because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live by him That God should bestow his Son upon us to procure our salvation God tried Abraham's love in sacrificing his son but manifested his Love to us in sending his own Son he spared him not but delivered him up for us all Now that such a Remedy and Ransome is found out for us it should leave an Impression of Gods love on our Hearts that we may love him again who first loved us 1 Ioh. 4. 19. Think nothing too dear for God who thought no rate too dear to purchase our Life and Peace As our salvation was precious to him let his Glory be dear to us onely let me tell you this Love must not be confined to a bare act of our Reason but you must pray to God to shed abroad this love in your hearts by the Holy Spirit Rom. 5. 5. that so you may study to love and please God prize Christ and his precious Benefits above all things in the World and live to him who died for you that you may feel the constraining Efficacy and Force of Love SERMON VI. MATTH 17. 5. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Hear ye him 1. THe Design and Intent of this Scripture is to set forth the Lord Jesus as the great Mediator as appeareth 1. From the occasions upon which this Voice came from Heaven at his Baptisme which was Christs dedication of himself to the work of a Redeemer and Saviour and now at his Transfiguration to distinguish him from Moses and the other Prophets and publickly to instal him in the Mediatory Office 2. The matter of the words shew his fitness for this Office for here you have 1. His Dignity not a servant but a Son Heb. 3. 5 6. Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant but Christ as a son over his own house Now the old Prophesies foretold the Union of the two Natures in his Person and necessary it was that our Mediator should be God-Man There is a Congruity between his Person and Office one fit to be familiar with Man and naturally interessed in his Concerns and yet so high and near the Father as may put a sufficient value upon his Actions and so meet to Mediate with God for us 2. The Dearness between God and him my beloved son Christ is the Object of his Fathers love both as the second Person in the Trinity and Mediator The one is the ground of the other for because he loved him he intrusted him with souls Ioh. 3. 35. The father hath loved him and put all things into his hands the Elect and all things else all power that conduceth to their salvation Afterwards loved him as Mediator Ioh. 10. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again Now such a beloved Son is fittest to Mediate for us and to come upon a design of Love to demonstrate Gods great Love to wretched sinners and to be a pledge of that love which God will bestow upon us who are altogether so unworthy of it 3. His Acceptableness to God who is well-pleased with the Design the Terms the Management of it II. This work of Mediator Christ executeth by three Offices of King Priest Prophet For he is Head and Lord of the renewed state a Priest to offer a sacrifice for sin which having once offered he for ever represents in Heaven he was also to be Teacher of Mankind to acquaint us with the way of salvation These Offices are often alluded unto in Scripture Rev. 1. 5. The faithful witness the first begotten from the dead the prince of the kings of the earth So Heb. 1. 2 3. God hath spoken to us by his son he having by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high The effect of them is more briefly described Ioh. 4. 6. I am the way the truth and the life The way was opened by his Passion and is kept open by his Intercession Truth as a Prophet Life we have from him as Prince of Life or Head of the renewed Estate So the effects 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Wisdom as a Prophet to cure our Ignorance and Folly Righteousness and Sanctification as a Priest Redemption as the King and Captain of our Salvation The same Benefits which he purchaseth as a King he bestoweth as a Priest revealeth as a Prophet These three Offices were typed out by the First-born who were Heads of Families and also Prophets and Priests 3. That though all the three Offices be imployed yet the Prophetical Office is more explicitely mentioned partly as suiting with the present occasion which is to demonstrate that Christ hath sufficient authority to repeal the Law of Moses which the Prophets were to explain confirm and maintain till his coming But now Moses and Elias appear in Person to certifie their consent and God his Approbation from Heaven to that new Law of Grace which Christ should set up Partly because it is not necessary that in every place all the Offices should be mentioned sometimes but one as where Christ is called either King Priest or Prophet sometimes two together Heb. 3. 1. Prophetical Sacerdotal Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Iesus sometimes his Prophetical and Kingly Isa. 55. 4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people and for a leader and commander to the people Partly because if Christ be received in this one Office he will be received in all the rest for as a Prophet he hath revealed that Doctrine which establisheth his Kingly and Priestly Office for he hath revealed all things necessary to salvation and therefore his own sacrifice and Regal Power Lastly some think all expresly mentioned here thus Christ is Gods beloved Son and therefore the Heir of all things and Lord and King in whom he is well pleased that is pacified and satisfied with his offering as a Priest or appeased by his compleat sacrifice Hear him as the great Prophet and Doctor of the Church This premised I come now to observe Doct. That Christ is appointed by God the Father to be the great Prophet and Teacher whose voice alone must be heard in the Church I. That Christ is the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church appeareth 1. By the Titles given to him he is compared with Moses the great Law-giver among the Iews The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of you like unto me unto him shall ye hearken Deut. 18. 15. He was to be like a Moses but greater than Moses a Lawgiver as he a man as he one that saw God Face to Face as he a Mediator as he but far other in all respects a better Law a more glorious Person a more
Religious Worship for which there is no example at all whereby it may be recommended to us Certainly no Action can be commended to us as Godly which is not prescribed of God by whose Word and Institution every Action is sanctified which otherwise would be common and no Action can be profitable to us which God hath not promised to accept or hath accepted from his people But giving Religious worship to a Creature is of this Nature 4. It is against the express command of God the Threatning of Scripture and the Examples recorded in the Word Against express command of God both the first and second Commandments the one respecting the Object the other the Means That we must not serve other Gods nor go after them nor bow down unto them It is against the Threatnings of the Word in all those places where God is said to be a Iealous God God is said to put on jealousie as a cloke Isa. 59. 17. That is the upper and outmost Garment He will be known and plainly profess himself to be so So Exod. 34. 14. The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God Things are distinguished from the same kind by their Names as from different kinds by their Natures Now from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will be distinguished by his Jealousie that he will not endure any partners in his Worship It is against Examples Rev. 19. 10. and 22. 8. When I had heard and seen I fell down to worship before the feet of the Angel which shewed me these things And he said unto me see thou do it not c. the Argument is I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book worship God USE 1. To condemn those who do not make conscience of the Worship of God There are an irreligious sort of Men that never call upon him in publick or in private in the Family or in the Closet but wholly forget the God that made them at whose expence they are maintained and kept Wherefore had you reasonable Souls but to praise honour and glorifie your Creator Surely if God be your God that is your Creator and Preserver the duty will presently fall upon you thou shalt worship the Lord thy God If you believe there is a God why do not you call upon him the neglect of his worship argueth doubting thoughts of his Being For if there be such a supream Lord to whom one day you must give an account how dare you live without him in the World all the Creatures glorifie him passively but you have a heart and a tongue to glorifie him actually Man is the mouth of the Creation to return to God the praise of all that Wisdom Goodness and Power which is seen in the things that are made Now you should make one among the worshippers of God An Heathen could say si essem luscinia c. Are you a Christian and have such advantages to know more of God And will you be dumb and tongue-tyed in his praises 2 To condemn the Idolatry of the Papists Synesius said that the Devil is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he rejoyceth in Idols Here we see what was the upshot of his Temptations even to bring men to worship and bow down before something that is not God Herein he was gratified by the Heathen Nations and no less by the Papists witness their worshipping of Images their Invocation of the Virgin Mary and other Saints the adoring before the Bread in the Eucharist c. I know they have many Evasions but yet the stain of Idolatry sticketh so close to them that all the water in the Sea will not wash them clean from it This Text clearly stareth them in the face Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Not Saints not Angels not Images c. They say Moses onely said and Christ repeateth it from him Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God but not onely so that the last clause is restrictive not the first but some worship may be given to the creature Civil we grant but not Religious and Worship is the most important word They distinguish of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the devil demanded of Christ onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall down and worship me not as the supream Author of all Gods Gifts but as subordinate all these things are delivered unto me but then Christs words were not apposite to refute the Tempters Impudency Besides for the distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words are promiscuously used so their distinction of Absolute and Relative Worship besides that they are groundless they are unknown to the Vulgar who promiscuously give Worship to God Saints Images Relicts Some of the Learned of them have confessed this abuse and bewailed it Espencaeus a Sorbonist Are they well and godly brought up who being children of an hundred year old that is ancient Christians do no less attribute to the Saints and trust in them than to God himself and that God himself is harder to be pleased and intreated than they So George Cassander This false pernitious Opinion is too well known to have prevailed among the Vulgar while wicked men persevering in their naughtiness are perswaded that only by the Intercession of the Saints whom they have chosen to be their Patrons and worship with cold and prophane Ceremonies they have pardon and Grace prepared them with God which pernicious Opinion as much as was possible hath been confirmed by them by lying Miracles and other men not so evil have chosen certain Saints to be their Patrons and Helpers have put more confidence in their Merits and Intercession than in the Merits of Christ and have substituted into his place the Saints Virgin Mother Ludovicus Vives There are many Christians which worship Saints both Men and Women no otherwise than they worship God and I cannot see any difference between the opinion they had of their Saints and that the Gentiles had of their Gods Thus far he and yet Rome will not be purged 3. Use is to exhort us to worship and serve the Lord our God and him onely 1. Let us worship him Worship hath its rise and foundation in the heart of the worshipper and especially Religious worship which is given to the All-knowing God Therefore there must we begin we must have high thoughts and an high esteem of God Worship in the Heart is most seen in two things Love and Trust. Love Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might We worship God when we give him such a Love as is superlative and transcendental far above the love that we give to any other thing that so our respect to other things may give way to our respect to God The other Affection whereby we express our esteem of God
