Duty or opposition to that lawful Authority which God hath set over him In these and the like cases a Mans mistake or misinformation will not excuse him before God when he shall call him to an account And so much may suffice to have been spoken of circumspect walking negatively it now follows that I speak of it affirmatively To walk circumspectly is a large and comprehensive thing Walking takes in the whole course of a Mans Life our whole carriage and deportment both with relation to God and Man a 2 King 20.3 I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart b Isa 33. â—5 16. He that walketh righteously shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks c 2 Thes 3.6 Withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly that is from every Professor of the Christian Religion that is of an irregular and disorderly Conversation And on the contrary to walk circumspectly is to order our Conversation and regulate our Lives with the greatest care solicitude and heedfulness The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used may be rendred accurately or exactly and so to walk requires great heed and diligence So the same word is taken Mat. 2.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search diligently after the young child said Herod to the Wise Men and so in the Verse before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he diligently or exactly enquired the time when the Star appeared Briefly therefore to walk circumspectly is to use our utmost care and diligence to please God in all things and to yield obedience to all his Commandments to perform every known Duty and to avoid every known sin 't is with the Apostle Act. 24.16 Herein to exercise our selves to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men 'T is to make this our daily work and the great and constant business of our Lives From what hath been said 't is manifest that circumspect walking implies 1. An heeding and observing all our ways with relation to the Rule and 2. A careful endeavour in all things to conform our selves to the Rule so that he and he only walks circumspectly who hath the Rule always before him ponders and considers all his paths with relation to it and orders all his steps accordingly at least who sincerely endeavours so to do Now in the second place That 't is our Duty to walk circumspectly may be confirmed from divers other Scriptures enjoining it though not in the same terms yet in other words and expressions to the same effect When God had given the Israelites the Ten Commandments and many other particular Laws he addeth this strict charge for the due observance of them In all things that I have said unto you be circumspect Exod. 23.13 which charge though it did in a special manner concern that people yet it reacheth us also in reference to whatever God hath enjoined us there being every way as much reason that we should be circumspect and in some respects more we having greater light and clearer revelations of the Will of God under the Gospel than they had under the Law as also greater Encouragements to obedience by the more full discoveries of the Rewards of obedience in the other World So again Take diligent heed to do the commandments and the law Josh 22.5 Josh 23.11 Take good heed unto your selves that ye love the Lord your God which love was to be shewed by cleaving to him and obeying him as there afterwards it follows Psa 119.9 Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word Let thine eyes look right on Prov. 4.25 26 27. let thine eye-lids look straight before thee Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy foot from evil By all which variety of expressions we are required to be wary and circumspect in all our ways Mat 24.42 Mat. 25 13. 1 Cor. 16.13 1 Thes 5.6 Rev. 3.2 that we may not in any thing swerve from the Rule And this is that which in the New Testament is so often enjoined under the Metaphorical expressions of watching and watchfulness And so I come to the third thing propounded which was to give the reasons why we are to walk circumspectly and they are many 1. In regard of Gods Presence and Eye He compasseth our path Psa 139.3 and our lying down and is acquainied with all our ways His eyes are in every place Prov. 15 3 beholding the evil and the good He accurately and narrowly observes us Job 33.11 He marketh all our paths He considereth and throughly weigheth all our actions and every step we take Prov 5.21 He pondereth all our goings And not only our ways and outward actions but our hearts and the secret frame of them Prov. 21.2 He pondereth the hearts and he weigheth the spirits Prov. 16.2 Add hereunto the infinite holiness of that God who thus observes us and whose Eye is continually upon us Hab. 1.13 He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity Now what heedfulness and circumspection can be too much in all our actions where there is such an observer and witness of every thing we do 2. We must walk circumspectly in regard of Satan the Enemy of Souls who is ever lying in wait for us to entrap us 1 Pet. 5.8 and as a roaring Lyon is still walking about seeking whom he may devour He hath his wiles and devices to over-reach us 2 Cor. 2.11 â— Tim. 3.7 He hath his grins and snares laid in all places to catch us Now if a Man had a malicious Enemy always following him ever eying and observing him and ready to catch at any thing to be made