overcome when thou art judged or dost judge God forceth the Jews to acknowledge this when he puts the question to them Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever But my words and my Statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers They returned and said Like as the Lord of Hoasts thought to doe unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us Zech. 1.5 6. 4. The Justice of God as well as the Veracity of God engageth God to inflict Anguish on men for Sin His eyes are upon all the ways of the sons of men to give to them according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings Jer. 32.19 He is the Judge of all the World and therefore must needs doe right as Abraham pleaded Gen. 18.25 That be far from thee that the Righteous should be as the Wicked So in like manner we may say That be far from God that the Wicked should be as the Righteous Yea God complains Mal. 2.17 thus You have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say Wherein have we wearied him When ye say Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or Where is the God of Judgment And again Mal. 3.13 Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee He tells them vers 15. Ye call the proud happy yea they that work Wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered See how God counts himself blasphemed when he is charged to favour Evil men by not executing Justice on them Justitia est perpetua constans voluntas suum cuique tribuendi saith Justinian in the beginning of his Institutions Justice is a perpetual and constant will of giving to every one his own And sure as Praise is due to them that doe well so Vengeance to him that doeth evil As Powers be ordained of God in his Ministers to reward well-doing with praise and to be revengers for wrath upon him that doeth evil Rom. 13.4 so God whose Deputies they are and bear his name will render to every man according to his works 5. It is from the Power of God that such Anguish befalls men for Sin as I have asserted He is great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked saith the Prophet Nahum 1.3 Moses therefore having bewailed the great Devastation of mankind by God's Anger that carries them away as with a Floud breaks out into these words Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thy Anger even according to thy fear so is thy Wrath. Whereby he plainly intimates that the Power of God makes God's rebukes for Sin extreme and intolerable 1. Because they reach to all parts of a man He can punish Soul and Body yea and cast both into Hell-fire Matth. 10.28 2. He can make all or any of the Creatures his Instruments of Punishment he can arm the least Worm for Vengeance yea and that which makes it most unsupportable he can make a man 's own Spirit his Sword to wound him and this is of all the sorest it being true which Solomon saith Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear 3. There is no way to escape from it or to avoid the Affliction he will bring on a person there being neither hiding-place where he cannot find a man nor remote place whither his hand cannot reach nor any auxiliary power to match or withstand him nor any Remedy but by him Qui vulnera fecit Solus Achilléo tollere more potest Which brings in the Second Observation II. PROPOSITION That Beds and Couches and other bodily Refections little avail to ease a Conscience or a Person that is oppressed with the weight of God's Stroke for Sin This Job found 7.13 14 15. When I say My Bed shall comfort me my Couch shall ease my Complaint Then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions So that my Soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life And the like we may say of any other Creature-help All the Artists Oratours Divines Angels and whatever there is in the Universe to cure or alleviate an afflicted Spirit are no more able to redress its Malady without God then the old World was to stay the universal Deluge or Sodom to prevent its Burning with fire and brimstone from heaven It is God's Prerogative to kill and to make alive to bring down to the Grave and to bring up to raise the Fiend of an awakened Conscience and to lay it again He that made the Spirit can by the Spirit and his Son's Bloud quiet and purge the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and he alone APPLICATION To apply this then to your use 1. It should deterre you from sinning against God Though Sin may smile upon you before you commit it it will bite you when you have acted it It may sing you a fair pleasant Song like a Siren but it will destroy you if it entice you thereby S. James tells you the true brood of Sin 1.14 15. Every man is tempted c. Though the Pleasures of Sin be delightfull yet they are poisonous Quisquámne Venenum vult in Auro Will any man venture to drink Poison in a golden Cup You that are given to drink excessively consider while the Cup is at your mouth that there will be a Cup of Wrath given you to drink the Venome whereof will set your Bones on fire and drink up your Spirits You that are given to unclean and unlawfull Lusts of the body if you be not afraid of the Morbus Gallicus yet fear the Wrath of him who will judge such persons and burn you with a more unquenchable Fire then that which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah You that so love the Mammon of Iniquity that you serve it that regard not how you get Wealth per fas per nefas by right or wrong Rem Rem quocunque modo Rem Money any way though by Sacriledge publick Robbery Grinding the face of the Poor by Bribery Extortion Perjury Over-reaching in bargaining Defrauding Theft or any other way think of Zechariah's flying Roll the Curse Zech. 5.4 which God will bring forth and it shall enter into the house of the Thief and into the house of him that Sweareth falsely by his Name and it shall remain in his house to cut off or torture the Inhabitant and to consume the Materials of the house You that are profane Scoffers that deride the Word and Service of God or close Hypocrites that counterfeit Godliness know that God will not be mocked and cannot be resisted Let me say to you or any other Sinner who goes on in any sinfull way insensible of the Sting which is in the Tail the Terrours of Conscience and Wrath of God these will
stand not your own Good works or your own Merits As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the Faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with Thanksgiving as the Apostle exhorteth Colos 2.6 7. Still pray that God would keep your Feet from falling and order your Steps in his Word that no Iniquity get dominion over you And then you may with assurance say I shall not die but live and declare the Works of the Lord and you shall obtain David's desire to walk before God in the light of the living But sure we walk contrary to God in the Darkness of this World else why is it that God hath called to contend against us by Fire It was not long agoe that we rejoyced because we had prevailed upon the Waters and now the Scene is altered and we mourn because the Fire hath prevailed upon our houses at Land Sure we rejoyced not with trembling we were sensible of God's Hand on others but not sensible we deserved his Indignation on our selves God warned us by Signs in the Heavens but we amended not he sent the Pestilence but we reformed not we were embroiled in War but nothing bettered Preachers cried out against our Sins but we cried not to God for Pardon the Lord's voice cried to the City but we were not men of wisedom to see his Name Our Sins cried to Heaven for Vengeance and the Lord's Vengeance hath from Heaven fallen upon us We observed days of Fasting formally but did not really repent in Dust and Ashes and now God hath really reduced our Great City unto Dust and turned it into Ashes Hath not God by his Judgment resembling that of Sodom pointed out the Sins which procured this Judgment Pride Fulness of bread abundance of Idleness not strengthening the hands of the poor and needy Wantonness and Unrighteousness Were not the Souls of many as Lot's in Sodom vexed from day to day in hearing and seeing mens unrighteous deeds and wicked conversation perhaps having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it But are we better then they Are we not all under Sin liable to the same Condemnation We may we ought to bemoan the Calamity which is come on others The lifting up of God's Hand should affright us the Blow of his Hand on our Brethren should afflict us We out of Sympathy with them out of Dread of God's Anger should bewail the Burning which the Lord hath kindled Jeremiah's Lamentations are sutable to this Occasion We may take up those Wailings Alas Alas our great Neighbour City is burnt in a short time is her Judgment come But that which most befits us which is most likely to benefit us and them is to be affected with God's Visitation to look upon this as a Forerunner of a greater Fire magnum futuri Judicii Praeindicium an Example of the Vengeance of eternal Fire Let us be awakened by it out of our Security as considering that we have the like Sins and may expect the like Punishment that God's Burning there is our Warning here that however it were in respect of men yet in respect of God it is as a Beacon fired to alarm us that we may prepare to meet our God by Fasting and Prayer and Amendment of life lest if we repent not we likewise perish It becomes us not to be Censurers of others but to judge our selves that we be not judged we must not insult over them but pity them If we have our Houses spared it is that we may receive them that are destitute if our Goods be preserved it is that their Wants may be supplied In a word we should take heed of Edom's Sin who rejoyced in the day of Jerusalem's Calamity take heed of promising to our selves increase of Trade or other worldly Advantages most of all take heed of Flattering our selves as if we were better more safe more in God's Favour then they Let us rather fear God's Judgments tremble at his Word search our own ways turn unto the Lord with our whole Souls pray for them that have suffered help them what we can that their Breach may be repaired our Tranquillity may be lengthened and our Souls delivered from the Wrath to come Which the Lord vouchsafe for his Son's sake Amen LAVS DEO DAVID's PIOUS RESOLUTION Part II. The Sixteenth SERMON PSAL. lvi 13. That I may walk before God in the light of the living AS God is the Alpha the Beginning of all things so he is the Omega or End of all things as he is the Father of Lights from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh so should he be the Scope of our Lives as he was here of David's according to the last Particular observed in this Text of Scripture viz. III. The Aim and End of David in his Commemoration and Postulation That I may walk before thee in the light of the living To this End he both commemorates what God had already done for him in delivering his Soul from Death and petitions with expectation of speeding that he would yet doe more for him in keeping his Feet from falling He doth not desire this Stability of his Feet that he might sit still or sluggishly keep his Bed or lie on his Couch but that he might walk Walking naturally is a progressive motion of the Body from one place to another performed by the Feet with the help and direction of the Eyes for the acquiring or effecting something And it connotes a Way in which a person is to walls and a Terminus ad quem to which it tends By this Metaphor of Walking the Scripture understands the Motions of the Mind and Actings of the Members as they are subject to a Rule which is the Way in which a person walks If it be right it is God's Law if it be wrong it is the Devices of mens own Minds the way of a man 's own Heart or the Course of the World or the Wiles of Satan which are mentioned as the crooked ways men walk in Eph. 2.2 3. All these are ways of Darkness wherein men depart from God and walk after Satan But David's Aim is to walk before God in the light of the living Walking before God here denotes not onely a doing or thinking so as that the Action or Thought would still be in God's presence as if David meant no more then this that God would see him or his Walk would be in his sight whether he would or no But it means also such a Walking before God as to eye his presence what-ever he should doe or think with an aim to please him And therefore walking before God is rendred often pleasing God as when it is said Gen. 5.24 Enoch walked with God in the Greek it is Enoch pleased God which the Authour to the Hebrews follows Heb. 11.5 Enoch before his Translation had this Testimony that he pleased God And so it notes not onely his apprehension of God's
