considerable objections to lye against either of them and yet be far enough from that sweet consolation joy and assurance which is the product of the conclusion when God is not pleased to give it in yea a man may sometimes gather up consolation to himself upon such terms but it will not abide So did David Psal. 30 6 7. He thus argues with himself He whose mountain is made strong to whom God is a defence he shall never be moved nor be shaken but I am thus settled of God therefore I shall not be moved and therein he rejoyceth It is an expression of exultation that he useth but what is the Issue of it In the midst of these pleasing thoughts of his God hides his face and he is troubled he cannot any longer draw out the sweetness of the conclusion mentioned It was in him before from the shines of Gods Countenance and not from any arguings of his own No disappointment then no tediousness or weariness should make the soul leave waiting on God if it intend to attain Consolation and Establishment So dealeth the Church Lam. 3. 21. This I recall to mind therefore have I hope What is it that she calls to mind this that it is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not vers 22. I will yet hope I will yet continue in my Expectation upon the account of never failing-compassion of endless mercies in him whatever my present condition be And thence she makes a blessed conclusion vers 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. And this is our third Rule It is good to hope and wait whatever our present condition be and not to give over if we would not be sure to fail whereunto I speak no more because the close of this Psalm insists wholly on this duty which must be further spoken unto RULE IV. Seeing in the course of our believing and obedience that which is chiefly incumbent on us for our coming up to establishment and consolation is spiritual diligence in the removal of the hinderances thereof Let the soul that would attain thereunto make through work in the search of sin even to the sins of youth that all scores on that account may clearly be wiped out If there be much rubbish left in the foundation of the building no wonder if it alwaies shake and totter Mens leaving of any sin unsearched to the bottom will poison all their consolation David knew this when in dealing with God in his distresses he prayes that he would not remember the sins and transgressions of his youth Psal. 5. 7. Youth is oftentimes a time of great vanity and unmindfulness of God many stains and spots are therein usually brought upon the consciences of men Childhood and youth are vanity Eccles. 11. 10. Not because they soon pass away but because they are usually spent in vanity as the following advice of chap. 12. 1. to remember God in those daies doth manifest The way of many is to wear such things out of mind and not to walk in a sense of their folly and madness never to make through work with God about them I speak of the Saints themselves for with others that live under the Means of Grace whom God intends any way to make usefull and industrious in their Generation this is the usual course by convictions restraining Grace Afflictions Love of Employment and Repute God gives them another heart than they had for a season Another heart but not a new heart Hence another course of life another profession other actions than formerly doe flow with this change they do content themselves they look on what is past perhaps with delight or as things fit enough for those daies but not for those they have attained unto here they rest and therefore never come to rest But I speak of the Saints themselves who make not such through full close work in this kind as they ought An after-reckoning may come in on this hand to their own disturbance and an inconquerable hinderance of their peace and settlement be brought in on this account So was it with Job chap. 13. 26 He makes me possess the sins of my youth God filled his heart his thoughts his mind with these sins made them abide with him so that he possessed them they were alwaies present with him He made the sins of his youth the sufferings of his age And it is a sad thing as one speaks when young sins and old bones meet together as Zophar chap. 20. 11. His bones are filled with the sins of his youth The joyous frame of some mens Youth makes way for sad work in their Age. Take heed young ones you are doing that which will abide with you to Age if not to Eternity This possessing of the sins of youth Job calls the writing of bitter things against him As indeed it is impossible but that sin should be bitter one time or other God calls it a root that beareth Gall and Wormwood Deut. 29. 18. A root of bitterness springing up into defilement Heb. 12. 15. This then is to be searched out to the bottom Israel will not have success nor peace whilst there is an Achan in the Camp Neither success in Temptation nor consolation in believing is to be expected whilst any Achan any sin unreckoned for lyes in the conscience Now for them who would seriously accomplish a diligent search in this matter which is of such importance unto them let them take these two Directions 1. Let them go over the consideration of those sins and others of the like nature which may be reduced unto the same General heads with them which we laid down before as the sins which generally cast men into depths and intanglements And if they find they have contracted the guilt of any of them let them not think strange that they are yet bewildred in their condition and do come short of a refreshing sense of peace with God or an interest in forgiveness Rather let them admire the riches of Patience Grace and forbearance that they are not cast utterly out of all hopes of a recovery This will speed an end unto their trouble according to the direction given 2. Let them cast the course of their times under such heads and seasons as may give them the more clear and distinct view and apprehension of the passages in them between God and their souls which may have been provoking unto him As First For the state of their inward man let them consider First The unregenerate part of their lives that which was confessedly so before they had any real work of God upon their hearts and therein enquire after two things 1. If there were then any great and signal eruptions of sins against God for of such God requires that a deep sense be kept on our souls all our daies How often do we find Paul calling over the sins of his
way of God we shall not be overtaken with it Consider the Lord Christ saith the Apostle the Captain of your salvation lest you be wearied and faint in your minds Heb. 12. 3. Nothing else can cause you to come short of the mark aimed at And they saith the Prophet who wait on the Lord that is in the use of the means by him appointed shall not faint Isa. 40. 11. This continuance then in waiting is to accompany this duty upon the account of both the things mentioned in the Proposition that it is indispensibly necessary on our own account and it is assuredly prevailing in the end it will not fail 1. It is necessary They that watch for the morning to whose frame and actings the waiting of the soul for God is compared give not over until the Light doth appear or if they do if they are wearied and faint and so cease watching all their former pains will be lost and they will lye down in disappointments So will it be with the soul that deserts its watch and faints in its waiting If upon the eruption of new lusts or corruptions if upon the return of old temptations or the Assaults of new ones if upon a revived perplexing sense of guilt or on the tediousness of working and labouring so much and so long in the dark the soul begins to say in it self I have looked for light and behold darkness for peace and yet trouble cometh the Summer is past the Harvest is ended and I am not relieved such and such blessed means have been enjoyed and yet I have not attained rest and so gives over its waiting in the way and course before prescribed it will at length utterly fail and come short of the Grace aimed at Thou hast laboured and hast not fainted brings in the reward Rev. 2. 3. 2. Perseverance in waiting is assuredly prevalent and this renders it a necessary part of the duty it self If we continue to wait for the vision of peace it will come it will not tarry but answer our expectation of it Never soul miscarried that abode in this duty unto the end The Joyes of Heaven may sometimes prevent consolations in this life God sometimes gives in the full Harvest without sending of the first fruits aforehand But Spiritual or Eternal peace and Rest is the infallible End of permanent waiting for God This is the Duty that the Psalmist declares himself to be ingaged in upon the incouraging discovery which was made unto him of forgiveness in God There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope And this is that which in the like condition is required of us This is the great direction which was given us in the Example and practice of the Psalmist as to our Duty and deportment in the condition described This was the Way whereby he rose out of his depths and escaped out of his entanglements Is this then the state of any of us let such take directions from hence 1. Encourage your souls unto waiting on God Do new fears arise do old disconsolations continue say unto your souls yet wait on God why are you cast down O our souls and why are you disquieted within us hope in God for we shall yet praise him who is the health of our countenance and our God as the Psalmist doth in the like case Psal. 43. 5. so he speaks elsewhere wait on God and be of good courage shake of sloth rouse up your selves from under despondencies let not fears prevail This is the only way for success and it will assuredly be prevalent Oppose this Resolution to every discouragement and it will give new life to faith and hope say my flesh faileth and my heart faileth but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever as Psal. 73. 26. Though thy perplexed thoughts have even wearied and worn out the outward man as in many they do so that flesh faileth and though thou hast no refreshing evidence from within from thy self or thy own Experience so that thy heart faileth yet resolve to look unto God there is strength in him and satisfaction in him for the whole man he is a Rock and a portion this will strengthen things which otherwise will be ready to dye This will keep life in thy course and stir thee up to plead it with God in an acceptable season when he will be found Job carryed up his condition unto a supposition that God might slay him that is add one stroke one rebuke unto another untill he was consumed and so take him out of the world in darkness and in sorrow Yet he resolved to trust to hope to wait on him as knowing that he should not utterly miscarry so doing this frame the Church expresseth so admirably that nothing can be added thereunto Lament 3. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26. Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace I forgat prosperity and my hope is perished from the Lord remembring mine Affliction and my misery my Wormwood and my Gall My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not They are new every Morning great is thy faithfulness The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God We have here both the Condition and the Duty insisted on with the method of the souls actings in reference unto the one and the other fully expressed The Condition is sad and bitter the soul is in depths far from peace and rest v. 14. in this state it is ready utterly to faint and to give all for lost and gone both strength for the present and hopes for the future v. 18. This makes its condition full of sorrow and bitterness and its own thoughts become unto it like Wormwood and Gall v. 19 20. But doth he lye down under the burden of all this trouble doth he despond and give over no saith he I call to mind that there is forgiveness with God Grace Mercy Goodness for the relief of distressed souls such as are in my condition v. 21 22 23. Thence the conclusion is that as all help is to be looked for all relief expected from him alone so it is good that a man should quietly wait and hope for the salvation of God This he stirs up himself unto as the best as the most blessed course for his deliverance 2. Remember that diligent use of the means for the end aimed at is a necessary concomitant of and ingredient unto waiting on God Take in the consideration of this direction also Do not think to be freed from your entanglements by
As ever you desire to come to rest avoid not this entrance of your passage unto it Weigh well and attend unto what the Law speaks of your sin and its desert or you will never make a due application to God for forgiveness As ever you would have your souls justified by Grace take care to have your sins judged by the Law Secondly There is a respect in it to the Love of God And this breaks the heart of the poor returning sinner Sorrow from the Law shuts it self up in the soul and strangleth it Sorrow from the thoughts of the Love of God opens it and causseth it to flow forth Thoughts of sinning against the Love of God managed by the Holy Ghost what shall I say their effects in the heart are not to be expressed This made Ezra cry out O my God I blush and am ashamed to lift up my face to thee Chap. 9. 6. and v. 10. What shall we say after this After what why all the fruits of love and kindness they had been made partakers of Thoughts of love and sin laid together make the soul blush mourn be ashamed and confounded in its self So Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall you remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good When shall they do so when thoughts and apprehensions of love shall be brought home to them and saith he then shall you loath your selves in your own sight The soul now calls to mind what Love what kindness what mercy what grace what patience hath been exercised towards it and whereof it hath been made partaker The thoughts of all these now come in upon him as streams of water Such Mercy such Communion such Priviledges such hopes of Glory such tastes of Heaven such Peace such Consolation such Joy such Communications of the Spirit all to a poor wretched cursed lost forlorn sinner and all this despised neglected the God of them all provoked forsaken Ah saith the soul Whither shall I cause my sorrow to go This fills him with shame and confusion of face makes him mourn in secret and sigh to the breaking of the loyns and then Thirdly The blood and Cross of Christ is also brought to remembrance by the Holy Ghost Ah saith the soul have I thus requited the wonderful astonishing Love of my Redeemer Is this the return the requital I have made unto him Are not Heaven and Earth astonished at the despising of that Love at which they are astonished This brake Peters heart upon the look of Christ. Such words as these from Christ will in this condition sound in the ears of the soul. Did I love thee and leave my glory to become a scorn and reproach for thy sake Did I not think my life and all that was dear unto me too good for thee to save thee from the wrath to come Have I been a Wilderness unto thee or a land of darkness What could I have done more for thee when I had nothing left but my life blood and soul they went all for thee that thou mightest live by my death be washed in my blood and be saved through my souls being made an offering for thee And hast thou thus requited my love to prefer a lust before me the world before me or by meer sloth and folly to be turned away from me go unkind and unthankful soul and see if thou canst find another Redeemer This overwhelms the soul and even drowns it in tears and sorrow And then the bitterness also of the sufferings of Christ are brought to mind They look on him whom they have pierced and mourn Zech. 12. 10. They remember his gall and wormwood his cryes and tears his agony and sweat his desertion and anguish his blood and death the sharpness of the Sword that was in his soul and the bitterness of the Cup that was put into his hand Such a soul now looks on Christ bleeding dying wrestling with wrath and curse for him and seeth his sin in the streams of blood that issued from his side And all this encreaseth that sense of sin whereof we speak Also Fourthly It relates to the communion and consolations of the Holy Ghost with all the priviledges and fruits of Love we are by him made partakers of The Spirit is given to Believers upon the promise of Christ to dwell in them He takes up their hearts to be his dwelling place to what ends and purposes that he may purifie and sanctifie them make them holy and dedicate them to God to furnish them with Graces and gifts to interest them in priviledges to guide lead direct comfort them to seal them unto the day of Redemption Now this Spirit is grieved by sin Ephes. 4. 30. and his dwelling place defiled thereby 1 Cor. 6. 19. and 3. 17. Thoughts hereof greatly sharpen the spiritual sense of sin in a recovering soul. He considers what Light what Love what Joy what Consolation what Priviledges it hath by him been made partaker of what motions warnings workings to keep it from sin it hath found from him and sayes within it self What have I done whom have I grieved whom have I provoked what if the Lord should now for my folly and ingratitude utterly take his holy Spirit from me What if I should have so grieved him that he will dwell in me no more delight in me no more What dismal darkness and disconsolation yea what utter ruine should I be left unto However what shame and confusion of face belongs to me for my wretched disingenuity and ingratitude towards him This is the first thing that appears in the returning souls actings and frame a sincere sense of sin on the accounts mentioned wrought in it by the Holy Ghost And this a soul in the depths described must come unto if ever it expect or look for deliverance and a recovery Let not such persons expect to have a renewed sense of mercy without a revived sense of sin Secondly From hence proceedeth an ingenious free gracious Acknowledgement of sin Men may have a sense of sin and yet suffer it to lye burning as a fire shut up in their bones to their continual disquietment and not be able to come off unto a free soul opening acknowledgement Yea confession may be made in general and mention therein of that very sin wherewith the soul is most intangled and yet the soul come short of a due performance of this Duty Consider how the case stood with David Psal. 32. 3. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long How could David keep silence and yet roar all the day long What is that silence which is consistent with roaring It is a meer negation of that duty which is expressed v. 5. that is intended I acknowledge my sins unto thee and mine iniquities I have not hid It was not a silence of submission and waiting on God that he intends That would not have produced a wasting of his spiritual strength as he complains
14. Our being under Grace under the power of the belief of forgiveness is our great preservative from our being under the power of sin Faith of forgiveness is the Principle of Gospel Obedience Titus 2. 11 12. Fifthly The general notion of forgiveness brings with it no sweetness no Rest to the soul. Flashes of joy it may abiding rest it doth not The truth of the Doctrine fluctuates to and fro in the minds of those that have it but their Wills and Affections have no solid delight nor rest by it Hence not withstanding all that profession that is made in the world of forgiveness the most of men ultimately resolve their peace and comfort into themselves As their apprehensions are of their own doing good or evil according to their ruling light whatever it be so as to peace and rest are they secretly tossed up and down Every one in his several way pleaseth himself with what he doth in answer unto his own convictions and is disquieted as to his state and condition according as he seems to himself to come short thereof To make a full life of contentation upon pardon they know not how to do it One duty yields them more true repose than many thoughts of forgiveness But faith finds sweetness and Rest in it being thereby apprehended it is the only harbour of the soul. It leads a man to God as Good to Christ as Rest. Fading evanid joyes do oft-times attend the one but solid delight with constant Obedience are the fruits only of the other Sixthly Those who have the former only take up their perswasion on false grounds though the thing it self be true and they cannot but use it unto false ends and purposes besides its natural and genuine tendency For their grounds they will be discovered when I come to treat of the true nature of Gospel forgiveness For the End it is used generally only to fill up what is wanting Self-righteousness is their bottom and when that is too short or narrow to cover them they piece it out by forgiveness Where conscience accuses this must supply the defect Faith layes it on its proper foundation of which afterwards also and it useth it to its proper End namely to be the sole and only ground of our Acceptation with God That is the proper use of forgiveness that all may be of Grace for when the foundation is pardon the whole superstructure must needs be Grace From what hath been spoken it is evident that notwithstanding the pretences to the contrary insinuated in the Objection now removed it is a great thing to have Gospel forgiveness discovered unto a soul in a saving manner The true Nature of Gospel forgiveness It s Relation to the Goodness Grace and Will of God To the blood of Christ. To the Promise of the Gospel The Considerations of Faith about it The difficulties that lye in the way of faiths discovery of forgiveness whence it appears to be a matter of greater weight and importance than it is commonly apprehended to be have been insisted on in the foregoing Discourse There is yet remaining another ground of the same Truth Now this is taken from the Nature and Greatness of the thing it self discovered that is of forgiveness To this end I shall shew what it is wherein it doth consist what it comprizes and relates unto according to the importance of the second Proposition before laid down I do not in this place take forgiveness strictly and precisely for the act of pardoning nor shall I dispute what that is and wherein it doth consist Consciences that come with sin entanglements unto God know nothing of such disputes Nor will this Expression there is forgiveness with God bear any such restriction as that it should regard only actual condonation or pardon That which I have to do is to enquire into the nature of that pardon which poor convinced troubled souls seek after and which the Scripture proposeth to them for their relief and rest And I shall not handle this absolutely neither but in Relation to the Truth under consideration namely that it is a great thing to attain unto a true Gospel discovery of forgiveness First As was shewed in the opening of the words the forgiveness enquired after hath Relation unto the Gracious Heart of the Father Two things I understand hereby 1. The Infinite Goodness and Graciousness of his Nature 2. The Soveraign purpose of his Will and Grace There is considerable in it the infinite Goodness of his nature Sin stands in a contrariety unto God It is a Rebellion against his Soveraignty an Opposition to his Holiness a Provocation to his Justice a Rejection of his yoke a casting off what lyes in the sinner of that dependance which a Creature hath on its Creator That God then should have pity and compassion on sinners in every one of whose sins there is all this evil and inconceivably more than we can comprehend it argues an infinitely Gracious Good and loving heart and nature in him For God doth nothing but suitably to the Properties of his Nature and from them All the Acts. of his Will are the Effects of his Nature Now what ever God proposeth as an encouragement for sinners to come to him that is of or hath a special influence into the Forgiveness that is with him For nothing can encourage a sinner as such but under this consideration that it is or it respects forgiveness That this Graciousness of Gods nature lyes at the head or spring and is the root from whence forgiveness doth grow is manifest from that solemn Proclamation which he made of old of his name and the Revelation of his nature therein for God assuredly is what by himself he is called Exod. 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniuity and transgression and sin His forgiving of iniquity flows from hence that in his nature he is merciful gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness Were he not so infinite in all these it were in vain to look for forgiveness from him Having made this known to be his Name and thereby declared his Nature he in many places proposeth it as a relief a refuge for sinners an encouragement to come unto him and to wait for mercy from him Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee It will encourage them so to do others have no foundation of their confidence but if this name of God be indeed made known unto us by the Holy Ghost what can hinder why we should not repair unto him and rest upon him So Isa. 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Not only sinners but sinners in great distress are here spoken unto Darkness of state or
Invitation to Repentance and to disbelieve forgiveness is to call the Truth Holiness and Faithfulness of God into question If you will not believe forgiveness pretend what you please it is in truth because you hate Repentance You do but deceive your souls when you pretend you come not up to Repentance because you cannot believe forgiveness For in the very Institution of this duty God engageth all his Properties to make it good that he hath pardon and mercy for sinners 4. Much less cause is there to doubt of forgiveness where sincere Repentance is in any measure wrought No soul comes to Repentance but upon Gods call God calls none but whom he hath mercy for upon their coming And as for those who sin against the Holy Ghost as they shut themselves out from forgiveness so they are not called to Repentance 5. God expresly declares in the Scripture that the forgiveness that is with him is the foundation of his prescribing repentance unto man One instance may suffice Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perverse wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the man of iniquity his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will multiply to pardon You see to whom he speaks to men perversely wicked and such as make a trade of sinning What doth he call them unto plainly to Repentance to the duty we have insisted on But what is the ground of such an invitation unto such profligate sinners Why the abundant forgiveness and pardon that is with him super-abounding unto what the worst of them can stand in need of as Rom. 5. 20. And this is another way whereby God hath revealed that there is forgiveness with him and an infallible bottom for saith to build upon in its approaches unto God it is Nor can the certainty of this Evidence be called into question but on such grounds as are derogatory to the Glory and Honour of God And this connexion of Repentance and forgiveness is that principle from whence God convinces a stubborn unbelieving people that all his wayes and dealings with sinners are just and equal Ezek. 18. 25. And should there be any failure in it they could not be so Every soul then that is under a call to Repentance whether out of his natural condition or from any back-sliding into folly after Conversion hath a sufficient foundation to rest on as to the pardon he enquires after God is ready to deal with him on terms of mercy if out of love to sin or the power of unbelief he refuse to close with him on these terms his condemnation is just And it will be well that this consideration be well imprinted on the minds of men I say notwithstanding the general presumptions that men seem to have of this matter yet these principles of it ought to be inculcated For 1. Such is the Atheism that lyes lurking in the hearts of men by nature that notwithstanding their pretences and professions we have need to be pressing upon them Evidences of the very Being and Essential Properties of God In so doing we have the assistance of inbred notions in their own minds which they cannot eject to help carry on the work How much more is this necessary in reference unto the free Acts of the Will of God which are to be known only by meer Revelation Our Word had need be line upon line And yet when we have done have cause enough to cry out as was said Lord who hath believed our report and to whom hath this arm of the Lord been revealed 2. What was spoken before of the obstacles that lye in the way hindring souls from a saving reception of this Truth ought to be remembred Those who have no experience of them between God and their souls seem to be ignorant of the true nature of Conscience Law Gospel Grace Sin and Forgiveness 3. Many who are come to a saving perswasion of it yet having not received it upon clear and unquestionable grounds and so not knowing how to resolve their faith of it into its proper principles are not able to answer the Objections that lye against it in their own Consciences and so do miserably fluctuate about it all their dayes These had need to have these principles inculcated on them Were they pondred aright some might have cause to say with the Samaritans who first gave credit to the report of the woman John 4. They had but a report before but now they find all things to be according unto it yea to exceed it A little experience of a mans own unbelief with the Observation that may easily be made of the uncertain progresses and fluctuations of the spirits of others will be a sufficient conviction of the necessity of the work we are engaged in But it will yet be said that it is needless to multiply Arguments and Evidences in this case The Truth insisted on being granted as one of the fundamental principles of Religion As it is not then by any called in question so it doth not appear that so much time and pains is needful for the confirmation of it For what is granted and plain needs little confirmation But several things may be returned in Answer hereunto all which may at once be here pleaded for the multiplication of our Arguments in this matter That it is generally granted by all is no Argument that it is effectually believed by many Sundry things are taken for granted in point of opinion that are not so believed as to be improved in practice We have in part shewed before and shall afterwards undeniably evince that there are very few that believe this Truth with that faith that will interest them in it and give them the benefit of it And what will it avail any of us that there is forgiveness of sin with God if our own sins be not forgiven no more than that such or such a King is rich whilst we are poor and starving My aim is not to prove it as an opinion or a meer speculative Truth but so to evidence it in the principles of its Being and Revelation as that it may be believed whereon all our blessedness depends 2. It needs never the less confirmation because it is a plain fundamental Truth but rather the more and that because both of the Worth and Weight of it This is a faithful saying saith the Apostle worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners So say I of this which for the substance of it is the same with that It is worthy of all acceptation namely that there is forgiveness with God And therefore ought it to be fully confirmed Especially whilst we make use of no other demonstrations of it but those only which God hath furnished us withal to that purpose and this he would not have done but that he knew them
