ingredient in thy Cup of Judgment for it is the greatest Aggravation of thy sin for through it Gods Name is Blasphemed If they had not known they had not had sin Pagans sin is no sin in respect of Christians If ye consider Christs Sermon Matth. 11. Ye will say Isaiah is a meak and moderate man in regard of him Isaiah calls them people of Gomorrah but Christ will have them worse and their Judgment more intolerable then theirs And that not only the profane of them but the civil and Religious like who believed not in him VVell then here is the advantage ye get of your Name of Christianity of your priviledge of hearing his VVord dayly Ye who never ponder it to tremble at it or to rejoyce in it who cannot be moved either to joy or grief for Spiritual things Neither Law nor Gospel moves the most part of you I say here is all your gain ye shall receive a reward with Gentiles and Pagans Yea ye shall be in a worse case nor they in the Day of the Lord. The civil Christian shall be worse then the profane Turke and ye shall not then boast that ye were Christians but shall desire that ye had dwelt in the place where the Gospel had never been preached It is a Character of the Nations that they call not on God and of Heathen Families that they pray not to him Jer. 10. 25. And wrath must be poured on them VVhat then are the most part of you Ye neither bow a Knee in secret nor in your Families to God your time is otherwayes employed ye have no leisure to pray twice or thrice a day alone except when ye put on your Cloathes ye utter some ordinary bâ—blings Ye cannot be driven to Family worship shall not God rank you in Judgement with these Heathen Families Or shall it not be more tolerable for them nor for you And are not the most part of you every one given to Covetousnesse your heart and eye after it seeking Gain and Advantage more then the Kingdome of Heaven Doth not every one of you as you have power in your hand oppresse one another wrong one another Now our end in speaking thus to you is not to drive you to desparation No indeed but as there was a word of the Lord sent to such by Isaiah so we bring a word unto you That which ruines you is your carnal confidence Ye are presumptuous as this people and cryes the Temple of the Lord the VVork of the Lord c. as if these would save you Know therefore that all these will never cover you in the day of wrath Know there is a necessity to make peace with God and your righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of a profession and external priviledges and duties or else ye shall be as far from the Kingdome of Heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah VVe speak of Rulers sins that ye may mourn for them lest ye be Judged with them If ye do not mourn for them in secret know that they are your sins Ye are Companions with them Many fret grudge and cry out against Oppression but who weeps in secret Who prayes and deprecats Gods wrath least it come upon them And while it is so The Oppression of Rulelers becomes the sin of the oppressed themselves Hear the Word of the Lord It were a suitable preparation for any Word that is spoken to make it take imprâ—ssion if it were looked on as the Word of the Lord and Law of our God And truely no man can hâ—ar aright unlesse he hear it so Why doth not this Word of the Lord return with more Fruit Why doth not men tremble or rejoyce at it Certainly because it is not received as Gods Word There is a practical Heresie in our hearts which rather may be called Atheism VVe do not believe the Scriptures I do not say men call it in question but I say ye believe them not It is one thing to believe with the heart another thing not to doubt of it Ye doubt not of it not because ye do indeed believe it but because ye do not at all consider it It is one thing to confesse with the Mouth and another thing to believe with the Heart For ye confesse the Scriptures to be Gods VVord not because ye believe them but because ye have received such a Tradition from your Fathers have heard it from the womb unquestioned Oh that this were engraven on your Heart thaâ— these Commands these Curses these Promises are Divine Truthes the VVords and thâ— Oath of the Holy One. If every word oâ— Truth came stamped with his Authority and were received in the Name of God himself what influence would it have on the Spirits and the practices of men This would be a great Reformer would Reform more in a Moneth then Church and Staâ—e hath done these many Years VVhy are Rulers and People not Converted and Healed for all that is spoken Here it is Who believes our report VVho believes that our report is thy own Testimony O Lord When Ministers threaten you in Gods Name if his Authority were stamped on the Threatning if men did seriously apprehend it were Gods own Voice would they not tremble When the Gospel and the joyful Sound comes forth if ye apprehended that same Authority upon it which ye who are Convinced believes in the Law would ye not be comforted Finally I may fay it is this point of Atheisme of Inconsideration and Brutishnesse that destroys the multitude makes all Means Ineffectual to them and retards the progresse of Christians Men do not consider that this word is the word of the Eternal and True and Faithful God and that not one Jot of it will faill Here is a Poynt of Reformation I would put you to If ye mind indeed to Reform let this enter into your Hearts and sink down that the Law and Gospel is the Word of God and resolve to come and hear Preachings