King 21. 19 20 21. to tell him in short that God would ruine him and his family and all that belonged to him v. 27. Ahab hears those words he rends his cloths puts sackcloth upon his flesh fasteth lyeth in sackcloth and goes softly Here 's the best of a carnal man if his dread of God in his Judgements worketh thus far and to a temporary abstaining from some gross sins it is all you read not a word of Ahabs tending to inquire of the Lord not a word of any cordial humiliation or resolved reformation 2 King 22. 11. Josiah findeth the Book of the Law and heareth there of the wrath of God he rends his cloths so did Ahab but he resteth not here v. 13. He tends to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people and for all Judah c. was this all No chap. 23. He sets upon a real and effectual reformation with all his might Thus you see how the dread and awe of God upon the heart of a child of God doth not drive him from God but unto him it doth not stupifie but quicken him it doth not put him upon a formal temporary particular reformation but upon a fixed real general reformation Pharaohs fear flartled him and put him upon sending to Moses to pray for him and put him upon some good thoughts and resolutions at present but yet Pharaoh notwithstanding this was one who feared not the Lord. But thus much may serve to have spoken to this branch of Application I come now to the last branch I will shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation I will reduce all to three particulars 1. To such as have not this fear of God in Exhort their hearts to perswade them to labour for it 2. To such as have this fear of God to perswade them 1. To labour to grow in this habit and exercise 2. To live like excellent persons and to shew they have this excellent blessing 3. Lastly To the men of the world in general to perswade them 1. To an undervaluing of all other excellencies 2. To a true value of this excellent thing and these excellent persons 3. To give them of the fruit of their hands and to suffer their works to praise them in the gates In the first place let me press a word of 1 Branch Exhortation upon such as yet fear not Goâ— to perswade them to it It is a frequent precept in holy Writ Levit. 19. 14. Fear thy God I am the Lord ch 25. v. 17. 43. Eccles 5. 7. Matth. 10. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Rev. 14. 7. Eccles 12. 13. God calls to you Fear God Solomon calls to you Fear God Our Saviour calls to you Fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The Angels in Heaven call to you Fear God All the Prophets and Apostles call to you unâvoce and this is that which they say Fear God The meaning of this you have heard Not only dread the great and living God in the secrets of your hearts but let all your conversation savour of this fear so comport your selves in your whole carriage both towards God and towards your neighbours as you may evidence to the world not only that you have a natural sense of that infinite distance which is between your Creatour and you and the power that he hath over you but that you may shew that you have this gracious habit of fear wrought in you and that you fear God in the Scripture phrase You see this is a great picce of the will of God concerning you pressed upon you again and again in holy Writ Give me leave to inlarge a little in pressing it upon you I shall first give you some Arguments Secondly I shall offer you some directions in the case from the text And what I have said furnisheth me with two great Arguments 1. This is Wisdom This is Grace Job 28. 28. â—â—e fear of the Lord that is wisdom Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge That man who hath nothing of the fear of God in him hath nothing of God nothing of the Grace of God in him On the other side that person who hath in him the fear of God hath all that is an holy that is a gracious man There can be no more said of any than that he or she are persons not fearing God Nor can there be better said of any that he or she is a person fearing God 2. Secondly You have heard a person fearing God is the most excellent person in the world Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Others may call themselves excellent and the men of the world may call the proud happy but the truly happy the truly excellent person is one fearing God I might add a third 3. This is the only person who deserveth to be praised and whose works will truly praise him Let others be commended and admired for beauty for riches and honour and another for learning as the end of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments So that person that truly answereth this end and doth fear God and keep his Commandments will upon the best evidence which is that of Scripture and reason appear to be the person that is most worthy of praise and commendation Now if I could say no more than this to engage any to this study yet in other things this would be enough Every one naturally desireth the things that are excellent and is naturally covetous of honour and praise Would you have that which is in it self most excellent that which will make you above all others excellent that which most truly deserveth praise and will make you the truest objects of praise Oh get this fear of the Lord Give me leave to add another Argument or two 4. In the fourth place Consider the many Promises made in Scripture to the fear of the Lord Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth daies Prov. 14. 26 27. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15. 16. Little with the fear of the Lord is great gain v. 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ch 22. 4. By the fear of the Lord are riches Psal 112. Psal 128. are full of Promises to the man that feareth God The things promised in these and those many other Promises annexed to the fear of the Lord are such as every one defireth Who would not have long life riches and honour Either you believe the Scriptures or you do not believe them if you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God you must assent to whatsoever Propositions are revealed in them as Propofitions of eternal and
betraies your intellectuals as want of judgement in things that differ and your judgement cannot but be erroneous where it is contrary to the judgement of God and of holy men who spake in Scripture as they were inspired by God 2. Let what you have heard bespeak a due value in you both of the fear of the Lord as the best thingâ— and persons fearing the Lord as the most excellent persons Certainly it is but reasonable that we should judge of persons and things as God judgeth of them as Solomon and David and those great Worthies we find recorded in Scripture have judged David Psal 16. calleth the people of God The excellent of the Earth Solomon tells you here that Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Though many Daughters have done vertuously yet she hath ascended above them all Oh let us thus iudge Regard not what vain men talk of people fearing God they speak after their Father whose works they do they do but disgorge the prophaneness filth and malice of their own hearts They have hated Christ and no wonder if they hate all those who bear any thing of the Image and superscription Let not the railings of these men let not their hard speeches and bitter censures and more bitter dealings guide your judgement You will one day find that the men whom they thus abuse are no Reprobates Men in power and authority one day will know that these are not these evil doers to whom they should be a terrour Ministers will know that they have abused their texts to turn the drift of them against persons fearing the Lord under the disguise of Schismaticks Fanaticks c. terms which many use in these daies not understanding what they mean If it be some mens worldly interest to do these things yet my Brethren take you heed of treading their steps Let who will revile and curse and blaspheme God hath blessed the persons that fear him and you shall one day see they shall be blessed Behold the Lord cometh saith the Apostle Jude with ten thousand Jude v. 13. of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Lastly Are persons fearing the Lord the most excellent persons give them then the fruit of their hands and let their own works praise them in the gates It is Solomons improvement of this notion in the words following my text Certainly there is nothing more reasonable than this is if it were give such persons as these the fruit of your hands it were but according to the manner of men who use to give Presents to Princes Favourites It were but to make friends of your Mammon of unrighteousness that when these things fail you may be received into everlasting habitations But I say no more than give them the fruit of their hands do not defraud abuse them give them that honour that room in the world which they deserve which they labour for and let their own works praise them in the gates Envy them not the praise of their own labours the honour which their own works purchase for them This brings me â—o my last part of my work that I may fulfil my text upon this Noble person for whom we are all mourners But I shall reserve that to a more full and particular discourse LIGHT IN DARKNESS OR A twofold Fountain of Comfort and Satisfaction to those who walking with God yet live and may die unsatisfied as to the sensible manifestations of DIVINE LOVE Discovered In a Discourse first Preached at the Funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Catharine Courten late Wife to William Courten Esq and since inlarged for more publick profit By John Collinges late Preacher of the Gospel in Norwich Isaiah 50. 20. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed in the year 1669. To His Worthy and Honoured Friend WILLIAM COURTEN Esq Sir WHen I had once resolved to joyn these Sheets long since drawn up and in the hands of some of your noble friends in one Book with those relating to your Noble Aunt I had no great dispute with my self to whom according to the usual custom I should inscribe them You are the only Male Branch of this excellent Root the Heir of her Religion Vertue and Honour you were while she lived next to your dear Father the great object of her Love Care and Pious Sollitude For you it was that she so often so passionately even in her greatest Agonies begg'd our prayers she had you only and your sister to pour out sighs and tears to God for that you might be found constant and walking in the truth You alone can lay a just claim to her picture and these other Papers devoted to a memorial of her You are fittest to undertake the Patronage of her Honourable and Precious Name against such as to justifie others would fasten a Debauchery in Religion upon her Urn after fifteen or sixteen years rest in which since her death it might prescribe for the Faith in which she not only truly died but in so eminent a Profession and such particular Declarations of it as are not ordinary Alas Dear Sir for the sad occasion of this so late an impudent a slander but the judgements of God are a great deep You Sir since her death have been visiting the seat of iniquity the Country of the great Whore which hath made so many drunk and is yet by parcels intoxicating souls with her superstitious and idolatrous abominations you went not out of curiosity but upon a just call and to pay a duty to your Fathers Sepulchre Had your rare Mother lived till you took that Journey she would have cryed out with another kind of Devotion than Horace for his friend Virgil. Sic te cunctipotens Dues Sic pelagi Dominus Ventorumque regat Pater Obstrictis aliis praeter Naves quae tibi creditum Debes finibus Italis Reddas incolumem precor Et serves animae dimidium meae But it pleased God by death seven years before to deliver her from those fears in which your two years absence would have kept her and though she lived not so long as to attend you with her fervent prayers yet Sir I can tell you she had treasured up a large stock of prayers for you and she had begg'd a moving stock which was working for you when she ceased to be and by the infinite goodness of God hearing those prayers you were preserved both in your going and coming in the perils you ran by Land and by Sea Yea and preserved also free from those sensual and superstitious tinctures which too too many bring home with
in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death This is the first thing implied in this metaphorical expression But this is not all 2. There is a difference between watching and bare waking Watching is a voluntary industrious action whereby a man striveth to keep himself awake at such a time when he is inclined to sleep for the heeding of something in a more special manner To watch therefore in a spiritual sense implieth to labour strive and use all means and diligence to obtain the likeness of God not only to eschew evil but to do good Thus watching for Gods likeness includeth praying hearing performance of all holy duties leadâ— gâ—an holy life and conversation that which the Psalmist calleth ordering our conversation aright that we may see the salvation of God And this is as the duty of a child of God at all times so more especially in his hours of desertion and darkness you shall find this eminently exemplified in the Spouse Cant. 3. 1 c. By night on my bed I Cant. 3. 1 2 3. sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad waies I will seek him whom my soul loveth c. v. 3. The watchmen that goe about the City found me to whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth This is a second thing A child of God under a desâ—rtion is not to sit still and mourn and be wail it self but to be up and doing watching unto prayer to all 1 Pet. 4. 7. religious duties to all parts of an holy and religious life to be at such a time especially much in close and diligent communion with God for the recovery of its lost peace and comfort 3. Lastly The watchman is to look out for the morning and with patience to wait for it This is also the duty of him that walketh in spiritual darkness I mean the want of sensible consolations My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning saith holy David Psal 130. 6. I say Psa 130. 6. more than they that watch for the morning Thus the Church Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon Isa 8. 17. him that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Thus Habakkuk for the answer of his prayer on the behalf Hab. 2. 1 2 3. of the Church I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my Tower I will watch to see what he will say unto me The vision is yet for an appointed time but in the end it shall speak it shall not lye though it tarry wait for it Thus now I have opened this duty to you and shewn you what this is to watch for God to watch for his likeness Now that this is a Christians duty in his hours of darkness appears 1. From the Precept of God obliging you to it The will of God revealed is that which makes a Christians duty God hath bidden us watch and wait and order our conversation aright 2. From the Examples of the Children of God recorded in Scripture wherein they have done well they are lights unto us and oblige us to do likewise Look upon Job David the Church of God all those of whom you have record in holy Writ see them in their dark hours observe their practice you shall find them all fearful of sinning resolved against it full of prayer and other religious duties and striving and resolving to order their conversation aright 3. This will appear to be your duty if you consider the several parts of it as means prescribed by God in order to so good and blessed an end The promise of seeing God is made to such as order their conversation aright Psal 50. Psal 27. 14. Wait upon the Lord Psa 50. 23. Psa 17. 14. and he shall strengthen your heart They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle Isa 40. 31. It is made to such Isa 40. 31. as ask and seek and knock Ask and you shall have seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you 4. Lastly Whoso considereth God in that freedom which belongs unto him as to the manifestations of himself to his peoples souls or whoso considereth his own distance from and subjection unto God and how little he deserveth of any such dispensation from him will confess that it is not equal that we should forsake God or abate in our zeal for and duty to God because he forsaketh us and withdraw our duty from God because he withdraweth the light of his countenance from us God is a free agent and as the wind bloweth where it listeth so his Spirit moveth and as it is free in all its motions and influences so it is most free as to consolatory manifestations being not of the necessaries to our eternal salvation but such influences as God without breach of Covenant may in whole or in part for what time and in what degree he pleaseth to with-hold from those most in convenant with him To which might be added that whatsoever the Lord hath is the product of infinite Justice Wisdom and Goodness God in it is just and doth no more than he may do he is infinitely wise and whatsoever he doth is for wise and righteous ends and he is infinitely good and would not do it were it not for his peoples good Besides this this watching against sin unto prayer and to other duties of an holy life are the moral and perpetual duties of Christians from which nothing of Gods dealing with us can exempt us but I shall add no more to my discourse upon the third thing implied in the Doctrine The fourth follows which is founded upon the phrase according to our translation of it When I awake that is as I formerly opened it when I shall awake in the resurrection when I shall awake from the sleep of death where is implied Though the Children of God shall in death fall 4 Prop. asleep yet they shall awake in a resurrection Death in Scripture is ordinarily expressed under the notion of sleep David slept with his 1 King 2. 10 11 43. Mat. 9. 24. Joh. 11. 11. Fathers so did Solomon Jeroboam Rehoboam In the New Testament the Maid sleepeth saith our Saviour and again Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Great is the Analogy betwixt death and sleep if I had time or that were the business of my present discourse to shew you Death is a sleep common to the children of God as well as others The Apostle to the Hebrews saith It is appointed for all men once Heb. 9. 27. to die and after to come to Judgement Your Fathers where are they And do the Prophets live for ever Zech. 1. 5. Who is he that lives Zech. 1. 5. Psal 87. 48. and shall not see death For saith the wise man
conclude that happiness even on this side of Heaven must lie in the enjoyment of this God having an interest and portion in him nor can any assent to principles of reason above Atheism but his reason will inforce his subscription to this for if he believes there is a God he must acknowledge him supremely good and his reason will tell him happiness must needs lie in an union with the highest good The Heathen Philosophers indeed having not the light of divine revelation according to their various humours not knowing of any possibility of enjoying God judged pleasures riches honours knowledge vertue to be the greatest good and consequently mans happiness to lie in the fruition of them But we though our common share in reason with them enforceth us to agree with them in that main principle That mans chiefest happiness must necessary lie in his union to and fruition of the greatest good Yet being further enlightened cannot agree with their notion of that good for although they had their dark notions of a divine beeing yet the possibility of a creatures union with God through Christ Gods in-dwelling in the soul the having of God for their God reconciled in Christ were things which Aristotle and Plate never dreamt of But we having by the light of the divine Spirit made these discoveries even their reasonable principle enforceth us to conclude That the highest enjoyments and happiness of man even in this life must needs be his union with and enjoyment of God His being made partaker of the Divine Nature and transformation into the Divine Image So that all those other things do not reach so much as this end the happy beeing of a man in this life for we all know it is possible that men and women may have strength beauty knowledge prudence wit great relations riches honours c. and yet enjoy nothing of God but be at infinite distance from him whom we acknowledge the supreme and chiefest good But now this excellent habit The fear of the Lord doth both evidence our present union with God and his special favour to us and also it worketh us up to further degrees of union and communion with him But further yet we who are Christians are taught to look beyond this life to consider our selves as creatures under an ordination to a certain Eternity either in happiness or misery