experience Psal 119.97 98 99 100. O how love I thy Law it is my Meditation all the day Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then mine Enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding then all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation I understand more then the Ancients because I keep thy Precepts And S. Paul tells Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 that the Holy Scriptures were able to make him wise unto Salvation The greatest Wisedom is that which guides a man to the greatest Happiness and that is when he avoids the greatest Evill and attains the enjoyment of the best Good No Evil is greater then God's Wrath no Good better then God's Favour Now to the escaping the former and obtaining the latter the Meditation on God's Precepts conduceth most effectually For thereby we avoid Sin against God which incites him to Anger and thereby we learn how to please him which procures his Favour And therefore it is most evident to be the wisest course we can take and whereby we can shew most Love to our selves to Reade to Hear to Study and lay to heart God's Word And herein likewise we shew the greatest Charity to others by seriously endeavouring to make them intelligent therein it tending most to their Good if with Meditation there concurre also a Respect to God's Ways Which leads us to the other part of this Verse and the Conclusions thence deduced III. and IV. OBSERVATIONS That in his Practice a Godly man heeds God's Direction and That God's Works are his Observation The word which is rendred I will have respect or I will look imports the fixing and intentiveness of the Eye upon God's Ways such as is in a Traveller when he walks or a Sailour when he sails in the Deep whom it concerns that they have their eyes waking and their minds observant the one of the Path he treads in the other of the Chanel he steers his Ship in lest the first either miss his way or stumble and fall or the second run aground on Quick-sands or split upon Rocks and Shelves and so miscarry The Commandment saith Solomon Prov. 6.23 is a Lamp and the Law is Light and Reproofs of Instruction are the way of life And therefore as the Eye makes use of the Lamp and Light for its Direction so doth the Soul of a Godly man observe the Way of God's Precepts for his Rule and the Ways of God's Acting to encourage him in his Course and to deterre him from wandering therefrom Nor are the Ways of God's Providence either towards our selves or others to be let pass without heedfull Observation For thereby we are accommodated with usefull Arguments to give God the Glory of his Truth Justice Goodness and Power We have Experiments fitted either to deterre us from Sinning against him who is a consuming Fire or to encourage us to serve him with holy Reverence and godly Fear or to strengthen our Faith in a firm Dependence on him and a Reliance on the Lord in our greatest Difficulties Thus Phineas argues Josh 22.17 20. Is the Iniquity of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed to this day Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a Trespass in the accursed thing and Wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished not alone in his Iniquity That he might by this Argument deterre the Trans-Jordan Israelites from a Schismaticall departure from the God of Israel and a Communion in Worship with the other Tribes on this side Jordan Thus David in the great Trial of his Faith and undaunted Fortitude which he shewed in his heroick Encounter with the Giant of Gath recollects his own Experience of Divine Assistence formerly and fortifies himself against the fear of that Monster by assurance of the like now He alleges God's former Providences as the reason of his gallant Resolution to encounter Goliah without any hesitancy now telling Saul 1 Sam. 17.36 Thy Servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seeing he hath defied the Armies of the living God As God hath given us his Word that thereby we may understand his Will so doth he exercise his Judgments that we may discern his Excellency As the Word of God his Precepts and Promises are to be remembred that we may believe and obey and therefore it is the Character of a Righteous person that the Law of his God is in his Heart and none of his Steps therefore shall slide Psal 37.31 so it is said Psal 111.2 3 4. The Works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein God having made his Work honourable and glorious that his wonderfull Works might be remembred And therefore a Woe is denounced by the Prophet Isa 5.11 12. against those Epicurean Sensualists that spent their time in voluptuous Drinking and pleasant Musick but regarded not the Work of the Lord neither considered the Operation of his hands To which answers that true Censure of the Prophet Jeremiah 5.4 Surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the Way of the Lord nor the Judgment of their God In having respect to both kinds of his Ways we glorify him in neglecting either we vilify him and live as it were without God in the World APPLICATION Hereby we may discern whether we have the same Spirit with David and other Holy persons in their generation who have always had their Eyes fixed on God in their Pilgrimage on earth and their Minds intent on what God saith and doeth as the principall Object whereon to imploy their Meditations and Exercitations When we reade of Enoch Noah Abraham and other Holy persons that they walked with God we may thereby collect that they moved in a higher Sphere then this lower World and though their Bodies were carried up and down on the Superficies of the Earth yet their Hearts and Spirits were with God him they set before them and kept close to him And so David professeth of himself Psal 18.21 22 23. I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God For all his Judgments were before me and I did not put away his Statutes from me I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity And S. Paul Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Surely they that seriously mind being with God hereafter must make it their business to get acquaintance with him here they that look for their Portion in Heaven must have their Conversation in Heaven while they are upon Earth As it is the description of a wicked man that God is not in all his Thoughts that God's Judgments are far above out of his sight that he casts God's Word behind his back that he hides his face from God So on the other side nothing is a more reall demonstration of a Holy person
that I desire besides thee My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my Trust in the Lord God Such Apprehensions as these do affect the Spirits of a man as the breaking out of the Sun doth the Eyes after it hath been overcast with thick Clouds in the day or concealed by the Darkness of the night Then the Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun So it is with the Soul after such Perplexities and Affrightments and Disconsolations of Spirit as are incident to the most holy Saint by reason of the seeming Disorders and dismall Occurrences in the world which are obvious to him When he recollects himself and determines against all Arguings ad oppositum that the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of hoasts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Psal 84.11 12. then he delights himself in the Lord as the most pleasant and eligible Good thing as his Sun and his Shield and accordingly fixes his Contemplations on God quickens chears confirms raises up his Spirits in the remembrance of him expresses himself in holy Hymns in devout Prayers in wise Observations of his Doings in commemorating of his Works and his Word in holy Conferences and such like ways as shew that none is so amiable to him as God none to be adhered to in comparison of him none to be glorified like unto God Conformably hereto he delights in the Consideration of God's most excellent Being that he is not like the Vanities of the Nations that he is the living God and an everlasting King that in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength that there is none holy as the Lord no Rock like unto our God that great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is infinite that he is mercifull and gracious abundant in Goodness and Truth He delights also in the beholding and observation of his Works which however they are not minded by them who are alienated from the Life that is in God yet to the Godly enlightned Soul they appear Great so that in Admiration of them he is affected like the Psalmist Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Psal 104.24 In wisedom hast thou made them all and rulest all He is holy in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works and therefore are they sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His Work is honourable and glorious and his Righteousness endureth for ever And hereupon the Psalmist resolves Psal 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Nor is his Delight less in God's Word then in his Works I will praise thy Name saith David Psal 138.2 for thy Loving-kindness and for thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name And thus he often professeth that the Word of God his Judgments were more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold sweeter then Hony and the Hony-comb that not onely his Word of Promise was his Comfort in his Affliction for by it he was quickened but that he greatly delighted in God's Commands they were the Joy of his heart And Holy Job 23.12 I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary Food But Holy mens greatest Delight in God is when by Faith in Christ they apprehend God to be their God and they his People that he dwells in them they are his Temple that they are made by him Kings and Priests to him by his Spirit that he is their Father through Christ they his Children that they have access to him by the Faith of Christ and are assured of an Inheritance above with him When they understand this that Christ is All to them they delight in the Almighty and lift up their face unto God with Joy as it is Job 22.26 Now this indeed is best for the Godly thus to delight themselves in the Lord even in their own lowest Conditions and their Oppressours highest because the greatest Good that Evil men have is but vain Be it Plenty Peace Honour Liberty Power Pleasure or what-ever else is valued by men that have their Portion in this life it is but an imperfect fading vexing Good much of it is such as Beasts injoy more fully then they who have more Delight in their Food and sensitive Pleasure then Men have Applause Honours Wealth are but Toys such as Childish persons delight in rather then wise Men. Philosophers by the Light of Nature have censured them as empty of reall Worth not good because they made not the Possessours of them good Wisedom and Vertue are by them preferred before them Yea they bring often much Vexation in stead of Delight In acquiring and Using them is much Vanity In the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull Solomon styles it Madness But Delight in the Lord is the most rationall exquisite durable Delight far above not onely Epicurus his Pleasure and Zeno's Vertue and Seneca's Tranquillity of mind but also Solomon's Glory his Wisedom his Knowledge of the Properties of Natural bodies and what-ever Excellency short of Acquaintance with God he was endued with He confesseth as much in the close of his Penitentialls and before him his Father David Psal 4.6 7. There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased This makes the Saints delight in Prayer and Praise and other Worship of God it being their Privilege as well as their Duty to delight themselves in the Lord Isa 58.14 and according to the Desire of their Heart Which brings me to the II. OBSERVATION That they who delight themselves in the Lord shall have their Hearts Desire and in fine speed better then they who are in the most illustrious estate of Wicked men The principal Desire of one that delights himself in God is to glorifie God that is the main End of such as glory in God that they may doe all to his Glory Therefore are they taught to make this their first Petition Hallowed be thy Name and to that end to pray Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in God's most severe Dealings with them they say with those Isa 26.8 Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee To which that of the Apostle Phil. 1.20 is consonant According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always
to the living God though they were in jeopardy of being stoned by them This is indeed the constant disposition of all upright-hearted men that they had rather suffer any Indignities Injuries Dammages Calamities themselves then have God's Glory and Honour be eclipsed they are willing that any Crime Shame Falshood should be imputed to them rather then the least Ignominy or Disgrace cast on God that their Names should become odious then God's have the least blemish And the Reasons are 1. Because they esteem themselves as nothing in comparison of God and therefore count it a small matter what Evil befalls them so that God be magnified When Abraham bespeaks God he useth this self-debasing preface Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes And Jacob Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of or as it is in the Hebrew I am less then the least of all the Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant And Job 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Chap. 42.5 6. Now mine eye seeth thee I abhor my self And David 1 Chron. 17.16 Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 1 Chron. 29.14 15. Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For we are strangers before thee and sojourners as were all our Fathers our days on the earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding On the other side they ascribe all Greatness unto God Moses in his Song Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders Deut. 32.3 4. Because I will publish the Name of the Lord ascribe ye Greatness to our God He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment a God of Truth and without Iniquity Just and Right is He. Psal 145.1 2 3. saith David I will extoll thee my God and my King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable The four living Creatures rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come They give glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the Throne who liveth for ever And the four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sate on the Throne who liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. Many more such expressions there are in the Songs of Hannah the blessed Virgin the 14000 Virgins and other Hymns of the Saints in the Old and New Testament which do fully shew that this is the constant disposition of all Holy hearts to nullify all their Excellency when it is compared with God and to extoll the Name of God as infinitely exceeding all created Beings and therefore they conceive it most equall that they should count the Disparagement of God as a more heavy Affliction then their own Sufferings 2. They know that God's Name is most tenderly regarded by him Num. 14.21 the Lord said Truly as I live all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord. Deut. 32.26 27. I said I would scatter them into corners I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men Were it not that I feared the wrath of the Enemy lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another neither my Praise to graven Images Isa 48.11 For mine own sake even for mine own sake will I doe it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another Ezek. 20.9 But I wrought for my Name 's sake that it should not be polluted before the Heathen among whom they were in whose sight I made my self known unto them In the Third Commandment Exod. 20.7 God chargeth Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And therefore the Godly are sensible of his Glory above their own Peace and more affected with any dirt cast on God's face then any wound given to their own persons 3. They know it is the Duty of all created Beings to prefer their Maker their Father their King and Lord before themselves They know they are engaged to fear this glorious and fearfull Name The Lord their God Deut. 28.58 as the Father that begat them the Rock that formed them Deut. 32.6 15 18. When S. John would have worshipped the Angel he forbade him See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this Book worship God Rev. 22.9 As David's people counted their King as all good Subjects do worth ten thousand of themselves 2 Sam. 18.3 and all honest Servants count their Master's Wel-fare and Credit far before their own yea his Life before their own so do all Holy persons God's Glory as being their Master their Father their King Croesus his Son that never spake before opened then his mouth and said Kill not King Croesus when a Souldier was about to slay him So will every Child of God be moved when his heavenly Father is blasphemed and his Name stricken through though he be silent when himself is abused Christ bids us pray Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name before he directs us to pray Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts The Relation of Creatures Children Subjects and Servants to God oblige every Holy person to mind and seek the sanctifying of God's Name though it be with never so great diminution and detriment to himself 4. And lastly They know that thus doing they shall best provide for themselves When David was little in his own eyes God chose him to be head of his people Israel He knew it to be true which God said to Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed As all Princes of worth will reward their loyal Subjects all good Parents their dutifull Children all wise Masters their obedient Servants so God will doe to all his true-hearted Subjects Children and Servants And this makes them regardless of themselves in comparison of God as knowing that they best provide for themselves when they are careless of their own
therefore is this distress come upon us When Adonibezek was caught and his Thumbs and great Toes cut off he could then remember Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off gathered their meat under my Table as I have done God hath requited me Jos 1.7 The Widow of Sarepta that entertained Elijah the Prophet when her Son was dead expressed her self in a fit of passion to Elijah What have I to doe with thee O thou man of God art thou come unto me to call my Sin to remembrance and to slay my Son 1 King 17.18 Even holy Job though an upright and perfect man one that feared God and eschewed evil yet in the time of his Affliction complains that God did write bitter things against him and made him to possess the Iniquities of his youth Job 13.26 When Manasseh was bound in fetters and carried to Babylon then he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 2 Chron. 33.11 12. When Jerusalem that slighted the many Warnings of the Prophets that were sent to her was taken by Nebuchadnezzar and the people carried captive to Babylon then they could remember that they had grievously sinned and therefore were removed Lament 1.7 8. And indeed this is the very End of God's Afflictions to bring mens Sins into Remembrance In their Prosperity men are secure they mind their Pleasures think not of the Reckoning they are like men that are filled with Wine fast asleep and heed not what is said of them or to them or what is near them or intended to be done to them and so are not moved at all by any Counsells or Warnings given them by God or man When Wisedome calls they refuse to hearken when she stretcheth out her hands no man regards it their Prosperity destroys them Prov. 1.24 32. Yea because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to doe evil Eccles. 8.11 And therefore as men use to doe when a person is thus asleep and the house is on fire or an Enemy is coming they jog and pinch and if need be whip and scourge and beat such a drowzy person to awaken him that he may escape the fire or the sword that he may perceive his folly and his danger so doth God deal with men that sin even the best when they abuse their Prosperity so as to grow secure in Sin or to become dull and sluggish about the work God requires of them he visits them with some Affliction or other which may bring their Sin to mind he hedgeth up their way with thorns and makes a wall that they may not find their paths as it is Hos 2.6 What the Lord often inculcates to us concerning our Children he is not wanting to observe towards his own He tells us that Foolishness is bound in the heart of a Child but the Rod of Correction shall drive it far from him Prov. 22.15 The Rod of Reproof gives wisedom but a Child left to himself bringeth his Mother to shame Prov. 29.15 And therefore he often chargeth Parents to correct their Children Correct thy Son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy soul Ibid. vers 17. Chasten thy Son while there is hope and let not thy Soul spare for his Crying Prov. 19.18 Yea he saith Prov. 13.24 He that spareth his Rod hateth his Son but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes And accordingly the Lord who is wise and knows how to handle his own Children when he doth perceive them careless and heedless of their Duty secure in their Sin sets their Sin before them making it legible by some Correction that they may discern their Fault by their Punishment and being humbled for the one may remove the other As many as I love saith Christ I rebuke and chasten Revel 3.19 Which is no other then what the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews 12.5 6. tells them My Son despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Which is the same that Solomon had said My Son despise not the Chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his Correction For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a Father the Son in whom he delighteth Prov. 3.11 12. And before him Eliphaz in Job 5.17 Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the Chastening of the Almighty The nature of all the Afflictions which God inflicts on any is Castigation or Vindication It was not for any special Sin of the Child or Parents that the man mentioned Joh. 9.2 3. was born blind nor that Job was under so many Calamities as we reade of was it because of any presumptuous Sin that he was chargeable with but that in the one the works of God might be made manifest in him in the other that his Sincerity might be tried that he did not serve God for his outward Prosperity Yet there was Sin in them and one Use of those Visitations was to shew the Evil of Sin All God's punitive Acts are Judgments even his own Children are judged for Sin though when they are judged they are chastened of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 Though the Avengement or vindictive Satisfaction be laid on Christ so as that he bears the Iniquities of his Children yet their own Sufferings are from God's Justice occasioned by their Sins as the impulsive cause though not intended in Satisfaction to his Justice as the final cause Hence it is that some are so blinded that when the Hand of God is lifted up they will not see Isa 26.11 And some when they have been stricken have not grieved when consumed have refused to receive Correction have made their faces harder then a Rock have refused to return have been so foolish as not to know the way of the Lord nor the Judgment of their God Jerem. 5.3 4. Yet so much effect hath natural Conscience had even in Infidels that it hath accused or excused them between themselves that they have judged others as knowing the Judgment of God that they who do commit great enormous Crimes are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 and 2.1 15. Even the barbarous people Act. 28.4 were so acquainted with God's avenging Justice that when they saw a Viper on S. Paul's hand they said among themselves No doubt this man is a Murtherer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet Vengeance suffereth not to live And always those who have acquaintance with God become sensible of his Hand as David Psal 119.120 saith of himself My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments And it moves them to be affected more with their Sin then their Sufferings which is next to be considered 2. That the pious Penitent person is more afflicted
or Despair of a good issue out of his Temptations though he swam in rough waters against the stream yet he kept up his head The knowledge of his Purity the assurance of his Witness in heaven supported him with strength to undergoe all his Sores to refute all his Adversaries to conquer Satan and to recover out of his Fluctuations so as with greater advantage to get safe to Land and to improve his Losses to a greater encrease of Favour and Acceptance with God and temporal Prosperity Saint Paul even when the malignant Jews came about him like Bees and were prepared to sting him to death before their malevolent Council bore himself up with this Protestation that he had lived in all good Conscience before God to that day Act. 23.1 And this made him bold before Felix when he could say in truth Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24.16 When he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come before Felix the Governour and Drusilla his Wife which was a Jewess he was without Fear whereas Felix whose Prisoner he was trembled vers 25. In a word though he had Afflictions as much as any yet in them all he rejoyced in this that he had the Testimony of his Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisedom but by the Grace of God he had his Conversation in the world even at that time of his Trouble in which he was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life 2 Cor. 1.8 12. 3. But there is yet a third Prop of the Spirit of a man besides right Reason Prudence and conscience of Innocency which doth enable it to sustain its Infirmities more steadily then the rest and that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ the chief part of the Divine Panoply or whole Armour of God And indeed Faith is the best Cordial to sustain the Spirit of a man in his Infirmities be they never so great by reason of which the same Apostle could say of himself out of experience 2 Cor. 4.8 9 11. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always delivered to death for Jesus sake yet the spirit of Faith vers 13. so upheld him that though the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city saying that Bonds and Afflictions did abide him yet none of those things did move him Act. 20.23 24. He was so rooted and grounded in Faith that what-ever inward Decays he found what-ever outward Storms beat upon him yet his Spirit stood firm with unmovable Resolution So it was with David at Ziklag when his Fellow-souldiers with himself had their City burnt their Wives Children and Goods carried away captive by the Amalckites he was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his Sons and for his Daughters yet he encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Faith then shewed its virtue it strengthened his Heart when the rest of the people in a womanish Sorrow fell a-weeping and he betook himself to God to inquire what was to be done which was followed with such Success that he recovered all that was lost But what speak I of these Infirmities these Afflictions which are nothing in comparison of what the Holy Martyrs bare through Faith of whom we reade Heb. 11.35 36 37. that though they were tortured yet they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection that when they had triall of cruel Mockings and Scourgings of Bonds and Imprisonments were stoned were sawed asunder were tempted were slain with the sword were destitute afflicted tormented they could take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Heb. 10.34 and so contentedly undergoe their Sufferings as to take their Persecutours for their best Benefactours and make the sweetest Melody in the most scorching Flames Innumerable Arguments Faith presents to the Spirit from God's Presence Appointment Love Power Promises which do invincibly arm a Believer in all Perils in all Assaults in all Oppressions and make him invulnerable Reason enables the Spirit of a man to sustain his Infirmities stoutly a good Conscience comfortably Faith triumphantly APPLICATION And now give me leave to apply this to your use You are often told and if you were not your Eyes and Ears and other Senses might inform you that Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble Which of you unless besotted with vain Dreams or drunken with sinfull Pleasures but hath some foresight of imminent Dangers some foretaste of future Sicknesses and consequent Dissolution Is there any of you of so unshaken a Spirit as that none of the things ye feel or fear do in the least move you Why do you distill Hot waters but to revive you in Faintings why do you get Friends but to help you in Troubles why do you take Physick but to help you in your Infirmities why do you lay up some Money others Counsell but to provide for times of Affliction But doe you any thing to enable your Spirit to sustain you in your Infirmities I deny not but the Providence you use may be commendable but if there be no more then that it will be insufficient Some Infirmities may be remedied by natural Means some may be prevented by moral Prudence but the Decumane waves of Sickness and Death the thoughts of Sin 's Guilt and of Judgment to come require a better Anchour then these to keep you up from being drowned when the Conscience of the one and the Fear of the other beat upon the Vessel of your Spirit These Storms your Soul will not ride out without the Conscience of a Reformed life without the strong Cable of a fast-holding Faith the sure Anchour of a lively Hope in Christ All the Trimming and Tackling besides be it Wealth Friends Beauty Bravery yea though it be a Form of Godliness a strict Profession with some measure of Sufferings for the Truth will not keep you from Sinking without an upright Heart an unfeigned Faith a stable Hope in Jesus Christ What-ever you doe then let these never be wanting in the Closet of your Breasts make not Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience what-ever you lose lose not them yea have them always in a readiness when any thing happens which may oppress you with Fear or sink you with Sorrow Yea forget not to exercise your Faith in God your Hope in Christ continually that when you shall need them you may not onely have them in habit but also in use not onely in the Root but also in the Fruit. Let your Life be a Life of Faith your Breath be a Breathing of Hope in God and then you may be assured though your Body fall to the ground your Spirit will mount upward to God that
