heightned it shall be so powerful as that we shall be like him indeed then shall we be like him this we know saith the Apostle I will instance in a few things Brethren Then will there be the love of Christ manifested to us It may be thou hast had thy heart touched with him and thou knowest not what aileth thee poor soul but follow him thou must thou canst not give him over thou art sick of love for him but thou hast scarce ever had a good look from him little of his love or as thou thinkest none Now Brethren will it be the Love of God in Jesus Christ to us that will be the feast indeed O thy love is better then wine it is better it is spirits it is life it is that which giveth life and keepeth life and fetcheth life again when it is even going this then is the feast the love of God in Jesus Christ to thy poor silly soul that thou lookest upon as neglected by God and neglected by men no man careth for thy soul Believe it Brethren you that follow Christ thus you shall have a time of making out his love to you and this will be the feast the Love of God will answer all the dainties that can be devised a compleat feast it is virtually all Even among men you see Love will turn a dinner of hearbs into a feast O how much more then where Love it self is the filling of every dish 2. The souls joy in this love not to speak of the souls returns of love again and praises hallelujahs to eternity which are the fruits but the joy in this Love it consists here in joy in that place to the Romans can it chose but be joy to a poor soul think you to see the heart of the Father opened to us in Jesus Christ his bowels of Love all shed abroad upon us therefore the Kingdom of heaven is so expressed by joy enter thou into thy Masters joy or the joy of the Lord. But to speak a little to soul-heightning considerations of this feast in those particulars that we might get our hearts in love with heaven with this feast First consider It is now Brethren to be more immediate then here below it is new wine the most excellent in its kind that is reserved until the last the excellency of this feast of wine in heaven will appear by this among other considerations That the Communion shall be more immediate Dulcius ex ipsofonte waters are most sweet out of the Fountain immediately now God shall be all in all when the Kingdom is given up to him he shall be instead of all Ordinances Now indeed the Conduits run wine and we may drink and that freely but yet it is not so immediately we are indeed not fit for such a condition we must make use of them until he come again use these shadows and types So that the communion is not so immediat 〈…〉 N 〈…〉 e see him not as he is but then we shall saith the Apostle 〈…〉 more through a glass darkly and sullyed glass by our polluted breath our corrupted hearts do sully Ordinances else we should see him much more brightly then we do but there shall be no more need but face to face If the beauty of Christ his love do take us so when we have but dark hints of it as a face in a dim glass O what will it be when we shall see him as he is we shall not need the pipes any more but even go to the Fountain the Rivers the Seas of Love 2. More sincerely it is now altogether without mixture Alas Brethren we now eat the Lord Jesus our Pass-over and feed upon his love but all the while it is with sowr herbs there is a mixture of grief when we look upon our crucified Saviour Crucified by us and for us and so his love is better then wine now to us but alas there is some gall or Vinegar mixed with it some sin some temptation some affliction without that weakens the comfort the soul might take in the love of Jesus Christ But in heaven there shall be none Brethren no mixture at all here the Lord giveth us a cup of trembling to drink a cup of mixture that is to say ready prepared wine and his people drink round of it usually and he seeth it necessary there must be some Acrimony some salt to keep us from corrupting before we come to our glorified state and so be able to bear that his love without any mixture at all of the contrary No anger the meat sweet the sauce sweet the wine sweet the bread sweet 3. More fully infinitely more fully if I may so speak of that which a finite though a glorified creature is capable to receive Now we have a drop or two Brethren but then our fulness then the narrow-mouthed vials shall be enlarged to receive more fully and to express more fully to Jesus Christ again in his high and everlasting praises What is that which cometh through the Conduit to the Fountain the Sea it self Ah Brethren here we are at a loss we do not know what the Lord hath to pour out upon us the fulness of his Love in Jesus Christ so as that we shall be swallowed up It is so much here that the Apostle admireth it behold what manner of love is this that we poor worms should be called the sons of God then they shall admire much more but alas the measure doth not appear it cannot enter into the heart of man it is too narrow and the love too great it cannot enter into his heart to conceive Some of the Saints have had so much of love manifested and joy in that love that they have been fain to beg of God to hold his hand they could hold no more and so great as to quench the flames that they could not hurt nor pain them they could feel nothing O sure this was a flood that could put out such flaming torments But yet this is nothing it appears not what we should be at thy right hand there is fulness of joy and so much as that the Saints are said to enter into it it cannot enter into them they are swallowed up O this will be a full feast indeed here there will be an abundant drinking And it must needs be so Brethren if we consider 1. What it is that maketh this feast or first that it is a feast it is not an ordinary meal Now you know men at a feast do more liberally provide for their friends here below it is a feast indeed but nothing to this 2. Who provideth this feast it is not a poor mans feast but the feast of a King such a feast you see Ahashuerus made for his Princes now a King will make a feast like a King Princes have their names from liberality and free with a free spirit thy Princely spirit all those as a
though he profess never so much love to Israel And O if he would give me a house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord And O that my latter end might be as his Yet the Lord can see he is but a wretch for all this therefore Brethren I beg of you that it may be a searching word to us all Whether ever we have known him or be known of him have you ever touched him with the touch of faith for the pardon of your sins for the healing of your corruptions and have you found healing come from him yea or no have you known him the power of his death the power of his life and Spirit yea or no If you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his whose ever you be and he will not own you be sure Brethren for his sons for his friends to admit you to the feast except you be his indeed Ah dear friends I doubt many of us will be found with the foolish Virgins following after the creature resting in somewhat else beside the Lord Jesus Do not think your crying Lord Lord will do it this you may do and fall short did not Judas come with his hail Master and kiss him and yet his heart full of treason against him was this his kindness to Jesus Christ and do not many of us kiss him salute him with a kiss of love and homage or obedience in shew and yet in our lives deliver him up to be scourged by our loosness of carriage that there is no difference between us and other men open the mouths of the wicked and this constantly and without a returning to him will he own such a soul think you O how can we be contented to be uncertain in our conditions lest when all is done we should be disowned shut out at that day Thirdly Then Brethren let us all labour and be exhorted to it to study to approve our hearts to God more then to men a needful lesson to us all and it will be our wisdom surely for alas what if men know us and own us and favour us as Saints and precious people and Jesus Christ will not know our souls will this countervail O Brethren see to it that your praise be not of men but of God! O how apt we are to be lifted up and cheared if men think well of us and dejected if we suffer in their breasts if they disown us to be cast out of their hearts would go to our hearts it may be and we could not be quiet Alas what is this to that fearful sentence I know you not If Christ disown us what is it if all the Saints should own us and if he own us what should it discourage us though they none of them own us O labour to be more inward Christians and build your comforts upon the sure mercies of David in Jesus Christ No matter what is the rising way in the world which is the rising Sun Look to the mind of Christ keep a conscience void of offence toward him and make this your work to be found in him when all is done not in your gifts not in your duties not in your graces but in Christ O such a soul knoweth the Lord Jesus and such a soul is known of him and shall be known to all eternity Fourthly Here is an encouraging word to poor doubting souls It may be they are ready to pass this fearful sentence upon themselves sooner then many a wretched hard-hearted hypocrite to whom it properly belongs No matter man though thy gifts be not so great as another mans thou canst do little or hast not those sweet refreshings and enlargements which another hath Is thy heart approved to Jesus Christ canst thou approve thy soul to him that thou lovest him as Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee though it may be not so much as other Saints do nor so much as the great things he hath done for thee call for yet thou lovest him and wouldst fain love him more be of good 〈◊〉 for thou art known of him If any man love God he is known of God A Judas may be an open professor of Christ and come to him in the day And a poor Nicodemus at the first dare but come in the night it may be and was a very shallow Scholar in Christ's School which is the discouragement of many a poor soul And Judas in the mean time a renowned Teacher of others and yet behold how the one betrayes the Lord Jesus and the other sticks to him when he was dead and professeth him openly at such a time as that when there was most discouragement against it O therefore Brethren though your grace be weak and little at the first if there be the root of the matter in thee if thou canst approve thy heart thou lovest him there is nothing in heaven nor in earth thou wouldest have in comparison of him though thy infirmities be many temptations be many thou art a poor wearied creature it may be with thine own heart be of good comfort the Lord Jesus hath already owned thee and he will own thee in that day And me thinks Brethren as on the one hand when such bold confident souls that make no other reckoning but of salvation but they reckon without Jesus Christ when they meet with so sad a disappointment in stead of an admittance they meet with I know you not O how will their hearts dye within them So on the other hand when a poor trembling doubting Thomas that it may be knoweth not what to think of himself nor his condition he is searching and trying and praying and fasting and humbling running and pressing hard forward and can get little ground of his corruptions which much discourageth him O he walks tremblingly lest he should receive this fearful sentence at the last that the Lord Jesus knoweth him not hath never had any thing to do with him notwithstanding all his profession sin is in strength corruption prevails though it is the bitterness of his soul O when such a poor doubting creature that haply many times looks for nothing but a fearful sentence depart from me shall have this pronounced O come thou poor soul I know thee I have known thee from the beginning of the world though thou hast been doubting of my love yet I know thee though thou hast been made black with affliction and thy visage so marr'd as others knew thee not refuge failed thee no man cared for thee for thy soul yet I know thee though thou hast been wounded with many sins many temptations and walked under many a discouraged heart yet I know thee O how will this be as everlasting life from eternal death to such a soul So that the soul shall now have now more place for doubting the satisfaction shall come with a mandamus he will speak salvation to the heart that it cannot
grow in this Grace may he not say to us O ye of little Faith why do ye doubt why do you walk so pensively and hang the head to the dishonour of my Grace may he not say O ye of little Faith why do you perplex your selves and rack your selves with cares of the World what ye shall eat and drink and how ye shall be prvoided for doth not your heavenly Father take care of you O ye of little Faith why do ye in every perplexity and trouble as men at a loss run to this creature and that creature and not to the Lord wherein your help doth lie O ye of little Faith why do you when means fail then cast away your hope as if there were no help in God as if because the streams were dried up therefore the fountain must needs be dry also therefore Brethren labour to grow in this Grace if ever you would do any eminent service for Christ or honour him set the crown on him in any condition labour to be strong in Faith Thirdly In that Grace of Love labour to grow therein First to the Lord himself to Jesus Christ It may be thou dost love him and according to the measure of Faith and Knowledge of him the soul will love him usually but we must labour to love him much more love we take it kindly if it be from the meanest person and so doth the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints you cannot love him too much do you alway err in his love the more you love him the more you may for there is no end of his perfections his love his mercy his bowels towards you there is no searching of them you may go yet deeper and deeper and find a ground for the increase of your love still you love Relations Husband Wife Children and more for relation then for any excellency in them many times fond we are O that we could be so fond of Jesus Christ how sick of love was Rachel yea sick to the death for children and so is many a fond mother O we cannot live without them Ah how few are thus sick of love to Jesus Christ well lobour to love him and to this end First Labour to present the Lord and Jesus Christas most lovely to thee while thou entertainest hard thoughts of Jesus Christ thou canst not love him if thou thinkest thus with thy self I would fain have him but he is not willing to have me if thou look upon him as rigorous and cruel and one that delights in your blood it is impossible that you should love him O no labour to present him to your selves as one whose bowels are continually yearning over poor souls poor sinners one full of compassions full of mercy and tenderness he desires not the death of a sinner the Lord Jesus Brethren is altogether lovely it is true for his holiness his purity as well as his grace and mercy but this is that which most moveth to love at least while we are under weakness it is an high pitch to love him for the beauty of Holiness that is in him Think often then seriously upon it what dear thoughts the Lord Jesus had to poor sinners that rather then they should perish he would interpose between them and the everlasting burnings though be were sorely scorched for it O will not this draw love look upon him with his precious blood trickling down and one drop overtaking another O what haste did love make O how lavish was his love he would not spare any pains any travel of soul that sinners might live and can you but love him then O what an heart must that creature have that can look upon the Lord Jesus wrestling with strongest wrath of his Father so that he needed the Ministry of Angels at that time and yet not love him try see whether such considerations as these will not heighten your love to him we complain of want of love Brethren we cannot love a thing we know not or that we consider not see then if you do not find still some new beauty in him for which you should love him yet the more Secondly Let it be much upon your hearts how much he hath forgiven thee Alas saith the poor soul if I knew that that my sins were forgiven I should love him indeed abundantly It may be thou hast not a full perswasion of it but hast thou not a good hope through Grace and such a lively hope as setteth a working out the scum the pollution of thy heart more and more Is not this cause of great love to him why he hath not left thee to sink in despair and perish O how much did that sinner love him because he had forgiven her much therefore she loved much Dear friends could this be think you without her heart dwelt upon this consideration it was fresh upon her spirit O the more she considered it the more apparent were the riches of Grace towards her O so many Devils cast out of me would the Lord Jesus have such precious thoughts toward such a wretch as I what an Harlot a filthy unclean wretch and would he think upon me and pitch his love upon me and pass by many others that had it may be but one devil and make love to me that had seven O she could not hold her bowels within her were ready to break she must love him she must hang upon him even upon his feet she must wash him with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head though before as harlots use to do she had been much in tricking and trimming her head yet now they shall be dishrifled and now they shall be a Towel to wipe the feet of Jesus Christ O here is love kiss his feet if she may not kiss his lips and blessed soul that had such an heart given her Now Brethren consider this have not some of us had seven devils have there not been seven abominations in our hearts O it may be we have been fornicators adulterers filthy unclean wretches as vile wretches as ever breathed now consider this often is it so indeed hath the Lord looked upon such as we have been pitched his love upon the vilest of us and to make us so nigh to himself and shall we not love him O where are such workings of love towards the Lord Jesus as that poor woman manifested our hearts are dead and dry So the Apostle Paul His love of Christ constrained him O he was the chief of Sinners and the Lord did so eminently save him and call him out of darkness when he was in the very height of his wickedness that then mercy should â—eet with him that then a pardon should descend from heaven when he was fighting and rebelling against heaven and he should be conquered by the love of Christ whose heart was full of blood against him O this lying upon his spirit did indear his soul to
did Paul and doubtless Stephen would have hug'd them in his bosom if any of them had then had their hearts changed and what then can and will the Lord Jesus do when such as have been guilty of his blood trampled it under feet turned their backs upon him crucified him when they come to him So in Acts 2. Thou thinkest if thou wert but such a sinner if thou hadst not sinned against such love and mercy he would have pardoned he would have accepted when thy thoughts are at an end and lost then is infinite Grace beginning to be Glorious Secondly Consider this that he hath left thee altogether without excuse he hath cut off all pretences that sinners might make for their keeping off from Christ both here and in other places O saith one He hath waited so long upon me stretched out his hands all the day long to me While I have been rebelling the Lord Jesus hath been intreating me to be reconciled he hath stood so long at the door knocking that now sure he is gone he will not come to my soul nor take my soul into fellowship with himself I am an old sinner as long as ever I could arm my heart and boy up my self with any thing carnal reasonings moral services vain delights and creature-comforts I would never come to him what though the Lord Jesus is ready to receive when ever thou come to him Had not the poor Woman in the Gospel spent all upon the Physitians before she came to Christ if she could have had balm any where else she would never have gone to Gilead for it nor for that Physitian and doth he cast her out notwithstanding surely no He giveth liberally and upbraideth not he hits her not in the teeth with her unworthiness to come to him but when she cometh he healeth her distemper Was not this the Prodigals case would he ever have gone to his Father if he could have gotten husks or any thing and what doth his father upbraid him with it what thou be received now that hast stood out as long as ever thou couldst it is necessity and not love that hath driven thee home therefore take thy course I have no bread for thee O this would have broken the heart quite and for ever discouraged him for coming no he meeteth him by the way notwithstanding and how ready he is to receive him and embrace him that Parable setteth forth O but saith another I am so poor miserable have nothing at all in me but sin and misery suppose so thou hast the more need of Jesus Christ and he is most ready to reveal himself to them that need him most yea thou art the more fit to come to Christ for while thou hast any thing to subsist upon thou wilt not come off thy self clearly and fully as thou oughtest besides remember this that the Lord Jesus is able to bestow his riches upon nothing as he did at the first make a world of nothing so in the new Creation in the soul he can he will bestow the riches of his Grace upon nothing it is like thou hast as much as the Prodigal had in his returning O but he cannot but abhorr me my sins are not slight scars and races but deep wounds and festering wounds running sores bloody issues loathsom in his sight did the woman with the bloody issue in the Gospel find a repulse because of the loathsomness of her distemper or the Lepers because of theirs or Lazarus because of his surely no therein is the great commendation of his love to poor sinners that though in their blood yet he loveth them yet he receiveth them In one word for all to stop the mouths of these clamours the Lord Jesus hath said it and will he not be as good as his word he hath said That if any man come to him he will in no wise cast him out be his distemper what it will be his uuworthiness what it will he will in no wise cast him out therefore never make that an obstruction but rather an argument to put thee on to go to Christ because thy want of him is so great more then is found in others Thirdly Consider that these hard thoughts of Jesus Christ before thou hast tryed and had experience of a repulse from him are but a prejudice against the Lord Jesus how glad is the enemy of our peace if any way he can keep poor souls off from Christ will you judge a man to be so hard-hearted and unkind to you before you have tried him and shall we judge so of Jesus Christ O this is to add sin to sin and much worsens our condition daily Fourthly Consider this poor soul and add to thy own experience the experience of all the Saints ask of them and they will tell thee O never was there viler wretches then they themselves were they had as vile and base thoughts of themselves as thou and were as much discouraged as thou art and yet when they came to Jesus Christ they did obtain mercy they found Grace in his sight the Scepter was held out to them Ask of Paul who though dead yet speaketh and he will tell thee thou never wast such a wretch as he imbrewing his hands in the blood of the Saints a persecutor blasphemer injurious Ask but Magdalen and she will tell thee that she had seven Devils for one haply that thou hast And so will Peter and David O thou never hadst thy hand in blood in adultery in denying the Lord Jesus these found mercy And is not Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Fifthly Thou canst have no good evidence that thou art one given of the Father to Christ before the world began until thou comest to Jesus Christ All that the Father hath given me shall come What then shall sinners abuse this doctrine to set light by it cast off all care of their condition because if they be given of the Father they shall come no But sadly consider this if thou be not yet come to Jesus Christ thou art not as yet declared to be one that is given to Christ and if not given to the Son thou art a son of perdition and wo is thee that thou wast ever born and as yet thou art not come to Christ and how knowest thou thou shalt ever have an opportunity or an heart to believe or come to him Faith is not at your command nor Christ at your command for poor sinners O consider this ye that forget God and forget your own welfare As many as were ordained to eternal life believed the rest were hardened Sixthly A rational Motive shall be this In other distractions a possibility of relief will make poor Creatures put themselves upon extream hazards when it is not possible they should escape without such a hazard running how much more then in the business of our souls should we be willing to run an hazard if there were any
if you could as easily put by the coming of Christ as you can make a shift to smother the thoughts of it your hearts indeed might chear you and your condition were something like But he will come and though you be asleep in the Arms of your lusts know that your judgement sleepeth not and your condemnation slumbereth not And make what haste you can to be rich or to be honourable and such persons are not innocent make what hast you can in your career of sinning it travels as fast you and will be sure to meet you at the gates of death and hell if not sooner But it may be we think we have done this great work we are through grace acquainted with the Lord Jesus and his spirit which hath effectually wrought in us to believe in his name to love him the main is done with us and therefore sure we may have more liberty then others now Is it so but is this all that must go to watch for his appearing do we not find our hearts thrusting away from us that day and our hands fail and security setzeth upon us the Disciples were in danger to be surprized as well as others Is there any of us so liveth as that we could readily and cheerfully meet the Lord Jesus at an hours warning a daies 〈…〉 and who knoweth he shall have so much to set his house in order O there is need to press this duty upon us all brethren be our condition what it will we have yet somewhat to learn of it and shall have let us hear it as often as we can But I will leave what further may be said unto its proper place in the handling the Parable A word or two to the present occasion we are many of us now called to this sealing Ordinance And though we have been often stirrd up and taught our duty concerning it is there not need to chafe the oyl in upon our hearts our affections still Alas how often have we heard that what it findeth it sealeeth And yet do we not dare to come some of us with hard hearts with covetous hearts uncircumcised hearts I would not speak brethren to grieve the heart of any the Lord would not have grieved as they that have least cause will be most sadly assayling themselves with condemning thoughts but the Lord grant there be none found among us guilty kind As often as ever we come we hear how dangerous a thing it is to come unworthily prepared to it and yet the Lord knoweth how often we have thrust in here some of us without a wedding garment And that you have not been bound hand and fooe bound up in our grave-cloaths and cast out of his sight for ever it is unspeakable mercy O that this might melt us and humble us and though blessed be his holy name I believe there are many poor trembling souls who go about these things with trembling hearts least they should miscarry and grieve him and bring his blood upon their heads I doubt there may be some of us found whose hearts are far from such a frame had we not need then to be put in mind and remembrance again and again of these things It may be we have faith and love to Jesus Christ it may be we have humility and self-loathing it may be we have a mourning spirit over our sins that have grieved the Lord Jesus put him to all that grief for us it may be we have a thankful heart but are these graces now in action are they upon the wing how often have we been minded thereof that we must be actually prepared Alas alas haply some of us have not taken the pains with our hearts which we might and which others would have done if they had had the hearts which we have haply some of us have been striving but in our own strength and have done little haply others may have been helped in the preparing our hearts to seek him herein but by our pride or carnal confidence have lost our frame again It may be some of us brethren have not been very negligent but yet not so diligent as we ought O brethren how needful are these things bear with me if I do press you to them it is not tedious to me because I hope it is safe for you O! that I could do it with such a spirit and such bowels as the Apostle did the Lord set it upon all our hearts we are exceeding dull to believe and more dull to practise and do his will revealed to us Though the good be our own the glory onely his But I will not insist any further here the Lord give us understanding and believing hearts Now for the words of the Text. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to ten Virgins which went forth to meet the Bridegroom I shall begin according to the former method And first speak concerning Jesus Christ with respect to his Church And touching him there are many things in this Parable First he is the Bridegroom 2. His delay of his coming 3. The cry before his coming 4. The coming 5. The time of his coming at Midnight To begin with the first The Bridegroom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However it be that the scope of the parable be to stir up all men that profess the Lord Jesus to a perseverance in watchfulness to stand ready for his coming which being apprehended there is no necessity of pressing each particular in the parable yet I conceive according to our Saviour His opening of other parables we may insist upon the chief things therein as where HE would let us see what need we had to take heed What or How or Whom we Hear by the parable of the several sorts of Ground receiving the seed of the Word he not onely tells us the difference of the Grounds but what the seed is and who the Sower is or else in that parable of the good seed and the Tares he tells us particularly what is meant by each And therefore I must not here pass over this of the Bride-groom The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom The note will be The relation between the Lord Jesus and his people He is the Bridegroom and stands in that relation to his people that this is so we need go no further then this parable for who else is it that cometh and with whom they that are ready do enter into the Mâ—rriage then Jesus Christ who is our life who appearing we shall appear with him in glory Again the foolish virgins cry to him Lord Lord open to us Who is the Lord but Jesus Christ as will appear by comparing this with that speech of our Saviour Not every one that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say to me Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name in whose name but in the name of Jesus Christ and in
and ruddy the chief among ten thousand either his divinity and Humanity or his fulness of Grace and his bloody Merits in a sweet exact mixture O how beautiful do they make him he is fairer then the sons of men If that beauty will carry it he is the very Paragon of Heaven 3. For Riches there is none like to him This is a great allurement you know indeed for the most part men do marry the gold and riches of the world rather then the person though this be a madness an Heir to a great estate likely will not need a wife Why the Lord Jesus is heir of all things all things in Heaven and Earth He is the onely Son of God the heir apparent of heaven he is being the Son of God so that what ever we want it will be abundantly supplyed in him Abraham his servant wooing saith his Master was rich and had onely one Son and he heir of all Gen. 24. 35 36. 4. If Honours will do it for that is somewhat which much takes with men he is no less then a King and no mean one he is the King of Glory a glorious King indeed as he is called in that Psalm Yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 17. 14. A most high and eminent Kingdom who hath all other Kings at his command a hundred seven and twenty Provinces were a great Dominion but not onely all the Kingdoms of the earth are the Lords and his Christs but by him Kings rule and Princes decree Justice it is by his permission any of them exercise their power 5. For Power as well as Authority and Majesty he it is that can do what he pleaseth he is indeed the Mighty God and what then can stand in his way He is our Maker and there is much in that thy Maker is thy Husband thy Redeemer the Lord of Hosts is his name thy Maker he that gave thee thy beeing when thou haddest none by a word of his mouth O here is power indeed he that could give us a spiritual being by the same word there is yet more power for in the first there was no repugnancy but here there is he is the Lord of Hosts It was much to Israel to consider who was their Husband even the Lord of Hosts he that could Redeem them out of Egypt sink all their enemies in the Red-Sea go as a Captain before them drive out the Canaanites notwithstanding their Iron Chariots the Anakims that were a terror to them He now was their Husband He is a man of war and a most mighty man of valour for that Goliah himself which defies the Armies of Israel is nothing in his hand the roaring Lyon is nothing in his hand he can tear him in pieces and bruise him under his feet even as a Lyon tears a Kid. It is very much brethren this to commend the Lord Jesus to us he can fight our battels for us so that if we can but stand still we shall see the salvation of the Lord. 6. For a lovely sweet disposition which is none of the least desirable things in a Husband O never was there like to Jesus Christ for disposition he is love it self and tenderness it self bowels and compassion it self there is many a one though they have beauty and riches aâ—d honours and birth and power in an Husband yet if there be an unsuitable disposition there be rigidness and harshness it imbitters all O do but observe how sweet a disposition he was of so far from harshness to his people that he melteth over his very enemies that refused him Ah that thou haâ—st known in this thy day c. O how he is touched with our infirmities afflicted in our afflictions A woman that hath such a husband what a sweetning is it to all her afflictions If love will do he â—â—ll never take any other course never any estrangement of himself from a soul here is a Bridegroom indeed But I will not speak any further Brethren you have heard much and much better of the excellencies of Jesus Christ then I am able to speak to you this onely for the second thing There are yet to be considered the Causes which according to their several influences concur to the making up of this relation between Christ and the Church of a Bridegroom and a Bride whichwhen I have spoken somewhat to I will proceed 1. Then The Father he giveth them to his Son and the Son to them This is above comparison though the Father of the Virgin give her give his consent and so the Parents of the Son they give their consent But here is God the Father who doth all he giveth his son for his people and to his people as you have it in that place he so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but might be brought in to the nearest unity with him might have life everlasting in communion with him If thou hadst known the gift of God saith he to the woman of Samaria and who saith to thee give me drink or And he giveth us to his Son that is to say as many as were in his purpose of grace thine they were and thou gavest them to me they were thine not so much by Creation for he speaks of many that yet were not created nor are to this day likely created but in the purpose of grace they were hâ—s and as absolute soveraign over all so they were his to do with them as he pleased to have made them vessels of dishonor if he had pleased as Ananias was it not thine own mightest thou not have done with it what thou wouldest So here we were the Fathers as Soveraign all of us and his Christs not onely so but in his purpose of grace he gave them to his Son to be his Spouse his wife 2. But yet Alas they would be under the hands of sin and Satan inslaved in an Iron Furnace hard bondage he must redeem them if he will have them they are sold under sin and Satan the Prince of this world therefore he must pay the price they were obnoxious indeed to his Justice or would be in time and therefore he must provide a satisfaction or else they could not be set clear It was the manner in some Countries brethen to give Dowries for their wives to buy them before they had them quite contrary to what is among us Ask me never so much dowry saith Sechem and I will give it he was now in love with the Virgin and nothing was too much for her now so here the Lord Jesus as well as his Father he before the world was foresaw what a happiness it would be to poor Creatures and what a glory and joy to himself and them for ever one in another and therefore he delights now in the habitable parts of the earth in the sons of men O now what
ever is required I will give if I must take flesh an infinite condescention I will do it as if a Prince should say if I must be cloathed with rags yea with clods yea with worms I will rather then I will go without such a poor worm to be my spouse If I must part with my dearest blood and extend it to the last drop I will Ask me any Dowry yea if I must give my self for them who am God and equal with thee as well as afterward man I will do it my kingdom for them my glory for them my blood for them O brethren the Lord Jesus is worth a hundred thousand worlds well he will buy us he hath done it at a dear rate Indeed David bought Michal at a dear rate by the death of the Philistims and afterward two hundred foreskins of the Philistins it pleased him well what is this brethren If David must have parted with his life for her have been so much debased as to have lived a poor despised contemptible life for her a hâ—wer of wood or drawer of water or ground at a Mill or to have been as Job continually a man of sorrows and upon the dunghil this had been somewhat but nothing to this of Jesus Christ Satan was there spouse bought at so low a rate as the Church of Christ was I have read of some that must not marry a woman until they had killed an enemy and other until they had killed or overcome their Corrivals and happily this might be hard But the Lord Jesus he must grapple with his Corrival the Law the former Husband as the Apostle cals it as it is the strength of sin and slay that and take away the Curse break the commanding power the streaming power of the Law before he could take us to be his And so he must grapple with principalities and powers and spoyl them and lead captivity captive scatter him in his temptations break him in his policies undermine him in his depths and methods over-power him in his malice he must destroy all these enemies Yea more then all this the wrath of his father that was against us and against which there was no standing he must interpose and screen us from it and O! How it scorched him though he quenched it As the Passeover was roasted in the fire so the Lord Jesus our Passeover was even roasted alive in the displeasure of his Father 3. Then he cometh a wooing for when all this is done brethren we are unwilling it may be to have him are well contented to continue with our former Husband to be yet under the Law and the commanding power of sin and see no such beauty in him as to desire him nor any such freedom and comfort in being one with him as to desire that Yea if we be convinced a little of this yet happily our wills or hearts are not towards him and therefore he is fain to wâ—o us when all is done himself came in the days of his flesh and what was his work before his suffering but to wooe poor creatures to accept of him How did he wooe the woman of Samaria If thou hadst known saith he the Gift of God thou wouldst have asked him insinuating there was more in him then she yet saw as appeared when he told her her sins what they had been How often would I have gathered thee Jerusalem Jerusalem saith he O I have been ready to spread my Skirts over you but you would not Sometimes intreating sometimes lamenting their condition sometimes displeased at the hardness of their hearts It is much for a King to come a wooing himself a great King They use to send as David to Abigail Abraham to Rebecca but here he cometh himself a long journey from Heaven to Earth and contented to take on him the form of a servant that we might not be dazled with his glory and no pains doth he refuse How did he go up and down on foot until he was weary Blessed Saviour he was weary at the well there by Samaria and all was that he might everywhere wooe and intreat poor creatures to accept of him And 2 not onely by himself but by his Messengers now he is in his glory now he sends by his Messengers to this end You see Abraham his servant went to take a wife for Isaac and David his servants went to Abigail So brethren do the Messengers of Jesus Christ his paranymphs or pronubi They speak now a good word for Jesus Christ so the Apostle I have espoused you saith he to one Husband Such are friends of the Bridegoom as John was that did what he could to bring the people to Jesus Christ even the people of the Jews and would fain have had all the people to close with him But 4. In this espousal to Jesus Christ we are to consider several things what is done 1. By the spirit he is indeed the great wooer He is sent forth to convince of righteousness and of sin the burthen of the work lyes upon the Spirit and happy it is for us that it doth so for how fruitless would our endeavours be to you else brethren we might spend our selves and be spent and when all is done complain We have spent our strength in vain for Israel is not gathered How sad for you How uncomfortable for us No no the great perswader is the Spirit he cometh and he openeth the eyes and then the poor soul seeth O he is aere alieno obrutuâ— so deep indebted to the Justice of God that whatever he can do or suffer to pay it eternity is little enough to pay it in O now for a Husband now how happy a creature should I be if some that were able to bear the debt would discharge it would take it up for her He then insinuates somewhat further and convinceth of Righteousness that there is enough in Christ if we owed a thousand Talents more O then that I had it saith the poor soul O he is willing he is willing saith the Spirit therefore he is Preached to every creature Thus if this Arm of the Lord were not revealed our report of Christ would never be believed But what then do the Ministers do Yea their word the word of Faith which they preach it is the vehiculum Spiritus It is that wherein the Spirit breatheth It is the spirit brethren ordinarily in the Law which convinceth of sin or the Gospel preached legally as the great aggravation of mens sins and it is the spirit in the Gospel preached Evangelically as that which holds forth a ransom a propitiation for sinners whereby the Spirit convinceth of righteousness Where as in a glass the Spirit of Christ doth hold out The beauty excellency love and loveliness of the Lord Jesus which is most transcendent and ravishing to the soul that seeth it but a little more particularly then 1. The Spirit by their word ordinarily not excluding other
person Alas our hands are withered as to any thing that is good and our Legs are Lame throug Hypocrisie we halt between two we are very Criples indeed no strength not so much in our Ankle-bones as to stand upon our Legs We are blinde and cannot see deaf and cannot hear pride like a Tympany swells us All manner of deformities gathered into one are the very picture of a poor sinner O brethren who could affect such a creature were not this free altogether free We must have something or else we cannot take a person into such a relation we must have beauty and parts and birth and wealth and wisdom and what not we are blacker then Ethiopians more bruitish then fools viler then the earth poor and naked and miserable and what not and O that ever the Lord Jesus should take such as we are in such a condition well this is the first 2. He doth it so willingly as to rejoyce in it It may be it may make a man more serious and Melancholly in such a condition if he be sensible of the weight of the things he goeth about but now the Lord Jesus knowing the issues of things and that it will be eternally happy for the poor soul and he shall have glory in it he doth it and not onely so but he rejoyceth in it even â—s a Bride-groom rejoyceth over his Bride as the Prophet hath it The words of the Text are very Emphatical as a young man marryeth a virgin so shall thy sons marry Thee he speaks of the Church of the Jews their sons shall abide with her as one that marrieth another and dwells with her and they shall not be removed but a young man marryeth a virgin a chosen young man the freely chosen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happily because they used to choose young men for explâ—its in war or otherwise as being of more strength and activity such an one marrying a virgin not an old man a virgin nor a young man marrying a widow or Ancient woman but a young man a virgin so an old man an old woman the reason of it is that hereby God might set forth how every way there being a suitableness to give full content and satisfaction he rejoyceth therefore over his people he thus espouseth as a young man over his virgin his Bride that he marryeth therefore she is called Hephsibah my delight is in her and Beulah she is marryed And this if it be not full enough take another place and it is that of Zeph where he prophecyeth in like manner of the restoring of Jerusalem and Gods taking her again after she was put away as it were the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing Minde you he will rejoyce over thee with joy that is to say exceedingly rejoyce as in another case the friend of the Bridegroom rejoyceth with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he rejoyceth with joy that is to say GREATLY yea he will rest in his love he is fully satisfied and contented yea rejoyceth with singing an outward expression of it How many expressions are here whereby he would have us know the largeness of his heart towards us in this his espousing any of us to himself and Alas all little enough to poor trembling souls to raise a drooping spirit to believe any thing of this kind and it is not onely a flashy ungrounded empty joy but he will rejoyce over such a soul to do them good I will rejoyce over them to do them good as if he had said it is the very joy and rejoycing of my heart to do you good Though you think happily that Jesus Christ is hard to be intreated and you have sought him long c. and you finde little O entertain not such thoughts for surely he doth rejoyce over his people to do them good but so much for that 3. He doth it brethren so firmly in every respect to all after-claps being provided for it shall never be broken There is many a man espouseth a wife and happily through weakness of the disposition or some disease or the like which afterwards being discovered procures a disrelish and happily breaks all or the like but I will a little insist upon this because it is very considerable and therefore 1. The Lord Jesus he doth it in such a way as that sure he will be that Justice shall be satisfied to the utmost in the behalf of a soul whatever the debts brethren have been if 10000 Talents whatever the offences have been you have been guilty of which happily may lie sore upon you O you are afraid of the justice of God he is just and dreadful and though he may forbear me for a while thinketh the poor doubting soul yet he may afterward come upon me for all and what will become of me then no the Lord Jesus he hath before-hand satisfyed all that can be demanded he hath paid to the uttermost for them being a Saviour to the utmost all the black and bloody bills chargeable upon thee were charged upon him It is true indeed hrethren if this contract or espousal between Christ and the soul were made without provision of satisfaction to justice he might come UPON THE SOUL AFTERWARDS and break and undo all again but our Saviour is wiser in his negotiations then so he hath first cleared all as to the merit and having taken satisfaction in his son and given him an acquittance being well pleased in the Lord Jesus he cannot now again return upon thee for arrearages that is a great and rich Scripture indeeed he came to be a propitiation then through faith in his blood that God might be just the justifier of them that believe that he might be justifier and yet so as himself be just not onely in fulfilling his promises of Christ his coming but be just that is to say his justice fully satisfied and yet his infinite mercy take place 2. That he is real in what he doth he doth not mock and delude poor creatures indeed a man that is variable and changeable as the shadow he may make a shew of much love and carry on a Match far and when all cometh to all cast her off and take up other resolutions but the Lord Jesus surely he is real in what he doth indeed God hath much ado with us many times to perswade us to this that he meaneth as he saith and we shall finde him full as good as his word and his offers because alas we judge him by her own unconstancy because our hearts are so hollow we think his may be also but remember his thoughts are above our thoughts and his ways above ours saith the Lord I will betroth thee unto me I will betroth thee to me and again the third time he repeateth it I will I will I will
as the soul is ready to say O O sure he will not look upon me such a one as I yea I will I will saith he yea notwithstanding all your mis-doings I will your unkindnesses I will your jealousies of me I will your back-sliding I will betroth thee to me 3. It is done with that wisdom and Council that it will never be overthrown Counsel is so called from a word signifying to Found because it is the foundation of actions that which is done rashly and unadvisedly many times men are fain to come off with a non putaram to retreat with shame or when through weakness they cannot see through things Now this is not to be thought of Jesus Christ Brethren for he is the wonderful Counseller the wise God a God of understanding and wisdom and by him actions are weighed yea his own actions are weighed his choice of some persons to life and glory it is the counsel of his will not onely his will but the counsel of his will he doth it with such wisdom as foreseeth all the events It was not a rash thing that God brought Israel into the Land of Canaan no he did it with Counsel and therefore he saith that he knew what they would do before hand Ah! may a poor soul think the Lord Jesus indeed hath made love to me but did he think I would be such a wretch under all this his love I would carry so unkindly towards him yea he knew this and considered it before hand He did sit down brethren from eternity consider what it would cost him the bringing of such sinners as thou art to glory that many a grief he must have many a slighting of his love many a kick in his very bowels Jerusalem would wax fat and kick against him he knew this and yet notwithstanding he resolved upon it he would go through with his work if he could not have born these things brethren and covered them he would not have made love to us if he could not have taken us with all our weakness and imperfections for he would undertake nothing that he could not bring to pass that were weakness therefore he is said to do it in judgement also 4. It is with that faithfulness that the Lord Jesus will not onely not c 〈…〉 st off when once he hath taken a soul so near him in this relation but his heart being once pitched it is never removed more it is not with him as it is with men for however when once we have betrothed persons we are ingaged by the Law of God to take them and our Consciences do bind us though it may be between the espousal and marriage though there be not a casting off yet there may something intervene that may carry away the heart so that the heart is not so towards her as before and the person could be content to be loose if it were not that he is intangled i such â—ands he cannot break but now it is otherwise with the Lord Jesus his heart if once pitched is never removed more if he loveth he loveth to the end It is for ever that he betrotheth when he betrotheth Alas there is little comfort or sweetness in injoyment of such near relations if their hearts be not towards one another It is true they may live together and do duties one toward another outwardly but if the heart be gone there is little comfort in it so it cannot be with Jesus Christ He may indeed sometimes suspend the outward acts if I may call it so and withhold himself sometimes and not give that free communion of himself to the soul but yet his heart all that while is never the further off his heart is never gone which is indeed all in all One of the Churches eyes at any time will ravish his heart that he cannot well hold longer from revealing himself again to the soul after he hath withdrawn 5. For after-sinnings there is also a treasury of pardoning mercy laid up there is a treasury of Merit which he hath expended to purchase mercy for us which is alway before the father not only for the sins past before we believed but for all after since the pardon is purchased already though it be not applyed nor the sins pardoned before they be committed yet there is forgiveness with God there it is and ready to be issued forth as occasion serveth And he himself at the right hand of the father continually i 〈…〉 eceding for the Application of it Whereby he is able to save us to the uttermost Brethren if we could say thus far or thus far he can help and save and there is forgiveness indeed our hearts might fail us but it is to the uttermost to all perfections or all end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet let not graceless sinners abuse this but rather fear him so much the more there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared not that we may wax wanton under it Againe on the other hand He maketh the soul also to close with him and give it self up considerately and in truth sincerely First Considerately and not rashly the soul giveth it self to Jesus Christ promiseth to be his the love of J. Christ Constraineth us because we thus judge if one dyed then were all dead It is the act of the judgement convinced that Jesus Christ is the chief of ten thousand that he is onely lovely altogether lovely of our necessity of him of his all-sufficiency to answer our wants and onely sufficiency his willingness to accept of us No depth of earth no judgement no rooting in it self Mat. 13. There is many a poor creature for a flash a sudden motion hath some velleities some wishings and wouldings but this is a serious and judicious closing with him promising to be his to take him for better for worse to go through with him in all conditions if he go to prison to go with him to death to go with him And he only can work up the heart to this Then secondly It is in sincerity as well as thus judiciously he loveth truth in the inward parts and therefore looks at the heart more then at the outward Alas how often did Israel turn to the Lord but fainedly not sincerely But now the Lord his people indeed give up themselves to him cordially though it be but weak yet it is in truth their resignation of themselves to him and taking him for theirs not for by-ends or reports but for himself not for riches honours a name any thing but for himself no not onely for peace but for himself who is the Prince of peace no nor meerly for the grace and glory which cometh by him but for himself To love a man and choose him meerly for his wealth or his honor which a woman shall have by him it is false and dissembling she loveth him not indeed no it is the person that she
