Ashes on our heads creep to a Cross whip our selves naked go on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem to weep at Christ's Sepulchre this would make but a palliated Cure our Wound would not be healed at the bottom but it would fester and break out again and gangrene and become mortall And therefore VI. PROPOSITION The Penitent pious person in the sense of his Sin and Misery bemoaneth himself to God confesseth and bewaileth his Sin humbleth himself before him deprecateth his Wrath and earnestly seeketh by Prayer and Supplication for Forgiveness of Sin Healing and Peace from God which is the last Conclusion deduced from the Vocality of David's Weeping vers 8. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping There was a Prayer in David's Tears and that God heard And we may see how effectual this course is by the example of Manasseh King of Judah who did evil in the sight of the Lord like unto the Abominations of the Heathen whom the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel yea he made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to erre and to doe worse then the Heathen And the Lord spake unto Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken And the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the hoast of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh amongst the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God 2 Chron. 33.2 9 10 11 12 13. By which Instance we may perceive what is the right course to be taken by any one whom God afflicts for Sin he is to seek the Lord to humble himself greatly and to make his Supplication also how efficacious a way this is to remove the greatest Evils from the greatest Transgressours Nor is this Case of Manasseh a singular Case but such as other passages of Holy Scripture warrant us to make a common Rule of both for Duty and for Success For Duty thus saith Jeremiah Lament 3.39 40 41 42. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens We have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned For Success thus speaks Elihu Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit and his life shall see the light For both the Prophet Joel speaks thus 2.12 13. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and with mourning And rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. Whence may be gathered 1. That Complaints of our Punishments without Complaint of our Sins are vain and fruitless It was to no purpose for living men to complain of the Evils they felt while they were insensible of the Evils they did for in so doing they justified not God in his Judgments on them nor shewed any hatred of their own evil ways but either were insensible of their Afflictions as from God's hand and so gave him not the Glory of his Avenging act or being sensible hated God as an Enemy dealing unrighteously with them as not deserving it and fretting against the Lord in heart or blaspheming his Name because of their Plagues as those mentioned Revel 16.11 2. That the wisest and most successfull course that any can take in the time of God's Scourge upon them is to search and try their ways that is to find out their Sins which till they be discovered will be like Achan's Theft which caused Israel to fall before the Canaanites For if God set our Sins before him and we do not set them before our selves his Anger will burn us like fire and we know not where to cast water to quench it I confess there are some Errours that we cannot find out Psal 19.12 Who can understand his Errours And for those though we understand them not we may escape Vengeance if we know them in general are sensible that we have a vicious or imperfect Nature ignorant and heedless of what we should know and doe Yet those we should not be ignorant of nor slight them as Peccadillo's Venial sins in their own nature S. Paul doubtless cried out of these even the first motions of Concupiscence without Consent his very Lustings which he hated The Evil he would not doe that he did the Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind as a body of Death which made him wretched and of which he enquires Who shall deliver me from it When David speaks of his Sins as exceeding the hairs of his head doubtless he comprehends his Omissions his imperfect Performances of Duties Praying with distraction Praising God with coldness Hearing without attention of mind giving Alms with self-respect the Mixtures of Evil with what was Good his Vanity of thoughts his Ignorance Incogitancy Excess in words Jests Merriments and thousands of such Failings which though each of them be little yet the Multitude of them made them too heavy a Burthen for him Though Sand be but a small thing yet Heaps of it may sink a Ship So though Sins of Errour be but small yet being many they are to be known at least in the general though we be ignorant of each particular And accordingly David when he had said Who can understand his Errours adds Cleanse thou me from secret Faults These the Penitent must crave Pardon for and therefore