pulls not from him they part with life Ay why not this life is but a death and he is our life for whom we lose it All these do but increase the victories and triumphs of Love and make it more glorious as they tell of her multiplying labours to that Champion they are not only Conquerors but more than Conquerors by multiply'd Victories and they gain in them all both more honour and more strength they are the fitter for new adventures and so more than simple Conquerors We overcome and are sure not to lose former Conquests but to add more and Conquer on to the end which other Conquerors are not sure of oftentimes they out-live their own Successes and Renown and lose on a sudden what they have been gaining a whole life time not so here We are secured in the Author of our Victories 't is through him that hath loved us and he cannot grow less yea shall still grow greater till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Having given the Challenge and finding none to answer and that all the most apparent are in a most Rhetorical Accumulation silenced Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword c. He goes on confidently in the triumph and avers his assurance of full and final Victory against all imaginable power of all the Creatures neither Death nor Life nor the fear of the most terrible Death nor the hope or love of the most desirable life And in the height of this Courage and Confidence he supposes impossible Enemies Angels Principalities c. unless you take it of the Angels of Darkness only but if it could be possible that the other should offer at such a thing they would be too weak for it No sense of any present things or apprehensions of things to come not any thing within the vast circle of the World above or below nor any Creature can do it Here Sin is not specify'd because he is speaking of outward oppositions and difficulties expressly and because that is removed by the former challenge Who shall accuse That asserting a free and final acquittance of all sin a pardon of the curse which yet will never encourage any of these to sin that live in the assurance of this love Oh! no and these general words do include it too Nothing present nor to come c. So it is carried clear and is the satisfying comfort of all that Jesus Christ hath drawn after him and united in his love 'T is enough whatsoever they may be separated from the things or persons dearest in this World 't is no matter the Jewel is safe none can take my Christ from me and I safe in him as his purchase none can take me from him And being still in his love and through him in the Fathers love that is sufficient What can I fear What can I want All other hazards signifie nothing how little value are they of And for how little a while am I in danger of them Methinks all should look on a Believer with an emulous eye and wish his estate more than a Kings Alas poor Creatures rich men great men Princes and Kings what vain things are they that you embrace and cleave to whatsoever they be soon must you part can you say of any of them who shall separate us Storms may arise and scatter Ships that Sail fairly together in fair weather thou mayest be removed by publick Commotions and Calamities from thy sweet Dwellings and Societies and Estates c. You may even live to see and seek your parting At last you must part for you must die then farewel Parks and Palaces Gardens and Honours and even Crowns themselves then dearest Friends Children and Wife must be parted with And what hast thou left poor Soul that hast not Christ but that which thou wouldst gladly part with and canst not The condemning guilt of all thy Sins But the Soul that is in Christ when other things are pull'd away he feels little or nothing he cleaves to Christ and these separations pain him not Yea when that great Separatist Death comes that breaks all other unions even that of the Soul and Body yet so far is it from separating the Believers Soul from its Beloved Lord Jesus that on the contrary it carries it into the nearest union with him and fullest enjoyment of him for â—ver SERMON XVIII Isaiah LIX 1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear OUR vain minds are naturally fruitful in nothing more than in mistakes of God for the most part we think not on him and when we do it we fancy him according to our own affections which are wholly perverse and crooked Men commonly judg it a vain thing to spend much pains and time in Worshipping him and if they are convinc'd in this and tied to it by the profession of his Name then they think all Religion is a Shell of external diligences and observances and count it strange if this be not accepted In the former Chapter we find this in the Prophets contest with the people about their Fasting and their opinion of it he cuts up their Sacrifices and lets them see what was within the skin was sound and look'd well but being opened the entrails were found rotten And here he enters into another contest against the Latent Atheism of their hearts who after their manner of seeking God not finding him and not being delivered are ready to think that he either cannot or will not help and rather rest on that gross mistake than enquire into themselves for the true cause of their continuing Calamities they incline rather to think 't is some Indisposition in God to help than what it truly is a want of Reformation in themselves that hinder it It is not likely that they would say thus not speak it out in plain terms no nor possibly not speak it formally and distinctly within not so much as in their thoughts and yet they might have a confus'd dark conceit of this And much of the Atheism of mans heart is of this fashion not formed into resolv'd Propositions but Latent in confus'd Notions of it scarce discernable by himself at least not search'd out and discerned in his own Breast there they are and he sees them not Not written assertions but flying fumes filling the Soul and hindering it to read the Characters of God that are writ upon the Conscience Impenitency of men in any condition and particularly under distress is from the want of clear apprehensions and deep perswasions of God of his Just Anger provok'd by their Sin and of his sweetness and readiness to forgive and embrace a returning Sinner his Soveraign power able to rid them out of the greatest trouble his Ear quick enough to hear the cries yea the least whispering
Jo. 13. as it is said of the Ointment that Mary poured upon his feet in the foregoing Chapter Job 12. Amongst many other of his gracious Qualities that might be mentioned there is one we cannot but take particular notice of His Love the rather because the fragrant smell of his Graces is here said to beget Love Now you know that one of the strongest attractives of Love is Love Magnes amoris amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What made him empty himself of his Glory as the Apostle speaks but because he was full of love What made him take on the form of a Servant suffer Heat and Cold and Hunger and Poverty but Love What other was it made him digest the Persecutions Revilings and the contradiction of Sinners but Love But the great wonder of his Love is this He died to become our Life who hath loved me and given himself for me says the great Apostle St. Paul And hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us says the beloved Apostle St. John Was it the Nails that held him fast to the Cross when they tauntingly bid him come down No it was his Love that was stronger than Death But all this was nothing to the angry countenance of his Father nor would he ever have ventured upon that if infinite Love had not perswaded him no wonder if the Apostle call it a Love that passeth knowledge That you may know saith he the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 19. Know it we may and should but we must know withal that we cannot know it fully And this is our comfort that it is greater than we can comprehend for if it were not so it would be less than we stand in need of So much of his Love we may understand as may abundantly inflame our hearts with love to him for this purpose hath he revealed it and made his Name like an Ointment poured out And that 's the second thing His Name That 's the report and manifestation of his Excellencies and if you will take it properly of his Name Jesus and Christ or the Messiah it is true of them for they are significative of these Excellencies Ask an afflicted Conscience if Jesus that is a Saviour be not a precious Word that hath a Sovereign value both a refreshing smell and a healing vertue The Hammer of the Law may break a stony heart in pieces but it is only the blood of Jesus that can soften it and where it is effectually poured either upon a wounded Soul it heals it or upon a hard heart it mollifies it For that other Name Christ well may it be called an Ointment poured out for it signifies his Anointing and that the sweet savour of this Name may effect read but that one passage Isai. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings c. What inestimable riches of Consolation is there in each of these effects to which Christ was Anointed and yet we find not a word among them all for a proud stiff-necked Sinner Here are good tidings but it is to the meek comfortable binding up but it is for the broken hearted Liberty but it is for Captives and Prisoners groaning under their Chains and desirous to be delivered Not for such as delight in their bondage there is Oil of joy and garments of praise but they are provided for mourning dejected Spirits that need them not to the Impediment On the contrary there is a terrible word interjected in the midst of these Promises The day of vengeance of our God and that is the portion of Christ's Enemies and such are all incorrigible sinners Thus it is at the same Banquet from which you come one may be filled with Spiritual Joy and the very Person that sits next be filled with a secret Curse and return more miserable than he came But let the disconsolate lamenting Sinner lift up his head and behold Christ the Son of God anointed a Prophet to preach Salvation and liberty to such a Priest to purchase it and a King to give it Now the pouring out of this Name is divers Before the coming of the Messiah his Name was poured out in Prophesies and Promises in Types and legal Ceremonies but more fully when the Word was made flesh then Angels and holy Men yea and Women spake clearly of him What was his Fathers voice at his Baptism The Holy Ghosts descending What was his own Preaching and Miracles and Conversation but all the pouring forth of his precious Name And in his Sufferings and Death what think you Was not his Name then poured forth yea his Blood with it Yes truly being extended on the Cross and his Body pierced in divers place his precious Ointments were shed abroad towards all the Quarters of the World their smell both reached Heaven and the visible Earth God the Father as he was said to do in Noahs Sacrifice did much more smell in his Sacrifice a savour of rest appeasing his wrath and all Believers a savour of peace a quieting of their Consciences And as Aâ—omatick Spices when they are pounded out and beaten send forth their sweet smells most liberally so in these his Sufferings did the obedience patience and love and all the Graces and the Name of our Saviour most clearly manifest themselves to the World After he was Dead they Embalmed his Body but they knew not that his own Vertue would do more than all the Ointments and Spices in the World could do not only by preserving his Body from Corruption but by raising it the third day And truly after his Resurrection his own Disciples knew his Name better than ever before and yet more fully after his Ascention when the Holy Ghost came down upon them which was poured from Heaven on them for this very end That they might pour forth Christ's Name to the ends of the Earth Act. 2. 8. And they did so carrying this precious Treasure in Earthen Vessels as that Elect Vessel St. Paul speaks And ever since God hath continued the pouring forth of this Name by the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel 'T is true there are too many of those that are employed in this work that seek themselves and their own ends rather than his Glory whom they Preach And they that are more upright the very best of them are sinful Men but how mean and unworthy soever they be despise not the Gospel let the sweet Name which they pour forth prevail for it self that so you may reverence and love it if you would have Salvation by it and there is no other Name under Heaven by which that can be obtained As this Name is poured forth in the Gospel Preached so in the Sacraments annexed to it and particularly in this when the Bread is broken and the Wine poured out And was not this the earnest desire of the Receivers of it this day it should
