to you that whenever you meet with the word Jacob in Scripture you may conclude that the Holy Ghost doth intend a discovery both of the Politick and of the Spiritual weakness of that People and when you meet with the word Israel then it hath relation to that name which the Angel of the Lord gave to Jacob upon his wrestling with him and it doth import the strength of the People saving says he that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob though they be never so contemptible though never so weak yet says he for all my anger and for all my threatnings for all my Justice and Holiness as if he had said yet I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob. The like reserve of grace you have in the words of the Text yet shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth though the Lord seems to cast them out of his hand and out of his care yet his Heart works towards them if there be but among a heap of Tares a grain of Wheat though it be never so little if there be but the Seed of God there is Seminal Vertue in it yet says God shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth And the reason of Gods kindness in general is this the enmity of the Nations is against the grains and the kindness and grace of God doth extend unto the least grain and therefore notwithstanding the enmity of Hell and of those that are spirited by Hell yet God hath said Lo I will command and I will sift he will command and he will secure he will secure the least grain that it falls not to the Earth Brethren you that have attained to greater measures of grace think not your selves unconcerned in this word the time may come you may see little enough and those that have most grace are many times least sensible The observation was this Doct. That in the most desolating general Common Calamity of professing Nations God will look after the least of those that are sincere professours It is the least grace in the heart and the least Christian in the company that Gods Eye is upon and the Lords heart is towards and the Lords Arm is about yet saies he shall not the least grain fall to the Earth I shall proceed to what remains and that is yet to give you a further account of the Lords kindness and of the Lords gracious care of his little ones in the most perilous and dangerous times Temptations are high persecutions are high corruptions are high yet if there be but the least grace thy Soul shall not miscarry In the further prosecution of this Subject I shall only commend to your serious consideration these four Scripture observations 1. And the first is this Therefore the least Christian that hath the least grace shall not eternally miscarry and fall to the Earth when the Chaff and Tares do Because that the Lord in the manage of the dispensations of his providence will so deal with Christians as he dealt with Christ and let me tell you that Christ and the Spirit of Christ are also consenting to and concerned in this resolve What a poor thing was it that all the Roman Empire and all the state of the People of Israel the Jews should be concerned against a Carpenters Son and yet they could not carry it he singles out only a few Fisher-men for his Companions and yet they were not able with all their interest and with all their learning to bring any thing to any period against their attempts The Prophet Isaiah in the 53 Chap. of his prophecy gives us an account of the first sense of the People of Israel which was the grand practical principle of theirs and the Romans resolve against him the 2 verse For he shall grow up as a tender plant as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him Is this the Messiah as if they should say which is the matter of all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament No this is not he is not this say they when he did appear the Carpenters Son the poor Child of the contemptible Carpenter whose Father and Mother is with us We know him well enough and yet notwithstanding all the meanness of his descent and the unlikelyness of his producing his designed success in the World yet he carries on all before him whilst he was living the Pharisees themselves and the Scribes were afraid of him If we let this man alone say they the World will run after him and the Romans will come and take away our Nation from us Such a secret sense they had of the success and a secret power that did begin to appear and would further appear in the management of his ministry Now my friends we grow up all as roots out of dry ground Take a willow and plant it upon the top of a mountain which is a dry sandy ground it is not like to grow there so take a Christian that hath but a little light and but a little grace plant him in a wicked family amongst a company of wicked Neighbours you will think he is not likely to make any thing of his Christianity there Father is against him Mother against him Brethren against him every mans hand is against the new Professor and yet he grows And this Root that is growing out of a dry ground hath many a pluck Satan gives a pluck at it and the World gives a pluck at it and yet the root continues in the ground and this root that is thus planted in this dry ground an unlikely place to produce any thing to any Spiritual or eternal purpose goes on its way why surely my friends this must needs discover a great reason why Christians that are unlikely to be secured unlikely to live why they should both live and be secured in their life why Because the Lord Jesus Christ was so dealt withal I shall give you two illustrations of this 1. And the first is this It is the general design of the Gospel that all things should be so carryed on and managed that it might be to the advancement of free grace To cut off as the Apostle says all occasion of boasting in our selves for if we do consider what we have to boast of alas you that are strong you were as weak as others you that have your Hearts as you apprehend now full of grace they were once as empty as others and you that are now as it were in full communion and fellow ship with God you once stood at an equal distance with others what have you to boast of When the Lord would cut off all occasion of boasting from the People of Israel says he thy Father was an Ammorite and thy Mother an Hitite and thy Birth and Nativity were of the Land of Canaan here I pray consider in the sequel of this
discourse of his in the 16 of Ezekiel the general State of every professor from first to last I found thee in thy Blood says he cast out to the loathing of thy Person What could be presaged or presumed upon as to this but only death nothing but misery and ruin could atend thee I found thee in thy Blood as a Child new born cast out into the open Field exposed unto the varieties of Weather says God so I found thee Thy Father was an Ammorite and thy Mother an Hitite well what then see the design of God v. 8 when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was a time of love As if the Lord should say and would have us to understand that all his dealings with us should be acknowledged by us to be the Issues of his free grace afterwards you shall find how the Lord deckt her with Ornaments and clothed her with broidered work and shod her with badgers Skins and girded her about with fine linnen from the 10 verse and so on He goes on to discover her beauty and yet she was found in her bloud cast out to the loathing of her person and yet the Lord made her so beautiful and so comely that there was none to be compared to her and the same of her beauty went forth throughout all the Earth Truly Christians the Lord hath discovered the same thing to be his design in the new Testament as the Apostle saies in his Epistle to the Romans he concludes them all under sin all Children of wrath all in their blood all polluted and what is the design that no flesh saies he may glory in his sight So that you see here Christians that the Lords design is to make us conformable to Christ and he will take care of us about us in our low condition and this is his design that neither those that are weak Christians nor those that are strong Christians should ascribe any thing to themselves but that we should cry grace grace to every little work of grace and to the smallest gifts of grace 2. The Lord will take care of the meanest grace because he will deal by them as he dealt by his own Son that so their hearts may be more united unto Christ That their hearts may be more encouraged under all their Spiritual discouragements to fall in with Christ Why thou sayest alas I am a dry Tree and it may be thou hast been so these many years and thou cryest out O this wilderness heart of mine O this barren heart of mine I can see nothing at all in it but every temptation runs me down every body tramples upon me Why it was so with Christ as to his worldly Adversaries though not so as to his Spiritual Adversaries but my friends here lay the design of God concerning you that you also may be encouraged to come to Christ who was lookt upon as the least grain in all Gods Sieve He grew as I observed as a root out of a dry ground he was despised of the nations and he was abhorred of the people that is as he was considered under the notion of a Messiah or Mediator so I say the Lord Christ was despised Well it may be so are you despised and discouraged and the Lord hath a good end in permissive providences and in present positive providences about your littleness and about your despisedness the Lord hath a good end in it and what is the end of the Lord but to bring you nearer unto the Lord Jesus Christ Why Christians let me tell you the meanest of you may say in some sense Lord thou wert even as we are the despised of the nations thou wast abhorred of the people even as we are thou wert tempted as we are And I will but only add one thing more that God exposed his Son to greater servitude then ever he did or will or can expose any Christian to than what Christ himself was exposed to There is not a meaner service though honourable in its self there is not a meaner condition that any Christian can be exposed to So that you may observe from hence the meaning of that expression that he learned obedience that is he learned a Gospel carriage by the things that he suffered as you have it in the 5 Heb. 8. A Gospel carriage how and to whom truly friends a Gospel carriage to the meanest and poorest of Gospel Christians This is the advantage of all that I have said in the opening of this that the meanest Christian may look upon Christ as once in a meaner condition than himself and yet he may look upon Christ notwithstanding the meanness of his condition as to externals as under a present sense and an overruleing engagment to look after and also to receive them that are so mean 2. The second reason why the Lord will not suffer the least grain or the Christian that hath the least grace to miscarry notwithstanding all its shakings and siftings though in the sieve of the Nations is because the Lord hath taken under both Testaments a peculiar and primary cognizance of those that are least in grace there is none that lie nearer the Heart and Bosom of God and Christ then those that are new born I shall open it in general and then illustrate it in two particulars In general I will only turn you to one passage in the Prophecy of Isaiah in the 40. Chap. 11. v. There you have the Lord declaring his sense and Prophecying what should be his Sons carriage to his People he shall feed his flock like a Shepherd Ay but there are Lambs and those that are new faln Lambs that are weak that cannot go that want cherishing that they are falne in a stormy day that is as I conceive Christians begotten under Persecution for Christianity's sake young ones not in respect of their natural but their Spiritual Birth what shall become of them The flocks are better able to bear the busle of the wind and weather and stormes but what shall become of the lambs Why saies he he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his Bosome and shall gently lead those that are with young you shall find the like care expressed by our Lord after his resurrection John 21.15 v. and when they had dined Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more then these He saith unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee he doth not say if thou lovest me then go and die for me then go and renounce thy forswearing of me he doth not say if thou lovest me go and expose thy self to all hazzards for my names sake but the first thing that he fixeth upon as the manifestation of his love to him is the feeding of his lambs As if the meanest and the weakest were more the care of Christ and nearer the heart of Christ than the sheep which afterwards he is commanded to feed if thou lovest
