by way of tryal and a tempting by way of seducement God tempted Abraham with the first kinde of tentation and James speaks of the second kinde of tentations that seduce and lead to sin as is evident first from the word used by the Apostle there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which usually is â—â—â—erstood of tentation to sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the proper word for the other tryals or tentations Thus the Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter Matth. 4. vers 3. and in the Lords prayer we pray that we may not be led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into tentation Beside the Apostle in the Antithesis used in the verse saves God cannot be tempted with evil neither does be tempt must be relative to that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil before mentioned Now these tentations as they cannot proceed from God so for God to tempt by way of tryal is ordinary for him in all afflictions There is one observation from the words I purpose to insist most upon but shall name some few ere I come to it Observation I. That often great mercits are accompanied with great tentations and tryals So here after these things Abraham was tempted And the constant tract of providence from Adam to Christ proves the truth of it yea scarcely in Scripture one instance which is rare in providential actings against it For 1. Great mercies are often accompanied with great abuses and therefore no wonder followed with great tryals The Lord does sometymes to his vineyard till he come to say What can I do more and yet sour Graps Isai 5. What wonder then he pluck downe his hedge Beside all that receive mercies doe not receive them with the like integrity they fall sometimes as some drops of rain that only makes a thistle or weeds to grow and therefore need of winnowing by tentations Yea 2dly Usually those who are most in receiving mercies from God are most invyed by Sathan ye shall find him in Scripture choosing out Gods greatest favourits and following them most with his tentations such as Job David Asaph Christ and Peter I shall not dwell on this point only doe not think God is out of the road way of his providence when he does this whither to his Church or particular persons It is ane inlet to all apostasie to be pleased with nothing but mercies here away from God If thou hath at this Sacrament tasted of Abraham's manifestations it shall be strange if after these things it come not to pass that thou tast of Abraham's tentations Our rose here must have thornes beside it and therefore say thou shall we receive good of the hands of the Lord and not evil also And bless him in both Observ II. That it is very necessary when we remember or mention the tentations God exposes his people to to remember also the mercies he bestowes on them Abraham here God tempted him but it is after these things So the Church at length in the third of the Lamentations so Jacob so David Psalm 44. and there is good reason for it For 1. This tends to keep up honourable thoughts of God If there be nothing minded but the tentations we are ready to count of him as the man who had the one talent austere and rigorous Beside this tends to keep us from fainting under tentations as Psal 13 5. It may be often the Lords quarrel with us in tryals which he had with Israel at the red Sea Psal 106. They considered not the multitude of his mercies but at the Sea even the red Sea they provocked him The first tryal they met with they sorgat all the Lord had done for them in Aegypt Many pore only upon their discouragements especially in tryals or at Sacraments like one that would be broding himself with the bryar of his role and not smelling the rose itself Haman was a foole to quarrel that Mordecay bowed not his knee to him since he was so much in the Kings savour he might have despised Mordecayes What ever besal the Church of God or thyself still remember it is after these things Observ III. That tryals and afflictions are rightly looked upon by us when we look upon them as tentations Thus Abraham's tryal here called a tentation James 1 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall in divers tentations The Apostle means afflictions but thinks fitt to represent it to them under the notion of tentation So 1 Pet. 1 6. Though now for a season ye be in heaviness through manifold tentations It was the cross was on them but the Apostle calls them tentations And there are several reasons why afflictions are so called which are worthy to be remarked 1. Our tryals often are nothing but tentations our discouraged Spirits creates fears and then tosses them so that one in wrestling with their own thoughts will suffer more then another on whom the crosse is indeed inflicted And here by the way it is worthy to be noted how often we are in the wronge to God suspecting him for his providence when in the mean tyme it is but a conflict with our own apprehensions Like Hagar who was complaining for the want of water and yet close beside a fountain but her eyes were not opened to see it 2dly Trials are called tentations because of the principal and chief scope of affliction is to winnow and try