day of vengeance Prov. 6.34 even so the Lord when he is stirred to jealousie on this occasion is wont to measure out to such offendors an excess and overplus of wrath and vengeance as you may see a sad example of it in the Jews And therefore I shut up this Exhortation as John doth his Epistle Little children keep your selves from Idols Amen Serve the Lord and not Idols But you will say perhaps what needs this For who among us is inclinable to this sin Or which of us doth serve Idols To this I answer That there is not in man a stronger inclination to any sin then that of Idolatry as I could shew you very plentifully and very clearly from the Scripture And as for actual Idolatry you must know my Brethren that there is a gross and open and there is a more subtile and secret Idolatry The gross and open is the worshipping of heathen images and heathen gods or else of Popish Crucifixes and the like from this perhaps you may acquit your selves But now besides there is an inward and secret Idolatry and this is very rife and common in the world yea in the bosom of the Church it self Professed Christians many of them who have but one God in their mouthes have yet an hundred in their hearts For you must know my Brethren that this inward Idol-worship is not committed only by conceiving an Idol or a creature under the notion of God which was the errour of the heathen who thought that Jupiter and Mars were gods But also by ascribing that to any creature which is peculiar to the Lord. In doing so we deifie the creature and set it up in Gods stead and this is very usual among those that would be taken to be Christians some make Idols of themselves either their belly is their God as the Apostle speaks in his time whose end is destruction whose God is their belly Phil. 3.19 they take more care to please their appetites and fill their bellies then to please God Or else they make their policy and wit their God while they rely and rest upon it to bring their enterprizes and designs to pass and so accordingly attribute the effecting of them to their own skill and to their own ability These are the men that sacrifice to their own net and burn incense to their own dragg as the Prophet speaks Hab. 1.16 Others make Idols of their fellow Creatures while they lay out that fear and love and confidence upon them which belongs to God only In this respect the covetous and worldly wretch is stiled an Idolater Eph. 5.5 because he loves his riches more then God and trusteth in his riches more then God And the Apostle James speaking of such as love the world calls them adulterers and adulteresses Jam. 4.4 because they commit this inward Idolatry which is spiritual adultery with the things of this life The like may be affirmed of the ambitious man who loves his honours more then God and of the voluptuous man who loves his pleasures more then God So that you see my Brethren there is need of this advice even to professed Christians to serve the Lord and not Idols 2. Serve the Lord and not the times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are words not very much unlike neither in the writing of them nor in the pronunciation of them there is but a letter odds And hence it is that some have put the latter for the former in that place of the Apostle Rom. 12.11 And in stead of reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the Lord they read it by an easie change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the time And so we find it in some Greek Copies And truly there are many in these dayes of ours who seem to like extreamly well of this change who would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still and who would rather serve the time then serve the Lord. These are the men who fashion and apply themselves continually to the present garb and to the present state of things Like weather Cocks they turn with every blast like Ships they set their sails to every wind Brethren this is an odious thing to mould our selves especially in points of Conscience and matters of Religion to the times Indeed it is observed of the men of Issachar that they were wise to understand the times and to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12.31 And so I must acknowledge it is wisdom so to observe the times to know our duty what it is and to perform it in the proper season But to observe them so to serve them is a very great evil We must not serve the times but serve the Lord. 3. Serve the Lord and not Lusts neither your own Lusts nor the Lusts of others First serve the Lord and not your own Lusts if he be the only true God he must be served and not them And yet how many are there who are slaves and vassals to their own Corruptions who are not subject and obedient to the will of God but to that which the Evangelist calls the will of the flesh 1 John 13. They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels That which they have a will and a desire to do to which they are carried and swayed by their own inclinations and sensual affections they freely follow and pursue but for the will of God they neither care to know it nor obey it I wish that such would seriously consider what a fearfull thing it is for God to leave men to their own wills He never doth it but in extremity of wrath and vengeance When he will take severe revenge indeed then he picks out this judgement My people would not hearken to my voice saith God and Israel would none of me What must become of Israel now think you you may behold it in the following verse So I gave them up to their own lusts to walk according to their own counsels And certainly unless the Lord should send men quick to hell a heavier Judgement cannot come upon them Secondly serve the Lord and not the Lusts of other men that is the basest and unworthiest service in the world when men are not only subject to the regular and just commands of their superiours for so they are in duty bound to be but they are subject to their wicked humours They are not only serviceable and obedient to their lawfull wills but they are Bawds and Pandars to their Lusts They will do any thing rather then they shall be offended and displeased They will serve them in their sins and serve them in their base and wicked humours though conscience grumble and recoyl they will comply with them in every thing they will humour and applaud them and admire them for advantage as the Apostle Paul speaks They are resolved to please them whether God be pleased or no. Let such remember that God
consequently so far it is taken off by Christ in relation to believers But it is not against believers in the commands and precepts of it requiring them to love God and serve God c. No these things sute with their spirits they are written in their hearts and therefore they are not destroyed but rather strengthened and confirmed by Christ Is it so that all mankind is under the authority of Iesus Christ under Vse 3 his legislative power Then certainly believers must not stoop to any other legislative power to the prejudice of his And this is that which the Apostle presseth hard on the Colossians Col. 2.20 In the foregoing verse he setteth forth the authority of Christ and sheweth that he is the head and ruler of his people and presently comes in with this Interrogation and why saith he are you subject to Ordinances by which he doth not mean the Laws of God but the decrees and constitutions and commands of men And so himself explains it afterward in the succeeding words that by those Ordinances he intendeth nothing else but the Commandments and doctrines of men As if he should have said if you be under the authority of Jesus Christ Why are you subject to the Ordinances and commands of men What then doth the authority of Jesus Christ Quest discharge his people from obedience to any ordinances or commands of men and are they to be subject to him so that they be subject to no other governours or rulers in the world Is the authority and