would have if it be in truth let the other accomplishments be less or greater so the soul O thy self thy self give me Christ or else I dye What wilt thou give me if I go Christ less wilt thou give me a name riches a portion in this world a fellowship with thy people in the Ordinances yea grace it self if it may be given without Christ O none but him none but him Well thus now thy Lord works a poor soul to close with him so that choosing Christ for himself while we have him we are well enough If a man follow him for Loaves when they cease farewell Christ or for riches or prosperity when that ceaseth all is gon They will not go to prison with him they will not suffer with him no they never intended it but to have such a Christ as to be kept from those things Well this is not sincere nor upwright which is wrought in every heart whom the Lord doth thus espouse to himself which may serve for a word of tryal to us all I have onely a word to speak to the solemnity of the Marriage-Feast you see Marriages used to be made with feasting it being a time of rejoycing so Sampson he made a Feast seven days that was the manner it seemeth and so Laban saith to Jacob fulfil her week the solemnity of the Marriage And our Saviour himself was at a marriage-feast at the first miracle that he wrought And though this feast it seems was rather at the compleat marriage then the espousal yet this Feast is at his espousal and continueth until the consummation and yet a greater feast to be expected The Kingdom of Heaven saith our Saviour is like a King that made a Marriage-Feast for his son and bid the Guests Here he speaks I take it of the administrations of grace in the visible Church of Christ for one was there that had not a wedding-garment O Brethren A Feast of Fat things of Wines on the Lees well refined a Feast the Lord maketh saith the Prophet Their Feasts were rather in drinking then eating and therefore they had their name in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A drinking a Feast so Ahasuerus feast a drinking And so the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a drinking together so here brethen such dainties are provided as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the heart of man as a man that never tasted hony though he may hear speaking of it cannot conceive what it is Eat my friends and drink ye yea drink abundantly saith he in the song It is observed by some that Matthew calls it a dinner and Luke calls it a supper both indeed for we dine and sup with him and he with us in the Administrations of his grace and those sweet communions that we have with him while he sitteth with us at the Table as not long since you heard Yea we have continually brethren such as are believers indeed have continual meat at his Table as Mephibosheth at David his Table a dayly portion the things of the day in its day so we our daily refreshings from his presence so Jeconiah had his portioâ—n from the Kings Table dayly Some say the dinner is here but the supper in Heaven and this not comparable to that now we have flagons but there will be springs and Rivers or rather an Ocean of wine to all eternity here we drink and take in the comfort there the comfort takes in us we enter into the joy because it cannot enter into us O blessed is he that shall be brought brethren to the supper of the Lamb forever and forever Lastly The consummation of this marriage when the Bridegroom cometh to take his Bride to himself to take her now from among the pots wherein she hath lien to take her now nearer to himself to his bosom indeed now she hath had some smiles from him to keep the heart alive now and then a Kiss but then continual embraces Now and then he hath met with her here and there and then withdraw again but then we shall be alway in the glorious light of his countenance O Brethren If a smile from Jesus Christ will sweeten the bitterest cup of Affliction here below yea very gall and wormwood it will sweeten the mouth and fill us with comfort what will it be then when nothing but pouring out of love upon the soul to eternity and when there shall be no bitterness at all to abate it and no mixture no interruption no fear of losing that sweet and ravishing communion with him Oh heaven will be Heaven indeed But so much for the Doctrinal part Now for the Application First then I pray you let us be more serious in taking notice of the great transcendent love of Jesus Christ to such as we are that we should be made a spouse to him O brethren what condescention is this he being so high and we so low such poor abject creatures Alas conception fails us brethren comparison fails us for there is no proportion between an infinitely glorious God and vile dust and ashes Who regardeth a drop of a Bucket or thedust of the ballance they are poor contemptible things who desireth a poor worm or an Ant every one trampleth them underfoot and thinketh he doth them no wrong though he never gave them no being alas brethren we that are less then nothing in comparison of him that he should set his love upon us and become espoused to himself how shall we conceive of it much less speak of it You would think it much for one of you brethren one of us to have our hearts drawn out thus to a poor abject forlorn maid lying in the street that we must take her to a nearer relation to a bosom-communion and fellowship this were strange but for a â—rince to do so is yet more strange but all is nothing to this of the Lord Jesus to our souls It was Condescention for the Cedar to marry the Thistle as it was ambition for the Thistle to seek to the Cedar O such thoughts if they rise they are even stifled in the very birth A begger will not fall in love with a King she thinketh it is impossible to compass it there is no hope and therefore no desire and truly I think it is as rare for a King to fall in love with a begger he is so far above her and hath objects more suitable to himself to set his love upon so that it would be one of the wonders of the world if such a thing should be why brethren much more then this is acted dayly while the Lord Jesus the King of Kings the Lord of Lords maketh love to such poor worms as we are and yet it is not wondered at It is true we think our selves something and therefore we are the less taken with it Tell a Pharisee how great Condescention it is for the God of Heaven
longing after so on the other hand there are many will say If this be all it is an easie matter we are all willing to have Christ O that you were brethren if you were willing to have him sure you would make more after him then you do many of you he may go whither he will you never miss him never troubled for want of him Believe it you are not willing to have him there goeth more to a willingness in sincerity then you are aware of And then on the other hand those which are willing are ready to think Alas they cannot finde their hearts willing they are afraid they may deceive themselves But what is it man that maketh thee walk so heavily so carefully so droopingly is it not the want of Jesus Christ what is it that thy soul cryeth out for to God early and late so that heaven and earth is full of thy sighs and groans and tears is it noâ— for Jesus Christ What is the reason that thy soul followeth so hard after God if thou be not willing to have him What is the reason else that all comforts wherewith thou aboundest yield thee no satisfaction they are nothing to thee No thou must have Christ or else thou dyest and yet thinkest thou are not willing to have him O surely brethren here is a willingness take him take him then poor soul Behold his arms are open to embrace thee his heart is open to receive thee O embrace him close with him and take the comfort of it that thou maist walk cheerfully before him for ever 2. Again Be sure Brethren that you choose Christ and not somewhat else instead of him Choice is an act of the reason and judgement and so must we proceed upon judgement mature consideration of things else it will never hold we shall mistake the object take somewhat else for Christ Or else if we pitch upon the Object it will be so slightly as not to make a Marriageclosure The Apostle saith the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus Judge if Christ dyed for all then were all dead there is an object of Judgement going before the constraining of that love of Christ so some understand that I will espouse or betroth thee to my self in Judgement not only on his part but on our part it shall be in Judgement usually the Affections or passions these are violent like a Land-flood yet having not a spring to feed them they are quickly dryed up 1. Then Be sure you choose not the prosperity you expect to accompany Christ instead of him How many followed him for the loaâ—es they were not in love with Christ but the loaves they loved their own bellies and not the Lord Jesus as the Apostle speaks And therefore our Saviour deals plainly with men At the first you dream of outward felicity if you have me you are deceived saith our Saviour the Foxes have holes the birds of the Air nests c. If that men did certainly know they must suffer persecution for the name of God the name of Christ as all that will live godly in this world must do it more or less I doubt this would quench those wishes and velleities that sometimes they have towards Jesus Christ Do not mistake if you have him you must expect trouble with him troubles within and troubles without such as you never likely met with before and if you cannot be willing to take him with his reproaches his poverty his nakedness his imprisonments you are not worthy of him 2. Be sure you choose not his graces or any thing but himself primarily many would have him but what is it they mind or eye that they might have peace and comfort and pardon of sin and this and that priviledge but they do not pitch upon Christ himself primarily as the fountain Well then labour to fall in love with his person to see some excellency in Christ that you apprehend not before O! when the soul hath his beauty loveliness to know him that the fulness of the Godhead is in him that he is the express image or Character of his Fathers Person then to chuse him upon such grounds and deliberates is likely to hold This is the rooting Brethren which the word of grace hath in the heart the depth of earth whereupon a well poysed judgement we choose the Lhrd Jesus that we see so much in him of worth that we are now satisfied come life come death come poverty come persecution come what can come there is enough in him to make up all until we come to this Brethren explicitly or implicitly it will hardly hold O therefore Brethren labour to study Christ and his excellency whereby he is the chief of ten thousand Beg of him to manifest himself to you that you may judiciously choose him Use 6. Shall be for exhortation to the people of God such as the Lord hath given â—ower to believe in the Lord Jesus and close with him he hath made you willing to have him and upon his own terms you should be exhorted in that 1. To labour to make itâ— sure that you have the match made up between Christ and your souls for he loseth much of his honour and your souls the comfort of your condition in a great part because you are not sure it is so Surely he is willing to seal it up to you with the privy seal the seal of his Spirit witnessing to your spirits that you are his Yea and he hath promised too in that place where he betrotheth his people to himself I will say to them you are my people and ye shall say thou art my God Thou canst not say he is thy beloved or thy beloved is thine and thou art his but observe he hath promised that he will speak first to thy soul and say thou art mine and then the soul shall say thou art mine my husband my God for the thing expressed by both is the same There are many othe promises of the like kiâ—d why do not we let them lye dormant and do not put them in suit more earnestly in the Court of heaven were we not much wanting to our selves herein it would be much more comfortable for us then it is 2. Yea though thou hast not thus far assurance that it is so and the match made up between thee and the Lord Jesus yet take heed of a iealous heart of him as if he were unwilling to match with thee or as if he were off and on and did but mock thee because thou findest it not in so full a measure as thou wouldest what will more grieve him then this what could he have done more then he hath done to manifest his willingness to receive all that come to him that are made willing through grace to receive him You have his promise which usually among honest men is as good as their Bond and we build upon it And what do you make of Jesus Christ
is he not upright and just and true hath he said it and will he not make it good hath he not said as many as come to him he will in no wise cast out and is â—is word worth nothing indeeed if a man fail once in his word we will hardly trust him the second time and if ever sinners or Satan can come forth and say that the Lord Jesus made a promise and was not as good as his word then you may indeed have a jealousie of him but they cannot they cannot the Devil will tell you his promise of the seed of the woman breaking the Serpents head he hath felt to his wounding and his promise of Satans falling down like lightning and there is not a sinner in hell can charge the Lord Jesus with breach of promise But it may be this is not enough to poor unbelieving souls therefore you shall have it written and sealed and witnessed there are witnesses in heaven and upon Earth and seals the Sacraments the broad seal and privy seal of the spirit yea there is an oath also to make it good what would you have more what can you desire more then this would you see the work done why is not the giving up of Jesus Christ to the death for sinners the greatest part of the work Sure if ever he would have baulkt there and yet you see it stuck not O therefore be not jealous of him who hath so freely and so largely laid out himself for sinners 3. Now then ye that are Saints indeed love the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints None have such reason to love him as they that have tasted of his love if there be any ingenuity in us love will beget love as one flame begets another because he hath set his love upon me saith the Psalmist therefore I will deliver him if we could love the Lord Jesus more we should be delivered more from those evils we mourn under How lamentable a thing is it how much love have we for Creatures and how little love for Jesus Christ did Husband or Wife die for us ransom us from the pit and hell I hope there are some of his people believe it that have more affection for Jesus Christ then ever they had for the Creature Ah blessed souls how infinitely are you engaged to him for so fully seizing upon your hearts O who are you that you should be able thus entirely to love the Lord Jesus and admitted to it but thus it is and magnifie his Name But alas for the most part the complaint of the people of God is they cannot love him O labour to get those carnal affections mortified the fore-skins of our heart taken away and our heart circumcised and then we shall love him you have a promise improve it for that end If we could but spare time to set our selves to it to study his heart towards us and ours towards him his excellency and loveliness we could not but love him O beg the spreading abroad of his love sheding it abroad not only upon our understandings but our affections for no further then he sheds it will it spread it will stay in the brain in the understanding if the passages between head and heart be not opened by him we shall never be affected and warmed by it Alas you will say our distances are so great that kils our love No brethren that cannot be the distances are not so great now for the relation between Christ and thy soul if thou believest is the nearest relation he is one Spirit with thee and therefore there is not such a distance and though in respect of dignity and worth there be a distance yet remember now we are 〈◊〉 part of himself and partake with him of his dignities also but however love knoweth not that over-much aw and respect as to kill it but it will be working towards the person beloved Mary Magdalen loving him holds him by the feet and weeps over him If a Prince will marry a begger surely he will take it well and expecteth it to be loved of her and he would not be pleased with such a dejection in respect of her own vileness as to quash her love yea brethren me thinks the meaner we see our selves the more we should love him for what can we do else but love him we have nothing else lovely or desirable but our love our hearts therefore Oh love him and abundantly love him O ye Saints of his whom he hath so loved Alas But our love is little in comparison of his love to us and this discourageth us It is true What proportion between the drop of a Bucket and the ocean Some there is but there is none between the largeness of Christ his heart toward us and ours towards him But shall our love perish and dry up because there is not as much in the little limbeck as in the fountain in the river as in the sea He is love it self brethren and therefore we must be contented to fall infinitely below in love but let us love him according to our measure Again if there be the whole heart to love the Lord Jesus it is as much proportionably for us if we could reach it as it is for him to love us with his whole heart as he is pleased to express it The Creature is infinitely less then Christ and therefore must needs have infinitely less love to him then he hath to us but yet there is nothing wanting where there is Totum therefore rather it should provoke us He hath loved us first aâ—d loved us more abundantly then we can love him therefore labour to get our hearts as much enlarged as we can in love towards him though we fall short of what we might attain to he will make up imperfections there is love enough in him and there is the advantage of his love being above ours that he can cover those imperfections in our love to him which if he had not more abundantly then he could not do What shall I say more Love is that which commandeth all it draweth all the affections along with it which way ever it turns thither the desires are bent there is the hope fixed there the delights are quâ— amat amat nihil aliud novit She that loveth loveth and knoweth nothing else O how shall we not be able to do any thing against sin for Christ if we loved him so entirely then our hearts would be in Heaven we could not grufle as many of us do then we should be more tender of his name and of his honour then now we are but alas I am not able to press these things home the Lord set them home You must love him brethren else you will have little joy of your communion with him which is to endure to eternity Again Labour to rejoyce in him and in his love rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous saith the Psalmist
fervor of affection towards them a Bridegroom rejoyceth exceedingly over his Bride though happily afterward he is not so much affected for it is our natures the imperfection of them that new things affect us more then old now with God there is nothing new nor old but his heart is the same and so is Jesus Christ his heart he rejoyceth over his people continually as a Bridegroom over his Bride not as a man over his wife but as a Bridegroom over his Bride now surely if a man do afterwards cool in his affections towards his wife and could be content to be separated from her yet upon the day of espousal or Marriage he will not be induced to it he rejoyceth over his Bride Why such is Gods heart and Christ his heart continually to his people But so much for this Therefore the Lord help us to conclude from those promises however it be however he may speak against us sometimes and act so as it seemeth to us to be against us as Jacob saith all these things are against me yet he will not part with any soul he hath espoused to himself Ahashuerus may put away the Queen upon a seeming scorn or contempt refusing to come at his command when he was in is cups but brethren though it may be thou hast and thou dost many times slight the call of Jesus Christ thou wilt not come nor follow him when he would have thee thou shalt follow him in darkness and lament after him when he is withdrawn but he will not put away It is said in that of Mal. the Lord hates putting away it is true it is firstly intended there of mens putting away their wives but surely if he hate it in us he will not admit it in himself though it is true he is above all Law given to us yet he hath set forth this mystery of his union with his Church by the Marriage-union I shew you a mystery saith the Apostle but I speak concerning Christ and his Church And as it holds in love and cherishing and nourishing and not hating so why not in this that he hates putting away the Lord cannot admit of such a thought of putting away such a soul if Satan would move for it the Lord hates it and hates him for it Be of good chear therefore thou poor drooping soul that hast received him accepted of his love closed with his wooing and intreating thee to be reconciled and given up thy self to him assure thy self he will never put away any poor soul Ob. Alas but you will say this is little comfort though he be thus unchangeable yet I may change and break the Marriage-Covenant with him or I have done it I fear and therefore in such a case he may put me away and yet not change for the change is in me For this brethren remember It is not the back-slidings of his people that can undo the match made between him and them did not Israel go a whoring after other Gods and is not that the breach of the Marriage-Covenant he speaks there of that Church a man will not receive his wife again likely in such a case yet return again to me saith the Lord and I will receive you If that the Lord had not foreseen those back-slidings in his people it had been somewhat if Christ had not fully satisfyed the father for them as well as for other sins it had been something if upon this account there were not forgiveness laid up in store enough with God for these things it were somwhat indeed And it is very observable brethren I speak the more because I know that poor creatures in this condition they are full of jealousies and fears and all that can be said is little enough to quiet and comfort first observe that the Lord speaks over and over and over again Israel had back-sliden in that Prophesie of Hosea as appears ch 14. 4. I will heal their back-slidings Well now they could hardly believe that God would receive them again they were so confounded they had nothing to say therefore he puts words into their mouths in that chapter teacheth them what to say but observe in the second chapter I will betroth them saith God I will I will you have it no less then three or four times which speaks the certainty and ardency of affection in doing the thing in answer to their doubtings I will do it saith the Lord. Alas saith the poor soul it will not sink with me that after such Apostacy and backslidings he will receive it I will do it saith the Lord again O! I cannot believe it saith the soul I will do it saith he again Yea 2. Observe there that he will do it and espouse them betroth them again as one very well hoteth he saith not he will receive them as a man may recive his Adulterous wife again but I will betroth them saith the Lord as if they were virgins pure and unspotted the Lord will receive them not upbraiding them with their going a whoring from him so the virgin daughter of Sion you have heard they are called upon their repentance as if they never polluted themselves so that if the Lord give thee but a repenting heart thy back-slidings will be as if thou hadst never started from him and from final departing he will keep them I say he will keep them here is the difference between this espousal and those between men and women there if the mans heart continue faithful happily hers may fall off and never close again and there is an end of the matter but here the Lord Jesus his heart is not onely toward his people but he keepeth their hearts with him that they shall not depart It is the very tenor of the Covenant of Grace I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me as long as God is faithful and the Covenant of Grace stands they shall not depart let Satan and sophisters say what they will Then in the next place this being made good there is a spring of comfort ariseth from this and that is in respect of troubles and crosses afflictions and losses the fading vanities of the world Thou mayest lose thy dear husband that is as dear as thy life But thy Maker is thy husband if thou believe and thou canst not lose him nor he will not lose thee Thy dear children they are but fading flowers that even wither in the hand and perish in the using as all these outward comforts do but here is a comfort never fades thou mayst be afflicted happily with the cooling of the affections of dear relations to thee why the Lord Jesus his heart is at the same pass alway to thee it is alway a day of espousal with him he rejoyceth continually as a Bridegroom over his Bride Methinketh brethren whatever your troubles are inward or outward here you may relieve your selves by having recourse to your interest in Jesus Christ your Redeemer and
heart of the Lord is most widely opened This should be matter of deep humiliation to us all that we are so apt to sleep when we have most need to be awake The other Doctrine gave us a humbling word but this much more If we consider these two things 1. The more grace we have received the worse we grow turn the grace of Christ into wantonness for usually at the first when the soul is awaked out of its dead sleep O how hard it followeth after God it giveth no sleep to its eyes nor slumber to his eye-lids until he find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob in the soul Well it is true the Lord hath done something for that poor soul he hath opened his eyes to see the want of Christ and touched his heart so that now he followeth him and cannot but follow him this is unspeakable mercy But now when the Lord hath done much more for the soul hath poured upon it his Spirit given the oyl of gladness as well as of grace that then it should fall asleep the more engagements of Love the Lord Jesus lays upon the soul the more liâ—tless the more lazy it should grow The Apostle took it unkindly and well he might the more he loved them the less he was beloved and this could not but shame them if they had any ingenuity and may not the Lord Jesus take it as unkindly that the more he loveth us the less he should be loved of us as his love groweth hottest our love should grow coldest O for a spiritual ingenuity that we might lie down in shame before the Lord continually for this O what ungodly hearts c. and how unkind may poor creatures be and are they who have received greatest kindness from him Paul labored more abundantly because grace bad more abounded toward him then others We are prone to it if we be not left to it the more grace we have received the more listless to grow which ariseth noâ— from the nature of grace but from self-confidence and resting in our receivings which lays us fast asleep a man that hath one talent improveth it but he that hath ten lays it to sleep c. 2. What a shame is it for us that when we have most need to act our grace we have the least use of it for what was grace given us for brethren but for action not to lie idle and rust for want of using but to exercise it for his glory our own comfort and others good Now how do we fall short of these ends when we cannot use it in our greatest need is in those times before mentioned how would a man be ashamed that is or should be a man of his hands and when there is not such need he can sence and use his hands exactly to defend himself or offend his enemy but when he cometh to it indeed that his life is in danger he is in a deep sleep as the Psalmist speaks and none of the men of might find their hands A man is very rational at all other times only at a pinch when he hath more then ordinary need of it he is a very child and can do nothing this is a great shame The Saints that have received much grace and therefore should act strongly for God what a shame is it that when temptation cometh or when any more then ordinary occasion to exercise their grace they are like Children sleeping in their Cradles can do nothing Then If this be so Let us learn never to trust our hearts when they at the best in their highest frame most spiritual most enlarged Alas they are like a deceitful Bow it seemeth firm until you come to draw it but when you have need of it draw it it will deceive you fall asunder he that trustoth in his own heart is a fool saith the wise man and who more likely to know then he who beside the Spirit whereby he spake had had experience what a sad thing that self-confidence and security had been how fatal it had proved to himself be sure brethren if there be any time more then another that we need our hearts to be present or graces to be in act they will be asleep our corrupt part will cloud them and bear them down Do but observe it if it be but to watch one hour with Christ in an holy duty as prayer or the like It is strange but it is true our hearts will be less present then then at any thing else Let the duty be done or before it begin and you shall not be troubled with such a stream of vain and impertinent if not sinful thoughts but once go about this duty and O how do they thrust upon the soul and how lively sometimes when there is not so much need are the affections and how dull and flat are they then therefore trust not any frame you have at any time received for indeed it will prove a broken reed even grace it self if you lean upon it it will fail you and pierce you also Then what need had we brethren to ply the Throne of grace to sit down by the fountain and fulness of life and quickning influence even Jesus Christ David did even when he was at the best frame as in penning the 119. Psalm when do we find more flaming affections towards God and Heaven and his Law and Worship so strong as to break through all oppositions of men and Satan and Corruption and yet how sensible was he of his falling flat even in the midst of such a rapture O quicken thou me quicken thou me according to thy Word saith he alas this vigor will not continue except thou supply it with continual refreshing and renewing of strength And so in that place O that thou wouldst keep this upon the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts for ever alas else he knew if there were a like occasion for a free spirit in the service of God and his Temple it would be far from them O therefore ply the throne of grace brethren live by the faith of the Son of God Faith will draw water out of the wels of salvation And O what need had we to keep in with the Spirit of grace lest he leave us in a time of need It is true when we aprrehend a danger or an hour of temptation coming and the soul be any thing awake O then what mean it will make for the presence of the Spirit but brethren he deals with us as we deal with him If when we have peace and a calm and in our ordinary waking we slight him and sit loose to him believe it in our time of greatest need he may justly stand at a distance from us and let us see what our own strength is and what can we do without him O therefore let us take heed of grieving this holy Spirit which is that Spirit
must needs perish God will not be merciful to them Isa 27. He hath a controversie because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hos 4. and where no vision is the people perish they perish for want of knowledge which cometh by vision and yet it is not knowledge alone will stand them instead the Devils are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that for their knowledge and yet are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their malice thou mayst have enough then to light thy Lamp and yet have no Oyl in thy vessel remember this Secondly A Hypocrite may have not only knowledge but his affections may be stirred also he may be warmed in the Lamp before it be extinguished there was heat as well as light Some have light without heat such are meer notions others have heat without knowledge and this is not good so far but the Hypocrite he may have light and he may have heat and affection also and yet be a foolish Virgin when all is done Let me speak a little to some affections among many others which they may have As 1. They may have sorrow for sin being convinced of it and what it exposeth them unto How doth Darius when he had signed the Decree against Daniel and his kingdom lay at stake his people would rebel if he executed not the Decree he laboured to deliver him he was sorry for what he had done and he could not rest nor sleep that night and early in the morning cometh with a lamentable tone to him O Daniel servant of the living God art thou yet alive There may be a spirit of bondage to fear or witnessing to a man that he is in a condemned state which is not succeeded with a Spirit of Adoption Sinners you may have your Consciences so galled sometimes with the Law that you cannot rest but cry out of sin O sin sin what a bitter thing is sin yea so far may this sorrow prevail that it may make you vomit up your sweet morsel make you make restitution with Judas God may so fire the Coal you cannot hold it in your bosom any longer the fire of Gods wrath upon Judas even melted his pieces they were too hot for him to hold and yet but a Judas still And I tell you brethren this is much a strong effect of those troubles 2. There may be some desires and seemingly earnest desires after things really good and which bring to salvation as those there in that place of John were they not much affected when they cried out Lord evermore give us of this bread As very a wretch as Balaam was yet he had his wishings and wouldings O that I might die the death of the righteous c. O how beautiful are his Tabernacles c. he seemeth to be taken with them or desires to enjoy that communion and fellowship with them in their Ordinances how beautiful are they And the young man in the Gospel had he not good desires and is it not said our Saviour loved him for that good that was in him though not with that special love of pitty to save him that we read of his desires carried him out far and yet never reach heaven I doubt not brethren but many of us this day have sometimes some good desires and you would have it go well with your souls you may cry out sometimes with the multitude O Lord evermore give us this bread you would be loath to part with the Ordinance of Christ it is good but all this may be in you and yet you may be hypocrites foolish Virgins O that you could lay it to heart 3. There may be also some hope we read often in Job of the hope of the Hypocrite he hath certainly an hope for heaven else he would never be at so much pains as many a Hypocrite is at as you shall hear afterward would the foolish Virgins think you have done so much as they did if they had not had a hope when hope expireth all endeavour giveth up the ghost with it 4. There may be also a joy and delight in holy things as those that kindled a fire of their own in that place of Isaiah saith the Text They walk in the sparks of their own fire that is to say they delight themselves in it And surely brethren the Galathians when they would have pluckt out their eyes for the Apostle they had no ordinary rapture upon them and yet alas how did they apostatize some of them And is is not sad to see in our days many that the Ministers of Jesus Christ whom he hath made instruments of God to their souls they have been as dear to them as their eyes and what is it come to with many of them are they not come to cast off all what shall we think brethren of such in such cases According to the hope so is the joy if the hope be sound so is the joy if the hope be false so is the joy which springs from it the Lord hinders it not haply doth not damp and overcast the soul and O how Satan endeavours to water such a plant as that is for what more available to lay a soul asleep then this he hath joy in holy things this is an high attainment indeed they take delight in approaching to God And we read in Heb. 6. that such as fall away may have a taste of the joy of the world to come such a temporary faith the light of it doth convince and shew us things worth the rejoycing in and then a false hope of a title to them when it is no such matter it will raise the spirit to rejoyce Well this is no ordinary pitch of affections and yet but a Hypocrite the stony ground received the word with joy and they rejoyced in John Baptists light for a season Thou art unto them as one that hath a pleasant voice c. 5. There may not onely be those affections and others but the fervor of them a mans affections may seem to be boyled up to a great height Zeal for God seemeth to be much this is Jehu his case how hot and zealous was he for God and so Judas seemed very zealous of good works when he would have had the box of oyntment spilled Ananias and Saphira seemed to have more heat of love then others to sell their possessions to be with the forwardest and yet you see what became of them and so may we brethren Not but that zeal is exceedingly to be commended and lukewarmness is the most loathsom temper to the Lord he will spue such a man out of his mouth yet there may be this fire which is not of Gods kindling The false Apostles did zealously affect those Christians to whom the Apostle writeth they seemed to be men of more then ordinary love and warm affections to their souls but yet they were but false Apostles they did it enviously to work the Apostle
thee for the time past yet now sure I am I love thee and that love preferred Jesus Christ before his life If the heart be but upright if there be never so little at first yet it will grow it will continue the Seed of God will abide And if never so much if the heart be not right it will fall short of heaven as these Virgins they went far Well the Lord give us understanding in these things Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 WE have done with the former member that is to say the foolish Virgins trimming their Lamps going so far in a profession of Christ and yet fail when all is done Now we are to consider the second member included in this general and that is that Believers are now to trim their Lamps the wise Virgins were now to do it as well as the foolish the real as well as the formal professor I will only briefly note two things from this clause of the Verse First That though a Believers profession may decline and grow low and that towards his latter end or after he hath long professed Jesus Christ yet it is not altogether extinct it wants trimming indeed but it is not out with the foolish Virgins 2. When this profession groweth thus low it is the Believers duty to renew it to trim up his Lamp Of the first in the first place wherein are comprehended three notes which for brevity sake I wrap up into one partly because some of them have near affinity with what hath been already delivered and partly because I would not dwell too long upon the Text. First then That a Believer his profession may decline and grow low and need a renewing 2. That it may come to this pass after he hath long professed or near the time of his Calling for And 3. That yet notwithstanding it is not extinct altogether as the profession of the foolish is of which afterwards A word or two briefly to each of these First That a Believers profession may decline which is somewhat of kin to what we spoke before and therefore the less here The Lamp may grow low First then The light which appears to be in the Saints may grow low It may admit of mixtures sometimes of darkness which much dimmeth the light I mean they may be much corrupted in their judgements and turned aside from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ this is clear in the Galathians their â—ase ye did run well who hindred you what was the matter It was an errour and a gross one crept in among them to set up the Law and Moses with Christ as necessary to Justification and Salvation What aâ—mist is here about the Lamp this made it twilight with them 2. The lightsomness and joy of faith this also may wear away in great measure yet not altogether the faces of the Saints do shine by a reflexion of the countenance of God upon them as the face of Moses did when he had been with God in the Mount but alas though they walk long in the light of his countenance may it not be lost as we find the Psalmist complaining Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation he had it before but now he had lost it both which are implyed in that word restore And do we not find it in that 50. of Isaiah Who is there among you that walks in darkness and sâ—eeh no light Where is the lightsomness of the Lamp then the pleasant paraphrase upon the works of the grace of Christ in their souls so that they can see nothing at all Look what comfort it is to have a â—ight or a Lamp in the darkest night such comfort it is to have the smiling presence of the Lord. But now this is lost thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Gods face was clouded and his face was covered 3. Believers as they may lose in a great measure their joy of faith so may they lose their confidence of hope so that they may be ready to say many times their hope is even perished from the Lord and hath God forgotten to be gracious and will he be merciful no more this you may see in many cases of the Saints David I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul O I shall never see through this world of wickedness that is in mine heart but sooner or later I shall be swallowed up by it 4. A Believer may lose the degrees of those graces which are radical and which indeed more principally are like the oyl in the vessel yet that may grow low and then no marvel if the Lamp which is fed by them do grow low also As that of their faith how low may they grow in faith Indeed our Saviour hath prayed that their faith fail them not altogether but in a great part it may decline We see it in Asa one while he could trust in God when a great hoast of the Ethiopians and Lybians come against him By by when he was not so hard put to it he rests upon the King of Assyria for which the Lord reproveth him by the Prophet Where was Petersâ—aith â—aith when a little carnal fear turned him aside in so sad a manner and indeed it is the want of faith in the people of God that is the very root of all those turnings aside from the Fountain to the broken Cistern from God to the creature And so that of love as well as faith faith works by love and this also may deâ—line You find the Church of Ephesus She had left her first love and that Angel of the Church also he had it may be heretofore been full of love to Jesus Christ and that love very laborious in feeding the Flock of Christ but now his love was remitted May not every mans heart Seal to this that the Love of his Espousals to the Lord Jesus the love of our youth those springing affections are gone 5. Another is this A Believer may lose the fervor of all those holy affections that he hath had his desires his delight and joy his anger and hatred against sin loathing and abomination time hath been we could have cryed out for the living God their souls break for the longing they had to God but now the Chariot wheels drive more heavily We have felt sometimes the babe springing in the womb but now we can hardly feel in our affections languish towards Jesus Christ Solomon once had a zeal for the house of God when he laid out himself in building a house for his name but what was become of that zeal when he could build a house to Chemosh the God of the Moabites in favour of his Moabitish wives where was his zeal then So Laodicea was grown luke-warm theywere hot at first 6. The outward acts of grace they may be remitted which indeed are a great part of the profession It is not a bare confessing Jesus Christ the Lord with
but be a grief and wound to you then to remember how you have spent your strength in sin and upon your lusts now have little or no time remaining little strength to lay out upon his service to testifie your love to the Lord Jesus surely this will be a burthen And therefore brethren as you tender your souls welfare as you would not be cheated out of your souls and held in a sools Paradise until it be too late or at least untill you lose your comfort much of it which otherwise you might have O now while it is called to day will you hearken to the voyce of him that speaks from heaven even Jesus Christ hast thou not as much need to make haste as David had I made hâ—ste and delayed not to keep thy righteous iudgements haste not thou as much need as Paul he went presently consulted not with flesh and blood but â—orthwith went to preach the Gospel the Disciples forthwith saith the Text Left their Nets and followed Jesus Christ if they had lingered who can tell whether c. O therefore let me bespeak to you in those words of the Prophet If you will inquire inquire return come those that either mockingly or else fearfully asked Watchman what of the night what of the night c. when will this burthen come upon us we see it not yet your morning cometh and also the night though you have a morning of flourishing and light yet the night as surely followeth it as the night doth the day therefore if you will inquire inquire return come how many expressions here are to shew the vehemecy of the call O come now now now away come away come away the dulness of them to whom it was made if you will inquire inquire every man will pretend a willingness to have Christ and grace and they will inquire after heaven if you will inquire inquire then saith he now or never if you mean to escape lay hold upon salvation before it be past and no recalling of it the word Inquiring signifieth an earnestness this inquiring like the bubling up of a Pot through heat so then it may be that God puts fire under thy conscience and it beginneth to bubble thou art restless now if thou wilt ever inquire inquire after Christ and grace for this is the expected time this is the day of salvation while he thus moveth by his Spirit there is hope he will be found therefore as you love your souls trifle not away such a precious season There are three or four Considerations that I would propound to you at tending to the furtherance of this work First That you labour with God and your hearts to shake off your â—loathfulness men would have grace and heaven but they would have it drop into their mouths they would have Christ but they will not follow him nor follow hard after him you see many of the Israelites when they were on the other side Jordan could have been contented for their ease sake to have continued where they were if God would have let them alone they had so many enemies to encounter and such a Jordan swelling to pass through they had little mind to it and when they were on the other side gotten over Jordan what did they do Up saith Joshuah Many years after they came over Jordan some say seven years after Judah had their lot as long as the whole Land was in conquering and had conquered a great part of the Land why are ye slack to go up and possess the Land they were contented now to have sitten still and taken their ease and truly I doubt it is so with many they are afraid if once they begin to stir and to close with Christ O they shall have their lusts their sins about their ears temptations thick and threefold it may be some have found some such thing when they have begun to stir and therefore they are willing to take their ease Secondly Be sure you miss not an opportunity you might enjoy do you know where or when the Spirit of Christ will breath Lie at the house of mercy thou knowest not when it may come to thy turn to be put into the water O hear and hear as for your lives and think with thy self when thou hearest that this voice of God sounds in thy ears O to day to day if you will hear his voice Thirdly Take heed of hardening your hearts as the Psalmist speaks harden not your hearts It is said of the people to whom that Evangelical Prophet was sent that they made their ears heavy God said make their ears heavy because they themselves had â—hut their own eyes clapt to the windows and would not admit the light like the deaf Adder which they say stoppeth one ear with her tayl and closeth the other to the ground lest they should hear the Charmer and so be taken Ah Brethren are we not guilty in this kind we stop our ears if we come to hear we fill them full of prejudice or else we resolve what we will do before we come we resolve not to be taught by any Minister of them all we are at a period concerning our souls and some are so desperate as to speak such words as these are haply or think so if they speak them not all the arguments in the world shall not perswade them to leave their profitable sins or their pleasant lust they will put it to the venture O Brethren how just is it with God when men harden thir own hearts especially if they have any stirrings and convictions within how just is it with God to say Amen to such resolutions you will not hearken to my voice well you shall never hearken to my voice you will have your lusts well you shall have them and judgement and damnation to boot Acts 7. 51. they alway resisted the Holy-Ghost and Ezek. 7. and 9. and 12. they hardened their hearts like an Adamant 4. Cast away from you Brethren those nets and snares which intangle you and hinder you in this great work as the Disciples did their nets when Christ called them they left all and followed him I mean not that every Christian is called to leave his imployment but such as are called to be Ministers of the Gospel I think are called to cast away worldly incumbrances altogether but thou must take heed they hang not so fast upon thee as to hinder thee be sure thou sit loose to the world it will else sooner or later be a pull-back to thee O for such a resolution as Jerom had If his Father were weeping upon his knees his mother hanging about his neck his Brethren sisters and kindred all with lamentation intreating him to forbear he would cast down his Mother and trample upon his Father run over them all to go to Christ Do as Bartim then Doth he call thee off with the Cloak away with that which hinders thy running
Testament violated Father I will that where I am they shall be also now they cannot come to be where he is except he bring them with him as the Apostle speaks they shall enter in therefore with him having undertaken to save them he will do it to the utmost yea it is the will of his Father also which he hath undertaken to see fulfilled therefore how can he be faithful except he make it good to the utmost this is one 2. His own Communicative He is not willing to be alone in the enjoyment of this glory wherewith he is glorified with the Father he would not ingross those delights and pleasures which are at the right hand of the Father for evermore but would communicate them to some now he is in heaven and his people upon earth yet he would not be alone in those comforts but though himself must sit at the right hand of his Father yet he sendeth the Spirit the Comforter to his people to give them a taste an earnest of those joys of that Feast that is to come indeed so much joy that it is unspeakable and full of glory to many of the people of God many Saints are as I may say in heaven upon earth the Lord Jesus would not eat and drink abundantly and let his people have none that were unkindness indeed where there is little goodness in a creature as all in the creature is but little in comparison of him Job would not eat his morsel alone so will not he Lord Jesus but he will have his people to go in with him to the Feast to the Marriage and drink wine with him as you have it in the Canticles He hath eaten his honey and honey Comb and drank his wine and milk and what then Then drink ye O my friends yea drink abundantly c. 3. Because they have set their love upon him therefore he will put this high favour and honour upon them as it is in the Psalms Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I be with him and deliver him and honour him with long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Give him to injoy it and not only here but hereafter The Saints they do love the Lord Jesus every one of them their hearts are set upon him and they cleave to him with full purpose of heart in all conditions as the Disciples did they continue with him in his temptations in his poor condition in his imprisoned condition therefore he appointeh them to sit down with him And so you know they are not every one that is admitted to a Marriage Feast they were the friends of the Bridegroom or of the Bride there were thirty young men attending Sampson these were at the Feast among others And so who goeth to the Kings Banquet of wine but the Kings Favorite even Haman he goeth along with him he puts it upon him as a great honour and this is the glory of Jesus Christ the honour which he doth to the man whom he delights to honour who hath set his love upon him even to bring him in to the Feast the Marriage Feast he hath not been ashamed of him before men nor will the Lord be ashamed of him before men and Angels and his Father though while he was here below it may be a man full of infirmities so the Saints are called his friends in many places Abraham my friend Ye are my friends Ioh. 15. and so his Mother and brethren and sisters they are called these are the Favorites which must needs be at the Marriage Feast 4 For his glory as well as for theirs Indeed his glory is theirs and theirs is his now the Lord Jesus cometh to be made glorious in his Saints when the light of the Saints shines before men and they see their good works he is glorified the vertues of him that calls them out of darkness to light are shewed forth but alas this is with so many cloudings interruptions it can scarce be called a glory He shall come to be glorified in his Saints saith the Apostle will not the fulness of the Saints being brought in be his glory they are called the fulness of Christ so that he accounteth not himself full without them but to be as I may say imperfect without some of his Members now at that day he will bring them all and then he will be glorified indeed in them more fully then ever then the general assembly of the first born being gathered together how much honour will he have in it that by his death by his blood he hath redeemed such an innumerable company that he hath by his Spirit sanctified them kept them alive cheared them comforted them raised them and brought them together and put so much glory and beauty upon them all herein he will be much glorified and that every one of them shall have to the full be filled even to admiration of him will not this honour him exceedingly acknowledge and hold forth the glory of his grace before his Father and Angelsglorified 5. He will exceedingly rejoyce in them as well as they in him he spake those things made that prayer in the world that they might have his joy fulfilled in themselves his joy efficienter and his joy subjective for herein he did and doth rejoyce exceedingly surely according to his desire to communicate with his people which is according to his strength of Love to them will be his joy in the communiâ—n therefore saith he thy love is better then wine to see his own love take such an impression upon our hearts as to draw out our love to him this is a great joy to the Lord Jesus I desired with desire to eat this Passover with you saith he to his Disciples great desire so great joy so saith he I have eaten my honey and honey comb he doth as I may say feed upon the graces of his people that is to say they are pleasing delightful to him even when there is mixture in them O what will it be then when there shall be no honey comb no wax no imperfection when grace shall be glorious will it not be his joy and delight to pour out of his love and manifest himself in the most open glorious manner to his people and then to behold them to be filled with love swallowed up of this love and filled with this joy yea swallowed up with that also to see their faces to shine gloriously with grace and joy and comfort unconceiveable O this will be joy to him 6. Because indeed the Saints they are ready to enter in with him they are his Spouse though here considered only as Virgins waiting upon the Bride yet they are the Spouse and sure if any must be brought to the Marriage Feast the Spouse must be there the Angels shall be rather attendants the Saints shall sit down with Jesus Christ at his
