereas the Apostle in the Verses following is to describe the suitable and particular duties to a man afflicted and to a man merry he doth seem to remove this sin of swearing in the first place prohibiting that for experience telleth us that when men either are sadly afflicted and in discontents or joyful and merry then they are most prone to forget themselves and fall into this sinne of swearing therefore the Apostle by way of caution saith above all things swear not A second motive against this common sin of swearing is from the character and description that is given of a godly man in this very particular he is one that feareth an oath he dare not swear in his ordinary discourse and in unnecessary occasions Therefore it is a presumptuous thing in thee to flatter thy self that though thou fallest into this sinne now and then yet thou hast a good heart and hopest that thou shalt do as well as the most precise whom thou slanderest with that ordinary calumny that though they will not swear yet they will lye whereas a godly man hateth both the one and the other But to our purpose Let a man pretend never so much devotion let him be never so confident of his good heart yet if an ordinary swearer thou canst not have a principle of grace in thee For Solomon making an opposition between a godly man and a wicked describing them by contrary characters Eccl. 9. 2. concludeth with this he that sweareth and he that feareth an oath So that a common swearer is the same with a wicked man and an unclean man but then the godly man is deciphered by this that he feareth an oath observe that he doth not say he that swsareth not but he that feareth an oath So that a gracious man doth not only abstain from all customary swearing but he hath an awe and a reverentiall fear in his soul about it so that the prophane swearer is directly opposite to this character The Psalmist likewise Psa 24. 4. when he had propounded this Question who shall ascend to the holy hill of God and stand in his holy place that is who is a true member of the Church of God he answereth by giving severall properties of such two whereof are He who hath not lift up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully By lifting up the soul to vanity some learned men understand vain swearing and then followeth another and greater sinne which is perjury and false swearing which commonly followeth upon the frequent use of the former sinne The 3d motive is From the nature of the sin it is a very hainous and grievous sin For this is a rule all sins against the first Table are more hainous than those against the 2d caeteris paribus because they are immediatly against God these against our neighbour so by consequence against God Though therfore oaths fall frequently from thy mouth without any fear and trembling yet they are sins of a bloody nature as appeareth from the 3d Commandment thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain It 's Gods Name who is infinite in Majesty who is to be named alwaies with a holy fear and reverence and shalt thou pollute it in thy wicked mouth This Commandment doth not only forbid ordinary swearing but all light and irreverent using of Gods Name as you have many will say O God O Lord and O Jesus these are great sins though thou dost not tremble under them Let the common swearer then know that his sin is a very hainous one he contemneth the glory and worship of God Observe that expression Deut. 28. 58. that thou maist fear this glorious and fearfull Name the Lord thy God Do not then flatter thy self make not this common swearing a light sinne for sins are weighty according as God judgeth of them and this he accounteth an immediate contempt of his Majesty You would not make use of the name of a great man to witnesse every bable and trifle Chrysostome saith Common swearers shew more respect to their new garments than they do to Gods Name for they will not wear them but upon solemn occasions Whereas these in every trifle and upon every passion do highly dishouour God Fourthly As the sin of common swearing is grievous in its nature so it 's threatned in a speciall manner with more than ordinary judgements Even in this life God many times doth punish remarkably the common swearer Hence in the 3d command the threatning is added the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his Name in vain It is a figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lesse is said and more is intended that is he will certainly deal with such a man as a guilty person he shall find that sin doth provoke God in an high manner The Apostle likewise Jam. 5. when he had prohibited swearing addeth lest ye fall into condemnation the judgement of God lyeth at thy door and will finde thee out The place also formerly mentioned Zech. 5. 2 3. is very dreadfull There is a flying roll full of curses and it is said to go into the house of the swearer and to continue in the midst of his house till it hath consumed all The Septuagint and Greek Expositors for a flying roll reade a flying hatchet taking maggall for megillah howsoever it is as terrible as if an Angel should come with an hatchet and cut down such a mans house It 's flying therefore it cometh from heaven and so all thy power cannot withstand it and then it 's very broad and long it will meet with every swearer and then it is an utter consumption God will make him such an example that all who go by shall say here lived such a prophane swearer and see what misery and ruine he and his are brought to Suarez speaketh of a prophane blasphemous Proverb that the Spaniards have to excuse their common oaths Qui bene jurat by bene is meant multum benè credit he that sweareth much beleeveth well It is a signe he beleeveth there is a God And indeed an Atheist cannot swear properly unlesse it be by derision but that proverb hath blasphemy in it because the swearer discovereth faith in God rashly and irreverently Neither doth he intend in his common discourse to professe faith in God when he doth swear Fifthly This sin of swearing is of so great a guilt that it polluteth a land it bringeth publique judgements as well as private Now all those sins that make the publique obnoxious to Gods judgements are sins of a grosse nature Jer. 23. 10. because of swearing the land mourneth and Hos 4. 2. for swearing and lying c. therefore the Lord had a controversie with the land Thus you see swearrers are like Jonahs in a Ship they
writeth to them as if all were Gentiles as Chap. 12. 2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away to dumb Idols c. Hence the same Author saith That it was one Church collected of all the believers in that place Licet esse potuerint in eadem civitate distinctae ut it a dicam parochiae As for the notion of a learned man That the Jewish believers and Gentile believers did make two distinct Churches and had two distinct Bishops which he thinketh would salve some seeming contradictions in Ecclesiastical History that being of an heterogeneous nature to my purpose I passe it by Thus also the Church of Jerusalem is called a Church which yet by many probable Arguments seemeth to be more than one Neither may we think that Christ hath invested one single Congregation ordinarily with all Church power For that president and example of a Councel or Synod mentioned Act. 15. doth inform That there are to be Synods not only by way of advice but by power and that over particular Churches We proceed to the next thing considerable in this description of the Church and that is the efficient Cause the Church of God This distinguisheth the Church from all civil and meer political Assemblies For though the Earth be the Lords and the fulness thereof yet the Church is the Lords in a more peculiar and appropriated manner Sometimes the Church is named absolutely without any addition as when Paul is said to persecute the Church Sometimes it 's restrained to the place Thus the Church of Ephesus the Church of Laodicea but most commonly it is the Church of God or the Church of Christ Sometimes both are put together as 1 Thes 1. 1. To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in Jesus Christ So also 2 Thess 1. 1. And certainly if so be the Apostle considering us meerly as creatures maketh use of and sanctifieth that of the Poet For we are his off-spring how much more is it true of us as members of a Church Observe That a Church is Gods people in a more peculiar and special manner Though he be the God of the world yet in a more special manner he is a God of his Church The consideration of this truth may tend much to our spiritual edification For if we are of God how much should it humble us to see any thing amongst us that is of sin or the Devil Is ignorance or prophaneness of God so are humane superstitions of God But to open this let us consider what is implied in this when a Church is said to be the Church of God First therefore this sheweth That a Church is a supernatural Society it 's spiritual company of men So that a Church is not like a civil Corporation or like Kingdoms and Commonwealths which are by meer humane Institution and agreement though Magistracy it self it be of God but are supernatural and therefore it 's called the Kingdom of Heaven and Jerusalem which is from above so the Church is called Gal. 4. 26. even while it is here on Earth before it is triumphant in Heaven Now the Church is a supernatural Society many wayes in which respect it may be called the Church of God in a more eminent manner For in respect of its Efficient so God alone is the author of it called therefore Ecclesia because God by his Word calls them from their Heathenish Idolatries and practises making of them a Church Thus the people of Corinth when they were securely indulging themselves in all manner of impieties having no thoughts or desires to be a Church God by Paul calls them to be one Even as God by his breath caused the dry bones to gather together and to live or as at the day of Judgment God by the voice of an Arch-angel will raise the dead in the grave who have no life or sense in them Thus it 's the Lord that made Churches every where in the preaching of the Gospel It was the gracious work of God that found us out in Britain and made a Church to himself so that we are loca inaccessa to the grace of God and his Spirit though to humane power It is true indeed God is the God of the world he created Heaven and Earth with all therein yet though God did thus immediately create the world at first we do not say the creatures therein are Gods grace or that they have a supernatural being For it 's not enough to make a thing grace or supernatural that God doth immediately create it but that his power be in a peculiar and extraordinary manner and that for supernatural effects and ends Oh therefore how greatly should we be affected with the grace and power of God in creating to himself a Church out of the world He might have no more made a Church here or there in the Earth then he did in Hell and he that at first planted a curious Garden and put man therein is much more wonderfull in making of a Church to himself yet how bruitish and earthly are we We can bless God for the world and the comforts thereof that the Earth brings forth food for us that we have the Air to breath in the glorious Sunne to be a daily light to us yet we are not thus affected with Church-mercies and Church-ordinances David indeed upon the former consideration cried out Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him c But we may much rather from these supernatural respects Secondly It 's supernatural in respect of the purchase given for them the price paid to make them the Lords For you must know upon Adams fall all mankind was excommunicated unchurched as it were and therefore cast out from Paradise and Gods gracious presence and hence it is that we are said naturally to be without God yea the Devil is said to be the god of the world Thus untill God makes us a Church we are under the power of Satan wholly and therefore to be cast out of the Church is to be delivered to Satan Thus then being fallen off from the Lord and now become the Devils in whom he reigneth we could not be purchased from this thraldom but by the death of Christ and therefore we are called the Church of Christ as well as of God because though conquered by Gods Spirit yet we are bought by his bloud and this the Apostle urgeth That therefore we are none of our own but are to live to him We are to be his peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 15. Thus it cost more to be Gods Church then to be the world at first for he spake and it was made but here Christ died and so it was purchased What a powerfull ingagement is this for all of a Church to walk holily What did Christ die that you should wallow in the filth of your sins What will you deny the Lord that bought you If thou wilt be ignorant and prophane
comfortable and thankfull thoughts which shall constantly lodge in our souls And First To this duty of blessing of God there is required as the foundation stone A deep sense of our own unworthiness of the least mercy that God bestoweth upon us That is excellent of Jacob Gen. 32. 10. I am lesse than all thy mercies A man that would shoot his arrow high draweth it backward first The lower we are in our own eyes the more unworthy in our own thoughts then a very crum of bread a very drop of water will be acknowledged a great mercy Arminian Popish and Socinian Doctrins do all hinder a man in his thankfulness because they do not in a Scripture way level the mountains of our hearts they leave something of our own still that we must secretly uphold our selves with When God gave the people of Israel Canaan Deut. 9 4. How zealously doth Moses endeavour to take them off from their own righteousness They must take heed that they have not the least thought in their hearts about their righteousness Oh then consider what is that Locust and Caterpillar which devoureth all the sweet fruit of thy praise and thy joy in God Is it not want of a true consideration how unworthy thou art Wouldst thou not call thy self beast for murmuring and grieving under any burden God layeth upon thee if thou hadst a feeling of thy meanness and lowliness Those therefore who are constantly in a tender feeling and apprehension of their own unworthiness if God give them the least temporal mercy but especially if they have a drop of any spiritual mercy that the light of Gods countenance though but in glimpses shine upon them they cry out Who am I Lord and what am I that thou shouldst visit so unworthy a wretch Secondly He must not only be sensible of his unworthiness who would affectionately bless God at all times but he must also consider what wrath and vengeance he doth deserve Oh this would be like fire in thy bosom This would quickly cast out all those troublesom and disquiet thoughts What Oh my soul art thou disquieted for want of this or that What is thy own but hell and eternal torment Are any soul-mercies are any body-mercies thy own Canst thou claim a right to them No the Law curseth thee because thou doest not continue in all things commanded so that thou mayest be cursed in soul in body at home and abroad Nothing but temporal spiritual and eternal curses might compass thee about Now then if when God might thus curse and damn thee he doth bless and pardon thee What joyfull songs should this fill thy heart and mouth with I have deserved death but behold life my merit is hell and damnation but the gift of God is grace and peace As a malefactor when thou mightst justly expect punishment behold God doth to thee as to Joseph who under expectation of punishment is raised up to the highest honour in the Kings Court Oh then awe thy soul saying Why am I so foolish and bruâ—â—â—sh I am not in hell I am not howling in those eternal flames which I might not be kept a moment from and yet how impatient and unquiet is my heart A full perswasion then of what we deserve will provoke the soul to a cordial blessing of God for every mercy Thirdly There is required the regeneration and renovation of the whole man As a wicked man cannot pray to God so neither can he praise God Therefore though natural men may have it often in their mouths they bless their good God and I praise my God yet to praise God requireth a principle of grace within a supernatural root as well as to pray to God Indeed they may externally sing Psalms and give praise to God even as they pray but all this while there is nothing at the root all is dead within Psal 147. 1. Praise is comely for the upright It 's a comely sutable thing for a man of an upright and gracious heart to bless God but for a carnal prophane man it is as unseemly as a pearl on the swines nose God is dishonoured and not pleased Oh then that this might awaken every natural man Thou canst neither pray to God or praise him Thou canst neither receive gifts from God aright or return praise to him aright So that this must be looked to as the principal and chief of all Hath God put his own image into me Hath God bestowed the life of grace upon me Then praise is seemly and comely for me Even amongst men the Rule is Laudari à laudat is laudabile est Fourthly To bless God and praise him there is required an heavenly raised frame of soul For though the principle of Regeneration be the foundation in every one whereby he is enabled to blesse God yet that is more remote and habitually only Hence it is that many of Gods children though in a state of grace yet are not in a praising thankfull temper they are as so many clods of earth they are not affected with Gods goodness their souls are not enlarged and therefore they mourn because they are such blocks and lumps of earth Therefore besides the fundamental principle of Regeneration there must be proxim and immediate dispositions which are as the whetting of the tool like the Cocks stirring of himself and clapping of his wings before he croweth and of all dispositions an heavenly heart is the most excellent Why is it that in Heaven the glorified Saints do spend all eternity in blessing and glorifying of God and are never weary of it Is it not because all is made perfectly heavenly within them If the earth though a dull and heavy element be at last transmuted into air or fire it loseth it's former gravity and dulness and ascends upwards Thus the soul when freed from the clogs and burdens of the earth doth with more ease and speed lift up it self to God The Lark all the while she sits on the ground scarce sings but when she riseth from the Earth and the higher and higher still she flieth the more sweetly and earnestly doth she sing Thus it is necessary if thou wilt really and daily bless and praise God then raise thy self above the Earth The nearer to Heaven thy heart comes the sweeter will thy meditations be the more joyfull will thy thoughts be Hence Fifthly Joy and gladnesse of heart is required to blesse God The Psalmist often calls to sing with joy And the Apostle Is any man merry let him sing Psalms Jam. 5. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That heart which is filled with grief and sorrow is in no disposition to bless God As the strings of musical Instruments while wet and moist are not prepared to make any melodious sound To bless God with an heavy heart to praise God with a troubled disquieted soul is to contradict with our hearts what we say with our mouths Consider then that
shels in comparison of that Manna that spiritual favour I am made partaker of As therefore the spiritual man when in outward miseries and straights is not so much grieved under those outward calamities as because he hath sinned and God is offended So neither in outward mercies is the same gracious soul so much affected with the comforts it enjoyeth as that the light of Gods countenance doth shine upon him that he hath an evidence of propriety and interest in Christ this he would not lose for all the Kingdoms of the world Let us press this the more because even the most holy are apt to be affected more with sensible mercies than spiritual Nature teacheth them the one but Grace the other For as we are apt to desire temporal things above spiritual so also to be affected with and bless God for one more than another But take these few Motives to provoke thee to bless God for spiritual mercies which are of two sorts External as the means of grace and the Ordinances or Internal the inward sanctification and justification of our persons As 1. That if thou hadst more mercies than Solomon if thou hadst all thy soul can desire in these outward things yet if without spiritual mercies thou judgest thy condition is cursed and to be lamented Therefore Psal 4. when the natural persons of the world cried out Who will shew us any good David as knowing a better and more solid good prayeth God would lift up the light of his countenance upon him And therefore he that hath the least drop of grace is more bound to bless God then he that may have all the glory and plenty in the world Oh then why art thou not more sollicitous saying what is this wealth without Gods favor What is it to say this house is mine this estate is mine but am not able to say God is mine but if God doth evidence himself to thee then over-look all thy outward comforts put the Ecce the Selah upon what is spiritual This is like the Sunne which is farre above all the Starres It is this that makes all outward mercies mercies they are no wayes good to thee but snares and temptations to draw out thy sins So that thy condemnation in hell will be the hotter if thou doest not enjoy spiritual mercies with them 2. Be in the first place affected with spiritual mercies Because Christ shewed his love to thee most in these it was for these he died The Scripture doth exceedingly commend to us the love of Christ in his death Now what are the effects of Christs death Are they chiefly to make us rich great or honoured in this world No it is for remission of sinne it 's for holiness and power over the Devil Certainly if Christ died to purchase these for thee thou art very unthankfull if thy heart be not most inlarged to bless God for them 3. Spiritual mercies are the chiefest object of our praises Because these onely can truly satisfie the soul these only are a sound cause of rejoycing The heart of a man is never satisfied with temporal mercies but the more he drinketh of them the more thirsty still he is When Solomon hath made an experience of all his Motto is That they are vexation of spirit as well as vanity whereas the pardon of sinne and the Spirit of Christ working in us these afford uninterrupted causes of joy 4. The soul-mercies will abide for ever thou canst not lose thy title and interest in them but all these earthly comforts are as the flower which presently withereth thou hast them to day and they may be removed to morrow Be sure then that thy blessing of God keepeth that method which the nature of mercies doth require above all things Let thy soul melt with joy in blessing of God for what he hath done to thy soul Lastly Consideration remembring and fixed meditation upon the mercies of God is that which will greatly inflame the soul to give all glory and honour to him The heart is not easily and quickly put into a blessing frame there must be polishing and fashioning of it and there is no such way for this as true consideration When David calls upon himself so much to glorifie God this implieth that he found his soul dull heavy and unfit for that duty The heart will not boil over in meditation unless it be long upon this fire Psal 45. 1. David there calls his inditing the boyling or bubling of his heart we are apt to forget Gods mercies or when we do think of them they are but transistory and ambulatory It is Gods goodnesse or I bless God and there is all whereas when we bless God our souls should be raised up into divine inflammations we should be as Elijah who was carried up to Heaven in a Chariot of fire whereas the soul is at other times abridged or epitomized but in short characters in the praises of God it should be voluminous as you see David in Psalms 103 104 105 106 and 107. very large in the enumeration of all Gods benefits which intimateth That the soul ought to be extended in all its dimensions while it sets upon this work And certainly meditation is like the birds sitting on the egge not leaving it till it hath produced a live young one This will so often work upon the soul that at last there will be heavenly and supernatural life for several aggravations will the meditating heart find in every blessing it doth possess As 1. It will admire the power and strength of God in every mercy especially in soul-mercies That God should change such a stubborn heart as thine was That God should give thee eyes to see that hast been blind so long That God should give thee life who wast dead and putrifying in the grave of sinne This will make thee wonder at the glorious power of God Again The Wisdome of God if that be considered in every mercy this will also greatly inlarge to thankefulnesse Gods mercies are not only mercies in themselves but they come in such fit seasons they are at such times and opportunities that this maketh them double mercies and so some have observed this difference between blessing and praising of God Blessing of God is because of the goodnesse of the mercy Praising is for the wisdome and curious workmanship of God as it were in that mercy As if a friend who also was himself the maker of a curious Watch should bestow it upon you as a gift you would not only thank him for his love but praise his skill and art likewise Thus we are not only to consider the mercies God giveth us but the wisdome that God demonstrateth at that very time making every mercy to be with an aggravation Again Meditation will inflame by apprehending of Gods freenesse in every mercy and our unworthinesse We could do nothing that may provoke God especially this we are to aggravate in our spiritual mercies as Paul doth often excluding
