foundation There may be joy in a title as well as in possession 3. In contemplation The consideration and serious thoughts of heaven do affect a gracious heart and fill it with pleasure tho it self be as if in a wilderness The near appproach to a desired good doth much affect the heart Moses was surely more pleased with the sight of Canaan from Pisgah than with the hopes of it in the desert A travellers delight is more raised when he is nearest his journeys end and a hungry stomach hath a greater joy when he sees the meat approaching which must satisfy the appetite As the Union with the object is nearer so the delight is stronger Now this delight the Soul hath in duty is not a delight of fruition but of desire hope or contemplation Gaudium viae not patriae 1. We may consider delight as Active or Passive 1. Active which is an act of our Souls in our approaches to God When the heart like the Sun rouzeth up itself as a Gyant to run a spiritual race 2. Passive Which is Gods dispensation in approaches to us and often met with in our chearful addresses to God Isa 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and works righteousness When we delightfully clasp about the Throne of grace God doth often cast his arms about our necks Especially when chearful prayer is accompanyed with a chearful obedience This joy is when Christ meets us in prayer with a be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thy request granted The active delight is the health of the Soul the passive is the good complexion of the Soul The one is mans duty the other Gods peculiar gift The one is the inseparable property of the new birth the other a separable priviledge There may be a joy in God when there is little joy from God There may be Gold in the Mine when no flowers on the surface 2. We may consider delight as setled or transient As Spiritual or Sensitive 1. A setled delight In strong and grown Christians when prayer proceeds out of a thankfulness to God a judicious knowledg and apprehension of God The nearer to God the more delight As the motion of a stone is most speedy when nearest its Center 2. A Sensitive delight As in persons troubled in mind there may be a kind of delight in prayer because there is some sense of ease in the very venting itself And in some because of the novelty of a duty they were not accustom'd to before Many prayers may be put up by persons in necessity without any Spiritual delight in them As crazy persons take more Physick than those that are healthful and observe the Spring and Fall yet they delight not in that Physick The Pharisee could pray longer and perhaps with some delight too but upon a sensual ground with a proud and a vaunting kind of chearfulness a delight in himself When the Publican had a more spiritual delight Though a humble sorrow in the consideration of his own vileness yet a delight in the consideration of Gods mercy This sensitive delight may be more sensible in a young than in a grown Christian There is a more sensible affection at the first meeting of friends though more solid after some converse As there is a love which is called the love of the espousals As it is in sorrow for sin so in this delight A young convert hath a greater torrent a grown Christian a more constant stream As at the first conversion of a sinner there is an overflowing joy among the Angels which we read not of after though without question there is a settled joy in them at the growth of a Christian An elder son may have a delight in his Fathers presence more rooted firm and rational than a younger child that clings more about him with affectionate expressions As sincerity is the Soul of all graces and duties so this delight is the lustre and embroydery of them Now this Delight in Prayer 1. 'T is an inward and hearty delight As to the subject of it it is seated in the heart A man in prayer may have a chearful countenance and a drowsy spirit The Spirit of God dwells in the heart and love and joy are the first-fruits of it Gal. 5.22 Love to duty and joy in it joy as a grace not as a meer comfort As God is hearty in offering mercy so is the Soul in petitioning for it There is a harmony between God and the heart Where there is delight there is great pains taken with the heart a gracious heart strikes it self again and again As Moses did the rock twice Those ends which God hath in giving are a Christians ends in asking Now the more of our hearts in the requests the more of Gods heart in the grants The Emphasis of mercy is Gods whole heart and whole Soul in it Jer. 22.41 So the Emphasis of duty is our whole Heart and whole Soul As without Gods chearful answering a gracious Soul would not rellish a mercy so without our hearty asking God doth not rellish our prayer 2. 'T is a delight in God who is the Object of Prayer The glory of God communion with him enjoyment of him is the great end of a believer in his Supplications That delight which is in prayer is chiefly in it as a means conducing to such an end and is but a spark of that delight which the Soul hath in the object of prayer God is the Center wherein the Soul rests and the end which the Soul aims at According to our apprehensions of God are our desires for him when we apprehend him as the chiefest good we shall desire him and delight in him as the chiefest good There must first be a delight in God before there can be a spiritual delight or a permanency in duty Job 27.10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God Delight is a grace and as faith desire and love have God for their object so hath this And according to the strength of our delight in the object or end is the strength of our delight in the means of attainment When we delight in God as glorious we shall delight to honour him when we regard him as good we shall delight to pursue and enjoy him and delight in that which brings us to an intercourse with him He that rejoyces in God will rejoyce in every approach to him The joy of the Lord is our strength Neh. 8.10 The more joy in God the more strength to come to him The want of this is the reason of our Snail-like motion to him Men have no sweet thoughts of God and therefore no mind to converse with him We cannot judg our delight in prayer to be right if we have not a delight in God for natural men may have a delight in prayer when they have corrupt and selfish ends they may have a delight in a duty as it is a means according to their apprehensions to gain
Sanctuary Or do we delight in it not when our Tongues are most quick but our hearts most warm not because we have the best words but the most spiritualiz'd affections We may have Angels gifts in prayer without an Angels spirit 2. Is there a delight in all parts of a duty Not only in asking temporal blessings or some spiritual as pardoning mercy but in begging for refining grace Are we earnest only when we have bosom quarrels and conscience-convulsions but flag when we come to pray for sanctifying mercy The rise of this is a displicency with the trouble and danger not with the sin and cause 3. Doth our delight in prayer and spiritual things out do our delight in outward things The Psalmists joy in God was more than his delight in the Harvest or Vintage Psal 7.4 Are we like Ravens that delight to hover in the Air sometimes but our greatest delight is to feed upon Carrion Though we have and may have a sensible delight in worldly things yet is it as solid and rational as that we have in duty 4. Is our delight in Prayer an humble delight Is it a rejoycing with humbling Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with gladness and rejoyce before him with trembling If our service be right it will be chearful and if truly chearful it will be humble 5. Is our delight in Prayer accompanied with a delight in waiting Do we like Merchants not only delight in the first lanching of a Ship or the setting it out of the Haven with a full fraught but also in expectations of a rich return of spiritual mercies Do we delight to pray though God for the present doth not delight to give and wait like David with an owning God's Wisdom in delaying Psal 130.6 Or do we shoot them only as Arrows at random and never look after them where they light or where to find them 6. Is our delight in praising God when mercy comes answerable to the delight in praying when a wanted mercy was begged The ten Lepers desired mercy with an equal chearfulness in hopes of having their Leprosie cured but his delight that returned only was genuine As he prayed with a loud voice so he praised with a loud voice Luke 17.13 15. And Christ tells him his faith had made him whole As he had an answer in a way of grace so he had before a gracious delight in his asking the others had a natural delight and so a return in a way of common providence 3 Use Of Exhortation Let us delight in Prayer God loves a chearful giver in Alms and a chearful petitioner in Prayer God would have his children free with him He takes special notice of a spiritual frame Jer. 30.21 Who hath engaged his heart The more delight we have in God the more delight he will have in us He takes no pleasure in a lumpish Service 'T is an uncomely sight to see a joyful Sinner and a dumpish Petitioner Why should we not exercise as much joy in holy duties as formerly we did in sinful practices How delightfully will men sit at their games and spend their days in gluttony and luxury And shall not a Christian find much more delight in applying himself to God We should delight that we can and have hearts to ask such gifts that thousands in the world never dream of begging To be dull is a discontentedness with our own Petitions Delight in prayer is the way to gain assurance To seek God and treat him as our chiefest good endears the Soul to him Delighting in Accesses to him will enflame our love And there is no greater sign of an interest in him than a prevalent estimation of him God casts off none that affectionately clasp about his Throne To this purpose 1. Pray for quickening grace How often do we find David upon his knees for it God only gives this grace and God only stirs this grace 2. Meditate on the Promises you intend to plead Unbelief is the great root of all dumpishness It was by the belief of the Word we had life at first and by an exercise of that belief we gain liveliness What maintains our love will maintain our delight the amiableness of God and the excellency of the Promises are the incentives and fuel both of the one and of the other Think that they are eternal things you are to pray for and that you have as much invitation to beg them and as good a promise to attain them as David Paul or any other ever had How would this awaken our drowzy Souls and elevate our heavy hearts and open the lazy eye-lids to look up And whatever meditation we find begin to kindle our Souls let us follow it on that the spark may not go out 3. Chuse the time when your hearts are most revived Observe when God sends an invitation and hoist up the sails when the wind begins to blow There is no Christian but hath one time or another a greater activeness of spirit Chuse none of those seasons which may quench the heat and dull the spriteliness of your affections Resolve before hand this To delight your selves in the Lord and thereby you shall gain the desire of your hearts A DISCOURSE OF Mourning for other Mens Sins Ezekiel 9.4 And the Lord said unto him Go thorow the midst of the City thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof WHen God in the former Chapter had charged the Jews with their Idolatry and the multiplicity of abominations committed in his Temple And v. 18. had past a resolve that he would not spare them but deal in fury with them though they should solicit him with the strongest and most importunate supplications In this Chapter he calls and commissions the Executioners of his just Decree Ver. 1. He cryed also in mine ears with a loud voice saying Cause them that have charge over the City to draw near even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand And declares whom and in what manner he would punish and whom he would pardon The Executioners of God's vengeance are the Chaldeans described by the situation of them from Judea and the direct Road from that Country to Jerusalem v. 2. Six men came from the way of the higher gate which lies towards the North. Babylon lay North-East from Jerusalem and this gate was the way of entrance for Travellers from those parts it led also into the Court of the Priests which shews from whence the Judgment should come and upon whom it should light Six men A certain number Whether the Holy Ghost alludes to a particular number of Nations which the Chaldean Army might be composed of under their Prince who reign'd over several Countries or respects the other chief Captains or Marshals of his Army which are nam'd Jer. 39.3 or speaks with reference to the other places wherein the City was assaulted by