so as the Voice of Jesus Christ the true and faithful witnesse If ye do not take it so now yet God will Judge you so at the end He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that hears not you heares not me If ye thought ye had to do with God every Sabbath would ye come so carelesly and be so stupid and inconsiderate before the Judge of all the Earth But ye will find in the end that it was God whom ye knew not SERMON IX Isai 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me saith the Lord c. THis is the Word he calls them to hear and a strange Word Isaiah asks what means your sacrifices God will not have them I think the people would say in their own hearts what means the Prophet What would the Lord be at Do we any thing but what he Commanded us Is he angry at us for Obeying him What means this Word Is he not repealing the Statute and Ordinance he had made in Israel If
particular antipathy against and refuse others But the Lord will not be so served As he will not share with the world and divide the Soul and service of man with Creatures so as Mâ—mmon should get part and he his part No if we choose the one we must refuse the other for so will he not suffer his Word and Commands to be divided There must be some universality in respect of the Gospel and the Law and a conjunction of these two or we cannot please him If Religion do not include the Gospel we are yet upon the old Covenant of Works according to which none can be justified If it do not include the Law in the Hands of a Mediator then we turn the Grace of god unto wantonness If it shut out Jesus Christ and have no use of him how can either we or our performances stand or be accepted before his holy eyes If it exclude the Law that Christ came to establish how can he be pleased with our religion Both of these offer an indignity to the Son of God The Sum then of Christian Religion is Believing and Sanctification of the spirit unto obedience that is the root and fountain this is the fruit and stream Justification of our persons and sanctification of our lives and hearts This is pure Religion and undefiled And therefore Isaiah sayes Wash you make you clean Cleanse in the only true fountain of Christs blood It is not your purifications of the Law your many washings with water and hysope It is not the blood of buls and goats can purge your consciences from dead works they do but purify your flesh but cannot wash your souls worse defiled This blood of Jâ—sus Christ is that clean water that he must sprinkle on you if you would be clean If you take any other water any other righteousness but his and wash thy self therewith suppose it be snow water that washeth cleanest thy most exact conversation yet he will plunge thee in the mire till thy own cloaths abhore thee Job 9. 30 31. Now when ye have washed your persons ye need not save to wash your feet sayes Christ your dayly conversation reform it in the vertue of that blood for we are not called to uncleanness but unto holiness And therefore Put away the evil of yoor doings c. God hath put away the guilt of your doings by Justification now put ye away the evil of your doings by Sanctification c. And if ye would know what Sanctification is Cease to do evil do not return to the old puddle to wallow in it Ye that are cleansed by this blood O! think how unbeseeming it is to you to defile your selves again with these things ye are cleansed from But now learn to do well ye are given up to Christ ye must be his Disciples and he will teach you Learn of me sayes Christ you need no other law almost but his example he is a visible and speaking law yet seek Judgement As ye ought to look on my example so especially ponder that word and rule of practice and behaviour that I have left behind me and given out as the law-giver of the redeemed have I redeemed you And should not I be the redeemmed and ransomed ones King Is there any society in the world wants a law order and government neither must ye who are delivered from bondage enfranchised and made free indeed Now ye should of all men most live by a law And when ye know that rule then apply it to your several vocations and callings let the Magistrat act according to it and every man according to it Religion consists not in a general notion but condescends to our particular practice to reform it You see then what we would presse upon your Consciences It is true religion that we would have you perswaded unto All men have some kind of Religion even Heathens who worship Idols but the true religion respects the true and living God Now what is it to worship the true and living God what is the service of him that may be called Religion indeed Should we be the prescrivers of it No certainly he must carve solely in that or else it cannot please him Therefore To the Law and to the Testemony if ye speak not according to this and worship not according to this word of God it is because there is no light into you Ye may have a religion before men pure and undefiled but if it be not so before God and the father I pray you to what purpose is it I am sure it is all lost labour nay it is labour with loss instead of gain O that ye were perswaded to look and search the Scriptures Think ye to have eternal life out of them and think ye to have eternal life by them who do not labour to know the way of it set down there Every on of you have a different model of religion according to your fancies and breedings according as your lusts will suffer you The rule that the most part