loiâ—â—r nor stay in what he had received but pressed hard forward toward the mark of the priâ—e of the high calling he that aimeth short even at so much as will serve his turn and compass his design when he hath done that there is an end But I aâ—m at perfection saith the Apostle and so should we if we would keep our Lamps alive never rest 8. Be much in prayer pray hard for the supplies of his Spirit he hath promised them if we ask importunity will prevail if we be Strangers much more if Children it is the spirit that keepeth all alive and therefore pray for more and more of this Spirit of Jesus Christ See how Moses followeth the Lord with request upon request when he had been in the Mount and seen him face to face one would think this was enough to have stopped his mouth for a great while no sooner was he come down but he is praying for the guidance of that good Spirit O Lord shew me the way where in thou wouldst have us to go well God grants him this this satisfieth him not but he must have Gods presence with him an Angel would not serve his turn but his presence he must have and when this was granted this would not serve his turn neither but then O Lord shew me thy glory Prayer is the richest trading for heaven Build up your selves praying in the holy Ghost Ah it is the prayer of faith that fetcheâ—h in rich supplies from the Lord continually 9. Take heed of grieving this good Spirit then when we have his presence by any willing transgression this grieveth him our unthankfulness and slighting of him minding the world grieve him not for if he depart be sure our Lamps will be but in a sad taking 10. Then every day we must be trimming the Lamps of the Sanctuary were drest or trimmed every day he made them well as the Original word signifieth they were disordered burning every night there was somewhat wanting oyl and raising the week likely and removal of dross from them which they might contract he drest them and made them ready every morning the morality implied in this Type surely is this that we should daily dress up our Lamps they will need it every day renew our repentance renew our resolutions our walking clos 〈…〉 r with God to love him c. daily endeavour to draw nearer to him neglect your Lamps but a week or so and see what fearful work there will be Again such then as can say with Moses they have lived thus long and their sight fails not nor their strength c. They have great cause to bless the Lord. But though a Child of God is thus apt to decline his profession thus apt to grow dim his Lamp to want trimming yet it never goeth altogether out And what use should we make of this 1. It reproveth that opinion of falling away utterly from justifying and renewing grace the condition of all believers is here set down by the state of the wise virgins their Lamps indeed did decay and suffer an impairing but not altogether dye No this spring of grace once sprung in the heart springs up to eternal life though some interruptions there may be did he pray that Peters faith should not fail him and did he not pray for all believers indeed his faith did as near fail him as ever mans did but yet it revived again and so David and others 2. Yet do not abuse this Doctrine of grace as our hearts are exceeding apt to do If we cannot fall away utterly then if once Be sure we have the root of the matter in us if once we have Oyl in our vessels it will never be altogether spent our Lamps will never be blown out This is dangerous and next to desperate and therefore the Apostle in a like case with a kind of abhorrency at the thought of such a thing speaks thus shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid because he hath made us partakers of the sure mercies of David that will never fail shall we therefore neglect our worthy walking of them it argues a very ungodly frame of heart where this is to be found We should the rather be encouraged our hands strengthened to work out our salvation with so much the more earnestness were it not a very unchild-like and wretched frame of heart for a child to say Well I know my fathers heart towards me let me do what I will he will not cast me out of doors his inheritance is sure he may haply be mistaken and prove himself a Bastard and not a Son And so it is here Gods Children have all of them such child-like dispositions in them as they will hardly dare to make such an use of such a rich treasury of grace Or if they do they are like to smart for it 3. A word of strong Consolation to many a poor drooping soul If once thou have but grace in thy heart the oyl in thy Vessel it is never lost again though in its own nature it be loseable Thou art afraid some temptation or another from Satan the world or thy own heart will blow it out some blast or other will wither thee O thou shalt never be able to keep thy Lamp burning in the midst of so many contrary winds of lust and corruption but though thou canst not keep it alive the Lord can do it and he will do it Indeed while the Virgins slept for any care they took of their Lamp it might have gone out but the Lord kept it burning though it were but low and needed dressing Be of good courage then poor drooping foul and he shall strengthen thy heart didst thou ever know of any that had this oyl in their vessels that had the real work of grace upon them that did quite extinguish and dye surely thou didst not If the Lord do but seal it up to thee that thou art one of the wise Virgins believe it for thy everlasting comfort thy Lamp shall never be put out in obscure darkness 4. What shall we render to the Lord for this unspeakable grace towards us how hath he lifted up our condition above innocency it self in Adam he was made liable to fall away and the Lord did not engage himself to keep him we are made now in the second Adam in a surer Condition we have a better tenure in Jesus Christ which is the root of our stedfastness and standing because he liveth we shall live If Jesus Christ could die any more then might the Saints that are in him dye again altogether when once they are implanted into him O he liveth for ever and that Spirit of Christ which liveth and dwelleth in his people it never dyeth and faileth and he hath made it the very tenure of his Covenant he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him We it may be that
to this readiness a making the calling and election sure by adding faith to faith and grace to grace as it is in that place of the Apostle Peter Then when Simeon had gotten Jesus Christ into this arms of his faith as well as of his body and saw his salvation with the eye of faith as well as of the body then he cryeth out Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Now he was ready to enter into glory And so the Apostle Paul had such a perswasion and therefore he was ready henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of glory c. 2. There goeth many times if not alway to this abundant entrance as a readiness or preparation to it an earnest waiting of the soul for its change a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better There is many a poor heart when the body of death weigheth them down and tryeth them groan earnestly and could be contented to dye that sin might dye with them As Sampson said let me even dye with the Philistians if no other way will destroy their lusts But alas when they are to seek in point of assurance they look upon death as a dark passage that leadeth them they cannot tell whither this maketh them fly back this kills those desires nippeth them as soon as they put forth they come to no maturity But now when a man hath the right art of believing notwithstanding his body of death he groans under as the Apostle that yet he is perswaded through Christ it is pardoned and shall be utterly dissolved and not hinder him then he can bless the Lord and desires with Paul to be dissolved So many of the Patriarks it is said of them they dyed full of daies satisfied with daies that is to say they lived as long as they desired they had now a desire to be at home knowing that while they are present in the body they are absent from the Lord from that near and sweet and full Communion with him whereof they have had a little taste and earnest but if they know not that they shall be present with him by departure but for ought they know more separate from them no marvel if they go to death with drawing back Yet I deny not but a child of God may be ready before he desire it And may desire it before he be ready for this entrance I say a child of God may be ready before he desire it as in the case before mentioned and upon other grounds as Hezekiah and David that I may declare thy power to this generation may be ready and not have such an assurance but he is not ready for an abundant entrance until the Lord come with a full sealing of his love to his heart 2. He may desire it before he be ready as in some passionate impatient fit as Elijah 1 King 19. 4. weary of his life the King persecuting him and thinking he should fall by his hand would have God take away his life from him but he had not yet done his work And so Job God had not yet done with him he must pass through more changes and prosper and flourish again and hold forth his name to that generation before he departed he had not done his work But I speak of the serious settled well-grounded frame of a Believers heart upon a sound perswasion of the Love of God in Jesus Christ and a knowledge that he hath finished his course then for such a one to wait for his change when the blessed hour will come is a part of readiness for an entrance an abundant entrance into glory But this is not the portion of every child of God many Suns set in a Cloud c. For the second thing which are the arguments of the point they are such as these First because else Gods work would be in vain he hath prepared an inheritance for the Saints a Kingdom prepared before the world was and his work upon our hearts what is it but to prepare us for this Kingdom as the Apostle speaks he that hath wrought us to this self-same thing is God he hath wrought us to it there is no suitableness between heaven and an ungracious heart a glorious Kingdom and a vile filthy spirit therefore the Lord takes much pains with us to purge us to himself to purifie us to adorn us with the rich graces of his Spirit and all is to work us to heaven to salvation to prepare us for this entrance and therefore when God hath done this shall his work be in vain surely no not a soul that is so wrought up by the Lord to a heavenly frame and temper and nature that shall miss of an entrance when it is thus prepared else Gods work were in vain the greatest work of God 2. Because else the Lord Jesus would fail of his purchase and prayer for his poople who did buy us at so dear a rate as his own most precious blood was it think you to suffer us for ever to be at such distances from him whom he so dearly loved did his love to us draw him out of heaven to us and will it not think you draw us to heaven to him he will not have his Spouse that he hath redeemed with his blood to be absent from him any longer then is needful for his Fathers glory and their good It is a fruit of his death and of his prayer Father I will that where I am there they may be for they are the fulness of Christ and he accounteth himself as I may say imperfect without them and therefore he will have them there Indeed Brethren so dear is the heart of Jesus Christ to his people that he would not suffer so long an absence at so great a distance from them but that there is a necessity in it though at his first pitching his love upon us he looks at nothing but notwithstanding all blackness and deformity and loathsomness his love overcometh all Yet before they come to this Communion and fellowship with him they must be purified with spices and odors as those were for the King of Assyria and for other holy ends 3. Because else the promise of God and hope of the Saints would fail and heaven and earth shall sooner fail then the word of promise Christ hath promised not only to give life but eternal life God hath promised to give not only grace but glory there is a Crown laid up in the purpose and promise of God and if they should miss of this they would be made ashamed of their hope now this cannot be the Psalmist prayeth that he might not be ashamed of his hope which is virtually a promise it shall not be never any yet were disappointed that hoped upon right grounds Indeed if men make Promises to themselves of heaven let them live after the imaginations of their hearts or whether they truly believe or
Joseph and therefore God brought them into that distraction they were never awaked until now If men will not awake with calling we use to take them and shake them and use them more hardly The Lord cals brethren you have the voice of the Turtle the joyful sound of the Gospel among you If we awake not what will he do he will take you by the Neck and shake you awake and truly brethren the Lords shakings are terrible shakings he will shake the soul into a trembling and astonishment What was the reason that the Lord followed Jonah with a storm he was asleep his Conscience and Soul asleep and no easie means would awake him the Lord was fain to let loose his hand upon him and by a terrible tempest to awake him sure I am this will not be comfortable 3. Afterwards It will not be quietness nor rest to your souls the Disciples you see when they had slept their sleep had so many reproofs how were they ashamed of what they had done they wist not what to answer him were fain to hang the head It is a disquâ—eting to a mans spirit to be covered with shame and confusion O when shall he come and upbraid the soul with his slothfulness What is this thy love to me now is this thy kindness to thy friend is this thy faith and zeal for me that thou hast fallen asleep and slept so long as thou hast done was my Love and my Communion no more worth is this the esteem thou puttest upon it to fall asleep in the midst of it will you have a word to say to Jesus Christ now in such a case will it not be confusion to us O brethren It may be we may bear the shame and reproof of such a sleeping fit upon our backs all our days Besides can it chuse but be a very great distraction to us that when we are awaked and slept out our time and see then that now Christ is at hand the day of his coming is here and we have our work to do in a great part our Lamps to trim will not this be a distraction to us if we do escape the destruction of that day when a servant that hath a house to make ready sleepeth away his time and by and by tidings come his Master is at hand and the house is unready to receive him O what a hurry and confusion and distraction is he in then and what fruit hath he then of his sleeping it ends in bitterness and trouble and disease and therefore Brethren as we tender our peace our Comfort take heed of sleeping Alas you will say what should we do to keep our selves from this sleeping since it is so dangerous I shall propound a few 〈◊〉 to you 1. Then take heed of the beginnings of declinings Aristotle reports the Lyons of Syria bring forth the first year five whelps the next four the next three and so on until they come to a barrenness like Mandrobulus in Lucian who offered to his god the first year gold the second silver and the third nothing See Trap upon Mat. 24. 13. If we would avoid sleeping we must take heed of slumbering of heaviness of any thing inclining to it Do you not mind whether your Love be as hot in prayer as fervent as heretofore if there be a rebatement of it fear it you are going to sleep Observe your selves brethren Is not your Love grown much colder then it was because iniquity doth abound so that you have prejudices so many love is eaten out O that the Lord would help you to look to it at the beginning 2. Take heed of composing or setling your selves too easily this will provoke to sleep O do not put off your Garments with the spouse Men that would not sleep will hardly put off their Clothes nor lay themselves upon a bed Not as if Saints did lose the habits of holiness or grace But the Acts the outward garments they may say aside and so setle themselves to sleep It is vain for a man to hope to be kept waking in such a case O take heed of loving ease wo be to the n that are at ease in Sion Brethren If you be any thing acquainted with the times or your own hearts you will find enough to exercise you Keep in Action acts dispel the vapors which perswade sleep O brethren time shall come when we shall have our graces continually in act why should we not breath after this even upon earth get as near to it as we can 3. Take heed of putting off the day of the coming of Jesus Christ that seemeth â—ere to be the immediate cause of the Virgins slumber and sleeping while the Bridegroom tarryed they thought they might have time enough likely they might take a nap 〈…〉 unbend a little if we would avoid sleeping labour to keep fresh that upon our spirits the appearing of the Lord Jesus a love of that appearing and a fear of an unsuitableness to that appearing when it shall be O brethren that we could once attain to Jobs pitch to wait for our change every day all the dayes of our appointed time I doubt some of us can scarce say that we â—ait for it any day we put it off and therefore no marvel if we sleep It is that which is present which must affect us such is our Constitution things though never so certain and though never so desirable on the one hand or never so dreadful on the other yet they affect not except they be present some way or other present in our thoughts in our expectations present to our faith which is the evidence of things hoped for as once King James said such a man Preacheth as if hell were at his back ready to swallow him up that will keep a man awake either the joy of heaven set before us and as I may say continually present the coming of Christ Or else the terrors of everlasting burnings the immediate Consequent of this day O who can sleep that hath the coming of the Lord fresh upon his spirit 4. Take heed of Pride and self-confidence You see brethren that hath laid the very Watchmen themselves asleep the three chief Apostles If Sampson had not rested upon his own strength would he when he had so many warnings have committed himself again to the Lap of his Dalilah surely no. 5. In the next place take heed of excess in the use of lawful things O saith our Saviour take heed your hearts be over-charged with surfetting or drunkenness and the cares of this life that will quickly lay a man to sleep You know the thorny ground went far and yet though it endured Persecution and the Cup of trembling could not carry away the soul the Cup of delights in the world it laid them asleep the Sun did not burn them but the thorn choakt them Licitis perimus juvenes the time is short saith the Apostle it is rowled up as
is called a new creature to shew us the great transcendent power whereby Jesus Christ is formed in a soul It is the Fathers proper work through the Son by the Spirit the Father giveth it the Son purchaseth it the Spirit applyeth it and works it Create in me a clean heart O God renew a right Spirit within me saith David holiness is a creation and peace is a creation he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace a creation is of nothing or somewhat utterly unfit to receive such a form or being so that the fruit of the lips they are weak and cannot reach such an effect it is Gods Almighty power and the same power that raised up Jesus from the dead that must raise a dead soul to believe in Jesus Christ When Rachel would have of Jacob that which was beyond his power to give he saith Am I in Gods stead that I should give thee children So may the people of God and Ministers say to some sometimes who come to them as if they could give them peace or comfort and expect that as soon as ever they speak a word presently all their doubts and fears should be quelled and subdued no no it is too heavy a weight you lay upon them it is a thing above their reach This the second Thirdly If they were able to do it they have no authority no commission to do it and therefore they may not do it Jesus Christ was annointed for this very end to do the thing I come to do thy will O God in the 40. Psal and what is that will Why that none that the Father hath given him should be lost or perish but his blood and Spirit should be given to them grace and glory should be given to them this is the will of God even your Sanctification and this will he came to do it was that the Father designed him to to deliver his people from their sins therefore was the spirit poured out in such a full measure yea without measure upon the head of this our high-Priest that it might run down to the very skirt of his garment to the very lowest Christian that belongs unto him It is not every member in the body nor any other but the head which is made the seat of the animal Spirits to communicate them to the least and lowest member Now it is not what men are able to do but what they have Commission to do that is authentick If they were able there is no Commission the Lord Jesus only came Authorized to open the Prison doors to Preach deliverance and to give deliverance to the Captives This the third Fourthly If all these did concur in men yet they might want a heart when all is done and then all the rest would avail little to us in our necessity and though it be true the Saints do retain bowels of mercy and do put them on and long-suffering and patience yet alas how short-nostrilled are the best of the Saints in comparison of God Moses his patience was at an end yet the weakest man and had often interceded for them yet ye Rebels must we fetch water out of the rock for you though the murmuring was not against him but against God If a sinner put off getting grace and coming to Christ until the last our patience will hardly hold out so long let the power of my Lord be great as thou hast said c. herein our weakness doth much appear we are ready to cast off and give up men if they come not in quickly and if afterward they do come in we are ready to shut our hearts against them But if there were a heart yet there is no power and that will answer all therefore if we go to the creature for grace we are like to have a denyal Before we apply this or else as a part of the Application shall be to speak somewhat by way of satisfaction to a doubt This seemeth to cross the Scriptures are not the Saints bound to communicate one to another to do good forget not is not this of a larger sense then meerly giving a little of our estates to them if in want So again when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren saith our Saviour to Peter and how can you say then that if we go to the Saints for grace we are like to have a denyal To this I answer the Saints may and ought to communicate their experiences to others as their necessity requireth the humble shall hear hereof and be glad how when his soul made her boast in God And so again the Psalmist as a type of Christ He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mierie clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings he hath put a new song in my mouth c. And what then Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in God And so saith the Apostle That ye may comfort others with the comforts wherewith your selves are comforted of God this is doubtless a duty to communicate our experiences and also to exhort one another while it is called to day as the Apostle hath it and to reprove one another this is a duty but this is far from giving of grace For the more distinct understanding therefore of this note only two or three particulars 1. For any merit of our works we cannot give for indeed there is none at all If we deserve any thing at the hands of God it is wrath and ruine it is meer mercy we are not consumed every time we approach this consuming fire with our filthy garments upon us because his compassions fail not when we have done all commanded if we could do it we are but improfitable servants but alas how infinitely short do we fail of what is commanded in many things in all things we offend all for who doth any thing as he should our sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory there must be a proportion in merit now they are light that is weighty they are for a moment that is eternal and a far more exceeding and eternal weight Now no man can give that which he hath not 2. The glory of our works That we cannot give away that is the Lords that others may see them and glorisie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. 3. The influence of them upon others hearts That we cannot give neither we may speak and do plant and water but it it God that giveth the increase the husband-man may plough and sow and harrow but he cannot give the rain of heaven former and later he cannot give power to the seed to dye and rise again it is beyond his reach who can touch the heart but the Lord he is the God of the Spirits whose dwellings are with our spirits especially and he can fashion them as he pleaseth
