them which yet may be no true Acts of Obedience to him because not according to his Word They do but obtrude a Worship upon God and Fancy it will please him because it pleaseth them Whereas indeed nothing is acceptable to him but what is enjoyned by him Nothing is Duty but that which hath a Warrant from God for the Performance of it Men may abound in Will-worship and come short in Obedience they may do more than is enjoyned them and yet less too much which will never be reckoned to them as it was never required of them You must judge of your selves not meerly by what you do but by the ground you have for the doing of it when Gods Will is the Reason of it and not the Precepts of men nor your own Fancies so much and no more you do for God as you do in Obedience to his Command 2. Vniversal both as to the extensiveness and continuance of it 1. As to its Extensiveness See that you be not Partial in the Law a Mal. 2.9 that you walk with God in all his Ordinances Luke 1.6 have respect to all his Commandements Psal 119.6 There is the same reason for Obedience to one Command as well as another b Gods Authority who is the Law-giver and therefore when men chuse one Duty and overlook others they do not so much obey the will of God as gratifie their omn Humours and Fancies pleasing him only so far as they can please themselves too and this is not reasonable we never yield him a reasonable Service but when it is universal 2. As to its Continuance and duration If Gods Command be still the same and the Obligation of it it is but reasonable that our Obedience likewise should be still the same Constancy and Perseverance in serious Godliness will greatly confirm and Evidence the reasonableness of our Practice and reality of our Principles Fancies are usually transient and variable and so are their Effects in mens actions few Live by Fancy all their dayes but one time or other they find their Error When a Christians carriage is uniform in the course of his Life and still continues the same in a congruity and suitableness to his Principles it can hardly be imagined that it should be the effect of meer Fancy but must proceed from something in him more fixed and settled 3. Spiritual If the Obedience we yield to God be conformable to his Nature who is a Spirit so far it is reasonable and that is such as Christ requires and this the reason he gives for it John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth See therefore that the Service you do him be not meerly external and carnal but inward and Spiritual 1. Spiritual in its Principle The goodness of your outward actions proceeds especially from within and you cannot judge rightly of them but by the Principles from which they proceed those Principles are Faith and Love Your work must be the work of Faith d 1 Thess 1.3 Rom. 1.5 your Obedience the Obedience of Faith Faith both in the Command and Promise must put you upon it and if your believing both makes you Act conformably to them the Faith of the Command presseth you to Obedience and the Faith of the Promise encourages you in it you therefore Serve the Lord because you believe him and trust in him that Service cannot be unreasonable And so likewise for Love Love to God must set you at work for God Exod. 20.6 those that love me and keep my Commandments If love within Command all without if that make you Labour in his Service fear to offend him strive to please him if you can not only see your own Obedience but feel your Love to God working your hearts to it you may be sure that Obdience is reasonable because its Principle is so reall Love felt in your Hearts and breaking out in your Lives cannot be a Fancy and what more Reasonable than for him that loves God to do all he can for God 2. Spiritual in the End for which ye Act. 1. Cor. 10.31 See that whatever you do you do it for the Glory of God as the Supreme End It is most Reasonable that as you do all from God so you should do all for him that he who is the first Cause of all you have should be the ultimate End of all you do and if you can be content to be abased that God may be Exalted to deny your selves as to your Credit and Interest and all Worldly concernments purely that God may be Honoured it is your desire that in all things Christ Jesus may be magnified in you whether by Life or by Death e Philip. 1.20 and so in doing or suffering that Obedience which is not only qualified as before mentioned but is directed to such an End is not Folly nor the effetct of Fancy 3. Spiritual in the Acts of it not that all Gospel Obedience or Worship consists only in the internal Acts and workings of the Mind for external Worship it self may be spiritual Worship and so it is when rightly performed that is when it is accompanied with and proceeds from internal but by Spiritual in its Acts I mean that which principally consists in the inward Acts of Faith and Love and Fear c. which is a Serving God in our Spirits f Rom. 1.9 yet withall is productive of and manifests it self in an outward behaviour correspondent to those internal workings See therefore that your Religion do not consist meerly in Externals that you make as much Conscience of inward and Heart-worship as outward and Bodily of the Actings of Faith and Love as of Praying and Hearing look as much at least to what is within as to what comes out Do not rest in the outside of Duty nor satisfie your selves with what you do when yet it is without life and warmth have as much regard to the Manner of Performing as to Performance it self to the motions of your Hearts as to the Labour of your Lips or postures of your Bodies To conclude this direction let your work in the whole of your conversation be as much about your Hearts g Prov. 4.23 as your Lives be the same in secret that you are in publick the same when under Gods Eye only that you are in the Face of the World This I am sure cannot be said to be foolish and unreasonable when it is grounded on the greatest reason God sees in secret h Math. 6.6 looks to the heart 1 Sam. 16.17 and calls for the heart i Prov. 23.26 and therefore it is but reason we should look to them too It is the seat of Sin the Fountain whence it springs and therefore must be look't too that we may prevent the working of it and mortifie the root of it and it is the seat of Grace there is no more good in any man than what is in his
to God therefore inconsistent with the Love of God These six things the Lord hateth yea seven which his Soul hateth Prov. 6.16 Psal 97.10 Math. 6.24 Therefore ye that love the Lord hate evil These are two Masters which we cannot hate and love both 3. Sin separates from God therefore we cannot keep our selves in the love of Sin and in the love of God Sin makes us depart from God and God to depart from us Therefore Conversion reconciles God to us because it mortifies Sin in us by vertue of Christs Death for us VII He that will keep himself in the Love of God must clear up his Interest and Union to Jesus Christ 1. Because Jesus Christ was sent us as the greatest Instance and the greatest Token of Gods Love in the World 1 Joh. 4.9 2. Because the Lord Jesus purchased the Love of God to us when we were the greatest Enemies to each other Rom. 5.8 10. 3. Because Jesus Christ is the Souls Love Cant. 3.1 4. Because Jesus Christ is all Loves Cant. 5.16 5. Because this was the End of Christs coming into the World to save us from our sins the sole cause of Gods hatred to Sinners Math. 1.21 6. Because the Father loveth whom Christ loveth and he loveth them that love Christ Joh. 16.27 7. Because our Interest in Christ puts a Soul out of all danger Rom. 8.1 Rom. 5.1 Chap. 7.24 25. 8. Because the Lord Jesus makes the Fathers Love to him the measure of his love to us As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love Joh. 15.9 i. e. By this ye keep in Gods Love 9. Because the Lord Jesus teacheth us the way how to keep in his Love Joh. 15.10 Consider all this and how cogently they prove this Head of clearing up our Interest and Union unto Christ to keep our selves in the Love of God VIII An eighth way of keeping our selves in the Love of God is by keeping Gods Commandements I do not mean as to a Covenant of Works but upon a Gospel account If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his Love John 15.10 Vers 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you O! mind that Again mark this Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and we will make our abode with him This Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law and the Gospel too There be many that will complement a Love to God but will do nothing for him The greatness of Abraham's Love to God and of David's Love and of Peter's Love and of Mary's Love of Paul's Love and of the Martyrs Love was in doing and in dying for him And is not the greatness of Gods Love and of Chists Love to us Joh. 15.13 in Doing and Suffering We read of Labour of Love because true Love is Laborious as it was in Jacob's Love for Rachel There is nothing God hates more than pretending to love therefore the Lord hates Hypocrites Not every Mat. 7.21 one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven As God saith This People Deut. 5.29 have well said in all that they have spoken O that there were such a Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments alwayes So I say of Professors and great Pretenders that shew much kindness with their Mouth but their Heart is not right with God O that there were such a Heart in them that they would make Conscience to do the Will of God If the Lord loved the young man that was in a fair way of keeping the Commandments of God and was not perfect and thorow-pac'd how much more will he have a Love for them that have a respect to all the Commandments of God Psal 119.6 IX The way to keep our selves in the Love of God is to walk closely with God in wayes of strict Holiness This is a Commendation and Character upon Record of Gods chiefest Favourites Thus it was with Abraham Gen. 17.1 Thus it was with Enoch Gen. 5.22 Thus it was with Noah Gen. 6.9 Thus it was with Caleb Num. 14.24 And thus David Psal 73. ult Now we shall see how such a one is to God who desires to keep in the Love of God We have known 1 Joh. 4.16 and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O sweet dwelling You shall shall find that the Holyest Persons were alwaies the highest Favourites of God Witness those before-mentioned and these following Instances Job 1.1 2 3. How did God bless him and praise him and trie him and reward him for his eminent Holiness Zachary and Elizabeth Luk. 1.6 7. How singularly did they shine in Holiness and in the Favour of God to whom God gave a Son in their old age the Harbinger of Christ Mary the Mother of Christ Luk. 1.28 how was she for her Holiness pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly favoured And Simeon Luk. 2.25 c. and Anna vers 36 37 38. Holiness and Purity brings us to the fight of God which is called Beatifical which is the Souls highest Happiness and ultimate end Math. 5.8 Psal 24.4 Heb. 12.14 and therefore is pronounced Blessed Psal 119.1 2. X. They keep themselves in the Love of God who do not wave or abate their Profession and Practice of Godliness in evil times and do not baulk the wayes of God under severe Providences and sharp Tryals this was eminent in all Christs Worthyes Thus David Psal 44.17 to vers 22. Mind that Place Though they were sore broken and smitten into the Place of Dragons and cover'd as with the shaddow of death yet we have not forgotten thee nor declined from thy way c. Job 13.15 cap. 3.17 18. Thus Job Though he slay me yet I will trust in him Thus Habakkuk Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom the Vine Olive and Field shall fail of their Fruit and not any Flocks or Herds left yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord God is my strength And thus all the Champions of God Let Paul be one Instance more Rom. 8.35 36 37 38 39. Reason Prov. 3.11 12. 1. A Friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for the day of Adversity Prov. 17.17 2. They know the Lords Chastenings are in Love Heb. 12.6 Rev. 3.19 Psal 119.67 71 72. 3. They know that all the Lords Severities are for good many wayes To drive them to Ordinances and Duties to sweeten them and to teach them to profit by them to know more of the Will of God by them and to give us a better Relish of the
Word by the Rod as Shepherds let loose their Dogs to hunt the stragling Sheep into their Bounds As Parents use Bug-bears to make their Children run into their Arms all in Love and to keep them in it by keeping them from excursions XI Another Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is to keep in our Hearts a quick sense of the Pardon of Sin of the wonderfull love of the Lord to a poor sinfull Soul to pardon great and many sins This puts such an Obligation upon a Sinner that he cannot chuse but express his great love to the Lord for it See a famous Instance of this in Mary Magdalen who having received this great Mercy from the Lord Luc. 7.38 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came where he was in Simon the Pharisees house kneeled down at her dear Saviours feet and instead of Water her Eyes were Ewers and she wept tears upon the feet of Christ and washed his feet with them so abundant were they and then instead of a Towel she wiped his washen feet with the hair of her Head and not only so but kissed his feet All which thô the envious Pharisee blamed yet the Lord Jesus allowed and highly praised with tart reflexion upon the proud Pharisee who omitted those Civilities which that humble loving Convert performed Moreover the Lord that knew her Heart testifies for her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she did it all in much love to him for the forgiveness of her many sins 1. Because Forgiveness of Sin is an act of the greatest Grace condescension and kindness of God to a poor Soul Because by the guilt of Sin a Soul is bound over to eternal Death and Wrath in Hell there to make satisfaction which will be ever a doing and never done Pardon of Sin loosneth the Sinner from that by Christs satisfaction for him 2. Because every one thus Pardoned Psal 51.12 Vphold me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thy ingenuous or generous Spirit is made truly sensible of the Kindness of God to him in it and by converting Grace hath an ingenuous and noble Spirit created in his heart that will never suffer him to forget it nor think he can ever sufficiently prize or express it XII A further Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is not only to love the Lord but to keep up our Love to him to the height Such a love as the Bride and Bridegroom have to each other which is brisk and highest then Jer. 2.2 Rev. 2.4 5. I remember saith the Lord the love of thine espousals And again I have somewhat against thee because thou art fallen from thy first love repent and do thy first works The Lord commands our Love towards him in the most intense degree of Affection with all the heart with all the soul with all thy might Cum omni valdè tâ—o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy utmost power Deut. 11.1.13.22 Cap. 19.9 Cursed be the deceiver that hath this Male in his flock Mal. this Masculine Love and yet giveth God the lame and the lean The highest Love of the Soul is a Present for the greatest King in the world Therefore labour to keep up thy Love to the height towards God Thou canst never be excessive in thy Love to God to the Creature thou mayst and commonly art But behold the perversness of Man in this Affection We stint our Love to God where it should know no bounds nor measures and we are boundless in our love to Creatures which alwayes ought to be bounded XIII If we will keep our selves in the Love of God let us labour to grow in Grace and to carry on the work of it in our Souls to the highest perfection This is grounded upon the Verse immediately before the Text viz. Ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith where the Participle building agrees with the Verb in the Text keep your selves in the love of God Noting this growth in Grace and Knowledge to be an effectual means to keep our selves in the Love of God Whether we understand this Clause building up your selves in your most holy Faith to be understood of the Doctrine of Faith or the Grace of Faith or of both for we cannot well sunder them they being helps to each other according to that of Peter who puts them both together to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and this is a Soveraign Remedy against falling away 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Now there is good reason why our growth in Grace and particularly in Faith is a principal means to keep our selves in the Love of God 1. Because the Power of God goes with Faith to keep us firm unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are kept thereby as with a strong Guard 2. Because by building up our selves in our most holy Faith we please God without Faith we cannot do that and we gain upon his Love for we are in the way of God and doing his Will this is the Will of God even our Sanctification He that hath my commandments and doth them Joh. 14.21 he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me my Father and I will love him Joh. 15.9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love XIV A great Means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is this to Pray in the Holy Ghost ver 20. the verse after my Text Now we shall see how forcible and cogent this means is Consider 1. All good things come from God Jam. 1. Prayer is the Key of Gods Closet and Treasury we are meer Beggers and have nothing of our own but are fain to beg our daily Bread of God who keeps us from Hand to Mouth God will have it so because he will have us know to whom we are beholding for all Moreover he Loves to see our Face and hear our Voice and the oftner the more welcome And this he doth as tender Fathers use to do with their Children who know what they need but will have them come to them for all with bended knees for their Fathers Blessing nor shall they come in vain 1. For the Lord commands it and approves it Mat. 6.9 2. He hath annexed great Promises to Prayer 3. Even the Holy Spirit Rom. 8.15 26 27. And hath given us a Mediator to Intercede and plead for us by Office Heb. 4.15 16. and this is the great Office of his High-Priest-hood Heb. 2. two last verses By all which we see how seasonably the duty of Prayer and the Priviledge of Prayer is here annexed ver 20. to keep our selves in the Love of God How can Friends maintain their Amity without frequent converse Abraham was called the Friend of God Jam. 2.23 Gen. 18.17
to the end and ye see what power he had with God in Prayer for wicked Sodom God communicated his Secrets to him as one Friend to another and Abraham made Intercession to him as Favourites of Princes for Malefactors So did he for Sodom and ye know how far he prevailed for he was a Righteous man Jam. 5.16 and such a mans Prayer prevaileth much And what was Abrahams Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith by Imputation Rom. 4. and this Faith living and working XV. We keep our selves in the Love of God when we declare a publick Spirit for the Cause of God in his Church against the Enemies of it by being zealous for his Glory and valiant for his Truth in our Station Judg. 5. This is lively asserted in the Song of Deborah and Barak who after she had praised some for their appearing and others for not appearing in this Cause dispraised the Lord she praised above all for his presence with his People and for that Spirit of Love he poured out upon them in these Words vers 31. So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might Now the Reason why this publick Spirit in the Cause of God is expressed by our Love to God is this Because God is so much concerned in it 1. As to his Honour to defend and deliver his People from his and their Enemies as the Midianites were 2. As to his Power in reducing thirty thousand to three hundred Jud. 7. as in Gideons case all that lapped He as a poor Barley Cake tumbled all the Enemies down and by a small company And a Woman in Deborahs case that is by her self and Jael Judg. 4.21 destroyed Jabin and Sisera's mighty Host To omit many other instances of publick Hearts in this case signally owned by God because they signally appeared for God Thus Moses Exod. 2.11 13. Judg. 5.9 This was their Love Thus saith Deborah My Heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer themselves willingly bless ye the Lord. Zebulun and Napthali jeoparded their lives unto Death in the high places of the Field and thus did Issachar ver 15. But Reuben Gad Manasseh Dan and Asher are branded for their Cowardise I say all this appearing in the defence of all that was dear to God and them is called Love to God Therefore we may in no wise exclude this Noble publick Spirit in the cause of God and his People from the Love of God for there is no principle in the World like to the Love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.8 Deum odisse in sacris literis peculiariter illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt Maimon Which love me and keep my Commandments Illa praecipuè quae ad arcendas pravas superstitiones pertinent Grot. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pij dicti sunt Ezek. 16.33 36 37. chap. 23.5 Jer. 2.2 I remember the love of the Espousals to animate and inflame the Soul to do great things for God This Spirit was marvellous in David whose very Name was from Love Therefore it is the duty of every Child of God to pray for the Spirit of God which only sheds all divine Love abroad in the Heart Rom. 5.5 which God inspires as he pleaseth XVI A great means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is to be Sincere and Sound in the Worship of God Mark this well for herein lyes the Love or Hatred of God as appears plainly in the second Commandement Exod. 20. ver 6. Therefore Idols and Idolaters are called our Lovers Hosea 2.5 7. Jer. 8.1 Hosea 13. They kissed the Calves ver 2. Therefore our Hankering and embracing of a false Worship provokes God to jealousie Therefore the Lord deals with Superstition and Idolatry in his People after the Law of Harlots and Adulterers The Scripture is full of this Language There is no higher Act of Love in God than to espouse a People to be his own and to give them a Rule of Worship of his own Institution and to hold them to it as he did Israel And when a People follows God and serves God according to his own appointments there are no higher Acts of Love towards him in Gods account God is enamoured with such a People God in his highest acts of jealousie was inraged against his Idolatrous people Psal 78.59 They kissed their Idols giving them all the tokens of Love and Homage 1 King 19.18 Job 31.27 They burnt their Children to them as the costlyest Sacrifice as Abraham would his Isaac in Love to God but God only tryed him by it Mark 7.7 Colos 2.22 Mat. 15.2 3 6. Rev. 17.4 5. he calls them his Hephsibah and his Beulah Isa 62.4 We see it also in the instance of good Kings how the Lord prized and praised them for this very thing for Reforming and setting up the true Worship of God as David Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah how the Lord prospered them because their Hearts were right and perfect with God in this thing On the other side how he hath branded and blasted all those that were false herein For this was David a man after Gods own Heart fulfilling all his Wills which is chiefly meant in the point of Gods Worship Act. 13.22 As for the Wills of men in the Worship of God by their Inventions Traditions and Commandements he tells you he hates them and they are Abomination to him And no wonder for what intrencheth more upon the Honour of Gods Wisdom and Soveraignty than this That he doth not know best how to appoint his own Worship but must be fain to be beholding to Man for his devices and dictates in the Case This though it seems very gay is Whorish and Poysonous this golden Dress and Cup is intoxicating XVII A great Means of keeping in the Love of God is keeping up the Communion of Saints in all the parts and duties of it What this is we shall see according to Scripture The Communion of Saints is our Participation of all the good things of God in common whereunto all the Saints and only they have right consisting in our Union to God as our chiefest good this is with God as a Father with the Son and Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 2 Cor. 13.13 1. We have Communion with the Father as Children and all in the greatest Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Rom. 8.16 17. This is procured by Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 only obtained by Believing Joh. 1.12 And maintained by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 Who walk not in darkness but in light 1 Joh. 1.6 7. 2. We have Communion with Jesus Christ the Son of God By which we are made partakers of him of his Nature and of his Grace and of his Glory all which is done by Faith that uniteing and marrying Grace and this works such Conjugal Love between Christ and his Church as makes them
for her and a blessing upon her x Psal 44.4 Lev. 25.21 who being indeed Christ's Friend as she is to love him in himself so also in the next place 2. She is concern'd to love him in his members Her Christian Charity is to be manifested unto those that are Christs for Christs sake and as the Apostle writes in this Epistle y 1 Tim. 1.5 is such namely which answers the end of the Commandment out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfeigned We certainly prove our love to Christ by keeping his Commandment in loving those that are his sincerely and constantly z John 13.34 Love to the Brethren goes along with our love to God a 1 John 5.1 2. and the continuance of it may well dispose to Angelical comforts b Heb. 13.1 2. However it may be very advantageous to a child-bearing woman to endear Christian brethren who are much in doing of Gods will and prevalent with God to assist her more affectionately with their Prayers having seen her real Charity to promote Gods service and advance piety It will no doubt argue her abiding in the light c 1 John 2.10 and sure passage from death to life d and 3.14 and Gods dwelling or constant presence with her which will be abundant support to her in the greatest pains when she bringeth forth with the most difficulty as the Physician * Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aph. 55. finds some to do Then as she should love Christ in himself and in his members so 2. Next to Christ the good Wife is above all other dearly and constantly to love her own Husband and that with a pure heart fervently e 1 Cor. 7.2 Tit. 2.4 1 Pet. 1.22 Yea and she should never entertain low thoughts of him in that Relation whom she could once think worthy of embracing for her Husband and whom by the Covenant of God in all Offices of Love she is oblig'd to please f 1 Cor. 7.34 without this bond of Perfectness all will be loose uneasie and unpleasing yea the Laws and Command of God who by his wise Providence ordered the Match will become tedious and irksome * Lud. Viv. p. 104. But where this conjugal love is consequent upon the foregoing Christian love there all will become easie This is the very life of perfect Friendship and where it resides in power no diligence will be wanting to facilitate all other conjugal duties ‖ Fabr. Bar. de re Vxoria l. 2. c. 1. For never-failing Charity especially in this Relation will enable the good Wife to bear all things to believe all things to hope all things to endure all things g 1 Cor. 13 7 8. This holy flame therefore as the Vestal fire * Alex. Alex. l. 5. c. 12. should be ever-cherish'd that it go not out Indeed Love being as the Soul of Society and of it self Immortal it would argue it were not sincere at first if it should cease Dr. Goad recommending the mothers Legacy to her child unborn written by pious Mrs. Joceline when big with child preparing for her approaching child-bed saith What eyes cannot behold her true and unspotted love to her dearest Husband In her affectionate Letter to him prefix'd to that little Book she declares with thankfulness to God her fears of child-bed painfulness were cured with the remembrance that all things should work together for the best to those that love God which cannot be right in a Wife without this true love to her own Husband and a certain assurance that God would give her patience according to her pain And she bare all patiently So did Mrs. Wilkinson a most loving Wife * Dr. Harris in her Life whose patience was remarkable in the midst of very sore pains which frequented her in the breeding and bearing of children Yet then her speech was I fear not pains I fear my self lest through impatiency I should let fall any unbefitting word 'T is a blessed frame said that grave Divine who recorded it when pain seems light and sin heavy So on the other hand for want of this prevalent conjugal love in conjunction with Christian love a Daughter of King Ethelred having found the difficulty of her first birth she did afterwards perpetually abstain from her Husband's Bed against the Apostle's Rule h 1 Cor. 7.3 protesting from a Principle of unaccountable self-love That it was not fit a Daughter of a crowned Head should commit her self any more to such perils 'T was far otherwise with a young Woman in Euboea who being married to a Man she lovâ—d dearly became Mother and Grand-Mother to an Hundred Children The Story of Mrs. Honywood in our Age is not less famous I might produce many other Instances but 't is more than time I come to the next mentioned Grace viz. 3. Holiness which I take as the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is Christian and Conjugal more general and special 1. There is Holiness which is considered more generally being an universal Grace agreeing to a Christian as such wrought by the Spirit in the new creature from the peace made by Christ whereby the soul being chang'd into his likeness there is an abiding in a state of gracious acceptation with God and a striving in some measure to be holy as he is holy in every particle of our conversation both towards God and Man publickly and privately in some degrees As all Christians are to mind their salvation in the holiness of the Spirit and to follow after it by Christ i 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 12.14 and 13.12 So Christian Wives in a child-bearing state that they may comfortably bring forth the Fruit of their Wombs are highly concern'd for that good work to have their fruit unto holiness k Rom. 6.22 Then be sure all shall go well with them both here and hereafter Blessedness belongs to the pure in heart and the undefiled in the course of their lives l Mat. 5.8 Psal 119.1 What knows the holy Wife whether if she should be married to a bad Man by Parents disposal she may save her Husband m 1 Cor 7.16 We read of several Christian Wives whose Husbands have been brought to real godliness by their zealous Endeavours as Clemens by Domitia c. * L. Vivis de Chr. Foem l. 2. p. 253. vide p. 271.211 For the holy conversation of a Wife hath sometimes a great force upon the mind of the Husband who is thereby dispos'd to entertain good and if a work of Grace be wrought upon him then he will be more fervent in prayer for his child-bearing Wife who as she ought through the whole course of her life to be daily dying to sin and living to righteousness so in her approaching sorrows she is more especially concerned 1. To conform to the preceptive or commanding will of God in all the actions of her
