have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart Psal 38.8 Secondly As God brings all afflictions for kind and quality on Men yea on good Men that is afflictions spiritual and temporal inward and outward on soul and body So he brings all afflictions for quantity and degree that is afflictions very great and of long continuance Were they not great and sore things done against Job Whilst he was yet speaking there came another and saith the Fire of God is fallen from Heaven i. e. A great Fire and hath burnt up the Sheep and the Servants and I only am escaped to tell thee Poor Job now indeed that Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven should be rained upon him as upon Sidom that so he might judg himself to deserve no better than the wicked Sodomites did What a degree of high Trial and what a great Twig in the Rod was this Yea God saith of the Devil that he moved him against Job without cause to swallow him up Job 2.3 that is saith the Margent when the Devil had nought against him nor able to bring his own malicious designs to pass against him yet read Satans Second Commission So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his Foot to the crown of his Head and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withall and sate down amongst the ashes and then his friends poured Gall and Vinegar into his Cup which altogether made his afflictions of the greatest magnitude indeed the greatest I think that ever meer Man had David tells us of the Lyon and the young Lyon upon him Psal 17.12 and of such as did set their mouths against the Heavens and bark and bite all good Persons and things and therefore the Lord's People returned hither that is when they could get no shelter from the wicked and Waters of a full Cup were wrung out to them Psal 73.10 And full Cups of misery speak the greatest punishments for degree and quantity Secondly God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men as great and sharp so of long continuance It hath been a sharp Winter this and of long continuance so doth God make in other matters some times Some Rivers * As Nilus that ancient River had their beginning with the World and so it may be will have their end not till the World ends And some afflictions have their beginning as soon as we and will have no end till we have yea some Rods extraordinary begin with some good People as soon almost as they begin to be and end not till they end their lives It is God's threat that if all his Laws be not observed and his glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God be feared and reverenced And who can call God his God but God's Children that then he will inflict upon his People great Plagues and of long continuance and such he did inflict and such he hath said in the new Testament also will fall out great troubles and of long continuance so long as if he heard no Prayers that every ones faith and patience shall faint and fail When the Son of Man shall come shall he finde saith upon the Earth Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove that is always so the next words expound it Mine eyes fail with looking upward GOD gave no answer that his faith was quite spent O Lord I am oppressed and bear all the burden alone Vndertake for me lend me a hand What shall I say he hath spoken unto me and himself hath done it and therefore it will never be undone I shall go softly all my Years in the bitterness of my soul Isa 38.14 15. That God inflicts punishments great punishments and of long continuance upon good People read 1 Kings 22.27 And the King of Israel said put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace His warrant you see had a long date Thus God sometime let loose wicked Men upon the best of his to fasten their teeth and scarce ever let go their hold till they have pluckt out their throats to lay them fast in all extremities like Joseph and there let them lie long till even their skin and bones rot And as God lets Men deal thus with their body so he lets the Devil sometimes deal thus with their Soul worry them and worrry them long even all their days 'T is but GOD's Commission given to the Devil and he will do it as 't is God's Commission given to wicked Men to torment and then they do it and without his Commission a Dog could not bark or shew his teeth against any child of God The Plowers plowed upon my back and they made long their Furrows Psal 129.3 And woe is me that I remain in Meshech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar my soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace Psal 120.5 6. God excommunicated Nebuchadnezar Seven Years and made him a Companion for Beasts and so sometimes he excommunicates his own People and makes them companions as David in Arabia with Black mores with Devils those black Fiends of the lowest Hell and so long The Reasons of this Point are these First That God may shew his Soveraignty I will not say hâ—s Justice We have all sin'd even the best Men and therefore God may bring all afflictions and miseries upon the best But I rather choose to say that God may shew what an absolute Lord of all He is and can set up what Man he will to be his mark to shoot at and then take him down and set up another Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head saith David Psal 40.12 Usually less than this number are our afflictions when most and therfore where God shews soveraignty he also sheweth justice Israel would none of me Psal 81.11 Therefore where God pronounced to Ammi I will have none of this People he was just as well as absolute and peremptory in his will Sometimes God smites a sinner as Joab smote Amasia under the fist Rib so as that he smites him not again maketh an utter end at a blow and no cause visible no more than in other of the Sons and Daughters of Men and of his People This properly we call soveraignty Thus may be smite any one for we have not any one of us all the priviledge of Antwarp who have two marts lasting six weeks apiece during which time no Man in his Person or Goods can be arrested No man hath such priviledge for a day in order to God he can arrest Person Goods and Life when he pleaseth and yet in all so that none can charge him with injustice Secondly Doth thus bring all afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men to try integrity The Sea pulleth up from its bottom all excrements as
Famine then I conclude that general Mortality should be generally laid to heart for the Prophet did thus complain to God to affect all Men that they might so complain to God as he did how sadly matters went amongst them Take one Scripture more Lam. 1.6 And from the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her Princes are become like Harts that can finde no pasture and they are gone without strength before the Pursuer This Prophet layeth to heart particularly the distresses of Princes and great Men and alass what are all these to the distresses and death of the righteous and holy and merciful Men which proves that we should lay to heart the common strokes of God as the Sword and Pestilence take away one as well as another bad and good high and low I will prove this Point more particularly and distinctly to you First We are to lay to heart Mortality by the Pestilence I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt your Horses have I taken away and have made the stink of your Camps to come up into your Nosthrils and so killed you with Plagues and Diseases attending the Sword and yet ye have not returned to me Amos 4.10 that is you have not laid things to heart throughly to be ashamed of your evil ways and to turn from them The death of Men nay the death of Horses as such deaths not long since were amongst them we are to lay to heart and so to lay to heart as to prepare to meet God then the death of good Men by the Pestilence we are surely to lay to heart From above hath he sent a Fire into my Bones and it prevailed against them he hath made me desolate and faint all the day Lam. 1.13 The Prophet in these words as in all the rest personateth the state of the People generally and much laid to heart GOD's immediate strokes upon the Persons of Men by many mortal fierce Diseases without sparing any From above hath he sent Fire into my Bones and it hath prevailed c. Secondly Mortality by Famine is to be laid to heart The Prophet Joel speaketh of this stroke which indeed is great The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness and nothing shall escape them speaking of Vermin so devouring all Man's Provision Joel 2.3 at the 12th vers of this Chapter the Prophet telleth us what effect this should have Therefore now also saith the Lord turn ye to me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and not your Garments for he is gracious who knoweth if he will return and repent By which of these strokes either Pestilence or Famine the godly were taken away no Man can say for by Pestilence Famine and Sword did the Lord contend with that People That he contended with them by Famine the Prophet Joel and also the Prophet Jeremiah testifieth They have sowen Wheat and shall reap Thorns they have put themselves to pain but shall not profit thus doth the Prophet poscere aciem bid battel and ye shall be ashamed of your revenue because of the fierce anger of the Lord Jer. 12. 13. But most plain in Ezek. c. 4. 5. Where the Prophet is commanded to make Bread with Beans and Fitches and to eat this by weight and to mix dung with it And must this be laid to heart Yes much How can any do otherwise Thus saith the Lord smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel for they shall fall by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ezek. 6.11 Then they fell by all these and then it is probable that the righteous fell by all these as others then we should lay to heart Mortality by all these we should smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass What great abom nations have caused all these great Judgments God's temporal strokes and judgments which kill and slaughter all sorts should much be laid to heart by all sorts But you will say Q. What is it to lay to heart the mortal strokes of GOD in a Nation I answer A. It is to be deeply sensible of the cause as it may be in our selves or in the Nation wherein we live Observe how the Lord counselleth Ezekiel to carry it in the day of their dreadful misery Thus saith the Lord smite with thine Hand and stamp with thy Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the Land of Israel He doth not barely bid him to say alass for all the evil punishments of the Land as Sword Pestilence and Famine but alass for all the wickedness of the Land which hath caused these He that is far off shall fall by the Pestilence and he that is neer shall fall by the Sword and he that remains and is besieged shall die by Famine Ezek. 6.11.12 So that to lay to heart mortal strokes in a Nation is to be deeply affected with the cause of them in our selves or in others If you ask me further where we have found out causes in our selves and in others quos accidam as Salust saith To whom shall I turn and prostrate my self and say I have sinn'd Q. and done this evil abomination Answ To God in the Name of Christ A. Therefore thus saith the Lord turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 And to do this forth-with presently without all delay or else to be sure it is not turning to the Lord with all the heart To lay to heart God's willing Discipline is to be full of deep sorrow for sin in our selves and others as the proper causes of all sorts of deaths and deaths of all sorts of Persons good and bad and to turn from these to the Lord and to believe on Christ that the Lord for his sake will be pacified and turn away all his displeasure and not make us a reproach unto the Heathen as it is in that Chapter Joel 2.17 Having thus proved and opened the Doctrin I will shew you in the next Place Vses what Use may be made of it First This Point is profitable to teach If we are to be deeply sensible of temporal strokes such as refer to the death of our bodies then much more are we to be sensible of spiritual strokes and eternal strokes which refer to the death of our Souls I will send a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Amos 8.11 12. How diligently we get the Bills of Mortality now and being come up to Thousands O how we lift up our hands but who brings in Weekly Bills of
our Death of Souls by the Famine of the Word of hearing the Word of the Lord in City and Country A great deal of do seems to be about the death of Bodies but ah Lord how many Thousand Thousand Souls have perished in this City and in these Nations in a few years past for want of hearing the Word of the Lord that is able to save the Soul Be not wrath very soar see behold we are thy People Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a Desolation and all our pleasant things are scattered Will the Lord refrain for these things Herein the Prophet seems to be toucht to the quick that Zion and Jerusalem was desolate and all these Soul-pleasant things were spoiled whereby Souls starved and perished and Soul-Famine and Pestilence was made a Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that whither soever they went from one City to another from one Sea to another 't was all alike This this the Prophet laid deeply to heart and so should we I urge it by way of proportion if we should deeply lay to heart bodily death then much more Soul-death and destruction A fide exorbitans puniendus saith the Civilian such as play the wanton from the truth must be punished answerably We have been and yet still are a fide exorbitantes such as play the unruly Persons from the truth Children of Belial which cannot bear Christ's Yoke full of Soul-itch for another Gospel and being thus lewd in spirituals answerably in spiritual liberties and enjoyments hath God punished us it is not a little peril unto us that we meet now although the hand of God affright such as would be looking after us This this we should deeply lay to heart that the Bread for our Souls fails from the House of our God The strokes of God and the strokes of Men together affright away the Pastors and so the Pastures of your Souls and yet all this but the just punishment of much spiritual wantonness and exorbitancy Secondly If temporal strokes which refer to the death of the body should be laid much to heart then Eternal strokes which make the everlasting destruction of the Soul should be deeply laid to heart much more Such a stroke as that Isai 63.17 O Lord Why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and such as that Prov. 17.10 A reproof entereth more into a wise Man than an hundred stripes into a Fool. Some Mens hearts are by the inward strokes of GOD made Judgment-proof