that vast and wide Place to which the great and wide Sea is not so much as a small single Pool of Water is now to the whole Ocean Every thing above is so astonishing that all the Wonders of the Deep are not so much as the purling of a little Brook or Stream To see the King in his Beauty and to behold the Land that is very far off Isa 33. 17. is infinitely more delightful than the Gaudiness of Eastern Emperors or all the pleasant Places of all the Earth Our Souls shall mount up there after they have for some time dwelt in this earthly Cottage They now are weary of and get above all things here and do apprehend the other by Faith which will be revealed in Sight and Enjoyment God doth all things in his own Order O that thou wouldst rent the Heavens that thou wouldst come down Isa 64. 1. He might open and display his own Majesty and make himself seen in his Glory or he might infuse his Word and Spirit immediately into the Hearts of every Soul of every Nation under Heaven to give them Knowledge and Assurance that these things are so But he hath spoken to the World by the Prophets his Son and Apostles who lived in the Land of Judea and others are to receive it from them and to publish it forth throughout the World Thus our Lord and Saviour gave Commission and Direction And accordingly his Apostles did travel about on Horses and Ships unto the Places afar off to make known these things and so their Words went out unto the End of the World But we according to his good and gracious Promises do expect a more universal preaching of his Word and sending of his Spirit As He is the Confidence of all the Ends of the Earth and of them that are are afar off upon the Sea Psal 65. 5. So he will manifest and make himself fully known unto them Our selves as yet know him by Faith we hear of him with the Hearing of the Ear we see it written of him we understand and perceive from within but the Words of Life and Knowledge may be sent and published unto others By the Help of Ink and Paper we may speak to those whom we have not seen and to the Nations afar off Men and Brethren of every Country of the Earth let me freely speak unto you of the Patriarch David that he is both dead and buried Whilst he lived he ruled over one single Nation of small Extent and he was likely to have been thrust from that by his Son Absolom but the Lord sustained him He had no forreign and new Conquests nor did he enlarge Territories Himself was not made the Head of the Heathen nor did People whom he knew not serve him Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the Fruit of his Loins according to the Flesh God would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne He seeing this before spake of the Kingdom of Christ that it should extend over all He shall have Dominion also from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the Ends of the Earth and so as is further said in the Seventy Second and Eightieth Psalms Thou hast delivered me from the Strivings of the People It is the general Stile of Prophecies to run in the Present or Preterpefect Tense which saith things are ready or have been when it speaks of things to come which denotes the great Truth and Certainty thereof that it will as really be as if it was at this present Moment or had been already fulfilled It is the Word and Promise of the high and lofty one who inhabiteth Eternity to whom all things are present and before him Who sits above and hath in his Power the Times and Seasons He is above all Difference and Distinction of Times but according to our Capacity and Understanding he expresseth himself in this wise Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for thy Possession Psal 2. 6 8. God hath established his Worship and Kingdom by little and little and ordained that those who submit unto it should do it freely It was a considerable Time before he brought his first Begotten Son into the World and then he endued him with such Power and Excellency that others might believe on him as sent from God and come to serve and honour him for whoso doth honour the Son he doth honour the Father also All People had sufficient Reason and Invitation to come unto him yet none is forced His Throne was set up in the appointed Place for the Law shall go forth of Sion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Micah 4. 2. Every Man or Woman that will may be obedient to it We are to fear the Name of the Lord whom we have heard of and we are to comply with his Will which is made known unto us Herein is the Kingdom of God superiour and different from that of Men for we ought to obey him that is invisible before those whom our Eyes see And it was never known nor heard of among the Children of Men that those did exercise Authority whom none of their Subjects ever saw God is a Spirit and is manifested unto and in our Spirits and he is also evident to the outward Eye for this sees the things which his Hands hath made Our selves do inhabit in and discern the Temple wherein also he dwells and which he fills with his Presence Heaven is his Throne and the Earth is his Footstool So that we have as great Assurance that the Lord is King as that there are Governours over such particular Nations or as a Son is assured that he had a Father or a Servant that he hath a Master And there should arise the same continued Obligation of Duty towards our God as is actually given to those earthly Relations according to what is written Vnto thee lift I up mine Eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Behold as the Servants look unto the Hand of their Masters and as the Eyes of a Maiden unto the Hand of her Mistress So our Eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have Mercy upon us Psal 123. 1 2. A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is mine Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1. 6. which is the most reasonable and natural thing in the World for in him we live and move and have our Being as certain also of your own Poets have said for we are also his Offspring For as much then as we are the Offspring of God we ought in all Times and in all Places to give all Honour and Obedience unto him And so accordingly we should if we had the Knowledge and did not forget God
hitherto hidden from some because they would not search the Scriptures for there they might have found it so and accordingly have prepared to have given up their Accounts The good may be hence quickned to do more to take hold of every Opportunity to lay up a greater Foundation against the Time to come to seek and do the Work of the Lord diligently and to improve every Talent to the utmost And the evil might presently have ceased to do wickedly turn and be more zealous in the other Way Faith apprehends so of things future as Memory and Recollection is to the past Herein appears the Excellency of the Understanding and reasonable Soul that she sees things afar off and remembers those behind But those things here are scarce worth our Remembrance but what things we are further told of they are all Wonder and Astonishment because they are so exceeding great and enduring Which will fill the Soul though opened wide and to the utmost and satisfie every Wish and Desire and these things are always to remain When these things shall be present before us we shall admire and be vexed within our selves that we did not more towards the obtaining them Even thus it will be of those who considered and did most that usually Men do Our Fathers received the Promises and saw them afar off they now stand more abundantly confirmed unto us being so indubitably made known that we are more fully perswaded of them and do embrace them So the Exhortation runs yet more forcible to cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God and to do all things that we may be found accepted of him at the last Day Even thus much we may discern at present that the Lord sitteth above all his Creatures He hath revealed how we the Inhabitants of the Earth are to behave our selves towards him He hath prepared his Seat for Judgment and his Kingdom ruleth over all neither is any Creature that is not manifest in his Sight But all things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do We cannot know him as he knoweth us for he seeth us and all our Ways clearly but we now see thro' a Glass darkly And as we are mere Creatures who have nothing but what we have received so we know nothing but what he first made known and revealed unto us Our Saviour abode on the Earth Forty Days after his Passion on the Cross and Resurrection from the Grave speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts 1. 3. very few of which are recorded And though many things are written which he made known in the Course of his Ministry yet the beloved Disciple John saith Many other things truly did Jesus in the Presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book John 20. 30. So before his coming into the World God discovered his Will by Prophets and holy Men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And there have been since further Manifestations of divine Knowledge and Truth And yet still the Skies will be more opened and Righteousness shall be poured down Drop down ye Heavens from above and let the Skies pour down Righteousness Let the Earth open and let them bring forth Salvation and let Righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Isa 45. 8. He shall come down like Rain upon the mowen Grass as Showers that water the Earth Psal 72. 6. Truth shall spring out of the Eorth Psal 85. 11. Both as to the Element it self and also as to the Inhabitants thereof Let the People praise thee O God let all the People praise thee Then shall the Earth yield her Increase and God even our own God shall bless us Psal 67. 5 6. He shall make known those Arts and Means that the Earth shall yield her Increase so abundantly that there shall be no hungry and empty Soul but there shall be more than sufficient for every Creature whatever He shall give such a plentiful Fleece on the Sheep and may discover those other Ways for cloathing as to cover all the naked in our Land Bring ye all the Tithes into the Store-House that there may be Meat in mine House and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts If I will not open the Windows of Heaven and pour ye out a Blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3. 10. Mankind hath been hitherto proved wihther they will obey and trust in their God The poor hath been a long while suffered among them to see whether they will will provide for and do them good and they have not yet been so obedient and trusted unto him as they should But let them once do so let all the People praise him and then prove him whether he will not do those great things for us Whether he will not deal yet more bountifully even in those things for the sake of which People now transgress against him The Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof Psal 24. 1. The Silver is mine and the Gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts Hag. 2. 8. so he can disclose it whensoever he will perhaps more than hath been yet seen and talked of And I will give thee the Treasures of Darkness and hidden Riches of secret Places Isa 45. 3. He can shew us where are the several rich Mines and some way bring to our Knowledge whatever Worth and Excellency lies hid at present in the Bowels of the Earth So there may be sufficient yea and abundance for all And there may be such exceeding Plenty even of the formerly beloved Mammon that they shall even loath and not esteem it because there is no such intrinsick Goodness in it as was supposed And things will be as readily done without as heretofore they were greedy and eager after it The Nature and End of every thing relating to us shall be perfectly understood and how they conduce to our real Good and Happiness As things shall be fully made known which tend to the Use Well-being and Delight of the Body so the same will be discerned concerning the Soul The hidden Man of the Heart will come forth and as that even now doth clearly appear in the Sight of God so it will be yet more manifested to our View that we may also know what is in Man as we see his outward Face The Thoughts of many Hearts shall be revealed so we may as evidently perceive them as we behold the working of their Hands or their goings up and down upon bodily Feet The Lord saith behold all Souls are mine Ezek. 18. 4. He challengeth a peculiar Property in them and yet he hath sent forth a peremptory Decree The Soul that sinneth it shall die The Soul hath a Knowledge of this which cannot be shaken off so imprinted that though it may be somewhat defaced yet it cannot be worn out The Desire and Tendency
the assured Promise that these shall come to be acquainted and submit themselves that is to yield Obedience unto God and his Christ according to what he hath afore spoken of in another Scripture I will say to them which were not my People Thou art my People and they shall say Thou art my God Hos 2. 23. The Strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close Places Besides that abundant Conversion of them at last those which shall be converted before they shall so fade away and come off from their former Strangeness towards God as that it shall not be perceived Like Men Ashamed which Steal and flee from Battel so they shall be ashamed of their former Ungodliness and sinful doings So that they would rather seem on the contrary as if they had obeyed and served God from the very first When these come to be acquainted with and to believe a future State and condition of Happiness and Misery they shall look about how to make sure for themselves that they may be happy and sure therein And they shall be afraid out of their close Places or of those Imaginations and Deceits in which heretofore they trusted and built a false Hope on Thou puttest away all the wicked of the Earth observe the Particle All like Dross Psal 119. 119. As wax melteth before the Fire so let the Wicked perish at the presence of God Psal 68. 2. All this will be done more suddenly and as it were at an instant when the times of universal Reformation come on and God doth bow the Heavens and come down and he poureth out his Spirit upon all Flesh Then all VVickedness will so vanish and disappear that the place thereof shall know it no more and it will seem as if there had been never any such thing on the Earth All that gross Darkness and Error will be utterly and for ever gone off from the face of it when this true Light shall begin to shine universally and openly in all the habitable parts thereof The People shall then shew forth their Zeal for the Lord God of Hosts VVho is he that said but so much as in his Heart Shall the invisible God reign over me Or shall I obey his standing and written word Let these People be brought forth that the Saints of the most High may inflict some Punishment on them But they shall not do it in the least For Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again The Lord shall judge his People Heb. 10. 30. Deut. 32. 35 36. And the Lord will not begin to execute it then presently when he is glorified in his Saints and had in Honour by all that are round about him As an unknown Malefactor amongst a great multitude of People when he is asked for who did such a Theft or Murther Which being known and evident must be concluded that some one did it he is sure to keep Silence and seem all one as the other innocent People lest he should be betrayed and discovered In like manner it will be when the Lord shall Plead with the Inhabitants of the Earth who will be a vast number gathered together of all Generations and Countries and he maketh Inquisition for so much Sin Iniquity Transgression and Wickedness as hath been actually done on the Earth So much hath been committed and it must have been by some Persons Who was it by Name that did it Then shall they be exceeding sorrowful and afraid and begin every one of them to say Lord is it I The particular Guilty themselves shall keep Silence and they shall be found Speechless Matt. 22. 12. Or if they are asked as concerning another Matter then they will perhaps speak out or deny hereby to wave and take of the suspicion of that also whereof they were indeed Guilty In that day there will hardly be found any who will own themselves to have been amongst the Enemies and Adversaries of the Lord. The Adversaries of the Lord shall be ashamed which as they shall be then conscious of themselves so they will endeavour to hide it as much as they can But they shall be afraid out of their close Places of shelter and absconding whether it be the Clefts of the Rocks or the Holes of the Mountains For though their Fellow Creatures would be puzled hereby end be at a loss and difficulty to whom to assign such hidden things of Dishonesty or many secret acts of Sin and Wickedness And when even the Persons themselves who committed the same shall make such a goodly outward shew of having Worshipped Honoured and served the Lord and they not knowing the limits of his Mercy nor the periods of Time of holding forth his Scepter of Grace nor yet discerning for the Heart of every one is deep the reality and sincerity of their Repentance it is hence impossible that they should either find out or judge Righteously and render accordingly to the several People But the Judge of all the Earth will do Right He is not as Man but a God of Knowledge by whom Actions are weighed 1 Som. 2. 3. Who sees Hearts as clearly as we see the outward Faces and he knows things long since past or yet to come as we do the present Moment In opposition to their Hiding Concealing and Dissembling Thine hand shall find out all thine Enemies Thy Right hand shall find out those that hate thee thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thine Anger the Lord shall swallow them up in his Wrath and the Fire shall devour them Psal 21. 8 He will first find and set them out and then afterwards take his own time to punish them According to that Divine Method Having a mind to revenge all Disobedience when your Obedience is fulfilled So he will first have that Seed which shall serve him It shall be accounted to the Lord for a Generation And when the days of their Obedience and Service are fulfilled then he will begin to call to account the former Generations For it is first said Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousnesness and then afterwards it follows And the destruction of the Transgressors and of the Sinners shall be together Isa 1. 27 28. And I will punish the World for their Evil and the Wicked for their Iniquity Isa 13. 11. But like as it is written I will leave a few Men of them from the Sword and from the Pestilence that they may declare all their Abominations among the Heathen whither they come and they shall know that I am the Lord Ezek. 12. 16. So here it may be supposed that God will have one Righteous Generation after so many Rebellious and Sinful ones that by comparing both those Contraries together I do here speak after the manner of Men He may know how to proceed to Recompence and Punishment We read that when God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth it
all this long Fight and Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Earth wherein the Lord did Fight against them with the Sword of his Mouth even that two edged Sword which is called the Word of God And these Rebels did again fight with him with all their Vngodly deeds which they have Vngodly committed and with all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude 15. Yet after all God hath the better and upper Hand Though they did as it were Murder his own Divine Majesty in putting to Death his Prophets Son and Servants God hath raised up his Son already and he will also raise up all them again and bring them along with him Alive to Judgment when When he will tread down his Enemies in his Anger and Trample them in his Fury Isa 63. 3. and He will slay them Luke 19. 27. serving them as they did his Anointed and his Chosen ones Still the Lord liveth and Blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Salvation be Exalted The Psalmist goes on to speak in the Person of Christ who must Reign till he hath put all his Enemies under his Feet It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the People under me He delivereth me from mine Enemies yea thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me Which was eminently fulfilled when those that rose up against him lifted him up upon the Cross and afterwards God lifted him up from the Grave wherein they had put him into the highest Heavens in his Ascension and sitting now at his Right hand where he is now lifted up infinitely above all his Enemies Thou hast delivered me from the violent Man who is as contrary to the Meckness and Gentleness of Christ as a Wolf is to a Lamb. But here God the Everlasting Shepherd who brought again the Lord Jesus from the Dead did deliver and restore this Lamb of God safe again from out of their Mouth after they had taken him and with wicked Hands Crucified him Therefore will I give thanks unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing Praise unto thy Name Great deliverance giveth he to his King who in that day in reality and very deed shall be King both of the Jews and also of the Gentiles yea of all the Earth and to his Anointed which is the very Christ to David and to his Seed for evermore By which last word the Son of David is included of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came and also all the Seed and Children whom the Lord hath given him from the Beginning from thenceforth and for evermore in the most Universal comprehensive and extensive Signification throughout all the Earth and to the end of Time from thenceforth throughout all Eternity Which is here so expressed for our Understanding and Apprehension For there is no passing throughout all Eternity for into that is an entrance and in that is a continuance but no going through any part of what is without Succession of days or ending of time but like God himself the Ancient of days abideth continually the same And they sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof for thou wast slaâ—n and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall Reign on the Earth Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that is in them heard I saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Rev. 5. 9 10 12 13. After this I beheld and lo a great Multitude which no Man could number of all Nationt and Kindred and People and Tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their Hands and cried with a loud Voice saying Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might be to our God for ever and ever Amen Rev. 7 9 10 12. FINIS Practical Books Written and Published by Richard Stafford OF Happiness Wherein it is fully and particularly manifested That the greatest Happiness of this Life consisteth in the Fear of God and keeping his Commandments in opposition to the Pleasures of Sin or the pretended conveniency of Disobedience Rules and Directions for the prevention of and Recovery out of Sickness A Discourse against Partial Obedience Or that dangerous Deceit so universal amongst them who call themselves Christians of keeping some of the Commandments of God and neglecting others Some Thoughts of the Life to Come With a brief account of the state of Religion as it 〈◊〉 now in the World The great Benefits of Christ to all that Believe on and Obey him Being a Treatise on Hebrews 2. 15. VVherein it is shewed and made known how People may be freed and delivered from that slavish fear of Death whereby they are subject to Bondage throughout their Life-time And also how they may be saved and preserved from the Evil and Danger of Death when it shall approach nigh and come actually upon them An earnest Call to all the Inhabitants of the Earth to Turn immediately to the Lord their God
have not I do not say could not accomplished and brought to pass How it will be all done suddenly and at an instant by the pouring out of the Spirit upon us from on High may be seen in Page 295. As also that there will be an end of all Wars and of all Persecution is shewed in Page 285 288. which will be a very great Good to Mankind So that the â—…king known these things will tend â—…re to the real Benefit of Man than spending their Money for that which is not Bread and their Labour for that which satisfieth not or consuming so much time in other and vain Things I need not say much more by way of Preface and Introduction But here I shall only add this further That according as God is now pleased to accompany and Seal these Truths with the droppings and distillings of that same Spirit which hereafter he will pour out And according as that self-same Spirit giveth Understanding for it is too common that the Works and Things of God are not understood Psal 106. 7. Acts 7. 25. for these things are Spiritually discerned As also there is a need of a distinguishing Judgment as to discern and know which are the real Truths of God from the Imaginations or Sayings of other meer Humane Writers Again According as the following Words of Truth do approve themselves to the Hearts and Consciences of the Real and Inward see Rom. 2. 29. and not so much to the Nominal and outward Christians And according as Care Endeavour Industry and Diligence are used in the publishing and making them known so accordingly they will meet with Acceptance or Rejection from the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Introduction to the following Book Page 1 CHAP. II. Wherein that Proposition is at large discussed That People are not forced and compelled to the Obedience of God but they are left herein to their own Free Choice or Refusal p. 15 CHAP. III. That Surmise and Imagination is spoken unto whereby some People think that they have so Grievously offended God that they dare not come unto him p. 118 CHAP. IV. Therein it is discoursed of that false Thought in the Hearts of many People That if they should submit Presently unto the Obedience of God they shall be losers and disappointed of so much Pleasure and Conveniency in the mean while They shall miss of so much imagined Happiness and fall into Vexation Trouble and Misery p. 183 CHAP. V. Herein sundry things are written against them who will not be persuaded by nor live according to Words and also against following the Multitude p. 244 CHAP. VI. It is made known in the general from the Scriptures of Truth without any Reflections on Particular Nations or Governments that at length there will be an end of all Wars p. 285 CHAP. VII As also that there will be an end of all manner of Persecuting the Servants of God p. 288 CHAP. VIII Towards the end of Time and in the latter Days All the Inhabitants of the Earth will be turned and brought over unto God Which will be done and accomplished by the Pouring out of the Spirit upon us from on High p. 295 CHAP. IX A Paraphrase on some of the most Remarkable Verses of Psal 18. Shewing the Design and Connexion of that whole Psalm p. 310 Whereunto is subjoyned the shutting up and Conclusion of the whole Book p. 314 Practical Discourses OR AN Earnest Call to all the Inhabitants of the Earth to turn immediately unto the Lord their God As the same is opened and alledged from what is written Psal 18. 43 44 45. Thou hast delivered me from the Strivings of the People thou hast made me the Head of the Heathen A People whom I have not known shall serve me As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me The Strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close Places CHAP. I. The Introduction IF all Mankind of all Generations and Countries were now summoned together and there was a Voice that could reach them all as God will at the last Day gather all Nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there Joel 3. 2. By his own Power and uttering forth his Voice It would be proper to preach and make known these Words unto them But in the mean time he hath shewed the Way and he doth require it of us under the Danger and Penalty of Disobedience that all we should publish the Word Psal 68. 11. which he hath given us as far as we can And he hath so ordered that the still Voice of his Spirit should be sent forth into the Hearts of many People All things are to be done as far as he hath pointed out and put into our Power All we should help whatever we can towards the Furtherance thereof for the Work of the Lord is common and should be the joint Endeavour of all his Servants Ever since the World began and down until this Time and what futher remains on the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the violent take it by Force According to our Ability we ought severally to the utmost of yea and beyond our Power to be continually doing the Will of God bring Glory unto his Name to further and carry on with all our Might and Diligence the common Salvation to endeavour by all Means possible yea our selves are to act and suffer an holy Violence that People may be more brought over and added unto the Lord. As God is to be loved with all the Soul and with all the Strength and with all the Heart and with all the Mind So all things we have or can do are to be laid out and resolutely put forth without any more Intermission or Weariness than what is absolutely necessary and requisite in his Service and doing good unto others None are to be idle but as we are warned of so ought we to avoid to our utmost that we fall not under the Doom of the unprofitable Servant For behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give to every Man according as his Work shall be Rev. 22. 12. And we having but a short Time might learn this Wisdom from the Serpent to improve this our Time to the utmost Advantage to oppose and destroy his Kingdom to turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God and to recover those that are already taken captive at his Will As he walketh about seeking whom he may devour so is the Will of the most high God that his Servants should run to and fro that knowledge may be increased Dan. 12. 4. that many may be converted and saved And when each Person is converted then he is to strengthen his Brethren and to endeavour what lieth in him that others may be converted also and so on The like Care and Endeavour is to be used and spread abroad that all Men may be saved and come to the