power of Magistrates dissolved by this means Answ To this I answer No by no means and therefore you must know that when the Apostle saith be ye not servants of men be ye not subject to the ordinances and commands of men he doth not mean it absolutely as if we ought not to be subject to them any way It was not his intention to bring in such confusion and such Anarchy into the world For in another place he tells us that we must needs he subject to the Magistrate Rom. 13.5 And the Apostle Peters Exhortation goes a little further and is a little more large 1 Pet. 2.13 Submit your selves to every ordinance of man and that for the Lord sake And it is necessary that we should do so saith he for so is the will of God verse 15. of that Chapter These two do seem apparently to contradict and clash with one another Be ye not the servants of men and Ye must needs he subject to men be ye not subject to the ordinances and commands of men And yet submit your selves to every ordinance of man and therefore I shall cleer it in a word or two both with relation to the outward man and to the conscience For the outward man that ought not to be subject to the Injunctions commands of men where they cross the law of Christ there are some commands of men that meddle only with such things as are not comprehended in the Law of Christ but are left by him indifferent neither commanded nor forbidden To such as these we may and ought to yield obedience there is no question but the Lawfull Magistate hath power concerning things indifferent to interdict them or require them for Politick and civil ends and in relation to the better government or profit and emolument of those who are subjected to his power And however I am under the authority of Christ I am not free in such a case as this is There are other Laws of men which concur with Christs Laws commanding that which they command forbidding that which they forbid As when Christ forbids to swear when the Magistrate forbids to swear too when Christ forbids us to profane the Sabbath and when the Magistrate forbids us to prophane it too There is no scruple touching such commands as these for here the Magistrate and Christ do close and therefore in obeying one of them we obey the other too But when the Laws of men do contradict the Laws of Christ forbidding that which they command commanding that they forbid when their Injunctions clash with his we ought not to subject our selves to them The authority of Christ is the greatest in the world his Father as you have it in my text hath given him power over all flesh And therefore he must rather be obeyed then any fleshly power if once they come in competition and if they cannot be obeyed together in such a case as this my brethren when the same thing shall come to be commanded in the Law of Christ forbidden in the Law of man and so upon the other side we have a certain rule to walk by Act. 5.29 It is better to obey God then men in such a case we cannot be the servants of men because if we be so we cannot be the servants of Christ for in obeying them we throw off the authority of Jesus Christ And as we ought not to subject our outward man to the commands of men in such a case so in the second place we ought not to subject our Conscience to the commands of men in any case The Conscience is the Lords peculiar none hâ—th authority on that but he only And therefore Christ condemns it in the Scribes and Pharises They taught for doctrines the commandments of men Mat. 15.9 They were but constitutions and commands of men and yet they vented them for Doctrines and imposed them on the Conscience This they ought not to have done or if they did so they ought not to be yielded to in so doing We ought not to be subject to the commands of men upon such terms as these are The Lord complains of this in Israel as a grievous sin for which he thunders out a heavy doom against them a Judgement so remarkable that it should come the next step to a miracle because their fear to him was taught by the precepts of men Isa 29.13 For this the Apostle chideth the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. â—0 Ye suffer if a man devour you if a man bring you into bondage which is not meant of the enthralling of the outward man but of the captivating of the Conscience in the chains of humane constitutions and decrees which these deceitful workers mentioned in the former verses jugled on upon it Well then since Christ hath such authority upon us let none of us subject our Conscience and our faith to men let them not be Lords of these for they belong to Christ and him only He suffers magistrates indeed to rule without over the outward man but he alone must rule within over the conscience If any go about to take command on that or to give Law to that you must stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free as the Apostle counsels you Gal. 5.1 Is it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ Then Vse 4 let not one man censure and condemn another It is the inference that the Apostle makes upon the very same
love and hope and patience and obedience this is an honour to the Lord Christ that he hath such people so qualified and so imployed when they believe in difficult and hard cases they glorifie him in believing as it is said of Abraham Rom. 4.20 He was strong in Faith giving glory to God when they are fruitful in the works of righteousness these are also to the praise of his glory Herein is he glorified if they bring forth much fruit For Jesus Christ is looked upon as the Original of all the good the Fountain and the Spring of all the holiness that is in his people And hence the praise of all returns to him as the Apostle Paul insinuates Rom. 11. ult For of him are all things And what follows To him be glory for ever Amen If any of his people have a special gift of knowledge they have learned it all of Christ if they excel in other grace they receive it all from Christ If they have any choice ability to any holy and religious duty it is Christ that makes them able and it is Christ that strengthens them They that have judgements exercised and are able to discern assoon as they discover any excellency in any kind in any of the Saints they ascribe it all to Christ because they know they had it all from him See what Jesus Christ can do in and for and by those that have Originally nothing that is good in them If any of them shine the beams that make them glister come from Christ and they dart back to Christ again He shines upon them and he shines in them as the Prophet insinuates Isai 60.1 Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee It is a glory to the Lord Christ that he hath such a beautiful and glorious people And thus you see my Brethren he is glorified in the grace of those that belong to him 2. As he is glorified in the grace so he is glorified and shall be glorified in the glory of those that belong to him especially in the great day when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe as the Apostle Paul tells us 2 Thess 1.10 to be glorified in them to wonder and to admiration So that the world shall be astonished and amazed to see the matchless and unutterable glory that he shall adorn them with and in their glory glorifie himself This shall transport beholders into wonder it shall make them to admire them and to admire Christ in them It s true Christ shall be glorified wonderfully on that day in the damnation and destruction of the wicked that belong not to him The wrath of Jesus Christ shall be an admirable wrath the judgements and the vengeance that he shall inflict upon them shall be full of wonder that men shall be astonished and amazed to see that Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who in this life hath shewed himself so meek and patient and long-suffering to abominable sinners should be so out of measure wrath with them Ungodly men themselves will wonder at his fury The Saints will wonder at his glorious