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
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
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
up the Tune of these Thenes Joel 2. 17. And all that wish the good of Church and Kingdom ought to bear a part in them according to their measure Have we not much need to intreat reconcilement with God that he prove not our enemy Yes surely and were we reconciled with him we would have little need to fear the power of Man Now they that would be profitable mourners for others sins by all means must have these two conditions I mention'd to be careful observers of the Law themselves and to mourn for their own failing and breaking of it Now to the observing of the Law it is absolutely needful to know and understand it and that not only in the Letter and Superfice but according to the Spiritual sense and meaning of it for without this knowledge a man may light upon some Duty by guess as it were in the dark but observe the Law he cannot They are not only reproveable that glory in their own sins and make sport of the sins of others but they mistake it much that think it enough to consider their own with grief and judge the sins of others an impertinency for them to think on they mourn not right for others that begin not at themselves so they mourn never aright for themselves that end in themselves He that here thus weeps for others made his Bed to swim with these Rivers for his own sin Psal. 6. 2 As a man must know this Law so he must be inwardly convinced and perswaded of the Divinity of it that it's God's Law 3 He must have a deep apprehension of the Majesty and Authority of the Law-giver to work Reverence and of his goodness to beget Love and the due mixture of these two will both strongly command and sweeten obedience to his Commandments And this obedience though it be not an absolute and perfect fulfilling of any one of the Commandments yet it is a respect to them all as this Psalm hath it which is so to speak an imperfect kind of perfection And from this respect to the Law which is the observing of it will â—low that other condition of grieving when we break it And besides all other things that should make a Christians own sin grievous to him there is one thing cannot but move him much The consideration of the sorrow and sufferings of Christ. To view the bleedings of the Lord Jesus cannot chuse but pierce a Believing Soul and make it say Did my Redeemer shed his Blood for my sins and shall not I my self shed tears for them I know the natural Constitution of some denies them tears but if it do so to any make up that want with sence of inward grief and it is well enough the Eye of God can discern that as well as the other but truly where men have tears for lighter causes for all other causes are lighter and none for this they feel not yet the weight of sin except that want be through the deepness of sorrow which sometimes will stop the current of tears though it used to run at other times as they say Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent But this is a rare and happy impediment And to answer another doubt If you find sometimes worldly griefs stir you more violently yet let this Godly sorrow affect you more constantly that it may have the advantage in continuance if it fall short in the degree But as this grief must begin at home as they say of Charity it must not be so selfish as to rest there and truly where it comes in that order it may be some way a stronger Evidence of sincerity to mourn for others sins than for our own for there seems to be more of God in it because there is less in it of our selves and own particular interest Now you will possibly think it but an unpleasant Duty that you have heard urged all this while but look forward and consider the issue of it That which Christ speaks in particular to his Disciples is generally true in all Christians Jo. 16. 20. Ye shall weep and lament says he but the World shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned or made into Joy The Water of those tears shall be turned into Wine of Consolation The Traffick of these Rivers is gainful they export Grief and import Joy When these tears are called Seed the Harvest crop is called Joy They that sow in tears shall reap in Joy They are here called Rivers and they are answered with a River Psal. 86. 8. for which they shall in end be perfectly exchanged Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures And Revel 7. 17. The Lamb shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters Here they run down the eyes and water the cheeks and there you read that God shall wipe them away from their eyes Who would not be content to weep to have God wipe away their tears with his own hand Be ambitious then to be found amongst the mourners in Sion and when ye remove from this Valley of tears God shall at once fully wipe away all the stain of Sin from your Souls and all Tears for it from your Eyes And as he shall wipe away the Tears with the one hand he will set the Crown upon your Heads with the other SERMON VIII PREFACE BBessed are they that dwell in thy House saith the Psalmist and he adds this reason They will be still praising thee There is indeed always in God's House both fit opportunity and plentiful matter of his praises But the greatest number of those that frequent his House do not dwell in it their delight and affection is not there Therefore they cannot praise him they come in as strangers and have no skill of the Songs of praise yea and