become the Path of Life to them as at several times he declares Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto Thomas I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life And indeed Christ is the Way of Life 1. As he is the Exemplary Cause of it All whom his Father hath foreknown being predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8.29 Wherefore Christ told his Disciples Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also The Life of Christ which he recovered by his Resurrection is the efficacious Pattern or Copy according to which God hath contrived our Life He is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.20 21 22. Hence the Apostle tells us Col. 3.3 that we are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God it is deposited as a Treasure in Christ's hand who is the Trustee to whom our Life is conveyed ad opus usum nostrum for our use and behoof as the Lawyers use to speak he hath Livery and Seisin given of Life on our behalf and so his Life is the Pledge and Path of our Life 2. As Christ is the Way of our Life as he is our Pattern Depositary and Pledge so is he the Way of our Life as the procuring Cause thereof He is the Prince of Life Act. 3.15 the Cause or Authour of eternall Salvation Heb. 5.9 and that many ways First by his Preaching which moved S. Peter to say Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall Life Joh. 6.68 The words saith Christ that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life vers 63. The Preaching of the Law was but the Ministration of Death of the Letter that killed 2 Cor. 3.6 7. but the word of the Gospel is the word of Life Phil. 2.16 Secondly by his Death for so he tells us Joh. 6.51 I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the world And indeed it was for this very cause that as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud so he also took part of the same that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death to wit the Devill and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their Life subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one better rendred by one Righteous deed to wit his Obedience unto Death the free Gift came upon all men unto Sanctification of life That as Sin hath reigned unto Death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternall Life by Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.18 21. His Death procures our Life both removendo Prohibens by taking away the Sting of Death Sin disarming Satan of his Power and by meritoriously purchasing our Life by paying a Price for us Thirdly by his Resurrection whereby he becomes as the First-fruits that sanctifies the rest of the Lump and so obtains Resurrection and Life for those that are Christ's As also he is impowered to give Life upon his Resurrection as himself saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 Hereupon the Apostle argues thus Rom. 5.10 For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Fourthly by his Ascension whereby he is become an High Priest not on Earth but such as is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 He is not as the Priests of the Law who were not suffered to continue by reason of death but continueth for ever and hath an unchangeable Priesthood or a Priesthood that passeth not from one to another being made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless or indissoluble Life and therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost or evermore that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Heb. 7.16 23 24 25. Fifthly He is the Prince of Life or Cause of our Life by shedding forth his Spirit after his being glorified which was as Rivers of living water as his own words import Joh. 7.38 39. This Gift of the Spirit of Christ is that whereby we are born again to a Spiritual Life That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit saith Christ Joh. 3.6 It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6.63 Neither indeed had Christ's Preaching or his Dying availed to bring us to Life had he not given us of his Spirit And therefore herein was the Prerogative of the Gospel above the Law that whereas that gave the Command but could not give the Spirit being a dead Letter by the Ministration of the Spirit or the Law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Christians are made alive 2 Cor. 3.6 The Gospel is become the Ministration of Righteousness vers 9. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.10 11. Sixthly Christ's Appearing shall consummate the Life of a Believer Though he now be dead in Appearance to the World to their Rites Practices Hopes Injoyments and his Life is now onely hid with Christ in God yet when Christ who is his Life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in Glory as the Apostle speaks most comfortably Col. 3.3 4. 2. On our part the Path of Life is 1. In our Union to Christ which is by Faith whereby he is our Head and we are his Members and therefore partakers of his Life I live saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life that I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Joh. 11.25 26. He that believeth on me although he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die The Life of a Christian is conjoyned with Christ's as that of a Child with the Mother's 2. In our Conformity to
your Souls and knocked that he might be let in that he might sup with you and you with him How frequently have the Preachers of the Gospel the Servants of Christ invited you to his Supper to be partakers of that Grace of God which exceeds in worth all the Treasures of the Earth all the Pleasures under the Sun which is of greater Necessity and Advantage then all the Traffick by Land or Sea and yet his Word is not believed Oxen and Farms and Wives yea that which is worse Dalilah's Idols are minded more esteemed then Christ then his Love his Spirit his Kingdome his Righteousness Where is the man that is willing to deny himself his own Contents unjust Gains unclean Affections injurious Projects yea his vain Opinions and to take up Christ's Cross after him Where is he that will suffer I will not say Loss of Life or Goods or Credit with men for Christ but even a Divorce from his Lusts that will forbear a profane ungodly Oath a devillish Revenge or undergoe so much as a Scoff or Reproach that he may follow Christ and be his Disciple If this be not Perverseness in our Ways the Despising of the Lord in the most vilifying way I know not what is I beseech you bethink your selves in good earnest what will be the End of these things Think of that Wisedom Solomon speaks of Prov. 1. v. 22. and so forwards The very reading of it methinks should awaken and affright as many of you as yet persist in your Perverseness and will none of Wisedom's Counsel but despise all its Reproof As therefore you would not be rejected by Christ despised by him in that Day when he shall bid some depart from him into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels deny I beseech you your Vngodliness and worldly Lusts obey the voice of Christ trust in him and he will then receive you and ye shall be where he is Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE SAINTS Future Glory The Twenty-ninth SERMON REVEL vij 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them YOU have here exhibited to your view the most happy and glorious Spectacle which humane spirits are capable of Brave Shows as at Princes Coronations and Marriages do greatly attract the Eyes of men One of the ancient Fathers wished much to see a Roman Triumph in its greatest Glory The Queen of Sheba was so affected with the Glory of Solomon and his Court that she took a great and costly Journey to behold them and was so transported with what she saw and heard that there was no more Spirit in her But I may well say A Greater then Solomon a braver Sight then Solomon's Court or a Roman Triumph is here Here is the God of Glory on his Throne Here the Court of glorious Spirits which are made perfect have their most splendid Robes on and the Ensign of their Victory in their hands that Palma nobilis which carries to God the Offscouring of the Earth and makes them that hid themselves in Dens and Caves of the Earth to be advanced to the Habitation of God in the highest Heavens And therefore this Show is worth your beholding which I shall endeavour to present to you though not in its Splendour yet so as I hope it may raise you up as to an Admiration and Extolling of the Divine Excellency so also to an Imitation of and a Following after those glorious Saints of whom it is said in the Verse before my Text that they came out of great Tribulation and washed their Robes and made them white in the Bloud of the Lamb and in this Verse Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them In which two Verses you have described 1. The Exploits and Estate of these noble Warriours or Combatants on Earth They had a great Fight of Afflictions They wrastled not onely against Flesh and Bloud but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world against Spiritual Wickedness in high or heavenly places And though they had sore Falls yet they washed their Robes and made them white in the Bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony at last they overcame Satan and the World not loving their Lives unto the death This was their gallant Fight of Faith this their glorious Victory over their proud and most treacherous Enemies 2. Their Triumph their Ascent into the Capitol their Reception into Heaven They are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them Their present State there may be seen in these Particulars 1. In the place where they are they do not as they did on Earth wander about in Desarts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the earth but are about the Throne of God Nor are they cloathed with Sheep-skins and Goat-skins but have Royal or Priestly Robes like the Servants of Solomon about his Throne or the Priests in their Garments at the Altar or in the Temple 2. Their Imployment is not to grind in Mills or make Brick under a cruel Pharaoh but like the Priests and Levites at the Temple they day and night serve the Great the Glorious and Blessed Potentate who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords who onely hath Immortality and dwelleth in Light incomprehensible And their Service is the most pleasant and without any Tediousness to wit to praise and magnifie him everlastingly 3. Their Company is not base sordid and vexing Men or malicious and cruel Devils but he that sitteth on the Throne the King of Glory who hath all Beauty and Loveliness who will dwell among them so as to protect them and satisfie them with his Presence I shall not have time to insist upon the description of the Conflict and Atchievement of these Blessed Saints when upon Earth though the particle Therefore referring thither might induce me to consider thereof Nor is it necessary to inquire into the Time of that great Affliction which these are said to come out of I will without limitation of it to one sort of Saints as Martyrs at one time whether in the Ten first great Persecutions under the Pagan Roman Emperours or those under the bloudy Roman Popes by Burnings and most cruel Massacres apply this to all Saints and thence observe 1. That Afflictions Persecutions yea Death do not extinguish the Being of Saints who wash their Robes and make them clean in the Bloud of the Lamb. 2. That when they are removed from Men below they are placed before the Throne of God 3. That there they serve God in his Temple in Heaven perpetually 4. That they have God everlastingly cohabiting with them Of which in their order
as being before his Throne and there serving him for ever Which brings us to the III. OBSERVATION That the Saints serve God in his Temple in Heaven perpetually The Service of a great and gracious Prince though but in the meanest Office about him is an Employment much sought after for the Advantages it brings of Safety free Access Esteem and other Privileges concomitant but to attend him in a higher quality is still more desirable for the Dignity and Nearness of it to such a Majesty David chose rather to be a Door-keeper in the House of God then to be as Haman the great Favourite in the Palace of Shushan with Ahasuerus King of Persia Yet these are but petty and low Advantages in comparison of what accrue by the Service of the Great God who filleth Heaven and Earth Surely it was a Happiness to be a Servant to God though but a Hewer of wood or a Drawer of water for the House of God as the Gibeonites were they were yet far more blessed that dwelt in his House as Priests and Levites to minister before him and to serve at his Altar but it is superlative Happiness to serve God in his Temple in Heaven and to doe this for ever without any intermission especially when the Service is no other then Service of Gratitude and Praising of the Great Creatour and Benefactour of the world even him who is Optimus as well as Maximus the Best of Beings as well as the Greatest even him who is the Father of Lights from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh in whom is no Variableness nor shadow of turning They that are still praising God on Earth are blessed Psal 84.4 As all God's Works do praise the Lord so his Saints do bless him they shew forth the Glory of his Kingdom and talk of his Power Psalm 145.10 11. Much more joyous and blessed a thing is it when the great Consort of Heaven do there perpetually sound forth the high Praises of their God where they have nothing else to doe but to sing Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever where this New Song is sung with the best Musick of Heaven concerning the Lord Jesus Thou art worthy of all Benediction for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and where with a loud voice with the greatest Shout of Angels and glorified Saints this Acknowledgment is echoed forth Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisedom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing Oh how glad are men to tell of the Good they have received by such and such Benefactours If a gracious Prince hath but admitted them to kiss his Hands hath deigned to speak kindly to them