frustrated Yet such was his zeal for God and love to the truth so transcending his own private concernments and the respects of men that preaching on that Text Thou knowest all things c. he vindicated the Deity of Christ from those vile aspersions and abhorred calumniations that were cast upon it and by the dint of argument battered down the blasphemous suggestions of contradicting Gain-sayers to the exasperation of those that were tainted and not as yet convinced of the errour embraced The day that he preached Captain Whitworth invited him to dinner some contests arose by reason of his preceding smart discourse insomuch that one in a fury and discontent rose up from the table and reproachfully reviled him with the unbeseâ—ming expression of foolish and ignorant Mr. Murcot in obedience to Scripture command doth not render reviling for revileing but seriously and sadly said I am so but as for you the Lord give you an humble frame which meek and mild answer so far convinced and silenced his Adversary that he quietly sate down at the Table again These harsh Ocurrences and uncomfortable incounters put a period to all Overtures concerning his removal to Chester so that now he saith I will be gone to Ireland I cannot live without the Ordinances at West-kerby nor like a Salamander in the fire at Chester His debate concerning a tranfretation to Ireland is now ripened in to a resolution Wherefore taking his leave of his people he imbarques himself in a small vessel though others of considerable Forâ—e and Burden presented the rather because she was bound directly for Dublin when others intended to make an halt at the I le of Man which was now to be assaulted and in order thereunto a Fleet and souldiers prepared Being near Holy-Head the wind though not contrary began to arise and grow impetuous and was but a degree below a down-right storm so that the master thought it most convenient to cast Anchor under the shelter of a rocky Iland till the force of the wind should be somewhat abated Mr. Murcot is desired by some godly Passengers to present their condition before that God in prayer who is the Hope of the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the Sea which he did with inlarged affections and desired success The wind is presently confined and made a Prisoner to Omnipotency and no wonder A more gâ—ateful Gale comes blowing into Gods bosom from the Region of a devout heart The groaning Gusts and swelling Surges are husht into silence and calmness when once the soft and sweet breathings of the Spirit approach the ears of the Holy one of Israel Jonah's prayer was a line to pluck him up out of the deep Mr. Murcots a bladder to keep him and many others from sinking into it The night coming on it was resolved to put to Sea hoping by the morning-light they would be near the Bar of Dublin and by this means be secure from those Piratical Rovers who were now abroad and much infested the Coast As they are thrusting into the Bay of Dublin a ship is espied near the head of Hoath and not without cause suspected to be an enemy for it presently made towards them and as they prepare to flie their Rudder is unhanged and they in danger of being made a Prey but diligence being used it is again fastened and before the Adversary approach so near as to make them feel the force of his sharpened claws he hath his Rudder also unhanged which being set to right again the Lord took away his heart that he ceased to pursue and gave over the chase and this he confessed being two daies after taken by a Man of War belonging to the Parliament Drawing near to the Bar of Dublin which as yet had not water enough to warrant a safe passage over it a small vessel which was there at Anchor weighs as fearing a surprisal and flies when none pursues Much of God will be seen by considering what this little bottom was and in what condition its trembling Passengers were A vessel of four guns set sail from Lever-pool water the same tyde with this Mr. Murcot was in but did not cast Anchor at Holy-Head as she did but chose rather to keep to Sea by which means they fell into the hands of an hungry Pirate who lay in wait to destroy Their four guns are not of force sufficient to beat off the assaulting enemy In the contest some powder is fired several Passengers are blown up into the air and fall into the Sea both Elements as it were conspiring their ruine the one by scorching and the other by suffocation Others are miserably wounded rent torn mangled who being taken out are put into this small vessel which the Man of War had by him How free is that grace that saves some whilest others are destroyed and keeps their feet from running into that snare in which others are intangled to their undoing The Lord hath more work for Mr. Murcet to do and therefore he shall not dye but live and declare the Name of the Lord. Arriving at Dublin he is hospitably and kindly entertained by Sir Robert King in his own house who conduced much towards his coming over A while after observing with a strict eye the Church at Dublin and approving its soundness in doctrine and severity in discipline he assayed to joyn himself unto them and was readily embraced they unanimously and chearfully giving unto him the right hand of fellowship And now like a slip placed in a rich soil he sprouted up apace which appeared by a visible increase of Gifts and Graces His leaves were not only broad and beautiful but his fruit was fair and full and of proportionable dimensions His Spikenard sent forth the smell thereof to the refreshing of many and his smell was as the smell of a Field that the Lord had blessed Preaching on a Fast-day before the Commissioners of Parliament he got cold and by a dangerous Feavour was brought to the brink of the Pit Being in a very great and ill-portending sweat his Physitians gave him over as thinking that his life and sweat would expire and cease together but the Lord had mercy on him and therein on many others especially his absent wife who was not yet come to him The means of his Recovery this His Nurse seeing him in such a deplorable condition resolved to try her skill and commit the success unto God wherefore mingling some Sack with his broth she gave it him to drink with which his wasted spirits are refreshed his sweat leaves him and with it his disease The Commissioners of Parliament having occasion to go into the West take him along with them as knowing that he would be of use to them and to the several places through which they were to pass and indeed so he was leaving a sweet savour behind him upon the spirits of many Being at Cork his continuance and fixing there was desired and
world between the Sheep of Christ and dogs and swine Is it nothing to have the body and blood of Jesus Christ openly prostituted to such as though indeed they have the name of Christians yet their lives to every one that knoweth them deny that they have any thing to do with Christ No purging out the old Leven and therefore no likelihood to be a new lump O that we were sensible what a guilt is contracted every where by this means Alas Let the people of God take the greatest pains with their hearts to draw near to such an ordinance as the Lords Supper and they shall have cause to pray with Nehemiah The Lord spare us according to the multitude of tender mercies And with Hezekiah The Lord be merciful to every one that hath prepared his heart to seek the Lord though he be not prepared according to the preparation of the Sanctuary but when without any care it shal be promiscuously given to Drunkards Swearers openly prophane wicked wretches to the bane of their souls to the provoking God to bring wasting judgements upon the place and people where such things are done Surely it is time to look about us O! that we who can do no more but mourn for these things had such a sense of the dishonour of the Lord Jesus and abuse of his love and grace upon our hearts as to mourn And O that such of us as have power in our hands to command a Reformation in this kind the Lord would perswade the heart that there is such a power Hezekiah and Jâ—siah not only commanded the true worship to be set up and turned the people from their Idols to the trne God but they commanded the purifying the Temple a type of the Church of Christ and purifying of the Priests and People that they should not pollute the Ordinances of God And this example of theirs is commended and surely it was done as they were types of Christ except they were types of Christ as they were Magistrates and if so it would follow we should have no Magistrates at all For Christ the substance being come the thing typified what should we do with the shadows any more 2. Then on the other hand they are to be blamed also who are stricter then the Lord Jesus would have them in their admissions to Christs fellowship and communion All visible Saints he would have admitted to communion and fellowship with his people in their several societies that is to say they seeking to joyn themselves to them Now here indeed there is a difference of apprehensions and I purpose not to enter into disquisition of such things at this time and in this place Mens charity may do something indeed to moderate them but it s not that which is to be the judge but the Scriptures what rules are there laid down according to which we ought to own persons as belonging to Christ his visible kingdom that is to say such as profess and contradict not their profession But surely it is blame-worthy if that upon niceties and trifles in comparison we shall dis-own such as truly fear the Lord so far as we can judge of them And truly Brethren I desire to speak it with a spirit of tenderness to them they are injurious in this respect who do deny Infants of Believers any room in the bosom of the Church for they are holy they are external Saints and separated to God and it is apparent that once they were members of the Church of Christ aâ—d by vertue of a Covenant of grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which he that denyeth any more to be comprehended in then a temporal blessing when God saith he will be their God I would pity them and pray for them that they might come to themselves again for then sure they would judge otherwise Now if they were such once members of that Church with which we are one now for so saith the Apostle plainly the Gentiles are made one with the Commonwealth of Israel we are graffed in among the branches how cometh it to pass they should be all cast off and cut off from the Olive and not a syllable of it mentioning any such thing in Scriptures no account given to the world of it and that it should be in such a time when the fulness of grace was revealed in Jesus Christ for grace came by him and now there should be less grace come by him and narrower priviledges to the Church will hardly be understood I think The third Doctrinal from the words will be this In the visible Church there are some good some bad Ordinarily they were not all wise virgins that the kingdom of heaven is compared to but five wise five foolish All within the visible Church are not wise to salvation Five of them