not only those hidden from Men but even from my self as is clearly his meaning by the words precedeing who knows the errors of his Life Therefore is it necessary that we desire light of God The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord says Solomon searching the innermost parts of the Belly But it is a Candle unlighted when he does not illuminate it for that search Oh! What a deal of Vanity and love of this World Envy and secret Pride lurks in many of our hearts that we do not at all perceive till God causeth us to see it leading us in as he did the Prophet in the Vision to see the Idolatry of the Jews in his very Temple by which they had provoked him to forsake it and go far from his sanctuary and having discovered one parcel leads him in further and makes him enter through the Wall and adds often Son of Man hast thou seen these I will cause thee see yet more abominations and yet more abominations Thus is it within many of us that should be his Temples but we have multitude of Images of Jealousie one lying hid behind another till he thus discover them to us Oh! What need have we to entreat him thus What I see not shew thou me Now in both these both in the knowledge of our Rule and of our selves though there may be some useful subserviency of the Ministry of Men yet the great Teacher of the true knowledge of his Law and of himself and of our selves is God Men may speak to the Ear but his Chair is in Heaven that Teaches hearts Cathedram habet in caelo Matchless Teacher that Teacheth more in one hour than Men can do in a whole Age That can cure the invincible unteachableness of the dullest heart Gives understanding to the simple and opens the eyes of the Blind So then would we be made wise wise for Eternity learned in real living Divinity Let us sit down at his feet and make this our continual request What I see not teach thou me And if I have done c. That 's any iniquity that I yet know not of any hidden Sin let me but once see it and I hope thou shalt see it no more within me not willingly lodged and entertained This speaks an entire total giving up all Sin and proclaming utter defiance and enmity against it casting out what is already found out without delay and resolving that still in further search as it shall be more discovered it shall be forthwith dislodged without a thought of sparing or partial indulgence to any thing that is Sin or like it or may any way befriend it or be an occasion and incentive of it This is that absolute renouncing of Sin and surrender of the whole Soul and our whole selves to God which whosoever do not heartily consent to and resolve on their Religion is in vain and which is here the point their Affliction is in vain whatsoever they have suffered they have gained nothing by all their sufferings if their hearts remain still Selfwill'd Stubborn Untamed and unpliable to God And this makes their miseries out of measure miserable and their sins out of measure sinful whereas were it thus qualify'd and had it any operation this way towards the subjecting of their hearts unto God Affliction were not to be called misery but would go under the Title of a blessedness Blessed is the Man whom thou correctest and teachest him out of thy Law That suiting with this here desired I have born Chastisement What I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do it no more Oh! Were it thus with us M. B. how might we rejoyce and insert into our Praises all that is come upon us if it had wrought or advanced any thing of this kind within us this blessed compliance with the will of God not entertaining any thing knowingly that displeases him finding a pleasure in the denial and destruction of our own most beloved pleasures at his appointment and for his sake whatsoever is in us and dearest to us that would offend us that would draw us to offend him were it the right hand let it be cut off or the right eye let it be pluckt out Or to make shorter work let the whole Man die at once Crucified with Jesus That we may be henceforth dead to Sin dead to the World dead to our selves and alive only to God SERMON III. PREFACE THere is no Exercise so delightful to those that are truly godly as the solemn Worship of God if they find his powerful and sensible presence in it and indeed there is nothing on earth more like to Heaven than that is But when he withdraws himself and witholds the influence and breathings of his Spirit in his service then good Souls find nothing more lifeless and uncomfortable but there is this difference even at such a time betwixt them and those that have no Spiritual life in them at all that they find and are sensible of this difference whereas the other know not what it means And for the most part the greatest number of those that meet together with a profession to Worship God yet are such as do not understand this difference Custom and formality draws many to the ordinary places of publick Worship and fills too much of the Room And somtimes Novelty and Curiosity to places not ordinary has a large share But how few are there that come on purpose to meet with God in his Worship and to find his power in it strengthning their weak Faith and weakning their strong Corruptious affording them provision of Spiritual strength and comfort against times of trial And in a word advancing them some steps forward in their Journey towards Heaven where Happiness and Perfection dwells Certainly these sweet effects are to be found in these Ordinances if we would look after them let it grieve us then that we have so often lost our labour in the Worship of God through our own neglect and intreat the Lord that at this time he would not send us away empty for how weak so ever the means be if he put his strength the work shall be done in some measure to his Glory and our Edification Now that he may be pleased to do so to leave ablessing behind him let us Pray c. Isaiah XXVIII 5 6. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a Crown of Glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his People And for a spirit of judgment to him that sittest in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battel to the gate ALL the Works of Divine Providence are full of Wisdom and Justice even every one severally considered yet we observe them best to be such when we take notice of their order and mutual aspect one to another whether in the succession of times or such passages as are contemporary and fall in together at one and the same time
1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he dwelt in a Tabernacle among us and we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Fathers glory and the Character of his Person And under these expressions lies that remarkable mystery of the Sons Eternal relation to the Father which is rather humbly to be adored than boldly to be explained either by God's perfect understanding of his own Essence or by any other notion It is true he is called the Wisdom of the Father but this Wisdom is too wonderful for us He is called the Word but what this Word means I think we shall not well know till we see him Face to Face and contemplate him in the Light of Glory mean while we may see him to be the Glory of the Lord in a safer way and sufficient measure to guide us on to that clear vision reserved above for us We saw his glory says that sublime Evangelist but how could this excellent glory be seen by sinful Men and not astonish and strike dead the beholders He was made Flesh and dwelt among us says he and so we saw his glory That Majesty that we could never have lookt upon he veiled with humane flesh that we might not die yea live by seeing him There he stood behind the wall and shewed himself through the Trellis In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily for who could have endured the splendor of the Godheads fulness if that Cloud of his Body had not been drawn betwixt And through it did shine that Grace and Truth that Wisdom and Power in the work of our Redemption whereby he was clearly manifested to be the glory of the Lord. Surely we need not now ask the Church or a believing Soul what is her beloved more than another or if we do well may she answer He is the chiefest among Ten Thousand and altogether lovely for he is the Light of the World and the glory of the Lord. Let not the numerous Titles of Earthly Potentates be once admitted into comparison with these If we believe David in his 62 Psal. 9. verse the stateliest things and persons in the World being Ballanced with vanity it self are found lighter than it and shall we offer to weigh them with Christ. If we knew him righly we would not sell the least glance or beam of this Light of his Countenance for the highest favour of mortal Men though it were constant and unchangeable which it is not it is ignorance of Christ that maintains the credit of those vanities we admire The Christian that is truly acquainted with him enamoured with the brightness of his beauty can generously trample upon the smilings of the World with the one foot and her frownings with the other if he be rich or honourable or both yet he glories not in that but Christ who is the glory of the Lord is even then his chiefest glory And the Light of Christ obscures that Worldly splendor in his estimation and as the enjoyment of Christ overtops all his other joys so it overcomes his griefs as that great Light drowns the Light of prosperity it shines bright in the darkness of Affliction no dungeon so close that can keep out the rays of Christ's love from his beloved Prisoners The World can no more take away this Light than it can give it Unto the just ariseth Light in Darkness sayeth the Psalmist and When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me says the Church in the 7th of Micah 8 verse And as this Light is a Comfort so it is likewise a Defence that suffers no more of distress to come near the godly than is profitable for them Therefore we find very frequently in Scripture where this Light and Glory is mentioned Protection and Safety joyntly spoken of The Lord is my Light and withal my Salvation whom shall I fear says David Psal 27. 1. The Lord is a Sun and he is a Shield too Psal. 84. 21. And truly I think him Shot-proof that hath the Sun for his Buckler And for glory Upon all the Glory shall be a Defence says our Prophet in his 4. Chapter 5. verse And the Prophet Zach. where he calls the Lord the Churches Glory in the midst of her he calls him likewise a Wall of fire round about her Zach. 2. 4. The only way then to he safe is to keep this Light and this Glory intire to part with any part of this glory is to make a breach in that Wall of fire and if that be a means of safety let all Men judge No keep it whole and then they must come through the fire that will assault you Nor is this Light only defensive of the Church that embraceth it but likewise destructive of all adverse powers see a clear Testimony for this in the 10. of Isaiah 17 18. verses And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame speaking there of the Assyrians and it shall burn and devour his Thorns and his Briers in one day and shall consume the glory of his Forrest and of his Fruitful Field both Soul and Body and they shall be as when a Standard bearer fainteth c. Let ever then the Church of God entirely observe this Light and Glory of the Lord and she shall undoubtedly be preserved by it But to close in a word first to those that know this Light and then to those that are yet strangers to it You who know Christ glory in him perpetually well may he be your glory when he is the Glory of the Lord There are some that pretend love to Christ and yet a taunting word of some profane miscreant will almost make them ashamed of him how would they die for Christ that are so tender as not to endure a Scoff for him Where is that Spirit of Moses that accounted the very reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt O learn to glory in Christ think highly of him and speak so too Methinks it is the Discourse in the World becomes Christians best to be speaking one to another honorably of Jesus Christ and of all Men the Preachers of his Gospel should be most frequent in this Subject This should be their great Theam to extol and commend the Lord Jesus that they may enflame many hearts with his love and best can they do this who are most strongly taken with this love themselves Such will most gladly abase themselves that Christ may be magnified and whatsoever be their excellencies they still account Christ their glory and they are richly repayed for he accounts them his glory this would seem a strange word if it were not the Apostles They are the Messengers of the Churches and the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23.