Knowledge of the Truth Whatever is dictated to any and is tending to good the same is to be complied with and actually done and so on whatever can be reached further or apprehended more Nothing is created in vain nor yet should lye still and remain to no Purpose but the same should answer the very Ends for which each thing was made and ordained This is to be observ'd not only in natural and common things but necessarily and more especially in eternal and spiritual things and so we should press unto the Mark of the high calling God hath created and left us in such a State as to prove whether we will do that to which he hath already enabled us and doth require If we do not it is at our Fault and Peril and we shall be subject unto Loss and Misery But yet the Eyes which were made to see should and may see the Ears to hear and who have Hearts and Understandings given to perceive they may perceive Deut. 29. 4. As Men profess themselves to be Servants of the most high God so they should do his revealed Will and perform what he hath said in his standing and written Word by which he now speaketh from Heaven all one as if we heard outwardly his Voice And then they should take hold of the Skirt of their Neighbours and cause them to go and hear the Word of the Lord. Using the like Endeavour and Perswasion drawn only from divine Arguments and Considerations as the wicked and Companions in Sin do entice one another by their Arts and Means Yea and they should so lay hold of them that they shall not go back unless they rent some Piece of their Garments that they may as it were be compelled Luke 14. 25. to their own Good and Salvation that if they will still refuse and give back it may be with greater Difficulty and Striving And if they do resist the first or second Importunity yet by continual asking and putting in Mind the ungodly and wicked may be wearied Luke 18. 5. till they first hear and then they will come to receive and yield unto the Words of eternal Life Then the Eyes of the Blind shall be opened and the Ears of the Deaf shall be unstopped Isa 35. 5. They also that erred in Spirit shall come to Vnderstanding and they that murmured shall learn Doctrine Isa 29. 24. However at first this may be esteemed uncivil and troublesome to the Neighbourhood and Community yet is very consistent and agreeable with the Welfare and Happiness of Mankind for many to joyn together and severally that it may be no strange nor singular thing to endeavour in all good Conscience and the greatest Earnestness to bring People off from Ignorance Sloth and Deadness in Sin to Knowledge be doing good and the spiritual Life that coming out of carnal Security they may discern and follow the things which belong to their Peace and thence lead them up to the holy Hill It can be no Harm to rescue any from the Place of Torment to pull him though never so much against his Will like a Brand out of the Fire Ye that make Mention of the Lord keep not Silence And give him no Rest till he make Jerusalem a Praise in the Earth Isa 62. 6 7. So we are to do the like and endeavour what we can to gather the People and make them meet and ready a People prepared for the Lord. Each Master of a Family may order the Word of Exhortation and Instruction to be read unto his whole House Or where he is backward or negligent then the Wife of his Bosom or a Son or a Servant who is rightly disposed towards God they ought to give the House no Rest but be urgent and importunate till it be made known unto and understood by them That as our God hath given Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little Isa 28. 10. It being doubly ranked and several times enforced yea and repeated over and over So it is to be continually inculcated till it hath gotten the Victory over all rebellious and stubborn Hearts And when this or the like Method is used as the Spirit shall direct or incline in our own Nation and every Part thereof we may assuredly gather Acts 16. 10. that God hath called us to preach the Gospel unto others Surely the Isles shall wait for me and the Ships of Tarshish first to bring thy Sons from far their Silver and Gold with them unto the Name of the Lord thy God And to the holy one of Israel because he hath glorified thee And the Sons of Strangers shall build up thy Walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee Isa 60. 9 10. It hath been the Way and Method of God's gracious dealing towards the Children of Men to help towards their Good by little and little to bring them on from less to greater and still to make beter and increase Psal 115. 14. their Condition Who first laid the Foundations of the Earth and ordained the gathering together of Waters who settled the habitable Parts of the Earth and divided Country from Country by Rivers Seas and Rocks he could have made it all one Continent and Plain Who gave Life and Motion in such a Degree as now the doth he might have raised it to what Pitch of Activity and Speed he pleased By the same Power we might have been made to walk on the Waters or to ride on an Horse through the Deep But he hath established things in wonderful Wisdom and Counsel for great and excellent Ends even in those which seem ordinary and common Seeing many things but thou observest not Isa 42. 20. As God made every thing so he gave Man that Skill and Knowledge to build Boats and Vessels for the Water and to send forth from one Place to another Now consider the utmost End and Design of Navigation whether to keep Intercourse and Correspondence with other Nations Desire of Gain and their Commodities or to maintain the busie Nature of Man in Employment Yet there is one thing greater than all that is to bring down God from above by the Word of Faith which we preach that People may be more acquainted with him to give them Knowledge of Salvation and tell them of the greater Communion and gathering together of his People which shortly will be more than hath been ever since the World began and in the mean while all things are to be done which may hasten and make ready towards the Accomplishment thereof To make known the things which belong to their Peace and their eternal Exaltation and Happiness which is more than all the Gold of Ophir To assure them that they shall and tell them the Way how they may live blessed for ever which is more than the best temporal Livelihood This is the best Use and End of Navigation If we did look up and could see the Heavens opened
or rather Thy dead Men shall live together with my dead Body shall they arise Isa 26. 19. But we shall only be removed into another Place or stand here again in these later Days upon the Earth when both our selves and this Place also shall be changed into a more glorious and abiding Condition That very Knowledge and Desire implanted into our Nature of more than is perceived or can be had here doth most clearly demonstrate that there are real things to which it doth relate It being so firmly riveted and grafted in doth plainly shew that it came from the Author of our Nature Even he who made us hath so ordained us who created the Flesh did also form the Spirit And as that is established to have a Sense of things sensible so this hath a Knowledge and Conception of things spiritual As that tastes and sees the things present so the Soul doth as evidently perceive and apprehend things to come And this would equally appear in all People if they did in like manner put forth the Powers of their Soul towards divine and heavenly things as the Instruments and Members of Body are employed about the things of the Earth Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord Hos 6. 3. First know somewhat of his infinite and glorious Godhead and then how he hath created and established things Also in our selves is implanted a Power and Capacity to arrive at the Knowledge of them It is superfluous to bring many Arguments to prove the things which are true and real already but yet because they are concealed and hidden by searching they may be found out when the Evidence of things not seen is brought forth it makes as if they were seen So we find in ordinary Cases that in a matter of Fact done heretofore or in a distant Place it is as nothing to us but when it is declared and told unto us by certain faithful Witnesses it is in a manner present and as if we saw it with our Eyes Thus it is of historical Matters and common things done in the World So it is likewise of God's wonderful Acts done in former Generations the Miracles and Signs wrought by Christ and his Apostles which are conveyed down unto us aâ—…er the same manner as publick Records which are either written or one Generation tells to another Now the first is the more certain Way because that remains when the Voice and Sound of the Mouth perishes in the Utterance and many times is forgotten There is the express Order of Almighty God Isa 30. 8. that these things be written Hence his Word is called Scripture that is a Writing and is so noted in a Book that it may be for the Time to come for ever and ever In which is a Declaration of God's Will unto Men what he doth require of them with a Rehearsal and Promises of what he hath already and will yet do for them Our selves know what we intend to do such a Time hereafter if we have Life Power the same Mind and Circumstances continue alike Now he is the Everliving Almighty God with whom is no Shadow of turning who sits above and hath the Disposal of all Times and Seasons who governs and hath Power over all things who knows all the Hearts of all the Sons of Men the utmost which is or can be Before whom all things past present and to come are the same So what he hath said shall most certainly be For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disannul it Isa 14. 27. I will work and who shall let it Isa 43. 13. However for a while Satan and his Instruments are suffered to resist and to try what they can to hinder yet the Work of God cannot be utterly overthrown for notwithstanding all the Malice and Opposition of Men or Devils it will come to pass at the last Hath he said and shall it not come to pass Yes assuredly For that that is determined shall be done Dan. 11. 36. For the Vision is yet for an appointed Time but at the End it shall speak and not lie Though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Hab. 2. 3. But in the mean while we are apt to stagger and distrust because we do not see it fulfilled in our Generations Whereas we are but of a short Time and to him a Thousand Years are but as one Day and he will have a suitable Space for fulfilling his great and glorious Work For even the lesser things are done gradually and in Succession of Time In this little Space and short Time we do not find all things to be so as we are told of yet nevertheless we are here so much ascertained of the less as to build up a sure Trust and Confidence for the greater And we shall be translated up thither where it shall be said As we have heard so have we seen Psal 48. 8. when Faith shall be turned into Vision the Substance of things not seen shall be the Remembrance how our God did promise and keep them out of Sight But now he doth perform the same and they are revealed with open Face Therefore were they ordered to be future and unseen to prove whether we would give Credence unto his Word If we would be diligent in the Work of the Lord expecting a Reward from him in his due Time But if his great and good things were now present before us and to be had as those things of this World now are what snatching and running would there be after them People would never think themselves too diligent and earnest They would make haste and not delay the Time to keep God's Commandments Had they a through and firm Perswasion of what he saith Every Man shall receive his own Reward according to his own Labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. Each Person would then try who shall most abound in the Work of the Lord. They would lay hold of every Opportunity for well-doing if they might partake of his Acceptation and Recompence They would call to mind what they had been heretofore a doing To what End or to what Good were all the past Actions they had taken under the Sun What am I at present better for having had or done this And is there Expectation of any thing more Will my heretofore serving divers Lusts and Pleasures make me happy now Wherefore then do they not satisfie at this Moment Why do they utterly vanish and disappear How comes it to pass that Day by Day they cease to delight and are less recreating Surely I have been mistaken all along It is Happiness and Satisfaction which I desire and they make a false Shew thereof It is Peace and Rest which I would endeavour at and they leave behind Craving and Trouble The sinful Profits of this World seem to be somewhat more enduring and real But let us reflect upon them either Way as Soul eat drink and be merry We will
get so much and then enjoy our selves according as the Phrase of the World is or to please our selves with keeping an Abundance as the covetous Mammonist doth Yet still this is a meer conceit and a Reasonable Creature cannot be filled or satisfied with that and here Psal 49. 17 18. lies express against him For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him Though whilst he lived he blessed his Soul All the Service and Labour after Mammon is evidently determined within this short Time and it stands in no stead at all further Now an Account shall be demanded what we have done here What Provision was made against the Time to come What Foundation was laid in by good Works Wherefore was all their Labour about perishing and temporal things And not about the eternal which do remain Every one is to give account for his Talent and how he improved it to the Glory of his Master that he may receive Authority and Commendation proportionable It shall be recompensed to every one according to what he hath done Where was more done there shall be a greater Reward so that all the Actions of a Man tend as much to himself in that State as what is done in the present Time The unprofitable Servant is to be bound Hand and Foot and to be cast into outer Darkness Every one is called to work in the Vineyard and if any one doth not come as soon as he is called as those did in the Parable Mat. 20. himself must answer before Almighty God for the Refusal to obey his Commands And also People do not attend nor rightly consider how they willingly deprive themselves of so much Wages and Recompense Seeing that God hath revealed himself to be so bountiful and good a Master Servants should shew themselves accordingly unto him and as it were meet him in the Way of Righteousness They are to strive who should run fastest who shall perform their Work with a more willing and chearful Mind and to offer themselves who shall make the first Assault or do such an Act of Duty for even thus much is done for our Masters according to the Flesh Is not God more gracious and better than they Are not his Benefits as valuable Ought not his Favour and Good-will to be more esteemed But his good things are to come why whatsoever we now have and enjoy did first proceed from God and is his own Man hath the Use of some things but God hath the Propriety of all But the greater things also will be actually present as those things now before us are and then these present things shall be utterly done away So they are upon equal yea more Advantage than what is now before our Eyes Tribulation Anguish and self-Indignation will be upon every Soul that did neglect them for perishing Bubbles and empty Nothings Which then they find as before they might have learned to come to nothing at all for they were just had and passed by And yet by the Nature of them by the utmost Certainty and Reality of future and invisible things they might have been perswaded to seek diligently after them For the same Word of Truth which spake of the one hath told us of the other also By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made Psal 33. 6. And upholding all things by the Word of his Power Heb. 1. 3. which hath created and given to each thing its Nature and now connects and holds things fast together as they are The same Word saith For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Isa 65. 17. so that as certainly as things now are and stand after this manner as they do at present they will be likewise so fulfilled as we are foretold of Those gracious Promises in Isa 45. 17 18 19. are confirmed with the like Reason which is as it were inserted between them viz. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting Salvation Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded World without End For thus saith the Lord that created the Heavens God himself that formed the Earth and made it he hath established it he created it not in vain he formed it to be inhabited I am the Lord and there is none else I have not spoken in secret in a dark Place of the Earth I said not unto the Seed of Jacob seck ye me in vain I the Lord speak Righteousness I declare things that are right Here is an Answer and full Satisfaction given to that common Question and Thought what do People get by the Service of God They expose themselves to prevent Self-denial and Labour but what Recompence and Gain For if others are diligent after worldly things they do commonly obtain But here we are assured of that which cannot be had in this World To be saved with an everlasting Salvation There is no present Return to exercise our Faith and Waiting So that now we become liable to Shame and Disappointment by labouring for nothing Yet what saith the Witness of God Ye shall not be ashamed World without End At long run it shall not be thus At the End of Time it shall be otherwise and this is ratified by what we now see even his lesser Works are done for some Purpose as in the Instance here assigned the Earth was created to be inhabited But here again Faith is exercised for some things seem to be created in vain and a Part of the Earth is not inhabited as barren Mountains and the waste howling Wilderness yet there are also Creatures of some Sorts and God may have great Intents and Purposes herein which we know not as yet but shall know He asserts himself by his Name the Lord to be ALMIGHTY the chief and only Ruler and none can controul him so that he will perform what he hath said If one thinks within himself to do thus or makes private Promises there he may alter his Mind or Falsify and meet with no Discredit but only from the Person to whom it was entrusted But God declares out of the Thoughts of his Heart and speaks out publickly to all the World that neither the Seed of Jacob nor any one who doth the Works of Abraham or comes within the Covenant made to the Patriarchs shall seek him in vain Again He confirms it further by his righteous Nature and declaring the things that are right So we may be bold to say that where in serving him we submit our selves to present Loss or Labour there God is pleased to speak in Righteousness and thence we may assuredly gather that he will render a Reward accordingly But as he is gracious and bountiful it will as much exceed our Works as if one should give a Thousand Pounds to a Labourer when he deserves no more than a Penny God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love Heb. 6. 10. He will take notice of every thing that is done purely for him
accept of Shew me thy Faith without thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works Jam. 2. 18. Faith may be without Works but Works is a good Sign of Faith If they be right spiritual and Divine Works they must have Faith and Knowledge for Beginning and Performance of the same for wouldst thou know wherefore they are done by some and not by others Because some understand the Obligation they are under and the Encouragement they have to the same All People would alike do the Will of God if they have the like Thoughts and Apprehensions concerning the same There is one Faith and one Hope So they might equally believe and have the same Assurance of good things to come if they would study and seek diligently after them If they would suffer themselves to know their Duty and be in a Readiness to perform the same God would reveal it unto them Provided they do receive the Knowledge thereof and not put it off and stifle it He would incline them to do the same if they would yield unto and not resist his Motions He would give his Spirit if they would not grieve nor quench it and if they would preserve their Body in Holiness and Sobriety fit for its Habitation he would enlighten and rectifie their Understandings if they would draw off the thick Coverings of Ignorance and Disobedience which make that either the Mind cannot apprehend at all or it is full of Falshood and Delusions For the Transgressors having not observed but departed from the Law of the most High to save and defend themselves they seek out for Excuses and Imaginations and through the Perplexity and Maze of them the Sinner doth not so easily apprehend what is good and true A deceived Heart hath turned him aside Isa 44. 20. So it is always when one starts or goes out of the good Way And likewise the same hinders it from coming in as a secret Imagination that it is soon enough or pray have me excused for this and the like Reason There is an hundred Kind of Surmises or Imaginations But in Allusion to what our Saviour saith take heed how ye hear so let People take heed how they think for God discerns their innermost Thoughts as plainly as if they were wrote upon their Face or spoken out aloud in the Market-place However they keep them close and concealed from his faithful People and Ministers least they should find something in the Word of Truth to convince them of their Errors and Mistake so that they need not to go on therein yet in the mean while known to God are all of them and he will one Day spread them forth before their Faces in the Sight of Angels and Men and lay it all open and detect the whole by his eternal Truth They are so angry and vexed at present as if we could inform God who searches all things out and knows the very Secrets of the Heart or as if we did bring their Sins to Remembrance when himself hath declared that he considers all their Ways Though he doth now hold his Tongue Hab. 1. 13. yet our God shall come and shall not keep Silence Psal 50. 3. He shall rehearse the Thoughts Words and Actions of the whole Life These things hast thou done and I kept Silence Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes Psal 50. 21. The Time Place Circumstances and Aggravations will be all manifested and as they were Day by Day committed so they shall be reckoned up In the Midst of Transgression there was no such notice taken of them because God kept Silence but it might even then have been known that our God would reprove People for the same because even then he did sometimes do it a little by his Word and Servants and by the still Voice of his Spirit within them And though we know nothing of one another yet God is pleased to convey into our Mind some secret Intents and close Imaginations giving us thereby to understand that he knows them all for he gave us this Knowledge And if the World is now so enraged when only a few Thoughts of their Heart are revealed good God what Fear and Confusion will they be in What Terror and strange Amazement will possess them when all the Thoughts of all the Sons of Men since they have been created on the Earth shall be fully manifested For there is not a Word in my Tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Psal 139. 4. And then all Evil corrupt Communications Lies vain Swearing false Oaths Blasphemies hard Speeches against God Jude 15. Reproaches of his People Slander and Backbitings with all the Sins of the Tongue which is a World of Iniquity shall be summed up So he who considereth all their Ways shall bring up all their ungodly Deeds wicked and unjust Actions the first whereof they did endeavour to hide from the Saints here on Earth and the latter even from their common Neighbours If they had but the Knowledge of God they would understand all this at the present Time for even now we live under him whose Eyes run to and fro throughout the whole Earth and are in every Place beholding the Evil and the Good He hath given his Word which is a Discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart for that speaks out concerning them and declare them unto us Neither is any Creature that is not manifest in his Light but all things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4. 11. Not only divine Revelation but common Reason teacheth the very same For as our Lord argued to the Pharisees Ye Fools did not be that made that which is without make that which is within also Luke 11. 40. so he who fashioned every Part of us must likewise know all that is therein He that planted the Ear shall he not hear He that formed the Eye shall he not see So he who created the Soul with Powers to know must also much more know himself and also every thing which she thinks or doth The Scripture in sundry Places asserts this all-knowing Property of God There is no Darkness nor Shadow of Death where the Workers of Iniquity may hide themselves And they which would not commit Wickedness before such a Man who perhaps hath the faint Image of God within as to hate and loath Evil and therefore if such a Spy is in their Presence as they term him there is a Secret Awe and Restraint upon their Spirits But why might not these understand that there is one greater among them who sees and beholds all that they do Who is holy and hateth all Wickedness who is the Judge of all Men and will certainly call them to an Account for what they are now a doing Yet the Sense of him doth not keep them off from evil-doing Which happens only from
Soul to Sin or be wanting in Duty Both which do now occasion Vexation of Spirit But they shall see and be ashamed for the Envy of the People Isa 26. 11. That is whereas heretofore the World did envy at the People of God from whence did spring up their Hatred and unkind usage of them thinking that such would be more Happy and Blessed than themselves in the end But when God shall also manifest unto them the Favour that even the Wicked had That even they might have learned Righteousness and beheld the Majesty of the Lord see the foregoing Verse They shall be so ashamed for ever having maligned and done despitefully against his Servants as they shall never do it more And whereas also heretofore the Churches had sometimes Rest from their Enemies and again at other Times they were made Havock of and Persecuted This did happen interchangeably and successively as was before observed that at some times some Countries would fear the Lord greatly and then remisly or negligently and not at all And as there was a time of War and a time of Peace among the Nations so likewise as to this we have the certain and assured Promise of the Lord. Also I will ordain a place for my People Israel and will plant them and they shall dwell in their place neither shall the Children of Wickedness waste them any more as at the beginning 1 Chron. 17. 9. He will make an utter end Affliction shall not rise up the second time Nahum 1. 9. This as may be seen from the two foregoing Verses is spoken as to that day of Trouble which hath come upon his Servants that trusted in the Lord their Strong-hold which was stirred up and occasioned unto them by the Enemies of the Lord emphatically and truly called his Enemies though they did shew themselves so to his Church that is his People And when as to many of his Prophets his Son Jesus Christ his Apostles Ministers and People Affliction did arise up not only the second time but even in Job's Phrase The Lord was with them even to seven Troubles Job 5. 19. Yea and to Seventy times seven for their whole Life was a continued Train and Series and Succession of Trouble and Affliction How then was this found true Affliction shall not rise up the second time And indeed it cannot be otherwise understood and believed but that God hath another day shortly coming in the which he will fulfil and make good this his Word when God will Return How long This question shews how impatient and desirous our Nature is of it How long O Lord Holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth Rev. 6. 10. And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Luke 18. 7 8. So that it will Repent him concerning his Servants O satisfie us early with thy Mercy that we may rejoyce and be glad all our days and make us glad according to the days he hath afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen Evil Psal 90. 13 14 15. for the Lord shall judge his People and repent himself for his Servants when he seeth that their Power is gone and there is none shut up or left Deut. 32. 36. Like Sheep they are laid in the Grave Death shall feed on them and the Vpright shall have Dominion over them in the Morning Psal 49. 14. Now to make the like Application of all these Scriptures here laid together as Peter did in Acts 1. 16. Men and Brethren who shall read or hear this these Scriptures must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spake by the Mouth of Moses David Isaiah and Jesus Christ hath spoken before concerning that poor afflicted and persecuted Condition of the People of God How they shall take them Captives whose Captives they were and they shall rule over their Oppressors Isa 14. 2. The Power of these Oppressors shall be utterly gone and the Vpright shall have Dominion over them God shall repent himself for that hard Condition he suffered his Servants to go through with and he will satisfie and make them glad for it Now it being manifest that all this good Word is not as yet performed on this Earth and in this Life from the like Reasoning which the same Apostle Peter makes use of Acts 2. 29 30 31. Acts 3. 21. We may assuredly gather and believe That in the Resurrection and Restitution of all things God will most certainly make good this his Word That all things which are written may be fulfilled And that there will be a beginning and entrance into this Blessed State towards the latter days here on the Earth when the Lord shall reign before his Ancients gloriously And all things shall exactly so come to pass according as he hath aforespoken of in his word When the Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb Isa 11. 6. and there shall be a Concordance and Agreement between the most fierce and devouring Natures of Men and Women with the most calm meek and peaceable Dispositions according to what is further written and confirmed The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock and dust shall be the Serpents meat They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain saith the Lord Isa 65. 25. To make way and prepare for this glorious day of universal Holiness and Righteousness is the end of all our Preaching and Writing and laying before Men and VVomen all the Words of Truth which we can The Lord saith I will come near to you to Judgment Mal. 3. 5. So according to the goings forth and Emanations of his Eternal Truth God doth come nearer to the Children of Men both for Good and Comfort to his Saints and Servants as also for Terror and Punishment to the Ungodly and Disobedient For that thy Name is near Thy wondrous Works declare Psal 75. 11. God in Scripture is sometimes said to be afar off and he is invisible So that he cannot be otherwise shewn forth and made known unto others but in his VVorks and by his Name Both which are declared by fit proper and true words So that the Reader need not to be offended at the multitude of them here used if they help to make the invisible God more known unto the Inhabitants of the Earth and render him as it were visible yea and sensible unto their Souls If we do not darken counsel by words without knowledge but according to the measure of the gift in us our words become instrumental that the things pertaining to God's Kingdom are rendred yet clearer and clearer that the Children of Men may more easily understand and perceive them than we do the VVork and VVill of God As I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth Isa 38. 18. If
