and disappointment of Almighty God in the â—nd and design of his mercy to us which is to make us really better more dutiful more capable of greater and everlasting mercies to make us better Examples to others who may thereby be invited to follow us in piety and goodness A man that hath received great and signal mercies and deliverances becomes a great and efficacious Example and of much good or much evil according as he carries himself after eminent mercies received If he become more pious virtuous just sober than before he becomes a forcible motive and encouragement to others to be like him again if he either remain or degenerate into impiety vanity or vice he discourageth goodness and becomes a great temptation to others to be like him 3. Take beed lest after great deliverance thy Heart be lifted up into presumption upon God pride and vain-glory and a conceit of thy own goodness and worth This is the common temptation that grows upon much mercy received and therefore the wise Law-giver did very frequently caution the people of Israel against this Deut. 9.4 Speak not in thy heart after the Lord thy God hath cast them out saying For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me to possess this land c. Let thy afflictions find thee humble and let thy afflictions-make thee more humble but let thy deliverance yet increase thy humility the more mercy God shews to thee the more humble ever let thy Heart be upon a double account 1. Thy deliverances doth or should make thee know Almighty God the more and the more thou knowest him the more humble it should make thee Job 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the car but now mine eyes have seen thee wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes 2. Thou hast need to double thy guards of humility because upon great deliverance thou must expect that the temptation and assaults of pride and vain glory will be most busie with thee And if in all thy preparations for afflictions thou hast studied humility if under all thy afflictions thou hast improved thy humility yet if now upon thy deliverance thou art lost in pride and vain-glory thou hast lost all the benefit both of thy preparations and of thy afflictions and of thy deliverance also thou art like an unhappy Ship that hath endured the Sea and born the Storm and yet sinks when she is come into the Harbour 4. And upon the same account be vigilant and watchful It is true thou hast weathered a great Storm out of which by the mercy of God thou art delivered but still be upon thy guard thou knowest not how soon thou shalt meet with another take heed it surprize thee not unprovided Though thou hast endured it may be a long and dark storm of affliction and God hath mercifully delivered thee yet thou hast no promise from Almighty God that thou shalt meet with no more These three Consider ations should keep thee watchful and vigilant notwithstanding great deliverance from great afflictions 1. Thou art thereby better fitted and prepared to receive it if it come it shall not surprize thee unaware nor find thee sleeping 2. Most certainly if any thing be a more likely means as to preserve thee under so from affliction it is a prepared watchful vigilant mind for if I may so speak afflictions have no great business with such a man for he is already in that posture and and frame of Heart that affliction is ordinarily sent to give a man 3. There is nothing more likely to procure affliction than security and unpreparedness of mind And that First in respect of the goodness mercy and justice of God who though with most unblameable justice yet with singular mercy is very likely to send affliction to awaken him and amend him and to recall him from that tendency to Apostacy that security is apt to bring upon him Secondly in respect of the malice and vigilancy of the great Enemy of mankind who as he never wants malice so he often gets a permission to worry a man whom he hath under this disadvantage of unpreparedness and security 5. Be careful to keep as great afflictions so also great deliverance in memory Most men upon the fresh receipt of mercy and deliverance have a quick and lively apprehension of it and accordingly their affections of thankfulness and practices and purposes of Obedience are lively and diligent but in process of time and as the man is further distant from his deliverâ—nce so the memory of it doth gradually and possibly suddenly vanish and decay and as the remembrance of the deliverance decays and grows weaker and weaker so do these affections or dispositions of the Soul that are before mentioned The thankfulness grows faint and so doth the obedience and so doth the humility and so doth the watchfulness and as the water that hath been heated being removed from the fire grows by degrees colder and colder till at last it comes to its old coldness that it first had so in a little time the affliction is forgot and the deliverance is forgot and the man is grown into the very same state as if he had never felt either and possibly worse Therefore keep deliverances and afflictions too fresh in thy memory call thy self frequently to account for them use some expedient that may frequently remind thee of them with all their circumstances set them down in writing mention them often recollect them often and recollect what thoughts purposes temper of mind and spirit was then upon thee when thy afflictions were upon thee or thy deliverances freshly given to thee Cast with thy self how if these were now as fresh to thee as they were then with what motions or dispositions of Soul thou shouldest receive them and reason thy self into the same temper and habitude of thankfulness as then thou hadst By this