They are not pressing on to the utmost mark where the bullets are thickest and the battel hottest as this chosen generation do according to that right minde that is planted in them They long with Moses if possible that they may go over this Jordan they are ever crying out of their shortness Jacob though Pharaoh reckon him an old man yet he complains his days were few and evil and that he had not reached the age of his fathers in their generations I but he would have reached the greatest attainment That which is of this stock presseth to the utmost mark prizeth that Truth that friend that deals most plainly nakedly and exactly with it it chooses the wounds of a friend and goes where the sword cuts sharpest This cannot the Hypocrite ever endure 5. This Chosen Generation have often still and secret hintings speaking within them That they indeed are of this stock that they do belong to God how ever they are stopping the ear and putting it off Now the children of Hell they hunt and seek for such a voyce that they may be cozened and deluded and the Devil he speaks peace to them and they are given up to beleeve a lye but the Children of God are followed and followed with such a secret whispering in their Souls that rises up without their pumping nay when they run from it it speaks Surely they are my people they are my chosen I will be their God Now either we are not sober and so listen not to hear this voyce or else we wilfully stop the ear and run from it for such a base temper is in man against his own good or else through ignorance the Soul runs wrong when it doth hear it goes to Eli as Samuel did it runs to this and the other thing to know the meaning of it because as yet it is said Samuel knew not the Lord but the time comes the Lord will go on and call Samuel Samuel so long till all the chosen of God that are called according to purpose shall be made to hear and own it distinctly and say Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 6. This chosen Generation in their greatest transgressions and iniquities when most guilty and left to themselves yet never find such a witness speaking in them that they shall be cut off utterly for it Now to all the Cains he will peak destruction for that very cause a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be because thou hast killed thy brother and his blood cryes to me therefore thou art cursed c. but to his own he speaks no such thing he shews them not their sin to destroy them nor drive them from him he hath a care of that in all his rebukes So when Nathan was sent to shew David his great sin of Adultery and murther before he had well finished his charge lest such a thought should seise on him as if God would utterly cut him off He addes 2 Sam. 12.13 The Lord hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not dye He never says that word to the Soul of any of his own Iniquity shall be your ruine that sin shall utterly separate no saith Paul nothing shall be able to separate nothing not Principalities nor Powers of Hell not the heights or depths of Sin nothing shall seperate from that love of God to whom that portion belongs Now mind and consider and attend whither all along your Journy you find not such Leadings in your spirits as these I speak off 7. You shall know this Generation by this whenever there is a heart in them to return there is a heart in God to receive He stands open and ready at all times there are such breathings in the souls of his people that witness this for him and can set to their Seals that God is true in this particular that he is alwayes open hearted and waits to be gracious Mind whether it be not thus with you when ever your souls are in a sober frame and you can speak truly and not as Job saith the words of a man that is desperate which are as wind when ever you are your selves I say and sober see if there be not ever such hints speaking in you that God is ready continually he waits to receive whenever you will come At what time soever a sinner repenteth c. And if thou wilt return O Israel return to me as if he should say Go to no other if thou wilt return here is a heart open I am ready for thee Return to me O Israel Now let none get up the words and shadow of this that have not the substance that idol will â—ot stand though never so often raised and held up by force yet it will down but you who are indeed the chosen of God and loved of him if I shall ever live to see you brought out and delivered you will know what I have said and be my witnesses how these leadings have been all along your days with you However at the present it be the weak time with you and hour and power of darkness when fears and jealousies confusions and doubtings have their time to rule I but what saith the Spirit still What speaks that seed of life Are not these stirring within Is there not an invisible and strange close in thy soul when God and the Truth in thee meet When Joseph and Benjamin meet what a kiss is there and turning of Bowels Then again dost thou not finde that all creatures are too short all is weary to thee no rest or content to be had there but there is a pressing on through all to the utmost point to God himself thy life and Portion Is it not thus And so for all the other Characters are not these things so Now if you have heard and believed this You can surely witness to it He that believs sets to his seal that God is true and till you shall set to your seals and believe this That you are this chosen Generation and your souls stand setled in it till then you can never enter into the Priests office to go to God with boldness to go in all straights no we cannot go with that weak Prayer Lord I believe help my unbelief till somewhat of this Faith be risen up and stuck to by us Why do we put it off any longer Why are not we now battered Why not this night What hinders If ever we begin we must begin with this little grain though there be but a dim seeing but a half eye open Yet the star must be followed if ever we will come to Christ and the promise is The eyes of them that see shall not be dim Now it is a dim seeing indeed now we see but darkly but however if we did but stick to this dark seeing then we might go and pray for a farther light that it may grow cleerer and cleerer to the perfect day But why are we so loth to believe that this good is intended us It is
and miscarriages we lie exposed to all ravenous beasts The Avenger of Blood he may justly take us when we are out of our City of Refuge and this wandering hath been the Cause of all our desolation and misery and sorrows 6. The last thing in the Hens calling and gathering and receiving and warming and protecting her chickens all is that she may nurse them up to perfection to be like her self to be able to shift abroad and defend themselves And this end Truth hath had in all its dealings with us and followings after us and waitings upon us that we might grow up to be like-minded to it self to see us wrought and molded and fashioned into the same likeness that the same mind might dwell in us which dwelt in Christ Jesus c. Now look it over again Have you known these things which belong to your Peace Have you known that all these dealings and calls of Truth and strivings with you were in love and goodness that this was the day of Visitation and have you accepted of this Love See 1. Have you not been called out of several places many miles asunder to come together Hath not the sound of Truth gone forth and reached you and called you to it And 2. Do you not see that the Hen is now sat down that the Truth is pitched and hath taken up a setled place and People and now if we should be broken in pieces and shattered hither and thither to our former scattering in the world would it not be sad and miserable And this I fear may befall us because we have slighted and not taken notice of this day of our mercies Then 3. Have we not known and felt the warmings and cheerings of the Powers of Truth How often have we found our hearts touched within and heat and warmed and turned and yet for all this we are loth to come under the wing but are upon our reasonings and deferrings and scruples Then 4. Have we not known what a shelter and safeguard it is to sit under the wing of Truth what a defence and safety how safe we are under the wings of the Almighty We do not at present so consider this But they that are deprived of this mercy and violently taken away from us by wicked hands They now feel the loss and bitterly complain and mourn under it They find what snares and baits and ravenous beasts lie dayly at watch ready to devour them and if the Lord prevent not beyond our deservings we know not what miseries and sorrows may befall us if a scattering day come And lastly I told you the Hen nurses her chickens to bring them up to be like her self And hath not this been aimed at in all the dealings of Truth with us that we might grow up to be like it self and be moulded into the same Image And we can never grow up whilest we live at a distance from the Hen the place where she sits down to warm and brood and cherish her young ones And therefore at what a strait was David when driven into the Wilderness by his son How doth he cry out That his Soul was athirst for the living God How doth he then prize the Sanctuary the Place and People of Gods Worship How doth he envy the Sparrow and Swallow which could make their nests there when he was forced to live at a distance For there he knew the Blessing was commanded and life for evermore Now these are the Things which belong to our Peace to be gathered under this wing of Truth If we should have all the world and yet no Peace in it what were we the better And this we are called to to know this present day of our Visitation lest the Door be shut and that which follows fall upon us But now they are hid from thine eyes O Lord it makes my heart shake to think upon it to have the Eyes shut and closed up to be left to grope and wander and stumble in darkness and not to see when good cometh and all for slipping the present opportunity not knowing the things that belong to our Peace There are yet two other Reasons behind why Christ weeps over Ierusalem Fourthly He weeps from an unsatisfied Love and Desire after Ierusalem O that thou hadst known even Thou in this thy Day c. At length the fire breaks forth and He can hold no longer but must weep over His Brother Benjamin But why Ierusalem above all that He weeps over Her and cries out for her O that Thou hadst known c. Why Jerusalem was the Beloved One the choyce One of her Mother born out of the Love and Heart of God Thou above all others O that Thou hadst harkened then had thy Peace been as a River c. Fifthly Christ weeps from the sight of the miserable and lamentable condition which he knows is coming upon them not only shut out from the day of her mercies and the things that belong to her Peace but now they are hid from thine eyes and that is not all but now God is departing all woes and miseries are coming upon Her 1. Thine Enemies shall cast a Trench about thee And then 2. Compass thee in on every side And 3. Shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee And then 4. Not leave in thee one stone upon another And then 5. This added to all the rest Her own guilt which brought all this evil upon her own head Because Thou knewest not the day of thy Visitation If all these Circumstances and Aggravations were opened and seized upon your hearts it would appear a sad condition indeed and all for slipping the time the day of Visitation Christ Buckling TO HIS FATHER OR THE Absoluteness of the Divine Will SERM. V. April 20. 1651. JOHN 6.38 39. For I came down from Heaven not to do mine own Will but the Will of Him that sent me And this is the Fathers Will which hath sent me that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day The Analysis FRom the words was considered I. Who this I spoke of iâ—â— It is the Son of God the Mind the Heart the Will of the Father brought forth This is He that came from Heaven c. II. What doth he come to do Not His own Will but the Will of His Father That Will of God is the sure uncontroulable Rule to which Christ Himself submits Whence three Considerations were proposed 1. To see the ground of all happiness It is this good-will of God 2. All Things must buckle to this Will even the Son Himself 3. This Will of God cuts off all our wills nothing that comes into our thoughts must be at all III. What is this Will of the Father That of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing c. Where two Branches of this Will 1. A People are given to Christ by this Will and that
not you that sold me c. ' I sent you into the wilderness to learn you experience that when you are converted you might strengthen your Brethren Thus you may see of what use Rings are and this is wonderful that God should so adorn the hand with his Rings To be 1. Skill'd in the works of Truth 2. To be diligent in the work of Truth And 3. To be garnish'd with this to be busied about things of worth to be exercised in things that abide for ever Let all your things saith Paul be done to edification Let nothing be out of strife or vain glory but all for the building of something that shall stand for ever But yet this son is wanting still as if the Father should say What if we clothe him with the best robe and put Rings on his hands yet if his feet be not shod too how can he go Therefore 3. This is the third thing And put shooes on his feet c. Let him be shod with the Preparation of the Everlasting Gospel of Peace The feet are the Affections which are to be wrought upon 1. To go but how why Let all your things saith Paul be done in Love There 's need your feet be prepared to serve the Lord in Love And that our loves might be prepared there 's need of shooes to put on that the feet might be enabled to go upon the bryars and thorns to endure the frost and the snow need to have the Love made strong to endure hardness Love saith Paul suffereth long and is kinde envyeth not seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth c. 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. It had need be shod indeed When God said to Moses Thou shalt carry this people in thy bosom as a Mother doth her child c. Alass pleads he how can I carry all this people If thou dealest thus with me I pray thee take me away that I may not see my wretchedness He had not Love enough to carry him through There 's need of great preparations if such a service be in hand And now the Prodigal shall be made to endure to bless when he is cursed because he knows now the heart of a stranger We our selves saith Paul were sometimes strangers and aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel hateful and hating one another He having a knowledg into this was made to endure Though the more abundantly I love saith he the less I be loved That there may not be a shrinking here this is one main thing he has need of of the shooes of that which may be a fence a safeguard to his feet that no fiery darts no discontents c. may stop or overturn him But then 2. The shooes are that the Love might run the swifter without fear Withhold thy Feet from being VNSHOD saith God and thy throat from thirst Jerem. 2.25 Thou makest my Feet like HINDES FEET saith David But when the Love is cold then the heart by and by waxeth feeble and faint Ezra was astonish'd and sat seven days so because he had said The Lord was able to save them therefore said he I was ashamed to go to the King for a band of men His Love began to be feeble at last And Job sat astonish'd seven days his Love was cold he could not have offended had that been alive Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing can offend them How do we stand and pick and choose But when we shall be made able to say as Paul I am not onely ready to be bound for the Name of Christ but to suffer death also When so shod then shall we go boldly without fear when the Love is shod with quickness then I shall run the way of thy Commands When thou hast set my feet at liberty saith David then will the Soul readily love the Lord with all the heart and all the soul and all its strength But when it 's not quick and lively there come in the miscarriages For 1. It 's not shod to endure And 2ly then it has not quickness to speed on the work but through reasoning and disputing the case the Love waxes cold And the Prodigal shall be made to see to his cost when he returns home what his Leaden-heel'd Love was But 3. The third thing that prepares the Love is singleness solidness and faithfulness these are the shooes that garnish his feet these are the Affections to be shod with The double minded man saith James is unstable in all his ways When the Prodigal comes home and sees how double he had been before in all his ways now he is made to say It was good for me that I was afflicted for thereby I learn'd thy Law Now he can say One thing have I desired which now I will seek after That I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever to enquire dayly in his Temple c. Now the Prodigal has learn'd this He knows what it is to put his hand to the plow looking backwards Now his Love is singly fixt upon its object but when it was not single how did he soon wander from it He was bare-foot then but when he comes home then the Father puts on his shooes they were not of his putting on but the Fathers done by his command But all along while I am speaking to you and am seeing what divided hearts you come with and the great loss that is come upon you there 's great need to pray to the Father that he would bring the shooes his Love to set the Affections right to love with rightness readiness and singleness for if He bring them not this evil and hypocritical will will be our undoing But saith God You shall finde me when you shall seek me with all your heart and all your soul He will be sought to of the house of Israel And he has not said to the house of Jacob Seek my face in vain But he that offers to the Lord for a sacrifice that which is torn or lame and has a male in his flock He abhors that mans offering He will receive none but that which is without blemish and that will make our works accepted as Paul saith Faith that works by Love and doth all in singleness of Soul That will make every thing acceptable in his sight 4. A fourth thing the Soul is to be shod with is Soberness for there may be a real singleness of spirit and yet a great headiness Therefore saith Paul let your Moderation be seen in all things For if we cannot say as Job The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away and blessed be the Name of the Lord there is not a sober love Therefore Put off thy shooes said God to Moses He was yet over-heady and not fit to walk as you may see in his strait concerning Miriam because God had stricken her with Leprosie he prays Lord heal her now But as if God