the evil savour of their sins upon them such as have their prison cloaths their rags by the exactest righteousness that ever creature performed upon them no no you must first come to Jesus Christ have these bolts knockt off He it is that looseth the prisoners you must first have your â—ilthy garments taken away from you and be robed with the royal apparrel such as is put upon them whom the King of Heaven delights to honour with so near an aporoach to himself for ever you must have the savour of his Oyntments anointing â—our head his Spirit poured out upon you first brethren as they used to annoint their heads with sweet oyl at their seasts before you can come to that feast sinners do not think you shall croud into heaven in the condition you are in but be perswaded in the Name of Jesus Christ first to come to him to get your hands and hearts and all washed in innocency it self in the blood of the spotless Lamb else believe it there will be no entrance for you 2. There is an external communion also which men that have no more but a profession may have eating the spiritual bread and drinking the Sacramental feast brethren which the Saints ought to come to have communion with the Lord Jesus and his people will until he come again it is not an indifferent thing Do this in remembrance of me and as often as you do it ye keep in remembrance the Lord his death until he come Now brethren we do immediatly invite you to come to Jesus Christ to close with him that you may be washed and cleansed through faith in his blood and have your hearts purified by faith in him and then to this Sacramental Communion with Jesus Christ which is a sign and pledge of this Marriage-feast in heaven as plainly our Saviour tels his Disciples I wâ—ll henceâ—oâ—th drink no more of this fruit of the Vine until I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Well this is but the first Secondly brethren that by your now coming in to Jesus Christ you do as I may say take up your room in your places before hand at his Table in his heavenly Kingdom In which respect the Saints now are said to sit together in heavenly places and hereby you will come to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection and Ascention and his Work in heaven which is to prepare a place for his people and as I may say to keep it for them and as one sweetly expresseth it wriâ—ing as I may say every ones name over his Mansion over his Place even with his own blood that none shall take it from them over their heads If Jesus Christ prepared not a place for you in heaven now brethren you will find no room at his Table Therefore now brethren Let me press this Exhortation upon you that you would come to him now even now while it â—s called to day it is his voyce brethren that speaks to you O that your ears were bored to hear the fatted Calf is killed the Lord Jesus is Crucified for sinners the Wine is mingled all is ready there wants nothing now but your coming to Dine and Sup with Jesus Christ yea indeed but your opening to him he knocks he will come to you to feast with you bring his royal dainties with him and his wine of the Kingdom his Royal Wine with him O his love which is better then wine if you will but open to him O do not nectere moras now can the Lord Jesus brethren find in his heart to have his blood poured out to become royal Wine indeed full of spirits sweet and cordial to a poor fainting soul to give his own flesh to eat which is bread indeed it is virtually all dainties therefore the Scripture setteth it forth by Wine and Milk and Honey and Bread and Marrow and Fatness the fat of the Kidniâ—s of the Wheat by Apples and Flagons Is he willing brethren to be the Feast to be fed upon and shall we not come O therefore come where the Carkass is follow not your Carrion any more the stirâ—king loathsome delights and pleasures of sin for a season Be ye no more drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit of Christ saith the Apostle be Inebriated as some read it abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his House and with the flowings of his heart towards you poor sinners But me thinketh now I hear the returns that sinners make to Jesus Christ to this invitation say some I have a feast already Stoln waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant and shall we forsake these delights we have in the world for we know not what Ah poor souls you know not what you say if this be the language of your hearts If you mouths were not much out of taste you would never judge sin a sweet thing a poor child of God that hath his taste healed though but in part he drinketh nothing in the world so bitter to him as sin that which goeth down so merrâ—ly with many Were not the Israelites mouths much out of taste when they preferred their Onions and Garlick stinking things of Egypt before their sweet their heavenly Manna their Angels bread fit for them to eat or which came by their Ministry 2. Remember this brethren though it be sweet to the taste it turns to bitterest gall as the Wise man speaks of wine that moveth it self aright it sparkles is lovely sweet to the taste at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adâ—er Behold such are all the delights of sin and whether you believe it or no now you shall be sure to feel it after a little season for your pleasures are but for a season So that you know not what you say if any thus excuse himself for coming Again Shall you change for you know not what Indeed you do not know for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive before he hath had experience of it himself O that I might but perswade you brethren to make a tryal and if you do not find one days communion of Jesus Christ be not worth a thousand with your companions in sin then believe not this Gospel any more there is much sweetness indeed in the breasts of the world to a wordly Pallate O what drink golden drink do poor Earth-worms drink and this is their Nectar Believe it brethren if the Lord do but bring you and set your mouths to the wounds of Jesus Christ set your mouths to the sweet promises of pardoning grace and purging mercy to draw from them strong consolation you will find the other but Gall and Wormwood to you O let them perish saith Galeac and his money with him that preferreth all the world before an hours communion with Jesus Christ I pray you therefore do not
glory as it were of divine attributes they all shine forth in him each with his peculiar glory The Temple the glory of the Lord filled it so that they could not stand before him to minister sometimes So Brethren now the Lord hath placed his name in Jesus Christ he hath filled him with his glory therefore saith the Prophet the glory of the Lord is risen on thee that is Jesus Christ is manifested to thee was not his glory so great as to confound John though a vessel fitted to be filled with those glorious revelations from-him He fell at his feet as one dead at the sight of him in that vision How glorious is an Angel that the very sight of him was an astonishment to John what is the Lord of the Angels If the Moon be so glorious what is the Sun Thirdly the Sun is full of light in it self and filsall things capable of its light and yet hath never the less the twinkling Tapers of heaven they have each of them their light some more some less and the Moon hath much light and giveth much but what 's borrowed light First she hath it not in her self nor in such abundance as the Sun hath So it s here the Saints they are lights of the Sun as our Saviour saith but alas like poor candles that burn dim and sometimes through the thickness of the damps of corruption in our hearts burn blew and are ready to go out for the most part 〈…〉 but as the light in the socket sometimes up and sometimes down and every moment a man would think it would go out the Angels and spirits of just men made perfect are like stars shining more gloriously and constantly But alas nothing to the Sun he sheds the light abroad throughout the whole hemisphere at once Set up many lights at once in a dark night they will give light but a little way and how poor and weak a 〈…〉 light so that when the Sun shineth they appear not at all and that the Sun should so long fill the world with his light and have never the less this is admirable But this is but a shadow Brethren to the light of Jesus Christ he is the true light that is such a light as that nothing else deserveth to be called a light in comparison of him as far as the subject is recipient a glorious spirit is before a vile body so far is the light of Christ in its own nature above the Suns light And then for fulness there is no comparison though there be hardly any thing obvious to ouâ— senses which are to â—et in light to the understand 〈…〉 that is more glorious and so is more â—it to set forth the Lord Jesus his fulness of Light by Light maketh manifest all things and that that maketh things manifest is the Light now the light of the Sun its true discovers much that before it arose appeared not but its possible to hide from its light Brethren in the depths of the earth in the bowels of man it discovereth not any of those much less the secrets of hearts there 's no suitableness between such a cause and such an effect But the Lord Jesus he searcheth all the deep things of men the very Marrow of their bones which is the deepest and hath the most coverings upon coverings he searcheth them So doth Christ the ends of men which are the most hidden usually in all their designs they are deep as the Marrow in the bones cloathed over with flesh and skin and bones pretence upon pretence but Christ this Light is so piercing that there is no hiding any thing from it Fourthly The Sun his Tabernacle is in heaven there he made a Tabernacle for the Sun there is the seat of the eye of the world from whence he views all that is under his Government there is his Palace and from thence he dispenceth light and influence So Brethren it s with Jesus Christ he hath his Tabernacle in heaven that is in his Church for so oftentimes the Church is called there the Lord placeth his Tabernacle as he saith of Israel of old I will place my Tabernacle among them and dwell in the midst of them He walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks to behold them to be nigh them to dispence of his light to them and of his influence So doth the Sun communicate of his light to the Moon and to the Stars in heaven and to the inhabitants upon earth We are not to understand all this of Christ his person meerly but Christ as held out in his Ordinances in his Church therefore he is said by the Church to make manifest the mercy and wisdom of God his Ordinances are the raies and beams as afterward we shall speak when we come to open that part of the Text. But his Tabernacle is the Church thence he shines forth on many others as the earth is lightned by the raies from heaven Fifthly From the warming of the Sun how cold and frozen are those Northern parts of the world because remote from the Sun how cold is the hemisphere when the Sun is set for a time â—ow warm when it shines So the Lord Jesus it is that 's the Author of heat the Winter is past the Summer is come the rain is over the flowers appear on the earth and the voice of singing of birds heard that is Christ is revealed in the power of his love to poor sinners this is that which warmeth the coldest heart when we are frozen in our affections and as waters frozen up cannot run this way nor that way so we can do nothing nor move towards God Then Brethren it s a sight of the Sun of righteousness the Lord Jesus a hot gleamfrom him that thaws all and melts all warmeth all again and therefore in this respect also he may be compared to the Sun Sixthly because of influence which may be they say where there is no heat nor light at least and therefore Philosophers tell us that by the influence of the Sun the gold is concocted in the bowels of the earth whither its light cannot come And this is that Brethren that calls forth the fruits of the earth that in the winter for fear of cold were retired the sap recoiling to the root there to be preserved until a season for it Now the Sun the heat and warmth and influence thereof calls it forth again so that the grass and fruits plants and herbs put forth bud and blossom as we see it in the spring so the face of the earth is renewed And so it s in this case the Lord Jesus from heaven shineth forth and conveighing secretly the powerful influences of his Spirit and of the Word to poor sinners though they were as dead and dry sticks before as trees that are starven with the frost and seem dead then they put forth again then they grow green and flourishing then
heart and see could he do so for his child though a Mother may take down much bitterness for her child yet would she be content to open a vein to bleed to death to redeem its life when ready to perish I know David in his passion said Would God I had dyed for thee but if Absalom had been alive and in cold bood he had been put to it I question though his affections were strong to his Son but they would have been as strong to himself Self is a mans nearest friend but now the Lord Jesus you see did it for his poor sinful people yea for strangers for enemies Brethren consider of it If any of us were Physitians here is a poor wounded creature lies in the way as the poor man in the Gospel fell among thieves left wounded and half-dead which of us now could find in our hearts to open our own veins and be emptied of all our blood and liâ—e that such a poor wretch might be supplied now this the Lord Jesus doth for such Sinners as we are Brethren if there must be pouncing and pricking he endures it lancing he endures it contusion he endures it For he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquites the chastisement of our peace was upon him and through his stripes we are healed his stripes are not the bodily buffetings his crown of thorns and such things were nothing in comparison no it is the lashing of his spirit the wounding of his soul the travel of his soul the agonies wrestlings with his Fathers displeasure to an agony when God laid on him so heavily that he was ready to faint and sink and his soul almost fetched at every blow O dear Saviour that ever the cure of such sinfull dust and ashes should cost thee so dear and we so little prize it But 2. That which he prescribes to us though there be some bitterness in it yet no more then must needs it may be a sprinkling from the top of the cup of trembling which may put us into a fear and trembling so much as he seeth needfull to imbitter sin to us it is true if love were perfect here below while graces are imperfect and our ingenuity perfect the looking upon a crucified Christ for us would be the greatest imbittering of sin to us in the world but we are very dull an 〈…〉 ow of heart and therefore a little taste we must our selves that we may gather from thence what the Lord Jesus indured for us we that never felt what a wounded Spirit meant and what the clouding of the face of God from us meant though we may hear of the sufferings of Christ we are not able to be sensible of them and so not to prize that love as strong as death but when a poor creature hath had a drop or two of scalding wrath fall upon his conscience a lash or two though gently upon his spirit that maketh him roar in the disquietness of his â—oul O thinketh he then if a drop or two be so full of terror and amazement what then was the whole Cup what was the dregs how should I have born that if my blessed Saviour had not taken it off for me That which did so parch him who was the Green Tree that he said he thirsted surely would have consumed the dry If he were as a Bottle dryed in the smoak it would have consumed us to ashes If it made Him sweat in such a manner it would have altogether dissolved our frame that we should have perished for ever O if a little wrath when God hideth his face be such a Hell in many souls What a Hell then had Jesus Christ in his soul when wrath was poured out to the utmost for he was not spared a jot And then to make us out of love with sin wherein doth lie the very heart of the core and of the cure surely such are the bowels of God in Christ that as he delighteth not in the death of a sinner so neither doth he delight in bringing the creature to life through so much bitterness and grief if any other means would so effectually work us out of love with sin as this for the Wise God surely would take the most effectual course it is all needfull else he would never do it Why but you will say that hatred of sin is never kindly except the love to Jesus Christ be the ground of it ye that love the Lord hate evil this takes the ingenuous spirit off from Omissions and Commissions It is true but yet consider brethren wherefore do we love Him but because he loved us when his love is revealed and manifested this warmeth melteth the heart indeareth the soul to him until the Lord Jesus be pleased to open and unfold his bowels of love to a sinner he will never love him now whereby should we estimate the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners but by the unsearchably rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he paid for them O the price of every drop of that blessed blood that run trickling down to the earth especially if it be considered by what means it was squeezed out of him this setteth a rate upon his love it is not love in word but in deed and in truth if nothing else will be a price to redeem them but his blood it shall go he is not dear of it to the last drop yea not to part with it by opening a vein but to have it extract out of the veins by the pores of his body O by the unspeakable weight of wrath upon his Spirit Now how can we judge of this except we have had a little taste of it our selves when we are put into a little sweat in our own wrestlings with the displeasure of God O then we see what our Saviour indured for us If a man would set the highest estimate upon love among men this should be the rate of it would they willingly have the face of God in Christ hidden from them for a year or two for the dearest friend they have in the world you that have felt what this lashing of your Spirit is that your breath was even gone at every blow and you were ready to perish and you had fainted except you had believed some secret undiscerned support Tell me would you redeem the life yea the souls of your dearest friends that you had in this world by lying under a wounded Spirit having a Hell kindled in your souls that should burn all your days I cannot tell I know dear Friends will do much one for another O saith one I could lay my hands under their feet to do them good O I could redeem their lives with my own Would God I had died for thee and haply because he saw he was in such a sad condition for his soul but David wouldst thou have been content to roar all thy days in the disquietness of thy soul to have his waves and billows to
of us free-born if any by nature should have been free-born surely the seed of Abrahâ—m according to the flesh but our Saviour tells them their liberty was but imaginary if the Son did make them free they should be free indeed this is the third Fourthly by tenure and usurpation there is a bondage also as we see it in the case of Israel in Egypt they were bond-men in Egypt and they made them serve a hard bondage it is called the house of bondage they made them serve with rigour so saith the text in all manner of service the design of the King being to weary them out by degrees and yet to advantage himself by their service while they were wearying out this was their wise dealing with them lest they should be too hard for them and truly of this nature is the bondage wherein the people of God themselves are in part though the Devil have no title to them the price being paid for them to the justice of the Father yet he as a tyrannical â—aylor loath to let them go and therefore he loads them with chains laies heavy temptations upon them and sin rageth to lose its servant and therefore tyrannizeth and the Law in the members carryeth captive to the Law of sin and this is one great grief to the poor child of God that though sin do not raign in their mortal bodies yet it tyrannizeth over them and with a strong hand many times holds them down so as that they are not able to stir hand nor foot but more of this afterwards Now for the parts of this bondage with which the parts of that liberty or freedom we are to speak of will run parallel We shall devide this bondage into these two general parts it is either to sin or else to the black concomitants which are very many we shall particularize some of them and thereby our liberty will the more plainly appear First then for sin it is clear we are in bondage to sin either totally or in part all of us by nature altogether in bondage for we are sold under sin and though it be true that sin is only a privation of good and disposition to evil and so properly cannot be said to rule over us yet by a prosopopeia we are said to be in bondage to it therefore we are said to be sold under sin sold under it and therefore in Scripture it is that sin is called an old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts and this old man it is that hath the poor sinner under his power and ruleth him with subtilty O they are deceitful lusts â—he counsels of sin the fetches and tricks and devices depths and methods of a sinful heart who knoweth Brethren he carryeth it so slily that many think themselves at liberty as free-men as any the world hath yea so free as to promise to others liberty and yet themselves in the mean time are the servants of sin and not only so but theâ—â— are Laws of sin which carry a strength with them and the poor creature under them must obey them and these Laws are nothing else but the wills of the flesh as the Apostle calls them an arbitray government here beginneth and takes it rise Hoc volo sic jubeo c. saith the imperious person If a sinner begin to question what reason there is in such an act he is prompted to sin bloweth out the candle hoc volo c. let my will be a reason I will have it so So many lusts so many wills and is it not a bondage to be under these Ye were saith the Apostle the servants of sin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you and so in several other places whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin You talk of being Abrahams seed and never being in bondage this is nothing to my purpose I speak of a bondage to sin and he that commits it is the servant of it he that works it industriously is a drudge to his lusts as alas how many of us are and he that curiously works it is an Artist O with what art can some mon lye and cheat and cozen and play the hypocrites these are the servants of sin O when one fulfills the lusts of the flesh and of the mind maketh provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof This man is a servant of sin the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye the pride of life the love of profits the love of pleasures and the love of pride when men give themselves up to satisfie these study their lusts how to fulfill them this is a bondage under sin with a witness Now blessed be the Lord the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath delivered us as many as believe from this bondage so the Apostle breaks out pathetically Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you now saith he being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness and this is set forth by our death to sin ye are dead saith the Apostle to the Col. and your life is hid with Christ in God now death puts an end to all bondage 〈◊〉 as Job speaking of it the small and great are there in the grave and the servant is free from his Master A woman saith the Apostle speaking of sin of the Law with respect to sin as afterward we shall speak somewhat she is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if he be dead then she is free So it is in this case death breaks all the iron yoaks and brazen gates therefore saith the Apostle he that is dead is freed from sin not as the vulgar and some read is justified as if our justification and sanctification were confounded for here the Apostle is speaking of our Sanctification or the death of sin crucifying the old man of being buried with Christ in body and so dead to sin now saith he he that is dead is free from sin the Con. is comprehended in the Antecedent he is freed actually from sin Sin shall not have dominion over you saith the Apostle no iniquity shall have dominion over you Thus believers are freed from sin whereas before we were under a cruel bondage you that have experience of this liberty what it is to be freed from your former lusts which you served foolish and hurtful lusts the Lord teach you to prize it But secondly now for the Con. of this bondage to sin there are many and very dreadful which every poor sinner is under which are also as parts of this bondage First then hence it is that we are in bondage unto Satan that we are under his power that we are in bondage by nature to him as the Jaylor it is clear the Spirit that now
tell you that liberty is sweet it is not to be expressed If Paul had not been free he had had many a lash by those cruel tyrants If the soul be not free it is liable to perish to be whipped to death to eternal death with Scorpions ask but any of the people of God who have been wearied and almost worried with their lusts O the iron entered into their soul they did sit in darkness in the dungeon many a sad day and hour and at last Out of the depths they have called to the Lord he hath set them free O what an Heaven upon Earth they found it when they have been delivered in any measure from this bondage what would they take to be in the same condition again specially under the command of their lusts not all the world brethren the Lord perswade your hearts now now while it is to be had before you be called for out of prison to the judgement that you may go forth and enjoy this glorious liberty O but you would say Alas what should we do in this case we are convinced it may be some poor soul maâ— say of himself that this is a miserable bondage we are in even by sin and the consequents of it and we would fain be set free but we know not which way to go about it we are in a maze a wilderness a labyrinth a duâ—geon we grope and grope and cannot find the way out O what shall we do it may be this may be the case of some of our souls I will tell you what you shall do First Deny your own policy and wisdom know they will not set you free Judas had much knowledge and yet he hanged himself you will rather by depth of reasonings plunge your selves deeper the Gospel is foolishness to them through the pride in their carnal knowledge Secondly Labour to know the Gospel in its tenor and to close with it to believe it you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free truth truly known will set a soul free this truth is the truth of the Gospel for Grace and Truth come by Jesus Christ and it is observable that they are both put together Sanctifie them with thy Truth saith our Saviour thy Word is Truth There are three things here considerable First That there must be a through acquaintance with the bondage that we are under and the better condition of service how much the service of Christ is to be preferred before that of Satan for the truth is while a man knoweth no better he will be content to serve the worse there is never a sinner under the dominion of sin but thinketh he is the freest man and the people of God that are bound up in their Spirits to such a strict way of walking with God he thinketh they are the men in bondage but alas it is because he understandeth not his own condition nor is it a slight hint of such a thing that will usually prevail to a freedom from all sin therefore you must labour to study what this bondage is see what thou art exposed to by reason of it and see what a prfect freedom the service of Christ is O what great reward there is in the very keeping of his Commandments joy is such an inseparable attendant upon obedience that some measure of it followeth every good action as the very heathens themselves acknowledged much more then when the Lord Jesus is the Master and his service the work Secondly Thou must be acquainted with the commands of Christ his precepts are pure and they have an influence upon the heart that believeth them to bring him out of that bondage to set him free I do believe nothing more keepeth many a soul in bondage he knoweth not what the will of Christ is in such or such a particular else he would do it Be acquainted with Christ the summe of the Gospel you shall know the truth that is to say what he hath done to set poor creatures free became a servant obedient to the death was in bondage in prison in the horrible pit how he was put to it to overcome c. Thirdly and principally thou must be acquainted with the promises of the Gospel that are made to this end it is their excellency to help forward our freedom this part of the truth well known so known as to be closed with will make every poor creature free ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free and so this in the text the Sun of righteousness shall arise upon you with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and so many other places sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace It is the very tenure of the Covenant and of the promises in Scripture that he will deliver his people save them from all their uncleannesses and subdue all iniquities for them yea though they work iniquity with both hands Vers 3. Either we know not these things or else we make not use of them we act not faith upon them the Lord doth love to have his people use the importunity of faith for nothing is so importunate as faith nor offers as I may say such violence to heaven as that doth O Brethren the Lord help our unbelief and forgive our neglect of our faith in this point if thou canst act it but weakly yet put forth some act of faith hang upon these promises tell the Lord he hath caused thee to hope upon this his Word else thou couldest not hope and thou dost hope in this Word else thy heart would altogether sink within thee and will he now make thee ashamed of his hope hath his promise ever failed a poor creature and will it now fail thee But beside this dost thou find thy heart moved made willing indeed to part with sin Art thou in good earnest in this business O yes saith the poor soul I would rather then my life be set at liberty for what good will my life do me if I must continually serve sin and grieve such bowels of love towards me in Jesus Christ have you searched do you know your hearts in this point it may be thou hast not that heed of trusting thy heart further then thou seest it it will deceive thee then but if thou hast searched it and beg'd of God to search it and thou dost not find but he hath through infinite riches of grace made thee willing to come out if thou couldst tell how I tell you Brethren if this be so the chains are fallen off from your hands and the bolts from your legs your freedom is in a great part accomplished only thou canst not find the way out of the prison O then follow Christ follow his Spirit when he moveth thy heart at any time to search and try maketh thee tender puts thee into a frame to bewail the evils of thy heart take
was big with us and O what sharp travel he had such as never was nor can be the like again and he supplies the nourishment the Word and the Spirit he promiseth shall never depart out of his peoples mouths and this is that the Evangelist hath of his fulness we receive grace for grace the sincere milk of the Word is his he prepareth the sweet cup of consolation in the promises so many precious promises so many breasts a child of God hath to suck continually there he hath prepared nourishment for our faith and so in our tryals and experiences there is nourishment for our faith and for our humility and for our love and all this is from him Secondly But then beside this there is a forming power a power of concoction digestion and assimilation to turn these nourishments into the very substance for so the Apostle Some preach Christ of envy saith he supposing to add affliction to my bonds the Devil and his Angels of light preach Christ but with no good intent not to gain credit but dishonor to the Gospel at the long run we see it by too woful experience well saith the Apostle I know this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ if a man take never so much down if he have not a power to digest it and turn it into substance succum sanguinem he shall never grow by it alas do we not see many live under the Word the sincere milk of the Word and seem to draw as hard at the breast as any hanging upon the Ministers lips that should preserve knowledge and yet grow not come not on there wants this digesting faculty the Spirit of Christ to mix the word with faith then when it is so mixed and concocted it groweth indeed the Word groweth then the poor Believer groweth his faith groweth And so the Apostle in that to the Corinthians who beholding as in a glass there is the nourishment the Ordinances the beholding Christ in them but the power of concocting these turning them to strength is the Spirit we are changed into his image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord as there is not similitudinis but identitatis the glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth there is the truth in general that it is from Christ and more specially that this power is his in that one place to the Ephesians from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body he speaks of the growth of the Church in general but there is par ratio for the growth of each member for it is one part of the growing of the whole that the members grow in stature as well as in number and so in that place to the Colossians Let not man beguile you of your reward as a Judge of the race of masteries prescribes it is an exorbitant course to â—un out of the way and then promise you the reward for it this will be but a beguiling of you in a voluntary humility and worship of Angels c. and is worshiping of Saints any better then this voluntary humility and yet some there are that beguile poor creatures of their reward promising them if they run in this course they shall have it not holding the head me thinks an ingenuous Papist reading this should begin to suspect their way since to worship Angels and such voluntary humility as God never commanded as not to approach to Christ without a mediation of Saints which he never commanded is voluntary humility and so this is not to hold the head Christ Jesus from which from the head all the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increases of God it is the increase of God because he is the Author of it or else because of the greatness of the increase and its excellency for so the name of God is often used in the old Scriptures and their phrases the Apostles do often keep in the New You see the nourishment is ministred from the head as the sap is from the root of the tree and it is his effectual working whereby it is turned to an increase of our faith and love and therefore that soul that is not really and truly in the Lord Jesus though he may for a time flourish yet he will wither he may be green and yet be but a weed and they grow fast but they are not upon a right root they spring not from such a seed and therefore at their perfection they will be but wild Oates it may be or Tares which for a great while are so like to Wheat as some of the Antients speak that it is not to be discerned from it until it come into the ear and so many an hypocrite may have as broad a leaf as green a blade in externals not be behind any for enlargements and parts and notions of the knowledge of Christ and yet alas though he had more and more degrees this is not a spiritual growth this is not from the head from the root the Lord Jesus as a root of saving life I deny not but he giveth those gifts and parts but it is not as head of the invisible Church who alone shall be saved though as head of the visible Church there may be a communication of some fatness and sweetness of the Olive to them that is to say the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church which an hypocrite may enjoy yet be cut off when all is done and thereby he may make some progress of knowledge and a formality but yet this is no true spiritual growth this should make us look well about us and see if our water do arise from this fountain it will spread it self until it come to a river grow broader and broader Fifthly As it is from him and therefore we must be in him before we can grow with this spiritual growth so this growth in grace is a growing up into him and good reason if of him and by him be all things that to him should be all things also if Rivers be from the Sea they return to the Sea again there may be two things in this one expression of growing up into Christ who is the head First that we grow up into a nearer fellowship and communion with him who is the head and this is most sure whether the growth of the members where it is the faster do draw more and more yet from the head and other parts where the nourishment is prepared I shall not meddle with but this I am sure of the more grace any soul receiveth the more yet he may it is in order to further fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus which is indeed an
is in this case though a mans gifts and grace rise never so high and over-flow at his lips at his actions to make others also fruitful and to grow yet if there be not a continual supply from the Fountain would it subsist would it not languish therefore this is the comfort that he is an Author of it I the Lord hast thou not heard hast thou not known that I the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth faint not neither am weary and therefore though you faint and languish yet I faint not saith the Lord I will renew your strength therefore and ye shall run and not be weary though now you cannot lift up your heads therefore this is the first reason It must needs be perfect every good and every perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights if any be more perfect then another sure they are the gifts of his grace but this is but the first The second Reason may be an auxiliary to the first The Lord will perfect the work of grace he beginneth and therefore there is such an increase as the Apostle calls it the increase of God now why is this because he hath appointed a measure of a fulness of stature to be attained by us before we be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light a child while a child is scarce able to mannage an inheritance he knoweth not what it meaneth and so for a weak Christian and therefore mark you what our Saviour saith ye must be converted and become as little children else you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God he saw some pride and swelling and ambition of their spirits well faith our Saviour this must be fetched out of you one way or other either by love or by the rod or both before you will be fit to enter into glory O how heavenly and sweet do the Saints generally grow before the Lord takes them Brethren if so glorious a building as the temple of God be intended will every rough stone a rough-hewn-Christian be fit to lay in that building O no surely those knotty pieces shall be plained and smoothed and pollished before they be laid in that glorious Temple in heaven remember it I say Brethren there is a meetness for heaven and though haply many of us care not for it we would not be too meet for it lest we be taken to it before we be willing to part with the world never fear that while thou hast such a heart it is well if thou be not so far from it that thou never come thither thou needest not fear coming thither too soon But there are two causes which seem to call for a word here to open them First what will you say then to persons that it may be no sooner are converted but they dye what time have they to grow in grace and to come to this meetness of the inheritance of the Saints Remember what was said before that growth is not alway in all of the same pace What if God will create one Adam in perfect stature the first day and the rest grow to it by degrees why may it not be so what if some grow as the Lâ—â—lies shoot up quickly much in a night and others are longer about it if all must grow and come to this fittness before he take them and so if the Lord be a whole year turning water into wine in his ordinary way of providence which is wonderful and at another time though not so often do it in a moment who shall say to him what dost thou this is as perfect wine as fit to be drunk as rich and full of spirits as the other so the thief upon the Cross he made a large progess in a short time for I tell you to believe in the Lord Jesus and confess him and at such a time as that was was no small power of grace when himself was under the agonies of death and Christ under disgrace and the shame of the Cross and crucifying and dying yea under the displeasure of his Father crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when he was forsaken of his Father in a sort and forsaken of all men yeâ— and of his own Disciples also none of them then durst openly â—cknowledge him and crucifying at that time Peter had denyed him they all fled from him before though some of them stood and looked on yet if they had been put to it at that time it is a question what they would have done therefore our Saviour in tenderness towards them would have them be let go as you have it when himself was taken now at such a time as this when heaven and earth looked black upon our blessed Saviour to own him to despise the shame of the Cross at the first dash and to reprove his fellow that was crucified with him it was a great measure of faith I le tell you Brethren it is like he that wrought that in him had wrought a like measure of love when he told him he should this day be with him in Paradise what such a wretch as I that all my life time have lived so wickedly and now am dying under my guilt and in one day at the last moment to be translated into a glorious Kingdom O this could not but surely much enlarge his heart in love to the Lord Jesus and that is the perfection of the Law and so we see some Christians that grow more in a moneth in a year or two then many do in many years some are foolish children that stick long in the place of breaking forth some make haste and run much in a little time and therefore this hinders not but all should grow to their measure appointed of God before they come to heaven And for the children of Believers how can they come to this pitch you will say how can they grow â—o such a height of growth for answer First It is worth the noting that even they who deny them the priviledges of the Covenant of grace which are visible and outward in the Church of God yet dare not profess whatever they think to the contrary but that they are saved or may be saved and profess tender thoughts of them they are not such duri patres infantum as to exclude them out of the Kingdom it was the Disciples fault you know and so it may be good mens now to hinder them from coming to Christ they thought they were but troublesom guests to him they were capable of little and therefore forbad them but they got a rebuke for their labour what saith our Saviour is it not clear enough even from the old Scripture for there were no other then written and they had means to know that they did belong to Christ and the Kingdom else he would not have reproved them Do you not know to such belongs the Kingdom of God you might have known and ought to
Jesus Christ Ah dear Friends I beseech you consider this some of us sure that hear this this day our hearts do tell us we have been the chief of sinners never viler then we and hath the Lord met with us not as an enemy but poured out upon us such a stream of love as we could no longer withstand it and yet do we not love him accordingly O labour to grow in love to Jesus Christ Thirdly Mind the particular experiences thou hast had of his love and tenderness to thee So the Psalmist I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice when he was in distress then he cryed to the Lord and he heard him therefore he would love him how many deliverances hath the Lord wrought particularly for us specially he hath kept us from sinning such a time and such a time so that thou didst not go on to the wounding of thy conscience the dishonour of his name and wilt thou not therefore love him O dear friends how often hath he shaken the rod over thee and yet hath spared and canst thou not love him yea though a child thinks the rod cannot stand with love yet when he cometh to lay away childish thoughts and to understand as a man he loveth his father so much the more that he hath chastened him and not suffered him to take the way of his own heart so should it be in this case But consider how many sweet experiences hast thou had of his love which it may be many a poor creature would have given a world for one of them many a kiss of his lips thou scarce ever appearest before him but thou hast a smile from him some refreshing some melting doth not this indear thy heart consider these things there is many a poor child of God that scarce ever findeth such sensible refreshings and yet hang upon him and loveth him and O it is pure love indeed when we hang upon him though he frown upon us though he seem to shake us off not to heed us nor regard us yet our souls it may be are sick of love for him we must follow him still But thou that hast such fore-draughts of his love sometimes yea many times O the remembrance of these me thinks should much increase love to him Now this is of very great moment for it will make us more abundant in the work of the Lord and with much more ease it will come off Paul laboured more abundantly then they all and it was nothing to him O he loved much and so it will be with us if we could get our hearts to it What was it think you that carried our Saviour so chearfully through all his travels and griefs and slightings of men O it was his love nothing is hard to love therefore labour to be like-minded to grow in love to the Lord Jesus But secondly To grow in love one towards another this is matter of rejoycing to the saithful over-seers of the Church of Christ we are bound to thank God alway for you Brethren as it is meet because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity or love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth So again as touching brotherly love you have no need that I write unto you for ye are taught of God to love one another and ye do the same thing to all the Brethren which are in all Maâ—edonia but we beseech you Brethren to abound more and more you have it in that place of the Apostle to the Corinthians that to be full of contention and dividing zeal is a sign not of growth but childishness I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ are you not carnal that is to say I could not write to you as spiritual as grown men but as carnal as unto babes in Christ such in whom the flesh did much prevail surely Brethren the way of love is the edifying-way and therefore the body is said to edifie it self in love knowledge puffeth up and from that pride cometh contention as the wise man speaks but love edifies O how would the Church grow and the Saints grow if all the heat and zeal and pains which is laid out in maintaining breaches factions separations one from another did all run in one stream to build up one another in our most holy faith to make that our business It is sweet when the members have that care one of another that out of a pure spirit of love to consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Now if there be rents and schisms in the body there will not be that â—are one of another and therefore no marvel if the Apostle note such nigro carbone mark them that caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine that you have received and avoid them set a cross upon their doors have no fellowship with them You know in the body if there be a breach a dismembering of the body or some members out of joint or fearful wounds there is a grief of the spirit and the growth is hindered So it is in this case when the Churches walked together with singleness of heart then were they multiplyed then they prospered and increased indeed the Holy-Ghost is grieved with bitterness and wrath and anger when the Sea was divided for Israel to pass through it was weakened but when the waters were united again they are said to return to their strength so when the waters run in one Channel which is love O how strong is the Church of Christ it groweth mightily then then the Egyptians the enemies of Israel are drowned in it but so many fractions so many streams it being divided into each of them is easily passable by the enemies the Lord give a Spirit of love O if there were but more love in Ministers to people how would they do more then they do or at least in another manner then they do And so in people if they would be more earnest for their Ministers then they are therefore if we would grow indeed labour to grow in love to all the Saints wherever indeed the image of Christ is and to love them with a pure heart unfeignedly as the Apostle saith Fourthly To grow in humility to grow downward to be willing to decrease so the Lord Jesus may increase Ah Brethren if we were put to it it may be we should find it very hard to be laid aside as I may say as David was to the building of the Temple because he was such a man of blood or as Moses was for his unbelief at the waters of strife O the daily working this upon our hearts what we were and what we are through grace in Jesus Christ what infinite riches of grace is manifested to the vilest of sinners this will make us lie low before him but enough of this before Fifthly In mercy in bowels and compassions to persons in
that is up and doing thou findest thy Faith is weak it may be thou canst scarce call it any thing but unbelief labour to act it put it forth often the nature of it lies in the souls sincere willingness to take Jesus Christ to have him for a Saviour and Lord to save from iniquites as well as from the condemnation of sin now though weakly put forth the acts of willing Jesus Christ as he hath offered himself and thou shalt find it will grow often be rowling thy self and thy burthen poor burthened soul upon the Lord Jesus cast thy self upon him and thou shalt find as much rest in it for the present so also an increase of faith and a feeling also that thou dost believe after a time And so for other things alas is there a day that goeth over our heads but there is use for Faith it is the very life of a Christian The life I now live I live by the Faith of the Son of God and therefore as much need of the exercise of it daily as of any vital acts whatsoever and you shall find you have occasions for it either some temptations from your own hearts some corruptions stirring and disquieting your peace or some scourgings from without some buffetings of Satan some deadness and security growing upon you daily O there is daily need of acting Faith as there is to eat and drink therefore Israel their Manna was their daily food and if they were daily stung they must daily look up to the Serpent and which of us is not though you have a Lamp lighted Brethren There was enery morning daily a triming of the Lamps of the Sanctuary and pouring oyl into them afresh you know they will not continue but go out in obscure darkness except there be a feeding of them with oyl this we may do and this we ought to do and indeed a man that exerciseth not his Grace is as if he had none neither hath the strength nor the comfort of his Grace for Habits are for Acts and then Acts strengthen the Habits again The Learned Aristotle said A wise man differed nothing from a fool if he exercised not his wisdom and saith the Wiseman Even a fool when he holds his peace is counted wise the Act is that chiefly commanded and that chiefly rewarded of God the exercising of Grace and that whereby it groweth which is the main thing here I mind Hath not every day its evil sufficient to it now if faith â—e not upon the wing what a condition is that soul in therefore exercise it use legs and have legs And so for love put it forth exercise it toward the Lord Jesus daily and toward his people that is the way to grow Brethren how do benummed limbs that have no feeling nor strength gather strength but by rubbing and chasing and exercising of them though a mans legs be so benummed falling for a step or two he can scarce set them to the ground yet use them a little and they will come to themselves again If Merchants money lie still it is a dead thing it increaseth not but they must turn it up and down and return it use it and exercise their trade with it and it groweth And truly I am perswaded it is the great reason we are many of us so weak as we are we lie complaining and making sad moan before the Lord of our weakness and yet are careless in the exercise of the Grace wherein we pretend we would grow The desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labour we may mourn our selves away off our legs and spend our days in lamentable complainings and shall never be the better except we put forth into act what we have already received if we be not faithful in trading with a little will he give us more action and motion increase heat if you see a poor creature lie starving ready to perish for want of fire his legs are stiff cannot hardly move them is that the way to help him no up to the fire up and exercise your limbs rub them chafe them if you would get heat and agility into them Secondly See to it that we exercise one as well as another for there is such a sweet harmony and dependency of the Graces one upon another that they do one strengthen another the acts of our Graces do as I may say co-operate and sweetly conspire to the promoting one of another that is to say of the acts and these acts then strengthen the habits As for instance you see in an Arch one stone strengthens another take away one of them and all the rest are ready to fall upon your head and therefore the Apostle exhorts so earnestly That they should add to Faith Temperance c. not as if they could add one habit to another for they are infused together but the acts are to be added one to another For if ye do these things saith the Apostle then ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ yea you shall never fall yea you shall have an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom The strength of a building you know lies not in the strength of one piece but in the due compacting of it and joyning part to his part if there be never so strong beams if the other parts be weak the rafters the wall-plates or such considerable pieces and not well joyned together the building is weak and will easily fall therefore if you would be strong and grow indeed look that we exercise all the Graces of the Spirit we have already received not only Faith nor only Love nor only Humility nor only Self-denial but all labour to act them all and Temperance and Heavenly-mindedness c. and you shall find that as each Grace doth grow by the exercising of it self so by the exercising of them all they will have a mutual influence each upon the other to strengthen one another the act of Faith will strengthen the acting of love and that will strengthen faith again and so for the rest Thirdly If you would grow in Grace You must be much in prayer for a man of much Prayer is a man of much Grace and therefore the Prophet puts them both together He will pour out the Spirit of Grace and Supplication And so the Apostle Jude But you Beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost and there is the like reason for building up our selves in any other Grace praying by the Spirit of God is the way you see to grow in Grace there is very great reason that Prayer should be a great means of increasing Grace First Because in Prayer there is the greatest exercising of Grace of all Grace usually of any other service we do to God there our repentance is exercised for you alwaies find the Saints in drawing nigh to God David and Ezra and
