to God and they become his proper Name God is Holy Wise Powerful Just Merciful True c. and so are likewise some of his most excellent Creatures whom he hath made like unto himself but then the difference between God and them consists in this That his Wisdom and the rest of his Attributes are originally from him theirs derivatively from him his infinite and boundless theirs limited and stinted his invariable and unchangeable their 's subject to mutations and decays and total abolition So that in these Three respects even the communicable Attributes of God are themselves incommunicable and so they are his Name whereby he is known and differenced from all other Beings whatsoever But may it not be here said to me as it was to Manoah Judges 13.18 Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret and wonderful Indeed we can no more find out the Name of God to perfection than we can his Nature and Essence for both are infinite and unsearchable And there are Two expressions in Scripture that make this Knowledge impossible the one of them quite contrary to the other One is that God dwelleth in that light to which no Man can approach 1 Tim. 6.16 Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloriâ He that will too busily pry into Majesty shall be oppressed and dazled with Glory And the other is that he dwells in thick Darkness 2 Chron. 6.1 both implying the same impossibility of searching out the Almighty to perfection as Job speaks ch 11. 7. But though this comprehensive Knowledge be impossible yet God hath given us hints and traces of himself by which we may discover enough for our Adoration though not perhaps for our satisfaction And there are Two ways whereby God hath made known himself and his Name unto us and they are by his Works and by his Word First We may spell out God's Name by his Works and to this end serve those two great Capital Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea yea there is no one Creature how vile and contemptible soever it be but it reads us Lectures of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of the great Creator in which sence the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head Secondly More expresly and distinctly by his Word for the Scriptures are Nomenclatura Dei By these we come to a more clear and evident Knowledge of these Attributes of God which the Works of Nature held forth to us in a more obscure and confused manner And by this likewise we attain to the Knowledge of those perfections of God which the Works of Creation and Providence could never have instructed us in as of a Trinity in Vnity of the Eternal Generation and Temporal Incarnation of the Son of God of the whole Mystery of Religion and the tenure of the Covenant of Grace which are things that could never have been known but by Divine Revelation Indeed we may from the Works of God alone gather Knowledge enough of him to make us inexcusable if we Worship him not as God for so did the Heathens as the Apostle speaks in the forecited place Rom. 1.20 but it is only from the Word that we know so much of God as to make us Eternally Blessed and Happy Here he hath displayed his Name the Lord God Gracious and Merciful pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin Here alone hath he made known himself to be our Father in Jesus Christ and appointed the Spiritual Worship of himself that might prepare us for the Eternal Enjoyment of him in Glory So that now we see what is meant by the Name of God his Titles as King Lord Creator Father Redeemer and the like And his Attributes both Communicable as Justice Holiness Wisdom Mercy and Truth c. and incommunicable as Infinite Eternal Vnchangeable Omnipotent Independent and such like and that both this Name both of Titles and Attributes are made known to us either by the Works of God or by his Word Let us in the next place enquire what it is to Hallow this Name of God To Hallow is nothing else but to Sanctifie or make Holy so that Hallowed be thy Name is no other than let thy Name be made Holy But here may be a Question How can Creatures be said to make God Holy whereas it is God that makes them Holy I answer There is a Three-fold way of Hallowing or Sanctifying a thing or person One by Dedication A Second by Infusion And a Third by Declaration First A thing may be Hallowed or made Holy by Dedication setting them a part for Holy Uses and Services so the First-born are said to be Sanctified to the Lord Exod. 13.2 And that because among Men the First-born were to be Priests unto the Lord and among Beasts they were to be Sacrificed And thus Aaron and his Sons and the whole Tribe of Levi whom God took in Exchange for the First-born are said to be Consecrated and Sanctified Exod. 28.41 and many more instances might be given to the same purpose were it needful And thus at least we are said to be Sanctified by Baptism Ephes 5.26 That is we are by that Holy Ordinance set apart and Consecrated to the Service of God Thus one Creature may Sanctifie and make another Holy namely by Dedication or Separatiom to some Sacred Use and Service And so the Ministers of Christ do Sanctifie and Hallow the Elements in the Holy Communion setting them apart from common and ordinary use to that Blessed Mystery Secondly There is a Sanctification or Hallowing by Infusion or Implanting the real Principles and Habits of Holiness into that which is Hallowed And thus God Sanctifies his Elect by Infusing of his Grace into them and making them Holy in some measure and similitude like himself So our Saviour Prays John 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth And the Apostle 1 Thes 5.23 Prays The very God of Peace Sanctifie you wholly In neither of these Two Sences is God's Name to be Sanctified or Hallowed by us for thus to Pray were to Blaspheme Thirdly There is a Sanctifying by Declaration when we acknowledge and reverence that as Holy that is indeed so And thus only it is that Creatures may Sanctifie the Name of God the Creator So we have it used Isa 29.23 They shall Sanctifie my Name and Sanctifie the Holy One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel Now thus to Sanctifie the Name of God is the very same with that other Expression that commonly occurs in Scripture of Glorifying God We can add nothing to his infinite Perfections nor to the Lustre and Brightness of his Crown yet then are we said to Sanctifie and Glorifie God when in our most Reverend Thoughts we observe and admire his Holiness and the bright Coruscations of his Attributes and when we endeavour by all Holy ways to declare them
Honour thy Glory lies bleeding and suffers through the Sins of Men Why commit thy care to God He will certainly so weild their Lusts as that they shall bring about and effect his own ends God is glorifying himself even by these things and why then should we be troubled This thought kept alive on our hearts would cause us to rest satisfied amidst all the tumults we observe and hear of in the World For though we know not how to unwind these ravelled dispensations to the bottom of his Glory yet he can and will There is an invisible and wise hand that moulds and fashions all and though the parts by themselves may appear rude and unpolish'd yet put the whole frame and series of Providence together and that will appear most admirable and glorious Now to the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God Father Son and Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the first Sermon A Discourse concerning the use of the Holy Scriptures Colossians III. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom THis Epistle if any other is a rich mine of Heavenly Treasure and abounds both in the discovery of Gospel Mysteries and the injunction of Christian Duties It is furnisht throughout with that which may either instruct us in Knowledge or direct us in Practice And the Apostle having already laid down many Excellent things in order to both these and seeing it would be an endless task to discourse unto them all the Truths or exhort them to all the Duties of Religion in particular he therefore speaks compendiously in the words of my Text and referrs them to the perfect Systeme in which is contained an account of what a Christian ought to know or do and that is the Holy Scriptures Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly The words of this Exhortation are very full and laden with weighty Sence We may resolve them into two parts First Here is the Nature and Substance of the Exhortation which is to a diligent Study and plentifull knowledge of the Holy Scriptures Secondly The manner how we ought to be Conversant in them So that it may dwell in us richly in all Wisdom In the former we may take notice that the Scripture is called the word of Christ and that upon a double account both because he is the Author that composed it and likewise he is the subject matter of which it principally treats Now though in both these respects the Scriptures of the New Testament be more especially the word of Christ yet also may the Scriptures of the Old Testament as truly and properly go under his Name For First He is the Author of them all He may well write this Title upon our Bibles The Works of Jesus Christ All the Prophets before his Incarnation were but his Amanuenses and wrote only what he by his Spirit dictated to them 2 Pet. 1.21 Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and certainly the Holy Ghost inspired them by Christ's Authority and Commission and what he declared he took from him and shewed it unto them John 16.14 15. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Secondly Christ also is the principal subject and matter of the whole Scripture The sending Christ a Saviour into the World is that great Business which hath employed the Counsel of the Father the Admiration and Ministration of Angels the Tongues and Pens of Prophets Apostles and holy Men of all Ages before the Scriptures were Written when Revelation or Tradition were yet the only positive Rules for Faith and Practice The Patriarchs saw him by these Abraham saw my day and was glad Joh. 8.56 Afterwards the People of the Jews saw him by Types Promises and Prophecies recorded in the Scriptures He was that Excellent Theme that hath filled up many Chapters of the Old Testament as the first draught of a Picture represents the features and proportion of the Person but afterwards is added the complexion and life to it So is it here the Pens of the Prophets drew the first Lineaments and Proportion of Christ in the Old Testament and the Pens of the Apostles and Evangelists have added the Life and Sweetness to it in the New Yea Christ is so truly described in the Old Testament by his Life by his Death by all the greater Remarks of either that in his Contest with the Jews he appeals thither for a Testimony John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me And St. Peter Acts 3.24 Affirms That all the Prophets as many as have spoken have foretold of these days And Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets Witness Christ who is the true Expositor being himself the true Author makes them all speak his Sence Luke 24.27 Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the sayings concerning himself So that St. Chrysostom's Observation holds true that the Gospel was in the World before Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It took root in the writings of the Prophets but flowed forth in the preaching of the Apostles so that in both these respects the Holy Scripture may well be called the Word of Christ of Christ as the Author and as the Subject of it And in both these lies coucht a very cogent Argument that may inforce this exhortation of the Apostle and excite them to a diligent study of the Scriptures For First Is Christ the Author of them and shall we not with all care and diligence peruse these Books which he hath Composed The writings of Men are valued according to the Abilities of their Authors If they be of approved Integrity profound Knowledge solid Judgment their works are Esteemed and Studied And shall we not be much more Conversant in these which are set forth by the Author who is truth it self and the essential wisdom of the Father These that were dictated by the imediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and writ as it were with a Quill of the Heavenly Dove Secondly Christ is the subject of the Scriptures And what is all other Learning and Knowledge but beggarly Elements if compared with this Here we have the Cabinet of God's Counsels unlockt the Eternal purposes of his Grace in sending his Son into the World publickly declared Here we have the Stupendous History of God's becoming Man of all the Miracles this God-man did upon Earth of all the Cruelties he Suffered Here we have the Description of his Victory in his Resurrection of his Triumph in his Ascention of his Glory in his Session at the right hand of the Majesty on High Surely great is the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory as the Apostle with admiration recounts it
