his Justice in reference to Men and to appear to them still as a Righteous God Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Iudge of all the Earth do right And Rom. 3. 5 6. Is God unrighteous to take Vengeance how then shall he judge the World These Scriptures imply that if there were the least Blemish if you could suppose he should fail in point of Righteousness this were to be denyed that God should be the Judge of the World Therefore God's Righteousness and Justice which gives to every one their due must shine in its proper place he will give Vengeance to whom Vengeance is due and Blessing to whom Blessing belongs In our Case Punishment belongs to us and what can we expect from this God but Wrath and eternal Destruction Therefore if all this be so if a Conscience suppose a Law a Law a Sanction a Sanction a Judge a Judge some time when his Justice must have a Solemn Tryal and this will necessarily infer Condemnation to a fallen Creature What then shall we do 7. From this Condemnation there is no Escape unless God set up another Court and Chancery of the Gospel where condemned Sinners may be taken to Mercy and their Sins forgiven and they justified and accepted unto Grace and Life upon Terms that may salve God's Honour and Government over Mankind There is a great deal of Difference between the forgiving private Wrongs and Injuries and the pardoning of publick Offences between the Pardon of a Magistrate and the Pardon of a private Person When Equals fall out among themselves they may end their Differences in Charity and in such ways as best please themselves by a meer forgiving by acquitting the sense of the Wrong done or a bare Submission of the Party offending But the Case is different here God is not reconciled to us meerly as the Party offended but as the Governour of the World the Case lies between the Judge of the World and sinning Mankind therefore it must not be ended by meer Comprimise and Agreement but by Satisfaction that his Law may be satisfied and the Honour of his Justice secured Therefore to make the Pardon of Man a thing convenient to the Righteous and Holy Judge to bestow without any Impeachment to the Honour of his Justice and Authority of his Law the Lord finds out this great Mystery God manifested in our Flesh Iesus Christ is made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. And is become a Propitiation to satisfy God's Iustice Rom. 3. 25 26. And so God shews Mercy to his Creatures and yet the Awe of his Government is kept up and a full Demonstration of his Righteousness is given to the World 8. This being done conveniently to God's Honour we must sue out our Pardon with respect to both the Covenants both that which we have broken the Law of Nature and that which is made in Christ and is to be accepted by us as our Sanctuary and sure Refuge 1. We must have a broken-hearted Sense of Sin and of the Curse due to the first Covenant for it is the Disease brings us to the Physician the Curse drives us to the Promise and the Tribunal of Justice to the Throne of Grace and the Avenger of Blood at our Heels that causeth us to fly to our proper City of Refuge and to take Sanctuary at the Lord's Grace Heb. 6. 18. So that if you mince and extenuate Sin you seem to hold to the first Covenant and had rather plead innocent than guilty no if you would have this favour you must confess your Sins 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and vo cleanse us from all Unrighteousness You must confess your Sins and with that remorse that will become Offences done to so great a God And there must not only be a Sense of Sin but of the Curse and Merit of Sin also for we must not only accuse but judge our selves that God may not judge and condemn us 1 Cor. 11. 31. Self-accusing respects Sin and is acted in Confession Self-judging respects the Curse or Punishment that is due to us for Sin and it is a Persons pronouncing upon himself according to the tenor of the Law what is his due acknowledging his Guilt and this with much brokenness of Heart before God when he hath involved himself in God's eternal Wrath and Displeasure I observe that the Law-Covenant is in the Scripture compared to a Prison wherein God hath shut up guilty Souls Rom. 11. 32. He hath concluded or shut them up that he may have Mercy upon them Gal. 3. 22. He hath shut them up under Sin The Law is God's Prison and no Offenders can get out of it till they have God's leave and from him they have none till they are sensible of the Justice and Righteousness of that first Dispensation confess their Sins with brokenness of heart and that it may be just with God to condemn them for ever 2. We must thankfully accept the Lord's Grace that offers Pardon to us For since God is pleased to try us a second time and set us up with a new stock of Grace and that brought about in such a wonderful way that he may recover the lost Creation to himself surely if we shall despise our Remedy after we have rendred our selves uncapable of our Duty no Condemnation is bad enough for us Ioh. 3. 18 19. Therefore we should admire the Mercy of God in Christ and have such a deep sence of it that it may check our sinful self-love which hath been our bane and ruine And since God shewed himself willing to be reconciled we must enter into his Peace not look upon our selves in a hopeless and desperate condition but depend upon the Merit Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ and be encouraged by his gracious Promise and Covenant to come with boldness that we may find Grace and Mercy to help in a time of need Heb. 4. 16. Thus you see the Need we have to look after this Pardon of Sin 2dly I must shew our Misery without this And this will be best done by considering the Notions here in the Text. Here is Filth to be covered a Burden of which we must be eased and here is a Debt that must be cancelled and unless this be what a miserable Condition are we in 1. What a heavy Burden is Sin where it is not pardoned Carnal Men feel it not for the present Elements are not burdensom in their own place but how soon may they feel it Two sorts of Consciences feel the burden of Sin a tender Conscience and a wounded Conscience It is greivous to a tender Heart that values the Love of God to lie under the Guilt of Sin and to be obnoxious to his Wrath and Displeasure Psal. 38. 4. Mine Iniquities are gone over mine Head as a Burden too heavy for me Broken Bones are sensible of the least Weight certainly a
God for the clear and open Discovery of this Truth and free Offer of Grace by Jesus Christ. The 2d Use is to quicken us to put in for a Share in this blessed Priviledge I have spent my time in presenting to you what a blessed thing it is to have our Sins pardoned Christians A Man that flows in Wealth and Honour till he be pardoned is not a happy Man A Man that lives afflicted contemned not taken notice of in the World if he be a pardoned Sinner O the Blessedness of that Man They are not happy that have least Trouble but they that have least Cause not they that have a benummed Conscience but they that have a Conscience sound established and setled in the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and bottom'd upon his holy Covenant and that Peace and Grace he offers to us this is the happy Man By these and such like Arguments I would have you put in for a Share of this Priviledge But what must be required I would fain send you away with some Directions Let me intreat you if this be such a blessed thing to make it your daily your earnest your hearty Prayer to God that your Sins may be pardoned Mat. 6. 12. Our Lord hath taught us to pray for we make but too much work for pardoning Mercy every day Every day forgive us our Trespasses To day in one of the Petitions is common to all that follow as we beg daily Bread we must beg daily Pardon daily Grace against Temptations Under the Law they had a Lamb every Morning and every Evening offered to God for a daily Sacrifice Numb 28. 4 5 6. We are all invited to look to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Surely we have as much need as they more Cause than they because now all is clear and openly made known unto us God came to Adam in the cool of the Day he would not let him sleep in his Sins before Night came he comes and rouseth his Conscience and then gives out the Promise of the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpent's Head In Reconciliation with God let not the Sun go down upon God's Wrath Eph. 4. 26. A Man should not sleep in his Anger nor out of Charity with Man surely we should make our Peace with God every day If a Man under the Law had contracted any Uncleanness he was to wash his Cloaths before Evening that he might notly a Night in his Uncleanness We should daily earnestly come to God with this Request Lord pardon our Sins But what must those that are already adopted into God's Family and taken into his Grace and Favour daily pray for Pardon of Sin Though upon our first Faith our State be changed and we are indeed made Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life by Faith in Christ Jesus yet he that is clean need wash his Feet We contract a great deal of sinful defilement and pollution by walking up and down here in a dirty World and we must every day be cleansing our Consciences before God and begging that we may be made Partakers of this Benefit The Lord may for our unthankfulness our negligence our stupid security revive the memory of old Sins and make us look into the Debt-book that hath been cancelled with horrour and make us possess the Sins of our Youth An old Bruise is felt upon every Change of Weather When we prove unthankful and careless and stupid and negligent and do not keep our watch the Lord may suffer these things to return upon our Consciences with great amazement Guilt raked out of its Grave is more frightful than a Ghost or one risen from the dead Few Believers have upon right terms the Assurance of their own Sincerity and though God may blot Sins out of the Book of his Remembrance yet he will not blot them out of our Consciences The Worm of Conscience is killed still by the Application of the Blood of Christ and the Spirit This short Exhortation I would give you the other would take up too much time SERMON II. PSAL. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile IN this Text I observed That it is a great degree and step towards yea a considerable part of our Blessedness to obtain pardon of our Sins upon the account of Christ's Righteousness I shewed the necessity which lies upon Men who are all become guilty before God to look after this Pardon And thereupon took occasion to represent the Excellency of the Christian Religion that hath provided a Salve for the great Sore that runs upon all Mankind above that of the Pagans and also that of the Jews to whom this Mystery was but darkly revealed To proceed to another use To exhort you to put in for a share in this Blessedness To perswade you to it let me use a few Motives 1. Till you are pardoned you are never blessed there is an obstacle and impediment in the way hinders your Blessedness What though you flow in Wealth Ease and Plenty yet as long as this black Storm hangs over your head and you know not how soon it will drop upon you you cannot be accounted happy Men. Do you account him an happy Man who is condemned to die because he hath a plentifull allowance till his Execution Or him an happy Man that makes a fair shew abroad and puts a good face upon his ruinous and breaking Condition but at home is pinch'd with want and misery which is ready to come upon him like an Armed-Man Or him an happy Man that revels it out in all manner of pleasure but is to die at night Then those that remain in the guilt of their Sins may be happy But now on the other side a pardoned Sinner is blessed whatever befals him If he be afflicted the sting of his Affliction is gone that is Sin If he be prosperous the curse of his Blessings is taken away the Wrath of God is appeased and so every Condition is made tolerable or comfortable to him 2. Nothing less than a Pardon will serve the turn Not Forbearance on God's side nor Forgetfulness on ours 1. It is not a Forbearance of the Punishment on God's part but a dissolving the Obligation to the Punishment God may be angry with us when he doth not actually strike us As the Psalmist says Psal. 7. 11 12 13. God is angry with the Wicked every day If he turn not he will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow and made it ready He hath also prepared for him the Instruments of Death he ordaineth his Arrows against the Persecutors In the day of his Patience he doth for a while spare but God is ready to deal with them hand to hand for he is sharpning his Sword at a distance he is bending his Bow the Arrow is
Jesus Christ required and so much spoken of in Scripture I will content my self but with two Reasons at this time 1. Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of God's free Gift Faith and Grace do always go together and are put as opposite to Law and Works Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it may be of Grace Eph. 2. 8. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works left any Man should boast Faith establishes and keeps up the Interest and Honour of Grace for it is the free Grace and Favour of God to condescend to the Rebel World so far as he hath done in the new Covenant We present our selves before him as those that stand wholly to his Mercy have nothing to plead for our selves but the Righteousness and Merit of our Redeemer by virtue of which we humbly beg Pardon and Life to be begun in us by his Spirit and perfected in Glory 2. Why Faith in Christ Because the way of our Recovery is so strange and wonderful It can only be received by Faith Sense cannot convey it to us Reason will not and nothing is reserved for the entertainment of this glorious Mystery Pardon and Salvation by our Redeemer but Faith alone If I should deduce this Argument at large I would shew you nothing but Faith or the Belief of God's Testimony concerning his Son can support us in these Transactions with God The Comfort of the Promise is so rich and glorious Sense and Reason cannot inform us of it Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive 1 Cor. 2. 9. the things God hath prepared for them that love him It is not meant only of Heaven but of the whole Preparations and rich Provisions God hath made for us in the Gospel It is not a thing can come to us by Eye or Ear or the conceiving of Man's heart we only believe and entertain it by Faith And then the Persons upon whom it is bestowed are so unworthy that certainly it cannot enter into the Heart of Man that God will be so good and do so much good to such Adam when he had sinned grew shy of God and ran away from him Besides the way God hath taken for our deliverance is so supernatural God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life That God should become Man that he should submit to such an accursed Death for our Sakes is so high and glorious it can only be entertain'd by Faith Besides our chief Blessedness lies in another World He that lacketh Faith is blind and cannot see afar off Here in this lower World where our God is unseen and our great Hopes are to come where the Flesh is so importunate to be pleased where our Temptations and Trials are so many and Difficulties so great we are apt to question all and we can never keep waiting upon God were it not for Faith and a steady Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. For these Reasons if you look into the Scriptures it is why Faith is so much insisted upon that we may keep up the honour of God's Grace and because this Grace of the Redeemer is so mysterious and wonderful 4. The Use of these two Graces discover their Nature What is Faith and Repeatance Repentance towards God is a Turning from Sin to God The Terminus à quo of Repentance is our begun Recovery from Sin and therefore called Repentance from dead Works Heb. 6. 1. The Terminus ad quem to which we return is God and our being devoted to God in Obedience and Love God never hath our Hearts till he hath our Love and Delight till we return to a Love of his blessed Majesty and delight in his Ways This is called in Scripture sometimes a turning to God in many other places a seeking after God a giving up our selves to God 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave up themselves to the Lord. This is the Repentance by which we enter into the Gospel-State Now what is Faith Besides an Assent to the Gospel which is at the bottom of it It is a serious thankful broken-hearted Acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ that he may be to every one of us what God hath appointed him to be and do forevery one of us what God hath appointed him to do for poor Sinners It is serious and broken-hearted done by a Creature in misery and thankful for such a wonderful Benefit a trusting to this Redeemer that he may do the Work of a Redeemer in our Hearts to save us from the evil of and after Sin And thus I have briefly opened this necessary Doctrine as clearly laid down in the Scripture And this is your Entrance in the Evangelick State II. For our Continuance therein For we must not only mind our Entrance but our Continuance Our Lord Jesus tells us of a Gate and a Way the Gate signifies the Entrance and the Way our Continuance And we read of making and keeping Covenant with God we read of Union with Christ that is our first Entrance for this Faith is the closing Act and exprest sometimes by a being married to Christ. But there is not only an Union with Christ but an Abiding in him Abide in me and I will abide in you Now as for our Continuance I would shew you that the first Works are gone over and over again Faith and Repentance are still necessary For the Righteousness of God is revealed frm Faith to Faith And Repentance is still necessary But I shall only press two things First New Obedience Secondly Daily Prayer 1. New Obedience is required 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Holy Walking is necessary to the continuance of our being cleansed from Sin and therefore Mercy is promised to the forsaking of our Sins Prov. 18. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Our Hearts were not sound with God in the first Covenanting if we undo what was done If we build again the things we have destroyed then we are found Transgressours Gal. 1. 18. Well then a Man that seeks after Pardon seeks after it with the ruine and destruction of Sin Sin was the greatest Burden that lay upon his Conscience the Greivance from whence he sought ease the Wound pain'd him at Heart the Disease his Soul was sick of And was all this Anguish real and shall a Man come to delight in his Sores again and take up the Burden he groaned under and tear open
