have been to have our share in it for the refreshment and curing of our Souls Nor shall any that came thus be disappointed and if not presently yet most certainly and that in due time they shall find the sweet fruits of it You have heard many ways how the Name of Christ is poured out yet there is one more without which all the rest are ineffectual It is this The secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God in the Soul The Ordinances and means of Salvation do indeed pour forth the Name of Christ round about a Man but till the Spirit concur with them not one drop falls within the Soul and is he not so much the more miserable that hears much of Christ and partakes nothing of him Yes surely a Man may have much common knowledge of Christ and may understand well yea may Preach well concerning his Worth and Graces and yet not love him But there is a particular knowledg of him by the Infusion of the Spirit and where the smallest measure of this is it presently wins the affection There is a shedding abroad of the love of God in onr hearts that the Apostle speaks of Rom. 5. 5. and this draws us after him for our love to God is nothing else but the reflexion of his love to us So then though many hear of Christ yet because there are but few that have this special knowledge of him therefore it is that so few do truly esteem of him and love him and they are such as are here called Virgins And that 's the third thing The Virgins Similitude and Conformity of Natures begets Friendship pure Affections delight in a pure Object and makes them such for the truth is Christ doth not find men naturally suitable to himself but as he took on our Nature so he washeth away the sinfulness of our Nature which he took not on and makes us that way conformable to his Nature and they that are so changed though they were formerly lovers of Sin yet by Conversion which is called Regeneration they are born again and so become not only Chaste but even Virgins spiritually for by Virgins here are not meant such as Romish Votaries fancy them to be No this Virginity may well consist with any lawful State of Life These Virgins are such as be truly Holy and pure in Heart and Life who though they are not perfectly free from all sin yet have they affection to no sin these are singularly delighted with the smell of Christ's Name and Graces while the Voluptuous Person and the Prophane Worldling dislikes and despises it The Virgins they bestow their affection whole and entire upon Christ. How grosly do you delude your selves that make your hearts Dens of Pride filthy Lust Malice and Envy and thousands of Vanities and yet think to find a corner in them to lodge Christ too Truly you would both straiten him in room and give him very bad Neighbours No they that think not a whole heart too little for him shall never enjoy him The Virgins love thee Grace destroys not the natural passions of the Soul but corrects them only by destroying their Corruption and so they become not only not contrary to Grace but are made the subject and seat of Grace This of Love which is the chief of them we see it abolisheth not but rectifies it recalling it to its due object and turning it into the right channel by which it may empty it self into the Ocean of Goodness And this love may well consist with the purity of Virgins yea it is this love that purifies and makes them such The Virgins love but whom Thee and it is as reasonnable a love as it is pure Therefore they love thee because thou hast made them in some measure apprehensive of thy worth which commands the love of all that know it not a cold and indifferent affection but a superlative ardent love far over-topping all their other desires And good reason since Christ doth infinitely and beyond all comparison surpass all other things desirable Ask your own hearts if you love Christ thus for if not thus you love him not at all The Apostle St. Paul's love was of this size Phil. 3. 7 8. But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lerd for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Thus love will not only undergo difficulties and sufferings for Christ without either repining or fainting but it will even be glad to meet with them as opportunity is to exercise and testifie it self hard things will seem most easie for his sake and bitter things exceeding sweet In a word To him that loves â—ca 〈…〉 is impo 〈…〉 Love is the leading passion of the Soul all the rest conform themselves to it Desire and Hope and Fear Joy and Sorrow If then you love Christ the desires and breathings of your Soul after him are strong and earnest if he withdraw himself or appear angry if either you see him not or see him look discontented your grief will be so deep that it cannot be allayed by any worldly imployments yet upon some former tokens of his love which is known to be unchangeable Hope will uphold the Soul till the beams of his Grace scatter the Cloud and break through Though our Joseph seem strange and speak roughly for a while he cannot long refrain discovering his affection Again love you him unspeakable will be your joy when he smiles upon you as great will be your delight in possession as your desire is in pursuit And while you have his presence it will be too hard a task for any affliction to dismay you Have you indeed heard Christ speak comfortably to you this day at his Holy Table How will this enable the Soul and arm it against dangers and distracting distrustful fears Perfect love casteth out fear saith St. John that is all base and servile fear but there is one fear that 's in no heart but where love begets it fear to offend You know how wary and loth men are naturally to displease those they love therefore it is that love to Christ and a careful observing of his Commandments are inseparable Companions yea Love it self is the fulfilling of the Law for it gives up the heart to God and consequently the whole man Then there is no return of duty which your receiving of Christ calls for and what doth it not call for there is none I say but is comprised under this one of Love Do you owe him praises Yes surely then love him that will stir you up to praise him You never knew but where much love was in the heart it made the tongue ready and active upon all occasions to praise the party loved Love will entertain small courtesies with great thanks much more
lives and fall in love with it but he is no less abhorred by the Searcher of hearts than pleasing to himself Surely this mischief of Hypocrisie can never be enough inveighed against When Religion is in request it s the chief malady of the Church and numbers dye of it though because its a subtile and inward Evil it be little perceived It s to be feared there are many sick of it that look well and comely in God's outward Worship and they may pass well in good Weather in times of Peace but days of Adversity are days of Trial. The prosperous Estate of the Church makes Hypocrites and her Distress discovers them but if they escape such trial there is one inevitable day coming wherein all secret things shall be made manifest Men shall be turn'd inside out and amongst all Sinners that shall then be brought before that Judgment Seat the deformedst sight shall be an unmasked Hypocrite and the heaviest sentence shall be his Portion Oh! That the consideration of this would scare us out of that false disguise in time and set us all upon the study of Sincerity precious is that Grace in God's esteem a little of it will weigh down Mountains of formal Religion in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Which of us have not now brought Hypocrisie more or less into this House of God Oh! that it were not with intention to nourish it but with desire to be here cured of it for he alone that hates it so much can cure it he alone can confer upon us that sincerity wherein he mainly delights If we have a mind indeed to be indued with it it is no where else to be had we must intreat it of God by humble Prayer in the name of his Well beloved Son by the assistance of his Holy Spirit Isaiah LX. 1. Second Sermon Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee TRuly light is sweet and it is a pleasing thing to behold the Sun says the Preacher Eccles. 11. 7. But the interchange of Night with Day adds to its beauty and the longest Night makes Day the welcomest as that People well knows whose scituation in the World gives them a five or six months Night all of one piece It is reported of some of them That when they conceive their Night draws towards an end they put on their richest Apparel and climb up to the highest Mountains with emulation who shall first discover the returning light which so soon as it appears they Salute with Acclamations of Joy and welcom it with solemn Feasting and all other Testimonies of exceeding gladness But such is the Lethargy of sinful Man that he stirs not to meet his Spiritual Light and which is worse when it comes upon him it finds him in love with Darkness instead of his shouts of Joy for this Light many a cry must be sounded in his Ears to awaken him and it is well too if at length he hear and obey this Voice Arise shine for thy light is come c. It is clear that the words contain a Command and the Reason of it The Command to a twofold act The Reason under two Expressions proportionately different Good reason the Church should arise when the Lord's Glory is risen upon her and it is very congruous she should be enlightned and shine when her light is come Of those two Acts or Duties somewhat was formerly spoken and the reason likewise was made use of so far as relative to those Duties and tending to their inforcement But the meaning of the Phrases in which the Reason is exprest was rather at that time supposed then either duly proved or â—â—lustrated so that it will be now expedient to consider simply in themselves these latter words Thy light is come c. So far as this Prophesie hath respect to the reduction of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity that Temporal Deliverance and ensuing Peace and Prosperity was their Light and that Divine Power by which it was effected was this Glory of the Lord. And indeed both these expressions are frequently used in such a sense in Holy Writ When I waited for light there came darkness says Job in his 30 Chapter 26 ver So Isaiah 58. 20 and many other places And the Glory of the Lord for a singular effect of his Power Joh. 11. 40. Isa. 60. 18. and elsewhere But this literal sense is but a step to elevate the Prophet to a sight of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom which is usual with him as our Saviour himself testifies of another of his Prophesies These things said Esaias when he saw his Glory and spoke of him Joh. 12. 41. It was a sight of that same Glory that makes him say Thy light was true c. In these words there are three things concerning Christ represented to the Churches view First His Beauty and Excellency in that he is called light and the glory of the Lord. Secondly The Churches Propriety and Interest in him Thy light and risen upon thee which hath a restrictive Emphasis as the very next verse doth clearly manifest as he is originally the Glory of the Lord and the Light of the Lord Lumen de lumine so he is Communicatively the Churches light â—nd her Glory too as it is exprest in the 19th verse of this same Chapter Thy God thy Glory Thus hath she both his worth and her own right in him to consider Thirdly His Presence or her actual Possession He is come and is risen and in these the Church and each faithful Soul may find a double Spring of Affection the one of Love the other of Joy The transcendent Beauty of Christ makes him the choicest object of Love and her Property in him or Title to him together with Possession is the proper Cause of solid Joy First then this Excellency is exprest by these two Characters light and the glory of the Lord. Concerning which it will be fit both to demonstrate that they are the proper Titles of Christ and here to be taken for him as also to shew what they signifie in him Indeed the Apostle in his second Epistle to the Corinthians 3 Chapter insists much in extolling both the light and the glory of the Gospel And in the 4th verse of the next Chapter speaks of the light of the Glorious Gospel but he immediately imitates whence it hath this Light and Glory the glorious Gospel of Christ says he who is the Image of God So that it is most unnecessary to enquire whether the Messiah or the Word that reveals him be rather here couched under these terms of Light and the Glory of the Lord. These two agree so well altogether and these words agree so well to them both that it were an injury to attempt to sever them All the difference will be this Christ is that incomplex and substantial Light The Gospel that complex Light wherein he appears but not to be guilty of dark terms especially in a
shouldest be afraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man which shall be made as Grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth c. Consider then that Men have no power of our present Life but by the appointment of God and beside that we have another Life which is infinitely more precious than this a Life spiritual and which is the begining of eternal Life and this is altogether out of their danger Col. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God It is hid And wicked Men cannot so much as see it how then should they take it from us seeing it is hid and that not meanly it is hid with Christ in God What then shall become of it read the next verse and read it to your comfort for there is abundance in it if you look right upon it When Christ who is our Life shall appear we likewise shall appear with him in Glory They that are in God being united to him through Christ can never by any power be separated from him it is an indissoluble union death it self that is the great dissolver of all other unions civil and natural is so far from untying this that it consummates it it conveys the Soul into the nearest and fullest enjoyment of God who is its Life where it shall not need to desire that God would command or send his loving kindness as it were at a distance it shall be then at the Spring-head and shall be satisfied with his Love for ever c. SERMON VII PREFACE WHerefore do you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfies not says the Prophet Isaiah 55. 2. All Men agree in this that they would willingly meet with some satisfying good and yet if you look right upon the projects and labours of the greatest part shall find them flying from it and taking much pains to be miserable And truly considering the darkness that 's upon the Soul of Man 't is no great wonder to see these miss their way and continue wandring that hear not the voice of the Gospel to recal them and and see not its Light to direct them But this is somewhat strange that where true happiness and the true way to it is propounded and set before Men so few should follow it in good earnest If the excellency of that good did not allure them yet one would think that their many disappointments in all other things should drive them home to it How often do we run our selves out of breath after shadows and when we think we have overtaken them and would lay hold on them we find nothing and yet still we love to befool our selves even against our own experience which we say uses to make Fools wiser still we chuse rather to shift from one vanity to another than to return to that Sovereign good that alone can fill the vastest desires of our Souls rather to run from one broken Cistern to another as the Prophet calls them yea and to take pains to hew them out than have recourse to that Fountain of living waters One main thing that makes Men thus rove and wander is that they do not reflect upon their own course nor themselves what 's the main end they aim at and then see whether their way be suitable to that end If they would be happy as who would not then sure things that are empty and uncertain and certainly perishing will not serve the turn And truly as this thought would be seasonable at any time so especially to us in these times wherein besides the common uncertainty of outward things there is an apparent visible hazard that Men's Lives and Fortunes are likely to be put to Will you make advantage and gain of your trouble Thus the looser you find other things tied to you and as it were upon a running knot secure that one thing and your portion in it which is worth all the rest yea far above them all and that alone which can be secured and made certain wanting this what though you had Peace and Health and all imaginable prosperity you would still be miserable being liable to the wrath of God and eternal destruction But if once united to Christ and in him reconciled to God and intitled to Heaven what can fall amiss to you You shall have Joy in the midst of Sorrow and Affliction and Peace in the midst of War yea and Life in Death But think not to attain this assurance while you continue profane and godless not seeking it in the way of Holiness for there alone it is to be found and withal beg it of God by humble prayer Psal. CXIX 136. Rivers of Waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law LOve is the leading passion of the Soul all the rest follow the measure and motion of it as the lower Heavens are said to be wheel'd about with the first We have here a clear instance of it in the Psalmist testifying his love to God by his esteem and love of the Law or Word of God what is each of the several verses of this Psalm but a several breathing and vent of this love either in it self or in the causes or in the effects of it where he sets forth the excellencies and utilities of God's Law there you have the causes of his love his observing and studying it his desire to know it more and observe it better these are the effects of his affection to it The Love it self he often expresseth verses 47 48 113. and verse 140. Thy Word is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it And verse 127. I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold But as scarce accounting that love which can be uttered how much it is verse 97. He expresseth it most by intimating that he cannot express it O how I love thy Law Hence are his desires which are love in pursuit so earnest after it Amongst many that is pathetical verse 20. My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgements at all times Hence likewise his Joy and Delight which are love in possession verse 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as in all riches And verse 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word We have his hatred of things opposite which is loves antipathy verse 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love And 163 verse I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love And in the 139 verse you shall find his zeal which is no other but the fire of Love stirred up or blown into a flame My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words And to omit the rest in the 158 verse â—is love to the Law shews its sympathy in sorrow for the violation of the Law I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not
