these things cannot be Graces but in a Concomitancy Repentance without Faith what would it be When we see our Sins and bewail them Despair would make us sit down and dy If there were not a Saviour to heal our Natures and convert our Souls Neither can Faith be without Repentance for unless there be a Confession of past Sins with a resolution of future Obedience we continue in our Obstinacy and Stubbornness and so we are uncapable of Mercy our Case is not compassionable In short Repentance without Faith would degenerate into the horrour of the Damned and our Sorrow for Sin would be tormenting rather than curing to us And then Faith would be a licentious and presumptuous Confidence without Repentance unless it be accompanied with this hearty Consent of living in the Love Obedience and Service of God with a detestation of our Former ways it would be a turning the Grace of God into wantonness Therefore these two always go together Which is the first I will not enter upon but the one cannot be without the other 2. Let me shew you wherein they differ The one respects God the other Christ. 1. Repentance towards God While we live in Sin we are not only out of our Way but out of our Wits We were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Tit. 3. 3. We live in Rebellion against him against whom we cannot make our party good and withal contenting our selves with a false transitory Happiness instead of a solid and eternal one we never come to our Wits again till we think of returning to God As the Prodigal when he came to himself he thought of returning to his Father And Psal. 22. 28. They shall remember and turn to the Lord. So long as we lie in our Sins we are like Men in a dream we consider not from whence we are nor whither we are going nor what shall become of us to all Eternity but go on against all Reason and Conscience provoking God and destroying our own Souls Man is never in his true posture again till he returns to God as his Sovereign Lord and chief Happiness as our Sovereign Lord that we may perform our duty to him and our Felicity and chief Good that we may seek all our Happiness in him And none do repent but those that give up themselves to obey God and to do his Will as he is the Sovereign Lord 1 Pet. 4. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God and look upon him as their chief Happiness and prefer his Favour above all the sensual Pleasures of the World that they may be able in truth to say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Psal. 73. 25. This is Repentance towards God 2. There is Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. This Grace is necessary that we may own our Redeemer and be thankful to him as the Author of our Deliverance Rom. 7. 25. O wretched Man that I am But thanks be to God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And also Faith is necessary that we may trust our selves in his hands We are to take Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to hear him as our Prophet Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son hear him We are to receive him as our Lord and King Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him We are to consider him as the great High-Priest of our Confession Heb. 3. 1. Let us consider the Lord Iesus the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Confession Hear him we must as a Prophet that we may form our Hopes by his Covenant and frame our Lives by his holy and pure Doctrine Receive him we must as a King that we may obey him in all things Consider him as a Priest that we may depend upon the Merit and Value of his Sacrifice and Intercession and may the more confidently plead his Covenant and Promises to God Now without this there can be no Commerce between us and Christ. Who will learn of him as a Prophet whom he takes to be a Deceiver obey him as a King who doth not believe his Power or depend upon him with any confidence or hopes of Mercy if he doth not believe the value of his Merit and Sacrifice Herein these things differ Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the one respects the End God the other the Means Christ. Repentance more especially respects our Duty Faith our Comfort Repentance newness of Life for the future and returning to the Primitive Duty the Love of God and obeying his Will Faith Pardon of what is past and Hope of Mercy to come In short to God we give up our selves as our Supreme Lord to Christ as Mediatour who alone can bring us to God To God as taking his Will for the Rule of our Lives and Actions and preferring his Love above all that is dear in the World To Christ as our Lord and Saviour who makes our Peace with God and gives the Holy Spirit to change our Hearts that we may for ever live upon him as our Life Hope and Strength Thus I have briefly shewed you how Repentance respects God and Faith our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. That these Graces having their peculiar Reference are required in order to Pardon for distinct Reasons and Ends. First Repentance is required for these Reasons 1. Because otherwise God cannot have his End in Pardon which is to recover the lost Creation that we may again live in his Love and Obedience Surely Christ came to seek and save that which was lost Now to be lost in the first and primitive Sence was to be lost to God Take the lost Sheep or Groat it was lost to the Owner the Son to the Father and so if Christ came to save that which was lost he came to recover us to God therefore said to redeem us to God 2. Neither can the Redeemer do his Work for which God hath appointed him 1 Pet. 3. 18. He dyed the Iust for the Unjust that he might bring us to God We accept him in all his Offices for this end I am the Way Truth and Life no Man comes to the Father but by me Therefore whole Christianity from the beginning to the end a short Description of it is this A Coming to God by Christ. Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost whom all those that come to God by him 3. Without it we should not have our Happiness It is our Happiness to please and enjoy God we are not in a capacity to please and enjoy God till we are returned to him They that are in the Flesh cannot please the Lord. Nor to enjoy him here for here we see his Face in Righteousness Nor hereafter for without Holiness no Man shall see God Secondly But why is Faith in our Lord
for the Glory of God and the Advancement of his own Kingdom I say the Glory of God Rom. 6. 10. In that he liveth he liveth unto God His own Kingdom Psal. 110. 1. Sit thou at my right Hand till I make thine Enemies thy Footstool He is at the right-hand of God and there shall abide till he return to judge the World In the mean time he hath the Inspection of all Affairs All Iudgment is put into his Hands Joh. 5. 22. Things are not left to the Will of Man nor to their own Contingency but are guided and ordered by him with good Advice However Matters go Christ is Governor who is not cannot be deposed from his Regal Office nor justled out of the Throne As Luther said upon some Loss that befel the Friends of the Gospel Etiamnum vivit regnat Christus When the Floods lifted up their Voice and all things seemed to threaten Ruin and to over-whelm then follows The Lord reigneth The Lord on high is mightier than the Noise of many Waters Psal. 93. 1 4. It is spoken of the Kingdom of Christ for the advancing and preserving of which he gives forth signal Testimonies of his Regal Power 2. In spiritual Distresses when we want Life and Quickning are opposed with troubled thoughts about our sinful Infirmities Your Redeemer hath Life in himself but not for himself alone he came into the World that we might have a fuller Communication of his Grace Ioh. 10. 10. Now he is gone back again to God and filled with the Spirit to communicate it to the Members of his Mystical Body Eph. 4. 10. He is ascended up to fill all things When we are dead our Redeemer liveth as a Fountain of Life to God's People 3. In outward Calamities He liveth when other Comforts fail or are taken away from us he will prove the nearest and best Friend when all others forsake us he will not only sympathize with us but help us and knoweth how to to give a comfortable Issue out of the sorest Troubles 2 Cor. 4. 14 16. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Iesus shall raise up us also by Iesus and shall present us with you For which cause we faint not 4. It is a great Comfort in Calumnies and Slanders when our Names are taken up in the Lips of the Taunters and cast forth as evil Iob here when his Friends suspected him as fallen from the Grace of God puts his Cause into the Hands of the great Mediator who was now with God in Heaven making Intercession for him and will one Day stand on the Earth judging the World We need not fear any partial Judge here below nor be troubled at their Prejudices and Misconstructions Christ is the true Judge who will bring to light the hidden things of the Heart and then shall every Man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4. 15. That is every one that hath done well Though we have Failings yet those that flee to a Redeemer for Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace to walk uprightly shall then be acquitted 5. Chiefly it is a Comfort against the Fears of Death that you may yeeld up yourselves into Christ's Hands Thoughts of dwelling with God in Eternal Life are less comfortable because Death and the Grave interpose we must pass through them before we can enjoy him But though we die Christ liveth who is the Resurrection and those that believe in him shall live though they die Ioh. 11. 25. For our Souls he standeth ready to receive them Acts 7. 54. Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And our Bodies at the last day shall be raised again to immortal Life When Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. We need not fear Death for by his dying and rising again the Powers of the Grave are shaken and Death it self is become mortal The Grave is not a Prison but a Place of Repose Isa. 57. 2. And Death not a final Extinction but a Passage into Glory It is ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours Life Death Things present Things to come all are yours And it is Gain Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain Therefore we may go to the Grave with Comfort and Hope Christ died and yet is alive so shall we He is risen as the First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. The whole Harvest was blessed and sanctified by an handful of the first-Fruits dedicated to God When Christ arose he virtually drew all the Elect out of the Grave with him being renewed and reconciled by his Grace they may be confident of a joyful Resurrection for Christ is their fore-fruits The First-fruits did not bless the Tares Darnel and Cockle that grew amongst the Corn no Man that ever offered the first-Fruits desired a Blessing upon the Weeds no Bind the Tares in Bundles and gather the Wheat into my Barn But if he indeed be your Redeemer and hath redeemed you from all Iniquity that is from the Guilt and Power of Sin it is a Comfort to you to know that he lives gloriously with God and will draw all his own after him that they may live gloriously with him He is our Fore-runner Heb. 6. 20. Who is gone to Heaven and hath taken Possession for himself and in our Behalf to make the Way more passable for us When we die we do but go thither whither he is gone before us he standeth upon the Shore ready to receive us into Glory Use of Exhortation I. Believe it and be perswaded of this Truth that you have a Redeemer living with God in the Heavens 1. This is a matter of meer Faith and therefore it must be soundly believed before it can have any efficacy upon us Some points of Faith are mixed partly evident by Natural Reason partly by Divine Revelation as that there is a God it is matter of sensible Experience Rom. 1. 20. and a matter of Faith also whosoever comes to God must believe that God is Nature helpeth forward the entertainment of these things but Redemption by Christ is a matter of pure and meer Faith and is received by believing Gods Testimony 2 Thess. 1. 10. there is no improving these points till we soundly believe them 2. Because we often think we believe these general Truths when indeed we do not believe them at all or not with such a degree of assent as we imagine Our Lord when he speaks of these Truths Joh. 11. 26. He that believeth in me shall live though he die Believest thou this Joh. 16. 31. Do ye now believe We conceit our Faith to be much stronger than indeed it is about the main Articles of Faith 3. Because among them that profess themselves Christians there are monstrous defects in their Faith Naturally we look upon the Gospel as a well devised Fable 2 Pet. 1. 16. and many that dare not speak it out yet do but speak of Christ
saved 4. Necessitate Signi as Evidences of our Right to Salvation both to others and our selves Works or external Acts are more sensible and visible and also liable to the notice of our own Consciences and it is more hard to judg of the internal Grace than the external Fruits 1. As to others God seeth what is in our Hearts but Men see it not till the Effects manifest it When Iohn suspected the Pharisees he said to them Mat. 3. 8. Bring ye forth therefore Fruits meet for Repentance The Fear of God is more known by the external Act than by the internal Habit therefore that Description is given Prov. 8. 13. The Fear of the Lord is to hate Evil Pride and Arrogancy and the evil Way and the froward Mouth do I hate And Iob 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Understanding The Current of a Mans Life and Actions doth best expound and interpret his Heart Thus the Psalmist discovered the wicked Psal. 36. 1. The Transgression of the Wicked saith within my Heart that there is no Fear of God before his Eyes 2. To our selves holy Conversation and Godliness is the surest note of our Regeneration We judg others by external Works alone For the Tree is known by its Fruit Mat. 7. 16. Charity forbids us to pry any further but we judg our selves by internal and external Works together If within we have Faith in Christ a love to God and hatred of Evil a delight in Holiness a deep sense of the World to come all which Graces make up the new Nature then these things issue out into an holy Conversation this breedeth Joy and Peace of Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 1 John 3. 18 19. Let us not love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth and hereby we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our Hearts before him 3. That good Works must not be opposed to God's Mercy and free Grace or Christ's Satisfaction Merit and Righteousness either in the matter of Justification or Salvation but kept in a due subordination to God's Grace and Christ's Merits This is the business of this Context to reconcile the Grace of God with the necessity of good Works è contrà and very well it may be for they are part of the Grace obtained He is most beholden to God and indebted to Grace who is enabled to do most good for all is from him Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure So that our very doing is receiving But because there are a sort of Men that may be called Justiciaries who trust and teach others to trust to their own Vertues and Works without a Saviour or ascribe the part of a Saviour to them and on the other side the Libertines who teach Men not to look at any thing in themselves at all not as an Evidence Condition or Means but to trust to Christ's Blood to be instead of Faith Repentance and Obedience which is their Duty to be performed by them therefore it will be necessary to be well acquainted with what is truly the Part and Office of Christ what is truly the Office of Faith and Repentance what of Works that you may be sure to give every thing its due and may wholly trust Christ for his part and not joyn Faith or any of your Works and Duties in the least degree of that Trust and Honour which belongeth to our Saviour but regard them according to that use for which they are commanded in the Gospel 1. Our Works whatever they are either Duties to God or Man are not the first moving cause or inducement to incline God to shew us Favour or to bring about our Salvation No this Honour must be reserved for the Grace of God which moveth and stirreth all in the business of our Salvation It was his Grace to provide us a Saviour John 3. 16. God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life And the giving of Faith or converting Grace to some before others is the meer Effect of his Mercy and good Pleasure Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he hath loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved Then the Benefits consequent upon Conversion are from God's Love and Mercy As Justification Rom. 3. 24. Iustified freely by his Grace Not only by his Grace but freely that is not excited by our Works but acting freely of its own accord Then for Eternal Life we have it from the Grace of God and the Mercy of our Redeemer Jude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life So that Grace is the first Mover and Principle in the whole Business of our Salvation it is originally from Grace and all along by Grace 2. Our Works before or after Conversion are not that Righteousness not any part of that meritorious Righteousness by virtue of which Sins are expiated the Wrath of God appeased all Blessings of Heaven purchased and we reconciled to God For this is only to be ascribed to the Merit and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death and are saved by his Life Rom. 5. 10. He is our Propitiation we live by him 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins It is Christ's Office and Honour to be a Sacrifice for Sin and a Propitiation for us and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor to obtain the Spirit to fit us for our present Duty and future Happiness We are his Workmanship in Christ. 3. Our Works or Duties which we perform in Obedience to God are not the first means to apply the Grace of the Redeemer or the Condition of our first entrance into the Evangelical Estate No that is proper to Repentance and Faith Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God is by Faith unto all and upon all them that believe And Repentance is frequently required also to receive Pardon and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be Converted that your Sins may be blotted out It is the penitent believing Sinner that is
one is infinite and he hath paid an infinite Price for thee purchased an infinite Happiness to thee His Love to thee was without measure and bounds so must thy Thankfulness be to him without stint and limit Though he died for others as well as thee yet thou art bound to love him no less than for thee alone he shed his whole Blood for thee and every Drop was poured out for thy sake 2. By a fiducial Owning and Appropriation challenging his Right in him So doth Thomas Joh. 20. 28. My Lord and my God Faith appropriates God to our own Use and Comfort The Devils know that there is a God and a Christ for they confessed Thou art Iesus the Son of the Living God But they can never say with Comfort My God and my Christ. This Application is the Ground of our Love to Christ and our Comfort in Christ. Our Love to Christ. Things that concern us affect us This is the quickning Motive to the spiritual Life Who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. And 1 Ioh. 4. 19. We love him because he loved us first A particular Sense and Experience of God's Love to our own Souls doth most quicken and awaken our Love to him again When we see that he hath thought of us and taken Care of our Salvation that our Names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life So for our Comfort in Christ. It is the Propriety a Man hath to any good thing that doth increase the Comfort of it It is a Misery to a Man to see others enjoy a Benefit which he hath as much need of as others and he can enjoy no part of it I may allude to that Prov. 5. 15. Drink Waters out of thine own Cistern and running Waters out of thine own Well The greater we know the Benefit the greater will be our Trouble to want it A poor Man that sees a large Dole given and Multitudes relieved and he can get nothing is the more troubled So here to see Christ ready to save Sinners and we have no Comfort by him is very afflicting Ephes. 1. 13. After ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation It is not sufficient to know that the Gospel is a Doctrine of Salvation to others but every one should labour by a due Application of the Promises to their own Hearts to find it to be a Doctrine of Salvation to themselves in particular The seeing of Meat though never so wholesom doth not nourish but the eating of it The beholding of Christ revealed in the Word as a Saviour in general is not sufficient to give full Comfort without applying him to be my Christ my Saviour my Redeemer We must make sure of our Share in this universal Good We read of Blood shed and Blood sprinkled Atonement made and Atonement received But no Man hath satisfying Comfort by the Blood of Christ till it be sprinkled upon his Heart and applied to him by the Spirit of God and thereby assured that it was shed for him 3. The next Ground of Comfort is That our Redeemer liveth This is true of Christ whether you consider him as God or as Man 1. As God So he is Co-eternal with the Father the First and the Last the Beginning of all things and the End of them So he saith not he hath or shall live but he liveth In my Flesh shall I see God He speaks of the Redeemer's Life without any distinction of Time past present or to come So that he is altogether with the Father and the Spirit from everlasting to everlasting one living God 2. As Man after his Resurrection Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen And have the Keys of Hell and of Death Now in this Sence I take it for his Life in Heaven after his Resurrection from the Dead and that is of great Comfort to us For the Apostle telleth us that If we were reconciled by the Death of Christ much more shall we be saved by his Life The Comfort is great that arises from the Life of the Redeemer 1. It is a visible Demonstration of the Truth of the Gospel in general and in particular of the Article of Eternal Life The Truth of the Gospel in general Acts 17. 31. Hath given Assurance that is a sufficient Evidence to induce a Belief of the Gospel in that he hath raised him from the Dead Christ came from Heaven as a faithful Witness to beget Faith as well as to give us Knowledge sealing his Testimony with unquestionable Proofs to make it the more sure and credible to us for he hath confirmed it by a Life of Miracles and chiefly by raising from the dead Himself and ascending visibly to Heaven His Resurrection from the dead is Proof enough to justify his Doctrine and to evidence the Certainty of his Testimony for God by his Divine Power would not countenance a Deceiver and raise him from the Dead and receive him into Glory with Himself Particularly it proves the State of unseen Glory Life and Immortality are more fully brought to light in the Gospel than by any other Means 2 Tim. 1. 10. By the Resurrection of Jesus Christ there is not only a clear Revelation of it but a full Confirmation because Christ is entred into the Glory that he spake of and promised to his Disciples He is gone before us into the other World that he may receive us unto himself and that we might with a more steady confidence wait for it in the midst of Fears and Uncertainties of the present Life 2. His Living after Death It was the solemn Acquittance of our Surety from the Sins imputed to him and a Token of the Acceptation of his Purchase when Christ rose again from the Dead our Surety was let out of Prison Isa. 53. 8. And it is a Ground of Confidence to us for when the Debtor sees the Surety walk abroad he may be sure the Debt is satisfied Therefore it is said Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Iustification Christ is sometimes said to rise from the Dead and sometimes to be raised from the Dead His taking up his Life again argued his Divine Power but as Man he was raised So it is said Heb. 13. 20. The God of Peace who brought again from the Dead our Lord Iesus Christ. God the Father brought him again from the Dead as an Evidence of full Satisfaction Our Surety did not break Prison but was solemnly brought forth The Disciples said Acts 16. 37 38 39. Let them come themselves and fetch us An Angel was sent from Heaven to roll away the Stone to shew that Christ had a solemn Release and Discharge 3. His Living implies his Capacity to intercede for us and to relieve us in all our Necessities Heb. 7 24 25. But this Man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood Therefore he is able to save