Gospel to make manifest the savour thereof Now there is no other name but the name oâ— Jesus Christ whereby men can be saved 2. Because alas there is not any of them but they hold the truth in unrighteousness though they do much yet they have a light more abundant in them then they walk up to It is imprisoned in their understandings not shed abroad upon their hearts so that they could see nothing but folly and that which is worse And so every one must needs be condemned of his own heart Secondly Common grace and gifts of grace that will carry a man very far there is a taste of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come and this will seem to enliven and warm the affections and carry out a man to do great things as those foolish Virgins had and so Ananias and others Thirdly with all these a mans secret false ends concurring help to carry on a man far Judas had the bag which he loved more then Christ and as long as he had the bag he was well enough he could follow on so long as there were loaves to be had by following Christ what multitudes follow him and throng upon him Our Saviour knew their deepest ends though haply they saw them not their hearts were too deep for themselves but not for him So many ends so many springs and weights there are upon a man which will add somewhat of strength to him in his course they are indeed the marrow of the bones that moysten them and give life and vigor to his actions So it may be a man cannot keep his conscience quiet it is roused a little and is dogged and snarls and it will not be quiet except he stop the mouth of it with some duty and service and following the waies of God as to the externals And so a mans glory and honour specially when Religion is in repute it is a dishonour to be esteemed otherwise mens reputations will carry them further then we are aware of Yea if the waies of God were discountenanced yet a man may go far in them upon this end to have his name much set by as a couragious heroical spirit he may suffer much and yet not love Jesus Christ It is then love to himself to his honour or somewhat else that is the ground of it but alas Brethren when all this is done it may carry a man near the Kingdom of heaven but he shall fall short And that upon these two considerations First because though they may come near Christ and haply delude themselves and think they have him yet they never were ingraâ—ted into him and historical faith and temporarie that will comply with the times a man may have and miraculous too and yet never implanted into Christ and then though a man may come near the Kingdom of heaven yet if be he Christless he is undone he must needs be shut out The Lord will in giving those gifts those common gifts of the Spirit to men honour himself by them he will have glory but they may never have the comfort of them they may tend to their further sinking and condemnation Secondly because that all those things though precious in themselves yet they never change a mans heart it remaineth the same still so they never do him real spiritual good Judas a traytor a Devil though it appeared not to men because cloathed over with so many common gifts and graces And so Ananias his heart was not throughly changed Alas Brethren the giving of these gifts to men whereby they do much as a gift of prayer or a gift of prophecying or preaching whereby they do much and pass for eminent persons with men they are but like flowers laid in a window as Doctor Preston compareth them they grow not Or else as outlandish plants removed into another Countrey they grow not they prosper not because the soil is not changed the grace they have doth not redundare in personam make their persons good no more then a pearl in a swines snouâ— changeth the nature of the swine the pearl is a pearl and precious but the swine is a swine and filthy in her disposition And so beauty in a whorish woman it is beautiful and lovely but she is nevertheless whorish and abominable and therefore notwithstanding all the Attainments of a man by nature by common grace by his own ends which will carry him very far put a great lustre upon him seem to bid fair for heaven carry a man after the things of God to the very last it may be yet it will not change a man and therefore no admittance for him he is shut out when all is done First then Brethren If a man may go so far and yet fall short What will become of them that never set foot forward toward heaven to this day It is true many come to hear the word now and then or constantly I make account this is but little when it cometh to the doing the practising What have you done to this day many of you the young man in the Gospel did all those things he thought and that from his youth and yet you see he fell short Thou never didst any of those things thou never didst love the Lord thy God worship him as thou oughtest makest nothing of renting his name in pieces of prophaning his day what else meaneth so many idling so many sporting themselves so many walking up and down so many drinking upon the Sabbath-day thy parents thou never didst honour them thou hast been an unclean wretch injurious thy tongue taught to tell lyes and speak folly a covetous wretch Brethren what do you mean sure you will never come so much as near the Kingdom of heaven If any perish you are the sinners are sure to perish They fell short that came to Canaan what will become of you that never came out of Egypt if you are yet by your flesh-pots your Garlick and Onions of Egypt and will not be beaten off your loathsom delights of the flesh your mirth and company and gaming and dicing and drabbing and drinking Must a mans righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees or he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Do you believe this Brethren What will become of thee then that art so far from what they did they prayed often much and long they fasted often they gave much alms paid tythe of all they were no extortioners nor unjust but thou art such a one they were no drunkards but thou art a drunkard they were no unclean adulterers but thou art one and yet they fell short and where wilt thou appear the Lord shew you how unlikely you are for heaven Secondly this sheweth also the woful condition of hypocrites they carry a sair sail and seem it may be to be driven with as fair a gale as any only there is a Leak sprâ—ng in the bottom and they sink or rock themselves
and feathers compass clothe and adorn the fowl whose wings they are so the rayes do clothe and compass and adorn the Sun as it were how naked would a bird be without his feathers and how naked would the Sun be without his raies and beams Secondly because of the swift motion of the Sun not only in his diurnal course as in Psalm 19. He rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his race but no sooner is the Sun up but he doth in a manner spread his raies to all the Hemisphere as a bird quickly when she riseth spreadeth her wings abroad and therefore the Egypitans Hieroglyph of the Sun was a fowl spreading long wings every way Thirdly because the wings of a fowl are those under which she gathereth her young cherisheth them refresheth warmeth them that they may grow and increase So here the wings of the Sun are those whereby the creatures in their kind are healed and cherished as you know how the body will be benummed and languish with the cold of the night when the Sun beams come to beat on it again how doth it quicken and revive But now for the wings of the Lord Jesus what are his wings as he is the Sun of righteousness whatever answers to this Sun-beams are his wings and what are these In a word then I take them to be the Word and Spirit especially not excluding other Ordinances of Jesus Christ but these especially yea truly the Spirit in the Word and in other Ordinances of Christ I take to be these wings here spoken of The Spirit in the Word even whereby he cometh and preacheth to men even to them that were asar off from Christ is said to come and preach peace by which also saith the Apostle that is by the Spirit he went and preached to the Spirits in prison that now are in prison but not when he sent to preach to them the Spirit of Christ in the Word which Noah preached to them who was a Preacher of righteousness the Lord Jesus went and preached to them I say these are the wings of our Sun of righteousness and so they are called haply for divers reasons First that these proceeding from him even as the raies of the Sun which are his wings proceed from the Sun as the Sun sends forth his beams and influences in a powerful manner so Christ sends forth his light and his truth the Spirit as a person in the Trinity proceedeth from him as from the Father but as to his office to be an enlightening Spirit a quickning Spirit a comforting Spirit so he proceedeth from Christ I will send you the Comforter from the Father he poured out of his Spirit on his Apostles and many others who were to go forth in his name and preach the Gospel to the Nations and the Word he sends it forth out of his mouth proceedeth a two-edged sword which is his Word Secondly as the beams supply the absence of the Sun so doth the Spirit of Christ supply his absence therefore while he was yet present the Spirit was not yet given not poured out in that fulness but when he was to go he comforts his Disciples with this that if he went he would send them the Comforter another Comforter himself was one and he would send them another and that was his Spirit and he should lead them into all truth bring all things to their remembrance and be their Comforter and help their infirmities and so supply the absence of Christ Yea better then if he himself were with them as we use to say the Sun is come into such an house when the beams thereof are come in which do supply the absence of the Sun and better it is for us to have the beams then the Sun in our houses Thirdly because of the swiftness of the opening of the glory of Christ to the last ages of the world O! how swift are the beams of the Sun in a moment darted from heaven to earth and over-spread the whole Horizon So the Lord his Word being quickned by the Spirit doth run very swiftly as the Psalmist hath it in how short a time as the age of the Apostles did it overspread the Horizon gotten as far as Rome and how mightily did it prevail though the Jews did contradict and blaspheme and endeavour to take off the wheels of his Chariots yet it went on never the slower for that it grew and multiplyed Converts unto the face of the Church were as thick as the morning dew on the face of the earth which is generated by the Sun Fourthly as the beams of the Sun carry light and heat and refreshing along with them to the poor languishing earth and other creatures so doth the Spirit and the Word and the Spirit in the Word carries light with it thy Word is a light to my feet and indeed it is not Christ considered alone but as he is held out in the Gospel that is here resembled to the Sun of righteousness as I told you before their sound is gone forth into all the earth that is of them that preached the Gospel of peace and reconciliation through Christ And for heat O! how doth many a poor creature come under an Ordinance with an heartless mind cold and dead and his heart doth burn within him while the Lord by his Spirit hath communion with him in those Ordinances and what refreshings do arise to a poor weary soul when the Lord createth the fruit of the lips peace peace certain undoubted peace he doubleth it for emphasis that peace which passeth understanding and it shall surely be so and suddenly too not long he delights not to hold poor souls in anxiety trouble only what he seeth needful for their humiliation fetching them off themselves and sin and making Christ sweet to them indeed that he may be precious to them Other reasons might haply be given why the Spirit and Word and Ordinances are compared to the Sun which are the wings thereof but this shall suffice The fifth thing what is meant by healing and indeed this is large and as large as our spiritual maladies are some say there is nothing more wholsom then the Sun where it cometh with its beams how doth it purge the air wherein we breath consuming the noysom vapours that arise and would infect it quickly purging the earth from its dregs or else we should quickly find the offensiveness of it So the Lord Jesus by the breaking forth of his Spirit in the Word of Truth doth heal the air consume and scatter the venomous errors of men wherewith we should quickly be all poysoned were it not for this that be makes manifest their folly to all men and they proceed no further He heals the waters the waters of the Sanctuary how often have they been polluted yea poysoned by some and the Lord hath healed them again by his Spirit Again he heals the earth of its barrenness
is so Secondly the quid what this inlargement is which cometh along with Jesus Christ to a Believer Thirdly the quare why it is so And Fourthly the Vse of the Point First then for proof of this peruse a Text or two in that Evangelical Prophet who doth very eminently hold out Jesus Christ I the Lord have called thee in righteousness there is the Call of Christ And I will hold thee by thine hand or hold thine hand there is the support of Christ in that great work and will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant to the people for a light of the Gentiles He is indeed the Spirits of the Covenant the marrow of the Gospel the very Spirits of all the promises is Christ the speech is â—igurative Well but what is he to do To open the blinde eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house Minde you therefore the Lord Jesus was willing as I may say to be imprisoned in our body if I may so say or if not in other respects he was in prison that he might set his people free bring them out of the prison even as Paul when he might would not go free except they came and fetched them out of prison So here sinners would never go out except the Lord Jesus came and fetched them out A Prince for Rebellion casts his Subjects into prison in the dungeon there they lie and would lie and rot there their stomack is so great they will not ask for deliverance nay if they would they cannot set themselves free the Prince cometh with his own hands knocks off the bolts breaks the bars gates and bids them follow him so the Lord Jesus doth for sinners So again in that place of John If the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed there is much liberty and freedom and you will not hear of your being in bondage but saith our Saviour to set at Liberty is not the work of every one it is the Son that only can make you free and if he make you free you shall be free indeed The Lord Jesus you know came into the world not only to work out salvation for his people but to preach the salvation he did work out not only to shed his blood but to preach remission of sins through his blood as the Apostle hath it How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Which at the first began to be spoken to us by the Lord and afterward by those that heard him so that he himself preached salvation he himself did work it out for no other name is given under heaven now he preacheth this as a main part The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted He was anointed there is his Office and because anointed as a Prophet to preach it therefore the Spirit of the Lord was upon him poured out without measure he was gifted and fitted for it which though some understand of Isaiah as well as of Christ yet of Isaiah but as the type Well then to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Now surely if this be the substance of his preaching where he cometh and revealeth himself inwardly to a soul in a soul giveth himself to a soul there must needs be a going forth out of the prison out of the bondage wherein the poor soul was held so we have it in that place saith the Lord again even as in chap. 42. so chap. 49. of Isaiah I will preserve thee and give thee for a Covenant of the people c. That thou mayest say to the prisoners go forth to them that stand in darkness shew your selves and it is no more with God but dictum ac factum his words are operative words mark you they shall Go forth when the Sun of righteousness ariseth upon them his Commission is his work for to say to the Prisoners Go forth if he bid Lazarus come forth he cometh forth he calls the things that are not as if they were commands light out of darkness and so commands Deliverance and Liberty for his poor people that are bound I hope none will say this is all Old Testament proof for this is Gospel as clear as the Sun and to take away all ground of a cavil read but Luke and you shall finde this is the very Text our Saviour preacheth upon to the Jews tells them that day this Text was fulfilled that is to say that he was the anointed of the Lord the Spirit of the Lord was upon him because he was appointed to preach the Gospel to the poor to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and to set at liberty them that are bruised but I may not wast any more time it is but burning day light to hold a candle to the Sun It is written with a Sun-beam except you shut your eyes you must needs see it The second thing Is the quod what this inlargement or freedom is that is here promised and truly this is a large question and wherein most of our work will lie each of us in the general acknowledge a slavery a bondage we are under from which the Lord Jesus doth speak to his people to go forth yea brings them forth but we have not a distinct understanding of it and alas I am the meanest of them who make it their work to preserve knowledge yet as I have received I shall endeavour somewhat this-way to open the nature of this liberty That we may the more clearly proceed we must distinguish of freedom or liberty into Civil and Spiritual Civil is a freedom of maâ—s person from servitude of men so that he shall no more be under â—he yoke and thus the Jews misunderstood our Saviour when he spake of freedom If the Son do make you free you shall be free indeed why said they We are the seed of Abraham we are free-born and we never were in bondage to any man they meant sure they were never particularly sold for servants to any else bred in bondage to any to be their servants not meaning their publick state but private else they much did forget themselves for they had often been in captivity and bondage as in Egypt and Babylon and at present under the Romans but this is not the liberty we chiefly aim at nor may we extend it to this bondage any further then it is a curse now we know the Apostle tels us that if a man be called being a servant care not for it for such an one is the Lord his Free-man neither bond â—or free is there any difference they are all one in Christ therefore our Saviour did not come to break all yokes off the neck of
have known and therefore you deserve a rebuke for it and so it may be good mens faults now a daies but yet they dare not exclude them from the Kingdom of glory Secondly It is to be noted that no unclean thing shall ever enter into that place Children by nature are the children of wrath poor leprous polluted creatures and therefore if there be not a pardoning grace and cleansing mercy for them how can they enter into glory and because we cannot apprehend how it should be conveighed shall we therefore deny it are we not all of us pure receptives in the first grace and are not infants as purely receptives as we Yea are they not more purely receptives then we for though it is true they have the same seeds of rebellion the same spawn the same venomous poysonous nature with our selves miserable sinful off-spring of miserable sinful parents yet according to their own principles they cannot put it forth into such actual rebellion as we and do not the acts increase and strengthen the habits and the stronger the habits are the stronger the opposition is against Christ and therefore they are more purely receptive then we are and therefore Thirdly What hinders but they in as short a time as the thief upon the Cross may be brought to as high a degree of grace as he though in an unspeakable manner Was it not more then ordinary that John leaped within the womb at the voice of the mother of the Lord it was more then ordinary else the mother would not have wondered at it though a miracle it were truly Brethren every work of grace is a miracle and the greater miracle it is to work upon a desperate prophane hard-hearted sinner that hath all his life-time been working wickedness with both hands earnestly to make such an one in one day fit for heaven and glory as the thief upon the Cross where there is greater opposition is not this a greater miracle then the other Beside let it be considered I beseech you what our Saviour saith he that receiveth not the Kingdom like as a little child cannot enter into it It may be some will say this is nothing he compareth his Disciples to Doves and Sheep c. and so he doth to a little child this proveth nothing But let it be considered and weighed and then I leave it to the judgement of impartial persons he saith not only you must be like children and like Doves for innocency he saith not you must be like children for humility and want of envy for love no but ye cannot enter except ye receive the Kingdom as a little child the comparison lies in the receiving the Kingdom as well as in the qualities so that except little children did receive the Kingdom how can the Disciples be compared to them in receiving the Kingdom how can they be as I may say made the very standard in receiving the Kingdom of God we must receive it as little children receive it you never find such a like speech of Doves or Sheep that we must receive the Kingdom as Doves or as Sheep because they are not capable to receive the Kingdom it was never appointed nor prepared for them Now if little children be made as I may say the pattern for humility self-denyal which I tell you Brethren goeth far in Christianity O which is the first step humility the second humility the third humility it reacheth to the top of the Ladder and not only so but the very pattern in receiving the Kingdom of God Surely then such children as we allow as we must allow some else the comparison were not true nor rightly framed they must be allowed to be as holy as any others truly Brethren me thinks if we consider how much innocency there is in these little ones which is not in us O how we have rebelled all our daies which they never have done played the hypocrites before the Lord which they never have done dealt falsly in his Covenant which they never have done have such strong lusts in act and vigour and strong habits of sin pride and envy and hatred to oppose the workings of grace in us which they have none of me thinks it might easily be yielded unto that former supposition that many of them are saved and who dare deny it that they have grace and a great measure so as to be made the standard of receiving the Kingdom therefore they may quickly come to a great height but thus much for this reason I am carried further then I had any thought when I first minded it as an Argument Thirdly Another reason may be because the greater our growth is the more honour he hath from us and the more services and we the more comfort this doth much what concern the growth of such as are of years of understanding for to such I speak I give it therefore as a reason only of the growth of persons of understanding though some part of it may reach others First then hereby God hath the more service Alas what service hath a Father or Mother from a little child when it hangs upon the breast many a weary hand she hath with it in its frowardness but no help at all but when grown up it will do something so while a poor Believer is weak and feeble feeble knees and weak hands alas can scarce stand upon their legs every little wind of temptation or doctrine is ready to blow him over and stagger him he stands scrupling and trembling at every step and doubting he cannot set a foot before another but the Father is fain to take him by the hand and teach him to go as he did Ephraim this is the great time of Gods taking pains like a tender-hearted mother with his children and truly if his bowels were not as a mothers bowels yea much more infinitely he would never endure to handle us so tenderly in all our weakness and loathsomness now when we are grown up into Christ are strong in his might and power then we are able to do him some service and he expecteth it of us though the Lord knoweth we often requite him as Ifrael did after all his tenderness he nourisheth and bringeth up children feeding us with the bread of heaven Manna is our daily bread the Lord Jesus he maketh out somethng of him to us continually whereby we grow and presseth the promises by his own Spirit that they may give down their milk and sweetness to us and when all is done we rebell against him even to the breaking of his heart as he speaks after the manner of men but this costs the people of God dear whoever they be though it be true the Lord hath no need of our service we profit not him at all he can work deliverance for his people and Church if there were never a Hester to pray nor mediate to the King some other way he will do it yet he ordinarily useth
But who may say to God what dost thou He is in one mind and who can turn him and what his Soul desireth even that he doth He performeth the thing that is appointed for us and many such things are with him But though we have nothing to say to God the most wise God about this dispensation yet this saith much to Man This saith much to Ireland whither God sent this burning and shining light Have not they much cause to consider how they prized it how they improved it seeing God put it out so quickly and gave them so short a season to rejoyce in it That he preached so few years to them should be to them an everlasting Sermon And this question should come thick upon the heart of that Church there which was the Candlestick in which God placed this light why was it so why was it so why hath the Lord removed our Teacher into a Corner the very Grave so that our eyes cannot see our Teacher who was also a Pastor after his own heart any more Was he enough in our hearts or was he too much there We may forfeit our enjoyments by too high as well as by too low an esteem of them and by looking too much upon means provoke God to hide it from us But whatever moved the Lord to take him from you it well becomes you to be thankful that you had him though but for a short season in person among you and that so much of him this mant le which fell from him as he was ascending is gathered up and left with you and other Churches as his Monument and Memorial for ever Joseph Caryl Good Reader IT is often seen that good men die soonest our translation to heaven is delayed only till our fitness to enjoy heaven assoon as we are meet for that blessed inheritance we are gathered in like a shock of Corn in its season some ripen for heaven apace and are taken out of the world sooner then others now it is pitty that all their fruit should die with them Christ saith to his Apostles I have ordained you to bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain Intending I suppose not only their reward in heaven and the continuance of Believers begotten by them to God who in a very commodious sense are the surviving fruit of their labours but also their Doctrine consigned to the use of future ages by writing The writings of the Apostles I confess are more necessary then those of private men as making up the Canon and rule of Faith but yet the explications of ordinary Pastors and Teachers have their use and benefit and it is a commendable diligence in them that gather up the fragments of good men that nothing be lost It pleased God to call up this worthy servant of Jesus Christ to heaven betimes it were pitty that the Sermons coming from such a warm and affectionate spirit should die away with the breath in which they were uttered as his fruit remaineth I hope in the hearts of many that heard him so is it wrapt up in these papers by the diligence of his surviving friends to preserve it from perishing and forgetfulness It s an happiness though not to be hoped for yet to be wished for that none would write in this publick way but very holy or very learned men who either from their profounder knowledge of the mysteries of godliness or inward acquaintance with the workings of the Spirit are most likely to improve or keep alive the Doctrine of God in the Christian world this worthy instrument thou wilt find to be a man by no means of dispicable abilities but chiefly excelling in a gracious heart and much inward experience in the things of God and though deep speculations and luscious language is not here to be expected yet many wholsom and heart-warming truths delivered in a grave and unaffected stile which if my hopes deceive me not will be of great use to quicken this dull and carnal age to a greater study and vigour of holiness and therefore being desired I could not but recommend these Sermons to thy best acceptance I am Covent-Garden this 19. of Jan. 1656. Thine in the Lords work Tho. Manton De. Authore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Per Tho. Gloverum Warwicensis Scholae Ludimagistrum De Eodem FAllor an ipse tuo Murcotte per omnia vives Saecula cum terris corpus inane jacet Dignus es aeterna qui laude feraris ad astra Cui novi terras vix peperisse parem Mortuus es Murcotte at saeva morte triumphas Quem non Lethaeis sors dare quivit aquis Membra licet jaceant tristi resupina sepulchro Facta tamen nolunt saecula sera mori Per Eundem CHristian come hither read and reading mind And thou shalt here a Directory find A light indeed but borrowed from heaven Which will direct to keep thy foot-steps even Whilest that a darksom wilderness we tread The fiery Pillar will us safely lead See here 's a Pillar on which who casts his sight Shall see a flame out-shining all false light Through which maugre the spight of mankinds foe He shall to the coelestial Canaan go Where that Star shines now in perfection Which sparkled here for Saints direction per me Tho. Glover Warwicensis Scholae Ludimagistrum The Table of the Scriptures opened and explained in this Volumn  Genesis  Chap. Ver. Page 4 7 120 17 12 487 25 8 329  Exodus  1 13 490 16 25 370 20 20 553 32 12 395 34 7 636  Leviticus  19 23 89 25 41 517  42 ibid.  44 487  45 530  46 ibid.  Joshua  1 5 430 18 3 296  2 Samuel  3 16 523 9 13 219  1 Kings  11 13 394 22 29 159  Nehemiah  8 10 341  Job  2 22 393 5 26 326 8 07 558 16 00 066 19 27 137 21 from 7 to 9 133 31 1 364  21 236 33 26 182  Psalms  1 3 245 4 3 091 18 23 235 36 08 340 40 6 532 51 17 281 75 8 344 76 5 193 84 7 561 92 12 560 94 7 402 111 10 p. 81 See this in the first subject Circumspect walking 119 59 76. See this in the first subject Circumspect walking c.  Proverbs  1 26 315 3 14 367 4 27 61 See this in the first subject Circumspect walking c. 9 1 353  2 ibid.  4 357 12 10 396 24 5 605 26 23 399  Eccles  2 9 558  Canticles  2 7 81 See this in the first subject Circumspect walking  11 419 4 10 350 5 1 ibid.  2 158 168 184  3 160 161  Isaiah  1 5 442 443  6 ibid. Â
