Discipline amongst themselves if any of their company did commit any grosse sinne they did cast him out of their company and provided a coffin for him intimating hereby they looked upon him as a dead man This heavenly spiritual life whereby a man doth all things by supernatural and holy principles to holy and godly ends deserveth the name of life Hence Ephes 4.18 it 's called The life of God either because of the conformity and likenesse of it to Gods life or because God is the Authour and worker of this life in his children Tell us not then that such a man liveth richly and happily having a great Estate a glorious Seat large Revenues he liveth that liveth this spiritual life and without it as the Apostle saith of those wanton widows They are dead while alive 1 Tim. 5.6 Oh now thou wouldst weep over thy husband thy child if they were corporally dead why doest thou not much more for their spiritual death We reade of the Aegyptians what an outcry they made for the death of one in every family But how many families are there that have none but dead persons in them Alas thou must needs be dead for thou seest not with thy eyes the beauty of spiritual things Thou hearest not with thy ears the lively word of God neither canst thou walk with thy feet in the way to Heaven Thirdly The godly man onely liveth Because he only hath the true blessednesse and comfort of this life He onely hath true joy and peace of conscience and this not onely the Scripture cals life viz. a prosperous happy estate as when they said Live ô King but the Heathens also Vivamus mî amica vixit dum vixit bene vita non est vivere sed valere There are some men who live this life and yet Job saith they long for death Their life is a burden and a torment to them when it 's day they wish it were night and when it 's night they wish it were day This God threatens as a curse to every one that shall not keep the Law Now the godly man he onely liveth so as to have true joy real happinesse because his sinnes are pardoned God is only his portion and delight At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore said Dâ—vid Psal 16.11 And although the godly may sometimes through their own sinne or for their exercise be deprived of this joyfull and blessed life yet that is for their good as Lazarus's death was that his Sisters faith and Gods glory may be the more magnified And besides as Christs body so their souls shall not alwayes be kept under the cords of this death This is therefore by accident The promise to godlinesse is joy and gladnesse of heart They are called upon to doe it they are commanded to it Lay this then downe for a sure Rule That thou doest not live thou hast not a prosperous joyfull and happy heart till thus sanctified Fourthly The godly only live or life is theirs Because they only know how to improve the dayes of their life for God They make the right uâ—e of their life and time here which is to provide for eternity to glorifie God and save their souls When Paul could say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course 2 Tim. 4 7. This was an argument he lived Our Saviour spake many Parables to shew how we should improve our Talents and be alwayes gaining till our Master come whereas if thou spendest thy time on thy losts and pleasures of sinne if thou art idle and negligent thou hast not lived Idlenesse is the burial of a man alive We do not account our time of sleep so properly part of our life because we do nothing then And this is a full proof that only godly men live because they only make honey while the Summer shines they onely husband their time while it's day calling upon God They onely accomplish that work and errand for which God sent them into the world Remember this he liveth that is active for God in his generation that moveth continually for the good of his soul Let it not be said of thee as Seneca of one who kept close in his house Hic situs est Bascia as if he were buried there Fifthly Life is onely the godly mans Because he hath an interest in eternal life John 5.24 He hath passed from death unto life He shall never die that liveth this life Now alas this temporary natural life doth not deserve the name of a life The very Heathens thought so and the Scripture cals it but a shadow not a substance What are a few evil dayes here and full of misery Shall we judge it a life No surely eternal life deserveth only that name where there is no fear of a change where no power or violence can overcome where mortality is swallowed up in immortality This is the life that the Scripture inviteth all unto Did Dives live though he boasted good things were stored up for him No This night thou fool thy soul shall be taken away Wilt thou call this a life to have a few pleasures of sinne for a season and then to go into eternal torments Do not the damned in hell wish they had never been born that this natural life had never been bestowed upon them Do not thou then matter this moment but set thy heart upon eternity Is not this life a vapour a bubble but the life to come that must make me happy When God promised several outward mercies to Abraham O saith Abraham that Ishmael might live before thee All these outward things are nothing if he live not this spiritual and eternal life Sixthly The godly man only liveth Because he taketh his life from God and referreth it to his glory Whether we live we live to the Lord said Paul Rom. 14.8 They receive their life thankfully from God and they live to his glory Now we say he hath a thing that knoweth how to make the right use of it and thus because the godly know how to receive their life from God and to return it again to him Therefore it is that they have life yea they have it because they can readily part with it at Gods Command I die daily said Paul 1 Cor. 15.31 And this is our Saviours sure Rule Luke 17.23 He that will lose his life shall save it and he that will save it shall lose it You see the way to have life is to part from it he hath it that hath it not as the Martyrs who as willingly laid down their lives as we our garments Seventhly The righteous only live Because they mortifie and subdue those sinnes that kill our bodies that take away our lives Wrath and quarrelling that depriveth a man of the peace of his life now he refraineth his tongue he is of a meek spirit whereas anger is like a fire burning in the bowels and so grief is a waster of the very bones Worldly sorrow worketh
