to keep themselves and their cattle in their houses to escape the storm which Moses fore-told would kill all that were in the field The more we are prepared by this fear for afflictions before they come the lesse we shall be oppressed with them when they come For thereby either afflictions shall be weakned and lesse able to hurt us or we shall be strengthened and more able to bear them Now this hope whereof we speak being rightly excercised will be of great efficacy to quicken good fear and to subdue sinful fear in us Therefore I shall endeavour to shew you how you may excercise this hope aright in four Directions 1. Lay a sure ground-work for this hope to be built upon This is then done when you know that your soul saith the Lord is your portion For 1. This will assure your interest in God himself who is an all-sufficient portion When you can say with David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my Cup Psal 16. 5. you may comfortably adde as he did in ver 6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage 2. This will cause you to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart as Barnabas exhorted the Antiochians to do in Acts 11. 23. For where a mans treasure is there will his heart be also Mat. 6. 21. As the needle in the Compasse being touched with the Load-stone is in continual motion till it points to the North the reason whereof some conceive is because in the North are Rocks of Load-stone with which the needle so touched hath a sympathy so the soul being touched by the spirit of faith is in continual motion till it points unto God in Christ that living Rock and true Load-stone who draws believers to him by a spiritual sympathy which they have with him as he said in Ioh. 12. 32. I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me Then and not before they have true rest Then they may say with David Return unto thy rest O my soul Psal 116. 7. 3. This will settle and strengthen your hearts against all distracting discouraging distrustful fears about future evils For things to come are yours when you are Christs 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. The worst that can be-fall you shall not loose that blessed union that is between God in Christ and your souls Not sin past for that is already pardoned and therefore shall not condemn you hereafter Rom. 8. 1. nor shall sin to come have dominion over you Rom. 6. 14. For you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. Nor death though it may separate two neer friends the soul and body yet it shall joyn together more fully and perfectly two better friends Christ and the soul which when it is absent from the body is present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and in the Resurrection when both shall be reunited we shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4. 17. Nor temptations See how Paul triumphed over all principalities and powers over life and death over things present and to come in assurance that nothing should separate him or any true believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 38 39. yea that all things should work for his their good Rom. 8. 28. A believer in Christ is as sure of the time to come as he is of the time presentor past For he can say with the Church in Ps 48. ult This God is our God and he will be our guid unto death and can look unto Christ as Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty Rev. 1. 8. and he hath the promises of God in Christ for the future Isa 46. 3 4. Joh. 10. 27 28 29. 2. This ground work being well laid build upon it for the future by excersing this hope 1. In its purging work 1 Joh. 3. 3. to purge out inordinate affection whereby the soul cleaves close and fast to present things and creatures whence they are as affraid to part with them as one is to have a piece of linnen cloth or plaister plucked off from an ulcerous sore whereunto it sticketh so fast that it can hardly be pulled away without great pain and without drawing the skin and part of the flesh with it whereas if that ulcerous matter were purged and the sore healed the plaister would fall off it self and the cloth might be taken away without any pain or difficulty Hoping in God being rightly excercised worketh this great cure by rectifying mens apprehensions concerning the creatures and ordering their affections aright towards God looking at both with the eye of faith by Scripture light which represents all things out of God in Christ when they become the objects of our hope as vain and sinful and hurtful The creatures are good as they come out of Gods hand but as they are abused by being idolized they become vain and degenerate into nothing For as an idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8. 4. nothing which men account it to be not to be trusted in So creature are but vain and empty like those blasted eares of corn in Pharaohs dream unlesse God fils them with his blessing It is a common errour and delusion to think that if you had such friends such relations such estates c. you should live happily and comfortably For as David said of an horse in reference to getting the victory an horse is a vain thing So we may say of all creatures being separated from God in reference to happinesse and comfort they are vain things to be trusted in for which Christ called that rich man a fool Luke 12. 