We know that our souls are immortal substances and will not as the sensitive souls of beasts when they die evaporate into air Hence we are concerned to consider wherein the happiness of a soul in its state of separation lyes and believing the Scriptures we cannot but believe that even these immortal bodies shall in the Resurrection put upon immortality these corruptibles incorruption and so are concerned further to inquire wherein the happiness of the soul and body lies in its state of reunion Here again we cannot but with the Philosophers agree that it must needs lie in an union with and an enjoyment of the best and chiefest good which the holy Scripture calleth A seeing of God as he is knowing him as we are known being ever with the Lord In one word Eternal life This now our reason naturally working upon Scripture hypotheses inforceth us to believe and that this is the noblest and highest end of man as to priviledge to which it is but reasonable that he who knoweth it should direct all his actions Now let us consider all those other pretty things and see what they signifie with relation to this end The strong man the beautiful woman the knowing the prudent and politick person may all of them go to Hell the morally vertuous person may be for ever excluded the Kingdom of God that righteousness exceedeth not the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees The Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 26. speaking of those whom God hath chosen saith Not many noble not many wise after the flesh not many mighty but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise The poor of this world hath God chosen saith St. James Could you look into the black dungeon of infernal spirits where miserable souls are reserved in chains unto the further judgement of the great and terrible day you would see there many a Goliah whose strength could not rescue him from the potent arm of divine Justice Many a Thais whose beauty instead of commending her to those eyes which see not as man sees rather betrayed her into that miserable pit Many a Prince and Emperour who knew not God nor obeyed the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Many a cunning Achitophel whom God took in his craftiness Many an ingenuous Atheist many a rich Dives but amongst them all you would not find one single man or woman that in this life feared the Lord. No Prov. 3. 18. Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her All those other notes of distinction make some difference betwixt one creature and another as to this life but as to the noblest and highest end of man the blessed and happy enjoyment of God to all eternity nothing but grace nothing but the fear of the Lord makes any difference at all without this all persons noble and base rich and poor beautiful or deformed knowing or ignorant witty or heavy prudent or foolish vertuous or vitious will go to the same place of torments This therefore must be the most excellent habit and the person possessed with it the most excellent person because leading to and prepared for the most noble and excellent end Again the fear of the Lord will appear to be the most excellent thing and the person possessed of it to be the most excellent person if we consider those noble actions to which the soul is by this principled Humane actions are ordinarily divided unto such as are natural such as eating drinking c. moral and civil or political such are the works of our callings giving to every one their due living soberly and temperately c. and such as are Religious which are our actions of homage to God of these now the second are more noble than the first and the last the noblest of all Again as to our religious actions they are either more imperfectly or more perfectly such I call those more imperfectly such which indeed are so as to the matter of the act but not as to the manner or form of the performance so prayer hearing the Word of God c. But these are not so in a perfect and true notion unless performed from a due principle in a due manner and to that due end which God hath commanded Now those are our most noble and perfect actions which are religious in the most proper and perfect sense and to those this excellent quality The fear of the Lord principleth the soul Others do but dispose and fit the body or mind for natural or moral actions strength bodily activity do no more no more do knowledge prudence or the habits
Earth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 â—vil Prov. 16. 6. By Prov. 8. 13. 16. 6. the fear of the Lord 〈…〉 from evil That man feareth the Lord 〈◊〉 â—â—th not only a reverence and dread of â—od upon his heart but in whom this dread worketh to make the person that hath it to take heed of every sin and to perform every duty to avoid all that the Lord forbiddeth and to do all that God commandeth This it is for a man or woman to fear Jehovah But you will say â—â— this be so where is that person to be found of whom this can be predicated or how shall any person satisfie himself that he is by the fear of the Lord distinguished from another This is a great question and the Holy Ghost having thought fit to express the whole of Grace and Godliness by this notion the resolution of it will exceedingly tend to the satisfaction of such souls as thirst after righteousness To which purpose now I shall lay down some few Conclusions which will open this thing to you 1. A true fear of God in what soul soever it is found is not only the product of sense but the operation of faith This is one great and material difference betwixt that fear and dread of God which may be found in a natural man and that which is sound in every true child of God There is a terrour and awe and dread of God which as I told you before sometimes seizeth the hearts of the greatest Atheists and most debaucht wretches in the Earth But this dread is ordinarily but the effect and product of sense the poor wretch seeth some terrible work of God and trembleth or feeleth something of the weight of Gods hand Hence as soon as the impression is off his sense the fear and dread of God is also off his heart And thus it will be with all that fear which is but the product of sense The natural mans fear is not at all caused from faith neither from the habit of faith which is within us nor from the object of saith which is without us I mean the Word of God he doth not fear God because of what the holy Scriptures tell him concerning God he believeth not that But now the fear of God in a gracious soul is the issue of saith A Christian knows the Scripture and what that revealeth concerning God and now the Lord having by his Spirit wrought up his soul to give a firm and stedfast assent to what is revealed in his Word he feareth the great God as much when he seeth or feeleth nothing of the greatness of his power in his works of Providence as when he is under the greatest demonstrations of sense It is the precept of Solomon Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at all times Indeed he that is not in the fear of the Lord at all times doth truly fear the Lord at no time for where fear is the operation and fruit of saith the effect is as abiding and permanent as the cause now the cause of the fear of the Lord in that person is his firm assent to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures concerning God The Word of the Lord abiding the same for ever and the Propositions in it having an eternal verity and the seed of God also once cast in the soul abâ—ding at all timâ—s in it it is impossible but this soul should have a fear and dread of God upon his heart in health as well as in sickness in prosperity as well as in adversity in a time of the greatest liberty as well as in a time of the greatest straits when the Providence of God may propose the greatest objects of terrour unto him If the soul of any at all times dreadeth and reverenceth the great God of Heaven and Earth and that by reason of what the Word of God revealeth and it believeth concerning him this is an excellent sign that the true fear of God is in that soul Though it is true the various workings of Divine Providence may make this fear as to the servile part of it higher and greater at some one time than at another 2. Although the true fear of the Lord in any soul be not consistent with a course of deliberate sinning against God and defying the Divine Majesty yet it is confistent in the same soul with many sinnings both of ignorance and of infirmity If there were none feared God but such as were wholly free from sin there were no such excellent person in the world as I have been discoursing of For who liveth and sinneth not against God But I must open this General 1. I say the fear of God is not in any soul consistent with open defiances of the Divine Majesty or constant courses of deliberate sinning There are some in the world that live in an open defiance of Heaven the Atheistical blasphemer the prophane swearer and curser and such like eminent sinners Every one that cometh near them may say the fear of God is not in these persons No nor with any course of deliberate or presumptuous finning when a man is free and under no height of temptation to do this or that thing which he knoweth to be what God hath forbidden him to do and yet he will do it and doth do it and that not once only but again and again from one day to another making a course of it how dwelleth the fear of God in that soul God hath said he that doth these things shall die he shall be plagued in this life and he shall die eternally The poor wretch knoweth this and yet presumptuously doth these things how can the dread or fear of God be in any judgement of charity judged to dwell in this soul 2. But I say the fear of God is consistent in the soul with much sin either sins of ignorance or sins of infirmity Experience teacheth this 1. For sins of ignorance a servant may truly fear his master and a child his father and yet they may both do many things that their superiours would not have done if they do not persectly know their will It is so betwixt the child and servant of God and his Father and Master which is in Heaven 2. I say it is also consistent with much sinning of weakness and infirmity Sins of infirmities are of two sorts 1. Such as are of pure weakness and infirmity which are failures in such things as through our natural weakness and impotency we cannot perform 2. Such as are mixt with something of wilfulness but yet the great cause of our admission of them is some original weakness and infirmity in us Such now are those sins which we commit upon the prevalence of some affection or passion in us whether love or fear or anger c. Lust prevailed on David fear on Peter and truly it is hard to say what sin that is which upon this account a soul truly fearing
