hath not the Son of God hath not Life Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him But Jus in re or the Consummation and full Possession of this Life is after the Resurrection in the World to come which therefore Christ by way of Excellency terms eternall Life Mark 10.30 And this is that Life in the assurance whereof Christ laid down his Life with so much quietness when he commended his Spirit into the hands of his Father Luk. 23.46 And upon the promise of Life which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1.1 not onely of the Life that now is but also of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 S. Paul did both labour and suffer Reproach vers 10. In hope of this eternall Life Tit. 1.2 he exposed himself to daily danger of Death which he terms dying daily 1 Cor. 15.31 as being sensible as he saith vers 19. if in this life onely he and other Christians had hope in Christ they were of all men most miserable Now in hope and assurance of this Life Christ duram serviit Servitutem underwent the hardest Service that ever was undertaken he emptied himself took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2.7 8. Though the Cup he was to drink of were a very bitter Cup a Cup of deadly Wine such as had in it the Dregs of God's Anger and was mingled with the Sins of men for whom God made him Sin or a Sacrifice for Sin yet he drank it off yielding to his Father's Will as knowing it to be true which he himself taught the two Disciples that Christ must suffer these things and rise from the dead the third day and so enter into his Glory Luk. 24.26 46. And the Promise of this Life animated all the Holy Apostles Martyrs and Saints in their severall Generations to give all diligence to deny themselves to take up their Cross and so to follow Christ even to Death not counting their own Lives dear to them but being zealous to doe and suffer for Christ though with the Loss of all as having learned that whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for Christ's sake shall find it Matth. 16.25 What things were gain to me saith S. Paul Phil. 3.7 8 9 10 11. those I have counted Loss for Christ Yea doubtless and I do count all things but Loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord for whom I have suffered the Loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death if by any means I might attain unto the Resurrection of the dead Which occasions them to seek the Path of this Life which is the next thing enquired into and is now to be considered II. What is the Path or what the Ways of this Life The Ways or Path of Life is a Metaphor taken from Travellers who have a certain Track in which they are to tread and by going in which they are guided to the place to which their Journey tends and by its direction are ascertained of coming thither if they hold on their Motion Here in this passage it can be taken for no other then the Means of assurance of their attaining this Life Which in respect of Christ are 1. On God's part the Engagement of his Father to him Isa 53.10 11. that when he should make his Soul an Offering for Sin he should see his Seed he should prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand He should see of the travail of his Soul and be satisfied Christ undertook the great Business of doing his Father's Will which was written in the volume of his Book by offering that Body which his Father had prepared him upon a Contract between them when he came into the world as it is described Heb. 10.5 7 8. And this was that he should so lay down his Life as to take it up again as Christ himself declareth Joh. 10.18 I have power to lay down my Life and to take it up again this Commandment have I received of my Father Which thing made it impossible that he should be holden of the pains of death Act. 2.24 And therefore it is said He foresaw the Lord always before his face as being on his right hand that he should not be moved with the fear of Death vers 25. being firmly assured by his Father's Covenant upon which he put himself on that great Expedition of Coming into the world to save Sinners by the offering of himself that he should not lose by his Adventure but should after his Sufferings enter into his Glory To which is to be adjoyned the Love that his Father bare to him for this reason as he expresseth it Joh. 10.15 17 18. As the Father knoweth me even so I know the Father and I lay down my Life for the Sheep Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my Life that I might take it up again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self This unparallel'd Dutifulness of Christ to his Father in yielding so freely to his Self-exinanition and Humiliation unto Death did obtain a singular Love from his Father to him and engage his Truth and Power to revive and superexalt him 2. On Christ's part his ready Obedience to his Father's Will was the Path to Life which therefore he allegeth in that Prayer of his wherein he opened his Bosome to his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was In respect of Believers the Path of Life to them is 1. On God's part the free Love of God in chusing them to Life termed the writing their Names in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world Rev. 17.8 which because they are given to Christ is said to be the Lamb's Book of life Rev. 21.27 and our Saviour tells them their names are written in Heaven Luk. 10.20 Hereby is Christ engaged to give Life to them as he himself testifieth Joh. 6.39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day And accordingly he saith Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall Life to as many as thou hast given him Hereby it is that Christ is
unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Even in this desperate State when Iniquity was at the height when the Sins of men were ripe the Harvest come to its full growth when they lay weltring in their own bloud he said unto such out-cast helpless sons of Adam Live he hath swaddled washed nourished decked married to his Son such forlorn Creatures done the greatest Good to the worst of men he so loved the World that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Life eternal Jesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners even the chiefest though it was foreseen which is next to be considered II. OBSERVATION That corrupt Hearts will be apt upon this gracious dealing of God to harden themselves by continuance in Sin The Apostle Jude in his Epistle vers 4. tells us of some ungodly men in his time who turned the Grace of God into Lasciviousness But it is an Abuse not peculiar to those onely it is a Disease which is hereditary How many are there who presume on God's Mercy though they persist in their Impenitency Is it not a frequent thing with many that profane the Name of God by an hourly Abuse of it in vain Swearing that spend a great part of their lives in Debauchery so as to become more like Beasts then Men to live more Pecudum or more Ferarum as Sensualists rather then Religious persons as Devils rather then Saints yet to feed themselves with imaginations of God's Grace as if God would be mercifull to such Christ died for All God would damn None to bolster up themselves in Sin deluding themselves with Conceits of Pardon if at last Gasp they can but cry Peccavi when they love their Sin as much as they did and grieve onely that they cannot still commit it or that God awards Hell to the Actours of it and cry God mercy in a faint Miserere mei God be mercifull to me when they have neither acquaintance with his Promise nor any lively sense of his Love in Christ How great a part of the sons of men expose themselves to Temptations and give way to sinfull Compliance in Errour or unrighteous Practices out of a fond hope of future Repentance and easie Pardon Not onely notorious ungodly persons who walk in the Stubbornness of their heart adding drunkenness to thirst say in their heart they shall have Peace when God saith he will not spare them Deut. 29.19 bless themselves when God curseth them but also others who have a Form of Godliness without the Power shelter themselves from Wrath upon a mistake of God's abundant Grace Yea somewhat of this Leaven is hidden even in Good mens Hearts which is apt to sour their Spirits to puff them up with high conceits of their Happiness and Interest in God so as to make them secure in some goings astray Which is a foolish and pernicious Abuse of God's superabundant Grace to be next considered III. OBSERVATION That it is a foolish Conceit that we may securely continue in Sin and expect Favour from God because of his superabundant Grace in Christ This is manifest because it is a groundless and vain Presumption there being no Promise or other Declaration of God which assures his Grace to such persons Promise of Pardon of Sin is made onely to the Penitent Mercy to him that confesseth and forsaketh his Sin Onely a working Faith that is in Christ operative by Love avails with God to the Justification of a Sinner New Obedience is requisite to the Continuance of our Peace