use of for his ruin he would think it highly concerned him to be circumspect and that he could not be too wary to prevent and cut off all advantages against himself 3. It concerns us to be circumspect in regard of the World that observes our actions and is ready to make the worst construction of them such is the injustice and malignity of this evil World that many times your best actions shall be most harshly censured how much more those passages of your Life that are of a doubtful nature and may be well or ill interpreted as Men stand affected towards you Upon this account it is that the Apostle exhorts us to walk in wisdom towards them that are without Col. 4.5 and our Saviour cautions us to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves Mat. 10.16 4. It concerns us to be circumspect in respect of our selves and the corruption of our Nature in respect of the great danger we are in from within though we had no Enemy without us Our hearts are false and
of the Law that he doth with much vehemency affirm the contrary Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the law through faith God forbid saith he yea we establish the law 2. Our Saviour in his preaching every where presseth Obedience to the Moral Law and urgeth the Duties thereof And in particular his most Divine and Excellent Sermon on the Mount doth in great part consist of that subject 3. In that Sermon he doth not only press the Duties of the Moral Law but vindicate the Law it self in many particulars and more strictly enforceth Obedience thereunto and severely threatens the Disobedient 4 He declares Mat. 5.20 that if our righteousness exceed not the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went very far in many things we shall never enter into the kingdom of God Promising Mercy to no Sinners but such as take his yoke upon them Mat. 11.29 And letting all workers of Iniquity and wilful Transgressors of the Law know that he will never acknowledge them for his but utterly disclaim them and cast them off at the great day of their appearance before him notwithstanding all their pleas and pretensions for being owned by him Mat. 7.23 5. As Christ himself ever called for Obedience to the Moral Law and urged the Duties thereof so did the Apostles after him St. Paul in his discourse with Felix Act 24.25 reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come And writing to the Corinthians he saith 1 Cor. 69 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God All which being Sins against the Moral Law exclude Men out of Heaven so strictly doth God still even now under the Gospel insist on and require Obedience to the Moral Law Rom. 13.1 2. And thus the Apostle presseth the Duty of Subjects to Magistrates the Duty of Parents to Children and of Children to Parents Col. 3.18 19 c. Col. 4.1 as also the respective Duties of Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants He that peruseth these Scriptures how can he think that the Moral Law is now out of date and no longer in force to them that have embraced the Gospel and by Faith received Christ 6. The Gospel is so far from discharging the Professors thereof from Obedience to the Law that it more strongly enforceth Obedience and lays an higher Obligation thereunto upon Christians than was laid upon the Jews in regard that greater Light and more powerful Motives and Inducements to Obedience are now afforded Hence those severe and terrible threatnings in case of Disobedience This is the condemnation Joh. 3.19 that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Mat. 3.10 Now is the Ax laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire Christ comes with his fan in his hand Luk. 3.17 and he will throughly purge his floor and gather the wheat into his garner but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thes 1.7 8. in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel Tit. 2.11 12. And what doth the grace of God revealed in this Gospel teach us but to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 7. Did Christ ever intend by his death to purchase for us a liberty of sinning Did he not therefore give himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And lastly on whom was the injunction of walking circumspectly here in the Text imposed Was it not on Believers And this may suffice to have been spoken to that Objection Obj. 5. If so much heedfulness and circumspection be required of Christians what will become of many that profess the Christian Religion We see no great numbers of them that are so strict and circumspect shall they all perish notwithstanding all the Priviledges which they enjoy in the visible Church who attain not to this circumspection A. Our Saviour hath plainly declared Mat. 20.16 Mat. 22.14 that many are called but few are chosen And again That wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat and that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life Mat. 7.13 14. and few there be that find it What can we say against such plain express and absolute passages of Scripture delivered by the mouth of him that is Truth it self and can neither deceive nor be deceived A very weighty and dreadful Truth it is that calls upon us all to give all diligence that we may be found in that small number which we are never likely to be unless we walk circumspectly If to walk circumspectly be a Duty incumbent on all Christians who is