my God I have slighted Ay Christian thou mayest say so but it is Blasphemy for thee to say or think that ever Christ could say so in truth he never provoked his God he never dishonoured his God he never did any thing that might disoblige his God Christ never did He in whom thou art blessed it is God as the God of Christ that hath blessed thee and therefore Christian great encouragement there is unto thy Soul Secondly As he is Christs God all the promises were not only summed up in him that were made to Christians but the Blessedness of all the promises have a primary respect and relation unto him My meaning plainly is this God hath promised thee peace Ay but this peace hath reference unto the honouring and glorifying of the man Jesus Whose God hath Blessed thee with this peace in him Jesus hath the glory of all and God eyes the glory of Jesus in all the promises he makes to us and so my friends all the promises were not only designedly given for the advancement of him but all the promises were summed up in him When God made the promise of a seed to Abraham Abraham had enough he was under some discontent before but now says God I will not only give thee a Child one to be thine Heir but I will give thee a Son and that Son that I will give thee shall be my Heir One in whom all the Nations of the Earth shall be Blessed Now Abraham had enough you never find Abraham seeking any more Children at the hands of God no having an Isaac a seed in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Now Abraham is satisfyed and therefore the Lord in the prophesy of the Prophet Isaiah doth thus explain himself when he promiseth the Lord Jesus Christ Isa 55.4 Behold I have given him for a witness or a Covenant to the people I will give him Who I will give my Son Jesus for a Covenant to the people That is as much as if God should say I will give him for All he is as it were the Sums and Substance of all say but Christ and you say All. When God gives Christ to a poor Creature he gives all the Promises all the Covenants and all the Blessings of Earth and all the Blessings of Heaven all the Blessings of providence and all the Blessings that are reserved in the everlasting Mansions And thus now you see in these respects upon what account it is that the Apostle seems to lay the Emphasis upon this word Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath Blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings c. I shall give you but 3 or 4 inferences USE 1 Is it so my friends that God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath Blessed Christians with all Spiritual Blessings Then In the first place Vain are the attempts of any of the enemies of Christians to interpose between them and their Blessings Though they may sometimes interpose between them and some of the means of their Blessings yet I say vain are the attempts of their enemies against their Blessings Why Because that God as the God and Father of Jesus Christ hath blessed them with all Blessings Now you may observe that the Devil hath been all along at it and he makes it his design business from time to time from age to age and from dispensation to dispensation to interpose between the Lords people and their Blessings but still in vain and therefore the Psalmist eyeing the Lord Jesus and eying by faith this blessedness wherewith the God of the man Jesus should bless Christians he cryes out in the 2 Psal 1. Why do the heathen Rage and the people imagine a vain thing Their great design was to keep the people of God from those Blessings that God had designed by promise to give to them There they were imagining and consulting and there they were designing well but observe it that very thing that they thought would be the compleatment of all their designes tending to this purpose was the greatest in-let to all these Blessings Certainly they were in great Joy and had much satisfaction upon their Spirits when they got Christ nailed upon the Cross but their very nailing and crucifying of him made way for all these Blessings It opened as it were all the treasures of grace it opened all the Relations that were discovered and the Blessings upon the death of the Lord Jesus Christ came flowing out of the promises and flowing out of Relations and the World was filled with these Blessings So that I say whatsoever devises the World hath to interpose between Christians and their Blessings they will be in vain if they take up one conduit God will lay many more And if they give an obstruction one way he will proceed other waies and manage it It is the God of Jesus Christ that hath blessed Christians and therefore Christians have their Blessings sure USE 2 Secondly Then methinks Christians you should look unto God as the God and Father of Christ under all the discouragements that arise upon your own Spirits from your own violations of the obligations of his Relation to you My meaning is this when you cannot comfortably go to God as your God for a blessing you may comfortably go to God as Christs God for any Blessing Why my friends here lay the case O saies thy conscience thou never comest to the word of God but thou despisest the God of the word and thy heart is shut against the word even from thy Child-hood and in thy Child-hood the Devil shuts up thy heart and the World shuts up thy heart and thy corruptions shut up thy heart but whatsoever it is that shuts up thy heart or whatsoever it is that gives being to any disobligement thou art guilty of be not discouraged though thou canst not go to him for a Blessing as thy God because thy conscience tell thee that thou hast sinned against thy God yet thou mayst go to him at that time as Christs God for God as the God of Christ Jesus hath Blessed thee with all Spiritual Blessings Therefore Christians under all your discouragements that arise from the sense of your own unworthiness let this be your way to look upon God as the God of Christ and go to God for Blessings as the God of Christ VSE 3 Doth God bless us with all Spiritual Blessings as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Then my friends you may here take occasion to magnify the Mystery of the Gospel And you may see great reason why you should glorify these persons that are principally concerned in the mysteries of the Gospel No wonder the Apostle breaks out Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ And can your hearts hold from breaking out in the praises of God O Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath Blessed us with
you see here the Lord doth make it the matter of a special promise Under all shakings when great storms are up and when wrath hath hold of the the Sieve shakes it in the hand of the malicious Assyrian or of the malicious Babylonian when the wrath of God shakes the Sieve then the heart of God is upon the least grain and the hand of God will never suffer the least grain to fall For Lo says he I will command and sift the house of Israel in the sieve of the Nations as Corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least Grain fall upon the Earth SERMON VI. Amos 9. Verse 9. For Lo I will command and I will sift the House of Israel among all Nations like as Corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth THE dependance of this Subject upon my former Discourses and the concurrence of it in the same general design I cleared in the morning As an Introduction to this Evenings Discourse I would only observe these two things from the Context to you and the first is That it is a gracious Promise succeeding the dreadfulest threatnings Israel had offended and the Lord of Israel takes to the offence and therefore in a more than ordinary manner the whole concern of the threatning is usher'd in by the Prophet in verse 1. I saw says he the Lord standing upon the Altar and he says Smite the Lintel smite the Lintel of the door that the posts may shake a concussion a shaking of the Institutions and the Ordinances of the Temple seems to usher in this Prophecy and what the smiting of the Lintel of the door that the Prophet observes is you may see in the succeeding verses and the Lord's resolve is to take them however they did attempt to secure themselves from him though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them though they climb up to Heaven I will bring them down Sirs There 's no escaping of the hand of God when once the Lord stands upon the Altar and commands the Lintel of the door to be smitten he gives the reason and the account of that in the next verses I shall not intermeddle with them but yet notwithstanding all that he had threatned against his People he comes in with this promise Yet says he shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth I the Lord says he will command and I will sift the house of Israel and it shall be with the Sieve of the Nations that hate the house of Israel Lord might Israel say here 's nothing but desolation yea says God look to it yet of all the Tribes of Israel while the Nations are sifting the House of Israel I will look after the grain there shall not one grain fall to the ground no not the least Another thing I would observe That this seems to have an aspect upon Gospel-times Lo says he I will command and yet shall not the least grain fall to the ground Waving other considerations I will only observe this one thing That it is at that time when God will raise up the Tabernacle of David God throws his People by shovel-fulls as it were into the Sieve of the Nations It is not the Chaff but the Corn that the Nations envy It is not those that are formal and superstitious Professors but the serious practical Christians that are the hated yet says God as to them there shall not a grain fall to the Earth and I ground this Observation upon a passage in the 11th verse In that day says he will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen When will God shew this distinguishing kindness and when will God glorifie himself in fulfilling the Promise in that day when God will raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches in that day I pray you turn to Acts 15. v. 16. and there you shall see James he is there vindicating some practices of Peter in going to and also in communicating with the Gentiles Simon says he hath declared how that God did at first visit the Gentiles And to this agree the words of the Prophet Afterward I will return and build the Tabernacle of David that is fallen So that here is an Old-Testament Promise fulfill'd not only upon the Jews but upon the Gentiles I have not time to open the mystery that is compris'd in that only I think it is the Gospel-Government of Christ and at that time will the Lord take especial care of the least grain that it shall not fall upon the Earth Though he commands and though he sifts the house of Israel according to the Spirit in the Sieve of the Nations yet then shall not the least grain fall to the Earth This seems to me to be the true import of the Context and I hope these Observations will make way for the Application of what I have delivered and what I shall deliver to be the Cases of Christians and the Case of the Church of Christ in all their circumstances That which I laid as the foundation of the whole Discourse was this That even in the worst of times God will take especial care of the least of Christians The meanest Christians are the especial care and the charge of God and Christ when the generality of Christians are exposed to the greatest danger Says God I will command and I will sift Why yet shall not the least grain fall to the Earth Divers Reasons I gave you the fifth was this V. That the Lord will take special care of the meanest Christians in the hazardousest times because the meanest Christian hath the perfect Image of Christ upon him there is not indeed the perfection of degrees yet there is a perfect Image they are not come to their pitch of Christianity yet they have all attained unto their essential being of their Christianity every little Grace is a full representative of Christ the least grain of Wheat is truly Wheat as well as the fullest and the most pregnant grain is there is the nature of Christ and the nature of a Christian in the meanest Christian that breaths upon the face of the Earth as he was in the form of a Servant and I pray observe that the express Image of his Fathers glory as you have it Heb. 1. The brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person was upon him Who is this why the Man Jesus he that was the Lord's Servant and the Servant to Rulers and that took upon him the form of a Servant he at that time was the express Image of his Person the brightness of his Glory truly my Friends so I may say take a poor Christian under the greatest disadvantages suppose driven into the Wilderness tempted of the Devil you may look on him and say There goes one that is the express Image of Jesus Christ and another that hath divers temptations and afflictions surrounding him
what then Saies the Apostle that I think had his share in Sufferings These light afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Now upon this account it is that God looks after the least grain I shall pass to the improvement and deliver my sense as to the improveableness of it in these five or six practical Conclusions Vse 1 And the first is this Will God in the siftings of Israel take care that the least grain do not fall to the Earth Then let every one look upon themselves as greatly concerned to be made Gods grains My meaning is to get grace though it be never so little Satan hath two designs by way of dilemma upon you if you escape the one a thousand to one but you fall into the other and what are these designs of Satan truly the design lyes here What shouldest thou be content with so little when others that have been more sinful have more despise and slight the little because it is not likely thou shouldest ever attain to much and how does he manage it Thou art old he saies to one and therefore it is not likely thou shouldest live long and therefore canst not expect to grow if thou hadst begun betimes it had been something like And to those that are young all in good time yet See but such a one that liv'd a long time in the enjoyment of his pleasure and God look't upon him and see how he grew up to a great deal of grace in a little time here 's the dilemma now between the one and the other My friends I beseech you therefore fix upon a little grace I will open this in two Branches 1. In the midst of his severest dispensations God will find out a little grace It may be you will say will God look upon me If I were as David may the poor Soul say and may another say if I were as the Angel of the Lord the Lord would find me out nay stay proud Soul it is enough if thou beest but weak let grace take it 's own time to make thee as David the weak shall be as David and David as the Angel of the Lord. Friends I would beg of you that you would not live without a little grace and that you would live chearfully with a little grace until God give more 2. The Second is this That a little in being is as much as all in reversion Art thou but a small grain Pray who made thee a small grain Hath not he also the residue of the Spirit Cannot he make the dry Tree to grow out of the dry ground Cannot he make a little one a Nation Surely he hath the residue of the Spirit Let me tell you God never begins with great things in the most remarkable proceeds of grace that are by past and that are to come but he alwayes begins with a little and so glorifies both his grace and his power in making that little greater than all Therefore pray Sirs let me perswade you you that are young and you that are old if you canhope for a great deal give God no rest till he give you a little till he make you a little Christian give him no rest Oh bring your Children and cry Lord a little grace for this Child Oh bring your