with God a holy Life to eternal Life We reade of David's Forgiveness and we reade also of David's Confession he acknowledgeth his Sin before Nathan tells him The Lord hath put away thy Sin We reade of God's Mercy to Manasseh but the same Story tells us of his humbling himself first Saint Paul was saved though the chief of Sinners but not till he was converted and thereby made a real Saint Were it so that Grace were bestowed on hardned Sinners it would be in effect a cherishing of Rebellion When a Prince pardons a Traitour he will first have him an humble Supplicant lay down his Weapons and fall prostrate at his feet Else he should maintain Enemies not secure his Dominion he should in the event destroy himself by saving his Foe such Pity to them would prove Cruelty to himself It is so in God's Royall Government Should he shew himself facil and forward in bestowing his most beneficial Grace on open Sinners that persist in their Provocations or on secret Hypocrites that are false-hearted he should in stead of upholding his Kingdom ruine it in stead of gaining good Subjects nourish Vipers in his bosome It is a Maxim with him in his Holy Polity That when the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die Ezek. 18.24 This is the way of God which he counts as it is indeed most equall it being altogether incongruous to God's Holiness to abett Evil. For that would foster such Conceits in men as those were in him of whom God saith Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self Then which there is nothing more opposite to his pure Nature nothing being more repugnant to him then Sin Such Imputations therefore are the greatest Disparagements of God the foulest Reproaches the most hainous Injuries the most monstrous Indignities that can be cast on the Divine Majesty it being all one as to metamorphose him into a Devil All Sin is from the Devil and therefore for God to bestow his Grace on him that continues in Sin were to countenance the Devil's Actings to breed up his Brats in stead of destroying the works of the Devil such Indulgence would promote them God should be an egregious Dissembler he should in word forbid Sin in deed command it he should take to himself the name of a Righteous God and act as the Authour of Sin he should threaten Sinners as if he were in jest not in earnest give liberty and allowance to a dissembling Hypocrite to mock him to his face while he makes a shew of honouring God when he sues for his Grace and yet in Heart derides the Word of the living God The Intention of God in exhibiting his surpassing Grace is to draw the Hearts of men by the Chords of love to him the more abundantly that as it is said of that woman Luk. 7.47 that her Sins which were many were forgiven for she loved much much Love might be the fruit of much Grace Whereas the Continuance in Sin out of the fancy of superabundant Grace is indeed to abuse the Love of God to the increase of Hatred against him Spider-like to suck Poison out of that Flower
him and hide him from the Face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb For the great day of his Wrath is come and who is able to stand Rev. 6.16 17. Now then Deliverance from Death must needs deserve Praise and Thanksgiving Deliverance from the greatest Evil should be received with the greatest Gratitude Deliverance from natural Death causeth Holy persons to bless God but Deliverance from Sin the cause of Death from the Wrath to come eternal Death much more This makes the Deliverance most compleat and the Thankfulness should be most ample To which is to be added 2. That the Deliverance is by God it is He that delivers the Soul from Death Now what comes from God's hand is most acceptable to them that love God A Deliverance from Death by a man doth ingage our Affections to him we think our selves obliged to him while we live who hath preserved our Life especially if he be a person of great Quality To have our Lives saved by the King whom we had provoked to be pardoned our Treason exceedingly heightens our valuation of the Benefit There is much more cause to magnifie the Goodness of God who saves his people from Death by pardoning of their Sins by advancing them to Nearness with himself who so saves from Death temporal as to give Life eternal Behold saith Hezekiah Isa 38.17 for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back The Forgiveness of Sins which occasioned Death is a greater Benefit then the prolonging of Life And then it is Happiness accumulated to the height when there is not onely length of days on Earth but eternal Life in Heaven conferred upon the saved Bless the Lord O my Soul saith David Psal 103.1 2 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thy Diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies All which Mercies are the more joyfull to the believing Soul because they are not so much the fruit of our Prayers as of God's free Grace in Christ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so loved the World the sinfull World even when they were Enemies to him that he gave his onely-begotten Son to death even the death of the Cross that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life This Deliverance from Death proceeding from God's special Love that great Love wherewith he loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins quickening us together with Christ saving us by Grace is that which makes it incomprehensibly welcome and encourageth the Soul to expect farther Preservation as David doth here which brings me to the Second Part of my Text now to be handled viz. II. David's Postulation Wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling The Expression seems to be expostulatory but is to be conceived to include a Petition He demands of God Wilt thou not c not as one that challenged it as his due desert but as assured of the Continuance of God's Goodness He deprehends in God a Fountain of Love which is still running over flowing down in farther Streams of saving Mercy We have an exact and ample Paraphrase upon the words of my Text in that passage Psal 36. from vers 5. to the end where having set out the Wickedness of men and his own Danger he breaks forth in extolling God's Goodness in an assurance of a constant Current of Mercies and then is instant with God for the Continuance of his Preservation This part of my Text is a most precious passage of great Use for your Meditation in times of Danger by reason of Pestilence or War and it shews this to be the customary practice of Holy persons to gather Arguments of Assurance of future Help from God from their experience of his former gracious Deliverances So did David 1 Sam. 17.37 when he was to fight wïth Goliah he argued thus The Lord that delivered me out of the Paw of the Lion and of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And after him S. Paul 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver In his former Deliverance he perceived the Power of God that he could deliver from Death he deprehends his watchfulness over him in the Continuance of his Deliverance his Love to him and Care of him which confirms him in the expectation of farther Help for the future As they say all Vertues are concatenate in Prudence so all Mercies are linked together in God's Love and Care of his Servants And indeed so the Apostle inferrs Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things He that preserves our Lives will keep our Feet Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not also deliver my Feet from falling Surely thou wilt But then this Deliverance must be sought for at his hands which is also implied in this Expression When Christ cured the lame Cripple he bade him take up his bed and walk God when he saves our Life from death expects that we should walk before him Our Life is a Pilgrimage we walk from one Stage of it to another as the Sun runs its course so doth Man The Emanations of our Minds the Actions of our Members are our Steps If we walk not uprightly if we heed not what we think what we speak what we act our Feet will quickly fall first into Sin and then into Mischief The Psalmist Psal 73.2 tells us out of his experience of himself that his Feet were almost gone his Steps had well-nigh slipt He had stumbled at the Stumbling-stone to wit the Prosperity of the Wicked This begat Envy in him and that drew him on to a kind of Affection to their ways to a condemning of his own Course and offending against the generation of God's Children And had not God mercifully caught him when he was falling by directing him to the Sanctuary of God where he might see the End of the wicked that however they stood on smooth yet they were but slippery places they walked on Ice which would suddenly break under them and then they would sink for ever he had certainly perished Therefore he recovers himself and applies himself to God vers 23 24. and stays himself on the Manutenentia Divina Thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou wilt guide me with thy Counsel and after receive me to Glory As for me saith he in another Psalm 41.12 thou upholdest