justice and adore the righteousness of his proceedings with all the wicked unbelievers of the world Yea their confusion and destruction in that great and dreadfull day will be one special part of that admirable glory whereby Christ will be wonderfull in the eyes of all his people Because for their sakes and the wrongs and injuries that wicked men have offered them shall their judgement be the heavier and the deeper and that to all eternity Oh what an admirable thing is this will the poor people of the Lord say that Jesus Christ should have such dear respect to us that he should be so angry with poor creatures and execute such heavy wrath upon them for our sakes But there will be incomparably greater cause of glorifying Jesus Christ and of wondering at his mercy in the salvation of his own people For alas the wicked shall have nothing else but their deserts in that day But this shall be the height of wonder that Jesus Christ should load his people with such an Hyperbolical and transcendent weight of glory without the least desert on their part yea when they have deserved the same extremity of vengeance that is inflicted on the wicked Oh what a glory must this be to Jesus Christ how shall this fill the mouths of all the Angels and triumphant Saints in heaven with his praises How shall his people wonder at their own glory and at the glory of their fellow-Saints and the transcendent love of Christ in it How shall the great ones of the earth that have contemned and trampled under foot the poor despised Servants of the Lord Christ stand amazed at their glory beyond all that they looked for Oh my beloved how wonderfull shall Jesus Christ be in that day to all the world in the incomparable glory which then he will bestow upon his poor contemned and despised people Vse 1 Now is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him What think we then of those and to whom do they belong in in whom he is not glorified at all who are perpetually a dishonour to him We may be bold to say of such who are so far from being to the praise of his glory that while they have a being they are a prejudice and shame to Christ that they belong not to the Lord Christ they are none of his people Methinks the thought of this should even break the hearts of the wicked and ungodly men you who lye in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing else but lewdness and prophaness who are conscious to your selves that Christ hath not a whit of honour by you unless ungodliness and sin will bring it to whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of Christ is blasphemed by your means I beseech you seriously bethink your selves what condition you are in believe it for the present you are none of Christs Take notice of his own expression in my text they are mine and I am glorified in them And therefore if he be not glorified in you depend upon it you are none of his And is it nothing my beloved to be renounced by Jesus Christ as men whom he will not own Is it nothing for the Lord to shake a person off to say unto him in displeasure Sir tell me not of any interest you have in me for you belong not to me I will not acknowledge you I tell you plainly you are none of mine Truly my brethren however it may seem at present the day will come when this will be a sad sentence When men in the great day of separation shall strive to make a title to the Lord Christ when they shall tell him Lord we have been acquainted with thee heretofore
wholly to themselves and to their own free wils either to ratifie it or infringe it so making his decree like a Noveriut universi If men believe not persevere not then the election must be void Otherwise if they believe and continue to the end it must remain in full power strength and vertue I say that this corrupt opinion which is so confidently vented now adayes may not take with any of you I shall lay down some arguments against it and answer others that are brought for it This universal and conditional election overthrows the end of God all which he aims in all his Counsels and Decrees and in all his dispensations viz. the glory of his free grace This was that which the Lord had in his eye when he appointed men to glory even that he might make known the riches of his own glory on those which he prepared to glory as you have it Rom. 9.22 Now how shall he attain this end by choosing all men to Salvation if they will themselves how is the glory of his mercy magnified and advanced where is the freeness of his grace more to one man then another since he doth alike for all electeth all alike to glory and salvation prepareth heaven no more for one man then another so that if any man be saved he may thank himself he may glory in himself and not in God And therefore it is very notable that the Apostle making this the end of the decree of God viz. the glory of his grace withall discovers that he electeth men to life not according to their wills as they will either choose it or refuse it but according to his own Eph. 1.5 6. Having predestinated us by Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace How so according to the pleasure of his will To shew that he works freely in the business without impulsion or provocation from external causes And so he must if he will atttain his end If it be to the glory of his grace it must be according to the pleasure of his will So afterwards ver 11 12. We are predestinated that we should be to the glory of his grace And to this end we are predestinated according to his purpose who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will If he will glorifie his grace in this business we must be saved according to his will and pleasure and not according to our own His will must have the first and greatest stroke in this mercy This universal and conditional election as it overthrows Gods end Vse 2 so it hinders our duty It cannot choose but wonderfully cool and dead our hearts in rendring thankfulness to God when we consider with our selves that he hath done no more for us in this business of election and salvation then he hath for all the world Our Saviour Christ endeavouring to quicken his Disciples to thanskgiving shews them the priviledge and the preferment which they had in the mercy of the Lord Mat. 11.25 and 13.16 17. And the same course the Prophet David takes with Israel Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgements to Israel He dealt not so with other Nations and therefore you are specially engaged to praise the Lord. And certainly that soul shall find it self most quickned and enlarged to the praises of the Lord that sees his special and peculiar favour to it self which millions are rejected from Oh will the soul consider with it self in such a case Why hath God pitched on me neglecting others whence was it that he took me into his decree what did he see in me more then in those whom he laid by why he did choose me In our elections who are men beloved there is something still that carries and inclines us to a choice Some fitness in the object of it some relation to our selves some motive or inducement that prevails upon us But now my brethren we are all alike to God in the act of his election we lay together in the same corrupted Mass all weltring in the same blood and tumbling in the same gore and when he came to choose a little number in comparison of those he left Oh what a mercy was it that he should pitch on thee and me which if he had not done we had been lost for ever Truly my brethren did we sit down and weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts it would transport and carry us beyond our selves It would make us to break out with the Apostle Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be God who hath chosen us us who deserved no more then others who were no fitter for his choice then others And yet us when he hath rejected others Oh blessed be the Lord for this mercy But now my brethren none of this if all be