we firmly resolve never to do any thing with regret or a misgiving heart at least Not against a prevailing doubt for in very doubtful cases to be rid of all formido oppositi or suspicion that the matter may be otherwise is perhaps impossible to me but to do any thing against the preponderating inclination of my judgment and conscience were great wickedness and such as if it were known would make me unfit for any communion whatsoever And I do here appeal to you who most severely blame any of us for our dissent from you whether if we should thus declare to you That 't is truly against our consciences to communicate with you upon your terms we believe we should greatly offend God in it and draw upon us his displeasure but yet to please you and prevent our temporal inconvenience or ruine we will do it I appeal to you I say whether we should not hereby make our selves uncapable of any Christian communion with you or any others This is then the plain State of the case and you do even put these words into our mouths If we follow the dictate of our consciences we must decline you if we go against it you must decline us supposing we declare it if we dclare it not we have nothing to qualify us for your communion but hypocrisy and dissimulation And what do you gain by such an accession to the Church you have gained in any such case not half the man the outside the carkass only or the shadow of the man i. e. when you have debaucht our consciences when you have spoil'd us and made us worth nothing then we are yours wherein you shew nothing of love either to us or to your selves Others again that are themselves men of more reason and conscience take the somewhat more manly and Christian course and bend themselves by argument to convince the reason and satisfy the consciences of such as differ from them But herein also there may be an excesse that is unprofitable and grievous to those they would work upon by this course And from which therefore Christian love studying the peace and quiet of their brethren would restrain them I say from the ungrateful excesse of such an endeavour For I would fain know can there not herein be an excesse Is it not supposeable that they who differ from me in such lesser things may be sometime arrived to a settlement and fixedness of judgment in them as well as I Is it not possible they have weighed the moments of things as much as I have done Is such a cause infinite Is it not possible that all may have been said in it which is to be said and the matter have been sifted to the very bran So that all my further arguings may serve but to argue my vain self-confidence or aboundingness in my own sense as if all wisdom were to dy with me Or what if they serve at length but to shew the incapacity of the subject to be wrought upon and the different complexion of his mind I am treating with All cannot receive all things We cannot make our sentiments enter with every one Perhaps they shew the weakness of his understanding And then hath that direction of the Apostle no Authority with us Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14.1 He whom we account our weaker brother and of slower understanding must be received not cast out of our communion and because God himself hath received him as vers 3. q. d. Is he thought fit for Gods communion notwithstanding his unsatisfied-scruple and is he unfit for yours And he is not to be vexed and importun'd with continual disputation if that Apostolical precept be of any value with us Sometime at least we should think we have try'd in such a case as far as is fit and driven the nail as far as it will go Is it not possible such a matter may be agitated beyond the value of it and that more time and pains may be spent upon it than it is worth The obscurity and perplexity of the controversy shewes the less necessity Things most necessary are most plain Must we alwaies in matters of confessedly little moment be inculcating the same thing rolling endlesly the returning stone and obtruding our offensive Crambe Perhaps as no good is done we do much hurt When is the saw of disputation long drawn about one thing without ill effects Reason having at length spent its strength growes as weak people are peevish and froward degenerates into anger and clamour In greater differences than our present ones between the Protestant Churches abroad Some of more prudent and peaceable minds have earnestly press'd the laying aside of disputes and putting a Period by consent to their Theological wars Solitarum disputationum labyrinthos â—e ingredi quidem conentur * Davenant Sent. ad Duraeum Said a great Divine in his daies in reference to those controversies that he would have had compos'd by an amicable brotherly conference And that King of Navarre who at that time seem'd highly concern'd for the peace and welfare of the reformed Churches afterwards Henry the 4th of France in his negotiations with divers Princes to that purpose gave special instructions to his Embassador much to insist upon this †Vt acerbis illis contentionibus quibus verbis rixati sunt inter se Theoligi scriptis ejusmodi disputationibus silentio tandem finis imponatur ut Christianae charitas et animorum fraterna conjunctio revocetur Mandat Hen. Reg. Navar. Jacobo Siguria Legato suo c. Apud Goldastum That till other remedies could be used an end might be put to bitter contentions and disputations that Christian love and a brotherly union might be restored And who sees not how much this would conduce to peace and union in our case too who sees it not that is a hearty lover of peace and that is not intent upon continuing and keeping afoot a controversy not so much aâ— a means to that but as an end contending for contentions sake and as a thing which he loves and delights in for it self I am sure love to our brethren would not let us continually molest and importune them to no purpose And 't is fit they that urge to us these are little things which they importune us about should know we have great things to mind of eternal concernment to us And that we cannot be alwayes at leasure to mind little things beyond the proportion of our little-time on earth and the little value of the things themselves 10. Sincere love restored and exercised more among us would certainly make us forbear reviling and exposing one another and the industrious seeking one anothers ruine For such as can allow themselves to do any thing that hath this tendency not to preserve publick order but to gratify their private ill will not in a suddain heat and passion but deliberately and so as to pursue
our Fathers have told us this and that Observation And likewise as we have heard so we have seen what may be very useful to many a Soul So that you see a good Memory is useful many ways 6. The want of Memory is a great defect and loss when we cannot remember what we read or hear why time is lost I will not say quite lost but it s not improv'd The Chapter 's lost I hope you do not read only to pass the time When Gods Word is remembred then When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee Prov. 6.22 But a broken memory hath heard of Gods famous Acts of Providence but forgotten them hath read rare examples of Gods Mercy Justice Power and Goodness but they are slipt and lost In a word so far as thy Memory fails so far will Meditation fail Delectation fail and Practice in a great measure fail And therefore set your selves in the use of the means prescribed and all other good means to heal and strengthen your memories and give the more earnest heed to the things which ye have heard lest at any time ye let them slip Heb. 2.1 And so far in the third use 4. The fourth Exhortation is to young people to store your Memories in the time of Youth Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth Now your Memories are fresh and strong hereafter they will be shattered with cares and business A new Ship or any Vessel that is new is free from leaks but time and travel will batter it so will it be with you care will batter you grief will batter you and therefore now store your selves now a dozen Chapters a good Catechism a Collection of useful Texts and Doctrines will take no room nor make you go the heavier nor sleep the worse And therefore it concerns Parents both to have such things in their hearts and to teach them diligently to their Children perhaps they may not understand the sense of them at the present but these will be ready in their minds till grace and understanding come and then they will help them exceedingly As we lay some sticks or fagots ready in the Chimney which when fire comes signifies something Yet a measure must be observed both with old and young a Ship may be laden but must not be overcharged lest all the Cargo be sunk and lost A just discretion will best determine the measure herein according to the capacities of the Subjects 5. Let us all labour for more holiness for that raiseth all the faculties and reduces them to their right frame and proper Objects The more Grace we have the better we shall remember and especially better things Grace saith excellent Dr. Harris strengthens the memory always for practice though it serve not always for Discourse some says he have such memories that they can repeat vastly but when they should advance to practise they are nobody when others are more confused in their memories but very clear in their practise A grain of Grace is worth an ounce of Parts For thereby we love truths and duties better and it is easy to remember that which we love and therefore let it be our daily Prayer that the God of Peace would sanctifie us wholly Spirit Soul Body all It is not for Christians to enquire just how little Grace will serve our turn for Salvation but rather how much may be attained and improved to the glory of God 6. Lastly Reduce into practice that which you do remember Christus Magister vitae non schola The end of all true knowledge is Practice Remember his Commandments to do them If it be a Doctrinal Truth which you read or hear consider what influence it hath upon the Heart If it be a duty which is set before you immediately set about it If a sin be exposed presently root it out If Sincerity or Hypocrisie be decyphered try thy spiritual State thereby without delay For as a Treasure in the Chest is in danger of the Robber but when it s laid out on a good Purchase here its safe from starting so while spiritual Notions swim only in the memory you may easily lose them but they are safe when they are once incorporated into your real Practise But alas there are too many that are like those whiffling Chapmen who come to the Shop and lay by a great many rich wares but when all is done they buy few or none so these cheapen and bid for the Pearl but will not buy it they will talk over all the points of Religion before they will seriously Practise any one of them Then you remember the Sabboth a right when you so remember it before it comes that when it comes you keep it Holy Then you remember God truly when you fear and love and trust in him Then you remember your Neighbour as you ought when you remember to do good and Communicate Then you remember your selves best when you remember to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God or men In a word then you remember your latter end rightly when you keep your oyl ready in your Lamps and in your Vessels that your Master may find you so doing But I conclude It is worth observing that Holy David among all the rest of his blessed Psalms hath one which is the Thirty eight Psalm which he Stiles a Psalm of David to bring to remembrance His memory it seems had need of help as well as ours Now the Lord grant that this Sermon may by the blessing of God upon it be herein at least useful namely to preserve better Sermons in your mind so shall I have my end God the Glory and you the Comfort Amen Quest What are the Signs and Symptoms whereby we know we love the Children of God SERMON XV. I. JOHN V. II By this we know we love the Children of God if we love God and keep his Commandments OF all the Marks that are useful in the Trial of our spiritual state in reference to Eternity there is none affords a more clear and comfortable assurance of Gods special and saving Mercy than Love to the Saints This has often resolved the Doubts and quieted the Fears of afflicted enquiring Souls when other Graces have not been so apprehensible in their operations But there is no Mark which the deceitful heart does more securely rest upon through the mistake of natural humane Love for that which is spiritual and divive it is therefore most worthy our serious thoughts the deceit being so easie and infinitely dangerous to shew what is the unfeigned genuine Love of the Brethren to which Salvation is annext to confirm the humble sincere Christian and undeceive presuming hypocrites The great Design of St. John in this Epistle is to excite and enflame in Christians the Love of God and of their Brethren the two comprehensive Duties and Sum of the Law
comprizes all the rest is to die for the Brethren and this we ought to do when the Honour of God and Welfare of the Church require it Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren If Christians thus loved one another the Church on Earth would be a lively Image of the blessed Society above Thirdly The Love of God and Obedience to his Commands the Product of it are to be considered 1. The Love of God has its Rise from the consideration of his amiable Excellencies that render him infinitely worthy of the highest Affection and from the blessed Benefits of Creation Preservation Redemption and Glorification that we expect from his pure Goodness and Mercy This is the most clear and essential Character of a Child of God and most peculiarly distinguishes him from unrenewed men however accomplished by Civil Virtues Now the internal exercise of Love to God in the valuation of his Favour as that which is better than Life in earnest desires of Communion with him in ravishing Joy in the testimonies and assurance of his Love in mourning for what is displeasing to him is in the secret of the Soul but with this there is inseparably joyn'd a true and visible declaration of our Love in obedienc◠〈◊〉 him 1 Joh. 3.16 This is the Love of God the most real and undeceitful Expression of it that we keep his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love is 1. Uniform and universal for that two principal and necessary Effects of Love are an ardent desire to please God and an equal care not to displease him in any thing Now the Law of God is the signification of his sovereign and holy will and the doing of it is very pleasing to him both upon the account of the subjection of the Creature to his authority and conformity to his purity he declares that Obedience is better than the most costly Sacrifice There is an absolute peremptory repugnance between love to him and despising his Commands And from thence it follows that Love inclines the Soul to obey all Gods Precepts not only those of easie observation but the most difficult and distastful to the carnal Appetites for the Authority of God runs through all and his Holiness shines in all Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the divine Law it restrains from sins of greater guilt from such disorderly and dissolute actions at which Conscience takes fire but others are indulged it excites to good works of some kind but neglects other that are equally necessary But Love regards the whole Law in all its Injunctions and Prohibitions not meerly to please our selves that we may not feel the stings of an accusing Conscience but to please the Lawgiver 2. The Obedience of Love is accurate and this is a natural Consequence of the former The divine Law is a Rule not only for our outward Conversation but of our Thoughts and Affections of all the interior workings of the Soul that are open before God Thus it requires religious Service not only in the external performance but those reverent holy Affections those pure Aims wherein the Life and Beauty the Spirit and true Value of divine Worship consists Thus it commands the Duties of Equity Charity and Sobriety all Civil and Natural Duties for divine Ends to please and glorifie God Heb. 13.16 It forbids all kinds and degrees of Sin not only gross Acts but the inward Lustings that have a tendency to them Now the Love of God is the Principle of spiritual Perfection 'T is called the fulfilling of the Law 1 Cor. 10.31 not only as it is a comprehensive Grace but in that it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to obey it in an exact manner This causes a tender sence of our failings and a severe circumspection over our ways that nothing be allowed that is displeasing to the divine Eyes Since the most excellent Saints are Gods chiefest Favourites Love makes the holy Soul to strive to be like him in all possible degrees of Purity Thus St. Paul in whom the Love of Christ was the imperial commanding Affection declares Phil. 3.10 11. it is zealous endeavour to be conformable to the Death of Christ in dying to Sin as Christ died for sin and that he might attain to the Resurrection of the dead that perfection of Holiness that is in the immortal state 1 John 5.3 3. The Obedience of Love is chosen and pleasant This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Those that are strangers to this heavenly Affection imagine that a solicitous diligent respect to all Gods Precepts is a melancholy Task but it is delightful to the Saints for Obedience is the continual exercise of Love to God the Paradise of holy Souls The mortification of the carnal Appetites and the restraint from such Objects as powerfully insinuate and engage carnal Hearts is with a freer complacency to a Saint than a sensual fruition of them The sharpest sufferings for Religion are allayed nay sweetned to a Saint from the Love of God that is then most sincerely strongly and purely acted The Apostle more rejoyced in sharp Tribulations for Christ's sake than in divine Revelations 4. The Love of God produces persevering Obedience Servile Compliance is inconstant A Slave hates the Duties he performs and loves the Sins he dares not commit therefore as soon as he is releas'd from his Chain and his Fear his Obedience ceases but a Son is perfectly pleas'd with his Fathers Will and the Tenor of his Life is correspondent to it He that is press'd by fear to serve in an Army will desert his Colours the first opportunity but a Volunteer that for the love of Valour and of his Country lists himself will continue in the Service The motion that is caused by outward poises will cease when the weights are down but that which proceeds from an inward principle of Life is continual and such is the Love of God planted in the breast of a Christian Fourthly We are to prove that from the Love of God and willing Obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our Love to his Children There is an inseparable Union between these two Graces and the one arises out of the other Godliness and brotherly kindness are joyned by the Apostle And it will be evident that where this Affection of Love to the Saints is sincere and gracious there will be an entire and joyful respect to the Law of God by considering the Reasons and Motives of it 1. The Divine Command requires this Love These things I command you saith our Saviour that ye love one another This Precept so often repeated and powerfully re-inforc'd by him made so deep an impression on the first Christians that they had one Heart and one Soul and their Estates
were common between them And in the next succeeding Ages this fraternal Love was so conspicuous in the Professors of his Sacred Discipline Tert. Apoâ— c. 3â— that their Enemies observ'd it as a rare and remarkable thing See how the Christians love one another see how ready they are to die for one another Now the same gracious Principle that inclines us to do one Command will make us universally willing to observe all for sincere Obedience primarily respects the Authority of the Lawgiver which binds the whole Law upon the Conscience James 2. And as he that breaks the Law wilfully in one point is guilty of all because the violation of a single Precept proceeds from the same Cause that induces men to transgress all that is contempt of the Divine Majesty so he that sincerely obeys one Command does with consent of heart and serious endeavors obey all And from hence 't is clear that without a religious and unreserved regard of the divine Commands 't is impossible there should be in any person a gracious affection to the Saints that is the product of Obedience to God and consequently the observance of his Precepts is the certain proof of our Love to his Children 2. Spiritual Love to the Saints arises from the sight of the Divine Image appearing in their Conversation Now if the Beauty of Holiness be the attractive of our Love it will be fastned on the Law of God in the most intense degree The most excellent Saints on Earth have some mixtures of Corruption their Holiness is like the Morning-light that is checquered with the shadows and obscurity of the Night and 't is our wisdom not to love their infirmities but to preserve an unstained affection to them But the Law of God is the fairest Transcript of his Nature wherein his glorious Holiness is most resplendent Psa 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes This ravish'd the heart of David with an inexpressible Affection O how I love thy Law Psal 119. it is my Meditation all the day And he repeats the declaration of his Love to it with new fervor upon this ground I love thy Law because it is pure Now Love to the Commands of God will transcribe them in our hearts and Lives As affectionate expressions to the Children of God without the real supply of their wants are but the shadows of Love so words of esteem and respect to the Law of God without unfeigned and universal Obedience are but an empty Pretence 3. The Divine Relation of the Saints to God as their Father is the Motive of spiritual Love to them And this is consequent to the former for by partaking of his Holiness they partake of his life and likeness And from hence they are the dearest Objects of his Love his eye and heart is always upon them Now if this Consideration excites Love to the Children of God it will be as powerful to incline us to keep his Commands for the Law of God that is the Copy of his Sacred Will is most near to his Nature and he is infinitely tender of it Our Saviour tells us that it is casier for Heaven and Earth to pass away Luk. 16.17 than for one tittle of the Law to fail If the entire World and all the Inhabitants of it were destroyed there would be no loss to God but if the Law lose its Authority and Obligation the Divine Holiness would suffer a Blemish The Use of the Doctrine is to try our Love to the Children of God to which all pretend by this infallible Rule our Obedience to his Commands This is absolutely necessary because the deceit is so easie and so dangerous and it will be most comfortable if upon this Trial our Love be found to be spiritual and divine The deceit is easie because Acts of Love may be expressed to the Saints from other Principles than the Love of God Some for vain-glory are bountiful and when their Charity seems so visibly divine that men admire it there is the Woâ—m of vanity at the root that corrupts and makes it odious to God The Pharisees are charged with this by our Saviour Mat. 6 2. their Alms were not the effect of Charity but Ostentation and whilst they endeavoured to make their Vices virtuous they made their Virtues vicious There is a natural Love among persons united by Consanguinity that remains so entire since the ruine of Mankind by the Fall and is rather from the force of Nature than the virtue of the Will and this in all kind Offices may be express'd to the Saints There is a sweetness of Temper in some that inclines them to wish well to all and such tender Affections that are easily moved and melted at the sight of others miseries and such may be beneficent and compassionate to the Saints in their afflictions but the Spring of this Love is good Nature not divine Grace There are humane Respects that incline others to kindness to the Saints as they are united by interest Fellow-Citizens and Neighbours and as they receive advantage by Commerce with them or as obliged by their Benefits But Civil Amity and Gratitude are not that holy Affection that is an assurance of our spiritual state There are other Motives of Love to the Saints that are not so low nor mercenary in the thickest darkness of Paganism the Light of Reason discovered the amiable excellence of Virtue as becoming the humane Nature and useful for the Tranquility and Welfare of Mankind and the Moral Goodness that adorns the Saints the Innocence Purity Meekness Justice Clemency Benignity that are visible in their Conversations may draw respects from others who are strangers to the Love of God and careless of his Commandments And as the Mistake of this Affection is easie so it is infinitely dangerous for he that builds his hope of Heaven upon a sandy foundation upon false Grounds will fall ruinously from his Hopes and Felicity at last How fearful will be the disappointment of one that has been a Favourer of the Saints that has defended their Cause protected their Persons relieved their Necessities and presum'd for this that his Condition is safe as to Eternity though he lives in the known neglect of other Duties and the indulgent practice of some Sin But if we find that our Love to the Children of God flows from our Love to God that sways the Soul to an entire compliance to his Commands and makes us observant of them in the course of our Lives What a blessed Hope arises from this Reflection We need not have the Book of the Divine Decrees opened and the Secrets of Election unveil'd 1 Joh. 3.14 for we know that we are past from Death to Life if we love the Brethren This is an infallible Effect and Sign of the Spiritual Life and the Seed and Evidence of Eternal Life Quest What must we do to
Christ and converse with him if he were on Earth it is better to see this pretious Christ in Eternal Glory it is worth the while to dy to have a view of your Lord-Redeemer in the highest Heavens Oh the wonderful transporting Joyes the Soul is filled with when it first cometh into the unseen but happy World when it hath the first Glorious view of its dearest Lord. Do you think it would desire to return to live in flesh upon Earth again Do you know what you do when you are so loth to dy Do you understand your selves when you are so backward to be taken out of time It is to be loth to go into Everlasting Happiness to go and take possession of unseen Eternal Glory 5. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make us more patient constant joyful in all our sufferings for Christs sake When we poar upon our seen troubles and do not look at rest after trouble when we see and feel what is inflicted upon us but do not look what is laid up in Heaven for us when we see the rage of men and do not look at the love of God our Hearts and Flesh do fail but if we set unseen Eternal things over against things seen and Temporal it will be strength unto us Against the power of Men which is Temporal set the Power of God which is Eternal and then you will see their power to be weakness Against the Policy of Men which is Temporal set the Wisdom of God which is Eternal and then you will see all their Policy to be Foolishness Against the Hatred of Men which in its effects to you is Temporal set the Love of God which is both in its self and in its effects to you Eternal and you will see their hatred to be no better than raging unreasonable madness Keep your Eye upon the unseen Torments in the other World and you will rather endure Sufferings in this than venture upon Sin and expose your selves to them Keep your Eye upon the unseen Eternal Crown of Glory and it will carry you through Fire and Flames Prisons and Reproaches for the sake of Christ Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward 27. by Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 6. This Eyeing of Eternity will be a powerful preservative against the temptations of Men or Devils a Sovereign Antidote against the Poyson of Temptation I see the Invisible God looks at me shall I then yield to the suggestions of the Devil or the sollicitations of men to sin I see there is an Everlasting state of Joy or Torment that I must be shortly in as sure as I am in this place and Satans design is to bring me to that state of Torment and if I follow him I shall be excluded from yonder glorious place from God and Christ and Saints above therefore by the Grace of God I will not yield to this Temptation but strive I will and Watch and Pray I will against the assaults of this deceitful Adversary for why should I be so foolish to lose Eternal Glory for momentary Pleasures and run my Immortal Soul into Eternal pain for short delights I do plainly see what will be the end if I do yield Damnation without end banishment from God without end I do clearly see that Stealing and Murder is not a more ready road to a place of Execution upon Earth than yielding to a tempting Devil is to Everlasting Misery 7. Such Eyeing of Eternity would wean our hearts from the things of time A sight and view of Heavens Glory would darken the Glory of the World as looking at the shining Sun over your Head doth obscure in your Eyes the things under your Feet after a believing view of the invisible God and the Glory of the place above this World would appear as a very Dunghil in your Eyes Phil. 3.7 8. as where we love there we look so the more we look the more we shall love and the more we love the Eternal things that are above the less we shall love the Temporal things that are below 8. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us more like to God and Jesus Christ it will be a transforming and assimilating look 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore when we shall see Christ who is now out of sight we shall be perfectly like unto him 1 Joh. 3.2 But we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 9. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would fill our Souls with Holy admirations of the Goodness Grace and Love of God to us When Paul had a sight of such unseen things he was in an Holy Extasie and Divine Rapture 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. When we consider the Eternal Happiness of Heaven we shall stand as Men amazed that God should prepare such things for such men and bear such Love and shew such Mercy to such as we that are so vile and full of sin and say Lord what am I that might for ever have howled in the lowest Hell that I should hope to praise thee in the highest Heavens Lord what am I that might have been in Everlasting Darkness that there should be prepared for me Everlasting Light and Joy Why me Lord why hast thou designed me and wrought upon my heart and made me in any measure meet to be partaker of such Eternal Glory Oh! the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 How pretious are thy thoughts to me how great is the sum of them Psal 139.17 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee Psal 31.19 10. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would have this influence sure upon us to set our selves under a painful skilful serious Ministry It doth much concern you for you are going to an endless Life and Preaching is the appointed means to fit you for an endless happy Life then do you choose the most lively searching powerful Preaching it is for the life of your Souls for the Everlasting life of your Everlasting Souls If you were sick and in danger of Death when your Life lies upon it you would have the advice of an able Physitian that is serious and afraid that he no way become guilty of your Death Would you like that Physitian that seems to be unconcerned and cares not whether you live or dy if he might but have his fee Or that should merrily jest with you when you are sick at Heart and near to Death if you be not