1 Tim. 3.16 And of all these wounderful passages the Scripture gives us a perfect Narrative And what have the great Wits of the World ever treated on like this either for Strangeness or Truth All their Learning is but idle and contemptible Speculation compared to this great Mystery of a Crucified Saviour who subdued Death by dying and without force converted the World to believe a Doctrine above Reason It was a very odd saying of Tertullian de carne Christi cont Marc. and yet there is something in it that strikes Natus est Dei filius non pudet quia pudendum est the Son of God was Born we blush not at it because it is shameful Mortuus est Dei filius prorsus credibile est quia ineptum est The Son of God dyed it is credible because it is unfit and unlikely it should be so Sepultus resurrexit certum est quia impossibile est he rose from the Dead it is certain true because it is impossible Now these unlikely and impossible things judged so by humane Reason these deep things of God the Scripture declares and declares them in such a manner as convinceth even Reason it self to assent to them though it cannot comprehend them If therefore you desire to know Christ and him Crucified and those Mysterious Doctrines which the Wit of Man could not invent for it can hardly receive them be conversant in the Holy Scriptures for they are the word of Christ and reveals all the wonders of Wisdom and Knowledge to which all the Wisdom of the World is but folly This therefore I suppose lies in the expression the word of Christ viz. the word of which he is both the Author and the Subject Secondly We may observe in the Text the manner how we ought to be Conversant in the Scriptures and that is set forth very significantly First Let the Word of Christ dwell in you Do not only give it the hearing as a strange and marvellous story let not the memory of it vanish out of your minds as soon as the sound of the Words vanisheth out of your Ears but lay it up and lodge it in your Hearts make it familiar and Domestick to you that it may be as well known to you as those that live in the same House with you Read it ponder and meditate upon it till you have transcribed the Bible upon your hearts and Faithfully printed it in your memories Secondly Let it dwell in you Richly or Copiously which may be taken either Objectively or Subjectively Objectively and so the sence is that all the word of God should dwell in us Content not your selves with some part of it that you read the Gospel or New Testament but neglect the Old as is the practice of some flush Notionists Or that you know the Historical part of both but neglect the Doctrinal which is the fond and Childish custom of some who read the Scripture as they would Romances skipping over the moral discourses as impertinent to the story But when we receive the whole Doctrine contained in it and are diligent in revolving the Prophets Evangelists Apostles every part and parcel of the Heavenly revealed truth Again the Word of Christ may dwell in us richly in the latter sence or Subjectively And so it doth when not only every part of it dwells in us but when it dwells also in every part of us In our memories to retain it in our minds to meditate on it in our affections to love it and in our Lives to practise it Then doth the Word of Christ dwell richly or abundantly in us Thirdly Let it dwell richly in all Wisdom The highest Wisdom is truly to know and to serve God in order to Eternal Life Now saith the Apostle so acquaint your selves with the Scriptures that you may from thence learn true Wisdom the saving knowledge both of what is to be believed and what is to be done in order to the obtaining of everlasting happiness To be conversant in it only to know what it contains is not Wisdom but folly But then it dwells in you in Wisdom when you study it to practise it when you endeavour to know the rule that ye may obey it This is Wisdom here and will end in happiness hereafter And thus you have the words of my Text explained In handling this Subject I shall only pursue the design of the Apostle and endeavour to press those exhortations upon you And indeed I need not many Arguments to persuade those who have already any acquaintance with these Sacred Oracles still to be conversant in them Have you not your selves found such clear light such Attractive sweetness and persuasive Eloquence in the words of God that all that the Tongue of Man can utter for it falls infinitely short of what it speaks on in its own behalf Who of us have not found direction from it in cases of difficulty Solution of doubts support under Afflictions comfort under sadness strength against temptation quicknings of Grace warmth of affection and in brief whatsoever we could expect from the mercy of God have we not found it in the Scriptures And shall we need further to commend it to you by Arguments since it hath commended it self by manifold experiences But so it is that the Devil knows we are disarmed and disabled if once he can wrest the Sword of the Spirit from us as the Apostle calls it and therefore labours all he can to strike the Bible out of our hands Or if we do read it he strives to put on such false Spectacles as shall misrepresent every thing to us and possess us with prejudice and Objections against it I shall therefore before I proceed any farther encounter with some of those prejudiced opinions which make this a Clasp'd and Sealed Book to many First Some may fear lest the study and knowledge of the Scriptures should only aggravate their Sin and Condemnation On the one hand the precepts of the Law are so various the duties so difficult and Flesh and Blood so infirm and opposite that they cast a dispairing look at them as impossible to be fulfilled On the other hand they have been told that knowledge without practice will expose them to damnation without excuse They have read Ja. 4.17 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin it is an Emphatical and weighty Sin and Luke 12.47 He that knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes This they have read and this deterrs them from reading any farther If they cannot practise what they know and if to know and not practise be only to inflame their last reckoning and make their torments more intolerable it is best for them to muffle up themselves in a safe ignorance To this I Answer First Though the word abounds with multitudes of sublime precepts and difficult duties yet this is no discouragement from the study of it For consider that this same
word is not only a light to discover what you ought to do but an help to inable you to do it It is the very means that God appointed to overcome your averseness and assist your weakness And if ever this be effected it must in an ordinary way be by conversing with the Scriptures That Sick Man hath lost his Reason as well as his Health who should refuse to take Physick because if it doth not work it will but make him the worse Why the way to make it work is by taking it So it is a distempered kind of arguing against the word of God the Physick of our Souls that it is mortal and deadly if it doth not work into practice The way to make it work into practice is to take it first into our knowledge 't is true it were a great discouragement if the Scripture only shewed you how much work you have to do what Temptations to resist what Corruptions to mortifie what Graces to exercise what duties to perform and left all that upon your own hands But the Leaves of the Bible are the Leaves of the Tree of Life as well as of the Tree of Knowledge they strengthen as well as inlighten and have not only a Commanding but an assisting Office And this the Scripture doth two ways First It directs where we may receive supplies of ability for the performance of whatsoever it requires It leads thee unto Christ who is able to furnish thee with supernatural strength for supernatural duties His treasury stands open for all concerns and his Almighty Power stands ingaged to assist those who relie upon it Be not discouraged therefore he that finds us work finds us strength and the same Scripture that injoyns us obedience exhibits God's promise of bestowing upon us the power of obeying Thou who workest all works in us and for us Isaiah 26.12 And work out your own Salvation for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do Phil. 2.12 13. Why then should we so complain of hard sayings and Grevious Commandments Have we not God's Omnipotence obliged by promise to assist in the same words wherein we are commanded to obey What saith the Apostle I am able to do all things through Christ strengthening me Phil. 4.13 When in reading the Scripture thou meetest with difficult and rigorous Duties the severity of Mortification the self cruelty of plucking out right Eyes and cutting off right Hands commend they self to these promises of aid and assistance that the same Scripture holds forth and lift up thy heart in that divine Meditation of St. Augustine Lord give what thou Commandest and command what thou pleasest Whilst thou thus duly dependest on Christ's strength and makest use of thine own it is as much his Honour and Office to inable thee as it is thy Duty to perform what he requires Secondly The Scripture as it directs us to rely on the strength of Christ so it is a means that God hath appointed to quicken and excite our own strength and Power to the discharge of those Duties it Discovers Wherefore are those pressing Exhortations and those dreadfull Threatnings every where so dispersed up and down in the Book of God but that when we are slow and dull and drowsie the Spirit may by these as by so many goads rowze us and make us start into Duty Such a spiritual sloath hath benumb'd us that without this quickening we should not be diligent in the Work of the Lord and therefore David prays Psalm 119.88 Quicken me so shall I keep the Testimonies of thy Mouth but yet it is also the word it self that quickens us to the Obedience of the word Psal 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me