19 20. 2. It is a sin against the first Commandement to give the honour which is due to God alone unto any creature as men do that glory in them Jer. 9. 23 24. and set their hearts upon them Psal 62. 10 11. This is idolatry Col. 3. 5. It is Atheisme a denial of Gods all-sufficiency which is his peculiar glory and the foundation of upright walking in the Saints Gen. 17. 1. It s the cause of all sins The Schoolmen do rightly define sin to be an aversion of the soul from the immutable God and turning of it to the mutable creature For all sin implies an over-valuing of the creatures and an under-valuing of God See with what indignation God reproves this sin in Jer. 2. 13 14. 3. Thus to cleave unto present things and creatures is very hurtful to your selves For 1. It steals mens hearts from God as Absalom stole the hearts of the people from David unto things that cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain 1 Sam. 12. 25. 2. It provoketh God to with-draw and with-hold his concourse and blessing from the creatures without which you cannot have any good from them nor by them your own experience may convince
They may by Temptations be as sheep driven from mountaine to mountaine and forget their resting place Jer. 50. 6. But the spirit of faith in them will cause them to return unto God and to say as David Psal 116. 7. Return unto thy rest O my soul Believers are like Noahs Dove that finding no rest for the soles of its feet in the deluge returned unto the Arke Other men will like the Raven be soon satisfied with other things R. 2. From the sutable operation of Gods spirit in them unto Gods end in afflicting them Gods end in afflicting his children is to drive them from all other things unto himself For he corrects them for their good Heb. 12. 10. And its good for them to draw neer to God Psal 73. 28. When afflictions work us thereunto it is from the spirits sanctifying operation in them For 1. afflictions cannot work thus of themselves but rather set men further off from God by discontentment with his providence because it crosseth their carnal affections And 2. the soul of it self is apt to misgivings in such cases and to have hard thoughts of God And 3. Satan takes such occasions to breed and increase a distance and division between the soul and God Therefore it must be from the sanctifying operation of Gods spirit in them and with them when they work this good Rom. 8. 28. Vse 1. For Instruction 1. Here we may see the differenc between believers and others in their dejected condition 1. Believers have the spirit of faith in them whereby the soul though it be over-borne by passion and Temptation for a time yet it will worke it self into freedom again as oil will be uppermost The spirit as a spring will be cleansing it self more and more from that mudde that is in it But the heart of unbelievers is like a standing poole where that which is cast into it rests They are like the Sea where trouble and unquietnesse are in their proper place Isa 57. 20. True rest and peace are for ever separated from sin in any soul till the breach between God and the soul be made up by faith in Christ 2. Believers have an interest in God and he in them through Jesus Christ Hence they are kept as in a Garrison by his mighty power through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. through the intercession of Christ Luke 22. 3. by the spirit of Christ dwelling with them and who shall be in them and abide with them for ever So that they shall not be left comfortlesse Joh. 14. 16 17 18. Hereupon Paul triumphed in Rom. 8. 35 c. Where he puts the question about persons and answers about things neither shall separate them from the love which either Christ bears to them or they to Christ Sin cannot separate them from Christs love to them because he hath more than conquered it by his own power Tribulation cannot seperate believers from the love they bear to Christ because they shall more then conquer it by the power of Christ It is not our hold of God and Christ but Gods and Christs hold of us that keeps us to him The root bears us up not we the root Rom. 11. 18. This Asaph acknowledged unto God when his feet were almost gone his steps had well nigh slipt saying Neverthelesse I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Psal 73. 2 23. But unbelievers are without Christ and without God in the World Eph. 2. 12. Therefore when their creature-comforts fail them they are as a ship tossed in the Sea without a Pylot and without an Anchor which soon is bulged upon Rocks or falleth upon quick-sands having no God to guide or support them 2. Hence we way learn how to carry our selves toward afflicted dejected Christians Judge mercifully and wisely of poor weaklings Psal 41. 1. men are apt through want of wisdom and love to mis-apprehend the causes of their dejectednesse It is the lesse to be wondred at that an heathen King mis-interpreted the dejected countenance of Nehemiah Neh. 2. 2. seeing godly and wise Eli mis-censured Hannah as a distempered woman when she was in bitternesse of spirit 1 Sam. 1. 