learned Predecessors for with such has that See been blessed ever since the Reformation And undoubtedly his Death will be extreamly lamented in that Country and sure I am the Poor will have great reason to bewail it for to them he was exceeding generous and charitable and gave great Sums every Year amongst them besides the Tenth of his Revenues which he constantly laid by for such uses and did also allow good Yearly Pensions to Students in the University to Ministers Widows and other distressed Persons and did put Children to Trades and largely contribute to the Building and Repairing of some Churches and designed greater things if God had spared him to return But alas he is gone and our poor unsetled Church has an extraordinary loss in him 'T is a sharp Stroke an additional Judgment to lose him now But to God's Holy Will we must submit as he willingly and chearfully did when Death approached He resigned all with great Christian Courage and discoursed Philosophically and Divinely of the Vanity and Uncertainty of all Sublunary Things and setled all his Desires upon the Things above and not long before his death he discoursed of the Necessity and Sincerity of Repentance and Uniform Obedience in such a manner and inveighed with such any Holy Zeal against the Sins of these Nations as might make the greatest Debauchees of our Age quake and tremble to have heard him And then with reflecting on himself he did with great Grief and Sorrow with Sighs and Tears bewail the least Failures of his Life and spent his Last Days in Self-examination in Repentance and Prayer and with great Devotion received the Holy Sacrament in which he found much Joy and Comfort and had such Inward Peace and Antepasts of Bliss that he longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ and did very often beg of God to take him And on Thursday last his Prayer was heard and God in his Mercy took him out of the Troubles of this Life and called him up amongst the Blessed and changed his Fading Mitre into a Crown of Eternal Glory What then remains but that we imitate his Virtue honour his Memory and commit his Body to his Dormitory there to sleep till the Resurrection when he and all who have been diligent and industrious painful and laborious in the Ministry and have been Precedents of Piety and Holiness of Justice and Integrity will meet their Flocks with Joy and Comfort and for turning them to Righteousness shall shine as Stars for ever and ever Which God grant we may all do c. A TABLE OF THE Discourses Sermons IN THIS VOLUME PRactical Christianity Recommended urg'd and Encourag'd in working out our own Salvation Or A Discourse on Philippians 2.12 13. Wherefore my Beloved as ye have always Obeyed not as in my Presence only but now much more in my Absence work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure The Assurance of Heaven and Salvation a powerful Motive to serve God with Fear In a Discourse on Hebrews 12.28 29. Wherefore we having received a Kingdom that cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a Consuming Fire A Discourse of the Nature Corruption and Renewing of the Conscience With Accounts of the Moment of having a Conscience void of Offence to God and Men from Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. A Discourse upon Perseverance in Prayer With Exhortations thereunto On 1 Thess 5.17 Pray without ceasing A Discourse upon the Omnipresence of God With the Improvements thereof From Psal 139.7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me BOOKS Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. A Practical Exposition on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in two Volumes in Quarto The Vanity of the World with other Sermons in 8 vo Sermons or Discourses on several Scriptures in Four Volumes in Octavo The Almost Christian discovered in some Sermons on Acts 26.28 All these written by the Right Reverend Father in God Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-derry Bishop Vsher's Life and Letters By Dr. Parr in Folio 's Body of Divinity or the Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion Folio 's 22 Sermons on several Subjects Fol. Josephus's History of the Jews Folio Dr. Bates's Harmony of the Divine Attributes Octavo Charron of Wisdom in three Books All Dr. Anthony Walker 's Works viz. The Sinfulness and Danger of delaying Repentance The Vertuous Woman or the Life of the Countess of Warwick The Vertuous Wife or the Life of Mrs. Eliz. Walker His Sermons of Water-drinking Preached at Tunbridge-wells c. The Worthy Communicant a Treatise shewing the due Order of Receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The 17th Edition By Jeremiah Dyke The Poor Doubting Christian drawn unto Christ By Thomas Hooker Ovid's Metamorphosis in English Verse By George Sandys Aesop's Fables in Prose with Cuts Solitude improved by Divine Meditation By Nathaniel Ranew late Rector of Felsted in Essex Practical Discourses concerning Death and Heaven By Nathaniel Ranew Correction Instruction or a Treatise of Afflictions By Tho. Case The Principles of Christian Religion with a brief Method of the Doctrine thereof By Bishop Vsher The sinfulness of Sin and the fulness of Christ In two Sermons By W. Bridge Practical Christianity RECOMMENDED Urg'd Encourag'd In working out our own SALVATION OR A DISCOURSE ON Philippians ii 12 13. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. Practical CHRISTIANITY Recommended Vrged and Encouraged In Working out our own SALVATION Phil. ii 12.13 Wherefore my Beloved as ye have always Obeyed not as in my Presence only but now much more in my Absence work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure THE whole Sum of Christianity is Comprehended in two Points in Knowledg Introduction and in Obedience The one is Conversant about things Supernaturally Revealed and the other about Duties Supernaturally Performed Now although there be so wide a difference between these two yet where they are suffered to run on in a course they will one fall into the other and Gospel Revelations will make way for and lead unto Gospel Obedience Yea indeed there is no Divine Truth how Abstracted how Sublime and Speculative soever it may
from accusing and condemning of you So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE UPON Perseverance IN PRAYER WITH Exhortations thereunto ON 1 THESSAL v. 17. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE UPON Perseverance IN PRAYER 1 THESS v. 17. Pray without ceasing THIS Text is one of those many Commands that the Apostle lays down in this Chapter being now almost at the end and close of his Epistle and not willing to omit the mentioning of Duties so necessary for their Practice he pours them out in short but weighty Exhortations the Connexion betwixt most of them is dark if there be any I shall not therefore vex the Words by tacking them either to the precedent or subsequent Verses by any forced Coherence but take them as they are in themselves in one entire Proposition and so they contain in them a Duty and that is Prayer and the manner also of performing of it and that is without ceasing and both of these do administer to us this plain Doctrin Doctrin That it is a Christians Duty to pray incessantly This is a plain and necessary Point and I intend to handle it in as plain and familiar a Method And there are two Things that I shall enquire into First What it is to Pray And then Secondly What it is to Pray without ceasing 1. What it is to Pray 1. I shall begin with the First What it is to Pray I Answer To Pray is by the Assistance and Help of the Holy Ghost in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with Faith and Fervency to make an humble representation of our Desires unto God for those Things that are according to his Will with submission to his Pleasure and with reference to his Honour This is that holy Duty of Prayer in which of all that belong to Religion the Soul usually enjoys the most near and sweet Communion with God When we are oppressed with Guilt or overwhelmed with Fears and Griefs what sweeter Retreat than to betake our selves to our God and to our Father into whose Bosom we may unload all our Burdens It is the greatest solace of an afflicted Mind to lie prostrate before the Lord and melt it self down in holy Tears and in holy Affections at his Feet Hence it is said of Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 That after she had poured out her Soul before God her Countenance was no more sad And therefore this is not so much our Duty as our Privilege it is the Happiness of the glorious Angels in Heaven and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect that they are always near unto God in their Attendance upon him that they are Waiters about his Throne And Prayer gives to us the very same high Privilege and brings us into the Presence and before the Throne of the same God only with this difference they draw near to a Throne of Glory and we draw near to a Throne of Grace Let us now take a more particular View of this excellent Duty of Prayer according to the Description given of it 1. The efficient cause of Prayer is the Spirit First The efficient cause of Prayer is the Holy Ghost then we Pray when we breath out those Requests unto God that the Holy Ghost hath breathed unto us and therefore it is said Rom. 8.26 The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with Sighs and Groans that cannot be uttered All Prayers that are not dictated by the Holy Ghost is but howling in God's esteem And though wicked Men in their Distresses may be very passionate and very vehement in their Requests yet they have no Promise that their Prayers shall prevail with God Sometimes indeed God doth hear them and out of his common Bounty and Goodness grants to them those temporal good Things that they crave he that hears the young Ravens when they cry he that hears the lowing of the Oxen sometimes also hears wicked Men under their Afflictions when they roar to him as wild Bulls in a Net as the Prophet expresseth it but yet such Prayers of wicked Men tho' they are answered yet they are never accepted God accepts no Petitions but such as are presented to him through the Intercession of Christ now Christ makes Intercession for none in Heaven but only for such in whose Hearts the Spirit makes Intercession here upon Earth their Prayers alone ascend up to God as sweet Incense being perfumed with that much Incense that Christ offers up with the Prayers of all the Saints God always hears and answers them either in the very Thing that they pray for or else in what oftentimes is far better when they ask that which will be to their own Hurt then he answers them graciously by denying them In James 16. the Apostle tells us there Jam. 5.16 That the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much This indeed may seem a needless Tautology to say an effectual Prayer availeth for it is but one and the same thing to avail and to be effectual but if we consult the Original we shall find the Words may be translated The in-wrought Prayer and possibly we may with more Congruity render it thus The Prayer of a righteous Man wrought in him that is to say by the Spirit of God such a Prayer availeth much Secondly As the efficient cause of our Prayers is the Holy Ghost 2. God is the Object of Prayer essentially and personally consider'd so the only Object of our Prayers is God for it is a representation of our Wants and Desires unto him Now God may be consider'd either essentially or personally and under both respects we may direct our Prayers unto him 1. All the Persons in the Trinity are to be prayed unto First If we consider the Persons of the glorious Trinity so they are all adorable with this Act of divine Worship None will deny but that we may direct our Prayers unto God the Father and that God the Son may be distinctly prayed unto we have an uncontroulable Instance in that of S. Stephen Acts 7.59 Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit yea Acts 7.59 and this Adoration is due not only to the Divine Nature of Christ which was from all Eternity the same in Being in Majesty and Glory with the Father but it is also due unto Christ as Mediator as God-Man and so his humane Nature is also joined in the participation of this high Honour through its union to the Divine Nature The very Angels in Heaven are commanded to adore him as God-Man as Mediator Heb. 1.6 Heb. 1.6 When he bringeth in his first begotten into the World that is when he brought him into the World as Man he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Indeed we no
