Zach. 1. 3. the Lord of Hosts turn ye unto me and I will turn unto you For them to turn to him repentingly and for him to turn to them graciously these two do the work as to their weale they turn all evil away from them and set all good a coming towards them the sanctifying grace of God renewing and his accepting grace graciously receiving the sincerity of a peoples repentance and the serenity of God's countenance the effectual working of God's grace and the favourable shining of his face this is the very way for a people to be saved and this I shall illustrate in several particulars 1. This is the right way the true and proper way for a people to be sav'd It is said of Ezra 8. 21. Ezra that he proclaimed a fast c. to seek of the Lord a right way for them and their little ones and all their substance and here 's that right way indeed for us and ours and others for all for our little ones and all our substance for all we have or enjoy and if the Lord delight in us as Joshua and Caleb said of the Land of Numb 14. 8. Canaan he will bring us into this way which he who is just and right yea the most upright prescribes and surely were we our selves and in our right minds we would betake our selves to this as the onely right way of all our weal and happiness 2. It is a sure soveraign way a prevalent way an effectual way it never fails nor falls short and that let a peoples present state and condition be what it will seem it never so sad and desperate yet if the Lord do but turn them again and cause his face to shine they shall be saved yea they cannot but be saved as these undoubtedly here do promise to themselves 3. It is an experienc'd way a well prov'd and tried way a way that hath many probatum est's upon it for never was there people or person that God did indeed turn to himself and cause his face to shine upon but they were saved Niniveh that great city was within 40 days to have been destroyed But God seeing their works Jonah 3. 3. â—â— that they turn'd from their evil way he repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not and although the children of Israel forsaking the Lord and serving other Gods the Lord tels them that he would deliver them no more but bids them go and cry unto the Gods that they had chosen c. yet they Judg. 10. 13 14 15 16. putting away the strange Gods from among them and serving the Lord his soul was grieved for their misery And what an ill case do we find Israel to be in 2 Chron. 15. 3. it is said that for a long season they had been without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law and yet v. 4. when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord and sought him he was found of them So God hearing Ephraim to bemoan himself Jer. 31. 18 19 20. 21. and to repent his bowels are troubled for him or earns towards him as the mothers towards her child and now I will surely says the Lord have mercy on him and now he must think of and prepare for his return Set thee up way-marks c. So in Hosea 14. the Lord there bids Israel take with them words and turn Hosea 14. 1 2 to the Lord and say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and then they resolve so will we render the calves of our lips that is the spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and such indeed shall have cause for it cannot but be well with them Thus whatever proofs whatever assays have been made in this kind whether formerly or lately they have done they have been found effectual as to a peoples being saved and never was it yet known that ever a people or a person truly turning again unto God and being graciously received of him did miscarry let any produce an instance if they can Look as he being wise in heart and mighty in strength none ever hardned Job 9. 4. themselves against him and prosper'd so he being great in kindness and rich in mercy none ever turn'd to him but were saved 4. This is the way to be saved in mercy so to be saved as to be blest with Salvation as the Lord promises to his people as concerning peace Psalm 29. 11. that he will bless them therewith It is one thing to have peace and salvation and deliverance and mercies and another thing to be blest with them and to have them in mercy and as mercies and this latter is the greater many have these but few are blest with these but when God so saves a people as to turn them again and cause his face to shine then they are sav'd in mercy so as to be blest with their being saved I speak now of temporal salvation then in love to their souls God delivers them as it is said of Hezekiah Is 38. 17. And they are not so saved as afterward to be destroyed as it is said of the people that the Jude 4. Lord sav'd out of the land of Egypt that afterward he destroyed them that believed not 5. This is the way to be sav'd universally and that in a threesold respect 1. which way soever we take or understand being saved For this word saved is very comprehensive and of large extent denoting not onely the privative part of happiness though that most properly as freedom from enemies and evils of all sorts but the positive also as the fruition of all good and hence is it here variously read and rendred we read it we shall be saved others blessed happy or it shall be well with us and all things Servabimur salvi erimus beati verè felices omnia nobis feliciter cedent vivemus regnabimus nec ullo bono destitueemur shall happily succeed to us or we shall be safe and secure and in a good case and condition we shall live and raign and want no good thing And now which way soever we take or understand it or which way soever we read or render it this here reaches and takes in all and all follow upon this God's turning us again and causing his face to shine and when he is pleas'd to do this to vouchsafe these we may write under it what ever we will that tends indeed to our weal and makes for our good 2. This is the way to have all saved Kingdom saved Nation saved Church saved Court saved City saved Countrey saved Towns Families persons our selves ours others our relations our little ones to have bodies saved souls religion lives liberties estates gospel or whatever else is neer or dear to us 3. This is the way to be saved with all manner and kinds of salvation and from all
such a wasting pestilence and such devouring flames and many other judgments and yet such of us as have been spar'd and were pull'd as fire-brands out of the burning how few of us have repented and are turned to the Lord. May not the Lord justly take up the same complaint against England as he did against Israel I have sent among you the pestilence after Amos 4. 10 11. the manner of Egypt your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses c. yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord. Strangers Hos 7. 9 10. have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth it not And the pride of Israel doth testifie to his face and they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this and Is 1. 5. why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more c. The bellows are burnt the Jer. 6. 29. lead is consumed of the fire the founder melteth in vain c. I gave them space to repent but they Revel 2. 21. 9. 20. did not repent And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands c. How have we despised the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the Rom. 2. 4. goodness of God leadeth us to repentance that is not onely affords us time and space to repent but gives us reason to repent but after the hardness and impenitency of our hearts we have gone on to treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God The Lord hath been hearkning and hearing and may he not justly complain of us as of the Jews of old but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness Jerem. 8. 6. saying what have I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel When the hand of the Lord hath been lifted up we have refused to see it and though his judgments are in the earth yet learn we not righteousness We have not said what have we done but have not some in the pride and stoutness of their hearts been ready to say what they would do even as those in Isaiah The bricks are fallen Isa 9. 9 10 down say they but we will build with hewen stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars i. e. as if they had said our houses indeed are down but what then we value it not we will build fairer and better and will have our streets now broader Thus this is all that they made then that many make now of what the Lord hath done not to be be brought thereby to consider what they have done thus to undo so famous a City but to resolve what they will do as to rearing and bertering their houses but not as to reforming their hearts and lives and therefore the Lord threatens he will set up their enemies and joyn Isa 9. 11 12. them against them both before and behind to devour them with open mouth and yet his anger is not turned away but his hand stretched out still If indeed not to turn again to God but rather more and more away from God and to turn still unto sin and every one to his course as the horse rushes into the battel yea to wax worse and worse and to have our tongues and doings more and more against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory If Atheism profaneness licentiousness superstition idolatry strange doctrines errours heresres schisms apostacies hypocrisies infidelity pride headiness high mindedness hardness of heart carnal security presumption incorrigibleness under judgments unthankfulness for mercies unfruitfulness under means hatred of God and the power of godliness contempt of his word and ways slighting and despising his ordinances resisting and grieving and doing despite unto his Spirit treading under foot his Son crucifying of him as it were afresh and putting him to open shame if shamelesness in sin declaring it as Sodom and hiding it not if swearing cursing blaspheming prophaning God's Name and Sabbaths if murder bloud touching bloud adulteries fornications wantonness lasciviousness and all manner of filthiness and uncleanness if drunkenness gluttony luxury peoples making their belly their God and being lovers of pleasures more than of him glorying in their shame if cruelty unmercifulness maliciousness despightfulness bitterness unrigteousness oppression fraudulent and unjust dealing lying slandering censuring reviling variance strife debate differences divisions emulations selfishness covetousness earthly-mindedness c. In a word if an inundation of all manner of wickedness and debauchery imaginable and the Nation becoming a very sink of vice or at best to have but onely a form of Godliness but to deny the power thereof and if for God in stead of causing his face to shine upon us to hide it from us and to turn his back upon us and to manifest his sore displeasure against us as he hath done alate in regard of those heavy judgments he hath sent among us dealing with us as he threatned to deal with Jerusalem And I will set my face against Exek 15. 7. them they shall go out from one fire and another fire shall devour them And has not God dealt so with us We were scarce got out of one fire which devoured our bodies which from above the Lord sent into our bones into our strongest parts that is sore plagues and pains which like a fire did pierce deep into and consume the most solid and strongest parts of the body as Jerusalem complains Lam. 1. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them and against how many thousands of families and persons did that fierce and furious fire of the pestilence prevaile And scarce as I said were we got out of that fire but another fire brake forth which devoured our houses and estates and are there not still many sad symptoms of his displeasure upon us and for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And if these now were the way for a people to be saved we were a Nation in as likely a way and posture to be saved as ever Nation was under heaven but if for a people to turn again unto God from their sins and for God to cause his face to shine be the way for a people to be saved and the onely way as indeed it is then the Lord have mercy upon us for we are a Nation in as unlikely a way and posture to be saved as ever Nation was and if we go on
without hurt and though six and seven troubles throng us not any the least evil toucheth Job 5. 19. Ps 25. 10. us but all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth Thus when we turn to God with a holy turn God turns to us with a gracious turn and when God turns to us all good is afloat towards us and all evil is ebbing and hastening from us all in heaven and earth will become turned for our good Deut. 30. 3. The Lord tells Israel that if they shall return to the Lord their God then the Lord their God will turn their captivity and have compassion on them and will return c. But let me a little more particularly and distinctly hold forth some of the benefits of this turn 1. This is the great blessing of the Gospel even the blessing that Jesus Christ himself being raised up and exalted by his father is sent to bless with in the preaching and dispensing thereof Vnto you first God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every Acts â— 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si vos converteritis c. So Syriack and Arabick c. one of you from his iniquities Some indeed read it if you turn or every one of you turning c. and so make being blest an argument and motive to turn And this is a true and a good sense that when we turn away from our iniquities though not by any strength of our own that then Jesus Christ will bless us But first Jesus Christ must bless us in turning us before he bless us being turn'd and therefore others render it as here in turning you as declaring the way and manner how Christ blesses and this agrees well with the word bless for iniquity being that alone which brings the curse the onely way to be blest must needs be to be turned from it and while people are not turned from their sins but still go on impenitently in them they cannot be blest Thus conversion is the great Gospel-blessing and the way to be further yea for ever blest and it prevents the curse which else we cannot evade And he shall turn the heart of the fathers c. Least I come and smite the earth with a curse Mas 4. 6. 2. Upon this follows that great and glorious and inestimable mercy and priviledg of pardon that mercy of mercies which makes 〈◊〉 and the want of which makes hell yea which if not enjoy'd every thing else as one expresses it even our very boards and beds and fields and houses are but as an hell to us David having been for a while under the sense of God's cispleasure for his sins but feeling at length the Sun-shine of God's favour breaking forth through the clouds upon him in this mercy O how jowfully does he break out and how admiringly does he speak of the blessedness of those who partake of so great a mercy of so glorious a priviledg Blessed is he whose transgression Ps 32. 1 2. is forgiven whose sin is covered that is by the Lord for man must not cover it but acknowledg it Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity c. Blessed or as others O blessed O happy or O the blessednesses or O welfares the man it is a joyful acclamation for such a man's felicity Dutch read it right happy or happy indeed he is so indeed whose transgression is forgiven c. We have here in several words the same benefit repeated because of the greatness of it and though here is Autology yet not Tautology for these several Metaphorical expressions are wonderfully comfortable 1. Sin is a burden and the first word signifies an easing or taking away and blessed is he that is eased of such a burden 2. Sin is most loathsome and filthy in the sight of God and he is of purer eyes that he can behold or look on it but with utter detestation and abhorrence and the second word notes a covering of it and aâ—â—â—tting it out of his sight contrary to that Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance To set us our selves there is our happiness but to set our sins there is our wo and misery and there cannot be a greater And cover not their Neh. 4. 5. iniquity c. 3. Sin is a debt and the third notes a not imputing or reckoning it and what a blessed thing is pardon that does all this does sin trouble as a burden pardon eases and takes it off as loathsom pardon covers it as a debt pardon does not impute it and this follows upon repentance this priviledg of remission upon the grace of conversion not as the cause of it but as the way and order in which God will have it to behad And hence we find them joyned together Luke 24. 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name c. Acts 5. 3. To give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin c. And be Joh. 12. 40. converted and I should heal them Mark has it c. 4. v. 12. And their sins should be forgiven them which is the souls healing That 's a full place Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The former of these words repent seems to import conviction and contrition the latter conversion and amendment one repentance of sin or for sin the other repentance from sin And this is to repent indeed to do both to bewaile what we have committed and not go on still to commit what we have bewail'd and what follows upon this the Deleta non ut non sint sed ut non imputentur propter imputatam sponsoris nostri obedientiam Tossan blotting out of our sins that your sins may be blotted out that is pardoned our sins are in Scripture compared unto debts and these are registred as it were in God's book and there stand upon record and now the Apostle tells them that if they did repent and were converted these debts should be blotted out God's Metaphora sumpta à creditoribus qui debita vel interveniente satisfactione vel gratis remissa delent book cross'd all scores quit and that hand-writing which was against them should be cancell'd which is so choice a priviledg and mercy of mercies that this if there was no more might seem motive enough to put people upon repenting and turning to God that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall come from the presence of the Lord. There are by the way times of refreshing or cooling as the Greek hath it to come to the people of God after the heat of their afflictions and persecutions here compar'd to fire As there 1 Pet. 4. 12. remains a rest for the