walk by is the course and example of the world Is not this darknesse and grosse darkness Others model their duties according to their ability they will do all they can do with ease and without troubling themselves and they think God may be well pleased with that I pray you consider and hear the word of the Lord and Law of your God hath he set down here the rule and perfect patern of true Religion and will ye never so much own it as to examine yours according to it the scriptures are the touch-stone If you would not have a counterfeit Religion deceiving you in the end when ye have trusted to it I pray you try it by the word of God Oh that this principle were once sunk into your hearts I may not walk at randome if I please my self and satisfy my own will if that be not also Gods will I shall have neither gain nor comfort of it his will is manifested in his word I will search and find what God hath required of me for if I be not certain of his will I may be doing all my dayes and sweating out my life and yet losse my pains and oyl I say this word of the Lord that Isaiah calls to the people to hear V. 10. will at length judge you Your Religion will be tryed in the day of accompts according to it not according to your rules and methods ye have prescribed unto your selves Now if ye in the mean time shall judge your selves according to another rule and abâ—olve your selves and in the end God shall judge you according to this word and condemn you were ye not fools in neglecting this word The whole will of God concerning your duty may be summed up in two John hath one of them 1 Jo. 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we shoud believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Paul hath another to
peace within you and say that ye have peace with God Yet certainly the Lord thy God is against thee and will not spare thee Deut. 29. 19. Many of you blesse your selves in your own hearts when ye hear the Curse and Threatning of the Law ye say God forbid or all that were true Well thus saith the Lord all these Curses that are written in this book shall ly upon thee and the Lord shall separate thee unto evil because ye take not with your enimity there can be no treaty a Mediator can have no imployment from you How shall the breach of peace be made up Since the first Covenant cannot be made up again where shall the remedy be found God is just and righteous Men are rebellious and sinful Can these meet and the one not be consumed Will not God be a consuming Fire and men as Stubble before the Lords presence Therefore there must be a Mediator between them a Peace-maker to make of two one to take up the difference And this Mediator must be like both and yet neither wholly the one nor the other He must therefore be God and Man that he may be a fit Days man betwixt God and man And this is our Lord Jesus Christ In his Divinity he comes near to God in his Humanity he comes near to man In his Person he is between both and he is fit to make peace And therefore he is a Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. And that he may be a Prince of Peace he must be both An Everlasting Father like God and a young Child like unto man God to prevail with God and a man to engage for man And therefore he is called our Peace Eph. 2. 14. Our Lord Jesus Christ enters in a Covenant with the Father wherein he undertakes to bear our Curse and the chastisement of our Peace he is content to be dealt with as the Rebel upon me upon me be the iniquity and so there comes an interruption as it were of that blessed peace he had with the Father he is content that there should be a Covering of Wrath spread over the Fathers Love that he should handle the Son as an Enemy And therefore it is that sinners are admitted as Friends his Obedience takes away our Rebellion The Cloud of the Lords Displeasure powers down upon him that it might be fair weather to us The Armies of Curses that were against us Encounter him and he by being overcome overcometh By being slain by Justice Satan and Sin overcometh all those and killeth the enmity on the cross making peace by his Blood Col. 2. 14 15. Eph. 2 15. And it is this Sacrifice that hath pacified Heaven the sweet smell of it hath gone above and made peace in the High places Here then is the priviledge of a Believer to be at peace with God to be one with him And this indeed is Life Eternal to be united unto the Fountain of Life in whose favour is Life and whose loving kindnesse is better then Life Is not this a blessed Estate Whatever a man hath done against God it is all forgiven and forgotten shall never come in remembrance Are not Angels blessed who are friends with God Such is the Soul whose sins are pardoned through Christ their sins are as if they never had been The Soul is not only escaped that terrible wrath of God but being at peace with God all the goodnesse that is communicable to Creatures it shall partake of That they may be one as we are one that they may be perfect in one Joh. 17. This Christ prayed for and this was the end of his Death to make of two one So then the Glory that Christ is partaker of with the Father we must be partakers of with him and all this by vertue of that peace with God by him Oh if ye knew what enimity with God is how would it indear and make precious peace with him The one engageth all that is in God to be against a man the other engageth all that is in him to be for a man And is not he then a great One whither he be a Friend or an Enemy Is he not