shall utterly Spoil that proud boast that the faith of Christians is out-done by the infidelity of Heathens O Christians yield not the day to Heathens Let all the world see the true greatness heavenliness and excellency of your represented pattern and by true mortification of your corrupt natures enforce an acknowledgement from the world that a greater than Socrates is here He that is really a meek humble patient heavenly Christian wins this glory to his Religion that it can do more than all other principles and rules in the world In nothing were the most accomplished Heathens more defective than in this forgiving of injuries It was a thing they could not understand or if they did could never bring their hearts to it witness that rule of their great Tully It is the first office of Iustice saith he to hurt no man except first provoked by an injury The addition of that exception spoiled his excellent rule But now Christianity teaches and some Christians have attained it to receive evil and return good 1 Cor. 4.12 13. Being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat This certainly is that meekness wrought in us by the wisdom that is from above Iam. 3.17 This makes a man sit sure in the Consciences of others who with Saul must acknowledge when they see themselves so out-done thou art more righteous than I 1 Sam. 24.16 17. had we been so injured and had such opportunities to revenge them we should never have passed them by as these men did This impresses and stamps the very image of God upon the Creature and makes us like our heavenly Father who doth good to his enemies and sends down showrs of outward blessings upon them that pour out floods of wickedness daily to provoke him Matth. 5.44 45. In a word this Christian temper of spirit gives a man the true possession and enjoyment of himself So that our breasts shall be as the pacifique Sea smooth and pleasant when others are as the raging Sea foaming and casting up mire and dirt Inference 1. Hence we clearly infer that Christian Religion exalted in its power is the greatest friend to the peace and tranquillity of States and Kingdoms Nothing is more opposite to the true Christian spirit than implacable fierceness strife revenge tumults and uproars It teaches men to do good and receive evil to receive evil and return good The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie and the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.17 18. The Church is a Dove for meekness Cant. 6.9 When the world grows full of strife Christians then grow weary of the world and sigh out the Psalmists request Oh that I had the wings of a Dove that I might flee away and be at rest Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus odiis theologorum from the implacable strifes of contending Divines The rule by which they are to walk is If it be possible as much us lyeth in you live peaceably with all men Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord Rom. 12.18 19. It is not Religion but Lusts that make the world so unquiet Iam. 4.1 2. Not godliness but wickedness that makes men bite and devour one another One of the first effects of the Gospel is to civilize those places where it comes and settle order and peace among men How great a mistake and evil then is it to cry out when Atheism and irreligion have broken the civil peace this is the fruit of Religion this is the effect of the Gospel Happy would it be if Religion did more obtain in all Nations It is the greatest friend in the world to their tranquillity and prosperity Inference 2. How dangerous a thing is it to abuse and wrong meek and forgiving Christians Their patience and easiness to forgive often invites injury and encourages vile spirits to insult and trample upon them but if men would seriously consider it there 's nothing in the world should more scare and afright them from such practices than this You may abuse and wrong them they must not avenge themselves nor repay evil for evil true but because they do not the Lord will even the Lord to whom they commit the matter and he will do it to purpose except ye repent Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord Jam. 5.7 will ye stand to that Issue Had you rather indeed have to do with God than with men When the Jews put Christ to death he committed himself to him that judgeth Righteously 1 Pet. 2.22 23. And did that people get any thing by that Did not the Lord severely avenge the blood of Christ on them and their Children Yea do not they and their Children groan under the doleful effects of it to this day If God undertakes as he alwaies doth the cause of his abused meek and peaceable people he will be sure to avenge it seven fold more than they could His little finger will be heavier than their loins You will get nothing by that Inference 3. Lastly Let us all imitate our pattern Christ and labour for meek forgiving spirits I shall only propose two inducements to it The honour of Christ and your own peace Two dear things indeed to a Christian. His glory is more than your life and all that you enjoy in this world O do not expose it to the scorn and derision of his enemies Let them not say how is Christ a Lamb when his followers are Lyons How is the Church a Dove that smites and scratches like a bird of prey Consult also the quiet of your own spirits What is life worth without the comfort of life What comfort can you have in all that you do possess in the world as long as you have not the possession of your own souls If your spirits be full of tumult and revenge the spirit of Christ will grow a stranger to you That Dove delights in clean and quiet breasts O then imitate Christ in this excellency also The THIRTY FIRST SERMON JOH XIX XXVII Then saith He to the Disciple Behold thy Mother WE now pass to the consideration of the second memorable and instructive Word of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross contain'd in this Scripture Wherein he hath left us an excellent pattern for the discharge of our relative Dutys It may be well said the Gospel makes the best Husbands and Wives the best Parents and Children the best Masters and Servants in the world seeing it furnishes them with the most excellent precepts and proposes the best patterns Here we have the pattern of Jesus Christ presented to all gratious Children for their imitation teaching them how to acquit