to promise them Preferment at Court how do men like Haman tell their Wives and Friends of it with rejoycing how highly do they esteem themselves what Regard do they expect from others how do they please themselves in the expectation of his Performance how thankfully do they receive any Intelligence of him any Message from him And yet it often falls out that Princes Favourites be as a wise Heathen said like Counters which one day stand for pounds another day are of no value So that perhaps whom they magnified to day him they will curse to morrow whom they gloried in one day him they are displeased at the next It is otherwise with the Saints in Heaven then with Courtiers on Earth Once in God's Favour and they never lose it They have no fear of Frowns when once before him in his Temple they have no occasion of Dislike at any of his Looks or Speeches There is all Serenity of Aspect Entertainment with perfect Friendship matter of eternal Love everlasting Preferment And therefore with the greatest Freeness and Chearfulness without Intermission or Weariness the Saints do serve God in their Hymns in Heaven and that in his Presence for he that sitteth on the Throne doth dwell among them Which was my last Observation and is now to be considered as the Top of all their Happiness securing it from all Loss Disturbance or Diminution IV. OBSERVATION That the Saints have God everlastingly cohabiting with them Among the Promises and Preferments which are by God bestowed on his Servants this is the chiefest That as they are his Jewells a peculiar people to him are as lively Stones built up a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to him by Jesus Christ so they become the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my People 2 Cor. 6.16 The Presence of God is counted so necessary to his People that Moses had rather stay in the vast howling Wilderness among fiery stinging Serpents then goe onward toward Canaan without it Exod. 33.15 On the other side the Psalmist professeth that though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death he would fear no evill because God was with him his Rod and his Staff did comfort him Psal 23.4 And indeed the chiefest Joy of Christians as well as Safety is in God's Company When God hides his Face the holiest Souls are troubled Satan affrights them the men of the World vex them their own Consciences bring their Sins to remembrance and cause Gripings and Pain in their very Bowells But when God returns when all the Clouds and Storms are dispersed Blessed saith the Psalmist is the people that know the joyfull sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy Countenance Psal 89.15 How much do Holy Saints here disquiet themselves by reason of their Cohabitation with profane and unrighteous persons When they are forced to dwell with them that are Enemies they are as a Sword in their bones when reproachfully they say daily to them Where is thy God How do they long for the Christian Society of sincere Believers and heavenly-minded Christians But their chief Prayer is Lord lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Their Soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall we come and appear before God A wise and single-hearted Companion is justly valued as a most precious Jewell As Ointment and Perfume rejoyce the Heart so doth such Acquaintance a man's Spirit But the best of men are imperfect the purest Churches have their Spots Christ's own Disciples had a Judas with them They are not quite free from Satan's Haunts till they be where Christ is But when they behold his Glory are in the Company of the Lamb where he is are in the House where their Father in Heaven dwells have him dwelling with them so as that they behold his Face and are in his Hand then they are filled with everlasting Joy
abundantly satisfied with the Bread of Life drink of the River of his Pleasures with whom is the Fountain of Life and in his Light they see Light they find in God's Presence there is Fulness of Joy and at his right hand Pleasures for evermore APPLICATION And thus have I presented unto you a Shadow of that most desirable Light which is the Inheritance of all the Saints A comprehensive View of which is not attainable except there be afforded such a Sight as was to the Three Disciples at Christ's Transfiguration in the Mount or to S. Paul at his Rapture into Paradise till we be absent from the Body and present with the Lord and then we shall behold his Face in Righteousness and when we awake shall be satisfied with his Likeness In the mean time while we walk by Faith and not by Sight let us be such in our Choice in our Affections in our Endeavours as the Saints have been with Patience waiting for what we see not and running so as that we may attain it This will be our Comfort our Support when we come to the end of our Race that we have not run for a corruptible Crown but an incorruptible that we have not contended for an Earthly Portion with the men of this World but for an Inheritance laid up in Heaven for us that we have as the Saints have done parted with all to buy this Pearl laid up our Treasure not in Earth but in Heaven negotiated to be rich towards God and not to have Treasure here onely for our selves You that would be before the Throne of God must wash your Robes in the Bloud of the Lamb keep your Garments clean have your Conversation such as becometh the Gospel you must cast off the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light walk honestly or decently as in the day as Children of Light not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envying but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Dream not that you can serve Sin here and yet serve God before his Throne in his Temple that God will walk with you and dwell with you if you yield your Members as Weapons of Vnrighteousness unto Sin that if you affect the Ways of Sinners walk in the Counsel of the Vngodly sit in the Seat of the Scornfull and joyn with the Congregation of Evil-doers you shall at last have your Portion with the Saints Apply then your time and studies and abilities to purifie your selves as God is pure if you hope to see him as he is And notwithstanding all the Sufferings and Opposition you may meet with with Patience possess your Souls Let this animate and strengthen your Hearts against Fainting and Backsliding that if you suffer with Christ you shall also reign with him Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE PATRIARCH'S JOY The Thirtieth SERMON JOHN viij 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad AMong other Sufferings which Christ underwent the Antilogy that is the Contradiction of Sinners the Controversie which he had with cavilling and perverse Opponents or Disputers against his Sayings was not the least which therefore Heb. 12.3 is propounded to us to analogize that is consider and ponder upon that we may not faint or be tired in our spirits when we meet with such wrangling Gainsayers In this Chapter we have a Specimen of such Sophistry in the Jews who exercised Christ with their perverse Arguings to the intent they might hinder the Reception of his Testimony of himself and the Doctrine which he was sent to teach them which he terms the Truth vers 32. that would make them free This they disdainfully except against as glorying that they were Abraham's Seed never in Bondage and therefore scorned his offer of Freedom To both which our Saviour replies refuting their vain Brags of their being Abraham's Seed and free in reference to men sith they were the Servants of Sin and utterly unlike to Abraham in their Spirits who was far otherwise affected towards him then they were For saith he Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad whereas my Day is that which you spurn against as galling and vexing your Spirits To understand which it is requisite that I unfold 1. What is meant by Christ's Day 2. How Abraham is said to be their Father whereas vers 39. Christ had said If ye were Abraham's Children ye would doe the works of Abraham which imports they were not 3. How Abraham is said to have rejoyced to see Christ's Day 4. How it was true that he saw it 5. What matter of Rejoycing this was to him and how he was glad in such seeing 1. Concerning the First It is agreed on by most that the Day of Christ here is meant of his Advent or Coming in the Flesh which we at present celebrate Though some refer it more specially to his Passion or Suffering But the Jews understood it of his Birth and the Space of his Life on Earth which usually is termed a Man's Day in the Hebrew expression and in respect of Christ the Days of his flesh Heb. 5.7 2. As for the Second He terms Abraham their Father as they gloried by way of Concession acknowledging them vers 37. to be Abraham's Seed by natural Generation But yet he denies them to be Abraham's Seed in respect of their Minds and Spirits there being so great a Dissimilitude and Contrariety betwixt them and him therein that they were more truly begotten of the Devil whom in Lying and Cruelty they so much resembled 3. As for the Third The word rendred Rejoycing signifies such a Joy as is accompanied with Leaping or other Gesticulation as when a man is superlatively affected with a thing which he hopes for hath some tidings and assurance of its futurity and apprehends it as a Beatitude And it is conceived Abraham thus rejoyced when upon God's Promise of Sarah's Conception and the Blessing consequent thereupon wherein Christ's Coming was included he fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart Shall a Child be born unto him that is an hundred years old and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear Which was spoken by him not dubitativè by way of Doubting for the contrary is asserted Rom. 4.16 17 18 19 20. but out of Admiration as over-joyed at the news So it is said of John Baptist in the Womb that at the presence of Christ's Mother and her Salutation the Babe leaped or skipped in exultation for Joy in the Womb of his Mother 4. As for the Fourth Quaere It is true there be that understand the Seeing of Abraham of his beholding of Christ when with two Angels he appeared to Abraham in a Humane shape and Abraham saw him eat and talked with him as with the Judge of all the Earth which was
man's Heart did entertain his Motions embrace his Suggestions Sin could not be engendred by them So that in vain doth the corrupt spirit of a man accuse things or persons without himself as the Authours or Causes of his sinfull Evils the Judge of Heaven will lay it at his own door and endite him as guilty of the Crime And so do all wise and holy persons We all do fade as a leaf and our Iniquities like the wind have taken us away Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned Isa 64.5 6. Nor do they lessen the Fault but aggravate it as David doth here which was the Second thing observable in an humble Penitent II. OBSERVATION The Penitent Sinner makes not a light matter of his Sin but acknowledgeth the Grievousness of it This is manifest by all the Examples of humble Penitents in the Scripture We have sinned saith holy Daniel Dan. 9.5 and have committed Iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments And holy Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our Iniquities are increased over our heads and our Trespass is grown up unto the Heavens Thus when the justified Publican prays he dares not lift up his eyes to Heaven but smites on his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner And S. Paul censures himself as the chief of Sinners for those Sins he committed in Ignorance and Unbelief He knows that God sees more evil in his Sins then he himself can discern that Sins are not to be censured according to mens estimation but God's most pure Law and righteous Judgment that God is of purer eyes then to behold Evil and that he cannot look on Iniquity with the least approbation or connivence that what is highly prized in mens eyes or made a venial Sin by men is counted a foul Abomination with God that the least Sin is against an Infinite Majesty and cost no less then the Bloud of the Son of God to expiate it that there is no Venial Sin in its own nature to say Raca Thou fool to our Brother makes a man liable to Hell-fire that every Sin is of the Devil who sinned from the beginning that the wages of Sin every Sin is Death even that Death which is opposite to everlasting Life Hence it is that David makes not a small matter of the Sins of his youth but prays God not to remember them and Job complaineth that God wrote bitter things against him and made him to possess the Sins of his youth And Christ makes idle words such as that for them men are to be accountable at the day of Judgment Popish Doctrine of Venial Sins Resolutions of Cases of Conscience after Popish Casuists Dictates are not found in the expressions of Scripture-Penitents much less Pharisaicall Vauntings of Self-righteousness or Monkish Ostentation of their own Merits or Quakers Opinions of Innocency and Perfection but Acknowledgment of their Transgressions and Sins with the hainous Degree and Circumstances of them Which was David's profession here and is an instance of an humble Penitent's practice III. OBSERVATION He freely confesseth and acknowledgeth his Sin at least to God and sometimes to men Though David often professeth his Innocency in respect of the Criminations which were cast upon him in Saul's Court as if he had conspired against him though he alledge his Integrity before God as being upright in heart in promoting God's Worship not going after any other gods but in the choice of his Soul preferring the Observance of God's Laws before any Ends of his own yet he still acknowledgeth his Sins to God without any arrogant vaunting of Perfection or opinion of unspotted Holiness I acknowledge my Sin unto thee and mine Iniquity have I not hid saith he Psalm 32.5 And holy Job although he could not be beaten out of his hold the conscience of his Integrity before God and his Innocence from any Oppression of men with which his Antagonists charged him yet disclaims the Covering of his Transgressions as Adam by hiding his Iniquity in his bosome Job 31.33 And Chap. 7.20 he bespeaks God thus I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou Preserver of men And again Chap. 