souls waiting in the condition described I shall only add one direction how we may be enabled to perform and discharge this duty aright which we have manifested to have been so necessary so reasonable so prevalent for the obtaining of relief and this ariseth from another of the Propositions laid down for the opening of these verses not as yet spoken unto Namely that The Word of promise is the souls great supportment in waiting for God So saith the Psalmist In his word do I hope that is the Word of promise As the Word in general is the adequate rule of all our Obedience unto God and Communion with him so there are especial parts of it that are suited unto these especial actings of our souls towards him Thus the Word of Promise or the Promise in the Word is that which our faith especially regards in our hope trust and waiting on God and it is suited to answer unto the immediate actings of our souls therein From this Word of Promise therefore that is from these promises doth the soul in its distresses take incouragement to continue waiting on God and that on these two accounts 1. Because they are declarative of God his Mind and his Will And secondly because they are communicative of grace and strength to the soul of which latter we shall not here treat 1. The End and Use of the Promise is to declare reveal and make known God unto Believers and that in an especial manner in him and concerning him which may give them encouragement to wait for him 1. The promises are a declaration of the Nature of God especially of his Goodness Grace and Love God hath put an impression of all the glorious Excellencies of his nature on his Word especially as he is in Christ on the Word of the Gospel There as in a Glass do we behold his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ. As his Commands express unto us his Holiness his Threatnings his Righteousness and Severity so do his Promises his Goodness Grace Love and Bounty And in these things do we learn all that we truly and solidly know of God that is we know him in and by his Word The soul therefore that in this condition is waiting on or for God considers the Representation which he makes of himself and of his own nature in and by the promises and receives supportment and encouragement in its duty For if God teach us by the promises what he is and what he will be unto us we have firm ground to expect from him all fruits of Benignity Kindness and Love Let the soul frame in it self that Idea of God which is exhibited in the Promises and it will powerfully prevail with it to continue in an Expectation of his gracious returns they all expressing Goodness Love Patience Forbearance Long-suffering Pardoning Mercy Grace Bounty with a full satisfactory reward This is the beauty of the Lord mentioned with admiration by the Prophet How great is his goodness how great is his beauty Zeph. 9. 17. Which is the great attractive of the soul to adhere constantly unto him Whatever difficulties arise whatever temptations interpose or wearisomeness grows upon us in our streights troubles trials and desertions let us not entertain such thoughts of God as our own perplexed imaginations may be apt to suggest unto us This would quickly cast us into a thousand impatiencies misgivings and miscarriages but the remembrance of and meditation on God in his promises as revealed by them as expressed in them is suited quite unto other ends and purposes There appears yea gloriously shines forth that Love that Wisdom that Goodness Tenderness and Grace as cannot but encourage a believing soul to abide in waiting for him 2. The Word of Promise doth not only express Gods nature as that wherein he proposeth himself unto the contemplation of faith but it also declares his Will and Purpose of acting towards the soul suitable unto his own Goodness and Grace For Promises are the declarations of Gods purpose and will to act towards Believers in Christ Jesus according to the infinite Goodness of his own nature and this is done in great variety according to the various conditions and wants of them that do believe They all proceed from the same spring of Infinite Grace but are branched into innumerable particular streams according as our necessities do require To these do waiting souls repair for stay and encouragement Their perplexities principally arise from their misapprehensions of what God is in himself and of what he will be unto them and whither should they repair to be undeceived but unto that faithfull Representation that he hath made of himself and his Will in the Word of his Grace For no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath revealed him John 1. 17. Now the Gospel is nothing but the Word of Promise explained in all the Springs Causes and Effects of it thither must we repair to be instructed in this matter The imaginations and reasonings of mens hearts will but deceive them in these things The informations or instructions of other men may do so nor have they any truth in them further than they may be resolved into the Word of Promise Here alone they may find rest and refreshment The soul of whom we speak is under troubles perplexities and distresses as to its outward condition pressed with many streights it may be on every hand and as to its spiritual estate under various apprehensions of the mind and will of God towards it as hath before at large been explained in this condition it is brought in some measure unto an holy submission unto God and a patient waiting for the issue of its trials In this estate it hath many temptations to and much working of unbelief The whole of its opposition amounts to this that it is neglected of God that its way is hid and his judgement is passed over from him that it shall not be at present delivered nor hereafter saved What course can any one advise such a one unto for his relief and to preserve his soul from fainting or deserting the duty of waiting on God wherein he is engaged but only this to search and enquire what Revelation God hath made of himself and his Will concerning him in his Word And this the promise declares Here he shall find hope patience faith expectation to be all encreased comforted encouraged Herein lyes the duty and safety of any in this condition Men may bear the first impression of any trouble with the strength courage and resolution of their natural spirits under some continuance of them they may support themselves with former experiences and other usual springs and means of consolation But if their wounds prove difficult to be cured if they despise ordinary remedies if their diseases are of long continuance this is that which they must be take themselves unto They must search into the Word of
for with him there is Redemption All other grounds of hope are false and deceiving Obs. 3. Inexhaustible stores of Mercy and Redemption are needful for the incouragement of sinners to rest and wait on God With him is plentiful Redemption Such is your misery so pressing are your fears and disconsolations that nothing less than boundless Grace can relieve or support you there are therefore such Treasures and stores in God as are suited hereunto With him is Plenteous Redemption Obs. 4. The Ground of all the dispensation of Mercy Goodness Grace and forgiveness which is in God to Sinners is laid in the blood of Christ. Hence it is here called Redemption Unto this also we have spoken at large before Obs. 5. All that wait on God on the account of Mercy and Grace shall have an undoubted Issue of peace He shall redeem Israel let him saith God lay hold of my Arm that he may have peace and he shall have peace Isa. 27. 3. Obs. 6. Mercy given to them that wait on God shall in the close and issue be every way full and satisfying He shall redeem his people from all their Iniquities And these Propositions do arise from the words as absolutely considered and in themselves If we mind their Relation unto the peculiar Condition of the soul represented in this Psalm they will yet afford us the ensuing Observations Obs. 1. They who out of depths have by faith and waiting obtained mercy or are supported in waiting for a sense of believed mercy and forgiveness are fitted and only they are fitted to Preach and declare Grace and mercy unto others This was the Case with the Psalmist Upon his emerging out of his own depths and streights he declares the mercy and redemption whereby he was delivered unto the whole Israel of God Obs. 2. A saving participation of Grace and forgiveness leaves a deep Impression of its fulness and excellency on the soul of a sinner So was it here with the Psalmist Having himself obtained Forgiveness he knows no bounds or measure as it were in the extolling of it There is with God Mercy Redemption Plenteous Redemption redeeming from all Iniquity I have found it so and so will every one do that shall believe it Now these Observations might all of them especially the two last receive an useful improvement But whereas what I principally intended from this Psalm hath been at large insisted on upon the first verses of it I shall not here further draw forth any Meditations upon them but content my self with the Exposition that hath been given of the design of the Psalmist and sense of his words in these last verses FINIS 1. Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord. 2. Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption 8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities General Scope of the whole Psalm The two first Verses opened Depths of trouble on the account of Sin Depths of Sin wherein they consist The Nature and Extent of supplies of Grace according to the Covenant The Power of Indwelling Sin Gods Soveraignty in dealing with Believers in their sins Sins occasioning great distresses Aggravations of sins causing distresses The second Verse opened Actings of a Believer under distress from sin False ways of relieving souls in distress Earnestness of a distressed soul in its Applications unto God Grounds of earnestness in Applications unto God Earnestness c. wherein it consisteth Verse 3. opened Propositions from Verse 3. Terror arising from a sense of the guilt of sin Gods marking sin and mans salvation inconsistent The souls actings towards a Recovery Sense of sin wherein it consists Nature and Causes of Gospel convictions of sin Acknowledgement of sin the true nature of it Self-condemnation wherein it consists Miscarriages in persons convinced of sin The fourth Verse opened Doctrinal Observations from V. 4. No approaching unto God without a discovery of forgiveness Forgiveness a great Mysterie Testimony of a natural consciscience against the forgiveness of sin Testimony of the Law against the forgiveness of sin False Presumptions of Forgiveness The true Nature of Gospel forgiveness Forgiveness as it relates to the Nature of God Forgiveness as it relates to the free Acts of Gods Will. Forgiveness as it hath respect to the blood of Christ. Forgiveness as it relates unto the Promise What faith respects in Forgiveness Forgiveness discovered to Faith alone Discovery of Forgiveness a great supportment Particular Assurance attainable Duty of Believers to endeavour Assurance Causes and Effects of Assurance Saving Faith where there is no Assurance Discovery of forgiveness a great supportment to intangled souls Effects of the Discovery of Forgiveness in God Means whereby a Discovery of Forgiveness yields supportment Abiding with God wherein it consisteth Waiting on God from a Discovery of Forgiveness Discovery of Forgiveness prepares the soul to receive it Vain pretences of Faith discovered Essential properties of Gods nature how made known Free Acts of Gods Will how they may be known Forgiveness not revealed by the work of Providence about the first sin Forgiveness discovered in the first Promise Sacrifices an Evidence of Forgiveness Forgiveness with God manifested by his Prescription of Repentance Confirmation of the Truth of Forgiveness necessary Necessity of producing Arguments to prove forgiveness Some sinners actually pardoned and accepted with God Patience of God towards the World an evidence of forgiveness Experience of the Saints giveing Testimony to Forgiveness The Evidence that is in Spiritual Experience Religious Worship of sinners an Evidence of Forgiveness with God Especial Ordinances evidencing forgiveness Prayer for the Pardon of sin commanded Forgiveness manifested in the New Covenant Nature Use and End of the first Covenant Reason of Alteration of the first Covenant Forgiveness confirmed by the Oath of God Forgiveness confirmed by the Name of God 〈◊〉 of Gods Nature manifesting Forgiveness What it is to give Glory to God Glory arising to God by Forgiveness Forgiveness manifested in the Death of Christ. Our Obligation unto mutual forgiveness proves forgiveness in God Properties of Divine forgiveness Forgiveness believed by Few Exhortations unto Believing Terms of Peace with God Equal and Holy Certainty of the final Ruine of them who believe not Exhortation to Believing enforced Christ the only Judge of our spiritual condition Self-condemnation consistent with Gospel Justification and Peace Gospel Assurance wherein it consisteth Sense of sin consistent with Assurance Sorrow for sin consistent with Assurance Sense of the power of sin consistent with Assurance Fears and Temptations consistent with Assurance The Nature and Effects of Gospel Assurance Effects of Gospel Assurance in Believers Waiting necessary to obtain Peace Search of Sin necessary to consolation Unbelief and Jealousie distinguished Different Effects of Unbelief and Jealousie Differences between faith and spiritual sense Spiritual sense wherein it consists Foundation and Spiritual Building distinguished Complaints fruitless and heartless to be avoided Hasty Expressions concerning God to be avoided Judgement of mens states in the hand of Christ alone The least Appearances of Grace to be improved Afflictions a cause of spiritual disquictments Means of the Aggravation of Affliction Rules to be observed concerning Afflictions Objections against Believing from the State of the Soul Two different estates whereunto all men belong Saving Grace specifically distinct from common Grace Difference between the State of Grace and Nature discernable Believers may know themselves to be born of God Rules whereby men may judge of their Condition in respect of Inherent Grace Objections from weakness in Duty and the power of Sin V. 5 6. V. 5 6. opened Waiting the first fruit of Faith in a way of Duty Waiting on God wherein it consists God himself the Object of our Waiting Waiting on God whence so necessary Considerations of Gods Being and Attributes rendring Waiting necessary Considerations of Gods Righteousness in his Judgements Considerations of our own Condition tending to Humble us Supportment in trouble from the Word of Promise Psal. 130. v. 7 8. Exposition of vers 7 8.
sole foundation of all our expectations of a blessed portion in that which is to come it certainly requires the best and utmost of our endeavours as to look into the nature causes and effects of it so especially into the wayes and means whereby we may be made partakers of it and how that participation may be secured unto us unto our peace and consolation as also into that Love that Holiness that obedience that fruitfulness in good works which on the account of this Grace God expecteth from us and requireth at our hands An Explication of these things is that which I have designed to ensue and follow after in these discourses and that with a constant eye as on the one hand to the sole rule and Standard of Truth the Sacred Scriptures especially that part of it which is under peculiar consideration so on the other to the Experience and Service unto the edification of them that do believe whose spiritual benefit and advantage without any other consideration in the World is armed at in the publishing of them Imprimatur Octob. 12. 1668. Rob. Grove R. P. Humph. Dom. Episc. Lond. Ã sac Dom. AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX Psalm 130. OUt of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord. Lord hear my voyce let thine ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption And he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities A PARAPHRASE Verse 1 2. O Lord through my manifold sins and provocations I have brought my self into great distresses Mine Iniquities are alwayes before me and I am ready to be overwhelmed with them as with a flood of waters for they have brought me into depths wherein I am ready to be swallowed up But yet although my distress be great and perplexing I do not I dare not utterly despond and cast away all hopes of relief or recovery Nor do I seek unto any other remedy way or means of relief but I apply my self to thee Jehovah to thee alone And in this my Application unto thee the greatness and urgency of my troubles makes my soul urgent earnest and pressing in my supplications Whilst I have no rest I can give thee no rest Oh therefore attend and hearken unto the voyce of my crying and supplications Ver. 3. IT is true O Lord thou God great and terrible that if thou shouldst deal with me in this Condition with any man living with the best of thy Saints according to the strict and exact tenor of the Law which first represents it self to my guilty Conscience and troubled soul If thou shouldst take notice of observe and keep in Remembrance mine or their or the Iniquity of any one to the end that thou mightest deal with them and recompence unto them according to the sentence thereof there would be neither for me nor them any the least expectation of deliverance all flesh must fail before thee and the spirits which thou hast made and that to Eternity for who could stand before thee when thou shouldst so execute thy displeasure Ver. 4. BUt O Lord this is not absolutely and universally the state of things between thy Majesty and poor sinners Thou art in thy Nature infinitely Good and Gracious ready and free in the purposes of thy will to receive them And there is such a blessed way made for the exercise of the holy inclinations and purposes of thy heart towards them in the mediation and blood of thy dear Son That they have assured foundations of concluding and believing that there is pardon and forgiveness with thee for them and which in the way of thine appointments they may be partakers of This way therefore will I with all that fear thee persist in I will not give over leave thee or turn from thee through my fears discouragements and despondencies but will abide constantly in the observation of the worship which thou hast prescribed and the performance of the Obedience which thou dost require having great encouragements so to do Ver. 5. ANd herein upon the account of the forgiveness that is with thee O Lord do I wait with all patience quietness and perseverance In this work is my whole soul engaged even in an earnest expectation of thy approach unto me in a way of grace and mercy And for my encouragement therein hast thou given out unto me a blessed word of Grace a faithful word of promise wherein my hope is fixed Ver. 6. YEa in the performance and discharge of this duty my soul is intent upon thee and in its whole frame turned towards thee and that with such diligence and watchfulness in looking out after every way and means of thy appearance of thy manifestation of thy self and coming unto me that I excell therein those who with longing desire heedfulness and earnest expectation do wait and watch for the appearance of the morning and that either that they may rest from their night watches or have light for the duties of thy Worship in the Temple which they are most delighted in Ver. 7 8. HErein have I found that Rest peace and satisfaction unto my own soul that I cannot but invite and encourage others in the like Condition to take the same course with me Let then all the Israel of God all that fear him learn this of me and from my experience Be not hasty in your distresses despond not despair not turn not aside unto other remedies but hope in the Lord for I can now in an especial manner give testimony unto this that there is mercy with him suited unto your relief Yea whatever your distress be the Redemption that is with him is so bounteous plenteous and unsearchable that the undoubted issue of your performance of this duty will be that you shall be delivered from the guilt of all your sins and the perplexities of all your troubles General Scope of the whole Psalm THE design of the Holy Ghost in this Psalm is to express in the Experience of the Psalmist and the working of his faith the state and condition of a soul greatly in it self perplexed relieved on the account of Grace and acting it self towards God and his Saints suitably to the discovery of that Grace unto him A great design and full of great Instruction And this general Prospect gives us the parts and scope of the whole Psalm for 1. We have the state and condition of the soul therein represented with his deportment in and under that state and condition in ver 1 2. Out of the depths have I cryed
unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voyce let thine ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications 2. His enquiry after relief and therein are two things that present themselves unto him the one whereof which first offers the consideration of its self to him in his distress he deprecates ver 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand The other he closeth withal and finds relief in it and supportment by it ver 5. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Upon this his discovery and fixing on relief there is the acting of his Faith and the deportment of his whole Person 1. Towards God ver 5 6. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning 2. Towards the Saints ver 7 8. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption And he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities All which parts and the various concernments of them must be opened severally And this also gives an account of what is my design from and upon the words of this Psalm namely to declare the perplexed intanglements which may befall a gracious soul such a one as this Psalmist was with the nature and proper workings of Faith in such a condition Principally aiming at what it is that gives a soul relief and supportment in and afterward deliverance from such a perplexed estate The Lord in Mercy dispose of these Meditations in such a way and manner as that both he that writes and they that read may be made partakers of the benefit relief and consolation intended for his Saints in this Psalm by the Holy Ghost The State and Condition of the soul represented in the Psalm The two first Verses opened The State and Condition of the soul here represented as the Basis on which the process of the Psalm is built with its deportment or the general acting of its Faith in that state is expressed in the two first Verses Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord. Lord hear my voyce let thine ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications 1. The present state of the soul under consideration is included in that expression out of the Depths Some of the Antients as Chrysostom suppose this expression to relate unto the depths of the heart of the Psalmist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from the mouth or tongue only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from the depth and bottom of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the deepest recesses of the mind And indeed the word is used to express the depths of the hearts of Men but utterly in another sense Psal. 64. 6. The heart is deep But the obvious sense of the place and the constant use of the word will not admit of this Interpretation è Profund is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profundus fuit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number Profunditates or depths It is commonly used for Vallies or any deep places whatever but especially of Waters Vallies and deep Places because of their Darkness and Solitariness are accounted places of horror helplesness and trouble Psal. 23. 4. When I walk in the Valley of the shadow of Death that is in the extremity of danger and trouble The Moral use of the word as expressing the state and condition of the souls of men is metaphorical These Depths then are difficulties or pressures attended with fear horror danger and trouble And they are of two sorts 1. Providential in respect of outward distresses Calamities and Afflictions Psal. 69. 1. Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my soul I stick in the mire of the deep and there is no standing I am come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the depths of waters and the flood overflows me It is trouble and the extremity of it that the Psalmist complains of and which he thus expresseth He was brought by it into a condition like unto a man ready to be drowned being cast into the bottom of deep and miry waters where he had no firm foundation to stand upon nor ability to come out as he farther explains himself ver 15. 2. There are internal Depths Depths of Conscience upon the account of sin Psal. 88. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darkness in the deeps What he intends by this expression the Psalmist declares in the next words v. 7. Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me Sense of Gods wrath upon his conscience upon the account of sin was the deep he was cast into So v. 15. speaking of the same matter saith he I suffer thy terrors and v. 16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me Which he calls water waves and deeps according to the Metaphor before opened And these are the deeps that are here principally intended Clamat sub molibus fluctibus iniquitatum suarum sayes Austin on the place He cryes out under the weight and waves of his sins This the ensuing Psalm makes evident Desiring to be delivered from these depths out of which he cryed he deals with God wholly about mercy and forgiveness and it is sin alone from which forgiveness is a Deliverance The Doctrine also that he preacheth upon his Delivery is that of Mercy Grace and Redemption as is manifest from the close of the Psalm And what we have deliverance by is most upon our hearts when we are delivered It is true indeed that these deeps do oftentimes concurr as David speaks Deep calleth upon deep Psal. 4. 2. 7. The deeps of Affliction awaken the Conscience to a deep sense of sin But sin is the Disease Affliction only a Symptome of it and in attending a Cure the disease it self is principally to be heeded the symptome will follow or depart of its self Many Interpreters think that this was now Davids condition by great trouble and distress he was greatly minded of sin and we must not therefore wholly pass over that intendment of the word though we are chiefly to respect that which he himself in this address unto God did principally regard This in general is the state and condition of the soul mannaged in this Psalm and is as the key to the ensuing discourse or the hinge on which it turns As to my intendment from the Psalm That which ariseth from hence may be comprized in these two Propositions 1. Gracious souls after much Communion with God may be brought into inextricable depths and intanglements on the account of sin For such the Psalmist here expresseth his own condition to have been and such he was 2. The inward root of outward distresses is principally to be attended in all pressing tryals sin in Afflictions Gracious souls may be brought into depths on the account of sin What those Depths are Before I