is implied The real and lively working of it The father though he pity his child yet cannot give him the mercy of health much less the mercy of grace Ministers though they be spiritual Fathers they can only pray for mercy preach of mercy but to give you pardon of sinne to give you comfort of conscience and assurance that they cannot do but God is the Father of these mercies he can give joy to the soul and neither Devil or sinne can discomfort As the whole creation came out of the womb of nothing at first when God said Let there be light immediately there was light and as God is called The Father of rain Job 38. 28. because he can open the bottles of Heaven and refresh the parched earth when he pleaseth so also he is the Father of mercies because he can turn thy darkness into light thy hell into Heaven yea he doth it that so what many Sermons many Ordinances could not do that God suddenly and insuperably doth he comforts irresistibly as well as converts irresistibly But of this more in the next property viz. A God of all consolation Fifthly In that he is the Father of mercies there is implied That it 's onely from himself that he pitieth us that he hath something within him to provoke to compassion when we have enough to provoke him And this is represented in that precious Parable of the Prodigal sonne returning to his Father Though there was cause enough from the sonne to alienate the Father to upbraid him with his prodigality and rebellion saying Whence come you Where are all the goods I gave you Yet for all that The Father runneth to meet him kisseth and imbraceth him who might have chastized him receiving him with as much readiness as if he had never been such a prodigal sonne but what moved him all this while The affection of a Father It 's not then for the godly soul to be poring and puzling it self alwayes what is there in me that may make God shew mercy to me What have I What find I in me that may prevail with God Oh foolish and unwise Christian Think rather what is in God to love thee to pity thee I will go to my Father saith the Prodigal Though I have lost the obedience of a son yet he hath not the bowels of a Father the bowels of a Father are ready to beget him again Think what a fountain his goodness is to issue forth rivers of mercies So that it is with thee as some parched dry wilderness it hath no springs no streams to refresh it self with till clouds from above fall upon it Thus thy heart is scorched and even burning like hell till God give thee not a drop of water but Christs bloud to cool thy afflicted soul Thus you see what is in this a Father of mercies a Father In the second place what briefly is in the object a Father of mercies in the plural number and that implieth 1. That there is no mercy but it comes from God Every good and perfect gift is from him Jam. 1. For if so be any creature were the original of mercy though it be but the least as to that particular it would be the Father of mercy if the Sunne of it self were the highest cause of giving light to thee if it were not God that did cause this Sunne to shine on thee that Sunne would be the father of the mercy of light Although therefore God hath appointed natural causes moral causes yea and supernatural means of mercy and comfort to thee yet take heed of calling these Father Thy food would not be a mercy to thee thy house a mercy no thy senses thy understanding would not be a mercy to thee were it not for this Father of mercies So that wheresoever and whensoever thou meetest with any mercy look higher than the creature see an hand from Heaven giving it thee As Gerson a devout Papist speaketh of his Parents how that they to teach him while a child That every mercy was from God had a devise that from the roof of the chamber should be conveyed to him every apple or nut or such childish refreshments he desired but Christ himself Matth. 5. when he pressed against carefull distrustfull thoughts he saith Your heavenly Father knoweth what you want So that it is not thy own natural father that is a mercy to thee but thy Father in Heaven As that good man in Ecclesiastical History when they brought him news his father was dead Define blasphemias loqui pater eminens immortalis est Thus are we to call nothing a Father of mercy to us but God himself So that what our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 9. Call no man father on earth in respect of faith and obedience neither are we in respect of our mercies Oh but how difficult is it not to have other fathers of mercies besides him SERM. XXXIII Of the Multitude Variety Properties and Objects of Gods Mercies 2 COR. 1. 3. The Father of mercies VVE are further to explicate what is comprehended in this sweet and comfortable Attribute The Father of mercies We have already declared what is in the word Father and gave one instance what is in the word mercies The second thing comprized in it is the multitude of them he doth not say The Father of mercy but of mercies it is not one or two but mercies many mercies innumerable mercies that he is Father of Even as David doth sometimes call God The God of his salvations in the plural number because of the frequent and many deliverances God vouchsafed to him The Lord therefore is not straitned in mercy no more than in power but as nothing is impossible to him so every kind of mercy is easily producible by him The multitude of Gods mercies is that which David doth often mention Psal 106. 7 45. Psal 51. 1. And indeed were not these mercies many our sins would be more than they and exceed them in number David complaineth That his iniquities were more than the hairs of his head and yet at another time acknowledgeth that such were the benefits of God towards him that he is never able to reckon them up We cannot then come and say to God about mercies as Esau did to his father about blessings Hast thou but one blessing O my father Hast thou but one mercy Woe would be to us if God had not multitude of mercies for we have multitude of sins and miseries Oh then let the broken humble heart who groaneth under this that he hath many sins they are not one or two but many yea the multitudes of them are like so many locusts and caterpillars in Egypt he cannot look this way or that way but sinne doth compasse him about Let such remember that there are more mercies for them then sins against them If thou hast multitude of sins God hath multitude of mercies to cover them so as thou doest not cover them but confess and bewail
than the earth so are his ways viz. of mercy to our wayes As then the earth is but like a pins head in respect of the vast dimensions of the Heavens so are all our sins comparatively to Gods mercy If then thou hast great thoughts about thy sins saying They are greater than thou canst bear yet have as great thoughts of Gods mercy and know they are not greater than mercy can take away 2. As it 's infinite mercy so they are tender mercies bowels of mercies Psal 40. 11. David prayeth God would not take away his tender mercies from him Hence he is compared both to a Father and a Mother Oh take heed then of dishonouring God by hard distrustfull and unbelieving thoughts about him Think not of him as an austeer Judge who reapeth where he doth not sow The Devil and our guilty consciences are apt to represent God otherwise than he is Indeed while thou art secure and stupid in thy sins thou thinkest of God as an Idol-god having no eyes to see or thou presents him only a mercifull God to thy self as if he were not also holy and just but when once sinne burneth in thy heart like fire when God makes thee a terrour to thy self because of thy wickedness then all is turned Thou thinkest of the justice and vengeance of God only as if he had no mercy but when thy sins are a burden to thee and thou doest in the sincerity of thy heart forsake them then think of God only as the Scripture represents him then hearken what mercy comfort and peace he speaks to such a contrite soul as thou art 3. They are sure mercies to all the godly Isa 55. 3. They are called The sure mercies of David For all necessary mercies either for soul or body they are bound up in Gods promise and therefore they may well be called sure mercies even those thou hast not yet are as sure mercies as if thou wast already possessed of them Glorification and salvation are the sure mercies of God to thee though for the present thou art in a valley of tears sighing under thy miseries 4. They are free mercies such as God doth only for his Names sake when we have nothing but sinne in us that may justly provoke God to turn his mercies into judgments yet for his own sake he will be mercifull Though we have lost our grace yet he hath not that attribute of mercy Thus Psal 6. 4. Psal 31. 16. David still prayeth Save me for thy mercies sake So that this may greatly encourage thee when thou thinkest Oh what a barren and dry wilderness am I Oh what matter do I find in me to displease God for ever In the midst of these thoughts remember Gods mercies are free They have no other original or rise but from himself Think though I have degenerated from my holiness yet God can never lay aside his mercy But you will say Is this truth to be indifferently published to all May we tell every one that God is the Father of mercies to him Will not this be to make the heart of the wicked glad whom yet God would have made sad To answer it therefore first It cannot be denied but that God is very mercifull even to wicked men and that while they continue in their obstinacy Doth not experience confirm this And this mercy of God is not only seen in temporal things he giveth them health life and wealth so that they can never plead against God but also he is mercifull to many ungodly wretches and that in spiritual mercies he giveth them the kingdom of grace he giveth them the Ministry of the Gospel he alloweth them the day of grace whenas they might have been alwayes kept up in darkness Hence it is that the Scripture doth so often complain of the unprofitableness of the unthankfulness and forgetfulness towards him even worse than of the bruit creatures But in the next place There are the most special mercies of his complacency and delight and these are vouchsafed only to true believers So that we cannot properly say God is a Father of mercies to any but to the upright in heart For though wicked men do taste of many mercies from God yet he is not a reconciled Father to them They come not from him as a Father in Christ and therefore though in themselves they may be called mercies yet if you consider the event of them how the wicked abuse all mercies and increase their sins by them it will be at last confessed they were not mercies but judgements to them The mercies then which arise from Gods favour none have but those that are godly and we may in brief take these Characters of such who are Objects of his mercy First Such as are of a broken contrite heart for sinne such who forsake and cast it away in their lives To these only God is a Father of mercies For as for the wicked it 's said God is angry with the wicked every day To whom doth the justice of God the curse of the Law belong but to those that are thus guilty of sin The doubt then is not Whether God be mercifull but whether thou art the fit subject of mercy whether thou art the man God will honour Secondly Such only are the Objects of his mercy that have faith in him that hope in his mercy Hence David doth so often profess his trust in Gods mercy For there is either a pharisaical self-righteousness in us whereby we are apt to trust in our righteousness and in the works we do We see by the Jews of old and most Christians at this day that they are so full of themselves that they never trust alone in Gods mercy or else if sin be set home upon the conscience then many prove Cains and Judasses they flie from the mercies of God in Christ and damn themselves for fear of damnation so that presumption makes most and despair some few the unfitted objects of Gods mercy misery alone doth not prepare thee for mercy The Devils and damned in hell are miserable enough yet cannot obtain one drop of mercy but there must be a debasing of thy self because of sin and then raising up of thy self to catch hold on mercy SERM. XXXIV How God is the God of comfort yea of all comfort and consolations to all those that are his 2 COR. 1. 3. And the God of all comfort THe next ground why God is to be blessed is because he is a God of all comfort Now although this might seem to be the same with the former when he is stiled the Father of mercies Yet we may make that distinction which Aquinas upon the place giveth viz. That he is a Father of mercies because he doth either prevent or remove those miseries that our sins do deserve but he is the God of all conselation in that though our afflictions and tribulations be not taken away yet while we are in them he doth give many consolations and
thousands abide under the power of Satan and sinne Therefore when Gods mercy is spoken of in pardoning of sinne it is perpetually in respect of us not of Christ Thus you see judging of Gods mercy without Scripture-light into how many Doctrinal errors it may plunge us 4. For want of Scripture-direction the Papist and Antinomian oppose the mercy of God but in extream contrary wayes Though God be mercifull yet he hath so ordained that none shall partake of his mercies in time but those who by his grace are inabled to believe and repent as the way to salvation Now the Papist injureth the mercy of God for he will have his Faith Repentance with other holy works the merit and cause of his salvation disdaining to have eternal life as meer alms from God But the Antinomian to avoid this Scilla falls into Charybdis he affirmeth a mercy and that of Justification even while we are sinners before we do either believe or repent But the Scripture-mercy lieth between both In the next place Let us consider What Practical Danger we are in by conceiving of God as a mercifull God without Scripture-information And First We are apt to flatter our selves with Gods mercy though we allow our selves in our sins and iniquities whereas the Scripture speaks not a drop of mercy to such Have you not many dreadfull examples of Gods anger and terrour as well as mercy What was the casting of all the Angels into eternal blackness for one sinfull thought and that the first which they were guilty of giving them no space to repent no day of grace affording no means for their recovery Is not this an instance of Gods severity But you will say This was to Angels he is more mercifull to man But consider that example of Gods Justice in drowning the whole world save eight persons Doth not that proclaim God is just and angry against sinne as well as mercifull not to spare the whole world because it had corrupted its wayes but to drown such an innumerable company of men women and children yea to destroy the whole earth as it were Oh who can stand before the anger of God! Have we not also a formidable demonstration of Gods anger against Sodome and Gomorrah when fire and brimstone was rained from Heaven to destroy those Cities and all that did belong to them What had the little children done They could not be guilty of those unclean vices but God cutteth off all Many other instances of Gods wrath we have in Scripture especially the day of Judgement will be a dreadfull manifestation of it to the wicked and therefore the Scripture will informe us in that as well as of Gods mercy A second Practical Errour I shall conclude with that necessarily accompanieth the thoughts of Gods mercy without Scripture-direction is to encourage a mans self in his sinnes because God is mercifull Every wicked person turneth this honey into gall Paul speaketh of some who made those wretched inferences Let us sinne that grace may abound Take heed then of having any such wicked thought arising in thy heart God is mercifull therefore I will go to my lusts again Oh no the Scripture represents Gods mercies for another end to repent and be converted from thy evil wayes Rom. 2 Knowest thou not the goodnesse of God would lead thee to repentance Oh then do not abuse the mercy of God! for there is a time coming when there will be no more mercy It 's called the day of wrath thou shalt meet with nothing but terrour Ezek. 8. 18. The Scripture speaks of vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath and there is no greater sign of a vessel of wrath one fitted and prepared for destruction then to grow wanton by the mercies of God to be evil because he is good so much mercy abused will one day be turned into so much vengeance SERM. XXXVI That God not only can but doth actually comfort his People and how he doth it 2 COR. 1. 4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God IN the former verse we had the Reasons of our blessing of God set down by the description of that glorious attribute of his The Father of mercies c. In this verse the Apostle doth further amplifie the cause of this duty of Thanksgiving viz. from the effect and fruit of this property of his He is not only a God of consolation habitually and potentially as it were He is not a fountain sealed up but this Sunne doth alwayes irradiate its beams As he is a God of consolation so he doth comfort So that in the words we have the Effect or Causality attributed to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is comforting that doth never cease to do it that never withdraweth his consolations It 's his nature to be alwayes comforting As the Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he is alwayes tempting The word in humane Authors is used frequently of him who calleth another to him but in the New Testament either of him that intreateth and prayeth or of him that exhorteth or as in the Text of him that comforteth 2. The Subject of this consolation us That is either generally all believers or us Apostles and Officers in the Church For the Apostle might speak this to obviate that scandal which many were ready to take at the afflictions and persecutions of the Apostles as if they were hated of God and were nothing but impostors Therefore some part of this Chapter is a narrative of his pressures and apologetical in declaring the great goodness of God thereby to the Church 3. The particular wherein in tribulation Light can come into this dark dungeon 4. The Extent of this All our tribulation God can turn the hardest stones into bread All either of mind or body 5. The consequent Effect of this That we may be able to comfort them c. God many times doth in an exemplary manner exercise the Ministers of the Gospel that they may experimentally be able to instruct such who are tempted We begin with that efficiency given to God who comforteth is comforting and observe That as God is the God of all comfort so he doth actually put forth this comfort to those that are his Gods attributes may be truly affirmed of him though they never be put forth into act God would have been Omnipotent Mercifull Wise though he had not created the world only the creation of the world did demonstrate those Attributes Thus God may be called The God of comfort or a mercifull Father in respect of his Nature and Inclination though actually he doth not comfort any but God is a fountain communicating himself into streams of comfort he will make his people taste and feel what he is by Nature Now when it 's said That God comforteth you must understand this both in temporal and spiritual comforts
That spiritual comfort comes alone from God is plain because the Spirit of God is called the Comforter We cannot have one drop of heavenly consolation till Gods Spirit infuse it into us If the children of God could have comfort when they will would they walk so disconsolately and cry out of their dark troubled souls as they do but then even earthly comfort to take delight in the lawfull contentments God doth allow us to take delight and joy in these corporal mercies this is also from God Eccles 2. 24 26. Eccles 3. 13. Eccles 5. 18. You see the Wiseman affirmeth it often That a man cannot take any joy or delight even in those lawfull things unless it be given him of God All comfort then of all sorts ariseth from him But let us consider the way or manner of Gods comforting For as it is a great and profitable Question to examine How God doth convert and sanctifie so also how he doth comfort And First You must lay this foundation That God doth comfort two wayes either immediately when he doth by himself work upon the soul Or mediately when he comforteth by such means as he hath appointed thereunto Let us then in the next place consider What are those immediate workings of God upon the soul whereby he maketh the heart joyfull For David Psal 4. saith God had put more joy into his heart then any man can have in the abundance of all temporal mercies And First Therefore God doth comfort by illuminating and opening the understanding and opening the understanding to know and see the grounds and reasons of comfort And certainly this is of great conducement to have the heart comforted when the understanding is rightly convinced of the grounds of comfort For as the dark night is apt to beget fears and terrours so darkness in the understanding is a great cause of all that terrour and disconsolateness which Gods own children may many times lie under So that as God in conversion and humiliation for sinne begins with conviction upon the heart so also in consolation and comfort The great impediment to a godly mans comfort is want of spiritual knowledge and conviction about the causes of comfort As it was with Hagar in the wilderness she sate weeping for her child and gave over all as desperate till God opened her eyes and made her see a fountain Thus the broken heart judgeth it self in a wilderness destitute of all comfort seeth nothing but matter of despair and damnation till God enlighten the understanding about comfortgrounds in the Gospel As for example when the Spirit of God enlightens us to receive comfort it giveth us the eye salve 1. To look upon Christ revealed in the Gospel as the full cause and ground of all our comfort as well as on sinne Generally the people of God in the first workings of the soul look upon nothing but their sins behold nothing but sinne but God will not let them alone in this agony he enlightens them further that they shall see Christ as well as sinne the Gospel as well as the Law he giveth them eyes to behold the brazen Serpent when stung Hence the Spirit of God John 16. 9 10. doth not only convince of sinne but of righteousness also The Devil he indeed moveth in those troubled waters of thy soul and would keep thee off from Christ as the Disciples did the blind man but the Spirit of God will not leave the soul in these wounds in these straits but doth carry him up from the mount of cursing to the mount of blessing And certainly the wise men could not more rejoyce to see the starre than the godly heart doth to behold Christ after the storms and tempests in his soul Hence the Apostle Gal. 1. calleth it The revealing of the Sonne in him This then we are inabled to do by God not only to know sinne in the terrour and sting of it but also Christ in his fulness and excellency How was Paul affected with this 2 Cor. 2. 1. I desire to know nothing but Christ crucified This therefore is a special work of God to make us look with both eyes to make thee see sinne as well as Christ and Christ as well as sin 2. As God doth convince the soul of Christ what a full and glorious Saviour he is so also in the second place Of our duty to receive him and to lay hold on him And this is a further step to comfort when God doth so farre open the eyes as to see not only a full and sufficient Christ but also that it 's a duty in particular to apply this Christ and to rest upon him for comfort and salvation This is a further discovery still Paul said Gal. 2. Who gave himself for me and loved me And Thomas said My God and my Lord. It is one of the blessed truths discovered in the Reformation out of Popery That it is not our duty to believe in the general onely that Christ is a Saviour but to rest on him also for the pardon of my sinnes That this is the Faith that justifieth That this is most acceptable and precious unto God That unbelief not only in the general but as it faileth in this particular in not applying in not appropriating Christ to the soul is that which will damn a man Oh then what blessed and comfortable light is that which God bringeth into the soul when he shall make thee see that though a sinner though burdened though unworthy yet it 's thy duty to go to Christ to be eased That he commands thee with that woman not only to touch the hem of his garments but to lay hold on Christ himself This particular faith is that which the soul is hardly convinced of Though others may draw nigh to Christ yet may I But he cometh at last to be perswaded of this truth 3. God comforts by enlightning the mind that a comfortable joyfull life arising from peace with God is a most acceptable thing to God that it brings honour and glory to God and that on the other side to walk heavily and in a dejected manner is to dishonour and reproach God That God doth not only look to our gracious walking but also to our comfortable walking and that we demonstrate the Kingdom of Heaven to be begun in us in joy as well as in mortification Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is righteousnesse and joy in the holy Ghost You see Joy as well as Righteousnesse The children of God they are not quickly perswaded of this they think such as they are may not walk comfortably It 's not for them to rejoyce but at last they come to see that they were sinfully kept up by slavish fears and servile dejections that the Kingdome of God requireth Consolation as well as Sanctification Thus you see the first general way how God comforteth viz. by enlightning the mind Secondly and principally God comforteth By preparing and fashioning the heart by making it