and Inclination needing no outward Provocation and Allurements 1 Thes. 4. 9. As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you for you your selves are taught of God to love one another Gods Teaching is by effectual Impression or Inclining the Heart It is a smart Question that of the Prophet 2 Chro. 19. 2. Shouldst thou hate the Godly and love those that hate the Lord Surely a Gracious Heart cannot take them into his Bosom he loveth all with a Love of Good will as seeking their Good but not with a Love of Complacency as delighting in them Our Neighbour must be loved as our selves our natural or carnal Neighbour as our natural self with a love of Benevolence and our spiritual Neighbour as our spiritual self with a love of Complacency We have hated our sinful Neighbour as we hate our selves much more as to love of Benevolence we must neither hate our selves our Neighbour nor our Enemy But it is Complacency we are speaking of and so the wicked is an Abomination to the Righteous Prov. 29. 26. The Hatred of Displicency is opposite to the Love of Complacency as the Hatred of Enmity to the Love of Benevolence we cannot enter into a Confederacy and intimate Kindness with them 4. Because that Love which is built upon Holiness is the most durable and lasting There is a confederacy in Evil as between Drunkards with Drunkards and Robbers with Robbers Prov. 1. 14. Cast in thy lot amongst us let us all have one common purse Or when men conspire against the Truth and Interest of Christ in the World as Gebal and Amon and Amalek leagued themselves against Gods People divided in Interests but united in Hatred as the Pharisees and Herodians agreed together to Tempt Christ and Herod and Pilate tho' otherwise no very good Friends agreed to mock him this is unitas contra unitatem as Austin or consortium factionis a bond of Iniquity Now this Friendship is soon dissolved for these men though they agree in Evil yet have contrary Lusts and Interests and besides Partners in Evil are usually Objects reviving Guilt their very Presence upbraids the Consciences of one another with the Remembrance of their past sins and sin though it be sweet in the commiting yet it is hateful and bitter in the Remembrance of it Again there is a Civil Friendship built on natural Pleasure and Profit Certainly men are at liberty to choose their Company as their Interests and course of Imployments leads them This may be a Society for Trade or Civil Respect it cannot be a true and proper Friendship for Riches which are so frail and slippery can never make a firm tye and bond of Hearts and Minds Prov. 14. 20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbour but the rich hath many friends Prov. 19. 6. Many will intreat the favour of a prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts All the brethren of the poor do hate him c. And as it is a fluid so it is a base and sordid Friendship that is built upon Riches for that concerneth the Estate rather than the Soul Well then Religious Friendship which is built upon Vertue and Grace and is called the Unity of the Spirit Eph. 4. 3. is the most firm bond of all Sinful Societies are soon dissolved and the Prophane though they seem to hold together yet upon every cross Word may fall out and break and Civil Friendship which is onely built upon Pleasures and Profit standeth upon a brittle foundation Certainly the Good and the Holy are not so changeable as the Bad and the Carnal Besides that Friendship which is built upon Honesty and Godliness is Amicitia per se the other is Amicitia per accidens it cometh from constitution of Soul and likeness of Spirits and the good we seek may be possessed without Envy the Friends do not streighten and intrench upon one another Again there is a vertuous Friendship which consists in an Harmony of Minds or an agreement in some common Studies this is more Noble and more like true Friendship than Society for Trade and Temporal Interests but yet this Friendship is not so durable for at last it must be broken off by Death but the Godly are Everlasting Companions Besides Self-love and Envy is more apt to invade other Friendships but the Godly if they be true to the Laws of Spiritual Friendship they seek the good of one another as much as their own and rejoyce in the Graces of one another as much as in their own 3. Though we owe this Religious Friendship to all that fear God yet some few may be chosen for our Intimacy and spiritual Solace We owe it in some respects to all that fear God and must dispense the General Acts of Friendship to them Acts 4. 32. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul and Christian Love is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bond of perfectness Col. 3. 14. because it is the band by which Holy and Christian Societies called Churches are bound together and preserved otherwise like a Besom unbound they fall all to pieces but yet this doth not hinder but that some may be chosen for our intimacy Christ that denied himself so many of the commodities of Humane Life would not live without special Friends and would enjoy this virtuous Solace and in David and Ionathan we have an Instance of it 1 Sam. 18. 1. And the soul of Ionathan was knit to the Soul of David Certainly too many cannot perform the acts of intimate Friendship to us nor we to them the Love being like a River dispersed into several Channels must needs be shallower and weaker therefore our choice Friends must be but few inter binos bonos was the old Rule though it need not be so streightly confined 4. In the choice of these few Friends we must use Caution 1. Such as are near to us with whom we have frequent and familiar Converse and perform a mutual interchange of all Offices of Love Prov. 18. 24. A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly and there is a friend which sticketh closer then a brother Consanguinity and Affinity is not so near a tye as this Friendship 2. Not onely near but those who are holy prudent and good Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with the wise shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed 3. Such as are most likely to be Faithful Iob 6. 15 16. My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away Pools in Winter when less need of Water but dried up in Summer when Water in those parched Countries was a great Commodity So many seem to be great Friends heighten our expectation but in our Necessities and Streights leave us destitute ye see me cast down and are afraid saith Iob as if I should be a burden to you Dearest Friends may disappoint us
Christ is the Beloved Son of God in whom he is well pleased 1. I shall open this Testimony given to Christ. 2. Speak of the importance and weight of it I. Of the Testimony given to Christ. 1. Let me open the term that expresseth his Filiation that he is Gods Son Christ is the son of God properly so called a Son only begotten Iohn 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son Eternally begotten Prov. 8. 22 23. I was set up from everlasting the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old A Son coequal with his Father Iohn 5. 18. The Jews sought to kill him because he said God was his Father making himself equal with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own proper Father So co-essential of the same substance with his Father Iohn 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Now thus is he the Son of God Why is it mentioned there 1. To shew the special dignity of Christ above all others he is the Son of God Christians are the Sons of God but in a different manner he by nature we by Adoption Tho God have many sonsby Creation and Adoption yet Christ is his Son in a peculiar proper way by eternal Generation and communication of the same Essence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Son that beloved Son so a Son as none else is the son of God properly so called 2. To distinguish him from Moses and the Prophets from Moses Heb. 3. 5 6. Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant but Christ as a son over his own house whose house we are c. so from the rest of the Prophets Heb. 1. 1 2. God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets but hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the World This is the great Doctor of the Church now as to meekness above Moses as to zeal above Elias as to familiarity and communion he was with God and was God 3. To shew the old Prophesies were fulfilled which foretold the union of the two Natures in his Person the predictions concerning one whose name should be Immanuel God with us and who should save and redeem the Church Isa. 7. 14. And of a child that should be the Mighty God the Everlasting Father Isa. 9. 6. This the Prophets foretold that he should be God and the Son of God Micah 5. 2. His going forth is from Everlasting though born at Bethlehem so the bud of the Lord and the fruit of the Earth Isa. 4. 2. The man Gods fellow Zech. 13. 7. and in many other places the union of the two Natures is asserted 2. He is the beloved Son 1. That God loved Christ Christ is the object of his Fathers Love both as the second Person and as Mediator As the second Person of the Trinity two things are wont to attract love nearness and likeness they are both here nearness he was in the bosome of the Father Iohn 1. 18. The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Likeness is another loadstone of Affliction Heb. 1. 3. He is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person such as the Father is so is Christ. 2. As Mediator so God loveth him on the account of his obedience Iohn 10. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for the Sheep Iohn 3. 35. The Father hath loved him and put all things into his hand the Father approved Christs undertaking for sinners delighted in it as an excellent way of glorifying his name and recovering poor creatures out of their lost condition and rested satisfied and was pleased with his death as a sufficient ransom for poor souls Well then God loved him so as to trust the souls of all mankind in his hands and to appoint him to be the great Mediator to end all differences between him and us and the more he doth in pursuance of his Office the more beloved he is and acceptable to God 2. The testimony of his love to him as Mediator for his unspeakable rejoycing in him as second person in the Trinity we are not competent judges of It is described Prov. 8. 30. I was dayly his delight rejoycing alwayes before him The mutual complacency which the divine persons take in one another is there set forth God delighted in Christ and Christ in God But in the second love as Mediator God expressed his love to him in two things the gift of the Spirit and the Glory of his humane nature 1. The gift of the Spirit Iohn 6. 34. God giveth not the Spirit in measure to him for the Father loveth the Son and hath put all things into his hands This was the great expression of his love to Christ as Mediator not to make him a visible Monarch of the World but by the gift of his Spirit to be head of the Church 2. The other expression of his love to him as Mediator was the gift of Everlasting Glory Iohn 17. 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me should be where I am and behold my glory for thou hast loved me before the foundation of the World Gods love to Christ as Mediator was manifested in exalting him to glory and this Everlasting These are the great expresses of Gods love to Christ as God incarnate or appearing in our nature 3. Why is it put here 1. To shew the end for which Christ came to represent the amiableness of God that he is Love 1 Iohn 4. 8. and hath love for his children Christ is the pattern of all for he is first beloved and the great instance and demonstration of Gods love to the World 2. To intimate the redundancy of this Love it over-floweth to us for Christ being beloved we are beloved also Eph. 1. 6. he hath made us accepted in the beloved to the praise of his glorious Grace It is an overflowing Love he is loved and all that have an interest in him are loved There is a twofold love in God the love of Benevolence and complacency The Elect from all Eternity are loved by God with a love of Benevolence whereby he willed good unto them and decrees to bestow good upon them but the love of complacency and delight is that love whereby God accepteth us delighteth in us when he hath made us lovely as his own children reconciled them by the death of Christ renewed them by the Spirit of Christ and furnished them with all the Graces which make us acceptable to him and precious in his sight 3. To shew the kind and manner of the expressing of his love to his redeemed ones Christ prayed Iohn 17. 23. That the World may know that thou hast loved them as
thou hast loved me and ver 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them that is by the gift of the Spirit and Everlasting Glory Though Christ was the beloved Son yet his state was but mean and despicable in the world he was afflicted a man of sorrows pursued to the Death even a shameful painful accursed Death yet all this while he was full of the Holy Ghost of his Graces Comforts and afterwards received to Glory and so will he love us At this rate and Tenour his love bindeth him not to give us worldly greatness but if we have the Spirit and may be welcomed to Heaven at the last we have that which is the true discovery of Gods Love So he manifested his Love to the onely begotten Son and therefore the adopted children should be contented with this Love if by the Spirit they may be inabled to continue with Patience in well-doing till they receive Eternal Glory and Happiness 3. The next thing is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom I am well pleased This is to be interpreted of Christ as Mediator or God Incarnate for this was twice spoken at Christs Baptisme Mar. 3. 17. and now at his Transfiguration both imply his Mediatorship For his Baptisme had the notion of a Dedication he did then present himself to God as a Mediator for us to be the Servant of his Decree as we in Baptisme dedicate our selves to fulfil the Precepts which belong to us and as we are concerned to promote his Glory in the World Christ presented himself as a Mediator that is as a Prophet to acquaint us with the way of Salvation as a Priest to pay a perfect Ransom for us as a King to give us all things and defend and maintain all those who submit to his Government till their Glory be perfected and they attain unto their final Estate of Bliss and Happiness Now then God from Heaven declared himself well pleased and now again when Christ had made some Progress in the Work confirmeth it for the assurance of the World This then must be Interpreted 1. As to Christ. 2. As to those who have benefit by him and interest in him 1. As to Christ. He was well-pleased Partly as to the Design the Reparation of Lost Mankind Partly as to the Terms by which it should be brought about Partly as to the Execution and Management of it by Christ. 1. As to the Design God was well-pleased that lapsed Mankind should be restored at the first God was pleased with his Creation Exod. 31. 17. on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed that is recreated in the View of his Works as the effects of his Wisdom Power and Goodness And Psal. 104. 31. The Lord shall rejoyce in his works The Lord saw all to be good in the beginning and working not to be repented of This was Gods Rest and Sabbath to take delight in his Works When he looked on it altogether behold it was exceeding good but afterwards Man the ungrateful part of the Creation though the Masterpiece of it in this visible and lower world fell from God his Creator and preferred the Creature before him to his Loss and Ruine then God was so far displeased that he had Reason to wish the destruction of Mankind it is said Gen. 6. 6. That it repented God that he had made man That is he was displeased with us estranged from us no more contented with us than a man is in what he repenteth of For properly God cannot repent but this is an Expression to show how odious we were grown to him Psal. 14. 2 3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and did seek after God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Alas there is a lamentable appearance of Mankind to Gods sight now nothing good to be found in them an universal Defection both in Piety and Humanity But then Christ undertook the Reparation of Mankind and the Design was pleasing to God that he might not lose the glory of his Creation and all flesh be utterly destroyed Col. 1. 