then ordinarily and indeed I do desire to pitty such as yet cannot see this but this is not all Secondly There is the use and improvement of the Ordinances which is much more necessary then the other desire the sincere milk of the Word milk for sweetness and nourishing and sincere without mixture of errour or humane wisdom Alas Brethren if we come not to it with desires get our affections up when we come to it and look not to it that we digest it when we have heard it we are not likely to grow by it Alas alas no marvel we are so lean in our souls some of us as if God bad in heavy displeasure sent the curse upon us what is the matter we come to hear the Word but with what affections come reeking out of the World into it with our heads and hearts full of it the stomack is full already there is no room for the Word to take place in our hearts and we are much for hearing but digest but little Ah Brethren this meditation upon what we hear we are all of us short in that is the man that groweth indeed as in the first Psalm he shall flourish that meditates day and night For my own part I am perswaded that upon a Sabbath-day it is not so much how much we hear to spend our whole time in it that there is no time left for chewing upon it for working it upon the heart by meditation No plough-man would do so think he never plougheth and soweth enough and never maketh use of the harrowing Alas much of it is stoln away he hath little increase we go â—ow out of the presence of God and into the world again over head and ears without any care to work the Word upon our souls how can you expect to prosper in your souls you may have fat purses but you are like to have but lean souls you digest not your meat a Physitian will tell you it is not how much you eat but how much you digest that tends to health and growth And so for the other Ordinances of the Supper there is meat indeed and drink indeed but do we look to it to improve that Ordinance for strengtheuing of faith to get our graces up our appetites up our faith our love upon the wing when we come to act faith and love in the Ordinance to draw from the Lord Jesus to drink and drink abundantly Alas wisdom hath killed her beasts and mixed her wine and furnished her table among us and we come indeed but without wedding-garments many times and without appetites and so we are cast out and instead of receiving Christ more and more of him we are more hardened Satan entereth into some poor souls Ah no marvel then if they grow not in grace If we had not the fat things of the house of God Brethren it were something but the Lord hath not denyed them to us his table is richly furnished the dainties are the same though the Maidens that are sent forth now to call you are weak and unworthy that should not derogate from the esteem of the feast now what can we say for our selves if we will play with our meat if we will not fall on when we come to it if we matter not for digesting it where Brethren will the guilt lie O be humbled for that we have neglected this salvation so much as we have done though it may be we have not mist an opportunity yet that we make no better use of them then we have done that is the first step to a reformation of it Do you think this vvere a pleasing carriage of a child vvhen he is poor and lean and ill-favoured his Father provideth a rich banquet royal dainties for him setteth them before him intreateth him to fall on he complains of his vveakness and faintness and yet vvill not eat this is frovvardness it is not pleasing to God vvho hath so richly provided for us to hear his people complaining alvvay of their vveakness in faith and vveakness in love and all graces of the Spirit and though he hath provided such dainties for them in his Ordinances as never eye savv nor any tasted but a Believer and they might be fat and flourishing if they vvere not vvretchedly vvanting to themselves they complain and complain but never mind it to eat to feed to improve the Ordinances for this their grovvth I have spoken the more largely here because I knovv Brethren I knovv it is our ovvn vvretched neglect of our selves in this case that is the great cause of our vvant of grovvth Fifthly Another help shall be this labour to get the distempers of your souls healed that hinder your grovvth it is impossible vvhile a man hath a Woolf in his flesh or a greedy vven that sucks all the nourishment from the body that he should grovv Alas every one of us can best tell vvhere our diseases are Some have obstructions betvveen the head and the heart the passages are not opened and so they grovv indeed in the head but the heart is poor and dry and vvithered all notion and no affection hovv little affection have vve the most of us nothing ansvverable to vvhat vve apprehend of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ all is not vvell vvith us Brethren Alas hovv many of us have surfeited of the vvorld and the comforts thereoâ— and so our appetites are lost to these dainties and fat things of the house of God vvhereby we should grovv up like Calves of the stall O for Christs sake and as you love your souls take heed of the vvorld and love of it Ah vve little knovv hovv close it sticks to us and hovv indiscernably it insinuates it self upon us It may be we consume all upon our lusts make all we have received but a stepping-stone to raise our proud spirits upon how apt we are to be admiring our selves this was well done and that was well done by us instead of admiring rich grace to such poor dust and ashes as we are this dammeth up the fountain Brethren this provokes God to withdraw his Spirit and presence and alas what can vve do then then vve see vvhat vve are Well if we would grow we must begin at the right end we must labour to get these lusts that do prevail down if a child have such a disease as the Rickets or some other disease upon it you may give it all the nursing and tending and feeding that can be it will never grow uniformly but all runs into the head It is in vain to complain of the want of growth the way is to go to the Physitian get some prescription for the healing of the disease and so we must look to it Brethren if any object come between the Lord Jesus and your hearts and so interrupt the sweet and saving influences of Christ from you you cannot grow you see that shrubs in the Wilderness that never see where good cometh or
daub and heal them deceitfully get it skinned over a little and so the world will do it building and planting and marrying and drinking and pastimes these may skin over the wound but it heals not and miserable is the condition of poor creatures so deluded but now they that are taught of God and learn they learn this effectually and practically that there is nothing in the creature that can do it Fourthly They learn this also that though all the world be but as a cloud without rain when the soul is a fire a Well without water a broken Cistern that leaks out all a Torrent a Brook that is dried up when the soul is parched and burnt up with the scorching heat of the displeasure of God O when the Lord setteth a soul in his sight and looks upon him as a consuming fire with his eyes as a flaming fire ready with a sight of him to devour him and he cannot get out of his sight O now the world all their comforts will not skreen them from his eyes but what will only the Lord Jesus he can be a cooling shadow to shadow us from this scorching heat and this the Spirit of the Lord perswadeth the soul we all of us will talk of it O Jesus Christ is our help and hope and look for salvation in no other but in him it is grown now so cusâ—omary a thing among us that it is in every mans mouth but to how few hath the Lord spoken this to our hearts that thus it is Fifthly Again another thing that we are taught of God before we come to Jesus Christ is this that he is willing to let out of his oyntments to heal he is willing to expend that precious balm of Gilead upon us else the soul will never come to him it is that that keepeth off many a soul a long time the Spirit of the Lord perswadeth the poor soul that though he hath been an enemy to Jesus Christ and grieved him and torn his wounds and rent his flesh with horrid oaths and blasphemies trampled his blood under foot have been never so horrid a transgressor yet he perswadeth him that the Lord Jesus is willing to receive sinners without exception if they come to him Suppose there was a Physitian whose skill were so great and his store of Medicines so inexhaustible and soveraign and his heart so large as that he proclaimeth to all that whosoever is wounded though never so desperately whosoever is sick unto the death one of the Stone another of the Gout another of the plague I will cure you all O then if poor creatures did believe this were perswaded of it they would come and not before O saith one mine is a plague sore and it is past cure mine is an hereditary disease saith another and so far gone I cannot be cured they come not and perish O mine is such a disease it will cost more pains and charge then I think he will be willing to be at to cure and therefore he cometh not to him and so perisheth just so it is in this case except the Lord do secretly insinuate it into the soul how willingly the Lord Jesus writ it upon his Spirit and that the Lord Jesus is willing to receive to heal to save the soul that will not come to him but thus much for these things which in the order of nature go before a coming to Christ now for the acts wherein it formally consist First then when the heart is thus made sensible of what is in himself working to death and what is not in himself nor in any other creature to save then I say there is from the teaching of the heart how able and willing the Lord Jesus is there ariseth a desire in the soul after the Jesus Christ not as if this did flow or were produced by the former apprehensions of a mans own necessities of Christ and of the fulness in him as a fountain and the openness of the fountain which is sealed to none that come for alas one grace though never so habitual and deeply rooted cannot produce another no not faith it self produce love but the Spirit which works faith works love in our hearts also much less then can a conviction be the cause of a conviction or a turning unto the Lord Jesus but it is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus when he hath so opened the eyes of an Hagar to see the fountain opened that was near her before but she saw it not and let us see that our bottle is dryed up and all other hopes in the creature perished then I say the Spirit inclineth the Will to come to Jesus Christ then he works sweetly though strongly an inclination a desire after him It is not in these things as in nature an ordinary providence concurring with the actings of the creature according to their necessities When Hagar saw the fountain she needs no further perswasion to go unto it her necessity was a cord strong enough to draw her yea a weight a spring to carry her swiftly to it but alas when we see the bottles dryed see that the creatures say it is not in us to be had and see there is a fountain opened yet such is the waywardness of our hearts yea such the enmity in our hearts against the Lord Jesus though the streams of his love toward us were as strong as death that we will not yet come to him we had rather sit down as you see some sullen creatures taken from their damms will rather perish then receive food at the hand of man such an indisposition and aversness to man there is and so it is in this case except the Lord Jesus come in by another act of his Spirit and bow the will and make us desirous of himself O then when this act of power is put forth the soul beginneth to long to desire after Jesus Christ O that I had him O that I might but have a sight of him then there is getting upon the tree by a low Zacheus then there is an ascending in this Ordinance and that Ordinance and everywhere the desire of the soul is for Jesus Christ this is a coming for the affections are to the soul as the feet to the body that which carryeth the soul in and out in all to this object or from that object O then when shall I come and appear before him Secondly In this coming to Christ is included a passing all other stands and rests on this side Jesus Christ many a poor soul cometh near to Christ and to the Kingdom of God and yet falls short of him as an arrow not drawn up to the head falls short of the mark and there it sticks where it fastens goeth no further So here some upon their convictions the discovery of their conditions run to this Ordinance to that to this duty to that as things that of themselves as performances should give rest to them and
indeed these are the sweet breathings of faith these are the near approaches of the soul to Christ this is to lay hold upon him though the soul feel little comfort for the present yet this is a coming to Christ So the Prodigal O make me but as one of thine hyred servants Fifthly and lastly it is a closing with Jesus Christ as he is offered not by the halves Christ is not divided as the Apostle saith his righteousness from his holiness nor his holiness from his righteousness therefore saith the Apostle as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him O here many are deceived they would have Christ but they will not be his what a strange unreasonable thing is this they would have the benefit of having him to be their Father and be heirs but they will not be subject as children they would have all the immunities and priviledges peace and prosperity of soul under him as a King but they will not submit themselves to him as King and Lord they would have him for an husband and yet will not obey O this is not a coming to Jesus Christ this is to serve our selves upon him but the Lord Jesus will search this out keep it as close as we can from others that they may think well of us yea from our selves also through the juglings of our hearts we cannot keep it from him he knoweth where there is a soul that takes the Lord Jesus without any reserve and equivocation Aug. Is non modo durus was no good sign of his condition at that time though afterward it was otherwise for we find he acknowledgeth it bewails it the Lord grant that the doom of Ananias and Saphira reach not to many of our souls for pretending to give up the whole to Jesus Christ and yet reserve part to our selves yea pretend to come to Jesus Christ and yet divide him Well you see Brethren what this coming to Jesus Christ is it is not then every one that saith Lord Lord nor cryeth out the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord that come to Christ it is not the having a few faint wishings and wouldings which like the untimely birth of a woman like a bable perish and never appear more that is a coming to Christ it is not your sucking sweetness from your own duties performances Ordinances priviledges any thing short of Christ that is coming to him Dear Lord Jesus how many of us loyter and take up our rest short of thee It is not a bare acknowledgement of our being sinners in the general and a Lord have mercy from the mouth without any sense of our condition upon our hearts that is a coming to Jesus Christ It is not a desire to be pardoned alone for then none of us should miscarry and O that it were so if the Lord see it good But it is the earnest breathings of a poor broken lost soul the moan of a poor wounded creature the pantings of a poor languishing heart after Jesus Christ a making him alone our stay a resigning our selves to him that is the coming to him here spoken of and such a soul he will not cast out Pardon me I know I am too slow for the acute and I wish I be not as much too swift for many of us that are dull of understanding slow of heart to understand and believe these things the condition of people now a daies I take it doth call upon us to speak oftner and more fully to beat it upon poor creatures the nature of this coming to Jesus Christ then any other thing as I find still in all the preachings of the Apostles they did endeavour to make good that truth most necessarily that Jesus was the Christ because that was most opposed in those daies so now this being granted by all and already that we are sinners the main work lies herein to undeceive poor creatures who think all is well enough with them and therefore I am the more large in this part and indeed much more large then I thought to be The second thing then is what is meant by this not casting out wherein lies the marrow and fatness and sweetness of this Scripture and indeed I think the whole Book of God doth not afford a more refreshing word a more establishing word to a poor weak creature then this is O then let us see what it is First he will not cast him out he will not cast him out of his heart that is the first not out of his love for we must know this all of us this day which may be a comfort to many a doubting trembling misgiving-heart that if the Lord Jesus have done this in us and for us hath given us thus to come to him in truth for degrees of the things formerly spoken of I intend not them as to make up the nature of our duty it may be in a weaker and a stronger measure but if in truth it can be found that so we come know for thine everlasting comf 〈…〉 t as base thoughts as thou hast of thy self and of thy vileness and of thy unworthiness thy dear Saviour hath precious thoughts of thee thou art written in his heart thou wast in his heart when he wrought this work in thee and for thee yea long before this for the truth is were not he first as well as last in the work the Alpha as well as the Omega in that work of salvation we should never come to him nor should we abide with him O thy Law is in my heart saith he in Psal 44. 8. thy command I delight to do thy will and what was that that all that the Father hath given to him he should redeem and deliver and save and therefore if it be thus with us we were in his heart before as it was said of that Queen when she dyed That if her heart were opened they should find Calice there Ah Brethren surely the names of the choice of God which now appears and breaks out by this that is given to us to come to Jesus Christ all that the Father hath given shall come to me I say our names were then upon his heart and now are upon his heart as the Priest did bear the names of Israel before the Lord and therefore the Lord will not cast out such a poor soul out of his heart out of his love O my loving kindness I will never take from thee however he may chastise however he may with-hold comfort for a time yet believe it O that every poor weak creature might this day have it given from on high to believe that the Lord will not cast them out of his heart this is thy greatest fear poor soul lest thou shouldest lose him lest he should disown thee and say I will not have mercy on thee Alas it is as impossible as white to be black or black white hath he once owned thee and made manifest his
to Faith in this First then The Lord Jesus hath promised that if any man come to him he will in no wise cast them out And shall men that are lyars yet count it their honour to make good their word and do you think Jesus Christ his honour is not as dear to him as the honour of men is to them is he not the Amen the faithful and true Witness all that he saith is Yea and Amen in him is it not his own nature to be true and faithful is he equal or equals with his Father as some critically note that is to say in all his perfections essential and is he not equal with him in truth saith the Apostle God who cannot lye hath promised would he not cease to be God to be the highest perfection and rule of all perfections if there were any obliquity in him is not Satan a lyar and the father of it and shall we father a lie then upon God what a Mediatour were Jesus Christ and how should the Promises of God in him be Yea and Amen if he could falsifie his own word to his people Well then surely if Jesus Christ hath promised it as you see he hath will he not be as good as his word did he eveâ— break with any poor soul though never so unworthy which is the great plea of poor creatures did he ever cast out any hath he not been as good as his word And is he not the same yesterday to day and for ever But thus much for the first it leads to the second Secondly If that Jesus Christ should cast out any poor creature he would plainly be argued to be changable for I shewed you before that none that came to him but they were in his heart before the world was and his delight was with the sons of men and is he now so changed as when they do come he will cast them out did he before the world as I may say please himself with the thoughts of it that he should be a Saviour to his people to save them from their sins and from wrath to come and when they come to him to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness he should refuse them would not this be more then a shadow of turning if his heart that once was so toward them should now be turned so against them as to disown them when they follow after him O surely this cannot be Thirdly If so It would be rather a slighting of his Fathers gift for he hath given them to Jesus Christ even before the world was in which respect They are said to be chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world all that the Father hath given to me shall come and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed and therefore now when a poor soul cometh with his mouth in the dust with a rope about his neck with a word of confession petition with sighs and groans with mournings over Christ and mournings after Christ and he shall now shut up his mercy from him cast him out turn his back upon him would not this be an high undervaluing of the gift of the Father and slighting of it you know that gifts are not given from one friend to another but as tokens of respect and love and so he gave a number of poor creatures to his Son for him to redeem and purchase to himself and if he should slight them now his Fathers love would be much undervalued Fourthly It would be failing in his trust for the Lord Jesus is the great undertaker for his poor people and help was laid upon this mighty one mighty to save to the utmost for this end I say he undertook the ransoming and redeeming of a people to himself and to his Father and his Father committed the charge of it to him He came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him as he saith in that place I delight to do thy Will the Will of his Father and what was that Will That is That none that come to Jesus Christ should miscarry This is the Fathers Will that hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day that is to say as Mediator as by the influence of an Head unto the Members so to raise them up is here meant Well Of all that he hath given me either in his purpose of Grace or actually in their Calling which is an evidence of the secret purpose of God I should lose none now none can come to Jesus Christ except he be given to Christ of the Father that is clear by comparing the words of the Text with the former Ye will not come to me or ye have seen me and yet believe not but though you believe not All that the Father hath given me shall come shall believe in me well As many as were ordained believed came to Jesus Christ as we have expounded this coming the last time Now I say if Jesus Christ should not take up every poor soul that cometh he would not discharge his trust do the Will of his Father which he hath undertaken and then what a Saviour should we make of him Fifthly Then the Lord Jesus should slight and undervalue his own blood he only knew what a value his Godhead put upon it and therefore accordingly he only can bear a proportionable esteem of his blood did he not shed his precious blood That whosoever believeth might not perish but have everlasting life or whosoever cometh to him might not perish for believing if it be not convertible with coming to Christ yet it is doubtless comprehended in it as a main part of it And what then when a poor sinner laden with iniquity whose burthen is too heavy for him to bear cometh to Christ groaning and panting for ease and refreshing rowls himself upon him hangs all his weight upon him lies at his feet in his weariness of spirit under it if he now cast out this poor creature would not this be an undervaluing of his blood and the price of our redemption would it not appear that he was lavish of his blood Brethren is the Lord Jesus so angry with sinners for trampling his blood under their feet and for neglecting so great salvation as he hath wrought out for them as you have not long since heard and will he think you be guilty of slighting his own most precious blood O surely no And would it not be a neglecting of the salvation to improve the price he hath laid down if he should exclude any poor sinner that cometh to him though he have not been what he might be surely if ever our blessed Saviour would have balked it it would have been when he was to lay down the price his life his blood for sinners when he was amazed at the apprehension of his Fathers
there are in the heart of Jesus Christ towards a poor sinner as a Father that for a time to humble his child will make it strange to him O how full is his heart how much ado hath he to hold as Joseph to his Brethren O it is the rejoycing of Jesus Christ when poor sinners do come to him to see his seed to see his blood that was sowed and his Semen Ecclesiae to come up it is his rejoycing and will any Husband man in the world that sows precious seed when it puts forth beat it down again nip off the buds the tops of it it cannot be he is grieved when poor creatures will not be perswaded to come through hardness of heart and unbelief and waywardness we will not come to the fountain but sit down it may be some of us with Hagar weeping over our empty bottles and making sad moan and complaints for want of righteousness because of sin and yet come not to him this is a grief to him as it was among the Jews O did he ever in the daies of his flesh refuse any poor creature that came to him either for healing of soul or body which is the lesser yea when they came some of them for the healing of the body did he not heal the soul and all out of the abundant riches of his love to poor creatures O surely then now he is in heaven at the right hand of the Father being no less tender of his poor people if any come now he will in no wise cast them out Well the Lord write these arguments upon our hearts it may be some of us may have occasion or have at present need of them to perswade us of this truth We now come to the Application Vse 1. And first in the first Vse It may serve for a lamentation to lament the backwardness of our hearts to come to Jesus Christ for if our hearts were not backward to come to him what need all this ado to make poor creatures willing to come to Jesus Christ O what is the reason what a strange enmity is in our hearts against the Lord Jesus that we run away from him instead of coming yea though he follow with a Pardon in his hand purchased with his blood O I am Jesus who dyed for you turn unto me my heart is toward you turn unto me I delight not in your death turn unto me O why will ye die and yet poor creatures will not be perswaded to come to Jesus Christ O what is it what is it Brethren that can keep us off thus from Jesus Christ in our unwillingness to close with him to come unto him have not many of us many times clearly been convinced that our condition hath been slark naught that we stand guilty before God and he will by no means clear the guilty and convinced that in Jesus Christ there is a doing away of this guilt a bloting out of the hand-writings that are against us and contrary to us if we will but come to him No we are like sullen creatures will rather perish then come to Jesus Christ I do not believe but many of us are convinced and what shift can we make to smother our convictions I know not but it appears we come not to Jesus Christ As long as the Prodigal could have husks to fill his belly with he would not come home to his Father as long as ever the poor woman in the Gospel had any thing to spend upon the Physitians she came not to Jesus Christ as long as ever poor sinners can make a shift to daub over the breaches that sometimes the Word maketh upon their consciences they will not come O the fault lies in the Will Brethren Ye will not come unto me saith our Saviour that ye might have life how often would I have gathered you as a Hen doth her Chickens and ye would not they would rather perish then be healed by such an hand even the hand of Jesus Christ O the deadly enmity that is in every one of us by nature What we are not willing to part with sins and therefore we come not to Jesus Christ we are not willing to be healed wilt thou be made whole we are prophane and we would be so still proud and would be so still unclean and would be so still We know if we come to him put on Christ we must put off the lusts of our former conversation O wretched love to sin that preferreth it before the Lord Jesus before the salvation of our poor souls What are we loth through the pride of our hearts to take the shame of our iniquities Haply something of this nature kept off the Prodigal Is it not more shame to do sin then to acknowledge it when it is done what is it Brethren how strange a thing is it that men should take such pains to hew out broken Cisterns to themselves that will hold no water dig deep into the world to find some rest there exhaust their strength in duties in prayers and tears as many self-Saviours do specially the Papists and I wish there be none among us rather then they will come to Jesus Christ to accept of that righteousness that pardon which shall cost us nothing but acceptance O the pride of our hearts O the enmity of our hearts against the Lord Jesus and is there such an heart in every one of us Brethren Yea even in the best until he overcome us with his loving-kindness and is not this a thing worthy to be bewailed Yea if it were possible with tears of blood being such an aversion from the blood of Jesus Christ and the dearest love of our Saviour to poor creatures Or what is it Brethren is it the more love we find from Jesus Christ are our hearts the more averse from him if he did profess himself an enemy to us to destroy and slay us if we came near him to scatter us with the streams of flaming indignation issuing from his throne and presence we could do no more then run away from him as many of us now do O that we could lay it to heart The second Vse shall be to shew us the grievous nature of the sin of unbelief and haply this may make poor creatures afraid of straining curtesie with Christ and afraid to come to him because of their vileness c. to complement with him First Consider but the unreasonableness of the sin of unbelief above other sins indeed though all sin be unreasonable other sins they have some pretence of profit or pleasure but this hath nothing but wo and misery attending it condemnation But that I shall not insist upon for there is hardly any thing but Satan and a mans carnal reason will put a specious pretence upon it Therefore consider this unreasonableness First in respect of our selves that being plunged into such a depth of distraction and misery of sin and guilt and wrath that
when we are sinking and drowning we will not so much as put out the hand to lay hold upon a twig upon something held out to us is not this unreasonable and unnatural it raceth out the principle of self-preservation that is in every man by nature so that I will be bold to say the greatest reason in the world improved to keep off a poor soul from Jesus Christ is unreasonable it is the depravation of our carnal reason had it not been unreasonable if Hagar having a fountain opened her before her eyes and she languishing for thirst and must perish without it and yet would sit still is not this unreasonable Again If we look upon the Lord Jesus who seeks to us beseecheth us to accept of him of mercy of pardon in his blood the Creator cometh down to the creature poor worms who have our being by his Word and might be dissolved with his Word and yet we stand it out and will not accept of him who would bestow himself and his infinite all-sufficiency upon us and we will not is not this unreasonable that a Prince should seek to a worthless rebel to be reconciled and he will not hear of it If he had any need of us and upon that account would have poor sinners to come to him to make a supply of his wants it were something but all the want the indigency is on our part and therefore unbelief is the more unreasonable thing O how might we here break out and say hear ye heavens and give ear O earth for the Lord Jesus the Lord of both heir of all things the offended Majesty seeks to poor rebelling worms to be reconciled but they will not hear of it they come not in they close not with him Secondly As the unreasonableness of the thing so also we may take notice of the injuriousness of this sin of unbelief I would a little insist upon this sin the more because that though I find many a poor heart seemeth to be weary of sin and afraid of sinning against God in other kinds yet seeth not in the mean time how exceedingly he sins against him by his unbelief not closing with Christ and coming to him therefore see in the second place the injuriousness of this sin of unbelief how injurious it is to Jesus Christ Brethren for if the truth were known what is the reason wherefore we need so much ado why we come not in to him We either think he cannot save us our sins are so great O saith one there was never such a wretch as I though he have accepted of great sinners such as Paul and Manasses and Magdalen yet there was never such a wretch as I O surely my wounds are such there is no healing for them What is this but to make Jesus Christ weak and a Physitian of no value Is there any sin higher then the imbrewing their hands in the blood of Jesus Christ himself and suppose thou be such an one and this is that thou cryest out of thou hast come so often to the Lords Supper with a common heart which is to be guilty of his blood accessary to his death and cannot his blood cleanse even from the guilt of them that shed it were not many of the Jews sensible os this how dishonourable is this to Jesus Christ when we will be measuring of him by our selves we are apt to think of pardon and mercy as far as a mans a creatures bowels and thoughts will reach mind there is an end not minding that he is God as well as man this is an high wrong unto our Saviour O he will not saith the poor soul if he can yet he will not sure receive such an one as I O I am so laden and so loathsom a wretch what should he do with such an one as I What is it possible thou shouldest remember how many promises how many invitations how many expostulations he hath made what intreaties to poor creatures to be reconciled to him and yet call in question his willingness why what do you make of Jesus Christ O how doth unbelief in effect dethrone Jesus Christ disgracing the Throne of his Glory robbeth him of his mercy of his power his love his bowels of that which he most glorieth in and is not this injurious then to thy dear Saviour Would not you think it a wrong to you from one of your children that had offended you as highly as you can imagine suppose he had sought your life as Absolom did Davids and now the Father seeks thou suest to thy son O how many promises thou heapest up one upon another backest them with oaths wooest him intreatest him to be reconciled to accept of a pardon No he believeth you not notwithstanding all you can do or say that you are real in the thing is not this injurious doth he not wrong exceedingly in this as well as in the former and is not this the very case Thirdly See how much unkindness there is in this sin of unbelief as it is directly against the love the bowels of Jesus Christ which sound toward poor creatures in the Gospel in every intreaty to be reconciled to him Brethren what could the Lord Jesus do more for us then he did was not his life dear to him even to the death sor poor sinners that there might be a pardon for us and do we thus requite him even to slight it never to mind it or if we do sometimes a little yet to stand out and not to close with him What unkindness was it in the Jews it is so recorded of them he came to his own and his own received him not that is to say his own flesh and blood and so he is ours as well as others but he came of them according to the flesh in a nearer manner and sent to them in the first place they received him not But to come to Us poor Gentiles out-casts that were strangers afar off with a desire to make us near in his blood near to his Father and to himself is this love nothing to be thus slighted for how few among us do believe in the Lord Jesus notwithstanding all this nothing breaks the heart of a creature more then unkindness and surely Brethren me thinks the thoughts of this if our hearts were not stony should be a breaking of our hearts that we have hitherto so many of us dealt so unkindly with Christ as we have done But fourthly see the dangerousness of this sin of unbelief that we may be set a trembling by reason of this sin as well as any other and be weary of this as well as any other 1. Other sins have but their own particular guilt each of them particularly binding over a poor soul to wrath and entayling the curse of the Law upon a poor sinner so every sin doth every oath every lie every unclean thought wanton look adultery fornication of the body the heart or eye but unbelief
where there is probability yea certainty of speeding if we come So the Lepers you know their argument If we stay here we must perish if we go we may escape So Esther she knew if she went not into the King at that time her neck was upon the block as well as the rest and if she did go in she might haply speed and prosper and therefore she ventures hard if the Scepter had not been held out to her it had cost her her life there but the body did lie at the stake as being starved for want or else designed to destruction by enemies but here soul and body lie at the stake and are in danger of perishing for ever there was only a possibility of escaping here is a certainty of escaping he will not in any wise cast him out O how cheerfully would Esther have run to the King if there had been such a Law that when ever the Queen cometh the Scepter should be held out to her so it is here there they ran a very desperate hazard but here is no hazard run here is a sure word of promise for it That heaven and earth shall pass away before a tittle of it shall pass away whoever cometh to Christ he will in no wise cast him out Seventhly It is a grief to the Lord Jesus that we should be thus wayward that we will not be perswaded of his good will toward us if we come to him that we should have such unworthy thoughts of Jesus Christ that he should make no more of his Word of promise his death his blood then to slight all falsifie all when poor sinners come to him according to his invitation he was grieved saith the Text because of the unbelief and hardness of their hearts It is said of the Jews O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. he wept over it when nothing would do to perswade them to close with him thou art grieved and Christ is grieved by this frowardness of thine Suppose the Father of the prodigal son in the Gospel had invited him to come to him promised him all the inheritance to put him in his bosom confirm his love to him no saith he I have mispent all I have undone my self fed upon husks as long as I could get them and now I am ready to perish not being able to procure them here I will sit and dye I cannot believe that thou wilt accept of me that thou canst ever love me or receive me more would not this grieve the father think you I know poor mourning soul thou wouldst not grieve the Lord Jesus I tell thee if thou wouldst not thou must come to him accept of his kindness and love believe his faithfulness and truth and so thy soul shall be established Vse 4. The fourth Use shall be then to exalt the riches of the Grace of Jesus Christ to poor sinners we might altus repetere and speak something to the purchasing of us at so dear a rate as his precious blood corruptible things as Silver and Gold are not worthy to be named the same day with the blood of Jesus Christ Alas there had been no possibility for us to come to him except there had been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paid and then to invite us to come to him and not only so but to draw us with the cords of a man and the cords of love that we should hear and learn of the Father be all taught of God which is the drawing of his Father without which we cannot come which what it is you have heard already formerly Brethren this is abundance of Grace yea more he hath promised and doth and will perform whoever cometh to him he will in no wise cast him out If the Lord Jesus had limited himself to such or such a sort of sinners that he would receive all that should not continue so many years in sin or sâ—all not rise to such an height in sin yet it had been much Grace to receive any but he excludeth none if any man come to Christ he will in no wise cast him out Are there not many souls in the presence of God that can set to their seals that this is a truth in Iesus if he would have cast out any what would become of thee and me who are the chief of sinners if he would have cast out such as have been drunkards covetous unclean effeminate what had become of them in 1 Cor. 6 Such were some of you and what would have become of some of us if he would have cast out all that have been bloody persecutors what would have become of Paul Ah poor soul bethink thy self in what filth and blood thou didst wallow before he put off his own comliness upon thee and then think if the Lord Iesus had limited his receiving of sinners that come to such or such a measure what then had become of thee O what abounding Grace is in the Lord Iesus towards poor sinners let us exalt it meditate much of it labour to heighten it in thy thoughts there will be no thoughts more sweet or profitable more melting of that stone in thy heart we so sadly complain of more indearing and engaging of the heart to the Lord Jesus then these are Vse 5. Vse 5. Then surely there is no falling away from Christ from justifying sanctifying Grace once received for what else is this coming to Christ but coming for righteousness for pardon for he is the Lord our Righteousness the Father hath found a Ransom now in his Son and this the poor sinner maketh after in Christ and for holiness also for he is made of God Sanctification as well as Righteousness and Holiness to the poor soul that cometh to him now he will never cast him out that cometh to him he will in no wise cast him out If he had said I will not cast him out except he sin to this or that degree after my receiving him it had been somewhat but I will not cast him out no in no wise will I do it O blessed bosom which will never shut out the poor soul that is once gotten in to it and if the Lord Jesus cast us not out when we come what can It may be some will say that we our selves may do it Christ will not do it I but the sinner himself may â—all off though he have been received of Christ put in his bosom warmed with his love it is true if a sinner were his own keeper it were somewhat like if it were left to the liberty of our wils whether we would abide in Christ yea or no we should quickly be lost again but it is not the Lord Jesus doth not only not cast us out except we cast our selves out but he holds us in his hand and the Father holds us in his hand and they are stronger then all None shall be able to pluck them out of his hand he lays hold upon the
See Coming Deliverance whence doth it come 156 Discouragements of the world are to be armed against 251 252 Dividing upon every occasion take heed of it 98 To Do what a man knows he is slow 23 Door of heaven will be shut against all such as are not ready to enter in with Christ 363 Door is twofold ibid. Door that it is not shut against us what have we to bless the Lord for 371 Dulness we are to be humbled for it 26 E Entrance abundant into glory as a preparation unto it what is required 328 Espousals the manner of it between Christ and his people 46 Espousals of Christ The difference between this and those espousals between men and women 86 F Faithful the soul must be unto Christ 8 Fall away from grace is to be reproved 254 Favourites of heaven that we are made so let us admire it 351 Feast what is it taken for 339 Feast may be looked upon two waies 340 Feast in it the Communion of the Saints shall be heightened in heaven p. 343. and it must needs be so 345 Feast how Christ brings the Saints in unto it 347 Feast into it none else can bring but Christ 348 Feast to it sinners are invited 353 With two cautions ib d. Feast the sinners that say they have it already answered 355 Feast to come to it laies a necessity upon you 357 Feast as many as are admitted to the beginning of it labour to prepare for it in heaven 358 Feast to those that enter in with Christ to it comfort 360 Fellowships See Admissions Folly of formal professors wherein it appears 111 Folly as many as are guilty of it reproved 290 Folly wherein it doth consist 299 See Wisdom Formality if no more doth fail a man 263 Formalists to all them a terrible word 402 G God for his own glory comes in a time unknown 210 God the Father giveth his people to his Son and giveth his Son to them 41 God and the world are of two minds 114 Gods goodness to his people is to be taken notice of in awakening them 204 Gospel its preaching to all the world understood to be a cry 199 Gospel if men refuse and reject it no wonder if they be shut out of heaven 369 Grace distinguished 99 Grace its largeness to sinners 97 Grace its act Saints may loose but not its habit 172 Grace its throne what need there is to ply it 194 Grace is not to be abused 255 Grace if once in the heart it is never lost ibid. Grace for it what shall be rendered to the Lord 256 Grace its getting being put off till the last day is very great folly 286 Grace the going to the creature for it is a note of great folly 298 Grace they that go to the Saints for it are like to be denyed 302 Grace there are none that have any surplusage of it or more then will serve their turn 309 Grace to as many as think they have enough of it a reproving word 311 Grace to such as think they have but little a word of Comfort 313 Grace its day such as do trifle away the time will come when pity shall arise from none 315 Graces must be had gotten and kept in a lively frame 218 Graces how they must be acted 219 Grow how to do it 249 H Heart of man is unconstant 23 Heart must not be trusted in the highest frame 194 Heaven men may come very neer it and yet be shut out 379 Heaven what will become of them who never set foot towards it 380 Heaven in it the Saints Communion will be heightned 343 Holiness real what is it 366 Honoured wherein Father and Son are 69 Hypocrisie deep may lie in the hearts of men 95 Hypocrites Christ coming to judge at midnight is like an evil snare 212 Hypocrites when Christ comes upon them unawares it will be a Terror 215 Hypocrites may go very far towards heaven and Salvation from 122 to 231 Hypoctites how many men know whether they be such or no 234 Hypocrites never have respect to all Gods Commandments 236 Hypocrites profession will not carry them through all conditions 262 Hypocrites lean upon two Pillars that will fail them 266 Hypocrites may long lie hid from themselves 268 Hypocrites ordinarily are not diligent or laborious in searching within 272 I James King what once he said 173 Jealousie what is it 68 Jeroms resolution 297 Jerusalem had her day of grace 279 Jesus is to be magnified we to be humbled and convinced of folly from 389 to 391 Infants of Believers are external Saints 94 Justice satisfied See Christ Justice and Mercy upon what account they are to be magnified 322 K Kingdom of heaven what is it taken for 87 Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Feast 339 Know such as Christ doth not shall never enter into his Marriage-feast 396 Know them not Christ will declare this at the day of Judgment unto Hypocrites 399 Knowledge of God in Christ what is to be said of those that have none 231 Knowing of a soul by Christ what is 〈◊〉 understood 393 Known of Jesus Christ many never are that profess him and profess to know him 392 L Lamps what is meant by it 11 103 Lamps of the wise Virgins though they burn low yet are they not put out 244 Lamps must be trimmed every day 254 Lamps what is it to trim them 257 Lamps their Motives to stir us up to trim them 258 Lamps our own what we should do to trim them 260 Law requires absolute obedience 69 Long-sufferance of God what they treasure up that despise it 134 Look unto two things 383 Love transcendent of Jesus Christ 54 Love of Christ to us should ever keep us low 59 Love of Christ the souls objections against it answered 78 M Magistrates who are the keepers of the Lords vineyard have slept 155 Man in him Christ sees nothing desirable 47 Man in him a double principle 146 Man or Men though they will not come to Christ for Grace yet will they come to him for Glory 385 Marriage what is meant by it 338 Marriages used to be made with feasting 53 Measures that are false take heed of being deceived by them 251 Members of Christs visible Church to be one of them is a great priviledge 98 Members unregenerated in a visible Church is a sad condition 99 Memory in man is a leaking vessel 21 Metaphor what is it 2 Midnight what is meant by it 208 See coming of Christ Ministers plea for putting the People in remembrance 24 Ministers wisdom in pressing truths 25 Ministers what they do 44 Ministers duty 67 Ministers have slept 156 N Novelties take heed of affecting them 28 Number our days labour so to do 117 Ordinances of Christ must neither be neglected nor slighted 253 Ordinances many that think they can get grace from them reproved 300 Ornaments look unto them and get them ready 81 Oyl what is meant by it 14 104 Oyl there is need
husks as many do but wholsom food Careful he was to preserve the poor Lambs of Christ from infection depredation If any sheep â—as stragling from the fold he would reduce and bring it back again if weak he would take it up in his bosom and carry it upon his shoulders His bowels were rowled within him and did exceedingly melt and yern towards those for whom Christ shed his blood The Lord having fixt him in the Firmament of the Church he proved not a wandring star his regular motion kept others within compass He was not a cloud without water as appeared by the flourishing growth of many Christians who sate under the honey drops that distilled from his lips How did he thirst after the salvation of souls and how anxiously inquisitive after the success of his labours It did not satisfie him that the seed was sown fruits must appear or else his heart is mightily troubled within him and little comfort taken in the comforts of this life It was an heart-breaking unto him that the hearts of sinners were no more boken their dry eys would cause his to overflow with briny tears The Lord did not give up his Ministry to the curse of a miscarrying womb and dry breasts He was able to say Lo here am I and the children whom thou hast given me Surely in labours he was more abundant then many others as his Closet Pulpit besides many other places can well testifie Recreations he declined so loath was he to be accounted a loyterer or idler in Gods Vineyard Having put his hand unto the Plough he did not at any time stand still he looked not back he sate not down in the cool and gentle shade but was always in an erect posture and continually pressing forward contented to bear the burthen and the heat of the day as knowing that the time of refreshing was shortly to come from the presence of the Lord. So eagerly bent was he upon his work that when seriously setled to it his necessary and appointed food was frequently neglected wife children and other Relations not taken notice of If any refreshing was urged he would say This is not the way to get my Fathers work done The Subjects that he pitcht on were usually adapted and accommodated to the temper of the Times and his own condition as Preaching both to others and himself It did not satisfie him that Truth was Preached unless it were seasonable and suitable The Sermons that he Prcached he throughly digested before hand and made them his own by a deep impression of them not only on his memory but affections so that he still spake from the heart to the heart They who beheld him in a Pulpir with a spiritually discerning eye thought the place to be as it were filled with smoak and signal expressions of the Divine Presence The growing and prevailing Corruptions of the Times he strongly opposed Errors though countenanced by great Ones were not basely baulked and passed by in silence The miscarriages of those in high Places were sure to meet with a severe and sharp rebuke He often bewailed and greatly mourned for the evil and dangerous consequence of corrupt men called to the Ministry who daub with untempered morter and slightly heal the wound that is made with a faithful hand When secure and sleepy sinners are at any time awakned by a stirring and a soul-searching Ministry and complain of the terrors of the Lord that set themselves in battle array against them these miserably-mercifull men with an oyly tongue labour to lick them whole again and skin over the sore they make it their design to bind up the broken bone without putting their patients to any pain perswading them that Ministers now-adays are too severe sour strict streight lacâ— and fright silly folk who do not understand themselves with Bug bears and Sear crows For a Waspish and inraged conscience thy provide a sweet and stupifying sop and so lay it to sleep again Thus are men flattered into a good opinion of themselves when in the mean time they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Wo and alasâ— that ever men should be thus contentedly cheated of their souls and prefer their present ease before their future safety He who was chosen a Ruler in the Church was so in his Family which he ruled well and diligently instructed in the knowledge of Christ He prayed twice a day with his Family and expounded some portion of Scripture and in these exercises usually expended an hour and an half at a time In Singing he was much transported and even lifted up and delighted much in Psal 63. and 103. He was with Paul in fastings often and that not only when publickly required for he was herein often ingaged upon the account of his own personall concernments and condition In preparations for Fasts as well as in the celebration of them he was very solemn and severe as will afterwards more plentifully appear Food on such days he tasted not till late at night if any offered it was entertained with dislike in his very looks In Prayer at all times especially then he was copious inlarged spiritual powerfull to the melting of the Congregation into tears and sighs His love to the Ordinances was very great and his heart did even break with longing after that of the Supper and in preparation for it he would unbowel himself before the Lord and be very strict in the duty of self examination When his children were Baptized and had the Seals of the Covenant imprest upon them he would wonderfully rejoyce thereby declaring a sweet refreshing and full satisfaction With the Psalmist he had rather be a door keeper in the House of the Lord then dwell in the Tents of wickedness One day in Gods Court was better then a thousand elsewhere He would cheerfully chirp and sweetly warble out his high-strained Notes when with the Swallow neer Gods Alta but would mourn like a Dove and chatter like a Crane when the waters of the Sanctuary were dammed up and did not freely flow forth he would droop and hang the wing though under the broad spreading guords of carnal contentments He abridged and cut himself short in the use of the warrantable contentments of the present life He was unwilling to launch out too far lest he should lose the sight of his Harbor and a storm arise ere he got in again He was loath to swallow down large morsels for fear of an ensuing surseit and dismal dolefull distempers that might thence arise He knew that the fairest full-blown Rose was not without its grieving thorn and that a scratching Bryer lay lurking under the blooming leaves and therefore he passed over the most flowrie and fragrant walk with an hasty and trembling foot He was none of those whom the Apostle speaks of that mind earthly things His work was his wages His design was not to spread his roots in the earth
