compast by our own strength and industry but freely imparted and given of God As our Righteousness is freely imputed so our Holiness is freely imparted That thou art not a killing Cain a self murdering Saul a despairing Judas a prophane Esau a drunken Baltazar a filthy Sodomite it ariseth from this meer Mercy But that God hath not only restrained thee but renewed thee not only chained up thy spirit but changed thy spirit This is Free-Mercy And so the Scripture tells us 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who of his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again Not only Mercy but abundance of Mercy So James 1.18 Of his own free-will begot hee us And that in John 1.13 Wee were born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man But of God Not of blood Nor great men nor good men can do it Regeneration comes not by Generation Nor of the will of the flesh Our will is but a fleshly will and cannot beget a spiritual nature Nor of the will of man It is not all the indeavours of holy men who labour to do us good can do it But the Will of God It is a mercy wee give least concurrence to of all other When wee have Grace then wee are helpers for the growth and increase of Grace but who shall give Grace When the Candle is lighted it will burn but none but God can light up the Candle In after Sanctification wee concurre There is no concurrence in Regeneration This is the freest Mercy of all other When God hath wrought Grace there is some ingagement for God to go on but there is nothing to move him to bestow Grace Here is the ground His heart is taken therefore hee sanctifies us His heart is taken with us therefore 4. Hee glorifies us As our Justification so our Sanctification and Glorification arise from the same ground His heart is taken with us The Papists indeed would have us to merit Heaven And the Councel of Trent denounce a curse upon those who say Quid sunt omnia opera ad tantam gloriam Bern. Si homo mille annis serviet A Justified person cannot merit Heaven But alas What are all our deserts to this Glory If a man should serve God and suffer a thousand years what were this to merit eternity in Glory No here is the ground of all His heart is taken with us and therefore hee glorifies us And so the Scripture speaks plain Eph. 2.5 By Grace yee are saved And lest hee should never make it firm enough hee adds in the 8 and 9. verses By Grace yee are saved not of works So that you see into what to resolve the higher streams of his Love his chusing us his justifying his sanctifying and his glorifying us His heart is taken with us therefore hee chose us therefore hee justifies us c. 2. As you may see into what to resolve all the higher So the lower streams of his love to his Church All into this His heart is taken with his Church His heart is taken with us therefore hee doth protect us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will preserve us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will support us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will deliver us All the good wee have in Hand and all the good wee have in Hope All the Mercies bestowed and all those which God is bestowing on us Look upon all as a continued threed spun out of the bowels of Free-Grace and Mercy God hath done great things for us and from this they have arisen His Heart is taken with us his Love towards us Jer. 31.3 4. I loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee Alas If God had looked upon us and taken either ground or motive from any thing in us to do this for us wee should never have injoyed it 1. There was no ground no foundation of desert in us Wee abhorre the thoughts of it for God to raise such a fabrick of mercy upon as hee hath done If any thing in his Church were the foundation of the structure of mercy which wee expect God to raise wee might look for a mean building Such weak foundations must have as weak a structure A building must bee proportionable to the foundation But seeing Gods own heart is the foundation his own mercy and good will towards us which is so strong so firm so full a foundation Hence it is that wee may expect a structure of mercy suitable to the foundation And as this is the foundation of all those great and stupendious things which God hath done for us So it is a ground for us to expect that God will yet do greater things for us than ever hee hath done Indeed when wee look upon our selves wee are at an end in our thoughts and think God is at an end in his Mercy but when wee look up toward God and see there the ground of what wee have this keeps up our hearts from sinking and causes us to look upon all wee have as an earnest of more Men that are at the top of an high place if they look downwards their eyes dazle and their heads grow dizzy but if they look up towards Heaven they recover themselves again God hath raised us up to some height of mercy and if wee look downwards if wee look upon our selves wee are driven past the utmost of our thoughts but let us look up to Heaven whence this mercy wee have hath its spring and foundation and wee shall quickly recover Though there bee nothing in us yet there is something in God and that which is in God is the ground of this mercy and therefore will hee go on in the wayes of his own mercy I have often thought within my self how far God at this time hath out-gone his people in Mercy Hee hath not only out-gone the deservings of his People but out-gone the desires of his people the prayers of his People And consulting below I am ready to think God is at an end of his Mercy But when I recover my self and look upon the ground of Gods doing good to his Church and People Not to bee any goodness in the Church but meerly his own goodness This doth revive mee again put heart into mee that God will yet do greater things for his Church than yet hee hath done As I said before when God doth execute Judgements upon his Church hee adds Judgement to Judgement so much more when hee comes in a way of Mercy to his Church hee adds Mercy to Mercy God is oftentimes weary in going on in a way of Judgement because the exercise of his Judgements are drawn out by us our sins Hee is said not to afflict willingly and his Judgements hee calls his strange work It is not so natural to God and therefore he is quickly weary of it But God is never
humbled which hee doth these wayes 1. Either by perswading them they are no sins they live in and here hee tells the Prodigall hee is but liberal the drunkard hee is but sociable the covetous person hee is but frugal the proud person hee is but comely and handsome c. wee say nullam vitium sine patrocinio Sauls Covetousness in sparing the best of the flock t was his devotion 't was his zeal to Sacrifice the Pharisees Covetousness had an act of devotion to patronize or set it off with So Jezabel paints her face to make it seem comely 2. Or else if hee cannot perswade them to that that they are no sins but conscience is inlightened and quickned and checks him for them hee cannot stand against his own light nor under his own reproofs Then hee perswades them they are but veniall and small sins or if great yet pardonable nay and that at any time as the Theef upon the Cross what sayes hee God is mercifull and if but at the last thou canst say God bee mercifull to mee Lord have mercy upon mee why then all is well there is no doubt of mercy And because men are better versed in the Service-book than in the Scripture perhaps hee will cite a Text out there At what time soever a sinner c. This is the first stratagem to keep presumptuous sinners from being humbled And if hee prevail not then but that notwithstanding all these good words a soul is convinced of sin and humbled for it then hee hath a second 2. A second Stratagem and that is to keep humbled sinners from beleeving and that hee doth these wayes 1. Hee labours to have them despair of a pardon and that upon one of these two grounds 1. Hee will now tell you either that your sins are greater than can bee pardoned As Cain Gen. 4.13 So it is in the Original my sins are greater than can bee pardoned Hee will so aggravate mens sins and heighten mens trespasses and so lessen and streighten Gods mercy that hee will indeavour to perswade their sins are above a pardon they are greater than Gods mercie to pardon and that is the first way which hee deals with ignorant consciences in trouble 2. Or if hee cannot perswade in that then hee hath another way to bring men to despair and that is from the will of God Why will hee say though thy sins are not greater than God can pardon yet they are greater than God will pardon hee will never bee mercifull to such a wretch as thou hast been dost thou think God will ever shew mercy to such a vile sinner as thou hast been what one who hath sinned against such a light such means such mercies and committed so horrible sins and continued in them And thus hee aggravates sin As before hee lessened sin all hee could to keep men from being humbled so now hee aggravates sin all hee can to keep men from beleeving As before hee inlarged Gods mercy above the bounds of the Law now hee inlargeth Gods Justice above the bounds of the Gospel Before hee presented to you Gods mercy in a false glass to make you presume And now hee presents Gods Justice to you in a false glass to make you despair And indeed of the two hee is better able to set out Gods Justice than his Mercy because hee feels the one and knows what it is but hee shall never taste of the other hee can therefore better present Gods Justice as it is than Gods Mercy as it is 2. Or if hee cannot bring men to despair upon these grounds yet another stratagem hee hath to keep men from beleeving 3. And that is thirdly by telling them they are not disposed and fitted for mercy you are not broken for sin you do not love God c. And in this stratagem hee labours to hinder us by telling us wee want such dispositions as follow beleeving more than such as go before Faith yet hee oftentimes useth the other and tells men they are not humbled enough not broken enough before they were humbled then any thing would serve the turn to dispose and fit them for Mercy and now they are humbled hee tells them they are never humbled enough Before a sigh in a good mood was enough to qualifie them for Mercy and the Promise Now sighs groans tears daily breakings under the burthen of sin is all nothing all is too little Indeed hee fain would have thee to lye in Hell and stay there or if hee doth not object against thy soul the want of humiliation Why then hee will tell thee thou wants Faith if thou had'st Faith then thou might go over to the promise but thou wants Faith and what doth hee mean by that why that is thou wants assurance hee would put men to assurance before they do beleeve hee would put them to the evidence Christ is their Saviour before hee suffer them to rest upon Christ as a Saviour Or if not this yet hee will tell thee thou want'st such and such dispositions before thou can beleeve hee would fain have men either to bring something of their own to the Promise or hee would have men to expect these things before they go to the Promise when indeed these things follow upon the souls closing with the Promise Thus doth Satan keep many poor souls in a hoodwinkt condition and hinders them from going over to Christ and the Promise And that is the first 2. The second ground why men are so slow to beleeve and that is taken from themselves 1. It doth arise from their ignorance they know not the tenor of the Covenant the tearms of Mercy Men brought out of a sinfull condition once awakened to see their sins can think of nothing but working themselves to life licking themselves whole therefore they fall upon prayers duties as I have sometimes told you as so many bribes for a pardon as so many pennies laid out for the purchase of Mercy Wee run naturally to the Covenant of works but wee must bee drawn before wee can go to the Covenant of Grace No man can come except c. Joh. 6.44 A convinced man runs to the Covenant of works but hee must bee a converted man that goes truly to the Covenant of Grace 2. It doth arise from our pride often that wee will not take Mercy gratis wee will not deny our selves and close with Mercy as God tenders it You have a strange phrase in Rom 10.3 they would not submit to the Righteousness of Faith here are proud hearts indeed that it should bee matter of submission for a condemned man to take a pardon a wounded man to take a plaister a sick man a cordiall a naked man cloathing a lost sinner a Saviour One would think this is strange that it should bee a matter of submission to accept of the Righteousness of Christ to bee saved But wee like well of the Spiders motto mihi solo debeo I owe all to my self and would
that Act of his patience no less than his power Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken The Lord is long-suffering c. where you see he makes his patience his power And so it is indeed if you consider what sin is Shall I say no more of it than this which God saith Levit. 26.21 It is contrary to God 1 It is contrary to the works of God 1 Sin contrary to Gods works As soon as God set up and perfected the frame of the world sin gave a shrewd shake to all it unpin'd this frame and had like to have pull'd all in pieces again And had it not been for the promise of Christ all this frame had fallen in pieces again If a man should come into a curious Artificers shop and should with one blow dash in pieces a Piece of Art which cost him many years study and pains the contriving of it How could he bear with it Thus sin did and yet that God should forbear Oh! Omnipotent patience 2. But yet further It is Contrary to Gods nature 2 Sin contrary to Gods Nature God is holy sin unholy God is pure sin is filthy and therefore compar'd still to the most filthiest things in the world to the Poyson of Aspes to Ulcers Soars c. If all the Noysom Pollutions in the world met in one common Stuk it would never equal the Pollution of sin God is good perfect Good Sin is evil universally evil There is good in all other things Plague Sickness Hell it self in a kinde hath a good in it None in sin Sin is the Practical-blasphemy of all the name of God It is the Dare of his Justice the Rape of his Mercy the Jeer of his Patience the Slight of his Power the Contempt of his Love It is every way contrary to God 3. It is contrary to the will of God God bids us Do this 3 Sin contrary to the will of God Sin saith I will not do it Sanctifie my Sabbath I will not sanctifie it Here is Contradiction And who can endure Contradiction It is set down as a great piece of Christs sufferings Heb. 12.3 That he indured the contradiction of sinners against himself certainly it was a great suffering How can a Wiseman indure to be contradicted by a fool And here that Christ who was The Wisdom of the Father should bear with such contradiction from fools here vvas a great piece of Suffering Now sin is a contradiction of God Sets Will against Wisdom and the Hell of a wicked Will against an Heaven of Infinite Wisdom And that God should bear vvith such sinners here is a Wonder You knovv in all the Creatures Contrariety makes all the Combustion It makes all the War in nature it causeth one Element to fight against another Fire against Water Water against Fire It will make very Stones to sweat and burst asunder Travel through the vvhole Creation and you shall not see Any Creature that can bear vvith its Contrary And that God and Sin should be Contrary and yet the Sinner live in the World Here is a Wonder a VVonder of Patience 2 Admire Gods mercy in pardoning sin 2. Is sin so Great an Evil Let us then fall down and Admire the greatness of Gods mercy in pardoning sin You see how the Prophet cryes out and Admires Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee That pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the Transgressions of the remnant of his heritage It is one of the Greatest works that God doth in the world To pardon sin A work in which he declares All his glorious Attributes His Wisdom his Power his Justice his Mercy his Holiness c. in pardoning sin Men that have cheap and slight thoughts of Gods pardoning-Pardoning-Mercy have thereby an evident sign They never had a pardon never knew what it was indeed To have a pardon If ever any work in the world did put God to it then this of the Pardon of sin And if ever God do intend thee any good he will instruct thee and rectifie thy judgement in this Touching the Pardon of sin Therefore doth God humble men at their Bringing-in To raise up their esteem of a pardon To advance the greatness of his own Mercy in Pardoning sin And indeed we should not need such great Preparations and Humiliations in coming to Christ if we had but Greater thoughts of the Pardon of sin Men make no more of a Pardon than to Cry God Mercy Swear an oath and then say God forgive me Or say Lord have mercy on me when I dye It was said of Lewis the 11. King of France that He wore a Crucifix in his hat and when he had sinned he would but kiss his Crucifix and then all was done And so the Papists make it no more but a Crucifix and a Confession Ah! my Brethren if ever God mean good to you he will make you Know what a Pardon is Isa 55.7 when God would draw men up to Shew them a Pardon he calls them Above all the World My thoughts are not as your thoughts nor your ways my ways saith the Lord. If they were then I could not multiply Pardons But as the Heavens are higher than earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways I am infinite If Gods Creating-mercy were so great as David vvith doubled Admiration sets it out Psal 8.1 and the last verses O Lord our Lord how wonderful is thy Name in all the world who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens What is then his Pardoning Mercy 3. Lastly Is sin so Great an Evil Then see What cause we have to humble our souls before God this day That vve have had such slight thoughts of sin vvho hath thus judged sin to be the Greatest of all Evils What slight thoughts have vve of sin vve can svvallovv it vvithout fear vve can live in it vvithout sense vve can commit it vvithout remorse All vvhich shevvâ— vve have but slight thoughts of sin vve do not apprehend sin to be such an evil as indeed it is Nay Hovv faulty are Gods people themselves here What mean thoughts have they of sin They are not so watchful against it not so Burdened vvith it not so troubled for it as they ought to be All vvhich shevvs that though sin do appear to them to be A great Evil and The Greatest of all other Evils yet they do not apprehend it to be so Great an Evil as it is Now that you may be able to have some suitable conceptions of sin to the greatness of it that you may be able to see sin exceeding sinful I will briefly present it to you in these Six Glasses 1. Look upon it In the Glass of Nature which though it be but a Dim-Glass a Blown-Glass Sin hath dimmed it yet is this able to discover a great deal of the evil of sin The very Heathen themselves have seen and judged many
appear Bigger than it is The sufferings of the Saints the sorrows of the Saints the sufferings of the Damned are too short The Glass ot the Law the Glass of Christs sufferings which is the greatest this doth not shew sin greater than it is It doth but discover sin in its Just Proportions and Dimensions It had not been justice in God to have required more blood and to put his own Son to more suffering than sin deserved Nor would this have stood with Gods Love his Pity and Mercy to his Son to have put him to more than sin deserved Though now there be mercy more than enough for the greatest sinners as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 1.14 yet there was not Justice more than enough exercised upon Christ for the demerit and guilt of sin The Death of Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Adequate Ransome for our souls and sins And yet there is a Redundancy of merit an Overflowing of merit in the Satisfaction of Christ to Ransome a thousand worlds more to that if need were As sin is infinite in regard of the Object so Satisfaction is infinite in respect of the Merit Hence Christs death is not onely said to be A Satisfaction but A Purchase not onely A Payment but A Purchase A Satisfaction it was to the Justice of God for sin Full. And A Purchase of all good things from the Mercy of God to which his Justice in respect of the Validity and Worth of Christs Satisfaction is bound to us But this by way of Digression See then what need there is To Aggravate sin to the utmost because we cannot multiply sin to the greatness of it There will be many singular fruits of so doing 1. This will breed shame and confusion of spirit for sin 2. This will make you advance and relish mercy better When the debt seems little we are ready and apt to undervalue a pardon But when sin appears exceeding sinful this doth make us value mercy prize a pardon When sin is seen the greatest Evil Mercy and Pardon will be apprehended the greatest Good 3. This puts us into the neerest disposition To forsake sin As he who extenuates sin is resolved to continue in sin so he who truly aggravates sin desires to be rid of it 4. Besides It breeds a Displacency with our selves when we consider How ill we have dealt with God 5. It produceth self-judging and self-condemnation as we see in David Psal 51. 6. It will produce spiritual softness and tenderness of heart for sin But this I must pass over USE If sin be the Greatest Evil Then it is the Greatest Mercy in the world to be rid of sin The greater the evil is the greater is the mercy to be rid of it But now sin is the Greatest Evil. And therefore you shall see it set down as the only mercy that comes in by Christ Mat. 1.25 He shall be called JESUS because he shall save his people from their sins As if all other things coming in by Christ were included in this one He shall save his people from their sins He doth not say Hee shall save his people from Hell c but From sin From no other evil in the world And this is the Greatest Mercy When God would speak the utmost even the greatest thought of Mercy that ever came upon his heart when he would set down the greatest work of Mercy that ever the God of Mercy wrought he saith no more but He shall save his people from their sins Sin was the utmost Evil and therefore the saving from sin was the greatest good And hence David Psal 32.1 2. saith Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is that man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin Indeed we have mean thoughts cheap thoughts of pardon of sin and the reason is because we have slight thoughts of sin But if God once open our understanding and make us see the vastness and wideness of the evil of sin and if that he should joyn a feeling sense to that sight and make us feel what sin is if he should let but the least sparkle of his wrath fall upon our spirits for sin it would make our faces gather blackness we should quickly change our note and say Oh! Blessed and for ever blessed are they whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered But lest I should seem to Beat the aire we will therefore Circumstantiate this Mercy a little and you shall see the Greatness of it Though indeed this were enough to tell you that sin is the Greatest Evil Thence would necessarily follow That it is the Greatest Mercy in the world To be rid of sin which will more fully appear if we consider the following particulars 1. First then The pardon of sin is the dearest-bought Mercy and that is something to shew the Greatness of the Mercy You know the Greater the sum is that is to be paid for the Purchase of a thing provided there be no want of wisdom in the Buyer nor want of Honesty in the Seller the Greater still and of more worth is the Thing bought or Purchased But now This Mercy Pardon of sin was a Mercy dear-bought It cost Blood Mat. 26.28 and that Not the blood of Bulls and Goats for that it was impossible it should take away sins as the Apostle hath it Heb. 10.4 What then was it Why it was The Precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and spot And this The Blood of God Acts 20.28 Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Now sit down and think what a Mercy that must needs be which is the Price of blood and that of the Son of God There was no Want of Wisdom in the Buyer he could not be over-reacht he knew the worth of the Commodity Nor was there want of justice or goodness in the Seller He was just and would not take one drop of blood more than the thing was worth And he was A Father too and therefore would not put his Son to more sufferings and require more than the thing was worth 2. This is the purest Mercy of all other The Pardon of sin A mercy that comes from the Heart and Good-will of God to you God may give you all other things and hate you You may be Rich and yet Reprobates Great in the world here and be Damned hereafter Dives may have wealth Herod Eloquence Saul Command Agryppa Glorious Apparel a man may do wickedly and yet prosper These things are not Truly good nor Truly evil If good the wicked should not have them If evil the Saints should not have them These are such things as God reacheth from his Hand not from his Heart they are general favors not special Love But this is a Peculiar-Favor the Saints
is no Grace in Christ appertaining to our sanctification in general which is not in some weak degree fashioned in us And hence the work of Grace and Regeneration is called a forming of Christ in the soul And whiles wee behold him wee are said to bee changed into his likenesse 2 Cor. 3.18 And wee are said to have the same Spirit in us that is in Christ Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ hee is none of his And the same Mind is in us that is in Christ Phil. 2.6 There is a bastardly holiness a painted false beauty which is spun out of our selves wrought out of our own Principles with which wee shall lye down with sorrow at last Sparkles of our own kindling But the true holinesse flows from Christ and is imparted from Christ to his Church whereby shee is beautifull with his beauties adorned with his Graces And being thus the Heart of Jesus Christ must needs bee taken with her Thus you see the second Reason why the Heart of Christ is so much taken Because shee is adorned with his Beauties cloathed with his Righteousness adorned and beautified with his Graces which ingageth the Heart of Jesus Christ Hee that loved us in our own blood cannot chuse but love us as wee have his beauty put upon us hee cannot but love himself and delight in himself where-ever hee doth behold himself why these beauties are peeces of himself part of his beauty his rayes wherewith hee himself is adorned And hee cannot look upon any soul cloathed with his Righteousness and beautified with his Graces but his heart is exceedingly taken with them Cant. 6.4 5. Turn away thine eyes from mee for they have overcome mee Christ seems as not able to bear the view of such a beauty Turn away thine eyes c. 2. Because they are the persons upon whom God intended to advance the great design of glorifying the Riches and Freeness of his Grace and Mercy Now those whom God hath intended for so great purposes as these are which are the greatest Purposes that ever came upon his heart his heart must needs bee taken withall You know the more glorious and excellent the End to which any thing serves the more precious is that thing in our eyes Now wee serve for no other End but the expression of his Mercy the advancement of the Glory of his Free-Grace which are Ends as high as himself Purposes as great as himself And therefore God is not only taken with the expression of it but with the persons upon whom hee doth expresse it Therefore I say is the Heart of God so exceedingly taken with his Church Indeed God may single out some men for the purposes of expressing the glory of his Power and Justice the advancement of them and yet God hate the men as you see it plain in Pharaoh who for this cause was set up to advance his Power But God never singled out any to bee the subjects on whom hee doth intend to advance the Riches of his Grace and Mercy but his Heart is exceedingly taken with them Those who serve to such high purposes as these and are designed to such high ends as these The advancement of the Glory of his Grace and Free-Mercy which is the most precious attribute of God and which some think is called his Glory Exod. 33.18 Let mee see thy Glory and if the 19. verse may interpret it that Glory was his Mercy and his Mercy his Glory and therefore such must needs bee precious in his esteem Now his People are they whom God hath singled out for these great purposes for the Expression of more Mercy than wee can express nay than wee can conceive nay than wee can beleeve at all times but weakly at best And therefore the Heart of Jesus Christ must needs bee taken with them My Brethren If God had not singled out some to express himself thus upon God had not been known in the World for there is nothing so much reveals God to bee God as his Mercy and Grace And therefore God singled out a few upon whom hee would advance the riches of his Grace that his Mercy and in that himself might bee made known in the World As Paul saith of himself 1 Tim. 1.16 that hee obtained Mercy that hee might stand up a Pattern of all long-suffering As if hee had said Wee should not have known how patient God is wee should not have apprehended how long-suffering God is to sinners if hee had not had such an example of patience such a pattern of all long-suffering as I was So wee should not have known how Mercifull how Good God is if the choicest attribute of God had been lost to us like as if a great River had run under ground not discerned if God had not singled out some upon whom hee might have expressed the Riches of his Mercy And those whom God doth intend to bee the subjects upon whom hee may advance so high designs so great purposes must needs bee exceeding precious to him My Brethren you that are the People of God are such as hee hath intended to advance his Mercy and Glory of Free-Grace upon You are they hee sent Christ to dye for the greatest work that ever was wrought in the World You are they whom hee reared the fabrick of Heaven for You are they in whom hee intends to delight and with whom hee will solace himself for ever And God looks upon us now not as wee are but what he intends to make us Hee sees to the utmost of his design on you to eternity and loves you now with that love If God should look upon us as wee are hee might see enough in us to withdraw his heart from us or if not yet enough to cool and quench his affections towards us being there is so much blacknesse with our beauty so much deformity with our comlinesse so much corruption with our Graces Nay so much blacknesse and so little beauty and so much corruption and so little Grace But hee looks upon us not as wee are in our selves but as wee are in Christ and not what wee are for present but what hee intends to make us in Christ Hee looks to the end of his design even to that which hee hath designed us to When wee shall bee presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 When wee shall bee satisfied with his likeness Psal 17.15 When wee shall bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the Angels nay like unto God Glorious with his Glory as now Gracious with his Grace And therefore God having intended us to such high purposes and looking upon us for present what hee purposes to make us and what hee hath designed us to needs must the Heart of Jesus Christ bee taken with us Thus having shewed you what it is to have the Heart of Christ taken with the Church and proved unto you that the Heart of Christ is