14 15. and Iobs friends mis-judged him for his afflictions and men generally mis-construed Christs sufferings Isa 53. 4 5. They are not alwayes the best that are merriest nor they the merriest in heart that are so in the face Nor are they alwayes of the weakest faith or spirit who are sometimes dejected as we see Ioshuah was in Josh 7. Therefore be not rash or harsh in censuring the dejected but rather worke with God for their support and comfort Two things are required hereunto knowledge and goodness Rom. 15. 14. The first will make you able the second willing to be helpful to such Labour to abound in both 1. In knowledge both of the word Col. 3. 16 and of the temper of the party that you may speak to them suitably and seasonably Isa 56. 4. 2. In goodnesse to pity them to pray for them and to set them in joynt Gal. 6. 1. 2. As for your selves beware that you mis-judge not your own estate toward God under such dejections but know that if ever you had any clear testimony of Gods love to you in Jesus Christ the love of God toward you in Christ is unchangeable it is an everlasting love Jer. 31. 3. Therefore hold the confidence and rejoycing of your hope firme unto the end Heb. 3. 6. and say with the Church in Mich. 7. 8. When I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me Use 2. For Admonition Take heed of placing your comfort too much in the creature which being subject to change and inconstancy will be apt to breed disquietment Vexation inseparably followes vanity when vanity is not apprehended to be where it is In what degree any are lifted up in expectation of satisfying good from creatures or overjoyed with the comforts of them in that degree they are dejected in the dis-appointment of their hope and distressed in the losse of creature-contentments Inordinacy of affections imbitters all such afflictions Hence arise those bitter complaints I had setled my contentment and hope in such a friend or relation but now they are gone and with them all my joy is gone Woe is me I am undone Therefore Agur prayed wisely in Prov. 30. 8. Remove far from me vanity and lies i. e. vain and false apprehensions whereby the affections are too strongly fixed upon things that are vain and lying promising that contentment which they cannot yield confidence in vanities makes them Idols and makes the heart vaine like the things it relyes upon Psal 115. 8. They shall find continual disquietment who walk in a vain shadow Psal 39. 6. The best remedy against this is by dwelling in the secret of the most High to abide under the shadow of the Almighty Psal 91. 1 2. Lam. 3. 24. The Lord is my portion c The words having
call of God with the obedience of faith as David found in Psal 27. 8. Thou saidst seek ye my face my heart answered thy face Iehovah I do seek This answer is the voice of the whole soul unto God The understanding being illightned and fully convinced closeth with God in Christ as the first Truth and the will chooseth him as the chiefest good the affections rest satisfied with him alone and the whole soul placeth all its happinesse in its injoyment of him and conformity to him Hope waits for him desire longeth after him and joy delighteth in him above all things The Lord calleth the whole soul to come unto him that it may find true rest in voluntarily subjecting it self under his yoke Mat. 11. 28 29. and the whole soul in all its faculties and affections answereth as the Church did in Ier. 3. 22. Lo we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God With renouncing all other refuges as they did in ver 23. according to that promise in Hos 2. 23. I will say thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God R. 2. Because the souls saying the Lord is my portion argues unseigned love of God in Christ For all the affections depend on love What a man loveth as his portion he desireth to possesse and injoy and any impediment thereof stirs up his anger proportionately to his esteem and love of it As we see with what eagernesse and earnestnesse men endeavour to remove any thing that hinders their credits or estates c. Now if any love God above the world above themselves they will be more jealous of Gods honour then their own and against that which tends to Gods dishonour more then against what crosseth their own worldly honour Hence will arise hatred against sin because God hates it both in our selves Psal 97. 10. and in others Rev. 2. 6. Anger is against particulars but hatred is general Anger seeks revenge with moderation in proportion to the wrong done us but hatred seeks the destruction of its object Anger is placable but hatred is implacable And according to the degree of mens love to any thing will be their fear of being deprived of it and separated from it and of all causes and signes of alienation from it R. 3. Because the souls saying The Lord is my portion importeth the highest actings of the soul upon God When Iob said the things that my soul refused to touch Job 6. 7. he shewed the greatest detestation of them and when he said my soul chuseth death rather than life Iob 7. 15 he shewed a most vehement desire And when the Lord said I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul Ier. 32. 