themselves towards their Parents according to the Laws of Nature and Grace Christ was not only subject and obedient to his Parents whilst he lived but manifested his tender care even whilst he hanged in the torments of Death upon the Cross. Then saith he to the Disciple Behold thy Mother The words contain an affectionate recommendation of his distressed Mother to the care of a dear Disciple a bosom friend wherein let us consider the design manner and season of this recommendation First The design and end of it which doubtless was to manifest his tender respects and care for his Mother who was now in a most distressed comfortless state For now was Simeons Prophesie Luk. 2.35 fulfilled in the trouble and anguish that fill'd her soul. Yea a sword also shall pierce through thine own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed Her soul was pierced for him both as she was his Mother and as she was a Mystical member of him her head her Lord. And therefore he commends her to the beloved Disciple that lay in his bosom saying Behold thy Mother i. e. let her be to thee as thine own Mother Let thy love to me be now manifested in thy tender care for her Secondly The manner of his recommending her is both affectionate and mutual It 's very affectionate and moving Behold thy Mother q. d. Iohn I am now dying leaving all humane society and relations And entring into a new State where neither the dutys of natural relations are exercised nor the pleasures and comforts of them enjoyed It 's a state of dominion over Angels and men not of subjection and obedience this I now leave to thee Upon thee do I devolve both the honour aud duty of being in my stead and room to her as to all dear and tender care over her Iohn Behold thy Mother and as it 's affectionate so it 's mutual verse 26. And to his Mother he said Woman behold thy Son not Mother but Woman intimating not only the change of state and condition with him but also the bequest he was making of her to the Disciple with whom she was to live as a Mother with a Son And all this he designs as a pattern to others Thirdly The season or time when his care for his Mother so eminently manifested it self was when his departure was at hand and he could no longer be a comfort to her by his bodily presence yea his love and care then manifested themselves when he was full of anguish to the very brim both in his soul and body yet all this makes him not in the least unmindful of so dear a relation Hence the Doctrinal Note is DOCT. That Christs tender care of his Mother even in the time of his greatest distress is an excellent pattern for all gratious Children to the end of the world There are three great foundations or bonds of relation on which all family government depends Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants The Lord hath planted in the souls of men affections sutable to these relations and to his people he hath given grace to regulate those affections appointed dutys to exercise those graces and seasons to discharge those dutys So that as in the motion of a wheel every spoke takes its turn and bears a stress in every manner in the whole round of a Christians conversation like affection grace and duty at one season or other comes to be exercised But yet grace hath not so far prevailed in the sanctification of any mans affections but that there will be excesses or defects in the exercise of them towards our relations yea and in this the most eminent Saints have been eminently defective But the pattern I set before you this day is a perfect pattern As the Church finds him the best of Husbands so to his Parents he was the best of Sons and being the best and most perfect is therefore the rule and measure of all others Christ knew how those corruptions we draw from our Parents are returned in their bitter fruits upon them again to the wounding of their very hearts and therefore it pleased him to commend obedience and love to Parents in his own example to us It was anciently a Proverb among the Heathen in sola Sparta expedit senescere It 's good to be an old man or woman only in Sparta The ground of it was the strict Laws that were among the Spartans to punish the rebellions and disobedience of Children to their aged Parents And shall it not be good to be an old Father or Mother in England where the Gospel of Christ is Preached and such an argument as this now set before you urged an argument which the Heathen world was never acquainted with Shall Parents here be forced to complain with the Eagle in the Fable that they are smitten to the heart by an arrow winged with their own Feathers Or as a Tree rived in pieces by the wedges that were made of its own body God forbid To prevent such sad occasions of Complaints as these I desire all that sustain the relation of Children into whose hands providence shall cast this discourse seriously to ponder this example of Christ proposed for their imitation in this point Wherein we shall first consider what dutys belong to the relation of Children secondly how Christs example enforces those dutys and then sutably apply it First Let us examine what dutys pertain to the relation of Children And they are as truly as commonly branched out into the following particulars First Fear and Reverence are due from Children to their Parents by the express command of God Lev. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his Mother and his Father The Holy Ghost purposely inverts the order and puts the Mother first because she by reason of her blandishments and fond indulgence is most subject to the irreverence and contempt of Children God hath cloathed Parents with his authority They are instrusted by God with and are accountable to him for the souls and bodys of their Children And he expects that you reverence them although in respect of outward estate or honour you be never so much above them Ioseph though Lord of Egypt bowed down before his aged Father with his face to the earth Gen. 48.12 Solomon the most magnificent and glorious King that ever sway'd a Scepter when his Mother came to speak with him for Adonijah he rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her and caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and set her upon his right hand 1 King 2.19 Secondly Dear and tender Love is due from Children to their Parents And to shew how strong and dear that love ought to be it 's joined with the Love you have for your own lives As appears in that injunction to deny both for Christs sake Matth. 10.37 The bonds of nature are strong and strict betwixt Parents and Children What is a Child but a piece of
discry Land crying with loud and united voices A shore A shore As the Poet describes the Italians when they saw their native Country lifted up their voices and making the Heavens ring again with Italy Italy or as Armies shout when the signal of Battle is given Above all which as some expound it shall the voice of the Archangel be distinctly heard And after this shout the trump of God shall sound By this Tremendous blast sinners will be affrighted out of their Graves but to the Saints it will carry no more terrour than the roaring of Cannons when Armies of friends approach a besieged City for the relief of them that be within The dead being raised they shall be gathered before the great Throne on which Christ shall sit in his glory and there divided exactly to the right and left hand of Christ by the Angels Here will be the greatest Assembly that ever met Where Adam may see his numerous off-spring even as the sand upon the Sea-shore which no man can number And never was there such a perfect division made how many divisions soever have been in the world none was ever like it The Saints in this great Oecumenical assize as the same Author stiles it shall meet the Lord in the air and there the Judge shall sit upon the Throne and all the Saints shall be placed upon bright clouds as on Seats or Scaffolds round about him the wicked remaining below upon the earth there to receive their final doom and sentence These preparatives will make it awful And much more will the work it self that Christ comes about make it so For it is to Iudge the secrets of men Rom. 2.16 To sever the Tares from the Wheat To make every mans whites and blacks appear And according as they are found in that Tryal to be sentenced to their everlasting and immutable state O what a solemn thing is this And no less will the execution of the Sentence on both parts make it a great and solemn day The heart of man cannot conceive what impressions the voice of Christ from the Throne will make both upon believers and unbelievers Imagine Christ upon his glorious Throne surrounded with Myriads and Legions of Angels his Royal guard a poor unbeliever trembling at the Bar. An exact scrutiny made into his heart and life The dreadful Sentence given And then a cry And then his delivering them over to the Executioners of Eternal vengeance never never to see a glimpse of hope or mercy any more Imagine Christ like the General of an Army mentioning with honour in the head of all the hosts of Heaven and Earth all the services that the Saints have done for him in this world Then sententially justifying them by open proclamation Then mounting with him to the third Heavens and entring the gates of that City of God in that noble train of Saints and Angels intermixed And so for ever to be with the Lord. O what a great day must this be Secondly As it will be an awful and solemn Judgement so it will be a Critical and Exact Judgement Every man will be weighed to his ounces and drams The name of the Judge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of hearts The Judge hath eyes as flames of fire which pierce to the dividing of the heart and reins It 's said Matth. 