take notice that he is guilty of them though he cannot make a particular Confession of them S. Austin often urgeth against the Pelagians that no man in this life is perfect without Sin because Christ teacheth us to pray as for our daily Bread each day so for Forgiveness of Sins each day thereby intimating that in the best who call God Father there are Peccata quotidianae incursationis Sins of daily incursion as Tertullian called them which have need of Pardon and that this must be begg'd of God Pelagian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sinlesness Popish Merit and keeping of the Law Monkish works of Supererogation Quakers imagined Perfection are all proud and arrogant Dotages contrary to Christ and his Gospel We are to charge our selves with Sin in our daily Actions yea to count all our Righteousness as an Unclean thing yet that which we should especially consider should be our open and scandalous Sins as bringing most Dishonour to God and being most pernicious
that they might bring forth fruit unto God serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter For though the Letter of the Law killeth being the ministration of Condemnation yet the Spirit giveth Life being the ministration of Righteousness which exceeds in glory And consequently they have liberty by the Spirit of God are beautified by it so as that Christ is formed in them They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit The mind of the Spirit is to them life and peace They have access by one Spirit unto the Father The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with their spirit that they are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that suffering with him they may be glorified together They are led by the Spirit sow to the Spirit and of the Spirit reap life everlasting through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness which is by Faith In a word that Life that Holiness that Beauty that Liberty that Joy that Hope that Fruit which a Christian hath from Christ is communicated by the Spirit and that Glory of Soul and Body which is expected hereafter that Quietness and Rest in life and death which is desirable is from the Spirit of God If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christ's But if Christ be in us the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8.9 10 11. So that I may safely infer from this enumeration of Benefits even the most precious Riches that a Spirit is capable of that the Gift of God's Spirit to a man is the greatest Commodity the Jewel of Heaven What Solomon saith of Wisedom is true of God's Spirit It is a Gift more precious then Rubies and all the things we can desire are not to be compared to it And therefore the Loss of it is the greatest Loss Which brings me to the Enquiry what endangers the Privation of it and that was asserted in the Second Proposition to be great Transgressions II. OBSERVATION That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit This is manifest from David's Petition in that by reason of his Sins he was afraid of its Loss and therefore begs the Continuance of it notwithstanding his foul Trespasses It is I confess a great Dispute Whether a person once regenerated by the Spirit washed sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God can totally and finally lose its Continuance with him I will not meddle with that Point But this is out of question That some Gifts of the Spirit may be lost else the Apostle 1 Thess 5.19 would not have premonished the Thessalonians that they should not quench the Spirit Such Gifts of the Spirit as are for others good to which the Salvation of a person is not promised may undoubtedly be totally lost by great Transgressions So Saul lost the Royal Magnanimity and other Princely Endowments which he had before by sparing Agag and by usurping the Priestly Office in offering Sacrifice Judas lost the Gift of Healing which he had with the rest of the Apostles and other Abilities to preach the Gospell by his traitourous Selling of his Master he fell from the Apostleship and Ministry by his Transgression Nor is it denied but that some who were once enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come might fall away and not be renewed again by Repentance that they might crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame that they might tread under foot the Son of God and count the Bloud of the Covernant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace Heb. 6.4 5 6. and 10.29 Yea those of whom God gave testimony that they did that which was right in the eyes of God as did David yet even they fell so foully as that they lost the Fruits and Comforts of the Spirit so as not to regain them in that degree they once had them Of Asa it is said that his Heart was perfect with the Lord all his days 1 King 15.14 and yet he put the Seer in prison being in a rage with him for reproving his Relying on the King of Syria 2 Chron. 