that Plague Famine and Sword all the Ten Plagues that were inflicted on Pharaoh and Ten more to them will not stir them nor turn them no more than they stopped or turned him nor yet so much And what do you see in this day done on the hearts of Men by the hand of God abroad now of Sword Famine and Pestilence Do these enter the hearts of Men This speaks that Eternal strokes judicial wrath upon the Soul is abroad fiting Men for Eternal death much of which I fear the most of us are little aware O Juresalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen her Chicken and thou wouldst not but now they are hid from thine Eyes This was a Soul-mortal and an Eternal stroke and how Christ laid it to heart how he sighed and wept O Jerusalem And if our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish saith the Apostle and how long hath thâ—s stroke been upon the Souls of most Assemblies in these Nations and else where the Power of the Gospel hid and a spurious efficacy gone forth in the place thereof faithful Labourers fishing all night and can catch nothing scarce covert a Soul and unfaithful Labourers such as come not in by the Door but come in their own name these pervert many yea though they come with never so damnable Doctrines if denying the Lord that bought them yet flockt after O give me leave to tell you in this day of God's sore Visitation Hinc illae lachrymae these are Soul-Plagues which have brought our Bodily-Plagues these are Soul mortal and eternal strokes because we have not received the truth in the love of it and no Man of us have laid these to heart as we should Spiritual Plagues and Judgments have swept away Souls by thousands all the Nations over many years together and who of us have laid this Mortality to heart as we should See how the Prophet Isaiah layeth to heart spiritual strokes Isa 24.16 17. My leanness my leanness the treacherous dealer hath dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealer hath dealt very treacherously fear and the snare and the Pit are upon thee Treachery swearing for swearing thus in spiritual matters as Judas who betrayed Christ and as much as in him lay the Bodies and Souls of all Man-kind such treacherous dealers were the Jews which the Prophets much bewailed as great spiritual and eternal strokes and so should we as we see these on any Nation for these things are written for our learning that we should follow the foot-steps of the Flock It were well we that live in these last and worst times of the World could with the Prophet for like things sigh and say My leanness that we could sigh our selves lean this day before the Lord because of hypocrisie treachery and all Soul-villany and spiritual wickedness and the hypocrisie and treachery of our own hearts greatest of all and O how should we sigh and lament our selves lean for this ere the Plague sweep us away The next Use of this Point may be for Reproof and it may reprove two sorts 1. Such as are sensible of nothing 2. Such as are sensible of nothing to purpose First This may reprove such as are sensible of nothing or nothing sensible Temporal strokes are thick God and Man upon us Pestilence at home War abroad God and Man killing and slaughtering us one at Sea 'tother at land Is not this general Mortality God shoots his Arrows every where and how great is his dread fallen upon us In what Street of this poor City can one walk but dead Corps and Ghosts walk In what Fields about this City can one walk where death also doth not walk and as God's Bailiff seize and arrest and carry away to the great Bar above and to the Judge of all the World to receive all that they have done here in the Body good or bad At what corner of this City can we that live abroad creep in and not be met and saluted with trains of dead Corps carrying to the Grave to new Church-yards and New-exchanges old Burying-places being over-fatted and glutted and Corps inhumanely crowding one another out of their Places before the time and among all these sad salutations some righteous Men and merciful Men and Women taken away and we can tell their names and where they lived and so ends the story till the next Bill of Mortality come out with more taken away and then they
Dart cometh so I believe will the Flood of these last times surprise and come as a Dart as a Wall swelling out to use the Scripture expression Actus morientium non possunt esse in suspenso 'T is the speech of them that study Nature Death when once it begins to knock beats down all apace and cannot be stayed Learn what need we have to beg that God would not lead us into temptation Extremities are terrible charges When Jona was beat upon with all God's billows and likewise Job how they both broke out and cursed the day wherein they were born and how David in like plunge fained himself mad and drivel'd at Gath. A tempted Soul with all temptations will have much adoe to bite in blasphemy I said in my hast all Men are lyars yea even Samuel which from the Lord had told him that he should be King Some dead Mens bodies putrified turn into Serpents See holy Ainsw in Gen. 3.19 Truly the better we are when overborn with temptations we become much the worse what Serpents and Scorpions some have become by these things in these times more fiery and worse than others who yet knows what may be in their hearts as to the main we know not How earnestly Christ desired that the Cup might pass and yet was not in danger of sin as we are how much more should we so desire who have not a body to bear being so crackt by sin but much less not such a Soul to bear trials as Christ being so wholly defiled and immersed with sin This on which I am now makes me think of David's speech to Jonathan who as you know he loved dearly If there be iniquity in me slay me thy self 1 Sam. 20.8 as if he had said let me dye by the hand of one that loveth me and then I shall dye but one death but if I dye by the hand of such as hate me I know not how many deaths I shall die There is a kindness in the Hang-man nor how many sins I may commit under such cruelties and inhumanities If the Cup may not pass ye◠beg that you may be deliver'd from the evil I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World saith Christ but that thou shouldst deliver them from the evil Upon this insist that you may have the benefit of Christ's intercession that no Wave may over-whelm any Grace or hide the face and favour of God a moment from you Peccatum tametsi non bonum tamen in bonum c. saith Augustin Sin though it be not good yet it may be ordered to good So afflictions though in themselves not good nor joyous yet God can order them to work about the peaceable fruit of holiness and so to make them very good and very joyous Learn from hence what great cause we have to be full of pitty and tender-heartedness one to another and what Monsters of Man-kind they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are hard-hearted close fisted without Man-friendship such as you read of Psal 69.26 They persecute him which thou hast smitten and talk to the grief of him whom thou hast wounded they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Job's friends sate down by him Seven Days and said nothing to him for they saw that his grief was great and when they did speak it had been better much they had held their peace they did so talk to the grief of him whom God had wounded A sore evil we are apt unto when all God's billows pass over any to have many hard things to say against them but very few merciful deeds to do for them May not their case become yours May not you whole become sick and you rich become poor and you Londoners may not you be driven here and there as well as they in the Country See therefore and take notice of all the lurking places of David and see where he hideth himself and come tell me saith Saul to the Ziphits 1 Sam. 23.23 You Londoners have been some lurking places for the Lord 's hunted ones long May not some Ziphits discover these lurking places and make you run and lurk for it too where you may And would not you then be glad when such billows beat over you to be pittied and shelter'd then think how much it becomes you to shew pitty to wounded souls and distressed bodies and to pour out your spirits and Purses to them whilst ye can A storm fulfils its course in a round and then bursts with its own violence saith Seneca and indeed the storm which hath been in divers parts of the Country will I believe fulfill its course in a round in which Circle this City will have its share and therefore take heed that that be not true of you which David complains of some when in his Cave Psal 142.4 I look on my right hand and behold but there was no man that would know me refuge fail'd me and none cared for my Soul Several bleed in soul and I doubt but few of you care for these bleeding sinking Souls to support them with your experiences and with your prayers Many flee to Caves and Dens to hide here and there and have not to put bread in the heads of them nor theirs and few I doubt visit David in his Cave Learn from hence that we should not sentence our Eternal condition by our temporal All God's Waves may pass over the best Man in this World Christ was exercised with all trials and miseries in this World was poor was hated was murthered was inwardly tormented his Soul was heavy to death and in a great Agony and so was Job and therefore were judged hypocrites and deceivers and accursed of God Paul when the Vipers was on his hand they judged him a Murtherer and when he threw it off and had no hurt then they would have worshipped him for a God There is no judgment of God's love or hatred by the things of prosperity or adversity but rather by our carriage in them Many will say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance and thou shalt put more joy into my heart c. Many can make no other estimate of Mans eternal felicity but as he is so and so prosperous in this World Crowns which begirt the Sun or the Moon last not long saith the Philosopher All the Crowns and adventitious Raies of riches and honours which begirt the Saints in this World to give light and conduct to it by Day and by Night they last not long some tempest or other blows them away and then when those painted Crowns are vanished away to judg and censure that therefore their Eternal Crown and Glory is gone too is to judg amiss of the Generation of the righteous Discord in the matter of exhalations maketh storms and tempests so discords in the matters of God's dispensations make storms not discover'd in his
providing for them and protecting of them and therefore his tryal was nothing only his lust 'T is true the issues of War are doubtful and Casus fortuitus non est sperandus a doubtful case is not to be hoped this may be good talk in humane matters as we have to do in common bargening but in divine matters as are to be confidered in order to God it is not good so to reason yet thus and no otherwise in all fortuitous and hazardous matters will Men which have but meer reason they will say there is no hope and so fall to the use of their wits and make hast to some evil or other if God do not mightily prevent Though the promise be exceeding great and precious and though there be many of them as the Apostle Peter saith yet a Man in whom is no faith can see by these no relief at hand but still a dreadful sound is in his ear he believeth not that he shall return out of darkness Job 15.21 22. This stop of trade will beggar me these crosses and losses will certainly undo me these and these Bags will be quite emptied by and by and then what shall I do for more And so instead of hoping to the end the distressed Man never hopes at all but universally down and thus at every straw and strait There was a universal darkness over the World for twelve hours then was light created in this upper horizon saith a great Scholar but where faith is not there is a universal darkness for more than twelve hours even all the days of the Man's life and nothing can create light neither the word nor works of God but always and in all cases the Man cries out like that Rockwood which was a great stirrer up of Persecution against the Martyrs and being smitten in conscience was exhorted to seek mercy from God and to hope therein and all that it could do was All is too late all is too late meaning that all their good Exhortations were too late as to his case So when faith is not talk of what one will to support and bear up the distressed will cry out still all is too late and to no purpose as to him Learn from hence how excellent a grace faith is it over-ruleth all things Invincible we may be but un-assaulted we cannot be saith Seneca Assaults how many do we meet withall in such days as those are and what a shield is that above all shields which maketh us invincible not to be hurt by any assault from Man or Devil and such a shield is faith All Nations compass me about but in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them they compass me about yea they compass me about but in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Psal 18.10 11. And the Devil struck in with all these so he saith v. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me Surely it is the Devil which thrusteth us to make us fall And yet against all Nations of Men and against all Nations of Devils Did David by faith stand How excellent an Engin then is faith and how invincible when Joab fought with Edom in the Vally of Salt he had a hard bout as appears by the Psalm which David made upon that occasion Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it heal the breaches of it thou hast shewed thy People hard things thou hast made us drink the Wine of astonishment yet observe what faith saith in the very next words Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of the truth Selah that thy beloved may be delivered save with thy right hand Thou hast given a Banner 1. Thou certainly wilt give a Banner because of the truth the certain truth so saith the Original and means the Promises saith Ainsworth upon this place And these being certain faith is still at a certainty and seeth beyond all evil 'T is thought that our Parents in Paradise knew of the good Angel but knew not of the fall of the bad and so took that voice in the Serpent to be the voice of a good Angel and so were led by him and fell about Noon that being the eating time and lay comfortless till Three of the Clock in the After-noon which is called the cool of the day and then were visited by God and Christ revealed to them We may have cheats put upon us in these days by Devils instead of Angels and I fear we have too many of us but faith heeds nothing but the certain truth namely the promises of God which are infallible and so putteth no cheat upon any nor maketh any ashamed It may be distressed Persons may lie longer disconsolate than three Hours and yet it may be no longer for assoon as they believe they enter into rest this gives a vision of Christ and so of pardon and of release from distress certainly to follow which is rest and so is indeed an excellent Balsom for such an unwholsome Climate as we here live in Learn likewise from hence the necessity of faith without this we cannot please God nor can we be pleased with God nor in God but he will loath us and we shall loath him and all his ways He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him And he that must believe this must have faith Suppose that the Lord call to contend by Fire burning and destroying or by famine and drought so great that is should even seem to dry up the great deep as the Prophet useth the speech Amos 7.4 Meaning exceedingly scorch and wither and kill all Or suppose that not only Famine should be but the Sword also yea as prevailing and as devouring a Sword as the Famin and that God should make that good against us which Job saith of his condition Job 16.11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hand of the wicked I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the Neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark Vers 12. How neer such things may be God knoweth and what then when all is gone What shall we or what can we live by but by faith Then faith is as necessary to our Souls as life to our Bodies or as our Souls to our Bodies Elihu was sensible that Job was full of complaints of his hard condition but alas faith he Brutes and Beasts when hard used will cry and roar but what is this of a godly Man or what will the great God regard such carriages By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry they cry out by reason of the Arm of the Mighty but none saith where is God my Maker which giveth Songs in the Night who teacheth us more than the Beasts that is