12.36 That men shall then give an account of every idle word that they shall speak It is a day that will perfectly fan the world No Hypocrite can escape Justice holds the ballances in an even hand Christ will go to work so exactly that some Divines of good note think the day of Judgement will last as long as this day of the Gospels administration hath or shall last Thirdly It will be a Vniversal Iudgement 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Iudgement Seat of Christ. And Rom. 14.12 Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Those that were under the Law and those that having no Law were a Law to themselves Rom. 2.12 Those that had many Talents and he that had but one Talent must appear at this Bar those that were carried from the Cradle to the Grave with him that stooped for Age. The rich and poor the Father and the Child the Master and the Servant the believer and unbeliever must stand forth in that day I saw the Dead both small and great stand before God and the Books were opened Rev. 20.12 Fourthly It will be a Judgement full of convictive clearness All things will be so sifted to the bran as we say that the Sentence of Christ both on Saints and sinners shall be applauded Righteous art thou O Lord because thou hast Iudged thus His Judgements will be as the light that goeth forth So that those poor sinners whom he will condemn shall be first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self condemned Their own consciences shall be forced to confess that there is not one drop of injustice in all that Sea of wrath into which they are to be cast Fifthly And lastly It will be a supream and final Iudgement from which lies no Appeal For it is the Sentence of the Highest and only Lord. For as the ultimate resolution of Faith is into the Word and truth of God so the ultimate resolution of Iustice is into the Judgement of God This Judgement is supream and imperial For Christ is the only potentate 1 Tim. 6.5 And therefore the Sentence once past its execution is infallible And so you find it in that judicial process Matth. 25. ult Just after the Sentence is pronounced by Christ it is immediatly added those shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into Life Eternal This is the Judgement of the great day Thirdly In the last place I must inform you that God in ordaining Christ to be the Judge hath very highly exalted him This will be very much for his honour For in this Christs Royal dignity will be illustrated beyond what ever it was since he took our nature till that day Now he will appear in his glory For First This act of Judging pertaining properly to the Kingly Office Christ will be glorified as much in his Kingly Office as he hath been in either of the other We find but some few glimpses of his Kingly Office breaking forth in this world as his riding with Hosannahs into Ierusalem His whipping the buyers and sellers out of the Temple His Title upon the Cross c. But these were but faint beams now that Office will shine in its glory as the Sun in the midst of the Heavens For what were the Hosannahs of little Children in the streets of Ierusalem to the shouts and acclamations of thousands of Angels and ten thousands of Saints What was his whipping the prophane out of the Temple to his turning the wicked into Hell and sending his Angels to gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth What was a Title
or Satan be in the Throne and sways the Scepter over our souls Reader the work I would now engage thy soul in is the same that Jesus Christ will throughly and effectually do in the great day Then will he gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offends separate the tares and wheat Divide the whole world into two ranks or grand divisions how many divisions and sub-divisions soever there be in it now it neerly concerns thee therefore to know who is Lord and King in thy soul. To help thee in this great work make use of the following hints for I cannot fully prosecute these things as I would First To whom do you yield your obedience His Subjects and servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6.16 It 's but a mockery to give Christ the empty titles of Lord and King whilst ye give your real service to sin and Satan What is this but like the Jews to bow the knee to him and say hail Master and crucifie him Then are ye his disciples if ye do whatsoever he commands you Joh. 15.14 He that is Christs servant in jest shall be damned in earnest Christ doth not complement with you His Pardons Promises Salvations are real O let your obedience be so too Let it be sincere and universal obedience this will evidence your unfeigned subjection to Christ. Do not dare to enterprize any thing till you know Christs pleasure and Will Rom. 12.2 Enquire of Christ as David did of the Lord 1 Sam. 23.9 10 11. Lord may I do this or that or shall I forbear I beseech thee tell thy Servant Secondly Have you the power of godliness or a form of it only There be many that do but trifle in Religion and play about the skirts and borders of it spending their time about jejune and barren controversies but as to the power of Religion and life of Godliness which consists in communion with God in duties and ordinances which promotes holiness and mortifies their Lusts they concern not themselves about these things But surely the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power 1 Cor. 4.20 It is not meat and drink that is dry disputes about meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Rom. 14.17 18. O I am affraid when the great Host of Professors shall be tried by these rules thâ—y will shrink up into a little handful as Gideons Host did Thirdly Have ye the special saving knowledge of Christ All his Subjects are translated out of the Kingdom of darkness 1 Col. 13. The Devil that ruleth over you in the daies of your ignorance is called the Ruler of the darkness of this world His Subjects are all blind else he could never rule them Assoon as their eyes be opened they run out of his Kingdom And there is no