nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
a right understanding of the word of God I. What is meant by opening the eyes Before I come to the particular explication of the terms let me premise two observations 1. The Saints do not complain of the obscurity of the Law but of their own blindness The Psalmist doth not say Lord make a plainer Law but Lord open mine eyes blind men might as well complain of God that he doth not make a Sun whereby they might see The word is a light that shineth in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. There is no want of light in the Scripture but there is a vail of darkness upon our hearts so that if in this clear light we cannot see the defect is not in the word but in our selves 2. The light which they beg is not any thing besides the word When God is said to enlighten us it is not that we should expect new Revelations but that we may see the wonders in his word or get a clear sight of what is already revealed Those that vent their own dreams under the name of the Spirit and divine light they do not give you mysteria but monstra portentous opinions not show you the wondrous things of Gods Law but the prodigies of their own brain unhappy abortives that dye as soon as they come to light Isa. 8. 21. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The light which we have is not without the word but by the word Now to the phrase the Hebrew signifieth unvail mine eyes There is a double work Negative Positive There is a taking away the vail and an infusion of light Paul's cure of his natural blindness is a fit emblem of our cure of spiritual blindness Acts 9. 18. Immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith First the scales fall from our eyes and then we receive sight 1. There is a taking away the vail before we can have a true discerning of the mysteries that are revealed in the word of God 2 Cor. 3. 14 15. the Apostle speaking of the Iews saith But their minds were blinded for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which vail is done away in Christ but even unto this day when Moses is read the vail is upon their hearts Now this vail is divers 1. The vail of Ignorance Though man hath Reason and is capable of understanding the sense and importance of the words that are used about the Mysteries of godliness yea and the matter too yet he gets not the saving-knowledg of them by his natural abilities There is a Grammatical knowledg and a Spiritual knowledg a man may know things Grammatically and literally that is ignorant of them Spiritually As a child may read the letters and words that doth not conceive of the sense so a man may know what is said concerning God and Christ and Sin and Grace the vanity of the creature the excellency of heaven and have yet no saving-knowledg of these things and therefore the Scripture useth the expression that they oversee in seeing as Acts 28. 26. Hearing ye shall hear and not understand seeing ye shall see and not perceive Though Truths are never so plainly delivered never so powerfully pressed and though they are capable to understand the words yet they do not take in the truth into their hearts so as to profit by it So Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen yet ye have not an heart to see Most will declaim against the vanity of the creature evil of sin but they do not see with an affective heart-piercing light they have on them the vail of spiritual ignorance 2. The vail of Carnal knowledg and wisdom that puffeth up 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. by which seeing not we think we see This is a great hinderance to the entertaining of the word So Christ telleth the Pharisees who were conceited of their own knowledg Joh. 9. 39. For judgment am I come into this world that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blind The Pharisees were the Rabbies of the age the most seeing and learned men of that time Carnal men are puffed up with a conceit of their own abilities and so are obstructed by them from profiting by the Gospel 3. The vail of Prejudice and corrupt affections The passions of the mind Love and Fear Desire and Anger hinder us from judging aright in the things of God Our hearts are overcast with strong affections to the world and so cannot clearly judg either of practical truths or of the controversies of the age Not of practical truths When Christ had taught that they could not serve God and Mammon it is said Luk. 16. 14. And the pharisees that were covetous derided him Holy mortifying truths are unpleasing to a carnal ear though they be represented with never so much evidence How will men distinguish themselves out of their duty They shift and stretch and turn and wind hither and thither and prove truth to be no truth rather than part with their lusts So present truths as the Apostle calls them 2 Pet. 1. 12. when the dust of Interest is raised are not discerned The Orthodoxy of the world is usually an age too short 2 Cor. 4. 4. The god of this world hath blinded their eyes 4. The vail of carnal sense 2 Pet. 1. 9. He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off There are so many mists and clouds in the lower world that men cannot out-see time and without the Prospective of faith have a sight of Eternity Nature is short-sighted so inured to present things that we receive no light concerning things to come These are the scales that are upon our eyes 2. There is an infusion of light without which men of excellent wit and sharp understanding in other things are stark blind in the things of God What this light is will appear by the degrees of knowledg and the uses of this light 1. The degrees of knowledg 1. In some there is a simple nescience both of terms or notions and things as in those that have not a revelation or have not regarded it when the revelation is made As the Gentiles that have not a Revelation Eph. 4. 18. Having their understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Or rude and ignorant Christians that have not the advantage of education so as to understand the notions in which the Doctrine of God is propounded Isa. 28. 9 10. Whom shall he teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts for precept must be upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little So sottish and brutish