proceed at all in the farther opening of the words they having all of them respect unto the Proposition first laid down I shall explain and confirm the truth contained in it that so it may be understood what we say and whereof we do affirm in the whole process of our Discourse It is a sad Truth that we have proposed unto consideration He that hears it ought to tremble in himself that he may rest in the day of trouble It speaks out the Apostles advice Rom. 11. 20. Be not high minded but fear and that also 1 Cor. 10. 12. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall When Peter had learned this truth by woful experience after all his boldness and forwardness he gives this Councel to all Saints that they would pass the time of their sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1. 14. Knowing how near in our greatest peace and serenity evil and danger may lye at the door Some few instances of the many that are left on record wherein this Truth is exemplified may be mentioned Gen. 6. 9. Noah was a just man perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God He did so a long season and that in an evil time amidst all sorts of Temptations When all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth ver 12. This put an eminency upon his obedience and doubtless rendred the Communion which he had with God in walking before him most sweet and precious to him He was a gracious soul upon the redoubled Testimony of God himself But we know what befell this holy Person He that shall read the story that is recorded of him Gen. 9. 21. will easily grant that he was brought into inextricable distress on the account of sin His own drunkenness ver 21. with the consequent of it gives scandal unto and provokes the unnatural lust of his Son v. 22. and this leads him to the devoting of that Son and his Posterity unto Destruction v. 24 25. all which joyned with the sense of Gods just indignation from whom he had newly received that tremendously miraculous deliverance must needs overwhelm him with sorrow and anxiety of Spirit The matter is more clear in David Under the Old Testament none loved God more than he none was loved of God more than he The Paths of Faith and Love wherein he walked are unto the most of us like the way of an Eagle in the Air too high and hard for us Yet to this very day do the cryes of this Man after Gods own heart sound in our Ears Sometimes he complains of broken bones sometimes of drowning depths sometimes of waves and water-spouts sometimes of wounds and diseases sometimes of Wrath and the sorrows of Hell every where of his sins the burden and trouble of them Some of the occasions of his Depths Darkness Intanglements and Distresses we all know As no man had more Grace than he so none is a greater instance of the power of sin and the effects of its guilt upon the conscience than he But Instances of this kind are obvious and occurr to the thoughts of all so that they need not be repeated I shall then shew First What in particular is intended by the depths and intanglements on the account of sin whereinto gracious souls after much Communion with God may be cast Secondly Whence it comes to pass that so they may be and that oftentimes so they are First For the First some or all of these things following do concurr to the Depths here complained of First Loss of the wonted sense of the Love of God which the soul did formerly enjoy There is a twofold sense of the Love of God whereof Believers in this world may be made partakers There is the transient affecting of the heart by the Holy Ghost with ravishing unspeakable joyes in apprehension of Gods Love and our Relation unto him in Christ. This or the immediate effect of it is called joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. The Holy Ghost shining into the heart with a clear evidence of the souls interest in all Gospel Mercies causeth it to leap for joy to exult and triumph in the Lord as being for a season carried above all sense and thought of sin self temptation or trouble But as God gives the bread of his House unto all his Children so these dainties and high Cordials he reserveth only for the seasons and Persons wherein and to whom he knows them to be needful and useful Believers may be without this sense of Love and yet be in no depths A man may be strong and healthy who hath wholsom food though he never drink Spirits and Cordials Again There is an abiding dwelling sense of Gods Love upon the hearts of the most of those of whom we speak who have had long communion with God consisting in a prevailing Gospel perswasion that they are accepted with God in Christ. Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God I call it a prevailing perswasion denoting both the opposition that is made unto it by Satan and unbelief and its efficacy in the conquest thereof This is the root from whence all that peace and ordinary consolation which Believers in this world are made partakers of do spring and grow This is that which quickens and enlivens them unto Duty Psal. 116. 12 13. and is the salt that renders their Sacrifices and Performances savoury to God and refreshing to themselves This supports them under their tryals gives them peace hope and comfort in Life and Death Psal. 23. 4. Though I walk in the valley of the shaddow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me A sense of Gods Presence in Love is sufficient to rebuke all anxiety and fears in the worst and most dreadful condition And not only so but to give in the midst of them solid Consolation and Joy So the Prophet expresseth it Hab. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation And this is that sense of Love which the choicest Believers may lose on the account of sin This is one step into their depths They shall not retain any such Gospel apprehension of it as that it should give them rest peace or consolation that it should influence their souls with delight in Duty or supportment in tryal And the Nature hereof will be afterwards more fully explained Secondly Perplexed thoughtfulness about their great and wretched unkindness towards God are another part of the Depths of sin-intangled souls So David complains Psal. 77. 3. I remembred God saith he and was troubled How comes the Remembrance of God to be unto him a matter of trouble in other Places he
is spoken relates to the sense of sinners in their own souls and not to the nature of the thing it self There is in the Gospel consolation provided against the greatest as well as the least sins The difference ariseth from Gods Soveraign communication of it according to that tenor of the Covenants Administration which we have laid down Hence because under Moses's Law there was an exception made of some sins for which there was no Sacrifice appointed so that those who were guilty of them could no way be justified from them that is carnally as to their interest in the Judaical Church and Polity Paul tells the Jews Acts 13. 38 39. That through Jesus Christ was preached unto them the forgiveness of sins and that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses There is now no exception of any particular sins as to pardon and peace but what we have spoken relates unto the manner and way wherein God is pleased to administer consolation to the souls of sinning Believers And this is the Evidence which I shall offer to prove that the souls of Believers after much Gracious Communion with God may yet fall into inextricable depths on the account of sin whence it is that actually they oftentimes do so shall be farther declared The Principles of this Assertion are known I shall therefore only touch upon them First The nature of Indwelling-sin as it remains in the best of the Saints in this life being a little considered will evidence unto us from whence it is that they are sometimes surprized and plunged into the depths mentioned For First Though the strength of every sin be weakned by Grace yet the root of no sin is in this life wholly taken away Lust is like the stubborn Canaanites who after the general conquest of the Land would yet dwell in it still Judg. 17. 12. Indeed when Israel grew strong they brought them under tribute but they could not utterly expell them The Kingdom and Rule belongs to Grace and when it grows strong it brings sin much under but it will not wholly be driven out The Body of Death is not utterly to be done away but in and by the Death of the Body In the flesh of the best Saints there dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 8. but the contrary is there that is the root of all evil The flesh lusteth against the Spirit as the Spirit lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5. 17. As then there is an Universality in the actings of the Spirit in its opposing all evil so also there is an Universality in the actings of the flesh for the furtherance of it Secondly Some Lusts or branches of original corruption do obtain in some persons such advantages either from Nature Custom Employment Society or the like Circumstances that they become like the Canaanites that had iron Chariots it is a very difficult thing to subdue them Well it is if War be maintained constantly against them for they will almost alwayes be in actual Rebellion Thirdly Indwelling-Sin though weakned retaineth all its properties the properties of a thing follow its nature Where the nature of any thing is there are all its natural properties What are these properties of Indwelling Sin I should here declare but that I have handled the whole power and efficacy the nature and properties of it in a Treatise to that only purpose In brief they are such as it is no wonder that some Believers are by them cast into depths but it is indeed that any do escape them But hereof the Reader may see at large my Discourse on this particular subject Secondly Add hereunto the power and prevalency of temptation which because also I have already in a special Discourse to that purpose insisted on I shall not here farther lay open Thirdly The Soveraign pleasure of God in dealing with sinning Saints must also be considered Divine Love and Wisdom work not towards all in the same manner God is pleased to continue Peace unto some with a non-obstante for great provocations Love shall humble them and rebukes of kindness shall recover them from their wandrings Others he is pleased to bring into the depths we have been speaking of But yet I may say generally signal provocations meet with one of these two events from God First Those in whom they are are left unto some signal barrenness and fruitlesness in their Generations they shall wither grow barren worldly sapless and be much cast out of the hearts of the people of God Or Secondly They shall be exercised in these depths from whence their way of deliverance is laid down in this Psalm Thus I say God deals with his Saints in great variety Some shall have all their bones broken when others shall have only the gentle strokes of the rod. We are in the hand of Mercy and he may deal with us as seems good unto him but for our parts great sins ought to be attended with expectations of great depths and preplexities And this is the state of the soul proposed in this Psalm and by us unto consideration These are the depths wherein it is entangled these the wayes and means whereby it is brought into these depths It s deportment in and under this state and condition lyes next in our way But before I proceed thereunto I shall annex some few things unto what hath been delivered tending to the farther opening of the whole Case before us And they are 1. What are or of what sort those sins are which usually cast the souls of Believers into these depths and then 2. Insist on some Aggravations of them What sins usually bring Believers into great spiritual distresses Aggravations of those sins First Sins in their own nature wasting Conscience are of this sort Sins that rise in opposition unto all of God that is in us that is the light of Grace and Nature also Such are the sins that cast David into his depths Such are the sins enumerated 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Be not deceived saith the Apostle neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Mankind Nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Certain it is that Believers may fall into some of the sins here mentioned Some have done so as is left on record The Apostle says not those who have committed any of these sins but such sinners shall not inherit the Kingdom of God that is who live in these or any of these sins or any like unto them There is no provision of mercy made for such sinners These and the like are sins which in their own nature without the consideration of aggravating circumstances which yet indeed really in Believers they can never be without are able to plunge a soul into depths These sins cut the locks of mens spiritual strength and it is in vain for them to say
Providence causeth some special word in the Preaching of the Gospel or the Administration of some Ordinance thereof peculiarly suited to the state and condition of the soul by the wayes of rebuke or perswasion to come nigh and enter the inmost parts of the heart The soul cannot but take notice that God is nigh to him that he is dealing with him and caling on him to look to him for assistance And he seldom gives such warnings to his Saints but that he is nigh them in an eminent manner to give them relief and help if in answer unto his call they apply themselves unto him but if his care and kindness herein be neglected his following reproofs are usually more severe Seventhly Sins that bring scandal seldom suffer the soul to escape depths Even in great sins God in chastening takes more notice oft-times of the scandal than the sin as 2 Sam. 12. 14. Many professors take little notice of their worldliness their pride their passion their lavish tongues but the world doth and the Gospel is disadvantaged by it and no wonder if themselves find from the hand of the Lord the bitter fruits of them in the issue And many other such Aggravations of sins there are which heighten provocations in their own nature not of so dreadful an aspect as some others into a guilt plunging a soul into depths Those which have been named may suffice in the way of instance which is all that we have aimed at and therefore forbear enlargements on the several heads of them The consideration of some Aggravations of the guilt of these sins which bring the soul usually into the condition before laid down shall close this discourse First The soul is furnished with a Principle of Grace which is continually operative and working for its preservation from such sins The new Creature is living and active for its own growth increase and security according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace Gal. 5. 17. it lusteth against the flesh It is naturally active for its own preservation and increase as new born Children have a natural inclination to the food that will keep them alive and cause them to grow 1 Pet. 2. 2. The soul then cannot fall into these entangling sins but it must be with an high neglect of that very Principle which is bestowed upon it for quite contrary ends and purposes The labourings lustings desires crying of it are neglected Now it is from God and of God and is the Renovation of his Image in us that which God owneth and careth for the wounding of its vitals the stifling its operations the neglect of its endeavours for the souls preservation do alwayes attend sins of the importance spoken unto Secondly Whereas this new Creature this principle of life and obedience is not able of it self to preserve the soul from such sins as will bring it into depths there is full provision for continual supplies made for it and all its wants in Jesus Christ. There are treasures of relief in Christ whereunto the soul may at any time repair and find succour against the incursions of sin He sayes to the soul as David unto Abiathar when he fled from Doeg Abide with me fear not he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life but with me thou shalt be in safety Sin is my Enemy no less than thine it seeketh the life of thy soul and it seeketh my life abide with me for with me thou shalt be in safety This the Apostle exhorts us unto Heb. 4. 16. Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need If ever it be a time of need with a soul it is so when it is under the assaults of provoking sins At such a time there is suitable and seasonable help in Christ for succour and relief The new Creature beggs with sighs and groans that the soul would apply it self unto him To neglect him with all his Provision of Grace whilst he stands calling unto us open unto me for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night to despise the sighing of the poor Prisoner the new Creature by sin appointed to dye cannot but be an high provocation May not God complain and say see these poor creatures they were once intrusted with a stock of Grace in themselves this they cast away and themselves into the utmost misery thereby That they might not utterly perish a second time their portion and stock is now laid up in another a safe Treasurer in him are their lives and comforts secured But see their wretched negligence they venture all rather than they will attend to him for succour And what think we is the heart of Christ when he sees his Children giving way to conscience wasting sins without that application unto him which the life and peace of their own souls calls upon them for These are not sins of daily infirmity which cannot be avoided but their guilt is alwayes attended with a neglect more or less of the relief provided in Christ against them The means of preservation from them is blessed ready nigh at hand the concernment of Christ in our preservation great of our souls unspeakable to neglect and despise means Christ souls peace and life must needs render guilt very guilty Thirdly Much to the same purpose may be spoken about that signal provision that is made against such sins as these in the Covenant of Grace as hath been already declared But I shall not farther carry on this discourse And this may suffice as to the state and condition of the soul in this Psalm represented We have seen what the depths are wherein it is intangled and by what wayes and means any one may come to be cast into them The next thing that offers it self unto our consideration is the deportment of a gracious soul in that state and condition or what course it steers towards a delivery The Duty and Actings of a Believer under distresses from a sense of sin His Application unto God To God alone Earnestness and intention of mind therein The words of these two first Verses declare also the deportment of the soul in the condition that we have described that is what it doth and what course it steers for relief I have cryed unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications There is in the words a General Application made in a tendency unto relief wherein is first to be considered to whom the Application is made and that is JEHOVAH I have cryed unto thee Jehovah God gave out that Name to his people to confirm their faith in the stability of his Promises Exod. 3. He who is BEING himself will assuredly give being and subsistance to his promises Being to deal with God about the promises of grace he makes his Application to him under this name I call upon thee Jehovah In
the Application it self may be observed First The Anthropopathy of the Expression He prayes that God would cause his ears to be attentive after the manner of men who seriously attend to what is spoken to them when they turn aside from that which they regard not Secondly The Earnestness of the soul in the work it hath in hand which is evident both from the Reduplication of his request Lord hear my voyce let thine ears be attentive to my voyce and the Emphaticalness of the words he maketh use of Let thine ears saith he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diligently Attentive The word signifies the most diligent heedfulness and close attention let thine ears be very attentive and unto what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the voice of my supplications deprecationum mearum generally say Interpreters of my Deprecations or earnest prayers for the averting of evil or punishment But the word is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratiosus suit to be gracious or merciful so that it signifies properly supplications for grace Be attentive saith he O Lord unto my supplications for grace and mercy which according to my extream necessity I now address my self to make unto thee And in these words doth the Psalmist set forth in general the frame and working of a gracious soul being cast into depths and darkness by sin The foundation of what I shall farther thence pursue lyes in these two Propositions First The only attempt of a sinful entangled soul for relief lyes in an application to God alone To thee Jehovah have I cryed Lord hear Secondly Depths of sin intanglements will put a gracious soul on intense and earnest application unto God Lord hear Lord attend Dying men do not use to cry out slothfully for relief What may be thought necessary in general for the direction of a soul in the state and condition described shall briefly be spoken unto from these two Propositions First Trouble danger disquietment arguing not only things evil but a sense in the mind and soul of them will of themselves put those in whom they are upon seeking relief Every thing would naturally be at rest A drowning man needs no Exhortation to endeavour his own deliverance and safety And spiritual troubles will in like manner put men on attempts for relief To seek for no remedy is to be senslesly obdurate or wretchedly desperate as Cain and Judas We may suppose then that the principal business of every soul in depths is to endeavour deliverance They cannot rest in that condition wherein they have no rest In this endeavour what course a gracious soul steers is laid down in the first Proposition negatively and positively He applyes himself not to any thing but God he applyes himself unto God An eminent instance we have of it in both parts or both to the one side and the other Hos. 14. 3. Ashur say those poor distressed returning sinners shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Their application unto God is attended with a renunciation of every other way of relief Several things there are that sinners are apt to apply themselves unto for relief in their perplexities which prove unto them as waters that fail How many things have the Romanists invented to deceive souls withal Saints and Angels the Blessed Virgin Wood of the Cross Confissions Rennances Masses Pilgrimages Dirges Purgatories Papal Pardons Works of Compensation and the like are made entrances for innumerable souls into everlasting ruine Did they know the terror of the Lord the nature of Sin and of the mediation of Christ they would be ashamed and confounded in themselves for these abominations they would not say unto these their Idols ye are our Gods come and save us How short do all their contrivances come of his that would fain be offering Rivers of Oyl yea the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul his first born for his transgression Mich. 6. 7. Who yet gains nothing but an Aggravation of his sin and misery thereby Yea the Heathen went beyond them in devotion and expence It is no new enquiry what course sin perplexed souls should take for relief From the foundation of the world the minds of far the greatest part of mankind have been exercised in it As was there light or darkness such was the course they took Among those who were ignorant of God this Enquiry brought forth all that Diabolical Superstition which spread it self over the face of the whole world Gentilism being destroyed by the power and Efficacy of the Gospel the same enquiry working in the minds of darkned men in conjunction with other lusts brought forth the Papacy When men had lost a spiritual acquaintance with the Covenant of Grace and Mysterie of the Gospel the design of eternal love the efficacy of the blood of Christ they betook themselves in part or in whole for relief under their entanglements unto the broken Cisterns mentioned They are of two sorts Self and other things For those other things which belong unto their false Worship being abominated by all the Saints of God I shall not need to make any farther mention of them That which relates unto self is not confined unto Popery but extends it self to the limits of Humane Nature and is predominate in all that are under the Law that is to seek for relief in sin distresses by self-endeavours self-righteousness Hence many poor souls in straights apply themselves to themselves They expect their cure from the same hand that wounded them This was the life of Judaism as the Apostle informs us Rom. 10. 3. And all men under the Law are still animated by the same principle They return but not unto the Lord. Finding themselves in depths in distresses about sin what course do they take This they will do that they will do no more this shall be their ordinary course and that they will do in an extraordinary manner as they have offended whence their trouble ariseth so they will amend and look that their peace should spring from thence as if God and they stood on equal terms In this way some spend all their dayes sinning and amending amending and sinning without once coming to repentance and peace This the souls of believers watch against They look on themselves as fatherless in thee the fatherless findeth mercy that is helpless without the least ground of hopes in themselves or expectation from themselves They know their repentance their amendment their supplications their humiliations their fastings their mortifications will not relieve them Repent they will and amend they will and pray and fast and humble their souls for they know these things to be their duty but they know that their goodness extends not to him with whom they have to do nor is he profited by their righteousness They will be in the performance of all duties but
in all this dispensation aimed at by God Ephes. 1. 6. That which he is now doing is to bring the soul to glory in him 1 Cor. 1. 31. which is all the return he hath from his large and infinitely bountiful expence of Grace and Mercy Now nothing can render Grace conspicuous and glorious until the soul come to this frame Grace will not seem high until the soul be laid very low And this also suits or prepares the soul for the receiving of mercy in a sense of pardon the great thing aimed at on the part of the sinner And it prepares it for every duty that is incumbent on him in that condition wherein he is This brings the soul to waiting with diligence and patience If things presently answer not our expectation we are ready to think we have done what we can if it will be no better we must bear it as we are able which frame God abhors The soul in this frame is contented to wait the pleasure of God as we shall see in the close of the Psalm Oh saith such an one if ever I obtain a sense of Love if ever I enjoy one smile of his countenance more it is of unspeakable Grace Let him take his own time his own season it is good for me quietly to wait and to hope for his salvation And it puts the soul on prayer yea a soul alwayes in this frame prayes alwayes And there is nothing more evident than that want of a through engagement into the performance of these duties is the great cause why so few come clear off from their entanglements all their dayes Men heal their wounds slightly and therefore after a new painful festering they are brought into the same condition of restlesness and trouble which they were in before Grounds of miscarriages when persons are convinced of sin and humbled Resting in that state Resting on it The soul is not to be left in the state before described There is other work for it to apply it self unto if it intend to come unto Rest and peace It hath obtained an eminent advantage for the discovery of Forgiveness But to rest in that state wherein it is or to rest upon it will not bring it into its harbour Three things we discovered before in the souls first serious address unto God for deliverance sense of sin acknowledgement of it and self-condemnation Two evils there are which attend men oftentimes when they are brought into that state Some rest in it and press no farther some rest upon it and suppose that it is all which is required of them The Psalmist avoids both these and notwithstanding all his pressures reacheth out towards forgiveness as we shall see in the next verse I shall briefly unfold these two evils and shew the necessity of their avoidance First By resting or staying in it I mean the souls desponding through discouraging thoughts that deliverance is not to be obtained Being made deeply sensible of sin it is so overwhelmed with thoughts of its own vileness and unworthiness as to sink under the burden Such a soul is afflicted and tossed with tempests and not comforted Isa. 54. 11. until it is quite weary As a Ship in a storm at Sea when all means of contending are gone men give up themselves to be driven and tossed by the Winds and Seas at their pleasure This brought Israel to that state wherein he cryed out My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God Isa. 40. 27. and Zion The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Chap. 49. 14. The soul begins secretly to think there is no hope God regardeth it not it shall one day perish relief is far away and trouble nigh at hand These thoughts do so oppress them that though they forsake not God utterly to their destruction yet they draw not nigh unto him effectually to their consolation This is the first evil that the soul in this condition is enabled to avoid We know how God rebukes it in Sion Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Isaiah 49. 14. But how foolish is Sion how froward how unbelieving in this matter what ground hath she for such sinful despondencies such discouraging conclusions Can a woman saith the Lord forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget but I will not forget thee The like reproof he gives to Jacob upon the like complaint Chap. 40. 28 29 30. There is nothing that is more provoking to the Lord nor more disadvantagious unto the soul than such sinful despondency For First It insensibly weakens the soul and disenables it both for present duties and future endeavours Hence some poor creatures mourn and even pine away in this condition never getting one step beyond a perplexing sense of sin all their dayes Some have dwelt so long upon it and have so intangled themselves with a multitude of perplexed thoughts that at length their natural faculties have been weakned and rendred utterly useless so that they have lost both sense of sin and every thing else Against some Satan hath taken advantage to cast in so many intangling objections into their minds that their whole time hath been taken up in proposing doubts and objections against themselves with these they have gone up and down to one and another and being never able to come unto a consistency in their own thoughts they have spent all their dayes in a fruitless sapless withering comfortless condition Some with whom things come to a better issue are yet for a season brought to that discomposure of Spirit or are so filled with their own apprehensions that when the things which are most proper to their condition are spoken to them they take no impression in the least upon them Thus the soul is weakned by dwelling too long on these considerations until some cry with those in Ezek. 33. 10. Our sins are upon us we pine away in them and how should we then live Secondly This frame if it abides by its self will insensibly give countenance unto hard thoughts of God and so to repining and weariness in waiting on him At first the soul neither apprehends nor fears any such issue It supposeth that it shall condemn and abhorr it self and justifie God and that for ever But when relief comes not in this resolution begins to weaken Secret thoughts arise in the heart that God is austere inexorable and not to be dealt withall This sometimes casts forth such complaints as will bring the soul unto new complaints before it comes to have an issue of its tryals Here in humiliations antecedaneous to conversion many a convinced person perisheth They cannot wait Gods season and perish under their impatience And what the Saints of God themselves have been overtaken withal in their depths and tryals we have many examples and instances Delight and Expectation are the grounds of