retaining them in subjection to him any longer O enquire then whether you are brought out of darkness into his marvelous light Do ye see your condition how sad miserable wretched iâ— is by nature Do ye see your remedy as it lies only in Christ and his pretious blood Do ye see the true way of obtaining interest in that blood by faith Doth this knowledge run into practice and put you upon lamenting heartily your misery by sin Thirsting vehemently after Christ and his Righteousness Striving continually for an heart to believe and close with Chirst This will evidence you indeed to be translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ. Fourthly With whom do ye delightfully associate your selves who are your chosen Companions Ye may â—ee to whom ye belong by the Company you join your selves to What do the Subjects of Christ among the slaves of Satan If the Subjects of one Kingdom be in another Kings dominions they love to be together with their own Countrymen rather than the natives of the place so do the servants of Christ. They are a company of themselves as it is said Act. 4.23 They went to their own Company I know the Subjects of both Kingdoms are here mingled and we cannot avoid the company of sinners except we go out of the world 1 Cor. 5.10 But yet all your delights should be in the Saints and in the excellent of the earth Psal. 16.3 Fifthly Do ye live Holy and Righteous lives If not you may claim interest in Christ as your King but he will never allow your claim The Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness Psal. 45.6 If ye oppress go beyond and cheat your brethren and yet call your selves Christs Subjects what greater reproach can ye study to cast upon him What is Christ the King of Cheats Doth he patronize such things as these No no pull off your vizards and fall into your own places you belong to another Prince and not to Christ. Inference 3. Doth Christ exercise such a Kingly power over the souls of all them that are subdued by the Gospel to him O then let all that are under Christs government walk as the Subjects of such a King Imitate your King the examples of Kings are very influential upon their Subjects Your King hath commanded you not only to take his yoak upon you but also to learn of him Matth. 11.29 Yea and if any man say that he is Christs let him walk even as Christ walked 1 Joh. 2.6 Your King is meek and patient Isai. 53.7 As a Lamb for meekness shall his Subjects be Lyons for fierceness Your King was humble and lowly Matth. 21.5 Behold the King cometh meek and lowly Will ye be proud and lofty Doth this become the Kingdom of Christ Your King was a self-denying King He could deny his outward comforts ease honour life to serve his Fathers design and accomplish your Salvation 2 Cor. 8.9 2 Phil 1.2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Shall his servants be self-ended and self-seeking persons that will expose his honour and hazard their own souls for the trifles of time God forbid Your King was painful laborious and diligent in fulfilling his work Ioh. 9.3 Let not his servants be lasie and slothful O imitate your King follow the pattern of your King this will give you comfort now and boldness in the day of Judgement if as he was so ye are in this world 1 Ioh. 4.17 The SEVENTEENTH SERMON IEPH XXII And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church THE foregoing verses are spent in a thankful and humble adoration of the grace of God in bringing these Ephesians to believe in Christ. This effect of that power that raised their hearts to believe in Christ is here compared with that other glorious effect of it even the raising of Christ himself from the dead Both these owe themselves to the same efficient cause It raised Christ from a low estate even from the dead to
few particulars of Christs humiliation in his incarnation Next we shall infer somethings from it that are practical Inference 1. Hence we gather the fulness and compleatness of Christs satisfaction as the sweet first fruits of incarnation Did man offend and violate the Law of God Behold God himself is become a man to repair that breach and satisfie for the wrong done The highest honour that ever the law of God received was to have such a person as the man Christ Jesus is to stand before its Bar and make reparation to it This is more than if it had poured out all our blood and built up its honour upon the ruines of the whole creation It is not so much to see all the Stars in Heaven overcast as to see one Sun eclipsed The greater Christ was the greater was his humiliation and the greater his humiliation was the more full and compleat was his satisfaction and the more compleatness there is in Christs satisfaction the more perfect and steady is the Believers consolation If he had not stoopt so low our joy and comfort could not be exalted so high The depth of the foundation is the strength of the superstructure Inference 2. Did Christ for our sakes stoop from the Majesty glory and dignity he was possessed of in Heaven to the mean and contemptible state of a man what a pattern of self-denial is here presented to Christians What objection against or excuses to shift off this duty can remain after such an example as is here propounded Brethren let me tell you the Pagan world was never acquainted with such an Argument as this to press them to self-denial Did Christ stoop and cannot you stoop Did Christ stoop so much and cannot you stoop in the least Was he content to become any thing a worm a reproach a curse and cannot you digest any