Righteousness and Holiness were ingrafted into the Hearts of all Men so that they did live and were led by it at all times and in all places The Spirit of God would dwell in them 1 Cor. 3. 16. As God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my People And I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord God Almighty 2 Cor. 6. 16 18. VVhat is requisite to all this we may read in the first Verse of the following Chapter Having therefore these Promises both those aforementioned are included for it is expressed in the plural number let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Be ye clean ye that bear the Vessels of the Lord Isa 52. 11. And from what is written Thou hast taken Captivity Captive VVe learn that God hath taken even Sin and Corruption Captive which heretofore did hold the Children of Men in Slavery and Captivity But when every Thought in them also is brought into Captivity unto the Obedience of Christ God will plant somewhat else in the room thereof Thou hast received Gifts for Men even the qualifications of his Grace and the fruits of his Spirit Yea for the Rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Psal 68. 18. So that though Men and Women have been Rebellious and Disobedient formerly yet when those Rebellious Thoughts and Imaginations are brought into Captivity when the Gifts of God are first lodged in the Soul to make it ready and meet beforehand the Lord God himself will come and dwell amongst them also So that whereas it was before mentioned And the Lord said My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh Gen. 6. 3. And the reason hereof was assigned because the Flesh did so very often overcome the Spirit when the Children of Men did Rebel and Vex and Grieve and Quench the Spirit yet the Blessing and Saying of Gad is made good and herein is found true A Troop shall overcome him but he shall overcome at last Gen. 49. 19. So a Troop of Lusts and a Legion for they are many of Temptations have overcome the Spirit but the Spirt shall overcome them at last And the Spirit shall have that Dominion and Prevalency in the hearts of all Men that all its Dictates and Motions shall be so willingly and immediately obeyed and complied withal that there shall be no striving of the Spirit with Man for he shall forthwith and presently go as that commands him to go and come as that bids him to come and do this or that according as the Spirit saith without any such thing as Reasoning and Perswasion or striving in the Heart for there will not be the least Reluctancy or Unwillingness God who sees and knows the things afar off doth foresee this also that even Flesh will become so Spiritual that they shall obey all his Commands and execute his Statutes without any striving of the Spirit but only upon the first motion and making of it known unto their Hearts CHAP. VIII Towards the end of Time and in the latter days All the Inhabitants of the Earth will be turned and brought over unto God Which will be done and accomplished by the Pouring out of the Spirit upon us from on High IF it be asked But when shall these things be I Answer Tho there may be some tendency and preparation thereto in the mean while yet we must not expect nor look for it absolutely and fully Vntil the Spirit be poured down upon us from on High Isa 32. 15. Which shall acquaint us with the things of God and of Heaven in a most wonderful and plentiful manner that we shall then know them as clearly distinctly and truly as now we do the common things of this Earth which are now visible and present before us My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain My Speech shall distill as the Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the showers upon the Grass Deut. 32. 2. After that very manner hath the Word and Spirit of the Lord came to the several Men and Women of the former Generations by Droppings and Distillings like small Rain and as the Dew or Showers But this pouring forth of the Spirit upon us from on High will be like great Drops running on continually together or raining down Bucket fulls at once as the common proverbial Speech is When all the Fountains of the great Deep shall be broken up and the windows of Heaven shall be opened Gen. 7. 11. In this sence also So that all the things that are in the Earth or Sea or in the Hearts of the Children of Men shall be openly disclosed and made known And the windows of Heaven shall be opened so that we shall as clearly see and perceive the things there as now by looking through the Window thereof we see the things that are in such a Room of an House as when we are in it and look through the Casement we see the things in the next adjoining Court And that it will be all thus made known Universally at once we are given to understand by what is Written Drop down ye Heavens from above and let the Skies pour down Righteousness Let the Earth open and let them bring forth Salvation and let Righteousness spring up together I the Lord have Created it Isa 45. 8. God hath made and ordained that it shall be so that the Heavens shall drop down the things contained therein They shall be so made known unto and had by us as if they were actually dropped down and next to us The Earth also shall open and bring forth the things contained in her which heretofore lay underneath and hidden All this shall be done together And it is observable how they are all expressed by these two VVords Righteousness and Salvation By the first is shewn forth the nature of them as they are fixed and connected together after the Image of him who Created them that is in eternal and immutable Righteousness And because that in the Earth those things are which now hurt and destroy therefore God who causeth Light to shine out of Darkness and by his own way of working Which is marvellous in our eyes will cause that both Heavens and Earth do open and let them It is expressed in the Plural Number and therefore both of them shall have an hand and part in it As to bring forth Salvation and Righteousness is to spring up together with it Intimating that besides that Righteousness which the Skies shall pour down another Righteousness shall spring up together with it By the Phrase of Springing up we learn that this will proceed out of the Earth Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall look down from Heaven Plal. 85. 11. That is both
repented the Lord that he had made Man upon the Earth and it grieved him at his Heart Gen. 6. 5 6. But after that the Lord smelled a sweet Savour and the Lord said in his Heart I will not again curse the Ground any more for Man's sake for the Imagination of Man's Heart is evil from his Youth neither will I again smite any more every thing Living as I have done Gen. 8. 21. This was said upon Noah a Righteous and Perfect Man his building an Altar unto the Lord and offering burnt Offerings on that Altar So that we see and find that it fares better with the wicked World for the sake of the Righteous And after the same similitude of things we may conceive that when the Lord hath been long and sore displeased with the Heathen of former Generations who were at Ease under which word Heathen are comprised all those who know not or who obey not the Lord when the Earth was much corrupâ—ed by reason of their Transgression which did sit heavy â—pon it so that it became as a Smoak or Stink in his Nostrils When the House of Israel dwelt in their own Land they defiled it by their Ways and by their doings Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a Removed Woman Ezek. 30. 17. After God hath born with this a long time then comes and succeeds the Righteous Generation who build an Altar and offer Burnt Offerings on that Altar which like Frankinsence and Myrrh doth take away all the former Stink that the Lord doth smell a sweet Savour from them whereupon he doth abate and mitigate somewhat from that intended Punishment which he had before thought to lay and inflict on the wicked World That he will not stir up all his Wrath nor yet pour on them all and the utmost Evil which he had before purposed to have done Though withal by seeing the exceeding Goodness of the one compared with the Exceeding Sinfulness Evil and Provocation of former Generations it is necessary that some Punishment and Vengeance be actually inflicted on them For the day of Vengeance is in mine Heart Hereby is denoted the futurity thereof and that it is to succeed after the other and the Year of my Redeemed is come Isa 63. 4. Which being expressed in the Present Tense though it is spoken of after the other yet in order of time it will be before that to which agrees the Gospel And the Dead in Christ shall rise first Thess 4. 16. For it is the day of the Lord's Vengeance and the Year of Recompences for the controversie of Sion Isa 34. 8. What is this controversie of Sion It is even the Lord's Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Earth That all both Jew and Gentile Heathen and all other People of every Nation Country and Language and of every Generation should obey him the Lord their God And here it comes to pass that some do Obey him and some do not from whence it is appositely stiled Recompences in the Plural Number there being two sorts of them that is to say a Recompence of Good to those that shall be found to have Obeyed him and a Recompence of Evil to such who have not Obeyed him For the Lord God of Recompences shall surely requite Jer. 51. 56. To all People of every Country Kindred and time one of these two ways So that in short if People do not Obey God it is a Controversie which will be decided to their own Misery as themselves will find in the day of the Lord's Vengeance But if they do obey him unto which knowing the Terrors of the Lord we perswade Men it will be abundantly made up to them in the Resurrection of the Just in the Year of Recompences for the controversie of Sion This Controversie the Lord hath been pleading with Men and Women by his Word and Spirit by his Prophets Son Jesus Christ Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers Ministers and Servants ever since Man was first Created on the Earth The same lot hath fallen unto me from the Forty third Forty fourth and Forty fifth Verses of the Eighteenth Psalm which I have here endeavoured to Handle Faithfully and Truly according to the Grace and Knowledge according to the Ability and Measure which the Lord hath given and committed unto me according to the proportion of Faith and according to that distribution of Spiritual Qualifications and Endowments which was allotted and here I stand in my Lot Dan. 12 13. to me a single Creature What I write unto others I write unto my self also that I may be found obedient in all those things whereunto I exhort others And whilst the desire of my Soul is to this and the same is the endeavour of my Hands it is a well-grounded hope and assurance that both my self and my Works may be accepted of the Lord. If the Lord who hath the residue of the Spirit Mal. 2. 15. doth stir up others also in like manner as he hath done mine This may somewhat prepare and make way for the Vniversal Reformation of the Lives and Manners of Men. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as Stars for ever and ever But thou O Daniel shut up the Words and seal the Book even to the time of the End Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased Dan. 12. 3. 4. So that after all these Words also may be shut up and this Book may be Sealed until the appointed time draws near and is actually come when God will indeed bring the same to pass even at the time of the End in the very last days and shutting up of all When Christ the Son of David the root and off-spring of David the Bright and Morning Star shall be delivered from the hands of all his Enemies and from the strivings of the People when his Enemies shall be made his Foot-stool and shall be cast out as the dirt in the Street when all his Members Disciples and Followers shall be delivered from the Hand of Saul See the Title of Psalm 18. that is in a Spiritual Signification from the Devil that like as Christ their Head was preserved from and not overcome by his Temptations so he stall see the Travel of his Soul and be satisfied for in that himself hath suffered being Tempted he is able to Succour them that are Tempted Heb. 2. â—8 Whom he doth accordingly so Succour and Preserve in the hour of Temptation and in the day of Trial till at length they become Conquerors and they are delivered from the hand of all their Enemies and from the hand of the Tempter CHAP. IX A Paraphrase on some of the most Remarkable Verses of Psalm 18. Shewing the Design and Connexion of this Psalm Whereunto is Sub-joined the shutting up and the Conclusion of this whole Book SO that in that day the words of this Song may be spoken unto the Lord I will
love thee O Lord my Strength the Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer my God my Strength in whom I will trust my Buckler and the Horn of my Salvation and my high Tower And so they may go on to declare and make a Rehearsal in order of the several great and good things which God hath done in his works of Creation and Redemption how that from the Forming and Transgression of Adam unto Jesus Christ being manifested in the Flesh and from thence to the Pouring out of the Spirit upon us from on High till the very last days it went on all along with Men and Women in all the Habitable parts of the Earth and throughout all the several Generations till at last it came to this Blessed upshot Conclusion and Period Thou hast deliver'd me from the Strivings of the People and thou hast made me the Head of the Heathen By which two Words People and Heathen are comprehended all those who Worship God and who Worship him not as also both them who Worship him in a true or in a false manner for when David Prays in another Place to to Visit all the Heathen Psal 59. 5. He includes under that Word Heathen also those sinful and Wicked Jews whom he there speaks of and amongst whom he dwelt Even as there have been all along Those of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews but are not but do lie Rev. 3. 9. Which say they are Christians and Servants of the Lord and are not but do lie for they are Heathen in Manners tho not in Worship And such for all their Name of Christian are not known of Christ they being workers of Iniquity but many of them shall cease to be such and then he shall begin to own and know them When such and all others come to serve him When the People are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord Psal 102. 22. When that which hath been said will be fulfilled A People whom I have not known shall Serve me I am sought of them thâ—… asked not for me I am found of them that sought 〈◊〉 not I said Behold me Behold me unto a Nation that was not called by my Name Isa 65. 1. And when the Prophet doth afterwards complain I have spread out my hands all the day unto a Rebellious People He saith the first of the Gentiles but this last and worst Character he gives of the Jews By which is intimated forth and confirmed that old and true Observation That as good People do commonly meet with more Kindness and Civility from meer Strangers than from Acquaintance and Kinsfolks So it is a more easie matter to convert and bring over unto God meer Heathen and Infidels than to Reform obstinate Jews superstitious or formal Christians from the Error of their ways and to bring them off from their vain and sinful Customs So God speaks unto Ezekiel Son of Man go get thee unto the House of Israel and speak with my Words unto them for thou art not sent unto a People of a strange Speech and of an hard Language whose Words thou canst not understand Surely had I sent thee unto them they would have hearkened unto thee But the House of Israel will not hearken unto thee for they will not hearken unto me Ezek 3. 4 5 6 7. And so God doth elsewhere take notice how they did Pollute his Name among the Heathen which before was Sanctified among them It is a more easie matter to instruct them in the true Knowledge of God who never heard of him before then it is to them who have heard him Preached and Talked of all their Lives long and yet they have not the Knowledge of God I speak this to their shame For manysuch are found to be in this Christian Nation who know nothing more of him than in a general way what they have heard only with the outward Ear or they have received in false Notions and Apprehensions concerning him for in this case so many things must be unlearned again and so many Errors must be removed out before the Truth can come in That one who is a pure Man not before prepossessed with wrong Imaginations but hath the common Principles of Nature and Powers of Knowledge when such an one is instructed truly and perfectly in the ways of God he will forthwith assent unto them and he will judge it the most reasonable thing in the World to do according to what is written At that day shall a Man look to his Maker and his Eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel Isa 17. 7. That Mortal Man should be Subject and Obedient unto the Almighty and everlasting God for a Creature to be Governed by his Creator especially when he sees hears and finds it in his Heart to be enforced with that Demonstration and Power as it may be As soon as they hear of me they shall Obey me The Strangers shall submit themselves unto me The Strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close Places There is a manifold Wisdom of God and so there is a manifold Sense and Interpretation of his Word which yet is all true and genuine so besides that meaning of the word Strangers before assigned There may be intended also such as are Jews Christians and Servants of God in Name or Profession only for they are Strangers or strange Children Psal 144. 7. Who pretend and seem outwardly to own and serve God when indeed and in truth they do not serve and obey him Whatever Thoughts Deceits or false Imaginations such have in their Minds they shall fade and come off from them and they shall be afraid thereof when the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord and of the things pertaining to his Kingdom all their own Reasonings and Imaginations shall Vanish and be utterly Abolished and every High thing that heretofore exalted it self against the Knowledge of God shall be cast down and fall to the Ground that the Lord alone may be exalted in that day and every thought both in Man or Woman will be brought into Captivity unto the Obedience of Christ As soon as they hear of me they shall Obey me The CONCLVSION THE Wickedness and Rebellion of former Generations did endeavour to Dethrone God and Christ Nay it did put Christ to Death who was the Prince of Life whom God again loosed from the Pains of Death it being not possible that he should be holden by it for God raised him up And the very same degree of Rebellion and VVickedness would if such a thing were possible which was not with Reverence be it spoken have Killed God himself Yea they would what lay in them Vngod him from whence they are properly called Vngodly Men for they would not that God should reign over them Hence did arise up those Strivings of the People But herein the Heathen did rage and the People did imagin a vain thing For after
Practical Discourses On Sundry TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE Wherein is shewed and made known The absolute Necessity for all People TO Turn Immediately Unto the Lord their GOD. By RICHARD STAFFORD formerly a Batchelor of Arts of Magdalen-Hall in Oxford LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Ralph Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. To the Courteous READER THE Subject of this ensuing Book A Call to all the Inhabitants of the Earth to turn immediately to the Lord their God is Great and Good Even what all the Words and Preaching that have ever came forth into the World in all the several Generations and Countries have endeavoured at For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the Just for the Vnjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 8. Besides the Sufferings of Christ The End and Intent of all the Words which Christ spake or made known and so it is the same of all the Transactions which have ever passed between God and Man are that he might bring us to Himself who is God Though this hath been indeed effected of some few Peculiar People of the several Generations yet it hath not been of the Multitude and Generality of Mankind Notwithstanding God was manifested in the Flesh and put to Death in the Flesh but quickned in the Spirit for this alone End and Purpose How can it then be expected that one who is born out of due Time and the least of all in the Kingdom of God can by publishing a few words more accomplish so great a thing when all the Books and Preaching in the World have not yet done it Especially when the Word it self which was made Flesh and dwelt among us Full of Grace and Truth who spake as never Man spake did not so bring it to pass that all should though some did believe on him Far be it therefore from me to expect or imagine That this little Book or Treatise of mine will ever have so great an Effect But it is only offered as another Mile to be thrown into the Treasury of Divine Truths It is the Thoughts of one single Creature which have arose in his Mind whereby himself is actually perswaded to God and good things and to turn unto the Lord Immediately Luke 12. 36. As Paul conferred not with Flesh and Blood but immediately went to Jerusalem So for my part I would utterly lay aside all Carnal and Worldly Considerations and immediately give up my self to the Guidance of the Lord as he leads me in the way to Jerusalem that is above whithersoever that way goes And I do desire that these same Thoughts may be published and made known abroad Out of this Hope and Expectation If Peradventure the God of all Truth who perswadeth us throughout our Life in all the several Circumstances and Conditions thereof That we may be able to perswade other Men and Women by the very same Thoughts wherewith our selves are perswaded of God He fashioneth the Hearts of the Sons of Men alike Psal 33. 15. and it is commonly seen That by what one is perswaded another under the like Thoughts and Circumstances is Perswaded also And if the like things were made known unto and believed by the mixt Multitude and generality of Mankind as is to the elect People and real Servants of God in all outward Likelihood and Probability They would also be brought over unto God To this alone End and Purpose are these Words laid before Men that whosoever will may read And for such who will not read the Saying among the Latins is Pertinaciae nullum Remedium Posuit Deus So we the Ministers of his Word cannot tell what to say to it Nor do we know how to help and remedy it though we would never so fain But we can only warn such Behold ye Despisers and Wonder and Perish Such are in real danger to fall under the same Doom as the Sons of Eli and Amaziah did Notwithstanding they bearkned not unto the Voice of their Father Because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2. 25. But Amaziah would not hear for it came of God that he might deliver them into the hand of their Enemies 2 Chron. 25. 20. And so it is They that will not Hear Read and Receive the Words of Instruction Knowledge and Reproof It is a certain foregoing sign that such will be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power It is commonly alledged that there is no new thing under the Sun and there is nothing said especially in Books but what hath been said before for my part I would endeavour somewhat further in what I publish to the World which as yet is not so clearly made known in other Books and Sermons or otherwise I would not publish at all Or at least I would seek out acceptable Words and that which is written may be upright even Words of Truth Eccles 12. 10. If Words or rather Sentences of Truth are indeed brought forth Although they be without Method and Connexion as there are very many of this sort in the following Treatise yet they are never the less worth for want of that All one as pieces of Gold or so many Pearls are not the less valuable although they be not linked and chained together Again Although my writing here is not with enticing words of Mans Wisdom nor yet according to the exact Rules of Oratory But things are expressed so plainly that they may be understood by the meanest Capacity Nevertheless God is more glorified and the Reader may be more edified hereby then in what is called more Learned and Polite Discourses It was both a puzling and also a sudden Question of Pilate What is Truth To me it seems to be the expressing forth the Nature of things as they are with the Connexion between themselves and how they pertain to us Men. Things are again divided into Visible and Invisible Present or Future Now the present and visible things soon pass away and are but little But the great Object of what is commonly called Divine Truth which is the subject of the ensuing Book is only invisible and future things which are the only thing needful even the greatest and nearest Concern All things are Gods for he created them and the principal Matter here insisted on throughout the whole is what God requires of Man with a Word of Exhortation to enforce him the more to the Obedience and Observance of the same and more especially what God will do unto us Men and Women the reasonable Inhabitants of this Earth both hereon in the latter days and also after that they are gone off from this Stage of the middle part of the World As to that great Controversie which the Lord hath had for so many Generations past and foregoing concerning their universal Obedience to Himself their God Psal 50. 7. which all the words that ever came forth and were made known in the World heretofore
that formed us nor receive in wrong Prejudices and false Apprehensions of his supreme and most excellent Being Our Ignorance Corruption and Satan's Temptation make us turn aside and then some strange Imaginations make us unwilling to return All which might be discovered to be Falshood Mistake and Error so soon as they are fully known Where God calls unto the Children of Men they struggle and give backwards and are not willing to come and this is the Strivings of the People This Manner of Speech is not intended of Heathens and such as have not known nor heard of God for they are expressed afterwards but it is meant of those who go under the Name of Israelites whom he vouchsafes to stile his own People These have some Faith and Knowledge but it is dark and imperfect they conceive somewhat of God but it is Error and Falshood they apprehend somewhat of his Law but not fully and thence comes to be in them an evil Heart of standing off from God The general Deceivableness of Heart which keeps them off for there is a Thousand Kind of little Surmises which may be answered in like manner is here reduced unto these Three Particulars 1. They think that themselves are as it were forced unto Obedience and they do not love to be compelled against their Will 2. Some imagine that they have so grievously offended God that they dare not to come 3. Which is the principal Reason of all the Generality of People think that if they submit presently unto the Obedience of God they shall be Losers and disappointed of so much Pleasure Profit and Conveniency in the mean while They shall miss of so much imagined Happiness and fall into Sowerness and Misery If these Three Points can be cleared and the Heart of Man throughly satisfied as to each of them then it is just and equal that he should not defer one Moment longer but turn immediately unto the Lord their God CHAP. II. Here that Proposition is at Large discussed That People are not forced and compelled to the Obedience of God but they are left herein to their own free Choice or Refusal FOR the first Cannot they imagine That if it was the Mind of God that any should be compelled to his Service could not he have brought the whole World unto his Obedience before this Time when they have continued for some Thousands of Years in their Iniquity and Transgression He who fashioneth their Hearts alike Psal 33. 15. and knoweth our Frame Psal 103. 14. could also have put into us the same instant Necessity and Inclination to his Worship and Service as to our Meat and Drink that without it we should grow faint and perish He could have determined the Powers of Soul only one Way as in Brutes and have moved them towards his Law and Will as they are carried by Instinct to natural and sensible things he could have implanted into every one that strong Desire of following the thing that good is as after Life and Breath and they should abhor and flee from Evil with the like Care and Earnestness as from Death and Destruction He could have so hedged up all our Ways that it were not possible to go from him if we were never so eagerly bent on Backsliding no more than we can now get out of a strong Prison He might have so compassed us in of every Side that we could not avoid fulfilling his Command no more than any one doth now escape from under a Guard Neither can we hide from him who is every where and in all Places He might give us as sensible Evidence of his taking Knowledge of all our Ways as a King doth of any Treason committed in his Presence for which we should incur his severe Wrath immediately Verily thou art art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour Isa 45. 15. and so hast done ever since the World began to see what the Children of Men will do God hath discovered himself no more than what was necessary for to exercise our Faith and Trial. He hath just made known his Name and Power amongst Men but further it is left unto them how they will carry themselves towards the Lord their Strength and Redeemer It is a wonderful thing to consider how the God who made and filleth and is all things should yet be so little manifested unto Men That he who is all Brightness and Glory should not be seen among us That he who made and fashioned us in whom we live and move and have our Being should not be perceived by us That when he filleth Heaven and Earth with his Presence yet any should live without God in the World Surely Darkness hath covered the Earth and gross Darkness the People The Sun gives Light upon it by Day and the Moon by Night and yet there is a greater Darkness round about which the dull Element perceives not there is yet a worse and greater Obscurity in those who see and walk therein Strange that it should not be yet universally fulfilled in all People At that Day shall a Man look to his Maker and his Eyes shall have Respect unto the holy One of Israel Isa 17. 7. for he might see him with the Eyes of his Vnderstanding being enlightened all one as he doth with his bodily Eye see the Works of God and the Earth which we tread on By the Air which a Man breaths and moves in he might have a Sense and Resemblance of him who is invisible who doth also beset him behind and before and is with him in his going out and coming in and is acquainted with all his Ways There is no going from his Spirit and Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost Parts of the Sea even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy Right Hand shall hold me Psal 139. 8 9 10. And so he doth equally in the narrow Places of our Abode Whether we be on a Journey or a walking in our Chamber or in the lower Parts of our House whether we be alone or in Company God is all along present with us but through Imperfection the Soul is not well intent on several things together and his Creatures too often make us forget the Creator As we behold them we are unmindful of him that is invisible their Talk and Discourse too often make us not think of his Word and Law Nevertheless these Failings might be rectified and we might have a continual Sense of him and of his Commandments that we might not fall nor offend But here it is to be admired that when there are so many things to bring to the knowledge and Remembrance of our God yet Mankind for several Generations should be so sottishly ignorant and unmindful of him Every thing we see taste and handle is his Work and Creature which should renew