chosen to salvation with this condition that they will accept it they may have it if they will The damned reprobate in hell by this account hath as much reason to be thankfull as the triumphant Saint in heaven Why may this wretched Catiffe say God did as much for me as him only indeed I did not so much for my self And may the glorified Saint in heaven say The Lord hath done as much for those in hell as ever he hath done for me He hath elected them as well as me and he hath assisted them as much as me for he is to all alike only they have not used their own free-wills as well as I have done and this is the only cause that they are damned and I am saved And therefore I wil ever thank my self and not God At least I have no greater cause to think him then the damned have If there be any difference between them and me it is not God that made it but my self God did for them and me alike And that they are not in the same condition with me the only reason is because we did not for ourselves alike And therefore they are every way as much obliged and bound to God as I am Vse 3 This universal and conditional election doth in some respect set up man above God God for his own part chooseth all men to salvation he would have all men to be saved How comes it then to pass whence is it that they are not saved Because they will not themselves God will and they will not who carries it in this business Their will takes place and not Gods The will of God you see by this opinion is ordered and disposed by the will of man He chooseth all men on condition but his final resolution and absolute determination is suspended upon the operation of the will of man He is at liberty to make it good or make it void at his pleasure If he will be saved he may if not he must be damned though God for his part have ordained him to salvation What is this but to make God in some respect an underling to man to make the will of
necessary to a testimony or a witness that it declare the truth and nothing else Or else how shall it be depended and relyed upon and so how shall the Scripture be the Word of Faith as it is called unless it be the Word of Truth How shall this testimony challenge faith from us unless it utter truth to us How shall it be believed if it be not wholly true and therefore truth is frequently ascribed to it as a witness The testimonies of the Lord are sure saith David Psal 19.7 That which they tell hath been and that which they foretell shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled Vse 1 And this by way of use and application may serve for terror in the first place unto those against whom there is any thing foretold in Scripture in a way of Commination for it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled How should they tremble for fear of God and how should they be afraid of his judgements though only hanging in the threatning How should their hearts dissolve within them when they hear his threatning words denounc't against them How should the Adulterer tremble when he hears that flaming Commination Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge how should the drunkard tremble when he hears those dreadful woes that are denounced to drunkards up and down the Prophets everywhere How should the wretched worldling tremble when he hears that dreadfull threatning that no covetous person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God How should the lier and the dogg that barks and snarls and snaps at holiness and the unclean wretch tremble when they hear that such shall have their everlasting portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And so for other sinners against whom there are heavy things foretold in Scripture how should they shake and quiver when they read and hear them But alas there are abundance who steel and fortifie their hearts against them who give no credit to the threatnings of the word as if they were but bruta fulmina but empty cracks who when they hear them thundred out against them say with Israel Jer. 5.12 It is not he neither shall evil come upon us nor shall we see sword or famine Oh my beloved do not belye the Lord in this fashion do not delude your own souls Believe it Judgement is towards you as the Expression is Hosea 5.1 although it be not actually upon you The wrath of God commeth it is a comming still and in the end depend upon it it will come home What do you think that if you do such things you shall escape the vengeance of God No be assured that if you persevere without repentance you shall feel it with a witness There is not any thing denounced against you in the Scripture but shall be fulfilled upon you to the utmost And Secondly it serves for sweet and pretious comfort to the Vse 2 Church since all the good that is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled You that are members of the Church look over all the Book of God collect together all the promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the end consider all the choice and pretious mercies that are contained in those promises and satisfie your souls with a certain expectation of them all There is not one of all those promises shall fall unaccomplished to the ground or fail of execution in the Lords time And therefore look on all the good things promised there as sure mercies so they are called the sure mercies of David which shall not fail you when the season comes And when you meet with any thing that specially concerns you in such a case or such a condition that might be a support and comfort to you in affliction and the like Oh give not way to one unbelieving thought do not forsake your own mercies Remember it is the word of the Lord which as the Angel said shall be fulfilled in its season And so for any good thing that is foretold in Scripture to the Church as there are glorious things you know foretold concerning it in after times that God will raise it to an admirable state of glory and felicity which while the world continues shall not be overthrown again Let us not make any question but they shall absolutely and compleatly be accomplished and fulfilled And therefore let us strengthen and confirm our hearts in the assured expectation of it and let us put those promises in suit in our Petitions as Isaiah in the same case Chap. 62.1 And let us stand upon our watch-towers waiting for the execution of them Let us account it our especial happiness that we live under promises that shall surely be accomplished though they should be never fulfilled in our time Let us embrace them as the Fathers did yea though they be afar off Oh let us hugg them and take especial joy and comfort in them And though the Lord should take us hence before he bring them into act and execution yet let us cheer our hearts with the apprehension of the happiness and glory that shall be upon the Church after we are dead and gone And so dye with our arms full of promises and our hearts full of faith and our souls full of comfort Vse 3 To pass on to a third use Since this is so that whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled whatsoever is foretold in a way of Commination or in a way of Consolation by way of threatning or by way of promise Let us endeavour to believe both and act our faith upon them Let us work up our hearts to give a firm and full assent to all the threatnings and to all the promises though that which is delivered in the Scripture either way be never so improbable never so much against corrupt reason never so impossible to a humane apprehension Let us depend upon it that the word of God shall be fulfilled to the very utmost Let us imitate the faith of the antient Saints of God as I shall give you some examples of it in reference to both of these both to the threatnings and the promises of Scripture As for the threatnings That which the Lord denounced to Noah that he might publish it to all the world that he would utterly destroy all flesh from off the earth and by a flood of water too was as improbable as any thing almost could be as like to be derided by the wise men of the world Yet Noah being warned of God believed it and so accordingly prepared the Ark as you may see Heb. 11.7 And so that Commination by the Prophet Jonah was almost incredible that Nineveh so flourishing so glorious and so great a City should be destroyed in forty dayes and yet it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his threatning message sent them by the Prophet Jonah 3.5 So for the promises of