care not how they trample upon their own Brethren hate and pursue them with all that is evil It is hard to avoid this Snare when we are in Power Men forget God and abuse their Power and many times by a strange Providence they are brought to suffer the like hardness themselves When we see the oppressions of the innocent and things carried so perversely we are apt to say Lord who shall call these Men into question Who shall accuse them Why the Sighs and Groans of the oppressed before God's Tribunal upon all Persons depend every moment these will be more Authentick Witnesses than any matters of Fact can be produced in a lower Court 2. It implieth this and it inlargeth the Rule that whatsoever usage we expect to meet with at God's Hands the same in some measure we should dispence and deal out to others He is willing to give all provided you are willing to do to others as you would be done unto All the Mercy and Goodness we expect from him that must sway our Practice and Conversation with Men. What ever need others have of us the same need have we of God Eph. 6. 8. Whatsoever good thing any Man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free So for other Relations In the Practice of this Rule Christians are to consider not only how they would be dealt withall by Men but with God himself for Christ's sake which carrieth the Precept far beyond the Heathen Latitude and mightily inlargeth the Rule Alas from God we have nothing but undeserved Mercy pardon of Sins c. So we are to practise this Rule not only to those that love us but to our Enemies we must shew Mercy to the worst for Christ's sake Strict Justice by the light of Nature requires the injurious should suffer according to the wrong is done to me I but what do I expect from God Therefore I am to consider how God will deal with me if I am rigid severe exact and stand upon all things to the uttermost 3. Another Consideration which mightily inforceth the Rule is that if you do such things to others as you would not have them do to you God will do that to you which you have done to others for Vengeance is his They are not to do the same to you again nor exact nor desire it but God will It is good to consider God's Judgment of Counter-Passion or Retaliation As thou hast done so shall it be done to thee thy reward shall return upon thine own Head Obad. ver 15. They that were Pitiless Merciless to their Brethren in the day of their flight from Ierusalem God will pay them home in their own Coin And with what Measure you meet it shall be measured to you again Mat. 7. 1 2. Gen. 6. 6. Whose sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed It is not only a Law what is to be done but a Rule of Providence what God will do What more usual than Malefactors to be dealt withal according to their own Wickedness There are many Instances of this Judgment of Counter-Passion God doing to them what they have done to others Adonibezeck when the People caught him and cut off his Thumbs and his great Toes said Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered their Meat under my Table as I have done so God hath requited me And they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died Usually this is the dealing of God The Israelites had their Children drowned in the Water by Pharaoh what then Pharaoh and all his Host within a little while all his Nobility and Men of War were all drowned in the Water Ahab's Blood was lapped up by Dogs in the place where they shed the Blood of Naboth and Iezebel being more guilty was devoured with Dogs Ahab only permitted this Contrivance but Iezebel acted it Ahab humbled himself therefore he was buried with Honour but Iezebel was intombed in the Belly of Dogs and her Flesh devoured by them A Gallows we read was made for Mordecai and Haman was hanged on it himself Henry the third of France in that very Chamber where the Massacre was contrived against the Protestants there he was slain and his Brother before him Charles the ninth was found flowing in Blood in his Bed who had shed so much of the Blood of God's Saints Iudg. 9. 18 19. compared with ver 23 24. When the Men of Shechem had done great injury to the House of Ierubbaal Ye are risen up against my Fathers House and have slain his Sons threescore and ten Persons upon one Stone what then ver 23. Then God sent an evil Spirit between Abimelech and the Men of Shechem and the Men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech that the cruelty done to the threescore and ten Sons of Jerubbaal might come and their Blood be laid upon Abimelech their Brother which slew them So also the Observation of Austin is not to be past by upon the Parable of the rich Man he that denied a Crumb could not find a Drop to cool his Tongue But you will say It is so with good Men also the Children of God if they should break his Law doth the Lord give them according as they have done to others Yes God observes the same Justice though he doth pardon the Eternal Punishment and take it off yet here in this World as to Temporals they shall have like for like Iacob supplanted his Brother he came to Isaac as the Elder the Younger instead of the Elder and Laban brings him the Elder instead of the Younger Leah instead of Rachel Asa which put the Prophet into the Stocks we read of him that he was diseased in his Feet Nay I shall give you greater Instances than that Ioseph's Brethren they were not flexible to their Brother and did not hear his cry at length they came to Egypt upon an honest Errand for Corn in time of Famine and the Man is inexorable Gen. 42. 21. We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us What was the matter How comes this to work In a Storm things at Bottom we see come up to the Top so ever Sins in trouble will bubble up and we shall see that we saw not before How come they to remember the Trouble of their Brother for they knew not Ioseph and twenty years were past since they sold him They found the Man as inexorable as they had been to their Brother God's Judgment of Counter-Passion sets their Conscience a-work A greater Instance we have of Paul that consented to the stoning of Stephen and was present too at his Execution and it is said They laid down their Garments at Paul 's Feet and he himself takes notice of it Acts 22. 20. with great remorse afterwards Well what then after his
the Wound that was in a fair way of healing and willingly relapse into the Sickness he was almost recovered from with so much ado Sure this shews our first Consent was not real and sincere And then Christ will be no Advocate for them that continue in their Sins Our God is a God of Salvation we cannot enough speak of his saving Mercy But he will wound the Head of his Enemies and the hairy Scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his Trespasses Psal. 68. 20 21. 2. Daily Prayer This was spoken unto at the Close of the first Sermon Mat. 6. 12. Our Lord hath taught us to pray for we make but too much work for pardoning Mercy every day Every day forgive us our Trespasses To day in one of the Petitions is common to all that follow as we beg daily Bread we must beg daily Pardon daily Grace against Temptations Under the Law they had a Lamb every Morning and every Evening offered to God for a daily Sacrifice Numb 28. 4 5 6. We are all invited to look to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Surely we have as much need as they more Cause than they because now all is clear and openly made known unto us God came to Adam in the cool of the Day he would not let him sleep in his Sins before Night came he comes and rouseth his Conscience and then gives out the Promise of the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpent's Head In Reconciliation with God let not the Sun go down upon God's Wrath Eph. 4. 26. A Man should not sleep in his Anger nor out of Charity with Man surely we should make our Peace with God every day If a Man under the Law had contracted any Uncleanness he was to wash his Cloaths before Evening that he might notly a Night in his Uncleanness We should daily earnestly come to God with this Request Lord pardon our Sins But what must those that are already adopted into God's Family and taken into his Grace and Favour daily pray for Pardon of Sin Though upon our first Faith our State be changed and we are indeed made Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life by Faith in Christ Jesus yet he that is clean need wash his Feet We contract a great deal of sinful defilement and pollution by walking up and down here in a dirty World and we must every day be cleansing our Consciences before God and begging that we may be made Partakers of this Benefit III. The third thing is our Recovery out of greivous Lapses and Falls In them there is required a particular and express Repentance And Repentance and Faith must be carried with respect to those four things are in Sin Culpa the Fault Reatus the Guilt Macula the Stain and Blot and Poena the Punishment You know the Law supposeth a righteous Nature that God gives to Man therefore in Sin there is a Stain or Blot defacing God's Image The Precepts of the Law require Duty so it is Culpa a criminal Act the Sanction of the Law as threatned makes way for Guilt as executed calls for Punishment you see how it ariseth 1. For the Fault in the Transgression of the Law or the criminal Action See that the Fault be not continued Relapses are very dangerous A Bone often broken in the same place is hardly set again God's Children are in danger of this before the Breach be well made up or the Orifice of the Wound be soundly closed as Lot doubled his Incest and Samson goes in again and again to Dalilah But in wicked Men frequently as that King sent Fifty after Fifty and nothing would stop him There is an express forsaking of Sin required of us otherwise it would abolish all the Difference between the Renewed and the Carnal 2. The Guilt continues till serious and solemn Repentance and Humiliation before God and suing out our Pardon in Christ's Name 1 Iohn 1. 9. He speaks of Believers If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness There must be a solemn humbling for the Sin and then God will forgive us Suppose a Man forbear the Act and never commit it more as Iudah forbore the Act after he had comitted Incest with Tamar but it seems he repented not till she shewed him the Bracelets and the Staff yet with serious remorse we must beg our Peace humbly upon the account of our Mediatour Therefore something must be done to take away the Guilt 3. There is the Blot or evil Inclination to sin again The Blot of Sin in general is the defacing of God's Image but in particular Sins it is some weakning of the Reverence of God A Man cannot venture to act a grievous wilful Sin but there is a violent Obstruction of the Love of God A Brand that hath been in the Fire is more apt to take Fire again the evil Influences of the Sin continue Now the Root of Sin must be mortified it is not enough to forbear or confess a Sin but we must pull out the Core of the Distemper before all will be well As Ionah he repented of his Tergiversation and forsaking his Call The fault was not repeated he goes to Nineveh and does his duty yet the core of the Distemper was not taken away for you read of him Ion. 4. 2. Was not this my saying when I was yet in my Country therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew thou wert a gracious God and repentest thee of the evil ....... On the contrary Peter fell into a grievous Sin denying his Lord and Master with Oaths and Execrations but afterwards Iohn 21. 15. Christ trys him Jesus saith to Simon Peter Lovest thou me more than these pointing to the rest of his Disciples Peter had been bragging Matth. 26. 33. Though all Men forsake thee yet I will not forsake thee Now when he was foiled tho he had wept bitterly for his Fault Christ tries if the Cause be removed Lord saith he thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee But he doth not say now more than these The Root of the Distemper was gone Peter is grown more modest now than to make Comparisons 4. There is the Punishment Now we must deprecate Eternal Punishment and bless God for Jesus Christ who hath delivered us from Wrath to come But as to temporal Evils God hath reserved a Liberty in the Covenant to his Wisdom and fatherly Justice to inflict temporal Punishments as he shall see good If they break his Statutes and keep not his Commandments then will he visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Psal. 89. 32 33. Nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from them nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail If Iudgment begin at the House of God what shall become of the Sinner and Ungodly The Righteous are recompensed upon Earth partly to increase
Love to Mankind God so loved the World 2. The way which God took to recover our lapsed condition or the Effect and Fruit which flows from this Fountain that he gave his only begotten Son 3. The end of it that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Where take notice of 1. The Qualification or the free and easy condition put upon Men in the Gospel that whosoever believeth in him 2. The benefit that resulteth to us expressed Negatively and Affirmatively should not perish but have everlasting Life First The rise and beginning of all is God's unconceivable Love God so loved the World Where observe 1. The Object the World 2. The Act Loved 3. The Degree So loved 1. The word by which the Object is expressed is the World which noteth Mankind in its corrupt and miserable State 1 Ioh. 5. 19. The whole World lies in Sin The World is an Heap of Men who had broken God's Law forfeited his Love and Favour they neither loved nor feared God but were unthankful and unholy yet this World God loved 2. The Act He loved The Love of God is twofold the Love of Benevolence and the Love of Complacence 1. The Love of Benevolence is the Pity and Compassion of God towards Man lying in Sin and Misery This is understood in this place as also in Tit. 3. 4. The Kindness and Love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared 2. The Love of Complacence 〈◊〉 he loveth us when he hath made us lovely In which Sence it is said Psal. 11. 7. The Righteous God loveth Righteousness Joh. 16. 27. The Father himself loved you because ye loved me This belongeth not to this place 3. The Degree So loved He doth not tell you how much but leaveth it to your most solemn raised Thoughts It is rather to be conceived than spoken of and admired rather than conceived Observe from the Words That the Beginning and first Cause of our Salvation is the meer Love of God The outward Occasion was our Misery the inward moving Cause was God's Love 1. Love is at the Bottom of all We may give a Reason of other Things but we cannot give a Reason of his Love God shewed his Wisdom Power Justice and Holiness in our Redemption by Christ. If you ask why he made so much ado about a worthless Creature raised out of the Dust of the Ground at first and had now disorder'd himself and could be of no use to him We have an Answer at hand Because he loved us If you continue to ask But why did he love us We have no other Answer but because he loved us for beyond the first Rise of things we cannot go And the same Reason is given by Moses Deut. 7. 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor chuse you because you were more in number than any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you that is in short He loved you because he loved you The same Reason is given by our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11. 26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy Sight All came from his free and undeserved Mercy higher we cannot go in seeking after the Causes of what is done for our Salvation 2. The most remarkable Thing that is visible in the Progress and Perfection of our Salvation by Christ is Love And it is meet that the Beginning Middle and End should suit Nay if Love be so conspicuous in the whole Design and Carrying on of this blessed Work it is much more in the Rise and Fountain God's great End in our Redemption was the Demonstration of his Love and Mercy to Mankind yea not only the Demonstration but the Commendation of it That is the Apostle's word Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his Love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us A thing may be demonstrated as real that is not commended or set forth as great God's Design was that we should not only believe the Reality but admire the Greatness of his Love Now from first to last Love is so conspicuous that we cannot overlook it Light is not more conspicuous in the Sun than the Love of God in our Redemption by Christ. 3. If there were any other Cause it must be either the Merit of Christ or some Worthiness on our part 1. The Merit of Christ was not the first Cause of God's Love but the Manifestation Fruit and Effect of it The Text telleth he first loved the World and then gave his only begotten Son It is said 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Look as we perceive and find out Causes by their proper Effects so we perceive the Love of God by the Death of Christ. Christ is the principal Means whereby God carrieth on the Purposes of his Grace and therefore is represented in Scripture as the Servant of his Decrees 2. No Worthiness in us For when his Love moved him to give Christ for us he had all Mankind in his prospect and view as lying in the polluted Mass or in a State of Sin and Misery and then provided a Redeemer for them God at first made a perfect Law which forbad all Sin upon pain of Death Man did break this Law and still we break it day by day in every Sin Now when Men lived and went on in Sin and Hostility against God he was pleased then to send his Son to assume our Nature and die for our Transgressions Therefore the giving of a Redeemer was the Work of his free Mercy Man loved not God yea was an Enemy to God when Christ came to make the Atonement 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your Minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled We were sensless of our Misery careless of our Remedy so far from deserving that we desired no such matter God's Love was at the beginning not ours USE 1. Is to confute all Misapprehensions of God It is the grand Design of Satan to lessen our Opinion of God's Goodness So he assaulted our first Parents as if God notwithstanding all his Goodness in their Creation was envious of Mans Felicity and Happiness And he hath not left off his old wont He seeketh to hide God's Goodness and to represent him as a God that delighteth in our Destruction and Damnation rather than in our Salvation as if he were inexorable and hardly entreated to do us good And why That we may stand aloof from God and apprehend him as unlovely Or if he cannot prevail so far he tempteth us to poor unworthy mean thoughts of his Goodness and Mercy Now we can notobviate the Temptation better than by due reflections on his Love in giving his Son for the World
his personal Subsistence which is by way of Filiation or being eternally begotten in the Divine Essence So great was our Misery that no less Remedy would serve the turn and so great God's Mercy that he with-held him not from us Doct. The greatest Manifestation of God's Love to the Sons of Men is the giving his only begotten Son to be their Redeemer and Saviour There is a twofold giving of Christ. 1. He is given for us 2. He is given to us 1. He was given for us when he was sent into the World to become Bone of our Bone and Flesh of our Flesh and to die for our Sins This is spoken of Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all 2. He is given to us when we have a special Interest in him and a Participation of his Benefits 1 Cor. 1. 30. Christ Iesus is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption He is given for us as he took our Nature he is given to us as he dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith He is given for us as he undertook the Work of our Redemption he is given to us as he accomplisheth and brings about our Conversion to God and applying to us the Benefits of his Purchase I shall speak of both I. As he is given for us it mightily bespeaketh the Love of God and his Care of our Salvation In Creation God made us after his own Image and Likeness In Redemption his Son came in the similitude and likeness of sinful Flesh. In Creation the Angels were dignified above us but not in Redemption Heb. 2. 16. He did not redeem the Apostate Angels In short this was the most convenient Way for God to bring about the Purposes of his Grace towards Man for these Reasons 1. That our Faith might be more certain by the appearing of the Son of God in our Nature by his dying rising again from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and so giving a sensible Proof of our whole Religion 1. By appearing in Human Nature he had opportunity of conversing with Men to convince them of the gracious Will of God and teach them Obedience to him not only by his Doctrine but his Example and securing the Truth of both by the many Miracles which he wrought in the days of his Flesh. Ioh. 6. 27. Him hath the Father sealed that is owned acknowledged demonstrated that whatever he did or said was the Will and good Pleasure of God 2. By his dying he satisfied the Justice of God and so maketh a way for the Course of his Mercy to us that we might obtain Release and Pardon of all our Sins and Transgressions against the Law of God Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God c. 3. His rising again from the Dead was a visible Satisfaction to the World that his Sacrifice was accepted Rom 4. 15. Who was delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Iustification The unbelieving World by that supreme Act of Power have no reason to stand out against his Faith and Doctrine 4. By his ascending into Heaven the Truth of Eternal Life was more confirmed for thereby he gave us a real Demonstration of that Glory which he spoke of and promised to his Disciples and Followers 1 Pet. 1. 21. God raised him from the Dead and gave him Glory that your Faith and Hope might be in God He himself is entred into that Happiness and we shall follow him 2. That our Hope might be more strong and lively being built upon the Example of Christ and his Promises to us The Example of Christ is of great Support to us in all our Troubles for if we fare as he fared in this World we shall fare as he fareth in the World to come Therefore we are said to be begotten to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the Dead 1 Pet. 1. 3. That is have a Ground of Hope and chearful Assurance as he by by his Sufferings came to his Reward and Crown so shall we obtain the matter of his Promises 1 Ioh. 2. 25. And this is the Promise which he hath promised even Eternal Life Joh. 12. 26. If any Man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be If any Man serve me him will my Father honour 3. That our Love to God may be more fervent If God had saved us some other way the Salvation had been something less for according to the degrees of the Gift so is our Obligation Now God would oblige us at the highest rate and therefore he gave his only begotten Son to die for us It is said He spared not his own Son Rom. 8. 32. There is a twofold not sparing either in a way of impartial Justice or in a way of transcendent Bounty the last is chiefly intended in that place though the other not altogether excluded He delivered him up to die for our sakes Now surely this should gain much upon us when God thought nothing too good to part with for our Salvation 4. It makes our Obedience more ready for Jesus Christ came to live by the same Law that we were bound to Gal. 4. 4. When the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Yea to obey God at the dearest Rates Heb. 5. 8 9. Though he were a Sen yet learned he Obedience by the Things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him He submitted unto and performed the whole Law his Obedience cost him dear since an ignominious and shameful Death was a part of it II. God that gave Christ for us giveth him also to us and with him the Benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and Right to Eternal Life if we be duly qualified The Offer is made in the Gospel on our part there is required only a thankful acceptance of Christ on his own Terms This also is the greatest Gift for the other is in order to this and this is the compleating of it and applying it for our Comfort I shall prove it by three Reasons 1. Without Christ there is no Recovery of what we lost 2. No Removal of that Misery we incurred 3. No Obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness 1. No Recovery of what we lost What did we lose by the Fall The Image and Favour of God and Fellowship with God 1. The Image of God was defaced by Sin Man abode not in the honour of his Creation but became as the Beasts that perish Now the Restitution of this great Gift we only have by Christ who is the Pattern and Author of it The Pattern 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as