must be some act and endeavour in Man There must be both a willingness and compliance in him to accept of what God hath done for him Agreeable hereunto is the whole Divine Revelation and that form of Speech our Saviour makes use of in reference to himself and his Disciples He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me Mat. 10. 40. And he that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10. 10. The one is a willing Act and the other a wilful Refusal So his Servant John speaketh unto the World He which is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is Righteous let him be Righteous still Rev. 22. 11. Not that it is the Mind of God that any one should continue in his wickedness for he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he turn and live But after former Calls there comes this kind of Speech That such an one may choose he may do what he will for God seems to cast him off and this makes People the more willing to come as we have an Example hereof in Judges 10. 13 14 15. As on the other hand when things are proffered and seem to be made easie they contemn it and do keep off The whole History of the Church ever since the World began and also the Method of his Spiritual Dispensation doth plainly shew that all Men are left to their free Liberty and Choice whether they will serve God or not And if it seem Evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the Gods which your Fathers served but as for me and my House we will serve the Lord Joshua 24. 15. If thou dost well shalt not thou be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lieth at the door Gen. 4. 7. Truly God is the great King over all the Earth and he hath Right to Rule over all its Inhabitants He is the Lord and Governour of the World and it is meet that he should exercise Authority and receive Homage from all things which he hath made How much more from such a small spot and little part of his Creation as the Earth is Every one who doth in the least consider must acknowledge God's Dominion most just and due in the general for our selves assent unto that Honour and Obedience which are given to those several Relations of King Father and Master Whereas those according to the flesh and our own Fellow-Creatures are not so much in comparison of the high and lofty One as a single dust of the Ballance is to the whole Fabrick of the World or as a drop of a Bucket to the Sea or as a single Grashopper is to all the Creatures that have Life and Breath So there should not be the least grudging at his Superiority and Regining over us And as our selves like to have things done readily and chearfully so likewise it is reasonable that God should expect the same of us Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power Psal 110. 3. God is the same from all Eternity and hath at all times the very same Power for he can do all things and whatsoever he pleases But as it is said in another place Many a time turned he his Anger away and did not stir up all his Wrath Psal 78. 38. So likewise he hath not yet in this Earth nor doth now exert all his Power and Might Indeed sometimes he doth make a little more then ordinary manifestation thereof as in those Signs and Wonders which he wrought of Old Time and then we hear what effect they had for they did cause an impression upon the Minds of People and they were for the time Reverent Submissive and Obedient towards God He might have continued the like tokens among them and have given them a succession of more which also should have spoken as sensibly unto them as out of the Cloudy Pillar That it was because they kept not his Laws which he gave them These things were done once or twice in the several Generations that passed through here not to every Generation but to those in former time that they might tell their Children to come to see if they would be perswaded to keep his Statutes and observe his Laws by what they heard God visibly did amongst their Forefathers Those Miracles were soon over and did not remain long among them To prove whether the Remembrance would have the like effect as when they were present and before the Faces of People Who were over-aw'd by the sight of such dreadful Things might still call to mind the same and perform a free and ready Service And so as they did look back and had heard of the things done heretofore so we now living may likewise reflect on the same And we who now stand in these latter days on the Earth may look forward to what may be in our time and in the Generations following When God shall yet in a more extraordinary manner than since the beginning of the World or Man was Created on the Earth Bow the Heavens and come down declare his Power and Presence in a much more visible and eminent manner than ever of old time when the Lord God shall dwell amongst us and Reign before his Ancients Gloriously Who would not fear and obey thee O King of Nations forasmuch as thou containest all the good and excellency which is any where to be found amongst the best and wisest of the Sons of Men. For thou first gavest unto them what is now loved and honoured in them And therefore more Reverence and Love and Thanksgiving and good Will belong unto thee of whom are all things Thou didst therefore communicate a light and imperfect measure of Good unto the best of Men lest they should draw off from looking on thee who art All in all When God himself shall come and appear even the Rebellious also shall submit unto him for they shall be over-awed with his Majesty and Greatness and they shall be likewise perswaded thereunto by his Goodness and Truth The desire of all Nations shall come and he shall so clearly manifest himself to be indeed what he hath revealed himself Loving unto every Man He doth good and filleth our Souls with Food and Gladness when this is throughly known then all former Prejudices and Aversation against him shall vanish and be utterly done away In that day shall this Song be Sung by his Elect and peculiar People This is the Lord whom we have waited for and others shall be astonished and confounded within themselves how it came to pass that they should either despise or conceive evil Thoughts against him They shall bite their Tongues for Indignation which did utter hard Speeches against his Majesty The Lord and his Saints shall convince them of their ungodly deeds Jude 15. and they shall be so vexed within themselves that they would even of their own accord cut off both
for the Work is as profitable and beneficial to the one as Payment is to the other But the Case is otherstise between God and us for first he hath wrought all our Works in us he brought us into Being and hath fed us up hitherto And one Way or another he hath prevented assisted and directed in those things which more immediately relate unto him though we are heedless as not to discern it no more than we perceive how we live and move in him which yet we do all along that to him belongs all the Glory and Praise thereof The utmost in Man is his Liberty of acting and working together with the Grace of God but still he first implanted that Power and Ability and when it turns towards Good it was God and his Grace that weighed down the Scale and over-ruled it unto the right and true Way Alass We are such small and finite Creatures that the utmost we do is very little and next to nothing For if the best Performances of the greatest and most diligent Saints on Earth be considered what is their Righteousness unto him Or what receives he of their Hands Even they come short of what they might have done yet more for they might have further improved their Talent Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof Mat. 21. 43. But since the preaching and Promulgation of the Gospel to the World no Nation hath yet brought forth such Fruits God knows what will be done in the latter Days as might be justly expected from it Nothing hath been done answerable to the precious Truths contained therein It was the Lord who gave the Word who planted the Trees but the Ground hath not brought forth suitable Increase thereof The Husbandmen have not manured and dressed it as they should have done And what Fruits have been or shall at length spring up from it Lord thou hast but what is thine own They are but living Instruments all one as the Spade or Pruning Hook in the Hands of the Gardiner and at last the Work suffers Loss and Disadvantoge by Reason of those employed therein If they do any thing rightly it is of God that they do so but the Weakness and Fault is of themselves only God worketh in us both to will and to do He hath shewed us how so that all things and all our Works are to be attributed to him only He sits above and Christ at his Right Hand expecting what his Servants will do for him in like manner as till his Enemies are made his Footstool Both which are consequent one to the other for by means of his Servants he will overcome the rebellious and make them submit under him The Lord looketh down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God Psal 14. 1. That did rightly apprehend the End of their Being in this World and did look after their Maker that by the things known already did ascend yet further That by what is known of God did seek out yet more if they could find out further Trace and Footsteps of this invisible Being As his Way is in the Waters he rideth upon the Wings of the Wind and the Clouds are the Dust of his Feet so we may see God in every thing To behold him not only in the Sanctuary but in every Part of his Temple which is Heaven and Earth and in each Part and Corner thereof To behold him in his visible Works and to perceive him in his invisible things To understand that great Relation of the Creator and his Creatures But more especially how we are concerned with that God with whom we have all to do What he doth require of us and what we are to render unto him The Phrase of looking down to see doth plainly denote that they are left to their Freedom and Liberty The same is likewise signified in the Parable of the Vineyard Isa 5. and Mark 12. 1 2. where God hath done all things that were necessary and reasonable and looks what will come of it Whether those Powers of acting he hath endued the Sons of Men withal will be employed in the right way or in extravagant things or be folded up in Idleness and Sloth Every Branch in me that beareth not Fruit he taketh away and every Branch that beareth Fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more Fruit John 15. 2. To all is committed at first some Grace and Power in order to spiritual things but who do not use it accordingly it is withdrawn from them But to them who manage aright is committed yet more that they should labour according to the Strength given them For whatever is in us is to be used and put forth Knowledge is to be communicated and still further Degrees and Increase thereof is to be sought after in order to impart that forth again Truth is to be declared and spoken out and this also is to be sought after and received for the aforesaid End and Purpose As the Blossom is to the Fruit so is Knowledge to Obedience and good Works The first is the Principle it goes before and gives Hope of the Fruit which is better and accordingly will end in that unless it be blasted and withered So this is the Beginning of our Duty for we cannot do any thing in order to God unless we know somewhat of him We cannot keep his Law till we apprehend what it is As there is an Unwillingness Aversation Forgetfulness of God and good things so there should be something to overcome that to stir up our Remembrance to keep this always in the Imagination of our Heart O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of Israel our Fathers keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts of the Heart of thy People and prepare their Heart unto thee 1 Chron. 29. 18. Nevertheless it is too often seen through the marvellous Subtilty of Satan who doth every way endeavour to beguile and to beat off that many have good and right Knowledge but it remains as it were blasted for it lies dead within and doth not shoot forth into well-doing Many times it drops off and Perishes having no Root or Stalk in them for taking no Delight and apprehending no Good therein they suffer it to pass through their Understanding as Water running through a Pipe which may wet and moisten a little for the Time but returns to its former Driness They may be a little affected for the Time but afterwards they do not mind nor give heed thereafter It makes a goodly Shew and Appearance without but it is meer Leaf and Colour and nothing worth unless it grows towards Fruit and Perfection God is not to be served by halves As he requires the whole Man so he would have his Work finished and compleat or else a tending towards it if it be such as he will
now live is continually hastning towards its Period so we should at all times make Provision against this shall fail to be received up into the other that we may there continually partake of somewhat which we have done here Indeed the Fruits of the Earth do spring up and are ripe at such certain Seasons of the Year according to the Climate or Countrey but still the Husbandman hath some Employment all the Year round The Kingdom of God over the Souls of Men is not confined to Times and Seasons as in such an Age or Part of Life to such a Month or Day of the Year But this Work may be carrying on at all Times and Seasons The Word may be preached in Season and out of Season at Summer or VVinter Spring or Autumn Sabbath or VVeek-day in the Day-time or at Mid-night as they are journeying or sitting still in the Closet Family or Congregation Truth shall spring out of the Earth Psal 85. 11. at what time it shall please the Lord to open the Fountains of the great Depth And as the VVind bloweth when and where it listeth so he shall give his Spirit to search it out So again Righteousness shall look down from Heaven when the Lord shall pour down his Spirit from on high which as he hath done several Times already so it may acquaint us further of the things there He may instruct his Servants as those of old in what Disposition of Body and Soul they must be in for to receive it To get the foregoing Qualifications of Faith Knowledge Love of God Obedience Holiness Humility convenient Retirement and separating from their Brethren that they may the more approach unto God These things do not so much depend upon the outward Circumstances of set and definite Times of the Year but they come to pass at what Time pleaseth the Father and we receive the Grace and use the Means to be Partakers thereof Known unto God are the great things he will do for his Church for they are fixed in his eternal Purpose and Determination it is not for us to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power Acts 1. 7. Perhaps the very Reason why these are not clearly revealed and manifested unto us is least in the mean while we should neglect our own Concern Our Minds might so run upon what things are to be done in the Generations following that we should leave undone what ought to be done in this Generation wherein we now live As the VVoman of Samaria saith When the Messias is come he will tell us all things John 8. 25. so we might be apt to apprehend it as to refuse to learn any thing in the mean while And when it is promised The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. VVe might content our selves with our former Ignorance and reject any further Knowledge and Instruction in the mean while Even those great things of old time have been transacted by outward Means and we ought still to use those Means which are in our Power to put them forth with all our Skill and Might and then let the Lord do what seemeth him good We know not at first what a Blessing and Success he may give unto them but we may somewhat perceive it afterwards Then things may rise up beyond our Expectations when in the Beginning we are apt to distrust and faint in our Mind Had our selves done nothing or after we had undertaken it then let it fall then it was our own Refusal that we were not Instruments in carrying on the Work of the Lord or he might take it from us and make choice of and give it unto others who should throughly perform his Will If the Way is shewed unto us and we are put in such a Capacity we have also an Impulse and Pressing of Mind to the same and the VVork is right and good as appears evidently from his VVord and the Examples of old there we may and indeed ought to walk in that VVay and actually do according to the Power given us and also comply with the Dictates of a rectified and truly informed Conscience If God may be glorified by such an Action and Good may be done unto others this should be indeed performed And seeing it should be done by some one why not by thee to whom he hath given the Knowledge thereof endued with Ability and is stirring thee up by his Spirit We may learn from Exodus 4. 10 11 12 13. that God is not pleased with Excuses or Delays or with alledging our own Imperfections for he made us at first and can also mend and increase what he hath begun He sent forth further Strength and Ability according as the thing requires The stammering Lips may at length speak plain as in the Beginning of Speech The Voice which was hasty and confused may become clear and distinct And who acquaints at first in general with the Errand that he should go to such a Place and do such a thing will afterwards according to his own divine Method in Acts 9. 6. teach particularly what he shall say And put the very Words into our Mouth a little before or in the very same Hour Mat. 10. 19. just as they are to be uttered forth Remembring still that we are but Instruments in the Hands of God We are to receive the Thoughts he puts into our Heart and to speak them out with our Lips but we can say no more nor think of pertaining to him than what he suggests and puts into our Mind We are to execute what he puts into the Power of our Hands but we can do no more Our God doth not require more than he hath given Those Talents are to be exercised and traded withal which he hath committed unto us but he will never call us to Account for more than we have received So we are to use Diligence and Labour according to what we can In the first Place we should pray unto God O learn me true Vnderstanding and Knowledge that I may keep thy Commandments Now these are either things to be abstained from or things to be done The first are properly Prohibitions or Forbiddings but the Word Commandment imports Duty which is to be done That must be discerned and known before it can be begun and because there may be Hindrances and Oppositions those also are to be seen and overcome that it may be accomplished In the Way to Heaven there are many Turnings aside which we are to be acquainted withal and avoid that we may keep on still in the right Way for if we go out there is so much Time and Labour lost to no purpose which might have set so far on The best Use hereof is to be more careful for the future to keep on right In every worldly Business and Design there are such foregoing Means And if they do at first hit upon those which are
true and prudent they do sooner perform the matter in hand but if they make use of false and foolish Means they go backward or round about and so they are further off or they wander And then either they do not accomplish or it is much a longer Time before they obtain what they would have Indeed there is another kind of Method in things pertaining to God than what is commonly made use of as to the things of this VVorld For though the same VVisdom Diligence and Activity are to be used towards the future and spiritual things as we see People do in their present Designs and Enterprises yet we ought not to venture upon all manner of Means For the Word of God is right and all his Works are done in Truth Psal 33. 4. That Word is to be made our Direction all along and we are to do nothing for God but what is holy and good So we learn manifestly from his revealed Will and also we find by the Success and Event thereof for if his own peculiar Servants do turn aside from the holy Commandment delivered unto them or do that which is sinful or doubtful not being of Faith and full Perswasion of Mind it doth not prosper unto them but they are most commonly defeated even the Wicked and Tansgressors which do most flourish and have the things they desire and endeavour after have not a comfortable Enjoyment thereof or they are given to vain Imaginations tormenting Desires continual Restlessness and Turmoil of Mind So they have plenty but no Satisfaction If there is but one Achan a single Babylonish Wedge this troubleth the whole Camp of Israel and the Israelites are smitten before their Enemies And this is many times a Reason not only of the common Afflictions of God's faithful People in their private Persons but also his Church hath laboured under long continued Persecutions and Adversities out of which they have attempted to redress themselves by unwarrantable and evil Means which have been frustrate and came to naught and then by giving occasion to the Enemy to think that they were not so holy as they pretended and thereupon they were kept faster in Bondage and tormented yet more We ought carefully to use the Means but we are in no wise to trust in them nor seek to the Arm of Flesh as to put any Reliance thereon God is exceeding jealous of his own Glory that as all things are of him so he would have all ascribed unto him And therefore he doth purposely make use of little outward Means that it may be known that they have not done it but he who sits above He acts in an invisible Manner He works and we see him not By the silent but effectual Operations of his Spirit Which the World receiveth not because it seeth him not John 14. 17. They do not understand but yet they are moved at the Presence of him in whom they imagine it dwells His Flesh is the same with theirs and yet they narrowly look on and consider him But if they had a spiritual Eye or if they had an inward Sense to perceive somewhat of the same Nature within themselves they would be much more over-awed with that And yet they would be inexpressibly more moved with the Presence of the God of the Spirits of all Flesh As Wax melteth before the Fire so let the Wicked perish at the Presence of God Psal 68. 2. which will be really fulfilled when himself shall bow the Heavens and come down Even now at the Manifestation of the Spirit of God Satan and his Legions do fly and disappear The Devils believe and tremble for they more quickly discern and fear than People in the Flesh and being more apprehensive of God's Power and also being conscious that they are liable to it they either make haste to get away or they lie under a more grievons Terror and Apprehension thereof against the Time it shall be executed upon them The Lord rideth upon a swift Cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idols shall be moved at his Presence Isa 19. 1. As Light doth dispel Darkness one Beam or Ray of the Sun drives it away when it overspreads the Face of the whole Earth So it is of the spiritual Light and of the spiritual Darkness where the spiritual Light doth appear and shoot it self forth it makes all Ignorance and Error to utterly vanish away The Father of Lights doth sometimes send out a Ray and Communication of his own Nature O send out thy Light and thy Truth Psal 43. 3. Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth Psal 80. 1. He now and then appears a little more and makes a Discovery of himself The God of all things who hideth himself if I may so express it behind the Skreen of his Creatures doth look out a little Who hath put a Vail on his Face he doth a little draw it aside Who hath dark Waters and thick Clouds to cover him yet he looks out from behind the Pillar and as he troubled the Egyptians of old so doth he even now seem to disturb the Inhabitants of the Earth for so they are disturbed when they have any Apprehension or spiritual Sight of him And therefore they avoid it and they shut their Eyes against him Lord when thy Hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see Isa 26. 11. As long as they can refuse the Knowledge of God they will refuse it As long as they can resist and despise his Righteousness and Truth they will do so But at length there shall such an abundant Measure thereof be poured down that they shall both know and consider tremble and be astonished do whatever they can By the Help of God one of his Saints who is the same with others shall put an hundred to Flight and Ten shall chase a Thousand And this shall not be done by Sword or Spear by outward Strength or Power of the Hands but with the weakest Member and lightest thing in Man viz. It shall be done by the Tongue and by the Breath of his Lips And he shall smite the Earth with the Rod of his Mouth and with the Breath of his Lips shall he slay the Wicked Isa 11. 4. The Lord shall put Words into their Mouth that the Ears which hear thereof shall tingle And though they are backward to hear yet he shall cause them to hear Now Words are vain light and the Sound of them soon passeth away They may be slighted off when they come from a weak and helpless Man For doth he talk of great things who is little and contemptible himself Doth he speak of Power and Might who is but Flesh a feeble Creature and like a Reed shaken with the Wind Doth he preach of Rewards and Punishments in whose Power it is not either to do good or hurt For the utmost is a slight Pleasure or little Inconvenience Doth he talk of Kingdoms Glory and Riches when perhaps himself is abject
In this Case the more usual VVay is to try all Means to obtain a Reprieve or Forgiveness and if that cannot possibly be had then indeed the former Resolution was the more excusable But if it might have been obtained unless for such provoing Attempts or they would use them of set Purpose here it is the very Heighth of Folly and Madness For they wilfully bring upon themselves such Evil and Misery under which they smart only for a slight and sudden Humour which soon passeth away and for which they are condemned by all understanding Men. Thus it is as concerning Offences between Man and Man But yet it is ten Thousand times more unreasonable as to Sins against God For do we provoke the Lord to Jealousie Are we stronger than he If any are perversly resolved against him they will see and feel who will repent of it first God or themselves The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall smoak against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven Deut. 29. 20. All this may be done at this present time even when he knows not or is not sensible thereof But now it would be better if he were sensible of as much because then he might fear and tremble submit and then endeavour to be reconciled unto him in the mean while Lay hold of his Strength and make Peace with him who saith Fury is not in me Isa 27. 4. But if this be neglected what will the poor Creature do when the Anger and Jealousie of the Lord which before did smoak to give VVarning shall burn out with fiery Indignation to consume the Adversaries when all the Curses that are written in this Book and now lie against him shall be actually executed upon him For behold the Day cometh that shall burn as an Oven and all the Proud such as will not submit in the mean while yea and all that do wickedly shall be Stubble and the Day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall not leave them Root nor Branch Mal. 4. 1. Let them at present he never so great in their own Opinion or many for Number Yet when the Earth and all the Works thereof shall be burnt up they shall be likewise devoured in the general Conflagration What is a single Potsherd to stand before him when he shall sweep away with one Beesome of Destruction all the Generations of the wicked since the World began Thou carriest them away as with a Flood they are as asleep Psal 40. 5. Thus we evidently perceive of those Generations whereof one cometh another goeth and the single Persons flourish and grow up again They are cut down at any Time or wither And in the mean time By thy Wrath are we troubled Vers 7. It is now revealed from Heaven We now and then perceive some Glimpses thereof and we do startle and fear Those who are farthest off and most exempted from this Wrath yet they commonly have most Thought and Apprehension thereof As again to whom it is most due and threatned by reason of their evil Deeds they do what they can to shut out the Sense and Knowledge thereof For otherwise it would press in so hard and close upon them that then they must not continue in Sin Even in those who fence and harden themselves most yet ever and anon a sudden Flash of divine Vengeance darts into their Minds which strikes them with Dread and Horror and by the trembling and Astonishment it gives it doth sufficiently convince there is one mightier than they Our God indeed now keeps Silence and is out of Sight as also he forbears in this Time of Tryal yet he hath declared and made known that he is angry with the wicked every Day Psal 7. 11. who again Day by Day transgress against him For they speak and do those things against God which they dare not do against their fellow-Creature But when Man hath finished his Time of sinning the Number of the Days of Transgression are accomplished and God comes to reckon for them altogether For the Destruction of the Transgressors and of the Sinners shall be together Isa 1. 28. Then whatever he thought or did as concerning this almighty Judge when the things concerning him have an End then the most mad and prophane Wretch that ever trod on the Earth will be forced to take up Julian's Confession and Acknowledgment Vicisti Galilee and in another Sense then the Prophet spake in O Lord thou art stronger than I and hast prevailed Jer. 20. 7. Why thus much may be clearly discerned in the mean while for let Man consider himself or who made him his Flesh is as Grass which grows up towards withering His Breath is in his Nostrils and who breathed it in he can take it out whensoever he will His Strength is confined to such a Degree beyond which he cannot do more His Stature bodily Dimension and every thing he hath is limited to such a Size And certainly he who hath determined him on every Side hath Power over him Who made all Men he can do more to such a single Person than one Man or Thousands can do to another There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy As he doth good so he can punish He can do both in a greater Degree and more eminent Manner than any of the Sons of Men can do one to another Even to the utmost that we are capable to receive and to endure For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Ways higher than your Ways and my Thoughts than your Thoughts Isa 55. 9. This is brought in to confirm his Promise of Pardon and Acceptation Vers 7. So again is his Punishment and Requital He can contend and be wroth so long even just till the Spirits shall fail before him and the Souls which he hath made Which also he can uphold and continue yet longer to sustain his Vengeance as long as himself is pleased to inflict the same His Loving Kindness is better than Life for it extends yet further so likewise the Power of his Anger is more to be dreaded than Death for it is even beyond that Upon all Respects God's Displeasure and Punishment doth exceed Man's Displeasure and Punishment and consequently it is more to be feared and more Care ought to be taken that it be avoided The several Actings and Obligations towards God rise greater and higher than to the best and greatest of Men for God is more than all So neither is that Rebellion and Contempt to be used towards him which Men will not admit of from one another God is greater than Man Yea all Nations before him are as the Drop of the Bucket He will keep the Feet of his Saints and the wicked shall be silent in Darkness for by Strength shall no Man prevail
Contempt and cast them into a bottomless Pit to suffer the Vegeance of eternal Fire In God is first contained and from him is derived every good and perfect thing even what is enjoyed or can be further desired by the Sons of Men. O Lord the Hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and they that depart from me shall be written in the Earth because they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters Jer. 17. 13. God sendeth Rain upon the just and the unjust He giveth common Mercies promiscuously and indifferently to all but there is somewhat more and greater in being the Hope of Israel Somewhat is hidden and reserved there only for those who come unto him as again who forsake him miss thereof And when this shall be opened and actually given then Shame Vexation and Anguish will possess those who by their former demerits and provocation have lost their share and portion in this matter They that depart from me shall be written in the Earth When they have left and gone aside from him above they must cleave unto and pursue after somewhat And they cannot follow after any thing but what is in this place where they live And seeing they have chosen the Earth either the Men or Things therein let them make the most thereof But what will they do when the Earth and all the Works thereof shall be burnt up When themselves and others who inhabit here shall die And if they thought themselves well enough because tho' the things herein are perishing yet themselves are perishing likewise and they serve for their Time Nevertheless they must remain elsewhere for they have immortal Souls and returning Bodies And what shall they do throughout the Length and Space of Eternity when all the things wherein they before trusted are utterly gone and removed from them Even the Men of this World which have their Portion in this Life Psal 17. 14. might thus know and conclude As they thought it worth their while to secure this Place and Time who were for getting the best and fattest things that they might live happily and comfortably who were for the greatest and wisest Company in the whole Country of their Abode they might have looked up and have learned to be acquainted with thee O King of Nations for as much as among all the wise Men of the Earth and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee They might understand and seek after the Lord whose is not only the Earth but the whole World and all that is therein for he made Heaven and Earth and all things Who whilst they lived did bless their own Soul Psal 49. 18. did so hug themselves with the Comforts and Conveniencies of this short Time they might much more hope for and endeavour after the good things of Eternity and take a more diligent and greater Care how themselves might live blessed for ever They might have further trusted unto him who as they experimentally found did good giving them Rain from Heaven filling their Souls with Food and Gladness So the Lord will perfect that wich concerneth them Psal 138. 8. Those perishing and fading Comforts were an Earnest and Assurance that he would give the true and enduring Happiness for such who should endeavour to be found worthy for to receive the same If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your Trust the true Riches Luke 16. 11. As he provided them with the meat which perisheth which was had by Labour Dressing and other forgoing Means and that did preserve Health and Life for the Time so likewise he afforded the Meat which endureth unto everlasting Life which also was to he had by using such Means of Grace And as many as did receive and comply with the Workings of that Grace they shall be crowned and actually invested with the other to which it did tend and grow up As he is the God of the Earth so of the Heavens also And as he hath determined our Dwelling and Abode here for a Space so he will take us up unto the Heavens for evermore Here we have no continuing City but now we desire that which would continue and that must be an heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11. 16. which like himself must remain for ever He took us out of our Mothers Womb and doth hold us up from the Cradle unto the Grave In the mean while he reneweth his Mercies and Preservation every Morning and there is still something more than all this Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with Benefits even the God of our Salvation He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the Issues from Death Psal 68. 19 20. In that Word Salvation is comprised more than can be possibly had in this World Salvation imports to be free from all Evil Fear and Danger which none is in this World For consider of those who are in the most safe Condition and think themselves so yet the last Enemy waits for them which is Death and thence is Fear and Doubt But we have Assurance from our God who brought us into Being who carrieth us thro' here who is Lord of Life and hath Power over Death that he will give a Rising and Deliverance from that Now we have the most doubtful Apprehensions concerning Death and the future State For though on this Earth we are encompassed about with Fear Pit and the Snare yet we know what is the utmost of things here and what usually happens unto others So we are contented and freed from Terror and Amazement But further on if we did consider rightly we have more Hope and Security from the Lord being our Hope and the God of our Salvation And there he declares beforehand that neither he nor we shall be ashamed For hereby he will do more for us than we can ask or conceive and we shall find it to be infinitely more than we could expect and which will make an abundant Compensation for whatever Difficulty Loss or Trouble we did sustain in coming to be Partaker thereof And though our God shall cause us to inherit high Places Isa 58. 12. yet we shall not be in the least Danger or Suspicion of falling Thou shalt be far from Terror for it shall not come near thee Isa 54. 11. We shall be more strongly secured from every Evil or Misery and be wholly exempt from the Thought and Apprehension thereof as we shall be let into the Possession and Enjoyment of all Good and Excellency so the Continuance thereof to everlasting that we shall never lose nor be deprived of it will be made so sure and ratified unto us as they are certain of that Moment wherein they have it or as we are at present sensible that we live and breath or that we have what we grasp at this Instant