endeavours His late journey to London heated his blood and disposed his already-wasting body to a dangerous distemper which discovered it self on the Lords day in his forenoons Sermon which after his return from the Congregation he laboured to conceal from his wife by endeavouring to eat though it were much against his stomach she perceiving some alteration in his countenance and carriage said You are not well pray preach not again to whom he replyed away away hinder me not Whereupon he retired to his study and adventured to preach again in the afternoon though with some difficulty and apparent symptoms of sickness in his very visage It was upon the spirits of some that this was the last time they should ever hear him One seeing and observing him in his return said Thou art almost in heaven I shall never see thee more The Text which he preached on that day is considerable Psal 4. 6. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us The former part viz. the enquiry Who will shew us any good he finished in the fore-noon and urged several arguments why men ought to sit loose from all things that are here below His expressions argued in him affections disingaged from matters dreggy and terrene One foot is off the earth already the other will be so too shortly He takes his flight from earth to heaven and in the afternoon made entrance on the latter part of the verse Lord lift thou up c. a suitable subject for him to speak to who was now about to enter into the gloomy horrours of the grave Those bright refulgent beams of heavenly light are never more seasonable then when we are upon the borders of the Land of darkness Ten glorious fruits and effects of the lifting up of the light of Gods countenance he held forth the heads of which because of the spirituality of the matter and being the words of a dying man and experienced Christian you will find in the Margin Judicious Christâ—ans plainly perceived him at that time to be wonderfully raised and his spreading sailes to be sweetly swelled with the powerful breathings of the Spirit for he spake more like one neer the Throne and in the company of Angels then one in a Pulpit and surrounded with mortalls At even the people according to their accustomed manner came crouding and thronging to Repetition His wife in vain perswaded him to dismiss the Assembly in repeating his Sermons Singing and Prayer he spent about two hours time At Supper he did eat a little with his wife and that chearfully yet complained of an unusual heaviness in his head and soreness in his eys when endeavouâ—ing to lift them up and took little rest the ensuing night The next morning seeing that he must be sick indeed he blessed the Lord that he found him in his work The Physitian being sent for and consulted with said he had got cold and was feavorish the second night is passed over with as little rest as the first A day of Thanksgiving in private for his own return from London and his wives late safe delivery was designed to be celebrated about this time the consideration of which occasioned some sadness whereupon to his wife he said This is sad love this looks as if the Lord would not accept of an Offering of praise from our hands And then he called for the Notes of a Thanksgiving Sermon preached long before by Doctor Jones on that passage of Hezekiah Who rendred not unto the Lord according to the benefit The third day as a choice Christian friend who came to visit him was discoursing with his wife he fell afleep and two or three hours after awaking he called for his wife who coming to him and kneeling down upon the beds side he fixed his eys on her and said dost thou know that place I will give them the Valley of Achor for a door of hope Who said yes He further asked her if she kâ—ew the meaning of it who expressing her apprehensions he said yea there it is and then a little nodding his head and pointing with his finger at her said Remâ—mber this Our valley of trouble shall be our door of hope About the fifth day in letting blood he fainted and with a low voyce said What means this it was not thus with me at Sir Roberts Kings To his wife looking upon him he said Now Love it is a weaning time He was more careful of Gods Service then of his own attendance causing the servants to leave him that so their duty to God in ways of worship might not be neglected The seventh day being the Sabbath he inquired who carried on the work and seemed to affect retirement and secret converse with God upon his own day Most part of the second week was passed over in a silent submission and quiet waiting on the Lord. The thirteenth day in the morning being Saturday his pains were very violent for an hour and half and extorted from him that doleful complaint Lord how long Ah my bowels my bowels I have grieved bowels this speaks much I have wanted bowels I have not been so pittiful towards others The Doctor being sent for and staying longer then was expected he said Lord give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man At night he was much refreshed chearful all night and prone to discourse and praised without any complaining and withall said I would have given the whole world for so much ease in the morning The Lords day in the morning the Doctor coming to him and looking on him wept to whom Master Murcot said How is it with me Doctor You may do well Brother I hope if you can get any sleep Master Murcot Tell me true how is my Pulse Doctor I confess it is but bad but you may do well if you can sleep which he indeavoured a while though in vain by closing his eys To his wife looking sadly on him he said Love canst thou pray for â—leep for me what saist thou to which her swelling grief permitted her not to return answer The rumouâ— of his weak condition being spread abroad a Doctor was sent from my Lord Deputy to see if there were any hope of life who speaking to him he said Doctor I am spent with sweating To his Sister he said and that without any amazement and peâ—turbation of spirit Sister I must now tell you I am not for this world and then lifting up himself he said Lord remember me how I have walked before thee in sincerity with all my might He wished the Sabbath were over that so he might do something about his Will though little were to be done His wife seeing hearing these passages said to him Now I see that you know that you must leave us He answered yes Love whereat she weeping he exhorted her to a Resignation to which she answered The Lord hath
enabled me to surrender you up heartily at the â—earâ—ng of which he lifting up his hands blessed the Lord. To hâ—s wâ—fe he said haste haste Love for my time is very short and withall told his Sister I shall not reach midnight Then lifting up himfelf he said these raptures tell me I must be gone quickly The consideration of his approaching rest did wonderfully revive The Messenger of the Lord whispered him in the ear and told him his Father had sent for him home which happy tidings made his heart to â—eap for joy within him The glimmerings of the white Throne of the Lamb sitting on that Throne and of the glorious troops of Saints and Angels all in white about the I â—rone with the apprehensions and confident assurance of his bearing a part in the Musick of their Hallelujahs caused in him sublime elevations and springing exultings of spirit in a body depressed and bowed down with pinching pains and the agonies of an approaching death He is now in the Cutfields of Emanuels Land and is gotten almost to the top of the Mount and his soul impatient of delaies is ready to leap out of the crazy and declining Cottage of mouldring Flesh Paper being brought he began thus I resign my spirit into the hands of the Father of Spirits and into the bosome of my dear Lord c. To this there were but three or four lines more added for he was in haste and longed to be at home To his wife having in a very short space dispatched his Will he said Bury me in silence without Funeral Sermon I will have no manner of pomp but was perswaded to yeild to the intreaties of his wife as to a Sermon As his children were called for Doctor Winter came in to visit him who unexpectedly seeing death in his face said with a loud and lamenting voice Brother Murcot are you leaving us who with unaltered countenance said Yes and desired him to pray quickly His children being brought he said to his eldest Will Hester be a good child and serve the Lord His son being presented he expressed himself thus The Lord break thy stubborn heart When the little one hanging on the mothers brest was exposed to his sight he lift up his hands and said The Lord bless thee Being put in mind of his servants he affectionately and even smilingly looked up upon one whom he had been instrumental to convert and said Bess hath a better Master the Lord be with thee Bess The children being taken away and his wife coming to take her last leave and final farewel of him he alone lift up himself and kissed her Dr. Winter desiring an interest in his prayers he said The Lord strengthen you for the double work that now lies on you and withal desired him to pray with him which he did in a most pathetical and doleful manner groaning out his requests unto God The people though desired are loath to leave the chamber and hang so thick on the curtains bed-posts hangings doors having not the power to leave their dear and departing friend so that he is in danger of being smothered and dying before his time Drawing near his end his sister said to him Are you in charity with all the Lords people though differing from you Who lifting up his eyes affectionately said Yes She desiring him to manifest it by his last request he lifted up his hands and requested that all the Lords people might be one as his way was one Then stretching out his arms and lifting himself up he said with a loud and shrill voice Lord Jesus draw me up to thee which sweet expressions by a frequent and fervent repetition wasted his spirits so that afterwards he lay in somewhat a silent posture waiting for his change which was now neer at hand About nine of the clock he breathed out his soul into the bosom of Christ and quietly slept in the Lord. The Wednesday following being the appointed time of his interment great was the confluence of people who attended the corps unto the grave The Lord Deputy Fleetwood followed the Body after him the Council then the Maior Aldermen and Citizens in such numerous troops that the like hath not been usually seen in Dublin Dr. Winter preached his funeral Sermon on Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation Upon the face of the whole Congregation sate a black cloud of sorrow and disconsolation being not able to vent it on that doleful and uncomfortable occasion into showers The Body being brought unto the place of burial the sadned spectators and standers-by sighed him into his grave and mingling his dust with their moist tears departed and left him in his bed of rest Relation I would willing back with Exhortation A few words of spiritual advice in the close of the whole may be of use though from an inferiour hand And first to you my Brethren in the Ministry I address my self and earnestly intreate you in the bowels of Christ Jesus our Lord to remember That you are not only Church-Officers but Christians Spend not your whole time in reading books and studying other men you will do well to study your selves and to be acquainted with the frame of your own hearts The way which you point out unto others walk in your selves and conscientiously practise the duties which you pangatively press Beware of beams in your own eyes whilest you are diligently plucking motes out of your brothers eyes Let not your own cloathes be full of dust when you are brushing other mens backs It s not handsom for us to be alwaies sweeping before the doors of others and picking up the least offensive straw whilest huge heaps of dunghil filth lie before our own doors unremoved It opens the mouths of opposites when we are taken notice of to bind heavy burdens on other mens shoulders we in the mean time refusing to touch them with the least of our fingers Know we not the pleadings of many at the last day Have we not preached in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils whom yet Christ will spurn from his presence and cast forth as an everlasting abhorring What though Judas had the grace of Apostleship so long as he had not grace with his Apostleship It was a wise course that Paul took and deserving imitation who did beat down his own body lest having preached unto others he himself should become a cast-away What though Satan fall down from heaven like â—ightning before us if he be not cast out of our hearts We have more reason to rejoyce in having our names written in the Lambs book of Life then in having the Devils subject to us O whilest we passionately endeavour the salvation of others souls let us have an eye of tender regard unto our own One hint more at parting We cannot be too often put in
doth grate upon It may be brethren to come a little nearer thou hast long heard of coming to Jesus Christ that thou mightest have life and thou hast been as much woed and intreated as many others and thou art even weary of this lesson What ado is here about coming to Christ what do we not come to him do we not follow him Ah dear friends It is the work of your whole lives and why may it not be the work of our whole lives yea it is to be feared thou with whom so sweet a word relisheth no better that thou hast never known the worth of it experimentally Be not deceived brethren you may be mistaken and far enough off from him when you think you come to him but suppose you are come to him may you not draw nearer then you are come have you not many back-slidings Do you not miss a stroke sometimes and are carryed down the stream the Lord knoweth how far and had you 〈◊〉 need of hearing then of coming to Christ renewing your acquaintance with him Alas Brethren if many of us had not had this truth beaten upon us often we had never come to him canst thou tell how often thou hadst in the Gospel a crucified Christ held out to thee before thou hadst a heart to look on him and mourn over him and over thy self whose hands have been imbrued in his blood here thou hast seen him here crucified and there crucified in this Sermon and that Sermon in this Sacrament and that Sacrament and yet alâ—s thy sullen heart would not bleed now if thou hadst never heard of him more it had not been prest upon thee any more what had become of thee if notwithstanding all this thou hadst been sealed up in hardness and unbelief for ever What narrow-mouth'd bottles are we receiving now a drop and then a drop though much be poured out many times little staies or if our heads fill our capacities being large apprehensions quick and memories strong how little is it that sinketh any further there is need of pressing and boring and unspeakable mercy it is if at last the passage between head and heart be opened that so what we have known long it may be yet now we may come to know after another manner even as we ought to know it not to be puffed but humbled to be warmed melted changed by it How often Brethren have we had the Doctrine of love pressed upon us even as John had nothing else in his mouth almost my little children love one another my little children love one another when he could not go as the story saith of him and can we hear it so often but there is somewhat yet to learn that we have not learned may we not grow in it abound in it more and more as the Apostle saith to them even the Thessalonians Ah where is a heart wherein it abounds love to Christ love to his people a little unlikeness to our selves in a thing of no great moment is able to quench our love so far it is from being as strong as death a little earthly enjoyments a house a wife a company of sweet children pretty taking vanities they have such a hold upon our hearts that they stifle our desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ O we see not nor have learned how far better it is to be with him is there not more to be learned by us all in this point And if we can or do love the Saints in whom the Image of Jesus Christ is alas may we not do it more fervently then we do if there be some fervor appearing may we not do it with a purer heart meerly because Christ hath loved them who is the beloved of our souls what meaneth else our having the faith of Christ with respect of persons what meanth else our loving men more for their gifts then for their graces for the common then the special inspiration of the spirit upon them Do we not know men after the flesh and yet haply are ready to be wearie of the Doctrine of love What needeth so much ado to press it upon men the Lord shew us our shortness and humble us under it But I will come a little nearer to the purpose in the Text and the thing in hand which lies before us the Ordinance to which some of us are now called for this of watching for the appearing of Jesus Christ I might have raised indeed a closer observation and more particular when I had finished this but I would not hold you too long upon this which is but the coherence of the words we shall likely meet with it before we have done with the Parable And that is the necessity of pressing this great duty of watching for the appearing of Christ much upon people for this is the thing here our Saviour so muchin sists upon and often in many other places What I say to you I say to all watch And so Luk. 12. 35. Surely there is somewhat more in it then ordinary The duty is more spiritual then ordinary and then our carnal hearts are as hardly drawn to it as a Bear to the stake It hath many a time I know been prest upon us all to get ready and stand ready to wait and watch for his appearing Have we done it How many of us brethren if Christ should come this day would be found sleeping some dead asleep upon the lap of the pleasures and honours and riches of this world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be disturbed we never dream of his coming Would men think you if they had learned this lesson dare to multiply incumbrances in the world upon them and with so much diligence be casting out their roots in the world as if they would never be pluckt up as if their portion were here below how often have we been warned in the name of Jesus whos 's the warning is take heed your hearts be not over-charged with surfeting and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day take you at unawares hath this sunk with us have we made conscience any of us to ease our selves of any unnecessary incumbrances that we might wait upon him without distraction What day almost brethren goeth over any of our heads or what hour of the day wherein we shall be ready to open if he should knock for us Alas some of us brethren care not how long he defers his coming if he would never come we should be the better pleased for our hearts tell us it will be a woful day to us we have no oyl in our vessels we have no grace in our hearts nor any do we look after we know we are not in him nor are we solicitous to be found in him we are for our building and planting and rejoycing in our youthful vanities and leave these serious things to melancholly Spirits Ah dear friends had not this truth need to be prest upon you your danger is great
to set his love upon his soul he believeth no such things nor the Papists neither Nor many a poor hypocrite Alas they think they have somewhat that deserveth him I some beauty is in us that the Lord saw and so it was meet for him to lay out his love upon us proud wretches that we are it is well we have an infinitely condescending love yea and powerful that can overcome our pride and swallow it up and love not onely poor creatures nothing-creatures but such as falsly suppose themselves somewhat when they are nothing else what would become of many of us Well sure it is because we know not our selves or know not what this love means else we should all of us easily subscribe to this 2. That he would be at such a price for such for alas brethren 〈◊〉 who would lay down his life almost for the cho cest of persons though some in an Agony of Passion and discontent have made themselves away for them they have doated upon yet here was some proportion between the persons loving and loved yea happily the person loved might be the more eminent person and therefore might stand off and a man when he doth this alas he is beloved himself he is wrapt by the violence of his passion out of his choice his understanding and judgement dethroned and then the Affections like wild horses O whither will they not hurry a man but in such a case a man is not a man but now in sobriety of minde consider it and who would lay down their lives and dye for the obtaining the rarest creature in the world for a spouse surely none O no Skin for skin saith the Devil and though a man imagine more to be in what he hath never injoyed then he findeth by experience in what he hath had the flower and cream of yet notwithstanding if a man be himself he will prize his life above all but if he would dye would he dye a most shameful death to have his life taken away by the most violent destructions and convulsions of minde so strongly working upon the body as to moulder it away by degrees surely hardly any man would ever venture in such a case as this Alas What is this to what the Lord Jesus hath willingly undertaken for worms what man would dye for a worm that it might live and he might have it put in his bosom or rather would be contented to â—ay down his body take up the form of a worm and therein dye the most miserable death that he might have worms saved from death and be his nearest relations for ever O doth not this transcend the love of Angels brethren Alas what is this to what Jesus Christ hath paid for poor worms at the best sinful dust and ashes and that we might live and live in union and fellowship with himselfe for ever Ah Brethren if God would but make us sensible what we are at the worst and what the Lord Jesus underwent in some measure for apprehend it fully we cannot but such as have ever tasted what it is to sip of the cup may apprehend more then others what dregs were at the bottom a drop how doth it put the soul into an Agony upon the rack that thou wouldst choose death rather then life O what then was the whole cup brethren that he should undergo this and should with his most precious blood be willing to purchase such poor abjects forlorn Creatures to be a spouse to him yea with his blood drawn from him through the very pores of the body by the very distractions of his soul and wresâ—ling with wrath O was there ever grief like this that the father put him to and was there ever love like this brethren O that we had hearts indeed to admire it 3. That after all this is done he should be at such pains to bring us to himself to wooe us to come himself to send us his messengers to strive with us by his Spirit as you know he strivd long with the old world and strived long with the Israelites in the wilderness and many of our souls can say it by experience he hath striven long with us by his spirit when we have been convinced our ways have been folly and misery and yet we would not yield how hath he followed us up and down with motions of his spirit and waited to be gracious and all but to have our consent to take him for ours Dear friends who are we that the Lord Jesus should thus ambire make so much ado with us to have our consent to take him to accept of him for a Husband O what desperate enmity is in our hearts against him that there must be so much ado to overcome it You would think that poor begger either a very crooked cross piece full of bitter hatred against a Prince or Noble-man that sues to her with all the intreaties that can be sends messenger after messenger cometh himself and beseecheth her to accept of him and yet she will not no is she well where she is desireth not either you will say she believeth not what he saith that it is in reality it will not enter into her heart to think he is real he is so far above her though he tell her he knew that is sensible of it yet maketh love to her meerly because he will and his heart is towards her not for any thing in her self she believeth not or else that she is a desperate enemy and hater of such a Noble-man and would rather perish there or languish in such a condition as an abject then accept of him O this is the condition of many of us brethren some poor deject dunbelieving souls alas their hearts even fail within them to hear that J. Christ should make love to them O it canot be sure to such a worm such a wretch so poor so filthy so full of rags vermin so full of sores and wounds full deeply indebted so deformed and loathsom every way O they know not how to receive this Others they are even stout and proud and care no more for these things then if Jesus Christ had said nothing at all as for them they are well enough if he will let them alone they desire not to mend their conditions by closing with him Now brethren to both these how doth the Lord Jesus apply himself Never were there more powerful Arguments used and never more powerfully prest then he presseth them and that with more diligence and patient waiting upon us and O what love what manner of love is this that all this floweth from A little to touch upou each of them brethren happily the Lord may be pleased to breath in them to some poor soul and as he doth at other times thus so this day brethren Even to you he is pleading with you for this very end that some poor sinners would be perswaded to close with him First then The Arguments are the most
so humble Abigail and from Bâ—az so humble Ruth and shall not this love of Jesus Christ infinitely greater then all humble such poor filthy creatures upon whom he hath set his love Thirdly Let us hence take notice then of the many precious priviledges of the Saints We live much below them because we study them not keep not the relish of them upon our hearts I mean endeavour not so to do the Lord give us hearts now lifted up to him First then As many as by believing are espoused to Jesus Christ they are one with him in the nearest union Surely it is not for nothing that the H. Ghost delights so to set forth the believers relation to Christ by this of a spouse to a husband you know that this is the nearest union among men of one person to another Kindred are near a man his children his brethren they are usually called their bone and their flesh as the men of Judah spake to David we are thy flesh and thy bone but this is aâ— a greater distance but now in Marriage two persons that were strangers one to another never saw the face one of another within a little while by this Ordinance of God are brought to such a nearness as that Father and Mother and Children if they had any before yet they are not so near to them they shall leave Father and Mother and be joyned to their Husband here this union is the stranger by how much greater the distance between the persons were and how much the closer the union is now it is made the distance was great whether we respect the dignity of the person there was no proportion a King and a Beggar are but a shadow and a dark one too to set forth this a King and a worm to take it and lay it in his bosom is nothing to this but chiefly in respect of enmity of mind alas that such as we are at the deadliest feud haters of God and of Christ not only strangers but enemies through evil works that those should be brought so near to Christ as to be made one with him this is something indeed An impotent and weak enemy that could do nothing against him not so much as move any longer then he upheld us and yet we should be look't upon indeed a potent enemy happily in policie may be concerned to such an union but a weak enemy rather would be trampled under foot But then the nearness of the union man and wife are one flesh saith the Apostle but he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit The union of soul and body is nearer then of man and wife if too bodies could be acted by one and the same soul this were a near union indeed Why the Lord Jesus and the saints are one and the same Spirit whereby they are knit together in love this is a near union indeed Is this a light thing a small thing to be made so near the Lord of life and glory even the Children of Israel a people near to him who is like them that have Christ so near them of that are so near him Secondly There is a sweet Communion and Fellowship ariseth upon this a blessed imparting now of all his fulness to such a soul all that is Christ's is now yours his righteousness yours therefore the Holy City the name of it is called the Lord our righteousness Now his honour is yours where he is King you are Queen as in the old custom with the Romanes they used to say where you are Caius I am Caia saith the woman where you are Lord I am Lady be the poor Creature never so contemptible yet marrying with a noble person it dignifieth her with a rich person it enricheth her because she hath an interest in all But beloved that though this be matter enough to insist upon if I could enlarge things for fear of being too tedious There is fellowship-Communion between the Lord Jesus and the soul that others know nothing what it meaneth the Lord Jesus is more open hearted to them his secrets are with them they are the hidden Manna and they again are most free to power out their souls to Jesus Christ into his bosom to power them out like water as he will hide nothing from Abraham so Abraham will hide nothing from him such a confidence hath the poor Believing soul that he speaks boldly freely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with speaking all so the original word properly imports that which none else in the world shall know they will make known to Jesus Christ they can be more free with him then any other And not only because he already knoweth the heart as I conceive but out of a sweet confidence they have in him and experience of his bowels yerning over poor souls in such a Condition so that if he knew not all that was in their hearts they would out of this freedom open it to him Yea the Lord Jesus he dyed our death and grieves our griefs and we rise his resurrection and rejoyce in his rejoycings he partaketh with us yea indeed bears the heavier end and all indeed of our miseries and we partake of his joys the oyl of gladness we are anointed with But this is the second Thirdly another is the cohabitation of Christ with his people I will dwell with them and I will walk in them when the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven the Church of the Jews shall come in then he will especially dwell in them then the Tabernacle of God is with men but now saith the Apostle that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith though he be absent indeed in some respect at the right hand of his father absent in body yet he is present in spirit as the Apostle saith of himself as he would have us to be in Heaven have our hearts there and so to dwell there to have our conversations there our love there and where the heart is there the man is Animus non est ubi animat sed ub i amat well we then dwell with him and he dwels with us with him will I dwell saith the Lord. It is a Marriage duty to dwell one with another and if a believer have an unbelieving yoke-fellow if he or she will live with the believer they must not put them away they must not depart from them so it is here the Lord Jesus dwels with his people and this is no small priviledge to the Husband the Bridegroom at hand alway ready to pity and compassionate us in our sufferings within or without But this the third Fourthly he nourisheth and cherisheth them No man hates his own flesh saith the Apostle but he nourisheth it and cherisheth it as you have it there in Nathan's parable one poor Ewe Lamb and he laid it in his bosom and it did eat of his bread and drink of his cup by which are meant all manner of supplies
Rejoyce in the Lord saith the Apostle and again I say rejoyce it is a duty of that moment he cannot leave it he goeth over and over with it do not think I am mistaken when I bid you rejoyce because happily your condition may be afflicted other ways again I say rejoyce I am still of the same mind The Lord Jesus rejoyceth over you as sad thoughts as you have concerning your selves he rejoyceth over you he is glad to communicate his love and shall not we rejoyce then in the receiving of it Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the bridegroom is with them saith our Saviour it is not sutable to their condition when he shall be taken away then they shall mourn I deny not Brethren but if the Lord do withdraw himself we should lament after him and seek him sorrowing as Mary the Mother of Jesus did and the more love we have received if we grieve him this will be the more grief of heart but if you that have his presence in a sweet manner and yet hang the head and droop as if our joyning to the Lord had been the undoing of our souls So pensively and sadly we many of us walk that indeed we are a shame and dishonour to the Lord Jesus If you should see a Virgin espoused to a man and should from that day forwad never hold up her head but walk heavily what would you think sure she apprehends she hath made an ill choice her expectations are frustrated therefore Brethren look to it that we rejoyce if the Children of the Bride-chamder cannot mourn but rejoyce to hear the voice of the Bridegroom much more then the Bride The Lords takes pleasure in the prosperity of thy soul and why shouldst not thou â—ake pleasure in the prosperity of thy own soul being made one with Jesus Christ 5. Look to it that you be faithful to the Lord Jesus as a Bride when once espoused if she turned aside to another it was death they were looked upon as in a marryed state and condition indeed the truth is when the Lord hath truly espoused his soul to himself he hath done it in faithfulness and maketh the soul faithful to him that in the great Article of the Covenant they never deal falsly with Jesus Christ that is to say they choose not another Saviour another Lord under whose dominion to put themselves constantly yet there may be sometimes to Jesus Christ even in his own people If that once it cometh to this that we imbrace sin and consent to it and take any delight in it this is to play the harlot with Jesus Christ O take heed of this brethren indeed the heart is all that he looks at how we stand affected to those evils which yet remain if Paul have a body of death yet he delights not in it but groans being burtheued this he accounts not unfaithfulness but when a mans heart beginneth to sit loose from the Lord Jesus to be almost indifferent he could sometimes in a fit of wretched carnality be content to have another Lord to rule over him to be free from Christ O! this the Lord looks at and he will search out this will move him to jealousie therefore take heed of this a woman may do as much service and seemingly as readily to her husband as before but yet her heart be gone and she could be contented to be loose this is heart-Adultery this the Lord Jesus in us brethren looks at as such if we serve him and do duties but in such a manner that we could even be contented to be at liberty it is not right take heed of provoking the Lord Jesus lest it prove in the end that he never knew us indeed Labour to be faithful then in this in the main Again In managing all he puts into our hands be faithful The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her It is the commendation of a woman of a thousand in the Proverbs she will be improving It may be you have not so much to turn as others have others have ten times more parts and opportunities to do good let them look to it they have ten times as much to answer for and must do ten times as much but thou mayst be as faithful in a little as they in a great deal One servant is a Steward in the family hath all under his hand and another he is a poor under-servant hath some mean service committed to him why now he may be as faithful in his place as the other in his Moses was faithful in all the house of God he had a great command Caleb might be as faithful for what was committed to him following God fully as the Text hath it say not then If I were a Magistrate a Minister a publike person had such opportunities to do good I might do much but I am an obscure person Well be thy condition what it will be thou mayst do good and be faithful in thy place according to what thou hast received thy lips may drop like a hony-comb and feed many and like choice silver and inrich many though thou be never so mean and so for the Family and up and down where ever thou comest look that thou be faithful to do all from Jesus Christ and to do all to him that thou rob him not of the glory of what he hath done for thee and by thee for then thou art not faithful 6. Another Exhortation shall be then to desire the coming of the Bridegroom the Spirit and the Bride say come the spirit in the bride breathing in her as it is in the Revelation they say come We looke upon the day of death as if it were the day of divorce from the Lord Jesus for the most part truly for them that are out of Christ it is no marvel if it be a King of terrors to them but to the Saints me thinketh who look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus to consummate the marriage between them it should not be so terrible as it seemeth to be to the most of us and to this end take ye here brethren at the marriage feast he turns our water into wine but in heaven our wine into spirits and setteth them a flaming our love flaming to all eternity 7. Exhortation which is to look to our Ornaments to get them ready why do we hang back but because we are not ready we have somewhat or another unready still our work is not done can a maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me As a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels so he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Eleazer put jewels upon Rebecca before she came to Isaac and therefore the spouse is called Callah in the Original because of her perfect adorning therefore look to this brethren that you be adorned O every
world between the Sheep of Christ and dogs and swine Is it nothing to have the body and blood of Jesus Christ openly prostituted to such as though indeed they have the name of Christians yet their lives to every one that knoweth them deny that they have any thing to do with Christ No purging out the old Leven and therefore no likelihood to be a new lump O that we were sensible what a guilt is contracted every where by this means Alas Let the people of God take the greatest pains with their hearts to draw near to such an ordinance as the Lords Supper and they shall have cause to pray with Nehemiah The Lord spare us according to the multitude of tender mercies And with Hezekiah The Lord be merciful to every one that hath prepared his heart to seek the Lord though he be not prepared according to the preparation of the Sanctuary but when without any care it shal be promiscuously given to Drunkards Swearers openly prophane wicked wretches to the bane of their souls to the provoking God to bring wasting judgements upon the place and people where such things are done Surely it is time to look about us O! that we who can do no more but mourn for these things had such a sense of the dishonour of the Lord Jesus and abuse of his love and grace upon our hearts as to mourn And O that such of us as have power in our hands to command a Reformation in this kind the Lord would perswade the heart that there is such a power Hezekiah and Jâ—siah not only commanded the true worship to be set up and turned the people from their Idols to the trne God but they commanded the purifying the Temple a type of the Church of Christ and purifying of the Priests and People that they should not pollute the Ordinances of God And this example of theirs is commended and surely it was done as they were types of Christ except they were types of Christ as they were Magistrates and if so it would follow we should have no Magistrates at all For Christ the substance being come the thing typified what should we do with the shadows any more 2. Then on the other hand they are to be blamed also who are stricter then the Lord Jesus would have them in their admissions to Christs fellowship and communion All visible Saints he would have admitted to communion and fellowship with his people in their several societies that is to say they seeking to joyn themselves to them Now here indeed there is a difference of apprehensions and I purpose not to enter into disquisition of such things at this time and in this place Mens charity may do something indeed to moderate them but it s not that which is to be the judge but the Scriptures what rules are there laid down according to which we ought to own persons as belonging to Christ his visible kingdom that is to say such as profess and contradict not their profession But surely it is blame-worthy if that upon niceties and trifles in comparison we shall dis-own such as truly fear the Lord so far as we can judge of them And truly Brethren I desire to speak it with a spirit of tenderness to them they are injurious in this respect who do deny Infants of Believers any room in the bosom of the Church for they are holy they are external Saints and separated to God and it is apparent that once they were members of the Church of Christ aâ—d by vertue of a Covenant of grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which he that denyeth any more to be comprehended in then a temporal blessing when God saith he will be their God I would pity them and pray for them that they might come to themselves again for then sure they would judge otherwise Now if they were such once members of that Church with which we are one now for so saith the Apostle plainly the Gentiles are made one with the Commonwealth of Israel we are graffed in among the branches how cometh it to pass they should be all cast off and cut off from the Olive and not a syllable of it mentioning any such thing in Scriptures no account given to the world of it and that it should be in such a time when the fulness of grace was revealed in Jesus Christ for grace came by him and now there should be less grace come by him and narrower priviledges to the Church will hardly be understood I think The third Doctrinal from the words will be this In the visible Church there are some good some bad Ordinarily they were not all wise virgins that the kingdom of heaven is compared to but five wise five foolish All within the visible Church are not wise to salvation Five of them were wise five were foolish The proportion of the wise to the foolish five to five in the Parable is not concluding that there are as many good as bad in the Church there may possibly be a visible Church where there are none bad but I doubt there is none such found there were but twelve Disciples and one was a Devil and all the parables whereour Saviour holdeth out the nature and state of the visible Church to us is we find there is a mixture So in the Parable of the Sower there are four sorts of ground to which the kingdom of heaven is compared and but one of them brought forth fruit to perfection the stony Ground it was quickly scorched from the sandy ground springs up quickly and withers as soon the thorny ground holds out longer and endures happily the scorching of the Sun the Persecution and yet is choakt when all is done And so the Parable of the tares sown in the field they grow up with the Corn and it seemeth by the ancient report even Jerom are so like it while in the blade that they can be hardly discerned from it but there they grow and partake of the juice of the earth and fatness of the soyl and are green and flourish and yet at last are singled out for fire And so the Barn-floor there is wheat and there is Chaff lying together until he whose fan is in his hand shall throughly purge it and then the separation being made Woe to the Chaff but at present c. And so the draw-net though it gather together somewhat naught which is to be cast away yet while under water it is hidden And so the Apostle All are not Israel that are of Israel Some are Israel that are of Israel but all are not Some are of Israel though they be not the Israel of God that shall inherit the heavenly Canaan I hope it is needless to waste more time in heaping up of Scriptures to make it good The ground may be because the Church here below the visible Church which admitteth of members hath not an infallible spirit to discern the
your souls Now this spirit works faith and that works by love and that never fails but is perfected in heaven so humility self-denyal and all those graces And not onely the graces of the spirit but this Spirit of grace dwelling in the Saints which continually supplyeth their wants so that the Lamp shall not go out forwant of oyl From the words thus understood this note will arise He that contents himself with a profession of Christ without the real saving work of grace upon his heart is a fool but he that looks to the main thing the getting grace in his heart as well as making a shew before men is a wise man Profession without the enjoyment of the Spirit of grace is but folly I will put them both together that contraries may the better illustrate one another juxta se posita and if either of them be proved both of them are proved for they will infer each other by the rule of contraries Nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then to call sinners fools sinners of all sorts are fools committing wickedness is committing folly in Israel but no fool to the wise fool wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of such a man and who are usually more wise in their own conceits then formal professors are he that hideth hatred with lying lips is a fool he that hideth hatred to God a rotten heart with lying lips whereby he professeth much love to him and carryeth a fair shew he is a fool in grain If we would know where wisdom beginneth or what the sum of wisdom is the wisest of men shall tell you the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom or the sum of wisdom some read it so And so Job who was no child in Christianity to man he saith to fear the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding Mark you Whatever men place wisdom in or folly in this is the very sum of wisdom to fear God fear is put for all grace a manfearing God and eschewing evil was the highest character the Lord gave of Job It is indeed the root of all that good we do and evil we avoid and I will and but one Scripture in the â—hiddenarts thou shalt make me to know wisdom it is one thing to be wise headed and tongued and another to be wise hearted and therefore in Scripture nothing more ordinary then to set forth wisdom that is true indeed by the heart God himself is said to be wise of heart Foolish creatures Eph. a silly Dove without a heart They may have head enough notion enough flashing light appearing to others enough but they are without a heart they have not the great work there a new head and an old heart a full head and an empty heart a light and burning profession and a dark dead and cold heart he that takes up in such a condition is a fool an errant fool For the further clearing of this I shall enquire a little wherein the nature of wisdom and folly lyeth and then shew you how it is Applicable in truth unto this profession of Christ without the possession of him Wisdom then I conceive may consist of these three generals 1. In the obtaining what we want the good we want and therfore come short of happiness because we want it 2. In the keeping the good we have when once we have it And 3. In avoiding the evil we fear which would render us miserable in these three things I take it wisdom consists Now to speak a little to each of these and see how we may prove the formal professor by his defect and falling short in each them in all of them and for the first the obtaining of the good we want to make us happy Alas you know brethren we are all fallen short of the glory of God and by nature are without him and without Christ in the world and have not the things which accompany salvation neither he then is a wise man in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who knoweth those principles and ends which are universally necessary to a mans good his chiefest and most general good So that there are I conceive three things in this respect under this head and so proportionably under the other which go to the compleating of wisdom First there must be a knowledge of the end and a propounding of this end to a mans self an end you know is nothing but that which is good either really so or appearingly so for that is the object of the Will goodness as truth is the object of the Minde and understanding a man cannot appetere malum as it is malum and be a man to delight in evil as it is evil is diabâ—lical to delight in sâ—n or folly as it is pleasant as it is suitable to the corrupt nature to the soul the Will crooked and deprayed this is humane because though a man do thus pâ—opose sâ—n as his â—nd yet not as it evil but as it is good to his corrupt judgement and Will that is to say suitable and convenient to him An so sor suffering there is no man living can prevail with himself to be willing to be miserable they would be happy Well then it is good which is the end either real or apparent But now here in this spiritual wisdom and folly we must understand his end suitable that is to say understand it of the most supreme principle and ultimate good and that is God for what good else is there that can indeed make the soul happy but God in Christ for that good which must make blessed it must be commensurate to the soul so as to be able to fall and satisfie it else theâ—e will be somewhat wanting still and alas for all other goods below God it may be said that which is wanting cannot be numbred Now there are two things considerable in the soul of a man especially to which there must be an answerableness in the end which is to be followed unto injoyment else the soul cannot be happy The first is the vast capacity and comprehension of the soul to which there must be an answerable fulness in the object and the end else the soul cannot rest upon it as its Center and happiness and this we may take notice of especially in those two faculties of the Understanding and the Will the Affections they are but as it were the several motions of the Will a kind of Appendix to it Now to these two faculties in the supreme and ultimate end there must be an answerable ratio veri boni great enough to fill or satisfie the understanding or mind that hath for its object truth and not one truth or another but all truth it is not satisfyed with the partial discoveries of truth or here and there a little but it would have all now the Lord is the highest and the best in
though it be delayed and you know not how soon it will come upon you Now your waiting must be of another sort 1. With fear and trembling that which a man fears he expecteth in some sort as well as what he hopeth for O that this dreadful sound were but in the ears of Sinners wherever they went there is a day coming which will pay for all your pleasures of sin when God shall pluck your sweet morsels out of your belly and turn your stolen waters and bread eaten in secret which were pleasant and sweet to you into the poyson of Asps O do not say you are at an agreement with hell and with the grave for alas that agreement shall be broken the grave shall receive you and reserve you for this day of wrath and then give you up it will not hide you from the wrath of the Lamb hell will open for you Faelix trembled when Paul disputed of righteousness and temperance and judgement to come this day of Christs coming how terrible will it be to foolish Virgins O that all such would tremble before the Lord fear it fear it it is coming upon you it lingers not he is not slack 2. In order hereto you must labour to believe it it is an Article of our faith we profess the resurrection of the dead which is either to life or condemnation and thou that livest in sin canst expect no other but a resurrection to Condemnation But alas men do not believe this Devils are afraid of that day to which they are reserved in chains of darkness when they shall have their full cup given them to drink Ah dear friends that the Lord would single out such as he would perswade this day from the terrors of the Lord to fly-from this wrath to come to make ready for this day that is a coming wherewith I shall wind up all I shall say to this doctrine The last word therefore is of Exhortation since Jesus Christ doth delay his coming That we would make good use of the time he giveth us time and space to repent The people of God they have need to make use of this time have we not work enough to do before we can expect to be glorified with him how many of us have a world of iniquity to subdue how far are we from being as little children in malice and humility such we must become our Course is far from being finished O brethren Jesus Christ will adopt us to himself and we by the Spirit are to do it that we may be meet spouses to him then it will appear that we desire his coming indeed if we lay out all your might to prepare for it if the heart be â—luttish and so we let it lie if we neglect our ornaments are careless put them not on be not decking our selves how can we say we love his appearing even the appearing of the Bride-groom But then 2. How much more have Sinners to do It is true he delays his coming and so he hath a great while in respect of thee how many years hath he waited upon thee to be gracious to thee and yet thou are where thou wast at first Ah dear friends if Jesus Christ find you that profess his name in your blood at that day what will become of you Will you have time to repent if you repent not it will not be the time of love but of displeasure it had been better for you you had never had such warning O do not despise the riches of his goodness and long-sufferings towards you O consider your ways and the Condition of your souls at the last and turn to the Lord your God with all your hearts and not feignedly close with Jesus Christ get oyl into your Lamps and into your vessels for why will ye die why should that day come upon you before you are ready for it O make hast Brethren you are this day warned to fly that is to say with all speed to haste away from the wrath to come for judgement lingers not it will not stay beyond the appointed time even your own appointed time for the number of your moneths are with God it will not stay a jot longer now you do not know whether this may be the day the night this Sabbath the last this warning the last therefore lay hold upon the opportunity O that the Lord Jesus would seize but upon some of our hearts that we might make a good Vse of this delay And O bless his name and let us all admire his goodness to us that he doth delay his coming that we have time and space to repent to work out our salvation in and that until all the fulness of Christ be come in It is his long-suffering not willing we should perish but come to repentance O that we were thus wise that we could thus consider our latter end But so much for this Doctrine THEY ALL SLVMBRED AND SLEPT Here I say you have the occasion which the flesh took from the delay or carrying of Christ to slumber and sleep all of them both wise and foolish Some have understood it of the sleep of death that they al dyed good as well as bad but this cannot be so for it is not true understand the coming of Christ which way you will If for his coming to the universal judgement it is not true for all shall not sleep but some shall be changed as the Apostle hath it If we understand it of his particular coming to summon us to appear before him It is less true for when the summons cometh it is before we dye Death indeed is his Messenger or Serjeant and therefore they are not dead before he cometh to fetch them besides it is not so usual to set forth death by a double expression of slumbring and sleeping but rather sleeping onely Besides this slumbring and sleeping here is noted as a failing in the wise virgins as well as the foolish if I understand it aright for it is the privation of that watchfulness which is injoyned and wherewithall is wound up in the close and by this parable he sheweth us the sad inconveniences of sleeping and slumbring and the incidency of it to us and therefore exhorts us to watch Now sure to dye is not any fault when we are called to it but an appointment of God for us to dye to submit to which to be willing to which is a grace and not a sin Again in this parable there seemeth to be some time for the getting of oyl or at least for them to use some endeavours to get it though it be in vain which may be indeeed after a summons to death there may be some little time which a hypocrite may think to improve to get grace though it prosper not but after death there remaineth nothing but judgement The particular first and afterward the general The time of their sleeping is considerable indeed