keeping thy memory of these afflictions and these deliverances fresh under all its circumstances thou wilt with them and in the same degree as thy remembrance is of them revive and excite and preserve and keep alive and quick and active the same gratitude the same humility the same obedience the same vigilance that these afflictions or these deliverances wrought in thee when they were freth with thee or upon thee The vigorous perpetuating of the remembrance of them will be an effectual means to perpetuate the due fruit of them in their life vigour and intention JACOB's VOW OR The Modesty and Reasonableness OF JACOB'S Desire GEN. XXVIII 20. And Jacob Vowed a Vow saying If God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace then shall the Lord be my God c. THE only thing that I intend to consider upon this place of Holy Scripture is the Modesty and Reasonableness of Jacob's Desire He doth not desire greatness of
pious and profane And although the gracious God is sometimes pleased for ends best known to himself strangely to preserve and rescue as it were some out of a common calamity yet it is that which I do not know how any man can promise himself though otherwise never so pious and just because I find not that any where under the Evangelical dispensation God Almighty hath promised to any person any such immunity and common experience shews us that good and bad are oftentimes involved in the effects and extremities of the same common calamity and indeed it would be little less than a Miracle and somewhat above the ordinary course of the Almighty's regiment of things to give particular exemption in such cases If a man receive any such blessing from God he is bound eminently to acknowledge it as a signal if not miraculous intervention of the divine mercy but it is not that which a man can reasonably expect because although upon great and momentous occasions Almighty God is pleased not only to give out Miracles but even to promise them also as in the justifying of the truth of the Gospel in the first publication thereof yet it is not equal for any particular person to suppose that for the preservation of a particular interest or concernment God Almighty should be as it were engaged to put forth a Miracle or little less than a Miracle and the Reasons hereof are 1. Because under the Evangelical dispensation the rewards of goodness piety and obedience are of another kind and of a greater moment namely Eternal happiness and not exemption from temporal calamities if Almighty God grant such an exemption it is of bounty and abundance not of promise It is true under the Old Covenant with the people of Israel their Promises were in a great measure of temporal benefits and the Administration of that Church as it was in a great measure typical so the Divine Administration over them was very usually miraculous both in their blessings preservations and exemptions And there was special reason for it for they were to be a monument to all Mankind and also to future Ages of a special and signal Divine Regiment and consequently the obedient might upon the account of the Divine Promise expect blessings and deliverances even in publick calamities that might befall the People in general But we have no warrant to carry over those promises of Temporal benefits and exemptions to the obedience under the Gospel which as it is founded upon another Covenant so is it furnished with better Promises 2. Because the best of men in this life have sins and failings enow to justifie the Justice of Almighty God in exposing them to temporal calamities and yet his mercy goodness and bounty is abundantly magnified in reserving a reward in Heaven far beyond the merit of their best obedience and dutifulness So that though they are exposed to temporal calamities Almighty God still remains not only a true and faithful but a liberal and bountiful Lord unto them in their everlasting rewards What are light afflictions and but for a moment in comparison to an eternal weight of glory And the latter is the reward of their Obedience under the Gospel whiles the former may be possibly the punishment or at least correction for their Sins And therefore although at the intercession of Abraham the Lord was pleased to grant a relaxation of the destruction of Sodom for the sake of ten Righteous it was an act of his bounty and so it was when he delivered Lot and his Family Yet he had not been unjust if he had swept them away in that common temporal calamity because possibly the sins of Lot himself might have been such as might have acquitted the justice of God in so doing for the highest temporal calamity is not disproportionate to any one Sin And although he were pleased in mercy to spare Lot and his two Daughters yet neither was he wholly exempted from that great calamity for his House Goods and the rest of his Family perished in that terrible Conflagration And upon this consideration we have just cause to blame two sorts of persons namely 1. The rash censure of some inconsiderate persons that are too ready to censure all such as fall under a common calamity whether of Fire Sword or Pestilence as if so be they were therefore greater sinners than those that escape the errour reproved by our Saviour in the instance of the Galileans and those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell 2. The mistaken apprehension of men concerning themselves that upon an opinion of their own righteousness or desert think themselves exempted from the stroke of common calamities or are ready to accuse the Divine Justice if they are not delivered from them If they truly considered the just demerit of any sin and their own sins or failings they would both acknowledge the