their desires for them But is it so with the wicked Who dare affirme it while they are wicked they do not cannot desire to partake of all spirituall blessings A cursed Balaam Num. 23. 10. may desire to die the death of the righteous but no wicked man alive while such can desire to live the life of the righteous 1. They do not desire it Hear their own words Luke 19. 14. We will not have this man rule over us This was a very plain but yet a very rude and rebellious message and yet such dust-heaps are found in every corner such masterlesse monsters rise every where So that by their own confession they may be judged and condemned for being unwilling to live as the holy subjects of the King of Saints in this life 2. They cannot desire it Rom. 8. 7. The carnall mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither-indeed can be By these words we see plainly the best of an unregenerate person is not onely averse but utterly adverse to the rule of holinesse and the Will being guided by the Understanding If the carnall mind as the Apostle here plainly asserteth be enmity against the law of God the rule of holinesse the carnall will cannot possibly be for conformity to it 3. The Meritorious cause of all the good which the truly godly person chuseth is the precious bloud of the Sonne of God Spirituall Causa procalactica graces and comforts here and the eternall glory of the other world are no cheap things but most costly and accordingly ought to be valued and improved by us Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace Redemption is a very comprehensive word and many times is put for all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace So that every godly person may write this superscription upon his pardon assurance perseverance and all the other benefits he partakes of by Christ in this life These are the price of bloud and that the best bloud called precious 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. and that worthily because the bloud of God Act. 20. 28. And so being the bloud of an infinite person and consequently the price an infinite price This will much more hold true concerning the glory of the other world Heb. 10. 19. Having therefore brethren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus No getting to the shore of glory but by a sinners swimming upon the most precious stream of a Saviours bloud These things ought to be frequently the meditations of Christians to inflame their loves to a most lovely and loving Saviour and to quicken them to endeavour suitable praises for all their costly priviledges in both worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The Formall Act of this Choice is that whereby they preferre Christ and all his spiritual blessings before all worldly things whatever This is the inseparable property of all and onely truly godly persons That they esteem God and the things of God above all other things is evident in the example of godly David as appeares by those remarkable words recorded in the 119. Psal 30. I have chosen the way of truth and Vers 173. I have chosen thy precepts compared with Vers 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly farre more then any thing in the whole world Psal 119. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter then hony to my mouth And Vers 72. The law of thy mouth is better to me then thousands of gold and silver Those words of the 4. Psal v. 6 7. Many there be that say who will shew us any good The many in the Text are all the ungodly The good was temporall as is clear from the seventh Verse But now godly David prayes for the light of Gods countenance i. e. the manifestation of his favour to his soul and professeth that such a precious mercy being obtained would make him more glad then any worldling could possibly be when his corn and wine encreased Yea Psal 63. 3. He preferres Gods loving kindnesse before life it selfe And that as Satan truly is to be preferred before all other worldly things whatsoever Job 2. 4. Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life But no wicked person living doth set such an high value upon God and the things of God But if God be twelve with him some worldly Object to which he is inordinately affected is alwaies thirteen as appears by those words Luke 14. 14. when Christ was speaking of the priviledge of the righteous at the resurrection one that hears him cries out Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God as if he had said in other words that is a glorious and happy estate I choose that for my portion Christ presently to discover his hypocrisie propounds the parable of the guests who were invited to partake of that priviledge he seemed so much to admire vers 16 17. and then we read vers 18. they all with one consent made excuses They seemed much to esteem the priviledge of Christians at the resurrection but their Oxen Farmes Wives lay much nearer to their heares for which we read vers 21. That the Master of the house was very angry as he had great cause as shall be hereafter proved Causa proâ—gumena 5. The Fountain of all the good the godly person chooseth is the Free Grace and favour of God towards his precious people which they all do deservedly admire in this life and will upon further grounds more perfectly admire to all eternity in the life to come The shoutings of all the godly in both worlds are and ought to be Grace Grace T is not considerable what carnall Sophisters may object against this truth because it was asserted in the third branch of the description That all the godly persons priviledges in both worlds were dearly purchased for them by the most precious bloud of Christ the Son of God and thereupon as they conceive Gods conferring those priviledges upon the Elect seems rather if not onely an Act of Justice and not at all of Grace In this hast I shall say no more and I think more need not be said then to name that pregnant Text of the Apostle for the confounding of that carnall cavil Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace According to blessed Pauls divinity Christs bloud as the meritorious cause of Redemption and Remission is very well consistent with the grace yea the riches of the grace of God the Father T is very true they were exceedingly costly to Christ we are the greater debtours to his love for being willing by so great a price to purchase our peace t is as true they are not costly to us we have them without money and