by Impatience and he in his Wisdom and Love is resolved to bring us to his Foot Well! If we Comply before hand when we see the Storm approaching God's end is Attained and he either lay's down his Rod or Mitigateth the Chastizement yea he will e're long Embrace and Comfort broken and humble Ephraim Indeed this Frame superseed's Affliction for Judgment upon Saints are not to Destroy but Subdue them to their Fathers Will. And if we meet our angry Father in this Spirit he may Correct a little but he will certainly Comfort much 5. Lastly a resigned Soul meeteth God in the way of Judgments or Mercies to great advantage They are so far from doing him harm that they do good therefore it must needs be a blessed Preparation for either Physick never works so well as when the Body is antecedently prepared nor is any Person so certainly profited by Judgments or Mercies as he that is ready to entertain them I know God can do an unprepared Soul good by any Providence but I am sure none can come amiss to such as be prepared What then will prepare us to receive Chastizments Profitably The Apostle tells us Be Subject to the Father of Spirits and Live Heb. 12.9 Comply with his Will resign your selves to his Pleasure and what ever he doth will be a quickning in proving Providence Qu. What is the Nature of this Resignation to the Will of God for his Glory Or wherein doth it consist Ans I shall reply to this Quere by laying down something implyed in it and then speak to the Proper Nature thereof It implies many things I shall Instance only in a few for Brevity's sake 1. It supposeth a Lively exercise of Faith For as no Unbeliever ever did resign himself freely to the Will of God so no believer if Faith be not in Exercise can do it Yea it must be an active Faith will enable us to put our selves into the Hands of God especially in a Day of Affliction to deal with us according to his Pleasure I say that Soul must have a good Acquaintance with and a blessed Confidence in him whom he trusteth with his Life and All. Paul therefore tells us in case of Suffering he knew whom he had Trusted 2 Tim. 1.12 Therefore our Saviour here when he Referreth himself to God expresseth his Faith in that very Resignation Father Glorify c. He believed God to be his Father and that his Father loved him and now he is Satisfied that his Father dispose of him Psal 31.14 15. But I trusted in thee Lord I said thou art my God What then my times are in thy Hands q. d. 't is not only thy Perogative to dispose of me and my Days but I refer them Voluntarily to thee He put them into the hands of his God and trusted them with him There be many Perticulers that the Faith of a resigned Soul is Exercised in As That God is his God Faith must have Interest in him whom it Trusteth Isaac will Suffer his Father to Bind and Sacrifice him Why Abraham was his Father and God who had given the command for it was his God Gen. 22. And it believes that all the will of God is Good Good in it self and good for the resigned Soul A believer may know that there may be Pain and Affliction in Suffering according to the Fathers Pleasure but 't is withal assured 't is his good pleasure Heb. 12.10 And such a Soul believes that it 's God and Father is kind loving and tender that he will not oppress that he will not overwhelm He believes that God Glorifies not himself to the damage of his People but that his Glory and their Benifit are inseparably Linkt together Yea it is in Christ the Redeemer of the Soul putteth it self into the Fathers Hands and it expects Power and Strength from its God to bear the Sufferings and carry through them When Moses forsook Egypt and his Interest there and chose to Suffer Affliction with the People of God He did this in Faith Eying him who is Invisible Heb. 12.24 c. And David in the like case was well Satisfied in the good will of God to him 2 Sam. 15 25 26. Chap. 25. 5. 2. Consequently 't is an high act of Love He that loves his Heavenly Father will be disposed of by him but it must be above becoming the glorious Objection which it is fiâ—t Matt. 22.37 A Love that prefers his Will and Glory before all things else A Love in Comparison of which all other Love is hatred Luke 14.26 A Constraining love 2 Cor. 5.13 14. Abraham loved Isaac well why then did he offer him up at the Command of God O 't was because he loved God better This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and nine of his Commandments are greivous 1 Jo. 5.3 What no Command greivous Not Self-denial not bearing the Cross No! Those Commands are not greivous because the Soul loves God better then it self We have a great word Rev. 12.11 They loved not their Lives unto Death why because their love of Christ was stronger then Self-love Rev. 14.4 We Read of some that followed the Lamb where ever he went Into Tribulation of all sorts they followed the Lamb Why Love constrained them Christ therefore resigned himself into the Fathers hands for he loved his Father Love will lay the Soul at Gods Feet Love will follow and Obey the Fathers call in all things Love will keep stedfastly in the way of the Will of our beloved It argues little Love to Christ when we seek to evade Suffering for his Name by finding out Carnal Shifts He that loves the Father and Son is as to the main resolved into their Will 3. To come nearer to my Intendment This resignation of our Wills to the Pleasure of God for his Glory respect's Sufferings and Dutys Principally For there is no difficulty Ordinarily to comply with the good Will of God in Distributing Mercy and Favour But to have our Wills Resolved into his in case of difficult Duty and hard Sufferings which Cross our corrupt Nature and press upon our Pamper'd Flesh is a great Work far above the Sphear of an unregenerate Person and a special Effect of the Spirit of God in and upon the Hearts of Saints But because our Subject leads to consider the matter in case of Afflictions only I shall confine my Discourse thereto Only adding this by the way that where a Soul disputeth no Sufferings it Submits to all Dutys If it be resigned to the Will of the Lord in the one 't is Subjected to him in the other also 4. Therefore the Resignation I spake of consists in several things 1. In referring our selves to the Will of God in a Day of Tryal in the very things we fear Our Lord Jesus dreaded nothing like this Hour that was coming upon him It troubled and amazed his very Soul v. 27. gladly would he be saved from it had it been
against their Consciences nor to take order that continual endeavours should be used from age to age to satisfy them or that the Church should be alwaies vexed with a vain controversy about needless things that if they were never so lawful might as well be let alone without detriment to the Christian Cause and perhaps to its greater advantage Yea the attempt of imposing any thing upon the Disciples but what was necessary is judg'd a tempting of God Acts. 15.10 a bringing the matter to a tryall of skill with him whether he could keep the Church quiet when they took so direct a course to distemper and trouble it But it was thought necessary and sufficient that all did unite and were knit together in the mutual love of one another and in a joynt adherence to the great mysteries of Faith and Salvation In the same case when there were so many Antichrists abroad and 't is likely Ebion with his partakers made it their business to pervert the Christian doctrine the same course is taken by the blessed Apostle St. John only to endeavour the strengthning of these two vital principles Faith in Christ and Love to fellow-Christians as may be seen at large in his Epistles These he presses as the great commandments upon the observation whereof he seems to account the safety and peace of the sincere did entirely depend This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment 1 Epistle 3.23 He puts upon Christians no other distinguishing test but whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him chap. 5.1 Is only solicitous that they did practise the Commandment they had from the beginning i. e. that they loved one another 2 Epist 5. and that they did abide in the Doctrine of Christ vers 9. The prudence and piety of those unerring Guides of the Church themselves under the certain guidance of the Spirit of truth directed them to bring the things wherein they would have Christians unite within as narrow a compass as was possible neither multiplying articles of Faith nor rites of Worship These two principles as they were thought to answer the Apostles would fully answer our design and present enquiry And we may adventure to say of them that they are both sufficient and necessary the apt and the only means to heal and save us such as would effect our cure and without which nothing will Nor shall I give other answer to the proposed question than what may be deduced from these two considered according to what they are in themselves and what they naturally lead and tend unto I shall consider them in the order wherein the Apostle here mentions them who you see reserves the more important of them to the latter place 1. The sincere love of Christians to one another would be an happy means of preserving the truly Christian Interest among us That this may be understood we must rightly apprehend what kind of love it is that is here meant It is specifi'd by what we find in conjunction with it The understanding and acknowledgment of the mystery of Christianity Therefore it must be the love of Christians to one another as such Whence we collect lest we too much extend the object of it on the one hand or contract it on the other 1. That it is not the love only which we owe to one another as men or humane Creatures meerly that is intended here That were too much to enlarge it as to our present consideration of it For under that common notion we should be as much obliged to love the enemies we are to unite against as the friends of Religion we are to unite with since all partake equally in humane nature It must be a more special love that shall have the desired influence in the present case We cannot be peculiarly endeared and united to some more than to others upon a reason that is common to them with others We are to love them that are born of God and are his children otherwise than the children of men or such of whom it may be said they are of their father the Devil them that appear to have been partakers of a divine nature at another rate than them who have received a meer humane or also the diabolical nature 1 Joh. 5.1 Yet this peculiar love is not to be exclusive of the other which is common but must suppose it and be superadded to it As the reason of it is superadded For Christianity supposes humanity and divine grace humane nature 2. Nor is it a love to Christians of this or that Party or denomination only That were as much unduly to straiten and confine it The love that is owing to Christians as such as it belongs to them only so it belongs to all them who in profession and practice do own sincere and incorrupt Christianity To limit our Christian love to a Party of Christians truly so called is so far from serving the purpose now to be aimed at that it resists and defeats it and instead of a preservative union infers most destructive divisions It scatters what it should collect and gather 'T is to love factiously and with an unjust love that refuses to give indifferently to every one his due For is there no love due to a disciple of Christ in the name of a disciple It is founded in falshood and a lye denies them to be of the Christian community who really are so It presumes to remove the ancient land-marks not civil but sacred and draws on not the peoples curse only but that of God himself 'T is true and who doubts it that I may and ought upon special reasons to love some more than others as relation acquaintance obligation by favours received from them more eminent degrees of true worth and real goodness but that signifies nothing to the withholding of that love which is due to a Christian as such as that also ought not to prejudice the love I owe to a man as he is a man Nor am I so promiscuously to distribute this holy love as to place it at randome upon every one that thinks it convenient for him to call himself a Christian thô I ought to love the very profession while I know not who sincerely make it and do plainly see that Jewes and Pagans were never worse enemies to Christ and his Religion than a great part of the Christian world But let my apprehensions be once set right concerning the true essentials of Christianity whether consisting in doctrinal or vital principles then will my love be duly carried to all in whom they are found under one common notion which I come actually to apply to this or that person as particular occasions do occur And so shall alwaies be in a preparation of mind actually to unite in Christian love with
it only as the Religion of their Countrey and which was delivered to them by their forefathers And so are Christians but upon the same terms as other Nations are Mahometans or more gross Pagans as a worthy Writer some time since took notice * Pink's Trial of a Christians love to Christ How few make it their business to see things with their own eyes to believe and be sure that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God! How far are we from the riches of the full assurance of understanding How little practical and governing is the faith of the most How little doth it import of an acknowledgment of the mystery of God viz. of the Father and of Christ How little effectual is it which it can be but in proportion to the grounds upon which it rests When the Gospel is received not as the word of man but of God it works effectually in them that so believe it 1 Thes 2.13 2. Let us endeavour the revival of these principles This is that in reference whereto we need no humane laws We need not Edicts of Princes to be our warrant for this practice loving one another and cleaving with a more grounded lively Faith to God and his Christ Here is no place for scruple of Conscience in this matter And as to this mutual love What if others will not do their parts to make it so What shall we only love them that love us and be fair to them that are fair to us salute them that salute us do not even the Publicans the same What then do we more than others as was the just expostulation of our Saviour upon this supposition Mat. 5.47 And let us endeavour the more thorough deep radication of our faith that it may be more lively and fruitful which this Apostle you see not forgetting his scope and aim further presses in the following verses testifying his joy for what he understood there was of it among these Christians Thô I be absent in the flesh yet I am with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ vers 5. And exhorting them to pursue the same course As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving vers 6 7. And what also must we suspend the exercise and improvement of our Faith in the great Mysteries of the Gospel till all others will agree upon the same thing Let us do our own part so as we may be able to say Per me non stetit it was not my fault but Christians had been combined and entirely one with each other but they had been more thoroughly Christian and more entirely united with God in Christ that Christianity had been a more lively powerful awful amiable thing If the Christian community moulder decay be enfeebled broken dispirited ruin'd in gteat part this ruine shall not rest under my hand We shall have abundant consolation in our own souls if we can acquit our selves that as to these two things we lamented the decay and loss and endeavoured the restitution of them and therein as much as in us was of the Christian Interest Quest How ought we to bewail the Sins of the Places where we live SERMON V. 2 PET. II. 7 8. And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked § 1 THE Apostle vers 6. recollects the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as the Ensamples of the Punishment that should befall those impure Seducers against whom he wrote By occasion whereof he mentions Gods delivering care of Lot whose holy carriage being so contrary to the unholy Practices of the Sodomites God made his Condition happily different from theirs also for so saith the Text he delivered just Lot vexed c. § 2 In the words there are these two distinct parts 1. Gods happy Delivering of Lot delivered just Lot 2. Lots holy Severity to himself for he was not only vexed but he vexed himself he vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds The Second part is the subject of my ensuing Discourse which presents us with this doctrinal Observation Doct. It is the disposition and duty of the righteous to be deeply afflicted with the sins of the Places where they live In the discussing of which divine and seasonable Truth I shall 1. Produce those obvious Scripture Examples that clearly agree with it 2. Principally shew after what manner the righteous ought to Mourn for the sins of others 3. Shew the Reasons why it is the Disposition and Duty of the Righteous to be so afflicted and mournful for the sins of others 4. Lastly I shall endeavour to Improve the whole by Application I. For the obvious Scripture Examples Our Lord Jesus shall be the § 3 first whose pattern herein amounts to a Precept Mark 3.5 Christ saith the Text was grieved for the hardness of their hearts viz. in opposing his holy and saving Doctrines David professeth that rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not Gods Law and that when he beheld the Transgressors he was grieved because they kept not his Word Psal 119.136.158 The next Example shall be Ezra's who hearing of the sins of the People in marrying with Heathens in token of bitter grief for it rent his garment and mantle and pluckt off the hair of his Beard and Head and sate down astonied Ezra 9.3 And Chap. 10.6 he did neither eat bread nor drink water for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carryed away To these I might add the Example of Jeremiah who Chap. 13. vers 17. tells the wicked that if they would not bear his Soul should weep in secret places for their pride and his eyes weep sore and run down with tears I shall conclude this with that expression of holy Paul Philip. 3.18 Many walk of whom I tell you weeping that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ II. The Manner how this Duty of Mourning for the Sins of others § 4 is to be performed This I shall consider in three branches 1. How we should mourn in respect of God before whom we mourn 2. How we should mourn in respect of the Wicked for whom we mourn 3. How we should mourn in respect of our selves who are the Mourners 1. For the first Branch as our Mourning respects God It is to be performed with advancing of those perfections of his that relate to those great Sins and Sinners for which and for whom we mourn And in our mourning for the Sins of others in respect of God we must advance 1. His great and unparallel'd Patience and Long-suffering extended towards those whose Sins we mourn and lament over This was evident in Nehemiah's confessing and bewailing the sins of the sinful Jewes Nehem. 9.30 At large he confesseth their sins in that Chapter but vers 30 31. he
Now let me propound a few Incentives to blow and stir up the dying embers of Divine Love in our Souls 1. No man can love God truly unless he know God truly 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him therefore examine what knowledge thou hast of God especially what practical Knowledge It is clear practical Gospel Knowledge to know God in Christ this is saving and brings Life Eternal Joh. 17.3 This is Knowledge that transforms 2 Cor. 3.18 This is a Sanctifying Knowledge Ephes 4.21 22. This is a justifying Knowledge or the Knowledge of Faith Isa 53.11 Philip. 3.8 9 10. This Light and Knowledge comes in to the Soul by the Illumination of the Spirit of God turning our darkness into light and is the teaching of God and the anointing of God teaching all things Joh. 6.46 Joh. 2.20 27. This principally teacheth us these two things 1. The Love of God in Christ to us 2. The Loveliness of Christ to inflame our love to him by his Beauty and Excellency Now when we clearly see and duely consider this our Hearts are marvellously drawn out in Love to the Lord And without this knowledge of God we can never truly love him O pray for it and attend and improve the Means of it This is that which the Apostle points at as the most transcendent of all other in the World which carnal Hearts are no wayes capable of without the work of Gods Spirit in the Soul 1 Cor. 2.9 to the end read and mind that Scripture well There are some things which we can never see in their Excellencies without the help of Telescopes and Perspective glasses by reason of the weakness and dimness of our sight In like manner we can never see the Amiableness of God in Christ without the help of Gods Spirit This sets the Soul upon the Top of a high Mountain as Moses upon the Top of Pisgah whereby he gains a prospect of the Heavenly Canaan or as Christ and his Disciples upon Tabor in the Transfiguration 2 Pet. 1.17 18. 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. from that excellent Glory Or such a sight as Paul had in his Rapture 2. A second means and Motive to blow up the Flame of Divine Love in us is to consider That the Lord is incomparably the most lovely Object in the World Psal 119.68 Mat. 19.16 17. being the chief of all good and goodness For which reason our Saviour saith Why callest thou me good there is none good but one that is God If we Love a drop of good in the Creature how should we be ravished with an Ocean Psal 36.7 8.9 10. many Oceans in God! Happy he that enjoyes the Fountain of good for with him is the well of Life c. God is purely good without Mixture infinitely good without Measure absolutely good without Dependency communicably good without Failure eternally good without End say the Schools therefore most amiable O consider this And this good this God is ours for ever and ever may every Believer say O let this inflame our Love to this good 3. Examine thy Faith in the Truth of it and labour for the growth of it and observe the working of it for true Faith works by Love and the stronger thy Faith is the stronger thy Love is Gal. 5.8 The Apostle Peter shewing the excellency of Faith and of a tryed Faith that it is more precious than Gold he saith by it we love Jesus Christ though we never saw him with our bodily Eyes and we love him by Believing and rejoyce in it with unspeakable glorious Joy 1 Pet. 1.7 8. Aug. Tract 7. in 1 Joh. Faith is the first Principle and chief root of all Operation in the Soul and it is therefore a vain thing to talk of loving God without Believing Bern. for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin God doth not put the Oyl of his Mercy but into the Vessel of Faith We believe therefore we speak saith the Apostle we believe therefore we love What made the Saints not value worldly Treasures and Delights What made them Love not their lives to the Death What made them so wonderful in their Active and Passive Obedience for Christ but their Faith by seeing him that is invisible for there is not such an Eye on Earth Heb. 11.24 25 26 27. that see Spiritual things in their Spirituality and notwithstanding their remotest distance such a Faith doth break forth in the flames of Love to God that thereby the Heart where it is is ravished by it the Lord saith his Heart is also ravished with that Eye Cant. 4.9 4. Consider that God best deserves thy Love All the World cannot vye with God in loving us therefore are not worthy to be Rivals with him It is a horrid and an amazing thing how the glorious God should so far be provoked by such Rivals and bear so long Of this he complained severely in his People of old Jer. 2.5 11 12 13 31 32. Read the Prophets and that one Chapter for instance And this is true of the greatest part of the World one silly Idol or other courts all of them yet they never did any man any good nor can it but hurt By loving them they cannot love us again they cannot save us in our trouble they cannot hear us when we cry Jer. 2.28 no more than Baal did his Priests 1 Kings 18.26 Our love is lost upon them they distress us but help us not Like Summer-Brooks that are dry when we most need them Job 6.15 16 17 18. What say you doth not the Lord best deserve your Love what is there that he hath not done for you you owe him not only for your Blessings but for your Being You stand indebted to him for all things pertaining to life and godliness for all in hand and hope And how many grow fat and wanton under the Mercyes of God Deut. 32. yea Jeshurun kicking at his Bowels and beating the Breasts that feed them Strange degenerate Brats Isa 1.2 3. Jer. 3.1 so far that the Lord cryes out to Heaven and Earth to be astonished at it yet for all this continues loving them still and like a good Shepheard seeks after straying Sheep that of themselves would never return without fetching Will any Creature in the world whom thou Idolizest do this for thee Is this after the manner of men No it is the peculiar kindness of God only think on it 5. Consider if thou love the Lord truly and keep thy self in his Love thy heart will cease to love any thing else in the World and be dead to Creatures and they will be dead to thee Gal. 6.14 Si cor amore Christi inardescit omnis creatura vilescit All things are contemptible to one that truly loves God Phil. 3.8 When the Sun shines the Stars vanish and when it shines upon a Fire it puts the Fire out So doth the Love of God in the Soul