of his people He had not been a Mediator he had not been a King as man but for his people They are the end of his Kingdom and of his power and hence the Execution of it is carried wholly and throughout with relation to the Saints All the authority he exercises is for them and all the judgements that he executeth are for them That which he doth as King and as a Iudge against the world is for them If he rebuke the great ones of the world it is for them as you may see Psal 105.10 He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved Kings for their sakes and therefore he is called the King of Saints Apoc 15.3 True he is King of all the world his power is over all flesh but this Authority of his relates especially to his people He is peculiarly the King of Saints yea when he walks in ways of wrath and judgement and revenge towards his Churches Enemies he doth this as the King of Saints with relation to the Saints And hence those Sinâ—ers in the fore-alledged Text behold him in that act of pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the Beast they look upon him as the King of Saints And therefore they applaud him by no other name but this they pick and cull out this to magnifie him by They might have said Just and true are thy wayes O Lord Iesus O Lord Christ O Emmanuel or the like But they make choice of this Expression just and true are thy wayes O thou King of Saints To intimate that he did execute those judgments upon Antichrist and his Adherents not as King of the world so much but as the King of his people and for the better government the greater ease and peace and quiet of his people His aim was not so much at the destruction of his Enemies as at the relaxation of his Church He did it not so much out of hatred to the wicked as out of love to his people I deerly love my Saints whose King I am and they are not to be preserved in tranquillity and peace they will be always vexed and troubled and diisturbed unless I take this rigid course with such incorrigible wretches as these are The authority of Iesus Christ with c. must needs be chiefly for the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the wicked because the wicked might have been destroyed though he had never been invested with this authority as man but his own people could not have been saved The reprobate would certainly have gone to hell though all mankind had not been under the authority of Christ as Man and Mediator but under the authority of God only But the Elect and chosen had not gone to heaven It could not have been so but I make the supposition if it had been so So that his Father need not to have given him this power that wicked wretches might be punished with Eternal death that would have been done of course but that his own might have Eternal Life which they could not have had without Christ That other End had freely been accomplished and attained if Christ had never been incarnate if he had never been invested with this power as man the wicked had been damned But it was absolutely necessary to this end that the Godly might be saved that their Head and Mediator should have power to give Eternal life to them All the world had been destroyed they had been plunged in Eternal death if Christ had not been thus authorized to deliver his and save his And therefore this authority is put upon him by his Father that some might have Eternal life that he might give eternal life to as many believe in him The authority of Jesus Christ c. must needs be chiefly for the good and the salvation of his own people and not so much for the destruction of the world because he is invested with it by his Father out of love to mankind and that which is done in Love must needs be for a good end God did not send his son into the world and put such power upon him out of hatred to it but out of pitty and compassion to his own chosen God so loved the world that he gave his own son John 3.16 he did it out of much love and the End is answerable that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting as it is added in the next words This is annexed you see that suits with love whereas if he had done it that unbelievers might be ruined and destroyed if that had been his main intention it had proceeded from another principle a principle of wrath and anger But this he disavows in the succeeding verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And that God did not send his Son and give him power over all flesh out of hatred and displeasure but out of favour and good will and so by consequence his aim must be especially and chiefly at the good of his people The authority c. must needs be chiefly c. because he exerciseth this authority so long and but so long as they have any good to reap by it and when it is no further useful to his people he in some sense resigns it up to him from whom he had it And therefore certainly it is for them and their profit As long as there is an Enemy to hinder the good and comfort and salvation of his people either within them or without them he keeps this power in his hands to curb them and to keep them down And so as the Apostle tels us He must reign till all those enemies be under foot 1 Cor. 15.25 till they be utterly subdued And then when this is done when there is none to trouble or molest his people any longer when he hath past the sentence of eternal condemnation on the wicked and sent them packing unto hell and seemed to say unto his Saints These Enemies which you have seen to day you shall see them again no more for ever when he hath cast out every thing that offendeth that is offensive to his people and made an everlasting separation between the wicked and the godly when he hath cast the wicked into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death and given eternal life to all his people when he hath done them all the good that they are capable of and when there is no further use of his authority for their advantage he even yields it up to him that gave him power over all flesh 1 Cor. 15.28 By which it is apparent that he took this power upon him principally for his peoples sake Is it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with c. is chiefly for the Use 1 benefit and the salvation of his people This then may be one great encouragement among the