as we are to speak to him who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh The holy Angels in Heaven stand always ministring in the presence of God and Prayer doth in some kind associate us with them it brings us to lye prostrate at the Feet of God at whose Feet also Angels and all the Powers in Heaven do with much more Humility than we fall down and worship him we and they fall down together at the Feet of the great God we in Prayer and they in Praises This Priviledge cost Jesus Christ dear for it is through him as the Apostle speaks that we have access with boldness unto the Throne of Grace All Access thither was barred against Sinners till Christ opened a Passage for us by his own Death and most precious Blood And shall not we make use of a Priviledge purchased for us at so dear a Rate as that is Hath Christ shed his Blood to procure us liberty to pray and shall not we spend our Breath in praying Hath Christ died such a cursed cruel Death to purchase liberty for us to pray and shall we rather choose to die an eternal Death than make use of it This is to despise the Blood of Jesus Christ to offer an high Affront and Indignity unto him to account it a vile and contemptible Thing when we make no more esteem of that for the purchase of which he shed his precious Blood We look upon it as a great Priviledge to have free and frequent access to those that are much our Superiors and shall we not reckon it a much higher Priviledge that we may at all times approach the presence of him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and higher than the highest as we may do at all times in Prayer 3. Prayer is a sovereign Remedy for an afflicted Mind Thirdly Prayer it is the most sovereign Medicine and Remedy for an afflicted Mind Nothing is so desirable in this World as a faithful Friend to whom we may at all times unbosom our selves and make all our Secrets and Grievances known Now Prayer directs us to go to God himself he is our most faithful Friend that can best counsel and best help us and Prayer is a means whereby we reveal the Secrets and Troubles of our Souls unto him Prayer it is our discoursing with God When our Hearts swell with Grief and are ready to break within us how sweet is it then to take God apart and give our Hearts vent Prayer it is a making our Case known to him and a spreading our Wants before him casting all our Burthens upon him who hath promised to sustain us Fourthly consider 4. Prayer is a means appointed by God for all Mercies that we want Prayer is a means appointed by God for the obtaining of those Blessings and Mercies that we stand in need of for all Things are Gods he is the great Lord and Proprietor both of Heaven and Earth whether they be spiritual or temporal Mercies that we desire if it be Wealth Strength or Wisdom all are his If we would have spiritual Blessings conferred upon us our Faith our Love our Patience our Humility strengthned and encreased he is the God of all these Graces and Prayer it is a means appointed by God to convey all these unto us Our Prayers and God's Mercy are like two Buckets in a Well while the one ascends the other descends So while our Prayers ascend to God in Heaven his Mercies and Blessings descend down upon us 5. We are always in want therefore we should pray always Fifthly consider All our Supplies are only for our present Exigences to serve us only from Hand to Mouth the stock of Mercy is not ours but God's he still keeps it in his own Hands and this he doth that he might keep us in a constant Dependence upon him and in a constant Expectation of Mercy from him Our Wants grow up very thick about us and if we did but observe it we should find every Day yea every Hour new cause to present new Requests and Supplications unto God and therefore as our Necessities never cease so neither should our Prayers 6. They â—hat will not Pray shall Howl Sixthly consider this If you will not be persuaded to pray you shall one Day be made to howl You that will not now look up to Heaven in Prayer shall hereafter look up in Blaspheming Isai 8.21 Isai 8.21 They shall fret themselves says the Prophet and curse God and their King that is in their horrid Despair and Anguish they shall Curse and Blaspheme both God and their King that is the Devil and they shall look upwards Tho' now wicked Men will not look to Heaven yet then God will force them to look upwards There may Two Objections possibly be made against this Duty of Prayer Object 1 First God doth before-hand know all our Wants and Desires and therefore what Necessity is there of Prayer Answ To this I answer with St. Augustine God says he doth require that we should pray to him not so much to make known what our Will and Desire is for that he cannot be ignorant of but it is for the exercise of our Desires and to draw forth our Affections towards those Things that we beg at his Hands that thereby we may be made fit to receive what he is ready to give Object 2 Secondly Say some It is in vain to pray because all our Prayers cannot alter the course of God's Providence we cannot by our most fervent Prayers change the method of God's Decrees if he hath resolved from Eternity to bestow such a Mercy upon us we shall receive it whether we pray or pray not if he hath resolved we shall never partake of it if we do pray all our Prayers will be in vain Answ I have long since Answered this Objection and told you That it is true God's Providence is immutable But the same Providence that orders the End to be obtained hath likewise ordered the Means by which it must be obtained As God hath decreed Blessings to us so he hath decreed that they should be obtained by Prayer and therefore we must pray that we may obtain those Blessings for that is the Means God hath decreed for the obtaining of them Directions how we must Pray so as to be accepted Some possibly may say If we must thus pray without ceasing how shall we be assured that God will hear us If it be our Duty to pray how shall we pray so as that our Prayers may become acceptable unto God I Answer 1. They that hear God God will hear them First If you would have God hear you when you pray you must be sure to hear him when he speaks See that place Prov. 1.24 28. Because I have called and you have refused and have set at nought all my Counsels therefore says God you shall call but I will not answer you shall seek me early but shall not
find me God stops his Ears against their Prayers who stop their Ears against his Law So you find it Prov. 28.9 Prov. 28.9 He that turneth away his Ears from hearing the Law even his Prayer shall be an Abomination And this is but Equity with God to refuse to hear them that refuse to hear him Wherefore should God give attention to us when we Pray more than we to him when he Speaks Secondly 2. Prayer must be with Affection If you would have God hear you you must be greatly affected with what you speak your selves Qui frigide rog at docet negare He that asks coldly begs only a Denial Certainly we cannot in reason expect that God should regard when we Pray when we do not regard our selves what we Pray How do you think a lazy Prayer that scarce drops out of your Lips should have Strength and Vigour enough to reach Heaven and to pierce through the Ears of God If you expect to shoot up a Prayer to Heaven you must draw it from a Soul full bent Thirdly 3. We must Pray with Patience We must come to God with Resolutions to wait for an Answer We must not give over Prayer because God doth not presently bestow a Mercy upon us that we desire this is not only to lose the Mercy it self but to lose our Prayers also God is a great God and King above all Gods and it is but his due State to be waited long upon in this Sense it is true He that believeth maketh not haste Certainly if we believe God to be infinitely wise to know the best Season to give us what we crave both for his Advantage and for ours also we shall not be in haste in our Suits or peevish because we are not strait answered but patiently wait God's leisure as knowing that God hath read our Petitions and will grant them when he seeth the fittest time 4. We must not make Requests for our Lusts Fourthly If you would pray so as to be heard be sure you put up no Requests in the behalf of your Lusts The Apostle gives the reason why of so many Prayers that are put up to God so few prove successful Jam. 4.2 James 4.2 You ask and you receive not because you ask amiss to consume it upon your Lusts Now to ask Blessings from God for our Lusts is when we beg any outward Mercy be it Wealth or Health or the like with reference to the gratifying of our own carnal and corrupt Desires therefore in James 4.4 the Apostle calls them Adulterers and Adulteresses Such Men are indeed like Adulteresses in this as they ask their Husbands those Things many times that they bestow upon them that they love better so wicked Men do many times ask those Mercies and Blessings of God that they intend to spend upon their Lusts that they love better than God and therefore it is no wonder that God who knows their secret Thoughts and Intents denies them Fifthly 5. We must put some stress upon our Prayers You must put some stress upon your Prayers if you would have them heard and accepted you must believe that it is to some purpose that you pray If we think it is of no great concernment to pray God will think it is of no great concernment to give what we pray for Sixthly 6. We must not put too much stress upon our Prayers You must take heed also that you do not put too much stress upon your Prayers that you do not set them up in the stead of Christ that you do not expect to merit by your Prayers the Things that you pray for but only look upon them as a Means and Ordinance that God hath appointed to obtain those good Things that you stand in need of 7. We must plead the merit of Christ in our Prayers Lastly You must be sure to make Jesus Christ your Friend when you come unto God or else all your Prayers are no better than scattered in the Air or spilt in the Carringe Benjamin was a Type of Christ in this respect Joseph chargeth his Brethren that they should not dare to see his Face again unless they brought their Brother Benjamin with them So truly they shall find no Welcome with God that do not bring their elder Brother Jesus Christ in the Arms of their Faith and plead his Merit and his Righteousness for the obtaining of their Desires So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE UPON THE Omnipresence OF GOD WITH THE Improvements thereof FROM PSAL. cxxxix 7 8 9 10. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE UPON THE Omnipresence OF GOD. Psal cxxxix 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me THESE Words declare to us the glorious Attribute of God's Immensity or Omnipresence set forth in most elegant and lofty Terms as if the Prophet would mitigate that Dread that might well seize upon us from the consideration of the terrible Majesty of God being so near us by the sweetness and flourishing of the Expression Whither shall I go from thy Spirit This Question doth not imply that David was indeed contriving how to make an Escape from God nor pondering with himself in what forlorn Corner of the World he might lie obscure where the Presence of God should never apprehend him but this Interrogation serveth for a vehement Assertion Whither shall I go That is there is no Place where I can go or where I can imagine to go but thy Spirit and thy Presence will be with me Whither shall I go from thy Spirit That is either from thee who art a Spirit and so canst pierce and penetrate me be as truly and essentially in the very Bowels and Marrow of my Soul as my Soul is intimately and essentially in my Body From thy Spirit that is from thy Knowledge and thy Power thy Knowledge to detect and observe me thy Power to uphold or to crush me In what dark Corner or Cavern soever I should muffle my self yet thy presence is so universal that it would find me out for it stretcheth it self from Heaven to Hell If I make my Bed in Hell By Hell here may be meant either the Grave which is often so called in Scripture as Acts 2.27 Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Cortion A Prophecy concerning Christ that is Thou wilt not leave my Person in the Grave so it is interpreted Verse 31. when it is said that his Soul was not left in Hell
it shall be with so much more brightness and clearness that in comparison of the obscure and glimmering way whereby we know God here it may be called a seeing of him Face to Face and knowing him as we are known by him though to speak in absolute Propriety of Speech these things are not possible to any Creature Object 3 It may seem no small disparagement to God to be every-where present What! for the Glorious Majesty of God to be present in such vile and filthy Places as are here upon Earth Answ 1 To this I answer God doth not think it any disparagement to him nor think it unworthy of him to know and make all these which we call vile and filthy places why then should we think it unworthy of him to be present there God is a Spirit and is not capable of any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things The Sun-beams are no more tainted by shining on a Dunghil than they are by shining on a Bed of Spices no more can God be sullied by being present in filthy Sinks to speak with Reverence than to be in the glorious Heavens because he is a Spirit and his Essence is not subject to any taints from the Creature The vilest things that are have still a being that is good in their own kind and as well-pleasing to God as those things which we put a greater value and esteem upon Lastly It reflects no more dishonour upon God to be present with the vilest Creatures than to be present with the noblest and highest because the Angels are at an infinite distance from God There is a greater disproportion between God and the Angels than there is between the vilest Worm and an Angel all are at an infinite distance to his Glory and Majesty Thus much for the Objections APPLICATION Vse 1 First Is God thus infinitely present every-where and thus in and with all his Creatures then what an Encouragement is here unto Prayer Thou canst not say Alas I now pray but how shall God hear He is in Heaven above and I am on Earth below many Thousands of Miles distant from his presence How then shall my weak Whisperings that can scarce reach the Walls of mine own Closet ever be able to reach his Ear No God's Essential Presence is with thee wheresoever thou art as he is in Heaven it self and God is all Ear he can understand the silent Motions of thy Lips every-where