God may not fall into He that considereth that Lot and Noah were surprized with Wine and Lot committed incest Abraham fornication or adultery rather what David did in the murther of Vriah and taking of Bathsheba to his bed what Peter did in the hour of temptation and what Job did in his passion will I say be at a great loss to fix upon such a sin concerning which he can say this is a sin which one fearing God cannot be guilty of On the other side there is no sin which a child of God can live in making it his constant course and practice 3. Though the fear of God will constrain a soul to every duty yet even the soul which truly feareth God may either through ignorance or through weakness fail much in the performance of his duty I say the fear of God will constrain a soul to the performance of every duty By duty I mean whatsoever God commandeth to be done your reason teacheth you this Will any of you think that your child or servant feareth you who will not do every thing which you command them The Centurions servants feared him he said to one go and he went to another come and he came to a third do this and he did it Every soul that feareth God doth likewise But yet I say even that soul which truly feareth God may yet fail much in the performance of something of his duty And that 1. Through ignorance or forgetfulness The child that truly feareth his Father may possibly not know or if he hath known he may have forgotten something that his Father would have him do So may a child of God We know in part saith the Apostle and what we do know we through forgetfulness of our duty do not alwaies attend to in the hour when we should do it 2. Secondly Through wantonness we have the best of us wanton hearts which are easily led aside from our duty and while we are in the world we are incompassed with a multitude of temptations we are subject to be flattered from our duty by the Sirens of the world and to be frowned from our duty by the frowns of the world And indeed if the flatteries and frowns of the world have no influence upon us yet our spiritual duty is a thing that agreeth not with flesh and blood it pincheth our flesh and that is very ready to say to us Spare thy self or to suggest to us that God doth not expect from our hands or at least will not strictly insist upon such measures of duty as the holy Scriptures seem to lay out for us but God will give us leave for five hundred to set down fifty Who liveth and doth not fail much in his duty But yet as to this point of duty something will be seen more in a soul truly fearing God than in another soul 1. First The soul fearing the Lord will not live in a constant neglect or omission of any known duty It is one thing to omit a duty at this or that time another thing never to perform it A man or woman fearing the Lord may under the force of some temptation or in a multiplicity of business erre by omitting a morning or evening sacrifice of prayer or praise or in the strict observation of the Lords day But it is not possible that such a one should live in a constant violation of the Lords Sabbath or without God in the world from day to day and from week to week never so much as calling upon his Name the reason is because the fear of the Lord in his heart biasseth him to his duty and though some worldly distraction like a rub to a Boul turneth him out of his road yet when he is over that the biass works again and his soul turneth to his course Again 2. Secondly A soul truly fearing the Lord will hardly omit such duties as God in his precept hath put some special Emphasis upon For as it is in our commands to our children though we may command them many things yet there may be some things that we lay a greater firess upon that our children or servants understand our special will to be that we should be careful in them So it is in the precepts of God there are some which 〈…〉 Lord hath in his Word laid a great Emphasis upon them Our Saviour justifieth this distinction when he telleth the Pharisees They tithed Mint and Annis and Cummin but neglected the greater and weightier things of Gods Law Now here the soul truly fearing God will be very strict and will very rarely omit these And hence possibly it is that souls truly fearing God are generally found very strict in the matter of his worship both as to the thing and as to the manner of the performance God having in his Word more Emphatically and severely declared his will in these things So in matters of Righteousness and Mercy and in all such other things as are the weightier things of Gods Law Thus far I have shewed you how the fear of the Lord in any soul where it is works both 1. In reference to the Word of God it trembles at that 2. In reference to sin 3. In reference to duty I shall proceed yet a little further in this Argument giving you some notes of a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearing the Lord. 4. Fourthly A person fearing Jehovah will have upon his heart a great awe of Divine Judgement or whatsoever looketh like such There is no person truly fearing the Lord but in some measure understandeth what that Lord is and being possessed with a true notion of God it is as natural for the rational creature to fear him in the least roarings of his judgements as for the beasts of the Forrest to tremble when the Lion roareth For as their trembling proceedeth from a natural sense of their subjection to the Lion and the Power he hath over them So doth this persons dread proceed from the apprehensions he hath of the Greatness and Majesty of the Divine Being as also from what he believeth of his severity and justice Besides this There is no soul truly fearing God but hath been at some time or other less or more under the spirit of bondage or some way or other felt the weight of Gods hand and as we say Ictus Piscator sapit and it is natural for a child that hath been once smartly whipped to fear the hand of the Father or the Master a second time So it is for the child of God having once felt the weight of Gods hand he trembleth at every lifting of it up whether it be against himself or others Now it is true the natural fear of a meerly carnal man as well as the reverential fear of the child of God will discover it self upon this occasion and it may offer a foundation of a new question How that reverential fear of God in his judicial dispensations which is and ought to be found in a
child of God may be distinguished from that slavish and astonishing terrour which may fall upon the vilest persons in the world Let me have your patience to add a word or two to this before I shut up this branch of Application 1. In the first place take a carnal man who hath in him no more than a natural dread of God he is seldom or never affected at the lifting up of the hand of God only when it falls down heavy upon himself Look as men in correcting their children they lift up their hands first in order to their stroke so the great God is set out to us in Scripture Take the vilest of men they tremble when the hand of the Lord is upon them in some remarkable judgement that they feel the smart of Gods Rod but they seldom take notice of Gods hand lifted up Isa 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see c. There are three waies by which Gods hand may be said to be lifted up 1. In the comminations of his Word applied by his Messengers God in his Word hath revealed his wrath plentifully against sinners Now it is Gods usual method especially as to Nations and such Nations where the Name of God hath been published as of old to raise up his Prophets to give people warning so more lately to raise up some Ministers amongst such a people faithfully and powerfully to apply the threatnings of Gods Word to such a people Now here Gods hand is lifted up This now the child of God that truly feareth him will see and take notice of and suit himself accordingly You see it in the instances of almost all the good Kings of Judah But others will not see this lifting up of Gods hand Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet Ahab conmands Elijah to prison and so doth Zedekiah serve the Prophet Jeremiah 2. Again the hand of God may be said to be lifted up when God sendeth either some lesser judgements as fore-runners of greater or else by some signs in nature doth indicare iram declare his wrath Now this lifting up again of the Lords hand the natural man will not see There is that which God chargeth the Jews with by his Prophet Amos ch 4. 6 8 9 10 11. God sometimes shews his signs in the Heavens and alters the course of nature as an indication of his wrath Of this nature was the Ecclipse at our Saviours death the Ensis flammivomus seen hanging over Hierusalem many prodigious Comets and other signs taken notice of by all Histories before Gods eminent pouring out of his wrath upon a place Take now a child of God when he sees these things he is afraid though he dare not venture to give a particular judgement of them yet they make him to tremble and reverence God as believing he is doing some terrible work c. 3. A third way whereby Gods hand may be said to be lifted up against a person or Nation is when God makes some other like sinners examples of his vengeance Our Saviour taught us this when he made to his Disciples that improvement of the Judgement of God fallen upon the Galileans and upon those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell telling the people that except they repented they should all likewise perish Now a man or woman truly fearing God takes notice of these liftings up of Gods hand and fears but usually another never trembleth till the vengeance of God overtakes himself he puts the evil day far from him and will give no heed to such lesser judgements as usually forerun greater nor yet will he take notice of any signs of Gods approaching wrath nor mind the beginnings of it upon others But this is but the first thing and not universally in all points true But 2. Secondly If he doth at all take notice of any of these things he feareth with a superstitious or with a meer servile fear Fear much prevails according to the natural constitutions Persons naturally melancholick are prone exceedingly to fear and where you find natural men thus complexioned it is not extraordinary to find them affrighted sometimes at the signs or beginnings of Divine Vengeance but one of these two faults their fear hath It is either 1. Superstitious Or 2. Meerly slavish Superstitious without any ground at all from the words of God Such are these fears raised by Astrologers and Star-gazers and vain observers Thus it is given as the character of a wicked man That he feareth where no fear is Psal 53. 