think all their business is to get a Victory over their Consciences and though they do not deny their Lusts yet if they can be strongly perswaded that God will be merciful to them in Christ they shall not perish but obtain everlasting Life No we must obey we must deny our selves or else we do not trust Christ to bring us to Heaven in his own ways and methods but trust to some vain conceits of our own II. How this is to be understood That whosoever believeth since many other things are required of us as Repentance Mortification of Sin Self-denial new Obedience or Holiness Luk. 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mortification Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Self-Denial Luke 14. 16. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple New Obedience or Holiness Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. I answer all Truths are not delivered in one place and therefore a solitary Faith will not bring us to Heaven but that which is seconded with other things But more distinctly I. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are connexed with it by the Ordination of God For every one that believeth Christ believeth the whole Gospel to be true Except against one part and you may except against all the rest Now it is evident in the Gospel that without Regeneration Repentance and Holiness no Man can be saved and see God therefore every one that believeth in Christ must trust him to obtain it in the way that he hath appointed and promised to give it 2. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are included in the nature of it or flow as genuine Effects from such a cause A purpose of Obedience is included in the Nature of Faith and actual Obedience is the fruit of it Every one that believeth Christ receiveth him in all his Offices therefore a purpose of Obedience is included in the nature of it and if Faith be sincere universal Obedience in Self-denial Mortification and our duty to God and Men will naturally be derived from it Therefore as he that is to entertain a King makes reckoning of his Train and that he will not come alone so every one of whom Faith in Jesus Christ is required must reckon that his Faith must be evidenced to be sincere by the Fruits of it III. Why is Faith required that we may receive Benefit by Christ For these Reasons 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of Christ. 3. In respect of the Creature 4. In respect of our Comforts 1. In respect of God that our Hearts may be possessed with a full apprehension of his Grace who in the new Covenant appeareth not as a revenging and condemning God but as a pardoning God This reason is rendred by the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace The Law brought in the Terror of God by being the Instrument of revealing Sin and the punishment due thereunto ver 15. The Law worketh Wrath for where there is no Law there is no Transgression no such stinging sense of it but the Gospel brought in Grace The Law stated the Breach but the Gospel shewed the way of our Recovery And therefore Faith doth more agree with Grace as it makes God more amiable and lovely to us and beloved by us by the discovery of his Goodness and Grace The saving of Man by Christ that is by his Incarnation Life Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension do all tend to possess our Hearts with his abundant Grace To the same tend also his merciful Covenant gracious Promises and all the Benefits given to us his Spirit Pardon and Communion with God in Glory all is to sill our Hearts with a Sense of the Love of God And all this is no more than necessary for a guilty Conscience is not easily setled and brought to look for all kind of Happiness from one whom we have so much wronged Adam when once a Sinner was shy of God Gen. 3. 10. and Sin still makes us hang off from him Guilt is suspicious and if we have not one to lead us by the Hand and bring us to God we cannot abide his Presence For this End serveth Faith That Sinners being possest of the Goodness and Grace of God may be recovered and return to him by a fit Means In the new Covenant Repentance more distinctly respects God and Faith respecteth Christ Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. Repentance respects God because from God we fell and to God we must return We fell from him as we withdrew our Allegiance and sought our Happiness elsewhere to him we return as our rightful and proper Happiness but Faith respects the Mediator who is the only Remedy of our Misery and the Means of our Eternal Blessedness He opened the way to God by his Merit and Satisfaction and actually bringeth us into this way by his renewing and reconciling Grace that we may be in a capacity both to please and enjoy God and that is the reason why Faith in Christ is so much insisted on as our Title and Claim to the Blessedness of the new Covenant It hath a special aptitude and fitness for our recovery from Sin to God because it peculiarly respects the Mediator by whom we come to him 2. With respect to Christ. 1. Because the whole Dispensation of Grace by Christ cannot well be apprehended by any thing but Faith partly because the Way of our Recovery is so supernatural strange and wonderful that unless we believe God's Testimony how can we be perswaded of it That the Carpenter's Son should be the Son of that great Architect and Builder who framed Heaven and Earth that Life should come to us by the Death of another that God should be made Man and the Judge a Party and he that knew no Sin be condemned as a Criminal Person that one crucified should procure the Salvation of the whole World and be Lord of Life and Death and have such Power over all Flesh as to give Eternal Life to whom he will Reason is puzsed at these things Faith can only unravel them Partly because the Comfort of the Promises is so rich and glorious and the Persons upon whom it is bestowed so unworthy that it cannot easily enter into the Heart of a Man that God will be so good and gracious to us 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the Things God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore Sense and Reason could look for no such thing Faith is necessary and a strong Faith that it may work upon us These are things
Birth they have the happiness to be born there where Christ is the God of the Country that which makes others Turks and Infidels makes them Christians but though they stand upon the higher Ground they are not the taller Men. 3. They are very willing to be forgiven by Christ and to obtain Eternal Life but this is what meer Necessity requires them They will not suffer him to do his whole Work to sanctify them and fit them to live to God nor part with their nearest and dearest Lusts and come into the obedience of the Gospel or at least if Christ will do it for them without their improving this Grace or using his holy Means they are contented But having such precious Promises and such a blessed Redeemer we are to cleanse our selves 2 Cor. 7. 11. The Work is ours though the Grace be from him So Gal. 5. 14. They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. 4. Some have a strong Conceit that they shall be saved and have Benefit by Christ. This which they call their Faith may be the greatest Unbelief in the World that Men living in their Sins shall yet do well enough is to believe the flat contrary of what God hath spoken in his Word 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the Unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Drunkards nor effeminate Persons c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God It is not Strength of Conceit but the sure Foundation of our Hope that will support us nor are they the most happy who have the least Trouble but who have the least Cause Use 2. Do we believe in the Son of God Here will be the great Case of Conscience for setling our Eternal Interest 1. If we believe Christ will be precious to us 1 Pet. 2. 7. Unto them which believe he is precious Christ cannot be accepted where he is not valued when other Things come in competition with him and God will not be prodigal of his Grace 2. Where there is true Faith the Heart will be purified Acts 15. 9. Purifying their Hearts by Faith 3. If you do believe in Christ the Heart will be weaned from the World 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 4. If you have the true Faith it works by Love Gal. 5. 6. For in Iesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love By these things will the Case be determined Then the Comfort and Sweetness of this Truth falls upon your Hearts that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life SERMON XVII DEUT. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. MOses the Man of God having acquainted the People with the Tenour of God's Commandments both concerning Worship and civil Conversation doth inforce all by a pregnant Exhortation laying before their Eyes the Blessings of Obedience and the Plagues and Curses that should overtake them in case they should decline from the Ways of the Lord thus recommended to them In all which he sheweth himself not only as an ordinary Preacher speaking by way of Exhortation and Doctrinal Threatning but as a special Prophet speaking by way of Prediction and that with such clearness and certainty that these few Chapters may be looked upon as an exact Kalender and Prognostication wherein the good or bad days of this People are expresly calculated and foretold yea comparing Events with the Prediction you would rather conceive Moses his Speech to be an Authentick Register and Chronicle of what is past than an infallible Prophecy of what was to come nothing good or bad hath befallen this People from the beginning to this Day but what is here foretold What is more largely declared upon in this Exhortation is contracted into a narrow room and summary here in the Text See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. In the Words observe 1. The Matter propounded in two Pairs that have a mutual Connection one with another Life and Good Death and Evil. 2. The Manner of Proposal I have set before thee 3. A Duty inferred or Attention excited See 1. The Matter propounded a double Pair or Conjugation Life and Good Death and Evil. Life as the End Good as the Means leading to Life Or else Life that is the enjoyment of God and Good the Felicity following it The Septuagint changeth the Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The Manner of Proposing I have set before thee The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in a lively manner laid forth and offered for choice We have a saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contraries put together do mutually illustrate each other Here is Good and Evil Life and Death put together that we may embrace the one and eschew the other As the Poets feign of Hercules when he was young Vertue and Vice came to woo and make court to him Vertue like a sober chast Virgin offering him Labours with Praise and Renown Vice like a painted Harlot wooing him with the Blandishment of Pleasures So in the 5th of Proverbs Wisdom and Folly are represented both pleading to draw in the Hearts of Men to them ver 4. compared with the 16th Whoso is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth Understanding she saith Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine that I have mingled The one hath her Pleasures and the other hath her Pleasures only the Pleasures of Folly are stolen Waters and Bread eaten in secret Comforts we get by Stealth Jollity and Mirth when Conscience is asleep So here Moses layeth before them the fruit of Obedience and Disobedience Life and Death 3. The Word exciting Attention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See I have done this in order to Choice for so it is ver 19. Choose Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live Doct. It is the Duty of the Faithful Servants of the Lord in a lively manner to set before the People Life and Death as the fruit of Good and Evil. Moses was God's Minister to instruct this People and what doth he propose and confirm in his Doctrine but Life and Death Good and Evil and this was a part of his Faithfulness Witness that vehement Obtestation used ver 19. He calls Heaven and Earth to record that he had faithfully discharged his Duty herein This was the course that God himself took with Adam in Innocency he set before him Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledg Gen. 2. 9. That he might live by the one and not perish by the other God had respect to the Mutability of his Nature and therefore restrained him by the threatning of
Death as a curse not to eat of the one as he enjoyned him to eat of the other as a Pledg of Life and Blessing This same course did Christ take in his Sermons by telling them of the wide Gate and the strait Gate the broad and narrow Way much Company and little the one tending to Destruction the other to Life Mat. 7. 13 14. So Wisdom speaks by Solomon Prov. 8. 35 36. Whose findeth me findeth Life and shall obtain Favour of the Lord but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul all they that hate me love Death So that you see this is an excellent way to gain Men to the Holy Life I. Let us consider our Work II. The Reasons why we must do so I. Our Work the Matter of it and the Manner in which we are to propound it to you 1. The Matter We must set before the People 1. Life and Good 2. Death and Evil. This I shall open in these Propositions First That there is a distinction between Good and Evil Vice and Vertue He that doth not acknowledg it is unworthy the name not only of a Christian but of a Man Certainly he is unworthy the name of a Christian for the whole Word of God doth mete out the Bounds between both these and shew what is forbidden and what is commanded and therefore it is a defiance of Christianity to doubt of it But he is also unworthy the name of a Man Nature apprehendeth that somethings are worthy of Praise and others worthy of Blame and Reproof else why should wicked Men be offended to be taken for such as they are and desire as much as possibly they can to seem better and to cover their dishonest Actions with a plausible Appearance Secondly The matching these two Death and Evil Life and Good And here I shall speak 1. Of the Suitableness of the Connection between them 2. The greatness of both Thirdly The certainty of both these Life and Death as the Fruit of Good and Evil. 1. The Suitableness or Correspondency there is between Holiness and Beatitude Sin and Misery It must needs be so if we consider the Wisdom Justice Holiness of God 1. The Wisdom of God which doth all things according to Weight Measure and Number cannot permit the Disjunction of these two things so closely united together as Sin and Punishment Grace and Happiness but there will be an appearance of Deformity and Irregularity For if there be such a thing as Good and Evil as Bonum and Malum morale as Reason will tell us there is And again if there be such a thing as Pleasure and Pain as Joy and Sorrow or that which we call Bonum and Malum naturale as Sense will tell us there is then it is very agreeable to the Wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted that moral Evil which is Sin should be punished with natural Evil which is Pain and Misery that the inordinate Love of Pleasure which is the Root of Sin should be checked by a fore-thought of Pain And that Moral Good which is Vertue and Grace should end in Joy and Pleasure For God is naturally inclined as the Creator of Mankind to make his Creatures good and happy if nothing hinder him from it Well then we see how incongruous it is to the Wisdom of God who permits no dissonancy or disproportion in any of his Administrations to admit a Separation of these natural Relatives If there were no other Testimony of this yet the Dispositions of our own Hearts would know it for they are some obscure Shadows of the Properties which are in God We have Compassion on a miserable Man whom we esteem not deserving his Misery we are also moved with indignation and displeasure against one that is fortunate and successful but unworthy the Happiness that he enjoys Which is an apparent Testimony and Proof that we are sensible of an excellent Harmony and natural Order between these two things Vertue and Felicity Sin and Misery and to see them so suited doth exceedingly please us 2. The Justice of God as he is Judge of the World and so must and will do right doth require Ut 〈…〉 malis malè That it should be well with them that do well and ill with them that do evil God is naturally inclined to provide for the Happiness of Man as he is his Creator and if there were no Sin to stop the Course of God's Bounty there would be nothing but Happiness in the World But since the Entrance of Sin into the World Men are of different sorts some recover out of their estate of Sin and live holily others wallow in their filthiness still Now it is agreeable to God's general Justice as he is the Judge of the World to execute Vengeance on the one and reward the other that Happiness should accompany Vertue by a natural and inseparable Dependance and Misery incessantly attend Vice Rom. 2. 6 7 8. It is true the Bond which joyneth Happiness and Vertue together is not so strong and so every way naturally evident as that which joyneth Vice and Punishment If a Person in Sovereignty and Honour does not will that Moral Evils be punish'd 't is in some sort to consent to them but the Condition of the Creature is such that he ought to be holy and vertuous though God had not positively commanded him and God having so commanded we are bound to obey his Command though he had not proposed the Hope of a Reward in as much as we owe all to God both because of the infinite Eminence of his Majesty as because we hold our Beings and all from him And therefore there is a Distinction Rom. 6. 23. The Wages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The one is Wages the other a Gift The Promise which God maketh of Remuneration and the actual Retribution which he performeth of the same ought to be imputed only to his Goodness and gratuitous Liberality Men cannot pretend any other Right before him from whom we hold all things yea our very Being Now that which proceedeth of Goodness seemeth not to be of so strait an Obligation but that he is at liberty to do or not to do especially when the transaction is between two Persons the Dignity and Authority of one of which is infinitely above the Condition of the other as the Majesty of God is above his Creature Therefore as to such a Reward God is free and therefore might have enjoyn'd Holiness without the Promise of such a Recompence But the general Relation that is between Punishment and Sin Holiness and Happiness as to the consequence of one upon another is agreable to the general Justice of God which is a Perfection necessary to him as he is the Supreme Governor and Ruler of the World 3. The Holiness and Purity of God which inclineth him to hate Evil and love that which is good God
qualified for these Priviledges or he that thankfully and humbly accepts of the offered Saviour and consents to the Covenant made with God the Father Son and Holy Spirit he is washed from his Sins in the Blood of Christ reconciled adopted into God's Family and made an Heir according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3. 7. This first Faith by which we believe and consent to the Covenant implieth both a dependance on God's Mercy and Christ's Merits and also a consent of Obedience or hearty Subjection to God 4. When we have consented to accept Christ and his Benefits and do give our selves to him then Works or new Obedience follow as necessary to continue our right to Pardon and Life For none have benefit by God's Covenant but those that keep his Covenant as well as make it and without this we cannot have Communion with God 1 John 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another Nor evidence the reality of our Faith and Repentance St. Paul was sent to Preach to the Gentiles That they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for Repentance Acts 26. 20. Besides we cannot preserve our claim and right if we do not still go on to do good 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ezek. 18. 24. When the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity shall he live all his Righteousness shall not be mentioned in his Trespasses that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die It is true of the Hypocrite without Scruple and of the real righteous Man if you suppose the one you may suppose the other Well these things must not be confounded nor opposed not confounded but we must distinctly consider what is proper to the Grace of God proper to the Merit of Christ proper to Faith proper to Works not opposed so as to make the one exclude the other As the Grace of God to exclude the Merit of Christ or serve instead of it nor the Merit of Christ his Blood and Righteousness to exclude Faith and Repentance nor be instead of them nor Faith to exclude good Works 5. All the applying Grace is from first to last wrought in us by the Spirit He doth renew and heal our Natures as coming to us from the Grace of God and Merits of Christ. Tit. 3. 5 6. According to his Mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour By the Holy Spirit working in us habitual Grace and exciting it we believe repent obey do whatever is necessary to be done to obtain Eternal Life Therefore this must not be omitted but acknowledged as a great part of this Grace III. Use. To exhort us if we would shew our selves to be new Creatures indeed to be full of good Works The Arguments to move us are 1. It is a necessary fruit of inward Grace and so doth plainly shew that you are partakers of Heavenly Wisdom Iames 3. 17. The Wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of Mercy and good fruits The carnal Worldling all his Wisdom is to grow rich to himself which indeed is but Folly Luke 12. 21. His business is to live to the Flesh Gal. 6. 8. He layeth out all his Strength Time and Care and Wealth for the feeding his own carnal Desires but the other soweth to the Spirit layeth out himself in works of Piety and Charity 2. External Acts which flow from an Internal Principle increase the Habit the more you do good the more you are inabled to do good as bodily Strength is increased by Exercise Why is the right Hand more agil stronger and bigger than the left it is oftner exercised and so fuller of Blood and Spirits So in Grace the more you act Faith the more is Faith increased Love groweth more fervent being kept in a constant Exercise and Hope more lively and affective Always Actions increase the Principles which did produce them partly of their own Nature 1 Iohn 2. 5. Whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the Love of God perfected The more acts of Love he puts forth towards God the more doth his Love increase in him partly by Divine Reward Heb. 6. 10. He is not unrighteous to forget your labour of Love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister God rewards them temporally 2 Cor. 9. 12. God is able to make all Grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may aboud to every good Work That is to give you to be liberal at all times And when he saith God is able it not only implieth that God is the Fountain of all Plenty and Sovereign Disposer of it and so hath power to make you the richer rather than the poorer by your Liberality to make every Alms you give like the Oil in the Cruse to multiply as you pour it out that there shall be enough for every Object and every Occasion but also he is sure to make it good for he quotes it again in the next Verse as it is written He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever It is taken out of Psalm 112. where there are signal Promises of Wealth and Riches in the House of the liberal Alms-giver God rewards them eternally 2 Cor. 9. 6. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Now is the Seed-time hereafter is our Harvest and Crop we shall have a liberal reward from God in the general Resurrection God also rewards his obedient Servants Spiritually Internally and that not only with more Comfort and Peace but by increasing the Grace it self for God that punishes Sin with Sin doth reward Grace with Grace Wells are sweeter for draining on the other side a Key that is seldom turned rusts in the Lock An intermission of good Works makes us more unable and unready for them 3. It is a greater Honour to God John 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much Fruit. Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Iesus Christ unto the Glory and praise of God 2 Thess. 1. 11 12. Wherefore we pray for you that our God would count you worthy of this Calling and fulfil all the good Pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith with Power that the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him Christ's Religion is not a barren Religion but full of good Works It is a mighty credit to Religion in you that profess it when Goodness is the Constitution of your Hearts to do good the business of your Lives 4. It edifieth others and provoketh an holy Emulation Heb. 10. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works We provoke them most by our Example when they are cold negligent and backward to Works of Piety and Mercy In all things we should be an Instance of Divine Vertues 5. This is the fruit which God expecteth from us that the Trees of Righteousness should bear the Fruits of Righteousness If we frustrate his expectation he will hew us down and cast us into the Fire Mat. 3. 10. Therefore good Works are not needless things The means to enable us are 1. Be sure that you are renewed The Dead cannot do the works of the Living Neither do Men gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figgs of Thistles Mat. 7. 16. Our first business is to look to our Conversion to God All outward Duties begin in the Heart they are valued no further than they come from it sanctified 2. Keep your Hearts under a Sence of God's Authority that you may feel something in your own Bosoms that may tell you you are bound to obey him and may plead God's right with you This is done by a frequent Meditation upon your Creation and Redemption Your Creation giveth God a full right to you and Redemption maketh it comfortable by both you see you are his Acts 27. 23. There stood by me this Night the Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve 3. You are intrusted with his Talents and of their improvement you must give an account Mat. 25. 14. A Lord called his Servants and delivered to them his Goods in order to Improvement 4. What encouragement we have from a gracious God and Covenant which takes not advantage of involuntary Weaknesses but accepteth their endeavours who sincerely do their best Mal. 3. 17. I will spare him as a Man spareth his Son that serveth him 5. Remember often your great obligation to God you can never do so much for him as he deserveth of you Psal. 116. 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits towards me 6. Do all as in God's Eye and with a constant dependance upon him Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me Make him your Pay-master Governour and Judg and it will not only keep you sincere but diligent in good Works The work is not sincerely done when you look to Man nor throughly done Such have their reward only here Mat. 6. 7. Love your Work A little thing will stop him that doth it unwillingly Psal. 119. 47 48. I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved And I will lift up my Hands to thy Commandments which I have loved 8. Account your selves much beholden to God that he will employ you in any Service for his Glory FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. line 3. for Condemned read Contemned P. 41. l. 18. f. Love r. Fear P. 79. l. 31. f. it r. the Promises P. 92. l. 24. f. that r. if P. 104. l. 8. f. Hearty r. Heart P. 125. l. 3. f. External r. Eternal P. 128. l. 26. after they were r. not P. 150. l. 17. after Obedience dele partly P. 168. l. 17. f. Conversations r. Consolations P. 181. l. 23. f. of Cognisance r. of our Cognisance P. 212. l. 33. after ever-blessed add Life P. 113. l. 17. f. overaweth r. outlaweth P. 252. l. 20. f. them r. him P. 167. l. 11. dele partly P. 289. l. 9. f. to evince r. towards its ruine Gal. 5. 24. Gen. 3. 7 10.