thine own kind wherever thou findest it as Paul says we cannot do any thing against the truth but for it though the heart would be spurning and shrinking away saying he is a hard Master yet where this Spirit of Christ is it will joyn to his own the heart will be taken with him and cannot get off quite to leave him 4. Where Christ is He is a searcher he discovers al the inward and secret workings all the plots and stratagems of the Devil that all are but to destroy the soul is made to take notice of the secret carriages of things within it sees all the Train of his wyles and tricks and inventions how they are laid and how they work and whither they tend the world is blinded in all they see no danger they know not whither they go but Christ he is a divider in the souls of his People he will not believe every good word and fair promise that the enemy may make Master save thy self and cause these stones to be bread no but he will weigh and try what runs in all he will not take all for gold that glisters though you speak never so good words and fair promises and all seems right yet the Spirit of Christ where it is will try and examine whence it comes from what root all spings whether from heaven or hell c. 5. Where Christ is he will never yield up his City though it cost him his life he wil stand to his charge what ever comes on it as the three children answer though our God should not deliver us yet this their souls are resolved in we will not fall down and worship the golden Image what ever it cost yet they cannot turn to a Lie to worship an Idol Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death yet cannot we lift up our hands to a strange God c. though the Soul may be taken and carryed Captive by force yet where Christ is it still breaths with Paul but with my mind I serve the Law of God I chuse not this Service though halled to it it is the burthen it cryes under that is certain it cannot go backward though it cannot get forward neither though made to yield and say well this is your hour and the power of darkness yet the soul consents not it will not fall down and worship an Idol God Jacob will not go back again to Labans service what ever comes on it though Laban pursues behind and Esau meets him be-before and God seems to leave and discouraged him yet he will wrastle it out with God and never give over without the blessing 6. Where ever Christ is though the Soul be never so low in the bottom of hell yet there is a strange looking towards God out of the belly of hell saith Jonah I looked toward thy holy Temple where truth is sown in the Soul it cannot but look thither ward towards God bind it and fetter it and keep it down and shâ—ke it as you will yet it will never leave turning and turning and looking thither ward as the Needle ever bends towards the Northpole I remember in my lowest day and it was low indeed when all appeared as if I were quite lost and should sit down in Hell for ever among the damned yet I said in my Soul sure I shall love God th re I shâ—ll â—p ak something well of him amongst all that cursed and hatefull crew such a strange turning God ward is there in the worst of times 7. Where Christ is though all enemies beset it though all the Legions oâ— H ll and darkness of fears and doubttings come about it as a swarm yet the Soul is able to look beyond and through all to a Deliverance that it is yet possiâ—le it says still well yâ—t if he will deliver he is able thâ—re is a strange long Prospective Glass by which the Soul looks beyond all Seas and Mountains and impossibilities and fears and sees the Land that is very far off the good Land of rest and Peace and says well if the Lord delight in us he will bring us thither he is able still who can tell but he may be gracious Sure if the Lord Christ that Poor Wise Man be in you you cannot but savour and understand these words you will know the Language and though not able to express them plainly yet you cannot but know and feel these Leadings in your Souls It would now follow to speak of the Deliverance what way he takes how he delivers this City from the great King and that is not by force nor might nor multitudes but by his wisdom by a sleight that great Goliahs head is presently taken off by a wyle an unexpected way If thine Enemy hunger give him meat who would think this was the way to destroy him Yet this is the way he takes he gives the Enemy his Will lets him take his own course and run out his run thus he feeds him till he be insnared in his own net and so taken This can the Poor man do by his Wisdom but I would wish none of you to take it in hand 't is too hard for you to put your hand in the fire and not be burnt Mans Backwardness TO THE Lords House OR The Little Good-will to Truth SERM. XI May 25. 1651. HAGG. 1.2 3 4 c. Thus speaketh the Lord saying This people say The Time is not come the Time that the Lords House should be built Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sieled houses and this house lie waste c. The Analysis THese general things were observed from the words I. What this house of God was and what it typed out It was a house built and separated to the Worship of God typing out the uniting of a people into one heart and soul where God may dwell II. Why will God have this House built For three Reasons 1. To be a Pattern of the Life to come where all live in Love and Peace 2. To be a standing place of Worship whither the Tribes go up 3. For a Witness to condemn the World in all their false ways III. What are the Materials of this House 1. Not of all but onely living stones such as will abide in whom the spirit of life is sown A living Dog is better then a dead Lion 2. In this House are to be vessels of all sorts and all for their proper use none in vain none unfruitful IV. Why do they plead It is not time to build this House For these three Reasons 1. From their ignorance They knew not that all their blastings and mildews and curses came for want of this This is our case 2. From love to their ease easier to sit still at home then go up to the mountain for wood to build The heart loves to be at ease 3. Fear hinders because yet they were under Tribute to the King of
it burns all alike that comes nigh it and here David cries out Hast thou forgotten to be gracious Hast thou shut up thy loving kindness in displeasure The Soul wonders at this day and is amazed what work is in hand It is hemm'd in wiâ—h darkness and gloominess and all things work against it and God he withdraws and leaves it the Father lays aside all his bowels and falls upon his Isaac to bind him and lay him upon the Altar for a Sacrifice 2. He hides himself that the Son may learn obedience by the things he suffers for nothing in the world seizeth so deep upon the sensible Soul as this absence of God when God is indeed made precious and the Soul hath left all and made choyce of him onely then to be left and forsaken O how it grindes the heart and lays it in the dust The Soul is like a foolish childe that so long as the mother is present joys and fliggers greatly but let his mother depart and leave it and then how doth it pensie and sink and nothing will please it So when all sight of God is gone that the Soul can see no more of him O how doth it seize and buckle to the dust Then the Soul cries to all things Labor not to comfort me let me dye in my sorrow It learns by this want to want all things 3. He hides himself that Death may seize and take place for God should he always be present and uphold with his love and favor it were impossible to dye How have the Saints sung and rejoyced in stocks and prisons and fires nothing could terrifie nor affright why God was present and that kept them up He walked in the fire with the three children and so long the fire cannot burn nor seize at all Martha says to Christ Lord hadst thou been here my Brother had not dyed And certain it is were but God with us we could not be in that darkness and confusion in those sorrows and wants and perplexities that now are upon us but he withdraws on purpose that the blow may seize Do you know what this means and what a bitter cup this will be to drink of when the Philistins are upon you and the Lord he is departed To be betrayed by a neer and bosom friend to be given into the hands of sinners to be unjustly put to death to be numbered among Transgressors and left of all friends that ever stood by us and then to add to all the rest to have God withdraw too and hide all love and favor and stop his ears and seem an enemy O who can express the misery My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Soul cannot get from my God How ever it is delt with though a Father be gone and hid yet it cannot go to another God though it perish 7. The seventh aggravation of this misery to which Christ submits is this He must be dumb and not open his mouth in all these sufferings as a sheep dumb before the shearer He must not complain nor repine nor struggle nor reason the case He must not ask and cry for any ease and favor but be still and let all the waves go over him He may not have so much liberty as the rich man had in Hell he could call out to Abraham for water to cool his tongue but he must be in the fire and yet not cry out but bear it in silence and how hard a lesson is this to have no vent in misery not to complain nor so much as ask pity but this Christ submits to and all your Souls must come to it that shall enter into Life And there are three Reasons for it 1. He must be dumb that he may stand to his word and make that good He had consented and spoke the word Thy Will be done and he should now contradict himself and his heart would reproach his mouth as Job says if he should shrink away and complain for this was to have His Will done and not Gods 2. He must be dumb that he may give no ill example to others He is called the Lamb without spot no flaw must be in the Truth If the Captain turn his back alass this would soon dishearten all his Souldiers If he should complain and murmur who would not learn murmuring and stand to plead for it 'T is certain we learn evil one of another if we see another break out frowardly under a cross we presently learn to be unruly and froward With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward But now he must bear the hand quietly and meckly and patiently to leave a good example for his people to walk in the same steps 3. He is dumb that he may not forfeit all his work and lose all his reward One dead fly spoyls the whole box of ointment And he that keeps the whole Law and fails in one point is guilty of all Not to go quite through with the work is to lose all and to complain and murmur that is to fly from the hand and shrink from the work and that would hinder the reward and be recorded for an evil Amongst all the other good yet this comes in as a flaw In this thou hast done foolishly And thus you may see a picture of Christ upon the Cross but you cannot feelingly know the thing till you shall come to the execution of it upon your selves and feel the same in all these particulars 1. Then for Use consider Do you beleeve ever to see this day or do you think to come in at some other door I wonder where your thoughts are sure you do not beleeve that ever this condition should be yours If you beleeve it you will be searching and enquiring But what is my Judas what is that false bosom companion that will prove my Betrayer where lies that darling-viper Is it in my Understanding my Light Am I holding and boasting of my knowledg secretly Or is it in my affections in the love and choyce and cleavings of my heart to any seen thing and will that be a Traytor to me Where lurks the Thief under what habit goes he Is he betraying with kisses with tenderness and love and inward pleasings of spirit where I least suspect him Is he in my ease and rest and content Is it he that keeps the bag and is the overseer and provider of all things needful for me which seems the neerest friend and most careful for my good Is the Traytor so nigh me 'T is time to entire for certainly if ever you enter into Life you must pass the same way and you will meet with a Judas that will be your death one that lies close and hid and the man little suspects him to be who he is but 't is said of Christ He knew from the beginning who should betray him Truth in us from the first day we can remember hath ever dis-relished him and found an evil savor in all that he hath done or said therefore enquire out the thing for what ever it be whether wisdom or knowledg or honor or ease or outward enjoyments or husband or wife or childe or what ever else yet certain a Thief is got in and lodges nigh all of you in your very bosoms that will betray you 2. If you are informed you must pass this way and no other then let it not seem strange when it comes to pass when a multitude shall be about your ears floods and swarms of ungodliness that agaster and amaze the Soul will appear hidden and unthought of depths of wickedness and all that man may appear to be a meer nothing and Sin may appear exceeding sinful and Grace may appear to be Grace indeed All your fair carriages and wisdom and moderation will be found to be a stinking puddle and defiled If you have found another way to life I would you could declare it but if there be no other sure it will put your Souls to a strait to look about where you are How do you think to stand in that Day when he shall rise to shake terribly the Earth If you are not then found in those everlasting records if not a Name written in the Book of Life if there be not another spirit in you that can go through the fire that cannot dye that it is impossible it should be holden of the grave Then what will become of you in that Day FINIS
owned and received and prized He shall be welcom to them then even the feet of such as bring glad tydings of peace Then will the Soul say with Abigail Let me wash the feet of the servants of my Lord the King He shall be welcom indeed in that day And this glads and rejoyces and keeps up his spirit to think on this time I had verily fainted saith David unless I had beleeved to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living That bare up his heart There is hope in the latter end saith God to Rachel that thy Children shall come again to their own borders How ever they are now in captivity and lie scattered broken as if utterly forsaken yet they shall return And for these causes Christ weeps over Ierusalem over his people out of joy where ever and in what case soever he finds them yet this joy lives in the bottom I would you might never forget these Particulars But 2. And when He beheld the City He wept Another Reason why He weeps is out of sorrow because He findes them in their blood He grieves to see Ierusalems wickedness to see her hands embrued in blood to see her killing the Prophets and opposing and fighting against her own good There is no other way for Her ever to be saved but by hearing the voyce of her Prophets and obeying them And now to thrust these away saying We will not have this man rule over us for Truth to finde the sons of peace the saved ones in this strange condition hating and striking against their own chief good and best friends This causes a weeping It is a gladness indeed to finde the sons of peace to see a Nathanael an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile one in whom the Spirit of Life the Seed of God is planted Truth joys at this and if this be not in the bottom there is no ground for Truth to work upon No Physician goes about to take a dead man to cure If there be not a Seed of Life there is nothing for Truth to care for and pray and weep over But now where that seed is yet to finde such a Soul or such a people stoning their Prophets to finde his own Children rebelling and standing against Him this causes Truth to weep And when He beheld the City He wept c. Now this Sin hath three Aggravations in it which cause Truth to weep 1. It is an unnatural sin for them to kill their Prophets which came to instruct and inform them in the way of Life Alass in killing your Prophets you kill your selves you murther your own Souls And what murther is so cruel and unnatural as that Who shall save you if you kill your Saviour Him whom God hath sent to be a Saviour and Deliverer If you thrust away this Moses who shal bring you out of Egypt and lead through the Wilderness Nothing so unnatural as for a man to cut his own Throat such a thing is it for any to slight and contemn that Truth which comes to save them 2. It is an ungrateful Sin It is not right nor allowable to render evil for evil to hate our Enemies But to reward evil for good to return hatred for love and mercy and bowels shewed us Am I therefore your Enemy saith Paul because I tell you the truth This is wonderful ungrateful I will send my Son sure they will reverence Him but now after all to take this Son too and kill Him that was sent out of love and exceeding tenderness this is the ungratefullest sin in the World To refuse Him that speaks from Heaven that can open to you the minde and heart and love and good-will of God this Christ weeps at to finde them in so ungrateful a sin 3. It is a venturous and desperate sin That moves Christ to weep to see the hard venture what to sleep upon the top of a Mast To venture to kill their Prophets and the present offer of Grace and know not whether ever another Prophet shall be sent them or no O what a venture is it God hath truly sent me to you to warn you to come out of Sodom and to tell you God hath purposed to destroy the City and will you venture to linger in it still Had Lot stayd but one hour longer he had been destroyed with them but the Angel layd hands on him and pulled him out the Lord being merciful to him This is the next to that unpardonable sin which David prays against O keep me from presumptuous sins that I may be innocent from the great Transgression The Lord warn and prevent you and lay it to your heart to consider how guilty we are in all these Particulars how unnatural we have been and cruel to our own Souls to murther the Truth sent to gather us and then of all transgressions 't is the most ungrateful What people in all the world have been so kindly dealt with so followed and waited on and born with Line upon Line Instruction and Counsel and Love have followed us and to murther this Truth after all how ungrateful is it And then how desperate have we been and venturous in a Passion like the profane Esau to sell all for one morsel of bread to venture all at a blow and what ever comes on it desperately resolve We will not have this man rule over us Well may God say to us Because I would have purged you and you would not be purged therefore you shall not be purged till you dye Do you hear what is spoke It concerns all you are all guilty the Lord lay it not to your charge I know not a People in the World so venturing all at a cast as we have been Come Life or Death yet there hath been a punctual standing out and slighting the Call of Truth to have our wills Thirdly Another Cause Christ weeps over Jerusalem is to find her in that miserable condition of ignorance that she knew not the Things which belonged to her Peace O that Thou hadst known even Thou in this thy day c. But They knew not the day of their Visitation they knew not their time this Christ grieves at Work whilest it is day whilest you have the Light with you for the night cometh wherein no man can work But they had played in Summer they slighted their seasons and opportunities and knew them not knew not the Things belonging to their Peace Man naturally looks after the things that concern his ease but is not so minding what belongs to his peace But it is this Peace only that must stick by us in a strait in a time of need when ease and enlargements and all fail then will this Peace abide and this Christ weeps for to see their ignorance though it is well in one respect that they were ignorant I obtained mercy saith Paul because I did it ignorantly And had we done what we have done fully knowing we had sinned