16.7 10. and even in his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians vers 12. And Hezekiah though he walked before God in truth and with a perfect Heart and did that which was good in his sight yet when God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his Heart he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 31. Certain it is by David's and other Holy mens example that God doth sometimes leave men to themselves for a time so as to fall into such Sins as deprive them of the Joy of God's Salvation and the establishing virtue of God's Spirit so as not to be so active and constant in the exercise of Godliness as formerly at least for a time else why doth David pray in the next verse to my Text Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And however the event be yet there is great danger of an utter Loss of the Spirit of God not onely in respect of its Comforts and Motions but also of its inexistence and quickening virtue when men are so overcome by Lust as Solomon and David or Fear as Peter or other Temptations to sin so foully as they did The Reason whereof is because such Sins do grieve and vex the Holy Spirit For though the Spirit of God be not subject to humane Passions yet the Holy Scripture as it ascribes Repentance and some other Affections of men to God so doth it attribute Grief to the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 where it minds us that we grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption in respect of the effect that Grief hath in man which makes him withdraw from that which grieves him And so saith the Book intituled the Wisedom of Solomon Chap. 1.4 5. For into a malicious Soul Wisedom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject to Sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where Vnrighteousness cometh in Contraria se invicem expellunt There is a Contrariety between God's Spirit of Holiness and man's spirit that
Contemplation You that are to receive the Holy Sacrament what other Business have you but to tast how gracious the Lord is The Lord's Supper is visibile Verbum a visible Word that minds you of this Love of God in giving his Son for you to make you his Sons Look not then so much on what Christ did as why that it was for you See your own Unworthiness be humbled for your Sins but behold the Riches of God's Love See it so as to admire it so as to praise it Let this be an Eucharist a Thanksgiving Doe that on Earth that the Saints in Heaven now doe Receive it with Hallelujahs in your Hearts if not with your Tongues Remember this with rejoycing in God Hope in him Prayer to him as your Father Love to him who so loved you Love to each other as being one Body and one Bread being partakers of this one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 But chiefly behold it with Reverence and Dutifulness to your Father that you may be blameless and sincere and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye are to shine as Lights in the world Phil. 2.15 Amen LAVS DEO KNOWLEDGE PRACTICE UNITED The Twenty-sixth SERMON PSAL. cxix 34. Give me Vnderstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart OF all the Psalms there is none which hath so much of Curiosity and yet so much Plainness as this In the Form of it is much Poeticall Art in the Matter of it much Integrity and Holiness of Heart The Art is seen in observing the order of the Hebrew Letters in assigning to each Letter eight Verses and beginning every Verse in every Octonary with the same Letter The Integrity and Holiness of Heart is observable in the Expressions which for the most part contain Protestations of Integrity or holy Petitions both which are in the words I have read to you in which are contained 1. A Petition Give me Vnderstanding 2. A Protestation or Promise expressed first purely And I shall keep thy Law secondly modally declaring the manner of his keeping it And I shall keep it or Yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart From the words these Points offer themselves to us 1. That the Vnderstanding of God's Laws is a very desirable thing 2. That this Vnderstanding is God's Gift and to be sought of him 3. That when we understand God's Laws we should observe them 4. That we should keep them with our whole Heart Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That the Vnderstanding of God's Laws is a most desirable thing If we will believe the wisest of men this will be out of doubt It is the main Argument of many Chapters in the Book of Solomon's Proverbs the Quintessence of his Wisedom to commend to us as the most precious thing that can be chosen the Understanding of God's Laws which he calls the Fear of the Lord and the Knowledge of God Prov. 2.5 And Chap. 3.14 15. he saith The merchandise thereof is better then the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof then fine Gold She is more precious then Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her Again Prov. 4.7 Wisedom is the principal thing therefore get Wisedom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding I should recite to you a great part of Solomon's