God in the exact frame due lineaments right proportions and features strength and beauty of perfect Creatures So the poor strait and indigent condition of some so much the more commends the Bounty and Goodness of God to others and provokes them at least should provoke them to so much the greater love and thankfulness to that God who hath been so bountiful to them and hath been pleased to put such a difference between them and others and this albeit they have deserved at the hands of God no more than those their inferiours who are in the most necessitous condition 2. This difference which God hath put between men affords the Rich opportunities of exercising their Charity Pity and Compassion towards the Poor and gives the Poor occasion of exercising their Faith and Trust in God for supplies of Necessaries Patience Humility Contentment with their mean condition quiet submission to the good pleasure of God in thus dealing with them and thankfulness to God for those helps and assistances which he is pleased to reach forth to them by the hands of those with whom he deposited more of the things of this World on purpose that they might be helpful to those who have less 3. God hath been pleased to put this difference between men in regard of the necessity there is of different Stations and Conditions different Services and Imployments for procuring and carrying on the good and welfare of the Community of Mankind Some must govern and others must be governed or else we shall quickly be ruined and all things will run into confusion Some must labour in the Field others must grinde at the Mill others handle the Distaff some must be imployed in meaner other in higher Services in order whereunto it was fit that men's conditions should be suited to those Imployments in which they are to be serviceable to God and their Generation Now the Application of what hath been spoken follows and this will concern all I shall first speak to the Rich and then to the Poor As for the Rich or those whom God hath been pleased to intrust with a larger portion of Temporal things they may hence be minded of their Duty several ways If the Rich and the Poor meet together in all those respects before mentioned and God be the Maker of them all both as men and as considered under the different Adjuncts of Riches and Poverty then may the Rich hence be cautioned and admonished 1. Not to despise the Poor This is that which men who even wallow in plenty and abound with the good things of this Life are very subject to A poor man is many times a contemptible thing in their eyes and as he hath occasion to come near them he scarce meets with those civilities from them that are due to Mankind And usually none are more faulty this way than such as have the greatest obligation to civility and condescension I mean such as were not long since in a mean condition themselves and have but newly been advanced to an higher Station But these and whosoever else may be blame-worthy in this respect should consider what hath above been discoursed of 1. That the poorest and most forlorn Creature who is most despicable in their eyes hath as noble and excellent a Soul as they have themselves or as the greatest Potentate in the World hath and as for his very Body though cloathed with nasty Rags the exquisite Workmanship thereof is no less admirable than that of his that is cloathed with Scarlet and adorned with Gold and Pearls and whatever Nature or Art could contribute to make it beautiful and lovely 2. That the poorest man in the World is as dear to God as they are and as much under the Care and gracious Providence of God for fine Cloaths and Riches and Honours commend no man to God high and low rich and poor are alike to him for he is no respecter of persons Act 10.34 neither doth he rate or value any man according to these things 'T is grace and holiness that he looks after and accordingly proportions his esteem for men The Lord seeth not as man seeth man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous Psal 34.15 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 But as for wicked and ungodly men of what rank or quality soever they may be in this World the Lord hates and abhors them Psal 5.5 3. They should consider that the poorest man in all the World is as capable of being admitted to the blisful Vision and Fruition of God in the World to come is as capable of glory and eternal happiness as the richest As God hath given the same Rational and Immortal Soul to Rich and Poor whereby they are both capable of the sight and enjoyment of God so hath Christ died for both and paid the same invaluable price for the Redemption of both and so he hath commanded his Gospel to be published alike to both and therein the same terms of Salvation to be indifferently propounded to the one and the other There is not one Gospel for the Rich and another for the Poor nor are the terms of peace with God and reconciliation to him more easy and favourable for the one than for the other The Gospel puts no difference between men with reference to those different circumstances as to outward things under which they may be It speaks the same Language to all Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.15 16. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Except ye repent ye shall all perish Luke 13.3 Except ye be converted ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 Now if God values the Souls of Rich and Poor alike hath taken the same care of and made the same provision for the Salvation of both if Rich and Poor meet together stand both upon even ground and are upon equal terms as to the matters that are of highest importance and everlasting concernment to the one and the other should any man despise his poor Brother upon the account of these temporal things these poor and worthless trifles that signify as good as nothing 2. The Rich may hence be cautioned Not to count the Poor a grievance or heavy burthen to them I mean the honest sober humble modest and industrious Poor As for wicked loose idle and unprofitable Persons whether they be Poor or Rich they are not only a grievance but the very Pests of the places where they live as exposing them to God's wrath and drawing down his Judgments upon themselves and others 1. While you count the Poor a grievance and think how much happier the World would be if all men were Rich as you are you
a Bulrush for a day or two as those Hypocrites whose Carriage the Prophet describes Jer. 58.5 or to have made some slight and formal Confession of their Sins when they are now just ready to go out of the World This forced and half-Humiliation cannot be acceptable to God for it argues that such a Man hath neither any true sense of the Hainousness of his Sins nor of the high Displeasure of God against him for his Sins much less any sincere and firm Resolutions to forsake his Sins if God should raise him up again and lengthen out his Life for some longer time That you may be duly and soundly humbled for your Sins 1. Give your self no Rest until you be fully convinced of the hainous Nature of your Sins and the various Aggravations of them by which they have been heightned As 1. That your Sins have been so often repeated renewed and acted over again and again 2. That they have been committed against so many Cautions against them as you have had against so many Warnings so many Admonitions and Reproofs 3. Against so many Chastisements and so much Experience of the bitter Fruits of Sin 4. Against so many Mercies which should have led you to Repentance 5. That they have been committed against so many Purposes and Resolutions against so many Promises and serious Ingagements to the contrary and perhaps against so many solemn Vows and Covenants 2. Acquaint your self with the Threatnings of God against those your Sins and the high Displeasure of God therein manifested against you for them 3. Be an humble Suitor unto God that he would be pleased to break your Heart and according to his Promise to take away your stony Heart Ezek. 36.26 and give you a Heart of Flesh But be sure that you be in good earnest when you offer up this Suit unto God beg this Mercy with the greatest Importunity or other ways never expect to obtain it then and then only shall you seek God and find him Jer. 29.13 when you shall search for him with all your Heart And though you should not presently obtain what you seek unto God for yet give not over seeking him if you seek him with Constancy and Perseverance you shall be sure to speed in the End Gal. 6.9 In due time you shall reap if you faint not But you will say How may a Man know that he is truly and soundly humbled that his Humiliation bears some Proportion with the Quality and Degree of his Sins Answ 1. He that is truly effectually and soundly humbled will loath and abhor himself for his Sins so did Job Behold I am vile saith he Job 40.4 what shall I answer thee I will lay my Hand upon my Mouth And again I abhor my self Ch. 42.6 saith he and repent in Dust and Ashes This is that Frame of Spirit which God expects should be found in a sincerely penitent truly humbled and effectually reformed People they should remember and be confounded Ezek. 16.63 and never open their Mouth any more that is they should remember all their Abominations be confounded in the serious Thoughts and Remembrance of them and never open their Mouth any more to justify themselves 2. He that is truly effectually and soundly humbled will freely acknowledg and aggravate his Sins he will be so far from extenuating and lessening his Sins that he will lay them open and represent them as fully as he can and in his Confessions of them lay all the load on himself that he is able he will not spare himself or in the least favour himself in the Charge and Indictment which he brings in against himself Thus David making Acknowledgment of his Sin gives it its full Aggravations 2 Sam. 24.10 saying I have sinned greatly and I have done very foolishly And afterwards when he saw the Angel of the Lord stretching out his Hand against the People Ver. 17. Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but as for these Sheep what have they done Let thy Hand I pray thee be against me and against my Father's House An unhumbled Sinner would have shifted off all the Blame upon others as did Saul 1 Sam. 15.15 excusing himself he pleaded that the People had spared the best of the Sheep and the Oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord But David took all the Blame upon himself and wholly exempts his People from it 3. The Sinner that is truly effectually and soundly humbled will justify God in all that is come upon him for his Sins So Daniel acknowledging his own Sins and the Sins of the People saith To thee O Lord Dan. 9.7 8. belongeth Righteousness but to us Confusion of Face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee This Acknowledgment he makes after a long Recital of those heavy Judgments which for their Sins God had inflicted on them thereby clearing him from any unjust Severity which he had exercised upon them To the same purpose it is that Ezra making Confession of his own Sins and of the Sins of that People freely acknowledged that though they had suffered grievous things yet they had been punished less than their Iniquities deserved Ezra 9.13 God had in Wrath remembred Mercy even when he treated them with most Severity 4. The Sinner that is truly effectually and soundly humbled will meekly and patiently submit to God's Corrections and lay himself at the Feet of God while he is chastning him He will accept of the Punishment of his Sin as the Phrase is Lev. 26.41 He will cordially say with the Church Micah 7.9 I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him He will humbly say with Eli whatsoever his Sufferings are It is the Lord that thus handles me 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good In like manner David expresseth his humble Submission to the good Pleasure of God when he lay under his correcting Hand when he fled from Absalom he ordered the Ark to be by Zabok carried back into the City â— Sam. 15.25 26. saying If I shall find favour in the Eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his Habitation But if he thus say I have no Delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him 5. The Sinner that is truly effectually and soundly troubled will take a holy Revenge upon himself in reference to those things to those particular Instances of his Life in which he has most provoked God and incurred his Displeasure Cor. 7.11 To manifest his Indignation against himself for the Sins by which he hath most highly dishonoured God he will deny himself some of those lawful and innocent Liberties which he might other ways without Sin make use of It now follows in the Text that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers Which Words
unconscionable dealing and your dishonest methods and artifices in the managing of your Trades and particular Callings your scant Measures and deceitful Ballances your mingling adulterating and embasing your Commodities to impose upon the Buyer and inhance your gain your allowing your selves in dissimulation and lying and falshood for your advantage your laying aside the golden Rule of our Saviour and making no conscience of dealing with others as you desire to be dealt with your selves your seeking your selves and your own things with the disregard of your Neighbours and the neglect of the Publick good your lukewarmness coldness and indifferency in the things that concern the glory of God and the common and great interests of this place your not using your power and the authority you are entrusted and armed with for the due punishment of sin and the beating down and suppressing of vice your unequal and partial dealing in the administration of Justice your mutual animosities variances envyings emulations and heart-burnings I say in reference to all these so far as any of you may have been guilty of them and in reference to all other sins whatsoever which any of you may be convinced of as your own sins by which you have contributed towards the drawing down of the late terrible Judgment of God upon this place Say with Ezra in the Text After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass should we again break thy commandments Should we again return to those our sinful practises that have laid this place in ashes and made it a ruinous heap That have made it a by-word and a Proverb a gazing-stock and an hissing and an astonishment to all that pass by and that have caused the ears of all to tingle that have heard but the rumour and report of what the righteous hand of God hath brought upon us O let 's never think of taking up our former sins and closing with them again after that God hath thus declared his anger against us for them and by such terrible effects of highest displeasure done almost whatsoever could be done to imbitter them to us and disingage us from them But besides all this to set our hearts at a greater remoteness from those sins let 's also make use of those other Considerations which this Scripture affords us 2 Therefore though God hath severely handled us yet he hath in wrath remembred mercy and