and to secure a carnal interest by corrupt compliances His mouth was not gagg'd with a wedge of gold or his lips sown up with the silken thread of preferment Being poslessed of the pearl of price he thought himself rich enough and having food and raiment he was therewithall content If any thing considerable were providentially cast in it was not greedily gaped after and extorted by much pressing importunity and incroaching crouching attendances The things which he possessed he was ignorant of as not willing to intermiddle at all in the matters of the world that so he might in a more serene way and maner have his conversation in heaven from whence he expected the Saviour Christ was so fair and full in his eye that in comparison of him all other enjoyments though swelling to a mountanous bulk were but motes and molehills He admired not the beauty of any Rose save that of Sharon The flower-planted without hand was lovely in his sight and sweet unto his smell He tasted such surpassing and heart-ravishing sweetness in communion with Christ that the edge of his appetite to the things of the world was exceedingly blunted and rebated The love of God being shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost he valued not the favor or the frowns of the children of men Whilst others had their beilies cleaving unto the dust he almost loathed to touch it with his feet so far was he from panting after the dust of the earth He preferred grave contentments and solid delights before the fleeting and transcient titillations of the exterior senses How much better are the wholsome severities of Religion then the fulsome satisfactions of the flesh His heart and hands were mightily inlarged in a way of charitable contribution even to considerable summs when the necessitous condition of others called for speedy succours and supplies What he gave was not grudgingly but of a ready mind He did not say Come again and to morrow I will give thee when he had â—t by him He gave liberally and sowed bountifully He cast hâ—s bread upon the waters knowing that after many dayes he should find it His meekness was remarkable as knowing it was his glory to pass by an offence the reproaches of rayling Rabshakâ—hs he thought not worth the taking notice of He was not easily stirred up to anger but had a sweet calm in his spirit though sometimes blown upon by the surly winds of unhandsome provocations Passionate expressions fell not from him though naturally of an harsh and hasty temper He would not say I will do unto the man as he hath done to me but chose rather to do good for evil and melt rather then exasperate his adversaries by heaping up coals of kindness upon their heads Humility is not without cause stiled the grace of graces as being that which adds a lustre to them and makes them the more orient and resplendent He who is low in his own esteem is high in the esteem of God and good men Pride the prevailing sin of the Professors of this age is that which doth darken sulley cloud our otherways laudable endowments it is that worm which makes the greenest gourd to wither and the fairest flower to lose its native beauty Self-depressions provided they be sincere are always attended with exaltations and plentifull supplies from the fountain of all grace and goodness Humility was Master Murcot shâ—ning grace which though low in its self it was taller then the rest by the head and shoulders Soâ—e exâ—ressions of it are these that follow 1. His mean thoughts of himself though his gifts graces performances rendred him considerable yet the esteem which he had of himself was very small His face did shine as that of Moses to the dazling of others eys yet he saw it not himself nor could endure to be told by others that it did so but would cry out of a snare 2. His high thoughts of others gifts and graces though possibly coming short of his The proud man looks upon others enjoyments and attainments with a cloudy and discontented eye which in Master Murcot drew forth commendations and serious thanksgivings unto God 3. His condescending to men of low degree whose company and converse he â—i 〈…〉 dained not especially if godly He delighted not to be busily buzzing about the Chambers and Tables of great men but could sweetly solace himself with the society of the meanest Christian 4. His temptations to pride and puffings up were not a few having the high and bosome respects of great and small the applauses commendations gratulations of the generality of the people and great success of his labours When others would be lifting him up he still croucht and lay low He was none of those whom a freer access and a more open bosome a kinder glance and a more favourable nod from great men swell with self-conceit and pâ—ff up into a lofty disdain of their poor brethren so that they must not be approacht without much complementall observance and cringing incurvations 5. His garb had nothing of vanity and gaudry in it The vile raiment was more pleasing to him then silks sattins and plushcoats He was none of those Court-preachers whose extraordinary spruceness gay apparrel and bridling deportment are shrewdly suspected to be nought else but the frothy ebullitions of a proud and vain spirit He was no Borderer upon Religion dwelling only in the out-fields and confines of godliness but was admitted into its interiour and secret recesses Religion indeed was his business which he prosecuted with all his might The world had but a small portion of his time and a very slender interest in his affections He was grown as dexterous in the exercise of grace and in the successful promoting and carrying on of the holy life as others are in growing rich greatning themselves and providing for Posterity He was afraid of digging in the earth lest a cold damp should arise to dimm his light and suffocate his celestial comforts His constant commerce was with heaven and surely that trade which he drove was for rich commodities He adventured his all and was blessed with daily returns to his unspeakable advantage Though he were a stranger in this earth yet he was not so to his Saviour or himself which will plainly appear if you consider what his daily practise was for some years before his death He kept an exact Diary of his own life in which he was very curious and methodical in one Column or side of the page he would set down the Good in the other opposite against it the Evil. His intention doubtless was never to make either the whole or any part of it publick yet judicious Christians apprehending that several Passages in it may tend very much to the edification of others some choice flowers growing here and there in this spacious and odoriferous garden I have pickt up made into a Posie and do here expose them to publick view
Chapter then to love and walking in love not in heart only but it must be expressed actually as Jesus Christ expressed his love to us in giving up himself for us then he dehorts them from several vices as fornication uncleanness covetousness filthiness foolish speaking and jesting which are not convenient yea these are things will exclude from the Kingdom of heaven Let no man deceive you with vain words as if there were no such danger in such a loose walking those are vain words believe it saith the Apostle For these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience therefore it is no light matter I deal with you about therefore the Apostle concludeth be not therefore partakers with them partake not of the sins of the children of disobedience lest you taste of the wrath which cometh upon their heads for these their iniquities The Apostle goeth on to back this his Admonition that they be not drawn away with the error of the wicked with many arguments As because now their condition was changed they were men of other principles no marvel if heretofore while they were darkness they walked as children of darkness and did work and had fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but now they were children of the light and therefore must walk as they were and they were fruits of the Spirit now they must bring forth they were goodness righteousness and truth besides it is the part of godly men and good children to approve themselves to God and submit to him in all things besides the works of darkness are unfruitful and shameful it is a shame to speak of the things they do in secret they were such in themselves and they will at last be revealed to the confusion of the authors of them to all which he addeth a testimony from Scripture that God doth generally every where call upon men to arise from their sleep and death in sin and he is ready to enlighten them he speaks no more but what the Scripture of old did speak some difficulty is in this Verse but it is beside our purpose Now the words of the Text are as I may say a Repetition and re-inforcing the general Proposition That the Saints ought to have their conversation adorned with every vertue or grace and the fruits of them and to keep themselves pure and innocent and free from the corruption of the world From all the former Arguments he laies down by way of Inference and Conclusion this charge in v. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore because so and so as you have heard See to it That you walk circumspectly the Argument inforcing it is in the following words not as fools but as wise It is a part of great wisdom to walk circumspectly And from the general in the 16. verse the Apostle descends to a particular and special piece of this circumspect walking and a notable evidence of this wisdom and that is the redeeming the time and backeth this with a strong argument because the days are evil Without any further stay in the Porch let us now enter the House and view some of the rooms of it there are many things note-worthy in the words the first that I shall take up at this time is this It is a duty Christians are strictly charged with to walk circumspectly Here it will be requisite to enquire what is meant by this Circumspect walking and then Secondly to make it good that it is a duty so strictly charged upon the Saints and Thirdly why it is so and then Fourthly Apply it For the first What it is to walk Cirrumspectly Here we have the Maâ—ter and the Manner of a Christians conversation the Matter that is expressed by a Walking which indeed doth comprehend all the actions of a Christian life in conformity to the Law and Will of Jesus Christ which is the Way nothing more ordinary then to express a Christian course by a walking and sometimes by a running in a race but by a walking here it is expressed and indeed this doth include all a mans actions his spiritual actions towards the Lord they are a part of this walking their praying meditating hearing receiving conferring living by faith all these are his spiritual actions Secondly A mans civil conversation also cometh under this walking for the Rule and Will of Christ hath an influence over that to bound it and limit it There is no calling which is lawfull but a man may therein abide with God if it be never so mean and this is another part of the walking while men are diligently imployed in their particular Callings out of obedience to his holy command they are in their way and walking to heaven as well as when they are in the spiritual part of the walk and so much the more while they have spiritual hearts in this walk ever and anon taking a turn in heaven and having their civil conversation in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle saith Thirdly even mens natural actions are a part of this way also of the Matter of this walking as eating drinking sleeping c. when they are used with moderation and an end to befit us only for our spiritual and civil conversations when men eat and drink for strength and not for lust for drunkenness and eat in due season as to whet when the Sythe is dull so that even these actions are a part of the walk also and that it is to be taken in this latitude will appear if we consider the particulars the Apostle presseth them too here as parts of that walking Now to walk you know speaks a motion it is opposed to standing or lying or sitting still the whole world lieth in wickedness and moveth not hand nor foot they have their grave-cloaths upon them are bound hand and foot and are melting away in their lusts and therefore they walk not towards heaven there is a sitting in the seat of the scornful when men have taken up their rest in sin and are at the height that they scorn the Travellers Zion-wards with their faces thither indeed there is a contrary walking to this walking in the counsel of the ungodly in the way of sinners a walking with sinners hand in hand having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but that motion is from other principles even the flesh and this from the Spirit and by other rules the custome of this world to which they are conformed the examples of sinners the commands of their tyranical lusts and for other ends both of the Walk and the Walker in it the Walk the end of those ways is death there is a way which seemeth right to a man but the end thereof are the ways of death and the end of the Walker is to chear his heart and to satisfie his lusts but this walk we speak of is a contrary motion to that of the world 2. There is a terminus à quo from
whence they walk and that is from sin and self and Satan and sinners and the wrath which is to come but specially from sin they walk this is the scope of all their ways to get above sin 3. There is a terminus ad quem and that is to God in Christ as a holy God and a blessed God that we might enjoy him as such from hell to heaven and therefore conversion when men are first turned their posture is turned it is called a turning them from the power of Satan unto God 4. This motion is a progressive motion that is to say a man goeth forward in it not round about as a horse in a Mill and is at night where he was in the morning but as a horse or Traveller upon the Road which rids his ground he getteth ground every step and so should we go on toward perfection daily die to sin daily get somewhat further off it and to the world and get nearer to heaven daily we should see to it that we grow from strength to strength 5. It is a constant motion for a man that walks to such an end of a Journey he giveth it not over until he come to the end of it so should we constantly be moving until we come to the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 6. A pleasant motion to a man that is cured of his lameness and is no longer a Cripple as by Nature we are the way is pleasant Walks are for delight and sure the ways of Wisdom are pleasantness and her paths are peace the yoak is easie the burthen is light and so much that though the Saints by reason of the souls dependance upon the body in its actings and its being bound up as I may say under sences which are weak and cannot hold out long I say by reason of this they are weary in the ways of God yet not weary of them but they are pleasant to them his commandments are not grievous to them but this is not the thing which I intend to speak to from the words but rather the exactness and circumspection in walking See then that ye walk cicrumspectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First then to this exact walking there must go a rule he that walks exactly walks by a rule ad amussi◠as the Carpenter if he work accuratly doth all by rule and measure when men walk as I may say in a frame and cut by a thread not rove out their lives they have a clue in this dark world and by that they walk saith the Apostle to the Galatians As many as walk by this rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence the Scripture the Law of God which is the rule of holy walking is called Canonical being a straite rule they are right words words of righteousness given by one Shepheard such as will not lead us crookedly so then this is the first that of a mans own conscience at the best is but regula regulata and at the worst is but a blind guide and a leaden rule that is easily bowed and set to countenance the crookedness of a mans own ways to the Law and to the Testimonies if he would walk exactly Secondly There must be knowledge to understand and know this Rule and Wisdom rightly to apply it to the direction of our ways else we cannot walk exactly to walk exactly is to walk wisely as you have it here not as sools but as wise of which afterward but for the present we may note That a fool cannot walk cirumspectly and therefore the Apostle so often presseth it upon the Saints that they should walk wisely Walk in wisdom saith he towards them which are without be wise as Serpents saith our Saviour I say there must be a knowledge of the way of the rule else how shall our steps be measured by it how shall a man tred and keep to the path he knoweth not and therefore sottish ignorance of the Will and Way of Christ is an ill preparative to this exact walking can a blind man walk exactly or circumspectly that cannot see which way he goeth it is an hundred to one but he turneth and goeth another course but this is not all there must be a right application of the rule to our actions it is not every one that hath his rule that knoweth how to use it it is a good part of the Architects skill to use his Rule well and his Plum and by them to discern exactly the frame of his building yea to direct it when he is building so here there must be wisdom how sadly do men and women of lively affections for God miscarry for want of wisdom Zeal without Knowledge is no exact walking it hurrieth a man violently not giving time to consider whether right or wrong so Saul had a zeal for Israel and Judah and in that zeal slew the Gibeonites which were of the Amorites but now in Covenant with Israel his zeal out-ran his wisdom and so the Iews had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and so had the Apostle himself concerning zeal persecuting the Church he thought verity he ought to do many things against that way Acts 26 9. and the time shall come men shall think they do God good service if they kill you so then there may be a being righteous over-much which is forb dden not as if the Lord did in his Word allow a loathsome lukewarmness a detestable indifferency and neutrality in the ways of God so as that men should abate something of their strictness and stoop and accommodate themselves to the exigence of the hard times they live in but the meaning is that a man should moderate his zeal and temper it with godly wisdom whereby knowing how to apply the rule to his condition and walking with caution he may avoid much danger which otherwise he would unnecessarily involve himself into as some of the Martyrs that would thrust themselves upon suffering when they need not they are as Sheep in the midst of Wolves therefore be wise as Serpents and yet innocent as Doves a hard lesson I must needs acknowledge and great need of a more then ordinary help of Gods Spirit to discern their duty here in particular cases and actions you see how Paul insinuates into Foelix he would not make him his enemy if he could avoid it keeping a good conscience and so Iacob to his brother Esau how much Courtship he useth he stands not now upon the terms with him but how humbly he submits himself to him and was it not better then to have ruffled with him and provoked him to his hurt Thirdly To walk exactly circumspectly is to keep close and not to warp from the straight path because others do err 1. He will not do as the most do to follow the multitude is no rule to him though the greatest part of
and Harts of the field that you stir not my beloved before he please stir him not by any unseasonable importunity nor by any provocation drive him away for if you do this will be offensive to the Roes creatures easily frighted away that are wild and but beginning to be tamed now this is wise walking and that of the Psalmist The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have they that keep his commandments his praise endureth for ever the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom this is the head the top of wisdom the principal part for this comprehends the first part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rule that is to say that which guides us to a right worshipping of God in Spirit and in Truth which is the first thing this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the godliness the Scripture so often maketh mention of to be exact in this is the beginning the first born of wisdom and the end of wisdom is to keep his Commandments all his Commandments respecting man and God or else fear of God is put for the inward principle of obedience and keeping the Commandments for the real demonstration of it in a holy and righteous conversation which way ever you take it a good understanding they have that keep them so that it is an effect and argument of wisdom Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the earth they are usually or would be wise men already I but there is one piece of wisdom that the Laws of men teach not but the School of Christ and that is Kiss the Son lest be he angry ye perish from the way or in the way and so another Scripture saith This shall be your wisdom in the sight of the Nations if ye keep the Commandments of the Lord they shall say surely this Nation is a wise and understanding people I will beleave my self wisely in a perfect way saith the Psalmist if ye walked in a perfect way and exactly it would be wise walking indeed and therefore you shall find that all grace and ability and strength whereby we are enabled to walk the ways of God aright it is called Wisdom get Wisdom get Understanding Wisdom is the principal thing and what is this but an ability to walk the ways of God exactly no more for proof For the further confirmation of this Doctrine take these Considerations First It is wisdom to propound a right end to chuse the chief good for his chief end is a principal part of wisdom the Heathens professing themselves wise they became fools they thought they were able by the creatures to run up to the first being and so the first and chief good but wofully they were mistaken A fool he is that works for no end as many men do they bowl away the greatest part of their lives without any mark that they aim at that is good this is the folly which is bound in all mens hearts it is wisdom then to have a mark whereat men aim in all their actions and to have this mark the chief good the right end whereto all should he directed to make him who is the Alpha the Omega it is no small peice of wisdom The eys of a fool are in the ends of the earth but wisdom is before him that hath understanding here and there and every where vvhen they should be fixed upon some mark or stop to which all should be directed as the Apostles vvere he had his mark in his eye still and they should let their eys look right on this is wisdom indeed Now this is one peice of exact walking and a main one too thus to eye the first and chief good that is to say God himself for our last end to propound him to our selves as the center of our souls wherein alone we can rest with satisfaction Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire in comparison of thee this was a wise man indeed this is the first Wisdom consists in the provision of the end Secondly To provide and make use of the right means to this end in general is another piece of this Wisdom the wise mans eys are in his head if a man have never so good an end and yet know not which way to compass it nor how to go about to gain it this is a fool when a man hath the mark in his eye to set the byas the wrong way and so to go clear off this end argues not skill but weakness his heart is at his left hand and indeed herein is most evident the power of Wisdom to discover the right means for such an end as will make a man happy and to know how to make use of them and accordingly to improve them for that end the Wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way now who is it that doth this but the circumspect exact walker others they turn the byas another way some to prophanness others to heresie c. they tread not the track at all as if a man intending to go South-ward takes his course quite Northward clean contrary So men intend heaven but their course bends hell-ward sure this is folly no no Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and he alone and therefore this is Wisdom brethren to know who is the Wisdom of the Father to come to him close with him walk in him as we have received him Thirdly It is Wisdom and great Wisdom for men then to take the nearest way and easiest way to a thing Labour in vain is not the character of a wise man that doth movere non promovere◠now it is labour in vain to go a further way about or a worse way to an end when there is a nearer and better frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora how many miles doth a Spaniel run in his excursions to no purpose whereas if he kept close after his Master he would not nor need to tyre himself so much nothing near and so it is with many a soul that doth follow Jesus Christ indeed but they follow him not closely do rove and ramble many times and then are fain to come in again to the way by the weeping cross the by-paths being rough and harsh and full of pricking bryers and wounding thorns no surely brethren the rule of holy walking is the straitest path that leadeth most directly to heaven there is no nearer way then God hath there chalkt out for us and therefore the exact walker that keepeth closest to this rule to walk according to this rule he goeth the nearest way men dream they have a nearer and an easier way then this strict and strait path but alas it is but a dream when they awake they find they are far wide from the vvay and therefore are drawn