his Soul keeping it from sinking in the deeps of Afflictions Yea that big word which one says of his morally just Man is true of the believer Si fractus illabatur orbis Though the very Fabrick of the World were falling about him yet would he stand upright and undaunted in the midst of its ruins In this confidence considered in it self we may observe the Object of it The loving kindness of the Lord. 2. The manner or way by which he expects to enjoy it The Lord will Command it 3. The time in the day His loving kindness He says not return to the House of God for deliverance from the heavy oppression and sharp reproaches of the Enemy which would have answered more particularly and expressly to his present griefs but his loving kindness And the reason of thus expressing himself I conceive to be two fold 1. In the assurance of this is necessarily comprised the certainty of all other good things This special favour and benignity of the Lord doth engage his Power and Wisdom both which you know are infinite to the procurement of every thing truly good for those whom he so favours Therefore it is that David chuses rather to name the streams of particular mercies in this their living Source and Fountain than to specifie them severally Nor is it only thus more compendious but fuller too which are the two great advantages of Speech and this I take to be the other reason 2. A Man may enjoy great deliverances and many positive benefits from the hand of God and yet have no share in his loving kindness How frequently doth God heap Riches and Honour and Health on these he hates and the common gifts of the Mind too Wisdom and Learning yea the common gifts of his own Spirit and gives a fair and long day of external prosperity to those on whom he never vouchsafed the least glance of his favourable Countenance yea on the contrary gives all those specious gifts to them with a secret curse as here as he gave a King in wrath to his people so he often gives Kingdoms in his wrath to Kings Therefore David looks higher than the very Kingdom which God promised him and gave him when he speaks of his loving kindness In a word he resolves to solace himself with the assurance of this though he was stript of all other comforts and to quiet his Soul herein till deliverance come and when it shall come and whatsoever mercies with it to receive them as fruits and effects of this loving kindness Not prizing them so much for themselves as for the impressions of that love which is upon them and it is that Image and Superscription that both engages and moves him most to pay his tribute of praise And truly this is every where David's temper his frequent distresses and wants never excite him so much to desire any particular comfort in the Creature as to intreat the presence and favour of God himself His saddest times are when to his sense this favour is eclipsed In my prosperity I said I shall not be moved And what was his adversity that made him of another mind Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled This veriâ—ies his position in that same Psalm In thy favour is Life Thus in the 63. Psalm at the beginning My Soul thirsteth for thee in a dry Land where there is no water not for water where there is none but for thee where there is no water Therefore he adds in the 3. verse Thy loving kindness is better than Life and all that be truly wise and of this mind will subscribe to his choice Let them enjoy this loving kindness and prize it that what ere befalls them their happiness and joy is above the reach of all calamities let them be derided and reproached abroad yet still this inward perswasion makes them glad and contented as a rich Man said though the people hated and taunted him yet when he came home and lookt upon his Chests Egomet mihi plaudo domi With how much better reason do Believers bear out external injuries what inward contentment when they consider themselves truly enricht with the favour of God And as this makes them contemn the contempts that the World puts upon them so likewise it breeds in them a neglect and disdain of those poor trifles that the World admires The Sum of their desires is as that Cynicks was of the Sun-shine that the rays of the love of God may shine constantly upon them The favourable aspect and large proffers of Kings and Princes would be unwelcome to them if they should stand betwixt them and the sight of that Sun And truly they have reason What are the highest things the World affords What are great Honors and great Estates but great Cares and Griefs well drest and coloured over with a shew of pleasure that promise contentment and perform nothing but vexation That they are not saâ—isfying is evident for the obtaining of much of them doth but stretch the appetite and teach Men to desire more they are not solid neither will not the pains of a Gout of Strangury or some such malady to say nothing of the worst the pains of a guilty conscience blast all these deligâ—tâ— What relish finds a Man in large Revenues and â—â—aâ—ely Buildings in high Preferments and honour able Titles when either his Body or Mind is in anguish And besides the emptiness of all these things you know they want one main point Continuance But the loving kindness of God hath all requisites to make the Soul happy O satisfie us early with Goodness or Mercy says Moses That we may rejoyce and be glad all our days Ps. 90. 14. There is fulness in that for the vastest desires of the Soul satisfie us there is solid contentment that begets true joy and gladness and there is permanency all our days It is the only comfort of this Life and assurance of a better This were a large Subject to insist on but certainly the naming of his loving kindness should beget in each heart an high esteem of it an ardent desire after it And if it do so with you then know that it is only to be found in the way of holiness He is a holy God and can love nothing that 's altogether unlike himself There must always be some similitude and conformity of nature to ground kindness and friendship and to maintain it that saying is true idem velle idem nolle firma amicitia What gross self flattery is it to think that God's loving kindness can be towards you while you are in love with Sin which he so perfectly hates How can the profane Swearer or voluptuous Person or the Oppressor and Covetous or the close Hypocrite worse than any of them rest upon the loving kindness of the Lord in the day of troubles No sure But the terror of his wrath shall be added to all their other calamities and they shall find it heavier than all the
which accompanies them Yet notwithstanding all these causes of grief or fear our causes of praise are both more and greater and it is no reason that the sense of our own evil should prejudge that acknowledgment of God's goodness yea rather it should stir us up to extol it so much the more Cease not to bemoan the evils of your own hearts but withal forget not to magnifie the riches of his grace who hath given himself for you and to you These two will not hinder one another but the due intermixture of them will make a very good harmony And the fruit of them will be this you shall have still more cause to praise and less to complain When the Lord shall find you humble acknowledgers of his grace he will delight to bestow more grace upon you and will subdue those iniquities for you which you cannot and though he is pleased to do it but gradually by little and little yet in the end the conquest shall be full and then he who is the Author and Finisher of your Faith tho â—t is his own work yet because it is done in you he shall account the Victory yours as obtained by you and give you as Conquerors the Crown of Glory To him that overcometh saith he will I give to sit with me in my Throne c. There is nothing here but from free grace the courage and strength to fight in this Spiritual warfare the victory by fighting and the Crown by Victory flow all from that Fountain In all these things we are more than Conquerors saith the Apostle but how Through him that loved us Therefore if we desire to be such let us humble our selves before the Throne of grace intreating both for grace and glory in the Name of Christ our Mediator Cant. I. 3. Because of the Savour of thy good Ointments Thy Name is as Ointment poured forth Therefore do the Virgins love thee THE natural workings and desires of things are agreeable to their being The Beasts according to their sensitive Life seek those things that tend to the good and preservation of that Life and affect nothing higher than those and they are satisfied Man except such as are in the lowest Stage and border upon the Beasts finds Nature even corrupt Nature raising him to higher desires and designs And yet of the best of them the Apostles maxim holds true They that are after the Flesh mind the things of the Flesh and yet he subjoins the excellency of some Men beyond the best naturalist They that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5. They must be confined to things natural but are strongly moved towards Spiritual blessings and Christ the Sum of them And having once tasted of his sweetness can say Because of the savour of thy good Ointments c. They that are elevated to a supernatural Being can admit nothing into competition with his love and this it is that lies under these words Because of the savour of thy good Ointments c. Numbers have promiscously been his guests at this time and the greatest number think they came to good purpose but know that you are so far from partaking of Christ in the Sacrament that you have not so much as smelt his Perfumes if you be not strongly taken with his love Great are the Praises and many the Duties you owe him for so rich favours and therefore shew your good will and endeavour some payment But know that none of them are current except they be stampt with Love if you love not you do nothing all your Labours and Services without it are as so many Cyphers they amount to just nothing And with it the meanest of them will find acceptance You have briefly in the words Christ's loveliness and the Christians love the former the cause of the latter both couched under borrowed Terms according to the whole strain of this allegorical Song to which the true Experimental knowledge of this Divine love is the best Commentary In all Love Three things are necessary 1 Some goodness in the object either true and real or apparent and seeming to be so for the Soul be it never so evil can affect nothing but what it takes some way to be good 2 There must be a knowledge of that goodness for the most excellent things if altogether unknown affect not 3 There must be a suitableness or agreement of that good thing with the nature of those which should affect it otherwise indeed how good soever it is it is not good to them Now all these we have clearly in this Love 1 The goodness the excellency of Christ exprest by precious Ointments 2 The manifestation and making of it known signified by the pouring forth of his Name 3 His fitness and congruity with them here mentioned under this denomination Virgins such as have the senses of their Souls not stopt with the pollutions of the World but Pure and Active and therefore as the Apostle speaks Heb. 5. 14. exercised to discern good and evil These three requisites thus happily met must needs produce Love Therefore the Virgins love thee Because of the savour of thy good Ointments How true is the Apostles word when he calls Christ the Believers All things and that radical grace of Faith because it apprehends Christ hath a kind of universality and it is reasonable too it alone being to the Soul what all the five senses are to the Body It is the eye and the Mouth a wonderful Eye It sees him that is invisible Heb. 4. 27. The Mouth it tastes that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2. 3. Yea take these two both together in one place Psal. 34. 8. O taste and see that the Lord is good 'T is the Souls Ear for what else is meant when it is said He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear And was it not that touch which Christ took special notice of and with good reason distinguished it from the common touch of the multitude that was crowding about him That touch alone draws vertue from him Some hath touched me for there is a vertue gone out of me And lastly as it is all those other senses and Christ its object in Reference to them all so here in its Smelling it finds the savour of his fragrant graces and by that works love Because of the savour c. What strange odds is there betwixt the opinion of Christ's Spouse and the World that knows him not They wonder what she sees in him desirable she wonders that they are not all ravisht with his excellencies They prefer the basest vanities in the World before him she finds the choicest and richest things in the World too mean to resemble the smallest part of his worth See in this Song how busily and skilfully she goes to all the Creatures and Crops the rarest peices in Nature and Art to set forth her well Beloved and seems to find them all too poor for her purpose one while she