incestuous person whom sorrow had almost swallowed up as a whirlpool These that call for a drop of water as it were to cool their scorching souls and cannot have it To such as these we are to apply our selves with all tendernesse to comfort them as the Apostle exhorted the Corinthians For seeing that a wounded spirit is more hardly born than any outward misery whatsoever no wonder that in this case if ever we come with all comforting medicines to heal them and revive them We read the Lord Christ when he was in those agonies conflicting with the sense of Gods wrath that even he himself had an Angel to comfort him Must Christ the Sonne of God have an Angel sent to comfort him How much more then a poor wretched sinner ready to fall into hell with the burden of his sins This is fully represented by Elihu Job 33. 28. where speaking of a man chastened by the Lord and consuming away so that he doth even abhor to eat his bread If there come an Interpreter a Messenger one amongst a thousand that can shew to such his uprightnesse that make it evident to him that he is no hypocrite but the truth of grace abideth in him then his flesh shall be fresh as a childs he shall pray to God and he will be favourable and he shall see his face with joy See what a wonderfull change such a messenger may make he doth even raise him from the dead he that was pininig away is returned to his youth and this is for spiritual troubles Again in the second place There are outward troubles and it 's our duty to comfort such also and endeavour to turn their water into wine and of such troubles happily the Apostle speaketh chiefly in this Text. For although God be ready to fill their hearts with joy yet he will have this done many times by the help of others because we being members in the same body are to be accordingly serviceable to one another Hence in the second place Every one in trouble doth greatly need the assistance and help of others to comfort them Take the most godly Minister or the most able Christian who have been most eminent and successefull to comfort others yet when they have been tempted and cast down themselves they have not bin able to make use of those directions they have given to others As Physicians though never so able to help others yet in their own diseases they need the advice of others Insomuch that there is no Christian in any trouble can say I need not the comfort of any the help of any I can support and comfort my self well enough Thus Paul Rom. 1. 12. though so eminent an Apostle caught up into the third Heaven yet he did long to see the Romans That he might be comforted with them though that might be in respect of their graces to see this flourish as in other places Ye are my Crown and my Joy if you stand fast in the Lord. But howsoever we see job though so eminent yet not able to pour oyl into his own wounds he is without comfort and cannot help himself Now there are these Reasons Why those who are afflicted though never so able and gracious yea excellently skilfull to comfort others yet they themselves need help from others in their temptations First Because their temptations do darken and obnubilate their own judgements and so they are not able to see that ground and those arguments of comfort which others may It is with them as those who would behold their face in a broken glass or in muddied streams like those that look through a green glass they judge every thing green while judgement is kept clear though faith be weak yet still there is some support but then is the soul wholly cast down when the eye is become darkness when in stead of a Father it apprehends God a Judge when instead of beholding the gracious works of Gods Spirit in themselves they think they see nothing but hypocrisie and rottenness in themselves Oh now how welcome is such an one of a thousand who shew to that man his uprightness Secondly The most eminent in their troubles need comfort from others Because the sense and feeling of their grief doth wholly possesse them so that they mind nothing else Whatsoever it be that is a burden upon them with this they rise and go to bed and groan under it now another Christian is very fit to put them in mind of such promises to remember them of such passages in Scripture which their immoderate sorrow had wholly driven out of their mind The soul of a man cannot be intent to many things at once therefore the sense and feeling of its particular exercise taketh up the whole heart as if there were no Scripture no promise no balm in Gilead for any then to be a Remembrancer a Monitor you forget such a place you remember not what the Scripture delivereth concerning your condition or you do not think of what you have formerly Say with David I will remember the works of the Lord of old Thus I say even the most eminent are so apt to be sensible of what is upon them that they remember not such things as may do them good Thirdly Even the most eminent who are in any trouble they cannot so bear it but they are subject to unbelief to discontent to frowardnesse to many sad exercises of soul And therefore no wonder if they need the help of others to allay that evil spirit in them as Martha said Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died So mayest thou say Oh if such a Christian such a Minister had been with me I had not been so impatient I had not been so dejected We cannot be in exercises especially in spiritual desertions and the sense of Gods wrath but withall there will arise much sinne there will be froth and mud that our hearts will send forth In this boiling of the soul there will arise some scumme It is true in Christ although he was under those disconsolate desertions destitute of comfort yet all the while there was no sinne in him no grace was weakned though his comfort was abated his soul was like a glass with pure water in it all the moving and tossing of it up and down could not cause any filth or mud in it but it is otherwise with us our souls have mud a sinfull sediment in the bottome and no sooner are we tossed and moved up and down but this cometh to the top our corruption sheweth it self presently and therefore we need the prayers the advice of others yea rebuke sometimes because like Rachel We refuse to be comforted Fourthly Every one needeth comfort from others in trouble Because the Devil is then most forward and busie He is ready to accuse God to thee and to accuse thee to God He moveth in job's wife that he should curse God and die He
comparatively to the cause and glory of Christ And this makes it so difficult to suffer This hath made the Apostates that have many times been in the Church This hath filled the hearts of many with woe and wounds implacably For their childrens sake for their lives sake they deny Christ and a good conscience and how can it be otherwise while Earth is dearer than Heaven when we esteem the favour of men more than the favour of God This hath proved bitter wormwood to many at last Lastly To suffer for Christ there is required pure and holy motives To lose all for Christs sake out of meer conscience that this is the only cause why we are in any trouble We may read both in sacred and prophane Histories how men have suffered even death it self only for vain-glory All Aristotles vertuous men they were ambitious and vain-glorious men The very Heathen could make it Laudum immensa cupido as well as Amorpatriae We would think it a madnesse to lose comforts and life for an airy bubble of windy glory yet many have been thus transported not only Philosophus but Haereticus est animal gloriae vanissimum If then it 's not Scripture-grounds but ambitious vain-glorious principles that make thee to suffer Christ doth not will not provide sugar for thy bitter pils Thus have we seen what is required to suffer for Christ Oh the difficulty of this duty No wonder so much seed hath withered away when the scorching Sunne of persecution did arise No wonder Christ hath many Swallow-friends that endure with him the Summer time onely No wonder few are lovers of Christ for Christs sake As Alexander had more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the Bees that follow for the honey-pot only Now to all these we must adde this Caution A Christian that suffereth for Christ though he have not those qualifications in a perfect degree but find corruption opposing every one of them He must not therefore cast away his confidence for we can no more suffer perfectly for Christ then do perfectly for him and if our gracious works cannot justifie us no more can our gracious sufferings Martyrdom is not meritorious Though we shed our bloud for Christ yet the blood of Christ must cleanse that duty also The Martyrs died only in resting upon Christ for salvation and no wonder the godly heart finds more imperfections in his sufferings more carnal fear and impatience then in other duties because this is the hardest service Christ doth ever put his upon What else is to be said in this point will come in in the next particulars SERM. XLVIII How many wayes and by what means Christ comforteth those who suffer for him 2 COR. 1. 5. So our consolation aboundeth by Christ THe second absolute Proposition in the Text is That our comfort aboundeth by Christ. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by some Exhortation but more generally and fitly Consolation Though this be spoken in the singular number and afflictions in the plural yet this is to be understood collectively as a treasure that hath all kind of comforts in it not one or two but all Therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here repeated again aboundeth which is to be understood partly repletively it filleth the hearts of those that do suffer for Christ and partly diffusively it extends also to the comfort of others And then you have the cause of all this By Christ Christ who is the cause of their sufferings is also the cause of their comfort As from the same root proceedeth both the Rose and its pricks Thus from Christ the same Fountain cometh both bitter and sweet Were not this added who would suffer for Christ who would lose all for him but Christ hath so ordained it that these sufferings are advantagious to us and though we lose in the retail yet we gain in the bulk and whole Observe That as our sufferings are for Christ so by the same Christ are our comforts Though he strike with one hand yet he supporteth with the other If David said to the Priest who fled to him many of them being slain at No◠by the bloudy cruelty of Saul Stay with me I am the occasion of your deaths thou shalt fare as I fare How much more will Christ own such who suffer for him saying Depend upon me for I am the cause of all the reproaches and cruel usages you meet with in the world But to explain this Let us consider In what respects comforts may be said to abound by Christ And First Efficiently He being the same with God is therefore a God of all consolation Yea Christ as a Mediator he is sensible of our temptations knoweth our need and wants and therefore the more ready to comfort Christ that wanted comfort himself and therefore had an Angel sent to comfort him is thereby the more compassionate and willing to comfort us Thus you may read Christ and God put together in this very act 2 Thess 2. 16 17. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts Paul here prayeth that both Jesus Christ and God the Father would comfort them Christ therefore not only absolutely as God but relatively as Mediator is qualified with all fitnesse and fulnesse to communicate consolation he is the fountain and head as of grace so of comfort Secondly We are comforted by Christ Meritoriously he hath merited at the hands of God our comfort for without Christs death and atonement we were no more subjects prepared for comfort then the damned Angels Had all mankind with Dives begged but for a drop of comfort such was the gulph between God and us that it could not be obtained So that by Christ a way is made for our consolation Christ did not only obtain the communication of the holy Ghost in the gifts and graces thereof So that as by Christ the Spirit of God is given to the Church as a guide to teach and lead into all truth as the sanctifying Spirit and use of all holinesse So he is also as the Comforter who giveth every drop of consolation that any believer doth enjoy Though therefore joy and comfort be in Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost as the appropriated and applying cause thereof yet this is wholly because of the merits of Christ And therefore we may pray for comfort upon the same grounds as we doe for holinesse They are both the fruits of Christs death Lastly We are comforted by Christ Objectively that is in him and from him we take our comfort As Christ is called Our righteousnesse because in and through his righteousnesse we are accepted of in him we are compleat So Christ is our comfort because in him we find matter of all joy though there be troubles and vexations from the creatures though the Sunne and Moon be turned into bloud all powers
unmasked and the carnal heart discovered The Gospel either conquers men and maketh them friends or else leaveth them more provoked enemies but the fault is not in the Gospel preached neither are faithfull Ministers the troublers of Israel but thy whoredoms thy idolatries thy lusts are the cause of all this combate Use of Instruction what all godly Ministers and private Christians who are zealous against sinne must look for not from Pagans and Heathens but false carnal Christians that regard no Religion any further then their lusts or advantages may be kept up Will those that live by the sinnes of people ever be willing to have sinne destroyed Do not many as Demetrius say If this way of Religion go on we shall not be able to live any longer And therefore they flie with open mouth against all holy order and good discipline against sinne But know thou that all thy prophanenesse and dissolutenesse doth not so much provoke God as thy opposition of the Gospel and the Ministers thereof Yea we see Paul using a divine imprecation against such in this case which neither Christ or Stephen ever used against those that did put them to death 2 Tim. 4. 14. Alexander the copper-smith did me much evil And afterwards he instanceth wherein He hath greatly withstood our words or preachings It was not any personal or temporal evil that moved Paul but the withstanding of his preaching whereupon he poureth out this prayer The Lord reward him accoeding to his worke Oh dreadfull and terrible imprecation especially coming from one acted by the Spirit of God in delivering of it Use 2. To exhort us seriously and impartially to examine our selves about our motives and grounds which make us to take up the title of Christianity Is it for fear or because of custome the Laws of the Land require it Doest thou not find the divine power of holy truths upon thy soul Then know thy Religion is like thy life a bubble a vapour that will quickly go out Especially we are the more diligently to observe our hearts when we have any profit or preferment when we have any external accomodations by our profession Oh how hard is it then to discern between true and counterfeit whether it be the truth of God the love of God or thy own interest that prevaileth with thee when thy enemies and adversaries shall charge thee with it What a comfort will it be when thy conscience upon good ground can clear thee SERM. LXI Of the different judgement that Faith and Flesh passe upon Afflictions 2 COR. 1. 8. That we were pressed above measure WE have already considered this trouble which came upon Paul in Asia in respect of the occasion of it Let us proceed to the Aggravation of it For out of the strong cometh sweet From this affliction conquered doth arise much encouragement and consolation to those that are followers of Paul And in the Description we have the Aggravation of it from the Quantity 1. We were pressed out of measure 2. The Quality Above measure 3. From the Event So that we despaired of life And in the next verse it is further illustrated from a two-fold end of which in its time Let us take notice of the first particular wherein we have this trouble heightned viz. from the Quantity or Extension of it It was above measure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied sometimes to the enduring of a burden Matth. 20. 12. Gal. 6. 2. whether it be a temporal burden or a spiritual Sometimes it is applied to the heavinesse of the eyes by drowsiness Mark 14. 40. In this place it seemeth to be taken from Porters who have a burden imposed upon them more than they are able to stand under or as Chrysostome from ships who are overmuch burdened and so are in danger of being lost And as if there were not emphasis enough in the word pressed he addeth another to aggravate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pareus saith The Scripture never useth an hyperbole because that strictly taken is a lie But this opinion cannot be justified neither is an hyperbole if you do regard the intention of the speaker a lie For such an expression he meaneth not so much the thing signified by the words as when the Evangelist saith The world would not contain all the books that might be written about Christs deeds but thereby to represent to the Reader some further degree then ordinarily is in other things But the Apostle doth not here speak of a verbal hyperbole but a real one that which was above expression The Apostle useth this expression when he speaketh of the riches of Gods grace and power to believers 2 Cor. 9. 14. Ephes 2. 7. Eph. 1. 19. No ordinary expression will serve Paul when he cometh to speak of the admirable and wonderfull riches of Gods grace to those that do believe in him As he thus speaketh of the grace of the Gospel so also of his own sinfulnesse both original and actual there is an hyperbole in both Rom. 7. 13. Original sinne improved and excited by the Commandment is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above measure sinfull and for his actual wickednesse and impiety Gal. 1. 13. there he saith He did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persecute the Church but when he cometh to speak of the glory in Heaven there one hyperbole will not serve according to that of Luther Coelum infernus non patiuntur hyperbolen but there he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the expression then in the Text we see That this trouble the Apostle was exercised with was no little inferiour trouble but that which was of the most pressing nature that could be that was out of measure heavy and burdensome But you will say How doth this agree with that which we have Paul speaking in the 4th Chapter of this Epistle where he calleth all the afflictions that do befall the godly light Our light affliction vers 17. Can it be light and yes out of measure heavy also It may be answered and reconciled thus It is called light in respect of everlasting glory So that although it be exceeding heavy and pressing in it self yet if compared with the weight of glory hereafter so it is light Or Secondly It may be answered By distinguishing of the times when Paul calleth his affliction heavy it relateth to the time that he was exercised with it For Christianity doth not require Stoicism yea patience is the more admirable by how much the more apprehensive we are of the trouble upon us Thus the Apostle Heb. 12. 11. No chastisement is joyous for the present but grievous Or Thirdly We may speak of afflictions when they are over when we are delivered from them and find the great good they have done to us then we may call them light and judge them nothing to the benefit we received by them But In the fourth place I conceive
be said that the people of God do communicate with Christ in some measure as with his priestly and Kingly Office so with his Prophetical as if they were able to know the mind of God in many things yet we must take heed that such a principle doth not draw us into spiritual delusions For nothing is more ordinary even to a godly man then to take his strong affections and vehement conjectures for impulses and inspirations from God Paul in this trouble did absolutely conclude He should die he had past this sentence upon himself but God had determined otherwise I shall handle this truth more generally than the Text doth intend yet including that also And First Herein the heart of a good man doth deceive him in that he is ready to give such advise to others sometimes which he may apprehend is of God and yet it ariseth from humane perswasion only Those that are godly are constantly and judiciously to examine what is humane and what is divine in them what cometh from God and what from their own spirits Sad and miserable have the deceits of many been in this case No wonder it may be so with a godly man For it hath sometimes fared thus with those who besides the spirit of sanctification have also been endowed with prophetical illumination Nathan 1 Chron. 17. 2. bid David do all that was in his heart when he purposed to build an house to God but we see afterwards God did forbid it It is true there were in the Old Testament false prophets who did wittingly and willingly sinne pretending they had a word from God when it was only a lying spirit in them but of such we speak not Yea we read of a true Prophet of the Lord yet pretending a word from God when he did wilfully dissemble all that while 1 King 13. 18. For when a Prophet had command from God not to eat or drink in his journey This other Prophet perswadeth him to eat saying An Angel of God spake to him for that purpose Here was a great temptation to the former Prophet to eat it could not but work some scruples in him So that from this instance Divines do argue That it is lawfull for a man to goe against scruples But because the Prophet did not but was perswaded against Gods former command therefore he was severely punished But this instance is not fully to my purpose onely from that example we may see That the corruption in man inclineth him to make pretences from God to get the more credit Even as in Paul's time some pretended the Spirit and Revelations about the day of judgement But the example of Nathan is wholly to our purpose and therefore all that fear God are to pray for an exact judgement to discern between things that differ and that more in our selves than others For such is our self-love that we are difficultly brought to know the truth As a sensible object put immediately upon the sense hindereth it in its operations We see Paul very imitable in this thing 1 Cor. 7. in answering that case about marriage which the Corinthians had propounded to him Hence vers 10. 12. how carefull is he to distinguish between that which he had from the Lord directly and was his expressed will and what he advised as a faithfull Officer in the Church Not I but the Lord saith he Hence he concludeth his Discourse in a most humble and modest manner calling it his judgement onely adding I think also that I have the Spirit of God Though you must know that in all this Paul was acted infallibly by the Spirit he speaketh not as an humane Authour in this thing Secondly The godly are deceived when they have some prepossessed principles of errour in them and then think Gods dispensations are to abet and countenance them This hath commonly caused great mistakes whereby men have thought they had Gods approbation to their deceits We see this plainly in the Disciples this false principle they had imbibed that the Messiah would come as a temporal and external King to vindicate their Nation from all the bondage they were under Therefore when Christ speaketh of his Kingdome and his Glory when he speaketh of being exalted they apply all consonantly to their false principles Upon this mistake the sons of Zebedee come to ask Christ for the chiefest places of honour in his Kingdom and upon Christs Ascension in Heaven Act. 1. 6. when he had for fourty dayes together been speaking of the Kingdom of God to them Then they asked him Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdome of Israel Here you see how much even the Apostles the first fruits as it were of the Spirit were decived But what was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was the deceitfull foundation in this building Even a carnal and an erroneous perswasion about the temporal dignity and honour of Christ Take then much heed that the first concoction be not nought that there be not Laesum principium some principle received that thou must not so much as question the truth of it and then according to this thou makest many false and erroneous conjectures about Gods proceedings to thee Thirdly Then the godly are very apt to be deceived about Gods wayes to themselves or others when they judge of God after outward and humane appearance When they expect that God should do as some high and mighty Monarch of the world would do We see hom Samuel a man so highly proficient in the fear of God and all integrity yet when he came to choose out the man God had designed for the Kingdom how quickly he mistook and was at a loss 1 Sam. 16. 6 7. For when Eliab came into his presence he said Surely the Lords anointed is here But then observe how God did reprove his humane judgement when he said to Samuel Look not upon his high stature for the Lord seeth not as man seeth adding also the ground of it because man judgeth by outward appearance but God judgeth the heart It is true the godly have this promise that many things shall be manifested to them which to others the Lord will not reveal Psal 25. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Hence we have that notable expression to Abraham by God when he was purposed to destroy Sodome Gen. 18. 17. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I will do and one reason is because he will command his children and his houshold to keep the way of the Lord. We have likewise a very comfortable expression which our Saviour useth to his Disciples John 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known to you From this it is that some eminently godly men have been endowed with a prophetical spirit and have used much boldness in prayer to