a glass the glory of the Lord wee are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 In nature the meat is digested into the nature of the eater Here the eater is turned into the nature of the meat The contemplation of his Glory makes you glorious They will bee 5. Soul-winning Thoughts Love you know is of an attractive nature Amor amoris Magnes Nothing wins more than Love Love is the Loadstone to draw Love again As the Sun shining upon a Glasse begets a reflection of the beams back again so the love of God shed abroad in our hearts begets a reflection of love back again toward God You see Mary Much was forgiven her shee had tasted of much love from God and shee returned much love again to him Shee loved much The Power of God doth shake the heart The Majesty of God doth dread the heart The Justice of God doth awe the heart But it is the Mercy of God the Love of God which doth perswade win and draw the heart Nothing wins a mans heart to God but his Love The fear of God dread of God may bring a mans feet into his wayes but it is the Love of God which brings his Heart into his wayes They are 6. Soul-quickening 7. Soul-comforting thoughts Oh then that wee were but wise to improve this Doctrin this truth to the good of our souls I tell thee Christian if thou wouldest give this truth but scope in thy heart it would help thee and relieve thee of all the burdens under which thou groanest 1. Dost thou labour under a proud heart this would humble thee 2. Dost thou labour under a dejected heart this would raise thee 3. Under a dark heart this would comfort revive thee 4. Under a dead heart this would quicken thee and put the Spirit of Heaven into thee whiles thou art on earth 5. Under an hard heart this would break thee Nay this would melt thee dissolve thee into waters I say the more thou gets up with Elijah into this Chariot of love the more would the mantle of sin and corruption depart from thee 6. Under a worldly heart This would dead thy heart for ever to the World and set thee all on flame with the fire of heavenly affections I am confident of it whatever a Christian desires to injoy whatever a Christian desires to bee rid of if hee can but dwell upon this truth and bee able to manage it Hee shall have it more fully hee shall have it more quickly than any other way Wouldest thou bee rid of a proud heart wouldest thou have an humble heart wouldest bee rid of a dead heart and desirest a quick heart wouldest bee rid of an hard heart and have a broken heart wouldest bee rid of an unbeleeving of a doubting of a dejected heart and wouldest bee mighty in Faith full of comfort Why do but let thy soul bee carried captive with this Truth bee but content this Truth should master thee bee but willing to entertain it beleeve it imbrace it I am confident on it all this will bee done I may set down a probatum est to it Oh! That wee were wise to manage this Truth There are many look upon this but as a pleasant dream a Chimera a fiction And some beleeve it but slightly there wants depth of earth And some there are poor souls to whom the comfort of this truth belongs who think this is too good news for them They think if they should own it it would bee but too great a sale for too small a Boat rather overturn them than do them good rather ruine them than help them And therefore they must feed upon black thoughts upon Hell upon justice upon sin upon their corruptions Ah! Poor souls Satan deludes you you take a way to undo your selves Either to discourage you to say there is no hope or else to break you that you shall never bee able to do God service Look as long as you will into Hell pry as long as you will into the dark vaults of your souls rake as long as you will into the kennel of your hearts You shall finde nothing in Hell but Hell in your hearts but sin and having found it run from him That man looks too much on sin who shutteth his eyes from a mutual interview of love between God and his soul And hither you must come at last Free-Grace must bee owned Free-Mercy must bee acknowledged and advanced by you if ever you would bee saved if ever you would bee comforted You mâ—y think what you will but sure I am 1. There are no Christians more chearfull 2. None are more thankfull 3. None are more humble 4. None are more beleeving 5. None are more active 6. None are more couragious 7. None more serviceable and usefull toward God and men than they who lye continually at the breast of the promise than they who set up Gods Free-Grace and own that good which God makes out to them Thou mayest bee a Christian but thou wilt bee a sad Christian an uncomfortable Christian a dark Christian a deserted Christian a dead Christian an unserviceable Christian if thou dost go on to feed upon black thoughts and wilt not own that comfort which Christ tenders imbrace that good which Christ speaks and beleeve the Riches of his Grace and Mercy to poor sinners Do but sit down and from the sight and sense of thine own unworthiness take but occasion to advance Free-Grace and Mercy Let there bee place for that to come in Let those thoughts finde entertainment And thou shalt quickly finde a strange change in thy spirit 1. Thou who couldest not mourn before shall now bee able to poure our tears as if thou wert all turned to water 2. Thou who before couldest not beleeve couldest not bee comforted wilt even think it a wonder that ever thy heart should bee so dark so doubtful 3. Thou who before wast dead shalt now finde a spirit of life come into thee and make thee active in the work of the Lord. Make but the Experiment and thou wilt converse more with the promise with the Love of Christ with the Free-Grace of God whiles thou livest if you would but remove your unbelief But who shall remove this stone God alone must do it But if this were done this truth would let in a flood of mercy upon you and even sink and over-whelm you in a Sea of mercy and glory where now you go drooping and hang down your heads because you will not own that portion which Christ hath left you nor that comfort which Christ doth tender and speak to you 4. Direction to them of the Church 4. Direction to them of the Church 4. Labour for a reciprocall affection a mutual taking between Christ and us Is Christs heart taken with you Oh! let your hearts bee taken with him Doth Christ love you Oh! do you love Christ Are you
them for his Sons sake So here Wee were guilty of Treason were condemned to death Now this is the dexterity of Faith to make our selves to bee Members of Christ It is Faith that doth ingraft us into Christ whereas before wee grew upon dead stocks now being ingrafted into the stock of Christ the stock of Life wee have Life derived to us It is Faith that marries us to Christ and being married to him hee answers all our debts It is by Faith wee put on Christ by Faith wee are built on Christ as the House on its Foundation And therefore seeing there is no way to bee saved but by our Union with Christ And there is no Union but by Faith Therefore it follows Faith is the great requisite whereby wee must be saved That for Union 2. For our Communion with Christ Faith is necessary There is no way to bee saved but by vertue of communion with the Righteousness of Christ 1 Not by our own any done by us or wrought out of our selves This is too short A menstruous ragge A ragge and not able to cover us as a Garment too narrow for us Wee cannot weave a web of Righteousness of our own able to cover us wee shall but adde sin to sin 2. Not by Righteousness of Saints or Angels 1. Theirs is incommunicable There 's no way whereby wee should have communion with it They are not of our Natures to wit the Angels There must bee an union of Nature before there can bee communion Nay But were it communicable yet it were insufficient It is but a finite Righteousness and therefore not able to answer an infinite debt If the least sin did lye upon the back of the tallest Angel in Heaven it were not enough All the Righteousness hee hath would not bee enough to save him from Hell And therefore theirs can do us no good To make short of it There 's no way to bee justified and saved but by Communion with the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of his active and passive obedience Obedientia Legis Obedientia Crucis 1. The one In Precium 2. The other In Praemium By the one answering Gods condemning Justice By the other answering God commanding Justice By the one satisfying his vindictive Justice whereby he did bear our scourges By the other answering Gods remunerative Justice whereby hee did perform our services Now there was no way to have Communion with this Righteousness of Christ but by Faith Faith gives us Union with Christ And by vertue of our Union wee have Communion with him As by vertue of our Oneness with the first Adam His sin was made ours So by vertue of our Oneness with the second Adam His Righteousness is made ours Faith makes us Members of Christ. Faith unites us to Christ And by vertue of our Vnion with him as the Members with the Head wee have derived from him Life and Spirit Sense and Motion Wee have communion with him In his Wisdome to direct us In his Righteousness to justifie us In his Holiness to sanctifie us In his Redemption to glorifie us Christ is made to us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Faith ingrafts us into Christ as the Branch into the Vine And by vertue of our ingrafture into him wee draw forth life strength and nourishment from him who is our root By Faith wee put on Christ and so have communion with the Robes of his Righteousness whereby wee stand justified in Gods sight As Jacob got the blessing by his elder Brothers apparel So wee by the Robes of Christ which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of Saints By Faith wee are married to Christ and by vertue of this marriage wee have communion with all his Riches as the Wife hath with her Husbands Estate And Christ hath communion with all our debts So that you see Faith is that Grace which gives us union with Christ And by vertue of that union with him we have communion with all of Christ It gives us communion with the Righteousness of Christ Hee is The Lord our Righteousness And by Faith it is as truly ours to save us as his to glorifie him It gives us communion with the Life and Spirit of Christ with the death and sufferings of Christ with the merits and victories of Christ with the priviledges and immunities of Christ as Adoption Son-ship c. It gives us communion with his Wisdome to direct us with his Power to protect us with his Mercy to save us So that As David said God hath sworn in his Holiness He had made a Promise to him And therefore hee saith I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem and mete out the Valley of Succoth Gilead is mine so the soul may say God hath said This Son of mine I have given you Isa 9.6 And therefore Christ is mine 3. Why God should make choice of this Grace for our Justification Not to say any thing of this which might bee one Reason That the Remedy might answer the Fall The Fall was by unbeleeving As you see Hee gave credit to the Serpent and not to God So God would make our Recovery by Faith But this wee pass Wee read in Scripture of four grounds wherefore God made choice of this Grace for the Justification of a sinner 1. That Justification might bee of Grace 2. That the Promise might bee sure 3. That it might bee to all the seed 4. That no man might boast The three former you shall read Rom. 4.16 The last Ephes 2.9 1. For the first God made choice of this that wee should have Justification by way of beleeving That it might bee by Grace If it had been by any other way by reason of any thing wrought in us or by us If it had been by Desert not of Grace of Wages not of Mercy of Debt not of Favour If God had promised Justification upon any work of ours had told us wee must bring so much Humiliation so much Repentance so much brokenness of Spirit so much Grace so many Prayers Alms-deeds and then wee should bee justified It had not then been of Grace not of Free-Mercy And therefore God For the advancement of his Free-Grace and Mercy that wee might cry out with them in Zach. 4.7 Grace Grace That wee might see admire adore the Riches of his Grace The height and depth and breadth and length of his Free-Mercy Therefore hath God chose this way for the Justification of a sinner 2. That the Promise might bee sure If it had been any other way the Promise could not have been sure That which makes the Promise sure is this 1. That it is not founded upon any thing in us If it were it could never bee sure If there were any thing besides the breast of God to bee a bottom and foundation for the Promise It could never bee sure 2. That it is not performed nor contrived for any thing done by us but out of his Free-Mercy and Love If
by unbelief do slight all the threats of God denounced against sin if you make childs play of them as the word signifies 2 Pet. 3.3 If you look upon these but as Bug-bears things to keep men in awe and not real things No marvel if you bee not Humbled But if by Faith you would Realize these things to your selves and behold them not as Fancies and sad dreams but such things as are infallibly true real things not as painted Hell painted fire but as reall you would them finde them to work These mingled with Faith would lay a man in the dust Now this is a property of Faith to Realize the Object or thing beleeved and hence comes an influence on the soul to humble and abase it 3 Faith doth not only take up humbling Considerations and Realizeth all these to the Soul But Faith makes all this present Faith doth give a present being to all this Hence Heb. 11.13 Faith imbraceth the promise The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith kisseth the promise gives a present being to the promise And as it gives a present being to the promise or word of comfort so to the threatning and word of terror Faith discovers death and hell and all at hand for Sin Faith looks upon sinne in all it's Doomes-day apparrel and array smels fire and Brimstone in sin Whereas unbeleevers they look on these things at the wrong end of the Prospective and that makes things neer seem a far off and that afar off is not seen at all But Faith looks upon them through the right end of the prospective And there things a far off are seen at hand present Hence it is called The Evidence of things not seen As it was said of Abraham Hee saw the day of Christ and rejoyced and yet Abraham was dead many hundred of years before Christ yet by vertue of his prospective by vertue of his Faith hee saw it as if it had been present though it were never so far off So here though the second day of Christ the day of judgement bee a far off yet Faith sees it and is humbled Faith gives it a present Being 4. Faith applies and brings home all this to Soul As the word of Comfort the Promise is applyed and brought home to the Soul by Faith so the word of Terror the Threatning is brought home to the soul by the same Faith by which the Soul is cast down and humbled The manner of Faiths Application is by a practical Syllogisme where the Major or first Proposition is the Word of God The Assumption or second Proposition is the Testimony of Conscience and the conclusion is inferred from them both as hee that beleeveth not but continueth in sir is for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath at the last Judgement But I beleeve not but continue in sin Therefore I am for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath to bee inflicted at the last Judgement Seventh Royalty 7. Faith is an Heart-softening-Grace Such a Grace as doth not only humble us but soften us not only break us 7. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-softening-Grace but melt us In the Law it humbles us it breaks us but the heart like a flint every dust still reteins its flinty stony Nature is a stone And therefore in the Gospel it melts us it dissolves us Thunders of Sinai terrifie but Dews of Sion mollifie So much Faith so much Sorrow they are like the Fountain and the Stream whereof the one ariseth no higher than the other So much Faith and apprehension of Mercy so much brokenness of spirit for sin Where Unbelief doth stony the Heart harden the Heart dries up the spring and issues of sorrow No Heart is so hard as an Unbeleeving-heart neither the Promises nor Threatnings neither Mercy nor Justice neither Word nor works will melt it Faith on the contrary turns the Soul into Water dissolves a man into tears opens all the deep springs of sorrow in the Soul 1. Faith looks upon Heart-melting-Promises Takes a survey of the Riches of Gods Love and Mercy in making such precious Promises which doth exceedingly melt 2. Faith takes up Heart-softening-Considerations from the Love and Mercy of God towards us which are Heart-melting-Mercies from the goodness and sweetness of God Faith makes us see God as hee is It makes God no otherwise than hee is not more gracious not more merciful than hee is But Faith discovers him as hee is a gracious and a mercifull God It doth but undraw the Curtain but take off the Mask which Satan and Infidelity have put on and makes us to behold God as hee is in all his glorious excellencies Soul saving attributes and Mercies which who can behold by Faith but must needs mourn and dissolve into tears that they have offended him Thus you see Ezek. 36.31 when God had discovered himself in his Pardoning-Mercy his washing Forgiving-Mercy to the beleeving soul then they shall mourn and bee humbled Oh! There is nothing breaks the heart more than Mercy nothing melts a man more than the smiles of God the Mercies of God which being discovered to the Soul the Soul is not able to stand stubborn under it 3. Faith looks upon a Soul-melting a Soul-softening Object upon Christ a wounded a broken Christ And who can behold him but with an Humbled and a broken-heart A bleeding Christ without a bleeding Heart Oh! Here is enough in this Object to open all the springs of sorrow in us wee need not to go to Bellarmines Twelve Considerations to open the Fountain of tears in us wee need not bring in the miseries of mankind for one nor the sad condition of the Souls in Purgatory for another Wee need not bee beholden to him for such considerations as these to help us to mourn Oh! Here is enough in Christ in a broken and wounded Christ to open all the springs in thee and if thou hadst a Fountain of tears to spend them all The Considerations of his sufferings 1. Either in themselves 2. Or in their cause 3. Or as the Effects of sin 1. The Considerations of his breakings and sufferings as they were in themselves 1. The sufferings of his Body What woundings breakin gs scourgings crownings peircings did hee endure upon his Body 2. The sufferings on his Soul What conflict and struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did hee undergo when his Soul was heavy unto death be set with terrors as the word implies When he drunk that bitter Cup that Cup of bitterness that Cup mingled with Curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip's of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell 2. The Consideration of his sufferings in the Cause as the meriting cause of all our good procurer of all our Peace Life Salvation Hee was wounded that wee might bee healed scourged that wee might bee solaced drank the
light into the world saith Christ that whosoever beleeveth in mee should not abide in darknesse The least touch of Christ by Faith doth raise up and revive the Soul in this sad Condition As the dead man was raised to life and revived but by touching the dead bones of Elisha 2 King 13.21 so the Dead Soul if it do but touch the Dead and crucified body of Christ by Faith is raised up and revived Such a vertue and influence comes from Christ as doth raise up and comfort the Soul Thus Faith doth raise the heart by laying hold of Christ He who raised up himself will raise up all his members If our head had been still under water wee had then perished but he being risen will raise us up also being his members 4 Faith inables a man to put up Soul-raising-prayers indites Soul-raising-prayers strong Prayers and cries to God As Prayer helps Faith So Faith helps Prayer It inables a man to wrestle with God now in the Dark of desertion as it did Jacob in the Dark of the Night Yea and to wrestle with him by his own strength the strength of his Covenant of his promise of his Christ In which Encounter Faith will take up arguments 1 From it self 2 From God 1 From it self By presenting its miserable Condition in the absence of God That all his own work is ready to sink and dy to come to nothing if hee help not Oh! will Faith say Lord my flesh fails my heart fails my strength fails my spirit fails Oh! Come down before I dye come strengthen the things that are ready to dye in me This argument David took up Psal 143.7 Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit fails Oh! Hide not thy face from mee lest I bee like unto them that go down into the Pit So Psal 39.10 12 13. Take thy plague from mee I am consumed by the stroke of thy hand c. Hear my prayer O Lord hearken to my cry Keep not silence at my tears for I am a stranger with thee a sojourner as all my Fathers were Oh! spare a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more 2 Faith will take up arguments from God 1 From the justice and truth of God He hath promised never to leave nor forsake his people 2 From the immutability of God Thou art JEHOVAH thou changest not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 Thou never repentest of thine own work Thou never hast wooed my heart to lose it again Thou never tookest my heart to leave it again and take thy heart clean away Thou never didst set thy heart on mee to take it off again 3 From the power of God Abraham at a plunge was supported with this strong staff of Comfort when though by Gods command hee was to sacrifice his Sonne Isaac yet hee accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11.19 Lord if thou wilt thou canst Mat. 8.2 4 From the mercy of God Lord thou art gracious and merciful ready to relieve It 's true I am a sinner but thou art a Saviour I am sinful but thou art mercifull I am impious but thou art gracious I have done that Ego admisi undè me damnare potes Tu non amisisti undè me salvare soles for which thou mightest damn mee but thou hast not lost that by which thou mayest save mee True I am not worthy of a smile from Heaven I have deserved to bee sent from darkness here to everlasting darkness hereafter from this partial to total and universal darkness But Lord proportion not thy dealings to mee according to my deservings from thee Let not the strong God take a pattern from my weakness good God do not ever remember my evil least thou forget thine own goodness thine own mercy O bone Do-â—â— mine noli recordare malum moum ne obliviscaris bonum tuum But thou who art found of them who seek thee not Oh! Be mercifully found of a soul who seeketh thee Thus will Faith work it self out of trouble and gather arguments to prevail with God for deliverance It will take up arguments From Soul-raising-Attributes From Soul-raising-Promises From Soul-raising-Relations From Soul-raising-Experiences It will incompass God with Gods own strength And God cannot because hee will not deny God will not reject his own strength not strive against his own mercy not resist his own Spirit not falsifie his own Truth but will raise up and revive the Soul Thus you see Faith is a Soul-raising-Grace Where Unbeleef holds the soul under water buries the soul in these sad conditions Faith raiseth up and reviveth it A beleeving soul cannot long lye under trouble If all the Power Truth and Mercy of God will fetch him out hee shall bee sure to bee delivered Faith ingages and sets a work all these to help Oh! The Reason my Brethren why you lye so long in spiritual Agonies buried up in spiritual troubles is because you let not Faith come in to work for you let Faith have her perfect work and it will raise you Sixteenth Royalty 16. Faith is an Heart-chearing-Grace 16. Royalty Faith is an Heart-chearing Grace Faith is such a Grace as doth chear and comfort the soul with unexpressible Consolations It is such a Grace as makes an inlet of all the Consolations of God into the Soul Faith brings a report to the Soul that God is his God Christ is his Christ that his Name is written in the Book of Life his sins are pardoned his soul shall bee saved And such news as this must needs fill the soul with unexpressible Consolations with joyes unspeakable and full of glory All other joyes are but mad and disorderly joyes They are carnal not spiritual outward not inward joyes they are but painted not true Joyes imaginary not real Joyes unsatisfying not tull Joyes inconstant not stable Joyes The best false Raptures Anabaptistical Illusions not true Joyes But this Joy The Joy of Faith it is grounded joy it is 1. A spiritual Joy for the Nature of it 2. A Hearty Joy for the Nature of it 3. A Satisfying Joy for the fulness of it 4. A Constant Permanent Joy for the duration of it My Joy shall no man take from you Alas what are all other joyes to the Joy of Faith The least morsel of this Joy is worth all the full meals of worldly delights The least gleaning of this Joy is worth the whole Harvest of carnal mirth The least drop of this is worth an Ocean of any other There is more moisture in one drop of this than in a flood of temporal and carnal delights True Joy grows upon the stock of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no true Joy Faith is the Root and Joy is the Fruit. It is call'd The Joy of Beleevers Beleevers are the Subjects of it and a Joy in Beleeving Beleeving is the Root of it Rom. 5.1.2 Being justified by Faith wee have