our abiding with God Both these are weakned by a conquering prevailing sense of sin without some relief from the discovery of forgiveness though at a distance And therefore our perplexed soul stayes not here but presseth on towards that discovery Secondly There is a resting on this frame that is noxious and hurtful also Some finding this sense of sin with those other things that attend it wrought in them in some measure begin to think that now all is well this is all that is of them required They will endeavour to make a life from such arguments of comfort as they can take from their trouble They think this a ground of peace that they have not peace Here some take up before conversion and it proves their ruine Because they are convinced of sin and troubled about it and burdened with it they think it shall be well with them But were not Cain Esau Saul Ahab Judas convinced of sin and burdened with it Did this profit them Did it interest them in the promises Did not the wrath of God overtake them notwithstanding So is it with many daily they think their conviction is conversion and that their sins are pardoned because they have been troubled This then is that which we reject which the soul in this condition doth carefully avoid so to satisfie it self with its humiliation as to make that a ground of supportment and consolation being thereby kept off from exercising faith for forgiveness For this is First A fruit of self-righteousness For a soul to place the spring of its peace or comfort in any thing of its own is to fall short of Christ and to take up in self We must not only be justified but glory in him also Isa. 45. 25. Men may make use of the evidence of their graces but only as mediums to a farther end not as the rest of the soul in the least And this deprives mens very humiliations of all Gospel humility True humility consists more in believing than in being sensible of sin That 's the souls great self-emptying and abasing this may consist with an obstinate resolution to scamble for something upon the account of self endeavours Secondly Though Evangelical sense of sin be a Grace yet it is not the uniting Grace it is not that which interests us in Christ not that which peculiarly and in its own nature exalts him There is in this sense of sin that which is natural and that which is spiritual or the matter of it and its spirituality The former consists in sorrow trouble self-abasement dejection and anxiety of mind with the like passions Of these I may say as the Apostle of Afflictions they are not joyous but grievous They are such as are accompanied with the aversation of the object which they are conversant about In their own nature they are no more but the souls retreat into it self with an abhorrency of the objects of its sorrow and grief When these Affections are spiritualized their nature is not changed The soul in and by them acts according to their nature and doth by them as such but retreat into it self with a dislike of that they are exercised about To take up here then must needs be to sit down short of Christ whether it be for life or consolation Let there be no mistake There can be no Evangelical sense of sin and humiliation where there is not Union with Christ Zech. 12. 10. Only in its self and in its own nature it is not availing Now Christ is the only rest of our souls in any thing for any end or purpose to take up short of him is to lose it It is not enough that we be prisoners of hope but we must turn to our strong hold Zech. 9. 12. not enough that we are weary and laden but we must come to him Matth. 11. 27 28. It will not suffice that we are weak and know we are weak but we must take hold on the strength of God Isa. 27. 4 5. Thirdly Indeed pressing after forgiveness is the very life and power of Evangelical humiliation How shall a man know that his humiliation is Evangelical that his sorrow is according to God Is it not from hence he may be resolved that he doth not in it as Cain did who cryed his sin was greater than he could bear and so departed from the presence of God nor as Judas did who repented and hanged himself nor as Felix did tremble for a while and then return to his lusts nor as the Jews did in the Prophet pine away under his iniquities because of vexation of heart nor doth he divert his thoughts to other things thereby to relieve his soul in his trouble nor fix upon a Righteousness of his own nor slothfully lye down under his perplexity but in the midst of it he plyes himself to God in Christ for pardon and mercy And it is the souls Application unto God for forgiveness and not its sense of sin that gives unto God the glory of his Grace Thus far then have we accompanied the soul in its depths it is now looking out for forgiveness which what it is and how we come to have an interest in it the principal matter in this discourse intended is nextly to be considered Verse 4. The Words explained and the design or scope of the Psalmist in them discovered THe state and condition of the soul making Application unto God in this Psalm is recounted v. 1. It was in the depths not only Providential depths of Trouble Affliction and perplexities thereon but also depths of conscience distress on the account of sin as in the opening of those words hath been declared The Application of this soul unto God with restless fervency and earnestness in that state and condition its consideration in the first place of the Law and the severity of Gods Justice in a proceedure thereon with the inevitable ruine of all sinners if God insist on that way of dealing with them have also been opened and manifested from the foregoing Verses Being in this estate perplexed in its self lost in and under the consideration of Gods marking iniquity according to the tenor of the Law that which it fixes on from whence any relief stay or supportment might be expected in such a condition is laid down in this Verse Ver. 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared I shall first open the words as to their signisication and importance then shew the design of the Psalmist in them with reference to the soul whose condition is here represented and lastly propose the general Truths contained in them wherein all our concernments do lye There is forgiveness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXX and Hierom accordingly Propitiatio propitiation which is somewhat more than venia or pardon as by some it is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condonatio ipsa forgiveness its self It is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spare to pardon to forgive to be
between those whom he serves and their Enemies so that he may leave his Guard and set open the Gates and cease his watchfulness how wary will he be lest under this pretence he be betrayed No saith he I will keep my hold until I have express order from my Superiours Conscience is entrusted with the power of God in the soul of a sinner with command to keep all in subjection with reference unto the Judgement to come it will not betray its trust in believing every report of peace No! but this it sayes and it speaks in the name of God Guilt and punishment are inseparable twins If the soul sin God will judge What tell you me of forgiveness I know what my commission is and that I will abide by you shall not bring in a Superior Commander a cross Principle into my trust for if this be so it seems I must let go my Throne another Lord must come in not knowing as yet how this whole business is compounded in the blood of Christ. Now whom should a man believe if not his own Conscience which as it will not flatter him so it intends not to affright him but to speak the truth as the matter requireth Conscience hath two works in reference unto sin one to condemn the Acts of sin another to judge the Person of the sinner both with reference to the Judgement of God When forgiveness comes it would sever and part these employments and take one of them out of the hand of conscience It would divide the spoil with this strong one It shall condemn the fact or every sin but it shall no more condemn the sinner the Person of the sinner that shall be freed from its sentence Here Conscience labours with all its might to keep its whole dominion and to keep out the power of forgiveness from being enthroned in the soul. It will allow men to talk of forgiveness to hear it preached though they abuse it every day but to receive it in its power that stands up in direct opposition to its dominion in the Kingdom saith Conscience I will be greater than thou and in many in the most it keeps its possession and will not be deposed Nor indeed is it an easie work so to deal with it The Apostle tells us that all the Sacrifices of the Law could not do it Heb. 10. 2. they could not bring a man into that estate wherein he should have no more conscience of sin that is Conscience condemning the Person for conscience in a sense of sin and condemnation of it is never to be taken away And this can be no otherwise done but by the blood of Christ as the Apostle at large there declares It is then no easie thing to make a discovery of forgiveness unto a soul when the work and employment which Conscience upon unquestionable grounds challengeth unto it self lyes in opposition unto it Hence is the souls great desire to establish its own Righteousness whereby its natural Principles may be preserved in their power Let self-righteousness be enthroned and natural conscience desires no more it is satisfied and pacified The Law it knows and Righteousness it knows but as for forgiveness it sayes whence is it Unto the utmost until Christ perfects his conquest there are on this account secret struglings in the heart against free pardon in the Gospel and fluctuations of mind and Spirit about it Yea hence are the doubts and fears of believers themselves They are nothing but the strivings of Conscience to keep its whole dominion to condemn the sinner as well as the sin More or less it keeps up its pretensions against the Gospel whilst we live in this world It is a great work that the blood of Christ hath to do upon the Conscience of a sinner for whereas as it hath been declared it hath a power and claims a right to condemn both sin and sinner the one part of this its power is to be cleared strengthened made more active vigorous and watchful the other to be taken quite away It shall now see more sins than formerly more of the vileness of all sins than formerly and condemn them with more abborrency than ever upon more and more glorious accounts than formerly but it is also made to see an interposition between these sins and the Person of the sinner who hath committed them which is no small or ordinary work Secondly The Law lyes against this discovery The Law is a beam of the Holiness of God himself What it speaks unto us it speaks in the name and Authority of God And I shall briefly shew concerning it these two things 1. That this is the voyce of the Law namely that there is no forgiveness for a sinner 2. That a sinner hath great reason to give credit to the Law in that Assertion 1. It is certain that the Law knows neither mercy nor forgiveness The very sanction of it lyes wholly against them The soul that sinneth shall dye Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Deut. 27. 26. Hence the Apostle pronounceth universally without exception that they who are under the Law are under the curse Gal. 3. 10. And saith he v. 12. The Law is not of faith There is an inconsistency between the Law and believing they cannot have their abode in power together Do this and live fail and dye is the constant immutable voyce of the Law This it speaks in general to all and this in particular to every one 2. The sinner seems to have manifold and weighty Reasons to attend to the voyce of this Law and to acquiesce in its sentence For 1. The Law is connatural to him his Domestick his old acquaintance It came into the world with him and hath grown up with him from his Infancy It was implanted in his heart by nature is his own Reason he can never shake it off or part with it It is his Familiar his Friend that cleaves to him as the flesh to the bone so that they who have not the Law written cannot but sheâ— forth the work of the Law Rom. 2. 14. 15. and that because the Law it self is inbred to them and all the faculties of the soul are at peace with it in subjection to it It is the bond and ligament of their union harmony and correspondency among themselves in all their moral actings It gives life order motion to them all Now the Gospel that comes to controll this sentence of the Law and to relieve the sinner from it is forraign to his nature a strange thing to him a thing he hath no acquaintance or familiarity with it hath not been bred up with him nor is there any thing in him to side with it to make a party for it or to plead in its behalf Now shall not a man rather believe a Domestick a Friend indeed himself than a forraigner a stranger that comes with uncouth Principles and such as
the thing it self They take it for granted that so it is and are never put seriously upon the enquiry how it comes to be so and that because indeed they have no real concernment in it How many thousands may we meet withall who take it for granted that forgiveness is to be had with God that never yet had any serious exercise in their souls about the grounds of it and its consistency with his holiness and justice But those that know it by faith have a sense of it fixed particularly and distinctly on their minds They have been put upon an enquiry into the rise and grounds of it in Christ so that on a good and unquestionable foundation they can go to God and say there is forgiveness with thee They see how and by what means more glory comes unto God by forgiveness then by punishing of sin which is a matter that the other sort of men are not at all solicitous about If they may escape punishment whether God have any glory or no for the most part they are indifferent Secondly The first Apprehension ariseth without any tryal upon enquiry in the Consciences of them in whom it is They have not by the power of their convictions and distresses of Conscience been put to make enquiry whether this thing be so or no. It is not a perswasion that they have arrived unto in a way of seeking satisfaction to their own souls It is not the result of a deep enquiry after peace and rest It is antecedent unto Tryal and Experience and so is not Faith but Opinion For although Faith be not Experience yet it is inseparable from it as is every practical habit Distresses in their consciences have been prevented by this Opinion not removed The reason why the most of men are not troubled about their sins to any purpose is from a persuasion that God is merciful and will pardon when indeed none can really on a Gospel account ordinarily have that perswasion but those who have been troubled for sin and that to the purpose So is it with them that make this discovery by faith They have had conflicts in their own spirits and being deprived of peace have accomplished a diligent search whether forgiveness were to be obtained or no. The perswasion they have of it be it more or less is the issue of a tryal they have had in their own souls of an enquiry how things stood between God and them as to peace and acceptation of their Persons This is a vast difference the one sort might possibly have had trouble in their consciences about sin had it not been for their Opinion of forgiveness this hath prevented or stifled their convictions not healed their wounds which is the work of the Gospel but kept them from being wounded which is the work of security Yea here lyes the ruine of the most of them who perish under the preaching of the Gospel They have received the general notion of pardon it floats in their minds and presently presents it self to their relief on all occasions Doth God at any time in the dispensation of the Word under an Affliction upon some great sin against their ruling light begin to deal with their consciences before their conviction can ripen or come to any perfection before it draw nigh to its perfect work they choak it and heal their consciences with this notion of pardon Many a man between the Assembly and his dwelling house is thus cured You may see them go away shaking their heads and striking on their breasts and before they come home be as whole as ever Well! God is merciful there is pardon hath wrought the cure The other sort have obtained their perswasion as a result of the discovery of Christ in the Gospel upon a full conviction Tryals they have had and this is the issue Thirdly The one which we reject worketh no Love to God no Delight in him no Reverence of him but rather a contempt and commonness of Spirit in dealing with him There are none in the world that deal worse with God than those who have an ungrounded perswasion of forgiveness And if they do fear him or love him or obey him in any thing more or less it is on other motives and considerations which will not render any thing they do acceptable and not at all on this As he is good to the Creation they may love as he is great and powerful they may fear him but sense of pardon as to any such ends or purposes hath no power upon them Carnal boldness formality and despising of God are the common issues of such a notion and perswasion Indeed this is the generation of great sinners in the world men who have a general apprehension but not a sense of the special power of pardon openly or secretly in fleshly or spiritual sins are the great sinners among men Where faith makes a discovery of forgiveness all things are otherwise Great Love Fear and Reverence of God are its attendants Mary Magdalen loved much because much was forgiven Great Love will spring out of great forgiveness There is forgiveness with thee saith the Psalmist that thou maist be feared No unbeliever doth truly and experimentally know the truth of this inference But so it is when men fear the Lord and his Goodness Hos. 3. 5. 1 say then where pardoning mercy is truly apprehended where faith makes a discovery of it to the soul it is endeared unto God and possessed of the great springs of Love Delight Fear and Reverence Psal. 116. 1 5 6 7. Fourthly This notional apprehension of the pardon of sin begets no serious through hatred and detestation of sin nor is prevalent to a relinquishment of it nay it rather secretly insinuates into the soul encouragements unto a continuance in it It is the nature of it to lessen and extenuate sin and to support the soul against its convictions So Jude tells us that some turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness v. 4. and sayes he they are ungodly men let them profess what they will they are ungodly men But how can they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness Is Grace capable of a conversion into Lust or Sin Will what was once Grace ever become Wantonness It is Objective not Subjective Grace the Doctrine not the real substance of Grace that is intended The Doctrine of forgiveness is this Grace of God which may be thus abused From hence do men who have only a general notion of it habitually draw secret encouragements to sin and folly Paul also lets us know that carnal men coming to a doctrinal acquaintance with Gospel Grace are very apt to make such conclusions Rom. 6. 1. And it will appear at the last day how unspeakably this glorious Grace hath been perverted in the world It would be well for many if they had never heard the name of forgiveness It is otherwise where this Revelation is received indeed in the soul by believing Rom. 6.
his own Soveraign Will and pleasure This is his great Glory Exod. 33. 18 19. Shew me thy glory saith Moses And he said I will make all my Goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and I will be Gracious to whom I will be Gracious Upon that proclamation of the name of God that he is merciful gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness some might conclude that it could not be otherwise with any but well he is such a one as that men need scarce be beholding to him for Mercy Nay saith he but this is my great glory that I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious There must be an interposition of a free Act of the Will of God to deal with us according to this his abundant goodness or we can have no interest therein This I call the purpose of his Grace or the good pleasure that he hath purposed in himself Ephes. 1. 9. or as it is termed v. 5 6. The good pleasure of his Will that he hath purposed to the praise of his glorious grace This free and gracious pleasure of God or purpose of his Will to act towards sinners according to his own abundant goodness is another thing that influences the forgiveness of which we treat Pardon flows immediately from a Soveraign Act of free Grace This free purpose of Gods will and Grace for the pardoning of sinners is indeed that which is principally intended when we say there is forgiveness with him That is he is pleased to forgive and so to do is agreeable unto his nature Now the Mysterie of this Grace is deep It is eternal and therefore incomprehensible Few there are whose hearts are raised to a contemplation of it Men rest and content themselves in a general notion of mercy which will not be advantagious to their souls freed they would be from punishment but what it is to be forgiven they enquire not So what they know of it they come easily by but will find in the issue it will stand them in little stead But these fountains of Gods actings are revealed that they may be the fountains of our comforts Now of this purpose of Gods Grace there are several Acts all of them relating unto Gospel forgiveness First There is his purpose of sending his Son to be the great means of procuring of purchasing forgiveness Though God be infinitely and incomprehensibly gracious though he purpose to exert his Grace and Goodness toward sinners yet he will so do it do it in such a way as shall not be prejudicial to his own Holiness and Righteousness His Justice must be satisfied and his holy indignation against sin made known Wherefore he purposeth to send his Son and hath sent him to make way for the exercise of Mercy so as no way to eclipse the glory of his Justice Holiness and hatred of sin Better we should all eternally come short of forgiveness than that God should lose any thing of his glory This we have Rom. 3. 25. God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past The Remission of sins is the thing aimed at but this must be so brought about as that therein not only the mercy but the Righteousness of God may be declared and therefore must it be brought forth by a propitiation or making of an Attonement in the blood of Christ. So John 3. 16. 1 John 4. 9. Rom. 5. 8. This I say also lyes in the mysterie of that forgiveness that is administred in the Gospel It comes forth from this eternal purpose of making way by the blood of Christ to the dispensation of pardon And this greatly heightens the excellency of this discovery Men who have slight thoughts of God whose hearts were never awed with his dread or greatness who never seriously considered his purity and holiness may think it no great matter that God should pardon sin But do they consider the way whereby it was to be brought about even by the sending of his only Son and that to dye as we shall see afterwards Neither was there any other way whereby it might be done Let us now lay aside common thoughts Assent upon reports and tradition and rightly weigh this matter Doubtless we shall find it to be a great thing that forgiveness should be so with God as to be made out unto us we know somewhat what we are by sending his only Son to dye Oh how little is this really believed even by them who make a profession of it and what mean thoughts are entertained about it when men seek for pardon Immunity from Punishment is the utmost that lyes in the aims and desires of most and is all that they are exercised in the consideration of when they deal with God about sin Such men think and will do so that we have an easie task in hand namely to prove that there is forgiveness in God but this ease lyes in their own ignorance and darkness If ever they come to search after it indeed to enquire into the Nature Reasons Causes fountain and springs of it they will be able to give another account of these things Christ is the center of the mysterie of the Gospel and forgiveness is laid up in the heart of Christ from the love of the Father in him are all the Treasures of it hid And surely it is no small thing to have the heart of Christ revealed unto us When Believers deal about pardon their faith exercises it self about this that God with whom the soul hath to do hath sent the Lord Christ to dye for this end that it may be freely given out General notions of impunity they dwell not on they pass not for They have a closer converse with God than to be satisfied with such thoughts They enquire into the graciousness of his Nature and the good pleasure of his Will the purpose of his Grace they ponder and look into the mysterie of his Wisdom and Love in sending his Son If these springs be not clear unto them the streams will yield them but little refreshment It is not enough that we seek after salvation but we are to enquire and search diligently into the nature and manner of it These are the things that the Angels desire to bow down and look into 1 Pet. 1. 11 12 13. And some think if they have got a form of words about them they have gotten a sufficient comprehension of them It is doubtless one Reason why many who truly believe do yet so fluctuate about forgiveness all their dayes that they never exercised saith to look into the springs of it its eternal fountains but have meerly dwelt on actual condonation However I say these things lye utterly out of the consideration of the common pretenders to an acquaintance with the truth we have in hand Secondly There is another Soveraign Act of Gods Will to be considered in