themselves sutable to his Dignity so as not to disgrace him by their slovenly Habits And thus the Apostle requires that we should walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.13 that is in good fashion decently or honestly as we would say and our Translation reads it after the Court-fashion of Heaven We should walk before God in white like the heavenly Courtiers cloathed with white Linen fine and clean which is the Righteousness of Saints Rev. 19.8 that is with holy Habits and Dispositions of mind They that walk before God must have clean Hands and a pure Heart He that hath not lift up his Soul to Vanity nor sworn deceitfully Psal 24.4 enters into God's holy Hill As Kings love Purity of heart and grace in the lips Prov. 22.11 so doth God much more He is of purer Eyes then to behold Evil he cannot look on Iniquity with any good liking Such as be foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all workers of Iniquity he will destroy them that speak leasing c. Psal 5.5 6. No impure-spirited man that hath vain Imaginations of God that fears him not neither is God in all his Thoughts can stand before him If Solomon would not permit any such about him neither surely will God Rectitude of Heart is the chief Requisite when we appear before him Blessed are the pure in Heart saith our Saviour Matth. 5.8 for they shall see God As long as a man retains erroneous Opinions in the things of God as long as vain Thoughts fraudulent Designs unrighteous Projects evil Counsels lodge in his Heart and bear sway in his Actions he cannot walk acceptably with God As to Walking well bodily the chief thing is the Locomotive faculty so in Spiritual Walking before God the main thing is to be moved by a right Principle a due Apprehension of God as he is Most high 2. God must be set before us not onely as Maximus but also as Optimus not onely as the Greatest but also as the Best not onely as one that can punish us but also as one that can and will reward us as Best in himself and good to all that seek him He that shall apprehend it in vain to serve God and that there is no profit in walking mournfully before the Lord of hoasts that there is no profit in keeping his Ordinances as those mentioned Mal. 3.14 will never walk pleasantly before God Such a Servant as looks upon God as a hard Master that reaps where he doth not sow and gathers where he did not strew will shun God and his Service as much as may be hide his Talent in a Napkin rather then imploy it to improvement for his Master He that walks before God must walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5.15 circumspectly and diligently As Courtiers that expect Benefits from their Prince will be carefull to accommodate themselves to his Humour diligent to prosecute his Business to the utmost of their skill and power so is it with those that walk before God they expect Preferment from him and therefore are studious to answer his Expectation And when they find God's Favour towards them they prize it as their Life Psal 30.5 yea better then Life it self As the Prince's Favour refresheth a Servant that attends on him is as the Dew upon the tender Herbs which makes them spring up fresh and give a sweet Savour so the Favour of God makes his Servants walk diligently before him with all readiness and alacrity doing his Will So saith David Psalm 26.3 Thy Loving-kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy Truth And indeed this is the chief Encouragement to a man that walks before God that he does all for a Prince that is not onely Deliciae generis humani the Love and Delight of mankind as Titus Vespasian the Roman Emperour was styled but that he serves a God who is Love it self Joh. 4.16 in whom there is not onely a River but an Ocean of Love not a Pond but a Fountain of Love All his ways are Love to his Holy ones He loved them with an everlasting Love and with Loving-kindness hath drawn them to him This was it that made David to aim at walking before God because he had found God's Love to him in delivering his Soul from Death and his Feet from falling Thus God encouraged Abraham to walk before him because he had assured him that he was his Shield and exceeding great Reward Gen. 15.1 It is good for me to draw nigh unto God saith the Psalmist Psal 73.28 But above all the Manifestations of God's Love that which is the grand Motive to encourage our walking before God is that there is now a new and living Way whereby we may draw nigh to God even through the Veil of his Son's Flesh That now the Enmity betwixt us and God caused by Adam's Sin and Satan's project to alienate Men from God is taken away That now there is on Earth Peace and Good will towards men That now the Son of God is made the Way the Truth and the Life whereby we may come to the Father That now we are assured that however it be that we travel through a Wilderness through a dry and barren Land where we meet with fiery Serpents and many Wants yet we have Manna from Heaven to feed on and we drink of the Rock which Rock is Christ Spiritual Meat and Spiritual Drink That as the Serpent was lifted up upon the Pole so the Son of man was lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life That now we have the Cloud by day to shade and guide us and the Pillar of fire by night to direct us we have not the Shadows of the Law but the clear Light of the Gospel to inlighten us with the Light of Heaven That we have the Spirit from on high given us to be a Spirit of Inlightning a Spirit of Regeneration to beget us again a Spirit of Life to quicken us and make us new Creatures in Christ a Spirit to comfort and refresh us a Spirit to intercede for us And that which is the upshot of all there is a Rest which remains for the people of God not in an earthly Canaan but in the Heavenly Jerusalem where we shall rest in Abraham's Bosom in the presence of the Holy Angels and glorified Saints in the Arms of our Husband who hath espoused us to himself by the greatest demonstration of Love having purified us to himself by his Bloud and joyned us to himself by his own Spirit That we shall behold the Face of our Father which is in Heaven in whom is all Beauty all Worth and all Love everlasting Joy shall be upon our heads and Sorrow and Misery shall fly away we shall be Kings and Priests unto God our Father and that for ever So that it will be abundant Recompence to us that we have walked before God in the light of the living
and not another though my Reins be consumed within me And thus joyntly of the Head and Members Christ and every Believer is my Text verified and rightly understood and accordingly I shall apply it Therein is declared the Assurance which Christ had and every Believer together with him and by reason of his Union with him hath of three things 1. That God will shew them the Path of Life 2. That in his Presence there remains to them the Fulness of Joys 3. That at his right hand they shall have Pleasures for evermore Of these in their order with what Utterance the Almighty shall vouchsafe me though the Argument be such as neither the Minds of Men or Angels can comprehend nor their Tongues express I. OBSERVATION That Christ and Believers are assured of having the Path of Life made known to them For the distinct handling hereof we are to consider 1. What Life it is the Path of which both are assured of having made known to them 2. What is the Path of this Life or what are the Ways of this Life 3. How God hath and will make them known or shew them 4. Why he did assure Christ and why he doth assure Believers thereof I. What Life it is the Path of which they are assured shall be made known to them Life is the manner of Living things existing and is the Excellency of their Beings whereby things animate differ from things inanimate Of Life there are sundry degrees or kinds made by Philosophers 1. Vegetative in Plants and things which being rooted in the Earth suck their Nourishment from it and so grow thereby and yield Fruit and Seed to propagate their Kind 2. Sensitive in those living things that move and have Sense more or less though they perceive onely such things as concern their Sustenance and Self-preservation but can neither discern Spiritualls or Universalls nor reflect on their own Actions nor discourse as Man though some of them have admirable Sagacity as Experience hath shewed in Elephants and divers other Animals 3. Rationall in a Man whereby he is enabled not onely to know what concerns his Food and Necessaries to uphold his Corporall Being but is also capable of Counsell and Instruction in things pertaining to his Obedience to his Creatour and Peace with him and Comfort in his well-doing 4. There is yet an higher Life to wit that of Angels who need no Food to sustain their Being nor Members to move them but are of a subtile active and intelligent Nature yet much short of the Father of Spirits with whom is the Fountain of Life as it is said Psal 36.9 who hath all Fulness of Life in him not capable either of diminution or privation and is the universall Cause of all Life in other Beings which he imparts