punished us less than our iniquities deserve If we take a true estimate of his dealings with us we cannot chuse but discern much lenity and moderation much tenderness and compassion to have been mingled with his severity and that in many respects 1. He that turned your Houses into ashes and rubbish and took away a great part of your substance might have taken away all and left you nothing 2. He might by the same terrible Fire that deprived you of your Estate have also deprived you of your Children and dearest Relations The loss of one Child in such a way of terrible Providence would have troubled you more and have gone nearer your heart than the loss of all your Estate 3. It might have been your own lot to have perished in the flames God that mercifully spared you and rescued you from the violence of the fire might by it have hurried you out of this World into Hell and sent you from one fire to another This fire was terrible but the unquenchable fire of Hell had been much more terrible 4. Though you had escaped the fire and been as a Brand pluckt out of the burning yet such impressions might the fright and danger you were in have left upon you that you might have lost the use of your Reason and have been as a Child or Ideot all your days 5. God might have made such impressions of his Wrath upon your spirit by that terrible Judgment as you might never have been rid of them but have carried them to your Grave You might have been not only a terror to your self but Magor Missabib a terror to all about you as long as you had lived How mercifully and favourably hath God treated you amid his greatest Severities seeing none of these things have befallen you or any of yours O then go one step further with Ezra in the Text and say After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and seeing thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve should we again break thy commandments 3. God was not only pleased to deal mercifully and compassionately with you in that heavy stroke punishing you less than your iniquities deserved not stirring up all his wrath nor suffering his whole displeasure to arise but he hath also since been very gracious and favourable kind and bountiful to you many ways 1. Immediately upon that dreadful stroke what rowlings of Bowels and tender Compassions did he cause in all the Countrey round about What speedy and plentiful Supplies in that difficult Season in that hour of your extream necessities did God move the hearts of people to send you in from every quarter Nobility and Gentry and Commonalty Towns and Villages in all the circuit round striving who should do most for you and whose Charity should come most speedily in for your present succour and relief What Moses saith of that signal night in which God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Exod. 12 4â— It is a night much to be observed to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations The same or the like may I say of that day of your distress when God in such a strange manner touch'd the hearts of all sorts of People with a tender sense of your sad and deplorable Condition and so enlarged their hearts and hands towards you for your relief and supplies 't is a day much to be observed to the Lord to give him the glory of that mercy 't is that day which deserves never to be forgotten by you or yours 2. How kind and gracious was God to you in the mild and favourable Winter-season that followed when many of the poorer sort were even housless and harbourless and when generally the Fewel that People had laid in for the Winter had been consumed by the fire What a gracious Providence of God towards you was it That when you had neither warm Houses nor provision of Fewel to defend you from the injuries of an hard Winter the Weather should be so mild and temperate as the like had seldom been known and that through his goodness to you you should less need those helps and defences against the cold which God had then deprived you of Should a severe and sharp Winter have followed the Fire it could scarce have been possible but that many must have perished before the Winter had been over 3. What Assistances and large
after the sharp and bitter Persecutions under the Reign of Queen Mary followed that blessed Sunshine of the Gospel and the peaceable and undisturbed Enjoyment thereof throughout all the long and prosperous or rather glorious Reign of Queen Elizabeth and the continuance of it to us ever since even to this day notwithstanding all the destructive Machinations wicked Plots and restless Attempts of the Enemy to deprive us of it and to put out our light in obscure darkness Now some of the reasons of this method of Divine Providence are these 1. It conduceth very much to the displaying and illustrating of the glory of God's Wisdom Power and Goodness who can so wonderfully change the most dark and dismal state of things who creates darkness and forms light Isa 45.7 Who turns the shadow of death into the morning as the Prophet speaks Amos 5.8 Who turns a Town into Ashes and Rubbish in the space of few Hours making it a place meet for Zim and Okim to take up their abode in the merciless Element where it raged scarce leaving a Lintel for the Cormorant or Bittern to lodge in or the remainders of a scorched Window to sing in And then again within the space of few years out of the Dust and Ashes to raise up a Town for the Accommodation of men and a Church for the Service of God and both with the addition of that beauty and lustre which had never been unless God had laid the Foundations of that change for the better in ruin and desolation All Beholders must needs acknowledge such admirable turns and vicissitudes of things to be the operation of his Hands who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working 2. By dark Providences by Troubles and Afflictions God fits and prepares us for Mercies Our Afflictions when sanctified humble us lay us low make us reflect upon our selves and consider our ways make us repent reform and turn to him that smiteth us and all this tends to the rendring us meet to be partakers of the Mercies which God hath in store for us For while we go on impenitently in a course of Sin blessings would be cursed to us and abuse of Mercies would increase our misery 3. Afflictions commend God's after-mercies and make them more sweet and acceptable to us as the darkness of the Night commends the light of the Morning A quiet and calm Season after a Storm how welcome how pleasant and delightsome is it Such is the unspeakable goodness of God that he so much consults our comfort as to order and dispose of the circumstances of our Mercies so as they may afford us most content and satisfaction 4. Great Troubles and Afflictions going before great Mercies dispose our Hearts to greater thankfulness for them When Mercies come in upon us in such a season and with such circumstances they greatly affect us and make deep impressions on our Hearts so as we think we can never be thankful enough we can never bless God sufficiently for them Now to apply this briefly The consideration of what hath been said concerning this method of God's Providence and the Reasons of it should perswade us and prevail with us to bear Afflictions meekly quietly and patiently and with that composedness calmness and evenness of Spirit which becomes Christians who are no strangers to the usual ways of God's Providence neither fretting against the Lord nor desponding or casting away our confidence in him Though it be night with you at present yet you may hope it will not be so always the day will return There is an interchangeable vicissitude of these Providences after darkness light breaks forth and the longer your night hath been the nearer are the approaches of the day wherefore in the most dark and disconsolate condition say with the Church of God Mic. 7.7 8 9. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness So I have done with the first thing the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah 2. I come now to the second Particular The Promise of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come The Desire of all Nations that is Christ the object of the desire of all Nations or whom all Nations shall desire But then this must be understood of some of all Nations of as many out of all Nations as are disposed to receive him though others perhaps the generality of some Nations may be so far from desiring him that they may hate him blaspheme his Name and persecute to the Death all that acknowledge him for their Saviour But if this sense be judged too strait then by the desire of all Nations we may understand the desireable of all Nations or he who hath that in him which should render him lovely and desirable to all Nations and in respect whereof all Nations may and should desire him and so far as they know him and understand their own interest will desire him This description or character of Christ is agreeable to what the Scriptures elsewhere say concerning him The Spouse having described him and set forth his Perfections and Excellencies saith He is the thiefest among ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And altogether lovely ver 16. And Jacob Prophetically speaking of him under the Name of Shiloh saith To him shall the gathering of the people be Gen. 49.10 That is all People and Nations out of an high esteem of him and an earnest desire after him shall flow in to him So God speaking of the coming in of the Gentiles to the Church in the Times of the Gospel and under the Kingdom of the Messiah saith Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Isa 49.22 In that day there shall be a root of Jesseâ— which shall stand for an ensign to the people to it shall the Gentiles seek Isa 11.10 Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles I will give him for a Covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles Isa 42.1 It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 Hence it is that the Church gathered out of all Nations is represented to St.
accompanied with some pleasure And so are sinful actions when custom hath made them familiar to us and given them as it were the stamp of Nature 'T is strange that a Man should be sensible of any pleasure or delight at all in some sins and yet through custom there is that content and complacency in them that it is as death to forsake them To sit in an obscure Ale-house and to be continually pouring in that which to a sober Man would be little better than a Potion to spend days and nights in a dark hole amidst the stink of Vomits and Spewings round about to the blasting of a Man's Reputation the impairing of his Health the mis-spending of his time and the wasting away of that which it may be Wife and Children want at home who would think there should be any content in such a Life And yet there are who by custom have made it so pleasurable to them that they prefer it before all the contents and satisfactions that a fair House a Table richly spread and the Society of their nearest Relations can afford them and whatever other advantages and accommodations might render their converse at home comfortable and delightsom If custom hath once made such base and dirty ways of sin pleasant you shall in vain tempt them out of them or indeavour to draw them off from them by the fairest and most taking proffers that you can make them 3. Custom in sin blinds the mind and corrupts the judgment so that a man ceaseth to be a competent judge of the nature of things and of the differences between good and evil By degrees he is besotted and comes to be in great measure deprived of the reason of a man so far hath sin darkened his understanding and weakened his Intellectuals for judging of Spiritual things He is given up to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 as the Apostle speaks he puts good for evil and evil for good light for darkness and darkness for light And when the light of reason is darkened and the Eye of the Soul is put out when the leading and governing Faculty of the Soul is thus depraved it must needs be a difficult thing to draw a man off from those ways the evil whereof he cannot discern nor will be apprehensive of 4. Custom in sin seareth the Conscience and draws such a callus or brawniness over it as it becomes insensible At first there is some tenderness of Conscience some reluctancy and shrinking back from those sins which after a frequent repetition and customary practice of them a man makes no bones of but smoothly swallows down He that at first durst not tell a Lie or if he were at any time overtaken was wont to be much troubled afterwards yet upon a customary practice of that sin will add Lies to Lies and stand to them most impudently and obstinately He that seemed to fear an Oath will through customary Swearing arrive at that degree of insensibleness that he will not stick to multiply Oaths and Perjuries also if need be and all this without any touch of remorse any gainsayings or grudgings of his Conscience Now when a Man through custom in sin comes to that pass that his Conscience is quiet and doth not either interpose before the commission of sin to hinder him or molest him and disturb his peace afterwards 't will be no easie matter to disengage him from that sin 5. Custom in sin doth consequently harden the heart against all means by which the Sinner should be reclaimed 1. It hardens the heart against the Word The threatnings thereof and all the most dreadful denunciations of Judgments make no impression upon such a Mans heart 't is as Steel or Adamant that will not yield or relent 2. Neither will the wholesome Counsels Advices or Admonitions of Friends and Christian Acquaintance work upon it He hath no sense of any thing which in that way is offered him for his good His Ears are stopt against the voice of the Charmer Charm he never so wisely 3. He is fortified with Armour of proof against all Providences by which he might be stopt in his course of sin or reduced from the Errour of his ways Let God oppose him in his sinful course let him hedge up his ways with Thorns or stand before him with a drawn Sword all is one on he will fearlesly and presumptuously and adventure himself upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler in Job's phrase 6. Custom in Sin emboldens Satan to tempt Where the Conscience is tender and the Heart is sensible of the evil and danger of Sin and where he hath been formerly resisted and repelled there if he tempt yet he doth it with less confidence of prevailing and with some degree of Cowardly Expectation of being worsted but where he hath to do with those who have been long accustomed to the Sin he would again draw them into he makes little question of prevailing as knowing well the searedness of their Consciences the hardness of their Hearts and their strong propensions to the sin unto which he is about to tempt them as also remembring how often his Temptations in the same kind have already been successful 7. By Custom in sin God is provoked to leave a Man to himself to the power of Satan and the efficacy of Temptation and in way of his righteous Judgment to give him up to a further degree of impenitency and hardness of heart VSE 1. Then let such as have been long accustomed to any ways of Sin take heed that they make not account it will be an easie matter to leave those ways You may be apt to think that you can come off from those your sinful courses at pleasure that 't is but take up Resolutions against them and you shall be disengaged and freed from them presently But herein you would much deceive your self 'T is not so easie a matter to deliver your self from the power of that sin which you have been so long accustomed unto When you address your self to endeavour to leave it you will find other work of it You may take up Resolutions upon Resolutions and yet you may be still where you were at first as much enslaved to your Sin as ever and as unable to resist any Temptation to it They must be strong and firm Resolutions and those frequently renewed that will stand you in stead where Sin hath by custom gotten such possession of you And besides you must look higher than your own Resolutions you must earnestly implore God's help against your self so miserably brought under and subjected to the power of Sin Never think to prevail against those Sins which Custom hath strengthened and confirmed in you without much Prayer to God great watchfulness over your self and diligence in the use of all other means whereby the power of Sin may be weakened VSE 2. You must therefore acknowledge it to be a great Mercy if you meet with Crosses and Afflictions in your sinful ways
