is the faith of Christians and if you will know what fruit there is from Christs rising from the dead the third Preacher will inform you and I shall use no other Introduction then his own I will shew you that it agrees well with the resurrection from the dead for the mercy of God flowes from this resurrection of our Saviour for he dyed for our sins and rose that our souls might be saved in that melting Sermon of his which was anchored upon that place in the Psalms A Sermon Preached by Doctor Potter Bishop Carlisle at the Spittle on Tuesday in Easter week PSALM 130.4 But there is mercy with thee that thou maist be feared THE words are an Appeal of the Princely Prophet David from the Throne of Justice to the Throne of Goodnesse and are considerable in their Context and in their Text. First in their Context and that three several wayes First they must be considered in way of consequence as they follow the former verse First he speaks of the Judgment of God If thou O Lord shouldst enter into Judgment who could stand And then he comes in with a discourse of Mercy And secondly as in order so he tempers Justice and Mercy together Thirdly as they are a cry of perplexity he cries in the first verse complains in the second verse fears in the third and here he resolves to set upon Mercy The first point from the first of these is That we can neither sensibly nor safely Preach mercy in forgivenesse of sins unlesse as we do acquaint you with the Justice of God as in the former place so in the second place we must make and contemper in our meditations the thoughts of mercy with the thoughts of justice Thirdly though the action of sin may be short yet the passion will be long A sin may be soon committed but the pardon of sin is not so soon had First That before we can sensibly or safely Preach the mercies of God in the forgivenesse of sins unto you we must acquaint you with the justice of God as in the verse before my Text. If thou entrest into Judgment who shall stand But there is mercy with thee c. that thou maist be feared It was the method that was alwayes used in the Old and New Testament Our first parents hiding themselves through terrour of spirit among the bushes when God would Preach the Gospel unto them he first arraigns them and then passes a promise of mercy That the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head Thus it was in the Law before a man could know God he must come to Mount Sinai and the Law is a Schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ Thus it was at the giving of the holy Ghost there was a rushing of a mighty wind and then the holy Ghost came into their mindes and hearts This was the method of that Preacher then in the New Testament first men must be weary and heavy laden and then Christ comes to ease Matth. 11.8 I came not to call the righteous those that imagine themselves so but sinners to repentance those that are so wise to see it and so humble to say it No expectation of healing from the brasen Serpent but onely from those that were hurt and look up First see your selves led into captivity by the Devil and then you are fit to receive infranchisement and deliverance from God and this that good Father applyed unto our selves First let it be an Instruction for us to consider though Hell fire be flasht in our faces God doth it but as parents to their children they hold them over the fire to make them afraid of falling into the fire The Law is a Schoolmaster to Christ First Law and then Gospel First plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts and then sowe the word Jer. 4.4 according to the method of Gods appearing to Elijah First a blustering wind then an Earthquake after that Fire and last comes God in a still voice First look for Earthquakes Winds and Fires in the soul and after all for comfort Thus it is Gods most usual way And then secondly what shall we say to those carnal Gospellers that are all for the calm doctrines of the times those that complain they cannot sit quiet in their seats for the threatnings of some Ministers they would have a Gospel of Gold and Salvation of Silver and Testaments of precious stones and go to Heaven upon featherbeds But beloved I had rather speak a thousand words to comfort then one to discomfort but it is for the good of your souls and for the glory of our Saviour we cannot dare not must not do otherwise we must come home to your consciences come home to them so the Prophets so the Apostles have done in all ages they have denounced the judgments of God against all their Auditors and did you but hear those yells that are now in Hell those that cry out I may thank that flattering Preacher for these pains if he had told me of this I had not come hither Think of it now that you feel it not hereafter In the next place it is good for us to temper the thoughts of mercy and justice together not to talk of justice onely but also of mercy My Song shall be of Mercy and Judgment saith David Psalm 101.1 and Deut. 28. Half the Chapter speaks of judgment and half of mercy Deut. 11. Blessings on one Mountain and Cursings upon another Blessings upon Mount Gerizim and cursings upon Mount Ebal And indeed there are two main rocks between which most men fall Presumption and Despair we are between them like Susanna between the Judges we are between them as between