Aegyptians hated Gods people because he blessed them and in this sense it is said That God turned their Hearts to hate his people to deal subtilly with his Servants God says David turned their Hearts to hate his people c. That is by the Occasion of those Benefits which he bestowed upon them Thus many are blinded by the Preaching Let such consider this Text well Luk. 29. 19 20. of the word they thro' their Corruptions pervert it to their own Distruction As the middle region of the Air says one is more cold by the Antiporistasis so the hearts of many are more hardned not properly but accidentally by the preaching of the Gospel Now will you call these Occasions viz. God shewing of mercy and giving his holy word Is he unrighteous in this Surely no Are not they Rom. 6. 1. 2. wicked indeed who sin because Grace abounds How many Peoples Eyes are evil because Gods are good they are sinsul because he is merciful and long suffering Solomon telleth us of some who are so vile that because Sentence against an evil work is not Ecc. 8. 11. Rom 2. 4 5. executed speedily therefore their hearts are set in them fully to do evil There be many who because God takes them not at their word and damn them in the Act of sin that are the more vile and so presume upon that mercy and Goodness that should lead them to true Repentance But 4thly God saith some knew that these Ob. 4 Sinners would take Occasions by the means he gave them to grow worse c. This must be granted for God knows all things that have been are and shall be Answer in the world For he is an omniscient God and there is nothing that is or can be hid from his all-seeing Eye But what if God did know this must he therefore be charged with Injustice in giving the means of Grace Surely no. Suppose beloved any of you knew that your Counsels Corrections or Instructions given to your Children would make them the worse Must you not therefore use these Medinms which are indeed good Methods to make them better I think I need say no more to shew and evince to you that it is neither contrary to the pure Justice and Kindness of God to punish Sin with Sin giving up stubborn and rebellious Sinners to vile Affections and a reprobate mind Therefore Fourthly I shall wind up all by way of Application 4 Application By way of Information in these three Use 1 things You may see here that as an ill Stomach Ans 1 turns good meat into bad Humours so good things prove hurtful to wicked men especially to the Contemners of the Gospel Solomon telleth us That riches are kept for the Eccl. 5. 13. owners thereof for their hurt make some men rich and then they will be proud covetous and profane If Saul be a King he will run from God to the Devil if Judas Matt. it 21 22 23 24. Consider this Text well be an Apostle it will be a Snare to him Oh! How doth Sin turn our Mercies into Judgement and makes those things which are Blessings to be Curses to us and prove means to our greater Condemnation But 2dly See here what cause you have that believe infer 2 to admire discriminating Grace Why are you taken and others left You enlightned and others blinded is not this free distinguishing 1 Cor. 4. 7. 8. Matt. â—â— 11 12. Grace who says Paul hath made thee to differ Or what hast thou that thou hast not received Why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received Oh! Admire the free Grace of God in Christ for to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to others it is hid Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they Hear for many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to hear those things which you heard and to see those things which you have seen and have not seen them Oh wonderful Grace You may and ought all that believe to say with Paul who was a great admirer of free Grace By the Grace of God 1. Cor. 15. 10. I am what I am by the Grace of God I am out of Hell by the Grace of God I that was a Persecutor am now a Preacher of Christ and his Gospel I that was a Child of Wrath and an Heir of Hell am now an Heir of Glory I that was a Rebel am now made a Saint I that was in the gall of bitterness and in the Devils Kingdom am now by rich Grace translated into the Kingdom of Christ Thus may you all say who thro' Grace have believed and do believe in Christ For 't is by Grace from first to last that you Eph. 2. 5. 8. are Saved But 3dly see here and Learn that you Infer 3 ought to justify God in all his dispensations in the World Thus did holy David when God had deserted and afflicted him and seemed not to harken to the voice of his roaring Thou art O Lord saith he holy thou that Psal 22. 1 2. 3. Inhabitest the praises of Israel God I have told you is not unjust in any thing that he doth Who art thou O Man that repliest against Rom. 9. 