strange fire Lev. 10. 1. upon new Mercies new sins instead of new wayes Israel when but now delivered from Egypt begins to worship strange Gods which their fathers knew not Jer. 19. 4. new Gods Judg. 5. 8. And Judah when newly returned from Captivity fall a marrying strange wives Ezra 10. 2. When David's at rest from his wonted enemies then a stranger comes with whom he was not before acquainted 2 Sam. 12. 4. And when the Christian Church was rid of Heathenish Persecutors their old bad Neighbours then Superstition and Idolatry crowd in who before were strangers Never are we more in danger of being foiled with a renewed charge or a new on-set than when we are ready to cry Victoria To prevent which God's care of our safety is very observable in these two particulars in Scripture 1. That when he intends a perfect Rescue to his delivering Mercy he joyns guiding Mercy his preventing and following Grace keep company Thy rigteousness shall go before thee and Psal 40. 2. the glory of the Lord shall be thy Reward He both leads the Van and brings up the Rear Isa 58. 8. v. 10. Thy Light shall rise in Obscurity there the Prison door is opened and Light is let in but he had need be led by the hand when he is got out and therefore vers 11. it 's added and the Lord shall guide thee continually answerable to that 2 Chron. 32. 22. The Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem and the Lord guided them on every side and they had need of it for vers 25. when God did but a little leave him the better to prove him you know how desperatly he stumbled at the first step and therefore in all our Deliverances let this be one of our Prayers Lord as thou hast delivered us so do not now leave us but still lead us as thou hast reached me thy hand to pluck me out of the Snare so lend me it still to lead me in the Way which when come out of straits we are in most danger to go astray from as a man whilst in a narrow deep Lane cannot so readily go out of his way but when got out to a wide Common As Hos 2. 6 7. where there are many paths which may deceive him he hath most need of a Guide Nor have we more need of Deliverance from danger when we are in it than we have of Guidance when got out of it which God therefore in mercy grants when he means to compleat his Mercy 2. And secondly therefore also is wont not to perfect a Mercy or Deliverance at the first nor it may be at all in this life but leaves a Canaanite when Israel is in Canaan an Hadad a Rezon and a Jeroboam whilst Solomon sits peaceably on his Throne to allay the heat of the Pot which else would boyl over Few such Mornings like that 2 Sam. 23. 4. in which there is no Cloud or if so in the morning yet not usually so all the day to keep us the better in who else would be running out and playing the wantons in the Sunshine Christ was never lost but once in the Crowd Luke 2. 43. Nor God ever so often as in the crowds of his Mercy and therefore somthing we shall have that we do not pine and yet not all that we would have that we do not surfeit Something he gives to incourage but still somthing he withholds the better to nurture us and to force us still to wait upon him who else like ill-nurtured children when they have got all they desire should be then most like to run away farthest from him some Worm in our fairest Apple and some Blemish in our greatest Beauty some bitter in our greatest sweet to make all medicinal In our greatest enjoyments somthing shall be wanting or cross to our desires which may be as a constant Memento and really say sin no more because else we shall be then ready to sin more than ever For first it is not in the nature or power of Affliction unless Reas 1 sanctified to mortify Corruption that as soon as we are freed from the one we should be rid of the other The Winter-frost may nip the Weeds and keep them under ground but yet so as that they sprout out again the next spring Solomon speaks of a Fool in the Mortar and Jeremiah of Dross in the Furnace This Cripple in the Text though after thirty eight years weakness he had been healed by Christ did not yet know Christ at the first and some may never and then no wonder if notwithstanding all they prove never the better but much the worse 2. For that Corruption which Affliction doth not heal it doth at most but curb and when that Curb in a Deliverance is removed the Corruption is the more fully and violently manifested and exerted as Antichrist when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was taken away was more openly discovered 2 Thess 2. 7 8. And Joâ—dan when the Preist's feet were once out of it and so that Dam as it were broken down runs down his Channel more violently than before In times of danger and trouble Conscience often proves a Shrew and will chide and God's angry and we fear will strike The Angel stands in the way with a drawn Sword to stop us and when seen will make a Balaam stand still Thus then these pricking Thorns hedge up the way and a stormy day shuts the door and keeps us in but the next fair blast that opens it makes the wanton run out with the more eagerness As the hunger-starved Man with his food the longer he was before kept from it the more greedily he now falls to it as much as he pined before he surfeits now as they are wont to say of Sailers that they are not more calm in a Storm than they storm in a Calm or when got to Shore 3. As in this case the Affliction was but a Curb so the Deliverance and Mercy proves a Snare adds Fewel to that Flame which the former rainy day quenched or at least kept down strengthen's the recovered man's Lust which Sickness weakned affords matter for the rich man's Pride which his Poverty humbled entertains the Wanton and Worlding with other company whom Straits and Dangers for that time inforced to seek after God and made him glad of his acquaintance As in Bloud-letting upon the return of the Bloud we are then most ready to faint I wish that after our Bloud-shed upon the return of Mercies our former Reformation that seemed to have some life in it do not quite dy away and that Ephraim and Manasseh do not continue Brothers still the one's Name signifieth Plenty or Fruitfulness and the other's Forgetfulness that in the plenty of restored Mercies we did not forget our Misery and our selves and our God altogether The Lord make good that Promise Job 5. 24. to us that when being kept long from home we may visit our Tabernacles and not sin to which we are
and neglectest God the Giver fastnest upon the Bait and art not drawn to Christ who would draw thee to himself by that Cord of Love Like the Romish Fisher that casts away the Net when he hath caught the Fish he fished for openeth the Door of the Heart so wide as to take in an outward Mercy from the Hand of Christ and then shuts it against him who thereby would have made way for himself to enter in nay it may be with those Husband-men in the Gospel will kill the Heir that they may have the Inheritance shakes hands and quits Christ with Demas to embrace the World Mat. 21. 38. At least when he hath grasped the World careth not to reach out to a Saviour as Adam of old satisfied his Appetite with the pleasant Fruit of the Tree of knowledg of Good and Evil but cared not to taste of the Tree of Life Foolish People and unwise but do we so require the Lord to forget him in those Tokens by which he would be remembred To lose Christ in the Crowd in the midst of those Mercies in and by which he would be found To make the End the Means Christ as a Bridg only by which we would get over to what we would come to and on the contrary to make the Means and Way the end of our Journey which we mean to sit down and rest in Remember that as Christ calls it hating of Father and Mother when we under-value them in comparison of him so he calls it hating of him Prov. 8. 36. when we prefer any thing before him or rest in any thing that is short of Him and his Salvation But Drexel horolog what As he said An Coelum desperâsti Wretched Man dost thou despair of Heaven that thou thus liest groveling on the Earth Now Sursum Corda And when shall our Hearts make the Responsal Habemus Domine When we have all have we an Heart hungering and thirsting after Christ who is all in all without whom all else is nothing For so on the other hand a Jacob's and every true Israelite's heart that is touched with sense of the emptiness of all else and the only All-sufficient fulness of Christ after fullest draughts of all other Contentments thirsts everlastingly till satisfied with him with Miphibosheth bids the Zibaes of the World take all 2 Sam. 19. 30. may but the King return to his Soul in peace Bids others much good do them with their Corn and Wine whilst he still cries Lord Psal 4. 6. do thou lift upon me the Light of thy Countenance is content to part with them all for him and therefore cannot be content with them without him With the Martyr saith Valeat Pecunia valeat Vita veniat Christus Farewel Money farewel Life farewel all only come Christ who is more than all who is All in all And though too oft in perfunctory Duties he puts off Christ with skins and shells of Performances yet he meaneth not to be so put off by him with these husks and shells of outward Contentments No Christ is the Kernel which his People hungers after and is only satisfied with And therefore the hungry Child is not put by with such Toys and Rattles but cryeth earnestly till it be fed with this Bread of Life Like Ruth and Elisha the one is not shaken off by Naomi with a Go return Ruth 1. 2 Kings 2. to thy Mothers House nor the other with an Elijah's saying Tarry here But on they will and nothing but Death as it is in your English nay not Death it self shall separate them as it is in the Hebrew Ruth 1. 17. So a true Christian whose Heart is indeed touched with the Love of Christ though he might have Chains of Gold to bind him down to fit still by what the World can afford him yet he cannot rest but in the Bosom of his Saviour He cannot be safe in the greatest security that falls short of his Salvation I this is an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile and let this be his Character which we may judg both of him and our selves by and not be beguiled This Secondly instructs us what is a right Spiritual Use Vse 2 and Enjoyment of all outward Mercies and Deliverances if it be as the Apostle speaks of Marrying Wives only in the 1 Cor. 7. 39. Lord. If they do not terminate our thoughts and desires so as to take them off from Christ but rather as it was here with Jacob prove as a Rise to lift up our Souls to him And as so many Illicia and Prolectives to draw them out more earnestly towards him The Earth is indeed an opake dense Body which we stick in and our Eye cannot penetrate and pierce through and so are earthly Contentments to earthly Hearts like thick dull Glass which intercept the Light and dull and almost terminate our Eye and Heart But if all were right they should be as Media diaphana as clear Chrystal Glass that might transmit the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness to our Souls Looking-Glasses in which we may see Christ or as so many Shadows that better commend and set out to us the Beauty of Christ that by these Streams we may be led up to the Spring-Head and by these Rivers led out to the Ocean This is the right Spiritualizing and Sublimating these low and gross earthly Enjoyments Not a Rosicrucian Philosophica Theologizata nor the Libertine Familist high-flown Allegorical Mystical Divinity Or the Enthusiasts crying up the Spirit whilst he wallows in the Lusts of the Flesh But a plain Honest-hearted Christian's taking advantage from outward things to be raised up to Spiritual and Heavenly As a Man from the rise of a Hill makes a greater Leap and as the Bird which from the Tree takes a longer-flight so from the advantage of the higher Ground of an outward Exaltation and Deliverance instead of being lifted and puft up in Pride to have the Heart raised up to diviner thoughts and more ardent desires of God and Heaven as he Luke 14. 15. whilst sitting at Meat with Christ raiseth up his thoughts to the Blessedness of him that eats Bread in the Kingdom of God This Meat is pleasant but Oh! what then is the Bread of Life This Garment comely But how Glorious then the Robe of Righteousness This House a very good Dwelling But Heaven is better O sweet Friend But O sweeter Saviour When thus these outward tasts do not dull but rather quicken the Spiritual Appetite and make us more hunger and thirst after fuller Meals and greater Draughts of Christ and his Salvation This is a right not so much using as improving them which God would have us ready at and have a holy Skill and Dexterity in Their Anagogical Interpretations of Scripture are often vain but here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is truly Divine when an holy Heart out of Terrene and Corporal things extracts the Elixir or Divinest Contemplation and Affections