And indeed if you can come from reading the word that so abounds with Promises with Threatnings with rational Arguments with pathetick Expostulations winning Insinuations importunate Intreaties heroick Examples propounded to our Imitation with all the perswasive Art and Rhetorick that becometh the Majesty of the great God to use if you can read this word and yet find from it no warmth of Affection no quickening to Duty let me tell you you either read it without attending to it or else attend without believing it It is therefore no discouragement from searching and studying the Scriptures that its commands be many and difficult for it directs you whither to go for promised strength and the more you converse with it the more will you find your hearts quickened to a due Obedience of it That 's the first Answer But then secondly Whereas many think that it is better not to know than not to practise we must here distinguish of Ignorance which is of too kinds either invincible or else affected Invincible ignorance is such as is conjoyned with and proceeds from an utter impossibility of right information and it ariseth only from two things First Absolute want of necessary Instruction or Secondly Want of natural capacity to receive it Affected Ignorance is an ignorance under the means of Knowledge and always ariseth from the neglect or contempt of them Such is the ignorance of those who do or may live where the Gospel is preached and where by pains and industry they may arrive to the knowledge of the truth Now here for ever to answer this Objection and to shew you how necessary knowledge is I shall lay down these two particulars First I grant indeed that unpractis'd knowledge is a far greater sin than invincible Ignorance and exposeth to a much sorer Condemnation Hell Fire burns with Rage and meets with fuel fully prepared for it when God dooms unto it an head full of Light and an heart full of Lusts Those who know God's will but do it not do but carry a torch with them to Hell to fire that Pile that must for ever burn them We have a common Proverb That knowledge is no Burthen But believe it if your knowledge in the Scripture be merely Speculative and overborn by the violence of unruly Lusts this whole Word will be no otherwise to you than the burthen of the Law as the Prophets speak a Burthen that will lie insupportably heavy upon you for ever Better far you were born under Barbarism in some dark Corner of the Earth where the least gleame of Gospel-light never shone and where the name of Christ was never mentioned than to have this weighty Book a Book which you have read and known hung about you to sink you infinitly deeper in the Burning Lake than a Mill-stone hung about you can do in the midst of the Sea What St. Peter speaks of Apostates 2 Pet. 2.21 is but too well applicable to the knowing Sinner It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn aside from the Commandments delivered to them How Better not to have known it Why is there any possibility to escape the Condemnation of Hell without the knowledge of the way of
may persuade you to a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures The Jews indeed were so exact or rather Superstitious in this that he was judged a despiser of those Sacred Oracles who did not readily know how often every Letter of the Alphabet occurred in them This preciseness God hath made use of to deliver down his word to us unvaried and uncorrupted It is not such a scrupulous search of the Scripture I now exhort you to but as God hath left it to us a rich Depositum a dear pledge of his Love and care so we should diligently attend to a rational and profitable study of it There are but two things in the general that commend any writing to us either that it discovers knowledge or directs practice that it informs the Judgment or reforms the Life Both of these are eminently the Characters of this Book of God And therefore David tells us Psal 19.7 The Law of God converts the Soul and makes wise the simple It is a light not only to our heads but it is a Lamp unto our Feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 Let us consider it as to both First In point of knowledge as it perfects the understanding and so it will appear in sundry particulars how excellent a study it is For First The Scripture discovers unto us the knowledge of those truths that the most improved natural Reason could never sift out and are intelligible only by Divine Revelation God hath Composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may come to the knowledge of himself The Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as our service There is not a Creature that God hath breathed abroad upon the face of the Earth but it Reads us Lectures of his infinite Power and Wisdom So that it is no absurdity to say that they are all the Works of his mouth so they are all the works of his Hands The whole World is a speaking workmanship Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And indeed when we seriously consider how God hath poised the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing how he hath hung out those glorious lights of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars and made paths in the Sky for their several courses how he hath laid the Sea on heaps and so girt it in that it may possibly overlook but not overflow the Land when we view the Variety Harmony and Law of the Creation our Reason must needs be very short if we cannot from these collect the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator So much of God as belong to these two great Attributes of Creator and Governour of the World the Book of Nature may plainly discover to us But then there are other more retired and reserved Notions of God other truths that nearly concern our selves and our eternal Salvation to know and believe which nature could never give the least glimpse to discover What Signature is there stampt upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Carnation of the Son of God What Creature could inform us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great Sages of the World though they were Nature's Secretaries and ransack'd its abstrusest mysteries yet all their Learning and Knowledge could not discover the Sacred Mystery of a Crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature is so far from searching out that it can scarce receive them when revealed 1. Corinth 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned The light that can reveal these must break immediately from Heaven it self And so it did upon the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures And if it were their singular Privilege that the Holy Ghost should descend into their breasts and so possess them with Divine inspirations that what they spake or wrote became Oracular how little less is ours since the Scriptures reveal to us the very same truths which the Spirit revealed to them God heretofore spake in them and now he speaks by them unto us Their Revelations are become ours the only difference is that what God taught them by extraordinary inspiration the very same truths he teacheth us in the Scripture by the ordinary illumination of his Spirit Here therefore whilest we diligently converse in the Book of God we enjoy the privilege of Prophets The same word of God which came unto them comes also unto us and that without those severe preparations and strong agonies which sometimes they underwent before God would inspire them with the knowledge of his Heavenly truth That is the first Motive and Argument Secondly The knowledge which the Scripture teacheth is for the matter of it the most sublime and losty in the World All other sciences are but poor and beggarly Elements if compared with this What doth the Naturalist but only busie himself in digging a little drossie knowledge out of the Entrails of the Earth The Astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and Planets which are but the out-works of Heaven But the Scripture pierceth much farther and lets us into Heaven it self There it discovers the Majesty and Glory of God upon his Throne the Eternal Son of God sitting at his right hand making a prevailing and Authoritative intercession for us The glittering train of Cherubims and Seraphims an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect So that indeed when you have this Book laid open before you you have Heaven it self and all the inconceivable glories of it laid open to your view What can be more sublime than the nature of God And yet here we have it so plainly described by all its most glorious Attributes and Perfections that the Scripture doth but beam forth light to an Eye of Faith whereby it may be inabled to see him who is invisible But if we consider those Gospel Mysteries the Scripture relates the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's incarnation the Mystical Union of our persons to his by our believing that the Son of God should be Substituted in the stead of guilty Sinners that he who knew no sin should be made a Sacrifice for sin and the Justice of God become reconciled to Man through the blood of God these are Mysteries so infinitely profound as are enough to puzzle a whole College of
Angels Now these the Scripture propounds unto us not only to pose but to perfect our understanding For that little knowledge we can attain unto in these things is far more excellent than the most comprehensive knowledge of all things else in the World And where our scanty apprehensions fall short of fathoming these deep mysteries the Apostle hath taught us to seek it out with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God! how unreasearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Thirdly The Scripture is an inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more you draw from it the more still springs up It is a deep Mine and the farther you search into it still the richer you find it It is tedious to read the works and writings of Men often over because we are soon at the bottom of what they deliver and our understanding hath nothing new to refresh it But in reading the Scripture it fares with us as it did with those whom Christ miraculously fed the bread multiplied under their Teeth and increased in the very chewing of it So here while we ruminate and chew on the truths of the Scripture they multiply and rise up thicker under our meditation One great cause of the neglect that many are guilty of in reading the Holy Scripture is a fear that they shall but meet with the same things again which they have already read and known and this they account tedious and irksome Indeed if they read it only Superficially and slightly it will be so But those who fix their minds to ponder and meditate upon the word find new truths arising up to their understanding which they never before discovered Look as it is in a Starry night if you cast your Eyes upon many spaces of the Heavens at the first glance perhaps you shall discover no Stars there yet if you continue to look earnestly and fixedly some will emerge to your view that were before hid and concealed So is it with the Holy Scriptures If we only glance curiously upon them no wonder we discover no more Stars no more glorious truths beaming out their light to our Understanding St. Augustine found this so experimentally true that he tells us in his third Epistle that though he should with better capacity and greater diligence study all his Life time from the beginning of his Childhood to