well-furnished House and I shall not need to go far to shew you a poor man's Cottage and so on the contrary And indeed 't is needful it should so be for as I have just now shewed neither of them could be without the other 4. The rich and the poor meet together in respect of the care and good Providence of God that is alike extended to both They are both under the same gracious Providence that looks after provides for preserves safeguards and protects them both though in ways somewhat different The rich cannot say that God only regards them and fixeth the eye of his Providence on them alone neither can the poor complain that God disregards or neglects them The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 his mercy is over all his works And so far is he from having denied the poor the benefit of his gracious Providence that in consideration of their destitute disconsolate and helpless condition he hath many ways expressed his particular and tender care of them above others as may elsewhere be shewed Many Laws he hath made in behalf of them many promises he hath made to them he hath laid many charges on the rich to be helpful to them and made many promises also to encourage them thereunto 5. The rich and the poor meet together in the same possibility and capacity of exchanging Conditions with one another As the rich is capable of becoming poor so the poor is capable of being made rich The high Possessor of Heaven and Earth dispenceth outward things as he sees good and to whom he pleaseth He can fill the hand of the poor and empty the hand of the rich whensoever he will He can reduce the rich to such a condition as that the same hand that was wont to give relief shall receive it and he can advance the poor to such a condition as that the same hand which received relief shall give it Such strange turns of God's Providence we often see God according to his good pleasure putteth down one and setteth up another Psal 75.7 He raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with princes even the princes of his people Psal 113.7 8. And he maketh those that were brought up in scarlet to imbrace dunghills Lam. 4.5 And this leads me to the second Proposition The Lord is the maker of them all Which when I shall also have spoken unto I shall then make application of both together This latter Proposition may also be diversly understood The rich and the poor may be considered either as men or as distinguished from one another by the different adjuncts of Riches and Poverty Now take them under which of these two Considerations you please the Lord is the maker of them both 1. If you consider them both as men so God is the maker of them all And this whether we look back to the first origine of Mankind or whether we consider them as taking their beginning from their more immediate Parents If we look unto the Rock whence we were all hewen and to the Pit whence we were digged if we look back to our first Parents Adam and Eve in them we all came out of the hands of God by creation he framed the first man out of the dust of the Earth and the first Woman out of the Rib of Man and breathed into them the breath of life endued them both with an immortal Soul In this Divine Original in the honour of this miraculous beginning the poor man hath an equal interest with the rich man the rich cannot claim nearer kindred to Adam and Eve than the poor the poor can call Adam Grandfather and Eve Grandmother by as good right as the rich Again if we consider them with relation to their more immediate Parents as they derive their beginning from them setting aside for the present the external and accidental considerations of Riches and Poverty Honour and Dishonour and the like which will come to be spoken of afterwards so God is the maker of them both neither hath the Rich and Noble considered merely as a Man any preeminence in his birth above the poor and ignoble They both are alike fearfully made Psal 139.14 15 16. and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth that is in their Mother's Womb In God's book were all the members of them both written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And when the Body was by the concurrence of admirable Wisdom and Power fitted to receive and entertain the Soul and made a meet Receptacle and Instrument for so excellent a Being God infused the Soul into the Body by his immediate Almighty Power giving it a being out of nothing and in a wonderful manner far transcending our apprehension united the one to the other And all this expence of Wisdom and Power he equally bestows upon the Rich and the Poor And then they both endure the same confinement and imprisonment in the Womb the Infant of the rich and Noble hath no more room there nor is it sooner at liberty than the Infant of the Beggar And so at the length the same Wisdom Power and Goodness sends them both alike into the World the Infant of the meanest the lowest doth not put the Mother to more pains in the birth than the Infant of the highest it may be to a great deal less And how different soever their entertainment is when they are come into the World yet God sends them both into it alike the Infant of the Prince that sits upon the Throne is as naked and shiftless as the Infant of the poorest that imbraceth Dunghills And thus we have seen that God is the maker of them both considered as men and that as such God makes the rich and the poor alike putting no disserence between them nor being at any greater expence of Wisdom and Power in making of the one than he is in making of the other 2. If the rich and the poor be considered as they are distinguished by those adjuncts of Riches and Poverty so likewise God is the maker of them both 'T is God's Providence that puts these external Differences between men The Lord maketh poor 1 Sam. 2.7 and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up as Hannah sings 'T is neither by chance nor by man's skill or industry alone that men become rich but by the blessing of God upon skill and industry and his over-ruling Providence that gives out and distributes these things by no other rule than the good pleasure of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill Eccles 9.11 It is God that giveth men power to get wealth Deut. 8.18 This we see by
how much they put it farther off from themselves 2. When Changes come upon Men that had no expectation of them and that made sure account they were in no danger they are surprized with them and the Surprizal makes them the more grievous to them Quest But you will say Though none no not the highest be exempted from being subject to Changes yet may not something be done towards the preventing of Changes and securing our selves against them Answ I answer Though nothing that can be done can absolutely secure the highest against Changes yet there are some things that do very much conduce towards Mens Safety and Security and they are these that follow 1. Humility To have a low and humble Heart in a high Condition is both a great Ornament and a great Security to a Man Solomon saith Prov. 29.23 A Man's Pride shall bring him low but Honour shall uphold the humble in Spirit And St. James saith out of Solomon also though with some little Alteration Jam. 4.6 Prov. 16.18 God resisteth the Proud but giveth Grace unto the Humble Pride goeth before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a Fall And again Before Destruction the Heart of Man is haughty Prov. 18.12 and before Honour is Humility I shall add but one Place more which shall be Job 40.10 11 12. where God himself speaking to Job and setting before him for his Humiliation God's incomparable Greatness and transcendent Excellencies manifested in the Effects of his Power Wisdom and Goodness saith Deck thy self now with Majesty and Excellency and array thy self with Glory and Beauty cast abroad the Rage of thy Wrath and behold every one that is proud and abase him Look on every one that is proud and bring him low In which Words God tells Job what he is wont to do and bids him do the like if he be able thereby to convince him of the infinite Distance between God and him But that which is to my present Purpose is that God here makes his casting abroad the Rage of his Wrath and his beholding every one that is proud that he may abase him and his looking upon every one that is proud that he may bring him low an Instance of the great Works of God's most wise powerful and righteous Providence So then this is the constant Course of his Providence to behold and abase whoever is proud and he is said to cast abroad the Rage of his Fury when he doth it to note the high Indignation that he hath against that Sin Prov. 6.16 17. which therefore is said to be an Abomination to him These six things doth the Lord hate yea seven are an Abomination to him A proud Look a lying Tongue and Hands that shed innocent Blood c. So then a proud Look is in Solomon's Catalogue the first of those Sins that are an Abomination to the Lord. By these Scriptures it is apparent that the Sin of Pride is most hateful and abominable in the sight of God that he casts his Eyes about and beholds every one that is proud that he may abase him and bring him low that he resisteth the Proud and sets himself against him but supports and upholds the humble in Spirit Wherefore I say if such as are high would prevent a Fall they must be humble 2. They must acknowledg the free Bounty and Goodness of God in what they are or have above others and give him the Glory of it They must not think that they shine in a higher Orb and have more of the World than others have because they are better and have deserved more at the Hands of God than others but reckon that they owe all to the pure and undeserved Mercy of God which alone hath distinguished them from him that is clothed with Rags and begs his Bread from Door to Door Thus Jacob professed himself unworthy of all that God had done for him and conserred on him I am not worthy of the least of all the Mercy Gen. 32.10 and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant And so David in an humble sense of his utter Unworthiness of what God had done for him cries out 1 Chron. 17.16 Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Your acknowledging God in what you are and have and your giving him the Glory of it is one good Mean for obtaining the continuance of what you enjoy for God delights to do good to them that humbly and thankfully acknowledg his Goodness But when you take no notice of God in what you enjoy when you give him not your humble and thankful Acknowledgments thereof and ascribe all to his his free Mercy then are you in the ready way to be deprived of whatever you have received at his Hands Thus when God's People did not know that is did not thankfully acknowledg that God gave them Corn and Wine and Oil and multiplied their Silver and Gold then he threatned to take away his Corn in the time thereof Hos 2.8 9. and to recover from them his Wool and his Flax which he had given them to cover their Nakedness Our humble and thankful Acknowledgment of God in what we have is the Tribute and Homage the high Rent as it were which he expecteth from us and when this is not duly paid him we forfeit all into his Hands 3. If such as are in Place of Eminency above their Brethren and are intrusted with a larger Portion of the good things of this World than others have would prevent a Fall and obtain at the Hands of God the continuance of these his Mercies to them they must make a good use of what they excel others in and of what they are intrusted with above their Brethren Hath God placed them in a higher Sphere above their Brethren Hath he made them the Head and not the Tail Let them use their Power not to crush and oppress their Inferiours but to strengthen support and uphold them Hath God richly furnished them with a plentiful Portion of outward Things Let them make a sober and temperate use of them themselves and be helpful to others out of that Abundance which God hath blessed them with This is the way to secure to themselves what through the Bounty and Goodness of God they are at present possessed of The liberal Man deviseth liberal things Isa 32.8 and by liberal things he shall stand This is one special Duty properly belonging to those whose Cup God hath made to overflow Charge them that are rich in this World 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy that they do good that they be rich in good VVorks ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in Store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life But when