seal it with my bloud O happy Ministers if we from our own hearts we could speak to the hearts of our people could say with the Psalmist Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul and with Christ John 3. 11. we speak what we know and with the Apostle what we have heard and seen and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you John 1. 3. O that we never spake of that which we are least acquainted with and against that sin which it may be we are notorious for If so however we may preach Christ yet certainly we do not savingly know Christ for this excellent knowledge is an experimental knowledge 4. And from all the three former in the 4th place it comes to be truly delightful and fully satisfactory and in which the mind doth fully acquiesce as Aristotle saith Intellectus est in quiete In other studies the mind is restless and its disquisitions endless the vastness of its capacity not being able to be filled up with the fullest view of inferiour objects but here meeting with an infinite God and his infinite wisdom justice and mercy in Christ the largest Vessel is filled up to the brim in this Ocean the wavering Needle is fixt and the Dove hath found a place where to rest the sole of her foot sits down and with Peter when he saw Christ transfigured Matth. 17. 4. saith It 's good to be here is satisfied in all its desires And let me add is more than satisfied for all its pains Solomon Eccles 1. 13 14. c. c. 2. 12. c. 2. 18. in all his other Enquiries confessed he dealt with folly and madness and in the close found nothing but vanity and vexation so that he comes to hate all his labour and to repent of all his pains as we shall of all our other studies if with them we study not savingly to know Christ I acknowledge indeed that a serious student in other arts takes great content in that very search and much more in the finding out of some truth which lay in the dark and he was much set upon and this not only in more solid Demonstrations and then Archimedes as well apaid Cries out with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but sometimes even in some minim Criticism as I remember the learned Casaubon in his Annotations upon Athaeneus hitting as he thought upon the true notion of a certain Greek Word professeth that the content that he found therein and such like was a full satisfaction for all his pains in all his studies But alas what is such a word to the Essential Word of God! what is Archimedes his Cylinder to Jesus Christ or what 's his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the satisfaction of the Spouse sick not of other questions as 1 Tim. 6. 4. but of love Cant. 3. 4. when she had found her lost Saviour If it be so pleasant a thing to see the Sun Eccles 11. 7. what is it to behold the sun of Righteousness If the top of Heavens joys be from an open-faced Vision then even these glimpses though but as in a glass and through the Lattess sets the ravished Soul on the highest Pinacle of content and comfort which it can be here lifted up to 5. Which leads me to the last excellency of this Divine Knowledge and it 's the unvaluable benefit and profit of it The pleasing itch of delight oft-times accompanieth other studies which are most vain and useless and in the upshot mischievous But Qui miscuit utile dulci is an Artist indeed The wise man is profitable to himself saith Eliphaz Job 22. 2. and here Qui fructuosa non qui multa scit sapit which made Lactantius adventure upon a bold comparison between the vulgar Idiot and the great Scholar made him bold to conclude Plus sapit interdum vulgus quia tantum quantum opus est sapit because the one knows though but little yet what 's profitable to his purpose the other upon his great studies and readings or Common-Place-Book like a rich treasury top-ful of Notions is a Dictionary of Words and a Bibliotheca materiarum Molanus as he called his Book a whole Library of learning but sealed up with this Motto on it Cui bono Neither Press nor Pulpit himself or others better'd but often wronged by it many a full-stuft Scholar being a very empty useless man whilst he studieth more Sciences than Arts and so desires only to know and so in infinitum without end to no end knowing more than he either gets or doth any good with But Solomon who was the wisest man and therefore best knew wherein wisdoms greatest excellency lay saith Wisdom is profitable to direct Eccles 10. 10. and Prov. 14. 8. that the wisdom of the prudent is to direct his way not to be fluttering about every thing as the Butterfly about every flower and so be something in every thing and nothing to purpose in any thing but as Plato in his Theages well shews to know my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that I may get and do some good by it as the Bee that sits and sucks the Flower from which she may get Honey to her Hive I this is properly 2 Chron. 30. 22. good knowledge Psal 119. 66. and in this above all the saving knowledge of Christ excells The fruit of the tree of knowledge had this double bait of pleasure and profit Gen. 3. 6. but an book withal that took her who was taken with it But in this knowledge of the tree of life there 's the bait without the book Milk and Wine Isa 55. 1. and no poyson in either greatest pleasure and profit mixt together making happy and adding no sorrow with it Let me name a few particulars 1. By this knowledge of Christ we come to the best knowledge both of God and our selves Of God for his glory and beauty is most seen in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. The Father here is best is only known by the Son In the Creatures we behold his foot-steps but here his image 1 Cor. 1. 21. Rom. 1. even the express image of His Person Hebr. 1. 3. In the Law his Holiness and Justice especially looked out In Christ and his Gospel shine forth Holiness Justice Mercy all and altogether and all in their perfection and of all his mercy most by which he would be most known to his people the vail is nothing to the face uncovered 2 Cor. 3. Of our selves Our sins by his sufferings No way for the more full searching of our bloudy wound comparable to the considering that Plaister of his bloud which was shed to heal it Our Duty We have no stronger inducement nor fairer Copy of doing and suffering than to consider what our Lord Jesus Christ hath done and suffered before us and for us In all which our true Abimelech Father-King saith as that
Gods people value Gods Ordinances in the enjoying of them and other mercies together Especially upon the restoring of them after that their sins had deprived them of them The men of Bethshemesh were at their Wheat-harvest and that of it self was a merry time but it was their chief Harvest-joy when they saw the ark of God brought back to them 1 Sam. 6. 13. though through their undue entertainment of it as I shall shew hereafter their mirth was turned into mourning and their harvest as the Prophet speaketh became a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow And so afterward you may observe how the Jews having Isa 17. 11 in their Captivity learnt to know the worth of Ordinances by the want of them as several Nations make their account of years from some high prized matter and occurrence as the Israelites from Abraham or their deliverance from Egypt the Greeks from their Olympiads the Romans ab urbe conditâ So they from the restoring of Gods Ordinances And so Ezekiel begins his Prophecy Ezek. 1. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year c. which very good Interpreters expound of the thirtieth year since the book of the law Junius Grotius was found and the Covenant thereupon renewed and Gods worship restored by Josiah after the sad vastation which had been made by fore-going Kings and especially by his Father Manasseh Such a price did they then set on such a prime mercy as afterward in Judas Maccabeus his time upon the dedication of the altar which Antiochus had profaned they instituted their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Mac 4 5 9. John 10. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Castellio qui ex Scripturâ Ciceronem facit as * In John 10. 22. Maldonat saith of him affectedly translates Renovalia and which our Saviour seems not to dislike but by his presence to approve of It was an anniversary feast kept eight days with great gladness as 2 Macc. 10. 6 7. in the feast of Tabernacles and of the solemnities of that feast Authors write great matters The Author of the second of the Maccabees tells us of this that as in the feast of Tabernacles they bare branches and fair boughs and palms also and sang Psalms c. which feast as Josephus tells us they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light because of their burning lights all those whole eighth days to express their greater joy and so he saith of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in this festival entertainment of his Citizens he omitted no kind of pleasing delight but with joyful Hymns and Psalms and costly Sacrifices he honoured God and delighted them So highly did they esteem of the restoring and enjoying such a mercy and oh that once we of this Nation might upon the purging of the Temple and reforming of Gods now wofully profaned Ordinances have the occasion and opportunity of such Encaenia of such a joyful thanksgiving-festival Meanwhile in our want of it let us be learning to take out this first part of our lesson and duty which is highly to value and esteem of Gods Ordinances 2. And the second is when and while we enjoy them in our due use of them to expect much good and blessing in and by the enjoying of them By faith in obedience to Gods command and confidence in his promise of being with his Ministers to the end of Matth. 28. 20. the world to apply our selves to him in his Ordinances is as our duty so a promising pledge and effectual means of a blessing by them Here as well as in other Cases according to thy faith be it Matth 9. 29. unto thee In an humble dependance on God and good thoughts of him hope much and have much Open thy mouth wide and God will fill it Thou canst not out-think Gods infinite goodness or the power of his good word which hath done very great things whereas on the contrary like them Mark 6. 5. we weaken as it were Christs power and hinder the efficacy of his Ordinances by our unbelief Because we have but little faith we receive little and if none we get nothing But the Patients good hopes and perswasions help much to his Cure It would certainly do very much to ours if we had better thoughts and perswasions of God and his Ordinances when we apply our selves to either whilst infidelity applies the Medicine cool and so rendreth it less useful and it 's but just that whilst through despondency or neglect we cannot or will not give God the praise of his being able or willing to help us he should be as unwilling to make them able to bless us But therefore as it 's said of Jehoshaphat that his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord and accordingly he prospered 2 Chron. 17. 6. so in our use of Ordinances we should labour by faith to get our hearts raised up to high expectations of blessing by them for great expectations are great obligations with God as well as with ingenuous men as when the Creeple gave earnest heed and looked on Peter as expecting to receive something from Act. 3. 4 5 6. c. him though he had not silver or gold for him yet he got an Alms much more precious and useful When therefore we go to hear think and say in faith with them Isa 2. 3. Let us go up to the house of the Lord and he will teach us his ways and so in Prayer say with them Micah 7. 7. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me I will go to the Sacrament and hope that I as well as other hungring Souls have shall find there a feast of fat things and of wine on the lees at least Isa 25. 6. some Crumbs some drops as God shall see it best for me to refresh me And this is the both easiest and surest way to come by them God delighting not to discourage by disappointing the faith and Psal 147. 11. expectation of his people but to honour them that honour him and therefore it is that upon this ground he honours faith above all other graces and believers above all other men And thus as they are institutions of God and means of our best good in subordination to Christ it is our advantage and duty highly to value Gods Ordinances which was the first part of my task BUT how then did Paul and may we so undervalue them as St. Maries Jan. 29. 1659 60. to account and call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Is not this Blasphemy to call the Bread of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some expound the word Dogs-meat and that loss which is the means of the saving of our souls Yes if they be so deemed and called as considered according to the former particulars For which as