c. And having done this he sends his Word the Message of Reconciliation to Rebels and sends his Spirit into the hearts of these whom he hath appointed to Salvation to change their Spirits that they perish not in Disobedience he brings them near that were far off having slain this enmity by the Death of his Son As many of you then as have hitherto heard this Message of Reconcilement in vain be perswaded at last to give ear to it This is all that Gods Ambassadours require according to their Instructions from himself That men would lay down that enmity against him and not be so foolish as wilfully to perish in it 2 Cor. 5. 20. Consider that this enmity is 1 Unjust 2 Unhappy Unjust it is being against him who is the chief object of Love who is altogether Goodness both in himself and towards his Creatures it is too much not to love him with most ardent and superlative affection but to entertain enmity against him is madness as he said to one who asked why are the beautiful loved it is a blind man's question Certainly we are blind if we see not cause enough not only to desist from enmity but to be inflamed with his love one glance of his amiable countenance is sufficient to cause the most rebellious heart to yield and lay down arms and for ever devote themselves to his service No we know him not and therefore it is we hold out against him is he not the living spring of all our comforts Have we not from him life and breath and all things And is he not ready to forgive Iniquity Transgression and Sin Let mercy melt our hearts to him those sweet rays of love Let his loving kindness overcome these stubborn Hearts or Spirits of ours among Enemies the weaker usually seeks first for Peace but here the Mighty Almighty God comes to intreat agreement with sinful Clay But if this prevail not then think how unhappy this enmity is you that are so afraid of men and these weak men of men like your selves whose breath is in their Nostrils will ye not tremble at his power and be afraid to continue in terms of Hostility against him who is the Lord of Hosts who hath power of the Soul and Body both to kill both and cast them into Hell What is the stoutest of men but as Stubble to the flame of his Wrath Our God is a consuming fire the sinners in Zion are afraid says the Prophet who shall dwell say they with devouring fire and everlasting burnings Then if you would not perish when his wrath is kindled take that word of Eliphaz Job 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee And to you so many as he hath taken into friendship with himself look backward to the gulf you have escaped and forward to the happiness you are appointed too and let the joynt-consideration of both awaken your Hearts and Tongues to Praises How can your Hearts contain such a wonder of Love as he hath manifested to you and not run over in Songs and Praise And as you owe him praises so study being made his friends to become more like him that same idem velle idem nolle to love and hate the same things with him will be a sure testimony of friendship And because carnality or fleshly and earthly mindedness is here made the Character of Enmity mortifie these affections nail them to that Cross of Christ whereby the enmity was taken away And further being once admitted into friendship labour for a further degree of Intimacy with him and forbear every thing that may hinder that use frequent converse with him for that both entertains and increases friendship If any thing fall out on your part as it too often does that may occasion any strangeness betwixt you and your God rest not till it be removed and if you walk in this way it shall undoubtedly at length bring you where you shall abide in his presence for ever and shall no more fear any breach or interruption of enjoying him To him be praise Amen SERMON X. Rom. XIII 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake THE Wisdom and Goodness of God that shines in the natural order and dependence of things in the frame of the great World appears likewise and commends it self to us in the civil order he hath instituted in the Societies of Men the lesser World As out of the same Mass he made the Heaven and the Earth and the other Elements betwixt them one higher than another and gave them different Stations and Qualities yet so different as to be linkt and concatenated together Concordia Discordia and all for the concern and benefit of the whole Thus for the good of Men hath the Lord assigned these different Stations of Rule and Subjection though all of one Race Acts 17. Raising from among Men some above the rest and Cloathed them with such Authority as hath some representment of himself and accordingly communicating to them his own Name I have said you are Gods And the very power that is in Magistracy to curb and punish these that despise it the Apostle useth as a strong and hard Cord to bind on the duty of Obedience a Cord of Necessity but he adds another of a higher Necessity that binds more strongly and yet more sweetly that of Conscience wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Observe 1. This is the main consideration that closes the discourse the great Cord that binds on and fastens all the rest all the arguments foregoing therefore are mainly here to be prest Have a reverent and conscientious respect to the Ordinance of God in the Institution of Government and to the Providence of God in his choice of those particular persons whom he calls to it Contain thy self in thy own Station and submit to those set higher by the Lord in obedience to him This indeed is the only true Spring of all obedience both to God and to Men for him and according to his Ordinance to regulate the outward carriage without the living principle of an enlightned and sanctified conscience within is to build without a Foundation This is the thing God eyes most he looks through the surface of Mens Actions to the bottom follows them into their source examines from what perswasives and reasons they flow he sees not only the handle of the Dial but all the Wheels and Weights of the Clock that are the cause of its motion and accordingly judges both Men and their Actions to be good or evil as the inward frame and secret motions of the heart are in his own Worship the outside of it may have the same visage and plausable appearance in a multitude conven'd to it and concurring in it and no humane eye can trace a difference and yet oh what vast difference doth Gods eye discover
as a House covers all for so it signifies doth not blaze abroad the failingâ— of men yea it hides much covers a multitude of sins not only from the eyes of others but even from a mans own eyes makes him not behold and look on those things that might provoke him yea it is Ingenious and Inventive of the fairest Constructions of things to take them by the best side in the favourablest sense and so long as there is any agreeable way to Interpret any thing favourably will not have a hard thought of it Thinks no ill as there it is not only hath not active evil thoughts of Revenge or returning Evil but willingly doth not judge ill of what is done by others and that might be so lookt on as to provoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not reckon wrongs so high as want of Charity moves the most to do sets them low and as a healthful Constitution is sweet it self and relishes all things right there is more true pleasure and content of mind in forgiving than ever any man found in revenge that is but a Feverish delight that Malice and Anger hath wrought working perhaps greedily but is indeed a Distemper This Love is the very root of Peace and Concord a humble Grace that is not lifted up and Insolent as the word there is and so doth not breed Jars about Punctiliâ—e esteems so well of others and so meanly of it self that it cannot well be crost by any in that matter of under valuing But vain Spirits are puft up with a little approbation and as easily kindled up with any affront or apprehended disgrace Love is not lightly put out of temper as sickly Constitutions a Fit of a Fever or Ague with any blast or wrong touch of Diet it is of a stronger digestion and firmer health Then for that Not commit Adultery All things of that kind though they spring from a kind of Love yet not from this Love from above but as the Apostle James distinguishes wisdom from the Love that is sensual and devilish Love is not the true name of it but base and brutish Lust and generally all prophane Societies and sortings of men one with another are most contrary to this pure Love The Drunkards that are Cup-friends as they are full of Jars and have no constancy but are unstable as that wherein their Friendship lies their Liquor are a vile despicable Society not worthy of Men much less of Christians This sin hath affininity with Uncleanness and is usually ranked there Right Love to a Tipler is not to sit down and guzzle with him but to reprove and labour to reclaim him and where that cannot be done to avoid him To wicked persons we owe not a complacency or delight which is most contrary to this Love but hating their Sin we owe them Love and the desiring and as far as Love can the procuring their Conversion and Salvation Wicked Converse cannot consist with this Love which is the fulfilling of the Law and a Combination for the breaking of it and the joining their strength together for that end Love rejoiceth not in Iniquity but in the Truth makes not men rejoice together in Sin So foul unclean Affections and a Society in order to the gratiâ—ying them is most contrary to it true Love is most tender of the Chastity of others and cannot abide an impute thought in it self So in not Stealing Love would be loth to enrich or advantage it self upon the damage of others in any kind it doth most faithfully â—nd singly seek the profit and prosperity of our Neighbour even as our own And iâ— this took place of how much use were it in the World But oh it is rare This meum and tuum is the grand Cause of the ill understanding and discords that are amongst men when it is not managed by this Love but by Self-love And the tendering and preserving of the good name of our Brethren is a proper and very remarkable fruit of this Love which is so far from forging false defaming Stories that it will rather excuse if it may be done or if not will pity the real failings of men that tend to their reproach and on the contrary will teach men to rejoice in the good carriage and good esteem of their Brethren as of their own In the end Love works such a Complacency in the good of others and such a Contentation with our own Estate that it most powerfully banishes that unruly humour of Coveting which looks on the condition of others with envy and on our own with grudging and discontent This Law of Love written within doth not only rectifie and order the Hands and Tongue but the Jealousies the very stirrings of the Heart it corrects the usual disorder of its motion and bars those uncharitable inordinate thoughts that do so abound and swarm in Carnal minds 3. The Original of this Love is that other Love which corresponds to the other part the first and chief point of the Law our Duty towards God Love to him is the sum and source of all Obedience when the whole Soul and Mind is possest with that then all is acceptable and sweet that he commands first what he commands as immediately referrable to himself and then what is the Rule of our Carriage to men as being prescrib'd and commanded by him For so and no otherwise is this Love the fulfilling of the Law when it flows from that first Love Love to God whose Law it is that commands this other Love to Men. Some may have somewhat like it by a mildness and ingenuity of Nature being inoffensive and well-willing towards all but then only doth it fulfil the Law when out of regard to the Law of God it obeys and obeys out of love to him whose Law it is So then the Love of God in the heart is the Spring of right and holy Love to our Neighbour both 1 because in obedience to him whom we love soveraignly we will love even sincerely because he will have it so That is reason enough to the Soul possest and taken up with his Love It loves nothing how lovely soever but in him and for him in order and subordination to his Love and in respect to his Will and it loves any thing how unlovely soever taking it in that Contemplation It loves not the dearest Friend but in God and can love the hatefullest Enemy for him Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum Aug. His love can beautifie the most unamiable Object and make it lovely He saith of a worthless undeserving Man or thy most undeserving Enemy Love him for my sake because it pleases me that 's reason enough to one that loves him 2 There is that dilateing sweetning Vertue in love to God that it can act no other way to men but as becomes Love Base self-self-love contracts the heart and is the very root of all Sin the chief wickedness in our corrupt Nature but the Love of God
sufficient for Self-support therefore naturally it seeks out some other thing to lean and rest it self on The unhappiness is for the most part that it seeks to things below it self these being both so mean and so uncertain cannot be a firm and certain stay to it These things are not fixed themselves how can they then fix the heart Can a man have firm footing on a Quagmire or moving Sands Therefore men are forc'd in these things still to shift their seat and seek about from one to another still rolling and unsettled The Believer only hath this advantage he hath a rest high enough and sure enough out of the reach of all hazards His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal. 81. 2. The Basis of this happiness is He trusteth on the Lord. So the heart is fixed and so fixed it fears no ill tidings This trust is grounded on the Word of God revealing the Power and All sufficiency of God aâ—â— withal his Goodness his offer of himself to be the stay of Souls commanding us to rest on him People wait on I know not what perswasions and assurances but I know no other â—o build Faith on but the Word of Promise the truth and faithfulness of God opened up his wisdom and power and goodness as â—he stay of all these that renouncing all other props will venture on it and lay all upon him He that believes sets to his Seal that God is true and so he is sealed for God his Portion and Interest secured Isa. 7. 9. If you will not believe surely ye shall not be established This is the way to have peace and assurance which many look for first Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stay'd on thee because he trusteth in thee Isa. 26. 3. So here the heart is fixed by trusting Seek then clearer apprehensions of the faithfulness and goodness of God hearts more enlarged in the notion of free Grace and the absolute trust due to it thus shall they be more establish'd and fix'd in all the rollings and changes of the World Heart fixed Or prepared ready prest and in Arms for all Services resolved not to give back able to meet all adventures and stand its ground God is unchangeable and therefore Faith is invincible that sets the heart on him fastens it there on the Rock of Eternity Then let Winds blow and Storms arise it cares not This firm and close cleaving unto God hath in it of the affection which is inseparable from this trust Love with Faith and so a hatred of all ways and thoughts that alienate and estrange from God that remove and unsettle the heart The holiest wariest heart is surely the most believing and fixed heart if a Believer will adventure on any one way of sin he shall find that will unfix him and shake his confidence more than ten thousand hazards and assaults from without These are so far from moving that they settle and fix the heart commonly more cause it to cleave the closer and nearer unto God but sinful Liberty breeds inquiet and disturbs all Where Sin is there will be a Storm the Wind within the Bowels of the Earth makes the Earthquake Would you be quiet and have peace within in troublous times keep near unto God beware of any thing that may intâ—â—pose betwixt you and your confidence It is good for me say the Psalmist to be near God not only to draw near but to keep near to cleave to him and dwell in him So the Word Oh the sweet Calm of such a Soul amidst all Storms thus once trusting and fixed then no more fear Not afraid of evil â—idings not any ill hearing Whatsoever sound is terrible in the Ears of men the noise of War news of Death even the found of the Trumpet in the last Judgment he hears all this undisquieted Nothing is unexpected being once fixed on God then the heart may put cases to it self and suppose all things imaginable the most terrible and look for them Not troubled before trouble with dark and dismal apprehensions but satisfied in a quiet unmoved expectation of the hardest things Whatsoever it is though particularly not thought on before yet the heart is not afraid of the news of it because fixed trusting on the Lord nothing can shake that foundation nor dissolve that union therefore no fear Yea this assurance stays the heart in all things how strange and unforeseen soever to it all foreseen to my God on whom I trust yea fore-contrived and ordered by him This the impregnable Fort of a Soul all is at the dispose and command of my God My father rules all what need I fear Every one trusts to somewhat as for honour and esteem and popularity they are airy vain things but riches seem a more solid work and fence yet they are but a Tower in conceit not really Prov. 18. 