when thou hast heaped up Gold as the dust and Rayment as the clay and withall hast gotten a wound in thy Soul a worm in thy Conscience the rot and canker eats into thy soul what hast thou gotten who will be the wiser man when the sins whereby thou hast gotten this beginneth to stare like so many devils in thy face though thou hast builded thee an house a fair house and chambers by wrong and he that dwels in a tent is contented with a meaner condition with a good Conscience when the stone beginneth to cry out against thee out of the wall and the timber out of thy chambers and thy ears are full and thy heart full of the cry of thy sins and guilt whereby this hath been gotten who will prove the wise man then O surely Religion maketh not men fools Secondly It may be a word of retortion and serve to fasten the folly then upon the wisdom of the World Wordlings think the people of God fools for their preciseness but the Saints know them to be fools will ye believe when the Lord speaks do not harden your hearts now and say thou speakest falsly in the name of the Lord. Read that passage of the Apostle and tell me what you think then The Wisdom of the World is foolishness with God is not God the only wise God and do you think the Lord can be mistaken though we that are poor weak creatures like your selves may be mis-judge yet sure the Lord cannot he is wisdom it self and it is foolishness with God he judgeth it so and believe it they are wise whom he maketh wise and they are fools and that is folly whom he accounteth so by the rule of contraries it followeth if to walk circumspectly be to walk as wise men then to walk loosly and at large is to walk as fools according to our Text I will give you but two or three Demonstrations of their folly it may be the Lord will convince some poor creature of the folly of his ways First It is folly for men to pitch upon a wrong end to place their happiness in any thing but the chief good indeed now this is evident enough too plain that men of the world they do place their happiness in worldly things they have their god to worship as well as the Saints The lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life to which the Apostle reduceth all that is in the World their pleasures their riches their honours these are their ends to which they drive on all their designs and here they rest and sit down and look no farther many of them now is not this a gross mistake and grievous folly to end so low as the earth and what the would can afford which will appear if we consider 1. That none nor all these things will run parallel with the souls to eternity therefore if they could make a man happy as long as he enjoyed them yet afterward they would then encrease his misery when they leave him fuisse faelicem miserum It is perishing bread uncertain riches many times they make wings and are gone even he himself outlives them a miserable happiness that a poor mortal creature can out-live if not yet the soul out-lives them he can carry nothing away with him saith the Text the poor soul must appear in its nakedness before â—he Lord Judge at that day of appearing after death and soul and body to eternity after the Resurrection shall never be the better for them alas the remembrance then of your pleasures and honours and riches will be but a sting to your souls to eternity that such enjoyments you had and used them no better 2. As they continue not so while a man can keep them they cannot they do not satisfie the soul if any man could Solomon might have pickt out an happiness out of them when he had so much wealth to procure them so much wisdom to improve them so gave himself to find out but the sum is vanity of vanities not only vain but vanity and vanity of vanities and all is vanity the greatest vanity they are empty there is no substance in them they will not satisfie the soul there is no sutableness between such earthy things and a spiritual being nor equality between their greatest vastness and the largeness of a soul they can never fill it and therefore it can never rest but the more a man hath the more he would have still drinking doth but increase their thirst and therefore well might the Psalmist bebeast and befool himself for setting such an esteem upon them So foolish was I and ignorant and even as a beast before thee when he thought them to have more in them then they had and therefore that they were the happy men that flourished and it was in vain for him to cleanse his heart c. Secondly If they should or do propound a right end yet they miserably miscarry in the means towards this end For First There are some that are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge at all and if men make God and Heaven their end is this the way to it will the way to the devil and the way to hell bring a man to Heaven and yet this is the course that most men run as if men would be saved by contraries and were Christians by antiphrases because they are most unchristian surely Brethren the Spirit of God and the Scriptures every where hath determined sin to be folly and calleth sinners fools therefore we read of working folly in Israel so much now if one part of Wisdom be to aim at the right end surely Wisdom agreeth notwith it self if this be another part of Wisdom the Wisdom to do evil which indeed is improperly called wisdom but it is a cursed skill and ingenuity which men have whereby they are more industriously wicked this is so far from Wisdom that it is the very height of folly Again Secondly It is the Wisdom of the World to get a name of Christianity and therewith satisfie themselves take the power who will so they have the name and pass for Saints gain is their godliness and when they have gotten the gain by it the Godliness they care not to walk in but in their pleasures of sin the shew of Religion is profitable but not the reality it is burthensom is not this folly with a witness can the Shadow be profitable and not the Substance the Shell and Husk and not the Kernel can that be profitable whose Praise is of men and not that whose praise is of God Again As the top and crown and quintescence of their folly they are wiser in their own conceit then several men that can render a reason as he spaaks of the sluggard and such are all those that will not be at pains for God and for Heaven if men might devote all the
fore-runner or harbinger of death that cry from the Rod hath a voice and that voice is Gods voice he speaks in it and it is not an ordinary voice but a crying voice the word it whispers the loud crying of the word is but a whispering in comparison of the voice of God in the Rod it cryeth hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mind it if a Judgement be upon a City is there any evil in a City and he hath not wrought it it cryeth to the whole City louder then Jonah did repent repent for you may perish and come to the tribunal within less then 40. daies or hours So every disease in a family cryeth to the family cryeth to the person prepare make ready that we need not such a message as the Prophet Isaiah brought to Hezek the voice of God in the Rod cryeth prepare make ready for he is coming here is a blow that the Tabernacle of Clay is ready to tumble and then soul where wilt thou appear if thou be not ready Or else Thirdly by cry it may be meant as Chrysost Theophyl Jer. Hilary Aret. and others understand it of the last trump of the arch-Angel Arise ye dead and come to Judgement this will be such a cry Brethren as will make all the world ring of it indeed that will pierce to the bottom of the deep to make it give up its dead to the bowels of the earth to make it give up its dead Then shall all arise the dead in Christ shall rise first Well this cry goeth before or accompanyeth this coming of the Bride-groom Fourthly Then he cometh For the heavens now must contain him until the Consummation of all things and then he will come to judge quick and dead he that shall come will come though he seem long to the people of God he that shall come will come then mockers shall know where the promise of his coming is they shall know their Judgement lingers not nor damnation slumbereth not He will come soon enough for all too soon for many poor creatures the Lord grant none of us be found in our sinful condition Fifthly The time is at midnight The Jews have a tradition that the coming of Christ to Judgement will be at midnight and hereupon the Primitive Christians it should seem did use to watch all night the Eve of the Pass-over expecting his coming as Jerom reports saith Beza but to be wise above what is reason you see whether it leads men in the dark for what is more directly against our Saviour his own words Of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in heaven but my father only At midnight with respect to the solemnity of the marriage that is to say later then usually and therefore unexpected when all was silent nocte intempestâ when deep sleep useth to seize upon men The man of the house at midnight his eyes are sealed up with sleep and when he least dreameth of the thief then he cometh and surprizeth him So the Lord Jesus like a thief in the night when men usually are least aware most uncomposed and unfit for his coming for the most part The rest of his actions in this Parable will come in under the other part which is the Church for you have in the general First the subject of this comparison the Kingdom of heaven and what that is I shall not need here to speak much of it hath various expressions in Scripture It is not I conceive here taken for the Kingdom of glory for there are no foolish Virgins members of that Kingdom No nor the Kingdom of grace which is within the Saints for the same reason Nor yet for the Administrations of the Kingdom as sometimes it is taken But it is taken here for the visible Church of Jesus Christ wherein some are wise some are foolish Some hold out some fall short of heaven and the glory of God and some are crowned enduring to the end and thus much for the opening of that expression Second thing in general to be noted is the time Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened compared or shall be like then when even when the Son of man shall come Brethren to solemnize the marriage with such as he hath here espoused to himself then when we come to appear before him all together it shall most evidently appear to be so But in a sort it is so in every mans particular Judgement at his death or dissolution there is a Specimen given to the truth of this parable and this appears from the connexion of this Chapter with the former the last ver of the former Chapter he speaks of cutting in sunder that evil servant that presuming upon the Masters delay should beat his fellow-servants and eat and drink with the drunken he shall cut him in sunder and give him his portion with hypocrites where is weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened to ten Virgins And though then the spirits of many just men be already made perfect and many hypocrites already in the everlasting chains of darkness yet because they have been members of the visible Church in a sort all such may come under such a consideration at the great and terrible day of his appearing when the sheep shall be set upon his right hand and the goates on his left hand as you have it in the latter end of this 25. Chapter Now for the Church visible compared to ten Virgins There are two sorts brethren in a visible Church such as are Saints indeed and do enjoy the Lord Jesus and have that Kingdom of God even righteousness peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost within them and such as are only so nomine tenus they go for such with men who cannot search the heart ought not to judge the heart immediately but tenderly and alway with the greatest favour to judge of men Now such is this Kingdom of heaven here mentioned And therefore we will consider what is said of them two waies cast it two waies haply it may appear the more clearly and distinctly to our understanding First We will consider what in the parable is common to them both to Hypocrites and Formal Professors with real Saints who possess and enjoy Jesus Christ Secondly We will consider what is peculiar to either of them and set contraria juxta se they wil give light each to other and this briefly First then for the things wherein they agree or which are common to Saints indeed with Saints in appearance only or seeming and real Saints They are all of them called Virgins not in commendation of virginity as Jerom did childishly conceive as Calvin noteth But to Virgins they are compared either only because in the marriage solemnity the Virgins used to go forth to meet the Bridegroom and bring him to his Chamber So here they must go forth to meet the Lord Jesus Or else
hapness in it to behold him and not to enjoy him and therefore this is but the same thing with that in the New Jerusalem the holy City coming down from God even out of heaven as a Bride adorned for her husband and the Angel said come and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs wife where the Bride and Guests are one and the same surely onely considered under a divers notion according to the nature of the similitude or comparison and so it is in this place Yea that which seemeth farther off in the comparison of the prothesis in the apodosis cometh as near that is to say of young men the friends of the Bridegroom the children of the Bride Chamber they also are a part of the Bride for they are these Virgins also though in the comparison male and female are distinguished yet in Christ no difference Well then these virgins the wise virgins though considered here onely as accompanying the Bride the Queen to the Bride-groom Yet they are the Bride herself indeed now herein is the mystery of the Saints communion with Christ transcendent and wonderful that though they be marryed to him yet they are virgins still It is true an espousal of a virgin deflours her not but she continueth so until the consummation of the marriage though the Jews had another manner of custom sometimes to espouse by copulation though afterwards it was forbidden with them See Goodw. Antiq. Jud. yet when the Saints have the fullest nearest marriage communion with Jesus Christ yet they are virgins yea the purer their virginity is then the Idols of their hearts they are fully cleansed from according to that Gospel-promise I will cleanse them from all your Idols then it is done fully And this is the virginity of the Saints it lyes in their union and fellowship with Jesus Christ and none else thus saith Theophil from Chrys is a wonder that she should be marryed yet a virgin and the more for marriage communion the Church with J. Christ the purer her virginity is the more perfectly is she cleansed from Idols and all uncleanness The truth is brethren we are never virgins until we come to be espoused to him but all filthy fornicators and unclean persons wallowing in our filthiness and now when once the Lord Jesus lays hold upon us for his we begin to be virgins where again the transcendency of grace above nature which is the ground of the comparison if it reacheth not the thing compared to it And so though they go a whoring afterward from the Lord Jesus play the Harlots as he complains of Judah and Israel you know often in the Prophets that is to say by going after other objects of worship then himself other lovers yet when they return to their own husband again why then they become virgins Now though Judah had been wofully corrupted with Idolatry in the days of Ahaz that Ahaz There is a brand set upon him worthily by the spirit of God for he corrupted the people above measure shut up the doors of the House of God had Altars in every corner of the City in the open places as the Pharisees prayed in corners the places where many streets met impudent whoredoms in the face of the Sun they discovered their sin as Sodom yea they cut in pieces many of the vessels of the Temple and brought in so much filthiness into it as that they were sixteen days cleansing it Now they played the Harlot and therefore wrath was against them and all Israel for that But now when in Hezekiah his days the doors of the house were opened they repented he called upon them to turn to their God set up his pure worship again though to his own cost and charge for the daily burnt Sacrifice a high example for godly Princes you have the memorable story in 2 Chron. Well now when Sennacherib cometh up against them saith the Lord The virgin daughter of Sion hath despised thee before an Harlot an impudent one commiting abominations in the very corners of the streets now the virgin daughter of Sion here is indeed wonder upon wonder in this but I doubt I stay too long upon these things The next thing is the Bridegroom The Person that stands now in relation to the Bride who is it but the Lord Jesus Immanuel God with us Married to us in our nature taking that upon himself It is no mean Person brethren that is the Bridegroom but he who is God equal with the father and counteth it no robbery to be equal with him He who is the shining forth of his fathers glory the express image of his fathers person this is he brethren What shall I say brethren Alas I doubt I shall dishonour him by speaking of him 1. If you look upon his birth who can declare his generation It is that people do much look at in their marriages and there is somewhat in it though happily not so much as men place in it among men but here there is very much He is the Son of God The Jews lookt upon it as so high above him seeing no farther then Haman that they cryed out of blasphemy that he made himself equal with God he is the Bridegroom then the Son of God his own Son as the Gospel hath it his onely begotten Son He wâ—o by a divine infinite incomprehensible communication is one in essence and nature with his father he it is brethren that is the Bridegroom We by Birth what are we but the basest our Father an Amorite our Mother an Hittite yea a seeed of evil doers a generation of vipers worse then worms and the vilest And yet the Lord Jesus the Bridegroom bearing such a relation to such as we and taking us into such a relation to himself 2. If we look upon his beauty brethren Alas if we turn our eyes towards it we are dazled a beam or two he sheweth us in a glass darkly indeed that yet rightly understood would amaze us as to behold the glory of the Sun reflected by a glass or a piece of burnished mettal it dazleth us we cannot behold it when he saith he is the shining forth of his fathers glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shining forth of his fathers glory which considered as God-man is a glorious expression of his beauty But considered as he is the Son of God it falls much below it for the beam of the Sun though never so glorious is far below the essence of the Son but he is one in essence with the father He is as God-man the express Character of his fathers person A poor dull carnal eye that lookt no farther then the veil of flesh and saw him a man of sorrow acquainted with grief his visage marred more then any mans as he saith Smitten of God or a smitten God alas there was no beauty to be seen why he should desire him But his beauty is inward he is white
is he not upright and just and true hath he said it and will he not make it good hath he not said as many as come to him he will in no wise cast out and is â—is word worth nothing indeeed if a man fail once in his word we will hardly trust him the second time and if ever sinners or Satan can come forth and say that the Lord Jesus made a promise and was not as good as his word then you may indeed have a jealousie of him but they cannot they cannot the Devil will tell you his promise of the seed of the woman breaking the Serpents head he hath felt to his wounding and his promise of Satans falling down like lightning and there is not a sinner in hell can charge the Lord Jesus with breach of promise But it may be this is not enough to poor unbelieving souls therefore you shall have it written and sealed and witnessed there are witnesses in heaven and upon Earth and seals the Sacraments the broad seal and privy seal of the spirit yea there is an oath also to make it good what would you have more what can you desire more then this would you see the work done why is not the giving up of Jesus Christ to the death for sinners the greatest part of the work Sure if ever he would have baulkt there and yet you see it stuck not O therefore be not jealous of him who hath so freely and so largely laid out himself for sinners 3. Now then ye that are Saints indeed love the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints None have such reason to love him as they that have tasted of his love if there be any ingenuity in us love will beget love as one flame begets another because he hath set his love upon me saith the Psalmist therefore I will deliver him if we could love the Lord Jesus more we should be delivered more from those evils we mourn under How lamentable a thing is it how much love have we for Creatures and how little love for Jesus Christ did Husband or Wife die for us ransom us from the pit and hell I hope there are some of his people believe it that have more affection for Jesus Christ then ever they had for the Creature Ah blessed souls how infinitely are you engaged to him for so fully seizing upon your hearts O who are you that you should be able thus entirely to love the Lord Jesus and admitted to it but thus it is and magnifie his Name But alas for the most part the complaint of the people of God is they cannot love him O labour to get those carnal affections mortified the fore-skins of our heart taken away and our heart circumcised and then we shall love him you have a promise improve it for that end If we could but spare time to set our selves to it to study his heart towards us and ours towards him his excellency and loveliness we could not but love him O beg the spreading abroad of his love sheding it abroad not only upon our understandings but our affections for no further then he sheds it will it spread it will stay in the brain in the understanding if the passages between head and heart be not opened by him we shall never be affected and warmed by it Alas you will say our distances are so great that kils our love No brethren that cannot be the distances are not so great now for the relation between Christ and thy soul if thou believest is the nearest relation he is one Spirit with thee and therefore there is not such a distance and though in respect of dignity and worth there be a distance yet remember now we are 〈◊〉 part of himself and partake with him of his dignities also but however love knoweth not that over-much aw and respect as to kill it but it will be working towards the person beloved Mary Magdalen loving him holds him by the feet and weeps over him If a Prince will marry a begger surely he will take it well and expecteth it to be loved of her and he would not be pleased with such a dejection in respect of her own vileness as to quash her love yea brethren me thinks the meaner we see our selves the more we should love him for what can we do else but love him we have nothing else lovely or desirable but our love our hearts therefore Oh love him and abundantly love him O ye Saints of his whom he hath so loved Alas But our love is little in comparison of his love to us and this discourageth us It is true What proportion between the drop of a Bucket and the ocean Some there is but there is none between the largeness of Christ his heart toward us and ours towards him But shall our love perish and dry up because there is not as much in the little limbeck as in the fountain in the river as in the sea He is love it self brethren and therefore we must be contented to fall infinitely below in love but let us love him according to our measure Again if there be the whole heart to love the Lord Jesus it is as much proportionably for us if we could reach it as it is for him to love us with his whole heart as he is pleased to express it The Creature is infinitely less then Christ and therefore must needs have infinitely less love to him then he hath to us but yet there is nothing wanting where there is Totum therefore rather it should provoke us He hath loved us first aâ—d loved us more abundantly then we can love him therefore labour to get our hearts as much enlarged as we can in love towards him though we fall short of what we might attain to he will make up imperfections there is love enough in him and there is the advantage of his love being above ours that he can cover those imperfections in our love to him which if he had not more abundantly then he could not do What shall I say more Love is that which commandeth all it draweth all the affections along with it which way ever it turns thither the desires are bent there is the hope fixed there the delights are quâ— amat amat nihil aliud novit She that loveth loveth and knoweth nothing else O how shall we not be able to do any thing against sin for Christ if we loved him so entirely then our hearts would be in Heaven we could not grufle as many of us do then we should be more tender of his name and of his honour then now we are but alas I am not able to press these things home the Lord set them home You must love him brethren else you will have little joy of your communion with him which is to endure to eternity Again Labour to rejoyce in him and in his love rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous saith the Psalmist
Rejoyce in the Lord saith the Apostle and again I say rejoyce it is a duty of that moment he cannot leave it he goeth over and over with it do not think I am mistaken when I bid you rejoyce because happily your condition may be afflicted other ways again I say rejoyce I am still of the same mind The Lord Jesus rejoyceth over you as sad thoughts as you have concerning your selves he rejoyceth over you he is glad to communicate his love and shall not we rejoyce then in the receiving of it Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the bridegroom is with them saith our Saviour it is not sutable to their condition when he shall be taken away then they shall mourn I deny not Brethren but if the Lord do withdraw himself we should lament after him and seek him sorrowing as Mary the Mother of Jesus did and the more love we have received if we grieve him this will be the more grief of heart but if you that have his presence in a sweet manner and yet hang the head and droop as if our joyning to the Lord had been the undoing of our souls So pensively and sadly we many of us walk that indeed we are a shame and dishonour to the Lord Jesus If you should see a Virgin espoused to a man and should from that day forwad never hold up her head but walk heavily what would you think sure she apprehends she hath made an ill choice her expectations are frustrated therefore Brethren look to it that we rejoyce if the Children of the Bride-chamder cannot mourn but rejoyce to hear the voice of the Bridegroom much more then the Bride The Lords takes pleasure in the prosperity of thy soul and why shouldst not thou â—ake pleasure in the prosperity of thy own soul being made one with Jesus Christ 5. Look to it that you be faithful to the Lord Jesus as a Bride when once espoused if she turned aside to another it was death they were looked upon as in a marryed state and condition indeed the truth is when the Lord hath truly espoused his soul to himself he hath done it in faithfulness and maketh the soul faithful to him that in the great Article of the Covenant they never deal falsly with Jesus Christ that is to say they choose not another Saviour another Lord under whose dominion to put themselves constantly yet there may be sometimes to Jesus Christ even in his own people If that once it cometh to this that we imbrace sin and consent to it and take any delight in it this is to play the harlot with Jesus Christ O take heed of this brethren indeed the heart is all that he looks at how we stand affected to those evils which yet remain if Paul have a body of death yet he delights not in it but groans being burtheued this he accounts not unfaithfulness but when a mans heart beginneth to sit loose from the Lord Jesus to be almost indifferent he could sometimes in a fit of wretched carnality be content to have another Lord to rule over him to be free from Christ O! this the Lord looks at and he will search out this will move him to jealousie therefore take heed of this a woman may do as much service and seemingly as readily to her husband as before but yet her heart be gone and she could be contented to be loose this is heart-Adultery this the Lord Jesus in us brethren looks at as such if we serve him and do duties but in such a manner that we could even be contented to be at liberty it is not right take heed of provoking the Lord Jesus lest it prove in the end that he never knew us indeed Labour to be faithful then in this in the main Again In managing all he puts into our hands be faithful The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her It is the commendation of a woman of a thousand in the Proverbs she will be improving It may be you have not so much to turn as others have others have ten times more parts and opportunities to do good let them look to it they have ten times as much to answer for and must do ten times as much but thou mayst be as faithful in a little as they in a great deal One servant is a Steward in the family hath all under his hand and another he is a poor under-servant hath some mean service committed to him why now he may be as faithful in his place as the other in his Moses was faithful in all the house of God he had a great command Caleb might be as faithful for what was committed to him following God fully as the Text hath it say not then If I were a Magistrate a Minister a publike person had such opportunities to do good I might do much but I am an obscure person Well be thy condition what it will be thou mayst do good and be faithful in thy place according to what thou hast received thy lips may drop like a hony-comb and feed many and like choice silver and inrich many though thou be never so mean and so for the Family and up and down where ever thou comest look that thou be faithful to do all from Jesus Christ and to do all to him that thou rob him not of the glory of what he hath done for thee and by thee for then thou art not faithful 6. Another Exhortation shall be then to desire the coming of the Bridegroom the Spirit and the Bride say come the spirit in the bride breathing in her as it is in the Revelation they say come We looke upon the day of death as if it were the day of divorce from the Lord Jesus for the most part truly for them that are out of Christ it is no marvel if it be a King of terrors to them but to the Saints me thinketh who look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus to consummate the marriage between them it should not be so terrible as it seemeth to be to the most of us and to this end take ye here brethren at the marriage feast he turns our water into wine but in heaven our wine into spirits and setteth them a flaming our love flaming to all eternity 7. Exhortation which is to look to our Ornaments to get them ready why do we hang back but because we are not ready we have somewhat or another unready still our work is not done can a maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me As a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels so he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Eleazer put jewels upon Rebecca before she came to Isaac and therefore the spouse is called Callah in the Original because of her perfect adorning therefore look to this brethren that you be adorned O every