Sylla and Charybdis We may say of Desperation as of Saul it hath slain his thousands but of Presumption as of David it hath slain his ten thousands and therefore though we diet our selves with the mercies of God we must not glut with them and this was applied by him unto the souls of Preacher and people First to Preachers we should take a lesson from hence that when we finde that there is mors in olla death in the pot discomfort in the heart then we must take the herb of comfort and put it in That hand is hewn out of the hardest rock that will not administer comfort to the soul that needs it We must like the good Samaritan pour oil and wine into your sores wine to open them and oil to supple them speak not of judgment alone God did never intend this unto you and do not deal all of mercy but think of judgment also for if God had never so much mercy in store there is none for you presumptuous sinners That was the second consideration The third consideration was That though the action of sin be short yet the passion is long though a great sin be soon committed yet a small sin is not so soon remitted Look upon David he committed two great sins adultery and murder
express * Si mihi sint centum linguae sint oraque centumâ— Fâ—rrâ—â— vox Which of you can tell me Oh my God saith Saint Austin Da mihi de misericordia c. Give me of thy mercy that I may speak of thee speak in me that I may speak of thee A work above any humane power to make any tolerable demonstration of had I as many tongues as there are stars Were there a Councel called of all the Angels in Heaven to consult of it and among them one chosen to declare it all their tongues understandings and imaginations infused into him had he all the learning and eloquence that ever was or can be attained were he to stand in my place at this time how should I see him gravell'd puzzell'd and faulter'd and founder'd and non-plust how should I hear him call for more tongues for more eloquence how should I hear him cry with Esay Quis enarrabit Who shall shew his works Should I not hear him cry out with Moses Ego sum puer I am a child with David This knowledge is too wonderful for me Whether I look upon the work of this day or upon God positively in the contrivance of it in the execution or subject with reference to the object the parties that it may concern or with reference to the work it self or with reference to the manner of working the condition from whence we were redeemed and the condition to which we were brought it is beyond human invention to give any tolerable description of it I think this matter will do better in application then in amplification * Ora mille fluentia melle If we look upon it first of all comparatively comparing it with other dayes and paralleling it with other preservers What are they other preservers and other saviours We know where to finde them Shall we piddle out the time with the preventions of the sufferings of particular men what need we make mention of the children of Israels deliverance out of Aegypt our own deliverance from the Spanish Invasion in Eighty eight or of the fifth of November I charge you as the Prophet Zachary speaks on another occasion not a word of them neither of Eighty eight nor the fifth of November We may parallel this dayes deliverance with the work of the Creation there Dixit factum est He did but speak and it was done here it cost many sweatings and drops of bloud this was the master-piece of Gods workmanship There God gave me to my self here himself to me There was the work of his finger here of his arm With a mighty and out-stretched arm hath he gotten himself the victory There he made me like unto himself here he makes himself like unto me There he made me but here he remade me this exceeds the whole Creation take the whole Creation of the world together either in the contrivance of it or in the execution of it In the contrivance had our Saviour gone no farther this day then to have devised the means how we might be restored it had been mercy enough but to call the depths of his Counsels to devise a way how to punish sin and to save the sinners to bestow Hell upon the sin and Heaven upon the sinner how to compound an infinite Justice and an infinite Mercy Had our Saviour gone no farther but found out the way and said Sons of men I see you are utterly lost and undone and I could wish that I could help you but I counsel you to do thus and thus see what you can do to appease my Fathers justice I should be very glad to see you do well and the like could all the Angels in Heaven have helpt us surely no But himself to be both the contriver and executor not onely to finde out the means but to be the means to call the depth of his Counsel together to save the man and damn the sin to send one to Hell and the other to Heaven Oh admirable Love Again consider who is the Preserver the subject that did it who would ever have looked to have him come down from Heaven Who would have thought that he would have clothed himself with the rags of our mortality and have come down who was the delight of Angels the darling of Heaven the beloved of his Father It is a greater humiliation then for the greatest Emperour in the world to become a worm or a fly or a grain of dust and all this for a creature so ill-deserving in whom there was neither beauty nor