41. he shewed the firmnesse of his purpose So when the soul saith The Lord is my portion it argues the most full and firm cleaving of a believer unto God with purpose of heart as Barnabas exhorted them to do in Acts 11. 23. Else men do not return to him nor cleave to him as to the most High Hos 7. 16. unlesse they turn to him with all their heart Joel 2. 12. and love him with all their heart Deut. 30. 6. For it is by such a love that faith workes which is a believing with all the heart Acts 8. 37. and produceth obedience from the heart Rom. 6. 17. which is done when all the faculties and affections of the soul do open themselves and stand open to give entertainment unto God in Christ as the King of glory Psal 24. 7. When the Keyes of the whole house and every room in it are delivered up for the use and service of a King he is entertained like a King Inferiour guests are content one with one room another with another and sometimes two have but one room yea one bed for them both But the King must have all So it is in this case when the God of glory appeared unto Abraham and called him Abraham obeyed him without reservation Acts 7. 2 3. So must we yea so will all whose soules say the Lord is their portion Use 1. For instruction in four particulars 1. Hence learn how a man may know when afflictions are sanctified and blessed unto him i. e. when the eye of the soul is by them turned 1. Upward to look unto God for an interest in him as their portion 2. Inward to reflect upon the inward actings of the soul that they may know their interest in God as their portion Indeed afflictions of themselves work the contrary to estrange us from God and from our selves and Satan labours to foment and increase a separation of the soul from God and a division and distraction of the soul within it self Therefore it is by an over-ruling power and sanctifying efficacy of Gods spirit when they cause us to return unto the Lord Hos 6. 1. and to our selves Luke 15. 17 18. It is a sure rule of discerning ones self to be in the state of grace when he finds that every condition brings him neerer to God and every sanctifying gift of grace is quickned to its proper function to turn the faculty and affection of the soul in which it is planted unto God Rom. 8. 28 29. God is a pure act alwayes acting and every one the neerer he comes to God the more gracious frame of spirit he hath and the more spiritual affections and suitable actings of them sweetly issuing from thence 2. Learn hence a profitable use of spiritual soliloquies which are a mans speaking within himself to himself about spiritual things David prescribes communing with a mans own heart to further his repentance Psal 4. 4. and himself made use of it to quicken his faith Psal 42. 5. So the Church in my Text in times of affliction being driven out of their creature-comforts and expectations they communed and parlied with their own souls to cleer unto themselves their interest in God as their portion and to excite their faith and hope in him unto excercise 3. Learn hence not to rest in outward profession in words that the Lord is your portion Many hypocrites say so whose hearts cleave to some thing else as their portion some to their sinful wills and wayes They draw neer unto God with their lips but their hearts are removed far from him Such were those in Hos 8. 23. Israel will cry unto me my God we know thee when Israel hath cast off the thing that is good even God himself in whom and from whom is all good and the good word of God and the rules thereof though they thus departed from him yet in their distresse they were ready to claim an interest in him Others to their worldly objects They lay up treasures for themselves on the earth and there their hearts are Mat. 6. 19 21. Their belly is their God and portion that mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. These steal away their hearts from God even while they are hearing the Word Ezek.
in him This knowledge becomes practical when the heart so receiveth it that the will comes to a resolution therefore I will hope in him Which is the next particular to be spoken to Lam. 3. 24. Therefore I will hope in him The reason alledged by the Church is not so much an Argument to convince the judgment though it contains that also as we have before proved as a motive to induce and incline the will to hope in God For trusting and hoping in God being a relying and waiting upon God for future good do especially carry the will to him As the understanding is led with truth so the will is led with the goodnesse of things As the judgment must be convinced of Gods ability so the heart must be sweetned with his love and readinesse to do us good for the future that we may hope in him For meer knowledge and discourse cannot draw the heart to trust and hope in God except it hath a rellish of his goodnesse Therefore David saith O taste and see that the Lord is good Psal 34. 