19 20. It pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself The restoring of fallen Man to Friendship with God and all things tending to it were highly pleasing to God namely that Jesus Christ the second Person in the Trinity should become a Mediator for that end he had a great Affection and liking to this thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the same word used here the thing is highly pleasing to God that the Breach should be made up that man who had lost the Image Favour and Fellowship with God should be again restored by renewing his Heart reconciling his Person and admitting him again into Communion with God who was was so justly provoked by him God stood in no need of our Friendship nor could any loss come to him by our Hatred and Enmity onely it pleased the Father to take this way Isa. 53. 10. For it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands 2. He is pleased with the Terms God who is the Supream Governour of the world and the offended Party stood upon these Terms that the Honour of his governing Justice should be secured and the Repentance and Reformation of man carried on Strictly these must be done or else man must lye under his Eternal Displeasure if one be done and not the other no Reconciliation can ensue Now that God is highly pleased with the satisfaction and compensation made to his governing Justice Heb. 10. 6 7. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure Then said I lo I come to do thy will O God Ver. 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all God rejected all other sacrifices but was fully satisfied with this as enough to expiate the sin of Man Christ delighted to give it and God delighted to accept of it He paid a perfect ransom for us besides or above which he craved no more but rested fully content in it for the other the Renovation of Mans Nature to put him into a capacity to serve and please God for God would not admit us to Priviledges without change of heart and disposition Acts 5. 31. God exalted him to be a prince and saviour to give repentance and remission of sins In short God is so satisfied with these Terms that 1. He seeketh no farther amends for all their wrongs Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
hear him hear him now hear him betimes the season falleth under the precept as well as the duty now while it is called to day 4. Your consent to hear him must be real practical and obediential verifyed in the whole tenour and course of your lives and actions for Christ will not be flattered with empty Titles why call ye me Lord and Master and do not the things which I say Luke 6. 46. if you pretend to hear his word you must do it also for you do not hear to please your minds with knowing but that you may make it your serious care and business to serve love and please God Many study Christianity to form their opinions rather then reform their Hearts and Practice The great use of Knowledge and Faith is to behold the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ that our own love may be quickned and encreased to him again If it serve onely to regulate opinions it is but dead speculation not a living Faith A naked belief is but the sight of a Feast it is the gracious soul doth eat and digest it when our Faith is turned into Love and Obedience that is the true Faith III. The reasons why this Prophet must be heard 1. Consider whose voice it is who speaketh the only beloved Son of God or God himself and surely when he speaketh he must be heard Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from Heaven for if they escaped not who refuse him that spake from Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven It is Christ doth speak and God by him commanding us to repent and believe the Gospel now to refuse him is a high contempt God when he gave the Law he spake on Earth but when he spake by Christ he spake from Heaven for Christ came from Heaven to acquaint us with the mind of God and having done it is returned to Heaven again from whence he sent down his Spirit on the Apostles who revealed his Gospel to the World This was a Mystery hidden in the bosom of God and brought to us thence by his only begotten Son surely with all humble submission we should attend unto and obey his Word Psal. 103. 20. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandements hearkning to the voice of his Word 2. The matter which he speaketh and we hear the Doctrine of the Gospel it is the most sweet excellent and comfortable Doctrine that can be heard or understood by the heart of man Prov. 8. 6. Hear saith Wisdom for I will speak of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be of right things This is the brightest light that ever shone from Heaven The profoundest Wisdom the greatest Love and Mercy that ever was or can be shown to sinful wretches of the highest concernment to man because his Everlasting state lyeth upon it a state of Everlasting wo or weal. Three things I shall take notice of 1. The way of Reconciliation with God manifested and discovered out of his intimate Love to us Man had fallen from the Love of God to the creature and was conscious to himself of having displeased his Maker and so lay under the fears of his vindictive Justice Now God by Christ declareth his Love to the offender in the fullest and most astonishing way Reconciling himself to him and sheweth his readiness to forgive and save him 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief and 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Oh what should be more welcom to the creature than this news of this pardoning Covenant founded in the Blood of Christ. 2. Our duty exactly stated with convenient motives to enforce it Not only the comfort of man is provided for but also our subjection to God and that upon the freest and most comfortable terms that we should serve him in love and glorifie and please him that we may be happy in his love to us for the sum of Religion is to love him and keep his Commandements Iohn 14. 21 23 He that keepeth my Commandements he it is that loveth me and if any man love me he will keep my Words to love him is our work and to be beloved of him is our Happiness and verse 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my saying and the word which you hear is not mine but the Fathers which sent me The Gospel is the very Word of God both the Fathers and the Sons it is an act of loving serving and pleasing God for this is the Word Christ preached that we love God and Christ loveth us again 3. A prospect of eternal Happiness 2 Tim. 1. 10. He hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel this is news but darkly revealed before and without this man knew not how to satisfie all his capacities and desires but was like Leviathan in a little Pool Nay we have not only a prospect of it but the offer of it as a reward appointed if we will be sincere in our Faith Love and Obedience 1 Iohn 2. 25. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal Life Everlasting Joy and Blessedness is propounded to us Oh then hear him if this be that he speaketh of 3. The Danger of not hearing this Prophet 1. For the present to continue to slight and contemn the Gosple is the mark that you are in a carnal perishing condition 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gosple is hid it is hid to them that are lost Iohn 10. 3. My Sheep hear my voice and verse 16. Other Sheep are there which are not of this fold and they shall hear my voice Christs Sheep whether Jew or Gentile they have all the same character they all hear his voice and verse 27. My Sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me They distinguish his voice own his voice obey his voice so Iohn 8. 47. Whosoever is of God heareth Gods Words ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God so that you lose all this comfort if ye do not hear the voice of Christ and his faithful Servants 2. For the Future Deut. 18. 19. Whosoever will not hearken to the words which that Prophet shall speak in my name I will require it of him that is he must look to answer it another day Peter rendreth it Acts 3. 23. Whosoever will not hearken to that Prophet shall be destroyed among the people It is not a bodily punishment but eternal torment Iohn 3. 36. The wrath of God abideth on him Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned Thus you see how dangerous it is to refuse this Prophet USES 1. Of Conviction to the carnal Christian for not submitting to Christs Authority All Christians do it in pretence but
strengthen him under the trouble He doth it also by a word therefore we read of Gods speaking peace to his People Psal. 85. 8. I will hear what God will say sor he will speak peace to his people and his saints Besides an inward strengthning there is a necessity of a word from Christs own mouth ere we can cast off our Discouragements Besides his touching or his laying his right hand upon us there is need of his word to us USE It teacheth us what to do when we have serious thoughts of appearing before God For the case in hand is about those that were affrighted and disquieted with Divine Visions which was occasioned by natural frailty and partly by a sense of sin Now all of us must shortly come into Gods presence but who can dwell with devouring burnings If your thoughts be serious you will find that it is no slight thing to appear before God who is our Creator and our Judge and who is an holy and glorious God to whom we have carried it very unthankfully and undutifully Now who can relieve you in these perplexed thoughts but the Lord Jesus Christ get a word from him that your Iniquity is taken away and your sin purged Isa. 6. 7. and wait on him till he settleth your souls in the peace and hope of the Gospel Isa. 57. 14. and then you are relieved in your Agonies of Conscience stand up be not afraid the Gospel is a Soveraign Plaister but his hand must make it stick Thirdly The Event and Issue of all ver 8. And when they had lift up their eyes they saw no man save Iesus onely This intimateth two things 1. That this Testimony from Heaven did onely concern Jesus Christ for Moses and Elias vanish out of sight and Jesus is left alone as the Person in whom God is well pleased and all the Church must hear him When they are withdrawn Christ remaineth as Lord and Head of the Church and so it sheweth the ceasing of Moses his Law and the continuance and Authority of the Law of Christ. The Apostle telleth us when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away They onely prophesied prefigured Christ to come but now upon the Exhibition the Legal Ordinances vanished 2. That God manifesteth himself for time measure and degree as he himself seeth fit for our good for the Vision is removed when the intent of it is obtained Here the spiritual Banquet doth not always last Heaven is a perpetual Feast but we must not look upon Earth to be feasted always with spiritual suavities There is no permanency but perpetual Vicissitudes in our enjoyments within time we have clear and cloudy dayes in the World a feast a desertion Cant. 5. 1. c. I am come into my garden my sister my spouse I have gathered my myrrhe with my spices I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey I have drunk my wine with my milk eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night c. And Ver. 6. I opened to my beloved and my beloved hath withdrawn himself and was gone After the greatest manifestations of Christs love there may be a withdrawing we cannot bear perpetual comforts and God reserveth them for a better time when we are more prepared for them There must be Day and Night in this World and Winter and summer but in Heaven it is all Day there is a perpetual sun-shine never clouded nor overcast FINIS
and 1 Iohn 2. 14. The Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one It is good to have the Word of God abide in our memories but chiefly in our hearts by a sound belief and fervent love to the truth 2. Partly by Resolution 1 Pet. 4. 1. Arm your selves with the same mind viz. that was in Christ. When Satan grew bold and troublesome Christ rejects him with indignation Now the conscience of our duty should thus prevail with us to be resolute therein the double minded are as it were torn in pieces between God and the Devil Iames 1. 8. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways Therefore being in Gods way we should resolve to be deaf to all temptations 4. The hopes of Success God would set Christ before us as a pattern of Trust and Confidence that when we address our selves to serve God we might not fear the temptations of Satan We have an example of overcoming the Devil in our glorious Head and Chief If he pleaded Iohn 16. 33. In the World ye shall have tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the World the same holdeth good here for the Enemies of our Salvation are combined He overcame the Devil in our natures that we might not be discouraged we fight against the same Adversaries in the same cause and he will give power to us his weak members being full of compassion which certainly is a great comfort to us USE Of Instruction to us 1. To reckon upon temptations Assoon as we mind our Baptismal Covenant we must expect that Satan will be our professed Foe seeking to terrifie or allure us from the banner of our Captain Jesus Christ. Many after Baptism fly to Satans Camp There are a sort of men in the visible Church who though they do not deny their Baptism as those did 2 Pet. 2. 9. Who have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins yet they carry themselves as if they were in league with the Devil the World and the Flesh rather then with the Father Son and Holy Ghost with might and main they oppose Christs Kingdom both abroad and at home in their own hearts and are wholly governed by worldly things the lusts of the Flesh and the lusts of the Eye and the pride of Life Now these are the Devils Agents and the more dangerous because they use Christs name against his Offices and the form of his Religion to destroy the power thereof as the Dragon in the Reve lations pushed with the horns of the Lamb. Others are not venomously and malignantly set against Christ and his interest in the World or in their own Hearts but tamely yield to the lusts of the Flesh and go like an Ox to the slaughter and a Fool to the correction of the Stocks Prov. 7. 