to all living things in that way and measure as he thinks best to appertain to them Now the Life of Men or Angels may note the bare Duration or Existence of their Being and so the Devils live and the Souls of the Damned have Life and the uncleanest Sodomites while they walk up and down on Earth have Life though in a morall sense they are dead while alive they have also in some things a bene esse or well-being to wit in respect of such things as pertain to Nature or outward Condition among men as Abraham said to the Rich man in Hell Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things Luk. 16.25 But this is not the Life the Path which Christ and his Members assure themselves God would make known to them though it be not excluded for doubtless David assured himself and therein rejoyced that God would uphold his Soul in Life deliver his Soul from Death his Eyes from Tears and his Feet from Falling that he should walk before the Lord in the Land of the living as he speaks Psal 116.8 9. And Christ understood by the Life which he expected from his Father that he would bring his Soul and Body together again and restore that Life he lost by Death And the Saints believe and expect the Resurrection of their Bodies from the Grave and in the expectation and assurance hereof they endure the greatest Tortures that Tyrants can inflict on them as it is said Heb. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection But this Resurrection to Life is not the mere Conjunction of Soul and Body together for that may be onely the Resurrection of Damnation as our Saviour speaks Joh. 5.29 which befalls them that have done Evil and is there opposed to the Resurrection of Life which they onely that have done Good shall be partakers of The Resurrection of Damnation though it be with Restitution of the Being those Wretches had before they died so as that they shall come out of the Graves hear the voice of the Son of man and in a sort live stand before the Tribunal of Christ and hear their Sentence and so continue in their Being everlastingly yet it is not termed Life but Death or the Second Death it being to a Copartnership with the Devil and his Angels with whom they are sentenced to be in Torments as they were guided and ruled by them while they conversed with men on Earth But the Life which the Scripture vouchsafes to term Life indeed as being the onely Vita vitalis the lively Life is that which is with God and according to God termed therefore the Life of God Ephes 4.18 God being their God therefore they live to God who is the God of the living as our Saviour's expression is Luk. 20.38 they live and reign with Christ as it is Revel 20.4 It is an holy and happy Life and therefore simply termed Life by way of excellency in opposition to Hell-fire Mark 9.45 If thy Foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into Life halting then having two feet to be cast into Hell into the sire that never shall be quenched Vers 47. it is termed the Kingdom of God And if thine Eye offend thee pluck it out it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one Eye then having two Eyes to be cast into Hell-fire It is by our Saviour often called Eternall Life of which the Regenerate Believers have the beginning here they have it inchoate with a Right to it Verily verily I say unto you saith our Saviour Joh. 5.24 He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death 1 Joh. 5.11 12. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that
become the Path of Life to them as at several times he declares Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto Thomas I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life And indeed Christ is the Way of Life 1. As he is the Exemplary Cause of it All whom his Father hath foreknown being predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8.29 Wherefore Christ told his Disciples Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also The Life of Christ which he recovered by his Resurrection is the efficacious Pattern or Copy according to which God hath contrived our Life He is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.20 21 22. Hence the Apostle tells us Col. 3.3 that we are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God it is deposited as a Treasure in Christ's hand who is the Trustee to whom our Life is conveyed ad opus usum nostrum for our use and behoof as the Lawyers use to speak he hath Livery and Seisin given of Life on our behalf and so his Life is the Pledge and Path of our Life 2. As Christ is the Way of our Life as he is our Pattern Depositary and Pledge so is he the Way of our Life as the procuring Cause thereof He is the Prince of Life Act. 3.15 the Cause or Authour of eternall Salvation Heb. 5.9 and that many ways First by his Preaching which moved S. Peter to say Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall Life Joh. 6.68 The words saith Christ that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life vers 63. The Preaching of the Law was but the Ministration of Death of the Letter that killed 2 Cor. 3.6 7. but the word of the Gospel is the word of Life Phil. 2.16 Secondly by his Death for so he tells us Joh. 6.51 I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the world And indeed it was for this very cause that as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud so he also took part of the same that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death to wit the Devill and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their Life subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one better rendred by one Righteous deed to wit his Obedience unto Death the free Gift came upon all men unto Sanctification of life That as Sin hath reigned unto Death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternall Life by Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.18 21. His Death procures our Life both removendo Prohibens by taking away the Sting of Death Sin disarming Satan of his Power and by meritoriously purchasing our Life by paying a Price for us Thirdly by his Resurrection whereby he becomes as the First-fruits that sanctifies the rest of the Lump and so obtains Resurrection and Life for those that are Christ's As also he is impowered to give Life upon his Resurrection as himself saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 Hereupon the Apostle argues thus Rom. 5.10 For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Fourthly by his Ascension whereby he is become an High Priest not on Earth but such as is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 He is not as the Priests of the Law who were not suffered to continue by reason of death but continueth for ever and hath an unchangeable Priesthood or a Priesthood that passeth not from one to another being made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless or indissoluble Life and therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost or evermore that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Heb. 7.16 23 24 25. Fifthly He is the Prince of Life or Cause of our Life by shedding forth his Spirit after his being glorified which was as Rivers of living water as his own words import Joh. 7.38 39. This Gift of the Spirit of Christ is that whereby we are born again to a Spiritual Life That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit saith Christ Joh. 3.6 It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6.63 Neither indeed had Christ's Preaching or his Dying availed to bring us to Life had he not given us of his Spirit And therefore herein was the Prerogative of the Gospel above the Law that whereas that gave the Command but could not give the Spirit being a dead Letter by the Ministration of the Spirit or the Law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Christians are made alive 2 Cor. 3.6 The Gospel is become the Ministration of Righteousness vers 9. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.10 11. Sixthly Christ's Appearing shall consummate the Life of a Believer Though he now be dead in Appearance to the World to their Rites Practices Hopes Injoyments and his Life is now onely hid with Christ in God yet when Christ who is his Life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in Glory as the Apostle speaks most comfortably Col. 3.3 4. 2. On our part the Path of Life is 1. In our Union to Christ which is by Faith whereby he is our Head and we are his Members and therefore partakers of his Life I live saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life that I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Joh. 11.25 26. He that believeth on me although he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die The Life of a Christian is conjoyned with Christ's as that of a Child with the Mother's 2. In our Conformity to