are spoken of his mercifulness and faithfulness to encourage us to expect forgiveness from him This also adds to the mysterious depths of forgiveness and makes its discovery a great matter The soul that looks after it in earnest must consider what it cost How light do most men make of pardon What an easie thing is it to be acquainted with it and no very hard matter to obtain it But to hold Communion with God in the blood of his Son is a thing of another nature than is once dreamed of by many who think they know well enough what it is to be pardoned God be merciful is a common saying and as common to desire he would be so for Christs sake Poor Creatures are cast into the mould of such expressions who know neither God nor Mercy nor Christ nor any thing of the mysterie of the Gospel Others look on the outside of the Cross to see into the mysterie of the Love of the Father working in the blood of the Mediator to consider by faith the great transaction of Divine Wisdom Justice and Mercy therein how few attain unto it To come unto God by Christ for forgiveness and therein to behold the Law issuing all its threats and curses in his blood and loosing its sting putting an end to its obligation unto punishment in the Cross to see all sins gathered up in the hand of Gods Justice and made to meet on the Mediator and eternal love springing forth triumphantly from his blood flourishing into Pardon Grace Mercy Forgiveness this the heart of a sinner can be enlarged unto only by the Spirit of God Thirdly There is in forgiveness free condonation discharge or pardon according to the tenor of the Gospel and this may be considered two wayes First As it lyes in the Promise it self and so it is Gods gracious declaration of pardon to sinners in and by the blood of Christ his Covenant to that end and purpose which is variously proposed according as he knew needful for all the ends and purposes of ingenerating faith and communicating that consolation which he intends therein This is the Law of his Grace the declaration of the mysterie of his love before insisted on Secondly There is the bringing home and Application of all this mercy to the soul of a sinner by the Holy Ghost wherein we are freely forgiven all our Trespasses Col. 2. 13. Gospel Forgiveness I say respects all these things these Principles they have all an influence into it And that which makes this more evident wherewith I shall close this consideration of the nature of it is that Faith in its Application of it self unto God about and for Forgiveness doth distinctly apply it self unto and close with sometimes one of these severally and singly sometimes another and sometimes jointly takes in the consideration of them all expresly Not that at any time it fixes on any or either of them exclusively to the others but that eminently it finds some special encouragement at some season and some peculiar attractive from some one of them more than from the rest and then that proves an inlet a door of entrance unto the treasures that are laid up in the rest of them Let us go over the severalls by Instances First Sometimes faith fixes upon the Name and infinite Goodness of the nature of God and draws out forgiveness from thence So doth the Psalmist Psal. 86. 6. Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive He rolls himself in the pursuit and expectation of pardon on the infinite goodness of the nature of God So Nehem. 9. 17. Thou art a God of pardons or ready to forgive of an infinite gracious loving nature not severe and wrathful And this is that which we are encouraged unto Isa. 50. 10. to stay on the name of God as in innumerable other places And thus Faith oftentimes finds a peculiar sweetness and encouragement in and from the consideration of Gods gracious nature Sometimes this is the first thing that it fixes on and sometimes the last that it rests in and oft-times it makes a stay here when it is driven from all other holds It can say however it be yet God is gracious and at least make that conclusion which we have from it Joel 2. 13 14. God is gracious and merciful who knoweth but he will return And when faith hath well laid hold on this consideration it will not easily be driven from its expectation of relief and forgiveness even from hence Secondly Sometimes the soul by saith addresseth it self in a peculiar manner to the Soveraignty of Gods Will whereby he is gracious to whom he will be gracious and merciful to whom he will be merciful which as was shewed is another considerable Spring or Principle of forgiveness This way Davids faith steared him in his great streight and perplexity 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him That which he hath in consideration is whether God have any delight in him or no that is whether God would graciously remit and pardon the great sin against which at that time he manifested his indignation Here he layes himself down before the Soveraign Grace of God and awaits patiently the discovery of the free Act of his Will concerning him and at this door as it were enters into the consideration of those other springs of pardon which Faith enquires after and closeth withal This sometimes is all the cloud that appears to a distressed soul which after a while fills the Heavens by the addition of the other considerations mentioned and yields plentifully refreshing showers And this condition is a sin entangled soul oft-times reduced unto in looking out for relief It can discover nothing but this that God is able and can if he graciously please relieve and acquit him All other supportments all springs of relief are shut up or hid from him The springs indeed may be nigh as that was to Hagar but their eyes are withheld that they cannot see them Wherefore they cast themselves on Gods Soveraign pleasure and say with Job though he slay us we will put our trust in him we will not let him go In our selves we are lost that is unquestionable how the Lord will deal with us we know not we see not our signs and tokens any more evidences of Gods Grace in us or of his Love and favour unto us are all out of sight To a present special interest in Christ we are strangers and we lye every moment at the door of Eternity what course shall we take what way shall we proceed If we abide at a distance from God we shall assuredly perish who ever hardned himself against him and prospered Nor is there the least relief to be had but from and by him for who can forgive sins but God
if it did not deserve the name of faith Now as hath been made to appear this discovery of forgiveness is the souls perswasion on Gospel grounds that however it be with him and whatever his state and condition be or is like to be yet that God in his own Nature is infinitely gracious and that he hath determined in a Soveraign Act of his Will from Eternity to be gracious to sinners and that he hath made way for the Administration of forgiveness by the Blood of his Son according as he hath abundantly manisested and declared in the Promises of the Gospel However it be with me yet thus it is with God There is forgiveness with him This is the first thing that a soul in its depths riseth up unto And it is a supportment for it enabling it unto all present duties until consolation come from above Thus hath it been to and with the Saints of old Hos. 14. 3. Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy A solemn Renunciation we have of all other helps Reliefs or Assistances Civil or Religious that are not Gods Therein a solemn Resolution in their great distress of cleaving unto God alone Both which are great and blessed effects of faith What is the bottom and foundation of this blessed Resolution namely that Proposition in thee the fatherless findeth mercy that is there is forgiveness with thee for helpless sinners This listed up their hearts in their depths and supported them in waiting unto the receiving of the blessed Promises of Mercy Pardon Grace and Holiness which ensue in the next Verses Until they came home unto them in their Efficacy and Effects they made a Life on this in thee the fatherless findeth mercy The state and condition of things seems to lye yet lower in that proposal we have Joel 2. 13 14. Rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing That which is proposed to the faith of those here spoken unto is that the Lord is gracious and merciful that there is forgiveness in him The Duty they are provoked unto hereupon is Gospel Repentance The Assent unto the Proposition demanded as to their own interest amounts but unto this who knowes but that the Lord may return and leave a blessing or deal with us according to the manifestation he hath made of himself that he is merciful and gracious This is far enough from any comfortable perswasion of a particular interest in that Grace mercy or Pardon But yet saith the Prophet come but thus far and here is a firm foundation of dealing with God about further discoveries of himself in a way of Grace and Mercy When a soul sees but so much in God as to conclude well Who knoweth but that he may return and have mercy upon me also it will support him and give him an entrance into further light The Church in the Lamentations gives a sad account of her state and condition in this matter For she maketh that hard conclusion against her self Chap. 3. 8. My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. And when I cry and shout he shuts out my prayer v. 18. So far is she from a comfortable perswasion of a particular interest in Mercy and Acceptance that under her Pressures and in her Temptations she is ready positively to determine on the other side namely that she is rejected and cast off for ever What course then shall she take Shall she give over waiting on God and say there is no hope no saith she I will not take that way for v. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God But yet there seems small encouragement for her so to do if things be with her as was expressed Things indeed saith she are very sad with me My soul hath them still in remembrance and is bowed down in me v. 20. but yet somewhat I recall to mind and therefore have I hope v. 21. It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not There is mercy and never failing compassion in God so that though my own present condition be full of darkness and I see no deliverance Yet I purpose still to abide waiting on him who knows what those infinite stores and treasures of mercy and relief that are with him may at length afford unto me and many instances of the like kind might be added We may observe by the way how far this Relief extends it self and what it enables the soul unto As 1. The soul is enabled thereby to resign it self unto the disposal of Soveraign Grace in self-abhorrency and a Renunciation of all other wayes of Relief Lam. 3. 29. He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope What God will is his Language Here he lyes at his disposal humble broken but abiding his pleasure Though he slay me saith Job yet I will trust in him Chap. 13. 15. It is all one how he deals with me whatever be the event I will abide cleaving unto him I will not think of any other way of extricating my self from my distress I will neither fly like Jonah nor bide like Adam nor take any other course for deliverance Saith the soul God is a God that hideth himself from me Isa. 45. 15. I walk in darkness and have no light Chap. 50. 10. My flesh faileth and my heart faileth Psal. 73. 26. So that I am overwhelmed with trouble Mine Iniquities have taken such hold on me that I cannot look up Psal. 40. 12. The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Every day am I in dread and terror and am ready utterly to saint and no relief can I obtain What then shall I do Shall I curse God and dye or cry this evil is of the Lord why should I wait for him any longer Shall I take the course of the world and seeing it will be no better be wholly regardless of my latter end No I know what ever my lot and portion be that there is forgiveness with God This and that poor man trusted in him they cryed unto him and were delivered So did David in his greatest distress he encouraged his heart in the Lord his God 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. It is good for me to cast my self into his arms it may be he will frown it may be he is wroth still but all is one this way I will go as it seems good unto him to deal with me so let it be And unspeakable are the Advantages which a soul obtains by this self Resignation which the faith treated of will infallibly produce 2. It extends it self
unto a Resolution of waiting in the condition wherein the soul is This the Church comes unto Lam. 3. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. I will not give over my expectation I will not make haste nor limit God but I will lye at his foot until his own appointed time of mercy shall come Expectation and Quietness make up waiting These the soul attains unto with this supportment It looks upwards as a servant that looks to the hands of his Master still fixed on God to see what he will do to hear what he will speak concerning him missing no season no opportunity wherein any discovery of the Will of God may be made to him And this he doth in quietness without repining or murmuring turning all his complaints against himself and his own vileness that hath cut him short from a participation of that fulness of Love and Grace which is with God That this Effect also attends this Faith will fully appear in the close of the Psalm 3. It supports unto waiting in the use of all means for the attainment of a sense of forgiveness and so hath its Effect in the whole course of our obedience There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared To fear the Lord is an expression comprehensive of his whole Worship and all our duty This I am encouraged saith the Psalmist unto in my depths because there is forgiveness with thee I will abide in all duties in all the wayes of thy Worship wherein thou maist be found And however it be for a while the latter end of that soul who thus abideth with God will be peace Let us then nextly see by what wayes and means it yields this supportment 1. It begets a liking of God in the soul and consequently some love unto him The soul apprehends God as one infinitely to be desired and delighted in by those who have a share in forgiveness It cannot but consider him as good and gracious however its own estate be hazardous Psal. 73. 1 2. Yet God is good to Israel to such as are of a clean heart as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt However the state stands with me yet I know that God is good good to Israel and therewith shall I support my self When once this ground is got upon the soul that it considers God in Christ as one to be delighted in and loved great and blessed effects will ensue 1. Self-abhorrency and Condemnation with Resignation of all to God and permanency therein do certainly attend it 2. Still somewhat or other in God will be brought to mind to relieve it under faintings some new springs of hope will be every day opened 3. And the soul will be insensibly wrought upon to delight it self in dealing with God Though in its own particular it meets with frowns chidings and repulses yet this still relieves him that God is so as hath been declared so that he sayes however it be yet God is good and it is good for me to wait upon him Without this discovery the soul likes not God and whatever it doth with respect unto him it is because it dares do no otherwise being overawed with his terror and greatness And such Obedience God may have from Devils 2. It removes sundry overwhelming difficulties that lye in the souls way before it close with this discovery of forgiveness As 1. It takes away all those Hinderances that were formerly insisted on from the Greatness Holiness and severity of God the inexorableness and strictness of the Law and the natural actings of conscience rising up against all hopes of forgiveness All these are by this faith removed and taken out of the way Where this faith is it discovers not only forgiveness as hath been shewed but also the true nature of Gospel forgiveness It reveals it as flowing from the Gracious Heart of the Father through the blood of the Son Now this Propitiation in the blood of the Son removeth all these difficulties even antecedently unto our special sense of an interest therein It shews how all the properties of God may be exalted and the Law fulfilled and yet forgiveness given out to sinners And herein lyes no small advantage unto a soul in its approaches unto God All those dreadful Apprehensions of God which were wont to beset him in the first thoughts of coming to him are now taken out of the way so that he can quietly apply himself unto his own particular concernments before him 2. In particular it removes the overwhelming consideration of the unspeakable greatness of sin This presseth the soul to death when once the heart is possessed with it Were not their sins so great such as no heart can imagine or tongue declare it might possibly be well with them say distressed sinners They are not so troubled that they are sinners as that they are great sinners Not that these and those sins they are guilty of but that they are great sins attended with fearful aggravations Otherwise they could deal well enough with them Now though this discovery free men not from the entanglement of their sins as theirs yet it doth from the whole entanglement of their sins as great and many This consideration may be abstracted The soul sees enough in God to forgive great sins though it doth not as yet to forgive his sins That great sins shall be pardoned this discovery puts out of Question Whether his sin shall be pardoned is now all the enquiry Whatever any faith can do that this faith will do unless it be the making of particular Application of the things believed unto it self The soul then can no longer justly be troubled about the greatness of sin the infiniteness of forgiveness that he sees in God will relieve him against it All that remains is that it is his own sin about which he hath to deal whereof afterwards These and the like difficulties are removed by it 3. It gives some Life in and Encouragement unto duty And that First Unto duty as duty Eying God by faith in such a fulness of Grace the soul cannot but be encouraged to meet him in every way of duty and to lay hold upon him thereby Every way leading to him as leading to him must be well liked and approved of and Secondly To all duties and herein lyes no small advantage God is oftentimes found in duties but in what or of what kind he will be found of any one in particular is uncertain This faith puts the soul on all So it did the Spouse in the parallel to that in hand Cant. 3. 2 3 4. Now what supportment may be hence obtained is easily apprehended supportment not from them or by them but in them as the means of entercourse between God and the soul. From these Effects of this discovery of forgiveness in God there things will ensue which are sufficient to maintain the spiritual life
of the soul. 1. A Resolution to abide with God and to commit all unto him This the word as was observed teaches us There is forgiveness with thee and therefore thou shalt be feared Because this I found this I am perswaded of therefore I will abide with him in the way of his Fear and Worship This our Saviour calls unto John 15. 4. Abide in me except you do so ye can hear no fruit So the Lord representing his taking of the Church unto himself under the Type of the Prophets taking an Adulteress in vision doth it on these terms Hos. 3. 3. Thou shalt abide for me many dayes Thou shalt not play the Harlot and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee Now this abiding with God intimates two things 1. Oppositions Solicitations and Temptations unto the contrary 2. Forbearing to make any other choice as unto that end for which we abide with God 1. It argues Oppositions To abide to be stable and permanent is to be so against Oppositions Many discouragements are ready to rise up in the soul against it In Fears especially that it shall not hold out that it shall be rejected at last that all is nought and â—ypocritical with it that it shall not be forgiven that God indeed regards it not and therefore it may well enough give over its hopes which seem often as the giving up of the Ghost will assault it Again Oppositions arise from corruptions and temptations unto sin contrary to the Life of faith And these often proceed to an high degree of prevalency so that the guilt contracted upon them is ready to cast the soul quite out of all expectation of mercy I shall one day perish by these means saith the soul if I am not already lost But now where faith hath made this discovery of forgiveness the soul will abide with God against all these discouragements and Oppositions It will not leave him it will not give over waiting for him So David expresseth the matter in the instance of himself Psal. 73. 2. But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt and v. 13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain but yet after all his conflicts this at last he comes unto v. 26. Though my flesh and my heart faileth yet v. 28. It is good for me to draw near unto God I will yet abide with God I will not let go his fear nor my profession Although I walk weakly lamely unevenly yet I will still follow after him As it was with the Disciples when many upon a strong temptation went back from Christ and walked no more with him Jesus said unto them will ye go away also to which Peter replyes in the name of the rest of them Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life John 6. 66 67 68. It is thus and thus with me saith the soul I am tossed and afflicted and not comforted little life little strength real guilt many sins and much disconsolation What then faith God by his word Wilt thou go away also no saith the soul there is forgiveness with thee thou hast the words of Eternal Life and therefore I will abide with thee 2. This abiding with God argues a forbearance of any other choice Whilst the soul is in this condition having not attained any evidences of its own special interest in forgiveness Many Lovers will be soliciting of it to play the harlot by taking them into its embraces Both self-righteousness and sin will be very importunate in this matter The former tenders it self as exceeding useful to give the soul some Help Assistance and supportment in its condition Samuel doth not come saith Saul and the Philistins invade me I will venture and offer Sacrifice my self contrary to the Law The Promise doth not come to the soul for its particular relief it hath no evidence as to an especial interest in forgiveness Temptation invades the mind try thy self sayes it to take relief in somewhat of thine own providing And this is to play the harlot from God To this purpose self-righteousness variously disguises it self like the Wise of Jeroboam when she went to the Prophet Sometimes it appears as duty sometimes as signs and tokens but its end is to get somewhat of the faith and trust of the soul to be fixed upon it But when the soul hath indeed a discovery of forgiveness it will not give ear to these solicitations No saith it I see such a Beauty such an Excellency such a desireableness and suitableness unto my wants and condition in that forgiveness that is with God that I am resolved to abide in the Gospel desire and expectation of it all the dayes of my life here my choice is fixed and I will not alter And this Resolution gives glory to the Grace of God When the soul without an evidence of an interest in it yet prefers it above that which with many reasonings and pretences offers it self as a present relief unto it Hereby is God glorified and Christ exalted and the spiritual life of the soul secured 2. This discovery of forgiveness in God with the effects of it before mentioned will produce a Resolution of waiting on God for peace and consolation in his own time and way He that believeth will not make haste Isa. 28. 16. not make haste to what not to the enjoyment of the thing believed Haste argues precipitation and impatience this the soul that hath this discovery is freed from resolving to wait the time of Gods appointment for peace and consolation God speaking of his accomplishment of his Promises sayes I the Lord will hasten it Isa. 60. 22. Well then if God will hasten it may not we hasten to it nay saith he I will hasten it but in its time All oppositions and impediments considered it shall be hastned but in its time its due time its appointed time And this the soul is to wait for and so it will As when Jacob had seen the beauty of Rachel and loved her he was contented to wait seven years for the enjoyment of her to be his wife and thought no time long no toyle too hard that he might obtain her so the soul having discovered the beauty and excellency of forgiveness as it is with God as it is in his gracious Heart in his eternal purpose in the Blood of Christ in the Promise of the Gospel is resolved to wait quietly and patiently for the time wherein God will clear up unto it it s own personal interest therein Even one experimental embracement of it even at the hour of death doth well deserve the waiting and obedience of the whole course of a mans life And this the Psalmist manifests to have been the Effect produced in his heart and spirit For upon this discovery of forgiveness in God he resolveth both to wait upon him himself and encourageth others so to do 3. This prepares
the soul for the receiving of that consolation and deliverance out of its pressures by an evidence of a special interest in forgiveness which it waiteth for 1. For this makes men to hearken after it It makes the soul like the Merchant who hath great Riches all his wealth in a far Country which he is endeavouring to bring home safe unto him If they come he is well provided for if they miscarry he is lost and undone This makes him hearken after tydings that they are safe there and as Solomon sayes Good news in this case from a far Countrey is as cold water to a thirsty soul Prov. 25. 25. full of refreshment Though he cannot look upon them as his own yet absolutely because he hath them not in possession he is glad they are safe there So is it with the soul These Riches that it so values are as to its apprehensions in a far Country So is the Promise that he shall behold the Land that is very far off Isa. 33. 17. He is glad to hear newes that they are safe to hear forgiveness preached and the Promises insisted on though he cannot as yet look upon them as his own The Merchant resis not here but he hearkeneth with much solicitousness after the things that should bring home his riches especially if they have in them his All. Hence such Ships are called Ships of desire Job 9. 26. Such a man greatly desires the speeding of them to their Port. He considers the Wind and the Weather all the occasions and inconveniences and danger of the way And blame him not his All is at stake The soul doth so in like manner it hearkneth after all the wayes and means whereby this forgiveness may be particularly brought home unto it is afraid of sin and of Temptation glad to find a fresh Gale of the Spirit of Grace hoping that it may bring in his Return from the Land of Promise This prepares the heart for a spiritual sense of it when it is revealed Secondly It so prepares the soul by giving it a due Valuation of the Grace and Mercy desired The Merchantman in the Gospel was not prepared to enjoy the Pearl himself until it was discovered to him to be of great price then he knew how to purchase it procure it and keep it The soul having by this acting of faith upon the discovery of forgiveness insisted on come to find that the pearl hid in the field is indeed precious is both stirred up to seek after possession of it and to give it its due Saith such a soul How excellent how precious is this forgiveness that is with God Blessed yea ever blessed are they who are made partakers of it What a life of Joy Rest Peace and Consolation do they lead Had I but their Evidence of an interest in it and the spiritual consolation that ensues thereon How would I despise the world and all the temptations of Satan and rejoyce in the Lord in every condition And this Apprehension of Grace also exceedingly prepares and fits the soul for a receiving of a blessed sense of it so as that God may have glory thereby 3. It fits the soul by giving a Right Understanding of it of its Nature its Causes and Effects At the first the soul goes no further but to look after impunity or freedom from punishment any way What shall I do to be saved is the utmost it aims at Who shall deliver me how shall I escape And it would be contented to escape any way by the Law or the Gospel all is one so it may escape But upon this discovery of forgiveness treated of which is made by faith of Adherence unto God a man plainly sees the nature of it and that it is so excellent that it is to be desired for its own sake Indeed when a soul is brought under trouble for sin it knows not well what it would have It hath an uneasiness or disquietment that it would be freed from a dread of some evil condition that it would avoid But now the soul can tell what it desires what it aims at as well as what it would be freed from It would have an interest in Eternal Love have the gracious kindness of the heart of God turned towards it self a sense of the everlasting purpose of his Will shed abroad in his heart have an especial interest in the precious blood of the Son of God whereby Attonement is made for him and that all these things be testified unto his Conscience in a word of promise mixed with faith These things he comes for this way alone he would be saved and no other It sees such a Glory of Wisdom Love and Grace in forgiveness such an Exaltation of the Love of Christ in all his Offices in all his undertaking especially in his Death Sacrifice and bloodshedding whereby he procured or made Reconciliation for us that it exceedingly longs after the participation of them All these things in their several degrees will this discovery of forgiveness in God without an evidence of an especial interest therein produce And these will assuredly maintain the spiritual life of the soul and keep it up unto such an obedience as shall be accepted of God in Christ. Darkness sorrow storms they in whom it is may meet withal but their eternal condition is secured in the Covenant of God their souls are bound up in the bundle of life From what hath been spoken we may make some Inferences in our passage concerning the true notion of believing For 1. These Effects ascribed to this faith of forgiveness in God and alwayes produced by it make it evident that the most of them who pretend unto it who pretend to believe that there is forgiveness with God do indeed believe no such thing Although I shall on set purpose afterwards evince this yet I cannot here utterly pass it by I shall then only demand of them who are so forward in the profession of this faith that they think it almost impossible that any one should not believe it what Effects it hath produced in them and whether they have been by it enabled to the performance of the duties before mentioned I fear with many things on the account of their pretended faith are quite otherwise They love sin the more for it and God never the better supposing that a few barren words will issue the controversie about their sins they become insensibly to have slight thoughts of sin and of God also This perswasion is not of him that calls us Poor souls your faith is the Devils greatest Engine for your ruine the highest contempt of God and Christ and forgiveness also that you can be guilty of a means to let you down quietly into Hell the Pharisees Moses trusted in and will condemn you As none is saved but by faith so you if it were not for your faith as you call it might possibly be saved If a mans Gold prove counterfeit his Jewels painted Glass