Justice and Goodness of God if he reserve an eternal reward of their obedience though he expose them to the worst of temporal evils 1. Concerning Personal Evils they are of several kinds 1. such as befall the Body 2. such as befall the Estate 3. such as befall the Name 4. such as befall a man's Friends or Relations Touching the first of these Evils namely that befall the Body they are of two kinds 1. Some that are not so Epidemical or universal upon all men such as are casualties or accidental hurts diseases springing from the particular complexion or temperament of persons such as are hereditary diseases diseases incident to certain ages infectious diseases arising from contagion putrefaction ill disposition of the Air or Waters 2. Some diseases are incident unto every man in the World If a man lives to a great old age his very age is a disease and the decay of natural heat and moisture doth in time bring the oldest man to his end but if he live not to the attainment of old age most certainly as he meets with death in the conclusion so he meets with some disease or other that makes way for his dissolution So that upon the whole account though this or that man may not meet with this or that particular disease casualty or distemper that it may be attaques another yet as sure as he is mortal so sure shall some disease distemper casualty or weakness meet with him that shall bring him to the dust of death That person therefore that is subject to the universal Edict and Law of death is and must be subject sooner or later to those diseases sicknesses casualties or weaknesses that must usher in his death and dissolution And although one man may escape a chronical disease another an acute disease one man may escape a Contagion another a Consumption one man may escape this disease or casualty another that yet most certain it is that every man shall infallibly meet with some disease distemper or casualty that shall be sufficient to dissolve his composition and put a period to
cleanseth the Soul and renders a man in God's acceptation as if he had not offended 5. The next preparative against affliction is to gain an humble Mind When affliction meets with a proud heart full of opinion of its own worth and goodness there ariseth more trouble and tumult and disorder and discomposure in the contest of such a heart against the affliction than possibly can arise from the affliction it self and the strugling of that distemper of pride with the affliction galls and intangles the mind more than the severest affliction and renders a man very unfit for it and unable to bear it The Prophet describes it her Sons at the head of every street were like a wild Bull in a net But on the other side an humble lowly mind is calm and patient and falls with ease upon an afflicted condition for the truth is the great evil of suffering is not so much in the thing a man suffers as in the mind and temper of spirit of the man that meets with it an humble mind is a mind rightly prepared with the greatest facility to receive the shock of any affliction for such a mind is already as low as affliction can ordinarily set it And certainly if any man consider aright he hath many important causes to keep his Mind always humble 1. In respect of Almighty God the great and glorious King of Heaven and Earth whom if a man contemplate he will put his mouth in the dust acknowledge himself to be but a poor worm and therefore unworthy to dispute the Divine dispensations providences or permissions 2. In respect of himself He that considers aright himself his sins and failings and corruptions will have cause enough to humble himself and reckon that he is justly obnoxious to the severest crosses and afflictions Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin 't is mercy enough that the affliction extends not yet so â—â—r as his life a living man to complain carnes a reprehension in it self of the complaint 6. Another most singular prâ—paration against affliction is a steady resolved Resignation of a man's self to the will and good pleasure of Almighty God and that upon grounds of the greatest reason imaginable For 1. it is a most sovereign will for his will must be done whether we will or not therefore it is the highest piece of folly imaginable to contest with him that will not cannot may not be controlled It is true we have commission to pray to him to deliver us from evil but when we have so done we must withal desire that his will may be done this pattern the Son of God hath given us Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done Willingly therefore submit to that will which whether thou wilt or no thou must thou shalt endure for his will is the most sovereign will the will of the absolute Monarch of Heaven and Earth 2. As it is the most sovereign will so it is the most wise will what he wills he wills not simply prâ—â—â—mperio but his will is founded upon and directed by a most infinite wisdom and since thou canst not upon any tollerable account judge thy will wiser than his it becomes thee to resolve thy poor narrow inconsiderate will into the will of the most wise God 3. As it is a most wise will so the will of God is most certainly the most benificent and best will what reason hast thou to suspect the benificence of his will whose will alone gave thee thy being that he might communicate his goodness to that being of thine which he freely gave thee It is true it may be thou dost not see the reason the end the use of his Dispensations yet be content with an implicit submission to resign thy self up to his disposal and rest assured it shall be best for thee though thou yet canst not understand what it means If he hath given thee an Heart to resign