there amongst us all that may think himself exempted from it Who can plead for himself that he hath a particular Dispensation to lead his Life in another manner and to go to Heaven upon easier terms than others may But perhaps you will say though we are all enjoined to walk circumspectly and though it be a Duty incumbent on all yet 't is not enjoined as absolutely necessary to Salvation We may hope God intends not to shut all out of Heaven that have not walked circumspectly This were very hard A. I answer briefly If it be a Duty to walk circumspectly then 't is a Sin not so to walk and every Sin unrepented of excludes a man out of Heaven If any Man think this to be hard he must know that as hard as it is God will never alter the terms on which Eternal Life is offered men and frame more favourable and cheap terms to gratifie mens corrupt Affections Obj. 6. Many who never walked with so much circumspection die peaceably When they are going out of the World we hear of no complaints no discovery of fears no trouble of conscience A man would not wish to leave the World with more peace and quiet than many of these do A. To die without dread and horrour or free from inward troubles and conflicts is no certain and infallible Argument of a good Estate Their Estate is never the better or the more safe because they die quietly Their Consciences may be seared and their Hearts may be so hardened as they may have no sense of their Spiritual condition We find by Experience that this is the case of many a wicked man that hath led a very lewd and ungodly life Ask
And to the same effect is that of St. James To him that knoweth to do good Ch. 4.17 and doeth it not to him it is sin that is sin to the purpose sin of no ordinary complexion 2. What is done against light hath not only an inconformity to the Rule but some degree of contempt thereof Wherefore in such cases God looks upon himself as despised Why hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord said he to David when he had knowingly and deliberately sinned 2 Sam. 12.9 3. It argues Corruption to have gotten head and to have grown up to a great measure of strength and maturity it argues such a person to be set upon sin and wholly bent to gratify himself therein whatsoever shall come of it When the light it self shall stand in a man's way and flash in his face and yet he will go on he acts as one so resolved to sin as nothing shall take him off This in the language of the Scipture is to sin presumptuously by which a man under the Law was judged to have reproached the Lord in regard whereof no less punishment was appointed than the utter cutting him off from among his people Numb 15.30 31. And thus far I have only insisted on the consideration of light more generally 'T is light that is refused and contemned and therefore neither the sin nor the punishment of the person so offending can be small 2. 'T is not any kind of light but Gospel light that is so ill treated and this hath yet much more in it than all that hath been hitherto mentioned 1. The light of the Gospel is a clearer light All other light is but darkness to this The Heathens had the light of Nature for their guide but yet they were still in darkness till the Gospel enlightened them for the very Errand of the Gospel to them was to open their eyes Acts 26.18 and to turn them from darkness to light The Jews under the dispensations of the Law had much more light and yet were heavenly things in great part so vail'd and wrapt up in Types and Shadows as their condition to that of Gospel-times seems to have been but as the morning spread upon the Mountains to the noon day-light 2. 'T is a light that presents to our view the most excellent and most desirable things Pardon of sin Acts 10.43 Peace with God Rom. 5.1 Eternal life John 3.36 A kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 An inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 3. These excellent things which the light of the Gospel sets before us are such as were by infinite Wisdom and unspeakable Love designed and contrived for us before the foundations of the World were laid The most wise and gracious God did in nothing more discover the unsearchable Treasures of his Wisdom and the Riches of his Grace than in the Contrivance of our Salvation in such a way as in which Mercy and Justice so admirably meet together and Righteousness and Peace kiss each other We cannot therefore refuse or slight these excellent things without a manifest disparagement of the Wisdom and Love of God as if neither the one nor the other were considerable herein and as if after all that God hath done the things so wifely designed and graciously proffer'd were not worth our acceptance 4. The Gospel presseth the entertainment of these excellent things with the most cogent and forcible Arguments 'T is not laid before us as a matter of indifferency whether we will embrace what 's tendered or refuse it We are told and assured that as the acceptance of the things proffered will render us unspeakably blessed and happy to eternity so the refusal of them will certainly make us everlastingly and unconceivably miserable He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 5. Besides the external tender of these things in the Gospel the Spirit of God usually more or less accompanies the outward Ministration of the Gospel inwardly working together with it treating with us and