Books and of the Psalms of David his Father besides other parcells of Holy Scripture should I heap up all those Passages which set out the Worth of the Understanding God's Laws But I shall make this Point more apposite to your use by considering the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why it is so which will also prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Any right Knowledge is desirable since every man is ambitious to know saith Aristotle in the first words of his Metaphysicks It is true there is Science falsely so called as the Apostle's phrase is 1 Tim. 6.20 which learned Interpreters conceive to be meant of the Gnosticks pretended Knowledge from whence they usurped the Title of Gnosticks that is Knowing men of the thirty Aeones and such like Fables devised by Valentius and other like Hereticks to draw Disciples from the Christian Doctrine after them of which much may be seen in Irenaeus his Five Books against Heresies These also or some other Fanatick Hereticks of that Time are conceived to be meant by them that know the Depths of Satan as they speak Rev. 2.24 Such kind of Knowledge the Apostle bids Timothy not to give heed to as the Fables and endless Genealogies whether of Gnosticks or Jews and as ministring Questions rather then godly Edifying which is in Faith 1 Tim. 1.4 which he calls profane and old wives Fables to be refused Chap. 4.7 perverse Disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth to be avoided 1 Tim. 6.5 foolish and unlearned Questions which engender Strife 2 Tim. 2.23 profane and vain Babblings which encrease unto more Vngodliness 2 Tim. 2.16 Jewish Fables and Commandments of men that turn from the Truth Tit. 1.14 Foolish Questions and Genealogies and Contentions and Strivings about the Law which are unprofitable and vain such as the Cabalistical Conceits and Talmudical Dotages of Jewish Rabbins have been of old and of later days many of the Popes Decretall Epistles many of the Monks Legendary Tales in their Book which they termed Aurea Legenda the Golden Legend though Ludovicus Vives saith true He that devised it had a Brazen Face he that believes it a Leaden Heart all these and what-ever is of like stamp are to be abhorred as coming from Satan to corrupt mens minds from the Simplicity that is in Christ But all true Knowledge of what kind soever is justly desirable as being both an Ornament and some way or other usefull to Man whose Excellency whereby he exceeds Beasts is his Knowledge and his Inferiority to Angels is his Defect in it And though some of late have endeavoured to prejudice the minds of men against the Study of Arts Sciences Languages and other Learning taught in Universities yet it is for no other Reason but because of their own Illiterateness Scientia neminem habet Inimicum nisi Ignorantem No man undervalues Learning but the Ignorant Nevertheless some Knowledge is more desirable then other and above all the rest the Knowledge of God his Laws Will Counsell Works which indeed make men more truly wise then the Knowledge of all the Secrets of Nature Policies of State humane Arts and Sciences Princely Wisedom to Govern is a very excellent Gift To have the Understanding which Solomon had to judge and rule so great a People as that of Israel was a very glorious Gift of God and such as made him renowned above all the men of the earth in his days and many Ages after yet he found a Vanity in this I gave my heart saith he Eccles. 1.17 18.
and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thus did David when God sent a Plague on Israel and swept away 700000 1 Chron. 21.16 17. He and the Elders of Israel cloathed in Sackcloath fell on their faces confessed the Sin which was the Cause of it prayed God to remove the Pestilence and he was intreated of them When there was a Plague upon Israel for their Murmuring Aaron took Incense and made an Atonement for the people and he stood between the living and the dead and the Plague was stayed Num. 16.47 48. At another time when the Israelites provoked God to Anger with their Inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed Psal 106.29 30. This Antidote hath in all Ages been found a Preservative against the Plague and the most effectual Medicine to cure it Physicians prescribe many good Receipts and Magistrates doe well to use all the best means they can to hinder the spreading of Infection and justly are those destroyed as Pests of Mankind who willingly infect the sound or carelesly permit those things which may poison others They that are unmercifull to the Sick suffering or causing them to perish by their negligence and ill usage are justly censured as Promoters of the Contagion But the truly Penitent who confesseth and forsaketh his Sins the importunate believing Petitioner at the Throne of Grace the zealous and impartiall Magistrate who executeth Judgment against those venomous Sins that provoke God to shoot his deadly Arrows against us are the best and most prevalent Instruments to cure the Plague and to restore Health in