22. We cannot say that Satans work lyeth about these Satan needeth not besiege the soul by temptations that is his already by peaceable possession when a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace Luke 11. 21. There is no storm when wind and tide goeth together But then there is a third sort of men that begin to be serious and to mind their recovery by Christ they have many good motions and convictions of the danger of sin excellency of Christ necessity of Holiness they have many purposes to leave sin and enter upon an holy course of Life but the wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which was sowen in his heart Mat. 13. 19. He beginneth betimes to oppose the work before we are confirmed and settled in a course of Godliness as he did set upon Christ presently upon his Baptism Baptism in us implyeth avowed dying unto sin and living unto God now God permitteth temptation and to try our Resolution There is a fourth sort of such as have made some progress in Religion even to a degree of eminency these are not altogether free for if the Devil had confidence to assault the declared Son of God will he be afraid of a meer mortal man No these he assaulteth many times very sorely Pyrates venture on the greatest booty these he seeketh to draw off from Christ as Pharaoh sought to bring back the Israelites after their escape or to foil them by some scandalous fall to do Religion a mischief 2 Sam. 12. 14. By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme or at least to vex them and torment them to make the service of God tedious and uncomfortable to them Luke 22. 31. Simon Simon Behold Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat to toss and vex you as wheat in a sieve So that no sort of Christians can promise themselves exemption and God permitteth it because to whom much is given of them the more is required 2. The manner and way of his fight is by the World per blanda aspera by the good or evil things of the World There is armour of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6. 7. as there are right hand and left hand temptations Both ways he lyeth in ambush in the creature Sometimes he tempts us by the good things of the World 1 Chron. 21. 1. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel so glorying in his might and puissance and victory over neighbour Kings So meaner people he tempteth to abuse their Wealth to Pride and Luxury therefore we are pressed to be sober 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lyon walketh about seeking whom he may devour The Devil maketh an advantage of our prosperity to divert us from God and Heaven and to render us unapt for the strictness of our Holy calling Sometimes he tempts us by the evil things of this World Iob 1. 11. Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Satans aim in bringing the Saints into trouble is to draw them to fretting murmuring despondency and distrust of Providence yea to open defection from God or blasphemy against him And therefore it is said 1 Pet. 5. 9 Knowing that the same afflictions c. because temptations are conveyed to us by our afflictions or troubles in the flesh 3. His end is to disswade us from good and perswade us to evil To disswade us from good by representing the impossibility trouble and small necessity of it If men begin to apply themselves to a strict course such as they have sworn to in Baptism either it is so hard as not to be born as Iohn 6. 60. This is a hard saying who can bear it Whereas Mark 19. 29. Every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren c. for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting Life Or the troubles which accompany a strict profession are many The World will note us Iohn 12.
You must make your way to heaven almost every step by conflict and conquest Remember your baptismal vow the obligation of which ceaseth not till your life be ended and then you shall be out of Gun-shot and Harmes-way Therefore still follow the Captain of your Salvation wherever he leadeth you The more Trials the more Glory 3. Avoid rash Judgment and Censure if the same happen to others Pyrates do not use to set upon an empty Vessel The best are most assaulted God permitteth it for their Trial and Satan hath the greatest spight at them II. Observe That the more grievous temptations follow the lighter ones and the last assaults and trials are usually the greatest This is so if you respect either the dexterity and cunning of the Tempter represented before or the foulness of the Temptation viz. to Idolatry The best of Gods Children may be tempted to the most execrable sins Thus usually doth Satan reserve his worst assaults for the last and his last temptation is commonly the sorest Dying Beasts bite shrewdly so Satan rageth most when he hath but a short time Therefore since our warfare is not over let us prepare for the worst brunt and the last efforts of Satan If God will crown us fighting we have no cause to complain Many of Gods servants whom he could not draw to Worldliness Sensuality or Vain-glory in their Life-time he will seek to inject blasphemous thoughts into their Minds at last But though it be grievous be not dismayed your Conquest is sure and near III. Observe The World and Worldly things are the bait and snare which the Tempter offereth to Christ and his followers As here when he would make his last onset upon Christ he sets before him the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them as the matter of the Temptation 1. There are three Enemies of our Salvation the Devil the World and the Flesh they are reckoned up together Eph. 2. 2 3. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind The Devil is the deceiver and grand Architect of all wickedness the Flesh is the Principle that he worketh upon or that rebelling faculty within us that would be pleased before God the World is the bait by which the devil would deceive us and steal away our hearts from God for it suiteth with our fleshly appetites and desires More distinctly that Satan is an enemy appeareth from his name that signifieth an Adversary and in many places of Scripture he is so called as Matth. 13. 25. While men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat compared with the 39th verse The enemy that sowed them is the Devil he is the great Enemy to God and Man 1 Pet. 5. 8. Your adversary the Devil like a roaring Lyon walketh about c. The Flesh is an Enemy yea our greatest Enemy for it warreth against the soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. If you indulge the Flesh you are willing to lose your Souls Yea it warreth against the Spirit or better part as contrary to it Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Other things could do us no harm without our own flesh We are tempted to Sin by Satan encouraged to sin by the Example and Custom of the World but enclined to Sin by our own Flesh. The World is an Enemy of our Salvation as well as the Devil and the Flesh all the other Enemies get strength by it by the bait of worldly things the devil pleaseth the flesh we are in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by it Whosoever is a Lover of the World is presumed to be a professed Enemy of God Iam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God 1 Ioh. 2. 15. If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him It is an Enemy because it keepeth us from God who is our chief good and the enjoyment of him among his blessed ones which is our last end There is a neglect of God and heavenly things where the world prevaileth 2. The devil maketh use of the world to a double end 1. To divert us from God and Heavenly things that our Time and Care and Thoughts may be wholly taken up about things here below Luk. 12. 19. Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Phil. 3. 19 20. They mind earthly things But our conversation is in heaven These are perfectly opposite Some are of the world and speak of the world and wholly mind the world and are governed by the spirit of this world seldom look higher or very coldly and slightly Thus that which should be thought of in the first place is scarce thought of at all But remember he doth but offer you worldly things to deprive you of heavenly 2. To draw us to some open sin for the worlds sake as here he tempted Christ to Idolatry and Demas to defection from the Faith 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present world Others to some carnal fraudulent oppressive course whereby they are spotted by the World The whore of Babylon propoundeth her Abominations in a golden cup Rev. 17. 4. and the great motive here is All this will I give thee Though the Devil cometh not in Person to us with his offers he doth by his Instruments as Balak when he sent to Balaam to curse the Israelites he promised him great rewards Numb 22. 17. I will promote thee unto very great honour and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me Come therefore I pray thee curse me this people So when he doth intice you by the motions of your own hearts to any thing that is unlawful to falshood deceit or unjust gain or to get and keep wealth by any base or unjust means or doing something that is base and unworthy of your Religion 3. I Observe that Temptations from the world may prevail with us Satan maketh use of a twofold Artifice The one is to greaten the worldly Object the other is to make us large promises of success happiness and contentment in our evil enterprizes 1. He useth this sleight here he doth in the most inticing manner lay the world before Christ as a splendid object to greaten it in Christs Thoughts and apprehensions Therefore when we begin to magnifie the Riches Pomp and pleasures of the World the devil is at our Elbow and we are running into the snare And therefore if we begin to say happy is the people that is in
that God is and that he ought to be worshipped It appeareth by our Saviours reasoning Iohn 4. 24. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in Truth He giveth directions about the manner of worship but supposeth it that he will be worshipped When God had proclaimed his name and manifested himself to Moses Exod. 34. 8. Moses made hast and bowed himself and worshipped It is the crime charged upon the Gentiles that when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 1. 21. They knew a divine power but did not give him a worship at lest competent to his nature God pleadeth his right Mal. 1. 6. If I be a Father where is mine honour If I be a master where is my fear And God who is the common Parent and absolute Master of all must have both a Worship and Honour in which Reverence and Fear is mixed with Love and Joy So that if God be worship is certainly due to him They that have no worship are as if they had no God The Psalmist proveth Atheism by that Psal. 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God and ver 4. They call not upon God The acknowledgement of a King doth imply subjection to his Laws so doth the acknowledgment of his God imply a necessity of worshipping him III. That both Worship and Service is due to God him shalt thou worship and him shalt thou serve The worship of God is both Internal and External The Internal consisteth in that Love and Reverence which we owe to him the External in those offices and duties by which our honour and respect to God is signified and expressed Both are necessary both believing with the heart and confession with the Mouth Rom. 10. 9 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation The soul and life of our Worship and Godliness lyeth in our Faith Love Reverence and Delight in God above all other things the visible expression of it is in Invocation Thanksgiving Prayers and Sacraments and other Acts of outward Worship Now it is not enough that we own God with the Heart but we must own him with the Body also In the Heart serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal. 2. 11. Such as will become the Greatness and Goodness of God with outward and bodily worship you must now own him in all those prescribed duties in which these Affections are acted The spirit must be in it and the body also There are two extreams some confine all their respect to God to bodily worship and external Forms Mat. 16. 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me They use the external Rites of worship but their Affections are no way suited to the God whom they Worship It is the Heart must be the principal and chief Agent in the business without which it is but the carcass of a duty without the life and the soul. The other Extream is that we are not called to an external bodily worship under the Gospel why did he then appoint the Ordinances of Preaching Prayer Singing of Psalmes Baptisme and the Lords Supper God that made the whole man body and soul must be worshipped of the whole man Therefore besides the inward Affections there must be external Actions whereby we express our Respect and Reverence to God IV. That both these Religious Worship and Service are due to God alone I prove it by these Arguments 1. Those things which are due to God as God are due to him alone and no Creature without Sacriledge can claim any part and fellowship in that Worship and Adoration neither can it be given to any Creature without Idolatry but now Religious worship and service is due to God as God he is thy Lord and worship thou him Psal. 45. 11. Our worship and service is due to him not onely for his supereminent Excellency but because of our Creation Preservation and Redemption Therefore we must worship and serve him and him onely Isa. 42. 8. I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images God challengeth it as Jehovah the great self-being from whom we have received Life and Breath and all things This Glory God will not suffer to be given to another And therefore the Apostle sheweth the wretched estate of the Galatians Chap. 4. 8. When ye knew not God ye did service to them that by nature are no Gods that is they worshipped for Gods those things which really were no Gods There is no kind of Religious worship or service under any name whatsoever to be given to any Creature but to God only for what is due to the Creator as Creator cannot be given to the Creature 2. The nature of Religious worship is such that it cannot be terminated on any Object but God for it is a profession of our Dependance and Subjection Now whatever invisible Power this worship is tendered unto must be Omniscient Omnipresent Omnipotent Omniscient who knowes the Thoughts Cogitations secret purposes of our heart which God alone doth 1 King 8. 39. Give unto every one according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of Men. It is Gods Prerogative to know the inward motions and thoughts of the heart whether they be sincere or no in their professions of dependance and subjection So Omnipresent that he may be ready at hand to help us and relieve us Ier. 23. 23 24. Am I a God at hand and not a God afar of can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. The Palace of Heaven doth not so confine him and inclose him but that he is present every where by his essential presence and powerful and efficacious Providence Besides Omnipotent Psal. 57. 2. I will cry unto God most high unto God who performeth all things for me Alass what a cold formality were prayer if we should speak to those that know us not and who are not near to help us or have no sufficiency of power to help us Therefore these professions of dependance and subjection must be made to God alone 3. To give Religious Worship to the Creatures it is without command without promise and without Examples and therefore without any Faith in the Worshipper or acceptance of God Where is there any command or direction or approved example of this in Scripture God will accept onely what he commanded and without a promise it will be unprofitable to us and it is a superstitious Innovation of our own to devise any