the best Friend and worst Enemy Who hath most power yea all power to employ for whom he will and against whom he will What a blessed change is it to have God of a consuming Fire made a Sun with Healing and Consolation That the Righteous Holy and Just God before whom no flesh can stand should accept so rebellious sinners and dwell among them He had not only power to destroy but Law against us also What a perfect peace is it then that the Judge becometh a merciful Father and the Law of Ordinances is cancelled and that power imployed to keep Salvation to us and us to Salvation Ye who have made Peace and Atonement through Christs Blood rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God There wants nothing to make you compleatly blessed but the clear and perfect sight and knowledge of your Estate before God Now when this peace which is made up in Heaven is intimated unto the Conscience then all the Tempests and Clouds of it evanish and this is the peace of believing which is the Souls resting and quieting it self upon the believed favour of God There may be a great Calm above goodwill in God tomards men and yet great Tempests in this lower Region no peace on earth There is a peace of Conscience which is a disease of Conscience a benumednesse of Conscience or a sleep of Conscience when men walk in the imagination of their own hearts and flatter themselves in their own eyes will not trouble themselves with the apprehension of the wrath of God when Souls will not suffer their sin or the curse to enter in This is that no peace which the Lord speaks often of it is but a dream and when a man awaketh alas what a dreadful sight meets he with first sudden destruction Sin enters in the Conscience and the Law the strength of sin and so that peace endeth in an eternal disquietnesse But what is the reason that notwithstanding of Gods Justice and mens Sins so many are not affraid of him so many passe the time without fear of Wrath and Hell Is it not because they have taken hold of his Strength and made peace with him No indeed but because they know not the power of his Anger to fear him according to his Wrath Who will spend one hour in the examination of his own ways in searching out sins in counting his debt till he find it past payment No men intertain the thoughts of sin and hell and wrath as if it were coals in their bosom they shake them out they like and love any diversion from them Oh ignorance maketh much peace I would say security which is so much worse then fear because it is so far from the remedy that it knoweth not the evil and danger It is not the rising of the Sun of Righteousnesse
strange how untoward and froward we are a perverse generation we do not believe his Threatnings but fancie we receive his Promises or else believeing his Threatnings we question his Promises But know this for a truth his last Word is more weighty and the unbelief of it is most dangerous Ye have not keeped his Commands and so the curse is come upon you do ye believe that If ye do then the Gospel speakes unto you The God of Truth hath one word more He that believes shall be saved notwithstanding of all his breaking of the Law if ye do not set your Seal to this also then ye say he is not a God of Truth ye say he is a liar And as for you who have committed your Souls to him as to a faithful keeper and acquiesced unto his Word of Promise for Salvation think how unsutable it is for you to distrust him in other lesser things Ye have the promise of this life whoever hath the Promises of the life to come Therefore do not make him a liar in these He is a God of Truth and will let you want no good thing Say to the righteous it shall he well with him what ever be Let Heaven and Earth mix through other yet ye may be as Mount Sion unmoved in the midst of many floods because of the Promises Without iniquity who doubts of that say ye What needs this be added who charges him with iniquity or sin Nay but stay and consider and you shall find great weight in this It is true none dare charge him openly or speak in expresse terms against his Holinesse yet if we judge of our own and others practices and dispositions as the Lord useth to construct of them if we resolve our murmurings impatience self-absolutions and excuses to hold off convictions into plain language if we would translate them into a Scripture-style certainly it will be found that the most part of men if not all use to impute iniquity to God and accuse him rather then take with accusations laid against themselves And therefore the Lord useth to go to Law with his people he who is the Judge of the world that cannot do unrighteously he who is the potter and we all the clay yet he so far condescends to us for convincing us as sometimes to refer the controversie between him and his people to other creatures as Micah 6. 