the very Children of the Family that Worship in Spirit and in Truth find their instruments their hearts very often quite out of tune for praises and sometimes most of all when praises are requisite They find still such abundant cause of complaint in themselves weighing down their Spirits that they can hardly at all wind them up to magnifie that God of our mercy which is far more abundant If we would take a reflex view and look back upon our carriage this day in the presence of our God who is among us that would not find much work for sad thoughts Would not one find that he had a hard and stony heart another a light unconstant wandring heart to complain of A third and unbelieving heart and some all of these And they if such there be that have both deeply sorrowed and been largely comforted will possibly for all that upon former sad experience be full of Fears and Jealousies that this sweet temper will not be of long continuance that ere long the World or some Lust will find or make a way to creep in and banish those Heavenly thoughts and trouble that Peace and Joy
which accompanies them Yet notwithstanding all these causes of grief or fear our causes of praise are both more and greater and it is no reason that the sense of our own evil should prejudge that acknowledgment of God's goodness yea rather it should stir us up to extol it so much the more Cease not to bemoan the evils of your own hearts but withal forget not to magnifie the riches of his grace who hath given himself for you and to you These two will not hinder one another but the due intermixture of them will make a very good harmony And the fruit of them will be this you shall have still more cause to praise and less to complain When the Lord shall find you humble acknowledgers of his grace he will delight to bestow more grace upon you and will subdue those iniquities for you which you cannot and though he is pleased to do it but gradually by little and little yet in the end the conquest shall be full and then he who is the Author and Finisher of your Faith tho â—t is his own work yet because it is done in you he shall account the Victory yours as obtained by you and give you as Conquerors the Crown of Glory To him that overcometh saith he will I give to sit with me in my Throne c. There is nothing here but from free grace the courage and strength to fight in this Spiritual warfare the victory by fighting and the Crown by Victory flow all from that Fountain In all these things we are more than Conquerors saith the Apostle but how Through him that loved us Therefore if we desire to be such let us humble our selves before the Throne of grace intreating both for grace and glory in the Name of Christ our Mediator Cant. I. 3. Because of the Savour of thy good Ointments Thy Name is as Ointment poured forth Therefore do the Virgins love thee THE natural workings and desires of things are agreeable to their being The Beasts according to their sensitive Life seek those things that tend to the good and preservation of that Life and affect nothing higher than those and they are satisfied Man except such as are in the lowest Stage and border upon the Beasts finds Nature even corrupt Nature raising him to higher desires and designs And yet of the best of them the Apostles maxim holds true They that are after the Flesh mind the things of the Flesh and yet he subjoins the excellency of some Men beyond the best naturalist They that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5. They must be confined to things natural but are strongly moved towards Spiritual blessings and Christ the Sum of them And having once tasted of his sweetness can say Because of the savour of thy good Ointments c. They that are elevated to a supernatural Being can admit nothing into competition with his love and this it is that lies under these words Because of the savour of thy good Ointments c. Numbers have promiscously been his guests at this time and the greatest number think they came to good purpose but know that you are so far from partaking of Christ in the Sacrament that you have not so much as smelt his Perfumes if you be not strongly taken with his love Great are the Praises and many the Duties you owe him for so rich favours and therefore shew your good will and endeavour some payment But know that none of them are current except they be stampt with Love if you love not you do nothing all your Labours and Services without it are as so many Cyphers they amount to just nothing And with it the meanest of them will find acceptance You have briefly in the words Christ's loveliness and the Christians love the former the cause of the latter both couched under borrowed Terms according to the whole strain of this allegorical Song to which the true Experimental knowledge of this Divine love is the best Commentary In all Love Three things are necessary 1 Some goodness in the object either true and real or apparent and seeming to be so for the Soul be it never so evil can affect nothing but what it takes some way to be good 2 There must be a knowledge of that goodness for the most excellent things if altogether unknown affect not 3 There must be a suitableness or agreement of that good thing with the nature of those which should affect it otherwise indeed how good soever it is it is not good to them Now all these we have clearly in this Love 1 The goodness the excellency of Christ exprest by precious Ointments 2 The manifestation and making of it known signified by the pouring forth of his Name 3 His fitness and congruity with them here mentioned under this denomination Virgins such as have the senses of their Souls not stopt with the pollutions of the World but Pure and Active and therefore as the Apostle speaks Heb. 5. 