is Trust This is another Foundation of worship Psal. 62. 8. Trust in the Lord at all times pour out your hearts before him Well then inward Worship lyeth in these two things delightful Adhaesion to God and an intire dependance upon him Without this Worship of God we cannot keep up our service to him Not without delight witness these Scriptures Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the almighty will he alwayes call upon God Isa. 43. 22. But thou hast not called upon me O Iacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel They that love God and delight in him cannot be long out of his Company they will seek all occasions to meet with God as Ionathan and David whose souls were knit to each other So for dependance and Trust it keepeth up service for they that will not trust God cannot be long true to him Heb. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God They that distrust Gods Promises will not long hold out in Gods way for dependance begets observance when we look for all from him we will often come to him and take all out of his hands and be careful how we offend him and displease him What maketh the Christian to be so sedulous and diligent in duties of worship so awful and observant of God his All cometh from God both in life natural and spiritual In life natural Psal. 145. 15 16 17 18. The eyes of all things wait on thee and thou givest them their food in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing c. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he will hear their cry and will save them The Lord preserveth all them that love him Implying That because their eyes are to him the Author of all their blessings therefore they call upon him and cry to him 2. Serve him That implyeth external Reverence and Worship Now we are said to serve him either with respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God or with respect to our whole Conversation 1. With respect unto the duties which are more directly to be performed unto God such as the Word Prayer Praise Thanksgiving Sacraments Surely these must be attended upon because they are Acts of love to God and Trust in God and these holy Duties are the ways of God wherein he hath promised to meet with his people and hath appointed us to expect his Grace and therefore they must not be neglected by us Therefore serve him in these things for Mar. 4. 24. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you It is a rule of commerce between us and God 2. In your whole Conversation Luk. 1. 74 75. That we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life A Christians conversation is a continual Act of Worship he ever behaveth himself as before God doing all things whether they be directed to God or Men out of love to God and fear of God and so turneth second Table duties into first Table duties Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Iam. 1. 27. Eph. 5. 21. 22. Submitting your selves one to another in the fear of God And next verse Wives submit your selves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. So Alms are a Sacrifice Heb. 13. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased 3. Worship and serve God so as it may look like Worship and service performed to God and due to God onely because of his Nature and Attributes His Nature Iohn 4. 24. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth When Hearts wander and Affections do not answer Expressions is this like worship and service done to an All seeing Spirit His Attributes Greatness Goodness Holiness 1. His Greatness and glorious Majesty Heb. 12. 28. Let us serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear Then is there a stamp of Gods Majesty on the duty 2. His Goodness and Fatherly Love Psal. 100. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with singing 3. His Holiness 2 Tim. 1. 3. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience 2 Tim. 2. 22. With them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart SERMON VII MATTH 4. 11. Then the Devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministred unto him IN these words you have the Issue and close of Christ's Temptations The Issue is double I. In respect of the Adversary II. In respect of Christ himself I. In respect of the Adversary then the devil leaveth him II. In respect of Christ himself Behold angels came and ministred unto him I shall consider in both the History and the Observations First The History of it as it properly belongeth to Christ And there 1. Of the first Branch the Recess of Satan then the devil leaveth him 1. It was necessary to be known that Christ had power to chase away the devil at his pleasure that as he was an instance of Temptations so he might be to us a pattern of Victory and Conquest If Satan had continued Tempting this would have been obscured which would have been an infringement of Comfort to us The devil being overcome by Christ he may be also overcome by us Christians 1 Ioh. 5. 18. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not That is he useth all care and diligence to keep himself pure that the devil draw him not into the sin unto death and those deliberate scandalous sins which lead to it Christ having overcome Satan in our name and nature sheweth us the way how to fight against him and overcome him 2. Christ had a work to do in the Valley and therefore was not alwayes to be detained by Temptations in the Wilderness The Spirit that led him thither to be tempted led him back again into Galilee to preach the Gospel Luk. 4. 14. Iesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee All things are timed and ordered by God and he limiteth Satan how far and how long he shall tempt 3. In Luke it is said chap. 4. 13. He departed from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a season He never tempted him again in this solemn way hand to hand but either abusing the simplicity of his own Disciple Mat. 16. 22 23. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee But he turned and said unto Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Or else
the three fundamental Graces Faith Hope and Love so the spiritual Armour is represented 1 Thess. 5. 8. But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breast-plate of Faith and Love and for an helmet the hope of Salvation 1. A strong Faith 1 Pet. 5. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the Faith This is in the general a sound belief of Eternity or a deep sense of the World to come When we believe the Gospel with an assent so strong as constantly to adhere to the duties prescribed and to venture all upon the hopes offered therein 2. A fervent love arising out of the sense of our obligations to God that we do with all readiness of mind set our selves to do his will levelling and directing our actions to his glory Love is strong as death and many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Cant. 8. 6 7. This love will neither be bribed nor frightned from Christ. 3. A lively Hope that doth so long and wait for glory to come that present things do not greatly move us either delights 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory or the terrors of sense Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us III. Doctrine That those that come out of eminent conflicts are usually delivered by God in a glorious manner Christ was a pattern of this The devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him When God delivered his people after a long captivity he delivered them with glory and some kind of triumph when he turned the Egyptian Captivity they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so that they lent unto them such things as they required and they spoiled the Egyptians Exod 12. 35 36. So in the Babylonian Captivity Cyrus chargeth his subjects in the place where the Jews remain to furnish them with all things necessary for their journey Ezek. 1. 4. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts besides the free-will-offering for the house of God that is in Ierusalem So in a private instance Iob 42. 10 11. And the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his Friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him every man also gave him a piece of mony and every one an ear-ring of gold It is said the Lord turned the captivity of Iob because he had been delivered to Satans power till the Lord set him at Liberty again and then all his Friends had compassion on him even those that had despised him before releived him So Isaiah 61. 7. For your shame you shall have double and for confusion they shall rejoyce in their portion therefore in their Land they shall possess the double Everlasting joy shall be unto them They should have large and eminent Honour double honour for their shame such a reparation would God make them for all the troubles and dammages they had sustained So in an ordinary Providence God raiseth up comforters to his servants after all the injuries done them by satan's instruments And so also in spirituals the grief and trouble that cometh by Temptation is recompensed with more abundant consolation after the conquest and victory and God delighteth to put special marks of favour upon his people that have been faithful in an hour of Tryal Now God doth this 1. To shew the World the advantage of Godliness and close adhering to him in an hour of temptation Psalm 119. 56. This I had because I kept thy precepts And Psalm 58. 11. So that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth 2. To check our diffidence and murmurings under trouble Within a while and Gods Children will see they have no cause to quarrel with God or repent that they were in trouble For sometimes God giveth not only a comfortable but a glorious issue There is nothing lost by waiting on Providence though we abide the blows of Satan for a while yet abide them God is it may be preparing the greater mercy for you Isaiah 25. 9. And it shall be said in that day lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation Afflictions are sharp in their season but the end is glorious USE Do not always reckon upon temporal felicity refer that to God but do as Jesus who in his sharp tryals Heb. 12 2 3. For the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God There is a sure Crown of Life Iames 1. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him That is enough to content a Christian the eternal reward is sure In this World he shall receive with persecution an hundred fold but in the World to come Eternal Life Mark 10. 29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mothers and Children and Lands with Persecutions and in the World to come Eternal Life IV. Doctrine That God maketh use of the Ministery of Angels in supporting and comforting his afflicted servants He did so to Christ he doth so to the people of Christ. Partly for the defence and comfort of the Godly Ps. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them Heb. 1. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be the heirs of Salvation Their Ministry is now invisible but yet certain And partly also for the terror of their Enemies When David had said The Lord hath chosen the hill of Sion to dwell in Psalm 68. 16. he adds verse 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels implying that no Kingdom in the World hath such defence and such potent and numerous Armies as the Church hath and the Kingdom of Christ God hath