broken Heart cannot make light of Sin What kind of Hearts are those that sin securely and without Remorse and are never troubled Go to wounded Consciences and ask of them what Sin is Gen. 4. 13. Mine Iniquity is greater than I can bear Prov. 18. 14. A wounded Spirit who can bear As long as the Evil lies without us it is tolerable the natural Courage of a Man may bear up under it but when the Spirit it self is wounded with the sense of Sin who can bear it If a Spark of God's Wrath light upon the Conscience how soon do Men become a Burden to themselves and some have chosen Strangling rather than Life Ask Cain ask Iudas what it is to feel the burden of Sin Sinners are all their life time subject to this Bondage it is not always felt but soon awakened it may be done by a pressing Exhortation at a Sermon it may be done by some notable Misery that befalls us in the World it may be done by a scandalous Sin it may be done by a grievous Sickness or worldly Disappointment All these things and many more may easily revive it in us There needs not much ado to put a Sinner in the Stocks of Conscience Therefore do but consider to be eased of this Burden O the Blessedness of it 2. It is Filth to be covered which renders us odious in the sight of God It is said Prov. 13. 5. That a Sinner is loathsom To whom to God certainly he is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity To good Men the wicked is an Abomination to the Righteous the new Nature hath an aversation to it Lot's righteous Soul was vexed from day to day with the Conversation of the Wicked A wicked Man hates a godly Man with an hatred of Enmity and Abomination but a godly Man doth not hate a wicked Man with a Hatred of Enmity that is opposite to good Will but with that of Abomination which is opposite to Complacence It is loathsom to an indifferent Man for Holiness darts an Awe and Reverence into the Conscience The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour and a wicked Person is a vile Person in the common esteem of the World horrible Profaneness will not easily down nay it is loathsom to other wicked Men. I do not know whether I expound that Scripture rightly but it looks somewhat so hateful and hating one another We hate Sin in another though we will not take notice of it in our selves The Sensuality and Pride and Vanity of one wicked Man is hated by another Nay he is loathsom to himself why because he cannot endure to look into himself We cannot endure our selves when we are serious They will not come to the Light lest their Deeds should be reproved And we are shy of God's Presence we are sensible we have something makes us offensive to him and we hang off from him when we have sinned against him As it was David's experience Psal. 32. 3. That was the Cause of his Silence he kept off from God having sinned against him and had not a Heart to go home and sue out his Pardon O what a Mercy is it then to have this Filth covered that we may be freed from this bashful Inconfidence and not be ashamed to look God in the Face and may come with a holy Boldness into the Presence of the blessed God O the Blessedness of the Man whose Sin is covered 3. It is a Debt that binds the Soul to everlasting Punishment and if it be not pardoned the Judge will give us over to the Jaylor and the Jaylor cast us into Prison till we have paid the uttermost farthing Luk. 12. 59. To have so vast a Debt lying upon us what a Misery is that Augustus bought that Mans Bed who could sleep soundly when he was in debt so many hundred of Sesterties Certainly it is a strange Security that possesseth the Hearts of Men when we are obliged to suffer the Vengeance of the Wrath of the Eternal God by our many Sins and yet can sleep quietly Body and Soul will be taken away in Execution the Day of Payment is set and may come much sooner than you think for you must get a Discharge or else you are undone for ever Our Debt comes to Millions of Millions Well if the Lord will forgive so great a Debt O the Blessedness of that Man c. Put altogether now certainly if you have ever been in Bondage if you have felt the Sting of Death and Curse of the Law or been scorched by the Wrath of God or knew the horrour of those upon whom God hath exacted this Debt in Hell certainly you would be more and more affected with this wonderful Grace O the Blessedness of the Man to whom the Lord imputeth not his Transgressions 3dly The Consequent Benefits I will name three 1. It restores the Creature to God and puts us in Joint again in a capacity to serve and please and glorify God Psal. 130. 4. There is Forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feaared Forgiveness invites us to return to God obliges us to return to God and take it as God dispenseth it it inclines us to return to God and encourages us to live in a state of Amity and holy Friendship with God pleasing and serving him in Righteousness and Holiness all our days Certainly it invites us to return to God Man stands aloof from a condemning God but may be induced to submit to a pardoning God And it obligeth us to return to God to serve and love and please him who will forgive so great a Debt and discharge us from all our Sins for she loved much to whom much was forgiven It inclines us to serve and please God for where God pardons he renews he puts a new Life into us that inclines us to God Col. 2. 13. He hath quickned you together with Christ having forgiven all your Trespasses And it encourages us to serve and please God Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the Blood of Christ cleanse your Consciences from dead Works that ye may serve the Living God and that in a sutable manner that you may serve God in a lively chearful manner A poor Creature bound to his Law and conscious of his own Disobedience and obnoxious to Wrath and Punishment is mightily clogg'd and drives on heavily but when the Conscience is purged from dead Works we serve the living God in a lively manner and this begets a holy Chearfulness in the Soul and we are freed from that Bondage that otherwise would clogg us in our Duty to God 2. It lays the Foundation for solid Comfort and Peace in our own Souls For till Sin be pardoned you have no true Comfort because the Justice of the Supreme Governour of the World will still be dreadful to us whose Laws we have broken whose Wrath we have justly deserved and whom we still apprehend as offended with us and provoked by us We may lull the Soul asleep
with carnal Delights but the virtue of that Opium will be soon spent All those Joys are but stollen Waters and Bread eaten in secret a poor sorry Peace that dares not come to the Light and endure the Trial a sorry Peace that is soon disturbed by a few serious and sober thoughts of God and the World to come but when once Sin is pardoned then you have true Joy indeed Be of good Cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9. 2. Then Misery is pluckt up by the Roots Comfort ye comfort ye my People Why Her Iniquity is forgiven Isa. 40. 1 2. And we joy in God Rom. 5. 11. as those that have received the Atonement The Lord Jesus hath made the Atonement but when we have received the Atonement then we joy in God then there is matter for abundant Delight when the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy-Ghost given unto us 3. When we are pardoned then we are capable of Eternal Happiness Pardon of Sin is Gratia removens prohibens that Grace that removes the Impediment that takes the Make-bate out of the way removes that that hinders our Entrance into Heaven Sanctification is the beginning but till we are pardoned there can be no Entrance into Heaven now this removes the Incapacity I observe Remission of Sins is put for all the Priviledge-Part as Repentance for the Duties Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted to give Repentance and Remission of Sins There are two Initial Benefits Repentance as the Foundation of the new Life and Remission of Sins as the Foundation of all our future Mercies There are two chief Blessings offered in the New Covenant Pardon and Life Reconciliation with God and the everlasting Fruition of Him in Glory and the one makes way for the other Acts 26. 28. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Satan to God that they may receive Remission of Sins and an Inheritance among the Saints When we are pardoned then we are capable to look for the blessed Inheritance the Impediment is taken out of the way that excludes from it And thus you see the Blessedness of the Man whose Transgression is forgiven whose Filth is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin A Word of Application 1. Let us bless God for the Christian Religion Where this Priviledge is discovered to us in all its Glory and that upon very commodious terms fit to gain the Heart of Man and to reduce him to God Mic. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee among all the Gods pardoning the Transgressions of thine Heritage The Business of Religion is to provide sufficiently for two things which have much troubled the considering Part of the World a suitable Happiness for Mankind and suitable means for the expiation of Sin Happiness is our great desire and Sin is our great burden and trouble Now these are fully made known and discovered to us by the Christian Faith The last is that we are upon The Way how the grand Scruple of the World may be satisfied and their guilty Fears appeased And that we may see the Excellency of the Christian Religion above all Religions in the World it offers Pardon upon such terms as are most commodious to the Honour of God and most satisfactory to our Souls that is upon the account of Christ's Satisfaction and our own Repentance without which our Case is not compassionable The first I will chiefly insist on The Heathens were mightily perplexed about the way how God could dispense with the Honour of his Justice in the Pardon of Sin That Man is God's Creature and therefore his Subject that he hath exceedingly failed and faulted in his Duty and Subjection to him and is therefore obnoxious to God's just Wrath and Vengeance are Truths evident in the light of Nature and common Experience And therefore the Heathens had some Convictions of this and saw a need that God should be atoned and propitiated by some Sacrifices of Expiation and the nearer they lived to the Original of this Tradition and Institution the more burdened and pressing were their Conceits and Apprehensions thereof But in all their cruel Superstitions there was no rest of Soul they knew not the true God nor the proper Ransom nor had any sure way to convey Pardon to them but were still left to the Puzzle and Distraction of their own Thoughts and could not make God merciful without some diminution of his Holiness and Justice nor make him just without some diminution of his Mercy Somewhat they conceived of the Goodness of God by his continuing forfeited Benefits so long God left them not without a Witness But yet they could not reconcile it to his Justice or Will to punish Sinners And all their Apprehensions of the Pardon of Sin were but Probabilities and what was wrought to procure Merit was ridiculous or else barbarous and unnatural giving their First-born for the Sin of their Soul Mic. 6. 7. And all those Notions they had about this apprehended Expiation were too weak to change the Heart or Life of Man or to reduce him to God Come we now to the Iews The Iews had many Sacrifices of God's own Institution but such as did not make the Comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9. 9. And the Ransom that was to be given to provoked Justice was known but to a few They saw much of the Patience and Forbearance of God but little of the Righteousness of God and which was the great Propitiation Till God set forth Iesus Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the Forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the Iustifier of him that believes in Iesus Rom. 3. 25 26. Their Ordinances and Sacrifices were rather a Bond acknowledging the Debt or presignifying the Ransom that was to be paid and their Sacrifices did rather breed Bondage and their Ordinances were called an Hand-writing of Ordinances that were against them The Redemption of Souls was then-spoken of as a great Mystery but sparingly reveal'd Psal. 49. 3 7. My Mouth shall speak of Wisdom and the Meditation of my Heart shall be of Understanding I will incline mine Ear to a Parable I will open my dark Sayings upon the Harp What was that Wisdom What was that dark Saying The Redemption of Souls is precious it ceaseth for ever As it lies upon meer Man's hand none can give a Ransom for his Brother Eternal Redemption by Christ was a dark Saying in those days only they knew no meer Man could do it And in more early times in Iob's time he was an Interpreter One of a Thousand that could bring this Message to a distressed Sinner that God had found out a Ransom This Atonement then that lies at the bottom of Pardon of Sin was a rare thing in those days Let us bless
upon the string and how soon God may let it fly we cannot tell Therefore we are never safe till we turn to God and enter into his Peace Where-ever there is Sin there is Guilt and where-ever there is Guilt there will be Punishment If we dance about the brink of Hell and go merrily to Execution it argues not our Sin but Stupidity and Folly 2. On our part our sensless Forgetfulness will do us no good Carnal Men mind not the Happiness of an immortal Soul and they are not troubled because they consider not their condition But they are not happy that feel least trouble but those that have least cause A benummed Conscience cannot challenge this Blessedness they only put off that which they cannot put away which God hath neither forgiven nor covered They do but skin the Wound till it fester and rankle into a dangerous Sore God is the wronged Party and Supreme Judge to whose Sentence we must stand or fall If he justifies then who will condemn We may lay our selves asleep and sing peace to our selves but it is not what we say but what God saith There is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked 3. A Pardon is surely a great Blessing if we consider first the Evils we are freed from and secondly the Good depending upon it 1. The Evils we are freed from Guilt is the Obligation to Punishment and Pardon is the dissolving or loosing that Obligation Now the Punishment is exceeding great no less than Hell and Damnation and Hell is no vain Scare-crow nor is Heaven a May-game Eternity makes every thing truly great Look the Loss An Eternal Separation from the comfortable Presence of God Mat. 25. 41. Go ye Cursed c. And Luk. 13. 27. Depart ye Workers of Iniquity When God turned Adam out of Paradise his Case was very sad but God took care of him made him Coats of Skins to cloath him gave him a day of Patience afterwards promised the Seed of the Woman who should recover the lapsed State of Mankind and so intimated Hopes of a better Paradise That Exile therefore is nothing comparable to this for now Man is stript of all his Comfort sent into an endless State of Misery where there shall be no Hope of ever changing his Condition Now to be delivered from this that is so great an Evil what a Blessedness is it For the Paena Sensus the Pain as well as the Loss our Lord sets it forth by two Notions Mark 9. 44. The Worm that never dies and the Fire that shall never be quenched The Scripture speaks of the Soul with allusion to the state of the Body after Death In the Body Worms breed usually and many times they were burnt with Fire Accordingly our State in the World to come is set forth by a Worm and a Fire The Worm implies the Worm of Conscience a Reflection upon our past Folly and Disobedience to God and the Remembrance of all the Affronts we have put upon Christ. Here Men may run from the Rebukes of Conscience by many Shifts Sports distracting their Minds with a Clatter of Business but then there is not a thought free but the damned are always thinking of slighted Means abused Comforts wasted Time the Offences done to a merciful God and the Curse wherein they have involved themselves by their own Folly The Fire that shall never be quenched notes the Wrath of God or those unknown Pains that shall be inflicted upon the Body and Soul which must needs be great because God himself will take the sinful Creature into his own hands to punish him and will shew forth the Glory of his Wrath and Power upon him When God punisheth us by a Creature the Creature is not a Vessel capacious enough to convey the Power of his Wrath as when a Giant strikes with a Straw that cannot convey his Strength But when God falls upon us himself It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God how dreadful is that Is it not a Blessedness to be freed from so great an Evil then a little Mitigation a Drop to cool your Tongue would be accounted a great Mercy 2. If we consider the Good depending on it You are not capable of enjoying God and being happy for evermore till his Wrath be appeased and your Sins forgiven but when that is once done then you may have sure Hope of being admitted into his Presence Rom. 5. 10. If when we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death much more being now reconciled shall we be saved by his Life That is to say It is far more credible that a reconciled Man should be glorified than that a Sinner and Rebel should be reconciled If you can pass over this Difficulty and once get into God's Peace then what may you not expect from God The first Favour to such as have been Rebels against him facilitates the belief of all Acts of Grace Now what must we do that we may be capable of this blessed Priviledg that our Sins may be pardoned and our Filth covered and our Debt may be forgiven I shall give my Answer in three Branches I. I will shew you what is to be done as to your first Entrance into the Evangelick State II. What is to be done as to your Continuance therein and that you may still enjoy this Priviledge And III. What is to be done as to your Recovery out of grievous Lapses and Falls and Wounds as are more troublesom to the Conscience for which a particular and express Repentance is required I. As to our first Entrance into the Evangelick State that is by Faith and Repentance Both are necessary to Pardon Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins There Remission of Sins is granted to a Believer Now Repentance is full out as necessary Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins Luk. 24. 47. And that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem What is in another Evangelist to preach the Gospel to every Creature in this is that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name And this is preaching the Gospel for the Gospel is nothing else but a Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of Sins So if we will not hearken to the vain Fancies of Men who have perverted the Scripture but stand to the plain Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these two Duties are necessary to pardon Christ's Satisfaction is not imputed to us but upon Terms agreed on in the Covenant of Redemption As to the Impetration there is required the intervention of Christ's Merit so to the Application Faith and Repentance without which we are not pardoned These two Graces have a distinct Reference and it is intimated by that Passage of Paul for he gives this