his Property of Mercifulness He is very pitifull and of tender Mercy Jam. 5.11 He is not like a cruel Tyrant that delights to destroy but like a gracious King that is glad to save Est piger ad poenam Princeps ad praemia velox Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox It is for a Sicilian Tyrant to invent Torments or rather for a Fiend of Hell to rejoyce in doing hurt I am the Lord which exercise Loving-kindness Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord Jer. 9.24 Who is a God like unto thee saith the Prophet Micah 7.18 19. that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy He will turn again he will have Compassion on us he will subdue our Iniquities and thou wilt cast all their Sins into the depth of the Sea And then the Prophet adds vers 20. that which is my Second Reason why God forgives 2. Thou wilt perform the Truth to Jacob and the Mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our Fathers from the days of old This is the Reason why he hath raised up a Horn of Salvation and gives the knowledge of Salvation for or by the Remission of Sins to perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham Luk. 1.69 72 73 77. And for this Reason the Bloud of Christ is termed by himself the bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins Matth. 26.28 And the Covenant of God is alleged as witnessing the effect of Christ's Sacrifice wherein God said Their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 10.16 17. For which reason S. John saith that God is faithfull and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 His Mercifull nature prompts him to forgive Sins his Wisedom hath directed him to doe it by the Bloud of Christ his Truth to keep his Covenant and the End is that he may be feared Which brings me to the Second Point in my Text. II. OBSERVATION That God's Forgiveness engageth and encourageth men to fear him It is objected against the Jews Jer. 5.23 24. that they had a revolting and a rebellious Heart because they said not in their hearts Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth Rain both the former and the latter in his season he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the Harvest Which evinceth this to be an Evil That men fear not God notwithstanding his Providences to them for good and therefore God's Care of us should engage us to fear him And it is prophesied that the Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter days Hos 3.5 Which intimates that God's Goodness is to be feared and that it is both an engagement and encouragement to fear him that he is good O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Psal 34.9 Now of all parts of his Goodness this is the chief his Forgiving Sins It is that which shews the greatest Kindness and Condescension in God Therefore when David blesseth God he puts this in the first place Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities Psal 103.2 3. And it is the greatest Blessing to us Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose Sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity Psal 32.1 2. This Favour then requires Fear in the greatest degree Not a tormenting Fear which consisteth not with Love and which is expelled by Love 1 Joh. 4.18 such as is in Devils that fear and tremble Jam. 2.19 but a dutifull Fear which makes us wary how we offend God and studious how to please him makes us fear him not as an Enemy or Tyrant from whom we expect nothing but hard Usage and sore Tasks but as a good Master or a loving Father whom we fear as our Superiour that may punish us yet love for his Goodness Bounty and Indulgence to us This Fear is usually termed a filial or reverentiall Fear which is manifested 1. in our Worship of him with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 where the Fear of God is put for his Worship as Isa 29.13 2. in our Obedience to him both active in doing his Will and passive in submitting to his Correction Now to this Fear God's Forgiveness engageth us 1. Because such Forgiveness should and doth beget Love To whom many Sins were forgiven she loved much saith Christ Luk. 7.47 What Rebel is so hard-hearted as not to love his Prince that hath forgiven his manifold Treasons We have been more treacherous to God and yet he forgives us and shall we not then love him and fear to offend him 2. There is no greater Security can be given to draw our Hearts to God then the Forgiveness of Sins This is that Loving-kindness that draws us to God Jer. 31.3 the Chords of a man the Bands of Love that tie us fast to God Hos 11.4 And therefore there is no more expedite more rationall more sure way to maintain perpetuall Amity between us and God to devote us to his Service to bring us into Communion with him then the Preaching and Believing the rich Grace of the Gospel in the Remission of Sins by Jesus Christ according to the New Covenant in his Bloud But I see the time will not permit me to enlarge on this precious Subject I shall now apply that which hath been said in some necessary Uses and so end APPLICATION 1. First then If there be Forgiveness with God and that of the greatest Sins let no drooping Soul sink under the sense of his Sins though they have been Scarlet or Crimson Sins yet there is Pardon to be had It is true as now-a-days things go the greatest Sinners are most hardened in Security there is an Atheistical Spirit that makes men bold in Sinning Whether it be from the subtle Insinuations of some Seducers who like Balaam of old instill into mens minds those Principles which make them as audacious as Zimri and Cozbi of old were so that they declare their Sins as Sodom and hide them not ungodly men crept in among us turning the Grace of God into wantonness or from their doting so much on Nature as they call it that they forget the God of Nature so magnifying Naturam naturatam that they heed not Naturam naturantem as they barbarously speak in the Schools or that the Miscarriages of hypocriticall Professours of Religion induce them to think all Zeal in Religion is but from Fancy not God's Spirit and that all zealous persons are Fanaticks or men not in their right wits not soberly wise
and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thus did David when God sent a Plague on Israel and swept away 700000 1 Chron. 21.16 17. He and the Elders of Israel cloathed in Sackcloath fell on their faces confessed the Sin which was the Cause of it prayed God to remove the Pestilence and he was intreated of them When there was a Plague upon Israel for their Murmuring Aaron took Incense and made an Atonement for the people and he stood between the living and the dead and the Plague was stayed Num. 16.47 48. At another time when the Israelites provoked God to Anger with their Inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed Psal 106.29 30. This Antidote hath in all Ages been found a Preservative against the Plague and the most effectual Medicine to cure it Physicians prescribe many good Receipts and Magistrates doe well to use all the best means they can to hinder the spreading of Infection and justly are those destroyed as Pests of Mankind who willingly infect the sound or carelesly permit those things which may poison others They that are unmercifull to the Sick suffering or causing them to perish by their negligence and ill usage are justly censured as Promoters of the Contagion But the truly Penitent who confesseth and forsaketh his Sins the importunate believing Petitioner at the Throne of Grace the zealous and impartiall Magistrate who executeth Judgment against those venomous Sins that provoke God to shoot his deadly Arrows against us are the best and most prevalent Instruments to cure the Plague and to restore Health in our dwellings On the other side the unchast intemperate unrighteous covetous Worldlings the Atheistical proud profane the deceitful Hypocrites that are impenitent that confess not their Sins nor forsake their evil ways those that hang down their heads for a day forbear a Meal or two and perhaps come to hear but are not affected with God's Hand nor sensible of the Evil of their ways that reform not their ungodly and unrighteous Life that use other means to preserve them but seek not to God in good earnest for Pardon of Sins that appear here for company but do not execute Justice nor shew Mercy to others These are so far from being instrumentall to removing the Plague that they rather cause the continuance and the increase of it it being God's course not to turn away his Anger but to stretch out his Hand still in punishing when people turn not to him that smiteth them nor seek the Lord of hoasts Isa 9.12 13. APPLICATION And now to apply what hath been said to the present work What the Preachers of God's Word have often foretold us that for the Sins of this Land and especially of the people of our great City we had reason to expect some great Scourge the same is now come upon us The destroying Angel hath drawn his Sword hath killed thousands already the Plague is not onely begun but hath wasted some part of that City great Terrour is upon us many fly thence and perhaps die by the way or live to infect other places Houses are emptied Streets untroden Markets without Sellers and Buiers a heavy dolefull Disease is come upon us Who is so hard-hearted so Atheisticall as not to see the Hand of God in all this The Preachers from the Pulpit foretold it Any who was acquainted with the Holy Scripture with the way of God's Judgments in our own or former times might see that our excess of profane Swearing Contempt of Religion and the Word of God our unmeasurable Pride Vanity Luxury in Meat Drink Apparel sensuall Pleasures our Contentions our Oppressions our Hatred Divisions Unmercifulness and all sorts of Vices continually shewing themselves openly among us would be the Seed out of which this or the like Calamity would at length be produced And yet where is the person that laies this to heart as an effect of Divine Vengeance and the Fruit of his Sin Who is there that searcheth and trieth his waies that is sensible of the Plague of his own Heart that with repenting Ephraim smites upon his thigh that repents him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Who is there that either fears God the more or prays the more or amends his waies the more Are not our Pride Fulness of bread Wantonness Unmercifulness yea which is worse our Cursing Swearing Lying Rage Blasphemy Lewdness as much as before Do we not to use the Prophet's phrase every one turn yet to our course as the Horse rusheth into the battel Have not we yet such an unsanctified unhumbled spirit as to deride Preachers Monitions to slight God's Judgments to harden one another in Sin and so to disappoint God's Design in this Visitation which should awaken us from our Security humble us under his mighty Hand bring us on our knees in earnest Supplications teach us to fear Sin learn us to doe well lest a worse thing happen to us If it be so with us what can be expected but that our seeming Humiliation Fasting and Prayer this day should become Sin to us and be so far from averting the present Evil as that it will provoke the Divine Vengeance to punish us yet seven times more for our Sins For sure when one Judgment doth not cause us to return to God he will send another The more Warnings God gives us if the fire of God's Wrath be not quenched by our Repentance and Supplications it will burn the more fiercely It is in vain for us to imagine that by any other means we can prevent our Danger this is the onely safe course for our Preservation And therefore let us be perswaded this day to draw nigh to God that he may draw nigh to us 1. We must begin with a through Search into our own waies finding out and confessing to God with serious Compunction of Heart and Remorse of Conscience not onely our open but also our secret Sins Know that the revenging Eye of God cannot be deceived with Shews that he knows the secretest Motions of our Hearts the most hidden Practices of our Lives Know that it is in vain to strive with him that it is Madness to provoke him to Jealousy unless we were stronger then he is And therefore it is no better then Folly and Madness to be superficiall in this business of Searching Confessing Repenting of our Sins We say Non est tutum ludere cum Sacris We must not trifle in things of God we must not sport with God Neither must we onely be sensible of our own personall Sins but of the Sins of others our Governours our Neighbours our Forefathers Sins David's Sin may bring a Plague on the People We are to mourn and be humbled for them especially which goe unpunished which cause the Land to mourn 2. We must goe on to cry mightily to God as the Ninevites did The Pardoning of great Sins the removing of great