Servants cry Lord a little grace for this Servant Oh cast your hearts at the Footstool of the Throne and say Lord a little grace for this graceless heart if it be but a little Lord. As thy Soul liveth saies the Woman to the Prophet I have but a little meal in the barrel and a little oyl in the cruse What then says the Prophet come make me a Cake So I say my friends as the Lord liveth if he hath created a little grace he will create more and therefore my Friends bless God for a little and be not contented without a little Vse 2 Will not the Lord suffer the least grain to fall to the Earth in all the siftings Then you may see the vast differences that are between the righteous and the wicked and that in God's providential proceedings I will throw says he the Tribes of Israel into the Sieve of the Nations and what then let the Chaff go let the Chaff go let the heads that have not grain in them fall to the Earth Oh says he but the least grain shall not fall to the Earth you have God's Word for it The great difference that God makes in his general Judgments between the righteous and the wicked I will open this in two Branches 1. There is more that God likes in the least grain than there is in heaps of the Chaff of the wicked there is more that God likes in the heart of the poorest Christian than God can discover in a whole Nation of Hypocrites put together No there is not so much as a poor Christian hath that hath but a little grace cast them into the ballance and they are altogether lighter than vanity When it came to the pinch indeed saies God I gave Ethiopia for thee and Seba for thee So I tell you my Friends that God makes no account of the chaff though it be never so bulky but he makes much of a little grain the least grain shall not fall to the Earth let the chaff go whither it will burn it with unquenchable fire saies the Lord the least grain shall not fall away but the bulky chaff shall be burnt with unquenchable fire 2. That little that a Christian hath can do more with God and for God than all that others have can do It may be such a one hath great parts well and what does he do for God and another he hath a great bulk of gifts what can he do for God What can he do Truly all he can do is only this to dissemble with God and to dishonour God The times have been wherein gifts have been magnified above grace and not long since by many but what is come of it See the providences of God how they are wheel'd about And now grace is the only thing that will stand us instead in our day and all the gifts that all the professors of England had cannot do so much as a little grace it may be you have a name to live and profess much but where is your grace One saies I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos and what then Where 's the Image of Christ you may be of Paul while you live and go to Hell when you die You may be of Apollos when you are in the Body and when you die for ought I know you may be haled to judgement by the Divels in Hell Such a one you say he prayes he is a mighty man in Prayer Sirs I tell you I value no more my own Prayers that are Prayers of gifts and there is no more in them and God is no more glorified in them than an empty sound But a few sighs
hath all grace Let me tell you if you do not love Christ as the Treasury of grace I suspect your grace if you do love Jesus Christ because it hath pleased the Father that in him all fulness of grace should dwell I do not question your grace for it is grace to love Christ as the Lord Treasurer of all grace 2. Would you know whether you be one of these grains that God takes such special care about Then I pray do but enquire and consider with your selves what thing it is that your hearts and that your affections and minds are mostly working towards My meaning is plainly this and I will illustrate it by this expression He that hath no grace can be contented to be what he is so his Conscience will be quiet but he that hath a little grace cannot be content with a silent Conscience without more grace Many there are that are greatly concerned about the Peace of their Conscience O they do not know what to do Conscience accuses the Devil seems to be let loose the Law comes in Threatnings come in alas they know not what to do rise up they have no peace lie down they have no peace under Job's circumstances his very Bed was a trouble to him Now my Friends my business is not to enquire what Conscience says but what your hearts naturally incline to Do your hearts naturally incline to more grace Some there are can easily be satisfied if they do but apprehend they have grace to save them but a heart that hath true grace though it be never so little though it doth know it hath enough to save it cannot be satisfied without it hath more Now Christians look to your selves God help you that you may all of you know whether you be indeed of these grains that God hath said shall not fall to the Earth Vse 5 Is it so That not one grain shall fall to the Earth in all these shakings Then I pray carry and demean your selves as if you were in the hands of God as persons that are now under the Lord's Hand under the Lord's Eye and under the Lord's Promise The Devil hath given as I may say many a thump at the Sieve and yet you are in the Sieve still you are not on the ground still and the powers of the World have given many a shake and yet you are in the enjoyment of your Priviledges and Covenant-Relations still notwithstanding all the blasts the Devil hath raised while God hath been sifting his People in the Sieve of the Nations 1. Now would you carry it as you should that the least grain should not fall Then let me tell you that it becomes you to eye God to glorifie God for all your keeping hitherto I know says the Apostle whom I have trusted I pray Sirs do but acknowledge him and eye him who for your sakes would trust no body but himself no would not trust the Nations would not trust any but himself because he knew his own power Now Sirs have you been kept in an hour of temptation cry Grace grace Have you been kept in an hour when the Powers of Darkness have been tossing you about Is there any fire in your hearts still though the Devil hath been heaping of Ashes upon you O admire the riches of God's grace and tenderness to you Says God Not one grain shall fall Can you find that Love in your hearts that was some years ago Can you discover that Faith that you had some while since in the Lord Jesus still abiding O Sirs Admire the Lord who hath said Not one grain shall fall I will tell you one thing which I think is the design of the day that God is taking his People off from trusting to their own grace that they might trust more to and acknowledge his grace Alas what help is in one poor little light grain The Nations they are the Sieves and there is many a terrible shake given what is the reason you are still in the Sieve O Christians magnifie grace that your hearts are kept upon God Magnifie grace that it is not with you as it is with others 2. I pray friends if you have but a little be always before the Throne of God for the increase of the little You have but little grace and it may be if examined the least of Gods grains Blessed be God you have a little grace But I tell you if God hath kept you all this while it is for some good Sure it is for some good intent Some good purpose I pray Christians do but consider with your selves Be not satisfied with what you have but be always crying to God that he would increase your little Come says the Prophet let me see the Meal in the Barrel pour out the Oyl O my friends be you alwayes pouring out your little Oyl Alas it is but a little grace in the bottom of your hearts But be exercising it for more Come make me a Cake saies the Prophet Come Sirs do you do something with that little for God and do you improve that little while you are waiting upon God for more This should be your carriage Now Sirs what say your hearts will they or will they not What answer must I give to God He tells you he will keep the least grain what return shall be made to God Are you willing to return this that you will not improve the little Shall the Lord receive this return from your hearts at this time I tell you that Jesus Christ is expecting the answers of your hearts and what is the answer of your hearts You say to me in your heart I hope O what shall we do How shall we carry it as becomes those that are kept as the smallest of Gods graines Now I tell you you that are the least it becomes you to cry mightily to God that you may be more and that this grain may be increased with the increase of God even to an hundred fold in a little time the Lord can if he please make it increase so why is that heart of thine so backward Vse 6 The sixth and last improvement that I shall make of it is this Is it so my friends that God will not suffer the least grain to fall to the Earth Why then in these times in sifting times in winnowing times and when the Nations are the sieve in the Lords hand Why then Christians you that are the Lords grains under the care of Gods Eye under the protection of Gods hand and within the reach of the influence of Gods gracious heart Do you Keep your hearts alwayes free and open Do not think my friends that sifting times are always separating times Keep as near to God as you can When God throws you as it were from him to be sure he will recover you again to him and therefore Christians I pray you now that you would do this that you would keep near to God that is your priviledge and
squander among the People and here were two or three and there was another two or three or it may be more in a company that skulkt away from his force and cruelty into by ways and by places endeavouring to shift for themselves and save their lives I pray do but observe now how the Lord comes upon Edom that was the Off-spring of Esau Jacobs Brother in the 10. v. of that prophecy for thy violence against thy Brother Jacob shame hath covered thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever Lord might Edom say didst not thou say thou wouldst utterly destroy this People from the Earth and I will hiss for the Assyrian and Lord hast thou not said that Assyria is the rod of thine anger in thy hand well my Friends notwithstanding all that could be objected in a way of reason see how God treats with Edom v. 1.4 neither shouldst thou have stood in the cross way to cut off those of his that did escape c. This I only produce to discover to you the severity of Gods threatning against those that offer disturbance and discouragement to his People in their weakest capacities and conditions The like you may observe in the Revelations and in the other passages of the New Testament but I will not any further proceed upon that so that you see I have opened a further reason of the Lords special care and tender regard that he hath over his own People 4. The greatest promises lay hold upon those that are in the meanest condition upon those that are in the poorest weakest unlikeliest condition Be not discouraged Christian at the unlikeliness that is upon thy Soul as to the grouth of grace though your grace be little and your discouragements great yet let me tell you there are greater promises in the word proportionally considered made to you than to others I pray observe what the Psalmist say's in the 72. Psa 16. v. There shall be a handful of Corn in the Earth upon the top of the Mountain the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon and they of the City shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth They are in a prosperous condition shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth those that prosper in seculars or in temporals they shall not lose their blessing but shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth but says he there shall be at that time when these things shall be there shall be a People that shall be cast into the World as a handful of Corn that is cast upon the top of the Mountain alas what can you expect from a handful of Corn that is cast upon the top of a mountain but that it should be withered and dried up why because there want Earth and Soil to nourish it and the spirit of the Earth to maintain it therefore it cannot be expected that it should come to any maturity Yet says the Lord when they of the City shall flourish like the Grass then the handful of Corn that is upon the top of the Mountain that is exposed to wind and weather the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon they shall grow like the Cedars in Lebanon so that you see my Friends those that are unlikely those that are meanest that are but as a handful of Corn cast upon the Mountains yet I tell you you are under as great a promise as any under their greatest external flourishing they of the City shall flourish as the Grass of the Earth but those that are cast upon the Mountain shall shake like Lebanon Appl. And there are three Inferences that I shall desire to manage and so conclude the first shall be in relation to those that are the least Christians the second shall have relation to those of a bigger size and the third Inference shall have relation to those that are neither great nor little Christians but no Christians at all VSE 1 to those that are least they are grains but they are the least grain my meaning plainly is this and I think it is the meaning of the Holy Ghost those that have least grace and those that have least gifts those that have done least for God and those that have enjoyed least of God those that have observed least of Gods goings in his Sanctuary that have experienced least of Gods workings upon their Spirits my design Christians is principally upon you and therfore I shall say three or four things particularly to you and the first is this be not discouraged at your littleness of grace if there be but truth of grace There were many when the second Temple was built and they saw it did not amount to the glory of the first Temple they fell a weeping and were greatly discouraged and God was fain to raise them up a Prophet on purpose to bear up their spirits O there was not that Gold there was not that outward Glory and Splendor that there was upon the first Temple that was destroyed and God raised them up a Prophet and what says the Prophet to them says he You saw the Glory of the former Temple and I tell you says he that the Glory of the latter Temple shall be greater than the Glory of the former They were discouraged at the plainness and meanness of the building and of the furniture and adorning of the Temple nay says God if that be the thing do not trouble your selves about it So I say my Friends you may take an estimate of others Hearts and compare others Hearts with yours and you fall a murmuring and discouragement seizes upon you nay but let me say to you in the name of the Lord if there be but a little grace be not discouraged at the littleness of it you have reason to be humbled that it is no more that is very true but yet you have no reason to be discouraged because there is a little and the Lord hath commanded me to tell you that it lay in his power and within the reach of his grace to make the glory of that little grace that is in your Heart far exceed the Glory of that great deal that you observe to break forth in the Hearts of others and therefore be not discouraged I shall urge this under these two considerations 1. Thou seest it may be what is in thy heart but thou doest not know what is in Christs hand for thy heart Thou seest what comes out of Christs hand to thy heart but thou doest not see what remains in Christs hand for thee therefore be not discouraged because it is little I pray do but observe a passage in Zach. 12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem And he that is feeble among them That is he that hath little Courage little spirit little strength the word signifies he that is so feeble that he is faln amongst them faln among the Croud by reason of his feebleness he that is feeble among them At that day shall be as David