decrepit Age nothing else but the Holy Scriptures yet they are so compacted and thick set with truths that he might daily learn something which before he knew not God hath as it were studied to speak compendiously in the Scriptures What a Miracle of brevity is it that the whole Duty of Man relating both to God and his Neighbour should be all comprised in ten words Not a word but were the sence of it drawn out were enough to fill whole Volumes and therefore the Psalmist Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding broad When we have attained the knowledge of those things that are absolutely necessary to Salvation there yet remain such depths of Wisdom both in the manner of Scripture expression and in the mysteriousness of things exprest that after our utmost industry still there will be left new truths to become the discovery of a new search Fourthly The Scripture exhibits to us that knowledge which is necessary to Eternal Salvation This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 And this knowledge the Scriptures alone can afford us John 5.39 So 2 Tim. 3.15 We need not therefore enquire after blind traditions or expect any whimsical Enthusiasms the written word contains whatsoever is necessary to be known in order to Eternal Salvation and whosoever is wise above what is written is wise only in impertinences Now hath God contracted whatever was necessary for us to know and summed it up in one Book and shall not we be diligent and industrious in studying that which doth so necessarily concern us Other knowledge is only for the adorning and embellishment of Nature this is for the necessity of Life of Life Eternal I have before spoken enough concerning the necessity of knowledge unto Salvation and therefore shall not farther inlarge Therefore as St. Peter said to Christ Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life So let us Answer whatsoever may seem to call us off from the diligent study of the Scriptures Whither shall we go to this we must cleave with this we will converse for here alone are the words of Eternal Life Fifthly The Knowledge that the Scripture discloseth is of undoubted Certainty and perpetual Truth it depends not upon Probabilities or Conjectures but the infallible Authority of Christ himself he hath dictated it for whom it is impossible to lye The rule of our Veracity or Truth is the conformity of our Speech to the existency of Things but divine Truth and Veracity hath no other Rule besides the Will of him that speaks it He must needs speak infallible Truth who speaks things into their beings such is the omnipotent Speech of God Whatsoever he declares is therefore true because he declares it Never matter how strange and impossible Scripture-Mysteries may seem to Flesh and Blood to the corrupt and captious understandings of natural Men when the word of God hath undertaken for the Truth it is as much impiety to doubt of them as it is Folly to question the reality of what we see with our very Eyes Nay the information of our Senses what we see what we hear what we feel is not so certain as the truth of those things which God reveals and testifies in the Scriptures And therefore the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Speaking of that Miraculous Voice that sounded from Heaven Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Pleased We saith the Apostle heard this Voice when we were with him in the Holy Mount but we have also a more sure word of Prophecy or as the Greek may well be rendred We account more sure the word of Prophecy unto which ye do well that ye take heed What a more sure word than a Voice from Heaven When God himself shall vocally bear witness to the Truth Yes we have a more sure Word and that 's the Word of Prophesie recorded in the Old Testament And hence it will follow that because the Prophecies concerning Christ may seem somewhat obscure in Comparison with this audible Voice from Heaven therefore the testimony of obscure Scripture is to be preferred before the testimony of clear Sence Now therefore if you would know things beyond all danger either of Falshood or Hesitation be Conversant in the Scripture where we may take all for certain upon the Word and Authority of that God who neither can deceive nor be deceived Sixthly The Scripture alone gives us the true and unerring Knowledge
and for a pretence made long Prayers Matth. 23.14 yet certain it is that it was not their long Prayers that he condemns but their Pretence and Hypocrisie Thus much I thought fit to observe from the Context Our Saviour having thus cautioned his Disciples against the Sins of the Pharisees and Heathens in their Prayers comes in the Words I have read to instruct them how to pray After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. Some taking advantage from these Words deny this to be used as a Prayer it self but only as a Model and Platform to direct us how to pray But if we consult not only the practice of the Church of Christ in all Ages but the Scripture it self we shall find it to be both the one and the other for it is our Saviour's express Injunction Luke 11.2 When ye pray say and what should they say but the Words immediately following Our Father which art in Heaven c One Evangelist says Pray after this manner the other saith When ye pray say from both which compared together it is easie to collect that it is both a Pattern for us to form our Prayers by and that it is a Prayer it self which our Saviour in condescention to our Infirmities hath framed for us putting Words into our Mouths to beg of God those Blessings which through his most prevalent Intercession shall not be denied us And indeed of all Prayers this is the most absolute and comprehensive containing in it not so many Words as Petitions for there is not any one thing that we can pray for according to the Will of God but it is summarily couch'd in this And yet this Comprehensiveness which is the admirable Excellency of this Prayer hath been the only Reason why some of late have scrupled and refused to use it because they cannot pierce through all that is signified by these substantial Expressions they think they should take God's Name in vain in uttering that before him which they do not understand the utmost extent of But if they did but consider their own Prayers the same doubts would still remain When they pray that God's Name may be glorified can they comprehend in that short time while they are uttering those Words the infinite Latitude of that Request Is it unlawful at the close of our Prayers to desire that God would give us all good things which we have not mentioned before him And yet who of us can conceive how large an extent that Request may have May we not say Amen and Seal up our Prayers with a So be it though while we are speaking it we cannot presently recollect all that hath been mentioned before God in Prayer And for any to say that the Lord's Prayer is a Morsel too big for their Mouths as some have done I have always accounted it a most unworthy and unsavory Speech Certainly Christ thought it not too big for his Disciples whose Capacities at that time were possibly none of the largest as appears in many instances particularly in the Nature of Christ's Kingdom which he taught them to pray that it might come which they thought to be Temporal and Earthly And those who refuse the use of the Lord's Prayer as too big for them would yet think themselves much wronged if we should but suspect them as ignorant in that and in many other points of Christian Doctrine as the Disciples were when our Saviour instructed them thus to pray It being therefore as I hope clear and evident that we may often pray in these Words and that we must always pray after this manner let us now proceed to consider the Prayer it self in which there are these Four parts First The Preface or Introduction to it Secondly The Petitions or Requests we present to God in which the greatest part of it consists Thirdly the Doxology or Praise-giving for Praise is a necessary part of Prayer Fourthly The Conclusion or Ratification of all in the Sealing Particle Amen I shall speak somewhat of these briefly in the general and then more particularly of each as my Text directs me First For the Introduction or Preface unto the Prayer and that is contained in these Words Our Father which art in Heaven This is used as a preparative to Prayer And what greater inducement can there be to dispose us into a holy awe and reverence of God than to set before us the Greatness and Glory of that Majesty before whom we prostrate our selves And therefore we find that the Saints in Scripture in all their approaches to the Throne of Grace were wont in the beginning of their Prayers to affect and over-awe their Hearts with the humble mention of God's Glorious Attributes Thus Solomon 1 Kings 8.23 O Lord God of Israel there is no God like unto thee in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath who keepest Covenant and Mercy with thy Servants Thus Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.6 O Lord God of our Fathers art not thou God in Heaven and rulest not thou over all the Kingdoms of the Heathens and in thy Hand is there not Power and Might So Hezekiah 2 King 19.15 O Lord God of Israel who dwellest between the Cherubims thou art God even thou alone who hast made Heaven and Earth And so the Prophet Jerem. 32.17 Ah Lord God behold thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great Power and stretched-out Arm and there is nothing too hard for thee The great the mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in Counsel and mighty in Working And thus our Saviour himself Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth And so the Apostle Acts 4.24 Lord thou art God that hast made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is And thus to consider seriously of and reverently to express the infinitely Glorious Attributes of God is an excellent means to compose us into a holy fear and awe of God such as becomes vile Dust and Ashes to be affected with when it stands in the presence of its great Lord and Creator Only here let us remember that we dwell not so long upon the Titles and Attributes of God nor run so much out into Preface as to forget our errand unto him Secondly Next after the Preface we have the Petitions following in their order Of these some reckon six others seven but which soever we take the matter is not great They may all be reduced under two General Heads First Such as respect God's Glory Secondly Such as respect our selves and others The Three first respect God's Glory and the Three or Four last our own Good and that either Temporal or Spiritual Temporal in begging at God's Hands our daily Bread Spiritual in desiring both the Pardon of and Deliverance from Sin And here again we may observe the admirable Order and Method of this Prayer in that our Saviour hath placed the Petition which refers to our Temporal Good as it were in the very midst