were wise five were foolish The proportion of the wise to the foolish five to five in the Parable is not concluding that there are as many good as bad in the Church there may possibly be a visible Church where there are none bad but I doubt there is none such found there were but twelve Disciples and one was a Devil and all the parables whereour Saviour holdeth out the nature and state of the visible Church to us is we find there is a mixture So in the Parable of the Sower there are four sorts of ground to which the kingdom of heaven is compared and but one of them brought forth fruit to perfection the stony Ground it was quickly scorched from the sandy ground springs up quickly and withers as soon the thorny ground holds out longer and endures happily the scorching of the Sun the Persecution and yet is choakt when all is done And so the Parable of the tares sown in the field they grow up with the Corn and it seemeth by the ancient report even Jerom are so like it while in the blade that they can be hardly discerned from it but there they grow and partake of the juice of the earth and fatness of the soyl and are green and flourish and yet at last are singled out for fire And so the Barn-floor there is wheat and there is Chaff lying together until he whose fan is in his hand shall throughly purge it and then the separation being made Woe to the Chaff but at present c. And so the draw-net though it gather together somewhat naught which is to be cast away yet while under water it is hidden And so the Apostle All are not Israel that are of Israel Some are Israel that are of Israel but all are not Some are of Israel though they be not the Israel of God that shall inherit the heavenly Canaan I hope it is needless to waste more time in heaping up of Scriptures to make it good The ground may be because the Church here below the visible Church which admitteth of members hath not an infallible spirit to discern the
not that sinners are blind-folded do you think they would be led by Satan into so many horrid things O if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory Father forgive them they know not what they do Alas the Panther hideth his head when he allureth the beasts the sweetness of his smell or beauty of his skin only the Drag is said to flie from him Isid li. 12. 2. See Mead upon Revel p. 2. p. 52. Alas they see not the head which is ready to affright them and devour them and not only is it the ground of this bondage but of all the rest how cometh it to pass that poor souls are plunged into such desperate gulfs of despairing and such breaking bondage in that kind but because they are held in ignorance they do not come to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent he keepeth them in ignorance of the promises the sweet and precious promises of Jesus Christ O dear friends it is impossible were it not for our ignorance of that love of God in Jesus Christ and that riches exceeding riches of grace that is in him and his thoughts that are above our thoughts that there should be so many cloudings such fearful plunges as many poor souls are put unto yea many times even after they are once delivered from them why now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul as the Sun of righteousness he dispels this ignorance discovers sin in its own colours and indeed worse it cannot be set forth in therefore the Apostle saith that sin might appear to be sin and then he opens the treasuries of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace to let a poor sinner see there is enough for him there though his sins be great yet mercy is transcendantly greater if he have mountains to be covered the Lord hath a sea to swallow them up if multitudes of sin there is multitude of mercies there is love which will cover a multitude and so by discovering himself thus and our selves to our selves he by degrees setteth the creature at Liberty from those fearfull apprehensions of God and from that delight in sin which formerly he had taken so that now no longer will he serve it But a little more plainly take a Scripture or two for it in that of Isaiah To proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound the opening of the prison some read it so and so do our Translators though it is acknowledged by the learned among us that the latter is no where else used in this sense for the prison nor for the prey as some others use it and therefore some do take the word to be but one and render it omâ—imâ—do apertionem so that the doubling of the Letters here are Emphatical and by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though then Manaph here remaineth as a difficulty for words so doubled use not to be so joyned together so that some would have it here nothing else but a very large opening of their eyes and say that it is used most properly if not constantly of the opening of the eyes and surely this is the way of Gods delivering his Captives and agreeable to the text here the Sun arising in the morning opens the eyes setteth the senses at liberty from that prison of darkness they were in in the night and elsewhere it is manifest in that of Luke 4. 18. To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and again the Psalmist The Lord looseth the Prisoners he openeth the eyes of the blinde therefore Paul was sent to open the eyes of the blinde and turn them from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light for we must know that this bondage is of the soul the faculties thereof and chiefly the will Now the Lord when he cometh to deliver us dealeth with us as with men and therefore first opens the eyes of the mind and draweth us with the cords of a man with arguments over-powring our reason and then with the cords of love sweetly thereby inclining our hearts and bowing our wills and then the poor creature comeeth forth out of this bondage before we see we are in prison or see the loathsomness of it the darkness of it we are in love with it and will not go forth But Secondly This darkness comprehendeth another and that is Error or rather this ariseth from the other and therefore we shall speak to it apart Ye err not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God he saith not ye err not knowing immediate Revelations but not knowing the Scripture for there the light is in the Lanthorn if we will behold it now this error of what kind it will be it is a snare of the Devil and therefore it is a bondage The Apostle there speaks of Heretical Doctrine held by such as do perversly oppose themselves against the Ministers of Jesus Christ who hold out the truth as it is in Jesus He sheweth how Timothy is to carry himself to them in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth Repentance is a turning from sin to God and to the contrary Grace or Vertue and that is the acknowledgement of the truth therefore their sin was some corruption of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will out of the snare of the devil a sad snare it is if the devil can but get so far within a man as to dazle his eyes to blinde them he may lead them whither he will if he can but corrupt their judgement especially in fundamentals or practicals then they are his own they are fast enough he carryeth them captive takes them alive even at his pleasure Now our liberty from this part of bondage also is by the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon us the Spirit maketh us free as he is a spirit leading his people into the truth not only the notion but the practise of it also we have an anointing whereby we know all things saith the Apostle speaking of Antichrist it is needleâ—s for me to speak to you of him you have an anointing will teach you to avoid thâ—se his errors O happy is that soul that hath such a Guide such a Leader to lead him forth out of prison even as the Angel went before Peter else between sleep and wake hope and fear he might haply have mist his way So the Lord Jesus cometh and giveth his Spirit and bids the soul go forth alas whether should they go they know not the way as Thomas said why saith he â—ollow me I will lead you as he in his word hath therein revealed himself and maketh it out by his Spirit to his
you see the spirits conveighed from the head to the lowest parts it is by mediation of the other parts between the head and the foot before it cometh thither it passeth through some others I know the Lord Jesus is not bound up to any instruments he can teach by his own Spirit yea and always doth sometimes without means sometimes breathing in the means and this is most ordinary and therefore something we must look to it that we supply every one of us you have heard it is the end of all Christian Society to build up one another and it is the end wherefore the Lord intrusteth us with such Talents to lay them out for the good of others whereby our own Talents grow in the using and we are instruments in the hand of God to improve others hath the Lord then revealed himself to thee thou wast in an horrible pit where there was no standing thou sunkest yet lower and lower hath the Lord set thy feet upon the Rock what then wilt thou keep this alway to thy self when called to speak of it mind you Christ and David they speak of it what God had done And many shall hear and fear and shall trust in God it encourageth them wherefore doth Paul so often speak what he had been and he had obtained mercy O that others that should come after might believe and never be discouraged by their sins though never so great And so the Psalmist Again my soul shall make her boast in God the humble shall hear thereof and be glad this poor man cried to the Lord and he heard him No sooner did Andrew find the Messiah but he tels Simon O we have found the Messiah And so Philip saith to Nathaniel and the woman of Samaria she no sooner had the knowledge of Christ O she was full she was big until she was delivered O come and see the man that told me all that ever I did is not this the Christ I would saith the Apostle that your hearts might be knit together in love and comforted c. that to this end you should know what conflict I had for every one of you wherefore are we delivered out of temptation but to set up way-marks O take heed how you come there warn others that they come not neer such a temptation when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren and therefore comforted that we might comfort others and therefore indued with knowledge that we might feed many Now truly Brethren as the Apostle saith of the solemn meeting so I may say of the occasional meetings together it is not for the better many times but for the worse and how a sad a thing is this when Saints shall meet together to have so sweet an opportunity of stirring up one another to love to good works that either we shall spend the time in foolish talking and jesting and looseness and looseness of Spirit I tell you Brethren observe it you little know what hurt you do your own souls by this lightness nor what hurt you do to others do you never reflect in the evening what you have been doing what company you have been in what you have done what you have