his Silver lead or dross he will not only be found poor when he comes to be tryed and want the benefit of Riches but have withal a fearful aggravation of his poverty by his disappointment and surprizal If a mans faith which should be more precious than Gold be found rotten and corrupt if his light be darkness how vile is that faith how great is that darkness Such it is evident will the faith of too many be found in this business 2. The work we are carrying on is the rising of a sin entangled soul out of its depths and this we have spoken unto is that which must give him his first relief Commonly when souls are in distress that which they look after is Consolation What is it that they intend thereby that they may have Assurance that their sins are forgiven them and so be freed from their present perplexities What is the issue Some of them continue complaining all their dayes and never come to Rest or Peace so far do they fall short of Consolation and Joy And some are utterly discouraged from attempting any progress in the wayes of God What is the Reason hereof Is it not that they would fain be finishing their building when they have not laid the foundation They have not yet made through work in believing forgiveness with God and they would immediately be at Assurance in themselves Now God delights not in such a frame of Spirit for 1. It is selfish The great design of faith is to give glory unto God Rom. 4. 20. The end of Gods giving out forgiveness is the praise of his glorious grace Ephes. 1. 6. But let a soul in this frame have peace in it self it is very little solicitous about giving glory unto God He cryes like Rachel Give me children or I dye give me peace or I perish That God may be honoured and the forgiveness he seeks after be rendred glorious It is cared for in the second place if at all This selfish earnestness at first to be thrusting our hand in the side of Christ is that which he will pardon in many but accepts in none 2. It is impatient Men do thus deport themselves because they will not wait They do not care for standing afar off for any season with the Publican They love not to submit their souls to lye at the foot of God to give him the glory of his Goodness Mercy Wisdom and Love in the disposal of them and their concernments This waiting comprizeth the universal subjection of the soul unto God with a resolved Judgement that it is meet and right that we and all we desire and aim at should be at his Soveraign disposal This gives glory to God a duty which the impatience of these poor souls will not admit them to the performance of and both these arise 3. From weakness it is weak it is weakness in any condition that makes men restless and weary The state of Adherence is as safe a condition as the state of Assurance only it hath more combats and wrestling attending it It is not then fear of the event but weakness and weariness of the combat that make men anxiously solicitous about a deliverance from that state before they are well entered into it Let then the sin entangled soul remember alwayes this Way Method and Order of the Gospel that we have under consideration First Exercise faith on forgiveness in God and when the soul is fixed therein it will have a ground and foundation whereon it may stand securely in making Application of it unto it self Drive this principle in the first place unto a stable issue upon Gospel evidences Answer the Objections that lye against it and then you may proceed In believing the soul makes a conquest upon Satans Territories Do then as they do who are entring on an Enemies Countrey secure the passages fortifie the Strong holds as you go on that you be not cut off in your progress Be not as a Ship at Sea which passeth on and is no more possessed or Master of the Water it hath gone through than of that whereunto it is not yet arrrived But so it is with a soul that fixeth not on these foundation principles he presseth forwards and the ground crumbles away under his feet and so he wilders away all his dayes in uncertainties Would men but lay this principle well in their souls and secure it against assaults they might proceed though not with so much speed as some do yet with more safety Some pretend at once to fall into full Assurance I wish it prove not a broad presumption in the most It is to no purpose for him to strive to flye who cannot yet go to labour to come to Assurance in himself who never well believed forgiveness in God Now that we may be enabled to fix this perswasion against all opposition that which in the next place I shall do is to give out such unquestionable evidences of this Gospel truth as the soul may safely build and rest upon And these contain the confirmation of the principal Proposition before laid down Evidences of Forgiveness in God No inbred Notions of any free Acts of Gods Will. Forgiveness not revealed by the Works of Nature nor the Law 1. The things that are spoken or are to be known of God are of two sorts 1. Natural and Necessary such as are his Essential properties or the Attributes of his nature his Goodness Holiness Righteousness Omnipotency Eternity and the like These are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 19. That which may be known of God And there are two wayes as the Apostle there declares whereby that which he there intimates of God may be known 1. By the inbred light of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 19. It is manifest in themselves in their own hearts They are taught it by the common conceptions and presumptions which they have of God by the light of nature From hence do all mankind know concerning God that He is that he is Eternal infinitely Powerful Good Righteous Holy Omnipotent There needs no special Revelation of these things that men may know them That indeed they may be known savingly there is and therefore they that know these things by nature do also believe them on Revelation Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh unto God must BELIEVE that he is and that he is a rewarder Though men KNOW God by the light of nature yet they cannot COME to God by that knowledge 2. These Essential properties of the nature of God are revealed by his WORKS So the Apostle in the same place ver 20. The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead See also Psalm 19. 1 2 3. And this is the first sort of things that may be known of God 2. There are the free Acts of his Will and Power or his free eternal purposes with the
In the foregoing Verses he declares the various wayes that God used to bring men unto Repentance He did it by dreams ver 15 16. by Afflictions ver 19. by the preaching of the Word ver 23. What then doth God aim at in and by all these various wayes of teachings It is to cause man to say I have sinned and perverted that which was right It is to bring him to Repentance What now if he obtaine his end and man cometh to that which is aimed at Why then there is forgiveness for him as is declared ver 28. To improve this evidence I shall confirm by some few obvious considerations these two things 1. That the prescription of Repentance doth indeed evince that there is forgiveness with God 2. That every one in whom there is Repentance wrought towards God may certainly conclude that there is forgiveness with God for him 1. No Repentance is acceptable with God but what is built or leans on the faith of forgiveness We have a cloud of witnesses unto this Truth in the Scripture Many there have been many are recorded who have been convinced of sin perplexed about it sorry for it that have made open confession and acknowledgement of it that under the prâ—ssing sense of it have cryed out even to God for deliverance and yet have come short of mercy pardon and acceptance with God The cases of Cain Pharaoh Saul Ahab Judas and others might be insisted on What was wanting that made all that they did abominable Consider one instance for all It is said of Judas that he repented Mat. 27. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented himself but wherein did this repentance consist he was convinced of his sin in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he I have sinned ver 4. 2. He was sensible of the particular sin whereof he stood charged in conscience before God I have saith he betrayed innocent blood I am guilty of blood innocent blood and that in the vilest manner by treachery so that he comes 3. To a full and open confession of his sin 4. He makes Restitution of what he was advantaged by his sin he brought again the thirty pieces of silver v. 3. all testifying an hearty sorrow that spirited the whole Methinks now Judas his Repentance looks like the young mans Obedience who cryed out all these things have I done Is there any thing yet lacking Yea one thing was wanting to that young man he had no true faith nor love to God all this while which vitiated and spoyled all the rest of his performances One thing also is wanting to this Repentance of Judas he had no faith of forgiveness in God that he could not believe and therefore after all this sorrow instead of coming to him he bids him the utmost defiance and goes away and hangs himself Indeed saith of forgiveness as hath been shewed hath many degrees There is of them that which is indispensibly necessary to render Repentance acceptable What it is in particular I do not dispute It is not an Assurance of the Acceptance of our persons in general It is not that the particular sin wherewith it may be the soul is perplexed is forgiven A general so it be a Gospel discovery that there is forgiveness in God will suffice The Church expresseth it Hos. 14. 3. In thee the fatherless findeth mercy and Joel 2. 14. Who knows but he will return and repent I have this ground saith the soul God is in himself gracious and merciful the fatherless the destitute and helpless that come to him by Christ find mercy in him None in Heaven and earth can evince but that he may return to me also Now let a mans convictions be never so great sharp wounding his sorrow never so abundant overflowing abiding his confession never so full free or open if this one thing be wanting all is nothing but what tends to death 2. To prescribe Repentance as a duty unto sinners without a foundation of pardon and forgiveness in himself is inconsistent with the Wisdom Holiness Goodness Faithfulness and all other glorious Excellencies and Perfections of the nature of God for 1. The Apostle layes this as the great foundation of all consolation that God cannot lye or deceive Heb. 6. 18. And again he engageth the faithfulness and veracity of God to the same purpose Tit. 1. 2. God who cannot lye hath promised it Now there is a lye a deceit in Things as well as in Words He that doth a thing which in its own nature is apt to deceive them that consider it with an intention of deceiving them is no less a lyar than he which affirms that to be true which he knows to be false There is a lye in Actions as well as in Words The whole life of an hyocrite is a lye so saith the Prophet of Idolaters there is a lye in their right hand Isa. 44. 20. 2. The proposal of Repentance is a thing fitted and suited in its own nature to beget thoughts in the mind of a sinner that there is forgiveness with God Repenting is for sinners only I came not saith our Saviour to call the righteous but sinners to repentance It is for them and them only It was no duty for Adam in Eden it is none for the Angels in Heaven nor for the damned in Hell What then may be the language of this appointment O sinners come and deal with God by Repentance Doth it not openly speak forgiveness in God and if it were otherwise could men possibly be more frustrated or deceived would not the Institution of Repentance be a lye Such a delusion may proceed from Satan but not from him who is the fountain of Goodness Holiness and Truth His Call to Repentance is a full Demonstration of his readiness to forgive Acts 17. 30 31 32. It is true many do thus deceive themselves They raise themselves unto an expectation of immunity not on Gospel grounds and their disappointment is a great part of their punishment But God deceives none whoever comes to him on his proposal of Repentance shall find forgiveness It is said of some indeed that he will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh Prov. 1. 26. He will aggravate their misery by giving them to see what their pride and folly hath brought them unto But who are they only such as refuse his Call to Repentance with the Promises of Acceptation annexed 3. There is then no cause why those who are under a Call to Repentance should question whether there be forgiveness in God or no. This concerns my second Proposition Come saith the Lord unto the souls of men leave your sinful wayes turn unto me humble your selves with broken and contrite hearts Alas say poor convinced sinners we are poor dark and ignorant creatures or we are old in sin or great sinners or backsliders or have fallen often into the same sins can we expect there should be forgiveness for us Why you are under Gods
external thing whereof a soul can have no inward sense or relish Notions there are many about it and endless contentions but what more why let a gracious soul in simplicity and sincerity of Spirit give up himself to walk with Christ according to his Appointment and he shall quickly find such a taste and relish in the fellowship of the Gospel in the Communion of Saints and of Christ amongst them as that he shall come up to such Riches of Assurance in the Understanding and Acknowledgement of the wayes of the Lord as others by their disputing can never attain unto What is so High Glorious and Mysterious as the Doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity Some wise men have thought meet to keep it veiled from ordinary Christians And some have delivered it in such terms as that they can understand nothing by them But take a Believer who hath tasted how gracious the Lord is in the Eternal Love of the Father the great Undertaking of the Son in the work of Mediation and Redemption with the Almighty work of the Spirit creating Grace and comfort in the soul and hath had an experience of the Love Holiness and Power of God in them all and he will with more firm confidence adhere to this mysterious Truth being lead into it and confirmed in it by some few plain Testimonies of the Word than a thousand Disputers shall do who only have the notion of it in their minds Let a real Tryal come and this will appear Few will be found to sacrifice their lives on bare speculations Experience will give Assurance and Stability We have thus cleared the credit of the Testimony now to be improved It is evident on these grounds that there is a great certainty in those Truths whereof Believers have experience Where they communicate their power unto the heart they give an unquestionable Assurance of their Truths And when that is once realized in the soul all disputes about it are put to silence These things being so let us enquire into the faith and experience of the Saints on the Earth as to what they know of the Truth proposed unto confirmation namely that there is forgiveness with God Let us go to some poor soul that now walks comfortably under the Light of Gods countenance and say unto him Did we not know you some while since to be full of sadness and great anxiety of Spirit yea sorrowful almost to death and bitter in soul Answ. Yes saith he so it was indeed my dayes were consumed with mourning and my life with sorrow and I walked heavily in fear and bitterness of Spirit all the day long Why what ayled you what was the matter with you seeing as to the outward things you were in Peace Answ. The Law of God had laid hold upon me and slain me I found my self thereby a woful sinner yea overwhelmed with the guilt of sin Every moment I expected Tribulation and wrath from the hand of God My sore ran in the night and ceased not and my soul refused comfort How is it then that you are thus delivered that you are no more sad Where have you found ease and peace have you been by any means delivered or did your trouble wear off and depart of its own accord Answ. Alas no had I not met with an effectual Remedy I had sunk and everlastingly perished What course did you take Answ. I went unto him by Jesus Christ against whom I have sinned and have found him better unto me than I could expect or ever should have believed had not he overpowred my heart by his Spirit Instead of wrath which I feared and that justly because I had deserved it he said unto me in Christ fury is not in me For a long time I could not believe it I thought it impossible that there should be mercy and pardon for me or such a one as I. But he still supported me sometimes by one means sometimes by another untill taking my soul near to himself he caused me to see the folly of my unbelieving heart and the vileness of the hard thoughts I had of him and that indeed there is with him forgiveness and plenteous Redemption This hath taken away all my sorrows and given me quietness with Rest and Assurance But are you sure now that this is so may you not possibly be deceived Answ. Sayes the soul I have not the least suspicion of any such matter and if at any time ought doth arise to that purpose it is quickly overcome But how are you confirmed in this perswasion Answ. That sense of it which I have in my heart that sweetness and rest which I have experience of that influence it hath upon my soul that Obligation I find laid upon me by it unto all thankful Obedience that Relief Supportment and Consolation that it hath afforded me in tryals and troubles in the mouth of the Grave and Entrances of Eternity all answering what is declared concerning these things in the Word will not suffer me to be deceived I could not indeed receive it untill God was pleased to speak it unto me But now let Satan do his utmost I shall never cease to bear this Testimony that there is mercy and forgiveness with him How many thousands may we find of these in the world who have had such a seal of this Truth in their hearts as they cannot only securely lay down their lives in the confirmation of it if called thereunto but also do chearfully and triumphantly venture their Eternal Concernments upon it Yea this is the rise of all that peace serenity of mind and strong consolation which in this world they are made partakers of Now this is to me on the principles before laid down an evidence great and important God hath not manifested this Truth unto the Saints thus copied it out of his word and exemplified it in their souls to leave them under any possibility of being deceived Institution of Religious Worship an Evidence of Forgiveness 6. Gods Institution of Religious Worship and Honor therein to be rendred unto him by sinners is another Evidence that there is forgivenesswith him I have instanced before in one particular of Worship to this purpose namely in that of Sacrifices But therein we intended only their particular nature and signification how they declared and manifested Reconciliation Attonement and Pardon That now aimed at is to shew how all the Worship that God hath appointed unto us and all the Honour which we give unto his holy Majesty thereby is built upon the same foundation namely a supposition of forgiveness and is appointed to teach it and to ascertain us of it which shall briefly be declared To this end observe 1. That the General End of all Divine and Religious Worship is to raise unto God a Revenue of glory out of the creation Such is Gods infinite natural self-sufficiency that he stands in need of no such Glory and Honour He was in himself no less infinitely and eternally
suppose he hath not the thing in his Power to bestow on us or that his Will is wholly averse from so doing is to reproach him with want of Truth Faithfulness and Holiness and not to be God For what sincerity can be in such proceedings Is it consistent with any Divine Excellency Could it have any other end but to deceive poor creatures either to delude them if they do pray according to his command or to involve them in further guilt if they do not God forbid any such thoughts should enter into our hearts But 3. To put this whole matter out of question God hath promised to hear our prayers and in particular those which we make unto him for the forgiveness of sin So our Saviour hath assured us that what we ask in his name it shall be done for us And he hath as we have shewed taught us to ask this very thing of God as our Heavenly Father that is in his name For in and through him alone is he a Father unto us I need not insist on particular Promises to this purpose they are as you know multiplyed in the Scriptures What hath been spoken may suffice to establish our present Argument namely that Gods prescription of Religious Worship unto sinners doth undeniably prove that with him there is forgiveness especially considering that the principal parts of the Worship so prescribed and appointed by him are peculiarly designed to confirm us in the faith thereof And this is the design of the words that we do insist upon There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared The fear of God as we have shewed in the Old Testament doth frequently express not that gracious Affection of our minds which is distinctly so called but that whole Worship of God wherein that and all other Gracious Affections towards God are to be exercised Now the Psalmist tells us that the foundation of this fear or Worship and the only motive and encouragement for sinners to engage in it and give up themselves unto it is this that there is forgiveness with God Without this no sinner could fear serve or worship him This therefore is undeniably proved by the Institution of this Worship which was proposed unto confirmation The end of all these things as we shall afterwards at large declare is to encourage poor sinners to believe and to evidence how inexcusable they will be left who notwithstanding all this do through the power of their lusts and unbelief refuse to come to God in Christ that they may be pardoned Yea the laying open of the certainty and fulness of the evidence given unto this truth makes it plain and conspicuous whence it is that men perish in and for their sins Is it for want of Mercy Goodness Grace or Patience in God Is it through any defect in the Mediation of the Lord Christ Is it for want of the mightiest encouragements and most infallible Assurances that with God there is Forgiveness Not at all but meerly on the account of their own obstinacy stubbornness and perversness They will not come unto this Light yea they hate it because their deeds are evil They will not come to Christ that they may have life It is meerly darkness blindness and love of sin that brings men to destruction And this is laid open and all pretences and excuses are removed and the shame of mens lusts made naked by the full confirmation of this Truth which God hath furnished us withal Take heed you that hear or read these things if they are not mixed with faith they will add greatly to your misery Every Argument will be your Torment But these considerations must be insisted on afterwards Moreover if you will take into your minds what hath been delivered in particular concerning the nature and end of the Worship of God which you attend unto you may be instructed in the use and due observation of it When you address your selves unto it remember that this is that which God requires of you who are sinners That this he would not have done but with thoughts and intention of mercy for sinners Bless him with all your souls that this is laid as the Foundation of all that you have to do with him You are not utterly cast off because you are sinners Let this support and warm your hearts when you go to hear to pray or any duty of Worship Consider what is your principal work in the whole You are going to deal with God about Forgiveness in the Being Causes Consequents and Effects of it Hearken what he speaks declares or reveals about it mix his Revelation and Promises with faith Enquire diligently into all the Obedience and Thankfulness all those duties of Holiness and Righteousness which he justly expects from them who are made partakers of it so shall you observe the Worship of God unto his Glory and your own Advantage The giving and establishing of the New Covenant another Evidence of Forgiveness with God The Oath of God engaged in the confirmation thereof VIII Another Evidence hereof may be taken from the making establishing and ratifying of the New Covenant That God would make a new Covenant with his people is often promised often declared See among other places Jer. 31. 31 32. and that he hath done so accordingly the Apostle at large doth manifest Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11 12. Now herein sundry things unto our present purpose may be considered For 1. It is supposed that God had before made another Covenant with mankind With reference hereunto is this said to be a new one It is opposed unto another that was before it and in comparison whereof that is called old and this said to be new as the Apostle speaks expresly in the place before mentioned Now a Covenant between God and man is a thing Great and Marvellous whether we consider the nature of it or the Ends of it In its own nature it is a Convention Compact and Agreement for some certain ends and purposes between the Holy Creator and his poor creatures How infinite how unspeakable must needs the Grace and Condescention of God in this matter be For what is poor miserable man that God should set his heart upon him that he should as it were give bounds to his Soveraignty over him and enter into terms of Agreement with him For whereas before he was a meer object of his Absolute Dominion made at his Will and for his Pleasure and on the same reasons to be crushed at any time into nothing Now he hath a bottom and ground given him to stand upon whereon to expect good things from God upon the account of his Faithfulness and Righteousness God in a Covenant gives those holy properties of his Nature unto his Creatures as his hand or arm for him to lay hold upon and by them to plead and argue with him And without this a man could have no foundation for any entercourse or Communion with God or of any expectation from
and Jacob and the name Jehovah to Moses and the people so now by Jesus Christ and in him every particular Promise belongs unto all believers in all their occasions and every Name of God whatever is theirs also at all times to rest upon and put their trust in Thus the particular Promise made unto Joshuah at his entrance into Canaan to incourage and strengthen him in that great enterprize of conquering the Land is by the Apostle applyed unto all Believers in all their occasions whatever I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. So like wise doth every name of God belong now unto us as if it had in particular manner been engaged in Covenant unto us And that because the whole Covenant is ratified and confirmed unto us by Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 6. 18. Chap. 7. 1. This then absolutely secures unto us an interest in the Name of God insisted on the God of forgiveness as if it had been given unto every one of us to assure us thereof 4. God takes this name the God of forgiveness to be his in a peculiar manner as that whereby he will be distinguished and known He appropriates it to himself as expressing that which the Power and Goodness of no other can extend unto There are Lords many and Gods many saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some that are called so such as some account so to be How is the true God distinguished from these Gods by Reputation He is so by this name He is the God of Pardons Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity This is his Prerogative herein none is equal to him like him or a sharer with him Who is a God like unto thee that may be called a God of Pardons The Vanities of the Nations cannot give them this rain they have no refreshing showers of mercy and Pardon in their power Neither Angels nor Saints nor Images nor Popes can Pardon Sin By this name doth he distinguish himself from them all 5. To be known by this name is the Great Glory of God in this world When Moses desired to see the Glory of God the Lord tells him that he could not see his face Exod. 33. 18 20. The face of God or the glorious Majesty of his Being his Essential Glory is not to be seen of any in this life We cannot see him as he is But the glorious manifestation of himself we may behold and contemplate This we may see as the back parts of God That shaddow of his excellencies which he casteth forth in his passing by us in his works and dispensations This Moses shall see And wherein did it consist Why in the Revelation and Declaration of this name of God Chap. 34. 6 7. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious long-suffering and Abundant in Goodness and in Truth keeping Mercy for thousands Forgiving Iniquity Transgressions and Sin To be known by this Name to be honoured feared believed as that declares him is the great glory of God And shall this fail us Can we be deceived trusting in it or expecting that we shall find him to be what his name declares God forbid Let us lay together these Considerations and we shall find that they will give us another stable foundation of the Truth insisted on and a great encouragement to poor sinful souls to draw nigh to God in Christ for Pardon God hath no Name but what he gives unto himself Nor is it lawful to know him or call him otherwise as he calls himself so is he What his Name imports so is his Nature Every name also of God is engaged in Jesus Christ in the Covenant and is proposed unto us to place our Trust and Confidence in Now this is his name and his memorial even the God of Forgiveness By this he distinguisheth himself from all others and expresseth it as the principal Title of his Honour or his peculiar Glory According to this name therefore all that believe shall assuredly find There is forgiveness with him XI The consideration of the Essential Properties of the Nature of God and what is required to the manifestation of them will afford us further Assurance hereof Let us to this end take in the ensuing Observations God being absolutely perfect and absolutely self-sufficient was eternally glorious and satisfied with and in his own holy Excellencies and Perfections before and without the creation of all or any thing by the putting forth or the exercise of his Almighty Power The making therefore of all things depends on a meer Soveraign Act of the Will and Pleasure of God So the whole Creation makes its acknowledgement Rev. 4. 11. Chap. 5. 12. 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 God could have omitted all this great work without the least impeachment of his Glory Not one Holy Property of his Nature would have been diminished or abated in its Eternal Glory by that omission This then depended on a pure Act of his Will and Choice 2. On supposition that God would work ad extra by his Power produce any thing without himself it was absolutely necessary that himself should be the End of his so doing For as before the production of all things there was nothing that could be the end why any of them should be brought forth out of nothing or towards which they should be disposed So God being an infinite Agent in Wisdom and Understanding and Power he could have no End in his Actings but that also which is infinite It is therefore natural and necessary unto God to do all things for himself It is impossible he should have any other end and he hath done so accordingly Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself He aimed at himself in all that he did there being no other infinite Good for him to make his Object and his End but himself alone 3. This doing things all things for himself cannot intend an Addition or Acrewment thereby of any new real good unto himself His absolute Eternal Perfection and Al-sufficiency render this impossible God doth not become more Powerful Great Wise Just Holy Good or Gracious by any of his works by any thing that he doth He can add nothing to himself It must therefore be the Manifestation and Declaration of the Holy Properties of his Nature that he doth intend and design in his works And there are two things required hereunto 1. That he make them known that by wayes suited to his Infinite Wisdom he both declare that such Properties do belong unto him as also what is the nature of them according as the creature is able to apprehend So he doth things to make his power known to shew his power and to declare his name through the earth Rom. 9. 17 22. So it was said that by