be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Serm. 6 7. pag. 104. On 2 Thess. 3. 5. And the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Serm. 8. pag. 142. On Ephes. 1. 8. Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Serm. 9. pag. 157. On Mat. 27. 46. And about the ninth hour Iesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama sabacthani that is to say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Serm. 10. pag. 175. On Rom. 1. Part of the 29 30 Verses Whisperers Backbiters Serm. 11. pag. 192. On Gal. 5. 16. This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh. Serm. 12. pag. 207. On Job 19. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth Serm. 13. pag. 231. On 1 Tim. 6. 8. And having Food and Raiment let us be therewith content Serm. 14. pag. 247. On Eccles. 9. 11. I returned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Understanding nor yet Favour to Men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all Serm. 15. pag. 269. On Acts 21. 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done Serm. 16. pag. 262. On John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Serm. 17. pag. 323. On Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this Day Life and Good Death and Evil. Serm. 18. pag. 345. On Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Serm. 19 20. pag. 371. On Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk them SERMON I. PSAL. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile THE Title of this Psalm is A Psalm of Instruction and so called because David was willing to shew them the way to Happiness from his own Experience Surely no Lesson is so needful to be learned as this We all would be happy The Good and Bad that do so seldom agree in any thing yet agree in this A desire to be happy Now happy we cannot be but in God who is the Only Immutable Eternal and Alsufficient Good which satisfies and fills up all the capacities and desires of our Souls And we are debarr'd from access to him by Sin which hath made a breach and separation between him and us and till that be taken away there can be no converse and Sin can only be taken away by God's Pardon upon Christ's Satisfaction God's Pardon is clearly asserted in my Text but Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness must be supplied out of other Scriptures as that 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World to Himself not imputing their Trespasses to them Where the Apostle clearly shews that not-imputing Transgressions is the effect of God's Grace in Christ. And we do no wrong to this Text to take it in here for the Apostle citing this Scripture Rom. 4. 6 7. tells us that David describeth the blessedness of the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness without works when he saith Blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven whose Sin is covered blessed is the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin In the words you have 1. An Emphatical setting forth of a great and blessed Priviledg that is Pardon of Sin 2. A Description of the Persons who shall enjoy it In whose spirit there is no Guile The Priviledg is that I shall confine my thoughts to It is set forth in three Expressions Forgiving Transgression Covering of Sin and not imputing Iniquity The manner of speech is warm and vehement and it is repeated over again Blessed is the Man I shall shew what these three Expressions import and why the Prophet doth use such vehemency and emphatical inculcation in setting forth this Priviledg 1. Whose Transgression is forgiven or who is eased of his Transgression Where Sin is compared to a burden too heavy for us to bear as also it is in other Scriptures Mat. 11. 28. Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden 2. Whose Sin is covered alluding to the covering of filth or the removing of that which is offensive out of sight As the Israelites were to march with a paddle tied to their arms that when they went to ease themselves they might dig and cover that which came from them Deut. 23. you have the Law there and the reason of it ver 14. For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp therefore shall thy Camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee And then the third expression is To whom the Lord imputeth no Sin that is doth not put Sin to their account Where Sin is compared to a Debt as it is also in the Lord's Prayer Mat. 6. 12. Forgive us our Debts as we also forgive our Debtors Thus is the Act set forth The Object of Pardon about which it is conversant is set forth under divers Expressions Iniquity Transgression and Sin As in Law many words of like import and signification are heaped up and put together to make the Deed and Legal Instrument more comprehensive and effectual I observe it the rather because when God proclaims his Name the same words are used Exod 34. 7. Taking away Iniquity Transgression and Sin Well we have seen the meaning of the Expression Why doth the holy Man of God use such vigor and vehemency of inculcation Blessed is the Man and again blessed is the Man partly with respect to his own case David knew how sweet it was to have Sin pardoned he had felt the bitterness of Sin in his own Soul to the drying up of his Blood and therefore he doth express his sense of Pardon in the most lively terms Blessed is the Man whose Iniquity is forgiven c. And then partly too with respect to those for whose use this Instruction was written that they might not look upon it as a light and trivial thing but be throughly apprehensive of the worth of so great a Priviledg Blessed happy thrice happy they who have obtained Pardon of their Sins and Justification by Jesus Christ. The Doctrine then which I shall insist upon is this That it is a great Degree and Step towards yea a considerable Part of our Blessedness to obtain the Pardon of our Sins by Christ Iesus I shall evidence it to you by these three Considerations 1. I
Jesus Christ required and so much spoken of in Scripture I will content my self but with two Reasons at this time 1. Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of God's free Gift Faith and Grace do always go together and are put as opposite to Law and Works Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it may be of Grace Eph. 2. 8. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works left any Man should boast Faith establishes and keeps up the Interest and Honour of Grace for it is the free Grace and Favour of God to condescend to the Rebel World so far as he hath done in the new Covenant We present our selves before him as those that stand wholly to his Mercy have nothing to plead for our selves but the Righteousness and Merit of our Redeemer by virtue of which we humbly beg Pardon and Life to be begun in us by his Spirit and perfected in Glory 2. Why Faith in Christ Because the way of our Recovery is so strange and wonderful It can only be received by Faith Sense cannot convey it to us Reason will not and nothing is reserved for the entertainment of this glorious Mystery Pardon and Salvation by our Redeemer but Faith alone If I should deduce this Argument at large I would shew you nothing but Faith or the Belief of God's Testimony concerning his Son can support us in these Transactions with God The Comfort of the Promise is so rich and glorious Sense and Reason cannot inform us of it Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive 1 Cor. 2. 9. the things God hath prepared for them that love him It is not meant only of Heaven but of the whole Preparations and rich Provisions God hath made for us in the Gospel It is not a thing can come to us by Eye or Ear or the conceiving of Man's heart we only believe and entertain it by Faith And then the Persons upon whom it is bestowed are so unworthy that certainly it cannot enter into the Heart of Man that God will be so good and do so much good to such Adam when he had sinned grew shy of God and ran away from him Besides the way God hath taken for our deliverance is so supernatural God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life That God should become Man that he should submit to such an accursed Death for our Sakes is so high and glorious it can only be entertain'd by Faith Besides our chief Blessedness lies in another World He that lacketh Faith is blind and cannot see afar off Here in this lower World where our God is unseen and our great Hopes are to come where the Flesh is so importunate to be pleased where our Temptations and Trials are so many and Difficulties so great we are apt to question all and we can never keep waiting upon God were it not for Faith and a steady Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. For these Reasons if you look into the Scriptures it is why Faith is so much insisted upon that we may keep up the honour of God's Grace and because this Grace of the Redeemer is so mysterious and wonderful 4. The Use of these two Graces discover their Nature What is Faith and Repeatance Repentance towards God is a Turning from Sin to God The Terminus à quo of Repentance is our begun Recovery from Sin and therefore called Repentance from dead Works Heb. 6. 1. The Terminus ad quem to which we return is God and our being devoted to God in Obedience and Love God never hath our Hearts till he hath our Love and Delight till we return to a Love of his blessed Majesty and delight in his Ways This is called in Scripture sometimes a turning to God in many other places a seeking after God a giving up our selves to God 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave up themselves to the Lord. This is the Repentance by which we enter into the Gospel-State Now what is Faith Besides an Assent to the Gospel which is at the bottom of it It is a serious thankful broken-hearted Acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ that he may be to every one of us what God hath appointed him to be and do forevery one of us what God hath appointed him to do for poor Sinners It is serious and broken-hearted done by a Creature in misery and thankful for such a wonderful Benefit a trusting to this Redeemer that he may do the Work of a Redeemer in our Hearts to save us from the evil of and after Sin And thus I have briefly opened this necessary Doctrine as clearly laid down in the Scripture And this is your Entrance in the Evangelick State II. For our Continuance therein For we must not only mind our Entrance but our Continuance Our Lord Jesus tells us of a Gate and a Way the Gate signifies the Entrance and the Way our Continuance And we read of making and keeping Covenant with God we read of Union with Christ that is our first Entrance for this Faith is the closing Act and exprest sometimes by a being married to Christ. But there is not only an Union with Christ but an Abiding in him Abide in me and I will abide in you Now as for our Continuance I would shew you that the first Works are gone over and over again Faith and Repentance are still necessary For the Righteousness of God is revealed frm Faith to Faith And Repentance is still necessary But I shall only press two things First New Obedience Secondly Daily Prayer 1. New Obedience is required 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Holy Walking is necessary to the continuance of our being cleansed from Sin and therefore Mercy is promised to the forsaking of our Sins Prov. 18. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Our Hearts were not sound with God in the first Covenanting if we undo what was done If we build again the things we have destroyed then we are found Transgressours Gal. 1. 18. Well then a Man that seeks after Pardon seeks after it with the ruine and destruction of Sin Sin was the greatest Burden that lay upon his Conscience the Greivance from whence he sought ease the Wound pain'd him at Heart the Disease his Soul was sick of And was all this Anguish real and shall a Man come to delight in his Sores again and take up the Burden he groaned under and tear open
is the worst for this is not only against Truth but Right even though that Right entirely accrueth from your own free Promise 2. The Promises of the New Covenant are of a most glorious and valuable Nature They are not about small things or things of little moment but about worthy and dear-bought Blessings They contain Spiritual and Eternal Riches such as the healing of our Nature the pardon of our Sins a safe conduct unto Eternal Happiness The glorifying of our Souls the resurrection of our Bodies and then Life everlasting or an unchangeable state of happiness These are the greatest things indeed in comparison of which all the things of the World are but as a Maygame vain and empty or the smallest Matters as the Apostle calleth them 1 Cor. 6. 2. Reconciliation with God is our Priviledge here And is it a light thing to be at peace with the Living God to enjoy his Amity and Love to study and fit our selves to do his Will to live in constant Communion with him now to have access to him at all times to obtain from him whatever in Reason and Righteousness we can ask A Christian is never upbraided with the perpetuity of Addresses never denyed Audience never has cause to doubt of Success has more familiarity with God and a surer Interest in his Love than the greatest Favourites have in any Prince or Potentate upon Earth But then the Eternal Enjoyment of God hereafter Phil. 3. 14. I press towards the Mark for the Price of the High Calling in God in Christ Iesus It is an high Price that is set before us then we shall have a larger Capacity to know God and enjoy him and receive his Benefits Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness Oh! cry out 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 3. They are precious Promises worthy of our Esteem For they are not about things that we have nothing to do with but such wherein we are deeply and intimately concern'd In God's Promises there is due Provision made for the Desires Necessities and Wants of Mankind Let me instance in Pardon and Life the first inviting Benefits Acts 26. 18. Pardon answereth the Fears and Life those Desires of Happiness which are so natural to us 1. The Consciousness of Sin and the Fear of God's Wrath and Displeasure should make Offers of Pardon acceptable to us The great Scruple of the guilty Creature is how Sin shall be expiated and God appeased Mic. 6. 6 7. We fear Punishment from an holy and just God and cannot get rid of Bondage till Sin be forgiven The Justice of the Supreme Governour of the World will be ever dreadful to us The Gospel serveth for this use to give us the knowledge of Salvation by the Remission of Sins Luk. 1. 77. 2. The other great Priviledge is Eternal Life Corrupt Nature is not against the Offers of Felicity There was never a Creature heard of that would not be happy for there was never a Creature but loved himself Therefore what more powerful Inducement to bring us into the way of Holiness than this blessed Hope set before us that we may see God and live for ever Tit. 2. 12 13. It is true we are greatly inchanted with false Happiness but shall not such an Offer be precious to us Ioh. 6. 34. Then said they unto him Lord evermore give us this Bread 4. All this is given to us wretched Men without any desert of ours nay we had deserved the contrary Without our asking or thinking the Covenant was framed and modelled to our Hands and in the Frame and Contexture of it we may see a constant Strain of Covenant-Grace in the Richness of the Benefits the Graciousness of the Donor the Seasonableness of the Offer the Readiness of the Help when once we set our selves to seek after God and please and serve him and lastly in the Sureness of the Reward notwithstanding Frailties and Imperfections III. The Influence of the one upon the other or How do these Promises promote the Divine Nature 1. From their Drift which is to draw us from the Creature to God and the World to Heaven to mortify the Esteem of the false Happiness which tainteth and corrupteth our Natures and to raise us to those noble Objects and Ends which dignify and adorn the Soul and make it in a sort Divine It breedeth an excellent Spirit in us which is carried above the World and the Hopes and Fears of it 1 Cor. 2. 12. Alas what a mean Spirit have they that drive no higher Trade than providing for the Flesh or accommodating a Life which must shortly expire Like foolish Birds who with great art and contrivance feather a Nest which within a little while they leave But how Divine and God-like are they who look to higher things to please God enjoy Communion with him and live with him for ever 2. The Matter of the Promises Many of which concern the Change of our Hearts the Cleansing or Healing of our Natures Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Laws in their Minds and write them in their Hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People Ezek. 36. 25 26. Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you a Heart of Flesh. Jer. 33. 8. And I will cleanse them from all their Iniquity All which are Encouragements of Prayer to God for this Benefit If God doth not exclude us we should not exclude our selves 3. The Conditions or Terms on which our Right is suspended Not Pardon without Repentance Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your Sins might be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord. Acts 2. 38 39. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost c. Not Heaven or Eternal Life without Holiness Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. 8. 4. The Power with which it is accompanied 2 Pet. 1. 3. According as his Divine Power hath given us all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue He gives us Life temporal and spiritual and that immutable Life of Felicity hereafter The Divine Nature is communicated to us by virtue of the Promises
for the Spirit is our Sanctifier and he works by congruous means USES 1. Believe the Promises for they are most sure and certain God's Testimony of the good things he will bestow upon us cannot deceive us or beget a vain and uncertain Hope His Promise is a Testimony of his Will and against his Power nothing can stand There shall be a Performance of those things spoken of by the Lord Luk. 1. 45. 2. Esteem them Heb. 11. 13. These all dyed in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them We can never embrace them till we are perswaded of their Truth But then consider their Worth Great is the Stupidity of those who are nothing taken with these things If a great Man ingages himself any way we make great reckoning of his Word and shall we not make great matter of the Word of God and esteem his Promises Esteem them so as to get them at any price Mat. 13. 46. Sell all for the Pearl of Price Esteem them so as to be contented with a mean Condition in the World Though God keeps us low it is enough to be made Partakers of his Holiness Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own Pleasure but he for our Profit that we might be Partakers of his Holiness Esteem them so as to perform the Duties required Psal. 119. 14. Esteem them so as to keep up your Rejoycing in Christ Phil. 3. 8 9 10. I count all things but Loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. And ver 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Iesus and have no Confidence in the Flesh. 3. Labour to improve the Belief of every Promise for the Increase of Holiness that we may be like God pure and holy as he is 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God SERMON V. MARK 9. 49. For every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt IN the Context you have a Caution which our Lord gives against Scandals and Offences given to others either by Defection from the Truth or by a sinful Conversation And 1. He intimates the Cause of these Scandals which is some beloved Lust and that is better mortified than satisfied There is something precious profitable and pleasant in our Opinion Estimation and Affection that calls us from God and the Duties we owe to him and apprehended by us as so necessary for us that we can no more spare it than a right Eye a right Hand or a right Foot 2. Our Lord compares the Loss of Satisfaction in such Lusts with the Danger of perishing for ever and shews that all things considered it were better to be deprived of this Profit Pleasure or Honour than to lose Eternal Life and run the hazard of Eternal Death Either that Pleasure or Lust must be denied or we perish for ever The right Hand must be cut off or else we shall be cast into Hell-Fire 3. Our Lord shews the Danger of perishing for ever amplified by a notable Description Their Worm never dyes and their Fire shall never be quenched The Scripture lisps to us in our own Dialect and speaks in such Notions we can best understand and therefore represents the State of the Damned by what is terrible to Sense By the Worm is meant the Anguish of Conscience by Fire the Wrath of God Memoria praeteritorum Sensus presentium Metus futurorum The Torment of the wicked arises partly from their own Consciences There is a vexing Remembrance of what is past their Folly in the neglect of Grace and there is a bitter Sense of that doleful State into which they have now plunged themselves and a Fear of what is yet to come Now beside this Remorse for their Folly there is also a Fire that shall never be quenched or the sharp Torments that are prepared for the wicked 4. Here is a Collation or Comparison of Opposites the Pains of Hell with the Trouble of Mortification First or last we must endure Troubles and Difficulties Now it is much more eligible to take Pains in the mortifying of Sin than to bear Eternal Pains in the punishment of it This is that which is exprest in the Text For every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt In the Words 1. Observe a double Salting either with Fire or with Salt the one referring to one sort of People and the other to the other They agree in the common Nature for Salt is of a fiery Nature and apt to consume but they differ in the matter to be consumed Salt consumes the superfluous Moisture which is apt to cause putrefaction but the Fire consumes the Substance it self So that to be salted with Fire is to be given up to everlasting Destruction Fire consumeth all things and God is called a Consuming Fire to the wicked Heb. 12. 29. 2. Here is also an Allusion to Sacrifices for every Man that lives in the World must be a Sacrifice to God The Wicked are a Sacrifice to God's Justice but the Godly are a Sacrifice dedicated and offered to him that they may be capable of his Mercy The first are a Sacrifice against their Wills but the Godly are a free-will-Offering a Sacrifice not taken but offered Now the Law of all Sacrifices was that they were to be salted with Salt Levit. 2. 13. And every Oblation of thy Meat-Offering shalt thou season with Salt neither shalt thou suffer the Salt of the Covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy Meat-Offering with all thine Offerings thou shalt offer Salt Three times it is repeated there to shew that every Sacrifice must be salted That the Wicked the Objects of God's vindictive Justice are accounted Sacrifices is evident by Scripture When the Destruction of Moab is spoken of Isa. 34. 6. The Sword of the Lord is filled with Blood it is made fat with Fatness and with the Blood of Lambs and Goats and with the fat of the kidneys of Rams for the Lord hath a Sacrifice in Bozrah and a great Slaughter in the Land of Idumea So Ier. 46. 10. God threatens there that the Sword shall devour and be made drunk with their Blood For the Lord God of Hosts hath a Sacrifice in the North Country by the River Euphrates What is in these places called a Slaughter is also called a Sacrifice So when God intended a great Carnage of his Enemies he calls upon the Fowls of Heaven Ezek. 39. 17. Assemble your selves and come to my Sacrifice with an allusion to the Beasts offered in Sacrifice This may be gathered from the Signification of the Sacrifices the Burnt-Offerings especially which signified the Guilt of the Sinner the Death of Christ which is