crying and tears c. how much more we who are involv'd in sin c. R. 7. Because the great price which hath been given to purchase and procure them no less than the precious bloud of Christ the precious life of Christ John 6. 51. and the bread that I will give is my flesh that I will give for the life of the world 1 Thes 5. 10. who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him the life of grace here and the life of glory hereafter Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of sins Math. 26. 28. This is my bloud which is shed for many for the remission of sins and Hebr. 9. 22. and without shedding of bloud is no remission So we read of being justified by his bloud and reconciled by Rom. 5. 9 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. his death and of his suffering for our sins that he might bring us unto God And shall not we cry for what Jesus Christ was pleas'd todye shall not we earnestly beg for what he bled shall not we lay out our strength for what he laid down his life and lift up our voice for what he yeilded up the Ghost O how unworthy then should we shew our selves of them R. 8. Because this is all that the Lord requires of us for the obtaining of them that we should ask them seek them beg them intreat them and should not we do this to purpose earnestly and with all our might when he requires no more as Math. 7. 7. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall he opened unto you v. 8. For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened So in Ezek. 36. when God had made there those exceeding great and precious promises of blessings and mercies more worth than many worlds as v. 25. that he would sprinkle clean water upon them c. and v. 26. give them a new heart and put within them a new spirit and take away the stony heart out of their flesh and give them an heart of flesh and v. 27. put his spirit within them which is more than many worlds without them and cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments and do them and v. 28. and they should be his people and he their God c. Now after all hear what the Lord says v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquir'd of by the house of Israel to do it for them or be sought to and is this all and should not this be done earnestly Surely he that can't find in his heart to do this for such mercies deserves to go without them O consider God required a great deal more of his Son that we might partake of them What could he indeed require more he requires of him that he should come down John 6. 38. from Heaven to Earth from the Throne to the Footstool and become man be made flesh yea in the likeness of sinful flesh that though he was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet that he should make himself of no reputation and take upon him the form of a Servant and be made in the likeness of Philip. 5. 6 7 8. men and being found in fashion as a man should humble himself and become obedient unto death even the death of the Cross that he should lay down his life shed his precious bloud one drop of whose bloud is more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds and than all the bloud of all the men that ever lived upon the face of the Earth yea that he should be made a curse ☞ undergo his wrath make his very Soul an offering for sin and be for a while as it was forsaken of his Father and all this and infinitely more than can be conceived much less exprest that we might obtain such mercies yea and Jesus Christ willingly and readily obeyed his father in all these Hebr. 10. 7. Then said I lo I come to do thy will O God and I delight to do thy will and as the Father gave me Psalm 40. 8. commandment so I do though to do that did John 14 31. as it was amaze him and make his soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death and brought Mark 14. 33 34. Math. 26. 38. him into such an agony that his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud falling down to the Luke 22. 44. Math. 26. 39. and Mark 14. 35 36 39. ground So that as man he could not but recoile as it were and pray and that three times O my Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me that is this bitter passion but if it may not pass but I must drink it or otherwise such choice mercies such inestimable benefits cannot be procured for poor sinners but they must come swimming to them in my bloud and be purchas'd by my undergoing of thy wrath thy will be done seeing thou wilt have it so that I must undergo all this to procure them I am willing I am content rather than poor sinners should go without them I am willing to purchase them at any rate This now God requires of his Son that we might partake of these mercies and all this his Son obeyed him in but to us that we might obtain them he says onely ask seek knock and let me be enquired of by you and should not we do this and do it to purpose surely else it must needs argue fearful ingratitude and strange disingenuity and we deserve to go without them You know what Naaman's servant said to him 2 Kings 5. 13. My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith unto thee wash and be clean So what could God have said unto us do for such mercies more worth than many worlds but we should have been ready and willing to have done it how much more then when he says onely ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find and Rom 10. 13. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved and seek the Lord and ye shall live Amos 5. 6. But Jesus Christ dies that we may live 1 Thes 5. 9 10. and shall not we cry that we may live Was a malefactor condemned to dye and was there procured for him upon some great price paid by another a pardon of his Prince which he should have upon asking and begging O how importunately would he beg it and ask it When God said to David Seek ye my face O how readily does David's heart eccho back Psalm 27. 8. again thy face Lord will I seek Lord thy face thy favour makes heaven and may I have that for seeking for asking which Jesus Christ
cure If I shut up heaven says the Lord that there be no rain or if I command the Locusts to 2 Chron. 7. 13. devour the Land or if I send pestilence among my people that is whatever judgments I inflict on a people for under these are comprised all other if v. 14. my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves c. So if they shall confess their iniquity c. and their uncircumcised hearts be humbled c. At what instant I shall Levit. 26. 40. Jer. 18. 7 8. speak concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them Is there says the Prophet no balm in Gilead is there no Physician Jer. 8. 22. there Gilead was a place where there was plenty of Balm and it was famous for the soveraignest Balsams for from thence they were wont to be transported into other countreys and there were also store of skilful Physicians and therefore it was strange and matter of wonder indeed that Balm and Physicians should fail and not be had there But admit there should be no Balm no not in Gilead yet is there Balm with God and that all Physicians fail on earth yet is there a Physician in heaven who whatever are a peoples maladies if he do but undertake the cure will be sure to bring remedy Psalm 60. 11. 68. 20. who gives help from trouble when vain is the help of man and unto whom belong the issues from death For we have no might against this great 2 Chr. 20. 12. company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee who yet canst help us and save us from above though no help nor way of salvation appears from beneath Thus there is a way for a people to be saved whatever is their case and truly this is a great mercy and that the Lord is pleased also to point a people to it when their case hath been exceeding deplorable and seem'd almost desperate as Joel 2. in the first chapter and the former part of the second what sore and terrible judgments had God threatned and yet v. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me c. So Return thou back-sliding Israel saith Hos 14. 1. the Lord c. Who says the Lord would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would Jer. 3. 12. go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may Isa 27. 4 5. make peace with me and he shall make peace with me How desperate seemed Ninivehs condition Jonah 3. 4. yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed and yet there was a remedy and they betaking themselves to it are saved And as it is with people so with a particular person and as in regard of their miseries so their iniquities as Shechaniah said We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the Land directly against God's express Law Dent. 7. 3. yet now there is hope in Israel Ezra 102. concerning this thing our case is not desperate but we may yet be brought to repentance and pardoned Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in these is continuance that is in those Isa 64. 5. ways of grace and mercy thou art still the same and if thou pleasest thus still to shew and manifest thy self we shall be saved So wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings c. Isai 1. 16 18. and then Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool These were the deepest Dies implying whatever their sins were though never so great yet upon their repentance they should be graciously and fully pardoned Let Israel hope in the Lord for with Ps 130. 7. the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities There is a way for the wicked and most unrighteous man to be saved which the Lord calls and invites him to Let the wicked Isaiah 55. 7. forsake his way and the unrighteous man his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et vir iniquitatis thoughts Hebr. The man of iniquity or made up as it were of iniquity or the man of wrong or vexation as some render it one word signifies both that hath so much wrong'd not onely his own soul but God vexed his holy and good Spirit yet there is a way for such a one to be saved Let him but forsake his way and his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Hebr. he will multiply to pardon So that his pardons shall infinitely exceed his sins there shall be pardons and to spare as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superabundavit plus quà m abundavit supermultiplicata est Paul expresses it 1 Tim. 1. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant or redundant superabundant more than enough or as it were overfull enough and to spare it abounded to flowing over as the Sea doth above Mole-hills And because we are ready to be measuring God by our selves and to think this cannot be done because we cannot do it we cannot our selves pass by so many and great provocations and therefore how should God hence God foreseeing our low conceits of him he answers v. 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord v. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts 2. If this be the onely way for a people to be saved this lets us see in what an unlikely way and posture we of this Nation are at this day to be saved And O that we had hearts to bewail it I am sure we have cause even to have rivers of waters to run down our eyes as they did Ps 119. 136. Jer. 9. 1. Davids and to wish with the Prophet Jeremy Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night c. and to say as the Prophet Isaiah Isa 22. 4. Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me c. For are we turned again to the Lord or do we turn from our sins Surely as to the generality of people amongst us nothing less no nor yet though God hath inflicted upon us so many sore and heavy judgments such as scarce have been heard of nor have been in our days nor in our fathers days before us
case as his great concern why Consider this says he ye that Ps 50. 22. forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Consider this that is what I say and threaten and will do to prevent your utter and inevitable ruine which else will be if ye do not O it is inconsiderateness that undoes so many thousands God considers sinners ways and courses but they themselves do not nor will not as the Lord complains And they consider Hos 7. 2. not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness and God declares this as the reason why when he hearkened and heard no man speak right no man repented him of his wickedness Jerem. 6. 6. it was because no man said no man considered what have I done hence every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel whereas David tells us I thought on my Psal 119. 59. ways I considered my ways how they were out of order and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Chishabti I weighed and pondered my ways I turned them upside down as it were looked all over them and on every side of them both above and beneath So much the Hebrew word notes and it seems to be a phrase taken from curious works which are the same on both sides so that they who work them must turn them on every side c. And thus did David as in reference to his ways which caused him to turn his feet unto God's testimonies so it is said of the Prodigal that when he came to himself he said to whom did he say to and with himself he weighed and considered how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger As if he had said O what a beast what a brute am I thus to feed swine and to feed upon husks that swine do eat and to be in want of them too when I might have bread enough in my father's house why there is never a hired servant in my father's house but is in a far better case than I and the serious weighing and considering of this and dwelling in his thoughts upon this made him resolve as v. 18. I will arise and go to my father c. So it is said of Peter when he thought thereon he wept Mark 14. 72. And the Church Lam. 3. 19. remembring her affliction and her misery that is still remembring it and meditating upon it and especially her sin which occasioned it the wormwood and the gall the bitterness in sin as well as for sin My soul hath them says she still in remembrance v. 20. and is humbled in me c. And beg of God to make thee know whilst yet thou goest on in thy sins the danger thou art in where thou art and whither thou art going upon what slippery and dangerous precipices thou walkest and where thou wilt shortly be unless thou gettest out of the way where thou art Pro. 21. 16. The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead Such a one unless he turn will be shortly lodg'd in hell among the Devils and the damned Now this you may do and this you are greatly concern'd to do to consider your ways c. and that you may do this you must get alone get in secret for there is no casting up of accounts in a crowd no a man must go aside and alone to do this as the Prophet expresses it Lam. 3. 28. he sitteth alone and keepeth silence c. and Zach. 12. 12 13 14. Their families apart and their wives apart and Psalm 4. 4. stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still that is get alone be still and quiet and then commune with your own hearts if you would consider your ways you must sequester your selves and having done thus go unto God and lay open your ways and your case and condition which you have weighed and considered before him confess your sins and humble your souls and seek his face and supplicate his mercy and grace that he would say of you as sometimes he did of Ephraim when he had gone on frowardly in the Isa 57. 17 18. way of his heart I have seen his ways and will heal him c. I will turn him and he shall be turned I will pardon and not impute what is past and prevent and help against the same for the future 6. Occasion your hearts this way as much as you can I mean as to this blessed turn we say Occasion makes a Theef it furthers and helps Occasio facit furem forward his theevery and so it may tend to make a Penitent occasion as it is of great force as to that which is evil so it may prove also as to that which is good it is a main thing as in matters of sin so of grace and therefore if thou wouldest repent and turn to God occasion thy heart that way and it may much further thee therein as by often reading and hearing and meditating on the Word and conferring of the same especially such a word as tends most to help forward such a work so by considering thy sins and what thy misery is till thou dost turn and how happy thou shalt be when thou art turned by considering the motives to repentance as its excellency equity utility and absolute and indispensable necessity c. as shall be afterward held forth Thus give your hearts as many occasions that way as possible ye can and they may take and avail at length Why are men so carnal and worldly and earthly why they occasion their hearts still that way they are still speaking thinking and plodding on the world they speak of little else hear little else think of little else 1 John 4. 5. They are of the world therefore speak they of the world c. they Philip. 3. 19. Psal 49. 11. mind earthly things Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever c. And if men would more occasion their hearts that way they might become more penitent while I was musing says David the fire burned and Ps 39. 3. Mark 14. 72. Peter whiles he thought thereon and so occasioned his heart that way he wept You should deal with your hearts as it is reported Junius his father once in another case dealt with him who perceiving his son Atheistical and knowing the reading of the Scriptures might be a principal means under God to cure his Atheism to occasion him that way he lays a Bible in every Room that so where ever he came he might still have occasion to look into it and read it he could go into no room but still he found a Bible haunting him and as it were inviting him to read it and being thus occasioned to read it at length he read it and was thereby says the ☜