want of power or pity in me but of faith in thee My power is such as renders all things possible so that they be believed So it is with many who would desirously be made partakers of forgiveness If it be possible they would be pardoned but they do not see it possible Why where is the defect God hath no pardon for them or such as they are and so it may be they come finally short of pardon What because God cannot pardon them it is not possible with him Not at all but because they cannot they will not believe that the forgiveness that is with him is such as that it would answer all the wants of their souls because it answers the infinite largeness of his heart And if this doth not wholly deprive them of Pardon yet it greatly retards their Peace and Comfort God doth not take it well to be limited by us in any thing least of all in his Grace This he calls a Tempting of him a provoking Temptation Psal. 78. 41. They turned back and tempted God they limited the Holy One of Israel This he could not hear with If there be any pardon with God it is such as becomes him to give When he pardons he will abundantly pardon Go with your half forgiveness limited conditional Pardons with reserves and limitations unto the Sons of men it may be it may become them it is like themselves That of God is absolute and perfect before which our sins are as a Cloud before the East Wind and the rising Sun Hence he is said to do this work with his whole heart and his whole soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely bountifully largely to indulge and forgive unto us our sins And to cast them into the bottom of the Sea Mic. 7. 19. into a bottomless Ocean an Emblem of infinite mercy Remember this poor souls when you are to deal with God in this matter all things are possible unto them that do believe Secondly This forgiveness is in or with God not only so as that we may apply our selves unto it if we will for which he will not be offended with us but so also as that he hath placed his great Glory in the Declaration and communication of it nor can we honour him more than by coming to him to be made partakers of it and so to receive it from him For the most part we are as it were ready rather to steal forgiveness from God than to receive from him as one that gives it freely and largely We take it up and lay it down as though we would be glad to have it so God did not as it were see us take it for we are afraid he is not willing we should have it indeed We would steal this fire from Heaven and have a share in Gods Treasures and Riches almost without his consent At least we think that we have it from him aegre with much difficulty that it is rarely given and scarcely obtained That he gives it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a kind of unwilling willingness as we sometimes give Alms without Chearfulness And that he loseth so much by us as he giveth out in Pardon We are apt to think that we are very willing to have forgiveness but that God is unwilling to bestow it and that because he seems to be a loser by it and to forego the glory of inflicting punishment for our sins which of all things we suppose he is most loth to part withal And this is the very nature of unbelief But indeed things are quite otherwise He hath in this matter through the Lord Christ ordered all things in his dealings with sinners to the praise of the glory of his Grace Eph. 1. 6. His design in the whole mysterie of the Gospel is to make his Grace glorious or to exalt pardoning mercy The great fruit and product of his Grace is forgiveness The forgiveness of sinners This God will render himself Glorious in and by All the Praise Glory and Worship that he designs from any in this world is to redound unto him by the way of this Grace as we have proved at large before For this cause spared he the world when sin first entred into it for this cause did he provide a New Covenant when the old was become unprofitable For this cause did he send his Son into the world This hath he testified by all the Evidences insisted on Would he have lost the praise of his Grace nothing hereof would have been done or brought about We can then no way so eminently bring or ascribe glory unto God as by our receiving forgiveness from him he being willing thereunto upon the account of its tendency unto his own Glory in that way which he hath peculiarly fixed on for its manifestation Hence the Apostle exhorts us to come boldly to the Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. That is with the Confidence of faith as he expounds boldness Chap. 10. 19 20. We come about a business wherewith he is well pleased such as he delights in the doing of as he expresseth himself Zeph. 3. 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy He will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing This is the way of Gods Pardoning he doth it in a rejoycing triumphant manner satisfying abundantly his own holy soul therein and resting in his love We have then abundant encouragement to draw nigh to the Throne of Grace to be made partakers of what God is so willing to give out unto us And to this end serves also the Oath of God before insisted on namely to root out all the secret reserves of unbelief concerning Gods Unwillingness to give Mercy Grace and Pardon unto sinners See Heb. 6. 17 18. where it is expressed Therefore the tendency of our former Arguments is not meerly to prove that there is forgiveness with God which we may believe and not be mistaken but which we ought to believe It is our duty so to do We think it our duty to pray to hear the Word to give alms to love the Brethren and to abstain from sin and if we fail in any of these we find the guilt of them reflected upon our Conscience unto our disquietment But we scarce think it our duty to believe the forgiveness of our sins It is well it may be we think with them that can do it but we think it not their fault who do not Such persons may be pityed but as we suppose not justly blamed no not by God himself Whose Conscience almost is burdened with this as a sin that he doth not as he ought believe the forgiveness of his sins And this is meerly because men judge it not their duty so to do For a non-performance of a duty apprehended to be such will reflect on the Conscience a sense of the guilt of sin But now what can be required to make any thing a duty
their Lusts and sins that they will yield them as much satisfaction and contentment as they shall need to desire Alas they will ruine them and bring forth nothing but death Is it in the World it will deceive them the figure of it passeth away Is it in their Duties and Righteousness they will not relieve them for did they follow the Law of Righteousness they could not obtain the Righteousness of the Law Is it in the continuance of their lives Alas it is but a shadow a vapour that appeareth for a little while Is it in a future Amendment and Repentance Hell is full of souls perishing under such Resolutions Only this way of pardon remains and yet of all others is most despised But yet I have one consideration more to adde before I further enforce the Exhortation 6. Consider that this is the only Way and means to enable you unto obedience and to render what you do therein acceptable unto God It may be that some of you are under the power of Convictions and have made Engagements unto God to live unto him to keep your selves from fin and to follow after holiness It may be you have done so in Afflictions dangers sicknesses or upon the receipt of mercies but yet you find that you cannot come unto stability or constancy in your course you break with God and your own Souls which fills you with new disquietments or else hardens you and makes you secure and negligent so that you return unto your purposes no oftner than your Convictions or Afflictions befall you anew This condition is ruinous and pernitious which nothing can deliver you from but this closing with forgiveness For 1. All that you do without this however it may please your minds or ease your Consciences is not at all accepted with God Unless this foundation be laid all that you do is lost All your Prayers all your Duties all your amendments are an abomination unto the Lord. Untill peace is made with him they are but the Acts of Enemies which he despiseth and abhorreth You run it may be earnestly but you run out of the way you strive but not lawfully and shall never receive the Crown True Gospel-obedience is the fruit of the Faith of Forgiveness Whatever you do without it is but a building without a foundation a Castle in the ayre You may see the order of Gospel Obedience Eph. 2. 7 8 9 10. The foundation must be laid in Grace Riches of Grace by Christ in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin From hence must the works of obedience proceed if you would have them to be of Gods appointment or finde acceptance with him Without this God will say of all your Services Worship Obedience as he did to the Israelites of old Amos 5. 21 22 23 24 25. I despise all reject it all it is not to him nor to his Glory Now if you are under convictions of any sort there is nothing you more value nothing you more place your confidence in than your Duties your Repentance your Amendment what you do and what in good time you will be Is it nothing unto you to lose all your hopes and all your Expectations which you have from hence To have no other Reception with God than if all this while you had been wallowing in your sins and lusts Yet thus it is with you if you have not begun with God on his own Terms if you have not received the Atonement in the Blood of his Son if you are not made partakers of Forgiveness if your persons are not pardoned all your Duties are accursed 2. This alone will give you such Motives and Encouragements unto Obedience as will give you Life Alacrity and Delight in it You perform Duties abstain from sins but with heaviness fear and in bondage Could you do as well without them as with them would Conscience be quiet and hope of Eternity hold out you would omit them for ever This makes all your Obedience burdensome and you cry out in your thoughts with him in the Prophet behold what a weariness it is the service of God is the only drudgery of your lives which you dare not omit and delight not to perform From this wretched and cursed frame there is nothing can deliver you but this closing with forgiveness This will give you such motives such encouragements as will greatly influence your hearts and souls It will give you freedom liberty delight and chearfulness in all duties of Gospel Obedience You will finde a constraining power in the love of Christ therein a freedom from bondage when the Son truely hath made you free Faith and love will work genuinely and naturally in your spirits and that which was your greatest burden will become your chiefest joy 2 Cor. 7. 1. Thoughts of the Love of God of the Blood of Christ or the Covenant of Grace and sence of pardon in them will enlarge your hearts and sweeten all your duties You will find a new life a new pleasure a new satisfaction in all that you doe Have you yet ever understood that of the Wiseman Prov. 3. 17. The wayes of Wisdom are pleasantness and her paths are peace Have the wayes of Holyness of Obedience of Duties been so unto you Whatever you pretend they are not they cannot be so whilst you are strangers unto that which alone can render them so unto you I speak unto them that are under the Law Would you be free from that bondage that galling yoke in dutyes of Obedience Would you have all that you do towards God a delight and pleasantness unto you this and this alone will effect it for you 3. This will place all your Obedience upon a sure foot of account in your own Souls and Consciences even the same that is fixed on in the Gospell For the present all that you do is indeed but to compound with God for your sin you hope by what you do for him and to him to buy off what you have done against him that you may not fall into the hands of his Wrath and Vengeance This makes all you doe to be irksom As a man that labours all his dayes to pay an old debt and brings in nothing to lay up for himself how tedious and wearisome is his work and labour to him It is odds but that at one time or other he will give over and run away from his Creditor So it is in this case men who have secret reserves of recompensing God by their Obedience every day find their debt growing upon them and have every day less hopes of making a satisfactory payment This makes them weary and for the most part they faint under their discouragements and at length they fly wholly from God This way alone will state things otherwise in your Consciences It will give you to see that all your debts are paid by Christ and freely forgiven unto you by God So that what you doe is of Gratitude or thankfulness hath an influence
and obstructions by his own blood bringing forth unto beauty and Glory this Redemption or Forgiveness of sin as the price of it And let the Glory of the Gospel which alone makes this discovery of Forgiveness in God dwell in your hearts Let your minds be exercised about these things You will find effects from them above all that hath as yet been brought forth in your souls What for the most part have you hitherto been conversant about when you have risen above the turmoyling of lusts and corruptions in your hearts the entanglements of your Callings business and affairs what have you been able to raise your hearts unto perplexing fears about your Condition General hopes without savour or relish yielding you no refreshment Legal Commands Bondage-duties distracted Consciences broken Purposes and Promises which you have been tossed up and down withall without any certain rest And what Effects have these thoughts produced have they made you more holy and more humble have they given you delight in God and strength unto new obedience Not at all Where you were there you still are without the least progress But now bring your Souls unto these Springs and try the Lord if from that day you be not blessed with spiritual stores 8. If the Lord be pleased to carry on your Souls thus far then stirr up your selves to choose and close with the way of forgiveness that hath been revealed Choose it only choose it in comparison with and opposition unto all others Say you will be for Christ and not for another and be so accordingly Here venture here repose here rest your Souls It is a way of peace safety Holyness beauty strength power liberty and glory you have the Nature the Name the Love the Purposes the Promises the Covenant the Oath of God the Love Life Death or Blood the Mediation or Oblation and Intercession of Jesus Christ The Power and Efficacy of the Spirit and Gospel Grace by him administred to give you Assurance of the excellency the oneness the safety of the Way whereunto you are engaging If now the Lord shall be pleased to perswade your hearts and souls to enter upon the path marked out before you and shall carry you on through the various exercises of it unto this closure of Faith God will have the Glory the Gospel will be Exalted and your own Souls shall reap the Eternal benefit of this Exhortation But now if not withstanding all that hath been spoken all the Invitations you have had and Incouragements that have been held out unto you you shall continue to despise this so great salvation you will live and dye in the state and condition wherein you are why then as the Prophet said to the Wife of Jeroboam Come neer for I am sent unto you with heavy Tydings I say then 9. If you resolve to continue in the neglect of this Salvation and shall do so accordingly Then Cursed be you of the Lord with all the Curses that are written in the Law and all the Curses that are denounced against Despisers of the Gospel Yea be you Anathema Maranatha Cursed in this World alwayes untill the comeing of the Lord and when the Lord comes be ye cursed from his presence into Everlasting destruction Yea Curse them all ye holy Angels of God as the obstinate Enemies of your King and Head the Lord Jesus Christ. Curse them all ye Churches of Christ as despisers of that Love and Mercy which is your portion your Life your Inheritance Let all the Saints of God all that love the Lord curse them and rejoyce to see the Lord comeing forth mightily and prevailing against them to their everlasting ruine Why should any one have a thought of compassion towards them who despise the compassion of God or of mercy towards them who trample on the blood of Christ Whilest there is yet hope we desire to have continual sorrow for you and to travail in soul for your conversion to God but if you be hardened in your way shall we joyn with you against him shall we preferre you above his Glory shall we desire your salvation with the despoyling God of his honour Nay God forbid We hope to rejoyce in seeing all that vengeance and indignation that is in the right hand of God poured out unto Eternity upon your Souls Prov. 1. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33. Rules to be observed by them who would come to stability in Obedience The first Rule Christ the only infallible Judge of our spiritual condition How he judgeth by his Word and Spirit That which remaineth to be further carried on upon the Principles laid down is to perswade with Souls more or less intangled in the depths of sin to close with this Forgiveness by Believing unto their Peace and Consolation And because such persons are full of pleas and objections against themselves I shall chiefly in what I have to say endeavour to obviate these Objections so to encourage them unto believing and bring them unto settlement And herein whatever I have to offer flowes naturally from the Doctrine at large laid down and asserted Yet I shall not in all particulars apply my self thereunto but in Generall fix on those things that may tend to the Establishment and Consolation of both distressed and doubting Souls And I shall do what I purpose these two wayes First I shall lay down such General Rules as are necessary to be observed by all those who intend to come to Gospel peace and Comfort And then Secondly shall consider some such Objections as seem to be most comprehensive of those special reasonings where with distressed persons do usually intangle themselves I shall begin with General Rules which through the Grace of Christ and Supplyes of his Spirit may be of use unto Believers in the condition under consideration RULE I. Be not Judges of your own Condition but let Christ judge You are invited to take the comfort of this Gospel Truth That there is Forgiveness with God You say not for you so said Jacob My way is hid from the Lord Isa. 40. 27. and Sion said so too chap. 49. 14. The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But did they make a right Judgement of themselves We find in those places that God was otherwise minded This false Judgement made by Souls in their intanglements of their own Condition is oft-times a most unconquerable hinderance unto the bettering of it They fill themselves with thoughts of their own about it and on them they dwell instead of looking out after a Remedy Misgiving thoughts of their distempers are commonly a great part of some mens sickness Many diseases are apt to cloud the thoughts and to cause misapprehensions concerning their own nature and danger And these delusions are a real part of the persons sickness Nature is no less impaired and weakened by them the Efficacy of Remedies no less obstructed than by any other reall distemper In such
build upon it unto any comfort to themselves or usefulness unto others And the Reason is because they will be mixing with the foundation stones that are fit only for the following building They will be bringing their Obedience duties mortification of sin and the like unto the foundation These are precious stones to build with but unmeet to be first laid to bear upon them the whole weight of the building The foundation is to be laid as was said in meer Grace Mercy Pardon in the blood of Christ. This the soul is to accept of and to rest in meerly as it is Grace without the consideration of any thing in its self but that it is sinfull and obnoxious unto ruine This it finds a difficulty in and would gladly have something of its own to mix with it It cannot tell how to fix these foundation stones without some cement of its own endeavours and duty And because these things will not mix they spend a fruitless labour about it all their daies But if the foundation be of Grace it is not at all of works for otherwise grace is no more grace If any thing of our own be mixed with Grace in this matter it utterly destroys the nature of Grace which if it be not alone it is not at all But doth not this tend to licenciousness doth not this render Obedience Holiness Duties Mortification of sin and good works needless God forbid yea this is the only way to order them aright unto the glory of God Have we nothing to do but to lay the foundation yes all our daies we are to build upon it when it is surely and firmly laid And these are the means and waies of our Edification This then is the soul to do who would come to peace and settlement Let it let go all former endeavours if it have been engaged unto any of that kind And let it alone receive admit of and adhere to meer Grace mercy and pardon with a full sense that in its self it hath nothing for which it should have an interest in them but that all is of meer Grace through Jesus Christ. Other foundation can no man lay Depart not hence until this work be well over Surcease not an earnest endeavour with your own hearts to acquiesce in this Righteousness of God and to bring your souls unto a comfortable perswasion that God for Christ his sake hath freely forgiven you all your sins Stir not hence untill this be effected If you have been engaged in another way that is to seek for an interest in the pardon of sin by some endeavours of your own it is not unlikely but that you are filled with the fruit of your own doings that is that you go on with all kind of uncertainties and without any kind of constant peace Return then again hither bring this foundation work to a blessed issue in the blood of Christ and when that is done up and be doing You know how fatal and ruinous it is for souls to abuse the Grace of God and the Apprehension of the pardon of sins in the course of their obedience to countenance themselves in sin or the negligence of any duty this is to turn the Grace of God into wantonness as we have else where at large declared And it is no less pernicious to bring the duties of our obedience any reserves for them any hopes about them into the matter of pardon and forgiveness as we are to receive them from God But these things as they are distinct in themselves so they must be distinctly managed in the soul and the confounding of them is that which disturbs the Peace and weakens the Obedience of many In a confused manner they labour to keep up a life of Grace and Duty which will be in their places conjoyned but not mixed or compounded First To take up Mercy Pardon and Forgiveness absolutely on the account of Christ and then to yield all obedience in the strength of Christ and for the Love of Christ is the life of a Believer Ephes. 2. 8 9 10. RULE VIII Take heed of spending time in complaints when vigorous actings of Grace are your Duty Fruitless and heartless complaints bemoanings of themselves and their condition is the substance of the profession that some make If they can object against themselves and form Complaints out of their conditions they suppose they have done their duty I have known some who have spent a good part of their time in going up and down from one to another with their objections and complaints These things are contrary to the life of Faith It is good indeed in our spiritual distresses to apply our selves unto them who are furnished with the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season unto him that is weary But for persons to fill their minds and imaginations with their own Objections and Complaints not endeavouring to mix the words that are spoken for their relief and direction with faith but going on still in their own way this is of no use or advantage And yet some I fear may please themselves in such a course as if it had somewhat of Eminency in Religion in it Others it may be drive the same trade in their Thoughts although they make not outwardly such Complaints They are conversant for the most part with heartless despondings And in some they are multiplied by their natural Constitutions or Distempers Examples of this kind occur unto us every day Now what is the Advantage of these things what did Sion get when she cried The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me or Jacob when he said My way is hid from the Lord and my Judgement is passed over from my God Doubtless they did but prejudice themselves How doth David rouse up himself when he found his mind inclinable unto such a frame For having said Why dost thou cast me off O God why go I mourning because of the oppression of mine enemy He quickly rebukes and recollects himself saying Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope in God Psal. 4. 2 5. We must say then unto such heartless Complainers as God did to Joshuah Get you up why lye you thus upon your faces Do you think to mend your condition by wishing it better or complaining it is so bad are your complaints of want of an Interest in forgiveness a sanctified means to obtain it not at all you will not deal so with your selves in things natural or civil In such things you will take an industrious course for a remedy or for relief In things of the smallest importance in this world and unto this life you will not content your selves with wishing and complaining As though industry in the use of natural means for the attaining of natural Ends were the Ordinance of God and diligence in the use of spiritual means for the obtaining of spiritual Ends were not Do not consult your