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8
little Rivulet running a while in its own Channel in the foregoing Discourse falls here in again to the main Current of the Doctrine of Love begun in the former Chapter And here he chooses adapting it to the strain of the Discourses immediately foregoing it to express this under the Notion of a Debt Owe nothing but Love 1. Other Debt removed Owe nothing That is be not willing to continue Debters of any thing to any by undue retaining of such things which being paid are not owing 2 This is a constant Debt that you must still pay and yet still owe Love and the reason added is most enforcing that we be willing and continue both Payers and yet Debters of it the dueness of it appears in this That the Law requires it and the compleatness of it That it is all the Law requires Love is the fulfilling of the Law which is amplified in the two subsequent verses This is most fully true take Love fully as it looks on its full Object God and Man and so it is the fulfilling of the whole Law that relates to those two in its Two Tables Take it particularly as acting towards men as here it its and so it fulfills that part of the Law that whole Table that respects Man the most of those Commandments are expressly here set down and the omission of one is fully supplied by that additament if there be any other Then again it is cleared by the common aim and result of them all to keep our Neighbour undamaged and that Love doth most surely and fully therefore fulfills all That negative work no ill answers the strain of all the Commandments which is to defend our Neighbours from our ill being most of them such and all of them such that are here specifi'd yet both they and this sum of them involving the contrary working of all possible good to our Neighbour in which still Love suits it nothing being both more averse from wrong and more active in good than Love as the same Apostle hath it 1 Cor. 13. Besides that it cannot do no not so much as think evil it is naturally carried to bounty and kindness and cannot cease from doing good a Plant that is fruitfull all the Year long The Apostle hath very good Authority for this abridgment of the Law our Saviour himself Matth. 22. 40. and he takes it out of the Books of the Law themselves and certifies us that it is the substance and sum both of Law and Prophets Were this Love absolutely perfect the fulfilling of the Law would be so too and where it is sincere as the Apostle requires it there is a Sincere and Evangelical Obedience or fulfilling of the Law In the Text consider 1 The largeness of its Object 2 The largeness of its Acting 3 The height of its true Original First So far as thou canst acquit thy self owe nothing else to any but Love owe that to all not alike familiar Convâ—rse necessarily to all nor alike measure of benefiâ—ence nor alike degree of love but yet love alike sincere and real to all not either a false or an empty fair Carriage but holy Christian Love Love rooted in thy heart and springing up in thy actions even towards all men as thy opportunity and ability serves thee and their condition requires of thee not hating noâ— despising any for their poverty in Estate or deformity of Body or defects of Mind nor for that which works most on men Injuries done to thy self all they can do cannot give thee an acquittance or free thee of this Debt of Love for thou art bound to another This is the Rule of Jesus Christ and the Badg of Christians to love their very Enemies but this oh how rare How few attain it Yea how few endeavour it On the contrary it is by many given over as a desperate impossible business they judging of it not according to that Spirit of Christ that is his but according to the Corrupt rancour and bitterness of their own natural perverse Spirits yea and too many disdain it as a poorness and sheepishness of Spirit to suffer and forgive be it so yet such a Sheepishness as makes a man like Jesus Christ who as a Sheep before the Shearers is Dumb so he opened not his mouth when his heart within was compassionate towards them as appeared when he opened it concerning them Father forgive them for they know not what they do This is true greatness of Spirit to partake of His that is the highest and best of Spirits and is the Spirit of Meekness and Love How much is this above the common Spirit of the World Truly base and poor is that which is discomposed and put out of frame with every touch whereas this is mighty and triumphs indeed over all provocations and injuries 2. Let us consider the largeness of its acting it goes through the Law fulfils it all That command that is first in the second Table that is not here exprest is it not Love that makes all concerned in it to fulfil it That produceth Mildness and Moderation in Superiours and Faithfulness and willing Obedience in Inferiours makes both Authority and Subjection sweet and easie where Love commands and Love obeys And for the next Thou shalt not kill Doth not Love as the Sun beams put out the fire by its Divine heat eat out the Earthy yea the Infernal fire of fixed Malice or rash Anger that burns naturally in the hearts of men Such anger is called Brutish Ezek. 21. 31. Burning or Brutish And on the contrary Prov. 17. 27. The ambiguity is happy of an excellent or of a cool Spirit for the cool Spirit is so cool from base passion but burning truly with this Love and then is by very small and many times meerly imaginary causes so easily blown up and that flames forth into gross Murders or at least such Injuries and Violences or Contentions and Revilings as go in Gods account and are writ down in his Book for Murders And he doth not mis-judge nor misname things but they are really what he accounts them Love can generously pass over these things about which Folly and Pride make such a noise Oh! can I bear this and that and thou wouldest by so saying speak thy stout heartedness Fool is this stoutness and strength Is it not rather the greatest weakness to be able to bear nothing Have not the weakest persons much of that kind of stoutness and strength who are the soonest moved and disquieted Women and Children and Sick or Aged Persons But Love Christian Love to thy Brother makes the mind truly strong and composed not easily stir'd against him for every trifle nay nor for greater matters Love can endure much yea all things says the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. hath strength to stand under them and stand firm whereas base minds void of Love break all to pieces under a very small weight bears all as the supporters of a strong and firm Building or rather
as a House covers all for so it signifies doth not blaze abroad the failingâ— of men yea it hides much covers a multitude of sins not only from the eyes of others but even from a mans own eyes makes him not behold and look on those things that might provoke him yea it is Ingenious and Inventive of the fairest Constructions of things to take them by the best side in the favourablest sense and so long as there is any agreeable way to Interpret any thing favourably will not have a hard thought of it Thinks no ill as there it is not only hath not active evil thoughts of Revenge or returning Evil but willingly doth not judge ill of what is done by others and that might be so lookt on as to provoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not reckon wrongs so high as want of Charity moves the most to do sets them low and as a healthful Constitution is sweet it self and relishes all things right there is more true pleasure and content of mind in forgiving than ever any man found in revenge that is but a Feverish delight that Malice and Anger hath wrought working perhaps greedily but is indeed a Distemper This Love is the very root of Peace and Concord a humble Grace that is not lifted up and Insolent as the word there is and so doth not breed Jars about Punctiliâ—e esteems so well of others and so meanly of it self that it cannot well be crost by any in that matter of under valuing But vain Spirits are puft up with a little approbation and as easily kindled up with any affront or apprehended disgrace Love is not lightly put out of temper as sickly Constitutions a Fit of a Fever or Ague with any blast or wrong touch of Diet it is of a stronger digestion and firmer health Then for that Not commit Adultery All things of that kind though they spring from a kind of Love yet not from this Love from above but as the Apostle James distinguishes wisdom from the Love that is sensual and devilish Love is not the true name of it but base and brutish Lust and generally all prophane Societies and sortings of men one with another are most contrary to this pure Love The Drunkards that are Cup-friends as they are full of Jars and have no constancy but are unstable as that wherein their Friendship lies their Liquor are a vile despicable Society not worthy of Men much less of Christians This sin hath affininity with Uncleanness and is usually ranked there Right Love to a Tipler is not to sit down and guzzle with him but to reprove and labour to reclaim him and where that cannot be done to avoid him To wicked persons we owe not a complacency or delight which is most contrary to this Love but hating their Sin we owe them Love and the desiring and as far as Love can the procuring their Conversion and Salvation Wicked Converse cannot consist with this Love which is the fulfilling of the Law and a Combination for the breaking of it and the joining their strength together for that end Love rejoiceth not in Iniquity but in the Truth makes not men rejoice together in Sin So foul unclean Affections and a Society in order to the gratiâ—ying them is most contrary to it true Love is most tender of the Chastity of others and cannot abide an impute thought in it self So in not Stealing Love would be loth to enrich or advantage it self upon the damage of others in any kind it doth most faithfully â—nd singly seek the profit and prosperity of our Neighbour even as our own And iâ— this took place of how much use were it in the World But oh it is rare This meum and tuum is the grand Cause of the ill understanding and discords that are amongst men when it is not managed by this Love but by Self-love And the tendering and preserving of the good name of our Brethren is a proper and very remarkable fruit of this Love which is so far from forging false defaming Stories that it will rather excuse if it may be done or if not will pity the real failings of men that tend to their reproach and on the contrary will teach men to rejoice