5. i. e. where Psal 53. 5. there is no true ground of fear no true and just ground And Prov. 28. 1. He fleeth when none pursueth him Or else 2. His fear is a meer servile fear and that in a very great excess God threatens his people that in case they were sound disobedient 〈◊〉 would Lev. 26. 36. send a faintness upon their hearts and the sound of a shaken leaf should chase them And such ordinarily is that fear of Judgement which falls upon the hearts of natural carnal men Or if not a judicial punishment yet a meer excess of natural passion 3. Though a natural man may fear Divine Judgements yet his fear never brings him closer to God A carnal mans fear of Gods Judgements hath many effects upon him and those very various according to the different temper of persons Some are made by it desperate and to defie the God of Heaven as Julian the Apostate they say threw up his Dagger to Heaven and cried Vicisti Galilee Thou hast overcome me O thou Galilean Others their fear hath such an influence upon that like those rebellious Israelites Jer. 42. they will presently resolve to remove from that place which God makes the Theatre of his Judgements Thus in times of Plague or other contagious Diseases or War they will remove from their habitations Yea though upon a rational view of things a prudent man would see no great cause for it Fear upon others hath such an effect as Nabals fear had upon him to kill him his heart upon it saith the text grew dead as a stone Others it may be their fear hath an influence upon to bring them to some hypocritical humiliation So Ahabs fear made him walk softly and put on sackcloth But the fear of Judgements never hath such an operation upon a meer carnal man as to make him take up any serious thoughts of searching what the quarrel is which God hath against him and throughly humbling himself before God for his sins which have been the cause of his wrath and to turn from them by any serious resolutions or indeavours after reformation This was the influence that Josiahs fears had upon him Indeed you shall see the difference betwixt the best of natural men in their fears of Judgements and the child of God in those two instances of Ahab and Josiah Ahab was a most wretched Prince God sends a Prophet to him â—1
infallible truth whether the Proposition be dogmatical or promisory c. And indeed if you so believe you cannot but judge your selves reasonably engaged to labour for this fear of the Lord which shall most certainly have such a train of blessings waiting upon it 5. I will add one thing more There is no such preservative from all evil both of sin and punishment Evil of punishment is sensible evil Evil of sin is the greater evil but not so obvious to sense while the poor creature liveth here As to the former the evil of sin there 's no such preservative against that Prov. 16. 6. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil It is of the nature of fear well rooted in the heart to lay a restraint upon us from provoking the person of whose power we are afraid And 't is impossible that a soul should truly fear God and yet boldly knowingly and deliberately provoke him to vengeance There is no such preservative from the evil of sin as the fear of the Lord is Nor is there any such preservative from evils of punishment This indeed followeth upon the other for all punishment is the fruit of sin Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but be that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief It is not he that feareth alway but he that bardneth his heart that falleth into mischief I shall add but one thing more 6. Lastly There is no such remedy against the slavish fear of the creature as this filial and reverential fear of God Isa 7. You shall find v. 3. That God sent the Prophet to meet Ahaz His business was to incourage him aâ—d to delâ—ver him from the fear of the two potent adversaries Rezin and Pekah chap. 8â— v. 13. saith he Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts So out Saviour Maâ— 10. 10. and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And indeed it is but a reasonable thing A greater fear doth as naturally swallow up a lesser as a greater pain of the Stone or the like drowneth the lesser and causeth it hardly to be discerned Now this is no small advantage The bondage of fear which in this life we are subject to is no small bondage and it is no small blessing to be delivered from it But let this be enough to have spoken by way of motive to perswade people to this fear of Jehovah I have spoken so much concerning the excellent habit that me thinks I cannot but in charity judge there is by this time kindled in your hearts some desires after it and hear you whispering How should I get this fear of the Lord In order to it let me commend to you something of Meditation Observation Caution Faith Prayer 1. The first thing is Meditation as to which in this case let me commend to you a double Object The Word of God The Works of God The Word of God Deut. 4. 10. I will make them to hear my words that they may learn to Deut. 4. 10. fear me all the daies they shall live The holy Scriptures as to the matter of them have much in them which hath a natural tendency to affect the hearts of men and women with this dread of God 1. They tell you what God is what a great and glorious Majesly what a pure and holy God he is what a just and severe God he is How infinite his Power is that he killeth and saveth alive whomsoever he pleaseth throws to Hell and brings to Heaven whom he pleaseth from whence every rational soul must necessarily conclude the subjection of his poor feeble nature unto him and this apprehension as to any thing is the foundation of fear in us I mean of all reverential and servile fear They likewise tell you what God is in his Goodness and Mercy and the apprehension of this is the foundation of all filial fear 2. They tell you what God hath revealed that he will be and shew himself to be both to all impenitent and presumptuous sinners and to all those who are his children And 3. They tell you much what God hath been towards all sorts in the ancient issues of his Providence Now I would have you not only to read these but to meditate on them Meditation is the souls stand upon its object it s weighing of matter proposed and attention to it The want of this is one great cause there is so little dread of God in the world Have not men the Scriptures What house is there amongst us in which are not many Bibles Do they not read them many do but they do it in a vain formality without a due digestion and meditation so as the notions of holy Writ leave no impression upon their hearts Would men but allow the Word to have a place in their hearts did the Word of God dwell in them it were impossible one would think but this savour of it should be left behind men could not talk and walk as they do 2. Let the Works of God be also the matter of your meditation Come and see saith the Psalmist what desolations he hath wrought in the earth The truth is the wheel of Providence hath turned so strangely in the world since the world had an existence that if men could give themselves leisure to think of its motions to consider them in their causes in the manner of their revolution in the things brought to pass by them one would think it impossible but that it should affect their hearts with a dread of the Divine Majesty But of this more by and by 2. The second thing which I shall commend to you is Observation Observation of the motions of Providence I remember it is reported of Waldus the Father of those famous Christians the Waldenses that he was converted by seeing the sudden death of one of his companionâ— in the daies of his vanity Would we but obsâ—rve how Providence is every day ratifying the Promises cutting of blood-thirsty and deceitful meâ— who he hath said shall not live out half their daies bringing the Councils of Ahitophels to folly striking sinners dead in their full career of sin and sending them down in a moment to the pit and many other waies men could not but fear that great and glorious Name but we see and do not see These and such like examples are daily before our eyes and we observe them not and therefore we fear not God Christians if you would fear God observe the workings of his Providence much how in his great works he is daily confirming his Promises to his people and his threatnings to his enemies If the Word of God will not make you fear him yet surely his works must his works by which you see him justifying and giving a Being to his Word 3. If you would get this fear of God take heed of those things which have a direct tendency to harden your hearts from his fear 1. Take heed first of Atheistical Principles