the person of a regenerate man because he cals himself carnall and yet this Authour though of the same judgemen with them will by a naturall man understand a babe in Christ or a weak Christian The Apostle I say making this distinction between these two saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned Now there must be alwayes some proportion between the faculty and the object The eye cannot see musick nor the eare heare colours nor doth a Beast understand reason but then the spirituall man having received the Spirit of God he judgeth all things and such have the mind of Christ There is then that Heavenly and holy wisedome which if we receive from above if we plow with this Heifer we are able more exactly and certainly to judge of Gods proceedings then otherwise we could do for as God giveth it to his people to understand the mysteries of the Gospell when they are hid from other mens eyes so to the godly it is impart given to understand the wayes and workes of the Lord that thereby they may prevent those delusions or deceits which otherwise they are lyable unto Whereupon it is that because in this particular as well as in other we know but in part we have heavenly wisedome but in part Therefore it is that we do so often miscarry As in all civill Governement there are arcana imperii secrets of state which only the wise favorite is admitted unto the single and credulous Subject he believeth the pretences and appearances of things Thus God also though in a wise and just manner hath his secrets in governing of his Church he proceedeth in such methods that to the judgement of flesh and blood do appeare very improbable and unlikely ever to produce any blessed end and hence it is that the carnall wise men of the world are so often taken in their own craft and wherein they deale not only proudly but wisely God is above them whereas if they had understood the method of Gods proceedings they would not have been found so foolishly to fight against God but the godly have Scripture wisedome and prudence and therefore are not wholely in the dark but while they follow them are kept from those bogs and pits which others are very ready to fall into we may instance in some of those Divine Maximes of state As 1. The understanding of this truth will prevent much false judgment viz. When we consider that God delights to carry on the great things of his Church in a contrary way to humane thoughts and expectations let us instance in that main foundation of all our comfort and duty Christ Crucified with the benefits and effects flowing from him Was not this the master piece of Gods wisedome and power and mercy yet how contrary and unsuitable to the judgement of flesh and blood for God to be made Man and Man not in a glorious externall way as the great Potentates of the world but in a most abject and ignominious way and then by such an accursed and reproachfull death to procure our pardon of sinne and acceptation with God it hath so much absurdity in it to flesh and bloud that to the Jewes it was a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness Non pudet quia pudendum omnino credibile quia prorsus impossibile What the thoughts of men were about Christ while working out our redemption appeareth Isa 13. 2 3 4. There is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men we did esteem him smitten of God So that generally all the Nations of the Jewes were deceived about a Messiah yea the Disciples themselves were full of prejudices in this Point This then is Gods way to do the great things of his Church in a super-humane way So that even then when the things themselves are not super-naturall yet the manner of accomplishing them is wholely above nature What therefore God speaketh in one case to his people about the pardon of sinne Isa 55. 8 9. is true in all the rest of Gods administrations My thoughts are not as your thoughts For as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my wayes higher then yours By this it is plain that a Dwarfe is as able to reach to the Heavens as we are to comprehend Gods wayes so that whatsoever God doth for thee whether body or soul it is a mystery All will be wonderfull and marvelous in thy eyes As he said that was not worthy the name of eloquence which did not beget admiration in the Hearers So the Lord accounteth of nothing as beseeming his Majesty which may not put the soul in admiration possess thy soul with this principle and thou wilt not be often in thy complaints I looked for this and hoped for that but God hath taken away that I never dreamed off 2. Another Rule is That when God hath promised to do any thing for his people yet he doth for the most part seem to go contrary to it especially at first as when Abraham was promised a great Posterity David a Kingdome they met at first with nothing but what did make against these so that his providence did seem to gainsay his promise Now if this be not known how quickly will the godly be deceived The world was a great Chaos and confusion before it was made so glorious as now it is 3. This will prevent mistake also when we consider That God doth usually hide himselfe and deny help till every thing be desperate and then he cometh to help When the poore creple that lay so many years and could not be put into the Poole said I have no help then Christ healed him Christ did not provide Wine at the Marriage Feast till all was spent Moses cometh when the â—aske of brick is doubled in the Mount the Lord will be seen Would not this truth alone deliver thee from many conclusions as if God had forsaken thee and would be mercifull no more What if Christ do with thee as that Woman of Canaan to put thee off to call thee Dog Is it not to provoke thy faith and importunity more 4. The Heavenly Artist remembers this Rule also That God will sometimes alter his ordinary wayes do things because of his soveraignty and prerogative What Disputes and different thoughts had Job and his friends about Gods dealing with him in his particular wherein both Job and his friends were at a loss only Job spake more rightly then they Yet God discovereth his greatness and Najesty to Job thereby informing of him that he did not sufficiently consider his own weakenesse and Gods infinite greatness 5. And lastly God delights to put his people upon a life of faith and that in temporall and spirituall mercies The just shall live by his faith This faith doth exalt God and debase man now saith and sense they are opposite one flyeth up to Heaven the other crawleth on the ground and therefore
do attain it They take civility for godliness they take the outward performance of religious duties for godliness they take some sudden pangs and fits of devotion for godlinesse Thus they judge copper to be gold But In the next place if they do understand what it is to be regenerated how great a matter it is to be a New Creature then such is their self-love that they presently apply it to themselves and do believe they are such ones For this end is that duty so often commended To commune with our own hearts to try and search our own hearts For this end we are informed of the deceitfulnesse and desperate wickednesse of the heart that no man knoweth it that God only knoweth it Thou boastest of thy heart thou trustest in thy heart Ah poor deluded wretch thou knowest not what a sea of evil thy heart is till grace shine into that dark dungeon thou canst never perceive the loathsome lusts that crawl there Pray therefore to be delivered from this heart-trusting as from hell it self It is this that is the Beelzebub sinne This maketh thee shut thy eyes stop thy ears harden thy heart and therefore till this root be pulled up no preaching no Ministry can do thee any good For the first thing done by converting grace is to take away this trusting in our selves and in stead thereof to work an holy despair in our selves This the Spirit of God doth by convincing of sinne through the Law by this we see our selves a sinfull people and a cursed people we are also convinced of our impotency and insufficiency to help our selves By this we are convinced that it must be the righteousness of another even of Christ himself and not our own that we must appear in when we approach unto God Till therefore thou art in this heart-trusting way as long as this good perswasion and secure thoughts are in thy self thou art wholly out of the way to Heaven This is not the way to Christ if thou art not wounded the good Samaritan will pour no oil into thee if thou doest not judge all things husks and seest thy self ready to famish there will no entertainment be given to thee at thy fathers house Oh then that the Spirit of God would in a mighty and powerfull manner fall upon such sinfull considers that he would shake the very foundations of their souls For as long as this self-trusting a bideth in thee thy condition is incurable if the heart be deceitfull above all things why doest thou believe it above all things Thou believest thy own heart more than Gods word more than the Ministers of God No man doubteth of his heart none questioneth or examineth his heart and therefore cometh not to the Word preached to have that purged to have that cleansed but takes it for an undoubted principle that his heart is good already But how cometh it to be good When was it made good by nature it is full of evil and therefore it can never be sanctified but by the grace of God effectually working by the Ministry Secondly The Scripture instanceth in another object of sinfull trusting that is secret and close but also very dangerous and that is in the righteousnesse we conceit we have and this was the great pharisaical sinne This was the Camels bunch this made them stand in such immediate opposition to Christ that they rejected his Person and Offices They did not look upon themselves as sick and therefore would not admit of a Physician And oh that this sinne had been like Jonah's gourd that sprang up for a day only and presently was consumed but it is a sinne that passeth from one generation to another to put confidence in their own righteousnesse to seek to be justified by the works they do Doth not this reign in Popish spirits in all formalists in civil and moral men Do they not look to be saved to be justified by their works of righteousnesse and charity How often doth the Scripture thunder against this sinne And indeed well it may for it maketh our selves our own Christs our own Saviours It maketh Christ to die in vain Now how natural and imbred a sinne this is appeareth by the Jewes Rom. 10. 3. They went about to establish their own righteousnesse and would not submit themselves to the righteousnesse of faith Hence because this sinne did so reign in the Pharisees our Saviour spake that excellent Parable Luke 18. 9. concerning a Publican humbling himself and sensible of his unworthiness as being justified rather than a Pharisee He spake this saith the Text to certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous And why doth our saviour make those blessed that mourn that are poor in spirit that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse but to shew in what a blasted and cursed estate they are who put any trust in the good works they do to be justified by them You see then by this how dangerous and damnable a thing that common sinne is which every civil every just and righteous man is apt to lean upon if his eyes were opened and his heart made tender he would not dare to eat or sleep or stay one night in it as good and safe as now he believeth it to be Thirdly Another object of this sinfull secret trusting is in spiritual or Church-priviledges or Ordinances that we have more than others This is also like the Psalmists plague which destroyeth at Mid-day thousands fall dead into hell because of this religious trusting in priviledges and Ordinances They trust in them not regarding what holinesse and godlinesse God doth require of them How palpably did the Prophet Jeremiah reprove this in the Jewes Jer. 7. 4. Trust ye not in lying words saying The Temple the Temple of the Lord are these but amend your wayes and your doings as vers 3. When the Prophet exhorts them to repentance and reformation then they plead The Temple of the Lord and the Ordinances This is so enticing a sinne that in the Christian Church many were perswaded by false Teachers That unlesse they were circumcised and kept up the Rites of the Ceremonial Law they could not be justified Therefore the Apostle speaketh excellently Phil. 3. 3. We are the circumcision which rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When it cometh to this that thou doest not trust in Duties or in Ordinances but in Christ in them then art thou a true worshipper of God in the Spirit In the same Chapter Paul layeth upon his own heart what trust and confidence he once had in his being a Jew in being circumcised in his legal righteousness But when it pleased God to reveal Christ to him What doth he trust in these priviledges any longer No by no means for he accounts all things but dung and losse in comparison of that righteousnesse which is by faith in Christ Is not this likewise an universal predominant sinne amongst Christians Do they not
although we are to presse after perfection in this grace as well as any other yet none can attain to such a constant setled and fixed frame of heart in trusting in God that in no temptation or at no time he should ever be moved and cast down with diffidence Who can express greater trust in God than David doth at sometimes yea would think this mountain can never be moved as Psal 112. 7. which indeed is spoken of every godly man He will not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 56. 3. at what time I was afraid I will trust in thee Yea in many Psalms did he so farre proclaim his confidence in God that by the event it seemeth that this did regenerate into self-trusting for which God did for sake him sometimes and leave him in darkness But as confident as he is in God sometimes you have him at other times as much dejected and without comfort or support Though therefore thou prayest and mournest after this blessed grace which if perfectly enjoyed would put thee into Heaven while on earth yet look to be often in conflicts sometimes trusting and sometimes distrusting till God should make thee perfect in Heaven where there is no more ground for fear sorrow or any diffidence Let the Use be to humble the children of God under all those distrustfull and despondent thoughts they labour with What are become of Gods mercies of old Where are thy former experiences Let such as never knew the name of God that have no interest in Christ or his promises let such I say like Judas and Cain go up and down with perpetual tremblings and anxiety of heart but thou dishonourest God and the promise and that holy calling by which thou art called while thou art tormenting thy self with cares about future things Matth. 6. 36. It is made the Gentiles sinne an Heathenish sinne How then cometh it about that Christianity hath taught thee no better Who may walk confidently and with quiet spirits though the Earth be removed into the Sea if thou mayest not Aristotle giving Characters of confident men Rhetor. lib. 2 do among others hath these two particulars 1. Such are confident who have great power and might or have friends that are so Now is there any greater than God Is there any mightier than he 2. Those are confident saith he that are well-affected to religious and divine things And is it not thus with thee Art not thou carefull to observe the commands of God Art not thou tender about his worship and his glory Indeed sinne and contempt of holy things that must needs emasculate and take away all courage but thy faithfulness to God may make thee assured of his faithfulness to thee SERM. LXXIX How we are to relie upon God and yet make use of requisite Means too 2 COR. 1. 11. You also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf THe Apostle having commemorated the goodness and power of God in his deliverances attributing all to his mercy he doth in this verse declare what helps and means were likewise to be used for the accomplishing thereof For he that trusteth in God alone for any deliverance doth also diligently use those appointed means which God hath commanded Neither doth the goodness and power of God to do any thing for us disoblige us from a carefull attendance to those wayes wherein the mercy is to be obtained In that therefore Paul having expressed his assurance of present and future deliverance doth also excite and exhort them to pray for him we have 1. A Demonstration of the nature of that confidence which was in him it was divine and genuine not presumption which separateth end and means from another 2. Here was an Evidence of his humility and modesty For though a Saint in the highest forme farre excelling others is gifts and graces yet he earnestly desireth the prayers of those that are inferiour to him The Text therefore is a further amplification of his deliverance 1. From the Means used to obtain it Piscator calleth this prayer Causam adjuvantem but that expression is too big The Churches prayer is a means not a cause prevailing in the behalf of others 2. From the End which is Thanksgiving by others as in time is to be shewed Let us consider the Means specified in the Text and therein we have the Means it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical You also implying that neither Gods promise or his power would procure this mercy alone without their prayer Besides the goodness of God on his part there must be prayer on their part The word in the original for helping is emphatical being twice compounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word doth denote the Service and Ministry of those who are under us and so it doth imply that the Church doth owe as a debt unto their spiritual guides earnest prayer for them Though the Ministers be their servants in some respects in respect of the end of their office as all Governours are yet they are their servants in other respects by way of obedience to their word and constant prayer for them But then there is the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added which doth denote not onely their effectual prayers but their concord and agreement therein and that in their publick and solemn Assemblies Again the word signifying to work and labour doth denote what the nature of prayer is that the soul labours therein is fervent full of agonies which sheweth that the customary formal prayers of most people are not worthy of the name there is no labour or fervency of the soul therein In the second place You have the way how they laboured by prayer The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be spoken to afterwards They did not labour by using friends to sollicite the Magistrate in Paul's behalf for there was no hope from them but they made their addresses to God Lastly Here is the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You helping together It is an honour Paul puts upon them by this expression and thereby also commendeth their duty to them of praying for them Several Observations are contained in this particular As First Whereas we see Paul resting alone upon the goodnesse and power of God for his deliverance yet not excluding but rather desiring the prayers of the Corinthians as a necessary means to have this also obtained Observe That it is a Christians duty not to separate from or oppose the grace and power of God to the duties and means he also hath required Not to say because it 's Gods grace and Gods work therefore I will sit down and do nothing Now on the other side God commands me to pray to work therefore it is not the grace of God but my duties that do justifie and save me
of his love this riches of his grace should exceedingly melt thee it should be like fire that assimilateth every thing into its self now when this love like so many coales of fire is in thy breast it cannot be but that it will open thy heart and thy mouth wide to praise the Lord. This is our corruption we love the mercy it self but not God that giveth it we delight in the comforts that are bestowed upon us but do not rejoyce in God from whence they come If therefore thou findest thy heart frozen and dull thou canst not raise it up to bless God meditate much upon the love of God to thee so vile and unworthy 4. An heavenly heart is necessary to bless and praise God The praising of God is Angels works and the imployment of the glorified Saints to all eternity Praise is comely but it is from clean hearts and clean mouths We need the Spirit of God to inable us to thanksgiving as well as to prayer Psal 119. 7. I 'le praise thee with uprightness An hypocrite who giveth God glory by his mouth but reproacheth him by his life not only his prayer but his praises are abominable Hence Psal 50. ult it is said Who so offereth praise glorifieth God But lest you should extend this to every man See what is added And who so ordereth his conversation aright c. If a man praise God in never so melodious a tune but then there is no harmony nor order in his life this is a reproach to God We may benedicere linguâ when we do maledicere vitâ There is a real praising of God by exercised holiness as well as verbal by the tongue In the Sacrifices of thanksgiving Levit. 7. 10. Whosoever did eat thereof that had uncleanness upon him he was to be cut off By this is typified how unpleasing the praises of such are who live in their sins it is as uncomely as a pearl in the Swines mouth It is true God doth greatly condescend to accept of our praises for he hath millions and millions of Angels continually praising of him who have not the least blemish or spot upon them but yet he is pleased to take this Sacrifice at our hands In the Sacrifice of thanksgiving Levit. 7. 13. there was leaven allowed Junius observeth That whereas God allowed leaven in no other Sacrifice though Bonfrerius thinketh otherwise and that leaven only was forbidden so farre as to be offered but the common opinion is otherwise why then was leaven allowed only in this Sacrifice Hereby to teach us saith Junius that there is corruption and sinfulness in our best actions and that we need the righteousness of Christ that they be accepted of Even then in our praises there is matter of humiliation there is some bitterness yet through Christ we are accepted of But though all pollution cannot be purged out yet he that liveth in a wilfull way of sinning cannot give glory to God acceptably 5. He that praiseth God must do it voluntarily readily chearfully otherwise it is not worthy the name of praise As God loveth a cheerfull giver so especially a thanksgiver To praise God with an heavy lumpish unwilling heart is a contradiction to the duty in thy hand it is as if we should say a black Sun or a cold fire Lev. 22. 29 30. The Law about a Sacrifice of thanksgiving is that when they offer it it must be at their own will which argueth the readiness and willingness that ought to be in us at that time and then on the same day it was to be offered they were to eat it all up to leave none till the morrow whereas in other Sacrifices they might And this was to shew that he who would give thanks to God he must do it speedily he must not delay or put off So that by this you see a praising frame of heart requireth a most curious exact temperature It 's that Apothecaries ointment which belonged to the Highpriest onely made up of choice ingredients A sinfull heart cannot praise God and a worldly heart cannot praise God that wants wheels to its chariots wings to flie up with The Lark lifteth her self off from the earth ere she begins to sing And then a sorrowfull dejected heart that cannot praise God no more than a string in the instrument too much wetted can cause a melodious sound In the next place Let us consider the encouragements thereunto And 1. The excellency of this duty is apparent in that the heart is naturally so froward and opposite to it It may cause some wonder why the soul of a man should be slow to this work and commonly all are more in petitions then in thanksgivings Hence David Psal 103. though a man more exercised in this service than any one called therefore the sweet singer of Israel and who is not contented himself to praise God but cals upon all the creatures in Heaven and earth yea the most inconsiderable ones to praise God yet he finds some listlesness and slothfulness in himself see therefore how he prepareth and stirreth up himself as the Cock doth before his crow Bless the Lord O my soul and let all within thee praise his holy name His heart doth need calling upon his soul must be moved and quicknnd ere it doth his duty Conclude then certainly this duty is most excellent it is very pleasing to God because I am so backward I am never scarce in a praising temper one clog or other is upon me 2. Consider That the Scripture vouchsafeth it the name of a Sacrifice Heb. 13. 15. Where you have the duty commanded the time when and the manner how Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God and that continually As David said Seven times a day will I praise thee Ps 119. 164. It is a sacrifice and every sacrifice must have fire there must be zeal and fervency but by whom must we offer it it is by Christ so that he is the Altar upon which the incense of prayers and praises are to be offered to God By him we have both power and acceptance to praise God and in this sense all the people of God are called Priests and they have the sacrifices of praise continually to offer up unto God Hence to praise God is expressed Hos 14. 2. by rendring the calves of our lips 3. It is a debt that is due to God He that hath commanded thee to pray to him hath also enjoyned thee to praise him Yea this is all that God looketh for Thou canst not satisfie God for thy sins committed thou art not able to repair his honour and glory shouldst thou be damned a thousand times over yet it could not recompence to God according to what thou hast dishonoured him Therefore seeing this is the only debt God obligeth unto why should we not be more diligent in it If he had required some greater service of us and more terrible to flesh and blood ought