in the good carriage and good esteem of their Brethren as of their own In the end Love works such a Complacency in the good of others and such a Contentation with our own Estate that it most powerfully banishes that unruly humour of Coveting which looks on the condition of others with envy and on our own with grudging and discontent This Law of Love written within doth not only rectifie and order the Hands and Tongue but the Jealousies the very stirrings of the Heart it corrects the usual disorder of its motion and bars those uncharitable inordinate thoughts that do so abound and swarm in Carnal minds 3. The Original of this Love is that other Love which corresponds to the other part the first and chief point of the Law our Duty towards God Love to him is the sum and source of all Obedience when the whole Soul and Mind is possest with that then all is acceptable and sweet that he commands first what he commands as immediately referrable to himself and then what is the Rule of our Carriage to men as being prescrib'd and commanded by him For so and no otherwise is this Love the fulfilling of the Law when it flows from that first Love Love to God whose Law it is that commands this other Love to Men. Some may have somewhat like it by a mildness and ingenuity of Nature being inoffensive and well-willing towards all but then only doth it fulfil the Law when out of regard to the Law of God it obeys and obeys out of love to him whose Law it is So then the Love of God in the heart is the Spring of right and holy Love to our Neighbour both 1 because in obedience to him whom we love soveraignly we will love even sincerely because he will have it so That is reason enough to the Soul possest and taken up with his Love It loves nothing how lovely soever but in him and for him in order and subordination to his Love and in respect to his Will and it loves any thing how unlovely soever taking it in that Contemplation It loves not the dearest Friend but in God and can love the hatefullest Enemy for him Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum Aug. His love can beautifie the most unamiable Object and make it lovely He saith of a worthless undeserving Man or thy most undeserving Enemy Love him for my sake because it pleases me that 's reason enough to one that loves him 2 There is that dilateing sweetning Vertue in love to God that it can act no other way to men but as becomes Love Base self-love contracts the heart and is the very root of all Sin the chief wickedness in our corrupt Nature but the Love of God
which some Christians hang too much upon there is in simple trust and reliance on God and in a desire to walk in his ways such a Fort of Peace as all the assaults in the World are not able to make a breach in And to this add that unspeakable delight in walking in his fear joined with this trust The noble ambition of pleasing him makes one careless of pleasing or displeasing all the World Besides the delight in his Commandments so pure so just a Law Holiness victory over Lusts and Temperance hath a sweetness in it that presently pays it self because his Will 'T is the Godly Man alone who by this fixed consideration in God looks the grim Visage of Death in the Face with an unappal'd mind It damps all the joys and defeats all the hopes of the most prosperous proudest and wisest Worldings As he said when shot Avocasti ab optima demonstratione It spoils all their Figures and fine Devices But to the Righteous there is hope in his Death He goes through it without fear without Caligula's Quo vadis Though Riches Honours and all the Glories of this World are with a man yet he fears yea he fears the more for these because here they must end But the good man looks Death out of Countenance in the words of David Though I walk through the Valley and Shadow of Death yet will I fear no Evil for thou art with me SERMON XIII Matth. XIII 3. And he spake many things unto them in Parables saying Behold a Sower went forth to sow c. THE rich bounty of God hath furnisht our Natural Life not barely for strict necessity but with great abundance many kinds of Beasts and Fowls and Fishes and Herbs and Fruits has he provided for the use of man Thus our Spiritual Life likewise is supported with a variety the Word the food of it hath not only all necessary Truths once simply set down but a great variety of Doctrine for our more abundant Instruction and Consolation Amongst the rest this way of Similitudes hath a notable commixture of profit and delight Parables not unfolded and understood are a Veil as here to the multitude and in that are a great Judgment as Isa. 6. 9. cited here but when cleared and made transparent then they are a Glass to behold Divine things in more commodiously and suitably to our way all things are big with such resemblances but they require the dexterous hand of an active Spirit to bring them forth This way besides other advantages is much grac'd and commended by our Saviours frequent use of it That here fitted to the occasion multitudes coming to hear him and many not a whit the better He instructs us in this point the great difference between the different hearts of men so that the same Word hath very different success in them In this Parable we shall consider these three things 1 The Nature of the Word in it self 2 The sameness and commonness of the dispensation 3 The difference of the operation and production The word Seed hath in it a productive Vertue to bring forth Fruit according to its kind that the Fruit a new life not only a new habitude and fashion of life without but a new nature a new kind of life within new thoughts a new estimate of things new delights and actions When the Word reveals God his greatness and holiness then it begets pious fear and reverence and study of conformity to him when it reveals his goodness and mercy it works love and confidence when it holds up in our view Christ Crucified it Crucifies the Soul to the World and the World to it when it represents these rich things laid up for us that blest Inheritance of the Saints then it makes all the lustre of this World vanish shews how poor it is weans and calls off the heart from them raising it to these higher hopes and sets it on the project of a Crown and so is a Seed of noble thoughts and of a suitable behaviour in a Christian as in the Exposition of this Parable 't is called the Word of the Kingdom Seed an Immortal Seed as St. Peter calls it springing up to no less than an Eternal Life This teaches us 1st highly to esteem the great goodness of God to these places and times that were most blest with it Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgment unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them 2. That the same dispensation is to be Preach'd indifferently to all where it comes as far as the sound can reach And thus it was very much extended in the first promulgating of the Gospel their sound went out through all the earth as the Apostle allusively applies that of the Psalmist 3. This teaches also Ministers liberally to sow this Seed at all times according to that Eccl. 11. 6. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand c. Praying earnestly to him that is the Lord not only of the Harvest but of the Seed time and of this Seed to make it fruitful this is his peculiar work So the Apostle acknowledges 1 Cor. 3. 6. I have planted Apollo's watered but God gave the increase 4. Hence we also learn the success to be very different This is most evident in men one cast into the mould and fashion of the Word and so moulded and fashioned by it another no whit changed one heart melting before it another still hardned under it So then this is not all to have the Word and hear it as if that would serve turn and save us as we commonly fancy The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Multitudes under the continual sound of the Word yet remain lifeless and fruitless and die in their sins therefore we must enquire and examine strictly what becomes of it how it works what it brings forth and for this very end this Parable declares so many aâ—e fruitless We need not press them they are three to one here yea that were too narrow the odds is far greater for these are but the kinds of unfruitful grounds and under each of these huge multitudes of individuals so that there may be a hundred to one and it is to be feared in many Congregations it is more than so Whence is then the difference Not from the Seed that is the same to all not from the Sower neither for though these be divers and of different abilites yet it hangs little or nothing on that Indeed he is the fittest to Preach that is himself most like his Message and comes forth not only with a handful of this Seed in his hand but with store of it in his heart the Word dwelling richly in him yet howsoever the Seed he sows being this Word of Life depends not on his qualifications in any kind either of common Gifts or special Grace
And never cease in this work for still there is â—eed of more purging one dayes work in this disposes for and engages to a further to the next for as sin is purged out Light comes in and more clear discoveries are made of remaining pollutions So then still there must be progress less of the World and more of God in the heart every day Oh this is a sweet course of Life what gain what preferment to be compared to it And in this 't is good to have our ambition growing the higher we rise to aspire still the higher looking farther than before even toward the perfection of holiness it is not much we can here attain to but sure 't is commonly far less than we might we improve not our condition and advantages as we might do the world is busie driving forewards their designs Men of spirit are animated both by better and worse success if any thing miscarry it sets them on the more eagerly to make it up in the right management of some other design and when they prosper in one thing that enables and incourages them to attempt further shall all things seem worth our pains are only Grace and Glory so cheap in our account that the least diligence of all goes that way Oh! strange delusion Now our cleansing is to be managed by all holy means Word and Sacrament more wisely and spiritually used than commonly with us and private Prayer that purifies and elevates the Soul takes it up into the Mount and makes it shine and particularly supplicating for the Spirit of holiness and victory over sin is not in vain it obtains its desires of God the Soul becoming that which it is fixedly set upon Holy resolution Christians much wanting in this faint and loose in their purposes The consideration of Divine Truths the mysteries of the Kingdom the hope of Christians yea rich and great Promises that is particularly here the motive these are all the means holy means they are as their end is the perfection of holiness Having these Promises Now consider whether it is better to be the Slaves of Satan or the Sons of God measure delight in God with the low base pleasures of sense Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God these gradually go on together and are perfected together Why then is there such an invincible love of sin in the hearts of Men at least why so little love of holiness and endeavour after it so mean thoughts of it as a thing either indecent or unpleasant when 't is the only noble and the only delightful thing in the World the Soul by other things is drawn below it self but by holiness it is raised above it self and made Divine Pleasures of sin for a season the pleasure of a moment exchanged for those of Eternity But even in the mean time in this season the Soul is fed with Communion with God one hour of which is more worth than the longest Life of the highest of the Worlds delights SERMON XV. Psal. CXIX 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart TO desire