their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will Is 41. 17. 1 King 8. 38 39. hear them c. and what prayer or supplication soever be made though never so weak though but a sigh and by any man that shall know the the plague of his own heart then hear thou in Ps 34. 6. Heaven c. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him c. And this is as I said a choice mercy a singular priviledg and in this God much favours and honours a poor creature and thus the Lord promises it and thus the Saints speak of it I will set him on high and how 91. 14 15. he shall call upon me and I will answer him and The Lord will hear when I call unto him and 4. 3. 116. 1. 102. 18. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice c. And hence it is said This shall be written for the generation to come that God shall hear the prayer of the destitute it shall be set down in a book and recorded and so published 5. Upon this follows a fitness and aptness to receive the Word and the impressions thereof for upon Ezek. 36. 26. true conversion the stony heart is taken away and there is given a heart of flesh that is a soft or tender heart easily admitting or receiving the Word it being like Wax to the Seal and like Gideon's fleece drinking in the dew thereof or like soft earth to the rain whereas the hearts of such as are impenitent and unconverted are as rocks and steep stony places which shoot off all without any impression Josiah humbling himself and his heart being tender what an impression had the words of the Law upon his 2 Chr. 34. 27. heart the hearts of such open and the Word goes in and there it comes to be ingraffed which is a choice mercy whereas the contrary is the greatest judgment as a stony heart an hard heart and such is every impenitent heart it receives no impression of God's Word nor works it yeilds neither to precepts nor promises nor threatnings nor admonitions nor reprehensions nor perswasions neither to judgments nor mercies But they refused to hearken c. Let favour Zach. 7. 11. Is 26. 10. 1. 5. be shewn to the wicked yet will not he learn righteousness and why should ye be stricken any more c. The natural man receives not the things of God he neither believes them nor yeilds to them There may be some slight superficial Non credit nec cedit reception for a little while as is said of the stony ground but it is not solid nor deep so as to enter root and abide The Word may have place among them but it has not as Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees place within them and therefore they sought to kill him Joh. 8. 37. That which is observ'd in Printing is very appliable and considerable here viz that the Paper which is to be printed upon is not of it self as it is dry and stiff and stubborn fit to receive impression and therefore to render it fit it is several times drawn through the water and so being throughly moisten'd mellowed and made soft it becomes fit and truely so it is with our hearts as they are by nature and of themselves and much more by custom in sin they are hard and stiff and stubborn very unfit to receive any impression of God's truth but being drawn as it were through the waters of repentance and so mellowed and made soft and tender they become fit Thus the repenting Corinthians became 2 Cor. 3. 3. Christ's Epistle for their hearts being made tender the Gospel was wrot upon them with ease and so the hearts of the Romans Rom. 6. 17. were cast into the Word as into a Mould bearing the stamp and figure of it Solomon says A reproof Prov. 17. 10. enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool his heart opens and yeilds to reproof Salt enters not into a Stone but it does into flesh and seasons it and makes it savoury and so do reproofs which are as Salt unto hearts of flesh such sit down as it were at God's feet and hear his words and they are willing and pliable and their language is Lord what wilt thou have me to do and Speak Lord for thy servant heareth c. 6. Upon this follows inheritance among them which are sanctified To open Acts 26. 18. their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance c. What an excellent thing is repentance here describ'd to be an opening of the eyes and a turning as you have heard the sinner from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and then what inestimable benefits do follow thereupon not onely forgiveness of sin as you have heard but inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ that is a lot in the heavenly inheritance in that inheritance of the Saints in light which now they are made meet for being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into Col. 1. 12 13. the Kingdom of God's dear son an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away reserv'd in heaven of which such glorious things are spoken which is of God's own preparing Christ's purchasing and that by no less price than his bloud which has the glory of God and where not onely Angels but God himself dwels and resides for ever and into this all true converts have entrance ministred unto them but no other shall or can but are without Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who Psal 24. 3 4. shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart c. The wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of Prov. 3. 35. fools And thus some interpret that in the Acts 3. 19. That your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord that is that your sins being blotted Ut remissis peccatis vestris recipiamini in coelum ad fruendum aeternis gaudiis c. Pisc out or forgiven you may be received into heaven to partake of those eternal joys c. And hence true repentance is said to be repentance unto life and repentance unto salvation and therefore not to be repented of not as if it was the cause or did in the least merit life or salvation Acts 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. for ipsae lachrymae lachrymabiles sunt our very tears need washing and our repentance pardon Non agit de causa salutis sed eventu poenitentiae ordinem ostendit quòd nimirum conversis donetur remissio non securis impoenitentibus Tossan but as the end of it and the way and means
he hath set first our bodies as it were a fire and then afterwards our houses and estates This he expects and shall we still frustrate his expectation shall he count upon it in vain and when for our own weal what may we think then but that he will frustrate ours and while we look for peace no good come Jer. 14. 19. and for a time of healing but behold trouble 7. This is that which the want of is the great matter and ground of God's complaint and of his controversy with and against a people not so much their departures as their refusals to return This is that which roles so much in his thoughts as that he knows not how as it were to digest it to do evil is bad but still to persist in it that is saddest and worst of all How often does the Lord complain of this five times at Amos 4. 5 6 8 c. least in one chapter that though he had sent Hos 7. 9 10 Is 1. 4 5. 9. 13. such and such judgments among them yet had they not return'd unto him and so in many other places besides We are ready indeed to Jer. 5. 3. 8. 4 5. 6. 28 29. c. complain of God's punishments but he of our impenitency and his matter of complaint is the saddest impenitency under judgments being a thousand times worse than the judgments themselves and sinners not returning far more sinful than all their sins besides And let not the Lord then still have cause of this sad complaint against us after such a multiplicity of rods that he hath scorged us with alate for what height of defection will that argue and how greatly will it incense his displeasure 8. Not turning to God when he smites puts him upon greater severities yea makes him resolve Lev. 26. 18. 21. 29. upon final ruine How often does he threaten See also Ps 7. 12 13. in Leviticus that if they would not reform he would yet punish them seven times more and Is 9. 12 13 14. Ezek. 24. 12 13. Job 9. 4. Prov. 11. 21. c. bring seven times more plagues upon them yea he tells them they should eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters sad meat but God will overcome when he judges and the stoutest sinners must not think to carry it against him But God Psal 68. 21. will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one that goes on still in his trespasses Those in Amos for all those judgments inflicted on them not returning unto the Lord he resolves therefore thus will I do unto thee Amos 4. 12. what why worse than ever I have done yet I will take a severer course and come with my last and heaviest stroke or the Lord hereby Duriùs nunc tecum agam quia cogit me tua obstinatio ultimam poenam infligam absque ulla mitigatione c. Calv. in locum would the better as some think decipher out to them the dreadfulness of this stroke it being such as could not be exprest and therefore wraps it up in silence and leaves it to them to think what it might be Thus it is not so much sinning but persisting still in sin and that notwithstanding God's judgments that brings final ruine this seals the stone of destruction upon nations and persons And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds c. Seeing thou our God hast punisht us less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9. 13 14. and hast given such deliverance as this should we again break thy commandements c. wouldst not thou be angry with us 'till thou hast consumed us so that there shall be no remnant nor escpaing When winds sent to fan and clense lie without success then must be expected a dry wind from the wilderness not to fan Jer. 4. 11. nor to clense but utterly to lay wast and for God to resolve that his eye shall not spare neither will he have pity but to say as he did of those Jews cast them out of my sight and let them go forth such as are for death to death and such as are for Jer. 15. 1 2. the sword to the sword c. This brought final ruine upon Israel and after upon Jerusalem and so hath done upon other nations as Germany which Brentius expounding upon Is 9. 12 13. foretold And how can we think but it will bring the same upon England unless we speedily return It was a notable speech of a friend in a letter out of New England to one here Our hearts are full of fears for Old England and that which makes us fear most it is that God's visitations bring forth no better fruit than increase of sin we may fear lest that God should visit seven times more the Lord give repentance and turning to God that God may in mercy turn to his people c. And how can it be otherwise this being the great end of God in all his judgments whether publick or private to reduce people to himself and for God to lose his end and smite in vain how sad is it and it being also a magnifying of the creature that he will debate with Job 7. 17 18. it which Job admires that he should condescend so low as not onely to speak but strike and so make use of all ways and means to reclaim And Amos 4. 6. I also have given you cleanness of teeth and want of bread c. as if the Lord had said And in that also I have not been wanting neither in words nor blows neither by speaking nor smiting and to have all slighted and nothing regarded And besides this it is God's last remedy he speaks once and again yea often and when that will not do he strikes and that with gentler and then severer strokes but when these will not do he rejects moreover God then in a more special manner commanding sinners to return And if they be bound in fetters and holden in cords of Job 36. 8 10. affliction then he commandeth that they return from iniquity c. and yet they not returning what does it argue but stubborness and rebellion and what is it but to contemn God and his rod as if we car'd not what he did in the world yea what is it but to bid as it were open defiance to heaven or as if we bid him do his worst and God knows not how as it were to bear such any longer they are such a burthen to him and therefore resolves to ease himself of them Ah I will ease me of mine Adversaries Is 1. 24. c. this makes sin rebellion and out of measure sinful when though God afflicts sinners will still hold fast their sins and though they cannot hold fast other things as their health strength estates liberties relations outward comforts yet they will hold fast them and not let them go whatever
men that they may speedily recover themselves by repentance lest iniquity be their ruin This is the design of the religious Author in this useful and savoury Treatise which is now put into thy hands as much of it as my occasions would give me leave to peruse seemed to be woven with such a constant texture of solidity and piety that I could not but recommend it to thy acceptance and the Lords Blessing Tho. Manton The Contents CHAP. I. THE general scope and summe of the words CHAP. II. The explication of the words p. 5. CHAP. III. 1. Doctr. in general When miseries abide the people of God spiritual mercies are especially to be sought p. 10 Reas 1. This the Lord prescribes 2. thus others have done 3. of the not doing thereof the Lord complains 4. to this the promise is made 5. else miseries cannot be remov'd in mercy 6 these will support under them 11. 12 Use 1. of Reproof 2. Exhortation 15. 16 CHAP. IV. 2. Doctr. in general Spiritual mercies are to be sought with all earnestness 18 R. 1. God's precept 2. others practice 3. their nature requires it 4. this it shews we are in earnest 5. in a fit capacity to receive them 6. because so unworthy of them 7. because of the dear price paid for them 8. this is all that is required for the obtaining of them 9. the way to have them 10. the more to value them p. 20. to 37 Use 1. How sad not to seek them at all 1. It is the badg of wicked men 2. such are practical Atheists 3. as Heathens 4. have not the Spirit 5. are dead 6. lye open to God's fury p. 37. c. Use 2. To be humbled we have sought them no more 2. to seek them more earnestly for the future 1. For our selves 2. for ours 3. for others especially for Sion p. 40 to 49 CHAP. V. The more particular points observable 1. Doctr. We are all by nature turn'd away from God Use 1. It speaks our sin 2. misery 3. necessity of being turn'd again if saved c. p. 49 to 57 2. Doctr. Such as are brought home to God are very ready to turn again aside 1. How this appears 2. whence it is p. 57 58. Use 1. to bewail it 2. not to be high-minded 3. to carry it meekly 4. the more to indeavour to cleave to God several helps propounded p. 59. to 66 3. Doctr. The Lord is the God of hosts Use 1. to fear him 2. not to provoke him 3. to trust in him 4. to be incouraged in our addresses to him 5. to move us to turn to him c. p. 66 67 4. Doctr. The Lord onely can turn us again to himself Use 1. It shews the folly of delaying to turn 2. we should the more fear turning aside 3. apply our selves to him to turn us 4. give him the glory when turn'd 68 69 5. Doctr. When the Lord turns a people again he causes his face to shine 1. He does cause it to shine 2. he will it being 1. his promise 2. sin which interpos'd being remov'd Use 1. Such then are blessed 2. It should move the more to get turn'd p. 70 to 77 CHAP. VI. The principal point p. 78 Doctr. 6. The onely way for a people to be saved it is for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine 77. This illustrated as being 1. the right way 2. a sure way 3. a try'd way 4. the way to be sav'd in mercy 5. universally and that in three respects 6. the onely way p. 78. to 88 CHAP. VII What manner of turn this must be answered 1. more generally 2. more particularly 1. Such as is of God 2. joyn'd with humiliation 3. arising from faith 4. accompanied with shame for sin 5. confession 6. hatred of sin 7. such as is even to the Lord 8. with all the heart 9. universal 1. as to the subject turning 2. object turn'd from 3. object turn'd to 10. Constant and continued p. 92. to 114 CHAP. VIII The Reasons of the point R. 1. Because this is the way these here take 2. that others have taken 3. that the Lord prescribes 4. which as so he hath promised 5. thâ—t Christ took 6. that his Ministers take 7 because it presupposes faith 8. because of what follows 1. upon conversion people being then turn'd 1. from what is destructive 2. to God 1. the chief 2. the ultimate good 3. they being then towards salvation 4. they walk 5. hold on in the ways of salvation 6. such in some sense are sav'd already 2. because of what follows upon God's favour which 1. is salvation 2. that which will accomplish all requisite to salvation 3. it is it self all 1. light 2. life 3. felicity 4. safety 5. health 6. strength 7. joy 8. glory 4. It silences all God hath against his people p. 114. to 139 CHAP. IX Use 1. of information or inference if this be the onely way for a people to be sav'd 1. There is then a way for a people to be sav'd p. 139 2. England then is in a very unlikely way to be sav'd 143 3. The contrary then is the onely way to be destroy'd 148 4. Few then are like to be sav'd 153 5. It gives us to see the reason why the Lord is so intent upon this 155 6. Why his Ministers so much press this 157 7. Why his people have been so earnest for this 159 8. Why such joy in heaven for this Ib. 9. What a choice mercy then the Ministry is 161 10. It speaks highly of conversion and divine favour 167 11. Commends solemn days of fasting and humiliation 166 12. Speaks well of afflictions 168 CHAP. X. Use of Exhortation 1. earnestly to pray for these Motives 1. the Lord invites to it 2. it is great kindness that he does so 3. it is not for any need he has of us 4. yea he indents with us to do it 5. he onely can effect and vouchsafe these 6. he is able to do it and 7. willing to do it 8. does it of free frace 9. by his effectual grace 10. hath done it for the greatest of sinners P. 171. to 196 CHAP. XI The second branch of Exhortation to adde to our Prayers our endeavours in general more particularly 1. to attend constantly on the ministry of the word 2. when the spirit moves to cherish such motions 3. to break off from evil company 4. to get into good 5. to consider our ways 6. to occasion our hearts that way 7. to remember God of his promises 8. to labour to believe 9. to cease the practice of gross sins 10. what we do to dospeedily Twelve Considerations to excite thereto P. 196. to 233 Though we cannot convert our selves yet not in vain to be exhorted thereto shewed in several particulars 234 CHAP. XII Motives to turn to God 1. The equity thereof 2. the excellency 3. the utility 4. the necessity 5. the acceptableness of it to God