yea he can understand the secret Motions of thy Heart When Hannah prayed for her Son Samuel Eli the Priest of God thought her Gesture did proceed from a distempered Head and not from an holy Heart but God was present with her Lips and that Prayer which was thought by the Priest of God to be but a dumb shew yet to God himself it was powerful Rhetorick and as loud as Thunder in his Ears The Scripture generally intimates that all our Prayers shall be directed to God in Heaven So Solomon prayed 1 Kings 8.32 Then hear thou in Heaven c. And it is again expressed in the 30th Verse So that most excellent Composure which Christ taught his Disciples in the beginning of it Our Father which art in Heaven it gives our thoughts a Lift to Heaven Now this doth not imply that God doth no where hear our Prayers but only in Heaven But how then Why is this Phrase used For these two Reasons First Because Heaven is the most glorious place there God especially hath established his Throne of Grace and sits upon it Now because it is most Glorious and Majestick and since God is there to hear Suits and receive Petitions that are tendred up by all his Servants here on Earth therefore the Scripture directeth us to that most glorious and celestial place Hear thou in Heaven Hence we have that Expression Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a Memorial before God Certainly if our Prayers should not be heard till they come to Heaven they are so weak and faint that they would be out of breath by the way and not be able then to speak for themselves But yet God speaks in us by his Spirit and keeps alive the Sense of his Majesty upon our Hearts that he would not have us think it to be a mean and trivial thing to have our Prayers heard therefore he represents himself to us Arrayed in all his Glory Secondly Our Prayers are directed to God in Heaven because though he hears them where-ever they be uttered yet he no where hears them with acceptation but in Heaven only Our Prayers are accepted by God because they are heard in Heaven Thy Prayers are not accepted by God because God hears them upon Earth as they are heard in thy Closet or as they are heard in thy Heart but only as they are heard in Heaven and the reason is because that Prayers are acceptable only as they are presented before God in the Mediation and Intercession of Jesus Christ He must mingle them with the Incense of his Merits before they can ascend up before God as a sweet Savour Now Christ performs his Mediatory Office no where but in Heaven for though as God he be every-where present as the Father is and therefore hears your Prayers wheresoever they be put up yet as Mediator they are only heard in Heaven by him and he hears no Prayers but the Prayers of his People as he is Mediator and therefore it is no comfort to you that Christ hears your Prayers as he is God only for so he doth and cannot but do it unless he hears your Prayers likewise as he is Mediator Now Christ as he is Mediator he is God-man for as he wrought out our Salvation in both Natures so he still continues to mediate for us in both Natures And since the Human Nature is only in Heaven therefore it follows he performs the Mediatory Office only in Heaven Now it is the Mediatorship of Christ alone that makes all our Prayers and Duties acceptable to God himself therefore it concerns us still to pray Lord hear us in Heaven It is in vain that thou hearest me on Earth unless thou hearest in Heaven too My Prayers cannot be heard acceptably unless thou hearest them twice thou hearest my Prayers on Earth not a Word of my Tongue but thou hearest but what will it avail thy Servant unless thou hearest my Prayers a second time repeated over to thee in the Intercession and Mediation of Jesus Christ in Heaven And therefore saith Solomon 1 Kings 8.34 Hear thou in Heaven and forgive When God shall only hear on Earth he will be so far from forgiving that he will be avenged but when he hears our Prayers in Heaven through the Mediation of Christ then he is inclined to forgive and pardon us Hence we find that the Jews prayed towards the Temple which was a Type of Heaven and the Altar and Incense and Mercy-seat in this Temple were Types of Christ who is now
in Heaven And therefore Daniel when in Babilon he prayed his Window being open towards Jerusalem towards the Temple as if no Prayer were acceptable to God but what was heard in Heaven So Jonah when he was in the Belly of the Whale Jonah 2.7 My Prayer came in unto thee into thine Holy Temple Jonah was a strong Orator when he was in the slimy Paunch of the Whale yea but God was there and God heard him there but yet his Prayer would have been as filthy as his Person if God had not heard him elsewhere than in the Belly of the Whale My Prayer came in unto thee into thine Holy Temple That is God heard him in Heaven And therefore though the Breath of Jonah could have no sweetness yet the Prayer that he breathed forth came up as Incense and a sweet Perfume before God as it came into the Holy Temple Thus God hears the Prayers of his in Heaven but the Prayers of the wicked he hears only upon Earth he hears them when they speak them but God never hears their Prayers in the Mediation of Christ but the Prayers of his own People he hears on Earth as he is an omnipresent and omnipotent God and he hears them in Heaven as he is a gracious and reconciled Father If thou dost but Whisper thy Prayer God will hear it that which is but whispered on Earth it rings and eccho's in the Court of Heaven and if Christ speaks your Prayers over to God they become so loud that God cannot stop his Ears against them The Voice of Prayer is not like other Voices the further they reach the weaker they grow no that Voice which is so weak that it cannot be heard beyond the compass of thy Closet yet when it is put forth in Prayer it fills all Heaven with its sound But where is the encouragement unto Prayer in all this If thou dost belong to God thou may'st have great encouragement to Prayer from the Consideration of his Omnipresence for because of this there is no Prayer of a Child of God but shall be heard in Heaven tho' it be uttered in secret For consider that tho' Christ as Man is only in Heaven yet Christ as God is every-where present and hears the Prayers of all Men in the World Those that are wicked he regards no further but gives them the hearing but for his own he regards their Prayers and presents what he hears from them to God in Heaven Christ makes his Omniscience and Omnipresence to be subservient to the Work of his Mediatorship One of his Offices is to be a faithful High-Priest and an Advocate to God for us and Christ being such an Advocate that hears all the Suits and all the Causes of his Clients we may be assured that there is not one Prayer that God hears on Earth from us but he hears it also in Heaven through Christ It was a notable Scoff of Elijah to Baal's Priests 1 Kings 18.27 Cry aloud for he is a God c. peradventure he sleepeth and must be waked As if he should say You serve an unworthy God that cannot hear those that pray unto him And indeed how should he do so that is not Omnipresent He is talking or he is pursuing or travelling Cry Cry aloud and peradventure if he sleepeth that will awaken him But though you should cry never so loud though your Cry should reach from Earth to Heaven he would be silent such a God as yours could never hear And therefore when Elijah himself came to pray Verse 36. the Text doth not tell us he cried aloud but that he came neer But when Baal's Priests roared and howled like distracted Men and cut themselves in an idolatrous manner Baal is not prevailed with to hear them Now Elijah came near that is he came in a calm and sedate manner and poured out his fervent composure to God as knowing that that God whom he prayed to is present every-where The Voice in Prayer is necessary upon a threefold Account First As it is that which God requires should be imployed in his Service for this is the great end why our Tongues were given to us that by them we might bless and serve God James 3.9 Secondly When in private it may be a Help and Means to raise up our own Affections and Devotions then the Voice is requisite keeping it still within the bounds of decency or privacy Thirdly In our joyning also with others it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their Affections otherwise were it not for these three Reasons the Voice is no more necessary to make known our Wants to God than it is to make them known to our own Hearts for God is always in us and with us and knows what we have need of before we ask it Secondly As the Consideration of Vse 2 of God's Omnipresence should encourage us in Prayer as knowing that God certainly hears us so it should affect us with a Holy Awe and Reverence of God in all our Prayers and Duties and in the whole Course of our Lives and Conversations Certainly it is an excellent Meditation to prepare our Hearts to Duty and to compose them in Duty to be much pondering the Omnipresence of God to think that I am with God he is present in the Room with me even in the Congregation with me and likewise in my Closet and in all my Converse and Dealings in the World How can it be possible for that Man to be frothy and vain that keeps this Thought alive in his Heart If the Presence of some Earthly Person strike an Awe in our Hearts when we come before them how much more should the Consideration of God's Presence affect us with an Holy Fear Suppose an Angel should fly in the midst of us that are here present with a rushing and dazling Glory how would it make all our Hearts beat and throb within us It would make us soon abandon all those vain Thoughts that now we feed upon those Thoughts that eat out the Heart and Life of Duty how much more should it affect us and fill us with Holy Fear that God is now and always in the midst of us whose Glory stains and sullies the Beauty and extinguishes the Light of Angels Oh! that God that is always present with us should be worshipped and served with a Holy Fear and remembred with the greatest Veneration Now to imprint this the more deeply I shall suggest two or three Particulars First Because God is in all things therefore he sees and knows all things The Omniscience of God is grounded upon his Omnipresence Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Nothing in Heaven or Earth can be hid or concealed from God's Eye Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened before the Lord. There is no Corner so retired so shady so dark no Gulph so deep that can hide
to procure it not to implant Grace but to purchase it You cannot therefore sit down and say what need is there of my working Christ hath already done all my Work for me to my Hands No Christ hath done his own Work he hath done the Work of a Saviour and a Surety but he never did the Work of a Sinner If Christ by meriting Grace had bestowed it upon thee and wrought it in thee then indeed there was no more required of thee to become Holy but to cast back a lazy Look to the purchase of Jesus Christ then thy Sloth would have had some pretence why thou dost not labour But this will not do our Saviour commands all Men To seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Mat. 6.33 Acts 8.22 And the Apostle exhorts Simon Magus himself though in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity yet pray says he if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee Do not therefore cheat your own Souls into Perdition by lazy Notions of Christ's Merits What though Christ hath merited yet God requires that you should work and labour to change your own Hearts and reform your own Lives but if you sit still expecting till the meriting Grace of Christ drop down into your Souls and of its own accord and change your Hearts truly it may be before that time you your selves may drop down into Hell with your old unchanged Hearts And this is the first thing Christ requires Secondly 2. Those that have Grace must Labour for Salvation Christ expects and requires that those that have Grace should put forth the utmost Strength and Power thereof in labouring after that Salvation that he hath purchased for them He hath merited Salvation for them but it is to be obtained by them through their own Labour and Industry Is not that which Christ hath already done sufficient for them Is it not enough that he hath reconciled them to God by the Blood of the Covenant that he hath made their Peace and procured their Pardon for them But must Christ Repent and Believe and Obey for them This is not to make him a Saviour but a Drudg He hath done what was meet and fit for a Mediatour to do He now requires of us what is meet for Sinners to do namely to Believe to Repent to be Converted and to Obey He now bids you Wash and be Clean and what would you have more Would you have the great Prophet come and strike off your Leprosy and you only mark the Cure and do nothing thereunto Or is it indeed enough that Salvation and Happiness is purchased that the way to Heaven is made passable that the Bolts and Bars of the new Jerusalem by Christ are broken off Alas what of all this thou mayest still be as far from Heaven and Glory as ever if thou dost not walk in the way that leads to it Still thou art as far from entring into Heaven as ever if thou dost not strive at the entrance into the strait Gate It is therefore in vain that Christ died it is in vain that thou art Justified it is in vain that thou art Adopted it is in vain that Heaven is prepared for thee Christ may keep Heaven and Glory and his Crowns and Robes for ever to himself