example and the wise not wise enough to avoid but would sleep for company and so it is still in the visible Church because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold some think this may be hinted in that place but sure it is that examples are very potent plus vivitur exemplis specially if a person be in repute a man of name or renown among the Saints a brother or a sister whose praise is in the Churches if such a one as this shall grow earthly and carnal and that carnality and earthliness damp the soul and bring a deadness upon the graces why how many wil be ready to think they may sure let the rayns as loose as they and may seek after the world as well as they Peters example you see when he dissen bled what a force it had thou compellest the Gentiles to live as as do the Jews by his example he did it when the Jews came down from Jerusalem therefore David complains indeed of the example of wicked wo is me c. And so Isaiah complains wâ— is me I dwell among a people of uncircumcised lips and I am such my self and they help it forward but indeed the examples o loose and cold and sleepy Professors are more mischievous especially if they have been more lively and insensibly decline and decay because we have the less suspicion of them and therefore they are notable quench-coals indeed This is another ground Eighthly And the last I shall speak to shall be this from all the former When the Lord his holy spirit is grieved by all these he withdraweth his spirit and then we fall fast asleep and alas if a man be waked out of a dead sleep except there be one watching by him or one that hath a Lethargical distemper apt to prevail upon him except he hath some to sit by him to keep him awake he falls asleep and such pains is the holy Spirit at sitting up with us to keep us awake Now if we do grieve him and he depart from us presently deep sleep fals upon us like an armed man and we cannot resist so the Disciples had grieved the spirit of God by their self-confidence nothing more and therefore he leaveth them well he will see what the end of this their trusting in lyes will do and he letteth them fall again and again and you see how woful sleepy and drowsie they were they could not watch one hour they fell asleep again and again three times after another though they were sharply reproved for it they were prickt and provoked to awake but it would not do alas the Spirit was withdrawn from them Thus much shall serve for the Arguments For the Use then brethren in the first place May it not serve to humble us surely this is one end of Gods leaving his people to such a drowsie frame that they may be humbled as it was in the case of his Disciples he would make them know how weak they were if he did but depart from them as confident as they were how should we be ashamed of our selves as a servant when he sleepeth when he should be about his business and is reproved for it alas he is confounded he hath nothing to say for himself so the Disciples they wist not what to say saith the Text What are you now saith our Saviour asleep now when it is a time to exercise your graces and to pray if ever you will pray are you now asleep He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame to himself and others it is a time of work and to be lazing and drowsing upon the bed it is a very shameful thing indeed O that the Lord would lay this as a Plaister upon our Souls as many as are drowsie or have been drowsie or sleepy to hold the Plaister on though it be a smarting plaister yet better it is for us to have some smart then to dye of the Lethargy better be cupped and scarified and anything Ah when God cures sin by sin it is a smarting cure like the curing of a poysoned wound with more poyson or fetching out of fire with more fire wherein the severeness of the Physician appeareth and his love to us who had rather we should smart then dye well be humbled for what we have done if this work be some smart unto us our many sleepy Sermons Prayers sloathfulness security we have been and it is well if we be not upon our beds now this very day if our souls be not asleep If you be the Lord humble you for it as he humbled his own Disciples that this may be your care But not onely so But let us all take notice of and be humbled for our great proneness to slumber and sleep Water the root brethren If we be awake and have not lately been overtaken yet remember we have the root within us water that with our tears be humbled before the Lord for it yea labour we to walk continually humble before the Lord for the sight and sense of it it will appear how apt we are to fall asleep if we consider that whatever our condition is we are apt to it For a prosperous state this is like a rocking and singing to the soul how quickly did the Church fall asleep in Constantine his days in his lap and the child in the mothers lap Outward prosperity inward prosperity Was not David slumbring when he said I shall never be moved and so Iob I said I should dye in my nest what not onely when he had an outward flourishing condition but when he had such a strength of grace as to inable him to do much for God to walk uprightly with him to be fruitful in good works then I shall dye in my nest I shall multiply my days as the sand he was even going then O this is matter of humbling indeed brethren that when we should be putting forth the fruits of his love unto our souls we should drop asleep But then a man would think this is more natural now to fall asleep in the Sun shine and in the midst of the sweet refreshings of the spirit of God as musick and delightful things which do mulcere they do perswade sleep if we have not somewhat to keep awake But a man would think now that an â—our of trouble and affliction except it be so great as to stupifie it should rather keep a man awaking as the Psalmist thou holdst me waking saith he in the night Now the Disciples they were in an hour of temptation and a great grief and trouble and though they knew now their Lord was ready to depart from them and now entering upon his agony yet alas how dead and lumpish were they they fell asleep though there may be some natural cause for grief of the soul to make the body heavy as it seemeth to be rendered as a reason for they were sad they were heavy with grief
do which may advantage himself or others how can a man pray when he cannot act his faith nor act his love nor his zeal and fervency of Spirit but all are a sleep Ah what weak service hath the Lord from many of us upon this account 4. Another Consideration shall be this the unseasonableness of the thing Every thing is beautified by the season and if it be out of season it is uncomely It is not a walking honestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honestly or comely to sleep now brethren it is enough for â—inners that are of the night that never â—aw the day-star appear nor the Sun of righteousness arise upon them for them to lie sleeping now it is something suitable for they that sleep saith the Apostle sleep in the night and they that are drunk are drunk in the night the night was for sleep naturally and therefore man goeth forth to labour and to his work until the evening So in spirituals it is most unsuitable to sleep in the day-time brethren if you believe you are of the day and not of the night as the Apostle saith We count him a Drone a Lusk or Lurden that shall sleep in the day-time It was David his fault to be upon the bed in the day-time And so likely Isâ—bosheth except the Custom of the place being hot might excuse it Well then hath the Lord in in finite riches of grace brought thee out of the dark night made it day with thee when it is night with many families and poor souls about thee and wilt thou make it â—ight by sleeping it is unseasonable it is enough for them that are in darkness to sleep Again 2. Consider It is the time wherein you are called upon to act for God and for your own souls It is not only the day but the time for work It is our harvest brethren wherein should lay up not for many years as the fool in the Gospel said but for eternity treasure up grace for eternity lay up a good foundation for the time to come O how richly laden are some of the Saints over others are that have made a profession of Christ as long as they live what is the reason why they have slept while they should have gathered he that gathereth in Summer is a wise son but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame there the one is opposed to the other that soul will cloth himself with shame and Confusion one day that sleepeth in harvest in the time of labour wherefore doth the Bridegroom tarry but to give you space to repent to work out your salvation in and instead of working shall we sleep out this time and will it be Comfortable in the end will it be comfortable if instead of labouring in the vineyard we sleep all the heat of the day what account shall we make when we come to receive the recompence 3. Yet more unseasonable it is also If you consider that usually the time of this falling asleep is after a good while converse and walking with God then men fall a napping the wise virgins they had their oyl and their Lamps burning it is true they had provided for the main and it is likely went forth to meet him but in the way the nearer they came to their journeys end for there must be some good competent time sure before they would conclude that the Bridegroom tarried and then they lay aside all and fall asleep Remember that of the Apostle knowing the season saith he that now it is high time for you to awake for now is your salvation nearer then when you believed Now is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awake out of sleep now is salvation nearer What is the meaning of this the meaning is now is the most unseasonable time of all other for you to be asleep now you should press hard forward now just at your journies end as a Traveller or a man in a race holds up his head all the way and maketh speed and when he is near the journies end and should lay hold upon the goal that then he should sit down and sleep this is unseasonable and utterly unsafe if he expect to obtain by his running Ah brethren sure you would obtain else why did you run if you expected not a reward Now may I not say with the Apostle you did many of you run well but who hindred you how came it to pass you dropt asleep or are you inclining to it O take heed it is not safe at the end of your race the night is past the day is come or the night the time of this ignorance for our life is compared to the vision of God in heaven may well be compared to a night and that to day well this day is at hand it is nearer then when you began to believe for that is the meaning of that Phrase as such a King reigned that is to say began to raign ordinarily in Scripture Well then it is utterly unseasonable therefore let me beg of you brethren and the Lord prevail with our hearts to take heed of it Fifthly Another Consideration shal be this that while you lay your selves to sleco you lose God and Christ you lose their presence when the soul open to Jesus Christ he cometh in and the father and Holy Spirit with him and they bring their dainties with them and abundantly refresh the soul with his love which is better then wine and as long as the soul doth give him entertainment and followeth to improve its Communion with him he will sâ—ay but truly brethren if we sleep he will not then tarry but he takes his leave and leaveth us sleeping and alas before we are aware we have lost him and know not where to find him It was Sampsons case alas his strength was in the presence of God with him when he departed he was as as another man he lies down upon Dalilahs lap and then he fals asleep and at last he was robbed of his strength God was departed from him he he had many forewarnings but he was bewitched with a Lust it did so imprison his reason that he could not see what he was to do at last he wist not that God was departed from him he went thinking to shake himself as at other times but alas his strength was gone Ah brethren if a man have a Dalilah it is sive to one but sooner or later it will lull him asleep and if it can but get him asleep it is easie to get away the Lords presence from him and he know it not untill afterward Sixtly Another Argument shal be not only that not only when we fall asleep we not only lose the Lord Jesus and the presence of his Spirit but we then shall keep him out also the senses are locke up A Servant fast asleep when his Master cometh home he may knock long enough before he open to him why alas
he is asleep herein indeed is the exceeding riches of his grace that though we grieve him by our slighting of his presence and Communications of himself to us so as to fall asleep in the midst of them that he will abide no longer yet his heart yearns toward us and his Love perswadeth him to return again to the soul and he will try again if we will let him in but we are asleep Behold I stand at the door and knock it is wonderful indeed that he should do so but so he doth and how long doth he stand at some of our hearts when we by a sleepy spirit grieved him away how long doth he tarry before we open you see in the Case of the Church I sleep but my heart waketh open to me my love my dove my undesiled how sweet compellations he useth though thou hast shut me out like a kind love yet my love open to me my Locks are wet with the dew of the night much he endures before we open and do but observe when she knew it to be his voice yet she hath many excuses I have put off my Coat c. and all this while he stays but what unkind dealing is this when by his word he knocks alas it sinketh not any further then the ear there it dyeth knocks by the voice of his Spirit and by rods and afflictions sometimes and yet we keep him out this is the sixth Seventhly When we fall asleep we little know how longwe shall lie in that Condition therefore take heed of it O when David fell into that sleep how long did he lie in it nine months at least and he might have lain nine years except the Lord had taken a more then ordinary course with him So the Patriarchs how long did they lie in their sleep and their Consciences neveâ— awaked until their affliction this is clear in the very case of the Church in the Canticles how long did he call and call again and wait upon her and yet she is not awaked a little stirred she is but alas lies down again as a man half awaked until at last he was pressed to come nearer to her to put his hand in at the hole-of the Lock and then at last she got off her bed with much ado First He was fain to come nearer to her with some inward touch and offer of his grace offering as I may say with his hand to open the bolts wherewith her heart was bolted against him and then she waked and not before you see these virgins here slept until the Cry came and how long they slept who can tell O it is a sad thing brethren to be so long without Communion and Fellowship with the Lord Jesus to be so long under weakness and inability to exercise our graces that we can do nothing but poor weak service so long to keep out Jesus Christ and when do we know that he will come so near to us as throughly to awake us what if he should never do it until our dying day what a sad end would that be Eighthly Remember this brethren though you may think of case in such a Condition of sleeping it will be no case to you but trouble for usually what is the râ—ason we unbend our bows loose the Cords we think we may have ease take on more easily and fairly for heaven then we have done now the main part of our work is done we have gotten the oyl in our vessels and a little assurance it may be of his love therefore now we may take our ease and so fall asleep believe it brethren it will be a little case to you and it will appear if you consider these two or three things 1. While you are in that sleep if you be believers indeed you will not have ease what distempered sleeps do men sleep that are in continual fear or that should not sleep and know they should not sleep it will hazard their lives is their sleep sweet ordinarily surely no when a man sleepeth and in his sleep is terrified with dreams how unquiet is he truly a believer he never sleepeth heart and all if he did it were somewhat like now a Hypocrite doth he sleepeth heart and all that is first asleep that never was awake and therefore he may take more pleasure But alas the Child of God all the while he is off from Christ and the enjoyment of him he is like a stone from its center like an Iron pluckt from the Loadstone that hath yet a â—ingering towards him will not rest until it return to him again so it is not quiet altogether therefore of all men the people of God are the veriest fools when they give way to sin or lie down upon the lap of sinful delights and fall asleep because they have a still principle within them which is kept awake a seed of God which still interrupteth them and they cannot take their fill of delight nor rest in sin therefore to them it is returning to folly when once peace is spoken to them I appeal to the experiences of all the Saints whether when they are in a sleepy frame a fit of security hath seized upon them the presence of Christ is departed whether they have that rest and quiet in their spirits it is an uncomfortable condition to them 2. Because usually when his people are in such a Condition the Lord is sain to take some violent course with them more then he would to awake them so that not only their sleep is troublesom but their awaking is also sad to them Here there is a Cry made whether it be by the voice of the word lifted up terrible threatnings Or whether the voice of his rod which cryeth it is terrible it is not a still voice happily will do it but it must be something that will make both our ears to tingle as it was in Elias case poor man he was asleep a Lust had so besotted him that is to say his carnal affection to his Children he honoured them above God that love devoured his love and eat up his zeal for God and the Lord warns him sendeth a Prophet to him and tels him what he was like to trust to he had set his Conscience a little to work before so far as to reprove them But if nothing else will do it awake him throughly What then I will do a thing that shall make both the ears of him that heareth it tingle It shall awaken him and awaken others the boring of the ear may cost us something he will give us an alarm a strong one at least if he do not beat up our Quarters where we lie lurking And you that are souldiers and have been in this Condition hath it been comfortable to you when you have been so beaten up I think not sure O what hurrying then and terrour is upon every man when he is so surprized So nothing else would do to the Brethren of
Joseph and therefore God brought them into that distraction they were never awaked until now If men will not awake with calling we use to take them and shake them and use them more hardly The Lord cals brethren you have the voice of the Turtle the joyful sound of the Gospel among you If we awake not what will he do he will take you by the Neck and shake you awake and truly brethren the Lords shakings are terrible shakings he will shake the soul into a trembling and astonishment What was the reason that the Lord followed Jonah with a storm he was asleep his Conscience and Soul asleep and no easie means would awake him the Lord was fain to let loose his hand upon him and by a terrible tempest to awake him sure I am this will not be comfortable 3. Afterwards It will not be quietness nor rest to your souls the Disciples you see when they had slept their sleep had so many reproofs how were they ashamed of what they had done they wist not what to answer him were fain to hang the head It is a disquâ—eting to a mans spirit to be covered with shame and confusion O when shall he come and upbraid the soul with his slothfulness What is this thy love to me now is this thy kindness to thy friend is this thy faith and zeal for me that thou hast fallen asleep and slept so long as thou hast done was my Love and my Communion no more worth is this the esteem thou puttest upon it to fall asleep in the midst of it will you have a word to say to Jesus Christ now in such a case will it not be confusion to us O brethren It may be we may bear the shame and reproof of such a sleeping fit upon our backs all our days Besides can it chuse but be a very great distraction to us that when we are awaked and slept out our time and see then that now Christ is at hand the day of his coming is here and we have our work to do in a great part our Lamps to trim will not this be a distraction to us if we do escape the destruction of that day when a servant that hath a house to make ready sleepeth away his time and by and by tidings come his Master is at hand and the house is unready to receive him O what a hurry and confusion and distraction is he in then and what fruit hath he then of his sleeping it ends in bitterness and trouble and disease and therefore Brethren as we tender our peace our Comfort take heed of sleeping Alas you will say what should we do to keep our selves from this sleeping since it is so dangerous I shall propound a few 〈◊〉 to you 1. Then take heed of the beginnings of declinings Aristotle reports the Lyons of Syria bring forth the first year five whelps the next four the next three and so on until they come to a barrenness like Mandrobulus in Lucian who offered to his god the first year gold the second silver and the third nothing See Trap upon Mat. 24. 13. If we would avoid sleeping we must take heed of slumbering of heaviness of any thing inclining to it Do you not mind whether your Love be as hot in prayer as fervent as heretofore if there be a rebatement of it fear it you are going to sleep Observe your selves brethren Is not your Love grown much colder then it was because iniquity doth abound so that you have prejudices so many love is eaten out O that the Lord would help you to look to it at the beginning 2. Take heed of composing or setling your selves too easily this will provoke to sleep O do not put off your Garments with the spouse Men that would not sleep will hardly put off their Clothes nor lay themselves upon a bed Not as if Saints did lose the habits of holiness or grace But the Acts the outward garments they may say aside and so setle themselves to sleep It is vain for a man to hope to be kept waking in such a case O take heed of loving ease wo be to the n that are at ease in Sion Brethren If you be any thing acquainted with the times or your own hearts you will find enough to exercise you Keep in Action acts dispel the vapors which perswade sleep O brethren time shall come when we shall have our graces continually in act why should we not breath after this even upon earth get as near to it as we can 3. Take heed of putting off the day of the coming of Jesus Christ that seemeth â—ere to be the immediate cause of the Virgins slumber and sleeping while the Bridegroom tarryed they thought they might have time enough likely they might take a nap 〈…〉 unbend a little if we would avoid sleeping labour to keep fresh that upon our spirits the appearing of the Lord Jesus a love of that appearing and a fear of an unsuitableness to that appearing when it shall be O brethren that we could once attain to Jobs pitch to wait for our change every day all the dayes of our appointed time I doubt some of us can scarce say that we â—ait for it any day we put it off and therefore no marvel if we sleep It is that which is present which must affect us such is our Constitution things though never so certain and though never so desirable on the one hand or never so dreadful on the other yet they affect not except they be present some way or other present in our thoughts in our expectations present to our faith which is the evidence of things hoped for as once King James said such a man Preacheth as if hell were at his back ready to swallow him up that will keep a man awake either the joy of heaven set before us and as I may say continually present the coming of Christ Or else the terrors of everlasting burnings the immediate Consequent of this day O who can sleep that hath the coming of the Lord fresh upon his spirit 4. Take heed of Pride and self-confidence You see brethren that hath laid the very Watchmen themselves asleep the three chief Apostles If Sampson had not rested upon his own strength would he when he had so many warnings have committed himself again to the Lap of his Dalilah surely no. 5. In the next place take heed of excess in the use of lawful things O saith our Saviour take heed your hearts be over-charged with surfetting or drunkenness and the cares of this life that will quickly lay a man to sleep You know the thorny ground went far and yet though it endured Persecution and the Cup of trembling could not carry away the soul the Cup of delights in the world it laid them asleep the Sun did not burn them but the thorn choakt them Licitis perimus juvenes the time is short saith the Apostle it is rowled up as
riseth he would never let her alone until he had awaked her O this is his course he continually holds with poor souls in the like condition â—onnot many a soul in this Congregation seal to this truth I believe they can brethren though some of us happily have not known it Now it is true brethren it is meet the spouse should smart a little for this her wretched sleepiness for her slighting of his call and shutting him out it is meet she should now when awake follow him and not finde him for a while it cost her something and infinite rich mercy that he would ever be found of her again alas brethren it was more grief to Jesus Christ to behold his poor spouse going up and down mourning after him then it was to her to follow him and therefore that was a part of his pains and after all this love he must himself awake poor soul if that will not awake it as sometimes it will not or at least so much as he holdeth out will not awaken why then happily he seeth it necessary to follow Jonas with a storm put him into the belly of hell do you think this was any delight to him Surely no to hear the cry of his poor people that was in the belly of hell or out of the deep wherein they sink out of the Dungeon where he casts them to awake them Surely no and so for David his condition he was so heavy in a sleep his bones must be broken c. Is this any delight to him no surely brethren it is a grief to Jesus Christ and a part of his pains which we put him to rather then he should lose our souls but here is the comfort he will be at much pains to awaken us 8. And lastly It may be now thou art heavy and sleepy and napping at every turn there is a time when thou wast more diligent more wakeful couldst serve the Lord with more instance and intention of mind and O thou recountest that as a happy time and thy sadness and misery thou hast lost that frame of heart O how far art thou from it Well remember this that the Lord he doth remember the love of thy â—spousals the kindness of thy youth which some expound of their kindness to God in the wilderness which if it be so as divers understand it then it is the more considerable When thou followedst me in the wilderness how did they follow him was it not with murmurings and rebellion every foot almost yet God remembreth this even the love and affection shewed in following him through such an uncouth place O what a depth of bowels are here to cover and forget all their rebellion and to remember their love or else I remember the love I shewed to thee then however it be we may make use of it for what great love doth the Lord shew then in giving a heart to love him and follow hard after him not to slumber and sleep for love will keep awake it being full of solicitous fear Who are we saith David that we should have a heart to offer so willingly The Lord will remember this which it may be the present sense of thy sleeping and sloathfulness hath blotted out of thy remembrance it is before the Lord. 9. One more and that is this He will likely by this heaviness and sloathfulness of thine take occasion to do thee good by it cure and heal thee for will not the shame and sorrow which he casts upon a soul for sleeping keep him more awake for time to come When once they were awaked as with the Disciples they should have little list to sleep afterward Or else happily hereby he would heal the pride and self-confidence which thou art full of and then which nothing more grieveth him I know thou wouldst count it the greatest favor and wouldst be willing to undergo some smart yea much so be thou mightst be delivered from those grieving evils of thine own soul it is the excellency of that heavenly Physician to cure sleep with sleep poyson with poyson sin with sin though it may be matter of sadness to us to put him to it to grieve himself so much with us And for the general condition of the Church and people of God It is matter of mourning indeed that there is such a general sleeping and such sad effects of it every where Magistrates Ministers and People they all sleep and let the envious man do what he will in many places Here is the comfort that he that keepeth Israel never slumbreth nor sleepeth By this means our temptations are increased indeed for false Teachers they are a temptation and a shrewd one too and how dangerous when we are asleep Yet remember he that permitteth it he never sleepeth Ah brethren If the Lord had not kept the Vineyard better then men have done what had become of it long ago it had been a Wilderness and desolation Doth he not see the designs of Satan and Antichrist and all their fetches and slights to wind in themselves at the back door and doth he not laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision If men will not take the little Foxes that spoyl the grapes he will in his own time and they will finde it most fearful to fall into the hands of God He hath long since set the bounds of the sea which check the prowd waves thereof though a man would wonder when he beholds the mighty mountains and swelling surges of the sea that it should not overflow all but the poor light loose sand and plain ground he maketh a check to it hitherto shall ye go and no farther Can we sufficiently wonder that the earth should be founded upon nothing but onely his word of command Well He hath said he will make manifest their folly to all men and they shall proceed no farther and though he seem to sleep sometime because his people give him rest concerning these things yet surely he doth wake he never slumbers nor sleepeth and he will not permit these things further then he will work his own glory and his peoples good out of them O therefore give him no rest you that are his remembrancers keep not silence until the Lord make it appear to all the world that he did not slumber nor sleep until he awake as a Gyant refreshed with wine and speak and command all these tongues that speak lyes in his name into an everlasting silence Amen The next Doctrine shall be this We are apt to sleep when we had most need to be awake This is raised from the circumstance of time or the season if I may call an unseasonable time a season when they-slept it was just before the cry came which summoned them to meet the Bride-groom coming and wakened them at once The Proposition is universal you see the subject is universal and so is the predicate for the subject the Saints the real Saints are
righteousness and holiness made over to you imputed unto you as an Inner and Outward Garment or Cloathing I have hope of you you would not prove Foolish Virgins and that you are not so careless as not to regard whether you be found to have grace yea or no If there be any such let me tell such a man his Condition is next to desperate the Lord smite such sinners hearts but if you do not care there will come a time when you will care and every vein in your hearts will ake when you shall find alas you have trifled away your time your day you had to get grace in and now you have none Do you think brethren to go to heaven without grace must there be a wedding garment to his Supper here and must not there much more be a wedding Garment upon them that come into that nearest Fellowship with the Lord Jesus for ever Do poor sinners eat and drink judgement to themselves if they come without grace to the Supper O brethren do you think he will endure you to enter if you have not grace to sit with him at his Table to eternity No believe it Sinners shall not stand in the Congregation of the upright O that the Lord would perswade you How far are many of us from the Apostles temper he counted all things dung and dross not worthy his thoughts in comparison of being found in Christ and do not we count these things dung and dross in comparison of the world if it were not so surely men would lay out some of their care some of their thoughts some of their time for the getting Christ and grace 2. We must labour also to have our graces to get and keep our graces in act in a lively frame our hearts flaming towards the Lord continually the wise Virgins they slept and while they slept they could not watch now they had grace in their hearts but they kept it not in use in exercise as they should have done and therefore they underwent much inconvenience as you have heard and therefore our Saviour exhorts us to watch to take diligent heed that we run not the like hazard with them no more than with the foolish virgins Therefore labour to get your graces lively how should we think with our selves often when we find a listless fâ—ame growing upon us O what would my Condition be if the Lord Jesus should come this day to my poor soul Labour to keep your faith lively your Love lively so your humility and self-abasing that you may exalt him But alas you will say how can we do this we are poor imperfect creatures and therefore can we be alway acting our graces is it likely we should keep them alway in act that is enough for Angels and glorified Saints to do who are therefore called watchers I answer to this It is true it is not required we should always be acting of grace for then we should be able to do nothing else then we should neither sleep nor follow the works of some of our callings which require the intention of the mind as well as the labour of the hand therefore that is not the meaning nor indeed were we able to do it our spirits would fail us But how then Why We must be acting our graces when we are called to act them when ever is a time Mephibosheth eats bread continually at Davids table not that he did nothing else but eat without any intermission but at meal-times he did eat continually Note brethren we should see to it that upon all occasions we act our graces upon every temptation wherewith we are assaulted we should act our faith upon every tryal our patience upon every manifestation of himself to us to act our love and humility and thank-fulness But specially in our drawings nigh to him then see to it that we have our graces in act which alas how sar short do we fall of as in our daily performances prayers publike secret So meditating reading hearing receiving the Lords Supper if we would have them bright we must exercise them at these times how should we now renew our repentance in washing our hands in innocency as clean as if washed in innocency it self and so compass the Altar of God How should we as Jacob his family besides putting away their Idols change their garments also we should labour to get cloathed with another Spirit another frame then ordinary when we come before him upon these occasions It is said concerning the Steward which specially concerneth the Ministers of Christ Blessed is that servant whom his Master shall sind so doing giving every one their portion in due season A slothful servant is a wicked servant our Saviour saith he that receiveth grace in vain improveth it not stirreth not up himself to lay hold upon Christ upon special occasions such as are on foot upon such a day as this oporteâ— Episcopum concionari saith one eminent in his time The Lord hath given his Spirit to all believing people they have the habits of grace and he giveth it them as a stock to trade with as principles to act for him in their places O blessed is that servant whom his Lord shall find so doing he saith not whom his Lord â—hall find with grace in his heart but so doing acting his grace Ah blessed souls whom he shall find praying keeping up those duties in a lively manner whom he shall find receiving the sealing Ordinances and with a wedding Garment upon him a lively frame of spirit fit for it You have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you if you be his and will you let such a precious principle lie idle it is given to mortifie to sanctifie O blessed soul that shall be found so doing even by the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the Flesh surely brethren nothing will keep us more awake then action will if we be found sleeping it will not be comfortable to us therefore look to the acting of your graces I beseech you Again Labour to love his appearing so as that we may wait for it for indeed if we love it not we shall be apt to put the thoughts of it far from us labour either to love it or fear it according to thy Condition if thy Calling and Election be made sure if thou knowest the things freely given thee of God then be ashamed that any thing in the world should lie so near thee as not to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ renew these desires day by day nothing but the greater glory of God should make us willing to be here indeed action for Christ and his honour is of a high nature and ought to have great weight with us as the Apostle hath it but yet methinks the burthen of sins should make us groan for it methinks if we have an eye upon the recompence of reward the joy that is set before thee that full enjoyment
2 Tim. 4. 14. And have we not too much sad testimony of it in our days such as indured much affliction and persecution from the opposers of Gods people yet now have turned their backs upon that truth for which they suffered 2. Consider yet further they may continue so long as though they fall asleep with the wise Virgins yet to rise again with them they may be deeply seized on by security and a man would think that then an hypocrites profession should come altogether to an end he should never open his eye more and yet you see the foolish Virgins after this the Cry awaketh them as well as the wise Virgins and they bestir themselves as well as the wise to trim their Lamps their Consciences had been awaked before though their hearts were never throughly awaked Some Will and Affections they â—ad but never through and prevailing against the â—lesh well that which was awake fals asleep and yet it holds out to be awaking again and trimming up their Lamps again as if none were more likely nor fairer for heaven then they until they find upon the tryal alas they were going out Well then brethren we may continue through changes of times through changes of our own hearts we may have sleeping fits and rise again out of them and sâ—ir up our selves trim our Lamps and yet prove but foolish Virgins Eighthly a foolish Virgin or an Hypocrite may carry it so as that the Saints have a good esteem of them yea the most searching of Gods people as some have a more piercing eye and can see further into an Hypocrite then others can as the case may stand but indeed some hypocrisie is of so fine a thread that it doth eâ— fingere aciem oculorum some Hypocrites are double and treble guilt so that they are not so easily discerned to be copper until it come to wear off and it holds long the Disciples of our Saviour even he that lay in his bosom could not discern who was the Traitor by any thing that appeared they had as good thoughts of Judas as they had of themselves there was their simplicity and love and yet he proved but a Judas he walked with them ate the Passover with them if not the Supper with them Thus we may have a name to be alive among the people of God and yet be but dead as it is said of that Church in the Revelations And so the wise Virgins you see walked hand in hand with the foolish they pass for all alike and no marvel when a man hath so much knowledge such good and stirring affections so full of action for Christ walks so unblamably suffer for Christ hold out so long no marvel if the people of God in love which thinketh no evil do judge well of such persons Ninthly and lastly they may also upon all these grounds foregoing have a very great confidence of the goodness of their own condition the foolish Virgins had admittance into the fellowship of the wise walked with them with their Lamps burning and shining we find not that they suspect themselves at all until at last they awake out of this sleepy condition of theirs and then they see their Lamps are gone or going out I deny not but an hypocrite may sometimes be self-condemned as the Apostle speaks of Hereticks after the first and second admonition reject for fundamentals are so clear that if he â—earken not to the first and second admonition according to the Rule of Christ in clearness and meekness held forth then he must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of himself If our own hearts condemn us saith the Apostle God is greater then our hearts But yet others may go on and not suspect themselves There is a Generation saith Solomon that are pure in their own eyes as they judge of themselves yet are not washed from their filthyness It is worth the noting that all the Disciples were more forward to doubt their conditions then Judas for they all asked Is it I Lord is it I and our Saviour was fain to set it on with a terrible threatning It were better for that man that he had not been born and then he cometh out with it Master is it I thou hast said it saith Christ if he suspected himself before yet he kept it close however The hypocrite may hold fast his duties gifts and performances as his house when it beginneth to totter he may hold them by his teeth as it were as the godly man holds the practise of them and will not let them go so a hypocrite holds his confidence in them and will not let it go The world giveth him a good testimony the Saints they bear witness to him Satan he applauds him his own heart flatters him no marvel if he build a confidence upon all this and therefore the foolish Virgins here how confident were they not only not suspecting their condition all this while but when they saw that their Lamps were out yet they go and cry for mercy with what confidence Lord Lord open to us though now they saw they had been hypocrites all their daies yet so high were their hopes and confidence You see then Brethren a hypocrite may go very far So much for the Doctrinal part For the Application then of this Doctrine How sad is their condition if a man reach to all this and yet fall short of heaven What shall we say of many of us that have nothing almost of all this to say for our selves have not so much as Lamps so much as a profession of Christ It is true we have the name of Christ upon us but what have we else If a man may have so much knowledge and fall short what shall we say to such as have no knowledge of God in Jesus Christ as sottish and ignorant as if they never had heard of Christ of heaven or hell almost It is true a less measure of knowledge for the quantity may prevail more upon a mans heart then a greater sometimes but where there is no knowledge of God Jesus Christ will come in a terrible manner against such as know him not as well as those that obey not his Gospel It may be you have some knowledge yet alas where is your affection you fall short of hypocrites in that how many in this Congregation that never knew what one heart-pang for sâ—n meant do not dissemble before the Lord didst thou ever mourn either Legally or Evangellically And so for desire have you thus desires toward the Lord and his waies are they such a delight to you thou hast heard his word many a hundred times and didst never taste any sweetness any savour or relish in it at all Say are not many of us so far from delighting to draw nigh him it is the most burthensom day in all the week the Sabbath is we care not how seldom it cometh but I hope better things of you in
know not what it is to be almost gone and blown out at the brink of obscure darkness know not what that mercy is but such as have been made to believe that God would cast them into the bottomless pit that he would utterly destroy them and forsake them O how sweet a truth must this needs be that though their flesh and heart fail them yet God will never fail them whatever he may seem to do for a season but so much for this Doctrine The second Doctrine is this When a Believers profession groweth so low and he is declined specially at such a time it is his duty to trim his Lamp to renew his profession to look after a restoring So here they arose and trimmed their Lamps when the Cry came and this did the wise Virgins as well as the foolish Concerning the foolish Virgins I have nothing here to say nor shall I trouble my self or you with what haply might be spoken of the Hypocrites trimming his Lamp wherein it differs from the Believers The wise Virgins trimming I have spoke the last-day to that purpose shewing how far they might go But I will speak here to the wise Virgins because I would not dwell too long upon these things So you find Solomon his declinings were great and that at his latter end but he arose again and repented as appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs c. written after this his backsliding as is generally conceived And so the Church of the Philippians their love and care of the Apostle suffered a nipping a winter and had ceased to flourish as formerly but they renewed it again It hath flourished it again saith the Apostle Eurychus may fall down and almost beat his life out of him but it is still in him and there must be means used to draw it forth as there is pains taken with Trees that have a fit of barreness come upon them Spiritual life runs to the heart and there appears little or nothing without sometimes as conquered men do from their outworks to the Tower but it must be brought forth again we have a command for it to those two Churches in the Revelations Sardis had a name to live and was dead likely the most of them were dead and yet there were some things remaining which were ready to die and these must be strengthened the things which remain which were ready to die for their works were not perfect before God O it was hypocrisie that did eat them out of their life of Godliness it s a consuming thing indeed And so the Church of the Laodiceans their love was waxed Luke-warm neither hot nor cold neither dead altogether nor lively now saith the Lord be zealous therefore and repent But you will ask me here What it is to trim these Lamps that is here required I will speak but to two or three particulars First then In the trimming of the Lamp there is usually a supply of the Oyl if it wanted as when it hath burned long if it be not supplyed the oyl being spent it will not live except it be supplied And it was high time for these Virgins now to be awaked hereunto they might else have slept until all had been spent and the Lamp had gone out as well as the foolish grace being but a Creature it liveth by a continual supply of the Spirit of grace the first cause of it So then in the trimming of the Lamp there must be a fetching in of more grace a recourse to the fulness that is in Jesus Christ for the Lamp is ready to languish or dye else for want of oyl 2. There is a stirring up also of the grace which doth remain some oyl remaineth that must be made ready the ready passage between the Vessel and the Lamp the heart and the conversation it must indeed be cherished for being little haply it is ready to dye like a spark among much ashes stir up the gift that is in thee there is none that stirreth up himself to lay hold upon God The wick in the Lamp must be raised it being burned low so it is in this case It may be in such a declining condition of a poor soul there is more grace lying deep and low lying asleep in the habit more then the soul is aware of this must be stirred up faith stirred up and love to Jesus Christ and his people stirred up 3. In the trimming of the Lamp there is a taking away the filth and the dross that it gathers and snuffing the wick which would hinder the light and burning of it that it would be very dull and dim Now what is this brethren but the putting away those iniquities repenting of those evils whatever they have been that have thus far prevailed against their profession that security that carnality that self-confidence those things which laid them asleep which choaked the Lamp that it could not burn Whenever we are under any declining do but search and see commune with your own hearts and you will find there is some evil which lies close some soil we have gathered and hereby the spirit of grace hath been grieved and he is departed from us Now this snuff must be taken off deal not gently with it this filth and dross must be removed if we would trim up our Lamps For the Application then of this briefly in a word It may serve to stir us up every one to this duty If our Lamps be at present or shall hereafter come under any declining Alas brethren do we not slumber and sleep often and neglect all this while the trimming of our Lamps and will they not quickly burn low and dim and need a serious trimming of them I doubt this duty will be incumbert upon us and required of us oftner then we are aware of Do we know how soon the Bridegroom will come his voice goeth before him we have often heard but have we trimmed our Lamps to this day are our professions more glorious then formerly And for Motives hereunto consider First Such a restoring is a thing feizable hough the duty be thine yet the work is Gods he engageth to help yea to do it indeed he restoreth my soul saith David and it is for his own name sake for the glory of his Grace David had many decays and backslidings witherings and faintings but God restored his soul still and he is as ready to do it for his people now as ever he was therefore do not say alas this is a work too difficult or hard or there is no recovery my Lamp is so near extinct as there is no hope for me he that kindled it at first is able to restore it It is indeed a work of some difficulty and will cost you something but yet it is feizable Peter was at as low an ebb as ever poor Believer was what was become of his profession and yet Peter is recovered and after the recovery
owned as eminently as any of the rest and more for his Comfort The lost groat was found again and the lost sheep was found again And so the Prodigal Son he ran far and lavisht away his Patrimony and yet he is restored again the winter may deform the face of the earth but the Spirit of God can renew it again in the Spring now he hath promised to give this Spirit and he sendeth forth his Spirit to find out the lost Child the lost sheep and therefore there is encouragement 2. Consider until this be done you are not fit for Heaven nor to enter with him you are not ready the wise Virgins trimmed their Lamps and then they were ready saith the Text and they that were ready went in with him happy creatures that are found ready with their Lamps burning at that day of his appearing which we know not whether it may be at hand A wicked man is not fit for heaven upon any terms it would be a place of no rest unto him no more then the Air is to the fish or the water to a man they are not con-natural and truly no more is a gracious man fit for heaven while his Lamp wants trimming Heaven is the inheritance of the Saints in light and is he fit for it that is even going out in darkness O no the Lamp must be shining and burning bright or else there is no suitableness to heaven 3. Hereby God will have much more glory by you then otherwise he is like to have for minde you it is the shining of our Lamps the glory of our conversations suitable to our profession that giveth occasion to the men of the world to glorifie him so saith our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your father which is in heaven This is all the Lord expecteth that he may be acknowledged and have the glory of all his grace of us we have the sweet and comfort and everlasting advantage of it and it cannot but be upon every believers heart to glorifie God it is indeed the end of our coming into the world now we cannot glorifie him so while our Lamps burn so low we are under declinings but when we are fruitful and abound in it as our Saviour saith herein is my father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit this is that which God is glorified by It may be we have some few good works but they are but a few and so few that scarce any can take notice to glorifie God for them methinks this should stick much with us Specially the nearer we come to glory our selves the more should we mind the glory of God the more zealous should we be for it O begin to lay about us to glorifie him here learn the work of heaven for ever if not before yet at least now we are ready to reap the wages of heaven the glory and joy unspeakable and Rivers of pleasures for evermore 4. Consider Is it not a shame for us brethren whose salvation is much nearer now then when we believed began to believe that our light should not be more dim our heat more abated our zeal for God the fervor of our affections surely it is a very great shame as if the nearer we come to the enjoyment of God the less desirable he were time hath been when we have some of us followed hard after God it is well if we have mended or held on our pace the time hath been haply when our Conversations have been bright and a beauty of holiness appeared in them and others have taken notice of it and glorified God it is well if we be not grown Luke-warm O what a shame is this the nearer we come to the Sun to be the colder hath not the Cry passed and awaked us and do we not finde that our Lamps are dim and we are in our profession very low O look to it that our last days be our best days and we go not out like a snuff But you will ask me what should we do to trim up these Lamps of ours First You must remember from whence you are fallen look up to the top of the hill where once you were and now you are undiscernably tumbled to the bottom you know not how O how much ground have you lost search and try brethren Commune with your hearts Consider your ways as David did and turn to the Lord. It will exceedingly shame us and that shame be a spur to us to consider how far short we are of that love that zeal that diligence and closeness of walking Secondly We must repent of it we must be humbled for our former miscarriages our declining to lose our first love the more love we have received the less we return to him again Is not this unworthy Besides how much might we have honoured the Lord if our light had shone before men if there had been a Majesty of holiness alway upon our conversation such as sometime haply there hath been and is not this matter of humbling Thirdly Then we must do our first works It is not a sorrow only for our miscarriage that is enough but we must do our first works If we have been zealous before and now are become Luke-warm be zealous and amend do our first works we have been more diligent and close in our walking with God now we are more remiss we must remember whence we are fallen and do our first works O why should we not labour to exceed the love of our espousals when we followed so hard after him our souls panted as the chased Hart after the water-brooks and this it may be before we had many hints of his love some sight of him likely else we should not follow him some touch upon our hearts as in Elisha his case and Sauls the people whose hearts God touched they followed but did one taste of his love then draw thee out so earnestly and now thou hast had many a smile many a sweet refreshing from his presence many a Ring broken between Jesus Christ and thy soul and wilt thou not now be as diligent and as earnest in following after him it is the nature of true Grace that as it cometh from heaven it will never cease until it reach to heaven again Fourthly We must beg earnestly of the Lord to work this and all our works in us and for us It is he that restored David his soul when it was even lost and so he doth ours he maketh them to return when they are even giving up O give him no rest until he send forth his spirit and give thee to be filled with that spirit with might in the inner man that thou maist burn and shine and the fulness and fruitfulness the burning and brightness of thy conversation may be a witness to all that behold it that of a truth the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in thee He