be every way perfect perfect in the full Number of its Subjects and every Subject perfect in his entire and compleat Reward his Soul made for ever Blessed in the Beatifical Vision of God and his Body made unconceivably Glorious by the redundancy of that Glory that fills his Soul and both shall remain for ever with the Lord. And thus you see what the Kingdom of God is both universal and peculiar the Kingdom of his Power and the Kingdom of his Grace and that as it is Militant here on Earth both Visible and Invisible and as it is Triumphant in Heaven The next thing in order is to shew how this Kingdom of God is said to come This Word come implies that we pray for a Kingdom that is yet in its Progress and hath not yet attained the highest pitch of that perfection which is expected and desired for that which is yet to come is not as yet arrived to that State in which it is to be And therefore we do not so properly pray that the Vniversal Kingdom of God should come for his Dominion over the Creatures is actually the same and shall be so for ever But more especially we pray that the peculiar Kingdom of God should come and that as to both parts of it Militant and Triumphant Now this peculiar Kingdom is said to come in Three respects First In respect of the means of Grace and Salvation for where these are rightly dispensed I mean the Holy Word and Sacraments there is the Kingdom of God begun and erected and therefore we find it called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 Secondly In respect of the Efficacy of those means when all ready and cordial Obedience is yielded to the Laws of God then doth this Kingdom come and the Glory of it is advanced and increased Thirdly In respect of Perfection and so it comes when the Graces of the Saints are strengthned and increased when the Souls of the Godly departing this Life are received into Heaven and when the whole Number of them shall have their perfect Consummation and Bliss in the Glorification both of Soul and Body after the General Re-surrection And thus we have seen how the Kingdom of God may come In the next place we must enquire what it is we pray for when we say Thy Kingdom come I Answer There are various Things lie couch'd under this Petition as First We pray that God would be pleased to Plant his Church where it is not according to his Promise giving all the Nations of the World to his Son for his Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession That the dark Places and Corners of the Earth that are yet the Habitations of Cruelty may be illustrated with the Glorious Light of the Gospel shining into them That God would reveal his Son to those poor wretched People that sit in Darkness and in the Region of the Shadow of Death and would rescue them from their Blind Superstitions and Idolatries and from the Power of the Devil who strongly works in the Children of Disobedience and would translate them into the Kingdom of his dear Son especially that he would remove the Veil from the Heart of the Jew upon whom a sad Judicial Hardness hath long lain that they at length may be brought into the Unity and Fulness of Christ's Body We pray that all the World both Jews and Gentiles may be gathered into one Sheep-fold under Christ Jesus the great Pastor and Shepherd of Souls so that as God is one so his Name and Service may be one throughout all the Earth And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of the means of Grace and Salvation Secondly This Petition Thy Kingdom come intimates our earnest desire that the Church of Christ where they are planted may be increased in the Members of the Faithful That those who are as yet Enemies to the Name and Profession of Christ may be brought into the Visible Church and that those in it who are yet Strangers to a powerful Work of Grace may by the effectual Operation of the Holy Ghost be brought in to be Members of the Invisible Church And thus we pray that God's Kingdom may come in respect of the Efficacy of the means of Grace Thirdly We pray that all the Church of Christ throughout the World may be kept from ruine that they may not be over-run with Superstition or Idolatry That God would not in his Wrath remove his Candlestick from them as he hath in his Righteous Judgment done from other Churches which were once Glorious and Splendid We pray likewise that God would make up all Breaches and compose all Differences and silence all Controversies and cut off all those who trouble the Peace and rend the Unity of the Church breaking it into Factions and Schisms which are the most fatal Symptoms and Portenders of God's withdrawing himself and carrying away his Gospel and giving of it to another People who will better bring forth the Fruits of it which are Peace Meekness and Love And if in any thing Christians be diversly minded that God would be pleased to reveal it unto them and that whereunto they have attained they may walk by the same Rule and mind the same Things And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of its perfection and entireness Fourthly It intimates our humble Requests to God that his Ordinances may be purely and powerfully dispensed Hence as I noted before the Word is called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 that is the Word whereby we are brought into the Kingdom of Christ here on Earth and fitted for his Triumphant Kingdom in Heaven It is the means of our New Birth the Seed of our Spiritual Life And as a Kingdom cannot be well established or governed without good Laws so for the Government of his Kingdom Christ hath established Laws which are contained in the Records of the Holy Scriptures And as his Word is the Law so his Sacraments are the Seals of his Kingdom for so every believing Partaker God doth under his Seal confirm the grant of Heaven and Eternal Salvation And therefore in this Petition we pray also that God would give his Church able Ministers of the New Testament that may know how rightly to divide the Word of Truth and to give every one his Portion in due season And that he would be pleased to accompany the outward Administration of his Ordinances with the inward Operations of his Spirit which alone can make them effectual to turn Men from Darkness to Light and to bring them from the Power of Satan unto God That the whole Number of God's Elect may in his due time be brought in by the means which he hath appointed and sanctified for their Conversion and Salvation These are the chief and principal things that we beg of God for the Church Militant when we say Thy Kingdom come viz. that it may attain a perfection of Extent
are Tempted so most of them are not only Temptations but Sins also Indeed there is a Temptation to Sin which is a Temptation only and no Sin for so Christ himself was Tempted Matth. 4.1 He was led into the Wilderness to be Tempted of the Devil And we read there with what horrid Temptations he was assaulted even to Worship the Devil to distrust God and to destroy himself And yet as black as these Temptations were they were only Temptations and no Sins for so the Apostle tells us Heb. 4.15 He was Tempted in all things like unto us Sin only excepted And such sometimes are the Temptations wherewith the Devil assaults the Children of God horrid and hellish Temptations even to deny the very Being of God the Truth of the Scriptures the Immortality of the Soul Heaven and Hell and such bublings of Blasphemies against the very Fundamentals and Ground-works of Religion and yet if we be watchful presently to abhor and reject these injections of Satan and to cast back into his Face these his fiery Darts which he shoots into our Souls they are not our Sins though they are our Troubles but they shall be charged upon Satan to whom of right they do belong we being but only Passive and Sufferers in them But truly the most of our Temptations are Sins themselves and therefore we have great Reason and need to pray against them for they are Sins unto Sins Sins as they are irregular and inordinate Motions of our Passions and Affections and unto Sin as they tend to the bringing forth of farther Evil. And such are all the Temptations of our inbred Lusts and Corruptions when our Desires and Affections strongly encline us to those Objects which God by his express Law hath forbidden us Were it not for these sinful Temptations the others which are immediately injected by the Devil would not have any great advantage to prevail over us for by reason of our Lusts and Corruptions our Hearts always stand open to let in the Devil and were it not that these have seized on the Soul the Devil must have stood without and though he had knock'd yet would he have knock'd in vain And therefore we see in his first Temptation he deals all without doors there was no Natural Lust in our First Parents to befriend him or to betray the Soul unto him He shuts up himself therefore in the Body of a Serpent questioning with Eve about God's Commands perswades her of the desirableness of the forbidden Fruit tells her that God's Threatning was rather to fright them than to hurt them But in all these Methods of Tempting Satan had no admission into the Soul because Lust as yet had taken no possession of it but ever since the Corruption of our Natures contracted by the commission of the first Offence the Devil doth not stand to Tempt us without doors but he enters boldly as into the House of his old Friend Concupiscence nay as into his own House for the Souls of wicked Men are so called Matth. 12.29 He is by Lust let into the very inmost recesses and retirements of the Heart and can now propound Objects immediately to our Fancies and by our Fancies darken our Understandings and Affections and incline our Wills Again our Natural Corruption as it admits so it entertains and cherisheth the Temptations of the Devil A spark of Fire if there were no fewel prepared for it to seize on would presently die and vanish And so truly would Satan's Temptations that are like so many sparks of Hell Fire struck by the Devil into our Souls were it not for the prepared fuel the catching Tinder of our Lusts and Corruptions these Temptations would soon go out and expire and be like a flash of Lightning that might possibly startle us but could not burn us And thus though our Saviour Christ was grievously tempted yet it is said Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this World cometh and hath nothing in me that is the Devil could find no Sin or Corruption in him and therefore could fasten none of his Temptations upon him Thus we see what abundant reason there is for us to pray earnestly against Temptations whether they proceed from Satan or from our own Corruptions the one sort being always Sins of themselves and both sorts inclining and enducing us unto Sin But since Satan and our own Hearts prove Tempters unto us some may possibly ask how shall we know when it is Satan that Tempts us and when the Temptation ariseth from our own Corruptions The Question is nice and difficult yet because it may tend to the satisfaction of some who are curious in observing the Workings of their own Souls I Answer First There is but one kind of Temptations to Sin which have not their rise and original usually from Lust and those are Temptations to sin against the Light and Law of Nature as to the denying those Truths that are clear and evident by Natural Reason and strong Impressions on the Minds of Men as the being of a God the Immortality of the Soul future Rewards and Punishments and the like or else the doing of those things which are repugnant to the Dictates of the Law of Nature as for a Man to be Tempted to offer Violence to himself and to destroy himself It is very probable that such Temptations have not their first rise and original from our Natural Corruptions but are immediately darted into the Soul by the Devil though indeed our Corruptions too often catch at them and brood upon them till they have from such horrid Temptations as these conceived some horrid and monstrous Sin in the Soul Such injections as these are Balls of Wild-Fire kindled in Hell and cast into the Soul by the Devil and are not our Sins any farther than they are entertained by us and consented unto Secondly As for those Temptations which have a greater compliance to the corrupt tendency and inclinations of our sinful Natures which are not to such unnatural Sins as the other it is very hard if not impossible to Judge whether they originally proceed from Satan or from our own inbred Corruptions usually they both joyn together if Satan first inject them usually our Lusts nurse and foster them or if our wicked Hearts be the first Parents of them usually Satan inforceth them and by additional recruits of Temptations makes them more prevalent and permanent and by fair and specious colours makes them more plausible and taking And certainly there being such an innumerable Company of Evil Spirits that notwithstanding the great Work and Employment they have to do in the World yet Hell could spare a whole Legion of them to Garrison in one possessed Man we may not doubt but that they are continually busie prying into every one of our Tempers And as long experience hath made them very sagacious in guessing at the first motions of our Hearts by the alterations they find in our Fancies or the Humours of our Bodies of which