this glory a defence will make States and Nations blessed Surely if we the Lord's People were but as zealous to use liberty and priviledge well as we are to have it it would come faster than it doth Let us look more into our selves and more up to God as the readiest way to all good These are the thoughts desires and prayers of Him who is Yours ever in the Lord. N. L. Rom. vii xxiv O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death THe great weight of sin and misery and the want of one to remove well both is the cause of this dolefull complaint O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death as it is put in the Margent The weight of sin is groaned under in this terme of my Text body which is a word of quantity nomen quanâ—itatis and means the corruption of our nature to be a very extensive thing that the whole state of man in all the powers of his Soul and Body is depraved and vitiated and made utterly unfit to serve God and most fit to serve sin and Satan with all Organs and Instruments within and without Secondly This terme in my Text body is also Nomen qualitatis a word of quality that means the naturalness of this general pravity to us it lay with us as Mr. Rutherford saith in our Mothers Womb as Twins as one body lieth with another It took us fast by the heel in the Womb and we could never kick it off since And Thirdly For as much as there is this Epethite given to this Body calling it a Body of Death and a Body of this Death it notes not only the weight of sin but also of misery death being here put to signifie guilt and punishment Our depraved condition casteth us under all guilt and under all punishment that is actually under much misery and lyable every moment to all misery in Soul and Body in this World and in the World to come not only liable to death as 't is a dissolution of Soul and Body and all the sicknesses and diseases which prepare unto it but liable to this death that is a separation of both Soul and Body from God for ever Now to deliver us from the Body of this death a Body of corruption which exposeth us to such a death as this There no Man nor Angel is able no all the Angels did they joyn to do us service in this thing to change our natures to take off guilt to rectifie the Image of God which we have lost they cannot stir this Body as to any of these in the least nor any member of it they are not able to remove one sin or satisfie for the guilt of it nor draw one line an eye or an eye-brow or one finger of the new man This great weight of sin and misery and this utter impotency of all created strength to help out of it maketh the Apostle to cry out thus O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. There be several things very profitable to be observed in these words as First this That every one is in a wretched and miserable condition by nature Depraved in all powers of Soul and Body and exposed in both to the utmost displeasure of God O wretched man that I am c. He doth not mean himself alone but speaketh as personating the best of men and so consequently all men for that he did thus complain of a corrupt state who was so holy who else but hath cause much more to complain For this death which my Text speaketh of hath passed over all Men for as much as all Men have finned in Adam And this Apostle which speaketh but of himself in this case in my Text speaketh generally elsewhere That by nature we are the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 Secondly This may be learned from these words That our state by nature is not a safe state to be rested in That our state as we come into this World is not such as we should be contented with but a state much to be complain'd of by the best and much cryed out upon and much strugled under to be freed from O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of God They which rest in their state as they come into this World and think that they attain to be moral and civil just and righteous to men and little or nothing complain of that which the Apostle doth here in my Text a Body of Death do not know their own danger Thirdly We may here learn That the best are not so good as they should be That the best in this World are much burdened and much endangered with natural corruption The Apostle Paul though regenerated found much of the rebellion of an evil nature of which he knew not how to get rid carrying him Captive to what he would not and so exposing him continually to the displeasure of God I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good I would I do not but the evil I would not that I do Corrupt nature as it easily besets us so it as easily overcomes us for any strength that we have of our own Such as so feelingly complain as Paul here doth will not easily be brought to drink in the Popish Doctrin of Perfection Fourthly We may here learn That our state in this World at best is but a wretched state for though a little grace be given unto us it is so over-matched with a great body of sin that we rather undo than do any thing that is good Is it not a wretched state to be so hampered with an ill Inmate Night and Day that when one pulls one way 'tother pulls stronger still the wrong way To see two Dogs coupled a little one and a great one What a woful condition is the little one in how he is pulled and haled up and down this way and that way not which way he would go but which way the great one will go or else he grins his teeth on the little one and bites him and abuseth him much just so is the condition of the most regenerate in this World And therefore he that is best and hath best in this World can say no better of it than he findes and daily feels that his condition is but a wretched condition O wretched man that I am c. The Point which I would stand on Doct. is this That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption Or we all ought much to lay to heart our fallen state by nature The Apostle Paul was a holy Man yet very sensible of much unholiness a body of it of which he was
matter Thus we are by nature of no more reason than a wilde Ass and yet as unturnable as that Creature The old Man is proud and wilful yea presumptuous yea of enmity and despight if resisted as Lions and Dragons are spitting their some and poison as Cats in the face of all that contradict 'T is said of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he became head-long Act. 1.18 He was so in his life for he would on in his work of betraying Christ though convinced by Christ's own preaching and told to his Face that he should betray him And so are the ways of corrupt nature carried head-long He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the froward are carried head-long Joh. 5.13 And all this continually as the Blackamore that cannot change his skin No place better sets out the bad property of natural corruption then that Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil and only evil and that continually For such a visible as well as audible Sermon as Noah preached of 120 Years long would surely have turned them from their sins had they not been desperately obstinate and so continually of which God was sensible and complain'd and was grieved at his heart that he made man And shall God so much lay to heart the depraved state of a man and man himself not lay it to heart at all Fourthly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the consequence of it It is a body of death a body of this death that is it disposeth us to all the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come And therefore doth the Apostle cry out here in my Text as one utterly loft O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. And they likewise who were prickt at heart by the Apostle Peter's preaching with the sense of their sinful state Cryed out Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Which are Scriptures of purpose to shew that we should be deeply sensible of the evil consequence of corrupt nature as it will destroy Soul and Body Judas is called a Childe of Perdition and so are we called Children of wrath by nature that is such as are not under mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pitied as the expression is rightly rendered in the Queens translation 1 Pet. 2.10 Now how are Malefactors affected with the consequence of their evil way when they are going to the Gallows especially when they have no hope of mercy when they be not under talk of mercy and pardon Now our natural state is death without all mercy that is the sentence pronounced upon it if the state so abide a carnal state it is death without all mercy and every carnal man should speak of himself as the Apostle Peter doth as one not under mercy or as one that hath not yet obtained mercy but lies lyable as a Prisoner condemned every hour to Execution I take it that their attonement day spokeâ— of Levit. 23.27 Wherein they were to afflict their Souls upon pain of death had principal reference to their state of sin by nature that body of sin which they brought into the World with them which exposed them and us all unto death and all misery in this World and that to come and if it be so then you have the Point in hand proved and the reason of it why we should be deeply sensible of corrupt nature as well as of all that flowes from it because God commands it and commands it upon great penalty We die for it else unless we afflict our Souls under the sense of our fallen state and Gods displeasure belonging thereunto that Soul which doth not so well die for it their afflicting day was a day to go to the Root and to cast salt and brine upon the springs of wickedness which if they did not the wrath of God seized on their Roots Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade Men saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.11 We perswade Men. To what Answ To look well about them that they be not found in their carnal state when Christ cometh to Judgment So that the deepest sense of this thing should be upon us that can possibly be as if we were now going before the Judgment of quick and dead and all in our sins or as if we were going to the Wedding of a great Prince and had not one rag on our backs to cover our nakedness Vse I Learn from hence that if we should be sensible of natural corruption then of all actual transgressions which are but as streams from this Fountain If we should mourn over the evil Womb then over all the evils which this VVomb brings forth And yet what twins and what tens and what great man-sins and provocations doth this evil VVomb bring forth every where at this day and yet who lays to heart either Mother or Children I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done every one turns to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Jer. 8.6 Vse 2 Woe and alas how much are the most liberal reproved who are past feeling as to both natural corruption and all actual transgressions yea even the fowlest and greatest Giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all iniquity with greediness and drink in all abominations as the Fish doth Water So far from sense of all sin either in the heart or in the life that all such frame of spirit is scoffed at If a man do but cast the least discountenance on the greatest sin What you are a Phanatick and ready as Swine to turn and tear and rent such as cast such Pearls before them as wholesome and seasonable reproofs and are as the wilde Ass that snuffeth up the wind and in the heat of her lust cannot be turned away Febris accedit the mad Feavour will and must have its course though Heaven or Hell bear upon breaking off or going on They say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant To talk of a body of death Lord what strange language would this be now adays and if a Man should chance to sigh as the Apostle O wretcheà man that I am What will become of me that Hellish cordial I doubt would be readily administred God dam-me thou wilt do well enough Never was it such a God-daring time for wickedness If it be such a God-damning time as persons pâ—ay Hell will be full of Souls indâ—ed for many Ages surely as this Men have made their hearts as an Adamant that they may not repent and seared their Consciences with a hot Iron that they may be sin-proof and not fall before the greatest wickedness nor the greatest judgment of God That capital curse I fear is inflicted