in that Book which we are now required to believe and they are much beyond what Words do express of them Here it is said simply God is good to Israel A plain Assertion but himself will manifest and shew particularly that he is transcendently good to his People both as to what he doth for them at present and what he hath further provided for them Even what the World are apt to esteem less I mean those spiritual Blessings in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus which are in Preparation and Order to those great things to come The sensual Man doth tast and perceive how sweet and desirable it is to gratifie the Flesh which hinders from discerning the things of the Spirit But he that is spiritual doth exceedingly relish the Knowledg and Meditation of the most high and he doth more esteem of the Light of God's Countenance and the Gladness which he puts into the Hearts of his People than what arises from the full Enjoyment of Corn and Wine In a more especial manner God is good to such as are of a clean Heart that is when it is cleansed from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit when it is freed from Sin and Ignorance when it comes out from among the Pots Psal 68. 13. when it is lifted up from the Earth and disintangled from the Affairs of this Life then it doth also clearly know and perceive the Goodness and Loving Kindness of the Lord. Those who were heretofore alienated through wicked Works come to be acquainted with God when once such wicked Works are truly repented of and forsaken Who were by reason of them slavishly afraid but when once they are assured of actual Forgiveness and Pardon then they are in Peace Who were kept off by wrong and false Apprehensions and Prejudices when they know him truly and certainly they find nothing but Loveliness and Excellency in him If they ever came to Repentance they will be really sensible and actually perswaded of thus much at last But why will they not suffer themselves to know and be assured of thus much at first What need of departing away from our God Isa 59. 13. when we might abide well with him all the mean while and if we go away we must return again or be eternally miserable Why should we provoke or make him our Enemy when there is no need of it at all Is he worthy to be sought unto at last and not at first also Though many go astray and return there may be indeed more Joy and Welcom at first yet it will be better with those who continually serve God Neither transgress they at any Time his Commandment or in as few Instances as possible Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine Luk. 15. 31. The whole and continued Current of God's Favour is upon these God will proportion his Reward according to Mens Deeds For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he will reward every Man according to his Work Mat. 16. 27. The Labourers in Mat. 20. came all as soon as they were called Neither did they stand idle a Moment longer and so they received equal with those who bore the Burden and Heat of the Day But in this Christian Nation none have that Excuse of not being called or hired For every one in every Place may come to the Knowledge and Service of God as soon as they will It is unnatural to be unmindful of the Rock that begat thee and to forget God that formed thee especially when we more lately sprung up from him and the Sense of him was fresh and perceptible in our tender Years and his new Workmanship So we conclude that it is most acceptable to retain and increase that Knowledge which we had from the beginning to remember and abide continually by the Root from which we spring to be ever mindful that we are Plants of our heavenly Father's planting to be Branches of his Vine to be purged by him and be growing up in him till we bring forth Fruit to derive our Sap and Fatness from him and as we partake thereof from him so to be glad and rejoyce therein to hear of the loving Kindness of the Lord early in the Morning my Soul shall make her Boast thereof and be glad To recount youthly Experiences of divine Favour wherein is to be had more real and lasting Satisfaction than in all the Vanity and Folly of our first Years How sweet is it to recollect Through thee I have been holden up ever since I was born Thou art he that took me out of my Mother 's Womb. My Praise shall continually be of thee and so it hath ever since my Tongue could speak plain or I did conceive the Words which I uttered forth Thou art he with whom I have been acquainted in the Days of old That is no Confinement whose Heart is enlarged and whose Understanding opened to conceive of the great things of God and Eternity Whilst others thought of hungry and insipid Recreations or the short and empty Delights of Sin His Body was at Liberty to go here and there but kept off from what would occasion Weariness and hasten Destruction He did glorifie his God thereby and not make it an Instrument of Sin unto Iniquity He did preserve it in due Health Strength and Sobriety by declining those things which naturally bring on Weakness and Diseases And then by living under the continued Sense and Apprehension of a good God He is just so as a reasonable Creature should be for he can rejoyce in the God of his Salvation Be thankful and take Comfort in the things before him Men may live with the same Content and Freedom under his Government as Subjects under a lawful and an excellent Prince and Children under a good and loving Father God is infinitely and essentially good and also loving to Mankind for he doth actually communicate forth his Benefits unto them That he is so in his own Nature none can deny nor have the least Doubt But is he so as pertaining to us Why we taste and find it so The more any one partakes of the divine Nature and Approaches unto his Likeness he is carried out with the more earnest Desire of doing good to his Brethren and Fellow-Creatures and he actually doth the same according to the Power and Opportunity put into his Hands Now this is a manifest Token of the infinite Goodness of the Godhead because he hath put such a Spirit and Mind into his Servants to do the very same His Goodness doth as much exceed that of the greatest Saint on Earth or of that Person who was ever most beneficial unto the World as the whole Sea doth exceed a single Drop 'T is God who doth manifest and shew forth one Ray of his Goodness and Truth through such an individual Creature and cause him to do whatever he doth Here we are in the Dominion of the Prince of
the Power of the Air even where Satan's Seat is and he doth hinder or resist or defeat all the Good he can His Devices are subtle and his Instruments many so he is the Cause of all the Evil and Misery which are scattered up and down in the Earth God suffers it to be thus for our Trial and other wise Reasons that by our overcoming he may have the greater Glory But because of this many are apt to doubt of God's Love to the World Whereas by this means he doth prove the Children of Men towards him For by their being amidst Temptation and evil the Trial of their Faith may be had whether they will follow the thing that good is Whether they will still resolutely put forth and countermine the Devices of the Enemy and so make them of none effect or cause him to fall and that he shall lose more than he got thereby God suffers many things to come to pass for our Trial whereof we are apt to stagger concerning his Love and Goodness to Mankind but thereby he hath shewed how they may approve themselves more than Conquerors and then he designs to crown them with greater Glory and Happiness This may be applied to the particular and several Dispensations which happen of whatever Kind they be each may be observed by a discerning Person to exercise our Faith and Trust Now for a Season if need be ye are in Heaviness thro' manifold Temptations that the Trial of your Faith being more precious than of Gold that perisheth might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 6 7. It is irksome at present and we are apt to have hard and distrustful Thoughts but this is because we know not all the Reasons thereof and how our End shall be yet more excellent and happy Who led thee through that great and terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and Drought where there was no Water Who brought thee forth Water out of the Rock of Flint who fed thee in the Wilderness with Manna which thy Fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter End Deut. 8. 15 16. This will be really found though it be hid from some and they are not sensible thereof all along Indeed this makes the rejoycing more at the End because it happens better than was expected but yet to know thereof beforehand makes that we fail not nor be discouraged Isa 42. 5. That we do not grow weary nor faint in our Mind nor abate one Tittle of our Duty nor yet desist waiting on the Lord not to be tempted so as to say with that profane King This Evil is from the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 Kings 6. 33. but rather to make the contrary and right Conclusion This Trouble Opposition and Resistance is from Satan the Adversary I will endeavour through God's Grace to resist him more vigorously until he is bruised down under my Feet Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under Feet because he hath set his Love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my Name He shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in Trouble I will deliver him and honour him Psal 91. 14 15 16. As long as any one is in God's Way he is safe to carry him through all Difficulty and Danger that he may overcome and be crowned at the last It is said before He shall give his Angels Charge over thee to keep thee in all thy Ways Psal 91. 11. This Promise is exceeding particular and even so is the whole Psalm for Safety and Preservation over and from the several and successive Kinds of Evil there-mentioned So that we may trust and conclude that by what God hath done hitherto he will go on to establish and finish the same Cast not away therefore your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Heb. 11. 35. It is not an hasty nor a fond Presumption nor yet a vain Conceit for it relies upon the whole Truth and Authority of God's Word which also speaks of the Evils and Hardships which we meet with in the mean while which we find to be so That same Word doth also assure us of Strength to hear and go through with and at last of perfect Deliverance and Victory out of them This is the Favour which the Lord beareth unto his People until he doth actually visit them with his Salvation Psal 106. 4. But for those who have sinned with their Fathers who have committed Iniquity and done wickedly how is it with them Will not the following Verse give them a Glimpse of Hope and Comfort Our Fathers understood not thy Wonders in Egypt they remembred not the Multitude of thy Mercies but provoked him at the Sea even at the Red Sea Psal 106. 7. If the Question should be asked wherefore do all Mankind sin and transgress against the Lord Have they not a present Temptation and Desire of seeming Good which they imagine God would hinder them of Not knowing that God hath provided greater Pleasure and Happiness for them and more Peace and Comfort in the mean while They are ignorant of this for otherwise they would receive the Good that exceedeth They do not understand the greater Multitude of God's Mercies for then they would not behave themselves rebelliously and contemptuously towards him Like Words unto those of Peter in Acts 3. 17 18. may be applied to Mankind of past Generations And now Brethren I wot that through Ignorance ye sinned thus as did also your Father Adam A present desire of pleasure and greatnessled him into the Transgression and so his Sons and Daughters ever since have had some seeming Reason why they committed Sin against God To be advanced a little more and better from their present imperfect State Now were they assured that what God would do for them would be beyond all this then they would endeavour to continue stedfast in his Covenant Were they fully ascertained that they should have greater Good by keeping his Judgments at all times than by declining from or walking contrary unto them either they would not transgress at all or in fewer Instances than now they have done God knoweth all things As he suffers so he doth likewise behold the whole course of sinning ever since he created Man upon the Earth until this day with the several Temptations Excuses Circumstances belonging to it as also to what degree of Extenuation or Provocation it might have and also the measure of Ignorance and Imperfection He doth not need to be informed thereof for He likewise discerns that Willing Ignorance that contempt and refusal of Instruction of set purpose The way of the just is uprightness Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just Isa 26.
7. In like manner he doth consider all the ways of the wicked and takes in what measure of abomination and evil deserving is therein and also how much is to be allowed unto Satan's Temptation Now the Serpent was more subtle than any Beast of the Field which the Lord God had made Gen. 3. 1. And so he continues still to be more cunning than the children of Eve as they are merely such without the assistances of the Grace and Spirit of God from above and he befools them Now again they might from the Wisdom and Word of God know his devices and so escape yea and frustrate them The Lord looketh down from Heaven upon the children of Men he considereth all their ways and understandeth all their works whither good or evil with whatsoever doth belong to them to reward pardon or punish He now sits above and takes notice of them in order as they are done But he hath reserved to himself the Power and appointed a Day to Judge of all and to distribute unto every one according to his works This is the alone Prerogative of God above which he hath kept in his own power For he alone searcheth the heart and knoweth all things whereas we do only perceive a little in a false and imperfect manner by doubtful report and mistaken observation And then we cannot throughly apprehend a thing wherein many are concerned so that we can give no perfect Judgment and Determination But the Lord will rehearse it when he writeth up his people He hath a Book of all Nations Families and single Persons with the account of time and place they stood here on the Earth as also he notes the things that they have done The Scripture makes frequent mention of this particular summing up of our deeds and that our God doth take regard of them and will bring every secret thing into Judgment even the most hidden passages of our Life Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance Psal 90. 8. Each single one for why not one as well as another nay every wrong thing and turning aside even our errors and misdeeds which we pass over for Inadvertencies and small Neglects those which we suddenly act and do not much mind our selves Thus much is signified from what is written Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression Psal 19. 12 13. Here the several degrees and diversities of sin are specified by the words Errors secret Faults presumptuous Sins and the great Transgression A consciousness that God doth even now search us and is acquainted with all our ways and then that we must pass into a strict Examination and Judgment is apt to raise doubtful and despairing thoughts in our mind How strange is it that any People should be heedless and unconcerned about those things whereof they must be called to an account If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who might stand And he might do so if he pleased but then in his sight no man living will be justified For no man hath been so watchful circumspect and inoffensive in his Life and Conversation but hath in several instances transgressed against or despised the Lord his God and as himself hath regret and vexation afterwards as he looks back so he would tremble to have them set in order before him By thy wrath are we troubled Psal 90. 7. And again we are comforted blessed be his Divine Majesty because that same word which speaks of God's Displeasure and Indignation against Sin doth likewise assure us of his Reconciliation and Pardon Thereby is to be seen a mixture of his Justice and Mercy And it is observable That where are expressions even to terrifie and cast down there is somewhat close by said to give hope and comfort and to lift up again where is Reproof and Threatning there either commonly goes before or succeeds presently after an invitation to return and a promise of forgiveness So we have the very same assurance and certainty that God is to be Reconciled unto the World through Jesus Christ either to the multitude in general or to single persons For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance This is as evident and clear as that God was ever angry with the World or with any single Man for his sin and wickedness But this withal is to be considered That if the World will be saved in and through Jesus Christ they must in the mean while submit to his Scepter and Kingdom obey his Laws and observe his Sayings For as heretofore they have not gave heed unto nor been governed by them which hath occasioned his Wrath and sore Displeasure Psal 2. 5. so to avoid that and obtain his mercy and favour they must now do what heretofore they left undone and ought to have done and refrain from what they were forbidden and yet heretofore they did Leave off all manner of Transgression and Disobedience and henceforward perform all Duty and Service Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little Blessed are all they that put their trust in him Psal 2. 12. Submit and be reconciled unto him lest you miss of that Path of Life which he leads in He knows if you despise him and you must take him for a Guide and Saviour to follow him whether soever he goeth For ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. Without this actual Returning and Amendment there is no Salvation and Mercy If men will not do what is first required it is vain to talk of or hope for Pardon and Forgiveness if they will not perform the necessary foregoing Conditions and Qualifications they have no lot nor share in this matter not one good thing doth belong to them not one Iota or Tittle of God's Mercy precious Promises and comfortable Truth is applicable to them until they do indeed begin the work of Repentance God is not their Father nor doth he look with an Eye of Goodness and Compassion upon them till they are indeed returning and coming unto him And indeed when one doth really arise and is coming towards God then our Heavenly Father may see him yet a great way off and go out to meet him Luke 15. 20. Love and Forgiveness are kindled at the very same moment when his resolutions are of going home and these do happily meet together The end of telling People their Transgressing is because many times they are blinded and insensible of them Indeed they may know a little slightly and confusedly but another may
better lay the Law before them and then themselves may consider their variation from it Sometimes they are at a stand and as it were amazed and they know not what to do they may first see and fully perceive and then acknowledge according to that Example in Ezra 10. 2. We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange Wives of the People of the Land yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing So of every Iniquity Transgression or Sin whether it is complicated or single whether many or few are concerned therein still there is hope that God will do what he declares which he also will as certainly as he is God For he is abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin But then they must make a Covenant with their God to forsake their sins for the time to come and hence forward to tremble at his Commandments and to do according to the Law But if they cover their sins if they keep and hold fast to them then they are still guilty whom the same Truth hath here said That he will by no means clear Exod. 34. 7. The word Forgiving respects what is past but doth not allow for the present or future What then Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid That God may shew the more mercy in our manifold and greater sins that we may love much when much is to us forgiven But this and such like is a perverse wicked proud and disdainful way of Reasoning Because God will forgive we will sin yet more because he is Gracious therefore we will provoke him because he is Good we will presume to offend him yet more because he will pass by the Transgression of the remnant of his Heritage and make it up again we will break and at no time continue stedfast in his Covenant And knowing that he will pass it over we will forget the Name of the Lord and hold up our hands to strange Gods we will idolize and labour to please Men without any regard had to him Shall not God search this out for he knows the secrets of the heart He doth see and discern all such kind of Imaginations which shoot forth into alike practices We should do well to consider with our selves Wherefore do we desire any forgiveness at God's hands Because we would partake of his Mercy and avoid his Wrath. We would be happy and are unwilling to be miserable Why know we not that the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them Psal 103. 17 18. And the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. 18. and Disobedience Colos 3. 6. And therefore we must fear God if we would partake of his gracious Attribute and carefully eschew all the other that we do not fall under the severity of his Vengeance If we would be happy we must be holy and to prevent misery the only way is to sin not We are but meer Creatures All that we have is from God and so is all that we expect further We are but perishing and imperfect at present and we shall be yet somewhat more as our hopes and desires our fears and aversations give us notice of So that if we would have the good-will and love of God the consequent is natural and easie for our selves to shew love and good-will towards him in the mean while And then we must sin as little against him as possible Ye that love the Lord bate evil Psal 97. 10. And ye are to decline every false way we are to endeavour to set forth his glory and to honour him which shuts out all manner of stubbornness and the least despising of him Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. We have the Promise and Assurance of that Kingdom and to us is committed in the mean while what is preparatory to that The work and service is given and shewed that we may do it and as we are put in the condition of Servants to so great and honourable a Master as he is in Heaven so it is required of us that we be faithful and willing that is true in the management of what is committed unto us and ready in the performance of the same Another Character that belongs to a Servant is That he be Wise whereof our Saviour speaks and promises to set such over his Houshold Accordingly the Apostle intimates as much negatively See that ye be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Eph. 5. 17. This must be in order to do the will of the Lord And also we are to be in a readiness against his time of coming to demand an account By doing of God's Will we learn to know it better and the performance is more easie we can correct what was amiss heretofore and perform it more exactly for the time to come From the quality of Servants we come to a more intimate Relation of Sons which the Scripture to assure us of God's Love and Familiarity to Mankind doth more often make use of than the other comparison of Servants I will spare them as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him Mal. 3. 17. Now former miscarriages are passed over and forgotten when there is a sincere and actual service for the time to come where there is a constant desire to please and be accepted with God Agreeable hereunto is the stile of the promises and calls to Repentance Thus saith the Lord shall they fall and not arise shall he turn away and not return Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual back-sliding They hold fast deceit they refuse to return Jer. 8. 5. But if they do return they have forthwith assurance of Pardon and Forgiveness according to what is written But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die Ezek. 18. 21. 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 Isa 55. 7. There are innumerable Promises scattered up and down in the Old Testament and also in the New to give hope and encouragement unto sinners to return unto the Lord their God which do answer all their particular doubts and fears Whatever be their multitude and aggravation If they have played the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me saith the Lord Jer. 3. 1. Or if their sins be as scarlet or crimson of the deepest die and guilt he will make them white as
and Knowledge of him to refrain from Transgression If we did see after the Manner of Men from the Example of an enraged Prince who hath the Power to be revenged on ungrateful Rebels and is constant to what he swears or saith God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow and made it ready Psal 7. 11 12. He is more and more displeased day by day and as the Creature continually provokes him God only forbears to execute his Vengeance to see whether he will turn or not The longer man puts it off it will be worse for him How grievous and abominable is it to stand as it were at defiance and opposition with God For a worm to contest with and to wriggle against its Maker for a Potsherd to strive with the Lord of the World He justly declares himself to be an Enemy to such wicked doers Ah! I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies Isa 1. 24. He only sends out his Word to give notice thereof to see if they will submit He sends out the Son of his Love with an Offer of Reconciliation to prove whether they will receive his Message and Counsel who saith Agree with thine Adversary quickly least the Adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into Prison Verily thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the utmost Farthing Mat. 5. 25 26. The more quickly thou agreest with thine Adversary the more sure thou art to be reconciled unto him Thou must be reconciled to him first or last or thou wilt be eternally miserable The longer thou standest off thou dost the more provoke and enrage him And wouldst thou resist him in the mean while whom thou must at length submit unto Nay when thou art willing to be at Peace with him Even those who are now reconciled and were once afar off are vexed within themselves that ever they should have the least Enmity against so gracious and so good a God The Adversaries of the Lord shall be ashamed And if thy self dost come to be agreed with him thou wilt not only repent and be grieved for all thy former Ignorance strange Imaginations but even for this Opposition and Doubting whether thou shouldst presently come over unto thy God Consider he is stronger and mightier than thou He is all-wise and jealous of his Honour and also he will be glorified in his Creatures And shall they offend him now because they hope hereafter to please and pacifie him Or will they take Advantage over him also as some do over his Servants to affront them the more because they know beforehand such will forgive Is it good that God should search you out or as one man mocketh another do ye so mock him Job 13. 9. Thine hand shall find out all thine Enemies thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee Psal 21. 8. That is find them out to punish them and therefore God certainly knows them with the measure and degree of Hatred they conceive against him The sin is against him and also the pardon belongs to him and also he is the God to whom Vengeance belongeth Now what is the Reason why he doth spare some and punish others He will do according to what he hath said He shall Judge the World with Righteousness and the People with his Truth Psal 96. 13. And by that Truth he takes an estimate of People even now God who knows the hearts will put a difference between Infirmity and Perverseness between unavoidable and willing Ignorance what is to be allowed to the temptation and what is their own fault He doth apprehend all the meaning of his own Law and Word and also all the doings of all the Sons of Men every motion and thought of their Soul and all that is within them The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart and try the reins even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17. 9 10. He takes exact account and cognizance of all things and here it is said that it is in order to give to every Man according to the fruit of his doings so that certainly it must be the better way to submit instantly For the present refusal and neglect doth provoke him in the mean while those strugglings and contests do displease him when he exhorts and admonishes if they rebel and vex his holy Spirit he will turn to be their enemy Isa 63. 10. and fight against them We know not when this will be and therefore People should be exceeding cautious how they do in the least displease him When the Scripture speaks of God being angry the same Word invites again to Reconciliation with him Can two walk together except they be agreed Amos 3. 3. Now God is continually with us though many are not sensible thereof for he is with us in our going out and coming in and he is with us in all our ways and this would be a continued fear and trouble to the mind unless we are at peace with him and then it is a comfort and an assurance And therefore those who are afar off do not think of God but forget him not knowing that they might have the thoughts of God and the remembrance of his Name be as familiar yea and as delightful as now they go on in their own darkness and imaginations for here is danger and continued doubt They might come to live under the continued sense of God with the same yea and more exceeding comfort than others do with the thoughts of any thing as the Bridegroom rejoyces over the Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Isa 62. 3. And reciprocally his people may live comfortably and rejoyce in the Lord their God He is a shadow from the Heat as a great Rock in a weary Land a shelter â—rom the Storm an house of Defence or strong Habitation whereunto we may continually resort Psal 71. 3. And many such like expressions the Holy Ghost makes use of As a woman takes care of her sucking Child and a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings so is the Lord God to his People to assure them of his continued Preservation Love and Familiarity towards them And any one may come over to be amongst his People as they that were not of his People do come to be of them so we do warn testifie and exhort all men every where of every age or condition of life whatever their past sins be and of whatever nature or multitude their present temptation and circumstances are yet still they are invited to partake of the loving kindness of the Lord. What hinders Let the thought imaginanation or excuse be what it will we could speak and give a sufficient answer unto it from the Grace and