20. God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Shall the Wood quarrel with the Carpenter The Iron with the Smith Shall sorry sinful man quarrel with God Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsherd Isaiah 45. 9 10. strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Oh reverence the secrets of God and do not quarrel with him Inquire not into the reason of his doings which thou canst not understand if you could understand it you would understand much more that you have no just reason to complain against God Oh be sure that you acknowledge that to be Just which the holy God doth There be many things Deut. 29. 39. which the Wise God hath not revealed Oh do not search them nor censure them for he is Just in all God suffered the Gentiles about 2000 Years saith one to walk in darkness and then he revealed the Gospel to them What is the reason Is there more merit in us than in our fore Fathers Surely no our Impiety is a like Who can understand the reason Wee see the thing but Psal 39. 9. Jer. 12. 1 2. we understand not the cause O! be dumb with David under the rod of God and say with Jeremiah the Lord is Righteous in all his wayes Corrupt man is not to dispute with the Holy and Just God about his Judgments Job 9 1. 2 3 4 5. he is Wise in Heart and Mighty in Strength who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered Thus much for Information The 2d Use is by way of examination What good O Christians have you received by the 2. Use of Tryal 2 Cor. 2. 15.
Life There is no reason for these things but the Soveraign Will of the Great God who worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. of his own good pleasure Secondly tho' God Blinds some and causeth Prem 2. others to See Save some and Condemn others soften some by the word and hardens others by it yet he is Just and Righteous Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Yea surely he that is all righteousness cannot Act contrary to himself tho' God doth terrible things in the way of his providence yet he doth them all in Righteousness He is righteous Psal 65. 5. in all his Ways and holy in all his Works Ps 145. 17. both in his Works of Judgement as well as Mercy He that Acts in a way of Soveraignty remember it always Acts in a way of perfect Righteousness and Equity Who can charge God with sin and say that he is not Just and Righteous in what he doth Oh! be sure that in all things you acknowledge God to be Just tho' you understand not well the reason of things done by him Remember tho' you may want a reason for Gods dealings in the World yet he hath alwayes a reason for what he doth and that is his Will which is the Rule of Perfection and the supream Reason He worketh all things according to the Councel of his own Will that Eph. 1. â—â— 12. Mat. 11. 25. 26. the Mysteries of the Gospel are revealed to Babes and hid from the Wise and Learned ones of the Age is from Gods Will who Acteth Righteously in all he doth Inquire not then into the reason of Gods Will but submit your selves to it Say not why are some softned and others hardned some elected and others reprobated some saved and others damned Remember that God is Good and Just tho' the manner of God's dealings may sometimes be hidden yet it never is nor can be unjust If God reprobate sinners it is because it agreeth with their deservings and if he elects the sinful it is because it agrees with his goodness So that be sure you retain this as a great Truth that God is Righteous in all he doth Let God be true says the Apostle but every man a Lyar. Having thus premised these two things I shall now come to the point and shew you how this stands with the holiness and kindness of God c. That I may clear and open this to you we must first consider what God doth in the tremendous dispensations of blinding some by that means by which others in Mercy are made to see this I shall speak to these two ways viz. 1st By way of Negation 2dly Affirmation 1st I shall speak to it Negatively and shew you what God doth not In these 3 things First when God is said to blind or harden any he doth not Infuse any malice into their James 1. 44. 18. Hearts To assert this were to make God the Author of sin which he is not He is the Author of all Good and of his own Judgements but not of sin for he tempteth no man to Evil. The Papists and the Arminians brand us with this falsly of making God the Author of sin which we abhor All that we say is this that the Holy God is the Author of all his own Judgements When God judicially blinds or hardens any he doth not put nor excite malice in them Sin is the abominable Jer. 44. 