unless as he hath purchased these great things for his People so also he hath purchased to himself a peculiar People Zealous of good Works A People who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality and by that way obtain it Thus we see Christs doing all for us is no excuse for our doing nothing He hath indeed done all for us that belongs to him as a Mediatour meriting and procuring Grace and Salvation but he never intended to do all for us as to the conveying of them to us and making of them ours No that is still to be done by us And therefore tho Christ's Works alone were meritorious yet by the actings of Faith we must apply his Merit and by the acting of Obedience confirm them to our selves I might add also when Christ is said to obey the Law in our stead as well as to suffer in our stead Though his bearing the punishment of the Law by Death doth excuse and exempt us from suffering yet his obeying of the Law doth not excuse our Obedience unto the Law Christ obeyed the Law in a far different respect to the Obedience which is now required from us He obeyed as a Covenant of works we only as a Rule of Righteousness If he had failed in the least tittle he could not have purchased Life that was promised but we though we fall infinitely short in our Obedience may yet inherit that Life that Christ hath purchased Christ's Obedience was fully perfect yet ours is not derogatory thereunto because it proceeds from other grounds than Christ's did But I will not proceed further in this only conclude this Answer with two practical things in reference to this Question First So work with that Earnestness Constancy and Unweariedness in well doing as if thy Works alone were able to justifie and save thee Look with what Affection and Fervency you would pray if now God with a Voice from Heaven should tell you that for the next Prayer you make you should be either Saved or Damned Look with what Reverence and Attention you would Hear with what Spiritualness of Heart you would Meditate if your eternal State and Condition were to be determined and fixed by the next of those Duties that in this kind you were to perform with the same Fervency Affection and Spiritualness perform all the Obedience that you do Why should you not do so Are not Gods Commands as peremptory and as Authoritative for Obedience under the Covenant of Grace as they were under the Covenant of Works Is not Obedience of as absolute necessity now as ever though not to the same end and purpose And since the end of our Obedience is graciously changed doth not this chang lay a farther obligation of Gratitude upon us to obey God who requires it from us not as Merit but as Duty Still there is as great an obligation to obey now under the condition of the Covenant of Grace as ever there was while Mankind stood under the tenour of the Covenant of Works Certainly Christ's Merit was never given to slacken our Obedience and it is the most unworthy nay let me say it is the most accursed use that any Christian can make of them that from the Merit of Christ he shall take encouragement to grow more remiss and slack in Obedience Would you not therefore turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Would you not abuse the infinite Mercy of a Mediator Think with your selves how would I strive and struggle were I to stand or fall upon the account of my own Works and Duties use the same Diligence put forth the same Endeavours as indeed in that
it and yet will you take pains for it yet will you grasp and ketch at it Who would doubt when we see Men so busy about Impertinencies and the trivial Concernments of this vain World who would doubt but that they were far more anxious and careful about the Things of Heaven and the Concernments of their Souls Who would not conclude but that they who are so diligent about petty Trifles had certainly made sure that their great Work was done But alas would it not astonish Men and Angels if we should tell them how foolish Sinners are Would it be believed that rational Creatures that have immortal Souls that must be for ever saved or damn'd should spend all their Time and Strength about nothing never taking any Care or Thought what will become of them for ever Would such Folly be believ'd to be in Men And yet this Madness are most Men guilty of We may all of us be ashamed to lift up our Heads to God when we confess the World to be so vain and slight a Thing that if we should get all of it nay should we get ten thousand of them yet were they not all worth one Soul that yet we should be so foolish to strive to get a vain World to the Neglect yea to the Contempt of our precious Souls It is such Folly as Men would scarce suspect that any Persons should be guilty of it if it were not seen daily in the Practices of almost all Men. 1. To work for Salvation makes Men honourable Seventhly Consider this Are you ambitious Do you affect true Honour and Dignity Yes I know this is the great Idol of the World that which every one falls down to and worships Well then Sinners here is a way to prefer you all To work for Salvation is the most honourable Imployment in the World an Honour that will pose and nonplus the most towring and raised Ambition when once it is spiritualized Alas what poor and contemptible Things are the Grandees and great Ones of the World though they take great State and Pomp upon them and will scarce own their Inferiours for their Fellow-Creatures nay will scarce own God himself for their Superiour are yet but like painted Flies that play and buz a while in the Sun-shine and then moulder away and come to nothing All worldly Honour and Pomp is but imaginary but would you have that which is solid and substantial Christ tells you how it is to be attained If any Man serve me John 12.26 him will my Father honour Whatever Honour we have we hold it by Service our Work is not only Duty but Preferment also If any Man serve me he shall be honoured Would you be inrolled for Right Honourable in Heavens Treasury Would you be Peers of that Kingdom with Saints and glorified Angels Then honour God And how shall you honour him but by obeying him And he who thus honours God God will honour him This is the only real Honour all other is but airy fictitious Titles like Cyphers which as they are placed stand for Hundreds and Thousands but are all of the same Value when hudled together So truly the great Ones of the World if not made honourable by Obedience to God have but imaginary Excellency and when Death once shuffles and huddles them together Nobles with Ignobles will the Dust and Ashes of the one stand at a Distance and make Obeysance to the other No all Honour here signifies no more than a King upon a Stage But here is a way to attain true Honour here is the way to it by becoming Servants Wherein the Honour of working for Salvation consists not to Command but to Obey not to be imperious over others but to work your selves this is true Honour Now I shall in three Things demonstrate the Honour of working for Salvation that if Men be not very lowly spirited they may be excited unto this honourable Work 1. It is a spiritual and pure Work First It is pure spiritual refined Work In Services among Men the less of Filth and Drudgery there is in them the more creditable they are accounted It is an Honour to be imploy'd in higher and more cleanly Work when others are busied about baser Imployments Now Christians your Work is the highest and most noble Service imaginable you are not at all to set your Hands to any foul Office you have nothing to do with that Mire and Sink in which wicked Men are raking yea and it is their Work to do it no but your Work is all spiritual consisting of the same pure Imployment that the Angels in Heaven spend their Eternity about Holy Thoughts divine Affections heavenly Meditations spiritual Duties in these lies your Work which because of its Purity is therefore very honourable Secondly 2. It is the Service of an honourable Master Your Work is honourable because it is the Service of a most honourable Master We account it a great Credit to tend immediately upon the Person of some Prince or Potentate but what is this to their Honour who are called always to attend upon the Person of God himself who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords to be continual Waiters about his Throne God hath but two Thrones his Throne of Glory in the highest Heavens about which Angels and glorified Saints are the Attendants and his Throne of Grace to which you are called Angels and Saints are but your Fellow-Attendants and if they see his Glory in the highest Exaltation you are admitted to see it in the next degree yea and herein is your Honour so great that you are capable but of one Preferment more and that is of being removed from one Throne to the other from attending upon the Throne of Grace to attend upon the Throne of Glory so great is your Honour 3. The Service of God makes us his Friends Thirdly Your Work is such as makes you not so much Servants as Friends unto God It is an Honour to be Servant unto a King but much more of a Servant to become a Favourite Why thus it is in the service of God you are not only Servants but Friends and Favourites You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you A strange Speech one would think the doing of what is commanded is the Office of a Servant rather than of a Friend No says Christ Henceforth I call you not Servants but Friends you are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you And certainly no Title so truly glorious as that which God put upon Abraham To be the Friend of God Well then let wicked Men go on scoffing and mocking at Obedience in the People of God let them look on them as poor and low spirited Persons yet can there be no Honour like unto theirs to be Attendants upon yea the Friends of the great God of Heaven and there can be no Discredit so base as theirs who are Slaves to the Devil who is Gods
than when they first believed that they are perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and every Day growing nearer unto Heaven and Happiness than other And though these Works of theirs are now imperfect yet they shall be shortly finished and consummate in Glory Well then if Pleasure and Delight do affect you here you see is that which is solid and substantial it springs from Success in your Work and from that suitableness that is in your renewed part thereunto also And therefore the more Work the greater Delight you find because the greater progress you make and the more suitable to it your Will becomes Nay your Delight is of the same Nature with that which you shall enjoy in Heaven The Work the Blessed are there imploy'd in is of the same Nature with yours only their suitableness to it is perfect and therefore their Delight and Pleasure is perfect And accordingly the more suitable your Hearts are to your Work the more Delight and Pleasure you will find in it This is that makes Heaven a place of Happiness because there is no Corruption no Body of Sin and Death there to make those Duties that are there required from glorified Saints to be irksom and grievous to them 2. The Reward of working for Salvation Secondly Consider the exceeding greatness of your Reward Doth Job fear God for nought was the Cavil of Satan when God applauded himself that he had such a Servant as Job was upon the Earth The Devil himself thought it no wonder that Job should fear and serve a rewarding God a God whose Hands are as full of Blessings as his Mouth is full of Commands And yet what were these great Something 's that the Devil envies Job for and thinks every one would have done as much as he if they had but as great a Recompence for it It was but Hedging of him about Job 1.10 but blessing of the Works of his Hands and increasing of his Substance as it is in Job 1. Why alas these are poor mean Rewards to what God intends to bestow such Rewards they are as that God still reckons himself in Arrears to his Children till he hath given them something better than he can bestow upon them here upon Earth These Things he casts but as Crumbs unto Dogs when he reserves a far better Portion for his Children And yet Satan thinks Job well paid for his Service in having of these lower Enjoyments in causing the Works of his Hands to prosper Doth Job serve God for nought And therefore if Satan doth not wonder that Job fears and serves God for Temporal Mercies will it not be to the great wonder of Satan himself that you should not fear and serve God that have infinitely better Things promised to you than Temporal Mercies are Do you deserve your Breath in spending of it some few Hours in Prayer Or do you deserve your plentiful Estate by laying out some small part of it for God Why to be able to Think or Speak to enjoy Health and Strength are such Mercies though outward Mercies as can never be recompenced to God although you should think of nothing but of his Glory and speak of nothing but of his Praise although you should impair your Health and waste your Strength and languish away in the performance of holy Duties These tho' they are Obligations to Obedience yet they are not the Reward of Obedience no far higher and more glorious Things are provided promised and shall be conferred upon you if you will but work For there is First your set standing Wages and that is eternal Salvation no less And Secondly besides this there are many incident Vails accrew to God's Servants in their performance of his Service And is not here Reward and Wages enough First 1. Working for Salvation shall be rewarded with Heaven 1 Cor. 2.9 Consider there