That the tryal of your faith being more pretious then gold 1 Pet. 1 7. the Apostle points our their affliction there from the principal scop of it And here I would have you take notice of these three things 1. Though God know us well enough and though Saints try themselves yet we have need to be tryed by affliction There is a mystery of iniquity as well as there is a mystery of godliness oftentymes in affliction there is something discovered to us which for all our search of ourselves we could not have found out nor have beleeved had been in us like a pool troubled so are our hearts in affliction their comes up mud which we would not have thought to have been there Yea 2dly As the Lord delights in the graces of his Saints so he loves to have some occasion to commend them in his Saints He still retaineth his integrity though thou movest me without a cause against him See how he boasteth of Job as a Master when a good Scholler is examined Therefore he loves to try by affliction that He may have occasion to say O woman great is thy faith 3dly The Lord loves to discover his people to others For 1. By thy example others may be encouraged What is the end of the Lords recording the valorous acts of his Saints their reward is full without this but to incourage others Yea if thou faint in a tryal others may be bettered by it Why hath the Lord recorded in Scripture the failings of some of his Saints Is it that the Lord loves to blot their names when
Holyness Jer. 48 10. Consider the nature of the service wherein thou hes to doe with him Consider them as duties and a part of thy homage not parts of thy Christian liberty Consider them as priviledges as indeed they are as talents of which thou art to give ane account to God These and such like considerations may influence more seriousness in our performances Secondly If thou would not be almost but altogither a Christian Labour to get right thoughts of God especially in these three 1. In his Alsufficiency Gen. 17 1. And that would keep thy heart steady and fixed in Religion God is our happiness and not the creatur And therefore whither more or less of the creature it comes all to one if God be ours Next the faith of his omnipresence Psal 139 6 7. This will aw us when we have secret opportunities and tentations to sin Gen. 39 9. It will possess with godly fear and reverence 1 Cor. 11 10. It will comforty in afflictions Psal 23 4. 3dly Of his universal providence extending it self to every thing that comes to passe even the least things Math. 10 28. Beside the occasions we shall have hereby to adore the perfections of God Job 37 14. Psal 107 43. It will help to thankfulness Psal 40 5. And keep from abuse of mercies Hosea 2 v. 8. To submit patiently to afflictions 1 Sam. 3 18. Thirdly To avoid this be very careful not to neglect known duties Usually in Polemical divinity the plainest truths are least studied because they are taken for granted It is often so in practicals our zeal spent on things that are most doubtful when clear acknowledged duties are neglected as it was with the Jewes Micha 6 7. They were careful to enquire when they should fast but neglected the duties of moral equity The best way as one observes well to know more of the minde of God in what is duobtful is to be bussy in doing what is clear John 7 v. 17. He is the best Christian that is most in the fundamentals of a Christians duty Fourthly Every night take ane account of the passages of the day and examine what the strain of the heart hath been what you have done and upon what grounds for what ends what ye have neglected hereby ye come to know what ground ye gain of your corruption how long time yely in any sin unrepented of This record or journal of our dayly walkings hath been the practise of many Godly men as the writters of the records of their lives have mentioned and there is nothing will tend more to prevent our resting upon being almost Christians Fifthly Propose the perfect patterne of Christs life before you It is true all the actions of Christ are not imitable He was not a mere man but God and man and what he did as God or as Mediator betwixt God and man we cannot imitat but there are divers things wherein the Scriptures expresly proposes him as ane example as love Eph. 5 v 12. Meekness Matth. 11 29. Self-denyal Phil. 2 3. Patiencs 1 Pet. 2 21. Making it his work to doe good Acts 10 38. This serves not only for our example but for our incouragement There is nothing he calls us to but he did it and is now crowned This answers all the weight can be layed on any authority from men Since his is one of the greatest wisest noblest that can be Lastly If thou would indeed be above the being only almost a Christian then labour to doe all thou does in the name of Christ the stresse of Christianity lyes in this Col. 3 vers 17. to eye the authority of Christ as commanding or forbidding what we are or are not called to Math. 21 23. John 5 43. To doe in the strength of Christ Mark 16 17. Acts 3 12. And to doe for the sake of Christ as for his honour All these three are comprehended in doeing in his name But some may say if we labour to come up to so much exactness as these rules would carry us to we