being alwayes here in a growing estate but withall there is a spiritual delight and sweetness in that word in that which it reveals concerning God and that addes to their desire stirres their appetite towards it the former is in the foregoing verse the latter in this Nature addresses the infant to the breast but when it hath once tasted of it that is a new superadded attractive and makes it desire after that the more earnestly So here The word is fully recommended to us by these two usefulness and pleasantness so like milk as 't is compar'd here which is a nourishing food and withall sweet and delightfull to the taste by it we grow and in it we taste the graciousness of God David in that Psalm that he dedicates wholly to this subject gives both these as the reason of his appetite his love to it he expresses patheticaly Psa. 119. Ver. 97. O how love I thy law and then he addes that by it he was made wiser than his enemies than his teachers And than the ancients taught to refraine from every evil way taught by the Author of that word the Lord himself thou hast taught me to grow wiser and wâ—â—ier and holier in thy wayes and then Ver. 103. He addes this other reason How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than the hony and the hony Comb. We shall speak 1. Of the goodness or graciousness of the Lord. 2. Of this taste And 3. Of the Inference from both 1. Gracious Or of a bountifull kind disposition the word Psa. 34. Whence this is taken is Tob. And which signifieth good The Sept there render it by the word used here by our Apostle both the words signifie a benignity and kindness of nature it is one of loves attributes 1 Cor. 13. It is kind ever compassionate and as it can be helpfull in straits and distresses still ready to forget and pass by evil and to do good and in the largest most comprehensive sense must we take it here and yet still speak and think infinitely below what his goodness is He is naturally good yea goodness in his nature he is goodness and love it self he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love 1 Io. 4.8 Primitively good all goodness is deriv'd from him and all that is in the Creature comes forth from no other but that Ocean and this graciousness is still larger then them all There is a common bounty of God wherein he doth good to all and so the whole earth is full of of his goodness But the goodness that the Gospel is full of the particular stream that runs in that channel is his peculiar graciousness and love to his own Children that by which they are first enliven'd and then refresh'd and sustain'd in their spiritual being This that is here spoken of gracious to them in freely forgiving their sins and giving no less than himself unto them frees them from all evils and fills them with all good Psa. 103.3.4.5 satisfies thy mouth and so it followes with good reason Ver. 8. that he is mercifull and gracious and his graciousness there further express'd in his gentleness and slowness to anger bearing with the frailties of his own and pitying them as a father pityeth his Children No friend so kind and friendly as this word signifies and none so powerfull a present help in trouble ready to be found whereas others may be far off he is alwayes at hand and his presence is alwayes comfortable They that know God still find him a real usefull good Some things and persons are usefull at one time and others at another but God at all times A well furnish'd table may please a Man while he hath health and appetite but offer it to him in the hight of a fever how unpleasant would it be then Though never so richly deck'd 't is not only then useless but hateful to him But the kindness and love of God is then as seasonable and refreshing to him as in health and possibly more he can find sweetness in that even on his sick bed The bitter Choler abounding in the mouth in a fever doth not disrelish his sweetness it transcends and goes above it Thus all Earthly enjoyments have but some time as meats when they are in season but the graciousness of God is always sweet the tast of that is never out of season See how old age spoyles the relish of outward delights in the example of Barzillai 2. Sam. 19.35 But it makes not this distastful therefore the Psalmist prayes that when other comforts forsake him and wear out ebb from him and leave him on the sand this may not That still he may feed on the goodness of God Psa. 71.9 Cast me not off in old age forsake me not when my strength faileth 'T is the continual influence of his graciousness makes them still grow like Cedars in Lebanon Psa. 92. To bring forth fruit in old age to be still fat and flourishing to shew that the Lord is upright as is there added that he is even as the word is still like himself and his goodness ever the same Full chests or large possessions may seem sweet to a Man till death present it self but then as the Prophet speaks of throwing away their idols of silver and gold to the Battes and Moles in the day of calamity then he is forc'd to throw all he possesses away with disdain of it and his former folly in doting on it then the kindness of friends and Wife and Children can do nothing but increase his grief and their own But then is the love of God the good indeed and abiding sweetness And it best relisheth when all other things are most unsavoury and uncomfortable God is gracious but ' its God in Christ otherwise we cannot find him so therefore here this is spoken particular of Jesus Christ as it appears by that which followeth through whom all the peculiar kindness and love of God is convey'd to the soul and can come no other way and the word here mention'd is the Gospel Chap. 1. Ver. ult whereof Christ is the subject Though God is Mercy and Goodness in himself yet we cannot find nor apprehend him so to us but only looking through that medium the Mediator That main point of the goodness of God in the Gospel that is so sweet to a humbled sinner the forgiveness of sins we know we cannot taste of but in Christ Ehp. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption And all the favour that shines on us all the grace we receive is of his fullness all our acceptance with God taking into grace and kindness again is in him Ver. 6. He made us accepted in the beloved His grace appears in both as t is there express'd but it is all in Christ. Let us therefore never leave him out in our desires of tasting the graciousness and love of God For otherwise we shall but dishonour him and disappoint our selves The free grace of