any Preaching could never hear God's Voice And they that have admitted it into the Ear without opening of the inner Door of the Heart want the enjoyment of it It was Lydia's happiness that when she heard S. Paul the Lord opened her Heart that she attended unto the things which were spoken Act. 16.14 They are unhappy to whom the Lord vouchsafes not the opening of the Ear to hear his Voice but they are most unhappy and accursed to whose Ears the Voice of God comes but their Hearts are not opened to receive it No Curse more direfull then that which our Saviour saith was fulfilled in his Auditours By hearing they heard and did not understand and seeing they did see and not perceive For this people's Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Heart and should be converted and I should heal them Matth. 13.14 15. For this reason as the absenting from hearing of God's Voice is a damnable Sin they that come not to hear with their Ears shew their Contempt of God's Grace so much more damnable is the hardening of the Heart whereby the Voice of God is wilfully kept out of the Understanding Memory Conscience Will Affections so as it cannot be seated in them nor they guided and ruled by it Which thing comes to pass by the Deceitfulness of Sin as our Apostle tells us Heb. 3.13 Love of any Sin adherence to any Errour opposite to God's Voice will harden the Heart so as neither to admit the enlightning Brightness of it into the Eye of the Mind nor the softning Virtue of it into the Will to make it pliable Pride and Self-dependence were two of the chief Causes of the Jews hardening their Hearts against the Voice of God in the Preaching of the Gospell by Christ and his Apostles How can ye believe saith our Saviour Joh. 5.44 which receive honour one of another and seek not the Honour which cometh from God onely Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 Thus at this day do Popish Justitiaries who place their Righteousness in their own good Merits All ignorant people who are wedded to vain Superstitions harden their Hearts against the Voice of the Gospell so as not to be humbled for Sin as the penitent Publican but to boast themselves as the proud Pharisee They receive not Christ joyfully with sinfull Zacchaeus but reject the offers of Grace like those who judged themselves unworthy of eternall life Act. 13.46 In like manner the Cares of this World the Deceitfulness of Riches the Pleasures of this life with other Lusts choak the word of the Kingdome so as that it becomes unfruitfull Matth. 13.22 Luk. 8.14 Hence it is that worldly-minded men and voluptuous livers harden their Hearts against the Warnings of God's Word slight the Tender of the Gospell imploy their wits to discredit it hearken to Seducers which foment their Lusts and pervert their Understanding As redundance of Choler in the Stomach makes it cast up the best Meat as unsavoury so where the Heart is filled with sinfull Lusts or erroneous Principles they make the most precious Truths of the Gospell to be loathed and refused Vicious minds expell holy Doctrines and therefore till the Heart be softned the Motions of God's Spirit will not be entertained APPLICATION Let me now intreat you Brethren to descend into your selves and examine whether it be not so with you The Voice of God in the Gospell of Christ hath been so evidently demonstrated to the world that never was there any thing which was published with more manifest proofs and Divine infallible assurance of its Truth And to take away all doubt of Imposture in the Publishers Testimony hath been given to their Sincerity therein by their relinquishing all outward desirable Advantages even with the sacrificing of their own Lives And to you of this Nation it hath been held forth with much Perspicuity pressed with much Earnestness But do you hear it do you perceive this to be the time of your Visitation your Day Do you not harden your Hearts as in the Provocation Do not your proud Spirits think it below you to stoop to it May we not say as once the Jews did Which of the Rulers believe on him Do we not find the Poor receive the Gospell when the Rich are sent empty away Surgunt Indocti rapiunt Coelum the Unlearned rise up and take Heaven by violence when the reputed Wise goe on in their waies to Perdition Do we not love the Praise of Men more then the Praise of God Do not your love of Pleasures and the Cares of this world choak the Word and make it unfruitfull I come not to accuse you but would have you judge your selves as knowing that you shall be judged by the Lord and if you prevent it not by self-judging condemned with the World Take it as a warning out of a most ardent desire I have to save your Souls that I tell you that there are shrewd Symptoms of the Hardness of your Heart and Averseness from hearing God's Voice in that places of Pastime and Pleasure houses of Good-fellowship are so much frequented as they are and the Church of God neglected in that Romances profane Histories yea Discourses savouring of Atheism are bought up and read with more delight then the Bible or any other Holy Writings we take more pleasure to furnish our Fancy then to rectify our Conscience Are you not sensible that God hath limited you a certain time to hear his Voice that your daies are numbred and your months that you cannot pass that while the Gospell is preached is your Day of Salvation that if the Sun of your Life be set the Day of the Gospell darkned over you there will be no time left to make your Peace to save your immortall Spirits that if you harden your Hearts there remains nothing after this Day but Hell and eternall Judgment Think seriously then upon your Condition and while it is called to day provide for Eternity Hear God's Voice readily and constantly Harden not your Hearts by Pride Luxury Covetousness Superstition or any other evil Lusts Submit your Understandings to God's Wisedom Retain his Word in your Memory and Conscience Believe him against your own Fancies Conform your Wills to his Receive his Truth in the love of it and you shall be saved by it Which he grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE DANGER OF Abusing Grace The Thirteenth SERMON ROM vi 1. and part of 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid TO acquit the Gospel which he preached from the Exceptions and Obloquies which it and the Preachers of it were obnoxious to and to demonstrate the Wisedom
which a Bee would convert to the sweetest Hony In the end this course is most pernicious to him that follows it there being nothing that more alienates Affection from a person then his abuse of Kindness God's Love abused turns to Rage and none have God more incensed against them then those that having tasted of the good Gift of God fall away into sinfull Courses that are so unthankfull for so great a Favour as the offer of Reconciliation the Sacrifice of Christ the Invitation to his Supper to the Marriage of the Son of God as that they chuse rather to be at home with their Oxen and Wives and Farms or to come without a Wedding-garment then to accept of his Motion and accommodate themselves to his Kindness that having had ten thousand Talents forgiven them take their Brother by the throat for an hundred pence When men despise the Riches of God's Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth them to Repentance after their hardness and impenitent Hearts they treasure up to themselves Wrath against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2.4 5. APPLICATION Oh then let me in the most tender Bowells of Compassion my Heart can be touched with with the most serious Importunity that my words can express with the deepest Adjuration by the most affecting things that I can mind you of instantly press you to take heed of this most vile ugly dishonest irrational and damnable Abuse of the Divine Grace so as to continue in Sin that Grace may abound It is most meet yea natural that Love should beget Love Grace should beget Observance Is not he a most egregious Villain that hates his own Father that begat him that kills him that gave him Life Is not the Lord the Rock who begat thee the God that formed thee And wilt thou then be so unnatural as to hate God as thou dost if this be thy Requital for his Grace to persevere in Wickedness He tells thee that he is hated when thou lovest any thing more then him givest his Glory to another makest thy Belly thy God gloriest in thy Shame mindest earthly things And wilt thou thus recompense so great Goodness with such extreme Badness He saith he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And wilt thou pollute the Holy Name of thy Holy Father with thy impure Swearing The earnal mind is Enmity against God as being not subject to his Law but inconsistent with it And wilt thou suffer vain Thoughts to lodge in thee fleshly Reason to sway with thee carnal Lusts to rule over thee All Benefits received engage to answerable Duty What art thou then but a very Miscreant that having so much taste how gracious God is how amply he hath vouchsafed to be bountifull to thee in giving Christ for thee how profusely he hath bestowed on thee the Riches of Heaven in the largess of Spiritual Blessings in heavenly things in Christ dost yet side with Sin and Satan his profest irreconcilable Enemies that canst harbour that Enemy which thy Allegeance to God binds thee to pursue zealously unto death Oh that rather the Sense of God's Goodness might make us good the Taste of his Grace might make us gracious Surely none are worse Enemies to God then such as have been acquainted with the excess of God's Grace in Christ yet exceed in their obstinate perseverance in Evil such as when God's Grace should draw Tears from their Eyes Sighs from their Breasts cause Dejectedness in their Spirits by reason of their Sinning against so incomprehensible a Love as that which he vouchsafes to the Sons of Adam in Christ have yet a Forehead of brass that cannot blush glory in their Wickedness boast of their Lewdness and are secure in their Impenitency Greater Woe was to Chorazin and Bethsaida then to Tyre and Sidon because they repented not upon such Proofs of Christ's Excellency as would have wrought on the other As they had been lifted up to Heaven so Christ foretells their casting down to Hell No people in the world are likely to have a greater degree of Torment in Hell then profane and unrighteous men among us who have the greatest Proof of God's Grace of any people on the Earth As then you either stand in fear of so great Damnation or are desirous of that abundant Grace which the Gospel of Christ exhibits abhorr the thought of Continuing in Sin that Grace may abound Let the Mercies of God lead you to present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service for that will procure his Favour here and your Blessedness hereafter Which he grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE DIVINE COMPASSIONS The Fourteenth SERMON LAMENT iij. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not I Have read to you a passage out of a most dolefull Poem composed by that Holy Prophet Jeremiah with much Art in the four first Chapters the order of the Hebrew Alphabet being observed in the initiall Letters of the Verses yet with a very deep sense of God's Judgments on Judah and Jernsalem and a tender Sympathy with them in their Affliction He had long and often foretold those Evils would befall them which he now saw come upon them quorum pars magna fuit and in which he had a great Share and he might well say Quis talia fando temperet à lacrymis Who could think or speak of such things with dry Eyes or an insensible Spirit This set may I say his Muse I should say rather his Prophetick spirit on work to endite and leave to the Church this Poem In which with much Compassion towards his Country he bewails their Desolation yet with much Piety towards God justifies him as punishing them according to the Demerit of their Sins and magnifies his Goodness as punishing them less then they deserved Both which are expressed in the words of my Text It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not And sure we may say the like It is of the Lord's Mercies that London and all England are not consumed by the Pestilence because his Compassions fail not And therefore the handling of this Passage will be apposite to the present Face of things with us and the Occasion of this Day In it 1. The Prophet takes notice of the Mitigation of God's Wrath in that they were not consumed 2. He assigns the genuine Cause of it the Lord's Mercies or Benignities great Mercies which is exclusive of any other procuring Cause that might deserve it and intimates that there was sufficient reason did not his Mercies interpose why he should have consumed them 3. These Mercies are described 1. By the kind of them they were Compassions in the Original Bowel-mercies such as a tender Mother hath to the Child of her womb in God Pardoning Mercies Relieving