mightily troubled at it 1. T is a high Testomony of Love to God The Nature of true Love is to wish all good to them we love to rejoyce when any good we wish doth arrive unto them to mourn when any evil afflicts them and that with a respect to the beloved object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Aristot Rhetor l. 1. c. 4. Where there is this love there is a rejoycing at one anothers happiness a grieving at one anothers misfortunes If it be a part of love to rejoyce at that whereby God is glorified 't is no less a part of love to mourn for that whereby God is vilified So strait is the union of affection between God and a righteous Soul that their blessings and injuries joys and sorrows are twisted together The increase of Gods glory is the greatest good that can happen to a Soul enamoured of him his dishonour then is the greatest misery A gracious Soul is like John Baptist content to decrease that Christ might encrease in the esteem of men He is like Jonathan that would rather have the Crown upon Davids head than his own as the words intimate 1 Sam. 23.17 v. thou shalt be King over Israel I shall be next unto thee And grieved more for his Fathers displeasure against David than against himself So doth a Christian grieve more for the wrongs of God than for those in his own liberty estate or life Joshua was more careful of the name of God than of the safety of the people singly considered Josh 7.9 What wilt thou do unto thy great name The glory of God is not dear to that man that can without any regret look upon his bespattered name What affection hath he to his friend who can see him torn in pieces by Dogs and stand unconcerned at his calamity God indeed is uncapable of suffering but what rending is to a creature that is sin to the Divine Majesty Can that man be said to love God who hath no reflection when he sees others tumbling God from his Throne and setting up the Devil in his stead Who can hear the tremendous name of God belcht out by polluted lips upon every vile occasion and made the sport of Stage and Stews without any inward resentment He only esteems God as his King who cannot see his laws broken without remorse How Loyally did Moses his affection to God work when he heard the name of God blasphemed and saw a calf usurp the adoration due to the God of Heaven And David felt the stroak of that sword in his own bowels which was directed against the heart of God Psal 139.20 21 22. The dearer Gods name is to any the more affected they are that God and Christ are loved and honoured less than they desire they should be 'T is hard sometimes to discern this Love to God when Gods interest and ours are joyned when we would mask our displeasure against some mens offences with a care of Gods honour which is nothing but a hatred of the Person sinning or revenge against him for some conceived injury to us The Apostles calling for fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans when they refused Christ Luke 9.53 54 55. might seem to be a generous concern for their masters honour but Christ knew it proceeded much from that natural enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans The best way to judg is when the interest is purely Gods and hath no fuel of our own discontents to boil up either grief or anger Such an affection cannot but be highly acceptable to God who is affected with the love of the creature and honours them that honour him as well as despises those that lightly concern themselves for him 2. Love to our Neighbours Nothing can evidence our love to man more than a sorrowful reflection upon that wickedness which is the ruine of his Soul the disturbance of humane society and unlocks the treasures of Gods judgments to fall upon mankind Sin is a reproach to a people Prov. 14.34 'T is always an act of Charity to mourn for the reproaches and ruine of a people 'T is a gross enmity to others to see them stab themselves to the heart jest with eternal flames wish their damnation at every word run merrily to the bottomless gulf and all this without bestowing a sigh upon them and pitying their madness the greater should be our grief by how much the further they are from any for their own destruction If Cain discovered both his enmity to God and also to his brother in grieving that his brothers works were so good Abel musts needs in the practice of the contrary duty manifest his love to Cain in grieving that his works were so bad Our Saviours tears for the Jews discovered no less a concern for their misery than for Gods dishonour Anger for sin may have something of revenge in it Grief for sin discovers an affection both to God and the sinner A duty which respects at once the substance of both the tables cannot but be pleasing to God 2. 'T is an imitating return for Gods affection How doth God resent the injuries done to his people as much as those done to himself Those sins that immediately strike at his glory are not accompanied with such quick judgments as those that grate upon his Servants Sharp persecutions that tear the people of God in pieces have fuller vials of judgments here than Vollies of others sins which rend the name of God When Cain affronted God by his Sacrifice God comes not to a reckoning with him till he had added the murther of his Brother to his former crimes against his maker A sweeter and more thankful return and a more affectionate imitation of God there cannot be than to resent the injuries done to God more than those done to our selves The pinching of his people doth most pierce his heart a stab to his honour in gratitude should most pierce theirs The four Kings that came against Sodom Gen. 14.9 c. sped well enough in their invasion gained the victory and had been in a fair way to have enjoyed the spoil had they not laid their hands upon Lot which was the occasion of their disgorging their prey As God ingaged himself in the recovery of Lot so Lot concerned himself in the honour of God Gods anger is stirred at the Captivity of Lot and Lots vexation is awakened at the injuries against God What troubles his Children raises sensible compassion in him to the sufferer and revenge upon the persecutor whatsoever doth blaspheme the name of God doth at the same time rack a sincere heart A persecutor cannot injure a believer but Christ records it as a wrong done to himself and Christ cannot be dishonoured by men but a righteous Soul doubles his grief Here is a mutual return of affection and aestimation which is highly pleasing 3. This temper justifies Gods Law and his justice David's grief being for mans forsaking the Law testified his choice valuation
of the Devil a corrupt Creature and an enemy to God the chief Lord of the World and so did deprave the order of the universe and endeavoured to frustrate the end of God and the end of all the Creatures 'T is very rational to think that tho God out of his infinite compassion would not lose his creature yet that he should set such a badge upon him that should make him sensible of a depravation he had wrought in the world 4. 'T is useful to magnify his love We should not be sensible of what our Saviour suffered nor how transcendently he lov'd us if the punishment of sin had been presently removed upon the first promise Nay how then could he have died in the fulness of time which was necessary to the demonstration of Gods love satisfaction of his justice and the security of the Creatures happiness God adds the threatning to the promise as a dark colour to set off and beautify the brighter As Christ suffered that he might have compassion on us so are we punished that we might have an estimation of him When Paul cries out of the body of death so when we cry out of the punishment of sin it should raise our thankfulness for redeeming love I thank God through Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 25. We never know the worth of mercy till we feel the weight of misery The sharper the pains of sin the higher are our valuations of redeeming mercy In Isa 4.2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious In what day After great punishments v. 1. and in the foregoing chapter He appears most beautiful to us when we are under the lash for sin As sin continues in us that the justifying grace of Christs righteousness might more appear to us so punishment continues on us that redeeming love might be more prized by us 2. On our parts 'T is useful to us 1. To make us abhor our first defection and sin 'T was great and is not duly considered by us * Kellet Miscel This sin of Adam is the worst that ever was committed in the world Extensively though not Intensively worse than the sin of Judas or the sin against the holy Ghost In respect that those are but the effects of it and branches of that corrupt root Also because those sins hurt only the persons sinning but this drew down destruction upon the whole world and drove thousands into everlasting Fire and Brimstone 'T is not fit that this which was the murder of all Mankind the disorder of the Creation the disturbing of God's rest in the works of his Hands should be past over without a scar left upon us to make us sensible of the greatness of the evil Though the wounds be great upon our Souls yet they do not so much affect us as those strokes upon our Bodies This certainly was one main end of God in this to what purpose else did he after the promise of restauration and giving our first parents the comfort of hearing the head of their great seducer threatned to be bruised by the Seed of the Woman order this punishment but to put them in mind of the cause of it and stir up a standing abhorrency of it in all ages of the world Had not this been his intent he would never have usher'd it in by a promise but ipso facto have showered down a destroying judgment upon the world as he did upon Sodom without any comfortable word preceding God inflicts those punishments both to shew his own and excite our detestation of this sin He binds us in those fetters to shew us our work and our transgression wherein we have exceeded Job 36.8 9. 2. To make us fear to sin and to purge it out Sin hath riveted it self so deep that easy Medicines will not displace it It hath so much of our affections that gentle means will not divorce us from it We shall hate it most when we reap the punishment of it Punishment is inflicted as a guard to the law and the security of righteousness from the corrupt inclinations of the Creature So it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls punishment As death is continued for the destruction of sin in the Body so are the lesser punishments continued for the restraint of sin in our lives We need further conversions closer applications of our selves to God more quick walks to him and fixedness with him Gods smitings are to quicken our turnings As it was the fruit of Jacobs trouble to take away sin Isa 27.9 So it is a great end of God in those common punishments of mankind to weaken corruption in a believer by them Therefore when we have any more remarkable sense of those punishments let us see what wounds our sin gets thereby How our hatred of it is encreased If we find such gracious effects we shall have more reason to bless God for it than complain of it Oh happy troubles when they repair not ruine us when they pinch us and cure us like Thunder which though it trouble the Air disperses the infectious vapours mixed with it or the Tide which though turning the stream of the River against its natural course carries away much of the filth with it at its departure 3. To exercise Grace Punishments of themselves have no power to set any grace on work but rather excite our corruptions but the grace of God accompanying them makes them beneficial for such an end God hath to a believer altered the commission of such punishments they are to exercise our Faith improve our patience draw us nearer in acts of recumbency but he hath given them no order to impair our grace waste our faith or deaden our hopes 1. Faith and Trust 1. Tim. 5.5 She that is desolate trusts in God The lower the state the greater necessity and greater obligation to trust such exercises manifest that the condition we are in is sanctified to us As sin is suffered to dwell in a regenerate Man to occasion the exercise of Faith so is the punishment of sin continued for the same end The continuance of it is a mighty ground of our confidence in God We experiment the righteousness of God in his threatning and it is an evidence he will be the same in his promise When we bear the marks of his punitive justice it is an evidence that he will keep up the credit of his mercy in the promise as well as of his justice in the punishment both being pronounced at the same time the good of the one is as sure by God's grace to our faith as the smart of the other is by our desert to that sin The continuance therefore of those punishments may be used by a Believer as a means to fix a stronger confidence in God for if he were not true to the one we might suspect his truth in the other If God should be careless of maintaining the honour of his truth in his threatnings we should have
mind Eph. 4.23 and he hath the Spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 His judgment is regulated by the Law of God he judges of sin as it is in its nature a transgression of the Law Can we imagine that a Man restored to a sound mind and that hath his natural madness and folly cured should act after this cure as much out of his wits as before If he hath his constant frenzies and madness as much as before where is his cure Can any Man in the world act always against his judgment though he may be overpowered by the importunity of others or over-ruled by a fit of passion to do something against his judgment can you expect always to find him in the road of crossing the dictates of his understanding An unregenerate Man hath a natural light in his Mind and Conscience and so a judgment of sin but he hath not a judgment of sin adequate to the object he doth not judge of sin in the whole latitude of it he hath not a settled judgment of the contrariety of his beloved sin to God He looks not upon it in the extent of it as malum injucundum inhonestum inutile if he looks upon sin as dishonest he regards it as profitable if neither as honest or profitable yet as pleasant so that the natural light which is in the understanding when it dictates right is mated and over-ruled by some other principle the pleasure or profit of it and swayed by the inherent habits of sin in the Will The Devil that works in them hath some principle to stir up or dim this natural light and cast a mist before the Eye and so they direct their course according to that particular judgment which is befriended in its vote by sense 2. 'T is against the nature of a renewed Will Grace is the law of God in the heart and is put in to inable us to walk in the ways of God and shall it endure such wilful pollutions in the Creature when it is the end of its being there to preserve from them The Spirit is given in the Heart 2 Cor. 1.22 sent into the Heart Gal. 4.6 the Law put into the Heart Heb. 10.16 Since therefore there is an habit of grace in the Will a Man cannot frequently and easily lanch into sin because he cannot do it habitually the remainders of sin being mated with a powerful habit which watches their motions to resist them Doth God put such a habit there such a seed an abiding seed to no purpose but to let the Soul be wounded by every temptation to be deserted in every time of need Grace is an habit superadded to that natural and moral strengrh which is in the Will Man by natures strength meerly or with the assistance of common grace hath power to avoid the acts of gross sins for he is master of his own actions though he is not of the motions tending to them the Devil cannot force a Mans Will And when grace a greater strength comes in shall there be no effects of this strength but the reins be as stiff in the hands of old lust and the Will as much captive to the sinful habit in it as before Grace being a new nature it is as absurd to think that a gracious man should wallow in a course of sin as it is to think that any creature should constantly and willingly do that which is against its nature A gracious man delights in the Law of God Psal 1.2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night if he delights in it can he delight to break it Do Men fling that which they delight in every day in the Durt and trample upon it or rather do they not keep it choicely in their Cabinets If it be also the Character of a good man to meditate in the Law of God he must have frequent exercises of faith reflections upon himself motions to God which cannot consist with a course of sin Grace doth essentially include a contrariety to sin and a love to God in the Will 'T is a principle of doing good and eschewing evil and these being essential properties of grace are essential to every regenerate man and in every one As a drop of Water or one spark of Fire hath the essential properties of a great mass of Water or a great quantity of Fire so every renewed man hath the same love to God and the same hatred of sin essentially as the most eminent Saint though not in degree yea which those in heaven have though not in the same degree As a spark of fire will burn a drop of water will moisten though not in so eminent a measure Now upon the whole consider whether is it possible to bare reason that a regenerate man should customarily do those things which are against the essential properties of that which is in him in his will and doth denominate him a new Creature 3. Proposition A regenerate man cannot have a fixt resolution to walk in such a way of sin were the impediments to it removed Though unregenerate men may actually as to the outward exercise abstain from some sins yet it is usually upon low and mean conditions If it were not for such or such an obstacle in the way I would do such and such an act This temper is not in a good man he cannot have a fixed and determinate resolution to commit such an act if such bars were taken away Such resolutions are Common in unregenerate men Jer. 44.25 We will surely perform our vows which we have vow'd to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and Isa 56.12 We will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant we will have as merry a meeting as we had to day The same character is ascribed to such an one Psal 36.4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed He sets himself in a way that is not good He ahhorreth not evil He modells out his sinful designs with head and heart he settles himself as an army settles in their ground when they resolve to fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He abhors not evil He starts not at such motions but by a Meiosis he huggs and caresseth them with a wonderful delight Regenerate men fear to sin wicked men contrive to sin One would starve it the other makes provision for it This temper cannot be in a Regenerate man 1. 