or Diseases will What are your Bodies but Cloggs to your Spirit and Prisons to your Souls And certainly those Enemies are not very formidable who when they most think to hurt you only knock off your Clogg or break open your Prison and let your Souls escape to their desired liberty Secondly Our Saviour answers that though they can Kill the body when God permits them yet they cannot so much as touch it without his permission And this he doth in the words of my Text by shewing how punctual and particular God's providence is even over the smallest and those that seem the most trifling occurrences of the World a Sparrow whose price is but mean two of them valued at a Farthing which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny and was certainly one of their least Coins whose life therefore is but contemptible and whose flight seems but giddy and at random yet it falls not to the ground neither lights any where without your Father His all-wise providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on what grains it shall pick up where it shall lodge and where it shall build on what it shall live and when it shall die And if your Fathers providence be so Critical about the small concernments even of Sparrows fear not ye for you are of more value than many Sparrows yea of more value than many Men. Our Saviour adds The very hairs of your head are all numbred God keeps an account even of that stringy Excrement He knows how many fall off and the precise number of those that remain and no wonder that he knows the number of our Sins which are far more Hence we learn that God governs the meanest the most inconsiderable and contemptible Occurrences in the World by an exact and particular Providence Do you see thousand little Motes and Atomes wandring up and down in a Sun-beam It is God that so peoples it and he guides their innumerable and irregular strayings Not a Dust flies in a beaten Road but God raiseth it conducts its uncertain motion and by his particular care conveys it to the certain place he had before appointed for it nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any farther And if God's care and providence reacheth thus to these minute things which are but as it were the circumstances of Nature and little accessaries to the World certainly Man who is the head and Lord of it for whose sake and service other Creatures were formed may very well be confident that God exerciseth an especial and most accurate providence over him and his affairs By this you see what the subject is intended to treat of even the over-ruling and all disposing providence of God not a Sparrow not a hair of your heads falls to the ground without your Father But before I proceed farther I must take notice of two things in the words First That our Saviour speaking here of the providence of God ascribes to him the name of our Father God hath many names and titles attributed unto him in the Scriptures as Father Lord Creator Redeemer Judge King and God But God is a word that denotes his Essence Lord is a title of his Dominion Creator marks out his omnipotence Redeemer commends his Love Judge is a name of fear and astonishment and King is a title of Royal Majesty But this indearing name of Father signifies unto us his providence for from him as from a Father do we expect and receive guidance and government Secondly Whereas nothing comes to pass without our Heavenly Father this may be understood three ways without his permission without his ordination and concurrence without his over-ruling and directing it to his own ends First No evil comes to pass without his permissive providence Secondly No good comes to pass without his ordaining and concurring providence Thirdly Nothing whether good or evil comes to pass without the over-ruling Providence of our Father guiding and directing it to his own ends But concerning this distinction of permissive concurring and over ruling Providence I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter My work at present shall be First To describe unto you what the providence of God is in the general notion thereof Secondly To prove that all affairs and occurrences in the World are guided and governed by Divine Providence Thirdly To answer some puzling questions and doubts concerning the Providence of God and some objections that may be made against it First Let us see what providence is Take it in this description Providence is an Act of God whereby according to his eternal and most wise Counsel he preserves and governs all things and directs them all to their ends but chiefly to his own glory This providence consisteth in two things Preservation and Government of his Creatures First One remarkable Act of the Providence of God is the preservation of his Creatures in their beings He preserves them First In their species and kind by the constant succession of them one after another so that though the individuals of them are mortal and perish yet the species or kind is immortal There is no kind of Creature that was at first made by God but it still continueth to this very day and shall so do to the end of the World And truly it is the wonderful Providence of God thus to perpetuate the Creation that whereas we see an inbred enmity in some sorts of Creatures against others yet his Wisdom so sways their mutual antipathies that none of them shall ever prevail to a total Extirpation and Destruction of the other Secondly He preserves them likewise by his providence in their individual and particular beings while they have a room to fill up and an Office to discharge in the Universe Each Fly and Worm as well as Man who is but the greater Worm of the two hath a work to do in the World and till that be finish'd God sustains its being Nor shall the weakest Creature be destroyed within the prefixed time that God hath set to its duration There are none of us here alive this day but have abundant cause thankfully to acknowledge the powerful and merciful providence of God in preserving us in and rescuing us from many dangers and deaths to which we stood exposed It is only his Visitation that hath hitherto preserved our Spirits and to his never sailing providence we owe it that such frail and feeble Creatures who are liable to be crush'd before the Moth liable to so many diseases and accidents have yet a name among the Living and have not yet failed from off the face of the Earth Secondly As God preserves so he governs all things by his providence and this Government consists in two things Direction of the Creatures actions and distribution of rewards and punishments according to the Actions of his rational Creatures First God by his governing providence directs all the Actions of his Creatures yea and by the secret but efficacious
thine own evil Conscience that haunts and terrifies thee When thou readest that dreadful Threatning Ezek. 18.4 The Soul that sinneth it shall die there were nothing of terror in it did not thy guilty Conscience witness against thee that thou art the Man 'T is this that turns and levels all God's Artillery against thee Get therefore a Conscience pacified upon good Grounds and the very threatning of the Word will speak to thee not so much terror from the dreadfulness of the Wrath and Condemnation denounced as Joy that thou hast escaped it Thirdly It may be the Word of God by working in thee the Spirit of fear is preparing thee for the Spirit of Adoption for that usually ushers in this We find the Gaoler trembling before we find him rejoycing There were mighty and rending Winds Earth-quakes and Fire all Terrible before these came the still voice in which God was 1 Kings 19.12 So God in Convictions many times prepares the way by Thunders and Earth-quakes by the Thundering of his Word and the Trembling of our own Consciences before he comes to us in the still and sweet voice of Peace and Comfort And certainly they are much more afraid than hurt whom God by his Terrours thus frights into Heaven But Thirdly Some may still say their Fears are so strong that they will drive them into Desperation or Distraction if they longer pore on those dreadful things the Scripture contains I answer there is not one line or syllable in the whole Book of God that gives the least ground for Despair Nay there are the most supporting Comforts a poor Fearful Trembling Soul can desire Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Come unto me and I will in no wise cast you out return unto the Lord and he will abundantly Pardon Isaiah 55.7 I even I am he that blots out and forgets your Sins and innumerable such like Now if Men will only take the Sword of the Spirit to wound them and not also the Balm of the Spirit to heal them they may through their own fault especially when they read the Scriptures with the Devil's Commentaries fret themselves into Despair Fourthly Some may say certainly it cannot be thus necessary that the word of Christ should dwell thus richly and abundantly in all Christians It is requisite indeed for Ministers whose calling it is to Teach and Instruct others that they should have this abundance of Scripture dwelling in them but for us who are to receive the Law at their Mouth a competent knowledge in the Fundamentals of Religion may well be sufficient We know that Christ is the Son of God that he came into the World to save Sinners and that if we would be saved by him we must believe in him and such chief points of Christianity which are sufficient to Salvation To this I answer First God may well expect a more plentiful measure of the Word to dwell in Ministers because it is not only their General but particular calling to peruse and study it There is therefore a twofold fullness a fullness of the private Christian and a fullness of the treasurer or steward to whose charge the Oracles of God are committed and who is to communicate Knowledge to the People This being the Minister's Office it is his Duty especially to abound and be inriched in the knowledge of the Scripture But Secondly Wherefore must the word of Christ dwell so richly in Ministers is it for themselves only or is it to instruct their Flock What And can it be necessary for them to Teach and yet unnecessary for you to Learn Are they bound to search into the depth of Gospel Mysteries to inform you of them and is it enough for you only to