up this will unto his be confident he will never mislead thee nor give thee cause to repent of trusting him It was a noble pitch of a Heathen's mind namely Epictetus Enchirid. cap. 78. In quovis incepto haeâ— optanda sunt Due me ô Jupiter tâ— fatum eo quo sum à vobis destinatus sequar enim alacriter quod si noluero improbus ero sequar nihilominus Which may be thus better Englished In every Enterprize this ought to be our Prayer Guide me O God and thou Divine Providence according to thine own appointment I will with chearfulness follow which if I shall decline to do I shall be an undutiful man and yet shall nevertheless follow thy appointment whether I will or not But Christians have learned a Reason of a nobler descent namely That all things shall work together for good to those that love God and certainly there can be no greater evidence of thy love to him than to make the Will of God the guide rule and measure of thine own 7. I shall conclude with that great Preparative which is indeed the completion of all that is before said and in a few words includes all Labour to get thy Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord when this is once attained thou art set above the love of the World and the fear of afflictions because thou hast the assurance of a greater Treasure than this World can give or take away a Kingdom that cannot be shaken a hope and most assured expectation that is above the region of afflictions and that renders the greatest and forest afflictions as they are namely light and momentany And yet because thou art notwithstanding this glorious expectation yet in this lower region and subject to passions and perturbations and fears the merciful God hath engaged his promise to support thee here under them to better and improve thee by them to carry thee through them by his all-sufficient grace and mercy The strokes thou receivest are either managed and directed or at least governed and ordered by him that is thy Father and that in very love and faithfulness doth correct thee that hath a heart of compassion and love to thee even when he seems in his Providences to frown upon thee that while thou art under them will make them work together for thy good and that will never take from thee those everlasting mercies which are thy portion that hath all thy afflictions crosses troubles whatever they are or may be under the infallible conduct of his own wisdom and power And that as on the one side he will never suffer thee to be afflicted beyond what he gives thee grace to bear and improve so on the other hand he will so manage order and govern thy light afflictions which are here but for a moment that in the end they shall be a means to bring thee a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of Glory If therefore thou wouldst be soundly armed against afflictions and prepared with ease and comfort to bear them this one thing necessary is sufficient to render thee such and to fit thee also with all those advantageous helps before mentioned which will necessarily follow upon this attainment 2. Secondly I come to the second general namely How Afflictions incumbent upon us are to be received entertained and improved and this will be in a great measure supplied by what hath been before said touching our preparation of heart before they come for a mind so prepared and habituated will be sufficiently qualified to receive and entertain them as becomes a good man and a good Christian Nevertheless some things I shall subjoyn in order to the bearing and improving of afflictions while they are incumbent upon us and they are these 1. It becomes a man under afflictions in the first place to have a very diligent frequent attentive and right consideration concerning Almighty God that he is a God of infinite wisdom power justice mercy and goodness That he hates not any thing that he hath made but hath a great love and benificence to all his Creatures that he designs their good and benefit even in those dispensations that seem most sharp and severe that if he had not a good will to his Creatures he would never have done so much for them as he hath done that whiles he exerciseth discipline to the children of men it is evident they are under his care that oftentimes there is a greater severity of the Divine displeasure in his leaving mankind to themselves than in exercising them with afflictions and that he equally discovers the love and care of a Father in his corrections as well as in his more pleasing administrations 2. And farther that afflictions rise not out of the dust but are sent and managed by the wise disposition and regiment of Almighty God it is his Providence that sends them that measures out their kind weight continuance and that they are always as commissionated by him so under the conduct of his power wisdom and goodness and never exceed the line and limits of his power wisdom and goodness if he bids them go they go if he bids them return they return if he commands the most tumultuous and tempestuous storms of afflictions peace be still there will be a calm as mankind is never out of the reach of his power to afflict and correct so it is never out of the reach of his power to relieve and recover 3. That as no man hath an exemption from afflictions so it is most evident that even the best of men are visited with them and it is but need they should for where one man is the worse by afflictions a thousand are the worse for want of them and as many the better by them and the wise and gracious God that knows our frame better than we our selves doth for the most part in very faithfulness afflict us The egresses of the Divine Counsels have ever in them a complication of excellent ends even