take off our Hearts from Sin and make us willing to leave it How should it humble and abase us and cause us even to loath our selves that we should have such wicked and vile Natures that we should be so disingenuous and that there should be such a cursed League between us and Sin that we should have so much Kindness and intire Friendship and Affection for Sin which is most odious to God and most destructive to our own Souls Vse 2. If Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God from whom they have gone astray when all other Means are ineffectual this should reconcile us to Afflictions and make us willing to submit to that spiritual Discipline which the most wise God thinks fit to train us up under for our Good Why should you murmur and fret against the Lord when his chastning Hand is upon you Why should your Heart rise against that wholsom and necessary Severity which he makes use of for reclaiming you Is there not a Cause Doth he not see that nothing else will prevail with you What would you have him do Would you have him let you alone and suffer you to perish in your Sins Be not so in love with your present East as to be unwilling to suffer a little here to prevent your suffering eternally in another World Be not so fondly foolishly irrationally and madly in love with Sin as to be averse from undergoing any thing whereby you may be delivered from the Power and Dominion of it Have not such mean low and unworthy Thoughts of the great and inestimable Mercy of being reduced from the Error of your Ways and brought home unto God as to think much of any Severity by which it may be effected Certainly if you judg Sin to be the greatest Evil and if you be really of the mind that 't is the greatest Happiness to be freed from it and to be at Peace with God and to be reconciled to him you will not think any Course harsh grievous and intolerable whereby it may be attained I now come to a more particular Consideration of what Manasseh did in his Affliction He besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him In which Words we are informed what Manasseh did First in general Terms He besought the Lord his God and then we are more particularly informed how he sought him namely by Humiliation and Prayer He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and he prayed unto him Concerning the Account in general of what Manasseh did in those words He besought the Lord his God I shall say nothing because there is nothing in those general Terms but what is comprehended in the following Particulars namely that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him First He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers In which Words there are three things considerable That he humbled himself That he humbled himself greatly and that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 1st He humbled himself But when was it that he humbled himself It was when God had first humbled him and not till then when God had delivered him into the Hands of his Enemies when God had caused him to be carried away captive to Babylon made him a Prisoner and put him in durance there from whence he knew not whether he should ever be released and set at liberty again Whence we may observe That proud stubborn and incorrigible Sinners will not humble themselves till God hath humbled them till by Afflictions he hath taken down their haughty Spirits and laid them low Wherefore you who turn the deaf Ear to all God's gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance and to all his severe Denunciations of Judgments would you prevent God's humbling you by those sharp and heavy Afflictions which would be very grievous to you then humble your selves betimes before he takes you in hand to humble you This is the best Course or rather the only Course that you can take for preventing God's humbling you 1 Cor. 11.31 for if we would judg our selves we should not be judged When Manasseh lay under God's afflicting Hand then he humbled himself The Time of Affliction is the most proper Season for Humiliation For 1. Then if ever we see our Sins our Afflictions open our Eyes make us look about us and help us to discover those our Miscarriages which before we would not own nor take notice of 2. Then the Heart is softned and touched with the sense of our Sins 3. Then also the Sinner begins to have a sense of God's Displeasure against him for his Sins By the Afflictions which the Hand of God hath laid upon him he perceives that God is angry with him which he was not in the least sensible of before he was afflicted Now all these things do not a little further our Humiliation Vse Let us therefore when Afflictions come upon us improve that Season for our Humiliation else all those Advantages will be lost Now if you ask how we are to be active in humbling our selves I answer 1. By making diligent search after our Sins by labouring to find them out and acquaint our selves with them And this is no easy Work considering our natural Blindness in spiritual things our Unwillingness to know the worst of our selves our Partiality to our selves and our Aptness to overlook our Sins 2. By using our best Endeavours to affect our Hearts with our Sins which is to be done by a serious Consideration of the Nature Quality and Aggravations of our Sins as also of the extreme Danger attending them and of the dismal Consequents of Sin unrepented of and the most fearful and eternal Wrath of God which it unavoidably exposeth the Sinner unto 3. By humble and affectionate Confession of our Sins unto God with our most earnest and importunate Supplications to him for the pardon and forgiveness of them 4. By judging our selves for them and by passing Sentence against our selves as those who have by our Provocations deserved to be disowned and cast off for ever and to be made the miserable Objects of God's fierce Indignation to Eternity 5. By taking up the most firm and stedfast Resolutions to cast off all our Transgressions for the time to come and as far as God shall be pleased by his Grace to enable us never to return to Folly any more Now followeth the second Particular He humbled himself greatly as he had been a very great and most heinous Sinner And hence we may farther observe That our Humiliation must be proportionable to the Nature and Quality of our Sins A little slight Humiliation for great and grievous Sins is in God's account next to no Humiliation at all Let not therefore such as have been guilty of great and horrid Sins think it is enough for them to have hang'd down their Heads as
and desperate Condition than which nothing could easily be more sad and rueful but notwithstanding all this God wonderfully appeared for him and rescued him out of his Misery And hence we may observe That there is no Condition so sad so disconsolate and so dismal but that God can afford a Man Relief therein and will do it if he be duly sought unto Jonah upon Prayer was delivered out of the Belly of Hell as he calls it Jonah 〈…〉 dark Prison or rather a Dungeon When the Israelites should by their Sins have so far provoked God as to be made the Objects of his fiercest Indignation and to be punished seven times and seven times and seven times more for their Iniquities yet after all this God promised them Mercy upon their sound Humiliation Lev. 26.40 41 42. and sincere Repentance So again when all the Curses of the Law should have overtaken and seized on that sinful People and when for their monstrous Provocations God should have dispersed them and scattered them amongst the Nations and driven them even to the uttermost Parts of the Earth yet if after all this they should return to the Lord and obey his Voice Deut. 30.2 3 4. he promiseth to turn their Captivity and to gather them out of all Places whither he had scattered them He is graciously pleased to assure them that if any of theirs should be driven out to the uttermost Parts of Heaven from thence would the Lord their God gather them and from thence would he fetch them There are two Branches of this Point 1. He can afford Relief in the most deplorable and desperate Cases for he is all-sufficient Gen. 17.1 He wants neither Wisdom nor Power to compass and work out the Deliverance of his People how forlorn or deplorable soever their Condition may seem to be 1st As for Wisdom He is the only wise God 1 Tim. 1.17 His Vnderstanding is infinite Psal 147.5 He knows how to deliver the Godly 2 Pet. 2.9 2dly His Power is equal to his Wisdom Nothing is impossible with God Luke 1.37 Nothing is too hard for him Gen. 18.14 He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think Eph. 3.20 He is never at a Loss though we be 2. As he can so he will afford Relief in all Cases if he be duly sought unto at least so far as shall be most for his own Glory and our real Benefit and Advantage For 1st The more sad any Man's Condition is the more ready is he to relieve him Psal 103.13 and the greater Compassion hath he for him Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him 2dly The more sad any Man's Condition is the more Glory will redound to God from relieving him Now to apply this in a Word The proper Use of this Point is to incourage us to look up to God and to be humble Petitioners to him for Relief in all our Distresses never despairing of obtaining Succour as long as we have such an one to have recourse unto But to go on with the Text which informs us that God was entreated of him and heard his Supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom He was entreated of him not only so as to release him out of Prison and to bring him back again into Jerusalem into his Kingdom but so as to pardon his great and hainous Provocations by which he had drawn that Misery upon himself for that Manasseh was a true Penitent we have all the reason to believe not only in regard that it is said of him that he humbled himself greatly but also that upon his Return to Jerusalem he took away the strange Gods and the Idol out of the House of the Lord and all the Altars that he had built and cast them out of the City and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel These were Fruits and Evidences of the Truth of his Repentance Now whereas such an one as Manasseh obtained the Pardon of his Sins we may observe That the greatest Sinners may find Mercy with God if they duly seek it This great Truth for such it will be deemed by all that are truly sensible of their Sins may be confirmed several ways 1. From Instances of such notorious Sinners as have upon their Repentance obtained the pardon of their Sins Instances whereof are 1. Manasseh here in the Text whose most hainous and abominable Provocations are at large described 2 Kings 21. 2 Chron. 33. 2. The Woman mentioned Luke 7.37 38. and so on to the end of the Chapter This Woman is there said to have been a Sinner that is a notorious and infamous Sinner one that was known to be a lewd and vitious Woman all the Town over insomuch that Simon the Pharisee who had invited Christ to his House took great offence at it that he should suffer a Woman of such ill Report to come near him as we may see ver 39. and yet this lewd and vicious Woman upon her sincere Repentance obtained the forgiveness of her Sins whereof our Saviour assures her ver 48. saying unto her Thy Sins are forgiven thee 3. The Thief on the Cross is another Instance of Mercy obtained at the Hands of God by a great Sinner upon his sound Humiliation and unfeigned Repentance Luke 23.40 41 42 43. 4. Another Instance hereof may be in those who are said to have used curious Arts Act. 19.19 that is who addicted themselves unto Magick and Judicial Astrology Many of these are said to have brought their Books together that is their Books of Magick and Judicial Astrology and to have burned them before all Men thereby testifying the truth of their Repentance upon which without all question they obtained the pardon of those their great and horrible Offences 5. Another Instance may be in those notorious Sinners a black Catalogue whereof we have 1 Cor. 6.9 10. namely Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners Concerning which monstrous and prodigious Offenders the Apostle adds v. 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The Sum of all is That as bad as they were and as notoriously wicked as they had been they obtained converting pardoning and sanctifying Grace 6. S. Paul may be another Instance hereof who though according to his own acknowledgment he had been a Blasphemer a Persecuter 1 Tim. 1.13 15. an injurious Person and the chief of Sinners yet upon his Repentance he obtained Mercy 7. Another Instance may be in those wicked Jews that crucified the Lord of Life three thousand whereof being converted by St. Peter's Sermon Acts 2.36 41. obtained the forgiveness of that horrid Sin 2. That great Sinners may upon sound and sincere Repentance obtain the pardon and
forgiveness of their Sins may be confirmed several other ways As 1. Because Mercy is promised to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Ezek. 18.27 28. 30.31 32. Mat. 12.31 2. Promises of Pardon made unto penitent and believing Sinners run in general Terms John 3.16 Mark 16.15 16. Acts 10.43 3. Christ invites all that feel the Burden of their Sins to come unto him promising them Ease and Refreshing if they come Mat. 11.28 John 7.37 38 Rev. 22.17 4. Christ expostulates with Sinners and complains that they come not to him for Mercy John 5.40 Mat. 23.37 5. He declareth and professeth that he will reject and put off none that shall come unto him John 6.37 Vse 1. This Truth is Matter of very great Encouragement to the chief of Sinners to come to Christ and to be humble Suitors to him for the pardon of their Sins They see that pardoning Mercy has been obtained by many of the greatest Sinners that the Promises of finding Mercy with God upon condition of Faith and Repentance run in general Terms excluding none that are so qualified they see that Christ most graciously invites all sorts of labouring and heavy-laden Sinners without exception to come unto him that he expostulates with Sinners and complains that they will not come unto him that they may have Life and lastly that he declareth and professeth that he will cast out none that come unto him that come unto him in a due manner and as they ought to come that is to say with unfeigned and sincere Repentance for their Sins past and with firm Resolutions and sincere Endeavours to cast off and forsake their Sins for the time to come Now what more can the greatest Sinners wish or desire to encourage them to seek Mercy at the Hands of God than that they may rest assured that they shall not lose their labour that they shall not seek him in vain but certainly obtain what they are Suitors to him for But here however they must be careful to seek him 1. Seasonably Isa 55.6 2 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 3.15 2. Earnestly and importunately this manner of seeking God is that which prevails with him especially when we seek unto him for so great a thing as is the forgiveness of our Sins Jer. 29.13 3. Abandoning forsaking and casting off all their Transgressions Ezek. 18.30 that Iniquity may not be their Ruine If thus they come unto Christ and seek Mercy at his Hands as hath been said before Christ will in no wise turn them off with a Repulse but assuredly and without fail entertain them graciously and give them to find Mercy with him in the pardon and forgiveness of their Sins But here desponding and discouraged Sinners be apt to object several things Object 1. Saith the Sinner that is deeply affected and sadly cast down with the sense of his Sins None ever obtained Mercy that sinned as I have done Answ 1. That is a very rash and unadvised Speech as I have elsewhere shewed at large Do you know all the Sins which all the penitent Sinners that ever found Mercy with God have been guilty of 2. Consider and ponder a little better the Instances before-mentioned Are your Sins greater than the Sins of Manasseh Are your Sins greater than the Sins of that Woman Luk. 7.37 38. who was notorious for her Lewdness all the City over Are your Sins greater than the Sins of all those foul and abominable Sinners which the Apostle reckons up 1 Cor. 6.9 10 3. If your Sins have been really greater than the Sins of any of these or all of them together yet are they greater than the boundless Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ Take heed how you entertain such a Thought 4. Are your Sins so great as that they are without the compass of all the Promises made to believing and penitent Sinners Far be it from you to harbour such black Thoughts concerning your Condition If you had upon you the Guilt of all the Sins that ever have been committed since the Fall of Adam to this day yet if you could sincerely repent of them all cast them all off and truly believe in Christ you might be sure of the pardon of them for so universal and unlimited of so large a compass and extent are the Promises of Mercy which are made to all believing and penitent Sinners that they would extend to them all and take them in This is so clear and evident that no Exception can be made against it unless by one that will be satisfied with nothing that can be laid before him or offered him for his Satisfaction Object 2. But I have run on so long impenitently and rejected so many Offers of Mercy that I fear there is no Mercy there can be none for me Answ 1. Doth not God call and invite such as well as others Are not his gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance general Are they any where restrained or clogged with any Limitations Are they any where narrowed and straitned with the exception of any sorts of Sinners whatsoever 2. How many of those in the Old Testament and in the New that had long gone on in a sinful Course impenitently obtained Mercy at length notwithstanding the long-continued Perseverance in their evil Ways 3. Do not the Promises of Mercy to be obtained by penitent and believing Sinners extend to such as well as unto others Where are they by any Scripture excluded from Mercy And if the holy Scriptures exclude them not why should they exclude themselves 4. Doth not our Saviour assure us that all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men upon their Repentance Mat. 12.31 for that is ever in this matter supposed though not expressed Now if all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall upon Repentance be forgiven unto Men then undoubtedly no truly humbled and sincerely penitent Sinners shall be denied the Forgiveness of their Sins how long soever and how obstinately soever they have gone on in their sinful Practices Object 3. But I fear I may not belong to the Election of Grace and if so then all my Endeavours to find Mercy with God would be fruitless Answ 1. You ought not to neglect your known Duty because you cannot dive into God's secret Decrees though you know not what God 's secret Counsels and Purposes may be concerning you yet he hath plainly and sufficiently revealed what your Duty is and what he requires of you in order to your Salvation It concerns you therefore not to trouble your Mind about God's secret Purposes concerning you but to apply your self with all holy Diligence to the conscientious Performance of your Duty and so doing to cast your self upon the free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Secret things belong unto the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but things revealed belong to us and to our Children that we may do them 2. If you perform your Duty as you ought God will be
Why doth a living Man complain a Man for the Punishment of his Sins So long as there is no Evil that in this World befals a Man but what hath Relation to Sin and must be looked upon as a just Punishment thereof what reason hath any Man living to complain as if he were hardly dealt with But then to the end we may not mistake the meaning of the Words we must consider what kind of Complaint is here condemned In our Afflictions some sorts of complaining are allowed us yea some Complaining is so far from being unlawful that 't is our Duty 1st It is lawful to express what we feel and suffer in those ways which Nature it self I speak not now of sinful and depraved Nature prompts unto us So Groanings and Sighings and louder Outcries sometimes in Extremity of tormenting Pain are but as it were the Voice of Nature thus making Discovery of its Pressures and as it were endeavouring to ease it self And no doubt but there is some little Relief in that kind of Complaint for Nature would be more oppress'd if it always stifled and suppress'd its Inclinations to give Vent to its Anguish by complaining And moreover the Strength of Nature would be sooner wasted and spent if so much of it must be always exerted and put forth to the utmost to keep in and imprison its Sorrows We see God hath furnished unreasonable living Creatures at least many of them with some kind of natural Language whereby the Creature is able to complain when it suffers And as for Man what is purely natural to him cannot be any part of his Sin for the Creator never infused Sin or any Principle of sinful Depravation and Irregularity into any of his Creatures What I have now said may be of use to some who in Extremity of Anguish and bodily Pain are troubled at those Complaints which they cannot but give way to and are apt to charge them on themselves as their Sin There may be Complaints and such as have a special Accent upon them there may be loud Cries and yet no Sin in all this David speaks of his roaring Psal 22.1 and so again Psal 32.3 But though he roared all the day long as in the Place last mentioned yet we cannot thence necessarily infer that he was impatient He was a holy and a patient Man who being often enforced to cry out through the Sharpness of his exquisite Pain said Though I roar yet I do not murmur You may cry out and it may be roar also from the Anguish of your Pain and yet it 's possible there may not be the least sinful Discomposure of your Spirit or rising of your Heart against God so laying his Hand upon you 2dly We may lawfully and freely complain to those that are about us to our Friends Relations and Acquaintance we may lay open our Griefs and represent our Sufferings to the full with all the Circumstances of them when and where there is just Occasion And this may be very necessary and beneficial both in reference to them and our selves For besides the present easing of our Hearts by this Discovery of our Troubles we hereby make them sensible of our Condition and kindle in them those Compassions towards us which our present Condition calls for we stir them up to Prayer for us and give them occasion of exercising all those Graces which the Afflictions of others call forth and imploy But here we must take heed that in our Complaints we make not our Afflictions greater than they are that we aggravate them not beyond the just Measures and true Weight of them a thing too ordinary with the Afflicted especially in some Cases 3dly We may in our Afflictions complain to God also as well as to Men. 'T is our Duty to spread our Condition before him imploring that Relief from him which his Hand alone is able to reach forth unto us Not as if he were ignorant of our Estate or Concernments but he would have us so to manifest that we are sensible of his Hand upon us and that we have no Expectation of Relief from any else but him 4thly The Servants of God have not only a Liberty of making their Complaints to God in their Afflictions but also of humbly expostulating with him about them provided that it be done in a due manner and so as the Distance between God and his Creature be observed We have frequent Examples hereof in Scripture Sometimes holy Men expostulate with God concerning the Grievousness and Severity of their Afflictions Sometimes concerning the Length and Duration of them sometimes concerning the Instruments which God makes use of to correct them sometimes concerning his seeming to cast off all Care of them in their Afflictions neither minding their Sufferings nor regarding their Prayers Is my Strength the Strength of Stones and is my Flesh of Brass saith Job chap. 6.12 Why hast thou set me as a Mark against thee so that I am a Burden to my self Job 7.20 How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy Face from me saith David Psal 13.1 O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry against the Prayer of thy People Psal 80.4 Where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the Sounding of thy Bowels and of thy Mercies towards me Are they restrained So expostulated the Church with God Isa 63.15 Wherefore doth the way of the VVicked prosper and wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously said the Prophet Jeremiah chap. 12.1 But though the Servants of God take the Boldness thus to expostulate with God yet they do not charge him foolishly or lay any Imputation of Unjustice or inequitable Rigour on his Providences unless when they are under some present Distemper as sometimes it may seem to have been with Job and the Prophet Jeremiah They evermore when in their proper and right Frame ascribe Righteousness to their Maker and the meritorious Cause of all their Sufferings to themselves And so in those darker Providences in which they could not discern the Reasons of God's Dispensations or the Equity of his Proceedings yet they still adhered to this as a Principle not to be questioned that God was Righteous This the Prophet Jeremiah when about to expostulate with God addresseth himself thereunto with this Preface Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments And then he goes on with the Expostulation before-mentioned VVherefore doth the way of the VVicked prosper and wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously So the Prophet Habakkuk also makes the like Preface to his Expostulation Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer Eyes saith he than to behold Evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Wherefore lookest thou on them that deal treacherously and holdest thy Tongue when the VVicked devoureth the Man that is more righteous than he And the same holy Frame of Spirit should there be in us
than against your self A due Sense of your Sin and of the Dishonour you have done to God thereby would make you even out of an holy Indignation and Revenge against your self humbly and patiently to submit to the utmost of that Severity which God is pleased to exercise towards you 5. Remember how ill God took it from his People the Jews that they complained the Way of the Lord was not equal which is in effect your Complaint Concerning this he complains and expostulates with them Ye say Ezek. 18.25 The Way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O House of Israel Is not my VVay equal Are not your VVays unequal And so again ver 29. And then he adds ver 30. Therefore will I judg you O House of Israel every one according to his VVays saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your Transgressions so Iniquity shall not be your Ruine As if he had said Whereas ye complain of the Inequality of my Dealings with you unless you repent I will destroy you all and then you will have little Cause to complain of my inequal Dealings They who complain of the Inequality of God's dealing with them had need take heed lest God lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet as he threatens Isa 28.17 Lest he lay heavier things upon them lest he bring such Judgments on them as shall come up more nearly to the Measures the Proportion and Demerits of their Sins How much soever they have suffered God may yet lay much more upon them and yet still punish them much less than their Iniquities deserve 6. Whereas you complain that God deals more severely with you than with many others think with your self 1st That 't is possible your Sins may have been greater than the Sins of such as you have in your Eye greater in respect of the Circumstances and Aggravations of them It may be they never sinned against so much Light and so many clear Convictions against such Mercies and so many Discoveries of God's Love against so many Warnings and gentler Chastisements against so many severer Stroaks when milder Courses would not prevail Can you wonder at it that God deals more severely with you than with others if upon Examination it should be found that your Sins have been greater than theirs 2dly It may be God intends you more Good than many others By sorer Afflictions he means to make you better and so much the better as your Afflictions have been and are greater His Chastnings though severe are no Evidences of his Hatred but Fruits of his Love and of his Purpose to do your Soul much Good by them for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Prov. 3.12 even as a Father doth the Son in whom he delighteth 3dly What if the time for correcting some others be not yet come even they who have been hitherto spared or been dealt very gently with may hereafter if milder Remedies do no good be as severely dealt with as you have been God takes his own Time and makes use of his own Methods for disciplining all his and some he sees good to handle after one manner some after another as to his Wisdom seems best 4thly What if some of those who are for the present spared should be reserved to the Judgment of the last Day while you are chastned here that you may not be condemned with the World hereafter God may spare some others in Anger and correct you in Mercy for his forbearing to punish is sometimes no Fruit of his Favour but an Effect of his highest Displeasure according to that Psal 81.11 12. My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own Hearts Lust Object 3. But my Troubles are long and tedious saith another there is no End of them I have been waiting and waiting for Deliverance but it comes not I see others in Trouble and I see them come well out of it but my Feet stick fast in the Mire Answ To this I answer 1. That it is not your Case alone Did not the People of God take up the like Complaint The Harvest is past Jer. 8.20 the Summer is ended and we are not saved The time when we expected Deliverance is over and yet we are still where we were our Afflictions are still lengthened out Was there not a time when Zion said Isa 49.14 The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Was there not a time when David after he had been long praying for Deliverance and waiting Psal 69.3 said I am weary of my crying my Throat is dried mine Eyes fail while I wait for my God Wherefore have no hard Thoughts of God much less give way to murmuring against him who deals no otherwise with you than he often deals with many of his own 2. Is not the Cause of God's respiting your Deliverance in your self Are not you still unfit for Mercy and is not that the true reason why you have it not God delighteth in Mercy Mich. 7.18 He waiteth to be gracious Isa 30.18 How ready God is to shew Mercy to us when we are ready and prepared to receive it he hath declared in the most pathetical way of Expression Psal 81.13 16. O that my People had hearkned unto me and that Israel had walked in my VVays I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The Haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them with the finest of the VVheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee And to the same Purpose is that Isa 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the VVaves of the Sea So then we may thank our selves that in our Afflictions we wait so long for Deliverance Our Mercies never meet with any Obstructions in God but in our selves We by our Continuance in Sin by our Remisness and Slackness in the Work of sound Humiliation and Reformation retard and set back our Mercies and then we complain and murmur as if God were slack and unmindful of his Promises as if he were hardly drawn to shew Mercy 3. Deliverance out of Trouble is of God's free Grace we cannot challenge it at his Hands We bring our selves into Trouble by our Sins and he may justly leave us to perish in our Troubles He therefore who doth all that he doth for us out of free Mercy may take his own time to do it when he pleaseth Is it fit that we who are unworthy of any good thing who can demand nothing of him should prescribe Times and Seasons to him and as if we required a Debt of him set him a Day when he should shew Mercy 4. His own Time is the best Time It may seem long to us that we