solliciting the matters of our peace by Enlightnings and Convictions by stirring up good Motions and Affections Purposes and Resolutions which makes our refusal of mercy after all this much more worthy of the severest punishment 6. Add to all this the consideration of the greatness of the Person who at first published the Gospel and made tender of those excellent things to the World himself while here on Earth and also still continues to do it by his Servants The Lord of Life and Glory the Eternal Son of God who is over all God blessed for ever came in person from Heaven out of the Bosome of his Father on this very Errand that he might make reconciliation for sin Dan. 9. â—4 and bring in everlasting righteousness And offer the fruits and benefit of all to Mankind making this general Proclamation Whosoever believeth shall be saved If but an Earthly Prince should send his only Son to the remotest Parts of his Dominions on purpose to make tender of some great thing to one of his meanest Subjects what an indignity and how intolerable an affront would it be if that his tender should be slighted But here the King Eternal sends his only Son from Heaven to offer us Everlasting Life and we entertain him no otherwise than as if he came in a needless Embassy for so much our most unworthy carriage towards him imports if we do not accept of his Tenders This the Scripture insists on as a circumstance that carries in it no small aggravation of the sin of our unbelief If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 12.25 And again If they escaped not who refused him who spake from earth much more shall not we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from heaven Now put all these things together and I see not how you can chuse but conclude That as there is no sin like that which is committed against the light of the Gospel so there is no punishment like unto that which will be inflicted for this sin or That this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And so I proceed to the application of what hath been spoken VSE 1. First then To speak to the more dissolute Professors of the Christian Religion From the Premises we may infer That 't is a most vain and empty Plea which many loose Christians think to help themselves with at the day of their account to God They have had their birth and education where the light of the Gospel shines and under the
shall further confirm the point by other parallel Scriptures 3. I shall give the Reasons of it 4. I shall make some Application of it Concerning the first of these what it is to walk circumspectly I shall speak 1st Negatively 2dly Affirmatively I shall first shew what it is not and then what it is Negatively then 1. The circumspect walking here enjoined doth not lie in an affected singularity as when a man walks contrary to other men with no other design nor to no other end than that he may not be like them but be a person alone and one by himself God never calls us to this separation from the World Neither hath this been the practice of holy men whose Example is in Scripture set before us for our imitation S. Paul professeth his condescension to men and compliance with them in all lawful things that he might win them to Christ Vnto the Jews I became as a Jew 1 Cor 9.20 21 22. saith he that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some How far was he from studying to be unlike to other men who thus studied to apply himself to all men and conform himself to them so far as without sin he might do it Yet here let no man abuse this Example of the Apostle and plead it for justifying his conforming himself to the sinful practices of every Company he lights on The Apostle never gave any man such Example This had been contrary to his own Doctrine who chargeth us not to conform our selves to this world that is Rom. 12.2 to this wicked and sinful World so far as such And to abhor that which is evil Yea Rom. 12.9 1 Thess 5.22 to abstain from all appearance of evil But however to go as far away from other men as we can and to study to be opposite to them in those things in which we may lawfully conform to them and especially where we may hope to do any good by our innocent compliance with them is a singularity which God neither requireth of us nor approves of The root of this affected singularity as we have most reason to fear is Pride 'T is a manifest conceit and good opinion of his own wisdom that makes him chuse a way different from other men And as the root so the fruit of it is pride For being now in this singular way which his self-conceit hath put him into he pleaseth himself therein and values himself accordingly making account that he is so much better than other men by how much his practice is different from them 2. Circumspect walking doth not lie in a superstitious singularity whereby a man placeth Duty and Religion in those things in which God hath placed none This was the sin of the old Pharisees who taught for doctrines the commandments of men that is for Divine Doctrines for the Precepts and Injunctions of God And this is the sin of the Modern Pharisees Matth. 