'T is Diabolical And so falls under that in the text He cannot Commit sin as the Devil doth 'T is a stain of the Devil who is resolved in his way of malice to God and mischief to man but for the strait Chains God holds him in his resolution is fixed though the execution restrained He goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to drink at one draught Seeking both for an opportunity and permission Unwearied searches manifest fixed resolutions His
time and the sins thou hast committed twenty years ago are as fresh as if thou hadst acted them all since thy coming into the congregation Josephs brethren Gen. 37.24 laboured to wipe out the thoughts of their late cruelty by their eating and drinking when the cries and tears of their brother were fresh in their memory and might have dampt their jollity His affliction troubled them not his relation to them his youth and their Fathers Love to him could not make them relent but twenty two years after conscience began to fly in their faces when awakened by a powerful affliction Gen. 42 21. Is not thy conscience oftentimes a remembrancer to thee of thy old forgotten sins and doth it not turn over the old records thou hadst quite forgot 7. Hopes of Gods mercy are no grounds of thy being pardoned Gods mercy is not barely enough for then Christ needed not have dyed for sin Nor Christs death enough without the condition of that covenant whereby God will make over the interest and merits of his death to thee Gods mercy must be considered but in Gods own way God is merciful but his Mercy must not abolish his Truth Doth not a Judges mercy consist with condemning a malefactor God hath been merciful to thee and thou would'st not accept of it thou wouldst not hear mercy speak in a day of grace why then should not justice speak in a day of vengeance Thou would'st not hear a God of mercy when he cryed to thee how then should mercy hear thee when thou comest to begg 2. Some false grounds why those that are pardoned think themselves not pardoned 1. Great afflictions are not signs of an unpardoned state Moses had sinned by unbelief Aaron by making a golden calf God pardoned their sin but took vegeance on their inventions Psal 99.8 Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance Nathan in his message to David brings at once both pardon and punishment The sin is removed but the sword must still stick in the bowels of his family 2 Sam. 12 13 14. The Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to Blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye God may afflict temporally when he resolves not to punish eternally What! because he will not condemn thee as a Judg will he not chastize thee as a Father We may well bear a scourge in one hand when we have a pardon sealed in the other God pardons thy sin but there is need of affliction to subdue that stout stubborn heart of thine Psal 89.32 33. God doth visit with rods when he is resolved not utterly to take away his loving kindness from a people 2. Terrors of Conscience are no sign of an unpardoned state We find a pardoned David having broken bones and a rackt Conscience after Nathan had pronounced his pardon when there was no remorse before Psal 51. He had the grant of a pardon but the comfort of a pardon was wanting God may scorch thy Soul when he gives a pardon not that justice is thereby Satisfied but sin more embittered to thee By a pardon thou dost rellish his mercy and by the torments thou mayest have in thy Soul thou wilt understand his Justice He shews thee what he freely gives but he would have thee know what thou hast fully deserved he gives thee pardon but Gall and Wormwood with it that thou mayest know what the purchase of it did cost thy Saviour The Physick which heals causeth pain That Physick which doth not make thee sick is not like to bring thee health God pardons thee that thou mayest be saved he terrifies thee withal that thou mayest not be induced by temptations to sin 3. Sense of sin is no argument of an unpardoned state A pardon may be granted when the poor condemned man expects to be haled out to Execution Mary stands weeping behind her Saviour when Christ was declaring her pardon to Simon That much was forgiven her and afterwards Christ turns to her and cheers her with the news of it Luke 7.44 45 46 47. He pronounceth her pardon v. 48. and the comfort of it v. 50. Thy Faith hath saved thee go in peace The Heavens may drop when now and then the Sun may steal a Beam thorow the Clouds There may be a pardon where there are not always the sensible effects of a pardon We find after the stilling of a Storm the ragings and roulings of the Sea A penitents wound may ake afresh when a Saviours blood drops in mercy 4. The Remainders of sin are not a sign of an unpardoned state Though a Disease be mastered by Physick there may be some grudgings of it in a person Though sin be pardoned yet the dregs of sin will be remaining and sometimes stirring Christ hath enliven'd us not by wholly destroying but pardoning sin Pardon takes away the guilt of sin grace takes away the power of sin but neither pardon nor infusion of grace takes away the nature and all motions of sin for in purging out an humour some dregs still remain behind Col. 2.13 And you hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses 3. What are the true signs of a pardoned man 1. Sincerity in our walk A Spirit without guile is made the Character of a pardoned man in the Text There may be failings in the life yet no guile in the heart such a man is a pardoned man A heart that hath no mixtures no pretences or excuses for sin no private reserves from God A heart that as the needle in a Compass stands right for the Interest glory of God answers to the profession as an Eccho to the voice A heart that would thrust out any sin that harboured there would not have an Atom of any filth odious to the Eye of God lurk there Where this sincerity is a willingness and readiness to obey God which is the condition of the Covenant the substance of the Covenant is kept though some particular Articles of it may be broken Grace the pardoning grace of God is with them that love Christ in sincerity Eph. 6. ult Grace be with all them that love Christ Jesus in sincerity Not a man excluded that is sincere though he hath not so sparkling a flame as another yet if he be sincere the Crown of pardoning grace and that of consummating grace shall be set upon his head 2. Mourning for sin A tender heart is a sign of a pardoned state when sin discontents thee because it displeaseth God What showers of tears did Mary Magdalen weep after a pardon Love to God like a gentle fire sets the Soul a melting Tears that come from love are never without pardoning mercy God's bowels do first stir our mournings 'T is impossible a gracious heart can read a pardon with dry Eyes 't is the least it thinks it can do as it
149 226. twofold Page 255. of Christ grounded on the grace of God Page 255. of Saints not imputed Page 1202 3. Ministers how they should preach Page 238. must woo for Christ Page 669. Ministery shall never fail Page 36 †Miracles Conversion of men the greatest Page 239. of Christ confirm'd his mission Page 301 2. alone cannot convert Page 168 239. Misery sense of it preparatory to Regeneration Page 234. always from our selves Page 822. Mission of Christ from the Father Page 303. 672. Morality not sufficient to Salvation Page 47. 't is not Regeneration a Page 106. ad 109. often a hindrance to it never a cause of it Page 148. 170. the gift of God Page 164. owing to Christ's interposition Page 175 6. may be without Faith Page 74. reliance on it a cause of unbelief Page 737. Mortification necessary Page 1314. must be present continued universal Page 1314 5. men must be an agent in it ibid. not the work of nature ibid. difficult ibid. no entrance into heaven without it Page 1315. 1320. the more perfect the clearer assurance Page 1315. a sign of grace ibid. what it is and what not a Page 1315. ad 1318 the trial of it Page 1318 19. pressed Page 1320. directions for it Page 760. 1321. Moses's faith in Christ Page 1164. Motions of our hearts in hearing to be observ'd Page 241. first sinful Page 3 †of the spirit Vid. Spirit Murmurers at Providence unbelievers Page 727 8. N. NAture of man corrupt Vid. Fall Habits Regeneration not an addition to it Page 74. new one communicated to the Regenerate Page 101. humane dignified in Christs exaltation Page 1101. necessarily assumed to satisfie for our sins Page 1200. Vid. Satisfaction Naturals right use of them doth not oblige God to give supernaturals Page 150 226. Necessity and Liberty consistent Page 177. of Christs death impeaches not its voluntariness Page 877. its necessity explained Page 878 a 916. ad 919. proved Page 250 859 555 a 920. ad 950. New Creation and old how they differ Page 151. New Creatures Vid. Regenerate Nourishment of the soul in the Supper Page 760. O. OBedience of Christ in his death Page 312. 903. can 't be without knowledge Page 403. a means of divine knowledge Page 471. Christs Death and Exaltation motives to it Page 65 1107. without it no interest in Christs intercession Page 1153. no compensation to Justice Page 934 5 6. what kind due to Christ a Page 1214. ad 1220. friendship of Christ a motive to it Page 1220. how to perform it Page 1220. deliverances on engagement to it Page 48 †Objects renewed men mind others than formerly Page 83. of the Gospel not above mans faculties Page 142. spiritual inferences to be drawn from occasional ones Page 13 †Occasions of sin enmity to them a mark of Regeneration Page 124. men may avoid them by common grace Page 181. Omission of known duties constant shews men are unbelievers Page 724. a renewed man can't be guilty of Page 89. of Prayer Vid. Prayer Omniscience of God known by the creatures Page 479. belief of it would prevent bad thoughts Page 15 †Opinions false spoil conviction Page 598. change of them not Regeneration Page 106. ungrounded ones contention about them dangerous Page 666. hardly laid aside Page 668. Original corruption sense of it a means of Regeneration Page 62 135 229. the World insensible of it Page 537. the spirit convinces of it Page 580. sense of it the constant duty of all Page 670. 84 †the cause of unbelief Page 730 1. Ordinances can't be improved without Regeneration Page 35. attendance on them a means of it Page 63. 136 229. of themselves can't convert Page 168 9. natural men have a power to attend on them Page 184 5. to be attended on by them and how Page 203 4. all shall continue Page 770 1. 36 †none should add to or detract from Page 774. resting in them sinful Page 818. the holiness of them will not excuse sin in them Page 1821. the glory of them obscured before judgments come Page 65 †where they have been the places of the greatest Judgments Page 66 †Vid. Means of Grace Word P. PArdon without satisfaction doth not shew the love of God so clear as 't is in Christ Page 360. not discoverable by the Creatures Page 501 2. fruit of Christ's Death Page 895. 911. of the ancient Saints when compleat Page 923. daily Christ intercedes for Page 1143. and punishment inconsistent Page 1196. its nature Page 102 3 †God only the Author of it Page 103 †his attributes seen in it Page 104 5 †the manner of it Page 105 6 †on the account of Christ what that implies Page 106 7 8 †its effects Page 110 11 †misery of those that want it Page 111 †comfort to those that have it Page 112 †false signs of it Page 113 †false grounds why pardon'd ones question it Page 115 †signs of it Page 115 †motives to seek it and directions Page 117 †the duties of those that have it Page 118 †Vid. Cleansing Parents should endeavour their Childrens conversion Page 45. Passeover Christ is ours Page 847. a fit type of Christ Page 848. ad 852. Christ eyed in it by ancient Believers ibid. Passion hinders divine knowledge Page 464. oft swayes in Professors Page 666. the cause of a renewed mans sin Page 98 †Patience not without knowledge of God Page 407. of God discovered in Christ Page 500. towards total and partial unbelief great Page 653. 699. a means of perseverance Page 1374. under afflictions reasonable Page 84 †Peace Believers have with all Creatures Page 364 5 6. of Conscience follows Reconciliation Page 369. 912. 110 †with God and Conscience the fruit of Christ's Death Page 896. 898. not perfect here Page 1195. given holy men in calamitous times Page 66 †Perfection to be aimed at Page 129. not attained here Page 167. 202. 671. 1114. 1148. 1284. in Heaven Page 114. 1103. from God only Page 224 5. Perjury Unbelief would make God guilty of it Page 614. Persecution Religion pretended for it Page 554 love to the Saints under it a duty Page 811 12. should not make us cast off obedience Page 1217. encreases and purifies the Church Page 26 7 †promise of the Churches stability a comfort in it Page 39 †when maliciously design'd the wicked destroy'd Page 45 †heinously resented by God Page 69 †Vid. Trouble Perseverance of the Saints asserted Page 94. 115. 223. 225. 1324. 36 †can 't be without knowledge and growth in it Page 415. 455. Christ intercedes for it Page 1145. objections against it answered Page 1333. 1340. the Doctrine of it stated Page 1348 9. absurdities of the contrary Page 1350. should not encourage sloth Page 1366. to be ascribed wholly to Grace Page 1367 8 9. urged and directed a Page 1370. ad 1376. Pleasures in the ways of God great Page 92. 134. 61 â€