hath justly made you to be lightly esteemed 2. Compare your self with the Rule lay the Law of God before you and try your self thereby in reference to all the several Branches thereof By the Law comes the Knowledg of Sin Rom. 3.20 And here rest not in Generalities but descend to Particulars Take an Account of your self and make Enquiry wherein you have declined or swerved from any part of that Duty which God requires of you He that lays any one of God's Laws before him taking only the general Letter of it as 't is express'd in the Commandment may think he hath not much failed of the Performance of what the Law requires yea perhaps he may be ready to justify himself saying with the young Man in the Gospel Mat. 19.20 All this have I kept from my Youth And yet when he comes to look more narrowly into the several Parts of his Duty contained under that Law he may find he hath offended many Ways and that he hath not only come far short of exact Conformity to the Rule but failed more or less in almost every thing that the Law requires excepting only those fouler Acts of Sin which in the Letter of some of the Commandments are by Name forbidden 3. In this Search be sure that you avoid that common Error of heeding and looking after Sins of Commission only little or not at all regarding Sins of Omission Though we make light of our Omissions yet they may be such as God may be highly provoked by them To neglect Prayer in your Family and the Instruction of those that are under your Charge may be small Sins in your Account and scarce worth the taking notice of But they are not so in God's Account He sees that the Omission of these Duties is the ready way to bring upon us a Deluge of Profaneness Irreligion and Atheism and that they who make no Conscience of these Duties do in effect say unto God Depart from us they do what in them lies to banish God not only out of their Families but out of the Land For if these Duties should be as shamefully neglected by all as they are by some and those too many what would become of our Posterity in the next Generation Would not the whole Face of the Land be covered with Darkness as thick as that of Egypt And what would attend that Darkness but all manner of Ungodliness and Debauchery the inseparable Consequents of Ignorance The total Omission of secret Prayer you may think is no great Matter so long as you sometimes in publick or private join with others in that Duty but God hath other Thoughts of it he knows that all your other Services as by you performed are little better than mere Formalities as long as you neglect secret Duties He knows the great Consequence of keeping up a constant Course of secret Prayer and that without it 't is impossible that either your Heart or Conversation should be ordered aright He knows that the very Life and Vigour of all other Duties depends on this The Neglect of shewing Mercy to those that are afflicted you may think is no great Matter so long as you do no Man any Wrong but God lays more Stress upon such Omissions than you do his righteous Sentence is He that hath no Pity for others Pro. 21.13 Jam. 2.13 shall have none himself He shall have Judgment without Mercy that hath shewed no Mercy The Neglect of some one publick Ordinance as the Lord's Supper for example you may think is a thing that God takes little notice of so long as you give your constant Attendance on other Ordinances but you consider not how much Evil and Danger there is in the deliberate and wilful Omission of any known Duty and such is this For such an Omission as this was Moses in Danger of losing his Life Exod. 4.24 25 26. for neglecting to circumcise his Son the Lord met him took hold of him and sought to kill him neither would he let him go till Zipporah his Wife had taken a sharp Stone and cut off the Foreskin of her Son Neither may you think that any colourable Excuse that you may pretend you have for Neglect of a Duty or an Ordinance will bear you out Moses in Probability might have pleaded something for his Excuse his Wife Zipporah as it seems by her Carriage was extreamly averse from having her Son circumcised so that Moses could not do it but there would be a Breach between them there would be no Quiet in the Family This Consideration had been somewhat if the thing had been of an indifferent Nature and not a Matter of Duty but where God's express Command was That every Male-child should be Circumcised this Excuse could not justify Moses his Neglect Look well to it that your Excuses be good by which you would defend your absenting your self from any Ordinance of God It had need be a strong and a clear Ground on which you go when you shall willingly and upon Deliberation wave an express Ordinance of God But this by the way 4. Think not you have done enough if you have been searching within and round about you near at hand if you have with some Diligence enquired how Matters are with you at present or have been of late but look farther off and survey the former part of your past Life God may call to remembrance Sins long since committed and chasten you for them Thus God brought a Famine of three Years continuance upon the Israelites 2 Sam. 21.1 for Saul's Cruelty against the Gibeonites though Saul had then been dead many Years Yea God may chasten you for old Sins though you have long since left them and this for several Reasons 1st Though you have left them yet it may be that you never truly repented of them A Man may break off the Practice of some Sins because they consist not with his temporal Advantage or his Credit or his worldly Designs and Interest Upon such Considerations as these a Man may have forsaken some particular Sins though he never hated them nor was truly humbled for them 2dly A Man may have truly repented of his Sin he may have been truly humbled for it and forsaken it and yet he may still want some Degrees of that thorow Humiliation which God expecteth 3dly Former Sins long since committed and forsaken may now be almost forgotten at least they may not be remembred with that fresh and lively Sense of the great Evil and Hainousness of them with that mourning over them and loathing of our selves for them as heretofore 4thly God may see that you are in Danger of returning to those Sins again that you have long since forsaken and verily thought your self at so great a distance from them as you should never have any Inclination to commit them again So then 't is possible that God may afflict you for old Sins long since forsaken upon some worldly Consideration that he
may bring you to sound Repentance for them or that he may more throughly humble you for the Sins that you have truly repented of or that he may thereby rub up and renew the Remembrance of former Sins and therewith also renew your former Sorrow and loathing of your self for those Sins which Time and Forgetfulness and carnal Security have almost worn out and lastly that he may prevent your Relapses into the same Sins Thus you see that God may have many Reasons to correct you for former Sins and therefore that if you will find out the Sin for which he chastens you it will sometimes concern you to cast your Eye far back and take a View of those your former Sins which you have long ago quitted and relinquished 5thly This searching and trying your Ways is a Work that must be often repeated and that not only in regard that you every Day contract new Guilt and run afresh in Arrears with God but because your former Sins may not be discovered presently though you search after them with some good measure of Care and Diligence When we search after a thing which much concerns us to find though we light not on it at first yet we search a second and a third time and will not easily give over searching until we have found it You have been making Search after the Sin for which God afflicts you and you cannot find it you are still in the dark and cannot understand God's Intentions in laying his Hand upon you But search yet once more yea a third and a fourth time if need be you may light on that at last which you have often overlook'd Whatever the Issue of your Enquiry be you will not lose your Labour He who digged up all his Vineyard in hope to find the Treasure which he had been told was hid there though he found not the Treasure he look'd after yet he had it in another kind which he expected not the loosening and mellowing of the Earth brought him in a more plentiful Vintage the next Year If by your Search you should not at last discover any one particular Sin which you can think God aimed at in the Affliction which he hath laid upon you yet you may light on somewhat else which may requite your Pains If no other Benefit accrue to you yet the Satisfaction you have in having used so much Diligence in reviewing the former Passages of your Life will be a sufficient Recompence of the Trouble you have been at therein But yet this is not all there are divers other certain Advantages which redound to us from taking a view of our former Sins and which if it be done in a due manner we never fail of attaining though we find not the particular Sin which we look'd after It makes us more humble it raiseth our Esteem and Valuation of Christ it fills us with Admiration of the free Grace and rich Mercy of God in pardoning so many and so great Sins it inflames our Love and increaseth our Thankfulness to God and it quickens us to more Care and Watchfulness to a more constant and serious Endeavour of sincere and universal Obedience for the time to come Now though it be most seasonable to search and try our Ways in time of Affliction yet there are also some other special Seasons for this Duty As 1. At any time when we are in any great Fear or Danger then though God doth not yet strike us yet he shakes his Rod over us and therefore to prevent what may be coming upon us and to avert those Evils which we fear there can be noâ— better Course than that we make a through Search after those our Sins for which God seems to threaten us 2. After a Man hath fallen into any great Sin Such Falls do for the most part fore-run some Affliction and make for the present a Breach between God and us For the closing up of which Breach and renewing of our Peace with God it will concern us not only to be humbled for that particular Sin but to make diligent Enquiry after such other Sins as may interpose between God and us and deprive us of the Light of his Countenance and the Sense of his Love 3. When we are in Expectation of or Suitors unto God for any special Mercy For considering that our Sins separate between God and us and withhold good things from us nothing can be more seasonable or necessary than that when we are waiting on God for any special Favour we carefully search and try our Ways that no Sin may hinder our Mercies obstruct the Passage of them to us or blast the Means which we make use of for obtaining them 4. Before our more solemn and extraordinary Approaches unto God as namely before our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord. God will be sanctified in all our Approaches unto him but especially in our most solemn Approaches And in particular as concerning our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord a more than ordinary Search into our selves at that time is in several Respects seasonable 1. In regard of the express Command of God 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. 2. In regard of the great Danger of coming unworthily He that eateth and drinketh unworthily Ver. 29. eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself Now unless a Man search and try his Heart and Ways how can he know whether he be an unworthy Receiver or no He must needs run a great Hazard who comes Hand over Head before he hath enquired into himself whether he be a meet Guest for the Table of the Lord or not Yea 't is very much to be feared that he who is so careless as that he never enquires into his Fitness comes unpreparedly and eats and drinks unworthily 3. In regard of the great Benefits which we shall reap thereby and the Usefulness thereof in relation to the Sacrament 1st In that Ordinance we are to bewail and mourn over our Sins we must come to it with godly Sorrow for them And how can that be unless we know them And how can we come to know them unless we search after them 'T is the reviewing of our Actions that sets before us the Sins for which we are to be humbled and affects our hearts with them 2dly We are at that Ordinance to renew our Covenant with God and to take up fresh Resolutions of cleaving to him with full purpose of Heart for the future And what is more conducing hereunto than that we by a narrow Search into our selves be informed how and wherein we have departed from God and broken Covenant with him 3dly We are there to act Faith on Christ for the Pardon of our Sins and we there expect to have the Pardon of them sealed unto us in both which Respects it is then most seasonable and requisite that we should look back and take a Survey of