man's Heart did entertain his Motions embrace his Suggestions Sin could not be engendred by them So that in vain doth the corrupt spirit of a man accuse things or persons without himself as the Authours or Causes of his sinfull Evils the Judge of Heaven will lay it at his own door and endite him as guilty of the Crime And so do all wise and holy persons We all do fade as a leaf and our Iniquities like the wind have taken us away Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned Isa 64.5 6. Nor do they lessen the Fault but aggravate it as David doth here which was the Second thing observable in an humble Penitent II. OBSERVATION The Penitent Sinner makes not a light matter of his Sin but acknowledgeth the Grievousness of it This is manifest by all the Examples of humble Penitents in the Scripture We have sinned saith holy Daniel Dan. 9.5 and have committed Iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments And holy Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our Iniquities are increased over our heads and our Trespass is grown up unto the Heavens Thus when the justified Publican prays he dares not lift up his eyes to Heaven but smites on his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner And S. Paul censures himself as the chief of Sinners for those Sins he committed in Ignorance and Unbelief He knows that God sees more evil in his Sins then he himself can discern that Sins are not to be censured according to mens estimation but God's most pure Law and righteous Judgment that God is of purer eyes then to behold Evil and that he cannot look on Iniquity with the least approbation or connivence that what is highly prized in mens eyes or made a venial Sin by men is counted a foul Abomination with God that the least Sin is against an Infinite Majesty and cost no less then the Bloud of the Son of God to expiate it that there is no Venial Sin in its own nature to say Raca Thou fool to our Brother makes a man liable to Hell-fire that every Sin is of the Devil who sinned from the beginning that the wages of Sin every Sin is Death even that Death which is opposite to everlasting Life Hence it is that David makes not a small matter of the Sins of his youth but prays God not to remember them and Job complaineth that God wrote bitter things against him and made him to possess the Sins of his youth And Christ makes idle words such as that for them men are to be accountable at the day of Judgment Popish Doctrine of Venial Sins Resolutions of Cases of Conscience after Popish Casuists Dictates are not found in the expressions of Scripture-Penitents much less Pharisaicall Vauntings of Self-righteousness or Monkish Ostentation of their own Merits or Quakers Opinions of Innocency and Perfection but Acknowledgment of their Transgressions and Sins with the hainous Degree and Circumstances of them Which was David's profession here and is an instance of an humble Penitent's practice III. OBSERVATION He freely confesseth and acknowledgeth his Sin at least to God and sometimes to men Though David often professeth his Innocency in respect of the Criminations which were cast upon him in Saul's Court as if he had conspired against him though he alledge his Integrity before God as being upright in heart in promoting God's Worship not going after any other gods but in the choice of his Soul preferring the Observance of God's Laws before any Ends of his own yet he still acknowledgeth his Sins to God without any arrogant vaunting of Perfection or opinion of unspotted Holiness I acknowledge my Sin unto thee and mine Iniquity have I not hid saith he Psalm 32.5 And holy Job although he could not be beaten out of his hold the conscience of his Integrity before God and his Innocence from any Oppression of men with which his Antagonists charged him yet disclaims the Covering of his Transgressions as Adam by hiding his Iniquity in his bosome Job 31.33 And Chap. 7.20 he bespeaks God thus I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou Preserver of men And again Chap. 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth All Holy persons do subscribe to that of Bildad Job 25.4 5 6. that in comparison of God in his sight no man living can be justified How can he be clean that is born of a woman They know that God searcheth the Heart discerns the windings and turnings of their deceitfull Hearts that they have secret Sins which neither other men nor themselves perceive S. Paul once conceived himself touching the Righteousness of the Law blameless while he was ignorant of its Spirituality he observed not how the Law forbade Coveting the very first Motions of Lust But when he knew how holy and perfect the Law was how imperfect he was when he found a Law in his Members rebelling against the Law of his Mind and leading him into captivity to the Law of Sin which was in his Members he then cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. Such is the Affection of the most inlightned Saints who have been best acquainted with God's Purity the Perfection of his Law their own Impurity and the Defect in their ways that they have always cried out of themselves as the Lepers in the Law We are unclean we are unclean In their Supplications to God they have bemoaned their sinfull Thoughts their most hidden Transgressions yea in their Transgressions against men when doing right to them and giving glory to God hath required it they have not stuck in full Congregations to confess their Errours and to bewail their Transgressions Which thing hath been always necessary 1. To justifie God in his Sentence and Judgments that he might be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged as it is in the next verse to my Text. 2. To abase Man that he may lie prostrate at his feet and not proudly lift up his head before God Both which Ends are discernible in that humble Confession of Daniel and his speech to God Dan. 9.7 O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us Confusion of faces because of our Trespass committed against thee For which Ends as God sets our Iniquities before us so the humble Penitent always sets his Sins before his face as David did here IV. OBSERVATION He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sins are ever before him There is indeed a setting our Iniquities before our faces which is pernicious when we look upon our Sins as of so horrid a Guilt that they are unpardonable as when Cain told God Gen. 4.13 My Punishment is greater then I can bear or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it may be
thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
me in mine Integrity and settest me before thy face for ever Faith in God's sustaining Grace is the onely sure Preservative against falling into Sin and thereby into Misery Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee saith the Prophet Isa 26.3 He that trusteth in his own Heart is a fool but whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered saith Solomon Prov. 28.26 He that leaneth on his own Free will his own good Purposes his own Reason his own good Merits shall be sure to fall S. Peter when he was confident of his own Strength that he should die rather then deny his Master and was so venturous thereupon as to go into the High Priest's Palace was so affrighted with the words of a Maid that he not onely denied him but forswore him Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness attained not to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at the Stumbling-stone saith the Apostle Rom. 9.31 32. We are like little Children we love to be on our Feet not knowing our own Weakness and then we venture without God to guide and stay us and so we fall and wound our selves Our safest way is to distrust our selves to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling as knowing that it is God that worketh in us to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. And accordingly to betake our selves to him as David did here that he may keep our Feet from falling having the same designed End that he had that we may walk before him in the light of the living Which leads me to the Third Part of my Text David's Aim in his Commemoration and Postulation but time will not now permit the handling of it Onely an Application of what hath been already spoken remains to be added APPLICATION What you have heard David did it concerns you to doe You that are here now alive may say God hath delivered your Souls from Death I wish I might say truly that God hath delivered your Souls from the Death of Sin that God hath given you Repentance unto Life that you were none of you such as should die in your Sins but by believing in Christ should see the light of Life I wish that he were to you the Resurrection and the Life so that though you were dead yet you might live that living and believing in him you might never die as our Saviour said to Martha Joh. 11.25 26. I hope the best of you However while you are yet alive especially you that have been in danger by reason of the Contagion of late endeavour to walk in the steps of David Remember what your Prayers were in your Perils what Vows and Promises you made when you expected Death what Perplexity and Anxiety seized on you when the Remembrance of your Sins filled you with Horrour when you looked for Death to