know the first Principles and Rudiments Certainly whatsoever God requires the Minister to Teach that he requires you to Learn Now would you your selves Judge the Minister to have sufficiently discharged his Duty that should only in the general preach that we are all Sinners that Christ the Son of God came into the World to save us that the Glory of Heaven and the Torments of Hell shall be the rewards of Obedience or Disobedience If these few absolutely necessary and fundamental Truths were all you might well think the Ministry to be a very easie or a very needless Office If then it is our Duty to reveal to you the whole Counsel of God and to withhold nothing from you of all those Mysteries which the Scripture contains whereof some give Life others Light some are Vital others Ornamental you cannot with Reason but conclude that if we are obliged to Teach these things you also are obliged to learn and know them Thirdly It is a most destructive Principle that many have through Sloath and Laziness taken up That a little knowledge will suffice to bring them to Heaven Certainly God would never have revealed so many deep and profound Mysteries in his Word if it were not necessary they should be known and believed Shall we think all the rest of the Bible superfluous except a few plain practical Texts What God hath recorded in the Scripture is written for our Instruction 'T is true if we have not the means of instruction nor are in a possibility of attaining it a less measure of knowledge answered by a Conscientious practice may suffice for our Salvation But for us we have line upon line and precept upon precept for us to satisfie our selves with a few of the common Principles slighting the rest as nice and unnecessary points for us to neglect knowledge argues defect of Grace For wheresoever true Grace is there will be a most earnest endeavour to grow daily in both and yet multitudes every where even of those who abhorr grosser Sins as Swearing Drunkenness and the like yet take up with a few Notions of Religion that all are Sinners and all must perish unless Christ save them c. This they knew as soon as they knew any thing and more than this they will not know They will not trouble their heads with any farther discoveries nor look deep into the Mysteries of Godliness contenting themselves that they have as they think knowledge enough to bring them to Heaven Let me tell them that though where there is not means of knowledge a little may suffice for Salvation yet where God doth afford plentiful means the knowledge of these very things becomes necessary to them which others might safely be ignorant of This is in answer to the 4th Objection Fifthly Some may object that they have found by Experience that the study of Scripture hath many times made them the worse it hath alarmed their Lusts and put them in an Uproar Such and such Suits were quiet till they read in the Word a command against them therefore they are discouraged and think it best to forbear the study of the Scripture since they find that by forbidding Sin it only rowseth and awakens it
First I answer First this was St. Paul's very Case Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Command wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence now this effect is merely accidental and is not to be imputed unto the Holy Word of God but to the wicked Heart of Man which takes an hint so desperately corrupt is it from God's forbidding Sin to put it self in Mind of committing it Secondly Thou complainest that the Word exciteth to Corruptions but it doth it no otherwise than the Sun draws Smoak and stink out of a Dunghill It doth increase but unhappily excite them The very same Lusts lay hid in their Hearts before There they lay like so many Vipers and Serpents asleep till the Light and Warmth of the Word makes them stir and crawl about And this Advantage thou mayest make of it that when thy Corruptions swarm thick about thee upon the disturbance the Law of God hath made among them thou mayest thence see what a wicked Heart and Nature thou hast how much Filth and Mud there lyeth at the bottom of it which presently riseth upon the first stirring This may make thee vile in thine own Eyes and deeply humbled under the sad and serious Consideration of thy indwelling Sin 'T is the very use the Apostle makes in the same Case Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death When Humors are in Motion we soon perceive what is the state of our Body and when Corruptions are once stirred we may thereby easily know the State and Condition of our Souls Thirdly The same Word that doth thus occasionally stir up Sin is the best means to beat it down You may perceive by this there is somewhat in the Word that is extreamly contrary to their Sins since they do so rise and arm against it their great Enemy is upon them and this alarm that they take is but before their overthrow It may be the Mud is only stirred that it might be cast out and their Hearts cleansed from it Be not discouraged therefore for there is no Means in the World so apposite to the destruction and subduing of Sin as the Scripture though at first it may seem instead of subduing of Sins to strengthen them Sixthly Many are discouraged from studying the Scriptures because their Memories are so treacherous and unfaithfull they can retain nothing when they have read the Scripture and would recollect what they have read they can give no account of it either to themselves or others Nothing abides upon them and therefore they think it were as good give over as thus continually pour Water into a Sieve and inculcate Truths upon such a leaky Memory where all runs out This is indeed the Complaint of many But First This should put thee on a more frequent and diligent study of the Scripture than discourage thee from it More pains will supply this Defect thou must the oftner prompt and the oftner examine thy Self the more forgetful thou art Memory is the Soul's Steward and if thou findest it unfaithful call it the oftner to account Be still following it with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and continually instill somewhat into it A Vessel set under the fall of a Spring cannot leak faster than it is supplyed A constant dropping of this Heavenly Doctrine into the Memory will keep it that though it be leaky yet it never shall be empty Secondly Scripture Truths when they do not inrich the Memory yet they may purifie the Heart We must not measure the Benefit we receive from the Word according to what of it remains but according to what effect it leaves behind Lightning you know than which nothing sooner vanisheth away yet it often breaks and melts the hardest and most firm Bodies in its sudden Passage Such is the irresistable force of the Word the Spirit often darts it through us it seems but like a flash and gone and yet it may break and melt down our hard Hearts before it when it leaves no impression at all upon our Memories I have heard of one who returning from an affecting Sermon highly commended it to some and being demanded what he remembred of it answered truly I remember nothing at all but only while I heard it it made me resolve to live better than ever I have done and so by God's Grace I will Here was now a Sermon lost to the Memory but not to the Affections To the same Purpose I have somewhere read a story of one that complained to an aged Holy-Man that he was much discouraged from reading the Scripture because his Memory was so slippery he could fasten nothing upon it that he read The old Hermet for so as I remember he was described bid him take an earthen Pitcher and fill it with Water when he had done it he bid him empty it again and wipe it clean that nothing should remain in it which when the other had done and wondred to what this tended now saith he though there be nothing of the Water remaining to it yet the Pitcher is cleaner than it was before so though thy Memory retain nothing of the word thou readest yet thy Heart is the cleaner for its very passage through Thirdly Never fear your Memory only pray for good and pious Affections Affection to the truths we read or hear makes the Memory retentive of them Most Mens Memories are like Jett or Electrical Bodies that attract and hold-fast only straws or Feathers or such vain and light things discourse to them the Affairs of the World or some idle and romantick story their Memories retain this as faithfully as if it were ingraven on leaves of Brass Whereas the great important truths of the Gospel the great Mysteries of Heaven and concernments of Eternity leave no more impression upon them than words on the Air in which they are spoken whence is this but only that the one sort work themselves into the Memory through the interest they have got in the Affections which the other cannot do Had we but the same delight in Heavenly Objects did we but receive the Truth in the love of it and mingle it with Faith in the hearing this would fix that Volatileness and Flittiness of our Memories and make every truth as indelible as it is necessary That 's in Answer to the 6th Objection Seventhly others complain that the Scripture is obscure and difficult to be understood they may as well and with as good success attempt to spie out what lies at the Centre of the Earth as search into the deep and hidden Mysteries which no humane understanding can fathom or comprehend And this discourageth them To this I answer First 't is no wonder if there be such profound depths in the word of God since it is a System and Compendium of his Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom that Wisdom which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God Those deep Truths which your understanding cannot reach
require your humble Veneration Secondly The Scripture is suited to every Capacity It is as it is commonly exprest a Ford wherein a Lamb may wade and an Elephant swim and herein is the infinite Wisdom of God seen in wreathing together plain Truths with obscure that he might gain the more Credit to his Word by the one instructing the ignorance of the weakest by the other puzling and confounding the understanding of the wisest This also adds a Beauty and Ornament to the Scripture As the Beauty of the World is set off by a gracefull variety of Hills and Valleys so is it in the Scripture There are sublime Truths that the most aspiring reason of Man cannot over-top and there are more plain and easie Truths in which the weakest Capacity may converse with Delight and Satisfaction No Man is offended with his Garden for having a shady thicket in it no more should we be offended with the word of God that among so many fair and open Walks we here and there meet with a Thicket that the Eye of Humane Reason cannot look through Thirdly Those Truths that are absolutely necessary to Salvation are as plainly without either Obscurity or Ambiguity recorded in the Scripture as if they were as the Mahumetans think concerning their Alcoran written with Ink made of Light there 's the necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ of repentance for dead works of an holy and mortified Life so clearly set down that scarce have there any been found so impudent as to raise Controversies about them and is it not peevish to quarrel at the word for being obscure in those things which if thou hast used thy utmost Diligence to understand the ignorance of them shall not at all prejudice thy Salvation Bless God rather that he hath so clearly revealed the necessary and practical Duties of a Christian