commandeth not at all neither comes it into his heart They look not what the Lord hath ordered them to do Their eyes are not upon him for direction any way but what they have themselves a mind to do that they are imployed in They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels They follow the way of their own hearts and the sight of their own eyes They are not guided by the will of God but by the will of man and the will of the flesh as it is called 1 Joh. 13. which stands in opposition to the will of God God may order what he will and they will do what they please For tell me my Beloved when you swear and when you are unclean and when you run out to all excess of riot when you prophane the Sabbaths and the Ordinances of the Lord when you do things that are apparently and grosly evill which admit of no excuse Are these the works which God hath given you to do Can you look him in the face and tell him so When you lie and when you cozen and deceive do you these things by his order No my Beloved no such matter This is the will of God even your sanctification that as he who hath called you is holy so you should be holy in all manner of conversation And therefore while you wallow in your lusts while you defile your selves with every sin you do not follow Gods order you do not walk by his rule but are a rule unto your selves I wish that such would seriously consider but these two things First It is the fearfullest and the extreamest judgement that God can bring on any man in this life to give him so far over to himself to neglect his order the direction he is pleased to give him and to walk according to his own counsel who when he permits men as he did the Gentiles Act. 10.16 to wallow in their own ways the ways which of themselves they choose and follow This is a formidable thing indeed And therefore he is wont to execute this in the close of all as the heaviest of his judgements as having nothing left but this to shew the fierceness of his wrath and fury on a person or a people When he hath proved and tryed men every way and nothing will prevail with them this is the last the parting blow he gives them over to themselves and so he leaves them And this is certainly the worst that the Almighty God can do to them Secondly If you will not be ordered by the Lord in one way you shall be ordered by him in another If you will not be ordered by the precept you shall be ordered by the threatning If you will not do his will his will shall certainly be done upon you If you submit not here to his commanding will you shall be forced to submit to his condemning will hereafter Here you say you will not hear you will not do the Lord commands you this and that but you resist and stand it out and you will not be obedient But tell me Brethren are you able to out-stand the curse and vengeance of the Lord in the last and dreadful day when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels And when the Lord shall order you to go to Hell and say Depart you cursed into everlasting fire will you be able to resist and to disobey that order Will you be able to controle him and hinder him from executing the sentence of the Law upon you No no you break the bonds and cords of God here but then the Lord will bind you fast enough in everlasting chains of darkness break and rent them if you can The haughtiness of men shall be brought low and God alone shall be exalted in that day And therefore I beseech you my Beloved eye the Lord in all your ways and see what work it is that he giveth you to do Be sure he give it you before you do it And this indeed is to be men after Gods own heart when you do Gods will I have found David saith the Lord Psal 89.20 called Act. 13.22 A man after my own heart who will do all my wills And if you thus do God will own you in the latter day and liberally reward you too After you have done the will of God you shall receive the promise that is the happiness and mercy promised Heb. 10.36 In doing of your own will or the wills of other men perhaps you may attain some transitory riches pleasures honors poor fleeting things which in the end will perish with you But if you do the will of God this will perpetuate and Eternize you and make you to endure for evermore 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever JOHN 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do AND thus far of the first Particular considered in the words what it was that Christ did the work which God had given him to do The Second follows now in order to be handled viz. The manner how he did it he did it absolutely and compleatly I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have made an end of it Now a work is ended then when it is so dispatched that there is no remainder of it to be done When there is nothing left of it imperfect and unfinished So that there can be nothing added to it any way to make it more accomplished and compleat And this is that which Jesus Christ affirmeth of himself in relation to the work that was committed to him of his Father saith he I have gone through with it I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or I have brought it to a full end But had he so compleated it and ended it indeed when he put up this supplication to his Father Was there no remainder of it to be done Why the great work of all was yet behind the offering of himself upon the Cross as an oblation and Sacrifice to God the Father He had not yet laid down his life for his people Yet this he was designed to do his Father had appointed him to tread the Wine-press of his wrath and to become an offering for sin In which respect the holy Ghost affirmeth of him that it behoved Christ to suffer There was a necesse in it because it was the Fathers pleasure that it should be so it was the work that he had given him to do and how then saith our Saviour here before his passion and before his suffering I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do To this Interpreters give various answers according to their various apprehensions of our Saviours meaning in the words Some think he speaks by way of prophesie and so makes mention of that which was indeed to come as if it had been past
to demonstration Reason the clearest and most evident that can be viz. because there is such entertainment due to it as nothing else can draw us to but this perswasion that it is the Word of God If we conceive it to be nothing but the word of man this apprehension will never raise the heart to such an estimation of it to such an acceptation of it as belongs to it This will never draw the heart to give it greater credence or greater reverence or obedience then appertaineth to the word of man Now this is infinitely short of that which appertaineth to the Word of God And therefore that we may come up to that that we may give the Word such entertainment as it ought to have we must know for certain that it is the Word of God and this I shall exemplifie in many particulars 1. Ye must know for certain that it is the Word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of reverence The Word of God must be received with holy fear This carriage of the heart is due to that which hath so great and so divine an Author as God is we ought to tremble at the Word of God Isa 66.5 To hearken to it not with an ordinary measure but with a very high degree of fear with such a fear as worketh trembling So did the Prophet Habakkuk as you may see Hab. 3.16 When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce rottenness was in my bones and I trembled in my self And so the holy Prophet David as he professeth of himself Psal 119.10 My heart trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements that is of thy word as some understand it I fear and tremble at thy word for that hath frequently the name of the Judgements of God as you may see that place for instance Psal 19.8 Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid it is the Prophets question Amos 3.6 By the City understand the Church of God by the Trumpet the word of God and by the people the hearers of this word So that it is as if the Prophet should have said Shall the word of God be pronounced and the hearers not fear as who should say that were a strange and an incongruous thing indeed So that you see they that will give the word such entertainment as it ought to have must hear it and receive it with extraordinary fear and reverence Now this they will never do unless they know for certain that it is the Word of God If they be doubtful whether it be so or if they look upon it as the word of man they will be apt to disregard it and to give it no respect at all Nothing but this perswasion that it is the Word of the Almighty and the glorious God himself will raise the heart to such an high degree of fear and reverence as belongs to it No other apprehension of it will prevail to this effect but this alone will surely do it as the Apostle Paul insinuates 1 Cor. 14.24 If there come in an unbeleiver or unlearned person he is convinced he is judged the secrets of his heart are manifested by the word