greatest of difficulties this kinde came forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting which shews the work was of more than ordinary difficulty yet because their Faith was posed in it hee tells them they were a faithless Generation and hee was weary of them it put him to the utmost exercise of his patience to bear with them And you see the like of Peter whose Faith was so great as to carry him upon the waters to walk upon the waves upon a bare command and word of Christ yet afterwards the wind growing strong and corruption working hee was affraid and begins to sink and then cryed Lord save mee Mat. 14.30 31. And how much was Christ displeased at him who had put forth so glorious an act of Faith as to walk upon the waters upon a bare command yet because hee held not out Christ reproved him Oh thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt was this a little Faith c. But wee will pass this and in the prosecution of this Doctrin wee will shew these eight things 1. That wee are slow of heart to beleeve 2. What are the grounds that wee are slow of heart to beleeve 3. What are the reasons why this slowness of heart is so offensive to God For the first that wee are slow of heart to beleeve This will bee demonstrated to you if you consider with mee these five particulars 1. The greatness of that power which God doth put forth in the working Faith in an unbeleeving heart Faith it self is called the work of Gods power nay of his almighty power The same power which God put forth in the raising of Christ from the dead even the same power hee doth put forth in the working of Faith in an unbeleeving heart Ephes 1.19 20. There are many mighty works of God which are not saving works As the works of Creation the works of Providence These are mighty works but they are not saving works But there are no saving works of God which are not mighty Every work of mercy is a work of might too every work of grace is a work of power too though every work of power bee not a work of grace yet every work of grace is a work of power And the work of an almighty power Actus omnipotentis Actus omnipotentioe Not only an Almighty God doth work but also according to the Almightiness of God when hee works Faith and Grace in a graceless heart There are two names given to this in Scripture both which speak the greatness of Gods power in the working of it 1. It is called a resurrection from death to life not of a dead body but a dead soul Psal 88.10 wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise to praise thee hee speaks not there of a natural death but of the condition which hee was in lying for the present slain and dead as it were under the apprehensions of God wrath Shall a soul that now lyes dead and slain with the apprehensions of thy wrath and displeasure arise by Faith to praise thee Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise to praise thee That is wilt thou shew the greatness of thy power in working Faith in an unbeleeving soul this is no less than a resurrection from the dead the dead arise c. And therefore this must needs require the greatness of Gods power to effect it It is a great work to recover a sick man but more to restore a dying man but to raise a dead man to life this is the work of God only Yet all this is nothing to the resurrection of a dead soul To raise our bodies when consumed by fire when vanished into air when corrupted in the water when turned into dust and rottenness is not so great a work as to raise a dead soul a soul dead in sin to work Faith in an unbeleeving heart This is the Almighty work of God 2. And hence Secondly It is called a work of Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 thus in Christ And you know Creation is the work of God only it is the production of something out of nothing Men may produce something out of something but to produce something out of nothing is proper to God alone There is lesse distance between the least dust and the most glorious Angel in Heaven than there is between it and nothing Wee say and its true inter ens non ens nulla proportio there is infinite distance between something and nothing Such a distance as none but a God can bring together Now this work of Faith and Grace in the heart in an unregenerate and unbeleeving man is a new Creation A Creation of light in a dark heart of life in a dead heart of Faith in an unbeleeving heart of Grace in a graceless heart which is a work which requires the almightiness of Gods power for the effecting of it And that is the first demonstration 2. If you do consider the complaints of Beleevers when they first come to beleeve What sighs what tears what groans what pains what struglings with unbeleef with doubts with fears Crying out with the man in the Gospel Lord I do beleeve help my unbeleef It may bee now the doubt of Gods power of Christs al-sufficiency to pardon sin to forgive so great and hainous wickednesse and say with him Lord if thou canst do any thing help Mark 9.22 or if not so yet they doubt of his wâ—ll whether God will pardon them yea or no and say with another in the Gospel Lord if thou wilt thou canst make mee clean Matth. 8.2 Every dayes experience tells us how hard a thing it is to cast a man out of himself and when that is done Oh how hard a thing is it to bring that soul over to Christ and the promise Now a thousand objections are raised the soul is now as full of scruples of doubts as the Sun is full of motes Oh what swarms of unbeleeving thoughts what multitudes of doubts and objections that it is beyond the power of any but of him alone that can deal with the heart either to discover them or answer them or if answered yet the soul is still unsetled till God come in This is plain in cast down and humbled souls 3. If you look upon the Rhetorick God useth to bring a poor humbled and cast down sinner to beleeve Read Isa 40. beginning Comfort you comfort yee my people saith my God Speak yee comfortably Say your warfare is accomplished your iniquities are pardoned c. But least any should say alas tell not mee of this no comfort belongs to mee hee is buried up in troubles God doth not regard him why see how hee saith in vers 27. Why sayest thou Oh Jacob and speakest Oh Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my Judgement is passed over from my God Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the
bee content to climb to Heaven by a thread of our own spinning God is willing to give and wee would deserve hee would have all of Grace and wee would have all of debt Wee would fain bring our penny to the Promise yea when wee are nothing wee would bring our own nothingness So hard it is to make a soul empty and when that is done to bring that empty soul over to the Promise 3. A third ground from our selves which makes men humbled so slow to beleeve It may bee too much tenderness they are affraid of abusing Gods Justice in their closes with his Mercie Oh say they I am affraid of presuming of Mercy It was their fault before to presume the fear of it their fault now I say to presume of Mercy was their fault before and the fear of presuming is their fault now One would think this to carry a fair forehead they dare not beleeve say they and why so because they are affraid to presume is not this a good pretence But ah here is the Prince of darkness like the Angel of light let us examine it thou sayest thou darest not beleeve because thou art affraid to presume And why dost thou fear to presume It is presumption to beleeve Mercy and yet continue in a way of sin and it is presumption to expect Mercy in a way of unbelief but it is no presumption to beleeve Why dost thou fear thou shalt presume thou canst not say thou takes that which doth not belong to thee for it belongs to whoever can take it But it may bee thou sayest thou art not fitted for Mercy thou art then fit for Mercy when thou art made willing to close with Mercy in the tearms of Mercy that is to take Mercy as to render up thy self to duty as to give up thy self to obey But thou sayest thou shalt presume for thou art not worthy of Mercy And wouldest thou bee worthy of Mercy dost thou know what thou sayest wouldest thou deserve Mercy where then were Grace This overthrows the Covenant of Grace it cannot bee a Covenant of Grace if there should bee any thing of thy bringing which is not of Gods bestowing May wee not say to thee truly what Eliab Davids Brother falsely said to him when hee told him hee came out for Gods Glory Hee tells him no it was the pride of his heart 1 Sam. 17.28 So thou pretends Gods Glory thou sayest because thou wouldest not wrong Gods Justice and make Gods Mercy a sinfull mercy therefore thou doest not beleeve but take heed it bee not the pride of thy heart If the time would permit I would put something to thee 1. By way of Question 2. By way of Supposal 1. That which I should have put to thee by way of question should have been 1. Couldst thou not have beleeved God would bee mercifull unto thee if thou wert not so sinfull 2. If thou wert more humble if thou hadst more Grace couldst thou not bee content to pennance thy self for a time for thy former sin were not this good and what were this but to make thy humiliation a step to Mercy to a pardon 2. That which I would put by way of supposal Suppose thou hadst been a Traytor and thy Prince should offer thee a pardon for all thy treason upon condition of acceptance and rendring up thy self to him for service And thou shouldest refuse a pardon because thou art a Rebel or Traitor or because thou doubt'st of the truth and reality of thy Princes tender or else because thou thinkest thou art not able to do him service for future therefore wilt not accept of a pardon for present what should wee think of this Or suppose a Creditor should tell thee if thou wouldest but bring thy books come to him and reckon with him and acknowledge thy debt hee would pardon thy debt And the debtor should now refuse to come 1. Either because hee is not able to pay 2. Or because hee thinks hee shall bee able to discharge all himself in time 3. Or else because hee doubts of the truth of his intention in stead of bringing him to reckon that hee might pardon him hee intends to arrest him and cast him into prison Is not here a great deal of pride and unbeleef and wronging of love And how shall wee interpret this standing off is not the case alike God tenders mercy to thee as a Prince a pardon and thou refusest why either thou beleevest not the truth of this that God offers pardon upon beleeving or else thou thinks to deserve thine own pardon So God offers thee an acquittance if thou wilt bring thy book and come and reckon with him confess sin acknowledge Mercy but thou commest not and what is the reason either thou beleevest not the truth of this this is too good news to bee true thou thinkest it is but to take advantage against thee You think when you go to God in confession you go as a debtor into the hands of a hard Creditor who doth but wait to arrest him You cannot beleeve the truth of this offer or else you think you shall bee able to pay your own debt in time 4. Another ground from our selves why wee are so slow to beleeve is that wee doubt of Gods will wee doubt whether God will have mercy on us yea or no. It is with us as with a Prince or Creditor as before were wee but well setled in the Major of the Gospel in these truths 1. That God sent his Son for this end into the World to save poor sinners 2. That Christ was able to save to the utmost 3. And that Christ was as willing as hee is powerfull wee should not bee so slow of heart to beleeve My Brethren what can God do more to perswade you of his willingness nay more what could Christ do more than is done Will you go by his revealed will and that you shall bee judged by at the last day why there you see nothing but willingness of God and Christ to accept of them who come If you should go by the revealed will of man you may bee deceived they may speak one thing and intend another But if you go by the revealed will of God you cannot miscarry because Gods heart is really the same that his word is hee speaks not a syllable more than hee will make good Men speak often more than their hearts or they may speak contrary to their hearts but God doth not hee really intends what hee speaks And his revealed will tells thee that hee would have thee saved by comming c. that if thou wilt beleeve thou shalt bee saved That if thou confess c. therefore no cause to doubt of Gods will 5. A fifth ground of our slowness to beleeve It may bee you finde some rest to your souls on this side Christ It may bee you have been troubled for sin have been in anguish of conscience and you have prayed you have mourned
was all this glorious fabrick of Gods mercy and councel which was the greatest thing that ever came upon his heart Gods master-peece which went to the height of his skill and wisdome to the height of his mercy and love Beyond which there is a non ultra in Gods thoughts there was no further or more God could go no higher than himself all was infinite but thou in standing off dost annul and make void all the thoughts of his mercy and his love if others should do the like to what purpose then were all it would make all this void and to no purpose thou dost it as much as in thee lyest If a man should make a curious peece that should publish his skill his greatness wisdome and a man come and break it all in peeces would hee not bee greatly offended And what a fearfull thing is it to make void that wherein God set himself to make himself glorious to obscure that in which God set himself to make himself visible in but thou who art slow of heart to beleeve as far as it lyes in thee dost this and therefore what a provocation of God must this bee 3. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the purposes of Gods mercy to thee The great end which God aimed at in this great work of sending Christ into the World was that thou mightest beleeve in him and live Now if thou stand out and will not come in will not close with him thou dost what lyes in thee to make void all the purposes of God to thee for good I say what lyes in thee for thou shalt never do it the election shall bring thee in Gods purpose shall bring thee to his Promise Our sins may alter Gods conditional purposes of temporal mercies as hee tells them 1 Sam. 2.30 I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy Fathers should walk before mee for ever but now saith the Lord bee it far from mee for they that honour mee I will honour c. But thou shalt never bee able to make void Gods eternal purposes of good to thee but yet take heed of tempting God provoking God God may make thy body smart for it though he save thy soul at last make thee know better not try conclusions But I say what lyes in thee thou dost disanul all the purposes of God to thee for good which is a fearful thing 4. Thou dost what lyes in thee frustrate the expectation of God You know it is a great affliction to a man to have his expectation frustrated and the greater the good which was expected the greater the cut and wound to be disappointed and frustrated Why I say may I speak after the manner of men thou dost what lyes in thee to frustrate all the expectations of God Why what were Gods expectations but that thou shouldest receive his Son if hee sent him that thou shouldest imbrace Christ beleeve in him And this seems to be sweetly insinuated in the parable Mat. 21.37 Mark 12.6 Surely they will reverence my Son though they had abused the Prophets c. yet surely they will reverence my Son they owe so much homage to mee or they will look upon him so great a person the Son of God Surely they will reverence my Son But however his Person and Parentage should not procure reverence yet the service he came about will be a grateful service hee comes to be Saviour hee comes to redeem them from Hell Certainly hee will bee a welcome guest to them Oh how willing will they be to receive him how glad to entertain him with what open armes will they imbrace him how ready to obey him Surely they will reverence my Son And in reason who would not have thought so what welcome might not the King of glory expect the Prince expect who came upon such a business What might not a Prince expect who came to loosen the captives to redeem vassals to relieve distressed break chains Sure in all reason hee should have been received with all joy with all acclamations and willing imbraces This God expected But now when in stead of receiving we reject Christ sleight Christ undervalue Christ when we will not close with him c. how doth this cross the expectation and frustrate it 5. We do what lyes in us to make void Gods end in sending Christ What was the end which God aimed at in this plot in contriving such a way in sending Christ into the World this was his end that we might beleeve and live his glory in our salvation Surely the end must needs be glorious when the means and work was so glorious if the foundation of this work were so glorious what will the whole structure bee Now this was one part of Gods end in sending of Christ that thou shouldest receive Christ beleeve in him And so long as thou standest out thou crossest Gods end frustrates the end of God And this must needs be a great provocation of God If a man did take a great deal of pains in a work spent all his time and indeavours for some end and at last be crossed in the end the work is nothing to him This provokes c. Why thou dost frustrate Gods end 6. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void the death of Christ thou makest all his sufferings and all his blood shed to be to no purpose What was the end that Christ shed his blood what was the end Christ dyed why it was no other but this that we might beleeve in him and have a pardon c. But now so long as thou standest out thou frustratest all this if all were like thee I pray thee to what purpose were the death of Christ the expence and shedding of his blood And therefore this provokes much if one of us should suffer much for the obtaining of such an end if after hee had indured to bee disappointed of it this much provokes us 7. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the Promises of God to Christ God promised and entred into Covenant with Christ that if hee would lay down his life and blood hee would make him King over Saints hee would give the Heathen for his inheritance c. Isa 53. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul and bee satisfied God promised Christ that if hee would lay down his life for a people hee should have them hee would give a people to him And thy standing out doth what lyes in thee to make this Promise void to make God a lyar to his Son c. Thou shalt not bee able Christ shall have a people God will yet set his King c. yet if all were like thee where were Christs people Nay and thou robbest Christ of the reward and fruit of all his death and sufferings this was the reward Christ was to have for his death c. If a man had sweat or shed his bloud for such a thing
as indeed hee hath let us hereby bee taught three lessons 1. Of Thankfulness 2. Of Obedience 3. Of Dependence 1. Here is a lesson of thankfulness to bee learned Wee 1. Thankfulness even wee stand before God this day the subjects of abundance of mercies Many mercies God hath bestowed on us and long continued to us Many evils hee hath kept from us and many evils hee hath freed us from Wee stand before God this day the brands of many glorious deliverances which God hath wrought for us Wee have received more mercy and have had experience of more goodnesse preventing delivering mercy within these three years than others have had in three Generations God hath discovered the wonders of his wisdome the wonders of his power the wonders of his mercy and love in many a glorious deliverance which hee hath wrought for us And how ought wee to bee carryed out with praises under the injoyments of so many mercies how should our souls being warmed with the sense and consideration of these mercies burst forth into a flame of praises to God But alas It is with us as with the Children of Israel Wee are very solicitous wanters but wee are forgetful injoyers And that which should bee a means of drawing us nearer to God is a means of further distance from him I must tell you that your unthankfulness under all these receits of mercy is a great and a provoking sin and might justly make a stop of mercy now 1. It is an inhumane sin against the very principles of Humanity A beastly sin nay worse for the Oxe knows his owner and the Asse his Masters crib It s a devilish sin 2. It is a sinning sin a productive sin a womb of sin it brings forth many more sins 3. It is the abuse of a good God Who can least of all indure to bee abused in his mercies 4. It is the grave of Mercy Where all Gods mercies are buryed and lost a very land of forgetfulnesse 5. It is the destruction of mercy Hos 2.8 9. Shee knew that I gave her Corne and Wine and Oil and that I multiplyed her silver and gold c. Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the season thereof and my Wine in its season and I will recover my Wool and my Flax. That which gives birth to mercy is Prayer and tha which gives breath to mercy is Thankfulnesse Mercy is but short breathed short lived when men are unthankful Unthankfulnesse cuts the throat of Mercies Unthankful persons are never long injoyers of mercies 2. A lesson of Obedience 2. Learn a Lesson of Obedience Let the Mercy of God quicken you to duty Look upon every mercy as a further ingagement to you to walk more holily and more exactly with God As all the spiritual mercies of God Election Redemption Justification Sanctification promises of Glorification were all bestowed as ingagements to Obedience So all the temporal mercies also 1 Sam. 12.24 Therefore fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your hearts and consider what great things hee hath done for you When mercies are spurs to duties when mercies make the least addition to graces God is well pleased with the bestowing of mercy and where God sees such ground hee delights to sow the seed of mercy 3. A lesson of Dependence 3. Learn a lesson of Dependence upon God It is a shame that wee should bee afresh to seek in every new difficulty It was that which God blamed the Children of â—srael for That notwithstanding the great and wonderful works hee had done in their sight and eyes yet they did distrust him all was not enough to work up their hearts to beleeve God and trust in him And David blames them for the same Psal 78.19 20. They spake against God can God furnish a Table in the wilderness Indeed hee smote the Rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed But can hee give bread also Can hee provide flesh for his people One would think this a senselesse reasoning But Unbeleef is a senselesse sin One would think that they did sufficiently answer themselves That what went before had been answer sufficient to what followed after The same power was required for the doing of the one that was for the other and when they had seen the power of God to work the greater 't was strange they should doubt of the lesse but here is the basenesse of our spirit Though God have given us never so many experiences yet wee are still to seek in every new act of dependence on him And without further grace wee cannot do it Wee think when wee are in straits and difficulties if God would but help us through this strait if hee would but relieve us in this difficulty wee should never distrust God whilst vvee lived wee should depend on him in the saddest conditions whiles wee have a being But these are but our present thoughts and without future assistances and supplies wee are as far to seek in another as wee were in the first Well My Brethren God hath wrought many great things for us every one of them should bee a Life-mercy a standing-mercy a mercy to bee set up to incourage us to depend on him for ever Mercies that wee should live on in straits and feed upon in difficulties mercies that should bee for store to feed upon for a long time You have an expression Psal 74.14 Thou brakest the head of the Leviathan in peeces and gavest him to bee meat to thy people in the Wilderness By Leviathan is meant Pharaoh and God gave him to bee meat to his people in the wildernesse That is Hee wrought that deliverance for them before they entred into the wildernesse that this might bee meat for them to feed upon and strengthen their Faith in dependence upon God in the wildernesse where they were put to it by so many difficulties This mercy was to bee a standing-dish not for a meal only but for store meat laid in to feed on to strengthen their dependence Faith is called Feeding John 6. And the experience of Gods goodnesse is Pabulum Fidei the meat of Faith That mercy is never well digested that is not fed upon Hee that doth not feed upon a mercy gets no nourishment by a mercy no good You take the Name of God in vain that is his works his experiences which are part of his Name you take them in vain All this is but food cast away upon you if thereby you are not strengthned for the Fuller dependence upon God And now my brethren wee have had many Glorious experiences of Gods goodness to us and all these are meat to feed upon You are now in new straits and difficulties bring out your standing-dishes the former mercyes and experiences to feed upon to refresh your Faith to inable you to depend upon God afresh Hee that is not a good Treasurer a good Storer of mercys hee is never out of straits hee
are on the Body the Estate the Name but this is An Inward Evil. An evil upon the Soul which is the Greatest of Evils 2. All other evils are but of a temporal nature They have An End Poverty Sickness Disgrace all these are great evils but these and all other they have An End Death puts the conclusion to them all But This Evil of sin is of an Eternal nature that shall never have end Eternity it self shall put no period to this 3. All other evils do not make a man the subject of GODS wrath and hatred A man may have all other evils and yet be in the Love of GOD. Thou maist be Poor and yet Precious in GODS esteem thou maist be under all Kinde of miseries and yet Dear in GODS thoughts to thee But now this is an evil that makes the soul the subject of GODS wrath and hatred As the Absence of all other goods the Presence of all created evils will not make thee Hateful to GOD if Sin be not there So the Presence of all other goods and Absence of all other evils will not render thee Lovely if sin be there 4. All other Evils do but oppose your well-being nay and your well-being for present for they cannot rob you of future happiness But this opposeth your well-being for ever For you cannot be Happy if you be not Holy Nay this opposeth your Being It brought Death you would sin your selves into Nothing again if GOD did not hold you up To be that you might Be miserable for sin 5. All other evils are but Destructive to a mans self fight but against Particulars But this is contrary to the Universal Good contrary to GOD and as far as it may Destructive to the very Being of God As I shall shew hereafter 6. All other evils are GODS creatures and so far good He owns all the rest he is the Author of all the rest Is there any evil in the City that I have not done Amos 3.6 meaning All the Evil of Punishment Penal not Sinful Evil But this is the Devils Creature yea and worse than he being All sin 7. All other Evils are Gods Physick and used as Medicines either 1. For prevention of this Or 2. For the cure of this 1. For prevention of this That you might not be condemned with the world he lays afflictions and evils upon you 1 Cor. 11.32 He suffered Satan to tempt Paul and gave him up to his buffetings which yet is the Greatest Evil in the world next to sin the Greatest penal Evil in the world And all to prevent sin as the Apostle himself saith 2 Cor. 12.7 God sent a Messenger of Satan to buffet him And what was the reason why it was to prevent sin Lest he should be exalted above measure that is left he should be proud And as he useth all other Evils for Prevention So 2. For the cure of sin And you know no Medicine can be so bad as is this Disease Now all other Evils God hath laid upon his people for the cure of sin or for the recovery of them out of the state of sin And to speak as much as I can at once There is not so much evil in the Damnation of a Thousand worlds of men for sin As there is evil in the Least sin the least sinful thought that riseth upon your spirits inasmuch as the good of these falls short of the good and glory of God Thus you see by Collation and Comparison of this Evil with others in which I might much more inlarge my self that Of all Evils Sin is the greatest Evil We will now come to 2. The Demonstration of the Point 2. Demonstrations 1. Demonstration 1. That which fighteth against and opposeth the greatest Good 1. Demonstration or Reason Sin opposeth the greatest good 1. God must needs be the greatest Evil But now Sin opposeth and fighteth against the greatest Good Hence a Father calls sin Dei-cidium God-slaughter that which strikes against the Being and Essence of God that which were it strong enough were it Infinitely evil as God is Infinitely good would labor to Un-Be God God is Summum Bonum and indeed Non datur Summum Malum sin cannot be infinite If Sin were as evil as God is good that is Adequately and Proportionably if Infinitely evil as God is good sin would be Too hard for God to pardon it would be Too hard for God to subdue Too hard for God to Conquer Sin would endeavor to conquer God Indeed there is more evil in the least sin than there is good in any nay all the Angels of Heaven and therefore you see it conquered them spoiled all their goodness made them Devils which it could not have done if the good in them had been greater than the Evil in sin And though it be not able to conquer God to overcome him there is more goodness in God than Evil in Ten Thousand Hells of sin and so it cannot overcome the power of God the mercy of God the holiness of God yet it fights against God and makes party against him every day It musters up all its strength against God and comes into open field to Bid Defiance against him every day Nay when it is beaten out of the open field by the power of God and his Ordinances then it hath strong Holds as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 10.4 and from thence fights against him and opposeth him there it lusts against him it wills against him the heart riseth against him When sin is beaten out of the field yet a long time it will be before it be beaten out of strong Holds When sin in Practise is overcome and conquered yet sin in Affection is hard to be overcome That Contrariety that is between God and your Heart is hard to be conquered It will cost you many a battel many an assault before you can conquer sin in its strong Holds overcome sin in the Heart Though sometimes it may seem to be overcome and to render up all yet afterwards it gathers together again and will make new and fresh assaults upon you to weaken and to wound you Nay and herein lies the Malignity the poysonous and venemous nature of sin that though God hath conquered it though it be never so weakned yet will it act against God spit its venome still An Emblem of it you have in the Thief upon the Cross that when he was nailed upon the Cross his hands and feet made fast and had but one member loose yet that one member could spit its venome at Christ revile Christ so though God hath crucified sin yet so long as there is any life in it it will act it self and spit venome against God which shews that Great Contrariety betwixt God and sin And this Contrariety and Opposition of the Chiefest Good must needs shew sin to be the Greatest Evil. 2. Demonstration â— Demonst sin universally evil All evil 2. That which is Universally Evil all Evil