the Propitiation for Sin and the Obedience of the Sacrificer as devoted to God Now the first Signification took place and had its effect upon them if they neglected the other two Meanings of the Sacrifices and therefore they were to be looked on as salted with Fire whereas the other who were accepted were salted with Salt The 3d Observation for the opening of this is the two References of these Saltings or the distinct and proper Application of them 1. To the wicked For every one shall be salted with Fire that is every one of them spoken of before who indulged their corrupt Affections who did not entirely and heartily keep the Covenant of God and renounce their beloved Lusts. 2. Here is the Application to the Godly Every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt that is Every one that is not a Sacrifice by constraint but voluntarily surrenders and gives up himself to God to be ordered and disposed of according to his Will he is salted not with Fire but with Salt which every one that is devoted to God is bound to have within himself So while some are destinated to the Wrath of God and salted with Fire to be consumed and destroyed others are salted with Salt preserved and kept savoury in the Profession and Practice of Godliness The Doctrine is this Doct. The Grace of Mortification is very necessary for all those who are devoted to God I shall prove three things I. That the true Notion of a Christian is that he is a Sacrifice or a Thank-offering to God II. That the Grace of Mortification is the true Salt whereby this Offering and Sacrifice should be seasoned III. I shall shew you the Necessity of this Salt that we may keep right with God in the Duties of the Covenant I. The true Notion of a Christian is that he is a Sacrifice to God This is evident by Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service that is the reasonable part which was figured by the Sacrifices and Oblations of the Law And so Isa. 66. 20. They shall bring your Brethren for an offering unto the Lord. Under the Law Beasts were offered to God but in the Gospel Men are offered to him not as Beasts were to be destroyed slain and burnt in the Fire but to be preserved for God's use and service In offering any thing to God two things were of consideration there was a Separation from a common and a Dedication to an holy use and they both take place in the present matter 1. There is a separation of our selves from a common use The Beast was separated from the Flock or Herd for this special purpose to be given to God Thus we are separated and set apart from the rest of the World that we may be a People to God We are no more our own 1 Cor. 6. 19. And we are no more to live to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5. 15. We are not to live to the World to the Flesh or to such things as the natural Heart craves we have no right in our selves to dispose of our selves of our time of our interest of our strength but must wholly give up our selves to God to be disposed ordered governed by him at his own will and pleasure 2. There is a dedication of our selves to God to serve please honour and glorify him 1. The manner of dedicating our selves to God is to be considered 'T is usually done with grief shame and indignation at our selves that God hath been so long kept out of his right with a full purpose to restore it to him with advantage 1 Pet. 4. 3. The time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the flesh and of Man it is high time to give up our selves to the Will of God we have been long enough too long dishonouring God destroying our Souls pleasing the Flesh living according to the Flesh and the course of the World therefore they desire to make restitution Rom. 6. 19. For as ye have yeelded your Members Servants to Uncleanness and to Iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeeld your Members Servants to Righteousness unto Holiness Their forepast neglects of God and duty to him fill their Hearts with shame therefore they resolve to double their diligence and to be as eminent in Holiness as before they were in Vanity and Sin 2. It is with a deep sence of the Lord's love in Christ for we give up our selves to God not as a Sin-offering but as a Thank-offering Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of the Lord. And 2 Cor. 5. 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again they are ravished with an admiration of God's goodness in Christ and so give up themselves to him 3. They do intirely give up themselves to God not to be his in a few things but in all to serve him with all their faculties You are not your own but are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. Therefore glorify God both with your Bodies and Souls which are Gods And to serve him in all conditions Rom. 14. 8. Whether we live we live unto God or whether we die we die unto God for living or dying we are the Lord 's They are willing to be used for his Glory not only as active Instruments but as passive Objects they give up themselves to obey his governing will and to submit to his disposing will to be what he would have them to be as well as to do what he would have them to do Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death Thus with all their faculties in every condition of Life are they to be devoted to God in all actions It is said Zach. 14. 20 21. That Holiness to the Lord shall be written not only upon the Bowls of the Altar and the Pots of the Lord's House butalso upon all the Pots of Jerusalem not only upon the Vessels of the Temple but upon common utensils that is translate it into a Gospel Phrase that not only in our sacred but even in our common and civil actions c. we should live as a people that are offered up to God 4. The end why we give up our selves to God is to serve please and glorify him Act. 27. 23. His I am and him I serve to please him by the obedience of his will Rom. 12. 1 2. Ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service And
The Back-slider in Heart shall be filled with his own Ways and a good Man shall be satisfied from himself There are two different Persons commencing and setting forth in the pursuit of Happiness the Backslider in Heart and the good-Man The Backslider in Heart is one that continues in the Apostacy and Defection of Mankind that indulgeth his Lusts and vain Pleasures and for a seeming Good leaves God who is the chief Good But the good Men are those who make it their business to keep their Hearts chast and loyal to God They both desire to be filled and to be satisfied the one takes his own Way and the other God's Counsel and in the event both are filled The Backslider in Heart hath enough of his own Ways when they have brought him to Hell and the good Man hath enough when he comes to the Enjoyment of the Blessed God And there is one Truth more there they are both filled from themselves their own Ways The Backslider shall have the Fruit of his own Choice and a good Man is satisfied with that Course of Godliness that he hath chosen Prov. 1. 31. Those that turn away from God it is said They shall eat of their own Ways and be filled with the Fruit of their own Devices And Isa. 3. 10. Say unto the Righteous It shall be well with him for he shall eat of the Fruit of his own Doings 2. Consider the doleful Condition of those that indulge their carnal Affections and that either threatned by God or executed upon the wicked 1. Consider it as it is threatned by God If God threaten so great a Misery it is for our Profit that we may take heed and escape it There is Mercy in the severest Threatnings that we may avoid the Bait when we see the Hook that we may digest the Strictness of an holy Life rather than venture upon such dreadful Evils Why did our Lord repeat it three times Where the Worm never dies and the Fire is never quench'd but that we may have it often in our Thoughts that we may not buy the Pleasures of Sin at so dear a rate so hard a Price as the Loss of our precious Souls 2. Consider the Punishment as executed upon the Wicked How many are now burning in Hell for those Sins which you are ready to commit The serious Consideration of it will check the Fervour of your Lusts that you may not easily venture upon an everlasting Hell 3. Consider which Trouble is most intolerable to be salted with Salt or to be salted with Fire with unpleasing Mortification or the Pains of Hell the Trouble of Physick or the Danger of a mortal Disease Surely to preserve the Life of the Body Men will endure the bitterest Pill take the most loathsom Potion why their Lives ly on it And shall we be unwilling to such a necessary Strictness to these wholsom Severities which conduce to save you with an everlasting Salvation There is no Remedy Trouble must be undergone Surely a strict Diet is better than a speedy Death and the pricking of a Vein by a Chirurgion is not so bad as a Stab at the Heart by an Enemy Better be macerated by Repentance than broken in Hell by Torments Which is worse Discipline or Execution Here the Question is put you must be troubled first or last Would you have a Sorrow mixed with Love and Hope or else mixed with Desperation Would you have a Drop or an Ocean Would you have your Souls cured or tormented Would you have Trouble in the short Moment of this Life or have it Eternal in the World to come 4. Be sure you be a Sacrifice dedicated to God really entred into Covenant with God and set apart for his Use that this may be your End your Business your Scope to please glorify and enjoy him 2 Cor. 1. 9. We can the better speak to you when you are under a Covenant-Engagement Christ bound you to this when he died for you He sanctified himself that you might be sanctified through the Truth that is dedicated to God John 17. 19. And by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified that is them that are consecrated to God or entred into a holy Covenant with God Christ bound you to it and your own Gratitude will suggest it to you I beseech you by the Mercies of the Lord present your selves c. Nay the new Nature will incline you to it Rom. 6. 13. Yeeld your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God The new Life will presently discover it self by its Tendency and End if this be indeed your End and Work to be faithful to God's Covenant 5. You will see a need of denying worldly and fleshly Lusts you will see nothing can be done in the spiritual Life without Mortification that being dead to all things here below you may be alive to God That this must be your daily Work your Necessity will sufficiently shew Are there no rebellious Desires to be subdued No corrupt Inclinations to be broken Do not you feel the Bias of Corruption drawing you off from God David did therefore he saith Incline my Heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness Do not you find the sensitive Lure prevail upon you enticing your Minds and drawing you from the purity of your Hopes and strictness of Conversation Every Man is drawn away when he is enticed by his own Lusts Jam. 1. 6. Consider the sad Condition of a Believer that is under the corrective Discipline of God though he do not vacate his Justified State A sinning Believer that hath made bold with forbidden Fruit how doth he smart for Sin What a Wound in the Conscience will wilful heinous Sins make Witness David Psal. 32. And Psal. 51. He gives an account how uneasy his Heart did sit within him he was afraid of God who before was his Joy and Delight and speaks as one ready to be cast out of his Presence SERMON VI. 2 THESS 3. 5. And the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. THere are two things keep Religion alive in the Soul a Love to God and a hearty intent upon the coming of Christ. These are the two necessary Graces which the Apostle prays for in the Text Here is the love of God that is the first Grace and the earnest or patient waiting for Christ. Love respects God because he is the chief Object of it primum amabile as being the first and chiefest good but hope or patient expectation respects Christ who at his glorious coming will give us our full reward Love is the Life and Soul of our present Duties and by patient expectation we wait for our future hope The Love of God urgeth us to the Duties of Religion and Hope strengthens us against Temptations whether they arise from the allurernents of Sence or the troubles of the World
Love is our Breast-plate that guards the vitals of Christianity and Hope is our Helmet that covers our Head that we may hold up our Head in the midst of all the troubles and sorrows of the present Life 1 Thess. 5. 8. Both Graces are necessary therefore it will not be unprofitable to insist upon them I begin now with the former The Lord direct your Hearts to the love of God Where note 1. The Grace prayed for the Love of God 2. The Efficiency which is necessary to produce it the Lord direct your Hearts The word direct notes sometimes conduct and guidance and sometimes bending or setting streight the thing that is crooked Conduct and Guidance as we guide Men that they may not go wrong Psal. 119. 5. Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Ships that are best rigged need a Pilot and they that love God most need to have their love ordered and directed to the best advantage of his Glory and Service This for the first signification guidance and direction But at other times it signifies the bending inclining or making streight what is crooked and what bends and tends another way in this Sence I take it here Our Hearts are distorted and writhed and averse from God and all good naturally yea and after Grace received are apt to wander and return to their old bent and byas again therefore the Apostle prays that God would form and set their Hearts streight that they may be more indeclinably fixt towards God And this Prayer he makes for the Thessalonions whose work of Faith and labour of Love and patience of Hope he had so much commended before and of whose sincerity he had such great confidence for those he prays that their Love might be directed and their Hearts more fixedly set towards God The Note then will be plain and easy Doct. That we cannot have or keep up any true Love to God unless the Lord set our Hearts streight and keep them bent towards himself I shall inquire here 1. What is Love to God Love is the complacency of the Soul in what is good Love to God is the complacency and well-pleasedness of the Soul in God as our all-sufficient Portion To open it to you I shall describe it I. By its Radical and Internal Acts. II. By its External Effects III. A little touch upon the Properties of it and then you will see what the Love of God is 1. The Radical and Internal Acts are two Desire and Delight Desire after him and Delight in him 1. Desire after him Love affects union with the thing Beloved and so love to God implies an earnest seeking after him in the highest way of enjoyment that we are capable of in this World This appears partly by the kind of Mercies that we affect and partly by the fervency of our endeavours after him 1. By the kind of Mercies that we affect There are some Mercies vouchsafed to the Creature that lie nearer to God than others do and do least detain us from him as his Image and Favour or his renewing and reconciling Grace When we love God these are sought in the first place As you shall see how the temper of the Saints is described and distinguished from the temper of the brutish Multitude Psal. 4. 6 7. The Many say Who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us and this will put gladness into our Hearts The Many the brutish Multitude seek an uncertain good and they seek it from an uncertain Author Who will shew us They do not acknowledg God in these common Mercies but the Children of God must have his Favour Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us As the Beams of the Sun do chear and refresh the Earth this is that that doth revive their Souls So Mat. 5. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness Well then they that desire to be like God in Purity and Holiness and to recover his Favour lost by Sin do certainly more love him than those that only seek temporal Mercies from him God's sanctifying Spirit witnessing his love to us is the greatest gift can be bestowed in this Life and will more witness his love than any thing else can be given us This the Saints seek after that they may be like God that they may be accepted and well-pleasing unto God this is all their Ambition 2 Cor. 5. 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord. Other things may please the Flesh but that is not their design those things that bring them nearer to God take up their Mind and Heart Now as it appears by the Mercies we affect so it appears 2. By the fervency of our endeavours after these things For if the Image of God and Favour of God be sought superficially or as things that we may be well without and the Wealth Honours and Pleasures of the World be most earnestly sought after surely we do not love God Psal. 63. 8. My Soul followeth hard after thee The whole Spiritual Life is but a pursuit of the Soul towards God and the more constantly and earnestly we seek him to enjoy more of his saving Graces and Benefits the more we have of the love of God in us Therefore David expresseth this desire as exceeding all other desires Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I might dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my Life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple He sought not the glory of the Kingdom Success in battel Victory over his Enemies in the first place or not so much as Converse with God and Attendance on his Worship in the Tabernacle all was nothing to this that he might have Communion with God Therefore this is the radical Act of Love this fervent burning desire that carries the Soul thorow all Duties Ordinances Services they are still making their way to a nearer access to God and larger participation of his Grace till they come eternally to enjoy him in Glory 2. There is another Internal Radical Act of Love that is a Delight in him Our full joy is reserved for the other World but delighting our selves in God is a great Duty now for Love being the complacence of the Soul in God as a apprehended to be good or a delightful adhesion to God as our all-sufficient Portion and Happiness it cannot be imagined Love can be without any delight in God even now Now in this Valley of Tears the hope of enjoying him hereafter is our Comfort and Solace in the midst of our Weaknesses and Afflictions that there is a time coming when we shall more perfectly see kim as he is and be like him 1 Ioh. 3. 2. the Apostle tells us We rejoyce now in the hope of the Glory of God that we have this in
our carnal Love 2. If Love be not acted and kept at work carnal Love will prevail The Soul of Man cannot lye idle especially our Affections cannot either they are carried out to God or they will leak out to Worldly things When our Love ceaseth yet concupiscence ceaseth not and the Love of the World will soon grow Superiour in the Soul for the neglected Principle languisheth whilst the other Principle gets strength and secures its Interest to God The 3d. Is The Benefit we have by keeping Love in Act. This makes us more sincere and to act purely for God 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg that they that live should no more live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again The constraining Influence of Love is that that keeps us from living to our selves And this makes us more diligent Labour and Love are often coupled in the Scripture Knowing your labour of love the work of Faith and Patience of Hope And God is not unrightoeus to forget your labour of Love The Church of Ephesus lost her first Love she left her first work Rev. 2. 4 5. Use. Oh then let us seek this Benefit from God that our Hearts may be directed into his Love 1. The sanctifying Spirit is given us for this end to stir up love to God Joh. 41. 4. The Water I will give him shall be a Well of Water always springing up unto eternal Life 'T is not in the Heart a dead Pool but a living Spring And the same is intimated Joh. 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water this he spake of the Spirit 2. The Ordinances were appointed for this End The Word to represent God amiable to us both for the goodness in him and the goodness proceeding from him especially in our Redemption by Christ and also for those rich preparations of Grace he hath made for us in another World to blow up this holy Fire And this is the end of the Sacrament All the Dainties that are set before us in the Lord's Supper do all taste and savour of Love Our Meat is seasoned with Love and our Drink flows into our Cup out of the Wine-press of Love Why do we eat of the Crucified Body of Christ but that we may remember Iesus who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. And also the Drink that is provided for us at this Feast is the Blood of Christ. Rev. 1. 5. Who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood 3. All the Providences of God tend to this End that we may love God All God's Mercies are as new Fewel to keep in this Fire I will love the Lord because he has heard the Voice of my Supplication Psal. 116. 1. And thou shalt love the Lord who is the strength of thy Life and the length of thy Days Deut. 30. 20. All the Mercy we have from God is to refresh and revive our Love that it may not languish and die nay all the sharp corrections God sends are to recover our Love to God Isa. 26. 9. My Soul hath desired thee in the Night saith the Prophet and early have I sought thee and when was that when thy Iudgments were abroad in the World when great and sharp afflictions were upon them SERMON VII 2 THESS 3. 5. And into the patient waiting for Christ. THe Words are a Prayer and the Apostle prays here for those things which are most necessary to Christians Love to God and patient waiting for Christ. I come now to handle the second Branch The Point is this Doct. That when the Heart is bent by love to God we need also the direction of his Grace to keep it intent upon the coming of Christ. Four things I must speak to I. What this patient waiting for Christ is II. The Connection between it and the Love of God III. That it hath a great influence upon the spiritual Life or keeps Religion alive in the Soul IV. The Necessity of God's concurrence hereto the Lord direct your Hearts into the patient waiting for Christ. I. What is this patient waiting for Christ I answer it is the Grace of Hope fortifying our resolutions for God and the World to come that we may continue in our Duty till our work be finished and our warfare ended The Act of Hope is three ways exprest Sometimes by Looking which notes a certain expectation Tit. 2. 13. Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Sometimes by Loving or Longing which notes a desirous and earnest expectation 2 Tim. 4. 8. Not to me only but to all that love his appearing Sometimes by Waiting which notes a patient Expectation 1 Thess. 10. He makes it there the Fruit of our Conversion He saith we are turned to God that we may wait for his Son from Heaven This last Notion is expresly mentioned in the Text the other are implied as looking there can be no waiting for that we do not look for and longing for delay is only troublesome to them that earnestly desire his coming and build their Hopes upon it Faith adds certainty and Love earnestness and both give strength to Patience Let us open all these things As 1. Looking for the coming of Christ. Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. It is not a matter of conjecture but of Faith Reason saith he may come but Faith saith he will come Nature will teach us it is very likely for a guilty Conscience fears the Judg and the course of things is so disordered in the World that there needs a review But Scripture tells us it is very certain that he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 37. Therefore in the Eye of Faith it is sure and near As Rebecca spied Isaac at a distance so Faith looks upon Christ as if he had begun his Journey and were now upon the way and makes the Believer stand ready to meet him and welcome him Though it come not to pass presently the thing is promised and the time certainly determined in God's external purpose which is enough for Faith 2. There is a Longing or a desirous Expectation 2 Pet. 3. 12. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God It is good to observe how differently this Coming of Christ is entertain'd in the World It is questioned by the Atheist it is dreaded by the Wicked and Impenitent but it is longingly expected by the Godly 1. For the first sort 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming They would eternally enjoy the Pleasures of the present World and therefore labour to dash all thoughts of this great Day out of their Hearts and take up all obvious