God onely when the heart doth in the chiefest manner close with God and center upon him as the ultimate end through Christ And therefore simplicity of heart is the same with onenesse of heart When a man doth not love God and the world too serve God and lusts also For though our Saviour say This is impossible yet many whose whole souls are engaged to the world and the things of the world do yet please themselves as if they loved God also which yet is as impossible as with one eye to look downwards and another to look upwards That heart and heart which some Kings in the Old Testament are charged with was because they did halt between God and Belial They would not serve God alone Simplicity then is opposed to inconstancy and unsetlednesse of spirit when a man doth not with full purpose of heart cleave to Christ and take him upon all his terms but in some things is for him and in some things is against him At some times he prayeth and calleth upon God at other times again he giveth all over This is opposite to singleness of heart The Apostle James calleth such an one Chap. 1. 8. A double minded man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man with with two soules as it were So that this very particular is greatly to be heeded it will penetrate and search to the very bottome of the soul Most men undo their soules in this point they have but wishings and wouldings in religious things they have aguish workings of heart sometimes hot and sometimes cold They have not taken our Saviours counsel To sit downe and bethink themselves what it will cost them to be the Disciples of Christ what lusts they can part with what sufferings they can endure what powerfull and fervent service they can doe for God And hence it is they are like a reed shaken with every winde Instability and inconstancy cannot in a predominant manner consist with this simplicity of heart no more than heat and cold in gradu intenso There is no godly man but bewaileth the unsetlednesse the unevennesse of his heart that he is not alwayes as believing as heavenly-minded as weaned from the world as he is at sometimes but this is gradual only his heart hath for the main fixed on God though it be thus tossed up and down even as the ship may be anchored fast to the earth yet the waves and winds may move it up and down but they cannot remove it Thus the heart which hath godly simplicity is fundamentally fastened upon Christ although many temptations intruding may sometimes cause it to shake and totter Fourthly Simplicity of heart is consistent in the uncompounded frame thereof It is not made up of several heterogeneals as if there were metal of silver and lead or gold and copper and so is the same with purity Every hypocrite hath a mixt heart it is compounded of several ingredients for being it is glewed to the creatures and to several lusts because these are many therefore he hath not a simplicity but multiplicity in his heart Divines doe usually make simplicity to be one of Gods Attributes because he is a most pure act compounded of no parts Therefore he hath the highest simplicity in his Essence And the Angels they are also called simple substances because they are next unto God Yea the Philosophers call the Heavens though a body yet simple because not compounded of elements as sublunary things are The notion then of the simplicity of the heart is seen in this when it is not compounded it hath not the mixture of other things with spiritual and hence it doth appear that no man in this life hath perfect and absolute simplicity none hath his graces wholly pure because some corruption is mingled with our duties There is a composition of wine and water of flesh and Spirit of Grace and Nature in the best but yet it is not predominant in the godly The tares do not choake the wheat The Iebusite doth not drive out the Israelite Onely this may serve to keep the godly humble and low in their owne eyes they have not that purity and singlenesse of heart they ought to have yea and earnestly desire Doest thou ever goe about any holy duty wherein thou doest not find corruption presently intermingling it self Doth pure grace work alwayes How much of flesh and self doth interpose But yet for the main thy heart hath simplicity Fifthly Simplicity consisteth in an even equal and uniforme way of obedience The course of a mans life is for the general of the same complexion alwayes praying alwayes believing alwayes mortifying of sinne alwayes heavenly mindednesse I doe not speak this as if there were never any interruption sometimes natural as in sleep and otherwayes because the soule being finite cannot attend to many things at once sometimes moral by sinne or at least carelesse and dull affections but the course of his life or as the Scripture calls it The way of a man that is generally of the same consonancy Whereas Hypocrisie is full of uneven and unequal actions sometimes mountaines sometimes valleys There are many Hyperbatons as it were in the oration of his life his life doth speake in different Dialects he can say Sibboleth and Shibboleth too Thus David describeth the godly man as Meditating and delighting in the Law of God day and night And the Apostle John speaketh once or twice That those who are borne of God sinne not neither can they Not because they have not divers infirmities but because the full purpose and habitual inclination of such a mans heart is uniformely to Gods commands Therefore you heard that the opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you looke upon many examples of those who did many things for God yet wanted this simplicity you shall finde a great difformity in their lives their lives speake contradiction they are not the same men at one time they are at another Thus Soul at first very zealous to promote the will of God yea from this he did put all the Witches to death and yet at another time he himself maketh recourse to such So Jehu how active is he to destroy Baal's worship but yet he retaineth Ieroboam's worship If it was good to destroy Ahab's worship because not commanded by God was it not also good to demolish Ieroboam's seeing that also had no command from God But where there is no simplicity of heart you may observe a great deal of unevennesse yea and contradiction in that mans conversation Sixthly Simplicity of heart doth mainly lie in this To have our outwards and inwards all of the same nature To be such cordially and internally to God as outwardly we appeare to be So that if you aske What is this simplicity In the general we may say the adequate conformity and agreement betweene the heart and our profession Out of the heart we pray we heare we professe So that
as the Spirit of God doth sanctifie them But naturally the hearts of all men are deceitfull full of lies and falshoods towards God as if they loved him as if they repented when yet self is the motive that setteth all on work and no lesse false is it to man also It is true indeed commonly it is interpreted by good Expositors as if this speech did come from David in unbelief that it was the weaknesse of his faith thinking as if Samuel and other Prophets had deceived him about the Kingdome But in this sense there would have been a falshood in the speech neither would the Apostle then have made that use of it as he doth Besides at the verse before he saith I believed therefore have I spoken which the Apostle also maketh use of 2 Cor. 4. 13. for freedome and boldnesse in the profession of our faith therefore it may very well be that David from the strength of his faith now in his persecutions for that haste he speaketh of is to be understood of his flight and running from place to place doth encourage himselfe from the truth of God and is not dismayed to see Absolom and all his people prove false and perfidious for the corrupt nature of man inclineth him to no better If then the heart of a man be so naturally prone to be false towards God and man to be mercenary to seek our selves to be hypocrites This is the excellency of sincerity that it eateth away the rotten flesh at the bottome Hence In the third place It is because of this sincerity that the way to Heaven is such a streight and narrow way That Godlinesse is so rare a Jewel That many are called but few are chosen because though there be many duties many religious professions yet little sincerity of spirit Oh if there were no more required to goe to Heaven than to hear pray keep up an external forme of Religion different from the course of the world How easie and broad would the way to Heaven be Many thousands more would goe to Heaven than doe But this is that which makes it so difficult a thing to be saved because no duty no religious performances are entertained but rejected by God which come not from a sincere and true principle of grace within It is not then praying but sincere praying It is not hearing but sincere hearing Yea Martyrdome without sincerity is but the Devils Sacrifice So that experience will teach thee to set upon religious duties from principles of sincerity is a farre more difficult task then thou ever thoughtst of while going on in a formal customary way Heaven could never be so difficultly obtained neither could those Texts of Scripture which speak of the holy violence and agonies that must be in the way to Heaven were the externals of Religion enough but it is sincerity in these actings that maketh the streights When we set upon that then we see how far nature education custom and formality may carry us and yet want the soul and life of all Therefore Fourthly Sincerity is the proper characteristical difference between a temporary in Christianity and a true convert It is one of the greatest practical Questions in Divinity that is What is that which differences between the common graces of Gods Spirit and the special Or What are the bounds and limits whereby we may know to distinguish between an enlightned hypocrite fervent in all external religious duties and he who is cordially and truly so The Question is Whether it be a specifical or gradual difference And what is that which the truly godly doth And the foolish Virgin or foolish builder cannot do And if we descend not to particulars but speak in the general then we must say Sincerity is the essentiall difference So that as rationality maketh the essential difference between a man and a beast so doth sincerity between the truly godly and the seeming so onely This made the difference between Saul and David between Peter and Judas between many Kings recorded in the Old Testament who did very much in the wayes of the Lord and those who did seek God with all their heart So that by this you see how much it lieth us upon to look after sincerity in duties more than duties after sincerity in gifts and religious abilities more than gifts for this maketh the Christian The other are but as the body and garments this is the soul All thy glorious building must be pulled down if this be not the foundation It is no matter what standing thy Discipleship to Christ is of nor how famous thy gifts and parts are nor what an interest thou hast in the thoughts of Professours nor what a stricter way of Church-order thou mayest seeme to set upon if sincerity be not the salt to season all Oh then that Christians would study more in this point meditate about it read about it knowing that this is all in all If this be not the first stone laid in thy spiritual building when stormes arise thy building will fall and thy fall will be the greater by how much the appearances of holinesse have been the greater Therefore it is that sincerity is usually called by Divines the Gospel-perfection when many are said To seeke God with a perfect heart the meaning is not as if there were no sinnes or imperfections cleaving to them but because they were upright and sincere Though weak faith yet if sincere faith Though imperfect love yet if sincere love this hath a kinde of Gospel-perfection Hence of all the deceits in the world none is more dangerous and pernicious then when we take our selves for upright and sincere but are not Fifthly Sincerity doth carry a man on in religious wayes from principles of voluntarinesse and delight within Outward motives may make false hearts towards God set upon many notable services as we see in Iehu and Iudas c. But here was no voluntary and delightsome principle within For a man will never sincerely leave the sweetnesse of his lusts and profits he had in a carnal way till he finde infinitely more sweetnesse and delight in heavenly things So that this doth necessarily accompany sincerity that it maketh a man voluntary and willing with joy and delight in the whole work of God Psalm 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing willingnesses in the day of thy power It is true even the most upright doe sometimes finde much deadnesse and unwillingnesse to ho y things there is a wearisomnesse and aversnesse they sometimes feele but this is an heavy burden to them They cry out to God to quicken them to draw them to enliven them whereas the insincere man is carried out by external motives Even as when the water maketh the Mill runne round that of it self would never move because it wanteth life within Therefore that expression of Iob is observeable Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himselfe in the Almighty Will he alwayes call upon God The
unto Heaven By this we see the more abundantly Christ had discovered his willingnesse for their salvation and they refused him the greater woe did belong to them yea it would be worse with them at the Day of Judgement than the Sodomites the vilest of men whom God destroyed with such a sudden and terrible destruction Thirdly The more successe that the Ministry hath had where thou livest the greater change and conversion it hath made and yet thou continue the same prophane person thou wast the greater is thy guilt When it shall be a converting Word to others but not to thee an enlightning Word to others but not to thee Oh do thou tremble under thy condition lest God hath given thee up to a spiritual judgment that no preaching no Ministry no if Angels should come from Heaven or men raised from the dead yet they should do no good upon thee If there be but one man or woman in a Parish that can blesse God for the good their soules have got by the hearing of the Word this person will arise at the Day of Judgement against thee then God will say Why was it not a converting Word to thee as well as him Why did thy neighbours heare and tremble reforme and tremble but thou didst not Now the successe of a faithfull Ministery may be seen in these particulars 1. To enlighten thee to instruct and teach thee in the wayes of God For this end they are called Lights and Teachers Observe then if there be not many that have got knowledge in the truths of God when thou art ignorant how many by thee do know the principles of Religion the Ministry hath been instrumental to awaken them so that those who were ignorant do now understand this will condemn thee who livest in thy sottish ignorance 2. The successe of the Ministry is seen In the conversion and reforming of men from their evil wayes To turn swine into sheep weeds into flowers as we read of three thousand converted by one Sermon that Peter made If then God hath blessed our labours in this kind though it should be but to one man in the Congregation this will be a testimony against you Was not he once prophane as thou art Did not he follow all excesse of riot as thou doest Did not he deride and scorn at the power of godliness as thou doest but now he is wholly altered now he dare not do the things he once did Now he crieth out Oh such a Sermon struck to my very heart such a passage was like a thunderbolt Why then is it that thou doest not follow such a man and do as he doth He would not be the same worldling the same prophane person he was once for a world Oh remember this mans conversion this mans change will be a testimony against thee 3. The successe of the Ministry is not only to give spiritual life at first but to quicken up to edifie and to cause to grow up more and more in godlinesse that you may not be a people alwayes in low principles that you may not be babes alwayes but be more spiritual and greater proficients in godliness than formerly Thus our Saviour prayed Joh. 17. for the Disciples already converted that they might be more sanctified And here again is condemning matter to those who stand at a stay yea it may be go back and fall off from their first love Oh lay this to heart Seest thou not how such and such that did but lately look towards Heaven have overgone thee they have more knowledge more grace more life and vigour than thou hast Certainly this maketh thy case the sadder they are planted by the same waters thou art hear the same Sermons receive the same Ordinances and yet are farre more fruitfull than thou art 4. Another particular wherein the successefull efficacy of the Ministry doth appear is To antidote against errours to preserve from giddinesse and wantonnesse in matters of Religion This great effect of the Ministry the Apostle taketh notice of Ephes 4. 14. where it is said God gave gifts to men Apostles and Pastors to his Church that henceforth we be no more children tossed up and down with every wind of dóctrine This implieth that before the Ministry came they were tossed up and down but now it must be no more so This also will speak terrible guilt to some who are fallen off from the wholsom truths of God who have left their own stedfastness being carried away with the errour of the wicked For those who have been preserved and confirmed by the Ministry will be a testimony against such Apostates Lastly The word of God preached though it may not throughly reforme yet it doth sometimes restrain men from sinne Sometimes it maketh them with Felix tremble at other times with Agrippa almost to become a Christian Oh let such remember those times You have felt the word of God like fire in your bowels you have found it to be like a two-edged sword within Know that all those relentings and troubled agonies of soul will be a condemnation one day The Word preached hath more abundantly worked upon you than others though it hath not yet obtained a full and perfect change upon thee Thus you see wheresoever the word of God hath appeared more abundantly in any one particular in that respect the greater is the aggravation of those mens sins who have not thereby been reformed Let us proceed to the Uses And 1. This may aggravate the sinne of all those who are now departed from the Ministry and the Ordinances who are so arrogantly puffed up with a supposed perfection that they think they need not either hear or pray as if all fulness did dwell in them Now to these men we propound this Question How came you at first to that light to that knowledge you have How came you at first out of your prophanenesse Whence was it that your consciences were awakened once Was not all this at first by the Ministry If there be any good in you did you not receive it from these streams of God Why then is it that you depart from us Why is it that you despise what once you imbraced Certainly our Ministry hath had more of Gods power and presence to you-wards then to many ignorant prophane persons but this maketh your sin greater Use 2. To instruct us how inexcusable all they are who live now under Gospel-light and yet are not reclaimed from their evil wayes For though one particular Ministry may have more of life and power than another yet wheresoever Christ is faithfully preached there is the strongest argument that can be used to bring you to God All that do now refuse us preaching refuse Christ speaking from Heaven as the Apostle argueth Heb. 12. 25. This is more than to refuse Moses or the Prophets yea then Angels as Heb. 2. 3. And therefore the Apostle propoundeth this Question How shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and afterwards was confirmed by others God bearing them witnesse by signes and many wonders So that now the things of Religion cannot be more abundantly confirmed to you than they are you are not to expect more powerfull means to convert you than have been used and this will make Hell seven times hotter for all ungodly and prophane persons who are so under these Gospel-dispensations SERM. XCIX Of the convincing Nature of Godliness in Ministers and private Christians 2 COR. 1. 13. For we write no other things unto you then what you read or acknowledge and I trust that you shall acknowledge even to the end THe Apostle having formerly asserted the sincerity and holy simplicity of his conversation and that more abundantly to the Corinthians lest this should be a vain boasting of himself and that in giving testimony of himself that would not be valid or sufficient He doth in this verse appeal to the very consciences of the Corinthians likewise So that not only the testimony of his own conscience but of their consciences also must needs justifie him And indeed this is a good demonstration of that uprightness which is within us when we can appeal to the consciences of others For although men especially such as are prejudiced and alienated from us may suffocate and smother as much as lie in them that they have any such convictions of our integrity yet secretly their consciences cannot but bear witness to us The matter then wherein he doth appeal as it were to their own consciences is set down in the beginning of the verse For we write no other things unto you c. There is one expression in this passage that hath much perplexed Interpreters and made them go different wayes it is that we write no other things unto you then what you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read so we translate it and likewise many others Now this is wondered at by some yea by Calvin accounted Nimis fligidum ne dicam ineptum saith he in loc It is too frigid and absurd to make this the sense I write to you no other things then what you read c. For who doubted of that And how could any man read otherwise than he wrote saith Musculus Estius also doth confess that the rendring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye read did cause great perplexity to Expositors and therefore sheweth that Theophylact when he could not satisfie himself about that sense of the word did runne to another Yet there are learned men that endeavour to make a good sense of it though it be translated Ye read For Beza though he taketh notice of what Calvin saith against it yet followeth this translation and would make this Paul's meaning That he did not write cunningly artificially what they did read in the plain letter of the words that he did write he had no equivocations nor intended any delusions by his words Cajetan in loc he maketh this expression to referre to the former Epistle and also to this part of the second which we are now upon We write no more now then what ye have read formerly Therefore some render it in the preterperfect tense Others they make the general sense to be this Our words and our actions do agree we write no more than what may be read and acknowledged by all Though these interpretations may passe very well yet because the expression is not so full and proper to say We write no other things then what you read I shall rather go with those who say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it many times signifieth to read yet it doth also to take notice of to know to remember c. Indeed I find it not in this sense used in the New Testament but constantly for to read yet Varinus he maketh it to signifie as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To know to call to mind to remember to be convinced of a thing So that the meaning is We write to you no other things then what you know what you remember yea what ye are experimentally convinced of And thus it differeth from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which followeth and signifieth more For a man may know and remember yea and be convinced of many things which yet through some corruption within he will not acknowledge for that is when we do with a ready and willing consent approve and own such a thing The Pharisees were often convinced about Christs Doctrine yet they would not acknowledge it But the Apostle attributeth both these to the Corinthians for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendered Or Erasmus suspects it crept in for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which things Vorstius preferreth that reading which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so paraphraseth If so be you do acknowledge but there is no necessity of this From the words thus explained we observe That a godly convincing life in a Christian especially in a Minister is of special advantage for many excellent effects Every Christian and much more every Minister are by their lives and examples so to convince that others may acknowledge verily God is with them verily the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in them This is no more then what our Saviour expresseth Let your light so shine before men Mat. 5. 16. that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Some make this exhortation given to Christians in the general Others to the Ministers of the Gospel in particular However by this we see that God cannot bear meer titles names and opinions unlesse there be an holy life accompanying of them he saith That they may see your good works not titles not professions not your ceremonious and instituted worship but good works good works then are necessary but such as flow from men enlightned by the Gospel-truth Many mistake about good works not knowing what the nature of them is and then Christ sheweth the end of these good works That they may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven not that they may glorifie you and honour you We are not to do good things for applause and esteem neither doth he say that ye may merit a reward in Heaven Vain-glory and merit with self-confidence are the end why pharisaical men cause their light to shine before others but the Evangelical Christian he doth it That God may be glorified But let us cause the light of this Doctrine also to shine before you And First We are to know That godlinesse and exact holinesse hath a convincing and converting effect with it The sincere practice of it doth awe and conquer the conscience even of the vilest men Godliness is the image of God Now when God created man in that he gave him dominion over all the beasts of the field they stood in awe of him And thus where the image of God is repaired there it hath a convincing work upon the conscience of the