extinguish all worldly love And this is an infallible sign of the love of God in the Soul for they two are contrary and mortal Enemies one to the other and seek the destruction of each other The reason is plain 1. They differ in their Rise and Offspring one is Heaven-born Gal. 5.17 the other is Earthly 2. They differ in their Quality one hates what the other loves 3. They differ in their Objects One loves God the other loves the Creature 4. They differ in the Means of their Attainments one minds the Will and Word of God to follow that only the other minds the Wills and Lusts of the flesh to fulfill them Ephes 2.2 and to make provision for them Rom. 13. last v. 5. They differ in their End The love of Creatures is disappointed and lost the Love of God enjoyes him for ever Psal 42.1 2. and rests satisfied in that enjoyment and not before 6. Consider thou canst never keep thy self in the Love of God if thou art not quit and utterly disengaged from the love of the World in the Lusts and Vanities of it by thy inordinate desires and hankerings after it God never comes into the Soul till the World go out Taulerus and then the Soul moves nobly when it moves to its Principle This makes the Circular motion of the Heavens to be most Noble because it returns alwayes to the same point where it began Thus Noah's Dove found no rest out of the Ark but returned to it after long fluttering about because it found no food among the Carrion but the Raven did and therefore abode by it A Bird as long as it flyes aloft in the Air is free from the Fowlers Gin but when it lights down on the ground and falls a picking in the Earth then is nearest unto danger Thus it fares with men of the Earth O poor Soul saith St. Aug. how dost thou debase thy self thou lovest earthly things and thou art better than them thou admirest the Sun and thou art more beautifull and excellent than the Sun only God is above thee and thou wert made to love him only A Child of Heaven and a Son of the Earth differ in this as much as Heaven and Earth Phil. 3.18 19 20. 2 Pet. 3.10 The Ground is cursed and this World shall be burnt up why art thou enamour'd with it Therefore the Lord imbitters the Worlds Breasts to his Children that they may be weaned and no longer suck of them and then when the world begins to be bitter to us the Lord begins to be sweeter to us Math. 17.4 When Peter had found some Sweetness on Mount Tabor he was loth to come down and would dwell there above the World in that heavenly Company That Wife never truly loved her Husband that loves her Jewels above him Did not Israel do so when they made a Calf of the Jewels God gave them and a God of that Calf and themselves Beasts in worshipping of it What abominable Idolatry what Apostasie what Ingratitude is here 1. All that hath hitherto been said of this great Duty of Keeping our selves in the Love of God is Practical and carryes Application with it containing true signs of such as keep themselves in Gods Love What is that but a great Use of Examination of our State and of our Practice 1. Whether we are in the Love of God 2. Whether we do indeed walk so as to keep our selves in it Be not deceived compare your State Heart and Life with these Rules be serious and solemn in it 2. You have had by way of contrary sufficiently hinted the cross Practice of the greatest part of the World herein who keep themselves out of Gods Love by keeping in an evil State of Enmity between God and them And though God hath long beseeched them by his Embassadours to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 yet they will not but stand out in open defiance against God Job 21.14 and desire not the knowledge of his wayes they preferr the Love of men before the Love of God They preferr the love of Money and carnal Delights before the love of God Luk. 8.14 2 Tim. 3.4 They hate the Knowledge of God they hate the People of God they hate the Wayes of God they love those that hate God and whom God hates Can these think themselves in the Love of God Can they keep themselves in the Love of God before they are come into it And this carryes in it a Use of Reprehension Conviction Discrimination and Lamentation all of them respectively O mind and consider it well 3. We have a Use of Exhortation The Text is properly such a Use It contains a Duty to be practised all your Life perform the Duties of that State study what doth please God Qui in amore Dei se custodiunt suaviter habitant instar apum in alvearibus in favis meilis ut Sponsa in finu Sponsi Cant. 1.2 3. cap. 2.4 5 6 12 13. take heed of that which doth offend God shun all that is inconsistent with the Love of God Meditate on the happy Priviledge of such a State Thou art a Candidate of Heaven a Favourite of God such are out of the reach of danger they have a sweet Calm and Sun-shine in their Conscience They have a pleasant Spring of singing of Birds and like the fragrant smell of a Garden of Spices and the fill of Divine Flagons in Christs Banquetting House Cant. 4.16 Cap. 5.1 4. If thou keep thy self in the Love of God thou needest not to fear the Hatred of men This is to be feared of all that are not in the Love of God Those that are in Gods love have no cause in the world to fear worldly mens hate they have the strongest security against it 1. From the Power of God which is omnipotent Gen. 15.1 2. From the Promise of God which is faithful and never fails Rom. 8.31 to 39. Heb. 13.5 6 8. 3. From the Eternity of Christ the same to day as yesterday and for ever He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what man can do unto me Read Deut. 33. and the four last Verses God will be a wall of fire about those that are in his Love Zach. 2.5 Read Deut. 32.9 10 11 12 13 14. What higher expressions can be uttered to set forth the tender love of God to his People while they are under his Wing Will ye have more consider that of the Prophet Isaiah in Chap. 60.5 As one whom his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted And when ye see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb 5. If ye mind this Duty aright to keep your selves in the love of God 1 You must labour to understand the love of God to his Elect truely and then meditate
such provoking Children 1. Doth your Duty of loving your Children admit of that exception Love them i. e. If they are or while they are free from all fault did not the Lord that enjoyns this Duty know full well that no mortal man is without his Spots Imperfections Failings In vain is that Precept that is limited to a Condition which is impossible to fulfil Jam. 3.2 Tangat memoriam communis fragilitas 2. Look inward and then look upward Are not you naught have not you often and do not you daily hourly provoke your Heavenly Father and yet would you not desire that he should Love you Let your own Prayers and Tears be Witnesses in the Case Had a man laid his ear close to your Closet might he not have heard you Ephraim-like bemoaning your self thus Heavenly Father I am vile I have done Iniquity I have not only toucht upon the verge of Vice but entred the Circle nay my sins are aggravated by Perverseness in ill-doing and by resisting counsel I cannot dare not clear my self by a just defence nor being rightly depriv'd of thy love and favour seek for any other Mediators but thy Christ and free Grace for my relief And therefore give me leave to hope that a Fathers Bowels are as Potent Orators as a Sons Misery and that while my Transgressions Damm up the way to favour fatherly Compassion will not forget to be merciful he that bears the name of a Father cannot forget the tears of a Child Tell me severe Parents is not this a true Echo of some of your most pathetick Prayers But what answer have you expected and your Heavenly Father return'd 3. Possibly while you have been speaking God hath answer'd as he did Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child No no he is naught he is a Prodigal True but yet he is a repenting a returning Prodigal though not a pleasant Son yet a Son a Child and therefore since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord Read consider and often Pray over those pertinent Texts Deut. 32.36 Isa 63.15 16. Hos 11.7 8 9. Luk. 15.19 20. All this is true to a repenting Ephraim but my Child lies stinking in his filth 4. But I pray In what case and posture did your Heavenly Father find you when he first manifested his Love unto you Ezek. 16.6 8. I saw thee polluted in thine own blood and I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live ver 8. Behold this time was the time of thy Gods Love God the Father commended his Love towards you in that while you were yet Sinners Christ died for you Rom. 5.8 2. Govern your Children as a Father and so remember 1. That your Parental power is not absolute or despotical but regulated and circumscrib'd within due bounds and limits Parents may not think they may do what they list according to their own Will and Pleasure with their Children Stat pro ratione voluntas is the language of a Tyrant not of a Father And here 1. Beware of secret Pride of inordinate self-exalting of magnifying your Office and overvaluing your selves and of esteeming your selves to be greater than indeed you are and an Eager desire that your Children should so think of you and so treat you 2. Beware of thinking more of the dignity of your place than of your duty you owe to God and your Children in that Station wherein God hath fixt you 3. Beware of being excessively hard and difficult to be pleased and of being too rigid an Exactor of observance and respect from your Child and of slighting undervaluing vilifying of him when he hath done his utmost of discontent and murmuring if you have not all you desire in your Child 4. Beware that you respect not your Child more for the seeming regard he shews to you than for any real worth that is in him All these are dangerous Rocks to which your secret Pride exposes you enough to destroy Pilot and Vessel 3. Be Angry with your Child but be Angry and sin not Eph. 5.26 Be angry but then let it be the Anger of a displeased Father against an offending Child not the Anger of a Bloody enemy against an Irreconcilable Foe be angry as your Heavenly Father is said to be Angry Of this before 4. Exhort admonish reprove rebuke chastize offending Children but then still Remember whose deputy you are whom you represent even your heavenly Father Fury is not in him Judgment is his strange work But he delights in mercy When he is as it were forced to put forth his Anger he then makes use of a Fathers rod not an Executioners Ax Psal 89. from 30. to 35. 2 Sam. 7.14 He will neither break his Childrens bones nor his own Covenant He lashes in Love Heb. 12.6 Rev. 3.19 in measure in pity and compassion In all their Affliction he is afflicted Every stroke on his Childs back recoils on his own Bowels and if the member be gangren'd and there is an absolute necessity to cut it off to save the Life the Soul of his Child then like a Chyrurgeon who is the Father of the Patient He makes use of the Saw not forgetting that he is now cutting off his own flesh and would never do it but for the Child 's good Rom. 8.28 Go you and do likewise 5. In all you do take heed you do not provoke them on the one hand nor discourage them on the other 1. Not provoke them Of this somewhat before Let me adde when Children find themselves contrary to their hopes and it may be their deserts to be hardly and sharply dealt withall and that nothing which they attempt or perform finds acceptance with their morose and rigid Parents specially if of fiercer Spirits in the heat and bitterness of their inraged Souls they are apt to throw off all Reverence to break their bands asunder and to cast away their cords from them Like wild and untamed Colts to kick and winch and harden their necks foreheads hearts against all admonitions and threatnings against all words and blows Their Father hates them say they sink they must and sink they will but not alone if possible they 'l draw their cruel Fathers Heart and Peace into the same gulf with them Oh dreadful Take heed therefore do not provoke Nè animam despondeant 2. Not to discourage dishearten dispirit them Col. 3.21 Fathers provoke not your Children least they be discouraged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing that doth more deject and sink the heart of a poor Child specially if ingenious and of a softer and more meek temper than the severe rigour and roughness of a Father It quite unsouls the poor Child when in the countenance and deportment of his Father to whom of all men in the World he should in reason be dearest he sees nothing but anger and
aversation It intimidates the Child destroyes his mettle and courage for any honest or honourable undertaking smothers yea extinguishes all his fire and vivacity transforms him into a meer sot mope dullard block utterly unfit for use and service nay more it often throws him into the deepest gulph of grief and melancholy sickness death and then it may be when too late the unhappy Parent will see cause to relent and abhorr himself for his unjust severity 6. Parents remember they are Children and but Children Their age may be some Apology for them Their Heads are green yours are grey More years may teach them better manners They are your Children your own Flesh Blood Bowels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle your Children If the stream be corrupt it derives it from your selves the Fountain Psal 51.5 The young Serpent came from the old Cockatrice 7. Since Severity will not do the feat see what sweetness mildness gentleness holy tenderness and indulgence will do Peragit tranquilla potestas quod violenta nequit The pillow may help to break the flint which the Hammer and Anvil cannot It prevail'd with flinty Saul 1 Sam. 24.16 The cordial may prevail where the corrosive cannot The sight of the pardon more commands the heart of the desperate Traytor than that of the Ax or Gibbet 8. To All these adde Scriptural admonition fervent Supplication Patient waiting on and humble Submission to the Will of God Mic. 7.7 8 9. Thus much concerning Sinful Severity we proceed to the Second and that is Sinful Indulgence Our Apostle knowing right well how apt Parents are to swerve from the golden mean of Parental discipline and whilst they Labour to avoid the Rock of Sinful Severity how prone they are to plunge themselves into the gulph of Sinful Indulgence doth in the same Text prescribe a Soveraign Antidote against that fatal pleurisie of fond Affection in these words but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Whilest the severe Parent is breathing a vein in his distemper'd Child he cautions him to take care he doth not pierce an Artery Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath But on the other Hand if the Child labours under an imposthume and needs the Lâ—ncet our Apostle doth here command the discreet use of it and â—â—ll by no means permit that the sinking Child should be sooth'd or stroakt and demulc'd into certain ruine Children must be nurtur'd thô they may not be provok'd Parents must not be cruel Ostrichès and leave and expose their young ones to harm and danger nor yet must they be such fond Apes who are said to hug their Cubs so closely as that they kill them with their embraces And that on this Account because 2. The wickedness of unconverted Children is too too often occasion'd yea and advanced by the sinful Indulgence of their godly Parents Sinful Severity with Saul hath slain it's thousands sinful Indulgence with David it 's ten thousands Poor cocker'd Children when 't is too late find the little Finger of a fond Mother to weigh far heavier and to sink the Soul far deeper than the weighty Loins of a severe Father and at a long run will find more of Sting in a Rod of Roses than in a scourge of Scorpions In the Stating of this case I shall proceed as before and shew you 1. What Sinful Indulgence is not And so 1. Natural ordinate moderate parental Love and such as is mixt with the most yerning bowels most deep and tender compassions is not sinful Indulgence Nay to be without these Natural Affections Rom. 1.31 is not only wretched Stoicisme but sinful cursed and more than brutish astorgy Even the Storks and Sea-monsters will teach us to love our Off-spring Love my Children I may and must 1. With all the sorts and kinds of Love of desire of Union and Communion with them of the sweet enjoyment of them of benevolence and good will willing ready and prepared to desire and wish them all good of beneficence and bounty Tit. 2.4 Gen. 21.19 1 King 3.25.26 1.7 10 18 19. 1 Tim. 5.8 actually endeavouring to do them all good possible both as to their Souls and Bodies All our Spiritual gifts must be for the profit of their Souls for their Direction Consolation Salvation and as for their Bodies their Backs must be our Wardrobes their Bellies our Barns and their Hands our Treasuries And with a Love of Complacency and delight Our Children may and ought to be the joy and rejoycing of our Hearts no greater joy than to see our Children like Olive-plants round about our Table specially if we see and find them walking in the Truth John 2. Ep. 4. John 3. Ep. 4. 2. With all the properties of parental Love viz. Sincere and unfained a Love not in word and tongue only but from the Heart in Deed and in Truth A forward chearful Love not drawn or driven but flowing as from a Fountain An expensive open-handed as well as open-hearted Love A fruitful Love producing not only fair Leaves Buds and blossoms of pleasing smiles and large promises but the mature fruits of beneficial performances An holy just fervent constant Love a most gentle dear tender compassionate Love whereby we are ready to Sympathize with them and forward to succour them in their misery to regard them when they neither regard us nor themselves To take in good part the desires of their Souls when they find not to perform To accept of a sigh in regard of a service a mite instead of a Talent a groan instead of a duty the very stammering of my Child above the eloquence of a Beggar Mal. 3.17 Looking on a returning Prodigal as a Son and pitying as a Father not punishing as a Judge Psal 103.13 14. Remembring their frame and knowing that both they and we are poor dust All this and much more is not sinful Indulgence To carry them in our Bosoms as Moses did the Israelites Num. 11.12 or so in our Hearts as to be willing to impart our very Souls unto them in and for God because they are dear unto us as Paul 1 Thes 2.7 8 11. To Bless them in Gods Name Faith Fear as Jacob did Gen. 49.28 To countenance and encourage them in and reward them for well doing 1 Pet. 2.14 Est 6.3 To Love those most that Love God most to give such Benjamins five messes a double treble Portion an Isaak's Inheritance this is not sinful Indulgence 2. What sinful Indulgence is It stands in the Excess and exuberancy of our Love and affections and in too much slacking and remitting the reins of Government When we do as it were abandon and give up our minds and studies to coax and please and gratifie the humours yea satisfie the Lusts of our foolish Children when we make their Wills our Laws our Rules when the doting Parent is led by the Heart shall I say or Nose by his audacious Child and must be at his
all that rise against thee to do thee hurt be as that young man is 5. And what sayes King David to this Methinks I hear him say Psal 81.1 c. Come my dear People Come and let us sing aloud unto God our strength and make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2. Take a Psalm and bring hither the Timbrel the pleasant Harp with the Psaltery 3. Blow up the Trumpet as in the new Moon as on a solemn feast day 4. Let this be a Statute for Israel for this is the day that the Lord hath made we will rejoice and triumph in it The King shall joy in thy strength and greatly rejoice in thy Salvation The Lord is known by the judgment that he hath executed the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgaion-Selah Is this the Io Triumphe wherewith he makes the Earth to ring again No but on the contrary the poor Father being as it were Thunder-struck with the words of his Blackmore forgets that he was a King and Father of his Countrey looks like Jephthah when he met his devoted Daughter and as if bereav'd of all Comfort breaks out into a flood of tears and into such an indecent Lamentation as no Records either Sacred or Humane can parallel The King was much moved and wept v. 33. and as he went he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son My just Indignation at this more than Womanish Transport forbids me to descant on it I shall barely lay before you Joab's smart Repartee whereby he endeavour'd to stop this Deluge 2 Sam. 29.5 6. Joab said to the King Thou hast this day shamed the faces of all thy Servants which this day have saved thy Life and the Lives of thy Sons and of thy Daughters and the Lives of thy Wives 6. In that thou lovest thine Enemies and hatest thy Friends For thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither Princes nor Servants For this day I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died this day then it had pleased thee well And thus we have seen the Malady Turn we now to the Remedy The Plague-sore has been open'd now for the Bunch of Figgs II. What may gracious Parents best do for the Conversion of those their Children whose Wickedness have been occasion'd by their own sinful Indulgence 1. Reflect seriously on your heart and wayes Begg and begg sincerely earnestly believingly constantly of the Lord effectually to convince you of the great sinfulness and mischief of your Indulgence and to humble you deeply for it O cast your selves at the foot of God lament it weep over it mourn as Doves before the Lord when you see if indeed you can see and fondness hath not quite put out your eyes Pride Stubborness Profaneness Averseness from God all sorts and degrees of sins and corruptions break forth in your Childrens Lives And that 1. With respect to your Children And this 1. Not only as the natural roots from whom all this their Lewdness springs They drew it from the Womb and breast They were poyson'd in the very Spring Psa 51.5 Job 14.1 15.14 25.4 This consideration only if no more to see your Children rotting sinking dying with a loathsome Disease which they drew from your Loins were enough to rend your hearts and Caul But 2. By your wretched Indulgence you have added much fuel to this flame you have heated your Furnace seven times hotter Your Indulgence hath fomented yea inflam'd their Wickedness You have heightned their feavour into a Plague and that worse a thousand times than that of the Body which ends in a temporal Death but this is of their Souls and is like to sink them for ever into a gulph of fire and brimstone 2. With respect to God The Lord was wroth with the Serpent and curs'd him for ever because but an instrument us'd by Satan for corrupting our first Parents though no cause at all of it Gen. 3.14 May not the Lord be much more angry with us and cause his Wrath to smoak against us that have not only been instruments really to convey this Poyson and corruption of nature into our Childrens bosoms but the principal occasions of of their superadded Wickedness You see on both these accounts matter of deep Humiliation 2. Love your Children hearken indulgent Parents I say it again Love your Children Yea Love them I say not more but better than ever yet you Lov'd them you can never Love them too well You may and have Lov'd them too much One saith well None is to be Lov'd much but He only whom we can never Love too much Love them with all the kinds degrees properties of Love before mention'd 1. Love them so as to be tender of their Bodies their outward man let that want nothing that is necessary convenient comfortable suitable to their age or quality but above all Love their Souls their inward man The Cabinet must not be neglected but the Jewel is to be most regarded The Ring is to be only esteemed but the Diamond in it most highly to be prized The Love of our Childrens Souls is the very Soul and Spirit and Elixir of True parental Love If we truely Love their Souls we shall unfeignedly desire and vigorously endeavour their Spiritual and Eternal Salvation If you Love their Souls indeed your Hearts desire and prayer to God for them will be that they may be saved Rom. 10.1 You will put forth your utmost affections and strength to lift them up out of that pit of Sin and Misery in which they lye and to raise them into and fix them in a state of Grace If we do not really grieve to see our Children lye weltring in their Sins of Ignorance unbelief folly profaneness and so under the power and paw of Satan If we do not faithfully labour to preserve them from perishing but suffer sin upon them pretend what we will let us shew never so much Love with our mouth God sayes we really hate them in our Hearts Lev. 19.17 See how Solomons Parents exprest their Love to Him Prov. 4.3 4. I was my Fathers Son tender and only beloved in the sight of my Mother 4. He taught me also and said unto me Let thy heart retain my Words keep my Commandments and Live If you Love them indeed and in truth you will you can have no greater joy than to see your Children walking in the Truth Joh. 3. Ep. 4. That foolish Son who is now an heaviness to his Mother being made Truely wise will make a glad Fatther Prov. 10.1 Oh what a lovely sight what a Soul-ravshing object in a godly Parents eye is an hopeful Timothy an obedient godly Joseph Prov. 23.24 25. Well then Love your Children and in the first place their precious Souls If you find your Love and care goes out more for their Bodies than Souls so far mistrust your
Love 'T is Carnal 2. Love your Children truly tenderly but yet take heed that you do not over-love them But when is that Certainly when you Love them more than you Love God and Christ you over-love them But who does so I shall not charge you but give me leave to ask you a question or two Tell me when your Gods Glory and your Child 's good are neerly concern'd for which doth your zeal most hotly glow Are not your Affections most fiery where they should be most cool and where they should burn there they freeze Doth not your Heart make you believe it Loves God and gives him Pledges of your affection while it secretly doats chiefly on the dandled Child Like some false Strumpet that entertains her Husband with her Eyes and on the mean time treads on the Toe of her Paramour Do you not often think you love God enough and when your Child most yet but enough nay never enough your head heart hand purse mandrakes five messes breasts bowels All but little enough too little for your Child your Idol is it so as to your God So to Love our Child as thereby to lesson our Love to God yea or to equalize it with our Love to God is not only indulgence but idolatry And an Idol of Flesh and Blood is to be abhorr'd as well as that of Wood or Sone Assuredly the best way to quench this exorbitant Love to Children on Earth is to set your Hearts and Affections more on your Father in Heaven on God his Christ Spirit Word wayes rewards Luk. 10.32 Isa 33.6 1 Pet. 1.24 25. Look but directly on that Sun and thine eyes will quickly be dazl'd to these glittering glow-worms here below Make that invaluable Pearl but thy Treasure and thou wilt lightly esteem these Bristol-Stones Take but Christ fully and wholly into thy heart and bosom and thou wilt quickly yield thy Child 's proper place is but thy Foot or Knee In a word If God in Christ be thy God indeed thou wilt abhorr the thought and practice of making thy Child his Corrival 3. Love your Children but Love them wisely give e'm your Hearts into their Bosoms but not the reins on their necks When you do so at the same time mount them on your fiercest Beast furnish them with Switch and Spur but without bit or bridle and then do but pause and think soberly of the period of their full carier Love 'em I say but still be careful to maintain that just authority and preeminence that God hath given you over them A Parent that hath lost his Authority is as salt that hath lost its savour Like the Logg sent from Jupiter every frog in the Family apt to leap upon him And remember it fond Parents there is nothing in the world that renders you more vile cheap contemptible in the eyes even of your Children themselves when they begin to put forth the first buds of Reason nothing that layes your authority more in the dust and exposes you to the foot and spurn of your Child than sinful Indulgence A foolish man dispiseth his Mother Prov. 15.20 His Mothers folly made him a Fool of a foolish Child he at length grows up into a man but a foolish man and this foolish man despises his Mother If you are Fathers then take care of your Honour if Mothers be sure to carry it so as to preserve in your Children that awful respect and reverence which they owe you Mal. 1.6 Heb. 12.9 4. Love your Children but love them in God and for God Love his image in them more than your own In a word Let Gods Spirit be the Principle Gods Word the Rule Gods Example the Pattern and his Glory the end of your dearest Love to your dearest Children Love them as God Loves his Children But How 1. God so loves his Childrens persons as that he infinitely hates their sins Nay because he loves their persons for that very reason he hates their sins Bacause I love my Child therefore I hate the Toad that I see crawling on his bosom God doth infinitely love his People and yet in this Life he shews more hatred against the Sins of his own People than he doth against the Sins of any other men in the World 1. Here He afflicts all his own people for sin one way or other Every Mothers Son of them Heb. 12.6 8. Job 10.14 Isa 31.9 48.10 but is patient towards the wicked le ts them run riot without controll Psal 50.21 13.5 2 Pet. 2.9 2. When he intends to bring a general judgment on a Nation he uses to begin with his own people Isa 28.18 1 Pet. 4.17 Jer. 25.17 18. Luk. 21.10 11. 3. When he makes any an Example unto others of his Hatred against sin makes choice of his own people before wicked men Isa 8.18 1 Cor. 4.9 1 King 13.24 33. 4. Judgments more sharp on his own people than others Psal 89.7 Lam. 1.12 Dan. 9.12 2. All this he doth out of the purest eternal and unchangeable Love that he bears his Children God chastens and corrects his Children that he may keep them from sinning as others do and as themselves have done and from perishing for ever in their sins as others shall He meddles not with thorns and briars but prunes his Vines that they may no more yield such sour Grapes He casts his Children as Gold into a Furnace here to refine and purifie them that he may not be forced to cast them as stubble into an Eternal flaming Oven hereafter And this in Love Exo. 4.24 Job 7.17 18 19. Psal 119.71 75. 89.30 to 38. Jer. 59.7 Lam. 3.33 Hos 4.14 Am. 3.2 Heb. 12.6 7. Rev. 3.19 1 Cor. 11.30 32. And now Parents as you have seen your Heavenly Father do do you In his strength follow his Example 1. Love your Childrens persons and because you love them hate their sins The sins of those most whom you Love most You see your God doth so Be not so blinded as that you can see no fault in them nor so madly doting as to delight in their Blemishes to kiss their Plague-sores Nor so Indulgent as to be loth to grieve or displease them when grossely Criminal Especially 2. Let your holy strictness shew it self against those whom you most affect TELL them Child I Love you and therefore I cannot will not behold the least iniquity in you Hab. 1.13 So Christ acted towards his beloved Disciples Mat 15.16 17. 17.17 Tell 'em you cannot will not pardon them Exo. 23.21 Let them know that you can be Angry and if words will not do the Rod shall and that you can make that Rod smart Exo. 4.24 Tell them though they may presume to provoke you to bewail them you will not suffer them to provoke God to Hate them Isa 63.10 Psal 78.58 59. and that you had rather hear them cry and see them bleed yea and dye here than hear them howl and see them burn'd and damn'd hereafter