gotten methinks it should make our hearts ake to consider this day through the lightness and frothiness of my Spirit I have not only sinned my self but drawn others to it this is not to grow nor to help but hinder one another Or else we are discoursing of the world of this and that bargain or else raking into the infirmities of others and pleasing our selves with that specially of those that are not altogether of our minds whereby our spirits are imbittered not to stir up one another to bowels and compassions to them How many such opportunities doth the Lord put into our hands and we have no heart to them shall I beg of you and of the Lord this day that there might be a labouring either to do or receive some good O think every moment ill spent in the Fellowship of the people of God that is not thus improved and indeed if our hearts and mouths be not set a work thus they will be working upon somewhat which is worse to the grieving and wounding of our spirits and grieving Gods Spirit Thus much for this Exhortation also The last Vse then shall be a word of comfort to every poor believing soul that it may be from what hath been said may be discouraged If it be thus that such as upon whom the Lord Jesus is arisen they are in such a growing condition then what shall I think of my self alas I am weak am very feeble am at a stand c. For answer I shall say a few things First There are several states and statures in Christ there are babes in Christ and such as have need of milk and not strong meat as the Apostle saith ye have need of milk I could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal as to babes in Christ that is to say such in whom the flesh was very strong and prevailing So the Apostle John writeth to all the Saints under three states some were babes some young men in their strength and vigour some old men Fathers of grown experience in the waies of Christ Fathers in Israel and Mothers in Israel some are but just entred into the School of Christ some are of a middle form some of the highest some are but gotten within the door of the house of God and happy it is for them that are but once within for then they shall go further and further Others are gone further into the inner Chambers and are acquainted with the Lord Jesus in the most inward manner What then wilt thou conclude that because thou art not a man the first day or presently therefore thou art no child of grace No suppose thou art but a child and weak and every temptation over-turns thee draweth thee aside yet remember thou art a child though thou be not a strong deeply rooted Cedar yet thou art planted it may be lately though yet for the time we might be men spiritual perfect as the Apostle saith to bear the wisdom of God in a mysterie and yet are babes it is matter of humiliation but not of despair Secondly Another is this that the people of God though they are in a growing condition yet it is not so to be understood as that every moment they grow they have their declining fits trees and plants you know have their Winters and children have their sicknesses and fits when they are at a stand though afterward haply they shoot out so much the more for it and so many times the people of God do they are under a distemper for a while and decline and a man would think they were even withering and dying but it reviveth again many times grace in the hearts of the children of God through corruption are like the light of a candle
One day instanced in as a taste Good Evil. In morning Closet duty not altogether without his presence studied my Sermons not altogether without him blessed be his Name My heart but in a listless frame this day In evening Closet duty by way of preparation very sweet meltings and outgoings of my soul after the Lord blessed be the Lord. Yet some distractions 1. He was very observant not only of the Out-breaches of sin but of its internal stirrings and more spiritual actings The very thoughts of his heart if irregular he carefully recorded and bitterly bewaited Instance O my proud thoughts rising and bubbling up this day 2. He set a watch not only before the door of his lips but before the door of his heart also with which he took unwearied pains being indeed the Fort-Royal either of Christ or Satan Instance 1. This day I could not get my heart in tune though I took an hour or two hours pains with it 2. Endeavouring some hours with my heart and yet alas it remained very untoward I could do little or nothing 3. Through mercy I desire a clean heart 3. Time he accounted precious and improved it to spiritual purposes and the best advantage Instance This day up early or This day lay long sluggishly Read 4. Hebrew Chapters with notes profitably Read 60. pages in Dr. Preston Studied my Sermons 4. The sight of sin did exceedingly sadden Instance 1. In examination of my self March 9. 1652. Through mercy I have a sight and sense of my sins and am affected and pained under the burthen of my daily wants 2. In closet-duty much humbled for the sins of the day before and melted 3. Many wandrings to the burthen of my soul 5. The sinful adherences of the best duties he recorded with regret and sadness of spirit Instance 1. Not altogether without him in duty though but dry and some wandrings of heart in duty At Supper-Ordinance ah my wandrings In prayer poor and in preaching 2. In morning closet-duty I could do nothing my heart very untoward full of vain thoughts in the evening meditation which put me out of order 3. In afternoon prayer before Sermon but little affected and though my self had little enlargement this day yet I perceive it was profitable to others God would hide pride from mine eyes 4. Distracted and formal in singing 6. Powerful assistance in holy services he gratefully recorded Instance In Baptizing of my son Job my heart much drawn out in prayer 7. Yea the least income and assistance was not passed by in silence Instance Not altogether left in evening closet-duty 8. The ebbings and flowings of the Spirit he distinctly considered Instance In the morning closet-duty not so much of his presence as in the evening closet-duty though indeed much melted after some pains taken with my heart 9. Diabolical injections he detested with highest indignation against which he was a reverberating wall of brass Instance This day pestred with blasphemous and horrid thoughts to my loathing to my wounding O horrid O abominable 10. To the distressed he gave friendly visits Instance Spent this day in visiting a condemned man and divers widows in sickness and sorrow 11. He made God the ultimate end of all his actings Instance Though much mixtures of self yet I desire to make God the great end of all my duties preachings prayers 12. He was wholly at the dispose of God contented to follow the conduct of Providence even through thorny waies Instance I hope I am made willing to come to him through any condition any tribulation taking up the Cross 13. When any spiritual distemper was upon him he would presently inquire into its causes Instance What may be the cause of my streightness and deadness now 1. Haply not being so thankful for enlargements when I had them 2. Haply because I cannot bear such enlargements I have not humility enough 3. Haply because I satisfie my self with them and not follow that which I preach 4. Haply a spirit of envy against others 5. Haply I more affect to have the hearts of the people ther the heart of God 6. Because I want love to poor souls and may mind more the setting forth my self then edification 7. Haply because I mind more enlargements and gifts then grace 8. Haply because I do not take the fittest time when my heart is in the best frame for study 9. Haply because more troubled at the want of enlargement then at all the sins which have caused it 10. Haply for want of searching Scriptures diligently constantly 14. Success of labours O how sweet and solacing Instance The 14. day His presence with me in preaching and prayer very much blessed be his name Several touched by that Sermon as the Nurse and my maid and Mrs. Taylor and my sister Hastings her maid who came to me afterwards A sweet pledge of his presence and since I hear divers others were stirred through much mercy at that Sermon 15. He was much inlarged in a way of thankfulness for mercies received Instance 1. In my journey from Cork to Dublin neer the passage to the Long Iland not looking to my horse he was ready to step down a deep precipice near the Sea Watchless over my thoughts that day 2. Afterwards at Clemell I had like to have run up into an infected house but the Lord prevented me I had much sweetness in Communion with God before 3. Delivered from fire in my study which lay smothering under the harth three daies undiscovered 4. The maid Elisabeth set fire on the bed with the child in it which if the Lord had not prevented all had been consumed 5. My wife and children wonderfully preserved two Bricks falling down the chimney they sitting by the fires side 16. The Lord God he made the object of his ardent desire and delight Instance Before the Supper upon examination I could find none in heaven or earth I did desire in comparison of God 17. He sought not happiness in himself or any other creature Instance Through mercy I renounce my own merit and all things in the world as an happiness and therefore resolve to seek the chief Good in Gods favour in Jesus Christ 18. Christ was high in his esteem and the dearly beloved of his soul Instance Through mercy I desire to prize the Lord Jesus above all that he may be precious to me 1 Pet. 2. 6. 19. In preparation for Fast-daies he would unbosom and unbowel himself before the Lord He did not only skim off the uppermost froth of his heart but would search every nook and crany and fetch up mud from the very bottom Instance 1. O how proud and apt to be lifted up upon all occasions 2. How envious against others 3. Of late I have been very dead and formal in all services publike and private 4. Very backward to any service of God not constrained by love 5. Very trifling away my precious time 6. Very sluggish not up early about things