5. 6. Faith which worketh by Love Well this quickning that I may most sensibly demonstrate it depends upon these two things 1. The Vitality of Grace that depends upon the degree and measure of our Faith For to speak nothing as to the mystical use as it is a means of our Function of Life but to speak only now as to its moral use as it acts by the sight of invisible things keep Faith alive and all is alive in the Soul Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence of things not seen it doth make things absent and things not seen to act as if they were present therefore it must needs be a very enlivening thing Without Faith our notions of God Christ Heaven and Hell are never practical and lively in operation for this is the evidence of things not seen and this convinceth us of all Spiritual and unseen things to make them have a force and operation upon the soul. We do but hear read and discourse litterally until Faith puts life into our apprehensions and thoughts of them For Faith will affect us as if we did see the invisible God and will put the same affections into us as if Christ were Crucified before our eyes Gal. 3. 1. What is the reason the Mistery of Redemption is a wild story to some lively to others Faith affects the heart as if he were crucified before our eyes and his Life dropt out from him by degrees So Faith makes us hug and embrace them as if we were in the midst of the Glory of the blessed ones Take it only in its moral use it is an enlivening thing And as Faith is kept up in any Vigour so the spiritual Lise is kept up 2. For Love When we have a fresh and warm Sense of the Love of God upon our Souls we are quickned to do for him answerable to such a Love and our Souls reasons What hath God done so great things for us in Christ and we do nothing for God again Then we see we cannot do any thing too much Love hath a law upon the Soul that stirs up lively and Zealous motions towards God 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us 1 Ioh. 5. 3. His Commandements are not grievous Then every thing goes on Pleasantly and runs upon it's Wheels Secondly Why will they that long after Gods Precepts see a need of quickning 1. Because of the Diseases incident to the renewed Estate There 's a constant weakness by reason of in-dwelling Corruption The flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gall. 5. 17. They cannot serve God with that Purity and Liberty they desire Then there are frequent indispositions of Soul sometimes they feel a slowness and loathness and dulness in their Souls Good men may yet be slow of Heart to heavenly things Luk. 24. 25. Look as the Physitian saith weariness that comes of its own accord is a sign of some Disease upon us Laziness in Duty comes from a remiss Will Sometimes too they find great Deadness that they cannot follow their work so close and with that Life and Earnestness And sometimes they are in Bonds sometimes in Straits that they cannot enlarge and dilate themselves towards God Psal. 119. 32. When thou shalt enlarge my Heart I will run the ways of thy Commandments Now they that mind their work they will be Sensible of this and call upon God to quicken them David complains of the dulness and deadness of his Spirit but many do not but go on in a Cold track of Duties and rever regard the frame of their Hearts But now a good man observes the Temper of his Soul Most observe their Bodies but few their Souls If their body be ill at ease and out of order they Complain presently but Love waxeth Cold Zeal for God and delight in God abateth men grow weary in Well-doing grow flat have this remiss Will this Deadness and Slowness of soul in the love of God they can satisfie themselves in this Frame and Temper 2. Because too without this supervening and quickning Grace they can never serve God cheerfully nor do any thing to purpose in the Heavenly life our general work of Obedience goes on slowly Psal. 119. 88. Quicken me so shall I keep the Testimony of thy Mouth then I shall do good to purpose But Religion is an irksome thing when we are Dead-hearted For particular Duties it is not enough to Pray but it must be with Life Psal. 80. 18. Quicken us and we will call upon thy Name It is not enough to Hear but to hear with Life Mat. 13. 15. It is a judgment to be dull of hearing 3. As it is uncomfortable to themselves to Act without quickning Grace so it is a thing very hateful with God a cold luke-warm Temper Rev. 3. 16. I will spew thee out of my Mouth This dull and stupid Profession is contrary to God and hateful to God and such as content themselves with this dead Profession God will spew them out of his mouth And it is contrary to all the provision God hath made for us Christ is set up as a fountain of Grace in our nature Iohn 10. 10. I am come that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly The Lord hath justified us by his Grace sprinkled our Hearts that we might serve the living God serve him in a living manner for Titles given to God imply the qualification in hand Heb. 9. 14. and he hath sanctified us planted Grace in our Hearts on purpose to maintain the life given us that there might be a lively Hope And all hearing is for Life Isa. 55. 3. we come to lively Oracles that we may be quickned The joys of Heaven Redemption by Christ Hells Torments these Doctrines are all quickning truths And the Lord hath given his flesh not only to God for a sacrifice but to us for Food that we may live Iohn 6. 51. Therefore to be cold it is Odious to God Use 1. For Caution 1. Let us take heed we lose not quickning through our own default that we lose not this enlivening Grace We may lose it by any hainous Sin of ours for by grieving the Spirit we bring on deadness upon the Heart Psal. 51. 10 11 12. When David sinned hainously he begs the Lord to quicken him and restore his free Spirit and the joy of his Salvation The spirit is a tender thing Every hainous sin is as a wound in the Body which lets out the life Blood and so we contract a Deadness upon our selves 2. Take heed of immoderate Liberty or Vanities of the world or Pleasures of the flesh if you would not lose this quickning The Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 5 6. The woman that liveth in Pleasure is dead while she Liveth Pleasures have a strange infatuation they bring a brawn and deadness upon the Heart and hinder the Sprightliness of spiritual and Heavenly affections Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine Eyes from beholding Vanity And quicken thou me