11. The rich mans wealth is his strong City and as an high Wall in his own conceit but the name of the Lord is a strong Tower indeed ver 10. This the thing all seek some fence and fixing here it is we call you not to vexation and turmoil but from it And as St. Paul said Act. 17. Whom ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you ye blindly and fruitlessly seek after the shew The true aiming at this fixedness of mind will make that though they fall short yet by the way they will light on very pretty things that have some vertue in them as they that seek the Philosophers Stone But the Believer hath the thing the secret it self of Tranquillity and Joy and this turns all into God their Iron Chains into a Crown of Gold 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. This is the blest and safe estate of Believers Who can think they have a sad heavy life Oh! it is the only lightsome sweet chearful condition in the World the rest of men are poor rolling unstayed things every report shaking them as the leaves of Trees are shaken with the Wind Isa. 7. Yea lighter than so as the Chaff that the Wind drives to and â—ro at its pleasure Psal. 1. Would men but reflect and look in upon their own hearts 't is a wonder what vain childish things the most would find there glad and sorry at things as light as the toys of Children at which they laugh and cry in a breath how easily puâ—t up with a thing or word that pleaseth us Bladder like swell'd with a little air and it shrinks in again in discouragements and fear upon the touch of a Needles point which gives that air some vent What is the life of the greatest part but a continual tossing betwixt vain hopes and fears all their days spent in these Oh! how vain a thing is a man even in his best estate while he is nothing but himself his heart not united and fixed on God disquieted in vain how small a thing will do it He need no other but his own heart it may prove
And never cease in this work for still there is â—eed of more purging one dayes work in this disposes for and engages to a further to the next for as sin is purged out Light comes in and more clear discoveries are made of remaining pollutions So then still there must be progress less of the World and more of God in the heart every day Oh this is a sweet course of Life what gain what preferment to be compared to it And in this 't is good to have our ambition growing the higher we rise to aspire still the higher looking farther than before even toward the perfection of holiness it is not much we can here attain to but sure 't is commonly far less than we might we improve not our condition and advantages as we might do the world is busie driving forewards their designs Men of spirit are animated both by better and worse success if any thing miscarry it sets them on the more eagerly to make it up in the right management of some other design and when they prosper in one thing that enables and incourages them to attempt further shall all things seem worth our pains are only Grace and Glory so cheap in our account that the least diligence of all goes that way Oh! strange delusion Now our cleansing is to be managed by all holy means Word and Sacrament more wisely and spiritually used than commonly with us and private Prayer that purifies and elevates the Soul takes it up into the Mount and makes it shine and particularly supplicating for the Spirit of holiness and victory over sin is not in vain it obtains its desires of God the Soul becoming that which it is fixedly set upon Holy resolution Christians much wanting in this faint and loose in their purposes The consideration of Divine Truths the mysteries of the Kingdom the hope of Christians yea rich and great Promises that is particularly here the motive these are all the means holy means they are as their end is the perfection of holiness Having these Promises Now consider whether it is better to be the Slaves of Satan or the Sons of God measure delight in God with the low base pleasures of sense Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God these gradually go on together and are perfected together Why then is there such an invincible love of sin in the hearts of Men at least why so little love of holiness and endeavour after it so mean thoughts of it as a thing either indecent or unpleasant when 't is the only noble and the only delightful thing in the World the Soul by other things is drawn below it self but by holiness it is raised above it self and made Divine Pleasures of sin for a season the pleasure of a moment exchanged for those of Eternity But even in the mean time in this season the Soul is fed with Communion with God one hour of which is more worth than the longest Life of the highest of the Worlds delights SERMON XV. Psal. CXIX 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart TO desire ease and happiness under a general representation of it is a thing of more easie and general perswasion There is somewhat in Nature to help the argument but to find beauty in and be taken with the very way of holiness that leads to it is more rare and depends on a higher principle Self-love inclines a man to desire the rest of Love but to love and desire the labour of Love is love of a higher and purer strain To delight and be chearful in obedience argues much love as the spring of it that is the thing the holy Psalmist doth so plentifully express in this Psalm and he is still desiring more of that sweet and lively affection that might make him yet more abundant in action Thus here I will run c. He presents his desire and purpose together the more of this Grace thou bestowest on me the more service shall I be able to do thee This is the top of his ambition while others are seeking to enlarge their Barns their Lands or Estates or Titles Kings to enlarge their Territories or Authority to incroach on Neighbouring Kingdoms or be more absolute in their own instead of all such Enlargements this is David's great desire An enlarged heart to run the way of Gods Commandments And these other how big soever they sound are poor narrow desires this one is larger and higher than them all and gives evidence of a heart already large but as it is miserably in those 't is happy in this much would still have more Let others seek more Money or more Honour Oh the blessed choice of that Soul that is still seeking more Love to God more affection and more ability to do him service that counts all days and hours for lost that are not employed to this improvement that hears the Word in publick and reads it in private for this purpose to kindle this love or to blow the sparkable if any there be already in the heart to raise it to a clear flame and from a little flame to make it burn yet hotter and purer and rise higher But above all means is often presenting this in Prayer to him on whose influence all depends in whose hand our hearts are much more than in our own it follows him with this desire and works on him by his own interest though there can be really no accession of gain to him by our services yet he is pleased so to account with us as if there were therefore we may urge this Lord give more and receive more I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart We have here in the words a required disposition and a suitable resolution The disposition relates to the resolution as the means of fulfilling it and the resolution relates to the disposition both as the end of desiring it and as the motive of obtaining it The resolution occurs first in the words I will run c. The way resolved on is that of Gods Commandments not the road of the polluted World not the crooked ways of his own heart but the High way the Royal way the straight way of the Kingdom and that in the Notion of Subjection and Obedience the way of thy Commandments This man naturally struggles against and repines at to be limited and bounded by a Law is a restraint and a vain man could possibly find in his heart to do many of the same things that are commanded but he would not be ty'd would have his liberty and do 't of his own choice This is the enmity of the carnal mind against God as the Apostle expresses it it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be it breaks these Bonds and casts away the Cords of his Authority This is Sin the transgression of a Law and this made the first Sin so great though in a
humble Christian is better taught his falls teach him indeed to abhor himself they discover his own weakness to him and empty him of Self-trust but they do not dismay him to get up and go on not boldly and carelessly forgetting his fall but in the humble sense of it walking the more warily but not the less swiftly yea the more swiftly too making the more haste to regain the time lost by the fall So then if you would run in this way depend on the strength of God and on his Spirit leading thee that so thou mayest not fall and yet if thou dost fall arise and if thou art plunged in the mire go to the Fountain opened for Sin and Uncleanness and wash there bemoan thy self before thy Lord and if hurt and bleeding by thy fall yet look to him desire Jesus to pity thee and bind up and cure thy Wound washing off thy Blood and pouring in of his own However it is with thee give not over faint not run on and that thou mayest run the more easily and expeditely make thy self as light as may be lay aside every weight Heb. 12. 1 2. Clog not thy self with unnecessary burdens of Earth and especially lay aside that that of all other things weighs the heaviest and cleaves the closest the Sin that so easily besets us and is so hardly put off us that folds so connaturally to us and we therefore think will not hinder us much And not only the Sins that are more outward but the inner close-cleaving Sins the sin that most of all sits easily to us not only our Cloak but our inner Coat away with that too as our Saviour says in another case and run the race set before us our appointed Stage and that with patience under all oppositions and discouragements from the World without and Sin within And to encourage thee in this look to such a Cloud of Witnesses that compasseth us about to further us as Troubles Tentations and Sin do to hinder us they encountered the like sufferings and were encounter'd with the like sins and yet they run on and got home Alexander would have run in the Olympick Games if he had had Kings to run with now in this race Kings and Prophets and Righteous Persons run yea all are indeed a Kingly Generation each one Heir to a Crown as the prize of this Race And if these encourage thee but little then look beyond them above that Cloud of Witnesses to the Son the Son of Righteousness looking off from all things here that would either entangle thee or discourage thee taking thine eye off from them and looking to him that will powerfully draw thee and animate thee Look to Jesus not only as thy Fore-runner in this Race but also as thy Undertaker in it the Author and Finisher of our Faith his attaining the end of the Race is the pledg of thy attaining if thou follow him chearfully on the same encouragements that he lookt to who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is now set down at the Right Hand of God When thou shalt enlarge my heart In all beings Nature is the principle of motion and according as it is more or less perfect in its kind those motions that flow from it are more or less vigorous Therefore hath the Psalmist good reason to the end his Spiritual Course may be the stedfaster and the faster to desire that the principle of it the heart may be more enabled and disposed which here he expresses by its being enlarged What this enlargement of the heart is a mans own inward sense should easily explain to him sure it would did men reflect on it and were they acquainted with their own hearts but the most are not they would find the Carnal natural heart a narrow contracted hampered thing bound with Cords and Chains of its own twisting and forging and so incapable of walking much less of running in this way of Gods Commandments till it be freed and enlarged The Heart is taken generally in Scripture for the whole Soul the Understanding and Will in its several affections and motions and the speech being here of an enlarged heart it seems very congruous to take it in the most enlarged sense It is said of Solomon that he had a large heart the same word that 's here as the sand of the Sea shoar that is a vast comprehensive Spirit that could fathom so much of Nature greater and lesser things He spoke of Trees from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop in the Wall and of great Beasts and small creeping things Thus I conceive the enlargement of the heart compriseth the inlightning of the Understanding there arises a clearer light there to discern Spiritual things in a more Spiritual manner to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the World goes after and the true solid delight that is in the way of Gods Commandments to know the false blush of the pleasures of Sin and what deformity is under that painted Mask and not be allured by it to have enlarged apprehensions of God his excellency and greatness and goodness how worthy he is to be obeyed and served This is the great dignity and happiness of the Soul all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this Here then is enlargement to see the purity and beauty of his Law how just and reasonable yea how pleasant and amiable it is that his Commandments are not grievous that they are Beds of Spices the more we walk in them still the more of their fragrant smell and sweetness we find And then consequently upon the larger and clearer knowledge of these things the heart dilates it self in affection the more it knows of God still the more it loves him and the less it loves this present World Love is the great enlarger of the heart to all obedience Then nothing is hard yea the harder things become the more delightful All love of other things doth pinch and contract the heart for they are all narrower than it self it is framed to that wideness in its first Creation capable of enjoying God though not of a full comprehending him therefore all other things gather it in and straighten it from its natural size only the Love of God stretches and dilates it he is large enough for it yea it in its fullest enlargement is infinitely too narrow for him Do not all find it if they will ask themselves that in all other loves and pursuits in this World there is still somewhat that pinches The Soul is not at its full size but as a Foot in a straight Shoe is somewhere bound and pained and cannot go freely much less run though another that looks on cannot tell where yet each one feels it But when the Soul is set free from these narrow things and is raised to the love of God then is it at ease and at large and hath room enough 't is both elevated