Spring as it is foolish so it is an endless work How can a clean thing come out of an unclean If the heart remain still filthy How is it possible to make the life holy Hence it is that the heart is so much called for to be cleansed and that sinck to be well lookt after because there is the seat of natural pravity and the very Core of all corruption Cut off branches as you would lop a Tree cut them off all and leave the roots through the sent of mud they will grow as Job saith every occasion and temptation so long as the nature remains unrenewed and unlookt to will make sin break out afresh and the Dog will return to his own vomit The Queens Daughter is therefore called upon to forget her Father's House or else she would be hankering to be there again They which came out of Egypt in body and did not come out spiritually as to their souls how unsteadfast were they and their righteousness as the morning dew and in their hearts went back again to Egypt If any Israelite having taken in War a Heathen Woman and beautiful that he had a desire to marry he was first to bring her home to his House and shave her Head and pare her Nails and was to put off the raiment of her captivity and then she was to bewail her Father and her Mother a full Moneth c. That is her Heathenish state wherein born and bred she was to bewail and taught by this paring of her Nails and changing the Raiment of her Captivity to look after deliverance from her inward captivity and for a new state a new Father and Mother and all new her hands yea her very Nails and all this but little enough to make her forget her Father's House and to forsake old haunts and customs and ways Who knoweth not but that Nails and Hairs and such excrements are most apt and ready to grow again and yet not more apt and ready than sin is though pared and shaved if it be not dealt throughly with in the heart and in the root Finally Without this deep sense of our natural condition Christ will not be precious to us nor indeed desirable who is the only Physician for this great cure We shall be righteous in our own eyes as the Pharisee and not care for any righteousness else but our own though we may talk of faith and of the righteousness of Christ as many Christians do We shall be as Country-people which are whole as a Fish and laught at all Physicians Till the Apostle Paul was smitten down from Heaven and his eyes opened to see this body of death of which he complains in my Text he was alive and brisk and who but he for a holy and a happy man But when the Commandement came in Authority upon him which he thought he had perfectly kept sin revived and he died 'T is the poor and blind and wretched and naked that Christ counsels to come and buy of him Eye-salve and Garments to cover their nakedness Rev. 3.17 18. As we are Proselites i.e. Comers to Christ so we are cured of our spiritual Leprosie and such Proselites we will never be but as we see and feel our lost state by nature and our great necessity of him Who looks after the things which they do not need Ho he that thirsteth c. and such will prise Milk and Water I cannot get a House in this Town wherein to leave drink-silver in my Masters name saith Mr Rutherford There is no sale for Christ in the north meaning at Aberdeen he is like to lie long on my hand ere any accept him Thus it is with all unsensible and unheart-broken sinners though at the brink of Hell yet will not come unto Christ that they may be saved from their sins and from the wrath of God FINIS THE REMEDIE OF NATURAL Corruption Being A SERMON ON Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THese words are an Answer to a sad Question the Question is in the words foregoing Who shall deliver me from the body of this death v. 24. That is from natural corruption the guilt and the dominion and Power of it This Apostle was at an utter loss in himself and as to all others and then God revealed an able Physician to him as these words of my Text tell us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is revealed to Sinners which dispair of all help in themselves or in any other Creature Such will thank God for him as here this wretched Man doth Mr. Rutherford speaketh of a sorrow that hath no eyes This Apostle's sorrow was such for a time Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He knew not of any deliveâ—er and then God became eyes to the blind and helped the sorrowful sinner and the blind sinner to eyes to see a Saviour and an All-sufficient one I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When Isaac was at a loss for an offering and Abraham also when the sorrow of both had no eyes God was sight and help to them both Here is the wood but where is the Sacrifice i. e. One to die My Son God will provide And he did so Donatum non petitum gratius est saith the Civilian A gift not asked is the most free So did God provide that offering for Isaac and so did he provide this offering for this Apostle and wretched Man and so he doth for every wretched Man which hath the benefit of him he is Donatum non petitum to every fallen Son of Adam that is raised by him He was found of him that asked not after him Secondly This may be further observed in these words That God doth not barely shew us the means of our good the proper means of our Souls good but enable us to make effectual use of them to that end If I should paraphrase upon this Text it would be to this effect Wretched man I am burdened much with a body of sin and death which is so heavy that I think oft it will one time or other sink me to the lowest Hell and I am as helpless as to all â—thers as impotent and miserable in my self O doubly wretched man that I am and am like to be who will who can deliver me Yet I have some help shewed to me I thank God but no body else he hath in my blinde and wretched conditiâ—n shewed me an able Physician by name Jesus Christ our Lord anointed and allowed under his own hand to help all such wretched Creatures as I am and he doth enable me to make use of him to my burdened Souls ease and rest This Scripture and such like shew that there is full and effectual relief for all burdened sinners who are ready to sink under the burden of their sin and misery Doct. The Doctrin
to quench the Spirit of Christ quite but it seemeth that he is under such a Law and such an assistance from the Father that he must know no discouragement but must on with the work against all opposition and set and establish judgment that is the state of the new Creature or the work of grace he must make the new Creature and he must establish it i. e. so make it that it may never be marred again as the Image of God in the first Adam was Christ threw out filth so that the Devil cannot easily fetch it in again And Christ build so upon himself the Chief corner Stone and firm Rock that no stormes can overturn Job is a great instance The Apostle saith That Charity never faileth If our love never fail it is because that God's love to us in Christ never faileth The love of Christ is unchangeable and so he maketh ours that much water cannot quench it Christ ordains us to bring forth much fruit and our fruit to remain Joh. 15.16 When Polycarp was set on an Ass and carried to his doom he heard a voice from Heaven saying be of good chear O Polycarp and play the Man the Speaker no Man saw but the voice was heard by many of us saith the History And if any one did play the Man in his suffering he did Have respect to thine age tender thy life swear by the fortune of Caesar repent of what is past and say remove the wicked But he looking about with a stedfast countenance upon the wicked Multitude said Remove O Lord these wicked Fourscore and six years have I served Christ and he never offended me in any thing And how then can I revile my King that hath thus kept me The pro-consul still urged him but he still as stoutly resisted him and replyed I am a Christian and there was no turning of him with all that they could say or do The first Work of grace in our first Parents was lost but the grace we now have by Christ eating of that Tree of Life is preserved for ever and none can pluck out of his hand Secondly Christ doth this excellent work of the new Creature alone But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 What sacrifices soever have been used they did not mean that any could remove Man's guilt or filth but all pointed at Christ the sacrificing of himself and that this and this alone is the remedy of fallen and sinful Man He trod the Wine press of the wrath of God alone and of the People none with him Isa 63.3 David duell'd it with Goliah and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a Sling and a Stone And so Christ duell'd it with all the Enemies of Man's salvation and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a body subject to infirmities Christ would not put any of this work out of his own hands to be done Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness by whose stripes we are healed 1 Pet. 2.24 Christ had none to help him to bear the Cross which God laid on him though he had one to help bear the Cross which Men laid on him The weight of our sins as punished with infinite wrath and torment Alass who could bear this Cross or be compelled to it and yet all the damned are compelled to bear this Cross and so will all reprobates As in one part of our restoration Christ was alone so in all the parts of it foundation and top-stone he layeth both alone and none of the People with him None offered to him first not last Look to Abraham your Father and to Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and increased him and blessed him Isa 51.2 I think the scope of this Scripture was to strengthen faith that though they were but few yet that God was able to deliver them from all their Enemies as he did Abraham in a very lonely state in Canaan from the Kings that fought with him But take the place more spiritually and strictly for Gods calling of him out of the state of Heathenisme and so the bringing him to a state of grace the bringing him to a new Country and Religion and State all this God did for Abraham alone and subdued all his inward enemies alone and made him an Heir of Eternal Salvation alone God would trust Abraham's best estate with none but himself I desire but this saith Mr. Rutherford that Christ would take me in hand to cure me and undertake for a sick man I know I should not die under his hand sorrow which hath no eyes hath put a Vail upon my Soul that I cannot see him If Christ undertake a sick sinners cure let his disease be what it will never so desperate never so long standing he cureth him without any more Physicians and none die under his hand Thirdly Christ doth this great service for Man of making a better state freely for Jew and Gentile for great sinners and little sinners if there be any such Christ doth all freely He cured Naman that his skin came as if it had been the skin of a young Child and did it for nothing though a very rich Man and would have given much for his Cure Our Fathers had Manna from Heaven and Physick the brazen Serpent which cured them and supported them for nothing and all that was Christ The Manna that fed them was Christ the Serpent that healed them was Christ Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 In all sorts Jews and Gentiles Christ works for the Cure of natural corruption and doth many Cures of this kind but takes nothing no mony nor monys worth he cursed Gehazi that would be medling this way The Samaritan poured in Oil and Wine and healed the wounded Man of all his wounds and all freely And so brought the Prophet's Widdow out of debt freely such Samaritans are now much wanting for Prophets Widdows in debt and he frankly forgave a Debtor many Talents GOD lookt upon every of the Five Days Work and said it was good But on the Sixth Days Work when he had made Man he beheld and said it was very good to shew what special delight God had to make his own Image and to draw his own likeness in Man so doth Christ still not only do this work of restoring fallen Man and do it for nothing but delights to conform us to his Image and when this Days work is done for any wretched Man he saith it is very good and all the Angels rejoyce with him Vse 1 Learn from hence that our Soul-ruines and miseries by our Fall are very great in that none but Christ God-man is able to remedy them 'T is a strong Prison that which none can open but
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
put out the talk of the other and this is our laying of matters to heart which is rather a laying them to our Heads and Tongues than to our Hearts What change do all your New-exchanges make He that was a Drunkard is so still He that was an Adulterer is so still And he that was an Hypocrite and a Formalist is so still They that were malicious to the righteous Man and to the merciful Man are so still Is it not at our peril even now to meet to Preach and Pray as we do at this time And have not righteous and merciful once been hunted from Praying even in this Plague-time And is not this our laying to heart general Mortality May not God well take those home to himself of whom we are so weary Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Isa 42.25 So it may be said of us the hand of the Lord slayeth us round about heaps upon heaps and we walk as if we knew nothing as if it nothing concerned us Who smites upon his thigh saying What have I done to caâ—se all this What is that wickedness in my heart by which I have slain so many and so good People righteous and merciful ones Lord have mercy upon us is put up now at next Door it is now right over against me saith another but Lord have mercy upon me what have I yet in my heart amiss that hath brought the wrath of God so nigh me to stare me in the Face I will scatter them saith the Lord among the Heathen whom neither they nor their Fathers have known and I will send a Sword after them till I have consumed them and observe what follows Were they moved with this soar threat Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come and let them make hast and take up a wailing Jer. 9.17 18. As if the Prophet had said unless you send for some artificial mourning here will be no mourning at all for all that God hath threatned or executed every ones heart is so dead and stone-hard and just so it is now with the most of us that certainly the Plague of the heart is much more numerous than the Plague upon our Bodies If any ask as Livy in another case Quin ad hoc accingeris But why do not People gird themselves to this thing no more Truly I know not 't is all the Plague Secondly Such are to be reproved who lay things to heart a little but nothing to purpose as when the Plague is come neer them or when they meet the white Rod and the black followers upon Neighbours nay upon strangers shoulders for fear the dead should infect their living Friends then they stand and stare and lift up their Eyes and Hands O what a doleful sight is this and others concerned for their Relations weep a while and wring their hands No Mother lost such a Child But as for sin the cause of all this Who cries out of this Who turns from this Or who enquires after Christ to take hold of him to make his peace with God that these mortal quarrels