death 2 Cor. 7. the godly therefore take heed of it as that which murders the body So inordinate and worldly cares we see how such do even devour men they have so many thorns in their flesh and what life do such live Impatience is a sudden Devil possessing a mans soul In patience possesse your souls Luke 21.19 A man doth not possesse himself he is not master over his own spirit that is passionate and furious So that men in such sins they live but as those that have been thrown to wilde beasts or serpents to be devoured by them Lastly The godly man only liveth Because even in the last breathings of this life his hopes and comforts do most remain The righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 And this hope is called A lively hope yea the godly die not at all because all live to God their very dead bodies if you regard the Covenant of Grace and Gods power are alive Luke 20 38. At that moment when all a wicked mans hope perisheth his life faileth him his comforts his friends all forsake him then are the godly to lift up their heads for their redemption draweth nigh Though they were dead they shall live Dives had the good things of this life but doth he not lose all with his soul at his death Lazarus may say Soul take thy ease when dying which Dives could not But In the second place How can it be said that the wicked do not live when they are said to have their portion chiefly in this life And David by many Psalmes informeth us they do not onely vivere but valere not onely live but flourish Their eyes stick out with fatnesse yet they doe not live because 1. They are dead in their sins And hereby their faith their Religion their Christianity is all dead as you heard 2. They do not live Because they are in a condemned estate they are appointed to wrath As Adam is said to die in the day he did eat of the forbidden fruit and as the Scripture cals some the sonnes of death or dead men because appointed thereunto Oh this should enter deep into thy heart As long as thou livest in thy sinnes thou art a dead man a damned man as the malefactor condemned to die is a dead man though he live a day or two before execution 3. They doe not live Because all their time is lost so all the time of a mans unregâ—neracy is no life All those dayes were lost those duties lost all that time lost 4. They make every thing an instrument of death Their health their wealth their honours are all deadly herbs in the pot their tongue speaks the words of death their hands work the works of death Vse of Instruction to the Godly so live that your life may appear to be yours not the Devils not sinnes that thou doest not live to the world Let thy mouth be a Well of life Be thou a tree of life Prov. 11.20 as Solomon speaks of the righteous Do not thou only live but cause others to live Let thy life put life in others as one candle lightens another one candle kindleth another Vse 2. Of Terrour to wicked men You live not you rejoyce not you have no true mirth or gladnesse False joy is real misery A man that hath an estate of brasse for gold is not rich thou art a dead man as yet even condemned to Hell every day the sentence may be executed on thee and it 's plain thou art dead because thou feelest not thou complainest not under this heavy burden Or Death all things are yours We are upon the third part of the Apostles Enumeration and that is the different conditions which are in the world expressed under those two titles Life and death Not only life is yours but death also And in this later lieth the greater wonder For how Death which was inflicted at first as a curse and punishment for sinne and is the period of all outward comforts in this life should be for our advantage is hard to imagine and then that two contraries should meet in the same issue both life and death produce the like effects makes it still the greater paradox But the more unlikely and impossible it is to humane reason the easiâ—r it is to a divine faith In the Scripture Death admits of several senses 1 Sometimes it 's taken for the spiritual death of the soul in sinne Thus men are often said to be dead and well may this want of grace be called Death because such a man is like Lazarus buried and even putrified in the grave of sinne There is no sense no motion there is nothing but loathsomnesse they are putrifying carkasses and not living men though never so externally glorious in the world 2. There is an eternal Death often mentioned in the Scripture as the reward of every sinne who though they live yet it is a dying life 3. There is the natural Death viz. the dissolution of those two dear friends the soul and the body Lastly Death is put for any great extremity and misery in which sense God is said to raise the dead 2 Cor. 1. And the Israelites captivity is expressed under the similitude pf dead men dead bones and their restauration is a resurrection or living again Ezek 37.1 In these two later considerations we may take it as death comprehends all outward afflictions and miseries as also the separation of soul from body Observe That even Death which in it self is so terrible yet is for a godly mans advantage It 's his mercy it 's his gain as well as life is He may call it his death in a comfortable sense as well as he may call any mercy his To open this consider First That God created man at first after his own Image in righteousnesse and true holinesse and thereby he was immortal Not as God who is absolutely immortal and therefore said Only to have immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 Now as the Angels who are immortal from their intrinsecal constitution having no corruptible principles only God can annihilate them but he was made immortal conditionally had he continued in that state of integrity he had not been capable of death as appeareth by the commination In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Gen. 2.16 And the Apostle Rom. 5. concludeth That by sinne death reigned over the world where by death is not only meant actual death but potential also or a state of mortality Now the original of death or how it came into the world was not known by the Heathens They called it a tribute that all must pay to nature but why men should die and how it came about at first that they were ignorant of Secondly Vpon Adam 's fall In quo uno omnes peccarunt whose sinne was the sinne of all mankind as Rom 5. Death was inflicted as a punishment upon all So that if we consider death in the abstracted nature of it it is