for ever Oh! make not that your joy which was Christs sorrow and will be yours eternally if now your joy in sin be not turned to sorrow for sin 6. Consectary 6. If sin be the Greatest evil 6. Consectary Then see the utter impossibility of any thing under heaven to relieve and help us from under the guilt of sin save JESUS CHRIST onely Hast thou committed but one sin thou hast done that which all the Treasures of Righteousness in Heaven and Earth are not able to relieve thee or help thee in save JESUS CHRIST There is as much required for the answering the guilt of one sin as the guilt of a thousand Infinite Righteousness is required for one and no more is required for a thousand And that Righteousness none but Christ alone hath Nothing can relieve us but that which is Adequate in righteousness to the Evil of sin Now there is no righteousness in the world that is proportionable to the Evil of sin but the Righteousness of Christ 1. Our own you know is too short it is called A menstruous rag A rag and therefore cannot cover us Menstruous and therefore though it should cover us yet it would but cover filth with filth as the Prophet speaks Isa 30.1 They cover but not with the covering of my Spirit that they might adde sin to sin that is the sin of their righteousness to the sin of their unrighteousness They cover a blot with a blot adde sin to sin dung to dung 2. Nor will the righteousness of the Law be large enough if it were supposed that a man were able to fulfil all that righteousness and keep the whole Law Present obedience though supposed to be Adequate to the Righteousness of the Law will never answer for former offences and disobediences The Law indeed is strong enough to damn a thousand but cannot save one it can pour Hell and Wrath and Condemnation upon a World of sinners but is not able to pour Grace or to give Justification to one The Apostle tells us Rom. 8.3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The same Apostle also tells us Gal. 3.21 If there had been a Law given which could have given life righteousness should have been by the Law The Apostle tells us again Gal. 3.17 The Law was given four hundred and thirty years after the promise to shew we must not work that we may be justified but be justified that we may be able to work If God had intended The Law the instrument of Justification he would have given the Law Four hundred and thirty years before the Promise 3. Nay yet further It is not the righteousness of Angels which yet is a Greater Righteousness than that of the Law inasmuch as the Angels were above Man in Innocency because this also is but a created Righteousness a finite Righteousness and no way proportionable to the evil of sin If it had one sin had not spoiled those glorious Angels of their Goodness at once and made them Devils which that sin doing shews There was more evil in sin than Good or Righteousness in them Well then This shews the utter impossibility of any other under heaven or in heaven to Free us from the Evil of sin but JESUS CHRIST Nothing but Infiniteness can deal with sin It must be Infinite wisdom To finde out a way It must be Infinite mercy To pardon Infinite power To subdue Infinite merit To purge and cleanse And Infinite Grace To destroy sin However you think of sin yet this hath been the Great Enemy which God and Grace have been contending withal ever since the world began And it hath put All-God to it even the Infiniteness of the infinite God to rescue us and to save us out of the Hands and Power of sin His infinite Wisdom Power Mercy Truth Holiness have been all imployed to conquer sin I say so to conquer sin as to save you the sinners The Great design of God in sending Christ into the world his Incarnation Humiliation Death Passion all were about this The conquering and destroying of sin How Great an Enemy was this that God must send out his Son to conquer it He can arm Flyes Lice Frogs the meanest of Creatures to overthrow the Greatest Power and Puissance of the earth but no less than his Son was strong enough to conquer sin You may think of sin as meanly as you will swallow it without fear live in it without sense commit it without remorse yet assure your selves that this you make so slight of required No less than the infinite power of God to conquer the infinite mercy of God to pardon the infinite merit of Christ to answer for it It was that which fetcht the Dearest Blood from the Heart of Christ and will have Thine too if thou gettest not an interest in him 7. Consectary 7. Consectary 7. If sin be the Greatest Evil Then see how much we are bound to CHRIST who hath born your sins who hath born All this evil for you you who have an Interest in him Oh the Love of CHRIST that he should bear sin which is more than all miseries a greater evill than Death than Hell it self is If there were one in the world that were content to be Poor for you to Bear Pains for you to be Sick for you to be Arrested for you to go to Prison for you to Dye for you nay to Bear the Wrath of God for you nay the pains of Hell for you How would you think your selves bound to such an one for doing it Why This hath CHRIST done for you He hath Born sin which is a Greater Evil than all these An evil that hath All these evils in the bowels of it Such as none but Christ was Able to Bear If God laid the least sin upon thee pure sin which none but CHRIST did ever bear here in this world it would crush thee to pieces with the weight of it though all the Pillars of Heaven all the Glorious Angels should contribute their strength to thee to help thee to bear thee up The least sin doth deserve and draw down an infinite wrath which nor thou nor all the Angels in Heaven are able to stand under The Damned bear it in Hell They bear it and cannot bear it They are slain with it but cannot dye Ever consuming never consumed And therefore how much are you bound to CHRâ—ST who hath Born sin a Greater evil than All other Evils and with sin All the Torments and Wrath and Justice due to sin All the world is not able to express that Torment which Christ indured when he did Bear sin when he did sweat drops of blood clods of blood when he wrestled with the justice Grumos Sanguinis did bear the wrath of God when he cryed out My GOD my GOD Why hast thou
Peculiar pure-Pure-Mercy a mercy that came from the Bowels of mercy the Heart of Mercy 3. This is the Freest Mercy of all other Pardon of sin 1. There was nothing to ingage God to do it 2. Nor was there any thing we could do to purchase it All our Prayers our Tears our Services could not purchase the Pardon of one sin If for the Active Part we could do as much and for the Passive part we could suffer as much as all the Saints put together have done from the beginning of the world to this day If we should weep as many Tears as the Sea holds drops if we should humble our selves as many days as the world hath stood minutes from the creation c. All this were Too short to purchase us the Pardon of one sin though vve did all vvithout sin But Alas All that ever vve can do is so far from striking off any Former score that we do but set our selves further in debt thereby So far are we from purchasing a Pardon that we do but increase our Treason Operamur non in justificationem sed ex justificatione we must not work that we may be justified but we are justified that we may work So that it is the Freest-Mercy And therefore in Scripture you read it all attributed to Grace Tit. 3.7 We are justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 4.5 God justifies the ungodly There is no motive in us All is from God And you shall see it plain one place for two In Isa 43. Verse 23 24 25. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money nor hast thou made me drink with the fat of thy Sacrifices But thou hast made me serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities I I am he that putteth away thy iniquities for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins Would a man have expected this this sheweth freeness when not onely no deservings as it is v. 23. and former part of v. 24. Thou hast not c. but contrary deservings Thou hast wearied mee with thine iniquities Oh infinite oh freest mercy God is mercifull only because hee will bee mercifull 4 It is an Intituling Mercy A Mercy that Intitles you to more Good than I am able to express or you able to conceive It is a Mercy that doth interest you in all other Mercies It Intitles you to all the Good on Earth to All the glory of Heaven Nay it is a mercy-making-Mercy-making-Mercy A mercy that makes all other things Mercy to you 1. Good things are mercies Your Riches your Greatness your Possessions your Husbands your Wives Children c. all these things are no Blessings till they be joyned with a Pardon and that makes them all blessings Nay not onely Good things But 2. Evil things are Mercies to you Pardon of sin makes Poverty Afflictions Sickness Death it self a Mercy Like the Unicorns horn it takes away the venome and poyson of every Water Like the Philosophers-stone it turns All into Gold So saith the Apostle All things work together for good unto them that love God A Sanctified-Cross is better than an Unsanctified Comfort A loss in Mercy is better than an enjoyment in Wrath. You are never able to make it good that God doth bestow any thing in mercy till sin be forgiven Guilt of sin upon you doth turn the nature of things and makes those things which are good in themselves evil to you 5. It is an irrevocable-irrevocable-mercy God may give in other mercies and call for them again Indeed other things are rather lent than given Lent Husband Lent Wife c. Hence they are said to be but Talents in our hands and we Stewards of them for a time God may call for them when he pleaseth or we may forfeit them and lose them How often do we forfeit and lose good things because of our unworthy walking in the enjoyment thereof Hos 2.8 9 I will take away my corn in the time thereof my wine and my flax in their season Mine It was Gods And would you know the reason see in the former verse Because they did not acknowledge him as the giver of them but bestowed them on Baal as though he had given them But now this Mercy is an irrevocable Mercy A mercy that God never recals A Mercy God never repents of The gifts and graces of God are without repentance And it is a Mercy never forfeited We may forfeit the sense of a pardon we may forfeit the comfort of a pardon nay we may forfeit the knowledge of a pardon I say you may sin away the sense the comfort the knowledge of a pardon as it was with David But we shall never forfeit a pardon Quod Scripsi Scripsi If all this foreseen could not hinder God from giving out a pardon neither can it make God repent of a pardon when he hath given it Now the Stability of the Mercy is that which addes a great deal of worth to the Mercy As things that are Evil so much more things that are good are heightned from the consideration of the continuance of them the Stability and Lastingness of them Now this is a Stable Mercy Take but one Place Isa 54.8 9 10 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth So have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee Yet further For the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed but my kindeness shall never depart from thee nor shall the Covenant of my peace be removed This is the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace The one is Temporary the other is Eternal It is a Temporary Covenant though an Eternal Rule The other is Eternal and Immutable 6. Pardon of sin is an Universal Mercy the Womb of Mercy a Productive-Mercy all other mercies grow upon this Tree of Forgiveness of sin It is a Tree the Root whereof is in Christ and the Fruit thereof are All good things on Earth and Glory in Heaven There are Seven glorious Fruits of Pardon of sin which I will but name and so come to the Last Use 1. Reconciliation with God 2 Cor. 5.19 Admission into his favour He who before was an Enemy is now become thy Friend for nothing makes God an Enemy but sin And such a Friend he is who will be a Friend in life a friend in Death when all other Friends forsake and a Friend after death 2. Adoption of Children which followeth upon our pardon in justification 3. Access to God as to a Father with childe-like boldness Sin was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Gulf betwixt God and us Sin the Partition-wall betwixt God and us now sin being pardoned this Partition-wall is taken down and there is Access to God and Access with boldness 4. Acceptation of our Services Till sin be pardoned
thus taken with it and given you the grounds and reasons of it I will now descend to application If so bee that the Heart of Jesus Christ be taken with his Church and People Then from hence wee may deduce these Consectaries 1. Consectary 1. This then may bee a ground for us to expect and hence our Faith may bee strengthened in the expectation that Christ will yet do more for his Church and People than yet hee hath done Indeed hee hath done much for our Nation for our English Sion Hee might have ruined us for a Generation of such as provoked him Wee have been a Provocation of his Anger to this day Hee might have suffered our carkasses to have fallen in the Wilderness and kept our posterity to have entered into Canaan Wee have looked toward Egypt toward Babylon Hee might have laid the foundation of purer times in our bloud raised up a purer Church upon the ruines of us But God hath seemed to over-look our great unworthiness And to the terror of our enemies and even to the astonishment and wonder of us all hath begun set forth and gone forward in a way of mercy such wayes as have been untrodden in former times And that which God hath given us in hand is an earnest of what wee have in hope that wee have in possession bids us but look to what wee have in promise And expect the performance of it because God loves the Church the Heart of Christ is taken with the Church Hee loves his Church and therefore hee will purifie his Church aad take away her dross and tinne Hee loves his Church and therefore will hee reform his Church Hee loves his Church and therefore will hee take away whatsoever doth offend all soul-burthens all conscience-burthens which oppress the spirits of his own People 1. The Church is his Fold and hee will destroy the Wolves which have gotten in to devoure the sheep 2. The Church is his Field and hee will weed out the Tares and binde them in bundles to burn them 3. The Church is his House and hee will sweep it 4. It is his Flore and hee will fanne and blow away the chaff That love which made him ingage himself to his Church in precious promises will not suffer him to rest till hee hath made good those promises to it That love which moved him to begin will not suffer him to rest till hee hath made an end You see in Ezek. 37.27 the whole Chapter is but an addition of Mercy to Mercy When God begins to go forth towards a people in a way of mercy hee knows no stop hee can make no end I will do this and also this as you see in that Chapter God adds Mercy to Mercy And the reason is because Free-love begins and that knows no end The proceedings of Gods Mercy towards his Church and People do arise from himself his own Free-Grace His Justice is from us but his Mercy is from himself If when hee threatned to punish Israel hee saith hee will adde Judgement to Judgement This and this also will I do Amos 4.12 How much more then when hee promiseth to shew Mercy to Israel will hee adde Mercy to Mercy God hath Also's of Mercy as well as of Judgement See in Ezek. 37.27 My Tabernacle also shall bee c. Well then Is the Heart of Christ taken with his Church and People Then will wee with confidence beleeve and with patience wait and expect that Christ will yet do more for his Church and People than ever hee hath done because hee loves them Let us but joyn Supplication with Expectation Praying with Waiting and wee shall see it to the joy of our hearts I never read that ever God bestowed any great Mercy and deliverance upon his Church and People but he first stirred up the hearts of his people mightily to pray unto him And never did God mightily stir up the hearts of his People to seek him but hee wrought some great Mercy and deliverance for them God loves to make his People as thankful as they were prayerful As happy Injoyers as they were humble Seekers When Trouble sends us to Prayer then Deliverance shall send us to Praises Let us then joyn our Supplications to our Expectations Times of great Expectations should bee times of Great Supplications whether they bee 1. Expectations of Hope the Object whereof is Good 2. Or Expectations of Fear the Object whereof is Evil. 3. Or Mixed Expectations between Hope and Fear as our times are they are times of Expectation and therefore they ought to bee times of Supplication Wee are now big with Expectation let us now bee mighty in Supplication Great Stones are not to bee turned over without great strength Great Mercies are not to bee gotten without great strivings The Man-child of Deliverance is not to bee brought forth without pangs Let us then bee mighty in Prayer That will make all our present throws and pangs subservient to deliverance And then let us stand still and wait 1. Wait for performance of Promises 2. Wait for performance of Prayers There are many thousand Prayers registred in Gods-book and many thousand Tears put up in Gods-bottle Let us wait when all these shall come down upon our heads in a warm shower of Mercy Wait when the great revenew of Prayers will come in The longer the stay the greater will bee the harvest Wee say great Engines move slowly Magnarum rerum tarda molimina Smal things they are quickly wheeled about but great Mercies they are long in conception long in the womb and long in the birth This is all our comfort God will not bring to the birth and afterward not bring forth nor will hee bring forth and afterward shut the womb again as hee saith Isa 66.9 Hee is Alpha and Omega the Beginner and the Finisher where hee laies the foundation there hee will lay the roof upon it 2. Consectary If the Heart of Christ bee once taken with his Church and People Then hee will never take his heart off from them His heart once taken shall never bee taken off Men may love to day and hate to morrow but God cannot whom hee loves once hee loves to the end even to all eternity As there was nothing in us that was the ground of his planting his love upon us so there is nothing that shall bee able to over-turn the thoughts of his love when once they are fixed on us Indeed our behaviour may bee such as may cause God to bee angry with us and correct us sharply yea and make us to know wee had better never to have tryed conclusions with him But there is nothing shall cause him to hate us and cast us off Hee may correct his Spouse but hee will not divorce her The Israelites were so hard-hearted that for every trivial fact they would put away their Wives But the Lord hates putting away Mal. 2.16 If sin fore-seen were not able to hinder him from planting
weary of the exercise of his Mercie and therefore hee goes on to adde Mercy to Mercy Wee say the Bee gives Hony naturally the sting only when shee is forced to it So God it is natural to him to shew Mercy but hee is provoked to exercise Judgement Hence hee is called the Father of Mercies begets Mercy Mercy is the Issue of God most natural to God and being so hence Mercy pleaseth him Actions of Nature are Actions of Delight God is never so well pleased with any carriage towards his Church as those which are in the wayes of mercy Nay if hee do afflict his Church it is to shew Mercy Mercy is the end of all his dealings towards his Church and therefore Mercy being so natural so pleasing and that the Mercy of God is the ground of his expressions of love to us as it is though our sins may draw out the expressions of his Justice yet his Mercy doth arise from himself Hence wee may have a ground to expect yet greater things than ever 6. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then see with what confidence wee may pray for the good of the Church of Christ Christs heart is taken with it A man may pray for himself and doubt of hearing because hee is not able to make out his particular interest in Gods Love But if a man pray for the good of the Church hee is sure to have hearing because the heart of Christ is taken with it Let us then make use of all our interest and acquaintance in Heaven in the behalf of the Church at this time 1. It is a thing which God commands 2. A thing which God expects 3. A thing which God rewards 4. A thing which God threatens the neglect of Much might bee said to move you Your good and your evil lies in the Churches As Jeremy used this as an argument why to pray for the civil estate of Babylon because in the peace thereof they should have peace if theirs in Babylons how much more ours in Sions 7. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then what will become of those who are enemies to his Church and People Is the heart of Christ so much taken with his Church and People Then woe bee to them that offend his Church If you touch them you touch the apple of his eye Gods People are dear to God They are his Spouse his Children his Members purchased with the price of his bloud his inheritance his Portion all his commings-in Those hee dyed for shed his bloud for one drop whereof is worth a thousand Worlds And therefore those whom hee was content to shed his bloud for certainly hee doth more esteem than all the World besides Wee say whiles the Iron is in its own nature you may handle it and meddle with it but if once the nature of fire bee added unto it if you touch it it will burn you So whiles the Children of God are but the Children of men you may deal with them as with other men but if once the nature of God bee stamped on them the Image of Christ bee drawn upon them it will bee dangerous for you to meddle with them least fire break out of their mouth to devoure you Wee read Zach. 12.3 God said hee would make his Church a burthensome stone c. St. Jerom on that place saith it was a Metaphor taken from the custome of the Jews who to try their strength had at the gates of the City great stones if they could lift them well and good but if not they crushed themselves with them So God will make his Church a burthensome stone Whoever lifteth at it shall crush himself whoever seeks to hurt it shall ruine himself You see it in Pharaoh Haman Achitophel Julian Haman lifted so long at this stone that it fell on him at last and crushed him Pharaoh followed the Children of Israel so long that hee could not return at last but was overwhelmed in the Waters Julian attempted it so long till at last himself was overthrown Hee that shoots in a Peece over-charged strikes down himself not that which hee aimed at Hee who intends evil against the Church shoots in a Peece over-charged and is sure to bee struck down with his own recoil Wee see it in our dayes They who have digged pits for us have fallen into them themselves They who laid snares for us in them is their own foot taken They have but made Rods for their own backs paved a way to their own destruction digged graves to bury themselves in seeking our ruine The Scepter of Christ hath been too strong for the Principality of Satan hee hath a Rod of Iron a Scepter of Power Eris sub pedibus an arm of strength to crush in peeces all his enemies And therefore as Pilates wife said of Christ Have nothing to do with that just man So I to thee seest thou a godly man beware of having any thing to do with him by way of offence For their Angels alway behold the face of their heavenly Father 8. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then see here the Ground of Acceptation of the services of his people God being taken with the Persons is taken with the performances of his People Hee had respect to Abel and then to his Offering Christ his heart was taken with the person and then with his performance Hence Christ saith to his Church Cant. 2.14 Let mee see thy Countenance let mee hear thy voice for thy Countenance is comely and thy voice is sweet Indeed if Acceptation should arise from the worthiness of our duties wee should never look to bee accepted There is so much sin in our services so much evil in our good so much coldness in our best heats so much formality in our chiefest power so much deadness in our best life so much of the World so much of our earth in our imployments for Heaven And if Acceptation should arise from any worth in them wee should bee sure to miss of it But arising from his good will and Mercy to us his heart being first taken with us is taken with our performances Hence the Assurance of Acceptation Nay and not only of our purest and perfectest services but even of our poor and imperfect duties such as wee throw away for dead and cast prayers Cant. 5.1 Hee drinks the Milk as well as the Wine Wee look upon a prayer accompanied with deadness distraction as a cast prayer Oh! say wee how can God accept of such impure imperfect services But hence it ariseth not from the excellency of your prayers but from the indulgency of his Grace It is the voice of his Spouse though never so weak It is the cry of a Member of his though never so faint And hee can put his odours his incense to them though never so impure and make them acceptable Rev. 8.4