Wounds ver 4. And thô this place speak of the Flattery of a strange woman whose flattery in some cases may be more dangerous and deadly yet the Flatteries of others strange Sons is dangerous and destructive also Psal 55.21 The words of such are smoother than Butter Perniciem aliis ac postremò sibi inveniunt Tacit annal l. 1. but war is in their Heart softer than Oyl yet drawn Swords Wherewith others are first slain and which doth first or last enter their own bowels God doth in his own season send forth commission'd Officers to destroy an hypocritical Nation as Isa 10. ver 6. In a word wheresoever you find Flattery predominant and culminating it presages an approaching ruine whether in Kingdoms and States or in Church in Families or particular Persons Flattering and Fawning Counsellors ruine Princes and Principalities Flattering Clergy ruine the Church Flattering Captains their General Lawyers their Clients Physicians their Patients and flattering Companions destroy those that keep them Company For fuller declaration of this Affection to undue praise destroys I will tell what is ruin'd by that flattery which becomes predominant by our love to it under the Notion of Praise and friendship due to our vertues Uncured Love of such praise and smoothing us is pernicious 1. To Good moral Principles and vertuous Habits 1. Vertuous principles implanted by the care and wisdom of such as had the Educating of us so we may observe Men and Women too often degenerate and wear out the Impressions of vertuous Habits and imbibe the quite contrary Vices Of Modest become Impudent of Chaste become Unclean Adulterers and Adulteresses c. How many in our Age have by the help of Flatterers conquer'd their vertuous Education and triumph'd over it in a debauched Bravery which is to glory in their shame 2. To All the remainders of any tolerable innate 2. Natural Inclinations to Good and congenite capacity of receiving Good advice Examples and helps for their recovery The very Stock is corrupted that no Graffe of Vertue can be planted on them They become reprobate to every good work There is in many from the Birth a promising Receptivity we look on them as more susceptible of Vertue than others Now love to vitious Flatterers and hearkening to them very frequently overthrows these very foundations on which we might build that the person remains for ever a Cage of unclean Birds and leaves such hopeless 3. To their Wealth and Estates 3. Estates So many an imprudent and unexperienced Heir is gull'd out of his Estate and Inheritance The Flatterer by his wiles derives the Substance and Labours of the deceas'd Father from the Children to himself and his Solomon notes this Prov. 5.10 as the consequencé of love to be flatter'd Strangers are filled with the wealth of such 4. Reputation 4. To their Honour and Reputation A vitious Seducer hearkned to and his Flatteries yielded to will blast all the Credit of those that are seduced how great soever their Reputation might have been before their turning aside Solomon proposeth this as argument to disswade us from hearkning to Flatteries Prov. 5. vers 9. 5. Safety and Life 5. To the Safety Peace and Life of the imprudent lover of Flattery When nothing else remains nor surviveth the wasting and consumptive mouth of a Flatterer but the disgraced impoverisht and miserable Life of the deceived this is made a prey too and the unthankfull unsatiate and unmerciful Seducer hunts for the precious Life also 6. Soul and its Happiness 6. To the Soul and its happiness The Flatterer is too powerfull and too successeful an Instrument in promoting sin and ruining of Souls he drawes into Sin into remisness and neglect of Good Such seduced ones call evil Good and then do it think great evil little and repent not of it are perswaded their Good is great enough already and are surpriz'd in a sinful and Impenitent state Thus pernicious is Flattery loved A dangerous disease you see yet curable if proper means be apply'd And what those means are which may best effect this Cure 4th General is the last but chiefest of our Enquiry these in the Fourth place we must speak of And here I propose that 1. Ill name of Flattery 1. You would impartially consider the bad name that Flattery hath ever had and still hath and ever will have among all sorts of men How all condemn it as unworthy of the least degree of their love as worthy of their utmost hatred and abhorrence * Mellitum venenum Circes pocula It is sugred Poyson a bewitching Cup the greatest Plague in Societies and the most barbarous Torturers †Nulla in amicitiis pestis est major quam assentatio c. for they pick out the Eyes and flay off the flesh of the Living worse than hungry Crows as Antisthenes observed Like corroding Worms which eat out the substance verdure and life of the root they were bred in That very man who too soon was perverted by Flattery to think himself greater than to be Philip's Son Dignior eras qui eodem pracipitareris yet in soberer temper judged a Flatterer worthy to be thrown into that River in which his flattering History was cast and drowned Thô Aeneas Sylvius de dict Sigism as Sigismund the Emperour observed we affect pleasant flattering Companions yet he professed he hated them like as he hated the Plague Would you look on the Flatterer as Condemned and most worthy to be cut off from humane Society you would neither over-love him or his Flatteries It is but rarely that a foolish Virgin falls in Love begs the Life and chooseth the most intimate converse of a Condemned Felon Let us look on this condemned Vice as most do on the handsomest condemned Felon and Murtherer A fair and goodly outside but not worthy to live 2. Look how ill an uncured love of Praise becomes another 2. Ill becomes other men see how great a blemish and stain it is to them how it lessens all other commendable Qualities It is to dote on our own Shadow and perish in the Love of it as the Mythologists report of Narcissus Such one is the most unfit of all men for humane Society whether in a Converse of Friendship Service or Command A most untractable and useless piece not fit to rule others who wants a Prudence to rule himself nor fit to receive Commands while he admires himself and dotes on his own contrivance not fit to be a Friend since all his Love runs waste on himself The Emblem of such Persons is ingeniously drawn from the Ape the ugliest as the Lord Bacon observes of Creatures the most mischievous in his Pranks useless and saucy And are such worthy to be loved How comely a sight do you think an ill shap't Ape grinning on his own Features in a flattering Glass would be Such is the man that loves to see himself
in Flattery 's Mirrour How glorious was Alexander M. while he rejected Fawners How lovely but how Eclips'd how despicable when he believed and loved them which the Athenians did generously enough witness when they fined their Envoy ten Talents for calling him a God and put to death Evagoras for Adoring him There was more than ordinary in Herod which gave him the Name of Great but when he over-loved the Praise of men God left him a Monument and Warning to all Posterity giving up so contemptible a Slave of his own vain-glory to the most contemptible loathsome and shameful death Lice bred in his own Bowels destroy his Body as the Vermin of Self-love and Self-admiring reflections had destroy'd his Mind Look first on the deformity of a Self-admirer next on the beauty of a self-denying Humility and this will cure this distemper As the sight of the Putrid Carkass once cured the fond desire of Friends who doted on their own Fancy for his Picture whilest living or as the sight of the Loathsomeness in Serapis's Temple cur'd the Superstitious Aegyptians So the sight of the deformity of our Love of the undue Praise of men would cure this disease But 3. Thou who lovest to be unduly praised come with me 3. Deplorable miseries of it view the many great deplorable miseries it hath fill'd the World with read the Tragedies it hath acted and all these mostly upon it's Friends as it would cure the excessive praises men bestow on the great Commanders of conquering Armies if they would recount with themselves how many fair and goodly Countreys they laid desolate how many Cities they razed how many millions of Souls Innocent and peaceable they Sacrificed to their Ambition so here the bloody Pawes of the disguis'd Lion would cure us of our dotage on the Foxes Skin It hath ever proved a Mortal and †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deadly Cup. If you Travel through waste and desolate Kingdoms and enquire who ruin'd them you 'l find the Flatterers about Prince and Court so true is that known Observation of the Historian * Regnum saepius ab assentatoribus quam abbostibus everti solet Q. Curtius de gest Al. Flatterers do more frequently overthrow a Kingdom than open Enemies But did Flatterers find such great ones Ears stopt and their minds fortifi'd against or alienated from their flatteries the danger were not considerable The Flatterer can but attempt our Love to the flattery gives the success the Head and Shaft of the Arrow cannot fly to endanger the Eagle 't was his own Feathers that contributed to his Wound and Death Scarce a City Family or Person whose Calamities were fit to be noted in the World but you may find some Parasites some close undermining Flatterers charged as a great occasion of those Calamities and the love affection and delight those Flaterers found much more the Cause of those fatal Calamities Ahab fell more by his own Love of Flattery than by the Artifices of the Son of Chenaanah and his Accomplices 1 Kings 22. So in the Parable Ezek. 13.12 16. the Wall fell for the Builders built it with untemper'd Morter and the People loved to see the building thus go forward Scarce one that dislik't it as Ezek. 22. ver 28. observeth the consequence of which is ver 29. I saith the Lord have poured mine Indignation upon them I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath c. When Prophets prophesie falsely and Priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5.31 In a word can you love that flattery which never had extorted a Tear a Sigh a Grief or complaint from you if you had hated it which hath filled you or yours whole Families Cities Kingdoms yea the whole World in all ages with the complaints and sorrows which Treachery loved and trusted could bring upon those that were so much over-seen We shew you the scatter'd bones about the Dens mouth and desire to ask whether you think fit to Love the Couching Lion which lurks in it 4. Would you be cur'd of immoderate Love of an undue praise then so often as you perceive any one soothing you therewith suspect there may be and search what likeliest is the design such have upon you We may with good manners question the Integrity of his purpose who doth on our Knowledge transgress the rules of Truth in the words we hear from him such men lye for advantage the discovery of this designing wheedling Projector will if you have any Spirit of a man in you take off your Love yea turn it into hatred No man can love to be impos'd upon be assured there is a snare hid search after it keep a watchful Eye upon it in time you will discover what you prevented and never love what endanger'd you in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird. And there 's much in that of Diogenes to a Flatterer Nihil proficis cum te intelligam Seneca in Epist It is the great care of these Lurkers to lye conceal'd and to hide their purposes and to blind-fold those they lead for 't is but one labour to expose them to our view and to our hatred Could weeping Parents give their seduced Children Eyes to see the seducing projects of corrupt Flatterers they need be no farther solicitous their Children would find Hearts to hate them There is nothing truly amiable in flattery and none that know it approve or love it Solomon therefore takes so much pains for discovery of the designs of a flattering Mouth and then counselleth us to decline and reject it Prov. 5. The monster in the dark doth not but in the light he will make us recoil with abhorrence Find him out then Adulatio periculosa est quae latet view him exactly and I know 't will do much toward your Cure 5. If you would be cured you must resolutely and peremptorily reject the Friendship of the man who turns due praises into Flattery Let such know they please least when they praise most and that you make their first offence an opportunity to inform them that the second offence in this kind is and shall be unpardonably punisht with loss of your Friendship I know not any reason why I may not interpret that of Flatterers which David speaks of Liers He that telleth Lies shall not come into my House Psal 101. This he did know was the way to prevent Love of Flatteries and Flatterers to keep them out of his presence This Tympany is never cured while Sycophants are suffered to blow up weak minds with conceits of worth greater than is due to their Persons It is not unfitly resembled to those distempers which increase on us by our Indulgence It 's an Itching humour runs in our blood as Sigismund the Emperour observed and when it breaks out the tickling Flatterer doth increase it if you would cure you must let
none such have the stroaking of it it is a Tetter that is never cur'd with sweet and pleasing applications a sharp and drying medicine is best so the Angry Countenance of a resolved hater of Flattery is both a good Preservative and a good healing Receipt against this disease You lose nothing if you part with such you get a dangerous disease if you retain them 6. Look on Flattery and your Love to it in their Diametrical opposition and irreconcileableness to God in the Truth of all his Word and in the Righteousness of all his judicial Sentence on men and things To call evil good or to make those seem consummate which are defective are an abomination to God A just ballance is his delight and he abhors the false ballance When a Parasite extols thy Good or extenuates thy Evil he weighs thee in a false ballance when thou art pleased with this thou weighest thy self in the same false Ballance and God who stands by abhorreth both of you Now methinks this should affect your Hearts dare you love what God hateth will you not henceforward cease to love the undue Praises of men least you fall under the dreadful but just abhorrence of God He will never lessen truth to magnifie any he will never intrench on Justice to gratifie any he is a God of Truth and Righteousness what your Good or Evil is he will impartially declare and abhorreth such who love a Lye and unrighteousness in their valuing of themselves and Actions will it be good that God should search you out †Quod si divina quaedam res sit veritas ex qua cenfonte Diis pariter ac hominibus omnia bona preficiscuntur videndum ne adulator Diis omnibus sit hostis c. Ex Plutarcho Lud. Gran. Truth is Divine whence as from a Fountain all Good Divine and Humane flow so that the Flatterer appears an Enemy to God This was the Philosophers argument long since and 't is not less cogent because so very ancient None so hateful to God as these deep ravening and insatiable Impostors nothing is more contrary to him who is all Truth and Goodness Let Flatterers and besotted Lovers of Flattery read well that Psal 52.2 3 4. ver Thy Tongue deviseth Mischiefs like a sharp razour working deceitfully thou lovest evil more than Good and Lying rather than to speak righteousness c. Here is the black Character of the Flatterer and his miserable End you have ver 5. God will destroy him for ever c. The sharp arrows of the mighty and the Coals of Juniper are prepared for the lying Lips and false tongue Psal 120.2 3 4. ver Since this is one of the things God hateth Pro. 6. v. 17 18 19. let it not be one of the things you love 7. Get such a prevailing degree of Generous and pure Love to all that is Good and such a degree of Hatred unto Evil that you may want neither the good word of men to be a spurr to doing Good nor the sharp Reproofs of men to restrain from evil who hateth evil will not need any one should put a colour on it to lessen the apparent evil We are glad that what we hate appears so evil that it justifies our Hatred Get an Antipathy to all that is Vice or looks like it and then you cannot but dislike all that would commend it to your Choice or excuse it to your Judgment Get that frame of Heart David had I hate every false way and then you are safe from this Disease And to make the Cure compleat add that Pure Generous Universal and Divine Love of Good for its own sake that will account it a rich Recompence and Praise enough to have done it There will be little need of mans just Praises where our Love to doing Good is set on it for its own sake there will need none of the undue Praises of any None need praise the Person of Rachel to Jacob he would have scorn'd the Flatteries of any who should have lessen'd her real Loveliness by false Colours How should we disdain the labour and condemn the folly of a Mad-man that would perswade us he could add Loveliness to the light of a Glorious Morning Open your eyes ye Lovers of Virtue look on all her Daughters they are all Glorious if any are Veil'd 't is because you cannot bear the lustre of their Excellency Awake ye dreaming Mortals you 'l see enough in Naked Virtue to fall in Love with it as all would if they saw it according to Plato's Judgment They are weak Stomachs that must be allur'd by superadded Sauces to eat of Good Viands there is no need of them where Food is loved and the Appetite in right order so here when you Love Good for the Goodness that is in it you 'l desire Flatterers to forbear their labour lest they marr what you Love by adding of their own which you hate and suspect When God would put us in a sure way of keeping his Commandements and persevering in a Praise-worthy Life he does direct us to encourage our selves by the large Praises of men but Commands we should Love his Law with all our Heart This will Cure indeed 8 Get and keep that humble frame of Heart which being ever sensible of its present Condition seeth so great Defects in all its Good that it dares not think there is a sufficient ground for any Praise beyond the ordinary laudable temper The Good I would I do not And as to what may be culpable let no mans Flattery pervert your Judgment but humbly acknowledge you better know your own Inclinations than any glozing fawning Hypocrite in the world and so long as you can maintain such a humble sense of your Imperfections your Humility will be your Antidote against the Infection and danger of this Disease The Flies blow when the Sun is warm and gotten high so when we are high in our own Opinions of our selves these Flesh-flies base Colloguers blow us In a cold Season and the Sun i. e. our Opinions low and in the Brumal Solstice when we have colder Thoughts of our own Goodness these Flies are nummed and Impotent c. It is our own Pride that gives these Creatures an Opportunity to hurt us Whilst Alexander M. kept a sense of his humane Original he kept himself from this Disease as Pride grew on him he open'd his Ears to seducing Flatterers and at last fell into the highest Phrensie in the height whereof he dreams of a Divine Original and will be better than a man whilst he is lower than a beast I know no better Prophylactique to keep from nor better Therapeutique to Cure us if tainted than that of Christ if we had done all yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When you have done Good and 't is prais'd Luk. 17.10 remember what Humility would say both of the Praise and the Praiser did the Praiser know you as you know your selves he had never spent
they may have thereby they will give them up to be an easie prey unto the other Designers And there are two Engines that are applied unto this purpose the one is Ignorance the other is Prophaneness or Sensuality of Life Whenever either of these prevails the Experience intended must necessarily be lost and excluded And the means of their prevailing are want of due Instruction by those who are the Leaders of the People and the encouragement of Sensuality by Impunity and great Examples This is the only formidable Conspiracy against the Profession of the Truth in this Nation without whose Aid all power and force will be frustrate in the Issue And as there is a great appearance in Divine Permission of such a state of things at present amongst us so if they be manag'd by Counsel also and that those ways of Ignorance and Sensuality are countenanced and promoted for this very End that the power of Truth being lost the Profession of it may be given up on easie terms there is nothing but Sovereign Grace that can prevent the Design For the Principle which we have laid down is uncontrollable in Reason and Experience namely That the loss of an Experience of the power of Religion will issue one way or other in the loss of the Truth of Religion and the Profession of it Whence is it that so many corrupt Opinions have made such an Inroad on Protestant Religion and the Profession of it Is it not from hence that many have lost an Experience of the power and efficacy of the Truth and so have parted with it Whence is it that Prophaneness and Sensuality of Life with all manner of corrupt Lusts of the Flesh have grown up unto the shame of Profession Is it not from the same Cause as the Apostle expresly declares it comes by 2 Tim. 4 2 3 4 5. One way or other the loss of Experience of the power of Truth will end in the loss of the profession of it But I proceed unto the Instance which I do design in the Church of Rome for the Religion of it at this day is nothing but a dead Image of the Gospel erected in the loss of an experience of its spiritual power overthrowing its Use with all its Ends being suited to the Taste of men carnal ignorant and superstitious This I shall make evident by all sorts of Instances in things relating to the Person and Offices of Christ the State Order and Worship of the Church with the Graces and Duties of Obedience required in the Gospel And in all my principal Design is to demonstrate what is the only way and means of securing our own Souls any Church or Nation from being insnared with or prevailed against by Popery 1. It is a general Notion of Truth that the Lord Christ in his Person and Grace is to be proposed and represented unto men as the principal Object of their Faith and Love He himself in his divine Person is absolutely invisible unto us and as unto his humane Nature absent from us For the Heavens must receive him until the time of the restitution of all things There must therefore an Image or Representation of him be made unto our Minds or he cannot be the proper Object of our Faith Trust Love and Delight This is done in the Gospel and the preaching of it for therein he is evidently set forth before our eyes as crucified amongst us Gal. 3.1 So also are all the other Concerns of his Person and Offices therein clearly proposed unto us yea this is the principal End of the Gospel namely to make a due Representation of the Person Offices Grace and Glory of Christ unto the Souls of men that they may believe in him and believing have eternal Life John 20.31 Upon this Representation made of Christ and his Glory in the Gospel and the Preaching of it Believers have an Experience of the power and efficacy of the divine Truth contained therein in the way before mentioned as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 3.18 For we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Having a Spiritual Light to discern and behold the Glory of Christ as represented in the Glass of the Gospel they have experience of its transfoâ—ming power and efficacy changing them into the likeness of the Image represented unto them that is of Christ himself which is the saving effect of Gospel-power But this Spiritual Light was lost among men through th efficacy of their Darkness and Unbelief they were not able to discover the Glory of Christ as revealed and proposed in the Gospel so as to make him the present Object of their Faith and Love And this Light being lost they could have no experience of the power of Divine Truth concerning him changing them into his Image They could make no affecting discovery of him in the Scripture All things therein were dark and confused or at least seemed an inaccessible Mystery which they could not reduce to practice Hence those who had got the publick conduct of Religion drove the people from Reading the Scripture as that which was of no use but rather dangerous unto them What shall these men then betake themselves unto shall they reject the notion in general that there ought to be such a representation made of Christ unto the minds of men as to inflame their devotion to excite their Faith and stir up their affection to him This cannot be done without an open Renunciation of him and of the Gospel as a Fable Wherefore they will find out another way for it another means unto the same end And this is by making Images of him of wood and stone or Gold and Silver or painting on them Hereby they supposed he would be made present unto his Worshippers That he would be so represented unto them as that they should be immediately stirred up unto the embraces of Faith and Love And herein they found sensible effects unto their great satisfaction For their minds being dark carnal and prone to superstition as are the minds of all men by nature they would see nothing in the Spiritual Representation of him in the Gospel that had any power on them or did in any measure affect them In these Images by the means of sight and imagination they found that which did really work upon their Affections and as they thought did excite them unto the love of Christ And this was the true Original of all the Imagery in the Church of Rome as something of the same nature in general was of all the Image-worship in the World So the Israelites in the wilderness when they made the Golden Calf did it to have a representation of a Deity near unto them in such a visible manner as that their Souls might be affected with it so they expressed themselves Exod 32 1. Wherefore in this State under a loss of
them Many dark Souls are assaulted by the erroneous and told that they are in a wrong way and they must take up some Errour as a necessary Truth and so are cast into perplexing difficulties and perhaps repent of the Truth which they before owned Many fearful Christians are troubled about every Meal that they eat about their Cloaths their Thoughts and Words thinking or fearing that all is sinful which is lawful and that unavoidable infirmities are heinous sins All such as these are Troubles and Sorrows without Cause and therefore overmuch 2. Sorrow is overmuch when it hurteth and overwhelmeth Nature it self and destroyeth bodily Health or Understanding Grace is the due qualification of Nature and Duty is the right employment of it but neither of them must destroy it As Civil and Ecclesiastick and Domestick Government are for edification and not for destruction so also is personal self-government God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and he that would not have us kill or hurt our Neighbour on pretence of Religion would not have us destroy or hurt our selves being bound to love our Neighbour but as our selves As Fasting is a Duty no further than it tendeth to some good as to express or exercise true humiliation or to mortifie some fleshly Lust c. so is it with sorrow for sin it is too much when it doth more hurt than good But of this next II. When Sorrow swalloweth up the Sinner it is overmuch and to be restrained As 1. The Passions of Grief and Trouble of mind do oft overthrow the sober and sound use of Reason so that a mans Judgment is corrupted and perverted by it and is not in that case to be trusted As a man in raging Anger so one in fear or great trouble of mind thinks not of things as they are but as his Passion represents them about God and Religion and about his own Soul and his Actions or about his Friends or Enemies his Judgment is perverted and usually false and like an enflamed Eye thinks all things of the colour which is like it self When it perverteth Reason it is overmuch 2. Overmuch Sorrow disableth a man to govern his Thoughts and ungoverned Thoughts must needs be both sinful and very troublesom Grief carrieth them away as in a Torrent you may almost as easily keep the Leavs of Trees in quietness and order in a blustring Wind as the Thoughts of one in troubling Passions If Reason would stop them from perplexing Subjects or turn them to better and sweeter things it cannot do it it hath no power against the stream of troubling Passions 3. Overmuch Sorrow would swallow up Faith it self and greatly hindereth its Exercise They are Matters of unspeakable Joy which the Gospel calleth us to believe and it is wonderful hard for a grieved troubled Soul to believe any thing that is matter of Joy much less of so great Joy as Pardon and Salvation are Though it dare not flatly give God the Lie it hardly believes his free and full Promises and the expressions of his readiness to receive all penitent returning Sinners Passionate Grief serveth to feel somewhat contrary to the Grace and Promises of the Gospel and that feeling hinders Faith 4. Over much Sorrow yet more hindreth Hope when men think that they do believe Gods Word and that his Promises are all true to others yet cannot they Hope for the promised Blessings to themselves Hope is that Grace by which a Soul that believeth the Gospel to be true doth comfortably expect that the benefits promised shall be its own it s an applying Act. The first act of Faith saith the Gospel is true which promiseth Grace and Glory through Christ The next act of Faith saith I will trust my Soul and all upon it and take Christ for my Saviour and Help And then Hope saith I hope for this Salvation by him But Melancholly overwhelming Sorrow and Trouble is as great an Adversary to this Hope as water is to fire or snow to heat Despair is its very pulse and breath Fain such would have hope but they cannot All their thoughts are suspitious and misgiving and they can see nothing but danger and misery and a helpless state And when Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul is gone what wonder if they be continually tost with storms 5. Over much sorrow swalloweth up all comfortable Sense of the Infinite Goodness and Love of God and thereby hindereth the Soul from Loving Him And in this it is an Adversary to the very Life of Holiness It is exceeding hard for such a troubled Soul to apprehend the Goodness of God at all but much harder to judg that he is good and amiable to him But as a man that in the Desarts of Lybia is scorched with the violent heats of the Sun and is ready to dyâ— with draught and faintness may confess that the Sun is the Life of the Earth and a Blessing to mankind but it is misery and death to him even so these Souls overwhelmed with Grief may say that God is good to others but he seems an Enemy to them and to seek their destruction They think he hateth them and hath forsaken them and how can they love such a God who they think doth hate them and resolve to damn them and hath decreed them to it from Eternity and brought them into the world for no other end They that can hardly love an Enemy that doth but defame them or oppress and wrong them will more hardly love a God that they believe will damn them and hath remedilesly appointed them thereto 6. And then it must needs follow that this distemper is a false and injurious Judg of all the Word and Works of God and of all his mercies and corrections Whatever such a one reads or hears he thinks it all makes against him every sad Word and Threatning in Scripture he thinks meaneth him as if it named him But the Promises and Comforts he hath no part in as if he had been by name excepted All Gods mercies are extenuated and taken for no mercies as if God intended them all but to make his sin the greater and to encrease his heavy reckoning and further his damnation He thinks God doth but sugar over poison to him and give him all in Hatred and not in any Love with a design to sink him the deeper in Hell And if God correct him he supposeth that it is but the beginning of his misery and God doth torment him before the time 7. And by this you see that it is an Enemy to Thankfulness it rather reproacheth God for his Mercies as if they were Injuries than giveth him any hearty thanks 8. And by this you may see that this distemper is quite contrary to the Joy in the Holy Ghost yea and the Peace in which Gods Kingdom much consisteth Nothing seemeth Joyful unto such distressed Souls Delighting in God and in his Word and Ways is the flowâ—r and life of true Religion But