your husband if you believe in him But I will not stand any longer upon this Doctrine I had now thought to have gone on with what is spoken concerning Jesus Christ according to the first proposal of a method But it may happily be as well if not better to many understandings to take things as they lye in the Text and therefore I shall so do Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom For the Adverb of Time Then I shall happily speak somewhat afterward The Kingdom of Heaven that is to say the visible Church I might inâ—ist upon it and shew you that the Church visible is a Kingdom and that Christ is the head of this Church the King of the Saints and not onely ruleth the Saints which really believe by his word and spirit which abide and dwell in them but also he ruleth his Church visible by his word and spirit and Ordinances all the Administrations of the Kingdom But that Kingdom hath been lately spoken to by a brother therefore I will wave that I might also speak something to the heavenliness of the Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven and shew you how it is heavenly in its Original in divine Laws Institutions and many other ways But you had it held forth largely by a better hand therefore I will not trouble you again with these things so soon It shall be likened to ten virgins There is another Note which floweth clearly I think from the words and that is this The visible Church for the matter is made up of visible Saints that this is so will appear from the very Text it self First It shall be compared to ten virgins he saith not to a mixed multitude or to 10 women five wherof are virgins and 5 harlots or strumpets but to 10 virgins and what that word doth import I believe you remember since the words were opened to you such are turned from Idols to the living God as he speaks of the conversion of the Thessalonians according to the judgement of Charity for else so far as a professed subjection to Jesus Christ and renouncing them reacheth he spake according to a judgement of verity for that they did profess and so escaping the pollutions of the world forsaking gross and loose courses and professedly subject themselves to the rule of the government of Jesus Christ To such the Church visible is here compared and the most the Lord speaks of his relation to his people it is after the manner of men under such similitudes as we can conceive of and as we may be led by as by a clew into the understanding of the deep mysteries of faith and salvation But if any will think or say this is not a sure bottom to build such a truth or point upon because the virgins here are not considered as virgins but as persons accompanying the Bride going forth to meet the Bridegroom I shall first say That as they are not onely considered as virgins so neither is the consideration of their virginity to be waved for as in the similitude usually they were those virgins which did accompany the Bride so I suppose in the Apodosis now of the comparison we are to look for somewhat which may answer that virginity And you finde it in Scripture to be answered by those things I have proposed that is to say their forsaking Idolatry turning to the true God and their renouncing their former prophane conversation And then secondly I say this is not the only bottom in the Text whereupon it is builded For in the second place besides that they are called Virgins or compared to virgins they are also said to take their Lamps and surely if we must expound what is meant by the Lamps we can understand and nothing less by it then a visibility of Saintship But if this will not carry it neither methinketh the Third should be undenyable they went forth to meet the Bride-groom that is to say they went forth from home and forlook their fathers house and mothers they set upon their journey heavenward Zion-ward to meet Jesus Christ who is the Bridegroom who will ere long come to take the Bride unto himself There are many Scriptures will speak fully to the proof of this Some prophesies there are as that in the Prophet Isaiah there he speaks of a high-way shal be cast up and the unclean shal not pass over it Again none uncircumcised in heart or flesh shall enter into his Sanctuary this applyed not only to the times of their returning from Babylon but to the Gospel-times What can it speak less then this Brethren that no visible unclean creature shall ever enter into the Church of Christ It should consist of visible Saints This is plain by the tares and the wheat which while in the blade are are so like they hardly discernable in those Countries as Jerom saith And so by the Apostles wherefore else do they call them holy to the Saints which are at Corinth at Ephesus c but either they were all such visibly and in the judgement of charity or else ought to have been such Mistake not I say not that none should be a member of a Church but he that is a real Saint and shall be saved for then there could be no Church wherein we could walk or administer or receive any ordinance de fide because we know not who are such nor cannot know as I conceive nor have any rule to make an infallible judgement of any man but only probably to conclude concerning the state and conditions of men that which is invisible to us it is true its visible to God and that which is visible to him is invisible to us But visible Saints surely they ought to be Now for the further opening of this what I mean by visible Saints and Saint-ship I shall endeavour to lay it down in these particulars as plainly as I can to your understandings First Then it is requisite to Saint-ship that there be a separation to God from the world that is holiness whether in things or in persons when they are separated to God for any special use of his they are called holy Common and unclean are convertible tearms as you have in it in the Acts and as appears by the sanctifying of the Vineyards and Orchards when the Lord had had the first-fruits of them then they themselves and others had the free use of them the word in the original is they polluted or prophaned them the common use of them is distinguished thereby from the holy use whereby they were separated before from them to the Lord whether persons separated to themselves to the Lord acti agimus the Lord turns them and they are turned or whether they be altogether passive as in the first work of God we all are if it be a separation to God this is a Holiness a Saint-ship he
your souls Now this spirit works faith and that works by love and that never fails but is perfected in heaven so humility self-denyal and all those graces And not onely the graces of the spirit but this Spirit of grace dwelling in the Saints which continually supplyeth their wants so that the Lamp shall not go out forwant of oyl From the words thus understood this note will arise He that contents himself with a profession of Christ without the real saving work of grace upon his heart is a fool but he that looks to the main thing the getting grace in his heart as well as making a shew before men is a wise man Profession without the enjoyment of the Spirit of grace is but folly I will put them both together that contraries may the better illustrate one another juxta se posita and if either of them be proved both of them are proved for they will infer each other by the rule of contraries Nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then to call sinners fools sinners of all sorts are fools committing wickedness is committing folly in Israel but no fool to the wise fool wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of such a man and who are usually more wise in their own conceits then formal professors are he that hideth hatred with lying lips is a fool he that hideth hatred to God a rotten heart with lying lips whereby he professeth much love to him and carryeth a fair shew he is a fool in grain If we would know where wisdom beginneth or what the sum of wisdom is the wisest of men shall tell you the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom or the sum of wisdom some read it so And so Job who was no child in Christianity to man he saith to fear the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding Mark you Whatever men place wisdom in or folly in this is the very sum of wisdom to fear God fear is put for all grace a manfearing God and eschewing evil was the highest character the Lord gave of Job It is indeed the root of all that good we do and evil we avoid and I will and but one Scripture in the â—hiddenarts thou shalt make me to know wisdom it is one thing to be wise headed and tongued and another to be wise hearted and therefore in Scripture nothing more ordinary then to set forth wisdom that is true indeed by the heart God himself is said to be wise of heart Foolish creatures Eph. a silly Dove without a heart They may have head enough notion enough flashing light appearing to others enough but they are without a heart they have not the great work there a new head and an old heart a full head and an empty heart a light and burning profession and a dark dead and cold heart he that takes up in such a condition is a fool an errant fool For the further clearing of this I shall enquire a little wherein the nature of wisdom and folly lyeth and then shew you how it is Applicable in truth unto this profession of Christ without the possession of him Wisdom then I conceive may consist of these three generals 1. In the obtaining what we want the good we want and therfore come short of happiness because we want it 2. In the keeping the good we have when once we have it And 3. In avoiding the evil we fear which would render us miserable in these three things I take it wisdom consists Now to speak a little to each of these and see how we may prove the formal professor by his defect and falling short in each them in all of them and for the first the obtaining of the good we want to make us happy Alas you know brethren we are all fallen short of the glory of God and by nature are without him and without Christ in the world and have not the things which accompany salvation neither he then is a wise man in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who knoweth those principles and ends which are universally necessary to a mans good his chiefest and most general good So that there are I conceive three things in this respect under this head and so proportionably under the other which go to the compleating of wisdom First there must be a knowledge of the end and a propounding of this end to a mans self an end you know is nothing but that which is good either really so or appearingly so for that is the object of the Will goodness as truth is the object of the Minde and understanding a man cannot appetere malum as it is malum and be a man to delight in evil as it is evil is diabâ—lical to delight in sâ—n or folly as it is pleasant as it is suitable to the corrupt nature to the soul the Will crooked and deprayed this is humane because though a man do thus pâ—opose sâ—n as his â—nd yet not as it evil but as it is good to his corrupt judgement and Will that is to say suitable and convenient to him An so sor suffering there is no man living can prevail with himself to be willing to be miserable they would be happy Well then it is good which is the end either real or apparent But now here in this spiritual wisdom and folly we must understand his end suitable that is to say understand it of the most supreme principle and ultimate good and that is God for what good else is there that can indeed make the soul happy but God in Christ for that good which must make blessed it must be commensurate to the soul so as to be able to fall and satisfie it else theâ—e will be somewhat wanting still and alas for all other goods below God it may be said that which is wanting cannot be numbred Now there are two things considerable in the soul of a man especially to which there must be an answerableness in the end which is to be followed unto injoyment else the soul cannot be happy The first is the vast capacity and comprehension of the soul to which there must be an answerable fulness in the object and the end else the soul cannot rest upon it as its Center and happiness and this we may take notice of especially in those two faculties of the Understanding and the Will the Affections they are but as it were the several motions of the Will a kind of Appendix to it Now to these two faculties in the supreme and ultimate end there must be an answerable ratio veri boni great enough to fill or satisfie the understanding or mind that hath for its object truth and not one truth or another but all truth it is not satisfyed with the partial discoveries of truth or here and there a little but it would have all now the Lord is the highest and the best in
in the Gospel who put off the day of death so long thou hast goods laid up for many years Eat drink and be merry I but what was there laid up for eternity was there any Grace laid up to carry him through death no not a jot thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and then whose shall these things be these are things which in themselves are not either they take wings and are gone as a flock of Birds in a mans ground or else they are taken from them and leave them to they know not whom for naked must they return thither to the grave which Job had in his mind and happily pointed at it in that speech he was a fool that put off the thoughts of death for many days upon the greatness of his riches which could not profit him in the day of wrath nor day of death neither but now this wisdom if the heart be applyed to it will provide somewhat that will carry them through they will provide some oyl in the vessel that shall not fail somewhat to follow them when they are dead to enter with them into the Marriage of the Lamb A man may number his days and think of his death and wish it much yet if God teach him not to make this use of it it will not be O therefore beg of him such a heart so to number them as that you may apply your hearts to this wisdom if death be so near eternity at hand there is entering with him into the Marriage or being shut out for ever O what need had we then to bestir our selves get this oyl this grace in the heart for indeed we shall find brethren though we may live by a form we cannot dye by a form of Godliness but it must be the Power of it that must carry us through death It may be a further Instruction to us then surely there must be a great change in us to this true wisdom for alas we are born like wild Asses Colts none more stupid An Ass a wild Ass a wilde Asses Colt what more brutish now this must be a wonderful change to make such a man wise to salvation but what is too hard for the grace of the Almighty we are fools by nature and yet we have a conceit we are wise affect wisdom and because we would be wise we easily believe we are so self-love bribing our judgements also but now when God cometh to work in us he emptieth us of our own wisdom first and our conceit of wisdom rather for indeed the wisdom of the flesh and the world is foolishness with God but the conceit of wisdom is much this must be captivated those high thoughts and we must become fools that we may be wise there must he a great change indeed which alas many a Professor never had experience of Be not satisfied nor contented then to use the Ordinances of God which are the means more remote from the end until you find and feel that the Lord Jesus doth in them embrace your souls and your souls embrace him until you feel this oyl poured into your hearts until you find your selves changed into his image your hearts coming in to a better frame thereby and kept in a holy frame thereby in some measure is it not better to try now then he tried by his hand at death when there is no place to get it c Alas you will say how shall we know we have this oyl of grace in our hearts It is a notable way Brethren to know it by the overflowing of it when it abounds you shall see it as it is set forth the presses burst out with new wine then it discovers it self the reason why we see it not nor cannot see it is because we have yet so little of it thought it be a Well springing up to eternal life yet while it is low and much mud it is hard to discern it but doth it spring up when the vessel is filled with oyl you shall see it is there and have the comfort of it O but this is little comfort to them that are weak you will say Why press forward forget the things which are behind Slothfulness and Ease are not the way of comfort and peace but the diligent hand which maketh rich Again ye know grace is set forth by oyl as it softens and sweetens so we shall find that operation of it in the soul doth it change thy nature from harsh and crooked and perverse to sweet and gentle this is a fruit of this spirit a consequent of this annointing And so it will be uppermost what it is that lies highest in thy soul which thou liftest up Is it this Hast thou ever been upon serious examination and dost thou make God thine end thy happiness Canst thou say Whom have I in heaven but thee c the world is not thy end And then for Jesus Christ dost thou close with him hast thou ever believed rouled thy self upon him by faith receiving him and the spirit by faith this is the oyl here is a fountain a cruse that will never fail a spring springing up to eternal life Verse 5. While the Bridegroom tarryed they all slumbered and slept THe Coming of Christ is compared to the coming of a Bride-groom to take his Bride who cometh with the Virgins her Companions to meet him Now these solemnities used to be performed at the beginning of the night but here in the Prothesis of the similitude it seemeth which was more then usuall he delayed until midnight he came not at the time expected and they were ready for his coming and going out to meet him but he came at a time they looked not for him when their waiting was at an end they fell asleep and then the Cry goeth before him behold he cometh You have heard already who is the Bridegroom Jesus Christ Here we have his coming the delay of it and the occasion which the wickedness of some and the weakness of others took from hence to fall asleep It was abused for an occasion to the flesh A double Note from the words but of the first only at this time The Lord Jesus doth delay his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall a little prove it by some Scriptures parallel and then open the terms confirm it by Arguments and apply it by use to our selves 1. Then for the Scripture-proof take that place where our Saviour stirreth up his disciples to watch they knew not what hour their Lord cometh of which hereafter if the Lord will Blessed is that servant which being set over the houshold to give meat in due season shall be found so doing but now if the wicked servant say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and begin to beat his Fellow-servants and eat and drink with the drunken here you see there is a delay and from hence this wicked servant
all as we have heard then no man surely hath any grace to spare For the Application then It is a reproving word to as many as are ready to think they have enough The Papists tell us of works of supererrogation and I believe that piece of Popery may cleave to some of us faster then we are aware but let us take heed of it when we begin to be so full as we think we run over and could spare any of what we have and we may therefore sit down and breath us Believe it this is the way to make the Cruse of oyl give over running as long as they had an empty vessel the Cruse ran but when all were full it gave over God will not in vain pour out this precious oyl of his Spirit to have it lost upon proud Creatures and bury the Glory of his Grace in an unthankful proud heart That Ancient could say and likely by experience Si dixisti sufficit periisti and may not many of us say so did we ever get good by it it is the ready way to go backward to tumble to the bottom again when we think we are got high enough higher then this or that Christian the Apostle saith God resists the proud but he gives Grace to the lowly The Heathen could say even Plato that a proud man is void of God without God God is far from his thoughts and he is far from the favour of God and indeed so it is God knoweth such a man afar off at a distance he shall have no close familiar communion with God Well the Lord reprove us as many as are guilty in this kind 2. It may serve then to press with the Apostle forward toward the mark of the prize c. O how lazy are most Professors who walk as if they never cared whether they reach perfection or the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ as if we were unwilling to grow too like heaven for fear we should be taken from this earth sooner then we are willing to depart O what earthly heavy drowsie spirits have we how slowly do we drive What is heaven nothing in our eye the enjoyment of Jesus Christ nothing to us that we make no more haste toward him O then as the Martyr said haste after as fast as we can Take heed of such a thought you have been diligent long enough you may now slack your pace you are pretty well for one believe it brethren nothing will sooner quench the spirit then this nothing will sooner damm up the fountain and shut out the light you can never have too much It may be you have through rich mercy what carrieth you in some measure through your present condition you know not what you shall meet with believe it before we die we shall have exercise for every degree of our Grace our Faith our Love we shall have nothing over It may be with thy measure which is less thou maist make a hard shift to get to heaven but why should we not all press after a more abundant entrance into Glory which will be much more for the Glory of his Grace and much more for the comfort of our souls Well then place that behind you brethren which we have attained as Jehu in his furions march caused the Messengers as he reached them to turn behind him still and so went on let not our eying what Grace we have received be any further then to thankfulness take heed of poring on them to pride for that is the way to decline who knoweth how much one thought of pride doth cast us behind hand if the Lord take the advantage for he resisteth the proud above all others cast them behind then stay not rest not until we come to the resurrection of the dead And then In the last place It may be an encouragement to some poor trembling hearts who it may be when they hear this word are ready to lament themselves If this be a truth that they that have most grace have none to spare what a condition then are such as I in who have so little If they have occasion to use all and little enough sometimes What will become of me who have so little like a grain of Mustard-seed If the Cedars of Lebanon have no strength over much but are ready to be blowed up by the roots all they can do is but to stand to the utmost What shall such a bruised reed as I do in the contrary winds of temptation and corruption First then do not judge amiss of thy condition thou thinkest such a one is so so eminent for grace an Oke of Bashan a Cedar God judgeth not as man judgeth thou mayst have more humility and more love to Jesus Christ there may be more sincerity truth in the inward parts in a poor creature that hath little parts or gifts to make a glittering to dazle the eyes of men Herein lies the strength or weakness of the soul indeed Look to this then and gaze not so much upon glorious outward appearances 2. Remember that thou are not accepted for the greatness of thy grace inherent God doth not give his Spirit and such graces in a greater and a smaller measure to some then to others and then accept accordingily he accepteth in Jesus Christ and every poor believing soul doth enjoy whole Christ his righteousness fully imputed to them Therefore this is your acceptance and herein you are alike blessed be the Lord that in this which is the main thing he maketh no difference between the strong and the weak though one man may more strongly and clearly apply him and have more of the comfort yet thou mayst with a trembling hand hold him as surely or rather he will hold thee if thou canst not hold him for the imbraces are mutual between Christ and a poor believing soul 3. If thou have not so much as another thou shalt not likely have so great tryals so great things to do with it thou shalt not be tryed above what he will enable to bear and he will make a way to escape also If his grace be sufficient for thee in all conditions what matter is it only press hard after more and more whatever thou hast reached too and at last thou shalt attain the end of thy hope the salvation of thy soul and in due time thou shalt reap if thou faint not Verse 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEre is the third part of the answer of the wise Virgins to the foolish Virgins question Which is not to be understood as a serious advice from the wise to the foolish directing them to the ready course to procure oyl to themselves except we could understand by them that sell Jesus Christ or Father Son and Spirit who selleth and would have us buy of him without money and without price Isa 55. 1. for the Bridegroom Jesus Christ seemeth to be distinguished here from them that sold