as the soul is ready to say O O sure he will not look upon me such a one as I yea I will I will saith he yea notwithstanding all your mis-doings I will your unkindnesses I will your jealousies of me I will your back-sliding I will betroth thee to me 3. It is done with that wisdom and Council that it will never be overthrown Counsel is so called from a word signifying to Found because it is the foundation of actions that which is done rashly and unadvisedly many times men are fain to come off with a non putaram to retreat with shame or when through weakness they cannot see through things Now this is not to be thought of Jesus Christ Brethren for he is the wonderful Counseller the wise God a God of understanding and wisdom and by him actions are weighed yea his own actions are weighed his choice of some persons to life and glory it is the counsel of his will not onely his will but the counsel of his will he doth it with such wisdom as foreseeth all the events It was not a rash thing that God brought Israel into the Land of Canaan no he did it with Counsel and therefore he saith that he knew what they would do before hand Ah! may a poor soul think the Lord Jesus indeed hath made love to me but did he think I would be such a wretch under all this his love I would carry so unkindly towards him yea he knew this and considered it before hand He did sit down brethren from eternity consider what it would cost him the bringing of such sinners as thou art to glory that many a grief he must have many a slighting of his love many a kick in his very bowels Jerusalem would wax fat and kick against him he knew this and yet notwithstanding he resolved upon it he would go through with his work if he could not have born these things brethren and covered them he would not have made love to us if he could not have taken us with all our weakness and imperfections for he would undertake nothing that he could not bring to pass that were weakness therefore he is said to do it in judgement also 4. It is with that faithfulness that the Lord Jesus will not onely not c 〈…〉 st off when once he hath taken a soul so near him in this relation but his heart being once pitched it is never removed more it is not with him as it is with men for however when once we have betrothed persons we are ingaged by the Law of God to take them and our Consciences do bind us though it may be between the espousal and marriage though there be not a casting off yet there may something intervene that may carry away the heart so that the heart is not so towards her as before and the person could be content to be loose if it were not that he is intangled i such â—ands he cannot break but now it is otherwise with the Lord Jesus his heart if once pitched is never removed more if he loveth he loveth to the end It is for ever that he betrotheth when he betrotheth Alas there is little comfort or sweetness in injoyment of such near relations if their hearts be not towards one another It is true they may live together and do duties one toward another outwardly but if the heart be gone there is little comfort in it so it cannot be with Jesus Christ He may indeed sometimes suspend the outward acts if I may call it so and withhold himself sometimes and not give that free communion of himself to the soul but yet his heart all that while is never the further off his heart is never gone which is indeed all in all One of the Churches eyes at any time will ravish his heart that he cannot well hold longer from revealing himself again to the soul after he hath withdrawn 5. For after-sinnings there is also a treasury of pardoning mercy laid up there is a treasury of Merit which he hath expended to purchase mercy for us which is alway before the father not only for the sins past before we believed but for all after since the pardon is purchased already though it be not applyed nor the sins pardoned before they be committed yet there is forgiveness with God there it is and ready to be issued forth as occasion serveth And he himself at the right hand of the father continually i 〈…〉 eceding for the Application of it Whereby he is able to save us to the uttermost Brethren if we could say thus far or thus far he can help and save and there is forgiveness indeed our hearts might fail us but it is to the uttermost to all perfections or all end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet let not graceless sinners abuse this but rather fear him so much the more there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared not that we may wax wanton under it Againe on the other hand He maketh the soul also to close with him and give it self up considerately and in truth sincerely First Considerately and not rashly the soul giveth it self to Jesus Christ promiseth to be his the love of J. Christ Constraineth us because we thus judge if one dyed then were all dead It is the act of the judgement convinced that Jesus Christ is the chief of ten thousand that he is onely lovely altogether lovely of our necessity of him of his all-sufficiency to answer our wants and onely sufficiency his willingness to accept of us No depth of earth no judgement no rooting in it self Mat. 13. There is many a poor creature for a flash a sudden motion hath some velleities some wishings and wouldings but this is a serious and judicious closing with him promising to be his to take him for better for worse to go through with him in all conditions if he go to prison to go with him to death to go with him And he only can work up the heart to this Then secondly It is in sincerity as well as thus judiciously he loveth truth in the inward parts and therefore looks at the heart more then at the outward Alas how often did Israel turn to the Lord but fainedly not sincerely But now the Lord his people indeed give up themselves to him cordially though it be but weak yet it is in truth their resignation of themselves to him and taking him for theirs not for by-ends or reports but for himself not for riches honours a name any thing but for himself no not onely for peace but for himself who is the Prince of peace no nor meerly for the grace and glory which cometh by him but for himself To love a man and choose him meerly for his wealth or his honor which a woman shall have by him it is false and dissembling she loveth him not indeed no it is the person that she
not think of him until he first think ofâ—hee nor work towards him until his heart hath been working towards thee and is not that demonstrate that he is willing to receive thee to make a match with thee though we be worms and no men have cause to cry out if we were never so holy Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him as to visit him with such salvation make him so near thy self in thy son Yea surely he is willing he would not have moved towards thee else he doth not use to mock poor Creatures to make them believe his heart is towards them and when their heart echo again and say thy face Lord will we seek then to shut up his bowels and shut out their desires Brethren take heed of too much being alive to the Law for that seemeth to be the savour of our spirit while unworthiness is the obstruction to our coming to Jesus Christ we must be dead brethren to the Law and the righteousness thereof all our performances and best duties else we cannot live to Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus never matched with a Creature because it was worthy of him of so near an union with him for alas what creature being but a creature can be wotthy of such an union with the Lord of life and glory No no he â—akes an Ethiopian and washeth her clean from her filthiness before he hath done with her nothing but that fullers sope will fetch out the spots Yea I will say one thing more that the Lord Jesus never Matched with any that thought themselves worthy of him there is an encouragement to such poor drooping soâ—lâ— did Paul think himself worthy of Christ nothing less nor any of the Saints He that will not have Christ freely is never like to have him I will love them freely saith he No saith many a proud sinner thou shalt not love us freely we hope to approve our selves worthy of thy love I tell you brethren such a soul hath not known what the meaning of grace is to this day Well then remember be you as unworthy as you can in your own apprehension all the mercies of God purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ they are freely offered and tendered to you this day to thee man to thee woman that art viler then the earth in thine own eyes yea to hard hearted sinners that see not themselves they are tendered to melt them down and if this will not do it nothing will do it O that I could speak of these bowels with such bowels as some of your hearts might be stirred and moved this day but so much for this second 3. Motive the Lord Jesus is not only willing thus to communicate himself to poor sinners but it is his delight so to do It is the satisfaction of the soul of Jesus Christ when he beholdeth the precious mercies purchased by his blood accepted of by poor sinners and to work mightily in them and to them He shall see his Seed and shall be satisfied the father is satisfied and the son is satisfied when they behold this this is all that they expect the father for his love such a love as the world cannot paralel a Sic without a Siout God so loved the world It is all he expecteth that those mercies which he hath purchased should be freely be bestowed upon and freely accepted of by poor sinners and it is the satisfaction of Jesus Christ also it is all he expecteth of us I say the continual streaming of that fountain opened for sin and for uncleaness they are as if he had said I have enough for all my pains my sweat my agony my eclipsing for the pangs of hell in my soul for my death and blood and burial all the contempts powred out upon me and the sorrow â—endured though there was never grief like mine yet this is enough saith he he shall be satisfied if he do but see poor sinners to receive him and so become his Seed close with him and so become his spouse for it is the same thing though clothed with a diverse Metaphor Brethren iâ— may be you would satisfie Christ another way you would do this and that for him Labour as abundantly as you can be as holy as you can perform your duties in as lively a manner as you can but when you have done all if you hang your peace and comfort upon this and not in your free acceptance of Christ and with Christ you seem yet to be marryed to the Law and not to Christ or at least you turn aside to your former Husband a Covenant of works this is a dissatisfactiou to Jesus Christ as if there were not riches of grace in him to swallow up all your unworthiness O Brethren that the Lord would perswade your hearts this day what a delight and satisfaction it is to him to see poor sinners come and lye at his foot and willing to receive him to match with him notwithstanding their unworthiness 4. Consider but how little a thing will do the deed and espouse thee to the Lord Jesus Alas you will say you find it a hard thing to believe as hard a thing as to keep the Law It is so in respect of our strength but many they mistake and think except they have such and such a strength of faith they have none at all nor do not close with him nor he with them If they could say with Thomas my Lord and my God or with the spouse my beloved is mine and I am his then there were some encouragement indeed Brethren if it be but as a grain of Mustardseed it will do the deed look upon me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved A look upon a woman to lust after her is Adultery in heart it is a heart union of two to one flesh for it is yet the heart the mind that seeth more then the eye the eye may look upon many things and discern nothing distinctly if the mind be upon another thing so here why should not a look after Jesus Christ to desire him when the soul hath a sight of him passing by in his Glory O that he were my Husband O that I were Marryed to him that he would accept of me O happy souls that enjoy seeking communion with him This Brethren at the first is enough to make a Match between us As the Lord Jesus is willing to have thee art thou willing poor trembling soul to have him have him thou shalt yea thou hast him already though this saith must grow up to a greater measure happily before thou cast discern it or have the comfort of it Only lest any should be mistaken I will here give a word or Direction or Caution First take heed of thinking thou art willing when thou art not for as there are many poor drooping souls who think they are not willing to have Christ when it is that their souls do ever break for