and that where he may be seen in Providences Ordinances in Word Sacraments and although thy case be ill afflicted and tossed with tempests scorched with heat and spent with thirst yet leave not seeking till there you find him to be all this in the Text even an hiding-place from the wind So first as such seek him As such when found trust and rest and glory in him and improve Vse 2 him Thou mayest then cry aloud thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found him whom my soul loveth and that as these comparisons express it every way happily for Christ was born in Bethlehem Ephrata Mic. 5. 2. The first word whereof signifieth an house of bread and the other fruitfulness There 's therefore no starving or pining there In thy Fathers house there 's bread enough yea and physick enough too for every disease as St. Ambrose fully on Psal 119. 57. those words Portio mea Domine O Lord thou art my portion And indeed a naked Christ is Portion enough besides all other Bequests and Legacies To this purpose it 's worth the marking that Psal 81. 8. God seems to make way to speak of some great matter which he would with greedy attention have listned to Hearken O my people and I will testifie O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me as though some great promise were to follow and so there doth but what is it see vers 9 10. That there shall be no strange God amongst them besides him as though he by himself were all-sufficient enough and Abraham's exceeding great reward without them So happy every way thou art if thou hast him but more happy if every way we could improve him for as God would have none of our parts and abilities lye idle so neither would he have any thing in him that we have interest in not improved And therefore seeing Christ and Godliness are profitable for all things we should in greater and lesser wants and evils improve Christ and have recourse to him that even to us and in our particular whether inward or outward blusterings and thirstings and faintings we may find him as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the storm that thy thirsty soul may find him rivers of waters in that dry place and thy tired-out spirit the shadow of a great rock in a weary land This the Application of what Christ is to us For that other what it cost him First see thy sin in the sufferings of thy Saviour what he did Vse 1 endure thou shouldst have done And therefore sinful soul look upon thy Christ arraigned condemned whipt cursed crucified and say all this I should have been Tua O gulosa gula c. as he saith Drunkard it was thy sugred cup that made Christ drink Gall and Vinegar Proud haughty one it was thy pride that hung thy Saviour between thieves thy gayness proud Peacock that crowned him with thorns It was the wantonness of thy flesh that pierced thy Saviour's with nails and tore it with whips and therefore when thou seest thy Saviour's blood arise in his wounds let thine in an holy blush arise in thy face and say all this blast and storm which the roof endured and all that scorching heat which the rock is beaten upon with was procured by my sins and had not Christ interposed had certainly lighted on my person and therefore I 'l first loath both But secondly the more love him yea more than our selves saying with Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Christ as my sins so my love was crucified and by way of thankfulness though it never be a requital I 'l interpose my dearest right hand to save my Head from wounding The servant shall willingly put his own body between his Master and the thrust to save his dishonour who by so doing hath himself saved his soul even by being an hiding-place from the wind a covert from the storm rivers of waters in a dry place the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Tibi Domine Jesu SERMON XXVIII JOHN 5. 14. At St. Paul's Decemb. 27. 1646. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee THe prudent Physician 's care is not only perfectly to Medicinae partes duae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cure the present disease but withal to prevent an after-relapse which otherwise might prove more dangerous and accordingly the Lord Jesus our Phaebus Medicus the Son of righteousness that hath healing in his wings in the beginning of the Chapter comes as a loving Physician to the Pool of Bethesda as to a publick Hospital of impotent diseased people vers 2. and of all the multitude he most graciously visits one that had most need of pity and help whose disease Interpreters Dulcis medicus in viset Nosocomium prae caeteris maxime laborantem conceive was most dangerous and for time grown Chronical the Text saith of thirty eight years continuance vers 5. drooping Christian die not of despair for thou shalt not of thy disease though never so desperate if Christ undertake the cure for him he healed vers 7 8. for his body and so much was wrought on his soul that from Bethesda's Porch v. 2. he was now got to the Temple in the Text most likely to return thanks to God Vt mos erat Luc. 18. 10. Act. 3. 1 8. Grotius for his recovery but his Saviour was not as yet savingly made known to him And therefore to perfect the cure in healing his soul and to prevent a relapse of both soul and body into a worse malady he casts about there the second time to meet him and after his cure prescribes him a Diet this Recipe Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee In which words two things are implied and two things injoyned The first thing implied in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin no more was that after his recovery without better care taken he was in danger to sin again The second this that if he did revolt to his former sin he was in eminent danger to relapse into a worse malady in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lest a worse thing come unto thee Whereupon the two things prescribed and injoyned and the first a means of the second are 1. A serious consideration of the Mercy he had received in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou art made whole 2. A studious care that he would avoid the like sin if he would not incur a greater danger in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Like as the Angel charged Lot now gotten out of Sodom to flie for his life and not look back lest Vengeance should overtake him Gen. 19. 17. Or as if the Physician before spoken of should say thus to his Patient whose wantonness or
other disorder had brought him into some dangerous disease which yet through his skill and care and pains were now cured Friend let this fair scape be a fair warning to you that you never play the like wanton lest you come to be in a worse case and then meet not with so easie a Cure but it may prove to be utterly incurable The two things implied will afford two Observations and the two other injoyned will fitly serve for a double Application And the first Note from the first thing implied is this That Doct. 1 after healing Mercy we are in great danger without better care taken to sin again as before if not worse than ever For you may be assured that our Saviour's Caveat was no idle word Sin no more to this recovered sinner was a Watch word that spake his danger of a new Surprise An Item that told him that if he looked not to it he was likely to run into a further Arrear even after his old Debt was paid and he had a new Stock to set up with And to this purpose observe in this Instance these three particulars First That Christ contents not himself with his first healing Visit But seeth that he had need of a second meeting with to prevent an after-clap As the Apostles whom they at first converted they after visited and confirmed Acts 14. 21 22. 15. 32. 36. 41. Secondly And this after-meeting and second dose of Spiritual Physick he gave him in the Temple though he were then it's likely in a good mind and hopefully in a good way Thirdly And this Item and advice sin no more beset on both sides with very forcible Arguments to make it more effectual Before it you have Beneficium acceptum he is put in mind of the Benefit received to make his Ingenuity blush Behold thou art made whole sin no more After it is set Futurum judicium a worse mischief that 's likely to follow upon his second miscarriage that so he might tremble and fear and do no more so presumptuously Sin not lest a worse thing come unto thee All which three hold forth thus much to us 1. That after Christ hath in mercy visited us we have need that a second time he should meet with us As Manoah after the first message by the Angel that he should have a Child desired that he might come again the second time and tell them how they should order it Judg. 13. 8 12. After we are raised up and set on our Legs we have need to be taught how we should walk to prevent an after-stumble Psal 40. 2. After a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a Cordial to recover from a former Qualm an Antidote to fortifie us against an after-Poyson 2. And this before we distemper our selves after our Recovery when in a most hopeful way to a perfect Cure Christ after our most comfortable up-risings need again visit us further to instruct and direct us though he find us in the Temple though in never so good a temper and posture 3. And then he had need deal more seriously with us as here by representing both the Mercies we have received and the return of Judgments which upon fresh miscarriages we may fear on every side to keep us in and all this because as we have it in the Doctrine we are then very subject to break out When God hath tied us with thickest Cords of Love then most petulantly to break asunder all Bonds of Obedience Thus not only Pharaoh upon every respite grows more hard and Tyre after seventy years Captivity returns to her former Hire Isa 23. 17. as though they had been delivered only to do all abominations Jer. 7. 10. The Mad-man unbound that he might be free to do the more Mischief But even Jacob's Sons when reconciled to their Brother are in danger to fall out among themselves Gen. 45. 24. Lot when snatcht as a brand out of Sodom's burning then scorcht with unnatural flames Gen. 19. David when at ease plays the wanton 2 Sam. 11. Vzziah when become strong grows stiff 2 Chron. 26. 16. And Hezekiah when miraculously recovered and some think of the Plague that swelling being down his Heart begins to swell he grows Proud and rendred not according to the Benefit done unto him 2 Chron. 32. 25. The story of Israel both under their Judges and Kings at large sheweth what a back-sliding People they were how ready then most to forget their Duty when God had remembred them in Mercy and as soon as ever delivered from their Enemies Tyranny to relapse into their former Idolatry After they had rest they did evil again before thee saith Nehemiah Chap. 9. 28. No sooner got out of Egypt and through the Sea but they fall a murmuring and tempting and going a Whoring from God in the Wilderness When brought back afterward from Babylon if not what returning to Idolatry yet what closing with Idolaters What strange Marriages what grasping of the World and robbing of God what building of their own Houses and neglecting of God's did the Prophets that then lived complain of And after all this is come upon us seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments Saith blushing Ezra Chap. 9. 13 14. That question saith they should not but implieth they did And after Christ though for a time in those best Times when the Churches had rest they were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied Acts 9. 31. yet afterwards when in Constantine's time Persecution ceased then Superstition and Ambition and Covetousness increased the Voice from Heaven then cried Venenum in Ecclesiam When the Enemy left off to wound from without the old Serpent began to poyson within which proved more dangerous In this Case 1. Former sins are wont to be relapsed into What this Man's sin in the Text was is not certain but though thirty eight years before committed yet our Saviour's Caveat to him intimates might long after be returned to with the Dog to his vomit before cast up and the Sow when washed to her wallowing again in the mire After one fit of the Gout and Stone the Man is very subject to be sick again of the same Disease as Israel upon every new deliverance to their old Idolatry the River damm'd up for a time but as soon as it hath its free course returns to its former Channel It 's the besotted Drunkard's Catch VVhen I shall awake I will seek it yet again Prov. 23. 35. As bad Ground when well manured brings forth the same Weeds but more rank than formerly and it may be some new ones beside For 2. So secondly as old sins are usually returned to so oft-times new ones are de novo fallen into Nadab and Abihu when newly put into their Office offer
very subject The sick man hath not need of more care and wariness in the depth of his sickness than of a fair and safe up-rising out of his sick-bed upon his recovery as nothing more easie in that case than to fall into a Relapse so nothing is more dangerous Nothing more easie There you have this first point that after healing Mercy we are subject to return to our former Sins And in that I said nothing more dangerous we have the second That if upon such Deliverance we do fall back into Sin we shall Doct. 2 be in great danger that some greater Mischief will befall us Sin no more saith our Saviour lest a worse thing come unto thee he saith lest it do but he thereby implyes and it is his meaning if thou doest for certain it will A Relapse into a bodily Disease after a Recovery useth not to be more dangerous than a Backsliding into Sin after a Deliverance oft proves desperate After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping saith Ezra 9. 13 14. As if he had said if after such misery to drive us and such mercy to draw us we break now with God Actum conclamatum est we are broken wholly and irrecoverably the House so on fire that it cannot be saved the Consumption so far gone that it cannot be cured It 's the breaking of the Bone that was newly set after a former breaking and that 's more dangerous a new Wound in an old one and that 's hardly cured like that Plague of Leprosie broken out of the Boyl which made the Person wholly unclean in the Law Lev. 13. 20. Or like the Man in the Gospel into whom the unclean spirit after dispossession maketh re-entry with seven other spirits worse than himself and so his last state proves worse than the first Matth. 12. 