comelinesse or favour the things that make men favourable with Princes nay more when we were enemies and in the acts of hostility dead in trespasses and sins worms and no men yet he came to save us even us men It was the ground of a worthy meditation of a reverend Father concerning Sampsons being brought to so much misery for Dalilah Oh miserable Sampson saith he what made thee to spend thy dearest bloud for an harlot for Dalilah How can I sufficiently wonder at this mercy not for an harlot but for worse then an harlot for such wretches as we are and the keeping us from such a state and bringing us to such a state from such an estate an estate of sin when we lay not onely in pulvere but in sanguine in the dust yea in our own bloud not onely wounded but wounded to death yea dead was that all no pereuntes perishing Ezek. 16.6 9. children of perdition lost and the worst kind of lost too perditi in Dei favore lost in the favour of God perditi de benedictione Dei lost the blessing of God no hope of any thing but go you cursed was our next doom nay utterly lost and yet recovered by him out of that condition and into what a condition from all this miserable and lost condition we were recovered to our inheritance recovered from the state of enemies to the state of friends to the state of favorites of heirs of Heaven all these together didst thou do Oh merciful Preserver In the next place I come to the means by which he did preserve us and that by the destruction of him that was the preserver a preservation destructive to the preserver himself wherein there was a necessity for one to come from Heaven and he no lesse then the Son of God to stand in the place of man and endure that which he should have suffered for his sin and that such a suffering to speak one word of it that the whole Gospel is little more then a compendious Chronicle of the calamities that Christ endured in his life Should I but go along from his Cradle to his Crosse the time would fail me in all places nor only upon the Crosse but in the Garden yea in toto progressu c. in the whole course of his life in every action of it at the hand of every person he conversed withal every part of his life from the womb nay
leave granting till Abraham did leave asking It may be if he had come to lesse God would have spared them he did so in another place If there be but one to stand in the gap I will spare them Look upon Manasseh a most abominable Idolater who cut Esau in pieces with an iron sawe and made the streets of Jerusalem to run with bloud yet when he prayed unto God God did forgive him Mary Magdalene that had seven Devils she washed our Saviours feet with the hairs of her head that had been nets to catch fools bestowed that costly ointment which she had used upon her self upon Christ Christ accepts of it he applauds it he rewards it he is prone unto mercy and more prone unto mercy then unto judgement The Prodigal son when he returns home to his Father his Father runs and meets him when he was afar off and he doth not strike him or chide him but he falls upon his neck puts his ring upon his finger The Shepherd when he findes his sheep that was lost he doth not beat it but he laies it upon his neck Thirdly consider the circumstances of this mercy Consider first who it is that doth forgive Who why the God of Heaven and Earth he that hath Vials of wrath in his hand and could pour them upon us we that are his inferiours and his enemies we though we do bear with our superiours we will trample upon our inferiours but God doth not so Thirdly Consider what God in mercy doth forgive us and that is sin Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned David doth not place his blessings in his Beauty he was ruddy of complexion nor in his government though he was a great King nor in his preferment he was taken from the sheep to be head over Israel But here is his happinesse Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned Nay how often doth God do this seven times no but as often as Christ commands us to forgive our brethren seventy seven times as often as we forgive our brethren so we offend not out of malice but return and repent God will have mercy on us There went but one word to the making of the world but there go many to the saving of a soul 1 Pet. 1.8 And now judge and examine if you can imagine what a depth and height there is in this mercy of God I come to the Application in brief and so to put an end to this Sermon This may be an Antidote a Preservative against desperation unto poor dejected souls and disconsolate sinners that God is as merciful as just and delights more in mercy then in justice What a precious balsome is this for a wounded sinner And consider first that desperation it is most injurious unto our selves a wound that cannot possibly be healed by us If a Chirurgeon laies on a plaister and we cast it away what hope is there of cure for us And if God sends us the comforts of the Gospel and if we sit down sullen and cast them away what comfort can we have Desperation is compared to a beast with horns it pushes against mercy What for a man to despair of mercy is it but to spill his bloud upon the ground or to throw it in the air with Julian or to hang it on a Tree with Judas that God should drink to us in a cup of salvation and we to pledge him in a cup of