we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. Men are secure and careless either because they do not believe this Day or do not seriously think of it Could we bring ourselves to this to think and speak and do as having Judgment and Eternity in our Eye we would be other manner of Persons than ever we have been What! believe this Day and be so careless it cannot be We would not beat down the Price of Religion to so low a rate nor serve God so loosly if we did wait for the Coming of Christ who will bring every thing into the Judgment whether it be good or evil we could not then satisfy our selves in such a negligent Profession and Practice of Godliness 3. It would produce a more heavenly Temper and Conversation That is evident from the Apostle's words Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Looking for this Salvation and this Saviour it breeds in us the Heavenly Mind He comes from Heaven to bring us thither for he comes to receive us to himself Io. 14. 3. therefore if we be not heavenly our Practice will be a Contradiction to our Faith You believe that there is a God and a Christ and a Life to come that this Christ came from God to bring us to God that we may enjoy him in the Life to come and thereupon you renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and give up your selves to God believing that this Christ will come again to lead all his sincere Disciples and penitent Believers into the Glory and Happiness of the Heavenly State If you believe this what follows That your Conversation must be Heavenly either you must live for Heaven as seeking it with all diligence that you may at length certainly obtain it and not be excluded with the wicked or live upon Heaven solacing your selves in the fore-sight and hopes of it otherwise to profess this Faith and yet to live as though your Happiness were altogether in this World were to go about to reconcile Contradictions to pretend you place your Blessedness in Heaven and yet fly from it as a Misery you profess to look and long for that you have no mind to The second Notion is Patience 2. Patience that also hath a great Influence upon Religion for that which destroyeth all Religion and Godliness is making haste therefore 't is said Isa. 28. 16. He that believes shall not make haste God's Promises are not presently effected and if we cannot tarry but run to our own Shifts because they are next at hand presently you run into a Snare On the other side it is said Lament 3. 26. It is good to hope and quietly to wait for the Salvation of God When we can hope and wait it mightily secures our Obedience Sense is all for present Satisfaction but Faith and Hope can tarry God's leasure till those better things which he hath promised do come in hand Whatever our Condition be afflicted or prosperous we are in the place and station where God hath set us and there we must abide till he bring us to his Kingdom Impatience and Precipitation is the Cause of all Mischief What moved the Israelites to make a Golden Calf but Impatience not waiting for Moses who according to their Mind and Fancy remained too long with God in the Mount What made Saul force himself to offer Sacrifice but because he could not tarry an hour longer for Samuel and so lost the Kingdom 1 Sam. 13. 12 13 14. What made the bad Servant or Church-Officer to smite his Fellow-Servant and eat and drink with the drunken that is to abuse Church-Censures countenance the Profane and smite and curb the Godly but only this Mat. 24. 48. My Lord delays his Coming He sees the strictest are hated in the World and the others befriended and Honour and Interest runs that way and Christ comes not to rectify these Disorders My Lord delays his Coming Hasty Men are loth to be kept in Suspence and long Expectation and so miscarry Look to all Sorts of Sinners The Carnal and Sensual they cannot wait for the Time when they shall have Pleasures for evermore at God's right Hand therefore take up with present Delights like those cannot tarry till the Grapes be ripe therefore eat them sowre and green solid and everlasting Pleasures they cannot wait for therefore choose the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a season A covetous Man will wax rich in a day and cannot tarry the fair Leisure of Providence therefore we are told He that makes haste to be rich cannot be innocent Prov. 20. 21. An ambitious Man will not stay till God gives true Crowns and Honours in his Kingdom and therefore he must have Honour and Greatness here though his Climbing and Affecting to be built one Story higher in the World cost him the Ruin and Loss of his Soul All Revolt and Apostacy from God proceeds from hence because they cannot wait for God's Help and tarry his fulfilling the Promise but finding themselves pressed and destitute the Flesh that is tender and delicate grows impatient It is tedious to suffer for a while but they do not consider it is more tedious to suffer for evermore Thence comes also our murmuring and distrustful Repining Psal. 31. 22. I said in my haste I am cut off nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my Supplication Just at that time when God was about to hear him So I said in my haste all Men are liars And thence also our unlawful Attempts and stepping out of God's way Men fly to unwarrantable Means because they cannot depend upon God and wait with patience Look as an impetuous River is always troubled and thick so is a precipitate impatient Spirit out of order full of distemper a ready Prey to Satan IV. The Necessity of Divine Concurrence The Apostle prays here The Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and the patient Waiting for Christ. It concerns this Clause as well as the former 1. As to the Carnal and Unregenerate Till their Hearts be changed they can never attain to this patient waiting for Christ for two Reasons 1. In the wicked there is no sound Belief of these things for they live by Sense and not by Faith The Apostle tells us He that lacketh Grace is blind and cannot see afar of 2 Pet. 1. 9. Things of another World are too uncertain and too far off for them to apprehend so as to be much moved by them They hear of the Coming of Christ and speak by rote of it after others but they do not believe it therefore till God enlighten them how shall they be affected with this matter 2. There is an utter Unsuitableness of Heart to them Things present that sute their Fancies and please their Senses carry away their Hearts Psal. 49. 18. Whilest he lived he blessed his Soul and Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thy self Men
to the uttermost all that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Christ is there compared with the Levitical Priesthood They were many that succeeded one after another and being hindred by Death could never bring their Work to perfection but this Priest ever liveth to plead the Churches Cause with God presenting his Human Nature in his Sight and appearing continually before his Fathers Throne and this for all that come to God by him They are his Clients and he is their Advocate it is against the Rules of that Court to plead for others that continue in their Unbelief and Impenitency After the Beast was slain without the Camp the Levitical High-Priest did enter into the Sanctuary with Blood So Christ after his Sacrifice did enter into the Heavenly Sanctuary with the Names of the twelve Tribes of all the Saints on his Breast and Shoulders there to appear before God for us Heb. 9. 14. He ever liveth to accomplish the Fruits of his Purchase for those that are reconciled to God by him as an High-Priest to answer the Accusations of Satan as our Advocate to stop the breaking out of Wrath. As Ionathan in Saul's Court did mitigate his Father's Anger against David so Christ doth interpose Night and Day to prevent Breaches and to preserve a mutual Correspondence between God and us as our Lieger-Agent to sue out Grace sutable to our Conflicts Difficulties and Temptations as our Friend in Court to procure the Acceptance of our Prayers as our Mediator and Intercessor Heb. 8. 2. 4. His Living is the Root and Cause of our Life For he having purchased Eternal Life not only for himself but for all his Members ever liveth to convey it to them and maintain it in them Ioh. 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also Joh. 6. 57. As I live by the Father so he that believeth in me shall live by me By reason of the Mystical Union that is between Christ and Believers they may rest upon it that as long as the Head hath Life the Members shall not be utterly without Life for Christ is a Pledg and a Pattern of that Power that shall work in us in order to Life Spiritual and Eternal 4. The next Ground of Comfort is the Certainty of Perswasion I know that my Redeemer liveth As if he had said I do not doubt of it nor suspect it in the least I know implies 1. A clear Understanding of this Mystery The more fully we understand the Grounds of Faith the more Efficacy they have upon us to beget Confidence and Joy of Faith in us The Fears that haunt us are the Fruits of Darkness and Ignorance accompanied with a sense of Guilt but as Gospel-Knowledge increases they vanish as Mists do before the Sun Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee If God were better known he would be better trusted 2. I know implies Certainty of Perswasion This is either Certainty of Faith or of Spiritual Sense First Of Faith which depends on the Certainty of God's Revelation that was either the general Promise in Paradise Gen. 3. 15. God had said The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head Now upon this Promise Iob is as confident of a Redeemer as if he had seen him with his bodily Eyes Thus Abraham is said to have seen Christ's Day Iohn 8. 56. And Heb. 11. 13. These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them Or his Faith was built upon some particular Revelation Heb. 1. 1. God who at sundry times and by divers manners spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets They had a sufficient Discovery of the Redeemer to be a Ground of Faith Certain it is the Eyes of Believers were then upon him We are told that Christ was the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. He is set forth in Prophecies and Types Now Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen not seen by Sense but clearly seen in the Promise He was the Joy of all Ages even of those that lived before he came in the Flesh. The same is true after the Coming of Christ as well as before for we believe in him whom we have not seen 1 Pet. 1. 3. We should as heartily love him and rejoyce in him as if we had conversed with him bodily Only we have an Advantage History is not so dark as Prophecy and it is more easy to believe what is past where we have the Suffrage and Experience of so many Ages to confirm us than to expect what is to come where we have only God's bare Word to support us The Mystery is now more clearly revealed to us than before the Exhibition of our Saviour Therefore according to our Advantage so should the Increase of our Faith be We should be able to say 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him We should rest upon Christ with more confidence Secondly The Certainty of Spiritual Sense We know that he is a Redeemer by the discovery of the Word that he is our Redeemer by the Application of the Spirit as he manifests himself to us and in us This Knowledge of Spiritual Sense is often spoken of Iob 13. 18. I know that I shall be justified Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance Rom. 6. 6. Knowing this that your old Man is crucified that is feeling Now both these are of great Comfort the Certainty of Faith and the Sweetness of Sense for without the Certainty of Faith the Soul is only left to blind Ghesses and loose Conjectures and so can never have solid Comfort Without the Knowledge of Sense that is of our Interest in Salvation the Soul loses much of its Joy and Peace As Novices and Men that have never before been at Sea are troubled at the swelling of every Wave and Billow though they are safe yet because they do not know they are safe their Voyage is a Torment to them So those that take the Assurance of the Word of God for the Truth of Redemption by Christ and tremblingly build upon it yet because they know not their own Interest have not the Comfort of the Spirit their Journey to Heaven is the more troublesom Therefore it concerneth us to build upon a sure Foundation so to get a clear Interest II. How this is applicable in all Afflictions That easily appears from these Premises 1. In publick Troubles and Difficulties We are amazed and perplexed many times at the Events that fall out in the World and know not whereunto these things will grow Yet this is some Comfort and Support to all that are concern'd in Sion's Affairs that Christ is alive at his Fathers right-Hand and will pursue all things that make
the Use that will comfort us Though we cannot carry our Estates into the other World yet the comfort of a good Conscience we may carry with us Their Works follow them Rev. 14. 13. Then they go to enjoy the Eternal reward of Bliss and Peace for their hard and painful Service here in the World 4. The Comfort Safety and Happiness of this Life lies not in abundance Luke 12. 15. Take heed and beware of Covetousness for a Mans Life lies not in the abundance of things which he possesseth This Consideration is added because some might think though we can carry nothing out of the World yet whilst we live we should seek larger Supplies Our Lord answereth this Surmise though outward things are very useful to sustain Life yet no Man is able to prolong his Life or to make it more Happy and Comfortable to him by possessing more than he needs or uses what good will the superfluity of Wealth do him These things are extrinsical to our Being and Happiness When you have the World at Will you can get no more from it than bodily Food and bodily Cloathing The poorest may attain to that It is no great matter whether our Dung or Excrements be of siner matter or courser whether a gay shew we make in our Apparel so we have for warmth and decency whether few or more Dishes at our Table Too much Oil puts out the Lamp and superfluity afflicts and oppresseth that part which it feems to gratifie When Men have troubled themselves and the World to make themselves great what a sorry Happiness have they their Net and their Drag by which they catch Men as a Fisher-man doth Fishes in the Sea it all tendeth to this that their Portion may be Fat and Plenteous A poor Felicity that they have a little good Chear and a merry Life here They that want such abundance live as well as they and have as much Health and Contentment Psal. 19. 14. They have their Portion in this Life and their Bellies are filled with hid Treasures and they leave the rest to their Babes They ransack the Store-houses of Nature to satisfie their Gluttony and Excess but yet all this while they are not the nearer to Contentment nor farther off from the Grave So that it is best to be content with Necessaries 5. Nothing besides Food and Rayment is absolutely necessary By Food is meant something to nourish us and by Rayment something to cover us If you indulge wanton Appetites if you make Provision for the Flesh or ask Meat for your Lusts God will not hear nor regard your Desires Iacob desires but Food and Rayment of God Gen. 28. 20. If God be with me and keep me in the way that I go and will give me Bread to eat and Rayment to put on then God shall be his God But how could he put his owning and acknowledging of God upon these terms the meaning is this shall be a new engagement esteeming it as a great Favour All our desires should be suited not to our Luxury but the necessity of Nature Rayment not Ornament necessary Supports not Delicacies Therefore we should not make Lust a Wanton but be content if God will any way enable us to serve and glorify him We should be content with his allowance it is enough for the Service and Honour which he expecteth from us and to carry us through that little time which we have to spend in the World It is not abundance that we need but a contented Heart Let a little suffice if God gives no more Diseased Persons need more attendance than the Healthy the Distempers of our Souls multiply our Necessities and as we indulge them they gain upon us therefore every one of us should bring himself to be content with Necessaries Superfluities are an impediment rather than a help as a Shoe too big for the Foot hinders our going Or as David could not go on with Saul's Armour because it was too great for him 1 Sam. 17. 31. We are freest from Temptations when we have least though enough for Health Strength and Chearfulness 6. Food and Raiment are not hard to be obtained I do not mean with respect to our endeavours but God's Blessing for in these things God will not forsake us We have a Heavenly Father who knows what we stand in need of Mat. 6. 32. They that have least from God have ordinarily Food and Raiment vouchsafed to them He will not leave his People to unsupportable Difficulties Our Condition is tolerable if not comfortable 1 Cor. 10. 13. He hath wonderful means to help when all their Supplies are removed out of the veiw of Sense It is notable to observe the Israelies were not plagued when they murmured out of Want but when they murmured out of Wantonness Real wants we may rationally presume will be supplied not Fancies and Carnal Appetites As for Instance Psal. 78. 2. Therefore the Lord heard this and was wrath and a Fire was kindled against Jacob and Anger came up against Israel Therefore why when he had taken care to supply their wants by giving them plenty of Water out of the Rock of Horeb and by sending Manna in the Morning and Quails in the Evening yet they fell a murmuring and complaining preferring their Condition in Egypt before that which God had brought them into They must have a Table better furnished with Bread and Flesh they were clogged with this Manna not contented with a Provision for their wants but required a satisfaction to their Appetites This highly displeased and provoked God and brought very sharp punishments upon them So again Psal. 106. 14 15. They lusted exceedingly in the Wilderness and tempted God in the Desert and he gave them their request but sent leanness into their Souls Their Minds ever and anon ran upon the Flesh-Pots of Egypt and because they had not that festival plenty in the Wilderness they murmured as if Moses had brought them out of Egypt to die there and God must shew more Miracles not to supply their Wants but to pamper their Lusts. 7. This Life was given us to seek a better and therefore the Felicity of it must not be measured by a more ample Portion of Food and Raiment but as we are fitted and prepared for the better Life which is the end and scope of Life it self All these things are but your Provision in the way to Heaven therefore not principally to be sought after your business is to serve God and seek the Salvation of your Souls Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you that is there will be enough to sustain us in our Journey to Heaven whilst we are preparing for Eternity and therefore we should be content 8. Many times the less we have in this Life the more fervently is the Life to come sought after A moderate Estate is freest from Temptations Abundance of all things without any
want inclines us to a forgetfulness of God as on the other side perpetual want without any chearful taste of God's Goodness disposes Men to Atheism In the two extreams Religion is either Starved or Choaked We see it in Countries and Persons in Countries Sodom and Gomorrah which was as the Garden of God Gen. 13. 10. was the first instance of unnatural Sin and an example of supernatural Judgment Some in great Prosperity have no thoughts of God and the World to come others that live in sordid Poverty never consider the goodness of God and so live and die miserable Creatures The middle estate is freest from danger and Religion is most secured in it Prov. 30. 8 9. Give me neither Poverty nor Riches feed me with Food convenient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of God in vain Pride and Insolency are incident to the one and any base dealing to the other A great Estate like a rank Soil is more apt to breed Weeds and bitter Necessity betrays us to any base shift for our Sustenance therefore if God gives us any thing to live upon we should be content 9. That God best knows what will do us good or hurt and therefore we should refer it to him to dispose of us according to his own Pleasure Certainly we should not want if God saw it better for us to abound for he is no niggard of his Blessings but is good and doth good But it is not meet that Man should have the disposal of himself or his own Condition and Affairs or that God should accommodate his Providence to our carnal Interest and Will No God's Will must always precede and ours follow We have a corrupt Will guided by a dark Understanding and if the Blind lead the Lame what can be expected but disorder and ruine therefore our Wills must not lead and make the first choice but God's We must bring our Hearts throughly to yeeld to what God appointeth and that our present Estate is best for us How unmeet Judges are Flesh and Blood of what Condition is fit for us We would be fed only with the Delicacies of Prosperity and Pleasure but it is for our profit that we should be chastened that we should be partakers of his Holiness Heb. 12. 10 11. What a strange Creature would Man be if he were what he would wish himself to be Vainly Proud stupidly Careless and neglectful of God and Heavenly things therefore our best way is to be what God will have us to be Not my Will but thine be done Mat. 26. 36. 10. We must be contented with a competency but yet we ought to be fitted and prepared for Eternity If God please to give us conveniency it is his great Mercy but our resolutions must be to be contented with any Condition God will put us into we except not Life it self out of our Resignation The People of God are wont to suppose not only some Necessity but an Extremity Hab. 3. 18. Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation He saith not if I have only Food and Raiment and hard Fare it shall suffice me No But if the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Field shall yeild no Meat and the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stalls In many cases Poverty may come upon us like an armed Man and spoil us of all but when we seem to be starved in the Creature yet then we may feast in God God's Children do not capitulate with him how much they will suffer and no more but resolve to bear the heaviest Burden to submit to the sharpest Affliction So again Psal. 44. 19 20. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the Shadow of Death yet we have not forgotten the Name of our God or proved unfaithful to him III. The Reasons why it is a high Point of Christianity to get Contentation with any Estate God shall put us into Are 1. In the general it is a Mystery only learned in Christ's School Phil. 4. 11 12. I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be therewith content and I know how to be abased and to abound I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me This Art is not soon learned What is there in Christianity above other Disciplines to teach us this Contentation The Doctrine of God's particular Providence Fatherly Care and Eternal Life these seconded by the sanctifying Operation of the Holy Ghost cause this resolution in us to encounter all the difficulties of this present Life in an humble and quiet Mind 2. More particularly let us consider 1. What is necessary to this Contentment 2. What Effect it produces 1. What is necessary to this Contentment 1. Faith or a sound belief of God's Being and gracious Promises and Eternal Recompenses That there is a God that he hath a particular care of Humane Affairs and that he will not leave his People to unsupportable Difficulties but will guide them to Eternal Life It is in vain to press People to contentedness till they be thus perswaded For the first Truth that there is a God He that cometh to God must believe that God is For the second Truth that he hath a particular care of Humane Affairs 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all your Care upon the Lord for he careth for you The third Truth that he will not leave his People to unsupportable Difficulties Heb. 13. 5 6. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what Man shall do unto me For the fourth Truth a Prospect of Eternal Life Luke 12. 32. Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom Now if God be and be thus engaged to his People why should we be discontented if he take his own Methods to bring us to Everlasting Glory We cannot suffer any thing that God is not aware of every Dram of our Affliction is weighed out to us by that All-Wise All-Merciful Providence and there is nothing which we suffer that he knoweth not how to turn to our good looking for nothing from us but our Trust and Thankfulness 2. It comes from Humility when we are content to be at God's finding knowing that we have deserved nothing from him Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all thy Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my Staff passed I over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands The Humble Man is content to be