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth All Holy persons do subscribe to that of Bildad Job 25.4 5 6. that in comparison of God in his sight no man living can be justified How can he be clean that is born of a woman They know that God searcheth the Heart discerns the windings and turnings of their deceitfull Hearts that they have secret Sins which neither other men nor themselves perceive S. Paul once conceived himself touching the Righteousness of the Law blameless while he was ignorant of its Spirituality he observed not how the Law forbade Coveting the very first Motions of Lust But when he knew how holy and perfect the Law was how imperfect he was when he found a Law in his Members rebelling against the Law of his Mind and leading him into captivity to the Law of Sin which was in his Members he then cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. Such is the Affection of the most inlightned Saints who have been best acquainted with God's Purity the Perfection of his Law their own Impurity and the Defect in their ways that they have always cried out of themselves as the Lepers in the Law We are unclean we are unclean In their Supplications to God they have bemoaned their sinfull Thoughts their most hidden Transgressions yea in their Transgressions against men when doing right to them and giving glory to God hath required it they have not stuck in full Congregations to confess their Errours and to bewail their Transgressions Which thing hath been always necessary 1. To justifie God in his Sentence and Judgments that he might be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged as it is in the next verse to my Text. 2. To abase Man that he may lie prostrate at his feet and not proudly lift up his head before God Both which Ends are discernible in that humble Confession of Daniel and his speech to God Dan. 9.7 O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us Confusion of faces because of our Trespass committed against thee For which Ends as God sets our Iniquities before us so the humble Penitent always sets his Sins before his face as David did here IV. OBSERVATION He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sins are ever before him There is indeed a setting our Iniquities before our faces which is pernicious when we look upon our Sins as of so horrid a Guilt that they are unpardonable as when Cain told God Gen. 4.13 My Punishment is greater then I can bear or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it may be
and Power of God in his proceedings concerning it S. Paul in this Epistle written to the greatest and most intelligent People of the Gentiles declares both the extreme Corruptions of the whole World and the Wrath of God impendent on them for that reason as also the unparallel'd Longanimity of God in bearing with such a provoking Generation whom Hell had long waited for and especially the incomprehensible Philanthropy or Loving-kindness of God towards men whom though Enemies though weak to resist him he not onely spareth but also reconcileth to himself by the Bloud of his own Son and proclaimeth his free Pardon to all that receive him by his Apostles But lest Mercy abused should inflame the Wrath of God so much the more lest the sweetest Meat undigested through a Surfeit should be putrefied in the Stomach and turn to the most deadly Poison he in this and the following Chapters warns us of the ill Inference which men may make from so great Goodness and he begins at the words now read unto you What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid In which words are two Questions the former whereof is onely a form of Transition propounding it to the consideration of those to whom he writes that they with him should bethink themselves what Determination to make upon his former Declaration What shall we say then If this be the state of affairs between God and us it concerns us to heed what thereupon we resolve to doe The other Question is more particular Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound Shall this be the Inference we make from it The Answer is negative Absit God forbid Let no so absurd so unworthy an Abuse of so rich Mercy be yielded to though it be never so plausibly urged by our carnal Reason and our corrupt Affections would incline us to embrace the Motion In this passage of Scripture these following Conclusions are couched 1. That God's dealing with Sinners according to the Gospel of Christ is out of his abundant Grace 2. That the corrupt Heart of man is apt thereupon to harden it self by Continuance in Sin 3. That such a Determination is a most foolish and pernicious Abuse of God's superabundant Grace Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That God's dealing with Sinners according to the Gospel of Christ is out of his abundant Grace That abundant Grace which is here supposed is the same with that which he speaks of Rom. 5.20 21. Moreover the Law entred that the Offence might abound but where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Which elsewhere Ephes 1.7 he terms the Riches of his Grace In whom we have Redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace And Eph. 2.4 5 7. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sins hath quickened us together with Christ That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his Kindness towards us through Christ Jesus And Eph. 3.8 it is termed the unsearchable Riches of Christ All which Expressions are true without an Excess of speech if we consider either the State of mankind antecedent to the exhibition of this Grace or the Effects thereof or the Means of exhibiting it For what more deplorable Condition except that of Devils could the World be in then it was in before the exhibiting of the Divine Evangelical Grace of Christ to the sons of men They had all sinned and came short of the Glory of God they were concluded as Malefactours condemned under Sin under the Curse of the Law dead in Trespasses and Sins they were alienated from the Life that is in God Enemies in their minds by wicked works foolish disobedient serving divers Lusts hatefull and hating one another children of Disobedience of Darkness who walked after the course of the Prince of the power of the Air they were carried away after dumb Idols were Vassals of Satan and children of Wrath by nature And yet even to such did the Loving-kindness of God towards Man appear so as to reconcile the world unto himself not imputing their Trespasses to them He made him to be Sin for us who knew no Sin that we might be made his Righteousness in him and committed the Ministry of Reconciliation to chosen Vessels which might bear his Name to the Gentiles and bring Light and Salvation to such persons It was no small Testimony of his Goodness that even then when they were such when they walked in their own ways he gave them Rain from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness that he caused his Sun to shine upon such unjust people as were both Jews and Gentiles The former of which were degenerated from the Integrity of Abraham and though claiming the privilege of his Children yet in reality were of their Father the Devil whose works they did except a few names that waited for the Consolation of Israel the rest of them were a Generation of Vipers full of Hypocrisie and Cruelty Unpeaceable Ambitious seeking the Praise of men not the Honour that cometh of God such as would compass sea and land to make one Proselyte and having wone him to them made him twofold more the child of Hell then themselves The other were filled with all Vnrighteousness Fornication Wickedness Covetousness Maliciousness full of Envy Murther Debate Deceit Malignity Whisperers Backbiters Haters of God despightfull proud Boasters Inventers of evil things disobedient to Parents without Vnderstanding Covenant-breakers without natural Affection implacable unmercifull Rom. 1.29 30 31. Yet even such as these he washed he sanctified he justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by his Spirit It might rather have been expected that he should have repented that he had made them and have executed his Wrath on them as he did on the world of the ungodly in Noah's time by a Deluge of water to wash away from the Earth that Dunghill and filth of evil Imaginations and wicked Works that had polluted the whole Earth or should have rained Fire and brimstone from Heaven to burn up and so to take away those unclean Sodomites those brutish Dogs and Swine which filled the World He might justly have caused the Earth to open its mouth and swallow up the Inhabitants of the world so as that they should go down quick into Hell as it did the Families of Korah Dathan and Abiram He might have sworn in his Wrath as he did concerning the Rebellious Israelites that they should never enter into his Rest They and we in all Generations succeeding might have expected to suffer the Vengeance of eternal fire But O Altitudo O the depth of the riches both of the Wisedom and Knowledge and Love of God! how
him and hide him from the Face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb For the great day of his Wrath is come and who is able to stand Rev. 6.16 17. Now then Deliverance from Death must needs deserve Praise and Thanksgiving Deliverance from the greatest Evil should be received with the greatest Gratitude Deliverance from natural Death causeth Holy persons to bless God but Deliverance from Sin the cause of Death from the Wrath to come eternal Death much more This makes the Deliverance most compleat and the Thankfulness should be most ample To which is to be added 2. That the Deliverance is by God it is He that delivers the Soul from Death Now what comes from God's hand is most acceptable to them that love God A Deliverance from Death by a man doth ingage our Affections to him we think our selves obliged to him while we live who hath preserved our Life especially if he be a person of great Quality To have our Lives saved by the King whom we had provoked to be pardoned our Treason exceedingly heightens our valuation of the Benefit There is much more cause to magnifie the Goodness of God who saves his people from Death by pardoning of their Sins by advancing them to Nearness with himself who so saves from Death temporal as to give Life eternal Behold saith Hezekiah Isa 38.17 for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back The Forgiveness of Sins which occasioned Death is a greater Benefit then the prolonging of Life And then it is Happiness accumulated to the height when there is not onely length of days on Earth but eternal Life in Heaven conferred upon the saved Bless the Lord O my Soul saith David Psal 103.1 2 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thy Diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies All which Mercies are the more joyfull to the believing Soul because they are not so much the fruit of our Prayers as of God's free Grace in Christ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so loved the World the sinfull World even when they were Enemies to him that he gave his onely-begotten Son to death even the death of the Cross that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life This Deliverance from Death proceeding from God's special Love that great Love wherewith he loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins quickening us together with Christ saving us by Grace is that which makes it incomprehensibly welcome and encourageth the Soul to expect farther Preservation as David doth here which brings me to the Second Part of my Text now to be handled viz. II. David's Postulation Wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling The Expression seems to be expostulatory but is to be conceived to include a Petition He demands of God Wilt thou not c not as one that challenged it as his due desert but as assured of the Continuance of God's Goodness He deprehends in God a Fountain of Love which is still running over flowing down in farther Streams of saving Mercy We have an exact and ample Paraphrase upon the words of my Text in that passage Psal 36. from vers 5. to the end where having set out the Wickedness of men and his own Danger he breaks forth in extolling God's Goodness in an assurance of a constant Current of Mercies and then is instant with God for the Continuance of his Preservation This part of my Text is a most precious passage of great Use for your Meditation in times of Danger by reason of Pestilence or War and it shews this to be the customary practice of Holy persons to gather Arguments of Assurance of future Help from God from their experience of his former gracious Deliverances So did David 1 Sam. 17.37 when he was to fight wïth Goliah he argued thus The Lord that delivered me out of the Paw of the Lion and of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And after him S. Paul 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver In his former Deliverance he perceived the Power of God that he could deliver from Death he deprehends his watchfulness over him in the Continuance of his Deliverance his Love to him and Care of him which confirms him in the expectation of farther Help for the future As they say all Vertues are concatenate in Prudence so all Mercies are linked together in God's Love and Care of his Servants And indeed so the Apostle inferrs Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things He that preserves our Lives will keep our Feet Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not also deliver my Feet from falling Surely thou wilt But then this Deliverance must be sought for at his hands which is also implied in this Expression When Christ cured the lame Cripple he bade him take up his bed and walk God when he saves our Life from death expects that we should walk before him Our Life is a Pilgrimage we walk from one Stage of it to another as the Sun runs its course so doth Man The Emanations of our Minds the Actions of our Members are our Steps If we walk not uprightly if we heed not what we think what we speak what we act our Feet will quickly fall first into Sin and then into Mischief The Psalmist Psal 73.2 tells us out of his experience of himself that his Feet were almost gone his Steps had well-nigh slipt He had stumbled at the Stumbling-stone to wit the Prosperity of the Wicked This begat Envy in him and that drew him on to a kind of Affection to their ways to a condemning of his own Course and offending against the generation of God's Children And had not God mercifully caught him when he was falling by directing him to the Sanctuary of God where he might see the End of the wicked that however they stood on smooth yet they were but slippery places they walked on Ice which would suddenly break under them and then they would sink for ever he had certainly perished Therefore he recovers himself and applies himself to God vers 23 24. and stays himself on the Manutenentia Divina Thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou wilt guide me with thy Counsel and after receive me to Glory As for me saith he in another Psalm 41.12 thou upholdest