that unpardonable Sin and there could have been no mercy for us But What was Jerusalem ignorant of She was ignorant of her Day O that thou hadst known in this thy Day It was the time and day of her Visitation and she knows it not This day saith Samuel to Saul would the Lord have established the Kingdom upon thee had he known the time and stood in that nick but falling there he lost all So the woman of Samaria she looked for the Messias to come and that He would tell her all things but she was ignorant of the present season she knew not that He was the Messias who now talked with her So have we been hoping and expecting and promising our selves great things for the future but have not known the present day and the present mercies offered us For my own part had I known my time and day afforded me I can truly say I had been prevented of many of the miseries mischiefs and miscarries that I have fallen into And how many times have you killed the strugglings and motionings of the Spirit in you and said To morrow we will consider of it and hear and come up to what is called for when alas to morrow is not ours we know not but this may be the day and if this be slipt over by us it may never be offered more but we are reasoning and disputing away the time saying Sure this is not the call and mind of Truth this would make me a scorn and hissing stock to all sure this would undo me And thus we are keeping off our mercies No but we judg amiss He would bring thee to Himself to know the things that belong to thy Peace to have Peace in all thou goest about which is worth all We have now no Peace in all our ways turn whither we will to eating and drinking and trading to all our employments and enjoyments yet nothing shall give rest and ease to them that are to be saved till this Peace be given and this Christ weeps for that this Peace should be no more known nor minded by Ierusalem but the time slipt over and lost and gone whilest we stand and oppose our own Salvation and would never come at it But you will say Is such a Thing in man that would not be saved and come to know the things which belong to his Peace and everlasting good I there is that which opposeth it to the Death if the Lord prevent not But how ever the Soul may be saved in the day of the Lord yet a great Loss may come the inlargements and attainments may be lost But now they are hid from thine eyes c. and much misery sorrows may be brought on our heads as in the Verse following Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and keep thee in on every side and not leave one stone upon another c. Methinks while I read and consider it to whom he speaks to Ierusalem that God should deal thus exactly and be so severe and harsh to his own People this is marvelous and makes my heart ake to think on it and yet thus He will deal with Ierusalem I told you the high nature of their sin to destroy their Prophets is 1. An unnatural sin it is to kill their own Souls And 2. An ungrateful sin against all love and mercy and tenderness a requiting of the greatest evil for the greatest good And then 3. What a venture is it to run such a desperate hazard who that should see this in himself and have the sense seize upon him would not cry out O what have I done I remember it was so with me in my day when Christ was offered to me and my Soul drew back refused the Lamb of God that which I had so long cryed and prayed and longed for yet when offered to me Lo here is my Son that then I should refuse it Lord I said to my Soul what have I done what will become of me what now can save me Then another Cause of Christs weeping over Ierusalem I told you was their Ignorance that They knew not the things which belonged to their Peace and what Things were they Why saith Christ How often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not They knew not the goodness of the Lord the day of Grace offered that then He was calling and inviting and gathering them to Himself Now this I would bring home to our selves to see how it will parallel with our conditions whether the Lord hath not thus sought to gather us in our day as a Hen gathereth her Chickens In which these several things are Considerable 1. A Hen calleth her Chickens after her she goes before and clocks and clocks to call them together to follow her till she gets them all about her and so hath the Lord dealt with us the Call of Truth hath reached us and brought us together out of several Countries and places and conditions one Call of the Truth hath met with us and brought us together 2. The Hen after she hath gathered her chickens about her she sits down and settles in some place and so hath Truth now it hath gathered us together it hath sat down amongst us it hath taken up a setled place of abode that we are not now wanderlng abroad to find a Truth or a People to joyn with 3. After the Hen hath called her chickens together and sat down in her place the next thing she doth is this she spreads forth and opens her wings to receive and take them in so hath the Truth opened and spread forth the wings of its favor and goodness and entertainment the way is open and free all that will may come under and find acceptance and tendering all that are the chickens indeed that belong to this Hen to this Truth and not of a false brood 4. The Hen receives her chickens under her wings to warm cherish and revive them and that is the end of Truths gathering and opening it self to receive and take us in to fellowship and counsel and unity it is that we might be warmed and helped and relieved and prosper If two lie together there is heat but how can one be warm alone Take a quick coal out of the fire and it dyeth presently And the Holy Ghost says Wo to him that is alone But the Prospering way that Truth calls to is where Brethren live together in unity to come under one wing for counsel and help and direction in all our ways 5. The Hen gathers her chickens under her wings as to warm and cherish them so to protect and keep them out of danger and harms the Kite or some ravenous thing or other soon catches them when they leave the Hen and straggle alone And this is a certainty whilest we stand alone by our selves out of the counsel and care and submission under Truth we are open to a thousand dangers
in the Church but if you would know for no better end then this only to satisfie your reaching heart if you employ not your Masters goods to the best advantage better had you never had the Truth then to make an evil use of it as Christ declares in the next Chapter a Parable of a Steward that wasted his Masters goods and inrich'd himself by it Ephraim is a fruitful Vine to himself But as Solomon saith Riches are given to some for their hurts And here you may see that if riches and honor c. shall be the way to bring a man down God will give him them Eve shall eat of the Apple though forbidden because said she its good to make one wise c. that so she might be brought under the curse Though all shall not have their hearts brought down that way for some shall have their hearts discovered by their foolishness they shall have no knowledg but be ignorant and brutish as a beast What strange ways does God take to bring down mans heart before he can know that he standeth by grace that he is not able to think a good thought of himself As the Prodigal here as soon as ever he can get all together he is gone he thinks he is well now As soon as God gives understanding knowledg discerning then comes Pride then we think we are something because we have something But alas may we cry out as the man did to Elijah it was but borrowed and he that lent it may call for it when it pleases him Therefore let him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall How proud is this Peacock how does she spread out her tail but when she sees her black feet then she hangs down her head 4ly The Prodigal having gathered all together he has then he goes forth gallantly adorned Now I can give Reproof Instruction and Counsel saith he and thus he looks upon his plume of Feathers but by and by his portion is gone his Feathers are pluckt and then how naked and ashamed is he If you be made wise to see and be warned then happy are you We never come to our losses but by this prying upon our selves as the Apostle saith We measure our selves by our selves saying I am better then I was and amongst our selves when we look upon others we say I am better then this and th' other but in this you are not wise c. But who of us desires the Truth as David did O deal kindly with me saith he that I may keep thy Commandments We say Let me have the Truth but for what end to be proud of it We often enquire and enquire as the Pharises did of the blind man But how came thine eyes open as if we would be his Disciples But is it indeed for that end I beseech you enquire why would you know the hidden Mysteries of God and be of his Counsel c. If you have no mind to be his Disciples there 's great danger in it there 's great need to enquire wherefore you would know God Would you know him to fear him fear him to serve him serve him to love him to love him not your selves is this in all your hearings desirings and prayings c. What would you have him for is it to get honour to your selves or is it for the honour of him That in all your desirings this may be set before you to say thus Did the Prodigal desire and did the father give him his desire But what did he with it He gathered all together and ran from his father We never undertake to be desperately evil but we first plot how to carry it out As a thief that is resolved to steal he plots how to carry away what he intends to steal When you look over how you are wiser and have more discerning then others how good is prophesied concerning you c. then you gather up your portions and arm your selves against the Truth to fight with it All you that have gone far from God have not gone naked we have made use of what God had given us to carry us out from him We could never have gone into a Land of wasting of hunger and famine had we not once been in a Land of plenty You have not gone out hood-wink'd How have you promised your selves when you have gone into evil company you would only go to learn experience and return again presently But whither have you carried your riches even as the Prodigal to a Citizen of that Country where self-love pride envy c. dwells where the Ishmaelites dwell the Tabernacles of Edom of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon and Amlaeck c. Psal 83.6 7. All the kindred that are against Truth Pride Self-love Envy c. are the Country-men whither the Prodigal carries his riches And what doth he now do does he go to God in this loss No he joyns himself to this Citizen one of the same kind for such as a mans heart is such is his society he joyns himself to If the heart is let out to Envy then to the envious if to self-Self-love Pride unmercifulness it seeks for such and therefore must our high thoughts come down And whosoever of you shall be so wise to take warning by this might be afraid to ask of God riches any more since we have spent them upon our lusts We have gone from Jerusalem to that cursed Jericho and as the Prodigal spent all our substance And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the Land and he began to be in want c. And so it will be all the vertue strength power wisdom fear love c. what ever we have enjoyed that sprung from Truth will be spent and the famine will arise But for what Cause 1. As a just Judgment When David had numbered the people God sent unto him three Judgments bidding him choose which he would Shall seven years of famine come unto thy Land saith God or wilt thou fly three moneths before thine enemies or shall three days Pestilence be in thy Land c. 2 Sam. 24.13 This was to come as a Judgment upon him Therefore now in this strait what great need have you of one to make an attonement for you When you have had the exercise of Truth lively upon you how have you babbled it to every one You have thought Sure I have riches enough and so have run it out as long as ever you had breath as a drunken man that has money he spends all never considering how hardly he came by it and how soon he may want Not like that wise man Christ speaks of who when he hath found the treasure hid in a field presently goes and hideth it again Mat. 13.44 But as soon as we are a little brought out but to see our way c. how do we tell it abroad to every one we meet My heart shall never reproach my mouth saith Job I but
but to be as an hired servant but while he claims nothing he enjoys something and while he was claiming something he spent all and had nothing a strange way that God takes He sets the Begger that 's taken out of the dunghil with the Princes of his people but the rich he sends empty away That such as lie reaching to be great should be sent empty away and such as lie and say I have sinned I have sinned against Heaven I have hindred this people I am conscious of it I have been a block in the way yet that He should be received this is strange But what is he saluted with not with the remembrance of his sin but bring the best robe which is that everlasting righteousness that clean Love for if the Prodigal does but return he will never go out again and Love covers a multitude of sins Bring the best robe that 's his best robe He hath beheld no iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel Numb 23. He does as Noahs best son did to his father go backward to cover his nakedness so before he can well see him he cries Come bring the best robe You don't know when you shall return thus buckled and bowed owning the thing as it is how the Father will reward you Be not discouraged do but cry out Lord I have sinned what wouldst thou have me to do And though thou shalt say but I cannot speak a word as I ought nor think a good thought yet let not this hinder thee Come as thou art Remember thou hast heard it reported the Prodigal came thus and his father received him better to be an hired servant in the house then a son a great way off better is it to wipe the childrens shooes then to be in a Kings house amongst ravenous beasts All this is written for our learning that we through patient waiting might have hope and return with this saying Peradventure he will receive me though we come forlorn c. yet see what his Prodigal received for God waits to be gracious O that I could but hear the sound of a right word All your complainings rising onely from being tormented c. are nothing to me because you still love to be in them but if there were but a minde to return see what entertainment it would finde Then he had the fatted Calf set before him the musique and dancing O the sweet harmony when God and man are at unity From this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel What hath God wrought But minde this of a certain That all your forced confessings for fear c. bring no turn in you nor turns Truth to you but where truly the Soul is buckled it ventures and comes in to its Father and is received and this kinde of entertainment the son findes not a word of upbraiding for what he had done Though the servant owed his Lord ten thousand Talents and is not able to pay one peny of it yet in that he lies down at his Lords feet and owns the thing as it is saying Lord have compassion on me all is forgiven him and had he stood here his Lord had quite forgiven him for ever but because he began to lord it over his fellow servant that owed him a hundred pence taking him by the throat saying Pay me that thou owest me and though he fell down and besought him yet he would not have compassion on him therefore his Lord was grieved and cast him again into prison till he should pay the uttermost farthing Matt. 18.24 c. Therefore minde what will be the benefit of the Prodigals returning see what shall follow it but no man can beget Truth where it is not nor raise it where it is before its time but were you sensible of the reward that shall follow a right turning it were enough to make the worst heart in the world to bow For we propound He is a hard Master No there 's nothing remembred against him but bring the best rob c. There are five dishes which are set before this son for his entertainment 1st Saith the father Bring the best robe 2ly Put Rings on his fingers 3ly Put shooes on his feet 4ly Kill the fatted Calf 5ly There 's gladness Come let 's eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found c. Here will be considered the order next And why not meat for his belly first for he was now almost starved by reason of famine Yet saith the father in the first place Come bring the best robe Wherein you may consider these three things 1. The best robe is brought to cover his nakedness for there 's no standing else before God there 's no disputing with him at all except the sin be covered while there 's any guilt upon the heart there cannot be a neerness betwixt God and man But in all reason he should have had meat for his belly first yet that must not be till he has the best robe the Fathers best Love upon his back because there can be no standing in his sight to speak a word without it For who can stand before everlasting burning And God is a consuming fire Where this Love is not first a covering they will rather cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall on them for who can stand before God in his guilt Therefore first this is most needful to be covered with the best robe But 2. Bring the best robe because the sinner stands with such a shame upon him for while he stands guilty there can be no boldness nor freeness to receive any thing from his Father The poor sinner saith I know not why he gives me this and th' other for ought I know it 's for my greater condemnation for as Solomon saith Some have riches given them for their hurt And how many patterns do we see of it 3. The fear will remain till it be discovered that the sin is taken away therefore saith the Father Bring the best robe for the Father has robes that will wax old which the servants are clothed with I will turn them out of my house saith he and love them no more But after the Prodigal is thus adorned when the Love of God has covered him that he is made able to stand spotless and blameless before him in love now he stands covered in this long white robe he had none of this garment upon him when he went out for then had he never gone but he was covered with that which could be taken from him And you shall know saith God the breach of a Promise But there is Love that cannot be changed a Covenant that can never be broken a Foundation that cannot be shaken and now there 's a boldness to appear before God but so long as any guiltiness remains the Soul is afraid of God I remembred God saith David and was troubled Therefore he cries O