God's Law as other men do of their lusts because he unexpressibly loved it * Psal 119.97 113. O how I love thy Law It is my meditation all the day v. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Aeneas oculis semper vigilantis inhaeret Aenean animo nóxque diâ—sâ—ue refert Ovid. Ep. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian Dialog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost This was the successful means he used to stifle vain thoughts and excite his hatred of them 'T is the property of love to think no evil 2 Cor. 13.5 It thinks good and delightful thoughts of God friendly and useful thoughts of others It fixeth the Image of our beloved object in our minds that 't is not in the power of other phancies to displace it The beauty of an object will fasten a rolling eye 'T is difficult to divorce our hearts and thoughts from that which appears lovely and glorious in our minds whether it be God or the world Love will by a pleasing violence bind down our thoughts and hunt away other affections If it doth not establish our minds they will be like a Cork which with a light breath and a short curl of water shall be tossed up and down from its station Scholars that love learning will be continually hammering upon some notion or other which may further their progress and as greedily clasp it as the Iron will its beloved Loadstone He that is wing'd with a divine love to Christ will have frequent glances and flights towards him and will start out from his worldly business several times in a day to give him a visit Love in the very working is a settling grace it encreaseth our delight in God partly by the sight of his amiableness which is clear'd to us in the very act of loving and partly by the recompences he gives to the affectionate carriage of his creature both which will stake down the heart from vagaries or giving entertainment to such loose companions as evil thoughts are Well then if we had this heavenly affection strong in us it would not suffer unwholesom weeds to grow up so near it either our Love would consume those weeds or those weeds will choak our Love 5. Exercise Faith As the habit of Faith is attended with habitual Sanctification so the acts of Faith are accompanied with a progress in the degrees of it That Faith which brings Christ to dwell in our Souls will make us often think of our inmate Faith doth reallize divine things and make absent objects as present and so furnisheth fancy with richer streams to bathe it self in than any other principle in the world As there is a necessity of the use of fancy while the soul is linked to the body so there is also a necessity of a corrective for it Mirand de Imaginat c. 11 12. Reason doth in part regulate it but 't is too weak to do it perfectly because fancy in most men is stronger than reason man being the highest of imaginative beings and the lowest of intelligent fancy is in its exaltation more than in creatures beneath him and reason in its detriment more than in creatures above him and therefore the imagination needs a more skilful guide than reason Fancy is like fire a good Servant but a bad Master if it march under the conduct of faith it may be highly serviceable and by putting lively colours upon divine truth may steal away our affections to it Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down Oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God Faith is the evidence of things not seen viz. not by a corporeal but intellectual eye and so it will supply the office of sense 'T is the substance of things hoped for and if hope be an attendant on faith our thoughts will surely follow our expectations The remedy David used when he was almost stifled with disquieting thoughts was to excite his soul to a hope and confidence in God Psal 42.5 and when they return'd upon him he useth the same diversion v. 11. The peace of God i. e. the reconciliation made by a Mediator between God and us believingly apprehended will keep or garrison our hearts and minds or thoughts against all anxious assaults both from within and without †Phil. 4.6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When any vain conceit creeps up in you act faith on the intercession of Christ and consider Is Christ thinking of me now in Heaven and pleading for me and shall I squander away my thoughts on trifles which will cost me both tears and blushes Believingly meditate on the promises they are a means to cleanse us from the filthiness of the spirit as well as that of the flesh * 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves c. If the having them be a motive the using them will be a means to attain this end Looking at the things that are not seen preserves us from fainting and renews the inward man day by day †2 Cor. 4.16 18. Intus existens prohibet alienum These invisible things could not well keep our hearts from fainting if faith did not first keep the thoughts from wandring from them 6. Accustom your self to a serious meditation every morning Fresh airing our souls in Heaven will engender in us purer spirits and nobler thoughts A morning seasoning would secure us for all the day Though other necessary thoughts about our callings will and must come in yet when we have dispatch'd them let us attend our morning Theme as our chief companion As a man that is going with another about some considerable business suppose to Westminster though he meets with several friends in the way and salutes some and with others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little time yet he quickly returns to his companion and both together go their intended stage Do thus in the present case Our minds are active and will be doing something though to little purpose and if they be not fixed upon some noble object they will like mad men and fools be mightily pleased in playing with straws Psal 139.17 18. The thoughts of God were the first Visiters David had in the morning God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake and kept company all the day after In this meditation look both to the matter and manner 1. Look to the matter of your meditation Let it be some truth which will assist you in reviving some languishing grace or fortifie you against some triumphing corruption for 't is our darling sin which doth most envenom our thoughts †Prov. 23.7 As a man thinks in his heart so is he As if you have a thirst for honour let your fancy represent the honour of being a child of God and heir of Heaven If you are inclined to covetousness think of the riches stored up in a Saviour and dispensed by him If to
voluptuousness fancy the pleasures in the ways of wisdom here and at God's right hand hereafter This is to deal with our hearts as Paul with his hearers The heads of the Catechism might be taken in order which would both encrease and actuate our knowledge Psal 40.5 to catch them with guile Stake your soul down to some serious and profitable mystery of Religion as the Majesty of God some particular Attribute his condescension in Christ the love of our Redeemer the value of his sufferings the vertue of his blood the end of his ascension the work of the Spirit the excellency of the soul beauty of holiness certainty of death terror of judgment torments of Hell and joys of Heaven Why may not that which was the subject of God's innumerable thoughts be the subject of ours God's thoughts and counsels were concerning Christ the end of his coming his death his precepts of holiness and promises of life and that not only speculatively but with an infinite pleasure in his own glory the creatures good to be accomplished by him Would it not be work enough for our thoughts all the day to travel over the length breadth height and depth of the love of Christ Would the greatness of the journey give us leisure to make any starts out of the way Having settled the Theme for all the day we shall find occasional assistances even from worldly businesses as Scholars who have some Exercise to make find helps in their own course of reading though the Book hath no design'd respect to their proper Theme Thus by imploying our minds about one thing chiefly we shall not only hinder them from vain excursions but make even common objects to be oyl to our good thoughts which otherwise would have been fuel for our bad Such generous liquor would scent our minds and conversations all the day that whatsoever motion came into our hearts would be tinctured with this spirit and savour of our morning thoughts as vessels having been filled with a rich wine communicate a relish of it to the liquors afterward put into them We might also more steadily go about our worldly business if we carry God in our minds as oâ—e foot of the Compass will more regularly move about the Circumference when the other remains firm in the Center 2. Look to the manner of it 1. Let it be intent Transitory thoughts are like the glances of the eye soon on and soon off they make no clear discovery and consequently raise no spritely affections Let it be one principal subject and without flitting from it for if our thoughts be unsteady we shall find but little warmth a burning glass often shifted fires nothing We must look at the things that are not seen as wistly as men do at a mark they shoot at 2 Cor. 4.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.18 Such an intent meditation would change us into the image and cast us into the mould of those truths we think of it would make our minds more busie about them all the day as a glaring upon the Sun fills our eyes for some time after with the image of it To this purpose look upon your selves as deeply concern'd in the things you think of Our minds dwell upon that whereof we apprehend an absolute necessity A condemned person would scarce think of any thing but procuring a reprieve and his earnestness for this would bar the door against other intruders 2. Let it be affectionate and practical Meditation should excite a spiritual delight in God as it did in the Psalmist †Psa 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. and a divine delight would keep up good thoughts and keep out impertinencies A bare speculation will tire the Soul and without application and pressing upon the will and affections will rather chill than warm devotion 'T is only by this means that we shall have the efficacy of truth in our wills and the sweetness in our affections as well as the notion of it in our understandings The more operative any truth is in this manner upon us the less power will other thoughts have to interrupt and the more disdainfully will the heart look upon them if they dare be impudent Never therefore leave thinking of a spiritual subject till your heart be affected with it If you think of the evil of sin leave not till your heart loath it if of God cease not till it mount up in admirations of him If you think of his Mercy melt for abusing it if of his Soveraignty awe your heart into obedient resolutions if of his Presence double your watch over your self If you meditate on Christ make no end till your hearts love him if of his Death plead the value of it for the justification of your persons and apply the vertue of it for the sanctification of your natures Without this practical stamp upon our affections we shall have light spirits while we have opportunity to converse with the most serious objects We often hear foolish thoughts breathing out themselves in a house of mourning in the midst of Coffins and trophies of death as if men were confident they should never die whereas none are so ridiculous as to assert they shall live for ever By this instance in a Truth so certainly assented to we may judg of the necessity of this direction in truths more doubtfully believed 7. Draw spiritual Inferences from occasional Objects David did but wistly consider the Heavens Psal 8.3 4. and he breaks out in self-abasement and humble admirations of God Glean matter of instruction to your selves and praise to your Maker from every thing you see It will be a degree of restoration to a state of innocency since this was Adam's task in Paradise Dwell not upon any created object only as a Virtuoso to gratifie your rational curiosity but as a Christian call Religion to the feast and make a spiritual improvement No creature can meet our eyes but affords us lessons worthy our thoughts besides the general notices of the power and wisdom of the Creator Thus may the Sheep read us a Lecture of patience the Dove of innocence the Ant and Bee raise blushes in us for our sluggishness and the stupid Oxe Isa 1.3 and dull Ass correct and shame our ungrateful ignorance And since our Saviour did set forth his own excellency in a sensible dress the consideration of those Metaphors by an acute fancy would garnish out divine truths more deliciously and conduct us into a more inward knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel He whose eyes are open cannot want an instructer unless he wants a heart Thus may a Tradesman spiritualize the matter he works upon and make his commodities serve in wholsom meditations to his mind and at once enrich both his Soul and his Coffers yea and in part restore the creatures to the happiness of answering a great end of their Creation which Man depriv'd