not only those hidden from Men but even from my self as is clearly his meaning by the words precedeing who knows the errors of his Life Therefore is it necessary that we desire light of God The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord says Solomon searching the innermost parts of the Belly But it is a Candle unlighted when he does not illuminate it for that search Oh! What a deal of Vanity and love of this World Envy and secret Pride lurks in many of our hearts that we do not at all perceive till God causeth us to see it leading us in as he did the Prophet in the Vision to see the Idolatry of the Jews in his very Temple by which they had provoked him to forsake it and go far from his sanctuary and having discovered one parcel leads him in further and makes him enter through the Wall and adds often Son of Man hast thou seen these I will cause thee see yet more abominations and yet more abominations Thus is it within many of us that should be his Temples but we have multitude of Images of Jealousie one lying hid behind another till he thus discover them to us Oh! What need have we to entreat him thus What I see not shew thou me Now in both these both in the knowledge of our Rule and of our selves though there may be some useful subserviency of the Ministry of Men yet the great Teacher of the true knowledge of his Law and of himself and of our selves is God Men may speak to the Ear but his Chair is in Heaven that Teaches hearts Cathedram habet in caelo Matchless Teacher that Teacheth more in one hour than Men can do in a whole Age That can cure the invincible unteachableness of the dullest heart Gives understanding to the simple and opens the eyes of the Blind So then would we be made wise wise for Eternity learned in real living Divinity Let us sit down at his feet and make this our continual request What I see not teach thou me And if I have done c. That 's any iniquity that I yet know not of any hidden Sin let me but once see it and I hope thou shalt see it no more within me not willingly lodged and entertained This speaks an entire total giving up all Sin and proclaming utter defiance and enmity against it casting out what is already found out without delay and resolving that still in further search as it shall be more discovered it shall be forthwith dislodged without a thought of sparing or partial indulgence to any thing that is Sin or like it or may any way befriend it or be an occasion and incentive of it This is that absolute renouncing of Sin and surrender of the whole Soul and our whole selves to God which whosoever do not heartily consent to and resolve on their Religion is in vain and which is here the point their Affliction is in vain whatsoever they have suffered they have gained nothing by all their sufferings if their hearts remain still Selfwill'd Stubborn Untamed and unpliable to God And this makes their miseries out of measure miserable and their sins out of measure sinful whereas were it thus qualify'd and had it any operation this way towards the subjecting of their hearts unto God Affliction were not to be called misery but would go under the Title of a blessedness Blessed is the Man whom thou correctest and teachest him out of thy Law That suiting with this here desired I have born Chastisement What I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do it no more Oh! Were it thus with us M. B. how might we rejoyce and insert into our Praises all that is come upon us if it had wrought or advanced any thing of this kind within us this blessed compliance with the will of God not entertaining any thing knowingly that displeases him finding a pleasure in the denial and destruction of our own most beloved pleasures at his appointment and for his sake whatsoever is in us and dearest to us that would offend us that would draw us to offend him were it the right hand let it be cut off or the right eye let it be pluckt out Or to make shorter work let the whole Man die at once Crucified with Jesus That we may be henceforth dead to Sin dead to the World dead to our selves and alive only to God SERMON III. PREFACE THere is no Exercise so delightful to those that are truly godly as the solemn Worship of God if they find his powerful and sensible presence in it and indeed there is nothing on earth more like to Heaven than that is But when he withdraws himself and witholds the influence and breathings of his Spirit in his service then good Souls find nothing more lifeless and uncomfortable but there is this difference even at such a time betwixt them and those that have no Spiritual life in them at all that they find and are sensible of this difference whereas the other know not what it means And for the most part the greatest number of those that meet together with a profession to Worship God yet are such as do not understand this difference Custom and formality draws many to the ordinary places of publick Worship and fills too much of the Room And somtimes Novelty and Curiosity to places not ordinary has a large share But how few are there that come on purpose to meet with God in his Worship and to find his power in it strengthning their weak Faith and weakning their strong Corruptious affording them provision of Spiritual strength and comfort against times of trial And in a word advancing them some steps forward in their Journey towards Heaven where Happiness and Perfection dwells Certainly these sweet effects are to be found in these Ordinances if we would look after them let it grieve us then that we have so often lost our labour in the Worship of God through our own neglect and intreat the Lord that at this time he would not send us away empty for how weak so ever the means be if he put his strength the work shall be done in some measure to his Glory and our Edification Now that he may be pleased to do so to leave ablessing behind him let us Pray c. Isaiah XXVIII 5 6. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a Crown of Glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his People And for a spirit of judgment to him that sittest in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battel to the gate ALL the Works of Divine Providence are full of Wisdom and Justice even every one severally considered yet we observe them best to be such when we take notice of their order and mutual aspect one to another whether in the succession of times or such passages as are contemporary and fall in together at one and the same time
they that arise early in the Morning of their youth for the day of Life is very short and the art of Christianity long and difficult is it not a grievous thing that Men never consider why they came into the World till they be upon the point of going out again Nor think how to live till they be summoned to die But most of all unhappy he that never wakens out of that pleasing dream of false happiness till he fall into Eternal misery Arise then betimes and prevent this sad awakening And being risen put on your beautiful Garments Isaiah 52. 1. Draw towards you with the hand of Faith the rich Mantle of Christ's Righteousness 'T is time to awake says the Apostle Rom. 13. 11. v. And presently after Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a wonder how a Sinner can rest while he is out of this Garment for there is no other in Heaven nor Earth can make him shine to God and so shelter him from the stroke of Justice put him on then and so shine being thus Cloathed thou shalt shine in Justificatication and likewise in Sanctity What a priviledge is it to be like God A sanctified conscience what can be said against it And first have an enlightned understanding for that is the proper seat of Light that ignorant zeal that Rome commends exposes Religion to scorn and contempt Heat without Light is the Character of the fire of Hell I know all are not tied to a like degree of knowledge but certainly all are obliged to have a competency and diligence for increase aspire then to be intelligent Christians and to know well what you believe Let your minds be filled with knowledge as the Apostle speaks But let it not stop there it must have influence into the will Lux est vehiculum caloris true Light conveys heat All the knowledge that the natural Man hath of Christ not warming his affection to Christ is but ignis fatuus a vain Light it shall never lead him to happiness Saving Light produces love and by that acts Faith works by Love says the Apostle That breaks forth and shines in the Life in Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety Shine then in all these first in Piety towards God for this is the reflection of these rays of Light back toward their source And this will command the other two No Man that shines in Godliness will wallow in injustice and intemperance Guile and Wrong cannot indure the Light they that are unjust cannot shine and let them never offer to shine among Christians that are not sober but stained with Riot and Uncleanness These foul enormities lay waste the Conscience and put out the Light how can any seed of Grace subsist undrowned that are exposed to a daily deludge of Cups How can that pure Spirit that chose the likeness of a chast Dove dwell and give Light in that Soul that is a Nest of impure and filthy lusts No There can be no fellowship betwixt this celestial Light whereby we should shine and those infernal works of darkness Let prophane Men hold it a chief strain of wit to scoffe at purity but you that pretend Heaven ward in good earnest and mean to shine in glory shine here in holiness For without holiness no Man shall see God And do it with those qualifications 1 Constantly in every estate let not this Divine Light go out neither by day in prosperity nor by night in Adversity in every place do not shine clear and be dark in your Chamber They that do thus have their reward that 's a sad word if rightly understood beware of Hypocrisie Again shine progressively gaining still more and more victory over darkness till you attain unmixt and perfect Light The way of the just says Solomon Is like the shining Light that shineth more and more unto the perfect Day Prov. 4. 18. Lastly Shine humbly to his glory whose Light you borrow not to shew forth your own excellencies but his Who hath called you from Darkness to his marvellous Light 1. Pet. 2. 9. If we be Children of Light our brightness must praise the Father of Lights Let your Light so shine before Men that they seeing your good works not your selves if you can be hid as the Sun affords its Light and will scarce suffer us to look upon it self may glorifie not you but your Heavenly Father Math. 5. 6. To conclude The pure Light of the Church is revived and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you and upon this glory there shall be a defence If God be your glory in the midst of you he will be likewise a wall of fire round about you All the danger is if we fall short in the duty of shining but as you desire that this glory should abide and dwell amongst you let all Estates of Men provoke one another to shine bright in holiness you who either by Birth or Office are in eminent station know that you were set there to be eminent and exemplary in shining as Stars of more notable magnitude you who are Ministers of this Light know that you are the Light of the World and if the very Light become darkness how great will that darkness be you that are of a lower order know that you must shine too For it is a common duty There is a certain company of small Stars in the Firmament which though they cannot be each one severally seen yet being many their united Light makes a conspicuous brightness in the Heaven which is called the milky way so though the shining of every private Christian is not so much severally remarkable yet the concourse and meeting of their Light together will make a bright path of holiness shine in the Church Now to the end we may each one shine in our measure we must learn to turn our selves often towards him from whom our Light is derived Conversing with him will make us more and more like him There is a secret unknown vertue for this purpose in secret Prayer and Meditation were we more in the Mount with God our faces would shine more with Men let us then rescue from the World all the time we can to resort frequently thither till such time as the Soul which is now often pulled down again by the Flesh shall let that Mantle fall and come down no more But shine there without spot and be for ever satisfied with her makers Image SERMON V. PREFACE ART imitates Nature and the nearer it comes to Nature in its effects it is the more Excellent Grace is the new Nature of a Christian and Hypocrisie that Art that counterfeits it and the more exquisite it is in Imitation it is the more plausible to Men but the more abominable to God it may frame a Spiritual Man in Image so to the life that not only others but even the Hypocrite himself may admire it and favouring his own Artifice may be deceived so far as to say and to think it
rest God will not pour this precious Oyl of gladness this perswasion of his love into filthy Vessels even his own Children when they grieve and sadden his holy Spirit by unholiness shall be sadly punished by the withdrawing of these comforting and sensible expressions of his Love Labour then you that as yet never tasted of this Love to know what it means forsake and hate that which hitherto hath made you strangers to it for if you obtain this it shall comfort you when these things cannot but would rather prove your greatest torment And you that have received any Testimonies of it entertain it carefully for it is your best comfort both in your best days and in your worst days too You would all gladly be delivered from these many evils that threaten you for many they be indeed and Peace is a great blessing But suppose you were secured from all these fears and he should command a sudden calm which tâ—uly he can do would you then think your seâ—ves happy That life of yours which you so fear to lose by Fire or Sword though you had Peace would ere long fall into the hands of some Ague or Fever or Consumption and perish by them or at the longest a few years will end it it is a lighted Candle that though no Body blow out will quickly burn out of it self But this loving kindness is not so short-lived it shall last as long as your Souls and so long as it lasts they shall be happy Those goods that you fear shall be pillaged and spoiled in War how many hazards are they subject to even in Peace Solomon tells you That Riches oftentimes though no body take them away make themselves wings and fly away And truly many times the undue sparing of them is but the letting of their wings grow which makes them readier to fly away and the contributing a part of them to do good only clips their wings a little and makes them stay the longer with their owner but that by the way Howsoever in the day of death and in the day of wrath as Solomon says they profit nothing at all So then though you may desire that God would command deliverance for you yet if you would be truly happy your greater and more earnest suit would be That he command his loving kindness to appear to your Souls and having once obtained this you may possibly be persecuted and endure hard Trials But one thing is made sure you cannot be miserable nor shall you want temporal Mercies and Preservation too so far as they are good for you The inward assurance of this Love shall carry you strangely and sweetly through all outward vicissitudes and when the day shall come that all other comforts shall look pale upon you then shall you find the worth and happiness of this more than ever before Command Make it appear to me Sometimes God is said to shut up and hide his Love from his Children and that is a mournfull time with them But we Read not that he shuts out Love and ceaseth altogether to have affection to those whom once he loved And therefore when he shews himself again in the gracious manifestations of his mercy he is not said to begin anew to Love them but only to Command his Love which ere while he had countermanded to appear In the day If you have a mind to take the day and night figuratively for prosperous and adverse times it would lead you in that sense to observe David's constancy in Gods praises that not only in the day of deliverance but even in the night of distress he resolved a Song for God And truly many times God gives his Childen in an afflicted condition more sweetness of Spirit and Aptitude not only to pray but to praise and more spiritual delight in himself than in times of outward Peace and Prosperity He giveth Songs in the night saith Job and you know the sound of Musick is most delightful in the night But to take it properly he is confident that in the several Actions and Occurrences of the day he should find the goodness and favourable assistance of the Lord and then he resolves which leads to the other part of the Text. In the night time to Meditate on that goodness and frame a Song of Praise to the Author of it And indeed what is the whole Threed of our Life but a checkered twist Black and White of delights and dangers interwoven And the happiest passing of it is constantly to enjoy and to observe the experiences of God's goodness and to praise him for them David was a wise King and withal a valiant Souldier And yet we see he thought not this experience inconsonant with either of these two conditions This pecious Book of Psalms a great part thereof being his testifies clearly that Prayer and Praises were his great employment A religious disposition of mind may not only consist with fortitude and magnanimity but is indeed the best principal and cause of both contrary to the wicked and foolish opinion of profane persons whether of the two do you think might welcome a day of Battle with most courage and resolution he that had past the precedeing night in revelling and carouzing or he that had spent it in Prayer and obtained some assurance of a better Life Truly if they went on with equal forwardness there is no Man except he were an Atheist but would judge the one to be Bruitish Fury and Precipitation and the other true valour His Song In the worst Estate there is ever some mater of praise to be mixed with request and truly we may justly suspect that our neglect of praises makes our prayers unacceptable And my Prayer In the best Estate here below Praise must be accompanied with Prayer our wants and necessities and straits return daily upon us and require new supplies of Mercy and Prayer if we know how to use it right is the way to obtain them all To the God of my Life Or the God that is my Life This word is added as the reason of all that went before If you ask David why he reposeth so much upon the loving kindness of God what he means to spend so much pains in Praises and Prayer to God He Answers Because he is my Life He is the Author and preserver of my temporal Life and all the passages and accidents of it are in his hand alone he hath also given me and he maintains in me a spiritual Life yea he is the Life of my Soul it lives by union with him as my Body does by union with it and he hath laid up Life eternal for me Would Christians think thus indeed The Light of this consideration would dispel their distrustful fears Certainly there is Atheism at the bottom of them if not a denial nor a misconceit of God at least a forgetfulness of God See Isaiah 51. verse 12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that thou