should have said No thy love is too heady Let her go out of the Camp seven days and bear her shame and then let her be received again But Paul could say I have learn'd in all things to be contented both how to abound and how to want And this is that which God delights in Sober love ordered love He that rules over men must be just saith David ruling in the Fear of God in Soberness in Humility c. to be wise slow to do evil swift to do good more ready to hear then to offer the sacrifice of fools What need of this When we are but a little brought from our hypocrisie and can truly say our love is single then we think sure this is enough No but yet be you sober that 's the counsel But who will be wise none but the Prodigal that has learn'd experience Peter meant singly when he said to Christ I will lay down my life for thy sake But how heady was it He was unsober in it He knew not that was to be fulfilled that was ordained before of God that he should deny him All you shall this night saith Christ to him be offended because of me and shall leave me for it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered abroad He little thought of this Alas is there no other way to find this Soberness but through sorrows through banishments sending into Captivity This is hard dealing indeed But now the Prodigal can tell this Mystery now he has learn'd Sobriety he is made to admire at the way his father took to make him a sober man Now he can say as David It was good for me that I was afflicted A friend loves at all times And now he seeth That Love is as strong as Death It has Hinds feet it hath quickness singleness and soberness and when you shall be thus shod then love as much as you can nay then you cannot but love And thus the son is welcom'd Bring hither the best robe and put a ring on his hand and shooes on his feet And if ever we shall see this Return then shall we be made to say as Paul Thanks be to God that we are the servants of sin But who would fetch pearls from the bottom of the Sea It 's ten thousand to one not to be spoiled in this venture For there shall be but a remnant saved here and there one as the shaking of an Olive tree here and there one in an uppermost branch What to be found dead and stinking in the grave as Lazarus to be incompast about with Harlots c. and yet get home again Sure the Prodigal did not discover himself to the Citizen he joyned to that he was a Jew for then he would not have received him he was fain to use all the shifts he could for entertainment And so do we and yet we can find none that pities us we cannot so much as feed with the swine But what has God wrought that no inchantment nor divination should be against him Oh the wonder that ever he should welcom his Prodigal with such entertainment as I have shewed you But 4. The next thing considerable in his Entertainment is And kill the fatted Calf c. The Robe I shewed you what it was I also shewed you why he must have that put on before he has meat and why the rings and shooes go first seeing he came out of the Land of famine and the main cause that moved him to return was because his father he knew had bread enough and he perished for hunger I shewed you the Reasons c. But why must he have such abundance And this is not all neither Bring the musick there must be dancing and mirth too Well may this be likened to Jacobs ladder for it reached to Heaven The fatted Calf what 's that The Everlasting Righteousness to be establisht with the free Spirit Seventy weeks saith Daniel are determined to finish transgression and make an end of sin to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in the EVERLASTING RIGHTEOVSNESS c. Dan. 10.24 This David cries out for when his blood-guiltiness lies upon him O deliver me from my blood-guiltiness saith he establish me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.14 12. With that Spirit Christ could say It 's my meat and drink to do the Will of my Father This made David say Thy Word is dearer to me then my necessary food But what benefit is it to the man or woman that eats this fatted Calf There are three Benefits considerable that comes to him by this meat 1. There 's refreshment to the weary Soul When the Inwards are dying and sinking and tyred quite out when hunger has smit the Inwards for want of the enjoyment of God how good then is the Spirit of Truth to refresh to the heart After a great abstinence after a long time of distance then Christ saith But I will send the Comforter the Holy Ghost who shall abide with you for ever After many a weary step and hard pang for want of meat a mans inwards close together and as it were devour themselves Is it not enough that I take my flesh in my teeth saith Job I lookt on my left hand and none stood by me and on my right hand and found none to comfort me And O that I could find him saith Job Alas Hope deferred makes the heart sick but when the desire is come it is a tree of life After a weary journey long want every morsel is good nay bitter things become sweet But 2. The second use of meat is to strengthen mans heart so is the Communion of the Holy Ghost a Strengthener to the Soul As Paul prayeth concerning the Ephesians That you might be strengthened saith he in your spirit with might in the inward man that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love c. Rooted and grounded As if he should say That now you may be able to stand strongly and unshakeably through temptations and provings and all storms as the Prodigal here now never more having a mind to wander from his fathers house and this will be your happiness indeed if ever you attain to it We have had many deliverances and experiences and helps in the wotk but are not yet made able to stand but as David says we mount up to Heaven and down again to the deeps not yet come home But when God shall have given victory then will there be a sure standing we shall then move no more when once establisht upon mount Sion that steady Foundation which shall never change nor wax old as a garment then shall we stick to our Principles and not after a vow enquire as now we do But 3. Meat if a blessing be with it makes a man look well have a good countenance but how through want does a man look lean and ill favored Wo is me saith
wisdom and will believe God no farther then we can see him but keep off our misery though we are warned by the voyce of the Cryer and warned by our own hearts to know how deceiveably they have dealt with us yet we will hold our hold and not give up all flesh for corrupt and wretched and cry out In me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing Till this we must welter in our misery no Cure will come 3. We have been warned by Providence of this an ordering Hand of God hath preach'd That all flesh is grass How hath it taken away some of us by Death and how hath the world a late been let loose upon the rest What plots and contrivances are there on foot to break us a pieces if the Lord prevent not What stirings are there and waitings for our halting And what mean all these stirs and hurly-burlies Sure they have an end they come for the destruction of the flesh they come to shew that flesh yet lives that there is a fleshly coming together fleshly hearing and trusting in our outward mercies crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and so rest in the shadow and come not to the preparing of an Ark indeed And therefore you see how it hath fallen upon some of us to be divided and taken away by force and carried to strange Tryals And think not with your selves that they were greater sinners then the rest No but certainly unless we repent that are yet left together the Hand will go against us and the men of the world shall have their wills to root us out from being a People Therefore if we shall be warned this day to lay it to heart it will be well if the Word and the Work and the present hand of Providence if all make you consider and know that all flesh hath corrupted its way and that out of flesh you must come then it 's well Out of Sodom you must come that is certain and if one thing will not do it another shall We have certainly lived all of us besides the mercies afforded We might have been Teachers of others for the time but alas we have been dull of hearing and have need to be taught into the first Principles of repentance from dead works Therefore there is need now at the last you should be warned That all flesh is grass and this you will grant in a word But come to particulars and there your fleshly wisdom wilâ— be Judg what is right and what is wrong and flesh will never judg it self and so all is kept off from seizing upon the heart for certainly else you could never keep up to live alone as you do upon your own thoughts and counsels without the Lord As it is said God is not in all their thoughts Oh therefore Consider this all you that forget God! And whilest it is called to day harden not your hearts Fall under the mighty hand and own your misery and if you know it not be jealous and enquire with fear What means this voyce of the Cryer ' Am I indeed so corrupt and miserable and know it not Say with Job What I know not teach thou me till the Thing be opened for some way or other this Lesson must be learn'd you That All flesh is grass and the Lord spares none of you and nothing in any of you but All flesh the whole House of Israel have corrupted their way You are all guilty and have turned aside to vain things and have forsaken the Lord days without number and the strait is not yet upon you The Lord make you sensible where you stand But then 2. We have been warned of that too as Noah was That the End of all flesh is come before God How often hath this been told you That He will not always bear His Spirit will not ever strive The Patience will wear out at the last nay it is even expired and if the Lord move you not with fear as Noah was moved to prepare an Ark desolation will surely come the Flood will overtake you some way or other either Death will come and bind us fast from our wills in the grave or sufferings from unreasonable men will come to shatter us asunder and break us in pieces and then whither shall we turn for counsel and help in our straits How may we then prize the days which we now slight Surely one way or other God will take to bring All Flesh to an end And if we have no other hope nor confidence but in the flesh if we stick still in our self-wills and fleshly minds we shall not be able to stand in that day It is not your high looks nor great thoughts that will then carry you out not your knowledg of Scriptures nor understanding of Mysteries none of your carnal hopes nor carnal fears nor carnal reasonings will now stand as they have done formerly but the Flood will sweep away all that is born of the flesh Therefore if we shall be made to judg our selves before-hand and cry out O search me and try me if there be any way of wickedness in me and bow under the Judgment then it 's well for us But if there be such a saying within I shall have peace in the way of my own heart this evil shall not come that is spoke of I shall have ease and rest and dye in my nest saith Job if thus you put the evil day far from you it will surely overtake you unawares in a day when you think not of it when they were eating and drinking and marrying the Flood came c. 3. We have been also warned as Noah was to prepare an Ark We have been minded often both from a Word without and stirrings within to look after a sure testing place a Refuge a shelter that which will keep off all Floods and storms and Tryals Though the Earth be moved into the midst of the Sea yet saith David I will not fear His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord And in another place My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed There is sure such a place whither the Righteous can flee and they are safe In the Name of the Lord in that Tower under his wing in the secret of his Pavilions in his Bosom in his Love when that is opened to the Soul and a mansion given it there Now if thou hast all parts and knowledg and operations and good desires and good resolvings all these will not save thee in the day of the Flood The Waters will get above over all the high Mountains the whole Earth how high soever it be yet if it be of the Earth if it be born of the flesh and the will of man it will not stand But There is a Rest for the People of God Wast thou ever brought into that Hath the Lord Jesus ever shewed thee thy lot and portion in that Eternal Love that thou art chosen there
thy seed be blessed Ishmael though he may live in the House yet He must not be Heir with Isaac There are many flourishing Plants in the world that grow and thrive apace I but every Plant that my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up The King will overlook all his guests and then Friend how camest thou hither will light on all that have not the wedding garment on However we may strive to pull in Husbands and children and other relations according to our selfish wills yet alass That will not stand That will not make any who are not to be this chosen Generation It is not whom man approves but whom the Lord approves It was once so That all lay in the confused Chaos together in one lump like the Potters clay and then there was no difference at all none could say This is accepted or this rejected this is Jacob or this Esau this a vessel of honor That of dishonor till the Potter hath separated and distinguished his clay to several purposes and then was the Portion of the Nations divided and then the Lords People became his portion Then this chosen Generation had their first Being and were both from the womb of the morning Now in choosing these several things are considerable 1. Before a man chooseth any thing he weighs well and considers and overlooks it in his minde He weighs all the flaws and all the perfections in it that he may know what he chooseth and not do it hoodwinked So the Lord was pleased to weigh all his creatures When he divided to the Nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam then he said Jacob is my portion He knew what he did how he would prove as God says I knew thou wouldst have iron sinews and a brazen brow He throughly considered what he did took in all faults and provocations that should ever spring from them and yet he pitches on this chosen generation and yet Jacob is the lot of his Inheritance Hence it is there are no repentings in God because the thing was throughly weighed We often repent because of our heady rushing upon this and the other but God is not as man He made his choyce with full advice and counsel Hence it is The gifts and calling of God are without repentance And In him is no variableness nor shadow of change because all his works were done in counsel therefore they stand fast for ever and ever And therefore saith David Walk about Zion Mark well her Towers c. Consider her strength the sure unmovable Rock she stands upon For this God is our God for ever and ever He will be our Guide unto Death This God is Zions God that hath done things at a certainty not at hazard that will be a Guide unto Death that will never leave nor forsake The bottom and ground is certain and 't is expressed thus in the Proverbs That I may make thee understand the words of Certainty This choyce of God is a certain unfailable unchangeable choyce This will seem wonderful when you shall come to consider it and the thing sink to your hearts Wert thou once in the same lump with the reprobate silver Was Esau Jacobs Brother and Jacob loved and Esau hated How comes this thing about What means this favor What manner of Love is this O Lord if it did but sink into your Souls what a thing is it to be chosen of God! Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches This is not the thing which puts the difference And so Christ to his Disciples Rejoyce not that Devils are subject to you That is not your Happiness No but that your names are written in Heaven that you are of this chosen generation that God pitched upon you what ever you are rejoyce in that Samuel he looks upon Eliah because of his stature and goodly personage as if sure he was the Lords anointed No but saith God not He but it is the stripling the little youth in the field the youngest and unthought of David he is the man He saves not the whole the honorable and learned the Scribes and Pharisees but Ought not this Daughter of Abraham to be loosed whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years She must be loosed because a Daughter of Abraham of that stock how ever mean and base in the eyes of man for God sees not as man seeth He picks where he pleaseth one of a City and two of a Tribe Though Israel be as the sand of the Sea yet but a remnant shall be saved Though there be threescore Queens and fourscore Concubines yet My Beloved is but one c. That he should let thousands and ten thousands go and yet pitch on me this will be wonderful to us when we shall see into it 2. A man affects the thing he chooseth his heart goes after it more then that which he lets alone And therefore Moses said to Israel The Lord chose you not because you were better or more in number then other people but because He favored you and set his Love upon you And in Jeremy he says I have loved thee of old with an everlasting Love and when thou wast in thy blood one would think that a strange time to love in yet then was thy time the time of Love Though there was no cause yet he loves Even so O Father saith Christ for so it pleased thee Two in a womb two in a mill two in the same condition and the one taken and the other left To be left is enough there is need of no more reprobation then that If a man be but left and not dayly maintained kept up and preserved he will corrupt of himself and run naturally to destruction There is no need of a cursing or destroying any Creature but he is pleased to leave some and that is enough They naturally tend and fall into the curse and bring it on their own heads if a preventer step not in and therefore that is not first concluded in God concerning any This is a damned wretch whom I hate and detest No his damnation is of himself he procures his own curse and if he be but left if not held up and hedged in and kept alive he cannot but dye No man can keep alive his own Soul The Branch if it be left without Sap from the root must needs dye If the Lord hath not chosen nor set his love upon any that is destruction enough that creature will sure enough run thither therefore see how Esau first sells his birth-right then loses his Blessing and one misery follows another till he be quite ruined and therefore the choosing the setting his heart upon any that is the thing which saves If God say as Sampson did concerning Delilah Give me her for she pleaseth me be she what she will yet she pleaseth me so Christ saith of the Spouse Thou hast