45. and that place speaks us every way worse if we prove not better after we have been so well dealt with Worse in point of punishment and that because worse in point of sin 1. In regard of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text there his last state worse than his first and yet the first bad and sad enough when he was possessed with a devil and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worse thing here in the Text a worse Disease or Mischief is Chemnitius coming upon thee though that he was now Cured of had been for nature very grievous and for thirty eight years continuance very tedious The instances of Jerusalem the Eastern Churches and others fully make out this That no people or persons have been sadder spectacles of Judgment than they that have been Mirrors of Mercy and Deliverance when abused not more eminent in the one than remarkable for the other as the Psalmist saith that wicked men spring and flourish that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92. 7. And as God told Pharaoh that for this very cause he had delivered and raised him up that upon his Obstinacy he might shew his Power in his heavier Down-fall Exod. 9. 16. Upon our unworthy carriage after mercies 1. At best we lose a great deal of the Comfort of them Then we may indeed and without check delight in Gods great goodness Neh. 9. 25. when we serve him in it vers 35. but we mingle our Wine with Water nay put so much Aloes into our sweetest Cup as we add Sin to God's sweeter Mercies It 's pity we should have Comfort in them when God from us hath Dishonour by them and were there nothing else if there be any ingenuity De facto in us we cannot but have less joy in the enjoyment of them when we cannot but with Ezra chap. 9. 6. blush as oft as we think of our abuse of them As a Parent oft-times is not so much joyed as ashamed of a sweet Child if ill nurtured or as it was with the People of Israel 2 Sam. 19. 2 3. of whom it 's said that in the day of their Triumph they stole away as people ashamed use to steal away when they flee in Battel so that the Victory that day was turneâ—â—nto Mourning because they heard say the King was grieved for his Son Whatsoever or how great soever the Mercy or Deliverance is we have lost the Comfort of it when God by our sins hath lost the Honour of it There 's more to be ashamed of than to be rejoyced in and the greater the occasion was of joy the more matter there is of shame and grief How can the Child heartily rejoyce in the abused favour of his Father when he hears say that the King grieves for the undutiful miscarriage of his Son By miscarriage after Mercies we make our Candle burn dim and our Cloud a clear day We rob our selves of the comfort of them even in the enjoying of them 2. Nay this is the ready way wholly to be deprived of them If Children would go to Bed in the dark let them play the wantons by the Candle-light This Eli had and that he should have had but because his Sons proved desperate wantons God sets a Non-plus on their Heads with an Absit * Be it far from me 1 Sam. 2. 30. It 's fitter for them that will know how better to use it But why should the Child keep such a Knife in his hand to spoil it and it may be to kill himself with it In this case Hos 2. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith God He will take away his Corn nay recover his VVool. The Legatee proves an Vsurper and therefore Recipiam Eripiam God useth with more force and fury to snatch away such imprisoned Mercies when they are abused and He not acknowledged And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. It's worse to loose it than never to have had it as coming from more anger in God and with greater reproach to us to be degraded of that Honour to which he had exalted us and for God to repent that he had been so good unto us 3. And yet worse because abused Mercies when they are taken away are not wont to go alone but to take others along with God shoots Case-shot them as the new cloth takes something out of the old garment and so the rent is made worse Mark 2. 21. If Esau desâ—â—ise his birth-right he shall lose his Blessing also If the Gospel of Peace being restored should be slighted it may depart and carry away outward Peace with it as when the Sun in Heaven sets it leaves the Earth in night's darkness and if outward Peace restored should be abused it may soon take its flight and carry Plenty away with it
not thy Father that hath bought thee c. Thy God and Saviour that hath redeemed thee and doth Jeshurun when grown fat begin to kick to forsake God that made him and lightly to esteem the God of his Salvation vers 15 18. but what follows vers 19. When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and daughters It 's an unmanly sin man loaths it a most ungodly sin God abhors it in all especially in a Jeshurun and that signifieth an upright people it 's matter of highest provocation if he find it in his sons and daughters With others this despising of the riches of the goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God treasures up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 4 5. And even in the dearest of God's children God so ill takes it that if the most upright Hezekiah make such returns he shall smart for it 2 Chron. 32. 25. compared with 2 King 20. 17 18. Let them so ungratefully abuse such a mercy the very worst of the Heathens shall rather have it than they continue owners of it Ezek. 7. 24. A return in this case God expects but it 's a return of praise and obedience and not a return to our sin that 's most hateful ingratitude 2. Most desperate Obstinacy as standing out against God when he hath gone through a full course of all means of the very last and most likely and which usually are wont to be most effectual for when God hath delivered his people from straits he hath endeavoured to fasten on them all obligations to obedience besides the tye of the Word in his Command there hath been the bond of affliction in their by-past misery and the thick cord of love in their present deliverance and shall this three-fold cord be so easily broken It 's not the Heroick Impetus of the Spirit of God coming Judg. 15. 14. Matth. 8 28. with Mark 5. 3 4. upon us as sometimes upon Sampson but from the insult of some evil spirit more fierce than ordinarily as in the Gospel that none of all not all these chains and fetters can hold us nor any thing tame us a tough bad humour which strongest Physick cannot purge and which is the Physicians last receipt for such are Afflictions and Mercies Sometimes indeed afflictions are the last as pinching and pineing Poverty at last brought home the Prodigal Luke 15. As a Winter-frost helps to kill these Weeds which in Summer sprung up and multiplied When Lenitives will not do corrosives searings cuttings off sometimes work the Cure But what hope if after all the Gangrene creep on still It may be you will say sometimes that may be preserved in Sugar that will not in Brine and when God hath not been before in the Wind and Earthquake and Fire he may be after in the still voice 1 King 19. 11 12 13. And therefore God that he may leave no means unessayed like a careful tender-hearted Father to a stubborn Child whom he would not lose will try whether mildness as a Summer-Sun will not melt that heart which harshness as a winter frost hardned You are told of a stone that will move at the gentle touch of a finger more than with the violent rush of your whole body and such stones sometimes are our hard hearts and therefore God that delights not in the death of a sinner and with the goodness of whose Nature this sweet way of Mercy most agrees is willing as at first to begin with it so after other sharper means used at last to end with it When after the Israelites want of Food he in Mercy gave them Bread from Heaven he saith it was that he might prove them whether they would walk in his Law or no Exod. 16. 4. So that if after Judgments we have a return of Mercies we had need take heed for it may be then we go upon our last and strongest trial In Afflictions God indeed strongly tryeth us whether we will cleave to him in want of Mercies but by Mercies he maketh fullest tryal of us whether we will serve and obey him whether we will set upon our Journey for Heaven in such fair Way and Weather when we have nothing to hinder us and whether we will build when the Scaffold is built and all Tools and Materials ready that we want nothing that might help us And then Isa 5. if after all Mercies yet sour Grapes what can God do more but quite extirpate If after tryal thus made of all means of the last and best we continue as ill or prove worse than before then Reprobate silver call them for the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6. 29 30. Meneh Meneh Tekel Dan. 5. 25 to 30. Vpharsin God hath again and again numbred and weighed us and we are found light nay heavy-hearted and immoveable and what then follows Peres thy Kingdom is divided the Lord knows so is ours miserably And the Lord grant that which is added do not follow and is given to the Medes and Persians that God give us not up to our Enemies who after all this variety of powerfullest means will not yet give up our selves to him in a way of Obedience For if after we are made whole we sin again as we are over prone which was the first point it cannot be avoided but that every way both in point of sin and misery it will be worse with us which was the second point here implyed Of both which the Use and Application should have been in Vse the more full opening and inforcing the other two things here enjoyned 1. A serious and heedful Consideration and Review of the Mercy received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold thou art made whole saith our Saviour he sets an Ecce upon it as to set forth the remarkableness of the Mercy so to put him in mind of his Duty and that was to take a diligent and exact survey of the Mercy and because being made whole speaks a former Disease and a present Cure he is called to think of both of them together and to compare them together how weak before he was and how well now before not able to crawl he can now rise up and walk he that could not before carry himself from the Porch to the Pool can now carry his bed from the Pool through the City He that for many years together was made sick with delayed Hopes and quite cut to the heart with vexatious Disappointments hath with the speaking of a word his Health perfectly restored and his longing Desires in an instant fully accomplished All this our Saviour would have him wisely behold and consider and for ever remember with all thankfulness And would he not have us of this City and Kingdom behold with the like care a greater Cure Indeed I cannot say to England thou art perfectly made whole we are yet come short of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that perfect Soundness which Peter told the Jews
that lame man had attained in the presence of them all Acts 3. 16. The Humours in this great and greatly diseased Body are yet in an hurry we bleed still at best our Wounds are but in healing and not yet fully whole But yet humble and hearty thanks be to our heavenly Physician we cannot but see as it were this poor Man in the Text arising our Sanballats and Tobiahs whom our Healing wounds and cuts to the heart even they to their grief hear and see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the phrase is Neh. 4. 7. that an healing Plaister is mercifully applyed to our bleeding Wounds that unless we be stupid and sensless we cannot but with the Woman when her bloudy Issue was stopt know and feel what is done in us Matth. 5. 33. and unless lothsomly ingrateful say as it is Ezek. 21. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is not this we are not what we were that a great change is wrought in the Patient and we hope in a healing way so that though not wholly yet in part though not absolutely yet comparatively in regard of what we were we are made whole And therefore O London O England Behold Behold thy former Wound and thy present Cure Behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from what depths of Misery into which thy sins had cast thee to what hopeful and happy beginnings of Health and Peace the healing hand of thy pitiful Physician hath raised thee thy Religion wofully corrupted now graciously begun to be reformed thy Liberty before inslaved now vindicated a most unnatural and bloody War the other day most eagerly prosecuted by the malice of Man more powerfully and miraculously ceased through the Mercies of God This poor Man that had been sick so long could not have believed that ever he should have been well so soon nor had we Faith to believe that were so hastily dying away in the beginning of the last year we should be so happily recovering by the end of this Let therefore the Voice of the Cryer and through God's Mercy not now as that might have been in a Wilderness call out all your heedfullest attentions and let an unworthy Minister use the holy Prophet's words Come and behold the Works of the Lord we might of late have added as it 's there what desolations he hath made but now what Restaurations what Salvation he hath wrought in the Earth He maketh Wars to cease he breaketh the Bow and cutteth the Spear in sunder and burneth the Chariot in the fire Psal 46. 