ease and happiness under a general representation of it is a thing of more easie and general perswasion There is somewhat in Nature to help the argument but to find beauty in and be taken with the very way of holiness that leads to it is more rare and depends on a higher principle Self-love inclines a man to desire the rest of Love but to love and desire the labour of Love is love of a higher and purer strain To delight and be chearful in obedience argues much love as the spring of it that is the thing the holy Psalmist doth so plentifully express in this Psalm and he is still desiring more of that sweet and lively affection that might make him yet more abundant in action Thus here I will run c. He presents his desire and purpose together the more of this Grace thou bestowest on me the more service shall I be able to do thee This is the top of his ambition while others are seeking to enlarge their Barns their Lands or Estates or Titles Kings to enlarge their Territories or Authority to incroach on Neighbouring Kingdoms or be more absolute in their own instead of all such Enlargements this is David's great desire An enlarged heart to run the way of Gods Commandments And these other how big soever they sound are poor narrow desires this one is larger and higher than them all and gives evidence of a heart already large but as it is miserably in those 't is happy in this much would still have more Let others seek more Money or more Honour Oh the blessed choice of that Soul that is still seeking more Love to God more affection and more ability to do him service that counts all days and hours for lost that are not employed to this improvement that hears the Word in publick and reads it in private for this purpose to kindle this love or to blow the sparkable if any there be already in the heart to raise it to a clear flame and from a little flame to make it burn yet hotter and purer and rise higher But above all means is often presenting this in Prayer to him on whose influence all depends in whose hand our hearts are much more than in our own it follows him with this desire and works on him by his own interest though there can be really no accession of gain to him by our services yet he is pleased so to account with us as if there were therefore we may urge this Lord give more and receive more I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart We have here in the words a required disposition and a suitable resolution The disposition relates to the resolution as the means of fulfilling it and the resolution relates to the disposition both as the end of desiring it and as the motive of obtaining it The resolution occurs first in the words I will run c. The way resolved on is that of Gods Commandments not the road of the polluted World not the crooked ways of his own heart but the High way the Royal way the straight way of the Kingdom and that in the Notion of Subjection and Obedience the way of thy Commandments This man naturally struggles against and repines at to be limited and bounded by a Law is a restraint and a vain man could possibly find in his heart to do many of the same things that are commanded but he would not be ty'd would have his liberty and do 't of his own choice This is the enmity of the carnal mind against God as the Apostle expresses it it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be it breaks these Bonds and casts away the Cords of his Authority This is Sin the transgression of a Law and this made the first Sin so great though in a
humble Christian is better taught his falls teach him indeed to abhor himself they discover his own weakness to him and empty him of Self-trust but they do not dismay him to get up and go on not boldly and carelessly forgetting his fall but in the humble sense of it walking the more warily but not the less swiftly yea the more swiftly too making the more haste to regain the time lost by the fall So then if you would run in this way depend on the strength of God and on his Spirit leading thee that so thou mayest not fall and yet if thou dost fall arise and if thou art plunged in the mire go to the Fountain opened for Sin and Uncleanness and wash there bemoan thy self before thy Lord and if hurt and bleeding by thy fall yet look to him desire Jesus to pity thee and bind up and cure thy Wound washing off thy Blood and pouring in of his own However it is with thee give not over faint not run on and that thou mayest run the more easily and expeditely make thy self as light as may be lay aside every weight Heb. 12. 1 2. Clog not thy self with unnecessary burdens of Earth and especially lay aside that that of all other things weighs the heaviest and cleaves the closest the Sin that so easily besets us and is so hardly put off us that folds so connaturally to us and we therefore think will not hinder us much And not only the Sins that are more outward but the inner close-cleaving Sins the sin that most of all sits easily to us not only our Cloak but our inner Coat away with that too as our Saviour says in another case and run the race set before us our appointed Stage and that with patience under all oppositions and discouragements from the World without and Sin within And to encourage thee in this look to such a Cloud of Witnesses that compasseth us about to further us as Troubles Tentations and Sin do to hinder us they encountered the like sufferings and were encounter'd with the like sins and yet they run on and got home Alexander would have run in the Olympick Games if he had had Kings to run with now in this race Kings and Prophets and Righteous Persons run yea all are indeed a Kingly Generation each one Heir to a Crown as the prize of this Race And if these encourage thee but little then look beyond them above that Cloud of Witnesses to the Son the Son of Righteousness looking off from all things here that would either entangle thee or discourage thee taking thine eye off from them and looking to him that will powerfully draw thee and animate thee Look to Jesus not only as thy Fore-runner in this Race but also as thy Undertaker in it the Author and Finisher of our Faith his attaining the end of the Race is the pledg of thy attaining if thou follow him chearfully on the same encouragements that he lookt to who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is now set down at the Right Hand of God When thou shalt enlarge my heart In all beings Nature is the principle of motion and according as it is more or less perfect in its kind those motions that flow from it are more or less vigorous Therefore hath the Psalmist good reason to the end his Spiritual Course may be the stedfaster and the faster to desire that the principle of it the heart may be more enabled and disposed which here he expresses by its being enlarged What this enlargement of the heart is a mans own inward sense should easily explain to him sure it would did men reflect on it and were they acquainted with their own hearts but the most are not they would find the Carnal natural heart a narrow contracted hampered thing bound with Cords and Chains of its own twisting and forging and so incapable of walking much less of running in this way of Gods Commandments till it be freed and enlarged The Heart is taken generally in Scripture for the whole Soul the Understanding and Will in its several affections and motions and the speech being here of an enlarged heart it seems very congruous to take it in the most enlarged sense It is said of Solomon that he had a large heart the same word that 's here as the sand of the Sea shoar that is a vast comprehensive Spirit that could fathom so much of Nature greater and lesser things He spoke of Trees from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop in the Wall and of great Beasts and small creeping things Thus I conceive the enlargement of the heart compriseth the inlightning of the Understanding there arises a clearer light there to discern Spiritual things in a more Spiritual manner to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the World goes after and the true solid delight that is in the way of Gods Commandments to know the false blush of the pleasures of Sin and what deformity is under that painted Mask and not be allured by it to have enlarged apprehensions of God his excellency and greatness and goodness how worthy he is to be obeyed and served This is the great dignity and happiness of the Soul all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this Here then is enlargement to see the purity and beauty of his Law how just and reasonable yea how pleasant and amiable it is that his Commandments are not grievous that they are Beds of Spices the more we walk in them still the more of their fragrant smell and sweetness we find And then consequently upon the larger and clearer knowledge of these things the heart dilates it self in affection the more it knows of God still the more it loves him and the less it loves this present World Love is the great enlarger of the heart to all obedience Then nothing is hard yea the harder things become the more delightful All love of other things doth pinch and contract the heart for they are all narrower than it self it is framed to that wideness in its first Creation capable of enjoying God though not of a full comprehending him therefore all other things gather it in and straighten it from its natural size only the Love of God stretches and dilates it he is large enough for it yea it in its fullest enlargement is infinitely too narrow for him Do not all find it if they will ask themselves that in all other loves and pursuits in this World there is still somewhat that pinches The Soul is not at its full size but as a Foot in a straight Shoe is somewhere bound and pained and cannot go freely much less run though another that looks on cannot tell where yet each one feels it But when the Soul is set free from these narrow things and is raised to the love of God then is it at ease and at large and hath room enough 't is both elevated
Commandments Now this I cannot do till my heart be more enlarged and that cannot be but by thy hand When thou shalt enlarge my heart Present this suit often 't is in his power to do it for thee he can stretch and expand thy straitened heart can spread and hoyse the Sails within thee and then carry thee on swiftly filling them not with the vain air of Mans applaufe which readily run a Soul upon Rocks and splits it but with the sweet breathings and soft gales of his own Spirit that carry it straight to the desired Haven Findest thou Sin cleaving to thee and clogging thee cry to him help Lord set me free from my narrow heart I strive but in vain without thee still it continues so I know little of thee my affections are dead and cold towards thee Lord I desire to love thee here is my heart and least it fly out lay hold on it and take thine own way with it though it should be in a painful way yet draw it forth yea draw it that it may run after thee All is his own working and all his motive is his own free Grace Let who will fancy themselves Masters of their own hearts and think to enlarge them by the strength of their own stretches of speculation they alone they alone are in the sure and happy way of attaining it that humbly suit and wait for this enlargement of heart from his hand that made it SERMON XVI Rom. VIII 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth c. OTher Men may fancy and boast as they please but there are none in the World but the Godly alone that are furnisht with sufficiency strong supports and comforts against all possible hazards and of these doth the Apostle treat most freely sweetly and plentifully in this Chapter He secures Believers in their Christ touching these two great evils After Condemnation and present Affliction that the one cannot befal them and