6. the comfortableness ef it to our selves P. 236. to 276 CHAP. XIII Further motives to turn to God 'till we do this 1. we forget our selves 2. we are not our selves 3. these are times of turning 1. of sinful in regard of men 2. judicial in regard of God 4. Nothing less speaks us true Christians Ten several things instanc'd in 5. This all call for 6. God counts upon 7. want of this God's great complaint 8. not turning when he smites puts him upon greater severities yea makes him resolve upon final ruine p. 276. to 303 CHAP. XIV To incourage one another to turn to God p. 303. c. CHAP. XV To see to it our turning to God be true and real 309 CHAP. XVI To prove God therewith 319 c. CHAP. XVII Motives to seek God's favour 331. c. To consider 1. how excellent it is 2. how honourable 3. how comfortable 4. how profitable 5. how necessary CHAP. XVIII To endeavour the conversion others 337 1. It being of general concern 2. to convert a sinner from the errour of his way it being 1. to save 2. a soul 3. from death 4. a means to cover multitudes of sins Fnrther motives 1. Jesus Christ dyed to save souls 2. others seek to destroy them 3. This is God's great end of giving his Spirit 4. It is an high honour 5. a point of great wisdom 6. an evidence of sincere love 7. Till people are converted they are unprofitable 8. Beasts are to be helped in danger To mannage what we do herein wisely The Conclusion of the whole Some few Errata escaped are thus to be corrected In the Epistle Dedicatory p. 2. 1. 18. for effectual read subservient and l. 19. for essential read effectual Page 23. marg for regio read regno and for summè r. sum me 12. for Hosea 12. 4. r. 14. 70. marg for Jer. 3. r. 31. 72. l. 5. sor Psal 12. r. 11. 73. l. 7. after the Hebrew r. is 95. marg for ipsae r. ipsos 110. l. 25. for our r. one 114. l. 2. for thins r. things 166. l. 12. for Acts 14. r. 13. 245. l. 17. for the second toyling r. toying 247. l. 17. for turn r. turns 301. l. 4. before wrought r. first ENGLAND'S Sole and Soveraign way of being saved PSALM 80. 19. Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts Cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved CHAP. I. The general Scope Summe and Parts of the words IF we consult this Psalm we shall find that the Church and people of God were here at this time in a sad condition they were under sore trials and afflictions Those former manifold mercies which the Lord had exhibited to them were now changed into miseries and distresses The Lord fed them with the bread of tears and gave them tears to drink in great measure He made them a strife unto their neighbours and their enemies laught among themselves v. 6. 7. and being in so sad a condition they do in this Psalm pray for deliverance and these words here which I have chose to discourse of are part of their prayer yea a main chief and principal part With this they begin v. 3. and go on with v. 7. and conclude with v. 19. and a blessed part they are indeed and they in their pressures in their miseries and calamities thus praying pray well and indeed they could not pray better for they thus praying go the right way and take the most effectual course both to be heard Hic versus ordine est tertius tertiò per hunc Psalmum repetitur quod ob id moneo ut intelligamus Prophetam in hac petitione quòd hic versus complectitur universam constituisse salut is spem Musc in loc and to be saved For 1. we in our suits and supplications never please God better nor are welcomer into his presence nor likelier to speed than when we ask most I mean what is best and of greatest and highest importance Math. 6. 33. 2 Chron. 7. 14. And 2. for the Lord God of Hosts to turn a people again and cause his face to shine is the onely way for a people to be saved And this they here pray for yea and this is the onely way to have England saved to have this Nation saved Kingdom saved Church saved City saved Towns saved Families saved our selves and ours and all saved for God to turn us again and cause his face to shine and when God does thus we shall be saved indeed saved to purpose saved in mercy saved aright so that a Discourse of these words must needs be very seasonable and soveraign for they are the very platform of a peoples weal and do contain in them their onely right way of being saved I shall not stand at the present to give you any farther account of the Psalm in general only take notice that the words are the burden or weight of the Psalm we have them no less than twice before as v. 3. Turn us again O God and Versus intercalaris cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved They pray v. 1. 2. Give ear O'Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a flock thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth Before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us But how would they be saved what is that they so much desire and breath after that they may be saved why Turn us again say they O God and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved and then again v. 7. Turn us again c. They had made before very sad complaints v. 4 5 6. how that God was angry against their prayer and fed them with the bread of tears c. But how ill soever it was with them at present they beg but this of God that he would turn them again and cause his face to shine and then they promise to themselves that all shall certainly be well with them and they shall be saved and then again in the 19. v. with this namely the words I have Hic versus principalem continet propositionem hinc tertio repetitur â—óque Psalmus concluditur made choice of they conclude and shut up all Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved Thus they three times repeat the same thing as if they could never pray it enough and we scarce find the like in all holy Writ and therefore is it the more to be looked into and observ'd Mollerâ— and seriously weighed and considered And these Non inanem battologiam dictat nobis Dei Spiritus easdem preces ter incuscando sed ut malis gravati audacti nihilominus assurgamus haec fultura nobis saepiùs offertur their so frequent and earnest requests of the same things we are not to look upon them as vain Tautologies or needless repetitions but as they do denote the fervency
an ill case there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him c. v. 7. yet says the Lord to him my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Let our condition be what it will let it seem never so sad let our tryals and afflictions be never so many and great yet God's grace i. e. his favour his accepting grace is sufficient to comfort us yea and his sanctifying strengthning and supporting grace to uphold us When says David I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my Soul Psalm 94. 18 19. The Lord alone and his favour is a full compleat and more than sufficient counter-comfort to all troubles and calamities whatsoever and the light of his countenance does not onely put more joy and gladness into their hearts upon whom it is lift up than in the time when others Corn and Wine increases but it puts more joy than the greatest decrease of them can occasion sorrow Habuk. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. yea it alters the very nature of the evils themselves that they are not what they were that sickness is not sickness as it were hence it is said Is 33. 24. And the Inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity And hence Matth. 9. 2. our Saviour there bids the man sick of the Palsie be of good cheer his sins being forgiven though his sickness was not yet cured and so had he cause had it never been cured In six yea in seven troubles this keeps all evil from touching us Job 5. 19. And therefore how earnestly how importunately at all times but more especially in evil times should we implore these mercies CHAP. IV. The second Doctrine observable as more general LOoking upon these words as being the burden of the Psalm and that which the Church and people of God do so often and earnestly beg and intreat again and again no less than three times v. 3 7 19 in this one Psalm thence we observe Doct. 2. Spiritual blessings special Ter repetitur haec precatio ut fieri solet quando animus in invocatione ardet Strigelius peculiar mercies are to be prayed for with all earnestness not onely simply to be asked to be sought but in such a way and after such a manner viz. frequently and fervently often and earnestly again and again with ardency and ut most importunity For thus the Church and people of God seek them here for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine these were Spiritual blessings choice special and peculiar mercies Soul-benefits and they are earnest and importunate for them they beg them once and again and again as if they would not be denied them and as if they were resolv'd not to be put off without them But what are we to understand by Spiritual blessings by special peculiar mercies By these we are to understand in a word such as these here specified and such like as for God to turn us from our sins to himself to take away our iniquities and receive us graciously for him to be our God and for us to be his people and vouchsafe us his favour Spirit grace his accepting grace and his sanctifying and renewing grace pardon of sin and power against sin the blessings of the Covenant the sure mercies of David such as we find recorded in these and the like places Jer. 31. 33 34. 32. 38 39 40. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 c. Micah 7. 19. c. And such blessings such mercies are thus to be prayed for thus to be sought R. 1. Because God thus commands us to seek them and unless we thus seek them we do not seek them as he enjoyns Psal 105. 4. Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Math. 6. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness c. first not onely in regard of order of time but earnestness of endevours we are commanded to seek these not onely before other things but more than other things As these must be first so chief and most in our pursuits So Joh 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for the meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the father sealed not that we are forbidden to labour for things necessary to this life for that we are and ought to do but the meaning is that we must mainly and chiefly labour for that meat that endures to everlasting life that is for Christ and his benefits those things appointed by God for refreshing and sustaining the soul to eternity So that this is to be understood comparatively rather for the meat c. preferring the one before the other as when it 's said Matth. 9. 13. I will have mercy and not sacrifice he excludes not sacrifice but preferreth mercy So Luke 11. 9. And I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you By these expressions Christ enjoyns earnestness and perseverance in prayer for it is not a bare simple repetition of the same thing but a gradation and it is meant of things necessary to salvation and the whole scope of the place is to stir up to earnestness Ask and Scopus est oportere nos constanter orare cum ardore do not onely ask but seek yea and not onely seek but knock Thus when the Lord prescribes unto Aaron and his Sons to bless the children of Israel which was by supplicating his face and favour this they were to implore again and again as in that form Numbers 6. 25. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee v. 26. The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace R. 2. Because others have thus sought them even with all earnestness as the Church and people of God here and so others elsewhere The Prophet David tels us Psalm 119. 58. he intreated the favour of God but how with his whole heart I intreated thy favour with my whole heart So how often in the same Psalm does he beg of God to quicken him and to teach him his statutes nine or ten times the one and seven or eight times the other So how importunate is he for pardon Psalm 51. 6. according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my trnsgressions v. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity clense me from my sin v. 7. Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me c. v. 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities c. And how importunate was Jacob for the
sorts and kinds of evils whether temporal spiritual or eternal As 1. from our sins from their guilt to have them pardoned and forgiven If my people says the Lord shall humble themselves and pray and 2 Chron. 7. 14. seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I pardon their sins c. and repent ye Acts 3. 19. and be converted that your sins may be blotted out c. 2. From our sufferings miseries and calamities the mischievous fruits and effects of sin Thus the Lord promises upon his peoples turning to him not onely to pardon their sins 2 Chron. 7. 14. but also to heal their land that is remove those judgments which were as the sores and wounds of it So Hos 6. 1. Come say they and let us return unto the Lord and what then why then he that hath torn will heal us and he that hath smitten us will bind us up and v. 2. After two dayes will he revive us c. 3. As from these here so from hell and wrath and eternal death hereafter And hence repentance is said to be Acts 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. repentance unto life and repentance unto salvation and repent and turn your selves says God from your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Thus God's turning us again and causing his face to shine it remedies all peoples evils and miseries here and brings to them full salvation hereafter 6. This is the onely way for a people to be saved indeed to be sav'd to purpose and in mercy as you have heard so as in being saved to be blessed and happy and to have it well with them Thus this it is the onely way for a people to be saved and no other way will do or will or can prove soveraign or effectual either for a people or a person either for our selves or the nation no whatever other ways we take or other attempts or experiments we make without this they will all prove but abortive and to no purpose nor avail any thing but we shall perish notwithstanding And this I propose as the onely way in opposition to all worldly carnal ways and means and shifts and devices that men make use of and betake themselves to to save and secure themselves by with neglect of this but in vain and to no purpose do they do it and yet this is that to which men are very prone to run to other means and helps with neglect of this as the Scripture declares and the Lord complains when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound then went Ephraim to the Hosea 5. 13. 7. 11 12 13. Assyrian and sent to King Jareb yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound Ephraim also is like a silly Dove without heart that is simple foolish without judgment and understanding why it follows they call to Egypt they go to Assyria to aid and relieve them and neglect the onely way of their help which was to return to the Lord their God and seek him This spake them foolish and silly indeed for what says God When they shall go I will spread my net upon them I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven that is I will blast their projects and designs and make the issue of them to be their own ruine and confusion They thought to mount and soar on high but I will make them come down with a witness and hence says God Wo unto them for they have fled from me destruction unto them for they have transgressed against me that is gone on to rebell against me still in stead of turning unto me And what could betide such but ruine and destruction So in Isaiah 22. how sedulous and exact are the Jews there in their carnal policies and worldly contrivances to secure themselves but with a neglect of God and the true way of their safety which was their return to him And he discovered the covering of Judah Some Is 22. 