motion Thus heady Zeal often mistakes and flatters it self we find not here a desire of fire to come down from Heaven upon the breakers of the Law but such a grief as would rather bring Water to quench it if it were falling on them Rivers of Waters c. The degree of this sorrow it 's vehement not a light transient dislike but a deep resentment such as causeth not some few sighs or some drops of tears but Rivers It is true The measure and degree of sorrow for Sin whether their own or others are different in divers Persons that are yet true mourners and they are also different in the same Person at divers times not only upon the difference of the cause but even where the cause is equal upon the different influence and working of the Spirit of God Sometimes it pleaseth him to warm and melt the heart more abundantly and so he raises these Rivers in these Eyes to a higher Tide than ordinary Sometimes they remove again but yet this Godly sorrow is always serious and sincere and that 's the other Quality here remarkable in it It is not a Histrionical weeping only in publick for the speech is here directed to God as a more frequent witness of these tears than any other who is always the witness of the sincerity of them even when they cannot be hid from the Eyes of Men for I deny not but they may and should have vent in publick especially at such times as are set a part for solemn Mourning and Humiliation yet even then usually these streams run deepest where they 're stillest and most quietly conveyed but howsoever sure they would not be fewer and less frequent alone than in company for that 's a little subject to suspition Jer. 9. 1. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive The Subject of this affection is not the Ungodly themselves that are profest transgressors of this Law they rather make a sport of sin as Solomon speaks they play and make themselves merry with it as the Philistines did with Sampson till it bâ—ing the House down about their ears But the Godly are they that are affected with this sorrow such as are careful observers of the Law themselves and mourn first for their own breaches for these are the only fit mourners for the transgression of others Now to enquire a little into the cause of this Why the breaking of God's Law should cause such sorrow in the Godly as here breaketh forth into abundant of Tears we shall find it very reasonable if we consider 1. The Nature of Sin which is the transgression or breach of the Law as the Apostle defines it 2. The Nature of this Sorrow and these Tears 3. The Nature of the Godly 1. Sin is the greatest Evil in the World yea truly in comparison it alone is worth the Name of Evil and therefore may justly challenge Sorrow and the greatest Sorrow the greatest of Evils it is both formally in that it alone is the defilement and deformity of the Soul and casually being the root from whence all other Evils spring the fruitful Womb that conceives and brings forth all those miseries that either Man feels or hath cause to fear Whence are all those personal Evils incident to Men in their Estates or in their Bodies or Minds outward Turmoils and Diseases and inward Discontents and Death it self in all the kinds of it Are they not all the fruits of that bitter root Whence arise these publick miseries of Nations and Kingdoms but from the Epidemick National Sins of the People as the deserving and procuring cause at God's Hand And withal oftentimes from the ambitious and wicked practices of some particular Men as the working and effecting Causes so that every way if we follow these evils home to their original we shall find it to be Sin or the breaking of God's Law Ungodly men though they meddle not with publick affairs at all yea though they be faithful and honest in meddling with them yet by reason of their Impious Lives are Traytors to their Nation they are truly the Incendiaries of States and Kingdoms And these Mourners though they can do no more are the Loyallest and serviceable Subjects bringing tears to quench the fire of Wrath Rivers of Waters And therefore sorrow and tears are not only most due to sin as the greatest of evils but they 're best bestowed upon it if they can do any thing to its redress because that is both the surest and most compendious way to remedy all the rest sin being the source and spring of them all This is the reason why Jeremiah 9. ver 1. when he would weep for the slain of his people is straightway led from that to bâ—wail the sin of his people ver 2 3 c. And in his Book of Tears and Lamentations he often reduces all these sad evils to Sin as causing them particularly chap. 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Woe unto us that we have sinned He turns the complaint more to the Sin than to the Affliction Secondly Consider the Nature of these Tears Tears spent for worldly Câ—osses are all lost They run all to waste they are Lachryâ—nae inanes empty fruitless things but tears shed for the breach of God's Law are the means to quench God's Wrath. The Pravers and Tears of some few may avert the punishment of many yea of a whole Land and if not so yet are they not lost the Mourners themselves have always benefit by them as you have it in that known place Ezek. 9. They that mourned for the common Abominations were marked and the common Desolation took not hold on them This mourning for other Mens wickedness both testifies and preserves the Godly man's Innocence I say it preserves it as well as testifies it it keeps them from the Contagion of that bad Air they live in for without this Sin would soon grow familiar It is good for men to keep up and maintain in their Souls a dislike of Sin for when once it ceaseth to be displeasing to a Man it will ere long begin to be pleasing to him If we consider the Nature of the Godly we shall see this mourning suit with it exceedingly both in regard of his relation to God and to man God is his Father and therefore it cannot but grieve him much to see him offended and dishonored Love to God and consequently to his Law and love to Men and desire of their good is the spring of these Rivers A Godly man is tender of Gods Glory and of his Law every stroke that it receives striketh his heart and he hath bowels
of compassion and would be glad if they were converted and saved And he considers every Man as his Brother and therefore is sorrowful to see him run the hazard of perishing in sin The former sympathy whereby the Godly man tenders the Glory of God is from his Piety This latter whereby he pities the misery of Man is from his Charity and from these flow the Rivers that run down his eyes To be too sensible of worldly crosses and prodigal of tears upon such slight occasions is little better than Childish or Womanish but these tears that flow from love to God and grief for Sin have neither uncomliness nor excess in them abundance of them will beseem any Man that is a Christian. Let profane men judge it a weakness to weep for Sin yet we see David do it Men of Arms and Valour need not fear disparagement by weeping thus it is the truest Magnanimity to be sensible of the point of Gods honour which is injured by Sin Again The consideration of this truth will discover the World guilty of very much Ingratitude to Godly men it hath always been the custom of profane Persons to seek to brand Religion and Godliness with disloyalty and turbulency and to make it pass for an enemy to the peace and prosperity of States and Kingdoms You see clearly with what affection Religion furnishes men towards the publick causing them to mourn for common sins and so to prevent as far as in them lies common Calamities And this is oâ— no little consequence for truly it is not Foreign Power so much as Sin at home that ruines Kingdoms all the Winds that blow without the Earth be they never so violent stir it not only that which is within its own bowels makes an Earthquake It was a grave answer of Epaminondas being asked what he was doing solitary and pensive in the time of solemn mirth and feasting While my Country men says he are so peaceably Feasting I am thinking on the best means to preserve that peace to them that it may continue which a little altered is applicable to the Godly They are oftentimes mourning for the sins and praying for the peace of the places where they live when in the mean time the greatest part are multiplying sin and so forfeiting their peace Rivers of Waters This is a mournful melancholy life that these Precisians lead says the Worldling yes truly if there were no more in it than what he can perceive and judge of But besides the full joy laid up for them and the beginnings of it here there is even in this mourning an unknown sweetness and delight The Philosopher says even of common tears that there is some kind of pleasure in them as some things please the taste by their very tartness But of these tears they that know them know it to be eminently true That â—hey are pleasant But be this exercise as sad as the profane call it yet why observe they not that they themselves are much the cause of it as they may read here Because they keep not Gods Law But to pass by divers Inferences that the words afford let us take notice of the duty heâ—e practised and how much we are all obliged to the present practice of it Who will deny that we have too much matter and occasions of it Besides the sorrow of Sion and particularly the blood-shedding and distress of our Brethren and our own danger what corner of the Land what rank or condition of people is there that abounds not in gross and heinous violation of Gods Law They keep not thy Law Magistrates and Judges turning Judgment into Gall and Wormwood Ministers remiss in that great care the care of Souls people wallowing in Ungodliness and Uncleanness Swearing c. The greater oppressing the less and the less defrauding and wronging the greater No sensible and notable work of conversion almost to be seen or heard of amongst us the Lord absenting himself from his Ordinances O that he would dwell in his House and fill it with a Cloud of his Glory What vile uncleanness and wantonness What shameful drunkenness and excess And some so far from mourning for others guiltiness of this sin that they glory in making others guilty of it and count it a pastime to make others Drunk and this is a far greater sin than drunkenness it self for these men while they make Beasts of their Companions they make Devils of themselves becoming tempters and provokers to Sin If any such be here either tremble at the Woe that the Prophet Habakkuk chap. 2. denounceth or confess that you believe not the Scriptures Woe to him that gives his neighbour drink and puts the bottle to him to make him drunken The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to thee it is full of heavy vengeance There is a Cup if you like it to pay you home the Cups you give to others Again How is the Land filled with Oaths and Cursings How are your Streets and almost all Companies where a man can come defiled partly with tearing the Precious Name of God partly with calling on the Devil There would be no end of reckoning up all particulars Sabbath breaking Fraud and Covetousness Pride and Malice and Envyings one of another and the rest But the summ is this An Universal want of the fear of God and his Law And the cause of this is in a great part Ignorance of God and of his Law and truly it is wonderful under so much Light and such plentiful Preaching to find so much darkness not only in the skirts and remote places but even in the prime parts of this Land Multitudes that are strangers to the very principles and fundamentals of that Religion which they profess and they that have knowledge abusing it and sinning against it continuing in profaneness and without this true Religion it is as impossible to have renewed hearts and lives as to have a House without a Foundation or as we say a Castle in the Air. And this Atheism and Ignorance amongst people is in a great part to be imputed to the corruption and sloth of Ministers and would to God there were not many Congregations not only altogether destitute but such as are freezing under a cold and lifeless Ministry You see then we want not causes of mourning and humiliation on all hands but our want is inward of that due disposition for it Softness of heart and that love to God which should melt and mollifie the heart Let us then stir up our selves and one another to this godly sorrow for the sins of the Land there is need of Rivers of Tears for these heaps of Sin as they tell of his letting in a River to that monstruous Stable of Augias that could not otherwise have been cleansed in the time allotted him And truly as the duty lies upon all the faithful the Ministers of the Word ought to be most eminent in it the chief mourners the Precentors to take
Jo. 13. as it is said of the Ointment that Mary poured upon his feet in the foregoing Chapter Job 12. Amongst many other of his gracious Qualities that might be mentioned there is one we cannot but take particular notice of His Love the rather because the fragrant smell of his Graces is here said to beget Love Now you know that one of the strongest attractives of Love is Love Magnes amoris amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What made him empty himself of his Glory as the Apostle speaks but because he was full of love What made him take on the form of a Servant suffer Heat and Cold and Hunger and Poverty but Love What other was it made him digest the Persecutions Revilings and the contradiction of Sinners but Love But the great wonder of his Love is this He died to become our Life who hath loved me and given himself for me says the great Apostle St. Paul And hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us says the beloved Apostle St. John Was it the Nails that held him fast to the Cross when they tauntingly bid him come down No it was his Love that was stronger than Death But all this was nothing to the angry countenance of his Father nor would he ever have ventured upon that if infinite Love had not perswaded him no wonder if the Apostle call it a Love that passeth knowledge That you may know saith he the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 19. Know it we may and should but we must know withal that we cannot know it fully And this is our comfort that it is greater than we can comprehend for if it were not so it would be less than we stand in need of So much of his Love we may understand as may abundantly inflame our hearts with love to him for this purpose hath he revealed it and made his Name like an Ointment poured out And that 's the second thing His Name That 's the report and manifestation of his Excellencies and if you will take it properly of his Name Jesus and Christ or the Messiah it is true of them for they are significative of these Excellencies Ask an afflicted Conscience if Jesus that is a Saviour be not a precious Word that hath a Sovereign value both a refreshing smell and a healing vertue The Hammer of the Law may break a stony heart in pieces but it is only the blood of Jesus that can soften it and where it is effectually poured either upon a wounded Soul it heals it or upon a hard heart it mollifies it For that other Name Christ well may it be called an Ointment poured out for it signifies his Anointing and that the sweet savour of this Name may effect read but that one passage Isai. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings c. What inestimable riches of Consolation is there in each of these effects to which Christ was Anointed and yet we find not a word among them all for a proud stiff-necked Sinner Here are good tidings but it is to the meek comfortable binding up but it is for the broken hearted Liberty but it is for Captives and Prisoners groaning under their Chains and desirous to be delivered Not for such as delight in their bondage there is Oil of joy and garments of praise but they are provided for mourning dejected Spirits that need them not to the Impediment On the contrary there is a terrible word interjected in the midst of these Promises The day of vengeance of our God and that is the portion of Christ's Enemies and such are all incorrigible sinners Thus it is at the same Banquet from which you come one may be filled with Spiritual Joy and the very Person that sits next be filled with a secret Curse and return more miserable than he came But let the disconsolate lamenting Sinner lift up his head and behold Christ the Son of God anointed a Prophet to preach Salvation and liberty to such a Priest to purchase it and a King to give it Now the pouring out of this Name is divers Before the coming of the Messiah his Name was poured out in Prophesies and Promises in Types and legal Ceremonies but more fully when the Word was made flesh then Angels and holy Men yea and Women spake clearly of him What was his Fathers voice at his Baptism The Holy Ghosts descending What was his own Preaching and Miracles and Conversation but all the pouring forth of his precious Name And in his Sufferings and Death what think you Was not his Name then poured forth yea his Blood with it Yes truly being extended on the Cross and his Body pierced in divers place his precious Ointments were shed abroad towards all the Quarters of the World their smell both reached Heaven and the visible Earth God the Father as he was said to do in Noahs Sacrifice did much more smell in his Sacrifice a savour of rest appeasing his wrath and all Believers a savour of peace a quieting of their Consciences And as Aâ—omatick Spices when they are pounded out and beaten send forth their sweet smells most liberally so in these his Sufferings did the obedience patience and love and all the Graces and the Name of our Saviour most clearly manifest themselves to the World After he was Dead they Embalmed his Body but they knew not that his own Vertue would do more than all the Ointments and Spices in the World could do not only by preserving his Body from Corruption but by raising it the third day And truly after his Resurrection his own Disciples knew his Name better than ever before and yet more fully after his Ascention when the Holy Ghost came down upon them which was poured from Heaven on them for this very end That they might pour forth Christ's Name to the ends of the Earth Act. 2. 8. And they did so carrying this precious Treasure in Earthen Vessels as that Elect Vessel St. Paul speaks And ever since God hath continued the pouring forth of this Name by the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel 'T is true there are too many of those that are employed in this work that seek themselves and their own ends rather than his Glory whom they Preach And they that are more upright the very best of them are sinful Men but how mean and unworthy soever they be despise not the Gospel let the sweet Name which they pour forth prevail for it self that so you may reverence and love it if you would have Salvation by it and there is no other Name under Heaven by which that can be obtained As this Name is poured forth in the Gospel Preached so in the Sacraments annexed to it and particularly in this when the Bread is broken and the Wine poured out And was not this the earnest desire of the Receivers of it this day it should