stand not your own Good works or your own Merits As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the Faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with Thanksgiving as the Apostle exhorteth Colos 2.6 7. Still pray that God would keep your Feet from falling and order your Steps in his Word that no Iniquity get dominion over you And then you may with assurance say I shall not die but live and declare the Works of the Lord and you shall obtain David's desire to walk before God in the light of the living But sure we walk contrary to God in the Darkness of this World else why is it that God hath called to contend against us by Fire It was not long agoe that we rejoyced because we had prevailed upon the Waters and now the Scene is altered and we mourn because the Fire hath prevailed upon our houses at Land Sure we rejoyced not with trembling we were sensible of God's Hand on others but not sensible we deserved his Indignation on our selves God warned us by Signs in the Heavens but we amended not he sent the Pestilence but we reformed not we were embroiled in War but nothing bettered Preachers cried out against our Sins but we cried not to God for Pardon the Lord's voice cried to the City but we were not men of wisedom to see his Name Our Sins cried to Heaven for Vengeance and the Lord's Vengeance hath from Heaven fallen upon us We observed days of Fasting formally but did not really repent in Dust and Ashes and now God hath really reduced our Great City unto Dust and turned it into Ashes Hath not God by his Judgment resembling that of Sodom pointed out the Sins which procured this Judgment Pride Fulness of bread abundance of Idleness not strengthening the hands of the poor and needy Wantonness and Unrighteousness Were not the Souls of many as Lot's in Sodom vexed from day to day in hearing and seeing mens unrighteous deeds and wicked conversation perhaps having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it But are we better then they Are we not all under Sin liable to the same Condemnation We may we ought to bemoan the Calamity which is come on others The lifting up of God's Hand should affright us the Blow of his Hand on our Brethren should afflict us We out of Sympathy with them out of Dread of God's Anger should bewail the Burning which the Lord hath kindled Jeremiah's Lamentations are sutable to this Occasion We may take up those Wailings Alas Alas our great Neighbour City is burnt in a short time is her Judgment come But that which most befits us which is most likely to benefit us and them is to be affected with God's Visitation to look upon this as a Forerunner of a greater Fire magnum futuri Judicii Praeindicium an Example of the Vengeance of eternal Fire Let us be awakened by it out of our Security as considering that we have the like Sins and may expect the like Punishment that God's Burning there is our Warning here that however it were in respect of men yet in respect of God it is as a Beacon fired to alarm us that we may prepare to meet our God by Fasting and Prayer and Amendment of life lest if we repent not we likewise perish It becomes us not to be Censurers of others but to judge our selves that we be not judged we must not insult over them but pity them If we have our Houses spared it is that we may receive them that are destitute if our Goods be preserved it is that their Wants may be supplied In a word we should take heed of Edom's Sin who rejoyced in the day of Jerusalem's Calamity take heed of promising to our selves increase of Trade or other worldly Advantages most of all take heed of Flattering our selves as if we were better more safe more in God's Favour then they Let us rather fear God's Judgments tremble at his Word search our own ways turn unto the Lord with our whole Souls pray for them that have suffered help them what we can that their Breach may be repaired our Tranquillity may be lengthened and our Souls delivered from the Wrath to come Which the Lord vouchsafe for his Son's sake Amen LAVS DEO DAVID's PIOUS RESOLUTION Part II. The Sixteenth SERMON PSAL. lvi 13. That I may walk before God in the light of the living AS God is the Alpha the Beginning of all things so he is the Omega or End of all things as he is the Father of Lights from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh so should he be the Scope of our Lives as he was here of David's according to the last Particular observed in this Text of Scripture viz. III. The Aim and End of David in his Commemoration and Postulation That I may walk before thee in the light of the living To this End he both commemorates what God had already done for him in delivering his Soul from Death and petitions with expectation of speeding that he would yet doe more for him in keeping his Feet from falling He doth not desire this Stability of his Feet that he might sit still or sluggishly keep his Bed or lie on his Couch but that he might walk Walking naturally is a progressive motion of the Body from one place to another performed by the Feet with the help and direction of the Eyes for the acquiring or effecting something And it connotes a Way in which a person is to walls and a Terminus ad quem to which it tends By this Metaphor of Walking the Scripture understands the Motions of the Mind and Actings of the Members as they are subject to a Rule which is the Way in which a person walks If it be right it is God's Law if it be wrong it is the Devices of mens own Minds the way of a man 's own Heart or the Course of the World or the Wiles of Satan which are mentioned as the crooked ways men walk in Eph. 2.2 3. All these are ways of Darkness wherein men depart from God and walk after Satan But David's Aim is to walk before God in the light of the living Walking before God here denotes not onely a doing or thinking so as that the Action or Thought would still be in God's presence as if David meant no more then this that God would see him or his Walk would be in his sight whether he would or no But it means also such a Walking before God as to eye his presence what-ever he should doe or think with an aim to please him And therefore walking before God is rendred often pleasing God as when it is said Gen. 5.24 Enoch walked with God in the Greek it is Enoch pleased God which the Authour to the Hebrews follows Heb. 11.5 Enoch before his Translation had this Testimony that he pleased God And so it notes not onely his apprehension of God's
his Will before the supplying of our Bread the Remission of our Sins or our Deliverance from the Evil one's Temptations from the Exceptions God takes against them that built themselves cieled houses when God's House lay waste them that had in their flock a male and vowed to the Lord a corrupt thing from his punishing such Slighting of him and asserting his Regal Majesty to convince men of the transcendent Regard that is due to him above all Potentates from the Protestations and Practice of Saints and Holy persons preferring the well-being of God's House and Service before their chief Mirth peremptorily refusing Delights neglecting any other Glory or otherwise desirable Advantage when God's House or Honour is impaired Mourning for it more then for their own Losses and reckoning them for their best-deserving Friends that promote the Service of God and them for their greatest Enemies that hinder it The Reasons of which are 1. On God's part His superlative Excellency in comparison of whom all the Glory Beauty Goodliness Power Wisedom or what-ever else is magnified in Creatures is but a Shadow yea Vanity or a mere Nothing All the Nations of the Earth in respect of him are as a drop of a Bucket counted as the small dust of the balance as Nothing Isa 40.15 17. And therefore to prefer our own Honour the Honour of any of the Grandees of the world or the glorious Spirits of Heaven before the Worship the Regalia or Royalties of the Great God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords is to prefer a Torch-light before the Sun-light to esteem a Candle more then the glorious Lights of Heaven As there is in God more Glory then in all the Creatures so his Name his Service should be magnisied and adhered unto above and against all the Services and Names that stand in opposition to or competition with his 2. Nor is this Prelation less due on our part because of our Obligation of Gratitude to him Justice exacts it from us It is Debitum morale and naturale that we should honour our Father that begat us our Preachers that instruct us our Princes that protect us our Benefactours that help us All these is God to us in a superlative manner He is the Father that begat us the Rock that formed us we are the Work of his Hands and the Sheep of his Pasture He is our Shepherd therefore we lack nothing on him we depend from our mother's womb It is he that teacheth us Wisedom more then the beasts of the Earth He is a Sun and a Shield to us what-ever good we receive from any it is first derived from him He is the Fountain of living waters all Creatures are but broken Cisterns that can hold no water And therefore undoubtedly he should be preferr'd before all and by all Which that it may be done we should have the like Affection as David had and that is the next thing observable in this Text. II. David's Joy at the People's Forwardness to joyn in God's Worship As David preferred God's Service before his own Dignity so he rejoyced in the Conjunction of others with him therein This was it which gladded his Heart that not onely himself and his own House were ready to goe up to the House of the Lord but all the people of Israel likewise were forward to joyn with him in God's Service When the People offered willingly to the Lord for the building of the Temple it is said David the King also rejoyced with great Joy 1 Chron. 29.9 How often in the Psalms doth he invite all people to praise God Praise him all ye Nations Psal 117.1 is a Prophecy containing his Prayer for the Conversion of the Gentiles Rom. 15.11 Our Saviour teacheth us to pray not onely that we our selves who pray but all others may hallow God's Name When the Pharisees would have had the Children and Multitude that cried Hosanna with his Disciples rebuked our Saviour not onely justifies them but also animates them to it telling the Pharisees that if those should hold their peace the Stones would cry our Luke 19.40 Malignant spirits that seek the Praise of men their own Power and Interest envy the forwardness of people to joyn in the true Worship of God and the Duties of Godliness But to a holy and humble Heart it is a joyous thing As Moses said once to Joshua Enviest thou for my sake I would that all the Lord's people were Prophets and that God would put his Holy Spirit upon them Num. 11.29 Hereto every upright heart is moved both by the Love he bears to Men and the Love he hath to God who is honoured 1. Love to others makes him that loves them not seek his own Good onely but their Good also joyntly with his own Now there cannot be a greater Good to any person then when his Heart and Ways are set to glorifie God The best turn we can doe a man is to bring him into Acquaintance with God so as that his Fellowship be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And therefore if we love men indeed we cannot but rejoyce with them when they address themselves to seek God 2. Love also to God will cause this Rejoycing at the Associating of others with us in his Service The Corinthians Bounty to the Saints is commended from hence that it is abundant by many Thanksgivings unto God whiles by the experiment of such ministration they glorifie God 2 Cor. 9.12 13. We pray that all may sanctifie God's Name what we pray for sincerely we desire affectionately and what we desire affectionately to obtain we rejoyce in it heartily when it is acquired No man prays to God rightly but he who earnestly desires God's Glory by all the more therefore glorifie him the more is their Joy increased who love God truly especially when as here the Service is voluntary ready with alacrity when they say as it is in my Text Let us goe into the House of the Lord. Which leads me to some farther Observations III. The People's Willingness and Forwardness They invite each other to goe into the House of the Lord. Not to the house of Mirth and Jovialty not to the house of Bacchus or Baal not to the Idol-Temple or other house of Iniquity And therein is discernible the End and Motive of this their Invitation It was no doubt that they might worship God as those did who went up into the Temple to pray as it is said of the Pharisee and Publican in the Parable or as it is in the fourth verse of this Psalm to the Testimony of Israel to give Thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Thus it is said Luke 1.10 while the Priest burnt Incense in the Temple the whole multitude of the people were praying without And of Anna Luk. 2.37 she departed not from the Temple but served God with Fasting and Prayers night and day And in respect of this Practice our Saviour Matth. 21.13 allegeth out of Isa 56.7