8 9 10 11. by this Covering understand the city it self whither the people repair'd for shelter others the Temple or Sanctuary and the vain confidence they put therein others their strong holds armories or storehouses where their armes and ammunition were bestowed or what ever else it was wherein their power preparations or provisions for the safeguarding themselves and their city did consist as it follows and thou didst look in that day to the Armour of the house of the Forrest that is as is conceived the Magazine of the Kingdom ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David that they are many and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool And ye have numbred the houses of Jerusalem and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof neither had respect to him that fashioned it long ago Thus as to worldly carnal means and helps they are very sedulous and exact very precise in every punctilio they neither spare for pains nor cost but they neglecting the main which was to repent and turn to God and which God then in a more special manner did call for v. 12. all the other availed them nothing neither did they or could they save or secure them And hence the Lord expostulates the case with them as concerning their folly and vanity therein Jer. 2. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way running for help sometimes to one party one way and sometimes another way or to change thy way that is the way I have prescribed thee and should be thy way as if the Lord had said thou knowest well enough the way of thy weal thy way to be saved and why then doest thou gad up and down to find out new ways and to try other ways why they shall avail thee nothing thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast asham'd of Assyria as if the Lord had said they shall all serve thee alike as thou hast been deceiv'd and been befool'd by the one so shalt thou also be by the other yea v. 37. Thou shalt go forth from him and thine hands upon thine head i. e. with sorrow shame and disgrace whereof this was a sign as it is said of Tamar when ravished 2 Sam. 13. 19. by her Brother Amnon that she laid her hand on her head and went on crying for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences that is all thy vain refuges and ways which thou seekest and betakest thy self to out of God's way the Lord hath rejected them or as some despised them scorn'd them and as it were derided them and thy folly in imagining to save and secure thy self by them And thou shalt not prosper in them for Ezek. 24. 12. they are but lies as the Lord tels Jerusalem elsewhere she hath wearied her self with lies that is
being every where obvious So John the Baptist Christ's harbinger and forerunner and afterward Jesus Christ himself whose great business in their preachings was no other then that sinners might be sav'd and that it might be well with them what did they preach it was Repentance And so when he sent forth the twelve it is said they went out and Matth. 3. 2. 4. 17. preached and what did they preach why that Mark 6. 12. men should repent Now had there been any more effectual way or course to have been taken for furthering the good of these they went or were sent to preach to surely they would have taken it but they taking this course and going this way clearly demonstrates that this is indeed the way R. 7. Because true repentance sound Evangelical conversion does presuppose faith yea and Poenitentia ad desperationem trahit nisi fulciatur verá fide de remissione peccati ut est videre in Caino Judâ Saule c. Aretius is a happy fruit and effect thereof faith being that which dissolves and melts the heart into kindly sorrow and grief for former sins and rebellions whereby so good a God hath been grieved and makes the soul to hate and abominate and resolve against them for the future And now true faith is every where held forth as saving He that believeth shall be saved and Mark 16. 16. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt Acts 16. 31. Ephes 2. 8. Heb. 10. 39. 1 Pet. 1. 9. be saved and we are of them that believe to the saving of the Soul so receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls c. And now true conversion must needs be the onely effectual way for a people to be sav'd because where this is faith is yea in order of nature as I said before faith precedes it as the ground and root thereof Indeed in order of time they are both together and so neither of them is one before the other but in the manifestation of them Repentance is first As the Thunder and Lightning are both at one and the same time yet is one discerned before the other and so is repentance both to a man's self and also to others sooner discerned and discovered than faith one as the sap lying hid within but the other as the bud springing forth and shewing it self without but in order of nature faith is first for 1. God's favour is first apprehended and remission of sins upon repentance believed and then upon that comes repentance and conversion and alteration of heart and life And 2. true repentance being a grace and being repentance unto life Zach. 12. 10. whence should it be had but from the fountain thereof and how should it be had thence but by faith union being the ground of communion and interest of influence So that Jesus Christ must first be received himself before saving conversion or any grace can be received hence our Saviour tells us without him we can John 15. 5. do nothing or severed from him much less so great a thing as to repent and turn to God Some preparations to repentance and preparatory Fides nisi praeluceat nulla vera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse potest licèt adsit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qualis fuit in Juda. Tossanus beginnings and introductions there are indeed before faith as Legal fears and terrors but no true Evangelical repentance for 3. that is pleasing and acceptable to God and therefore cannot be without faith for without faith it is impossible to please God or that any work should please him that does not arise thence And besides Sine fide omnis poenitentia non solum ociosa est sed expeditum iter ad desperationem Mentzerus 4. without faith we are spiritually dead for the just do live by faith Heb. 2. 4. and repentance is the work of the living But if repentance be after faith how is it may some say that we find repentance put before it as Mark 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel and Acts 20. 21. To this I answer that the placing of things in Scripture is not always according to Credendo in Christum convertuntur quia fides est praevia conversionis nec ulla est vera conversio sine fide Tossanus in locum the order of nature but sometimes the cause is placed after the effect to shew how we should obtain the effect as 1. repent and then that ye may repent believe Again 2. in other places we find it put after faith as Acts 12. 21. And a great number believed and turn'd to the Lord. Thus the goodness of God and remission of sins by Jesus Christ being apprehended and imbraced by faith this brings on conversion And His duobus summa doctrinae Evangelicae comprehendi solet Non hîc praeponitur poenitentia fidei quasi prior dignitate vel tempore hence these two are made the summe of the Gospel and of Christian doctrine and the Apostles preaching Acts 20. 20. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you v. 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and this he calls v. 27. the whole counsel of God viz. which God hath revealed and manifested as concerning our salvation and how we may come to obtain it And this by the way may comfort all true converts as concerning their having had some tasts and particular apprehensions of the mercy of God in Christ and so some measure of faith this being an evident sign thereof and an happy effect which flows therefrom and therefore this must needs be the soveraign way for a people to be saved for God to turn them again it presupposing always this true saving faith R. 8. That this is the onely way for a people to be saved for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine appears from the nature excellency and happy effects of these and from what follows upon these As 1. as to conversion and being turn'd again this must needs be the way to be sav'd yea everlastingly sav'd For 1. such as are indeed turn'd again are turn'd from that which is and indeed onely is destructive which alone does and can indeed destroy and that is sin and iniquity and being turn'd from that which is alone destructive they must needs be in the way to be sav'd he indeed that pursueth Prov. 11. 16. evil pursues it to his own death to his own eternal ruine but now the true convert he turns from it and forsakes it and how then should it be his ruine And hence says the Lord God to Ezek. 18. 30. the house of Israel repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine For you are now turn'd from that which else would and indeed onely could have been your ruine there being
7. 21. 6. of joy I hou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and wine increased for thou hast made him most blessed for ever thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance it makes exceeding happy and exceeding glad It is the greatest cheerer the choicest cordial for thy love is better and we Cant. 1. 2 4. will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more than wine 8. It is glory it is our honour and exaltaion For thou art the glory of their strength and Psalm 89. 17. 148. 14. in thy favour our horn shall be exalted he also exalteth the horn of his people he and his favour whose name alone is excellent and whose v. 13. glory is above the earth and heaven And who should or what should exalt his people if not God and his favour It is a crowning mercy who crowneth thee with loving kindness and Psalm 103. 4. tender mercies the favour of God the loving kindness of God and those special peculiar tender mercies which flow from his very bowels as it were from his tender intimate and affectionate love these crown these are our honour and ornament With favour wilt thou compass 5. 12. him as with a shield the Hebrew is crown him And so the Dutch and others read it thou shalt crown him with thy favourableness or well Ut scuto voluntate coronabis eum pleasing complacency as with a target as with a buckler with favourable acceptation thou wilt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coronabis crown him Not only does glory life and immortality crown hereafter but the love and favour of God crowns here yea all the Gold and Gems and Rubies and richest and preciousest stones in the world set and compos'd together can never make such a Crown for the head as the favour of God puts upon the soul With favour wilt thou crown him In the 2 Sam. 12. 30. we read there of a Crown the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones which according to the weight of the Sanctuary weighed above an hundred pound but according to the ordinary talent above fifty four pound but the Crown of Gods favour exceeds it and excels it Thus the favour of God is not only Shield and Buckler but Crown also yea 't is any thing every thing that is truly excellent comfortable and commodious and that his people stand in need for it to be unto them But thou O Lord art a shield for me my glory Psalm 3. 3. Isa 28. 5. and the lifter up of my head In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people c. As he said to Paul his grace is sufficient 2 Cor. 12. 9. Favor Dei auxilium spiritus sancti á favore isto proveniens for us or enough for us and is all in all to us his accepting grace and his helping and sustaining grace his favour and what flows therefrom 4. It covers and silences all that God has against his people So that though his people may have many failings which oppose their weal and might be matter of plea against them yet God shining on them with his face he passes them by and silences all in his love for love even in us covers multitudes of sins how much more 1 Pet. 4. 8. Prov. 10. 12. Zeph. 3. 17. God's love The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his love that is as some render it he will take satisfaction and contentment in loving thee in the affection he bears to thee But the Hebrew is as is noted in the Silebit propter dilectionem suam obmutescet in amore suo Margent he will be silent in his love or because of his love that is he will bear with thy infirmities and pass them by without manifesting any displeasure for them his love shall answer all objections against thee so that thy frailties shall not be charged upon thee but born with The Hebrew signifies also to be dumb or deaf and some render it he shall be dumb in his love or deaf that is to speak after the manner of men his ear shall not hear nor his mouth utter any accusations against thee so as to reject thee though he may humble thee he will quiet himself in his love when his anger is ready to be stirr'd he will pass over many things and as it were wink at them because he loves thee as the tender-hearted loving husband does as to his dear wife the loving father or mother as to her dear child So Hosea 14. 4. I will heal their back-sliding and whence I will love them freely for my anger is turn'd away from him and Micah 7. 19. He will turn again i. e. in mercy and loving kindness he will manifest his love he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the Sea drown them in the ocean of his love Psalm 85. 1 Thou hast been favourable unto thy Land and then v. 2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sin CHAP. IX The Application of the point and first in general by way of Information or inference IS it the onely way for a people to be saved for Use 1. of Information or inference God to turn them again and cause his face to shine as hath been abundantly made good then there are several truths that this point doth inform us of and instruct us in and several things from hence are deducible and may be inferr'd As 1. That then there is a way for a people to be saved and that let their present state and condition be what it will be it never so sad though as sad as this peoples was here whose prayer God had seemed to be angry with a great while v. 4 5 6 12 13 yea and had fed them with bred of tears and given them tears to drink in great measure made them a strife unto their neighbours and their enemies laught among themselves yea though God had planted them as his vine yet now he had broken down her hedges so that all they who passed by the way did pluck her The bore out of the wood did wast it and the wild beast out of the field devoured it yea all God's former mercies were now turned into judgments and yet were a peoples condition as sad as theirs here yea sadder yet there is a way for them to be saved yea let God but turn them again and cause his face to shine and they shall be saved Thus whatever are a peoples sicknesses or sores there is a salve whatever their maladies there is a remedy whatever is their case there is a way of