little Rivulet running a while in its own Channel in the foregoing Discourse falls here in again to the main Current of the Doctrine of Love begun in the former Chapter And here he chooses adapting it to the strain of the Discourses immediately foregoing it to express this under the Notion of a Debt Owe nothing but Love 1. Other Debt removed Owe nothing That is be not willing to continue Debters of any thing to any by undue retaining of such things which being paid are not owing 2 This is a constant Debt that you must still pay and yet still owe Love and the reason added is most enforcing that we be willing and continue both Payers and yet Debters of it the dueness of it appears in this That the Law requires it and the compleatness of it That it is all the Law requires Love is the fulfilling of the Law which is amplified in the two subsequent verses This is most fully true take Love fully as it looks on its full Object God and Man and so it is the fulfilling of the whole Law that relates to those two in its Two Tables Take it particularly as acting towards men as here it its and so it fulfills that part of the Law that whole Table that respects Man the most of those Commandments are expressly here set down and the omission of one is fully supplied by that additament if there be any other Then again it is cleared by the common aim and result of them all to keep our Neighbour undamaged and that Love doth most surely and fully therefore fulfills all That negative work no ill answers the strain of all the Commandments which is to defend our Neighbours from our ill being most of them such and all of them such that are here specifi'd yet both they and this sum of them involving the contrary working of all possible good to our Neighbour in which still Love suits it nothing being both more averse from wrong and more active in good than Love as the same Apostle hath it 1 Cor. 13. Besides that it cannot do no not so much as think evil it is naturally carried to bounty and kindness and cannot cease from doing good a Plant that is fruitfull all the Year long The Apostle hath very good Authority for this abridgment of the Law our Saviour himself Matth. 22. 40. and he takes it out of the Books of the Law themselves and certifies us that it is the substance and sum both of Law and Prophets Were this Love absolutely perfect the fulfilling of the Law would be so too and where it is sincere as the Apostle requires it there is a Sincere and Evangelical Obedience or fulfilling of the Law In the Text consider 1 The largeness of its Object 2 The largeness of its Acting 3 The height of its true Original First So far as thou canst acquit thy self owe nothing else to any but Love owe that to all not alike familiar Convâ—rse necessarily to all nor alike measure of benefiâ—ence nor alike degree of love but yet love alike sincere and real to all not either a false or an empty fair Carriage but holy Christian Love Love rooted in thy heart and springing up in thy actions even towards all men as thy opportunity and ability serves thee and their condition requires of thee not hating noâ— despising any for their poverty in Estate or deformity of Body or defects of Mind nor for that which works most on men Injuries done to thy self all they can do cannot give thee an acquittance or free thee of this Debt of Love for thou art bound to another This is the Rule of Jesus Christ and the Badg of Christians to love their very Enemies but this oh how rare How few attain it Yea how few endeavour it On the contrary it is by many given over as a desperate impossible business they judging of it not according to that Spirit of Christ that is his but according to the Corrupt rancour and bitterness of their own natural perverse Spirits yea and too many disdain it as a poorness and sheepishness of Spirit to suffer and forgive be it so yet such a Sheepishness as makes a man like Jesus Christ who as a Sheep before the Shearers is Dumb so he opened not his mouth when his heart within was compassionate towards them as appeared when he opened it concerning them Father forgive them for they know not what they do This is true greatness of Spirit to partake of His that is the highest and best of Spirits and is the Spirit of Meekness and Love How much is this above the common Spirit of the World Truly base and poor is that which is discomposed and put out of frame with every touch whereas this is mighty and triumphs indeed over all provocations and injuries 2. Let us consider the largeness of its acting it goes through the Law fulfils it all That command that is first in the second Table that is not here exprest is it not Love that makes all concerned in it to fulfil it That produceth Mildness and Moderation in Superiours and Faithfulness and willing Obedience in Inferiours makes both Authority and Subjection sweet and easie where Love commands and Love obeys And for the next Thou shalt not kill Doth not Love as the Sun beams put out the fire by its Divine heat eat out the Earthy yea the Infernal fire of fixed Malice or rash Anger that burns naturally in the hearts of men Such anger is called Brutish Ezek. 21. 31. Burning or Brutish And on the contrary Prov. 17. 27. The ambiguity is happy of an excellent or of a cool Spirit for the cool Spirit is so cool from base passion but burning truly with this Love and then is by very small and many times meerly imaginary causes so easily blown up and that flames forth into gross Murders or at least such Injuries and Violences or Contentions and Revilings as go in Gods account and are writ down in his Book for Murders And he doth not mis-judge nor misname things but they are really what he accounts them Love can generously pass over these things about which Folly and Pride make such a noise Oh! can I bear this and that and thou wouldest by so saying speak thy stout heartedness Fool is this stoutness and strength Is it not rather the greatest weakness to be able to bear nothing Have not the weakest persons much of that kind of stoutness and strength who are the soonest moved and disquieted Women and Children and Sick or Aged Persons But Love Christian Love to thy Brother makes the mind truly strong and composed not easily stir'd against him for every trifle nay nor for greater matters Love can endure much yea all things says the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. hath strength to stand under them and stand firm whereas base minds void of Love break all to pieces under a very small weight bears all as the supporters of a strong and firm Building or rather
assimilates the Soul to him makes it Divine and therefore Bountiful full of Love to all So these two contradict not Love the Lord with all thy heart and thy Neighbour as thy self If all our love must go to God what remains for our Neighbour Indeed all go upwards and be all placed on him and from thence it is refounded and regulated downwards to men according to his Will But Self-love brings forth Pride and Cruelty and Covetousness and Uncleanness and disdain of others and all such kind of Monsters so it is the main breaking of the Law All that can be said will not perswade men to this till the Lord by his Love teach it and impress it on the heart Know that this is the Badge of Christs Followers and his great Rule and Law given to them and if you will follow him that you may come to be where he is then study this That as our Lord Christ loved us so also we ought to love one another SERMON XI PREFACE GReat and various are the Evils that lodg within the Heart of Man Hence proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries Murders and many other mischiefs as our Saviour specifies there they come forth apace and yet the heart is not emptied of them But was this heart thus at first when it came newly forth of the hands of its Maker Surely no Man was made upright but he found out many Inventions Soon did the heart find the way to corrupt it self but to renew it self is as impossible as to have been the Author of its own Creation easily could it deface the precious Characters of Gods Image but it passes the Art of Men and Angels to restore them Only the Son of God who for that purpose took on him our Nature can make us according to the Apostles Phrase partakers of the Divine Nature It is he alone that can banish these Unclean Spirits and keep possession that they return no more Have not they made a happy change of Guests that have those Infernal Troops turn'd out of Doors and the King of Glory fixing his abode within them This is the voice of the Gospel Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may enter in But small is the number of those that open where this voice is daily sounded yea some there are that grow worse under the frequent Preaching of the Word as if Sin were emulous and as is said of Vertue would grow by opposition The truth is too many of us turn these serious Exercises of Religion into an idle Divertisement Take heed that Formality and Custom and Novelty do not often help to fill up many Rooms in our Church It were indeed a breach of Charity to entertain the fullness of your Assemblies with ill Construction No it is to be commended But would to God we were more careful to shew our Religion in our Lives to study to know better the Deceits and Impostures of our own hearts and to gain daily more Victory over our secret and best beloved Sins Let our intentions then be to meet with Christ here and to admit him gladly to dwell and rule within us if he conquer our inward Enemies those without shall not be able to hurt us if he deliver us from our sinful Lusts he will still our own distrustful fears And that such may be the fruits of our meeting let us turn our selves towards the Throne of Grace with humble Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ the Righteous Psalm LXXVI 10. Surely the wrath of a man shall praise thee The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain WHat Man is this said the Passengers in the Ship that even the Winds and the Sea obey him Christ suddenly turns a great tempest into a greater Calm Matth. 8. 27. Surely those are no ordinary words of Command that swelling Waves and boisterous Winds in the midst of their rage are forc'd to hear and taught to understand and obey them Therefore the holding of the Seas in the hollow of his Hand the bridling of the Wind and riding upon the Wings of it we find peculiarly attributed to the Almighty But no less if not more wonderful is another of his Prerogatives to wit His Soveraignty over all Mankind the divers and strange motions of the Heart of Man admirable is it to govern those both in respect of their Multitude and Irregularity Consider we what Millions of men dwell at once upon the face of the Earth and again what Troops of several Imaginations will pass through the fancy of any one man within the compass of one day 'T is much to keep eye upon them and to behold them all at once but far more to Command and Controul them all yet if they were all Loyal and willingly Obedient were they Tractable and easily Curbed it were more easie for us to conceive how they might be Governed but to bound and over-rule the unruly hearts of men the most of them continually are either plotting or acting Rebellion against their Lord to make them all concur and meet at last in one end cannot be done but by a Power and a Wisdom that are both Infinite That God whose Name we often mention but seldom think on his Excellency is alone the Absolute Monarch of mens Hearts and the Ruler of all their Motions he hath them Limited while they seem most free and works his own Glory out of their attempts while they strive most to dishonour him Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee c. The Psalm is made up of these two different sorts of Thoughts the one arising out of Particular Experience and the other out of a General Doctrine These drawn from Experience are set down in the verses precedeing the Text and in it with those that follow is the Doctrine with a Duty annexed to it which two are Faiths main Supporters by past particulars verifie the Doctrine and the generality of the Doctrine serves to explain the particular Experiences to all wise observers There is not a Treasure of the Merits of Saints in the Church as some Dream but there is a Treasure of the precious Experiences of the Saints which every Believer hath right to make use of and these we should be verst in that we may have them in readiness at hand in time of need and know how to use them both to draw comfort from them to our selves and arguments to use with God The words contain clearly Two Propositions both of them concerning the wrath of Man the former hath the event of it Surely the wrath of Man shall praise thee The latter the limitation of it The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain That the Vertues and Graces of men do praise the Lord all men easily understand for they flow from him his Image and Superscription is upon them and therefore no wonder if of them he has from them a Tribute of Glory Who knows not that Faith praises him Abraham
he may is little careful about the rest his Love to God prevailing over all his affections makes him very indifferent what becomes of himself or his dearest friends so God may be glorified What though many fall in the quarrel which God avert yet it is sufficient that Truth in the end shall be Victorious Have not the Saints in all Ages been content to convey pure Religion to Posterity in streams of their own Blood not of others Well hold fast by this conclusion that God can limit and bind up the most violent wrath of man that though it swell it will not break forth The stiffest Heart as the current of the most impetuous Rivers is in his hand to appoint its Channels and turn it as he pleaseth yea it is he that hath shut up the very Sea with Bars and Doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come and no further here shall thy proud waves be stayed Job 38. 