is that eternal weight of Glory that shall be the Reward of the Saints in Heaven This now is so great that it is impossible for you to conceive It is such as Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor hath it ever enter'd into no nor can it ever enter into the Heart of Man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him as the Apostle speaks If St. Paul were now preaching and pressing this very Consideration of the infinite glorious Reward it would possibly be expected that he who suffered a Translation and was admitted as a Spy into the Land of Promise should at his return make some Relation of it and discover something of the Riches and Glory of that Place and would not all flock about him as Men do about Travellers to enquire for a Description of the Country whence they come Who the People and Inhabitants are What are their Manners and Customs What is their Imployment Who is their King and what Subjection they yield unto him Thus inquisitive truly our Curiosity would be And yet when St. Paul purposely relates his Voyage to the other World all that he speaks of it is only this I knew a Man caught up into Paradise who heard things that no Man could nor is it lawful for any Man to utter The Glory of Heaven is such that it can never be fully known till it be fully enjoyed and yet if Heaven were ever made chrystally transparent to you if ever God opened you a Window into it and then opened the Eye of your Faith to look in by that Window think what it was that you there discovered what inaccessible Light what cherishing Love what daunting Majesty what infinite Purity what over-loading Joy what insupportable and sinking Glory what Rays and Sparklings from Crowns and Scepters but more from the Glances and Smiles of God upon the heavenly Host who forever warm and Sun themselves in his Presence And when you have thought all this then think once again that all your Thoughts are but Shadows and Glimmerings that there is Dust and Ashes in the Eye of your Faith that makes all these Discoveries come infinitely short of the Native Glory of these Things and then you may guess and guess somewhat near what Heaven is Nay as God by reason of his infinite Glory is better known to us by Negatives than by Affirmatives by what he is not than by what he is so is Heaven by reason of the greatness of its Glory better known to us by what it is not than by what it is and we may best conceive of it when it is told us There is nothing there that may affright or afflict us nothing that may grieve or trouble us nothing that may molest or disquiet us but we shall have the highest and sweetest Delight and Satisfaction that the vast and capacius Soul of Man can either receive or imagine Are you now burthened with Sin and Corruption those Infirmities that tho' they are unavoidable yet they make your Lives a Burthen to you Why the old Man shall never more molest you there that
Body of Sin and Death shall never enter with you into Life the Motions of Sin shall for ever cease in that Eternal Rest Are you here oppressed with Sorrows Do Afflictions overwhelm you Why there God shall kiss your blubbered Eyes dry again and wipe with his own Hands all Tears from your Eyes Are you pester'd here with Temptations and doth the evil One without intermission haunt you with black and hellish Thoughts with dreadful and horrible Dejections There you shall be quite beyond the Cast of all his fiery Darts and instead of these you shall have within you an ever-living Fountain bubling up spiritual and sprightly Contemplations and holy Raptures for ever such as you never knew when you were here upon Earth no not when you were in the most spiritual and heavenly Frame Are you here clouded and cast down with Desertions and doth God sometimes hide his Face from you in Displeasure In Heaven there shall be an everlasting Sun-shine God shall look freely and stedfastly upon you and you shall no more see him through a Glass darkly but Face to Face without any interruption or obscurity Think O Soul and then think of any Thing else if thou canst What is it to see the Father of Lights in his own Rays What is it to see the Sun of Righteousness lie in the Bosom of the Father of Lights What is it to feel the eternal Warmth and Influence of the Holy Ghost springing from both these Lights What is it to converse with Holy Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to join with them in singing the same Hallelujahs for ever And when you have thought all this think once more Heaven is all this and more also Well then since Heaven is such and since such a Heaven as this is may be yours what should I say more but only with the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises dearly Beloved Promises of so certain and vast a Glory as this is let us cleanse and purify our selves from all filthiness and pollution both of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God Is this Heaven attainable upon your Working Will God give it into Wages after working Will he share Stars nay will he share himself and his Christ among you Truly methinks Christians should not have patience to hear any more methinks it is too much dulness to indure another Motive besides this Why do you not interrupt me then Why do you not cry out What shall we do that we may work the Works of God Why do you not say and pray Lord work in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Why is there not such a holy Tumour and Disturbance among you some Questioning some Praying some Resolveing all some way or other testifying a sense of Salvation upon you But alas there is a general Silence Men and Women set as quiet in their Seats as if their Seats were filled rather with Monuments than with Men as if Heaven and eternal Salvation were of no Concernment for them to look after And wherefore is all this but because their Sight is short and their Faith weak They do not see afar off nor believe a far off Heaven they look upon as at a great distance and very unwilling they are to go so long upon Trust and sensual Persons as they are they look for present Reward and present Wages and will not stir till they have received it And this is the Reason why the Consideration of this great and infinite Glory affects Men no more they look for something present Well be it so Will God's Work bring in no present Profit The Reward in working for Salvation is great Yes it will and that such as you your selves shall acknowledge to be great And therefore Secondly Besides those set Wages that are to be received at the end of our Lives there are many Vails and occasional Incomes that accrew to God's Servants in the performance of their Work As First 1. God will provide for us while we are working Such are assured that God will provide for them while they are doing of his Work he hath assured them of the Mercies and good Things of this Life by Promise I do not say of the troublesome abundance of them but of the Enjoyment of them so far forth as they are Mercies and good Things Godliness says the Apostle is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4.8 having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come It hath the Promises of this Life and that is a large Charter by vertue whereof God feeds them and cloaths them and provides Sustenance and comfortable Enjoyments for all those that work in his Service And therefore that I may note it by the way most Men are greatly mistaken that labour and toil in the World to get Riches and great Estates this is not the right thriving Course if you would grow Rich First seek the kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof work out your own Salvation Labour for the true Riches and this will not only increase and improve your inward Graces but inincrease and improve your outward Mercies also It is true indeed Earth Worms may by carking and caring by pinching and drudging increase their heap of Dirt but let who will for my part I will not nor cannot call that Man a rich Man that hath more Curses than Enjoyments Well thus we see what great Vails God gives his Servants he gives them not only those of another Life but those of this Life so far as they are Mercies and that is one Vail Secondly As God provides for his Servants while they are working so their very Work is Wages and Reward enough for it self If God should only give us our Labour for our Pains as we use to say and never bestow a Penny more upon us than what we get in his Service we were even in that sufficiently rewarded It was certainly a violent Pang of distempered Zeal in that Person that carried Fire in the one Hand and Water in the other and being demanded a Reason of it his Answer was He would burn up Paradise and quench Hell-fire that so God might be served and Holiness embraced upon no other Motives than themselves This was a violent Pang and cannot be allowed this Fire was strange Fire and this Water was too much muddied to be Water of the Sanctuary But yet certainly that Man who abstracting from the Consideration of Heaven and Hell eternal Rewards and Punishments would not rather choose the Works of God and the Ways of Holiness than the Works of Sin and the Ways of Iniquity let that Man know he never yet had much Acquaintance with that Way and with that Work What says holy David concerning the Commandments of God In keeping them there is great Reward not only after keeping them when those Commands that have here been the Rule of our Holiness and Obedience
and Honour and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Always are they beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoycing in God and in one another And this is the Work of that Eternal Rest a Work never to be intermitted nor to cease And therefore it is worth our observing that both those Places that do chiefly speak of the future Rest of the People of God do also intimate a Work in that Rest So the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 4.9 There remains a Rest for the People of God the Word is There remains a Sabbath for the People of God Look now you are to be imployed on a Sabbath such shall be your Imployment in your Eternal Rest Is it not your Work now upon a Sabbath-day to raise your Thoughts and Affections to Heaven to fix and terminate them upon God to maintain Communion with him to admire him in all his Works both of Grace and Providence to stir up your own Hearts and to quicken the Hearts of others to praise and adore him Why this shall be the Work of your Eternal Sabbath And when you are at any time lifted up to a more than ordinary Spiritualness in these Things then may you give some guess what your Work shall be in Heaven and what the frame of your Hearts shall be in your eternal Rest And so that other place in the Revelations Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Which may be meant not only of the Reward of their Works that they shall then receive but of the Works themselves that here they performed on Earth these shall follow them and enter into Heaven with them and as they were done by them weakly and imperfectly here so there the very same Works shall be done by them with absolute and consummate Perfection all those Works I mean that for the Matter and Substance of them do not connote a sinful State and Condition Now then since you must be imploy'd in such a Work as this is to Eternity why do you not accustom your selves to it while you are here Col. 1.12 The Apostle to the Colossians Blesseth God who had made them meet to be made Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Were it a meet thing that those that spend their whole time in Sin should be abruptly snatcht up into Heaven to spend an Eternity there in Holiness And therefore God accustoms those whom he saves in an ordinary way and manner to work those Works here on Earth that they are to be imployed in hereafter in Heaven here they are Apprentices as it were that they may learn the Trade of Holiness that when that time comes they may become fit Citizens of the New Jerusalem here God is trying their Eyes with more qualified and allayed Discoveries of himself that when they come to view him Face to Face they may be able to bear the exceeding Brightness of his Glory And therefore though you profess Heaven to be your Country and that you are Strangers and Pilgrims here on Earth yet say not with the Captive Jews Psal 137. How shall we sing the Song of Sion in a strange Land Yes you must accustom your selves to that Song you must mould and warble it here on Earth that you may be perfect in it when you come to join with Saints and Angels in their eternal Hallelujahs You must try your Eyes by seeing of God and your Voices by singing that Song that you must continually sing in Heaven And were it only for this disposing and fitting of your selves for the Work of Heaven this were Motive enough to persuade to begin it now 5. A Christian hath many helps to work for Salvation Fifthly Another encouraging Consideration to persuade you to work out your own Salvation is this as your Work is great so the Helps and Assistances that God gives for the performance of this Work are many So that your Work is not greater than your Aids are nor is it more difficult than they are potent And therefore though you are weak in your selves and so weak that were you left to your own Strength you would faint in the most easy Service yea the weight but of one holy Thought would sink you for we are not sufficient says the Apostle as of our selves to think any good thing Yet when we consider those mighty Auxiliaries that are afforded and promised as Comfort when we Droop