12. He calls the mountains and the foundations of the earth to judge between him and his people and sometimes he appeals unto their own consciences and is content though judge to stand and be judged by these who were guilty as vers 3 and Jer. 2. vers 5 and 31. All this supposes that when the Lord would endeavour to convince them of iniquity they did rather recriminat and took not with their own faults This is a truth generally acknowledged by all He who is the judge of the world doth no iniquity But O! that ye considered it till the meditation of it were engraven on your Spirits the seal of Gods holinesse that ye might fear before him and never call him to accompt for his matters Who can say I have purged my heart from iniquity Among men the holiest are defiled with it and so are all their actions But here is one that ye may give him an implicit faith so to speak he is a God of truth and can speak no lie be does no iniquity and cannot do wrong to any man Would there be so much impatience amongst you and fretting against his dispensations if ye believed this solidly Would ye repine against his holy and just wayes were it not to charge God with iniquity Your murmuring and grudging at his dispensations is with child of blasphemies and he who can search the reins sees it and constructs so of it You say by interpretation that if ye had the government of your own matters or of Kingdoms ye would order them better then he doth how difficult a thing is it to perswade men to take with their own iniquity O how many excuses and pretences how many extenuations are used that this conviction may not pierce deeply But all this speaks so much blasphemy that iniquity is in God Ye cannot take with your own iniquities but ye charge his Majesty with iniquity Just and right is he Is this any new thing was it not said already that he is without iniquity and his wayes judgement But alas how ignorant are we of God and slow of heart to conceive him as he is therefore is there line upon line and precept upon precept and name upon name if it be possible that at length we may apprehend God as he is Alas our knowledge is but ignorance our light darknesse while it is shut up in the corner of our mind and shines not into the heart and hath no influence on our practice And the truth is the belief of divine truths is almost no more but a not contradicting them we do not seriously think of them as either to consent to them or deny them Is there any consideration amongst us now of Gods justice and righteousnesse though it be frequently spoken of And what advantage shall ye have if ye do not consider them O how hard is it to perswade mens hearts of this that God is just and will by no means acquit the guilty there are so many delusions drunk in in mens hearts contrary to his truth Let no man deceive you be not deceived with vain words know ye not saith our Apostle these are strange prefaces would ye not think the point of truth subtile that there needed so much prefacing unto and yet what is it even that which all men grant Gods wrath comes on the children of disobedience but alas few men consider but deceive themselves with dreams of escaping it though men know it yet they know it not for they walk as if they knew no such thing Alwayes however this is of little moment to affect our spirits now yet in the day that God shall set your iniquities before your face and set his justice also before your eyes O how sad and serious a thing will it be then If these two verses were ingraven on our hearts Gods justice and holinesse our corruption and vilenesse I think there would be other thoughts among us then there are SERMON IV. Deut. 32. 5. They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children c. WE doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives It might seem strange to us that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth and they to be so rebellious and perverse if our own experience did not teach us how free his choise is and how long-suffering he is and constant in his choise His people are called to a conformity with himself Be ye holy for I am holy Lev. ch 19. and 20. and to a difformity and separation from
the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4. 3. This is the wiil of God even your sanctification And these two make up this text so that it units both Gospel and Law The Commandment of the Law comes forth and it is found that we have broken and are guilty that we cannot answer for one of a thousand the Law entring makes sin abound our inability yea impossibility of obedience is more discovered well then the Gospel proclames the Lord Jesus Christ for the Saviour of sinners and commands us under pain of damnation to believe in him to cast our souls on him as one able to save as one who hath obeyed the Law for us so that this command of believing in Christ is answerable to all the breaches of the Law and tends to make them up in Christ When he proclaimed the Law on Mount Sinai with terrour that which ye hear exprest is not his first Comandment which ye are in the first instance to obey for all these we have broken but it hath a Gospel-command in its bosome it leads to Jesus Christ and if ye could read the mind of God in it ye would resolve all these commands which condemn you and curse you into one command of believing in the Son that ye may be saved from that condemnation And if ye obey this command which is his last command and most perremptory then are the breaches of all the rest made up the intent of all the rest is fulfilled though not in your obedience yet in Christs which is better then ours Believing in Christ presents God with a perfect righteousness with an obedience even to the death of the Cross When a sinner hears the holy and spiritual sense of the Law and sees it in the light of Gods holiness O how vile must he appear to himself and how must he abhor himself What original pollution what actual pollution what a fountain within what uncleanness in streams without will discover it self Now when the most part of men get any sight of this presently they fall a washing and cleansing themselves or hiding their filthiness And what water take they Their own tears or sorrows their own resolutions their own reformations But alas we are still more plunged in our own filthiness that is still marked before him because all that is al 's foul as that we would have washen away What garment do men take to hide themselves ordinarily Is it not their own righteousness Is it not a shirt of some duty that is spread over transgressions Do not men think their sins hid if they can mourn and pray for a time Their consciences are eased by reflection upon this But alas thine iniquity is still marked Shall filthiness hide filthiness Thy righteousness is as a vile garment as a menstruous cloth Isa 64. 