attack you and cast your Body into the Grave and perhaps your Soul into Hell when you expected a Summons to the Bar of God's Judgment there to be tried and to have your Doom passed on you Call to mind I beseech you what secret Meditations what Purposes you had what pass'd between God and your Souls in those Streights you were in And then resolve as David did here to address your selves to God as he did saying Thy Vows are upon me O God I will render Praises unto thee for thou hast delivered my Soul from Death O remember what God hath done for you in giving you your Lives in bringing you back from the depth of the Earth again When thousands have fallen on your right hand and on your left hand yet the Evil hath not come nigh you If it have entred into your Houses lighted on your Persons yet it hath not taken away your Breath so that though the Lord hath chastened you sore yet he hath not given you over unto Death Chiefly if God have awakened you that slept that you might stand up from the dead and Christ might give you light O then rejoyce in God's Goodness to you let the Remembrance of it make the Thoughts of God delightfull to you quicken you to run the ways of his Commandments mind you to perform the great Duties of Reformation of your Lives and new Obedience to God that preserved you according to all the Vows Resolutions and Engagements which were upon you when you were in Trouble Yea if you were then insensible of your Condition and thought not on the accursed estate which would have befallen you if you had died in your Sins now at least begin to lay it to heart Sure though you have escaped out of the hands of Death now yet it will overtake you at last All the means you can use all the Advantages all the Privileges you have cannot avoid it or exempt you from going the way of all flesh Oh then that you would now become in your Life-time what you would willingly be found to be at the hour of Death If you would not be found of Death Swearing Lying Deceiving or engaged in any ungodly and unrighteous way then be not so now If you would then be found Praying Meditating on God's Word Praising God inure your selves to such Exercises now It will not be easie to doe it then if you be not accustomed to it now You will then have the Comfort of a happy Death if you be acquainted with the practice of a holy Life now If your Remembrance of God's Goodness towards you puts you on such Resolutions the Remembrance that you have tasted how gracious the Lord is how he hath redeemed your Souls from the nethermost Hell by the Bloud of his Son which you are to remember with the greatest Thankfulness when you come to receive the Holy Communion and preserves you from the second Death you will then be animated to expect of God that he will keep your Feet from falling Take heed that you stumble not at the Prosperity of the wicked so as to approve and chuse their ways Take heed that Christ be not a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence to you that you stumble not at the Word disbelieving the Gospel being disobedient to the Precepts of the Word lest ye be appointed unto Wrath and not to obtain Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ Take heed of ordering your Steps by your own Reason by the imagined Light within you which is for the most part an Ignis fatuus a dangerous Meteor that will bring you into Pits and Bogs Take heed of trusting to your own Free will your own good Purposes they will prove but a broken Reed which when you lean on them will run into your hands and pierce them Get your Feet shod with the Shoes of the Preparation or as it may be well read the Pavement of the Gospel of Peace as firm ground upon which you may
propounded to you will sweeten all Death it self though the King of Terrours is to them that are in Christ as a Serpent without a Sting which you may handle without Danger without Fear it will but as the Poets feign of Medea's Medicaments let out your old Bloud and beget new Life When I consider the voluptuous and worldly Life of most it pities me to think that Men made to live like Angels should chuse to live more Pecudum a Life not higher then the Life of Beasts that those who are made for God for Christ for Heaven to live there should terminate their Thoughts Affections Endeavours on things on Earth on Money gay Cloathing Mirth Riot Pomp State Favour of men Vain-glory and such like momentany things which must pass away and likely lead men to Hell and end in a Life with Devils Oh follow Christ I beseech you If you value your Souls cast them not away on Trifles Learn the Path that Christ chose to Life follow him and you shall live with him Let I beseech you the serious Warning of Christ Matth. 7.13 14. take impression on you Enter ye in at the streight Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the Way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be which goe in thereat But streight is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Let your drowzy spirits heed S. Paul's monitory Alarm Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Life Amen LAVS DEO GOD's PRESENCE Fulness of Joy Part II. The Twenty-second SERMON PSAL. xvi 11. In thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore THIS Psalm is a Golden Psalm of David and the words which I have read to you make the Close of it which whether they are meant of Christ or of David or both and so are applicable to Christ and his Members hath been formerly considered In reference to both the First Proposition in them hath been already handled and therein the Encouragement which Christ had and all Believers have in their Sufferings by God's shewing them the way of Life hath though much short of what so precious an Argument deserved been somewhat unfolded to you That which is yet farther to be insisted on is the latter part of the Verse in which I told you are contained two more Observations 2. That in God's Presence there is Fulness of Joy or Satiety of Joys before his Face to Christ and all Believers 3. That at his right hand they shall have Pleasures for evermore or Pleasures at his right hand to perpetuity This latter S. Peter omits in his Citation of this Scripture Act. 2.25 c. Yet it is not improbable but he alludes to it vers 33. where he useth these words Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and that the Holy Ghost intended it for a Prediction of Christ's Ascension and Sitting at the right hand of God and so it is applicable both to Christ's Exaltation and our sitting together with Christ in heavenly places of which S. Paul speaks Eph. 2.6 But the former is expresly mentioned with some little difference in the Reading Thou shalt fill replenish or make me full of Joy or Gladness with thy Countenance Face or Presence And it is alleged as being the Cordial that strengthned and restored the Spirits of Christ in his Agony at his Death which is intimated in that speech of the Authour to the Hebrews 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God which shews that both in the Garden and on the Cross our Saviour had his Eye on the Joy that was set before him as the Prop and Basis that did support him in those extreme Passions and heavy Burthens which no other Shoulders but his could bear so as not to sink under their pressure And S. Peter tells us 1 Epist 1.11 That the Prophets searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow or the Glories after them Which shews that the Prophets did testifie before-hand together with the Sufferings of Christ the Glories after them which no doubt was done in Isa 53. Psal 22. and in many other places of which number I question not but these words of my Text are by S. Peter's alleging them Act. 2.28 My II. OBSERVATION I shall consider in these Four Propositions 1. That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance 2. That there is a Fulness in these Joys 3. That these Joys in their Plenitude or Fulness belong to Christ and those who believe on him to eternal Life 4. That the Assurance and Expectation of these Joys was the grand Encouragement and Support of Christ in his Obedience active and passive and is so still to all the Holy Saints who doe and suffer according to the Will of God I. PROPOSITION That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance The same is in other words taught us Psal 36.9 For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy Light that is in the Light of thy Countenance we shall see Light that is Joy and Gladness according as it is explicated Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in heart To like purpose is that passage Psal 30.5 In his Favour is Life Weeping may endure for a night or in the evening but Joy cometh in the morning Though in the Night-time or Evening when the black Veil of Death covers their Faces there is Sadness and Weeping even to the Righteous yet Joy comes in the Morning of the Resurrection when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear with Healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and they shall see the Face of God The better to conceive this we must consider 1. What Joy is 2. What Joys are in the Presence of God 3. And from what Cause or Motive they come I. What Joy is Joy is that Affection of the Soul whereby it embraceth some present or future Good For there is a Rejoycing in Hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12.12 Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 Now of all Affections this is the sweetest to a man's self as Love is the sweetest to others Joy is that which chears the Spirits enlargeth the Heart which is shrivell'd up and contracted like a Purse by Grief and Fear It makes the Countenance lightsome the Feet and other Members lively and nimble furthers the Concoction of our Meat makes our Sleep which refresheth the body sweet to us And therefore Joy is most sutable to the Will of man and if the Mind be in its