and comfortable day They are arrayed with the robe of righteousness and garment of Salvation which adorn them more than garments of wrought gold Christ leads them into his Banquetting-House and there spreads over them the banner of his love which affords the surest protection and the sweetest shade Who but themselves are able to tell or conceive what unspeakable and glorious joy they have what triumphs and exultings of Soul when their best beloved Jesus kisseth them with the kisses of his lips and by his own Spirit witnesseth with theirs that they are the Children of God and with his most ravishing consolations doth delight their Souls what are mines of gold and rocks of Diamonds what are Lordships and mannors what are Crowns and Scepters what Kingdoms and Empires to one drachme of grace one smile from Heaven one whisper of divine love one embrace of a Saviour Cursed said noble Galeacius be that man who counteth all the world worth one hours communion with Jesus Christ and if one hour of Communion be so precious what O what is a life of Communion But then stay till the winding up of the bottom till that last and great day shall dawn in which there will be a revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and of the marvellous goodness of God wherein the wicked shall be stript of all their honour and power of all their riches and pleasures and turned into Hell for the wrath of God and the worm of Conscience eternally to feed upon them And those who have believingly closed with Christ and bowed to his Scepter and walked closely with God and studied the power of godliness and strictness of Religion shall enter into peace and be cloathed with glory and sit upon Thrones possessed of a fulness of joy and sporting themselves in Rivers of pleasure under the brightest and warmest beams of divine love and in the most endearing embraces of the Lord Jesus and in the plenarie uninterrupted enjoyment of those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man without any disquieting apprehensions or fears of being ejected out of that possession or disturbed in it Then all the world the most stupid and unteachable part of it will be throughly convinced that there is a reward for the righteous a God that Judgeth in the Earth and that true godliness is profitable for all things both for the life that now is and for that which is to come and that however things go now yet it was not in vain to serve God And therefore in the mean time though Clouds and darkness are round about the Throne yet let us rejoyce in the firm belief of what the Prophet tells us Psalm 145 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works The last thing promised for the proof of the point that Gods governing the world may well support us in the midst of all distractions is to present to your consideration several things more particularly relating to the Church and People of this God And they are these 1. The nearness dearness and intimacy of that relation in which the Church and Saints stand to God What may not the wife and children of a loving and mighty King promise themselves from his government Certainly they may well be assured so long as he keeps his Throne and hath power in his hand they shall want neither defence nor comfort The Church is Gods Vineyard and will he not water it and keep it every moment lest any hurt it She is the Spouse of Christ and will he not be tender over her and kind to her He is a Father to his people and will he not look after them and afford them maintenance and necessary supplies He is more than a Mother to them and will he not draw out his breasts of consolation that they may suck and be satisfied milk out and be delighted Doubtless they may believingly expect all good from him all kindness all comforts from him who hath been graciously pleased to put himself into all relations unto them In the 23. Psal v. 1. holy David looked with an eye of Faith but to one Relation in which God stood to him the Lord is my Shepherd and from thence he saw sufficient encouragement to conclude that he should not want What mayest thou then O believer argue from all Gods relations He is my God my King my Master my Father my Husband therefore surely I shall not want He is a Sun and Shield a Sun for comfort and a Shield for security In his beams then his children shall rejoyce and in his shadow shall they sit safely and no good thing shall he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Jerusalem is the City of the great King and if she be Gods City God will be her security Never fear that O Saints for he is known famously known in her Palaces for a refuge 2. The special interest which God hath in his Church and People they are his Portion and Inheritance And no one will if he can help it lose his portion Naâ—oth would not part with his Inheritance upon any termes neither fell nor change it much less will Christ with his who is so greatly taken with it as to count the lines fallen to him in a pleasant place and that he hath a goodly heritage His people are his Jewels and will he suffer them to be lost They are his Treasure and what shall his enemies rob him of that no no where his treasure is there his heart is also and where his heart is there shall his eye be watching and his hand of power shall be stretched out and his wings of protection shall be spread abroad and Salvation it self shall be for Walls and Bulwarks The interest which God hath in all the world is not comparable to that interest which God hath in the Church The rest are but his Slaves these are his Children the rest are but the rude wilderness the Devils waste these are his Gardens inclosed In others he sees his power but in these his Image and his Son Others are the work of his hands but these are the Workmanship of his Spirit 3. That most endearing and entire affection which he beareth unto his Church and People As be stands in all relations to them so he hath all affections for them You that understand what love is do feel within your selves what a noble active liberal principle it is and what a mighty power and vigour there is in it Now there is no love in the world comparable to the love of God He hath a flame to our spark an Ocean to our drop The dearest of Gods love is placed upon Christ and in and for Christs sake the same love is placed upon the Church and people of Christ thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me And what will not such love do it will awaken care and call forth power and engage wisdom and open the
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
inclination can never be directed and the desires fastned on the supernatural Image of God in his Saints As Holiness in the Creature is a Ray derived from the infinite beauty of God's Holiness so the love of Holiness is a Spark from the sacred Fire of his Love 1 John 4.7 St. John exhorts Christians Let us love one another for Love is of God Natural Love among men is by his general Providence but a gracious Love to the Saints is by his special influence The natural Affection must be baptized with the Holy Ghost as with Fire to refine it to a divine purity 2. The Qualifications of this Love are as follows First It is sincere and cordial it does not appear only in expressions from the Tongue and Countenance but springs from the integrity of the Heart 'T is stiled unfeigned Lâ—â—â— of the Brethren 't is a Love not in Word and Tongue only but in Deed and Truth A counterfeit formal affection set off with artificial colours is so far from being pleasing to God the Searcher and Judge of hearts that 't is infinitely provoking to him Secondly 'T is pure the attractive Cause of it is the Image of God appearing in them Our Saviour assures us that Love shall be gloriously rewarded that respects a Disciple upon that account as a Disciple and a righteous man as a righteous man The holy Love commanded in the Gospel is to Christians for their Divine Relation as the Children of God as the Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost Thirdly From hence it is universal extended to all the Saints The Church is composed of Christians that are different in their Gifts and Graces and in their external Order some excel in knowledge and zeal and love in active Graces others in humility meekness and patience that sustain and adorn them in sufferings some are in a higher rank others are in humble circumstances as in the visible world things are placed sutably to their Natures the Stars in the Heavens Flowers in the Earth and our special respects are due to those whom the Favour of God has dignified above others and in whom the brightness and power of Grace shines more clearly for according as there are more reasons that make a person deserving Love the degrees of Love should rise in proportion but a dear affection is due even to the lowest Saints for all have communion in the same holy Nature and are equally instated in the same blessed Alliance Fourthly It must be fervent not only in Truth but in a degree of Eminency St. Peter joyns the two Qualifications See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Our Saviour sets before us his own Pattern as a Pillar of fire to direct and inflame us Joh. 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you As I have loved you Admirable Example His Love was singular and superlative a Love that saves and astonishes us at once for he willingly gave his precious life for our Ransom This we should endeavour to resemble though our highest expressions of love and compassion to the Saints are but a weak and imperfect imitation of his divine Perfection I shall add farther this Love includes all kinds of Love 1. The love of Esteem correspondent to the real worth and special goodness of the Saints 'T is one Character of a Citizen of Heaven that in his eyes a vile person is contemned Psal 15. however set off by the Glory of the world and the ornaments of the present state that as a false Mask conceal their foul deformity to carnal persons but he honours them that fear the Lord though disfigured by calumnies though obscur'd and depress'd by afflictions and made like their blessed Head in whom there was no Form nor Comliness in the judgment of Fools In our valuation Divine Grace should turn the Scales against all the Natural or Acquired Perfections of Body or Mind Beauty Strength Wit Eloquence humane Wisdom against all the external Advantages of this Life Nobility Riches Power and whatever is admired by a carnal Eye The Judgment and Love of God should regulate ours A Saint is more valued by God than the highest Princes nay than the Angels themselves considered only with respect to their spiritual Nature He calls them his peculiar Treasure his Jewels the first Fruits of the Creatures sacred for his Use and Glory in comparison of whom the rest of the world are but Dregs a corrupt Mass They are stiled his Sons being partakers of that Life of which he is the Author and Pattern and what are all the Titles on Earth compared with so Divine a Dignity 2. The Love of Desire of their present and future Happiness The Perfection of Love consists more in the Desire than in the Effects and the continued fervent Prayers that the Saints present to God for one another are the expressions of their Love 3. The Love of Delight in spiritual Communion with them All the Attractives of humane Conversation Wit Mirth Sweetness of Behaviour and wise Discourse cannot make any Society so dear and pleasant to one that is a lover of Holiness as the Communion of Saints David whose Breast was very sensible of the tender Affections of Love and Joy tells us That the Saints in the Earth the Excellent Psaâ— 16. â— were the chief Object of his Delight And â—â—equent to this there is a cordial Sympathy with them in their Joys and Sorrows being Members of the same Body and having an interest in all their good or evil 'T is observable when the Holy Spirit describes the sweetest humane Comforts that are the present reward of the godly man the enjoyment of his Estate in the dear Society of his Wife and Children there is a Promise annext Psal 128. that sweetens all the rest That he shall see the good of Jerusalem and peace upon Israel Without this all temporal Comforts are mixt with bitter displeasure to him There is an eminent Instance of this in Nehemiah Nehem. 2. whom all the Pleasures of the Persian Court could not satisfie whilst Jerusalem was desolately miserable 4. The Love of Service and Beneficence that declares it self in all outward Offices and Acts for the good of the Saints And these are various some are of a sublimer nature and concern their Souls as spiritual Counsel and Instruction compassionate Admonition and Consolation the confirming them in good and the fortifying them against evil the doing whatever may preserve and advance the life and vigour of the inward man others respect their Bodies and temporal Condition directing them in their Affairs protecting them from Injuries supplying their wants and universally assisting them for their tolerable passage through the world And all these Acts are to be chearfully performed there is more joy in conferring than receiving a Benefit because Love is more exercised in the one than the other In short the highest effect of Love that
prevent and cure Spiritual Pride SERMON XVI 2. COR. XII VII And least I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations there was given me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me least I should be exalted above measure THE case that calls for resolution and falls under our present consideration is what we must do to prevent and cure spiritual pride Pride is said to be Spiritual in a double respect 1. In respect of its Object when that is something which is spiritual as gifts graces priviledges c. for it may be differenc't from fleshly pride which is conversant about more carnal objects as strength beauty riches honours or the like 2. In respect of its Subject which is the heart or spirit of man there is its proper Seat And so all pride whatsoever be the object of it may be said to be spiritual To prevent and cure are terms that may be thus differenc't the former respects more especially the actings of pride the latter the habit of it in the heart Pride is an evil and a sore disease some call it the tumor or timpany of the Soul it is dangerous to all it is deadly to some The scope of this discourse is to prescribe proper remedies against it Mâ—rc 1 23. and 5 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is a man acted or agitated by a Diabolical Spirit These words of the Apostle Paul are the fundation upon which I shall build He speaks a little before of a man in Christ that had a wonderful Viâ—ion or revelation from God Bâ— a man in Christ he means either a man united to him or else a man that was extraordinarily acted and transported by him Some expound it by that passage in Revel 1 10. where the Apostle John says he was in the Spirit on the Lords Day That is he was extraordinarily acted and transported by the Spirit Farther by this man in Christ the Apostle means himself because he is speaking of his own priviledges and enjoyments he chuseth to speak in the person of another A good man is always backward to speak any thing in his own praise he knows it savours of pride and folly that it should come out of another mans lips and not his own therefore he never doth it but when 't is necessary for the hand of God and the vindication of his truth And as he is always backward to it for he is ever modest and self-denying in it therefore the Apostle speaks of another Person when he means himself I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago Some think the Apostle had this rapture or revelation he here speaks of at the time of his first conversion then he lay 3 days and 3 nights in a kind of extasy and did neither eat nor drink Several at their first conversion to God have found such raptures and ravishments as they have had cause to remember all their life after and such as they have not experienc't again during the whole course of their lives Others for the good reasons to long here to insert are of opinion that the time of this revelation was after his conversion yea several Years after it During the time of this extraordinary Vision or revelation he was caught up to the third Heaven for he calls it as some think with respect to the Heavens under it The air in which we breath is the first therefore the Fowls of the air are call'd thâ— Fowls of Heaven the Starry Firmament is the second and the place of the Holy Angels and Glorify'd Spirits is the third Others don't like this distribution of the Heavens and indeed we can speak of them but conjecturally This third Heaven which the Apostle was caught up to he calls Paradice v. 4. for he doth not speak of two raptures but of one and the same only he doubles it to shew the certainty of it Heaven is elsewhere in Scripture call'd Paradice in allusion to that excellent and diligent Garden that Adam was put into before his Fall Our Saviour said to the repenting thief thou shalt be with me in Paradice The way and manner of this rapture he possesseth himself to be ignorant off Hence he says it that whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell That is whether he was caught up Soul and Body together or in Soul only The Soul is not so ty'd to the body but that for a season it may be separated from it and afterwards return again to it While he was in this condition he heard unspeakable words such as he neither could nor might utter it was not lawful for him possibly he was forbidden God saw not all that meet to be communicated to a world of Sinners which was allured and indulged to this one eminent Saint This divine rapture or revelation was like to be an occasion of self Exaltation to the Apostle he was in danger of being exalted above measure by means thereof This he mentions twice that it might be the better minded It is the nature of pride as it is of Fire to turn all things into fewel to feed its self The holyest Saint on Earth is not secure from spiritual pride if one should come down from the third Heaven and bring this imperfect nature with him he were still in danger of this Sin To prevent this Sin in the Apostle least he should be exalted in himself as he had been exalted by God there was given him a thorn in the Flesh this prick't the bladder of pride and kept him from being trust up through the abundance of revelations By whom was this given him By God himself it was by his wise ordination or permission The love of God to his People is wonderfully seen in his preventing mercies particularly in his preventing their falling into Sins as here by putting a thorn into Pauls Flesh he prevents the pride of his heart This is thâ—â— mercy for which David prays and for which he also prayseth God T is as great a mercy to prevent our committing of Sin as it is to pardon it when it is committed But what was this thorn in the Flesh which was given the Apostle to prevent spiritual pride and self exaltation Various are the conjectures of Interpreters about it The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but this once used in all the New Testament it signifies a sharp stake upon which malefactors of old were fastned when executed As also a pricking thorn that runs into a mans flesh or foot as he goes through woods and thickets Some think that this thorn in the flesh was a fleshly lust some evil concupiscence that the Apostle felt to be active or stirring in him Others think that we are thereby to understand some sore temptation of Satan a blasphemous or Atheistical suggestion or injection this is a pinching thorn indeed and hath made many of the Souls of Gods People to bleed Others understand it
But he giveth more grace James 4.5 6. Yet seeing Grace is imperfect in the best of Men on Earth it behoveth them to take heed lest they be overcome of evil Grace so far as they have it makes them strong but the remainders of Corruption makes them weak I have heard that it hath been said of an eminently holy man That he had Grace enough for two men yet upon some occasions he was found not to have enough for himself 4. He that takes not good heed so as not to be overcome of evil will be altogether unable to overcome evil with good How can he overcome evil in another that is overcome by it himself How wilt thou say to thy brother Mat. 7.4 Let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own But that we have a farther duty lying upon us than not to be overcome of evil comes in the next place to be shewn in speaking to the second Branch of the Point which is 2. Bran. Every Christian ought to endeavour what in him lieth to overcome evil with good This Lesson was not much taught in old time Our Saviour tells us the Scribes and Pharisees were wont to teach the contrary Mat. 5.43 It hath been said Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy For which and other such Doctrines as they taught he calls them blind leaders of the blind Mat. 15.14 The like darkness had blinded the eyes of the old Philosophers for the most part Some of them indeed as Plato and Seneca have excellent Precepts tending toward the Point in hand but these may be thought to light their Candle at their Neighbours Torch Vide Gatak destylo N. Instrum cap. 44. Plato was much conversant in and well acquainted with the Writings of the Church of the Jews and Seneca lived in the days of Paul and 't is probable was acquainted with him or with his Doctrine and so might come to a more refined Morality But these remaining still in unbelief as to the great Doctrines of Faith in Jesus Christ could not see themselves nor shew to others the true ground of love or the great motives to it It was Jesus Christ who came to reconcile us when enemies and died for the ungodly and did with his own mouth preach his own and his Fathers love therein that brought to light such Precepts as these Love your enemies and overcome evil with good Not that these were new Commandments brought first into the world when God was manifest in the flesh No they were old Commandments Thus we read Lev. 19.18 Thou shalt not avenge or bear any grudg against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And John speaking of love says 1 John 2.7 I write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning tho in the next verse he calls it a new Commandment it being renewed by Christ who may be said to set forth a new Edition of it amplified and enlarged A new commandment John 13.34 says he I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you which is such an as as no tongue is able fully to express In speaking to the Point we shall shew 1. That every Christian ought to endeavour to overcome evil with good 2. What good means should be used to that purpose 3. How they should be used that they may be the more effectual to that end 1. That we are to endeavour to overcome evil with good doth appear by this We are called to be followers of God Eph. 5.1 and to be of the mind of Christ and to follow his steps Phil. 2.5 and 1 Pet. 2.21 As every godly man is in some measure like unto God and every true Christian of Christ's mind and way so he is to endeavour still to be more like to both Otherwise to profess Godliness and Christianity is to take the Name of God and Christ in vain The Name which God proclaimed as his Exod. 34.6 was The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth These are Attributes which God delights to magnifie He glories in this Jer. 9.24 I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness How often is it said of him Nehem. 9.17 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 Gen. 6.5 That he is slow to anger and of great kindness God did wonderfully exercise these his Attributes toward the old World When the wickedness of man was great on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually how slow to anger was he then He did not presently send the Deluge but his long-suffering is said to wait while the Ark was a preparing 1 Pet. 3.20 And this time of waiting was no less than One hundred and twenty years Gen. 6.3 His loving-kindness appeared also in that he sent Noah who preached righteousness and called them all this while to repentance 2 Pet. 2.5 The like long-suffering and great kindness he exercised toward the people of the Jews from Egypt the House of Bondage from whence he delivered them to Canaan and in that good Land which he so freely gave them too They were no sooner brought miraculously through the Red Sea but they began to provoke and not long after you may hear God complaining of them Numb 14.11 How long will this people provoke me and ver 22. he says They have tempted me now these ten times Nor were they better after this for he was then grieved with them forty years long Psal 95.10 After the same rate they carried it when they came into Canaan as you may see by reading the Historical Books of the Old Testament You have a short sum of the Kindnesses of God to them and their great Miscarriages in the 9th Chap. of Nehem. Nehem. 9.26 30 31. where you will find one yet after another and one nevertheless after another God was good to them nevertheless they sin and provoke They sin and provoke nevertheless God is good to them The greatness of their sin and God's great goodness to them are both set forth in Isa 65.2 I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people a people that provoke me to anger continually to my face Their sin is here called Rebellion which was not only once or twice but continually and that to his very face And the goodness of God to them is set out by the spreading out of his hands which shewed great desire of their coming in and a readiness to embrace them in so doing and this is said to be not once or twice but all the day That this Scripture is to be understood of the Jews we have the Apostles Warrant Rom. 10.21 To Israel he saith All the day long have I stretched out my hand to a disobedient and gain-saying people Thus matters stood between God and them all the days of old Isa 63.9
of the Papists would carry it to advance the Merit of good works if the bearing yea and religious bringing up of children were the cause and means by which Women should be saved what would become of those pious Virgins yea Wives and Widows who have either prov'd barren or through some other defect have brought forth no children It would follow according to this supposition That they would be excluded salvation which yet could not be consistent with what their great School-man * Aquin. sum Theol. 2da 2ae Q. 152.4 asserts in celebrating the praises of Virginity which he extols above Matrimony tho elsewhere he concludes Matrimony to be meritorious and in his Comment on the Text saith Virginitas est excellentior Matrimonio Suppl Q. 41. A. 4. Actus matrimonialis semper â—â—ritorius The Woman shall be saved altho she go by generation i. e. if she marry and be not a Virgin Whereupon he adds This by implying a Repugnancy imports the augmentation of Salvation q. d. by the generation of Children for the Word of God she shall rather or be more saved But be sure however it be difficult to reconcile the Popish Authors with themselves all that come to Heaven are truly of Gods meer grace meritoriously saved by Christ In whom there is no distinction of Sex or condition but all believers male or female are one in him o Gal. 3.28 Col. 3.11 through whom there is no difference of married or unmarried as to justification and Salvation Some in deed learned Protestants * D. N. Knatchbull follow'd by Dr. Hammond do interpret by with relation to Child-bearing as if the Apostle did mean by the bearing or generation of a son the child born i. e. the seed of the woman namely Jesus ‡ Luke 1.35 Gen. 3.15 who should bruise the Serpents head by whom alone Adam and Eve and their posterity should be sav'd if they continue in Faith c. And so to pass by what some of the Ancients ‖ Origen in Mat. Rom. August de Tim. l 12. c. 7 c have written allegorically and less solidly upon the word Theophylact reports some to have understood it of the Virgin Mary whom he would not have it restrained to but rejects that Exposition However some Papists * Tirinus c. would have it understood of her whom they worship ‡ Clarus Bonarscius al. Scribanius as sinless contrary to Scripture and right Reason For then the comfort from this Scripture would have been appropriated to the Virgin Mary and to no other woman But the Apostle speaks in this verse of that which is future and not past as he had constantly done in the forgoing verses which will evince also that the above said Protestants do not fully reach the sense of Paul here when they interpret it of the womans bearing the seed that had been promised and which was the mean foretold and fulfilled for bruising the Serpents head and so for rescuing the woman from that eternal punishment which was justly deserved by her sin However rhey imagine they have a colour for their Opinion from the Context viz. Ver. 12. The woman i. e. Eve being deceived was first guilty of eating the Forbidden Fruit but was rescued from the punishment by the promised seed i. e. by the Messiah born of her to redeem that Nature he assum'd yet not absolutely but on condition of Faith c. and continuing in all these So the advantage should not only accrue to Eve her self but to all her posterity It must be granted as an undoubted truth that Christ is the seed of the Woman meant in the first promise the Son tho not immediately of Eve the Mother of all men o Gen. 3.16.20 he is the Saviour by whom alone salvation to eternal glory is attainable Yet to restrain this child-bearing in my Text only to the bearing of Christ as it is more Novel so it seems too narrow to reach the Apostles meaning sith as one p Zanch. Tom. 3. l. 4. p. 727. notes this state is best accommodated to every faithful Woman as well as Eve and the blessed Virgin continuing constant in the exercise of Faith and Love of Christ to promote her own salvation as anon we shall see the Plural in the next clause doth import and that we may clearly understand the Apostle doth here speak of conjugal conversation he doth expresly name child-bearing not signifying the child born but the act of bearing children as 't is used elsewhere in this very Epistle p 1 Tim. 5.14 and also in prophane Authors ‖ Hippocrat in Epist ad Demag Xenophon 2. There be who render this Particle for as noting the final cause * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter Episcopius Scharpius Finis servatae mulieris Wherefore she shall be saved unto this end namely that she may procreate and bear children and consequently if she continue in the holy Exercises following in my Text she shall be eternally sav'd But this conceit so far as I apprehend wants a sufficient ground for the use of this Particle elsewhere in the New Testament in such a contexture with a Genitive case And the Apostle cannot here be easily understood of the end wherefore the woman is sav'd sith he makes salvation it self the end and speaks here of the Graces with which Christian Women are qualified and their Exercises to which they are engaged as incumbent on them to the attaining of that great end which is with a non obstante or notwithstanding oppos'd to the sad consequent of that deception which the woman was first guilty of and so brought her self and posterity to be obnoxious to As for Hensius * In locum his conjecture that child-bearing here notes marriage which he saith for the scarcity of the Greek he would have so called from the principal end of it child-bearing 't is a meer fancy without probable ground being the Apostle useth the same compound word in this Epistle verbally as diverse from marriage tho no doubt bearing and bringing up of children is a very proper and signal Office of a married woman 3. Some would have it rendred from as noting the term from which out of or through which the escape or deliverance is made as 't is said of those in the Ark they were saved from the Deluge out of or through the waters q 1 Pet. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we in our Translation read by the waters and elsewhere r 1 Cor 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be sav'd so as by fire i. e. as those from or out of the fire connoting the difficulty of escaping and not being consumed q. d. She shall pass safe from or out of child-bearing and be delivered as a fire-brand out of the burning s Amos 4.11 Yet as a learned man * Dr. Hammond thinks this doth not fully reach the Apostles meaning here because that which