We translate it when I shall awake there 's no material difference I will begin with the first which is something different from our English I shall be satisfied in watching or while I watch for thy likeness Thus this very word is translated Ezek. 7. 6. An end is come it watcheth for thee I confess I am loth to exclude this sense of the words I' shall be satisfied in watching for thy likeness Watching is but an empty hungry action and gives the soul no satisfaction but here 's the difference betwixt watching for the world and watching for God As to worldly things Hope deferred makes the heart sick as to God it is not so A watching and waiting for God brings a proportionable satisfaction It ought in a great measure to satisfie a gracious soul in his hours of darkness if he doth but find God inabling him to watch for his likeness 2. But the word is otherwise translated and properly enough in waking or when I shall awake or be made to awake Thus the word is often translated in Scripture Psal 3. 6. and in many other texts Psal 3. 6. 1. Some apply this to God as if it should be when thou awakest Indeed the Hebrew is no more than in awaking or in being made to awake When thy faithfulness shall awake V. Vicars ad locum say they I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Indeed when God seemeth to us not to take care and regard his people he is said to sleep by a figure for he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and the holy Psalmist calleth to him as to one asleep Awake why Psa 44. 23. sleepest thou O Lord God is said to sleep when according to humane sense and apprehension he carrieth himself toward his people like a man that is asleep and in a conformity of phrase when he turns his hand and appears for his people then he is said to awake and when God thus awakes his people use to be satisfied with his appearances for them But though there be a truth in this yet I do not think it the sense of the text 2. Others as I noted before making the words to be the words of Christ understand them of his Resurrection Our Saviour knew that when he by death had satisfied Divine Justice by the accursed death and born the brunt of his Fathers wrath he should awake the third day by a glorious Resurrection and having conquered death and satisfied justice he should again behold his Fathers face clear from all clouds and frowns ascending up on high and sitting on the right hand of God This is Hierom's notion of the text but doubtless the text is not to be so restrained 3. I agree therefore with those who make these words the words of holy David promising himself satisfaction with the image or likeness of God when he should awake 1. By his awaking I find some understanding his recovery and deliverance from that afflicted state in which at present he was Indeed the time of affliction is a time of night and often in Scripture is expressed under the notion of darkness which gives advantage to this interpretation which both Calvin and Mollerus favour thinking it by others applied to the Resurrection argutè magis quà m propriè more subtilly than properly According to them the sense is this At present it is night with me and I am as it were asleep and in a bed of trial and affliction but I know that this shall not be to me a dead sleep Though I am fallen yet I shall rise again though I be asleep I shall awake again and when Gods time cometh I shall be satisfied with the manifestations of his love and the evidences of his favour to me But with all due respect to those Interpreters whom this sense pleaseth I rather incline to those who interpret this awaking of the Resurrection To make it clear 1. It is plain it is a figurative expression Waking you know hath a reserence to sleeping Now sleep in Scripture is taken literally so it signifieth the locking or binding up of the exteriour senses and waking is the freeing of the senses in which sense it cannot be taken here though I meet with some who think that David here speaketh as a Prophet expecting the visions of the morning 2. Or else it is taken figuratively so it is very often used to express death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11. 11. The Maid saith our Saviour is not dead but sleepeth And when Stephen died it is said he fell asleep I find this very word used to express an awaking from the sleep of death 2 King 4. 31. The child is not awaked meaning that it was dead Isa 26. 19. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust But further yet the awaking here spoken of relates to David Now hearken what the Scripture saith of Davids sleeping Acts 13. 36. After that he had Act. 13. 36. according to the will of God served he fell V. Piscal Ames Engl. Annot. Diodate Ainsworth ad loc asleep What 's the meaning of that is it not that he died Now what is the awaking related to this sleep but the Resurrection and in this sense I find many eminent Expositors agreed The Learned de Muiâ— hath another interpretation in which I find none going along with him When I awake that is saith he when I shall dye while the soul is in the body it sleeps when it leaves the body it awakes Quum expergefactia fuerit anima mea De Muis ad locum de corpore in quo velut sepulta jacet evolaverit anima mea ad imaginem tuam creata To justifie this his notion he quoteth Jer. 51. 30. where the souls of the wicked are said to sleep a perpetual sleep In opposition to this he saith the souls of the Saints when they die are said to awake Indeed if we conâ—â—der sleep as it is the binding up of the exteriour senses and an hinderance to them in their operations and then reflect upon the soul while tied to the body how much it is hindered in the freedom of its communion with God There is some analogy betwixt the case of a soul in a state of conjunction with the body and sleep And it is true that in death the soul is restored to a greater freedom for communion with God But I do not think this the sense nor is this the usage of the metaphor I think to be justified by parallel Scriptures One thing I must further observe as to the form of the Hebrew word Grammarians observe that the conjugation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiphil in which the word is found adds facio to the original signisication of a verb which if it hath place here it properly sigfies in being made to watch or being made to awake denoting to us the necessity of a divine influence both to uphold our souls in watching and waiting for God when we do not
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
of God but our bodies shall be rotting and putrifying in the graves but in the resurrection the whole man both soul and body shall see God and be happy in the enjoyment of him to all eternity In our flesh we shall see him 2. Secondly The degrees of satisfaction we shall have there are infinitely above what the souls of Gods people enjoy here Here we see but it is as in a glass darkly there we shall see face to face here if at any time God uncovereth his comfortable face to us yet we can but see him according to our present capacity but in that day the capacity of the soul will be inlarged and the soul to its utmost inlarged capacity shall be filled with the enjoyment of God Here we see him by the eye of faith sitting upon his Throne of Grace and that fight is full of glory there we shall see him by the eye of sense upon his Throne of Glory that sight will be infinitely more glorious and beatifical Here the child of God sometimes seeth God and though nothing be wanting ex parte objecti to make him perfectly happy in that vision God being an unchangeable fulness yet much is wanting ex parte subjecti our capacities not being able to receive in much of so glorious a light there is a deficiency in our sight and such a vastness of glory in the object that we can but comprehend a little of it In short the soul in that day shall be so filled with the likeness of God that it will be impossible for it to receive any further additions Yet to obviate the mistakes of some who know not what they say As in this life the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ is but our mark not the attainment of any soul none so pure so holy so righteous as Christ so in that life which is to come none shall be so glorious as Christ The children of God shall like Joseph ride in the second Chariot but Christ who is the express Image of his Fathers person shall be greater in this Throne of Glory than any of Gods people can be he is of his Fathers Essence the brightness of his Glory the Word his Fathers express Image who so asserts an equality of the Saint either in grace or glory to the only begotten Son of God cannot avoid a double blasphemy The exalting a finite Being to the dignity of an infinite Subsistence or the degrading the Creatour and equalizing him with a creature But this is a digression Certain it is that the children of God in the resurrection shall be filled with the likeness of God though they shall not have so much of it as the only begotten Son of God The proof of this is evident from those many phrases in Scripture We shall see him as he is face to face we shall be like him in which I have before instanced I have now shortly opened those five Propofitions which I told you were implied in the Proposition I come now to what is expressed Here are two grounds of some satisfaction from Davids example according to the various sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a child of God living under such a dark dispensation yea if God should call them to die under it 1. They should be satisfied in watching for Gods likeness 2. This should satisfie them that they shall in the resurrection awake and then they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God Let me shortly discourse the reasonableness of both these First I say Though a Christian should in his life time walk without the sense of divine love yet he ought to be satisfied in case he findeth God inabling him to resist sin and to hope in him and by faith and patience to wait for him and to order his conversation aright before him or in short to watch for him when he or she doth not see him Yea if God should call him to die without those sensible comforts which others have and he possibly thirsteth after I must first open to you how and how far forth he ought to be satisfied and then give you some reasons for it Methinks I hear a child of God thus replying upon me Ah Sir is this possible that a Christian should be satisfied without the sense of Gods love a child that tenderly loves his Parent satisfied under his frown a wife under jealousies of her husbands love Are these things possible Can a soul be satisfied so long as it is crying out where is my God become Can a soul awakened to a sense of eternity be satisfied to leave the earth and go it knows not whither This is an hard chapter an hard saying who can hear it 1. I answer when I say a Christian should be satisfied my meaning is not that he should be so contented with such a dispensation as not to desire an alteration of it This is indeed plainly impossible that a Christian awakened to consider what the love of God to the soul is worth should live without desires of the manifestations of it to him they may be thus satisfied that never felt any thing of Gods wrath nor were ever warmed with any beams of his special favour but he that hath ever lived under any feeling of the wrath of God or that hath ever been perswaded of the love of God or felt any thing of the warm influences of it can never be in this sense satisfied he must pant and breath and thirst after Gods manifestations of himself to his soul and use all possible means for the obtaining of it 2. But as there is a Satisfaction of complacence and delight exclusive of any motions any indeavours any desires for an alteration so there is a Satisfaction of content in opposition to murmuring repining distrust and unbelief and in this sense he ought to be satisfied that is 1. Not to murmure and repine against God as not just or wise or good 2. Not to distrust God not to give over waiting upon him crying to him doing his duty not to despond and cast away his hope in God as to his eternal salvation for want of these sensible manifestations he ought to be so far satisfied as to be thankful for such influences of grace as he hath and with a meek and quiet spirit to commit himself to the good will and pleasure of God to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay upon his God to continue waiting upon God and praying and ordering his conversation so aright that he may see the Lords solvation Thus far satisfied a Christian under these circumstances ought to be 1. First Because he hath what may reasonably give him satisfaction notwithstanding his want of such more sensible and comfortable reflections If you ask me what that is I answer that which the Apostle calleth A sure word of promise a word which shall not pass away though Heaven and Earth pass away Gods word of promise is security