8 9 c. Truly the Lord hath so wrought his wonderful Works that they ought to be full in our eye and heart for the present and to be had for the future in everlasting remembrance O set up our Eben-ezer with this impress upon it Hitherto hath the Lord helped us Behold thus far O England thou art made whole and what remains but 2. The second duty injoyned in the following word sin O sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Sin no more Now the Lord be more merciful for I fear many of us sin more than ever Oppressions in many more aggravated Heresies more openly maintained Christ the Holy Ghost and Holy Scriptures more horribly blasphemed Factions and Divisions more multiplied the Scene only changed but the same or a worse part acted the Weapons struck out of the hands of Enemies and more taken up by Brethren and Friends Were Christians ever so mutually estranged and imbittered Were your publick Church-Assemblies ever so neglected In your civil Meetings your Elections and other Affairs ever with such confusion I had almost said brutish rage as of late so transacted as though we had put off Christianity and Civility and Humanity together But think in all your hearts and all your souls Is this to sin no more Is it not to revolt more and more O think that you see God angrily looking upon you and saying but do you thus requite me O foolish people and unwise Think that you see Jesus Christ standing and weeping over you and saying as once O Jerusalem Jerusalem if thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace thou wouldst have made a better return lest before thou art aware they be hid from thine eyes I charge thee once more sin no more serve me thus no more O do not this abominable thing that I hate Jer. 44. 4. at last be thou instructed O Jerusalem O England lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited Jer. 6. 8. Do we remember our former fears and troubles were they not bad enough that we now grow worse that they may be renewed and aggravated Do we remember our resolutions vows and promises that we then made to prevail with God for Mercy were they that we would be worse than ever if God would deliver us and do we think that upon those terms he would have helped us Do we consider to what happiness we have for the present arrived to an Harbour after a Tempest to a day of joy and gladness after the sad times of our griefs and fears And shall our sins damp our joyes drive us again into the deep and overcloud our Sun in a clear day unless we be weary of our Mercies let us not weary Amos 8. 9. our God by our sins Noli gemmam perdere in die festo is an Arabick Proverb O do not that in a good day which will undo all the comfort of it Or lastly do we think what yet we may be Are we so absolutely cured that we are past all possibility of a relapse May not the wound rankle and grow angry and then come to Judab's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. O why should Israel's stubborness when come to the borders of Canaan drive them back to the Red Sea again why should we cast poyson into the wound that 's healing O why will we dye O pity a tender Mother a dear Native Country which beseecheth you by the Womb that bare you and by the Breasts that gave you suck that now that she is recovering you would not be a means of her death that first gave you breath If you will not pity your selves yet pity the excellency of your strength the desire Ezek. 24. 21. of your eyes and that which your soul pityeth your sons and your daughters which may do God more service than ever you have done when you are dead and gone Eat not the sour Grapes that their teeth be not set on edge that instead of rising up and calling us blessed they do not gnash their teeth and curse us that by our sins in this Crisis when we might have made both our selves and them happy have utterly undone both without recovery I might in this kind say much yet when I had said all I could say no more than the Text doth And therefore when I have done speaking let
he is like them or at least is not much displeased with them because he doth so much forbear them Psal 50. 21. Of Christ in whose whole Progress from his coming down Rev. 1. 9. from Heaven till his returning thither again the Fathers are wont to observe a Signature of patience in every step all along in the Way But especially in and towards his Journeys end to indure a Traitor Judas in his Bosom though fully known to him yet not to discover him to others and when he had betrayed himself in betraying his Master to entertain him with the compellation of a Friend who was to be reckoned amongst the worst of Enemies to endure so much of the Jews malice and rage with so much meekness and love notwithstanding all that pain and shame those buffetings scourgings spittings upon those railings and blasphemies as the dumb Lamb not to open the mouth or if at all in that heat of his agony to breath such sweet breath as Father not my Will but thine be done And again Father forgive them for they know not what they do That still voice speaks aloud Christ to be God even a God of Patience who was Water to those Sparks to which the meekest of us would have been Gun-Powder Nor yet so fo rs ut de supernis aestimetur as Tertullian speaks Chap. 3. as though this were so far above us as nothing belonging to us for in the third place they find Examples and Paterns of Patience not only in God and Christ but in the Servants of God in Moses David Job Jeremiah Stephen Paul In the Prophets Jam. 5. 10. Apostles Martyrs all so long-breathed that we shall scarce approve our selves to be of the same piece and to have the same Spirit if we be shorter-winded They are wont also the better to compose our Spirits to a meekned Patience under sufferings to put us in mind of our condition either as fallen in Adam and so we are born to trouble or as restored by Christ and so it 's the Patience and Kingdom of Jesus Christ Rev. 1. 9. An inraged Devil and World will have the Cross to be our Companion which therefore we should not quarrel at especially seeing it is such a Companion as proves a very faithful Friend It would be endless to go about to repeat all those benefits which the Cross and our patient bearing of it brings in to us whether for Grace or Peace here or Salvation in Heaven hereafter Affliction is very sharp but a much improving School And Faith and Patience help us to take out many an happy Lesson in it It inherits Promises Heb. 6. 12. brings Glory 2 Thess 1. 4 5. And so whatever it meets with in the way yet to be sure it ends well Jam. 5. 11. And all 's well that ends well But I omit all other Particulars as being sensible of what Cyprian saith in the beginning of his Tractate of this Argument De patientiae locuturus c. unde potius incipiam quam quod nunc quoque ad audientiam vestram patientiam video esse necessariam c. That our Hearers whilst we preach of Patience have need to exercise their Patience and therefore I 'l not tire out yours And therefore shall touch only upon two things which partly the Context and partly the Text afford us 1. And the first concerns the present time and season It was when Jerusalem was now near to be destroyed and as a forerunner of it that his Disciples should be hated betrayed and persecuted in the foregoing part of the Chapter that our Saviour prescribes this Receipt in the Text that the Malady might not prove mortal that in patience they possess their Souls And of the same time and day some think the Apostle speaks Heb. 10. 25. And after shewing how great a fight of Afflictions they indured in reproaches and spoiling of their Goods c. v. 32 33 34. he at last concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had need of Patience v. 36. And so for certain have we now or may have ere long as Capito in his time to Farel Durâ patientiâ Inter Calvini Epistolas Num. 4. nobis opus est in hâc dissolutione quâ versamur c. How near the destruction of our Jerusalem is I dare not fore-prophesie The God of Peace make and keep it a true Jerusalem a Vision of Peace both now and to perpetuity But if Wars and rumours of Wars if false Prophets and false Christs if the betraying and hating and spoiling of the Ministers and Servants of Christ be the sad presages and forerunners of it then unless God be the more merciful it may not be long before we hear of it when it may come again to be said as Rev. 13. 10. 14. 12. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints when no remedy but Faith and Patience so that either already we have or then may have very great need of it And happy we if when the worst comes we can but be able to possess our Souls by it 2. And that 's the second Particular in the Text viz. the great benefit and advantage of it that whatever other loss we sustain yet the main chance may be saved our Souls possessed by it And God thought he allowed Baruch fair though he did not grant him those great things he sought for if he might have his life for a prey Jer. 45. 5. Straits may be such that it may be a great mercy if we may but have our lives but if so as withal to possess our Souls that they be not endangered or lost to eternity nor for the present so affrighted or distempered but that in greatest distractions we may be our own Men and do yea and suffer like Christians So to possess the Soul even when we have lost all else is such a Mercy that with much thankfulness and comfort we may say with the Psalmist Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal 116. 7. A rich bounty and largess if through Patience keeping possession we may be able so to turn into our Souls and they return to their rest in God even when it comes to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 11. When cast out of all we have no certain dwelling-place but with the faithful of old Heb. 11. 37 38. we should wander in Desarts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth If it should come to that pass that as you use to say no Remedy but Patience you will have no cause to complain for it is a very sufficient one even then we shall not be altogether harbourless out-casts as long as we can by Faith take Sanctuary in God and by Patience keep possession of our Souls For certain our Saviour thought so when against all those animi deliquia those sick fainting Fits in the former part of the Chapter he prescribes only this Cordial in
The whole Land as God sometimes Threatens in the Prophets may come to its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be utterly emptied Isa 24. 1 2. Jer. 9. 10 11. Nauclerus and spoiled emptied of Man Woman and Child as Rome was sometimes by Totilas or as the Prophet threatens Israel no Man to pass through no Voice of the Cattel heard Both Fowls of the Heaven and the Beasts fled Nothing of all that we had to comfort us left But Zion left as a Cottage in a Vineyard Isa 1. 8. and a Lodg in a Garden of Cucumbers all alone forlorn and desolate Like a lone Lamb in a waste Wilderness Hos 4. 16. as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain and as an Ensign on a Hill Isa 30. 17. This possibly I do not say probably may be And on the other side in an ordinary natural Course it 's certain these outward Supports and Comforts will not abide by us always The Flower will fade the Shadow will decline and the Sun set When we are now to leave the World if not before Friends Estates Honours Health Life it self will leave us It 's God and his Salvation only that must then relieve us And is not the good Samaritan then the Neighbour that comes in to us when Priest and Levite pass away from us And am not I more beholden to God than all the World who then stands by me and saves me when all the best Comforts and Confidences I have in the World have cast me off and left me 3. And as upon this account we are more beholden to God than all the World so truly upon it too we owe more to Him than to all the World besides More Fear and Love and Service and Praise even our whole selves to God only who whether with or without any else is our alone Saviour It 's all Reason and Self-love would teach us it to be fearful Fear to offend and careful to please him at all times who sometime or other may be able to pleasure us when none else can That Physician of all others I should be most loth to displease who only can cure that sore Disease that I am subject to and should I not then be much more afraid to offend God who alone can be my help in all these Maladies which none else can Heal or at least without him are Physicians of no value It 's not wisdom to provoke a Man when we know not how soon we may be in his Lurch and lie at his Mercy Friend how safe soever thy present Condition is yet at best thou art always in Misericordia Domini especially in some more eminent dangers it 's manifest that God only can or doth help thee and how then do the Tyrians crouch to an offended Herod when their Countrey is nourished by his And how do they cry Abrek bow the Knee before Joseph when without him none might lift up Hand or Foot in all Egypt Gen. 41. 43 44. To be sure there 's none in all the World that can lift up either Hand to desend us or Foot to make a step to relieve us without our Joseph our Jesus and help from him And therefore how should we bend the knees of our very Souls to him without least lifting up of Heel or Head against him O take heed of sinning with the Prodigal against Heaven for such Droughts may soon be which may quite dry up all Springs of Comfort that lie here in the Earth especially in the Land of Israel which hath few such as Hierom saith and drinks of the Rain of Heaven depends more of Heaven's Showrs than these lower earthly Springs as Moses tells us Deut. 11. 10 11. If Heaven therefore being angry should shut up its Treasures from us in Samnio Samnium Canaan would not be it self a Land flowing with Milk and Hony but as now it is a barren and burnt Wilderness And therefore fear we God much on whom we depend so much for safety and deliverance always chiefly and principally and at some times and in some cases only And let this also perswade us to love him above all who then sticks to us when all else fail us At my first Answer saith Love Psal 18. 1 2. Paul no Man stood with me but all forsook me notwithstanding the Lord stood with me 2 Tim. 4. 16 17. Such failing Brooks are other best Friends Job 6. who either through weakness or falseness then do least when we need and expect most Sub cultro liquit as the Proverb is But should not our hearts then lie close to the Fountain-head of Living-Waters which as those perennes Fontes retain an equal fulness in the driest Summer and in the wettest Winter and the only difference is that in the greatest heat they are coolest and so most refreshing Let Jacob have Rachel's love and self who rolls away the Stone for her Gen. 29. 10. that none other can And let the lost Prodigal think at last of returning home to a Father who will allow Childrens Bread when Luke 15. others cannot afford Husks With Men it 's equal that they should have most of our love whose bounty and kindness we most taste of And therefore it 's all reason that we should love God with all our Heart and Soul because he only in all our straits is our All-sufficient Saviour And upon that ground praise him too for whatever Salvation Praise and Deliverance we are at any time blest with Instruments may have their due but not so as to rob God of his And if Victories gained by the Souldiers valour be usually ascribed to the General as matter of his praise 2 Sam. 21. 22. who it may be only gave direction and sometimes not that how should the Captain of our Salvation Cui nihil ex istâ lande Centurio nihil praefectus nihil cohors c. who either immediately without the subserviency of any Instruments creates Salvation Isa 4. 5. or when Instruments do most he not only directs but assists and commands Deliverance Psal 44. 4. 71. 3. How should he that is the God of our Life Psal 42. 8. and the God of our Mercy Psal 59. 17. be the God of our Praise Psal 109. 1. It 's not the line cast out that saved thee from drowning but the friendly hand that cast it out and by it drew thee out of the deep Waters Isa 38. 17 19 20. Psal 44. 3. It 's not thy Meat that feeds thee nor thy Physick that cures thee nor thine own Sword or the greatest Champion's on Earth that defends thee It 's thy God that either with or without all these saveth thee And therefore what they maliciously said to the blind Man recovered against Christ Give God the praise for we know that this Man is a Sinner John 9. 24. Say we humbly and thankfully of and to Christ Lord we give thee the praise of these Salvations and Deliverances for these means which we
and exceed our good thoughts of him with his better performances to us Our good perswasions of God prove very strong perswasions with him to do us good that it may appear that we cannot out-think his infinite Goodness that our thoughts of him cannot be better than his are towards us nor our heart more enlarged by Faith to hope and expect a mercy than his hand opened with bounty to bestow it And therefore open thy Mouâ—h wide and I will fill it so in the old Testament and according to thy Faith be it unto thee so oft in the New Under both God hath oftentimes in very unlikely cases gratified the Faith and expectations of his Servants with extraordinary mercies and deliverances And therefore for the application of this branch also seeing Vse the dangers are great that we may fear and the Salvation great that we stand in need of let not Sloth and Vnbelief keep us from what we may have by asking and expecting We strengthen our forces to fight with our Enemies but it is I do not say our cheapest but I am sure our safest and surest way to strengthen our Faith by expecting of much to prevail for much from him But we have low thoughts of God and that keeps us from rising high Misgiving hearts which keeps God from being on the giving hand Thou wouldst not so readily gratify another with that which thou knowest he entertains so hard thoughts of thee about that he thinks thou wilt not be so kind as to grant God fully knows all our hard unkind thoughts of his unkindness which discourageth him much from vouchsafing much of that which we need he otherwise is ready to give The Prophet wanted not Oyl but the Widow Vessels The Fountain or River is full but one carrieth away nothing from it because he hath no Vessel to receive it another but a little because his Vessel is so Thank nay blame unbelieving contracted hearts that they hold no more of God's goodness hands shrunk up like Jeroboam's and paralytick that can grasp no more nor lay any faster hold on his bounty Joash strikes with his Arrows but thrice and therefore he overcomes the Syrians no oftner O thou of little Faith That 's the reason why thou receivest no more either of Spiritual or 2 King 13. 18 19. Temporal Salvation and therefore seeing that God is so unwilling to disappoint the Faith and frustrate the expectations which his own Spirit hath raised in Believers that it 's but hope and have let us in a way of God even in most dangerous times hope much that we may enjoy the more I said in a way of God And that leads us to the following particulars That we may with Jacob wait on God for Salvation with such expectance and confidence it 's required that 1. Our selves be under Covenant for though to others God oft grants temporal Salvation yet it 's certain that they as such have no ground with confidence to expect it A Rebel may possibly be spared but it 's a loyal Subject that may justly expect his Princes Protection whilest the other according to his demerit may stand trembling at the Barr and justly expect the Sentence of Condemnation The Apostle speaks of a fearful looking for of judgment by some Heb. 10. 27. But they are the Righteous whose Hope is gladness whilst the expectation of the wicked shall perish Prov. 10. 28. 2. The Mercy or Salvation we would expect be under promise for what God doth promise we may confidently expect that he will assuredly perform so that in doubtfullest times and cases our Course and Duty is not so much to search into God's secret Will what he will do as into his revealed Word what he hath therein promised either in general to his Church at all times or particularly to his People in some special times and cases So Daniel looks into his Books and finds that there which inables him to look up to God for the return of the Jews captivity Chap. 9. 2. But our Self-love oft promiseth us Salvation when God's Word if consulted threatens Destruction as it was with Judah before their threatned Captivity who looked for Peace but no good came for a time of health and behold trouble Jer. 8. 15. and 14. 19. Scriptures Promises and Prophecies especially that of the Revelations should be much read and studied in these doubtful times that we may know what to expect or fear by what is therein promised or threatned 3. Our present way and course be under the Condition of the Promise for else though we be in Covenant and the Mercy be promised yet if our present habitude and posture be not according to that Condition that either we are under the actual guilt and defilement of some provoking sin or in the use of unlawful means instead of the Mercy expected we may meet with the Mischief which we looked not for Though Israel was no Servant nor homeborn-Slave yet he is spoil'd when God hath that to say to him And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the water of Sichor And what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the water of the River Jer. 2. 14 18. as before that Josh 7. 13. though they were in Covenant with God and had the promise of Canaan yet when they had an accursed thing in the midst of them they received a repulse at Ai instead of gaining the victory Salvation from God is only to be found in a way of God Even an honest Man in by-paths may meet with Theeves and Robbers Fouler sins put us out of God's protection dash and frustrate expectation whereas make but sure of these three that the Mercy be found in a Promise our selves in Covenant and our way and temper within the Condition of it and then we may not only with comfort desire but also with confidence expect Salvation 3. But yet so as then in an humble and meek Patience silently to stay God's leasure for it which is the third particular wherein this Waiting most properly and formally consists as ever including some longer or shorter stay and therefore expressed in the New Testament usually by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or its compounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a staying abiding and sitting down by it and in the Old Testament usually expressed by this word in the Text which I said sign fieth an Extension or Prolongation as of the desire so often of the thing desired In the first particular of it as we have seen it contained in it long looks and longing desires but not like Womens longings that are so short-winded that they cannot stay or like short-winged Birds that can make no long flight No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for Isa 26. 8. In itinere so Junius thee Though the way be deep a way of judgments and long too
now the Rescue of a whole Land from Destruction A right Settlement of Church and State upon safe and lasting Foundations Lameut only after the Lord and he not too hasty to fret against him though the time be long 1 Sam. 7. 2. It 's a great Load think not much that it comes not in gallopping but be drawn on heavily and come in slowly a rich Fraight and Lading think not a long Voyage long The Husband man waits with much Long-suffering for the precious Fruit of the Earth James 5. 7. And shall we have no patience left in waiting for the more precious things of Heaven Say not so much that the Evils are great which we therefore would make haste to be rid of But argue and think withal that therefore the contrary Mercies are proportionably great and therefore should be quietly stayed and in God's Way and Time waited for 6. And the rather because humble and silent waiting at last will never be in vain and wholly disappointed Psal 9. 18. At the end the Vision will speak and not lye Hab. 2. 3. God bids us wait Psal 27. 14. and if we mean not to disappoint them whom we bid stay far be it from us to think God so unfaithful as to let his People's Eyes quite fail with waiting No their Experiences and Praises bear witness for him to the contrary while they can say Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have 〈◊〉 waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation Isa 25. 9. 7. I might add that this Salvation the longer and the more patiently it hath been waited for before it come it will be most seasonably and fully with more Comfort and Blessing Though whilst deferred it made the longing Heart sick yet when come it is a Tree of Life Prov. 13. 12. An Isaac a son of Laughter that was long waited for Thus it will not be in vain at last 8. No nor for the present were there nothing but what the faithful Soul meets with in the Interim and whilst it stays waiting even a Lamenting Church may truly and feelingly say The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him Lam. 3. 25. And therefore ver 26. It is good that a Man should hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of God Truly so good that for many a Mercy it 's better with us in the waiting for it than in the rejoycing of it More of God's glorious Power as some observe manifested to Israel waiting upon him in the Wilderness than when settled in Canaan And more of God's Grace and less Sin expressed by David whilst he waited upon God for a Kingdom than when he was possessed of it The waiting Soul is all that while kept more awful humble heavenly closer to God in Prayer and Spiritual Communion Faith Hope Love Meekness Patience Wisdom Courage are Ingredients in waiting into the very Substance and not only in the Infusion and in liveliest strongest Exercises and Operations Whilst they wait on the Lord they renew their strength they mount up with Wings as Eagles they run and are not weary and walk and yet not faint Isa 40. 31. And therefore upon these and the like Considerations in greatest either outward Dangers or inward Faintings let us live by Faith believing and even die in Hope then Waiting and with dying Jacob in the Text even breath out our Souls into our Fathers bosom with his I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. Which was the fourth Point That all in straits we should after his Example wait for God's Rescue and Salvation But that 's not all Something yet more which a Fifth Point held out and that as some think according to the special meaning of the Text. SERMON XXXVI GEN. 49. 18. III. Sermon Preached at St. Martes Cambr. March 30. 1651. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. THat in all outward temporal Deliverances by or from Men Doct. 5 we should look and wait for Spiritual and Eternal Salvation by Christ So very many both Jewish and Christian * Chaldee Pererius Oleaster Gordonius Brentius Fagius Interpreters upon the Text agree that although Jacob here looked and waited for a temporal Salvation to be wrought especially by Sampson Israel's Champion of which we spake in the former point yet this satisfied not his desire nor terminated the Eye of his Faith for that was but a temporal Salvation and after it Sampson himself dyed and Israel were oppressed and carried away Captives and therefore after the manner of the Prophets as was before said who when they spake of any great Deliverance or Deliverer which did either typify or any way resemble Jesus Christ and his Salvation they were wont to look through the one to the other so he looks at God's mercy in Sampson's Deliverance but rests not there but from the Nazarite looks to the Nazarene Non sufficit Sampson veniat Schilo as Gordonius paraphraseth it or rather as the Chaldee more fully Non expecto redemptionem Gideonis filii Joas quae est salus temporalis neque redemptionem Sampsonis quae est transitoria It 's not the temporary transitory Salvation of Gideon Jephtah Sampson or any of the rest of those Saviours that I so much look for or at all rest in but in through and above all them it 's the Salvation of Jehovah the Spiritual and Eternal Salvation of Jesus Christ the Son of David the Son of God It 's He which I wait for This was dying Jacob's last Breath and this the lively breathing of every true believing Soul that in all straits waits for deliverance from God but in all such Deliverances looks further for a greater Salvation by Christ with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. All other outward Salvations thou workest and they are truly thine but this Spiritual Eternal Salvation thou alone workest and its every way only thine which whether without or with them I look and long for especially and in a manner only For the better clearing and pressing of which Duty it will be useful for us to consider 1. The Example of God himself who though the whole World be his and what content the whole Body of the Creature can afford is at his command yet it 's not the flesh of Bulls that he Psal 50. 15. 147. 10. eats nor the Bloud of Goats that he desires to drink nor the strength of the Horse that he delights in But he proclaims from Heaven that it is Christ his Beloved Son in whom he doth acquiesce and is well pleased Matth. 3. 17. That therefore which replenisheth the Ocean should fill the Cistern That in which God rests we should and in nothing else Till we come to it we would be restless and as God in the Creation rested not in his making all other Creatures till he had made Man so answerably
in our recovering or enjoying all other contentments we should not rest till we enjoy God in Jesus Christ 2. The practice of the faithful who of all Men best know what Christ and his Salvation are And here we find the Spouse Cant. 3. 2 3. when she is at a loss for her Beloved going about the City in the Streets and in the broad ways and in that goodly City especially in the fair Streets of it was there no gay sight or precious commodity which might entertain her Eye and Heart and bid her stay and stand still and sit down and give over her so earnest pursuit and inquest No if one would give her all the substance of his House all the riches of the City all the Glory of the World for her Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it would utterly be contemned Chap. 8. 7. You find her in the highest Streets pressing through the greatest crowds of other friends and contentments with her But saw ye him whom my Soul loveth Saw you him whom my Soul loveth Why Mayst thou not see in such a City so many friends and contentments that thy Soul may not disdain to love that in the midst of them as bereft of all thou makest such enquiry after him that thy Soul loves Indeed the Daughters of Jerusalem Chap. 5. think it strange and the Children of this World account it little better than distracted non-sense But whatever they think or say she must still on in her pursuit till she find him whom she seeks and that 's her Beloved whilest she is thus sick of love So when Daniel had prayed for Judah's Deliverance from the 70 years Captivity in Babylon he rests not there but goeth on to enquire after at least God doth to promise a greater Salvation by Christ after 70 weeks of years Dan. 9. 23 24. Thus the Believers in the time of the Law though in that Dispensation they were much entertain'd and even trained up with Temporal Mercies and Deliverances and pompous outward Services yet even then they lived and walked by Faith in that valley of Vision Through those Vails they looked at Christ and saluted him afar off Heb. 11. 13. and under those leaves they felt for the Fruit of the Tree of Life were not satisfied with those present outward mercies but looked long for Christ and waited for the Consolation of Israel by him Luke 2. 25. as Ambrose upon that of the Psalmist Defecit in salutare Psal 119. 81. tuâ—m anima mea My Soul fainteth for thy Salvation sheweth how earnestly their Souls went out to the Messiah that the more their Souls fainted the more lively and vigorous was their love and the longer he was deferred eo expectantis desideria majora sunt quâdam vi amoris ignescunt the more were their Souls and desires kindled and inflamed with an Oh that thou wouldst rent the Heavens and come down Isa 64. 1. Insomuch that Bernard when he thinks of it is not more grieved than ashamed at our deadness and sluggishness Compungor confundor in memet ipso pudet torporis teporis miserabilium temporum horum c. that Christ and his Grace should not be entertained with so much Love and Joy now that they are exhibited as they were with desire and expectation of them then when they were only promised Cui namque nostrûm tantum ingerit gaudium gratiae Serm. 2. in Cant. exhibitio quantum veteribus Patribus accendebat desiderium promissio So little did their temporal Deliverances and Mercies which they were trained up with satisfy their Souls or flat but rather quicken their longing desires after Christ and his Salvation Answerable to which is that of the Apostle for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but Dung that I may gain Christ Phil. 3. 8. Gain Christ it seems therefore that Christ only was his Gain and that whatever else he had gained till he had him all that gain he might put into a wet Eye as being a very great loser or at best at a very great loss and therefore v. 9. he desires to be found in him c. But withal in that he suffered the loss of all for Christ it affords by the way a further strong proof of this point for he that could be content to suffer the loss of all for him could not be content with any thing without him The Merchant in the Matth 13. 46. Gospel that sold all he had to buy the Pearl was not satisfied with all he had to go without it A South Country will not satisfy a thirsting Soul without upper and nether Springs Whilest Judg 1. 15. Gen. 30. 1. Rachel was barren she said Give me Children or else I dye when she had them and was after deprived of them whatever other comforters she had yet she could not be comforted because they were not Till a Christian have Christ what ever else he hath he cannot be satisfied and if afterward in any manner he lose him whatever else he keeps safe he cannot be comforted So Austin on that place of John 6. 68. Lord whither shall we go c. brings in Peter speaking thus Repellis nos a te da nobis Tract 27. in Joan. alterum te Lord if thou put us away from thee thou must give us another that is the very same with thee for we cannot be satisfied without thee and as he elsewhere adds Da amantem da desiderantem da esurientem da talem sciet quid dicam si autem frigidâ— loquor nescit quod loquor c. To a dull dead spirit this is a riddle but one that knows and loves Christ feelingly understands it as being his inward hearts language To such an one all else is nothing besides him and therefore nothing can satisfy without him If Christ be all in all Col. 3. 11. then all besides him if without him is nothing As in God we live and move as Creatures Acts 17. 28. so in Christ as Believers The Needle toucht cannot leave trembling till it pitch North Were it but the Soul of a Man it 's unquiet till it rest in God but let it be an Heart truly toucht with sense of saving-Grace whatever else it hath it 's yet unsatisfied without Christ 3. And great reason for it if we shall consider Thirdly who and what Christ and his Salvation is and this without other things that one thing necessary Luke 10. 42. It 's not necessary that we should have Health Wealth Worldly Honours or outward Deliverances but it 's absolutely necessary for us to have Christ and Salvation by him else we are utterly undone And therefore to be satisfied with them without him is to be content with trifles and superfluities and want necessaries For so in Scripture we shall find him called by the names of such things which what ever else we either have or want we cannot be without of Father Husband Captain Shepherd
Sand or Flowers in the Meadow that he loseth his Voyage Nor is he the wisest Traveller who for the more comfort and speed of his Journey being by his Friend led in a plain fair way and through pleasant Meadows is so taken with them that he lies down to sleep in them forgetting his Errand and so loiters as loth to part with them as that he is benighted and falls short of Home A good Traveller is of another mind and takes another course saith the Coast indeed is clear and free from Theeves and Robbers the way pleasant and Inns and other Accommodations by the way commodious but yet for all that as it is in the Proverb utinam domi essem I would I were at home And so the fairer the way is the more haste he makes and puts on It is or should be so with every true Traveller Heaven-ward If in his way he meet with trouble and danger he saith I would I were at Home in Heaven where there is none of this but if safety and prosperity yet would I were at Home in Heaven where there is much better than this Heaven is my Haven and these are but fair Gales to carry me on with more speed thither Christ is the End I aim at and therefore as Austin upon that Title of the Psalm In finem cum audis in Christum intende ne in vita Psal 55. remanendo non pervenias ad finem When I hear of the End I must think of making after Christ and not stand still in my way lest I come not to my Journey 's end Quicquid est ubi infra steteris antequam ad Christum perveneris nihil aliud Divinus sermo dicit nisi Accede How firm soever the Ground be that I stand upon on this side of Christ though Sense and carnal Reason say stand still and abide by it yet Scripture hath nothing else to say to me but this one word Arise this is not thy resting place Mic. 2. 10. There is a Plus ultra Get nearer to Christ advance further to Heaven and when a Sampson hath delivered thee from the Philistines and other such-like Enemies let not this be all thou lookest for but still say with Jacob O Lord now that I am thus saved yet still I wait for thy further and greater Salvation 3. And this Thirdly By reason of the little advantage of the one if we fall short of the other Though we should be saved from Bodily danger by an Arm of Flesh if our Souls should not Mark 8. 36 37. be saved from Hell and Wrath by Christ What wilt thou give me said Abraham to God seeing I go Childless Gen. 15. 2. And in that Child he looked at Christ And so a right Heir of Abraham saith Lord what good will all else that thou hast given me do me if I go Christless We are indeed unworthy of Crums less than the least of Gods Mercies and therefore should be thankful for them But yet because they are amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 16. 10. those least of Mercies it 's but little good we shall reap by them if we have not Christ and his Grace and Salvation that great Gift of God with them It 's not an half-Mercy where Christ is wanting who is All in all As here Consider 1. On the one side how wretched we may be with all other Mercies and Deliverances without Christ Indeed so we may account our selves as Happy as he accounted himself Perfect And therefore made the boasting Question Mat. 19. 20. What lack I yet And Answer here may be made Yet lackest thou one thing and that 's Christ the one thing necessary in whom only we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are complete Col. 2. 10. Happy the World may account and call us Psal 49. 13 if with Judas we bear the Bag But yet for all that so Happy or Miserable rather that with him if we have nothing else it had been better for us that we had never been Born raised from a Sick-bed and upon it fall more desperately Sick to the very Death of Wâ—ntonness and Lust Prison-Door set open and then run wild from God as it was usual with Israel delivered to all those Abominations Jer. 7. 10. set free from Oppressors and Enemies that fought against the Body and then more than ever inslaved and inthralled to Satan and those Lusts that fight against our Souls As God told Israel if the Canaanites should be suddenly destroyed the wild Beasts would devour them Wild Lusts are these wild Beasts which raven most in the quiet Night when the scorching Sun of Persecution is set And like Vermin breed fastest when the Weather is warmest And is there not then need of a further Salvation 2. And so secondly On the other hand when God completeth an outward Mercy and Deliverance he is wont to do more for the inward than for the outward Man in Mercy to Hezekiah's Soul draws his Body out of the Pit of Corruption and casts his Isa 38. 17. Sins behind his Back further than he leaves his Sick-bed behind him A blessed thing to have a good Uprising from a Sick-bed that we Relapse not Mercy is to be taken with a trembling Hand When he plucks David out of the miry Clay then sets his Feet upon the Rock and orders his goings Psal 40. 2. To delivering Mercy adds guiding Mercy as to Jerusalem 2 Chron. 32. 22. when an Out gate from Misery is an Inlet to Grace and so to Heaven And the same good Hand that drew me out of the Water leads me to the Rock that 's higher than I that is a full complete Deliverance And therefore as some of our Cartwright Hist Evang. Divines observe it 's usual with the Prophets when they made largest Promises of greatest Prosperity to Israel to ground them upon or to close them with something of Christ as in whom both such Promises and Mercies had their full accomplishment All our Good being so far indeed good as it leads us on to Christ and his better Salvation Which in the Application of it shews us First a broad Vse 1 difference between a Right-born and a Bastard Israelite The Sons of the Concubines were put off and satisfied with Gifts but Isaac the Son of the Promise must have the Inheritance The Carnal Jews sit down by it in Babylon but those that were more 1 Chron. 4. 23. Spiritual returned to Zion as the Raven takes up with the Carrion but the sole of the Doves foot cannot rest but upon the Ark. It 's on the one hand a plain evidence of a carnal worldly Heart to rest satisfied with Prosperity and Safety without Christ and his Salvation A sign of an Harlot to be contented with the Love-token without true desire of the Lover As of the Mungril-Cur in the Fable to leave the Game and to take up with the Gobbet cast before him Unchaste Soul that commitest folly with the Gift