our dwellings On the other side the unchast intemperate unrighteous covetous Worldlings the Atheistical proud profane the deceitful Hypocrites that are impenitent that confess not their Sins nor forsake their evil ways those that hang down their heads for a day forbear a Meal or two and perhaps come to hear but are not affected with God's Hand nor sensible of the Evil of their ways that reform not their ungodly and unrighteous Life that use other means to preserve them but seek not to God in good earnest for Pardon of Sins that appear here for company but do not execute Justice nor shew Mercy to others These are so far from being instrumentall to removing the Plague that they rather cause the continuance and the increase of it it being God's course not to turn away his Anger but to stretch out his Hand still in punishing when people turn not to him that smiteth them nor seek the Lord of hoasts Isa 9.12 13. APPLICATION And now to apply what hath been said to the present work What the Preachers of God's Word have often foretold us that for the Sins of this Land and especially of the people of our great City we had reason to expect some great Scourge the same is now come upon us The destroying Angel hath drawn his Sword hath killed thousands already the Plague is not onely begun but hath wasted some part of that City great Terrour is upon us many fly thence and perhaps die by the way or live to infect other places Houses are emptied Streets untroden Markets without Sellers and Buiers a heavy dolefull Disease is come upon us Who is so hard-hearted so Atheisticall as not to see the Hand of God in all this The Preachers from the Pulpit foretold it Any who was acquainted with the Holy Scripture with the way of God's Judgments in our own or former times might see that our excess of profane Swearing Contempt of Religion and the Word of God our unmeasurable Pride Vanity Luxury in Meat Drink Apparel sensuall Pleasures our Contentions our Oppressions our Hatred Divisions Unmercifulness and all sorts of Vices continually shewing themselves openly among us would be the Seed out of which this or the like Calamity would at length be produced And yet where is the person that laies this to heart as an effect of Divine Vengeance and the Fruit of his Sin Who is there that searcheth and trieth his waies that is sensible of the Plague of his own Heart that with repenting Ephraim smites upon his thigh that repents him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Who is there that either fears God the more or prays the more or amends his waies the more Are not our Pride Fulness of bread Wantonness Unmercifulness yea which is worse our Cursing Swearing Lying Rage Blasphemy Lewdness as much as before Do we not to use the Prophet's phrase every one turn yet to our course as the Horse rusheth into the battel Have not we yet such an unsanctified unhumbled spirit as to deride Preachers Monitions to slight God's Judgments to harden one another in Sin and so to disappoint God's Design in this Visitation which should awaken us from our Security humble us under his mighty Hand bring us on our knees in earnest Supplications teach us to fear Sin learn us to doe well lest a worse thing happen to us If it be so with us what can be expected but that our seeming Humiliation Fasting and Prayer this day should become Sin to us and be so far from averting the present Evil as that it will provoke the Divine Vengeance to punish us yet seven times more for our Sins For sure when one Judgment doth not cause us to return to God he will send another The more Warnings God gives us if the fire of God's Wrath be not quenched by our Repentance and Supplications it will burn the more fiercely It is in vain for us to imagine that by any other means we can prevent our Danger this is the onely safe course for our Preservation And therefore let us be perswaded this day to draw nigh to God that he may draw nigh to us 1. We must begin with a through Search into our own waies finding out and confessing to God with serious Compunction of Heart and Remorse of Conscience not onely our open but also our secret Sins Know that the revenging Eye of God cannot be deceived with Shews that he knows the secretest Motions of our Hearts the most hidden Practices of our Lives Know that it is in vain to strive with him that it is Madness to provoke him to Jealousy unless we were stronger then he is And therefore it is no better then Folly and Madness to be superficiall in this business of Searching Confessing Repenting of our Sins We say Non est tutum ludere cum Sacris We must not trifle in things of God we must not sport with God Neither must we onely be sensible of our own personall Sins but of the Sins of others our Governours our Neighbours our Forefathers Sins David's Sin may bring a Plague on the People We are to mourn and be humbled for them especially which goe unpunished which cause the Land to mourn 2. We must goe on to cry mightily to God as the Ninevites did The Pardoning of great Sins the removing of great