testimony that you Heb. 12. 8. are bastards not sons When was Jerusalems condition so desperate as when God said My fury shall depart from thee I will be quiet Hîe ure hîc seca modo in aeternum Parcas August and no more angry Ezek. 16. 42. Fieri Domine fieri cried Luther strike Lord strike and spare not ferre minora volo ne graviora feram I am willing to bear lesser that I may not bear greater evils Bernard cals it misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem a most cruel and killing curtesie Job accounted it a great favour to sorry man that God accounts him worth melting although it be every morning and trying though it be every moment Job 7. 17. 18. Thirdly When the same kind and measure of outward evils do befal both the godly and ungodly the condition of the Lords people is abundantly more comfortable as in many other respects so more eminently in these three if we consider 1. The motive of their troubles 2. The measure 3. The issue 1. What moves God to afflict his people I answer the same precious love which moved him to bestow Jesus Christ upon them to save them from wrath to come Heb. Rev. 3. 19. 12. 6. For whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth v. 7. If you endure chastning God dealeth with you as with sons So that it is not common but Fatherly love which moves God to afflict his children But if the Question be Why doth God afflict wicked ones another answer must be given to wit because he beares ill will to them Zech. 11. 8. My soul loathed them and their soul abhorred me Mark what followes immediately upon Gods abhorring them v. 11. Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another What moves God to bring poverty upon wicked men because God hates them and cares not although they starve Why doth God send abundance of vexations into their Families because God abhors them and grudges them Family-comforts Wherefore doth he smite them with sicknesse because he loaths them and so values nor their lives They may die and drop into hell as suddenly as may be it shall be no trouble unto his heart Here we see a most remarkable difference between those who chuse the waies of God and those who choose the waies of sin John 18. 11. The cup that my Father giveth me shall I not drink it This cup was the most bitter cup that ever was or shall be mingled yet the love of a Father did sufficiently sweeten it But the hatred of God doth much more imbitter the afflictions of the wicked which are of themselves very bitter 2. As to the measure of the afflictions of the godly and ungodly there is likewise a very wide difference Jer. 30. 10. God bids Jacob not fear or be dismayed v. 11. The reason that is rendred is this I will correct thee in measure Es 27. 8. In the day of his east-wind he will stay his rough wind Although God for his own Glory and his peoples great good in both worlds often tries his people to the top of their strength yet he never did or will try any of them above their strength 1 Cor. 10. 13. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it This is wonderfully comfortable to the people of God but as for the wicked God takes no such care about them If God at any time suffer them as it were to scramble from under the weight of some heavy affliction before they have well breath'd themselves Gods angry hand laies a heavier burden on them that they cannot stand under it but must utterly sink God deales with wicked men in this case as enemies in war do when one enemy hath stricken another down to the ground for the present he lies like a dead man and stirs neither hand nor foot and so he leaves him but if afterwards he passe by and observe the least stirring he lifts up his arm presently and fetches an harder blow and tels him he will make him that he shall never stir more So when God hath made a great breach upon the estate health or any other comforts of the wicked for the present they are cast down but after a while God observes they can make a sorry shift to live under those stroaks then God lifts up his angry arm higher the next time and sinks them that they never joy more in any worldly comfort This is notably illustrated by a similitude the Prophet Amos useth Amos 5. speaking of the wicked in time of afflictions v. 18. he saith The day of the Lord to them is darknesse and not light not the least mixture of mercy vers 19. T is as if one flee from a Lyon and a Bear did meet him or went into the house to lean on the wall and a serpent bit him Here we see the last affliction the worst Deut. 28. 20. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thy hand for to do untill thou be destroyed and till thou perish quickly because of the wickednesse of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me 3. The difference between the afflictions of the godly and ungodly in the issue is as remarkable as any of the former differences The issue of the Saints affliction as we have already shewed is exceeding comfortable in respect of the improvement of their graces and enlargement of their spiritual comforts here and the richer crown of Glory prepared for them in the other world But as for the wicked mans Afflictions his corruptions are not purged away but enraged by them as the wicked Jewes Esa 8. 21. In the time of their extreamity they cursed their King and God but could such wickednesse help them alas no they must pay dear for it v. 22. They shall look unto the earth and behold trouble darknesse and dimnesse of anguish and they shall be driven to darknesse Still worse and worse A great many wicked persons that never rightly studied or understood either the great evil of sinne or severity of divine justice where satisfaction cannot be made when they feel painful extremities use to say they hope they have all their hell here but Christs words Mat. 24. 8. may in this case fitly be used Their torments here are but the beginnings of sorrows The wicked in this life do but sip as it were of the top of the cup of Gods wrath the bottom which is the most bitter they must be drinking off throughout the eternity of the other world By this which hath been spoken it appears clearly that the best nay onely way either to prevent afflictions or else to procure comfort under them