necessary and are always made by those who are wise-hearted in all Generations for the very best of Men or People can never acquit themselves from being guilty of such Iniquities as might justly expose them to greater Wrath then they feel There is not a Just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not saith Solomon Eccles. 7.20 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 Holy Job of whom God testifieth that he was his Servant none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 though he still avouched his Integrity yet when he is to speak of his Afflictions as they come from God he is crest-fallen le ts down his Plumes speaks in such forms as these How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand If I justisie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.2 3 20 30 31. He makes no such plea for himself as the proud Pharisee that trusted in himself that he was Righteous and despised others nor doth he out of meer Modesty speak thus of himself but out of the sense of the verity thereof he confesseth concerning all the Sons of Adam Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one The Septuagint reads vers 5. No though his life be but one day upon earth and after them the Ancients Though he be but Infans unius diei an Infant of one day We reade of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 that he deprecated the Sentence of his Death in these words Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Yet when the Sentence was reversed he doth not ascribe it to his own desert but vers 17. he thus speaks to God Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back He doth not like a proud Pharisee impute his Recovery to his own Righteousness nor like some boasting Frier brag of his own Merits or Works of Supererogation Such language of Self-justitiaries such Conceits of men puffed up with arrogant Self-esteem were far from him He speaks like an humble Penitent not like a vain Glorioso He assigns as the cause of his Recovery not his own Merit but God's pardoning Mercy Nor can any People justly reckon their own Innocency as the cause of God's sparing them but must if they will speak truth acknowledge they have deserved to be consumed Though David when the Pestilence was upon Israel said Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24.17 yet that there were Iniquities in the People which occasioned David's Sin is plain from vers 1. where it is said that the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel The Churches of Christ in the Primitive times were the purest yet S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.20 21. saith he feared lest when he came to Corinth he should not find them such as he would and that he should be found unto them such as they would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults lest when he came again his God would humble him among them and that he should bewail many which had sinned already and had not repented of the Vncleanness which they had committed In Christ's Survey of the Seven Golden Candlesticks the Seven Churches of Asia though golden or pure by his Acceptance yet he finds much drossy stuff their Light but dim and almost wasted and ready to go out such Imperfections such Errours such Decays such Practices of evil savour as were enough to move him to extinguish their Light quite and to remove the Candlesticks except they repented It is by reason of man's deceitfull Heart that God finds even in the best Men and Churches sufficient matter against them to consume them which yet he permits by his own just Decree and wise Counsel that he may hide Pride from man and none might glory in himself but that his Mercies might the better be discerned Which leads us to the III. OBSERVATION That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People It is true Mercy and Compassion as they are in Man are Perturbations which do disquiet them Compassion in them is a dolorous Passion arising from some appearing Evil that is destructive or otherwise grievous which happens to a man undeservedly And it is occasioned by a sense of the common Condition of men and a possibility of the like Accident befalling themselves as Aristotle describes it in the Second Book of his Rhetorick But in God who is without Body Parts or Passions as the First Article of the Church of England speaks there is no such Perturbation no afflicting Affection But Compassion in him is a sweet calm and gracious Inclination of his Will whereby he hath regard to the Defects and Miseries of his Creature This Attribute is asserted by himself in that most majestick Proclamation of his when he shewed his Glory and made all his Goodness to pass before Moses Exod. 33.18 19. descended in a Cloud passed by him and proclaimed the Name of the Lord The Lord the Lord God Mereifull and Gracious Long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth Exod. 34.5 6. The same hath been by many of the Holy Writers attested it being the great engaging Property of God whereby all his Creatures chiefly his Elect are eternally obliged to be his Thus he is styled by the Psalmist Psal 116.5 Gracious is the Lord and Righteous yea our God is Mercifull by S. James 5.11 a God very pitifull and of tender Mercies or of much Bowels of Compassion by S. Paul the Father of mercies and the God of all Consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 rich in Mercy Eph. 2.4 And therefore Mercy is most truly ascribed to him so that as Christ said There is none Good but one that is God Mark 10.18 so we may say There is none Mercifull or compassionate but one that is God understanding it of the most intensive Degree quoad Affectum in respect of the disposition of his Will to help and of the most extensive Latitude quoad Effectum in respect of the Effect and working of it for so it is universall Psal 145.9 The Lord is good to All and his tender Mercies in some kind are over all his works Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reacheth to the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains thy Judgments are a great Deep O Lord thou preservest Man and Beast Psal 36.5 6. And Christ sets out
the Mercifulness of God in that he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and Vnjust Matth. 5.45 But his Mercies are most abundant to his own People chiefly to his Elect who are therefore termed Vessells of Mercy Rom. 9.23 on whom he bestows Mercies most freely He saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion vers 15. On them he bestows the sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 Not by works of Righteousness which they have done but according to his Mercy he saves them by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 He keeps Mercy for thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments Exod. 20.6 Yea for their sakes he doth often shew Mercy to and spare those that are disobedient in respect of outward Judgments Thus Moses stood in the Gap and turned away his Wrath from the Children of Israel Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed David supplicated for Jerusalem and the Angel of the Lord put up his Sword and the Pestilence was stayed Daniel prayed and obtained the Return of the Jews from Captivity And thus still God does to his People in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He doth not always chide nor keep his Anger for ever Psal 103.9 He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7.18 And this brings us to the IV. OBSERVATION That God's Mercies and Compassions fail not To this purpose is that the Lord saith Isa 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great Mercies will I gather thee In a little Wrath I hid my Face from thee for a moment but with everlasting Kindness will I have Mercy on thee saith the Lord. And indeed the Mercies of God to his Elect are as himself is eternall As they arise from himself so are they of interminable duration as himself is His Electing Mercy was before the World was his Redeeming Mercy before we were his Calling and quickening Mercy when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses his Pardoning Mercy when we have gone astray his Confirming Mercy when we are ready to slip his Comforting Mercy when we are ready to despair his Raising Mercy when we shall be returned to the Earth his Saving and advancing Mercy when we shall stand in Judgment and have no other Plea for our selves but his free Mercy when Time shall be no more His Mercy therefore is indeficient because it helps us when we are in the lowest Condition We count him a sure Friend who fails us not when we are at the lowest ebbe in the greatest Streights in the extremest Necessity And thus doth God who remembred us in our low estate for his Mercy endureth for ever Psalm 136.23 When our Pressure is great so as that the Enemy hath inclosed us and we know not which way to escape as Pharaoh did the Israelites at the Red sea even then he redeemeth us from our Enemies for his Mercy endureth for ever vers 24. Even then when we have none to help he helps us When he seeth his People's power gone when there is none shut up or left Deut. 32.36 when the Enemy is most insolent the Danger greatest our Hearts fail us we despond and despair when we say Our way is hid from the Lord and our Judgment passed over from our God when we conclude that we are cast out of the sight of his eyes and say with our Saviour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when in our own account we are free among the dead like the slain that lie in the Grave whom we think he remembers no more but they are cut off from his hand yet even then his Compassions fail not They neither fail in their Duration nor in their Constancy nor in their Efficacy nor in their Seasonableness but when there is a Necessity when it is for his People's greatest Advantage they then appear effectually Yea sometimes when we are insensible of our Danger when we are disappointed of those Supports we relied on when we are out of Hope when perhaps we are secure and know not how near our Affliction is when the Judgment comes in a way that is not perceivable as when the Arrow of God flieth by day and the Pestilence walketh in darkness and the Destruction wasteth at noon-day In these and all other cases wherein there is no Help nor Deliverance but in and from God yea when there is no reason to expect any no not from God himself yet even then his Compassions fail not he comes in opportunely and shews Mercy efficaciously And therefore justly in the next place V. OBSERVATION The Non-consumption of God's People their Salvation is ascribed by them to his indeficient Mercy onely to his Compassions that fail not David thus begins one of his Psalms 89.1 2. I will sing of the Mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy Faithfulness to all generations For I have said Mercy shall be built up for ever thy Faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very Heavens And Psal 117. he saith O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People for his mercifull Kindness is great towards us and the Truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise ye the Lord. And the 136. Psal throughout is one continued Invitation to give Thanks to God for his Mercy endureth for ever 26 times repeated Consonant whereto is that of the Prophet Isa 63.7 I will mention the Loving-kindnesses of the Lord and the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great Goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his Loving-kindnesses In the New Testament the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Magnificat sings thus My Soul doth magnify the Lord for that his Mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his Mercy Luk. 1.46 50 54. Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people to perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers vers 68 72. John Baptist was to give knowledge of Salvation unto his People by the Remission of their Sins through the tender Mercy of our God vers 77 78. In a word this was the main in the holy Songs of the Ministers of the Temple to give thanks to the Lord because his Mercy endureth for ever 1 Chron. 16.41 And in like manner Jehosaphat when he had consulted with the people appointed Singers unto the Lord and that should praise the Beauty of Holiness as they went out before the Army and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever 2 Chron. 20.21 And the same Commemoration of
God's Mercy is the practice and delight of them that have a Spirit of Holiness in all Generations They write Ex dono Dei on all they have they ascribe all they doe to Mercy all their Prosperity Victory Success they account as Mercies from God When they cast up the Inventory of their Good things they have enjoyed all that they possess the Summe totall is innumerable Mercies How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the Sand Psalm 139.17 18. The Law of Gratitude then which none is more equal ties every one to magnify God's Mercy What hath any which he hath not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And who can look upon his Receipts as due Wages and not rather pure Alms Who hath not received loads of Benefits from God and all out of pure Mercy Our Forming in the womb is a prime Mercy our Birth our Education our Instruction our Preservation our Salvation That I be not infinite in this Account Our Life Breath and all our Ways all our natural Parts and Abilities all our Motions and Proceedings all our Escapes from Dangers from Sicknesses from Death and most of all from being a Prey to the Devil and our Deliverance from Hell are Evidences of transcendent Mercy in God which all God's people are sensible of And this leads us to the VI. OBSERVATION That the apprehension of God's great Mercy encourageth his People to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Welfare The greatness of God's Mercies encouraged David to cast himself into God's hand rather then to fall into the hands of men 2 Sam. 24.14 And Holy Daniel in that effectual fervent Prayer Dan. 9.8 9. to appeal to God's Mercy O Lord to us belongeth Confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him Vers 18. We do not present our Supplications before thee for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies Psalm 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands Isa 63.15 Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowells and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is Mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption Not one of all the Holy Saints in all the Bible hath ever dared to utter such Expressions to God or men as if they could challenge the least Relief in Trouble the least Abatement of Sufferings much less eternall Life and Reward in Heaven upon account of their own Merit as Pharisaicall Self-Justitiaries have presumed to doe Holy Jacob on the contrary Gen. 32.10 tells God I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant And Nehemiah when he allegeth his Actings for God Neh. 13.22 thus bespeaks him Remember me O my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy Mercy This is the Plea of all upright humble Souls this is the Anchora sacra the sure Anchour upon which their Spirits are stayed in all their Fluctuations this is that Gale of wind which carries them on comfortably in all their Voiages They have learned from the Psalmist Psal 33.18 Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and that hope in his Mercy and therefore they say vers 22. Let thy Mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee They have found this Address to God always prosperous and therefore they joyn with the Holy Prophet in the words of my Text and the two following verses