thy Hand saith David Psal. 31. 15. And sometimes God interposeth and will be glorified by us in an afflicted Condition Therefore you must reserve a Liberty to God to order and govern you according to his own pleasure as to Success in your Callings Comfort in your Relations Favour with Men in your Employments God may make every Relation a Door to let in Affliction You should often consider the Soveraignty of God the Uncertainty of your own Lives the Mutability of all worldly things You speak arrogantly when you presume of Success and take more upon you than you are able to perform 1 Sam. 2. 3. Talk no more exceeding proudly let not Arrogancy come out of your Mouth that is presumptuous Conceits of absolute Success And the Apostle Iames Jam. 4. 13 14 c. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a Year and buy and sell and get Gain Your Life is a Vapor and ye ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that Now ye rejoyce in your Boastings all such Rejoycing is evil There are certain times when God is resolved to proceed with his People in a Judiciary Way and then all Means we can use will not keep off the Stroke Amos 2. 14 15 16. Therefore the Flight shall perish from the Swift and the Strong shall not strengthen his Force nor the Mighty deliver himself neither shall he stand that handleth the Bow nor he that is swift of foot deliver himself nor he that rideth the Horse he that is couragious among the Mighty shall flee away in that day saith the Lord. No Means though never so probable will avail us in a time of Judgments neither Speed of Horse or Foot neither Strength of Body nor Courage of Mind nor Provision of Armour nor Skill to use it but the Judgments shall reach all they aim at Then it is plainly fulfilled that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong c. V. Take heed of carnal confidence or depending upon the sufficiency of any means though never so likely to produce their Effect partly because God delighteth to cross Men in their carnal confidences he blasteth those sufficiencies which we depend upon and rejoyce in apart from Himself to maintain his own right Success is his the Battel is the Lords 1 Sam. 17. 47. He blasts Men in the things they boast of Asahel's Swiftness was his ruine so was Ahitophel's Policy and Absolom's Hair God saith to Babylon Thy Understanding hath undone thee Men often by their Wit bring themselves into mischief yea into Hell VI. To keep humble Men of the best Abilities and Sufficiencies for any Work 1. Before the Event for many times they meet with more disappointments than those that want them and their best designs miscarry when meaner Persons are carried through their difficulties with less ado After the Event we must look above second Causes not attribute any thing to our own Strength or Gifts but to God's Assistance and Blessing on our Labours Let not the wise Man glory in his Wisdom nor the strong Man glory in his Might c. Jer. 9. 23. So Deut. 8. 17 18. Say not in thy Heart My Power and the Might of my Hand hath gotten me this Wealth Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for he it is that giveth thee Power to get Wealth Let us not sacrifice to our own Net The Battel is not to the Strong nor Bread to the Wise. It is God's and he will not be robb'd of his Glory And as we should carry it humbly towards God so also to Men not despising them of mean Gifts Many times God giveth them more Success in the Ministry in ordinary Callings in Favour and Preferments in the World or esteem in the Eyes of the People It is God only makes the difference and what thou hast above others thou hast it from God and for God not to lift up thy self but to exalt God Therefore give thanks and do not contemn others VII To prevent the discouragement of those that want Gifts or Parts or Means suppose their Adversaries be Mighty it is nothing with God to help with many or them that have no Power 2 Chron. 14. 11. The less in the Creature the more in God 2 Cor. 12. 9. His Power is perfected in our weakness God many times passeth over the Strong Wise and Understanding and gets himself most Glory in protecting the Weak and providing for them The issue of all is this Let us bear all things befalling us from the wise Hand and Providence of the Lord and encourage our selves in his All-Sufficiency in all Straits and Difficulties SERMON XV. ACTS 21. 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done THe History that concerns this passage begins at the 8th verse In the whole you may take Notice I. Of the Occasion II. Of the Carriage of the Saints upon it I. In the Occasion I observe 1. That Paul was now at Cesaria in Philip's House ver 8. Philip was one of those that was scattered and driven out of his dwelling by Paul's Persecution Acts 8. 4 5. and now he received him into his own House Philip that was injur'd by Paul a Persecutor is easily reconciled with Paul a Convert 'T is an ill office to rake in the filth which God hath covered and it argueth some envy at the Divine Grace to upbraid Men with sins committed before Conversion Former miscarriages and Injuries should be forgotten If Christ hath taken them into his Bosom we should not be strange to them 2. There Agabus comes to him and prophesieth of Paul's Bonds at Ierusalem Agabus was a Prophet but by what appears of him in Scripture ever a Prophet of evil tidings he foretold a Famine Acts 11. 28. and now Paul's Bonds God will be glorified by all manner of Tempers and Dispositions some like Agabus come always with a sad Message in their Mouths and yet these have their use Even those that give warning of Judgments to come should be accepted as well as those that bring us hopes of Mercy and Deliverance It was an unjust exception of the King of Israel against Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 8. I hate him for he doth not prophesy good concerning me but evil They that do evil do not love to hear of evil And yet that may be true which is not pleasing 3. Agabus useth a Sign vers 11. he goes and binds himself and sheweth thus it should be done with Paul at Ierusalem This was usual with the Prophets As Isaiah went naked and bare-foot to shew what should be their usage under the King of Assyria Isa. 20. 2 3. Ezekiel was to pack up his stuff and remove to signify what should be the Lott of the People Ezek. 12. 3 4 5. That God might teach his People by visible Signs as well as by word of Mouth
that is hard against God and soft for God and a Heart that is hard for God and soft against God The first when it is bold in sinning but fearful and soft in Troubles As Deut. 20. 8. The fearful and the soft-heartea But now the Heart which is hard for God and soft against God is the Heart which is a Coward in Sin but like a Lion undaunted in all manner of Sufferings They will trust in God though he kill them and can confront the greatest Dangers and yet tremble at the least Offence against God and dare not do it Now saith Paul You break my Heart that is even weaken my Courage and take me off from my Purpose 3. Observe their Discretion That when he would not be perswaded they ceased Either Paul told them what Intimation he had from God or else they thought so wise a Man as Paul would not thrust himself upon danger without a Warrant It is the Disposition of humble Spirits not to be peremptory of their own Conceits but to submit to those that are wiser than themselves Mat. 3. 15. Iohn would not at first admit Christ to his Baptism out of Reverence to him and Humility But saith Christ Suffer it to be so now When he was informed of Christ's Mind then he suffered him So those that were so zealous for enclosing of the common Salvation When they heard that God had granted Repentance unto Life to the Gentiles they held their Peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted Repentance unto Life Acts 11. 18. It sheweth we should not be too stiff in our private Conceits and Humours when a plain Evidence appeareth to the contrary a Lesson that Men have great need to learn 4. Their Piety the Ground of their Discretion The Will of the Lord be done The Scripture speaks 1. Of God's determining and decreeing Will Eph. 1. 11. He doth all things according to the Counsel of his Will 2. Of his approving or liking Will. Rom. 12. 2. That ye may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect Will of God The Text speaks not of his commanded but of his intended Will not of his Will to be done by us but of his Will to be done upon us God's intended Will is either 1. Secret before the Decree bring forth the Issue and Event 2. Or else declared by the Event While it is secret we pray for the Accomplishment of it Ier. 29. 11. I know the Thoughts that I think towards you c. And we conceive all our Desires with submission to it But now we speak of his Will revealed and declared in his Providence There is a Submission required to both First To God's intended Will while it is yet kept secret That in every Business we should ask his Leave and Blessing It is a piece of Religious Manners to begin with God 1. His Leave As Iudg. 1. 1. Shall I go up and fight against the Canaanites or shall I not And thus Iehoshaphat would enquire of the Prophet Shall I go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prevail The honest Heathens had this Principle A Iove Principium that every Action was to be begun with God Balaam had a Conscience this way he would enquire of God before he would proceed either to curse or bless By this Means we acknowledge God our Dependance upon Him and his Dominion over us It is Robbery to use any Goods without the Owner's leave We and all ours are the Goods of God God hath such a Dominion over us as a Man hath over his Goods not only a Dominion of Jurisdiction as Governor in Law but a Dominion of Propriety Therefore in Journeys in removing of our Dwelling in disposal of our Children God must not be left out but be treated with in the first place 2. His Blessing When the Event is uncertain beg the Lord's Concurrence and the Blessing of his Providence Ier. 10. 23. O Lord I know the Way of Man is not in himself it is not in Man that walketh to direct his Steps Man cannot manage his own Actions with any Comfort or Success therefore we must beg it of God whose Will doth all in the Case So Gen. 24. 12. And he said O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day We are to desire all may speed while we are in God's way It is a vain thing to promise our selves great Matters without the Leave and Blessing of Providence for our Lives and Actions and all which concern us are in God's hands 2. We must refer the Event to his Determination This is a great Part of Trust in God and of Quietness of Mind when we are so perswaded of the Lord's Goodness Wisdom and Power that we leave the Event to him and refer it that he shall cast it as he pleaseth being so sensible of the Power of his Providence and so confident of the Goodness of his Conduct Submitting all things to God's Will after the Event is Patience and submitting all things to God's Will before the Event is a notable piece of Faith When I trust God absolutely let him do with me what he pleaseth but I know he is a good God and he will do nothing but what is good and what is for the best We are obliged in all things we design to be subordinate to God's Will and to accept of it Rom. 1. 10. Making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous Iourney by the Will of God to come unto you Jam. 4. 15. We ought to say If the Lord will 1 Cor. 4. 19. But I will come to you shortly if the Lord will So in many other places This was a Truth evident to the Heathens Plato brings in Alcibiades asking Socrates how he should speak of future Events and in what manner he should express himself And Socrates answers Even as God will To use such an express Reservation in all our Undertakings is profitable to beget Reverence in ourselves and to instruct others Thus far the Light of Nature teacheth Men. I confess it is not absolutely necessary in all Cases to express our selves so but this Disposition should be in our Minds 1 Cor. 11. 34. And the rest will I set in order when I come He doth not say there If God will but yet he reserves that I speak this as the lowest thing that we be not too confident of Events but refer them to the Lord's Will But a Child of God goeth higher he knows he hath a good God a Heavenly Father which guides all things in Wisdom Power and Goodness And the Event may be against his Desires Appetites Conceits Fancies but he knows God will govern and do better for him than his own Choices He trusts all to God 3 Our Purposes and Desires must be so moderated that we may be fore-armed for all Events 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. If I shall find Favour in the Eyes of the Lord he will bring
is an Act of Reason as we are reasonable Creatures The natural Inclination of all Creatures is to preserve themselves but the Deliberate Will chuseth what the Understanding judgeth to be good all Circumstances considered The Inclination of Nature flees Death and Torments but Reason submitteth to it As for Instance A bitter Potion is against the Inclination of Nature for as we are living Creatures we would be put to no pain but the reasonable Creature by an elective Will takes that bitter Potion for Health Cutting off a gangreen'd Member is against the first Inclination of Man as a living Creature we submit to it as a reasonable Creature lest it corrupt the whole Body So in the Martyrs the Flesh could not but be against Sufferings being contrary to their well-being as living Creatures but the Spirit that is their Reason guided by Grace submitted to the greatest Torments for the Glory of God Thus the Lord Christ saith Let this Cup pass There was the inclination of an Innocent Nature declining so dreadful an Evil but yet it was his Meat and Drink to do his Fathers Will therefore not my Will but thine be done Others to the same purpose There were two things willed by Christ one was Bonum Naturae the good of Nature the other was the Glory of God with our Salvation And the first was desir'd but subordinately to the second So that the Lord Christ is a notable Pattern that our Appetites and Desires are not to be according to the Interests of the Flesh but for the Glory and Honour of God and the good of others The next Pattern we have is David a Man after God's own Heart in 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him What a meek submission was here to God's Pleasure resigning up his Person Crown and Estate to the wise and gracious disposal of God to receive a Benefit or Punishment as the Lord should determine David sets his Name to a Blanck and bids God write what he pleaseth It is hard for us to consent to known Articles but David wholly referreth himself unto God Let him do what seemeth good unto him So Abraham the Father of the Faithful how contentedly doth he speak and he thought no other but that Isaac the Son of the Promise should be sacrificed Gen. 22. 8. When his Son asked him Where 's the Burnt-Offering for Sacrifice and he answered My Son the Lord will provide an Offering and so they went on their way together When God declareth his Will not only contrary to our natural Affection but our gracious hopes when he taketh away Instruments upon whose Life his Glory seems to depend we have the same Answer God will provide The next shall be of Eli 1 Sam 1. 18. It is the Lord let him do whatsoever he pleaseth When the Sentence was past he humbly submitteth He doth not murmuringly say must I bear the punishment of my Sons Iniquity their Will is not in my power if they be wicked let them answer for it No It is the Lord and his Will must stand It is the Lord who is too just to do us wrong too good to do us hurt The next shall be the great Doctor of the Gentiles St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. And for this I besought the Lord thrice He knocked thrice at the Throne of Grace as Christ praied thrice and Elijah praied thrice for Rain Well but the Lord made him no answer But my Grace is sufficient for thee The Thorn in the Flesh some painful Disease or Affliction must continue And what saith Paul Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my Infirmities that the Power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions for Christ's sake He doth entertain it with some kind of chearfulness and Thanksgiving if he may have Experience that the Grace and Power of Christ may rest upon him it is enough that God's Will is fulfilled though it be with our pain and loss Now let us Consider I. Wherein this submission consists II. Upon what Grounds we ought to submit I. Wherein this submission consists Negatively It is not to be insensible Godliness doth not teach Men Stoicism to harden themselves under the Rod of God The Lord complains of that Jer. 5. 3. I have stricken them but they have not grieved c. We must lay his Hand to Heart as well as his Word We are not to be like the Corner-Stone which bears the whole weight of the Building and feels nothing There are two extreams slighting the Hand of God or fainting under it Heb. 12. 5. and slighting is worse than the other There is no Patience where there is no sense and feeling Certainly there can be no improvement where there is not a feeling the Rod of God the strokes of his correcting Hand upon us But Affirmatively There is in it 1. A work of the Iudgment which subscribes to the Justice and Goodness of the Dispensation that it is just Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of Face It is a smart and dreadful Correction but the Lord is Righteous And to the Goodness of it Isa. 39. 8. Good is the Word of the Lord. Though it was a terrible Word yet the submission of a sanctified Judgment calls it good 2. The act of the Will is accepting of it Lev. 26. 41. If they shall accept of the punishment of their Sin There 's a consent and choice of the Will such a perfect correspondence between the Temper of a Gracious Heart and the Will of God they take it well and kindly from God that it is no worse as a Patient takes bitter Pills for his Good There are some kind of Reluctancies of Nature but their over-powering Judgment and Will doth approve and accept Afflictions are to be taken as a Potion not as a Drench not forced upon us whether we will or no we must accept of them take them down our selves it is a bitter Cup but it is of our Heavenly Physicians tempering Seneca a Heathen could say Deo non pareo sed assentio ex Animo I do not meerly submit to Divine Providence but consent to it A strange thing that a Heathen should say so It is good and so we accept it not barely out of Necessity and by a Patience per force but there is a willing submission to what the Lord ordereth concerning us 3. There 's a Command reached out over the Affections of Anger and Sorrow 1. Anger that we may not fret against the Lord Psal. 37. 1. Fret not thy self against evil doers Many times when words are kept in there 's a secret rising and swelling of Heart against God's Providence As an Oven stopped up is the hotter within So though it may be words do not break out yet the Heart boils riseth and dislikes God's dealing Psal. 62. 1. My Soul keep silence
right that he should enter into Judgment with God No he goeth on just and sure Grounds though we do not always discern them 2. God doth it too with great Faithfulness they look on all Afflictions as federal Dispensations as Appendages of the Covenant of Grace Psal. 119. 57. In very Faithfulness thou hast afflicted me Mark he doth not say notwithstanding thy Faithfulness but in Faithfulness he performs his Covenant When he thresheth us it is to make our Husksfly off that he may quicken us to a serious Remembrance of himself and of the Duties we owe to him 3. It is ordered with great Wisdom For God is a God of Iudgment Isa. 30. 18. He knows what is best for his People We think this and that best but God is wiser than we when many Providences fall out we think it would be better for the Church if it were otherwise But this is to tax God's Wisdom and charge him with want of Love and Tenderness towards his People they are dearer to him than they are to you Chrysostom shews how we take upon us to order Affairs he brings in an Instance of a Man that is very kind to the Poor if he dies they are undone Have you more care of them than God their Maker Iob did not eat his Morsels alone but the Poor did eat his Bread and were cloathed with his Fleece therefore the sides of the Poor are said to bless him Cannot God provide for the Poor without Iob So in like cases for the Churches sake This Providence seems to tend altogether to evince but God knows how by these and these means to provide for his People and you must not prescribe to him It was Blasphemy in Alphonsus to say Si Deo à consiliis adfuisset se consultius multa ordinaturum That if he had been by when God made the World he would have ordered some things with greater advice and better care He would not have placed the Horns of the Beasts above their Eyes but under their Eyes Such Blasphemy do we secretly lisp out in our murmurings and discourses about Providence when we are questioning how this that and the other thing can be for his Glory The Lord knows how to guide all things to his Glory and we must absolutely yield to it 4. With much Love For he that hath the Wisdom of a Father hath also the Bowels of a Mother A Mother may sooner forget a poor shiftless Child than God will forget his People Isa. 49. 15 c. There 's a great deal of Love shewed in our Afflictions Sometimes in mitigating them 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear And as Iacob drove on as the little ones were able to bear so the Lord suits his Conduct and lays on the Affliction as his People are able to bear Castles are Victuall'd before they are Besieged After great Comforts then comes Affliction Heb. 10. 32. After you were enlightned ye endured a great fight of Affliction Then again in refreshing their Troubles with many gracious Experiences The Lord doth things which seem very bitter to the carnal Sense and Gust but when he hath defecated and refined our Taste then he sheds abroad his Love into our Hearts by the Holy Ghost Rom. 5. 3 5. Their Adoption is cleared up and the loss of outward Comfort is accompanied with a greater increase of Spiritual Comfort Again he shews his Love in ordering all things for their Good Rom. 8. 28. Out of what Corner soever the Wind blows it blows good to the Saints Arise O North Wind and blow thou South c. North and South contrary Points Cant. 4. 16. yet the Spices of his Garden flow out That which is against our Will is not against our Profit God is still pursuing what is for his own Glory and Good of the Elect. So all that falleth out is either Good or will tend to Good USE This teacheth us upon what Grounds there should be such a submission to all Personal and Domestical Calamities which may befal any of us and to all that befal the Church It is the Will of God and that 's the great Ground of composing the Heart whatever falleth out When-ever you hear of the increase of Violence or any Resolution against the People of God this should calm us The Will of the Lord be done God knows what is best for his People This is an everlasting Ground of Comfort that we are still in God's Hand 's and whatever befals us it comes by his special Providence even by his that numbers the Hairs of our Heads and who carves out every condition to us Deut. 33. 3. Surely he loved his People all the Saints are in his Hands When the Disciples were sore troubled and affrighted Joh. 6. 20. Iesus comes to them and said Be not afraid 't is I that order this There are many remarkable Passages in that Story The Disciples were in the dark of the night overtaken with a mighty Storm and for a long time did not know what would become of them the Text saith they had rowed about twenty five or thirty Furlongs before Christ appears Christ seeth it not fit to appear at first but lets the Trial go on until it be a Trial indeed Now about the fourth Watch of the Night Jesus passed by Mark 6. 48. that's the Morning Watch and then Jesus appears to them We are very tender of our selves and soon think we are low and tried enough therefore would fain be delivered but our wise Lord seeth we need more When Christ came then their fears are increased Christ came walking upon the Water and they thought it was a Spectre Spirits broken with troubles are very apt to take in afflicting impressions from every thing they see and hear The very way of our Mercies may be matter of terror to us At length he discovereth himself 't is I be not afraid I walk upon that Water which seems to be ready to swallow you up I that raised the Waves know how to still them Here 's that which may allay all our disquiets and fears Remember it is not the Instrument but Christ and God must be eyed and the Will of the Lord be done In our darkest Condition God seeth us when we do not see him Psal. 73. 22 23. and Job 23. 9 10. I looked on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him But he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold SERMON XVI JOHN 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life IN these words you have the Sum and Substance of the Gospel In them observe 1. The Fountain and Original of all that Grace and Salvation which is brought unto us God's unspeakable