seem severe trials are to instruct in thus much When the History of God's Church and People is rehearsed with an account of what things happened unto them This or the like inference is made That they might keep his Statutes and observe his Laws Psal 105. 45. And this is recorded for their Children and to us To the intent that we should not forget God nor turn aside from his Covenant And as Moses allowed Divorce to the Jews for the hardness of their hearts so it may be supposed that God doth admit Mankind to Repentance for their Ignorance and Imperfection that if when they did not at first apprehend the excellency of his ways yet if when they are convinced of the misery and deceitfulness of their own ways and when they have some trial and experience of God's ways and there they find a real Worth and Goodness then they should yield and come over unto God CHAP. IV. Herein it is discoursed of that false Thought in the Hearts of many People That if they should submit presently unto the Obedience of God they shall be losers and disappointed of so much Pleasure and Conveniency in the mean while They shall miss of so much imagined Happiness and fall into Vexation Trouble and Misery MAN hath some seeming Reason or Excuse why he stands off Produce and let it come forth if an Answer and Satisfaction may be given unto it Produce your Cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Reasons saith the King of Jacob Isa 41. 21. No excuse will serve with the God with whom we have to do before whom all things are naked and opened who understands our thoughts afar off even what is at the bottom of that Excuse He requires Obedience and Subjection from every Creature and from that there is no Dispensation or Allowance Now every least excuse or delay is a seeming kind of denial and God discerns it as such There is some ground of that backwardness and unwillingness If he would but consider his own thoughts he may apprehend wherefore he refuses Is it not the third thing assigned viz. People think that if they submit presently unto the Obedience of God they shall be losers and disappointed of so much Pleasure and Conveniency in the mean while they shall miss of so much imagined Happiness and fall into Vexation Trouble and Misery What a strange Imagination doth here present it self at first That Men should be losers by the Service of God for they do not discern a future Reward which will be a more abundant compensation for all present disadvantages the consideration of a future Reward and present conveniency do quite take off all manner of Excellency and Deserving in any of the doings of the Children of Men. When God shall rehearse and give a true account of the nature of his Government and our Subjection with an Historical Relation of it since he created Man upon the Earth The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day For therein will appear his Bounty and Goodness in a most eminent manner without the least Thanks or degree of Merit due to any of his Creatures For by Reason of our Imperfection and Want there is so much Articling and Selfishness in us that we will as it were do nothing for God but what we are forced unto to keep our own Peace or out of the Prospect of Good and Recompence As on the other hand a little Frightning of Pain or seeming Inconvenience doth keep us off from our Duty unto him What shall I get by it is the Question of almost every one in what he takes in Hand And as the Assurance of Profit and Advantage shall engage him in such a Work so again the Fear of Loss and Inconvenience shall make him refrain Pleasure and Pain are if I may so express it the two moving Wheels of Action which do actually incline to follow such things and fly from others and thus he doth in common Matters Now herein seems to be comprised the Mystery of God That though in all things he requires of Men there is a real Goodness and Worth yea and they are to be desired yet again through wise Disposal for a State of Tryal they have a Shew of Evil Loss and there is an Aversation to them The Things of God are found most excellent both upon full Examination and and Experience yet they appear as harsh and aukward to the Generality of Mankind which makes them fly off and keep so at a Distance Now were they informed of the Truth of the Matter they would act so as to the things of God as now they do to the common things of this World And even what appears harsh and frightful they would undertake it if it would tend to a greater Good if it would as we commonly say tend unto Account then they would be for it All manner of Ease and Sloth slides away at the present there can no Good come possibly of it Now by Hardship and Diligence many great and good things are accomplished People might thus think and reason within themselves That when they give way to sin and idleness for seeming good and pleasure yet if by a contrary manner of Life there would accrue more real Good and lasting Satisfaction this should with them turn the Scales and make them seek after the other not only to confine unto the present but withal take into consideration the Things to come not to be fixed only upon what is just before them but to have an Eye unto the Recompence of Reward to have respect all along unto the Good and Glory which excelleth to forbear and let slip a little present conveniency out of foresight and assurance of future and real Good As again To willingly suffer Loss or endure Hardship in the way of Duty that God may make up for all in the Day of Retribution Indeed all the actions of Man's Life are little and may be done there is nothing required of us but what may be performed and is soon over so that we may boldly undertake it upon the Divine Command upon God's Promise of Grace and Strength to go through therewith and also from his further Favour and Encouragement Whatsoever thine hand findeth thee to do do it with all thy might In whatever Work thou mayest be accepted by God as having the direction of his Word and the teaching of his Spirit perform it readily and speedily during this Life of Vanity before thy hands and feet are tyed and bound up with grave Clothes whilest thou hast powers of Action Or if thou be â—nwilling and would be excused beware lest the Thing be taken from thee and given to another who will perform the same and so thou losest the designed Reward and thou at last be judged as one afraid or as one who would not do the Will of God Upon his being our Creator and our Lord our Father and our Master he might command us to do such a thing and we should
thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea which mounts up and ascends on high So it is here said in the following Verse of this Psalm last quoted I will praise thee with Vprightness of Heart when I shall have learned thy righteous Judgments Both which are given to signifie and from hence we may learn that the Happiness of God's chosen doth not only consist in a perfect Peace and true Satisfaction of Mind tho' these are things very desirable and beyond what the World gives But it breaks forth into Singing and Joy unspeakable full of Glory That I may see the Good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the Gladness of thy Nation Psal 106. 5. Here are ascending Steps one after another There is not only a Freedom from Evil and Misery nor yet only a Stayedness and full Content of Mind but it hath further Delight and Refreshment and also can express it self forth as others shew forth outward Signes of Rejoycing So that when the World shall be perfectly obedient and what is consequent to that reconciled unto God when his People shall be all righteous Isa 60. 21. and each Man and Woman throughout the Earth observe all Parts and every least Tittle of their Duty to God they shall not be dull nor yet in deep Silence But they shall be more merry talkative and pleasant in speaking of and praising God for his wonderful works than now they are or have ever yet been about other things Their Heart shall rejoyce as through Wine their Heart shall rejoyce in the Lord Zech. 10. 7. which will very much exceed the Mirth of Tabret or Harp or the Joy of Feasts Their Talking shall be of God's Doings declaring his Truth and singing forth the Praises of the Lord In which they shall find more Variety yea and agreeable Satisfaction than heretofore in spending their Time in hearing or telling of some new thing some little Novelty idle Story or foolish Jesting They shall more rejoyce in the several Parts of Duty than formerly in the Pleasures of Sin for a Season All the Briskness and pretended Merriment of that compared with the Joy and Exstacy of God's Chosen shall be darkened and exceeded as the Light of the Moon is by that of the Sun or as the small and faint burning of a Candle is to the Lights of Heaven The seeming Activity of Souldiers and men of Valour all that Shew of Briskness Renown and Courage whereby in Times past the Abaddon and Destroyer hath stirred up Thousands to butcher and kill one another shall be infinitely exceeded by the Lord of Hosts and by his Army of Saints according to what is written They shall run like mighty Men They shall climb the Wall like Men of War and they shall march every one on his Ways and they shall not break their Ranks They shall run to and fro in the City they shall run upon the Walls they shall climb up upon the Houses They shall enter in at the Windows like a Thief and the Lord shall utter his Voice before his Army for his Camp is very great for he is strong that executeth his Word for the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it Joel 2. 7 9 11. Their Speed Resolution and Order shall as much exceed that of the most excellent and victorious Army which was ever heard of since the VVorld began as they do a Flock or Herd of Sheep God is glorified by Action when the Powers which he hath given are exerted and then he will give yet more when little Creatures do great things when what before lay hid is put forth Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power Psal 110. 3. The Lord himself shall again awake as one out of Sleep and like a Giant refreshed with VVine As he endues every thing that hath Life and Breath with Powers of Action or Motion so himself will cause that that it be manifested forth he will subdue his Enemies in the hindermost Parts and put them to a perpetual Shame Those tormenting Passions shall be stretched out and come sorth in the VVicked So again the delighting Affections shall be stirred up in the Good and vent forth in the utmost Gladness and Pleasure Thou shalt increase my Greatness and comfort me on every Side I will also praise thee with the Psaltery even thy Truth O my God unto thee will I sing with the Harp O Thou holy One of Israel My Lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed Psal 71. 21 22 23. Here in this VVorld of Opposition Sin and Temptation we do meet with great and sore Troubles but when once those are done away there will succed a more than proportionable Degree of Joy and Consolation This is figured by that Phrase so usual in the Prophets of Joy in the Harvest It is but a faint and imperfect Comparison to set forth the Transports and Extasies which shall be of God's People As a Bridegroom rejoyceth over his Bride so shall the Lord rejoyce oves his People and they reciprocally shall joy in the God of their Salvation who were formerly possessed with Horrour and Dread they do at length arrive at Reverence and Good-will and then their Souls do greatly rejoyce in God and he doth put Gladness into their Hearts more than can be expressed by Corn and Wine or any worldly thing When we do sincerely and actually endeavour to be holy as he that hath called us is holy then he is perfectly reconciled unto us Notwithstanding his infinite Greatness he doth humble himself to become familiar to our Nature All former Averseness and Enmity are vanished away And we being fully resolved to keep his Commandments at all Times and that our Lord shall guide us continually he doth according to his gracious Promise keep him in perfect Peace whose Mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth on thee We may see and perceive a tittle Representation hereof in the Communion of Saints here on Earth who when they are obedient and like-minded do find exceeding Joy and Sweetness with one another as they talk of and derive it down from the God above The like will be much more in the Times of universal Reformation when the whole Earth shall be at Rest and Quiet it shall break forth into Singing Isa 14. 7. the one before the other The Pleasures of Sin or the Laughter of the World are not so much to that as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbal compared with the best Musick All carnal Joy is now sudden mix'd and unsatisfying But what comes down from the Father of Spirits or arises from doing his Will that doth remain and is sincere gives a blessed Expectation till we awake after his Likeness and are satisfied with it The Joy is suitable with our imperfect Condition here it increases as we grow up towards Perfection and is in us a Well of Water springing up unto eternal
Life This Kind of Joy doth transmit over to Enjoyment It is a little Foretast of that wherewith we shall be happy for ever It is sensibly in us according as we have Assurance and approach near to the receiving thereof There is an Agreeableness between our Work and Reward Now our Work is to keep the Commandments of God and be doing his Will The Commandments are for our Good always as every thing must be which proceeds from him who is most perfectly and essentially good Blessed are they that keep Judgment and he that doth Righteousness at all Times Psal 106. 3. It is better so to do at present for they have more Peace and Satisfaction as also the Promise of future Recompence Many things are here suffered in this Time of Trial and Hour of Temptation which is come upon them that dwell on the Earth but yet it goes well with them that fear the Lord that fear always before him who when they are tryed are found faithful and obedient these shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Who can now withstand and overcome the Temptation and trust unto the Lord for a greater Recompence If the Sin had been consented unto the Pleasure or Profit thereof could never have countervailed the Loss of present Peace of Mind and the blessed Expectation further on All things are derived in order to Contentment and present Happiness Now our God doth furnish us with every thing pertaining to this whilst we continue in the Way of Duty and we do not turn aside from his Commandments to the Right Hand or to the Left To each of them singly and to all together joyntly there is annexed strong Consolation and Assurance the one as to the present and the other as to what shall be hereafter We are truly pleased in doing what we ought and we have a sure and certain Hope of good things to come VVhereas in Transgression is Doubt and Restlesness and fearful Expectation And so in abstaining from evil and forbidden things There may be a little Regret and Unwillingness through corrupt Nature but afterwards there succeds more Content and Satisfaction in the Denial of it than if one had yielded unto the Temptation And further there is a looking for the blessed Hope and glorious Enjoyment which shall be to those who do now comply with the Will of God If we go through the several Parts and Steps of our Duty as also the several Degrees and Sorts of Sins we shall sind this to be trne Indeed in the first there may be a little Irksomness and Aversation which cannot make miserable for it instantly passeth away It may be resolutely gone through with and overcome and this would lay up a Foundation for a greater Happiness and Reward So in the latter there may be a slight Semblance of Pleasure and Ease which cannot make happy for this soon passeth away and comes to nothing and also it tends unto an exceeding Condemnation and Loss and further it involves into eternal Pain and Punishment Besides the Consideration of a different Futurity It may be observed at this prefent Time that though in the Way of Duty there may be Labour and Trouble to the Flesh yet there is Joy and Peace in the inward Man which abundantly countervails for that So in Wickedness and Transgression there may be a small Gratification and pleasing of the Body but to it is annexed Fear and Vexation of Soul which is as a bitter Allay to the other The Soul is the Man and he that would build up for himself a real Good and Happiness must consult for that especially For besides that it is the more enduring Substance and survives the Body so even now it gives the Resentment of Good or Evil Happiness or Misery Indeed all the Happiness or Misery of this present Time is not to be accounted of for whatever delights or vexes soon passeth away and we are gone It is transitory and in continual hasting by but seeing that further we are to receive for the things done in the Body whether good or evil the Reward of one and Punishment of the other must indeed make eternally happy or miserable We ought to take the utmost Heed least by declining what may seem a little harsh or laborious what may render liable to a small suffering or Shame we do hereby lose the Recompence of Reward So again by giving Way to the Pleasures of Sin for a Season or the present Profit of Unrighteousness we may plunge our selves into eternal Pain and Loss The Pleasures of Sin do not truly content at the very Moment when there is a real and sensible Delight inreceiving the things of God according to his Laws and prescribed Rules So in the Gains of Wrong and Injustice in taking Bribes or undue Rewards he may be a little pleased for a while yet there is Regret and Fear the one for what is already done and the other for what is to come So that whatever Plenty or Abundance the unjust Man hath yet his State and Condition is not comparable to the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to that Man who observes the true and strict Rules thereof and hath only the Blessing and Increase of his honest Labour and Diligence Sin and Disobedience will not admit of a through Consideration but must go on with Hurry and Neglect whereas Obedience and Righteousness will prove its own Work and find a rejoycing therein Gal. 6. 4. It desires the most particular Thought and Examination and still it hath sincere Comfort and a blessed Hope and Assurance Even those who do not act by a Sense of Duty towards God are led by present Pleasure Profit Conveniency or Advantage And were they alike perswaded that there was more abundantly to be had in the Ways of God these same Persons would be moved to walk therein Reduce all things to a Man's self his own Good and Happiness This though it be somewhat further about and it is not altogether upon so noble and excellent a Principle yet it may bring him over unto good But the right and direct Way is for a Man to give up himself to God in the first Place sincerely and unfeignedly resolving to live in Obedience and Duty unto him in all things come what will thereof and trust wholly unto God for the Event of all things for thus one may keep whole and stedfast in his Covenant and not turn aside from his Commandments to the right hand or to the left He may go through with and understand those doubtful Dispensations of Providence which are therefore given to exercise our Faith and Trust on him at all times To hold on still in every Affliction Trouble or Disappointment being assured however cross or contrary they may seem at present yet we know that All things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his Purpose Rom. 8. 28. Whereas those who
every small thing which we think may do good or please us a little We are lovers of our selves and consult only for our selves more than what the Lord our God doth require of us Now indeed self-love is not to be blamed for it is the great Law of Nature and was undoubtedly implanted in us by the Author thereof No Man hateth his own Flesh but loves and cherisheth it But the Error and Mistake is That we do snatch at the Lesser Good instead of the greater and so by declining and avoiding a less Evil we run upon a greater and subject our selves to more loss We do not in the first place seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and trust that all these things shall be added unto us Nor do we observe our Duty to him in all things and depend upon him for the Event of all We are to seek after a true proper and enduring Happiness and consequently to do and embrace every thing which makes for that and decline what is contrary or an hindrance In every thing we take in hand remember the End and thou shalt never do amiss and at present examine as to each single Action we are ingaged in Whether the Good or Evil consequent to us thereby will be greater Taking in the consideration of the future as well as of the time that now is For that is as much longer and of greater concern as Eternity doth exceed Time which is more than our whole Life is to the twinkling of an Eye and consequently deserves so much the greater regard and concern even of those things which are done out of Humour Opposition Lust or Pleasure the supposed good or conveniency instantly passeth away but the danger and evil is great for by Reason of these things the wrath of God cometh on the children of Disobedience The pain and punishment will more than sufficiently requite for gratifying their own will and concupiscence Though they hug themselves and they walk in the false peace and imagination of their Heart yet a day of Recompence will assuredly come when it shall be rendred unto them for all the sweet and pleasure of their Sin and Transgression So on the other hand all the seeming trouble or loss of Obedience and Righteousness shall be recompenced with a proportionable Reward As for those who go on in a more blind hurry and neglect their Time and Life passeth away and Satan thus deceiveth them into Ruine and Perdition This short Question might be still put to our Souls and should ever be in our Mind What do I propose to my self What Good will come of it Is such a Profit or Pleasure to be attained Why the like hath been had already it satisfieth not at the very time it quickly passeth away and comes to an utter end But if it is the effect of Disobedience and Transgression why This hath a just Recompence of Reward annexed to it which will be bitterness in the End and a severe compensation for whatever unlawful delight or gain he hath had As the several steps to a Journey so the single and several Actions of our Life tend unto Happiness or Misery they do either set forward the one or make liable unto the other It is a laying in a good foundation against the time to come or a treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Who would commit sin if he did consider that he should receive doubly for it When there is no fruit at the time and certain punishment to come And so who would not go on and continue in all Duty seeing that he shall have assuredly such encouragement and reward Every one proposes to himself Happiness and Good as the End of his Actions but he would do well to take heed whether he doth endeavour after a true and enduring Happiness instead of a seeming and sudden conveniency Whether he can discern what is really good and profitable all the days of his vain Life which he spendeth upon Earth as a shadow And not confine himself only to those Actions which perish in the using and it would be better if they had never been done All the pretended advantage of them is soon over the guilt remains but the worst is to come viz. To suffer the due Reward of their deeds If the punishment were presently annexed to sin and wickedness all would refrain from it as many do from Religion and Duty because they imagine it harsh and irksome But because the little and insipid pleasure of sin is present and the pain to come they greedily catch at the first and blindly and ignorantly venture upon the other What is to come is not as yet but it will as certainly be and also remain when all these things are passed away The World passeth away and the fashion thereof both the lust and trouble therein The first is only an husk shell or an appearance of Happiness so is the other of Misery nay all here is but as Imagery and Varnish and meer Out-side Surely every Man walketh in a vain shew Psal 39. 6. In the Margent there it is In an Image Our Bodies are as shadows our Souls little more than nothing Surely every Man in his best estate is altogether vanity And yet this is flecting and hasteth away day after day and night after night our Time passeth and our flesh waxes old as doth a garment Nothing here doth remain or endure with us and yet we covet and earnestly desire after what is so Indeed if we were to pass by and to be no more for ever then we should make the most of these temporal and perishing Things but seeing they are in order to what is Eternal and Enduring we should so use and manage our selves towards these earthly and temporal Things that we may come to the Enjoyment and Possession of the Heavenly and Eternal so to approve our selves in the time of Trial that we may have the acceptation of our God to be as obedient Children that he may give unto us the Heavenly Portion and Inheritance so to demean our selves here in Time that we may attain unto a Blessed Eternity God who established and ordained all things as they are sent us here to prove what is in our heart and what we will do He hath set different things before us to see what we will choose He hath afforded us the means and capacity of Knowledge if we would but learn and know if we would Obey the Lord our God and walk in all his ways and rely upon that gracious Promise I will be your God and ye shall be my People Jer. 7. 23. He will so order dispose and give us things as shall tend to our comfortable Being here our Crown and Glory the utmost and continual Rejoycing hereafter If we can be happy at last and for evermore that is all which we desire if we can pass on and go through this World we are contented to suffer Labour and Weariness knowing that we shall come
to the Rest which the Lord hath promised And that will be more sweet and refreshing the more pain and difficulty we have sustained in these few and evil days of our Pilgrimage If they were good and pleasant they sensibly fly away as a Post and it is melancholy and regret to find that what delights should pass away It is yet more anguish and sorrow that it must be at length wholly determined and come to an utter End It is the utmost Despair and inexpressible Vexation That for the unlawful use of those good things he had in this Life he must when that is ended come to the Place where he shall be tormented But now on the other hand to Rest from their Labours to be comforted for the evil things they had here this indeed is the Great and True Blessedness This should teach us to use the things of this World as if we used them not but above all carefully to observe every tittle and part of our Duty to abstain from all appearance of Evil for it may be all continually done from time to time with a very little irksomness trouble and loss and there is a most happy End of all This third time citing that place is the more to enforce the observance thereof Blessed are they that keep Judgment and he that doth Righteousness at all times Psa 106. 3. In keeping of them there is great Reward Psa 19. 11. The word keep denotes a constant adhering to them come what will thereof Who is resolved with full purpose of Heart to cleave unto God and to observe all his Statutes notwithstanding any Temptation Difficulty or Hindrance to the contrary The Temptation may be overcome for it might indeed please a little but that would be sudden at the Time and unsatisfactory in the Conclusion thereof and consequently the not yielding to it can be no great loss or misery But then is a content and approbation of Mind afterwards and also the vast consideration of the time to come Also the difficulty may be conquered and the hindrance taken away without much trouble or pain without diminution or lessening of present Happiness but it exceedingly furthers as to the Future and Eternal Blessedness If it was throughly inculcated and continually repeated upon our mind How that the best things which happen here will not make us happy nor the worst miserable If we had a right knowledge of all things in their own nature not heightned in Imagination we might easily go through all parts of Duty and avoid the several Instances and Acts of Sin as the one doth occur and the other present themselves Indeed such a thing being the Will and Mind of God should presently silence all other considerations drawn from selfishness or the love of our selves But as was before somewhat hinted to shut out all boasting and merit That the Lord alone may be exalted in that day we do little or nothing purely for him but all out of respect had to our selves and if we were sufficiently convinced it would as much redound to our own good and benefit we would then obey the Lord our God and walk in all his ways This is evident For the very reason why People walk in their own ways is because of the supposed advantage and conveniency thereof Now alike and greater Profit would turn them into the right way Present Peace and Future Glory do surmount all the Pleasure and Profit which can be had here and Glory and Immortality are rather to be sought after than blind dangerous inconsideration or the fearful expectation of the end of those things which is Death It is better to sin not and be innocent than to give way unto the doing of those things whereof we must give account for hence arises doubt and fear We may quickly find and perceive the utmost good and delight which spring up from Disobedience and Transgression the same hath been had before It melts away like dross leaving a foulness behind which turns into nothing This may be observed of the several Acts of Sin and Temptation which go out like the snuff of a Candle in noisom darkness How can men expect Happiness from those things by which they die and become miserable What Fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed It it is all but trash which instantly perishes in the going down and doth not nourish which is as insignificant as a mere Tale that is told or expires as a Dream when one awaketh which is but faint and languishing in the Act and bitter in the Remembrance If there was previous Thought and Consideration of these Things Men would not so much yield to them But alas They discern it most commonly by the Effects and Consequents and that not throughly till it is too late When the time of Tryal is over then they know how they should behave themselves and when he will prove them no longer then they would approve themselves unto God The Matter is understood at the End but not at the beginning whereas this is too late if it is but once laid before us as such are the concernments of Eternity We being proved in this Life only but many other Things of this Life are often and successively laid before us and this should reach us to amend our former Errors and carry our selves Right at the next Opportunity and Trial. To have the free use of our Reason and Faculties and our Senses continually exercised to discern between Good and Evil That we may seek after and embrace all that can be had of the one and as studiously decline all the hurt and defilements of the other To know and practice all those things for which we shall have the Voice of our Lord Well done good and faithful Servant And again carefully avoid and leave undone all those things which tend to sad account and condemnation What profit is there of all the Labour that a Man taketh under the Sun In Truth none at all unless it be in order to future Life And when we come to fully know and perceive as much We should direct all our Actions accordingly That like as the Men of this present Time do think in whatever they take in hand What Good or Profit will accrue to my self hereby So the same may be continually thought of as to the time to come What advantage or stead will this Thing stand me in when I shall come to give account of my self to God The consideration of Things to come by reason of their so much exceeding Greatness and Duration should swallow up all the care and concern of this present Time We do not so much value how things go with us now so it may be well with us hereafter We are not so much concerned for whatever we may miss of in this Time and Place so we may lay hold of Eternal Life It is no matter whatever Trouble Pain or Striving we endure if we may hy any means