earned hath he not given you the penny you contracted with him for why are you angry then why discontented why lift you up your voice against Heaven 2. Again How many thousands are there in the world who have as creatures as much claim to God as you for whom the Lord hath not done so much for as he hath done for you He hath given them portions in this life and hath sent them away they have pleasure riches honours c. but no faith no hope nothing of grace no interest in Christ they are dead in trespasses and sins perishing to all eternity You only want a spiritual banquet the most want spiritual bread yet creatures under the same natural capacity that you are 3. Though in one sense you be not sealed yet in another sense you are sealed You read in Scripture of the sealing of the Spirit Ephes 1. 13. chap. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. We usually interpret those texts of Assurance because seals are used for confirmation But possibly there is another sense as agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost A seal you know leaveth the signature or impression of it upon the wax the wax hath the image of the seal upon it The Lords renewing and stamping his Image upon the soul is a sealing of it to the day of Adoption There is a seal of Regeneration and Sanctification as well as a seal of Assurance and though the latter sealing be infinitely sweet and pleasant to the soul yet the former is that which fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven Without holiness no man can see God Is there not as much think you of the operation of the Spirit seen in sanctifying quickening strengthening a soul as in comforting it and assuring it of salvation Is it our great mistake that we will look upon nothing as the fruit of the Spirit but joy and peace certainly the renewing and sanctifying of the soul is as much the operation of the Spirit and the strengthening and quickening of the soul in the performance of duty or in the resistance of corruption is as much the fruit of the Spirit in the soul as comforting and refreshing the soul is 4. If God hath thus far inabled you viz. to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness he hath given you the necessaries of salvation the things which accompany salvation What you want is only what a soul may want and yet get to Heaven Faith and Holiness they are the necessaries to salvation a soul may go to Heaven without Joy and Peace without Faith and Holiness there is no salvation When God hath given you the bread of life have you not reason to be satisfied Though you want that banquet with which he sometimes is pleased to entertain the souls of his people The Example of this rare and eminent servant of God might have at once as to this thing have instructed and reproved many unthankful discontented and repining Christians It had pleased the Lord to strip her naked of most of her creature comforts he had sent such messengers as he sent to Job to her one after another till at last death came to assure her all as to this life was gone she was under a sad and inexpressible trial of affliction It is true in this sad and afflicted state as to her outward concerns she had her lived intervals some glimmerings of divine light sometimes Joy came over night but sorrow came again in the morning the clouds returned after rain That word Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory often refreshed her but her adversary was busie her comforts inconstant her assurance little yet she lived in hope and blessed God and was thankful she endured violent pains and in her suffering acted a strong saith and in the saddest distempers would cry out Oh Sir Satan would have me let go my hold on Christ but I will trust in God till I die Though he kills me yet I will trust in him tell me I pray Sir may I not She died in hope her very last words were I hope I hope to make good that of the wise man that the righteous man hath hope in his death and by hope I doubt not but she is saved and now seeing what she hoped and with so great patience waited for Heark and be ashamed thou murmuring and unthankful Christian that art not so much as she disadvantaged from the providence of God yet canst not tell how to be silent because thou wantest consolatory manifestations Vse 3. In the third place What you have heard in this discourse may be useful to us for Consolation 1. On our own behalf 2. On the behalf of others 1. As to our selves concerning our dark hours The people of God are ordinarily very jeolous of their Saviours love and very suspicious of their own sincerity they know not how to trust as the one nor be confident as to the other without the incouragement of comfortable reflections nor how to believe they shall go to Heaven if they go not to it in the fight of it The wise man saith a man knoweth not love nor hatred by all that is before him in this life so that none ought to determine of himself in this case from any external dispensatious of providence A Christian may be poor and afflicted and yet a favourite of God and as he ought not to judge himself from these more external dispensations so neither ought he to judge himself from the want of sensible manifestations to his inward man The child of God may walk in darkness Job David Heman Asaph all had their dark hours if therefore that be our lot yet this is no ground of discouragement to us no ground for any sad conclusion against our souls as to their best interests 2. Again what we have heard affords us a great comfort against the fear of death The Scripture calleth death The King of terrours Job 18. 14. And the Apostle saith that even Gods people through the fear of it are all their life time Heb. 2. 14. subject to bondage It is the common portion of all the Sons of men It is appointed for all men once to die and it is our great interest to arm our selves against the fears of it you have heard from the former discourse 1. That death is but a sleep 2. That it is not a perpetual sleep but a sleep from which we shall awake 3. That at our awaking out of that sleep we shall be satisfied with Gods likeness 1. I say first death is but a sleep It is not an annihilation of a man that misapprehensions of it make it terrible to a man in his natural capacity It is not to the child of God the securing of a person to the Judgement of the great day In this notion unbelievers have reason to consider it what is it then It is but a sleep This gentle notion
were not ineffectual for him nor the Law of his Mother forgotten by him So having since the death both of his Mother and Father visited Italy where his Father died is able to satisfie the world that his Father died in the communion of the Protestant Church notwithstanding the impudent assertions of some Popelings amongst us being so kept by the power of God that although he daily conversed with persons of that Religion yet they were able to prevail nothing with him but that he died in a perfect abomination of the superstitious vanities of that fond Religion and left with his friend there a perfect testimony of it to be communicated to his Son as it was accordingly and if there were no other yet their denial of him a room amongst them for a burial-place and inforcing his friends to bury him in the place of their Hereticks of which his surviving Son can testifie is a testimony beyond the contradiction of any unless such whose tongues are less considerable because they resolve to keep them under no government of Truth 6. A sixth thing remarkable in this Excellent Lady was her faithfulness to her friend Not an ordinary faithfulness seen in keeping counsels and concealing seerets in ordinary help and assistance but a spiritual faithfulness discerned in a prudent admonishing and reproving her friends not suffering sin upon them a piece of faithfulness exceeding rare in this flattering age nor in this would she spare her dearest relations were her affection to them never so great her obligations never so many she truly judged that her affections were thus best shewn her obligations thus best discharged by saving their souls from death remembring that of Solomon As an ear-ring of gold and as an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reproof upon an obedient ear Whoso looked wistly upon her in the daies of her liberty saw these chains about her neck these jewels of grace adorning her conversation her carriage was grave and sober yet innocently facete and chearful The nobleness of her spirit discovered it self in a sweet affability and courtesie of behaviour towards all an admission of persons far beneath her quality to a great freedom of converse with her especially if they were such as feared God and whom she discerned to have any experience in his waies As God had indued her with a rare degree of knowledge a piercing wit and a notable judgement and other rare parts and indowments so it was her constant business to make an improvement of them for his glory Her delight was in the Book of God in that she read in that she meditated night and day The hours she spent out of her closet not in Publick Ordinances which were not many were usually spent by her in discourses tending to