world What comfort had Judas of his thirty pieces of silver when God opened his conscience and let him see his condition what an hypocritical dissembling wretch he had been to betray the Lord of life and glory with a kiss a sign of love and a bloody traiterous heart to sell his Saviour whom he had followed so long and acted by commission from him so long and his Master that had never done him hurt but good to sell him the Lord of life and glory for thirty pieces of Silver O this could not but gall and cut him to the heart the Devil helped him to a booty indeed but God added this sorrow with it Indeed of all sins God hath not revealed himself so terribly against any in Scripture as this and therefore when the soul cometh to see it that hath any knowledge of the terrors of the Lord displayed against it he must needs be for the present in a hell above ground this shall they have of my hand saith the Lord they shall lie down in sorrow Yea and sometimes he anticipates their death and they live in sorrow and wo and misery God doth as I may say set a mark upon them as upon Cain Secondly That they might be warnings to others for ever to take heed of Hypocrisie for when men that regard the work of the Lord and consider the operation of his hand shall behold a Judas hanged up in Gibbets being made a Magor Missabeb to himself doth it not preach aloud this Caution to take heed and beware of hypocrisie these things saith the Apostle were written for our ensamples that we might not do as they did so are these things acted for our ensamples that we might take heed or if they have not such terrors but their professions are blasted only and wither and they prove fearful creatures their latter end worse then their beginning is not this a warning written in Capital Letters that he that runs may read O take heed of rottenness at the root for all our fruit will give up as the dust as the Apples of Sodom we shall wither and come to nothing and go out like a snuff as well as them if we be not sound at the heart Thirdly It may be a stumbling block to some others who are ready to receive any prejudice against the ways of Christ and therefore they shall have a block to stumble upon O here you see what becometh of this preciseness and flourishing profession of Religion it is all but rotteness at the root it is better to take on fair and softly a soft pace in religion saith the Moralist or civil honest Man as good continue in a meer wallowing as being washed to enter into it again yea better saith the profane man and therefore he satisfieth himself in his carnal state which is wosul for suppose some professors wither yet do all Some they keep their leaf it shall never fail some lose their verdour but recover it again and what if some wither will you therefore offend against the generation of the upright saying they are all of the same stamp God forbid It is a sad thing to consider how many poor hearts are hardened in sin upon this very account which addeth to the Hypocrites doom but what if a discovered Hypocrite be so vile the condition so dangerous is not their own as dangerous if thou be prophane and a worker of iniquity there is no more entrance into glory for a Dog or Swine then for a Goat no more for workers of iniquity that professedly commit iniquity then for them who profess longer do much in his name and yet when all cometh to all they are found but workers of iniquity though secretly but so much for the second The third and last thing considerable in the Observation is That many times it is too late when Hypocrites are discovered to themselves this is plain in the Parable for the foolish Virgins all the time of the getting oyl in their vessels they complain not not see their want of it nor the going out of their Lamps but only when it was too late for before they could get it the gates were shut We must not here understand it generally of all Hypocrites as if none might be discovered to themselves while there is hope and so as to recover themselves for then it would follow they should none of them be pardoned for the Lord Jesus is the Prince exalted to give repentance and remission of sins Now if they never come to know themselves to be guilty of this great evil even their hypocrisie how should they repent of it and if they repent not of it how should it be pardoned It is true indeed there may be hypocrisie in a Child of God which he may acknowledge only in the general among his secret sins which he knoweth not of but I think where hypocrisie is so raigning a sin as to denominate a man an Hypocrite he must surely come to the knowledge of it and acknowledge it before the Lord or else how can he hope of pardon for it now I say there is pardon for all manner of sins only that against the Holy Ghost excepted and therefore sure some Hypocrites God doth uncase and unmask and rip up and shew them the abominations of their hearts that they may mourn over them and mourn after Jesus Christ and loath themselves for it and so be pardoned therefore remember this lest if God should come now and open any painted sepulchre any rotten-hearted Hypocrite among us when we see our wound we should faint away for though many times it is so that God discovers it not to Hypocrites until it be too late yet sometimes he doth and the sin in it self is pardonable therefore there is hope concerning this thing in Israel But for the making good this assertion consider either they are discovered not until judgement or else not until death or else not until their day of grace â—e expired many times though it be before death 1. If they be not discovered to themselves until judgement God never reproveth them of their hypocrisie and sets it in order with all its circumstances and aggravations until the day of judgement when the secrets of all hearts shall be displayed and all the nasty corners of sinners souls all the hidden things of darkness then surely you will all acknowledge there is no remedy it is past help there remaineth nothing then but a fearful looking for of their doom and some may go down in peace to the grave that is to say not a peace of God but of Satan a security and stupidity of conscience knowing nothing of their fearful condition which others also which are not so much as Hypocrites may do 2. If it be not discovered until the day of death or the time of deaths approach then though not alway yet ordinarily I believe it is too late and that is not a time that ordinarily God is
found or will be found for indeed if it were then there would very few perish out of the visible Church every man almost except a very desperate ignorant prophane wretch will have God and Christ and mercy in their mouths and many liftings up of eyes and hands though they do but dissemble and flatter him with their mouths as is proved by too ordinary experience come to many a poor creature upon his death and you would think him a Saint a true penitent and that if God would restore him sure he would never return to his folly again but alas alas experience proveth how quickly such men return to their vomit again to their wallowing in the mire again and lay out their strength and time and meats and marrow and money and all upon their lusts with as much eagerness if not more then before and prove very Devils incarnate or at least grow as listless and lazy in seeking God after their restoring as they were before though in the time of visitation then they would seek him early and nothing but seek him 3. He may discover Hypocrites to themselves before death likely and yet many times the time is past for the understanding of which brethren we must know that every Professor and all professing people who have the means of Grace the Sun of righteousness rising upon them in his Ordinances whether he arise upon them in their hearts or no this maketh a day of grace Jerusalem had her day as you have it in that of Luke Now this day may be conceived to be either revealed so as that we may judge of it according to Scripture or else secret which God hath reserved to himself The revealed is usually bounded by the time of a mans life or the continuance of the means of Grace to a people at least all that while according to our estimation Gods patience waiteth upon men upon formal Professors to see if they will repent and amend Or else 2. There is a secret day which God hath kept in his own power that is to say he resolveth with himself however it may be the means of Grace may continue longer to a people yet if they stand it out such a time so long he will never make them available to their souls So the Jews in that their day O that thou hadst known saith our Saviour in this thy day but now they are hid mind you now they were hid they should never have a sight of them though they might have the means of Grace the Gospel preached to them yet longer as they had yet the things which belonged to their peace were hid from their eyes And so it may be with an Hypocrite for ought I know the Lord may open an Hypocrites eyes convince him that he is an Hypocrite and yet the time be past of his recovery So the foolish Virgins you see their Lamps went out in obscure darkness irrecoverably though there seemeth by the Parable to have been a further time before the judgement a time wherein they did use some impertinent and improper endeavours for their restoring they went to the wise Virgins and them that sold of which afterward not to Jesus Christ that was hid from their eyes or else if they did it was to no purpose you see they missed their aim and then brethren one of these two things will be the effect of it Either First The heart will sink and die within them through some despair either when God hath opened this wound in their Consciences they will die of it their life and souls will go out at the wound as you see in Judas's case he could not so much as look to Jesus Christ that he might be saved but his heart was sunk within him when he saw how he had played the wretch with Jesus Christ selling his Saviour for so small a price when he had pretended so much love to and to value him at a so low a rate Or else Secondly The heart will grow desperately hard and Conscience seared afterward that it will be past feeling and so commit all iniquity with greediness and yet with a brazen face and with the highest confidence come and cry Lord Lord open to us as it is here in the Parable and in the seventh of Matthew after a thaw it will freez harder again and then Conscience will be covered with a stone as it said in Job And surely brethren the reason is plain why the Lord doth not ordinarily discover Hypocrites in his Church until it be too late for a just recompence of their hypocrisie his soul abhorreth hypocrisie more then any thing their Sacrifices and solemn meetings are an abomination to him he is even weary to bear them why because they drew near him with their mouths honoured him with their lips but the heart was wanting that which God looks at as all in all in our services and therefore they were like dead carkasses however garnished with many pretty sweet flowers common gifs and very taking manner of performances of them yet they are but dead Carkasses and therefore he abhorrs them and therefore no marvel if he seal up men under such a Condition until it be too late The Lord intendeth not mercy to such a soul such a people though their own hypocrisie and iniquity intervene as the immediate cause of the execution of this purpose and therefore it is that he letteth them walk in their own sparks the light of them please themselves with their Lamps their profession until they have trifled away the season of grace A sad consideration for Hypocrrites For Application of this Then it may serve in the first place for a startling word to all formal Professors the Lord make it an awakening word I doubt I speak to many sleepy souls our voice is not loud enough to pierce the ear in the heart and therefore O that he would do it Brethren if I seem uncharitable to you it is my love to your souls it is for your sakes else I have no such delight to speak things so cutting and wounding as these are I fear brethren in such a multitude of Professors that many of us have no more but a form of Godliness and many of us not so much but I speak not so much to them You see that five of them were foolish and they had nothing but Lamps a Profession I cannot conclude from the equality of number that there are as many wise as foolish or no more foolish then wise but many foolish there are that we may conclude and yet we expound it according to the Analogy of faith they are more by many then the wise You may then brethren be very confident of your estate rest as securely as if you had the greatest assurance of your Condition the foolish Virgins slept as soundly as the other suspected their Conditions no more then the other nor so much neither in all probability You think brethren that because you
Table as his Spouse for ever as the poor man in the Parable his wife is compared to an Ewe Lamb which did lie in his bosome and eat and drink with him so shall the Saints surely because of this relation of theirs to the Lord Jesus Ah blessed are ye Believers ye that are ready for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Again Now the Saints are made ready for this glory now we are not able to bear it old Bottels will not hold this new Wine that he will drink with them in his Fathers Kingdom strong Duties were too strong for the Disciples then in their minority as I may say how much more the Duties of heaven everlasting Hallelujahs and admiring of God in Christ therefore they must be changed before they can be fit for that feast a little joy now would swallow us up so as to unfit us for any thing Alas the Apostle like a wise Nursing Father would not give strong meat to babes they could not bear it and so our Saviour when upon the earth they could not bear many things therefore he fed them with milk if you should give strong meats to children and wine what would sooner ruine them therefore saith the Apostle I speak the Wisdom of God in a Mâ—sterie among them that are perfect yet he had some things which he saw in his Vision that he could not or might not utter to them likely they could not bear them You see Israel could not indure to behold Moses face when it had but a beam of the divine glory within the cloud reflected upon him and the glory of the Angel astonished Iohn so eminent a man in saith and love and holiness therefore I say we shall then be fitted for this Communion the old Bottles be made new the capacities of soul inlarged the mouth opened wider then we can conceive and the body raised in power It must be an extraordinary stomack brethren that can continually sit at a Feast and dâ—gest it and never be satiated therefore it is that the Marriage feast the fulness of it is reserved for heaven and heaven is so compared in Scripture For the Uses of the Doctrine First then Behold what maner of love the Father hath loved us with that we should be made the Favorites a people so near to him that he will take any of us with him into the Marriage The Apostle admireth the condition of the Saints for what they have in hand already What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God that is to say made such his Word is operative he cals things that were not as if they were but saith he this is not all it doth not yet appear what we shall be until Christ who is our life appear then shall we appear with him in glory the Saints in heaven though their apprehensions as well as the rest of their capacities shall be inlarged heightened perfected yet shall not be able to comprehend the depth of the river of pleasures at the right hand of God no more then a Vessel that is put into the Sea can comprehend the Ocean and therefore they shall admire it then the Lord Jesus shall come to be admired in all the Saints their fulness will be unspeakable greater then that of the Saints here though sometimes they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory yet alas in both conditions far short of comprehending it therefore we should admire it Such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the heart of man God hath prepared Do you not see how Haman glorieth in it though he had little cause if he knew all that he among all the Courtiers was invited to the feast of Wine to the Queen he accounted it an high favour a significative testimony of his especial love to him above others Ah brethren you that are Saints indeed let me speak to you all in the words of the Angel to Mary you are highly favoured of God you shall all be admitted to this Marriage Feast be thou as poor in outward condition as may be and as poor in Spirit as may be never so low in thine own thoughts thou shalt enter into this Marriage Feast thou thinkest with the poor Publican Thou art not worthy to come near the place where his honour dwels nor lift up thy eys towards heaven nor be reckoned among his people nor come to his Table here below Well be thou as vile as thou canst in thine own eys thou shalt enter with the Lord Jesus into the Marriage Feast if thou be ready for his coming O admire this Love the Lord help poor weak creatures unbelief in this point that they may admire it what will he admit such a one as I such a vile creature such a grieving creature to his holy Spirit yea such as he hath once pitched his heart upon to love them they shall enter with him into this feast Saith Mephihosheth What is thy servant thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I c. 2. If this be so that the state of Glory or Kingdom of glory into which the Saints enter with Christ is such a Marriage-feast it shall be an invitation then to poor sinners to this Feast this Marriage Wisdom hath builded her house hewn out seven Pillars killed her beast mingled her wine made it ready a cup of mixture that is to say a cup made ready and now sends forth her Maidens to cry turn in ye simple ones c. O that the uncircumsicion of our hearts that are the Messngers may not hinder but the Lord Jesus by us brethren doth invite you sinners to this feast he would fain have his Table full of guests how welcome would he make man woman and child if they would but come he would cast out none that cometh to him no no in any wise whatsoever as I have told you sometime from the Text. But for the better understanding of this Exhortation I will note two things and then a little further press it upon us First then That we do not invite you to this Feast this Marriage in heaven to enter in with Christ continuing such as you are in your blood and uncleanness but we do first invite you to come to Jesus Christ here on earth that so you may enter in with him into the Marriage your union with Christ and your communion with him must begin upon earth though it end in heaven and this communion here is two-fold though both spiritual it is internal and external internal a fellowship with the Father in the Son a fellowship with Christ in his death the power of it that we may dye to sin and be free from the condemnation God will not have this Marriage-Feast for his Son in heaven filled with Goal Birds condemned creatures such as have their bolts and fetters upon them the nastiness of the prison upon them
God who had promised they without us saith the Apostle were not made perfect though through forbearance as it were their sins were passed over yet they would have returned on them again if Christ had not come according to the promise and therefore herein now Christ may be said to be the Sun of righteousness but this concerneth most his first appearing in the flesh though for these ends and purposes for which he doth arise unto every poor believing soul Now therefore he is the Sun of righteousness in this respect also as well by his arising on any soul that stands in need of him now as by arising on them then for if God should fail in any of them which he hath given to Christ where were his righteousness This is the third Fourthly Another consideration wherefore he may be called the Sun of righteousness is this because he is the meritorious cause of our justification in the sight of God therefore he is called the Lord our righteousness he was set forth saith the Apostle for a propitiation through faith in his blood called the righteousness of God as he accepteth of the satisfaction of Christ as God in Christ paid the price of it even the blood of God as he imputeth it to us or for Christs sake doth not impute our sins on us Enter not into Judgement saith the Psalmist with thy servant for in thy sight shall no flesh be justified not by the works of the Law but by the blood of Jesus in this respect he is called a Sun of righteousness Fifthly in that he doth by his influences on the hearts of his people work on them a similitude a likeness to himself to his Father and so beget an inherent righteousness putting inward principles and seeds into their hearts from whence flow all manner of holy conversation in this also he is the Sun of righteousness the Apostle is clear in this he is made of God to us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption which sanctification is sometimes called in Scripture righteousness So he hath chosen us in him to the adoption of Sons that we might be holy and unblamable that by him we might be brought to such a state and condition by beholding him by lying in his beams with our faces towards him with open face Now all shadows and ceremonies and vails such as in the Legal administration of the Covenant of grace were on him being taken away we are changed into his Image from glory to glory In all these respects he may be called the Sun of righteousness and thus much for the second thing The third then What is meant by the arising of this Sun of righteousness on them if we understand it with respect to the people of God of those times that feared his name then it cannot be understood Brethren as if that Christ had never shined on them for how come they then to fear the Lord if he had not yet owned them as his people in Covenant but it must be understood thus that they should behold him in a more glorious manner arising they that should live to see the day Many waited for the consolation of Israel as Zach. and Simeon and many others who could not have done it if they had had no influence from Christ on their hearts therefore we must say that even among the Jews yea and before many of them had a dawning of light had some glimmerings of Christ he did shine through all the darkness and shadows of the Ceremonies Christ was held forth in them all but only as the beauty of the picturre is in the shadow But now we have the very image of the things saith the Apostle So that this rising on them Brethren may be as the rising of the Sun to some height rather then his first appearing for I find that in the Gospel of Matthew so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered When the Sun is risen it withereth that is when it s up and at an height then it withereth So now though before they had the dawning I say some scattering beams fore-running the glory of the Sun yet now they should have it in greatest glory for he came that his people might have light and might have it more abundantly But now to us Brethren on whom he hath shone so long he may be said to rise as he breaks through any clouds of darkness on us as the Martyr at the stake cryed out Son of God shine on me he meant that he should shew him the light of his countenance break in on the heart with more light and warmth whereby he might be armed against that tertible death he was to encounter with and the Sun in the Firmament broke out in a glorious manner through the thick clouds as an Emblem if not an earnest of the other and a visible evidence or testimony to the standers by that it should be so So that now I conceive when on any poor soul in his first agonies the throws that he hath to bring forth the child Jesus his troubles of heart for sin and thick darkness on him the Lord Jesus breaks forth on the soul with a glorious discovery of his love yea with an hint of his love its arising on him and so as the increase of the glory of his people Israel the glory of his people Israel is called his arising on them so where the Lord doth in a more eminent manner appear to his people either after desertion in respect of comfort and peace or after desertion in respect of holiness there he may be said to arise on them And thus much for the third The fourth thing is what is meant by the wings of this Sun of righteousness this is so much the more difficult by how much the more Metaphors it is cloathed with one on another For first the natural Sun is said to have wings And secondly then this Sun of righteousness being compared to the natural Sun is also said to have wings that we may therefore a little unfold it let us first see what are the wings of the Sun the natural Sun and for that we must know it is Metaphorical the raies the beams of the Sun are said to be the wings of the Sun we read of the wings of the morning wherewith the Psalmist would flie away to the ends of the earth what is that but the dawnings of the day the eye-lids of the morning as Job calls it the first breakin gs of light when the Sun peepeth above the Horizon the raies and streamings of light scattered before the appearing os the Sun the Sun is as it were the eye of heaven governing and viewing the earth and the dawning of the day is as it were the eye-lids opening before the eye do appear when it awakeneth So Caryl and Mercer they are called the wings of the Sun as is conceived for several reasons First because as wings
be stirred because that maketh him sensible of his condition O! such a mans condition is very dangerous and is not this the case of our souls Brethren O! what malignity is in sin the poyson and filthyness and hurt of all diseases and wounds are little enough to set it forth by and how sensible are we of a wound of a disease of the body how insensible of the diseases of the soul Well in order to a healing the Lord give us a feeling But this is but the first But a little further to open the nature of sin on this occasion which our Doctrine administers to us that which is to be healed you have heard is sin and that which needeth healing is either a disease or wound they are correlatives that you have heard already it is therefore compared to many sorts of diseases wounds and putrifying sores and bruises But now I will speak a little Brethren to the ill qualities and consequences of sin considered as such which may tend to turn our hearts against it for the time to come First then there is pain and anguish in most diseases and in every wound and bruise and especially in cankerings festered sores this is a proper passion of a disease to have pain and truly Brethren so hath every sin a pain with it first or last it is true the cup of pleasures goeth down merily with Sinners but when it s down it is a cup of trembling to them do but look on Gain when he had sinned in pouring out his Brothers blood he quenched his bloody thirst but kindled a fire in his bowels which did consume him Oh every one that meeteth me will kill me fear hath torment as John saith and see how full of fears a poor sinner is The wicked flee when none pursueth the very stones and beasts being at enmity with them they fear they shall be murthered by each of them And how did Foelix tremble when Paul disputed of righteousness temperance and judgement to come as long as they can keep out the sight of God as they think they are well But bring a Sinner and set him as it were in the face of God let him but look on him as a righteous Judge of all the world and most mighty to execute his pleasure on Sinners and then tell me whether the stoutest hearted-sinner do not quail as usually at the hour of death for truly for the most part men seldom seriously eye their condition before then How did the Jaylour spring in trembling in the Acts Ah the Sinners in Sion are afraid Fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Alas the stubble will not endure before the fire no more can sinners endure to look on God as a consuming fire it maketh the very heart ach except altogether hardened from his fear to behold him because they know themselves guilty and lyable to those burnings There is saith the Apostle a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Can a poor condemned Prisoner look on the Iudge think on the Tree on which he must be hanged on the fire but with fear and trembling Can Belshazzar read his sentence on the wall the hand-writing but with terrour his knees knocking one against another Ah Brethren methinks Sinners that are yet in their sins should not read a leaf in the Bible each leaf concerneth him is 〈◊〉 doom but he should even smite his thighs together there is so much terrour and fear accompanying sin Memoria testis ratio index timor carnifex saith Bern. As the Saints have some antipasts of Heaven a bunch of Grapes before they come to Cannan an earnest of that joy unspeakable and full of Glory so doubtless Sinners they have some hours of darkness coming on them some wrings and gripes of a guilty conscience that sometimes made some of them run to an halter to a sword for ease none knoweth the hell of a guilty conscience but such as have felt it Oh the wrackings the distortions of the Soul The pulling of the very heart in pieces and the rending of the very Bowels in pieces with these imprisoned passions in the Soul But secondly Even in sinners that repent Brethren though the wound be then healing there is pain also you know Now the Lord Jesus cometh in mercy to rouze the soul to shame it out of its evil courses and is shame nothing a man cannot hold up his head he is confounded ye are now ashamed saith the Apostle of the things which ye have done before can you look back on your former vain and filthy conversation and your hearts not be ashamed your consciences not be ashamed there is inward shame and confusion though it appear not outwardly So in that place of Ezekiel Thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed that thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee There will be a godly sorrow which works repentance and never was there any repentance without sorrow there 's a pricking of the heart and pricking in the reins Acts 2. 37. There is no rest in the flesh by reason of the sin and broken bones That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Is it not sin that turns away the face of God and what then can arise to the soul but trouble Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled This is the first thing there is pain in sin and trouble it troubles our hearts and troubles our houses as it did Cains troubles the City and Country troubleth Israel Secondly In sin Brethren or accompanying it there is weakness and indisposedness when it s but growing on us it seizeth on the spirits the vigour first So how lazie and listless are we for divers days befâ—â—e it do appear and much more afterward Morbus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How wonderfully doth sin unbefit us for duty we even move to it as an arm or foot out of joynt when a man endeavours to bow it one way it falls quite another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust where they are in prevalency they are like to wens in a mans body which suck up the strength nourishment that which should supply the rest of the members it turns to its own swelling So doth pride turn that which should humble us that which would inflame our hearts and melt us to it self and so weakens us keepeth our love at an under that we cannot so livelily vigorously serve the Lord. We complain of our weak hands and feeble knees our indisposedness to the service of God believe it this is the reason of it sin unmortified this makes men reprobate to every good work men of no judgement no dexterity at all to
so many years and yet not healed have you so often received the Lord his Supper the outward part of it and yet are not healed what have you been praying and reading and coming to hear until you have one foot in the grave and yet not healed what have you been doing all this while that you have never got a sight of Christ a touch of him to this day that you might be healed Ah sure you have spent your time your money upon the Physitians that cannot heal you you have gone to the Disciples in stead of Christ you have expected healing from the Ordinances themselves and expected it haply from us in whom healing is not as they lookt upon the Apostles Why look ye upon us as if we had done this by our own power O no it is Jesus Christ alone can heal and therefore if you are not yet healed he did never arise upon you to this day It may be sinners will be ready to say what if Jesus Christ hath never risen upon us is that such a great matter Indeed I doubt we make a light matter of it but I will tell you what a great matter it is you are yet in your sins and it is a very great hazard but you may die in your sins if he never rise upon thee thou shalt undoubtedly die in them and is this nothing O but you will say God is merciful it is his nature to be merciful he triumpheth in exalting that perfection and making it glorious It is true brethren but it is in Christ all light and healing is from the Father but he hath filled the Son now with inlightning and healing influence so that they who will have it must have it from the Son he hath all power committed to him all the medecines are his now and the power of applying them is so that he heals whom he pleaseth therefore dream not of it you that are wicked transgressors that have not your sins healed that God will be merciful to any but in Christ O but we may have our sins healed though it be not yet It is true thou maist be healed and this is somewhat but consider what a cold comfort this would be to a man that had the plague seised upon him in a violent manner why faith he it may be healled and yet alas be never looks after the Physitian nor â—â—e Physitian after him but groweth worse and worse and yet he may be healed It is true if the Lord do not cut thee off before thou maist be healed or if God swear not in his wrath thou shalt never enter into his rest or say to thee thou shalt never be healed O these secret things belong not to us the Father hath put them in his own power and we presume upon our courses of sinning as if we knew them were privy to them and knew certainly that we should have a day of grace an hour of mercy this is desperate if thou die in this condition with all thy running sores upon thee from head to foot no sound part but loathsome wretches what do you think the Lord Jesus will put such into his bosome Well consider this for the fourth Application of the Doctrine Such as are not healed of their lusts they have never had Jesus Christ arising upon them as yet they never knew Christ to this day let our knowledge be what it will our parts be what it will our seeming following Christ be what it will and thronging upon him never so much we never yet touched him he never yet shined upon our souls O how many such poor Christless souls hear this Word this day 5. Then let us labour to raise our spirits in admiration of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ given to poor sinners to provide a healing for us that when we had faln from the height of mercy or rather grace and goodness and so had all to be broken and bruised our selves broken our bâ—nes that he should provide a healing for us when we could never think of such a mercy what were we more to him then Angels if he had let us all lye under our broken bones under the wounds we had made in our selves and diseases we had contracted who could have had any thing to say against him for it this the Apostle maketh an argument of his love and it is doubtless a heightening of it to consider how free it is that their wounds should not be cured and ours healed when both alike curable to him and considering that they might have been much more serviceable to him then we being creatures of a more glorious active nature then we are yet he took not hold of the nature of Angels But consider we first the infinite disproportion between the Physitian and the Patients were it not wonderful condescention for a K 〈…〉 o come off his Throne to buckle himself about the business 〈…〉 eal a worm that hath been trodden upon O it pittieth him to see them bleeding and therefore he maketh it his business to cure them brethren you would think this strange but this is the case yea this is but a shadow Iacob is but a worm and that the Lord of Lords the King of Kings should descend from his Throne from heaven disrobe himself as I may say put on rags and all to have to do with the wounds and diseases of poor sinful dust and ashes worms and no me 〈…〉 Brethren my tongue is not able to express it we would thin 〈…〉 a great matter such of us as live in the highest honour wear soft raiment are delicate in all things to take up a poor creature in the streets that is full of sores cast out to the loathing of his person to search the wounds have to do with those loathsome sores O what love were this it may be we could be content in pitty to give money for others to do it but to do it with our own hands there is the trial and yet this creature is of our own kind but what are we to the Lord or to his Christ who would do this for a Dog for a Viper a Serpent a Toad if wounded if sick and diseased can we conceive what tenderness it must be above what we have it may be we would not kill or destroy such a creature but if otherwise hurt would we heal them O herein is the love of God to poor sinners high above our thoughts as heaven is high above the earth alas we are more ready to tread upon Serpents and Dogs we would cast them out put them away from us it is but a dog Ah dear friends what are we that are strangers from the Covenant of Promise as we are all until he entereth into a Covenant with us we are as dogs as he speaks to the Syraphinitian woman all such unclean creatures yea we are a generation of Vipers as full of venom of sin as a Toad is full of poyson and
his blood our services healed as well as our souls before they be worth any thing therefore I say he himself freely prepareth the Lances to open the wounds convinceth the poor creature of his condition he himself takes the pains to open the vein to empty the creature of himself to cure him of that Plethory He it is tempereth the Physick is at the charge of it O the richest Cordials in the world tempered of his own blood and water by his own Spirit to support the poor creature when ready to faint he sitteth over his people even as a tender Father over a weak wounded childe and with what a heart you may imagine he provideth Messengers of his own to be with them to minister to them to watch over them and himself is alway at hand Ah dear Friends that ever the Lord Jesus should set so high esteem upon poor sinners when we were in such a loathsom condition as that he would dwell in flesh and take part of flesh and blood that so he might have somewhat to make a restorative of a healing medicine of that we might not perish one drop every drop of his most precious blood with respect to the value which the God-head put upon it is more then if a world of pearl could be decocted into a cordial and yet he spared it not that he should visit sinners with this salvation with his corrosives his cordials with his healing vertue and power and his heart so ready to put it forth from time to time this is unsearchable riches of grace to do all this freely Yea Eighthly and lastly it will appear in this that the Lord Jesus brings his heart full and his hands full of reward with him to a poor sinner so that he will be but healed you see foolish children when they have fallen and wounded themselves they must be hired to let the Father or the Chyrurgion heal it put a plaister upon it but cryeth out as undone had rather do any thing then be healed but alas who would do it to a stranger it may be thou seest a poor leprous creature lie languishing at thy gates and thou canst heal him but he is not willing either he is in love with his disease or distrusts your good will or faithfulness or something but he is not willing to be healed now where is there a heart so full of tenderness as to be willing to offer him a reward I will give thee thus much or thus much if thou wilt but let me heal thee for I pitty thy condition Brethren a King and his subjects fall out they rebel against the King in the war the subject is wounded even to the death except there be more then ordinary care taken of him now the King his heart relents he cometh to him in the prison and doth not upbraid him with his unkindness nor pride nor stubbornness but intreateth him he will give him leave to heal him that he will but suffer his wounds to be searched to be healed to be closed so that he may not perish he will pardon all that he hath done amiss begs of him to accept of him he will make him the second man in the Kingdom he shall be near to him if he will but suffer himself to be healed Is not this rich mercy indeed is there any such Paragon to be found Surely no but lo this is in Jesus Christ and more for he not only promiseth a reward upon our healing but maketh the poor creature willing also willing to part with his lusts and to speak the truth I take this to be the greatest part of our healing when a poor sinner that was in love with sin before loved his lusts as much as his life O his merry companions were as dear to him as his very eye or his right hand he could no more part with one then the other and so his gain of unrighteousness Now when the Lord by proposing of objects which have a great force but that is not all but by a sweet and yet powerful bowing of the heart maketh the poor creature willing to be healed so that now he cryeth out with Augustine How long Lord how long this man is in a great measure healed and this is the work and yet he rewardeth for this promiseth a Crown giveth grace and glory glory with himself fellowship with him to lye in his bosom to all eternity O here is unsearchable riches of grace Brethren I have only if so much brought you to the vein where these riches lie O that you would dig a little by serious contemplating upon it You will find more then I am able to speak Sixthly Another Use shall be this to warn us that we do not upon this score because that Jesus Christ will arise with healing under his wings upon poor sinners therefore to make bold with sin it is no great matter the healing vertue of Christ will be so much the more magnified O how desperate is this would you not think that man were out of his wits that upon presumption upon the skill and tenderness of the Physitian should without any care how or where wound himself and gash himself he hath a Physitian that will heal him you that dare be so bold to sin that grace may abound and make work for Jesus Christ know this this day you know not what the grace of Christ meaneth that make such a use of it how did this stir the Apostles spirit God forbid he doth as I may say recoil as a man startled at some horrid sight O the Lord forbid you should suck such poyson out of so sweet a flower This concerneth two sorts of persons First such as yet never knew what this healing vertue of Christ is only by the hearing of the ear they hear the Lord Jesus is able to heal the most desperate wounds and that he is willing and therefore they make bold to continue in sin they may go on to inflame the reckoning a little higher yet it is all one with Christ to pardon millions as mites to swallow up mountains as mole 〈…〉 it is true if thou respect his power but how dost thou know that he will do it for thee sinner or what hope hast thou or canst thou have while it is thus with thoe It s true if sinners do not sin away the day of grace he is willing but did ever Jesus Christ tell thee that thou shouldest be healed particularly though thou go on rebelling against him wound upon wound upon thy poor soul Surely no be not deceived sinners these are the insinuations of the wicked one this is such Gospel as the Devil preacheth when he preacheth Christ as an Angel of light but in the close you will find the Law instead of the Gospel such presumption and security usually endeth in dispair the time may come that you that make so little a matter of it may cry out and roar O your wounds you refused to be
people Fifthly There is another part of bondage under a slavish obedience that is to say such an obedience to the Law of God as nothing but a slavish fear is the principle of it and truly this puts on men to do many things they know it is written Cursed is he that continueth not in every thing that is written in the book of the Law to do it Now this sticks with the poor soul God requireth me to love him with all my heart with all my soul with all my strength and if I do not I am cursed therefore now he buckles a little to it as far as such terrors will carry him but alas he is not able to do it like a slave that doth his task while his Master stands over him with a rod or because he is sure to be beaten if he do it not not out of any love to the Master nor to his service at all what a grievous bondage is this Let but any Apprentice that hath a hard Master whom he serveth meerly out of fear as the Egyptians did their task because if they did them not they must be beaten and this maketh the yoke very heavy and uneasie also it pincheth exceedingly Now when the Lord Jesus cometh to a soul he breaks this yoke the Law genders to bondage the curse of it hath the very seeds of bondage in it Now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul letteth him see that he hath undertaken for him not only the curse of the Law being made a curse but hath set his love upon him hath paid all the debt will take him to be his son no more as a servant O now when the soul beginneth to be sensible his condition is changed that he is a Son and now hath not a cruel hard Master to serve but a Father that will pity and spare where he falleth short of his duty let him do his best this doth much facilitate the work maketh the yoke easie and the burden light his Commandments are no more so grievous to the soul as they were before Now the Law of Christ is a perfect Law of Liberty to him before it was a Law gendring bondage for alas before it was only preached to the ear and that under the penalty of such a curse now it is written in the heart now there is an eccho in the soul resounding Thy will Lord will I do when he speaks any thing as the Law of love was upon the heart of Christ in the work of our Redemption now his Law is in our hearts and therefore we delight to do his will in some measure I delight in the Law of God after the inward man as the Apostle saith as a Servant it may be for a while under his Master hardly used yet afterward he changeth his manner of dealing with him offers him great immunities it may be to be of a Servant Son in Law to the King O now the Servant will be bored he will now become a willing servant and not be dragged to obedience by terrors and fears any more but willingly yieldeth up his members weapons of righteousness to holiness now the service is hearty and free his people shall be a willing people in the day of his power O saith the Apostle Ye were the servants of sin but now thanks be to God ye have from the heart obeyed the form of doctrine delivered to you from the heart that is to say out of love it cannot else well be from the heart for whom we dread with a slavish fear we hate and while the soul looks upon God as such a Judge as a cruel Master and his Law a cruel bloody Law nothing but blood and ruine to them that come not up unto it there is a hatred of God it is impossible to love him or his service and then the service such a man doth it is not from the heart a man may serve sin and yet do some service to God out of a slavish fear as most unbelievers do therefore they pray and therefore they read and therefore they do many things and yet serve sin but they never obey from the heart until this work be done the Law of love be written in their souls now you shall go forth you shall obey no more out of fear but out of love this is a Fifth Sixthly From the terrors and fears before a mans conversion which usually seize upon the creature in order to it for truly before the Lord hath to do with our hearts we are so dead asleep with the opium of sin that there must be somewhat to rouse us to awaken us usually there is a spirit of bondage which works fear and dread and terror in the soul that is to say when the Spirit of Christ breathing in the Commandment maketh sin appear to be sin exceeding sinfull and opens some of the terrors which sin doth breed in it witnesseth to the poor creature that he is in a state of condemnation that there is no way but one with him O now the soul beginneth to be amazed and startled and knoweth not what to do this runs him to the heart he had many afflictions and troubles in the flesh before never any came so near as this and no marvel because the Spirit of Jesus Christ hath wounded him at the very heart Brethren the Law of God is as I may say an Habeas Corpus or rather Animam apprehends or claps up a soul as I may say puts him in prison and therefore the Apostle useth that expression mind you the Scripture hath concluded all under sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath shut us up together all concluded under one prison in one dungeon that the promise which is of Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe but before Faith came we were kept under the Law I pray you minde it we were kept as in a Garrison as the Learned interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being shut up together unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed it is just as it is with a Prince he proclaimeth Pardon to all his Rebellious Subjects but withall he sendeth out his Messengers his Pursuivants to apprehend throw in prison keep under Bolts and Shakles as many of them as he can apprehend this is not contrary to his mercy nor proclamation of Pardon but in order to it subordinate to it that so his Pardon offered might be accepted they might sue for it So it is here the Law doth thus shut up a soul as I may say as when there is an High-way open for a man to walk in but he will go another way there it is hedged up at last he is so hedged in he cannot tell which way in the world to get out again O then if he could but finde the open way he would go in it So it is in this case the Lord maketh
revealing himself in the soul as the Apostle speaks it pleased the Father to reveal his son in me by which means that darkness and terrour is taken away in great measure Christ is all in all the bondage you heard before it is either sin or the sad effects of sin the revelation of Christ answerably is either for holiness or else by joy and comfort wherein he meeteth with both the other the guilt the bondage he takes away to that end himself was made sin that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him it is the power of Satan him he overcame yet the power of sin that is broken also sin shall not have dominion over you c. If it be terrours fears whatsoever our blessed Saviour where he maketh himself manifest to a soul is enough to take away all but this you have in effect had before therefore no more of it here he adopts us all Joh. 8. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used in some Cities in Greece as Grot. noteth Secondly another Argument shall be this that they might serve him therefore they shall go forth while a man is under bondage he is at the command of such as he is in bondage unto and therefore cannot serve another Master whatsoever this specially respecteth that part of the bondage which concerneth sin and Satan when Satan had filled Ananias heart could he obey the will of Christ No no more could Ahab that had sold himself to commit wickedness it is impossible for a man to be a slave of sin and a servant of Christ at the same time I speak not what a man may do for an act or two but a man that doth work sin labour it hammer it in his brain forge it there art it and pollish it and with great dexterity for such a man to serve Christ ye cannot serve God and Mammon saith our Saviour mentioning one lust they are contrary one to another When a man doth wickedness with both hands earnestly there is never a hand left for Christ's service that is compleat service indeed when it is from the heart as seemeth by that opposition thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine So that the heart is the main thing if that be gone after sin we cannot serve the Lord Jesus heartily and then for the carkass the lip the eye the tongue he matters it not therefore first the Marriage-yoak must be broken between the soul and sin before they can be married to another even to the Lord Christ to serve him ye are become dead to the Law that ye might be married to another when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness mind you if under the command of sin you are free from righteousness it hath no commanding power over you at all and if a man be under the commanding power of Christ there sin hath not the command of him we must be dead to sin and so free from sin as the Apostle saith he that is dead is free from sin or else we cannot be alive to God to serve him Brethren I know that every man would be thought a servant of Christ and we look upon him as the off-scouring of the world and not worthy to live among men that would not serve the Lord poor creatures while we are under the command of sin it cannot be when a man yieldeth his members instruments of unrighteousness to unholiness and yet pretends to be a servant of Christ What is this but a mockery but be not deceived God is not mocked would you not take this to be a mockery if one come and tells you O Sir I will be your servant if you will give me this or that reward but you must give me leave to do all the service I can to your enemy you shall have the name of my service but your enemy shall have the reality of it is not this a mockery Thirdly That their services may be more chearful therefore he setteth them free from their bondage and this respecteth that part of bondage which concerneth the Concomitants even sorrow and fears and terrours and the like the Lord doth not love to have his people follow him whining he loveth a cheerful giver and a cheerful doer of his will it is much for his honour that his servants should lift up their heads for what would we say to see a poor servant go discouraged and as if scarce worth the earth he goes upon amazed with fears with sorrows sure such a servant hath a hard Master that he hath so little joy of his life therefore the Lord Jesus maketh his people go forth out of the horrible pit setteth them free from all their fears and terrours that they may with a cheerful and a large heart serve him here is love indeed that the Lord doth so sweeten his yoak and his service as that his people shall delight in it therefore saith he that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives Fourthly that their services to him may be more strong then otherwise they would a man under bonds brought down with bard bondage cannot do the service which another man can but the joy of the Lord is the strength of his people as in that of Neh. 8. 10. therefore he doth enlarge their hearts that they may run the waies of his commandments takes off the fetters for this very end a poor child of God under terrours and fears or under the prevailing of a lust have as I may say their hands manacled they cannot fight their feet are fettered they cannot walk much less run Fifthly Yet one more and that is lest a poor soul held under bondage too long should put forth his hands to sin this respects specially the bondage of sorrows and fears which are ready to swallow up many a poor creature many times my spirit is over-whelmed within me saith the Psalmist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like case the Lord will speak peace saith the Psalmist unto his people that they may not return to folly any more for if the Lord should lay his hand upon them continually pressing them they could not alway hold out but if they can find no pleasure in God nor in his waies they would be inclinable to return to their pleasures of sin as in that Psalm let not the rod of the wicked alway rest upon the lot of the righteous lest they put forth c. as you see the Psalmists heels were almost thrown up and himself upon his back his faith upon its back in this very respect O saith he if it be thus I must be plunged every morning alway in the net under the yoak of affliction in affliction and iron continually surely I have cleansed my self in vain and these rods are the rods
