faire words concerning his Sonne Job 10.1.2 but all to no purpose And surely had it not bin Abraham he would have offered like Job in the bitterness of his soule to have pleaded with God he would have stood up in the behalf of his Sonne and replyed again And is this that Isaac that should be my comfort is this he whom thou hast so often promised and whom I have so long expected as a pledge of thy love and favour towards me and must I now kill him Quid meus hic Isaac in te committere c. Alas what hath Isaac committed against thee how hath he offended thee who will ever believe that thou wouldest have spared Sodom had there been ten that were good in it if thou now takest delight in the blood of the innocent doest thou thus reward thy Children and Servants and is this the fruit of their love and obedience O let it not be known in Gath nor published in Ascalon lest the uncircumcised Philistins insult over thy people say among themselves such honour may have all his Saints But Abraham never opened his mouth for his Sonne but grace having got the upper hand of nature and faith of affection he was glad when God had given him a Sonne but more glad that he had a Sonne to give unto God for so saith Chrysostom Latus erat Abraham cum silium acciperet laetior cum sibi imolandum dominus postularet Abraham rejoyced when he received his Sonne but he rejoyced more when God commanded him to offer him unto him Doct. 1 The Doctrine that may be gathered from hence is this That God makes tryall of our love and obedience in those things which of all other are dearest unto us For so we see he deales here with Abraham when he sees how dearly he loves his Sonne for the better tryall of his love and obedience he commands him to offer him for a burnt-offring Thus dealt our Saviour with the Ruler in the Gospell Luke 18.22 for knowing that he was rich and withall that his heart was set upon his treasure he willed him to sell all that ever he had and to give it to the poor and so tryed him in that which was dearest unto him He Math. 10.37 saith our Saviour that loveth Father Mother Sonne or Daughter more then me he is not worthy of me It is no ordinary love which God requires of us but such a love as is able to subdue all naturall affection So that if our Children were dearer unto us then our own soules yet the love of God is to be preferred before them And this was prefigured by those milch kine 1 Sam. 6. which being to carry the Arke of the Lord it is said that their Calves were taken from them and yet they went on and onely sometimes did low after their Calves but never turned back to look after them To note unto us that Religion must alwayes oversway affection and though we do naturally love our Children yet if they be any hinderance unto us in Gods service we are not to regard them It is the commendation of Levi Deut. 33. that he said to his Father and Mother he had not seen them and that he knew not his Brethren nor his own Children For when the Levites were commanded Exod. 32. to consecrate their hands unto the Lord every man upon his own Sonne and his own Daughter they were so zealous in Gods Cause that they fought against nature and had no more compassion on their Parents or Children then if they had been meer changers whom they had never seene Hieron lib. 2. Epist Select It is an excellent saying of St. Jerom Licet pervulus ex collo pendeat nepos c. Though thy little Nephew should hang about thy neck though thy Mother should intreat thee by those her own duggs that gave thee suck though thy Father should lie upon the Threshold and cling about thy feete as thou art going out to stay thee from spending thy life in Gods service per calcatum perge patrem c. Tread thy Father under thy feete and trample upon him Solum in hac re crudelem esse pietatis est genus Onely in this case it is a kind of piety to use cruelty This howsoever it may seeme a very harsh Doctrine unto flesh and blood yet if our hearts were once throughly inflamed with the love of God if we were wholly devoted unto Gods service and if we did even hunger and thirst after righteousness then whatsoever it were that God required at our hands we would be ready with Abraham to perform obedience Mat. 4.21.22 And as the Disciples when our Saviour called them they left both their goods and their Parents to follow him So whatsoever it were that God required of us though it were to the losse of all that ever we have yet we would be willing to resigne it when God commands us And thus much concerning the first difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the sacrifice which is to be offered Abrahams onely beloved sonne Isaac I come now to the second diffi ∣ culty Second The second difficulty is in regard of the Person that must offer this sacrifice that is Abraham Abraham a Father must sacrifice his Son he must do it himself and no other for him Take thine onely beloved Sonne Isaac and do thou offer him If a Father having but one onely Son should but hear that he were causeless to be put to death this ye know would be a great grief unto him but if he were commanded to be present himself and to be an eye-witnesse and spectator of his death this must needes be a further vexation O but being come thither if he himself were inforced to be his Sonnes executioner and with his own hands to kill his Sonne this were a torment beyond all comparison But this is Abrahams case here If God had commanded him to deliver his Son to some of his Servants and that they should kill him yet Abraham might have conceived some comfort for it may be his Servants would have had compassion on him as it hath often been seene or if they had not but had put him to death yet Abraham should not have been a spectator thereof but that Abraham may be sure of the death of his Son God will have him not onely an eye-witness thereof but to be the actor himself he will have him with his own hands to kill him Valer. Max. lib. 5. tit 7. When Caesar commanded Cesetus a Roman to subscribe but his hand to the bannishment of his Son he made him this answer Celerius tu mihi Caesar omnes meos liberos eripies quam ex his ego unum mea notá pellam Thou shalt sooner saith he berave me of all my Children then I will ever set my hand to bnnish any one of them What would he have answered if he had been commanded with his own hands to have