It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy Faithfulness The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him APPLICATION And now what is more necessary more just more meet for us to doe then to joyn in consort with the Holy Prophet in this passage Surely we may each of us say that it hath been of the Lord's Mercies that we have not been consumed in this most deadly Pestilence which hath swept away in our great City and the neighbouring places not many short of an Hundred thousand and yet we have hitherto been preserved alive to be Monuments of his Mercy Have not his Mercies been new to us every morning when we have heard either the dolefull Knells or the hideous voice of Carr-men Bring out your Dead or the Reports of the Weekly Bills of Mortality so many Hundreds in such a Parish so many Thousands in the whole dead of the Plague and yet we alive It was thought by God no small Mercy to Baruch when the common Calamity added Grief to his Sorrow when he fainted in his Sighing and found no Rest to give him his Life Behold I will bring Evill upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy Life will I give unto thee for a Prey in all places whither thou goest Jer. 45.5 And should you not count it a great Mercy to you that in this common and sore Judgment in which perhaps you have lost Wives Husbands Children Friends Neighbours Goods in which you have been filled with Fears oppressed with Griefs that yet you are not consumed that yet the whole City the whole Land is not consumed that yet our King our Nobles our Teachers our Government our Glory is not buried in perpetual Oblivion It is true it is a heavy Calamity but we have deserved worse It is true we have lost our Friends but our Lives are not lost our Souls are not lost unless our Unthankfulness our future Disobedience our Murmuring provoke God to bring a worse Misery the casting of Soul and body into Hell-fire which our Sins have merited Oh then let us still all our impatient Complaints let us quiet our Spirits in the present estate we are in let us be thankfull to God that we are not in Hell let us confess our Unworthiness let us be humbled for the great Depravedness of our former sinfull ways let us justify God in his inflicting Vengeance on us and our Land let us forsake those Sins which we have been guilty of that we have reason to conceive added fewell to this Fire that hath burnt so fiercely and wasted so extremely Let every one of us bewail the Plague of his own Heart let us lay to heart and mourn for the Sins of the City and the whole Nation their Pride Uncleanness Riot Oppression Unrighteousness Profaneness and the iterated Rebellions first open and hostile secondly more secret in Non-Conformity to Laws and Government and this maintained even against the unparallel'd Goodness
if although it be through many Tribulations yet we at last enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now to the end we may walk before God 1. It will be necessary that we inquire into and observe the Ways and Places wherein God walks and where he delights to meet with us The Church in Isa 64.5 thus speaks to God Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness those that remember thee in thy Ways There are indeed Ways of God that are unsearchable and Paths past finding out The ways of God's Election and Reprobation are secret things belonging to the Lord our God and cannot be found out by us but onely à posteriori by observing how he works in our own Hearts and thus far onely we are to observe them so as to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure that by doing such things as may improve the Work of God's Spirit in our Hearts we may never fall The Works of God's Providence in the World and his Works of Creation we are to inquire into that we may admire and magnifie him that maketh all But his Ways of Judgment we are to observe and his Ways of Precept and Promise We are to take notice of his Corrections when we go astray of his Mercy and Truth when we walk uprightly how he meets us with a Rod in his hand when we wander out of his Paths with Embraces with refreshing Provision when we walk uprightly before him This was David's practice as he tells us Psal 18.21 22 23. I have kept saith he the Ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God For all his Judgments were before me and I did not put away his Statutes from me I was also upright before him and kept my self from mine Iniquity 2. As we are to observe God's Ways so we are to prepare our own Ways before him as it is said of Jotham 2 Chron. 27.6 As he that is to walk with another must provide all things in readiness that he may keep him company so must he that would walk with God he must awake and stand up from the dead as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.14 awake to Righteousness 1 Cor. 15.34 He is not fit to walk with another that is drowzy and loves to slumber so the person that will walk before God must be wakefull listning to God's Call ready when he shall send for him and require his attendance he must be attentive to all the Motions of his Spirit be prepared to go with God whithersoever he will have him Thus it was with Abraham Heb. 11.8 By Faith when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance he obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went He that will walk before God must not sit down in that place and state in which he is and say with the Rich man Luk. 12.19 Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but must count himself as Abraham did a Pilgrim and Sojourner upon Earth he must not take this Earth to be his resting-place but go after Christ bearing his reproach he must learn to deny himself and take up his Cross and so follow him A Heart that thinks of nothing but how he may injoy the Good things of this Life that is so minded as Peter was in the Mount that thinks it is good to be here and cries Let us build us Tabernacles below is not fit to walk with God He that will walk with God must follow him fully as it is said of Caleb Num. 14.24 that he had another Spirit then the rest of the Spies and followed God fully What way God will have us to take that we must take where he will have us to be there we must be contented to be what estate his Providence shall allot to us that we must embrace what he will have us to doe we must be willing to doe We must not imagine that we are to walk before God as our Equall our Fellow but as our Lord and Master and accordingly must be attentive to what he saith to us and be ready to submit to his Pleasure 3. To right Walking before God it is necessary that we should get the Staff of Faith in our hand It was that which enabled Abraham to walk with God and Noah and Enoch and all the Saints He that will walk before God must not onely believe that God is but also that he is near unto and a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 He must apprehend God with him while his Heart is towards God For indeed nothing will animate us to walk with God but the assurance we have that God will be with us while we be with him that if we seek him he will be found of us if we forsake him he will forsake us as the Prophet told Asa 2 Chron. 15.2 As many as mean to walk with God must hold fast this Staff of Faith to stay themselves in Precipices and slippery places to remove what would cast them down to support them when they grow feeble and faint to clear themselves of all Incumbrances that may clog them in their going to beat down all Assaults in a word to stay their Minds so as that by no Inveiglements or Difficulties they may be put out of their way 4. He that will walk before the Lord must have low thoughts of himself as Abraham Gen. 18.27 I have begun to speak unto my Lord who am but Dust and Ashes He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6.8 It is an humble Heart onely that is fit for God's Company As he is not fit to wait on a Prince that is of a sawcy and malapert Disposition that thinks as well of himself as of his Master that will take upon him to controll him that is proud and stubborn not flexible and pliable that will not stand bare observe the Ceremonies of his Court give him his due Titles nor perform those Rites and Observances which belong to his Highness So neither is he fitted to walk with God who is not of a lowly submissive spirit who is not ready to stoop to God to perform his Worship to give him that Honour and Glory which belongs to him who will glory in himself and not magnifie his Lord. To walk in the Name of the Lord Mic. 4.6 is to worship him and that is done by low Thoughts of our selves and high Thoughts of God He that walks wisely will chuse low ground to walk on And he that places himself in Imo suo in his low Condition is fittest to exalt God in ipsius Summitatem into his Height Though the Lord be high yet he hath respect unto the lowly but he beholdeth the proud afar off Psal 138.6 he will not have him in his
many come hither without Faith or sense of God's Presence as if they came to a Court yea to sport or play With what Drowziness Irreverence Heedlesness do many appear here How many are weary with the Service with the Sermon to whom it is tedious to sit one hour to hear God's Word though they can endure to sit whole Nights and Days at their Pastimes or to be imployed in any mischievous Design How many bring their Bodies hither and their Minds the while are roving over the world How many are filled with unclean Lusts Contentions revengefull Imaginations and Devices even while they are in the Church How many come to carp at the Preacher or justle with their Brethren How many pray with their Mouths and curse with their Hearts Alas how will such bear Crucem Domini the Lord's Cross who are so backward to goe in Domum Domini into the Lord's House How can such expect to appear in the Temple of God in Heaven who defile the House of God on Earth How weary would they be of the Service there to whom his Worship here is so tedious Brethren let me deal plainly with you It is an ominous Presage an ill Sign that such as now are so averse from the House of God and his Service here are never likely to enter into the Temple of God in Heaven it would be a Burthen to them and they to it Oh then bethink your selves of coming hither as David and his People did Prefer the Honour of God before any Interest of your own Excite one another to goe to God's House out of Love to one another out of Love and Gratitude to God Goe not to any Idol-service or ungodly Meetings Come to God's Service with Faith with Concord and Unanimity with Chearfulness and Reverence And know that if you meet with God in his Ordinances he will meet with you in his Mercies Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO DELIGHT in GOD THE Christian's Gain The Nineteenth SERMON PSAL. xxxvij 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Heart's desire THIS Psalm is wholly doctrinall somewhat artificially composed after the order of the Hebrew Alphabet it is likely for the more ready learning and easie remembring of it The matter of it is a Receipt to cure that Lipothymie or Faintness of Spirit which is incident to the best men when they see the worst to prosper Which as it is in appearance rationall so it is highly dangerous as tending to undermine our Faith in God's Providence and to divert our Course from the Via Regia the high and right Way of holy Obedience to him to a walking in By-ways of our own chusing To prevent which after some Directions against Impatience and Distrust of God this Dose is here prescribed by one that could say Probatum est even by Holy David the sweet Psalmist of Israel who had by his own Experience found it true and the most sovereign Medicine and Cordiall in this case He had observed That notwithstanding the wicked man prospered a while and like a Comet blazed much yet it was but as a Meteor a Blazing-star that would soon vanish But that he who trusts in God and delights in him should be as a Fixed Star which though it be clouded or benighted for a time yet it hath a permanent Light and shall break out of its Obscurity That it is therefore best for such a one in the greatest Luster of the Wicked and in the most dismall estate that befalls himself yet to delight himself in the Lord and to assure himself that he will give him the Desire of his Heart Which words you may at first View perceive to contain in them 1. A Precept Delight thy self in the Lord. Affect not the Prosperity of Evil men Though they mount up to Heaven in Wealth Honour and Power so as that in their Luciferian Pride they say in their heart We will ascend into Heaven exalt our throne above the Stars of God we will ascend above the heights of the Clouds we will be like the Most high yet do thou humbly quietly patiently contentedly delight thy self in the Lord. 2. A Promise He shall give thee in the conclusion the Desires or Petitions of thine Heart either in that Deliverance thou wouldst have or that Comfort or Preferment which he thinks best for thee So that from hence arise two Conclusions of much importance 1. That it is best to delight our selves in God in the most elevated estate of Evill men and in our own most dejected Condition 2. That such as doe so shall have their Hearts Desire and in fine speed better then if they had been in a like illustrious estate to that of Wicked men I shall address my self to handle both in their order with what brevity and perspicuity I can I. OBSERVATION That it is best to delight our selves in God in the most elevated estate of Evill men and in our own most dejected Condition Delight is an inclining Affection of the Soul upon the apprehension of some pleasing Good that is sutable to the Mind and it is conceived in the womb of the Heart but not resting there it manifests it self by the motions of the Members by the speech of the Tongue glances of the Eyes hearkning of the Ears and by other gestures of the Members which discover the Complacency of the Spirit within Delighting then in the Lord is for a man to have pleasing Thoughts of God and thereby strengthening his Heart and Mind against all Objections concerning God or himself against all Fears and Occurrences which might cast down his Spirit Many sadning Objects do often present themselves even to the most Holy men on earth We find David sometimes complaining that God had cast him off I am cut off from before thine eyes Holy Job that God hid his Face from him and held him for his Enemy Such Complaints are frequent Thou hast cast us off and puttest us to shame Wherefore hidest thou thy Face Why sayest thou O Jacob My way is hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over from my God Others cry Wherefore doth the Way of the Wicked prosper Most fully we find this Argument urged against God's Providence even to the staggering of that Holy Psalmist in Psal 73.2 c. where he relates his Temptation and his Recovery out of it For notwithstanding what his Eyes saw his Ears heard his fleshly Reason suggested to him of the Happiness of Evil men and the vanity of Godly courses yet he upholds himself by delighting in the Lord and thus expresseth himself in that Psalm Vers 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart and after vers 23 24 25 26 28. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsell and afterwards receive me to Glory Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth
to know Wisedom and to know Madness and Folly I perceived that this also is Vexation of spirit For in much Wisedom is much Grief and he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth Sorrow Be he the wisest Statesman or profoundest Scholar be he Doctor profundus Angelicus Seraphicus though he have gotten those glorious Titles wherewith some have set out them whom they have esteemed yet if he review his Projects his Writings he will find cause to repent of them to say Non putâram This I considered not to make Retractations with S. Austin to charge himself with Folly and Errour That which we reade Prov. 9.10 is a Maxime aeternae veritatis of eternal truth The Knowledge of the Holy is Vnderstanding That Knowledge which is of God and his Will that is practical as well as speculative is the true Understanding 1. Because it is the Knowledge of the most excellent Object We much prize the Knowledge of the most abstruse things the things most abstract from sense The Knowledge of Transcendents Stars Motions Influences of the Heavens Angels and Spirits is with much Curiosity inquired into and they are rare Doctours who can discover such sublime things But the Knowledge of God his Properties Ways Precepts and Counsels is far more excellent as being of more glorious things We think the Knowledge of Reasons of State Arcana Imperii the Art of Governing Men and Kingdoms more excellent then the Knowledge of Husbandry how to order Beasts to plough and sow and plant to be a wise Statesman more excellent then to be a skilfull Rustick But Theology is much to be preferred before any of these yea a Doctour in Divinity before a Physician or a Lawyer as teaching the things of God which are most abstruse and of highest Speculation To be wise in these things is to be wise as Daniel who is made the Pattern of a wise man Ezek. 28.3 because the Spirit of God was in him Light and Vnderstanding to reveal the Secrets of God Yea it is to be wise as an Angel of God Angels being proverbially made the Exemplar of Wisedom 2 Sam. 14.17 whose excellency of Knowledge stands in their beholding God's Face by which though not as in a natural Glass according to the Conceit of them that talk of Speculum Trinitatis a Glass of the Trinity as if he that sees God must know all things by seeing him that sees all things that 's an Errour for then the Angels should be Omniscient but in a free clear Glass they see more of his Glory and Works receive more immediate Orders from him understand more of the affairs of Heaven and Divine Mysteries then men that dwell in houses of Clay and the more is revealed unto them of God's Actings Intendments or Appointments the more do they increase in Wisedom 2. Because this Knowledge of God is the most true clear certain satisfying Knowledge There is Imperfection in all other Knowledge as there is in the things that are known He that knows most and best of other matters yet finds no Rest or Satisfaction in them There is Uncertainty even in some things in the Mathematicks and in those things that are known best there is no great Content to the mind by their Knowledge because it is but of things that shall end Knowledge of humane things shall vanish away 1 Cor. 13.8 How many thousands of Learned men have at last after all their Studying Arguing Writing Reading come to Socrates his Determination Hoc unum scio quòd Nihil scio I know this one thing that I know Nothing How many the more they plod on the things of Nature and Art are the more puzzled One that was counted a great Wit of the world when he had studied the Cause of the Sea's Motions but could not comprehend it threw himself into it with this Saying Quoniam ego non capio te tu capies me Because I cannot perceive thee thou shalt receive me But in the Knowledge of God his Will his Laws and Counsels is Perfection Quietat Intellectum The Clearness Truth Beauty Stability of the Knowledge and things known satisfie the Mind I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad saith David Psal 119.96 There are wonderous things in God's Law vers 18. There is no Sophistry or Fallacy in any of God's Words there is none of the Poison of the old Serpent which deceiveth the whole world But as it is Psal 19.7 8 9. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting or restoring the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the Heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 3. The Knowledge of God and his Law is most desirable because it is that Knowledge which pleaseth God most 'T is true all the Works of God are worth the knowing The Works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal 111.2 God allows us to search out the Secrets of Nature and it is a great Excellency in men to find out the hidden Qualities and Virtues of Natural Bodies but to terminate our Knowledge on them and not to have respect to the Maker of them not to look unto him that fashioned the World long agoe as the Prophet speaks Isa 22.11 much more to deny his Work to ascribe it to a casual Concourse of Atoms to the Nature of the things themselves without acknowledging the First Cause Primum Motorem the First Mover and Universall Efficient is monstrous Madness and a thing extremely odious to the Divine Majesty Yea they that are the greatest Philosophers if they know not God's Will have not Understanding how to worship God and to doe his Pleasure are usually more brutish then others they are given up to vile Affections to a reprobate Mind to doe those things which are not convenient but against Nature such as Beasts doe not and none but besotted or bewitched men would doe Some kind of Knowledge is utterly forbidden us Well did those Converts mentioned Act. 19.19 who used curious Arts when they brought their Books together and burned them before all men though counting the Price of them they found it fifty thousand pieces of Silver All Knowledge of infernall Magick is abominable to God Then our Knowledge pleaseth God when we follow on to know the Lord Hos 6.3 when we understand what he reveals to us for our Duty and his Honour The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our Children for ever that we may doe all the words of his Law Deut. 29.29 4. Because the Understanding of God and his Law or Will is that which is of greatest Advantage to us and therefore most to be desired by us It is true which Solomon saith Eccles. 2.13 14.
Course of his Actions by and chiefly when he opposeth God's Will his Truth his Precepts then is he perverse in his Ways Now this may happen two ways either out of Ignorance or wittingly and this either willingly or unwillingly with a pure or a mixt Will out of Infirmity through Fear Forgetfulness Heedlesness or such like Cause as abates much of the Voluntariness of the Action or obstinately resolutely presumptuously after Conviction Warning Reproof Correction not onely actually but also habitually and incorrigibly with a high hand and contumacious mind He that fears the Lord and walks in his Vprightness may sometimes actually be perverse in his Ways out of Ignorance Infirmity through prevalency of Temptation and yet not be accounted so perverse in his Ways as to be said to despise the Lord so as Solomon here means S. Paul at Antioch chargeth S. Peter and S. Barnabas that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.14 because that S. Peter before certain came from James did eat with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew and separated himself fearing them of the Circumcision And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation Herein was a kind of Perverseness out of some Timorousness incident to a holy Saint and a Pillar among the Apostles and that in a Point which so much concerned the Truth of the Gospel and yet there was no such despising of the Lord as Solomon doth here stigmatize Nor dare I say but that David did that which was not right in the eyes of the Lord in the matter of Vriah the Hittite in the business of Ziba and of Numbring the people but that he despised the Commandment of the Lord to doe evil in his sight yet was he not so perverse in his Ways as to despise the Lord so as here is meant because it was not done obstinately impenitently habitually But Eli's Sons Hophni and Phinehas who caused men to abhor the Offerings of the Lord and persisted in their Sin after their Father Eli's Admonition were obstinately habitually perverse in their Ways and despised the Lord 1 Sam. 2.17 25 29. In like manner all such are perverse in their Ways and despise the Lord so as Solomon here means who do stubbornly and impenitently persist in any sinfull Errour or wicked Practice against the Law of God or the Gospel of Christ either not relinquishing the one after Discovery or not amending the other after Reproof but upholding the one and continuing in the other against the Warnings of God and Man Of such Perverseness of men in their Ways there are many Degrees according to the several kinds of Warnings given them the Frequency of their Actings the Stifness and Stubbornness of their Wills the Proceedings of their Practices the Excellency of God's Will which they bend themselves against and the Engagements they have to conform to it Sometimes the Lord warns men of the Evil of their ways by the Reproof of an Enemy and it is Wisedom to make use of it for our Amendment Even Plutarch hath a Treatise directing a man How to get good by an Enemie's ill will this is to make Mithridate out of Poison Sometimes a Friend shews us our Evil and then it is great Perverseness to persist in it Sometimes an authourized Pastour a Parent a Yoke-fellow admonishes with due Correction and yet persons continue obstinate Sometimes God sends Warnings by his Prophets as he did to the Israelites 2 Chron. 36.15 16. He sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had Compassion on his people But they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the Wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no Remedy Sometimes he warns men by his Judgments either on themselves or on others expecting that when his Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the world should learn Righteousness Isa 26.9 Yet though they be iterated varied be very conspicuous and terrible men return not to the Lord as the Prophet complains Amos 4.11 Yea they are so far from being bettered by God's Judgments that as it is said Rev. 16.11 some blaspheme the God of Heaven because of their Pains and their Sores and repent not of their deeds Yea so far are God's Judgments or Mercies from turning men from their Sins that oftentimes they multiply Abominations the more which shews extreme Perverseness The same may be said of them that abuse God's Patience and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God should lead them to Repentance as the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.4 And of those that because Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore their Heart is fully set in them to doe evil Eccles. 8.11 And according to this Stifness of their Wills there are Degrees of Perverseness in their Practices For some as the Prophet chargeth the Jews Zach. 7.11 refuse to hearken pull away the Shoulder stop their Ears that they should not hear Yea saith he vers 12. they made their Heart as an Adamant-stone lest they should hear the Lord and the words which the Lord of hoasts sent in his Spirit by the Prophets therefore a great Wrath came from the Lord of hoasts Some shut their Eyes against the Light in them by their vicious Affections darken the Light of their natural Conscience and are given over to a reprobate Sense Many hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness after it is made known to them Rom. 1.18 and not onely yield not to it but also wrangle and cavil against it Yea there are not a few who in stead of being altered by any Denunciations of Judgments from God or Convictions of his Law turn the very Speeches of the Prophets and Preachers that are sent to them into proverbial Scoffs as those that scornfully said Let him make speed and hasten his Work that we may see it and let the Counsel of the Holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Isa 5.19 And those that tauntingly took up the Prophet's term of the Burthen of the Lord Jer. 23.38 To what height of profane Impudence and Perverseness in their Ways are they come who as if they counted it their Bravery abuse the very words of Holy Scripture even of Christ himself in their Discourses and foolish Jests though by themselves and those like them counted witty to make themselves sport and render them ridiculous who as if it were a part of Gallantry to provoke the God of Heaven glory in their outrageous Swearing and direfull Imprecations against themselves Others there are like Elymas the Sorcerer whom S. Paul Act. 13.10 terms a man full of all Subtlety and all Mischief a Child of the Devil Enemy of all Righteousness who ceased not to pervert the right ways of the Lord in seeking to turn away the Deputy Sergius Paulus from the Faith of Christ