reserv'd a tenth to return Is 6.13 and froâ— the hidden womb of the earth brought forth a new succession by the vigorous influence of the Sun of righteousness And after the last attempt and success of the antichristian state when they are jolly and merry at the Churches funeral Revel 11.10 they shall soon be amaz'd at her resurrection v. 11. as much as the high priests were at the resurrection of Christ For the Church can no more lye in the grave than her head the Mystical Body no more than the Natural his resurrection was an earnest of this and this the accomplishment of that little difference in the time of their grave-state three days the Natural Body lay three days and an half only the Mystical shall lye before a full revival 5. God never wanted instruments for his Church in the due season If Abel be butcher'd by Cain God will raise up Seth in his place to bring men to a publick form of worship Gen. 4.26 If Nebuchadnezzar be the ax to hew down Jerusalem Cyrus shall be the instrument to build her up when his time is come he will not want an Ezra and Nehemiah to rear her walls nor be wanting to them to inspire them with courage and assist their labour in spite of the adversaries that would give check-mate to the work If Stephen be stoned by the Jews he will cull out Paul an a better of that murder to be a preacher of the Gospel and he that was all fire against it shall become as great a flame for the propagation of it one Phenix shall arise out of the ashes of another When Arrianism like a deluge overflowed the world the Church wanted not an Athanasius to stand in the gap and be a Champion for the truth of the Deity of Christ When enemies rise up against the Church from all quarters to afflict it God raised others from all quarters to defend it Zach. 1.19 20. Yea those that have been the instruments to support the Antichristian state against her by giving their power and strength to the beast shall turn their arms against that which they supported to make her desolate eat her flesh and burn her with fire Rev. 17.12 13 16. 'T is the same Christ that is King in his Church and the Spirit is not dispossessed of his office to furnish men with gifts for the defence and encrease of it he is still a spirit of government in Magistrates and the spirit of fire in Ministers for the Churches interest Now since the Church hath maintained its standing longer than any other Empire that in the midst of its enemies and hath been both encreased and refin'd by the violences used against her since she hath been so often restor'd and never wanted instruments for the rearing and protecting her who can doubt whether the highest hath not and whether the highest will not still establish her and cover her with his mighty wings 3. The 3d thing Why it must needs be so 1. 'T is necessary for the honour of God Those Societies may moulder away and those Religions grow feeble which have drawn their birth from the wisdom of man and been setled by the force of man but a divine work must needs have a divine establishment T is so 1. If you regard it as his main design in the Creation of the world Can we think God made the world for the worlds sake that he pitch'd tabernacles here for a few creatures that could spell from all his works but a few and little letters of his name Could the bare creation shew to man so much as his back parts The most glorious perfections of his Nature could never be visible in a handful of creatures though never so glorious no nor in multitudes of worlds of a more beautiful aspect without the discovery of the Gospel and the setling a Gospel Church How should we have known his patience been instructed in his mercy have had any sense of his grace or understood the depths of his wisdom or heard the voice of the bowels of his love so as they are linkt together in his nature If God created the world for his glory he created it for his highest glory a bare creation without a redeemed company of creatures could never have given us a prospect of the great glory of his Nature nor have answered the end of God which was the manifestation of his perfections His wisdom broke out in the frame of all creatures giving them life and motion but his eye when he made the world was upon the manifestation of a greater wisdom which then lay hid in his bosom and was not to be discovered but in the publishing the Gospel Ephes 3.9.10 The wisdom that broke out in the creation was but a scaffold whereon in time his wisdom in the glory of a Church peculiar to himself should appear All things were created for Christ as well as by him for him and his glory as Mediator and as Head of the Church and therefore for the glory of his body And his end in sending Christ was to gather all things together in him those things which are in Heaven as well as those which are on earth Eph. 1.10 And in order to that end he works all things * v. 11. He works all things according to the counsel of his own will This counsel and will of appointing Christ was the spring and rule of all his works and therefore of creation as well as the rest succeeding it He that would upon occasion give the richest parts of the world for the ransom of Sion as Aegypt Aethiopia Seba Isa 23.43 may well be thought to create those and other nations to lay a foundation for her We know that soon after the Creation the rest of God was disturbed by the entrance of sin which could not come unexpected unforeseen and unpermitted There had not then been any ground of rejoycing in the habitable parts of the earth Prov. 8.31 if he had not designed something else But he provided in his counsel another rest and in order to that suffered this first rest in the bare creation to be spoyl'd Sion he chose and Sion he desired as his rest for ever wherein he would dwell Psa 132.13 14. The end of God in creation was not certainly only to make a Sun or Stars an earth bedeckt with plants and man a rational creature only to contemplate these works but to render him the acknowledgments of his power and wisdom * Chaâ—â—â— 3 Veriâ— lib. 3. cap. 1. p. 16. As a Limner lays his chief design in the midst of the cloth and fills the void places with many other fancies to beautify and set off his work but those were not in his first intention but his main design was the draught in the middle surrounded with the rest Now when man by sin had made himself uncapable of performing the work he had to do God orders things so as to have a rest to have
such an end As Balaam and Balak offered their Sacrifice chearfully hoping to ingratiate themselves with God and to have liberty to curse his people 3. A delight in the precepts and promises of God which are the ground and rules of Prayer First David delights in Gods testimonies and then calls upon him with his whole heart A gracious heart must first delight in precepts and promises before it can turn them into prayers For prayer is nothing else but a presenting God with his own promise desiring to work that in us and for us which he hath promised to us None was more chearful in prayer than David because none was more rejoycing in the statutes of God Gods statutes were his Songs Psa 119.54 And the divine Word was sweeter to him than the hony and hony-comb If our hearts leap not at divine promises we are like to have but drowsy Souls in desiring them If our eye be not upon the dainties God sets before us our desires cannot be strong for him If we have no delight in the great charters of heaven the rich legacies of God how can we sue for them If we delight not in the covenant of grace we shall not delight in prayers for grace It was the hopes of reward made Moses so valiant in suffering and the joy set before Christ in a promise made him so chearful in enduring the shame Heb. 12.1.2 4. A delight in prayer itself A Christians heart is in secret ravisht into heaven There is a delight in coming near God and warming the soul by the fire of his love The Angels are chearful in the act of praise their work is their glory A holy Soul doth so delight in this duty that if there were no command to engage him no promise to encourage him he would be stepping into Gods Courts He thinks it not a good day that passeth without some intercourse with God David would have taken up his lodgings in the Courts of God and regards it as the only blessedness Psalm 65.4 And so great a delight he had in being in Gods presence that he envies the birds the happiness of building their nests near his Tabernacle A delight there is in the holiness of Prayer a natural man under some troubles may delight in Gods comforting and easing presence but not in his sanctifying presence He may delight to pray to God as a storehouse to supply his wants but not as a refiners fire to purge away his dross Prayer as Praise is a melody to God in the heart Eph. 5.19 And the Soul loves to be fingering the instrument and touching the strings 5. A delight in the things askt This heavenly chearfulness is most in heavenly things What delight others have in asking worldly goods that a gracious heart hath in begging the light of Gods countenance That soul cannot be dull in prayer that seriously considers he prays for no less than heaven and happiness no less than the glory of the great God A gracious man is never weary of spiritual things as men are never weary of the Sun but though it is enjoyed every day yet long for the rising of it again From this delight in the matter of prayer it is that the Saints have redoubled and repeated their Petitions and often double the Amen at the end of Prayer to manifest the great affections to those things they have askt The Soul loves to think of those things the heart is set upon and frequent thoughts express a delight 6. A delight in those graces and affections which are Exercised in Prayer A gracious heart is most delighted with that prayer wherein grace hath been more stirring and gracious affections have been boyling over The Soul desires not only to speak to God but to make melody to God the heart is the instrument but graces are the strings and prayer the touching them and therefore he is more displeased with the flagging of his graces than with missing an answer There may be a delight in gifts in a mans own gifts in the gifts of another in the pomp and varnish of devotion But a delight in exercising spiritual graces is an ingredient in this true delight The Pharisees are markt by Christ to make long prayers vaunting in an outward bravery of words as if they were playing the Courtiers with God and complementing him But the Publican had a short prayer but more grace Lord be merciful to me a sinner There is relyance and humility A gracious heart labours to bring flaming affections and if he cannot bring flaming grace he will bring smoaking grace he desires the preparation of his heart as well as the answer of his prayer Psalm 10.17 2. Whence this delight springs 1. From the Spirit of God Not a spark of fire upon our own hearth that is able to kindle this Spiritual delight 'T is the holy Ghost that breaths such an heavenly heat into our affections The Spirit is the fire that kindles the Soul the spring that moves the watch the wind that drives the ship The swiftest ship with spread sails will be but sluggish in its motion unless the wind fills its sails without this Spirit we are but in a weak and sickly condition our breath but short a heavy and troublesome Asthma is upon us Psal 138.3 When I cryed unto thee thou didst strengthen me with strength in my Soul As prayer is the work of the Spirit in the heart so doth delight in prayer owe itself to the same author God will make them joyful in his house of prayer Isa 56.7 2. From grace The Spirit kindles but gives us the Oyl of grace to make the lamp burn clear There must not only be wind to drive but sails to catch it a prayer without grace is a a prayer without wings There must be grace to begin it A dead man cannot rejoice in his Land Money or Food he cannot act and therefore cannot be chearful in action Chearfulness supposeth life dead men cannot perform a duty Psal 115.17 the dead praise not the Lord nor dead souls a chearful duty There must not only be grace infused but grace actuated No man in a sleep or swoon can rejoice There must not only be a living principle but a lively operation If the sap lurk only in the root the branches can bring forth no fruit our best prayers without the sap of grace diffusing itself will be but as withered branches Grace actuated puts heat into performances without which they are but benum'd and frozen * Reynolds Rusty grace as a rusty Key will not unlock will not enlarge the heart There must be grace to maintain it There is not only need of fire to kindle the lamp but of Oyl to preserve the flame natural men may have their affections kindled in a way of common working but they will presently faint and dye as the flame of cotton will dimm and vanish if there be no Oyl to nourish it There is a temporary joy in hearing the word
and if in one duty why not in another why not in prayer Mat. 13.20 Like a fire of thorns that makes a great blaze but a short stay 3. From a good Conscience A good heart is a continual feast Prov. 15.15 He that hath a good conscience must needs be chearful in his religious and civil duties Guilt will come trembling and with a sad countenance into the presence of Gods Majesty A guilty child cannot with chearfulness come into a displeased fathers presence A Soul smoakt with Hell cannot with delight approach to heaven Guilty Souls in regard of the injury they have done to God will be afraid to come and in regard of the soot of Sin wherewith they are defiled and the blackness they have contracted they will be ashamed to come They know that by their sins they should provoke his anger not allure his love A Soul under conscience of sin cannot look up to God Psal 40.12 Nor will God with favour look down upon it Psal 59.2 It must be a pure heart that must see him with pleasure Mat. 5.8 And pure hands must be lifted up to him 1 Tim. 2.8 Jonah was asleep after his sin and was out-stript in quickness to pray even by Idolaters The marriners jogg him but could not get him that we read of to call upon that God whom he had offended Jon. 1. Where there is corruption the sparks of sin will kindle that tinder and weaken a Spiritual delight A perfect heart and a willing mind are put together 1 Chron. 