the Lord Deut. 32. kill and make alive I wound I heal Therefore he wils us to call upon him in the time of trouble and he will deliver us Deut. 32.32 For howsoever by our sins we provoke him to afflict us yet if we call upon him for mercy and grace he hath an ear to hear us an eye to behold us a heart to pity us and an hand to help us And thus much concerning the first point the Agēt or party afflicting That it is God that chastens I come now to the second namely The Patient or party afflicted the beloved of God he chastens whom he loves Doct. God though he love whatsoever he hath made yet among all his creatures he loves man best and among men especially those who are of the houshold of faith which is his Church These he loves with an everlasting love he hath given his only Son for their redemption and hath adopted them in Christ Jesus to be his children And yet howsoever he loves them so dearly yet many times he doth afflict and chasten them for so we see here whom he loves he chastens The Doctrine that we may gather from hence is this That they who are in the love and favour of God are neverthelesse afflicted In the 11th of Saint John Behold Lord John 11.3 he whom thou lovest is sick Christ loved Lazarus and yet did not free and exempt him from sicknesse Dan. 9.23 Daniel was greatly beloved of God as the Angell Gabriel told him yet Daniel was cast into the Lions den The Virgine Mary was freely beloved of God as the same Gabriel told her Luke 1. yet a sword was to pierce through her heart Luke 1.28 Luke 2.35 1 Sam. 13.14 Job 1.1 as old Simeon prophesied David was a man according to Gods own heart yet David was often and many wayes afflicted Job was a just and an upright man yet Job was extraordinarily afflicted Saint Paul was a chosen vessel of God yet after he was converted his whole life was nothing but a continued affliction In a word Acts 9.15 all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and all the beloved children of God even from the beginning of the world to this present time have suffered affliction Therefore Christ saith Revel 3. As many as I love Revel 3.19 I rebuke and chasten Read over the Scriptures and ye see examples hereof almost in every leafe Gen. 39.20 In one place ye shall see Joseph cast into the dungeon Dan. 3.20 in another the three children into a fiery furnace 1 King 22.27 here ye shall see Michea fed with the bread of affliction there David washing his couch with tears in one place ye shall see Steven stoned to death Psal 6.6 in another ye shall finde John the Baptist beheaded Acts 7.59 To be short as it was said of Rome heretofore Mark 6.27 that a man could not step into any part thereof but he should tread upon a Martyre so a man can hardly read any part of the Scripture but he shall light upon the affliction of the children of God either one or other affliction being common to every one of them and more common then any thing The floud that overspred the whole face of the earth in the days of Noah was common generall yet eight persons ye know were freed frō the flood Gen. 6.18 preserved in the Ark Death is more cómon general then the flood Gen. 5.24 seizing upon the whole of-spring of Adam and yet two persons Enoch and Elias have been freed from death a King 2.,11 and were taken up into heaven while they were living upon the earth Sin is more common and generall then death and yet one person even Christ and he alone was free from sin but affliction is more generall then any of them all which hath lighted upon all men without any exception for even Christ himself though he were free from sin Esay 53.3 yet he was vir dolorum as the Prophet Esay calls him a man of sorrows as being subject through the whole course of his life to much sorrow affliction For this is the condition of all Gods children that first they must wear a crown of thorns before they receive a crown of glory first they must suffer with Christ in this life before they reign with him in the life to come Therefore Christ wills us if we will be his disciples to take up his crosse every day Acts 14. and follow him And the Apostle tels us That through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven Vse 1 The use to be made hereof is two-fold First Seeing Goddeth visit his own children with the rod of affliction then much lesse shall the wicked escape Gods judgements if God chasten the godly whom he loves and is loved of them much lesse will he spare his enemies those that hate him Prov. 11.31 Therefore Solomon Proverbs 1◠Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner And therefore Peter 1 Epist 4. Chapter If judgement saith he 1 Peter 4.17.18 first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear For if God chasten the one much lesse out of doubt will he spare the other You will say but it is ordinarily seen in the World that the wicked are not subject to the like afflictions that the godly are Their houses as Job in his 21. Chapt. Job 21.9 saith of the wicked are peaceable without fear and the rod of God is not upon them and as the Prophet David saith of the ungodly they prosper in all their wayes and flourish like a green bay-tree It is true indeed and cannot be denied that the godly many times do suffer in this World more crosses and afflictions then the wicked but therefore we must remember that the punishment of the wicked is kept and reserved till the World to come Lazarus was farre more afflicted in this life that lay full of sores at the rich mans gates and would have been glad of a morsell of bread then the rich man was that fared so sumptuously and lived in pleasure but therefore what saith Abraham to the rich man Sonne saith he Luke 15.25 remember that then in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now is he comforted and thou art tormented Whensoever therefore we see the godly to live in affliction and misery and the wicked in prosperity and hearts-ease yet it need not trouble us because there will come a time when the wicked shall be punisht and the godly comforted When the godly shall have all their teares wiped from their eyes Revel 7.17 and the wicked shall suffer Gods wrath and vengeance for if God afflict and chasten such as he loves much lesse