no their own promises may fail but Gods promises never fail nor a lively hope founded upon them 4. That the poor weary tossed afflicted people of God may have rest in the bosom of the Father and the Son and holy Spirit there remaineth a rest to the people of God they have not their rest here expect it not but either from within or without or both we have our troubles the world casteth them out as the off-scouring of all things they are the despised hated mocked people the song of the drunkard the laughing-stock of the world and therefore because they cast them out the Lord will receive them If we have not persecution without we shall have our exercises what between corruption and temptation and sometimes the terrors of God and sense of his wrath sometimes breaking bones hiding his face from us there is no rest until we come to enter with him now we lie among the pots but then we shall indeed be made glorious like the wings of a Dove in sulness Now this is agreeable not only to the truth but the goodness tenderness bowels of the Lord to his people that his poor afflicted People should rest with himself when he hath by these filings and scourings and siftings and turnings up and down made them meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light So much for the Arguments For the Application of this that they that are ready do enter into Glory First it serveth to shew the blessed condition that the diligent lively prepared soul is in heaven Gate is ready to receive such a soul the bosom of Abraham of Christ opened ready to receive him he shall enter they have this priviledge that many that profess Jesus Christ have not many shall seek to enter but shall not be able that strive not as he doth Blessed is that servant saith our Saviour that his master shall find watching shall find ready for his coming why he will not leave any such soul behind they shall all enter into glory how blessed a condition this is may appear by many considerations more 2. Such a soul as this cannot be surprized so far as he is ready he is never surprized surprizals are terrible if Jesus Christ had come without any warning upon the wiâ—e Virgins while sleeping it had been terrible to them though they might have entred with him also but if we be ready that day will not take us at unawares indeed if a child of God be once ready he cannot be altogether surprized more though in part he may if he carry it not the better he will be still habitually ready if not actually so the foolish Virgins were not They still have the root of the matter though it may be under ground and hid from their eys and is not this a blessed thing as often as you think of the coming of Christ to think now let my Saviour come when he pleaseth I am through rich grace ready for him A servant when his work is done a Spouse when her ornaments are put on and the house trimmed and all ready for her Bridegroom now come when he will I am ready for him before the thoughts of his coming are troublesom and painful now they are pleasant and delightful 3. When death comes how shall they lift up their heads with comfort because their Redemption draweth near O how will they be able to welcome death welcome Jesus Christ welcome the kingdom of heaven it is their entrance into a kingdom though it be bitter indeed and terrible to the wicked and though there be some reluctancy in nature against death and a Paul would rather be cloathed upon then dissolved and since it is the birth of sin that brought it into the world no marvel if Grace it self have no delight in it yet considering that it is an entrance though narrow and pinching into Heaven into Glory the Saints that are ready for it they can bid it welcom As a poor weary tossed Marriner can bid his Port welcome though there may be some fear of Rocks or the like in his landing 4. Are they not blessed souls that shall enter that now all their distances between them and Jesus Christ shall be done away now he whom your souls loved and longed for yea your souls have many times broken within you for the longing for him now he cometh to take you to himself that you may be with him near him alway in his bosom Is not this a blessed Condition what tends all your striving and running and fighting your wrestling praying and weeping to but this now the end of your hope the salvation of your souls cometh upon you blessed yea for ever blessed is such a soul if Christ and heaven the Father Son and Spirit enjoyed in an unspeakable bosom-communion will not speak a man blessed nothing will but thus much for this first 2. Then methinks brethren now we should be putting the question to our own hearts now whether we be ready or no O here is blessedness indeed you cannot but judge that man or woman though a man of sorrow while in the world haply through temptations and a heavy body of death yet that shall enter in Glory when all is done sure you cannot but judge this man a blessed man that is ready for it for he and he only shall enter And can it be but you should reflect now and enquire of the Lord and of your own hearts Lord am I ready for this coming of Jesus Christ or am I not for one of the two I am Dear friends I shall not use any more arguments to you but these two or three considerations 1. How uncertain this coming of Christ to you to call for you is do you know when he will appear do you know brethren whether you shall be warned again called upon again to prepare for his coming this may be the Cry it may be the Cry is past with many of you already is it not high time to awake to look about you to consider whether you be ready or no 2. To consider That there will be then no time given to prepare If you be ready well and good you enter if not you are shut out as afterward we shall speak O then how can we satisfie our selves and quiet our Consciences with an ignorance how it is with us It is high time surely brethren to enquire 3. Except we do enquire we are not likely to take a course to make ready he that thinketh he is ready or careth not whether he be ready or no if he be unready now he is like to be unready for such a man will not set about the work O that the Lord would therefore perswade you this day to consider with your selves are you ready or are you not 4. There is very great need of this enquiry because alas many are ready and think they are unready and then cannot have the comfort of their Condition except
no more to do then will give you leave to maintain your communion with God and make sure of the main thing to get your souls ready and keep them ready for the appearing of Jesus Christ O that we would be perswaded to this end to have every day some converse with this his coming and to labour to work the thought of it upon our hearts that accordingly we may be affected with it as we find our selves ready or unready and so be carried out to make provision for it And how should we willingly submit to any dealings of God with us that tend to make us ready Therefore the Apostle would have them count it all joy when they fell into many temptations or trials this is the knocking of the torch this is the snuffers which must take off the wick of our Lamps and so trim them up we shall find one day we have more cause to be thankful for our afflictions if sanctified then for the contrary dispensation I do verily think there is nothing here below helpeth us forward more And labour to see all working together for this great end that we may be found ready at the appearing of the Lord Jesus And labour for a readiness for an abundant entrance into Glory As the Apostle exhorts them And though at present thou canst not find thou art ready be not discouraged for thou mayst be ready in a good part and for the main and yet not know that thou art ready only stick not here let not fear so overcharge thee as to hinder thee and weaken thy hands but make it thy work with thy whole might to make ready for his coming pray hard study thy heart much stir up thy soul and the graces that are there though much corruption do appear the ashes fly about their ears in this searching yet search and try and yet not so much blow the little spark as to blow it out but labour to cherish it increase it O Lord increase our faith then corruption will down then communion with Christ will rise higher and higher for it is with us indeed according to our faith therefore whatever we do take heed of what weakens our faith of discouraging desponding thoughts study promises the necessity of God in Christ O the unsearchable treasures of comfort that are in every promise in every letter of his Name Labour to live by faith brethren and as that groweth all the rest will come on and thou wilt come at last to be sensible that thou dost believe to feel it and know it and then thy readiness for Christ will be more then ordinary and thy entrance abundant into this Glory The next thing we are to consider in this coming of Christ is that they went in with him to the marriage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The note will be this That such as are ready for the coming of Jesus Christ they go in with him to the Marriage with the Bridegroom Here is to be noted then 1. The Marriage and 2. The going in with Christ the Bridegroom to the Marriage and some what said for the opening of them And then we shall confirm the Doctrine and apply it First The Marriage here what is meant by that Here then by Marriage we may understand a Marriage-feast the consummation of the Marriage and the Marriage-feast made in token of joy nothing was more ordinary then this at Marriages to make feasts As in the example of Sampson at his Marriage they made a feast And so Laban made a feast of seven daies long for the Marriage of his daughter fulfill her week and then I will give thee the other also And so again in Cana of Galilee you see they were at a Marriage-feast So now at the Mariage of the Lamb of the Lord Jesus there is a feast a Marriage-feast Yea but you will say this is not ground enough to understand here by the Marriage a Marriage-feast for they are distinct things It is true they are distinct but yet in ordinary practice they were not separated one from another but went so together that usually in Greek and Latin the Feast is comprehended under the word for Marriage if not principally signified in many places So in that of Laban he made a Feast saith the seventy Interpreters he made a Marriage So there was a Marriage in Cana of Galilee that is to say a Marriage-feast was made there And so it seems the Syriach renders it usually in the New Testament by a Feast as Grotius upon this place and Matthew in the beginning noteth Therefore here by Marriage we will understand a Marriage-feast So Esther 1. 3. The King made a Marriage-feast Now the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Feast both the kingdom of Grace and the kingdom of Glory The kingdom of Grace is a Feast and a rich Feast full of royal dainties as you may find by several Scriptures In that of Matthew The Kingdom of Heaven shall be compared to a certain King who made a Marriage for his Son which the Syriach well terms a Marriage-feast or Banquet which Matthew cals a Dinner and Luke cals a Supper and indeed it is both for the Father Son and Spirit do come in and dine and sup with us they do continually eat bread at his Table as Mephibosheth did at Davids Table 2 Sam. 9. 7. So it is clear Behold I make a Feast of fat things of wine on the Lees a Feast to all Nations what is that but the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Ordinances thereof and Christ held forth in them to be a Feast to every one that will come to him as the carkass is to the Eagles as the Lord sometimes in Scripture invites the fowls of heaven to a Feast he maketh for them that is to say to the dead carkasses of his enemies but here to the carkass of his Son who is slain for Sinners a crucified Christ is the carkass he is the fatted Calf indeed he is the kidneys of the wheat the fat the finest of it his flesh is meat indeed and drink indeed Now this must be spiritually understood not carnally the Kingdom of Heaven is not in meat and drink much less in eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ carnally as the Papists say but spiritually It is joy peace and righteousness joy in the holy Ghost here is the Feast If here below we must know that this Feast may be lookt upon either according to the externals or else the internals of it and yet in both respects spiritual The Jews that fell in the wilderness did all eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink and yet they fell in the wilderness The ordinances the word the sealing ordinances baptism and the Lords supper sitting at the Lords Table these are the externals of the Feast that many Carrion-Crow may come to And you see there in the Gospel He
that had no wedding garment upon him yet came to the Feast Sure he went no further then the externals you see he is cast out into utter darkness Now this may be called the Marriage or the Feast because here below they are necessary for us as signs of that spiritual communion the Lord seeth it good we have these royal dainties thus represented to us by visible sensible things because of our weakness and to magnifie his own condescending Grace to us to make that mysterie of salvation by a crucified Christ which all the reason in the world cannot fathom and that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard yet in a sort visible to the eye and to be perceived by the ear that we might even in this sacramental sense even touch and taste and handle as I may say the word of life 2. As they are seals and pledges of this spiritual communion being seals of the Covenant of Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the sum and substance it sealeth it up to a believers Faith and so stands us in great stead And 3. It is a means of our spiritual communion the Conduit-pipe that runs wine the dishes that hold the dainties though but gold as Kings and Princes use to be served up in such State yet it is not them we feed upon they are but the means the vehicula and therefore because they have such a respect to our spiritual communion with Jesus Christ they may be so called But secondly the internal communion with Jesus Christ is that indeed which is the Feast the Marriage-feast even here below to eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of God which giveth life and maintains life this is the Feast Eat and drink yea drink abundantly saith the Lord I shall be satisfied abundantly with the goodness of thy house abundantly satisfied watered inebriated with the fatness of thy house what is that not meerly with the Ordinances no but with Christin them beholding his might and glory in the Ordinances the mighty prevailing of the Spirit of Christ against our unbelief to quiet all our doubtings O it is this to see the good of the chosen of the Lord those choice inward refreshings which the poor believers have from the presence and powerful workings of Christ in them to the joy of faith and to strengthen against corruption to strengthen for action for suffering his will this is that they cry out after even after the living God to enjoy him And all this is but the Kingdom of God below this is but the first course as I may say of this feast For secondly The Kingdom of glory as well as the Kingdom of grace which is that now I am to speak to this is a feast a Marriage here called that is to say a Marriage-feast for what is the Kingdom of grace here below but a foretaste of heaven as Grotius upon Matth. 22. saith As in the Marriage-feast at Cana of Galilee contrary to the usual manner our Saviour kept his best wine last so it is here as by and by we shall see here the wine the spirits indeed But a little to prove this by a Scripture or two that it may appear plain ye that have continued with me in my temptation I appoint to you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom So many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven sit down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their table jesture Joh. 12. 2. they that sit at the Table are Guests But now eating and drinking in Scripture many times do signifie a feasting and so it is here to be taken and let it be noted by way of further proof that the Jews did not ordinarily drink wine except at their feasts and then they did drink abundantly if the observation of some be true as Piscator in his Schol. upon Math. 26. 29. cited by Mr. Brinsly but whether so or no sure we are they did use to drink more liberally then eat the fat and drink the sweet when it was a good day or a merry day to them for his heart was merry his heart was good and the sadness of the heart was called the evil of the heart in the Hebrew often insomuch that the ordinary word in the Hebrew for a feast is a drinking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in Ahashuerus his feast is called and Labans feast is called a drinking and it appears by the abundance of wine our Saviour made at the Marriage-feast at Cana of Galilee Therefore you shall find that the feast which Christ maketh is a feast of wines on the Lees well refined come and buy wine and milk without money and without price And so for this Kingdom of heaven this Marriage-feast at the height is called a drinking of new wine with them in the Kindgom of the Father that is to say the Kingdom of glory called his Fathers Kingdom because at that day that is to say at the day of the resurrection he will give up his dispensatory Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all And for other reasons but I must not stay upon that Well here he will drink new wine with them which is nothing else but a periphrasis of this feast this Marriage-feast in heaven The cup of blessing the cup of consolation the cup of health or salvation is the feast of Christ here below but this now must be drunk new in the Kingdom of his Father there will be a new feast of wine a feast of new wine And so much for the proof of this Now we must understand Brethren that this feast in heaven is not any corporal thing I hope it is needless to tell any of you this the heathens dream of an Elysian-field and the Mahometans of their carnal delights after death those are poor husks that will not satisfie a soul of a child of God here they are sordid and infinitely below a heaven-born spirit no it must be somewhat of as high a nature as the spring from whence they come Why you may judge what it is in the General Brethren though particularly we know not what we shall be What is the Kingdom of heaven here below but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost the sweet and spiritual communion with Jesus Christ the fellowship of his death and sufferings life and resurrection whereby we are in part changed into his Image that a man liveth upon will change him ordinarily therefore the King you know would have the children in Dan. fed with a portion of his meat generous-spirited wine will beget more and better spirits then course and cold c. So here by this communion we are changed in part though alas in how little a part But now in heaven Brethren the same communion
Testament violated Father I will that where I am they shall be also now they cannot come to be where he is except he bring them with him as the Apostle speaks they shall enter in therefore with him having undertaken to save them he will do it to the utmost yea it is the will of his Father also which he hath undertaken to see fulfilled therefore how can he be faithful except he make it good to the utmost this is one 2. His own Communicative He is not willing to be alone in the enjoyment of this glory wherewith he is glorified with the Father he would not ingross those delights and pleasures which are at the right hand of the Father for evermore but would communicate them to some now he is in heaven and his people upon earth yet he would not be alone in those comforts but though himself must sit at the right hand of his Father yet he sendeth the Spirit the Comforter to his people to give them a taste an earnest of those joys of that Feast that is to come indeed so much joy that it is unspeakable and full of glory to many of the people of God many Saints are as I may say in heaven upon earth the Lord Jesus would not eat and drink abundantly and let his people have none that were unkindness indeed where there is little goodness in a creature as all in the creature is but little in comparison of him Job would not eat his morsel alone so will not he Lord Jesus but he will have his people to go in with him to the Feast to the Marriage and drink wine with him as you have it in the Canticles He hath eaten his honey and honey Comb and drank his wine and milk and what then Then drink ye O my friends yea drink abundantly c. 3. Because they have set their love upon him therefore he will put this high favour and honour upon them as it is in the Psalms Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I be with him and deliver him and honour him with long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Give him to injoy it and not only here but hereafter The Saints they do love the Lord Jesus every one of them their hearts are set upon him and they cleave to him with full purpose of heart in all conditions as the Disciples did they continue with him in his temptations in his poor condition in his imprisoned condition therefore he appointeh them to sit down with him And so you know they are not every one that is admitted to a Marriage Feast they were the friends of the Bridegroom or of the Bride there were thirty young men attending Sampson these were at the Feast among others And so who goeth to the Kings Banquet of wine but the Kings Favorite even Haman he goeth along with him he puts it upon him as a great honour and this is the glory of Jesus Christ the honour which he doth to the man whom he delights to honour who hath set his love upon him even to bring him in to the Feast the Marriage Feast he hath not been ashamed of him before men nor will the Lord be ashamed of him before men and Angels and his Father though while he was here below it may be a man full of infirmities so the Saints are called his friends in many places Abraham my friend Ye are my friends Ioh. 15. and so his Mother and brethren and sisters they are called these are the Favorites which must needs be at the Marriage Feast 4 For his glory as well as for theirs Indeed his glory is theirs and theirs is his now the Lord Jesus cometh to be made glorious in his Saints when the light of the Saints shines before men and they see their good works he is glorified the vertues of him that calls them out of darkness to light are shewed forth but alas this is with so many cloudings interruptions it can scarce be called a glory He shall come to be glorified in his Saints saith the Apostle will not the fulness of the Saints being brought in be his glory they are called the fulness of Christ so that he accounteth not himself full without them but to be as I may say imperfect without some of his Members now at that day he will bring them all and then he will be glorified indeed in them more fully then ever then the general assembly of the first born being gathered together how much honour will he have in it that by his death by his blood he hath redeemed such an innumerable company that he hath by his Spirit sanctified them kept them alive cheared them comforted them raised them and brought them together and put so much glory and beauty upon them all herein he will be much glorified and that every one of them shall have to the full be filled even to admiration of him will not this honour him exceedingly acknowledge and hold forth the glory of his grace before his Father and Angelsglorified 5. He will exceedingly rejoyce in them as well as they in him he spake those things made that prayer in the world that they might have his joy fulfilled in themselves his joy efficienter and his joy subjective for herein he did and doth rejoyce exceedingly surely according to his desire to communicate with his people which is according to his strength of Love to them will be his joy in the communiâ—n therefore saith he thy love is better then wine to see his own love take such an impression upon our hearts as to draw out our love to him this is a great joy to the Lord Jesus I desired with desire to eat this Passover with you saith he to his Disciples great desire so great joy so saith he I have eaten my honey and honey comb he doth as I may say feed upon the graces of his people that is to say they are pleasing delightful to him even when there is mixture in them O what will it be then when there shall be no honey comb no wax no imperfection when grace shall be glorious will it not be his joy and delight to pour out of his love and manifest himself in the most open glorious manner to his people and then to behold them to be filled with love swallowed up of this love and filled with this joy yea swallowed up with that also to see their faces to shine gloriously with grace and joy and comfort unconceiveable O this will be joy to him 6. Because indeed the Saints they are ready to enter in with him they are his Spouse though here considered only as Virgins waiting upon the Bride yet they are the Spouse and sure if any must be brought to the Marriage Feast the Spouse must be there the Angels shall be rather attendants the Saints shall sit down with Jesus Christ at his
the evil savour of their sins upon them such as have their prison cloaths their rags by the exactest righteousness that ever creature performed upon them no no you must first come to Jesus Christ have these bolts knockt off He it is that looseth the prisoners you must first have your â—ilthy garments taken away from you and be robed with the royal apparrel such as is put upon them whom the King of Heaven delights to honour with so near an aporoach to himself for ever you must have the savour of his Oyntments anointing â—our head his Spirit poured out upon you first brethren as they used to annoint their heads with sweet oyl at their seasts before you can come to that feast sinners do not think you shall croud into heaven in the condition you are in but be perswaded in the Name of Jesus Christ first to come to him to get your hands and hearts and all washed in innocency it self in the blood of the spotless Lamb else believe it there will be no entrance for you 2. There is an external communion also which men that have no more but a profession may have eating the spiritual bread and drinking the Sacramental feast brethren which the Saints ought to come to have communion with the Lord Jesus and his people will until he come again it is not an indifferent thing Do this in remembrance of me and as often as you do it ye keep in remembrance the Lord his death until he come Now brethren we do immediatly invite you to come to Jesus Christ to close with him that you may be washed and cleansed through faith in his blood and have your hearts purified by faith in him and then to this Sacramental Communion with Jesus Christ which is a sign and pledge of this Marriage-feast in heaven as plainly our Saviour tels his Disciples I wâ—ll henceâ—oâ—th drink no more of this fruit of the Vine until I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Well this is but the first Secondly brethren that by your now coming in to Jesus Christ you do as I may say take up your room in your places before hand at his Table in his heavenly Kingdom In which respect the Saints now are said to sit together in heavenly places and hereby you will come to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection and Ascention and his Work in heaven which is to prepare a place for his people and as I may say to keep it for them and as one sweetly expresseth it wriâ—ing as I may say every ones name over his Mansion over his Place even with his own blood that none shall take it from them over their heads If Jesus Christ prepared not a place for you in heaven now brethren you will find no room at his Table Therefore now brethren Let me press this Exhortation upon you that you would come to him now even now while it â—s called to day it is his voyce brethren that speaks to you O that your ears were bored to hear the fatted Calf is killed the Lord Jesus is Crucified for sinners the Wine is mingled all is ready there wants nothing now but your coming to Dine and Sup with Jesus Christ yea indeed but your opening to him he knocks he will come to you to feast with you bring his royal dainties with him and his wine of the Kingdom his Royal Wine with him O his love which is better then wine if you will but open to him O do not nectere moras now can the Lord Jesus brethren find in his heart to have his blood poured out to become royal Wine indeed full of spirits sweet and cordial to a poor fainting soul to give his own flesh to eat which is bread indeed it is virtually all dainties therefore the Scripture setteth it forth by Wine and Milk and Honey and Bread and Marrow and Fatness the fat of the Kidniâ—s of the Wheat by Apples and Flagons Is he willing brethren to be the Feast to be fed upon and shall we not come O therefore come where the Carkass is follow not your Carrion any more the stirâ—king loathsome delights and pleasures of sin for a season Be ye no more drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit of Christ saith the Apostle be Inebriated as some read it abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his House and with the flowings of his heart towards you poor sinners But me thinketh now I hear the returns that sinners make to Jesus Christ to this invitation say some I have a feast already Stoln waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant and shall we forsake these delights we have in the world for we know not what Ah poor souls you know not what you say if this be the language of your hearts If you mouths were not much out of taste you would never judge sin a sweet thing a poor child of God that hath his taste healed though but in part he drinketh nothing in the world so bitter to him as sin that which goeth down so merrâ—ly with many Were not the Israelites mouths much out of taste when they preferred their Onions and Garlick stinking things of Egypt before their sweet their heavenly Manna their Angels bread fit for them to eat or which came by their Ministry 2. Remember this brethren though it be sweet to the taste it turns to bitterest gall as the Wise man speaks of wine that moveth it self aright it sparkles is lovely sweet to the taste at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adâ—er Behold such are all the delights of sin and whether you believe it or no now you shall be sure to feel it after a little season for your pleasures are but for a season So that you know not what you say if any thus excuse himself for coming Again Shall you change for you know not what Indeed you do not know for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive before he hath had experience of it himself O that I might but perswade you brethren to make a tryal and if you do not find one days communion of Jesus Christ be not worth a thousand with your companions in sin then believe not this Gospel any more there is much sweetness indeed in the breasts of the world to a wordly Pallate O what drink golden drink do poor Earth-worms drink and this is their Nectar Believe it brethren if the Lord do but bring you and set your mouths to the wounds of Jesus Christ set your mouths to the sweet promises of pardoning grace and purging mercy to draw from them strong consolation you will find the other but Gall and Wormwood to you O let them perish saith Galeac and his money with him that preferreth all the world before an hours communion with Jesus Christ I pray you therefore do not
But now this strait Gate is shut against them and therefore they cannot enter But so much for the proof of this Doctrine I shall not stay long upon it nor indeed is it needful having spoken before to their surprizal Only a word or two brethren for the opening of the Point and then to confirm it and then some short application of it to our selves For the opening of it What is meant by the unreadiness here supposed for it is against them that the door is shut And then the shutting of the door what is meant by that First then What is meant by this unreadiness I hope you have not altogether forgotten what was spoken lately to the readiness of a poor creature to enter in with Christ to heaven which if you remember you may easily conceive what it is to be unready we will not speak to the readiness for an abundant entrance but only for an entrance into heaven and you remember they were such things as these 1. There must be a pardon of a mans sins a righteousness of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ else a man is never ready Every unbeliever therefore is unready let him be as specious in his shews and pretences as he may yet he is unready he is in his sins condemned c. Joh. 3. And though the Gate of mercy and the kingdom of Grace â—â—and open for sinners to come to Jesus Christ yet the Gate of Heaven whereby an entrance is made into Glory stands not open to any but such as are pardoned have the robes of their elder Brother the Lord Jesus upon them Ah how sad a word is that of the Jews ye shall die in your sins then surely brethren they are not ready for heaven the door will be shut against them 2. There must be a dying to sin as well as a pardon of sin before we can be ready as you heard the roots must be withered before the wall be tumbled down therefore every unmortified man or woman is unready Hear this word of the Lord ye whose Lusts are yet in their full strength your pride and hardness of heart and sensoriousness your looseness and wantonness you that walk with a froward mouth and perverse lips whose hearts devise mischief whose feet make haste to do evil it is an ill sign that the old man is mortified you are an abomination to God as the wise man speaks and will he not clap the door against all such workers of iniquity no evil can dwell with God Ah brethren you that cherish that old man of sin as I may say rub him and chafe him and pour wine and strong drink into him aqua vitae and spirits into him by your meditations of sin vain thoughts lustful proud passionate thoughts nourish your sins ordinarily and so blow up the coal into a flame you are far from mortifying your lusts instead of bringing water and the blood of Jesus Christ to kill your sins you bring to the flame well all unmortified persons are unready let our profession be what it will the door will be clapt upon such I mean such as are altogether unmortified have done nothing in the work I know a child of God may not be so mortified as he should and sometimes for some acts may cherish sin use the bellows to the fire within but it costs him bitterness afterward he liveth not in such a course If he do it is good for him to be jealous of himself how the case stands with him Thirdly He is unready that hath no real holiness put upon him without it none shall see God he knoweth his prima facie as I may say he can see the image and comeliness upon a soul if it be there If not he will not own any bastards any supposititious children changelings that Satan laies in the lap of the Church as I may say and rocks in the Cradle of security but the Lord will shut the door against them This real holiness you know what it is a conformity to the will of God in our understandings light as he is light and no darkness in him In our wills and affections conformity to his will revealed to us A holy disposition of heart to do his will suffer his will and delight in it which occasioneth our grief when we cannot well this is holiness Hear this then ye that never mind the will of God purblind ignorant creatures stubborn rebellious creatures you that have iron sinnews and brazen faces which refuse to return or to be ashamed though the Lord do blazen your iniquities before you continually by his Heralds which cry aloud and teach Jacob their transgressions and Israel their sins and spare you not nor spare themselves yet you refuse to return and to be ashamed to conform to the will of Christ you never were brought to that sweet submissive frame of Paul Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Well believe it thou art unready the gate will be clapt against thee Fourthly Then others are unready And who are those Such as have received work to do and they have not done it men of no action for Christ then the Apostle was ready and our Saviour when they had done their work he gave them to do Christ had wrought out a perfect righteousness for his people and therefore he went up to heaven and the world seeth him no more and this the Spirit convinceth the world of if he had not done that work perfectly heaven would not have held him Remember this then Brethren they are unready that have not done their work whether Magistrates Ministers or private people He giveth to his servants some five talents some ten some two some one mind you he that had but one haply out of envy at others who had more or dejection and discouragement or thinking he had little and therefore could do little good with it hid it in a Napkin and did not trade with it and therefore was the gate open to him No thou wicked and sloathful servant saith the Master to him c. and so he is cast off the merchandise os wisdom is better then the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof then fine gold that is to say the great gain and improvement that cometh by using the wisdom and knowledge the gifts and graces which God giveth us O the tongue of the just is as choice silver and the lips of the righteous feed many Do we do our work Brethren or have we never set stroke in it God hath given some charge of souls how little have they done in it Masters of Families have the charge of children of servants their souls you have done nothing you have gifts and parts enough for every thing else Well Brethren such shall be shut out also Now to shew you two or three sorts of persons who will likely be unready in some or all these respects First then all such as trisle
away their time in the world spending their strength for that which profiteth not labouring for the meat which perisheth which will not endure to eternal life you see the world was that which kept them from coming to the Feast in the Gospel one could not have while another could not have while a man cannot have two treasures except he had two hearts two contrary treasures earth and heaven both and where the treasure is there will the heart be also therefore Brethren while men are so altogether taken up with the world they cannot but neglect the main thing and so are found unready â—et worldlings hear this word and tremble if any others be likely to be found unready you are the men Even the people of God themselves if they be unready in part it is the world likely will put them out of order off the hinges take heed saith our Saviour your hearts be not at any time overcharged with the cares of this world because there is no time but that day may overtake you and then you will be taken unawares therefore much more a man that is drowned and buried in the world he will be sure to be unready Secondly Such as do but dally with God and Religion and the things of eternity they spend themselves and their strength to feed a formality to put forth broad and pleasant leaves and there is all but for faith and repentance and the great works of a Christian they scarse ever meddle with them at all they go to the creature here with the foolish Virgins go to the opinions of others to the graces of others to their flattering parasite Preachers to be seared and daubed up such as these are likely to be found unready none in more danger then a formal professor Thirdly Such as fail in the midst of their Christian course as you see these Virgins did usually such are hardly recovered again for you see how they wandered up and down from mountain to hill from creature to creature and come not to Jesus Christ So in the Gospel when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man c. Such are like to the Laodiceans spised out of the mouth of God which none returneth to again the Dog returneth to the vomit but not a man our time is fruitful in experiences of this kind you see the door is here shut against those Virgins which failed I mean it of a total Apostacy not partial declinings such the Saints themselves had the wise Virgins but the other lost all true saving grace they had none their form their profession it went out and then they were in darkness could not expect the coming of their Lord with their Lamps burning So much for the opening of it The door is shut the meaning of this is no more but that an entrance into heaven is denyed unto them that are not ready there is no mansion made ready for them that are not made ready for these mansions the Lord Jesus he is the door into the Church the Kingdom of grace and into the Kingdom of glory as you have beard they that enter must enter in by Jesus Christ have access by him now he will shut the door that is to say shut up his bowels and tender mercies for ever though they have been opened to poor sinners here upon earth then they shall be shut up he will have no more compassion on them but when they cry and call shut out their prayers they have clapt the door of their hearts and lockt them against him and now will he shut up his heart and lock it against them for ever Time was when the Jews might have found Jesus Christ but now saith he ye shall seek me and shall not find me but shall dye in your sins Indeed Brethren the door may be shut against a man here on earth after Gods waiting upon a people to be gracious to them he sware in his wrath they should never enter into his rest which was a type of heaven And so those that were invited to the feast they shall not taste of my dainties saith the King for they are not worthy If men refuse and reject the Gospel either professedly or in practise no marvel if the Lord turn the key of heaven gates upon them and they be shut out without any more hope for ever For the Arguments to confirm this a little First Because this feast in heaven admitteth no Guests without a wedding garment without holiness no entrance into heaven no man shall see the Lord except the Lord Jesus have known them and they have known him which is life eternal for so the Apostle puts them together we know that we know him or rather are known of him else Brethren there is no entrance he knoweth no man will acknowledge none then but with a wedding-garment here in the administrations of the Kingdom of grace a person may creep into the feast withont the wedding-garment indeed for the word preached it is for all but the distinguishing Ordinances men may be admitted to haply though they have no wedding-garment as you have it in that place of Matthew but he shall not abide there but shall be cast out he will bind him hand and foot and cast him out though he â—eaveth the admittance of them into the visible Church and visible communion in his ordinances to us who can judge but according to appearance and by the rules of charity yet himself cometh and vieweth the guests and who are fit to be owned as the guests of heaven that shall have entrance there he whose eyes are a flame of fire or like it piercing into the inwards of our souls to see what our spirits are cloathed with And if he takes it so ill of them that creep into the Communion of his Saints and Ordinances here below without a wedding-garment Surely then he will never admit any to this feast of new wine to eternity without such a wedding-garment Secondly Another Argument or Consideration to make this out may be this they that are unready shall not enter the door shall be shut upon them because they have neglected despised the Lord Jesus who is the door and hath the key of David and openeth and shutteth therefore now they shall be rejected the door hath stood open all the day long all the day long hath he stretched out his hands to a rebellious and gain-saying people he would have gathered them and they would not therefore now he will not now he will despise them as they have despised him and there is all the reason that can be that they that would have none of Christ by whom alone there is access to the Father and to this glory that he should have none of them neither they have resisted the motions of his Spirit the Holy-Ghost offering to convince them and now he will resist them clap the door against them Thirdly Because
just in the very harbour this is the saddest of all the rest many a storm they have ridden out they have indured many a wave and to split themselves in the very harbour within sight of the land as a man miscarrying just at the gate of the City of Refuge O how high must such mens hopes have been and how low will their hearts sink now when so â—adly disappointed hope so disappointed maketh ashamed confoundeth the soul as Esau his hopes were at the highest when he came with his Venison to his â—ather this will kill the heart O Brethren above all others hypocrites will be cloathed with the deepest confusion because they have been men of the fairest hopes for heaven Therefore it is said he went away sorrowful for it must needs be so for he was a man of more light then others and surely had a conviction that Jesus was the Messiah that it would be advantagious to have him and therefore coming so near to him and yet put back he went away sorrowful another man would have made nothing of such a repulse hypocrites have great enlightnings and they have had a taste of the heavenly gift as I may say as Israel had a bunch of grapes to taste the sweetness of Canaan and encourage them to go in to possess it O this when God turned them back into the wilderness for their rebellion that they should perish there was a great aggravation of their misery if they had never come so near it and never tasted of it they had not known what they had lost what they had deprived themselves of So here surely Brethren hypocrites have many a taste they have some glimmerings of heavens light and glory somewhat they have to draw them on to the very borders therefore for them to be turned off here and shut out O sure it will much aggravate their misery Ah wretch that I was to come so near take so much pains for heaven and yet that I should miss it will be the doleful ditty of hypocrites to eternity Thirdly It may teach all young beginners that are now as I may say starting in the race that is set before us that you look to it Brethren you be so furnished as to be able to run so as to obtain you are now launching into the deep O look to it there be not a privy leak somewhere though it be but small yet it may make a shift to sink you even at the very haven of heaven Ah dear friends it will be worth your pains to look into the truth of your condition though it cost you many an hour many a hot and cold fit yet give it not over be sure of this one thing that you be bottomed on Jesus Christ and have his Spirit to dwell in you his fear put in you according to the Covenant of grace and then you shall never depart from him you shall never fall short If once you be but in him you shall enter in with him the reason why these foolish Virgins entred not they were not in Christ they had nothing but their own account their own profession and what they could rap and rend and get from the creature alas this was nothing though it might carry them thus far it would not make way for their entrance into glory therefore let me beg of you to make this one thing necessary sure neglect this and all is nothing Fourthly It may teach all of us even such as have not only begun but gone far taken much pains for heaven to tremble and fear lest for want of a little more we fall short Ah dear friends if we would offer violence to heaven it must be while we are here when the door is shut it is too late therefore now let us press and spare no pains and look to these two things 1. That what we do we do it in Christ and for Christ else what do we differ in our work from the glistering Sinners among the heathens And 2. That our hearts be changed and made better and growing liker heaven every day then other else they will nothing avail us at all we shall be shut out notwithstanding all our prayers preaching gifts performances priviledges nothing but an interest in Christ and an heart sanctified by him will give entrance into heaven but so much for this Doctrine Another Note I will take up from the Virgins crying to God now when they saw the Gate of heaven shut against them That the hearts of sinners are full of self-confidence and presumption That they could have an heart to cry to Jesus Christ to open the door to them when it was shut it is strange presumption and boldness indeed for they had not one word to say for themselves why they should have entrance but only Lord Lord open c. in respect of any pleadings of Faith or the Covenant of Grace they were dumb not a word of this but if they had any thing to say it was such as those in Mat. 7. had to say for themselves he had preached in their streets and they had eat and drunk in his presence so here Lord Lord open to us why we had Lamps burning until a little before thy appearing we walked in fellowship with them that are truly admitted now into thy presence we have endeavoured to get some oyl to renew our Lamps though alas they found none but however they would have heaven this is very strong impudence and confident presumption that is in the hearts of Sinners the Lord Jesus turns them off and they will not be turned oâ—f now they will offer violence to the kingdom of heaven when it is too late Whence ariseth this Haply out of the ignorance whereupon heaven is to be had upon what conditions or else out of the presence of their eternal misery now they see they are sinking to hell they begin to cry out for opening of heaven Gate to them now the Gate is shut upon them they never cried before but I will not insist upon this Only a word or two of Application First then it is no marvel brethren if sinners are so full of boldness and presumption now let us tell them that we will set life and death before them as you have had it set before you many a time every Sabbath every opportunity almost alas they care not for it they hang out a flag of defiance against God they have made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell and this they make account shall stand let the Lord say what he will though he tell them he will break that Covenant he disanulleth it in the day he heareth it for both they and death are under his command and therefore he may disanull their Covenant he is Soveraign over them all yet they believe it not they rage and are confident for when the very overflowing scourge cometh upon them they are so confident to go and cry to God
they will they think if they have but time to cry Lord Lord though it be when the Gate is shut as these foolish Virgins it will do Ah brethren if the foolish Virgins had been acquainted with this that they must have their oyl from Christ or else they should never hold out nor enter with him would they not instead of those trifling impertinent endeavours made some application to him all that while but they saw it not it was hid from their eyes The Lord will give Grace and Glory and never will he give Glory sure if he give not Grace O for hearts to believe this it would be a cure of this disorder Fourthly Because of the enmity that is in our hearts against Grace nothing is more contrary wherevever Grace cometh there is a continuall quarrel between it and sin the holy Ghost when he cometh to dwell in a heart he knoweth he must have no peace there but continually lust against the flesh and endure the lustings of the flesh against it self O brethren then where a heart is altogether in sin what an enemy is it to Grace and to Christ as the Author of Grace so saith the Apostle you while you were enemies in your minds through wicked works hath he reconciled now a man will hardly come to an enemy to help him except he be in very great straits indeed as when men are sinking into hell then they will come to Christ for entrance into heaven for then their misery is present and imminent they see there is no avoiding of it hell is at their backs the avengers of blood are now upon them ready to hurry them away to destruction therefore now it is high time for them to cry Lord Lord open to us but while they can but keep these things at a distance put off the thoughts of heaven and hell they care not for coming to Christ at all yet as great as their enmity is it may be overlaid by the present apprehensions of their necessity and danger they are in if they come not to him and this is that brings in any soul to Christ for Grace here while he is dispensing Grace until the Lord let the Sinner see his sins in order before him see the hand-writing upon the wall against him Mene Mene until God write his condemnation upon his Conscience in bloody Characters and visible that he that runs may read it he careth not for coming to Christ for Grace and so for heaven if a man neglect all this yet when God sheweth him the rivers of burning brimstone sheweth the teeth of the worm which is ready to fasten upon him opens a mans ears to hear Satan come jingling with his chain to fetch his soul to tear it away whether he will or no O then though he hath no mind to go to Christ now he will go and cry Lord Lord open to me Why But you will say If he be such an enemy to Grace and to Christ as dispensing Grace is he not much more an enemy to Christ as glorious and receiving sinners to Glory Yea brethren I believe for my part that they are such enemies to an heavenly work a glorious state that if they were admitted with such hearts as they have it would be a weary place to them they cannot endure the reflection of the sun upon a burnish'd soul how will they endure the face of the Son of righteousness himself but the sence of their danger and looking upon heaven as a place of freedom from the torments of the condemned not as upon an holy place wherein Grace is made glorious therefore they desire to enter alas what would these foolish Virgins have done there if they had entred in this unready condition heaven would have been too hot to hold them but freed they would be from misery happy they would be poor creatures though they mind not that the happiness of heaven is such as if they had not had Grace first to make them meet for it it would have been no happiness to them What is more tedious to them then the Glory of Holiness upon the Saints then spiritual communion with God they cannot bear this All delight ariseth from suittableness between the object and faculty and all grief and trouble from the unsuitableness of the object and faculty and truly Grace glorified is so much the more unsuitable but yet I say they apprehending that misery is approaching would go any wihther for shelter Fifthly and lastly Because now they can keep their lusts no longer therefore now they would have heaven as long as the sinner can keep his lust he will be for no other Master nor Lord he cares for no other pleasure the pleasures of sin are the fools paradise to the wanton and so is sport and pastime to the young gallant they care not for any thing serious If men could keep the world for ever they would never desire to come to heaven they could be contented to have their heaven upon earth their inward thought is they shall continue for ever they call their houses after their own names and they think as they would have it now when they see they can hold the world no longer now they would have heaven therefore they care not for Grace so long as they can have their fill of these delights if men be Hypocrites close Hypocrites have no open prophaness or lust yet some secret Dalilah they have that they delight themselves with but when the pangs of hell begin to catch hold upon men when their consciences do catch of the fire of hell and this to flame they see they are going and there is no other way with them but one and being at the brink as I may say the flame catcheth upon them as it did those Executioners in Daniel then O for heaven Lord Lord deliver us save us For the Application This may serve then in the first place to justifie the Lord Jesus let him be for ever clear when he judgeth and justified when he speaks though he speaks condemnation and everlasting separation from himself to many men at the last day or at his coming to Summon if you call then and he answer you not if you cry Lord Lord open to us and he give you this answer I know you not blame your selves you cannot but justifie him why because you might have had heaven and salvation in his ways If you had sought early you should have found but you never seek him until the Gate be shut against you as long as you can keep the world and your lusts you will not come unto him that you might have Pardon might have grace that you might live for ever now your sins leave you the world leaves you or you must leave the world they are ready to take away your souls from you now you will come and cry Lord Lord open to us is it not just and righteous if he cast you out Secondly It