thus as it shall be with him in the things to come Envy thou not the Glory of a Sinner for thou knowest not what shall be his End Neither do thou Pity and be grieved at the poor and low Estate of God's Faithful People for thou dost not discern how Graciously he will be pleased to deal with them at the last When the Lord comes to rehearse up his People and to make Restitution and Dispensation of all things then this Man shall be pronounced Blessed and another Accursed though this last whilst he lived he counted himself an Happy Man and the other's Life was esteemed Madness and his End without Honour Our Reason and Understanding can fetch in things afar off and make them seem all one as if they were near We can conceive of things Future as if they were already Present That as we know we should do and as even then we shall verily and indeed wish we had done That we should so behave our selves in the midst of our Trial as we shall desire we had done when we come to an Account and it shall be rendred to every one according to his Deeds We are upon our Good Behaviour all this mean while And as it was said to Cain immediately before his Wicked Fact so it is told to every one of us before we enter upon the Actions of our Life If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well Sin lieth at the door Gen. 4. 7. Accordingly from Time to Time we are to lay hold of every Opportunity for well-doing and as carefully avoid the Occasions of all manner of Evil. This is repeated over again for indeed it had need be as often inculcated as Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy doth repeat over and over again to the Israelites God's Law for them to observe and do it To write the same things over again unto Good Minds is not Grievous but to them it is Safe And though it may seem nauseous and irksome to the Evil and Ungodly so it would be but once to mention what they have no Mind to know and no Heart to do All is comprised in the Observation of God's Law and it is of Absolute and Indispensable Necessity so that it can never be pressed or repeated too much We should have it always in our Remembrance and as it should be written and ingrafted in us so it should stir up and be continually sensible in our Minds that we may know how to act and have wherewithall to answer every Temptation and drawing aside to Evil and also have that which would quicken and actually stir us up unto Good The World makes enquiry and seems to be desirous after Good and when it is pointed out and shewed unto them they will not accept and imbrace it This is not the sort they would have or it is too High and Excellent for them through Ignorance they do not desire it They are for abundance of Corn and Wine or for Carnal and Sensual Pleasure but for the Light of God's Countenance for that Gladness he puts into the Heart for Spiritual Joy and Eternal Peace These things the Worldly Man knoweth not neither doth he apprehend the just Worth and Excellency in them But a little outward Mirth in the midst whereof the Heart is Sorrowful or sudden Flashes of Rejoycing which end in Darkness this is what he doth catch and seek after A Thousand or Ten thousand repeated Acts of this Nature do not make up the True Happiness for each is unsatisfactory at the very time it is interrupted and all determined at last In Truth None is to be blamed for endeavouring to make his Life as Comfortable as he can for passing on these few and evil Days of his Pilgrimage with the lesser Trouble and Sorrow But in the mean while great Heed and Care should be taken as to the Means whither Sinful or not and so whither several parts of Duty are not left undone upon this Pretext If we do fulfil all Righteousness and walk in all the Commandments of the Lord Blameless If we do take heed to our ways that we Offend or Sin not in God's Name let us rejoyce our selves as much as we will If we Sanctifie the days of our Feasting and use our utmost Watchfulness and Circumspection that we Sin not nor Curse God in our Hearts Job 1. 5. because he doth not allow it to be so with us always then we are to Praise our God and we may give way unto Honest Mirth and Cheerfulness And so in the other extream Condition If in Cold and Nakedness Hunger and Thirst we can Bless our God and be contented let us trust him further whither he will not bring us to True and Enduring Happiness Whilst others are busied and conversant only about the Present let us look out to the End Nay Let us secure that and then let the Present take care for the things of it self Shall we make it an Article or Doubt Whither we shall immediately set upon the keeping of God's Commandments for fear of losing so much Pleasure and Ease in the mean while and subjecting our selves to Pain and Irksomness Know we not that if it were so our God will abundantly make up for all by his Recompence at the last as he doth give an Earnest by the Sweetness and Comfort we perceive even now For if we consider that Approbation of Mind that strong Consolation and lively Hope and take in one thing with another we have more Good now than possibly could be attained by any Variation or Disobedience It is both agreeable and satisfactory to our Nature if we reflect upon it according to Truth and without its Corruption for God who made us and knoweth our Frame hath fitted his Laws and Commandments accordingly What the Apostle saith I had not known Sin but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet Rom. 7. 7. So in not a much unlike manner it may be applied That if we did throughly know the very Nature of Sin and Lust we should not so much give way or consent unto either for that which led our Forefathers into the Transgression is the same that doth entice us at this very day The Woman saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one Wise Gen. 3. 6. Here was an Imagination of Good Pleasure and of bettering ones present State and this prevailed to yield unto the Temptation Now if more of each sort of all these three were to be had by keeping within that Station and Bounds God hath set then a meer Selfish and Wise Man knoweth what he hath to do Nay there is each of this sort to be had in the other Trees of the Garden God hath already sufficiently provided for the well-being of Mankind in the lawful use of those things he hath given and it is
above I am contented to act or suffer any thing so I may be received up into Abraham's Bosom And he saw that Rest was good and the Land that it was pleasant Gen. 49. 15. Seeing that there is such an exceeding Good set before us shew us any way that we may come at it What shall I do to be Saved I am for looking out whether there is any thing more And I am still for giving Diligence how I may make my Calling and Election more sure for such an infinite and eternal Good cannot possibly be made too sure of and this should stir up all Labour Earnestness and Care till we be actually invested therewith Be Sober be Vigilant for your Adversary the Devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour He watcheth for an Opportunity to turn you aside and if possible to deprive you of your Acceptation and Reward but however of such a part and degree thereof that you may lose somewhat of the Things you have wrought 2 John 8. and so you miss of that fullness of Reward which otherwise you might have been a partaker thereof And therefore know and make void his Devices that you may be nothing hindred or deceived by him There is that in the Christian Life which will exercise all our Time and Labour As Servants are employed all the day in the Work of their Master and as a Maid doth continually attend upon the Business of her Mistress so we are to wait on the Lord all the day Psal 25. 5. and to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23. 17. When the Child Jesus was carefully sought by his Parents according to the Flesh he replies to their Admiration Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business Luke 2. 49. and in another place he saith I have Meat to eat that ye know not of John 4. 32. And when they understood not the Saying he explains it My Meat is to do the Will of him that sent me and to finish his Work Verse 34. So likewise as we have him for our Lord we are to obey his Will and as we have him for our Example we are to do as he did as he laid the Foundation so we are to build thereon As Jesus Christ himself doth say in reference to him who is the Great Lord over all My God and your God My Father and your Father So likewise he hath committed to every one of us as Servants and Children some work to do for the Glory of our Master and Father which is in Heaven The great King hath committed to every one of us some Gifts and Talents to be occupied in the mean while till he shall come to require an Account Obedience to his Laws and Improvement of our Grace and Knowledge to the utmost Advantage will take up what Time and Leisure we have here if it were more than reaâ—ly it is To keep the Heart with all Diligence To receive all God's Words into it To have them appear forth and be sensible that the Man may always do accordingly To bring them forth for the Edifying and Instruction of others To grow in Grace and Knowledge till the Man of God is throughly furnished for every Good Word and Work and many other things of like nature will take up that space here on Earth which is lent unto Man to understand and seek after his God And the time thus expended will turn to better account than any thing which can be thought of or named under the Sun Make thou thy Servant to delight in that which is Good Which is accordingly granted by Custom and Continuance in the same That Self-sufficiency and Contentedness doth arise from God and Duty The Meditation of him is Sweet and there is Joy and Satisfaction in doing his Will So that the Man who is exercised therein doth not envy nor is troubled for the seeming Prosperous Condition of others but he is rather grieved that they also do not come and taste and see that the Lord is Good Blessed is the Man that trusteth in him Psal 34. 8. Our selves the Lord is Witness who knoweth all that is in the Hearts of all the Children of Men are chiefly grieved because People do always err in their Heart Heb. 3. 10. That whilst they desire and seek for it in every thing besides they will not be perswaded nor trust accordingly that this Happiness is to be had in God only That they will not come over to partake of his Goodness When they have at any time right inclinations and dispositions to Obedience this one thing is needful that they would but continue the same O that there was such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it may be well with them and with their Children for ever Deut. 5. 19. To keep all his Commandments always doth begin their Happiness here which is continued as long as they are on this Earth it is derived down to their Posterity and is for ever consummated in the Heavens This seems to be a plain and positive Assertion of the Holy Ghost that it shall be well with Mankind to keep all his Commandments always But it is contrary to our Thoughts for we often think it expedient to break and not to give heed unto them but yet God is True tho every Man is Wicked and Disobedient What he hath said he will perform and it shall be fulfilled tho we are apt to distrust and Murmur Those Irregular thoughts and our other Sins do hinder that it is not so well with us as it would be otherwise If we did wait on th Lord and keep his way Psal 37. 34. Do his will and Trust in him at all times Psal 62. 8. Believe in him without wavering and doubt how contentedly and cheerfully might we go on in the execution of those things he doth command us If we did resolutely and vigorously put forth using the right and good means we might behold Satan falling from Heaven as Lightning and the Spirits would be subject unto us This would be no small Comfort for they do hinder and defeat our good Purposes But then we should further rejoice that our Names are written in Heaven That we are Servants of Almighty God That we fulfil all his will and do his pleasure What pleaseth our God to command or direct us in that we are likewise pleased to do when we have a frame and temper of Spirit Subject to his Will when our Hearts are once conformed to his Word and Commandments we may serve him with joyfulness and gladness of mind When we consider diligently what he doth already give and provide for us When we believe firmly what he hath further promised when we observe narrowly the secret and hidden ways of his overruling Providence how that all things so work that we may just perform our Duty and be comforted in the mean while So that it is well and better with
of the Law either going over and beyond it or doing otherwise than that hath prescribed or not doing what that hath enjoyned So that those stubborn Souls who will not live according to Words are convinced as transgressors and offenders of the Law of the most high God and they shall be dealt with accordingly for now they are under the Threatning and Curse and they shall hereafter be sensible of the Punishment and Misery Who is he that saith he will not obey the Law of God If any should do so as to the Laws of the King and our Country judgment would be executed upon him of Death or Banishment or loss of Liberty or Member according to the several sorts of Punishment among us And albeit our God doth keep Silence for a while and doth not execute Sentence speedily upon the Sons of Men yet it will be far worse with them who shall thus behave themselves towards the great King of all the Earth the Lord God Almighty It is near the same thing whether they speak out with a loud voice or say so in their Heart or practice it in their Life and Manners that They will not have God to reign over them see Luke 19. 14. Who set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us Psal 2. 2 3. For they will not be holden in by invisible Restraints nor be kept away from their own doings by sense of any Divine Law and Obligation Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal 12. 4 But those who think and act after this manner are the worst sort of Sinners who do presumptuously and sin with an high Hand Few will own as much though more do so The general course of Transgression is by way of Excuse and Delusion and these do take up the forementioned Plea That because of the multitude of Words and the falshood Vanity and Evil of many of them therefore they do not live according to Words But as the Apostle saith There are it may be so many kinds of Voices in the World and none of them is without signification 1 Cor. 14. 10. So a Word is but as it were a Voice expressed and articulated And every word if it be proper and taken singly is significative but when they are connected together in a Sentence and are to shew forth the sense and meaning of somewhat then they are to be judged of and discerned There is Truth and Fulshood right Words and wrong But we should in no wise reject the Truth and Right because there are of the other worse sort for if we do that we certainly run into the other and so out of a shew to avoid Falshood and Wrong it is so managed by the cunning delusion of Satan that we do hereby fall into it The World and all the things we have to do with here are made up of Intermixture and Contraries where is Right and Wrong Good and Evil Truth and Falshood Apparent and Real So that if we have not the one we must have the other If we have not the better we shall meet with the worse And therefore if we would indeed have the better we must know and choose it accordingly but not despise and set at naught the more excellent things for this is submitting unto the worse According hereunto the Wisdom of God teacheth If thou shalt learn to put a difference between the Holy and Prophane the Clean and the Vnclean then shall ye be meet to come into mine House Such shall be meet to partake of the Inheritance with the Saints in Light who can thus seek out and discern things in this place of Darkness They shall be fit for Heaven who can and also do escape the Corruption that is in the World through Lust and thus order their Conversation aright here on Earth The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Net that was cast into the Sea and gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to shoar and sat down and gathered the good into Vessels but cast the bad away Matt. 13. 47 48. And so whatever thoughts arise or are suggested to our mind we are to entertain and nourish the Good but to extinguish cast forth and not admit the Evil. In like manner it should be of the words we hear or read we are to gather and receive the good words into our Hearts but to cast the bad away The Wheat is to be gathered and laid up in the Treasure of our Heart but the Chaff is to be blown away Knowledge and Truth are to be sought after and received but Imagination and Falshood are to be thrown out They are both mixed together for as by Learning and by right Consequences we come to the knowledge of the Truth so a false and deceitful kind of Reasoning will present it self and fallacious and mistaken Consequences will arise through the Sephistry of Satan and his Instruments which we are likewise to discern before we pronounce Judgment and try before we Believe Now every Man hath either the right and true Promises or others which are not And because all People pretend unto and would have the first through Pride and Self-conceit they mistake which they have already for them and so they will have no more nor better The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge but Fools despise Wisdom and Instruction Prov. 1. 7. VVhen our Heart and Understanding is first lifted up towards God and then looks down and sees things as he sees them which must be in their very Nature for certainly he knows them who made and Establish'd them VVhen the Apprehensive Faculty is enlightned from above and endued with that which cometh down from the Father of Lights we do first know and consider of the Great God over all and then how all other things were Created by him but now they are under him to Govern and Rule according to his good Pleasure both the things in Heaven the things in the Earth and the things under the Earth Some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your Shame 1 Cor. 15. 34. Neither have they the understanding of his Law this is to their worse deserving And whatever they pretend unto others or seem to themselves to know it is separated from them both That is they discern somewhat of the Creatures without the Creator And because they understand not his Law neither do they perceive that Obligation they are under and the true connexion of things one to another So they are destitute of the true and useful Knowledge and in the Language of the Holy Ghost they are direct Fools Vnderstand ye Brutish among the People and ye Fools when will ye be wise Psal 94. 8. VVhich it is impossible they should be as long as they despise and reject the means of Being so VVhat is real VVisdom and Instruction may seem to them as Folly and
shall fall therein Hos 14. 19. The VVise and Prudent know the difference between vain words Exod. 5. 9. those there were not so tho a Proud Ignorant and Ungodly Pharaoh did call them so and the words of Truth and Duty the VVise and Prudent know the difference between what words pertain to real Instruction and what words are of empty Speculation what serve unto Godliness or tend unto vain Jangling what is good unto the use of Edifying or ministers only unto Idleness and Vanity But Sinners do contrariwise in all these They chuse and are employed in the worse instead of the better And though they make their boast not to regard nor live by Words yet they are acted by Thoughts which Thoughts are made up of Evil and Vanity Falshood and Folly And even all their Thoughts might be uttered and written in Words as themselves know what they think and by what they are guided which they could speak forth or set down and then they become words But if these did appear in like manner how ridiculous and foolish and vain would they be Destroy thou them O God let them fall by their own Counsels Cast them out in the multitude of their Transgressions for they have rebelled against thee Psal 5. 10. Which is accordingly fulfilled for they go on in their own Counsels till they fall and are Destroyed and they are intangled in the multitude of their Transgressions till they actually drop into Punishment and Misery The Holy Ghost calleth them a Rebellious People which walketh in a way that is not good after their own Thoughts Isa 65. 2. This is the Question and Controversie which the Lord hath with the Inhabitants of the Earth whether they shall do according to his revealed Will and Commandment or go after their own Thoughts Indeed they are for the last because it hath a shew of Pride Humour and Conveniency but this is their Reward and utmost they will have for it will never attain to any real and lasting Good And when a single VVorm of the Earth shall prefer and follow his own will against that of the great Lord of the VVorld it doth Provoke the Lord to Anger conninually Isa 65. 3. As if their own Thoughts were better than God's Thoughts They will strive for Masterdom and have their own Imaginations and Sayings above the VVill and Commandment of God This is plain Walking contrary to him to which is threatned that he will bring seven times more Plagues upon them according to thiir Sins Lev. 26. 21. And again it is further added Then I will walk contrary also unto you in Fury and I even I will chastise you seven times for your Sins Verse 28. If ye walk contrary c. Their manner of doing is expressed in the Present Tense For now is the time of their Trial but how God will deal with them is Future for it shall be rendred accordingly As also to prove in the mean while whether they will be reformed from their Sin and Iniquity and do according to his Law Indeed all People do one or the other Either they live according to what is contained or directed in the word God or according to what is thought and Imagined in the Hearts of Men. VVhich as aforesaid might be expressed forth in words so it is near the same thing Or the Men are led by the Temptations and Suggestions of Satan which also as they appear to the Mind in an intelligible manner so they might be spoken forth But none will plead outwardly for them and therefore the Question in short turns upon this Point VVhether we shall go according to Divine or Human VVords for all People High and Low Rich and Poor are guided continually by one or the other VVhich of the twain is our bounden Duty and which is the best and also which is the wisest way for the attainment of Good and Happiness that hath been largely before demonstrated There is Line upin Line Line upon Line Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Here a little and there a little Isa 21. 10. throughout the whole Book of God And yet more in quantity and number of words hath been delivered from the Tongue and Pen of his Saints of the several Generations since the World began So much hath been said and done to make this appear unto the ungodly and disobedient in order to restrain them from the Error of their ways that if it was all written as indeed a great deal thereof is I suppose that a Man's whole Life would not suffice to Read it Nay they seem to reject it because of that seeming multitude of words touching this Matter yet themselves go according to their own Thoughts though these are more than what do occurs to their Mind concerning Goodness and Duty They are acted and led by the multitude of their own Thoughts and they do not refuse to go according to them for all their vast number Like Brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed They follow the Herd not knowing whether they go for they perceive not when they are pressing on to be Killed and Destroyed And there are also to be found too many called Reasonable Creatures who remain altogether as Ignorant when they are in the way to Death and Hell The way of Ungodliness and Sin leads directly to it and yet too many continue therein without fear They have the Multitude and Fashion on their side and they are for doing what the most do especially those of the Richer sort They are for going according to the course of the World though they should be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11. 32. And they think it good to swim with the Stream not knowing that it tends to the bottomless Pit Satan who deceiveth the whole World Rev. 12. 9. hath found out this device to blind them in his and their own Deceivings so called 2 Pet. 2. 13. For they imagine that they do not Err because they have so many of their side however they shall fare as well as the most and they shall be in the same condition with others according to whom they do in this present World To do as others do is one Thought by which the Men of this World act and it is here expressed forth in words So it is the same principle of Action which they hold unto tho it be not spoken out or written But to do barely as others do without regard had to Good or Evil Duty or Sin to what is Commanded or what is Forbidden is Transgression and Folly now which ends in Punishment and Misery hereafter Alas such do not consider there is a great God over all who now looketh from Heaven upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth and considereth all their Works who hath given a Law for them to live by and he is to judge and render to every Man according to his Deeds If People did consider throughly and would do acccording to the Most they should do according to
God's Will for himself is more than all the Generations of Mankind and so more than all that are now living He is more than ten thousand times ten thousand kind of Creatures which are any where in the World above the Firmament or in the vast and spacious Air in the habitable parts of the Earth or any where underneath and without the visible World for all things were created by him whether Visible or Invisible Thrones or Dominions Principalities and Powers Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Matt. 6. 10. So it is more Universally as Heaven is greater than Earth which is but a part and next to nothing The Innumerable Company of Angels Heb. 12. 22. Those many sorts of Creatures whether Animate or Inanimate Those ten thousand of his Saints whereof Enoch prophesieth Jude 14. The hundred and fourty four thousand of all the Tribes of the Children of Israel and that great Multitude which no Man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues Rev. 7. 4 9. All these obey and fulfil the Word of God and they do his Pleasure And those are many more than all those Rebels now living upon the Earth or those Generations of sinful Men since the World began Whom the Lord hath carried away as with a Flood Psal 90. 5. to be delivered over to the Lake of filth and stink or like the Grass which in the Evening is cut down and withereth Verse 6. and is to be burnt with unquenchable Fire And so it will be of all those which are yet to succeed until there be an End made of Transgression and the Sinners be consumed out of the Earth and the Wicked be no more Psal 104. 35. A little after the Creation All Flesh had corrupted its way upon the Earth Gen. 6. 12. which caused the Flood whereby the World that then was being over-flowed with Water perished But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgment and Perdition of Vngodly Men 2 Pet. 3. 6 7. As certainly as the Flood came upon those in the days of Noah so certainly shall the whole World be consumed by Fire The Punishment and Vengeance of God are executed by Fire and Water which do drown and consume many as well as few And Death that consigns them over unto it hath reigned from Adam ever since Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth without measure and their Glory and their Multitude and their Pomp and he that rejoyceth shall descend into it Isa 5. 14. which hath been and continues unto this day to be fulfilled So it is a vain Shelter and foolish Safety to think to escape with the Many for God can and doth as easily deal with them as with few We sensibly know that within seventy or eighty Years within the compass of the Age of a Man he doth quite empty the Earth of all its Inhabitants and causeth others to spring up in their stead whom again he takes away in his own order And though now they assemble themselves in Companies to commit Wickedness and gather by Troops to do Mischief Yet they drop away one by one into the Bars of the Pit and he scatters them that they fall severally until they all die away and come to nothing He doth now give his express Command by his Servant Moses Thou shalt not follow a Multitude to do Evil Exod. 23. 2. and forewarns us by the Son of his Love whom he sent to Redeem and Preserve us from it Wide is the Gate and Broad is the Way which leadeth unto Destruction and many there be which go in thereat Matt. 7. 13. So that who is for being amongst the Multitude He will be amongst them also and so he will miss of that narrow way which leadeth unto Life Nor will he be one of those few who find it Indeed there is an Inclination in Man to do as the rest of his Brethren do but then he hath some seeming Reason for it or he is void of Understanding as to have no set and inward Principle of Action and then he can just conceive what others do and order himself to do according Example is a sensible and visible thing and thereupon it hath such a strong Prevalency over most and it is yet stronger over those who know not what it is to live by Faith nor act by hope of unseen things But they are most led on thereby who least think within themselves A Multitude is made up of several distinct Persons which conspire in one thing or near the same But it was received of one or few before it is made known unto and embraced by many and then the like Disadvantage lay against it as now they conceive on the other side But it is said now it hath the more general Acceptation Why the most do swallow it without Examination And who admit thereof must have some Rule Then which God hath given none other unto Men besides his Word which is to try Good and Evil Duty and Transgression as also what may be discerned from the Truth and Reality of things There is no other way under Heaven whereby we may be Happy but this only Now every one desires to be Happy that is To enjoy what Good he can and to avoid Evil. Even those have that Wish and Intention who turn aside every one to his own Way Who live as their Neighbours and Acquaintance and as the rest of the World do why this hath a shew of Peace and Good Will and they do hereby avoid the odious thing of Singularity and the Irksomness of Reproach But they should do well to consider in the first place of Glory to God in the Highest How is that annexed to their kind of Peace on Earth and Good Will towards Men. Their Hearts should be lifted up with Angels and the Heavenly Host towards him who sitteth above and remaineth King for ever And how is he honoured by such a kind of Life as the Inhabitants of the Earth lead which is made up of Forgetfulness of their Maker Sin and Sloth How are his Statutes kept and his Laws observed Are Peace and Truth met together as in the days of Hezekiah see Isa 39. 8. Or is it like the Hills of the Robbers the Assemblies of the Ungodly and Wicked an Agreement together to preserve their old accustomed Ignorance Corruption and Error And then those who would teach Knowledge and guide into Truth shall be reputed Enemies to Civil Society and Troublers of Israel the Church of God And what is the commonly called Good Will but to let every one do what is right in his own Eyes Not to meddle with their Sins and Transgressions To avoid Sound Doctrine Reproof Correction Instruction in Righteousness for all this hath a shew of Disturbance It is said to spoil Family-Peace and good Neighbourhood Even in this Antichristian Age wherein things are