as our end we grasp no-thing but sin and emptiness wind and misery to eternity 2. Then for the means which you see what they are immediately Jesus Christ closed with mediate the ordinances wherein he is held out Alas herein they do fearfully miss it though they profess him As will appear in many particulars 1. They do not choose the right means for the attaining the end wherein a great part of their wisdom lies this is life eternal to know Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent this is the means and the way to it and indeed a part of it the suburbs of heaven Now alas brethren there are so many things which are so like to Jesus Christ and so many acts like to the embracing of him that they are deceived and so they miss of the main means and fall short of the end simile mater erroris A man misseth his way and takes another way lay near it and was like it and he runs and takes pains to come to the journeys end but alas it never will bring him thither he is out of the way Jesus Christ is the way as wel as the life now there are false Christs which men make to themselves there is much bad like to good and much error like to truth one man he thinketh a drunken Christ will serve his turn a covetuous man he thinketh Christ and his secret lusts will stand together though his profession and open sinning will not stand together he thinketh he may have Christ in his heart and sin regarded there though he cannot have holiness in his profession an appearance of it an open prophaness there as if sin would better agree with Christ then his profession Some think they have a Christ made up all of pardons no matter for holiness at all let them live as they list no matter for walking in him yet he is so merciful if they can but cry have mercy it will do the deed though they wallow in their uncleanness all their lives some they are on the other hand that make to themselves a holy Christ not minding his pardoning mercy O if they can but do this and that they walk uprightly with men they serve God none more constant at the ordinances then they private and publike and therefore surely Christ is theirs not remembring with Nehemiah the Lord spare me according to thy great mercy or multitude of mercy even when he had done so eminently for God Alas brethren what pitiful mistakes are these Many are ready to think if they have but now and then a little affections stirring at a Sermon O sure they have Christ if they have but a little velleity sometimes a wishing and woulding this must go for Christ how prone are we to substitute any thing in the room of Christ Now a man that would live and shall eat dirt or coles instead of bread you would think that man a fool or a man that would be rich professeth that is his end and he bags up indeed but what is it dung and dross stones and trash would you not count this man a fool this is the condition of every formal professor of Jesus Christ they do indeed fix upon something but it is trash it or if any thing better their duties their holiness it is trash it is dung instead of Christ this is the first Now for the secondary means the means of getting Christ which is the more immediate means and way to his enjoyment of God which is the happiness of the Creature herein indeed most ordinarily the folly doth appear and therefore I shall here consider several particulars 1. To use means to get any thing and not seasonably is folly to use them too late for a man that is deadly sick he will not be perswaded to take Physick untill he be past recovery such a man is a fool that so long will lean to his own understanding and so for meat a man that will fast so long until he cannot eat at all this is the very case in this place you see they did not ever neglect to get oyl in their lamps in their vessels they were very inquisitive sought it of the wise virgins and went to buy it of them that sold but alas it was too late Would you not count that man a fool that hath provisions to make for his family the week following at the Market and he goeth but it is when all is done and shops shut up and there is no more place to buy any thing So here and so the Manna if they went to seek Manna upon the Seveath day there was none to be had yea if daily they went not to seek it in the morning but staid until the Sun were hot there was none to be had it was gone there is a season for every thing the wise man saith and every thing is beautiful in its season he that gathereth in Summer is a wise man saith Solomon he that maketh hay while the Sun shineth It is a sad piece of folly that a man should have his grace and his Christ to get when he should use them when we come to dye and have five times as much need of Christ as in our life-time for the most part that then we should be to get Christ and have triâ—led away the day of grace in flourishes and shews in taking of Christ and had him not in our hearts 2. To have means for the getting of Christ and never make use of them there is folly indeed wherefore is there a prize in the hand of a fool and he hath no heart to it he is a fool that hath an opportunity to make himself for ever and hath no heart to it to improve it redeeming the time saith the Apostle that is to walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise what would many a poor Creature in hell give for such an opportunity of grace as we have Yea if the Gospel were preached to Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago saith our Saviour but you have the opportunity in your hands but you have no heart to it at all this is sad To see a man feed upon husks and dirt and so perish when he hath no bread to eat is a pitiful sight but this is necessity not folly but here is bread to eat that we might live and yet we neglect to gather it or to eat it content our selves with husks and trash is not tl is folly and this is the condition of every formal professâ—r 3. They rest in the means short of the end and that is grievous folly the means of grace whereby Christ is to be gotten and Christ in us revealed to grow and increase if we rest in these means whether we have Christ yea or no it is great folly what man is there that would so do But there is more in this for this preferring and prizing and lifting them up above Christ will be our condemnation setting
a Mariner near his port rowleth up his sails or as a piece of cloth rowled up one turn more and we are turned into the grave What then It remaineth that they that buy be as if they possessed not and they that have inheritances by Lot also be as if they enjoyed them not they that have wives as if they had none for the fashion of this world the Scheme the Mathematick figure of this world passeth away Was it not this which cast Solomon into such a sleep He offended by women though the wisest King So Mat. 24. 37. They eat they they drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some observe It is a word used most properly of beasts living sensually in the delights of the slesh they feed themselves without fear as the Apostle Jude hath it out of measure and so in time there is a season for all things c. make not provision for the slesh c. O that there were more sobriety brethren and moderation among us appearing among us there would not be so much sleeping 6. Take heed of any sin unrepented of of continuing in it for surely that will damp the soul and cast it into a sleepe as you see in the cafe of Jonas David the brethren of Joseph O specially of such sins as stupifie and seal and harden sins of a high hand and against light against mercy with a high hand these are dangerous 7. Be often stirring up your selves as the Apostle speaks to Timothy stir up the grace of God that is in thee the gift in thee as fire under the ashes A man that is drousie had need to shake himself as Sampson did Ah brethren there is a carnal mind in us all which is death it deadens all that is good within us And except we do often stir up our selves labour to keep upon our hearts some quickning Considerations to press them home to hold them to the soul we shall do what we can we shall sleep or at least slumber And beg with David O quicken me according to thy word Alas life is his and all quickning and renewing grace is his therefore we should lye much before him for this mercy if we would not sleep indeed So much for this Use The next Vse of the Doctrine shall be an awakening word It may be brethren many of us that have this word alas are asleep and had need to be shaken and O that the Lord would even do it for us Alas It is not our word will do it it dyeth in the Ear and goeth no further as a bullet whose force is spent dyeth reacheth not the mark except the Lord add an Almighty force to it it will do nothing But I shall endeavour alittle this work by offering some considerations to you You that lye upon your beds 1. Remember in the first place that if Jesus Christ come while you are in this sleep you will be found unready what do you think that a sleeping will put your hearts into frame to meet the Lord Jesus with Surely no One of these two things will befal you either your works will be quite undone you will have your grace to get when you should enter into glory or never Or else if you have it not to get you will not have it in its brightness and lustre as Ornaments upon you ready to open to him to enter with him either your Lamps will be out or else they will be to trim when you should enter O that the Lord would inforce this Argument and his own exhortation Luke 12. 