the Divine Nature and Person of Christ which being infinite an answerable value and excellency is derived upon this Prayer So that though it be but finite in it self as it is the proper Act of a finite Being yet it is of infinite excellency and value relatively and so far of infinite efficacy Let us suppose that all the Angels and Saints in Heaven and Earth should agree to prostrate themselves before God and joyn together in one Prayer for us and that influenced with all the Holiness inforced with all the fervour and importunity that those Heavenly Spirits and Holy Souls are capable of we would conclude such a Prayer would be undoubtedly prevalent and yet we may believe upon unquestionable grounds that this one Prayer of our Blessed Redeemer is incomparably yea infinitely more prevalent and effectual In short this Prayer is nothing else but the Will and desires of him who is God offered in manner of a Supplication and there can be no question but that Will and those Desires shall be fulfilled to the utmost 3. This Prayer was founded on merit He prayed for nothing but what he was worthy to obtain sought nothing on our behalf but what he did purchase for us and deserve of his Father He might present this Supplication for his own righteousness as the best of his people could not durst not do Dan. 9.19 he might expect to obtain what he asked from the hand of Justice not as we only from meer bounty and free mercy Christ's obedience unto Death it was meritorious and did deserve for his people all that he prayed for All the ingredients of strict and proper merit concur in the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ as I might shew particularly but that I hasten they were of equal worth with the recompence which he prays for in the behalf of his people he thereby fully satisfyed the demands both of Law and Justice and though it was the Life and Pardon and Happiness of a World of condemned Persons that he prays for yet his Obedience and Blood is of more worth than all these for they are of infinite value being the Obedience and Blood of him who was God So that Christs Obedience Active and Passive is meritorious not only ratione pacti by reason of the agreement betwixt the Father and Him he having performed all the Conditions required in order to our Redemption but ratione pretii by virtue of the intrinsick value of what he paid and performed Now to use the Apostles expression Rom. 4. to him that thus worketh the reward is reckoned not of Grace but of Debt It is Grace to us but 't is Debt to Christ and so the plea on our behalf being for a just Debt it cannot but be most effectual with the righteous God 4. It is the Prayer of him for whose sake all other Prayers were heard We have direction if we would have our Prayers not fail of success to present them in the Name of Christ i. e. to beg what we desire for his sake and he gives assurance that what we so pray for in his name or for his sake shall be granted Joh. 16.23 and 15.16 and 14.13 14. Now if the Prayers of his people will prevail for his sake there can be no question but his own Prayer will be prevalent all our Prayers are accepted through him upon his account nor can they be acceptable otherwise 1 Pet. 2.5 There is that corruption in our Natures which depraves and vitiates our Spiritual Sacrifices our Prayers particularly there is more or less of a sinful tincture in them they cannot be well-pleasing to that Holy of God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity till they be purged and the guilt expiated nothing is sufficient for expiation but the great Propitiatory Sacrifice by virtue whereof this guilt is expiated and we are said to be Sanctifyed in a Sacrificial Sense that is purged from guilt Heb. 10.10 Thus himself purged our sins Heb. 1.3 and thereby that which was occasion of Offence to God being removed our Prayers became acceptable through Jesus Christ in this sense he saith ver 19. and for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also may be sanctified I sanctifie that is I offer my self an expiatory Sacrifice that they may be truly sanctifyed that is freed from guilt and so render'd well-pleasing and acceptable Now the Prayers of others being acceptable through the Mediation of Christ the Prayers of the great Mediator himself will undoubtedly be most acceptable most prevalent 3. As to the Persons prayed for they are such as on whom the Father is no less willing to bestow what is here desired than Christ was to seek them on their behalf This appears by several Expressions in this Chapter First They belonged to the Father in a special manner Thine they were ver 6. and thine they are ver 9. They were his in design and purpose before the Foundation of the World chosen Vessels set apart for him as his own peculiarly 2 Tim. 2.19 And his Actually by Effectual Calling they resigning up themselves unto him and he taking possession of them as his own ver 8. and Rom. 9.24 25. Now to whom is the Lord willing to grant these favours if not to those who are so much his own Secondly Those whom he prayes for are given to him as is many times expressed ver 2 6 9 11 12 24. and given to him that he might redeem and save them or as it is expressed ver 2. that he should give eternal Life unto them this comprizes all that he prays for on their behalf and that is the end why they are given him now the Father is as willing to promote his own end and design as the Son and so no less willing to grant what is desired in order thereto than the great Intercessour was to pray for them Thirdly Those for whom he prays are such as the Father loves with a transcendent a wonderful love ver 23. and hast loved them as thou hast loved me not with the same love which the Father hath for the Son nor with a love equal to it but a love so great as comes nearest to it of all others A greater love than any Creatures Men or Angels have for them or for one another a far greater love than he hath for any other Creatures in this World A demonstrative instance hereof we have in that he gave his Son for them which was the greatest expression of love that ever the World saw or heard of and greater than could ever have been believed if truth it self had not declared it that he should send his Son to reside on Earth not gloriously like himself but to take the form of a Servant and live as a man of sorrows and sufferings and die as a Sacrifice under the Sin and Curse of those for whom he was offered oh what manner of love was this Now as the Apostle argues Rom. 8.32 He that spared 〈◊〉 his
and unwise to endure so much and lose so much and say they have been losers by obeying God and by their holy walking for there is no happiness after Death to be hoped for wherefore I do repent that I did not take my pleasures while I might but did you ever here a serious godly man when dying utter such words But on the contrary on their dying beds do grieve and groan mourn and lament that they have been no more holy and obedient and in suffering times if they had Gold as Dust they would count it all as Dross and if they had a thousand lives they would lose them all to keep in the favour of God and to gain the Crown of Everlasting Life 4. Then would the Floodgates of sin and profaneness be plucked up to let in an Inundation of all manner of gross abominations for if men will not be afrighted from their sin with all the threatnings of the sorest pains of Hell nor allured to leave them with all the promises of the sweetest pleasures of Heaven if they were sure there were no torments of Hell to be adjudged to nor Glory in Heaven to be rewarded by they would run with greater greediness to the commission of the worst of sins that the Devil should tempt them or their wicked hearts incline them to Quest 2. How should we Eye Eternity or look at unseen Eternal things They are said to be unseen as they are not the objects of our external sense for in this sense they are not to be seen but we must look at Eternal things that are unseen with an Eye that also is unseen and the several things denoted by the Eyes in Scripture will give some light to see with what Eyes we must look at unseen Eternal things viz. with an Eye of Knowledge Faith Love Desire Hope Our looking at Eternal things comprehends these acts of the Soul 1. It includes a sure and certain Knowledge of them as things not understood are said to be hid from our Eyes so what we know we are said to see Eccles 2.3 I sought in my heart-till I might see what was that good for the Sons of men taking away of Knowledge is called the putting out of the Eyes Numb 16.14 and the inlightening the Mind the opening of the Eyes Acts 26.18 and Looking is put for certain Knowing Job 13.27 1 Pet. 1.12 and expressed by Seeing Act. 7.34 so that the Looking at and Eying of Eternal things with the Eyes of the Understanding includes 1. The bending of the mind to study them as when a man would look at any Object he bends his Head and turns his Eyes that way 2. The binding of the mind to them as a man when he looks earnestly at any thing fixeth his Eye upon it 3. The Exercise of the mind thus bent and bound to Eternal things that it is often thinking on the unseen Eternal God Christ Heaven and the Life to come 2. This Looking is by an Eye of Faith Looking is believing Numb 21.8 Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live The Object and the Act are both expounded by Christ John 3.14 As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life 3. This Looking is with an Eye of Love Though in Philosophy the Affections as well as the Will are blind Powers yet in Divinity the Eyes are put for the Affections Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not and the Eye of the Lord denotes his Love Psal 33.18 and Believers that love the coming of the unseen Saviour 1 Tim. 4.8 are said to look for it Phil. 3.20 ubi amor ibi oculus We love to look at what we love 4. This Looking is with an Eye of Desire which is exprest by the Eye Numb 15.39 That ye seek not after your own Heart and your own Eyes 1 King 20.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing desirable in thine eyes Job 31.16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire or have caused the eyes of the Widow to fail The Eye is an Index of the desires of the Heart 5. This Looking is with an Eye of Hope The Eye is put for Hope Job 11.20 Lam. 4.17 2 Chro. 20.12 Psal 145.15 and 25.15 and things not seen are looked for by Hope Rom. 8.24 25. and things hoped for are the Objects of our Looking Tit. 2.13 Looking for the blessed Hope In short the sum is as if it had been said While we have a certain knowledge of unseen Eternal things a firm belief of them fervent love unto them ardent desires after them lively hope and patient expectation of them we faint not in all our tribulations Having opened the Eyes with which we are to look at Eternal things I proceed to the manner of our Looking There is a Looking unto them Psal 34.5 Mic. 7.7 There is a Looking into them by studying the Nature of them to know more of the reality necessity and dignity of them 1 Pet. 1.12 Which things the Angels desire to look into If Angels do Men should There is a looking for them either as we look for things that we have lost look till we find as the Man for his lost Sheep or the Woman for her lost Silver Luc. 15.4.8 or to look for a thing that is yet to come Tit. 2.13 Isa 8.17 and there is a looking at them which is not an idle gazing at the unseen Eternal World but a practical lively affecting look in this manner following 1. We should look at Eternal things with such an Eye of Faith that should presentiate them unto us though they are yet to come Hence Faith is said to be the substance or subsistence of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Faith so looks at things that are far off that they have a kind of mental intellectual existence though absent as if they were present being promised as sure as if they were already possessed Faith convinceth and assureth the heart of a Believer most strongly of the truth of a thing while it looks to the Revelation and Testimony of God than any argument brought forth from Natural reason could do and doth give as firm assent to the certainty and reality of Eternal things though unseen as to any thing he beholdeth with his eyes or perceiveth by the apprehension of any Sense because our Eyes may be deceived but God neither can deceive nor be deceived Look then e. g. at the coming of Christ with such an Eye of Faith as if with your bodily Eyes you saw him descending from Heaven in flaming fire with glorious attendance as if you heard the Trumpet sounding and the Cry made arise ye Dead and come to Judgment at which command as if you saw the
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
my Mothers Womb was liable to a dissolution yet since this Body did arise out of the Bosom of the Earth and is reunited to its Soul admits of no separation for ever and which still is worse this Soul and Body now separated from God and Christ and all that be above in that Blessed Eternity must Never Never be admitted near unto them Oh cursed be the day that ever I was born Cursed be that folly and madness that brought me to this cursed place for here I lye under extremity of pain which if it were for an year or two or many Millions and then end would be in this respect exceeding heavy because it were to last so long but that then should be no longer would make it in the mean while to be the lighter but when Eternity is added to Extremity nothing can be added to make me extremely because in this extremity I am eternally miserable Oh Eternity Eternity in my condition what is more dreadful than Eternity This Fire burns to all Eternity the heavy stroaks of revenging Justice will be laid on me to all Eternity I am banished from God and Happiness to all Eternity Oh Eternity Eternity nothing cuts me to the heart like the corroding thoughts of this Eternity I am an Object of the Wrath of God of the contempt of Angels of the derision of Saints of the mockings of Devils and cursed Fiends to all Eternity I burn but cannot be consumed I toss and rowl and cannot rest to all Eternity Oh Eternity Eternity thou art enough to break my heart and make it dye but that it cannot break nor dye to all Eternity And if this shall be the doleful Language the direful Lamentations of Souls that went Christless out of time into Eternity do ye while ye are in time Eye Eternity in all you do and get a Title to Eternal Happiness or else when ye are in Eternity ye shall remember that in time ye were fore-warned which warning because ye did not take shall be a vexation to your Hearts to all Eternity SERMON XXIX A Discourse of the right way of obtaining and maintaining COMMUNION with GOD. 1 JOHN 1.7 But if we Walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another THE Subject I am to treat upon is Communion with God how to attain it and how to maintain it in as constant a course as we may be capable of in this World And for that end I have chosen this Text. My usual course is to provide matter for a Text but in this Lecture I provide a Text for the matter I am to treat upon The Subject is high and copious much spoken of but I fear not so well understood and less experienced though the Subject mainly relates to Christian Experience Before I come to the Subject I shall speak something of the Text upon which it is grounded The Author of this Epistle is St. John John the Apostle John the Divine as he was anciently called and he writes this Epistle some think to the Believing Jews only others think rather to the whole Catholick Church and the matter of the Epistle is partly to distinguish the true and the false Christian and for that end layes down many signal Characters to distinguish and partly to vindicate the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ the true Messiah his Person his Natures and Salvation by him alone from the many errors that were crept in by false Teachers and Seducers in his time as Cerinthus Ebion c. as he intimates in the 1 John 2.26 These things I speak concerning them that seduce you He also vindicates the Holiness of the Christian Profession from the impure practices of the Nicolaitans and the Gnosticks who began early to abuse the true liberty of the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into wantonness And lastly he doth earnestly press them to the Christian Love of one another because of the Persecutions he saw were coming upon the Church from the Roman Empire and the divisions that would arise amongst themselves from many false Brethren And hereupon to strengthen their Faith and Profession the more he shews forth the Gospel in the beginning of this Epistle 1. In the Antiquity of it That which was from the beginning c. 2. In the Certainty of it as in the third verse That which we have seen and heard and our hands have handled of the word of Life declare we unto you 3. In the main Scope and End of it These things have we written unto you that ye may have Fellowship with us with us the true Apostles of Christ and not go out from us as he complains of some that did in this Epistle They went out from us because they were not of us And then tells them what their Fellowship was Truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ So that he proposeth Fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ as the great scope and end of the Gospel and he mentioneth Christ as well as God because all our Fellowship with God is by Jesus Christ So that the Apostle doth invite and perswade the believing Jews to Fellowship with himself and other Apostles in the Doctrine and Ordinances of the Gospel dispensed by them or more generally the whole Catholick Church of God consisting both of believing Jew and Gentile but all this was in order to their having Fellowship with God and Jesus Christ 4. He shews the way how to have this Fellowship with God which he setteth down both Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively in the sixth verse If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 2. Affirmatively in the words of the Text But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another And this the Apostle proves by an Argument taken from the Nature of God in the fifth verse God is light and in him is no darkness at all and therefore they that would have Fellowship with him who is Light must walk in the Light for what Communion hath light with darkness But by Light is not meant any visible material Light either Natural or Artificial but a Light that is Divine Spiritual and Intellectual For though God expresseth himself to us by things Natural when he is call'd Light or Life c. yet he is Ens transcendens a transcendent Being and it is a true rule nothing can be predicated univocally of God and the Creature And he doth not say only of God that he is in the Light as verse the seventh Or that he dwelleth in the Light as the Apostle Paul elsewhere expresseth it But He is Light Light Essentially Originally Eternally Light it self and in him he saith there is no darkness at all He is a pure simple immixt and perfect Light As we say of that which is perfect it is plenum sui full of it self
without any mixture of the contrary Quest Why is God called Light without Darkness And what is this Light I Answer 1. Wisdom is Light and Folly is Darkness 2. Knowledge is Light and Ignorance is Darkness 3. Truth is Light and Error is Darkness 4. Holiness is Light and Sin and Wickedness are Darkness So that when he saith that God is Light he means that God is Wisdom without mixture of Folly Knowledge without Ignorance or Nescience Truth without any Error or any false Conceptions in his Eternal Mind and Holiness without the least mixture of Sin so that the way to have Fellowship with God is to walk in the Light that is to say to walk in Wisdom and not as Fools to walk according to Knowledge and not in Ignorance to walk in the Truth and not in Errour to walk in the way of Holiness and not of Sin and Wickedness Now Light in men it is either Natural or Supernatural 1. Natural which is either the Light of the Body which is the Eye Matth. 6.26 Or 2. The Light of the Soul which is the Light of Reason and Natural Conscience this we are to walk in according to the utmost Sphere and extent thereof But Supernatural Light that shines from Supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures and the inlightning Spirit of God in the Souls of Men is the Light here meant in the Text and which Christians should walk in Now this is the way to have Fellowship and Communion with God as the Text saith If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another Now by one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say the Apostle means the Saints to whom he writes we and ye shall have Fellowship together we Apostles and ye Believers And the Vulgar Latine carries it that way and renders it ad invicem But we must rather understand that the Apostle here speaks of the Fellowship that God hath with his People and they with him And so Beza understands it mutuam habemus cum eo communionem An Ancient Greek Manuscript hath in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with him that is God and we shall have Fellowship with one another And the rather we are to understand it in this sense for the Apostle he is not speaking here of the Communion which the Saints have with one another but of our Communion and Fellowship with God as in the sixth verse If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth And then he adds but if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another I shall now proceed to speak to the Subject it self and herein shall discourse of these four Generals I. What this Communion with God is II. Give some Distinctions about it III. Shew how it is to be Attained and Maintained IV. Deduce some Consequences that follow from my whole Discourse concerning it And then conclude with some practical Application General I I. What this Communion with God is The Word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies common and so it imports something that is common and mutual betwixt God and us as Communion among men imports something mutual on each side so that our Communion with God it is either Active or Passive Active in what passeth from us to God and Passive in what is Communicated from him to us 1. Active on our part which consisteth in the Divine Operations of our Souls towards God when the faculties of the Soul are tending towards him and terminated upon him when the Mind is exercised in the contemplation of him the Will in chusing and embracing him when the Affections are fixt upon him and Center in him when by our Desires we pursue after him by our Love we cleave to him and by Delight we acquiesce and solace our selves in him 2. Passive on Gods part and so our Communion with God consists in our participation of him and in his communicating himself to us and this Communication of God to us in our Communion with him is specially in these three things Light Life and Love 1. In Light I mean the Light of Spiritual Knowledge and Understanding whereby we are inabled to discern Spiritual things Spiritually This is called Gods shining into our Hearts by the Apostle 2. Cor. 4.6 and seeing Light in Gods Light by the Psalmist Psal 36. 2. In Life whereby we are made partakers of the Life of God though in a lower degree and are no longer alienated from the Life of God as the Apostle declared the Gentiles to be Eph. 4. And by this Life of God we must understand that which the Scripture calls Sanctification For Holyness is the Life of God in Man For when God Sanctifies a Man he quickens the Soul that was dead in Sin and makes it partake of the Divine Life or the Life of God and which elsewhere is called a partaking of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and a renewing Man into the Image of God Col. 3.10 3. In Love God communicates his Love also in the sense and tast of it to the Soul which the Apostle calls The shedding abroad the Love of God in the Heart Rom. 5. So that in this Communion with God we have not only the Theory of his Love in our minds but some taste and experience of it in our Hearts And under this is comprehended all that Peace Joy and Consolation that springs out of this to the Soul and arising from the Communication of the sence of his Love to us The Apostle James expresseth this Communion with God in both the parts of it James 4.8 when he saith Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you And Christ expresseth them both also in these words John 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him He expresseth the active part of Communion with God by our loving him and keeping his Commandements and the passive part by his own and his Fathers coming to us to make their abode with us The Apostle John expresseth them by our dwelling in God and Gods dwelling in us 1 John 5.16 We dwell in God either by Faith in him whereby we make him the Object of our Trust Confidence and dependance or especially by our Love to him as he there expresseth it He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God And then Gods dwelling in us is Communion with God in the other part of it consisting in a Communication of himself to us But this Communion with God we must think soberly of it It is not a transformation of the Soul of Man into the Divine Essence and Being as if Man was made God swallowed up into him and lost his own Existence and Being in God Neither is it a mixture of Gods Being with the Being