Support when we are Weak that we shall Rise when we Fall Recruits when we are Worsted Omnipotency to supply our Impotency All-sufficiency to make up our Defects When we consider these Things then may we triumphantly say with the Apostle When we are Weak then are we Strong and tho' of our selves we are nothing and therefore can do nothing yet through these mighty Assistances we are able to do all Things Now I shall rank these Auxiliary Forces into Two Bands Some are External others are Internal External Helps are various I shall only instance in Three First You have the exciting Examples of others who have already happily gone through this Work You are not commanded that which never yet was imposed upon any of the Sons of Men nor that whoever undertook failed in the performance and sunk under the burthen of it No there are Hundreds and Thousands gone before you from whom God required as much as he doth from you and these have demonstrated that the Work is possible and the Reward certain And therefore as Israel followed the Cloud for their Conduct into the Land of Canaan So may you be led into a Land of better Promise by a Cloud of Witnesses of those who have already passed through the same Faith Patience and Obedience wherein you are to follow them It is Superstition heightned to Idolatry to make use of the departed Saints as substituted Mediators and under Advocates unto Christ that Christ may be our Advocate unto God the Father what their present Prayers for us are we know not but this we are certain of their past Example ought to be propounded and improved by us for our Incouragement in the ways of Holiness and Obedience Hence the Apostle exhorts us that we should be diligent not slothful and he grounds it upon this because in so doing we should be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises In difficult and hazardous Enterprizes every Man is apt to stand still and see who will lead the way and according to the Success of the first Attempters so either to be incouraged or dismayed Now what says our Saviour Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force You are not the forlorn Hope you are not the first Assailors no whole Armies of Saints have in former Ages storm'd Heaven they have heretofore planted strong Batteries
is the only Time and Season for working Secondly As you must work speedily without delay so you must work constantly without cessation or intermission To stand still is to backslide and to cease working is to undo and unravel what you have wrought You are not like Men that row in a still Water that tho' they slack their Course yet they find themselves in the same station but you are to go against Tide and Stream the Tide of your own Corruptions and the Stream of other Mens Actions and Examples and the least intermission here will be to your Loss hereby you will be carried down the Tide much yea and much Pains and Labour will scarce suffice to regain what a little Sloth hath lost So much for this Text. The Lord make what hath been spoken profitable Amen THE ASSURANCE OF Heaven and Salvation A Powerful MOTIVE TO Serve God with Fear IN A DISCOURSE ON HEBREWS xii 28. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. THE ASSURANCE OF Heaven and Salvation A Powerful MOTIVE TO Serve God with Fear Heb. 12.28 29. Wherefore we having received a Kingdom that cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire THIS Text contains in it a Doctrin a Use and a Motive The Doctrin is We have received a Kingdom that cannot be moved The Use or Inference from thence is this Therefore let us serve God And the Motive to enforce this Exhortation is in these Words For our God is a consuming fire In the first part which is the Thesis or Position We have received a Kingdom that cannot be moved We must know there is a twofold Kingdom a Kingdom of Grace set up in the Heart of a Saint where Christ alone reigns as sole Monarch and Sovereign and a Kingdom of Glory prepared for us in the highest Heavens where we shall reign as Kings with Christ for ever Saints have a Kingdom in a fourfold Respect If we take it in the former sense for the Kingdom of Grace so the Apostle saith we have a Kingdom that is we have it already in Possession Christ hath established his Dominion over every Believer and though he sits personally upon his Throne in Heaven yet he rules in us by the Vice-gerency and Deputation of his Spirit that received Commission from him and also by the Law of his Word enacted by it If we understand it in the latter sense for the Kingdom of Glory which seems most congruous to the Design of the Apostle so also we have a Kingdom and that in a fourfold sense First By Grace giving us the earnest of it by Faith realizing of it by Hope embracing it and by the Promises assuring of it First 1. Saints have a Kingdom in the first Fruits of it We have a Kingdom of Glory in the Earnest and first Fruits of it The Comforts and Graces of the Spirit are very often in Scripture called the Earnest of our Inheritance So you have it in 2 Cor. 1.22 and in Eph. 1.14 Now an Earnest you know is always part of the Bargain So God to assure us that he is in earnest when he promiseth Heaven and Glory to us hath already given us part of it in the Graces of his Spirit Grace and Glory are one and the same thing in a different Print in a smaller and a greater Letter here we have Heaven in seminal Inchoation hereafter we shall have it in consummate Perfection Glory lies couched and and compacted in Grace as the beauty of a Flower lies couched and eclipsed in the Seed therefore the Psalmist saith Psal 97. That Light is sown for the Righteous that is Psal 97. the Light of Joy and of a future Life are in the Graces of Gods Children as in their Seed and they shall certainly bud and sprout forth into perfect Happiness Secondly We have a Kingdom of Glory 2. Faith realizeth it because Faith realizeth things future and gives an existence and being to things that are not This is that Grace to which nothing is past nor nothing future it contracts all things into present time and makes all actually existent it draws Things that are at a great distance from it near to it self and thus the Galatians Faith represented the death of Christ so visibly to them that the Apostle told them He was crucified among them Gal. 3.1 Gal. 3.1 It dives down into the gulf of future times and fetcheth up things that as yet are not It is much at one to a strong Faith to have Heaven or to believe it this Grace makes Heaven as really present as if it were already in Possession and therefore it is called in Heb. 11.1 The evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for it is the very being of things hoped for the being of those things that as yet have no being Thirdly 3. Hope embraceth it We have a Kingdom as in the view of Faith so also in the embraces of Hope And therefore Hope is called The Anchor of the Soul that entreth into that within the Vail Heb. 6.19 that is Heb. 6.19 into Heaven it lays hold on all that Glory that is there laid up and kept in reversion for us Hope is in it self a solid and substantial Possession for it stirs up the same Affections it excites the same Joy Delight and Complacency as Fruition it self doth It is the Taster of all our Comforts and if they be but temporal it not only tasts them but sometimes quite devours them and leaves us in suspence whether it be not better to be Expectants than Enjoyers Heavenly Hope gives the same real contentment and satisfaction that antedates our Glory and puts us into the Possession of our Inheritance whilst we are yet in our Nonage only it doth not spend and devour its Object before Hand as earthly Hope doth Fourthly 4. God hath assured them of it by Promise We have a Kingdom of Glory because God hath assured to us the possession of it by his immutable word of Promise And therefore it is called Eternal Life which God that cannot lie hath promised Tit. 1.2 Gods Word is as good Security as actual Possession It is this Word that gives us Right and Title to it and this Right we may well call ours Hence we have it and it is observable Mark 16.16 He that believeth shall be saved Here is assurance of Salvation for the future But in John 3.18 Joh. 3.18 there it is He that believeth not is condemned already He that believeth shall be saved he that believeth not is condemned already why Unbelievers are no more actually condemned than Believers are actually saved only what God promiseth or what God threatneth it is all one whether he saith it is done or it shall be done for Damnation is
attain in Glory where our whole Work to all Eternity shall be to love and please God or else that Perfection that consists in its Sincerity in this Life If we take it for that perfection of Love that shall for ever burn in our Hearts when we our selves shall be made perfect so it is certain it will cast out all tormenting Fears for certainly if in Heaven Hope it self shall be abolished much more shall Fear be abolished for there every Saint shall have much more than a full assurance even a full fruition of Glory and they shall know themselves to be for ever confirmed in that blessed state which shall prevent all doubts and fears If we understand it of that perfection of Love that we may attain to in this Life so also the strong and vigorous actings of Love to God casteth out all tormenting Fears It is not possible that that Soul that actually loves God with a vigorous and most ardent Affection should at the same time be rack'd with distracting fears of Hell and Damnation for it is the sense of God's Love unto the Soul that draws from it reciprocal Love again unto God We love him says the Apostle because he first loved us That is as strong as our apprehensions are of God's Love to us so strong will our Love be in its returns to God again Water riseth naturally as high as its Spring wherefore the assurance of God's Love being the Spring from whence our Love flows such as is our Love such will be our assurance also If then our Love be strong in its actings it must needs cast out Fear because it flows from that assurance with which tormenting Fear is utterly inconsistent But then there is another kind of Fear that is not tormenting and that is an awful frame of Heart struck with reverential apprehensions of God's infinite Majesty and our own vileness and unworthiness and this perfect Love doth not cast out but perfects this awful sedate calm fear of God The Angels and the glorified Saints in Heaven whose Love is so perfect that it can neither admit of an increase or abatement yet they stand in aw and fear of the terrible Majesty of the great God the same infinit Excelencies of the divine Nature that attract their Love doth also excite their Fear See how the Prophet makes this an Argument to fear God Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Saints For said he in all the Earth there is none like unto thee One would rather think Gods unparallel Excellencies and Perfections should be a Motive to Love who would not love thee O King of Saints since there is none in all the Earth like thee Yea but filial Fear and filial Love are of so near a kind and cognation that they may well be enforced by one and the same Argument Who would not fear thee for in all the Earth there is none like thee This is the Excellency of divine Love it is an attractive of Love and it is an excitement unto Fear Well then though we have no chilling Fear of a hot and scorching Hell yet let us have an awful reverential Fear of the glorious God whose Excellencies are such as cannot be matched nor scarcely imitable by any in Heaven or in Earth Thirdly 3. A holy Fear of God is not contrary to the Spirit of Adoption The Fear of God is not contrary to that free Spirit of Adoption which we receive in our first Conversion It may perhaps seem to some that the Apostle opposeth them in Rom. 8.15 You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father To this I Answer That by the Spirit of Bondage here the Apostle means the legal Work of the holy Ghost in Conviction that is preparatory to Conversion which Work usually is accompanied with dreadful Terrors apprehending God not as a reconciled Father but as an incensed and severe Judge why now says the Apostle You have not received this Spirit of Bondage again thus to fear this is not that Fear that the consideration of God as your God and reconciled Father excited to you this is not that Fear that the Apostle exhorts Christians unto but an awful reverential Fear of God whereby we should stand in aw of his dread Majesty so as to be preserved from whatever may be an offence to his Purity and if in any Night of Desertion it should happen that the Hearts of true Believers should be overwhelmed with dismal Fears apprehending God as enraged and incensed against them standing in doubt of the goodness of their spiritual Condition if this seize upon them after they have had the Spirit of Adoption let them know this Fear is not from a Work of the Holy Ghost in them they have not received the Spirit of Bondage again so to fear it is not a Work of the Holy Ghost to excite in them doubts and fears of their spiritual Condition after they have once had assurance of the goodness thereof but it ariseth either from some Ignorance or from some Sin that they have committed that interposeth betwixt them and the clear sight of the discoveries of God's Love Now for the better understanding of this place because I judge it pertinent to my present purpose I shall open it to you somewhat largely in these following Particulars 1. The Work of Conversion is usually carried on by legal Fear and Terrors First The preparatory Work of Conversion is usually carried on in the Soul by legal Fears and Terrors I call that a legal Fear that is wrought in the Soul by the Dread-Threatnings and Denunciations of the Law The Law if we take it in its native Rigour without the merciful qualification of Gospel-grace thunder'd out nothing but Execrations Wrath and Vengeance against every Transgressor of it representing God armed also with his almighty Power to destroy them this is that Glass that shew'd them their old Sins in most ugly Shapes now they see them stare ghastly upon their Consciences that before allured them the Scene is quite changed and there are nothing but dreadful Apparitions of Death and Hell fleeting now before them Hell belsh'd in their very Faces God brandished his flaming Sword over them ready to reeve their Hearts asunder they that lately were secure and fearless now stand quaking under the fearful expectations of that fiery Wrath and Indignation that they neither have hope to escape nor yet have they Strength or Patience to endure This is that legal Fear that the Curse and Threatnings of the Law when set home in their full acrimony work in the Hearts of convinced Sinners Secondly 2. Slavish Fear engenders unto Bondage This legal Fear is slavish and engenders unto Bondage There is Bondage under the reigning Power of Sin and there is a Bondage under the terrifying Power of Sin The former makes a Man a Slave unto the Devil and the latter makes a Man a