through Iesus Christ our Lord. and St. Paul expresses it in his Salutations that are the same with this Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Iesus Christ. As the free Love and Grace of God appointed this means and way of our Peace and Offered it So the same Grace applies it and makes it Ours and gives us faith to apprehend it And from our sense of this Peace or Reconcilement with God arises that which is our inward Peace a calm and quiet temper of Mind This Peace that we have with God in Christ Is Inviolable but because the sense and perswasion of it may be interrupted the soul that is truly at Peace with God may for a time be disquieted in it self through weakness of Faith or the strength of Temptation or the Darkness of desertion losing sight of that Grace that Love and Light of Gods Countenance on which its Tranquillity and Joy depends Thou hid'st thy face saith David and I was troubled but when these Eclipses are over the Soul is revived with new Consolation as the face of the Earth is renewed and made to smile with the return of the Sun in the Spring and this ought alwayes to uphold Christians in the saddest times viz that the Grace and Love of God towards them depends not on their sense nor upon any thing in them but is still in it selfe incapable of the smallest alteration 'T is Natural to Men to desire their own Peace the Quietness and Contentment of their Minds but most Men miss the way to it and therefore find it not for there is no way to 't indeed but this One wherein few seek it viz. Reconcilement and Peace with God The perswasion of that alone makes the Mind clear and serene like your fairest Summer Dayes My peace I give you saith Christ not as the world Let not your hearts be troubled All the Peace and Favour of the World cannot calm a troubled heart but where this Peace is that Christ gives all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot disturb it When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only See also for this Psal. 46.123 All outward distress to a mind thus at Peace is but as the ratling of the Hail upon the Tiles to him that sits within the House at a sumptuous Feast A good Conscience is called so and with an advantage that no other Feast can have nor could men endure it A few hours of feasting will weary the most profest Epicure but a Conscience thus at Peace is a continual Feast with continual unwearied delight What makes the World take up such a prejudice against Religion as a sour unpleasant thing they see the Afflictions and griefs of Christians but they do not see their Joyes the inward pleasure of mind that they can possess in a very hard Estate Have you not tryed other wayes enough hath not He tried them that had more ablility and skill for 't then you and found them not only vanity but vexation of Spirit If you have any belief of holy Truth pâ—t but this once upon the tryal seek Peace in the way of Grace This inward Peace is too precious a Liquor to be poured into a filthy Vessel a holy Heart that gladly entertains grace shall find that it and Peace cannot dwell assunder An ungodly Man may sleep to Death in the Lethargy of Carnal Presumption and Impenitency but a true lively solid Peace he cannot have There is no Peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57.21 And if He say there is none speak Peace who will if all the World with one voice would speak it it shall prove none 2 ly Consider the Measure of the Apostles desire for his Scattered Brethren that this Grace and Peace may be Multiplyed This the Apostle wisheâ— for them knowing the Imperfection of the Graces and Peace of the Saints while they are here below and this they themselves in sense of that Imperfection daily do desire They that have tasted the sweetness of this Grace and Peace call uncessantly for more This is a disease in Earthly Desires and a disease incurable by all these things desired there is no satisfaction attainable by them but this Avarice of Spiritual things is a Vertue and by our Saviour is called Blessedness because it tends to Fullness and Satisfaction Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 Verse 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 'T Is a cold lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon meer Report but they that speak of them as their own as having share and interest in them and some experience of their sweetness their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief and ardent affection They cannot mention them but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness as they are forc'd to vent in praises Thus our Apostle here and St. Paul Eph. 1. and often elsewhere when they consider'd these things wherewith they were about to comfort the Godly to whom they wrote They were suddenly Elevated with the Joy of them and broke forth into Thanksgiving So teaching us by their Example what real Joy there is in the Consolations of the Gospel and what praise is due from all the Saints to the God of those Consolations This is such an Inheritance as the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest Griefs and Afflictions What then shall the Possession of it be wherein there shall be no Rupture nor the least drop of any grief at all The main Subject of these veâ—ses is that which is the main Comfort that supports the Spirits of the Godly in all Conditions I. Their after Inheritance in the 4 verse 2. Their present Title to it and assured hope of it v. 3. 3dly The immediate cause of both assigned viz. Iesus Christ. 4ly All this derived from the free Mercy of God as the first and highest Cause and return'd to his Praise and Glory as the last and highest End of it For the First The Inheritance But because the 4th verse which describes it is link't with the subsequent we will not go so far off to return back again but first speak to this 3 verse and in it Consider 1. Their Title to this Inheritance Begotten again 2. Their assurance of it viz. A holy or lively Hope The Title that the Saints have to their rich Inheritance is of the validest and most unquestionable kind viz. by Birth Not by their first natural birth By it we are all born to an Inheritance indeed but we find what it is Eph. 2.3 Children of Wrath Heirs
ungodly wayes or if your outward carriage be somewhat more smooth tho you regard iniquity in your hearts have your hearts ardent in the love and pursuit of the World but frozen to God if you have some bosome Idol that you hide and entertain cannot find in your heart to part with some one beloved sin whatsoever it is for all the love that God hath manifested to Man in the Son of his love Iesus Christ In a word if you can please and delight your self in any way displeasing unto God though His People while they are here have spots yet these are not the spots of His people that I am now speaking oâ— I can give you no assurance that as yet you have obtain'd mercy but on the contrary 't is certain that the wrath of God is yet abiding on you if you continue and you are in apparent danger to perish under it you are yet Children of Spiritual darkness and in the way to utter and everlasting darkness Know we what it is to be destitute of this mercy 't is a wofull estate though you had all worldly enjoyments and were in the top of outward prosperity but shut out from the mercy and love of God There is nothing doth so kindly work repentance as the right apprehension of the mercy and love of God the beams of that love are more powerfull to melt the heart than all the flames of Mount Sinai All the threatnings and terrours of the Law Sin is the root of our misery and therefore 't is the proper work of this mercy to rescue the soul from it both from the guilt and the power of it at once Can you think there is any suitableness in it that the peculiar People of God should despise his Laws and practise nothing but rebellions that those in whom He hath magnified his mercy should take pleasure in abusing it and that He hath wash'd any with the blood of His Son to that end that they may still tumble themselves again in the mire as if we were redeemed not from sin but to sin As if we should say We are delivered to do all these abominations as the Prophet speaks Oh Let us not dare thus to abuse and indignify the free grace of God if we mean to be sav'd by it as many as would be fouâ—d amongst those that obtain mercy walk as his people whose peculiar inheritance is His mercy And seeing this grace of God hath appeared unto us Let us embrace it and let it effectually teach us to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts And if you be perswaded to be earnest suiters for this mercy and to fly in to Iesus who is the true mercy Seat then be assured it is yours Let not the greatest guiltiness scar you and drive you from it But rather drive you the more to it the greater the weight of that misery is under which you ly the more is your necessity of this mercy and the more will be the glory of it in you 'T is a strange kind of argument and yet a sure one concludes well and strongly Psa. 25. Lord pardon my iniquity for it is great The Soul press'd with the greatness of its sin lying heavy upon it may by that very greatness of it pressing it presse the forgiveness of it at the hands of free mercy 't is for thy name sake that makes it strong the force of the inference lyes in that Thou art nothing and worse than nothing true but all that ever obtain'd this mercy were once so they were nothing of all that which it hath made them to be they were not a People had no interest in God were strangers to mercy yea Heirs of wrath yea they had not so much as a desire after God untill this mercy prevented them and show'd it self to them and them to themselves and so moved them to desire it and caus'd them to find it caught hold on them and pluckt them out of the dungeon And it is unquestionably still the same and fails not ever expending and yet never all spent yea not so much as at all diminish'd flowing as the rivers from one age to another serving each age in the present and yet no whit the less to those that come after The Lord forgiving iniquity transgression and sin to all that come unto him and yet still keeping mercy for thousands that come after You that have obtain'd this mercy and have the Seal of it within you it will certainly conform your hearts to its own nature it will work you to a mercifull compassionate temper of mind to the souls of others that have not yet obtain'd it you will indeed as the Lord doth hate sin but as he doth likewise you will pity the sinner You will be so far from misconstruing and grumbling at the long suffering of God as if you would have the bridge cut because you are over as St. Augustin speaks that on the contrary your great desire will be to draw others to partake of the same mercy with you knowing it to be rich enough And you will in your station use your best diligence to bring in many to it both in love to the souls of Men and to the glory of God And withall you will be still admiring and extolling this mercy as it is manifested unto you considering what it is and what you were before it visited you They confess'd at the offering of the first fruits to set off the bounty of God A Syrian ready to perish was my father and their Captivity in Egypt far poorer and baser is our naturall condâ—tion and more precious is that land of which this free mercy doth possess us Do but call back your thoughts you that have indeed escap'd it and look but into that pit of misery whence the hand of the Lord hath drawn you out and you cannot miss to love him highly and still kiss that gracious hand even while 't is scourging you with any affliction whatsoever because it hath once done this for you namely pluckt you out of everlasting destruction As the thoughts of this change will teach us to praise Psa. 40.23 He hath brought me up out of an horrible pit then followes He hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God not only redeem'd me from destruction but withall crown'd me with glory and honour Psa. 103.4 He not only doth forgive all our debts and lets us out of prison but enriches us with an estate that cannot be spent and dignifies us with a crown that cannot wither made up of nothing of ours These two will stretch and Tune the heart very high to consider from what a low estate grace brings a Man and how high it doth exalt him in what a beggerly vile condition the Lord finds us and yet doth not only free us thence but puts such dignities on us raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill that he may set him with Princes