have done with a mirry life in the world and must goe under the repute of Phanaticks and such like I shall that I may not too farr transgress time only in answer to this say one thing Labour to know the true bounds of thy Christian liberty not that ye walk to the uttermost extent of it for the satisfying of your natural and carnal desires but that you lay nothing in your Christian course to make Christs yoke weightier then he himself hath made it from the want of the knowledge of this arises so many groundless censures of others casting them out of our charity for the practice of things wherein Christ possibly hath allowed them a liberty The knowledge of this would make us indeavour in many things to please our neighbour to his edification Rom 15 2. In a word if thou know not this thy work in Christianity may be more burdensome then thou art awarr of So follow these directions and by the blessing of God thou may become somewhat more then Agrippa who was only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 almost a Christian SERMON On Gen. 22 1. And it came to pass after these things that God tempted Abraham THe History of Abraham his offering Isaak is famous both amongst sacred and prophane writters The introduction to it or rather a compend of the whole History we have now read The words have dependance on the former chapter in which we have Abraham treating with Abimelech as one Prince doth with another and after these things after the Lord had made him so great as to be sought to by Princes Josephus in the first Book of his Antiquities Chap. 14 tells us that before the Lord told him of the sacrificeing of Isaack that He reckoned up to him all the mercies He had from tyme to tyme bestowed on him and after these tempted him And in the tentation there are three particulars remarkable 1st The tyme of it 2dly The Author it And 3dly The natur of it The tyme of it After these things The Author of it God The nature of it was atentation God tempted Abraham Pererius the Jesuit on the place goes near to tax Moses as defective in not reckoning what age Isaack was of when this came to pass and he spends a great deal of tyme in confuting Abenezra who said Isaack was but 12. years old and in proving the common opinion that he was 15. but we not looking on this as material it is sufficient the tyme is designed as it is After these things after so many and so great mercies bestowed on Abraham God tempted him The only considerable difficulty in the words is to reconcile this place with that of James 1 13. Let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God God tempteth no man and here God tempted Abraham Passing the floorishes of Jesuits in reconciling these two places there is this one solide answer There is a tempting
their portion but their gain is more noble they lay up to themselves where the moth cannot enter so that if riches and still to gain can commend one's life to be Gods Servant must be a high elogy Fourthly As it is gainful so exceeding pleasant to be his Servant We may say as the Queen of Sheba of Solomon's Servants Blessed are those Servants who stand by and hear the wisdome of thy words This is the scope of the whole Song to shew the delight of his Servants Take but a view of their pleasures in these three 1. What excellent walks they have 2dly What excellent company in these walks 3dly What sweet fellowship with this company First Their walks are sometymes to the Green Pasturs Psal 23. sometymes to the tillages sometymes to the gardens to see if the pomegranats bud sometymes to the banquetting house It is true they walk sometymes also down to the wilderness Hosea 2 14. ay but there they are allured and a door of hope opened to them 2. What excellent company in these walks Enoch walked with God Gen. 6. If to walk with the Wyse be in Solomons eyes so great a priviledge what to walk with the only wise God 3dly What sweet fellowship in these walks Sometymes they fit down under his shaddow sometymes he kisses them with the kisses of his mouth sometymes he sups with them sometymes he taks them in his bosome Esai 40 11. How pleasant a life must this be The Apostle thinks nothing Eph. 4. to call it the life of God Others like the elder Brother Luk. 15. get never a kid to make mirry with but they delight themselves in fatness Must it not then be a high elogy to be his Servant Lastly They dryve the sweetest life Sathan can tell God of Job Hast thou not set a hedge about him and about all he hath About all he hath is much Who is he that will harme you if ye be followers of that which is good Who is he It is such ane expression as that of Ahasuerus to Esther Who is he or where is the man that durst presume to doe this It is the highest act of boldness that ever the creatur attempted to be a persecuter of them who have salvation for walls and bulwarks and are sheltered under the faithfulness of God as a bird under the Feathers of the Dam Psal 71. Lay all togither and see if it be not a high elogy to be his Servant Application First Is it so great a priviledge to be his Servant It reproves the undervaluers of it Many cast at it as a bondadge even of such who call him Master and Lord but the lowest imployments in his service David preferred it to a dwelling in the tents of wickedness Some like Canaan are Servant of Servants and despyse their own mercy Rectify thy opinion of his service since it is the honour of Angels who are oftener in the Scriptures denominat from their service then their natures though most pure and excellent Spirits Secondly Is it such a priviledge to be his Servant Then study to doe his service acceptably There are these qualifications required in his Servants 1st They cannot serve two Masters for they must cleave to the one and leave the other Thou must give up with lusts with Sathan the World neither serve men in opposition to him these oppositions casts many out of his service and with Gideons 22000 they returne to their tents 2dly A Servant is not sui juris but at the Beck of his Master as the Centurions if he say to one goe he must goe ye must not stand and disput your duty his will is reason eneugh though it were to suffer for righteousness sake though it were to walk on a sea of trouble we ought to say with Peter Master if thou wilt bid me I will come unto thee 3dly His service must be done cheerfully Psal 110 3. It is true we are to serve him with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12 28. yet this is not inconsistant with cheerfulness He loves not to have it wrung out of us as service to ane austere and rigorous Master as the man who had the one talent called him but we are to rejoice in trembling 4thly We must study in every thing to doe him service Servants are to obey their Masters as the Servants of Jesus Christ directing and referring to his honour their most ordinary imployments Lastly We must not lay stresse on our service as if it deserved our fie When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants Yea though he say well done good and faithful Servant yet out reply ought to be When saw we thee hungry and sed thee Thirdly Here is consolation for his Servants Their priviledge is great though their service were never so low Especially since they are friends al 's well as Servants Yea he that doeth the will of Christ he is his Father his Mother his Brother his Sister Rejoice in your priviledge though it should have a mixture of the crosse with it SERMON II. On Josua 1 v. 2. Moses my Servant iâ— dead OFten the Lord makes his Servants honourable after their death who wrestled with much opposition in their life Here he writs Moses Epitaph himself Moses my Servant is dead The third particular in this description remains his end he is dead In handling this we shall First Consider somethings peculiar in Moses his death which may yeeld us ground of very useful instruction Secondly We shall speak of death as a common lot from which none of the most eminent Servants of God though as eminent as Moses can expect to be exeemed Moses is dead In the first place in Moses his death we shall take notice of these three things very remarkable in it 1. The cause of it 2. The manner and circumstance of it 3. Some consequences that followed on it In which three amongst other things we shall have a notable discovery of the justice mercy and faithfulness of God First Take notice of the cause of Moses death Ye have it set down in the 20th of the Numbers where at Meribah the people thristing and wanting water the Lord bids Moses v. 7 8. take his rod and speak to the rock and Moses smites the rock twyce with the rod for the which the Lord threatens him that he should not bring the congregation to the land which he had given them This was the cause of his death and in this I desire ye may mark these five things 1st How many proofs of faithful service to God had Moses given who was faithful as the Apostle testifies as a Servant yet all his former service cannot expiat this one sin but he must die for it It is the way of a great many upon commission of any sin they think to expiat it by their former or future obedience but though our service were as eminent as Moses's was it cannot at all make a mends for one sin to God It is
good there is a cautioner who takes all his peoples debt on him since it is impossible for us to expiat sin though we had never so many moral parts as Moses learned in all wisdom of Aegypt never so great a Prophet never so much zeal or communion with God yet all this cannot remove one sin 2dly In this cause of Moses death remark that it was not in doeing any thing contrary to the command of God only a doeing beside it he exeeded his commission and indeed what he did might have had many appearances of reason for it The rod had been the instrument of many mirackles in Aegypt and at the red Sea yea at Rephidim he did strick the rock with it and brought water But since his commission was to speak his striking was his sin for which he must die So dangerous a thing it is in things relating to God to act without his warrand Some tell us they add no corrupting additions to the word but perfecting But as corrupting additions is a contradiction so perfecting are eminently reflecting both on the Law and Law-giver Ye may be pressed with things which will be told you are lawful because not contrary to the word But if they be not consonant ye are in danger of anger from him who hath forbidden all adding to his word as well as taking from it 3dly Undoubtedly this sin for which Moses died was pardoned as to any guilt which should draw any eternal punishment after it Yea more many friendly acts after this smiting the rock passed betwixt God and him yet he must die for it Antinomians foolishly tell us that the sins of the elect being pardoned there are no chastisements layed on for sin Nay the sin which is pardoned the person may yet be corrected for it as is evident here and in Nathans words to David The Lord hath also put away thy sin nevertheless thy Child shall dy Argue not then from a temporal chastisement to ane eternal punishment Since the very sin which is pardoned may yet influence sad stroks yea and death it selfe 4thly This was but one sin of Moses which he acted also when his meek Spirit was provoked by a stiff-necked people and yet it is followed by the same outward stroke with which their sins who had tempted 40 years in the wilderness is followed their stroak Psal 95. Is not to enter Canaan but dy by the way and for this one sin Moses meets with the same Is is very remarkable how sharply the Lord will chastise a little thing in his own when he will let others runn on till their cup be full It is true the sins of his elect servants have many aggravations the sins of others wants as being acted against more light against greater mercies yet the thing in itself but litle in comparison of what he will pass in another Cast not at his service notwithstanding of this better to to have our way in sin hedged with thornes then strawed with roses It is dreadful to have scope in sin and when like Balaam in the way to Balack have the Lord say to us goe 5thly Moses earnestly prayed Deut. 3. that the Lord would have averted this stroke v. 25. I pray thee let me goe over and see this goodly Land beyond Jordan and that goodly Mountain and Lebanon fain would he have been there but there is no dealing let it suffice thee speak no more of this matter is his answer How earnest will the best be for temporary mercies and how peremptor in prayer for them when yet their prayer cast out It is true a view of Canaan which Moses had by way of exchange declares the prayer not lost though refused Now in all these in Moses death see how just God is in reckoning for sin even in the best of his Saints But in the next place let us take a view of his mercy mixed in herewith in the manner of Moses death which is the 2d thing proposed And here also take notice of five things First However the Lord will have him die for this sin yet he warnes him of it a long time before he die yea and determines both tyme place Got up to mount Nebo dy It is a great incouragment to the Saints in their death that it comes not on them as a thiefe in the night yea and though it be not revealed to them as to Moses yet both tyme and place are so determined as all their adversaries cannot alter the least circumstance though one of them dy in his bed another in the sea the third in a foraign land yet not one hair of their head falls without their heavenly Father his providence and though secondary causes work contingently yet the event followes necessarly as it is decreed Secondly Ere he die though the Lord chastise him for his sin yet the Lord gives him a view of Canaan before his death Deut. 3 27. Get thee up to the top of Pisgah and behold it with thine eyes The passage through the valey of the shadow of death is indeed dowisome but a view of Canaan will make it so lightsome that some of the Saints have cryed out on death for his slow motions toward them and when recovered out of sickness that threatned death have halfe repyned that they should have been within sight of the land and yet driven back to Sea again And wysely the Lord reserves these sights of Canaan till his Saints have death to graple with that he may allay a litle the bitter pill and suggar it better before they swallow it Thirdly This death of Moses it was indeed a chastisement of his unbeleife yet withall a Reward of his faith which he had ane eye to Heb. 11. v. 15. When he preferred the reproach of Christ to the treasures of Aegypt There is indeed in death something bumbling to the Saints but there is also something comfortable If it be a fruit of sin and the wages of it it is likewayes the passage to glory and the truth is as in our life so till it end betwixt the views of sin and glory our joyes and sorrowes eb and flow Fourthly Moses death though it proceeded from his disobedience yet it was in it selfe ane act of obedience the same God who bid him goe down to Aegypt and speak to Pharaoh bids him now goe up to mount Nebo and dy and he obeyes the one al 's well as the other up he goes and dyes as it is said of Christ so may it be said of his Saints He was obedient unto the death so are they There are some their souls are taken from them and they are carried to death as a prisoner unto ward by the officer but his people give up the Ghost when it is called for and as they lived obeying so they dy Lastly Moses in his death was careful for Israel that it should prosper after he was dead for this end he repeats the Law over again to them in the book