where in Scripture as I remember have express mention made of any Prayer directed to the Holy Ghost yet whosoever allows him to be God cannot deny him this Worship of Prayer if we must believe in him we may then certainly call upon him as the Apostle argues Rom. 10.14 yea Rom. 10.14 we have an Instance of the Seraphims giving Praise unto him which is one part of Prayer Isa 6.3 Isa 6.3 They cried to one another holy holy is the Lord God of Hosts This God is the same who in Verses 10 11. bids the Prophet say to the People Hear ye indeed but understand not make the Heart of this People fat make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they hear with their Ears and see with their Eyes This is that God whom the Seraphims adored and this is that God that spake to the Prophet and the Apostle quoting this very place out of Isaiah Acts 28.25 tells us Acts 28.25 that it was the Holy Ghost spake so that by comparing these two Places together you see plainly that the Holy Ghost is God and that he is to be adored by us with the same Worship that we worship the Father and the Son for the Holy Ghost is the Lord God of Hosts which St. Paul refers to the Holy Ghost well spake the Holy Ghost concerning them Thus if we consider God personally each Person in the Trinity may well be the Object of our Prayers Secondly Consider God essentially and so we are also to direct our Prayers to him God essentially is to be prayed unto Now to consider God essentially is to have the Eye of our Faith fixed upon his Attributes not upon his Person to consider him when we pray to him not as Father Son or Holy Ghost but only as an infinitely glorious wise powerful gracious God and the like to look upon him as a most pure Essence whose Presence is every where whose Presence and Goodness is over all Things to conceive him to be an infinite Being altogether unconceivable this is to consider God essentially Now this Notion of God is equally common to all the Three Persons and therefore this is the most fit and congruous way when we come to God in Prayer to represent before us his Attributes we need not select out any one Person in the Holy Trinity Father Son or Holy Ghost to direct our Prayers unto unless it be in some Cases wherein their particular Offices are more immediately concerned but when we pray to him who is Almighty who is All-wise infinitely Holy infinitely Just and Merciful we pray at once to the whole Trinity both to the Father Son and Holy Ghost So when we pray according to that holy Form that Christ hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven Father there denotes not only God the Father the first Person in the Trinity but it is a relative Attribute belonging equally to all the Persons in the Trinity God is the Father of all Men by Creation and Providence and he is especially the Father of the Faithful by Regeneration and Adoption Why now as these Actions of Creation Regeneration and Adoption are common to the whole Trinity so also is the Title of Father common to the whole Trinity God the first Person is indeed eminently called the Father but that is not in respect of us but in respect of Christ his only begotten Son from all Eternity in respect of us the whole Trinity is our Father which art in Heaven and when we pray so we pray both to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost to all the Three Persons yea and it may seem very probable that when Christ prayed Matth. 26.39 Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not my Will but thy Will be done I say it 's probable this Prayer was not directed to God the Father personally but to the whole Trinity for we must consider that Christ prays here only as he was Man and that appears by his distinguishing of his Will from and submitting it to God's Will Why now not only God the Father but the whole Trinity was the Father of Christ as Man yea Christ himself according to his divine Nature was the Father of his humane Nature and therefore praying as Man to his Father that that Cup might pass from him he prayed to all the Three Persons both to God the Father and to God the Son and to God the Holy Ghost And thus much for the Object to whom we must direct our Prayers and that is to God only whether considered personally or essentially Thirdly Observe also the Matter of our Prayers We must pray for Things that are according to the will of God 1 John 5.4 It must be a representation of our Desires to God for such Things as are according to his Will So we have it 1 John 5.4 If we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us God's Will in bestowing a desired Mercy upon us is best known by the Promises that he hath made to us which Promises are of two Kinds some refer to temporal Blessings and others refer to Grace and Glory Why now here First Grace and Glory are promised absolutely We may pray for Grace and Glory absolutely it is that we are commanded all of us to seek after and therefore here can lie no mistake upon us while we beg these for there is no doubt while we pray for Grace and Glory but we do it according to the Will of God Here we may be earnest and importunate that God would sanctifie and save our Souls and while we ask this and make this the matter of our Requests we are under an impossibility of asking amiss yea and the more violent we are and the more resolute to take no Denial at the Hands of God the more pleasing is this holy Force since it shews a perfect conformity and concurrence in our Wills unto his Will who hath told us It is his Will 1 Thes 4.3 even our Sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 This was one part of that violence that our Saviour saith the Kingdom of Heaven suffered in the Days of John the Baptist It is an Invasion that is acceptable unto God when we storm Heaven by Prayers and Supplications with strong Cries and Tears when we plant against it unutterable Sighs and Groans this is such a Battery that those eternal Ramparts cannot hold out long against it We may pray absolutely for Grace and Glory Secondly 2. We must pray for the Degrees of Grace and for the Comforts of the Spirit conditionally Though we may pray thus absolutely and with a holy peremptoriness for Grace and Glory saying to God as Jacob to the Angel that wrestled with him I will not let thee go until thou hast blessed me with spiritual Blessings in heavenly Things in Jesus Christ Yet Secondly For the Degrees of Grace and for the Comforts of
the Holy Ghost we must pray conditionally if the Lord will for these Things are not absolutely necessary neither are they absolutely promised to us by God neither any degree of Grace or any Consolation of the Spirit is absolutely promised to us But however our Prayers ought to be so much the more fervent and importunate for these Things than for outward temporal Things by how much these are of far greater concernment than the other Thirdly 3. We may also pray for temporal Blessings conditionally To pray for outward and worldly Blessings is not contrary to the Will of God for he hath promised to bestow them But then as his Promise is conditional if it may stand with our good so truly also must our Prayers be conditional that God would give them to us if it may stand with his Will and with our Good whatsoever we thus ask we do it according to the Will of God and we are sure of speeding in our Request either by the obtaining of our Desires or by being blessed with a Denial for alas we are blind and ignorant Creatures and cannot look into the Designs and Drift of Providence and see how God hath laid in order Good and Evil in his own purpose oftentimes we mistake Evil for Good because of the present appearance of Good that it hath yea so short-sighted are we that we can look no farther than outward and present appearance but God who sees through the whole Series and Connexion of his own Counsels he knows many times that those Things we account and desire as Good are really evil and therefore it is our Wisdom to resign up all our Desires to his disposal and to say Lord though such temporal Enjoyments may seem good and desirable to me at present yet thou art infinitely wise and thou knowest what the Consequence and Issue of them will be I beg them if they may stand with thy Will and if thou seest they will be as really good for me as I suppose them now to be if they be not so I beg the Favour of a Denial This is the right Frame that a Christian ought to have upon his Heart when he comes to beg temporal Mercies of God and whilst he thus asks any worldly Comforts he cannot ask amiss It was an excellent Saying of the Satyrist We ask those Things of God says he that please our present Humours and Desires but God gives those things that are best and fittest for us for we are dearer to him saith the Heathen than we are to our selves And says another very well it is mercy in God not to hear us when we ask Things that are evil and when he refuseth us in such Requests it is that he might not circumvent us in our own Prayers for indeed whilst we ask rashly and intemperately whatever we foolishly set our Hearts upon God need take no other course to plague and punish us than by hearing and answering of us So much for the matter of our Prayer it must be for Things that are according to God's Will Fourthly 4. How we must pray Observe also the manner how our Prayers must be directed unto God That is 1. In 〈◊〉 Name of Christ First We must pray in the Name of Christ Before the Fall Man might boldly have gone to God in his own Name and speak to him upon his own account but since the great Breach made betwixt Heaven and Earth since that great Quarrel and Enmity arose betwixt God and Man there is no hope of Man's finding acceptance with God upon his own account and therefore he must go to God in the Name of a Mediator Hence Christ saith If ye ask any thing in my Name I will do it for you John 14.31 Now to ask in the Name of Christ is nothing else but in all our Addresses to God to plead his Merits and to depend upon his Mediation for the obtaining of those good Things that we desire It was truly said God heareth not Sinners John 9.31 John 9.31 And how then can we who are Sinners yea the chiefest of Sinners hope for audience and acceptance with him who heareth none such But yet though God heareth not Sinners yet he always heareth his Son who is continually making Intercession for Sinners yea and he always heareth Sinners that come to him in the Name of his Son and by Faith tender up his Merits through which alone they expect Favour and to prevail with God All Things go by Favour and Friendship in the Court of Heaven if we stand upon our own Merits and Deserts we shall be shamefully disappointed in our Expectations no Merit takes place in Heaven but only the Merit of the Lord Jesus Christ and whilst we argue that by Faith with God we come to him in the Name of his Son Secondly 2. We must pray in Faith Jam. 1.6 Our Prayers must be put up with Faith James 1.6 Let him ask in Faith says the Apostle nothing wavering for let not such a Man that is let not such a Man that wavers think to receive any good Thing of God Heb. 11.6 So in Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him Faith is the Souls Hand whereby it receives those Blessings that God willingly bestows Now this is the Reason why though we do so often pray to God yet we are still so indigent and necessitous God's Ears are not heavy his Arms are not shortned neither are his Bowels dried up no still he hath the same Power the same Will and the same Love to his Children that ever he had but we want a Hand to receive those Mercies that God hath a Heart and a Hand to give forth unto us and that 's the reason of our Necessitousness notwithstanding we do so often come before God in Prayer 3. Prayer must be with Affection and Fervency Rom. 12.14 Thirdly Our Prayers must be put up as with Faith so with Fervency also and therefore it is required that we should be fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.14 and so the forecited place The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much We should strive to kindle in our Souls a holy Flame of heavenly Affections when we come to God in Prayer The Prayers of the Saints were typified under the old Law by Incense but now no Incense was to be offered up without Fire So truly there should be no Prayer offered up to God without the Fire and Flame of holy Affections and Fervency How do you think that a dull and heavy Prayer should mount up as high as Heaven Or that God should hearken or regard what we speak when we scarce regard what we speak our selves That for the manner of our Prayer Fifthly 5. The End of all our Prayers must be the Glory of God We must observe the End that we ought to aim at in our