may have reflected more Dishonour upon the Name of God than many of those Sins in others which have otherwise had much more Flagitiousness and Enormity in them And as for the latter sort who may seem to have gained by their Losses If that be the Condition of any amongst us let them not be too forward thence to conclude their Innocency God may pull down in Anger and wound in highest Displeasure and yet such is his admirable Goodness and Compassion that he may anon repent him of the Evils which he hath for our Sins most justly brought upon us and with Advantage rebuild what he had pulled down and so fully heal the Wounds that he had made as to leave us in a better Condition of Health and Strength than he found us in God by the Prophet Ezekiel foretelling the Return of the Israelites from Babylon and their Re-establishment in their own Land promised to settle them after their old Estates and to do better unto them than at their beginning Ezek. 36.11 Now what think you Might they when God had made good this Promise thence infer that God was never angry with them for their Sins and that their Sufferings in Babylon were never intended as their Punishment Their Case may be yours God hath it may be since the Fire dealt better with you than at the beginning you are in some Respects perhaps in a better Condition than formerly perhaps your Trade is doubled Will you therefore now wipe your Mouths and say you were innocent you never offended God so as to have had any Hand in procuring his Judgments to be poured out upon this Place Far be it from you to draw such a proud Conclusion from God's gracious Providence towards you Though God hath not only built you up again but adorned and beautified you and advanced you to a more splendid Condition than before yet cease not you still to acknowledge and give glory to the righteous hand of God in pulling you down and emptying you Amid all your present Mercies and Advantages be you still found putting your mouths in the dust loathing and abhorring your selves for your evil ways and from your hearts professing That as you were most justly pluckt down so you might still as justly have lain in Ruins and Ashes and have been made perpetual Desolations as God once threatned the Land of the Chaldaeans Jer. 25.12 a place never to be inhabited any more And so much concerning the second thing observable from this first aggravation of their sins The Third Particular thence observable is That to return to sin after we have been severely punished for it and grievously smarted for it doth much heighten our sin and render it much more provoking in the sight of God This is clearly implied in the form of speech which Ezra useth After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass should we again break thy commandments As if he had said This were a provocation of an high nature far be it from any of us to be guilty of it There are these three things that greaten and aggravate our sins committed against God and notwithstanding former great Severities against those our sins 1. To sin again in the same kind after that we had grievously smarted for sin argues a great degree of hardness of heart The scalled Child dreads the fire and the very bruit Beasts are afraid of medling with that for which they have been soundly beaten And were there any tenderness upon the heart of man he would not again easily be drawn to venture on that which he hath already paid so dearly for 2. It argues an heart strongly ingaged to sin and desperately bent after it which no former Severities will restrain or hold in It shews a man is mad in love with sin that will out after it whatever it cost him 'T is as much as if he said 'T is true I have already tasted of the bitter fruits of sin I can tell by experience what 't will cost me But however I must please my self I must gratify my sinful desires my sensual and brutish Lusts and I will I am resolved to do it come what will of it 3. It argues a slighting of the Anger and Displeasure of the Almighty and a contempt of his Rod. Herein a man's carriage towards God is like that of a stubborn and incorrigible Child against him that chastens him Though you make him smart he cares not correct him as long as you will he is still the same and will do what he pleaseth do you what you will or can to reclaim him Take heed of this aggravation of your sins you who have been Sufferers by the Fire and all you who have any other way been severely handled for your sins Beware how you have any more to do with those sins against which the fierce indignation of the Lord hath been so discovered and his Word as it were revealed from Heaven Keep at the greatest distance from those Sins come not near the Borders or Confines of them run away from all temptations to them And that you may be preserved from them 1. Labour to know what they be 'T is now a good while since the dreadful Fire though you were then in a miserable hurry full of dread distractions and confusions so as you had scarce the command of your own thoughts though then you had not so much sedateness and composedness of spirit nor so much freedom and liberty as to sit down and consider as to reflect and enquire into your self as to call your self to an account and find out the causes of God's fierce Indignation yet since you have had time enough to do it Have you done it Have you gotten a sight of all those your particular Sins by which the Wrath of God had been so highly incensed against you If you have not if this work hath so long been neglected if to this day you have never set about it if still you be strangers to the reasons of God's contending with you yet be now at length persuaded to make a narrow search after all those Sins which have been the procurers of so much misery to your selves and this place 2. Having found out those sins have them often in your thoughts and if it be possible carry always upon your heart the impressions of that terrible Judgment at least be sure that you often call it to mind and renew the lively remembrance of it and labour to preserve the images and representations of all the dismal circumstances of it in your mind and then say with Ezra here in the Text After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass shall we again break thy commandments So say in reference to all your particular sins your filthiness and uncleanness your drunkenness and swearing your profanation of the Lord's Day and Ordinances your pride and gallantry your covetousness and earthly-mindedness your
Contributions have you had throughout the Kingdom towards the recruiting of your Losses and the re-building of the Town Though some miscarriages and loss there may have been in managing the Collections and though all that you have received bears not that proportion to your Sufferings and Losses which some have conceived it did yet I believe there was never any instance of any Town in England burnt or ruined for which so large Collections have been made So exceedingly and almost universally throughout the Kingdom did God stir up and open the hearts of people to commiserate your Condition God who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and turneth them as the rivers of water whithersoever he pleaseth hath so toucht the hearts of Prince and People City and Countrey that all have contributed their assistances in an extraordinary and eminent manner towards your restauration And as for the King's favour and bounty towards you it hath been very signal several ways the Instances whereof are very well known and must for ever be remembred setting aside London the Metropolis of the Kingdom I think he never did so much for any distressed Town in his Dominions as for this In all which you must look to God and acknowledge him as your great Benefactor 4. Through the favour of God and the great helps you have had from those instruments of your good which he hath raised up the Town is now in a fair way of being rebuilt and of being improved and advanced to a greater degree of lustre and beauty than ever it had before the fire And moreover many of you I hope most of you are in a good way of imployment and livelihood the Trade of the Town beginning to recover together with the Building 5. It hath also pleased God to add another Blessing that sweetens all your other Mercies and gives you the comfortable enjoyment of them and that is Health There were great and just fears lest the straitness and inconvenience of poor Houses and narrow Rooms into which for want of better Accommodations several Families were sometimes enforced to crowd might have occasioned some Epidemical Disease in the Town but in this also the wonderful goodness of God to the Town hath appeared there having hardly ever been known so long a Season of so much health in the Town as since the Fire 6. There is yet one thing more that crowns all your Mercies and that is That God affords you his Gospel a Mercy which of it self alone were enough to make you ample amends for all your Sufferings though God should strip you of all other Comforts and give you only the bread of adversity Isa 30.20 and the water of affliction Now then God having done all this for you having raised you out of the dust and set you upon your feet once more and loaded you with so many Favours what remains but that now you add what Ezra further adds in the Text and say full out with him After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy commandments Wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping I beseech you let us all labour to say so from our very hearts and with the same holy indignation against our sins and strength of resolution to forsake them as he did and then he that hath begun to do us good and carried on his work of mercy thus far will no doubt perfect it to his own glory and our comfort But seeing our danger is so great if we return to our folly after such terrible Judgments and signal Mercies give me leave to caution you against some of those sins which we are most in danger of 1. Now that your Town begins to rise again with greater beauty and lustre take heed of being lifted up Be not high-minded but fear lest for your sins God lay you low and level you with the ground once more You know what Solomon saith Prov. 16 18. Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall The odious sin of Pride hath formerly been imputed to this place And doth it not begin to bud again as the Prophet speaks notwithstanding all that God hath done to humble us If it do not what means our apparrelling our selves above our rank and quality what means our forwardness to come as near as we can to every vain Fashion and immodest Dress which our loose times have taken up How is it that we cannot content our selves with such comely Apparrel and modest Dresses as become a People that have not long since been among the pots and lain in the ashes and whereby we might be Patterns of modesty and sobriety to others 2. Take heed of making too much haste to recover and repair your Losses by any unlawful Artifices or unjustifiable Methods of gain Solomon again hath taught us Prov. 28.20 That he who maketh hast to be rich shall not be innocent 1. Take heed of setting unreasonable Prizes upon your Commodities Do not so far deceive your selves as to think your Losses now justify you in demanding what Rates you please That were a very ill use of that heavy Judgment that hath been upon you Content your selves with moderate gain so shall you rise again more surely though more slowly 2. Take heed of dealing hardly with the Poor and oppressing them in those ways in which you make use of them Let them have what is fit and pay them well for their labour Though your own gain for the present may be somewhat the less yet both your Comfort and the Blessing of God upon what you have will be so much the greater Never think your self a loser by using a poor man well and giving him with the most rather than with the least for the service he doth you 3. As for you whose Calling lies in giving entertainment to others 1. Take heed that you for your advantage make not your selves partakers of other mens sins by entertaining idle and intemperate persons at unseasonable hours or by giving them more drink than is fit This were the ready way to debauch the Town and draw upon you the Curses of those Families that may be ready to starve at home while bad Husbands lose their time and mispend their Money in your Houses by which their Relations should be supported Can you think that what is thus gained will ever prosper with you Would it not bring the Curse of God upon all that you have 2. Above all take heed of making your Houses the harbour and rendezvouz of leud and filthy Persons Hath God for the sins of Sodom inflicted the Judgment of Sodom upon you and dare any set up and carry on the same trade again in contempt of God and in open defiance
before the coming of the Messiah Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations 2. We have a Prediction of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come 3. A Promise of the Glory of the second Temple together with an answer to an objection against it And I will fill this house with glory the silver is mine and the gold is mine 4. An Amplification of that Promise concerning the glory of the second Temple The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former 5. An additional Promise of Peace as an Appendix to all other Mercies promised And in this place will I give peace 6. The Ratification or Confirmation of the whole in those last words saith the Lord of Hosts so often mentioned before and with which all that was before promised is at last shut up and sealed To begin with the first of these the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah It is yet a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations By these Metaphorical Expressions according to the usual Language and Style of the Prophets we are to understand great Troubles Commotions Changes and Alterations in the World in which high and low Persons of all Conditions Ranks and Qualities represented by the Heavens and the Earth should take their turns and have their share So God speaking of his terrible Judgments on the World saith Isa 13.13 I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of its place in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce anger But now all the difficulty is what shakings should be here intended Some understand the words of the great things which the Evangelists report to have been done at and upon the Birth of Christ the Miracles wrought by him in his Life the strange and miraculous Providences at his Death and Resurrection and of the shaking of the World afterwards by the preaching of the Gospel whereby Idols were thrown down Heathenish Idolatry and Superstitions were abolished the Christian Religion and the Worship of the true God coming in place thereof These were great and wonderful things but how they should be here by the Prophet intended is not easie to conceive For he seems to speak of such concussions and shakings as should be antecedent to the coming of Christ and go before it not concur with it much less follow after it Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the Desire of all nations shall come that is after God should thus have shaken the World Christ should come And indeed very great and dreadful shakings there were between the time of this Prophecy and the coming of the Messiah in which shakings the people of God the Jewish Nation were not a little concern'd The Persian Empire under which they now were was not only shaken but shaken in pieces dissolved and ruined by the Grecians under the Conduct of Alexander the Great Then presently after Alexander's Death who died in the flower of his Age the Empire which he had but just then acquired and been possessed of was in effect once more rent in pieces and divided amongst his Chieftains and Principal Commanders While this state of things continued the Jews were miserably shaken oppressed and harassed by the Tyranny and Cruelty of Antiochus Epiphanes besides many other grievous pressures and sufferings which during the Government of the Seleucides they underwent After some time the Romans came upon them all and subdued all to themselves in which Revolution the distressed Jews fell under the power of the Romans and were at their Mercy After all these terrible shakings nearer the coming of Christ the Civil Wars under Augustus Caesar caused horrible shakings and convulsions in the Empire after which the Temple of Janus was shut up and a peaceable time ensued all Swords being