14. exercised to discern good and evil These three requisites thus happily met must needs produce Love Therefore the Virgins love thee Because of the savour of thy good Ointments How true is the Apostles word when he calls Christ the Believers All things and that radical grace of Faith because it apprehends Christ hath a kind of universality and it is reasonable too it alone being to the Soul what all the five senses are to the Body It is the eye and the Mouth a wonderful Eye It sees him that is invisible Heb. 4. 27. The Mouth it tastes that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2. 3. Yea take these two both together in one place Psal. 34. 8. O taste and see that the Lord is good 'T is the Souls Ear for what else is meant when it is said He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear And was it not that touch which Christ took special notice of and with good reason distinguished it from the common touch of the multitude that was crowding about him That touch alone draws vertue from him Some hath touched me for there is a vertue gone out of me And lastly as it is all those other senses and Christ its object in Reference to them all so here in its Smelling it finds the savour of his fragrant graces and by that works love Because of the savour c. What strange odds is there betwixt the opinion of Christ's Spouse and the World that knows him not They wonder what she sees in him desirable she wonders that they are not all ravisht with his excellencies They prefer the basest vanities in the World before him she finds the choicest and richest things in the World too mean to resemble the smallest part of his worth See in this Song how busily and skilfully she goes to all the Creatures and Crops the rarest peices in Nature and Art to set forth her well Beloved and seems to find them all too poor for her purpose one while she
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
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
where the benefit so far exceeds all possible thankfulness Ought you to serve and obey him Doubtless he hath for that purpose redeemed you with his precious Blood And truly there is no obedience nor service so full and so cheerful as that which flows from love Should you study conformity to Christ and labour to be like him Yes for this is to walk worthy of Christ then there is nothing assimulates so much as Love Men delight in their society whom they love and by their society they do insensibly contract their customs and become like them These Virgins that love Christ for his Graces they love to converse with him and by conversing with him they receive of his Graces and have a smell of his Persumes Not only do they by the smell of his Garments or such imposed Rights obtain the blessing but likewise smell like him by the participation of sanctifying Grace of his Wisdom and Holiness in a pure and godly Conversation abstaining from the impure Lusts and Pollutions of the World of his Meekness and Humility Never think that one and the same Soul can have much Pride and much of Christ ever the more Grace a man hath the more sense hath he likewise of his own unworthiness and Gods free mercy and consequently the more humility If you love Christ you cannot chuse but be like him in love to your Brethren This is expresly compared by the Psalmist to the precious Ointment poured upon Aaron's head that ran down to the very skirts of his Garments Our Head and High Priest the Lord Jesus hath incomparably testified his love to Believers whom he is pleased to call his Brethren they are far from equalling him either in love to him or one to another but they do imitate him in both This is his great Commandment That we love one another even as he loved us which is exprest both as a strange motive and a high example 'T is not possible that a Spirit of Malice and implacable Hatred can consist with the love of Christ. Finally should you be ready to suffer for Christ Yes Then love is that which will enable you and if you were inflamed with this fire then though burned for him that fire would only consume your dross and be soon extinguished but this would endure for ever By these and the like Evidences try whether you indeed love the Lord Jesus Christ and by these fruits You that profess to love him testifie the sincerity of your love and be assured that if you be now found amongst these Virgins that love him you shall one day be of the number of those Virgins that are spoken of Rev. 14. 