that the House of God was to be the house of Prayer not of Merchandise or other profane uses Hereto accords that which is foretold Isa 2.3 of the New-Testament-times allusively to the practice of the Jews Many people shall goe and say Come ye and let us goe up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths This then is the genuine End of going to the House of God or the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth that we may pray together and praise God with one Heart that we may learn the Will of God that we may attend to the Preaching of the Word to the Reading of the Scriptures to the Sacraments of Christ and in a word that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Which directs us also to consider IV. The Motive and Mode of their going up to the House of the Lord. The Motive is implied in the determination to whose house they would goe up to wit to the House of Jehovah the true and living God not to the House of Dagon Moloch or any of the Gentile Vanities but to his House who was their Defence the Holy one of Israel their King Psal 89.18 It is Faith in God as the true God and in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent which must excite us to goe to the Church on Earth to joyn with it in Holy Services and to approach boldly to the Throne of Grace in the Temple of Heaven where Christ our High Priest appears for us it is that must quicken our Hearts that must carry our Feet to the House of God and Religious exercises Alas many come to the Church out of Custome or to avoid the Penalties of the Law yea perhaps to sleep there as if they had no sense of God's Presence no spiritual Use of holy Ordinances no need of holy Instructions no want of God's Favour or Christ's Intercession and therefore they neither exercise Faith in Prayer or Praising God nor have any feeling of the Worth of Spiritual Services They are no better after they have been at Church then they were before no more humbled for Sin nor amended in their Conversation nor intelligent in the Doctrine of the Gospel nor zealous for God's Glory nor helpfull to edifie one another then if they had kept at home or been in profane Company They are not like these in my Text who here invited each other to goe to the House of the Lord. Which implies the Mode or Manner of their going Three things I conceive implied in this Expression Reverence Unanimity Alacrity 1. In that they goe to the House of the Lord it intimates that they did present themselves there with Dread and Awe of God They were wont to say as it is Psal 95.6 O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Thus it should be with us And therefore this Psalm is appointed in our Liturgy to be read in the beginning of Divine Service Our Reverence should be not barely in respect of the presence of persons of Eminency whether Ministers or People but more in respect of God's Presence We should be like affected as Jacob was and say as he did Gen. 28.17 How dreadfull is this Place this is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven All Talking Gazing and other irreverent Carriage as is too too often among us even while we are here about Holy Duties shews an irreligious and ungodly Spirit and cannot but be odious to God and bring his Curse upon us 2. Their Unanimity is intimated in their Invitation of each other and joynt Association in going to the House of the Lord. And indeed this is also of very great moment in the publick Worship of God that as it was in the Primitive times we be of one Heart and one Soul Act. 4.32 that we continue together with one accord breaking bread and lift up our voice with one accord by praising God Act. 2.46 and 4.24 To think to get Peace with God by our Supplications when we have unpeaceable Hearts towards others to have Forgiveness from God while we forgive not our Brethren to have God's Love while we love not one another is a vain Delusion To pray together at Church and quarrel at home to sit in one Seat here and to fight one with another abroad to say Amen to the Prayer for Peace and yet to study Strife is monstrous Hypocrisie To praise God in singing Psalms here and yet to curse and revile one another abroad is horrible Impiety But to brawl contend for places in the Church before or immediately after Praying together shews a much more wicked Heart For where Envy and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. vers 16. 3. Therefore the third thing implied here Alacrity should attend our going to the House of the Lord. We should serve the Lord with Gladness come before his Presence with Rejoycing as it is Psal 100.2 which is read in our Liturgie after the Second Lesson God loves a chearfull Worshiper as well as a chearfull Giver As we would have God delight in us so we must delight our selves in the Lord and readily and freely out of choice come to the House of the Lord and there serve him APPLICATION And now give me leave both to complain and to admonish you God hath done for us greater things then he did for David his Gospel his Church his Worship is settled among us in a more Spiritual and Heavenly manner then it was among the Jews we are not carried away as the Gentiles who were led by dumb Idols we have not mere Latin Service not the Worship of a piece of Bread as the Papists nor are we fed with Legendary Tales or mens Traditions much less are we like the barbarous Heathens awed by Oracles the terrible Apparitions of Devils Wizzards and such Imps of Hell as many of them are or cheated with the ridiculous Fictions and Delusions of that impure Impostour Mahomet or imposed on by the Rabbinical Dotages of Jews And yet we come to God's Service with no better Devotion nay perhaps less then these do to their false Worship How few prefer God's Service before their own worldly Business God's Honour before their own Profit How many are so far from inciting others to goe to God's House that they are readier to draw them away from it Yea many chuse to keep at home or to goe to worse places and company Many have no other End in coming to Church but to keep their wont to doe as others Others come either out of a vain Affectation to shew their Bravery or a Curiosity to hear some eloquent Preacher as those did Ezek. 33.30 31 32. with affection to one party opposition to another yea with a contradicting Spirit How
that I desire besides thee My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my Trust in the Lord God Such Apprehensions as these do affect the Spirits of a man as the breaking out of the Sun doth the Eyes after it hath been overcast with thick Clouds in the day or concealed by the Darkness of the night Then the Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun So it is with the Soul after such Perplexities and Affrightments and Disconsolations of Spirit as are incident to the most holy Saint by reason of the seeming Disorders and dismall Occurrences in the world which are obvious to him When he recollects himself and determines against all Arguings ad oppositum that the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of hoasts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Psal 84.11 12. then he delights himself in the Lord as the most pleasant and eligible Good thing as his Sun and his Shield and accordingly fixes his Contemplations on God quickens chears confirms raises up his Spirits in the remembrance of him expresses himself in holy Hymns in devout Prayers in wise Observations of his Doings in commemorating of his Works and his Word in holy Conferences and such like ways as shew that none is so amiable to him as God none to be adhered to in comparison of him none to be glorified like unto God Conformably hereto he delights in the Consideration of God's most excellent Being that he is not like the Vanities of the Nations that he is the living God and an everlasting King that in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength that there is none holy as the Lord no Rock like unto our God that great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is infinite that he is mercifull and gracious abundant in Goodness and Truth He delights also in the beholding and observation of his Works which however they are not minded by them who are alienated from the Life that is in God yet to the Godly enlightned Soul they appear Great so that in Admiration of them he is affected like the Psalmist Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Psal 104.24 In wisedom hast thou made them all and rulest all He is holy in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works and therefore are they sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His Work is honourable and glorious and his Righteousness endureth for ever And hereupon the Psalmist resolves Psal 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Nor is his Delight less in God's Word then in his Works I will praise thy Name saith David Psal 138.2 for thy Loving-kindness and for thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name And thus he often professeth that the Word of God his Judgments were more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold sweeter then Hony and the Hony-comb that not onely his Word of Promise was his Comfort in his Affliction for by it he was quickened but that he greatly delighted in God's Commands they were the Joy of his heart And Holy Job 23.12 I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary Food But Holy mens greatest Delight in God is when by Faith in Christ they apprehend God to be their God and they his People that he dwells in them they are his Temple that they are made by him Kings and Priests to him by his Spirit that he is their Father through Christ they his Children that they have access to him by the Faith of Christ and are assured of an Inheritance above with him When they understand this that Christ is All to them they delight in the Almighty and lift up their face unto God with Joy as it is Job 22.26 Now this indeed is best for the Godly thus to delight themselves in the Lord even in their own lowest Conditions and their Oppressours highest because the greatest Good that Evil men have is but vain Be it Plenty Peace Honour Liberty Power Pleasure or what-ever else is valued by men that have their Portion in this life it is but an imperfect fading vexing Good much of it is such as Beasts injoy more fully then they who have more Delight in their Food and sensitive Pleasure then Men have Applause Honours Wealth are but Toys such as Childish persons delight in rather then wise Men. Philosophers by the Light of Nature have censured them as empty of reall Worth not good because they made not the Possessours of them good Wisedom and Vertue are by them preferred before them Yea they bring often much Vexation in stead of Delight In acquiring and Using them is much Vanity In the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull Solomon styles it Madness But Delight in the Lord is the most rationall exquisite durable Delight far above not onely Epicurus his Pleasure and Zeno's Vertue and Seneca's Tranquillity of mind but also Solomon's Glory his Wisedom his Knowledge of the Properties of Natural bodies and what-ever Excellency short of Acquaintance with God he was endued with He confesseth as much in the close of his Penitentialls and before him his Father David Psal 4.6 7. There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased This makes the Saints delight in Prayer and Praise and other Worship of God it being their Privilege as well as their Duty to delight themselves in the Lord Isa 58.14 and according to the Desire of their Heart Which brings me to the II. OBSERVATION That they who delight themselves in the Lord shall have their Hearts Desire and in fine speed better then they who are in the most illustrious estate of Wicked men The principal Desire of one that delights himself in God is to glorifie God that is the main End of such as glory in God that they may doe all to his Glory Therefore are they taught to make this their first Petition Hallowed be thy Name and to that end to pray Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in God's most severe Dealings with them they say with those Isa 26.8 Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee To which that of the Apostle Phil. 1.20 is consonant According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always
in Christ In God's Favour and Presence are the real Joys though obscured from the World by the mean Condition upon Earth of those that possess them 2. Oh then you who have heard what Joys there are in God be persuaded to quicken and comfort your selves by them Let not the Scoffs or Censures of the profane Carnalist affright you from your Choice Place your Hope in the pursuance of those Joys that are Spiritual that are Heavenly David Moses S. Paul and He who was the wisest of men our Lord Christ slighted all the Contents on Earth and patiently underwent all Afflictions all the Reproaches and Persecutions of men that they might attain the Fulness of Joys in God's Presence Surely should all your days on Earth be spent with never so much Mirth yet you would be great Losers should you lose the Joys of Heaven Yea the want of the Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Spirit on Earth will so damp the Joys of the most Atheistical Voluptuaries on Earth that they will find them to be far short of that Sweetness they imagine in them and in the end to be as Gall and Wormwood in their Bowells On the other side the Joys of Christ and Christians in present fruition and future hope will countervail all those bitter Potions they drink here and fill them with endless and unmeasurable Satisfaction hereafter Let then the Joy of the Lord be your strength Nehem. 