EIGHTEENE Choice and usefull SERMONS BY Benjamin Hinton B. D. Late MINISTER of HENDON And sometime fellow of TRINITY COLLEDGE IN CAMBRIDGE Contra rationem nemo sobrius senserit Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus senserit Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit Imprimatur EDM CALAMY 1650. LONDON Printed by J. C. For Humphery Moseley at the Princes Armes in S. Pauls Church-yard and for R. Wodenothe at the Starre under S. Peters Church in Cornehill 1649. To the Right Worshipfull Master FRANCIS PHILIPS Auditor of LONDON Grace and Peace YOur love and kindnesse whereof I have had so long experience imboldens me to present these few Sermons unto you not as presuming of the worth of them but as desiring to testifie my thankfulnesse having so just occasion I am old and gray-headed wanting not much of seventy years yet not so old in years as I am in infirmities and in my age it pleased God to visite me through a fall whielâ— I took with an incurable lamenesse and through sicknesse which I had with great weaknesse both in my memory and voice whereby I have been much disabled to preach I was therefore the more willing with my pen to supply the defect of my tongue as Zachary wrote when he could not speake and made his pen to make known what his tongue could not Luke 1.63 And though many have done the like before me with far greater ability yet remembring that God at the making of the Tabernacle accepted as well the offerings of the poorer sort who brought thither but Goats-haire and Rams-skinnes as of those who were rich and offered blew silk and purple and scarlet I have offered these few mites into the treasury of the Church out of my want and penury when others offer talents out of their store and plenty And I doubt not of your favourable acceptance hereof as coming from him who will no longer desire your favour then he desires to remaine Your truely loving in the Lord BEN. HINTON Curteous Reader IT was the earnest desire of the Authour my Reverend Father that these Sermons might passe the Presse in his life for the furtherance of others passage to life eternall but being himself taken away by death before his purpose was effected I thought it my duty not to let his works die with him but to impart to others what GOD had imparted to him I desire that as they teach the word of Truth so they may be the word of life And although in these dayes Sermons are neglected by the most contemned by the worst and too little esteemed even by the best yet I doubt not but these will meete with some who will receive the Message for the Masters sake And as formerly the feet of those who brought glad tydings of the Gospel of peace were counted beautifull so will the Gospel it self I hope though plainly preached not be trod under feet but be acceptable and helpfull to augment their peace who indeed seek peace which shall be the prayers of him to the God of peace who is your Christian Friend WILLIAM HINTON The severall SERMONS I. ABrahams offring his Sonne Isaac GEN. 22.2 Take now thy Sonne thine onely Sonne Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountains which I will tell thee of II. The good ground or hearer of the word MATTH 13.23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold some sixty some thirty III. Zacheus converted LUKE 19.8 Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor c. IV. Gaining the world and losing the soule MATTH 16.26 For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soule V. Man like the grasse and flowers of the field PSAL. 103 15. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flowre of the field so he flourisheth VI. The Devil a coward if he be resisted JAMES 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you VII Gods best beloved most afflicted HEBR. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth VIII No peace to the wicked ESAY 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God IX God the Authour and protector of the Scripture 2 PETER 1.21 For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost X. Christs miraculous Cures MATH 11.5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk the Leapers are cleansed and the deaf heare the dead are raised up and the poore have the Gospel preached to them XI The Churches love to Christ CANTIC 3.1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth XII Both Poverty and Riches occasions of evil PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither Poverty nor Riches XIII Gods pardoning great sinners a great comfort to others PSAL. 32.6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou maiest be found XIIII Steven Stoned ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their Charge XV. Lawfull and unlawfull swearing JEREM. 4.2 Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth in judgement and iâ—â—â—ghteousnesse XVI Jonas sent to Nineveh JONAH 3.1 c. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh that great City and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh XVII Hiding of sinne no small sinne PROVERBS 38.13 He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy XVIII Christs coming to judgement both certain and uncertain 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night THE FIRST SERMON GEN. 22.2 Take now thine onely Sonne Jsaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountaines which I will tell thee of Paradisus Genesis in quo pullulant Patriarcharum virtutes Ambr. Epist 41. THis booke of Moses is resembled by St. Ambrose not unfitly unto Paradise Genesis saith he is a Paradise wherein spring forth the virtues of the Patriarchs For as in Paradise there were variety of trees which brought forth variety of excelent fruits both pleasant to behold and good to eate Gen. 2.9 So in this Paradise this book of Genesis are many worthy plants Gods Children and Servants whose fruits of Faith of Love and obedience are both delightfull for us to read and profitable to imitate Now of all these plants the chief are the Patriarchs of all the Patriarchs the most fruitfull is Abraham and of all the fruits which he