in reference unto sin and the demerit of it is our duty The judging of our state and condition in Relation unto the Remedy provided is the Office and Work of Jesus Christ with whom it is to be left 2. Consider that hard thoughts of what God will do with you and harsh desponding sentences pronounced against your selves will unsensibly alienate your hearts from God It may be when mens perplexities are at the height and the most sad Expressions are as it were wrested from them they yet think they must Justifie God and that they do so accordingly But yet such thoughts as those mentioned are very apt to infect the mind with other inclinations For after a while they will prevail with the soul to look on God as an Enemy as one that hath no delight in it and what will be the consequent thereof is easily discernable None will continue to love long where they expect no returns Suffer not then your minds to be tainted with such thoughts and let not God be dishonoured by any such expressions as reflect on that infinite Grace and compassion which he is exercising towards you RULE X. The Tenth Rule Duly improve the least Appearances of God in a way of Grace or Pardon If you would come to stability and a comforting perswasion of an Interest in forgiveness by the Blood of Christ improve the least Appearances of him unto your souls and the least Intimations of his Love in Pardon that are made unto you in the way of God The Spouse takes notice of her Husband and rejoyceth in him when he stands behind the wall when he doth but look forth at the window and shew himself at the lattice when she could have no clear sight of him Cant. 2. 9. She lays hold on the least Appearance of him to support her heart withall and to stir up her Affections towards him Men in dangers do not sit still to wait until something presents it self unto them that will give assured deliverance but they close with that which first presents it self unto them that is of the same kind and nature with what they look after And thus God doth in many places express such supportments as give the soul little more than a possibility of attaining the End aimed at As Zeph. 2. 3. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords Anger And Joel 2. 14. Who knoweth but he will return and leave a blessing It may be we shall be hid it may be we shall have a blessing And this was the best ground that Jonathan had for the great undertaking against the Enemies of God 1 Sam. 14. 6. It may be God will go along with us And to what end doth God at any time make these seemingly dubious intimations of Grace and Mercy is it that we should by the difficulty included in them be discouraged and kept from him not at all he speaks nothing to deter sinners especially distressed sinners from trusting in him But his End is that we should close with and lay hold upon and improve the least Appearances of Grace which this kind of expressions do give unto us When men are in a voyage at Sea and meet with a Storm or a Tempest which abides upon them and they fear will at last prevail against them if they make so far a discovery of Land as that they can say it may be there is Land it may it is such a place where there is a safe harbour none can positively say it is not there lyes no demonstration against it in this condition especially if there be no other way of escape delivery or safety proposed to them this is enough to make them to follow on that discovery and with all diligence to steer their course that way until they have made a tryal of it unto the utmost The soul of which we speak is afflicted and tossed and not comforted There is in the Intimation of Grace and Pardon intended a remote discovery made of some relief This may be Christ it may be forgiveness This it is convinced of it cannot deny but at such or such a time under such Ordinances or in such Duties it was perswaded that yet there might be Mercy and Pardon for it This is enough to carry it to steer its course constantly that way to press forward unto that harbour which will give it rest How little was it that David had to bring his soul unto a composure in his great distress 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. If saith he I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me the Ark and the place of his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him He hath nothing but Soveraign Grace to rest upon and that he gives himself up unto Faith is indeed the souls Venture for Eternity Something it is to venture on as to its eternal condition It must either adhere unto its self or its own vain hopes of a Righteousness of its own or it must give over all expectation and lye down in darkness or it must shut out all dreadfull Apprehensions of Eternity by the power and activity of its lusts and carnal Affections or it must whatever its discouragements be cast it self upon Pardon in the blood of Jesus Christ. Now if all the former waies be detestable and pernicious if the best of them be a direct opposition unto the Gospel what hath the soul that enquires after these things to do but to adhere unto the last and to improve every encouragement even the least to that purpose As a close unto these General Rules I shall only add this last direction Consider in particular where the stress and hinderance lyes that keeps you off from Peace through an established perswasion of an interest in Evangelical Pardon Do not alwaies fluctuate up and down in generals and uncertainties but drive things unto a particular issue that it may be tryed whether it be of sufficient efficacy to keep you in your present entanglements and despondencies Search out your wound that it may be tryed whether it be curable or no. Now in this case we cannot expect that persons should suggest their own particular concerns that so they might be considered and be brought unto the Rule but we must our selves reduce such distresses as may or do in this matter befall the minds of men unto some General heads and give a Judgement concerning them according to the Word of Truth Indeed particular cases as varied by circumstances are endness nor can they be spoken unto in this way of Instruction and Direction but they must be left unto occasional considerations of them as they are represented unto them who are entrusted to dispense the mysteries of God Besides many have laboured already in this matter and their endeavours are in and of general use Although it must be said as was before
of us This is that which gives life unto our duties without which the best of our works are but dead works and renders them acceptable unto the Living God It is not my business at large to pursue and declare these things I only mention them that persons who are kept back from a participation of the Consolation tendred from the forgiveness that is with God because they cannot comfortably conclude that they are born again as knowing that it is unto such persons alone unto whom these Consolations do truly and really belong may know how to make a right judgement of themselves Let such persons then not fluctuate up and down in Generals and Uncertainties with heartless complaints which is the ruine of the peace of their souls but let them really put things to the trial by the examination of the Causes and Effects of the work they enquire after It is by the use of such means whereby God will be pleased to give them all the Assurance and Establishment concerning their State and Condition which is needfull for them and which may give them incouragement in their course of obedience But supposing all that hath been spoken what if a man by the utmost search and enquiry that he is able to make cannot attain any satisfactory perswasion that indeed this great work of Gods Grace hath passed upon his soul is this a sufficient ground to keep him off from accepting of supportment and consolation from this Truth that there is forgiveness with God which is the design of the Objection laid down before I say therefore further that 1. Regeneration doth not in Order of time precede the souls interest in the forgiveness that is with God or its being made partaker of the pardon of sin I say no more but that it doth not precede it in order of time not determining which hath precedency in order of nature That I confess which the method of the Gospel leads unto is that Absolution Acquitment or the pardon of sin is the foundation of the communication of all saving Grace unto the soul and so precedeth all Grace in the sinner whatever But because this Absolution or pardon of sin is to be received by faith whereby the soul is really made partaker of it and all the benefits belonging thereunto and that faith also is the radical grace which we receive in our Regeneration for it is by faith that our hearts are purified as an Instrument in the hand of the great purifier the Spirit of God I place these two together and shall not dispute as to their priority in nature but in time the one doth not precede the other 2. It is hence evident that an Assurance of being Regenerate is no way previously necessary unto the believing of an interest in forgiveness so that although a man have not the former it is or may be his duty to endeavour the latter When convinced persons cryed out What shall we do to be saved the answer was believe and you shall be so Believe in Christ and in the remission of sin by his blood is the first thing that convinced sinners are called unto They are not directed first to secure their souls that they are born again and then afterwards to believe But they are first to believe that the Remission of sin is tendred unto them in the blood of Christ and that by him they may be justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law Nor upon this proposition is it the duty of men to question whether they have faith or no but actually to believe And faith in its operation will evidence it self See Acts 13. 38 39. Suppose then that you do not know that you are Regenerate that you are born of God that you have no prevailing refreshing constant evidence or perswasion thereof should this hinder you should this discourage you from believing forgiveness from closing with the promises and thereby obtaining in your selves an interest in that forgiveness that is with God Not at all Nay this ought exceedingly to excite and stir you up unto your duty herein For 1. Suppose that it is otherwise that indeed you are yet in the state of sin and are only brought under the power of Light and Conviction this is the way for a translation into an estate of spiritual life and Grace If you will forbear the acting of faith upon and for forgiveness until you are Regenerate you may and probably you will come short both of Forgiveness and Regeneration also Here lay your foundation and then your building will go on This will open the door unto you and give you an entrance into the Kingdom of God Christ is the door do not think to climb up over the wall enter by him or you will be kept out 2. Suppose that you are born again but yet know it not as is the condition of many This is a way whereby you may receive an evidence thereof It is good embracing of all signs tokens and pledges of our spiritual condition and it is so to improve them But the best course is to follow the genuine natural actings of faith which will lead us into the most setled apprehensions concerning our Relation unto God and acceptance with him Believe first the forgiveness of sin as the effect of meer grace and mercy in Christ. Let the faith hereof be nourished and strengthened in your souls This will insensibly influence your hearts into a comforting Gospel perswasion of your state and condition towards God which will be accompanied with assured rest and peace To winde up this discourse remember that that which hath been spoken with reference unto the state of Regeneration in General may be applyed unto every particular objection or cause of fear or discouragement that may be reduced to that head Such are all Objections that arise from particular sins from Aggravations of sin by their greatness or circumstances or relapses into them The way that the consideration of these things prevail upon the mind unto fears is by begetting an apprehension in men that they are not Regenerate for if they were they suppose they could not be so overtaken or entangled The Rules therefore laid down are suited to the streights of the souls of sinners in all such particular cases Lastly There was somewhat in particular added in the close of the Objection which although it be not directly in our way nor of any great importance in it self yet having been mentioned it is not unmeet to remove it out of the way that it may not leave intanglement upon the minds of any Now this is that some know not nor can give an account of the Time of their conversion unto God and therefore cannot be satisfied that the saving work of his grace hath passed upon them This is usually and ordinarily spoken unto And I shall therefore briefly give an account concerning it 1. It hath been shewed that in this matter there are many things whereon
the words themselves that he uses according as we opened them before 2. In the Emphatical reduplication yea triplication of his expression of it I wait for God my soul waiteth for God my soul for the Lord. 3. In the Comparison instituted between his discharge of his duty and others performances of a corporal watch with the greatest care and diligence more than they that watch for the morning So that we have 1. The duty he performed earnest Waiting and Expectation 2. The Object of his waiting Jehovah himself 3. His Supportment in that duty the Word of promise 4. The Manner of his performance of it 1. With Earnestness and diligence 2. With Perseverance Let us then now Consider the Words as they contain the frame and working of a sin entangled soul. Having been raised out of his depths by the discovery of forgiveness in God as was before declared yet not being immediately made partaker of that forgiveness as to a comforting sense of it he gathers up his soul from wandring from God and supports it from sinking under his present condition It is saith he Jehovah alone with whom is forgiveness that can relieve and do me good his favour his loving kindness his communication of mercy and Grace from thence is that which I stand in need of on him therefore do I with all heedfulness attend on him do I wait my soul is filled with expectation from him surely he will come to me he will come and refresh me though he seem as yet to be afar of and to leave me in these depths yet I have his word of promise to support and stay my soul on which I will lean untill I obtain the enjoyment of him and his kindness which is better than life And this is the frame of a sin entangled Soul who hath really by faith discovered forgiveness in God but is not yet made partaker of a comforting refreshing sense of it And we may represent it in the ensuing Observations Obs. 1. The first proper fruit of faiths discovery of forgiveness in God unto a sin distressed soul is waiting in patience and Expectation Obs. 2. The proper Object of a sin distressed souls waiting and expecting is God himself as reconciled in Christ I have waited for Jehovah Obs. 3. The Word of promise is the souls great supportment in waiting for God in thy Word do I hope Obs. 4. Sin distressed Souls wait for God with earnest intention of mind diligence and expectation from the redoubling of the Expression Obs. 5. Continuance in waiting untill God appears to the soul is necessary and prevailing Necessary as that without which we cannot attain assistance and prevailing as that wherein we shall never fail Obs. 6. Establishment in waiting where there is no present sense of forgiveness yet gives the soul much secret Rest and Comfort This Observation ariseth from the influence that these Verses have unto those that follow The Psalmist having attained thus far can now look about him and begin to deal with others and exhort them to an Expectation of Grace and mercy And thus though the soul be not absolutely in the haven of Consolation where it would be yet it hath cast out an Anchor that gives it Establishment and Security Though it be yet tossed yet it is secured from Shipwrack and is rather sick than in danger A waiting Condition is a condition of Safety Hence it is that he now turns himself to others and upon the Experience of the discovery that he had made of forgiveness in God and the Establishment and consolation he found in waiting on him he calls upon and incourageth others to the same duty v. 7 8. The Propositions laid down I shall briefly pass through still with respect unto the State and Condition of the Soul represented in the Psalm Many things that might justly be insisted on in the improvement of these Truths have been anticipated in our former General Rules To them we must therefore sometimes have recourse because they must not be again repeated On this account I say we shall pass through them with all briefness possible yet so as not wholly to omit any directions that are here tendred unto us as to the guidance of the soul whose condition and the working of whose faith is here described This therefore in the first place is proposed The first proper fruit of faiths discovery of forgiveness in God unto a sin-distressed soul is waiting in patience and expectation This the Psalmist openly and directly applies himself unto and expresseth to have been as his duty so his practice And he doth it so emphatically as was manifested in the opening of the words that I know not that any duty is any where in the Scripture so recommended and lively represented unto us You must therefore for the right understanding of it call to mind what hath been spoken concerning the state of the soul inquired into its depths intanglements and sense of sin with its Application unto God about those things As also remember what hath been delivered about the nature of forgiveness with the Revelation that is made of it unto the faith of Believers And that this may be done where the soul hath no refreshing sense of its own interest therein It knows not that its own sins are forgiven although it believes that there is forgiveness with God Now the principal duty that is incumbent on such a soul is that laid down in the proposition namely patient waiting and expectation Two things must be done in reference hereunto First The nature of the duty it self is to be declared And secondly The necessity and usefulness of its practice is to be evinced and demonstrated For the Nature of it something hath been intimated giving light into it in the opening of the words here used by the Psalmist to express it by But we may observe that these duties as required of us do not consist in any particular acting of the soul but in the whole spiritual frame and deportment of it in reference unto the End aimed at in and by them And this waiting as here and elsewhere commended unto us and which is comprehensive of the especial duties of the soul in the case insisted on and described comprehends these three things 1. Quietness in Opposition to haste and tumultuating of spirit 2. Diligence in Opposition to spiritual sloth despondency and neglect of means 3. Expectation in Opposition to despair distrust and other proper immediate actings of unbelief 1. Quietness Hence this waiting it self is sometimes expressed by silence To wait is to be silent Lam. 3. 6. It is good both to hope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be silent for the salvation of the Lord that is to wait quietly as we have rendred the word And the same word we render sometimes to rest as Psal. 37. 7. Rest on the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be silent unto him where it is joyned with hoping or waiting as that which belongs unto
restless heartless desiring that it were otherwise with you Means are to be used that relief may be obtained What those means are is known unto all Mortification of sin prayer meditation due attendance upon all Gospel Ordinances conferring in General about spiritual things advising in particular about our own state and condition with such who having received the tongue of the learned are able to speak a word in season to them that are weary are required to this purpose And in all these are diligence and perseverance to be exercised or in vain shall men desire a delivery from their entanglements God the proper Object of the souls waiting in its distresses and depths We have seen what the duty is intended in the proposition we are nextly to consider the Reason also of it why this is the great first and principal duty of souls who in their depths have it discovered unto them that there is forgiveness with God And the reason hereof is that which is expressed in our second Observation before mentioned namely That the proper object of a sin distressed souls waiting and expectation is God himself as revealed in Christ. I have saith the Psalmist waited for Jehovah It is not this or that mercy or Grace this or that help or relief but it is Jehovah himself that I wait for Here then we must do two things first shew in what sense God himself is the object of the waiting of the soul. 2. How it appears from hence that waiting is so necessary a Duty 1. It is the Lord himself Jehovah himself that the soul waiteth for It is not Grace mercy or relief absolutely considered but the God of all Grace and help that is the full adaequate object of the souls waiting and Expectation only herein he is not considered absolutely in his own Nature but as there is forgiveness with him What is required hereunto hath been at large before declared It is as he is revealed in and by Jesus Christ as in him he hath found a Ransome and accepted the Attonement for sinners in his blood as he is a God in Covenant so he is himself the Object of our waiting And that First Because all troubles depths entanglements arise from 1. The Absence of God from the soul and 2. From his displeasure The Absence of God from the soul by his departure withdrawing or hiding himself from it is that which principally casts the soul into its depths Woe unto them saith the Lord when I depart from them Hos. 9. 12. And this woe this sorrow doth not attend only an universal a total departure of God from any but that also which is gradual or partial in some things in some seasons When God withdraws his enlightning his refreshing his comforting presence as to any wayes or means whereby he hath formerly communicated himself unto the souls of any then woe unto them sorrows will befall them and they will fall into depths and entanglements Now this condition calls for waiting If God be withdrawn if he hides himself what hath the soul to do but to wait for his return So saith the Prophet Isa. 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him If God hide himself this is the natural and proper duty of the soul to wait and to look for him Other course of relief it cannot apply it self unto What that waiting is and wherein it doth consist hath been declared Patient seeking of God in the wayes of his Appointment is comprized in it this the Prophet expresseth in that word I will look for him indeed the same in the Original with that in the Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will earnestly look out after him with expectation of his return unto me Secondly A sense of Gods displeasure is another cause of these depths and troubles and of the continuance of the soul in them notwithstanding it hath made a blessed discovery by faith that there is with him forgiveness this hath been so fully manifested through the whole preceding discourse that it need not again be insisted on All hath respect unto sin and the reason of the trouble that ariseth from sin is because of the displeasure of God against it What then is the natural posture and frame of the soul towards God as displeased shall he contend with him shall he harden himself against him shall he despise his wrath and anger and contemn his threatnings or shall he hide himself from him and so avoid the effects of his wrath who knows not how ruinous and pernitious to the soul such courses would be and how many are ruined by them every day patient waiting is the souls only reserve on this account also And Secondly This duty in the occasion mentioned is necessary upon the account of the Greatness and soveraignty of him with whom we have to do My soul waiteth for Jehovah Indeed waiting is a duty that depends on the distance that is between the persons concerned in it namely he that waiteth and he that is waited on so the Psalmist informs us Psal. 123. 2. It is an action like that of Servants and Handmaids towards their Masters or Rulers And the greater this distance is the more cogent are the reasons of this duty on all occasions And because we are practically averse from the due performance of this duty or at least quickly grow weary of it notwithstanding our full conviction of its necessity I shall a little insist on some such considerations of God and our selves as may not only evince the necessity of this duty but also satisfie us of its reasonableness that by the first we may be engaged into it and by the latter preserved in it Two things we may to this purpose consider in God in Jehovah whom we are to wait for First His Being and the absolute and essential properties of his nature Secondly Those Attributes of his nature which respect his dealing with us both which are suited to beget in us affections and a frame of spirit compliant with the duty proposed Considerations of God rendring our Waiting on him Reasonable and Necessary His glorious Being 1. Let us consider the infinite glorious Being of Jehovah with his absolute incommunicable essential Excellencies and then try whether it doth not become us in every condition to wait for him and especially in that under consideration This course God himself took with Job to recover him from his discontents and complaints to reduce him to quietness and waiting He sets before him his own Glorious Greatness as manifested in the works of his power that thereby being convinced of his own ignorance weakness and infinite distance in all things from him he might humble his soul into the most submissive dependance on him and waiting for him And this he doth accordingly chap. 42. 6. I abhor saith he my self and repent in dust and ashes His soul now comes to be willing to
exhortation doth not lie so much in this that there is Redemption with God as that this Redemption is plenteous or abundant Secondly Here is an intimation in the Word it self of that Relation which the Goodness and Grace of God proposed hath to the blood of Christ whence it is called Redemption This as was shewed in the opening of the words hath respect unto a price the price whereby we are bought that is the blood of Christ. This is that whereby way is made for the exercise of mercy towards sinners Redemption which properly denotes actual deliverance is said to be with God or in him as the effect in the cause The causes of it are his own Grace and the blood of Christ. There are these prepared for the redeeming of Believers from sin and trouble unto his own glory And herein lyeth the incouragement that the Psalmist proposeth unto the performance of the duty exhorted unto namely to wait on God It is taken from God himself as all incouragements unto sinners to draw nigh unto him and to wait for him must be Nothing but himself can give us confidence to go unto him And it is suited unto the state and condition of the soul under consideration Redemption and Mercy are suited to give relief from sin and misery Thirdly The last verse contains a promise of the issue of the performance of this duty He shall redeem his people from all their iniquities Two things are observable in the words 1. The Certainty of the Issue or event of the duty mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shall or he will redeem he will assuredly do so Now although this in the Psalmist is given out by Revelation and is a new promise of God yet as it relates to the condition of the soul here expressed and the discovery made by saith of forgiveness and Redemption with God the Certainty intended in this Assertion is built upon the principles before laid down Whence therefore doth it appear whence may we infallibly conclude that God will redeem his Israel from all their iniquities I answer 1. The Conclusion is drawn from the Nature of God There is forgiveness and Redemption with him and he will act towards his people suitably to his own nature There is Redemption with him and therefore he will redeem forgiveness with him and therefore he will forgive As the Conclusion is certain and infallible that wicked men ungodly men shall be destroyed because God is Righteous and holy his Righteousness and Holiness indispensibly requiring their destruction so is the Redemption and Salvation of all that believe certain on this account namely because there is forgiveness with him he is good and gracious and ready to forgive his Goodness and Grace requires their Salvation 2. The Conclusion is certain upon the account of Gods Faithfulness in his Promises He hath promised that those who wait on him shall not be ashamed that their expectation shall not be disappointed whence the Conclusion is certain that in his time and way they shall be redeemed 2. There is the Extent of this deliverance or Redemption shall redeem Israel from all their Iniquities It was shewed in the opening of the verse that this word denotes either sin procuring trouble or trouble procured by sin and there is a respect unto both sin and its punishment From both from all of both kind God will redeem his Israel Not this or that evil this or that sin but from all evil all sin He will take all sins from their souls and wipe all tears from their Eyes Now God is said to do this on many accounts 1. On the account of the Great Cause of all actual deliverance and Redemption the blood of Christ. He hath laid an assured foundation of the whole work the price of Redemption is paid and they shall in due time enjoy the Effects and fruits of it 2. Of the Actual Communication of the Effects of that Redemption unto them This is sure to all the Elect of God to his whole Israel They shall all be made partakers of them And this is the end of all the promises of God and of the grace and mercy promised in them namely that they should be means to exhibit and give out to Believers that Redemption which is purchased and prepared for them and this is done two wayes 1. Partially initially and gradually in this life Here God gives in unto them the pardon of their sins being justified freely by his grace and in his Sanctification of them through his spirit gives them delivery from the power and dominion of sin Many troubles also he delivers them from and from all as far as they are Poenal or have any mixture of the Curse in them 2. Compleatly Namely when he shall have freed them from sin and trouble and from all the effects and consequents of them by bringing them unto the enjoyment of himself in Glory 3. The Words being thus opened we may briefly in the next place consider what they express concerning the State Condition or Actings of the soul which are represented in this Psalm Having himself attained unto the State before described and being engaged resolvedly into the performance of that duty which would assuredly bring him into an haven of full rest and peace the Psalmist applyes himself unto the residue of the Israel of God to give them incouragement unto this duty with himself from the Experience that he had of a blessed success therein As if he had said unto them Ye are now in Affictions and under troubles and that upon the account of your sins and provocations A condition I Confess sad and deplorable but yet there is hope in Israel concerning these things For consider how it hath been with me and how the Lord hath dealt with me I was in depths inexpressible and saw for a while no way or means of delivery But God hath been pleased graciously to reveal himself unto me as God pardoning Iniquity transgression and sin and in the Consolation and supportment which I have received thereby I am waiting for a full participation of the fruits of his Love Let me therefore prevail with you who are in the like condition to steer the same course with me Only let your expectations be fixed in mercy and Soveraign Grace without any regard unto any priviledge or worth in your selves Rest in the plenteous redemption those stores of Grace which are with Jehovah and according to his faithfulness in his promises he will deliver you out of all perplexing troubles Having thus opened the Words I shall now only name the doctrinal Observations that are tendred from them and so put a close to these Discourses As Obs. 1. The Lord Jehovah is the only hope for sin-distressed souls Hope in the Lord This hath been sufficiently discovered and confirmed on sundry passages in the Psalm Obs. 2. The Ground of all hope and Expectation of relief in sinners is meer Grace Mercy and Redemption Hope in the Lord