3 4. that sing a new Song before the Throne of God If you hate the defilements of the World and be not polluted with inordinate affection to the Creature it shall never repent you to have made choice of Christ he shall fill your hearts with peace and joy in believing When you come to his House and Table he shall lend you home with Joy and sweet Consolation such as you would not exchange with Crowns and Scepters and after some few of these running Banquets here below you shall enter into the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb where Faith shall end in sight and Hope in possession and Love continue in perpetual and full Enjoyment where you shall be never weary but for ever happy in beholding the face of the Blessed Trinity To whom be Glory Amen SERMON IX PREFACE HOW true is that word of our Saviour who is truth it self Without me ye can do nothing severed from me as that branch that is not in me They that are altogether out of Christ in Spiritual Exercises do nothing at all 'T is true they may Pray and hear the Word yea and Preach it too and yet in so doing they do nothing nothing in effect They have the matter of good actions but it is the eternal Form gives being to things they are but a number of empty words and a dead service to a living God for all our outward performances and worship of the Body is nothing but the body of worship and therefore nothing but a Carkass except the Lord Jesus by his Spirit breath upon it the breath of life Yea the Worshipper himself is Spiritually Dead till he receive Life from Jesus and be quickned by his Spirit If this be true then it will follow necessarily That where numbers are met together as here pretending to serve and worship God yet he hath very few that do so indeed the greatest part being out of Christ and such being without him they can do nothing in his service Rom. VIII 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be THE ordinary workings and actions of Creatures are suitable to their Naure as the ascending of light things and the moving of heavy things downwards so the vital and sensitive actions of things that have life and sense The reasonable Creature 't is true hath more liberty in its actions freely chusing one thing and rejecting another yet it cannot be denied that in acting of that liberty their choice and refusal follow the sway of their nature and condition as the Angels and glorified Souls their nature being perfectly holy and unalterably such They cannot sin they can delight in nothing but in obeying and praising that God in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consisteth still ravish'd in beholding his face The Saints again that have not yet reach'd that home and are but on their Journey they are not fully defecated and refined from the dross of Sin there are in them two parties Natural Corruption and Supernatural Grace and these keep a strugling within them but the younger shall supplant the elder Grace shall in the end overcome and in the mean while though it be not free from mixture yet it is predominant The main bent of a renewed Man is Obedience and Holiness and any action of that kind he rejoyces in but the Sin that escapes him he cannot look upon but with regret and discontent But alas they that be so minded are very thin sown in the World even in Gods peculiar Fields where the Labourage of the Gospel is and the outward profession of true Religion unanimously received Yet the number of true Converts Spiritual-minded Persons is very small the greatest part acting Sin with delight and taking pleasure in Unrighteousness living in disobedience to God as in their proper Element and the reason is The contrariety of their Nature to our Holy Lord. The carnal mind is enmity against God The mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some render it the Prudence or Wisdom of the Flesh. Here you have it The Carnal Mind but the word signifies indeed an act of the mind rather than either the faculty it self or the habit of Prudence in it so as it discovers what is the frame of both those The minding as it
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8
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
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
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
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
but imprest within as a sweet principle in our hearts and working from thence naturally This makes a Soul find pleasure in purging out of sensual pleasures and ease in doing violence to corrupt self even undoing it for God having no will but his the remainders sin and self in our Flesh will be often riof sing up but this predominant Love dispels them So this fear works with delight And further that we may know how serene and sweet a thing it is it is here likewise joyned with confidence Trusting a quickning confidence always accompanying it and so undoubtedly it is a blessed thing Blessed is he that feareth Fear sounds rather quite contrary hath an air of misery but add Whom He that feareth the Lord that touch turns it into Gold He that so fears fears not he shall not be afraid all petty fears are swallowed up in this great fear as a Spirit inur'd with great things is not stir'd nor affected at all with small matters And this great fear is as sweet and pleasing as these little fears are anxious and vexing secure of other things If my God be pleased no matter who is displeased no matter who despise me if he account me his though all forsake me my dearest friends grows estranged and look another way if he reject me not that is my only fear and for that I am not perplexed I know he will not As they answered Alexander when he sent to enquire what they most feared thinking possibly they would have said Lest he should invade them Their answer was We fear nothing but lest Heaven should fall upon us which they did not fear neither A Believer hath no fear but of the displeasure of Heaven the anger of God to fall upon him he fears that that is accounts that only terrible but yet he doth not fear doth not apprehend it will fall on him is better perswaded of the goodness of his God so this fear is still joined with trust as here so often elsewhere Psal 33. 18 and 40 3. and 147. 