no greater joy than to see my children walk in the truth so 2 Epist Ver. 4. Lastly When they live in accord and Love when they think the same things and speak the same things Phil 2. 2. Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded and let nothing be done through strife and vain glory But these may suffice Use of Instruction How much it lieth a people upon so to live and so to walk that they may rejoyce the Ministers of God To take heed of that ignorance of that Impiety and wickedness which may grieve them and so they shall give an account with heaviness and not with joy at the great Day Though for the present these things are a fable or a scorne to thee yet remember all the Sermons and Admonitions thou hast had all the pains and studies taken for the Salvation of thy soul will one day witness against thee This will make us with sadness and trembling to think what account can we give of such persons at that great Day we that have prayed for you preached to you mourned for you must then be your Accusers we cannot help it The Lord will require your souls at our hands and then must we say O Lord such a sinner and such a sinner we have reproved him we have declared thy will to him but he would have his lusts though he were damned for them he regardeth his sinnes more than heaven and eternal life Let us conclude all with that sad and serious place and oh that it might never out of your heart but be with you sitting and walking rising and going to bed Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that rule over you and submit your selves c. In which Text is much excellent matter but I shall touch at it onely First There is the Sanction and establishment of a Ministry and Pastors over a people For they are commanded to obey such Where are they then that cry down a ministry think it needless at least no Institution of Christ Secondly Here is established the dignity of Ministers partly by their Titles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are Guides Leaders such as are set over you and partly in the duty enjoyned the people which is to obey and submit The first signifieth obedience the other reverence and submission so that they are to yield to the wholesome Counsels of their Pastors and that with honor to them 3. Here is the office of a Pastor to watch for the peoples soules so that if the Honor tempt here is the Duty and danger which may deterr 4. There is the duty of the people as you heard to obey and submit 5. Here is a Reason of it They are to give an account of your soules we are Stewards and to see that one sheep be not lost So that the Ministers office is more dangerous because he must account for himself and many others also which made Chrysostome wonder if any Guide or Officer of a Church could be saved but that he speaketh saith Estius because of the many evil and negligent ones otherwise such as Chrysostome himself would be saved Neither is this Text to discourage good and Faithfull Pastors but rather to comefort them because God will in a special manner be with them and bless their Labours Now the Apostle sheweth that this is a special means to discourage them if by their wickedness people so walk as that they shall render their account with grief For certainly if the more they have converted the greater their accidental joy will be then the more are damned though not by their fault the greater will their grief be And that we might not think it a light matter thus to discourage and grieve a Minister either in his Pastoral labours for their soules as some relate the words or when at the day of Judgment he is to give an account as others he addeth this is not profitable to you that is you will finde the loss of this you will smart for it God will reward them for their Labours though ye be damned Thus God will be avenged for your ingratitude herein But what people think of these things SERM. CIV Of the great changes that will be in the Day of Christs coming 2 COR. 1. 14. In the day of the Lord Jesus VVE now come to consider the time when this mutual rejoycing of Paul and the Corinthians in one another will be most remarkable and that is said to be In the day of the Lord Jesus For although he speaketh in the present tense We are and you are our rejoycing yet that is chiefly to be referred to the last day It is true for the present he had much joy in them and they in him but this was as the gleaning in respect of the Harvest afterwards Beza because the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall be doth render it not in die but ad diem as if the sense were You are kept to be our rejoycing against that day In what sense Paul is called the Corinthians joy or boast you have heard viz. instrumentally not principally Therefore Estius stretcheth too farre more than ordinarily he useth to do when from that expression used by Paul to the Thessalonians 1 Thess 2. 20. Ye are our glory and joy he would justifie their practice in Popery who in their prayers call the Virgin Mary their life and hope For notwithstonding all their subtil distinctions that is to derogate from the Mediatorship of Christ But to our purpose This rejoycing in one another is chiefly to be put forth at the day of Christ And if you ask How can we then rejoyce in any thing but God only Is not the blessednesse of Heaven described by this that we see God that we enjoy him So that to rejoyce in any thing else besides God seemeth to be like desiring a candle when we have the light of the Sunne How can a Minister for example rejoyce in the conversion of such and such persons when he hath an infinite object of joy even God himself to delight in Can any thing be added to that which is infinite To this it is answered that there is an essential and an accidental joy in Heaven The essential one lieth in beholding the face of God to all eternity and this cannot be increased or diminished But then there is an accidental joy which ariseth from particular occasions or motives and though Heaven and eternal happiness doth not consist in this yet it doth accidentally make us to rejoyce in more things Thus the Angels though they do see the face of God and thereby are compleatly happy yet they are said To rejoyce upon the conversion of a sinner And thus the faithfull Pastors of Gods Church the more have been converted by their spiritual labours the greater will their joy accidentally be Not that this degree of joy or glory is merited by any as some have thought for this also is of the
be thus diligent in thy wayes What is it that is set most upon thy heart all the day long For although we cannot continually have actual thoughts upon our chief end yet we are to have an habitual and virtual inclination from whence all is to come that we do Even as a perfect Grammarian speaketh alwayes true Latine from the habit within him though happily he doth not actually think upon every rule in his Grammar In the next place we told you This acting and working for God in our whole life and callings is more eminently to be fulfilled in the Ministers of the Gospel The name of a Bishop is a name of labour and not honour The Ministry is Negotiorum negotium the work of all works which made Paul say Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. All the title and names they have denote diligence labour sollicitude and constant perseverance in the work of the Lord against all the cruel oppositions that the Devil and wicked men do raise against them Hence Timothy is commanded To endure hardship as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. and that he may discharge this faithfully He must not entangle himself in the affairs of the world All which sheweth that in a peculiar manner they are by their Ministry to dispossess Satan of his Kingdom They are clouds to refresh the dry ground and to make it fruitfull They are salt to season those who are corrupted by sinne But you may say What qualification is requisite that both private Christians and Ministers may lay themselves wholly out in their respective wayes for God For though Paul instance here only of his own travails yet the end of this is general and belongs not onely to all Ministers but all Christians We are to do in our way what Paul did in his way We may in the Apostles consider some things as commanded them in their proper personal capacity Some things again as Ministers which belong to all Officers in the Church Some things again as commanded them under the notion of believers and what they do in such a capacity we all are to imitate them in It was not the Apostles duties only to watch and pray to take heed their hearts be not overcharged with the cares of this world to strive to enter in at the streight gate but it is every believers duty we have all the same end though not the same way What Paul aimed at by preaching by travailing from one Countrey to another the very same thing art thou to aim at in thy buying and selling in thy trading from one place to another Now amongst the several qualifications to inable us thereunto there is required 1. A renewed Nature We must be made new creatures else the first stone is not yet laid in this foundation Paul never was busie in this spiritual merchandizing for God till he was converted while some men have their lusts their god others their god others the world their god others honour and greatness their god They cannot but toil and moil go farre and near only to satisfie these spiritual Idols that they worship in their hearts Oh but when God shall make this iron to swim shall convert this earth into fire then he beginneth to improve that first Commandment and to do all things in pursuance thereof even to have no other gods but God alone 2. There is required a publick Affection whereby we preferre Gods glory and the spiritual good of others above all our particular concernments If Paul could even desire to be an Anathema for Israel's spiritual good Rom. 9. 3. How much more then would he readily part with riches honour and his own ease to have procured it When we read in prophane Histories and see how much some of their Worthies have denied their profits pleasures and lusts to promote the publick good we may admire that publick spirit God gave them yet Austin observeth truly That corrupt aims and ends did prevail in all they did How much more then may we behold the glorious work of Gods Spirit upon many Christians in this very particular of giving them publick affections that had rather with Jonah be cast into the Sea then see the Church sink wherein they are If it be our duty To lay down our lives for the brethren 1 Joh. 3. 16. is it any wonder if we do the lesse things for the good of others 3. There must be Heavenly mindednesse Cold doth congregate heterogeneal things together the Earth is an heavy element and falleth downward If therefore a man would be active and diligent for God and his Church he must be of an heavenly frame he must be able to say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and in earth in comparison of thee Psal 73. 25. As fire assimilateth all things into its self Thus doth the godly man endeavour that all his relations may be godly all his friends all the world if it could be Hence it is that every godly man because of this heavenly affection is in some measure though not equal to Paul to say 2 Cor. 11. 28 29. The care of all the Churches is upon me who is weake and I am not weake Who is offended and I burn not It is said to be a kind of proverbial speech in the primitive times If an elect that is a believer hath sinned his neighbour hath sinned implying the great care Christians took of one anothers soul that if any did sinne they were to consider whether other mens sins were not made theirs some way or other Lastly Fervency and zeal is a choise ingredient in this precious ointment If you observe who ever did much in their places for God or his Church you will find they were alwayes men of zeal Hence Rom. 12. 11. you have those duties excellently put together Not slothfull in businesse fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Every Sacrifice must have this fire that it may be offered up to God It is the sluggard that hath this field grown over with briars and thornes want of zeale maketh a man stand like an unprofitable tree that cumbreth the ground It was Paul's zeal made him do and suffer so much for the good of the Church Thus zeal also will inflame thee and make thy heart which naturally is like a cold stone within thee to burn like fire and then as Solomon speaketh in another case It is an impossible to keep in thy godlinesse as to binde up the winde or to conceal the ointment thou bearest about with thee Zeal will make thee work for God speak for God These and the like qualifications will make us put this Doctrine into daily practice viz. To improve all we are and all we have for Gods glory and the good of others Let the Use be To examine our selves in this point Is all we do in reference to God Doe we live and move to glorifie God May we not
Hence it is that the Apostle doth exhort to a full perswasion of minde even in those points that were more controversal and disputeable Rom. 14. 5. How much more then are we to be perswaded fully in our minde concerning those truths that are fundamental and do so immediately concern our Salvation This uncertainty then this Yea and Nay in matters of Faith ariseth from a meer humane faith whereby we are carried out to believe these things upon no better grounds than the Turk doth his Alcoran Education custome and Universality This is the whole reason of our Faith whereas a Divine Faith is wrought by the Spirit of God as the efficient it is that which lifteth up the heart to receive the Word as Gods word Though Men have never such parts and understanding in the sense of the Scripture yet they cannot believe it unless inabled thereunto by the Spirit of God And again Divine Faith hath also a divine Motive the Authority and Testimony of God revealed in the Scripture so that we believe not because man saith so but because it is the Lord that speaketh Thus the Thessalonians chap. 2 13. are commended that they received the Word not as the word of men but as it was indeed the word of God Now then when a mans Faith is wrought by Gods Spirit and established upon Divine Autority then it becomes more immoveable than the Heaven and Earth for as God is alwayes the same his word is alwayes the same so is Divine Faith This then all are to labour for is even a full perswasion in their own minde about the truths of Religion to take heed of inconstancy and instability herein We see the Martyrs could not by any terrible menaces or fair Promises be drawn of from the truths of God they had embraced and was it not because they had a powerfull assurance of the truth of them from Divine Motives such as could not fail 2. In matter of our Conversion and Repentance for our sinnes it is very sad and dreadfull to shew Inconstancy To be Yea and Nay in this respect sometimes to mourn and complain of them and at another time to wallow our selves in the mire again how terrible is this But yet how frequently doth it fall out so what is this but to mock God and dally with our soules In times of afflictions or under quick convictions of Conscience to be then afraid of sin then to bewail sin then to resolve against sin but when this fear is over then to imbrace our Dalilah again There are few sinners but they come under this crime of Inconstancy in this respect for many do not alwayes continue in an obstinate sensless way they finde some thawings and meltings of heart with Pharaoh and therefore cry out that God is righteous and they are sinners and they resolve to let their Lusts go as Pharaoh did the people of Israel but they quickly change their Resolutions again Such therefore as finde these Yeas and Nays these ebbings and flowings let them seriously consider what an high provocation this Inconstancy is of God against their soules This unsteadfastness was often complained of by the Prophets in the people of Israel They were as so many Grashoppers that leap up on high from the ground but then settle on it presently again In their afflictions they cryed out of their Idols they called upon God but then proved like a deceitfull bow and is not this an Epidemical sin What is more ordinary than to be soul-sick to be conscience-smitten under some Sermons or some sad afflictions and fears but in all these things to have Reubens Curse upon their soules unstable like water upon which you make any impression but it receiveth none It s one of Solomons wonderfull things that leave no footsteps to be observed A ship in the Sea none can tell which way it passed Thus it is with many they sin and they repent and they repent and sin insomuch that when you see them overcome with their old lusts and passions would you think they were ever the men that prayed so that resolved so you cannot see the least footsteps of any such Repentance Now that all may be afraid of such lightness and uncertainty it is good to consider these Particulars First If there be reason at any time for thee to look upon thy sinnes as bitter and terrible the same will hold at all times Oh the time hath been when in thy thoughts such sinnes thou hast committed were intolerable the memory of them was as gall and wormewood Thou didst cry out take them away or that the Lord would pardon them Now do but consider Is there not the same reason still to think so Is sin grown any better Is it less damning Is it less sinfull to God then it was formerly Know then sin is not altered that is hath as terrible guilt as ever but thou art changed those convictions those powerfull Operations of the Spirit of God are not happily now upon thee they are witdrawn and thou art left to thy own natural corrupt self Remember then thy self saying The time was no serpent or toad was more odious to me than my sinnes the time was when night and day they were a burden and torment to me but now they grieve me not they trouble me not sin is not changed but I am changed 2. Consider this For thee to sin after such convictions and terrors doth admit of the greater aggravation because it is done against sense and experience of the bitterness thereof it s committed against more experimental and practical knowledg which maketh any sin to be exceeding sinfull Those senseless wicked men who run into all excess of impiety and have no troubles of heart they know not what they do they cannot tell whether it be a bitter and evil thing or no to depart from God They indeed hear the Word of God and the Ministers of God say that though sin be sweet yet at last it will bite like an adder and sting like a serpent they hear them say that the evil of sin is far greater than the evil of any punishment and torment but they think them words only they never had any experience or taste of any sech bitterness But it is otherwise with thee thou hast had wounds in thy heart the terrors of God have fallen upon thee The Law hath appeared in its accusing and condemning power therefore thou art the more inexcusable who wilt run into this fire when thou hast been burnt with it yea with this taste there hath been practical light and experimental knowleg and therefore thy sin is the greater a general knowledg of any thing is but confused and weak in respect of a practical and experimental one Hence wicked men are said not to know God because they have onely a general knowledg they do not practically improve this so as to love God to fear him and obey him If then thou hast been in the