Servants to call them that were bidden To shew how willing he is to receive us if we come he propounds the parable of the prodigal Sonne Luke 15.20 who but coming to his Father his Father made more haste and ranne forth to meet him fell on his neck and kissed him and received him as joyfully as if he had never offended him To shew us the danger of deferring our coming and putting it off as many do the whole time of their life he propounds the parable of the foolish Virgins Mat. 25.11.12 who were excluded out of Heaven because they were not ready at the time to meete the Bridegroome Yet to hearten us any time while we live to come he propounds the parable of those that were called into the Vineyard and shewes that he who came at the eleaventh houre did not lose his reward but received his hire Mat. 20.9 Nay though we be stray'd away from him and do not seek him he shewes by the Parable of the lost sheepe that he wil seek us Luke 15.4 and never linne seeking untill he have found us All plainly shewing how ready he is to be found of us who so graciously invites us to come unto him so joyfully receives us when we come and so carefully seekes us when we are strai'd away from him To wind up then that which hath been delivered in this point If seeking implies a want of that which is sought a desire to have it and a hope and possibility of finding that which we seek and if there be nothing that we want so much as Christ nothing to be desired in comparison of Christ and nothing so easily found as Christ it must needes follow from hence that we must above all things seek Christ as the Church here doth But how far are the most from thus seeking Christ some seek the favour of great persons some preferment and promotion some seek their pleasures some wealth and riches but Christ hath few seekers and many are hindred from seeking Christ by their seeking of these You know how they who were bidden in the Gospel to that great feast pretended excuses why they could not come Luke 14 18.19.20 one desiring to be excused because he had bought a peece of ground and so could not come because he must go to see it another because he had bought five yoke of Oxen and must go to prove them another because he had married a wife and therefore could not come All these things were such as might lawfully be done but not sufficient to excuse them for not coming to Christ whom as we want so we must seek above all things And this we cannot do till we can truely say as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soul loves Wherein she expresses her unfeigned love and affection to Christ which kindled her desire the more to seek him Anima est ubi amat non ubi animat the soul is where it loves not where it lives And therefore the Church thus loving Christ could not chuse but seek him as counting it her happinesse to injoy his presence and to live with him The Courch ye know is Christs spouse and there is nothing so tedious to lovers and which they can lesse indure then one anothers absence Hence was that vehement longing of the Church for Christs first coming Esay 64.1 Vtinam dirumperes Caelos O that thou wouldst rent the Heavens and come down as wishing rather that the Heavens should be rent asunder Esay 64.1 then that he should stay there and she stay here and be absent from him And hence it was that when Christ was to leave the World and told his Disciples before-hand of it their hearts were troubled and though he told them that he went to prepare a place for them that he went to his Father that he would send them another Comforter that should abide with them for ever John 16.6 yet still their hearts were filled with sorrow because he would leave them as being more willing to bear any losse then to indure his absence and being no more able to be without him if he should leave them a while then for Ivey to be without a tree or a wall whereunto if it cleave not it will fade and wither so grievous it was to them that loved Christ not to injoy his presence Now as it was with the Disciples and here with the Church so it is with all those that do truely love Christ they desire his presence and bewaile his absence more then any thing besides Every one of us as we bear the name of Christians so we will professe our love unto Christ and be ready to say that we love him unfeignedly but if we examine our selves for the tryall of our love and affection to him we shall many of us find that though we have Jacobs voice yet we have Esauâ— hands and do shew by our works that we do not love him Mat. 10.27 Christ requires that we love him above all and saith that he that loves Father mother Sonne or Daughter more then him is not worthy of him yet how many things are there that we love more then Christ If we have a friend whom we truely love ' because vve love him we vvill be loth to do anything that shall offend him nay vve vvill take his part vvhen he is spoken against and vvill be offended vvith them that do speak against him But vvhen vve hear Christ dishonoured and his name blasphemed by all manner of swearing vve can often hold our peace vvithout being offended and reproving those that do thus dishonour him and do vve not then love our friends more then vve love Christ If we have a friend vvhom vve truely love because vve love him vve vvill take his Counsell and follovv his advice before any others that Counsell us othervvise yet vvhen Christ stands on the one side and covetousnesse on the other and gives us contrary Counsell vvhen Christ on the one side vvills us to give to the poore to feed the hungry and to cloath the naked and covertousnesse on the other side vvills us to part vvith nothing but to get vvhat vve can we follow rather what covetousnesse then what Christ Counsels us and do we not then love our riches more then we love Christ Christ on the one side wills us to follow him and we do it not our pleasures on the other side to follow them and we do it and do we not then love our pleasures more then we love Christ When David considered the wonderfull love of God unto man he knew not what to think of it but he cryed out in admiration Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him Psal 144.3 or the Sonne of man that thou so regardest him But when we consider the wonderfull want of our love unto him we may cry out rather O man what is the Lord that thou art so unmindfull of him or