11. There is no turbulency in this fear 't is calm and sweet even that most terrible Evil that which this fear properly apprehends and flies Sin yet the fear of that goes not to a distraction Though there is little strength and many and great Enemies mighty Anakims of tentations from without and corruption within and so good reason for a holy humble fear and self distrust yet this should not beat us off yea is most fit to put us on to trust in him who is our Strength Courage the day shall be ours though we may be often foyled and down and sometimes almost at a hopeless point yet our head is on high he hath conquered for us and shall conquer in us therefore upon this confidence so fear as not to fear Why should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about Psal. 49. 5. Which I take is some grievous affliction and that with a Visage of punishment of sin guiltiness to be read in it yet not fear If I trusted in Wealth and boast my self in the multitude of Riches then that being in hazard I must fear leaning on that it failing I might fall But this is my confidence ver 15. God will redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave for he shall receive me wealth cannot but he can It buys not a man out from his hand but he buys from the hand of the Grave So the word is For the visible Heavens even their fall and the dissolution of Nature would not affright a Believer Psalm 41. 1. Si fractus illabatur orbis c. Alas most persons have dull or dim apprehensions and shallow impressions of God therefore they have little either of this fear or this trust God is not in all their thoughts but how to compass this or that design and if they miss one then to another they are cast from one wave upon another and if at any time they attain their purpose find it but Wind a handful of nothing far from what they fancied it Oh M. B. my desire is that the faces of your Souls were but once turn'd about that they were towards him looking to him continually fearing him delighting trusting in him making him your All. Can any thing so elevate and ennoble the Spirit of a Man as to contemplate and converse with the pure ever blessed Spring and Father of Spirits Beg that you may know him that he would reveal himself to you for otherwise no teaching can make him known 't is to light Candles to seek the Sun to think to attain to this knowledge without his own revealing it If he hide his face who then may behold him Pray for this quickening knowledge such a knowledge as will affectually work this happy fear and trust You that have attained any thing of it desire and follow on to know the Lord particularly so as your hearts may repose on him so fear as you may not fear He would have our Spirits calm and quiet for when they are in a hurry and confussion they are then fit for nothing all within makes a jarring unpleasant noise as of an Instrument quite out of Tune This fear of God is not you see a perplexing doubting and distrust of his love on the contrary 't is a fixed resting and trust on his love Many that have some truth of Grace are through weakness filled with disquieting fears so possibly though they perceive it not it may be in some a point of wilfulness a little latent undiscern'd affectation of scrupling and doubting placing much of Religion in it True where the Soul is really solicitous about its interâ—st in God that argues some Grace but being vexingly anxious about it it argues that Grace is low and weak a sparkle there is even discovered by that smoak 〈◊〉 it the great smoak still continuing and nothâ—â—â— seen but it argues there is little Fire little Faith little Love And this as it is unpleasant to thy self so to God as smoak to the eyes What if one should be always questioning with his friend whether he loved him or no and upon every little occasion were ready to think he doth not how would this disrelish their Society together though truly loving each other The far more excellent way and more pleasing both to our selves and to God were to resolve on humble trust reverence and confidence most afraid to offend delighting to walk in his ways loving him and his will in all and then resting perswaded of his love though he chastise us and even though we offend him and see our offences in our chastisements yet he is good plenteous in redemption ready to forgive Therefore let Israel trust and hope let my Soul roll it self on him and adventure there all its weight he bears greater matters upholding the frame of Heaven and Earth and is not troubled nor burden'd with it The heart of a man is not
which some Christians hang too much upon there is in simple trust and reliance on God and in a desire to walk in his ways such a Fort of Peace as all the assaults in the World are not able to make a breach in And to this add that unspeakable delight in walking in his fear joined with this trust The noble ambition of pleasing him makes one careless of pleasing or displeasing all the World Besides the delight in his Commandments so pure so just a Law Holiness victory over Lusts and Temperance hath a sweetness in it that presently pays it self because his Will 'T is the Godly Man alone who by this fixed consideration in God looks the grim Visage of Death in the Face with an unappal'd mind It damps all the joys and defeats all the hopes of the most prosperous proudest and wisest Worldings As he said when shot Avocasti ab optima demonstratione It spoils all their Figures and fine Devices But to the Righteous there is hope in his Death He goes through it without fear without Caligula's Quo vadis Though Riches Honours and all