God the Father rejoiceth and Jesus Christ rejoiceth and the Angels rejoice above and his Ministers and People rejoice beneath It is said of Paul and Silas that passing through Phenice and Samaria and declaring the Conversion of the Gentils they caused Quoties benè agimus gaudent Angeli tristantur Daemones quoties à bono deviamus Diabolum laetificamus Angelos suo gaudio defraudamus great joy unto all the brethren Acts 15. 3. and Acts 11. 21. A great number believing and turning unto the Lord it is said of Barnabas that coming v. 23. and seeing the grace of God he was glad c. and 2 Cor. 7. 9. Now I rejoyce not that ye were made sorry simply made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance and for that I greatly rejoyce What 's the reason and ground of this why the point tells you because when a sinner repents and turns again to God and he causes his face to shine and vouchsafes him his favour he is blessed and happy and safe and it is and shall certainly be well with him he is in a good case and condition all things shall happily succeed to him here and he shall be eternally saved hereafter His repentance is repentance unto life and unto salvation never to be repented of and is not here cause of joy and rejoycing indeed when a soul is saved that was lost more worth than a whole world what should be matter of joy and rejoycing if not this Luke 15. 23. And bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry v. 24. for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry and v. 32. It was meet we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found So that God is so far from refusing any that turn to him that he rejoyceth very much therein and is more ready to receive them than they can be to come unto him 9. This informs us and gives us to see what a choice mercy and singular priviledg it is for a people to enjoy the ministery of the Word to have God's messengers and ambassadours sent among them to preach and dispense the same why because for a people to be saved the onely way it being for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine this is the way and means which God hath ordered and appointed to effect this to bring about this as the Scripture abundantly declares Thus when the Lord had appeared to Paul and made him a Minister this he declares as the great work and business of his Ministery To open peoples eyes and to turn Acts 26. 18. 20. them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ and this he shewed 1. to them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judaea and then to the Gentils that they should repent and turn to God c. and we preach unto Acts 14. 15. you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth c. This is the great work and business of Ministers to shew this preach this press this urge this exhort and excite to this yea and to pray for this This was the great work and business of the Prophets of old and so ever since in Jerem. 25. 4. the Lord there tells the Jews that he sent unto them all his servants the Prophets rising early and sending them and what was their errand what did they say v. 5. They said turn ye again now every one from his evill way and from the evil of your doings c. So Zach. 1. 4. Be ye not as your Fathers unto whom the former Prophets have cryed and what did they cry Turn ye now from your evill way and from your evil doings c. This the Prophets still said and cry'd and press'd and urg'd O turn ye to God and his ways and walk no longer in the ways of sin for they are dangerous ways there are Lyons in those ways that roaring Lyon that seeks to devour and there is hell and death and damnation and all the curses of God in those ways and there 's no going to heaven in them they are not ways to live in much less to dye in and therefore come off from them and speedily turn to better and do this or you dye or you perish And this is made the great end and business of John the Baptist's ministery to turn people to the Lord and turn the hearts of Luke 1. 15 16. the Fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just c. And many of the Convertet ratione sui ministerii praedicando poenitentiam c. Winckelman children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God that is he by his preaching being accompanied with the power of the holy Ghost to make it effectual shall be a means of many of their conversions and so of their happiness and salvation this was the work and should be the happy effect and fruit of his office and employment as it further follows And he shall go before Luke 1. 17. him that is before Christ the Messias in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just c. The former of these seems at first harsh and difficult that the hearts of the fathers should be turned to the children one would think the hearts of the children rather should have been turned to their fathers the place is difficult and is variously interpreted if we understand it simply and properly of Parents and Children we must interpret it of evil Parents and of good Children that are converted Thus many times children are converted and are godly when parents are wicked and unconverted and thus for the hearts of the fathers of the Parents continuing as yet the Devils children to be by the ministery of the Word turned to their children being good and God's children and so to be converted and to be of the same mind as they are is a blessed thing indeed and much to be wish'd and desired But 2. some understand it of the stubborn and refractory Jews that he by his ministery should make to become children of the Church that is of the number of those new converts and Christians in those days Thus some by Fathers understand the unconverted Jews by Children the Apostles and other Christians newly converted according Psalm 45. 16. to that In stead of thy fathers shall be thy children which thou mayest make Princes in all the Earth Thus when the Jews were converted to become Christians and to be of one heart and mind and to consent in
one truth then were the hearts of the fathers turned to the Flectet suâ efficaci praedicatione omnium hominum ordines ad poenitentiam c. Tossan in loc children 3. Others as Tossanus a learned Expositour understand it that John by his powerful preaching should bring all forts and orders and degrees of men whether fathers or children to repentance and to serve the Lord with one accord c. And some of the Ancients as Austin and Jerom by the Faithers understand Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets and by Children the Jews and thus expound it That when by the preaching of John the Jews should be brought to believe in Christ in whom the fathers had believed then should their fathers hearts be turned and affected towards them which otherwise were averse from them but then should they acknowledg them or then may the hearts of the fathers be said to be turned to the children when being converted themselves their earnest desires are to their children that they might be converted also 5. Others thus that whereas at this time when John came all was out of order and there were many corruptions errours schisms sects Docet Angelus Johannem suo ministerio patres filios existo dissidio in unitatem fidei adducturum c. Winckelm as Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Samaritans c. and many differences divisions and heart-burnings thereupon John by his preaching being made effectual by the Holy Ghost should so turn and convert all orders and degrees of men from the errours of their ways as to heal and reconcile the differences and divisions among themselves and to bring them to an holy union and mutual love and amity one to and with another so as to joyn together as one man to serve the Lord so that Ephraim should no more Isa 11. 13. envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim c. And what a blessed work was this thus in this sense to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and of the fathers to the children And oh that God would do this work for England that he would send some Johns filled with the holy Ghost to effect this that the hearts of all that profess his name might be turned to God and turned one to another that all might be one in the father and the Son as the father and son are one in John 17. 21. themselves as Christ prayed that all might serve him with one shoulder or one consent and Zephan 3 9. his way and name might be one in the earth and there might be no other strife but who might serve God best and love one another most the performing of this work upon Mount Sion and on Jerusalem how would it further the conversion of the Jews and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentils and how soon then would God subdue our enemies and turn his hand against his and our adversaries round about And this now which way soever we take or understand it it being the work of the ministery the design of the preaching of the Word to turn people to the Lord to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and as it follows the disobodient to the wisdom of the just that is to the wisdom of true converts to that repentance and conversion which they have already been brought to whereby they are brought to themselves and to a sound mind and to be wise indeed as also it being the work of the ministery of the Word to reconcile people to God and to bring them again into favour and friendship with him and to be at peace with him and therefore is it called the ministery and word of reconciliation What a choice mercy and singular priviledg must it needs then be for a people to enjoy it and how much should people prize and esteem and value it and as it is said of those Acts 14. 48. glorifie it If a Traveller was out of his way and travelling in dangerous paths where robberies and murthers used to be be committed what a good work was it for one to inform this Traveller of his danger and to set him into a safe and right way So if he was fallen to have one to raise him up again and this is the work of the ministery Psalm 19. 7. The law of the Lord or the doctrine of the Lord that is his holy Word is perfect converting the soul it says this is the way walk in it and what a mercy is it to enjoy such a word this makes it to such as experience this blessed effect of it better to them than thousands of gold and silver as David Psalm 119. 72. says it was to him The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver that is many thousands though never so many for was it the gold and silver of many worlds what could it do or contribute in the least as to what the Word does 10. This speaks very highly of God's turning a people again and causing his face to shine there being so much in them and that flows from them that when God vouchsafes these to a people they are then saved they are then blessed and happy and it is well with them and it shall be well with them for ever hereafter they are safe and all shall happily succeed they are freed from all evill and in the way of all good and what blessed things are they that put people into such a condition O how well does God deal with those he vouchsafes them to they may well say Thou hast dealt well Ps 119. 65. 65. 4. 63. 3. with thy servant O Lord c. and Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee whom thou turnest to thee and turnest thy face unto him for this is beter than life and man's onely true felicity and soveraign way of being saved c. And therefore how excellent is thy loving kindness O God says David Psal 36. 7. that produces such excellent effects 11. This justifies and much commends solemn days of fasting and humiliation this being the great work and business of them to seek God's face and to further our turning again to him and this being the onely way to be saved this speaks such days to be good days blessed days and such duties to be good duties and such a work to be a good work and it is good for people they tending so much to their weal to be much in them such fasting days proving many times effectual for conversion and so to salvation which makes them * Lachâ—ymae poenitentium vinum Angelorum dum hîc ex animo lugemus commissa diem festum Angeli agunt in coelesti curiâ festival days to the Angels in heaven who rejoyce so much as you heard before in the conversion of sinners and to whom penitents tears become as refreshing wine c. 12. This speaks afflictions not to be such sad things as many
deem them why because Singulare beneficium cruce quasi spinis occludi viam peccandi God makes use of them many times to further and help forward this blessed turn and this being the onely way for sinners to be saved and to have it well with them this speaks well of afflictions Thus Manasseh who was so grievous a 2 Chron. 33. 12. sinner yet being in affliction he sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly c. and Luk. 15. â—7 18. when the prodigal suffered hardship and was ready to perish with hunger then he resolv'd to arise and go to his father and when God hedged up Israel's way with thorns sent troubles and Hosea 2. 6 7. distresses upon them then she resolves to go and return to her first husband not as if they effected this of themselves but by the Spirits working in them and by them But whiles sinners live in jollity and prosperity and have no troubles nor changes they never think of changing their way nor returning to God and thus the prosperity of fools destroys them whereas adversity might be Prov. 1. 32. a means to save them but by the other they are hardened and encouraged to go on still in a course of sin without returning Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed Eccles 8. 11. Psalm 73. 5 6. 50 21. therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil They are not in trouble as other men therefore pride compasses them about c. These things hast thou done and I kept silence Psal â—0 21. thou thoughtest I was such a one altogether as thy self So Thou art wearied in the Is 57. 10. See also Ps 55. 19. Jer. 5. 28. 22. 21. c. greatness of thy way yet saidst thou not there is no hope and why thou hast found the life of thine hand therefore thou wast not grieved that is thou hast found comfort by the Assyrians and they promise to strengthen thy hand with help and therefore thou art incouraged to go on still in thy way and therefore 't is a great mercy to such for God to afflict them and give them trouble and grief that so the ways of sin may be wearisome and troublesome and so they may think of returning from them when in some measure they feel the weight and burden of them and happy affliction that works to conversion happy troubles that further a sinner's peace by furthering his turning to God and putting a stop to him in his sins that cause sinners to seek the Lord whom before they forgot and lived without And how may this help to sweeten and alleviate the bitterness of afflictions and though bitter yet render them better than the sweetest pleasures of sin Blessed is the man whom thou châ—stenest O Lord and Ps 94. 12. teachest him out of thy Law c. Blessed blacks that are a means to turn us white and happy darks that are a means to turn us to light But 2 Chron. 15. 4 Is 26. 16. when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord c. Lord in trouble have they visited thee c. In their affliction they will seek â—e verly c. Hos 5. 15. But while sinners go in 〈◊〉 their greatest affliction and punishment is not to 〈◊〉 afflicted their greatest crosâ— and 〈…〉 crost for such are like to go on still in their sins And thus that which many sinners count their greatest felicity to prosper and be without trouble and affliction in their evil ways they go on in it is their greatest misery and that which they count their greatest priviledg is their greatest plague and proves their greatest detriment there being nothing sadder than a sinner prospering in an evil course and God not afflicting him and thus the Lord threatens it I will not punish your daughters when they commit Hos 4. 14. whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery c. And this is the greatest punishment the forest wrath the highest displeasure the furnace is heated here seven times hotter than ordinary for such are like to go on to commit whoredome and adultery still God withholding those punishments whereby they might be restrain'd and letting them go on without controule to their own utter confusion and destruction not taking any more pains with them by corrections to restrain their courses in sin but letting them go on still in the full career of their lusts and be as vile as they will and this is the heaviest judgment and argues the hottest displeasure it is next door to hell and such are within one step of being as miserable as they Vis indignantis Dèi terribilem vocem audire c. Orig. can be Wilt thou says one hear the terrible voice of a provoked God hear it here I will not punish c. So v. 17. and Matth. 15. 15. Bernard calls it a mercy more cruel than all Misericordia omni indignatione crudelior indignation a killing courtesie a cut-throat kindness yet how many are ready to bless themselves and think it a fine world to go on in their own ways without trouble whereas there cannot a greater plague befall them which made Luther cry strike Lord strike spare not and Feri Domine feri c. Jeremiah 10. 24. O Lord correct me but with judgment c. And this makes afflictions a great priviledge a choice mercy when they further our repentance and make us change our purpose and resolve to turn to God CHAP. X. The second Vse of the point in general by way of Exhortation and first to seek this by Prayer THE onely way for a people to be saved Use 2. of Exhortation is it for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine O as ever then we would be saved saved our selves or have others saved ours saved the Kingdom saved Church saved City countrey towns families friends relations little ones bodies souls religion lives liberties estates Gospel or whatever else is near or dear to us and as ever we would be sav'd indeed sav'd to purpose sav'd in mercy so as to be blessed and happy in being sav'd and have it well with us and all happily succeed to us here and be everlastingly saved hereafter let us all in the name and fear of God be exhorted excited and stirred up to seek this beseech this earnestly to intreat and importune this O that the Lord God of hosts would turn us again and cause his face to shine let this be our frequent and our fervent our often and our earnest prayer unto him and let us continue thus praying asking seeking begging beseeching intreating importuning knocking 'till the Lord is pleased to give us a gracious answer let us resolve with Jacob not to let him go except he thus bless us for nothing can avail us as to our happiness as to our weal as to the having