these things cannot be Graces but in a Concomitancy Repentance without Faith what would it be When we see our Sins and bewail them Despair would make us sit down and dy If there were not a Saviour to heal our Natures and convert our Souls Neither can Faith be without Repentance for unless there be a Confession of past Sins with a resolution of future Obedience we continue in our Obstinacy and Stubbornness and so we are uncapable of Mercy our Case is not compassionable In short Repentance without Faith would degenerate into the horrour of the Damned and our Sorrow for Sin would be tormenting rather than curing to us And then Faith would be a licentious and presumptuous Confidence without Repentance unless it be accompanied with this hearty Consent of living in the Love Obedience and Service of God with a detestation of our Former ways it would be a turning the Grace of God into wantonness Therefore these two always go together Which is the first I will not enter upon but the one cannot be without the other 2. Let me shew you wherein they differ The one respects God the other Christ. 1. Repentance towards God While we live in Sin we are not only out of our Way but out of our Wits We were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Tit. 3. 3. We live in Rebellion against him against whom we cannot make our party good and withal contenting our selves with a false transitory Happiness instead of a solid and eternal one we never come to our Wits again till we think of returning to God As the Prodigal when he came to himself he thought of returning to his Father And Psal. 22. 28. They shall remember and turn to the Lord. So long as we lie in our Sins we are like Men in a dream we consider not from whence we are nor whither we are going nor what shall become of us to all Eternity but go on against all Reason and Conscience provoking God and destroying our own Souls Man is never in his true posture again till he returns to God as his Sovereign Lord and chief Happiness as our Sovereign Lord that we may perform our duty to him and our Felicity and chief Good that we may seek all our Happiness in him And none do repent but those that give up themselves to obey God and to do his Will as he is the Sovereign Lord 1 Pet. 4. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God and look upon him as their chief Happiness and prefer his Favour above all the sensual Pleasures of the World that they may be able in truth to say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Psal. 73. 25. This is Repentance towards God 2. There is Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. This Grace is necessary that we may own our Redeemer and be thankful to him as the Author of our Deliverance Rom. 7. 25. O wretched Man that I am But thanks be to God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And also Faith is necessary that we may trust our selves in his hands We are to take Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to hear him as our Prophet Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son hear him We are to receive him as our Lord and King Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him We are to consider him as the great High-Priest of our Confession Heb. 3. 1. Let us consider the Lord Iesus the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Confession Hear him we must as a Prophet that we may form our Hopes by his Covenant and frame our Lives by his holy and pure Doctrine Receive him we must as a King that we may obey him in all things Consider him as a Priest that we may depend upon the Merit and Value of his Sacrifice and Intercession and may the more confidently plead his Covenant and Promises to God Now without this there can be no Commerce between us and Christ. Who will learn of him as a Prophet whom he takes to be a Deceiver obey him as a King who doth not believe his Power or depend upon him with any confidence or hopes of Mercy if he doth not believe the value of his Merit and Sacrifice Herein these things differ Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the one respects the End God the other the Means Christ. Repentance more especially respects our Duty Faith our Comfort Repentance newness of Life for the future and returning to the Primitive Duty the Love of God and obeying his Will Faith Pardon of what is past and Hope of Mercy to come In short to God we give up our selves as our Supreme Lord to Christ as Mediatour who alone can bring us to God To God as taking his Will for the Rule of our Lives and Actions and preferring his Love above all that is dear in the World To Christ as our Lord and Saviour who makes our Peace with God and gives the Holy Spirit to change our Hearts that we may for ever live upon him as our Life Hope and Strength Thus I have briefly shewed you how Repentance respects God and Faith our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. That these Graces having their peculiar Reference are required in order to Pardon for distinct Reasons and Ends. First Repentance is required for these Reasons 1. Because otherwise God cannot have his End in Pardon which is to recover the lost Creation that we may again live in his Love and Obedience Surely Christ came to seek and save that which was lost Now to be lost in the first and primitive Sence was to be lost to God Take the lost Sheep or Groat it was lost to the Owner the Son to the Father and so if Christ came to save that which was lost he came to recover us to God therefore said to redeem us to God 2. Neither can the Redeemer do his Work for which God hath appointed him 1 Pet. 3. 18. He dyed the Iust for the Unjust that he might bring us to God We accept him in all his Offices for this end I am the Way Truth and Life no Man comes to the Father but by me Therefore whole Christianity from the beginning to the end a short Description of it is this A Coming to God by Christ. Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost whom all those that come to God by him 3. Without it we should not have our Happiness It is our Happiness to please and enjoy God we are not in a capacity to please and enjoy God till we are returned to him They that are in the Flesh cannot please the Lord. Nor to enjoy him here for here we see his Face in Righteousness Nor hereafter for without Holiness no Man shall see God Secondly But why is Faith in our Lord
2. In that he gave notice and did especially direct and send him to them Hath sent his Son 3. Why he came among them in his Word It was to bless them 1. In designing the Person who should do them good God hath raised up his Son Iesus It may seem to be meant of his Resurrection from the dead but I think rather to raise up is to exalt to call to authorize to appoint to some notable Work and it is used for installing consecrating as in this very Chapter v. 22. He shall raise up a Prophet from among you Acts 13. 23. Of this Man's Seed hath God raised up to Israel a Saviour that is hath put Authority upon him given him Commission to save Sinners raised up designed him to this Work But then 2. The special Direction of his Providenc God having raised up his Son IESUS hath sent him to bless you Sometimes the Word is said to be sent to us Acts 13. 26. To you is this Word of Salvation sent He doth not say we have brought this Salvation to you but to you it is sent God hath a great Hand in directing the Course of the Gospel And sometimes Christ is said to be sent as here in the Text for where the Gospel is preached to a People Christ is sent to them as a Token from Heaven if he be neglected you despise the Riches and Bounty of God and the best and choicest Gift that ever could be bestowed upon the Sons of Men. Therefore he saith God having raised his Son hath sent him Where the Gospel goes there Christ is sent there he comes that he may have work to do 3. Here is the End and Purport of his Coming not to take vengeance of the Affronts and Contumelies they had put upon him but he comes to bless For the opening of this Word you must look to the preceding Verse He speaks of the Covenant made with Abraham In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Now Jesus was sent unto them to assure this Blessing The Blessing is any Good that accrues and results to us from the Covenant of Grace but chiefly those special Blessings we have by Christ Reconciliation with God and Life Eternal those things which he minded to purchase for us and hath dispensed to us by his gracious Covenant This is the Blessing intended All Nations are to be blessed in the Seed of Abraham now God having raised Christ of this Man's Seed hath sent him to bless you III. Here is the Blessing interpreted and restrained and that is Conversion from Sin In turning every one of you from his Sins They expected a pompous Messiah that should make them an opulent and potent Nation But Christ came upon another Errand to convert Souls unto God Only mark when the Apostle speaks this he speaks it not of the Intention of God but the Offer of his Grace otherwise every particular Iew must be converted or God missed his End God may send him to bless and yet some may contemn the Offer others God prevents by the special efficacy of his Grace or else all would contemn it They that do contemn it are justly passed by and they that receive it own it to his Grace and not to themselves It was the secret Purpose of his Grace to bring in many and this brought in three thousand Men there were others refused this Blessing offered from the Mediatour and they justly perish for their Unbelief The Point though there be many that I shall insist on is Doct. That a main Blessing we have by Christ is to be turned from our Iniquities 1. Here I shall enquire What it is to be turned from Sin 2. I shall shew you That certainly this is a very blessed thing 3. That this is the great Blessing of the Mediator that we have by Christ in the Gospel 4. In what manner Christ turneth us from our Iniquities I. What it is to be turned from Sin Take these Considerations 1. Man fallen lay under the power and guilt of Sin He was dead in Trespasses and Sins and liable to the Wrath of God Eph. 2. 1 2 3. So Man was both unholy and guilty 2. Christ came to free us from both these The Guilt Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the Remission of Sins And the Power Tit. 3. 5. He hath saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy-Ghost To be freed from Guilt and delivered from Hell and Wrath to come is a Blessing for which we can never be sufficiently thankfull But to be freed from Sin that is the greater Mercy and therefore he hath sent his Son to bless you in turning every one of you from your Sins 3. To be turned from Sin implies our whole Conversion Though one part only be mentioned the term from which yet the term to which is implied that we are turned to God as well as turned from Sin To God as our Happiness and our Supreme Lord that we may love him and be happy in being beloved by him Act. 26. 18. 4. That Remission of Sins is included in our Conversion to God the meaning is that he may turn you from your unbelief and impenitency and so make you capable of his Pardon and Mercy for so it is explained v. 19. Repent and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out c. Without sound Repentance the Mediatour's Blessing will not be had and when Christ came to save us from Wrath his way was to turn us from Sin These two must not be severed God hath exalted him to be a Prince and Saviour to give Repentance and Remission of Sins Acts 5. 31. You see then what is meant by the Blessing the Mediatour offers To be turned from our Sins II. It is a blessed thing to be made Partakers of this Benefit Blessedness imports two things Negatively a Removal of Evil and Positively a Fruition or Enjoyment of some great Good When we are turned from our Sins there is both 1. An Immunity from or a Removal of the great Evil and that is Sin 1. The great Cause of Offence between God and us is taken out of the way Isa. 59. 2. Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and have hidden his Face from you Sin makes the Distance between you and God that you cannot delight in God nor God in you You cannot delight in God for your Hearts are alienated from him You are become Enemies in your Mind by wicked Works Where Sin reigns Man is an Enemy to God Partly through Carnal Prepossession there is something takes up his Heart and diverts it from God 1 Iohn 2. 15. If any Man love the World how dwelleth the Love of the Father in him His Heart is taken up with another Love And partly through Carnal Liberty we cannot enjoy our Lusts with that freedom and security by reason of the Restraints of his Law that would curb us and cut us short
are Strangers to the Promises of the Gospel It is a Thought that possesseth many when they are pressed to Christian Duties they will say We are not Saints or Angels and therefore cannot abstain from such Sins or attain unto an heavenly Life But do you mark what is said here Christians must be Partakers of a Divine Nature And not only they are cut off from any Priviledge by Christ who corrupt themselves as brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed Jud. 10. that is against the Light of Nature ingulf themselves in all manner of Dissoluteness and Sensuality But also they that walk as Men only according to the Rule of Men who mind nothing beyond the present World 1 Cor. 3. 3. Are not ye Carnal and walk as Men That is they are not raised above the Pitch of meer Men and have nothing of the Spirit of God in them 3. This Divine Nature may be considered three ways Either 1. As begun When we are first renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and regenerated according to the Image of God Ephes. 4. 23 24. There is a wonderful Change wrought in Sinners by reason of the Divine Qualities impressed on them So that the Creature beginneth to look like GOD Himself their Nature is altered their Course of Life is altered and their Designs and Actions have something Divine in them 2. As increased when more like God in a conspicuous degree At first the impression is but weak and this Glory is darkned by remaining Imperfections and we shew forth much of Adam upon all occasions as well as somewhat of Christ. But where any are sincere and diligent the old Nature is more suppressed and curbed and the Divine Nature doth more eminently appear 2 Cor. 3. 18. We are changed from Glory to Glory It is a work capable of Spiritual progress We should grow more like God and come nearer to the Nature of God every day And it is a shame we are not having been so long acquainted with the Word 3. As it is perfected in Heaven for there we have the nearest communion with God and so the highest conformity to him that we are capable of 1 John 3. 2. We shall see God as he is and be like him Perfectly like him for the being of Sin is then utterly abolished there is not the least stain or blemish upon a glorified Soul Besides then we are like him not only in point of Holiness but in point of Happiness and Felicity For God is an holy and happy Being Here we resemble God more in Holiness and Purity for many times the most eminent and exemplary Holiness may be accompanied with remarkable Afflictions at least sanctifying Grace doth not exempt us from them But there as our Holiness is exact our Felicity is compleat also First we are made Holy and then Immortal and in both like God Well then this is the effect Partakers of a Divine Nature So that when you come among the People of God and you be asked What kind of Men do you find them to be as Gideon in another case asked Zeba and Zalmunnah concerning his Brethren who answered Each one resembled the Children of a King Iudg. 8. 18. They were Godly and Majestical Persons So it will be said concerning the Saints who are really and eminently partakers of the Grace of the Gospel they are all Children of the most high God as like God as mortal men can be bear his Image and express Resemblance of the Grace of the Gospel II. Let us now see the Means by which God doth accomplish this effect To us are given great and precious Promises 1. It is an instance of God's Love that he will deal with us in the way of Promises The World is depraved by Sin and sunk into fears and despair of any Good from God whom we have so highly provoked Therefore God invites and allures us to himself by Promises For Promises and Declarations of God's Will in the Gospel whereby he signifies what Good he will freely bestow upon us if we will look after it These Advantages we have by them 1. A Promise is more than a Purpose for the Purpose and intention of a Man is secret and hidden in his own bosom but a Promise is open and manifest Thereby we get the knowledg of the Good intended to us If God had only purposed to bestow all this Grace upon us we could not have known his Intention and Purpose till it were manifested in the effect it would have been as an hidden Treasure or sealed Fountain of no Comfort and encouragement to us till we had found it But now the Word is gone out of his Lips we may know how we shall speed if we will hearken to his Counsel God's Promises are on his part the eruption or overflow of his Love his Heart is so big with thoughts of Good to us that his Love cannot stay till the accomplishment of things but he must tell us aforehand Isa. 42. 9. Before they spring forth I tell you of them He might have done us Good and given us no notice but that would not satisfy him It is an obligation God takes upon himself Promittendo se Debitorem fecit God's Purposes are unchangeable but Promises are a Security put into our hands not only give us notice but Assurance that thus it shall be We have the greater hold-fast upon him and may put his Bond in suit Psal. 119. 49. Remember the Word unto thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope 2. It is more than a Doctrinal Declaration It is one thing to reveal a Doctrine another to promise a Benefit that maketh a thing known this maketh a thing sure and upon certain terms That gives us notice but this gives us interest If Life and Immortality had been only brought to light in the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. which was only obscurely known to the Heathens it were a great mercy that we were not left to blind Guesses and dark Conjectures That Eternal Life is set before us a thing real and excellent is a great matter But God hath put it into a Covenant-form and Promise 1 Ioh. 2. 25. that we may make our Title and Claim Surely that is matter of great Comfort to us Psal. 119. 111. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an Heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart 3. It is more than a Prophecy or simple Prediction Scripture-Prophecies will be fulfilled because of God's Veracity but Scripture-Promises will be fulfilled not only because of God's Veracity but also his Fidelity and Justice For by God's Promise Man cometh to have a right to the thing promised it was his Mercy and Goodness to make the Promise but his Justice and Fidelity bindeth him to make it good 1 Ioh. 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 2 Tim. 4. 8. Divines say Of all Lies a Promissory Lie