sheathed and all Arms laid aside throughout the whole Empire and then was Christ the Prince of Peace born in the Forty first or as some will have it in the Forty second year of the Reign of Augustus Caesar Now whereas all these shakings were to go before the coming of Christ which was the greatest Mercy that ever was vouchsafed the World we may observe That great Troubles and Afflictions sometimes go before and make way for great and signal Mercies This is indeed the ordinary and usual method of God's most wise and gracious Providence Thus Joseph is sold to the Midianites carried into Egypt and there again sold to Potiphar falsly accused cast into Prison and laid in Irons that by this Series of long-continued Afflictions way might be made for his Advancement to the highest Honour in Pharaoh's Court and for his being made Ruler over all the Land of Egypt Thus seventy years Captivity and Bondage in Babylon goes before the joyful and triumphant Return of God's people into their own Land of which the Psalmist thus speaks Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Which Psalm though placed among the Psalms of David yet is by Learned men upon good grounds supposed to have been penned by some other Person after the return from Babylon as also Psal 137. that is to say 460 years at least after that David had been gathered to his Fathers and perhaps much more for we know not how long after the return from Babylon it might be penned Thus the Ten most Cruel and Bloody Persecutions of the Christian Church in the first Ages thereof went before that quiet and tranquillity which the Church enjoyed under Constantine and the succeeding Christian Emperors when to use the expressions of the Prophet God made the peace of his Church as a river and the righteousness thereof as the waves of the sea Thus that wicked Usurpation and Tyranny of Antichrist making havock of the Church which hath been drawn out to so great a length already and yet we know not how much longer it may last goes before that happy estate of the Church and of the World when those joyful Acclamations shall be heard The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11.15 And when they who shall have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image shall sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou king of saints Rev. 15.1 2. And to add but one instance more here at home thus
22.21 I spake unto thee in thy Prosperity and thou saidst I will not hear To the same Purpose is that of the Psalmist who speaking of wicked Men saith Because they have no Changes Psal 55.19 therefore they fear not God Because they are not harassed with Afflictions nor emptied from Vessel to Vessel therefore they regard not God's Calls to Repentance nor his Threatnings He may say what he pleaseth he may threaten them as severely as he will they are not moved at it nor concern themselves with it 2dly Another thing that makes them the more obstinate is their not believing the Threatnings and Denunciations of Judgments against them for their Sins Thus the old World not believing what God had threatned concerning the Destruction of the World by the Flood still continued in their Sins and repented not till at length the Flood came upon them and took them all away excepting only those few Persons that found Grace in the Eyes of God to be exempted from that dreadful Judgment So though God had often by his Prophets threatned the Captivity yet the profane and obstinate Jews putting far off the evil Day and giving no Credit to the Threatnings would not be brought to Repentance Such were they whom the Prophet Zephany described who being setled on their Lees Zeph. 1.12 said in their Hearts The Lord will not do Good neither will he do Evil that is he would neither fulfil his Promises nor make good his Threatnings they believed neither the one nor the other 3dly Another thing that makes wicked Men the more obstinate and that hardens them against all Invitations and Calls to Repentance is the abused Patience and Long-sufferance of God towards them Because God hath long born with them therefore they think he will always bear with them because waiting for their Repentance he doth not speedily put his Threatnings in Execution therefore they make account he will never put them in Execution Eccles 8.11 Because Sentence against an evil Work is not executed speedily therefore the Heart of the Sons of Men is fully set in them to do Evil. If Punishment be but deferred and respited for a time to see if Offenders will not bethink themselves and by their Repentance prevent that Severity which else must be used against them even this makes them think they are now in no Danger of being punished and so they are incouraged to go on in their Sins Thus the wicked Jews incouraged themselves in their sinful Courses and in their carnal Security saying Ezek. 12.22 The Days are prolonged and every Vision faileth As if they had said the Prophets terrify us with sad Visions and severe Threatnings and Denunciations of approaching Judgments but nothing comes of it all their Visions fail and we are still in Safety and so we trust we shall be notwithstanding all the Frights they would put us into 4thly Another thing and indeed the chief thing that makes wicked Men so obstinate as that they stop their Ears against all Solicitations and Calls to Repentance is the most intire League that there is between them and their Sins So dearly do they love their Sins that they cannot indure to think of parting with them Whatever can be said to take them off from their Sins is of no Account signifies nothing with them injoy their Sins they will whatever comes of it They are perfectly deaf to all Charmings that tend to the making a Separation between them and their Lusts Thus were the Jews so sondly in love with the idolatrous Services of foreign Nations that after them they would nothing should withhold them I have loved Strangers Jer. 2.25 saith Judah and after them will I go Now to apply very briefly what hath been said concerning this Point Vse 1. If wicked Men that have long gone on in a Course of Sin may and do sometimes come to such a Degree of Obstinacy and Hardness of Heart that no Admonitions no Reproofs no Invitations or Calls to Repentance no Warnings of approaching Judgments will work upon them then let no Man that treats with Men about the Concernments of their Souls think it strange if he sometimes meet with such Men. The World is full of such Men and ever hath been The Prophets and Apostles and our Saviour Christ himself had to do with such Men And these later Ages of the World are not better But you will say What 's to be done when we meet with such Men Must we let them alone because as far as we can see they are such as hate Instruction and cast the Words of God behind their back as the wicked Man is described Psal 50.17 I answer No. For 1. We know not Mens Hearts and therefore though they seem to be obstinate and incorrigible yet there may be some Convictions within and some secret Relentings that we cannot discern 2. If they should really be as obstinate and incorrigible as they seem to be and much worse yet God can work upon them and change their Hearts if he please No Heart is so hard but he can soften it no Heart is so obstinate but he can subdue it Wherefore God laid an express Charge upon Ezekiel to speak to a perverse and obstinate People though in all Probability his Labour would be lost upon them Thou Son of Man shalt speak my Words unto them whether they will hear Ezek. 2.7 or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious House And this he is enjoined to do with all Freedom and Boldness notwithstanding all the Enmity and fierce Opposition which he might thereby procure from such wicked and unreasonable Men as they were with whom he had to do Ezek. 2.6 Thou Son of Man be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their Words though Briars and Thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among Scorpions be not afraid of their VVords nor be dismayed at their Looks though they be a rebellious House And so the Prophet Isaiah who had to do with the same perverse and obstinate People must deliver his Message though God in effect told him before-hand That no Good was to be done upon them they would rather be worse than better by all that he should say to them Go and tell this People Isa 6.9 10. saith he Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed Speak he must unto them though God foreshewed that this would be the Effect of all his Indeavours with them for their Good Vse 2. If wicked Men that have long gone on in a Course of Sin may come at length to that degree of Obstinacy and hardness of Heart that no Admonitions no Reproofs no Calls or Invitations to Repentance no Warnings of approaching Judgments will work
upon them how great a Mercy then is it and ought it to be acknowledged if God be pleased to give any Man a soft and tender Heart an humble and teachable Spirit if there be a Willingness to attend to wholsom Counsels a Willingness to be instructed to be admonished and when need is to be reproved if God be pleased so to frame a Man's Heart and so to break and take down his Spirit as that he can take Admonitions and Reproofs in good part as that he can receive them patiently and thankfully as that he can say with David Psal 141.5 Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a Kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oil which shall not break my Head 'T is certainly matter of great Thankfulness if God be pleased to give any Man such a Frame of Heart such a Temper of Spirit If it be thus with you if Counsels Admonitions and Reproofs upon just Occasions are welcome and acceptable to you if you cannot only submit to them patiently but gladly and thankfully entertain them and bless God for them Consider God might have given you up to as great a measure of Obstinacy and Perverseness as that of the most obdurate and refractory Person in the World that scorns to be admonished that hates Instruction and is ready to fly in the Face of any Man that shall reprove him Your Spirit might have risen and tumultuated within you as impetuously your Corruption might have boiled up and run over as violently against any Man that should endeavour to make you sensible of your Sin as his that is most impatient of Reproof or of whatever else might conduce to the Good of his Soul Say therefore to your self Who maketh thee to differ from another Hast thou not the same natural Corruption that the very worst the most obstinate Sinners have And who is it that restrains that Corruption in thee and keeps it from breaking out in the most fierce and violent Opposition against Reproof and Christian Admonition but he that hath placed the Sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual Decree that it cannot pass it and though the Waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar Jer. 5.22 yet can they not pass over it as the Prophet speaks Vse 3. If wicked Men that have long gone on in a Course of Sin may come at length to that degree of Obstinacy and hardness of Heart as that no Admonitions or Reproofs no Calls or Invitations to Repentance no Warnings of approaching Judgments will work upon them then let all impenitent Sinners take heed how they still persevere in their evil Ways lest by degrees they come to this woful Estate that nothing that can be said to them will move them at all or do them any Good will rouze them up or awaken them to Repentance This is a most lamentable Condition a most fearful Estate an Estate to be trembled at And yet in this fearful Estate will your Perseverance in your evil Ways at length end Wherefore let me intreat you to endeavour to break off your Sins by Righteousness as Daniel counselled Nebuchadnezzar to do Dan. 4.27 to break off your Sins speedily while there is any sense of Sin any little Tenderness of Conscience yet remaining before your Heart be so hardned as that you be past feeling before your Conscience comes to be seared as with an hot Iron 2 Tim. 4.2 as the Apostle speaks before you be given up to a reprobate Mind Rom. 1.28 as again the same Apostle speaks Now to the end we may never be thus given up let us endeavour to be always ready and willing to hear whatsoever God shall be pleased to speak whoever be the Instruments by whom he speaks to us Let us endeavour to have both our Ears and our Hearts open to take in and receive whatsoever Counsels Admonitions Reproofs or Warnings shall be given us from him And here let us consider 1. That 't is a thing most pleasing and acceptable to God when a Man is not regardless of what he speaks but seriously minds it takes it to Heart and is affected with it To this Man will I look Isa 66.2 saith he even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and that trembleth at my Word A most remarkable Instance of the gracious Respect that God hath to this Frame of Spirit is that which is recorded in 2 Kings 22. There we find that when Shaphan the Scribe had read the Book of the Law that had been found in the House of the Lord before Josiah the King and all the Curses and Threatnings contained therein as we may suppose Josiah took it so to Heart that he rent his Clothes and sent immediately to enquire of the Lord for himself for the People and for all Judah concerning the Words of the Book For said he Ver. 11 12 13. great is the Wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our Fathers have not hearkned to the Words of this Book to do according to all that is written therein concerning us So deeply was Josiah affected with what God had threatned against that People for their Sins But now how did God take it at his Hands that he was thus affected This you may see in the Answer which Huldah the Prophetess of whom he enquired returned him at ver 18 19 20. where she having assured that People that whatsoever Evils God had threatned should certainly come upon them she adds with reference to Josiah a very gracious Answer from the Lord But to the King of Judah which sent you to enquire of the Lord thus shall ye say to him saith she Thus saith the Lord God of Israel As touching the VVords which thou hast heard because thine Heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against this Place and against the Inhabitants thereof that they should become a Desolation and a Curse and hast rent thy Clothes and wept before me I also have heard thee saith the Lord Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in Peace and thine Eyes shall not see all the Evil which I will bring upon this Place 2. Consider that to stop a Man's Ears and to harden a Man's Heart against such Counsels Admonitions and Warnings as God is pleased to give him is a thing highly displeasing to him as from the Scriptures afore-cited appears I now go on to the third Particular in my Text the Course which God was further pleased to take with Manasseh in order to his reclaiming when gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance and Warnings of approaching Judgments would not prevail The Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh among the Thorns and bound him with Fetters and carried him to Babylon Whence we may observe