his mother Hagar But this howsoever it was a grief to Abraham yet it inflamed his affection the more towards Isaac For as when Eliah was taken away his spirit was doubled upon Elisha 2 Kings 2.9 10. so Jshmael being gone now Isaac is his Fathers only darling and now Abrahams affection is doubled upon him But when God sees this his deep-setled love he strikes him as it were with a thunder bolt from Heaven and commands him to kill this his onely Son A Commandement more cruell then the Lawes of Draco which were written in blood wherein every word stabs Abraham to the heart Take saith he thy Son thine onely Son even Isaac thine onely beloved Son Was it not enough O Lord saith Origen that thou dost command him to kill his Sonne but thou must adde for this further vexation his onely Sonne or was not this enough but thou must put him in mind how dearly he loves him and was not this yet enough but the more to kindle and inflame â—is affection thou must likewise name him The parting with a Sonne will move a Father very much His Sonne so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne when Jacob heard that his Sonne Joseph was dead he mourn'd and Iamented Gen. 37.34.35 he put on Sackcloth and would not be comforted yet Jacob ye know had many more Sonnes In Rama saith the Prophet there was a voice heard weeping mourning and great lamentation Jerem. 31.15 Rachell weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not Yet Rachell was young and might have more Children 2 Sam. 18.33 when David heard that his Sonne Absolon was slain he wept and lamented very bitterly for him nay he wished that himself had died in his roome O Absolon Absolon my Sonne my Sonne I would to God saith he that I had died for thee my Sonne Absolon Yet Absolon was a graceless and rebellious Sonne one that rose up in Armes against his own Father and sought to deprive him both of life and Kingdom and yet because he was his Sonne David could not but love him so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne which no man indeed can sufficiently conceive but he that is a Father and hath a Sonne We read in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 24. That a certain Merchant in Theodosious time hearing that two of his Sonnes were taken prisoners at the day appointed that they should be executed he came in all haste to Thessalonica where his Sonnes were hearing the matter why his Sonnes were to suffer he first offered a great summe of money for his Sonnes Ransome and when that would not be taken he offered his own life and made sute that he himself might die in their roome They who had the charge of the Prisoners committed unto them made him this answer that his death could not possibly excuse them both because a set number were appointed to suffer but offered withall that if he would die for any one of them his death should be taken The Father presently accepted their offer and mourning and lamenting over both his Sonnes he would willingly have died for either of them but he knew not whether so great was this Fathers affection unto his Sonnes that though it were equally divided between them both yet he was willing to have saved either of their lives even with the losse of his own His onely Sonne But now if a Father have but one Sonne then all his care all his love all his affection is wholly set upon him and then it is the greatest grief in the world to lose him And therefore the Prophet Jeremy in the sixt of his Prophesie speaking of the great mourning which the Jewes should make when their most cruel enemies the Chaldeans and Assyrians should come to destroy them Jerem. 6.26 he knew not how to express the greatness of their sorrow but by the sorrow of a Father who having but one Sonne is to part with him make saith he lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son shewing thereby that there is no sorrow like the sorrow of a Father who having but one Son is to be deprived of him And therefore our Saviour John 3. to set forth Gods infinite love towards us John 3.16 he saith That God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son If a Father have many Sonnes Plutaâ—ch de multitud Amicorum his affection is divided among them all and therefore the lesse towards any one like a River which being cut into many Channels his current ye know must needes be the weaker If a Father have many Sons the losse of one cannot be so grievous unto him because he finds comfort in those which are left him but having but one if he loose him especially when he is old as Abraham was this must needes be an extraordiraly grief unto him And yet Abrahams case is far more grievous His beloved Sonne Many a Father though he have but one Son yet his grief is the lesse when he is taken away because while he lived he was a grief unto him But Abraham must loose not his Son onely and his onely Son but Isaac his onely joy and comfort Isaac his onely beloved Son And indeed there was never any Father that had the like cause to love his Sonne Parents do commonly love their Children either because they are their own flesh and blood or because they continue their name after them for so long as their Children and Posterity continue they seeme in a manner to live in them But besides these Abraham had many other causes and far more forcible to love his Sonne Abraham as we heard before out of the 15 of Gen. even longed as it were to have a Sonne after that God had promised him a Sonne many a year past before he had him In the mean time God to make him as it were amends for his long expectation had given him many comfortable promises concerning this Sonne as that his seed should be called in Isaac Gen. 17.19 that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his seed after him And hath not Abraham then an extraordinary cause to love his Sonne But besides this Abraham was fully a hundred years old before he had him Sarah had been barren for a long time and if she had not been so yet by reason of her age she was past bearing so that God had wrought a double miracle in giving him a Sonne all which did more inflame his affection towards him and yet now all upon the suddain as if God had repented him of his former kindness he commands him to sacrifice this his onely Sonne what now might Abraham think with himself he might now suppose that God had but deluded him in all his promises and that God had given him many