the Propitiation for Sin and the Obedience of the Sacrificer as devoted to God Now the first Signification took place and had its effect upon them if they neglected the other two Meanings of the Sacrifices and therefore they were to be looked on as salted with Fire whereas the other who were accepted were salted with Salt The 3d Observation for the opening of this is the two References of these Saltings or the distinct and proper Application of them 1. To the wicked For every one shall be salted with Fire that is every one of them spoken of before who indulged their corrupt Affections who did not entirely and heartily keep the Covenant of God and renounce their beloved Lusts. 2. Here is the Application to the Godly Every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt that is Every one that is not a Sacrifice by constraint but voluntarily surrenders and gives up himself to God to be ordered and disposed of according to his Will he is salted not with Fire but with Salt which every one that is devoted to God is bound to have within himself So while some are destinated to the Wrath of God and salted with Fire to be consumed and destroyed others are salted with Salt preserved and kept savoury in the Profession and Practice of Godliness The Doctrine is this Doct. The Grace of Mortification is very necessary for all those who are devoted to God I shall prove three things I. That the true Notion of a Christian is that he is a Sacrifice or a Thank-offering to God II. That the Grace of Mortification is the true Salt whereby this Offering and Sacrifice should be seasoned III. I shall shew you the Necessity of this Salt that we may keep right with God in the Duties of the Covenant I. The true Notion of a Christian is that he is a Sacrifice to God This is evident by Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service that is the reasonable part which was figured by the Sacrifices and Oblations of the Law And so Isa. 66. 20. They shall bring your Brethren for an offering unto the Lord. Under the Law Beasts were offered to God but in the Gospel Men are offered to him not as Beasts were to be destroyed slain and burnt in the Fire but to be preserved for God's use and service In offering any thing to God two things were of consideration there was a Separation from a common and a Dedication to an holy use and they both take place in the present matter 1. There is a separation of our selves from a common use The Beast was separated from the Flock or Herd for this special purpose to be given to God Thus we are separated and set apart from the rest of the World that we may be a People to God We are no more our own 1 Cor. 6. 19. And we are no more to live to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5. 15. We are not to live to the World to the Flesh or to such things as the natural Heart craves we have no right in our selves to dispose of our selves of our time of our interest of our strength but must wholly give up our selves to God to be disposed ordered governed by him at his own will and pleasure 2. There is a dedication of our selves to God to serve please honour and glorify him 1. The manner of dedicating our selves to God is to be considered 'T is usually done with grief shame and indignation at our selves that God hath been so long kept out of his right with a full purpose to restore it to him with advantage 1 Pet. 4. 3. The time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the flesh and of Man it is high time to give up our selves to the Will of God we have been long enough too long dishonouring God destroying our Souls pleasing the Flesh living according to the Flesh and the course of the World therefore they desire to make restitution Rom. 6. 19. For as ye have yeelded your Members Servants to Uncleanness and to Iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeeld your Members Servants to Righteousness unto Holiness Their forepast neglects of God and duty to him fill their Hearts with shame therefore they resolve to double their diligence and to be as eminent in Holiness as before they were in Vanity and Sin 2. It is with a deep sence of the Lord's love in Christ for we give up our selves to God not as a Sin-offering but as a Thank-offering Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of the Lord. And 2 Cor. 5. 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again they are ravished with an admiration of God's goodness in Christ and so give up themselves to him 3. They do intirely give up themselves to God not to be his in a few things but in all to serve him with all their faculties You are not your own but are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. Therefore glorify God both with your Bodies and Souls which are Gods And to serve him in all conditions Rom. 14. 8. Whether we live we live unto God or whether we die we die unto God for living or dying we are the Lord 's They are willing to be used for his Glory not only as active Instruments but as passive Objects they give up themselves to obey his governing will and to submit to his disposing will to be what he would have them to be as well as to do what he would have them to do Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death Thus with all their faculties in every condition of Life are they to be devoted to God in all actions It is said Zach. 14. 20 21. That Holiness to the Lord shall be written not only upon the Bowls of the Altar and the Pots of the Lord's House butalso upon all the Pots of Jerusalem not only upon the Vessels of the Temple but upon common utensils that is translate it into a Gospel Phrase that not only in our sacred but even in our common and civil actions c. we should live as a people that are offered up to God 4. The end why we give up our selves to God is to serve please and glorify him Act. 27. 23. His I am and him I serve to please him by the obedience of his will Rom. 12. 1 2. Ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service And
Love is our Breast-plate that guards the vitals of Christianity and Hope is our Helmet that covers our Head that we may hold up our Head in the midst of all the troubles and sorrows of the present Life 1 Thess. 5. 8. Both Graces are necessary therefore it will not be unprofitable to insist upon them I begin now with the former The Lord direct your Hearts to the love of God Where note 1. The Grace prayed for the Love of God 2. The Efficiency which is necessary to produce it the Lord direct your Hearts The word direct notes sometimes conduct and guidance and sometimes bending or setting streight the thing that is crooked Conduct and Guidance as we guide Men that they may not go wrong Psal. 119. 5. Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Ships that are best rigged need a Pilot and they that love God most need to have their love ordered and directed to the best advantage of his Glory and Service This for the first signification guidance and direction But at other times it signifies the bending inclining or making streight what is crooked and what bends and tends another way in this Sence I take it here Our Hearts are distorted and writhed and averse from God and all good naturally yea and after Grace received are apt to wander and return to their old bent and byas again therefore the Apostle prays that God would form and set their Hearts streight that they may be more indeclinably fixt towards God And this Prayer he makes for the Thessalonions whose work of Faith and labour of Love and patience of Hope he had so much commended before and of whose sincerity he had such great confidence for those he prays that their Love might be directed and their Hearts more fixedly set towards God The Note then will be plain and easy Doct. That we cannot have or keep up any true Love to God unless the Lord set our Hearts streight and keep them bent towards himself I shall inquire here 1. What is Love to God Love is the complacency of the Soul in what is good Love to God is the complacency and well-pleasedness of the Soul in God as our all-sufficient Portion To open it to you I shall describe it I. By its Radical and Internal Acts. II. By its External Effects III. A little touch upon the Properties of it and then you will see what the Love of God is 1. The Radical and Internal Acts are two Desire and Delight Desire after him and Delight in him 1. Desire after him Love affects union with the thing Beloved and so love to God implies an earnest seeking after him in the highest way of enjoyment that we are capable of in this World This appears partly by the kind of Mercies that we affect and partly by the fervency of our endeavours after him 1. By the kind of Mercies that we affect There are some Mercies vouchsafed to the Creature that lie nearer to God than others do and do least detain us from him as his Image and Favour or his renewing and reconciling Grace When we love God these are sought in the first place As you shall see how the temper of the Saints is described and distinguished from the temper of the brutish Multitude Psal. 4. 6 7. The Many say Who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us and this will put gladness into our Hearts The Many the brutish Multitude seek an uncertain good and they seek it from an uncertain Author Who will shew us They do not acknowledg God in these common Mercies but the Children of God must have his Favour Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us As the Beams of the Sun do chear and refresh the Earth this is that that doth revive their Souls So Mat. 5. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness Well then they that desire to be like God in Purity and Holiness and to recover his Favour lost by Sin do certainly more love him than those that only seek temporal Mercies from him God's sanctifying Spirit witnessing his love to us is the greatest gift can be bestowed in this Life and will more witness his love than any thing else can be given us This the Saints seek after that they may be like God that they may be accepted and well-pleasing unto God this is all their Ambition 2 Cor. 5. 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord. Other things may please the Flesh but that is not their design those things that bring them nearer to God take up their Mind and Heart Now as it appears by the Mercies we affect so it appears 2. By the fervency of our endeavours after these things For if the Image of God and Favour of God be sought superficially or as things that we may be well without and the Wealth Honours and Pleasures of the World be most earnestly sought after surely we do not love God Psal. 63. 8. My Soul followeth hard after thee The whole Spiritual Life is but a pursuit of the Soul towards God and the more constantly and earnestly we seek him to enjoy more of his saving Graces and Benefits the more we have of the love of God in us Therefore David expresseth this desire as exceeding all other desires Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I might dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my Life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple He sought not the glory of the Kingdom Success in battel Victory over his Enemies in the first place or not so much as Converse with God and Attendance on his Worship in the Tabernacle all was nothing to this that he might have Communion with God Therefore this is the radical Act of Love this fervent burning desire that carries the Soul thorow all Duties Ordinances Services they are still making their way to a nearer access to God and larger participation of his Grace till they come eternally to enjoy him in Glory 2. There is another Internal Radical Act of Love that is a Delight in him Our full joy is reserved for the other World but delighting our selves in God is a great Duty now for Love being the complacence of the Soul in God as a apprehended to be good or a delightful adhesion to God as our all-sufficient Portion and Happiness it cannot be imagined Love can be without any delight in God even now Now in this Valley of Tears the hope of enjoying him hereafter is our Comfort and Solace in the midst of our Weaknesses and Afflictions that there is a time coming when we shall more perfectly see kim as he is and be like him 1 Ioh. 3. 2. the Apostle tells us We rejoyce now in the hope of the Glory of God that we have this in
expectation that we shall have an Estate of compleat Felicity and excellent Holiness that we shall behold our Nature united to the Godhead in the glorified Redeemer and our Persons admitted into the nearest intuition and fruition of God we are capable of and live in the exercise of a constant uninterrupted Love and be perfectly capable of receiving his highest Benefits Surely this Joy we have in our Pilgrimage But there is not only our hope but our partial enjoyment of it is matter of Happiness to us his Favour is as Life and his Frown as Death to the Soul that loves him The Saints look on God reconciled as the best Friend God displeased as the most dreadful Adversary therefore if they have any taste of his Love their Souls are filled as with Marrow and Fatness Psal. 63. 3 4 5. Because thy loving-kindness is letter than Life my Lips shall praise thee I will bless thee while I live my Soul shall be satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness and my Mouth shall praise thee with joyful Lips But if God hide his Face if God be altogether a stranger then they are troubled indeed Psal. 30. 7. But yet we are not gone to the bottom of the matter of delighting in God Those whose Souls are possessed with the Love of God are so well pleased with him that every thing is sweet to them by the relation it hath to God It is a delight to them to think of God Psal. 104. 34. I will be glad and rejoyce in him my meditation of him shall be sweet It is a delight to them to speak of God Eph. 5. 4. Not foolish jesting but giving of Thanks The Delight of God's Children or that which serves instead of jesting to Christians is the grateful remembrance of the Lord's Mercies especially of our Redemption by Christ. To draw nigh to him in Ordinances there this delight is exercised again There is Prayer A gracious Soul cannot be a Stranger to it because it cannot have a greater refreshing than to be alone with God and unbosome himself with God The Hypocrite is rejected from being capable of this Character Job 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God Sometimes he will call upon God he is frighted into a little Religiousness it may be when Death is at his Back in great Afflictions or time of great Judgments but he hath no constant delight in God The constant delight in God is that that brings the Saints into his presence So for all other Christian duties Psal. 122. 1. I was glad when they said unto me Come let us go into the House of the Lord there they entertained Traffick and Commerce with God about matters of the highest concernment to their precious and immortal Souls nay all their work the whole course of their Obedience is sweetned to them because it is commanded by God and tends to the enjoyment of God as Psal. 112. 1 Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments they not only keep the Commandments but delight and that greatly to keep the Commandments And Psal. 119. 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all riches Delight in God is a great act of Love to which we should not be Strangers even in the house of our Pilgrimage though we have no assurance or sensible enjoyment of his Favour For it is a Duty of the first Commandment that results from the owning of God as our God II. For the External Effects of Love they are Doing and Suffering his Will when we are contented to do what God will have us do and be what God will have us be 1. For Doing If we love God we shall be loth to offend him we shall be desirous to please him Faith I do confess is a marvellous Grace it can apprehend things strange to Nature but it can do no worthy thing for God till it be accompanied with Love Gal. 5. 6. When the Apostle tells us of that Faith that carries away the prize of Justification he describes it to be a Faith working by Love Faith itself serves as the Bellows to blow up this Flame in our Hearts as the next and immediate principle of Action In short Love is the overruling bent of our Souls the weight and poize upon us that inclines us to God And look as all noble Qualities when restrained cannot produce their consummate Act so Love suffers a kind of imperfection till it can thus break forth into some Act of Thankfulness to God but then it is perfected 1 Joh. 2. 5. Whoso keepeth his Word in him the Loue of God is perfect that is hath attained its consummate Act that which it aims at No Man certainly can be owned as a perfect sincere lover of God but he that makes conscience of doing what he commands none but they have a deep sence of his Majesty none but they have an esteem of his Favour therefore they dare not hazard it by a breach or neglect of their Duty 2. For Suffering his Will For when the Apostle prays here God would direct their Hearts to love him he means that they should endure any thing rather than deny the Faith and confess Christ whatever it cost them As Obedience is virtually contained in Love so also Courage and Resolution Solomon represents Love as a powerful thing as an Affection that will not be bribed nor quenched Cant. 8. 7. Many Waters cannot quench Love nor can the Flouds drown it if a Man would give the whole substance of his House for it it would be utterly contemned It is true of Love in general much more of Love to God In carnal matters Love is a venemous Poison when it hath invaded the Heart nothing will reclaim us but in Divine matters it is a sovereign Antidote against Temptations both on the right hand and on the left For right-hand Temptations all the Riches Pleasures Honours are contemned they cannot bribe them over from Christ that really love him All the Flouds of Persecution cannot quench this holy Desire This is the Genius and Disposition of Love when once the bent of the Heart is set towards God and Heaven they are vehemently set against any thing that would turn them out of the way and divert them from their purpose III. To speak of the Properties if it be sincere 1. It is not a speculative but Practical Love not consisting in lofty airy strains of devotion too high for the common rate of us poor Mortals no it is put upon a surer and infallible Test our Obedience to God Again it consists not in a bold familiarity but in an humble subjection and compliance with his Will He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me God's love is a love of Bounty but ours a love of Duty therefore we are properly said to love God when we are careful to please him and fearful to offend him
The Scripture declares both the first This is love to keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous The second Psal. 97 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil When we are fearful of committing or omitting any thing may be a violation of his Law a grief to his Spirit or a dishonour to his Name then we are said to love God What ever lofty and luscious strains of devotion we may otherwise please our selves with here will our Trial rest He doth not love God that can most accurately discourse of his Attributes or soar aloft in the nice speculations of contemplative Divinity or pretences of Secrecy with God but he that is most awful serious and consciencious in his Duty 2. It is a Transcendental Love we owe to God we must love him above all other things For he must be loved as our Felicity and End He must have the chiefest place in our Hearts and our principal design must be to please serve and glorify him If we seek God in order to other things we do not love him but our own Lusts nay if all other things be not sought after in order to God we do not set him up as our chief good or last end He that loves Father and Mother more than me is not worthy of me Luke 14. 26. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple Many have a partial half-love to God but a greater love to other things then God's interest will be least minded For there is something nearer and dearer to us than God which will be soon preferred before the Conscience of our Duty to him No all must be subordinated to our supream Happiness and last end or else God is not loved as God But now the second thing propounded is the nature of that influence upon Love which is exprest here by the Apostle in the word direct The Lord direct your Hearts in the Love of God What doth this Imply 1. It implies that God works upon us as Rational Creatures He changeth the Heart indeed but he doth it by Direction he draws us to himself but it is with the Cords of a Man he teacheth while he draws Joh. 6. 44 45. None can come unto me but those whom the Father draws and he proves it by this because they shall be all taught of God God's drawing is teaching it is both by the attractive force of the Object and the internal Efficacy of his Grace the Spirits conduct is sweet yet powerfull accomplisheth the Effect but without offering violence to the liberty of Man We are not forced but directed There is not a violent compulsion but an inclination sweetly raised in us by victorious Grace or the overpouring sweetness of his Love For we love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4. 19. And this love is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost who by giving us an esteem and serious remembrance of his Benefits blows up this holy flame in our Hearts We do not love God we know not why or wherefore An account can be given of all the Spirits operations Look as in an impression there must be a Seal and Wax to the Seal and the hand that stamps it so all concurr here The Word doth its part that is the Seal and the Heart of Man receives the Impression but to make it effectual and durable the hand of God concurs or the power of his Spirit The Object is the Gospel wherein God commends his Love to us by the Incarnation Death and Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ as also by the new Covenant because he will work upon Man after the nature of Man by Love he will work upon Love Beside all this there is an internal powerful Agent the holy Spirit The external objective means cannot do it without the inward cause Though God's Love doth so gloriously and resplendently shine forth in the Gospel yet the Heart of Man is not affected with it till it be shed abroad by the illuminating sanctifying Spirit The Heart of Man is dark and dead to these things till changed by Grace and when that is once done that Impression is according to the Stamp 2. The Inclination to God as our Felicity and End which is the Fruit of this Grace is the inclination of a reasonable Creature so the Inclination is necessary but the Acts are voluntary therefore you must keep them up still There is an Inclination put by God into inanimate things as in light and airy Bodies to move upwards and in heavy Bodies to move downwards as a Stone falls to the Earth but Fire and Smoak ascend they cannot do otherwise because they have no choice But now in Man there is an Inclination to God and Heaven which is the Fruit of Grace The Inclination is necessary why because all those whom the Spirit sanctifies he sanctifies them not in vain he certainly begets this Tendency in them towards God therefore so often they are said in Scripture to be converted or turned to God Their Hearts were averse before but then they tend and bend towards him but the Acts are voluntary There is a Duty lying upon us to stir up the Gift of Grace that is in us the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1. 6. When this holy Fire is kindled in our Bosoms we must blow it up and keep it burning We must not be negligent and secure for we cannot reasonably imagine the idle and diligent should fare alike that the Holy Ghost will direct our Hearts into the Love of God whether we will or not therefore not only as we are rational Agents but as we are new Creatures we are obliged to use the Means and then expect his Help and Blessing What is a Prayer in the Text the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God to the patient waiting for Christ is an Exhortation Iud. 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto everlasting life There is both again you must look to your Love that your Hearts be kept streight and bent towards God and not distracted with worldly Vanities The Blessing is from God but you must use the Means this Direction is not to encourage Slothfulness but Industry We must charge it upon our selves as our main Work and Duty the Spirit stirs and quickens we must rouse up our selves 3. It implies there are many things would writhe and crook and turn our Hearts another way the Devil the World and the Flesh. The Devil seeks to draw us off from God to abate the Fervor of our Love towards him therefore we are bidden to flee youthful Lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. that we may not be taken captive by him at his will and pleasure Some tamely yeeld to his Temptations and he doth unto them as he listeth but there is more tugging