turned upside down such are thought not to seek the Welfare of this People but the Hurt Jer. 38. 4. who are not willing that any should Perish but that all should come to Repentance who Study Pray and Teach and do use all the outward means possible to help forward the common Salvation But this is our Comfort and Encouragement that the Spirit of God witnesseth the same which we also find and wish in our Hearts That they do indeed bring Good Tidings and publish Peace and also that they have Good Will towards Men notwithstanding they are esteemed and reproached contrariwise by the World Even the Saviour thereof unto whom this and all Scripture hath more especial Relation witnessed what himself found The World hateth me because I testifie of it that the Works thereof are Evil John 7. 7. But this is a double Iniquity first to do Evil and then what is yet worse To hate him even Jesus whom God sent to bless them in turning away every one of them from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. In order to which it is first necessary to tell and shew them thereof When God would have Men turn from their evil doings they kill and evil intreat those whom he sends on his Message They hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly Amos 5. 10. They cannot endure to be interrupted in their course But is their course Good or Evil right or wrong If the VVorld did that which is Good and Righteous they need not be afraid of the Ministers of God for then they would meet with Praise and Encouragement from them instead of what they now look upon as Trouble and Disturbance Then indeed all three would meet together Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good Will towards Men Luke 2. 13. When the People are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord when they walk and agree in his Fear and Obedience then they have Râ—st and Comfort Then we may do as others do as long as they keep unto the same Rule and so long we have Peace and rejoycing one with another But then we do after this or that manner not because others do the like but we see it thus written and we are so directed This is one considerable difference between the Good and Evil Righteous and VVicked that the first have a set Rule of Action God and his VVord whereas the Evil and VVicked have not so much regard to that but they are led on by the Example of others and by their own Imaginations The Example is the Multitude of the Richer sort who though fewest in Number yet have Influence on many for these crave after VVorldly Goods and have their Their Persons in Admiration the which they bestow and convey down to have others that are thus beholding unto and dependant on them So that here it may be reduced that for Profit and Interest they act after this manner But even this Argument if stretched out throughly would bring them into the right way What is a Man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Matt. 16. 20. Is not Happiness and Salvation more than present Gain and Advantage And what if that should be lost by omission of Duty and commission of Sin They misemploy that Diligence and precious Time which might be spent on a more excellent thing and would tend to better account For every Man shall bear his own Burthen Gal. 6. 5. And likewise every one shall receive the reward of his own Labour And therefore what others do what is that to thee Mind thy self and thine own things Thou wouldst have good to thy self and avoid Misery why then go in the way and use the Means accordingly Anothers Happiness extends not to thee for it rather raises Envy and a greater Resentment So that the Misery of others is but a poor Reiief and Comfort to thine own Still as thou art divided from others so thou must labour to secure and embetter thine own Condition abstracted and separated from that of Others The whole World lieth in Wickedness 1 John 5. 19. Which as sure as God's Word is true will involve them into Condemnation and Misery Even those who now are for living according to the vain Manners and Customs of the VVorld would not willingly have such an End But it is the particular Sins of several Persons which make up the general corruption of Many and they are subject to that Punishment which is now denounced from Heaven and will be inflicted accordingly at the time spoken of Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee I the Lord have spoken it and will do it Ezek. 22. 14. When thou criest let thy Companies deliver thee But the wind shall carry them all away Isa 57. 13. They are under the same smart and pain themselves and cannot case thee but rather increase your Howlings and cause a deeper sense of that Misery which ye are all plunged into It will not be a sufficient exchange for the loss of Eternal Happiness to be a little puffed up with following the humours and ways of the Multitude for the utmost advantage and conveniency thereof at present cannot recompense for the Danger of what is to come The reputation of Good Nature of being Sociable and Compliant All the Ease gain and Profit thereof cannot countervail so great a Loss and Pain Much less will not those things whereof there is no benefit at all but only to gratifie a sudden transient Humour and barely to conform unto the Example and Practice of others Of which nature are those several things of Ungodliness and that fashioning and corrupting the several parts of the Worship of God The chief Reason why so many continue Ungodly and do not tread God's Courts or they do it only on the Lord's day and not every day as was the manner of the first Christians to Continue daily in he Temple Acts 2. 46. Is because they see that most do the like of the same Age and Circumstances with themselves And they are for not varying from the because they would not be accounted odd and singular nor have their Reputation lessened Now to examine this and other things of like Nature by that often mentioned Rule In every thing one takes in hand or admits of and so in all Debates and doubts of Mind it might be reduced to this Whether the good or evil of a thing will be greater Whether it is better to do or to leave such a thing undone And that taking in the consideration of the time to come as well as the present for that will as certainly be present also And then a Wise Man knoweth what he hath to do or not to Choose or Refuse Now if in the present Case that single Thought only will do a Man as much good and stand him in as much stead throughout a whole Eternity as
it is now supposed in the days of his Flesh then indeed it is vain to go into the Sanctuary and it is no profit to walk Mournfully before the Lord of Hosts and constantly to keep his Ordinances according to the surmise of the Prophane Sinners in Mal. 3. But surely his Word and Promise those many immutable things in which it is impossible for God to Lie for the Reward to those who diligently seek and serve him all these may be more surely trusted unto than what is only imagined in the vain false and wicked Minds of Men. This may be sensibly perceived as a manifest token and forerunner of a greater loss that their Ungodliness at this present time comes to nothing at all It hath a regret at the several times it is practiced which is more bitter than the imagined tediousness of Religious Duty and they do again falsly hope that it will be passed over in Forgetfulness or Excuse A Book of Remembrance is written Mal. 3. 18. That it may be discerned between them who serve God and who serve him not And so between those wha do it more or less with the several Circumstances belonging thereunto Though there is now the same Event to him that Sacrificeth or Sacrificeth not yet the Judge of all the Earth shall do Right Though a Sinner doth Evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them which fear God which fear before him Eccles 8. 12. In that day there is none but would be of the Lord's Jewels if they might and they would be willingly spared by him as a Man spareth his own Son that Serveth him But then they must endeavour to please and find acceptance with him in the mean while for if there should never so much be done in things pertaining to God and he should not like nor accept thereof it profiteth nothing As again if he is well pleased with our Sacrifices and Works we have the utmost that we can desire on this side of Heaven for we have the earnest and assured hope of his Favour and Reward That we may not Serve him with Doubt and Ignorance we are to take heed that We do all things according to the Pattern in his Word As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle for see saith he that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed to thee in the Mount Heb. 8. 5. For this is according to his express Command and also it is agreeable to the Duty of a Son or Servant to do according as it is Commanded and directed unto him or they know assuredly such the continual Employment which their Father or Master would have them to do But when Men choose their own ways Isa 66. 3. it is in God's Sight and Estimation as Cutting off a Dogs Neck or as Offering Swines Blood which is an Abomination and doth displease him yet more Or if they do a great multitude of meer Acts of outward Religion yet when these Works come to be examined of what sort they are instead of a Commendation and Reward it may be demanded of them Who hath required this at your Hand to tread my Courts Isa 1. 12. 'T is not the Much speaking of the Heathen nor yet The Superstition of Jew or Papist nor those several kinds of Worship to the One God or Many that are observed by the several Nations of the World which makes God to hear or accept thereof But known unto God are the Works of all Men and it is left unto him how he will be pleased to deal with them accordingly As Bodily Exercise profiteth nothing so outward Services are little available but the Heart is that which God looks unto and with what Mind they are done It must be with an intention to please him and to please him only Thereby shutting out all Custom and Conformity to the World Rom. 12. 2. Unless before they are agreed in a Right thing In things pertaining to God no respect must be had unto Men For God will not give his Glory unto another nor any part of his Worship to Men of the same Likeness with our selves And yet how common is it in the World to do thus and thus in Religion because those which have the Reputation of Great Learned and wise Men do the fame Whereas we do not understand nor consider throughly that these have provoked God to Jealousie and Displeasure with their Inventions and now he suffers them to err from the right way For seeing they were not contented with that Rule which God had given them but despised it for the seeming plainness and Simplicity thereof And they would find out something which should seem outwardly more Wise and make a greater shew than a true and Spiritual Worship doth It pleased God to let a poor and mean People Serve him and be Saved after this manner but the others are left still to go on in their own ways in which they mistake and Perish God is the same still His Thoughts are not as our Thoughts He hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confoudd the Wise and God hath chosen the Weak things of the World to confound the things which are Mighty and Base things of the World and things which I are Despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to naught things that are That no Fleshk should glory in his Presence 1 Cor. 27 28 29. See that whole Chapter Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath and behold every one that is Proud and abase him Job 40. 11. That he may cut off all occasion of Boasting There is no obliging of God with any thing exabundant or with doing more than is commanded for we have all sinned and come short of that nor yet should we presume to do besides what is required for he doth disown and is displeased with all that Any thing that savours the least of Pride is an Abomination to God and so what would make any pretence to Merit or deserving all this is rejected by him Man was at first the work of God's own Hands Yet I had planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right Seed How then art thou turned into the Degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto me Jer. 2. 21. For since that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only Evil continually Gen. 6. 5. Man hath been so universally Corrupt throughout that till he is Renewed again after the Image of him who Created him which in Righteousness and true Holiness he stands not only distinguished from but as it were in perfect contrariety unto God Said our Saviour to one of his Disciples Get thee behind me Satan thou art an Offence unto me for thou Savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men Matt. 16. 23. As if the things which did savour of Men were a Stink and evil Smell and a Smoak in his Nose
several Acts thereof as often as they were proved and tried They are a Rebellious People which walketh in a way that was not Good after their own Thoughts Isa 65. 2. and not according to the Directions of God's Word and the Dictates of his Spirit Unto which they did owe an Allegiance as soon as they were born and an Obedience as soon as ever they came to the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But casting off and giving no heed to that they are here truly and properly termed Rebellious Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the People Which strivings of the People are those Struglings and Doubts and givings back in the Heart of Man before he yields up himself unto the Obedience of God and of his Christ These Strivings would dethrone God and Christ out of the Soul And so they have strove and endeavoured for many Generations successively in the Hearts of the several People thereof To which the answer of the Lord is ever since the days of Noah unto this time My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh Gen. 6. 3. for himself hath heretofore and doth still strive with the Hearts and Consciences of Men. In which I will by no means so express it as to say That the Spirit of God hath been overcome But they have rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit Isa 63. 10. They have quenched the Spirit 1 Thess 5. 19. for that thing may and hath been done which we are there cautioned and commanded against so that God doth declare His Spirit shall not always strive with Man that is He will leave off Fighting and Contending with Man for to come to his Obedience but give him over for that he also is Flesh that is wholly given unto Evil and Corruption and to falling away and turning aside Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty Years and afterwards in the time of Moses it is reduced to threescore and ten and fourscore Years see Psal 90. whereby we are given to understand and it is as much as if God should say whether Man will obey me or not whether he will yield unto the strivings of my Spirit or provoke me to withdraw it yet his days shall be near the same he shall live out however the appointed Time according to the Age of a Man And though the Multitude of the People both Men and Women of all the former and present Generations have done thus perversly and contrariwise with God Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise is he not thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made and established thee Yet as he had one good and godly Family in the midst of a whole ungodly and idolatrous Generation whom he was sure of and who were according to his Mind For I know Abraham that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Gen. 18. 19. So amongst so many rebellious and sinful Generations of Men and Women which have been successively one after another since the World began and the like is at this day and it may be a very few more are to succeed Yet after all these God who calls the Generations from the beginning Isa 41. 4. hath one peculiar Generation in his Eye all of which like Abraham their Father in all their Families and Places will take care that every one of them not one excepted shall keep the way of the Lord To do Justice and Judgment That the Lord may bring upon them all those things which he hath afore spoken of in his Word concerning the Times of Universal Reformation when Thy People shall be all Righteous The Sinners shall be no more When he will make an end of Transgression and bring in Everlasting Righteousness And that God hath such a Generation in his Eye and fore-knowledge is expressed in Psal 22. 30 31. on this wise A Seed shall serve him It shall be accounted to the Lord for a Generation They shall come and shall declare his Righteousness unto a People that shall be born That he hath done this So that as it was said of Abraham He will command his Children and Houshold after him So they will teach their Children and Posterity They shall declare this unto a People that shall be born That the Lord hath done this VVhat is that VVhy when the whole Earth heretofore was Corrupt Evil and gone aside he hath brought them all to rights again as appears and is manifest by that Seed then living upon the Face of the Earth which shall serve him And whereas heretofore The People of some Generations and Countries did serve him for a spurt as we commonly express it Upon God's sending forth some Judgment The Inhabitants of the Earth did learn Righteousness or upon his doing some extraordinary and more than usual thing in the VVorld they would serve him earnestly and diligently for the present Season or for a few Days VVeeks Months or Years But here was the fault and failure that afterwards they would return again to their former Sin and Ungodliness and to their Formal Customary VVorship Though they did keep the Commandments indifferently well for a very little while yet they did again quickly go aside from the Commandments of God And so things have gone on after this rate and manner ever since the Creation But it will be better and otherwise when those Times of Universal Reformation shall come from the pouring out of the Spirit of the Lord. They shall fear thee as long as the Sun and Moon endureth throughout all Generations Psal 72. 5. That is during all their own Life-time and down forward during that of their Children and Posterity which shall ever succeed henceforward The Children of thy Servants shall continue and ther Seed shall be established before thee Psal 102. 28. This is in opposition to that common and true Saying heretofore and now That Grace doth not go by Inheritance for many Godly and Graâ—ious Persons have Ungodly and Graceless Children VVhereas the Promise here speaks The Children of the Servants of the Lord shall continue in the fear of the Lord all one as their Fathers did and their Seed that ir further down shall be Established before thee That is they shall be fixed and firm in the VVorship and Service in the Obedience and doing the VVork of the Lord as their Immediate Fathers and Grandfathers were CHAP. VI. It is made known in the general from the Scriptures of Truth without any Reflections on particular Nations Governments that at length there will be an end of all Wars THere is a time of War and a time of Peace Eccl. 3. 8. And so the course of the VVorld hath went on interchangeably sometimes one and sometimes another ever since that Battel we Read of in Gen. 14. VVhere Abraham
returned from the Slaughter of the Kings But when God shall do that last and great Act as to cause that Nation shall not lift up a Sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Isa 2. 4. VVhich Scripture hath not been as yet fulfilled But is to be fulfilled according to that Divine Method and Dispensation The Word and things of God shall be fulfilled in their Season Luke 1. 20. Then the Lord bringeth forth the Chariot-Horse the Army and the Power They shall lye down together they shall not rise they ore Extinct they are quenched as Tow Isa 43. 17. God will bring them forth to shew only and not for Use and Service That this righteous and peaceable Generacion may just see what kinds of Instruments their Fore-Fathers a Rebellious and stubborn Generation did make use of to kill and destroy which they who shall feed like Lambs after their manner Isa 5. 17. will hardly believe without seeing them that ever so much Violence and Mischief should be in the Hearts of Men or that such Instruments of Cruelty and Destruction should be found in their Habitations But as the Lord commanded that a Pot full of Manna should be laid up before the Lord in their Generations that they may see the Bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the Land of Egypt Exod. 16. 32 33 34. So it is convenient and requisite that some of each sort of those Weapons and devices of VVar should be kept for a Testimony that the Generations following may just see how it was with the Earth when God Created the Smith that bloweth the Coals in the Fire and that bringeth forth an Instrument for his Work and that had created the Waster to destroy Isa 54. 16. When at thy Rebuke O God of Jacob the Chariot and Horse are cast into a dead Sleep Psal 76. 6. Never to awake out of it again For it is before said The stout hearted are spoiled they have slept their Sleep they are bereaved and stript of those Engines wherewith they did execute their Revenge and Terror in the Land of the Living And now they have slept their sleep they have done all their do which they must never do again What they did then do was as much at random and uncertainty from the true and proper ends of Man's Life which was intended for Preservation and not for the Destruction of others and at last of themselves by so doing as Sleep is now different from Waking for in Sleep we Dream and think confusedly without the use of Reason and Knowledge But they shall lye down together they shall not rise There is an utter end of all that they are extinct as Tow the Wrath of Man which did heretofore kindle all this God shall restrain Surely the Wrath of Man shall Praise thee the remainder of Wrath shalt thou restrain Psal 76. 10. So as it shall go no further and then it will sink and come to nothing of it self They are quenched as Tow. If it would begin to smoak again God will take care to put it out that it shall burn no more Where his Prophet uses these kind of pertinent and significative Phrases he immediately adds Remember ye not the former things neither consider the things of old Behold I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it Isa 43. 18 19. This is as much as if God should say Ye may just see and think of those former things but they are not worthy of your Remembrance and Consideration in comparison to that new thing which God will do which shall be both more pleasant Entertainment to the Minds of his Creatures and it shall be infinitely more satisfactory for them to be employ'd therein than heretofore in making Preparations for War or hearing tidings from the Camp I will even make a way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desert The Holy Ghost seems here to allude unto the March of an Army with their Power who being to pass through a Wilderness or Desarts send those before them to make way as by cutting down the Woods and Briars and making rough places plain and removing great Stones or Rubbish As also to guide and conduct them in the intricate way As also to seek out Forage Food and Water for Man and for Beast if they can find out Springs and Rivers in the Desert wherein is least likelihood of any and therein is most want of them But God will supply all this to his Creatures or make up unto them what is signified thereby The Beasts of the Field shall Honour me the Dragons and the Owls Because I give Waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desert to give drink to my People my chosen V. 20. Besides that Satisfaction and Content which without doubt is in the irrational but sensible Creatures upon Gods being their Creator and Maker and also for his providing all things necessary and convenient for them Hereby also may be signified That when those ungodly Men and Women who have been transformed after the manner of Beasts and have those inward Qualities and likeness unto Dragons and Owls as to love Destruction and hate the Light do come to see and know what God doth for his Elect People They will come to Honour and have an inward reverential Esteem of him also This People have I formed for my self They shall shew forth my Praise Ver. 21. Here is the drift and design the End and Consummation of all that as God made Men and Women They should even now as in the latter days they shall be purely formed for himself They shall shew forth his Praise That is They shall have no other End but God and to lay out themselves for him and God shall be their All in All and nothing shall be heard amongst them but Praises Praises to the Lord. Then the World will be as it should be CHAP. VII There will be an End of all manner of Persecuting the Servants of God WHen the Earth shall be reformed and become Righteous this effect will also be seen and perceived There shall be no more Hatred of and Persecution against the Servants of God They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. It hath been always and in all places found That where is most of the Knowledge of the Lord that is such Knowledge as is true Saving and Sanctifying there hath been least Persecution as again where hath been most Ignorance and Darkness there the Persecuting work hath gone forward and abounded But when the World shall be thus universally replenished with the Knowledge of the Lord there will not be the least degree nor manner of it not so much as to hurt Body or Soul as to lay any hardship or restraint upon the first nor yet to tempt or cause the
from out of the Hearts of the Inhabitants of the Earth as also from the Element it self And Righteousness shall look down from Heaven more clearly and visibly than ever it hath done yet But wherefore is it that we hear so very much that in the last days of all God will pour out his Spirit upon us from on High Isa 32. 15. For I will pour Water upon him that is Thirsty and Floods upon the dry Ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine Off-spring Isa 44. 3. And it shall come to pass afterward in the last days saith God Acts 2. 17. that I will pour out out my Spirit upon all Flesh Joel 2. 28. And there is not altogether so much mention made of the Word then For after Jesus Christ who was the Word and the Word was God was taken away in his Bodily Presence from among Men he ordered that his Disciples should tarry at Jerusalem until they had received the promise of the Father and were endued with Power from on High And so in the beginning was the Word and all things were Created by it that were Made And during all this mean while they are upheld by the word of his Power And whilst these Generations pass through here the Word is to them all in all towards the making them a People prepared for the Lord and to give them an Inheritance amongst all them which are Sanctified But at the very ending Conclusion and shutting up of all things The Spirit is to do the main and principal Office But we read not altogether so much of the VVord then as aforetime Besides that the VVord is in Order and Succession of Time before the Spirit for Jesus Christ came first into the Flesh and then afterward the Holy Ghost was given according to that Emphatical Remark of one of the Inspired VVriters for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet Glorified Another great Reason hereof may be assigned That as the Angel sware by him that liveth for ever and ever who created Heaven and the things that therein are and the Earth and the things that therein are and the Sea and the things which are therein that there should be Time no longer Rev. 10. 16. For Time will be lost and swallow'd up in Eternity as a River or Brook is now lost when it empties it self into the wide Ocean So we may easily gather and understand that when all these things here mentioned shall be so perfectly and wholly made known and seen face to face when what is now afar off and Future shall be Present and just before us when Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope into Fruition when Prophesies shall fail Tongues cease and Knowledge shall vanish away VVhen the whole Creation of God shall be new and changed from material and sensible things into Spiritual then we may conclude also That WORDS shall be NO LONGER But the things themselves heretofore expressed and apprehended by them shall succeed and be given unto the Creatures God doth all things in his own Order He first made known unto his Creatures the Words of Eternal Life and then afterwards he invests them with the thing it self of Eternal Life and then it is consequent that the words thereof should cease and fail as the Scaffold falls down or is taken away when the Building is Perfected and quite Finished Like as now in common Life there is great talk of such a Person 's coming as of the Messiah among the Ancient Jews but when he is come indeed then all that talk perisheth which did relate thereto For since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Isa 64. 4. But when that great and enduring thing shall be actually given to the Creature by that God whom he hath waited for then all the thoughts of Heart and words of Mouth that were before concerning it will cease and come to an utter end VVhat Truth we now see written in a dead Letter or we hear in an outward Airy Sound or we conceive in our Mind will one day appear as a shining Ray of Light For Whatever doth make manifest is Light Eph. 5. 13. And all things then will appear in the Light of the Lord. And so this great Matter which we are contending for all along and perswading People unto shall be instantly and altogether done by the Spirit So that Jesus Christ the Son of God shall be delivered from the Strivings of the People and be made the Head of the Heathen and a People whom he hath not known shall serve him As soon as they hear of him they shall Obey him So that there is not need of many more words to enforce the Exhortation But by VVords Knowledge or Notice hath been given that one day so it shall be for all things which are written in the Scriptures of Truth must be fulfilled And also there is this further benefit and use of words that we are hereby taught and put in mind to be in a Readiness and Preparation for the same The VVord doth convert Sinners from the Error of their way like the droppings of Rain or the distillings of Dew that is it doth now and then bring in some individual Persons and that also is done by degrees and in succession of time But the pouring out of the Spirit from on High shall bring them in by shoals and multitudes and do the VVork Instantly and Immediately As soon as they hear of me they shall Obey me Then thou shalt see and flow together and thine Heart shall fear and be enlarged because the abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee the Forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee The Multitude of Camels shall cover thee All the Flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee Who are these that fly as a Cloud and as the Doves to their Windows Isa 60. 5 6 7 8. By all which kinds of Speech we are given to understand that very many in number shall flow and come over and be Converted unto God And the Sons of Strangers shall build up thy Walls This is near to the same purport and meaning as what is said in our great Scripture out of which I have here opened and alledged things all along The Strangert shall submit themselves unto thee The Strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close Places Those are Strangers who before had not known God nor Christ For although known unto God are all Men and Women as they are his Creatures yet God and Christ doth not know them as to be in Covenant with them I never knew ye depart from me ye that work Iniquity Matt. 7. 23. But they remain Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel who are without Hope without God in the World And yet here is