35. Stand ready therefore with your loyns girded and your Lamps burning wayting for his coming that you may be ready Do you think this can be comfortable to you 2. Do but consider seriously what danger we are in when we sleep when we give sleep to our eys and settle our selves to it when we strive not against it First The Philistims will be upon us as they were upon poor Sampson If Satan and our hearts can but sing us asleep then the Philistims are upon us as they were upon him and at last you see how sadly they destroyed him you see what danger Saul was in when he was asleep David might have taken his life from him And Sisera by a poor woman perished when asleep And so Ishboshâ—th when asleep Surely brethren the devil never lulls us asleep believe it but he hath some desperate design upon us which he cannot do when we are awake What danger were the Disciples in when they were sleeping when they should have prayed they were just entring upon the pikes and they were asleep and see what fearful work there was they were all scattered from him and Peter how fearfully he denyed him Could Satan think you ever have brought Lot to that wickedness if he had not been fast in a deep sleep It was strange sleepiness in him to drink so much of the wine Excess overthrew him Surely brethren if ever there were an hour of temptation this is one If it might be tolerable at any other time yet not at this for hell is broke loose the devil is come down and hath great wrath because his time is short O how he hunts after poor souls and who are so like to be drowned as poor creatures asleep Secondly Then God usually doth for sake a soul if he fall asleep As you see in the Canticles her beloved was gone he wayted upon her a great while she would not awake when she got up he was gone O what a sad case was Saul in When God had forsaken him answered him not by Vrim or Thummim and the Philistims were upon him it made him out of his wits almost Ah dear friends If the Lord being provoked by our unkindness giving our selves to sleep do let loose sin this or that lust upon us to worry us And himself depart and stand and see what the latter end will be this will be sad thou cryest to him he will not hear but is as one asleep to thee because thou wast as one asleep to him O what will you do in this day Thirdly Then he is least able to act grace when he hath most need of it because the spirit is withdrawn from him Jesus Christ is departed from him he cannot resist a sleeping he hath no strength A weak woman may drive a nayl through the Temples of a most valiant General then O what advantage hath Satan against us and sin against us The least temptation then 〈◊〉 too hard for us we have no strength to resist come what will come we are naked to receive the thrust And but that the Lord stays the hand of Satan that it shall not reach the heart how quickly would he give such sleeping souls their deadly wound 3 Consider yet further how we put the Lord Jesus to it to prick us and stir us up lest we should lye sleeping and sleep the sleep of death They say the Eagle will
people that they did wander from mountain to hill expecting help here and there but forgot God their resting place The Raven would not return to the Ark if she could get a place to rest any where upon the earth though the Dove had no rest any where else but in the Ark. Ah what woful natures have we brethren so contrary to the God of love and fulness of bowels and compassions surely we can see nothing in him wherefore we should be so averse but the pride and rebellion of our own desperately wicked hearts how should this exceedingly humble us 2. Not only nature but it should seem they were accustomed to it also and that increased the natural inclination to it at first their sparks were of their own kindling they would have fire out of their own flint and oyl from within well this failed you so they went to the wise Virgins and were habituated in it it was a rooted evil and well watered and therefore no marvel if at the very last they thus go to them that sell Can the Ethyopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots no more can ye that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well here is a first nature and a second nature nature upon nature and what is harder to carnality then nature while it remaineth unchanged naturam expellas c. You may keep a Woolftame and train him up like a Dog to follow you but he will retain his woolfish nature still and if he have occasion will manifest it where a Creature hath been used to betake it self for refuge thither will it go in time of need the Chicken to the wing the Conies to the rocks the Fox to her holes and the Child of God to the rock what time I am afraid I will trust in thee as before and poor Hypocrite to the Creature this or that somewhat in himself or somewhat in some other as you see for this he is accustomed to to go to his prayers to the opinion of flattering persons c. 3. Another reason may be this in Professors that have long rested in a formality and now at last come to see their nakedness God plucks off their plumes letteth them see they are naked and yet they go not to Christ it may be because he holds their eyes hideth this wisdom from their eyes alas if the Lord shew us not the path of life brethren we can never find it out our selves we shall grope at noon-day though we have never so much glorious light about us and Christ be held out never so plainly to us we shall grope and wander and never have a heart to come to him as it is said of the Israelites God did not give you to this day a heart to understand O saith the Psalmist Teach me thy way and I will walk in thy truth Now God and Christ in a just displeasure against us in such a case may hide himself from us aâ—d will not be found either we shall not have an heart to seek him at all or else not an upright heart to seek him and therefore though we seek him he will not be found As this should teach us all to be humbled before the Lord for wickedness and averseness of our hearts to Christ that we will not come to him so long as we can get a drop out of our dry Bottle we will not come to the Fountain but wander up and down and weary our selves to seek rest anywhere then in Jesus Christ Hast thou been a Prodigal and hast thou known this by experience hast thou shifted and shuffled and lickâ— thy self whole as often as thou couldst and born it out by head and shoulders the Convictions thou hast had sometimes when thy Lamp hath been dying O how should this teach thee now if the Lord have notwithstanding this shewed thee the path of life shewed thee the Fountain the Olive whence the oyl is to be had indeed this should teach us I say to loath our selves Ah wretch wretch that I am that should carry such a heart toward Jesus Christ 2. It may serve to advance and magnifie the justice and mercy of the Lord on Hypocrites justice and severity that since they have loved to wander from Creature to Creature and would never come to Jesus Christ Now at the last when they must come to close with him or never he should be hidden from their eyes Is not this a righteous a severe hand are they not paid in their own coin the Lord grant we fall not any of us under this stroke of Divine justice to be left and given up to a wandring heart because we love to wander O methinks this severe hand of God upon them lying upon them to the very last should affright poor Formalists that have nothing else but a few broad leaves to be their refuge when these wither what will you do what must shadow you from everlasting burnings you will say Jesus Christ but do your hearts say so indeed and why do you not now make sure to close with him for if you wander thus up and down from Creature to Creature who knoweth whether he may not make you examples of his displeasure and suffer you yea give you up to wander as those foolish Virgins that you shall never be able to look after him because he will never look after you again And then it serveth to magnifie the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ that notwithstanding this be the natures all of us and we practise accordingly and have made many a poor shift likely to quiet a guilty accusing galled Conscience sometimes with one sometimes with another shift sometimes with a duty a prayer or tears O if we could but weep for our sins all would be well this would make a calm and we are at peace sometimes the opinion of others or sometimes our own opinion of holiness and our selves to which we have done all that we have done it may be Well that after all this now the Lord Iesus after so long being slighted and such forms and duties and fig-leaves and any broken Cisterns empty Bottles and husky vanities preferred before him that yet he should manifest himself to such to any of us and give us that true oyl of Grace in the heart whereby the sinfulness and emptiness of all our former shifts have been discovered to us O what shall we render to the Lord for his love behold what manner of love is this that will overcome all our slighting of him that will not let us alone under our fading gourds until he bring us under his own shadow and never suffer us to wander up and down from him any more have our souls tasted of this his love O bless him magnifie him make your boast in God let the humble hear thereof and be glad live his praises what can you do too much for him who hath thus loved you but so much for
Take heed of returning to that Covenant of works or Covenant of life which was a yoak of our own making if our blessed Saviour hath been pleased to break it set us free shall we retâ—rn to that bondage again I doubt this is a great cause of much sorrow and heavy walking before the Lord of many a poor creature O he cannot do this and he cannot do that and therefore he doubts all is not well with him whether he have any thing to do with Christ It is true if he had made our doing our perfect obedience the condition of his Covenant it had been somewhat but he hath not but faith in him take from him for all ends and purposes not only for pardon but for strength for food for victory over our sin Now we go off this and therefore we move so heavily and cannot stir but are like a door off its hinges a Chariot off its wheels bring much bondage and trouble upon our selves and much of our time and pains is spent in poring upon this and getting healing again for this which might be spent in glorifying him Therefore beg of God to this end that he would establish you with his Princely Royal Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty the Son maketh us free by his Spirit and therefore David maketh that prayer as being sensible of this O beg this Spirit for establishment the Lord will be intreated he puts arguments into our mouths and giveth us the greatest encouragements to beg the Spirit of any other mercy that I know of as being the greatest mercy and the principal of all Gospel-grace and therefore being so great a gift poor sinners might be affraid to ask but saith he you are Fathers whose affections are finite and mixed you are not pure love yea you are evil and yet will give good gifts to your children much more will God give the Spirit this the Apostle is earnest with the Lord for that he would stablish and strengthen his people to every good Word and Work for grace is but a creature and so is weak cannot consist of it self without him therefore be earnest here Thirdly Since we are delivered from outward pressures the yoak that did gall the necks of the people of God as before hath the Lord set us above our enemies hath he before our eyes brought our Egyptians down in the red Sea of blood and shall we return thither again I speak not of the same bondage I hope the Lord will keep his people from that but I speak of a worse to be delivered from a tyrannie of man to return to a tyrannie and dominion of sin it is sad the heathens could say Servitus gravissima est sibi ipsi servire it is the heaviest yoak for a man to be yoaked with his own ends and interests to seek himself serve himself specially his sinful self to make provision for his lusts It was a sad character of Rome that Angustine giveth her Victrix gentium captiva vitiorum What are we the better for being