chearfulness of countenance guilt and shame cast down the countenance but Righteousness and Wisdom embolden it more particularly in prayer as our confidence and joy in God is increased it bewrayeth it self in the countenance Psal. 34. 15. They looked unto him and were lightned and their faces were not ashamed they are revived and incouraged and come away from the Throne of Grace other manner of Persons then they came to it 3. That some kind of Transformation is wrought by prayer appeareth by these Considerations 1. That as God is glorious in himself so he maketh him that cometh to him partaker of his Glory For certainly all communion with God breedeth some Assimilation and likeness unto God it is clear in heavenly glory when we see him as he is we shall be like him 1 Iohn 3. 2. and it is clear also in our Communion with him in the Spirit for the Apostle telleth us that by beholding the Glory of the Lord as in a glass we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. not onely doth vision or immediate intuition produce this effect but also spiritual specular vision or a sight of God in the Ordinances produces a divine and God-like Nature inclining us to hate sin and love Righteousness the more we are above with God the more we are like him we see it in ordinary converse a man is as the company that he keepeth he that walketh with wise men shall be wise saith Solomon but a companion of fools shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. now it is not imaginable that a man should converse often with God fervently seriously and not be more like him He that liveth in a Mill the dust will stick upon his clothes Man receiveth an insensible taint from his company he that liveth in a shop of Perfumes often handleth them is conversant among them carryeth away somewhat of the fragrancy of these good Ointments so by conversing with God we are made like him 2. Nearer we cannot come to God while we dwell in Flesh then by lifting up the heart to him in fervent prayer this is the intimate converse and familiarity of a loving soul with God therefore it is called a lifting up the heart to God he will not come down to us therefore we lift up the heart to him Lament 3. 41. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the Heavens so Psal. 25. 1. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul and Psalm 86. 4. Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee do I lift up my soul so Psalm 143. 8. cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee All these places shew that there can be no sincerity and seriousness in this Duty unless there be this Ascension of the soul to God it is an act of spiritual Friendship therefore called an acquainting our selves with God Iob 22. 21. now as acquaintance is kept up by frequent visits so prayer is called a giving God a visit Isa. 26. 16. In their trouble they have visited thee Well then here is the greatest intimacy we have with God In the word God speaks to us by a proxy and Ambassador another speaketh for him in the Lords Supper we are feasted at his cost and remember him but we are not admitted into his immediate presence as those that are feasted by the King in another room then he dineth in but prayer goeth up to God and speaketh to himself immediately and therefore this way of commerce must needs bring in much of God to the soul. 3. In fervent prayer we have a double advantage we get a sight of God and exercise strong love to God and both conduce to make us like God 1. We get a sight of God for in it if it be seriously performed we turn our back upon all other things that we may look to God as sitting upon the Throne governing all things by his power for his Glory By Faith we see the invisible one Heb. 11. 27. surely if we do not see God before the eye of our Faith when we pray to him we Worship an Idol not the true and living God who is and is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Our hearts should be shut up against the thoughts of any other thing and confined only to the object to whom we direct our Worship I reason thus if a Christian foreseeth the Lord before him in all his wayes and keepeth alwayes as in his eye and presence surely he should set the Lord before him in his Worship and in his prayers Psalm 16. 8. a good Christian doth always keep as in Gods eye and presence much more when he calleth upon his Name now every sight of God doth more affect and change the heart as none but the pure in heart see God so none see God but are most pure in heart there is a self-purifying in moral things purity of heart maketh way for the sight of God Mark 5. 8. so the sight of God maketh way for the purity of Heart Iohn Epist. 3. 11. He that doth evil hath not seen God a serious sight of God certainly worketh some change in us 2. In prayer a strong love to God is acted for it is the expression of our delight in him Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he alwayes call upon God Now we are changed into the likeness of him in whom we delight in Love transformeth and changeth us into the nature of what is loved there is the difference between the Mind and the Will the Mind draweth things to its-self but the Will followeth the things it chooseth and is drawn by them as the wax receiveth the impression of the Seal Carnal objects make us carnal and earthly things earthly and Heavenly things Heavenly and the love of God Godly Psal. 115. 8. They that make them are like unto them so are all they that put their trust in them stupid and senseless as Idols it secretly stamps the heart with what we like and esteem and admire 4. There are Agents in Prayer to help us to improve this advantage 1. The Humane Spirit 2. The New Nature And 3. The Spirit of God 1. The Humane Spirit or our Natural Faculty so that by our understandings we may work upon our Wills and Affections surely God maketh use of this for the Holy Ghost doth not work upon a man as upon a block and we are to rouze up our selves and to attend upon this work with the greatest seriousness imaginable The Prophet complains Isa. 64. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee without this it is but dead and cold work and if there be no more than this it is but dry litteral work not that fervent effectual prayer which will change the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iam. 5. 16. the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those that were inspired and possessed by a Spirit therefore it must be a prayer that not only hath Understanding and Will in it but Spirit and Life in it However we are to put forth our utmost endeavour and raise the natural Spirit as far as we can 2. The second Agent is the new Nature which inclineth us to God as our chief Good and last end This also must be taken in for the Holy Ghost doth not blow as to a dead Coal the New Nature is made up of Faith Hope and Love and all these must be acted in Prayer Faith or the firm belief of Gods Being and Providence and Covenant for how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. Then Love to God or desire of the fruition of him in Heavenly Glory praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God Iude 20 21. If I do not love God and desire to enjoy him and delight in as much of God as I can get here certainly there will be no life in Prayer or no Ravishment and Transport of Soul no spirit of Desire animating our Requests and no spiritual Solace and Delight in our converse with God Hope is also necessary to fervent praying for a man coldly asketh for what he doth not hope for Hope respecteth both Means and End supplies of Grace by the way and our final Fruition of God in Glory this is called Trust in Scripture and is the great ground and encouragement of Prayer Psal. 62. 8. Trust in the Lord at all times pour out your souls before him Prayer is the act of a Trusting soul. Now these Graces quicken our Natural Faculties as they elevate and raise our Hearts and Minds to God and Heaven 3. The third Agent in Prayer is the Holy Spirit He is sometimes said to pray in us Rom. 8. 26. sometimes we are said to pray in him Iude 20. The Divine spirit exciteth those Graces in us which incline us to God he raiseth our Minds in the Vision and sight of God in thy Light shall we see Light Psal. 36. 9. and he raiseth our Hearts to a Desire after and Delight in God for all that spiritual solace and Joy is called Ioy in the Holy Ghost for both unutterable Groans and unspeakable Joyes are of his working Rom 8. 26. The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered compared with 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom though we see him not yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Well then these work a kind of an Extasie if you would pray so as to be transported transformed in Prayer something you must do as Reasonable Creatures somthing as New Creatures and the Spirit influenceth all and causeth the Soul to follow hard after God we must put forth our utmost endeavour stir up the Gift of God in us and though we cannot command the influences of the Spirit yet he is never wanting to a serious soul as to necessary Help Pray thus and you will find as the Help of the Spirit in Prayer so the Comforts of the Spirit as the Success of Prayer 5. As there is daily and constant Prayer in which we must ever bewray a seriousness and sincerity for these daily supplies of Grace so there are extraordinary occasions because of some great Business Conflict or Temptation in those the Heart and Mind must be more then ordinarily raised and stirred In every Prayer of Christ there was not a Transfiguration and we read of our Lord Jesus that in his Agonies he prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more earnestly then at other times Luk. 22. 44. and upon eminent occasions as the necessities of the Saints are greater so their Acts of Prayer are more earnest On these weighty occasions many Christians are wholly swallowed up with the thoughts of God and carried beyond themselves by their High Love to God and earnest Desires of the Spiritual Blessings they stand in need of so that they seem to be rapt into Heaven in their Admiration of God and Delight in him Application Use To Reprove our feeble remiss and benummed Requests There is no Life in our Prayers no working up of the Heart to God and Heaven no flames of Love no Transports of Soul by the Vision and sight of Faith no holy and ardent desires after God or spiritual Solace and Delight in him Reasons 1. We pray Cursorily and go about Prayer as a Customary Task for Fashions sake we come with a few cold Devotions Morning and Evening and so God is near in our Mouthes and far from our Reins Ier. 12. 2. Oh take heed of this nothing breeds slightness and hardness of Heart so much as Perfunctory Praying The Rule is continue instant in Prayer Rom. 12. 12. and it is said of the Saints that they served God instantly day and night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 26. 7. that they might come to the Blessed Hope with the united Service of all their Powers and Faculties 2. Our Prayers are Doctrinal and Instructive rather than Affectionate and Warming We get Light by other Duties but we should get Life by Prayer this Duty is not to inform the Judgment but to raise the Affections that they may be all Flame other duties are feeding duties but this is a spending duty an egression of the Soul after God Psal. 63. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee A Man may better spend two hours in Hearing than half an hour in Praying if the Heart be employed in it as it ought to be in the fight of God and an earnest desire after him The Prayers in scripture are all supplications or doxologies there is no excursion into Doctrines and Instructions 3. Else we are lamenting sin and spend the time in confessing sin which also hath its use in the seasons thereof but are seldom in Praises or Adorations of the Excellencies of God and the wonderful Mysteries of his Love in our Redemption by Jesus Christ yet it is said Psal. 22. 3. Oh Lord that inhabitest the praises of Israel These are the things that do most ravish the heart and raise it in the Contemplation of that glorious God to whom we speak and fill us with the Extasies of Love that we may be more like him Holy Wise and Good as he is Holy Wise and Good 4. We think a dry Narrative to be enough that is the fruit of a humane spirit or a meer product of Memory and Invention is a sufficient Prayer without acting Faith Hope or Love in it or those spiritual and heavenly desires which are the Life of Prayer Psal. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear The Ardency of Humble Addresses is Gods own Gift and he will never reject and despise those requests that by his own spirit and appointment are direct and brought to him But what
as he is Psalm 17. 15. When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy Image and likeness by knowing we come to Love and by loving God we know him there is Vision Assimilation Satisfaction the object is efficacious the intimation vigorous and clear the subject prepared for the impression 2. In Body Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body the body shall be endued with all glorious qualities as brightness strength agility it is a body wholly impassible and incorruptible fit for the operations of a glorified soul and with it shall for ever remain a glorious Temple of the Holy Ghost therefore it is good to be here USES 1. Let this draw forth our Love to such a blessed estate which is so full of delight and contentment and wean us from these things which are most pleasing in the World 1. The best estate in the World is but vanity altogether vanity Psalm 39. 5. mingled with some grievances Wealth hath its incident cares and Honour its tortures and all pleasures here are but bitter sweets there is a Worm that feedeth on our gourd and will in time wither it At last death commeth and then the lust of the World is gone 1 Iohn 2. 17. The World passeth away and the lust thereof The Godly themselves have but a mixed estate because of remaining infirmities they live here in a Vale of tears and snares and sin doth not gasp its last till death removeth us from this sinful flesh and puts us into the sight of God himself Wherefore the Saints are groaning and longing for the parting day when putting off the flesh we shall put off sin and come and dwell with God for ever 2. None are translated unto Heaven but such whose hearts are there first 2 Cor. 5. 2. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Rom. 8. 23. We that have the first Fruits of the spirit groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption the Redemption of our bodies A Christian waiteth and longeth for a purer state of bliss and immortality the first Fruits shew what the Harvest will be and a tast what the Feast will prove though they are thankful for this refreshing by the way yet they are longing to be at home cannot be contented without it 3. The excellency of this estate requireth it if it be not worth your desires and best Affections it is little worth Christ procured it for us by a life of Labours and Sorrows and the pangs of a bitter cursed death and when all this is done shall not we desire it and look after it that is foul ingratitude Oh then let your Hearts be upon it desire must go before delight 2. To move us to labour for it and seek it in the first place and to get it assured that we have a part in this blessed and joyful condition Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate So 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure What profit is it to know that there is such a blessed and joyful estate if we have no interest in it Heaven is worth our pains and will bear all the cost we can lay out upon it so the children of God thought Acts 26. 7. Unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come if we do not desire it we do not believe it if we do not labour for it we do not desire it 3. Let us comfort our selves with the hopes of this blessed and joyful condition 1. Against all the miseries and afflictions of this present Life these are necessary we would sleep too quietly in the World if we did not sometimes meet with thorns in our beds we should be so pleased with our entertainment in the way as we should forget home but God awakeneth us out of our drowsie fits by sharp afflictions as if he said arise depart hence this is not your rest Micah 2. 