8. Those reasons are most prevailing to incline the will towards God which are drawn from the goodnesse of God whereby the heart is opened and enlarged to expect all good and nothing but good from him who is goodnesse it self and our God and portion in Jesus Christ This rellish is wrought in the renewed soul by the spirit of faith together with a light to discern our interest in God Doct. The reasons whereby believers are quickned and strengthened to hope in God do strongly incline their will to resolve to hope in him This is obvious frequently in Scripture that when the will is inclined to any spiritual good it is upon spiritual reasons the Spirit of God joyning his efficacy therewith and leaving a powerful rellish of that good in the soul This you may see in Psal 40. 8. Cant. 1. 3 4. Ier. 3. 22. and in sundry Texts R. 1. From the different manner of the souls guiding the will and the bodily members The soul swayeth the will and affections as counsellors doe a well ordered state by propounding reasons to them But the soul governeth the bodily members as a Master doth his slaves by meer command The will moves the hands and feet c. by command without giving them Reasons But the will and affections move not without reason or at least a shew of reason God made man an understanding creature indued with rational faculties the understanding to be the leading faculty and the will to be the appetite of the soul according to reason Therefore it moves toward such a good as is presented to it by the illightned mind or understanding as the most 〈◊〉 and unquestionable object of it For the freedom and willing consent of the heart is not without rules to order it but it is therefore said be free because whether out of a true judgment it moves one way or out of a false another way yet in both it moves in a manner suitable to its own condition For this reason it is that God condiscends so far to us in his word as to give us so many reasons to hope in 〈◊〉 that our wils might be drawn thereunto by suitable reasons R 2. From the manner of the spirits putting forth his efficacy to incline the wils of believers to hope in God The heart of man naturally is not apt but averse hereunto even when the understanding sees good reasons for it Therefore the will must necessarily be renewed and changed This change consists in altering the bent and inclination of the will which the spirit of God doth by bringing into the soul a new light and powerful influence 1. A new light whereby we are inabled to see other things or the same truths in a more spiritual and effectual manner those impedimens being removed which might hinder the evidence of spiritual truths and the judgment being fully convinced that we might know things not onely notionally but practically as we ought to know them 1 Cor. 8. 2. This is that illumination and revelation whereof the scripture speaks in Eph. 1. 18 19. 1 Cor. 2. 12. 1 Joh. 5. 20. 2. A powerful influence Jesus Christ both opened the understanding of his Disciples Luke 24. 45. And caused their hearts to burn within them when he spake unto them ver 32. By this powerful influence the spirit makes every faculty and affection of the renewed soul to work unto supernatural ends and objects according to its proper manner As the soul in the bodily eye causeth it to see and in the ear causeth it to hear and in the tongue causeth it to speak c. So the spirit in the mind causeth it to understand aright and in every affection causeth it freely to choose and cleave unto Christ and to God in him and in every affection causeth it to move towards Christ and God in such a manner and way of working as is suitable to its nature This the Holy Spirit doth by creating and implanting in-dwelling lively spiritual gifts of grace in the soul which he thereby sanctifieth and lifteth up unto God in Christ the faculties and affections which were by nature set upon the world and sin and self being now by grace set upon things above and so are said to be quickned and made alive unto God Hence every spiritual gift of grace whereby any faculty and affection of the soul is sanctified is called the spirit of that faculty and affection The sanctified disposition of the mind is called the spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7 The gift of faith is called the spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. So the gift of love and of fear of the Lord is called the spirit of love 2 Tim. 1. 7. and the spirit of the fear of the Lord Isa 11. 2. Because the Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul infuseth those gifts into it and so reneweth the faculties and affections of it Psal 51. 10. And 2. Quickeneth and exciteth these spiritual gifts and by them the faculties and affections unto spiritual acts Without this quickening influence those spiritual gifts would be in the soul un-acted as the bodily senses are in sleep or as a ship in a calme at Sea Act◠agimus We act but instrumentally subordinately under the spirit who is the principal efficient and agent in all spiritual good We act but not in our strength nor in the strength of grace received but from the quickening strengthening influence of the Spirit As trees though they have in them a seminal vertue yet except they be helped by influence from heaven cannot bring forth their fruits so it is with these spiritual trees of righteousnesse as believers are called in Isa 61. 3. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. Vse For Instruction threefold 1. Hence we may learn the true Reason why the sudden resolutions of many to reforme this and that