6. as well as thine unrighteousness how then shall it cover thy nakedness Seing it is so then what is the Lords mind concerning our cleansing seing stretched out hands and many prayers will not do it what shall I do The Lord hath shewed thee what thou shalt do and that is that thou do nothing in relation to that end that thou shouldst undertake to wash away the least spot by all thy repentance yet must thou wash and make clean and the water is brought new unto you even the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin wash in this blood and ye shall be clean And what is it to wash in this blood It is to believe in Christ Jesus to lay hold on the all-sufficient vertue of it to trust our souls to it as a sufficient ransome for all our sins to spread the covering of Christ his righteousness over all our righteousneses and unrighteousness as having both alike need to be hid from his holy eys Jesus Christ came by water and by blood 1 Jo. 5. 6. by water to Sanctifie and by blood to Justifie by the power and cleansing vertue of the Holy Ghost to take away sin in the beeing of it and by the vertue of his blood to take away sin in the guilt and condemnation of it Now I conceive he presses a twofold exercise upon them in this washing and both have relation to the blood of Jesus Christ to wit repentance and faith If they be not all one yet they are in this point inseparably conjoyned Repentance waters and saps the roots of believing which otherwise would dry up Therefore in stead of outward forms and ceremonies of Religion he presseth them to inward sorrow and contrition of heart for sin that they might present an acceptable sacrifice to God a contrite heart This is more pleasing then many specious duties of men without Psal 50. 7 c. But when I press upon you repentance do not conceive that we would have it preparatory to faith that ye should sit down and mourn for your sins for a time till your hearts be so far humbled and then ye might come as prepared and fitted to Jesus Christ This is the mistake of many Christians which keeps them from solid settling We find it ordinary souls making scruples and objections against coming to Jesus Christ because of want of such preparations of measures of humiliation and contrition which they prescribe to themselves or do behold in others and so they sit down and apply themselves to such a work applyes their consciences to the Law and curse and they find in stead of softning hardness in stead of contrition of spirit more dulness and security At least they cannot get satisfaction to themselves in that they seek and thus they hang their head over their impenitent hearts and lament not so much that repentance is not as that they cannot find it in themselves Alas there are many diseases in this one malady If it were imbowelled unto you ye would not believe that such a way were so contradictory to the Gospel For first ye who are so have this principle in your hearts which is the foundation of it I cannot come to Christ so unclean I must be a little washen ere I come the most gross uncleanness and hardness of my heart must be taken away and so I shall be accepted Alas what derogation is this to the blessed Saviour What absurdity is it I am too unclean to come to the fountain I must be a little purged before I come to this fountain that cleanseth from all Sin I pray you why was the fountain opened was it not for sin and uncleanness And this thou sayes by interpretation If I were so and so humbled then I might come and be worthy to come when the want of such a measure debars thee as unworthy Doth not the having of it in thy estimation make the worthy And so ye come with a present in your hand to Jesus Christ with a price and reward to him who gives freely Again thou denyest Christ to be the only fountain of all Grace and so it is most dishonourable to him If thou would have repentance before
in peace great peace have they that love thy law Obedience and delight in it doth not make peace but it is the way of peace and much meditation in the blessed word of God is the most excellent mean to preserve this peace if it be secured with much correspondence with Heaven by prayer Phil. 4. 6 7. If you would disburden your hearts dayly at the Throne of Grace peace should guard and keep your heart and then your peace would be perfect indeed But because your Faith is here imperfect your requests few and infervent your follies and iniquities many therefore is this promised perfection a stranger to the most part of Christians Always what we want here we must expect to have made up shortly Heaven is a Land of peace and all things are there in full age Here all are in minority it is but yet night but when the day shall break up and the shadows fly away and the Prince of Peace shall appear and be revealed he shall bring Peace and Grace both with him and both perfect To him be praise and glory SERMON XIV Isai 59. 