and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Now Christian I pray what is the discouragement that lieth upon thee thou sayest thou art feeble and thou art weak and thou art poor thou art empty thy heart is empty thy head empty and thy affections empty thy prayers are empty thy conversation empty all this is true God knows it is true whence comes all this O thou art fallen in the streets by reason of the feebleness of thy grace and the weakness that doth attend thy duties thou canst hardly set a step but thou fallest thou goest stumbling and stambling on to Heaven and thou hast not strength enough scarce to go through any discouragement Well friend though it be thus with thee yet consider here is the word of the Lord for thy encouragement The feeble amongst them shall be as David And I pray in whose hand is the custody or keeping of the Blessing that is wrapt up in this promise Is it not in the hand of Christ All this courage and all this strength and all these parts and all this grace that must make thee like David A man after Gods own heart to fulfil actually all his will all this is in the hands of Christ And the feeble shall be as David And therefore I pray Sirs though you see but little in your own hearts yet be not discouraged you do not see all that is in the heart and hand of Christ for you That is the first 2. You complain of your feebleness and littleness alas you are as Corn that is dwindled up as we say the least of grains Ay but consider there is the seminal vertue of more in you That little grace that is in you hath a seminal vertue in it God knoweth saith the Apostle who are his Those that are born of God that have the seed of God in them God knows them So that though thou doest not know by reason of thy littleness what thou art yet God knows notwithstanding thy littleness what thou art he knows that there is a seed of grace in thee and therefore I say be not discouraged 2. Secondly Is it so that the Lord Jesus Christ will look after his little ones and will not suffer the least grain to fall upon the Earth Then be you putting forth a little though it be but a little Thou complainest thou art but little truly I am affraid that many mens complaints are attended with as much formality as ever the Scribes and Pharisees Religion was Now I say if it be but a little thou hast reason the more to be putting forth that little And let me tell you Jesus Christ doth expect that you should be putting forth your little that it may appear that you are wheat indeed that you are Christians indeed And though you cannot do so much as another doth yet I beseech you consider if you be but a grain you may do more than others that are behind you that have not the least grain of grace wrought in them you may do more than they do I will urge this with two considerations 1. The first is this A little improvement made by us goeth a great way with God A little Gospel improvement made of a little on Earth goes a great way in Heaven And let me tell you this also further that there are no bounds that can possibly be supposed to be prescribed to the acceptance and to the reward of the improvment of a little grace You know not my friends but a weak one may become a Nation and a feeble one may be multiplyed by the Blessing of God into many Nations you know not how God may bless a little improvement Therefore my exhortation to you is to stir up your selves to be putting forth something if you have but a little faith let it appear that you have a little and if you haue but a little love to the Lord Jesus Christ to his person and Offices let that little appear Sirs and though it do appear but little on earth yet let me tell you it will go a great way in Heaven You may observe this by that poor Woman that had but one poor mite to cast into the treasury and Jesus Christ sat at the door observing how rich men came and cast into the treasury of the House of the Lord a great deal and this poor Woman comes that had but one mite she cast in all that she had I pray observe how far this goes with Christ Christ could not forbear but calls his disciples to him saith Verily I say unto you this Woman hath cast in more than they all Why my friends if you have but a mite cast it in though you can but sigh or groan though you can do but little yet do a little for the Lord Jesus Christ do a little for him in your hearts do a little for him in your families amongst yours Children and Servants It may be you have but little to be doing withal I pray be doing something with your little It is for the Lord Christ you know not how far in Heaven a little that is done on Earth may go 2. Hath the Lord taken such cae to preserve his little ones though they be the least grains and that in all the Commontions and Revolutions of affairs when God is sifting his people in the sieve of the Nations that he knows do hate them wh … perfect hatred then methinks This should speak encouragement unto the little ones not only to put forth a little for Christ but this also should lay an engagment upon them to be willing to suffer any thing rather than to part with the care and protection of God and Christ You have a little Sirs well here stands the case will you part with and for go that God and that Christ that have the care and the charge of your little grace or will you stick to him Methings you should be willing to suffer a little for Christ rather than to part with that great security that is betrusted with Christ for you The apostle had but little of the world yet he met with great sufferings it may be you have but little grace in the world and God calls you to little sufferings in comparison with those thut are truly and formally great sufferings Why now Sirs I pray be willing to part with something for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ suffer the loss of something I do not speak as to temporalls but I speak as to those things that your hearts are most addicted too suffer the loss of something You see a little grace hath a deal of care taken about it I pray Christians if there be any thing in you that is sinful do you part with it do not only suffer the loss of a little but suffer the loss of your All that is offensive to the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ hath said
A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Blessings Or a Discovery I. That every Christian is blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ In four Sermons II. That God hath a high account of the least Grace in the Saints In three Sermons By Mr. John Cromwell late Pastor of a Church of Christ in the City of Norwich Col. 3.11 But Christ is all and in all LONDON Printed by T. S. for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1685. TO THE Christian Reader IT is the unspeakable unhappiness of all the Children of Men whilst in a natural condition that they are favoured only with Temporal Blessings and as an aggravation of their misery their Spirit standeth primarily and chiefly towards those Earthly Enjoyments they are minding Earthly things Phil. 3.19 their highest pursuits are after these they estimate and value themselves according to the measures of these which they have enrichment with they are carnally minded which is death Rom. 8.6 They are dead to the things of God which are of highest concernment to their Souls On the other hand all even the lowest Christians are Priviledged not only with some but with all Spiritual Blessings Eph. 1.3 So as they are rightly denominated Spiritual Men 1 Cor. 2.15 Gal. 6.1 They are so in their principles Indeed by a non-improvement thereof although the standing frame of their heart is to Spiritual things yet many if not most come exceedingly short in point of practice that it may be said to them as 1 Cor. 3.1 Are ye not carnal and walk as men They are apt to Divisions and so are Carnal v. 3. To build hay and stubble that which will not abide the fire and is of little value upon the true foundation and so are carnal too worldly and do not exercise Grace in its due height upon all occasions and so are carnal To reduce or advance Christians unto their proper frame and temper of spirituality this eminent and judicious Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. John Cromwell the Author of the ensuing Sermons hath discovered what Spiritual Blessings they are intrusted with It is a matter of lamentation that such a labourer in the Lords Vineyard should so early be transplanted to eternity and that when so many other eminent Ministers have lately been removed from that place by death These Sermons were taken from his mouth by the Pen of a ready Writer they would have come forth in a better dress and with much more advantage if they had been polished with his own hand but as they are here presented to view they may be exceedingly useful to those whose Citizenship is in heaven their affections in Heaven their conversations in Heaven whilst they are on Earth Indeed they evidence that he himself had arrived at a more than ordinary strain of Spirituality which is a great excellency because Spiritual Blessings are most excellent the best of Blessings They have the best Original they have the best Father even him who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 1.3 They come from the best place not from Earth but Heaven in heavenly places from Gods Throne thence he giveth forth all these of the best nature it may be rendred in heavenlies i.e. Not only in heavenly places but in heavenly things Yea Spiritual Blessings have a tendency to the imbellishing and adorning the noblest part the immortal Soul a man may be enriched with temporal Blessings and his Spirit may be the worse for these but ever is the better for these Spiritual Blessings They furnish for the best operations and actings Earthly things may indispose for the highest Services and most glorious imployments they may be clogs and heavy weights pressing down which must be cast off in running the Christian race Heb. 12.1 But Spiritual Blessings capacitate for the choicest actings they give the best discerning of matters which are of highest concernment and greatest moment 1 Cor. 2.15 The Spiritual man judgeth all things i. e. Spiritual men are enabled to pass right Judgment upon Divine matters and what concern themselves their own conditions their own Salvation and what is conducible to it and this far beyond what a natural man one in a natural condition by the greatest parts can attain unto They capacitate to be Spiritually helpful unto others who are fallen by temptation Gal. 6.1 If a man be overtaken with a fault ye which are Spiritual restore such a one put him in joint again They help to descry the ways and methods of Satan in tempting and of Jesus Christ in succouring They qualify to encounter and conflict with Spiritual enemies and resist Spiritual evils which there is the greatest difficulty in the withstanding of Eph. 6.12 The grace of humility helpeth to expell Spiritual pride and the grace of love helpeth against self-love Spiritual Blessings will enable to make improvement of all occurrences towards the highest advantage he that is carnal maketh an ill use of all that is before him he turneth all to sin to himself he setteth corruption or sin on work by all Enjoyments Riches Pleasures Relations yea even by the gracious actings of the Saints but he that is Spiritual maketh use not only of enjoyments but even of the worst befalments as Tryals and afflictions towards Raising heightning and mounting his Soul more towards God he by a Spiritual Chymistry can extract good out of the worst that betideth him Spiritual Blessings will advance to a choosing the highest and best ends When others have inferiour base and low ends of their actings such as are priviledged with these will make God their ultimate and chiefest end they have a frame for doing all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Yea Spiritual Blessings are discriminating differencing of Christians from others 1 Cor. 2. v. 14 15. And so they are evidences of the special favour and love of God v. 10. Whereas a man may have other enjoyments and yet be an object of the highest wrath and indignation of the Almighty And once more Spiritual blessings they are eternal Blessings other things are of no continuance a man may soon be stripped and dispossessed of them but Spiritual Blessings will never be lost they will abide for ever all which sufficiently argue that they have a transcendent excellency far above other things And all these are dispensed out in Jesus Christ Eph. 1.3 They may have a large measure of temporal things and yet be out of Christ but these are all vouchsafed in him they are the fruit of his purchase obtained by a union with him He is the great repository the store house where all Spiritual Blessings are treasured up Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell that we might have recourse to him for all supplies evermore Those in a Christless condition are destitute thereof whatever their attainments be and the great reason why Christians are no more replenished therewith is because they repair no more to him that they may have supplies None are to