10. while we wallow in sensual comforts our hearts say it is good being here 2. When there is a joyful and blessed condition beyond them it is some comfort in this shipwrack of mans felicity that we can see banks and shoars a landing place where we may be safe and enjoy our repose To you that are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess. 1. 7. Here our days are sorrow and our travail grief but there is our repose 3. That our joy and contentment is so infinitely above our sorrow and trouble 2 Cor. 4. 7. so that in all the troubles and sorrows of this Life we may look beyond them and through them to the joy and comfort of the Life to come This joy is set before us in the promises of the Gospel Heb. 12. 2. Christ for the joy that was set before him endured the cross c. and Heb. 6. 18. Who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us we see it by Faith though not by sense II. Doctrine That one of the diseases of mankind is that we catch at felicity without considering the way that leadeth to it Peter seeing and apprehending this estate to be an estate of Happiness and Glory doth not consider what he must first do and first suffer before he could come to converse with Christ and the glorified Saints Our Saviour had lately told him that he must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him but Peter overlooketh all this and saith it is good to be here he would be glorified before he was abased and had suffered all the afflictions foretold and would have his wages before he had done his work Every one would enjoy Christs Glory and Happiness but we do not like his yoke are loath to submit to his Cross. If we would enjoy happiness with Christ and the glorified Saints we must be humbled with them and suffer with them first But we would triumph before we had fought any battle and receive the Crown before we have run our Race and reap in joy before we have sowed in tears or performed that necessary work that God requires at our hands Now the Reasons of it are these 1. Because by nature we love our own ease and contentment Gen. 49. 15. He saw that rest vvas good We are loath to undergo the Cross and desirous to enjoy Happiness and Glory before and without Afflictions but this is an untimely and preposterous desire proceeding from self-love God hath appointed another order that the Cross should go before the Crown Rom. 8. 17. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be glorified together 2. From the Libertinism and yokelessness of our natures and
that Spirit of unsubjection which is so natural to us Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Psalm 2. 3. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us Duties are more displeasing to the flesh then Happiness and we like pardon and Life more then we like strictness purity and that watching and striving and waiting and exercising our selves unto Godliness which the Scripture calleth for USE To press us to get this disease cured and our Hearts reconciled to our duty as well as to our Happiness These Considerations may be an help to you 1. God is a Governour as well as a Benefactor and must be respected in both Relations and therefore we must not only desire and wait for his benefits but submit to his Government his Government is seen in his Laws and Providence In his Laws he appoints our Duty in his Providence he appoints their Trials to refuse either is to question his Soveraignty Psal. 12. 4. Who have said With our tongues will we prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us Exod. 5. 2. And Pharaoh said who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go so also not to submit to his Trials Therefore now if we love God as a Benefactor we must be subject to him as our true and proper Soveraign who will bring us to Heaven in what way he pleaseth 2. The Terms and Means appointed conduce to mortifie our Love to the false Happiness for one great part of Religion is to draw off our hearts from the vain Pleasures and Honours of the World the other part is to carry us on in the pursuit of the true Happiness a Recess from the World and an Access to God Mortification and Vivification We shall sit down with present things if we abandon our selves to our sensual Inclinations Luk. 16. 25. so that our desires of the true happiness will be feeble and easily controuled if we submit not to the means 3. The care and due observance of the Means sheweth the value and Respect to the true Happiness If we do not labour for it and suffer for it we do not value it according to its worth There is a simple naked Estimation and a practical Esteem Naked Approbation Rom. 2. 18. And knowest his will and approvest the things that are excellent being instructed out of the Law The Practical Esteem is a Self-denying Obedience Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory c. Then they respect means and end together and submit to the one to obtain the other If the wicked are said to despise Eternal Happiness it is not simply as Happiness nor as Eternal for they that love themselves would be happy and everlastingly happy but it is in conjunction with the Means as the Israelites despised the pleasant Land and murmured in their Tents Psal. 106. 24. Yea they despised the pleasant land and they believed not his word but murmured in their tents and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord. The Land was a good fertile Land but afar of and because of Giants and walled Towns and so no thought worthy the pains and difficultiest to be undergone Heaven is a good place but out of Indulgence to the Ease of the Flesh we dislike difficulties and strictness of holy walking 4. The difficulty of Salvation lies not in a respect to the End but the Means and therefore the Trial of our Sincerity must rather be looked for there There is some difficulty about the End to convince men of an unseen Felicity but that may be done in part by Reason but savingly and throughly by the Spirit of Revelation Eph. 1. 18. The eyes of your understandings being inlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints But man is sooner convinced than converted than drawn off from worldly Vanities that he may seek after this happiness and usually we have a quicker ear for offers of Happiness than Precepts of Duty and Obedience Balaam Numb 23. 10. Oh that I could die the death of the Righteous and that my latter end were like his Ioh. 6. 34. Evermore give us this bread of life But a true Christian if by any means I may attain to the Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3. 11. 5. The Necessity of this Self-denying Resignation of our selves to God to bring us to Heaven in his own way is necessary That we may begin with God Luk. 14. 26. If any man come to me and hate not father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple And also that we may be true to him and go on with him and be fortified against all the difficulties we meet with in the way to Heaven Heb. 11. 35. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection that none of these things move us Acts 20. 24. Mat. 20. 22. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with 6. There is such an inseparable connexion between the End and Means that God will not give us the one without the other if we believe mortifie waite suffer then shall we reign with him otherwise not Doct. III. Much evil would ensue if we had our Desires in all those thing that we think good for us Peter said It is good for us to be here but alas how ill would it have been for the World if Christ had abode still in the Mount Peters instance sheweth us two things 1. That we are apt to consult with our own Profit rather than Publick Good The World needed him he had great business to do in the Valley but he would be in the Mount It is our Nature if it be well with our selves to forget others Peter little minded his Fellow Apostles the Redemption of the World the Conversion of Nations c. 2. How much we are out when we judge by present sense and the Judgment of Flesh. We consult with the ease of the Flesh and so desire Rest more than Pains and labour what pleaseth rather than what profiteth Peter saith It is good to be here but he must labour first suffer first before he entreth into Glory Well then Let us learn by what measure to determine Good or Evil. 1. Good is not to be determined by our Fancies and Conceits but by the Wisdom of God for he knoweth what is better for us then we do for our selves and the Divine Choices are to be preferred before our foolish Fancies and what he sendeth and permitteth to fall out is better for us than any thing else Could we be perswaded of this how would
few that do it in reality Doth his Word come to you not only in Word but in Power 1. Do you seriously come to him that you may have pardon and life When Christ had proved that he was the Son of God the great Prophet of the Church by the testimony of Iohn the testimony of his works the testimony of his Father and the testimony of the Scriptures Iohn 5. 40. And ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life though Iohn his Works the Father the Scriptures will prove him to be what he was the Messias the Saviour and Redeemer of the World yet they would not come to him nor believe but wilfully rejected him and their own blessedness What the Jews did wilfully carnal Christians do lazily they prize his Name and slight his Office do not come to him to be taught sanctified and drawn to God 2. Do you respect the Word of the Gospel entertain it with Reverence and Delight as the Voice of the great Prophet Do you meditate on it digest it as the seed of the new Life as the rule of your actions as the Charter of your Hopes A good man is described to be one that delighteth in the Law of the Lord and meditateth therein day and night Psal. 1. 2. and again Psal. 119. 97. Oh how I love thy Law it is my Meditation all the day long But alas few are of this temper Hos. 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of thy Law but they were counted as a strange thing they contemned the Word of God as if its directions were of little importance or did not concern them Most men live like strangers to the Word of God little conversant in it as if there were no great hazard in breaking it 3. Do you mingle it with Faith in the hearing that it may profit you Heb. 4. 2. and feel the power of it for your good but rather you shun it run from it Iohn 3. 20. They that do evil hate the light and will not come to the light least their deeds should be reproved The Word is a torment rather then a comfort to you you are afraid it will be found too true 4. Do you receive it as the Word of God 1 Thess. 2. 13. It may be you do not contradict the divine Authority in the Scriptures but do you soundly believe them and know the certainty of those things wherein you are instructed Luke 1. 4. Have you done any thing to prove the supream Truth that Jesus is a Teacher sent from God Most mens Faith is so weak and slight because it is taken hand over head there is no deepness of Earth Mark 13. 6. You have some light sense of Religion but slight impressions are soon defaced and truths easily taken up are as soon quitted the more we search into the grounds of things the more we believe Acts 17. 11. The Bereans searched the Scriptures whether those things were so or no. 5. Doth it come to you as the Mediators Word not in Word only but in Power 1 Thess. 1. 5. There is a convincing power in the Word Acts 2. 37. When they heard these things they were pricked in the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Many have not felt this power but they fear it Iohn 3. 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither commeth he to the light least his deeds should be reproved A converting power when it becometh the seed of a new Life 1 Pet. 1. 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever A comforting power giving the heirs of promise strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. Do you find any thing of this in your hearts is it ingrafted in your soules Iames 1. 21. Receive with meekness the ingrafted Word which is able to save your Souls 6. Do you hear him universally it is said of the great Prophet Acts 3. 22. him shall ye hear in all things that he shall say unto you Many will hear him in the offers of pardon but not in the precepts of duty you must take his whole Covenant the Promises for your Happiness the duty for your work 7. Do you hear him so as to prefer God and Christ and the Life to come above all the sensual Pleasures and vain delights and worldly Happiness which you enjoy here Religion is obstructed not soundly received if your hearts be not taken off from these things Luke 8. 14. That which fell among Thornes are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection He is not a Scholar of Christ who is not more devoted to the Love and Obedience of God then any sensual satisfaction here below unless you can renounce the Devil the World and Flesh and give up your selves to Christ to be taught sanctified and saved and brought home to God to enjoy him in Everlasting Glory and taught how to deny Ungodliness and Worldly lusts Titus 2. 12. USE II. Advice to weak Christians 1. To excite themselves to obedience by this hear him when dead and lifeless Many times the heart is dull and needeth quickning Conscience groweth sleepy and needeth awakening you are too bold in sinning cold and careless in spiritual and heavenly things Now the first means to quicken us is Christs divine Authority 2 Pet. 1. 16. For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and comming of our Lord Iesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased When you are customary in Prayer and Hearing it is Christs will I must do it as I will answer it to him another day 2. When you do renounce some beloved lust or pleasing sin urge your hearts with Christs Authority Remember who telleth you of cutting off your right hand and plucking out your right eye How can I look the Mediator in the face if I should wilfully break any of his Laws prefer the satisfaction of a base lust before the mercies and hopes offered me by Jesus Christ. 3. In deep distresses when you are apt to question the comfort of the Promises it is hard to keep the rejoycing of Hope without regarding whose Word and Promise it is Heb. 3. 6. Whose house are ye if ye hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of hope firm unto the end SERMON VII MATTH 17. 6 7 8. And when the Disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were sore afraid And Iesus came and touched them and said arise be not afraid And when they had lift up their eyes they saw no man save Iesus onely IN this part of the History are Three Things 1. The Disciples Fear and Astonishment verse 6. 2.