10 11 verses To see the Surges of a rough Sea come in towards the Shoar a man would think that they were hastening to swallow up the Land but they know their limits and are beaten back into foam Though the Waves thereof toss themselves as angry at their restraint yet the small Sand is a check to the great Sea yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it says Jer 5. verse 22. The sum is this What God permits his Churches Enemies to do is for his own further Glory and reserving this there is not any wrath of man so great but he will either sweetly calm it or strongly restrain it To him be praise c. SERMON XII Psal. CXII 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. ALL the special designs of men agree in this They seek satisfaction and quietness of mind that is happiness This then is the great question Who is the happy man 'T is here resolved verse 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth in his Commandments This Blessedness unfolded as a rich Landskip that we may view the well mixed Colours the Story and Tissure of it The whole Alphabet in Capital Letters and take all and set them together 't is a most full compleat Blessedness not a Letter wanting to it Amongst the rest that we have in these words is of a greater magnitude and brightness than many of the rest He shall not be afraid of evil tidings Well may it begin with a Hallâ—lâ—jah a Note of praise to him in whom this Blessedness lies O what a wretched Creature were man if not provided to such a Portion without which is nothing but disappointment and thence the racking torment and vexation of a disqueited mind still pursuing somewhat that he never overtakes The first words as the Inscription The Blessednesses of that man c. So the particulars follow Where outward Blessings are so set as that they look and lead higher pointing at their end the infinite goodness whence they flow and whither they return and carry along with them this happy man And these promises of outward things often evidently accomplish'd to the Righteous and their Seed after them and that commonly after they have been brought very low But when 't is otherways with them they lose nothing 't is good for many yea 't is good for all the Godly that have less of these lower things to raise their eye to look after higher the eye of all both of these that are held somewhat short and for those that have abundance in the World These Temporal promises more abounding and more frequently fullfilled in their very kind in the times of the Law yet still the right is constant and all Ages do give clear examples of the truth of this word where it is thus 't is a blessing created by its aspect to this promise and so differs from the prosperity of Ungodly men and where 't is otherways with the Righteous and their Seed 't is no shift but a most solid comfort to turn their eyes to a higher Compensation But howsoever it go this still holds He shall not be afraid of evil tidings notwithstanding the hardest news that can come to his cars of any thing that concerns himself or his Children or the rest of Gods Children in his charge in the World His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. First let us take a little of the Character of this Blessed man Who is it that is thus undaunted The man that feareth God All the passions are but several ebbings and slowings of the Soul and their motions are the signs of its temper which way it is carried that is mainly to be remark'd by the beating of its pulse If our desires and hopes and fears be in the things of this World and the interest of Flesh this is their distemper and disorder the Soul is in a continual Fever but if they move Godwards then is it compos'd and calm in a good temper and healthful point fearing and loving him desiring him and nothing but him waiting for him and trusting in him And when any one affection is right and in a due aspect to God all the rest are so too for they are radically one and he is the life of that Soul that is united to him and so in him it moves in a peculiar Spiritual manner as all do naturally in the dependance of their Natural Life on him that is the Fountain of Life Thus we have here this fear of God as often elsewhere set out as the very substance of Holiness and evidence of Happiness And that we may know there is nothing either base or grievous in this fear we have joined with it delight and trust Delighteth greatly in his Commandments which is that Badge of Love to him to observe them and that with delight and with great exceeding delight so then the fear is not that which Love casts out but that which Love brings in This fear follows and flows from Love a fear to offend whereof nothing so tender as Love and that in respect of the greatness of God hath in it withal a humble reverence There is in all Love a kind of reverence a cautious and respective wariness towards the party loved but especially in this where not only we stand in a lower relation as Children to our Father but the goodness that draws our love doth infinitely transcend our measures and reach therefore there is a rejoycing with trembling and an awful love the fearing the Lord and his goodness Hos. 3. ult This both fear and trust the Heart toucht by the Spirit of God as the Needle toucht with the Loadstone looks straight and speedily to God yet still with trembling being filled with this holy fear That delighteth Oh! this is not only to do them but to do them with delight somewhat within is Connatural and Symbolical Yea this very Law it self writ within not standing as a hard Task-master over our head
and dilated And this word signifies both a high raised Soul and is sometimes taken for proud and lofty but there is a greatness and height of Spirit in the Love of God and Union with him that doth not vainly swell and lift it up but with the deepest humility joins the highest and truest Magnanimity it sets the Soul above the Snares that lie here below in which most men creep and are intangled in that way of life that is on high to the Just as Solomon speaks Good reason hath David to join these together and to desire the one as the spring and cause of the other An enlarged heart that he might run the way of Gods Commandments Sensible Joys and Consolations in God do encourage and enlarge the heart but these are not so general to all nor so constant to any Love is the abounding fixed spring of ready Obedience and will make the heart chearful in serving God even without those felt comforts when he is pleased to deny or withdraw them In that course or race is understood constancy activity and alacrity and all these flow from the enlargement of the heart 1. Constancy A narrow enthralled heart fetter'd with the love of lower things and cleaving to some particular sins or but some one and that secret may keep foot a while in the way of Gods Commandments in some steps of them but it must give up quickly is not able to run on to the end of the Goal but a heart that hath laid aside every weight and the most close-cleaving and besetting sin as it is in that place to the Hebrews hath stript it self of all that may faulter or intangle it it runs and runs on without fainting or wearying 't is at large hath nothing that pains it in the race 2. Activity Not only holding on but running which is a swift nimble race it stands not bargaining and disputing but once knowing Gods mind there is no more question or demur I made haste and delayed not as in this Psalm the word is Did not stay upon why and wherefore he stood not to reason the matter but run on And this love enlarging the heart makes it abundant in the work of the Lord quick and active dispatching much in a little time 3. Alacrity All done with chearfulnes so no other constraint is needful where this over-powering sweet constraint of love is I will run not be hail'd and drawn as by force but skip and leap as the Evangelick promise is that the Lame shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart Isaiah 35. 6. The Spouse desires her Beloved to hasten as a Roe and Hind on the mountains of Spices and she doth so and each faithful Soul runs towards him to meet him in his way It is a sad heavy thing to do any thing as in obedience to God while the heart is straightned not enlarged towards him by his Divine Love but that once taking possession and enlarging the heart that inward principle of obedience makes the outward obedience sweet 't is then a natural motion indeed the Soul runs in the ways of God as the Sun in his course which finds no difficulty being naturally fitted and carried to that motion he goes forth as a Bridegroom and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race This is the great point that our Souls should be studious of to attain more evenness and nimbleness and chearfulness in the ways of God and for this end we ought to seek above all things this enlarged heart 't is want of this makes us bog and drive heavily and run long upon little ground Oh! my Beloved how shallow and narrow are our thoughts of God Most even of those that are truly Godly yet are led on by a kind of instinct and carried they scarce know how to give some attendance on Gods Worship and to the avoidance of gross Sin and go on in a blameless course 't is better thus than to run to excess of Riot and open Wickedness with the Ungodly World But alas this is but a dull heavy and Languid motion where the heart is not enlarged by the daily growing Love of God few few are acquainted with that delightful Contemplation of God that ventilates and raises this flame of Love petty things bind and contract our Spirits so that they feel little joy in God little ardent active desire to do him Service to Crucifie Sin to break and undo Self-love within us to root up our own Wills to make room for his that his alone may be ours that we may have no Will of our own that our daily work may be to grow more like him in the Beauty of Holiness You think it a hard saying to part with your Carnal Lusts and Delights and the common ways of the World and to be ty'd to a strict exact Conversation all your days But oh the reason of this is because the heart is yet straightned and enthralled by the base Love of these mean things and that is from the ignorance of things higher and better One glance of God a touch of his love will free and enlarge the heart so that it can deny all and part with all and make an entire renouncing of all to follow Him it sees enough in Him and in Him alone and therefore can neither quietly rest on nor earnestly desire any thing beside Him Oh! that you would apply your hearts to consider the excellency of this way of Gods Commandments our wretched hearts are prejudiced they think it melancholy and sad Oh! there is no way truly joyous but this They shall sing in the ways of the Lord says the Prophet Do not Men when their eyes are opened see a beauty in Meekness and Temperance and Humility a present delightfulness and quietness in them whereas in Pride and Passion and Intemperance there is nothing but vexation and disquiet And then consider the end of this way and this race in it rest and peace for ever 't is the way of peace both in its own nature and in respect of its end Did you believe that Joy and Glory that is set before you in this way you would not any of you defer a day longer but forthwith you 'd break from all that holds you back and enter into this way and run on chearfully in it the perswasion of these great things above would enlarge and greaten the heart and make the greatest things here very little in your eyes But would you attain to this enlarged heart for this race as you ought to apply your thoughts to these Divine things and stretch them on the promises made in the Word above all take Davids course seek this enlargement of heart from Gods own hand for it is here propounded and said before God by way of request see what is my desire I would gladly serve thee better and advance more in the way of thy
Commandments Now this I cannot do till my heart be more enlarged and that cannot be but by thy hand When thou shalt enlarge my heart Present this suit often 't is in his power to do it for thee he can stretch and expand thy straitened heart can spread and hoyse the Sails within thee and then carry thee on swiftly filling them not with the vain air of Mans applaufe which readily run a Soul upon Rocks and splits it but with the sweet breathings and soft gales of his own Spirit that carry it straight to the desired Haven Findest thou Sin cleaving to thee and clogging thee cry to him help Lord set me free from my narrow heart I strive but in vain without thee still it continues so I know little of thee my affections are dead and cold towards thee Lord I desire to love thee here is my heart and least it fly out lay hold on it and take thine own way with it though it should be in a painful way yet draw it forth yea draw it that it may run after thee All is his own working and all his motive is his own free Grace Let who will fancy themselves Masters of their own hearts and think to enlarge them by the strength of their own stretches of speculation they alone they alone are in the sure and happy way of attaining it that humbly suit and wait for this enlargement of heart from his hand that made it SERMON XVI Rom. VIII 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth c. OTher Men may fancy and boast as they please but there are none in the World but the Godly alone that are furnisht with sufficiency strong supports and comforts against all possible hazards and of these doth the Apostle treat most freely sweetly and plentifully in this Chapter He secures Believers in their Christ touching these two great evils After Condemnation and present Affliction that the one cannot befal them and the other cannot hurt them For their immunity from the former they have the clear Word of the Gospel and the Seal of the Spirit and that former Priviledg made sure as the far greater doth secure the other as the lesser They are freed from Condemnation and not only so but entitled and insured to a Kingdom and what hurt then can affliction do yea it doth good yea not only it cannot rob them of their Crown but it carries them on towards it is their High way to it if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Yea all things to the Children of God do prove advantage severally taken in their present sense they may seem evil but taken jointly in their after issue their working together are all for good In their simple Nature possibly they are Poison yet contempered and prepared they shall prove Medicinal All these things are against me said old Jocoh and yet he lived to see even all these were for him The Children of God are indeed so happy that the harshest things in their way change their nature and become sweet and profitable This much by their Prayers that have a Divine Incantation in them they breath forth the expressions of that their Love to God by which they are Character'd them that Love God And that is put on their hearts the impression of his Love to them to which they are here led by the Apostle as to the Spring-head of all all their Comforts and Priviledges flow thence yea all their Love and their Faith appropriating those Comforts and Priviledges Yea the very Treasury of all together Jesus Christ himself is the free Gift of this free Love he as the greatest ascertains all things besides an unspeakably less verse 32. These two are such mighty Arguments that no difficulty nor grief can stand before them The Love of God He is with us who then against us All the World it may be but that all is nothing once it was nothing it was that God that is our God that loves us and is for us that made it something and if he will it may again be nothing and as it is at its best it is nothing being compared with an other gift that he hath bestowed on us and having bestowed that sure if there be any thing in this World can do us any good we shall not want it He that spared not his own Son but gave him to the Death for us will he not with him give us all things And to close all he makes these two great Immunities good to us in Christ he fixes there we are freed from all fear of Condemnation or of being hurt by Affliction No Accusation nor Guiltiness can Annul the Righteousness of Christ and that is made ours no Distress nor Suffering can cut us off from the Love of God and if it cannot do that we need not fear it all other hazards are no hazard that being sure And in confidence of this the Apostle gives the Defiance casts a Challenge to Angels to Men to all the World upon these two points Who shall Accuse Who shall Separate Accuse to God or Separate from him Whatsoever times may come the hardest that any can apprehend or foretel i◠these two be not sufficient furniture against them I know not what is Men are commonly busied about other events concerning them and theirs what shall become of this or the other and what if this or that fall out but the Conscience once raised to this enquiry the Soul being awake to discern the hazard of Eternal Death all other fears and questions are drowned and lost in this great Question Am I Condemned or not Is my Sin Pardon'd or no And then a satisfying Answer received concerning this all is quiet the Soul reposes sweetly on God and puts all its other concernments into his hands Let him make me poor and despised let him smite and chastise me he hath forgiven my Sin all is well That burden taken off the Soul can go light yea can leap and dance under all other burdens Oh! how it feels it self nimble as a man eased of a load that he was even fainting under Oh! Blessed the man whose Sin is taken off lifted from his shoulders that 's the word Psal. 32. 1. laid over upon Christ who could bear the whole load and take it away take it out of sight which we could never have done they 'd have sunk us for ever That one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jo. 1. signifies both and answers to the two Isai. 53. He hath born our grief and carried our sorrows lifted them away Oh! how sweet a burden instead of this is that ingagement of Obedience and Love to him as our Redeemer and that is all he lays on us if we follow him and bear his Cross he is our strength and bears both it and us So then this is the great point the hearts ease to be Delivered from the Condemning weight of Sin And