delivered from that bondage if such as were humble then and low and meek and self-denying now are high and fierce and self-seeking proud and wanton and luxurious their whoreing hawking and hounding and spending their time in such sports which should have been laid out in publike service was lookt upon as a great evil God caused their houses and lands to spue them out I wish we be not beginning to come under that worse yoak now we are delivered from that of oppression was it not better for Israel to work in the Iron-furnace in the brick-kill then to be enslaved to their lusts in the wilderness and there to perish and was not Babylon better for them then to be at liberty and yet to become slaves to their lusts to their Idols Brethren I pray you let us look well about us every one it is true the day of the Lord it hath burned like an oven among us and many have been as stubble fully dryed put into it the bryers and brambles that did scratch and tear the people of God they are consumed God hath gone through them and consumed them and are we any thing the better are we not worse If we now melt away with the sweetness of our liberty grow luxurious and wanton wanton in opinions that men know not well what they would be but any thing so it be new and the thriving way and wanton in apparel are there not as many slaves to pride to vanity to self as there were then to the lusts of other men I beseech you which is the worse to be at the mercy of another mans lusts which can but reach the body and effect our sorrow for a time or the mercy of our own merciless lusts which will work our woe and ruine O therefore look to this then if set at liberty slie sin as he said to Lot flie for thy life c. slie fornication and youthful lusts c. said the Apostle The third part of the Exhortation then shall be to take heed how we abuse this our liberty as saith the Apostle not using our liberty as a cloak of malitiousness haply alluding to the manner of persons The Apostles scope in that place leadeth us to one part of the sense of this abusing of our liberty and that is to think they are so free now that they need not have their necks under the yoak of men at all for that goeth before exhorting them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher powers and subordinate powers is very consistent with this spiritual freedom was there ever any so free as our Saviour who is the Son that maketh us free and yet did not he submit submit to his parents was subject to them and subject to the powers under which he lived because his Kingdom was not of this world and would it suite with the head and will it not suite with the members But I hope I need not speak much to this But there is much more wherein we may abuse our liberty as children by a carrying it frowardly and rebelliously against their parents upon pretence of liberty and servants that are under the yoak it may be think they may do much in this case more then they have warrant to do because they are free it may be and their Masters haply in bondage under sin therefore shall they despise them No but count them worthy of all honour serving them in singleness of heart as unto Christ not for by-respects and ends for fear of their displeasure but for Christs sake to do it this is freedom indeed But to speak a little more generally many men think when once they have gotten their necks out of the yoak from under that bondage and those fears that they have been under they think now they are at liberty they are past
in the Gospel inculcate this upon the Disciples fear not him that can kill the body but fear him that killeth soul and body And so if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live these threatnings surely would not have been written to Believers except they were to make some use of them to be as an awe upon their spirits to keep them from sinning to be a quickning to their souls Now on the other hand it is true that there ought not to be in us such a fear as to distract us to drive us from to weaken our Spirits to disable us from duty to cloud and drown all our delight in his waies to blot out our apprehensions of his loveliness and compassion and bowels so as to beget hard thoughts in our hearts of God which will produce hatred of him such a fear ought not to be in us and though there may be a spice of it sometimes even in the best when they are not themselves yet this is not the prevailing principle in the soul but an holy fear of offending him which ariseth from a mixture of love towards him and holy reverence and awe of him and of his Majesty and Greatness and truly Brethren this is no enemy to spiritual liberty But I must not dwell so long upon things But secondly the main thing that I know most troubles a gracious heart is that he finds himself so much under the power of sin O I find not this freedom this liberty you speak of I am a wretch then under the power of my corruptions O the sad complaints to Christians to men continually from some poor disconsolate souls and to speak a little for their consolation if the Lord breath in it First Brethren you must know this that as sin hath had a time of settling and rooting there will be a time of unsettling it thou art of yesterday it may be and dost thou think to be so free the first day as they that have many years been wresting and fighting and praying and fasting and mourning and believing down their lusts This is a great mistake it is infinite mercy that thou hast thy hands let loose and thy feet out of the mire and clay and that thou art set upon a Rock that thou hast now a standing and liberty to fight thou must not expect a liberty from fighting and conflicting with sin while thou art in the flesh mind you the Apostles two or three verses of the same Epistle to the Romans he saith the Law of the Spirit of life the powerful working of the Spirit of life hath set him free from the Law of sin and death and yet a few verses before O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death thou groanest under the burthen whereby it appears thou art delivered in a great part thou art willing to be freed and when the will is disintangled the man is free in a great part Secondly Brethren know this for your comfort that your labour is not in vain striving against sin fighting with it you are sure to overcome though sin lie hard upon you you shall overcome it First the Lord he is able to break all the bonds if he will deliver Peter out of prison what shall hinder his chains shall fall from his hands the Iron-gates shall open of their own accord before him nothing shall be able to hold them It was somewhat hard for Israel to believe that they should be delivered out of Egypt and somewhat a strange Message of Moses at the first even as one should be sent to the great Turk to tell him the God of the Christians commands him to let them go but God tells him and them that he is that he is I am hath sent me the great God who is being it self and from himself he is what he is he is able to destroy the Egyptians dost thou believe this that he can subdue thine iniquities thy strong impetuous violent lusts Secondly then he will do it he heard Israel groaning under bondage and came down to deliver them he remembered his Covenant it was his faithfulness Brethren that brought him out the self-same day the Lord delivered them and the Lord will keep time to a day with thee that groanest under this bondage if thou werâ— but humbled if it had done its work upon thee for that and such like ends he would not suffer sin to prevail upon thee any longer for he letteth not lusts loose upon a soul to woorry it but to humble it make it out of love with sin to drive it to himself to make it for ever cleave closer to him now there is promise upon promise for this you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free he speaks this to his Disciples who did already know it in part know himself the truth the way and the life and the truth in opposition to shadows grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and it shall make you free how many promises are there as in the text therefore surely he will do it Now what an encouragement it is to fight when we are sure to overcome yea to endure hardship in this conflict But thirdly consider it is the very office of Jesus Christ the work which he received of his Father is to destroy the works of the Devil to destroy strong holds to lead captivity captive therefore he came into the world if it had not been for such poor creatures as are under bondage there had been no need of Christ he came to give himself a ransom for many and to preach deliverance to them and the opening of the prison to them that are bound you have heard already and therefore he was annointed of his Father and received the Spirit that he might set open the prison doors Now poor burthened souls if any such whose body ofsin and death presseth them down sore and they walk heavily goâ— to him spread your condition before him put him in mind wherefore he came into the world to set open the prison to loose the prisoners and thou hast an infirmity and haply been bound with it many years beseech him to exercise his Office towards thy poor soul the Lord loveth to hear his people earnest and importunate to plead it thus with him but if thou canst not yet be sure he will do the work which his Father hath given him to do and what is that but to set at liberty such prisoners as thou art that groan under the burthen and bondage of their lusts Fourthly Consider how pittiful a heart he bears to his people labouring under corruption when we are weak it may be sometimes the spirits of a poor creature are spent in labour in other services and he thinketh he should be as lively then as at another time but it is not likly so to be