glory as it were of divine attributes they all shine forth in him each with his peculiar glory The Temple the glory of the Lord filled it so that they could not stand before him to minister sometimes So Brethren now the Lord hath placed his name in Jesus Christ he hath filled him with his glory therefore saith the Prophet the glory of the Lord is risen on thee that is Jesus Christ is manifested to thee was not his glory so great as to confound John though a vessel fitted to be filled with those glorious revelations from-him He fell at his feet as one dead at the sight of him in that vision How glorious is an Angel that the very sight of him was an astonishment to John what is the Lord of the Angels If the Moon be so glorious what is the Sun Thirdly the Sun is full of light in it self and filsall things capable of its light and yet hath never the less the twinkling Tapers of heaven they have each of them their light some more some less and the Moon hath much light and giveth much but what 's borrowed light First she hath it not in her self nor in such abundance as the Sun hath So it s here the Saints they are lights of the Sun as our Saviour saith but alas like poor candles that burn dim and sometimes through the thickness of the damps of corruption in our hearts burn blew and are ready to go out for the most part 〈…〉 but as the light in the socket sometimes up and sometimes down and every moment a man would think it would go out the Angels and spirits of just men made perfect are like stars shining more gloriously and constantly But alas nothing to the Sun he sheds the light abroad throughout the whole hemisphere at once Set up many lights at once in a dark night they will give light but a little way and how poor and weak a 〈…〉 light so that when the Sun shineth they appear not at all and that the Sun should so long fill the world with his light and have never the less this is admirable But this is but a shadow Brethren to the light of Jesus Christ he is the true light that is such a light as that nothing else deserveth to be called a light in comparison of him as far as the subject is recipient a glorious spirit is before a vile body so far is the light of Christ in its own nature above the Suns light And then for fulness there is no comparison though there be hardly any thing obvious to ouâ— senses which are to â—et in light to the understand 〈…〉 that is more glorious and so is more â—it to set forth the Lord Jesus his fulness of Light by Light maketh manifest all things and that that maketh things manifest is the Light now the light of the Sun its true discovers much that before it arose appeared not but its possible to hide from its light Brethren in the depths of the earth in the bowels of man it discovereth not any of those much less the secrets of hearts there 's no suitableness between such a cause and such an effect But the Lord Jesus he searcheth all the deep things of men the very Marrow of their bones which is the deepest and hath the most coverings upon coverings he searcheth them So doth Christ the ends of men which are the most hidden usually in all their designs they are deep as the Marrow in the bones cloathed over with flesh and skin and bones pretence upon pretence but Christ this Light is so piercing that there is no hiding any thing from it Fourthly The Sun his Tabernacle is in heaven there he made a Tabernacle for the Sun there is the seat of the eye of the world from whence he views all that is under his Government there is his Palace and from thence he dispenceth light and influence So Brethren it s with Jesus Christ he hath his Tabernacle in heaven that is in his Church for so oftentimes the Church is called there the Lord placeth his Tabernacle as he saith of Israel of old I will place my Tabernacle among them and dwell in the midst of them He walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks to behold them to be nigh them to dispence of his light to them and of his influence So doth the Sun communicate of his light to the Moon and to the Stars in heaven and to the inhabitants upon earth We are not to understand all this of Christ his person meerly but Christ as held out in his Ordinances in his Church therefore he is said by the Church to make manifest the mercy and wisdom of God his Ordinances are the raies and beams as afterward we shall speak when we come to open that part of the Text. But his Tabernacle is the Church thence he shines forth on many others as the earth is lightned by the raies from heaven Fifthly From the warming of the Sun how cold and frozen are those Northern parts of the world because remote from the Sun how cold is the hemisphere when the Sun is set for a time â—ow warm when it shines So the Lord Jesus it is that 's the Author of heat the Winter is past the Summer is come the rain is over the flowers appear on the earth and the voice of singing of birds heard that is Christ is revealed in the power of his love to poor sinners this is that which warmeth the coldest heart when we are frozen in our affections and as waters frozen up cannot run this way nor that way so we can do nothing nor move towards God Then Brethren it s a sight of the Sun of righteousness the Lord Jesus a hot gleamfrom him that thaws all and melts all warmeth all again and therefore in this respect also he may be compared to the Sun Sixthly because of influence which may be they say where there is no heat nor light at least and therefore Philosophers tell us that by the influence of the Sun the gold is concocted in the bowels of the earth whither its light cannot come And this is that Brethren that calls forth the fruits of the earth that in the winter for fear of cold were retired the sap recoiling to the root there to be preserved until a season for it Now the Sun the heat and warmth and influence thereof calls it forth again so that the grass and fruits plants and herbs put forth bud and blossom as we see it in the spring so the face of the earth is renewed And so it s in this case the Lord Jesus from heaven shineth forth and conveighing secretly the powerful influences of his Spirit and of the Word to poor sinners though they were as dead and dry sticks before as trees that are starven with the frost and seem dead then they put forth again then they grow green and flourishing then
Silver tryed and purified seven times that is to say his Promise therefore he concludeth That the Lord will keep them he will preserve them for ever and so pretious so confirmed by miracles that all other truth scarce deserveth the name of truth in comparison of it either it is not so pure but hath some dross or else not so pretious O they are pretious Promises indeed as the soul knoweth right-well when he cometh to stand in need of a Promise and the sweetness of it he sucks out and it letteth down the sweetness of it upon the soul but take a parallel Scripture to shew that Gospel is called the truth The Apostle speaks plainly For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel and again to the Ephesians In whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation in whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise So that this is the truth then the knowledge whereof shall make us free where the Spirit of Christ is there is liberty that is clear as you heard before Now how is the Spirit given but by the Gospel Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith which is that hearing of Faith by the Word of Truth the foregoing Verse even that which held forth a crucified Christ to them hearing of Faith not the rumour of Faith but hearing is such an hearing as whereby a man believeth and Faith by a Metonymie is put for the Word of Faith as the Gospel is called sometimes because Faith thereby is begotten now by this the Spirit is received and therefore liberty cometh and therefore the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit in that place of the Apostle because therewith the Spirit is given and ministred to poor creatures whereas the Law works Bondage and Wrath Therefore Jerusalem is free which is above that is to say the Church builded upon the Covenant of Grace is free is the Mother of us all but enough of this The Gospel is the outward instrumental cause Fifthly the inward instrumental cause or Con. as some will have it which I shall not now dispute that is faith whereby we close with this Covenant it is the Word of Faith and hearing of Faith that is to say of the Gospel so as to work Faith whereby the Spirit is given which brings liberty to the soul Alas many hear the Gospel of liberty which we preach and few do receive it few believe it for it appeareth by woful experience we are yet in bondage we have never gone forth to this day many of us though we have had as much preaching of the Gospel as any other Jerusalem that now is as the Apostle cals it was in bondage then though they had the Gospel preached among them a great while they believed not except the Spirit therein be conveyed the Gospel is but a dead letter as well as the Law and a deadly letter also and so much for the causes of this liberty or freedom which cometh by Jesus Christ The third thing under this head is the parts of this liberty or freedom which we shall consider two ways First Extensively in their latitudeâ— And secondly Intensively in the degrees of each of these parts in its latitude But that we may the better understand it we must know that liberty is a relative and respecteth some bondage some imprisoning or shutting up from which this liberty is a deliverance ye shall go forth and therefore to set off the lustre of this glorious liberty it may not be amiss to run a parallel between them That there is such a bondage under which every poor creature without Christ is held we shall at present presuppose though afterward haply I shall come to prove it I would not here too far digress before we come to speak of the parts of the bondage to which the parts of liberty will be opposite and correspondent I shall say in a few words something to the Author of this Bondage and Tenure of it and but a word or two For the Author of this bondage under which poor creatures are without Christ altogether and in part also many times when they are under Christ and under Grace First Some part of it is to be ascribed to the Lord so far forth as it is meerly vindictive or an inflicting of a just penalty upon Sinners for sin so far we may ascribe it to God as will more plainly appear in the following Considerations The Law which genders to Bondage it is his Law and holy and just and good though it gender to Bondage nor will it follow because we are delivered form it therefore it was an evil in it self but only per accidens by reason of our corruption and so the Spirit of Bondage which in some is vindictive when he binds and hampers a Sinner with the cords of his sin haply never intending that he shall see through those terrors to his comfort this is from him and justly or else if it be in order to a settlement to a peace to an Adoption a Sonship through Christ as preparative to the receiving of Christ this is from him and so several other parts of it are from him under this Consideration Secondly But so far forth as any part of it is sinful there it is from Satan and from our own evil hearts for darkness cannot come from the light nor can any thing unclean come from that which is altogether pure no more then a clean thing can proceed from an unclean as the bondage under sin which more at large afterward we shall discuss Secondly For the tenure for being in bondage we are in bondage to some person properly to some thing improperly and by a kind of Prosopopeia we are said to be in such a bondage now there is some Tenure as I may say wherein they do hold us in bondage there are three or four tenures if I may so call them whereby we are thus held under Bondage until Jesus Christ come to set us free First A Sale Secondly By Birth Thirdly By Captivity or Conquest Fourthly By Tyranny and resignation of themselves up to such a vassallage but a word or two to each of them First then There is a Bondage by Captivity when People are taken Captives this is so common there is none can be ignorant of it What are the Turks Gally-slaves but the prey of their piracies all is fish that cometh to the net so it is in this case This is one Part of the Tenure we are taken captive by Satan even at his pleasure Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage this is the military Law the Prisoners were ever the Conquerours slaves we have seen it but too evidently with our own eyes we have
dost thou grow in that is thy communication much more seasoned and savoury is it all savoury tending to minister grace to the hearers heretofore thou hadst it may be scarce a thought of God in a day now he is the object of the workings of thy soul the thoughts of him are pleasant to thee this is an high condition it argues thou hast grown thou art in a growing condtition but this is not all Brethren Secondly Is that more fruit you bring forth better then it was before is it more mellow then formerly or if thou bring forth no more in number is it more in weight for God takes not our services by number but by weight and it is a sottishness of the poor blind Papists to think that God is pleased with their much speaking with pattering over so many Avy Maries and Pater Nosters or principles of the Doctrine of Christ I wish our practises be not too like theirs It may be heretofore thou couldest not enlarge thy self in prayer and now thou canst and thou thinkest thou art much grown it may be in bulk but not in goodness are thy prayers now more the breathings of the Spirit of Christ within thee and less of thine own Spirit O how much strange fire mingled with our sacrifices and strange incense strange zeal even our own passions instead of a zeal for God! Now Brethren is our zeal and fire more pure coming down from heaven even from the Spirit of Jesus Christ warming our hearts Look to this do we find that we grow more spiritual in duties in prayer do we act our faith more strongly wrestle with God in spirit more then in words children are apt to be taken with bables and pictures and flowers in the corn and we wâ—th sweet and quaint expressions but now have we learned to worship him more in spirit and in truth to know that the great work of our duties lie in the frame of our hearts toward God in prayer in preaching in hearing of the Word It is childishness Brethren for one never to be well or to place so much in it to be alway upon the lap and dandled do we find that now we would rather be made serviceable to him and do it with more pure hearts more pure ends not for our selves but for his glory we ask not gifts parts grace to spend it upon our lusts as heretofore not â—or our own peace that we might take our ends but that we might be fitter instruments in his hands for his glory not for our own praise and honour among men O look to this I tell you there is nothing sticks closer to us then this now doth this sowrness crabbidness of our fruits wear away by degrees is it better with us in these respects then before this is a sign of growth indeed I will add but one more and that shall be this Dost thou â—ind that thou growest by the opposition thou meetest with in the work of grace either from without or from within or any way whatsoever First I say from opposition without grace will grow and gather strength and this either from men or from the Lood from men when they oppose the way of God wherein we walk we must look to it that we grow so much the stronger for that is the nature of grace Brethren as when Paul preached the faith which once he had destroyed and the people were amazed saith the Text and they spake of him as a changling is not this he that wasted them that called upon his name in Jerusalem but Saul waxed so much the stronger and confounded the Jews that dwelled at Damaseus proving that this was the Christ As the fire they say is hotter by antiperistasis in coldest weather the Palm-trees they grow like as you heard in the proof that raiseth it self up under a weight of opposition Well look to this Brethren I do not mean an Ish 〈…〉 elitish spirit that is against every one and every mans hand against it and that a man should out of a cross crooked disposition do any thing or vex and gall persons that oppose them but grace will then be stirred up as the fire by the wind that bloweth it this way and that way it is in vain to blow it out to offer it for it increaseth the flame there is no resisting that Spirit whereby the Saints a 〈…〉 ted look to it is it thus with us or do we find that opposition from men doth cool us discourage us dishearten us so that we dare not own the Lord Jesus and his truth and way Truly it is to be feared it is not right with us Secondly From the Lord there is some opposition sometimes he wrestleth with us Jacobs wrestling with God implyeth some opposition of God as I may say he wrestled with him let me go saith he this stirreth him up so much the more earnestly to lay hold upon him when the Lord would take his leave of him and you see the poor man in the Gospel when he was rebuked for crying after Jesus Christ he cryed so much the more earnestly and so our Saviour when he was in that great agony or striving under the displeasure of his Father saith the Text he prayed so much the more earnestly So the Lord doth sometimes hang back or hide his face that he might draw out more and more his peoples hearts toward him as a Fisher draweth away his bait to make the fish follow it the more eagerly Well consider this now do we thus grow even by opposition if the Lord say to us we are dogs not fit for childrens bread can we conclude the worst against our selves and yet gather upon him for the crums at the least But then there is opposition from our selves from within and that is from the rebelling of our lusts they rise and swell and many times over-bear us we are foiled do we grow by this this may seem somewhat strange that the acting of sin should tend to the encreasing of grace for that we must know that it is not proper for every act of sin properly doth strengthen the habits of sin and the stronger sin is in the soul the weaker grace is like to be as the more the water cools the less heat there is remaining in it but it is by accident as water cast upon a coal-fire at present it seemeth to put it out but afterward it burns so much the hotter and fiercer So grace takes occasion hereby to stir up it self so much the more to set it self so much the more in opposition to it it maketh a child of God so much the more humble so much the more watchful and full of prayer if it be right with them and neither sin nor Satan gets by this at all So if Peter be tost in that sieve of vanity that temptation and fall O how it humbles him and how afterward it fetcheth him off his own bottom how valiant he
grow in this Grace may he not say to us O ye of little Faith why do ye doubt why do you walk so pensively and hang the head to the dishonour of my Grace may he not say O ye of little Faith why do you perplex your selves and rack your selves with cares of the World what ye shall eat and drink and how ye shall be prvoided for doth not your heavenly Father take care of you O ye of little Faith why do ye in every perplexity and trouble as men at a loss run to this creature and that creature and not to the Lord wherein your help doth lie O ye of little Faith why do you when means fail then cast away your hope as if there were no help in God as if because the streams were dried up therefore the fountain must needs be dry also therefore Brethren labour to grow in this Grace if ever you would do any eminent service for Christ or honour him set the crown on him in any condition labour to be strong in Faith Thirdly In that Grace of Love labour to grow therein First to the Lord himself to Jesus Christ It may be thou dost love him and according to the measure of Faith and Knowledge of him the soul will love him usually but we must labour to love him much more love we take it kindly if it be from the meanest person and so doth the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints you cannot love him too much do you alway err in his love the more you love him the more you may for there is no end of his perfections his love his mercy his bowels towards you there is no searching of them you may go yet deeper and deeper and find a ground for the increase of your love still you love Relations Husband Wife Children and more for relation then for any excellency in them many times fond we are O that we could be so fond of Jesus Christ how sick of love was Rachel yea sick to the death for children and so is many a fond mother O we cannot live without them Ah how few are thus sick of love to Jesus Christ well lobour to love him and to this end First Labour to present the Lord and Jesus Christas most lovely to thee while thou entertainest hard thoughts of Jesus Christ thou canst not love him if thou thinkest thus with thy self I would fain have him but he is not willing to have me if thou look upon him as rigorous and cruel and one that delights in your blood it is impossible that you should love him O no labour to present him to your selves as one whose bowels are continually yearning over poor souls poor sinners one full of compassions full of mercy and tenderness he desires not the death of a sinner the Lord Jesus Brethren is altogether lovely it is true for his holiness his purity as well as his grace and mercy but this is that which most moveth to love at least while we are under weakness it is an high pitch to love him for the beauty of Holiness that is in him Think often then seriously upon it what dear thoughts the Lord Jesus had to poor sinners that rather then they should perish he would interpose between them and the everlasting burnings though be were sorely scorched for it O will not this draw love look upon him with his precious blood trickling down and one drop overtaking another O what haste did love make O how lavish was his love he would not spare any pains any travel of soul that sinners might live and can you but love him then O what an heart must that creature have that can look upon the Lord Jesus wrestling with strongest wrath of his Father so that he needed the Ministry of Angels at that time and yet not love him try see whether such considerations as these will not heighten your love to him we complain of want of love Brethren we cannot love a thing we know not or that we consider not see then if you do not find still some new beauty in him for which you should love him yet the more Secondly Let it be much upon your hearts how much he hath forgiven thee Alas saith the poor soul if I knew that that my sins were forgiven I should love him indeed abundantly It may be thou hast not a full perswasion of it but hast thou not a good hope through Grace and such a lively hope as setteth a working out the scum the pollution of thy heart more and more Is not this cause of great love to him why he hath not left thee to sink in despair and perish O how much did that sinner love him because he had forgiven her much therefore she loved much Dear friends could this be think you without her heart dwelt upon this consideration it was fresh upon her spirit O the more she considered it the more apparent were the riches of Grace towards her O so many Devils cast out of me would the Lord Jesus have such precious thoughts toward such a wretch as I what an Harlot a filthy unclean wretch and would he think upon me and pitch his love upon me and pass by many others that had it may be but one devil and make love to me that had seven O she could not hold her bowels within her were ready to break she must love him she must hang upon him even upon his feet she must wash him with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head though before as harlots use to do she had been much in tricking and trimming her head yet now they shall be dishrifled and now they shall be a Towel to wipe the feet of Jesus Christ O here is love kiss his feet if she may not kiss his lips and blessed soul that had such an heart given her Now Brethren consider this have not some of us had seven devils have there not been seven abominations in our hearts O it may be we have been fornicators adulterers filthy unclean wretches as vile wretches as ever breathed now consider this often is it so indeed hath the Lord looked upon such as we have been pitched his love upon the vilest of us and to make us so nigh to himself and shall we not love him O where are such workings of love towards the Lord Jesus as that poor woman manifested our hearts are dead and dry So the Apostle Paul His love of Christ constrained him O he was the chief of Sinners and the Lord did so eminently save him and call him out of darkness when he was in the very height of his wickedness that then mercy should â—eet with him that then a pardon should descend from heaven when he was fighting and rebelling against heaven and he should be conquered by the love of Christ whose heart was full of blood against him O this lying upon his spirit did indear his soul to