ravished my heart with one of thine eyes that is the thing to be beloved to find favour in his eyes Love will bear all things Love is as strong as death Love will save to the utmost and this Lot fal's on some Though Esther be an unlikely maiden one of another Country of mean degree yet she pleased the King and obtained kindnesse of him Chap. 2.9 and vers 17. and the King loved Esther above all the women and she obtained grace and favour in his sight and this is the thing that brings the Crown to her be she what she will Thou art fair my Love my undefiled Though she complains I am black yet he loveth her and Love sees no faults she is comely in his eye this is the portion of the chosen Generation 3. What a man chooseth to himself He taketh it out from other things he gathers it near to himself Thus is it with God He pulls the Brand out of the burning He takes the Poor out of the Dunghill leaves them not there and this is a sure token of choosing indeed where he leaves not a man or woman in their darkness in their bonds in their snares but pulls them out separates the Wheat from the chaff who hath translated us out of darkness into the Kingdome of his dear Son and in the Revelation it is said they were redeemed to God from amongst men and Christ saith because I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you He takes his chosen ones out of their chains out of their filth out of a perishing condition cuts them off from the old stock That which he intends for a vessell of honour he takes it out of the Lump he leaves not his own in the same Lump with the rude world Now this is the great thing to be considered whether you are yet thus pulled out hath he made thee indeed to differ from the rude world art thou pulled out of the old Kingdome of Sathan where the whole world dwell in wickednesse though in severall ranks forms and degrees yet in the same Kingdome still not a new Creation made but this will make it appear he chooseth thee if thou canst say with David He plucked my feet out of the Snare he brought me up from the nethermost Hell and saith Jonah yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God that is his Salvation there it appears God is God We would vainly promise our selves as the whole world do to be saved by his love onely and so quietly passe our Lives in our own wills here and go to Heaven when we die but alas if ever saved we must be taken out of the condition we stick in Come out from amongst them my people that ye partake not of her Plagues Many have great words and great knowledge and light I but they are not yet translated out of the old Kingdom they remain still on the same stock but things that are chosen are taken out of the midst of other things and therefore Moses speaks to Israel Was ever such a thing known as that God should go to take to himself a people out of the midst of another people by great signes and wonders c. to take out of Snares and Bonds and Intanglements for God to say Come out of all and be you clean and be my people and I will be your God I shall inquire of you are you thus chosen are you pulled out of darkness and out of death and joyned to all the living Though in never so mean a place ne-never so despised an outcast though but a living dog yet if living if taken out of death and planted into a new Life that is the thing If there be that seed of Life it will ever be stirring and moving and bending like the Needle touched with the Loadstone set it where you will it can never rest untill it come into its right place till the Soul be brought to God Now there is a restless spirit in the Cains and lost ones but that is onely out of Torment the worm that never dyes and this restless spirit never moves towards God but runs from him but to this Centre the spirit of life ever tends to come from and out of all things unto God c. 4. Things that are chosen have no hand in their own choice All that befalls this Chosen Generation is of mercy and free goodness who made thee to differ nothing they could do could ever make a difference but the Case stands thus Two things lie together and a man passing by takes one and lets the other lie the things have no hand in it so is it in this choice of God all is done according to the pleasure of his own will see and read as you go that you may have nothing to glory and boast in nor challenge the least to thy self as if he saw some readiness or activity or towardliness in thee more then in others no he saw nothing but his own pleasure if there be any thing good in thee he put it there you have not chosen me saith Christ but I have chosen you This will make it appear free indeed when you shall be made to see there is no hand of yours in it but of his own good will begat he us No man ever begun first to seek after God but I was found of them that sought me not else no Soul would ever be saved Can a stone move upward no nothing can move to God but what came from God none can go to Heaven but the Son of man which came down from Heaven It is contrary to man who is born from beneath from the Earth to move upward his Centre is below unless he be pulled and drawn and born up and carried upon Eagles wings he falls to the Earth like a stone the natural man cannot please God he neither will nor can be subject to the Law of God and this is that God may have the glory alone in the work of Salvation as he says in Isa It shall be to me for a name and for a praise That he should save such unlikely ones and out of stones raise up children to Abraham this will seem wonderfull I did not think to have seen the Lord here saith Hagar when she had given up all for lost this will make the Soul say indeed as David doth God alone doth all 5. Things that are chosen are set apart for some speciall use a man hath some end in choosing them so was it with God in this choice he had a peculiar end and design to bring about and he chooseth some for that purpose but why are not all the world for this use True they might have been had he put in them the same spirit had he fitted the vessel to that purpose but he spends a great deal of cost and pains upon some he prepares the Vessell for that very purpose to put in new wine Old Bottles
or four berries on an uppermost bow a few scattered gleanings after harvest when the vintage is over and it is wonderful hard to spy them out unless it be given you to understand the parable unless your understandings be opened to see into the Scriptures into them many read the letters see them without but cannot pierce into the Spirit and meaning of them None can do this but they to whom the new eye is given none else can ever finde this City It is so little a one so clouded and covered over with reproaches and scandals and meanness 't is such a despised unthought-of thing All the world never once dream that God is bound up in so little a compass that he lives in such a little City They plead Is not God everywhere Is he not with us as well as with you No He is indeed every where but he is not seen everywhere he is known in Zion that little City but all others the great and learned of the world see him not they cannot see invisibly that 's nonsense they 'll say He is hid from the wise and prudent and revealed to a few Babes Therefore beware and follow not a multitude to do evil there is great need your whole souls and mindes should be intent and taken up in this thing if indeed you have a minde to find it and to live for ever that you may take no rest nor give any sleep to your eyes nor slumbering to your eye-lids till you have found out this habitation for the God of Jacob. Need there is to keep your eyes fixed and to go weeping and mourning and asking the way to Zion with your faces and hearts thitherward And thus two things in general have been opened to you 1 That God for certain hath his City under the Sun his people in the world however the whole world lie in wickedness and are lost and run the several runs to destruction yet he hath a remnant he hath reserved to himself seven hundred that have not bowed to Baal In the days when Samuel was born it is said The Word of the Lord was precious in those days and there was no open Vision and yet then God will have his Samuel Hannah brings forth this man-child this son in stead of many sons she that was barren hath brought forth seven a compleat number a remnant he will ever reserve 2. It was considered this City was but a little one 1. It makes no great noise nor stir in the world it raises no Armies nor makes Tumults to defend and enlarge it self 2. Little indeed if you consider the vast world the great multitudes and many thousands that fall short and perish It is but a small cloud of a hands bredth in compare to the whole Heavens 3. But little as being hardly seen and found Many shall seek to enter and shall not be able And therefore there is great need were but your Souls sensible of it to cry out with David O lead me and guide me in the way taht I should walk the way that leads to this City of Habitation Now to proceed III. And but few men in it c. The City is but little but that is not all it is weak also there is no might nor strength to defend it self but few men in it and therefore Paul cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. He felt how weak he was and unâ—ble ever to deliver himself And therefore there is nothing for any to glory in after the flesh for Who made thee to differ There is no cause for boasting for none ever prevailed by strength they obtained not the field by weapons of war It is said of David when He had slain the Philistin But there was no sword found in the hand of David And he says of himself I will not trust in my Bow neither shall my sword save me But he goes forth against the great Goliah onely in the Name of the Lord and all the saved ones ever have and will cry out Grace Grace Grace That must do all for this City hath but few men in it and they are poor fearful tremblers such as are ready to dye every moment onely they are kept up by the chin and not left quite to be drowned but alass for help to fight and withstand an Enemy little or none can be expected from them This poor wise man must do all he must save the City by his wisdom if it be ever saved it hath no help of it self 1. Let none of you then whom God hath favored glory according to the flesh for there is nothing at all you have to boast in there are but few men in the City and they poor tremblers not able for service so that if this poor man do not the whole work in every one of you use all your wits and plots and power you will never be able to deliver this City 2. But few men in it there was more once but they wasted and wasted away till but few left Whence you may consider Who ever are favoured of God to be his people this little City He will certainly rout and rout out all the old Inhabitants They shall not live quietly in it He will surely bring all the old Inhabitants down all that is sprung from the Man or Devil He will rout it out and thus is the great company within the Wisdomes and hopes and councels the lustings and hunts of the heart the fears and joyes and love all must be searched and fanned and alas but a little will be left of the great bulk There are but few men in it The Poor mans wisdome could not appear nor be taken notice of if a multitude were in the City they would take some of the work to themselves but they must be turned out that it may appear his own arm brings Salvation and none puts a hand to it 3. But few men in it not any considerable Partee to withstand an Enemy especially such a Great King as comes against it no alas they have no might to stand in any temptation if but an Alarum sounds a rumor that an enemie is indeed coming to set down and besiege Oh what a strange uproar and trembling doth it cause within All the Wisdom and hope and faith and experience how do all give back and are not able to stand to look the Enemy in the face without the Lord appear and be Captain himself whoever of you are indeed this City of God you can witness how weak and unable you are to help your selves unstable as water not able to stand to it in the least Tryall there are but few men in it and as Gehazi cryed out to Elisha when he saw the enemies round about the City Alas Master what shal we do so may we cry out indeed if we did but see the danger For IV. A GREAT KING comes against this little weak City and besieges it and builds great Bulwarks
Babylon and the work once hindered and so now sit down and will not venture V. Consider the Miseries that follow them for not building They sow much and bring in little clothe them and were not warmed earn much but all put into a bag of holes a curse in all their ways vers 6 9. This applyed to the present desolation upon us it being impossible for us to prosper without joyning in to be a one People VI. The Priviledges considered which accrue to them that set hand to this work They are these four 1. God promiseth Vers 8. to take pleasure in it This is a great Priviledg 2. Vers 13. he says I am with you saith the Lord His presence goes along 3. He promiseth Chap. 2.19 From this day will I bless you A sure blessing follows 4. He promiseth Zerubbabel Vers last I will make thee as a signet c. In which three great Priviledges considered 1. A Signet hath a neer relation to the hand so He to the Lord. 2. A Signet carries a mans own Arms or some memorable thing in it 3. It is to ratifie and confirm things to make sure such an honor and great priviledges are promised to such as shall set upon this work HAGG. 1.2 3 4 c. Thus speaketh the Lord saying This People say The Time is not come the Time that the Lords House should be built c. SEveral things I would mention to you out of this Scripture 1. I would open what this house is that God complaineth lieth waste 2. What this house is to be built up of of what materials 3. Why do they plead It is not time to build the Lords House yet What Reasons have they for it 4. What misery comes upon them for neglecting this work a blast and curse follows in all their ways They prosper in nothing they set a hand to because of this 5. I would open the great benefits and priviledges that follow upon the beginning to set to this work of building God a house how wonderfully they are prospered and blest and preserved what strange ways God findes out and turns all things that were contrary to help forward his work The Heaven shall hear the Earth and the Earth hear the Corn and Wine and the Corn and Wine shall hear Israel God will turn and order all things for a Blessing I. WHAT IS THIS HOUSE THAT LIETH WASTE AND WHAT TYPES IT OUT Time was when God had his Vine in Egypt his people were in slavery and bondage in a strange Land till their tasks grew too heavy and they cry out under their cruel bondage till at last the cry comes up to Heaven and the Lord can bear no longer but breaks out I have seen I have seen the afflictions of my People Israel and so he sends to deliver them with a high hand and stretched out arm by strange signs and wonders against all the opposition and rage of their Enemies Now when he had brought them through the red Sea and by a visible miracle drowned all their Enemies and saved them with a great Salvation then their hearts were taken and they sing his praise and in their song they make this promise And we will build him an HABITATION and this was never accomplished till Solomons time Though it was in Davids heart and God took it well that it was in his heart yet Solomon was pitched on by God for this work He shall build me an House and here God placed his Name and his Worship and his Presence here he dwelt here he would be sought and enquired of Hither the Tribes came up here their prayers were made and answered c. But after they came once to make an evil use of this House to serve their lusts and own ends contrary to what God had intended it when they come to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and vainly rest on that outside and make an Idol of it as they did of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness then God departs from this House and gives it into the hand of the King of Babylon who makes havock of all and lays it waste and carries away the vessels of the Lords House into Babylon and breaks all their way and worship in pieces But yet still the Lords minde goes on and is the same he is upon it still to have a House built for his Name and Worship to live in and to this purpose he turns the heart of the King to make proclamation of Liberty to the people to return and gives them encouragement and supplies to farther this work but they no sooner set to it indeed to begin and lay the foundation but there are Enemies appear and great opposition is made so that the work ceased and was layd aside till a new stirring arises and God sends Haggai and other of the Prophets to put them upon it to build this House after it had lien waste many years for the people were now brought out of Babylon and dwelt in their own Land but they let the time slip and pass over and had no heart to the work though they might have built it and this is parallel to our condition that linger and trifle away time and put it off though an opportunity be given us again and again and we are often called and invited and entreated to set on this work of building the Lords House to become a one-hearted people no more to serve our selves but one another II. But WHY WILL THE LORD HAVE A HOUSE BUILT a set place of Worship Why will he not leave his Worship to be performed in any place where men please themselves For these three Reasons 1. That this house might be a pattern of the Life to come a type of the Heavenly Jerusalem where they are all to live in love and peace and unity to be all of one heart and one soul moving from one principle to one end without jars and scatterings and wranglings for in the life to come it will not be as 't is now with us every one living for and to our selves and at a distance and loose end from all others But there the morning stars all sing together without jars and envyings and an evil eye there is a peaceable life a Kingdom of love and peace and this God would have a pattern a rude draught of in this World a people brought into some order and conformity of spirit answerable to the Kingdom to come He would have somewhat here of that union and agreement of Soul of that love to care for one another and bear one anothers burthens to honor and serve and prize one anotehr and all in love Paul had a taste of this life He became a servant to all that he might save some and Christ pleased not himself and David cries out O how I love thy Law and the place where thy honor dwells This life to come was pointed out by this outward Temple and all its beauty
and garnishings and curious works all was to express what a life is to be attained a life of Glory and Freedom and Peace a life free from all snares and bonds of World or Devil 2. God will have a House built that there may be a certain set way of worship a place whither the Tribes may go up the Tribes of the Lord that every man go not on rudely in a conceited preposterous way according to the thoughts of his own heart Thou shalt not worship in every place which thine eyes shall see but in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his Name therein As there is but one God and one Truth and one Hope so he hath appointed but one way set down one order and rule for all and not left men rudely to the rangings and rovings of their own vain thoughts and conceivings as all the world now take up ways of Religion according to their own imaginations but he hath a Zion a House of prayer a Temple where Brethren live in unity joyn with one heart and soul in offering spiritual sacrifices and there will he be found There he hath commanded the blessing and life for evermore Why could not David worship God as well in the wilderness Was not God there As many now plead Why is not God every where and may not we serve him where ever we will But David cries out and is at a great strait to see the glory of God in the Temple no other place would serve him And why was all Israel once every year to come to this temple to worship What was the meaning of it think you You 'l say perhaps the Law is gone and abrogated Well but what was the end and substance of the Law That stands still Christ came not to destroy the Law but fulfil it to bring about the End of God the thing typed out by the Law Now as 't is said of Israel That the vail was upon their hearts that they could not see to the end of the Law when Moses was read So this hidden end none can reach but to whom God shall open the Parable but this was the end the Temple pointed to to shew that God then had and ever would have an orderly and quiet and sober way of worship in a people joyned together and made up into one heart and one soul and they to worship in spirit and in truth according to his ordering and appointment as that unction received shall teach and not according to mans conceits thoughts and imaginations 3. He will have a House built to be a spectacle and standing witness to condemn the world by For now who will not say that God is to be worshipped I but they worship after their own heart and devices according to the number of their Cities so are their gods as every one conceives and makes a shape of worship in his own thoughts But who knows the minde of God in all their worship Who joyns in to this Body of Christ the true Temples where the Holy Ghost dwells and spiritual services are performed to God It is said in the Acts Of the rest durst none joyn but they magnified the people the way was too strict I it is the greatest Circumcision in the world to mans will to joyn in here to be a member of this building it calls for a whole giving up of a mans own wisdom his own will his own interests no stone in this House must lie loose from another no Soul live apart to it self and for it self but all in love to serve one another and this will condemn all the ways and joynings of men in the worship of God for they all live as Lords