3. The Fruit and Benefit that comes in thereby 1. Negatively Should not perish 2. Positively But have Eternal life Now about the Act and the Object we shall make these two enquiries before we come to lay down the Conclusion 1. What act of faith that is whereby a sinner stands justified before God 2. Upon what Object this Act is to be terminated 1. For the first What Act that is You must know that faith in the general consideration hath divers acts and objects and that the acts are diversified according to the diversity of the objects so many particulars as are recorded in Scripture so many particular objects and accordingly so many particular acts there are of faith in general But our enquiry is what is the formal Act and Object of justifying faith Now for the first viz. What is the formal Act of Faith You must know that there is much difference amongst Divines about it 1. Some would have it to be a bare and naked assent to every truth revealed by God Thus the Papists 2. Some say it is a firm and radical assent to this great Proposition That Christ is Messiah and Saviour of the world 3. Others place it in a receiving of Christ in all his Offices as a King Priest and Prophet 4. Some in Assurance and Particular Knowledge or Perswasion that we are in the state of Grace and have an interest in Christ c. 5. Others do place it in rowling our selves upon Christ and resting in him when the soul assenting to that great Proposition that Christ is the Saviour the Mediator doth rowl and rest it self upon him and trusteth in him In most of which different opinions we finde this agreement 1 That it is an Act of Faith whereby wee are justified not Faith as an Habit of Grace inherent in us but Faith as an Act not Faith in actu primo as an Habit infused but in actu secundo 2 That it is such an Act as is not wrought out of our selves or our own Principles but such as is wrought by the Spirit of Christ and the mighty Power of God 3 That it is such an Act as bringeth over the soul to the true object to Christ by whom wee are justified 4 Such an one as all the benefits of Christ do belong unto accompany Christ in blood Christ in water Christ for Justification Christ for Sanctification Christ for Salvation in all these there is an exact agreement among them And therefore although there bee some difference in respect of that formall Act which justifieth yet seeing they preach and cry down themselves and advance and set up free grace and mercy both in the work and fruit of it The Papists have no cause to cry us down for dis-agreement which for their parts they are like the four winds blowing in the faces of one another in many points as might easily bee shewed if here it were pertinent Wee know that while wee are here differences there will bee for wee know in part and prophesy but in part It were an happy â—hing if wee could bee all of one heart and all of one mind but seeing it will not bee I could wish that although wee bee not all of one mind yet wee might bee all of one heart and that difference in judgement might not breed alienation in affection especially seeing wee all aime at one thing one mark one end All agree in hoc uno in this one to set up Christ the mercy of God free grace and by crying down our selves and why then should wee not agree amongst our selves And therefore in all these diversities of Judgements concerning the formal Act of Faith whereby wee stand justified before God I shall not deal so much in the throwing down of other mens opinions as in the establishing of mine own 1 Because I conceive there is little wisdome in it to uncover the nakedness of our Brethren by bringing them in contending with one another 2 Because I think there is little profit in it especially in promiscuous Congregations Such debates being fitter for the Schools than for the Pulpit Polemical and Controversal points may beget Notion little Motion fill our heads with Notions but not our hearts with sanctifyed affections And therefore I will break my self in as plain and modest a manner as I can amongst all these differences to declare what I adhear to and to establish it by some Scriptures and so passe it Now then I conceive that that formal act of Faith whereby wee are justifyed and instated into Christ is an Act of Affiance and recumbency rowling resting trusting or Christ for Justification and consequently for salvation For the proof whereof wee are to observe that the words both in the Old and New Testament by which the Act of Faith is expressed do import such an act as this In the Old Testament wee meet with three words especially which import this act of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being referred to Christ do express that Act whereby wee are justified 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of them as Rabbi Kimchi observeth doth primitively and properly signifie to retire into some safe place for harbour or shelter So Judg. 9.15 come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Bramble shelter or cover you under my shadow and the Prophet useth the same word Psal 57.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my soul trusteth in thee I will retire my self under the shadow of thy wings and so it being referred to Christ betokeneth that Act whereby wee do betake our selves to him as to our Sanctuary where wee may bee preserved in safety from the tempest of Gods displeasure and so Psal 2.12 when his wrath is kindled yea but a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are all they that put their trust in him or that retire themselves to him upon which place Junius noteth that that retyring unto God which is affirmed to bee the cause of our blessedness is no other than sincere Faith and what act of it but this of affiance 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second word in the Old Testament signifieth to rowle and being joyned with the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to devolve and rowle something on another as Psal 37.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rowle thy way upon the Lord and trust in him c. and Prov. 16.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rowle thy works upon the Lord and thy thoughts shall bee established agreeable to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast thy burden upon the Lord c. And this word applyed to Christ imports that Act whereby being laden with sin and seeking ease wee at last discharge our load and cast it upon Christ 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third word signifieth to put confidence trust and affiance in any thing or person so as securely to lean and rest upon it So Isa 50.10 hee that walks in darkness and seeth no light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him trust in the name
punishment of his sin it is his mercy that wee are not consumed Thus Faith brings to remembrance our sins Such a time such a place c. It laies the finger on the sore place discovers the cause which causes a man to make himself the subject of Gods anger and turns a mans anger against himself This was some ground of Davids patience when Shimei cursed Go up thou Bloody man It made him smel his own sin his Blood and so became patient 3. Sometimes from the end of Gods dealings 1. In general And that is for good though it be not bonum yet it is in bonum Though it bee not good yet it is for good It is a chastising-Chastising-mercy not in vindictive-Justice There is a Misericordia-puniens and there is a Justitia-parcens A punishing-Mercy and a sparing-Justice As God doth exercise his Sparing-Justice towards the wicked when hee suffers them to go on in sin and doth not punish them as wee read Hos 4 14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredome nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery the like Ezek. 16.42 I will cause my fury towards thee to rest and I will bee quiet and will bee no more angry Upon which one saith Solo auditu tremisco I tremble at the very hearing For if God will correct no more then hee will destroy next This is a Sparing-Justice And as God doth exercise this towards the wicked so hee exerciseth a punishing-mercy toward the good Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.32 Wee are chastised of the Lord that wee might not bee condemned with the World That wee may not bee condemned with the World Hee suffers the World to condemn us That wee may not love the World hee suffers the World to hate us That wee may bee crucified to the World hee suffers the World to crucifie us Therefore wee meet with Crcrosses with abuses in the World because hee will not have us perish with the World God takes liberty to chastise our carkasses to heal our consciences to afflict our bodies to save our souls And wee have oftentimes occasion to bless God more for crosses than for comforts As there is a curse hid in the best things to the wicked so there is a blessing hid in the worst things to the Godly There is a blessing in sickness a blessing in crosses in losses c. Hence All his wayes are wayes of mercy His correcting and comforting wayes His scourging and solacing wayes The wayes of health and the wayes of sickness wayes of prosperity and wayes of adversity All are in Mercy All things shall work together for good unto them that love God Thus in the general Faith doth clear to the soul whereby it doth possess the Soul with patience under any evil and laies the tumults and quarrels of the Soul 2. In particular Faith discovers at what end God aims 1. It may bee the trial and exercise of our Graces as in Job 2. It may bee for the Destruction of sin and ruine thereof Either Pride Worldly-mindedness Adherency to the Creature with many more To humble us to wean us to win us to make us more thankful with many such ends All which discovered and cleared by Faith to the Soul do exceedingly calm and still the heart in every condition Fifth Royalty 5. Faith is a Soul-Securing-Grace It is such a Grace that doth shelter and secure the Soul from all evil Hence 5. Faith is a Soul-securing Grace Prov. 29.25 They who trust in the Lord shall bee safe or shall bee lifted up on high as the word signifies above men above the World above all storms above all troubles shall bee set out of danger out of Gunshot As Noahs Ark was carried above all waters So Faith shall carry the Soul above all dangers Hee that trusts shall bee safe So that you see Faith is an Heart-securing-Grace Wee may sit down securely under the shadow of Faith It is a Soul-Securing-Grace Nothing else will secure you but beleeving Build as many Towers of succour as you can Raise up as many Castles of strength as your provisions will reach yet all these are but Castles in the Air there 's no foundation for them nor shelter in them Beat and cast out as many Anchors as you can yet you will but Anchor on the waves you shall never finde a bottom to rest on to secure your souls from trouble All the provisions in the Creature All that thy power thy Policy can do and finde out will not compass thee with safety if thou do not trust There is nothing doth secure the Soul and set the Soul out of danger but a Resolved-Trust And no Trust but a Trust in God 1. Not a Trust in Riches The Rich mans wealth is his strong City but it 's so in his conceit only it is weak 2. Not a Trust in Friends Deceitful Friends Job calls them Waters that fail as Jeremy calls them But broken Walls and tottering Fences as the Psalmist stiles them Psal 62.3 3. Not a Trust in Princes If any could secure the Soul one would think they might but these cannot Psal 62. throughout Psal 146.3 4. Prov. 10.15 Nahum 3.12 13. Wee read the Children of Israel would trust in the shadow of Egypt Egypt was a Wel-spread-Tree it promised security under her boughs and branches but it could not there was no security Jer. 2.37 God threatens hee would reject their confidences and they should not prosper thereby So that no Trust but a Trust in God will compass the Soul with safety and this will it is an Heart-Securing-Grace 1. It sets a man upon a Soul-Security-Bottom which is God himself Christ himself This is that Bottom David cryed to bee set upon Set mee upon the Rock that is higher than I. Why one would have thought David had been secure enough upon his own Bottom Hee had a good bottom to stand on if there bee one in the World Hee was a King and had provisions for safety If any man might be secure then he But hee sees hee could not be secure in himself His feet began to sink And therefore crys out for a better bottom Oh! Set me upon the Rock that is higher than I. Time was a Man was his own bottome A bottome to himself But it was but a Sandy-bottome Even in his Innocency there was no Security in it But now God hath appointed our Bottome to bee out of our selves and to bee in him And therefore our conditions are secure the Soul that stands on this bottome is safe is secure This Christ sets down in the Parable of the Hoâ—se built upon a Rock that is upon himself Though The winds blow the waves and billows beat yet there is no danger of our fall We stand upon a Rock Why but may not a Weak and Tottering house bee built upon a strong foundation And what is it then the surer for the Foundation It may bee blown down though the foundation bee never so strong Yea But no
Parent The Master to the Servant The Servant to the Master c. Faith is the great Task-Master of the Soul But it is not like Pharaohs Task-Master to command burdens and afford no help To require the Tale of Brick and give no Straw This indeed the Law doth It is an hard Task-Master It commands but gives no ability Jubet fed non juvat Efficit quod imperat Jubet juvat But not so Faith It commands and laies in strength to do It gives what it commands by going over to Christ and fetching strength from him whereby the soul is inabled to obey what it is commanded It is said of Christ That His Government shall bee upon his shoulders Not only in his hand having a Scepter only to command but upon his shoulders wherein there is support to obey commands So it may bee said of Faith which governeth from Christ and by Christ Its Government is upon its shoulder inabling the soul to do what it commands 1. Faith begets Soul-inabling-Principles Principles in the soul suitable to the things commanded whereby a man is inabled to obey All strength for new Obedience ariseth from a new Nature And this new Nature is nothing else but that conformity to the Law of God whereby a man is not only able to obey but willing to obey when Principles are wrought in our hearts suitable to the Precepts when there is a Law within us answering to the Law without us It will be meat and drink it will be natural to obey it is not now hard to pray to clear The yoak is easy the burden is light These things are not tasks but delights not medicines but meat not physick but food Psal 40. I delight to do thy Will saith David and what was the ground Thy Law is in my heart There were Principles agreeable to the Precepts and that made him not only to obey but to obey with delight 2. Faith supplies a man with Soul-inabling-Strength from without Wee have need not only of preventing but assisting Grace not only of operative but cooperative strength not only of inherent but of assistant the continual succours aids and supplies of the Spirit of Christ And Faith doth supply the soul with strength from him without whom wee can do nothing and through whose might wee are inabled to do all things Faith laies in supplies of strength from Christ wherewith wee are inabled for any service It calls in for all the strength of Christ the aids of the Spirit whereby wee are strengthened 2. Faith doth furnish a man with Soul-inabling-considerations 1. From God the mercies of God the goodness and sweetness of God All which do incourage and inable the soul to obey A loving Master makes a diligent Servant A mercifull God a working Christian Nothing doth so prevail with the heart as love The Love of Christ constrains us When Faith shall discover to the heart what we were what we are what God might what God hath done with us it will break out with David with a Quid Retribuam c. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows c. Psal 116.12 This overcomes the Soul with Love That heart that is overcome with the sweetness of mercy is prepared to overcome any difficulty of service My heart is prepared my heart is prepared 2. From the work Faith furnishes a man with soul-inabling-considerations from the excellency of the imployments hee sees a peece of Heaven in tem hee sees these services full of beauty sweetness desireableness No service to the service of the King Oh! what then is the service of the King of Kings 3. From the rewards which God hath promised to obedience And these rewards Faith makes use of to quicken and stir up the soul to Obedience to bee spurs and incentives to us as they were to Moses who had an eye to the recompence of the Reward as they were to Christ himself who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 and Heb. 11.26 All which have a mighty influence into the soul to inable and quicken it to Obedience 2. Faith inables the Soul to suffer Yea and to suffer the sufferings of the greatest magnitude You see Heb. 11. Through Faith they were stoned they were sawn asunder were slain with the sword 1. It puts the soul into a suffering frame It deadens a mans heart to the world mortifies a man to to the world and makes a man alive to God A man dead to the world doth not much care either to leave the world or any thing in the world now Faith deadens a mans heart to the World 1. Faith puts the Judgement into a right frame It makes the Judgement lightly to esteem of earthly and highly to esteem of Heavenly things lightly to esteem the favours and frowns of men highly to value the favour and fear the frowns of God 2. Faith prevails with the Will to chuse God above all and to part with all the leave all if they come in competition with God This Faith doth habitually in habituall preparations in the work of Grace when first the Will chuseth with Christ Thus Faith inables the soul to do actually when ever it is brought to tryall 3. Faith works upon the Affections to love God above all to delight in God to fear him c. A man who loues any thing chuseth any thing prizeth any thing above God is a man unfit for sufferings hee is not in a sufering frame If God and these things come in competition they with Demas will forsake God and cleave to the present world Men whose hearts are too much ingaged to the World whose affections are too much set upon the Creature men whose wills chuse any thing more than God whose Judgements do prize and esteem of any thing more than God to whom God is little and the world is great these men are unfit for tryals And therefore this is the first way whereby Faith doth inable the Soul by putting it into a suffering frame 2. Faith doth furnish the soul with suffering Resolutions A beleeving heart is a resolved heart Nothing causeth a suspension in the Will more than Unbeleef Hee that doubteth is like a wave of the Sea sometimes going this way and sometimes carried back again Whereas Faith doth resolve the heart makes the soul resolve as Peter but in a better strength I will dye rather than deny thee Faith doth cloathe the soul with suffering resolutions to go through a Sea through a Wilderness through the hottest Skirmishes the hardest Tryals for Christ You see it every where in Scripture In Michaiah in Jeremiah in the three Children in Daniel in the Apostles And to these I might adde many more As that of old Polycarp when hee was perswaded to deny Christ rather than to dye for Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
day and poor to morrow The Lord hath given Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit the Lord hath taken away Both with one breath Hence the wise man Riches make themselves wings and flye away But these are abiding Treasure A Treasure whose spring is in Heaven whose Foundation is in Christ Our life is hid with Christ in God not only hid for secrecy but hid for safety It is a safe life an abiding life Nay but if they should continue yet will they do us no good in the day of trouble They cannot save our souls from nor in the day of wrath They cannot save us from sicknesse nor from death not from Hell Nor are they able to mitigate our Torments to purchase one drop of water in that lake of fire What profit had Ahab of his Vineyard Baltazar of his cups Dives of his wealth Judas of his thirty-pence Agrippa of his gay apparel The rich fool of his full barns All these would do them no good Neither quench nor bribe these flames but rather afford Oile to increase them But now Grace that riches which Faith doth inrich us withall it is such as will uphold us in sickness bee a choice cordial in that bitter potion it will deliver us in death save us in the day of wrath and inable us to lift up our heads with joy and boldness in the day of Judgement that terrible day of the Lord when the wicked shall tremble before the Judge and call upon the Mountains to fall upon them and the Hills to cover them from the presence of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Hast thou other riches and wantest thou Faith Hast thou Mountains of Gold Rocks of Diamonds shores of Rubies And wantest thou Faith wantest thou Grace Oh! thou art a poor man Thus you see Faith is an Heart-inriching-Grace A Beleever hath title to all A Beleever is the poorest and the richest man in the World As none is poorer than a godly man in himself so none is richer than a Beleever in Christ Hee is as having nothing and yet possessing all things Christ is the Heir of all things All are yours if you bee Christs No sooner can the soul say Christ is mine but hee may say His Blood is mine his Spirit mine his Glory mine all is mine Christ and all his are conveyed and made over by the same Deed of Gift Hence the Apostle saith Wee are made partakers of Christ Not of some part but of Christ all Christ not of Justification only but say Christ and there is all Fifteenth Royalty 15. Royalty Faith is an Heart-raising-Grace 15. Faith is an Heart-raising-Grace There is a threefold Death that Faith doth raise up the soul from 1. The Death of Sin 2. The Death of inward Trouble 3. The Death of outward Trouble 1. Faith raiseth up the soul from the Death of Sin Wee are all of us Dead by nature in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 Dead-Born And as dead men so wee have no notion to spiritual things no motion no strength to any good no sense being insensible of the weight of sin insensible of mercies and judgements wee have no desires after any thing good no affection to them And a Death it is not only Privative A meer absence and privation of spiritual life but a Positive Death wherein there is an Introduction of a Positive vitious Habit. As in Natural Death there is not only a Privation of Life of the former form but the Position of another form there is another form left in the body So in Spiritual Death there is not only a meer Absence a bare Privation of Life But there is a Positive Evil and Vitious Habit left in the soul Hence Heb. 9.14 The works of natural men are called Dead works There would bee a contradiction in calling them Dead works if unregenerate men were only deprived of spiritual life and had not another positive evil form in them Thus dead wee are then not only Privatively but Positively And it is Faith which doth raise up the Soul from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace Faith is the Resurrection of the Soul from under the spiritual death the Death of Sin The first rise of the Soul from the Death of Sin is by beleeving Vita sancta aâ— fide sumit initium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fide regeneramut Calv. Resipiscentia non modo fidem subsequitur sed ex ea noscitur Calv. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fides justificationem praecipit sanctificationem efficit Tilen An holy life hath its rise from Faith The Fountain of all our spiritual Graces The worker of all good things That which begets Love Fear Repentance Hence Calvin saith Faith regenerates Repentance doth not only follow Faith but doth arise from Faith Hence Clemens Alexandrinus Faith is the first awakening the first inclination of the Soul to Christ. Hence by some Faith and the New Creation Faith and Sanctification do differ as much as the Cause and the Effect Faith is the Instrument of Justification but the efficient of Sanctification They who distinguish Regeneration which is part of our Vocation and Sanctification do make Faith and Sanctification differ as much as Cause and Effect Vocation say they produceth Faith â—nd Faith being begotten produceth Sanctification both habitual and â—ctual Hence it 's called the Mother-Grace But they who make Vocation and Sanctification all one and both to bee nothing else but our inherent Righteousness or those Habits that frame of Grace implanted in the Soul whereof Faith is a part they do say Faith doth not produce the Cause of the Habits of Graces but Faith produceth the acts of Grace of Love Repentance c. Faith doth not produce the Habits but the acts of Grace For the clearing of this Sanctification may bee considered as it is either In actu primo vel secundo 1. Habitual Or 2. Actual 1. For our Habitual Sanctification There wee say the Spirit of God is the only Cause and Faith is an Effect as well as others Faith is a part of our inherent Sanctification 2. For our Actual Sanctification or as those Habits do act and exercise and there wee say Faith doth help to produce the acts of Grace of Love of Repentance 1 Tim. 1.5 Love out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned Faith doth not only lend an hand to its Fellow-Graces for the perfecting of Grace but Faith doth help to produce the Acts of Grace the Acts of Love of Repentance Zeal Patience c. Though at the same time they bee all implanted yet in Nature Faith hath the precedency and helps to produce the Acts of all the rest As God the Father is before the Son in Nature yet not in Time Hee is not a Father till hee have a Son So is it to bee understood concerning Faith and all other Graces 2. Faith raiseth us up
as it was said of the sending of Christ that universal Mercy that summum genus of Mercy when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son So when the fulness of time is come God will send us our desires bestow the Mercy And therefore hee can wait A weak Faith is quickly worn out it cannot wait if God come not presently it is cast down and can wait no longer You see this in the Two Disciples going to Emmaus Wee hoped that this should have been hee that should have delivered Israel but hee is dead and this is the third day They might have waited a little longer they were too quick and hasty what though the third was come it was not yet expired great things might have been done yet before night But weak Faith is impatient of delayes This evil proceedeth from the Lord shall I wait on him any longer was the voice of that wicked King 2 King 6.33 Every vision faileth Ezek. 12.22 so they and too often many better than they But now a strong Faith will hold out in delaies yea and pray more earnestly As you see David did who though his Eyes failed his Flesh failed though his Heart failed yet hee renewed his supplication from day to day The like in Daniel in the Woman of Canaan in Hannah and in the Blind man hee was blamed for his importunity and was yet the more importunate Such a man knows that hee who hath any thing from God must continue in Prayer Jacob all night David day and night Jonah three dayes and nights Daniel one and twenty dayes and nights Moses forty dayes and forty nights God often defers his people to inhance and raise up the price of mercy to make them more fit for mercy more thankfull for mercy And therefore hee can wait 2. Strong Faith cannot only take long delaies But denyals well It can submit to denials as well as to grants You see it in David Hee had strong desires for the continuance of the life of his Child God denyed it See how calm how submissive hee was in the denyal insomuch that hee was a wonder to all his servants A weak Faith doth faint and is discouraged at the denyals of requests It cannot tell how to take a denyal of God but a strong Faith can take denyals as well as grants A strong Faith is clear in this that God is a Father and therefore his denyals are in mercy all is for good hee knows if God hear him not according to his will Etsi non ad voluntatem tamen ad sanitatem yet according to his good A strong Faith submits to Gods wisdome and Gods will who is the only VVise Wee may desire a thing at Gods hand and in our wisdome may judge it to bee good But God in his Wisdome who knows the issue of things sees it will bee for our hurt and therefore denies it And Faith submits to his wisdome and follows him as a blinde man his guide Wee may ask some things too earnestly which are more profitably denyed then granted As Solomon said of Adonijahs request so I may say of many of ours Wee ask our lives wee desire our Bane such things as would hurt us and undo us And are not those things mercifully denyed which without hurt cannot bee granted This is to cross us with a Mercy A child desires a knife of the Father The Child sees no hurt in it but the Father doth And shall wee not then submit to the Wisdome of our Father A man may desire this evil to bee taken away this cross this affliction to bee removed this temptation this corruption to bee taken away God denies it seeing it best for a man to bee exercised with them And Faith will submit Again a man desires this outward mercy it may bee Riches may bee Honours the great things of the World And thinks it may bee if God did raise him hee would raise God if God would make him great hee would make God great But now God denies this God sees it is better that thou want them than injoy them And Faith submits to Gods Wisdome Voluntas Dei optima si optima optima vult and to Gods Will in it Gods Will is his will and saith Not my will but thy will bee done Gods will is the best and being best wills what is the Best both for his own glory and our good Again thou desirest some spiritual mercy from God Perhaps thou desirest Perfection of Grace in this life and God sees it is better that corruptions should dwell in thee as the Lees among the Wine to keep the Wine sweet to humble thee or that they might bee as pricks in thy eyes and goads in thy sides to make thee more forward and fervent in holy performances Perhaps thou desirest a great deal of Knowledge with Saul to bee higher by the head and shoulders than thy fellow Christians Or with David to bee wiser than thy Teachers God denies it and Faith takes the denyal knowing all is for the best It may bee it might beget pride this would puff up it would bee too great a sail for so smal a Boat and rather over-turn thee than set thee forward Perhaps thou desirest to injoy the continual light of Gods countenance to bee like the Island of Rhodes in perpetuo Sole in continual Sun-shine But God denies it thou art sometimes in the valley of tears as well as sometimes in the Mountain of Joy Thou hast cloudy and clear dayes calmy and stormy seasons And Faith submits to this denyal It sees all is for the best That wee should not have our Heaven upon Earth This might occâ—sion spiritual Pride as you see in Paul It might occasion a common esteem of so great a mercy And therefore submits Thus you see how a strong Faith is strong in Prayers can take long delaies and submit to denyals too from God My Brethren this is the strength of Faith that can bee so strong in Desires so patient in Delayes so submissive in Denyals Here is strong Faith 10. Strong Faith hath strong desires to go to Christ by death and that Christ should come to him by Judgement 1. To go to Christ by death A Beleever hath Vitam in Patientiâ Mortem in Desiderio Hee hath Life in Patience Death in Desire Life is his Sea where hee meets with nothing but storms Death is his Harbour Life is his way his Inne at the best But Heaven is his Home There his best Friends are there his chief businesse lies there is his abiding-place and thither hee desires to go A weak Faith is loath to dye is afraid of death hee hath not yet gotten his Evidence sealed his hope in his hand But when this is done then with Paul I desire to bee dissolved Or with Simeon when hee had once gotten Christ into his armes Lord Now lettest thou thy servant depart in Peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation You hear how