in afflictions themselves they are acts of Justice oftentimes to punish and of Mercy to prevent distempers and to heal them and this is that lot which our Blessed Lord bequeathed unto his own People In the world ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.33 so that a good man may have as great cause to suspect his own integrity in the absence of them as in the suffering under them 4. That all the Divine dispensations of comforts or crosses are so far beneficial or hurtful as they are received and used comforts if they make us thankful sober faithful they become blessings if they make us proud insolent secure forgetful they become judgments afflictions if they are received with humility patience repentance and returning to God they are blessings if they are received with murmuring impatience imcorrigibleness they become judgments and a forerunner of greater severity 5. The consequences of all these Considerations do evidently lead us unto these Dutics when-ever we are under the pressure of Affliction 1. To receive it with all Humility as reached out unto us from the hand or permission at least of Almighty God There were a sort of Philosophers that thought it a virtue to put on a resolved contempt of all crosses and afflictions not to be moved at all with them but to bear them with a stout apathy this is not that temper that becomes a Christian it is all one as if a Child should resolve to receive the correction of his Father with a stubborn resolution not to care for them or to be affected with them such a stubbornness under affliction renders it unuseful to its end and commonly provokes the great Lord and Father of Spirits totally to reject such a mind or to master it with sharper and severer and multiplied afflictions till it yield and till that uncircumcised Heart be humbled and accept of the punishment of its iniquity Levit. 26.41 2. To receive it with Patience and subjection of mind and without either contesting with Almighty God charging his Providence with errour or injustice or swelling and storming against the affliction or the Divine dispensation that sends it This hath two singular benesits first it renders the affliction it self more easie and tollerable secondly it is one of the readiest ways to shorten or abate it For as yielding and humble submission to the hand of God so patience and submission of will to the Divine dispensation are two of the great ends and business of affliction which when attained by it it hath performed a great part of its errand for which it was sent 3. To return unto God that afflicteth or permitteth it Affliction misseth its end and use when it drives a man from his God either to evil or unlawful means or to shift and hide himself or keep at a distance from him and as it loseth its end so it is contrary to its natural effect at least where it meets with a nature of any understanding or ingenuity In their affliction they will seek me early God Almighty sends afflictions like messengers to call home wandring Souls and if a man will shist away get farther off and estrange himself more from him that strikes him he will either send more importunate messengers afflictions of a greater magnitude to call and fetch him as want and famine did the young Prodigal in the Gospel or which is far worse let him go without farther seeking him Whereas the man that by affliction as it were at the first call comes home to God or gets nearer to him for the most part prevents severer monitors and renders his suffering more short or at least more easie by drawing near to God the fountain of peace and deliverance And if the affliction befalls such a man that hath not estranged himself from Almighty God nor departed from him in any greater offences or backslidings yet affliction is not without its end
his creature to blessedness and the vision of his Creator 2. That he so ordered the means of man's Redemption that a greater glory came even by that Redemption that if man had never faln and a greater benefit to mankind For the latter it is apparent that if there had been no Mediator sent the least sin that any of the sons of men had committed had been inexorably fatal to them without any means of pardon And as Adam though in his full liberty and power was misled by temptation so might have he been or any of his posterity though he had stood that shock which now is admirably provided against by the satisfaction of Christ Jesus And as thus it is better with the children of men so the glory of God is wonderfully advanced by it for if man had stood in his innocence God had had only the glory of his justice in rewarding him or if he had faln the glory of his justice in punishing him but there had been no room for that glorious attribute of his Mercy in forgiving without violation to his Purity Truth and Justice that glorious attribute by which he so often proclaimeth himself Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God Merciful Gracious Long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and yet that will by no means clear the guilty 3. That he so wonderfully ordered the Redemption of Man that all his Attributes were preserved inviolable His Truth The day thou eatest thou shalt dye his Justice yet his Mercy his Love to his creature yet his Hatred to Sin his Son shall dye to satisfie his Truth and Justice yet the sinner shall live to satisfie his Mercy the sin shall be punished to justifie his Purity yet his creature shall be saved to manifest his Love and Goodness And thus his Wisdom over-ruled Sin the worst of evils to the improvement of his glory and the good of his creature 4. His wisdom is manifested in this that by the redemption of man all those ways of his administration