either seeing to him to live was Christ and to die was gain Christ as other Interpreters and Translators Calvin Beza C. a Lapide render it being to him both in Life and Death advantage This latter reading Calvin preserreth as containing a less forced Sense and a more full Doctrine and best agreeing with the words foregoing in the precedent Verse in which the Apostle expressed himself confident that Christ should be magnified in him Indifferens sibi asse in aequo affirmat vivat ne an moriatur quoniam Christum habens utrumque lucro apponit Calvin and that he was indifferent whether by Life or Death because as he addeth in this Verse both in Life and Death Christ would be gain to him Which not only Beza and Bullinger and Hemmingius follow but also some of the Popish Expositors taking leave to forsake their own vulgar Interpreter For my part with Zanchy and Piscator and the joynt concurrence of Antiquity I take leave in this to follow the old Interpreter and our last Translation which I do not find clog'd with the fore-objected Inconveniencies The Doctrine contained in the words thus read being full as we shall afterwards see in the handling of them the Sense nothing forced as was Objected but easie and obvious and exactly agreeable to the words as they are placed in the Greek without the harsher Transposition of them and Addition of some not expressed in the Original Text which the other reading is incumbred with And lastly for the Coherence much more agreeable to the See Zanchy Piscator in locum words foregoing to which they relate as appears by the causal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for And they are not those ver 19. For I know that this shall turn to my Salvation But those immediately preceding ver 20. Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by C. a Lapide Life or by Death For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain In which words he giveth an account how Christ would be glorified both in his Life and Death as Aquinas observeth the Ostendit quomode Glorificaetur Christus per vitam vel mortem Aquin. in loc Et vita nostra mors pertinet ad magnificentiam Christi Hieron in locum two parts of the Text answering the two Expressions in the end of the two foregoing Verses To me to live is Christ that is if I live the aim and business of my whole Life shall be to promote his Honour and Service and so he shall be glorified by my life this expresly The other Piscator thinks more impliedly I conceive expresly enough Thus If I die a Martyr in his Cause he will be as much if not more magnified by my Death and so far he will be a Gainer and my self also to boot for then I shall be with Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more better even best of all And so in the words of the Text spoken by Paul both as an Apostle and as a Believer we have these two Observables 1. A good days Work 2. A good evenings Wages and nights Rest The Work and Business of a true Christian's Life and the Happiness of his Death the one is Christ the other is Gain For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain The first then is this That Christ is a true Christian's Life Doct. 1 or rather in the words of the Text To a true Believer to Live is Christ For so Zanchy observes that the Apostle doth not say Christ is his Life as the efficient cause of it but Ipsum vivere his very Life was Christ as the Final cause of it the whole that he did and aimed at in it So that Christ is not the Subject of the Proposition as Calvin and Beza would have it but the Predicate so that whatever he either projected or acted Christ might be predicated of it it had the Signature of Christ something of Christ as the Principle or Effect End or Object of it was stamped and found upon it But herein I list not to be over-curious Take it if you please according to the former Expression as more plain Christ is a Christian's Life But that you may know in what Sense it 's here meant Christ may be said to be a Christian's Life two ways 1. On Christ's part as he is the Efficiens Procreans and Conservans the Author and Preserver of a Christian's Life even Natural John 1. 3 4. but especially Spiritual and Eternal who Acts 17. 28. is both the Way the Truth and the Life John 14. 6. But this is not here intended though in the prosecution of this Point we shall have occasion to make use of it 2. But secondly On the Christian's part Christ is his Life in that he desireth and endeavoureth to make him so that although he live in the Flesh as he speaks in the following Verse yet he liveth not to the Flesh but to Christ His Natural Life he looks at as a Mercy as in which he hath opportunities and advantages to honour and serve God and to do Good to himself and others Otherwise to live only to live though it be with ease content and pleasure it 's not worth the while as that which Beasts as much it may be more than we attain to but if as oftentimes it falls out with many which we see as we are wont to say labouring for Life in Penury and Infamy with bodily Pains and Sickness and inward Horror and Anguish Death hath by many been desired rather than such a Life It is Vita minime vitalis But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Life that vital Jer. 8. 3. Job 3. 11 20 21 22. 6. 11. 7. 15. 1 Kings 19. 4. Jonah 4. 3. Life which a Christian as such desires to live without which a Man though otherwise never so lively is dead whilst he liveth is Christ only But how and in what respects doth a Christian thus make Christ his Life 1. First as the vital Principle from which he acteth For that life is in every living Creature and so Christ is to every living Christian Paul liveth but not so much he as Christ in him because he in and from Christ as Dionysius Areop makes it the top of the Souls perfection in Praying Working Suffering Potius passive quam active se habere The life which I now live I live Lapid in Lam. 4. 20. Rom 1. 17. We live most in our Principles as a Tree in its root by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. It 's a Life of Faith and Faith fetcheth all from Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can do all things Phil. 4. 13. Great words you will say and may be ready to think spoken by some Thrasonical Bragadocio What! All things Can he both do and suffer all Things For that is his meaning And that with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with full Strength
Ans much good to us or the rich gifts of Gods distinguishing bounty Non fecit taliter omni Nationi Psal 147. 20. It was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief of that much every way advantage which the Jew had that to them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1 2. a prime sign of Gods love and therefore set first Deut. 33. 3. he loved his people and then it follows they sat as Scholars at his feet to receive of his word and his law was their inheritance v. 4. and therefore they are heavily distempered Souls which call this Heavenly Manna Numb 21. 5. 1. Cor. 1. 21 23. light food right out mad that judicially account and call it the foolishness of preaching Were these Ordinances of so little worth ungodly men should not pay so dear for their neglect and abuse of them as the Asian and other Eastern Churches in their present desolation and Capernaum of whom Christ upon this account said that it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them Matth. 11. 24. Now it doth not consist with the Justice at least with the sweetness of God to take great forfeitures or to inflict great punishments for small offences And were Preaching such Foolishness why then are they who so much declaim against it such fools as so frequently after their fashion to practise it By that it seemeth they have so much wit as to understand the usefulness of it at least to uphold and increase their party as the Seekers for that purpose will have their Ecclesiam Hoornbech in summâ Controv. lib. 6. p. 429 430. c. in Apologiâ pro Ecclesiâ Christianâ c. Conniventiae as they call it It 's not preaching therefore but the preachers that they are so much against whom they would have to be none but themselves who in this further most foully mistake that they take their Cursing and railing to be the only Gospel-Preaching than which nothing is more contrary to the spirit of the Gospel-Ordinances therefore are not to be sleighted even our Enemies being Judges But on the contrary to be desired loved attended upon delighted in improved and profited by It will be a very guilty taking of Gods Name in vain if when there is so much in them we gain nothing by them carry away empty vessels from these full wells of salvation as I might shew at large But that which suits most with my present purpose and which Use I shall make the Application of this part of my Discourse is that they should be highly valued and honoured First Both in our esteem of them And secondly In our expectation of much blessing and benefit from them in our due use of them The first is our very high esteem and valuation of them next under Christ and his Grace which these are means to interest us in to be set in the highest rank of blessings 1. For the enjoying of which we should part with the choicest outward Conveniencies the hunger-starved man will give gold for bread as the Priests and Levites and others who set their 2 Chron. 11. 14 16. hearts to seek God left all they had to come to the Temple at Jerusalem like him that selleth all to buy the field in which was the treasure Matth. 13. 44. 2. The enjoyment of which should counter-vail the greatest wants and losses as the keeping of my treasure may bear out the casting-over-board my timber in a tempest as bread of adversity and water of affliction was good fare as long as their eyes saw their teachers Isa 30. 20. brown bread and the Gospel good chear 3. The loss of which should be the greatest and most punishing loss as starving hunger the greatest torment This of the Soul more than that of the body It was not only an Idolatrous Micah that cried he was undone when he had lost his Priest and his Teraphim Judg. 18. 24. but an holy David that when in a barren wilderness cried out of a dry and thirsty land especially in regard of his spiritual thirst because he could not there see the power and glory of God as he had seen him in the sanctuary Psal 63. 1 2. and there envieth the sparrow and the swallow for having a nearer approach than he could have to Gods Altar Psal 84. 3. In other respects it was very sad with Israel but amongst and above all the taking of the Ark brake Elies neck and his good daughter in laws heart 1 Sam. 4. 17 18 c. 4. The want of which should imbitter our sweetest other contentments as David though he had a Palace yet whilst he had no Temple to go to he had no heart to come into his house nor go up into his bed Psal 132. 3 4 5. Haud grata unquam futura mansio Mâ—is in locum in domo vel dormitatio in lecto his Palace could not content him nor his Couch ease him as they story it of R. Joseph when for his great advantage he was urged to go to a place where there was no Synagogue refused and excused himself returning that of the Psalmist The Law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands Psal 119. 72. of gold and silver 5. For so in the last place the enjoyment of them should like Oil swim aloft be accounted the highest and sweetest of all our other enjoyments as the Psalmist expresseth it For proffer and advantage more to be desired than gold than fine gold and much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it and so with the Apostle he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gives his vote for the value of it sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb Rom. 7. 16. Two words and either of them singly in the Proverbs are used to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 express the Honey-comb but both here put together by the Psalmist to express a double sweetness as of the live-honey flowing Ainsworth from the dropping Honey-comb which of all is the sweetest And so with the same Apostle he adds to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst he accounts it his choicest pleasure and delight as well as his greatest profit and advantage even the very end why he desired to live that he might vacare Deo to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple Psal 27. 4. and therefore Muis in locum it was that he accounted a day in his Courts better than a thousand Psal 84. 10. Etiam eâ lege ut postridie moriar as Muis very well noteth upon the place to be the Psalmists meaning that but one days enjoying Communion with God in his Ordinances though it were but one day and he should die the next was more to him than a whole life without such a blessing So highly should and do