certainly while men do not think thus their hearts have very slight impressions of the truth of these things I fear the most of us scarce believe this condemnation to come at least very shallowly and so they cannot much consider the deliverance from it provided to us in Jesus Christ. I cannot see how 't is possible for a heart perswaded of these to be very careful about any thing beside you that eat and drink and labour and trade and bestow all your time either in the pains or the pleasures of this Earth what think you of Eternity Is it a light thing for you to perish for ever After a few days vainly spent to fall under the Wrath of God for ever Oh! that you would be perswaded to think on these things And you that have an interest in this free and blessed estate why are your Spirits so cold So infrequent in the thoughts of it Why are you not rejoicing in the Lord Glading your selves in secret when you remember this Go the World as it will my Sin is forgiven me mistake me accuse me who so will my God hath acquitted me in his Christ and he loves me and lives to intercede for me Methinks I hear some say Ay they that could say that might be merry indeed but alas I have no such assurance Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect That 's true but here is the great point of so hard a resolution am I one of these That the Apostle doth thus specifie the owners of this Consolation by this high and hidden Character of their Election is not to render it doubtful and dark for his main aim on the contrary is both to extend it as far as it can go and to make it as clear as may be to all that have interest in it but he designs them by the Primitive Act of Love fixing on them so as it is now manifested to them in the subsequent effects that flow from the Elect called and sanctified and conformed to Jesus Christ both by his Spirit within them and the Sufferings that without arise against them in the World such as being the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit And these things indeed considered as their Characters the stamp of God on them the impressions of their Election to life do check the vain confidence of all Carnal Ungodly Professors of the Name of Christ and tell them that their pretended Title to him is a meer Delusion certainly whosoever lies in the love of Sin and takes the Flesh for his guide that accursed blind guide is leading him into the Pit What gross folly and impudence is it for any man walking in the Lusts of his own heart to fancy and aver himself to be a Partner of that Redemption whereof so great a pâ—â—t is to deliver us from the power of our Iniquities to renew our hearts and re-unite them to God and possess them with his love The great Evidence of thy Election is Love Thy love to him gives certain testimony of his precedeing Eternal Love to thee so are they here designed they that love God thy chusing him is the effect and evidence of his chusing thee Now this is not laborious that needs to be disputed amidst all thy frailties feel the pulse of thine affection which way beats it and ask thy heart whether thou love him or not in this thou hast the Character of thy Election Know you not that the redeemed of Christ and he are one they live one life Christ lives in them and if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his as the Apostle declares in this Chapter So then this we are plainly to tell you and consider it you that will not let go your Sins to lay hold on Christ have as yet no share in him But on the other side The truth is that when Souls are once set upon this search they commonly wind the Notion too high and subtilize too much in the Dispute and so entangle and perplex themselves and drive themselves further off from that comfort that they are seeking after such measures and marks of Grace they set to themselves for their Rule and Standard and unless they find those without all Controversie in themselves they will not believe that they have an interest in Christ and this blessed and safe estate in him To such I would only say Are you in a willing league with any known sin Yea would you willingly if you might be saved in that way give up your self to Voluptuousness and Ungodliness and not at all desire to follow Jesus Christ in the way of Holiness Then truly I have not any thing as yet to say for your Comfort only there is a Salvation provided and the door is yet open and your heart may be changed But on the other side are the desires of thy Soul after Christ whole Christ to be Righteousness and withal Sanctification to thee Wouldst thou willingly give up thy self to be ruled by him and have him thy King Handst thou rather chuse to suffer the greatest Affliction for his sake to Honour him than commit the least Sin to displâ—ase him Doth thy Heart go out after him when thou heaâ—est him spoke of Dost thou account him thy Tâ—easure so that all the World sounds but as an empty Shell to thee when he is named Says thy Soul within thee Oh! that he were mine And oh that I were his that I could please him and live to him Then do not toss thy Spirit and jangle and spin out thy thoughts in fruitless endless doubtings but close with this as thy Portion and be of good Comfort thy sins are or will be forgiven thee I add yet further if thou sayest yet that thou findest none of all this yet I say there is warrant for thee to believe and lay hold on this Righteousness here held forth to the end that thou mayest then find those things in thee and find comfort in them Thou art convinc'd of Ungodliness than believe on him that justifies the Ungodly thou art Condemned yet Christ is dead and risen fly to him as such as the Lamb slain he that was dead and is alive and then say who is he that Condemneth It is Christ that died or rather that is risen Who shall Accuse 'T is true they may clamour and make a noise both Satan and thy Conscience but how can they fasten any Accusation on thee If they dare Accuse yet they cannot Condemn when the Judg hath acquitted thee and declared thee free who is greater than all and hath the absolute power of the Sentence all Charges and Libels come too late after he hath once pronounc'd a Soul Righteous And who shall Condemn it is Christ that died if the Sentence of the Law be brought forth Yet here 's the answer It ought not to be twice satisfied now once it is in Christ he
Security on the contrary it is the only thing that doth eminently ennoble and embolden the Soul for all adventures and services Base fears and doubtings wherein some place much of Religion and many weak Christians seem to be in that mistake to think it a kind of holy spiritual temper to be questioning and doubting I say these base fears can never produce any thing truly generous no height of obedience they do nothing but entangle and disable the Soul for every good work perfect love casts out this fear and works a sweet unperplexing fear a holy wariness not to offend which fears nothing else And this confidence of Love is the great secret of Comfort and of Ability to do God service Nothing makes so strong and healthful a Constitution of Soul as pure Love it dares submit to God and resign it self to him it dare venture it self in his hand and trust his word and seeks no more but how to please him A heart thus composed goes readily and chearfully unto all services to do to suffer to live to die at his pleasure and firmly stands to this that nothing can separate it from that which is sufficient to it which is all its happiness the love of God in Christ Jesus That is indeed his love to us but so as it includes inseparably the inseparableness of our love to him for observe the things specify'd as most likely if any thing to separate us Shall tribulation distress c. Now these especially being endured for his sake cannot immediately have any likely Visage of altering his love to us but rather confirm us in it but these shall not separate us neither by altering our love to him by driving us from him and carrying us into any way of defection or denial of his Name and so cut us off from our union with him and interest in his love and that is the way wherein the weak Christian will most apprehend the hazard of Separation Now the Apostle speaks his own sense and would raise in his Brethren the same confidence as to that danger No fear not one of these things shall be able to carry us away these mighty Waves shall not unsettle our Faith nor quench the flame of our Love we shall be Victors and more in all but how Through him that hath loved us This his love makes sure ours he hath such hold of our hearts as he will not let go nor suffer us to let go our hold all is fast by his strength He will not lose us nor shall any be able to pluck us out of his hand Jesus Christ is the Medium of this love the middle link that keeps all safe together betwixt God and Man so close united in his personal Nature and the persons of men in and by him to the Father So here it is first called the love of Christ and then in the close the love of God in Christ the Soul first carry'd to him as nearest but so carry'd by him into that Primitive Love of God that flows in Christ and that gave even Christ to us as before And this is the bottom truth the firm ground of the Saints perseverance which men not taking aright must needs question the matter yea may put it out of question upon their suppositions for if our own purposes and strength were all we had to relie on alas how soon were we shaken So the love of God in Christ is not only here mentioned as the point of happiness from which we cannot be removed but as the principle of firmness that makes it self sure of us and us of it and will not part with us Now it is no pride in a Christian but the truest humility to triumph and glory in this This is it that makes all sure this is the great comfort and the victory of the Saints He that loved us and bought us so dear will not lightly slip from us yea upon no terms will he let us go unless some stronger than he is meet with him and by force bereave him of us which we know is impossible He and his Father who are one in themselves and in their strength and one in this love are greater and stronger than all and he that once overcame for us always overcomes in us Thus he lets tentations and tribulations assaule us and this neither unargues his love nor endangers his right to us yea it doth but give proof and evidence of the Invincible firmness of both He suffers others to lie soft and sit warm and pamper their flesh at leisure but he hath nobler business for his Champions his Worthies and most of all for the stoutest of them he calls them forth to honourable Services to the hardest Encounters he sets them on one to fight with Sickness another with Poverty another with Reproaches and Persecutions with Prisons and Irons and with Death it self and all this while loves he the less or they him Oh! No he looks on and rejoices to see them do Valiantly 't is the Joy of his heart no sight on Earth so sweet to him and 't is all the while by his subduing and in his strength that they hold out in the Conflict and obtain the Conquest And thus they are the more endeared to him by these Services and these Adventures of love for him and he still likewise is the more endeared to them certainly the more any one suffers for Christ the more he loves Christ as love doth grow and engage it self by all it does and suffers and burns hotter by what it encounters and overcomes as by fewel added to it as to Jesus Christ by what he suffered for us we are the dearer to him so he is to us by all we suffer for his sake Love grows most by opposition from others whosoever when it is sure of acceptance and the correspondence of mutual love in the party loved Above all this heavenly Divine Love is strong as Death a velâ—ement flame a flame of God indeed as the word is and many waters cannot quench it not all these that here follow one another Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword yea in the midst of these I say it grows the Soul cleaves closer to Christ the more attempts are made to remove it from him though killed all the day long This passage from the Psalm is most sit both to testifie that Persecution is not unusually the lot of the Saints and to give instance of their firm adherence to God in all troubles as the Church there professeth and if the Saints in that dispensation could reckon in such a manner much more ought Christians upon a clearer discovery of the Covenant of Grace and their union with God in Christ. The Saints are as in a common Butchery in the World yet not only as Sheep for the Slaughter but sometimes as Sheep for the Altar men thinking it as Sacrifice They that kill you says our Saviour shall think they do God service yet even this
of a humbled heart in the lowest deep of his sorrow and his Arm long enough to reach them and strong enough to draw them forth He that comes unto God must believe that he is says the Apostle So certainly he that believes that must come it will sweetly constrain him he cannot but come that is so perswaded Were mens hearts much imprest with that belief in all their troubles they would eye men less and God more and without delay they would fasten upon the Churches resolution Hosea 6. 1. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up c. And this is the very thing that the Prophet would here perswade to by this present Doctrin and having impleaded them guilty he sets them a Copy of humble Confession ver 12. c. Hence the frequent complaints in the Psalm Why hidest thou thy self So Psal. 22. 2. I cry but no hearing In the words of these two Verses these two things appear A sad condition and the true cause of it The condition I think I have reason to call sad 't is God hiding his face that he will not hear This may be the personal estate of his Children or the publick estate of his Church From a Soul he hides his face not so much in the withdrawing of sensible Comforts and sweet tastes of Joy which to many are scarce known and to such as do know them commonly do not continue very long but it is a suspension of that lively influence of his Divine power for raising the mind to the Contemplation of him and Communion with him in Prayer and Meditation which yet may be were those relishes and senses of Joy are not and the returns of it appear in beating down the power of Sin or abating and subduing it making the heart more pure and heavenly more to live by Faith in Christ to be often at the Throne of Grace and to receive gracious answers supplies of wants and assistances against tentations Now when there is a cessation and obstruction of these and such like workings the face of God is hid the Soul is at a loss seeks still and cannot find him whom it loveth And in this condition it cannot take comfort in other things they are too low 't is a higher and nobler desire than to be satisfy'd or diverted with the Childish things that even men delight in that know not God 't is a Love sickness which nothing can cure but the presence and love of the party loved yea nothing can so much as allay the pain and give an interval of ease or recover a fainting Fit but some good word or look or at least some kind message from him Set thee in a Palace and all delights about thee and a Crown on thy Head yet if his love has ceas'd on thy heart these are all nothing without him It was after David was advanc'd to his Kingdom Psal. 30. And is in the Psalm of the Dedication of his Royal House that he said Thou hidst thy face and I was troubled All is dark all the shining Marble and the Gold and Azure lose their lustre when thou aâ—t not here dwelling with me And thus for the Church God is the proper light the beauty the life of it deck it with all this Worlds splendour with all the dresses of pompous Worship these are not its genuine beauty and they provoke him who is its ornament as is Jer. 2. 32. to depart but give it the native purity and beauty of holy Ministers and Ordinanâ—es well regulated yet even that is but a dead comeliness proportion and feature without life when God is absent And for matter of deliverances and working for her which is here the thing in hand none can do any thing in that not the wisest nor the best of men with all their combined Wit and Strength when he retires and comes not forth doth not shew himself on the behalf of his people and work their works for them These have it may be some kind of Prayer possibly they offer at extraordinaries and yet obtain nothing are not heard the sadest note in all the Song of Lament 3. 43 44. Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us thou hast slain thou hast not pitied Thou hast â—overed thy self with a Cloud that our Prayer should not pass through Still while that Door stands open there is hope and remedy for other evils but that being shut what can a People or a Soul expect but growing troubles one sorrow upon the back of another yea that is the great trouble the hiding of his face and refusing to hear Observe Job 34. 29. When he giveth peace who then can make trouble Now the other in the same terms would have been when he makes trouble who can give peace But instead 't is when he hides his face who then can behold him No peace but in beholding him and nothing but trouble that is the grand trouble when he hides his face and it is express'd in both cases whether it be Personal or National whether against a Nation or a man only This is the thing wherein the strength of other troubles lie that gives them weight when they impart and signifie thus much that the face of God is hid from a Soul or a People We ought to enquire if this be not our condition at this time hath he not hid his face from us Are we not left in the dark that we know not which way to turn us Either we must sit still and do nothing for if we stir we do but rush one upon another as in darkness contesting each to have the way and yet when we have it given us we know not well which way to go And we think to be cleared but it fails us as in this Chapter ver 9. We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness we grope for the Wall as blind and stumble at Noon day as in the Night our Counsels strangely darkened and no right understanding one of another By all debates little or no clearing of things attained but our passions are more enflamed and parties are further off the light of sound Judgment gone and with it the heat of Love instead of which that miserable Infernal heat heat without light mutual hatreds and revilings both sides verbally at least agreeing in the general terms both of their desires and designs and yet falling out about modes and fashions of them And to say no more of Parties the Enemies of Religion on both hands right and left in action and in power and only those that love that we conceive is the way of truth standing as a naked prey to whether of the two shall prevail Desires and Prayers we have presented and see as yet no appearance of an issue but further confusions even fasting to strife and debate And where are there any that look like persons