that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed THat which is deepest in the heart is readily most in the mouth That which abounds within runs over most by the Tongue or Pen when Men light upon the speaking of that Subject that possesses the affection they can hardly be taken off or drawn from it again Thus the Apostles in their writings when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us they love to dwell on it as that which they take most delight to speak of Such delicacy and sweetness is in it to a Spiritual taste that they like to keep it in their mouth and are never out of their theam when they insist on Jesus Christ though they have but nam'd him by occasion of some other Doctrine for he is the great subject of all they have to say Thus here the Apostle had spoke of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to this present Subject setting him before Christian Servants and all suffering Christians as their compleat example both in point of much suffering and of perfect Innocency and Patience in suffering And express'd their engagement to study and follow that example yet he cannot leave it so but having said that all those his sufferings wherein he was so exemplary were for us as a chief consideration for which we should study to be like him he returns to that again and enlarges himself in it in words partly the same partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets Esay Chap. 53. And it suits very well with his main scope to press this point as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the Exhortation as being most reasonable that we willingly conform to him in suffering that had never been an Example of suffering nor subject at all to sufferings nor capable of them but for us and most comfortable in the light sufferings of this Moment to consider that he hath freed us from the sufferings of Eternity by suffering himself in our stead in the fulness of time That Jesus Christ is in doing and suffering our Supream and Matchless Example and that he came to be so is a truth but that he is nothing further and came for no other end is you see a high point of falshood for how should Man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience unless there were more in Christ and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that Man stands guilty of No these are too narrow he came to bear our sins on his own Body on the tree and for this purpose had a Body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden to do this as the will of his Father to stand for us in stead of all Offerings and Sacrifices and by that will sayes the Apostle we are Sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all This was his business not only to rectifie sinful Mankind by his example but to redeem him by his Blood he was a teacher come from God As a Prophet he teaches us the way of Life and as the best and greatest of Prophets is perfectly like his Doctrine and his actions that in all Teachers is the livelyest part of Doctrine his carriage in Life and death is our great Pattern and instruction But what is said of his forerunner is more eminently true of Christ he is a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Priest satisfying justice for us and a King conquering sin and death for us an Example in deed but more than an Example our Sacrifice and our Life and all in all 't is our Duty to walk as he walked to make him the pattern of our steps 1 Ioh. 2.6 But our comfort and salvation lyeth in this that he is the propitiation for our sins Verse 2. So in the first Chapter of that Epistle Verse 7. We are to walk in the Light as he is in the Light For all our walking we have need of that which followes that bears the great weight the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and so still that glory which he possesseth in his own Person is the pledge of ours he is there for Vs. he lives to make intercession for us sayes the Apostle and I go to prepare a place for you sayes he himself We have in the words these two great points and in the same order as the words ly 1. The nature and quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ And 2. The end of them In the expression of his suffering we are to consider 1. The commutation of the Persons he himself for us 2. The work undertaken and performed he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1. The Act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force and Divine justice expecting satisfaction death was the necessary and inseperable consequent of sin If you say the Supream Majesty of God being accountable to none might have forgiven all without satisfaction We are not to contest that nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless deep of his absolute prerogative Christ implies in his Prayer that it was impossible that he could escape that cup But the impossibility is resolv'd into his Fathers will as the cause of it But this we may clearly see following the tract of the holy Scriptures our only safe way that this way wherein our salvation is contriv'd is most excellent and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God so full of wonders of wisdom and love that the Angels as our Apostle tells us before cannot forbear looking on it and admiring it for all their exact knowledge yet they still find it infinitly beyond their knowledge still in astonishment and admiration of what they see and still in search looking in to see more Those Cherubims still haveing their eyes fixed on this Mercy Seat Justice might indeed have siez'd on rebellious Man and laid the pronounc'd punishment on him mercy might have freely acquit him and pardon'd all But can we name any place where mercy and justice as relating to condemned Man could have met and shined joyntly in full aspect save only in Jesus Christ in whom indeed Mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed each other Yea in whose Person the Parties concern'd that were at so great a distance met so near as nearer can not be imagin'd And not only was this the only way for the consistence of these two Justice and Mercy but take each of them severally and they could not have been in so full lustre as in this Gods just hatred of sin did out of doubt appear more in punishing his own only begotten Son for it than if the whole race of Mankind had suffer'd for it Eternally Again it raises the notion of Mercy to the highest that sin is not only forgiven us but for this end God's own coeâ—ernal Son is given to us and for us Consider