might cease How many converts by the Plague can ye shew me By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Men break out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the Beast of the Field and the Fowl of Heaven and Fishes of the Sea yet let no Man strive nor reprove another for the People are as they that strive with the Priest therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the Night Hos 4.3 4. The Dutch Notes are worth your perusal upon these words The fowlest sinners were committed by great ones and if any offered to reprove these and seek to bring them to the sense of their evil ways they were sure to be silenced and otherwise punished so far were that People from laying any thing to heart They strove with the Priest i. e. scorned his reproofs stopt his mouth imprisoned banished killed all that opposed and this was their laying to heart God's dealings with them the end was answerable they all ranks high and low perished by the wrath of GOD and common judgment and so shall we or any People who tread in their steps or else why are such Scriptures written A little laying to heart of late hath seemed to be by commanding Fire to be made in all Streets and this and this I fear is as I have said a little sense of God's hand and to very little purpose It must be other Bon-fires to purge the Heavens to clear the highest Heavens Whose heart is a fire as a righteous man as righteous Lot vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked Who sighs and cries for his own wickedness and the wickedness of the Land and turneth from the evil of his way and looketh to him that fires the Prayers and Offerings of his People by his sweet Incense and Intercession Bad men and good men die daily and is this Preaching only turned into prating for an Hour by all you that pass by Such is dead and 'tother is dying c. And is here all One of the Cardinals having a great Bishoprick in Germany in Luther's days confessed that the Mass was not void of its faults that the Courts of Rome were corrupted that a general reformation of the Priests and Friers was necessary but that the poor rascal Monk Luther should begin all that he thought intollerable and answerably set against him so the Men of this Age will confess that there are many things amiss in all ranks but that such poor rascals should reprove them in their Sermons and lives this this is now not to be endured Prisons are too good for such and the Cure is worse than the Disease And this is all the sense that these wise men have of matters amiss which is little sense but to no purpose Vse 3 Let us make use of this Doctrine in the next Place to try our selves by it Are you such as lay to heart the hand of God now the taking away of righteous and wicked merciful and un-merciful Men In most Houses are dead Bodies if not yet in every House as in Aegypt In your Houses it may be are or have been dead Bodies and now some dying Are ye sensible what dead Souls ye have and how hard to be raised from the dead How much alive to evil quickly but as Nabal as dead-hearâ—ed as a stone to
they see that they escape as well as others and live as long as others The World is drawing on apace to Atheisme and the providence of God seems to rock the Cradle The Idolater and the sincere worshiper the superstitious and the truly tender conscience Nabal and the merciful Abigail all die promiscuously Why who can tell now which to prefer to follow That one may think his Religion as good as the other the the Papist and Protestant both die of the Plague and that the ceremoneist may think as well of his way as the strict Non-conformist they both die of the Plague and this is a Plague indeed to some this is raining snares upon Men which are willing to slumber in their own ways Some are afraid to be over-righteous and over-strict and the judgments of God falling so promiscuously will make such very temperate in their Religion If this be the import of God's destroying righteous and wicked to harden slight and loose Professors we had need look well to it who profess the Gospel that we be very substantial and real and that we be not catcht with this snare of judging by outward appearance but look to the Word what that requires This snare the Prophet Malachy speaks of Mal. 2.17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words and yet ye say wherein have we wearied him When ye say that every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord or Where is the God of judgment Surely the Lord likes our good fellowship and all the latitudes we use and carnal contents and pleasures as well as their rigid strict self-denying conversation or else he would not spare us as much or more than he doth them lay to heart this import of GOD's promiscuous dealing above all how God hardens sinners in their sins by such dealings Or Thirdly and Lastly This promiscuous dealing of God imports that which my Text here tells us that there are greater evils to come which God takes the righteous from and this should be much laid to heart indeed according to the very letter of my Text. So was Josia by a less judgment taken from a greater A praesenti praesumitur circa futura saith the Civilian From present things we may presume concerning future If Lot be warned and pulled out of Sodom there is surely some great and fearful storm a coming If God snatch his People as he did Josia in hast as it were to Heaven we may say with this Prophet in my Text they are taken from the evil to come Lay to heart therefore the hand of God that it slayes so generally one and all and lay to heart the import of it that it boads some greater evil to come There be Serpents which have heads in their tails called Amphisbaenae This stroke of God taking away righteous and wicked hath a head in the tail of it that will make worse work than this head which is now fore-most and yet how many doth this fore-most head now smite and slay and how mortal and tremendous is this fore-head Thirdly Be exhorted to lay to heart this that you may be the next cut off who ever you be seeing the slaughter men in this day spare none young nor old rich nor poor close Lanes nor open Streets righteous nor wicked What should we all then say to our selves but this surely I may be next the mark which God will hit What a trade the Coffin-makers and Grave-makers now have And Hell answerably doubly inlargeth it self as you do now seek out for new Church Yards and should not we smite on our breasts and say O the wonderful mercy and power and patience of the Lord that none of all these have been employed about me yet That so many thousands should be gone before and so many thousands more drawing on and drawing after and I yet not one of these O magnified be the rich and Soveraign mercy of God! Am I more righteous more merciful more useful with my Talent than such and such that are gone O no not worthy to be named in the Day with them and yet that I should be left and they taken that they should have their turn their over-turn before me When I say lay to heart that you may be next I mean more than one thing the admiring of GOD's mercy that you are yet spared I mean this also lay to heart your state whether you be ready I was wroth with my People I have polluted mine Inheritance and given them into thine hand thou didst shew them no mercy upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid the yoke And thou saidst I shall be a Lady for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart neither didst remember the latter end of it Isa 47.6 7. Many parts of the Christian World are given into the hands of Men and they do with them at their pleasure and yet are secure and consider not the end of such ways that it will be bitterness at last I have nothing to do with such but with you Are not you yet in some ways which are not good and yet promise peace to your selves in them yea though GOD's slaughter-men and Fellers be come up to London The Plague was first at South-hampton and at other Countrey-Towns before it came to London yea come up to your Doors and not say rather to your selves I had need look about me I am likely to be next And what if the Fellers fell me Whither will the Tree fall when it falleth Will not the fall of it be very great If the righteous scarcely escape now if the merciful Man scarcely escape now Am I likely to escape Motives to press you thus to lay to heart these things are these First Is this in my Text How few do lay matters to heart now either the matters of his works or words rods or escapes righteous Men merciful Men rich Men and poor Men the Judge and the honourable c. are taken away and yet none lay this to heart If the Prophet had said few lay things to heart I would have kept his phrase but because he saith none I am but too justly lead to say so too Mortality and deadness of Bodies is not yet so general as mortality and deadness of Souls Zion stretcheth forth her hands and there is none to comfort the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries should be round about him Jerusalem is as a menstruous Woman amongst them Lam. 1.17 We the Lord's People as in every Age have adversaries round about the righteous Man and the merciful Man hath adversaries enough But who of the World nay who of our selves lay this to heart A Second Motive to press you to lay to heart these times is also in the Text. Lay to heart present Rods or it will be an ill presage upon us that worse things Seven times worse are at Door If we be yet senseless and walk contrary surely we shall be
which God inflicts sometimes upon the Sons of Men yea upon his own Children Secondly This Metaphor is to set forth the numbers and troops of trials wherewith God punisheth his sometimes and the number can as well be numbered as the nature be fathomed you can as well fathom the bottomless Ocean as number the Waves and Billowes which beat up and down in it Thirdly This Metaphor fetcht forth the continuedness of afflâ—ction Deep calleth upon deep or calleth for deep That is one Wave beateth up and beateth on another * Undam undaque pellit or unda sequax as Virgil saith through the Tempests which God raiseth Afflictions unfathomable innumerable and very durable fall sometimes upon the People of God The next thing this Text sheweth to us is the greatness and invincibleness of faith which is set forth unto us by the Person faith taketh hold on in distress and that is God Faith leans on no Creature high nor low for in great distress What can the greatest Man do but God Yet the Lord shall c. Secondly The potency and invincibleness of faith is shewed unto us by that attribute in God on which faith fastens and that is his Soveraignty which commands all other wheels to go The Lord will command his loving kindness c. Thirdly Faith in the potency and invincibleness of it is shewed us by its excellent issues and effect which it doth produce which are two Prayer and Praise and in every dark state And in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my life in which is involved peace and joy and all good Doct. The Doctrin which I observe from these words is this That God sometimes maketh all his Waves and Billowes to go over Men yea good Men. The Psalmist thus complaineth not once in my Text but in Psal 69.1 2. Save me O God for the Waters are come into my Soul I sink in deep Mire where there is no standing I am come into deep Waters where the Floods overflow me I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail whilst I wait for my God David was a Man after God's own heart and yet saith he The waters are come into my Soul and I am come into deep Waters which overflow me and I cry to God and he lets me cry till my throat be dryed and can obtain no answer Elsewhere he speaks of himself and others Thâ—u sellest thy People for naught and dost not increase thy wealth by their price alluding to Slaves thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us my confusion is still before me and the shame of my face hath covered me Psal 44 12 13 14. There is a great distance between the Planets they cannot dart one to another saith Seneca But it is not so with afflictions these will dart and reach one to another when pain is on the body it will reach unto the Soul All afflictions for kind and qualities and all for degree and quantity doth God sometimes bring upon Man First All afflictions for kind and quality that is spiritual and temporal Spiritual afflictions GOD brings upon Men yea upon the best Men. The loss of Ordinances When I remember these things I pour out my Soul for I had gone with the Multitude to the House of God Psal 42.4 As the loss of Ordinances So 2. The loss of God in Ordinances Why are thou cast down O my Soul c. O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan So Job complaineth of the loss of God The Arrows of the Lord are within me and the poison of them drink up my Spirit Job 6. And what a Man was he for integrity I acknowledge my sin and yet mine iniquity is ever before me Psal 51.3 Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a heavy buâ—den too heavy for me to bear my wounds stink and are corrupt through my own foolishness Psal 38.4 5. A storm cannot raise it self above the Moon much less as far as the Stars saith the Philosopher and yet spiritual storms raise themselves in the Soul above all Sun Moon and Stars above all the graces gifts and endowments the Soul hath and eclipse and darken all My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.4 So Haman whilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And then God is gone indeed and Sun Moon and Stars overwhelmed Secondly Temporal afflictions doth God bring upon Men yea upon the best of Men. How our Saviour was afflicted in Spirit we read his Soul was heavy to death how he cried out and roared because of God hideing himself and as to all outward miseries and injuries what was not inflicted on him that Man or Devil yea or the Justice of God could inflict His visage was marred more than any Man's He had no House nor home He was in the Wilderness worried by Devils and wild Beasts He had no Bread no Bed no Friends forsaken of all even of all his Disciples So Haman how he complaineth of Bodily afflictions I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth Psal 88.14 He had not a well day in all his life as we say and yet lived in an ill time to be sick namely when our Fathers were in their conflicts in Egypt under Pharaoh And yet mark what he saith then Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deep thy wrath lieth hard upon me Ps 88.7 and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves Sela. As if he had said that it should be done thus to and poor Creatures such a season as this when under the tiranny of a Foreign Enemy let it be wonder'd at by all the Creation Angels and Men. So Hezekiah how afflicted outwardly with a great Army of merciless Men insulting and besieging him and no sooner that over but sick unto death of the Plague and other infirmities as you may read by his complaints Mine Age is departed like a Shepheards Tent it is removed I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sickness which is many thousand deaths from Day even to Night he will make an end of me I reckoned that as a Lion so he will break all my bones Isa 38.12 Comets appear in the calmest Ayr and yet are very prodigious things So corporal calamities break out upon Men when in the greatest calm of ease and content When David said his Mountain was strong and that he should never be removed by and by you hear him cry out I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the Day long for my loins are filâ—d with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I