29.2 There cannot be willingness without sincerity nor sincerity without willingness 4. From a holy and frequent familiarity with God Where there is a great familiarity there is a great delight delight in one anothers company and delight in one anothers converse strangeness contracts and familiarity dilates the Soul There is more alacrity in going to a God with whom we are acquainted than to a God to whom we are strangers This doth encourage the Soul to go to God I go to a God whose face I have seen whose goodness I have tasted with whom I have often met in prayer Frequent familiarity makes us more apprehensive of the excellency of another an excellency apprehended will be beloved and being beloved will be delighted in 5. From hopes of speeding There is an expectative delight which ariseth from hopes of enjoying Rom. 12.12 Rejoycing in hope There cannot be a pleasant motion where there is a palsie of doubts How full of delight must that Soul be that can plead a promise and carry God's hand and seal to Heaven and shew him his own Bond when it can be pleaded not only as a favour to engage his mercy but in some sense a debt to engage his truth and righteousness Christ in his prayer which was his Swan-like song John 17. pleads the terms of the Covenant between his Father and himself I have glorified thee on Earth glorifie me with that golry I had with thee before the world was This is the case of a delightful approach when we carry a Covenant of grace with us for our selves and a promise of security and perpetuity for the Church Upon this account we have more cause of a pleasant motion to God than the ancient Believers had Fear acted them under the Law Love us under the Gospel He cannot but delight in prayer that hath Arguments of God's own framing to plead with God who cannot deny his own Arguments and Reasonings Little comfort can be suckt from a perhaps But when we come to seek Covenant-mercies God's faithfulness to his Covenant puts the mercy past a perhaps We come to a God sitting upon a Throne of Grace upon Mount Sion not on Mount Sinai to a God that desires our presence more than we desire his assistance 6. From a sense of former mercies and acceptation If Manna be rained down it doth not only take off our thoughts from Aegyptian Garlick but quickens our desires for a second shower A sense of God's Majesty will make us lose our garishness and a sense of God's Love will make us lose our dumpishness We may as well come again with a merry heart when God accepts our prayers as go away and eat our bread with joy when God accepts our works Eccles 9.7 The Doves will readily fly to the windows where they have formerly found shelter and the Beggar to the door where he hath often received an Alms. Because he hath inclined his ear to hear me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Psal 116.2 I have found refuge with God before I have found my wants supplied my soul raised my temptations check'd my doubts answered and my prayers accepted therefore I will repeat my Addresses with chearfulness I might add also other Causes as a love to God a heavenliness of spirit a consideration of Christ's Intercession a deep humiliation The more unpleasant sin is to our rellish the more delightful will God be and the more chearful our Souls in Addresses to him The more unpleasant sin is to us the more spiritual our Souls are and the more spiritual our Souls the more spiritual our Affections The more stony the more lumpish and unapt for motion the more contrite the more agil From a spiritual tast report of a thing may contribute some pleasure but a tast greater 3. Reasons Without chearful seeking we cannot have a gracious Answer 1. God will not give an answer to those prayers that dishonour him A flat and dumpish temper is not for his honour The Heathens themselves thought their gods should not be put off with a Sacrifice dragg'd to the Altar We read of no Lead that lumpish earthly metal imployed about the Tabernacle or Temple but the purer and most glistering sorts of metals God will have the most excellent Service because he is the most excellent Being He will have the most delightful Service because he bestows the most delightful and excellent gifts All Sacrifices were to be offered up with fire which is the quickest and most active Element 'T is a dishonour to so great so glorious a Majesty to put him off with such low and dead-hearted Services Those Petitions cannot expect an answer which are offered in a manner injurious to the person we address to 'T is not for the credit of our great Master to have his Servants dejected in his work As though his Service were an uncomfortable thing as though God were a Wilderness and the World a Paradise 2. Dull and lumpish Prayer doth not reach him and therefore cannot expect an answer Such desires are as Arrows that sink down at our feet there is no force to carry them to Heaven The heart is as an unbent Bow that hath no strength When God will hear he makes first a prepared heart Psal 10.17 He first strings the Instrument and then receives the sound An enlarged heart only runs Psal 119.32 A contracted heart moves slowly and often faints in the Journey 3. Lumpishness speaks an
wisheth his head were a full springing Fountain to weep for the slain of the Daughter of his People for the sin the cause as well as the calamity the effect Jer. 9.1 He wishes his head to be filled with the vapours from his heart and become a fountain What a transport of sorrow had Ezra when he heard of the peoples sins and the mingling the holy Seed with that of Idolaters A horror run thorow his whole Soul His astonishment is twice repeated Ezra 9.3 4. Every faculty was alarumed at the sin of the People 'T is probable John Baptist used himself to those severities which are mentioned Matth. 3.4 because of the sinfulness of that generation among whom he lived Paul discovers it to be a duty when he reproves the Corinthians for being puft up instead of mourning for that fornication which had been committed by one of their profession 1 Cor. 5.2 And when he writes of some that made the glorious Gospel subservient to their own bellies he mixes his tears with his Ink Phil. 3.18 19. I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ The Primitive Christians did much bewail the lapses of their fellows Celerinus among the Epistles of Cyprian acquaints Lucian of his great grief for the Apostacy of a Woman through fear of persecution which afflicted him so that in the time of Easter the time of their joy in that Age he wept night and day and was resolved that no delight should enter into his heart till through the mercy of Christ she should be recover'd to the Church And we find the Witnesses clothed in Sackcloth when they prophesied in a sinful time to shew their grief for the publick abominations Rev. 11.3 The kingdom of Satan can be no pleasure to a Christian and must therefore be a torment 2. It was our Saviours practice As he had the highest love to God so he must needs have the greatest grief for his dishonour He sighed in his spirit for the incredulity of that generation when they askt a sign after so many had been presented to their Eyes Mark 8.12 He sighed deeply in his spirit And the hardness of their hearts at another time raised his grief as well as his indignation Mark 3.5 He was sensible of the least dishonour of his Father Psal 69 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me I took them to heart Christ pleased not himself when his Father was injured as the Apostle descants upon it when he applies it to Christ Rom. 15.3 His Soul was more pierc'd with the wrongs done to God than the reproaches which were directed against his own person His grief was unexpressibly greater than can be in any creature because of the unimitable ardency of his love to God the nearness of his relation to him and the unspotted purity of his Soul Christ had a double relation to Man to God His compassion to men afflicted him with groans and tears at their bodily distempers his affection to his Father would make him grieve as much to see him dishonoured as his love to man made him groan to see man afflicted This grief for sin was one part of Christ's Sacrifice and Suffering for he came to make a full satisfaction to the Justice of God by enduring his wrath to the holiness of God by offering up an infinite sorrow for sin which it was impossible for a creature to do We cannot suppose that Christ should only accept the punishment but not bewail the offence which was the cause of it A Sacrifice for the sins of others without remorse for those sins had not been acceptable it had not been agreeable to the purity of his humane Nature He wept at Jerusalem's obstinacy as well as for her misery and that in the time of his triumph The loud Hosanna's could not silence his grief and stop the expressions of it Luke 19.41 It was like a shower when the Sun shined If Christ as our Head was filled with inward sorrow for mens displeasing the holiness of God 't is surely our duty as his Members to imitate the afflictions of the Head He is unworthy of the name of Christ who is not afflicted as Christ was nor can call Christ his Master who doth not imitate his graces as well as pretend to believe his Doctrine he cannot see that God who hath distinguisht him from the world dishonoured his precepts contemned but he must have his Soul overcast with a gloomy cloud 'T is our glory to value the things he esteem'd to despise the things he contemn'd to rejoyce in that wherein he was delighted and to grieve for that which was the matter of his sorrow and indignation Thus was he afflicted though he had a joy in the assurance of his Fathers favour and the assistance of his Fathers power The highest assurance of God's love in particular to us ought not to hinder the impressions of grief for the dishonour of his name Did Christ ever look upon the swinish world without melting into pity Did he bleed for the sins of the world and shall not we mourn for them 3. Angels as far as they are capable have their grief for the sins of men The Jewish Doctors often bring in the Angels weeping for sin * Grotius Luc. 15.7 Ob peccatum Hebraei Angelos flentes inducunt And one tells us that in an Ancient Mahumetan Book he finds an Answer of God to Moses Even about this Throne of mine there stand those and they are many that shed tears for the sins of men But the Scripture tells us they rejoyce at the repentance of men Luke 15.10 Their Lord is glorified by a return of a Subject The Subject advantaged by casting down his arms at the feet of his Lord. They do therefore as far as they are capable mourn for the revolts of men suo modo as Beza upon the place They can scarce rejoyce at mens repentance without having a contrary affection for mens prophaneness if they are glad at mens return because God is thereby glorified it cannot be conceived but they mourn for and are angry with their sins because God is thereby slighted Unconcernedness at the dishonour of God cannot consist with their shining knowledge and burning love They cannot behold a God so holy so glorious so worthy to be beloved without having some regret for the neglects and abuses of him by the Sons of men How can they be instruments of Gods Justice if they are without anger against the deservers of it II. 'T is an acceptable duty to God Since it is an imitating the copy of our Saviour it is acceptable to God nothing can please him more than to see his Creatutes tread in the steps of his Son 1. 'T is a fulfilling the whole law which consists of love to God and love to our neighbours 't is set down as a Character of Charity both as it respects God and man Not to rejoyce in iniquity 1 Cor. 13.5 i. e. to be
orders that a Woman should not teach But I suffer not a Woman to teach i. e. publickly Two Reasons are rendred 1. * Hierom. She was last in Creation Adam was first formed then Eve 2. First in defection v. 14. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression The fall of man was the fruit of the Womans first Doctrine and therefore she is not suffered to teach any more the Woman was deceived by the Serpent and so drew her Husband and whole Posterity into ruine Some of the Papists bring this place as an Argument against Womens reading the Scripture but no reason can conclude it from this place How can the Spirit of God prohibit their reading the Scripture in private and the instruction of their Families since Women are among those who are commended for reading the Scripture Acts 17.11 12. where the honourable Women are mention'd And Lois and Eunice are applauded for their instruction of Timothy Are not Women bound by that command of Peter to give a reason of their Faith to any that shall ask them unless they would have Women Christians without reason What was the Office of those Ecclesiastical Widdows in the Primitive times but to instruct the younger Women But this is not to be charged upon all the Papists Becanus only is the man that Rivet mentions * Isagog ad Script c. 13. p. 990 991. And because upon this declaration of the Apostle some might be dejected by the consideration of the deep hand the Woman had in the first fall in the punishment inflicted upon them for it the Apostle in the Text brings in a Notwithstanding for their comfort Notwithstanding her guilt in defection her punishment in child-bearing she hath as good a right to salvation as the Man So that the Apostle here answers by way of anticipation an Objection which might be made whether the guilt contracted by the Woman and the punishment inflicted might not hinder her eternal salvation The Apostle answers No. Though she was first in the transgression and the pain of child-bearing was the punishment of that first sin yet the Woman may arrive to everlasting salvation notwithstanding that pain if she be adorn'd with those graces which are necessary for all Christians Though the punishment remain yet the believing Woman is in the Covenant of Grace under the wings of the Mediator of that Covenant if she have Faith the condition of the Covenant which works by Love and Charity and is attended with holiness and renewal of the heart Observe God hath gracious Cordials to cheer up the hearts of Believers in their distress and in the midst of those cases which are sufficient of themselves to cast them down The Apostle here alludes to that curse upon the Woman Gen. 3.16 Vnto the Woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow thou shalt bring forth Children The punishment is peculiar to the married woman besides that punishment which was common to her with the man Thy sorrow and thy conception Hendiadys say some The sorrow of thy conception The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the whole time of the Womans bearing in the Womb and so includes not only those pains in the very time of Labour but also all those precursory indispositions as the weakness of the stomach heaviness of the head irregular longings and those other symptoms which accompany conceptions Though this pain seems to be natural from the constitution of the Body yet since some other Creatures do bring forth with little or no pain * Aristot Hist Animal l. 7. c. 9. It would not have been so with the Woman in innocency because all pain which is a punishment of sin had not been incident to a sinless and immortal body We will consider the words apart Saved It may either note the Salvation of the Soul or the preservation of the Woman in Child-bearing The first I suppose is principally intended for the Apostle here would signify some special comfort to Women under that curse But the preservation of Women in Child-bearing was a common thing testified by dayly experience in the worst as well as in the best Women and Christianity did not bring the professors of it into a worse estate in those things which immediately depended upon God or make the Children Vipers not to come into the world without the death of their Mothers Yet a temporal preservation may be included for when an eternal salvation is promis'd temporal salvation is also promis'd according to the methods of Gods wisdom and goodness in the course of his providence there being in all such promises a tacit reserve viz. if God sees it good for us and the manner of their preservation also wherein the preservation of a believer differs from that of an unregenerate Person Others are preserved by God as a merciful Creator and Governour in a way of common Providence for the keeping up of the world But believers are preserv'd in the way of promise and covenant in the exercise of faith and by the special love of God as a tender Father and their God in covenant with them through Christ In Child-bearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through Child-bearing The Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rom. 4.11 That he might be the Father of all that believe though they be not circumcis'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believing in uncircumcision where it notes the state wherein they shall be saved So it notes here not the cause of the salvation of the Woman but the state wherein she shall be saved and amounts to thus much The punishment inflicted upon the Woman for her first sin shall not be remov'd in this life yet notwithstanding this there is a certain way of salvation by faith though she pass through this punishment For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not meant a simple Child-bearing but a Child-bearing in such a manner as God hath threatned with sorrow and grief If they continue By They is not meant the Children as some imagine because of the change of the singular to the plural the sense then should run thus she shall be saved if the Children remain in faith c. That would be absurd to think that the Salvation of the Mother should depend upon the faith and grace of the Children When it is sometimes seen that the Children of a godly Mother may prove as wicked as Hell itself But by they is meant the Woman The name Woman is taken collectively for all Women and therefore the plural number is added The Apostle passes from the singular number to the plural as he had done from the plural to the singular v. 9. In like manner let the women adorn themselves in modesty where he uses the plural but v. 11. reassumes the other number again in his discourse The graces which are here put as the conditions are Faith Charity Sanctification