be opprest Read Isa 49.14 15 16. Obj. This is an hard saying who can hear it Ans 1. 'T is hard to untamed wanton Proud Nature to make the Will of God our Rule and deny our own Wills but then how hard will Suffering be without it An unresign'd Soul in a day of Affliction is like a wild Bull in a Net full of the Fury of the Lord and the troubled Sea that cannot rest but casteth forth Mire and Dirt. 2. But it is easie to a gratious Soul as such Grace in the Heart is the Image of God and this Image mainly consists in the Conformity of the Will to Gods VVill. The Scripture call's it writing his Law in the Heart and putting it in the inward parts Jer. 31.33 VVell and what is the proper natural Effect or result hereof Psal 40.7 8. It makes the Soul not only Obedient in Suffering but to Submit with Delight Now none of Gods Commands nothing of his Will Scriptural or providential is greivous 1 Jo. 5.3 1. Hence I infer that God is not Glorified but in his own way for our VVills must be resigned to and resolved into his If he will that we Suffer 't is vain to dream of Honouring him otherwise suppose we resove to save our selves and make him amends by double and treble Duty we decieve our selves Obedience is better then Sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Lambs 1 Sam. 15.22 All the Manifestative Glory of God dependeth on his VVill Rev. 4.11 VVe may extol his Power Grace Justice Holiness c. and not give him Glory if in the interim we resist his VVill t is vain to think of Honouring God and doing our own VVill give him all but his VVill and we give him nothing For 1. His great design is his VVill Rev. 4.11 He both contriveth and Executeth according to it Eph. 1.11 All his word is but his VVill Collos 1.9 Truth is the Analagy of persons things word and thoughts unto the VVill of God And this is his great Contraversy with men in the VVorld they 'd have their VVill and he will have His And indeed Sin is only and that 's enough and too much a Contradiction of his VVill 1 Jo. 3.4 And the accomplishment of his VVill is his Glory 2. In relucting against his VVill we contend against all his Name and being 'T is a denial of his Soveraignty and perogative for what is that but his Pleasure We thwart his decrees for they are the Purpose of his Will VVe contradict his Power thereby as if he were notable to do his Pleasure many are our oppositions we thereby Disbeleive his Holiness as if his Will were not good and his Wisdom as if he had not ordered his matters accurrately yea we deny his Justice by resisting his VVill as if he required more then his due Indeed his VVill is the hinge upon which all his Attributes move disappoint it and you supplant them all so absolutely doth his Glory depend upon his Will 2. I infer that Gods Glorifiing his Name by our Sufferings is not inconsistent with his Parternal Relation Father Glorify thy Name If he be our Father then he Loves then he Careth for us when he Afflicteth us For nothing can deprive us of the Comfort of this Relation which is consistent with that Relation Christ in his Agony calls him Father Mat. 26.39 When he was betrayed and apprehended Jo. 18.11 When he was upon the Cross his expression implies as much Mat. 27.46 And he saith no more when he was Risen Jo. 20.17 Obj. There is not the same Reason why God should continue our Father in Suffering as that he should be Christ in his Passion Because he is his Eternal Son we only adopted Sons Ans This Objection proves only that Christ hath the first Right to his Paternity and we only secundarily in him but not that he is less constantly our Father then his Jer. 31.3 Though we be but adopted Sons our Adoption is Endless not Temporary And therefore our Father will be our Father in Affliction and we shall be his Children For 1. His Fatherly Love is the Reason of his Chastizements He would not Scourge and Correct his Childeren but because they are his Childeren He Chastizeth them as a Father he Condemneth others as a Judge Heb. 12.7 8. 2. We are Heirs of his precious promises even in Affliction 1 Cor. 10.13 It seems then his Faithfulness to his word of promise is engag'd when we are Tempted 3. Suffering Saints have the Image of their Father when they Suffer Christs Sufferings were consistent with the Clouding of his Divine Nature then it did not appear in its Glory but not with the seperation of it from his Humane Saints may be Black by Affliction but withal they are Lovely by grace Cant. 1.5 4. They then stand in most need of his Fatherly Care and Love and therefore shall not be deprived thereof Psal 89.30 31 32 33. Isa 40.12 43.23 5. Our Sonship dependeth on Christs Sonship if therefore God were his Father in his Sufferings he will be our Father in ours For we are chosen and predestinated in Christ to the Adoption of Sons Eph. 1.3 4 5. This is the Reason why Sin it self cannot Un-son us because we are Adopted in Christ not for our own Sake but his Rom. 8.38 39. While we cease not to be Christ's Members we cease not to be the Fathers Children Obj. But if God be our Father why doth he Suffer his Children to be so abused in the World Can it consist with the Love of our Father to see his Children Imprisoned and Slain c. before his Face and he not help and save them An. It is enough that the Scripture hath Reconciled these things Rom. 8.35 36 37 c. Psal 89.30 31 c. We may as well say how could the Father Love Jesus Christ yet Bruise him in that dreadful manner Isa 53.7 8 9 10. But I add 1. That be the Saints never so dear to their Father yet his own Name and Glory is more Dear Their Sufferings being for his Glory he 'l therefore permit them Is it fit that he Suffer in his Name rather then we in our Flesh Or must he loose his Glory to preserve our Estates Ease Liberty or Lives Nay faith the Lord Jesus Father Glorifie thy Name do any thing with me rather than neglect thy Glory and see the Fathers answer in the following words 2. Be his Love to his Saints never so great his hatred of Sin and his just Indignation against it are as great Now here lyes the case she must either Chastize as for our Sins or be unjust He must either dispence so far with his Love as to correct us or dispence with his Righteousness and Holiness And judge now which is most like a Father to correct a Sinning Child or Pamper him in Sins Psal 89.30 c. 3. Hence I infer that our Peace Ease joy Estates Liberty and Life are Subordinated
or make their Requests to God for some Extatide Transports and Enlargements in a Duty or Covet unfit degrees of Gifts or Abilities for Duties taking that to be Grace which may be a gift consistent with a lost Condition and suppose these things never acquested by them must it thence follow That the Face of God is hid from them Oh what a pass must God be at with these Mens Souls when they must take him for their Enemy or for a discontented and distasted Friend unless he will to humour them transgress the stated Methods of his Dealing with Mens Souls If their Natural strength and fervour do but decay through Age or Sickness or other accidental Weaknesses or if God touch them in their Darlings here as Interests Relations Possessions or cast them upon some unwelcome straits though for their good Oh then they think him gone from them in deep Distast and Wrath when as these things rather insinuate Demonstrations and Assurances of Gods Faithfulness and Favour to them than any hard Thoughts of or bad Designs upon them See then that you be sure that God hides his Face from you indeed before you proceed to infer Discouragements or any ways to countenance your own Despondencies and any Jealousies or hard thoughts of God Bâ—t yet 't is to be acknowledged That God sometimes doth hide his Face indeed Isa 64.7 And that either 1. Totally as to the Damned in Hell so as never to shew it more to them again but this is nothing to our present Case or else 2. Partially as to those on Earth who are either 1. Unconverted or 2. Converted Persons The former are not here concerned but the latter and as to Converted Persons such as are truly Gracious God is said to hide his Face from them when he removes his Candlestick from them Rev. 2.5 or when they rather only see than really feel and are bettered by the Light and are scarce sensible of either Savour or Power in Gods Ordinances or of any Improvement in or of themselves thereby or when they have not any free Intercourses with God in Holy Duties but ever find themselves to be deadned and straitned in the Addresses of their Spirits to God in his Holy Ordinances of which their Jealousies are increased by their being Conscious to themselves of much Barrenness Wantoness and Ingratitude under their Sanctuary-priviledges Or when they are terrified with Storms and Tempests in their own Breasts through pressing Fears and multiplied Distractions But here let them consult Gods Word and Providences and their own Consciences together and thus debate this Matter with themselves What makes thee think O my Soul that God now hides his Face from thee Is it what is and hath been common either to Mankind or to the Generation of the Just or something peculiar to my self and unusual to others Is it any thing that can make it Evident that I either yet was never truly Gracious or that Gods Grace is now Extinct in me Have I an Heart for God and hath he none for me Is any thing inflicted on me inconsistent with Gods Saving Love to me Have my Afflictions Deadned me to God and Holiness or cut off the Entail of his Covenant-Favours upon me Are there noe Cases and Instances of Gods Eclipsed Face paralel to or much beyond my own to be discerned in Abraham David Job Lot Christ or others See James 5.10 Heb. 5.7 9. Job's Friends got nothing but Reproofs from God for their inferring Gods Contempt of him from what God laid on him It is much to be Observed That Gods dearest Favourites have had the sharpest Exercises and great Darkness and Disconsolateness on their Spirits at sometimes or other for the sensible Comforts and Refreshments of Religion are seldom found the Daily Fare of the exactest walkers with God under Heaven and yet how often are these Eclipses greatned by their Fancies or Follies And then by their Misrepresentations of God to themselves how oft and much is he Dishonoured by them But let these things be well considered by Gracious Souls 1. God doth not always nor ever totally hide his Face from them whom he hath Changed and Transformed through Grace 2. That when at any time 't is hid from them 't is not hidden in so much Wrath but that Mercy shall prevail at last 3. Nor can it ever be so dark with them but that some Remedies and Refreshments may be had from the Name the Son and the Covenant and from that of God within themselves which they ought not to undervalue overlook or to deny or to quit the Acknowledgments and Comforts of Nay I may boldly say it that at the worst more of Gods Face doth or may appear to them and shine upon them than is at any time hidden from them I mean more of that Face which is discernable here on Earth for otherwise it is but very little of Gods Face that the best Men see at most in this World if compared with what is to be manifested in Eternity unto the Heirs of Glory And therefore is it yet a shameful thing both to be pitied and blamed in gracious Persons that every intermission or retreat of sensible Joys and Favours shall so enrage their Fears and Sorrows as that Gods tenderness and faithfulness shall presently be Arraigned and his most gentle Discipline heavily Censured strangely Agravated extravagantly Resented and most immoderatly Bemoaned by them Yea and that before they have well understood what ails them and unto what degrees their so bemoaned Eclipse hath reached Come then my Soul deal fairly with thy Self and God and tell me what is it that God hath now denied thee How far hath God denied it What of God is it that thou once hast seen but canst not now What hinders the present sight or the recovery of what before hath been thy Strength and Joy Do not mistake Gods Looks and Heart nor in a pet charge God with what he is not guilty of nor say too hastily why better with me formerly than now Direct IV. Let him remove and shun all that provokes God thus to hide his Face Isa 59.1 2. Lam. 3.39 40. no Counsel nor Encouragement will or can avail that Soul for Trust or Conduct which neglects its stated Work and Watch which God enjoyns it to and expects from it The Spots and negligences of Gods own People are displeasing to him and he will turn his Face away from what he loaths and hates Many a dreadful frown and glance from God had David when he had defiled his Soul and Body with Lust and Blood The matter of Uriah left that blot and sting upon him and to his Family which made it evident how unsafe it is for even gracious Souls to play the wantons Complaints and Prayers can neither expiate nor commute for those miscarriages and neglects which God forbids and hates nor will it be found sufficient that we make some enquiries after God or pathetical and mournful declamations against
our selves if any sins lie near our hearts and prove predominant in our conversations The Crimes whereby we have disgusted God must be repented of detested and rejected He that would trust in God and gain the views and comforts of his Face should throughly hate deeply resent and carefully watch against what God can take no pleasure in but hath entred his protest against repent and do thy first Works was grave and sober Counsel Rev. 2.5 Begin then with thy self and end with God and work thy self up to his Will and thou shalt see his Face with Joy Sin will raise Clouds and Storms and cause no small Eclipses of Gods Face where ever it enters is countenanced and prevails An heavenly Mind and Life must be recovered exercised and preserved and practical resolutions must be renewed and kept in their inviolable vigour whither God sensibly smile or not upon us Who ever mourns not over and watches not against what God abhors will find his seeing Gods Face with Joy to be too strange and great a Miracle to be expected from him He that contemns the ways and will of God can look for nothing but to be contemned by him 1 Sam. 2.30 the Laws of Peace and Favour must be kept Sins must be broken off by Righteousness and Repentance or else Gods Face is to be seen no more Direct V. Let him consider well how far God is unchangeably the God of gracious Souls Psal 89.30 34. Levit. 26.40 45. the Tenor of Gods Covenant is to be studied throughly and well understood to prevent extravagant or defective trust 'T is true Gods promises are large and his relation fixt Psal 84.11 Isa 41.10 God will be so far always theirs as to be ever mindful of them and of his Covenant with them to be duly provident for their good so as to prevent all that may truly harm and ruin their resigned Souls and Persons Rom. 8.28 2 Cor. 16.9 to be truly though wisely compassionate towards them in all their dejections and temptations 1 Cor. 10.13 Mich. 7.18 Isa 30.19 41 17. He will neither over-burthen them over-work them nor overlook them and he will be always so far theirs as to exemplifie the Power and Riches of his All-sufficient Grace and Goodness in them Rom. 9.23 2 Thes 1.10 12. God will refine and save their Souls renew their Strength and cloath them with his Righteousness and Salvations and give them such Encouragements and Supports as may be needful for their present State and Work Isa 40.31 2 Cor. 4.16 18. Col. 1.11 12. 1 Thes 5.23 24. Let them but act like gracious Persons and all Grace shall abound towards them and he will see that their Integrity and Uprightness preserve them whilst therein they wait on him Pardoned Sins refined Souls accepted Services Prayers and Persons with great Victories Tryumphs and Salvations at the last Gods Spirit in them his Presence with them and his Eternal Glory for them when time is folded up and reckoned for all these shall joyfully convince them in what respects and to what purposes God is immutably and will be their God Rom 8.31 39. But if they look or hope that God should be so far theirs as to keep them from afflictions and the fiery Tryal or to feast them continually with sensible consolations and clear views of Heaven and of his glorious Face or immediatly to give them what they ask at their discretion or to prevent all manner of perturbations in their Souls and all distempers in their Bodies Brains and Fancies or to redress miraculously what may be cured and relieved otherwise they have no promise for this For where hath God engaged that Grace must do the Work that is consigned to natural means or that Miracles must effect what an establisht Course of ordinary means may bring Men to Even in the sealing Age when Miracles were so multiplied we find that ordinary means were used in their just extent Moses must send for Jethro Cornelius must send for Peter Philip must turn Instructer and Interpreter to the Eunuch Manna must only be continued until the Israelites could Plow and Sow Why then should any one conclude that God hath hid his Face unless unreasonable and extraordinary expectations be accomplished If Parts be weak if Gifts be mean if Memory be frail through disadvantages of Age or Weakness if passionate Fervours be abated through those declensions which are entailed on Mortals by a setled decree must we infer from hence that God hath hid his Face from us and holds us for his Enemies unless he change the ordinary Course of Nature And as to Soul concerns and exercises what if our Spirits be disquieted through the Soul or expectation of sharp Tryals and Distresses What if Satan bluster in our Souls What if strange Suggestions like fiery Darts be cast into us What if we be strongly urged to such imaginations as God himself knows to be odious and ungrateful to us Must we from hence suspect or think that God disclaims us and renounces all his merciful relations and regards to us Hath God engaged any where that our War with Satan shall end before we dye Can militant Christians be discharged from this warfare before they have finished their Course Whilst you resolve and strive you Conquer and God abides your God till you give up the Cause and fall in love with what your God abhors and slights see Heb. 4.14 16. was not the great Jehovah the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ as much in the extremities of his Agonies and Conflicts as either before or after them But he never was so much his God as to excuse him from his bitter Cup and his contest with the Devil and this World The same I may also say of Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 9. Gods Covenant and not your thoughts or hopes must tell how far Direct VI. Let him consider and improve what God affords to help and quicken trust in him Psal 27.9 Rom. 15.4 13. God hath his part and Man hath his to do not that God needs him but because he hath laid him under Law unto himself and suited his remediating Duties to his Faculties and Circumstances Trust is a compounded Act and Duty made use of assent consent and reliance and it respects veracity goodness and fidelity in the object trusted in Let then the gracious Soul look upon God as fit and willing to be trusted in as actually engaged and concerned for him when he is his God and as faithful when thus related and engaged For God both can and will effect all that he undertakes yet he expects that gracious Souls shall fix their deepest thoughts upon what he hath given them to fix and raise their trust upon Idleness doth no good the thinking and industrious and resolved Soul thrives much whilst meer complainers cheat and dispirit themselves and trouble others dishonour God and scandalize and dishearten Men. It is here as it is in Nature God feeds us he
cloaths and keeps us and we trust in him to do so for us but if we be not provident and diligent in the well ordering and improvement of the helps and benefits and instructions which God affords us in and by second Causes and so expect that Manna come not only down from Heaven but that it also fall into our Mouths we may easily turn this trust into presumption and starve our selves in the midst of Manna round about us So he that expects God should miraculously inspire trust into him without the intervenient use of his own faculties in the improvement of those helps which God affords will find such hopes and trust fitter to be rebuked and frustrated than to be gratified and fulfilled He that would trust in the Lord as his God is to consider 1. Whom he is to trust in the Lord. 2. For what he is to trust in him that he may either see his Face again or be supported and preserved under the Eclipses of it 3. Why he is to trust in him because of his own necessities and Gods Power and Fidelity to help him and the encouragements God gives him 1. Think then O gracious Soul what a God thou hast to trust in God All-sufficient Gen. 15.1 17.1 Now Gods All-sufficiency lies as far as we can know it yet in the vast reaches of his infinite Wisdom In the unboundedness of his Power for it is Omnipotent and in the Riches of his Goodness which knows no bounds in the expressions and efforts thereof but the inviolable harmony of his own Blessed Name and Nature who worketh all things after the Counsels of his own Will and the Capacities of his Favourites Eph. 1.11 God hath an heart to do thee good for he is Love and Goodness is his Nature and Delight Jer. 9.24 1 John 4.16 Now Love is Communicative and diffusive of it self in all such instances and expressions as the Case and Circumstances of the beloved object may require Jer. 31.3 Hos 2.19 20. Hence you may see Gods Paraphrase upon this attribute and his most Copious explication of it in Exod. 34.6 7. Love pities Favourites in their miseries and self-bemoanings Jer. 31.18 20. Love helps them in their straits Isa 63.8 9. Love supplies them in their wants Phil. 4.19 Love hears their cries Phil. 4.6 7. 1 Pet. 3.12 Love emboldens delivers and preserves them and commands all within its Reach and Empire to befriend and serve them to all these purposes and in all these ways that are most suitable to it self and them Isa 61.1 3. Canst thou not therefore trust in him who without any violence or repugnancy to himself is so propense to do thee good Let then the Love and Goodness of thy God come into thy fresh remembrances and most lively thoughts that so thy trust in him may be encouraged and spirited hereby How greatly are we reconciled and quickned to place our confidence where Love is most predominate and natural For thy great mercies sake thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them for thou art a gracious and merciful God Now therefore our God who keepest Covenant and Mercy let not all our trouble Hebr. weariness seem little before thee that hath come upon us saith Neh. 9.31 32. And as God hath an heart to do thee good so he hath wisdom to contrive and manage the means and methods of his purposed and free Goodness Eph. 1.8 Now to him that is able to keep you to the only wise God Jude 24.25 1 Tim. 1.17 God guided the wandring Israelites under the Wilderness Eclipses of his Face by the Skilfulness of his Hands Psal 78.72 God best knows when to shew his Face to what degrees and how He sees what ails and what will help thee he is no stranger to thy gloominess and droopings he understands wherein how far and upon what accounts thou so lamentest his withdrawments from thee and what these manifestations of himself are which will afford the best relief to thee He cannot overlook the proper Article of time wherein those friendly Aspects and Appearances which thou covetest so much will most befriend and serve thee the best Men have a Complication of Soul Distempers in them and those Divine Discoveries which might relieve them in their droopings may when desired by them were they but then afforded possibly make them proud or careless However possibly God hath not sufficiently served those purposes to which thy doleful present exercise is directed and so the birth might prove too hasty to be perfect were it produced when desired by thee Job little knew and all his confident pressing Friends as little what God was doing by those so rigid usages whereto that Holy patient Person was exposed God hath more Souls and things to mind than one and he will make every part and instance of his Grace and Goodness to harmonize each with other and is it not more desirable to every resigned Soul to God to abide in this darkness for a while than to have the Course and Methods of Gods orderly proceedings disordered and disturbed for the meer pleasing of some precipitant desires Let God alone and turn not a censurer of his dealings till thou canst comprehend his whole Design upon his whole Creation his Family and on thy Self and let it suffice thee that infinite Wisdom is concerned and engaged for thee and trust him more for thou mayest safely do it because he is infinitely wiser than thy self and knows best when to hide and when to shew his Face God hath Ability and Authority as well as an Heart and Wisdom to relieve and Favour thee Jude 24. 2 Cor. 9.8 He shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14.4 He is the God of Power Job 42.2 He can revive or damp thy Spirit at his pleasure Job 34.29 so that there can be no suspicion of impotence or inability with him He that made Heaven and Earth can succour drooping Hearts and he that revives this Sence of God upon him will find his trust in God more sweet and easie 2. Think also what thou art now allowed to trust him with and for 1 Pet. 4.19 even with thy whole self and with all that can concern the Church the World and thee Wisdom for Conduct Power for due Deliverances and Protections and Salvations and Grace and Comforts to bear thee up under Burthens and Temptations and to furnish thee to every good Word and Work and to carry thee safe to everlasting rest and for the wise and happy issue of every Duty Burthen and Temptation mayst thou firmly trust in God But be sure to trust to him for nothing as far as thou canst learn or know it that is unworthy of God to give and unfit for thee to ask or have But this you may trust him for that he hide nothing of that Face from thee without which thou canst not be an holy and an happy Person and that he lay nothing on
People shouted and Jerico fell down to the ground Our Amens must not drop like a cold Bullet of Lead out of the mouth of a Musquet bowing to the ground but they must be Fired by preparations of the Heart and warm affections they must be Discharged and Shot off with the utmost valde of the Soul and fervency of the Spirit Samuel Thundred in Prayer and God Thundred upon Israels Enemies So David Prays Psal 144.5 that God would bow the Heavens and come down c. Ps 1.8 9. he did bow the Heavens and come down verse 13. the Lord Thundred in Heaven the highest gave his Voice Hailstones and coals of Fire When Gods People can unite in one Voice God gives his Voice with them and for them Use The First Inference then is of Reproof for our deep silence and too much neglect of this hearty Amen which proceeds from these Four ill Causes 1. From thence whence all ill things come in upon us even from Popish ignorance and darkness When Men grew dull and stupid and neither understood or cared to understand either the word of God to us or ours to him in Prayer Religion was looked upon as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a By-business or troublesome laborious and needless curiosity It was enough to Beleive as the Church Beleived and to Pray as the Church Prayed and so they devolved all their Devotions on a pack of idle Monks and Friers whom they called Religious Omers who should serve God supererogate and merit for them yea not only procure a freedom from Purgatory and Pardons but Paradice also for their Moneys And as soon as their Silver did chink in the Bason of the Priest out springs the Soul from Purgatory as if the sound of Money was powerful in Purgatory as true Amens are in Heaven 2. The Divisions among Christians of the reformed Religion is another Cause of this defect and neglect 1 Cor. 14.26 when ye come together every one hath a Psalm a Doctrine a Tongue a Revelation an Interpretation One was for Singing another for Reading a Third for Preaching one for Prophesying another for Interpreting the Apostle gives two Rules to oppose this and Womens talking in the Church let all things be done distinctly and in order to edification natural decency forbids all confusion In our days some have such Schismatical Phrases Notions and Doctrines in Preaching Praying and Praising that a sober Christian cannot say Amen Some so zealous for Forms that nothing else must be a Prayer but the Lords Prayer as if because Cyprian calls it a Legitimate Form all others were spurious when 't is the Sense that is the Prayer and not the words which are differently set down in Luke from Mathew as Chemitius well observes Others are so vehement against all Forms that they would reduce all Devotion to an invisible Spirituality as if they had drop'd their Bodies and were crouded within the Vail into the Triumphant Quire of Spirits in Heaven But certainly while we are in the Body we ought to glorifie God with our Bodies as well as our Spirits and with our Tongues as the Bodies Instruments in publick Worship Verbo deus laudandus quia deus verbum says Lactan God was made Flesh to speak to us therefore we ought to speak to him Psal 16.9 the Tongue is Mans Glory as it differenceth us from Beasts so it make us Priests to God Rev. 1.6 to offer up our own and the dumb Creatures Sacrifices of Praise to God to him be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen 3. Another rate of this defect is the degenerating of Assemblies from their first Constitution and Plantation For these as all Bodies contracted defilements both in Ministers and People Formality hath over-run that Zeal Piety and Charity which formerly burned among them So that many Assemblies are run down so into the Spirit of the World that they differ little from Papists How have some Ministers been thrust in upon the Assemblies by a secular hand who never understood how to preach or pray a live Prayer and many Congregations full of such ignorance and prophaness that the Arches and Vaults in the Building give as good an Eccho as their dead Amens One comes in his Drink another pipeing hot out of their Wordly Businesses a Third in huffing Finery and Bravery to be gazed on another is heavy laden with Sleep and comes for a Nap. How can they that are not concerned for Gods Glory his Church his Word the pardon of their Sins nor think themselves beholden to God for Daily-Bread or that they need daily Grace say either Our Father or Amen with any Sense When either Ministers or People Drink and Swill and Swear and roar with one another at the Tavern all the Week and yet will be the most Vocal and Loud in their responsals on the Lords Day it turns Mens Stomacks and Consciences from publick expressions as something to rankly of Hypocritical Formality That with the wise Heathen in the Ship when a Company of wicked Persons cried and prayed hold your peace sad he least the Gods know you are here and so destroy us D. Laer. Roaring at the Ale-house and bellowing at the Church are both alike beastly and ugly to be heard 4. Worldly Peace Plenty and Prosperity dirty and dull the Wheels of the Soul so as Activity and Fervency are Bird-limed 'T is unreasonable yet too true that those Tenants who have the best Farms pay God his Rent worst When Christians were kept warm by the Zeal of their Persecutors they met in Caves and Woods with the hazard of their Lives they had a Zeal for God and the Gospel they heard and Prayed as for their lives and for the life of Religion it might be their last Sermon or Prayer they might joyn in and so they had a fervent hearty love for one another which made them not only seal their Prayers with warm Amens but they sealed one another also with an holy kiss not knowing whether they should ever see one anothers Faces again in the Flesh or no they fell on one anothers Necks and kissed at parting Rom. 16.16 another expression springing naturally from strong affection truly Christian in those times which if practised in this dirty Age would be perhaps proved as well as judged a piece of wretched carnality But their Flesh was kept under by poverty and persecutions so as such filthy tentations were burnt up by the love of God and each other And we have cause to fear God hath some such Irons in the Fire to fear of that dead yet proud Flesh which in these days is bred in the hearts of many professors In the mean time this Flesh hinders our very lips from closing in a sound Amen Use 2. This then informs us that if ever the Church recover primitive purity and fervency it must have such administrations as 1. The whole Worship of God must be in a known Tongue that so all may say Amen in the