his countenance that he lifts it up It is not that he hath any need of us or any motive from us except our misery and this the Scripture every where holds forth Of his own will that is of his meer good pleasure James 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia voluit becanse he would and free grace begat he us with the word of truth this alone is the spring and original both of our regeneration and salvation For by grace ye are saved but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we Eph. 2. 8. v. 4. 5. were dead in sins hath qu savâ—d us c. But according to his mercy he 〈◊〉 us by the washing Titus 3. 5. of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost c. I will heal their back-sliding I will love Hos 14. 4. them freely c. He will turn again and whence he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities c. Since thou wast precious in my sight that is since thou becamest dear to me Is 43. 4. and I vouchsafed thee grace and favour thou Iter ad gratiam est per gratiam per quae ipsam venitur ad ipsam Prosper hast been honourable and I have loved thee I have manifested my love several ways to thee and all from love and meer grace and good will So that it is of free grace meerly that God exhibits and shews grace it is of love that he manifests love and how much may this encourage poor creatures to seek unto the Lord that he would turn them again and cause his face to shine it being nothing but free grace and meer mercy that hath put him upon doing this for others and though they be so unworthy yet why may not free and rich grace put God upon doing that for them which it hath put him upon doing for others God never turned any again to himself or caused his face to shine on them because they were worthy but because he was gracious not because they deserv'd it but because it was his good pleasure so to do it not because of any merit in them but because of that mercy that is in himself not because of works which they had done but because of what he was pleas'd of meer mercy and free grace for to do Thus the Lord tells Israel that because Deut. 7. 7 8. he loved them he set his love upon them here 's the spring and rise of all the good will and pleasure of God the natural bent purpose and Rom. 9. 15. Phil. 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro gratuitâ suâ benevolentiâ Pise inclination of God's heart to do the creature good I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion whom I will have compassion and he worketh both to will and to do of his good pleasure 9. Let us consider that as it is from free grace that any are turned again so it is by grace that they are turned as from favouring accepting grace so by sanctifying renewing grace as from the freeness of the one so by the effectual operation of the other it is free grace alone that puts God upon doing and then sanctifying grace that does it Look what ever any have been or are as to any saving work of conversion upon the soul and turning them again unto the Lord as it has been wholly upon the account of free accepting grace so it has been wholly by the powerful operation of sanctifying renewing grace as meerly from grace so wholly by grace and whatever any have been or are as to any saving work it is by the grace of God that they are what are and what that grace hath done for others that sometimes were what thou now art the same can it effect for thee We all says the Apostle with 2 Cor. 3. 18. open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory But how by the Spirit Psal 51. 12. of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord is free not only as making free or being freely given but as acting freely The wind bloweth Joh. 3. 8. where it listeth c. and so does the Spirit breath freely where he pleases and can cause the same gales of grace to breath upon thee as he hath done upon others as God vouchsafeth his favour so he also gives grace and works by his grace where when and on whom he pleases and all that any are or have it is by that grace as the Apostle expresseth it as concerning himself that they are what they are and have what they have And last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time For I am the 1. Cor. 15. 8 9 10. least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am what I am as to that change that is now wrought in me as to any saving work of conversion Quicquid est non sibi aut meritis suis sed soli gratiae Dei tribuit Pareus upon my soul as to being a true convert a true Christian and believer as to being an Apostle and a preacher who before was a persecutor as to what I thus am as it is meerly from grace so it is wholly by grace that I am what I am and others whatever they are being by grace what they are as to any saving work of grace why by the same grace mayest not thou be the same they are Is not grace as free and as effectual for thee as for another can it not do and effect that for thee that it hath done for others Take grace away and others are what thou art let grace work upon thee and thou shalt be the same as others are O what may not free grace put God upon and what will not effectual 2 Cor. 9. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace do And God is able as the Apostle speaks to make all grace to abound towards you that ye always having all-sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work What cause have we to adore the fulness of this Scripture here are five all 's 1. All grace and not some onely 2. All ways and not now and then onely 3. All-sufficiency and not some sufficiency onely 4. In all things and not in some onely 5. To every or all good works and all grace abound as to all these what wants can exceed such supplies what indigencies such sufficiency and what cannot such grace do 10. Consider how far soever thou mayest have turned away or turned aside from God yet God has turned again as great sinners and turners aside as thou hast been or art Ephes 2. 1. And you hath he quickened which were dead in sins and trespasses not
Story converted of his Atheism so though repentance seem never so difficult at first to corrupt nature yet frequently occasioning your hearts that way might much help you if you would but be still haunting your hearts with what might further it as with precepts promises threatnings judgments mercies Law Gospel c. and never giving over 'till something comes of it for occasions are to be prest and urg'd to the utmost and throughly to be improv'd as it is said of those Jews I do but allude to it that they said unto Nehemiah and the Premenda est occâsio rest that were building ten times that is very often in all ways that ye passe to and again the Nehem. 4. 12. enemy will be upon you and thus still haunting them with warnings at length they looked about and set guards in every place And so deal with your hearts and warn them often again and again tell them O! if you do not repent the enemy will be upon you the wrath and curse of God will be upon you hardness of heart will be upon you all those judgments threatened will be upon you but if you repent the blessing and favour of God will be upon you grace and mercy and peace will be upon you all the good promised will be upon you yea God himself will dwell in you and his Angels will guard you and minister unto you c. and tell your hearts such and such things often yea never give over 'till you have brought it to some good issue Thus as others occasion their hearts sin-ward hell-ward vanity-ward world-ward so do you grace-ward heaven-ward repentanceward conversion-ward and so salvation-ward 7. Remember God of his promises and in your prayers plead and press and urge the same Lord hast thou not in thy Word of free grace made promises not only to grace but of grace and do Lord as thou hast said be as good as thy word O remember thy promise Thus turn promises into prayers as these and the like Turn you at my reproof behold I Prov. 1. 23. Is 44. 3. will pour out my Spirit unto you c. and I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and not onely so but floods upon the dry ground that is my Spirit upon barren and fruitless hearts that have neither saving knowledg nor are able to perform any good work I will pour my Spirit upon thy Is 35. 5 6 7. seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened c. and in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart that is the Spirit shall be abundantly poured out upon all sorts even upon such as were as a wilderness and as a dry and barren heath And the parched ground shall become Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. a poole and the thirstly land springs of water in the habitation of Dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I clense you A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments Jer. 3. 19. and do them But I said how shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land c. that is being spoken of God after the manner of men I thus thought and considered with my self how shall I put thee among the children c. How shall I make such as you my people who are so vile and unworthy and adopt you to be my children and so make you heirs of that heavenly and glorious Canaan of which the other was but a type Now to this God himself makes answer within himself and the more to express the greatness of his mercy and the riches of his free grace against their unworthiness he says Thou shalt call me my father and shalt not turn away from me that is I will by my Spirit being a Spirit of conversion and adoption cause thee to return and to cry unto me in faith Abba father and thou shalt not depart from me Now remember God of these and the like promises and press them and plead them and urge them turn them into prayers 'till God turn them into performances So I might mention others I will heal their back-sliding I will love them freely and they shall return to me with their whole heart and Hos 14. 4. Jer. 24. 7. Psalm 22. 27. all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord c. And because knowledg and understanding is as I said initial and so influential as to conversion urge the promises thereof as these and the like For the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters Is 11. 9. cover the Sea and They shall all know me from Jer. 31. 34. the least of them to the greatest c. and they shall be all taught of God Is 54. 13. Joh. 6. 45. c. 8. Follow after faith labour to believe for Non rectè possit agere poenitentiam nsi qui speraverit indulgentiam true kindly Evangelical repentance and saving conversion does as I said arise and flow from faith and is an happy effect and fruit thereof and faith at least in some measure must go before it as the ground and root thereof A true repenting sinner is a believing sinner that hath had some apprehensions and perswasions of the mercy of God in Christ and of forgiveness of sin in and through him to such as are penitent And without the root how should you partake of the fruit or without the cause of the effect it is said A great number believed and turned to Acts 11. 21. the Lord if ever we would turn to the Lord indeed we must first believe which should make us therefore the more to study and endeavour by all possible ways and means to obtain that precious grace of faith as the Apostle Peter calls 2 Pet. 1. 1. it precious indeed for what is there that is precious but faith brings us to obtain it and this we must in some measure have if ever we repent and turn to God to purpose for an unbelieving Conversio ad Deum complectitur praecipuè fidem quâ homo in solo vero Deo fiduciam collocat c. Winckelm heart is ever an hard evil and impenitent heart Paul speaking of such as live godly and so are true converts he speaks of them as being in Christ Jesus that is interested in him united to him by faith as branches into the Vine members to the head and such must all be that Joh. 15. 5. live godly for
from darkness to light from death to life from earth yea from hell to heaven from swine and husks Luk. 15. 18. to bread enough in our fathers house from feeding on ashes to feed on Angels food heavenly Poenitentia dicitur conversio ad Deum inter quem nos dissidium faciunt peccata Tossan viands from among murderers to the God of mercies from the crooked vile ways of sin to the even and excellent ways of holiness from ways of danger to ways of safety of trouble to ways of peace of bitterness to ways of pleasantness of wasting and destruction to ways of weal and salvation from broken cisterns that can hold no water to springs of water yea to the fountain of living waters from a wilderness and a land of deserts drought and the shadow of death to a fruitful refreshing Paradise In a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc word from sin which hath in it nothing but guilt and filth and stain and torment and curse and death and condemnation to God who is the sole and soveraign spring and fountain of all good of light life happiness help comfort consolation salvation and not onely how equal but how excellent is this yea and this makes it not onely our duty but highest dignity to turn again it being to God and such a God from what is most vile to an object so infinitely worthy It is best of all indeed not to sin but next to repent and turn from sin to God who Justin Martyr is such a God the most high and most excellent they called them to the most high Hos 11. 7. 5. In its fruits and effects and in its end and issue What excellent things are those the Apostle reckons up as following upon conversion What fruit says he had ye then in those things Rom. 6. 21 22. whereof ye are now asham'd for the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life O what a blessed change and what an excellent turn is here before servants of sin now servants of God before fruit unto unrighteousness now unto holiness before the end death now everlasting life 1. Here 's the excellentest freedom to be made free from sin 2. The excellentest service to become servants to God 3. The excellentest fruit fruit unto holiness and 4. the excellentest end and that is everlasting life O there is not nobler service performed excellenter fruit growing nor a happier end to be attained in heaven it self And this follows upon our being turn'd again which makes at once the sinner happy heaven merry hell sorry the Devils sad Angels glad the Saints to rejoyce on earth yea and all those celestial Heroes in Heaven and how excellent must that needs be that does all this and therefore to its difficulty oppose its excellency and excellent things are difficult but much to be preferr'd before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Facilis descensus ad orcum things that are easie but base and vile Job speaking of such as were base and acted vile things he tells us they had no helper or as the Job 30. 13. Dutch they needed no helper that is to execute their vile intentions no the work was easie enough they could do it of themselves but it was base vile mischievous destructive work But now to repent and turn to God and honour him and do good is hard and difficult here we need helpers help both from God and man but how infinitely is the one with all its difficulty to be preferr'd before the other with all its facility It is a thousand times more eligible to be labouring for Diamonds than lazing in the dirt to be sweating in a Golden Mine than idling and at ease in the mire to be toyling for treasures than toyling for straws better is the straight gate and narrow way that leads to life than the wide gate and broad way that leads to death Verae salutaris poenitentiae fructus multiples c. Gerh. 3. The utility thereof the profit benefit and commodities that accrew to the sinner thereby and these are so many as cannot be enumerated and so great as cannot be commensurated so that if any should ask what advantage then hath he that turns to God or what profit is there of Repentance I must answer as the Apostle Paul does in another case much every way And when a soul turns again indeed to God it may be said as Leah said when Gad was born A troop or company cometh O how many mercies blessings and benefits come and throng in then upon the convert To turn from sin it is Clavis viscerum Dei says one a key to unlock all the chests of God's mercies and a preservative against all miseries How many mercies are heaped up together in Hos 6. 1. 2. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind up After two days will he revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Here 's healing and binding up and reviving and raising and then living in God's sight and v. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth that is we shall experimentally know and tast and see that the Lord is gracious and he in his gracious accesses to our souls will be the same to them as the Sun and the former and latter rain are to the earth And how comfortable profitable refreshing and reviving are these And Thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye unto me and I Zach. 1. 3. will turn unto you and how much is wrapped up in that expression turn unto you that is mercifully favourably graciously turn my pleasant face to you lift up the light of my countenance upon you vouchsafe you my special grace and favour be reconcil'd to you and at peace with you I will pardon you bless you do good to you multiply all blessings upon you and remove all evils and plagues from you yea turn all into good unto you so that you shall find and feel and abundantly experience the sweet fruits and blessed effects of my turning to you Thus when God turns to us all good turns he being the fountain thereof heaven and earth turn happiness turns the creature turns the Angels turn the Gospel and all the glory and promises and priviledges thereof yea a full and overflowing all-sufficiency of all good turn to us and all evil turns from us all that is evil indeed for afflictions if they abide with us they are turn'd into good yea all now work together for good to us So that amidst ayles we are now without evil and amidst harms