18. thing that God hates therefore he cannot be the Author of it 2dly This blinding c. is not by the patience of God only in sparing to punish sinners for their sins In this sense wicked men are said to blind and harden themselves in the abuse of Gods long suffering and patience Paul tells us of some who thro' the hardness of their Hearts despised the goodness and Rom. 2. 4 5. long forbearance of God which leadeth to Repentance and so they treasured up Wrath against the day of Wrath and the revelation of the Righteous Judgement of God God in this sense beloved is not said to blind any but as sinners are said to blind and harden themselves by his Patience and Goodness to Eccles. 8. 11. them Some sin because Grace abounds and are the more sinful because God is kind to them and patient with them But 3dly This blinding c. is not by bear permission only as some think and assert God blinds and hardens that is he permiteth and suffereth sinners to be hardened sayeth some c. 'T is true there is Gods permission in this dispensation but you must know that there is more than that in this action Permission in the sense of some Men doth suppose God either to be idle and negligent or against his will to suffer things to be done in the World To assert this is to cast upon the Great God First an imputation of negligence or indulgence as Old Eli permitted his Sons to sin that is Indulged them in their sins But who dare be so bold as to charge God with Negligence or Indulgence who is alwayes Ruling and Over-ruling all things in the World for his own Glory His Throne is Psal 103. 9. prepared in the Heavens and his Kingdom Ruleth over all But 2dly Of impotency in permitting things which he cannot hinder If God beloved only barely permitteth this then it is either by way of Indulgence or for want of Power to prevent it but it is not from either of these therefore there is more than God bare permission in it Beloved God is said Seven or eight times over to harden Pharoahs heart and it is observable that the words which the Scripture maketh use of to signify Gods Exod. 4. 21. 7. 3. 10. 3. penal action in blinding sinners are such as cannot be expounded by a bare permission or dissertion only God in these tremendous dispensations acting as a Judge by way of punishment must Act not meerly privitively but positively And I prove it this way namely that an Insliction of Punishment always argues a positive Judgement of God he Acteth as a Judge in it and therefore must do something positively We need not be over solicitous and curious to examin the manner how God Acteth for whither we be able or not able to open the manner c. God is Just and Righteous in it Wheu God giveth persons over to vile affections and a reprobate mind as Acts of Punishment he doth it always by a Just tho' it be by a secret providence so that tho' his ways are sometimes in the Deep that we cannot well search them out yet they are never unjust Thus you see in short that God doth more than permit this c. for he is the Author of his own Judgements Paul tells us speaking of the Jews that God hath given them the Spirit of slumber Rom. II. 7 8 10 11. not as it is a sin but as it is a
Israel over Jordan but to come up to Mount Nebo and to Dye Deut. 33. God plainly sent to Hezekiah to set His House in Order and to Dye against which Prohibition that it might be under as it were an Arrest of Judgment He so earnestly Prayed It is therefore to be duly considered That for the Display of the Judgment and Indignation of God against sin and because of the present State of the Saints under a Remaining Body of Sin and so of Death and in the present State of this World full of Sin and Evil and of so many of the Children of Adam Children of Death even of the Second Death In the Wisdom and Holiness of God It was by the Counsel of the Father and the Son that Death should continue and have the Face of a Judgment and of a Legal Prohibition to continue in the Service of God any longer on Earth Till the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption should bring in a State of the Living Saints then Remaining being chang'd and not to Dye 2. Jesus Christ our Lord Because the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood He took part of the same that through Death He might subdue Him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and Deliver them who all their Life were subject to Bondage by reason of the Fear of Death and now therefore Death came upon Him with the Violence and Terror of a Judgment from which He was taken and from Prison Esa 53. 8. By the Mighty Power of his Resurrection It becomes all His to submit then to the Face of a Judgment in Dying that they may be conform'd to their Captain and from the First Born Heb. 2. 