too light and wanting But oh the horrible neglect herein who mattereth what the Scripture saith Who ordereth his life according to that Canon What art thou a drunkard by Scripture a swearer by Scripture Know assuredly that he which learneth not holinesse from the Scripture shall never find comfort from the Scripture that hath precepts as well as promises and without obedience to one we cannot reap any comfort from the other Secondly The other principle of a godly mans but efficiently is the Spirit of God enlightning and sanctifying by the Scripture The Word is the Rule the Spirit of God is the efficient cause The Scripture is like Christs garment the Spirit is the virtue and power of God communicated to the soul thereby Hence are those descriptions of a godly man that he is in the Spirit that he liveth in the Spirit walketh in the Spirit is led by the Spirit which must not be wrested to any immediate Revelations and Enthusiastical motions and thereby opposed to the Word but the Word is subordinate to the Spirit This is the pool wherein the Spirit of God descends and vouchsafeth healing to the soul therewith Now Chrysostome maketh this a great part of Paul's meaning he did not purpose according to the flesh that is he could not dispose of himself and his journeyes to come and go whither he desired because he was wholly at the command of the Spirit to be directed thereby For we read when Paul had a mind to preach the Gospel in some places he was hindered by the Spirit and so could not go but those directions of the Spirit and Revelations were extraordinary and for that present age of the Church and are not now to be expected The Spirit doth now enlighten sanctifie direct and guide us by Scripture-rules And hereupon it is that the godly are said to be led by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit and this should provoke the godly to all holiness Oh is pride from the Spirit of God Is worldliness is envy is passion from the Spirit of God Remember alwayes from what Spirit it is that thou doest things The Apostles thought it a good zeal when they would have fire from Heaven to come and destroy the Samaritans Luk. 9. 55. but Christ rebuked them saying Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of Take heed then thy own Spirit or a deluding spirit be not the principle that moveth thee instead of Gods good Spirit Thus you see the two general Rules that we should order our lives by the Word and the Spirit whatsoever is not according to these is not suitable to Christianity Besides these general principles we may instance in some particulars that a godly man doth walk by and against which he dare not sinne As 1. To keep a good conscience towards God and man Paul professed he exercised himself herein Act. 24. 16. towards God therefore he taketh heed of any thing that may make his heart smite him he had rather have his peace of conscience than all the advantages in the world Hence in all things his Question is Will not this trouble my conscience Will not this disturb the peace of my conscience This is a blessed principle he keepeth close unto And then again in respect of man he keepeth an inoffensive conscience he lieth not he defraudeth not he injureth not he looketh to righteousness as well as Religion his principle is to be holy towards God and just towards man and in following this principle he aboundeth with joy in his heart he liveth chearfully and fruitfully and withall doth awe the hearts of the most desperate enemies to the wayes of God 2. Another principle is To make sure of his ultimate end for which God made him and the necessary means conducing therunto His end is glory and salvation hereafter The necessary means therunto is grace and godlines here while we are in this world so that while other men walk according to their several principles some will be rich some will have their honours others their profits his principle is to be godly here and saved hereafter Hence he giveth all diligence to these two things So that if you ask him Why are you sollicitous Why are you so carefull Why so often in praying so often in hearing It is he saith to obtain grace here and glory hereafter This I must have I dare not live and die without it for want of this principle men have such sluggish and dull affections to heavenly things A third principle is To live and walk with daily expectations of death and the day of judgment as if he heard alwayes that voice sounding in his ears Arise and come to judgement He desireth to have such thoughts of sinne as a man dying as a man arraigned at Gods tribunal would then have Death is certain nothing can exempt him from it and therefore he desireth to die daily to be preparing for these great changes In morte solâ non est fortassis as Austin observed In all things in the world there is a fortasse a may be Thou mayest be a rich thou mayest be a great man but we cannot say It may be thou mayest die it may be the time will come when thou shalt fall into the grave No this is without all doubt hence the godly mans principle is so to live that death and the day of judgement may be no new thing or terrible dreadfull thing to him A fourth principle is To judge sinne the onely or the greatest evil and godlinesse the greatest good If this were a principle in mens hearts to live by what reformed persons should we see every where This principle in thy heart would be like fire there if sinne be thought worse than any evil then poverty shame misery yea and hell it self better be any thing than a sinner How couldst thou give thy self up a servant thereunto Though it were a pleasing sinne a profitable sinne yet because it is a damning sinne thou wouldst runne from it thou wouldst say Oh this sinne though I love it though I am used to it yet it can never be good for me it will be the poison of my soul And then on the other side a godly mans principle is That godlinesse is more worth than all the great and glorious things of the world His soul longeth for it more than silver and gold he thinketh every rich man every great man a miserable man if he be not godly As Rachel cried Give me children else I die so give me godlinesse Lord else I am damned As Abraham did not so much rejoyce in his wealth and outward mercies because he was still childlesse so saith this man It is not earthly comforts Lord but grace that refresheth my heart let me be poor contemned rather than not godly Use of Exhortation To examine what are the principles you walk by There are but these two and they are contrary one to the other the principle
sense would be more properly said to erre if under such impediments it did not represent as it doth First One impediment in the sense is the two long distance of the Object from the eye to instance in this senfe As we judg the Sun less than the earth because of the vaste distance from us so that till a man take Astronomical Instruments and correct Sense by Art he misjudgeth about the Suns magnitude thus is it here When we go to judg of Gods Promises to us or his Church we finde not the truth of them because the wayes of God are too remote from us his thoughts exceed ours as much as the Heavens do the earth Therefore we must necessarily erre till we go to the Scripture that is as it were the Artificial Instrumennt whereby we are able to behold that truth in Gods proceedings which otherwise we could not A Second Impediment is the medium indispositum when the means of seeing is Indisposed as when we look upon a stick in the waters or the Sun through a dark cloud Thus many times when we judg of Gods proceedings according to his Promises we look through False mediums we think according to the Principles that men would do in the world as Luther said We would think that God should destroy Pope and Turk immediately but all this is because we look through an indisposed glass in this particular Lastly The eye cannot judg right of its Object when the visive faculty is disturbed when that is infested with any evil humors Thus the spiritual eyes even of a Godly man are in some measure vitiated and therefore are not able to behold that glory of God in carrying on the Affairs of his Church and by those very wayes which we would think tend to the destruction of the things promised by them he doth fulfill them for the wayes of the Lord are wonderfull to us in making good his Promises and commonly they are fulfilled by those means which seem contrary to them even as he cured the blinde man by mingling spittle with clay which he laid upon his eyes And thus the Godly soul may finde how God is true in spiritual Promises to his soul for he obtaineth comfort through desertions the way to Heaven he findes through Hell yea in sanctifying Grace he cometh to higher Degrees in Grace even by his Failings So true is that of Suarez Aliquando substractio gratiae est ad finem gratiae The end of Grace is accomplished by the gradual substraction and suspension of Grace for a time But I must not inlarge herein Lastly This truth of God is the foundation of all Religion and Godliness For if there were no truth in the Scriptures which are Gods truth if there were no truth in the Promises or Threatnings into what a Chaos and Confusion of wickedness would all men fall There would be no difference between Hell and this World So that Gods Truth is a Foundation of all Piety in these three wayes First The truth of God in his Doctrine delivered to the Church is the foundation yea the Essence and soul of his Church In this it doth differ from Jews Turks and Pagans yea from all Heretical Societies That she hath the truth of God and others not So that as the soulâ— keepeth the body from rottenness and Putrefaction Thus also the truth of God keepeth the Church from being only a Carkase or to have the Name and Title of a Church without the thing it self Secondly The truth of God in his Promises is the great supporter of the hopes of all the Godly By them alone they are enabled to walk with Peter upon the water and sink not because they believe Gods Promises to be true they do therefore renounce all unlawfull Pleasures and Profits they will not leave the fatness and sweetness of them to go to those bryars Thirdly The truth of God in his threatnings That is like a fiery sword to keep them from all evil They know those threatnings are true and that the World and the Devil prove lyars to all those that serve them therefore they awe their hearts with a continuall fear of them And certainly if every wicked man would remember this That Gods threatnings are true they will be made good no wisdome no greatness no power can resist him For how can the stubble withstand the consuming fire this would make them utterly forsake their sinnes But whether thou wilt believe or no Gods Curses will fall upon thee For there is this difference between the Promises and Threatnings The Promises many of them are not made good unto them unless thou do believe believe and thy sinnes are forgiven thee but the threatnings will be made good to thee a prophane sinner whether thou wilt or not Gods Word will have its effect though thou dost desire it might be false SERM. CXVI The personal failings of Ministers are oft cast upon the Ministry it self 2 COR. 1. 18. But as God is true our word toward you was not yea and nay THe next particular considerable is the occasion of that Transition which the Apostle maketh from the word of his Promise in particular to come to them and the word of his Preaching in the general The occasion is from that evill and malevolent Disposition which was in his Adversaries who from any either real or but supposed Imperfections in other things would presently burden his Ministry with it and thereby as much as in them lieth make Paul wholly useless in the Church of God Now because this is the continual stratagem which the Devil useth to make the best Ministry ineffectual and because it is the constant inclination of wicked men to do so therefore I shall pursue this Observation That there is a propensity in wicked and evil minded men to cast all the imperfections of the Ministers of the Gospel upon their Ministry and Doctrine To bring the Truths they Preach either into doubt or disesteem because of some failings yea though they be not real but supposed in their own Imaginations Thus the Adversaries of Paul they did captiously lay hold upon his Promise and failing as they think in that thereby they would render all his Doctrine and Ministry odious that thereby their falshoods and corruptions may have the greater success Thus the wickedness of ungodly men doth constantly bend to this that they may be hardened in their hearts against the Word Preached that they may fortifie themselves with some damnable Principles of others that so the message of the Lord may be rejected Now to illustrate this consider these particulars First That when a Minister either preaches false Doctrine or liveth scandalously or is lazy and negligent in his place then it is lawfull for a people to have an holy and wise zeal against such persons that they may be quickened up to their duties Neither is this to be an enemy to the Office of the Ministry or to endeavour the publique Dishonour of it
with his name as well as his own putting it also before Timotheus He with Barsabas were chosen by the Synodat Jerusalem to distribute the Apostolical letters having this character They were chief among the brethren they were in great eminency and esteem We read also when there was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sharp contention between Barnabas and Paul we see the frailties of the best in this for I cannot approve of those that take the word in a good sense because it is so used Heb. 10. 24. that Paul chose Sylas to be his companion and no wonder he nameth him here in this text for he was a special coadjutor to Paul in the planting of the Gospel at Corinth for you may read Act. 18. 5. how that when Sylas and Timotheus were come to him thither being afore sent for by him it is said Paul was pressed in spirit and testified unto the Jews that Jesus was Christ Paul then took more courage having these Companions and was the more animated to discharge his office so that it was not for modesty as Chrysostome hinteth that Paul doth assume him to this Colleagueship but also because there was need of his help the harvest being great at Corinth there needed many labourers and withall he conjoyneth these himself to shew the harmony and consent that was between him and the other Ministers in preaching of Christ So that from the conjoyning of these with Paul there are three Observations deduceable which shall be briefly dispatched at this time The first is That whereas the Ministerial labour and work is great there needeth the more assistance and help from others Paul himself alone is not able to do all the work that this Church of Corinth doth require and therefore he calleth in other Labourers to assist him therein Hence our Saviour directs us to pray unto God that where there is work for a Ministry suitable Ministers may be sent thither Matth. 9. 37 38. The harvest truly is plenteous and the labourers are few He compareth a people prepared by grace for the Ministry to the harvest now as it is a high degree of lazinesse to be idle in harvest thus it would be inexcusable in the Ministers of God if they should be loitering and sluggish when the souls of people are ready to receivd the good message of the Lord. Two things the Scripture taketh notice of in harvest the joy of harvest and the labour in harvest and both these are to be seen in a people fitted for Ministerial work for Instruction for Reformation There is infinite matter of joy to the people and to the Minister whereas to meet with a people that are like a field of bryars and thorns as Ezekiel did this is wholly discouraging The people may rejoyce because God gave them such a willing mind How many Congregations are there that cannot be called an harvest-field but a wildernesse an heath a dunghill Now it is the meer goodnesse of God that maketh such a difference between Congregations some are a stiff-necked obdurate and prophane people others a willing attentive and a ready people But God makes Congregations as well as persons to differ one from another Then there is joy to a Minister it is comfortable to be plowing and sowing upon fruitfull ground What joy is there to plow and sow upon a rock The same it is to preach to a senslesse and stupid people As there is joy so there is labour none must be a sluggard at that time and truly the people must labour and the Minister must labour and so both joyn together for the bringing of men to Heaven Now because it is such pitty to see a field of corn perish because there cannot any workmen be had to cut it down how much more is it to have a people damned for want of a faithfull and diligent Minister Therefore saith our Saviour Pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send labourers into his harvest It 's Gods harvest it 's his corn and therefore we may the more effectually prevail with him in prayer for this matter And you see here what the title of the Ministers is they are Labourers and labourers in harvest which is the sorest He saith The labourers are few there were many Priests and Scribes but few Labourers Hence though the people lived under their Ministry who read and expounded the Law every day yet because it was done so corruptly our Saviour had compassion on them as sheep without a shepherd So that such as enter upon this work must not dream of ease and idlenesse All the Names the Scripture giveth them denote hard work and labour It is matter of sollicitude and care more than honour and dignity And truly What Minister is there who reading the labours zeal and diligence of Paul in his Ministry may not cry out Oh me adwarf to such a Gyant If no Minister should be saved unlesse he be a Paul what would become of most of us Again they are called Labourers therefore this confuteth the fancies of common people that think the Ministers doth not labour at all that he hath his Maintenance for his ease and idlenesse As if there were no labour but what is bodily the labour of the mind of the heart is greater than that The Labour of a godly Magistrate and of a godly Minister is transcendent to all other Labours Indeed Who is sufficient for these things saith Paul 2 Cor. 2. 16. Men are sufficient for earthly imployments we cannot say Who is able to be a Tradesman to be an Husbandman but we must Who is able to be a Minister So that is a monstrous inconsideratenesse though coming from pride and covetousnesse that the Pope would have all the Churches in the world to be his charge and Bishops but his Curates yea some Bishops Metropolitans and Diocesans they plead to have all the Diocesses to be their charge only not assuming other Pastors in partem sollicitudinis as Cyprian did Even as Ignatius also in his Epistle ad Trallianos calleth Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Bishops But alas if a man be not able to be a Pastor to one Congregation how can he be to many If Paul would have Sylvanus and Timotheus to help in this Church of Corinth how much more doth the Pope and such Metropolitans need assistance As for their distinction of inspection per se vel per alium that will not be made good by the Scripture which commandeth Pastors to have a personal residency and government over their own flock Hence God hath appointed several Officers in the Church and given various gifts that all may be imployed for the good of the Church whereas though Paul was supposed only faulty about his breach of promise yet they charge Sylvanus and Timotheus with the same inconstancy thinking all were alike In the second place we observe That where there is any one real or supposed fault in one Minister people are apt
when an adult person so did God with his Church But then if we come to the Doctrinals we shall finde that the same truths necessary to salvation were in the Old Testament as the New Abraham David and all the Godly were justified by faith in Christ as well as the Believers in the Gospel This indeed is that which the Socinians pertinaciously deny they think that the Godly in the Old Testament did not believe in Christ that this is a peculiar new duty required under the Gospel and never before viz. to believe in Christ But the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews doth admirably open the mysterious signification of those Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices shewing that Christ was represented therein and that it was not the blood of Rams and goats but of Christ that did take away sin Hence Abraham is said to see Christs day and rejoyce 1 Cor. 10. they are said to drink of the spiritual rock which was Christ and Act. 15. 10 11. Peter and the Councel speaking of the yoke laid upon our fathers addeth But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they The Doctrine then of Jesus Christ of the Trinity of eternal Life were in the old Testament as well as the New only more implicitely and obscurely the Old Testament being the New hidden and covered the New being the Old revealed and explained so that the Old and New Testament do not contain old and new Doctrine essentially but gradually as we say the old and new moon not meaning two moons but distinct discoveries of light therein 2. We are to distinguish between progress and growth in the same truth and the alteration or change of truth into errour And truly this is of great consideration for this very particular will obviate all the calumnies of the Papist Let it be granted that the first Reformers did not did not at first view see all the truths of the Christian Religion but that by degrees they had scales fall off from their eyes and some things that at first they thought true or tolerable afterwards they rejected as false and abominable And thus Calvin de scandalis answereth the Papists who calumniate us saying If you had the spirit of God why did ye not see all truth presently Why was it that some things did appear false to you afterwards which did not so at first This saith he is to envy us proficiency in the truth and to expect that the Sun in the morning should shine as gloriously as at noon day So that it is one thing addere aedificium fundamento as Austin calleth it and another thing to make a new Foundation Thus Lyrinensis when he made this Objection To what use are Doctors and Officers of the Church if so be they must only receive the Doctrine delivered and not excogitate new by their own wit He answereth There is profectus but not permutatio allowed a growth but not a change The work of the Ministers of the Gospel is not to finde out new real fundamental truths no more than a new Christ or a new Bible he that cannot see by one Sun would not by twenty and he that will not be convinced by one Bible would not if there were more Yet they are not useless for these Fundamentals they are dayly to confirm to explain to polish and affectionately to improve for Sanctification more and more so that as he saith they must not deliver nova yet they may nova not new things but in a new manner When a childe groweth up into a man he still retaineth his humane nature though there be an increase in his stature but if this childe should grow into a horse or a bear then this would be a change of his species and his naâ—uâ—e Thus the Church and her Officers they are to grow in more light in more knowledg in more faith but still in the same truth whereas if they degenerate into Errors and false Doctrines then the species is altered now it is not hony but gall it is not gold but dross not meat but poyson So that if we see eminent men growing out of those errors and those Superstitions they were once intangled in you must not call this yea and nay but a laudable duty for we see the spirit of God communicating it self by degrees Even as the Sun doth not presently arise to its vertical point so neither doth the spirit of God reveal all things at once It cometh in by degrees he could perfect our understandings even in this life as much as they shall be in heaven so that we shall no longer know in part but he is pleased to work gradually even as he did make the world not in an instant but successively Thus we see he did to the very Apostles they were under his Instruction and Government a good while and yet were ignorant in many particulars till at last he confirmed them from his spirit from above The Protestants then are not guilty of yea and nay though they did not at first dâ—scover all the abominations of Popery Neither may we charge any particular Minister for yea and nay if out of error he proceed to truth if from darkness he attaineth to more light For although many Heretical persons may shrowd themselves under the serious name of new light yet it is plain that both Pastors and people are to grow in new light gradually though not specifically Thus the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 19. commendeth the believers for attending unto the word of God as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-starre arise in their hearts not as if ever they could come to light enough that they need not to attend to Scripture any further that they may throw away the Bible as useless having light enough within them No but that donec that until is continual and alwayes as sometimes it is used 3. We are to distinguish between Yea and Nay indeed and a seeming yea and nay between 〈◊〉 constant new Doctrines indeed and those that are apparently so We grant that such corruptions such darkness may cover the face of the Church that the true Doctrines of Christ may seem new and be condemned for novelllsm and the Doctor who preached them be thought to come with his yea and nay And thus again Luther and Melancthon with many others are condemned for their inconstancy They were once ours say the Papists they did once believe as we believed worship as we worshipped but now they are a nay to their yea This calumny will easily vanish if you distinguish between new things indeed and new things appearingly so The Protestant Doctrine was not new indeed if you look to the Scripture and Christ it is old as they are but then we grant that if we consider the Chaos the Church was in at that time what superstitious abominations did then prevail we grant what the Reformers