I. OBSERVATION That Afflictions Persecutions yea Death do not extinguish the Being of Saints who wash their Robes and make them clean in the Bloud of the Lamb. It is the saying of our Lord to Martha Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die It is true that believing Lazarus her Brother was then in the Grave and had been dead to her apprehension four days insomuch that she made no other account of him but as of a putrefied stinking Carkase yet even then Christ avoucheth him to have been alive And in like manner he judged Abraham and Isaac and Jacob though buried many Ages before yet even then when he conversed on Earth to be alive and so to continue for ever God being their God and he not being a God of the dead but of the living they must by consequence live unto him Luk. 20.38 Be the Dissolution of the Bodies from the Souls of the Saints never so violent their Flesh and Bones never so much consumed by the most vehement Flames torn and devoured by the most greedy and ravenous Beasts be they never so much putrefied and wasted with Sickness yet in their Dust and Ashes there is a Seed of Life It is with their Reliques as it is with Seed that is sown which though it be buried under the clods of the Earth and in appearance to men annihilated yet hath it a seminal Life which shall spring up again and flourish This Job was assured of when he said Job 19.26 27. Though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me But this is not all The Spirits of men even when their Bodies have onely a seminal Life have an actual Life they have a Life of Sense and Understanding they neither have their Life extinguished nor laid asleep without Feeling or Cogitation Though the Dust return to the Earth as it was yet the Spirit returns to God that gave it The Spirits that were sometimes disobedient when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing were in prison when S. Peter wrote 1 Epist 3.19 20. And it is the saying of the Authour to the Hebrews Chap. 12.23 Ye are come to the Spirits of Just men made perfect When Lazarus was raised from the Grave he had not a new Soul created which was not existent before but the same Soul brought back into his Body Neither at the Resurrection are other Souls joyned to the Bodies then those that before had lived in them For otherwise not the same Soul which had done good or evil should be rewarded but another When Act. 7.59 S. Stephen called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit he being full of the Holy Ghost was assured that though his Body were buried yet his Spirit should be with Christ And when the Apostle Paul expressed his willingness to be absent from the Body yet his expectation was to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It was his choice and option to depart and to be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1.23 He had learned that Christ was in Death Life that he that believeth on him hath everlasting Life that his Life was hid with Christ in God that the Spirit of God that dwelt in him was Life because of Righteousness and therefore he counted not himself to live but Christ in him And as Christ did commend his Spirit into the hands of his Father when he gave up the ghost being assured he should be in Paradise so doe all the Saints that have the Spirit of Christ even when they lie down in their beds of Earth they yield up their Spirits into the hands of their Father as assured to be with Christ who is the Way to the Father And this brings in the II. OBSERVATION That when Saints are removed from Men below they are placed before the Throne of God Though God be a Spirit dwelling in that Light unto which no man can approach whom no man hath seen nor can see yet the Holy Scriptures express him to us under the Similitude of a glorious King suppose a Solomon in all his Glory sitting on a Throne or Seat of Royal Majesty and that in the Heaven of Heavens where his Son termed the Lamb in this Chap. vers 9 10. hath his Throne also at the right hand of God for being ascended into the Most holy place as an high Priest he is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 There the Angels who are ministring Spirits unto him and the Elders all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessours as Kings and Priests unto God stand round about the Throne attending upon and beholding the King of Glory the number of whom is said Revel 5.11 to be ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands Now this place is by Christ termed Paradise Luk. 23.43 and by S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 4. said to be the third Heaven where is a place of Rest an Abraham's Bosome into which Lazarus is said to be carried by the Angels Luk. 16.22 Now though that were a great Happiness for a Beggar that lately lay at the Rich man's gate full of Sores and empty of Bread glad to have been fed with the crums which fell from the rich man's Table as the Dogs were who had more Compassion then the rich man for they licked his Sores when the rich man disdained to look on him or to pay for his Cure And though it be to all that undergoe sore Travail great Wants and Persecutions a very great part of their Blessedness that there remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. 4.9 and to the Saints which keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus after their patient Sufferings that a Voice from Heaven is heard saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in or for the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours Yet that is not the total Summe which completes their Felicity there is more in that which follows that their Works follow them so as to be approved in Heaven Their Persons are welcomed and entertained with Triumph over their Enemies they have the Crown of Righteousness conferred on them by the Righteous Judge of all the World their good Fight of Faith is applauded with an Io-Triumph as an Heroical act of the most gallant Fortitude by the Acclamation of the Celestial Quire of Angels and blessed Spirits they are cloathed with white Linen the Righteousness of Saints they are arrayed with the most sumptuous Apparel feasted with the Light of God's Countenance reign with Christ on his Throne are designed to be solemnly married to Christ and to be Judges of the World as Co-assessours with Christ at his Coming in the expectation of which they most delightfully see God
some Persons more intensive then in others yet in all that believe in Christ it was and is bottomed upon the same Ground a Fruit of the same Faith shewing it self by the same Expressions of Thanksgiving and Love Praising God Following Christ and Loving all his Members So that we may say All Abraham's Children by Faith rejoyce to see Christ's Day they see it and are glad And thus my Text comes home to you all APPLICATION You profess your selves Believers in Christ and Abraham to be your Father if you be in truth such then it will concern you to walk in the Steps of the Faith of Abraham who rejoyced to see the Day of Christ and he saw it and was glad I deny not that in this time of Advent there uses to be much Rejoycing pretended to be in Remembrance of Christ's Nativity yea that many long for this Time as the Time in which they are wont to rejoyce nor do I except against Rejoycing at this Time But is our Rejoycing such as was in Abraham a Rejoycing at Christ's Day out of Faith a Rejoycing at the Performance of the Divine Promise for the bringing of Light and Salvation into the world whereby all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Is the sense of the Spirituall Blessings in Heavenly things I mean the Knowledge of God's Counsell the Mystery of his Will in Reconciling the World to himself by Jesus Christ not imputing their Trespasses unto them the Adoption of us Gentiles into his Family with other Riches of his Grace the grand Motive of our Joy Are the Expressions of our Joy like those of the Shepherds who glorified and praised God of the Blessed Virgin who brake out into her Magnificat Anima mea My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour like those of Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people like those of the Heavenly Hoast who sang Glory be to God in the highest These