15.9 those of the Church of Rome who tread in their steps And such I fear is the singularity of those among our selves whom we call Quakers Though these Pharisaical Singularities may gain men a great reputation for Religion and Sanctity among men of their own Party as do the different Habits Diet course of life usages and practices of the several Religious Orders in the Church of Rome yet can they never commend them to God Of all these superstitious Singularities by which they would separate and distinguish themselves from the Secular and Irreligious World in which they pride themselves as matters highly acceptable and meritorious in the sight of God and for which others of their own way admire and even adore them I say of all these things God saith Who hath required them at your hands That 's all the thanks they must expect of him for them Neither is this all he looks upon their placing Religion and Sanctity in those things in which he hath placed none as a bold and saucy entrenchment upon his own Authority and Prerogative And indeed what is it better when Men shall take upon them to be Legislators in God's room making those things to be Sins and Duties which he never made so Most severe is the threatning against such as add to the Word of God which in effect these Men do Rev. 22.18 God will add unto them the plagues that are written therein 3. Circumspect walking doth not consist in a scrupulous singularity I distinguish this from the former that is the singularity of bold and presumptuous Persons this of weak and not sufficiently-informed tender Consciences that call for our Pity and Compassions rather than our Indignation forasmuch as they would be glad to be better informed and differ from the lawful practice of other Men conscientiously and to no other end than that they might not offend God as they groundlesly and erroneously apprehend they might Though no Man's Error commends him unto God yet his Carriage under an Error may and this is the case of these Persons And it was the very case of those Conscientious though mistaken Jewish Believers at Rome who not out of perverseness or turbulent opposition but out of pure dissatisfaction in point of Conscience did still observe those days the observation whereof God then no longer required and still forbear to eat those Meats which God then permitted to be eaten Of those weak and mistaken Believers the Apostle saith Rom. 14.6 He that regardeth a day regardeth it to the Lord and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not His meaning is That doing what they did out of Conscience though misinformed they as their present condition was did well and so far had acceptance with God But still I say though there may be something that is good in a Man 's not adventuring to go against the dictates of an Erroneous Conscience namely a fear of offending God if he should do otherwise than he doth yet the circumspect walking here enjoined consists not in such a singularity which being grounded on a mistake a Man is bound to endeavour to be rid of it and to be delivered from it as soon as he can And the rather because as the Circumstances may be in which a Man is it may be most dangerous and pernicious to lye under his mistake and continue in his Errour but one day or hour For the Errour may be such as may put him upon desperate Attempts or horrid Sins Our Saviour saith there would be those who would think they did God service by killing his Servants Joh. 16.2 A Man's Errour may be such as may not only deprive him of some of those Liberties which he might lawfully take but they may ingage him in a constant neglect of his
neither God nor Devil neither Heaven nor Hell O the sad condition of our Age that a Nation that hath had the light of the Gospel so long and so clearly shining amongst them that hath been as it were lifted up to Heaven in the means of Grace and that hath been honoured and dignified with so many signal Deliverances by which God hath from Heaven born witness and given testimony to the Truth which we profess should after all this so wretchedly apostatize and decline both in Opinion and Practice in Doctrine and Manners In respect of Sin and Temptations our days are evil with a witness so evil that 't is not easie to conceive how they can be much worse or what further degrees of wickedness men can arrive at 2. The days are evil in respect of the evil of Affliction and Punishments which our Sins have brought upon us and further threaten us with 1. They are evil days in respect of the Afflictions and Punishments which our Sins have brought upon us What Effusion of Blood at home and abroad by Sea and by Land What vast expence of Treasure What weakning and impairing of mens Estates What Mortality in our memory by a most grievous and terrible Pestilence raging in the Metropolis and in divers other parts of the Kingdom What dreadful Fires in the Head City and in many other places beyond all that any of our Histories make any report to have been in this Land Heretofore as far as I have heard or read of so many and such terrible Fires within the like space of time to have been in this Kingdom no Memorials of former Times for ought I know give us any account of 2. As the days are evil in respect of the sore Afflictions and heavy Judgments which our Sins have already brought upon us so are they evil also in respect of the Judgments which they further threaten us with The Apostle long since foretold 2 Tim. 3.1 that in the last days perilous times should come Such are our times There was never a time since the Reformation when our just fears and dangers were greater than of late they have been Neither the Spanish Invasion of Eighty Eight nor the Gunpowder