before the coming of Christ do now appear to be excellently ordered to the redemption of man and the making of it the more effectual The giving of a severe and yet most just Law which was impossible for us to fulfil shews us the wretchedness of our condition our inability to fulfil what was just in God to require shews us the necessity of a Saviour drives us to him and makes this City of refuge grateful and acceptable and makes us set a value upon that mercy which so opportunely and mercifully provided a Sacrifice for us in the Blood of Christ and a Righteousness for us in the Merits of Christ and a Mediator for us in the Intercession of Christ And by this means also all those Sacrifices and Ceremonies and Observations enjoyned in the Levitical Law which carried not in themselves a clear reason of their institution are now by the sending of Christ rendred significant 5. The wisdom of God is magnified and advanced in this in fulfilling the Prophecies of the sending the Messias to satisfie for the sins of Mankind against all the oppositions and casualties and contingencies that without an over-ruling wisdom and guidance might have disappointed it And this done in that Perfection that not one circumstance of Time Place Person Concomitants should nor did fail in it and so bearing witness to the infinite Truth Power and Wisdom of God in bringing about his Counsels in their perfection touching this great business of the Redemption of Man which was the very end why he was created and placed upon the earth and managing the villany of men and the craft and malice of Satan to bring about that greatest blessing that was or could be provided for mankind besides and above and against the intention of the Instrument Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain 6. The unsearchable Wisdom of God is manifested in that he provided such a Mediator that was fit for so great a work had all the world consulted that God must suffer it had been impossible and had all the world contrived that any man or all the men in the world should have been a satisfactory Sacrifice for any one Sin it had been deficient Here is then the wonderful Counsel of the most high God the Sacrifice that is appointed shall be so ordered that God and Man shall be conjoyned in one Person that so as Man he might become a Sacrifice for Sin and as God he might give a value to the Sacrifice And this is that great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 2. The wonderful Love of God to Mankind I. In thinking upon poor sinful creatures to contrive a way for a Pardon for us and rescuing us from that Curse which we had justly deserved 2. Thinking of us for our good when we sought it not thought not of it 3. When we were enemies against God and against his very being 4. Thinking of us not only for a Pardon but to provide for us a state of Glory and Blessedness 5. When that was not to be obtained saving his Truth and Justice without a miraculous Mediator consisting of the divine and humane nature united in one person in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ here was Love and Goodness of the greatest magnitude that ever was or ever shall be heard of and sufficient to conquer our Hearts into admiration and astonishment But yet it rests not here As God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 so the only begotten Son of God was not behind in this wonderful Love No sooner as we may with reverence say was the Counsel of the Father propounded for the sending of his Son but presently the Son saith Lo I come Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 And now we will consider upon what terms he must come or else the redemption of mankind must dye for ever I. He must come and empty himself of his Glory of his personal Majesty and take our nature yet without sin he must go through the natural infirmities of infancy and childhood 2. And not only must he undergo this abasement but he must undergo the condition of a mean a low birth born of a poor Virgin in a Stable laid in a Manger under the reputation of a Carpenter's Son 3. And not only thus but as soon as he is born must use the care of his Mother to shift for his life away to Egypt to prevent the jealousie and fury of Herod 4. And when grown up to youth he must undergo the form of a Servant become a poor Carpenter to work for his living without any patrimony or so much as a house to cover him 5. He comes abroad into the World to exercise the Ministry and the Prologue to
2. To manifest unto Men and Angels the Glory and infinite Perfection and Excellence of all his blessed Attributes The glory of his Wisdom in contriving and of his Power in effecting such a deliverance for the children of men by a way that exceeded the disquisition of Men and Angels the glory of his Mercy that could not have been possibly so conspicuous to mankind if man had never faln In the Creation of Man he manifested the glory of his Goodness that communicated a â—â—ing to him that so he might communicate his goodness to him But in the Redemption of Man he manifested his Mercy in forgiving and healing a rebellious and miserable creature the glory of his Justice that would not pardon the Sin till he had a Satisfaction for the sin that would not spare the Son when he chose to be the surety for the sinner 2. In reference to Man and so the ends of our Lord's suffering were principally these 1. To absolve and deliver him from guilt the consequence of sin and misery the fruit of guilt Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins and surely had the fruit of Christ's death rested here it had been a great degree of mercy if we rightly weighed the heaviness of the burden of guilt the severity