Riches of his inheritance in the Saints Now I shall shew you that all this is vouchsafed to Christians in Christ you shall find the Apostle Col. 2. v. 3. telling us that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Why what wisdom and knowledge Why that wisdom and that knowledge that the eternal grace of God did design for Christians so that we are blessed with this wisdom and knowledg in Christ Look into your understandings and hearts alas there is but little there there is no treasures there but look into the Lord Jesus and there are all treasures even for foolish Christians hid and lodged there in him is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge And that the Spirit of the Lord is alike concerned in this you shall observe if you do but consult the Apostles experience in 1 Cor. 2.9 Where he speaks of things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor ever entered into the heart of man to conceive But says he at the 10th verse God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit The revelation of the secrets of the heart of God is made manifest or is made known unto Christians by the Spirit of God The Apostle prosecutes illustrates this mystery by that which is commonly observ'd amongst men in v. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him I do not know the grace that is in another mans heart I do not know the secret purposes and devices that are in your hearts but your own Spirits are privy to them even so says the Apostle the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Christians let me tell you there is no saving secret in the heart of God the Father there is no saving secret in the heart of Christ the Son but the Lord hath blessed us with the knowledge and the Revelatioâ— of that in Christ for so the Apostle says in the 16 verse For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him but we have the mind of Christ Why Blessed Paul how camest thou a persecutor to know the mind of Christ An injurious and Blasphemous wretch how camest thou to be so intimate with that Jesus whom thou persecutedst even unto death in his members Why the Apostle tells you plainly not by any natural advantage of learning though he was a learned man not by any advantage of his parts though he was a man of clear natural understanding and apprehension but says he we have the mind of Christ and that by the Spirit of God by the Spirit of Jesus Christ So that you see here is another great Spiritual blessing a revelation of saving secrets 5. Another spiritual blessing that I shall superadd is this An Vniversal heading under Christ or incorporation with Jesus Christ One would think it a wonder that ever such a man that was a limb of the Devil should be made a member of the Body of Jesus A Notorious Drunkard a Notorious Blasphemer and a dreadful and implacable persecutor of Christ and his ways that ever such a one should be incorporated into and made a member of the Lord Jesus is not this a spiritual blessing indeed A blessing wherein the Spirit of God is principally concerned in the manage of this the Apostle takes notice of verse 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on earth even in him And more plainly Ephes 4.12 Where he doth expresly give us an account of the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ and he tells us there that all the gifts that were given by Christ were for the edifying of his body Do but reflect upon a passage in the 2. Chapter and there you shall see the state of sinners discovered to be as desperate and as vile as you can possibly suppose a sinners state to be Dead in trespasses and sins Children of disobedience in whom the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit of Hell did effectually work Why Lord shall ever those be incorporated shall ever those be made members of so blessed a body as the Body of Jesus Nay this is not all but says he Ye were Children of wrath The Wrath of God smoaked against you and all the threatnings and denunciations of Gods wrath against sinners belonged to you just as an inheritance belongs to a proper and right Heir and that is not all neither but verse 12. Ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World Lord shall such as these be made members of such a blessed Body as the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ is Ay my Friends here is the great blessing that God hath Blessed us with in Christ Jesus that notwithstanding all this misery and notwithstanding the desperateness that doth attend this miserable Estate yet they are to be gathered together and headed all under one Jesus I pray take notice of one expression in the conclusion of this Chapter where he calls them all complexively considered his Body and his fulness verse 23. Which is his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Now my Friends this is another Spiritual blessing that God hath blessed us withal and that is heading of us under or an incorporating us into the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ so that there can be no Blessing no priviledge belong to the Head but of necessity it falls naturally down upon the Body So the head anointed the Garments shall be drenched not only Aarons Beard but the very Skirts of his Garments shall be drenched throughout Is the Head advanced into glory I tell you the Head in glory will never rest till the members of his Body that are in a vile deplorable forlorn condition here be made like unto him Father says he I will John 17.24 that those also whom thou hast given me be with me c. One would wonder that God should cast off the seed of Abraham and implant Gentiles in their Room and yet you see in Rom. 11. the Lord does thus and the Apostle concludes with this verse 33. O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God That the natural branches should be cut off and Idolatours that had no promises Idolatours that had no Relations at all but only of Creatures to God and who had done more to violate their Relations and forfeit all the Priviledges of their Relations then the very Beasts of the Field and the most venomous and poisonous Toad ever did yet says the Apostle The natural branches were cut off that you might be graffed in O the depth of the riches of Gods grace Surely Christians this is a great Spiritual Blessing that the Lord is pleased to vouchsafe to us to head us under Christ We
are blessed with this in Christ Jesus 6. Another Spiritual Blessing is this A reserved Inheritance of all full and Spiritual and comprehensive blessednesses My friends here we have to allude to the people of Israel in the wilderness it may be some few Cottages or Tabernacles that are transitory as those People had some moving resting-places Here is a little grace planted a little faith and a little love and this grows up pretty likelily and pretty promisingly but what is this to the inheritance where that which is in part shall be done way where there is no such thing as grace in part no such thing as love in part no such thing as joy in part no such thing as communion in part for that which is in part shall be done away I think the Apostle speaks fully to our purpose where he tells us of an inheritance reserved 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ You see the Apostle mentions the same Relations that are here in the Text why what is the matter Blessed Peter Why says he the matter is this The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you verse 4. Why friends what is this inheritance Why there I shall inherit the Covenant in its fulness I shall not say that either I want any Law in my heart or in my Head in my inward or in my outward man I shall have no reason to complain that I want the least blessing of the least promise Why Christians this is your inheritance and are not here Spiritual Blessings that are the proper matter of this Inheritance Now the Apostle tells us that he hath blessed us with this in Christ verse 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to â—he purpose of him that worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will How far Christ is concerned in this Spiritual blessing â—ou may easily observe if so be that you â—ither consider the type or the antitype as â—o the type which was Joshua or Jesus Moâ—â—s must not bring the people into their Inheritance indeed in Moses's Time they might have some Bunches of the Grapes of the good land but Moses must not bring them in it must be Joshua that must bring them in So I say my Friends it is not this or that or the other but the Lord Jesus alone that must bring his people into the possession of this reserved inheritance here is indeed a Cluster of Spiritual Blessings infinitely exceeding all the capacities of the Sons and Daughters of men though most of all inlightned by the Spirit to comprehend in whom says he we have obtained an Inheritance who is this whom It is the Lord Jesus Christ to gather together in one all things in Christ in whom we have obtained an Inheritance As much as if the Apostle had said as the Apostle doth in Christs own case we see not yet all thingâ— put under him So I may say you have noâ— yet obtained the Inheritance no more had Paul no more had these Ephesians but yeâ— he speaks as one having full assurance in whom we have obtained answerable to that of our Lord in Joh. 14.2 I go to preparâ— a place for you And the Apostle takeâ— it up and otherwise phrases it Heb. 6 2â— Whither the forerunner is for us entred speaking of the Inheritance that is above whither cur forerunner is for us entered so that this another Spiritual Blessing wherewith we are blessed in Christ Jesus 7. But another spiritual blessing wherewith we are blessed in Christ Jesus is this The Seal and Earnest of what is to come and the very Spirit is made the very matter of this Blessing wherewith he hath blessed us in Christ Jesus I pray do but cast your eyes upon verse 13. In whom ye also trusted still he continues his discourse and fixes Christ at the bottom of all in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your Salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise verse 14. which is the Earnest of our Inheritance until the Redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory Here is a comprehensive spiritual blessing indeed which is the Seal of the eternal Inheritance and the Earnest of it as if the Lord should say when he sends forth his Spirit go my holy Spirit go and seize upon such a heart and seal up such a Soul for the eternal Inheritance and as if he should say to his Son Lo my Son I have given my Spirit to such a one whom thou hast shed thy blood for and lo I send him as the Earnest of the Inheritance that thou hast purchased as the Earnest of my eternal love to thee as the Earnest of my eternal Communion with thee as the earnest of my answering of thy prayer and the import of all thy blood Lo I have sent him and lo he is to them an Earnest Now Sirs this is a great blessing a very glorious blessing indeed God might have designed and kept the design in his own breast or he might have divulged it yet have given us no earnest or pledge of it what needed all that between God and us Christ might have taken his word and we had good reason to rest upon any report that the Lord Christ makes of his confidence in the Father but the Lord Christ and the Father did concur together in this that we should have the Blessing notwithstanding all notwithstandings and that it should be sure to all the seed Yet for our further satisfaction says the Lord behold I give my promise and I give the promised Spirit and that Spirit shall be my Seal upon their hearts and my seal upon their understandings so that look into your hearts and into your understandings and upon this inquiry whose are you Do but make a reflection whose Seal whose Image whose Superscription is this You shall find that the Spirit of the Lord is as it were Gods assuring Seal Ay but it may be you will say this is a great while to come It may be Ten or Twenty or Thirty or Forty years to come Well if those do not satisfy you that you are sealed the Spirit also shall be an Earnest of the Inheritance an Earnest of the future personal blessedness and glory which God hath blessed you with in Christ It is not only Heaven but the personal condition and state of Saints in Heaven that is the glory of their Inheritance and this is another thing 8. But then in the 8th place another Spiritual blessing wherewith the God and Father of Jesus Christ does bless Christians is this Practical experiences of the power of Gods grace