edification nor was she ever more in her element than when by debate with others she was sifting out some truth in order to the further information of her judgement or guidance of her practice she was impatient of hearing what she conceived was contrary to truth or which gave way to the least sin against God which evidently shewed that a zeal for God had eaten her up though possibly sometimes her passion betrayed her to some failing through some misapprehensions from which she could not be concluded free being a Daughter of Adam subject to like infirmities with others Thus for some few months she went out and came in with us and we began to bless our selves in the providence of God who had sent amongst us so eminent an example of holiness to go before us and to be an helper to us in the waies of God But our wise God would let us know that we rejoyced in a gourd that might go down in a night To make her a perfect pattern of his free grace he who in his wisdom had already taken away the most of her children bereaved her of the comfort of her dearest yoke-fellow and stript her naked of her worldly affluences returns again and visits her person with his severe afflicting hand The nature of her distemper was such as it at first confined her to her chamber and at once deprived her both of her health and what she valued far more her ordinary liberty of enjoying God in his Publick Ordinances yet for several months she was not a close prisoner but had the liberty of her chamber an ability to discourse with her friends and enjoyed much freedom in family-communion with God and her more secret communion with him But this was not enough to satisfie her thirsty soul she would now be often crying out How amiable are thy Tabernacles O God my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of God My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God The Sparrow hath found an house and the Swallow a nest where she might lay her young even thine Altars O Lord of Hosts my King my God During the time of this confinement to her chamber she had little as before to divert her thoughts from a too much poring upon Gods sad dispensations to her her affliction also was now doubled through want of Publick Ordinances her bodily distemperature daily increased upon her she very sâ—ldom heard from her Husband and what she heard was but sad tydings adding still affliction to affliction one sorrow to another This indeed was a fit time for our grand adversary to play his game and he who is watchful enough upon all opportunities to ruine our souls could not miss so fair a one as was here offered While she was therefore in the wilderness of solitude and affliction the tempter came and even from this time to her dying day he incessantly followed her with successive temptations if it had been possible to have baffled her saith and hope in God You read in Scripture of Satans Depths Devices Methods Many a devise he used into many a depth he dived various were the methods he practised for the final ruine of this rare and excellent person but it was not possible to destroy her Elect soul for which Christ had died Have you seen or read of the General of an Army sighting a potent and a subtil adversary how he gains his ground by inches now gains and by and by loseth what he hath got being forced to give the ground he had gained and again to dispute for what he was once possessed of Have you seen the adversary inforced to retreat but retreating to another work and being forced from that retreating to a third this you might have seen in this spiritual fight betwixt this cminent Lady and the great Dragon 1 Tempt Her first Temptation was to doubt of Gods love and to distrust him for her eternal salvation because of Gods sad dispensations to her This was one of Satans weakest batteries yet so managed and advantaged with the increase of her trials that for some weeks she had much ado to grapple with her adversary here I having the advantage of frequent discourse
There is a bundle of Principles some of which have grown too fast too in these evil times which are calculated for the very Meridian of Atheism and devised as if it had been on purpose to banish all dread of God out of mens hearts That things are not ordered by Providence but come in a meer series and succession of necessary natural causes That there are no spirits no such things as indications of divine wrath That there is no Judgement to be made from Providences If we should see the Earth open and swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram yet there is nothing to be concluded but these may be as honest men as those that do not go down quick into the pit These and such like Principles are Doctrines devised on purpose to make men faces of Brass that they might not blush and necks of Iron that they might not bow at any divine rebukes but might out-face God to the utmost until he tear them in pieces and there be none to deliver 2. Secondly Take heed of customary sinning against God Frequency in sin taketh away the sense of it and a custom of daring God makes men to forget all kind of fear and dread of the Divine Majesty Sin naturally hardens the heart and takes away all natural modesty 4. Fourthly Nothing so contributes to fear as faith Both faith of assent and faith of adherence Faith of assent is that habit by which we give assent to the Proposition of the word Faith of Reliance is a gracious habit by which we rest upon the person of the Mediatour Either of these hath an influence upon us to beget this fear and dread of God in our souls The one as it perswades us of the truth of what the Scripture reveals concerning the Glory and Majesty of God concerning his Purity and Holiness concerning his Justice and Severity all which represent God unto us as the true and proper object of our fear The other as it uniteth us to Christ and endeareth him to our soâ—ls and so layeth us under a sacred awe of sinning against him as we naturally fear to offend any person whom we dearly and intirely love and honour It is true the Apostle saith Rom. 8. We have not received the spirit for bondage again to fear And again Perfect love casteth out fear But those texts must be understood not of a filial reverential fear but of a slavish servile fear our daily experience teacheth us that the more intirely we love any person the more we fear to offend and grieve them and to do any thing which we think they will take ill at our hands Faith therefore as it is the root of hope and love so it is the kindest root of filial and ingenuous fear 5. Lastly Beg this Grace of God It is a plant of our heavenly Fathers it is a part of Gods Covenant I will put my fear into their heart that they shall never depart from me O beg of God that he would bestow his fear upon you The fear of God is prima gratia saith Bernard torius Religionis exordium radix est custos omnium bonorum i. e. The fear of the Lord is the first grace the very beginning of all Religion the root and the keeper of all good things therefore pray that above all things God would bestow this grace upon your souls But I shall add no more to the first branch of the Exhortation Let me in the next place speak to you in whom God hath created this fear of his great and glorious Name Two things this Doctrine calleth to you for 1. To grow in this excellent habit 2. To live like excellent persons 1. Labour to grow in this excellent habit There is a fear of God in which the more perfect a Christian is the more he decreaseth in it This is that servile and slavish fear which I mentioned dreading God as a Judge an Enemy one that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The more a soul grows up into communion with God and into an assurance of union with him the more this fear dieth and weareth out of his soul It is a dread of God which attendeth the spirit of bondage and much possesseth the soul in the moment of its conversion and wears off as the soul comes to receive the spirit of Adoption touching it to cry Abba Father and groweth moâ—â— perfect in Love But there is another fear which as the soul groweth more perfect in love and in the exercise of grace the more this groweth up and increaseth in the soul this is that fearing of the Lord and his goodness of which the Scripture speaks Such a fear as the tender wife fears her husband with and the dutiful child its Parent who he knows intâ—rely loves him he feareth not his Fathers rod but he fears his frown he fears the change of his countenance towards him This is that habit of fear in which I would have you to grow 2. And as in this habit so in the performance of all acts and exercises by which you may testifiethis your reverencing of the great God of Heaven and Earth The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom saith Solomon it is both the beginning and the perfection of it The fear of the Lord is a grace necessary at all times especially in evil times Cyril saith that the soul that is full of the fear of the Lord velut nâ—uro obsepta fortis est is strong as a City guarded with a wall and in a manner invincible 2. This Doctrine calleth to you to live like excellent persons I hinted the reason of this before every one should live ratably to his honour and dignity Persons fearing God are the most excellent persons they should therefore live like the excellent of the Earth distinguishing themselves from others by their lives as God hath distinguished them by his favour But I have hinted this before and therefore shall not here inlarge upon that discourse I have but one word more to add That is to the men of the world in general To them I shall speak from the advantage of what you have heard for three things 1. To undervalue other excellencies in comparison with this Learn to speak after Solomon Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain Riches commend not a soul to God they profit not in the day of wrath Why should you set your eyes upon things that are not and admire things that have nothing of worth in them proportioned to your affection to them admiration of them pursuit after them Knowledge is a fine thing by it a man differs from a beast Wisdom and Moral Vertues are excellent things by these things men out-shine men and excel each other as light excelleth darkness But what are all these to the fear of the Lord O then let these things ride but in the second Chariot let the fear of God in the throne of your estimation be greater than they are Remember nothing so much