love and seek themselves in what ever they do they cannot endure to come up to such a joyning and such an order where no Self may live Though many enter into Church-orders and Church-fellowship yet alass there is no true life nor spirit in it they still live loose as Lords and Rulers one over another there 's no walking in love and meekness and patience to serve others and deny themselves But in this building there is a mutual help and supply in love every member says to another I have need of thee The foundation lies lowest I but it bears up the whole building and what would the foundation be but lost rubbage if not built upon and joyned to the rest of the House All minister and help receive and give honor to other and say For they are worthy O the peaceable Life that is to be attained But we are far short of it at a great distance from that uniting from that supporting that serving that prizing and seeing the need each of other We are brought together indeed but live like loose stones scattered and alone and prize not the mercy given us nor make use of it and this is the reason we prosper not but a blast follows in all we sow much and reap little we labor and strive and tug again and again but nothing comes of it we cannot nor shall ever be able of our selves to withstand the Devil and lusts and entanglements till we are brought to be a one people to receive help from one another this is the way and ordinance of God and here he hath commanded the blessing If we were but once made naked and open-hearted to one another in our tryals and temptations Oh how wonderfully might we be strengthened against the Enemy and helped on in our way and this would clearly condemn the world who in their own Consciences know they are not built up into a one-hearted people singly and truly and heartily to serve one another in love and peace not seeking themselves in all But how we linger and the building of this House is neglected I remember the motioning and stirring to this work was up in some hearts at least twenty years since but the Bishops they got up and crushed all the tender buddings that the work ceased and since this Parliament the Lord hath graciously procured Liberty to be proclaimed a door open for this work and many have begun to build but they prove Houses of their own invention and contrivances not the Lord House but we that are surely called and invited to it and that of God both from stirings within and a call without we make no use of the opportunity offered but plead It is not time to build the Lords House because we have no heart to the work c. Thus I have shewed the Reasons why God will have a House built 1. That there may be a standing place of Worship whither the Tribes may go up where all may meet and agree together in one heart and way Daniel though he be in Babylon yet opens his window and looks towards Jerusalem in his prayers and when they sat by the rivers of Babylon they wept and remembred Zion they called to minde the worship the services the solemn assemblies where God had
I guilty For though it chiefly concern the Leaders and chief ones to consider and take it to heart yet something belongs to all to look after What is my place Where am I to stand Am I faithful in the work entrusted me To be faithful in little things is the way to be trusted in greater Surely surely 't is time to bethink our selves we have no good nor peace in our way though we live and are kept together by a mighty hand yet we live loose and scattered and consume in our spirits Certainly if we could but meet with the very root of all these ill humors and get that cleared then we might hope for cure if we were but once brought to leave the cumber about many things and minde the one thing necessary then we might prosper O Lord that he would sink it on your hearts as God saith here Consider your ways you that are called to for all are not materials for this House not any dirt and rubbish but you that the Prophecy hath taken in That you are living stones and that witness is born It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you a Kingdom will not you build him a House you that he hath bestowed all this cost on you are called upon to begin and set upon the work and lay the foundation of this House that your children may have a pattern to build after and a foundation to build upon We pretend to love our children and Oh how tender are we of them but alass we do what we can to undo them utterly if we come not up to this work to begin a House for the Lord and leave a way behinde us for them to walk in Hence come all our blastings we eat and are not satisfied put on clothes and are not warmed we have no good runs in all we enjoy the life and spirit is stoln from them because there is not a true and single and clear coming off from the world but we stick and linger and put off the time and look back to our old Lovers and hanker and still love our selves and come not forth resolvedly to build this House and thus in stead of leaving a good example a blessing to our children we are like to leave them a curse and a blast if the Lord prevent not The way is open at present there is no outward persecution that hinders but we might build this house in peace but we trifle and dringle and loyter and say It is not yet time Good Lord when shall we say It is time but we plead we have no heart Have we no heart and what is the reason of that We have a heart to our ease a heart to our own wills we have a heart to build sieled houses for our selves to dwell in and shall we dye thus with this old heart and never see a new heart given a heart wholly to follow the Lord But then lastly If any thing will invite and move us to stir VI. Consider THE GREAT PRIVILEDGES THAT ACCRUE TO THEM THAT SHALL SET THEIR HAND TO THIS WORK And they are these four The first is mentioned Vers 8. Go up to the mountain saith God and bring wood and build this house and I will take pleasure in it Now to have the Lord accept our sacrifice and take pleasure in our work what a high favor is it Were it but truly layd to heart That the God of the Heavens and Earth whose all creatures are to command and turn at his Will That I should do any thing may the Soul say to please him in which he will take delight who can express this favor c. 2. Another Priviledg is mentioned Vers 13. I am with you saith the Lord Will he be with them in it that they shall not go nor stir a step in this work but he will go along with them Is not this enough to carry them on If thy presence go not with me said Moses send me not hence I but if that presence go along then send do and command me whither thou wilt What would not a man do that loves God indeed what would not he suffer and part with and undergo to have God always with him to have his Friend his Counsellor Life and Protector to have him always stand by him in all that befals If God be for us saith the Apostle who can be against us what can be too hard Therefore we see our Fathers have rejoyced in prisons in fires in bonds because the Lord was with them and so long affliction is no affliction 3. A third great Mercy is promised v. 19. From this day will I bless you From that day that the foundation of the Lords house was layd Consider it now saith the Lord from this day and upward will I bless you In all thou takest in hand shall a sure blessing follow in thy going out and coming in when thou walkest abroad and when thou sittest at home when thou sleepest and when thou wakest from that very day you shall be helped to set a hand to the work indeed He will surely bless you We have forsaken all and followed thee saith Peter what shall we have Have you shall have enough you that have endured with me in my Temptations you shall sit on Thrones you shall be blest in all your way and what can you desire more 4. The fourth Mercy is mentioned in the last verse I will make thee as a signet upon my hand saith God to Zerubbabel And in that these three Priviledges lie couched up 1. A Signet hath a neer relation to the hand it is worn always and carryed upon the finger 2. A Signet carries the image and superscription either of a mans self or some friend or some weighty thing or other is carved in it 3. A Signet or Seal is to witness confirm and ratifie to make things sure and unalterable that are once sealed with it And now 1. To be thus neer to God as the signet upon his hand to lie so close so nigh him in his heart and bosom and love as his delight his jewel his ornament This is wonderful And then 2. To bear forth his own image and stamp to be like him to own our Father by our faces as 't is said of Moses His face shone when he came from talking with God in the Mount It will appear to all whose we are to whom we belong by the image and likeness we shall hear in us all our words and carriages savoring of God bearing forth his image his minde and heart And then 3. To be as a seal to witness and ratifie the deeds of God to confirm and make all sure This is a mighty honor that man should ever be employed in such a service Whose sins ye remit they are remitted in Heaven and whose sins ye binde in Earth they are bound in Heaven I will make thee as a God said the Lord to Moses to act and order and counsel and confirm
madness of the heart shews it self when there must be no water given but what comes out of a rock a flint such a strange unthought of way and impossible to reason and that they must have no bread but what is given them new every morning that they can turn them no wayes from their miseries nor to their mercies that they cannot reach out a hand to help themselves but though they dye and starve and perish yet there is no remedy but they must lie at the foot of God and take what he gives and no more this is a day that will prove the heart indeed and what is in it 2. As it is a day of Triall so God would have us know it is not our rest our home there is a great journy to be gone up Elijah why sittest thou here Alass you are far from home you are not come to the good Land yet which brings forth of it self milk and hony and this greatly displeased the Lord that they should here in this wilderness sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play Is this a place Is this a time to sit down in and feast Alass as if God should say you know not how long you shall enjoy any thing what I give you to day I can take away and deny to morrow and then what becomes of you you know not yet my Heart and Mind and Good-will and Eternal Thoughts how they stand towards you and can you sit down here to take content and pleasure in any thing This God would have them and us know in what a dangerous place we are still in the Wilderness 2. Hear all The second thing the Lord would have them hear is what way they are to go And all along they are to pass through their enemies Lands they must go by Amaleck and by the children of Ammon and Moab all along stand enemies in their way to oppose and hinder All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution they must take up their Cross and follow him He could have led them another way a nearer cut to Canaan if he had pleased but he chooses this way to go through the Lands of theâ—r enemies and they must follow him if ever they will come to their journies end they must through the Cross through hunger and thirst and Serpents through sore temptations and sorrows and sins Now this you are to hear if you will hear all hear what your way is and submit to it if he will lead through hunger and drought if he will deny and shut up if he will destroy our next companions if Korah Dathan and Abiram must be swallowed up yet murmur not be not affrighted nor skared but go on still and know the way is through strairs and sorrows Expect no bettter 3. God would have them know their latter end whither they are going he hath given an expected end And here three things are to be known 1. That there is surely a Rest for the people of God that they shall not alwayes be as a rowling stone not always vagabonds and wanderers following the Prince of the Air with those restless tossing Spirits this God would have his people know that there is a Rest there is an expected end a day of freedom when all bonds and chains shall be broken Sin shall not alwayes reign the enemy shall not afflict and torment for ever I would not live alwayes saith Job by any means I am weary of it This God would you should hear but now whilst we are in that horrible pit the pit of noise we can hear nothing but destruction upon destruction one storm and wave comes upon the neck of another there is no respite given no time to swallow the spittle as Job complains so that the soul is as it were distracted to see no way of escape that it is like alwayes to be thus with it But is there not an appointed time for man upon earth Yes God would have you hear and be surely set down in that that there is an end 2. He would have you know when this end is to be It is said when Christ shall have put down all rule and all authority all power then to comes the end a time is to be when Christ shall reign in the world in his glory and his Saints reign with him and all Scepters and Kingdoms shall be made to bow and stoop under him but there is a time of his reigning in the particular souls of his People when all that opposes and offends shall be taken out of the way no end will come till then we shall find no rest in our Souls till the word of Life shall come and put down all other rule and government to bring every thought into subjection every Lust and Hunt of heart all Pride and Envy and self-self-love all those lords that have ruled over us must down before this end shall be and till this be done there will be nothing but wars and rumours of wars Nation against Nation and Kingdome against Kingdome and famine and pestilence and earthquakes nothing but troubles and perplexities and trialls till this end come now to be kept through all these is the Salvation He that endures to the end the same shall be saved 3. What is this end What is the Rest of the People of God Hear and know that and that rest is the sole raigning and rule of God in the soul when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father and God shall be all in all Now the Heir is under Tutours and Governours now up and now down under fears and faintings and Terrors because the Kingdome of God is not yet come that Kingdom of Peace and Truth God is not yet all in all we are yet stragling after our wills and lustings and covetings to our selves and so can have no peace in all our wayes till we shall be brought under that peaceable Government to submit to that one Lord in every thing to give the Crown out of our hand unto him whose due it is that God may be all in all Now hear all that the Lord shall say not by halves and piecemeals but hear all every word of God is good how many of you content your selves when you have but a little Light to see where you are how your condition stands but alas that is misery if you hear only your shortness that you are in a Wilderness if you hear not of a rest too of an end if you perish and fall short in the mid way what shall then come of all but oh how impossible is it to make any thing seise upon a flint to make a word enter upon an iron heart I wonder sometimes the word should sink no more being it is told you over and over again and yet all passes away as an idle tale but that I know it is impossible to be otherwise till there be a new heart given and an ear bored by God to
own the condition mince not the matter but let it seise upon thee and if a word of incouragement come from God to raise the desolate and â—â—ll Arise arise out of the dust O Jerusalem c. will Zion still say The Lord hath forsaken me and my God forgotten me Doth he call thee lovingly to return and come into his bosome and he will be gracious and wilt thou be kept back by wrath and doubting How doth this wrath that is seated in the Soul against the truth hinder and keep us off This is the swelling of Jordan The Heart swells and rises and will not be reconciled to God and its brother alas are we able to contend with him and stand before his wrath and yet will we not hear and answer the milde call and invitation of love Dost thou well to be angry saith God to Jonah I saith he I do well to be angry such a strange pensiveness is in the heart and this made the jar between the Lord and Jonah he kept his wrath it vexed him that God should be gracious and spare Niniveh and that seems strange but mind it who ever of you are kept off from God it is through wrath or doubting we would not in the mystery know our sins should be forgiven in such a manner and way as God takes we purpose some strange torments and thunderings should do it but that the thing should be done so easily by a word from Christ Thy sins are forgiven thee and I say unto thee arise this the proud heart would not submit to to see a straw a light thing hath been such a ruler over it which Christ can cure by a small word and then Doubtings hinder when we see the waves the least difficulty comes in view then the doubtings and faintings press us and beat as hail good Lord do you not feel these bonds about you How you are holden of these cords How your destruction is of your selves I speak to them of you whose Consciences are awake and that have an Ear open to hear and know that nothing in the world hinders you but this wrath and doubting an ill temper is settled in the Soul that will not come to God but either fly out in wrath or sink and feeble in doubting 2. Enquire do you hear What the Lord speaks in what particular he charges and smites at thee There is nothing more contrary to me then to hear you complain in a confused generall lumber and cannot come distinctly to shew where your hurt is and this is for want of observing and listening to the voyce but we shuffle and jumble all together and so keep off the particular nick where our guilt lies Now every one of us hath some particular taint or other which hinders our thriving and prospering in the Truth and this must first be known and owned all other confessings complainings and doings wâ—ll come to nothing 3. Enquire in all speakings of God to whom speaketh he doth he call me or not He calls not to all the whole Army to move at once but now calls for one part to march and then for another and there is a strange mystery and Witchcraft in the heart when God finds it guilty in one particular then it will take all the charge upon it self and be more guilty then it is and all that it might keep off the particular charge and run from what God lays upon us indeed as our sin and place of sticking therefore Hear diligently to whom the Lord speaks and what the particular charge or call is 4. Inquire in all hearings when the Lord cals to have the word performed and obeyed by thee 'T is strange how crosse and contrary to God the heart of man is in all points that which God calls for to be done to day to day harden not your hearts that it puts off till to morrow and what is to be done to morrow when he calls to stay till the Cloud remove then the heart is upon it to run and post presently to rush on as we say without fear or wit Now examine is there this warinesse wrought in your souls in all cases and points to wait for instruction when to stir and when to sit still when to speak and when to be silent sometimes the warning is Stir not up my beloved untill he please perhaps he calls and minds us by a clear instruction to see our way plaâ—nly in all particulars I but the time to reach up to all this may not yet be perhaps months and years must be gone through first before this be attained But something he cals for at our hands to day to day harden not your heart and this the heart would put off and slip over See the heat and forwardnesse of Peter he would dye with Christ when he is not called to it I but when Christ in his great distresse cals and intreats him to watch but one hour that he cannot do then he sleeps Do you observe this strange crosseness of your hearts in all points 5. I told you for whose sake you are to hear and do for the Lords sake not for your owne sakes or wills not an end of selfe must lye in the bottom and this will be a sure measure and Touch-stone of all your actions When ever you are upon any worke or service when ever doing or hearing or speaking inquire For whose sake do I all this what end have I in it Is it singly for the Lords sake is it in love to his name his praise that that may live and spread abroad In all your obedience and services if you have not a single eye to this if there be a selfish taint in the bottome it spoils all God reckons no more done to him then is singly and unfainedly done for his name sake not for our ease or praise or honour And if I had not that witnesse in my soul that I now preach to you singly for that very end not seeking yours but you alas I should not be able to go on it would be as a fire in my bones and a torment whilest I speake to you but that is my peace in this particular and will be yours in all your wayes the clear witnesse of conscience that what you do you do it singly for his name sake THE Strong Man outmatch'd by a stronger OR Heaven out-powering Hell SERM. XIII June 8. 1651. LUKE 11.21 When a strong man armed keeps his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger then he comes and overcomes him he takes away from him all the armor in which he trusted and divideth the spoyl The Analysis I. A Fourfold Dispensation or time of reigning observed 1. A time of mans reigning when he girds himself and goes and comes whither he will without bands and straitening 2. A time of the Devils reigning Wo to the Inhabitants of the World for the Devil is come down to dwell amongst you 3. A Dispensation of Christ a