much earthly blessings considered in themselves as their being perfumed with the sweet love of God in Christ is that which maketh them blessings indeed truly deserving the name they bear Now all the blessings of those who have made the choice in the Text are all thus perfumed All the barley bread they eat beit never so course all the clothes they wear be they never so mean with all their other temporall blessings they proceed from the same sweet love of God wherewith he was moved to bestow Jesus Christ upon them for salvation Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own son but hath delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Nothing is more ordinary then for wicked rich men to judge themselves the onely happy persons in the world Prov. 10. 15. The rich mans wealth is his strong city There he is very safe and happy in his own conceit But as for the poor in his wicked rich neighbours eye he is despised Prov. 14. 20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbour but the rich hath many friends But did they consider that which the Scripture speaks of their condition they would discern no such cause to boast of it Mal. 2. 2. God threatneth to curse their blessings and who is able to conceive how bitter Gods curse is and not some of them onely but all of them Deut. 28. from 15 to 22. Consider O wicked man and tremble to think the curse of God fills all thy sweet cups and dishes with wormwood and gall Gods curse as a fury haunts thee in all thy wayes In the City it attends thee in the Countrey it hovers over thee coming in it accompanies thee going forth it follows thee and in travel is thy companion So that upon the matter so many blessings so many curses the more blessings the more curses Me thinks I hear all the Lords people blessing God for denying them such a miserable portion T is not the great Cage that makes the Bird sing sweetly So t is not the great estate that brings with it cordiall contentment Experience tells us in the small thatch't cottages where the people of God dwell are found more chearfull persons then in all the stately Pallaces of the world that are possessed by gracelesse ones Secondly Let us a little consider the godly mans Relative Capacity and there it will be as true that his Godlinesse is more for the advantage of his posterity then all the gold and silver that are horded up by Christlesse persons can be for the benefit of their posterity except God incline them to choose his ways and then the property of their estates is altered but this is no thank to their Parents Here two things are to be distinctly propounded and confirmed 1. Personall goodnesse is very profitable for posterity Exod. 20. 6. God promiseth to shew mercy to thousands of them that love Ps 112. 1 2. him and keep his commandements Psal 37. 22. God promiseth that the seed of his people shall inherit the earth The child of such a Tenant as paid his Rent well shall not be put out of his Farm 2. The greatest treasures that are heaped up by wicked parents for wicked Children are very unprofitable for them Many a time they are not a quarter so long in spending as they were in Eccl. 5. 14. getting De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres The third heir seldom rejoyceth in ill gotten goods And this is enough to confute the common proverb Happy is that son whose father goes to the Devil But suppose the best that can be supposed in this case that they continue with him Consider Solomons words Eccles 5. 13. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Worldlings sit and brood upon their wealth and hatch to their hurt as the silly bird doth on the eggs of the Cockatrice A wicked rich Son is but like a fatted Oxe fitted for the slaughter The sunshine of prosperity ripens his sin apace Bernard calls such a condition Misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem A most cruel mercy What good is there in having a rich suit with the plague in it and so proportionably a great estate with the curse of God cleaving to every penny of it These things premised I appeal to all sober minded persons to make judgement whose condition is most comfortable of two persons the one of them who can only say I had a Father Grandfather or great Grandfather judged by the world for wise Mâ—c 7. 3. who to leave me rich honourable did rise early go to bed late and all his life long did wickedly with both hands and when he had climbed as high as he could and scraped as much wealth as he was in a capacity to get I not being religiously instructed but suffered to be as vile as I would be longed for his death that I might enjoy the honour and estate for which he exposed his soul to the devil by wicked getting and I am like to drive the same course by wicked using them Who trembles not to think what a sad meeting Prov. 1. 32. such a parent and child will have at the day of judgement how dreadfully to all eternity they will curse each other The other Esa 8. 21. hath this to say T is true my Parents were of low birth and mean estate in the world but they were such as loved the Lord Jesus and his dear people unfaignedly brought me up in the nurture 2 Pet. 1. 4â— Exod. 20. 6. and admonition of the Lord and so left me although mean in the world yet under very many and exceeding precious promises more worth then the whole world or ten thousand worlds Ps 37. 22. if there were so many Who can conceive and expresse how joyfully such a Parent and Child will meet together at the last day and blesse God with and for each other to all eternity We have dispatched the first branch of the Demonstration which although it be least considerable yet it was requisite to be the more largely proved because most doubted of For Balaam Num. 23. 20. and so other wicked men that like not the condition of Gods people in this world yet seem at least to desire the death of the righteous and consequently their everlasting safety in the other world We promise and shall perform greater brevity as to the other two branches 2. The truly godly persons Choice is unquestionably best upon a Spirituall account I might easily be large but must be short in the confirmation of this Conclusion and that under these two heads Their condition spiritually considered is First Most honourable Secondly Most comfortable First the Honour of a godly persons condition may be evidenced to omit other ways by the light of these three Considerations They are most honourable in 1. Their