Sobriety Where the Apostle seems to oppose those to the first causes or ingredients of the defection 1. Faith opposed to Vnbelief of the precept of God and the threatning annext 2. Charity opposed to Disaffection to God As though God were an Enemy to their happiness and commanded a thing which did prejudice their happiness whereupon must arise ill surmises of God and an aversion from him 3. Sanctification In opposition to this Filthiness and Pollution brought upon the Soul by that first defection there must therefore be in them an aim and endeavour to attain that primitive integrity and purity they then lost 4. Sobriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance Because the giving the reins to sense and obeying the longings thereof was the cause of the fall Gen. 3.6 She saw that it was pleasant to the eye Original sin is called concupiscence and lusting and to this is opposed Sobriety 1. Faith This is put first because it is the Fundamental grace It is the employer of Charity for it works by it the root of Sanctification for by faith the heart is purified By Faith is chiefly meant the grace of Faith 1 Faith in the habit 2 Faith in the exercise 2. Charity The first sin was an enmity against God therefore there is now necessary a Love to God The first sin was virtually an enmity to all the posterity of man which were to come out of his loins therefore love to mankind is necessary And Faith alwaies infers Love to God and man 3. Sanctification is here added because by that both the truth of Faith and love appears to our selves and others And justification by Faith is thereby ratified James 2.24 By Sanctification is not here meant a particular holiness or chastity due to the marriage bed as some of the Papists assert but an universal sanctity of heart and life 4. Sobriety This is a natural means for Preservation Intemperance makes bodily distempers more dangerous in their assaults True Faith is accompanied with Temperance and Sobriety in the use of lawful comforts The Papists though without any good ground frame an argument from hence to prove marriage to be a Sacrament asserting that those graces of Faith and Charity c. are conferred upon the Woman by vertue of Marriage and ex vi institutionis How severe a Doctrine is it then to engage any in vows of a single life when they might have a readier way to attain grace with the Satisfaction of nature Are not the virtues mentioned here as necessary to the single as the married Christians Who ever heard that marriage was appointed to confer those Christian graces which are necessary for men and women in all Conditions Besides is it probable that that was instituted to confer Christian graces which was instituted in Paradise before Christianity was in being and had been valid if man had stood in innocency where there had been no need of a justifying Faith Observe 1. The Punishment of the woman In Child-bearing 2. The Comfort of the woman She shall be saved 3. The Condition of the Salvation If they continue Wherein is implyed an exhortation to continue in Faith c. Doct. Many Observations might be raised 1. The pain in child-bearing is a punishment inflicted upon the Woman for the first sin 2. The continuance of this punishment after Redemption by Christ doth not hinder the salvation of the Woman if there be the Gospel-conditions requisite 3. The exercise of Faith with other Christian graces is a peculiar means for the preservation of Believers under God's afflicting hand I shall sum them up into this one Doct. The continuance of the punishment inflicted upon the Woman for the first sin doth not prejudice her eternal salvation nor her preservation in child-bearing where there are the conditions of Faith and other graces Here I shall speak 1. Concerning the Punishment and the Cause of it 2. The Nature of it 3. It s not prejudicing Eternal Salvation 1. Concerning the Punishment Child-bearing it self is not the punishment but the pain in it For the blessing Increase and multiply was given in Innocency This punishment is peculiar to the Woman and superadded to that inflicted upon the Man wherein the Woman also hath her share though it lay heaviest upon Adam's shoulders And because this punishment is the greater it is disputed in the Schools whether Adam's or Eve's sin were the greater Various Opinions there are We may I think safely make these Conclusions 1. In regard of the kind of sin it was equal in both They both had an equal pride an equal aspiring to be like God For in all probability Eve gave not her Husband the fruit to eat without acquainting him with the reasons which mov'd her to eat it as also the advantage she expected from it And God chargeth this aspiring humour upon the man Gen. 3.22 The Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is become like one of us Both of them therefore embrac'd the temptation as it was directed and swallowed the fruit with an expectation to be like not the Angels as some think from Gen. 3.5 You shall be as Gods Elohim but like God himself as appears by v. 22. in that Ironical speech where the Lord God Jehovah saith The Man is become like one of us They both believed the Serpent both broke the command in eating the fruit both were guilty of this aspiring Ambition Some indeed think Eve ate twice of the fruit once before the Serpent and the other time when she gave her Husband Gen. 3.6 She did eat and gave to her Husband with her and he did eat * Mariana in loc But that is not so clear in the Text. 2. In regard of the first motion to this sin Eves sin was the greater She was the seducer of Adam which the Apostle expresseth in the verse before the Text. The Woman being deceived was in the transgression Where the Apostle intimates the Womans sin in that respect to be greater than the mans Adam was in it too but the Woman deeper 3. In regard of the Womans condition the sin was greater on Adam 's part * Estius in senten 1. Because he being the Man had more power to resist more strength to argue the case 2. Eve had a stronger and craftier Adversary to deal with the subtillest of all the beasts of the field Gen. 3.1 animated and inspired by a craftier Devil The stronger the Tempter the more excusable the sin Adam was tempted by Eve but Eve by the Serpent 3. Eve had the command of not eating immediately from her Husband which laid not altogether so strong a tye upon her as it did upon him who had it immediately from the mouth of God and therefore was more certain of the verity of the Precept 2. Of what nature is this Punishment 1. 'T is not a Punishment in a rigid sense nor continued as such 1. Because 't is not commensurate to the nature of the sin neither is it that penalty which
the damm Judas had an admonition from Christ that informed him of what wickedness he was about and the danger of it Mark 14.21 He pronounceth a wo against him Compare this with Joh. 13.27 30. when he gives him the sop which was at the same time he informed him of the danger Satan entered into him and he went more roundly to work to accomplish it he went immediately out Observe by the way That the Spirit of God enters into a mans heart often upon admonitions from friends and the Devil also more powerfully upon the same occasions than at other times A good man cannot habitually hate the reprover There is one example of a good man dealing hardly with a Prophet for reproving him in the name of the Lord 2 Chron. 16.10 Then Asa was wroth with the Seer and put him into a Prison house for he was in a rage with him because of this thing And partly for the Judgment of war against him But the Scripture gives an allay to it For he was in a rage He was in a passion because of the threatning and the plainness of the speech thou hast done foolishly To say such a word to an inferior would ordinarily now a days swell many a professor to a fury much more a Prince This very Proposition will discover that there are many more pretenders to a Regenerate state than possessors of it so strangely is not only Humane Nature but the Christian Religion depraved among us 5 Propos A regenerate man cannot have a settled deliberate love to any one act of sin though he may fall into it Thus the Devil sins he loves what he doth Though a good man may fall into a sin even such a sin which he was much guilty of before his Conversion and which he hath repented of yet never into a love of it or the allowance of any one act of it For by Regeneration the Soul becomes like God in disposition and therefore cannot love any thing which he hates whose hatred and love being always just are unerring Rules to the love and hatred of every one of his Children He can never account a sin his ornament but his fetter never his delight but his grief I add this Proposition because there may be a love of an act of sin where there is not a constant course in it As a man that hath committed a murther out of revenge may love afterwards the very thoughts of that revenge though he never murther any more And a man that hath committed an act of Adultery may review it with pleasure though he never commit an act again But a good man cannot David is supposed to be inclined to the way of lying and dissembling though he might falter sometimes and look that way and perhaps fall into it yet never into a love of it therefore observe Psal 119.163 I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love A single hatred would not serve the turn but I hate and abhor I have not the least affection to this of any though I have the greatest natural inclination to it What was the reason Thy Law do I love There was another affection planted in his Soul which could not consist with a love to or allowance either of the habit or any one act of lying A good man hath yielded his Soul up to the government of Christ his affections are fully engaged he cannot see an equal amiableness in any other Object for he cannot lose his Eyes again his enlightened mind cannot be wholly blinded and deceived by Satan he walks not by the inveiglements of sense but by the unerring Rule of Faith so that though by some mists before his Eyes he may for a while be deluded yet as he cannot have a setled false Judgment so he cannot have a setled affection to any one act of sin 'T is one thing for a City to surrender it self to the Enemy out of affection and another thing to be forced by them Under a force they may retain their Loyalty to their lawful Prince There may be some passionate approbations of an act of sin Jonah was an Advocate for his own passion against God and made a very peremptory Apology for it Jonah 4.9 I do well to be angry even to the death Yet if we may judge by his former temper we cannot think he did afterwards defend it out of judgment as he did then out of passion for when the Lot fell upon him Jon. 2.9 12. he made no defence for his sin he very calmly wishes them to cast him into the Sea Where there is a passionate approbation it cannot be constant in a good man for when he returns to himself his abhorrences of the sin and of himself for it are greater as if by the greatness of his grief he would endeavour to make some recompence for the folly of his passion Observe by the way A good man may commit a sin with much eagerness and yet have a less affection to it in the very act than another who acts that sin more calmly because it may arise not from any particular inclination he hath in his temper to that sin but from the general violence of his natural temper which is common to him in that action This seems to be the case of Jonah both in this and the former act But if a man be more violent in that act of sin than he is in other things by his natural temper there is ground both for himself and others to think that sin hath got a great mastery over his affections Peter seems to be a man of great affections and of a forward natural temper he was very hasty to have Tabernacles built in the Mountain for his Master Moses and Elias and have resided there He hastily rebukes his Master he flung himself out of a Ship to meet our Saviour walking upon the water and after his Resurrection he leapt into the Sea to get to him So that Peter's denying his Master was not such an evidence of disaffection to him or love to the sinful act he was then surpriz'd by as it would have been in John or any other Disciple of a more sedate temper But this only by the way as a Rule both to judg your selves by and to moderate your Censures of others And consider That such acts of sin are not frequent The violence of a mans temper if godly cannot carry him out into a course of sin or a love to any one act As a wicked man may hit upon a good duty and perform it but not out of a settled love to God or habitual obedience to his Law so a good man may by surprize do an evil work not out of obedience to the Law of sin or any love to the sin it self What considerations may move a wicked man to a good duty may in some respect move a good man to a sinful act yet it is not to be called a duty in the one no more than it is to