and garnish him over with never so many fair pretences yet he cannot be so whited do what we can but his black 〈◊〉 appear to them that have eyes and can discern Paul was brought to own and discover these goods of the devil he cries out In me dwells no manner of good thing all is corrupt And God saith of Jerusalem As a fountain casts out its water so Jerusalem casts forth her sin Now a fountain casts out water naturally it flows without pumping and continually it never slacks night nor day and 3ly a fountain casts out abundantly no measure of it and 4ly irresistibly who can stop it So the heart casts out sin such a stock and endless store of the devils goods are laid up in the heart Do you believe this 6. Another great Wo is this He is not onely a strong enemy and most maliciously bent and power put in his hand and in possession and hath stuffed the house with his goods but 6ly he is armed too he hath armour to defend and maintain himself and keep off all assaults that are made against him Now his Armour may be expressed under these three Notions 1. He hath a coat of male upon him which covers him quite over that no word of Truth can come to touch and enter into him and finde him guilty though you try again and again and shoot and shoot bullet after bullet yet nothing shall enter his scales are so close to one another that not the least air can come between until the Lord shall direct an arrow thorow the joynts of his armour and come to the heart but it 's out of the reach of any creature to do it his coat of male keeps off all And though you may crush his coat a little sometimes and hurt him a little yet he presently gets up again and shakes himself and he is well the wound is healed for it never came to his heart his coat of male hath a thousand twistings and windings to keep off all guilt from coming so nigh him 2. He is armed with a helmet of brass upon his head his wisdom fences him that he is mighty able to plead the cause and reason and dispute for himself you shall never out-speak nor out-reason him he has so many subtil windings and ways to put off the guilt The fool is wiser in his own eyes then a man that can give a reason He hath a brazen brow that be the case never so clear yet he will not blush nor ever yeeld he is guilty but some way or trick or shift is ever at hand to put it off and save himself from being a sinner some plaister or other he will finde to heal the wound and keep the guilt from sinking to his heart though the case be never so plain against him and though seven a compleat number witness and accuse him yet his helmet of brass keeps off all he will not be guilty 3. He is armed with a great spear in his left hand like a weavers beam and with this he dare challenge all Come neer him who can By this spear he 'll seem to be for Truth and fight the Lords battels with Saul and slay the Philistims And who dare charge him now He is on our side he cries A friend a friend He hath the Watch-word and the Colours he 'll come and build the wall with you and who shall set upon him here He 'll be zealous and forward in the Truth he 'll plead and answer and prove and condemn others for being thus and thus as the Pharisees did Christ And this spear reaches out so far that there is no way to come nigh to reach or once question him Will you speak wickedly for God saith Job to his friends There is a wicked speaking for Truth many times a preaching of Christ out of envie to snare another or finde another guilty and keep up our selves some base selfish end or other lies in it that spoils all Therefore God says He will be Judge himself he will judge between ends and ends between thoughts and intentions The Word of the Lord is quick powerful that pierceth between marrow and joynts that can get between and meet with this enemy when the time is come But the work is wonderful He is so sorely armed all over 1. with a coat of male 2. with an helmet of brass 3. this long spear like a Weavers beam that alas what man shall come near to deal with him 7. The last great Wo is that this enemy is desperately ventrous dares venture upon any strange designes He 'll set on Christ and hurry him about to a high mountain to a pinacle of the Temple into the wilderness This Leviathan is made without fear being thus armed and fenced he cares for nothing Whilst his armour is so close about him he can venture on the mouth of a Canon and is safe enough He can vent out all his malice and poison and rage and do all his mischiefs and none shall touch nor controul him nor come nigh to search his heart He 'll be a friend to God and Truth and his People come not nigh to judge him And this is the armour of the whole world they are thus cheated by the devil and think all is well and right with them and under this covert he can work all his pranks and bring about all his mischiefs and murtherous plots against the Truth And this is a great misery the desperate ventrous spirit of this enemy that rushes on all mischief without fear and dread Now minde whilst this strong man armed keeps his Palace his goods are in peace all is at rest and quiet there 's no trouble nor perplexity no fears the whole earth is at quiet and if it were possible he would never be disturbed nor pitch battel with Christ but keep his goods in peace I but a time comes when a stronger then he comes upon him and then the war begins and the battel stirs and the clashings appear but this is the great happiness that there is one that is stronger then this strong man that can deal with him one that hath all the keys of hell and can open and unlock all the doors one that can take away all his armour in which he trusted and utterly overcome and rout him Then saith Job the poor hath hope and all iniquity stops her mouth And the way by which Christ accomplisheth this is twofold First He doth it as I told you by taking away all his armour in which he trusted He trusted in his armour that that should save him and keep off all blowes He trusted no arrow should ever pierce that and come into his heart and finde him guilty He trusted in his wisdom that he could reason and plead the case and maintain his Way to be right and just He trusted his speaking good words for God and pretending for Truth and his love zeal and forwardness should never have been questioned
and ransacked I but Christ when he comes he takes away his armour all that in which he trusted and hoped and said Now I am safe I shall sit as a Queen for ever I shall never see sorrow I but all his armour and fence is taken from him and this is a downfal indeed when he is thus found out and nothing can hide nor cover him any longer his coat of Male is taken from him and then Truth can easily enter then nothing appears but the mans nakedness and guilt and shame then the man cries out with Paul I am the chief of sinners then the Word takes place and enters and every arrow sticks Thine arrows stick fast in me saith David Then the man falls under as a poor naked helpless hopeless thing then he is counselled by Christ to buy eye-salve of him and gold tried in the fire and fine linen for he is found wholly naked and blinde and miserable We had thought Christ had ruled in us and we had been for God and the Truth we had thought our zeal and forwardness and speaking for God should have passed currant but take away this armour of the devil and then we are found out to be a wretched deceitful people a lye and deceit appears to be running in all and that there is nothing single for God and Truth without base selfish ends of our own And this is the first work Christ is to do in your souls to spoil this strong man of his armour else no Word of truth can ever come nigh and seize 2. After Christ hath taken away his armour he then seizes on his goods and DIVIDES THE SPOYL the spoyl Why what use can Christ make of his spoyl what can he do with all the devils goods You may see the thing illustrated Jer. 15. where God speaks thus Let that which is for death go to death that which is for the sword to the sword that which is for the famine to the famine and that which is for captivity to captivity 1. That which is for death to death some of these goods are presently to go to death to be utterly destroyed The enemies which you have seen to day saith Moses you shall never see them more The malignant disposition that was so wickedly bent against all prospering of Truth that evil eye that which lay in the way that one step Godward could not be taken that must be utterly destroyed and cut off for ever that abomination must live no more that ill favour that gave a taint and poison to all our ways and thoughts and words that man to Death Christ will say to that unclean spirit Come out of the man and enter into him again no more That enmity of spirit and hatred and ill will to all good the end of that is to be destroyed for ever That Cain-like love that hates its brother and would not suffer the least breathing nor prospering nor looking up of the Truth for according to that evil disposition in you if you minde it the heart rises against all good where-ever it appear though in a childe in a brother in a husband or wife yet the enmity works and hates to see your offering accepted and mine laid by as nothing But before Christ can ever come to reign this must certainly die and a whole turn of soul be wrought and we made naturally to love and chuse the prosperity of the Truth 2. Something must go to the sword That which is for the sword to the sword The Word of God that sword of the Spirit that shall still go on after that great enmity is slain to search and judge and quicken and stir up the man and cut off what hinders that the soul may grow up into the minde of God and as it hath born the image of the earthly so to bear the image of the heavenly as we have given our members servants to sin so to give them up to be servants of righteousness to be as free and voluntary and earnest in the service of the Lord as ever we have been to serve our selves to spend and be spent for the truth this the sword must do cut out a way thorow all rubbish for this minde to arise It must cut away all that sloth and carelesness that sluggish and carnal minde that sits still at home and would not come out to help the Lord against the mighty When Christ shall come to deal with us indeed and use his sword this must all be cut away and the soul pruned 3. Something must go to the famine That ill taint and setled indisposition that has been gathered and contracted by long custom in evil that hankering and lingering after the wickeds dainties all this must to the famine and be worn out by degrees and pined by little and little till it come to die Where-ever the heart is taken and hangs on the creatures on eating or wearing or trading or whatever enjoyments by degrees and degrees a secret moth shall eat and consume all a wasting and consuming famine must cure this evil disease 4. Something must go to Captivity and that is the last enemy to be destroyed the Devil he will yet keep some hold and footing and not be utterly routed so long as there is any dust to be the serpents food so long as the man hath any life beside the life of God I but now Christ shall designe him to captivity he shall be under a hewer of wood and drawer of water a servant to Christ he shall lord it no more He shall be bound for a thousand yeers and that will be the souls greatest happiness to keep him but in his prison that he may not break forth do his mischievous pranks but lie in his dungeon and be an underling to Truth though he still live for some Canaanites will ever live in the land to be the souls trial c. And thus I have opened to you this Day the great block that lieth in our way the bonds and shackles that hold us so fast It is Satans day 't is his hour and the power of darkness the mans Day of reigning is declining and laid aside in most if not all of you the man is not suffered so to bear sway and go at liberty and soar aloft in his minde but there are secret checkings and mindings of a shortness and the black feet appearing make the feathers fall And in some of you it is an empty and desolate Day you are left without much stirring either from God or from the enemy The land is void of both her kings But the greatest and sorest Day which lies sore upon some of us is The reign of the enemy and then wo to the inhabitants of the world Wo to that Land indeed where the Wicked are in Authority I opened to you the several Woes in it And now to make some Use 1. Examine How is it with you Every soul look home do you feel this strong enemy Do you
with flesh and blood and go back in any of these we surely perish III. Consider the great Submission and Bowedness of Heart in these Lepers Let us fall into the hoast of the Syrians we can but dye c. About this three things considered 1. They rise in this strange leprous out-cast famish'd forlorn case as they are Come and let us fall into the Hoast c. 2. They venture upon Death it self the mouth of Cannon need makes them run they fall upon the Sword of their Enemies 3. Yet they go at a peradventure without any conclusions either that they shall live or shall dye but leave it and venture And thus the Soul truly buckled comes in these three cases The Uses were 1. To enquire whether the sense of our misery be upon us as it was with the Lepers and that noise ever in our ears If we sit here we dye 2. If sensible then learn What did the Lepers they ventured upon the Sword You 'l never have bread by ease but venturing to endure 3. Learn the way of their going without conclusions for or against our selves to say Sure we shall be saved or sure we shall fall short stand between both and go at a peradventure 2 KING 7.3.4 And there were four Leprous men at the entring in of the gate and they said one to another Why sit we here untill we die c. THere are three main things in generall which this day I would open to you from these words 1. What an estate of misery the Lâ—pers were in at the present 2. How hopeless and helpless all wayes and meanes seemed in their view for a recovery If sit here we dye if we go into the City the famine is there and we dye also Death hedges them in on both sides 3. Take notice of their submitted minds how they are bowed to the hand that is against them .. They venture and fall under the Lords Sword the Hoast of the Syrians come what will if they kill us we can but dye a great buckling of heart was upon them and they go not knowing the end but carry their lives in their hands But consider I. What their present condition is and how suitable it is to ours in these five particulars For this that befell them came not upon them for their sakes only but was writ for ensample to us which are fallen in the same condition 1. Then observe these Lepers sate without the City they were out-casts a people forgotten cast off as it were and not left to share in the mercies of the Common-weal of Israel Now the Common-wealth of Israel injoyed many priviledges they had the Ordinances the Temple the Worship and there was a common blessing that ran in these to them not as though the Word had taken no effect saith Paul it did take some effect but now to be separated and shut out and to have the heart hardened that the Word and all Ordinances slip over and take no effect this is to sit out of the City and be separated from the common good of Israel not to partake of the power of the Word but the heart hardened and left without all sense and feeling and motion that whilest it is in the Ordinance yet it is as not in it In hearing it doth not hear and in seeing it doth not see but is as a stone in a wall that what ever weight lyeth on it it feels nothing and in such a day as this to be left as an out-cast to have no fellowship from heaven and no fellowship from earth no society either with God or Man this is the Lepers sad condition destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.37 But now to come home to our selves for that is the life of all For what is it to me to hear of the mercy or judgment or sin or misery or recovery of another if I have not my share in the condition it will never seize but passe over as a Tale that is told now therefore see if this be not our present condition do we not stand some of us as out-casts are not we cast out of the favour and nearnesse of God of the Truth and of our Brethren I am a stranger to my brethren saith David and so Iob and Christ and our Fathers tasted of this Cup. How senseless and stupid is the heart under this Word and Ordinances They take no place at all like a dead man out of mind saith David as like a dead man as may be only not dead Spare his life saith God concerning Iob the life is maintained strangely by a secret invisible unaccountable power the root of the matter is in me saith Iob I but his bough is not green nor doth the dew lie all night upon his branch his ways are not washt in butter as in months past where are all our former operations and powers and flourishings in the truth where is the Love the tender heart the single minde the cryes and groans to be satisfied with substance indeed and no shadows have not all our riches made themselves wings and are flown away and are not we left miserably naked and destitute of all the power of the Word that reaches us not the love and help from one another the bowels of compassion they are shut up how miserable forlorne are we both within and without we looke and gaze on one another but if we come but near to speak and breath a word together either heart-rising or envy or some evil taint or other gets in do what we can this is our present condition if we were but sensible of it all good is separated from us and we are like the clung and frozen earth hardned and hardened that nothing can enter though the Light appears and shines bright to shew us our way yet are we but like the earth in a winter night the hardest Frost many times is upon it when the Moon shines clearest and brightest the Sun the warm and enlivening beams of that are far off we stand out of the City and are not partakers of the common mercies of Israel the hired Servants had bread enough and to spare but the Prodigall wanted that the ordinances were in Israel there were widows in sad cases to mourn and make lamentation there were Prophets to bring a word from God to enquire and tell how long the sufferings were to endure and what the meaning of the hand was and what the end would be as Peter saith Ye have a more sure word of Prophesie to which do wel to take heed c. though in the dark yet it was a great mercy to have that sure word of Prophesie to have entercourse there but alas the Lepers they must sit without the City where they can hear no word from God nor have any notice of good there is none to turn aside to ask how they do for it is all one in the mystery to be out of the house to be out of the ordinance out