damnation that is derogatory from God The Devil comes to us and sayes Thy sins are too great the mercies of God are too precious for thee shall we believe that lyar rather then he that sayes I have been wounded for you I will take your sins upon me and heal you Will you make God a lyar and the Devil true Secondly look upon the steps of desperation the several steps of it he did name divers * Ingratitude Infidelity steps but insisted only upon this to wit Presumption The wicked man begins in presumption but ends in despair When their flatteries have touled them a long time on and perswaded them that their case is good at last their souls are stifled with the consideration of their sins by presumption what more contrary and yet presumption it is the very rode way to desperation If I am abroad long either in the Sun or in the Snow my eyes will be so dazeled I shall hardly see When I have been in the glorious Sun-shine of the mercy of God in the Halcyon dayes of prosperity I cannot taste any thing but of a Saviour A presumptuous man is like unto one that is asleep upon a rock and dreaming of a rock of Pearl suddenly starts up and falls into the Sea Take heed the Devil do not finde you upon this pinacle upon presumption and so cast you down to eternal destruction Shall I be bold and presumptuous because God is merciful Shall I cut and gash my self because a good Chirurgeon lives where I live Shall I use spectacles to go over a Bridge to make the Bridge seem better and so perish Look not upon the mercy as if it were greater then it is no as God is merciful to penitent so he is just to impenitent sinners And so this reverend Father of our Church who was in Heaven while he was on Earth preached against those two main enemies of our salvation Desperation and Presumption His words were all excellent of the justice and mercy of God and the merits of our Saviour But what will become of all this what comfort springs from the mercy of God from the forgivenesse of sins unto us if our hearts our thoughts creep still on the ground if we be taken up with Earthly things and prefer riches and honour before God and therefore came to the chance of our fourth and last Divine to draw up our hearts sursum corda unto Heaven If you look for mercy lift up your hearts where it is to be had wherefore should we look down or kill flies any longer our conversations must be in Heaven if our hearts be in Heaven This was the bag out of which he did fetch treasure new and old precious treasure A Sermon Preached by Doctor Wesphale at the Spittle on Wednesday in Easter week PHILIPPIANS 3.20 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change our vise bodies that they may be like unto his glorious body according to that mighty word whereby he is able to subdue all things THE words may be read two wayes either For our conversation is in Heaven or But our conversation is in Heaven If For our conversation is in Heaven it is an argument to inforce a duty set down in the seventeenth verse That we should not minde the things here below for Saint Paul and the rest of the Saints have their conversation in Heaven If you will read it but then there 's another
suffered on the Crosse to make good our comforts he was bound to purchase our freedome And here first of all the work of the day doth challenge at our hands matter of admiration it is a duty the Heavens are called upon upon a lesse occasion Hear O ye Heavens and be astonished O earth Who is there that hath any thing of Heaven in him let him obstupescere he amazed and wonder it is a wonder in all the particulars of it First to wonder at the hainousness of that sin the nature of which was such that it could no otherwise be expiated but thus That which threw Adam out of Paradise the Angels out of Heaven Saul from his Kingdome that at this day pulls down Families and Nations and Kingdomes that makes some Nations an hissing and reproch to others pray God it doth not serve us so That which doth tumble a Kingdome into the dust pray God it do not serve us so It made the Son of God to bleed and to cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Which of us in the strongest temptation to any sin that is remembring the price of it could chuse but be intreated to hold his hand Consider in the strongest temptation to any sin it was the price of my Saviours bloud And secondly this serves for matter of gratulation to be thankful for Christs love that he would thus suffer and that we despair not though we find it not in our Ware-houses in our Closets in our Chambers in our Chests in our Cupboards or the like outward things Potiphar looks upon Joseph and sees all things thrive under him and therefore he loves him so Laban for the same reason loves Jacob But here is Gods love that he gave himself for us that 's the second A third Instruction is for admiration of that obligation God hath cast upon thee He that could have gloryed in thy destruction that he should glory in thy salvation what canst thou do but rejoyce But to wonder is nothing if we go no farther Therefore in the fourth place here is matter of thanksgiving which is a duty for every Ordinance Every ordinary blessing it calls for a Trophee a Pillar an Altar a Song a Sacrifice a Chronicle so did David Moses and other servants of God What thanks doth he expect for this dayes