the other cannot hurt them For their immunity from the former they have the clear Word of the Gospel and the Seal of the Spirit and that former Priviledg made sure as the far greater doth secure the other as the lesser They are freed from Condemnation and not only so but entitled and insured to a Kingdom and what hurt then can affliction do yea it doth good yea not only it cannot rob them of their Crown but it carries them on towards it is their High way to it if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Yea all things to the Children of God do prove advantage severally taken in their present sense they may seem evil but taken jointly in their after issue their working together are all for good In their simple Nature possibly they are Poison yet contempered and prepared they shall prove Medicinal All these things are against me said old Jocoh and yet he lived to see even all these were for him The Children of God are indeed so happy that the harshest things in their way change their nature and become sweet and profitable This much by their Prayers that have a Divine Incantation in them they breath forth the expressions of that their Love to God by which they are Character'd them that Love God And that is put on their hearts the impression of his Love to them to which they are here led by the Apostle as to the Spring-head of all all their Comforts and Priviledges flow thence yea all their Love and their Faith appropriating those Comforts and Priviledges Yea the very Treasury of all together Jesus Christ himself is the free Gift of this free Love he as the greatest ascertains all things besides an unspeakably less verse 32. These two are such mighty Arguments that no difficulty nor grief can stand before them The Love of God He is with us who then against us All the World it may be but that all is nothing once it was nothing it was that God that is our God that loves us and is for us that made it something and if he will it may again be nothing and as it is at its best it is nothing being compared with an other gift that he hath bestowed on us and having bestowed that sure if there be any thing in this World can do us any good we shall not want it He that spared not his own Son but gave him to the Death for us will he not with him give us all things And to close all he makes these two great Immunities good to us in Christ he fixes there we are freed from all fear of Condemnation or of being hurt by Affliction No Accusation nor Guiltiness can Annul the Righteousness of Christ and that is made ours no Distress nor Suffering can cut us off from the Love of God and if it cannot do that we need not fear it all other hazards are no hazard that being sure And in confidence of this the Apostle gives the Defiance casts a Challenge to Angels to Men to all the World upon these two points Who shall Accuse Who shall Separate Accuse to God or Separate from him Whatsoever times may come the hardest that any can apprehend or foretel i◠these two be not sufficient furniture against them I know not what is Men are commonly busied about other events concerning them and theirs what shall become of this or the other and what if this or that fall out but the Conscience once raised to this enquiry the Soul being awake to discern the hazard of Eternal Death all other fears and questions are drowned and lost in this great Question Am I Condemned or not Is my Sin Pardon'd or no And then a satisfying Answer received concerning this all is quiet the Soul reposes sweetly on God and puts all its other concernments into his hands Let him make me poor and despised let him smite and chastise me he hath forgiven my Sin all is well That burden taken off the Soul can go light yea can leap and dance under all other burdens Oh! how it feels it self nimble as a man eased of a load that he was even fainting under Oh! Blessed the man whose Sin is taken off lifted from his shoulders that 's the word Psal. 32. 1. laid over upon Christ who could bear the whole load and take it away take it out of sight which we could never have done they 'd have sunk us for ever That one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jo. 1. signifies both and answers to the two Isai. 53. He hath born our grief and carried our sorrows lifted them away Oh! how sweet a burden instead of this is that ingagement of Obedience and Love to him as our Redeemer and that is all he lays on us if we follow him and bear his Cross he is our strength and bears both it and us So then this is the great point the hearts ease to be Delivered from the Condemning weight of Sin And
certainly while men do not think thus their hearts have very slight impressions of the truth of these things I fear the most of us scarce believe this condemnation to come at least very shallowly and so they cannot much consider the deliverance from it provided to us in Jesus Christ. I cannot see how 't is possible for a heart perswaded of these to be very careful about any thing beside you that eat and drink and labour and trade and bestow all your time either in the pains or the pleasures of this Earth what think you of Eternity Is it a light thing for you to perish for ever After a few days vainly spent to fall under the Wrath of God for ever Oh! that you would be perswaded to think on these things And you that have an interest in this free and blessed estate why are your Spirits so cold So infrequent in the thoughts of it Why are you not rejoicing in the Lord Glading your selves in secret when you remember this Go the World as it will my Sin is forgiven me mistake me accuse me who so will my God hath acquitted me in his Christ and he loves me and lives to intercede for me Methinks I hear some say Ay they that could say that might be merry indeed but alas I have no such assurance Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect That 's true but here is the great point of so hard a resolution am I one of these That the Apostle doth thus specifie the owners of this Consolation by this high and hidden Character of their Election is not to render it doubtful and dark for his main aim on the contrary is both to extend it as far as it can go and to make it as clear as may be to all that have interest in it but he designs them by the Primitive Act of Love fixing on them so as it is now manifested to them in the subsequent effects that flow from the Elect called and sanctified and conformed to Jesus Christ both by his Spirit within them and the Sufferings that without arise against them in the World such as being the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit And these things indeed considered as their Characters the stamp of God on them the impressions of their Election to life do check the vain confidence of all Carnal Ungodly Professors of the Name of Christ and tell them that their pretended Title to him is a meer Delusion certainly whosoever lies in the love of Sin and takes the Flesh for his guide that accursed blind guide is leading him into the Pit What gross folly and impudence is it for any man walking in the Lusts of his own heart to fancy and aver himself to be a Partner of that Redemption whereof so great a pâ—â—t is to deliver us from the power of our Iniquities to renew our hearts and re-unite them to God and possess them with his love The great Evidence of thy Election is Love Thy love to him gives certain testimony of his precedeing Eternal Love to thee so are they here designed they that love God thy chusing him is the effect and evidence of his chusing thee Now this is not laborious that needs to be disputed amidst all thy frailties feel the pulse of thine affection which way beats it and ask thy heart whether thou love him or not in this thou hast the Character of thy Election Know you not that the redeemed of Christ and he are one they live one life Christ lives in them and if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his as the Apostle declares in this Chapter So then this we are plainly to tell you and consider it you that will not let go your Sins to lay hold on Christ have as yet no share in him But on the other side The truth is that when Souls are once set upon this search they commonly wind the Notion too high and subtilize too much in the Dispute and so entangle and perplex themselves and drive themselves further off from that comfort that they are seeking after such measures and marks of Grace they set to themselves for their Rule and Standard and unless they find those without all Controversie in themselves they will not believe that they have an interest in Christ and this blessed and safe estate in him To such I would only say Are you in a willing league with any known sin Yea would you willingly if you might be saved in that way give up your self to Voluptuousness and Ungodliness and not at all desire to follow Jesus Christ in the way of Holiness Then truly I have not any thing as yet to say for your Comfort only there is a Salvation provided and the door is yet open and your heart may be changed But on the other side are the desires of thy Soul after Christ whole Christ to be Righteousness and withal Sanctification to thee Wouldst thou willingly give up thy self to be ruled by him and have him thy King Handst thou rather chuse to suffer the greatest Affliction for his sake to Honour him than commit the least Sin to displâ—ase him Doth thy Heart go out after him when thou heaâ—est him spoke of Dost thou account him thy Tâ—easure so that all the World sounds but as an empty Shell to thee when he is named Says thy Soul within thee Oh! that he were mine And oh that I were his that I could please him and live to him Then do not toss thy Spirit and jangle and spin out thy thoughts in fruitless endless doubtings but close with this as thy Portion and be of good Comfort thy sins are or will be forgiven thee I add yet further if thou sayest yet that thou findest none of all this yet I say there is warrant for thee to believe and lay hold on this Righteousness here held forth to the end that thou mayest then find those things in thee and find comfort in them Thou art convinc'd of Ungodliness than believe on him that justifies the Ungodly thou art Condemned yet Christ is dead and risen fly to him as such as the Lamb slain he that was dead and is alive and then say who is he that Condemneth It is Christ that died or rather that is risen Who shall Accuse 'T is true they may clamour and make a noise both Satan and thy Conscience but how can they fasten any Accusation on thee If they dare Accuse yet they cannot Condemn when the Judg hath acquitted thee and declared thee free who is greater than all and hath the absolute power of the Sentence all Charges and Libels come too late after he hath once pronounc'd a Soul Righteous And who shall Condemn it is Christ that died if the Sentence of the Law be brought forth Yet here 's the answer It ought not to be twice satisfied now once it is in Christ he