of the society out of hearing as not to have the blessing that runs in these In hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive What a misery is this and are not we thus an outcast outed from the favourable presence of the Almighty outed from the love and hearts of one another the Court of heaven hath excluded us and our own Land casts us out we presently become a burthen to our selves and each other and live only among harlots and thieves and murtherers the strange lustings and iniquities of our own hearts who of you can say that word with spirit and courage Our feet shall stand in thy gates O Jerusalem Who of us is joyned to ano her Who lives in counsell love and the true one-heartedness Who stands not alone Whose Soul sits not down in its bonds and is turned out to the wide World of temptations trialls and discouragements 2. Another misery of these Lepers is that they are all unclean and overspread with Leprosie not only shut out of the City but they must come near none to have any relief They were to carry a cloth before their mouths lest their breath should touch upon any and so infect them so loathsome and noysome was the disease upon them and how truly is this our present condition How do we spoil and infect one another with our very words we cannot speak the least word but a Selfish taint runs in it and is ready to infect whoever it lights upon either to sink their spirits with faintings about the difficulty of the way or to stir them to frowardness or move Jealousies One mischief or other comes from this loathsome Leprosie that selfish base taint that runs in all so that they as many as are sensible know and the Lord knows that we sometimes know not which way to turn us to speak a word or do an action or breathe a Breath without spreading a taint and infection in it and therefore Job cryes out at the last I will lay my hand upon my mouth I will speak no more I will be among the Lepers and cry unclean unclean Do you not see this thing I speak of Do you not â—eâ—l how you harm and grieve and infect one another and that ever we should be cured and made to speak a word in season to strengthen and help forward one another this seems wonderfull but yet it is possible If he will he can make us clean and Lepers such as we are have been cured but Lepers we are at present wholly polluted and unclean that is certain 3. Yet farther They were now under a miserable Famine you may see at what a strange price an Asses head was sold and Doves dung and how they eat their own children a woman cryes to the King Help O King this woman and I made a bargain to eat my Son to day and her Son to morrow and we boyled my Son eat him and now she hath hid her Son c. 2 Kings 6.28 29. a miserable Famine surely and when Elijah prophecied of plenty that should be to morrow one of the Nobles on whom the King leaned looks upon it as such an impossible case that he says If God should make windows in heaven can this thing be All shews the Famine was very sore in the Land and this was l ke to undo them were there no other miseries at all upon them Famine is the most miserable languishing uncomfortable death that can be They that dye by the Sword saith Jeremy are better then they that dye by the Famine O what a strange force is there in hunger How will it turn all upside down This at last buckles the Prodigall to the Dust when nothing could touch him and how truly is this Famine seised upon us Not a Famine of bread but of the word of the Lord. How doth the countenance fall and wax pale because of the Famine upon our spirits there is no bread to be found to strengthen mans heart no oyl to anoint his face to make a chearfull countenance I could ask all of you How long it is since you met with a word of power and vertue that strengthened and gave life to your souls and set you upon your legs to walk on in your journy chearfully and resolvedly Sure when you awake you will be sensible how lean and poor you are you have had so much hitherto provided and brought to you as hath just kept life and Soul together that you are not quite famished and so had these Lepers they were alive yet through all I but what strange shifts were they put to by the Famine made to eat Doves Dung and boyl their own children strange unnaturall wayes to keep a Life by and do not we use as hard shifts Are not you made often to eat your own children to eat that which is born of your own flesh comes out of your own Bowels your own wisdom and reason and counsell as David cries out How long shall I take counsell in my own heart c. We have no other food to live on now and that we turn to rather then we will starve that which once we scorned and condemned and judged as Job saith That which my Soul refused to touch is made my sorrowfull meat We have no other stay and refreshing then these dry Husks and it is a wonderfull thing that we are not yet dead with such unsavoury meat It was a sore day of Famine with Job when all was taken from him all his friends and children and wife and servants and cattle and he sits on the Dunghill to scrape himself and is cast off by all that he cryes out My breath stinks and is corrupt my breath is strange to the wife of my bosome This is a strange turn for one who had seen so flourishing a day and if you have never known plenty you cannot so sensibly know want but if you have indeed tasted of the rivers the brooks of honey and Butter as Job speaks if you have ever tasted that the Lord is gracious and then come to be denyed that will be the sore Famine indeed Oh how flourishing and green have we been in our young dayes what powers and breakings of heart upon us How could we have run barefoot and broke through all blocks in our way to meet with the truth but now how is all dead and stupid and clung within the inwards are shut up that nothing can go down nor come to the heart to strengthen and nourish but we dye and pine famish and walk about like shadows without any true life and motion It was misery enough to sit by the rivers of Babylon and remember Zion to them that were sensible of the loss they weep to think of Zion but now to be an outcast from Israel and all overspread with the Leprosie too to have a loathsom disease sticking that the breath must be stopt and kept from all society this
destruction but like the Smiths dog sleep quietly though the sparks fly about your ears the words of the Curse and the words of the Blessing all are alâ—ke nothing seiseth and this is your great misery that you cannot come near your selves to enquire how is it A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot possibly come to that word to say is there not a lye in my right hand Isa 44.20 But now you that are made sensible and know where you stand and cry for bread to eat somewhat that may cure and heal and satisfie you every where you that are under the sense and pain of this felt-want and misery you clearly know these two things 1. You see how an evill taint hath gone along with you all your dayes from your childhood which you never yet were cured of and if you be not cured it will surely undo you And then 2. We are under the sense of the great thing we are short of of knowing the very inward mind and heart of God towards us how we stand in that eternall favour of his acceptance for till we shall have a clear and full certainty what these everlasting thoughts of God concerning us are whatever else we have had or may have of powers inlargings refreshings and operations of truth yet all will be too short to satisfie and set down our Souls we must still lie as the Lepers here did at a peradventure and hazard with our Lives in our hands They can but kill us c. We know not what the end will be how God will deal whether save or destroy but all our Life long we shall stand in fear of death till we are freed from him that hath the power of Death till we are satisfied by an everlasting witness of good-will towards us and that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ and to have the sense of this shortness upon us sure it would make us stir and look about us I wonder truly how you can passe over a day a night an hour and let the case lie at such uncertainties and that you are not alwayes crying out with these Lepers If we sit here we dye if we are not freed from this selfish taint from an evil heart that hath ever been nursed up with us that will surely be our ruine and if we are not in that eternall Good will of God favoured and accepted that love which still cover a multitude of sinnes and never fail but save to the utmost if we are not found written in this book of life we surely perish And can we lie in this miserable condition to be outcasts Leprous under a sore Famine beset round with an Host of enemies from within and without for do you not see and know how the world are up and stirred against us if it be possible to break us in pieces from being a people yet have we no sense nor feeling of all this II. I told you a second thing in generall to be considered was not only the present misery these Lepers lie under but the hopeless condition of any way or means to help them They are at their wits ends If we sit here we dye if go into the City we dye if fall into the Host of our enemies we can but dye c. which implies they could promise and expect no other thing And thus are our souls hemmed in with straits on all hands If we sit where we are we certainly know and feel we are short and perish and if we turn back to the world and draw back from the place Truth hath brough us up unto there we are sure to perish and if we go on an host of enemies is before us what shall we do in this Case There are three things which Truth hath surely led us up to and if we go back again and turn in any of those Cases we are sure to fall short and dye 1. As I told you we are brought to a true light and information of our present misery in what a wretched polluted leprous case we stand what a base selfish taâ—nt is with us in all our way how short we are of the life of God and if we shall turn back from this the heart be left to reason and plead and blind it self saying sure I am not so miserable the case is not so bad as I may judge c. and so shuffle away and get off the strait This is to be undone that is certain 2. We are informed in the great thing we want that without a clear and certain witness from heaven sealed upon our spirits of the everlasting thoughts of Good will towards us that nothing else can be enough to stay and settle our Souls this we are come to to see nothing short of this will serve and this there is a true close to and cry for at times in our minds in our inward man However we are led captive yet all along the eye is open to see what we want and if here we shall be left to turn back and reason with flesh and blood and say all reach not to the same pitch why may not we be saved though we are not led up so far as some others if we get off the strait thus and turn to carelessness and security this is the way also surely to perish 3. We are brought to a Proclamation of and have begun to enter into a killing and self-denying way the Proclamation hath sounded to leave all things and take up the Crosse and follow Truth not to please our selves not to take content or sit down in any of the creatures not to have a Kingdom in this world but to walk always as strangers and pilgrims seeking another country this we have chosen according to our Light and this we have professed to the world and if we shall be left to fall back here and say This is a hard saying who can bear it to be ever dying to be killed all the day long c. and so shall turn again to vanity to the beggarly elements to make a Captain go back to Egypt to turn with the dog to the vomit c. I say to be left to this is a certain token of being undone Many of you might have dyed in peace and been truly saved formerly short of this conversation before the Light came up and the thing was called for to leave all but now to resist and withstand the light that arises in your day to rebell against the Lords call this is certainly to be undone and therefore if the Lord help you not out and bring you not up to the next step and buckle your hearts to the dust and make you lie under and submit to the hand and venture your lives and say Let him do what seemeth him good without you come to this you are undone if you shall make a Captain to return into Egypt then remember what befell He sware in his wrath that
thou do Dost thou war against I AM Thou and all Creatures all thy strength and hope and plots all the forces in which thou trustest ARE NOT and wilt thou fight against I AM He that Is strength and Power and with a word can crush thee to nothing Such a word from this poor wise man is able to overturn and shake down all the great Bulwarks of this great King But the rumor and noise of a barly loaf is heard and this wise man can so order the matter it shall skare and undo a whole Army Now for you that are indeed besieged by this great King against whom he hath raised his strong Bulwarks and fills your ears alwayes with desperate rumors and hot alarums of ruine and destruction and possesses your Souls with strange fears and perplexities and sinkings Alas what a sad case are you in if you now are to seek and know not whether this poor man be in you or no who alone by his wisdom can deliver the City These things will surely bring you to a strait when seised upon your hearts to consider 1. That for certain God hath a City a people in whom he dwells 2. this is but a little one and hard to find 3. There are but few men in it Little help to wage war and defend it 4. A great King comes against it and besieges and builds great Bulwarks against it all in appearance makes to destroy it he raises all his forces Gebal and Ammon the Philistines with them of Tyre the Ishmaelites and Hargarens all the Legions of Hell will be sure to have a throw at this City and now here will be the strait whether this poor wise man be in thee or no if he be not there it is impossible thou shouldst ever deal with this great King and his Powers they will surely undo thee but if thou canst find the wise poor man in the City if thou lightest on him happily he may help thee by his wisdom he may find out some wyle or other to draw this great King out of his Bulwarks and if he can but cast him out the unclean Spirit shall then enter no more if he can but draw him forth out of the City out of his Bulwarks then he will soon spoil the strong man of his Armor and deliver the City Buâ— truly wonderfull it is that ever man or woman should be saved since the fall of man such is the maâ—â—gnâ—â—y and strength of this enemy and such the mans weakness and utter incapableness to help himself All are against Truth be what they will they all agree against the Lord and his Christ a great Councel is held and great resolutions neither to eat nor drink till they have slain Paul till this City be destroyed but well there is yet hope in Israel in it was found a poor wise man c. Whence I would consider these two things 1. Where this poor wise man is to be found And that is in it in the city in the man in thy soul now shift it not off and say who shall go to heaven to fetch him thence or go down to Hell to bring him thence but the word is nigh thee It is within if it be at all The Kingdom of heaven is within you the poor wise man is in this City else it can never be saved by him And this might shew the great vanity of peoples thoughts who look for the Kingdom of God to come by observation they think to pull it to them by their huntings and seekings and endeavorings and strivings no but if ever it be to be had it is within thee truth is to spring out of the Earth the seed is there already that seed of God onely the spirit goes forth to unlock and open the ground that it may get out when it pleased the Father saith Paul To reveal his Son in me c. He was there before only now is revealed and made manifest but 2. How then shall you know whether this poor wise man be in you or not whether Christ be there or no It is not every one that saith Lord Lord that shall enter many have good words and can learn the language of truth as a Schollar learns Lattin by road but it is not their own it is not their mother Tongue in which they were born they have not a root in themselves and so the seed soon withers How then shall we know it whether Christ be in us or not 1. If Christ be in thee the body is dead because of Sin the Humanity is certainly convinced that he cannot help himself nor ever deal with this Enemy the man is cut off from ever getting life at his own hands but he cryes out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. that is the first work of Christ where ever he is in any Soul to be ever stopping and curbing and snibbing the man in the vain runs and promises of his heart he sets a flaming Sword that man may not put forth a hand to reach to the Tree of Life and as Job says He seals up the hand of every man He shuts up and there is no opening Now many are wearied and wearied by their own labours because they see nothing come out of all and so their hearts dye and are weak to go on in their old way but yet truth hath not cut them off Thou hast wearied thy self in the greatness of thy way saith God yet hast thou not said there is no hope hope lived still in all this I but Christ when he works cuts off all hope from man ever to deliver himself The Body is dead because of Sin c. 2. Where Christ is though the man would dye and sink and give up all and again and again run to despairing yet he cannot it is impossible to drown this truth cast it where you will it will swim and get above this seed of Life cannot quite dye Thou holdest our souls in Life saith David and again thou holdest me fast behind and before he can get out no wayes he can neither promise himself deliverance nor yet conclude destruction such a strange bond holds the Soul and I would now seriously enquire of some of you in whose souls the truth is whether ever you could say soberly in all your lives you were utterly cut off and there was no hope in God for you for as it is impossible to bring up others to this close cleaving and hanging upon truth though they seem never so high and confident and nail their God never so sure yet he will fall so impossible is it to kill this Spark of Life where-ever it is but it will hope and cleave and look towards God though it be in the bottom of Hell c. 3. as Christ saith to the Jews If God were your Father you would love me for I came from God so I say if Christ be in thee thou canst not but love Christ that of