our carnal Love 2. If Love be not acted and kept at work carnal Love will prevail The Soul of Man cannot lye idle especially our Affections cannot either they are carried out to God or they will leak out to Worldly things When our Love ceaseth yet concupiscence ceaseth not and the Love of the World will soon grow Superiour in the Soul for the neglected Principle languisheth whilst the other Principle gets strength and secures its Interest to God The 3d. Is The Benefit we have by keeping Love in Act. This makes us more sincere and to act purely for God 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg that they that live should no more live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again The constraining Influence of Love is that that keeps us from living to our selves And this makes us more diligent Labour and Love are often coupled in the Scripture Knowing your labour of love the work of Faith and Patience of Hope And God is not unrightoeus to forget your labour of Love The Church of Ephesus lost her first Love she left her first work Rev. 2. 4 5. Use. Oh then let us seek this Benefit from God that our Hearts may be directed into his Love 1. The sanctifying Spirit is given us for this end to stir up love to God Joh. 41. 4. The Water I will give him shall be a Well of Water always springing up unto eternal Life 'T is not in the Heart a dead Pool but a living Spring And the same is intimated Joh. 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water this he spake of the Spirit 2. The Ordinances were appointed for this End The Word to represent God amiable to us both for the goodness in him and the goodness proceeding from him especially in our Redemption by Christ and also for those rich preparations of Grace he hath made for us in another World to blow up this holy Fire And this is the end of the Sacrament All the Dainties that are set before us in the Lord's Supper do all taste and savour of Love Our Meat is seasoned with Love and our Drink flows into our Cup out of the Wine-press of Love Why do we eat of the Crucified Body of Christ but that we may remember Iesus who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. And also the Drink that is provided for us at this Feast is the Blood of Christ. Rev. 1. 5. Who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood 3. All the Providences of God tend to this End that we may love God All God's Mercies are as new Fewel to keep in this Fire I will love the Lord because he has heard the Voice of my Supplication Psal. 116. 1. And thou shalt love the Lord who is the strength of thy Life and the length of thy Days Deut. 30. 20. All the Mercy we have from God is to refresh and revive our Love that it may not languish and die nay all the sharp corrections God sends are to recover our Love to God Isa. 26. 9. My Soul hath desired thee in the Night saith the Prophet and early have I sought thee and when was that when thy Iudgments were abroad in the World when great and sharp afflictions were upon them SERMON VII 2 THESS 3. 5. And into the patient waiting for Christ. THe Words are a Prayer and the Apostle prays here for those things which are most necessary to Christians Love to God and patient waiting for Christ. I come now to handle the second Branch The Point is this Doct. That when the Heart is bent by love to God we need also the direction of his Grace to keep it intent upon the coming of Christ. Four things I must speak to I. What this patient waiting for Christ is II. The Connection between it and the Love of God III. That it hath a great influence upon the spiritual Life or keeps Religion alive in the Soul IV. The Necessity of God's concurrence hereto the Lord direct your Hearts into the patient waiting for Christ. I. What is this patient waiting for Christ I answer it is the Grace of Hope fortifying our resolutions for God and the World to come that we may continue in our Duty till our work be finished and our warfare ended The Act of Hope is three ways exprest Sometimes by Looking which notes a certain expectation Tit. 2. 13. Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Sometimes by Loving or Longing which notes a desirous and earnest expectation 2 Tim. 4. 8. Not to me only but to all that love his appearing Sometimes by Waiting which notes a patient Expectation 1 Thess. 10. He makes it there the Fruit of our Conversion He saith we are turned to God that we may wait for his Son from Heaven This last Notion is expresly mentioned in the Text the other are implied as looking there can be no waiting for that we do not look for and longing for delay is only troublesome to them that earnestly desire his coming and build their Hopes upon it Faith adds certainty and Love earnestness and both give strength to Patience Let us open all these things As 1. Looking for the coming of Christ. Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. It is not a matter of conjecture but of Faith Reason saith he may come but Faith saith he will come Nature will teach us it is very likely for a guilty Conscience fears the Judg and the course of things is so disordered in the World that there needs a review But Scripture tells us it is very certain that he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 37. Therefore in the Eye of Faith it is sure and near As Rebecca spied Isaac at a distance so Faith looks upon Christ as if he had begun his Journey and were now upon the way and makes the Believer stand ready to meet him and welcome him Though it come not to pass presently the thing is promised and the time certainly determined in God's external purpose which is enough for Faith 2. There is a Longing or a desirous Expectation 2 Pet. 3. 12. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God It is good to observe how differently this Coming of Christ is entertain'd in the World It is questioned by the Atheist it is dreaded by the Wicked and Impenitent but it is longingly expected by the Godly 1. For the first sort 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming They would eternally enjoy the Pleasures of the present World and therefore labour to dash all thoughts of this great Day out of their Hearts and take up all obvious
God 1. The consciousness of God's displeasure and the fear of his Wrath should make offers of Pardon acceptable to us When Sin entred into the World Fear entred with Sin The grand scruple which haunteth the guilty Creature is how God shall be appeased and the Controversy taken up between us and his Justice Micah 6. 6 7. Wherewith shall he be appeased and what shall I give for the Sin of my Soul We fear Death and Punishment from a Holy and Just God and this is the bottom cause of all our Troubles Therefore till the forgiveness of Sin be procured for us and represented to us upon commodious Terms we know not how to get rid of this Bondage the Justice of the Supream Governour of the World will be ever dreadful to us These fears may be for a while stifled in Men but they will ever and anon return upon us Now let us admire the Wisdom of God who hath provided such a suitable remedy to our Disease as reconciliation and remission of Sins by Jesus Christ. And that God shewed himself so ready to pardon us who are so obnoxious to his Wrath and vindictive Justice 2. The other great Priviledg offered in the Covenant is Eternal Life which suiteth with those desires of Happiness which are so natural to us Corrupt Nature is not against the offers of Felicity We would have Immunity Peace Comfort Glory none would be against his own Benefit but every one would be willing to be freed from the curse of the Law and the Flames of Hell and enjoy Happiness for evermore Though we be unwilling to deny the Flesh and renounce the Credit Pleasure and Profit of Sin and grow dead to the World and worldly things yet never was there a Creature heard of that would not be happy for there was never a Creature but loved himself Now the Lord in his Covenant hath brought Life and Immortality to light setled our Happiness and the way to it he promises that which we desire to induce us to that which we are against As we sweeten Pills to Children that they may swallow them down the better they love the Sugar though they loath the Aloes God would invite us to our duty by our Interest He hath told us of an Happiness full sure and near that he may draw us off from the false Happiness wherewith we are inchanted and bring us into the way of Holiness that we may look after this blessed Hope 2dly The Terms he hath required of us The Terms are either for Entrance or making Covenant with God or Continuance or keeping Covenant with God For Entrance Faith and Repentance are required 1. Faith in Christ. The World thinks Faith quits Reason and introduceth fond Credulity No there is much of the Wisdom of God to be seen in it For Faith hath a special aptitude and fitness for this Work 1. Partly in respect of God For He having design'd to glorify his Mercy and free Grace and to make our Salvation from first to last a meer Gift and the Fruit of his Love to us hath appointed Faith for the acceptance of this Gift Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be by Grace Faith and Grace go always together and it is put in opposition to the Merit of Works or the Strictness of the old Covenant 2. As it is fittest to own Christ the Redeemer the Fountain of Life and Happiness and our Head and Husband whom we receive and to whom we are united and married by Faith 3. With respect to the Promises of the Gospel which offer to us an Happiness and Blessedness spiritual and for the most part future Unseen things are properly Objects of Faith Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen 4. It is fittest as to our future Obedience that it may be comfortable and willing Now we owning Christ in a way of Subjection and Dependance and consenting to become his Disciples and Subjects other Duties come on the more easily 2 Cor. 8. 5. 2. For Repentance This is the most lively and powerful Means of bringing Men to new Life and Blessedness 1. It is most for the Honour of God that we should not be pardoned without submission without confession of past Sin and Resolution of future Obedience Common Reason will tell us that our Case is not compassionable while we are impenitent and hold it out against God Who will pity those in Misery who are unwilling to come out of it Besides it would infringe the Honour of God's Law and Government that one continuing in his Sins and despising both the Curse of the Law and the Grace of the Gospel should be pardoned and saved Repentance is often called a giving Glory to God Mal. 2. 2. Ye will not lay it to Heart and give Glory to my Name Josh. 7. 19. My Son give Glory to God and make Confession to him Rev. 16. 9. They repented not to give Glory to God Repentance restoreth God's Honour to Him as it acknowledges the Justice of his Laws The self-condemning Sinner acknowledges that God may destroy him and if he save him it is meer Mercy 2. The Duty of the Creature is best secured and the penitent Person more bound to future Obedience partly by the Vow it self or the Bond of the holy Oath into which he is entred and the Circumstances accompanying it which surely induce a Hatred of Sin and a Love of Holiness There will be a hearty Consent to live in the Love Obedience and Service of our Creator with a detestation of our former Ways When we feel the smart of Sin such a Sense of it will ever stick by us and when we are in the deepest and freshest Sense of his pardoning Mercy when we see at how dear rates he is pleased to have us and upon what free terms to pardon all our Wrongs we shall love much Luk. 7. 47. Surely they that are brought back from the Gibbet and the very Gates of Hell by such an Act of pardoning Mercy are most likely to remember the Vows of their Distress and are more ingaged to love God and please Him than others are 3. It is most for the Comfort of the Creature that a stated Course of recovering our selves into the Peace and Hope of the Gospel should be appointed to us which may leave the greatest Sense upon our Consciences Now what is likely to do so much as this apparent Change whereby we renounce and utterly bewail our former Folly and solemnly devote and give up our selves to God by Christ. Those things that are serious and advised leave a Notice and Impression upon the Soul This is the most important Action of our Lives the Setling of our Pardon and Eternal Interest The Heart is hardly brought to this to renounce what we dearly love therefore it is usually rewarded with some notable Tasts of God's Love Isa. 57. 15. God delights to revive the Hearts of his contrite Ones 2.
For Continuance in the new Covenant and delightful Obedience unto God The Remedy is not only suted to the Disease but the Duty to the Reward Our Duty is to know God and to love Him and our Reward is to see Him and be like Him 1 Ioh. 3. 2. There is a marvellous Sutableness between the End and Means Holiness and Happiness Conformity to God and our Communion with Him the Holiness required of us now and the Happiness we expect hereafter perfect Conformity and uninterrupted Communion And they differ only but as the Bud and the Flower the River and the Ocean Here it is begun hereafter perfected III. In the Application of his Grace to particular Believers he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence 1. In the Way God taketh to convert Souls to Himself there is a sweet Contemperation and Mixture of Wisdom and Power There is a Proposal of Truth and Good to the Understanding and the Will and by the secret Power of his Grace it is made effectual We are taught and drawn Ioh. 6. 44 45. No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him In the 45th vers And they shall be all taught of God Every Man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me There is opening of blind Eyes and the turning of an hard Heart Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light c. Eph. 1. 18. The Eyes of the Understanding being opened c. Col. 3. 10. Renewed in Knowledg Turning the Heart Acts 16. 29. God opened the Heart of Lydia Acts 11. 21. The Hand of the Lord was with him and a great Number believed and turned to the Lord. His Hand implieth his Power Thus God worketh strongly like Himself sweetly with respect to us that he may not oppress the Liberty of our Faculties Christ comes into the Heart not by Force but by Consent We are transformed but so as we prove what the Will of God is Rom. 12. 2. He draweth we run Cant. 1. 4. The Power of God and Liberty of Man do sweetly consist together As God is said to create in us a new Heart he is also said to give us a free Spirit Psal. 51. 10 12. Eph. 2. 10. We are said to be his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them So he puts a new Heart and we are said to walk in his Ways Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart will I also give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them Thus God sheweth forth the powerful Efficacy of his Grace and doth also win the Consent and good Liking of the Sinner he obtaineth his Effect and yet doth preserve the Liberty of Man's Nature and the Principles thereof It is not only Voluntas mota but mutata the Nature is changed and renewed 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2. In the perswasive and moral Way the Wisdom of God is seen as taking the most likely Course to gain the Heart of Man discovering Himself to us as a God of Love Kindness and Mercy Guilty Creatures stand aloof from a condemning God our Fear of his Justice maketh us run from him Gen. 3. 7 10. Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord. So all his Posterity forsake God and hate him But God though the Superior though the wronged Party maketh Offers of Peace and sheweth how willing he is to be reconciled to us Having first laid the Foundation in the highest Demonstration of Goodness that ever could come to the Ears of Man to hear of or enter into the Heart of Man to conceive namely in giving his Son to die for a sinful World 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. What more apt to make Man relent And then because Man had fallen from the Love of God to the Creature Ier. 2. 3. What Wisdom doth God shew not only in the Offers of Pardon but Eternal Life and Blessedness infinitely beyond the false Happiness which carnal Self-Love inclineth us to that it is a Shame and Disgrace to our Reason to think these things are worthy to be compared together What are all the Pleasures Profits and Honours we dote upon to the Pleasures at God's right-Hand the Riches of the Inheritance of the Saints and the Glory which cometh from God And therefore what more powerful Motive can be produced than this Blessed Immortality Indeed God is invisible and the Glory is to come and sensual Pleasures are at hand ready to be enjoyed But Faith checketh Sense Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen O the Wisdom of God in the Frame of the Gospel 2. In the Effect it self the new Creature which is the wisest Creature on this side Heaven To evidence this to you I shall shew you that all Wisdom and Prudence consisteth in three things 1. In fixing a right End 2. In the choice of apt and proper Means 3. In a dextrous effectual Prosecution of the End by those Means 1. In fixing and propounding to ourselves a right End A wise Man doth not mind Trifles but is conversant about Things of the greatest Reality Necessity and Excellency such are God and Heaven All other Wisdom will prove but Folly in the end Others disquiet themselves about a vain Show Psal. 59. 6. Poor silly Creatures cark and labour and turmoil to get together a few poor transitory Enjoyments where there is neither durable possession nor solid Satisfaction The Honours Pleasures and Riches of the World are but Pictures and Shadows of the true Honours the true Riches and Fulness of Joy at God's right Hand Surely he is a wise Man that chooseth God for his Portion and Heaven for his Home Prov. 15. 24. The Way of Life is above to the Wise to avoid Hell beneath He is wise and hath chosen the true Sort of living which mindeth the Salvation of his Soul and looketh after Eternal Life Surely this is above and beyond any Wisdom Man can pretend unto to be happy not for a while but for ever 2. In the Choice of apt and proper Means A Man is wise enough if he knows his Duty and the Way to Happiness God hath appointed us the Way wherein to walk to fear him and love him and keep his Commandments Deut. 4. 6. Keep these Statutes for this is your Wisdom Job 28. 28. The Fear of God that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil that is Understanding There is an Excellency in this sort of Life Prov. 12.