no other way to do it so doth God imbitter our conditions in this World that so all the sweets which we have here we may use them as if we did not and possess them and they not possess us and our hearts David had many bitten upon his condition before he could say I have behaved my self as a weaned Child When the World was first crucified to Paul then at length he became crucified to the World when God whips us in this and whips us in that takes away this and takes away that then by degrees he takes away our hearts too and sets them upon better things but usually good things first die from us before we become so good as to die from them There is no labourer in Egypt that lifts up his eyes to Heaven they are almost angry with the Sun it doth so scorch them Few labourers in and after this World do lift up their eyes to Heaven much whilst the Sun-shine of prosperity is hot upon them but rather angry and vexed and cumbred with one thing or other that the World doth not tumble in fast enough Few in health and wealth are heavenly In those days was Hezekia sick unto death Isa 38.1 In those days When was that see the Chapter foregoing Assoon as he had obtain'd that great deliverance from the Assyrian by Prayer and all quiet now least he should grow as David when his War was ended sensual and wanton God smites him with the Plague and bids him set his house in order for he must die David being hunted up and down as a Partridge and poured from Vessel to Vessel what a Heavenly Man is he and when this is over what a carnal Man is he I am tossed to and fro as the Locust mark what follows My Knees are weak through fasting Psal 109.23 When we are tossed much then we fast and pray and go to Heaven much upon our Knees We read in History of an Emperor strangled putting on his Royal Robes nothing more choak the seeds of Grace and Heavenly life than the prosperity of this World and therefore usually one way or other God kills all things here to kill us throughly to all here The Apostle bids us endure hardness as good Souldiers In hard states and conditions grace best thrives and the most noble things and souls to be found Vse 1 Learn from hence what a great God we have to do with who can flat our conditions with all miseries in a moment as the Sea sometimes makes breaches upon the Land and swallows up Towns and Cities no more to be recovered I will have mercy upon the House of Juda and save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by Horse nor by Horse man Hos 5.7 As God saves without bow or sword so he can destroy without bow or sword even with his own hand from Heaven many ways Of which I will say as one doth of Mary's being with child by the Holy Ghost Mirari licet rimari non licet Such dealings of God may be wondred at but curiously search'd into they may not It may be said of God and the Engins he useth against Men as Hushai saith of David and his followers Thou knowest that David and thy Father be mighty Men and they be chaffed in their minds as a Beat robbed of her Whelps in the Field 2 Sam. 17.8 God sometimes when he sets upon the Sons of Men is as fierce Creatures chased and chafed and robbed of their young very fierce and so are all the Engins which he useth How fierce was Shimei against David and threw Stones and cursed him God hath set him on saith David We are made a spectacle or Theater saith the Margent to Angels and to Men and I think God hath sent us forth last for this sad service as appointed to death and slaughter in all that is dear 1 Cor. 4.9 It may be God hath appointed the best of Men in these last Days to the worst of deaths and calamities to close up a long and evil Day and that the Pit should as it were shut its mouth upon the Christians of these last times as the Whale upon Jonah Which should make us tremble and stand in awe daily to consider what a great and holy God we have to do with Secondly Learn what need we have of grace who are lyable to such floods of Evils yea of much grace Noah moved with fear being warned of God prepared an Ark and went into it and where else could he have lived in those great storms and floods which came upon the World Surely Gods storms and waves will beat much in these last Days If all of them may come over any Man then all of us need an Ark and to hast unto it that we be in a state of favour with God by Jesus Christ All our estates may fail us a Fire of God from Heaven may consume them All our Friends may fail us yea all our hearts may fail us Mens hearts failing them for fear What then will be a Cordial to keep us but the favour of God and a state of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ be with our Spirits Nine several times in the Ten first Verses of Pauls first Epistle to the Corinthians is Jesus Christ named saith one that hath well observed to note who it is that is all in all in storms for a Saviour yea indeed in all conditions It is Jesus as the same Observator saith that is made Mel in ore Bernard melos in aure Jubilum in Corde Jesus Christ in all conflicts is hony in the mouth Something like that terrible Monarchy of the Greeks 〈◊〉 bâ—fore Christ's coming in the Flesh will be before his coming again harmony in our ear a Jubile or great joy in our hearts when all the waves and billows of afflictions beat upon us yea when these Waters come into our Souls when Prophesie and prosperity failed the state of the Jews they had nothing to live upon but that promise that the desire of all Nations should come The Echo and the Pool of Bethesda under the great Tirannies of Antiochus and the Greek Monarchy these were the stays of their hearts that Christ would come and so by faith did bear up and he did come Floods may yea red Seas may break out and we may flote in our own blood therefore an Ark is very needful and that we be in it well in it by faith nothing but Christ can be a Jesus a Saviour to us all other things will but rather hasten and heighten the Floods upon us as the more riches and honour and the things of this World we have the more shall we be a fit prey for evil times and Persons What got the Caesars by their high advances Nisi ut citius interficerentur Grace therefore is necessary and speedily necessary The Flood which swallowed up the first World is called a Dart. Methusalah the
affections to his People Now God dispenseth riches anon poverty but both with the same spirit of love Now he dispenseth peace by his spirit to the soul and anon terror and upbrading and both by the same spirit of Fatherly affection So that storms arise from a discord in the matter of God's dispensations and not from a change in Gods love for God is immutable and changeth not and whom he loveth he loveth to the end Learn from hence that the way to Heaven is narrow such throngs of Miseries are on one side afflicting and such throngs of Devils on the other side tormenting and then within such throngs of lusts and corruptions on one side and such throngs of Gods frowns and rebukes on the other hand so that the way for the poor soul to go to Heaven between all these is very narrow The Sea is broad enough and yet the winds and storms may be such as to make the passage to such a Port narrow enough and hard to hit and make The wayes to Heaven are very spacious and in themselves very pleasant but there arise so many storms within and without these these make them narrow and hard to hit and make and walk in as we should I am counted with them that go down into the Pit I am as a Man that hath no strength free among the dead like the sâ—â—ne that lie in the Grave whom thou rememberest no more as they that are cut off from thine hand Psal 88.4 5. They had almost consumed me upon Earth but I forgat not thy Precepts Psal 119.87 The wayes of God are broad and large and good but there are so many slaying consuming evils on both sides these these make them narrow and hard to hit and to walk well in One mischief almost consumes us and then get ofâ— that a little and presently another evil worse takes hold of us and this quite breaks us Before we can swallow our spitle waves beat so thick that we know not which way to steer The superior bodies which are fixed are pure and clear and never change their complexion not course If it were thus with our graces then though storms and troubles did arise we should see and make our way well enough we should make the favour of God Christ and Heaven at Mid-night But our graces change when our conditions change and when our bodies are weak our faith is weak when our outward condition is low our graces are all low too and this maketh the way of Religion hard and difficult and narrow Learn from hence that little trials should not be made much of At every small thing that befalls us we do so take on when others have all the waves of God gone over them and we have skarce one We have a few trials and a many of mercies to support us and yet what out-cries and others have all miseries and skarce one mercy to support them and yet these it may be make less noise That which Physicians call inveterate head-ach is made by every light occasion and then continueth long and hardly stayed and the Person loves to fit in the dark is here applicable Some their miseries are inveterate and yet made and woven with every trivial thing and then there is no quieting as if they had more afflictions on them than all the Town besides and then sit in the dark mope here and there and unfit themselves and undress themselves to all business to go in a hole when twenty and twenty undergo more affliction in one Moneth than they in many Years yet quiet and complain little to Men. My soul is continually in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law Psal 119.109 Some there is continually but a step between them and some mortal malady and yet how patient how believing how heavenly able to comfort others and others are more afraid than hurt as we say and fancy their case for misery more than really it is and yet how disconsolate how unbelieving how froward how troubling wife husband all the house Some their cases are as sad as sad can be like those which have a sentence of Death at the Bar that sit like sentenced Men on the Lader waiting when the Execut oner will do his office and this I doubt is the case of many and some not only as to all their welfare in this World but as to all their welfare in the World to come And that we should make ado about this and that when the life and soul and eternal welfare of such and such hangs thus in doubt before them Learn that they have much cause to bless God who find any calmes and lueida intervalla considering what continual stormes and calamities attend our condition here 'T is incredible that a storm should mount as high as Mid-Heaven and whirl it self among the Spheres which move so peaceably and regularly and yet it is most incredible if every one of us do not find storms assault us in our highest graces and enjoyments What Clouds gather still after the Rain in this Climate What fenny boggy places our spirits are yielding matter of storms continually and therefore what cause have we to bâ—ess God if we have any tranquility or health or liberty or soul-peace in this World We value the favours of God as we do a Companion in the way no longer than he rideth our way we value the favours of God as â—e do the paring of our naâ—ls they have served our use and so we throw them away Linnen doth not receive a skarlet die there is not a deep and fit foundation for such a noble colour So it is with many Souls they are as thin Linnen not deep and substantial enough to receive a right impression of Gods favours For pains in the Head you must use great frictions and rubbings of the inferior parts of the Body to draw down And truly discontent and unthankfulness is an evil in the head and heart too a slightness and misunderstanding of the great mercies of God and to cure it things must be rubbed much upon the conscience that lower Court of judging and condemning things amiss for we are less than the least of all Gods favours Learn that we have much cause to be very Heavenly Floods so much overflow all here and all things are so oft sloted in this World that it is necessary our Souls be much upon the Wing and much aloft in that upper World Procul negotiis should be the Saints Motto Far from sin nay far from the troublesome business and matters of this World and much else where to wit in Heaven where we say our Treasure is How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them when I awake I am still with thee Psal â—9 18 When all Gods waves over flowed the old wicked World the Dove flees to the Ark so should the great and continued troubles of this world make us retreat much to Christ and to that good and