Life that those are not involved in any mystical or obscure Intimations but thou mayst without doubt or dispute know what is of absolute necessity to be either believed or practised in order to Salvation Be assured of this that what with all thy Labour and Diligence thou canst not understand thou needest not and what is needful is plain and obvious and thou mayest easily understand it Fourthly the Scripture is obscure but hath not God offered us sufficient helps for the unfolding of it Have you not the promise of his Spirit to illuminate you 1 Cor. 2.10 God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Have we not his Minister whose Office it is to instruct us and lead us into the inmost Sence of the Scriptures Nay have we not the Scripture it self which is the best interpreter of its own meaning usually if it speak more darkly in one place it speaks the same truth more clearly in another Now compare Scripture with Scripture you will find it holds a Light unto its self The oftner you read and the more you ponder on those passages that are abstruse the more you will find them clear up to your understanding So that neither is this any reasonable discourgement from studying the Holy Scriptures Eighthly Others may say they are doubtful because they see many of those who have been most Conversant in the Scripture how they have been perverted and carried aside into damnable Errors and yet still have pleaded Scripture for the defence of them I answer True the Devil hath in these our days busied himself to bring a reproach upon Scripture through the whimsies and giddiness of those who have pretended most acquaintance in it But let not this be any discouragement for this ariseth not directly from the influence the Scripture hath on them which is the rule of truth only but from the pride and self conceit of a few Notionists who wrest it to their own Perdition And though they boast much of Scripture to countenance their Opinions yet Scripture misunderstood and misapplyed is not Scripture Indeed there is no other way to discern truth from Error but only by the Scripture rightly understood and there is no way rightly to understand it but diligently to search it But to say that therefore we must not read the Scripture because some wrest it to their own Destruction is alike reasonable as to say that therefore we must not Eat nor Drink because that some eat to Glutony and others drink to Giddiness and Madness The Apostle St. Peter tells us Epist 1 Chap. 3. v. 16. that in St. Paul's Epistles there were some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Sriptures to their own destruction Shall we therefore conclude that neither his Epistle nor any other of the Scriptures should be read by us because that in some instead of Nourishment they have occasioned onely Wind Flatulency and ill humours If this had been his purpose it had certainly been very easie for him to have said Because they are hard to be understood and many wrest them to their own destruction therefore beware that you read them not But in stead of this he draws another inference verse 17. Ye therefore beloved beware least ye also being led away with the Errors of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He saith not beware that you read them not but beware how you read them This is the true Apostolical Caution which tends not to drive us from the Scriptures but to make us more studious and inquisitive in them least we also be perverted by the cunning craftiness of Men who lie in wait to deceive And this the Primitive Parents thought the best and surest means to preserve their People from Error and Seduction It were almost endless to recite to you those many passages wherein they do most Pathetically exhort all of all Ranks and Conditions of each Sex of all Ages to a diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures And so far were they from taking it up in a Language unknown to the Vulgar or debarring the Laity from Reading it that the Translations of it into the common Tongue of each Country were Numerous and their Exhortations scarce more vehement and earnest in any thing than that the People would employ their time and thoughts in revolving them It is therefore a most certain sign that that Church hath false wares to put off which is of nothing more careful than to darken the Shop And assuredly the wresting the Scriptures by some who read them cannot occasion the Destruction of more than that damnable Idolatry and those damnable Heresies have done which have been brought into and are generally owned and practised by the Church of Rome through the not reading of them Thus you see as it was in Josiah's time how much dust and Rubbish this Book of the Law lies under I have endeavoured to remove it And shall now proceed to those Arguments that
of our Selves Man that busies himself in knowing all things else is of nothing more ignorant than of himself the Eye that beholds other things cannot see its own shape and so the Soul of Man whereby he understands other objects is usually ignorant of its own Concernments Now as the Eye that cannot see it self directly may see it self reflexively in a Glass so God hath given us his Scripture which St. James compares to a Glass James 1.23 and holds this before the Soul wherein is represented our true State and Idea There is a four-fold state of Man that we could never have attained to know but by the Scriptures His state of Integrity His state of Apostacy His state of Restitution His state of Glory The Scripture alone can reveal to us what we were in our Primitive Constitution Naturally Holy bearing the Image and Similitude of God and enjoying his Love free from all inward perturbations or outward Miseries having all the Creatures subject to us and what is much more our selves What we were in our state of Apostacy or Destitution despoiled of all our Primitive Excellencies dispossess'd of all the Happiness we enjoy'd and of all hopes of any for the future lyable every Moment to the revenge of Justice and certain once to feel it What we are in our state of Restitution through Grace begotten again to a lively hope Adopted into the Family of Heaven Redeem'd by the Blood of Christ Sanctified and Sealed by the Holy Spirit restored to the Favour and Friendship of God recovering the initials of his Image upon our Souls here on Earth and expecting the perfection of it in Heaven What we shall be in our final State of Glory cloathed with Light Crowned with Stars inebriated with pure spiritual Joys We shall see God as he is know him as we are known by him love him ardently converse with him eternally yea a state it will be so infinitely happy that 't will leave us nothing to hope for This Four-fold state of Man the Scripture doth evidently express Now these are such things as could never have entred into our Hearts to have imagined had not the word of God described them to us and thereby instructed us in the knowledge of our selves as well as of God and Christ Now let us put these six particulars together The Scripture instructs us in the knowledge of such things as are intelligible only by divine Revelation it teacheth us the most sublime and lofty Truths 't is a most inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more we draw the more still springs up it teaches that Knowledge that is necessary to Salvation It is of undoubted certainty and perpetual Truth And Lastly it informs us in the knowledge of our Selves and certainly if there be any thirst in you after Knowledge there needs no more be spoken to perswade you to the diligent study of the Scripture which is a rich Store and Treasury of all Wisdom and Knowledge Thus we have seen how the Scriptures inform the Judgment Let us now briefly see how they reform the Life and what practical influence they have upon the Souls of Men. Now here the word of God hath a mighty Operation and that in sundry particulars First This is that word that convinceth and humbles the stoutest and proudest Sinners There are two sorts of secure Sinners Those who vaunt it in the Confidence of their own Righteousness and those who are secure through an insensibility of their own Wickedness Both these the word when it is set home with Power convinceth humbles and brings to the Dust It despoils the Self-Justitiary of all that false Righteousness he once boasted of and trusted to I was alive once without the Law saith St. Paul but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7.9 It awakens and alarms the senseless seared Sinner How many have there been that have scorned God and despised Religion whom yet one curse or threat of this word hath made to tremble and fall down before the convincing Majesty and Authority of it Secondly This is that word that sweetly comforts and raiseth them after their Dejections All other Applications to a wounded Spirit are improper and impertinent 'T is only Scripture Consolation that can ease it The leaves of this Book are like the leaves of that Tree Rev. 22. which were for the healing of the Nations The same Weapon that wounds must here work the cure Thirdly This is that word that works the mighty change upon the heart in Renovation Take a Man that runs on in vile and desperate Courses that sells himself to do Iniquity and commits all manner of Wickedness with Greediness and makes use of all the Arguments that reason can suggest these seldom reclaim any from their Debaucheries Or if in some few they do reform the Life yet they can never change the heart But now that which no other means can effect the Word of God can Psal 19.7 The Law of God is perfect converting the Soul Fourthly This is that word that strengthens and arms the People of God to endure the greatest temporal Evils only in hope of that future reward which it punisheth Fifthly This is that word that contains in it such a Collection of Rules and Duties that whosoever observes and obeys shall in the end infallibly obtain everlasting life Though I can but just mention these Heads unto you yet there is enough in them to perswade you to be diligent in the Scriptures In them saith our Saviour ye think to have Eternal Life We are all of us guilty Malefactors but God hath been pleased to afford us the Mercy of the Book And what shall we not so much as read for our Lives This is that Book according to which we must either stand or fall be acquitted or condemned Eternally The unalterable Sentence of the last day will pass upon us as it is here recorded in this Scripture Here we may before-hand know our Doom and what will become of us to all Eternity He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 'T is said Rev. 20.12 That when the dead stood before God to be Judged the Books were opened That is the Book of Conscience and the Book of the Scripture Be perswaded to open this Book and to judge your selves out of it before the last day 'T is not a sealed Book to you you may there read what your present State is and foretell what your future will be If it be a State of Sin and Wrath search farther there are Directions how you may change this wretched State for a better If it be a State of Grace and Favour there are Rules how to preserve you in it 'T is a word suited to all Persons all Occasions all Exigencies It informs the Ignorant strengthens the Weak comforts the Disconsolate supports the Afflicted relieves the Tempted resolves the Doubtful directs all to those ways which lead to endless Happiness where as the Word of God hath dwelt richly in us so we shall dwell for ever gloriously with God FINIS