abasements Do the least slights and neglects rancle your hearts and poyson them with discontent malice and revenge O how unlike Christ are you Hear and blush in hearing what your Lord saith in Joh. 13.14 If I then your Lord and Master wash your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet This example obliges not as a learned man well observes to the same individual act but it obliges us to follow the reason of the example That is after Christs example we must be ready to perform the lowest and meanest Offices of love and service to one another And indeed to this it obliges most forcibly for it is as if a Master seeing a proud sturdy Servant that grudges at the work he is imployed about as if it were too mean and base should come and take it out of his hand and when he hath done it should say doth not your Lord and Master think it beneath him to do it and is it beneath you I remember it is an excellent saying that Bernard hath upon the nativity of Christ. Saith he what more detestable what more unworthy or what deserves severer punishment than for a poor man to magnifie himself after he hath seen the great and high God so humbled as to become a little Child it is intollerable impudence for a worm to swell with pride after it hath seen majesty emptying it self To see one so infinitely above us to stoop so far beneath us Oh how convincing and shaming should it be Ah how opposite should pride and stoutness be to the spirit of a Christian I am sure nothing is more so to the Spirit of Christ. Your Saviour was lowly meek self-denying and of a most condescending Spirit He looked not at his own things but yours Phil. 2.4 And doth it become you to be proud selfish and stout I remember Ierom in his Epistle to Pamachius a godly young noble-man adviseth him to be eyes to the blind feet to the lame yea saith he if need be I would not have you refuse to cut wood and draw water for the Saints and what saith he is this to buffeting and spetting to crowning with thorns scourging and dying Christ did undergo all this and that for the ungodly Inference 3. Did Christ stoop so low as to become a man to save us Then those that perish under the Gospel must needs perish without apology What would you have Christ do more to save you Loe he hath laid aside the robes of Majesty and glory put on your own garments of flesh come down from his Throne and brought Salvation home to your own doors Surely the lower Christ stooped to save us the lower shall we sink under wrath that neglect so great Salvation The Lord Jesus is brought low but the unbeliever will lay him yet lower even under his feet he will tread the Son of God under foot Heb. 10.28 for such as the Apostle there speaks is reserved something worse than dying without mercy What pleas and excuses others will make at the Judgement Seat I know not but once it 's evident you will be speechless And as one well observes the vilest sinners among the Gentiles nay the Devils themselves will have more to say for themselves than you I must be plain with you I beseech you consider how Iews Pagans and Devils will rise up in Judgement against you The Iew may say I had a legal yoak upon me which neither I nor my fathers were able to bear Christ invited me only into the garden of nuts where I might sooner break my teeth with the hard shells of Ceremonies than get the kernel of Gospel-promises In the best of our Sacrifices the smoak filled our Temple smoak only to provoke us to weep for a clearer manifestation We had but the old edition of the Covenant of grace in a character very darkly intelligible you have the last edition with a Commentary of our rejection and the worlds reception and the spirits effusion You had all that heart could wish I perish eternally may the poor Pagan say without all possibility of reconciliation and have only sinned against the Covenant of works having never heard of a Gospel Covenant nor of reconciliation by a Mediator O had I heard but one Sermon had Christ but once broke in upon my soul to convince me of my undone condition and to have shewn a righteousness to me but wo is me I never had so much as one offer of Christ. But so have I must you say that refuse the Gospel I have or might have heard thousands of Sermons I could scarce escape hearing one or other shewing me the danger of my sin and my necessity of Christ but notwithstanding all I heard I wilfully resolved I would have nothing to do with him I could not endure to hear strictness prest upon me It was all the hell I had upon earth that I could not sin in quiet Nay may the Devil himself say it 's true I was ever since my fall malitiously set against God but alas as soon as I had sinned God kickt me out of Heaven and told me
the Parent wrapt up in another Skin O the care the cost the pity the tenderness the pains the fears they have exprest for you It 's worse than Heathenish ingratitude not to return Love for Love This filial Love is not only in it self a duty but to be the root or spring of all your other dutys to them Thirdly Obedience to their commands is due to them by the Lords strict and special command Eph. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise Filial obedience is not only founded upon the positive Law of God but also upon the Law of nature For though the subjection of Servants to Masters came in by sin yet the subjection of Children to Parents is due to them by natural right therefore saith the Apostle this is right i. e. right both according to natural and positive Law However this subjection and obedience is not absolute and universal God hath not devested himself of his own authority to cloath a Parent with it Your obedience to them must be in the Lord i. e. in such things as they require you to do in the Lords authority In things consonant to that divine and holy will to which they as well as you must be subject and therein you must obey them Yea even the wickedness of a Parent exempts not from obedience where his command is not so Nor on the other side must the holiness of a Parent sway you where his Commands and Gods are opposite In the former case the Canonists have determined that the command must be distinguisht from the person In the latter it 's a good rule My Parents must be loved but my God must be preferred Yield your selves therefore chearfully to obey all that which they lawfully enjoin and take heed that black character fixed on the Heathens who know not God be not found upon you disobedient to Parents Rom. 1.30 Remember your disobedience to their just commands rises higher much higher than an affront to their persons and authority it 's disobedience to God himself whose commands second and strengthen theirs upon you Fourthly Submission to their Discipline and rebukes is also your duty Heb. 12.9 We had Fathers of our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence Parents ought not to abuse their authority Cruelty in them is a great sin but wrath and rebellion in a Child against his Parents is monstrous It 's storied of Aelian that having been abroad at his return his Father asked him what he had Learned since he went from him he answered you will know shortly I have learned to bear your anger quietly and submit to what you please to inflict Two considerations should especially mould others into the like frame especially to their godly Parents The end for which and the manner in which they manifest their anger to their Children Their end is to save your souls from Hell They judge it better for you to hear the voice of their anger than the terrible voice of the wrath of God To feel their hand than his They know if you fall into the hands of the living God you will be handled in another manner And for the manner in which they rebuke and chasten it is with grief in their hearts and tears in their eyes Alas it 's no delight to them to cross vex or afflict you Were it not meer conscience of their duty to God and tender love to your souls they would neither chide nor smite And when they do how do they afflict themselves in afflicting you When their faces are full of anger their bowels are full of compassion for you and you have no more reason to blame them for what they do than if they cry out and violently snatch at you when they see you ready to fall from the top of a Rock Fifthly Faithfulness to all their interests is due to them by the natural and positive Law of God What in you lies you are bound to promote not waste and scatter their substance To assist not to defraud them Who so robbeth his Father or Mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer Prov. 28.24 This saith one as far excells your wronging another as parricide is a greater crime than man-slaughter or as Reubens incest was beyond common fornication God never meant you should grow up about your Parents as suckers about a Tree to impoverish the root But for a Child out of a covetousness after what his Parents have secretly to wish their death is a sin so monstrous as should not be once named much less found among persons professing Christianity To desire their death from whom you had your life is unnatural wickedness to dispose of their Goods much more of your selves without their consent is ordinarily the greatest injustice to them Children are obliged to defend the Estates and persons of their Parents with the hazard of their own As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are Children of the youth Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them They shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemy in the gates Psal. 127.5 Sixthly And more especially requital of all that love care and pains they have been at for you is your duty so far as God enables you and those things are requitable 1 Tim. 5.4 Let them learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to play the Stork to imitate that creature of whom it 's said that the young do tenderly feed the old ones when they are no longer able to fly abroad and provide for themselves Hence those that want bowels of natural affection to their Relations are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 worse than Storks O 't is a shame that Birds and Beasts should shew more tenderness to their Dams than Children to their Parents It 's a saying frequent among the Jews a Child should rather labour at the Mill than suffer his Parents to want And to the same sence is that other saying your Parents must be supplyed by you if you have it if not you ought to beg for them rather than see them perish It was both the comfort and honour of Ioseph that God made him an instrument of so much succour and comfort to his aged Father and distressed family Gen. 47.13 And you are also to know that what you do for them is not in the way of an alms or common Charity For the Apostle saith it is but your requiting them and that 's Justice not Charity And it can never be a full requital Indeed the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 12.14 That Parents lay up for their Children and not Children for the Parents and so they ought but sure if providence blast them and bless you an honourable