dealt with as the Lord pleases Prescribing to God always comes from Ascribing to our selves We think we have deserved more than he gives us we that are worthy of the heaviest Judgment surely should be thankful for the smallest Mercy Eccl. 7. 8. The patient in Spirit is better than the proud in Spirit Patience is rooted in Humility but Discontent in Pride 3. It comes from weanedness from the World They that do not seek great things for themselves will stand to God's allowance It may be God may bestow great things upon them as he did upon Abraham and David but they do not seek them especially in times when it is a Mercy they have Life and Liberty That is forbidden Ier. 44. 5. In short Grace doth all both as to Poverty and Riches and makes Rich and Poor stand on the same Level Now this is a high point in Religion to grow dead to the World to behaâ—â— our selves in a manner as unconcerned in Poverty or Riches for the World is the great impediment to the Heavenly Life as being the bait of the Flesh the snare of Satan by which he detaineth Souls from God If once we grow indifferent to these things we would not feel any great power in Temptations to Pleasure Wealth and Honour and would soon be thorow Christians the Spiritual Life would be more easy and even easy for where Men seek no great things for themselves in the World and a little matter contenteth their Desires and checketh their Murmurings the resistance of the carnal Nature to the Empire of Grace is without much difficulty overcome they can enjoy plenty or want renounce their aspiring thoughts meddle sparingly with fleshly Delights they are seeking a better Estate More evenly there is no notable blemish on them who are Crucified to the World they do not stain their Profession wound their Consciences their choices are govern'd by Religion not by Carnal Interest They are kept unspotted from the World Jam. 1. 27. 2. The Fruits it produces I shall name but two of many 1. They are not distracted with great worldly Business they esteem that to be the best way that brings them nearest to their great End which is not to enjoy Happiness in this Life but in the World to come Those whose Hearts are all for the present they must have the World to the full or they are not contented they never think of laying up Treasure in Heaven Mat. 6. 19 20. that is not their End and Scope but to live commodiously here that they and their Posterity may flourish in the World Psal. 17. 14. They which have their Portion in this Life and whose Belly thou fillest with thy hid Treasures they are full of Children and leave the rest of their Substance to their Babes But a good Man that eyes another Happiness is not much troubled how it is with him here so he and his may be accepted with God hereafter Therefore their Business is not to lay up Treasure to themselves on Earth but to be rich towards God Luke 12. 21. 2. They that can be contented with a little are most likely to be true to God and Conscience They can better suffer Hunger Thirst Nakedness and other troubles for the Gospel Acts 20. 24. None of these things move me that is made no great opposition and perturbation in his Mind It is no strange thing to them when Trials come They can part with all things under the Sun rather than quit their Duty to Christ for Temptations have lost their force when worldly Desires and Lusts are mortified They withered in Persecution that received the good Seed for a time Mar. 4. 17. When Religion carries one way and the World another then farewel Religion for the Worlds sake When Christ had spoken so much of the Cross then Iudas turneth Apostate When Demas saw the World went on otherways he forsook Paul 2 Tim. 4. 10. When Christ told the young Man of parting with all he went away sad Mar. 10. 22. If Heaven cost so dear it is no Penny-worth for him So Men will come into no danger or trouble for Christ because they are not contented with a little Use. 1. If the Godly ought to be content with Food and Raiment it shews the vanity of Mens vast desires they have much above Food and Raiment yet they are not satisfied A true Christian is contented with Necessaries but Worldy Men inlarge their desires as Hell Hab. 2. 5. They are so far from acquieseing in their Portion assigned to them by God though it be competent and enough to satisfie their wants yea and far beyond so that many are glad of their leavings yet they are always hunting after more like Death and the Grave which are never satisfied They are restless still adding if they be Princes Kingdom to Kingdom if they be Church-men Preferment upon Preferment and if ordinary Men Estate upon Estate House to House Field to Field These desires are pettishly solicited eagerly followed and many times finally disappointed 2. It checks our impatiency under disappointment If we have not our will in worldly things we are troubled our desires are too ardent We must needs have them cannot be without them trouble our selves about them and so murmur and repine against God and this breedeth fearful Tempests in the Soul As Ionah bitterly contended with God about his Gourd Jonah 4. and Rachel Give me Children or else I die Gen. 30. 1. If we cannot have what we would all is nothing Ahab is sick for one poor Vineyard Haman counteth his Honour nothing as long as Mordecai sits at the King's Gate As in a Carriage if one Pin be wanting all is at a stop 3. It shews the evil of our distrust notwithstanding we have God's Fatherly Providence and Promises to rely upon and so large a Covenant-Interest 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. All things are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's All things are yours Ordinances Providences this World the next Life Death Would you have more All are instrumental for our good if we resolve to be faithful to Christ. SERMON XIV ECCL 9. 11. I returned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Understanding nor yet Favour to Men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all THe whole Book is a search after true Happiness The particular Paragraph whereof the Text is a Branch proveth that it cannot be obtained in this World because of the various Events of God's powerful and unsearchable Providence The Discourse beginneth Chap. 8. 16 17. When I applied my Heart to know Wisdom and to see the business which is done upon the Earth then I beheld all the works of God that a Man cannot find out the work which is done under the Sun because though a Man labour to seek it out yet he shall not find it yea further though
right that he should enter into Judgment with God No he goeth on just and sure Grounds though we do not always discern them 2. God doth it too with great Faithfulness they look on all Afflictions as federal Dispensations as Appendages of the Covenant of Grace Psal. 119. 57. In very Faithfulness thou hast afflicted me Mark he doth not say notwithstanding thy Faithfulness but in Faithfulness he performs his Covenant When he thresheth us it is to make our Husksfly off that he may quicken us to a serious Remembrance of himself and of the Duties we owe to him 3. It is ordered with great Wisdom For God is a God of Iudgment Isa. 30. 18. He knows what is best for his People We think this and that best but God is wiser than we when many Providences fall out we think it would be better for the Church if it were otherwise But this is to tax God's Wisdom and charge him with want of Love and Tenderness towards his People they are dearer to him than they are to you Chrysostom shews how we take upon us to order Affairs he brings in an Instance of a Man that is very kind to the Poor if he dies they are undone Have you more care of them than God their Maker Iob did not eat his Morsels alone but the Poor did eat his Bread and were cloathed with his Fleece therefore the sides of the Poor are said to bless him Cannot God provide for the Poor without Iob So in like cases for the Churches sake This Providence seems to tend altogether to evince but God knows how by these and these means to provide for his People and you must not prescribe to him It was Blasphemy in Alphonsus to say Si Deo à consiliis adfuisset se consultius multa ordinaturum That if he had been by when God made the World he would have ordered some things with greater advice and better care He would not have placed the Horns of the Beasts above their Eyes but under their Eyes Such Blasphemy do we secretly lisp out in our murmurings and discourses about Providence when we are questioning how this that and the other thing can be for his Glory The Lord knows how to guide all things to his Glory and we must absolutely yield to it 4. With much Love For he that hath the Wisdom of a Father hath also the Bowels of a Mother A Mother may sooner forget a poor shiftless Child than God will forget his People Isa. 49. 15 c. There 's a great deal of Love shewed in our Afflictions Sometimes in mitigating them 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear And as Iacob drove on as the little ones were able to bear so the Lord suits his Conduct and lays on the Affliction as his People are able to bear Castles are Victuall'd before they are Besieged After great Comforts then comes Affliction Heb. 10. 32. After you were enlightned ye endured a great fight of Affliction Then again in refreshing their Troubles with many gracious Experiences The Lord doth things which seem very bitter to the carnal Sense and Gust but when he hath defecated and refined our Taste then he sheds abroad his Love into our Hearts by the Holy Ghost Rom. 5. 3 5. Their Adoption is cleared up and the loss of outward Comfort is accompanied with a greater increase of Spiritual Comfort Again he shews his Love in ordering all things for their Good Rom. 8. 28. Out of what Corner soever the Wind blows it blows good to the Saints Arise O North Wind and blow thou South c. North and South contrary Points Cant. 4. 16. yet the Spices of his Garden flow out That which is against our Will is not against our Profit God is still pursuing what is for his own Glory and Good of the Elect. So all that falleth out is either Good or will tend to Good USE This teacheth us upon what Grounds there should be such a submission to all Personal and Domestical Calamities which may befal any of us and to all that befal the Church It is the Will of God and that 's the great Ground of composing the Heart whatever falleth out When-ever you hear of the increase of Violence or any Resolution against the People of God this should calm us The Will of the Lord be done God knows what is best for his People This is an everlasting Ground of Comfort that we are still in God's Hand 's and whatever befals us it comes by his special Providence even by his that numbers the Hairs of our Heads and who carves out every condition to us Deut. 33. 3. Surely he loved his People all the Saints are in his Hands When the Disciples were sore troubled and affrighted Joh. 6. 20. Iesus comes to them and said Be not afraid 't is I that order this There are many remarkable Passages in that Story The Disciples were in the dark of the night overtaken with a mighty Storm and for a long time did not know what would become of them the Text saith they had rowed about twenty five or thirty Furlongs before Christ appears Christ seeth it not fit to appear at first but lets the Trial go on until it be a Trial indeed Now about the fourth Watch of the Night Jesus passed by Mark 6. 48. that's the Morning Watch and then Jesus appears to them We are very tender of our selves and soon think we are low and tried enough therefore would fain be delivered but our wise Lord seeth we need more When Christ came then their fears are increased Christ came walking upon the Water and they thought it was a Spectre Spirits broken with troubles are very apt to take in afflicting impressions from every thing they see and hear The very way of our Mercies may be matter of terror to us At length he discovereth himself 't is I be not afraid I walk upon that Water which seems to be ready to swallow you up I that raised the Waves know how to still them Here 's that which may allay all our disquiets and fears Remember it is not the Instrument but Christ and God must be eyed and the Will of the Lord be done In our darkest Condition God seeth us when we do not see him Psal. 73. 22 23. and Job 23. 9 10. I looked on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him But he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold SERMON XVI JOHN 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life IN these words you have the Sum and Substance of the Gospel In them observe 1. The Fountain and Original of all that Grace and Salvation which is brought unto us God's unspeakable
in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Author Tit. 3. 5 6. Not by Works of Righteousness which ye have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Till we are in him and be one with him we have not this great Benefit 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature We are destitute of that Image of God wherein we were created and better we had never been born unless new-born 2. The Favour of God which is an immediate Consequent of his Image God delighted in Man as innocent but Man sinful is the Object of God's Wrath Loathing and Aversation Therefore Christ died to recover Man to the Love and Favour of God 2 Cor. 5. 14. To make peace between the offended Sovereign and Subject offending To interpose between God angry and Man guilty Now this Breach continueth till we are reconciled by Christ till we love God and are beloved by him And better we had been in a lower rank of Creatures than to continue under God's displeasure for the Misery of the Beasts dies with them Death puts an end to all their Pains at once but the Wrath of God not appeased by Christ continues on the Sinner for ever 3. Fellowship with God was lost by the Fall Man was driven out of Paradise and shut out of God's Presence by a flaming Sword Gen. 3. 24. the Emblem of his Wrath and all Entercourse was broken off But Christ came to open the Way by whom we have access unto God with boldness and confidence Eph. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need We need daily access to God we cannot live without him How can we look him in the Face with any Comfort when we have no Mediator we cannot have any serious thoughts of him without trembling 2. There is no removal of that Misery which we have incurred which is the Death and Curse wherein we are involved by Sin As long as the Curses of the Law stand in full force against us we can have no firm confidence if we look to time past there is a huge heap of Sins the least of which is enough to sink us into Hell if we look to time present our nature being not yet healed our Hearts swarm with divers Lusts and we are ready to sin again if to time to come Death Hell and Judgment affright us Christ findeth us where Adam left us in the High-way to Hell and Damnation Joh. 3. 18. Condemned already and to hope for any release unless it be upon God's Terms is to make him untrue and unjust Certainly God will not break his Word and disturb the order of his Covenant for your sakes Therefore how will you escape the Curse and Condemnation of the Law if Christ be not given to you 3. There is no obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness but only by Christ. Man was made for God and cannot be happy without him and he is most compleatly happy in the full Enjoyment of him Now there is no coming to that blessed State but by Christ. Ioh. 14. 6. He is the Way to the Father The most eminent Sence is with respect to our final Blessedness when we come into his immediate Presence So Ioh. 5. 11. This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son It is Christ alone that can put us in the way and bring us home to Eternal Bliss USE 1. Is to confute the Worlds Opinion who measure God's Love by outward things or worldly Felicity Alas The Love or Hatred of God is not known by these things Eccles. 9. 1 2. Neither can the Heart of Man be satisfied with them These things can give us a Belly-full but not a Heart-full Psal. 17. 14 15. Those that take up with the Creature never felt the weight of Sin are not serious in matters of Eternal Concernments The only true Happiness is in having God for our God Christ for our Redeemer the Spirit for our Sanctifier and Comforter Use 2. Is to excite us to bless God for Jesus Christ. The Apostle doth frequently in all his Groans and Afflictions Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord c. Blessed be God for the Grace of Iesus Christ whereby we have Pardon for what is past and Grace for the future to perform what God will accept So 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. God by Christ hath given us the Victory over Sin Death and Hell So should you especially in the Lord's Supper it is an Eucharist be thankful that God hath given Christ for us which is an unspeakable Gift And now he cometh to give him to you afford him an hearty welcome into your Souls as you take him and apply him by Faith and give up your selves to him as his Redeemed Ones You come to look upon Christ who made his Soul an Offering for Sin he is here represented as crucified before your Eyes and is by God specially offered to your acceptance and with him Pardon and Life You must be joyful and thankful for these great Gifts and Benefits so dearly bought so surely sealed so freely offered and in the sense of all this devote your selves to God Use 3. Make it your main Care to see if Christ be given to us Without him you cannot have any true Remedy against Evil nor any solid Hope of Good Certain it is that in our Natural Estate we were without him Is there a Change The two great Ends for which Christ came were to appease God and to be the Principle of a new Life Is Christ given for these Ends Have you received him Do not think Christ fell from Heaven into your Bosom whether you would or no. Did you ever feel your Misery without him and cry mightily to God Give me Christ or else I die and perish for ever I confess Conversion is not always evident in feeling but it is in the Effect and Fruit. What Fruits have you then abiding in you The great Fruit of Christ being given to you is the Spirit 's dwelling in you Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The great Work of the Spirit is to sanctify the Soul to the Service of him that redeemed us Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Clear this and the Cause is decided III. I come now to the third part of