of the wrath of God and the extremity of that misery that doth and must attend it If a man under the guilt and horror of some hideous Treason under the severe and inexorable sentence of the Law against him under the imminent infliction of most exquisite and continuing torments should but hear of a Pardon and discharge from this how welcome would it be though the residue of his life were to be spent in exile But our Lord's purchase rests not here 2. To Reconcile God unto his Creature So that it doth not only remove the effects of the anger of God which is punishment which may be removed and yet the anger continuing nor doth it only remove the anger of God and leaves a man in a kind of state of indifferency as it is between persons that never were acquainted one with another But it is a state of Reconciliation Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them And certainly this is a great addition unto the former that God in Christ should hot only pass by our sins but should no longer look upon us as strangers but as persons reconciled unto him And surely a soul sensible of the unhappy condition of being estranged from God how highly would he prize a state of reconciliation though it were in the meanest and lowest relation Luk. 15.19 I am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants So that I may not be estranged from thee reconcile me unto thy self though in the condition of thy meanest servant But neither doth the happy fruit of â—ur Lord's suffering rest here 3. To restore unto us that near and blessed relation of being Sons of God Gal. 4.5 That we might receive the adoption of sons 1 Joh. 3. 2. Behold now we are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be This was that dear expression of our Lord after his resurrection Joh. 20.17 Go to my brethren and tell them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and to your God he seems to interess them in this blessed relation in a kind of equality with himself my Brethren my Father and your Father and the sweet and comfortable consequents of this are incomparable Is he my Father then I know he can pity me as a Father pitieth his Children Psal 103.13 he can pardon and spare me as a Father spareth his Son that serves him Mal. 3.17 Is he my Father then whither should I go but to him for protection in all my dangers for direction in all my difficulties for satisfaction in all my doubts for supply in all my wants This I can with confidence expect from a poor earthly Father according to the compass of his abilities If ye then being evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 Mercy and Compassion and Love is a virtue in a man in an earthly Father a piece of that image of God which at first he imprinted in man and yet passion and humane infirmity as it hath much weakened the habit thereof in us so it may suspend the exercise thereof to a near relation But in Almighty God these virtues are in their perfection and nothing at all in him that can remit it Mercy and tenderness are attributes which he delights in mercy pleaseth him it was that great attribute that he proclaimed his name by Exod. 34.6 and so diffusive is his mercy that it extends to all he is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 and not only to the just and good but even to the unkind causing his Sun to shine upon the evil and the good and surely he that hath Mercy and Goodness for an Enemy cannot deny it unto a Child Can a mother forget her sucking child c. Yea she may forget yet will I not forget thee saith the Lord. Isa 49.15 4. To restore us to a most sure everlasting and blessed inheritance in heaven Gal. 4.7 If a son then an heir of God through Christ and here is the complement of all not only absolved from the guilt of sin reconciled to God put into the relation of a Child of God but after all this to be everlastingly and unchangeably stated in a blessed condition unto all Eternity and all this from the condition of a most vile sinful lost creature and by such a price as the Blood of Christ More need not cannot be said 5. And by what hath been said it is easie to see what the Fruits and Effects of all this are God will not be disappointed in the end of so great a work and therefore we cannot be disappointed in the fruit of it and those are either such as are enjoyed in this life or principally appropriated to that which is to come 1. Those Benefits that naturally arise from Christ crucified and are enjoyed in this life are these 1. Justification and Acceptation in the sight of God he looks upon us as those that have satisfied his justice when his Son suffered and as those that performed his will when his Son performed it So that as our Lord imputed our fins to our Redeemer so he imputes his righteousness unto us and as he was well pleased with him so he was well pleased in him with as many as are received into this Covenant 2. Peace with God This is the natural consequence of