Creatures and the infinite Majesty of God the brightness of his Glory soon burdeneth and over-burdeneth the infirmity of the best Creatures 2. Because of our Weakness 1. Natural We faint when we meet with any thing extraordinary and therefore no wonder if we are astonished with the near approach of the Excellent Majesty of God and made unfit for any action of Body or Mind If we cannot look on the Sun how can we see God our Felicity in Heaven would be our Misery on Earth This Wine is too strong for old Bottles 2. Sinful Infirmity consciousness of guilt is in it also and our disconformity to God through sin Isa. 6. 5 6. Wo is me I am for undone I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts So Peter Luk. 5. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man this raiseth a fear in us upon every eminent approach or discovery of Gods Glory Before the Fall God and Adam were Friends he would have endured God to speak to him yet after the fall the appearance of God became terrible When he heareth his voice he is afraid and hideth himself and something of this fear sticketh to the best of his People and when God is eminently near it is discovered For persons that have sin in them to be near to so Holy and Glorious a Majesty that is a part of the reason of this Fear and Trouble Well then both these causes go together the Representation of the Majesty of God and the sense of our own frailty and weakness USE Is to press us to two things I. To press us to an holy Awe and Reverence when we come near to God II. To take heed that our fear of God do not degenerate into a slavish fear First To press us to an holy Awe and Reverence of God when we draw nigh unto him Surely we should in all our Worship have such thoughts of God as may leave a stamp of Humility and some Impressions of the Majesty and Excellency of God upon us and we should fall upon our faces though not in a way of Consternation yet in a way of Adoration And because usually we bewray much slightness and Irreverence in our converses with God and Approaches to him I shall press it a little 1. I will shew how the Scriptures in the general do call for this Holy Awe of the Majesty of God in all our Worship Psal. 111. 9. Holy and reverend is his name and therefore never to be used by us but in an awful and serious manner Psal. 96. 4. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods Whether we pray or whether we praise God still the heart must be deeply possessed with a sense of his Excellency and we must admire him above all created or imaginable greatness whatsoever and so mingle reverence with our most delightful Addresses to him Again Psal. 89. 17. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him Holy Angels and sanctified Men who of all Creatures have nearest Access to God should most adore and reverence him because they are best acquainted with him and have the clearest sight of him that mortal creatures are capable of The Angels are an assembly of holy Ones that alwayes behold his Face therefore alwayes Lauding and Glorifying God So God is said to be terrible in his holy places Psal. 68. 35. whether Heaven or the Church indeed the awful carriage of his people in his Worship should be one means to convince of the Excellency and Majesty of God 1 Cor. 14. 25. The Apostle sheweth there that an Unbeliever coming into the Christian Assemblies when they are managed with Gravity and Awe is convinced and judged and will fall down on his face and worship God and say God is in you of a truth That is seeing their Humility brokenness of Heart hearing their praises and admirations of God and seeing their orderliness and composedness of Spirit whereas rudeness slightness and irreverence doth pollute and stain the glory of God in their Minds 2. Other Addresses will not become Faith and Love 1. Faith for whosoever cometh to God must fix this principle in his Mind that God is Heb. 1. 6. We do not worship God aright if we do not Worship him as Believers and if we worship him as Believers we will worship him with reverence and godly fear Faith giveth us not only a thought of God but some kind of sight of God and sight will leave an impression upon the heart of reverence and seriousness surely a sight or believing thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul. It is the great work of Faith to see him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. We should in our whole conversation live as in his sight and live as those that remember God standeth by and seeth all that we are about but especially in our worship we then set our selves as before the Lord. Pray as to our Father that seeth what we do Mat. 6. 6. Pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly Hear as before the Lord Acts 10. 33. We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Then the Soul should turn the back upon all other things that the mind may be taken up with nothing but God 2. No other worship will become Love Worship is an act of love and delight Now love is seen in admiring the Excellencies of that glorious Being whom we love and ascribing all to him as being deeply affected with his Goodness Rev. 4. 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They fell down not out of astonishment but reverence and cast their Crowns before the Throne Whatever Honour they have they had it from God and are content to lay it at his feet from whom they have life and being and all things They have such an high esteem of God that before him they cannot be too vile They are unworthy to wear any Crown in Gods presence and are content that their Honour be a footstool to advance and extol his Glory Certainly those that are heartily affected to God will go about his Worship as with Chearfulness so with Humility and Reverence Secondly To take heed that our Humility and Reverence do not degenerate into servile Fear and Discouragement It is apt to do so even in the best of Gods People We can hardly keep the middle between the extreams our Faith is
that Christ the Son of the living God 4. For this End the Scriptures were written These things are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ the son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name Ioh. 20. 31. By obedience to his Laws dependance on his Promises 5. This is the ground of Submission to Christ in all his Offices why we should hear him as a Prophet in this place which I shall more fully make manifest in the next Sermon why we should depend on him as a Priest for the vertue of his Oblation and Intercession if God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Ioh. 2. 1. If any man sin we have an advocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous The blood of Christ is of high Esteem and infinite Value both as to Merit and satisfaction to purchase all manner of blessings for us and to satisfie Gods provoked Justice for our sins And if the Father be so well-pleased with him what can he not obtain at his hands which is an encouragement in our Prayers and Supplications So for our Improvement of his Kingly Office which respects Duties and Priviledges our duty with respect to the Kingly Office is Subjection Psal. 2. 12. Kiss the Son left he be angry and you perish in the mid-way Because Christ Jesus is the Son of God he should be submitted unto and embraced with the heartiest Love and Subjection for to Kiss is a sign of Religious Adoration Hos. 13. 2. as they kissed the Calves and offer Homage and hearty subjection as Samuel kissed Saul because God had anointed him to be King over his People 1 Sam. 10. 1. So for Priviledges he is God co-equal co eternal with his Father able to protect all those that apply themselves to him till he bring them to Eternal Glory and Happiness and therefore it is said 1 Ioh. 5. 5. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God That is the fortifying Truth this both cautioneth us against all the delights and snares and supports us against all the terrors and fears of the World If we have the Son of God for our Prophet Priest and King we ought to carry our selves with greater Reverence Trust and Subjection USES 1. Believe it lay up this Truth in your Hearts by a firm and sound Belief There are in Faith three things Assent Acceptance Dependance The Matter in hand calleth for all these 1. A firm Assent For here we have the Testimony of God concerning his Son the Apostle tells us that he that believeth not hath made God a liar because he believeth not the Testimony of God concerning his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 10. The great Testimony is this that we have in hand that Jesus is his beloved Son with whom he is well pleased that he will give Pardon and Life to all that hearken to him embrace his Person receive his Doctrine believe his Promises fear his Threats obey his Precepts the strictest of them Oh labour to work it into your Hearts that indeed it is so In matters of Fact we receive the Testimony of men two or three credible men why not in matters of Faith the Testimony of God evidenced to us by this solemn action an account of which we have from Ear-witnesses and Eye-witnesses who were men that hazarded their all for the delivery of this Truth and yet referred us to the surer word of Prophesie 1 Pet. 1. 19. He was owned as a Son Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee As a beloved Son in whom God is well-pleased Isa. 42. 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold my elect in whom my soul delighteth If you be not wanting to your selves you may have this witness in your hearts 1 Ioh. 5. 10. He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself Oh let us not give the flat lye to God Rouze up this languid Faith is this true or is it a cunning devised Fable 2. Faith is an Acceptance of Christ or an entring into a Covenant with God by him You must have the Son 1 Ioh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life Ioh. 1. 12. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them which believe on his name Receiving respects Gods offer God gives Christ and we receive what God giveth to what End why he giveth him as King Priest and Prophet to dwell in our hearts by Faith to rule us and guide us by his Word and Spirit and maintain Gods Interest in us against the Devil the World and the Flesh till we come to everlasting Glory 3. Dependance He is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him therefore on him alone should we depend for all things necessary to Salvation Two things perswade this dependance 1. That nothing can be done without Christ Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Nothing can be done without Christ that may be effectual to our recovery either for the paying of our Ransom or for the changing of our Hearts Alas what could we do to please God or profit our own Souls The work would cease for ever if it should lye upon our hands 2. That he can do what he pleaseth for the good of his redeemed ones Ioh. 17. 2. As thou hast given power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him All that Christ did for our salvation did highly content and please the Father he is satisfied with him he can make us lovely in his sight Eph. 1. 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved And will now joy in his People Isa. 65. 19. and rest in his Love Zeph. 3. 17. Well then let us believe Faith is a ratifying Gods Testimony concerning his Son we believe what God hath said that Christ is his Son we receive him as he is freely offered and subscribe to this declaration The Father saith from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him so penitent Believers must answer back again This is our beloved Redeemer in whom we are well-pleased let the Father hear him He hath somewhat to say to the Father as well as to us his Doctrine concerneth us but his Intercession is made to God II. Entertain it with Thankfulness that such a Remedy should be provided for us argueth the unspeakable Love of God 1 Ioh. 4. 9. In this was manifested the love of God to us