but wilt bring down high looks They that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lowest parts of the Earth they shall fall by the Sword they shall be a portion for Foxes but the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped Psal 63.10 11. Noah came out of the Ark about November the very beginning of Winter when nothing was to be had but what he had in the Ark for support and to begin the World withall and yet he lookt thorow this great strait which respected not a Nation but the whole world and sacrificed at the beginning of the new world as Adam did at the beginning of the old and so did cast all his care on Christ who well cared for him and for all the matters in his hand which respected the constituting of this World If you ask me how a believer doth make such prospect and perspect I answer by these four things First By the Promise The best Mens eyes fail in dark days and it is well they do so for then he betakes himself to the promise and by this Trunk beholds afar off A foolish or weak action failing Actione inepta succumbens recurrit ad aptam maketh way to an action that is valid A believers own sight failing maketh him to have recourse to the promise and by this he maketh prospect through all The Title of the Fifth Psalm tells us that it was made when the Philistines took David in Gath mine Enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me but how did he look through this Cloud I answer by the promise as you may see Verse the 6. In God I will praise his word in God I will put my trust I will not fear what Man can do thou tellest my wanderings put thou my tears in thy Bottel In God I will praise his word vers 10. This word which he so much speaks of was that which we read 2 Sam. 23.5 By which he lookt through sin and death These be the last words of David although my House be not so with God â—et he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation c. that is inward and outward temporal and spiritual The promise is so ordered and made in all things that in all matters whatsoever faith may see by it thorow and thorow be it sin of what kind soever Such sins as David committed before or after conversion or be it punishment spiritual or corporal desertion of Soul sickness of body distraction and troubles in the affairs of this World bad Family bad Kingdom as never any Man could have greater plunges of all sorts than he and yet by this promise so ordered in all things he saw still thorow all To the promise is added the Seal and Oath to make a strong and clear sight in the darkest case And this also David made use of when he fought with Aram Naharaim and Aram Zoba Psal 60.6 God hath spoken in his holiness I will rejoyce I will divide Sechem and mete out the valley of Succeth Who shall bring me into Edom wilt not thou which hast cast us off God hath spoken in his holiness or by his holiness that is hath engaged himself by oath and surely he will not break his word and his oath The Church likewise makech use of this Medium to see clearly and strongly through trials Psal 89.35 My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David And in what a dark case the People of God were then we may see by the following words But thou hast cast us off and abhorred thou hast made void the Covenant of thy Servant this is the Prayer of the Church urging the Covenant and Oath to David Thou hast broken down all his hedges all that pass by spoil him thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his Throne down to the ground Psal 89.44 Thus did the Church look thorow their dark condition by the Promise and Oath Secondly By Christ doth a believer look through all difficulties of what kind soever inward or outward The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot stool What enemies Ans All Enemies inward and outward The Psalmist by vertue of Christ saw natural corruption guilt of sin and all Men and Devils opposing destroyed By the death of Christ he saw guilt in all the Elect destroyed he shall drink of the brook in the way that is the black Book Kedron meaning that he should undergo a cursed death and so satisfie the justice of God and therefore in the Person of all the Elect lift up his head Likewise by the life intercession and ministry of Christ he saw all corruptions of nature destroyed in the Elect. Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness that is by the administration of thy holy Ordinances Thou hast the dew of thy youth to supply them and to moisten them Likewise by the death of Christ he saw all outward enemies vain and Devils destroyed The Lord at thy right hand shall smite through Kings in the day of his wrath he shall judg among the Heathen he shall fill the places with the dead Bodies he shall wound the heads over many Countrys Psal 110. Many things have their greatness not according to their nature but according to their skill and humility saith Seneca so a believer hath his greatness and honour not according to his nature and birth from Men but according to such a skill which God hath given to him to make use of Christ and to renounce still all in himself and by vertue of this he is very great and mighty and able to do all things I can do all things through Christ saith Paul and so can see through all things by him 'T was through Christ that the Church saw through that dark state before mentioned Psal 87. When all that passed by spoiled and all hedges down Then thou spakest in a Vision to thine holy one and saidst I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the People with whom mine Hand shall be established mine Arme shall strengthen him the enemy shall not exact upon him nor the Sons of wickedness afflict him and I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him which though true of David yet specially and principally of Christ and him did the Church then see in David as he by whom all their enemies inward and outward should be destroyed Thirdly By experiences doth a believer look through all difficulties and miseries Faith can help it self by reason What Father if his Child want bread Experiences will
give him a stone This is reason But much more can faith help it self by experience I am a man in authority and I say to one man go and he goeth and I say to another come and he cometh c. This is experience and faith is wonderful weak indeed when it cannot thus help up it self experiences are such sensible and such impressive things upon all powers within and without O ye of little faith do ye not remember the five loaves and how many Baskets ye took up Mat. 16. Christ takes it for granted that faith is very little and very weak indeed when it cannot help it self by experiences things which the Man hath had done for him in his wants He delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim The Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way he hath sent that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 9.17 Doubtless that experience which he had of such an escape going to Damascus advantaged his faith all his days to look thorow and to run thorow all the storms and perils which afterward he met withall Some great sickness the Apostle Paul had by the ill usage of Men who oppressed him and yet God preserved and how he raised faith by experience to look thorow all evils present and to come see 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We would not have you ignorant of the troubles which happen'd unto us in Asia how that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired ever of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead who deliver'd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Mordecai is called Pethakia because saith the Jews he opened and expounded all matters and understood 70 Languages Experience may be called Pethakiah it doth so interpret all Ridles and dark matters both of the word and works of God it explains and interprets 70 and 70 Languages if there be so many worth the interpreting it makes a Man with ease and triumph to look thorow and over all before it though never so dark and difficult as David over Goliah and Zerubabel over that great Mountain which was before him and Joshuah the High Priest over sin and Satans occasions Is not this a brand pluckt out of the Fire Fourthly By Prayer doth a believer come to this good eye-sight to look thorow all dark and difficult matters When I cry to thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Psal 56.9 David had cryed to God as one once did a little before an engagement and he knew he should have the day and that his enemies would turn their backs great clearing of fight is made by prayer and tears in dark days to see thorow matters A little wind overthrows not only Houses but States and Kingdoms saith Seneca A little of this wind I mean the pantings and prayings of God's People to Heaven overthrows Persons and Nations indeed and is a sure prognostick of good to whom a praying spirit is given and makes in the heart an assurance of good coming My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me then observe what he saw Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the Earth Psal 63.8 9. Whether that were Hell or the Grave or both 't was well the Church and David were rid of them Prayer is an Ordinance by which the Soul goeth to Heaven and then gets a new life and strength before it comes down again Christ found the blessing of this Ordinance oft and hath surely sanctified it to all his for the same end to lift up their heads and hearts above all troubles He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God the Rock of my Salvation and I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.26 The whole course of Nature began with the motion of the Heavens and continues still vigorous according to the continued motion of them Now as the motion of the Heavens is to the whole course of Nature so is Prayer to all the graces of the Soul and to the whole course and state of the new World it is this that sets all graces a going and going true and strong let weather be what it will Hence are those pertinent words of David Trust in the Lord at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 He maketh these subservient one to another faith to prayer and prayer to faith as indeed they are Would you trust in the Lord at all times then pour out your souls to God Would you pour out your souls to God and pray alway then trust in the Lord at all times Hence it is that the Apostle Paul when he had spoken at a great height of faith Who hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver c. You also helping together for us by Prayer 2 Cor. 1.11 Prayer mounts faith upon its high places and faith mounts prayer and makes one pray in his praying Unbelief is soul-fainting and prayer is a fetching fresh life from the Fountain of Life Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Psal 13. that is Soul and Body Vse 1 Learn from hence that if faith looketh through the most dark and difficult things then where faith is not troubled People and distressed People must needs be at a great loss especially in great distresses yea the truth is in every little distress every little tryal will sinck them in whom is no faith I cannot well give the reason of it some things contemptible are very vertual to cure great diseases of which none are able to give a reason Unless this that faith twines it self with God to do for Man and all other natural abilities bear up little because they lead not the sinner out of himself but to trust in some thing of the Creature and very little burdens will break the back of a meer Man though his reason and parts and outward helps may be many Saul was bid to stay till Samuel came to him and Samuel stayed but a little beyond his time consequently his tryal was but little and he falls upon things and ways unlawful to his ruine He that believes not will make hast because he cannot see through any strait The Philistines were neer and thou didst not come and therefore 't was in vain for me to wait so Saul reasoned within himself and so will every Man that is destitute of faith Achan having no faith could not forbear but would be providing for himself when as God was before them and
the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him If giving way to unbelief in the least had been pleasing to God he would not have made the promise first to our Parents before he came to pronounce the curse upon them Now giving way to unbelief consists in two things construing all things in the worst and hardest sense our own matters towards God and God's matters towards us I have been a stubborn rebellious â—retch and surely God will never have mercy upon me Observe Moses upon thâ—s theme Destroy not this People remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not on the stubbornness of this People nor to theiâ— wickedness nor to their sin Deut 9.27 Ne respicias ad dutitiem the hardness that is the â—mâ—eâ—â—tency of this People but thy Covenant with Abraham And this is the great thing only to be eyed by poor guilty wretches O sirs such and such sins were nothing if I could be humbled for them but I am of a very hard heart Be it so yet should you believe in the word of promise that is in that God which hath said he will give a heart of flesh This People hath finn'd and they cannot repent saith Moses do not therefore look upon them for there is no loveliness in them but look upon thy promise to Abraham to be a God to him and to his Seed and what cannot a God do to mend the heart of man Lamech having made himself guilty of Polygamie reflected upon the sin of Cain as is thought of which Loin he was and consters himself a far more guilty wretch than Cain for that Cain had only slain one and that only his body but Lamech had destroyed many soul and body both by his evil example which now so generally was followed in the World and a hastner of the worlds destruction so that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold for his fin Lamech surely for his fin was to be avenged seventy times seven fold this is the sense of this Scripture as an able Expositor judgeth Sure I am that thus do poor guilty wretches please themselves to look upon all their sins in a very multiplying glass and to see them greater than any others and so conclude that if such and such despaired I have much more reason and this is no other but giving way to unbelief The Jews observe much how the providence of God complyed with the fire upon the Altar that it never went out they say that the Rain of Heaven though never so great never did put it out so we should much observe how the Lord by his Providence in his Word and Works complies with the weakness of our faith to strengthen and to preserve it that it go not out quite out and not be severely catching at every thing to weaken and to destroy our faith as if God's thoughts were as narrow as ours Secondly Way is given to unbelief when all wit and parts are used to argue down faith And the Angel of the Lord did wonderously and Manoah and his Wife looked on But the Angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah nor to his Wife then he knew it was an Angel of the Lord And Manoah said to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.19 20. God sometimes doth wonderously own us in all our ways and holdeth up our hearts evâ—n by sense he is so for us in every thing Another while he seems to be as much against us and Manoah that did look on and see God do wonderously seeth him no more and now the improsperous Man concludes that he shall die And just thus do many when God upholds them not by sense but with draws and seems to be as much against them as for them then conclude surely God is our Enemy and will destroy us and all is naught Sineca saith that there is no universal thunder I may say so in morals When God doth most against wicked Men yet some things of kindness he doth as we see in the example of Pharaoh And so on the other hand there is no universal