14. Obj. It may be Objected against this necessity of Dying How were those two Enoch and Elias exempted from that sentence of the Righteous and Holy Law that is stretched out so upon all seeing sin had extended it self on them as well as on others Answ The Death of Jesus Christ stood as a Full Ransom and Price of Redemption from the very first promise so that it is not indeed a Point of Justice or of the Truth of God That Believers in Jesus Christ are served as I may so speak with a Prohibition by Death but a Wise and Holy Dispensation of Government with Relation to the Servants of God in the present World where therefore in that wise Government God thinks fit there might be such an exemption from the General Statute of Dying or Prohibition by Death as of Enoch and Elijah and many more Examples of such Exemptions there might have been if He had seen Good having received such full satisfaction to his Law and to his Justice and He hath it in reserve an Universal Exemption at the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption when the Apostle says We shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and he prefaces before it Behold I shew you a mystery And I am much perswaded and even assured These two were Types of the Living Remaining caught up to meet the Lord in the Air 1 Cor. 15. He delivers up the Kingdom to God even the Father and hath put down all Rule Authority and the last Enemy and cast it into the Lake Rev. 20. ult When the Gentle Hand of Power shall Transpose the Saints as the Great Prophet Enoch of the Lord coming with Ten Thousand of his Saints and the Living Remaining changed and the Flames of Fire upon All Enemies shall convey them as in Elijahs Chariot to Heaven 3. The Judiciary part of Death is absolutely removed For the Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 12. So that Death is to Saints a sleeping in Jesus a Resting from Labours an entring into Rest a becoming present with the Lord A being with Christ a being in Paradise a being clothed upon with our House from Heaven And to shew It was not a Deadly stroke Before the Pronunciation of that Universal Prohibition of continuing here Dust thou Art and to Dust thou shalt Return Death was more gently express'd and with assurance of Victory The Womans Seed shall break the Serpents Head but the Serpent shall only Bruise the Heel of the Womans Seed Applic. I will now by way of Applicatory Review close the whole How fit this Context of the Apostle is to a Discourse with Relation to the Death of one or more of the Servants of God appears by the Apostles Preface to it I am even now as it were already as in Conformity to my Great Lord Offered and Sacrificed as a Martyr and the Time of my Dissolution is at Hand and so He goes on I have Fought c. As if He Preached his own Funeral Sermon while Living and a Great one it is but it hath its Principal sense in Christ and in God as appears in the following Part of the Chapter v. 17. wherein we have this Great acknowledgment that in his Fighting the Good Fight and Finishing his Course the Lord stood with Him strengthened Him that by Him the Preaching might be Fully known and the Gentiles hear and the Lord Delivered Him out of the Mouth of the Lyon the Lord would deliver Him from every Evil Work and preserve Him unto His Heavenly Kingdom and to Him he ascribes the Glory of All for Ever And He Includes all Saints Even all who Love the appearing of Jesus Christ this High Elogium or Speech of Praise else I must acknowledge I have no Opinion of the Large Encomiums or Praisings used in Funeral Sermons observing the Grand Exemplar of them Gods Gracious Remembrance of Moses John 1. Moses my Servant is Dead and no more and yet that Fixed so Dashing a Character of Honour upon Him that He is remembred by it to the Last Rev. 15. They Sang the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb But this of the Apostle Joyned with that of Heb. 7. 23. Gives me such a History of the Life and Death of Saints That I cannot but Recommend it to all the Servants of Christ as the most excellent Rule of Life and as the Ground of the most Consolatory Hope in Death and that the very Discourse of it may be upon the Deceased Christian Friend a Memorial of Honour And so I most Humbly Recommend it to the Relations of all the Friends of the so many lately Removed Servants of God and of this Particular one the occasion of whose Death it is Published through Him who though the Eternal Liver as the Son of God without Beginning or End of Days yet in our Nature Became Dead for our sakes but behold He is Alive for Evermore Even so have all his Servants Reason to say Even so Amen And He hath the. Keys of Hell and Death Let Him Lay His Hand on his Servants of God in this Discourse and Bless it to Them and to his Servants of all States and Conditions saying unto them Fear not And to Him be Glory for Ever FINIS