deliverance If among the Heathen he that delivers his Countrey from any potent enemies had such applauses and acclamations mille annos vivat he that slew a thousand of our enemies may he live a thousand years may his name be precious a thousand years How can we pour out our hearts before God without giving thanks for this dayes deliverance Neither is admiration or gratulation sufficient unlesse we blesse our selves in this day in the apprehension of him that was this Preserver with reference to our sins the bloud of Christ hath a vertue to bind up the bleeding soul and to make the bones that were broken to rejoice Is not this a matter of admiration gratulation and consolation therefore in the fear of God these are the thoughts that belong to this day let your contemplations be upon what he did these contemplations would preserve us from the sense of temporal calamities When Jacob saw the Ladders and the Angels ascending and descending he said Haec est porta coeli this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven It is well saith one that Heaven hath a gate it is well for Gods children that there is a Preserver that their hopes are above with him whose care is to preserve things perishing here below among so many destructions from those that cry to our Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the ground There is one above who is the Preserver who doth never keep back his mercy but when things look most desperately upon earth when the enemies hope to take them at a disadvantage and to fall upon them when there is none to deliver them then if we call upon him with David saying Remember the dayes of old and thy great mercies unto me then it is for our comfort that after a time God will have mercy upon us When the night is at the darkest the day is neerest at hand When the throws of a woman in travel are the greatest her deliverance is neerest When Moses saw the children of Israel in the greatest danger Now stand saith he and see the glory of the Lord the enemy that now threatens you shall see him no more The earth mourned Lebanon was ashamed Bashan and Carmel have all lost their fruit now will I exalt my self As if he should say mans misery that 's my opportunity When things are at the worst with Gods children and his Church then will he shew himself a Preserver The comfort of Christs Crosse that 's comfort to a soul wounded with misery Is there any of you here this day that is at his Golgotha with his strong cryes to God in the sight of his sins and the terrors of Gods wrath at the sight of Gods justice Are any such here then behold consolation that his bloud this day shed if thou dost but conceive it if there be but a true apprehension in thee that that bloud was shed for thee 't is enough for thy salvation that thy price is paid for thee by his death on the Crosse when his arms were extended both wayes as well to the thief that despised as to the good thief and in that prayer he put up upon the Crosse for the worst of his enemies for them that nailed him the worst of men Father forgive them for they know not what they do Those that nail me that crucifie me even for them I pray It is very probable that when the good thief saw Christs mercy extend so far to the worst of men he reasons thus with himself What! is there mercy for these why not for me Though a thief yet not such a wretch as these are thus to crucifie my Saviour Lord remember me when thou comest into Paradise and remember in that prayer of Christ there is forgivenesse for thee and in those arms stretched out there is a receptacle for thee in that bloud that came out of his wounds there is cure for thee rather then thou shalt dye he will dye for thee But beloved to enlarge the merits of Christ longer you will think I spread this plaister too far in the mean time not knowing whether we have any part in him or no. We must understand the Mystery of Christ as well as the History there is something to be done by way of examination to examine what title we have to this Saviour Look upon thy own sins bleed for them as well as Christ bled for thee Christ doth not actually save all For the resolution of which I cannot give you a better answer then what I told you of the Israelites concerning the Brasen Serpent that which gave them a cure gives me a capacity of this
the adultery he committed with the look of an eye the murder with the turn of an hand it was but writing a Letter to Joab but though the story be never so short in Samuel yet the repentance is long in the 51. Psalm thereâ— much ado Cause the bones that thou hast broken to rejoice Wash me purge me cleanse me purifie me with hyssop the sin of one night did cause the tears of many nights Behold Manasseh 2 Chron. 