20. And the Redeemer shall come unto Sion to them that turn c. DOctrines As things have their Seasons and Times every thing is beautiful in its Season So there is no word of Truth but it hath a Season and Time in which it is beautiful And indeed that is a great part of Wisdom to bring forth every thing in its Season to discern when and where and to whom it is pertinent and edifying to speak such and such Truths But there is one Doctrine that is never out of Season And therefore it may be preached in season and out of season as the Apostle commandeth Indeed to many hearts it is always out of season and especially in times of Trouble and Anguish when it should be most seasonable when the opportunity may commend the beauty of it But in it self and to as many as have ever found the power of it on their hearts it is always the most seasonable and pertinent Doctrine I mean the very subject matter of this Text The news of a Redeemer to Captive sinners it is in it self such glad tidings and shines with so much beauty and splendor to troubled sinners that it casteth abroad a luster and beauty on the feet of the Messengers that carry it Isai 40. It is a Cordial in Affliction whither outward or inward and it is withall the only true comfort of prosperity it allayeth the bitterness of things that cross us and filleth up the emptinesse of things that pretend to please us It giveth sweetnesse to the one and true sweetnesse to the other Reason then that should always be welcome to us which we stand always in need of that it should always be new and fresh in our Affection which is always recent and new in its Operation and Efficacy toward us Other news how great or good soever suppose they were able to fill the hearts of all in a Nation with Joy yet they grow stale they lose their vertue within few days What footsteps or remainder is of all the Triumphs and Trophies of Nations of all their Solemnities for their victorious successe at home and abroad â—hese great news which once were the subject of the discourse of and delight of many thousands who report them now with delight So these things that may cause Joy and Triumph to some at this time as they cannot choose but make more hearts sad then glad so they will quickly lose even that Efficacy they have and become tasteless as the white of an Egg to them that are most ravished with them But my Beloved here is glade tydings of a Redeemer come to Sion to save sinners which have no occasion of sadness in them to any but to them who are not so happy as to consider them or believe them and they are this day after many hundred I may say thousand years since they were first published as green and recent as refreshing to wearied Souls as ever they were Yea such is the Nature of them and such an everlasting spring of Consolation is in them that the oftner they be told and the more they be considered the sweeter they are rhey grow green in old age and bring forth fruit and are fat and flowrishing and indeed it is the never dying vertue and everlasting sape of this word of life that maketh the righteous so Psal 92. 14. This word of a Redeemer at the first publâ—shing and for a long time was but like waters issuing out from under the threshold and then they came to the Ankles when it was published to a whole Nation but still the longer it swells the higher above Knees and Loyns till it be a great inexhausted River and thus it runs at this day through the world and hath a Healing Vertue and a Quickning Vertue Ezek. 47. And a Sanctifying Vertue vers 9. 12. Now this is our errand to you to invite you to come to these Waters If ye thirst come to be quenched if ye thirst not ye have so much the more need to come because your thirst after things that will not profit you will destroy you and your unsensibleness of your need of this is your greatest misery That the words may be more lively unto us we may call to mind the greatest and deepest designe that hath been carried on in the world by the Maker and Ruler of the world is the Marriage of Christ his Son with the Church This was primely intended when he made the world as a Palace to Celebrat it into This was especially aimed at when he joyned Adam and Eva in the beginning of time together in Paradise that the second Adam should be more solemnly joyned to the Church at the end of time in the Paradise of Heaven And this the Apostle draws out as the Samplar and Arch-coppy of all Mariages and Conjunctions in the Creatures Eph. 5. Now this being the great designe of God of which all other things done in time are but the footsteps and low representations But the great Question is how this shall be brought about because of the great distance and huge disproportion of the Parties He being the brightness of the Fathers glory and we being wholly ecclipsed and darkned since our fall He higher then the heaven of heavens and we fallen as low as Hell into a dungeon of darkness and misery led away by sin and Satan lying in that abominable posture represented in Ezek. 16. Not only unsuitable to engage his Love but fit to procure even the loathing of all that pass by Now it being thus the words do furnish us with the noble resolution of the Son about the taking away of the distance and the royal offer of the Father to make the Match hold the better both flowing from infinit Love in the most free and ablolute manner can be imagined The Sons Resolution which is withal the Fathers Promise is to