saith the Apostle there And what follows So falling down upon his face he will worship God and say that God is in you of a truth when he perceives that God is in you that you speak from God that that which you deliver is the word of God then he will fear and tremble and fall down and worship God 2. We must know for certain that it is word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of credit and belief For you must know my Brethren that we owe this special and peculiar honor to the word of God beyond the word of any man to give compleat and absolute assent and credit to it Though it be never so unlikely never so much against appearance and above reason yet when the Lord hath spoken it when we have his word for it we ought to make no doubt or question of it Those truths which own him for the Author of them do not admit of any doubtful disquisition but rather call for absolute belief The very thoughts and cogitations must be captivated to faith when it appears that God hath spoken And therefore it is charged home on Israel as a very great offence that they believed not his word Psal 106.24 And on the other side it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his Message sent them by the Prophet Jonah Jonah 3.5 And yet it was a most unlikely one VVhat probability that forty days should put a period to all the happiness and lustre of such a flourishing and famous City However they believed it because it was the word of God You see then what our duty is in this respect to hear the word with absolute belief this is the entertainment which we ought to give it Now this it will not find amongst us unless we be perswaded that it is the word of God the word of man can never challenge this from us for men are lyars as the Prophet David speaks they are deceitful on the ballance Though they give us good words yet when we come to prove them and to try them many times they prove too light Those that we think are best to be believed among them may deceive us so that there is no reason in the world why we should take what they deliver upon trust because they deliver it And therefore we are bid to sift the doctrines and to try the spirits because there be that say The Lord hath said when the Lord hath not spoken But when the word appears to be of God this apprehension and perswasion is enough to silence all objections that in appearance may be made against it This alone will raise the heart to entertain it with that absolute belief wherewith it ought to be received while we remember that the God who is the Author of it is the God of Truth yea he is the Truth it self His saying always is a faithful saying 1 Tim. 1.15 because it is the saying of the faithful God and therefore worthy of all acceptation 3. We must know for certain that it is the word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of humble resignation and submission to it For this belongeth to the word of God that we quarrel not against it but that we justifie it and submit to it So it is said of Johns hearers Luk. 7.29 30. All the people that heard him justified God yea the very Publicans the worst among them as it is noted there in that place So holy David I esteem all thy Commandements concerning all things to be right Psal 119.128 yea he will have him always to
for us saith the Apostle Heb. 9.24 Not for all without exception but for us whom he hath taken into his special and peculiar love and care who are comparatively but a small number So that the point is plain you see Christ is an Intercessor to his Father c. Reason And the reason is apparent because he is a Priest for none but them only and Intercession is a part of his Priesthood There are two branches as you may know my Brethren of the Priesthood of our Saviour Sacrifice and Intercession and they are both of them for his people He offers Sacrifice for none but them and so accordingly he intercedes for none but them neither for both the branches of his Priesthood of necessity must go together He is a Mediator for and only for his own people he makes peace for none but them And even as he is not a Mediator of redemption for the world so he is not a Mediator of Intercession for it neither Indeed my Brethren all that he is or doth as he is Man and Mediator is for his people Why was the Son of God incarnate but for them why did he take our Nature on him but for them why was he made a Mediator but for them He is a King to rule them a Prophet to instruct them a Priest to sacrifice and intercede for them He had never been a King as he is a Man he had never been a Prophet he had never been a Priest but for the sake of his people And hence it follows very clearly that whatsoever he doth in the administrations of these Offices of his he doth it next to his own glory for his Churches good He carries it throughout in reference to them and so accordingly the Execution of his Priestly Office in both the parts and branches of it is for them He is an Intercessor to his Father for none but for c. Is Christ an Intercessor c. this may serve to satisfie us in the point Vse 1 which some have vented in these latter times that Christ is the Redeemer of the whole world and that he dyed for all men universally without restraint or limitation What think you my Beloved is it a likely thing that Christ should dye for those for whom he will not pray That he should offer up himself a Sacrifice for those for whom he will not intercede That he should spend his blood for those for whom he will not spend his breath That he should give his life for those for whom he will not give his word will he do that which is abundantly the greater for them and then refuse to do the less You see he saith expresly in my Text I pray not for the world And might he not have said as well I dye not for the world and if our Saviours intercession now in heaven be not vocal as it is usually resolved but a real presentation of the merits of his death and the vertue of his passion to his Father That as the blood of Martyrs cries for vengeance to be executed upon those that shed it so on the other side the blood of Jesus Christ the Mediator cries for mercy to be shewed to them for whom he shed it It claims it out of right and justice in the behalf of those for whom he dyed Why then it follows that if he dyed for all he cannot choose but intercede for all too Or if he should be silent his blood would cry for mercy for them to whom it was intended and designed and consequently if he pray not for the world he dyed not for the world neither Is Christ an Intercessor c. Here then you see the sad condition of Vse 2 those who are without the pale that are not only in the world but of the world Christ never intercedes for them let their cause be what it will let their necessity be what it will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to his Father There you may cry and howl your selves when you are in any straight you may stand beging for your selves and all in vain for Jesus Christ will not speak a word for you nor any such as you are Beloved I beseech you think upon it there come in heavy things against you every day at the bar of Gods Justice Sin cryes and the Law cryes all the Commandements which you break continually come in with open mouth against you and importune Gods Justice for wrath and vengeance to be executed on you They cry How long Lord and sin cryes How long Lord and Christ who is the only Mediator to avert wrath and make peace he sitteth still and saith nothing Oh my Beloved what should hinder now but that the black decree for execution should go forth against you when there is none to interpose and stand between you and the wrath of God! when these complaints and cryes of all the sins that you have done of all the Oathes that you have sworn of all the lyes that you have made c. come in against you in the Court of heaven and the Father puts the question to the Son the only advocate in that Court What have you any thing to