8.10 your Encouragement to follow all the Holy ones of God chiefly our Lord Christ running with patience the Race set before you and looking unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of your Faith Amen LAVS DEO MAN'S Guide to Glory The Twenty-third SERMON PSAL. lxxiij 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsell and afterwards receive me to Glory WE have in this Psalm whether composed by or for Asaph to sing a Skirmish between the Flesh and the Spirit with the Victory of the Spirit thereby strengthened to stand for God and to adhere to his Party The Combat arose from the Quarrel that humane Reason had against Divine Providence as either unequall or impotent in that the Wicked prospered in the world when the Godly as poor Abjects were depressed and trampled upon by the Nimrods of the Earth As if this did argue either that God was ignorant of humane Affairs that he saw not through the thick Clouds that according to the Epicurean Fancy he followed his Pleasure in Heaven and let things below run at randome leaving them to Chance or that he would not or could not remedy such Irregularities as fell out in the Government of this lower World To which the Spirit opposeth after some Staggering this Defence That the Prosperity of the Wicked was but for a moment an empty Bitter-sweet a fansied Dream a meer Vanity ending in Terrours which suddenly and irresistibly cast them down like a Hurricane and so carry them away to Destruction and Consumption That on the other side the Godly are preserved and guided to Glory And thence is the Spirit 's Io Paean its triumphant Song ascribing Happiness to men of pure Hearts and expressing a Resolution to hold fast to God as being well assured of Divine Guidance and Advancement in the words read to you Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsell and afterwards receive me to Glory In which words the Psalmist expresseth the Foundation of his future Happiness as in the Verse before he declares the Cause of his present Standing notwithstanding the Storm of Temptation that was upon him upon what Bottom he secures his Soul notwithstanding such Onsets and Perills of wandering out of his way to Blessedness For attaining of which Felicity he ascribes nothing to a fansied Light within him or power of Free will but to that special efficacious Grace which is preventing and sustaining that worketh in God's people both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 His Tuition and his Guidance is the entire and onely Cause of a Saint's assured Beatitude And this the Authour of the Psalm doth acknowledge whilst he expresses the sense he had of his own nearness to Ruine when as it is vers 2. he found that as for him his Feet were almost gone his Steps had well-nigh slipt had not God been with him continually and held him by the right hand guided him with his Counsell and led him to Glory From whence these Observations offer themselves 1. That when God leaves a person to his own Counsell it is a Forerunner of his Perdition 2. That it is the Safety of God's Servants that they are guided by his Counsell 3. That those whom God guides by his Counsell he doth bring to Glory I. OBSERVATION That when God leaves a person to his own Counsell it is a Forerunner of his Perdition That which is said Psal 81.12 that God gave the people of Israel up unto their own hearts Lust and they walked in their own Counsells and therefore he did not subdue their Enemies nor turn his hand against their Adversaries vers 14. doth sufficiently intimate that the Cause of their wasting and spoiling by their Enemies was God's leaving them to their own Hearts Lusts and their walking in their own Counsells The like Speech we have in the New Testament in that Sermon which was made by S. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra when to take them off from their intention of sacrificing to themselves they told them of the Evil of their doings and of the pernicious Consequence of their practices in sacrificing to them that were but Vanities and how that God in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own Ways Which Passages do evince that the reason why both Jews and Gentiles were under Sin all the World were become guilty before God all had sinned and came short of the Glory of God Rom. 3.9 19 23. were under Wrath and Condemnation was because they were left to their own Counsells For in that case as it is Rom. 1.18 they held the Truth in Vnrighteousness vers 22. professing themselves wise they became fools Wherefore God also gave them up to Vncleanness through the Lusts of their own Hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves Who changed the Truth of God into a Lie and worshipped and served the Creature more then the Creatour who is blessed for ever Amen vers 24 25. For this cause God gave them up unto vile Affections And even as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to doe those things which are not convenient vers 26 28. which brought upon them the Judgment of God And to like purpose is that Prediction which is upon cogent reason conceived to be verified in the Roman Apostasie 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lie That they all might be damned who believed
me And probably the Occasion of this Psalm was the same with that of the Third Psalm which he made when he fled from Absalom his Son And likely enough it might be a magnanimous Reply to the Motion of some of his timorous Servants who perhaps would have had him to have cowardly become a Fugitive when the Revolt from him was so great and every one was ready to shift for himself That his Heart was not so dejected by that Insurrection but that he though he were alone compassed with ten thousands of people that set themselves against him round about could in Affiance upon Divine Providence as quietly lie down and take his Rest on the Ground as if he were on his Bed in his Palace at Jerusalem as knowing that though there were none with him in that condition yet the Vigilancy of God would be as sufficient for his Safety as if he had been lodged in his strong Castle at Sion Yet may the words be extended farther with some Commentatours to denote the Disposition of believing Souls in addressing themselves with courage to their Death and Grave which is termed a putting off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 and a Resting in their Beds Isa 57.2 through the Assurance which they have that when their House of this Tabernacle is dissolved they have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.1 And what David saith here of himself whether concerning his Resolution or Assurance each pious Soul that hath learned to trust in God may with a like Composedness of spirit and Confidence Fortitude and Magnanimity take up and say I will both lay me down in peace and sleep either in my Bed or Grave for thou Lord onely without any other Garrison makest me alone without any other Company to dwell in my house either on Earth or in the Heavens in Safety Hope and Security notwithstanding the Power and Plots of my Earthly or Infernal Enemies And accordingly these Observations are hence deducible 1. That the safe and secure Dwelling of Believers is onely from God 2. That God makes their Habitation safe to them though they be alone 3. That in Assurance hereof a holy Believer can quietly take his Repose without oppressing Fears even in the greatest Dangers I. OBSERVATION That the safe and secure Dwelling of Believers is onely from God In the Prayer of Moses the Man of God Psal 90.1 he thus acknowledgeth Lord thou hast been our Dwelling-place in all generations intimating that both in that Age in which he was a Stranger in the Land of Madian forty years when he fled from Pharaoh as it is in S. Stephen's Oration Act. 7.29 when he and the rest of the Children of Israel wandred in the Wilderness forty years more and also when Abraham Isaac and Jacob went from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another people God was still a Shelter to them they dwelt in the Secret place of the Most high lodged under the Shadow of the Almighty he covered them with his Feathers they trusted under his Wings his Truth was their Shield and Buckler he was a Sun and a Shield to them he suffered no man to doe them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sake Psal 105.14 When he found Jacob in a Desart land and in the vast howling Wilderness he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the Apple of his eye As an Eagle stirreth up her Nest sluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them on her wings So the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him As most excellently the Providence of God over Israel is described by Moses in his Divine Poem Deut. 32.10 11 12. The like did our Psalmist find in his Persecutions by Saul When he was fain to fly from Saul's Court to Nob thence to Keilah Ziph the Wilderness of Maon to Achish King of Gath to Ziklag in all these his Removes God told his Flittings noted his Wandrings in his Book and put his Tears in his Bottle He was a Shelter to him a strong Tower from the Enemy He aboad in his Tabernacle made his Refuge under the covert of his Wings His Faithfulness and Truth was his Defence And therefore in his gratulatory Song wherein he commemorates his Deliverances from the hand of all his Enemies and from the hand of Saul he thus makes his Vow Psal 18.1 2. I will love thee O Lord my Strength The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer my God my Strength in whom I will trust my Buckler and the Horn of my Salvation and my high Tower The same Tuition he vouchsafed to Daniel and the rest of the Godly Captives when they were carried away from their own Country into Babylon There God was as he promised a Sanctuary to them in the Peace of the places where they were Exiles they had Peace God's Presence with them was better to them then David's Puissance then Solomon's Wisedom or Riches He shewed that he had the Hearts of Kings in his hands and could turn them as the Rivers of waters that he could make them that carried them away Captives to pity them that he could cause their Enemies Plots to prove their own Snare their Contrivance against the Three Children Daniel Mordecai and other Jews to turn to their own Destruction the Fire to kill them that would have burned others the Lions to tear them which were to have devoured Daniel Haman's Gallows which was prepared for Mordecai to be his own and his Sons Gibbet the Decree which was procured to have the Jews destroyed to be executed on their Adversaries Nor did the Apostles and Holy Martyrs find less Shelter and Security in God's Presence with them in those great Persecutions which the futious and bloud-thirsty Emperours instigated by the great Red Dragon raised against them but that God was a Strength to the Poor a Refuge to the Needy in his distress a Refuge from the Storm a Shadow from the Heat when the Blast of the terrible ones was as a Storm against the wall as the Prophet speaks Isa 25.4 Which made S. Paul in behalf of himself and his Fellow-labourers in the work of the Lord acknowledge That though they were troubled on every side yet were they not distressed though perplexed yet not in despair though persecuted yet not forsaken though cast down yet not destroyed 2 Cor. 4.8 9. Even then when no man stood with him but all men forsook him notwithstanding the Lord stood with him and strengthened him and he was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion as he tells us 2 Tim. 4.16 Which brings in my II. OBSERVATION That God makes the Habitation of Believers safe to them though they be alone It is true not onely that from God alone they have a safe and secure Dwelling but also when they are alone when they have none to help them
there be any After-dutifulness which might be accounted a fit and just Compensation on our part for such Love Who is there that gives any thing to God first Rom. 11.35 Surely when we bring forth any Fruit to God it is but what is of his own Culture Christ is the Vine his Father is the Husbandman and we are God's Husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 he it is that purgeth the Branches in Christ that they may bring forth more Fruit Joh. 15.1 2. Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Yea were it imagined to suppose an Impossibility that we could of our selves by our own Free will by the Light of Nature so ingratiate ourselves with God as to procure his Favour that we could obtain Arte propriâ by our own Skill or Marte proprio by our own Ability our Filiation our Regeneration our Adoption to be God's Sons yet were not God ingaged by any Worth of our Actions to yield it us this were no Purchace no Exchange of quid pro quo no advantaging God that he might benefit us Rightly saith Elihu Job 35.7 8. If thou be Righteous when givest thou to him or what receiveth he of thy hand Thy Wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy Righteousness may profit the son of man But alas all that in such a case we could doe all that Adam himself in his Innocency and Integrity could have done could not have given us such a Claim as that we could have challenged our Adoption as due to us according to distributive Justice in an Arithmetical or Geometrical proportion between our Actings and God's Adoption but that still it must be taken as the free Gift liberrimi Agentis of the most free Agent as the effect of the purest and most immense Love And therefore well said the Apostle Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us of free Gift that we should be called the Sons of God Which is the next thing to be considered IV. The effect of this Love of God that we should be called c. The Sons of God are of many sorts The Magistrates are so by Office Psal 82.6 the Angells by Dignity Job 1.6 Adam by Creation Luk. 3.38 and so all other men Act. 17.29 the Posterity of Seth as it is conceived Gen. 6.2 by Profession our Lord Christ is his own Son by peculiar and eternal Generation Rom. 8.32 All Believers are his Sons by Regeneration As many as received him to them he gave power to be the Sons of God even to as many as believe in his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. By Adoption God having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the glory of his Grace Eph. 1.5 6. Regeneration is by a Change of us inwardly whereby we are renewed in the Spirit of our minds and put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of truth Eph. 4.23 24. Adoption is an Act which alters the outward Estate whereby a person becomes as a Son to another as Moses was to Pharaoh's Daughter Heb. 11.24 It is Naturae similitudo ut Filium quis habere possit quem non generaverit Gaius Inst l. tit 5. an Imitation of Nature whereby a person may have another man's Child as if he were his own Son so that he is his Child by a Legal Right though not by naturall Birth and is to own his Adopter as his Father and he the adopted as his Child And it is this that S. John here means Behold what manner of Love the Father hath given us that we should be called by reason of our Regeneration and Adoption the Sons of God And not onely that we should be so called as if it imported a meer Title Appellation or nudum inane Nomen a bare and empty Name Sure this Adoption as it is by the best highest richest Father so it is to the best greatest and most ample Benefits He that is thus the Son of God by Faith in Christ Jesus hath the Name the Dignity the Honour of a Son of God hath the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father Gal. 4.6 hath the Apparel of a Son of God the white Linen which is the Righteousness of Saints hath the Provision Protection Attendance of a Child of God the Angells are ministring Spirits to him Heb. 1.14 The Spirit of God is his he is a Member of Christ's Body the Promises are his He hath the Society of Saints on Earth and is come to the Church of the first-born that are written in Heaven All things are his Paul Apollos Cephas Life Death things present things to come and he is Christ's and Christ God's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. If he be a Son then an Heir an Heir of God a Joynt-heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 And can more Favour be desired or imagined to be done by the most Holy and High God to such Beggars Malefactours Rebells condemned Prisoners such base contemptible Wretches as we are We may here cry out with the Apostle O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisedome and Knowledge I may adde and Love of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 With the greatest reason then doth S. John call upon us to behold this which is the last thing to be considered V. The Adverb of demonstration inviting us to consider this Love Behold what manner c. And this may also serve for the APPLICATION This is then the Use to be made of what hath been said and did time permit might be more amply declared of the Love of God in our Adoption that we are to behold it not so much with the Eye of our Body as with the Eye of our Mind Sure the Apostle S. Paul thought this to be of so great consequence that he ceased not to make mention of the Ephesian Believers in his Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give them the Spirit of wisedom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their Vnderstanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his Calling and what the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe Eph. 1.16 17 18 19. This of all things is most worthy our Contemplation our most full constant accurate Meditation We should behold it in all the Effects of it in us and towards us Every Motion of his Spirit every Providence in escaping Temptations every Gospel-Sermon every Prayer we make invite us to this
Contemplation You that are to receive the Holy Sacrament what other Business have you but to tast how gracious the Lord is The Lord's Supper is visibile Verbum a visible Word that minds you of this Love of God in giving his Son for you to make you his Sons Look not then so much on what Christ did as why that it was for you See your own Unworthiness be humbled for your Sins but behold the Riches of God's Love See it so as to admire it so as to praise it Let this be an Eucharist a Thanksgiving Doe that on Earth that the Saints in Heaven now doe Receive it with Hallelujahs in your Hearts if not with your Tongues Remember this with rejoycing in God Hope in him Prayer to him as your Father Love to him who so loved you Love to each other as being one Body and one Bread being partakers of this one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 But chiefly behold it with Reverence and Dutifulness to your Father that you may be blameless and sincere and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye are to shine as Lights in the world Phil. 2.15 Amen LAVS DEO KNOWLEDGE PRACTICE UNITED The Twenty-sixth SERMON PSAL. cxix 34. Give me Vnderstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart OF all the Psalms there is none which hath so much of Curiosity and yet so much Plainness as this In the Form of it is much Poeticall Art in the Matter of it much Integrity and Holiness of Heart The Art is seen in observing the order of the Hebrew Letters in assigning to each Letter eight Verses and beginning every Verse in every Octonary with the same Letter The Integrity and Holiness of Heart is observable in the Expressions which for the most part contain Protestations of Integrity or holy Petitions both which are in the words I have read to you in which are contained 1. A Petition Give me Vnderstanding 2. A Protestation or Promise expressed first purely And I shall keep thy Law secondly modally declaring the manner of his keeping it And I shall keep it or Yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart From the words these Points offer themselves to us 1. That the Vnderstanding of God's Laws is a very desirable thing 2. That this Vnderstanding is God's Gift and to be sought of him 3. That when we understand God's Laws we should observe them 4. That we should keep them with our whole Heart Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That the Vnderstanding of God's Laws is a most desirable thing If we will believe the wisest of men this will be out of doubt It is the main Argument of many Chapters in the Book of Solomon's Proverbs the Quintessence of his Wisedom to commend to us as the most precious thing that can be chosen the Understanding of God's Laws which he calls the Fear of the Lord and the Knowledge of God Prov. 2.5 And Chap. 3.14 15. he saith The merchandise thereof is better then the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof then fine Gold She is more precious then Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her Again Prov. 4.7 Wisedom is the principal thing therefore get Wisedom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding I should recite to you a great part of Solomon's Books and of the Psalms of David his Father besides other parcells of Holy Scripture should I heap up all those Passages which set out the Worth of the Understanding God's Laws But I shall make this Point more apposite to your use by considering the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why it is so which will also prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Any right Knowledge is desirable since every man is ambitious to know saith Aristotle in the first words of his Metaphysicks It is true there is Science falsely so called as the Apostle's phrase is 1 Tim. 6.20 which learned Interpreters conceive to be meant of the Gnosticks pretended Knowledge from whence they usurped the Title of Gnosticks that is Knowing men of the thirty Aeones and such like Fables devised by Valentius and other like Hereticks to draw Disciples from the Christian Doctrine after them of which much may be seen in Irenaeus his Five Books against Heresies These also or some other Fanatick Hereticks of that Time are conceived to be meant by them that know the Depths of Satan as they speak Rev. 2.24 Such kind of Knowledge the Apostle bids Timothy not to give heed to as the Fables and endless Genealogies whether of Gnosticks or Jews and as ministring Questions rather then godly Edifying which is in Faith 1 Tim. 1.4 which he calls profane and old wives Fables to be refused Chap. 4.7 perverse Disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth to be avoided 1 Tim. 6.5 foolish and unlearned Questions which engender Strife 2 Tim. 2.23 profane and vain Babblings which encrease unto more Vngodliness 2 Tim. 2.16 Jewish Fables and Commandments of men that turn from the Truth Tit. 1.14 Foolish Questions and Genealogies and Contentions and Strivings about the Law which are unprofitable and vain such as the Cabalistical Conceits and Talmudical Dotages of Jewish Rabbins have been of old and of later days many of the Popes Decretall Epistles many of the Monks Legendary Tales in their Book which they termed Aurea Legenda the Golden Legend though Ludovicus Vives saith true He that devised it had a Brazen Face he that believes it a Leaden Heart all these and what-ever is of like stamp are to be abhorred as coming from Satan to corrupt mens minds from the Simplicity that is in Christ But all true Knowledge of what kind soever is justly desirable as being both an Ornament and some way or other usefull to Man whose Excellency whereby he exceeds Beasts is his Knowledge and his Inferiority to Angels is his Defect in it And though some of late have endeavoured to prejudice the minds of men against the Study of Arts Sciences Languages and other Learning taught in Universities yet it is for no other Reason but because of their own Illiterateness Scientia neminem habet Inimicum nisi Ignorantem No man undervalues Learning but the Ignorant Nevertheless some Knowledge is more desirable then other and above all the rest the Knowledge of God his Laws Will Counsell Works which indeed make men more truly wise then the Knowledge of all the Secrets of Nature Policies of State humane Arts and Sciences Princely Wisedom to Govern is a very excellent Gift To have the Understanding which Solomon had to judge and rule so great a People as that of Israel was a very glorious Gift of God and such as made him renowned above all the men of the earth in his days and many Ages after yet he found a Vanity in this I gave my heart saith he Eccles. 1.17 18.
shall enquire 1. What is this Walking in a man's Vprightness 2. How this demonstrates the Fear of the Lord 3. What Advantage accrues to a man that walketh in his Uprightness and feareth the Lord. Of these in their order I. What it is for a man to walk in his Vprightness Walking in the primitive acception thereof imports a natural progressive Motion of the Body and Vprightness is that Position of the Body according to which it is so placed as not to incline to one hand more then the other but to be even set between both But in the Metaphorical sense in which hundreds of times this Expression is used in Holy Scripture it signifies the moral Motion of the Mind and Members of a Man as he is a rational Being to be regulated by the Law of his Maker And so it supposeth the Actings of the Understanding Will Affections and Members of a man in an orderly and constant Course out of a vital spiritual Principle in him by a certain Rule from one term of his Motion to another for the attaining of his End Whence it is evident that as to Bodily Walking there are many things requisite or presupposed so to the Spiritual Walking of the Soul or Man in his Uprightness there belong sundry things either as presupposed or required without which he cannot be said to walk in his Uprightness As it is with our Body while we live on Earth there will still be some Motion Man is born to Labour as the Sparks fly upward God hath given to the sons of men sore Travail to be exercised therewith so it is also with the Soul there are stirrings of Thoughts Desires which cause elicit Acts of the Will in its Purposes and imperate Acts in setting the Members of the Body on work for avoiding Evil or obtaining some supposed Good And as corporal Motion is not in an instant but requires Time more or less so for the contriving and prosecuting such Designs as the Will pitches upon the whole Life of man is imployed Likewise as there is in Walking some Place or Person from which or from whom the Motion begins and to which or whom it tends which are called in Philosophy the Terminus à quo the bound from whence and the Terminus ad quem the bound to which it is directed so are there in the moral Actions of the Soul and Members some like Bounds persons are either turned from God after Satan or they are turned from the power of Satan unto God they either move from or to Heaven or Hell Life or Death And as there is a Way in all Walking of the Body in which the Motion is performed Motus est super immobile there must be some fixt and settled thing which men ordinarily walk upon they do not move as Fishes in the Sea or Birds in the Air whose Way hath no fixed Path so it is in mens Walking spiritually there is a broad Way which leadeth to Destruction or a narrow Way which leadeth to Life a Way of Satan's or a Way of God's in which every man walks And as there is in man's Walking a vital locomotive Principle which is well or ill ordered according to the Sight and the state of the Members and such Guidance as is from others Direction so that sometimes for want of Sight or Light a person stumbles and falls or by reason of Mistakes from himself or Mis-direction of other persons he errs and never attains to that which he moves towards sometimes he prospers in his Motion seeing his Way aright heeding it not fainting but holding on to the end of his Journey So it is in mens Spiritual Walking there is a wrong and a right Principle which moves their Mind and Will they walk after the Flesh or after the Spirit their Way is either Satan's or God's his Dictates or God's Precepts they walk in Darkness or in the Light either they are weary of well-doing and goe back to Perdition and turn aside to crooked Ways or else they discern the Errour of their ways chuse the Way of Life goe on with Alacrity and liveliness therein and persevere to the end Also as in Bodily Walking the Motion is not per Saltum one Step or Leap doth not begin and end it but it is progressive there is Step after Step one slower another quicker one part of the Way is sooner and with less trouble and danger passed over then the other So it is in the Spiritual Walking the Actings of the Mind and Will are not performed all together neither the immanent nor transient Acts of a man whether right or wrong are done at once but some one hour some another with various Success with diversity of Ability and Speed and Event by reason of the Assistence or Hindrance of concurrent Accidents or Causes which do frequently alter both the Motion and the Consequence of it such as are the Temptations of Satan or the Influence of God's Spirit the Society of evil Company or the Converse with Godly persons corrupt Teachers or holy Pastours outward estate of Prosperity or Adversity with many other things which occasion mens Progress to be more or less expedite either to the better or the worse Thus I have somewhat opened to you what this Walking is in general It is now farther necessary that I shew you more specially what is this Walking of a man in his Uprightness which shews he fears the Lord. 1. For a man who feareth the Lord to walk in his Uprightness it is necessary that he set his face towards God that is that he propound God's Glory and the obtaining of his Favour as his End In all such Actions as are rational it is the End propounded by the Doer which hath a chief sway in the denominating of them good Finis dat Mediis Amabilitatem Many brave Exploits done by heroical men onely to immortalize their Names to spread their Fame though they were advantageous to the people of their Generation yet being not acted out of Dutifulness to God as the impulsive to exalt God as the final Cause they were but splendida Peccata glistering Sins like Gloe-worms or Wood that seems to shine in the dark but is nothing else but rotten matter or mere Dirt. He that walks uprightly stoops not down to the Earth nor pores on his own Cloaths but looks upwards to something higher then himself towards Heaven Pharisees Alms Fasting Prayers though much esteemed by themselves and other men were not regarded by God as being done for themselves not for God But such Actions as are done without Ostentation with an eye to God's Approbation though in secret and of no account with men yet are they in the sight of God of great price as S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 3.4 of the hidden man of the Heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit The Rectitude of the Heart is most conducible to a man's upright walking which emboldned Hezekiah thus to