that require not much time to perform their Errands in for there is a holy Mystery in pointing our earthly Employments with these heavenly Ejaculations as Men point their Writings sometimes with Stops ever now and then shooting up a short mental Prayer unto Heaven such Pauses as these are you will find to be no Impediments to your worldly Affairs This is the way for a Christian to be retired and private in the midst of a Multitude to turn his Shop or his Field into a Closet to trade for Earth and yet to get Heaven also into the Bargain So we read of Nehemiah 2.4 Nehem. 2.4 That whilst the King was discoursing to him of the State of Judea it is said that Nehemiah prayed unto God that is he sent up secret Prayers to God which tho' they escaped the King's notice and observation yet were they so prevalent as to bow and encline his Heart 4. It is always to keep our Hearts in a praying Frame Fourthly and Lastly There is yet something more in this Praying without ceasing and that is this We may then be said to pray without ceasing when we keep our Hearts in such a frame as that we are fit at all times to vent our selves before God in Prayer When we keep alive and cherish a praying Spirit and can upon all Opportunities draw near to God with full Souls and with quick and vigorous Affections This is to pray without ceasing and this I take to be the most genuine natural Sense of the Words and the true Scope of the Apostle here to have the Habit of Prayer enclining them always freely and sweetly to breath out their Requests unto God They that would maintain a praying Temper must be careful of Two Things and to take all Occasions to prostrate themselves before his Throne of Grace Now those that would maintain this praying Temper must be especially careful of Two Things 1. That they immerse not themselves in the World First That they do not too much ingulf themselves in the Businesses and Pleasures of this Life for this will exceedingly damp and deaden the Heart to this holy Duty as Earth cast upon the Fire puts it out so the World when it is spread over the Affections must needs stifle and extinguish that holy Flame that should ascend up to Heaven How hard is it for a Man that oppresseth himself with a heap of Businesses to raise his Heart unto God under all that Load How hard is it for those that let out their Hearts thus too and fro a thousand ways to summon them in the next moment to attend upon God with that awful and serious Frame that becomes all those that appear before him When we come to Prayer reaking hot out of the Affairs of this World we find our Hearts subject to manifold Distractions and Discomposures and our Thoughts scattered like Bees still flying from one Flower to another still bringing some Intelligence from worldly Objects even then when we are about divine Employments Secondly 2. That they fall into no known and presumptous Sin If you would maintain a praying Temper of Soul be careful not to fall into the commission of any known presumptuous Sin The Guilt of Sin lying upon the Conscience will exceedingly deaden the Heart to Prayer Alas how can we go to God with any freedom of Spirit How can we call him Father with any Boldness and Confidence while we are conscious to our selves that we have daringly provoked him by some wilful Offence I may appeal to your own Experience in this Do not your Consciences fly in your Faces Do they not take you by the Throat and even choak your Speech while you are praying with some such Suggestions as these What can I pray for the Pardon of Sin that frequently commit that which I know to be Sin Shall I dare to lift up unclean Hands before his pure and holy Eyes or to speak to him in Prayer when as those Sins that rancor and fester in my Conscience must needs make my Breath unsavory and noisome to him Will the Lord hear such Prayers Or if he doth hear them will he not account them an Abomination You now whose Consciences thus accuse you do you not find such Reflections as these to be great Deadnings to your Hearts such Damps to Duty such Clippings of the Wings of the Spirit of God and takings off of the Wheels of the Soul so that it drives on but slowly and heavily in the performance of that Duty Certainly Guilt is the greatest Impediment to Duty in the World for it takes off from the Freeness and Filialness of our Spirits and fills us with Distrust Diffidence and a slavish Fear of coming before God rather as our Judge than as our Father And therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him Yea and we may observe it in our selves what a slavish dejectedness and deadness seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after we have wronged him by any known Sin how doth this make us come with such misgiving Fears as if we would not have God to take notice that we were in his Presence making us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done And thus you see what it is to Pray without ceasing It is to pray constantly at set Times and Seasons it is to pray importunately and vehemently it is upon all Occasions to be sending up holy Ejaculations unto God and especially to keep alive and cherish a praying Frame of Heart Which whosoever would do he must beware of emerging himself in the World and of committing any known and presumptuous Sin And so much for the doctrinal part An Exhortation unto Prayer The Application shall be to stir us up and excite us to the performance of this Holy Duty wherein indeed the Vitals of Religion and Holiness do consist And to press this upon you consider with me these following Particulars 1. Prayer is a Sign of the new Birth First Prayer is one of the greatest Signs of a Man's new Birth As in the natural Birth we know the Child is living by its Crying when it comes into the World so also in this spiritual Birth it is an evidence that we are born living Souls to God when we cry mightily unto God in Prayer And therefore in Acts 9.11 Acts 9.11 when God sent Ananias unto Paul that he might take off that Fear from him that might otherwise seize upon him in going to such an enraged Persecutor as he was he tells him St. Paul was changed for behold he prays This is an infallible Sign that we are Children of God when we can with a Holy Reverence and Boldness cry Abba Father 2. Prayer is an inestimable Priviledge Secondly Consider it is a great and inestimable Priviledge that God will permit us to approach so near to himself that he will permit such vile Dust and Ashes
but he is intimately present with all his Creatures at once And therein is his presence distinguished from the presence of Angels they indeed pass from one to another and be one in another they may possibly stretch and dilate themselves to a great compass but they cannot stretch themselves to an Vbiquitariness to be in all Beings at once If an Angel suddenly dart himself from one Point of the Heavens through the Center of the Earth to an opposite Point of the Heavens and by a motion of insinuation without impelling or driving the Air before him yet he is not in Heaven and Earth at once but when he is in one place he ceaseth to be in another but it is not so with God for he is every-where and in all things at once for ever therefore God tells us Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 He is so in them as that he doth not leave any one place void or empty of himself for were there any places where God were not then it could not be properly said to be filled with him Thirdly This Omnipresence of God is simply necessary not only for the preserving and upholding of his Creatures in their Beings and Operations but necessary to our very Beings for his own Essence is simple and he cannot withdraw from nor forsake any place or any thing with which his presence now is God cannot contract and lessen himself nor gather up his Essence into a narrow room and compass but as he is here in this very place which we now take up so he must and will be here to all Eternity Nor is this any imperfection as if God were not an Infinite Perfection and Excellence for this flows from the immutability of his Nature and Essence for should God remove himself he were not altogether unchangeable but with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God it is somewhat obscure some of them confined him to Heaven and were so far from affirming him present in all things that they thought he took no care of any thing below as being too mean and too unworthy for God to regard This was the Opinion of the Epicureans Acts 17.18 Others thought indeed that the Care and Providence of God reached to these ordinary things but not his Essence and the ground of their Errour was because they thought it most befitting the Majesty of God to sit only in Heaven a glorious and a becoming place and not to make himself so cheap and so common as to be present with Men and the Vile Things of the World But this is a weak Reason as I shall shew anon Some others among the Heathens had righter Apprehensions of this Divine Attribute one of them being to give a Description what God was tells us most admirably God was a Sphere whose Center was every-where and whose Circumference was no where A raised apprehension of the Divine Nature in an Heathen And another being demanded what God was made answer That God is an Infinite Point than which nothing can be said more almost or truer to declare this Omnipresence of God It is reported of Heraclitus the Philosopher when his Friend came to visit him being in an old rotten Hovel Come in come in saith he for God is here God is in the meanest Cottage as well as in the stateliest Palace the poorest Beggar cohabits with God as well as the greatest Princes for God is every-where present and sees all things Position 2. God is not only present in the World but he is infinitely existent also without the World and beyond all things but himself He is in all that Vast Tract of Nothing which we can imagine and beyond the Highest Heavens What Reason can say for this I shall anon shew In the mean time see that one positive place of Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 Behold the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him And if God be not contained in them certainly he then must be infinitely beyond and above them He surmounts the Heaven of Heavens that is the very highest and uppermost Heavens which St. Paul calls the Third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. That glorious Place in which God doth most specially manifest himself and will do to all Eternity The Scripture tells us that though the Heaven of the glorified Angels and Saints be the place in which God will especially manifest his presence yet it is not that place unto which God will or doth confine his presence Isai 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Where is the House that ye build unto me and where is the Place of my Rest For all those things hath mine Hand made As if God should have said Do not think to cloister me up within the Walls of the Temple no I am set upon the highest Heavens as upon my Throne and they are all under me and I am exalted far above them Many such glorious Expressions there are of God's Infiniteness and Immensity scattered up and down the Scripture which I shall not now spend time to recollect The Scripture you see owns it for a truth That God is Infinite in his Essence beyond the whole World which is one of those Divine Properties which poseth Reason to conceive how it is possible that since beyond the World there is nothing that God should exist there but though Reason cannot apprehend it yet from Reason as well as from Scripture it appears it must be so Position 3. As God exists every-where so all and whole God exists every-where So that all God is here and all God is there and all God is in every place and in every thing This is indeed a great and most unconceivable Mystery but yet it must needs be so because God is indivisible and simple and not compounded of Parts and therefore where-ever there is any of God's Essence there is all his Essence otherwise part of his Essence would be here and part there and part of it elsewhere which would be utterly repugnant to the simple and uncompounded Nature of God God's Attributes are his Essence Now there is no where where God is but there are all his Attributes and therefore where God is there is all his Essence He is a Spirit most Wise most Powerful most Just and the like here and there as well as in Heaven above yea and what is more to the astonishment of Reason than all this God is every-where Omnipresent and in every place And though it be common to all Spiritual Beings because they have no parts to have a totality in the whole and a totality in every part Indeed it is expressed in the Schools that Spirits are all in the whole and all in every part yet herein God hath a peculiar way of subsisting from other Spirits that not only his Essence alone is in every part of the World but also his Presence