and thereupon have gotten some peace and quiet in your souls and you seek no further This is to lick your selves whole And how often how ordinarily doth these things stand between us and Christ between us and the Promise if wee found no peace nor satisfaction in these then wee should go over to Christ but finding this on this side Christ therefore are wee slow of heart to beleeve Now to take away this you must know that that peace which is not setled upon the heart by a promise by beleeving that peace will never do you good a true trouble were better It is not works but Christ not praying but beleeving not the Law but the Gospel Christ the Promise that brings true peace into the soul Indeed the other may give a man some ease for the time but this will never work a sound and substantial peace You read in the Wilderness there was no plaister for the stung Israelite but looking up to the brazen Serpent So there is no remedy for a stung sinner of which the former was a type both in the malady and in the remedy but looking up unto Christ beleeving in him And you see how Christ doth parallel them in Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. If the stung Israelite had made a confection of the best herbs in the Wilderness a plaister of all the soveraign ingredients in the World and applied with it Mountains of Prayers Seas of tears yet this would not have helped him if with all he had not looked upon the brazen Serpent God had set up that way and nothing else should do the cure So let the stung sinner make what plaister hee will of duty of prayers for the salving of conscience the healing of the wound yet if hee do not look up beleeve never healed never I grant it to prevent an objection that these duties may do something for the stay of a mans spirit and the quieting of conscience for a time because being such things as God hath commanded and in Gods way they may have some influence into a mans conscience for the quieting and stilling of it for present But these are all too short to bring a sound and substantial peace into the soul it is not working but beleeving not duty but Christ that must do that If God had intended this for thy cure if these had been sufficient what need had hee to have sent Christ into the World what need had Christ to have dyed and shed his bloud God might have given man ability to have performed duty and all had then been done But the sending of Christ into the World and the shedding of his bloud shews it was a greater work to redeem souls Indeed these things are subservient to the plaister to the cure but these things are not the plaister not the cure By Prayer wee seek and beg for a plaister in a wounded condition and by Prayer wee praise God when the plaister hath been applied but this is not the cure this is not the plaister God never intended that So by hearing wee have discovered to us where the plaister is to bee had and by hearing afterward wee do but discover our willingness to know more of Gods will that wee might obey him but this is not the plaister So by works and obedience before healing wee do but carry our selves in such a deportment and demeanure as they should do who wait for such a mercy from God and by works and obedience afterwards wee do but declare our thankfulness to God when the cure is wrought but this is not the cure being justified wee work wee do not work that wee may bee justified And therefore though you should get some obvious refreshment by the performance of duties in the pursuit of Christ yet let not this slacken but quicken you in your way bee thankfull for it quickened by it and still remember to arise this is not your rest Hee who rests on this side Christ will rest on this side Heaven All your duties will bee but ropes of sand like chains of glass too brickle to draw your souls to Heaven Though naturall conscience may get some satisfaction from these springs the performance of duties yet these are too shallow to satisfie the thirst of a gracious heart They are neither full nor are they pure nor are they permanent and lasting springs As I might shew you not full because wrought out of our selves not pure because mingled with our imperfections muddy springs our justifying righteousness is perfect but our sanctifying righteousness is imperfect nor are they constant Drought will come the time will come when these will bee too short to reach comfort into thy soul that if God lead thee not to a spring at last thou art undone The Brook Cherith did supply Elijah for a time but at last it dryed up and could afford him no Water and had not God brought him then unto a spring hee had perished So there are many who lye a long time by the springs of duty the streams of performances and they get some refreshment there which keep them off from going to Christ but the time will come that these waters will fail and if then thou hast not a fountain a Christ to go to thou wilt perish for all this Where on the contrary here in the greatest drought thou shalt finde waters enough Jer. 17.7 8. Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for hee shall bee as a tree planted by waters and shall not see when drought commeth his leaf shall bee green and hee shall not bee carefull in the years of drought Years of drought hee shall never see never bee sensible when heat commeth his leaf shall bee green And thus much for the second ground why wee are so slow of heart to beleeve 3. Ground why wee are so slow of heart to beleeve is taken from others 1. Their heights 2. Their depths 1. We look upon the heights of others We see others of the Saintâ— eminent in Grace shining with holiness adorned with gifts and gracious indowments they can pray they can command their passions And then reflecting upon our selves and seeing our own imperfections our frowardness of spirit our untowardness of heart our weakness and deadness wee are thereupon discouraged and kept off from the Promise of life c. I told you the last day that wee look upon the best of others and the worst of our selves upon the best not the worst of others You look upon their inlargements not their straits their graces not their corruptions their heights not their depths their comforts not their troubles their victories not their foils This is the difference between you and wicked men they look upâ—n the worst of the Saints and by that draw incouragements to sin or if not yet make use of their imperfections to countenance their deadness but you look upon the best of others and
to perswade 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 2. Consider thou can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his Commandement that wee should beleeve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ And what can thy heart now reason against this will not this bee enough to answer all thy fears and scruples to beat down all that thy unbeleeving heart can say against the Promise Why God doth not only invite thee but hee commands thee to beleeve Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve and will bee sufficient security to all them that do beleeve 1. I say it is a sufficient warrant to beleeve Men may command things and tell us that our obedience to them shall bee sufficient warrant to us and yet they may want power enough to secure us in our obedience to them but it is not so with God his command will be a warrant sufficient to carry out any soul in his obedience to him Doth Satan say wherefore dost thou beleeve thou art a Reprobate thou art a cast away thou hast no right to the Promise but thou must say then thou art a Creature and God commands thee to beleeve and in obedience to Gods command though thou sees nothing but death for the present yet thou wilt beleeve Doth bee say thou hast no right to a Promise not any title to Mercy yet mayest thou say thou art bound to the Precept though I cannot clear my right to the Promise yet I am sure I am to obey the Precept I am bound to the obedience of the command and God commands mee to beleeve Yea and thou may say thus much if I am bound to beleeve as I am then I may bee able by my beleeving to clear my interest in the Promise Thou mayest tell him here is a command for thee none then for him hee is out of hope It is an infinite mercy to stand under the command of beleeving the Devils do not the damned do not thou doest which is infinite mercy 2. As Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve so it is sufficient security if wee do beleeve there was never a soul that perished in a way of obedience in a way of beleeving Doth Satan say thou mayest venture thy soul if thou wilt but thou dost but cast away thy soul for thou shalt never bee saved God will never own thee Thou mayest say again Gods command is a sufficient warrant for thee to beleeve men may fail us and bee men but God cannot fail us and bee God But put it to the worst though thou do not know whether thou shalt bee saved yet this thou knowest that God commands thee to beleeve Well then bee peremptory and resolve in beleeving say if I dye I will dye in a way of beleeving in a way of obedience to the command not in a way of disobedience to it This I know if I beleeve not I must perish hee that beleeveth not is condemned but if I do beleeve if I do go on in a way of obedience who knows whether God will bee mercifull nay who knows not but that hee will I must tell you this resolution will put the Devil to it hee knows not what to say to such a man nay and it puts God to it too for God cannot reject him who will yet go on to serve him though hee should never own him 2. Consider you can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve Thou honourest all-God as I shall shew thee in the second Doctrin It is a great deal of ease and pleasure for a full and pained breast to bee sucked the breast of Mercy and Promise is full yea and in pain too and thou shalt do God let mee speak after the manner of men the greatest pleasure thou canst do to come and suck Joh. 6.28 when the people asked what shall wee do that wee may work the works of God Mark then how Christ answers why this is the work of God that you beleeve in him As if hee had said would you do that which would content God would you do that which pleaseth him why this is that which doth wonderfully content God this is that doth admirably please God to beleeve I tell thee by this thou makest God amends for all the wrong thou hast done him all thy life Nothing else will if thou shouldest go about to redeem every oath with an age of precizeness and exactness every idle word and action with an eternity of praises and tears all thy exactions and injustice with a treasury of alms all this were nothing to the making of God amends But here do but come over to the Promise do but close with Christ and thou makest God amends for all God will bee fully satisfied not with thy Faith but with Christ not with thy beleeving but with Christ whom thy Faith holds up Nay not only satisfied but ipse tibi velim debitor I would not only bee satisfied but I would bee thy debtor to give thee eternal life Oh then that you who are slow of heart to beleeve that you would now come in Close with Christ and then thou mayest set Christ against all that the Law Justice Sin Hell Satan can say against thee You see the Apostle did so who is hee that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Hee makes a challenge of all sets the death of Christ against whatever can bee brought so mayest thou Let us weild this weapon c. 1. Doth Satan say thou hast sinned Why but may the soul say I have closed with him who hath suffered for sin what can my debt of sin bee that the payment of his sufferings hath not fully answered 2. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against the great God of Heaven yea but thou mayest say I have an interest in him whose Righteousness is the Righteousness of the great God of Heaven Jehovah our Righteousness and that is able to suffice for that 3. Doth hee say the glory of the great God is debased by thy sinning Why but thou mayest say will not the emptying of his glory who is the brightness of his Fathers glory answer for that 4. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against knowledge Why but thou mayest say all that Christ did and all hee suffered hee did with knowledge Joh. 18.4 Jesus knowing all things c. 5. Doth hee say thou hast sinned with delight Why but thou mayest say Christ hath suffered with greater delight than I have sinned Hee delighted to do the will of God and this was the will of his Father that hee should give his life for mee Joh. 6. Luk. 12.50 And it was said of him that hee was straitned till the hour came as men that delight in a work which they long to bee upon 6. Doth hee say thy sins lye in thy spirit Yea but thou mayest say the chiefest part of his suffering did lye in
such a one as makes conscience of every Command great or smal Every one comes from the same authority James 2.11 For hee that saith the one saith also the other And whatever hath the stamp of God the authority of Heaven upon it though it seem never so small hee dare not disobey it where there is a beam of Gods Majesty sitting upon the face of a command hee will submit to it Men you know will not refuse the Kings Coin though the peece bee never so small if the Kings impression bee on a penny it calls for acceptance as well as a piece so if the authority of God bee stamped upon the least command a sincere heart will yeeld subjection to it as well as the greatest Mat. 5.19 Hee who breaketh the least of these Commands shall bee the least c. Hee who stands with God for small things when hee will not forbear an Oath a cup a ragge for Christ how should you yeeld to the greater A man may do the smaller and yet neglect the greater As the Pharisees who tithed Mint and Cummin but the great things of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legis the love of God fear of God these are not regarded But hee who doth the greater will not neglect the smaller Thirdly Hee will obey God in affirmative Commands as well as negative Commands Hee doth not only look upon what God would not have him do but hee examines what God would have him do Dives was cast into Hell not for oppressing Lazarus but for not shewing mercy upon Lazarus not because hee took any thing from but because hee gave nothing to him There is many a mans Religion lies meerly upon negatives Hee is no swearer no drunkard no unclean person as the Pharisee hee oppresseth no man defrauds no man But if you ask him for the affirmative commands there hee is nothing art thou holy art thou humble art thou a beleever art thou a sanctifier of Gods day lovest thou God fearest thou God Alas these sins because they are minoris infamiae not so scandalous as the other are therefore hee makes them nullius culpae no sins at all these gnats hee can swallow without any straining at them c. 4. Hee will obey God in the Spirit of the Command as well as in the letter of the Command There is an intra and an extra in every Command of God One part of the Law binding the flesh the other part enjoyning the spirit You see how Christ sets it down Matth. 5.21 Thou shalt do no Murder there 's the letter of the Command Thou shall not bee angry with thy Brother without a cause there is the Spirit of the Command Thou shalt not commit Adultery there is the letter of the Command Thou shalt not look on a woman to lust after her there is the Spirit of the Command An unsound spirit looks no further than the bare letter of the Command that part which bindes the flesh or outward man only and if hee do but observe that in the gross hee thinks hee hath done well but now a sincere heart hee looks to the spirit of the Command and if hee do not observe that hee hath no peace if you keep the whole Law in the letter and give way to your selves to fail in any and do not sincerely indeavour to obey all according to the spirit your spirits are unsound Hee that will see God with comfort must not only obey the letter of the Command but must bring his heart to the sincere Obedience of the spirit of the Command 5. Hee will not only obey God only in the Matter but in the Manner not only in the substance but in the circumstance of the Command Hee is not only conscionable to obey God in what hee commands but his heart is wrought to a conscionableness in the Obedience An unsound heart looks no further than the substance of the Command if hee have but prayed if been at Church hee thinks all is well hee looks no further But now a sound spirit hee looks to the circumstance as well as the substance the manner as well as the matter of the command When hee prayes hee labours to pray fervently faithfully When hee hears hee will hear humbly fruitfully when hee obeyes hee desires to obey willingly chearfully c. Wee say bonum est ex integrâ causâ but malum ex quolibet defectu Take any action if either the Principle whence it doth arise bee not good that the action arise from corrupt Principles self-love carnal fears or if the purposes bee not good that the aims and ends bee carnal or if the circumstances bee not good it spoils the action If wee pray and pray not fervently if wee heat and hear not fruitfully if wee obey and obey not willingly if wee shew mercy and do it not chearfully if you sanctifie the Sabbath and not with delight all is worth nothing There are some circumstances accessory some necessary some wherein the being and some wherein but the well-being of a duty doth consist And if you abstract these from them the duty it is worth nothing Take away fervency and humility from Prayer take away faithfulness and fruitfulness from hearing take away willingness and delight from Obedience all is nothing worth So much for the first Character of sincere Obedience Universality 2. Character Sincere Obedience is such an Obedience Rightness of which doth 1. Come from a right spring 2. Is wrought by a right Rule 3. In a right manner 4. To a right end I put all together that I may not multiply too much 1. Sincere Obedience ariseth from a right spring 1. Spring a sound Obedience ariseth from sound Principles A soul renewed a soul universally sanctified and principled from above Such as the Principle is such is a mans Obedience dead Principles and but dead Obedience unsound Principles and unsound Obedience A mans actions can go no higher than his Principles There must bee a good tree before good fruit the person must bee good before the actions can bee good if there bee a crack in the person all is naught Now this sincere Principle which is the spirit of all our Obedience it is nothing else but an entire and spiritual frame of Grace and Holiness set up in the soul whereby a man is renewed and changed Which is called in Scripture a new Creation a writing of the Law in the heart Regeneration Renovation Resurrection from death to life and a forming Christ in the soul As it hath a respect to the heart the seat of these Principles it borrows five names It is called 1. A sound heart in opposition to an unsound a false spirit 2. A perfect heart in opposition to an Hypocritical spirit 3. And a single heart in opposition to a doubleness of spirit 4. An honest heart in opposition to a deceitful heart 5. A whole heart in opposition to a half a divided spirit which God hates And
when the soul is compassed with thick darkness sincerity will open a Casement and thereby let light into the soul Psal 112.4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness in the darkest whereas Hypocrisy is like painted windows keeps out light Sincerity will be like windows of Glass transparent let in light 6 Motive 6 Sincerity doth fence the heart against apostacy Partial and Total Wee will now come to the means to get a sincere heart Cure Hypocrisy Which is in which I shall indeavour to apply my self to the cure of an hypocrite But before I come to lay down the means of cure I must tell you this 1 It is a difficult cure 2 A painful cure 1 A difficult cure 1 Hard to cure It is one of the hardest cures are wrought upon the souls of men A cure seldome wrought Wee have heard of a bloody and Idolatrous Manasses an unclean Mary an oppressing Publican a persecuting Paul and many other fearful and great open and notorious sinners wrought upon brought to life But where have we read of the return of a Judas of a Simon Magus where do wee read of one example of such as have been grosse hypocrites who have afterward been savingly wrought upon I confesse it is all one with God to do the one as the other it is as easy with him to change the heart of an hypocrite as any other for infinite power and grace knows no difference but it is a thing not so usually done And though as easy in respect of God yet more difficult quoad nos And so I would have you understand me that the difficulty is in respect of us 1 It is hard to convince such a man that hee needs a cure 1 Hard to Convince you see it in Rev. 3. vers 16 17. God tells them they were luke-warm neither hot nor cold there was their distemper and yet you see what thoughts they had of themselves in the 17. vers Thou sayest thou art rich and increased in goods and hast need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So you see it is hard to convince such a man Another man is easily convinced the very lives of them who are holy are convictions to his Conscience and if the word be held out he is ready to fall down as not able to stand up under the light and evidence of it In such men wee have a friend within them even their own natural consciences are on our side and ready to take part with us against themselves and fly in their own faces telling them such and such things ought not to bee done But now in the other neither the examples of holy men nor precepts of the word do so farre convince them for in outward appearance they walk as blamelesly as the best Nay and natural Conscience is also for them and being satisfied with some general performances of duty is ready to take part with them and to withstand any conviction that can bee alledged You see this in the Scribes and Pharisees they walked blamelesly in the general to the eyes of the world as you hearby his confession in opposition to the Publican and they fasted and prayed and did much and by that the mouth of conscience was stopped the quarrels of conscience were answered and you finde how hard it was for Christ himself to convince them They were so far from being convinced by his example that they thought themselves more strict than hee he did but they would not accompany themselves with sinners and therefore they gave ouâ—the was a wine bibber a glutton a friend of Publicans and for his doctrin this was so farre from convincing them that they thought their lives more strict than his precepts they were followers of the Law exact and rigid in legal observances and thought his doctrin too licentious too full of liberty for them So that is the first it is hard to convince them Hard to humble them 2 It is hard to humble them Humiliation follows conviction if hard to convince hard to humble Do wee denounce threatnings against sinners alas they are none of them these threatnings do not concern them but others for their parts they walk unblameably in the world It is not the mercyes nor the judgements the promises nor the threatnings the word nor the works of God which humble them In others there may be some natural tenderness some remorse of spirit when they hear of Gods judgements against sin But for this man it is not all the terrors of the Lord not all the humbling breaking discoverys of sin or judgement which fasten upon him to humble him No mans heart so hard as the Hypocrites hee hath not only a natural hardnesse but a contracted hardnesse nay a fortified and strengthened hardnesse his heart is fortified against all reproof against all the denunciations of wrath and judgement You have a taste of it in the Scribes and Pharisees You know they were Hypocrites hee who knew their hearts better than they knew their own tells them so And it was not all the miracles hee did in his life nor all the wonders which hee shewed at his death which could break and humble their hard hearts you see the Sun was darkned the earth quakes and trembles the vail of the Temple was rent the graves open the rocks cleave asunder yet all this doth not move their hard hearts Hard to reclaim them 3 It is hard to reclaim them for 1 The Devil hath got greater power in them than in others 2 The Forts of Sinne and Satan are more strengthned in them 3 The means of reclaiming lesse efficacious Hee is able to sit out Sermons and duties without any manner of working upon his spirit at all That which moves others moves not him which works upon the hearts of others doth leave his heart unwrought upon He is a man as I told you prayer-proof Sermon-proof and Ordinance-proof no Mercy no judgement no promise no threatning no word no works no prayer no Sacraments no physick no salve no counsell no advice no light of nature no light of example no private help no publick exhortation prevails with his heart hee 's a man in the fore-lorn hope his condition neer desperate Custome in the use of things doth take away the power of working You see in your bodies a little thing works upon the humors when you are not used to it whereas if accustomed to it a much greater will not stir the humors I have read that Mithridates by accustoming himself to eat Poyson at last durst venture upon poyson as meat nothing did hurt him The customable use of things takes away the power of working So it is here the custome of Ordinances in a formal way doth take away the power of working by them You see it in the Sacrament may bee when you came first to the Sacrament then Conscience had some natural tendernesse in