hath died and that stands for the Believer Whosoever flies to him and lays hold on him for life he cannot die again nor canst thou die for whom he died once or rather is risen that raises the assurance higher and sets it firmer for this evidences that in his death all was payed when he being the Surety and seized on for the Debt and once Deaths Prisoner yet was set free This clears the matter that there is no more to be said and yet further in sign that all is done he is raised to the height of Honour above all Principalities and Powers is set at the right hand of the Father and there he sits and lives to make Intercession to sue out the fulfilling of all for Believers the bringing of them home lives to see all made good that he Died and Covenanted for so now his righteousness is thine that believest any challenge must meet with Christ first and if it seize not on him it cannot light on thee for thou art in him married to him And the same triumph that he speaks Isaiah 50. 8. whence these words are borrowed that is made thine and thou mayest now speak it in him I know not what can cast him down that hath this word to rest upon and to comfort himself in SERMON XVII Rom. VIII 35 c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or â—amine or nakâ—dness or peril or sword c. IS this he that so lately cry'd out O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me That now triumphs O happy Man Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Yes t is the same Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a Body of Death and so crying out who will deliver Who will separate me from that now Now he hath found a Deliverer to do that for him to whom he is for ever united and he glories now in his inseparable Union and unalterable Love that none can divide him from yea it is through him that presently after that word of complaint he praises God and now in him he triumphs So vast a difference is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself and in Christ when he views himself in himself then nothing but wretched and wretched a polluted perishing Wretch but then he looks again and sees himself in Christ and there he 's rich and safe and happy he triumphs and he glories in it above all the painted Prosperities and against all the horâ—id Adversities of the World he lives in his Christ content and happy and laughs at all Enemies And he extends his triumph he makes a common good of it to all Believers speaks it in their name who shall separate us and would have them partake of the same confidence and speak in the same stile with him It is vain that men fancy these to be expressions of Revelations or some singularly priviledg'd Assurances then they would not suit their end which is clearly and undoubtedly the encouragement of all the Children of God upon grounds that are peculiar to them from all the rest of the World but common to them all in all Ages and all varieties of condition It is true all of them have not a like clear and firm apprehension of their happy and sure estate and scarce any of them are alike at all times yet they have all and always the same right to this estate and to the comfort of it and when they stand in a right light to view it they do see it so and rejoice in it There be indeed some kind of assurances that are more rare and extraordinary some immediate glances or coâ—uscations of the love of God upon the Soul of a Believer a smile of his Countenance and this doth exceedingly refresh yea ravish the Soul and enables it mightily for Duties and Sufferings These he dispenses arbitrarily and freely where and when he will some weaker Christians sometimes have them while stronger are strangers to them the Lord training them to live more contentedly by Faith till the day of Vision come And that is the other the less exâ—atical but the more constant and fixed kind of assurance the proper assurance of Faith the Soul by believing cleaves unto God in Christ as he offers himself in the Gospel and thence is possest with a sweet and calm perswasion of his love that being the proper work to appropriate him to make Christ and in him Eternal Life ours so 't is the proper result and fruit of that its acting especially when it acts any thing strongly to quiet the Soul in him Then being Justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and from that Peace Joy yea even glorying in Tribulation as there follows And these springing not from an extraordinary sense or view but from the very innate Vertue of Faith working kindly and according to its own Nature Therefore many Christians do prejudice their own Comfort and darken their Spirits by not giving freedom to Faith to act according to its Nature and proper Principles they will not believe till they find some evidence or assurance which is quite to invert the order of the thing and to look for Fruit without settling a Root for it to grow from Would you take Christ upon the absolute word of promise tendring him to you and rest on him so this would ingraft you into life it self for that he is and so those Fruits of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish in your hearts from that very believing on him would arise this perswasion yea even to a gloriation and an humble boasting in his love who shall accuse who shall condemn who shall separate The undivided Companion and undoubted Helper and Preserver of this confidence of Faith is an active love to Christ a constant study of Holiness and strife against Sin which is the grand enemy of Faith that obstructs the very Vital Spirits of Faith that makes it sickly and heavy in its actings and causes the Palsie in the hand of Faith that it cannot lay so fast hold Therefore this you would be careful of yea know that of necessity it attends Faith and as Faith grows Holiness will grow and Holiness growing will mutually strengthen and establish Faith the Comforts of the Holy Ghost are holy purifying Comforts and the more the Soul is purify'd and made holy the more is it cleared and enlarged to receive much of these Comforts Blessed are the pure heart they shall see God Unholiness is as damps and filthy mists in the Soul it darkens all Hence it is evident in what way Christians may and ought to aspire to this Assurance it is their Portion and in this way they are to aspire to it and shall find it if not presently yet let them wait and go on in this way they shall not miscarry Again it appears that this assurance is no enemy to Holy Diligence nor friend of Carnal
relation your God to sin against him so grossly so continuedly with so high a hand and so impenitent hearts not reclaim'd by all his mercies by the remembrance of his Covenant made with you and mercies bestowed on you nor by the fear of his Judgments threatned nor by the feeling of them inflicted no returning nor relenting not of his own people to their God Sure you must be yet more punisht You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities I let others escape with many things that I cannot pass in you you fast and pray it may be you howl and keep a noise but you amend nothing forsake not one sin for all your sufferings and for all your moanings and cries you would be delivered but do not part with one of your Lusts or wicked Customs even for a Deliverance and so the quarrel remains still 'T is that that separates is as a huge Wall betwixt us betwixt me and your Prayers and betwixt you and my helping hand and though I do hear and could help yet I will not till this Wall be down you shall not see me nor find by any gracious sign that I hear you This hides his face that he will not hear This way God hath establish'd in his ordinary methods with his people though sometimes he uses his own priviledg yet usually he links Sin and Calamity together and Repentance and Deliverance together Sin separates and hides his face not only from a People that professes his Name but even from a Soul that really bears his Name stampt upon it Though it cannot fully and for ever cut off such a Soul yet in part and for a time it may yea to be sure it will separate and hide the face of God from them Their daily inevitable frailties do not this but either a course of careless walking and many little unlawful liberties taken to themselves that will rise and gather as a Cloud and hide the face of God Or some one gross sin especially if often reiterated will prove as a firm Stone Wall or rather as a Brazen Wall built up by their own hands betwixt them and Heaven and will not be so easily dissolved or broke down and yet till that be the light of his Countenance who is the life of the Soul will be eclipsed and withheld from it And this consider'd besides that Law of Love that will forbid so foul Ingratitude yet I say this consider'd even our own interest will make us wary to sin though we were sure not to be yet altogether separated from the love of God by it yet if thou that hast any perswasion of that love darest thou venture upon any known sin Thou art not hazardless and free from all damage by it if thou hast need of that argument to restrain thee then before thou run upon 't sit down and reckon the expence see what it will cost thee if thou do commit it thou knowest that once it cost the heart blood of thy Redeemer to expâ—ate it and is it a light matter to thee and though that paid all that score nothing thou canst suffer being able to do any thing that way yet as an unavoidable present fruit of it it will draw on this damage Thou shalt be sure for a time it may be for a long time possibly most of thy time near all thy days it may darken much that love of God to thee which if thou doest but esteem of think on it it changes not in him but a sad change will Sin bring on thee as to thy sight and apprehension of it many a sweet hour of blest communion with thy God shalt thou miss and either be dead and stupid in that want and mourn after him and yet find thy self and sighs and tears hold out the Door shut yea a dead Wall rais'd betwixt thee and him and at best much straightning and pains to take it down again contrary to other Walls and Buildings that are far more easily pull'd down than built up but this a great deal easier built up than pull'd down True thy God could cast it down with a Word and 't is his free Grace that must do 't otherwise thou couldst never remove it yet will he have thee feel thy own handy work and know thy folly Thou must be at pains to dig at it and may be cost thee broken Bones in taking it down pieces of it falling heavy and sad upon thy Conscience and crushing thee as David cry'd out at that work Psal. 51. for a healing Word from a God Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce it will force thee to say O fool that I was what meant I Oh! it is good keeping near God and raising no divisions What are Sins False delights but make ado and have ado a man to provide his own vexation Now this distance from God and all this turmoiling and breaking and crying e're he appear again consider if any pleasure of sin can countervail this damage sure when thou art not out of thy Wits thou wilt never make such a bargain for all the pleasure thou must make out of any sin to breed thy self all this pains and all this grief at once to displease thy God and displease thy self and make a partition between him and thee Oh! sweet and safe ways of Holiness walking with God in his company and favour he that orders his Conversation aright he sees the loving kindness of the Lord 't is shewn to him he lives in the sight of it But if any such separation is made yet is it thy great desire to have it removed why there is hope See to it labour to break down and pray to him to help thee and he will put to his hand and then it must fall and in all thy sense of separation look to him that brake down the middle wall Eph. 2. There it is spoken of as betwixt men Jews and Gentiles but so as it was also between the Gentiles and God separated from his people and from himself ver 16. to reconcile both to God in one Body And ver 18. Through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father And then he adds that they were no more strangers and foreigners dwelling on the other side of the Wall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Word is but fellow Citizens c. Oh! that we knew more what it were to live in this sweet Society in undivided Fellowship with God Alas how little is understood this living in him separated from Sin and this World which otherwise do separate from him solacing our hearts in his love and despising the base muddy delights that the World admires hoping for that new Jerusalem where none of these Walls of Sin nor any one Stone of them are and for that bright day wherein there is no Cloud nor Mist to hid our Sun from us Now for the