none among them to call and invite them to better but suffer'd them to walk in their own ways and to go to hell in their Acts 14. 16. Idolatries God did not manifest his will to to them as he did to the Jews and thus the old Translation has it God regarded not Dutch reads it overlooked or disrespected lightly and slightly past them by his eye was not upon them for good so as to provide for them and send amongst them those that should call and invite them to repentance as he does now The word is the same that is used Acts 6. 1. and it signifies to despise neglect look over or besides because their widows were neglected So that to have an eye upon a place or person it being to manifest kindness and respect this winking seems to be Psal 33. 18. 34. 15. opposed to favour rather than justice viz. that God disregarded them overlooking them or besides them and not at them in mercy And de Dieu upon the place shews that it signifies God's anger and displeasure against them and therefore hid the means of salvation from them so that here not onely is God's command of repentance made known but the goodness of God in pressing the same c. And truly it is very sad in this sense for God to look over or look besides a place or people not so to regard times and shew that care of them and respect towards them as to send those among them that should call and invite them to repentance But England has nothing to charge God with as to this if this be to manifest respect to a people never had Nation clearer nor fuller demonstrations thereof then we have had And this sense and interpretation of the words does best agree with the sequel but now commandeth all men every where to repent and therein manifests more grace and favour he does not now leave nor let men alone to go on in their sins and walk in their own ways as formerly but many are now sent forth to call and invite them to repentance to reclaim sinners and to reduce wandering prodigals crying Turn ye turn ye and return return Repentance and remission of sins is now preached in Christ's name and many shew here and there and where ever they come that men should repent and turn to God c. So that now the great God does not onely command all men every where to repent but the holy Ghost specifies it here as a choice mercy and singular favour and priviledg that he does so and that beyond what he vouchsafed to former ages and the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent and truly next to true repentance and saving conversion it self this is the choicest mercy and greatest and highest priviledg that God can betrust a place or people with and this is the clearest and amplest demonstration of God's regard and respect to times that he can give for God to send his messengers up and down here and there in his name to command and invite and call upon people to repent and turn to God to cry as those Prophets of old Thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye now from your evil ways Zach 1. 4. and from your evil doings c. and Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dy and as that blessed Martyr Repent O England repent repent this is the fruit of God's compassion 2 Chr. 36. 15. on a people and in this the tender mercy of Luk. 1. 77 78 79 God yea the very bowels of his mercy do break forth and display themselves and to despise and reject such mercy to kick against such bowels causes the wrath of the Lord to arise against a people till there is no remedy for if says 2 Chron. 36. 16 17. Christ I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin that is in comparison their sin Joh. 15. 22. had not been so grievous as now it is but they might have had some excuse because of their ignorance but now they have no cloak or pretence for their sin Thus that the great and most high God commands us to repent not only should his soveraign authority therein awe us and have a strong influence upon us to obey but the regard and respect also which therein he manifests to us and the care which he shews he has therein of our souls and this is here subjoyned as one reason why he now commands all men every where to repent v. 31. because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead There is a day of judgment set a great and terrible day in which God will judg the world and he hath given assurance thereof to all men and now God would have it well with men at that day that they might be found then in peace and that it might be a day of refreshing to them and to that end he now commands them all every where to repent and to turn to him without which he knows it will be a sad day to them a day of perdition and destruction and therefore is he still long-suffering towards us not from slackness but from a willingness that none of us should perish but that we should all come to repentance and so be saved And what a great mercy and singular kindness is it that God has put us into a capacity of finding good by repentance by giving his Son to shed his bloud and to lay down his life for our sins without which all our repentance could have avail'd us nothing And shall not now God's authority nor clemency his soveraignty nor sweetness in commanding us to repent prevail with us but shall we despise both his greatness and his goodness his Majesty and his mercy what will this be but after our hardness and impenitent Rom. 2. 5. hearts to treasure up to our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God 2. There is a necessity as a way and means of our happiness and 2. Necessitas medii Nisi agnitis peccatis seriâ cordis contritione pungamini verâ fide á deo irato ad eum propitium in filio placatum conversi fueritis vitamque emendáveritis omnes simul peribitis Winckel weal as that without which it cannot be but we must perish and this Jesus Christ himself who is the Amen the faithful and true witness yea truth it self hath twice averred Luk. 13. 3 5. I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And again I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish I tell you who know full well who shall be saved and came to save that except you repent
woes and curses and horrors and terrors and tearings a pieces rolling garments in blood Psal 50. 22. Hos 13. 8. and renting the caul of the heart and devouring like a Lion And sinners not being sensible of this at present does but aggravate their misery and make their condition the more lamentable and is here any ground for mirth and not rather of grief and continual sorrow of heart and well may we say to such as the Apostle James Be afflicted and mourn and â—â—mes 4. 9. weep let your laughter be turn'd to mourning and your joy to heaviness And though in a right way and upon good grounds we wish and desire comfort to all yet as to the state that many are at present in we cannot wish them better than trouble as the way to peace and Timorem plurimum grief as the way to joy as Bernard once writing to one that he thought not sollicitous enough about the judgments of God wisht him much Hos 9. 1. fear Rejoyce not says God to Israel as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God c. And however such may at present find pleasure and delight in sin and carnal mirth in their evil ways yet let them know this is but their disease and from the distemper that is upon their souls for were their hearts right they would cry out of the bitterness of what they now say is sweet and what pleasures are they but such as are common with beasts and of the brutish part and but for a moment and such as have a poysonous sting in them and death and damnation entail'd to them and such as will certainly end in bitterness if not mercifully here dreadfully and eternally in hell hereafter and therefore be no longer enemies to your own comfort in going on still in your sins but turn to the Lord and then you shall experience true joy and comfort indeed and shall not lose your joys nor pleasures but change them for better for spiritual heavenly and more refined Would you not all now have joy and comfort and be glad which indeed is the very strength and support of our spirits and life of our lives for what is life or any thing else without comfort this being as one well expresses it the Spring of our year the light of our day the Sun in our firmament for the joy of the Lord is your strength and a merry heart does good like a medicine yea such a one hath a continual feast and would you have so O then turn to God we who are Ministers are called helpers of others joy and we would be glad to be so but never can we be so indeed till we become helpers of your conversion and instrumental in bringing you to God and turning you to him and then and not 'till then do we become helpers of your joy indeed yea and of our own too in yours and then may we say Go thy way eat thy bread with Eccles 9. 7. joy c. In the transgression of an evil man there Prov. 29. 6. is a snare but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce CHAP. XIII Some further Motives to turn to God 1. LET us consider that while we refuse or neglect to do this we forget our selves and hence when people turn to the Lord they are said to remember All the ends of the world Psal 22. 27. shall remember and turn unto the Lord c. It is a Prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles who turning to the Lord are said to remember but whom or what should they remember why in general themselves and their own interest how much they were concern'd therein more particularly some refer it to what immediately goes before They shall praise the Lord that seek him and their heart live for ever that â— 36. is through the manifestations of his favour be filled with spiritual joy this being indeed the living of the heart as the contrary is its dying 1 Sam. 25. 37. Cogitabunt de suis peccatis miscriis et considerata Dei misericordia tandem seriò expetent opem remedium suorum vulnerum i. e. convertentur Moll or live a spiritual life here and an eternal hereafter and remembring this they shall turn to the Lord or 2. They shall remember their sins the number and nature of them how many and great they have been and their misery by reason of them what wrong by their sins they have done to God and their own souls He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul they shall remember me c. because I am broken with their whorish heart c. Or 3. remember how Ezek. 6. 9. Zach. 10 9. Prov. 8. 36. much this is their duty as also its equity excellency c. and also how great God's goodness and mercy and riches of grace are to such as do indeed turn or they shall remember God's patience and the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering towards them how long he hath born with them though every day angry with them and provoked by them as it is said of the Israelites that about fourty years God suffered their manners in the wilderness or he bore them as a burden their froward Acts 13. 18. and untoward carriages were as an heavy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burden is to a man or as the peevishness and unquietness of a sucking Child is to the Nurse c. Now this they shall remember and despise Rom. 2. 4. those riches of goodness no longer but be led by them to repentance c. Thus there 's very much which if we did but remember and seriously consider might put us upon turning to God and how long shall we forget God and our selves and our own concerns and our own and the Nations weal. O that at length we might all remember and turn to the Lord especially considering the lowd cryes we have had to it alate not onely from God's Word but his works his judicious proceedings why whom should we remember if not our selves or what if not our own good we are bid not to forget to do good to others and shall we forget that which makes so much for our own good We would that God should remember us yea and he does or it would be quickly sad with us and shall not we remember him nay our selves but in refusing to return forget both The Psalmist complains his heart was so smitten c. that he forgat to eat his bread that was sad and strange Psal 102. 4. but this is sadder for that can but famish the body but this the soul that can but bring to the grave but this to hell The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget 9. 17. God and forget themselves to turn to him and therefore let us no longer forget our selves but in turning to the Lord shew at length that we remember
houses and England shall be set as a pattern of blessing and blessings as is said of David For thou hast made him most blessed for ever the Hebrew is set him blessings i. e. as some beset him with blessings as Psal 5. 12. 32. 10. replenished him c. or as others put him to be blessings that is to impart them or to be a blessing as is said of Abraham and others Gen. 12. 2. Is 19. 24. Ezek. 34. 26. c. or Psal 21. 6. rather as others to be an example of blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pones eum benedictiones Hac loquendi formulâ exprimitur tam uberem bonorum copiam affluere ei ut meritò benevolentiae divinae exemplar esse possit c Calv. and blessings that is so blessed and replenished with blessings as to become worthily an example to others thereof And so shall England become upon its return to God as it is said of Ephraim and Manasseh In thee shall Israel bless saying God make thee as Ephriam c. so as England the Lord bless thee as he hath blessed his people there whereas others have been an example of God's curse as Zedekiah and Ahab The Lord make thee as Zedekiah c. and then from that very time that we do indeed Gen 48. 20. Jer. 29. 22. turn again to God and are reform'd the name of the City and Countrey too shall be the name of that City Ezek. 48. 35. as that wherein our chief good and happiness shall consist Jehovah Shammah the Lord is there CHAP. XVII Motives to seek the face or favour of God COnsider 1. how excellent it is so as David Psal 36. 7. admires it How excellent is thy loving kindness O God c. It cannot be exprest what is there in heaven it self that exceeds it whom have I in heaven but thee And they shall see 73. 25. Rev. 22. 4. his face c. Life is precious the preciousest thing in Nature but the favour of God as has been hinted is more precious it is life even in Ps 63. 3. death it self as that blessed Martyr Mr. Bradford answered when profer'd life if he would recant Life said he with God's displeasure is worse than death and death in his favour is true life 2. How honourable what indeed more honours Since thou wast precious in my sight thou Is 43. 4. hast been honourable From that very time that a soul finds favour with God you may write it down as happy so truly honourable but there is no true honour 'till then it being God alone and his favour and grace that creates that this as I hinted before is the crowning mercy with favour wilt thou crown him It is observed of Ps 5. 12. the Rainbow that of it self it is but a common vapour but that which gilds it and as it were enamels it with so many radiant colours it is the Sun by shining upon it and so all the gildings all the beauty glory and lustre that is upon any it is from the shines of God's face from the beams of his favour and grace and without this man though in honour is yet but vile and like Psal 49. 20. the beasts that perish And the earth shined with his glory It is the grace and favour of Ezek. 43. 2. God which he counts his glory that makes to shine such lumps of earth as we are It is spoken as the great honour of the seven Princes of Persia and Media that were next to the King Hest 1. 14. that they saw his face those Persian Monarchs were seldom seen of any it was a piece of state they took upon themselves and if it was so much honour to see the face of an earthly Monarch what honour is it to behold the face of God! As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness Psal 17. 15. This is that badg of honour that differences the Saints from all others and is not onely the happiness but glory of heaven it self and of those Angels and blessed Heroes that reside there I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and I say unto you that in heaven Luk. 1. 19. Matth. 18. 10. the Angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven This is spoken of as the grearest honour the creature can be advanced to in heaven and what greater honour then can there be on earth 3. How comfortable nothing comforts like it nor any thing truly without it It s better than wine yea turns even water into wine it giveth songs in the night and in the grossest darkness causeth to arise light and this alone in all troubles is the choicest cordial no Bezoar Pearl Alkermes nor other cordial can comfort like it hence the Prophet David a man inspired by God of all cordials makes choice of this Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness Ps 119. 76. be for my comfort c. or let it be for to comfort me where should it be O let it be by Ad consolandum me me let it be with me as my cordial to cheer and revive me Such as are subject to faint use to have their cordials by them now Lord says David let me have this and none indeed to Ostendit nihil esse quod dolorem abstergat donec propitium sibi Deum sentiat Calvin this this was it made Oecolampadius when he was near death putting his hand upon his heart to say hic sat lucis here is abundance of light that is of unspeakable joy and Mr. Bolâ—on I am by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart can hold and another to cry out O the joy the unspeakable joy I find in my soul and another my cup runs over c. this will comfort when other the choicest cordials cannot nor will not and that in the most disconsolate estate but nothing in times of distress can comfort without it because nothing can supply the want of it It is said In the light of the Kings countenance is life and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain and as dew upon the grass and what then is the light of Gods countenance his favour how much more comfortable and refreshing must that needs be Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance O one cast of that is more comforting than the wealth of a whole world When Cyrus had once given a cup of Gold to one and a Kiss in token of special favour to another he to whom the King had given the Cup told him that the Cup he gave him was not so good gold as the Kiss he gave to the other c. 4. How profitable nothing makes more for our profit it being the main and that which is the very root and well-spring of all good but of this I have occasionally spoken something before and shall be the briefer therefore now what will or