Plot though horrid Attempts both of them exceeded the Bloody and Fatal designs of the Enemies of Church and State in our days O then how much doth it concern us to redeem the time because the days are evil To redeem it for giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure and for setling matters right between God and our own Souls to redeem time for getting strength to keep our selves untainted with the Corruptions of the Times and strength against the Assaults of the many dangerous and powerful Temptations which we meet with to redeem time for seeking God and for offering up to him our most fervent and uncessant Supplications for confounding the wicked Devices for defeating the Bloody Counsels and Barbarous Designs and for breaking in pieces the Diabolical Combinations and Traiterous Conspiracies of unreasonable men that are skilful to destroy To redeem time for seeking God in behalf of the Reformed Churches abroad groaning under the sad Miseries and Calamities of War and Persecution to redeem time to humble our selves for our manifold Sins and Provocations here at home and for averting those heavy Judgments which we may fear are hanging over our heads and hastening to come upon us and may speedily overtake us and surprize us if by our timely Humiliation and sincere Repentance we prevent it not These are sufficient Reasons to dispose of our time in such order as Religion the Concernments of our own Souls and the Publick Welfare may have a good proportion of it applied that way And the worse the times are we live in the more careful should we be to redeem it The Fourth Sermon 3 Ep. JOH V. 3. Beloved thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost to the brethren and to strangers THIS short Epistle of St. John was written to Gaius a sincere and zealous Christian Where he lived and to what Church he belongod is uncertain But wheresoever his abode was whether at Corinth Derbe or at Ephesus or some-where else 't is evident that he was a man eminent for Religion and greatly useful in his place The chief intention of St. John in writing this Epistle to him seems to have been that he might let him know how much he rejoyced to hear of the grace of God in him and that he might encourage him to go on and persevere in the profession and practice of the truth which he had entertained In the words which I have made choice of we have the principal thing which the Apostle here takes notice of in him commendeth him for and encourageth him in and that is his charity and hospitality to the Saints in relieving them and giving entertainment to them or rather his uprightness and sincerity therein Thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost to the brethren and to strangers Which words that they are to be understood of his Charity in relieving and of his Hospitality in entertaining the Saints is manifest from what follows concerning the same Subject in the 8th 9th and 10th Verses Thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost to the brethren and to strangers By the Brethren we may understand those who were of the same Church with Gaius or at least of the same City where his Habitation was and by Strangers those other Christians who either through persecution were constrained to come thither for shelter or whose necessary business and secular affairs drew them thither or lastly who came to preach the Gospel as it seems they did who are intended in the 7th and 8th Verses concerning whom the Apostle saith that for his Name 's sake that is for Christ's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles and that therefore Christians who were of ability ought to receive them that they might thereby be Fellow helpers to the Truth and promote the propagation of the Gospel And though these also were Brethren in a more general sense yet being Strangers those other at home might in a stricter sense be so called as being Brethren not only in respect of their common Faith and profession of the same Christian Religion but also in respect of their more particular relation to one another as fellow-members of the same same Church or Inhabitants of the same City Now whereas among many other good things which without all question were to be found in Gaius the Apostle singles out this particular That he did faithfully whatsoever he did in way of charity and kindness both to the brethren and to strangers And whereas he doth not so much commend him for the thing done how good soever in it self considered as for the manner of doing it We may hence observe That 't is a great duty of a Christian to do every thing faithfully In treating of which point I shall 1. Shew what it is to do all