say for this man why judgement should not pass against him will you undertake for him and Christ shall answer no I have not a word to say for him I intercede not for the world Let Justice have its course against him let it be executed on him to the utmost I pray for my own people and I desire they may be spared as in right they ought to be for I have satisfied for them But for the rest I even leave them to the vengeance and the wrath they have deserved I will not hinder it or stop it in the least degree Let Justice pay them home in full weight and full measure Look how much they have sinned and how much wickedness they have committed so much torment and so much sorrow let it give them Oh what a flood of horrour and confusion think you will be poured out upon you when once the day of vengeance and of visitation comes when God comes forth against you as an Enemy with nothing else but war and death and blood and mine and destruction in his looks and there is none to pacifie and appease him none to speak a word for you but Christ the only Mediator leaves you to the utmost of his fury Oh consider this c. Vse 3 Is Christ an Intercessor to his Father for none c. here then you may behold the matchless happiness of those who belong to Jesus Christ In this respect they have a priviledge above the world that they have him to intercede for them to be their Advocate and to present their Supplications and requests to God Brethren I know not how you value it or what account you make of it but I assure you it is a rich Prerogative that you have such an Intercessor with the
keep them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of their afflictions but more then so he doth them much good by them that they may say as David doth when all is ended It is good for me that I have been afflicted I give you but a taste of this and I have done with Explication 1. Sometimes he awakens them by their afflictions they are sleepy and secure and God jogges and startles them and rouzes them by this means When men are bound in fetters saith Elihu and held fast in the cords of their afflictions so that they are not able to unlooose themselves and get away what then why then he sheweth them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded in q.d. At such a time his manner is to represent their sins to them with all their circumstantial aggravations See an example of it in the Lords own people Gen. 42.21 when Josephs Brethren saw themselves taken for spies in Egypt and so in present danger of their lives the sin they had committed many years ago came as fresh into their minds and lay as heavy on their Consciences as if it had been newly done I know that troubles and distresses and the approach of death it self hath not always this effect on all men the Lord hath poured on some the spirit of slumber but usually they have on Gods people 2. Sometimes God abates their pride by their afflictions There is not any sin that makes a man more odious to the Lord then pride doth or is a greater bar to his salvation All that are proud in heart are an abomination to him Prov. 16.5 neither is there are any man but hath some reliques of this leaven in him which puffeth up his heart and makes him swell beyond measure Yea the choicest of the Saints have mighty inclinations to it especially if all things go on their side As it is said of Hezekiah when he was put into a prosperous estate his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 and therefore God exposes them to sharp afflictions that he may hide the pride of man as the expression is Joh 33.17 that he may lessen and abate and wear it out till it be not to be seen 3. Sometimes God draws his people nearer to himself by their afflictions In their affliction they will seek me early saith the Lord of his people Hos 5.15 It seems they had been wofully regardless of the Lord in former times of happiness and peace and comfort but saith the Lord In their affliction they will hasten to me they will be eager after me and never rest till they have found me And this you shall observe to be the disposition of the sons men yea of the best and holyest of them they look not after God so much at any time as when they are in greatest exigencies and distresses And as the sails though they be some addition to the burthen of the ship yet they help it on the faster to the Haven So crosses and afflictions though they be a burthen to us yet they hasten us to God and draw us on the faster to the port of happiness And therefore God relating divers judgements which he was resolved to bring upon his own people by which he meant to strip them naked of all outward comforts at length concludes that this should be the issue of it Isa 17.7 At that day shall they look unto their Maker and their eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel It is a miserable thing yet so it is as long as we have any thing on earth to rest upon we enquire not after God With Noahs Dove if we can find a twig to pitch upon we are regardless of the Ark and therefore God by heavy crosses and afflictions strips us of these outward helps and strikes away the earthly things by which we stand and when we know not what to do when we are driven out of all our holes then our eyes are upon God when we look on every hand and refuge fails us every way and no man careth for our souls then we address our selves to God and say to him Thou art our refuge Psal 142.4 It seems that David though he were a holy man was very apt while he was furnished with these outward favors to rely too much upon them so far as to neglect the Lord. But when the Lord by crosses and afflictions took them from him or made him see the vanity and insufficiency of them then he cryed out And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee now I have tryed how fickle and how vain the creature is now I perceive by sensible experience that no help is in it Now Lord what wait I for c. And thus I think I have sufficiently cleared the point God can and will preserve c. To add a word or two for Application Vse This serves to let us see the admirable and transcendent happiness of all that have an interest in Jesus Christ in this respect that they are safe from all evil God will withhold no good from them as the Prophet David speaks and then upon the other side he will keep all evil from them as you have it in my Text. Beloved we are here in an uncomfortable place a wicked world in which we are exposed as considered in our selves to all evil We are exempt from no temptation No not the blackest and the bloodlest to the very worst of sins We are secure from no affliction no not the sharpest and the most extream If there be any worse then other which we conceive would be most bitter and intolerable to us it is going in the world and it may seise on us as well as others Yea we are always bearing with us in our bosoms that which is infinitely worse then both the other viz. the evil of corruption so that we seem to be in a very sad condition But yet this comfort waits upon us still the Lord will surely keep us absolutely free from the evil of them all The worst of them may do us good but it shall never do us hurt as long as there is any vertue in our Saviours Intercession as long as he hath any interest in God the Father And therefore when we look upon the world and see it marching out against us with bloody persecutions and afflictions when we look upon the Devil and see him ready to assault us with his fiery darts and fierce tentations when we look inward to our own hearts and see such swarms of hellish lusts and base corruptions there and are ready to cry out in the anguish of our souls Oh miserable men that we are who shall deliver us let us look up to Jesus Christ and think upon his powerful Intercession with the Father that he hath prayed him to preserve and keep us from all the evil in the world and so let us be quiet and secure Let us say as David once Though I walk in