were like Mary Magdalen to wash Christ's feet with its tears when it hath been washed its self with Christ's blood The Soul cannot enough hate that which God hath been merciful in the pardon of Forgiveness is like the warmth of the Spring it draws out the Sap of the Tree the tears of the Soul which else would scarcely stir If God hath given thee Repentance it is sure enough that he hath given thee a pardon for if he did not mean to give thee that he would never have given thee the other 3. Fearfulness of sin Whosoever knows the bitterness of sin and the benefit of a pardon can never confidently rush into it A pardoned man will never go about to forfeit that which he hath newly received Forgiveness from God doth produce fear in the creature Psal 130.4 But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared 'T is a sign we have repented and got pardon if we find after that exercise of repentance and prayer our hatred of sin encreaseth especially of that sin we were guilty of before 4. Sanctification God never pardons but he subdues sin Mich. 7.19 He will subdue our iniquity and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Both are put together In the Lords prayer desires to be rid of all evil and not to be led into any temptation follow immediately upon the desire of pardon A justified Person and a Sanctified nature are inseparable Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ there is pardon but how shall I know that I am pardoned If you walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We never sincerely desire pardon but we desire purging and God never gives the one but he bestows the other If thou hast an interest in a pardoning Christ thou wilt have the effects of a Sanctifying Spirit Where Gods grace forgives all sin he will give us grace to forsake all sin 'T is his covenant to turn away ungodliness when he takes away the punishment of sin Rom. 11.26 27. the deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The applications of Gods grace to us are attended with the infusions of Gods grace into us When he puts his law into the heart he remembers sin no more Jer. 31.33 34. 5. Forgiving others In the Lords prayer we pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Our Saviour comments upon this petition to shew that pardon cannot be without this condition in Mat. 18. from v. 23. to the 35. Christ makes it at least a causa sine quâ non of pardon Luke 11.4 and forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us 6. Affectionate Love to God and Christ When we desire to glorify him by his grace as well as be glorified by it 'T is the injury done to God by our sins which doth most affect that heart upon which the Spirit of God is poured Zac. 12.10 they shall mourn over him or be in bitterness for him The Soul is more concerned for Christ than for it self When there is too much of self in our desires for it God delays the manifestation of it to the heart that we may come up to purer strains Christ certainly shed his blood for their remission who are willing to shed theirs for his glory Else Christ whose glory it is to outstrip the hottest affection of his creature would be behind hand with him in love That Soul that would spend its all upon Christ he will not suffer to stand long sobbing before him Luk. 7.47 4 Use of Exhortation 1. To those who are careless of it Oh! by all means seek it Will it at last comfort thee to think of thy mirth and pleasures how honourable how rich or how well stor'd with friends thou hast been What should take up thy heart busy thy thoughts or employ thy endeavours but this that concerns thy eternal state Wilt thou sin away the time of Gods patience and thine own happiness Is it not a time which God hath allotted thee to get a pardon in What would Cain Judas Pilot Herod and all the black regiment give for the very hopes of it Oh prize that here which thou wilt hereafter esteem infinitely valuable and call thy self fool and madman a thousand times for neglecting the opportunity of getting The anger of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon what then are the frowns of an infinite just God Why is thy strength and affection spent about other things Would a forlorn malefactor leading to execution listen chearfully to any thing but the news of his princes clemency Seek it 1. Earnestly Pardon is an inestimable blessing and must not be sought with faint and tired affections 2. Presently Is it not full time seriously to set about it Thou hast lost too many days already and wilt thou be so senseless as to let another slip How knowest thou but if thou dost refuse it this day thou may'st be uncapable of it to morrow There is but a step a few minutes between thee and death and delaies in great emergencies are dangerous 3. Vniversally Content not your selves with seeking a pardon for grisly staring sins which fright the conscience with every look but seek the pardon of your inward secret spiritual sins while you begg most for the pardon of those Sanctifying grace will come in as well as justifying the more you pray against the guilt of them the more you will hate the filth of them 2. To those that seek a pardon and yet are in doubt of it Secure sinners that understand not the evil of sin think it is an easy thing and that forgiveness will be granted of course But those that groan under the burden of their iniquity imagine it more difficult than indeed it is Presumption wrongs God in his justice and every degree of despair or doubting in his mercy 1. God is willing to pardon Ephraim doth but desire that God would turn him and God presently cries out Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child Jer. 31.18 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus A penitent Ephraim is instantly a pleasant Child Ephraim strikes upon his thigh with confession and God speaks to his heart with affection God doth as it were take the words out of Ephraims mouth as though he watched for the first look of Ephraim towards him or the first breath of a Supplication God is more willing to pardon sin than we are to sin Because we sin with reluctancy natural conscience checking us but God hath no check when he goes to pardon He waits to be gracious Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you He hath waited all the time of your sinning to have an opportunity to shew grace to you and now you give it him by repenting will he lose the
of what kind a Page 75. ad 84. 126 235 6. a vital principle Page 84 5. a habit a Page 85. ad 96. a law in the heart a Page 96. ad 100. a likeness to God Page 100. its rarity and whence Page 105 237 242. its trial Page 53. 118. ad 124. 217 237 8. 't is excellent Page 125. 130 133 209 223 227 237. honourable and pleasant Page 133 4. attainable by all Page 135. man not the author of it proved in general a Page 140. ad 147. more particularly a Page 147. ad 175. what man by common grace can do towards it a Page 174. ad 187. why then God commands it c. a Page 187. 197. not by moral suasion only Page 200 1. God the efficient of it Page 205 6 7. necessary he should be a Page 207. ad 210. what attributes of God manifest in it a Page 211. ad 217. what kind of work and low wrought a Page 217. ad 222. 234 5. to be ascribed only to God Page 198 222. the circumstances of it to be considered Page 227. founded on Reconciliation by Christ Page 245. depends on Christs Resurrection Page 326. a means to divine knowledge Page 471. a means to raise good thoughts Page 11 †the Word the instrument of it Vid. Word Regenerate their duty a Page 125. ad 132. 20â— 2 3. a 225. ad 228. 238. to be esteemed Page 111. their sins great Page 111. cannot sin how understood Page 88 9. they only fit to come to the Sacrament a Page 780. ad 784. they may receive it unworthily Page 817. difference between their sins and other mens great a Page 89. ad 100 †Religion the Christian its excellency above all others a Page 343. ad 346 515 648 657 1116 1218. its wonderful propagation Page 209 507 517 614. not to own it to be from God very irrational Page 656 7 8. 699 734. not to act according to it a madness Page 743. Repentance whether Adam in innocence had a power of it Page 189. a very low condition Page 374. not without knowledge Page 407. kept in life how Page 843. can 't satisfie or expiate sin Page 932 951. not right without mourning for others sins Page 75 †Vid. Godly Sorrow Reproach the friendship of Christ a comfort under it Page 1219. Reproof a good man can't despise it Page 95 †Resistance of grace by men Page 146. of sin must be continued Page 17 †Resolutions not to be made in our own strength Page 202 3. not to be trusted in Page 222. necessary in approaches to the Supper Page 752 3. should be oft renewed Page 1375. to sin were it not for hindrances a good man can't have Page 93 †Restraints differ from Regeneration Page 109. and mortification how they differ Page 1318. Resurrection of Christ for us Page 67 326 7 promised him Page 282. necessary Page 324. the act of the Father Page 325 comfortable to Believers Page 327. how pardon depended on it Page 106 †of our Bodies certain Page 1105. Vid. Exaltation of Christ Revelation by the Gospel not insufficient Page 142. its clearness aggravates unbelief Page 614. of God belief due to it a dictate of nature Page 647 8. Vid. Reason Revenge the chief object of it within Page 1314. Riches a cause of unbelief Page 738. Righteousness our own not to be trusted in Page 599 907 951 1181 2 Vid. Justification exploded by the spirit in conviction Page 576. must vail to Christ Page 669. S. SAbbath a probable reason of its change Page 853. Sacraments efficacious by the word Page 233. always thought needful by God Page 316. Sacrifices how acceptable to God Page 316. instituted by God Page 232. 646 855. 948. typical of Christs death Page 856 948 9. 1174. answered by Christ Page 857. of themselves could not expiate sin Page 858 838 9. of what necessary for man Page 859 c. not from the light of nature Page 947. were not and could not be the object of the Israelites Faith Page 1167 1191. they apprehended some mystery in them Page 1167 8. Sacrifice Christ only fit to be one Page 861 940. 941 2. Christ one in his humane nature Page 862. of Christ his value whence Page 862 899. all his sacerdotal acts depend on this Page 863. Christ one for us not himself Page 855 865. this matter of comfort to believers Page 871. to be laid hold on Page 872. of Christ perfect Page 906 7. Saints their company a part of the happiness of heaven Page 42. admiration of their gifts and graces make men slight Christ Page 666. love to them Vid. Love Salvation of Believers certain Page 284 703. Vid. Believers ours and God's glory link'd together Page 285. the end of Christ's commission and Exaltation intercession Page 302 336 1147. all things necessary for it in Christs hands Page 673. to be sought of Christ Page 674. Christ hath done his part towards it Page 704 5. no want of evidence of the way of it Page 705. only by Christ Page 922. Sanctification and Regeneration how they differ Page 72. a sign of pardon Page 116 †Vid. Holiness Regeneration Satisfaction necessary for sin Page 868 a 9. 3 ad 883. 932. not possible to be by any creature a Page 932. ad 942. of Christ declared to be full by his Exaltation Page 1089. Vid. Death of Christ Sacrifice Justice Popish ones to be rejected Page 907. Scriptures studying them a means of divine knowledge Page 468 519. they that never look into them Unbelievers Page 726. men unwilling to be guided by them Page 1â—93 studying them a means to raise good thoughts Page 11 †to be read by Women Page 76 †Seal of the Covenant the Supper is Page 758. Seasons for duty the fittest to be chosen Page 62 63 †Secret sins discovered by the Law in the hand of the Spirit Page 573. Security of the Churches enemies the forerunner of their ruin Page 46 †Seed of Christ who Page 102 3. promised him a Page 278. ad 281. Christ to take care of them Page 281. spirit given him for their sakes Page 297 8. Vid. Believers Self the chief end of a natural man Page 66. Christ died to take men off from it ibid. necessary we should be and no Regeneration till we are Page 66 7. Self-love the principles of it contradicted by Unbelievers Page 648. Self-fulness a conceit of it a cause of unbelief Page 736 7. Sense of sin meditation on that Christ had a means of conviction Page 599. of original sin Vid. Fall should be great in a Communicant Page 752. the want of it reproved Page 72 3 †no argument of an unpardon'd state Page 115 †Vid. Corruptions Sensuality Vid. Pleasures Service of God evangelical not without a new nature a Page 21. ad 29. not accepted from an unregenerate man Page 33 4. Renewed men always disposed for it how Page 87 8. industry and affection must be in it Page 377. of a
by the Creatures Page 479. disparaged by unbelief Page 616 17 18. hinders an unbelievers Salvation Page 680. required satisfaction for sin Page 925. engaged to secure weak Grace Page 1327 1352. in the destruction of the Churches enemies Page 51 †Word valuation and relish of it a mark of Regeneration Page 121. natural men have power to attend on it and consider it Page 184 5 6. Regeneration doth not depend meerly on it Page 222. the instrument of Regeneration Page 231. what kind of instrument Page 232 3 4. 239. but an instrument Page 234. how regeneration wrought by it Page 234. God to be blessed for it Page 238. to be prized ibid. its preservation and success to be prayed for ibid. to be attended on in order to Regeneration and how Page 239 40 1. encrease of knowledge to be drawn from it Page 457. powerful in the hand of the spirit Page 594 5. attending on it and pressing it on the Conscience a means of conviction Page 600. only appointed to work Faith Page 792. the only rule whereby to try our selves Page 831. Vid. Gospel Means of Grace Ordinances Scriptures World regenerate should live above it Page 129. can 't be the happiness of the Soul Page 391. saving knowledge weans from it Page 427. they that are in love with it Unbelievers Page 727. desires of it a cause of Unbelief Page 737 8 9. meditation on Christs Exaltation would lift up above it Page 1107. not entangling our selves with it a means to prevent bad thoughts Page 14 †Women should Read the Scriptures Page 76 †the first punishment continued on them and why Page 78 †81 2 3 †of what nature that punishment is Page 78 79 †their Salvation not hindred by it Page 79 †mercy of God to them in it Page 84 †Child-bearing their duty Page 84 5 6 †Worship to be performed through Christ Page 355. true can't be without knowledge Page 401 2 3. the light of nature shews somewhat of its manner Page 480. distractions in it sinful Page 819. few distractions in it a sign of Mortification Page 1319. Vid. Service Wrath of God appeas'd by Christs death Page 838 852. the spirit discovers it by the Law Page 573. Z. ZEal ignorant a great enemy to Christianity Page 554. FINIS ERRATA PAge 10. Line 5. add Sin But. p. 58. l. 44. to fruits add first p. 80. l. 3. for i as r. is p. 127. l. 9. r. rooted p. 137. l. pen. after and add the other p. 151. l. 41. dele is p. 187. l. pen. dele in p. 202. l. 2. r. shrewd p. 225. l. 50. r. united p. 255. l. 45. for put p. 260. l. 8. r. unlikely p. 270. l. 25. r. them p. 271. l. 18. r. builds his p. 276. l. 3. dele then p. 292. l. 52. r. Christ being p. 375. l. 6. for was r. is p. 378. l. 35. r. Conduit p. 405. l. 4. r. composition p. 448. l. 4. dele of p. 588. l. 44. before to add able p. 678. l. 38. r. scourge p. 711. l. 14. dele been p. 736. l. 49. r. that they p. 798. l. 9. r. soul indeed p. 827. l. 36. r. bemist p. 843. l. 42. r. needs p. 878. l. 35. dele first p. 924. l. 23. dele him p. 932. l. 23. r. capable p. 1131. l. 19. r. incense p. 1136. l. 7. for yet r. that l. 39. add not p. 1138. l. 39. r. them p. 1328. l. 40. r. hand of p. 1365. l. 37. r. delight In the SVPPLEMENT Page 53. l. 46. for 1620. r. 1260. p. 66. l. 35. before be add hearts p. 80. r. fell