Hymns I acknowledge are sung in our publick Meetings and it is the Wisedom of the Church that you are prompted to remember them But what is done in your Houses Is any such Spiritual Rejoycing there any such Praising of God for sending his Son into the world that you might live by him Are not rather your Rejoycings carnal more like the Heathen Saturnals full of Looseness vain Sports and Debauchery Are not your Feasts like the Riotous Bacchanals rather then Christian Festivals Yea is not impious profaning of God's Name more frequent there then holy Conference of such as are filled with the Spirit of God singing and making Melody in your Hearts to the Lord If it be so I may say to you as Christ did to the Jews If ye were the Children of Abraham ye would doe the Works of Abraham If Abraham were your Father indeed if you did believe in Christ as Abraham did you would rejoyce in the Remembrance of Christ's Day as Abraham did you would rejoyce in Christ as born a Saviour from Sin a Teacher sent from God to direct you in your way to eternal Life that so you may live as Abraham did as Pilgrims on Earth as those that seek a City to come even an heavenly Heb. 11.10 13 16. Oh that your Faith your Joy in Christ might be such a Fruit of the Spirit of God as may make your Conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ not such as is more like theirs whose Belly is their God whose Glory their Shame who mind Earthly things Let our Conversation be in Heaven from whence we look for Christ to change our vile Bodies into Bodies of Glory like his and to give us an Inheritance above Which God of his infinite Mercy grant unto us all for the Merits of his Son To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO ABRAHAM's PILGRIMAGE The Thirty-first SERMON GENESIS xij 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee THAT after so great a Defection of the World from God as was upon the Dispersion of Mankind occasioned by the Giant-like Attempt of building the Tower of Babel God might have a Race of men who should own and adhere to him he singled out Abraham from his Fathers who dwelt on the other side of the Floud and served other Gods as it is Josh 24.2 3. And having removed him with his Father from Vr of the Chaldees where it is likely the Sun was worshipped in stead of God unto Charran his Father being dead he translated him into the Land of Canaan which he promised to give him for a Possession as it is in S. Stephen's Oration Act. 7.4 5. consonant to the words I have now read to you Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country c. Sundry ways God used to speak to the Ancients by Prophets Dreams and Visions So Gen. 15.1 The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a Vision and Gen. 17.1 The Lord appeared unto Abram and speaking of this very Precept here given him S. Stephen saith Act. 7.2 The God of Glory appeared unto our Father Abraham Some kind of glorious Apparition there was then when God gave Abraham this Mandate The Business no doubt being as in After-ages so in Abraham's days most famous God would have it begun by an illustrious Manifestation of himself that he might be known to be the God of Glory and all the Gods that Abraham's Fathers served to be but Vanities and Lies not Numina but Nomina not Gods though so called And that there might be the firmer Impression on Abraham thereby God thus shews himself and speaks However God speaks to us we are to hearken be it in a Dream or by a Prophet if it be God's Voice it must be obeyed But then most heed is to be taken when God makes known his Pleasure in an illustrious Apparition This Command to Abraham was doubtless of very great Concernment both to God's own Glory and Abraham's and all Believers Advantage And therefore it is of no small importance for us to consider the Charge which God here gives to Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee Wherein we have 1. A Journey or Motion commanded him Get thee or Goe thou 2. The Terminus à quo of this Motion or the Place whence he was to goe Out of thy Country c. 3. The Terminus ad quem or the Place whither he was to goe Vnto a Land that I shall shew thee 1. The Journy or Motion which is here injoyned Abraham is a Transmigration expressed thus in the Hebrew Lec Leca as if it were Vade tibi Goe thou or Goe to thy self which is by some conceived a Pleonasm or Redundance of speech
love himself less If we cannot reach the height of this Document which is to die for an Enemy yet we may goe so far as not to incurre our Destruction by an affected Hatred As God's Mercy is transcendent and runs through all his other Attributes so ought ours to be our very Acts of Justice and severest Rigour must be Acts of Mercy As it is our Compassion to the Body that makes us cut off a gangraened Member so must our Tenderness of the whole season that Severity which is directed against a private person The whole Frame and Course of things seem to lesson us to this Duty If we look towards that Heaven which must be the Seat and Mansion of the Saints 't is boundless and uncomprehended so much delights his Mercy to exspatiate it self that it will not be confined whereas his Wrath and Vengeance are content with a narrow Room for the execution of his Justice He hath made Heaven of a vast Capacity which betokens an Infinite Goodness but the Place of Torments hath he bounded with streight Dimensions lest his avenging Justice should be exalted above his Mercy in the largeness of its Dominion If God have scarce afforded his just Vengeance a Point or Angle in this great Vniverse then ought not Man in so small a Room as his Heart give any entertainment to unjust Cruelty or Hardness but study rather to enlarge it that he may take in a greater measure of that Mercy whose Property is to be boundless and transcendent Page 53. line 13. for delight your Bodies reade defile your Bodies A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Richard Royston viz. THE Works of the Learned Mr. Joseph Mede in Folio The Fourth Edition Books Written by Jer. Taylor D. D. and late Lord-Bishop of Down and Connor Ductor Dubitantium or The Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Folio The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus in Fol. with Figures sutable to every Story ingrav'd in Copper Whereunto is added The Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles By William Cave D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or A Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio The Third Edition The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying The Eleventh Edition newly printed in Octavo Books Written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick The Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with sutable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God Or a Book of Devotion for Families and particular Persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend the Third Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist in Octavo Two Parts Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth in Two Parts in Octavo New The History of the Church of Scotland by Bishop Spotswood the Fourth Edition enlarged Folio The Lives of the Apostles in Folio alone by William Cave D. D. Chirurgical Treatises by R. Wiseman Serjeant-Chirurgeon to his Majesty Fol. New The Principles and Practices of several Moderate Divines of the Church of England also The Design of Christianity both which are written by Edward Fowler Minister of God's Word at Northill in Bedfordshire In Octavo The Second Edition Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church with the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authours In Three Parts in Octavo New Goe in Peace Containing some brief Directions for Young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Usefull for the People in their state both of Health and Sickness In 12. New The Countess of Morton's daily Exercises or A Book of Prayers and Rules how to spend the time in the Service and Pleasure of Almighty God The Practical Christian in Four Parts or a Book of Devotions and Meditations with Psalms and Meditations upon the Four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By R. Sherlock D. D. Rectour of Winwick In Twelves The Spiritual Sacrifice or Devotions fitted for the hours of the day by a late Reverend Divine In Twelves Animadversions upon a Book Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo The Estate of the EMPIRE or an Abridgment of the Laws and Government of Germany Farther shewing what Condition the Empire was in when the Peace was concluded at Munster Also the several Fights Battels and Desolation of Cities during the War in that EMPIRE And also of the GOLDEN BVLL In Octavo The Sicilian Tyrant Or The Life and Death of Agathocles With some Reflections on our Modern Usurpers Octavo The Royal Martyr and the Dutifull Subject In Two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet In Quarto The Life and Death of King Charles the First By R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo