saw their affliction was bitter and there was no helper yet when they did not thankfully improve it to a reformation God denounced judgments against them for their Idolatry 2 Kings 14.26 27. The Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel So that he had not yet denounced it for he waited to see the improvement of this mercy But before the end of Jeroboams reign by the prophet Hosea who began to prophesy in his time he declared their final captivity from whence they are not restored to this day Praise for former mercies is a means to gain future ones the Musick of Voices in Jehoshaphats camp praising the beauty of holiness was a prologue of a deliverance from a formidable army 2 Chron. 20.21 22. and more successful than the warlike musick of drums and trumpets 4. Exercise faith on the power of God manifested in deliverances in the time of straits 'T is not for want of ability in God but for want of faith in us that we at any time go groaning under misery Faith would quiet the Soul When David relyed upon God and found by experience God sustaining him he would not then be afraid of ten thousand Psa 3.5 6. Let that be our carriage which is recorded of the Israelites after this memorable defeat Exod. 14.31 They believed the Lord and his Servant Moses We must never expect to see Gods arm bare without faith in him Christ can do no great work where unbelief is predominant Unbelief doth not strip God of his power and mercy but it stops the streams and effluxes of it Unbelief against experience is a double sin 'T is gross when against a bare word worse when against the word confirmed by a Witness Israel was past thoughts of any relief in this strait but expected to perish by the hand of their Enemies yet God brought them into straits in mercy to bring them out of straits with power he makes their distress a snare to their Enemies and a scaffold for their faith That deliverance ought to be a foundation for our trust in God though bestowed upon another Nation yet not so much upon them as a State but as a Church and a type of those future ones under the Gospel which are yet expected Well then trust upon this foundation Great trust in God is a sort of obligation upon God Men out of generosity will do much for them that depend upon them Dependance on God magnifies his Attributes this will bring deliverance whereby God will magnify himself Do not distrust him till you meet with an Enemy too strong for him to quell a red Sea too deep for him to divide an affliction too sturdy for him to rebuke an Aegyptian too proud for him to master Then part with your faith but not till God hath parted with his power which he hath formerly evidenc'd 5. Expect and provide for sharp conflicts God brings into straits before he delivers Another deliverance is yet to come the Churches distresses are not come to a period Babylon hath another game to play The right of the Devil to tyrannize over the Mystical Body was taken away at the death of the head yet he still bruiseth Christs heel and bites though he cannot totally overcome As long as Christs Enemies are not made his foot-stool as long as there is the seed of the Serpent in the World as long as Christs members want a conformity to the head Satans pinches must be expected as long as the Beast is in being he will make war with the followers of the Lamb his power is to continue forty two months to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Revel 13.5 7. Forty two months or years 'T is like the time is not expir'd One thousand six hundred and twenty years which make forty two months no ending since he first had his power when his time draws near to an end he will bite sharpest This deliverance from Aegypt is yet again to be acted over and that must be at the end when the whole Israel of God shall be freed from Anti-christ the Antitype of Pharaoh 6. Yet let us not be afraid Apostacies may be great there will be but two Witnesses not two in number but in regard of the fewness of those that shall bear testimony to the Doctrine of Christ there may be no Advocate for the Church Sion may be an out-cast cast out of the affection of many that served or favoured her But the sharpest Convulsions in the world are presages of an approaching Redemption Luke 21.28 and the Gospel will shine clearer as the Sun doth after it hath been muffled with a thick Cloud The words in the mouths of the Witnesses will be most killing and convincing Fear not a natural above a supernatural Power Was not all the Church God had in the world in as low a condition at the Red Sea Not a Soul that we read of exempt or but few as Job and some few others in other parts yet the Church was then delivered for a Pattern to shew forth the power of God in the Ages to come What though there may be a want of Instruments Are not all Instruments out-liv'd by God Has God dismist the care of his People Is he not alwaies the Churches Guardian He must be dethron'd before he can be disarmed While Heaven is too high for humane hands to reach the Church is too well guarded for them to conquer Fear not till Christ lets his Scepter fall out of his hands and ceases to rule in the midst of his Enemies and flings away the Keys of Death and Hell fear not till God strips himself of his strength wherewith he is clothed He is clothed with strength Psal 93.1 Though there be little strength in the Church there is an Almighty one in their confederate 'T is no matter what the Enemy resolves against what God ordains Pharaoh intended to destroy God intended to deliver God will have his will and Pharaoh's lust goes unsatisfied When the Enemies are most numerous God shall darken their glory and strength and then shall he be the hope and strength of his People Joel 3.14 15 16. The Valley of Achor the Valley of the sharpest trouble shall be a door of hope Hos 2.15 That God that can create a World out of nothing can create deliverance when there is no visible means to produce it What can be too hard for him that can work without materials that can make matter when it is wanting and call Non-Entities into being He created the World with a word and can destroy the sturdiest men in the world with a look The strongest Devil trembles before him and the whole Seed of the Serpent is but as the dust of the ballance before the breath of his mouth He looked the Aegyptian Host into disorder and their Chariot-wheels into a falling-sickness Exod. 14.24 He created the World by a word He restored Jerusalem by a word Isa 44.26 27. dispirited Aegypt by
reason to think that he would be careless of maintaining the honour of it in his promises and thereupon be filled with despondencies What comfort could we have in an unrighteous God The righteousness of God in inflicting punishment is but a branch of that essential righteousness of his nature which obligeth him to be righteous in the performing his promise too 'T is a mighty support to faith that the righteous God loveth righteousness 2. Obedience in a Believer hath a greater lustre by them It was the glory of Job that he preserved his Integrity under the smartest troubles To obey a God always smiling is not so great an act of Loyalty as to obey a God frowning and striking 'T is the crown of our obedience to follow our God though he visits us with stripes 'T is a noble temper to love that hand which strikes us and chearfully serve that Father which lasheth us Our obedience is too low when it must be excited by a succession of favours and cannot run to God unless he allures it by smiles 'T is then a generous and sincere obedience when we can embrace him with a sword in his Hand trust him though he kill us love him though he stone us and as the Persians did by the Sun adore him when he scorcheth as well as when he refresheth us Were these punishments wholly absent we should not have a rise for so heroick faith and love and our holiness in this state would want much of its lustre 3. Humility These punishments are left upon us to allay our pride and be our remembrancers of our deplorable miscrriage It had been an occasion of pride in us to be freed from punishment at the first appearance of a Mediator 'T is reasonable the Soul should have occasions to exercise it self in a grace contrary to that first sin pride which was the cause of the fall We affected to be Gods and punishment is left that we may know we are but Men which is the end of judgments Psal 9.20 Put them in fear O Lord that the Nations may know they are but Men we should otherwise think our selves Gods We are so inclin'd to sin that we need strong restraints and so swell'd with a natural pride against God that we need Thorns in the Flesh to let out the corrupt matter The constant hanging the Rod over us makes us lick the dust and acknowledge our selves to be altogether at the Lords mercy Though God hath pardon'd us he will make us wear the halter about our Necks to humble us 4. Patience Were there no punishments there would be but little occasion for patience This grace would not have had its extensive exercise its full formation without such strokes left upon the creature Resignation to God which is the beauty of grace would not come to its due maturity and stature without such trials So that in these reasons of the continuance we see they are rather advantages to Salvation than hindrances by promoting through the influence of God's grace those graces in us which are necessary to a happy state Use 1. See the infinite mercy of God who when upon the defection of our first Parents he might have burnt up the whole world as he did Sodom would upon the Redeemers account who stept in impose so light a punishment upon that sin 't is but light in comparison of what the nature of sin deserves every sin being a contempt of the Majesty of God and a slight of his Authority and that sin having greater aggravations attending it 'T is a merciful punishment it might have been an everlasting damnation God might have left us to the first sentence of the law and made no exchange of eternal death for temporal pains He might have been deaf to the voice of a Mediator and put his mercy to silence as he did Moses Speak no more of this matter but his Bowels pull his Justice by the Arm and hinder that fatal stroke and a Mediator by his interposition breaks off the full blow from us by taking it upon himself and suffers only some few smart drops to light upon us Oh wonderful mercy that our punishment should not hinder but rather further our everlasting happiness by incomprehensible grace Let not then our punishments for sin hinder our thankfulness Let our Mouths swell with praise while our Bodies crumble away by diseases and Relations drop from us by death Let us love God's glory admire his mercy while we feel his Arrows Whatever our punishments are there is more matter for praise than murmuring 2. How should we bewail original sin the first fall of man 'T is a great slighting of God not to take notice either of his judicial or fatherly proceedings As we are to lament any particular sin more especially when the judgments of God which bear the marks of that sin in their foreheads are upon a nation or person so though we are to bewail the sin of our nature at all times yet more signally when the strokes of God the remembrancers of it are most signally upon us A Child doth more particularly think of his fault when he is under the correcting rod for it We should scarce think of original sin if we did not feel original punishment All the pains of sin should be considered as Gods Sermon to us and we should under them be afflicted with that sin as we may suppose Adam and Eve were when they first heard the punishment denounc'd in Paradice when they had a sense of the flourishing Condition they had lost for a slight temptation To turn sorrow for pain into sorrow for our first sin is to spiritualize our grief and sanctify our passion 3. What an argument for patience under punishments is here The continuance of them doth not hinder our Salvation Shall a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin For such a punishment that doth not hinder his eternal welfare but by the grace of God and the exercise of Faith rather promote it God promised as well as threatned both his mercy and righteousness directs him to that which is most for his honour and our good Let us not by any impatience charge infinite wisdom with blindness or unrighteousness They were punishments at first but by Faith in Christ the deportment of a judge is changed into that of a Father Drusius hath an observation Psal 56.10 In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word The first word Elohim is a name belonging to God as a judg the 2d word Jehovah is a name of mercy I will praise God whether he deal with me in a way of justice or in a way of mercy when he hath thunder in his voice as well as when he hath hony under his tongue Oh how should we praise God and pleasure our selves by such a frame When our distresses ly hard upon us we should justify Gods holiness So the Psalmist or rather Christ in the bearing our
this purpose Exod. 34.7 keeping mercy for thousands forgiving inquity c. And is still as full as ever as the sun which hath influenced so many animals and vegetables and expelled so much darkness and cold is still as a strong man able to run the same race and perform by its light and heat the same operations When mercy shews it self in state with all its train it is but to usher in pardoning grace Exod. 34.6.7 not a letter not an attribute that makes up the composition of that name but is a friend and votary of mercy And that latter clause a learned man explains of Gods clemency He will by no means clear the guilty visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers c. which he renders thus He will not utterly cut off and destroy but when he doth visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children it shall be but to the third or fourth Generation not for ever This name of God is urged by Moses Number 14.17 Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity c. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy Where Moses repeats this clause more particularly than he doth the other parts of his name which surely he would not have done and pleaded it as a Motive to God to pardon Israel if he had not understood it of God's clemency for otherwise he had dwelt more upon the argument of Justice than upon that of mercy which had not been proper to edg his present petition with Nay it is such pure mercy the genuine birth of mercy that it partakes of its very name as Children bear the name of their Father Heb. 8.12 I will be merciful to their iniquity which in the Prophet Jer. 31.34 whence the Apostle quotes it is I will forgive their iniquity That it is so will appear because 1. No attribute could be the first motive of pardon but this His Justice would loudly cry for vengeance and flame out against ungrateful sinners His holiness would make him abhor not only the embraces but the very sight or such filthy creatures as we are His power would attend to receive and execute the Commands of his justice and holiness did not compassion step in to qualify 2. Vnconstrained mercy Men pardon many times because they are too weak to punish But God wants not power to inflict Judgments neither doth man want weakness to sink under it Rom. 5 6. When we were without strength Christ dyed for us God wanted not sufficient reason to justify a severe proceeding both in the quality of sin every sin being a contrariety to the law Soveraignty work glory yea the very being of God now for God to pardon that which would pull him out of his throne hath blemished the creation robs him of his honour must be an act of the richest and purest mercy And in the quantity multitudes of sins of this cursed quality as numerous as motes in the Sun-beams 'T is impossible for the nimblest Angel to write down the extravagancies of men committed in the space of twenty four hours if he could know all the operations of heir Souls as well as their outward actions all those God doth see simul semel and yet is ready to pardon in the midst of numberless provocations 3. Resolv'd and designed mercy 'T is not through inadvertency and insensibleness of the aggravating circumstances of them God must needs know the nature and circumstances of all those sins he himself laid upon Christ Yea God hath an actuated knowledge of all when he is about to pardon Isa 43.22 God reckons up their sins of omissions They had been weary of him and had not brought to him their small Cattle had preferr'd their Lambs and Kids before his Service wearied him with their iniquities endeavoured to tire him out of the Government of the World What could one have expected after this black Scroul but Fire-balls of Wrath Yet he blots them out v. 25. though all those sins were fresh in his memory Nay the Name we have profaned becomes our Solicitor Ezek. 36.22 For my holy Names sake which you have profaned 4 Delightful and pleasant mercy He delights in pardoning mercy as a Father delights in his Children He is therefore called the Father of mercy Micah 7.18 he pardons iniquity and retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy Never did we take so much pleasure in sinning as God doth in forgiving Never did any penitent take so much pleasure in receiving as God doth in giving a pardon He so much delights in it that he counts it his wealth Riches of grace riches of mercy glorious riches of mercy no Attribute else is called his riches He sighs when he must draw his Sword Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim But when he blots out iniquity then it is I even I am he that blots out your transgressions for my Names sake His delight in this is equal to the delight he hath in his Name This is pure mercy to change the Tribunal of Justice into a Throne of Grace to bestow pardons where he might inflict punishments and to put on the deportment of a Father instead of that of a Judge 4. The Act of his Justice Those Attributes which seem contrary are joyned together to produce forgiveness Yet God is not to be considered in pardon only as Judex but paternus Judex there is a composition of Judge and Father in this act Free Grace on God's part but Justice upon the account of Christ That God will accept of a satisfaction is Mercy that he will not forgive without a satisfaction is Justice Mercy forgives it in us though Justice did punish it in Christ Christ by his death paid the debt and God by the Resurrection of Christ discharged the debt and therefore the Justice of God is engaged to bestow pardon upon a Believer God set forth Christ as a propitiation that he might be just and therefore a justifier of him that believes Rom. 3.26 Either the debt is paid or not if not then Christ's Death is in vain if it be then God's Justice is so equitable as not to demand a second payment Therefore another Apostle joyns faithful and righteous it might have been faithful and merciful faithful and loving but faithful and righteous or just takes in the Attribute which is most terrible to man 1 John 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isay joyns both together a just God and a Saviour Isa 45.21 So that here is unspeakable comfort That which engaged God formerly to punish man engageth him now to pardon a Believer That which moved him to punish Christ doth excite him to forgive thee 5. The Act of his Power 'T is a sign of a noble and
As God shews his mercy in his Peoples Redemption he will shew his strength in their conduct Exod. 15.13 He that made this deliverance a standing Monument of his Power entitles himself by it Isa 43.16 Thus saith the Lord which makes a way in the Sea a path in the mighty waters 2. His kindness to and care of his People When the straits are remediless and the counsels whereby the Projects are laid not to be defeated by humane skill when God seems to have forgot then in a seasonable deliverance he shews himself the careful Watchman of Israel When the Ship is in a raging storm and Christ asleep he will leave his own ease to keep his word and content his People When the Church thinks God hath forgotten his mercies and they have forgotten their dependance when the misery is so pressing that there is no faith of a deliverance left then Christ comes when faith is scarcely to be found upon the Earth Luke 18.8 to exalt his mercy in the depths of their misery and work terrible things they looked not for Isa 64.3 The Israelites would not have understood God's care in their protection without this or the like strait God had a new opportunity to shew his watchfulness over them to turn the cloud which went before them as their guide behind them for their defence Exod. 14.19 The scoffs of the Enemy at the Churches misery are God's motive to help her I will restore health to thee because they called thee an out-cast Jer. 30.17 'T is in straits we see God's salvation not man's Exod. 14.13 Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. 3. His Justice He lets the Church be encompassed with miseries and the Enemies in a Combination against her that he may overthrow them at once God makes a quicker dispatch with the Aegyptians when they were united than when they had assaulted Israel with a smaller body His Righteousness gets glory at one blow when he makes them to lye down together Is 43.17 His Justice is unblemisht in striking when their wickedness is visibly ripe the equity of it must needs be subscribed that when the Enemies malice is greatest when they have no mixture of compassion 't is the clearest righteousness to crush them without any mixture of mercy God brings things to that pass that he may honour both his Justice and Mercy in the highest That the black horses and the white horses may march firm together Zech. 6.6 the black horses that brought death and Judgment Northward to Babylon where the Church was captive the white horses that followed them and brought deliverance to his People the one to be Instruments of his Judgments the other of his Mercies God loves to glorifie those two Attributes together he did so in the redemption of mankind by the death of his Son and he doth so in the deliverance of his Church there is a conformity of the Church to Christ in her distress that there may be a conformity of God's glory in temporal to his glory in eternal Salvation God singles out a full crop to be an harvest for both A wicked man is said to be waited for by the sword Job 15.22 God attends the best season for revenge when mercy to the one shall appear most glorious and vengeance on his Enemies most equitable and all disputes against his proceedings be silenced 2. It makes to the Churches Advantage God had a work to do upon Mount Sion and on Jerusalem before he would punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks Isa 10.12 His end shall be attained in the correction of his Church before his glory shall be exalted in the destruction of her Enemies There are Enemies in the hearts of his People to be conquered by his grace before the Enemies to her peace and prosperity shall be defeated by his Power he will let them be in the fire till like gold they may have a purer honour in a brighter lustre 1. Humiliation is gain'd hereby God would not presently raze out the Canaanites lest the wild Beasts should increase upon them Deut. 7.22 Too quick deliverances may be occasions to multiply the wild Beasts of pride security and wantonness in the heart humility would have but little footing There is need of a sharp Winter to destroy the Vermin before we can expect a fruitful Spring Without humiliation the Church knows not how to receive nor how to improve any mercy The Enemies hasten their own mine by increasing the measure of their sins and Israels deliverance by being instruments to humble then hearts The sooner the plaister hath drawn out the corrupt matter the sooner it is cast into the fire God hereby prevents the growth of weeds in that ground he intends to enrich with new mercies 2. A Spirit of Prayer is excited Slight troubles make but drooping prayers Great straits make it gush out as the more the bladder is squeezed the higher the water springs We hear not of the Israelites crying to the Lord after their coming out of Aegypt till they had a sight of the formidable Army Exod. 14.10 They were sore afraid and the Children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Prayer gains mercies but scarce springs up free without sence of distress We then have recourse to Gods power whereby he is able to relieve us when we are sensible of our own weakness whereby we are unable to relieve our selves men will scarce seek to God or trust him while any creature though but a reed remains for their support they are destitute before they pray or believe God regards their prayers Psa 102.17 He will regard the prayer of the Destitute and not despise their prayer Distress causes importunity and God will do much for importunities sake Luke 11.8 3. Discovery of sincerity Hereby God discovers who are his people and who are not who are in the highest form of Christianity and who are not in the School or at least but in the lowest form he separates the good corn from the useless chaff No question but there were some among the Israelites that in this extremity acted faith upon the remembrance of the wonders God had wrought for them in Aegypt before their departure certainly they did not all murmur against Moses Were there no Calebs and Joshuahs that followed God fully in a way of faith and submission Their faith courage had not been conspicuous without this extremity Thundrings and Lightnings and terrible things in righteousness are to prove us whether the fear of God be before our faces that we sin not Exod. 20.18 20. God separates the dross You never know a new building without pulling down to separate the rubbish and rotten rafters from the sound materials Abraham was put upon hard work the imbruing his hands in the blood of his only Son to prove his integrity when God sees his sincerity he divers the blow not only delivers him from his grief his Son from his danger
punish whence follows the non-imputation of sin Not imputing their trespasses unto them The justice of God will not suffer that that sin which is pardoned should be punished for can that be justice in a prince to pardon a thief and yet to bring him to the gallows for that fact Though the malefactor doth justly deserve it yet after a pardon and the word passed it is not justly inflicted God indeed doth punish for that sin which is pardoned Though Nathan by Gods Commission had declared Davids sin pardoned yet the Sword was to stick in the bowels of his family 2 Sam. 12.10 15. The Sword shall never depart from thy house the Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye But 1. 'T is not a punishment in order to Satisfaction Because Christs Satisfaction had no flaw in it and stood in need of nothing to eek it out But 't is for the vindication of the honour of Gods holiness that he might not be thought an approver of sin and this was the reason of Davids punishment in the death of his child by Bathsheba 2 Sam. 12.14 Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to Blaspheme 2. 'T is not so much poenal as medicinal A judg Commands a hand to be cut off that is for punishment a Physician and a Father order the same but for the Patients cure and the preservation of the body And though God after pardon acts not towards his people in the nature of a Judg yet he never lays aside the authority and affection of a Father We are delivered from a Judges wrath but not from a Fathers anger In that remarkable dumbness inflicted upon Zachary for his unbelief Luk 1.18.20 there was a confirmation of his Faith as well as the chastisement of his incredulity The Angel upon his unbelieving desire of a sign gives him a Testimony of the truth of his errand but such an one that should make him feel in some measure the smart of his unbelief 3. If it be penal 't is not the eternal punishment due to sin 'T is but temporary and not embittered by wrath which is the gall of punishment This taking off the obligation to punishment is the true nature of pardon Which will be evident from 2 Sam. 19.19 Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me Shimei desires David not to impute iniquity and not to remember it It was not in Davids power absolutely to forget it and Shimei's confessing the fact with those circumstances in verse 20. was enough to recall it to Davids memory if he had forgot it but he desires David not to bring him to satisfy the penalty of the law for reviling his Soveraign II. The Author of Pardon God For pardon is the Soveraign prerogative of God whereby he doth acquit a believing Sinner from all obligation to Satisfactory punishment upon the account of the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith 1. 'T is Gods act Remission is the Creditors not the Debtors act though the Debtor be obliged in Justice to pay the debt yet there is no obligation upon the Creditor to demand the debt because it is at his liberty to renounce or maintain his right to it and God hath as much power as man to relax his right provided it be with a Salvo to his own honour and the holiness of his nature which he cannot deny for the sinners safety as the Apostle tells us God cannot deny himself Yet properly say some though sin be a debt God is not to be considered in pardon as a Creditor because sin is not a pecuniary debt but a criminal and so God is to be considered as a governor law-giver guardian and executor of his laws and so may dispence with the severities of them If an inferior person tear an indictment it may be brought again into Court but if the chief Magistrate order the casting it out who can plead it 'T is Gods act and if God justifies who can condemn Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies who shall condemn That God absolves thee that hath power to condemn thee that God who enacted the law whereby thou art sentenced proclaims the Gospel whereby thou art reconcil'd 'T is an offended God who is a foregiving God that God whose name thou hast prophaned whose patience thou hast abused whose laws thou hast violated whose mercy thou hast slighted whose justice thou hast dared and whose glory thou hast stained 2. 'T is not only his act but his prerogative and he only can do it God is the party wronged Nemo potest remittere de jure alieno This prerogative he glories in as peculiar to himself the thoughts of this honour are so sweet to him that he repeats it twice as a title he will not share with another Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blots out thy transgressions Pardoning offenders is one of a Princes royalties And this is reckoned among his Regalia as a choice flower and jewel in his Crown Exod. 34.7 for giving iniquity transgressions and Sins A Prince punisheth by his ministers but pardons by himself And indeed God is never so glorious as in acts of mercy Justice makes him terrible but mercy renders him amiable When Moses desired to see God in his royalty and best perfections he displays himself in his goodness Exod. 33.18 Shew me thy glory v. 19. I will make all my goodness pass before thee I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious And though the Apostles had a power of Remission and binding that was only ministerial and declarative like that prophetical power which Jeremy had to root up nations and destroy Jerm 1.10 i. e. to declare Gods will in such and such Judgments as he should send him to pronounce Men cannot pardon an infinite wrong done to an infinite justice Forgiveness belongs to God as 1. Proprietor He hath a greater right to us than we have to our selves 2 Soveraign He is Lord over us as we are his creatures 3. Governour of us as we are parts of the world 3. 'T is an act of his mercy Not our merit Though there be a conditional connexion between pardon and repentance and Faith yet there is no meritorious connexion ariseth from the Nature of those graces but remission flows from the gracious indulgence of the promise 'T is the very tenderness of mercy the meltings of inward bowels Luke 1.78 To give knowledg of Salvation and Remission of their sins through the tender mercies of our God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inexhaustible mercy Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art ready to forgive and art plenteous in mercy A multitude of tender mercies Psal 51.1 What Arithmetick can count all the bublings up of mercy in the breast of God and all the glances and all the doles of his pardoning grace towards his creatures And he keeps this mercy by him as in a treasury to
fruit of his waiting 'T is the end of Christs exaltation whether it be meant of his being lifted up on the cross or his exaltation in Heaven 't is true of both that his end is to have mercy upon you 2. God will pardon the greatest sins His infinite compassion cannot exhaust it self by a frequent remiâ—â—ion Mercy holds proportion to Justice as his Justice punisheth little sins as well as great so doth mercy pass by great sins as well as little Your highest sins are the sins of men but the mercy offered is the mercy of a God The debt you owe is a vast debt but Christs Satisfaction is of a greater value and a Kings revenue may well pay a beggers debts though she owe many thousands the first day of marriage Multiplied sins upon repentance shall meet with multiplied pardons Isay 55.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abundantly pardon We cannot vie our sins with Gods mercy The grace of God and righteousness of Christ which are necessary for the remission of one sin are infinite and no more is requisite for the pardon of the greatest yea of the sins of the whole world if they were upon thy single score The grace conferred upon Paul was more than would suit his necessity 1 Tim. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superabound and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant enough to have pardoned a whole world as well as Paul like the Sun that emits as much heat in his beams upon one puddle as is enough not only to exhale the moisture of that but of a 100 more Suppose thou art the greatest sinner that ever was yet extant in the world do not think that God who hath snatcht so many firebrands of Hell out of the Devils hands will neglect such an opportunity to make his grace illustrious upon thy humble Soul If God hath given thee repentance it is a certain evidence he will follow it with a pardon though thy sins be of a deeper scarlet than ever yet was seen upon the earth for if he did not mean to bestow this he would never have bestowed upon thee the necessary condition of it Is there not a sinner can equal thee Then surely God is wiser than to lose the highest opportunity he yet had to evidence his superlative grace And therefore 1. Continue thy humiliations There must be a conformity between Christ and thee he was humbled when he purchased remission and you must be humbled when you receive it God will not part with that very cheap that cost his Son so dear though thou art not at the expence of the blood of thy Soul thou must be at the expence of the blood of thy Sins When a man comes to be deeply affected with his sin then God sends a message of peace Isay 6 6 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims and laid a live coal upon his mouth and said thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged When v. 5. he had cryed out woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips The way to have a debt forgiven is to acknowledge it Ps 32.5 I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin God stood as ready to forgive Davids unrighteousness as he was ready to confess it Mercy will not save a man without making him sensible of and humbled for his iniquity Put thy business therefore into Christs hands and submit to what terms he will impose upon thee 2. In thy Supplications plead his glory You find this the constant argument the people of God in the Scripture use for the prevailing with God for forgiveness That argument is most comfortably pleaded which God Loves most and whereunto he orders all his actions No stronger motive can be used to him to grant it than that whereby he excites himself to bestow it When thou beggest other things thou mayest dishonour God but God cannot be a loser of his glory in granting this Lord if thou turnest me into Hell where is the glory of thy mercy upon thy creature Nay where is the glory of thy justice my eternal torments not being able to compensate the injury done to thee by sin so much as the suffering of thy only Son whose death I desire to share in and whose terms I am willing to submit to 3. Exhortation to those that are pardoned 1. Admire this grace of God To pardon one sin is a greater thing than to create a world to pardon one sin is greater than to damn a world God can create a world without the death of a creature he can damn a world without the death of the Creator but in pardoning there must be the death of the Creator the Son of God 2. Serve God much Is the guilt of sin the cord that bound thee taken off It is fit that when thou art so unfettered thou should'st run the ways of Gods Commandments A sense of pardon of sin makes the Soul willing and ready to run upon Gods errands and to obey his Commands Isa 6.8 I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send Then said I Here am I Then when he had received assurance that his iniquity was taken away v. 7. Gods pardon set thee upon a new stock and therefore he expects thou should'st be full of new clusters 3. Be more fearful of sin Dispute with thy self Hath God pardoned the guilt of sin that it shall not damn me and shall I wallow in the mire of sin to pollute my self Oh thy sins after pardon have a blacker circumstance than the sins of Devils or the sins of wicked men for theirs are not against pardoning mercy not against special Love Oh thaw thy heart every morning with a meditation on pardon and sin will not so easily freeze it in the day time When thou art tempted to sin consider what thoughts thou hadst when thou wert suing for pardon how earnest thou wert for it what promises and vows thou didst make and consider the Love God shewed thee in pardoning Do not blur thy pardon so easily wound thy Conscience or weaken thy faith 4. Be content with what God gives thee If he gives thee Heaven will he deny thee earth He that bestows upon thee the pardon of sin would surely pour into thy bosom the gold of both the Indies were it necessary for thee But thou hast got a greater happiness for it is not said blessed is he that wallows in wealth honour and a confluence of worldly prosperity but Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven and whose iniquity is covered FINIS THE INDEX OF THE Principal Matters contain'd in the Discourse of DIVINE PROVIDENCE A ACtions all under God's Providence page 9 10 11 Many can be ascribed to nothing else page 15 16 17 Affections of God to his Church page 69 v. Church Affections made subservient to Gods designs page 14 Of good Men impeach not Providence à page 21. ad 27 Make them not
exaggerating man's defilement Wherein consider the Universality 1. Of the subject Every man 2. Of the act Every thought 3. Of the qualification of the act Only evil 4. Of the time continually The words thus opened afford us this Proposition That the thoughts and inward operations of the souls of men are naturally universally evil and highly provoking Some by cogitation mean not only the acts of the understanding but those of the will yea and the sense too But indeed that which we call cogitation or thought is the work of the mind Cartes Princip Pâ—ilos Part 1. Sect. 9. imagination of the fancy 'T is not properly thought till it be wrought by the understanding because the fancy was not a power designed for thinking but only to receive the images imprest upon the sense and concoct them that they might be fit matter for thoughts and so 't is the Exchequer wherein all the acquisitions of sense are deposited and from thence received by the intellective faculty So that thoughts are inchoativè in the fancy consummativè in the understanding terminativè in all the other faculties Thought first engenders opinion in the mind thought spurs the will to consent or dissent 't is thought also which Spirits the affections I will not spend time to acquaint you with the methods of their generation Every man knows he hath a thinking faculty and some inward conceptions which he calls thoughts he knows that he thinks and what he thinks though he be not able to describe the manner of their formation in the womb or remember it any more than the species of his own face in a glass In this discourse let us first see what kind of thoughts are sins 1. Negatively A simple apprehension of sin is not sinful Thoughts receive not a sinfulness barely from the object That may be unlawful to be acted which is not unlawful to be thought of Though the will cannot Will sin without guilt yet the understanding may apprehend sin without guilt for that doth no more contract a pollution by the bare apprehension than the eye doth by the reception of the species of a loathsome object Thoughts are morally evil when they have a bad principle want a due end and converse with the object in a wrong manner Angels cannot but understand the offence which displaced the Apostate Stars from heaven but they know not sin cognitione practicâ Glorified Saints may consider their former sins to enhance their admirations of pardoning mercy Christ himself must needs understand the matter of the Devils temptation yet Satan's suggestions to his thoughts were as the vapors of a jakes mixed with the Sun-beams without a defilement of them Yea God himself who is infinite purity knows the Object of his own acts which are conversant about sin as his holiness in forbidding it wisdom in permitting mercy in pardoning and justice in punishing But thoughts of sin in Christ Angels and glorified Saints are accompanied with an abhorrency of it without any combustible matter in them to be kindled by it As our thoughts of a divine object are not gracious unless we love and delight in it so a bare apprehension of sin is not positively criminal unless we delight in the object apprehended As a sinful obiect doth not render our thoughts evil so a divine object doth not render them good because we may think of it with undue circumstances as unseasonably coldly c. And thus there is an imperfection in the best thought a regenerate man hath for though I will suppose he may have a sudden ejaculation without the mixture of any positive impurity and a simple apprehension of sin with a detestation of it yet there is a defect in each of them because 't is not with that raised affection to God or intense abhorrency of sin as is due from us to such objects and whereof we were capable in our primitive state 2. Positively Our thoughts may be branched into first motions or such that are more voluntary 1. First motions Those unfleched thoughts and single threads before a multitude of them come to be twisted and woven into a discourse such as skip up from our natural corruption and sink down again as fish in a River These are sins though we consent not to them because though they are without our will they are not against our nature but spring from an inordinate frame of a different hue from what God implanted in us How can the first sprouts be good if the root be evil Not only the thought formed but the very formation or first imagination is evil Voluntariness is not necessary to the essence of a sin though it be to the aggravation of it 'T is not my Will or Knowledge Gen. 19.33 35. which doth make an act sinful but God's prohibition Lot's Incest was not ushered by any deliberate consent of his Will yet who will deny it to be a sin since he should have exercised a severer command over himself than to be overtaken with drunkenness which was the occasion of it Original sin is not effectivè voluntary in Infants because no act of the will is exerted in an infant about it Yet it is voluntary subjectivè because it doth inhaerere voluntati These motions may be said to be voluntary negatively because the Will doth not set bounds to them and exercise that soveraign dominion over the operations of the soul which it ought to do and wherewith it was at its first creation invested Besides though the Will doth not immediately consent to them yet it consents to the occasions which administer such motions and therefore according to the rule that causa causae est causa causati they may be justly charged upon our score 2. Voluntary thoughts which are the blossoms of these motions Such that have no lawful object no right end not governed by reason eccentrick disorderly in their motions and like the jarring strings of an untun'd Instrument The meanest of these floating phancies are sins because we act not in the production of them as rational creatures and what we do without reason we do against the law of our creation which appointed reason for our guide and the understanding to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the governing power in our souls These may be reduced to three heads 1. In regard of God 2. Of our selves 3. Of others I. In regard of God 1. Cold thoughts of God When no affection is raised in us by them When we delight not in God the object of those thoughts but in the thought it self and operation of our mind about Him consisting of some quaint notion of God of our own conceiving This is to delight in the act or manner of thinking not in the object thought of and thus these thoughts have a folly and vanity in them They are also sinful in a regenerate man in respect of the faintness of the understanding not acting with that vigor and spriteliness nor with those raised and spiritual
most lasting of all plants Three times it is compared to Lebanon in the promise Hos 14.5 6 7. The Cedar never rots worms eat it not 'T is not only free from putrifaction it self but the juyce of it preserves other things Numa's Books * Sanct. in loc though of paper yet dipt in the juyce of Cedar remained without corruption in the ground 500 years How shall that God who always remembers every thing yea the meanest of his creatures forget his own variety of expressions and multiplyed promises concerning his Sion 6. In regard 't is the seat of his glory 'T is the branch of his planting the work of his hands that he might be glorified Isa 60.21 His glory would have a brush if Sion should sink to ruin He sows her for himself Hos 2.23 speaking of the Church in the time of the Gospel not to the Devil to sin to the world but to his own glory As husbandmen sow their Fields for their own use to reap from them a fruitful crop and therefore till the Harvest be in they take care to make up the breaches and preserve them from the Incursions of beasts Though God hath an objective glory from all creatures yet he hath an active glory only from the Church 'T is Israel the house of Aaron and those that fear the Lord that the Psalmist calls upon to render God the praise of the eternity of his mercy Psal 118.2 3 4. He forbids the prophane and disobedient world to take his Covenant in their mouth Psal 50.16 None do none can truly honour and acknowledg him but the Church therefore the Apostle in his Doxology appropriates the glory that is to be given to God as the object to the Church as the subject Ephes 3.21 Vnto him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages world without end So solemn a wish from so great an Apostle that it should be amounts to a certainty that it will be There cannot be a glory to God in the Church throughout all Ages without the continuance of the Church in all Ages God will have a revenue of glory paid him during the continuance of the world there shall therefore be a standing Church during the duration of the world while he therefore expects a glory from the midst of his People he will be a wall of fire round about them and keep Sion one where or other in a posture to glorifie him What is the Apostles motive to this glory 'T is not a remote power such as can act but will not but a power operative in the Church in doing those things for her which she could never ask nor think for her self * v. 20. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundan ly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us God hath a greater glory from the Church than he can have from the world he therefore gives her more signal experiments of his Power Wisdom and Love than to the rest of the world He had a glory from Angels but only as Creator not as Redeemer till they were acquainted with his design and were speculators of his actions in gathering a Church in the world The Church therefore was the original of the new glory and praise the Angels presented to God Glory in the Church by Christ Musculus thinks that is added to distinguish it from the Jewish Church which was settled by the Ministry of Moses as much as to say God had not so much glory by the Tabernacles of Jacob as he hath by the Church as settled by Christ Or by Christ notes the manner of the presenting our praise and the ground of the acceptance of our praise God accepts no glory but what is offered to him by the hand of Christ and Christ presents no glory but what is paid him by the Church 'T is the Church then and the Gospel-Church that preserves the glory of God in the world If the Church therefore ceaseth the glory of God in the world ceaseth But since God hath created all for his own glory separated a Church out of the world for his glory appointed his Son the Head of it that he might be glorified his Church therefore is as dear to him as his glory and dear to him in order to his glory in establishing it therefore he establishes his own honour and name It shall therefore remain in this world to glorifie him afterwards in another to glorifie him and be glorified by him 7. In regard that 't is the object of his peculiar affection Establishment of a beloved object is inseparable from a real affection By this he secures the Spiritual Sion or Gospel-Church both from being forsaken by him or made desolate by her Enemies because she was Hephzibah * Isa 62.4 my delight or my will is in her as if he had no will to any thing but what concern'd her and her safety As men ingrave upon their Rings the Image of those friends that are dearest to them and as the Jews in their Captivity engraved the Effigies of their City upon their Rings to keep her in perpetual remembrance so doth God engrave Sion upon the palms of his hands Isa 49.16 to which the Holy Ghost seems to allude He so loves his Israel that he who will be commanded by none stoops to be commanded by them in things concerning his Sons Isa 45.10 Not only ask of me what you want but command me in the things that are to come the pleas of my promises of things to come and your desires to bring them forth as the work of my hand shall be as powerful a motive to me as a command from a Superiour is to an obedient Inferiour for it is to things to come such things that God hath predicted that he limits their asking which he calls also here a commanding of him There was a real love in the first choice there is an intenseness of love in the first attraction Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee His love which had a being from Eternity is exprest by words of more tenderness when he comes to frame her lovingkindness as if his affection seemed to be increased when he came to the execution of his Counsel According to the vigour of his immutable Love will be the strength of her immutable Establishment This promise is made not to the Church in general but to all the Families of the spiritual Israel v. 1. Men are concern'd in honour for that upon which they have plac'd their affection Shall there then be decays in the kindness of that God whose glory it is to be immutable Is it possible this Fountain should be frozen in his breast Was there not a love of good will to Sion to frame her to pick out her materials when they lay like Swine in the confused mass and dirty mire of a corrupt world Is there not also a
but renews the promise of the Messiah to him as a reward Deliverance then comes when God hath separated the Corn from the stubble 4. A standing encouragement for future faith When the straits are greatest from whence God delivers us there is a stronger foundation for a future trust When the distress is inconsiderable faith afterwards will be more feeble large experience heartens strengthens faith in the promise When gloomy clouds are blown over the brighter and thinner will not be much feared When we see the Sun melt the thickest over our heads we shall not doubt its force to disolve the lesser vapours which may afterwards assemble when the Ship hath escaped a raging storm we shall not doubt it in a less God often puts them in mind of their deliverance in the red Sea to strengthen their faith and dependance on him It must needs be an establishment to faith for deliverances from great straits are some kind of obligation on the honour of God When the Israelites had provoked God by murmuring and wished they had dyed in Aegypt and not in the wilderness Moses intercedes with this argument The Aegyptians shall hear of it from whom God brought up Israel with a strong hand and it would disparage Gods power and tax him with an inability to bring his people into the Land he intended then God grants their pardon Numb 14.13 14 20. 5. Engagement to future Obedience 'T is upon this account God prefaceth the Law with his mercy in delivering them out of Aegypt The strongest Vows are made in the greatest straits Many obligations there are when the extremity forces us to cry When we are in the Jaws of Death God may have his terms of us when we are at some distance we will have our own The lower a person is the more readily will he bend to any condition hope of deliverance will make him stoop And when God snatches his People as fire-brands out of the fire they are more obliged to him from common ingenuity and must be more ashamed of breaking their Vows than if their mercies were of a great alloy If common patience leads to repentance a rescue from an amazing danger is a stronger cord to draw us to repentance and obedience And it is certain that when the Church in sincerity makes Vows to God it will not be long before God puts her into a condition to pay them and furnish her with Incentives of a holy ingenuity 6. The greater thankfulness The more straitned the greater thankfulness for enlargement As we hear not of the Israelites prayers after they came out of Aegypt till they were in the pound so we read of none of their songs though they had matter enough for them in their first departure till God had dasht in pieces the Enemy and thrown the Horse and the Rider into the Sea Then and not till then had they a deep sense how glorious God was in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Exod. 15.11 Great mercies unvail God's face more to the view of his People When Israel inherits great salvation then the Lord shall inherit the praise of Israel When we have less mercies we take little notice of the Author God hears the language of but one of our bones but when he delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him and spoils him then all my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee 7. To prevent future mischief to the Church The destruction of the greatest Enemies is a disarming the less God by this destruction struck a terrour into those Nations upon whose confines Israel was to march into Canaan who without so remarkable a rebuke of providence would have been desirous to finger some of their prey Then trembling took hold of the mighty men of Moab All the Inhabitants of Canaan did melt away fear and dread fell upon them by the greatness of the Arm of God that they should be as still as a stone till they passed over the River Exod. 15.15 16. Their present deliverance was a Pass-port for their future security in their Journey and no Enemies troubled them in the way but those upon whom God had a mind to shew his Power 2. How doth God deliver when the season is thus 1. Suddenly They sank like Lead in the mighty waters which quickly reaches the bottom Judgment comes like lightning Death and Hell are said to ride upon Horses Rev. 6.8 They are too swift for God's Enemies and will easily win the Race of them Destruction comes as travel upon a woman with child 1 Thes 5.3 How suddenly did God turn the Assyrian Camp into an Aceldema overthrow a powerful Army and make their Tents their Tombs in the space of a night He will dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Psa 2.9 all in bits at a stroke He comes suddenly he rides upon a Cherub Psal 18.10 But because the motion of an Angel is not so intelligible he adds another Metaphor from the nimblest of sensible things he flies upon the wings of the wind to assist his People in extremity The Enemy comes like a whirlwind * They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me Hab. 3.14 and God goes forth as a whirlwind of fury Jer. 30.23 The whirlwind of his Judgments shall be as quick as the whirlwind of their malice a continual whirlwind when the other is vanishing it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked when the other shall be as fruitless as a Snow-ball against a wall of Brass The Enemy beholds him not till he be upon him for the clouds are as dust under his feet Nahum 1.3 and obscure his appearance as the raising the Dust doth the march of a Troop he comes unawares upon them in a Cloud The Execution is sudden They shall be cut down as grass Psal 37.2 which this moment faceth the Sun triumphing in its natural bravery and the next moment is cut off from its Root with one shave of a Sythe He quencheth them as Tow is quencht in Water Isa 43.17 as the snuff of a Candle is quench'd by being bruis'd by the fingers He cuts them off as foam the excrement of the water Hos 10.7 which bursts in pieces like a bubble on the sudden Vengeance comes upon Tyre and Sidon swiftly and speedily Joel 3.4 Tyre comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to afflict to straiten Sidon of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies to pursue All Persecutors are threatned in Tyre and Sidon with a swift destruction God delays the time to try the faith and patience of his People to make the expected deliverance more sweet and welcom and mercy more singular He may have some of the seed of Christ in the loins of some of his Enemies But when he doth draw his Sword he gives a sudden blow before the Enemy fears it or his People expect it The Jews in Babylon when the Chains of their Captivity were unloosed were like those that
he was their Saviour It seems to refer to the deliverance from Aegypt Shall I have so little regard to the League I have entred into with their Fathers as to be unconcern'd in their misery There is hope in Israel till God forgets his Covenant and Christ strip himself of the name of a Saviour Christ hath his Priestly habit in Heaven for his People but Eyes as flames of fire quick and piercing to consume the very hearts of his Enemies and Feet like fine Brass to trample upon them Rev. 1.13 14 15. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to tear his Enemies as well as a Lamb slain to expiate the sins of his People He hath meekness for his Friends and terrible Majesty for his Enemies Psal 45.4 In thy Majesty ride prosperously because of meekness His kindness to his People makes him ride in Majesty against the others God will not be at rest till he hath revenged the Cause of his People Aegypt will be drowned Babylon will fall Rev. 18.2 Christ can have no satisfaction without it The Executioners of his Judgments in the North Country which was Babylon lying Northward from Jerusalem do quiet his Spirit both as tending to the glory of his Justice and the manifestation of his Mercy to his People Zach. 6.3 Christ will stain his garments in the blood of Edom and Bozra Isa 63.2 3. Edom the Posterity of Esau Bozra a City of Moab Types of the Churches Enemies The Jewish Doctors by Edom in the Prophets understand Rome Christ sits in Heaven till his Enemies be made his footstool All the time of his sitting God is acting and preparing things for a final Issue There is a strong cry of Blood and a file of Prayers the one will be revenged and the other will be answer'd Their own pride and cruelty witness against them God hath a noise of Petitions every day for a full end a combin'd importunity will prevail But clouds now hang over us a gloomy storm seems to threaten us God may indeed blow over the cloud Our Saviour hath the command of the storms and winds in Heaven as well as he had upon the Earth the Pillar of the cloud which hath hitherto conducted us may be our Guardian in the Rear to defend us But yet if he doth suffer them to prevail they shall be but as Whisks to brush off the dust wisps of Straw to cleanse the filthy Pot. You know what is to be done with them when their work is done Their Language indeed is Let Sion be defiled but they understand not the counsel of the Lord who in time will make the Horn of Sion Iron and her Hoofs Brass Micah 4.11 Though the Beasts that ascend out of the bottomless Pit do kill God's People Rev. 11.7 yet even in this Victory of theirs Satan himself shall be overcome As when Christ was taken out from among the living by Satans means it was but for a time but himself was cast out for ever so after this Victory the Church shall overcome Rev. 11. and God shall break the head of the Leviathan in the waters and when he doth by his wisdom contrive waies of salvation he will by his power execute them and save in such a way as may most glorifie himself and witness that the salvation was the immediate work of his arm Hos 2.7 I will save them by the Lord their God 2. Remember former deliverances in time of straits In our plenty of mercies we should not be unmindful how near we were to the Pit nor let the impression of God's power wisdom and mercy wear off from our hearts The Israelites were apt to forget the most signal mercies though they had seen them and had more sensibly tasted the sweetness of them than their Posterity God therefore often puts them in mind of them The Lord that brought them out of the Land of Aegypt out of the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 Hos 12.9 I the Lord your God from the Land of Aegypt Ezek. 23.3 It was the more fit to be remembred by them because many of them were fitter subjects for God's wrath with the Aegyptians than for his delivering-kindness since she committed whoredoms in Aegypt in her youth i. e. had been guilty of the Aegyptian Idolatry Unmindfulness of former experiences may make you hopeless of future deliverances The remembrance of former mercies is a ground of confidence in God for the like mercies for the future God recalls to his Peoples minds in their afflictions the memorable defeat of the Moabites by his sole power in the time of Jehoshaphat's Reign they should from that deliverance hope for as great from the hands of God in their straits And Zech. 10.11 God would have them consider their deliverance at the Red Sea as a ground of hope in the time of their distress 3. Thankfully remember former deliverances If we have not some praise for God we may suspect our selves * Lightfoot Temple cap. 3. p. 9. 'T is observed that the City Shushan the Royal seat of the Persian Monarchy was pourtrayed upon the east gate of the temple not because of the Persian command or because of their fear of that King as some think but to have a thankful remembrance of the wonderful deliverance of Purim which was wrought in Shushan Esth 9.26 If it had been only by the Persians command it would have been defaced after the fall of that Monarchy which held but thirty four years after the building of the second Temple The 136. Psalm is a good Copy where is a threefold exhortation to thankfulness in the beginning and one at the end and in the record of every mercy the burden of every verse is his mercy endureth for ever How should we imitate the Psalmist He broke the teeth of the invincible Leviathan in 88 and sent a strong wind to disperse the Fleet for his mercy endureth for ever God prevented the dreadful blast of Gun-powder for his mercy endureth for ever God sent the light of the Gospel into England and freed it from the yoke of Antichrists tyranny for his mercy endures for ever God hath been a wall of fire about Ireland in the protection of it for his mercy endureth for ever Let mercy receive the praise of what our own wisdom and power could not effect The way to overcome the same Enemies we fear is to praise God for what he hath before acted against them The strength of a people consists in praises as well as praying Psa 8.2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength In the Evangelist thou hast perfected praise Mat. 21.16 The more Hallelujahs we put up the more occasion God may give us for them If we have any fears of the overflowing deluge God formerly delivered us from our non-improvement of those deliverances the fruits whereof we enjoy this day may strengthen our fears When Israel was Idolatrous in Jeroboams reign yet God delivered them from the Syrians because he
a look There is no need of an Arm a word and a look of Omnipotency will be efficacious both for the one and the other one Royal Edict from him will perform it Psal 44.4 Thou art my King command deliverance for Jacob. He hath Authority as a King Engagement as the Churches King As he hath right of Dominion so he hath an Office of Protection which the Church of right may claim and is it Jacob that wants deliverance be not afraid but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself Isa 8.12 13. To trust in his Power is to sanctifie his name and regard him as the Soveraign of all creatures and the Lord of Hosts If we sanctifie his name by relying on his Power he will sanctifie his name by engaging his Power 7. To this end study the Promises God hath made to his Church and what Predictions are upon Record 'T is a title of the faithful that they are such as keep the sayings of the Book of the Revelation Rev. 22.9 The Angel that came to John owns himself his fellow-servant and of the Prophets and those that keep the sayings of that Book See God's Bond and behold his witness compare the promise the prophecy and performance See his mercy in making them his truth in performing them let these be as the Hur and Aaron to support the glory of God in our Souls This will be a matter of praise and furnish us with Arguments to spread before God Daniel first looked into the Book for the set time of the Jews return from Babylon Dan. 9.2 and took his rise for pleas from thence You may have need of this food a Divine Promise is the best Cordial at a Stake or Gibbet or when a Sword is at your breast 8. When a time of straits comes wait patiently upon God Let not hope sink when reason is non-plust by storms and sees nothing but wracks Wait upon God in the way of his Judgments Isa 26.8 in his storms as well as calms God waits to be gracious and therefore we should wait to be gratified Not to wait is to be partners in that sin which brought destruction upon the Churches Enemies viz. pride It concerns God more in point of his glory to hasten deliverance in its due time than us in point of security but there is as much danger in coming too soon as too late By waiting we imitate the highest pattern who waits with patience for the Reformation of his Enemies and Christ who waits for the total Victory The longer God keeps the Church at any time under the Enemies Chains the sweeter will be his mercy to the one and the severer his Justice on the other The Israelites waited and God followed Pharaoh with Plagues as he followed them with burdens and took his time to cut off their Oppressors with most glory to himself and most comfort to them The Vision hath its appointed time Impatience will not make God break the Chains of his Resolves but Patience will bring down the blessing with great success and big with noble Births God is not out of the way of his wisdom and grace and we can never keep in our way but by patience in waiting By this we give him the honour of his wisdom by too much hastiness we check and controul him and will not let him be the Master and Conductor of his own blessings We many times get more good by waiting than we do by enjoying a mercy Such a posture keeps the Soul humble and believing whereas many times when we receive a mercy too hastily with one hand we let go faith and humility with the other Sincere Souls have the strongest and most heavenly raptures in a time of waiting Isa 40.31 They mount up with wings like Eagles 9. In times of such straits Be found only in a way of duty If our straits should ever prove as hard as the Israelites at the red Sea i. e. have something of a resemblance to their case let us follow Moses his counsel to them Exod. 14.13 Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Let us not anticipate Gods gracious designs if we will have our finger where God only will have his arm God may withdraw this arm and leave us to the weakness of our own fingers Let them that want a God to relieve them use sinful and unworthy shifts for their deliverance If any success be found out of the way of duty it may be attended with a curse and want that favour of God which only can Sanctify it We may purchase a present deliverance with a more durable plague at the end of it because we forfeit that favour which only can work a real freedom Sinful ways do not glorify God but disparage him our actions at such a time particularly should adorn the gospel not discredit it for it is by the Sword of his mouth that such enemies will be destroyed and every Sword cuts best when it is sharpest and cleanest not when it is blunt and rusty Not but that lawful means may nay they must be used Noah though he went into the ark by Gods command and was not to stir out without his order yet he sets open the windows and sends forth a Raven and a Dove to bring him notice when the waters were dryed up 'T is a foolish thing to offend God who only can help us in our straits and by our sin to hold his Sword in his sheath which upon our obedience would be drawn for our relief We know not how soon we may need him and our distress be such that none but he can bring Salvation let no sin be a bar in the way 10. Be much in prayer Israel cryed unto the Lord before God did relieve Exod. 14.10 The persecuted Church cryed travelling in birth and found a security both for her self and her off-spring Rev. 12.2 c. The distress of the time is an argument to be used Psal 123.34 Have mercy upon us Lord for we are exceedingly filled with Contempt When Enemies are high and access to God free 't is an high contempt of God not to use the priviledge he allows us and 't is to trust in an arm of flesh rather than an arm of Omnipotence to think him either inexorable or unable And for encouragement consider you have Christ arm'd against his Spouses Enemies and provided with merit to make her prayers successful Our prayers may at last be turned into praises And we may say with David Psa 9.6 Oh thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end A DISCOURSE OF Delight in Prayer Psal 37.4 Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart THis Psalm in the beginning is a heap of Instructions The great Lesson intended in it is plac'd in verse 1. Fret not thy self because of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity 'T is resum'd verse 7 8. where many Reasons are alledged to enforce it Fret not 1.
Sanctuary Or do we delight in it not when our Tongues are most quick but our hearts most warm not because we have the best words but the most spiritualiz'd affections We may have Angels gifts in prayer without an Angels spirit 2. Is there a delight in all parts of a duty Not only in asking temporal blessings or some spiritual as pardoning mercy but in begging for refining grace Are we earnest only when we have bosom quarrels and conscience-convulsions but flag when we come to pray for sanctifying mercy The rise of this is a displicency with the trouble and danger not with the sin and cause 3. Doth our delight in prayer and spiritual things out do our delight in outward things The Psalmists joy in God was more than his delight in the Harvest or Vintage Psal 7.4 Are we like Ravens that delight to hover in the Air sometimes but our greatest delight is to feed upon Carrion Though we have and may have a sensible delight in worldly things yet is it as solid and rational as that we have in duty 4. Is our delight in Prayer an humble delight Is it a rejoycing with humbling Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with gladness and rejoyce before him with trembling If our service be right it will be chearful and if truly chearful it will be humble 5. Is our delight in Prayer accompanied with a delight in waiting Do we like Merchants not only delight in the first lanching of a Ship or the setting it out of the Haven with a full fraught but also in expectations of a rich return of spiritual mercies Do we delight to pray though God for the present doth not delight to give and wait like David with an owning God's Wisdom in delaying Psal 130.6 Or do we shoot them only as Arrows at random and never look after them where they light or where to find them 6. Is our delight in praising God when mercy comes answerable to the delight in praying when a wanted mercy was begged The ten Lepers desired mercy with an equal chearfulness in hopes of having their Leprosie cured but his delight that returned only was genuine As he prayed with a loud voice so he praised with a loud voice Luke 17.13 15. And Christ tells him his faith had made him whole As he had an answer in a way of grace so he had before a gracious delight in his asking the others had a natural delight and so a return in a way of common providence 3 Use Of Exhortation Let us delight in Prayer God loves a chearful giver in Alms and a chearful petitioner in Prayer God would have his children free with him He takes special notice of a spiritual frame Jer. 30.21 Who hath engaged his heart The more delight we have in God the more delight he will have in us He takes no pleasure in a lumpish Service 'T is an uncomely sight to see a joyful Sinner and a dumpish Petitioner Why should we not exercise as much joy in holy duties as formerly we did in sinful practices How delightfully will men sit at their games and spend their days in gluttony and luxury And shall not a Christian find much more delight in applying himself to God We should delight that we can and have hearts to ask such gifts that thousands in the world never dream of begging To be dull is a discontentedness with our own Petitions Delight in prayer is the way to gain assurance To seek God and treat him as our chiefest good endears the Soul to him Delighting in Accesses to him will enflame our love And there is no greater sign of an interest in him than a prevalent estimation of him God casts off none that affectionately clasp about his Throne To this purpose 1. Pray for quickening grace How often do we find David upon his knees for it God only gives this grace and God only stirs this grace 2. Meditate on the Promises you intend to plead Unbelief is the great root of all dumpishness It was by the belief of the Word we had life at first and by an exercise of that belief we gain liveliness What maintains our love will maintain our delight the amiableness of God and the excellency of the Promises are the incentives and fuel both of the one and of the other Think that they are eternal things you are to pray for and that you have as much invitation to beg them and as good a promise to attain them as David Paul or any other ever had How would this awaken our drowzy Souls and elevate our heavy hearts and open the lazy eye-lids to look up And whatever meditation we find begin to kindle our Souls let us follow it on that the spark may not go out 3. Chuse the time when your hearts are most revived Observe when God sends an invitation and hoist up the sails when the wind begins to blow There is no Christian but hath one time or another a greater activeness of spirit Chuse none of those seasons which may quench the heat and dull the spriteliness of your affections Resolve before hand this To delight your selves in the Lord and thereby you shall gain the desire of your hearts A DISCOURSE OF Mourning for other Mens Sins Ezekiel 9.4 And the Lord said unto him Go thorow the midst of the City thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof WHen God in the former Chapter had charged the Jews with their Idolatry and the multiplicity of abominations committed in his Temple And v. 18. had past a resolve that he would not spare them but deal in fury with them though they should solicit him with the strongest and most importunate supplications In this Chapter he calls and commissions the Executioners of his just Decree Ver. 1. He cryed also in mine ears with a loud voice saying Cause them that have charge over the City to draw near even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand And declares whom and in what manner he would punish and whom he would pardon The Executioners of God's vengeance are the Chaldeans described by the situation of them from Judea and the direct Road from that Country to Jerusalem v. 2. Six men came from the way of the higher gate which lies towards the North. Babylon lay North-East from Jerusalem and this gate was the way of entrance for Travellers from those parts it led also into the Court of the Priests which shews from whence the Judgment should come and upon whom it should light Six men A certain number Whether the Holy Ghost alludes to a particular number of Nations which the Chaldean Army might be composed of under their Prince who reign'd over several Countries or respects the other chief Captains or Marshals of his Army which are nam'd Jer. 39.3 or speaks with reference to the other places wherein the City was assaulted by
place of happiness 'T is thought by some that the reason Enoch was snatcht to Heaven in the midst of his life according to the rate of living in that age was because he was afflicted with the sins of those among whom he lived And indeed he could scarce walk with God without grieving that others disdained to walk with him and acted contrary to him God would take him from that affliction as well as from the danger of being corrupted by the age He will either have his Chambers wherein to hide them here till the indignation be over-past Isa 26.20 21. or his Mansions to lodge them in for ever with himself What hurt is it to any to be refused a hiding place here that he may be conducted to the possession of a glorious residence for ever That judgment that takes off the Fetters of a wicked Man for execution knocks off the Fetters of the godly for a Gaol delivery like Fire it consumes the Dross and refines the Gold The day of Gods wrath is a day of gloominess to the wicked Joel 2.2 but as the morning spread upon the Mountains to the godly mourners the dawning of comfort to them God out of the same Pillar of the cloud diffused light upon the Israelites and shot thunders and lightenings upon the Aegyptians to which perhaps the Prophet might here allude 3 Use Mourn for the sins of the time and place where you live 'T is the least dislike we can shew to them A flood of grief becomes us in a flood of sin How well would it be if we were as loud in crying for mercy as our sins at the present are in crying for vengeance While judgments march to seize our persons our grief should run to damp the judgments Moist Walls choak the Bullet 'T is far better to mourn for the cause of judgments than to mourn under them The jolly blades were the first prey to the Enemy Amos 6.1 2 3 to v. 7. They that chaunt to the sound of the Viol and drink wine in Bowls shall go captive with the first that go captive We of this City have most reason to mourn the Metropolis of a Nation is the Metropolis usually of sin and the fairest mark for the Arrows of Gods indignation The chief City of a Nation is usually threatned in Scripture Rabbah of the Ammonites Damascus of Syria Tyrus of Phoenicia Babylon of the Chaldean Empire Jerusalem of Judea and suitably why not London of England And let no Man think that mourning is a degenerate and effeminate disposition Doth Solomon ever imprint the same Character on mourning as he doth on laughter Eccles 2.2 Doth he ever vilifie that with a term of madness and call the mourners Bedlams How can any who hath not put off the Title and Nature of Man behold without amazement and grief Men so bold as to pull down the judgments of God upon them and force his indignation This temper is a pious embalming Christs crucified honour shall any Man that professeth Christ have so little love to him as not to bestow a groan upon him when he sees him freshly dishonoured and abused If we had not committed any sin in our whole life there is cause of mourning for the abominations of the world Christ had an unspotted innocence and an unexpressible grief for Jerusalems sins and misery Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thâ—e and thou wouldest not Never doth sorrow more appear in love than when it is more for what dishonours God than what pincheth us Men may pretend a grief for the sins of the times when it is only for themselves that they have not those pleasing opportunities of greatning themselves and that estimation in the world that stage for Pride and Covetousness to act upon which they desire Our mourning is then right when we grieve not so much that we as that God is a sufferer It should be proportionable where there are great breaches of Gods Law our grief should be as full as if possible to fill up the ditch that is digg'd the Septuagint in the Text implies it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul and Barnabas tore their garments a sign of a great grief and indignation when the Heathens would have sacrificed to them as Gods Acts 14.13 they used not the same expressions in smaller sins but this was against the Nature of God and a multitude engaged in it The greater the sin the greater the sorrow I need not mention the sins among us the impudent Atheism contempt of the Gospel putrifying Lust barefac'd Pride rending Divisions many sins visible enough to be grieved for and too many to be spoken of The sorrow should be universal Not for one sin which may be against any Mans particular interest but for all even those that our carnal advantage is not concerned in God is dishonoured by one as well as by another and Christ is crucified by one as well as by another It must be attended with a more strict obedience 'T is the highest generosity to wear Christs Livery when others put it off and lay it aside as useless No doubt but Joseph of Arimathea mourned as well as the rest for the sufferings of our Saviour but he testified also an Heroick affection to him in going boldly to Pilate to beg the body of Jesus for an honourable burial when none of the other disciples sought after it but trusted more to the swiftness of their heels for their own security than concern'd themselves for the honour of their Master While others therefore are defiling the world with their abominations let us be washing it with our Tears and filling heaven with our cries that when God marcheth in his fury we may be secure by his acceptance of our humiliations Motives 1. This is a means to have great tokens of the love of God No question but Christ in his agony bewailed the sins of the world and then was an Angel sent to comfort him and assure him of an happy issue It was just after the testimony of his displeasure against Peter for disswading him from that death whereby he was to honour God and wash off the stain of sin and repair the violations of the Law whereby he manifested a concern for his fathers honour that he was transfigured and had therein the earnest of an heavenly glory and that transporting voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear you him Mat. 16.23 Mat. 17.1 2 c. 2. It is a means to prevent judgments Tears cleansed by the Blood of Christ are a good means to quench that justice which is a consuming Fire Sin puts a stop to the working of Gods Bowels and opens the Magazines of wrath grief for it disarms Gods hand of his Thunders and may divert his darts from our hearts No other defence is often left against the strength of judgments after sin hath made its entrance A holy seed in Jerusalem is the guard of it in the time
God A Son is as much a Son under the Rod as in the Bosom neither the Fathers stroke nor the Childs grief dissolve that dear relation Nay a Father may shew more of a true paternal affection in his Chastisements than in his Caresses The Branches which are battered with Sticks may be nearer the Root than those that flourish at their ease Christ while a Man of sorrows was pronounced by God his well beloved Son and bore our punishment not only without forfeiting his Fathers affection but with a high gratification of him Neither doth God's visiting the seed of Christ with stripes cut off their relation to him Psal 89.32 Then will I visit their transgressions with Rods. Whose transgressions v. 30 His Children Whose Children Even the Children of him whom he would make the first born higher than the Kings of the Earth v. 27. Which cannot be understood literally of David or his Lineal Posterity in the Jewish Kingdom who were never higher than the Kings of the Earth 2. They debar not from the presence of God God may be and is as near to us in supporting as he is in punishing 'T is not the cloud that interposeth between the Sun and us that alters the Suns course or obstructs its influences Christ took not off the badges of Original Guilt from those disciples which had the greatest interest in his affections he left them in a sinful world to endure the fruits of sin he sent them not to ease pleasure and a quiet and painless life but to labour toyl and sweat yet promised that he would abide with them that he and his Father would manifest themselves to them And he turned that sweat and pain which was the fruit of sin by his presence with them to be instrumental for the glory of God and the good of themselves in the world 3. They break not the Covenant His Rod and his Stripes tho they seem to break our Backs make no breaches in his Covenant Psalm 89.32 33 34. he will visit transgression with Rods but he will not suffer his faithfulness to fail nor break his Covenant No they are rather covenant mercies when they break our Hearts and are means by his Grace to make our Stony Hearts more Fleshy He makes even those dispensations which were pronounced for punishment to bring forth covenant mercies and the rich fruits of his grace to grow upon the sour crab-stock of his judgments Jacob in Gen. 49. is said to bless his Children tho he predicts smart afflictions to come upon them they are rankt among the blessings because the covenant should remain firm The lash removes not the inheritance Austin saith well Noli attendere quam poenam habes in flagello sed quem locum in Testamento 6. Add to all this That the first promise secures a believer under the sufferings of those punishments Gods affection in the promise of bruising the Serpents head was more illustrious than his wrath in the threatning There are the Bowels of a Father in the promise before there was the voice of a Judge in the Sentence God brought Sugar with his Potion and administred his Cordial before he struck with his Lance. And therefore that threatning which commenc'd after the promise can no more prejudice the fruits of the promise to a Believer than the Law which was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham could disannul that and make it of no effect as the Apostle argues in another case Gal. 3.17 Much less can the threatning denounced immediately after the promise change the veracity of God in that which was fresh in his mind at the very time of his threatning Ob. But it may be askt What is the reason these punishments are continued since the redemption wrought by Christ Ans 'T is frequent with God to inflict a temporal punishment after pardon Not as the Papists assert in order to satisfaction Moses his unbelief hindred him from coming unto Canaan so that when he desired to go over Jordan God was wroth with him cut him off short and commands him silence Deut 3.25 26. Speak to me no more of this matter There are reasons 1. On Gods part 2. On our part 1. On Gods part 1. 'T is congruous to the wisdom of God to leave them upon us while we are in the World Since God created man to gain glory by his actions but was presently after his creation disgrac'd and disparag'd by him it seems agreeable to the wisdom of God not immediately to bring him to his former state but to leave some marks of his displeasure upon Man to mind him of the state whence he was fallen the misery he contracted and the necessity of flying to his mercy for succour 2. 'T is congruous to the holiness of God God keeps up those punishments as the Rector and Governour of the World to shew his detestation of that sin which brought a disorder and deformity upon the Creation and was the first act of dishonour to God and the first pollution of the Creature 'T is an high vindication of the Holiness and Authority of God and the Majesty and Purity of his Law to punish sin in them that are dear to him upon anothers righteousness whereby he evidenceth that he hates sin in all and will not wink at it or approve of it So he pardoned David but for the honour of his name which had been blasphemed by occasion of David's sin he would leave the smart of it upon his Family 2 Sam. 12.10 14. 3. 'T is a declaration of his Justice 'T is not congruous to the Justice of God not to leave some marks of his anger against that sin which caused him to be at the expence of his Sons Blood and is the source of all those evils whereby God is injur'd for which the Redeemer bled and by which the Spirit is grieved Since Pardon doth not neither can alter the demerit of sin but that will continue and what is once meritoriously a capital crime in its own nature can never be otherwise God may for the demonstration of his justice inflict and continue something upon the creature though he free him from actual condemnation We should not be so sensible of the justice of God in the death of Christ did we not feel some strokes of it upon our selves nor what the purchase of our redemption did cost our Saviour What we hear doth not so much affect as what we feel That which brought disorder into Gods Government of the world and made him change the Scene of his Providence may very justly have some signal remark upon it notwithstanding the Redemption especially when the fruits of it are not fully compleat For since Man was the immediate end of the creation of this lower world and since all Creatures were made for the service of Man that he might be fit for the service of his righteous Creator he did by his fall violate the order of the Creation and subjected it to the service
of the Devil a corrupt Creature and an enemy to God the chief Lord of the World and so did deprave the order of the universe and endeavoured to frustrate the end of God and the end of all the Creatures 'T is very rational to think that tho God out of his infinite compassion would not lose his creature yet that he should set such a badge upon him that should make him sensible of a depravation he had wrought in the world 4. 'T is useful to magnify his love We should not be sensible of what our Saviour suffered nor how transcendently he lov'd us if the punishment of sin had been presently removed upon the first promise Nay how then could he have died in the fulness of time which was necessary to the demonstration of Gods love satisfaction of his justice and the security of the Creatures happiness God adds the threatning to the promise as a dark colour to set off and beautify the brighter As Christ suffered that he might have compassion on us so are we punished that we might have an estimation of him When Paul cries out of the body of death so when we cry out of the punishment of sin it should raise our thankfulness for redeeming love I thank God through Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 25. We never know the worth of mercy till we feel the weight of misery The sharper the pains of sin the higher are our valuations of redeeming mercy In Isa 4.2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious In what day After great punishments v. 1. and in the foregoing chapter He appears most beautiful to us when we are under the lash for sin As sin continues in us that the justifying grace of Christs righteousness might more appear to us so punishment continues on us that redeeming love might be more prized by us 2. On our parts 'T is useful to us 1. To make us abhor our first defection and sin 'T was great and is not duly considered by us * Kellet Miscel This sin of Adam is the worst that ever was committed in the world Extensively though not Intensively worse than the sin of Judas or the sin against the holy Ghost In respect that those are but the effects of it and branches of that corrupt root Also because those sins hurt only the persons sinning but this drew down destruction upon the whole world and drove thousands into everlasting Fire and Brimstone 'T is not fit that this which was the murder of all Mankind the disorder of the Creation the disturbing of God's rest in the works of his Hands should be past over without a scar left upon us to make us sensible of the greatness of the evil Though the wounds be great upon our Souls yet they do not so much affect us as those strokes upon our Bodies This certainly was one main end of God in this to what purpose else did he after the promise of restauration and giving our first parents the comfort of hearing the head of their great seducer threatned to be bruised by the Seed of the Woman order this punishment but to put them in mind of the cause of it and stir up a standing abhorrency of it in all ages of the world Had not this been his intent he would never have usher'd it in by a promise but ipso facto have showered down a destroying judgment upon the world as he did upon Sodom without any comfortable word preceding God inflicts those punishments both to shew his own and excite our detestation of this sin He binds us in those fetters to shew us our work and our transgression wherein we have exceeded Job 36.8 9. 2. To make us fear to sin and to purge it out Sin hath riveted it self so deep that easy Medicines will not displace it It hath so much of our affections that gentle means will not divorce us from it We shall hate it most when we reap the punishment of it Punishment is inflicted as a guard to the law and the security of righteousness from the corrupt inclinations of the Creature So it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls punishment As death is continued for the destruction of sin in the Body so are the lesser punishments continued for the restraint of sin in our lives We need further conversions closer applications of our selves to God more quick walks to him and fixedness with him Gods smitings are to quicken our turnings As it was the fruit of Jacobs trouble to take away sin Isa 27.9 So it is a great end of God in those common punishments of mankind to weaken corruption in a believer by them Therefore when we have any more remarkable sense of those punishments let us see what wounds our sin gets thereby How our hatred of it is encreased If we find such gracious effects we shall have more reason to bless God for it than complain of it Oh happy troubles when they repair not ruine us when they pinch us and cure us like Thunder which though it trouble the Air disperses the infectious vapours mixed with it or the Tide which though turning the stream of the River against its natural course carries away much of the filth with it at its departure 3. To exercise Grace Punishments of themselves have no power to set any grace on work but rather excite our corruptions but the grace of God accompanying them makes them beneficial for such an end God hath to a believer altered the commission of such punishments they are to exercise our Faith improve our patience draw us nearer in acts of recumbency but he hath given them no order to impair our grace waste our faith or deaden our hopes 1. Faith and Trust 1. Tim. 5.5 She that is desolate trusts in God The lower the state the greater necessity and greater obligation to trust such exercises manifest that the condition we are in is sanctified to us As sin is suffered to dwell in a regenerate Man to occasion the exercise of Faith so is the punishment of sin continued for the same end The continuance of it is a mighty ground of our confidence in God We experiment the righteousness of God in his threatning and it is an evidence he will be the same in his promise When we bear the marks of his punitive justice it is an evidence that he will keep up the credit of his mercy in the promise as well as of his justice in the punishment both being pronounced at the same time the good of the one is as sure by God's grace to our faith as the smart of the other is by our desert to that sin The continuance therefore of those punishments may be used by a Believer as a means to fix a stronger confidence in God for if he were not true to the one we might suspect his truth in the other If God should be careless of maintaining the honour of his truth in his threatnings we should have
doth not commit sin nor cannot sin He commits it not Potiùs patitur quà m facit he gives not a full consent to it he hates it while he cannot escape it He is not such a committer of it as to be the servant of sin John 8.34 He that commits sin is the servant of sin because he serves with his mind the Law of God He bestows not all his thoughts and labour upon sin in making provision for the flesh Rom. 13.14 in being a Caterer for sin He yields not up his Members as Instruments of unrighteousness unto sin he doth not let sin reign in his mortal body nor yield a voluntary obedience to it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 13. for being God's Son he cannot be sins Servant he cannot sin in such a manner and so absolutely as one of the Devil's Children one born of the Devil His Seed remains in him His refers to God or the person born of God God's Seed efficiently man's Seed subjectively Born of God Twice repeated In the first is chiefly intended the declaration of the State in the second the disposition or likeness to God Observe 1. The Description of a Christian Born of God 2. The Priviledge of this Birth or Effects of it 1. Inactivity to sin He doth not commit it 2. Inability to sin He cannot 3. The ground and reasons of those Priviledges 1. The inward Form or Principle whereby he is regenerate which makes him unactive 2. The Efficient Cause which makes him unable Born of God or likeness to God makes him unable 4. The latitude of them in regard of the Subject Whosoever every regenerate man I intend not to run thorow all the parts of this Text having only chose it as a bar to presumption which may be occasioned by the former Doctrine upon mens false suppositions of their having grace There needs not any Doctrine from the Text but if you please take this Doct. There is a mighty difference between the sining of a regenerate and a natural man A regenerate man doth not neither can commit sin in the same manner as an unregenerate man doth That I may not be mistaken observe when I use the word May sin I understand it of a May of possibility not a May of lawfulness And when I say a regenerate man cannot sin so or so understand it of a settled habitual frame distinguish between passion and surprise a sudden effort of nature and an habitual and deliberate determination The sense of this cannot I shall lay down in several Propositions 1. It is not meant exclusively of lesser sins or sins of infirmity There are sins of daily incursion and lighter skirmishes there are some open some secret assaults a multitude of secret faults Psal 19.12 undiscernable and unknown Every good man is like Jacob though he hath one thigh sound he hath another halting I do not find that ever God intended to free any in this life from the remainders of sin What he hath not evidenc'd to have done in any we may suppose he intended not to do 'T is a total Apostacy not a partial Fall that the Covenant provides against Christ in his last prayer prays for Believers preservation and gradual sanctification not for their present perfection The very Office of Advocacy erected in Heaven supposeth sins after regeneration and during our continuance in the world 1 John 2.1 My little Children I write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father In many things we offend all James 3.2 Not only you that are the inferior sort of Christians but we Apostles We is extensive All offend in many things 'T is implyed in the Lord's Prayer the daily standing Pattern As we are to pray for our daily bread so for a daily pardon and against daily temptations which supposeth our being subject to the one and our commission of the other The brightest Sun hath its spots the clearest Moon her dark parts The Church in her highest comeliness in this world hath her blackness of sin as well as of affliction because though sin be dismounted from its Throne by grace it is not expelled out of its residence It dwells in us though it doth not rule over us Rom. 7.20 And it cannot but manifest it self by its fruits while it remains Yet those sins do not destroy our Adoption Christ in his Sermon on the Mount to his Disciples supposeth the inherency of sin with the continuance of the relation of Children Matth. 7.11 If then you being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him He doth acknowledge them evil while he calls God their Father and gives them the title of Children To sin is to decline from that rectitude in an act which the Agent ought to observe In this respect we sin according to the tenour of the Law in every thing we do though not according to the tenour of the Gospel 2. A regenerate man cannot live in the customary practice of any known sin either of omission or commission 1. Not in a constant omission of known duties If a good man falls into a gross sin he doth not totally omit the performance of common duties to God Not that this attendance on God in his Ordinances doth of it self argue a man to be a good man for many that walk in a constant course of sin may from natural Conscience and Education be as constant in the performing external services as he is 'T is a proper note of an Hypocrite that he will not always delight himself in the Almighty nor always call upon God Job 27.10 i. e. not customarily Whence it follows that a delight in God in duties of Worship is a property of a regenerate man An act of sin may impair his liveliness in them but not cause him wholly to omit them We need not question but David in the time of his impenitency did go to the Tabernacle attend upon the Worship of God 'T is not likely that for ten months together he should wholly omit it though no doubt but he was dead-hearted in it which is intimated when he desires a free spirit Ps 51. prayes for quickening Psa 143.11 one of his Penitential Psalms A total neglect of Ordinances and Duties is a shrewd sign of a total Apostacy and that grace was never in such a mans heart especially a total omission of prayer this is an high contempt of God denying him to be the Author of our mercies depriving him of the prerogative of governing the world disowning any need of him any sufficiency in him declaring we can be our own Gods and subsist of our selves without him and that there is no need of his blessing Grace though sunk under a sin will more or less desire its proper nourishment the Milk of the Word and other Institutions of God Nature though opprest by a disease will
pardon of sin necessâ—tate decreti if not naturae God repented of making the World but never of forgiving sin So that the pardon of sin is more pleasing to him than the sufferings of his Son were grievous otherwise whatsoever the Father would have done by Instruments yet surely he himself would not have been the Executioner of him But in this affair there were not only Instruments Judas to betray him the Jews to accuse him the Disciples to forsake him Pilate to condemn him the Souldiers to mock and crucifie him and Thieves to revile him but God himself Isa 53.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief Thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for sin His own Father that lov'd him as Abraham in the Type puts as it were the knife to the throat of his only Son which surely God would not have done had not pardon of sin been infinitely pleasing to him And how great a pleasure must that be that swallowed up all grief at his Sons sufferings Yea he seemed to love our Salvation more than he loved the life of his Son since the end is always more amiable than the means and the means only lovely as they respect the end 2. The Certainty of Forgiveness God must deny Christ's payment before he can deny thy pardon God will not deny what his Son hath earned so dearly and what he earn'd was for us and not for himself Did God pardon many before Christ died and will he not pardon believing Souls since Christ died Some were certainly saved before the coming of Christ Upon what account Not for their own righteousness that is but a Ragg and could not merit infinite grace Not by the law that thundered nothing but death and condemned millions but never breathed a pardon to one person Or was it by their vehement supplications Those could not make an infinite righteousness mutable Justice must be preferred before the cries of Malefactors and if those could have done it God would not have been at the expence of his Sons Blood Therefore it must be upon this account Rom. 3.25 For the remission of sins that are past Did God pardon upon trust and will he not much more upon payment Did he forgive when there was only a promise of payment and some thousands of years to run out before it was to be made and will he not much more forgive since he hath all the debt paid into his hands Would God remit sin when Christ had nothing under his hand to shew for it and now that he hath a publick testimony and acquittance will he not much more do it Seeing his purging our sins or expiating them by his death was the ground of his exaltation to the honour of sitting at the right hand of God in our natures Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high it is a certain evidence of the grant of pardon upon the account of this Sacrifice to those that seek it in Gods Methods since God hath shewen himself so pleased with it For it is clear that because Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity i. e. kept up the honour of Gods justice and holiness by the offering himself to death that God hath given him a portion above all his fellows 3. The extent of it Both to original and actual sin John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world Sin of the World the sin of humane nature that first sin of Adam Of this mind is Austin and others that original sin is not imputed to any to condemnation since the death of Christ But howsoever this be it is certain it is taken away from Believers as to its imputation Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 to bear all sin It had been an imperfect payment to have paid the Interest and let the Principal remain or to have paid the Principal and let the Interest remain There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 and therefore no damning matter or guilt left in arrear It had been folly else for the Apostle to have published a defying challenge to the whole Creation to have brought an Indictment against a justified person Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect if the least crime remained unremitted for the justice of God the severity of the Law the acuteness of Conscience or the malice of the Devil to draw up into a charge Since the end of his coming was to destroy the works of the Devil whereby he had acquired a power over man he leaves not therefore any one sin of a Believer unsatisfied for which may continue and establish the Devils right over him If the redemption only of the Jews with the exclusion of the Gentiles in the first compact seemed to displease him to shed his blood for small Sins only would have been as little to his content It had been too low a work for so great a Saviour to have undergone those unknown sufferings for debts of a smaller value and to shed that inestimable Blood for the payment of Farthings and leave talents unsatisfied Certainly God sent not his Son but with an inten ion his Blood should be improved to the highest uses for those that perform the covenant conditions and that Father who would have us honour his Son as we honour himself will surely honour his Sons satisfaction in the extensive effects of it as he would honour his own mercy since they are both so straitly linkt together And it is as much for the glory of Christs satisfaction as for the honour of his fathers mercy to pass by the greatest transgressions 4. The continuance of it Thou art pardoned and yet thou sinneâ— but Christ hath paid and never runs more upon the score Thou art pardoned and dost â—aily forfeit and needest a daily renewal but Christ hath purchased and never sins away his purchase God exacted a price suitable to the debt he foresaw men would owe him for he knew how much the Sum would amount unto When he gave Christ he intended him for the justification of many offences Rom. 5.16 The free gift is of many offences unto justification speaking of the gift of God v. 15. And therefore since God cannot be mistaken in the greatness of the Sum because of his infinite knowledge it had been a greater act of wisdom not to provide any remedy at all than not to do it thoroughly If the continuance of that imperfect remission of Adam and the Patriarchs was drawn out for above 3000 years and more and the enjoyment of happiness made good to them meerly upon Christs undertaking surely it will be much more upon his actual performing Rom. 3.25 There was then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had a continuance of freedom from punishment by his mediatorship and sponsion much more shall Belevers
have a continuance of pardon by his actual Sacrifice upon which the validity of all the former mediatory acts did depend Since now there is no more remembrance of Sin by the continuance of legal sacrifices his being so absolutely compleat Therefore God hath erected a standing Office of Advocacy for Christ 1 Joh. 2.1 in Heaven for the representing of his wounds and satisfaction and bespeaking a continuance of grace to us He is said to be the lamb that taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath taken or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will take but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes actum perpetuum the constant effect of his death And since as I said before Christ hath an higher portion than others because he loved righteousness in this portion he hath a joy and gladness but his joy would certainly be sullied if pardon should not be continued to those for whom he purchased it 5. The worth of it That must be of incomparable value that was purchased at so great a price as the Blood of God Acts 20.28 So it is called by reason of the union of the divine nature with the humane constituting one person 'T is Blood which all the Gold and Silver and the Stones and Dust of the Earth turned into Pearls could not equal God understood the worth of it who in justice would require no more of his Son at least than the thing was worth not a drop of Blood more than the value of it Neither surely would Christ who could not be mistaken in the just price have parted with more than was necessary for the purchase of it It would have beggar'd the whole Creation to have paid a price for it The Prayers and Services of a gracious Soul though God delights in them could not be a sufficient recompence And the bare mercy of God without the concurrence of his provokt justice could not grant it though his Bowels naturally are troubled at the afflictions of his Creatures IV. Extensiveness fulness or perfectness of pardon 1. In the Act forgiving covering not imputing 2. In the Object iniquities transgressions and sins 1. Perfect in respect of state God retains no hatred against a pardoned person He never imputes sin formally because he no more remembers it though virtually he may to aggravate the offence a Believer hath fallen into after his justification So Job possessed the sins of his youth And Christ tacitly put Peter in remembrance of his denial of him The grant is compleat here though all the fruits of remission are not enjoyed till the day of judgment and therefore in Scripture sin is said then to be forgiven 'T is a question whether Believers sins will be mentioned at the day of judgment Some think they will because all men are to give an account Methinks there is some evidence to the contrary Our Saviour never mentioned the unworthy carriage of his Disciples to him in his sufferings and after his resurrection seems to have removed from him all remembrance of it 'T is not to be expected that a loving Husband will lay open the faults of his tender Spouse upon the day of the publick solemnization of the nuptials But if it be otherwise 't is not to upbraid them but to enhance their admirations of his grace He will discover their graces as well as their sin and unstop the Bottles of their tears as well as open the Book of their transgressions Our Saviour upon Maries anointing him applauds her affection but mentions not her former iniquity It must needs be perfect 1. All Gods Actions are suitable to his Nature What God doth he doth as a God And is he perfect in his other works and not in his Mercy which is the choicest flower in his Crown God sees blacker circumstances in our sins than an inraged Conscience or a malicious Devil can represent But God pardons not according to our apprehensions which though great in a tempestuous Conscience yet are not so high as Gods knowledge of it 2. The Cause of pardon is perfect Both the mercy of God and the merits of Christ are immutably perfect 'T is for his own glory his own mercies sake that he pardons He will not dimm the lustre of his own Crown by leaving the effect of his glory imperfect or satisfying the importunities of his mercy by halves The Saints in Heaven have not a more perfect righteousness whereby they continue their standing than those on Earth have for though inherent righteousness here is stain'd yet imputed upon which pardon is founded is altogether spotless A righteousness that being infinite in respect of the person hath a sufficiency for Devils had it a congruity but it hath both for us because manifested in our natures 2. In respect of the Objects Sinful nature sinful habits sinful dispositions pardon'd at once though never so heinous 1. For quality There was no limitation as to the deepness of the wounds caused by the Fiery Serpents in the Wilderness the precept of looking upon them extended to the cure of all let the sting reach never so deep the wound be never so wide or sharp and his sight be never so weak if he could but cast his Eye upon the Brazen one The Commission Christ gave to his disciples was to preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 every Humane Creature the worst as well as the best though you meet with monstrous sinners in the likeness of Beasts and Devils except none from suing out a pardon in the court of mercy The Almightiness of his mercy doth as much transcend our highest iniquities as it doth our shallowest apprehensions Our sins as well as our substance are but as the Dust of the Ballance as easily to be blown away by his grace as the other puft into nothing by his power No sin is excepted in the Gospel but that against the holy Ghost because it doth not stand with the honour of God to pardon them who wilfully scorn the means and account the Redeemer no better than an Impostor No man can expect in reason he should be saved by mercy who by a wilful malice against the Son of God tramples upon the free offers of grace and provokes mercy it self to put on the deportment of justice and call in revenging wrath to its assistance for the vindication of its despised honour The infinite grace of God dissolves the greatest mists as well as the smallest exhalations and melts the thick clouds of sin as well as the little icicles 2. The Quantity Hath God ever put a restraint upon his grace and promise that we shall find mercy if we sin but to such a number and no more 'T is not agreeable to the greatness and majesty of Gods mercy to remit one part of the debt and to exact the other It consists not with the motive of pardon which is his own love to be both a friend and an enemy at the same time in pardoning some
and charging others and thus his grace would rather be a mockery and derision of men Neither doth it consist with the end of pardon which is Salvation for to give an half pardon is to give no Salvation since if the least guilt remains unremitted it gives justice an unanswerable plea against us What profit would it be to have some forgiven and be damned for the remainder Had any one sin for which Christ was to have made a compensation remain'd unsatisfied the Redeemer could not have risen so if the smallest sin remains unblotted it will hinder our rising from the power of eternal death and make the pardon of all the rest as a nullity in Law But it is the glory of God to pass by all Prov. 19.31 It is his glory to pass over a transgression 'T is the glory of a man to pass by an offence 'T is a discovery of an inward principle or property which is an honour for a man to be known the master of If it be his glory to pass by a single and small injury then to pass by the more heinous and numerous offences is a more transcendent honour because it evidenceth this property to be in him in a more triumphant strength and power So that it is a clearer evidence of the illustrious vigor of mercy in God to pass by mountainous and heaped up transgressions than to forgive only some few iniquities of a lesser guilt Jer. 33.8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgrest against me Therefore when God tells the Jews that he would give them a general discharge in the fullest terms imaginable to remove all jealousie from men either because of the number or the aggravations of their sins he knew not how to leave expressing the delight he had in it and the honour which accrued to him by it It shall be to me a name of joy a praise and honour before all the nations of the earth He would get himself an honourable name by the large riches of his Clemency Mercy is as infinite as any other attribute as infinite as God himself And as his power can create incomprehensible multitudes of worlds and his justice kindle unconceiveable Hells so can his mercy remit innumerable sins 3. Perfect in respect of Duration Because the hand writing of ordinances is taken away Col. 2.14 15. Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross which was the Ceremonial Law wherein they did by their continual presenting Sacrifices and imposition of Hands upon them sign a Bill or Bond against themselves whereby a conscience of sin was retain'd Heb. 10.2 3. and a remembrance of sin renewed they could not settle the Conscience in any firm peace Heb. 9.9 they were compelled to do that every day whereby they did confess that sin did remain and want an expiation Hence is the Law called a ministration of condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 because it puts them in mind of condemnation and compelled the people to do that which testified that the curse was yet to be abolished by virtue of a better Sacrifice This Hand writing which was so contrary to us was taken away nailed to his Cross torn in pieces wholly cancelled no more to be put in suit Whence in â—pposition to this continual remembrance of sin under the legal administâ—ation we read under the New Testament of Gods remembring sin no more Hâ—â— 10.3 17. Christ hath so compounded the business with Divine Justice that wâ— have the sins remitted never returning upon us and the renewal also of remissions upon daily sins if we truly repent For though there be a blacker Tincture in sins after conversion as being more deeply stain'd with ingratitude yet the Covenant of God stands firm and he will not take away his kindness Isa 54.9 10. And there is a greater affection in God to his Children than to his Enemies for these he loves before their Conversion with a love of benevolence but those with a love of complacency Will not God be as ready to continue his grace to those that are penitent as to offer it to offending Rebels Will he refuse it to his Friends when he intreats his Enemies Not that any should think that because of this duration they have liberty to sin and upon some trivial Repentance are restored to God's favour No where Christ is made Righteousness he is made Sanctification His Spirit and Merit go together A new Nature and a New State are Concomitants and he that sins upon presumption of the grand Sacrifice never had any share in it V. The Effect of Pardon That is Blessedness 1. The greatest evil is taken away sin and the dreadful consequents of it Other evils are temporal but those know no period in a doleful Eternity There is more evil in sin than good in all the creatures Sin stript the fallen Angels of their Excellency and dispossessed them of the Seat of Blessedness It fights against God it disparages all his Attributes it deforms and destroys the creature Rom. 7.13 Other evils may have some mixture of good to make them tolerable but sin being exceeding sinful without the mixture of any good engenders nothing but destruction and endless damnation Into what miseries afflictions sorrows hath that one sin of Adam hurl'd all his posterity what screechings wounds pangs horrours doth it make in troubled Consciences How did it deface the Beauty of the Son of God that created and upheld the World with sorrow in his Agonies and the stroak of Death on the Cross How many thousands millions of poor creatures have been damned for sin and are never like to cease roaring under an inevitable Justice Ask the damned and their groans yellings howlings will read thee a dreadful Lecture of sins sinfulness and the punishment of it And is it not then an inestimable blessedness to be delivered from that which hath wrought such deplorable Executions in the World 2. The greatest Blessings are conferred Pardon is God's Family-Blessing and the peculiar mercy of his choicest darlings He hands out other things to wicked men but he deals out this only to his Children 1. The Favour of God Sin makes thee Satan's Drudge but pardon makes thee God's Favourite We may be sick to death with Lazarus and be God's Friends sold to slavery with Joseph and yet be dear to him thrown into a Lions Den with Daniel and be greatly beloved poor with Lazarus who had only Doggs for Chirurgions to dress his Sores and yet have a Title to Abraham's bosom But we can never be beloved if we are unpardoned no share in his friendship his love his inheritance without a pardon All created evils cannot make us loathsom in a justified State nor all created goods make us lovely under guilt Sin is the
time and the sins thou hast committed twenty years ago are as fresh as if thou hadst acted them all since thy coming into the congregation Josephs brethren Gen. 37.24 laboured to wipe out the thoughts of their late cruelty by their eating and drinking when the cries and tears of their brother were fresh in their memory and might have dampt their jollity His affliction troubled them not his relation to them his youth and their Fathers Love to him could not make them relent but twenty two years after conscience began to fly in their faces when awakened by a powerful affliction Gen. 42 21. Is not thy conscience oftentimes a remembrancer to thee of thy old forgotten sins and doth it not turn over the old records thou hadst quite forgot 7. Hopes of Gods mercy are no grounds of thy being pardoned Gods mercy is not barely enough for then Christ needed not have dyed for sin Nor Christs death enough without the condition of that covenant whereby God will make over the interest and merits of his death to thee Gods mercy must be considered but in Gods own way God is merciful but his Mercy must not abolish his Truth Doth not a Judges mercy consist with condemning a malefactor God hath been merciful to thee and thou would'st not accept of it thou wouldst not hear mercy speak in a day of grace why then should not justice speak in a day of vengeance Thou would'st not hear a God of mercy when he cryed to thee how then should mercy hear thee when thou comest to begg 2. Some false grounds why those that are pardoned think themselves not pardoned 1. Great afflictions are not signs of an unpardoned state Moses had sinned by unbelief Aaron by making a golden calf God pardoned their sin but took vegeance on their inventions Psal 99.8 Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance Nathan in his message to David brings at once both pardon and punishment The sin is removed but the sword must still stick in the bowels of his family 2 Sam. 12 13 14. The Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to Blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye God may afflict temporally when he resolves not to punish eternally What! because he will not condemn thee as a Judg will he not chastize thee as a Father We may well bear a scourge in one hand when we have a pardon sealed in the other God pardons thy sin but there is need of affliction to subdue that stout stubborn heart of thine Psal 89.32 33. God doth visit with rods when he is resolved not utterly to take away his loving kindness from a people 2. Terrors of Conscience are no sign of an unpardoned state We find a pardoned David having broken bones and a rackt Conscience after Nathan had pronounced his pardon when there was no remorse before Psal 51. He had the grant of a pardon but the comfort of a pardon was wanting God may scorch thy Soul when he gives a pardon not that justice is thereby Satisfied but sin more embittered to thee By a pardon thou dost rellish his mercy and by the torments thou mayest have in thy Soul thou wilt understand his Justice He shews thee what he freely gives but he would have thee know what thou hast fully deserved he gives thee pardon but Gall and Wormwood with it that thou mayest know what the purchase of it did cost thy Saviour The Physick which heals causeth pain That Physick which doth not make thee sick is not like to bring thee health God pardons thee that thou mayest be saved he terrifies thee withal that thou mayest not be induced by temptations to sin 3. Sense of sin is no argument of an unpardoned state A pardon may be granted when the poor condemned man expects to be haled out to Execution Mary stands weeping behind her Saviour when Christ was declaring her pardon to Simon That much was forgiven her and afterwards Christ turns to her and cheers her with the news of it Luke 7.44 45 46 47. He pronounceth her pardon v. 48. and the comfort of it v. 50. Thy Faith hath saved thee go in peace The Heavens may drop when now and then the Sun may steal a Beam thorow the Clouds There may be a pardon where there are not always the sensible effects of a pardon We find after the stilling of a Storm the ragings and roulings of the Sea A penitents wound may ake afresh when a Saviours blood drops in mercy 4. The Remainders of sin are not a sign of an unpardoned state Though a Disease be mastered by Physick there may be some grudgings of it in a person Though sin be pardoned yet the dregs of sin will be remaining and sometimes stirring Christ hath enliven'd us not by wholly destroying but pardoning sin Pardon takes away the guilt of sin grace takes away the power of sin but neither pardon nor infusion of grace takes away the nature and all motions of sin for in purging out an humour some dregs still remain behind Col. 2.13 And you hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses 3. What are the true signs of a pardoned man 1. Sincerity in our walk A Spirit without guile is made the Character of a pardoned man in the Text There may be failings in the life yet no guile in the heart such a man is a pardoned man A heart that hath no mixtures no pretences or excuses for sin no private reserves from God A heart that as the needle in a Compass stands right for the Interest glory of God answers to the profession as an Eccho to the voice A heart that would thrust out any sin that harboured there would not have an Atom of any filth odious to the Eye of God lurk there Where this sincerity is a willingness and readiness to obey God which is the condition of the Covenant the substance of the Covenant is kept though some particular Articles of it may be broken Grace the pardoning grace of God is with them that love Christ in sincerity Eph. 6. ult Grace be with all them that love Christ Jesus in sincerity Not a man excluded that is sincere though he hath not so sparkling a flame as another yet if he be sincere the Crown of pardoning grace and that of consummating grace shall be set upon his head 2. Mourning for sin A tender heart is a sign of a pardoned state when sin discontents thee because it displeaseth God What showers of tears did Mary Magdalen weep after a pardon Love to God like a gentle fire sets the Soul a melting Tears that come from love are never without pardoning mercy God's bowels do first stir our mournings 'T is impossible a gracious heart can read a pardon with dry Eyes 't is the least it thinks it can do as it
were like Mary Magdalen to wash Christ's feet with its tears when it hath been washed its self with Christ's blood The Soul cannot enough hate that which God hath been merciful in the pardon of Forgiveness is like the warmth of the Spring it draws out the Sap of the Tree the tears of the Soul which else would scarcely stir If God hath given thee Repentance it is sure enough that he hath given thee a pardon for if he did not mean to give thee that he would never have given thee the other 3. Fearfulness of sin Whosoever knows the bitterness of sin and the benefit of a pardon can never confidently rush into it A pardoned man will never go about to forfeit that which he hath newly received Forgiveness from God doth produce fear in the creature Psal 130.4 But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared 'T is a sign we have repented and got pardon if we find after that exercise of repentance and prayer our hatred of sin encreaseth especially of that sin we were guilty of before 4. Sanctification God never pardons but he subdues sin Mich. 7.19 He will subdue our iniquity and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Both are put together In the Lords prayer desires to be rid of all evil and not to be led into any temptation follow immediately upon the desire of pardon A justified Person and a Sanctified nature are inseparable Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ there is pardon but how shall I know that I am pardoned If you walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We never sincerely desire pardon but we desire purging and God never gives the one but he bestows the other If thou hast an interest in a pardoning Christ thou wilt have the effects of a Sanctifying Spirit Where Gods grace forgives all sin he will give us grace to forsake all sin 'T is his covenant to turn away ungodliness when he takes away the punishment of sin Rom. 11.26 27. the deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The applications of Gods grace to us are attended with the infusions of Gods grace into us When he puts his law into the heart he remembers sin no more Jer. 31.33 34. 5. Forgiving others In the Lords prayer we pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Our Saviour comments upon this petition to shew that pardon cannot be without this condition in Mat. 18. from v. 23. to the 35. Christ makes it at least a causa sine quâ non of pardon Luke 11.4 and forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us 6. Affectionate Love to God and Christ When we desire to glorify him by his grace as well as be glorified by it 'T is the injury done to God by our sins which doth most affect that heart upon which the Spirit of God is poured Zac. 12.10 they shall mourn over him or be in bitterness for him The Soul is more concerned for Christ than for it self When there is too much of self in our desires for it God delays the manifestation of it to the heart that we may come up to purer strains Christ certainly shed his blood for their remission who are willing to shed theirs for his glory Else Christ whose glory it is to outstrip the hottest affection of his creature would be behind hand with him in love That Soul that would spend its all upon Christ he will not suffer to stand long sobbing before him Luk. 7.47 4 Use of Exhortation 1. To those who are careless of it Oh! by all means seek it Will it at last comfort thee to think of thy mirth and pleasures how honourable how rich or how well stor'd with friends thou hast been What should take up thy heart busy thy thoughts or employ thy endeavours but this that concerns thy eternal state Wilt thou sin away the time of Gods patience and thine own happiness Is it not a time which God hath allotted thee to get a pardon in What would Cain Judas Pilot Herod and all the black regiment give for the very hopes of it Oh prize that here which thou wilt hereafter esteem infinitely valuable and call thy self fool and madman a thousand times for neglecting the opportunity of getting The anger of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon what then are the frowns of an infinite just God Why is thy strength and affection spent about other things Would a forlorn malefactor leading to execution listen chearfully to any thing but the news of his princes clemency Seek it 1. Earnestly Pardon is an inestimable blessing and must not be sought with faint and tired affections 2. Presently Is it not full time seriously to set about it Thou hast lost too many days already and wilt thou be so senseless as to let another slip How knowest thou but if thou dost refuse it this day thou may'st be uncapable of it to morrow There is but a step a few minutes between thee and death and delaies in great emergencies are dangerous 3. Vniversally Content not your selves with seeking a pardon for grisly staring sins which fright the conscience with every look but seek the pardon of your inward secret spiritual sins while you begg most for the pardon of those Sanctifying grace will come in as well as justifying the more you pray against the guilt of them the more you will hate the filth of them 2. To those that seek a pardon and yet are in doubt of it Secure sinners that understand not the evil of sin think it is an easy thing and that forgiveness will be granted of course But those that groan under the burden of their iniquity imagine it more difficult than indeed it is Presumption wrongs God in his justice and every degree of despair or doubting in his mercy 1. God is willing to pardon Ephraim doth but desire that God would turn him and God presently cries out Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child Jer. 31.18 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus A penitent Ephraim is instantly a pleasant Child Ephraim strikes upon his thigh with confession and God speaks to his heart with affection God doth as it were take the words out of Ephraims mouth as though he watched for the first look of Ephraim towards him or the first breath of a Supplication God is more willing to pardon sin than we are to sin Because we sin with reluctancy natural conscience checking us but God hath no check when he goes to pardon He waits to be gracious Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you He hath waited all the time of your sinning to have an opportunity to shew grace to you and now you give it him by repenting will he lose the
witnesses that they shall stand again upon their feet the same persons if politically dead others witnessing the same doctrine if they were corporeally dead and damp all their mirth and triumph and turn their security into fears then shall glory be given to the God of heaven and the Ark of his Testament be seen in his Temple and the power of the Lord be magnified Rev. 11.10 11. When they shall all be gathered together to the battle of the great day of the Lord the place is called Armageddon Rev. 16.14 16 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A cursed troop an army under Gods Anathema when they have the greatest confidence When Jerusalem shall be penn'd up by a seige it shall be a cup of trembling in the hands of her Enemies Zac. 12.2 Fear shall seize upon them in the midst of their confidence The Sun was risen upon Sodom just before the devouring shower of Fire and brimstone With what derision would they have entertained any messenger that should have assured them of such a shower in so clear a day No doubt but the Aegyptian horses went prancing into the Sea and their riders confident of catching their prey when they saw the waters congealed they had not the least suspicion but that the division of the Sea was made in their favour till the Chariot wheels were taken off and the waters ready to roul upon them Exod. 14.23 25. 2. As something on the part of the Churches Enemies forwards the deliverance so there is some regard God hath to the Churches straits Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses 'T is Gods usual method to let the Church be in great distress before he commands deliverance The distress of the Church was great in the concern of this day though it was not sensible the deliverance being known near as soon as the danger The Church is to be in the depths of the Sea before she be fully delivered Psa 68.22 The Jews were to pass through the Sea with affliction before the pride of Assyria should be brought down and the Scepter of Aegypt depart away after that he would strengthen them in the Lord and they should walk up and down in his name Zach. 10.11 12. The sharpest pangs precede deliverance it was so when Christ came in the flesh it will be so at every new rising of Christ in his spirit when things were at a low ebb when the Sun sat in the greatest darkness of Errour Idolatry and prophaness when the Jews the only spot of ground God had was as a wilderness almost barren of any grace when the great predictions of the Prophets were unminded and less understood when Vrim and Thummim had ceased and the Spirit of Prophesy was shut up then Christ comes in the fulness of time to work an universal relief for mankind When the day of vengeance is in the heart of the Redeemer he shall look and find none to help he shall wonder to find none to uphold therefore his own arm shall bring Salvation Isa 53.5 This has alwaies been God's Method With his Son the powers of darkness had their hour and triumph'd when they had laid him in the grave before he was raised by the glory of his Father The Witnesses must be killed by the hand of their Enemies before they stand upon their feet and ascend up into Heaven in the sight of their Adversaries Rev. 11.7 when the Church shall walk in darkness grope for the wall like the blind mourn like Doves look for salvation and it shall seem far off then will the Lord put on a helmet of salvation on his head and the garments of vengeance for clothing and be clad with zeal as a cloak Isa 59.9 10 11 17. The break of day is ushered in by a thicker darkness than that which clouded the night before The sharpest persecution that ever the Church had was in the time of Dioclesian a little before Christianity was to rule his Empire in the exaltation of Constantine Abraham was in hardship out of his Country when he received the promises of the Messiah and Israel in the wilderness when the Oracles of God were delivered to them Confusion of the Church precedes alwaies the Communication of Light 1. The Reasons of the Doctrine are these 1. This makes for God's glory The creature cannot in this condition challenge any share in the honour of the deliverance or pare off so much as a splinter of his glory Had the Israelites been armed and drawn into a strong Battalion and so defeated the Aegyptian Army the Victory would rather have been challeng'd by them than ascrib'd to God but neither the strength of their multitude nor the wisdom of their Guides were able to protect them counsel failed and heads were feeble then did God get himself a name when they were upon the point of a remediless ruine It was manifest the name of the Lord got David the Victory since he encountred unarmed with Goliah who could have crusht him like a Fly had he been in his fingers The time of the Churches depression is the time of God's Exaltation he waits for the extremity to lift up himself When paleness is upon the face of his People when the Cedars of Lebanon hang their heads when the Churches beauty seems a lamentable deformity and Sharon is like a wilderness then will God arise Isa 33.9 10. God never builds up Sion but he ordains all things in a method for his appearance in the greatest glory Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in his glory that is when the Church is destitute v. 17. 1. God exalts his power his right hand then becomes glorious in power Exod. 15.6 He loves to appear in his dress as a Creator when there is no fitness in the subject to answer his end but what he bestows upon it When Jerusalem becomes a rejoycing and her People a joy 't is an act of creating power Isa 65.18 For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing When the creature can give them not the least assistance then will they be sensible of God's unbounded sufficiency and their own necessary dependance God never had too little help from his creature in a deliverance he hath sometimes complain'd of too much and disbanded some of the Churches Forces as in the case of Gideon Judg. 7. As Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies so doth God's Power most visibly in the midst of distresses A Physician 's skill is most conspicuous when the disease is most dangerous and most complicated and Nature at the lowest ebb 'T is more glory to God to quench the fire in its fullest rage than to extinguish it in its first smoke and sparkles God loves the fairest mark to shoot at and will rather down with Goliah than with the ordinary Philistines grapple with the great rather than with a light danger that the Lord may appear to be a man of war Exod. 15.3