Adam Gen. 3.17 Gen. 3. Thou hast eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life c. For as there is nothing in the World but onely sinne that dishonours God so there is nothing but sinne that is displeasing and offensive unto him And this is so offensive that at first when it began to spring up in Heaven among the Angels God presently pulled up this weede by the root and cast the Angels out of Heaven afterwards when it began to take root in Paradise among our first Parents God weeded it from thence and thrust them out of Paradise afterwards again when it began to increase and to spread it self all over the earth God to cleanse the earth from this pollution did send the deluge and drowned all the world except eight persons and still to shew how it doth displease him even those whom he loves he chastens for sinne and doth not spare it in his own Children A second Reason why God doth afflict us for his own glory is to make manifest his power in our weakness that when we are sufficiently humbled by affliction and past all recovery of our selves he might shew his power in our deliverance and provoke us to thankfulness when he hath delivered us Thus he suffered Daniel to be cast among the Lions the three Children to be thrown into a fiery furnace and the Israelites to be so hotly pursued by Pharoh that they were faine to flie through the read Sea with Moses that when they were delivered they might ascribe the glory thereof unto God and say with the Prophet David This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And these are the reasons which concern Gods glory Secondly God doth chasten and correct us for our good Si bonus est qui patitur in bonum desinit quodcunque patitur If he be good that suffers it is for his good whatsoever he suffers For howsoever afflictions seem evill to us yet God like a skilfull Physitian that will make good use of poyson turnes them to the good and benefit of his Children and that divers wayes First To withdraw us from the love of the World and to draw us nearer to God for when we are visited with any affliction we are more ready to seek unto God for help as the sick man repaires unto the Physitian While we live in health and prosperity we are more prone to forget God as having lesse feeling of the want of his help and we commonly take such a liking of this World that we are loath to leave it but when we are afflicted then we seek unto God for help and comfort which because we cannot find in the World we grow weary of it Plutarch reports of a Souldier of Antigonus that having a Disease which was irksome unto him it made him wearie of his life insomuch that he would adventure upon any danger and there was no so desperate a piece of service but he would alwayes be the foremost in it The Generall much affecting him for his great valour was at great expences to have him cured of his Disease but when he had got him cured looking that he should be as valorous and resolute as he was before he found him far otherwise and unwilling to put himself into any danger whereof when the Generall asked him the reason he gave him this answer That when his Body was diseased he was weary of it but seeing that now it was whole and sound he was loth to loose it As it was with this Souldier so God seeth it to be with many of us when we are in adversity we grow weary of this life and can say with Jonah Jonah 4.8 It is better for me to die then to live but when we are in prosperity the case is altered we take such a liking of this present World that we are loath to leave it but can say with Peter Master it is good for us to be here and are of the same mind as the Cardinall was who prosest he would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise And therefore as a Nurse when she would weane the Child from sucking the dugge will annoint her teates with some bitter thing to the end that the Child may begin to mislike them So God to withdraw us from the pleasures of this World sends us afflictions to reclaime us from our pleasures and to make the same more unsavory unto us For as the Children of Israel would never have thought of leaving Egypt and coming into Canaan if they had not been afflicted in the Land of Egypt So many will never renounce the pleasures of this life untill they be distasted thereof by affliction And therefore God chastens and afflicts his Children because affliction is a meanes to weane them from the World and to draw them unto him Tentatio quasi interrogatio A second Reason why God doth afflict them is to make manifest those gifts and graces which lie hidden in them For as showers in the spring time cause the budds to appear which before were not seene so afflictions make manifest many virtues in Gods Children which before lay hidden If Abraham had not been commanded to have sacrificed his Sonne he had not had that occasion to have testified his obedience and if Job had not been so grievously afflicted as he was he had not had occasion to have declared his patience Many virtues lie hidden in the Children of God while they are in prosperity but when adversity comes then they break forth like starres in the night and do shew themselves I might alleage other Reasons why God doth chasten us as to make us conformable to Christ our head to shew us how weak we are of our selves without Gods assistance to stir us up to prayer to teach us humility and to exercise our patience all which may hearten us in the time of affliction because it is for our good that God thus afflicts us We are much dejected when we are afflicted we count our afflictions to be long and grievous for the time but the Apostle teacheth us to make another account where he calles our afflictions both short and light our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 saith he which is but for a moment Some indeed are afflicted longer then other yet their afflictions are but short that continue longest Acts 9.33 Mat. 9.20 We read of one Acts 9. that was sick of the Palsie and kept his Bedde 8. years St. Matthew tells us of a Woman that was diseased with an issue of blood for 12. years St. Luke tells us of a Woman that had a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 and was bowed together and could in nowise lift up her self for 18. years St. John tells us of a Man that had been diseased 38. years The time no doubt seemed long