Love to Mankind God so loved the World 2. The way which God took to recover our lapsed condition or the Effect and Fruit which flows from this Fountain that he gave his only begotten Son 3. The end of it that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Where take notice of 1. The Qualification or the free and easy condition put upon Men in the Gospel that whosoever believeth in him 2. The benefit that resulteth to us expressed Negatively and Affirmatively should not perish but have everlasting Life First The rise and beginning of all is God's unconceivable Love God so loved the World Where observe 1. The Object the World 2. The Act Loved 3. The Degree So loved 1. The word by which the Object is expressed is the World which noteth Mankind in its corrupt and miserable State 1 Ioh. 5. 19. The whole World lies in Sin The World is an Heap of Men who had broken God's Law forfeited his Love and Favour they neither loved nor feared God but were unthankful and unholy yet this World God loved 2. The Act He loved The Love of God is twofold the Love of Benevolence and the Love of Complacence 1. The Love of Benevolence is the Pity and Compassion of God towards Man lying in Sin and Misery This is understood in this place as also in Tit. 3. 4. The Kindness and Love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared 2. The Love of Complacence 〈◊〉 he loveth us when he hath made us lovely In which Sence it is said Psal. 11. 7. The Righteous God loveth Righteousness Joh. 16. 27. The Father himself loved you because ye loved me This belongeth not to this place 3. The Degree So loved He doth not tell you how much but leaveth it to your most solemn raised Thoughts It is rather to be conceived than spoken of and admired rather than conceived Observe from the Words That the Beginning and first Cause of our Salvation is the meer Love of God The outward Occasion was our Misery the inward moving Cause was God's Love 1. Love is at the Bottom of all We may give a Reason of other Things but we cannot give a Reason of his Love God shewed his Wisdom Power Justice and Holiness in our Redemption by Christ. If you ask why he made so much ado about a worthless Creature raised out of the Dust of the Ground at first and had now disorder'd himself and could be of no use to him We have an Answer at hand Because he loved us If you continue to ask But why did he love us We have no other Answer but because he loved us for beyond the first Rise of things we cannot go And the same Reason is given by Moses Deut. 7. 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor chuse you because you were more in number than any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you that is in short He loved you because he loved you The same Reason is given by our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11. 26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy Sight All came from his free and undeserved Mercy higher we cannot go in seeking after the Causes of what is done for our Salvation 2. The most remarkable Thing that is visible in the Progress and Perfection of our Salvation by Christ is Love And it is meet that the Beginning Middle and End should suit Nay if Love be so conspicuous in the whole Design and Carrying on of this blessed Work it is much more in the Rise and Fountain God's great End in our Redemption was the Demonstration of his Love and Mercy to Mankind yea not only the Demonstration but the Commendation of it That is the Apostle's word Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his Love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us A thing may be demonstrated as real that is not commended or set forth as great God's Design was that we should not only believe the Reality but admire the Greatness of his Love Now from first to last Love is so conspicuous that we cannot overlook it Light is not more conspicuous in the Sun than the Love of God in our Redemption by Christ. 3. If there were any other Cause it must be either the Merit of Christ or some Worthiness on our part 1. The Merit of Christ was not the first Cause of God's Love but the Manifestation Fruit and Effect of it The Text telleth he first loved the World and then gave his only begotten Son It is said 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Look as we perceive and find out Causes by their proper Effects so we perceive the Love of God by the Death of Christ. Christ is the principal Means whereby God carrieth on the Purposes of his Grace and therefore is represented in Scripture as the Servant of his Decrees 2. No Worthiness in us For when his Love moved him to give Christ for us he had all Mankind in his prospect and view as lying in the polluted Mass or in a State of Sin and Misery and then provided a Redeemer for them God at first made a perfect Law which forbad all Sin upon pain of Death Man did break this Law and still we break it day by day in every Sin Now when Men lived and went on in Sin and Hostility against God he was pleased then to send his Son to assume our Nature and die for our Transgressions Therefore the giving of a Redeemer was the Work of his free Mercy Man loved not God yea was an Enemy to God when Christ came to make the Atonement 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your Minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled We were sensless of our Misery careless of our Remedy so far from deserving that we desired no such matter God's Love was at the beginning not ours USE 1. Is to confute all Misapprehensions of God It is the grand Design of Satan to lessen our Opinion of God's Goodness So he assaulted our first Parents as if God notwithstanding all his Goodness in their Creation was envious of Mans Felicity and Happiness And he hath not left off his old wont He seeketh to hide God's Goodness and to represent him as a God that delighteth in our Destruction and Damnation rather than in our Salvation as if he were inexorable and hardly entreated to do us good And why That we may stand aloof from God and apprehend him as unlovely Or if he cannot prevail so far he tempteth us to poor unworthy mean thoughts of his Goodness and Mercy Now we can notobviate the Temptation better than by due reflections on his Love in giving his Son for the World
the Text which is the end of this Love That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Life everlasting Where I observe 1. The connection of our Duty and Priviledg Christ dyed to procure a Covenant wherein Pardon and Life is offered to us upon gracious Terms In the Gospel we must observe what God hath promised and what we must do both must be alike acceptable us the Duty as well as the Benefit or else we consent not to the whole Tenour of the Covenant 2. The Universality of the Proposal That whosoever believeth on him no sorts of Men are excluded from the Remedy but those that exclude themselves by their Impenitency and Unbelief 3. The Nature of this Act and Duty which giveth a Right and Title to the Benefits offered and that is believing no more is mentioned here But none truly believe but those that carry themselves accordingly or perform the Duties which that Belief calleth for If it be such a lively operative Faith it will secure our Title to these Benefits 4. The Benefits are Negatively and Positively expressed Negatively they shall not perish Positively but have everlasting Life 1. The Negative Expression is mentioned partly because of our former Deserts we incurred the Sentence of Eternal Death which is taken off from penitent Believers they shall not be condemned with the unbelieving World partly because of our present Fears Guilt presents Destruction before our Eyes but the cause of that is taken away as Sin is remitted and weakned And partly to support us in our troubles they may be Afflicted but not perish for ever Chastned but not destroyed not for Perdition but amendment 2. The Positive part is expressed partly to shew our Heavenly Fathers Love who cannot be satisfi'd til he hath brought us into his immediate Presence And partly to answer the desire of the Faithful who long for everlasting Communion with him we cannot be satisfied till we befor ever with the Lord in a perfect state of Subjection to him and Fruition of him Doct. That Faith is the Way which God hath appointed whereby to receive Benefits by Christ. I. What Faith is II. How this is to be understood III. Why the Gospel Covenant layeth so much weight on it What is Faith surely it concerns us to know it since the Scriptures speak so much of it every-where There are in it three things 1. Assent 2. Consent 3. Trust. 1. A firm and cordial Assent to this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of Mankind who came down from heaven and suffered for our Sins and became the Foundation of that new Covenant which offereth Pardon and Hopes of Bliss to all those who feeling the Burden of their Sins will trust their Souls upon Christ's Redemption and Ransom and forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and take him for their only Lord and Saviour that by him they may return to God This Assent is a part of Faith but this is not all The reasonable Soul in Man hath Life Sense Appetite and Motion as the Souls of the Beasts have but this is not the difference between us and them besides Sense Life and Appetite we have Reason and Discourse So here Knowledg and Assent are implied in Faith but more is required to make it justifying and saying Assent is good as it is inductive of other things or leadeth on other things to wit Choice and Trust and it is not only good but necessary lest we build without a Foundation It was of great weight heretofore when Christ's Person and Doctrine was more questioned and contradicted Ioh. 8. 24. Unless ye believe that I am he ye shall die in your Sins lose all the Benefit of his Coming 'T is said 1 Ioh. 5. 1. Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God It was a mighty thing then to believe and profess Christ to be the Messiah and to cleave to that Profession whatever Temptations they had to the contrary But I dare not leave the Decision of Mens Spiritual Estate upon that Trial only The bleak Winds that blew then in their Faces blow now on our backs and it as dangerous now to deny Christ to be the Messiah as it was for them to profess it However Assent is still necessary to put the greater Life and Power into our Faith for if the Fire were well kindled it would of it self break out into a Flame The stronger our Assent is the more powerful to beget Love and Dependance on God's Promises Obedience to his Commands and Perseverance notwithstanding Temptations This Assent to do its Work must be firm and cordial 1. Firm. You must believe unfeignedly that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer of the World Acts 2. 36. Let the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. The word signifies safely they may venture their All upon it Ioh. 17. 8. They have known There is a common customary superficial Belief that Men take up upon the Credit of their Forefathers and the Consent of the Country where they live And there is a sound Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel wrought in us by the Spirit of God And though Human Credulity doth little yet this last serveth to renew the Soul Mat. 16. 17. Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in Heaven when Peter had said Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God This makes us victorious over the Devil the World and the Flesh. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God If this important supreme Truth were well believed it would doubtless prevail against the Allurements of the World and the Flesh and make Men see that they have something else than this deceitful World to look after Truths go to the quick when soundly believed 2. Cordial Many seem verily to be perswaded that Jesus is the Son of God but are no way affected with this Mystery of Grace nor changed The Devils may give a bare Assent to this great Gospel Truth Compare Mark 5. 7. with Matth. 16. 16. The Confession of the Devil with the Profession of Peter The Devil owned Jesus to be the Son of the most High God as well as Peter the Son of the Living God Austms Observation is very good Hoc dicebat Petrus hoc dicebant Daemones Petrus ut Christum amplecteretur Daemones ut Christus ab iis recederet Peter said the same thing and the Devil the same thing Peter said it that he might embrace Christ the Devils that he might depart from them It is one thing to be of this Opinion that Christ is the Saviour of the World another to accept and receive him into our Hearts 2. The next thing which I shall observe in Faith is a Consent to receive Christ as God offereth him to us in the Gospel Joh. 1. 12. To as
which we could neither imagine nor hope for partly because the chief of our Blessings lie in another World and Nature cannot see so far off 2 Pet. 1. 9. Partly because Christ's most sincere People are afflicted with so many Difficulties and so seemingly forsaken and Temptations to Unbelief are many and pressing that it is hard to maintain any Life in our selves unless we have Faith that is a strong Assent and invincible Trust. Well now consider for what good reason God requireth Faith Sense only looks to things seeen and felt Reason seeth Effects in their Causes and yet but probably but Faith is a believing such things as God hath revealed because he hath revealed them and surely this only can sustain us in the expectation of God's Grace and Mercy unto Eternal Life Whilst we are employed in Duties so opposite to the bent of the carnal Heart and have so many Temptations to the contrary what can support us but a strong and lively Faith 2. Till we believe in Christ we can have no Comfort or Use of all his Offices How can we learn of him the Way of Salvation till we believe him to be the Prophet sent of God to teach the World the Way to true Happiness Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him How can we obey him unless we believe in him that he is our Lord who hath power over all Flesh at whose Judgment we must stand or fall Acts 17. 30 31. Now commandeth all Men every where to repent because he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead How can we depend upon the Merit of his Obedience and Sacrifice and be comforted with his gracious Promises and Covenant and come to God with boldness and Hope of Mercy in his Name and be confident that he will justify sanctify and save us unless we believe that he is a Priest who once made an Atonement and continually makes Intercession for us Heb. 9. 25. In the days of his Flesh when any came for any Benefit to him he put him upon his Trial Believest thou that I am able to do this Mark 9 23. Iesus said unto him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Believest thou that I am able to Martha Joh. 11. 26. Thus they were not capable of any Benefit till they believed 3. With respect to that Holiness and Obedience which God expected from the Creature Christ came to restore us to God which he doth both as a Saviour and Law-giver to his Church and till we believe in him both these Qualities and Functions miss of their Effect 1. As a Saviour he came to take away the Curse of the Law and to put us into a capacity to serve and please God by giving us his Spirit to renew our Natures and heal our Souls Isa. 53. 5. The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed We shall never mind our Duty nor be capable to perform it unless we believe that he is such a Saviour 2. As a Law-giver obliging us by his Authority to live in obedience unto God The Kingdom of the Mediator is clearly subordinate to the Kingdom of God for he came not to vacate our Duty but to establish it he came to restore the lost Groat to the Owner the lost Sheep to the Possessor the lost Son to the Father As the Grace of Christ doth not vacate the Mercy of God so the Authority of Christ that novum Ius Imperii doth not free us from the Authority of God Now who will submit to an Authority that is not convinced of it or doth not believe it But when once we believe then we bow Heart and Knee 4. With respect to our Comfort Often in Scripture Faith is represented as a quieting Grace The Comfort Quietness and Peace of the Soul dependeth much upon Faith in Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour which banishes our Fears and makes us in our greatest hardships to trust Christ with all our Happiness and to feast the Soul with a constant Peace and everlasting Joy Whether this World be turned upside down and be dissolved whether we be in Poverty and Sickness or in Health or Wealth whether we be under evil Repute or good whether Persecution or Prosperity befall us how little are we concern'd in all these if we know in whom we have believed 2. Tim. 1. 12. Heaven is where it was before and Christ is at the right hand of God how little then should all these things disturb the Peace and Comfort of that Soul that shall live with God for ever Psal. 112. 7. But Sin is our greatest trouble If Sin be your Trouble I answer Is it your Infirmity or Iniquity If Infirmity There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Iesus c. Rom. 8. 1. If Iniquity break off your Sin by Repentance and then there may be Comfort for you for Christ came to save us from our Sins USE 1. Is to confute Mens Presumptions of their Eternal good Estate whereby many damnably delude their own Souls 1. Some when they hear that whosoever believeth shall be saved have a carnal Notion of Christ that if he were alive they would own him and receive him into their Houses and use him more friendly than the Iews did This is but a knowing Christ after the Flesh 2 Cor. 5. 16. He is not to be received into your Houses but into your Hearts Besides we do not know our own Hearts or what we should have done if we had lived then a Person of such contemptible appearance as Christ was and so free in his Reproofs of the Sins of the Times would not have been for our turn no more than theirs The Iews said Mat. 23. 30. If we had lived in the days of our Fathers we would not have been guilty of the Blood of the Prophets The Memory of Corah Dathan and Abiram was as detestable to the carnal Iews as that of Iudas and Pontius Pilate to Christians but they were not a whit the better Men no more are we 2. They do great reverence to his Name and Memory profess themselves Christians and abhor Turks and Infidels No this will not do neither Many prize Christ's Name that neglect his Office honouring the Physician without taking his Remedies never brought Health They have learned to speak well of Christ by rote after others but they do not savingly and sincerely believe in him to cure and heal their Souls and suffer him to do the work of a Mediator there The other Respect is to be ascribed to the Chance of their
Life Evil and Death Secondly The Manner how this is to be done it must be set forth with all Evidence and Conviction as to the Reason of Men with all Earnestness and Affectionate Importunity to awaken their Affections In short 1. So as will become the belief of these things We must not speak of them as a thing spoken in jest and by rote but as firmly perswaded of the truth of things as if Heaven and Hell were before our Eyes and as evident to Sense Heb. 11. 1. We look upon these things naturally as at a distance and so have but a cold apprehension of them but we should by Faith see them as near at hand As you would pull a Man out of the Fire Iude 23. or as falling into a deep Pit or bottomless Gulph as one in the greatest earnest Belief puts a Life into Truths which otherwise are but dead and weak in their Operation I believed and therefore did I speak as if we had a deep sense of these things upon our own Hearts 2. As will become Experience 2 Cor. 5. 10. Knowing the Terrors of the Lord we perswade Men. A Man that knoweth the Terrors of the Lord that hath been scorched himself will set them before Men as if they were at hand ready to surprize them Others that talk of these things but as cold Opinions they will not be so careful to rouse up Men to mind the case of their Souls If one went unto them from the Dead then will they repent Luk. 16. 30. 3. So as will become Zeal for the Glory of God which is much promoted by the Subjection and Obedience of his Creatures and his Interest in them therefore we should be diligent and industrious in drawing Souls to Christ. Col. 1. 27 28. Christ in you the hope of Glory whom we preach warning every Man and teaching every Man in all Wisdom that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Iesus 2 Cor. 11. 13. They have blind unbelieving Hearts therefore need to be taught cold careless Affections and need to be warned and this with the greatest Wisdom that can be used that all may be presented to Christ at the last day This is that which sets all a going When we are wooing for Christ we should not do it coldly and triflingly but as those that would prevail for their Master that he may be glorified in their being gained to him 4. So as will become compassioners of precious and immortal Souls for whom Christ died Souls that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell Oh mind them of their Duty warn them of their Danger they are ready to tumble into the Flames of Hell every moment therefore with all earnestness set Life and Death before them We should use the more compassion to Souls because God himself who hath employed us hath expressed so much of his Compassion he doth not only tell them they will die but expostulateth with them Why will you die O House of Israel Ezek. 33. 11. And Ezek. 28. 25. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not return from his ways and live The greatest quarrel Christ hath with Sinners is because they will not come to him for Life John 5. 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life Two Reasons make this more evident 1. This is God's Will 2. This is of great Profit to the Souls of Men. First This is God's Will that his Law should be propounded with the Sanction of it that is with Penalties and Rewards God might rule us with a Rod of Iron require Duty out of meer Sovereignty but he will draw us with the Cords of a Man Hos. 11. 4. with such Arguments as are fitted to Mans Temper as he is a reasonable Creature that is by Promises and Threatnings We are best moved and induced to any thing by those two Affections of Fear and Hope the one Affection serveth for Aversation and Flight the other for Choice and Pursuit Therefore he that knoweth the Wards of the Lock accordingly suiteth the Keys and doth not only require an exact Duty but also promiseth Good and threatneth Evil. Sovereigns in their publick Edicts do not argue with their Subjects but only interpose their Authority but God condescendeth to reason with his Creatures He doth not say as sometimes Thus shall ye do I am the Lord but if you do thus this will be your ruine and obey these Statutes for your Good Deut. 6. 24. and so doth perswade as well as command Secondly It is of great Profit to the Souls of Men. 1. It is of Profit that they should often be minded of the Issues of things Israel's want of Wisdom cometh from this Deut. 32. 29. O that they were Wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end that is how Obedience and Disobedience will succeed with them Lam. 1. 9. David's trouble at the prosperity of the Wicked arose from want of this Psal. 73. 17. Then I understood their End Rom. 6. 21. The end of these things is Death Fugientes respice what will they leave in their farewel and departure Jer. 17. 11. At his latter end he shall be a Fool. The first addresses of Sin smile upon us but the Sting is in the Tail So the beginning of Godliness is Bitter but afterward it yieldeth everlasting Peace and Comfort 2. That they may reflect on both combined either of them single is of great force but both joyned together comes in upon the Heart with greater Power We need a Bridle and a Spur a Bridle because of our proneness to Evil and a Spur because of our Backwardness to Good We have both we are compassed and hedged in with our Duty on every side If we look back there is Death to affright us if forward Heaven to allure us there is Eternal Life to draw us there is Eternal Death to drive us If God had only terrified us from Sin by unexpressible Pains and Horrors and made no promise of unspeakable Joys this were enough to engage us to live without Blame and Blemish that we might not be cast into the Prison of Hell or if only to quicken our Diligence he had propounded Hopes and Happiness as the Priviledg of those that live Vertuously and Holily and evil Men did utterly perish when they die this were enough to draw us If God had only promised Heaven and no Hell there would not be so strong a Motive but can we be cold and dead when both Life and Death are laid before us and both for ever this is very unreasonable Solomon telleth us Prov. 15. 24. That the way of Life is above to the Wise to avoid Hell beneath Every step they tread is a going from Eternal Death and an approach to Eternal Life Therefore as we would escape the Torments of Hell and possess the Joys of Heaven we should be serious We are undone for ever if we be not blessed for ever and the