reason is apparent for it is not the Tempestuousness or Tranquillity of Externals that creates the trouble or the quietness of the Man but it is the Mind and that state of composure or discomposure that the mind is put into occasionally from them and since there is nothing in the world that conduceth more to the composure tranquillity of the mind than the Serenity and Clearness of the Conscience keep but that safe and untainted the mind will enjoy a calm and tranquillity in the midst of all the storms of the World and although the Waves beat and the Sea works and the Winds blow that mind that hath a quiet and clear Conscience within will be as stable and as safe from perturbation as a Rock in the midst of a Tempestuous Sea and will be a Goshen to and within it self when the rest of the world without and round about a man is like an Egypt for Plagues and Darkness If therefore either before the access or irruption of troubles or under their pressure any thing or person in the world sollicite thee to ease or deliver thy self by a breach or wound of thy Conscience know they are about to cheat thee of thy best security under God against the power and malignity of troubles they are about to clip off that Lock wherein next under God thy strength lieth What-ever therefore thou dost hazard or lose keep the integrity of thy Conscience both before the access of troubles and under them It is a Jewel that will make thee Rich in the midst of Poverty a Sun that will give thee Light in the midst of darkness a Fortress that will keep thee safe in the greatest danger and that is never to be taken unless thou thy self betray it and deliver it up 4. The next Expedient is this namely an Assurance that the Divine Wisdom Power and Providence doth Dispose Govern and Order all the things in the world even those that seem most confused irregular tumultuous and contumacious This as it is a most certain truth so is it a most excellent expedient to compose and fettle the mind especially of such a man who truly loves and fears this great God even under the blackest and most dismal Troubles and Confusions for it must most necessarily give a sound present and practical Argument of Patience and Contentation For even these black dispensations are under the government and management of the most Wise and Powerful God Why should I that am a foolish vain Creature that scarce see to any distance before me take upon me to censure these Dispensations to struggle impatiently with them to disquiet and torment my self with vexation at them Let God alone to govern and order the world as he thinks fit as his Power is infinite and cannot be resisted so is his Wisdom infinite and knows best what is to be done and when and how 2. As it gives a sound Argument of Patience and Contentedness so it gives a clear inference of Resignation of our selves up unto him and to his will and disposal upon the account of his Goodness It is the mere Bounty and Goodness of God that first gave being to all things and preserves all things in their Being that gives all those Accomodations and Conveniencies that accompanie their Being why should I therefore distrust his Goodness As he hath Power to do what he pleaseth Wisdom to direct and dispose that Power so he hath infinite Goodness that accompanies that Power and that Wisdom As I cannot put my will into the hands of greater Wisdom so I cannot put my will into the hands of greater Goodness His Beneficence to his Creatures is greater than it is possible for the Creatures to have to themselves I will not only therefore patiently Submit to his Power and Will which I can by no means resist but chearfully Resign up my self to the disposal of his Will which is infinitely best and therefore a better rule for my disposal than my own will 5. The next Expedient is Faith and Recumbence upon those Promises of his which all wise and good men do and must value above the best Inheritance in this World namely that he will not leave nor forsake those that fear and love him Heb. 13.5 How much more shall your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him Matth. 6.30 Matth. 7.11 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. All things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom 8. 28 Upon the assurance of these Divine Promises my heart may quiet it self in the midst of all the most dark and tumultuous concussions in the world Is it best for me to be delivered out of them or to be preserved in or under them I am under the Providence and Government of my Heavenly Father who hath said He will not leave me nor forsake me who takes more care of me and bears more love to me than I can bear to my most dutiful Child that can in a moment rescue me from the calamity or infallibly secure me under it that sees and knows every moment of my condition and a thousand expedients to preserve or relieve me On the other side do I fall in the same common calamity and sink under it without any deliverance from it or preservation under it His will be done I am sure it is for my good nay it is not possible it should be otherwise For my very death the worst of worldly evils will be but the transmission of me into a state of Blessedness Rest and Immortality for Blessed are they that die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them 6. The next Expedient is Prayer The glorious God of Heaven hath given us a free and open access to his Throne there to sue out by Prayer those Blessings and Mercies which he hath promised It is not only a Duty that we owe in recognition of the divine Soveraignty a Priviledge of greater value than if we were made Lords of the whole Earth but a Means to attain those Mercies that the Divine Wisdom and Goodness knows to be fittest for us by this means we may be sure to have deliverance or preservation if useful or fit for us or if not yet those favours and condescentions from Almighty God that are better than deliverance it self namely Patience and Contentedness with the Divine Good Pleasure Resignation of our wills to him great Peace and Tranquillity of mind Evidences and Communications of his Love and Favour to us Support under our weaknesses and despondences and many times Almighty God in these Wildernesses of distractions and confusions and storms and calamities whether publick or private gives out as a return to hearty and faithful prayer such Revelations of his Goodness and Irradiations of his Favour and Love that a man would not exchange for all the external