to Faith in this First then The Lord Jesus hath promised that if any man come to him he will in no wise cast them out And shall men that are lyars yet count it their honour to make good their word and do you think Jesus Christ his honour is not as dear to him as the honour of men is to them is he not the Amen the faithful and true Witness all that he saith is Yea and Amen in him is it not his own nature to be true and faithful is he equal or equals with his Father as some critically note that is to say in all his perfections essential and is he not equal with him in truth saith the Apostle God who cannot lye hath promised would he not cease to be God to be the highest perfection and rule of all perfections if there were any obliquity in him is not Satan a lyar and the father of it and shall we father a lie then upon God what a Mediatour were Jesus Christ and how should the Promises of God in him be Yea and Amen if he could falsifie his own word to his people Well then surely if Jesus Christ hath promised it as you see he hath will he not be as good as his word did he eveâ— break with any poor soul though never so unworthy which is the great plea of poor creatures did he ever cast out any hath he not been as good as his word And is he not the same yesterday to day and for ever But thus much for the first it leads to the second Secondly If that Jesus Christ should cast out any poor creature he would plainly be argued to be changable for I shewed you before that none that came to him but they were in his heart before the world was and his delight was with the sons of men and is he now so changed as when they do come he will cast them out did he before the world as I may say please himself with the thoughts of it that he should be a Saviour to his people to save them from their sins and from wrath to come and when they come to him to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness he should refuse them would not this be more then a shadow of turning if his heart that once was so toward them should now be turned so against them as to disown them when they follow after him O surely this cannot be Thirdly If so It would be rather a slighting of his Fathers gift for he hath given them to Jesus Christ even before the world was in which respect They are said to be chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world all that the Father hath given to me shall come and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed and therefore now when a poor soul cometh with his mouth in the dust with a rope about his neck with a word of confession petition with sighs and groans with mournings over Christ and mournings after Christ and he shall now shut up his mercy from him cast him out turn his back upon him would not this be an high undervaluing of the gift of the Father and slighting of it you know that gifts are not given from one friend to another but as tokens of respect and love and so he gave a number of poor creatures to his Son for him to redeem and purchase to himself and if he should slight them now his Fathers love would be much undervalued Fourthly It would be failing in his trust for the Lord Jesus is the great undertaker for his poor people and help was laid upon this mighty one mighty to save to the utmost for this end I say he undertook the ransoming and redeeming of a people to himself and to his Father and his Father committed the charge of it to him He came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him as he saith in that place I delight to do thy Will the Will of his Father and what was that Will That is That none that come to Jesus Christ should miscarry This is the Fathers Will that hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day that is to say as Mediator as by the influence of an Head unto the Members so to raise them up is here meant Well Of all that he hath given me either in his purpose of Grace or actually in their Calling which is an evidence of the secret purpose of God I should lose none now none can come to Jesus Christ except he be given to Christ of the Father that is clear by comparing the words of the Text with the former Ye will not come to me or ye have seen me and yet believe not but though you believe not All that the Father hath given me shall come shall believe in me well As many as were ordained believed came to Jesus Christ as we have expounded this coming the last time Now I say if Jesus Christ should not take up every poor soul that cometh he would not discharge his trust do the Will of his Father which he hath undertaken and then what a Saviour should we make of him Fifthly Then the Lord Jesus should slight and undervalue his own blood he only knew what a value his Godhead put upon it and therefore accordingly he only can bear a proportionable esteem of his blood did he not shed his precious blood That whosoever believeth might not perish but have everlasting life or whosoever cometh to him might not perish for believing if it be not convertible with coming to Christ yet it is doubtless comprehended in it as a main part of it And what then when a poor sinner laden with iniquity whose burthen is too heavy for him to bear cometh to Christ groaning and panting for ease and refreshing rowls himself upon him hangs all his weight upon him lies at his feet in his weariness of spirit under it if he now cast out this poor creature would not this be an undervaluing of his blood and the price of our redemption would it not appear that he was lavish of his blood Brethren is the Lord Jesus so angry with sinners for trampling his blood under their feet and for neglecting so great salvation as he hath wrought out for them as you have not long since heard and will he think you be guilty of slighting his own most precious blood O surely no And would it not be a neglecting of the salvation to improve the price he hath laid down if he should exclude any poor sinner that cometh to him though he have not been what he might be surely if ever our blessed Saviour would have balked it it would have been when he was to lay down the price his life his blood for sinners when he was amazed at the apprehension of his Fathers
is that which binds the guilt of all other sins upon the soul besides its own proper guilt which is not the least as you have heard before I say it binds all upon the soul if Paul had not believed all the guilt of his persecution had yet lain upon his head O saith our Saviour if ye believe not ye shall dye in your sins not only in your unbelief but in all your sins so that this unbelief it is the very edge as I may say of all other guilt whatsoever and therefore how dangerous a sin it is judge ye you are terrified and affrighted with your grievous abominations rebellions filthiness of your waies you never think of it haply but your heart sinketh within you why know this this day that unbelief is that which keepeth all this upon the soul if that thou wouldst but aceept of deliverance in Jesus Christ take him close with him come to him he would not cast you out he would not turn you away without a pardon but the reason of your burthens upon you is because of unbelief Secondly It is dangerous because above other sins it brings a mans blood upon his own head that is a sad word me thinks that of the Apostle I take God to witness that I am pure from the blood of all men if you perish your blood will be upon your head that is to say you are guilty of your own death your own murther your own damnation and everlasting separation from God much more may our blessed Saviour say I am free from the blood of you all sinners I have dyed for you made an All-sufficient satisfaction to the Justice of my Father for all sins laid down a price enough to ransom you and yet you would none of me you cared not for it I have made this known to you else you had had some excuse some cloak but you have no cloak for your sins for your unbelief If I had not wooed you intreated you to be reconciled by my Messengers then it had been something to extâ—nuate at least but alas he hath done all this and more Brethren infinitely then I am able to speak for poor sinners and yet they will not close with him why then Jesus Christ is clear from your blood he hath done what he undertook to do of his Father spared not himself to the least drop of wrath and of his own blood and yet we will not come to him O this must needs bring poor sinners blood upon their own heads Thirdly This unbelief brings the blood of Jesus Christ upon our heads for if after all this that he hath done and said to perswade us to make us willing to close with him we stand it out are we not guilty of his blood as well as of our own If an unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper bring a man under this guilt will not an unbelieving heart in hearing of this Gospel bring a man under the same guilt for is it not the same Jesus that is held forth broken for sinners and the same blood shed for sinners that is held forth in the Lords Supper to the eye and in the Gospel Preached to the ear even so plain as if it were before their faces as the Apostle saith to the Galathians O me thinks this should make us afraid of resting any longer in this condition of unbelief and make us look about us the Jews as hard-hearted as they were could not endure their consciences prickt them I believe and did flie in their faces and therefore would not endure the Apostles to Preach Christ say they ye would bring upon us the blood of this man O me thinks this stirs the stoutest sinners among us I delight not to bring to you Brethren such sad things as these are nor to bring the blood of Jesus upon your heads but let us take heed we do it not our selves for we shall find that this will be the dregs of the cup of wrath if we will not be reclaimed that ever we have so much under-valued the Lord Jesus as to cast his love behind us by our unbelief The third Vse shall be then of Exhortation to every poor soul to come to Jesus Christ for you that are yet in your hardened condition never made sensible of your need of Christ I have the less hopes to prevail with you for this Doctrine is foolishness to such it is foolishness to speak much of the soveraignty of a medicine the readiness of a Physitian to heal to a man that feels not that he is wounded and such is the Doctrine of Christ and of faith to many a poor soul but there are some poor souls that haply are convinced of their lost condition by nature and see that all the water in the bottle is spent and yet cannot see the fountain near them opened haply for grief for weeping they are over-charged with sorrow and yet come not to Jesus Christ O that the Lord Jesus who hath received the tongue of the Learned for this end to speak a word in due season would speak by the mouth of his poor unworthy Messenger to such hearts What is the reason that thou wilt not come to Jesus Christ art thou resolved to sit languishing over an empty bottle and perish when there is refreshing to be had in Jesus Christ O no saith the poor soul I would not sit still and perish if there be healing and mercy to be had why dost thou not believe that he is able to save to the utmost where sin hath most abounded there Grace can superabound yea it is the glory of his Grace so to do If I thought there were any stuck at this I would spend a few words upon it but consider those Scriptures fore-mentioned but the main thing is whether Jesus Christ will accept of such a wretch as I have been saith one O you know not the vileness of my heart the horrid pollutions of my ways else you would have harder thoughts of me therefore thou art ready to conclude that he will not look at thee sure Let me here propound a few Considerations to thee First Consider how injurious it is to Grace to measure it by our thoughts limit not the holy one of Israel it is the Glory of God The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful and that whereby he infinitely transcendeth all other gods and men Who is like unto thee pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and canst thou comprehend the Glory of God in thy poor narrow thoughts thou it may be thinkest O if any man had so offended me I could not have born it I could never have been reconciled to him again but if thou canst not it may be another can it is much that the Lord enables his people to love to pray for to be ready to embrace those that in the most bloody manner seek their lives if they come and close with Christ as the Disciples