before the coming of the Messiah Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations 2. We have a Prediction of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come 3. A Promise of the Glory of the second Temple together with an answer to an objection against it And I will fill this house with glory the silver is mine and the gold is mine 4. An Amplification of that Promise concerning the glory of the second Temple The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former 5. An additional Promise of Peace as an Appendix to all other Mercies promised And in this place will I give peace 6. The Ratification or Confirmation of the whole in those last words saith the Lord of Hosts so often mentioned before and with which all that was before promised is at last shut up and sealed To begin with the first of these the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah It is yet a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations By these Metaphorical Expressions according to the usual Language and Style of the Prophets we are to understand great Troubles Commotions Changes and Alterations in the World in which high and low Persons of all Conditions Ranks and Qualities represented by the Heavens and the Earth should take their turns and have their share So God speaking of his terrible Judgments on the World saith Isa 13.13 I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of its place in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce anger But now all the difficulty is what shakings should be here intended Some understand the words of the great things which the Evangelists report to have been done at and upon the Birth of Christ the Miracles wrought by him in his Life the strange and miraculous Providences at his Death and Resurrection and of the shaking of the World afterwards by the preaching of the Gospel whereby Idols were thrown down Heathenish Idolatry and Superstitions were abolished the Christian Religion and the Worship of the true God coming in place thereof These were great and wonderful things but how they should be here by the Prophet intended is not easie to conceive For he seems to speak of such concussions and shakings as should be antecedent to the coming of Christ and go before it not concur with it much less follow after it Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the Desire of all nations shall come that is after God should thus have shaken the World Christ should come And indeed very great and dreadful shakings there were between the time of this Prophecy and the coming of the Messiah in which shakings the people of God the Jewish Nation were not a little concern'd The Persian Empire under which they now were was not only shaken but shaken in pieces dissolved and ruined by the Grecians under the Conduct of Alexander the Great Then presently after Alexander's Death who died in the flower of his Age the Empire which he had but just then acquired and been possessed of was in effect once more rent in pieces and divided amongst his Chieftains and Principal Commanders While this state of things continued the Jews were miserably shaken oppressed and harassed by the Tyranny and Cruelty of Antiochus Epiphanes besides many other grievous pressures and sufferings which during the Government of the Seleucides they underwent After some time the Romans came upon them all and subdued all to themselves in which Revolution the distressed Jews fell under the power of the Romans and were at their Mercy After all these terrible shakings nearer the coming of Christ the Civil Wars under Augustus Caesar caused horrible shakings and convulsions in the Empire after which the Temple of Janus was shut up and a peaceable time ensued all Swords being sheathed and all Arms laid aside throughout the whole Empire and then was Christ the Prince of Peace born in the Forty first or as some will have it in the Forty second year of the Reign of Augustus Caesar Now whereas all these shakings were to go before the coming of Christ which was the greatest Mercy that ever was vouchsafed the World we may observe That great Troubles and Afflictions sometimes go before and make way for great and signal Mercies This is indeed the ordinary and usual method of God's most wise and gracious Providence Thus Joseph is sold to the Midianites carried into Egypt and there again sold to Potiphar falsly accused cast into Prison and laid in Irons that by this Series of long-continued Afflictions way might be made for his Advancement to the highest Honour in Pharaoh's Court and for his being made Ruler over all the Land of Egypt Thus seventy years Captivity and Bondage in Babylon goes before the joyful and triumphant Return of God's people into their own Land of which the Psalmist thus speaks Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Which Psalm though placed among the Psalms of David yet is by Learned men upon good grounds supposed to have been penned by some other Person after the return from Babylon as also Psal 137. that is to say 460 years at least after that David had been gathered to his Fathers and perhaps much more for we know not how long after the return from Babylon it might be penned Thus the Ten most Cruel and Bloody Persecutions of the Christian Church in the first Ages thereof went before that quiet and tranquillity which the Church enjoyed under Constantine and the succeeding Christian Emperors when to use the expressions of the Prophet God made the peace of his Church as a river and the righteousness thereof as the waves of the sea Thus that wicked Usurpation and Tyranny of Antichrist making havock of the Church which hath been drawn out to so great a length already and yet we know not how much longer it may last goes before that happy estate of the Church and of the World when those joyful Acclamations shall be heard The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11.15 And when they who shall have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image shall sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou king of saints Rev. 15.1 2. And to add but one instance more here at home thus