33.12 13. he did pray and pray and put up prayer upon prayer and did humble himself greatly he prayed and he prayed this was no vain repetition but prayer upon prayer suit upon suit and all little enough to obtain mercy from God God is quickly offended but not so soon pleased the wound is soon taken but not so soon cured our sins are compared to debts in the Lords Prayer a man may run more into debt one day then he can get out of many dayes God would have it so that his mercy might come sweeter unto us See it in Joab and David Joab intreated of David that Absalom might come and see him David was content he should go to his house but he must not see his face Thou that sinnest God may suffer thee to come into thy house nay into the Congregation for the present but there may be a Veil upon his face he may not suffer us to see his face for anger Oh then woe be to those that presume as though they had their pardon sealed As one relates of an uproar among the members and the will would command the eye and the hand you shall do this and that the old Beldam the flesh wondring to hear such an uproar starts up and asks the reason of it saying I have been quiet so long and so I will be still you give way to sin but you know not which way to get out of it again that 's the main thing the prodigal son after his going from his father do you think he could think of coming in a day that was going but half a day Is it possible we should continue in sin forty fifty sixty years and then turn to God presently no beloved there 's more time goes to this and therefore be not presumptuous take heed of trusting too much upon the mercy of God not having an eye upon the justice of God and take heed of committing sin upon presumption of an easie cure we must not think to come to Heaven easier then David did he cryes and he calls he weeps and mourns like a Dove Joseph and Mary lost their son but a dayes journey they were finding him two or three days And thus much for the consideration of the Text in regard of the context as it reflects upon the words before Now of the Text There is mercy with thee that thou maist be feared mercy mercy with thee There are several kinds of mercy the word is very large mercies of prevention and mercies of assistance mercies of subvention and mercies of support but certainly the mercy of God is especially intended here and therefore some Translations read it There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared it is with thee it is alwayes at home God hath it in his hand about him close unto him There is mercy with thee that thou maist be feared and what kind of mercy not meerly pardon of sin as I pardon a debt or injury and there 's an end but the propitiation for sins It is in some Translations There is propitiation with thee c. Thus there is mercy with thee whence ariseth this Instruction That God is prompt and ready to have mercy upon and forgive a penitent sinner when he seeks to him I say God is prompt c. Though God be a just God yet there is mercy with him Now this mercy of God it is to be considered three wayes that are very observable First consider the mercy of God comparatively Secondly consider it absolutely Thirdly in the circumstances of it First consider the mercy of God comparatively in respect of his justice I know if you speak of the Attributes of God they are all Essential alike but if you speak of the expression of them towards us God may be said to be more merciful then just You see that God when he came to Adam he came to judge him in the cool of the evening he staid long but he sent labourers into his Harvest betimes We find that Ninevâ—â— had forty dayes given it before it should be destroyed but God made haste he did run to meet the prodigal child he made haste It is easie to pul down but it is hard to build up God takes more delight in building then in pulling down you see the mercy of God expressed unto Adam unto Sodom unto the Prodigal and we may make comparison of it unto the Firmament God made it in one day but God would not destroy the City of Nineveh under forty dayes and many hundred years before he will destroy the world Again the world was made in six days but you see it is six thousand years before he will destroy it he is more prone unto mercy then unto justice nay take it in the executing of justice he shewed justice in destroying Sodom but mercy in sparing Lot he shewed justice upon the old world but mercy in preserving Noah God shewed his justice on the Jews in casting of them off but mercy to the Gentiles in calling of them There was his justice fell upon our Saviour but by it his mercy upon us that from his Cross there should come cure to us There was justice in sending an Angel to destroy Jerusalem but mercy in sending another Angel to mark those that mourned in Jerusalem Thus you see how God doth mingle his justice and mercy together So Exod. 3.4 5 6 7. The Lord the Lord merciful and gracious abundant in c. Every word hath its weight Jehovah thou hast broke thy promise with him but he is Jehovah and will not erre the Lord mighty and powerful God it is a work of power to forgive many sins but he is the Lord mighty to save and to forgive thou art sinful but God is merciful thou art gracelesse but God is gracious thou hast broken thy vowes made unto him but he is true of promise unto thee And though thy sins be great for quantity and hainous for quality he forgives iniquities transgressions and sins of all sorts And therefore 2 Cor. 1. God is called the Father of mercy The natural Bee may make honey naturally but it doth not sting naturally that is not without provocation See it also of God in his justice upon Sodom when Abraham did put up a suit for Sodom that if there were but fifty persons found there he would not destroy it and came down by degrees from fifty to forty from forty to thirty from thirty to twenty from twenty to ten and it is observed that God did never