Desire of all Nations and that he was the Person whom the Godly did delight in and expect for what Reason appears by the III. OBSERVATION That the Certainty of the coming of Christ's Day was the Spring of Joy the Basis of Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits to Believers of old in the days of their Pilgrimage on Earth For this we have the words of S. Peter Act. 2.25 26 30. That David being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his Loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne spake concerning Christ that therefore did his Heart rejoyce and his Tongue was glad and his Flesh did rest in hope And Heb. 11.26 it is said that by Faith Moses esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt And of Simeon it is said that he waited for his coming in the Flesh as the Consolation of Israel and accordingly when he had seen him he took him up in his Arms and blessed God and said his Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.25 28 29 30. And conformable to these was also the frame of Spirit in all the Holy Believers when he appeared in the Flesh As persons over-joyed they were in a Rapture of Comfort so as that they could not contain themselves but must break out into holy Hymns of Praise My Soul doth magnifie the Lord said his Mother and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour For he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden And Blessed be the Lord God of Israel said Zacharias for he hath visited and redeemed his People and hath raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the House of his Servant David When the Wise men of the East saw his Star they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Matth. 2.10 And when the Angel had told the Shepherds that he brought them good Tidings of great Joy which should be to all People of the Birth of Christ in the City of David upon which there were with the Angel suddenly a multitude of the Heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men the Shepherds in hast went to view Christ in the Manger and upon their Return glorified and praised God Hallelujahs were then the Exercise of all that knew of his Birth and so they were of all the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets when they did by Divine Revelation foresee and by Faith wait for his Coming And the same spirit of Joy shewed it self after in all those that saw his Day either with their bodily Eyes or by the Eye of Faith When Andrew finds Peter as over-joyed he tells him We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ When Philip finds Nathanael he is in the same tune We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Joh. 1.41 45. And of succeeding Believers S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory So that I may by an Induction of Particulars raising the Observation from the Hypothesis to the Thesis conclude universally That the Day of Christ is to all Believers the Spring of their Joy the Basis of their Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits in the days of their Pilgrimage upon Earth The Reasons whereof are common to all Believers Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Though the Mystery of the Gospell was not so clearly nor so fully revealed before as it was by the Apostles Preaching but from the beginning of the world was in a sort hid in God yet in no Age was there Salvation in any other none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved He onely hath been the Way the Truth and the Life so that none come to the Father but by him Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and all the rest of the Holy Saints in foregoing Generations had Salvation by Faith in Christ as really as S. Peter and S. Paul or any of the Holy Martyrs and Confessours in the Catholick Church It is true the Knowledge of Christ was not so clearly revealed to the sons of men before his Coming in the Flesh as it was after when the Day-spring from on high visited us to give Light to them that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death to guide our feet into the way of Peace And therefore John Baptist exceeded all the Prophets foregoing he being the man that could say Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Yet the Apostles yea the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that can preach Christ Born Baptized Preaching Dying Rising Ascended into Heaven is greater then John the Baptist as having seen and heard that which many Prophets and Kings desired to hear and see but did not The Knowledge the Patriarchs had was Vespertine the Apostles and ours comparatively Meridian Besides before Christ's Ascension the Knowledge of him was not so amply revealed for though a few of the Gentiles found Christ yet the Way of Salvation was not prepared before the face of all People so as that Christ became a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the Glory of his people Israel But when S. Paul was made the Apostle of the Gentiles Christ was set to be a Light to the Gentiles that he might be for Salvation unto the ends of the Earth Act. 13.47 S. Peter was taught to call none common or unclean but to preach to the Gentiles as being those to whom also God had granted Repentance unto Lefe Act. 11.18 Whence the same way of Salvation was vouchsafed to Cornelius that was to Abraham Cornelius had his Faith imputed to him for Righteousness as well as Abraham God put no difference between them and us having purified their Hearts by Faith saith S. Peter Act. 15.9 He was the God not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles seeing it was one God which should justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.29 30. And hence as Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's Day so did the Wise men of the East and in all that were made Holy Converts by the preaching of the Gospel there was the same Joy for the kind which was in Abraham all with the same Spirit of Faith glorified Christ though some with more enlarged Hearts then others In the Effects of this Joy Praising God Loving Christ and Adhering to him there is the same Mind in all the same Hope the same Expressions though not to the same degree in all In some Ages the Joy was more extensive then in others in
man's Portion in the next You that give your minds to rise at Court or to be Rich in the City to build fair Houses to fill them with costly Furniture to store them with the most dainty Provision to goe in the bravest Attire and to mind your Ease and Delight bethink your selves how sutable this is with the Divine Contrivance and the Affections of Saints I deny not but an Abraham may be rich and yet blessed a David may be great and yet happy God may and I doubt not doth chuse some though not many Rich and Great in this world to be Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him But then it must be so that they love not their Riches nor their Greatness but God that they be as Abraham was ready to leave all for God to obey God in the harshest Commands to wait upon God with Patience for his Help They must have as Moses had a Will resolved to suffer Affliction with God's People rather then to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season to esteem the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures of Egypt They must be as Christ was not of the World though in the World not from beneath but from above having God's Glory in their Eye Christ's Example as their Loadstone seeking the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and directing all their Motions and Affections towards Heaven and Heavenly things I press you not to sell all that you have and give to the Poor as Christ did the young man whom he loved nor to sell your Lands as the Primitive Christians did and lay them down at the Apostles feet Yet I must tell you that if you will follow Christ you must in praeparatione Animi in the purpose of your Heart doe these things and more too even hate your own Lives if the Command of God the Glory of God the Kingdom of Christ the Good of God's Church shall require it or stand in competition therewith I do account of the Friers Vows of voluntary Poverty perpetuall Continency and regular Obedience so far from true Sanctity that they are rather mere Snares and like those Services of which God said by the Prophet Quis quaesivit haec de manibus vestris Who hath required these things at your hands they being neither undertaken by God's Command nor having any Promise of his Blessing or Acceptance Those Princes therefore that have laid down their Scepters and thrust themselves into Cloisters have been befooled by superstitious Priests and have found cause of Repentance for that their ill-grounded Devotion But yet this you must doe if you will love God you must not love the World nor the things thereof you must devote all to God relinquish all at his Appointment you must use the World as not abusing it knowing that the Fashion of this World passeth away You must be as Pilgrims on Earth lay up your Treasures in Heaven and have your Heart there seek your Rest with God in Christ and in the mean time walk with God use all for him and be content to be at his Disposing in Life and Death as Abraham was and then you shall sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO IN AETERNVM THE END A MEDITATION on GOD'S MERCY being the Subject of most of the SERMONS herein contained WHEN we seek after God we consult with his Works but when we study to know what he is we have recourse unto those Notions which are above his Works The Creature helps us to find him out but his Power Infinity and Mercy instruct us to understand him Neither do these Attributes equally acquaint us with him His Power informs us that he is God but his Mercy much more For by his Power he onely conquered that Difficulty which Nature presented him with in her first Principle Nothing but by his Mercy he overcomes Himself It sometimes reverseth the Sentence past against a Nation and so it makes him incurre the imputation of Mutability Sometimes it pulls back the stretched-out Arm and like the Angel that laid hold on Abraham violently detains the execution of his Fury and so it upbraideth him with Impotency It is not then enough to say that it exceeds all his Works unless we adde it is that also whereby he is subdued unto Himself As God who is our utmost Aim having placed himself at the Journey 's end is All Mercy so are the Ways that lead unto him His Ways are Mercy and Truth And as he is onely found by those that seek him so is he onely sought for truly by those that travell in this Way The Mercifull and they onely shall find Mercy The Light communicates its Glory unto that Eye alone which hath a native Light and Splendour to entertain it even so doth God reach out his Mercy unto that Soul which is before made capable by an innate Tenderness and Compassion To forgive and to have Compassion are the peculiar Affects of Mercy If I forgive mine Enemy I have Mercy on my self for to him that forgiveth much also shall be forgiven But if I have Compassion on the Distressed I have pity on my Saviour for 't is him I feed I cloath in the persons of the Hungry and of the Naked God hath given unto men a Nature which inclineth them unto Pity and therefore Cruelty is a Vice of the Will 's begetting Since then Nature hath no Inclination bad enough out of which it may spawn so vile a Brood I will not be at so much pains as to force the Soil that a Weed may grow nor love that Sin which will not be entertained unless I disclaim my Nature God once commanded Sacrifices that he might have Mercy upon Men and yet he was willing to have spared them that if they would have spared one another I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice was his demand of old but now much more for since he hath taken away the Law of Sacrifices it remains that we imploy all our Obedience in the observance of that Law which is left behind which is the Law of Charity God hath abated something of his own Worship that we might have more leisure to perform those Duties which respect one another If we would have God commune with us as once he did with the Jews from his Mercy-seat it will be first required of us that like the Cherubins there placed we carry our Faces one towards another not turning aside from the Distressed nor obliquely glancing upon any as averse from Peace God seems to instruct us by that Fabrick in the Ark that he then makes his Approach to us from his Mercy-seat when we turn face to face that is when we are alike minded one towards another God that he might reconcile his Justice to his Mercy and so save the delinquent Creature became severe to himself so much he loved us that he seemed to