Relations 2. Their Service 3. Their Guard As to the honourable Relations of godly persons I shall onely name two They are I. Sonnes of him who is the God of Glory II. Spouses of Christ who is the King of Glory I. All godly persons are the Children of God Gal. 3. 26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ What greater honour can be desired then for God to say to poor dust as it is written 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters Jacob was at great paines and patience to Gen. 29. 18 25 27 28. become son in Law to churlish Laban and David held it a great honour to be son in law to King Saul 1 Sam. 18. 23. and v. 27. we see with what difficulties he encountred to climb to that height of honour But alas that was nothing to this the Honour of this is not to be spoken or thought of without the highest admiration 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God That note of admiration Behold could never be more fitly used then in a discourse upon such an honourable priviledge as this of Adoption A true believer may confidently call him Father who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Christ bids Mary tell his Brethren and what better John 20. 17. news could be told that when he ascended it was to their Father as well as his Father their God as well as his God And t is considerable that this honourable priviledge of Adoption is equally conferred on all true believers how weak soever they are Credo fide languida sed tamen fide Dr. Cruciger in the Faith of Christ The least bud draws sap from the root as well as the greatest branch The weakest hand may as truly receive a ring of gold and be enriched by it as the strongest hand that is A weak faith is a joint possessour although no faith can be a joint purchaser of this glorious priviledge The infant new born is as truly and as much a Child as the eldest child in the family Now although many that never made this Choice I am now speaking of will frequently with abhorred impudency call God Father yet all their Rhetorick will not prevail with God to speak to them according to that language he useth to his own 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be your Father and you shall be my sonnes and daughters Certainly this impudency of theirs in calling God father is greater then they are aware of If a person of quality and approved piety should passe through a town and some ragged beggar the known child of some notorious strumpet should run after him and presume to call him Father what an high disgrace and hatefull affront would this be judged to be by all sober persons T is far worse when a wicked man presumes to own God under this title We may in part perceive with what indignation such wicked ones will be rejected by God by those words of our Saviour John 8. 44. in vers 41. of that Chapter the wicked Jews laid claim to God as their Father We have one father even God But Christ could not brook that Satans brats should disgrace his Father by using such language and therefore in vers 44. he tells them plainly they were of their Father the devil his holy Father scorned such unholy Sonnes and he an holy Sonne was ashamed to be a brother to Heb. 2. 1◠such unsanctified persons Such honour have onely the saints Psal 148. II. All true believers who have made the holy Choice I am speaking of are the honourable Spouses of Jesus Christ the King of Glory So the Apostle speakes of the believing Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you a chast virgine to Christ Now this being so Christ being most glorious and honourable his people must needs be so For as the Lawyers speak Uxor fulget radiis mariti The wife alwaies shares in and shines with the rayes of her husbands honour In Psal 45. 16. We see that Christs spirituall seed such are all true believers are Princes in all lands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 2. Their service is most honourable because Gods service Among men to perform the meanest office about the person of a Prince is rightly judged honourable The title of a servant of God is an higher title then that of Monarch of the World as Numa King of Rome once said The highest stile that King David could devise to give himself not in the phrase of a frivolous French complement but in the plain speech of a true Israelite was Psal 116. 16. Oh Lord truely I am thy servant I am thy servant He doubles it because he knew not possibly how to adde an higher and better title 3. Their Guard is most honourable Heb. 1. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation The interrogation is to be resolved into this Affirmation Are they not all viz. the Angels ministring Spirits c. that is they are certainly The God of glory himself hath not more noble creatures to wait on his own glorious Majesty Amongst men t is counted an high piece of respect when some person highly respected by the Prince takes leave of him to send some of his principall Courtiers to accompany him the length of a room or Psal 34. 7. Psal 94. 11. Court-yard but all the precious people of God stirre not one step without this glorious although invisible guard of an Angel or Angels I speak nothing of the safety of this guard which is unquestionably stronger then a guard of many armed men although never so well armed and ordered Gracelesse nobles have oftentimes a company of vile men like themselves waiting on them as if their own personal sins were not sufficiently provoking but they must have their idle drunken and swearing servants by their sins also as with cartropes to draw down speedy and fearfull vengeance upon them One of the Saints guard is able to prevail against many thousands of ungodly ones Isa 37. 36. Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred fourscore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses But all the holy ones of God Ps 103. 20. are attended by holy and mighty Angels who excel in strength and never want will to be serviceable to the people of God to their best advantage according to divine appointment Secondly The condition of those that make the godly mans Choice is unquestionably the most comfortable condition I the rather touch upon this because it hath been is and will be a slander used by wicked men to discourage others from the good Spiritus