unto these John 5.5 yet indeed our whole lifetime is but short but a span long as David saith and therefore our sufferings cannot be long which are all comprized in so short a time For afflictions are as it were Gods speedy Messengers which he sends to do his Message or arrand unto us Somtimes to tell us that we forget God and therefore need be put in mind of him by being afflicted Sometime to tell us that we are too proud and therefore need affliction to be humbled by it Sometimes to tell us that we are too much afflicted with the love of the World and therefore need affliction to be weaned from it Of these and the like arrands they are sent unto us and when they have done them they are presently gone like the Angels which were sent over-night to Lot and when they had done their arrands went away the next morning But though we suffered afflictions for a long time yet we might well count our sufferings short in regard of that endless and infinite happiness which followes our sufferings If our future happiness were of no longer continuance then the afflictions we suffered yet this might comfort us that our sufferings come first and our happiness after and that our happiness is to come when our sufferings are over which may afford us more comfort in our greatest sufferings then the wicked can find in their greatest pleasures The wicked have their pleasures first they first injoy the pleasures of sin for a season wherein they can take the losse delight when they consider that after their pleasures are past their sufferings are to come which will eat up the pleasures which they have formerly taken as the seaven years of famine which followed in Egypt did eat up and consume the seaven years plenty which went before them Gen. 41.30 The godly on the contrary have their sufferings first and their happiness after which being not short as their sufferings are but endlesse and eternall if our hearts were affected with an unfained love and desire of it we could not but think all our sufferings short though it were for a long time that we were to suffer as the seaven years service which Jacob served for Rachell Gen. 29.20 seemed short unto him because he loved her FINIS The Eighth SERMON ISAIAH 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God WE have here in these words a Proclamation as it were of open Warre against all such as are impenitent sinners wherein two things are to be considered The thing that is proclaimed and the Person that proclaimes it The thing that is proclaimed There is no peace to the wicked The Person that Proclaimes it is the Prophet Esay as Gods Herald and therefore proclaimes it not in his own but the Lords name not as from himself but from the mouth of the Lord There is no peace to the wicked saith my God And first Gen. 16.12 concerning the thing proclaimed as it was said of Ishmael that his hand should be against every man and every mans hand against him so here it is said that there is no peace to the wicked as if they were enemies unto all and all unto them and so had peace with none They are enemies to God enemies to men enemies to themselves and therefore can have no peace at all either inward or outward either at home or abroad either with themselves or with others The Reason is because indeed there can be no peace where there is no righteousness Therefore the Prophet Esay 32. makes peace to be a fruit and effect of righteousness The work saith he of righteousness shall be peace And therefore the Prophet David Esay 32.17 Psal 85. joynes them both together Righteousness saith he Psal 85.10 and peace have kissed each other where righteousness and peace as St. Austin saith are propounded by the Prophet as two loving Friends who so agree together as that he who opposeth himself against the one must needes oppose himself against the other and so can never injoy peace who regards not righteousness But as Jehu said to Jehuram 2 Kings 9. when he askt Jehu 2 Kings 9.22 Is it peace what peace saith Jehu so long as the whoredoms of thy Mother Iesabell and her witch-crafts are so many so while the wicked do multiply their sinnes what peace can they have what peace either with God who hates all those that work wickedness or what peace with the Creatures who are alwayes ready to revenge Gods quarrel against his adversaries or what peace with men whether they be the godly or the wicked like themselves while they hate the godly and the godly them as being Gods enemies and the wicked again hate them as knowing them to be such as onely like them while they serve their turns and will be as ready to do them wrong if it be for their advantage And what peace again can they have with themselves while they have one within them that beares witness against them even their own Conscience First They can have no peace with God no more then a Subject can have peace with his Prince against whom he rebels For the wicked are Rebels against God Esay 1.30 their disobedience in the Scripture is called Rebellion to shew that while they disobey Gods Lawes he accounts them no better then Rebels and Traytors as if they were at defiance with him and up in Armes against him As indeed they are because they both serve his Enemy the Devill and make no account of disobeying God so they may satisfie their own will and pleasure For look what sinnes they delight in they wholly devote themselves thereunto giving them the chief place in their affection and setting them up in Gods roome So the Epicure makes his belly his God the ambitious man makes honour his God the voluptuous liver makes pleasure his God and the covetous miser makes mony his God because they perform that service unto them which they owe unto God they love their pleasures preferments and profits more then they love God they obey them more then they obey God they fear more to lose them then to lose the savour of God and they put more trust and confidence in them then they put in God Therefore as they regard not God so he regards not them but when they seem to offer him their service he rejects the same So that even their very prayers which they keep for their last refuge and whereby they think to curry favour with God in their distresse and affliction are abominable unto him For so we see Proverbs 28. Prov. 38.9 He that turnes away his care from hearing the law even his prayer shall be abomination Which is to be understood not only of such as refuse to hear it but likewise of such as refuse to obey it that though they tread in his courts and come to Church though they hear his word and offer him their prayers