Faith and Love to the Word and therefore they never feel the power of it It cometh with power when it 's the Evidence of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 4. humane credulity breedeth no true love to the Word of God 2. This love 't is not a bare approbation of Purity and Holiness many approve that which they never chuse and follow None in the face of the Church can be such a wretch as not to think that 't is a good thing to be holy that strictness is commendable Mark 6. 26. Herod reverenced Iohn There is an excellency in Holiness and it winneth esteem even there where 't is not embraced Purity 't is a stricture of Gods Majesty and so 't is feared Where 't is not loved it breedeth an awful respect in wicked men Natural Conscience so far doth homage to the Image of God and doth incline men to think well of holiness and to shew some respect to it 3. 'T is not a pang or passionate delight as some when the Word falls upon them they may be stirred a little 't is not a love that is controulable or easily overcome by other loves Iohn 5. 45. How can ye believe that seek honour one of another As Herod rejoyced in Iohns light for a Season and Mark 6. 20. he loved Iohn's preaching but he loved his Herodias better and therefore off goes Iohns head The love that he had 't was controulable by a higher Love Unless we be so addicted to the Word that it prevaileth over all contrary inclinations we do not love the Word Whether it be sensuality or pride or convetousness it will be casting off the dominion of the Word Iohn 8. 37. My Word hath no place in you it doth not sink down into their hearts that it may bring forth fruit in their lives Secondly Positively what is it then 1. 'T is such a love as causeth us to wait at Wisdoms gates to consult with the word upon all occasions to read it hear it meditate on it as the great Instrument of Sanctification You will take it for your Counsel Psalm 119. 4. That we love we will be thinking on often and exercising our minds in it Ps. 1. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Oh how few love the word thus Few read and delight in the Scriptures because of the Purity and Holiness that is in them They read them for disputes sake or to know the mystery or to be able to hold up an Argument but as they serve to make us pure and heavenly who loves them so As they forewarn us of sin and quicken to grace and love to God Psalm 19. 10 11. Thy word is sweeter then Hony or the Hony-comb because by them thy Servant is forewarned then we love the word when we love it for this reason 2. We love the Word when we are chary of Transgressing it or doing any thing contrary to to the tenour of it We are bidden to keep the Commandment as the Apple of the Eye Prov. 7. 2. The Eye is a tender thing offended with the least dust Oh! take heed of offending the word of God Fear of offending is a sure note and effect of love So he that loves God he feares the Commandment Prov. 13. 13. Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed but whoso feareth the Commandement shall be rewarded A wicked man maketh no bones of a Commandment regardeth not what the word saith but doth according to the bent of his own Will Those that will turn their back upon a Commandment for the least Temptation they have no true love to the word of God But now a godly man is one that feareth a Commandment he is afraid to do any thing against the express will of God If a Commandment stands in his way t is as much as if an Angel with a drawn Sword stood in his way as the Angel stood with a drawn Sword in Balaams way they had rather have all the world against them then the word against them Isaiah 66. 25. This awful regard of the word of God 't is a good evidence of our love to it 3. Then we are said to love the word when we chearfully and readily delight to do what it requireth in order to the glory of God and our own Salvation That 's love For true love is not only notional but practical 1 Iohn 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the Truth is not in him Our love to God is known by our obedience to him So our love to the word is known by our obedience to it And therefore we love the word in good earnest when we observe it readily and diligently what ever it costs us Rom. 6. 17. Ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine that was delivered to you Look as there is a cold love to a mans Brother when we say be clothed be warmed So there is a pretended love to the word that endeth in talk and not in action Which is as if a man should hope to pay his debts by the noise of money and instead of opening his purse to shut it as ridiculous it is to think to put off our duty with good words 4. 'T is a rooted affection a carnal man may have his affections moved and be a little stirred with this pure Doctrine but he is soon put out of humour he is not changed by it he hath not a constant Affection to God and Holy things Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing To hold out to the end and still to keep up a warm respect to the word of God This is to love it to have the word ingrafted into the stock of corrupt nature Iam. 1. 21. 'T is not something tyed on but ingrafted into the soul it hath place in the heart II. Let me shew you why 1. The necessity of this love to the word appears Because without this love we cannot be accepted of God unwilling and constrained service is of little acceptation with him 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3. If I should give my Goods to the Poor and my Body to be burnt and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing If a man hath never so many excellencies if he spend his Goods and Life and all for God without this sincere love to God and his ways all is nothing God doth not value men by the Pomp of their services but by the affection of their hearts in them he needeth not the service and he seeth the heart A man is pleased so his work be done willingly or unwillingly for he needeth the labour of the Slave but he seeth not into his heart But God hath no need of us and he seeth whether we give him the heart or no So that if we have not Charity all that we do is nothing 2. VVithout this love your work will be very