signed But makes his Supplication three times a day vers 13. And what was this now but to render him to the King factious seditious a Rebel a Traytor One who cared not for King nor Law Though indeed Daniel was a better subject than the best of them though they would have rendred him rebellious to the King because he was obedient to his God But mark the issue of it God disappointed them in their design and brought their own plot upon their own Pates Daniel was preserved by the Lyons that should have destroy'd him as they did afterward them The like of the three Children I might go down to our days The Powder-plot Eighty-Eight and God knows how many since 2 God hath wrought wonderfull deliverance for his Church Deliverances wonderful and the way he hath wrought them was 1 Sometimes by small means For weaknesse and strength is all one with God as Asa confessed when that Great Army came against him 2 Chron. 14.11 It is all one with thee to help with many or with few Infinite wisdome and power knows no difference As the Mariner turns about the greatest ship with a small rudder No means can bee so contemptible but he can make it succesful to his own purposes As the greatest means will bee no priviledge without Gods concurrence so the smallest means shall be no prejudice if God wil concur Wee read God hath sometimes armed natural Causes Sunne Moon Stars Hail Wind All which were wonders against the enemies of the Church The Stars in their course were said to fight against Sisera The Lord slew the enemies of Joshua with Hail and the Moabites with the Sun shining upon the water And wee read in the Ecclesiastical History that the Christians being to fight against the Barbarians were in a great distresse for water And upon their Prayer God sent them abundance of rain to refresh their Army But incountred their enemys with Thunder and fire from heaven In remembrance of which the Romans called the Christian Legion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fulminatrix The thundring Legion And sometimes God hath armed other causes putting strength into weak and contemptible means for the deliverance of his Church God hath oftentimes delivered his Church by such instruments as the enemies before would have looked upon with scorn as upon cast and despicable Creatures As God hath weakned and infatuated them hee hath intended to destroy so hath hee strengthned and guided with a spirit of wisdome such as hee hath intended for the deliverance of a Church You see Cyrus comparatively a weak Prince yet God made him an instrument to overthrow the most strong and puissant people in the World the Babylonians and by him to deliver his Church Deborah a Woman and yet God raised her up for the deliverance of his Church So you see God doth it by small means 2. Sometimes God works the deliverance of his Church without means And this is more wonderful When God looks about and sees there is no man then doth his right hand bring salvation When the Channel of Creature-helps is dry when the stream of second causes doth not runne Then doth God himself stand up for the defence and deliverance of his Church and People and creates deliverance out of nothing What God doth by means hee can do alone What hee doth mediately hee doth sometimes immediately from himself The Angel slew an hundred fourescore and five thousand 2 King 19.35 Wee read when Julian went to war against the Persians hee vowed to his Idol-Gods that when hee returned hee would give them a sacrifice of all the Christians in the Empire Here was now no means for the deliverance of the Church But God undertaketh the work himself smiting him from Heaven with an unknown blow and by that delivered his Church The like also of Maximius and of Herod Act. 12.23 Though there bee weakness below yet there is strength above Though means bee wanting yet hee can create means or hee can work without God and Faith work best alone 3. Sometimes God works the deliverance of his Church by contrary means And this is yet a more wonderful way God doth often work his works by Contraries hee brings good out of evil Life out of Death c. As the Physitian doth order poisons and destructive ingredients to physical useful and healthful purposes So those things which in themselves are against us God in singular wisdome and mercy turns them for us That which hath been used as the means of ruine hath God often turned to the means of raising a Church and People This is like the opening of the blind mans eyes with Clay One would think it should rather put out the eyes of a seeing man than give sight to a blind man But if Christ do undertake the work though the means bee never so contrary it shall bee effectual Thus you see that God doth often do wonders for the good of his Church and People 2. Quere 2. Wee come now to the second thing The Grounds and Reasons 1. The first is Because hee is a wonderful God Wonderful things beseem a Wonderful God His Name is Wonderful Isa 9.6 And therefore his works are Wonderful This is the inference Psal 86.10 Thou art great and dost wonderful things Every one delights to do actions sutable to themselves sutable to their own greatness When Alexander met with a great difficulty his spirit thus incounters it Jam periculum par animo Alexandri Now here is a danger here is a difficulty fit for the spirit of Alexander to incounter withall here is a work sutable for Alexander to do Great enterprises great difficulties great things befit Great spirits Magnus magna decent And wonderful things befit a wonderful God And upon this ground Gods reliefs come not in until cases are desperate because then hee may discover his great Power And such deliverances are most sutable to the great God Hee could as well hâ—ve saved Lazarus from sickness as have raised him from the grave but hee suffers him to dye bee buried and lye three dayes in the grave that hee might magnifie his power in the raising of him again Hee lets the difficulty go beyond the help of man that you might the better know what the Power of God is 2. The second Reason God doth wonderful things for his people to get himself a wonderful Name that God might bee known in the World Therefore did God execute such fearful Judgements on Pharaoh and wrought so great deliverances for his people that hee might get himself a Name and publish himself to the World Isa 63.12 Special cures win more glory to the Physitian than a thousand ordinary cures so special victories win more honour to a General than a thousand ordinary skirmishes so here special deliverances to God If God should only walk in the ordinary wayes of his Providence in the World his glory would not bee so much seen and advanced And therefore God doth often step out of his
a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendâ— Aug. because he hath ingaged himself to us by many great and precious Promises Gods Promises are ingagements upon him God hath made himself our Debter Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us God hath made many precious promises to us 1 Promises of Preservation Isa 33.16 Hee shall dwell on high his place of defence shall bee the munition of rocks bread shall bee given to him his waters shall bee sure A Promise than which I know none more full in the Book of God wherein all Objections that a fearful heart might raise are answered and taken away Let us view it over 1 Hee shall dwell on high If hee were among his enemies hee might bee in danger But hee shall dwel on high nay on heights as the Word is many Ascents many Heights above the reach of danger out of Gun-shot 2 But suppose they could raise up Mounts and come as high as hee yet they shall not hurt him Hee is in a place of defence 3 But what then His defence is not so strong but it may bee broken thorough No saith the Text that is impossible for his place of defence shall bee the Munitions of Rocks many Rocks and many Munitions of Rocks and therefore impregnable to guard him 4 Why but hee may bee starved out his supply will not alway last There is no plowing and sowing upon Rocks hee may bee famisht out No saith the Text. Bread shall bee given him Hee shall bee provided for 5 But what shall wee do for Water There is no Water to be had out of Rocks You see it was that which posed the Faith of Moses to fetch Water out of a Rock But saith the Text hee shall have Water too 6 Yea but his Water may be spent It will not alway last No saith the Text His Waters shall be sure never failing Waters sure Waters Again in the same Chapter vers 21. The Lord will bee to us a place of broad Rivers and streams wherein shall go no Gallie with Oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby Shewing the defence God would bee to his People Hee will bee a Stream nay a River between us and our enemies And a broad River a River that cannot bee passed over Why but they may use Oares No saith the Lord Hee will bee a River wherein no Gally with Oares shall pass But a Ship may No nor gallant ship shall pass thereby for the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King hee will save us But what if any ship should attempt You shall see vers 23. God will untackle them Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the saile 2. And as hee hath made promises of Preservation from So hee hath made promises of Deliverance out of trouble Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all So Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the time of trouble I will deliver thee So Psal 91.15 I will bee with him in trouble and will deliver him So Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And an excellent promise wee have Isa 43.3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee God speaks here as the Lord and Possessor of the whole Earth Egypt was his and Ethiopia was his and both these hee gave for to redeem his Church The Church was in bondage and captivity you know in Egypt And God gave Egypt for her ransome And how because shee could not bee ransomed and delivered without the loss of Egypt Therefore God gave Egypt for her That is hee would rather lose all the Land of Egypt than his people should not bee ransomed hee would sink the whole Kingdome of Egypt if it stood betwixt his People and Deliverance And so it follows in the 4. vers I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life As if hee had said I love thee thou art more dear to mee than all the World and I do not stick to give the lives of thousands to uphold thine Multitudes shall bee destroyed rather than thou shalt not bee preserved I love thee and therefore I will give men for thee Thus you see God is ingaged to do wonderful things for his Church because of his Promise That love which hath moved him to make these precious promises to us will never give him rest till it hath caused him to make good those promises which hee hath made 3. A third loving Ingagement which causes God to do wonders for his People is because they trust in him Trust is a kinde of Ingagement upon a man although hee had made no promise A man will not deceive another who reposeth his whole trust in him though hee were not ingaged by Promise There is a kinde of Ingagement in Trust it self And shall wee then think that God will when hee hath made so many precious promises to us This were the greatest deceit in the World a Soul-deceit If God should call us off from all other succours from other shelters and tell us that if wee will trust in him hee will bee our succour our security And should God fail the soul this were an undoing-deceit the greatest deceit in the World No my Brethren there was never man who laid up his confidence in God but hee found God to bee that to him which hee expected Faith ingageth all the Power all the Wisdome all the Mercy and Truth of God to help us And if the Power Wisdome c. of God can do wonders for thee God will then do wonders for thee if thou beleeve in him Beleeve saith Christ and thou shalt see the wondrous works of God 4. A fourth Ingagement which causeth God to do wonders for his People is because they seeke him Hee doth not say to the seed of Jacob seek yee mee in vain Hee hath stiled himself The God hearing prayers and bids us call upon him in the day of trouble and hee will hear The Prayers of Gods People they are as so many Ingagements upon God to move him to do for them Faith and Prayer will set All-God awork It will set the Power Wisdome Mercy of God a work for you Faith and Prayer will remove Mountains Nothing shall bee too hard for that people to do whose hearts and spirits God holds up to beleeve and to pray Bee it to thee even as thou wilt Luther having been in his study and earnest with the Lord about the business of the Church receiving a gracious answer hee comes down and cryes Wee have overcome the day is ours And so it fell out saith the story For the Church prevailed There is a kinde of Omnipotency in Faith and Prayer because these two set the Omnipotent God and the Omnipotency of the Power of the Omnipotent God to work for us And I beleeve
Deliverance then will God perform his whole work upon Zion and will punish the fruit of the proud Doer 7. When the glory of God is mightily concerned His worship his Truth his Cause Then is the time God will do wonders Though God will not do it for us yet hee will do it for his own Names sake Hee will not suffer his glory to bee polluted And this was the Argument Joshua had Josh 7.8 9. When Israel had sinned and God had delivered them up to their enemies hee pleads with God Lord what will become of thy great Name Though Israel deserve not that thou shouldest stand out for them yet let not thy glory suffer for their sin but let thy Name which is so much concerned draw thee out to relieve and help The like you have Isa 48.9 10 11. For my Names sake I will defer my anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off For my own sake even for my own sake will I do it For how should my Name bee polluted And I will not give my glory to another 2 King 18.35 Who are there among the Gods of the Countries that have delivered their Country out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand Here you see now was Gods Glory concerned and therefore to preserve his own Glory hee shews a wonder to help them And happy are they whose deliverance is joyned with Gods Glory Though God will not alway deliver for our sake yet will hee deliver for his Glory for his own Name-sake As hee tells them in Ezek. 36.32 Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God bee it known unto you bee ashamed and confounded for your own wayes Oh house of Israel But though hee would not do it for their sâ—kes yet hee did it for his own sake even for the Glory of his own Mercy as you see in that place 5. Quere 5. How shall wee know that God will work a wonder for us Wee are now in sad and distressed conditions and a wonder must bee wrought for the helping and relieving of us But whether God will work a wonder for us or no There is the great question This I am sure of If God do not work a wonder for us wee shall bee made a wonder Nay three Wonders to all Nations 1. Wee shall bee made a wonder of folly a wonder of madness Who because none else could therefore we would with our own hands ruine our selves Which should wee effect it would bee the grief of our friends the joy of our enemies the Popes Holy-day Germanies tears Irelands ruine Scotlands hazard and our own overthrow 2 Wee shall bee made a wonder of scorn a hissing and a by-word to all Nations That England that was Compendium Mundi Of which I may say as did the Historian of Ormus that if the whole World were a Ring England were the Diamond that England should ruine her self and with the foolish Woman in the Proveâ—bs pull down her house with her own hands 3 And a wonder of misery For all the World were not able to bring that misery upon us that wee shall bring upon our selves In which combustion if wee preserve our Jewels though wee lose the rest it 's well But wee may fear all will bee indangered if those who were the first movers of our trouble such who Viper-like would eat out the heart of their common Parent bee not taken away Well then The case is so with us As a wonder must bee done or wee shall bee made a wonder a wonder of folly scorn misery But whether or no God will now do wonders for us Here is the Question And I must confess there are many sad presages of evil amongst us many things which speak that God will rather make us a wonder than do a wonder for us 1 Grounds of Fear I will first give you the grounds of my Fears and then give you the grounds of my Hopes that God will not desert us at this time The Grounds of Fear are 1 Either Spiritual 2 Or Natural 1 Spiritual grounds of Fear 1 Spiritual and they are 1 The Universality of sin 2 The Impudency 3 The obstinacy of sin amongst us 1 Universality of sin 1 The Universality of sins All persons all places are fill'd with all kinds of sins The Land is full of Adulteries full of Oathes full of Oppression full of Injustice of Pride Prophanation of the Sabbath contempt of the Ordinances full of Drunkenness the whole land is defiled with blood Prince and People Magistrates and Ministers great and small poor and rich Wee are all defiled with sin Wee may take up the complaint of the Prophet Isa 1.6 from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores they have not been closed nor bound up nor mollified with ointment But there are four sins especially that threaten evil to us and those are such as do more immediately concern God and his worship 1 Idolatry 1 Idolatry 2 Prophanation of his Ordinances 3 Prophanation of his Sabbath 4 Contempt and abuse of his Ministers Any of which are enough to sink a Nation though guilty of no more 2. But secondly Adde unto this The impudency of sin 2 Impudency of sin Sin hath gotten a Whores-forehead without modesty or restraint Men are not ashamed to publish sin as Sodom and their iniquities like unto Gomorrah Not ashamed to swear to drink to prophane the Sabbath to contemn Ordinances Many are more ashamed to pray than others are to swear 3 And thirdly Adde to this The obstinacy of sin 3 Obstinacy of sin Sin is not only universal and impudent but it is grown obstinate stubborn and incorrigible Insomuch that neither Mercy nor Judgement Word nor Works Promises nor Threats will bee powerful to perswade with men Then indeed may sin bee said to bee incorrigible when it is grown too strong for that means God hath set up to keep it down When sin is too strong for the Ordinances and Offices God hath set up for the suppressing and keeping down of sin Then it is incorrigible Jer. 6. ult The Bellows are burnt The Prophets lungs consumed Besides these diverse others might bee named 1 Too much fleshly confidence 2 Our unanswerable walking to the means and mercies wee injoy 2 Natural grounds of Fear 2 Natural grounds of Fear 1. The great opposition of wicked men and unsound spirits against the indeavours of Reformation Too many there are who hate to bee reformed Old bottles will never brook with new Wine Nor will old hearts close with a spiritual way It is now with us as the Lord complained of Ephraim Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered All the while before their corruptions did lye a sleep they little thought there were any such spirits in them But when the
is the stage on which God will act all his Wonders and it cannot bee long before this frame bee dissolved and this stage bee taken down If Saint Johns time were the last hour surely ours are the last minute But yet God will not take down the stage till all hath been acted which hee hath ingaged himself to do for his Church Now I say God hath ingaged himself to destroy that man of sinne to make his Church glorious Read at your leasure how much God hath promised to do for his Church in Isa 60. throughout Glorious Promises which though they had a gradual accomplishment in the first Preaching of the Gospel yet not so fully as the Words there hold out which yet must bee made good and therefore it is yet to be expected Hitherto the Church hath been buried up under reproach scorn and persecution hitherto sufferings Prisons Fires stakes they have been the Portion of the Church As yet though we have had our Lucida intervalla our Respites and Breathings The Church of God hath been like Noahs Ark tossing and fluctuating upon the Billows and devouring waves of troubles and Persecutions And the Saints under the Altar the blood of the slain crys How long Lord holy and true though they say How long yet they say Holy and true They give God the glory of his truth and faithfulnesse Though hee defer the accomplishment of what he hath promised yet hee is true of his promise And hath God ingaged himself to make his Churches glorious and that before the end of all things And is the day so neer to an End And is God faithfull is hee true of his Promise why this may something perswade with us that notwithstanding the present oppositions and troubles God is now comming in with mercy and deliverance to his Church and People And God hath not left us without home-hopes that the work is begun That mighty Spirit of Prayer which God hath poured out upon his People That increase of light and knowledge the weakning of the man of sinne in those two Limbs whereon hee hath stood so strongly Germany and Spain that numerous increase of converts within these few years All which are fore-running signs of the Rising Condition of the Church God doth not use to beget Children to the Murderers nor to increase the number of his People to fatten the sword of the enemy Indeed when God hath intended to bring judgements upon a People Hee hath taken his People away hee hath lessened the number as hee tells us Isa 57.1 Hee takes them away from the evil to come but hee never increaseth them against judgements As the lessening presageth judgement so when he increaseth them it is a presage of mercy Every one that is now brought in every Convert we have is a Pledge to this Nation that God will nor destroy this Nation Nay it is an evidence that God will do great things for us Act. 7.17 It is said When the time of Promise drew nigh the people grew and multiplyed in Egypt Their growing was a sign of their rising their increase discovered the promised mercy was not far off And these are the hopeful signs that the day of the Churches redemption draws nigh and is even at the doors As Christ said of the fig-tree when you see the Fig-tree bud and put forth her leaves know that Summer is nigh So when you see these things you may know that the Churches Redemption is at hand God is risen upon his throne and will not sit down if our sins do not make him repent till hee have made his Church glorious in the earth And now having told you my thoughts and that which perswades with me to hope that God will do a wonder for us yet I must tell you again that you may not bee discouraged with the sad appearance of things that wee may suffer many throws many pangs much opposition and perhaps some bloud before these things God will save us From trouble by trouble He will bring us through a Sea and through the wildernesse unto Canaan Yet I will say as Joshuah did Numb 14.8 If the Lord hath any delight in us hee will bring us into this Land God seldome doth great things without great commotions Paul and Silas were not delivered out of Prison but by an Earthquake Though it bee grievous to see yet it is that wee fear And wee must not forsake a good cause because of opposition This were to leap out of the ship because the winds blow to bee impatient of the Ark because the billows rise to seek our safety in the midst of Danger This assure your selves Though Earth and hell should fight against you your safety lyes on Gods side in Gods cause and there is no safety elsewhere These things I suggest to you by way of Cautional advise that when you see these things you may not be troubled As Christ said to his Disciples These things I tell you before that when they do come to passe your hearts may not bee troubled So these things I tell you before that though God will deliver us from trouble yet it will bee by trouble though hee save us yet it shall bee by fire that when you see these things you may not bee troubled when you see storms to fall oppositions and troubles to arise you may not bee moved from your own stedfastness I tell you this is necessary advice a seasonable admonition to you lest the oppositions and seeming contrarieties of Gods proceedings should weaken your faith and move you from your own stedfastnesse The best of us are too apt to live by sense and not by faith by works and not by the Word by Gods outward appearances and proceedings of Providence and not by Promises And therefore out Faith doth wane or increase according as God doth let out or restrain himself in the ways of his Providence when God doth let out himself to succour and releeve his Church when wee see deliverance in the Promise and deliverance in his outward proceedings too then wee can believe but if God do any way restrain himself or his outward Proceedings do seem to walk contrary to his own Promises Though perhaps that bee the next way for the performance of his Promises As you see it was with Joseph with Israel in Egypt where the Promise spake one thing and Gods outward proceedings seemed to speak another In this case wee are ready to give up all and thus did David I shall one time or other perish by the hand of Saul and therefore wee should learn this lesson in some kinde to shut our eyes to the works of God and look upon the Word of God Not only to look upon the outward proceedings of Providence but upon the stability and truth of the promise and see the Word say Yea when the Works seem to say Nay and conclude because the Promise saith it shall bee though all secondary means whereby the Promise should bee performed say It
left himself without witness As the Apostle saith Nor hath God left any word without witness There is never a truth never a promise in the Word but it hath been made good by a thousand experiences wee have a Book of Experiences to annex to the book of Promises of the many wonders which God hath in all ages wrought for his people all which doth discover the faithfulnesse and truth of God and the Promise to us 2. Information 2 Information This may inform us of the blessed and happy Condition of the Saints who have interest in such a God as can do wonders for them Propriety in all-sufficiency doth make the injoyer happy And what a blessed Condition is this to have interest in such a God who can do wonders for the relieving of us Though your troubles may bee too big for man yet not for God your miseries and extremities may bee above the supply of creatures but they cannot bee above the Power of God Hee can do wonders hee can do that which man cannot do Though you have no ordinary means of help yet you have interest in a God who can do extraordinary things yea and Extraordinary things in an ordinary way nay by Ordinary means if hee undertake the work I may say concerning such as the Psalmist Blessed are the people that are in such a case Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Psal 144.15 3. Information This may inform us 3 Information How precious the Saints are in the esteem of God what love hee bears to his Church that hee will do wonders for them Wonders for their preservation from trouble and wonders for their deliverance out of trouble Men may do smaller curtesies for ordinary and common friends and they may give their dole to them they do not care for But if they will lay out the utmost of their power of their strength and estates to hold up or to do good to or to relieve one we must needs conclude they love such intirely Gods Dole his common blessings of this life Rex honores dignis congiarium et indignis Senec. will not bee enough to evidence his love Hee causeth his Sunne to shine and his rain to fall upon the good and bad promiscuously But when God doth exercise the greatness of his Power Wisdome Truth Mercy as he doth in the wonders hee doth for his Church this is an evident sign of that love he bears thereto Wicked men may bee subjects on whom he doth exercise the Wonders of his Justice and of his Power As Pharaoh But the Saints are they for whom hee doth exercise the wonders of his mercy in mercy Gods wonders are for the good or for them in a good way 4. Information This may inform us 4 Information that the Condition of the Church is oftentimes very sad very dark very evil because a wonder must bee expressed for relieving of them Ordinary reliefs may help ordinary distempers But when extraordinary must bee used it declares the conditions are exceeding sad The very doing of a wonder for relief implyes a condition to bee such as is beyond the helps and succours of humane and created Power If men could help if means could relieve it were no wonder to help Therefore this implies that the Condition of the Church in respect of things below may be oftentimes very sad very miserable yet 5 Information 5. This informs us again that the Conditions of Gods People Come never to bee so sad and uncomfortable as thereby to despair of help and relief seeing wee have a God who doth wonders for us Our Condition is not so low but a Wonder may raise us up again Wee may bee hopeless and helpless in respect of Creature supplyes and reliefs but wee can never be Hopeless never helpless in respect of Gods when Creature-helps fail God doth but turn us from sense to Faith from reasoning to beleeving from Creatures to himself Hee bids us shut our eyes to the things below and look altogether above as Jehoshaphat did Lord wee know not what to do but our eyes are up unto thee And David too when hee incouraged himself in the Lord his God In the most hopelesse condition there is a door of hope because deliverance is neerest when help seemes furthest off And Oh! that wee could learn at such a time as this to live by Faith and not by sense to shut our eyes to works and look upon the word of God we should then bee strong in God and find incouragement from him when we see nothing but discouragements from below Wee are too apt to live by sense and not by faith and therefore accordingly as God doth let out or restrain himself in the wayes of his providence so our faith doth wane or increase We are too like Hagar when the Bottle is dry sit down and Cry Whereas on the Contrary wee should trust in God 1. In the weakness of means Though there bee weakness below there 's strength above weakness and strength are all one with God Nay 2. In the want of means Though means bee wanting yet God can create means nay do his work without means Nay 3. In the Opposition of means When the Word saith Yea though works say Nay when the Promise saith It shall be Though all Secondary means whereby this Promise should bee effected saith It shall not bee yet are wee to rest upon God and the Promise God doth often speak one thing to sense and another thing to Faith Hee is not ever that in Appearance which hee is in Truth Hee may speak death to sense as you see hee did to the Children of Israel at the Red sea Had they consulted with sense and Reason they could see nothings but death when yet hee speaks life and deliverance to faith As you see Moses saith Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. God may in outward appearance speak evill when yet in the purposes of his heart he speaks good As God may seem to heal when he means to destroy to speak Peace in his Providence when hee speaks terror in his word so God may seem to kill when he intends to cure to destroy when hee intends to save Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts I have thought toward you saith the Lord the thoughts of Peace and not of trouble even to give you a desired end Though my proceedings sem to bee evil yet my thoughts are good though my wayes are war yet my purposes are peace to give you at the last an expected end 6. Information This may inform us 6 Information That there is no ground for wicked men to insult and glory in any probable advantages which they may have against the Church and People of God God can work wonders for his Church and People You see in the verse before the Text the Egyptians had many advantages against the People of God and they promised to themselves certain and infallible