Take heed of returning to that Covenant of works or Covenant of life which was a yoak of our own making if our blessed Saviour hath been pleased to break it set us free shall we retâ—rn to that bondage again I doubt this is a great cause of much sorrow and heavy walking before the Lord of many a poor creature O he cannot do this and he cannot do that and therefore he doubts all is not well with him whether he have any thing to do with Christ It is true if he had made our doing our perfect obedience the condition of his Covenant it had been somewhat but he hath not but faith in him take from him for all ends and purposes not only for pardon but for strength for food for victory over our sin Now we go off this and therefore we move so heavily and cannot stir but are like a door off its hinges a Chariot off its wheels bring much bondage and trouble upon our selves and much of our time and pains is spent in poring upon this and getting healing again for this which might be spent in glorifying him Therefore beg of God to this end that he would establish you with his Princely Royal Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty the Son maketh us free by his Spirit and therefore David maketh that prayer as being sensible of this O beg this Spirit for establishment the Lord will be intreated he puts arguments into our mouths and giveth us the greatest encouragements to beg the Spirit of any other mercy that I know of as being the greatest mercy and the principal of all Gospel-grace and therefore being so great a gift poor sinners might be affraid to ask but saith he you are Fathers whose affections are finite and mixed you are not pure love yea you are evil and yet will give good gifts to your children much more will God give the Spirit this the Apostle is earnest with the Lord for that he would stablish and strengthen his people to every good Word and Work for grace is but a creature and so is weak cannot consist of it self without him therefore be earnest here Thirdly Since we are delivered from outward pressures the yoak that did gall the necks of the people of God as before hath the Lord set us above our enemies hath he before our eyes brought our Egyptians down in the red Sea of blood and shall we return thither again I speak not of the same bondage I hope the Lord will keep his people from that but I speak of a worse to be delivered from a tyrannie of man to return to a tyrannie and dominion of sin it is sad the heathens could say Servitus gravissima est sibi ipsi servire it is the heaviest yoak for a man to be yoaked with his own ends and interests to seek himself serve himself specially his sinful self to make provision for his lusts It was a sad character of Rome that Angustine giveth her Victrix gentium captiva vitiorum What are we the better for being delivered from that bondage if such as were humble then and low and meek and self-denying now are high and fierce and self-seeking proud and wanton and luxurious their whoreing hawking and hounding and spending their time in such sports which should have been laid out in publike service was lookt upon as a great evil God caused their houses and lands to spue them out I wish we be not beginning to come under that worse yoak now we are delivered from that of oppression was it not better for Israel to work in the Iron-furnace in the brick-kill then to be enslaved to their lusts in the wilderness and there to perish and was not Babylon better for them then to be at liberty and yet to become slaves to their lusts to their Idols Brethren I pray you let us look well about us every one it is true the day of the Lord it hath burned like an oven among us and many have been as stubble fully dryed put into it the bryers and brambles that did scratch and tear the people of God they are consumed God hath gone through them and consumed them and are we any thing the better are we not worse If we now melt away with the sweetness of our liberty grow luxurious and wanton wanton in opinions that men know not well what they would be but any thing so it be new and the thriving way and wanton in apparel are there not as many slaves to pride to vanity to self as there were then to the lusts of other men I beseech you which is the worse to be at the mercy of another mans lusts which can but reach the body and effect our sorrow for a time or the mercy of our own merciless lusts which will work our woe and ruine O therefore look to this then if set at liberty slie sin as he said to Lot flie for thy life c. slie fornication and youthful lusts c. said the Apostle The third part of the Exhortation then shall be to take heed how we abuse this our liberty as saith the Apostle not using our liberty as a cloak of malitiousness haply alluding to the manner of persons The Apostles scope in that place leadeth us to one part of the sense of this abusing of our liberty and that is to think they are so free now that they need not have their necks under the yoak of men at all for that goeth before exhorting them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher powers and subordinate powers is very consistent with this spiritual freedom was there ever any so free as our Saviour who is the Son that maketh us free and yet did not he submit submit to his parents was subject to them and subject to the powers under which he lived because his Kingdom was not of this world and would it suite with the head and will it not suite with the members But I hope I need not speak much to this But there is much more wherein we may abuse our liberty as children by a carrying it frowardly and rebelliously against their parents upon pretence of liberty and servants that are under the yoak it may be think they may do much in this case more then they have warrant to do because they are free it may be and their Masters haply in bondage under sin therefore shall they despise them No but count them worthy of all honour serving them in singleness of heart as unto Christ not for by-respects and ends for fear of their displeasure but for Christs sake to do it this is freedom indeed But to speak a little more generally many men think when once they have gotten their necks out of the yoak from under that bondage and those fears that they have been under they think now they are at liberty they are past
it that it might be an easie yoak to us and wherefore have we a Law written in our hearts which is but a counterpane as I may say a disposition to do the revealed will of God except we have this revealed will of his to be a rule to walk by hath the Lord Jesus then lightned the yoak sweetened it given us his example chalked out our way thereby as a pattern to us and given us strength also to do it and shall we refuse this holy Law as a rule to walk by it is true it is not now in the hand of Moses as a School-master to lash to terrifie to bring us to Christ when once we are in him but now it is a rule in the hand of Christ in the hand of a tutor that with all gentleness doth lead us by his Spirit into all truth that is to say not the knowledge but the practise that is to be led into the truth man may know much and yet be far from being led into it know nothing as he ought to know now it is a rule in the hand of a Father before it was a Lyon terribly roaring upon us hell and wrath and ruine and so it is still to every unbelieving creature who are under it as to the satisfaction of divine Justice by suffering that is to say under the curse though as a Covenant of life none is under it since Adam for I conceive it was not given for that end but under it as to satisfaction of divine justice they are now I say it is terrible to such but when the Lyon is killed by our Sampson there is sweetness in it out of the eater came meat the very Law of God that is terrible condemning affrighting a poor guilty sinner it is the delight of a David indeed not a page of the Book of God but is as I may say a hand-writing against every wicked wretch wherein he may read his doom and not a page wherein there is not something that ministers consolation to a Believer for to see the terrours of the Law which is a wounding death overwhelming a sinner is a raising of his Spirit to consider what he is delivered from well then now it is a Law of liberty Jam. 1. 25. his commands are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. but yet we are under those commands still So the Apostle was not without the Law but under the Law to Christ we make it not void by faith but establish it But thus much shall serve to be spoken to this The last Use shall be a word of comfort to poor creatures that are yet under this bondage Something of encouragement I may give to sinners that yet are rebelling against the Lord Jesus though if you continue so doing there is no hope for you yet know this that the Lord Jesus hath laid down a ransom sufficient for all and publisheth this liberty to all he setteth open the prison doors and if then you will not go free thank your selves but of this before I doubt such sinners as these will be snatching at the comfort which belongs not to them Therefore mind it Brethren you that please your selves in sin are given up to the waies of your own hearts while you are such it is not my work to comfort you at all catch not at it it concerneth you not but I speak to poor sinners that are sensible of their condition that are striving strugling groaning under the bondagè the yoak of sin or the concomitants thereof which you have heard spoken to so at large Alas may one say I doubt all is not well with me if where Jesus Christ cometh into a soul revealeth himself in a soul he brings liberty with him to that soul then I am a poor creature without Christ to this day for alas I am in grievous bondage O there is bondage of â—ears and bondage of sin It is true I do something saith one but I doubt it is nothing but a slavish obedience out of fear for this we must know Brethren that though it be true there is a fear which is meerly slavish when a sinner looks upon god as a severe terrible Judge his Law a cruel bloody Law while he seeth no mixture of mercy and love and yet with Foelix trembles or as they at the deliverance of the Law when God revealed himself in so terrible a manner trembled could not endure the sight now a man under the curse of the Law he endeavours to do what he doth upon this ground because of terrours but a child of God he hath a principle of love it is mercy it is love it is tenderness in Jesus that setteth him a going terrours indeed do amaze and astonish and fright him out of himself but it is love in Jesus Christ that setteth his soul a work to do his will yet so Brethren as that you must know there is not all fear banished out of the soul but that we may the better understand it let us consider 〈◊〉 a little distinctly First there is to be a reverent fear of the Majesty of god in all his people let us serve him with reverence and godly fear saith the Apostle for our God is c. a great God and greatly to be feared what an awe there is upon a poor peasants spirit when he appeareth before a mighty Prince so here and I doubt we have most of us cause rather to complain that there is not so much of this holy awe upon us as there ought to be O serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling fear not saith Moses for God is come to prove you and that his fear may be before your faces Fear not that is to say be not dismayed astonished God is come now to give a rule of obedience that you may serve him with reverence holy fear and trembling Secondly There ought to be a fear of offending God as a Son his Father though he were sure never to be scourged for it or because he is his Father and carryeth so much love toward him so tender of him and good toward him therefore he would not offend him Thirdly There ought to be a fear of the judgements of God upon others David was affraid of his judgements when the Angel of the Lord was there he durst not go up to worship before the tabernacle in Gibbâ—â—n because of the Angel of the Lord I am afraid of thy judgements c. Fourthly We may fear chastizements the thing I feared is come upon me saith Job since we know we do so often offend him and grieve him we may expect and fear it yea it is hardness and security for us not to fear Fifthly A man a child of God may have a fear of everlasting damnation which serveth to rouze him up when he is growing secure when â—e hath drowned his evidences blotted them and it is necessary it should be so for why else doth the Holy-Ghost even
of one as well as another grace which he hath begotten in the soul so that if a man find he thinketh he groweth in faith and thinketh he groweth in love and yet grow not in zeal for the glory of God groweth not in tenderness of heart and plyableness to his will this is not a right growth Alas how many of us then do not grow in grace indeed Seventhly Though there be an uniformity in growth yet we must not so understand it that every member groweth in the same measure with another and yet may grow also in its due proportion and so also in respect of graces there may be somewhat of truth in it but to speak the more distinctly First consider the members of the Church of Christ and our selves if we be such indeed though all the members of the Church of Christ do grow yet they do not grow all alike in the same measure the Apostle saith according to the effectual working in the measure of every part so that you see each part hath a measure every member hath not the same relation the same office in the body and so doth not require the same measure of strength or the same quantity or greatness Yea if it have a greater quantity then is meet it is a burthen and an hindrance as if the joynt of a finger should grow as much as the joynt of a mans knee would it not be monstrous and yet both joynts grow but each according to its proportion so that they grow all â—que but not â—qualiteâ— one as well as another but not one as much as another uniformiter and yet difformiter if every finger were as big as an arm what an hand would there be holding no proportion to the body though the rest grow this over-groweth its proportion It is true every child of God is not a David nor a Paul nor is every one called to those great undertakings that they were the more eminent places in the body of Christ we have the more we must look to it that we grow If a man be a Magistrate or a Minister I tell you Brethren it is not enough that they be as other men in grace and yet alas then what disproportion do some of us make in the body of Jesus Christ that stand in that relation to the body and yet O how do other members over-grow us Brethren they are not to be blamed for their growing so fast but we for our growing no fa 〈…〉 er nor any more proportionable to our relations for a Magistrate to have no more courage nor zeal then another man that is not called so to put it forth is unsuitable and so for wisdom and knowledge and so for Ministers are we as arms in the body and have scarce the strength of a little finger O how can we work for Christ do the works of our conditions if you see some eminent as blessed be his name there are eminent and have their measure of growth to their condition you should be followers of them follow after as hard as you can therefore Ministers should be ensamples to the flock in faith in puriry in holiness 1 Tim. 4. 12. an example to believe in word in conversation in faith in purity c. But alas Brethren may we not rather some of us take examples therein how weak is our faith yet I say where there are such of eminency and thou canst not reach them yet be not discouraged because thou canst not get so much light as the eye hath be not discouraged it is required there more then in another nor so much strength as an arm a leg when thou art it may be but as a little finger only there may be a proportion yea I will tell you Brethren pitty us pray for us Magistrates and Ministers for I do verily believe there are none fall so much short of our proportion of growth in grace according to our relations as we do But this is but the first And then secondly for the graces in every believer now the measure of every grace its growth as I think is much more hard to determine whether all graces do grow according to the proportion of the growth of any one of them that is to say whether love to God and zeal to his glory do grow according to the measure of every mans faith and so patience according to the measure of his faith indeed I am at a stand here if that one habit of grace did beget another faith did beget love it would be the more clear because then according to the strength of the causes the effect would be a strong cause a strong effect the habits of grace in us being not voluntary agents but I take it for granted that the efficient cause of all grace one as well as another is the same Spirit of the Father and the Son it is the supply of the Spirit as the Apostle calls it whereby we grow in any grace now the Spirit of God being a most free agent is not tyed up by a necessity of nature to work alike upon the same heart to the increase of every grace though he do work to the growth of every grace yet whether he doth equally work to the increase of them all So that what proportion of grace a Believer hath in one grace he hath the same proportion of strength in another is doubtful specially since the Lord who works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure knoweth what tryals he hath for every one of us some in one kind some in another some greater tryals for their faith and some for their self-denyal and some for their love may accordingly work but this is not so much material if we can find we grow in every grace of the Spirit whether we do grow alike in the measure of love as in the measure of faith or zeal or spiritualness as it will be very hard to judge considering how hard it is to judge of the strength of our habits by their acts which may accidentally be inter 〈…〉 itted and interrupted and considering whatever knowledge we have at the best of the faculties of our souls and their workings and so of the habits of grace in them So I take it 〈◊〉 is not so much considerable if we could come to know it only if we be sure we grow in all and that we grow according to the measure proportionable to our condition or relation to the body this the seventh Eighthly and 〈…〉 stly that I shall speak to the opening the nature of this growth in grace growth here hath no determined 〈◊〉 until death until we come actually to the spirits of just men made perfect in nature there is a determinate time for growth in quantity which is properly growth about thirty years the causes of it I leave School-men to dispute it is not so proper for us in this place in nature there is in this life yea haply
worse as the Apostle saith evil men and seducers grow worse and indeed we must know this Brethren we do grow either better or worse as haply afterward we shall have occasion to speak to at large either the house of David groweth stronger or the house of Saul either the flesh or the spirit prevails in the hearts of the people of God there are two sorts of persons whose condition is under this consideration First Such as have profest the name of Jesus Christ and yet alas though they were green for a while now their leaf is fallen their light is gone out they are fallen from their place of standing among the Saints in appearance never was there an age more fruitful in such barrenness then this is alas like a Fir-tree shaken with the wind they lose their fruit yea are turned up by the roots and now are become as a dry stick fit for nothing but to burn the latter end of such men is worse then their beginning they are trees twice dead not only dead by nature but have lost their profession which was a visible life whereby they did appear to men to be alive and is there any hope of such a tree living again truly Brethren very little I have oberved it and I wish I could look upon it with a more trembling heart that such men as these grow worse fall off and decline they are the saddest hard-hearted desperate prophane wretches afterward or the most besotted worldlings and seldom are they recovered I know not whether I may speak to any such at this time I hope the best things of you if there be any such let me tell thee thou art in a more dangerous condition then those that never knew God to this day Secondly Such as never yet had appearance of being planted into Jesus Christ and so no growth in them but are yet in their naturals know this day you are growing worse and worse the Gospel doth not return in vain you are worse every day then other every Sermon then other the Gospel is a savour of death to death to you as there is nothing doth condemn sinners like to the Gospel rejected so nothing doth harden sinners more then the Gospel and those precious promises which men give the hearing to day by day but alas that is all Isaiah the most Evangelical Prophet he cometh with a make you the ears of this people heavy that hearing they might hear and not perceive If the Son be not kissed when he is offered to sinners but they turn their backs upon him he will be angry if the more worthy person be suitor and be denyed and slighted and the heel lift up against him will not this provoke him think you surely it will therefore God doth usually give up such to a reprobate mind yea even for despising the light of nature much more the Gospel and giveth them up to hardness of heart you shall ordinarily see where the Gospel cometh at the first among a people it works more mightily then afterward at first though men are prophane yet they have not had the Sun-shine to harden the Clay into a Brick the Word of God this Gospel and means of growth it is as fire the coals of love and either they do melt or else burn sinners into stones and bricks and sear their consciences that they are even past feeling hence it is we have so many desperately wicked persons among us O how sad a condition is this Brethren to be growing worse and worse under the greatest mercy and love that the Lord manifesteth to any Sinners in good earnest do you think it is the way to heaven to grow worse and worse or the way to the Chambers of death Thou knowest thy self to be a more desperate prophane wretch then formerly making no conscience of that which heretofore thy soul it may be hath trembled at now it goeth down without regret or else if not in open prophaneness if thou meltest away in secret wickedness that no eye takes notice of and art worse and worse what will the end of these things be the Saints that grow they grow up into the likeness and image and glory of Christ they grow up into him and thou growest up into the likeness of the Devil up in t 〈…〉 im What will become of you O that sinners would but lay these things to heart if heretofore thou wast overtaken with a sin it may be it was some trouble to thee now thou wilt work the works of the Devil thy will is ingaged and so much the more haynous the sin is what can you expect Brethren O that God would open sinners eyes that they might but see whether they are going what they are doing and they could but consider what bitterness this will be in the latter end to grow worse and worse The next Vse shall be then Brethren to take an account of our selves whether we grow or go backward yea or no this is not the work of every day Brethren for it will hardly be discernable if we daily should put our selves to the tryal we should do nothing else it would eat up that time and those endeavours to grow which ought to be laid out upon it that so it may afterward appear a man that should spend every day in casting up his whole Books to see how he groweth in his estate would hâ—nder himself of those endeavours to thrive that must be used else he cannot thrive besides this growth is not the work of a day usually though sometimes it may be so but of moneths or a year or so if a man should sit by his tree or set his eye upon his child to behold his motion or growth he would lose his labour it is better seen afterward as in another place afterward shall be spoken besides if we should daily judge of our growth and try it alas what inconstant judgements should we make of our condition for some daies we are up and some daies down it may be some daies under the power of a temptation and other daies set at liberty from them sometimes the Merchant maketh a losing bargain sometimes a winning sometimes his cash cometh in and sometimes he is all in disbursments therefore he must not he cannot judge of his estate whether he prosper or thrive by this or that day but after a while he should look to it cast up his Books see how it standeth Brethren it is impossible to perswade a Merchant except he be Bankrupt and knoweth it is so and therefore hath no mind to look upon his misery else I say you cannot perswade a Merchant but he will take his set times for perusing his Books casting up his accounts and not let it run too long neither for fear of the worst and if any should advise him to the contrary he would take him to be his enemy suspect him for one that would undo him and yet alas how easie
our selves with a hope-well which we ought not to do we should strive to this of Thomas My Lord my God my beloved is mine and I am his canst thou say so upon good grounds thou mayst be a justified and a sanctified person which is done by the direct act of faith which is acted upon the Word of Promise and Christ in that Promise which the poor soul doth close with taking Christ for better for worse but now this is by the reflect act of faith and is grounded upon experience of our own condition ordinarily I see I feel that I do believe that I have chosen the Lord Jesus for my portion and therefore he is mine and I am his I have many sealings of his love to me many kisses of his lips it is given to me to believe to be upright with him I can approve my soul to him as Peter Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee thus the soul by laying up those experiences that it hath of God and laying them together doth from all come through grace to be able to conclude that the Lord Jesus is his to a full assurance of hope and faith and what an heaven upon earth is this Well labour after it though your conditions may be safe without it yet not so comfortable to your selves nor so honourable to him nor so profitable likely to others all which considerations if well weighed and improved I presume are motives enough to it You have the first thing in this general Exhortation and that is wherein we are to labour to grow and increase Now for the Motives in a few particulars and truly the first shall be that in the very Text we must labour for it because he hath promised it therefore we must pray for it and use all other means for prayer is one as afterward we shall speak God had promised he would bring Israel into Canaan but they must fight for it first to dispossess the Canaanites and so he promiseth health and strength to his people as choice mercies but they must eat and drink and use Physick as often as occasion serveth and it is an encouragement so to do because God hath promised us those things so far as good for us therefore use the means he promiseth fruitfulness to the earth what shall the plough-man therefore cast the plough in the hedge and never strike stroak it is true if God bid them stand still and only see the salvation of God it is somewhat else they must work and serve providence in the use of means so here it is promised O saith the Apostle work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is he that worketh Labour to be more spiritual in prayer to grow therein for it is his Spirit that beareth the heavier end of the burthen he helpeth our infirmities let this be an encouragement to stir up our souls to it because it is promised think not Brethren it is enough to sit still and wait when this will fall into your mouths or that an idle complaining will do it no no you must be up and doing and labouring to use the means and the more because he hath promised Secondly Every man would grow and come on in other things therefore we should much more labour to grow in the best things you would your selves and have your children come on and thrive in body you think their meat is not well bestowed as we use to say if they should not prosper at all but should devour like Pharaohs lean kine and be never the fatter you would grow in your names and in your estates and every man would be adding bag to bag house to house land to land and here they never think they are come to a full growth O that the Lord would but make you half so dilgent in taking half the pains to grow in grace as they do that grow in the world how should we prosper It is observable that the Apostle saith of Gaius that good man he wisheth he may prosper even as his soul prospereth it seemeth the good man his inward man was renewed though haply his estate or his body might wax old and decay yet his soul prospered and he maketh that a pattern of the prosperity of his outward man may we not say on the other hand O that your souls did prosper even as your bodies prosper You are fat and flourishing and feed your selves without fear much pampering of the flesh but the poor soul O how lean and thin and consumpsit it is what fat purses and lean souls Brethren whatever you profess while it is thus I must tell you there is much preposterousness in your endeavours that all this ado should be made for a lump of clay and the soul the precious soul the price of the blood of Jesus Christ neglected men can rise at midnight and with endâ— to follow their business set it forward if need so require and other occasions c. O if we could be perswaded to use but the like diligence for the soul upon the like occasion Thirdly Consider if you grow not you decline either you increase or decrease either you ebb or flow wax or wain for it is like a man that rows against the stream if he go not forward he is carried backward So it is here we have a stream of lusts to row against and if we go not forward be sure we go backward and therefore if you observe it the Apostle doth threaten the Hebrews upon this account because they went not forward with Apostacy they were in danger of falling away quite from God that go not forward therefore consider this seriously and surely it will put us on to look to our growth there is not an Ordinance wherein we appear before the Lord but either we soften or harden we get something or lose something by it it returneth not in vain not the Word nor any other appointment of his Fourthly Another shall be this we cannot else withstand enemies bear crosses alas a child is over-born by a touch he cannot withstand a potent enemy therefore we must labour to be strong men whom resist saith the Apostle stedfast in the faith there is no stedfastness but by faith nor any resisting but by this stedfastness if we give ground the Devil will pursue the victory if we turn our backs upon him now we cannot keep our ground except there be some strength It s true every child of God is born with his armour on him as is fabled of the race of those Giants so the Saints have their breast-plate of faith to keep the heart and the shield to preserve the body but as they grow in strength so are they able to weild their shield yea it groweth stronger and more able to bear off a blow Alas our Saviour saw his Disciples were not able to bear a temptation at that time John 18. 8. therefore let them go
others that still they begin with bewailing their iniquities expressing their sorrow for them because no man was to appear before God but with pure hands and pure feet and therefore since we gather soil continually there is need of acknowledging our iniquities and then he is faithful and just to forgive them there is the exercise of Faith if any where else that is it whereby we wrestle with God in Prayer Prayer is indeed a wrestling with God as Jacob it was his faith whereby he overcame and got the blessing a man must pray in Faith else it is nothing worth at all God accepteth no service but where there is Faith mixed there is Love exercised toward God and to his people we go to him it is an acting of our desire toward him our delight in his presence and love to his Saints when we can pray feelingly for them And so Humility O saith Abraham Who am I dust and ashes And Jacob I am less then the least of thy mercies In a word all the Graces are set awork in prayer that is a working prayer indeed our thankfulness and all our supplications in all things are to be made known c. Every wheel is set a going in the soul if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectual prayer and therefore by the exercises of the Graces they are increased do you think that by acting Faith upon the Promises pleading them as Jacob did Thou saidst thou wouldst do me good c. and so in many other places Remember thy Word to thy Servant whereupon thou hast caused me to hope saith the Psalmist That this doth not increase Faith and so the acting of Love increase it therefore Luther a man of much Prayer was a man of much Grace of much Courage and Zeal and Faith and Diligence in the Service of God And that famous Servant of God Mr. Bolton It is said of him that six times a day he prayed and so others observe it when you will where you see a growing Christian indeed follow him to his Closet you shall find that man a man of much prayer So David and Daniel c. But Secondly There is another reason for it Because Prayer doth carry the soul to a nearer communion with God O it is the gaining acquaintance with God acquaint thy self with God that thou mayst have peace with him and thou shalt have prosperity and therefore when Job discovered such weakness in his impatiency saith that friend of his Surely thou restrainect prayer from the Almighty if thou didst maintain communion with God it would not be thus with thee Now whither should we go with empty vessels but to the fountain whither should poor weak wounded lame feeble creatures go but to him that hath all power to heal and strengthen them God hath treasures of grace it is true and he is not streight-hearted he giveth liberally but the treasury is lockt and prayer is the key and faith the hand that turns it we must to the treasury if we would be rich in grace rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which of us would be poor if we had a warrant to go to the Treasury to fetch what we please O what pains would there be the Treasurer should have imployment enough if God would but perswade us it is so in this case we should visit him more the great Treasurer of heaven the Lord Jesus in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid yea and of faith and all grace for of his fulness we receive grace for grace O how would we ply him give him no rest he would have much more of our company but that we have slight perswasions of these things and make use of prayer as a duty and a task many of us and not a singular means of improving our graces Brethren were we but as much in Communion with God as David we might have the strength of David it is but ask and have knock and it shall be opened the Spirit which works all this will not be denyed if you ask and ask not amiss as you heard lately God will expend willingly his treasures of grace upon us and pour out the fulness of his Spirit upon us but he will be enquired of for these things Well then if we would grow in grace we must be much in prayer I do believe some of us can speak it but too experimentally that when we have found corruptions prevail and our selves foyled and brought under this hath been the reason we have restrained prayer from the Almighty either we have neglected this duty or else we have been slight and slubbering shuffled it if not out of doors yet to the very door and generally observe it we can more easily find time for any thing then for prayer every other business hath its hours to attend upon but if any thing be neglected it must be prayer or else posted over Whereas alas it would no more hinder our business then our meal-times do which must be had and I know Brethren that some of us are able to say it that we have seen when the prospering presence of the Lord hath been with us we have come on more and done more in a short time then at another time in many times as long a time and yet so wretched hearts we have that we content our selves with any thing in this duty if we appear before the Lord we think it is enough we do not strive unto prayer and watch unto prayer and labour by blowing the green wood that will hardly kindle to get it on a flame before we go out of his presence O Jacob would not let him go without a blessing Brethren in what a sad manner do we many times rise off our knees with our hearts further off from God then we came is this to obtain a blessing no no we must take pains in this work if we would grow the Lord perswade our hearts Alas you will say you have prayed and prayed and yet for ought you can perceive you grow not To this I might answer many things First Dost thou find that hereby thou never gettest thy heart in a better frame art thou never wrought up to some sweet frame of heart in respect of faith and love and humility Why here is an improving this is the main thing in prayer when we can find our hearts wrought up to such a frame it is the very growth it self in a great part therefore thou art mistaken Secondly If thou do not find it may be sometimes such warnings and notwithstanding all the pains thon hast sometimes been blowing at the coal until thy arm ake with holding the bellows and thy heart akes and yet thou canst not get thy faith and thy affections into a frame but thou art as dead and dull as before Now in such a case observe it dost thou not gain thus much by it to have viler
alas they are but bottles themselves if Christ be not in them and there found to a soul and sought by a soul they are dry and sapless when many a rich man in hearing a Sermon hath a qualm cometh over his heart and he beginneth to be a little sick of sin which the Word hath lanced and it strikes to the heart what doth he do alas he chears himself with this Surely if I were such a sinner God would not regard me God would never have blessed me as he hath done therefore this is but a foolish melancholly fit The drunkard and the wanton can eat and drink and sing and dance down twenty such pills as these though they troubled them a little at the first they make a shift to claw it off The civil good-natured man though he see and know himself to be a sinner yet he is none of the worst he doth much good in the place where he is yea he prayeth and heareth and keepeth Sabbaths and thinks this shall make amends for all and so walks in the sparks of his own kindling but alas the end of these things will not be rest for they shall lie down in sorrow and shall have it from the hand of God too then who can resist it when lifted up or heal his blow when it is given I tell you Brethren I doubt this is the grand imposture of most of our hearts for it can hardly be but we must sometime or another be convinced our condition by nature is very sad and forlorn and men are not men if they be not carried forth to seek some course-for their escaping and how few alas reach the Lord Jesus therefore we mnst needs stick somewhere short of him Ah the Lord grant that none of us who think upon more probable grounds then others and others think so of us too that we are such as come to Jesus Christ that we sit not down in any thing on this side him for if we do we perish Therefore I say the soul that cometh to Jesus Christ goeth out of all alas if he have never so much of the world profits pleasures at will he is as rich as another and hath as much content in relations suitable to his hearts as another and it may be as much in praying fasting hearing using of the Ordinances as another and yet all this is nothing to him satisfieth him not he cannot take up with it they are but husks they will not satisfie however they may fill Thirdly There is a coming unto Jesus Christ it is not a going towards him but a coming to him this is builded much what upon the willingness of Jesus Christ to receive them this desire after him haply more fitly may be annexed to the power of Christ to save to the utmost O when the soul knoweth this O then that I had him that I were in him but now when the soul cometh to understand is perswaded he is willing to receive all that come Well then the Spirit quickning perswading the soul resolves I will venter upon him I will go and cast my self upon him and bear my self upon him hang all my weight upon him and this also he is taught of God this is imprest upon his Spirit by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus this is the drawing nigh yea not nigh to him but coming unto him this is the touch of faith if it be never so secret a touch of faith that others take no notice of yea that a poor soul through the fears and troubles that are upon him and earnestness of Spirit to have all quieted and cleansed and done away forthwith thinketh he doth not he hath not touched the Lord Jesus yet he may have touched him and be come unto him if he be carried out in his affections indeed and in truth beyond all count all as nothing as dung and dross as an hungry man would prefer a piece of bread before much riches he cannot eat nor drink gold nor silver and so it is here he is resolved upon it that he will lie at the pool of Bethesda his eyes shall be up and are up to him he will hang on him not let him go except he shake him offâ— into hell O this is a soul indeed that cometh to Jesus Christ Fourthly He cometh to him with words too at least heart-words if not words of confession I will wrap up these things as fast as I can I doubt I stay too long in the first part words of confession and words of petition of confession so the poor Prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son O I have sinned from the womb conceived in sin born in iniquity I have sinned before thee not regarding thy all-seeing eye desperately against light against knowledge against mercy against the blood of the Lord Jesus against all that grace whereby thou hast waited upon me to be gracious O I am no more worthby to be called thy sun O I am not worthy to lift up mine eye toward heaven saith the poor Publican I am not worthy to come near to the Temple to come among the company of the people of God but stands afar off and there acknowledgeth his vileness Ah so it is with many a poor soul he deserveth not to be owned by the Lord nor by any of his if he fall upon me as a mill-stone to grind me to power he doth me no wrong Secondly With words of petition to him that he would have mercy upon us that he would pardon and heal and give himself to us indeed that he would be our God a soul that is throughly sensible of his want of Christ cryeth our after him not with a still listless desire but the heart maketh a noise unto the Lord O give me Christ or else I dye Lord Jesus save my poor soul else I perish O sin is ready to swallow me up O the grave and hell are ready to shut their mouths upon me save me or else I perish as they to Christ the waves and billows of thy displeasure are the shaking and breaking of many poor souls O what mone many times will a poor soul that wants the Lord Jesus make to him lead me to the rock that is higher then I O how he sucks the promises and every argument he can fetch out of them he cometh with it and laies it before the Lord yea every letter of his name the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful c. he pleadeth to the Lord O thy name is great to the ends of the earth therefore pardon me O mine iniquity is great therefore pardon thy faithfulness thy mercy thy promise thy dear Son the highest pledge of thy love that came to save sinners the price is paid the greatest part is done already all that a poor soul can find he will then make use of before the Lord and
love in drawing thee bringing thee to come to him and will he now change his mind It is true if he were as man he might repent but the Lord is not as man O what comfort is here what encouragement is this Secondly He will not cast them out of his Church that is his Kingdom his Family his School his Vineyard he will not cast them out for if there be this coming to Jesus Christ there is faith and by that faith as we are made one with Jesus Christ so also with all his members so saith the Apostle we are members one of another ye are come saith the Apostle to Mount-Sion and to the assembly of the first-born that is to say you are gathered into the flock of Christ and out of this ye shall not be cast it may come to pass that through the ignorance of men they may be cast out of the visible Church or Churches of Christ and have little fellowship and communion with them and it cannot but be a burthen to a gracious spirit and oh that the Lord would so clear up his mind that we might not thus by mis-apprehension be a burden each to other but here is the comfort if we thus come to Jesus we are of the invisible Church and he that knoweth the heart knoweth his own image there his own hand-writing there every spark of his own kindling there and cannot be deceived and therefore there is no fear he will not cast away out of this Church the assembly of the first-born not out of this his family will a Parent cast out his child that he hath begotten in his own image because of some deformity it may be and imperfection that it doth not resemble the father in or because of its weakness in those parts which it hath even grace for grace we have from the Lord Jesus though weak and imperfect and will he cast out surely no. Thirdly He will not cast out that is to say he will not send away empty cast them out of his presence when they come to him neither at our first coming no nor our after-coming unto him Not at our first coming where is the soul that can say that he did thus come to Jesus Christ and was refused was sent away it may be thou camest full full of thy self not with such an empty hand to take him it may be thou camest with a false heart and then well might he cast thee cut for he knoweth how the heart stands towards him it may be thou wast troubled only with the smart of sin and not the filthiness the putrifaction of the wound and loathsom nature of it and wouldst have Christ only to have served thy turn and then wouldst have turned thy back upon him alas he knoweth this and therefore he resisteth the proud a man of a Pharisaical spirit a man of a Laodicean temper that is rich and needeth nothing cometh to Christ for a complement thou comest to him whole not sick nor wounded if thou didst and with such a heart as we have said I cannot believe that the Lord Jesus would have cast thee out no more then I can believe that be can lie who is truth it self O who would not venture upon this Jesus Christ be his condition never so sad he will not refuse if we come to him we perish for our not coming Secondly Even in our after-comings to him he will not cast out tell me when didst thou ever come before the Lord with a heart sensible of thy want of him with a renewing of the acts of self-denyal being nothing in thy self that thou weâ—test away empty did ever any hungering soul come to this Ordinance where we have the most royal dainties that ever it self affords in some degree even the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus the strong wines of consolation and didst thou go away empty surely no he that cometh full goeth away empty but he that cometh empty goeth away filled with some refreshing Haply thou mayst be put to it to wait a little while for it but have it thou shalt If either the Lord Jesus wanted a fulness of mercy there were not room enough in his heart for us all it were something or if he wanted propensity and bowels it were something if he were not a merciful pittiful high-Priest or if he did not know our meanings by our very looks or if he did not know our hearts where they are upright it were something indeed there were some ground to be discouraged but who can suppose any of these O that we could more strongly close with these with what confidence should we then come to him and how full a recompence of reward should we find even in the first fruits here â—f there were no more Fourthly He will not cast them out of heaven for every child of God as I may say hath one foot in heaven already as an unbeliever hath one foot in hell already where our hope is there our hearts are O that I could â—ay they are there they should be there there is our Anchor in heaven there the Lord Jesus is our head is who hath taken possession for us and went to prepare a place for us and therefore the works of grace in the soul are called things that have salvation he will not cast them out no by no means two negatives do deny more veâ—emently some shall be cast out at the last day yea the Kingdoms children Members of the Church and such as have lived under the Ordinances as the Jews did strangers others any that hear and believe and obey the Lord Jesus shall be received in Now Brethren our hearts are so vain we can scarce settle upon it to think of the woful condition that will be to be cast out from the Lord Jesus but no man that cometh to Christ shall be cast out O then it is not greatness shall enter in nor riches nor beauty nor learning nor gifts nor any of all these but meerly the coming unto Jesus Christ he will never cast out such a soul You have seen already what it is to come to Jesus Christ in many particulars and what is necessarily presupposed and such he will not cast out no in no wise or sort whatsoever but alas the difficulty is to perswade poor creatures of this that are upon the turning pin many can say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean but the willingness of Christ to accept of poor sinners is that we many times doubt very much of and it is not the tongue of men nor Angels that can perswade a man to this and well it is for us that it is so for then the Faith of poor creatures would consist in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God only let me lay before your hearts and my own a few considerations from Scripture which if the Lord be pleased to breath in them may be a support
mans bowels though as hard as an Adamant as the lightning melteth the sword the scabbard being untouched There is no standing before the power of Gods anger or his love Zech. 12 10. 10. By this the â—oul groweth up from strength to strength terror and sorrow doth weaken the soul exceedingly The joy of the Lord is his peoples strength Where will men ripen if not in the Sunshine 2 Chro. 32. 25. Hos 2. 15. Psal 60 11. 2 King 20. 3. Mat. 7. 3. Mat. 23. 4. Mat. 7. 22 23. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Luk. 10. 20. 1 Tim. 4. 13. Mat. 7. 14. Acts 26 7. Doct. 1. Gen. 17. 1. 2 Kin. 20. 3. Psal 1. 1 2. Phil. 3. 20. Eccles 10. 16. Psal 1. 1. Ephes 5. 12. Râ—m 12. 2. Prov. 14. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Ephes 5. 12. 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 17. Act. 26. 17. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Psal 8. 4. Prov. 3. 17. Matth. 1â— Gal. 6. 16. Eccl. 12. 10. Colos 4. 5. Mat. 10. 16. 2 Sam. 21. 1 2. Rom. 10. 2. Phil. 3 〈◊〉 Eccl. 7. 16. Mat. 10. 16. Gen 6. 9. Gen. 6. 9. Num. 14. from 6. to 10. Gal 2 12 13 14. 1 Cor. 11. 1. Cant. 1. 8. Rom. 7. 14. Isa 64. 5. Rom. 12 8. Gal. 6. 1. Prov. 4. 27. Deut 5. 32 Psal 39. 1. Acts 18. 25. Mat. 2. 8. Heb. 12. 13. Prov. 4. 25. Ephe. 5. 15. Ier. 20. 10. 2 Sam. 12. 14. â—er 20. 10. 2 Cor. 10. 32. Rev. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 8. 9 10 11. Rom. 14. 2 Pet. 2â— Col. 4. Psal 119. Isa 53. 6. Psal 95. 〈◊〉 Vse 1. Ioh. 15. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 12. 1 Cor. 8. 13. Ier. 7. Mat. 15. 22. Isa 29. 13. Luke 18. 11. Ier. 10. 25. Ephes 4. 8. Rom. 8. 1. Ephes 4. 17. Psal 69. 12. Gal. 4 29. Gen. 21 9. Ier. 20. 10. Psal 1. 1. Prov. 19. 16. He that despiseth his way shall die Ier. 48. 10. Mal. 1. 14. Ier. 44. 16. Acts 19. 24. Mat. 7. 24. Mat. 23. 14. Luke 13. 24. Mat. 27. 13. Cant. 1. 8. Mat. 24. 12. Gal. 2. 13. and 14. Gal. 6. 1. Gal. 6. 1. Ioh. 15. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 12. 1 Cor. 7. 16. 1 Pet. 3. 2. Ier. 14. 10. Psal 95. Psal 16. 8. Psal 25. 15. 1 Cor. 7. 24. Col. 3. 6. Col. 2. 2. Heb. 5. 14. Prov. 4. 25. Psal 119. 59. Iob 19. 28. Luke 23. 34. Eccl. 5. 6. Isa 44. 15. Prov. 3. 6. 1 Sam. 27. Psal 119. 5. Psal 25. Prov. 14. 16. Rom. 12. 3. Prov. 26. 27. 1 Kings 18. 21. Heb. 12. 13. Mat. 8. 20. Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 14. 23. Heb. 12. 12. 〈…〉 Phil 4. 13. 1. Sam. 2. 9. Isa 35. 8. Psal 119. 5. Doctrine Col. 4. 5. Cant. 2. 7. Psal 111. 10. Psal 2. 10. Deut. 4. 6. Psal 101. 2. Prov. 4. 5. 7. Rom. 1. 22. Phil. 3. 13. Prov. 17. 24. Prov. 4. 25. Psal 73. 25. Eccles 2. 14. Eccles 10. 2. Prov. 14. 8. Ioh. 14. 6. Hos 13. 13. Hos 13. 13. 2 Sam. 24. 10. Psal 107. 17. Mat. 10. 16. Eccles 12. 1. Ioh. 9. 4. Prov. 10 5. Eccles 9 10. 1 Cor. 15 41. Cant. 8. 12. 1 Sam. 18. 23. 2 Iâ—h 2. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Pet. 1. 10 11. v. 5 6 7 8. Deut. 8. 18. Hag. 1. 6. Prov. 10 7. 1 Cor. 1. 25. Iames 5 〈…〉 Hab. 2. 11. 1. Cor. 3. 19. 1 Ioh. 2. 16. Luke 12. 20. Ioh. 6. 27. 1 Tim. 6. 17. Psal 73. 22. Ier. 42. 22. 1 Tim. 6. 5. Prov. 26. 16. Verse 12. Mat 11. 19. Iob 11. 12 Ier. 8. 8. 1 Thes 1. 22. Eccles 10. 1. Eccles 8. 1. Prov. 12. 15. 2. Cor. 3 18. Isa 30. 5. Gal. 5. 16. Mat. 13. 3. 4. Verse 11. 13. Verse 14 15. Verse 19. c. Iohn 16. 25. Chap. 24. 3. Chap. 24. 37. Verse 42 43. Verse 44. Math. 13. 25. Verse 13. Plut. Problem 1 Tim. 4. 5. So Grotius Luke 12. 25. Psal 45. 14. Iudg. 14. 11. Math. 19. 15. Verse 2. Verse 6. Rev. 6. 10. 2 Pet. 3. 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 17. Matth. 3. Isa 58. 1. Mica 6. 9. 1 Thes 4. 16. Acts 3. 21. Vntil the time of the restitution of all things Verse 6. Chap. 24. v. 36. Chap. 24. v. 4â— Chap. 24. ver 51. Isa 23. 12. Isa 47. 1. Jer. 46. 11. 1 Thes 1. 9. 2 King 19. 21. 2 Pet. 2. 20. Rom. 10. 10. Mat. 5. 16. 2 Tim 3. 5. Verse 8. Verse 5. 〈◊〉 Ioh. 〈◊〉 9. 2 Pet. 2. 22. Luke 21. 34. Verse 6. Mat. 13. Mat. 20. 26. Verse 2. Verse 3 and 4. 1 Iohn 2. 20. And many other places 〈◊〉 55. 1. 〈◊〉 King 8. 27. Isa 47. 13. Verse 11. Mat. 7. 22. Mat. 7. 23. Amos 3. 2. 1 Ioh. 2. 3. Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Mat. 7. 37. Iohn 7. 46. Mat. 7. 29. Mica 5. 4. Isa 40. Mat. 11. â—9 18. 3. Ioh. 13. 10. 12. 14. Mat. 20. 21. Deut. 6. 6. Luk. 1. 66. Psal 1. 19. 11. Col. 3. 16. Mat. 15. 16. Luke 24. 45. 1 Cor. 3. 1 2. Luc. 24. 25. Isa 5â— Acts 26. 28. Acts 24. 25. Heb. 2. 1. Iam. 5. 25. Mat. 13. 14 19. 2 Pet. 1. 13. Phil. 3. 18. I told you often and now tell you weeping with more affection then before Eccles 12. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 1 Chron. 29. 18. Ver. 9. and 17. 2 Pet. 1. 13. Mat. 21. 30. Vse 1. Eph. 4. 2 Pet. 1. 12. 1 Thes 5. 20. 1 Iohn 2. 20. 1 Ioh 2. 21. 〈◊〉 Thes 4. 9. Phil. 3. 1. Verse 18. 1 Cor. 5. 9. Col. 3. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 2. 1 Tim. 4. 14 15 16. Mat. 13. 52. Phil. 3. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. It grieved Peter when Christ came over so often with it Lovest thou me Ioh. 21. 17. Heb. 1. 1. Eccl. 12. 10. They had the same manna but were allowed to dress it diversly Isa 28. 10. Phil. 4. 3. 1. Phil. 3. 18. Numb 21. 5. Gal. 3. 2 Thes 2. 10 11. Rom. 1. 2. 1 Thes 4. 9 10. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 2 Cor. 5. 16. Luk. 21. 34. 2 Pet. 2. 3. â— Cor. 11. 30. Mat. 13. 37 3â— 39. Doct ver 10. Mat. 7. 22. Mat. 7. 23. Ioh. 3. 29. Mat. 9. 15. Mat. 22. 2. Râ—v 19. 9. Râ—v 31. 29. The High Priest to m 〈…〉 ry only a V 〈…〉 gin Lev. 21. 1 〈…〉 2 Cron. 29 30. Phil. 2. 6. Hâ—b 1. 3. Isâ— â—3 8. Rom. 8. 32. Ioh. 3. 16. Ezek. 16. 3. Heb. 1. 3. Isa 53. 4. Cant 5. 10. Isa 9. Isa 54. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 10. 42. Heb. 4. 15. Ioh. 3. 16. Ioh. 4. 10. Ioh. 17 9. Act. 5. Gen. 34. 8 11 11. Prov. 1. uâ—t Eph 5. 25. 1 Sam. 18. 25. Colos 2. 15. Ioh. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 11 2. Ioh. 3. 29. Isa 53. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2 Câ—â— 11. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Gal. 3 2. Mat. 1. 14. Deut. 22. 23. Lat. Alex. Gen. Dier l. 2. Page 58. One promising another were called Sponsus Sponsa Ezek. 16. Not great Deut. 7. 7. Nor good Jos 24. 23. they were Idolaters