nearer we draw to the one the more we avoid the other so that we have a double reason not to go back and much to engage us to go forward Application Use of Exhortation 1. Suffer us to discharge our Duty in this kind Heb. 13. 22. I beseech you Brethren suffer the Word of Exhortation It is but a small request we have to you that you will but suffer us to take pains to save your Souls it is irksome to carnal Men to have their sluggishness stirred up But what is there that should make it grievous and distastful Many can endure us when we treat of the Joys of Heaven but when we come to flash Hell Terrors in the Face of obstinate Sinners and tell them of Damnation and Wrath to come they think us harsh and severe and say as Ahab of Micaiah He prophesieth nothing but evil to me I but we must set both before you both Life and Death and it is better to hear of Hell than to feel it That is a cowardly Confidence that cannot endure the mention of our Danger There are others that like the offer of Heaven but would sever those things that are so aptly joined Life and Good Death and Evil that cannot indure this Doctrine in this Sense they say with those carnal Hearers Evermore give us the Bread of Life Joh. 6. 35. But they mistake the Terms upon which it may be had Oh! but we are not in the place of God and cannot make the way to Heaven easier than it is but we propound God's Covenant as we find it Life and Good the Conditions as well as the Offer Would you have us compound with you and deceive your Souls with a false hope which will leave you ashamed when you most need the comfort of it Men would live with the Carnal die with the Sincere therefore suffer us to be earnest with you 2. The next thing that we exhort you to is to believe the certainty consider the weight and importance of these Truths that there is a difference beetween Good and Evil that the fruit of the one is Death of the other Life and consider how irrational it is for a Man to love Death and refuse Life No Man in his right Wits can make a doubt which to choose In vain is the Snare laid in the sight of any Bird. Prov. 1. 17. You cannot drive a dull Ass into the Fire that is kindled before his Eyes It is true you hate Death and yet it is proper to say you choose it Prov. 8. 36. All they that hate me love Death Why refusing the Good do you so eagerly pursue the Evil How can ye hate the Wages and yet love the Work by which the Wages is to be earned and in requital of which it will be certainly paid If you detest Hell why not Sin if you love Heaven why do not you do good There is an inseparable Connection between these Who can pitty the Torment of that Man that thrusts his Hand into the Fire What should be the cause of this but Incredulity and Inconsideration 1. Unbelief and Atheism they do not think God will recompence Men according to their Works Now till Men believe it tell them of Hell or Heaven never so much it will not work upon them Who would lose that which is certain and present for the hope or fear of that which is to come and doubtful when they suspect or believe it not fully No wonder they go on still in the Paths that lead down to the Chambers of Death and are prejudiced against the Ways of Life But why are Men such Infidels as to future things 1. You cannot disprove what is declared in Scripture or by any sound Argument evince that there is no Heaven or Hell for all you say or know there are both really existing and if there were no more but that it were good to take the surer side especially when you part with nothing but a few base Pleasures and carnal Satisfactions Reason should make us very careful In a Lottery where there is but a possibility of gaining Men will venture a Shilling or a small matter for a Prize If there be either no Hell or Heaven you part with no more than the vain Pleasures of a fading perishing Life but if this Doctrine prove true you run the hazard of Eternal Torments and lose the Comfort of Eternal Joys therefore it is better to trust this Doctrine than try it it is Prudence to make provision for the worst 2. But doth not natural Reason and Conscience and the Presages of our Hearts shrewdly evidence that there is a World to come as before was proved an Heaven for the Good and an Hell for the wicked At present the Wicked flourish and the Good many times suffer what shall we conclude thence Mol. 2. 17. Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in him or where is the God of Iudgment 3. If Nature be not so clear Scripture is full and positive If we do indeed believe the Scripture as we profess to do certainly we cannot so grosly go against the whole Current and Drift of it That Scripture which you profess to be the Book of God and take for the Rule of your Lives and Expectations that Scripture which your Consciences dread as owning the Voice of God therein that Scripture which is confirmed by God's Providence and frequent Experiments that Scripture which hath such a rational Evidence in it self 't is that assureth us of a World to come and bringeth it to light in the Word The very thoughts of such an Hell and Heaven as was invented by the ancient Heathens was enough to make them vertuous though as to the Manner and Circumstances of it the more understanding knew it to be a very Fable and Supposition yet the Thing it self being bottom'd and founded upon those natural apprehensions of the Immortality of the Soul and the Attributes of the Deity had powerful Effects upon them Now shall we talk of Christianity pretend a Reverence to the Scriptures and shall we tremble no more at the Certainty of an Hell than Gentiles at the possibility of it Shall their Suspicion work more than our Faith If they were so pliable to Poets discipline how should we be moulded and framed by the Doctrine of Christ what awe and holy trembling should it breed in our Hearts 2. Inconsideration We are so taken up with the Cares and Pleasures of the present Life that we are not at leisure to think of Death and Life Hell and Heaven or upon what Terms we stand with God Jer. 8. 6. Eccles. 11. 9. Remember that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment The young Man in the heat of his Lusts forgetteth that a time of reckoning will come Oh think of your ways and whither you are a going It is foolish to busy our selves about many things and neglect the main Luk. 10. 41 42. You
Acts 5. 31. This is the Grace which the Saints pray for Faith it self Repentance it self Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart Heb. 13. 21. The Lord make you perfect to do his Will working in you that which is pleasing in his Sight We pray not only for a Grace that gives the Possibility but the Effect not only for such as doth invite and sollicit us to Good but such as doth incline and determine us to Good And this is the Grace we give thanks for not a Power to repent and believe if we please but for Repentance and Faith wrought in us If God did only give a Power to will if we please to do if we please Man would difference himself 1 Cor. 4. 7. 3. With respect to Christ. We are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus who is the Head of the new World or renewed Estate All things are new in the Kingdom of Christ there is a Change of every thing from what it was before There is a new Adam which is Jesus Christ a new Covenant which is the Gospel a new Paradise not that where Adam enjoyed God among the Beasts but where the Blessed enjoy God among the Angels a new Ministry not the Posterity of Aaron or Tribe of Levi but a Ministry of Reconciliation put into their Hands whom God hath qualified and fitted to be Dispensers of these holy Mysteries New Ordinances We serve God not in the oldness of the Letter but the newness of the Spirit therefore if we be in Christ we must be new Creatures We are both obliged and fitted by this new Estate to be so Some are in Christ externally by Baptism and Profession they are visibly in Covenant with him and de jure of right are bound to be new Creatures Others are in Christ by real internal Union these not only ought to be but de facto are new Creatures they are made Partakers of his Spirit Rom. 8. 9. and by that Spirit they are renewed and sanctified Well then since there is a new Lord and a new Law all is new there must be a new Creation for as the general State of the Church is renewed by Christ so is every particular Believer 4. With respect to the Use for which this new Creation serveth One is mentioned in the Text Created unto good Works but other things must be taken in 1. In order to our present Communion with God Till we are created anew we are not sit to converse with an holy and invisible God earnestly frequently reverently and delightfully which is our daily Work and Business The Effects of the new Creature are Life and Likeness those that do not live the Life of God are estranged from him Eph. 4. 18. Trees cannot converse with Beasts because they do not live their Life nor Beasts with Men for they have Sense only but no Reason nor Men with God till they have somewhat of the same Nature and Life If one had Power to put the Spirit of Man into a brute Beast that Beast would discourse reasonably God hath Power to put a Divine Spirit into his People to sanctify their Souls that sits them for converse with God Look as in Innocency Adam was alone though compassed about with a Multitude of Creatures Beasts Birds and Plants yet there was none till Eve was made fit to converse with him because they did not live his Life therefore the Lord God said Gen. 2. 18. It is not good that Man should be alone I will make him an 〈◊〉 meet for him The Man was alone because he had none like himself that he might converse withal as a Man in the exercise of Speech and Reason the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air were no fit Companions for him they wanted the means of Converse Reason and Speech So without Grace we are not meet for Communion with God till we have Faith and Love to admire reverence and delight in him So for likeness Conformity is the ground of Communion Amos 3. 3. How can two walk together except they be agreed Our state of Sin is a state of Enmity and our state of Holiness a state of Love Our old Course made the Breach between us and God Isa. 59. 2. but the new Life and Likeness qualifies us for Communion with him 1. Ioh. 1. 6 7. An holy Creature may sweetly come and converse with the Holy God 2. In order to our Service and Obedience to God Man is unfit for God's use till he be new moulded and framed again In the Text we must be created in Christ Iesus to good Works Every Creature hath Faculties suitable to the Operations that belong to that Creature so Man must be new created new formed that he may be prepared and made ready for the Lord. You cannot expect new Operations till there be a New Nature and Life When a Man is turned from Sin he is made meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good Work 2 Tim. 2. 21. Our first care must be to get the Heart renewed Many are troubled about this or that Duty or particular Branches of the Spiritual Life first get Life it self There must be Principles before there can be Operations In vain do we expect strengthning Grace before we have received renewing Grace This is like little Children who attempt to run before they can go or stand Many complain of this or that Corruption but they do not groan under the burden of a corrupt Nature as suppose wandring Thoughts in Prayer when at the same time the Heart is habitually averse and estranged from God as if a Man should complain of an aking Tooth when a mortal Disease hath seized upon his Vitals or of a cut Finger when at the same time he is wounded at the Heart of deadness in Duty and want of quickning Grace when they want converting Grace This is like blowing to a dead Coal to complain of Infirmities and incident Weakness when our habitual aversion from and Enmity to God is not yet cured and unfitness for Service when we are not come out of the carnal State 3. In order to our future enjoyment of God and that Glory and Blessedness which we expect in his Heavenly Kingdom None but new Creatures can enter into the New Ierusalem It is said John 3. 3. Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Seeing is put for enjoying Yet the expression is Emphatical as if he should not be suffered so much as to peep or look within the Vail therefore the meer carnal Man neither knoweth his true Happiness nor careth for it but followeth after his own Lusts till he be new moulded and framed By Nature Men are opposite to the Kingdom of God it being invisible future spiritual mostly for the Soul and by nature Men are for things seen present and bodily The Interest of the Flesh governeth all their choices and inclinations and how unmeet are these for Heaven In short our frail
left such an Instinct and Inclination upon her which doth sufficiently excite her to do it 2. The near Preparation is called Promptitude and Readiness for every good Work or a ready Obedience to every good Work Tit. 3. 1. So 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ready to distribute Heb. 13. 16. Ready to communicate So Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 21. 13. This is beyond Inclination The Fire hath an Inclination to ascend upwards yet something may violently keep it down so a Christian may have a Will to Good a strong not a remiss Will but yet there are some Impediments Rom. 7. 18. Inclination implieth a remote Power but Readiness the next and immediate Power therefore a Christian ought to keep himself in a readiness or fitness of Disposition for his Duty whether it concerneth God our selves or others This is seen in Zeal that beareth down all Impediments All Graces are operative and Zeal is that earnest Impulsion and Activity of every Grace where it is in strength and vigour Faith worketh Gal. 5. 6. Love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Hope quickneth 1 Pet. 1. 3. A lively Hope This proceedeth from the new Nature when it is in right Frame and Strength We need not only make Conscience of our Duty or have some mind to it but our Hearts will not let us have any Quiet and Rest without it 2 Pet. 1. 8. They make you that you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledg of our Lord Iesus Christ. Christians must be zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. Paul was pressed in Spirit Acts 17. 10. Acts 18. 5. The Benefits that come by it are 1. We do good Works more easily as being inclined thereunto Exod. 35. 29. The Children of Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord. Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power There is a great deal of Difference between doing things by Compulsion and doing things from an Inclination between Israel's making Brick in Egypt and building the Wall in Nehemiah's Time Neh. 4. 6. 2. With more Delight and Alacrity 1 Iohn 5. 3. His Commandments are not grievous Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments It is a Pleasure to them to do a good Work to others a Toil. 3. With Constancy That which is forced lasts not long Upon the first occasion we break out cast off the Burden which pincheth and galleth us A Man is never constant to his Duty till he be held to it by his Heart and the Byass of the Heart is not Fear but Love You cannot easily perswade him against his Love and Inclination though you may overcome his Fears Cant. 8. 6 7. Set me as a Seal upon thine Arm for Love is strong as Death Iealousy is cruel as the Grave Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it If a Man would give all the Substance of his House for Love it would utterly be contemned The Uses are 1. For Reproof of many professing Christians who are not more prepared for the Lord and made ready for every good Work Alas some are to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. unfit for any Christian Practice In others all their Holiness standeth in being less vitious or wicked than others If they avoid the greater Crimes though they freely practise the less they are accounted good Men. Some talk but do nothing like Cypress-Trees tall and beautiful but unfruitful or the Carbuncle afar off seeming all on fire but the Touch discovers it to be key-cold their Zeal is more in their Tongues than their Actions Others are very unready arguing for a Mediocrity disputing every inch with God beating down the price of Religion as low as they can as little Worship and Charity as may be and will do no more than needeth and it is well if they do that True Goodness like live-Honey droppeth of its own accord 2 Cor. 8. 2. and is always desirous to do more for God Psal. 71. 14. I will praise thee more and more Phil. 1. 9. I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledg and in all Iudgment 1 Thess. 4. 1. Furthermore we exhort you Brethren That as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more But little of this Temper is to be found 2d Use of Information First Observe the Deduction of good Works from their proper Causes viz. The Will of God requiring our Regeneration fitting the one determineth our Duty the other maketh us ready to perform it While carnal that which we do is but the Image of a good Work not really and spiritually good 2dly The Necessity of good Works 1. Necessitate Consequentis as the Fruit and End of Regeneration All things are valued by their use What doth the new Creature serve for but that we may walk in newness of Life otherwise it is but a Notion It is not given us to lie hid in the Heart as a sluggish idle quality but that we may act by it and improve it for God The Lord made no Creature in vain Inded all that we have from God both in Nature and Grace was that we might be fruitful in Holiness In Nature we have Life Health and Parts for nothing else but that by our present Duty we may prepare our selves for everlasting Joys All God's Mercies bind us to Diligence all his Ordinances are Means to help us all his Graces are Power to enable us and there is over and above the holy Spirit to excite and quicken that Power Ioh. 4. 10. Ezek. 36. 27. 2. Necessitate Praecepti God hath required them at our hands Now we must make Conscience of what God hath required especially when all his Commandments are holy just and good If some greater thing were required ought we not to have done it 2 Kin. 5. 13. But when he hath required such noble Work shall we refuse There is nothing in his Law but what becometh his Nature preserveth and makes happy ours 3. Necessitate Medii as the Way to Heaven Good Works are indispensibly required of grown Persons if they mean to be saved Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God A Christian shall be judged at the last day by what he hath done Rev. 20. 12. I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their Works 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth every Man according to his Work Profession will not carry it but our Works come into the Judgment So Rev. 14. 13. Their Works follow them that is They have the Fruit and Comfort of them in another World and without them we cannot be
many as received him c. He gave Power to become the Sons of God to as many as believed on his Name 1. It is not a rash Consent but such as is deliberate serious and advised When we assure Men that God in the Gospel calls them to accept of Christ as their Lord and Saviour and that they shall be pardoned and saved they are ready to say with all their Heart but they do not consider what it is to receive Christ and therefore retract their Consent almost as soon as it is given Therefore Christ directeth us to sit down and count the Charges that we may allow for Opposition and Temptations Luke 14. 28 to the 73. When you have considered his strict Laws made a full allowance for incident Difficulties and Temptations and can resolve forsaking all others to cleave to him alone for Salvation 2. It must not be a forced and involuntary Consent such as a Person maketh when he is frighted into a little Religiousness for the present but would never mind it nor yeild to it if he were in a state of full Liberty It may be in a distress or pang of Conscience by all means they must have Christ or when sick are afraid to die or under some great Judgments as the Israelites when they heard the Thundring on Mount Sinai All that thou hast commanded us we will do Deut. 5. 29. No this will not serve the turn the Will must be effectually inclined to Christ and to God the Father by him as our utmost Felicity and End All Christ's People are a willing People Psal. 110. 3. 3. It must be a resolved Consent a fixed not an ambulatory Will which we take up for a purpose or at some certain times for a solemn Duty or so No you must cleave to him with full purpose of Heart Acts 11. 23. Trample upon every thing that would separate you from him Phil. 3. 8 9 Rom. 8. 36 to the end It must not be a feeble Consent such as is contradicted by every foolish and hurtful Lust but a prevalent Consent such as can maintain it self against Difficulties and Temptations and the Oppositions of the Flesh and controll all other Desires and Delights 4. It must not be partial but a total universal Consent not only a Consent of Dependance or Trust to accept of Christ as our Saviour but a Consent of Subjection to him as our Lord. Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk in him Many would have Christ and his Benefits but they would not yield that he should reign over them Luk. 19. 27. Those mine Enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me But the true Believing implieth a taking of Christ and his Yoak Mat. 11. 29. Take my Yoke upon you c. Christ and his Cross. Mat. 16. 24. If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me It is accompanied with a Resolution to obey his Laws and keep his Commandments that we may abide in his Love 3. The third thing in Faith is Trust spoken of Eph. 1. 13. In whom ye trusted after ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation Trust is a Dependance upon Christ for the Blessings which he hath procured for us and promised to us and is represented by the Metaphors of Staying the Mind on God Isa. 26 3. Thou keepest him in perfect Peace whose Mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee By the staying of the Mind is intended its Fixedness and Stability when being satisfied with the Promises we can comfortably wait for the Event and Issue The other Metaphor is committing ourselves to God 2 Tim. 1. 12. For I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day When we can trust our All in Christ's Hands knowing that he can give us that Righteousness whereby we may stand before God and have comfortable access to him and at length give us that Eternal Life which is our Supreme Happiness When you can trust him for Deliverance from the Guilt Power and Punishment of Sin and for the beginning strengthning and preserving of Grace in us to Everlasting Life you have obtained a good degree of Faith Only for the farther opening of this Trust I must observe to you 1. That this Trust respects all Christ's Offices which are Prophet Priest and King You trust him as a Prophet when you give up your selves as his Disciples to the conduct of his Word and Spirit being perswaded that he will infallibly teach you the way to true Happiness Joh. 6. 68 69. Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the Words of Eternal Life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God This Trust is our Remedy against all false Religions for what should draw us from the true and chief Doctor of the Church You trust him as a Priest when you believe the value of his Merit and Sacrifice and comfort your selves with his gracious Promises and Covenant and come to God with more boldness and hope of Mercy upon the account of his intercession especially in your great Extremities Heb. 4. 14 15 16. Therefore we may pray confidently and make an open and free discovery of our wants and requests to God who will relieve us and do what is best for us in a fit Season when we most want it and least expect it We must trust him as a King when we become his Subjects and are perswaded that he will govern us in Truth and Righteousness in order to our Salvation and defend us by his Mighty Power till he hath brought us to Glory and Blessedness 2 Tim. 4. 18. The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me to his Heavenly Kingdom 2. That this Trust is practical and is not to be determined by our Confidence so much as Obedience and resolution to take the way which God hath prescribed that we may obtain the Blessings which he hath promised to us This consideration is necessary partly because God or Christ will be trusted no farther than he hath obliged himself and so far we may depend upon him Now Christ hath only obliged himself to be the Author of Eternal Salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Partly because this obedience is difficult Self-denial is required Mat. 16. 24. Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself c. A surer note of our Faith than a confidence or a presumption that we shall fare well enough though we indulge the ease and desires of the Flesh and gratify our Interest in the World And therefore Faith being an obediential confidence doth confute these vain conceits Many think they may the more boldly venture on Sin the more they believe or seem to believe the Grace of God in Christ. Others