Sun shine when God doth most for any Child of his yet he shall have exercise and tryal enough one way or other and therefore to argue when things do not run so stilly and calmly as they did that therefore God doth not respect us is to give way to unbelief The people of Israel as they were espying out their way met with many difficulties And they turn'd and went up the way of Bashan and Og the King of Bashan went out against them and all his People And the Lord said to Moses fear not for I will deliver him into thine hand and all his People and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon King of the Amorites Num. 21.33 'T is just thus spiritually as a tempted Christian is spying out his way to Heaven out starts some Og some strong lust or Devil and then is he ready to fear and despair and mistrust all and conclude all is naught and will be worse and worse which is arguing down faith from sense and giving way to unbelief The High Priest was train'd up against the day of expiation to learn how to take up his handful of Incense and lay it one the Altar and so how to order himself in every thing and was kept in a Room of purpose separated with abstinence so should you rather conster that you are training up to your Priestly work by your tryals how to take up your handful of Incense I mean the Promises and lay them on the Altar Christ and so make a sweet Saviour of rest to God and to your Souls That you may not upon any account give way to unbelief know that you cannot do so and be innocent that is free from sin in so doing There are two things that are indispensable duties as long as we live and that is to wait on the Lord and to keep his way to which the blessing is certainly fixed and no difficulty shall make it void The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged What is the use to be made of this read the next words Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Psal 37.32 33 34. There are two parts in Religion faith and obedience that we walk in all Gods ways and yet not rest in this but in Christ by faith and this we ought in all weathers to do and the good event of these is certain God will exalt us to inherit the Land flowing with Milk and Hony i.e. All good God will give us a lift to the possession of all that he hath promised And therefore it is to destroy all Religion and the recompence of reward too
little other than the Soul and this he groans and sighs under O wretched man that I am c. And this written for our Example Take another instance in this Apostle as soon as converted And Saul arose from the Earth and when his Eyes were opened he saw no man but they led him by the Hand and he was three Days without sight and did neither eat nor drink Act. 9.9 Why did he neither eat nor drink for three Days Doubtless he was in a deep sense of his lost condition as one in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity both by nature and practice That his natural corruption was so great a weight upon him afterward as we here see it was by my Text it was much more heavy upon him at first view when this bottomly gulf was first opened to this self-conceited Pharisee what I say is very likely by the three Days horror and astonishment wherein he lay starving himself Doubtless he thought himself as unworthy to eat or drink so unworthy to live as the poor Publican which smote his breast and would not look up to Heaven as not judging himself worthy to go upon the Earth The eating of the Pass-over with sower Herbs might point at this for their coming out of Egypt snadowed their coming out of spiritual bondage and misery in which they were And so the miseries of natural bondage by sin and our fall and then their sower Herbs might well teach them as to keep a sense of their bodily slavery and misery so especially to keep a deep sense of their soul-slavery and misery and all the sower things and conflicts of their inward condition The poor Jaylor may be a further authority for this Doctrine which I have observed His eyes being some thing opened to see what a wretched Man he was by his nature and practice trembled and would have made away himself and came and fell at the Apostles Feet with a great out-cry What must I do to be saved Act. 16.30 And whereas I make the Proposition Universal saying That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption I ground it upon my Text and the Example that is given to follow in such an eminent Man as the Apostle Paul was That the Apostle Paul was not exempted from natural corruption nor from this duty of deep-laying it to heart neither are others But then the Question will be by what Rule the Apostle Paul did this for he himself saith that we should follow him no otherwise than as he followed Christ By what Rule then did the Apostle thus lay to heart his fallen state And was his Rule universal that is for all the fallen Sons of Adam For this see 1 King 8.38 When the House for communion between God and Man was made and consecrated this is the great Law of fellowship and communion between God and Man That even every one should know the Plague of his heart Now by the Plague of the heart is meant saith Interpreters principally our fallen and corrupt state of Soul by nature and then such particular special ebullitions thereof in act to open scandal and provocation And this one Law is for Jew and stranger And by knowing this Plague of the heart which every one was to do means that they should be well acquainted with their natural corruption and actual transgressions and deeply bewail them and truly as having to do with an All-seeing and All-searching God who searcheth the heart so it follows in the next words Vers 39. What Prayer or Supplication soever be made by any Man or by all the People of Israel which shall know every Man the Plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive and do and give to every one according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou knowest all the hearts of the Children of Men. The New Testament concurreth to this in as much as John the Baptist thus began the Gospel by calling upon all to repent and so Christ himself called upon all his hearers to repent Mat. 4.17 The other of John the Baptist is Mat. 3.2 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This is the Power of God by the Word to change your hearts and to open the everlasting Doors By repenting he means what he saith further in his Sermon Mat. 5 3 4 5. Poor in spirit mourning for sin attended with a desire of relief a hungering and thirsting for a better state That is Repentance is that sinners be throughly convinced of their lost condition by nature and of their utter inability to make their own relief and escape from the displeasure of God due unto them by it and therefore hunger and thirst that is earnestly desire relief from God in that way which he hath appointed in Christ through the Gospel for the Salvation of sinners Thus and in this Path the Publican was taught to come begging mercy for a sinner He smote his breast as that where he felt the Plague lay and said God be merciful to me a sinner I purpose to say no more to prove the truth of the Point For the Explication of this Doctrin these things may be said wherein the further confirmation of the Point will arise First We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in its being simply considered Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Psal 51.5 David had fallen into great actual transgressions of Murther and Whoredom and he that he might practice repentance according to the rule thereof took to heart how he came into the World Behold I am an old sinner so born shaped in iniquity in the Womb and out of this shape I cannot change my self and therefore I complain to thee O God Do thou wash me throughly and cleanse me throughly that is justifie and sanctifie me with the Blood and Spirit of thine anointed one on whom thou hast laid my help So in Psal 8. What is sorry man Enosh or wretched man as the Apostles Epithet is in my Text that thou art mindful of such a forlorne Creature which words also shew that we should be sensible of our natural state in the Being yea in the first being of it in us Our Saviour in his Sermon to the Woman of Canaan confirmeth this that I am upon that we should all Jew and Gentile be sensible of corrupt nature in the being of it But he answered I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel by these words he names the Jews state by nature to make this Gentile reflect upon her own state as also such and lost Then came she and worshiped saying Lord help me As if she had said with much sorrow of heart if there be any lost Creature in the World surely I am one Then Christ replies again It is not
all good to the great good Christ and to the embracing of him Some are well and yet still offering their hand to the Physician saith Seneca their hearts being like a Pond after a storm a long while trembling Some are not Soul well the Plague of a hard heart being on them and their sores and swellings daily to be seen without searching for and yet never offer their Pulse to any to feel them but judge themselves well and their state good which confidence is carnal and an evident token of an impenitent and insensible heart If ye say that ye have no calamity in your Families nor Death in your Houses yet Death is much in the dwellings of many others How do ye lay this to heart God doth whip some upon others backs and this is tender mercy and should be the more melting and abasing and drawing to Christ as Cords of great love Is it thus with you How the Prophet Jeremiah was affected with the calamity of others especially as he saw it did no good upon their Souls which was an evident token how well it wrought upon his Soul though others smarted yet he laid to heart and profited My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarum of War Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole Land is spoiled suddenly are my Tents spoiled and my Curtains in a moment How long shall I see the Standard and hear the sound of the Trumpet for my People is foolish they have not known me they are sottish Children they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Jer. 4.19 20. Let us apply these words to our selves do not we lie in such an ill frame of Spirit Are not our hearts though God's hand be so heavy still sottish and sensless of all that whereby we have provoked God to do all this against us Very wise and quick to see the Moat in others Eyes and to lay the blame at others doors You will say so did Jeremiah in this Scripture which you have quoted I answer That the Prophet did see provocations abroad it is true but that it was not without looking well to his own heart see Jer. 12.1 2 3. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy which deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art neer in their mouths and far from their Reins but thou O Lord knowest me and seen me and tryed my heart towards thee pull them out like Sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the Day of slaughter As if he had said thou knowest right well that I have frailties and infirmities many yet thou also knowest that I bewail them and in all things I endeavour to approve my self to thee by thy help and would do nothing to provoke thee in this Day Can we thus approve our selves to GOD now Vse 4 Let the last Use of this Doctrine be for Exhortation Be sensible and lay to heart this mortal time and this dying day the many thousands of all sorts good and bad which now are swept away Let it not be said that the Graves are wide open Hell is wide open but our hearts are still fast shut Righteous and merciful Men as well as profane drunken covetous Nabals are taken away but none lay to heart one or the other If the Prophets charge in my Text should be found a true charge against us alass for us we are all dead Men and Women and no escaping Wherefore stir up your selves weep not for the dead but weep for your selves saying alass alass what have I done How do I live that so many die where I dwell Do not I infect the Parish my Family this City And be close home in these Queries and in these Heart-smitings for surely if we did judge our selves as we should every one in truth we should not thus continually be judged of the Lord. The Bells tole and ring in your ears every Morning and Evening but is there nothing else sounds in your Ears No Achan no accursed thing that yet your hearts hide and cleave so fast to And will not yet though thus affrighted part with A dreadful sound is in his ears Job 15.21 in prosperity the Destroyer shall come upon him said Eliphaz to Job he speaks to Job as to a worldly Man catcht in his worldly ways You have had worldly ways and tumblings all over the World you Citizens and now you are at leisure and quiet Do you not hear some dreadful sound in your ears of sin in this and in that you have complained for want of leisure now you have leisure pray lissen well now to your consciences what dreadful reports they are ready to make at the great Bat above against you O lay these to heart well for these have slain you and us now in all that is dear and will slay yet all the remnant unless we all repent The Prophet Elija by killing two Captains and their Fifties brought the third Captain upon his knees and to humble himself whether in truth I know not but he saved his life by it and the lives of his Fifty men O that Christ by killing so many Thousands so many Eight Thousands and so many Five Thousands might bring the rest upon their knees indeed to him he got his life and we should get our lives and our Souls and so would the Plague as a Plague not come nigh our dwelling Secondly Let me exhort you to lay to heart the import of these general strokes that one and all are so cut off wicked and righteous These kind of general strokes do import that we all have sinn'd and have much provoked God one as well as another Righteous Men and merciful Men have not been so holy and righteous and so merciful as we should Behold the Days come saith the Lord That I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised Aegypt and Juda and so puts them together and then Edom and Ammon and Moab and Israel with them which are in the uttermost parts of the Earth For all these Nations are uncircumcised in Flesh and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.25.26 Some Men are outwardly and openly stark naught and the best of us it seems are not so good at heart as we should be this let us lay to heart all of us Or else the import of this general mortality is that God means to harden the hearts of some much by slaying the good as well as the bad that they who have no mind to repent and change their courses may be confirmed and encouraged in them in as much as