the Glories of this World are with a man yet he fears yea he fears the more for these because here they must end But the good man looks Death out of Countenance in the words of David Though I walk through the Valley and Shadow of Death yet will I fear no Evil for thou art with me SERMON XIII Matth. XIII 3. And he spake many things unto them in Parables saying Behold a Sower went forth to sow c. THE rich bounty of God hath furnisht our Natural Life not barely for strict necessity but with great abundance many kinds of Beasts and Fowls and Fishes and Herbs and Fruits has he provided for the use of man Thus our Spiritual Life likewise is supported with a variety the Word the food of it hath not only all necessary Truths once simply set down but a great variety of Doctrine for our more abundant Instruction and Consolation Amongst the rest this way of Similitudes hath a notable commixture of profit and delight Parables not unfolded and understood are a Veil as here to the multitude and in that are a great Judgment as Isa. 6. 9. cited here but when cleared and made transparent then they are a Glass to behold Divine things in more commodiously and suitably to our way all things are big with such resemblances but they require the dexterous hand of an active Spirit to bring them forth This way besides other advantages is much grac'd and commended by our Saviours frequent use of it That here fitted to the occasion multitudes coming to hear him and many not a whit the better He instructs us in this point the great difference between the different hearts of men so that the same Word hath very different success in them In this Parable we shall consider these three things 1 The Nature of the Word in it self 2 The sameness and commonness of the dispensation 3 The difference of the operation and production The word Seed hath in it a productive Vertue to bring forth Fruit according to its kind that the Fruit a new life not only a new habitude and fashion of life without but a new nature a new kind of life within new thoughts a new estimate of things new delights and actions When the Word reveals God his greatness and holiness then it begets pious fear and reverence and study of conformity to him when it reveals his goodness and mercy it works love and confidence when it holds up in our view Christ Crucified it Crucifies the Soul to the World and the World to it when it represents these rich things laid up for us that blest Inheritance of the Saints then it makes all the lustre of this World vanish shews how poor it is weans and calls off the heart from them raising it to these higher hopes and sets it on the project of a Crown and so is a Seed of noble thoughts and of a suitable behaviour in a Christian as in the Exposition of this Parable 't is called the Word of the Kingdom Seed an Immortal Seed as St. Peter calls it springing up to no less than an Eternal Life This teaches us 1st highly to esteem the great goodness of God to these places and times that were most blest with it Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgment unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them 2. That the same dispensation is to be Preach'd indifferently to all where it comes as far as the sound can reach And thus it was very much extended in the first promulgating of the Gospel their sound went out through all the earth as the Apostle allusively applies that of the Psalmist 3. This teaches also Ministers liberally to sow this Seed at all times according to that Eccl. 11. 6. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand c. Praying earnestly to him that is the Lord not only of the Harvest but of the Seed time and of this Seed to make it fruitful this is his peculiar work So the Apostle acknowledges 1 Cor. 3. 6. I have planted Apollo's watered but God gave the increase 4. Hence we also learn the success to be very different This is most evident in men one cast into the mould and fashion of the Word and so moulded and fashioned by it another no whit changed one heart melting before it another still hardned under it So then this is not all to have the Word and hear it as if that would serve turn and save us as we commonly fancy The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Multitudes under the continual sound of the Word yet remain lifeless and fruitless and die in their sins therefore we must enquire and examine strictly what becomes of it how it works what it brings forth and for this very end this Parable declares so many aâ—e fruitless We need not press them they are three to one here yea that were too narrow the odds is far greater for these are but the kinds of unfruitful grounds and under each of these huge multitudes of individuals so that there may be a hundred to one and it is to be feared in many Congregations it is more than so Whence is then the difference Not from the Seed that is the same to all not from the Sower neither for though these be divers and of different abilites yet it hangs little or nothing on that Indeed he is the fittest to Preach that is himself most like his Message and comes forth not only with a handful of this Seed in his hand but with store of it in his heart the Word dwelling richly in him yet howsoever the Seed he sows being this Word of Life depends not on his qualifications in any kind either of common Gifts or special Grace
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-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
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