them perfect stablish strengthen and settle them The Apostle having before spoken of resisting the Devil and of exspecting afflictions because flesh and blood would soon sinck under these burdens he directeth his prayer unto God for them as knowing if they had no better preservers than themselves they were utterly undone Now although by that multiplication of words the Apostle might seem to mean the same thing yet every word hath its peculiar emphasis for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is used of nets when they are to be mended as Mark 1. 19. and thereby is implyed That the work of Grace which we are as it were weaving every day would quickly be all broken did not the Grace of God constantly restore it It is also used of members and parts of the body when broken and set fast again by the skill of the Chirurgion and thus it supposeth how apt every believer is of himself to break all his grace into pieces did not the power of God daily preserve him It sheweth hereby that there is no such thing as perfection in this life The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sigrifieth firmly to stablish a thing for it is more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which it is derived so that it implyeth God doth as it were bear us up by his hand and support us that we fall not under those temptations we meet with This denoteth the firmness of their condition for although Moses hands did wax weary yet Gods will not The next word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that properly signifieth to confirm inwardly by taking away all that sinful weakness that is apt to arise in us The â—aâ— is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies so to settle as to lay a foundation thus Heb. 1. 10. it is used of Gods laying the foundation of the earth at the beginning denoting that the people of God in the work of Grace have as sure and immoveable a foundation laid as the very heavens and earth have For this confirmation doth much relate to our perseverance that we shall never fall off from that state of savour we are in but that God who hath begun will also finish Hence some contend that these words are to be read in the future tense God will establish and not by way of prayer To amplifie this Doctrine many things are to be taken notice of as First God may be said to establish us two wayes either in the thing it self or else in our knowledge and apprehension These may be separated from each other God doth and will establish his people to their lives end and till they come to the end of their race the greatest temptations and afflictions shall not break their interest in the favour of God but then they may not have certain knowledg they may be tossed up and down with divers fears that they are but hypocrites that they shall never persevere that they shall not be able to hold out to the end Therefore the people of God are to pray for and expect this twofold establishing at Gods hand both that God would preserve the work of grace in their hearts as also assure them hereof and confirm them in a powerfull perswasion of it that is it is in it self sure so it may be to them to which purpose that command is make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not in it self but to their own sense and apprehension and it is of this latter establishing the Text principally speaketh though it necessarily presupposeth the other 2. This effect which God is said to work implyeth what miserable weak and impotent creatures we are as to the work of grace or any assurance by it That as the world cannot enlighten it self if God withdraw the Sun it is wholly in darkness Thus is it with every man though made godly All this spiritual building would fall to the ground again of spiritual thou wouldst become carnal did not God uphold thee and then if thou hadst obtained any assurance about thy condition fears and doubts would presently fill thy heart if God doth not shine into thy soul Thus as the earth without the Heavens would be as it was at first a confused Chaos so is the heart of man without the dayly Influence of Gods grace upon it But this will come in more pertinently upon the next particular in the Division of this Text. 3. We are therefore to consider wherein lieth this establishing work of Gods grace and that doth consist in some things antecedently and something formally by way of intrinsecal constitution For the First Confirmation being properly upon the will and the affections Before this can be done It is necessary that the understanding of a man which is a guide to all the other powers of the soul that it be prepared and formed by God there unto The work of God therefore is to illuminate and inlighten the minde that so thereby the heart of a man may be more settled upon the Promises And for Illumination that doth manifest it self in these Particulars 1. God doth discover unto us our own infirmity and impotency that we are not able in the least measure to confirm our selves We experimentally finde how often purposes and resolutions were upon us to those things that were good how often like Sampson we did suffer our selves to be bound by many obligations and decrees of spirit but alas upon every emergent temptation we did immediately break all again That which Austin did so bitterly complain of in himself viz. the uncertainty and inconstancy of his desires The same may every one finde while left to his own strength It is therefore a special preparatory work of God for our settlement to make us see our own self-emptiness When Peter had confidence of his own spiritual ability in what a sad revolt did it end he that had more than ordinary confidence fell into more than ordinary fear So that it is a great work of God when he fully informeth us that we are nothing and can do nothing Though we have ten thousand Promises set before our eyes yet we are not able to reach forth the hand to lay hold upon any of them 2. Another Object about which we are enlightened preparatorily to our settlement is the acceptableness of the work of Faith That it is his will we should depend wholly upon him that whatsoever burden we feel upon us by our sinnes yet it is the way he taketh delight in that we should wait on him trust in him roll our staggering soules as it were upon him and this is no mean work of God thus to inform and direct a man For what is it that maketh the afflicted sinner for his sinnes be tossed up and down with such fears and doubts is it not because he seeeth nor that it is his duty to cast himself into the armes of Christ he doth
were accustomed to bodily exercises did make much use of it It was necessary to combate and conflict with enemies Thus also it is here all Christians are called to a spiritual wartare and that with principalities and powers in high places as well as with flesh and blood They are continually to put on their armour against all the assaults of the Devil Now this could not be done unlesse we had this oyle this anointing from the Spirit of God In the Spirit of God we are to goe out against all the assaults and temptations of Satan In the name of Christ we are to set upon these Goliahs How many have been overcome in this battel even of Gods own people because they had not this establishing grace ready at hand Doe not thinke to get into Heaven without a sore conflict with Anakims in the way There must be a wildernesse and a red Sea to passe through before thou canst enter into Canaan And therefore for this end have we this anointing whereby we may be the more confirmed and having done all things to stand as it is Ephes 6. 13. What more is to be said to this point will come in upon the other metaphorical termes Therefore let us improve this And First We see what a glorious and excellent title the name of a Christian is for that signifieth as much as one anointed If thou art a Christian in deed as well as in name thou hast this anointing and unction that is here spoken of How farre then are all prophane and wretched sinners from the reality of this name What have they to doe with the name who are so contrary to the thing it self Art thou anointed that smellest of the very flames of hell Thy tongue thy actions doe all discover it There are no sonnes of Boanerges that can thunder terribly enough against such reproaches and dishonours yea blasphemies to the holy name and profession of Christianity Use 2. Of Instruction What is a special preservative against all heresies and damnable opinions even this spiritual unction For that doth not onely illuminate the minde but sanctifie the heart also And if a man have never so much knowledge by education and other meanes if he hath not also this spiritual teaching he is a ready prey for the Devil Onely you must know that this unction is not speedily and in an instant accomplished in the people of God it is successively and by degrees Even as it was with the Lord Christ though he was anointed to be the Lord of his people and he had the right to this even from his Incarnation yet the actual exercise and manifestation of this was not compleated till his Ascension into his glory Thus the spiritual unction of Gods people will not be fully finished till they are made perfect in Heaven And therefore for the present both their knowledge and their graces are but in part which consideration should keepe us from being scandalized if we see that even those believers who yet have all received this unction from God if in things not fundamentall they differ from one another Use 3. Of Exhortation To wicked men to take heed how they persecute or oppose these anointed ones how contemptible and vile they may be in thy eyes it is no matter you see how the Lord hath dignified them he hath set his mark upon them what you doe against them he taketh as done against himselfe they are as the apple of his eye David when but cutting off a piece of Saul's garment was smitten in his heart because he was the Lords anointed yet that was onely an external unction Saul had not the spiritual anointing Do thou therefore take heed of reproaching deriding and persecuting such as God hath anointed with the graces of his Spirit Use 4. Of Admonition to all the Godly that they should doe nothing unsuitably to this anointing Heresies and impieties doe not agree with this excellent composition Thy spiritual ointment is to discover it selfe in all companies in all temptations in all exercises The more precious ointment is stirred the sweeter it smelleth So the more God afflicteth thee chastizeth thee the more he doth pound thee as it were in the mortar the more doth thy preciousnesse manifest thy selfe We reade Matthew 26. 7 13. that when a woman poured an Alabaster box of precious ointment upon Christs head that Christ did so farre encourage her that he said Wheresoever the Gospel should be preached there also should this that the woman had done for a memorial of her And yet when thou confessest Christ in the midst of a wicked generation when thou art ready to part with all for Christ when he requireth it thou doest more for Christ than this woman did Look then to thy self that all thoughts all words and actions favour of this ointment whatsoever is of sinne and lust within thee thinke that is of the dung-hill that is of vomit and filthy mire SERM. CXXXIII Gods People are his sealed ones 2 COR. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us WE come to the second noble Priviledge which the Apostle attributeth to the Corinthians for although we told you the same benefit is represented under three metaphoricall similitudes yet every one of them hath a distinct notion as this of sealing hath from that of anointing though both intend the confirmation and establishment mentioned in the former verse Some Popish Writers would from hence prove their spurious non-instituted Sacraments as by anointing they would have their oylin baptism as also in their extreme unction established and by sealing their Sacrament of Confirmation wherein likewise they use their chrisme and oil blasphemously calling it oleum salutis the oyl of salvation Hence they tell us confirmation is usually called in antiquity signaculum and the obsignation of the holy Ghost bringing this Text for the proof thereof as Vicecomes a great Popish Ritualist lib. 1. 2. de confirmatione would make us beleeve but first this Interpretation confuteth that of Stapleton who limits the interpretation to Ministers only whereas Baptism Confirmation and extreme Unction were applyed to private Christians and secondly they are never yet able to prove any such Sacrament of confirmation as they speak of Indeed in Antiquity there was Confirmation used in the Church of God When persons baptized in their infancy were afterwards by Church-officers called to account about their knowledge and Christian life wherein if approved they were commended by prayer to God for their establishment in the Christian faith against all persecutions and oppositions The use whereof Calvin wisheth were brought again into the Church of God as being advantagious to prevent heresies as also to reprove the carelesnesse and negligence of parents about the education of their children but as for that abominable abuse of this afterwards in Popery making a Sacrament thereof adding thereunto many Popish and ridiculous ceremonies This is a noisome weed not any plant of Gods planting We are therefore to enquire what
speak to this sealing of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of beleevers though in other terms This I have mentioned is pregnant for having said that he who keepeth Gods Commandements dwelleth in him and he in him Whereas it might be said how shall we know that he dwelleth in us May we not be deluded and deceived No saith he hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us and lest any man though living loosely and carnally should pretend to this spirit he saith They that have it keep his Commandements Thus doubtings and sinnefull diffidence is excluded on one hand and all carnal presumption on the other hand The last Text to bring in assistance to this truth shall be 1 John 5. 8 9 10. where the Apostle speaketh of three Witnesses on earth as he had before in heaven viz. water and the bloud and the spirit Now although there be many perplexed controversies about this passage yet I shall pitch upon that which is most probable without further disquieting of you It seemeth to be without doubt that the Apostle alludeth to the legall administrations wherein there was bloud for expiation and water for cleansing by which is represented justification and sanctification and these being wrought in us do evidently witnesse that Jesus is the Christ and Sonne of God We finding these glorious effects upon our souls cannot but acknowledge that Doctrine but because these are not enough of themselves seeing that sanctified and justified persons may be under great discouragements therefore he addeth the Spirit also It is true the same spirit is said to be a witnesse in heaven but that was because of the extraordinary and visible Testimony that it gave to Christ but here it speaketh of the witnesse it giveth on earth and that must be the sealing spoken off in other places for he saith verse 6. It is the spirit that beareth witnesse because the spirit is truth having there also mentioned water and bloud Verse 10. he seith He that beleeveth on the Sonne of God hath the witnesse in himself Thus you see that as God hath abundantly provided for the holinesse of his people by his spirit to quicken them up therein so also for the assurance and consolation of his children to establish them therein Oh how greatly are we indebted unto the Lord Jesus Christ who giveth us his Spirit not only to leade us into the truth and mortifie the deeds of the flesh but also to fill us with comfort and to assure us that we are the children of God So that it is the duty of the Ministers of the Gospel not only to improve the former truth but this also and to presse you upon the sealing work of Gods Spirit as well as the sanctifying Hath not the Spirit of God this Name given it to be called the Comforter John 14. and shall we divide the operations of Gods Spirit minding him as he is an holy spirit but not a comforting Spirit Having thus informed you what the Scripture declareth in this matter I shall give you a large and popular description of the nature of this sealing and the opening of the several parts touched therein will much conduce to the knowledge thereof The sealing of Gods Spirit may be described after this manner It is a supernaturall and gracious work of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of sanctified persons in a secret and unspeakable manner whereby they are confirmed and established in the Covenant of grace as belonging to them in particular by such means which God hath appointed thereunto that through the sence thereof they may daily walk more and more boldly joyfully and thankefully notwithstanding all discouragements to the contrary till they be made compleatly happy in heaven I have made this description the larger because I would take in every particular considerable about it as much as may be And First I give two Qualifications or Adjuncts to this work of Gods Spirit It is supernatural and gracious Supernatural and that if we respect either rectified nature or corrupted nature Rectified nature for Adam in the state of integrity though he was made perfectly holy yet he had not this Gospel-sealing no more then he was in Christ as a Mediatour for had he been thus sealed he would certainly have persevered and although Adam was partaker of the holy Ghost yet it was as he is the third person not as the spirit of Christ viz. purchased by his death for those that are his so that in this respect we may say this sealing is a priviledge above the nature of Adam while considered before his apostacy but then I call it supernaturall chiefly in respect of corrupted nature for as man naturally of himself hath no power to that which is gracious so neither to that which is comfortable and joyfull All the world all Ministers and Angels cannot powr one drop of this assurance and joy into thy soul unlesse the Spirit of God inable thee thereunto As it is supernaturall so it is gracious for this floweth from the former There is nothing in thee to deserve this establishing as Gods grace sanctifying found thee dead in thy sinnes so his sealing and comforting findeth thee in a guilty despairing way and therefore as God might leave every prophane man to wallow in his lusts and so let him perish thus also might he forsake every guilty conscience under the burthen of thy sinnes and suffer thee to be a Cain to be a Judas even to fall from an hell here into an hell hereafter So that not only by grace we are sanctified but by grace we are healed Blesse God for any establishment of soul against fears and doubts as well as for victory against any lusts It is meerly of Free-grace that we are thus sealed In the next place Secondly we have the generall nature of it with the efficient cause The work of Gods Spirit It is true in the Text it is said That God doth seal us and so whatsoever works there are ad extra from God to the creature they are all common to the three Persons yet there is a peculiar order and appropriation which the Scripture taketh notice of So that it is made the work of the Father to send his Sonne into the world It is made the work of the Sonne to offer up himself a Sacrifice for our sinnes And it is made the proper work of Gods Spirit to apply the benefits of Christs death to our souls therefore sanctification is attributed to the Spirit so also consolation and sealing thereunto Thus the Texts we mentioned formerly give all this work to the Spirit of God as in an appropriated manner doing this for us It is not then of our selves or of our own power that we can obtain this priviledge but it is wrought alone by Gods Spirit As we have no free-will to the grace of God so neither to the comforts God as he is called a God of all
the Rock followed the people of Israel in the wildernesse to refresh them this man may say verily God is here verily God is with me Lastly The Spirit of God doth give us Consolation by the antecedent workes of sanctification Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his But the godly they have received the Spirit of God And if the soul which is the spirit of a man manifest it self present in the body by its operations shall we not much rather thinke that the Spirit of Christ where it dwelleth in a man will make knowne it selfe Shall we have these coales of fire in our bosome and not perceive them Now there is an order in the works of Gods Spirit which we also must attend unto and not think to have one before the other The order is this the Spirit of God doth 1. Enlighten the minde 2. It doth sanctifie the will and affections 3. It doth witnesse and seale to us these blessed effects To looke therefore for consolation before sanctification is preposterous Oh how happy is it when the childe of God earnestly seeketh after all these effects upon his soule and that in the order God hath appointed These few qualifications may suffice by these and the like the Spirit of God doth confirme Onely you must know these doe but objectively offer themselves if the Spirit of God doth not rightly constitute our inward man and enable us all these blessed effects may be upon our soules and yet we be disconsolate as if we had them not Even as there may be pleasant flowers in a garden yet if we have not light we cannot see them So that the cause of assurance is more from the Spirit of God efficiently establishing the heart than from these qualifications which doe objectively onely declare themselves Even as in faith dogmatically assenting to divine truths the work of Gods Spirit is more upon the understanding giving firmnesse and stedfast adhesion than upon the motives of credibility in the truths themselves But what is necessary to a fuller clearing of this will upon another occasion be considered I proceed to the last thing in this Description and that is the final cause which is That under the sense of this we might live boldly c. I say under this sense For this sealing of Gods Spirit doth make such a divine impression upon the soule that we feele it and perceive it not indeed bodily as we doe the fire that burneth but rationally and spiritually in our inward man So that not onely grace is from Gods Spirit but the experimental feeling of it is likewise from the same Hence it is not to be called an humane but divine sense For a gracious constitution is required to feele what is grace and to discerne the effects thereof But I hasten This sense and apprehension of Gods sealing being thus experimentally in us we find a three-fold advantage thereby First We walke boldly confidently Insomuch that we can cry Father Ephes 3. 12. We have boldnesse and accesse with confidence There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are able to speake any thing in the presence of God whereas in fears and doubts our prayers are interrupted we question whether we may say this or that Secondly Hereby we walke comfortably Yea it is called Joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1. 8. and Rom. 14. 17. Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The Kingdome of God is there said to consist in this Alas how contrary doe the people of God walke to this Text for want of sealing as if godlinesse lay in doubts in fears and dejections of spirit Surely the people of God are to bewail their ignorance and low principles in these things Thou makest thy self to be like an heir under age as the Apostle alludeth Gal. 4. 1. and so not differing from a servant whereas the Gospel-light and Evangelical principles set home by the Spirit of adoption should fill thee with liberty and exceeding great joy Lastly Hereby we also live thankefully never satisfying our selves with admiring and commending the unspeakable and unsearchable riches of Gods grace Two great gulphs the Spirit of God hath delivered thee out of the sinfull lusts and corruptions thou didst once wallow in and the slavish sad tormenting feares thou wast once almost overwhelmed with Oh what cause is here of thankefullnesse How sorry art thou that thou art no more enlarged That thou hast but one heart and one tongue to be exercised in this matter And the aggravation of all this is that we may be thus bold joyfull and thankfull notwithstanding all discouragements to the contrary for they are many and dreadfull How many failings within How many temptations without What fiery darts from Satan And yet a sealed Christian is able to looke upon these with as much joy as the Israelites did upon the Aegyptian carcasses that lay dead upon the Sea-shore But if God should let open these flood-gates upon the most sanctified person he would be immediately swallowed up with them as Dathan and Abiram were suddenly in the earth And then Lastly You have the terme till which this sealing shall last and that is Till we are made happy compleatly in Heaven So Ephes 4. 30. We are sealed till the day of redemption This way of faith and assurance will then cease it will be turned into the immediate vision and fruition of God Then there will be no feares no doubts any more than lusts and corruptions How mercifull then is God that giveth us such manna in the wildernesse which will cease when we come into Canaan SERM. CXXXVII Whether all the People of God are his Sealed ones 2 COR. 1. 21. Who hath also sealed us THe nature of this sealing being largely described I shall conclude with an answer to that Question Whether all sanctified ones are Gods sealed ones for it might seem to be true of all seeing the Apostle speaketh universally in the person of beleevers who hath sealed us and Eph. 1. 13. those that beleeved were sealed there is no difference made neither are any exempted And not only by Scripture but by the testimony of many learned Protestants it should also seem so especially of such who defined faith to be an assurance for then if no assurance no faith To this purpose Calvin seemeth to speak on this very Text which Stapleten looketh upon as depraving the meaning of the Apostle Whosoever saith Calvin hath not the spirit of God a witnesse within him so that he can say Amen to God calling him to the certain hope of salvation he doth falso Christianum nomen obtendere pretend only to a Christian name not being so indeed To the same sense also in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 2. par 16. Vere fidelis non est c. he is not truly a beleever who is not perswaded with a solid perswasion that God is a propitious and reconciled Father to him whereby he doth promise to