success They said they would Pursue they would overtake they would divide the spoil their Lust should bee satisfied on them c. But God shews a Wonder and layes all their Pride and all their hopes in the dust what began in pride did end in shame It was the best speech that Ahab ever spake when Benhadad made such a vain boast that the dust of Samaria should not serve for handfuls of them who followed him Tell him saith Ahab Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as hee that putteth it off God shews a wonder and all is turned about 1 King 20.11 And forward Benhadad and his thirty two Kings who came to help him fled before the face of seven thousand of Israel as there you may read 7. Information This may inform us 7 Information What ingagements of duty and obedience do lye upon such a People for whom God shall do wonders 1 What ingagements of Love Love is the Loadstone to beget Love And God having exprest his love to us how should this ingage us to love him again 2. What ingagements of thankfulness Psal 111.4 Hee hath done his wonderfull works to be remembred As if hee had said This is the end I did these wondrous works for that you should remember them If you would not have remembred them I would not have done them It is the speech of Seneca This is the rule of good turns Haec est lex beneficiorum that the giver must soon forget hee gave but the receiver must never forget he hath received Indeed God hath done wonders for this Nation many wonders wherein hee hath exprest his Wisdome his Power his mercy his Justice And yet God hath forgotten he hath given he goes on as freely in mercy as if every mercy were the first mercy he hath bestowed But have not we forgotten that we have received if so God will Remember that he hath given God doth remember hee hath given when his People forget they have received As you see hee did to David I have done this and this and if that had been too little I would have given thee such and such things more so upbraiding him with his forgetfullnesse If you would not have God remember against you what he hath given do you then remember what you have received from God This will quicken you to thankfulness 8 Information 8. Information If God do wonders for his Church then let this discover unto us What ground and what incouragement there is for us at this time 1. To trust in God 2. To pray to him 3. To hope in him 4. To wait upon him that he would do wonders for us You have incouragements 1 From the experience of God he hath done wonders read the 78. Psalm and the 9th of Nehemiah and you shall see a little Chronicle of the great Wonders which God hath done for his Church and People And this is a mighty incouragement the experience of what God hath done for his People heretofore As wee may say of the Experience of Gods Judgements on the wicked Lege exemplum ne exemplum fias read the example lest thou thy self bee made an Example read the example of Sodom of Pharaoh of Jerusalem All these were set up to deter you from their sins As the judgements of God upon the wicked men are set down to deter us from sin so the mercyes and deliverances of the Church are recorded To incourage us to beleeve to trust in him in the like difficulties Can our condition bee sadder than Israels was at the Red-sea than Davids was than Jehoshaphats than the Churches in Hamans time And God did then deliver them that wee might be Incouraged to trust in him in the like straits and difficulties And as wee have incouragement from the experience of Gods wonderfull deliverance of others so we have incouragement from the wonderful deliverance of our selves Revolve in your thoughts those great deliverances in Eighty-Eight in the Powder-Treason and that late deliverance which swallows up all the rest when the Heavens were black the Clouds were gathered and threatned to come down in a storm of bloud when two Armies were in the field and ready to make our Land an Aceldema a field of bloud yet how wonderfully God did then step in to compose the differences and to settle a peace when there was nothing but expectations of war and ruine This our God hath done and besides this many fresh and later experiences of his goodnesse All which should now come in to incourage us to beleeve and trust in the same God to do great things for us Indeed wee ought to trust God though wee had never tryed him though wee had never experience from him But when hee helps our Faith by former experiences this should strengthen our confidence and make us to go unto God as to a tryed friend Were wee but well read in the story of our lives wee might have a Bible of our own drawn out of the experiences of Gods dealings with our selves and wee should bee able to say in any difficulty and distresse I dare trust God in this difficulty I dare venture on him in this present distresse I have tryed him and have found him true hee never failed mee And because hee hath been my help therefore under the shadow of his wings will I rejoyce as saith the Prophet 2. A second incouragement is From the Power of God 2. Incouragement Hee can do wonders Hee not only hath but hee can do wonders still The Arm of the Lord is not shortned that hee cannot save What hee hath done hee can do Hee is still as wise as powerful as faithful as merciful as ever hee was There is no shadow of change in him There is nothing above his skill nor above his power if not above your Faith to beleeve It is our sin only which hinders the current of Mercy that stops the stream of Mercy our unbeleef our neglect of duty our unthankfulness our pride c. Let us remove these and Mercy comes amain You have a full place for it Judg. 10.10 11 12 13 14 15 16 c. You see there that God had oftentimes delivered them hee had wrought many wonders for them as hee tells them there And they were now again in a new distresse and therefore cry to God But God tells them they had walked unworthy of former deliverances and therefore hee would deliver them no more whereupon they go and confesse their sins before God they humble themselves and reform their evil wayes And saith the Text His soul was then grieved for the misery of Israel God delivers them Well this may bee our condition God hath wrought many deliverances for us wee are now in new straits but wee have walked unworthy and our sins may stand as an obstacle to hinder Gods proceedings of mercy Let us now then humble our selves and reform and God will bee grieved for our misery as
is still to seek in every difficulty and gone in every new strait whereas hee who laies up Experiences and can make use of them feed upon them hee shall be inabled thereby to depend upon God in any strait and difficulty whatsoever Thus you see David God delivered me out of the Paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Bear and hee will deliver mee out of the hand of this Philistim David feeds on the Lyon And because he hath been my helper therefore under the shadow of his wings will I rejoyce Now in the passing of this duty of dependence upon you I find two things to bee great enemies to it which be you aware of 1. Beware of Obliterating the Notions of God 2. Beware of burying the remembrance of his works 1. Beware of Obliterating the Notions of God Had Moses seen God and had the same Notions and apprehensions of God at the Rock that he had at the Red sea which was a far greater difficulty then to fetch water out of the rock he could have trusted in God for that as well as for the former But those thoughts and conceptions of God were for the present darkened and over-shadowed with Passion and therefore hee could not trust God then So if David had had the same apprehensions of God when he counterfeited himself Mad for fear of Abimelech the King of Gath or when he was pursued by Saul and burst forth into these words I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul which he had at other times as when he saith Ps 27.1 2 3. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid when the wicked mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell Though an host pitched against mee my heart should not bee afraid though war bee raised against mee In this will I be confident Or when hee saith to Saul concerning Goliah God that delivered mee out of the Paw of the Lyon c. hee will deliver mee from this uncircumcised Philistim Or when hee saith God is our hope and strength a help in trouble ready to bee found therefore will not wee fear though the Earth bee moved though the mountains bee hurled into the depth of the Sea Hee would not have so fainted in these like or lesse exigences So had Abraham had the same apprehensions of God when hee feigned his wife to bee his Sister which hee had when God made him the Promise of a Sonne or when hee went to sacrifice his Son hee could have trusted and depended on God in this câ—se as well as in the former this difficulty being far short of the other So did Gods people see God at all times as they do at some times they would then be able to depend on God and trust in him in any cases though never so difficult but if they lose the apprehensions and conceptions of God and suffer Passion and fear to raise up a cloud to overshadow and darken their understandings they shall never bee able to beleeve and depend upon God in any difficulty and therefore first hold up the Notions of God of his power wisdom mercy and the like 2 Beware of burying the remembrance of his former works Psal 78.6 7. They were commanded to tell the wondrous works of God to their children that the generations to come might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God Intimating that the best way to keep up their hope and dependance on God was to hold up the remembrance of what hee had done Hee that forgets the one will not be able to do the other And therefore you see it set down as a reason of the Disciples distrust Their hearts were hardned They forgat the miracles of the Loaves Mark 6.52 Intimating that it they had remembred that they had not now been to seek in this present difficulty And indeed the want of the remembrance of former mercies doth cause us to distrust and hinders us in our dependence on God for present and future straits whereas on the contrary holding up the remembrance of former will inable us to hold out in present and future distresses You cannot think his arm is shortned you cannot think God cannot nor can you think God will not that he hath helped before and will help no more for mercy is tyed to the Church by covenant Wicked men may injoy a mercy to day but they can have no assurance to have another to morrow because mercy is not tied to them by Promise or by Covenant But now mercy is tyed to the Church by Covenant by Promise Hee hath tyed his mercy to us by his Truth Psal 25. All his ways are mercy and truth not only mercy but truth All God doth is but Performance of Promises wee hold his mercy by Tenor of truth and may challenge mercy by vertue of his truth And therefore David could say Psal 23.6 surely mercy and goodness shall follow mee all the days of my life Wicked men cannot but the Saints may say Mercy shall follow mee all the days of my life Not in this or that particular but in every passage of Providence as the water followed the children of Israel the rock followed them 1 Cor. 10.4 from one station to another as long as they wandred in that dry and thirsty wilderness 5. Use Doth God do wonders for his Church Then it is good being on the Churches side They have a God with them that can do wonders for them what though our enemys have skill power strength and multitude yet we have a God who is stronger than the strongest wiser then the wisest who can over-power and overplot our enemys who alone can do wonders for us As Plutarch said of the Scythians that though they had no musick nor vines yet they had Gods among them So whatever is wanting to a people if they have God with them there is a plentifull supply of all You may set God against all and hee can weigh down all advantages When Charls the Fift Emperor of Germany sent his Herald with challenge again Francis the First King of France Hee commanded the Herald to proclaim him with all his Titles Styling him Emperor of Germany King of Castile King of Aragon of Naples and of Scicile Francis commanded his Herald to proclaim as often King of France as the other had titles of honor by all his Countries Implying that France alone was more worth than all the Countrys the other had So when our adversaries do glory in their strength in their skill in their power and multitudes let us oppose God against them whom they oppose and there is enough to weigh down what ever advantage the arm of flesh can have against us we have a God with us whiles wee are with him with his cause with his truth And hee can do wonders for us 6. Use Doth
God do wonders for his Church Then let us fall down and adore this God who can do wonders for us Who would not fear thee O King of Nations saith the Prophet Jer. 10.7 It was the speech of an Heathen King when hee had seen the Wonders that God had done Let all men fear and tremble before the God of Daniel Dan. 6.26 When Christ had done that great wonder in calming the rage of the sea the Text tels us They all fell down at the feet of Jesus and worshipped him Gods wonders for us call out for our Worship of him Fall down then at the feet of this God and Worship him Fall down at the feet of his Power and dread it Fall down at the feet of his Mercy and adore it Fall down at the feet of his Wisdome and admire it Admiration is sutable to Wonders It is said Hee shall bee admired in his Saints When wicked men tremble do you fall down and admire and blesse that God adore that God who alone doth wonders 7. Use Doth God do wonders for his Church 7 Use and are wee now in a sad condition A people that shall bee made a wonder unlesse God do a wonder for us Oh! then let us carry our selves in such a deportment and demeanour as is sutable to such who are expectants that God should do wonders for us Oh! that wee could put our selves in a posture fit for mercy and deliverance Seeing you look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness saith the Apostle what manner of persons ought you to bee So seeing you look you expect that God should do wonders for you Oh! What manner of persons ought you to bee in Holiness of Life how holy how humble how spiritual ought you to bee in all manner of conversation Oh! take heed of sinning in the face of mercy in the face of deliverance Lye not swear not c. It was a sad aggravation of Israels sin They provoked God at the Red-Sea even at the Red-Sea it is doubled to put a greater Emphasis on it Psal 106.7 It is nothing but our sins which hinders the current and stream of Mercy if these were removed mercy would come amain Whereas on the contrary sin will not only make our but even the good purposes of God to become abortive to us You see it in Jer. 18.9 10. At what time I shall speak concerning a Nation or a Kingdome to build and to plant it If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice Then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them Many buds and many blossoms of future deliverance have appeared Oh! it were a sad thing if our sins should blast all these and rob us of the fruit of our hopes of our prayers and tears Our sins put obstructions to all Gods proceedings of Mercy And therefore you see when the Temple was to bee built and great things were to bee done for them The Prophet by way of necessary preparation exhorts the people to repentance to cast away their sins Hag. 1.6 knowing this that though God had begun yet if they continued their sins they would quickly make a stop of Gods mercy God would soon repent of his mercy to them God had brought Israel out of Egypt and brought them near Canaan yet their sins comming betwixt them and Canaan turned them back again into the Wildernesse and there they walk in a Round forty years before they could finde admission into Canaan God is gone out before us triumphing in the greatnesse of his strength preparing a way hewing down difficulties levelling mountains turning all our oppositions into good But if you do not leave your sins you will make God quickly to leave you so to work your own confusion Well then You are all expectants of Mercy let every one of you labour to put himself into a posture fit to receive mercy Let every one walk and demean himself as such as looks for great things from God And then that God that hath begun will assuredly make an end Hee that hath laid the foundation and is laying stone after stone upon it every day will not desist till the building bee perfected 8 Use 8 Use Is it so that God doth wonders for his Church then learn 1. To trust in God You see Hee is a God doing wonders And as Christ said Learn 1 To trust in God Mark 9.23 If thou canst but beleeve All things are possible to him that beleeveth Wonders are possible There is nothing too hard for God to do if there bee nothing too hard for you to beleeve There is nothing difficult but to beleeve Hee that hath conquered and overcome his own unbeleef hath done all All things are possible to the Beleever Do not you stick at beleeving and God will not stick at doing wonders for you Heb. 11.33 34. By Faith they subdued Kingdomes stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the violence of fire c. As Unbeleef doth imprison Gods power mercy and goodnesse It is said Hee could not do much because of their unbeleef And they limited the holy One of Israel So Faith sets God at liberty sets the power of God at liberty Nay it puts on the power and mercy of God Therefore exercise Faith The time of our trouble should bee the time of our trust As Mordecai said to Esther God set her up for such a time as that So I may say of Faith God set up Faith for such a time as this When means fail when there is nothing but weaknesse below when sense and reason are put to it then is it Faiths work to come in And therefore exercise Faith Let not any difficulty undermine Faith Let not any seeming discouragement come between your souls and the promise Zach. â— 6 Things marvelous to you are familiar with God things wonderful to you are easy to God You have Bibles Oh! that you had Faith to make use of them you would there finde all things are possible with God and therefore nothing impossible to Faith 2. Bee incouraged to Prayer This is the great work of our times 2 To pray to God Faith and Prayer will do wonders Faith and Prayer have had an hand in most of the wonders that ever were done in the Earth These will set the great God on doing wonders for us A Prayer made up of promises and put up by Faith will shew wonders in Heaven and in Earth You read what wonders Gods people have wrought by Prayer They have dryed up the Sea Exod. 14.21 brought fire from Heaven 2 King 1.10 Caused the Sun to stand still Josh 10.13 Vanquisht the enemy Exod. 17.12 Praying-Moses did more than fighting-Joshua The day would fail to tell you of all See what wonders followed upon Davids Prayer Psal 18.6 In my distress I called upon the Lord I cryed to my God hee heard my voice out of his Temple my cry came unto his
bitter Cup of wrath that wee might have the draught of Mercy Hee was slain But not for himself saith Daniel But wounded for our transgressions broken for our iniquities The Chastisement of our peace was upon him Faith looks upon these his sufferings as the meriting causes of our good 3. The Considerations of his sufferings as effects of sin as the effects of our sin as that which our sins have brought upon him Which Consideration must needs effect and break our hearts When the soul shall look upon Christ and say It was I that have been the murderer I that have been the Traitor my sins which brought all this evil on thee I sind and thou sufferedst It was I that did eat the soue Grape and thy teeth were set en edge My sins were thy death yet by thy death thou brought'st the sinner life I have wounded thee yet thou hast healed mee even out of that wound which my sins have made hast thou sent out a Plaisâ—er even thy Blood for my sins Oh! This must needs fill the heart with sorrow Faith still looks upon an Humbled Christ with an Humbled Heart upon a Broken Christ with a Broken Heart upon a Bleeding Christ with a Bleeding Heart upon a Wounded Christ with a Wounded Heart Hence Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have peirced And how shall that sight affect them It follows They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and lament for him as one lamenteth for his first born In that day there shall bee a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Vallie of Megiddon God made the same Organ for seeing and for weeping And the soul that sees well weeps well Never soul that did by the Eye of Faith look upon this Son of Righteousness but their frozen hearts did melt within them Would you ever bee mourning men and Women for sin would you bee in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first born Oh! Steep your thoughts in the blood of the Lamb Dwell a little on Christ crucified Look wistly upon Christ by Faith and this will solvere Gelicidium melt and thaw our frozen hearts turn us from stones into flesh Eight Royalty 8. Christ is an Heart-transforming-Grace 8 Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-transforming-Grace Such a Grace as doth transform the Soul into the nature of the Object Faith is as powerful in this spiritual conception to work in us the image of the Object seen as Fantasy is oftentimes in the natural conception The Poets tell us of some that did transform such as beheld them into stones such a power there was in the Object the thing beheld as to transform say they But here it is true If by Faith wee cast our Eyes upon Christ of stones wee shall bee turned into men of sinners into Saints of a hard heart to a soft and fleshly of Children of Satan to the Sons and Daughters of God Joh. 1.12 As many as beleeved on him to them hee gave power to bee the Sons of God Sons not born of the flesh or the will of the flesh but of God who begets like himself As that which is born of flesh is flesh So that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hence wee are said to bee made partakers of the Divine Nature To bee transformed into the image and likeness of God To bee Holy as Hee is Holy Pure as Hee is Pure To bee as hee is in this World Never soul that looked on him by Faith but came away with another heart They looked to him and were enlightened saith the Psalmist Psal 34.5 But plainly you shall read the Transforming Power of Faith 2 Cor. 3.18 Whiles beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord wee are changed into the same image from Glory to Glory Such a Glass hee is that never did the Eye of Faith behold him but the Soul was changed with the sight from a Wolf into a Lamb from a sinner into a Saint from Darkness to Light You were once Darkness now are you Light in the Lord. It turns a man upside down wholly transforms him Indeed there is no change of the substance of soul and body nor of the faculties of soul and body but the qualities of the faculties are cleer changed The Head is transformed where before was darkness now there 's Light where before it did judge highly of carnal things and low esteemed spiritual it doth now the quite contrary The Will is transformed where before it was full of obstinacy and stoutness contradiction and rebellion now there is pliableness to good and conformity between Gods Will and his They are not two but one Will. Gods Amen is his Amen Gods Fiat his Fiat Gods Will his will So the Heart that is transformed whereas before it was nothing but a noisome sink of sin nothing but a Cage of unclean birds the womb of sin a seminary of lust Now it is washed purged purified sanctified made a fit Receptacle for Christ an Habitation for God by his Spirit Thus you see Faith is an Heart-transforming-Grace Wee cry and say Oh! If I had another heart I could beleeve If my heart were more holy more sanctified why the way to get another heart is to beleeve do but beleeve and you shall see another heart come into you another Spirit another Soul Do but look upon Christ and you shall bee transformed It is such a look as sends a man away with another heart As the Wise men It is said After they had seen Christ beheld Christ they went home another way So when by Faith wee have seen Christ it sends the Soul another way with another spirit with other Principles with other Resolutions There is this Power of Faith to transform the Soul into the nature of the Object beleeved Belief of the Promises breeds Principles in the Heart suitable to the Promises Belief in Christ breeds a Spirit suitable to Christ As Faith Belief in God a Father breeds Principles of Love Fear Reverence and Obedience in the Soul such things as are agreeable So the belief in Christ a Saviour breeds Principles of Trust of Love of Desire with the like Ninth Royalty 9 Faith is an heart-pacifying Grace 9 Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-pacifying-Grace Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staied on thee because hee trusteth in thee A place alledged by One who lying on his death-bed and injoying abundance of peace and calmness of spirit being demanded how it came to pass hee was not now assaulted with Satan replyed Hee knew no ground no cause save this God had promised To keep that soul in perfect Peace whose mind was staied on him who trusteth on him Hee relyed on Christ and therefore injoyed rest Isa 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength That is by Faith lay hold on my Covenant my Christ and I will bee at peace with him Hence the Apostle Rom. 5.1