testimony of this in general in many places but especially in the shutting up of his ministry and of his life here below in Matth. 28. Go ye therefore says he and teach all nations go ye therefore Wherefore At the 18 verse All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth if he had had only power given him in Heaven he could not have Blessed sinners on Earth if he had had power given him only on Earth he could not have commanded the Blessings of Heaven But says he all power all authority is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all nations Lord to what end might the disciples say must we go Well says Christ I am the Lord of all the Blessings I have an absolute power to dispose of all the Blessings of Heaven and to manage all the heavenly Blessings upon Earth Therefore says he Go preach go teach all nations Go tell sinners that I am ready to bless them I have a heart that is willing to bless them I have a treasure to supply them fully according to all their necessities and according to all their straits Go preach the Gospel to every creature to every Saint and to every sinner I am Lord of all and therefore if you do observe it the commission that Christ gives to his disciples to his Ministers has a peculiar reference unto the Authority that he hath received all the authority that he hath received hath a peculiar reference to them and therefore it must needs discover that whatsoever he received as Soveraign he received for us and therefore no wonder that God blesses us with all in him because he hath made him Lord of all Christians want you peace Christ is Lord of it Want you grace Christ is the Anointed Lord of grace he hath made him Lord of all 2. Secondly The Lordship that Jesus Christ hath in and over us that are to be Blessed and in and over all the blessings that are to be conferred upon us he doth mannage and execute in a way accommodated to the general and particular cases of every Christian As now suppose that I or any of you were made Lord of the treasures that are lodged up for the poor It may be there is one that cannot stir out of doors and there is another that it may be can stir but cannot come at the time and to the place appointed others may it may be some cannot because of natural infirmities now the Lord he that is the Lord Treasurer the Lord Disposer of all those blessings he can accommodate himself to the conditions of every one he can go from house to house to see how many poor there are and what it is that you want do you want Bread or do you want Drink or do you want clothes what is it that you want I see you cannot come abroad and I am come to see your wants truly so my Friends our Lord Christ can accommodate himself to every ones condition he sees that poor creatures cannot make out unto him one is blind and another is lame and another is dead-hearted and discouraged and another is tempted and fettered and cannot go out unto the Lord ay but the Lord can come to them he can come to your cottages to your houses and the Lord can accommodate himself to you say to you Children what want you Children what ails you God hath made me Lord of all Spiritual blessings for you what want you want you wisdom and want you strength and want you peace and want you grace what is it that you want I see you cannot come to me because you want strength and you want a heart to come but I can come to you and I am come to you Thus the Lord of all can accommodate himself It was a great offence that the Scribes those devout superstitious Pharisees took against Christ that he could accommodate himself to the Publicans and Harlots and sinners of the day that could not come out to him but he must go to them and feast with them and this was an offence to them O says Christ I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel the sheep do not seek the shepherd but the shepherd is to seek the sheep a poor creature it may be cannot come to the Lord Jesus yet he notwithstanding all his Lordship and all his grandure and all his greatness I tell you Sirs he is such a Lord as can accommodate himself to the conditions of every one and therefore no wonder that the God of all grace hath intrusted him with all and hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in him that is the Lord and Master of so much grace Fourthly The 4th reason is this we are blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in him Because he is the Jesus of the New Testament When the Angel by a special commission was sent from God to name the Child he gives him this name Matt. 1.21 Joseph it seems was an honest a sober and a good man and upon that he had a mind to put away Mary privily that was betrothed to him but the Angel appeared to Joseph verse 20. and said unto him Joseph thou Son of David fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Now my Friends if you do but observe how the Justice of God hath stated the Method of this Salvation you will see reason enough why God should bless us with all the Blessings of our Salvation in him I will open this also in these two Branches 1. The Justice of God hath stated the Method of our Salvaton to be in a way of suffering and in a way of purchase That we should have no pardons but what should be the price of blood that we should have no peace but what should be the price of blood that we should have no communion but what blood is at the bottom of that we should have no manner of fellowship with God here or hereafter but what is laid and founded in the blood of the Son of God this was the way and method that the Justice of God had stated Says Christ Heb. 10.5 6 7. Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me in burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I Lo I come to do thy will O God As if he had said Lord is there any peace to be purchased for transgressors here is my blood Is there any grace to be bought for sinners Lord here is my blood for it Is there any reconciliation to be wrought I am willing to offer my self to be a propitiation for thy Enemies Lo here I am Lord is there any Spiritual Blessing to be obtained by suffering Lo I come to do thy will
though it be to be made a curse Now Christians if the case be so is there not great reason then that the Blessings that we have we should be blessed with them in Christ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us in him 2. But then the Second Illustration of it is this Jesus as a Saviour must not only be a sufferer but a Surety He must be one that must undertake to respond to God for all and to satisfy the justice of God for all Now Sirs what are the Blessings that we receive by his Suretiship Why truly upon the account of that we receive all Spiritual Blessings Christ is Surety that I should live like a Child of Adoption for the substance and main that my heart should be in a frame becoming those that are the Lords Adopted ones O but where is he that hath undertaken it why it is Jesus and therefore you shall find the Apostle fix it upon this very title Heb. 7.22 by so much was Jesus made a Surety of a better Testament by so much was Jesus You see here is the very Title that is given him in the Text Jesus the Saviour and Jesus the Surety for all that are saved and therefore good reason that we should be Blessed with all Spiritual blessings in him And then 5. Lastly The 5th reason that is in the words is this he hath Blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in him because he is the Christ I pray do but observe it he is the Christ And therefore good reason that all our Blessings should be lodged in him There is not another Christ in Heaven there was none of all the Angels of Heaven that were fit to make a Christ of all the Sons and Daughters of men put them all together were not fit to make a Christ of vain are the suppositions and presumptions of the Papists There is none but this Jesus that is fit to make a publick Christ of and this Jesus was anointed with all Spiritual Blessings to this end he was anointed with them in the fountain in the principle I will but turn you to one Scripture for the confirmamation of this that Jesus was anointed with all Spiritual blessings for this purpose I pray do but observe that passage there Isaiah 61.1 verse The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me I pray consider it Sirs The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for or wherewith he hath anointed me And this is the Oyl of gladness wherewith he was anointed above all his fellows Because the Lord hath anointed me To preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening the Prison to them that are bound c. I pray do but consider how he brings in the thing to my present purpose all Spiritual Blessings Thou art a poor creature a weak creature not worthy of the least crumb of Bread and yet my Friends all things are given in the Lord Christ because he was anointed with all for us therefore is it that we are blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ SERMON IV. Ephesians 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly places in Christ THe state and Condition of this Church of Christ at Ephesus we have in some measure opened The suitableness of this passage of the Apostle to that their state we have also discovered To be deprived of Temporal Blessings and exposed to Temporal Troubles and Trials as well as Spiritual Temptations is easily ballanced with the discovery the Apostle here makes of being Blessed with all Spiritual Blessings This universal word is not only applied to the kinds but also to the degrees of every kind of these Spiritual Blessings It is all for the kind and all also of every kind not only faith or only love but both not only pardon or only peace but both and not only so but all of all who hath Blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings Though you have but little in hand or as I may rather say little in your own hearts yet you have all Spiritual Blessings in the hand of Christ A Third inquiry is this Quest 3 Who is it that doth bless us with all Spiritual Blessings or under what consideration are we to look upon this great Blesser Ans And I pray mind it It is not God at large neither is it God as the Creator of all but here he is discovered as clothed with his principal Gospel relations and that not to us so much as to his Son our Lord Jesus Christ It is not said our God and Father in Jesus Christ the Lord but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed us Before I enter upon the particular resolve of this I will only premise this in general that both these Relations or Titles that are here attributed to God have an equal respect unto all the Relations under which Jesus Christ is here considered The God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so that the resolve of this upon this hypothesâ—s will Issue it self in this general proposition or assertion viz. Doct. That God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ doth bless Christians in Christ with all Spiritual Blessings I would speak these mysteries with all plainness But my Friends there is none of you those that have the greatest advantage of parts and gifts that can understand practically what I shall say without the Spirit of the Lord lead you into the truth which I shall discover to you I hope in the Spirit In the prosecution therefore of it I will only deliver my sense in these Four or Five Generals and then make improvement 1. The first is this when we say that God as the God and Father of Jesus Christ blesses us this seems to be implyed in it That all the advantages that any of the people of God in either Testament have by Gods being their God or that hangeth upon this relation they are all summ'd up in this that he as the God of our Lord Jesus blesses his people with all Spiritual blessings If so be that you reflect upon the Old Testament you shall find Abraham greatly glorying in this and the Lord laying it as a foundation of Abrahams glory Gen. 17.1 says he I am God all sufficient walk before me and be thou perfect and Chap 15. verse 1. you have another appearance of God to Abraham Says he I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Now Sirs I pray Consider The man Jesus the Lord Jesus as betrusted with all our Spiritual blessings lies under the advantage of this relation to God if so be that God be the God of Abraham much more will he be an all sufficient God in the manage of the concerns of Abrahams seed as
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ he hath blessed us as an all sufficient God as a God that is the exceeding great reward of those to whom he is God able to do what he will and able to give what he pleases he is Christs God that hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Christ 2. Secondly This also doth discover a full assurance of an abiding ingagement of all the attributes of God to carry on the interest and the concerns of Christ as it is stated among Christians I say it implies an ingagement of all the attributes of God to see to the blessings I pray Christians don't look upon the man Jesus only as concerned in the mannage either in the securing or disposing of the blessings but look upon the blessings ensured secured and to be disposed or mannaged in their disposal by him that is the God of the man Jesus you know the passage there in the Old Testament where the Lord doth Covenant with Christs Type that is with David and with Solomon but principally with the Lord Jesus himself Psalm 89.26 He shall cry unto me Thou art my Father my God and the Rock of my Salvation David glories in the Relation himself and he speaks this by way of prophesy to give assurance unto all the people of God that Davids Son shall have liberty and a heart to cry unto him in all his straits My God he shall cry unto me My Father thou art My Father and my God Now I pray do but observe the Context and you shall find that the great concerns of the people of God their great Blessings are here devolved upon him to manage verse 19. I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one Chosen out of the people A mighty one indeed there is none to be compared to him exalted indeed above all he hath a name given him which is above every name and says God I have laid help upon him As if the Lord should say I will betrust him with all their persons and I will betrust him with all their Blessings I know he is mighty he is able to save ay but lest he should be discouraged or lest any looking upon him as the Son of David should judge him insufficient for this imploy I pray do but observe what he says in the 24 verse But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted I will set his hand also in the Sea and his right hand in the the Rivers and he shall cry unto me thou art my God By way of acknowledgment for what hath been done thou art My God O this is my God that hath done all this It is he in whose name my Horn is exalted It is he that shall beat down my foes before my face and plague them that hate me therefore good reason he should acknowledge him he shall cry unto me my God and if there be any thing of difficulty to be done if there be sin to be removed if the consequence of sin had seized and that to be dismissed says God to him he shall cry unto me My God and I pray friends do but observe how correspondent to this prophesy or to this promise was the carriage of our Lord Jesus Christ in all his straits in reference to the general dispensation under which he was which was a dispensation full enough of straits how the Apostle