Children cry for Bread and you have none to give them would you not complain of the hardness of their Hearts which have this Worlds Goods and shut up their Bowels against them and not dispense any thing to their Necessities Why if you know the Heart of an indigent Person it cannot but move you to observe this Rule And the rather because usually with what measure we meet to others it is recompensed into our Bosoms by God's Providence for what ever need others have of us we have infinitely more of God and there will a time come when we shall be as destitute before God as they are before you For Instance In a time of Sickness when all outward helps fail Psal. 41. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord will consider him in time of Trouble Why he that is affected with an others Condition as his own when it is a time of trouble and distress with him and it may be his Brother cannot help him then the Lord will help him either in Sickness or Trouble of Conscience when all outward Comforts are as the white of an Egg when the poor perplexed Sinner cries Mercy Mercy the Lord will shew him Mercy as he did to others Mat. 5. 7. Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Those that only seek to enrich themselves and solace themselves with Mirth and Pleasure in the good things they have must not expect the like Promises But those which have been Merciful Bountiful and ready to help others God delights to shew them Mercy and when they are most destitute they shall find that God takes notice of this that they were ready to relieve others Secondly In Forgiving the same Rule holds A necessary Duty For while we are here in the World there will be Weaknesses and Offences and we need mutually to forgive and to take Pardon It is said Col. 3. 13. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any Man have a quarrel against any Even as Christ forgave you so also do ye See the same Eph. 4. 32. Forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Mark he proceeds upon this Principle that Christ layeth down Whatsoever ye would c. We are in the World and in the Flesh and therefore should not rigidly exact upon the failings of others lest they or others deal so with us when our turn comes We need Pardon in this kind for we give Offence Eccl. 7. 21 22. Take no heed unto all Words that are spoken lest thou hear thy Servant curse thee for oftentimes also thine Heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed others The meaning is we should not be over-affected with others speaking ill of us because we know we have spoken ill of others and should pass it by with meekness and neglect therefore the consideration of our Passions and of our Infirmities should move us to Pardon We have been or may be as bad as they We have been once Tit. 3. 3. Foolish and Disobedient led by our unruly Appetites and Desires therefore we should shew Meekness to them I and we may be surprised again James 3. 1. My Brethren be not many Masters for in many things we offend all Be not many Masters that is severe masterly or supercilious if another be fallen and hath offended us for we shall receive the greater Condemnation The Apostle argueth from another Argument Col. 3. 13. And Eph. 4. 32. Forgive others as God hath for Christ's sake forgiven us There is no Man can wrong us as much as we trespass against God and though we are but as the Drop of the Bucket and the small Dust of the Ballance yet our great and many Sins are freely forgiven to us therefore it should prevail with us freely and easily to Pardon one another The Scripture urgeth this O when we consider Christ's Example how Christ hath forgiven us when we consider the greatness of the Wrongs which he pardons Sins that are of a Scarlet and Crimson die Isa. 1. 18. when we consider our own baseness in comparison of him Isa. 40. 22. Who sitteth upon the Circle of the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-hoppers and when we consider his Omnipotency to right himself of the wrongs done to him How he can cast Body and Soul into Hell Fire Surely this should move us to forgive others Yea and it is not only a Motive but a Rule Forgive others as God forgives us what 's that Sincerely not hypocritically freely not unwillingly fully not by halfs irrevocably not for a time only but as God forgives and casts all our Sins into the depth of the Sea so should we forgive and pass by the Sins of others Christians shall I urge another Argument in this Case what need there is of Forgiveness Hereby a Man overcometh himself hereby he shames the Party that did him wrong and hereby he takes God's course to get the Victory over the Person which hath done him the wrong Hereby he overcometh himself his own Nature which thirsteth after Revenge Prov. 16. 32. He that is slow to Anger is better than the Mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City He is able to rule himself so 't is his Glory he doth overcome that revengeful and froward Disposition which is in his own Nature And hereby he overcomes and shames the Party that did him wrong there is no such way to do this as by Forgiveness Thus David did overcome Saul 1 Sam. 24. 17. When David had him at an advantage and spared him Saul said to David Thou art more Righteous than I. O what a Victory was this to overcome that fierce Man's Heart and reconcile him And you keep God's way in overcoming him it is God's prescribed course that you should thus overcome him by Kindness and Meekness Rom. 12. 21. Be not overcome of Evil but overcome Evil with Good But wherein must we express this Forgiveness towards others as to the wrong to be forgiven we must consider it either as an offence against God or sometimes against publick Laws or as it is an offence against us So far as it is an offence against God or the publick Laws here we have not power to Forgive and Punishment is due to the common Good Poena debitur The Lord himself that forgives us and forgives for Christ's sake hath secured the Honour of his governing Justice by Satisfaction and if the Law requires it we cannot intermedle there only we must pray to God earnestly for them that 's our Duty Iam. 4. 15. and in some Cases we may interceed with the Magistrate to take off the Penalty and are so bound This Forgiveness implieth two things a removal of an inward Grudg and a readiness to do all Duties of Love and Kindness to them 1. A removal of an inward Grudg and endeavours after private Revenge Lev. 19. 17 18. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart thou shalt in any
the Death incurred by Sin And how by him by his being a Propitiation that he speaks of there vers 10. We were in a State of Death when the Doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the Guilt and Power of Sin for while the Guilt and Tyranny of Sin remaineth we are said to be dead and strangers to the Life of God and we begin to live when first regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Now this we have not without Christ being a Propitiation for our Sins that is without doing something whereby God without any impeachment of his Honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind his Justice Holiness and Hatred of Sin being sufficiently demonstrated in the Sufferings of Christ. Now the Honour of his governing Justice being kept up his pardoning Mercy is the more freely exercised God may be propitious to Mankind and yet still be acknowledged as a sin-hating God 2. In regard of Efficacy Christ is a quickening Head or a life-making Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. Whatever Grace we have comes from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our Union with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature As soon as joyned to him as our Head this Grace is applied to us by his Spirit It is first applied by converting Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit and so we are fitted to every good Work Christ first applieth it in Conversion when he giveth us Repentance and a new Nature Acts 5. 31. And supplieth it by continual Influence Iohn 15. 5. We live on him as the Branch doth on the Root Now from hence we learn what a great Benefit renewing Grace is it is a Fruit of reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5. 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. God giveth Grace only as the God of Peace that is as pacified by Christ's Death The holy Spirit is the Gift of his Love and the Fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us First our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his Sacrifice and bloody Sufferings and then doth apply it by the Almighty Power of his Spirit and Christ is first our Ransom and then the Fountain of Life unto our Souls and so the Honour of our whole and entire Recovery is to be ascribed to our Redeemer When he satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he purchased a Power to change the Heart of Man and he purchased this Power into his own Hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. We should often think what a Foundation God hath laid for the Dispensation of his Grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite Love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he would shew forth his infinite Power in determining and changing the Heart of Man all the Persons concurred the Father purposing the Son by way of Redemption and Purchase the Holy Ghost by effective Power and all to bring back our Souls to God and to make us capable of serving and pleasing him it is surely a Workmanship of much cost Two Reasons why they are as it were created anew 1. Because of the Badness of our former Estate Ruinous and decayed Buildings are only to be thrown down to make way for a new Structure and House to stand in the same place Man naturally is a Creature in a State of Apostacy and Defection under a loss of Original Righteousness averse from God yea an Enemy to him prone to all Evil weak yea dead to all Spiritual Good And what must be done with such a Creature to bring him out of his Misery but wholly to new-mould him and make him that he may have a new Being and Life The Scripture represents Man as blind in his Mind 2 Pet. 1. 9. Perverse in his Will Zech. 7. 12. Rebellious in his Affections Eph. 2. 3. fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind What sound Part is there left in us to mend the rest If we will be brought home to God we must of sinful and polluted become clean and holy and Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. We must of carnal become spiritual and therefore we must be new-born new-made Ioh. 3. 6. That instead of minding the things of the Flesh we may mind the things of the Spirit we must of Wordly become Heavenly Now he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that frameth and createth us for this Heavenly State is God He that is the Framer and Maker of all things of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he createth us anew in Christ that we may look after Eternal Life The Heavenly Disposition wrought in us is a Pledge of it 2. From the Nature of God's Work which is not meerly by helping the Will but by giving us the Will it self or the Act of Volition of it not by curing the Weakness of it but by sanctifying it and taking away the Sinfulness of it and inclining it to himself If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment a little moral Perswasion and Excitation outward or inward by the Word and Spirit would serve the turn but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel She is not dead but sleepeth No the Scripture saith We are dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only necessary for facilitation that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good as a Horse is necessary that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties No 't is impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart that he contemns the World and seeks after Heavenly Things Nay he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please or a remote Power to do if we please but he giveth to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self and the Deed it self Thus is God's Operation set forth he reneweth the Faculties and exciteth the Act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious Influence Ezek. 36. 26 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency so that a Man may or may not then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion and God lose the Glory of his Grace and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man 's own Will God doth not give a power to repent and believe and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual but he giveth Faith it self and Repentance it self Faith is his Gift Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised to give Repentance
left such an Instinct and Inclination upon her which doth sufficiently excite her to do it 2. The near Preparation is called Promptitude and Readiness for every good Work or a ready Obedience to every good Work Tit. 3. 1. So 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ready to distribute Heb. 13. 16. Ready to communicate So Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 21. 13. This is beyond Inclination The Fire hath an Inclination to ascend upwards yet something may violently keep it down so a Christian may have a Will to Good a strong not a remiss Will but yet there are some Impediments Rom. 7. 18. Inclination implieth a remote Power but Readiness the next and immediate Power therefore a Christian ought to keep himself in a readiness or fitness of Disposition for his Duty whether it concerneth God our selves or others This is seen in Zeal that beareth down all Impediments All Graces are operative and Zeal is that earnest Impulsion and Activity of every Grace where it is in strength and vigour Faith worketh Gal. 5. 6. Love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Hope quickneth 1 Pet. 1. 3. A lively Hope This proceedeth from the new Nature when it is in right Frame and Strength We need not only make Conscience of our Duty or have some mind to it but our Hearts will not let us have any Quiet and Rest without it 2 Pet. 1. 8. They make you that you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledg of our Lord Iesus Christ. Christians must be zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. Paul was pressed in Spirit Acts 17. 10. Acts 18. 5. The Benefits that come by it are 1. We do good Works more easily as being inclined thereunto Exod. 35. 29. The Children of Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord. Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power There is a great deal of Difference between doing things by Compulsion and doing things from an Inclination between Israel's making Brick in Egypt and building the Wall in Nehemiah's Time Neh. 4. 6. 2. With more Delight and Alacrity 1 Iohn 5. 3. His Commandments are not grievous Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments It is a Pleasure to them to do a good Work to others a Toil. 3. With Constancy That which is forced lasts not long Upon the first occasion we break out cast off the Burden which pincheth and galleth us A Man is never constant to his Duty till he be held to it by his Heart and the Byass of the Heart is not Fear but Love You cannot easily perswade him against his Love and Inclination though you may overcome his Fears Cant. 8. 6 7. Set me as a Seal upon thine Arm for Love is strong as Death Iealousy is cruel as the Grave Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it If a Man would give all the Substance of his House for Love it would utterly be contemned The Uses are 1. For Reproof of many professing Christians who are not more prepared for the Lord and made ready for every good Work Alas some are to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. unfit for any Christian Practice In others all their Holiness standeth in being less vitious or wicked than others If they avoid the greater Crimes though they freely practise the less they are accounted good Men. Some talk but do nothing like Cypress-Trees tall and beautiful but unfruitful or the Carbuncle afar off seeming all on fire but the Touch discovers it to be key-cold their Zeal is more in their Tongues than their Actions Others are very unready arguing for a Mediocrity disputing every inch with God beating down the price of Religion as low as they can as little Worship and Charity as may be and will do no more than needeth and it is well if they do that True Goodness like live-Honey droppeth of its own accord 2 Cor. 8. 2. and is always desirous to do more for God Psal. 71. 14. I will praise thee more and more Phil. 1. 9. I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledg and in all Iudgment 1 Thess. 4. 1. Furthermore we exhort you Brethren That as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more But little of this Temper is to be found 2d Use of Information First Observe the Deduction of good Works from their proper Causes viz. The Will of God requiring our Regeneration fitting the one determineth our Duty the other maketh us ready to perform it While carnal that which we do is but the Image of a good Work not really and spiritually good 2dly The Necessity of good Works 1. Necessitate Consequentis as the Fruit and End of Regeneration All things are valued by their use What doth the new Creature serve for but that we may walk in newness of Life otherwise it is but a Notion It is not given us to lie hid in the Heart as a sluggish idle quality but that we may act by it and improve it for God The Lord made no Creature in vain Inded all that we have from God both in Nature and Grace was that we might be fruitful in Holiness In Nature we have Life Health and Parts for nothing else but that by our present Duty we may prepare our selves for everlasting Joys All God's Mercies bind us to Diligence all his Ordinances are Means to help us all his Graces are Power to enable us and there is over and above the holy Spirit to excite and quicken that Power Ioh. 4. 10. Ezek. 36. 27. 2. Necessitate Praecepti God hath required them at our hands Now we must make Conscience of what God hath required especially when all his Commandments are holy just and good If some greater thing were required ought we not to have done it 2 Kin. 5. 13. But when he hath required such noble Work shall we refuse There is nothing in his Law but what becometh his Nature preserveth and makes happy ours 3. Necessitate Medii as the Way to Heaven Good Works are indispensibly required of grown Persons if they mean to be saved Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God A Christian shall be judged at the last day by what he hath done Rev. 20. 12. I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their Works 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth every Man according to his Work Profession will not carry it but our Works come into the Judgment So Rev. 14. 13. Their Works follow them that is They have the Fruit and Comfort of them in another World and without them we cannot be
saved 4. Necessitate Signi as Evidences of our Right to Salvation both to others and our selves Works or external Acts are more sensible and visible and also liable to the notice of our own Consciences and it is more hard to judg of the internal Grace than the external Fruits 1. As to others God seeth what is in our Hearts but Men see it not till the Effects manifest it When Iohn suspected the Pharisees he said to them Mat. 3. 8. Bring ye forth therefore Fruits meet for Repentance The Fear of God is more known by the external Act than by the internal Habit therefore that Description is given Prov. 8. 13. The Fear of the Lord is to hate Evil Pride and Arrogancy and the evil Way and the froward Mouth do I hate And Iob 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Understanding The Current of a Mans Life and Actions doth best expound and interpret his Heart Thus the Psalmist discovered the wicked Psal. 36. 1. The Transgression of the Wicked saith within my Heart that there is no Fear of God before his Eyes 2. To our selves holy Conversation and Godliness is the surest note of our Regeneration We judg others by external Works alone For the Tree is known by its Fruit Mat. 7. 16. Charity forbids us to pry any further but we judg our selves by internal and external Works together If within we have Faith in Christ a love to God and hatred of Evil a delight in Holiness a deep sense of the World to come all which Graces make up the new Nature then these things issue out into an holy Conversation this breedeth Joy and Peace of Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 1 John 3. 18 19. Let us not love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth and hereby we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our Hearts before him 3. That good Works must not be opposed to God's Mercy and free Grace or Christ's Satisfaction Merit and Righteousness either in the matter of Justification or Salvation but kept in a due subordination to God's Grace and Christ's Merits This is the business of this Context to reconcile the Grace of God with the necessity of good Works è contrà and very well it may be for they are part of the Grace obtained He is most beholden to God and indebted to Grace who is enabled to do most good for all is from him Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure So that our very doing is receiving But because there are a sort of Men that may be called Justiciaries who trust and teach others to trust to their own Vertues and Works without a Saviour or ascribe the part of a Saviour to them and on the other side the Libertines who teach Men not to look at any thing in themselves at all not as an Evidence Condition or Means but to trust to Christ's Blood to be instead of Faith Repentance and Obedience which is their Duty to be performed by them therefore it will be necessary to be well acquainted with what is truly the Part and Office of Christ what is truly the Office of Faith and Repentance what of Works that you may be sure to give every thing its due and may wholly trust Christ for his part and not joyn Faith or any of your Works and Duties in the least degree of that Trust and Honour which belongeth to our Saviour but regard them according to that use for which they are commanded in the Gospel 1. Our Works whatever they are either Duties to God or Man are not the first moving cause or inducement to incline God to shew us Favour or to bring about our Salvation No this Honour must be reserved for the Grace of God which moveth and stirreth all in the business of our Salvation It was his Grace to provide us a Saviour John 3. 16. God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life And the giving of Faith or converting Grace to some before others is the meer Effect of his Mercy and good Pleasure Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he hath loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved Then the Benefits consequent upon Conversion are from God's Love and Mercy As Justification Rom. 3. 24. Iustified freely by his Grace Not only by his Grace but freely that is not excited by our Works but acting freely of its own accord Then for Eternal Life we have it from the Grace of God and the Mercy of our Redeemer Jude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life So that Grace is the first Mover and Principle in the whole Business of our Salvation it is originally from Grace and all along by Grace 2. Our Works before or after Conversion are not that Righteousness not any part of that meritorious Righteousness by virtue of which Sins are expiated the Wrath of God appeased all Blessings of Heaven purchased and we reconciled to God For this is only to be ascribed to the Merit and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death and are saved by his Life Rom. 5. 10. He is our Propitiation we live by him 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins It is Christ's Office and Honour to be a Sacrifice for Sin and a Propitiation for us and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor to obtain the Spirit to fit us for our present Duty and future Happiness We are his Workmanship in Christ. 3. Our Works or Duties which we perform in Obedience to God are not the first means to apply the Grace of the Redeemer or the Condition of our first entrance into the Evangelical Estate No that is proper to Repentance and Faith Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God is by Faith unto all and upon all them that believe And Repentance is frequently required also to receive Pardon and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be Converted that your Sins may be blotted out It is the penitent believing Sinner that is