the Sonne of God that thou so little regardest him He loved us so dearly that he thought not his life too dear for us but suffered a most shamefull and accursed death to free us from the curse which was due unto us yet we for requitall of this his love though love be requited with nothing but love as fire is kindled with nothing but fire do so little regard him that we preferre our friends our pleasures our wealth and riches and for the most part whatsoever we love before him How farre are such from being able to say truly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves Her love unto Christ was not verbal and outward from the rine of the lipps but real and inward from the root of the heart from her soule and spirit her soule loved him she loved him as the Church Esay 26. desired and sought him with my soule have I desired thee in the night Esay 26.9 yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early She loved him as the blessed virgin magnified him My soule doth magnifie the Lord Luke 1.46.47 and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour She loved him as the Prophet David praysed him Prayse the Lord O my soule and all that is within me prayse his holy name Psal 103.1 Outward love from the lips may be false and counterfeâ— but inward love from the soule is alwayes unfained And such a love it is which Christ doth require and no other that we love him with the heart and with the soule with all the heart and with all the soule So precious doth he account our love that he will not have so much as the least grain of it lost but will have it all He hath millions of Angels that are inflamed with his love who love him far better then we do or can and our love unto Christ is no benefit to him he reapes no prophet nor advantage by it only because he loves us he desires again to be beloved of us and that unfainedly from our very soules He will not have the soule and love divided he likes not that soule that is without love nor that love which comes not from the soule If love come unto him and not from the soule before he admit it he will first aske whence it came as Micha asked the Levite before he received him And if the soule come unto him without love he will forbid it to come as Joseph forbad his Brethren Judges 17.9 Gen. 43. to come unto him without their Brother Benjamin And therefore if we will come unto Christ Gen. 43.3 we must come with love with love from our soules as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves To draw then to a conclusion that we may be the more carefull to seek Christ let us meditate on those things which may kindle and inflame our love towards him by considering how he desires our love and deserves the same If a man have shewed us any extraordinary kindness and hath deserved our love we could not but condemn our selves of unthankfulness if we did not love him Nay though he have not deserved our love by any kindness he hath shewed us yet if we do but heare that he is desirous of our love because this is an argument that he loves us we will love him again But Christ doth both desire our love and deserve the same He desires our love not for his own but for our good that he might have occasion to requite our love And therefore he useth most forcible Reasons to procure our love Sometimes intreating us and making it his earnest suit that we would love him 2 Cor. 5.20 We saith the Apostle are Embassadors for Christ as God beseeching you by us we pray you in Christs stead but for what to be reconciled unto God Here is the strongest sute that ever was made God and man were fallen out man is the party that hath offended and God is the party that sues to be reconciled man that should intreat God that he would forgive him is intreated by God that he would be content to be forgiven Thus he sues for our love that should sue for his Nay he useth not onely intreaty to procure our love but likewise the promise of infinit rewards The eye saith the Apostle hath not seen the eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared but for whom for them that love him Was it ever heard of since the World began that any man ever came to a poor begger and offring him meat that was ready to starve and to perish for hunger should intreat him to eat it and not onely so but witâ—al should promise to reward him for it But God though it be for our good that we love him for otherwise we cannot but everlastingly perish yet he intreats us that we would love him and not onely so but promiseth withall to reward our love with the Kingdom of Heaven So earnestly doth he desire our love And as he desires so he deserves our love If we should give a man but his diet or houseroome we would think we deserved he should loâ—e us for it How then doth he deserve our love that gives us every thing The very bread which we eat nay the breath which we breath we have it from him in whom we live and move and have our being and cannot live a minute without his blessing The least blessing he gives us deserves our love and we have nothing but our love to give him for all that he gives us So abundantly doth he deserve our love Great reason have we then to require his love in some measure by loving him unseignedly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves FINIS The Twelveth SERMON PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches THese words are part of Agurs Prayer and his Prayer in the whole verse consists of two parts a deprecation of evil and a Petition of good The evil which he deprecates or prayes against is of two sorts either such as is simply evil in it own nature as vanity and lying against which he prayes in the beginning of this verse Remove farre from me vanity and lies Or such as are not simplie evill in their own nature but yet may be occasions of evil as riches and poverty against which he prayes in the next words Give me neither poverty nor riches The good which he prayes for is a competent Estate in the end of this verse a mediocrity between the two extreams of want and superfluity Feed me with food convenient for me And these are the parts of the whole verse Here then he prayes that God would give him neither poverty nor riches neither over little nor over much that he may neither live in want nor yet in abundance not because these in themselves are evil but because they may be and