speaks of him or rather brings him in as fixing upon himself in the 2 Heb. 13. And again says he I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the Children which God hath given me The concerns of the Children are here upon the heart of Christ and says Christ I will put my trust in him in whom in my God that hath given me these Children in my God that hath given Blessings to me for them I will put my trust in him says he and again behold I and the Children that God hath given me And when he was in the greatest strait of all when God seemed to withdraw from him and he under the guilt of all the sins of the whole election of grace and Justice executing vengeance or the Curse according to the tenour of the Covenant upon him God frowning upon him then he had recourse to this to the power of God to the faithfulness of God to the attributes of God My God My God says he why hast thou forsaken me Nay my Friends let me tell you this as an additional illustration of it That the Lord Jesus Christ hath full liberty and priviledge to demand the universal assistance of all the attributes of the Divine nature in the manage of this work of Mediation as he is Man Thirdly The Third General is this What ever Relation God as God is discovered under in either Testaments the incouragements and all the blessednesses of that Relation meet in this his Relation to Christ He is the God and Father of Jesus Christ and as so he hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in him There are diverse Relations that God is pleased to cloth himself withal and to represent himself under unto his people in the Old and New Testament Now whatsoever those Relations are The advantage the blessedness that result from them meet here in this that in this particular case as he is a God blessing Christians in Christ I would illustrate this to you in these 2 particulars 1. God hath discovered himself under the notion of a Creator as God the Creator of all flesh the Creator of all things so he hath declared himself to be And yet my Friends the advantages that are wrapt up in this Relation are all summ'd up in this that he is the God and Father of our Lord blessing Christians with all Spiritual blessings May a poor Creature say O my heart will never yield to these Spiritual Blessings they are so Spiritual and I am so carnal ay but God the Creator of thy heart hath blessed thee with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ O says a poor Creature I shall never be able to understand nor to receive these Spiritual Mysteries which wrap up as it were these Spiritual blessings I am so full of Spiritual blindness darkness and Ignorance ay but God that created thy understanding and created thy understanding in light as an understanding resembling his own this God hath blessed thee with these Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus ay but I am so weak I am so unable to manage them Well notwithstanding all God that created thee It is he that hath blessed thee with all Spiritual blessings in Christ that as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and as he is considered the Creator of all by Christ so he hath blessed thee with all Spiritual blessings The Apostle in his Epistle to the Colossians Chap. 1. seems to argue from this principle and encourage from this mystery poor Creatures to
wait for the Blessing verse 19. for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell ay but how shall I come to be made partaker of that fulness that dwels in Christ my heart hath been shut so many years who will open it my heart hath been growing in hardness so many years who can soften it Now observe before the discovery of this the pleasure of his grace he brings in the discovery of this Relation of a Creator verse 16. For by him were all things Created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth c by him were all things Created and it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and therefore he can Create thy heart that is hard he can Create it soft and in thy heart that is so shut up he can Create an open passage for the Gospel and the Blessings of the Gospel out of the hands of Christ into thy heart he can create this Now my friends this is a great advantage the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Creator hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ Jesus Secondly Another Relation that God hath discovered himself in as God unto us in Scripture it is a Relation of Supportation importing a governing of all things that are A God whose eyes run to and fro throughout the Earth observing both the evil and the good Therefore you shall find that when the great concerns of the Church were before him he appeared thus as an Universal Soveraign Lord and Governour of all things of all powers and all interests whatsoever you have it in the 1 of Zach. There were some grand objections that lay in the way of that mercy that God had betrusted in the hand of Christ to manage for and on the behalf of his poor despised afflicted people You have the management of it discovered to be betrusted with him in the 8 verse I saw by night and behold A man riding upon a Red Horse and he stood among the Myrtle Trees that were in the bottom and behind him were there Red Horses speckled and White Here was the case and concerns of the Church and the design was a design of mercy that these Myrtles should be transplanted out of the bottom and that these Myrtles should be secured and caused to grow in the bottom and therefore in the midst of the Myrtles he doth appear riding upon a Red Horse Now my friends here was a great work that did lie upon him and he hath his Servants those that were behind him upon Red Horses speckled and White What are these saies the Prophet to the Lord And the Angel answered These are they that the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the Earth This Angel is the man that stood among the Myrtles this is the man that in verse 8 was riding upon a Red Horse and in verse 9 the Prophet calls him his Lord O my Lord says he what are these Then verse 11 you have an account given unto this angel unto this man that stood among the Myrtle Trees of the Transactions in the World and the account is this We have walked to and fro through the Earth and behold all the Earth sitteth still and is at rest You may at your leisure consult the Context and you shall find that there was a great work here to do great Blessings to bestow upon a poor despised contemned people and the manage of it was cast upon the man that stood among the Myrtle Trees and this man had the advantage of the encouragement of the Lords Relation as he is the Supream and Soveraign Lord of all so that I say my friends if so be that the Soveraignty of the great Jehovah as he is the Supream Governour of all and as he is Lord of all can be of any advantage unto us here lies the advantage of it that the God of our Lord Jesus is not only the great creating God but the great governing God that hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings O says a poor trembling Soul I can never secure my Blessings from the Devil my heart is so treacherous and deceitful and Satan so subtile and powerful I can never secure them Well my friends but who is he that hath Blessed you Even God the God of Christ Jesus the Lord who is the Absolute Soveraign Governour of all the whole Creation He it is that hath Blessed you with all Spiritual Blessings I will but only observe this one thing to you Though the Devil and the powers of the World have cast off Gods Moral government yet God hath no way at all by all their sin lessened his natural Government As he was so he is he is as much the Soveraign Lord and Governour of all things now the Devils have sinned and man has sinned and both man and Devils have cast off his moral government he is as much Lord and absolute Soveraign as he was and would have been if they had not sinned Fourthly God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ blesses us that is He stands under engagement as Christs God and Father to secure what he hath given to us in Christ As I observed to you before it is not only our God and Father in Christ but it is the God and Father of Christ that hath blessed us in Christ and if so then he stands engaged unto Christ in whom he hath lodged these Blessings for us or in whom he hath blessed us with these Blessingâ— to secure them unto us The more immediate engagement lay between God and Christ Jesus It is a more remote relation and so by consequence an engagement at a greater distance or an engagement upon a remove that he stands in unto us that are Christians I would fain have you to understand this I say he is the God of Christ that hath blessed us and therefore as he iâ— the God of Christ he stands engaged unto Christ Jesus there lay the first and the principal engagement 'T is true as he is ouâ— God he is not to be questioned I am God saies he I change not and therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 But my friends he is not only the God of the Sons of Jacob and therefore they are not consumed but he is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore they cannot be consumed Why Because as he is Christs God he hath blessed us and so he stands engaged unto the Lord Jesus Christ Now I pray observe but these two things 1. The first is this There was never any thing of offence that ever passed between this God and this Christ The Father was never offended by the Son and the Son was never offended by the Father these alwaies kept a good a perfect a full correspondency each with other indeed sometimes a Christian hath reason to fear My God I have provoked and my God I have dishonoured and my God I have forsaken and
all Spiritual Blessings Sirs you may see here is reason enough why we should glorify the Lord Jesus Christ because between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as related one to another are all Spiritual Blessings laid There is your great security and safety therefore Sirs let him be blessed by you as the God of Christ and let the Lord Jesus Christ be admired and glorified and believed on by you VSE 4 The 4th and last inference is this Is it so that God as the God of Christ hath Blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ Then surely the natural tendency of all those Spiritual Blessings is to make us conformable and like unto him By this you may understand Blessings or distinguish between those that are pretended to be Spiritual blessings and those that are really so many pretend to great parts and gifts and O their light is Spiritual O their zeal is Spiritual zeal and their inlargements are Spiritual inlargements and I pray God they may be all such O that all had always such But let me tell you Sirs a great many things of this nature if they be brought to the Test will not be found to be Spiritual Blessings Why Because the tendency of these Blessings is not to conform you to the God of Christ Jesus Do you find your hearts ingaged to the God of the Lord Jesus Christ Do you find the tendency of that which you call a Spiritual Blessing is to make you more like to the Lord Jesus Christ If so then there is something in it then it is one of the Blessings of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ wherewith he hath Blessed you in Christ But if the tendency of that which you call a Spiritual Blessing be not to make you like to the God and Father of Jesus Christ do not miscal it and honour it with the name of a Spiritual Blessing for it is none of these Spiritual Blessings with which the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed Christians SERMON IV. Amos 9. Verse 9. For Lo I will Command and I will sift the House of Israel among all Nations as Corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall to the Earth I Have made it my business of late to open the mystery of the grace of the Blessed Trinity and to discover the accommodation of that grace unto Christians under greatest discouragements and Christians of the meanest sise and rank I am still in the pursuit of the same design and therefore have I fixt upon these words which do discover the Soveraignty of God in the management of all the sufferings of his own people I pray do but observe Though God doth imploy the Nations yet he keeps the Nations in his own hand The Nations are but the sieve in his hand He keeps their power and he keeps their interest he keeps all the instruments that he uses still in his own hand Assyria the Rod of my Anger But yet the Rod of his Anger in his own hand So here the Nations the sieve of his wrath But yet the sieve of his wrath in his own hand He keeps it Lo says he I will command and I will sift the House of Israel Jesus tells his disciple Peter that Satan would fain have been fingering at this work he would fain have had him in his own hand he would have had Christ to have left him to him Simon Simon says he Satan has desired to have you that he might sift you But Christ would not part with Peter so he was more concerned in his disciples then to betrust them in the Devils hand So God is more concerned for his people then to give an Absolute Soveraign Uncontrouble Power to his Enemies over and about their concerns I says God will sift the House of Israel among all nations 2. And then Secondly you have a gracious reserve or a reserve of grace appropriated unto a few that the Lord is more than ordinarily concerned for Why says he yet for all this the least grain shall not fall to the ground Though God turn his people as it were from sieve to sieve yet he will not suffer the least grain under all these sifting dispensations to fall to the ground Not only the most promising likely and flourishing Grace he will not only look after the most weighty but the least grace and the lightest grain Yet saies he shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth There are diverse observations that lye in the words I shall take notice of them and then fix upon those which most subserve my design Obs 1 That all the evils that befall the Israel of God though managed by the enemies of God yet are the Issues of Gods Command The Command not of his word but a Providential Command when God speaks threatning Language and Terrour to his people Israel in other Prophesies he tells them that he will hiss for the fly and he will call the Rod of his anger the Assiyrian the Rod of his anger He will call them and imploy them So here saies he Lo I will Command c. Obs 2 That God will have the managing of all his adversaries malice and the ordering and bounding of all his adversaries power I will order the Sifting saies he For Lo I will Commands and I will Sift the House of Israel Obs 3 That both the Commission given and the restriction or limitation of the Commission reserved is matter of a Christians observation of Israel's observation It is the duty of Gods Israel to observe both the one and the other to observe that God commands such a Nation to afflict such a people for lo says he I will Command and lo I will sift Surely this if rightly managed would be of very great Use to Christians in a suffering day Nay let me tell you more if God will make use of the Devil in this work yet observe the restraint observe the limitation Who will go for us says God I saies the Devil will go And if the Lord doth suffer him to try us and sift us with temptation upon temptation Yet do but observe the restraint how often was the Devil forced to come for the enlarging of his Commission against Job Obs 4 That notwithstanding all the sufferings of the Lords people yet the Lord will take care to secure the meanest of his people It is the least grain that is the proper matter of this promise It is not thos-that are highest the biggest and the largest wheat but even the least grain though there be abundance of chaff abundance of mixture yet the least grain shall not fall to the ground One would wonder to observe that the Lord in his greatest promises should fix upon the meanest and most unlikely professours It may be you think there is no grace in your heart no seed no grain there that you are not a grain but are rather tares well but the
give thee So I may say to a Christian Christian come look from the one end of the Scripture to the other look upwards look downwards look on this hand and look on the other hand from the East to the West from the North to the South Behold all this God hath given thee Ay but I am poor saies the Christian it is no matter thy poverty doth not destroy thy right thy Poverty makes no alteration in thy right do not say in thy Heart this is for those that are tall Cedars this is for those that are fruitful but as for me alas I am not well if there be but a little though never so little thy right is the same a little grace you see doth give right to the greatest blessings and the greatest blessings are established upon the least grace Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven There is nothing in the Kingdom but what is theirs that are poor in Spirit that have but little and are sensible that they have but a little though they have but a little yet blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven 2. The same grace that gives the right makes the difference the gradual difference Though there be a gradual difference in the receipt yet it is the same grace It may be the Lord hath given thee five Talents it may be to another he hath given but two and it may be he hath given to another but one Talent well but yet I say it is the same grace that gives all those Talents and that gives a like right with those various or disproportioned gifts it is the same grace all issue from the same Fountain and therefore it is that the least grace will be looked after He that gave thee a right to five Talents gave thy Brother as good and as equal a right to one he that gave thy Neighbour a Possession of a great measure of grace and thereby it may be his right is more manifested it was the same grace that gave thee the Possession of a little grace and yet thy right is as substantial and true because the grace that giveth grace differenceth in its giving and yet gives the same right under these different gifts 4. The least grace discovers an interest in the greatest relations as well as the highest degree of grace do's Where there is a great deal of grace you say surely this is a Child of God Ay and there is one that hath but a grain of grace that is as surely the Child of God as he that hath more he is as surely born of God as he that hath the greatest degree of grace here is one that it may be can fill a Prayer with grace and here is another that hath hardly grace enough to stock a few Petitions or it may be he hath grace to stock a Confession or two and he puts forth that little grace that he hath in his Confession or Petitions what then I tell you God will take care of the one as well as of the other the least grain shall not fall to the ground because the least grain gives a discovery of an interest in the greatest relations thou sayest surely this is a Man of God why O he hath a great deal of grace and I say as surely that poor man is a Man of God why because he hath a little grace A Member of Jesus Christ is that man whose grace is flourishing Ay and that man is also a Member of Jesus Christ whose grace lies under the ashes there are no Flamings forth as yet Ay but my Friends there is a spark under the Embers I shall likewise open this in these two Branches 1. The first is this Greatest relations do not depend upon the proportions of the graces of the relations nay let me tell you that those relations that do discover the greatest intimacy and bring a Man within the greatest Blessedness these do not depend or hang upon the proportion of the graces of those relations O sayes the Spouse in the Conclusion of the Book of Canticles O that thou wert as my Brother that sucked the Breasts of my Mother 8. Cant. v. 1. So I may say it is many times with the Lords People they cry out O that Jesus Christ would reveal himself to me O he discovers himself to such and such O that he were as my Brother I dare not call him my Brother Ay but though thou darest not call him thy Brother thou canst humbly hope that thou art his Servant though thou canst not with that Freedom and fulness of assurance call him thy Brother O that he were as my Brother as one that sucked the Breasts of my Mother O that I were but in full communion with him Well it may be thou art not yet in that fulness of Freedom of Spirit that thou canst not as yet call him thy Brother yet thou mayst do so though thou hast but little grace Relations do not bear proportions according to the proportion of the graces of the related and therefore it is that God will look after the least grain of grace because the least is his It is my little grain of Corn this is my little grace this is my little Faith and my little Love and this is my little meekness the least degree of grace doth discover an interest in the greatest relations and greatness of relation doth not bear proportion to greatness of enjoyment 2 Secondly That those relations that a Christian stands in unto God immediately up-his entring into the relation all the blessings of the relation lye before him Now the least degree of grace doth admit to the Relation and now being admitted all the blessedness all the glory all the sweetness all the comfort all the happiness of the Relation lye before this man as well as before him that hath the greatest degree of grace You will say what is the glory of the Relation Nay what glory is there that is not in any relation that belongs to the Gospel In every Gospel Relation there is a fulness of glory and a fulness of Blessedness Now no sooner is a poor creature admitted into the Relation but all the blessedness of the Relation ly's open before him And the least degree of grace admits into the Relation The Lord doth not deal with his people that are related to him as we do first bring him into one Relation and then into another Relation and then into a higher Relation and then into a nearer Relation As now many times men bring one first into their Family take him up it may be by the high way or a neighbours Child and make him a poor and mean Servant in the Family it may be a Scullion or the like and then take him up to a higher place after that to a higher place till at length he come to make him his Child and not only his Child but his heir But now I pray friends consider
it is also your duty Keep but in Gods hands and you are well enough Do not you by reason of your own Corruptions start out of Gods way God hath the sieve in his own hand The Nation is but a sieve as I may say pray while God would have you there keep there don't step out of the Lords way till the Lord hath done all his work I pray observe one thing for the opening of it and that is this Live by this principle let the Lord take his own course with you to finish his own work upon you The Lord he is offended at Israel and he takes the Rod of his anger into his hand and he breaks them and bruses them Ay but there were some in Israel that did keep in the Lords way and what then When the Lord hath accomplisht his work upon Mount Sion why then he will break the Rod. My friends do but look upon temptations and afflictions you meet withal as means and methods that he purge you with Is there no chaff hangs upon the Corn I believe there is too much it may be God hath a mind to shake thee out of thy profession that is out of confidence in or lurking under thy profession for security Here 's a little chaff hangs and God hath a mind it shall be burnt and it sticks very close and God he will give it another shake in the Sieve Why Sirs let the Lord alone in his own way He is sifting Ay but he will look after the Wheat while he is sifting pray Christians let God alone It may be God is trying you this way it may be God is trying another another way trying a Servant by a Mistress trying a Parent by a Child trying a Child by a Parent trying a Mistress by a Servant Why what is the meaning of all Why yet there is a little sticks to the grain O Sirs I tell you God would I have you all clean and let God alone in the way of his own proceeds with you he will look after the grain and it 's no matteâ—â—f the chaff be burnt And now I pray Sirs having thus stretch't forth my hand to you what is the return I shall make to him that sent me Are you willing to abide in Gods way And let God alone in his own way Christians should be willing that God should sift till the grain be clean You do not take the chaff and the grain to make your selves bread of it is not fit for your use till it be sisted Well Sirs I tell you there may be a little grain but God hath a mind to sift you a little more he will make you fit for his use before he hath done with you And therefore let him alone in his way Does God afflict you I pray keep in Gods way though it be in a way of affliction though it be in a way of Tryal do not you leap or step out of the way of God No no It is a dangerous thing for a Christian to be found wandering alone in an evil time All that I shall say as the close of the whole is this You see my Friends that God commands the Sieve Behold saies God I will command what will God command Why I will command the Assyrian into the use of a sieve and I will command the Babylonian into the use of a sieve and I will command Edom into the use of a sieve I will command this Nation and the other Nation you see my Friends what ever instruments God makes use of he hath a peculiar regard unto the least grace and the least Christian I will command them and I will sift Christian the worst of thy condition is still in the Lords hand And therefore I pray Christians upon the review of the whole considering God hath said that he will do the business if God saies I will sift such a one in the Sieve of Temptation I will try him this way I will sift another with afflictions I will try him that way I pray'e let God alone Keep your hearts alwaies open to him keep in the way of God and then you will be found inheriting of the blessing of these Sermons and it will be said Lo though the Lord hath sifted them yet not one grain is lost And you may say Lo though the Lord is sifting me in the sieve of the Nations yet I shall not lose one grain For this is his word I will Command and I will sift them in the sieve of the Nations As Corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall to the Earth SERMON VII Amos 9. Verse 9. For Lo I will Command and I will sift the House of Israel among all Nations as Corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth THe words are a reserve of grace this and the preceding verse are a mixture of wrath and mercy The greatest discovery of wrath that ordinarily we meet withal and yet the greatest reserve of grace and mercy that ordinarily we meet withal in the Scripture The discovery's of wrath I shall only desire a little to descant upon says the Prophet in the 8. v. The Eyes of the Lord are upon a sinful Kingdom and what then I will destroy it says he from off the face of the Earth and at the 9. v. says he Lo I will command I will sift the House of Israel among all Nations Nations of all Tempers and Nations of all Spirits be they of an Egypttian or of a Babylonian Spirit be they of an Edomitish Spirit or of any Spirit whatsoever says God I will sift them among all Nations It is as much as if God should say I will let loose all sorts of Spirits that are evil and afflictive upon the sinful Kingdom the House of Israel behold says God the Eyes of the Lord are upon a sinful Kingdom I pray observe Obs That your presence with or your relation to a Religious People cannot secure you from the dreadful threatnings that are denounced against the Irreligious by a Holy God Lo says he I will command c. And I do not remember a like passage upon the like occasion in the Scripture I will command says he and I will sift the House of Israel and the Eyes of the Lord are upon a sinful Kingdom Sirs it is not enough to be with Christians and to walk with Christians except you your selves be Christians it is not your being with or walking with the Lords People that can secure you from the Lords threatnings But yet notwithstanding the dreadfulness of the threatning here is a double reserve of grace in the 8. v. he concludes with a reserve of grace and indeed it is the manner of God in the Old Testament to wind up his dreadful threatnings in the most incouraging promises of absolute grace saving that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob saith the Lord. I will only observe this one thing