sheep run into bryers that consume more then shelter 1 Cor. 7. the Apostle calleth it The fashion of the world not the substance and he saith it passeth away Whereas God is said to be alwaies the same and to abide from everlasting to everlasting Therefore if thy heart were wise thou wouldest see the vanity of these things Seventhly This must needs be an hainous sinne because it 's a breach of the first Commandement it 's direct Idolatry Worse then when we worship the true God after a false and unlawfull manner yet how severely doth God punish this kind of Idolatry How often do the Prophets threaten because of this But now thou who givest thy heart licence to delight in these things below thou sinnest against the first Commandement Thou errest in the Object of thy worship and not in the manner And is God only zealous of outward worship not of inward Is he angry only when men bow the body to wood and stones and not when the soul is prostituted to the creature Maiest thou not justly expect that as God said to those Idolaters They should call and see if their Idol gods would hear and deliver them So the Lord may bid thee call to those creatures to see if they will save thee if they will deliver thee from Hell Do not then wonder at the folly of Micha who cryed They have taken away my gods If gods Why did they not save themselves And thus here it is death takes away thy gods The fire may take away thy gods Oh that men would at last be awakened out of there blindnesse and folly herein Eighthly This creature affâ—ction is a wofull condition because it 's a debasing of a mans self and making of him a slave to that which he should rule over All the creatures they are made for his use God out of his rich abundance hath provided theâ—e things liberally for thee but they are given thee only to use As the belly is for meates and meates for the belly but God will destroy both the one and the other So all these creatures that are corruptible they are for thee who art also corruptible but God will destroy both the one and the other Therefore thou sinnest against that noble End why God made thee It was to enjoy him He did not give a reasonable immortal soul and made thee the master piece of his visible creatures that thou shouldst crawle on the dust Say rather with Austin Feâ—â—sti domine cor nostrum irrequietum est Thou madest our heart and it is restlesse till it come to thee again Vse of Admonition to every unregenerate man to inform himself throughly of his wretched and undone estate Thou canst not go beyond a creature and therefore shalt never partake of that infinite eternal happinesse which is in God himself Dost thou not plainly see the vanity and uncertainty of all other things Can any creature say I will justifie thee I will glorifie thee Consider how greately it is to thy losse to leave the Sun and go to the Starres To forsake the Ocean and take up a drop Oh will these things be ever as good as a God to thee And then in the next place Consider how dearly the enjoying of these things will cost thee Doth not our Saviour say What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and loose his soul Mat. 16.26 If now the whole world thou gainest would be no advantage thou wouldest be a wretched looser for all that Oh think I get a finite good and loose an infinite I loose an eternal good for a temporary a particular for an universal This will be thy complaint in Hell to all eternity for thy madnesse herein Antidotes and Meanes against this Creature-Affection I shall now conclude this first Doctrine with giving severall directive Antidotes and meanes against this creature-affection that so being loosened from the world our hearts may be fixed on God And First Let this consideration move you That you cannot addresse your selves unto God in Prayer while thy heart is not above the world Doth not our Saviour in that direction of his to Prayer give God that description of a Father in Heaven And why so but that we should lift up our hearts and affections thither So that as in Antiquity the Deacon cryed Sursum corda that they should not rest upon the element in the Sacrament but look up to Christ himself Thus also in every duty and performance a Sursum corda a lift up your hearts is necessary Therefore upon this ground it it that we may truly say No natural man did ever pray in his whole life did ever perform any one holy duty since he was born because he could never truly lift up his heart to God Prayer is called Ascensio mentis ad Deum Now a natual man can no more ascend upwards towards God then the earth can have an ascending motion Every creature that did creep upon the earth it was unclean And thus all thy duties and religious performances which creep and crawle upon the ground which soar not up high they make thee unclean and abominable before God Now should not this Argument be like a sword in thy bowels What live such a life wherein thou canst not pray no Prayer will do any good Continue in such an estate wherein thou art not able to draw nigh to God but art the Bird tyed by the snare that would fain fly up but is pulled back again Thus thou hast some sighes and some desires but presently thou art pulled down again with those clogs of creatures that are upon thee Secondly Consider Thy heartâ— it is the choicest and chiefest Treasure about thee It is too noble for any creature Thou doest dishonour thy self in making it serve the creature We see God himself calls for the heart of a man as the best Sacrifice My sonne give me thy heart Prov 23.26 And Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence So that as the heart naturally considered is the principle of all life and nature hath placed a wonderfull defence about it Thus the heart spiritually also considered is the chief fountain of all our happinesse and misery Therefore it 's sure destruction to let thy heart runne out upon the creature that is to make the chiefest of thy soul subordinate to that which is farre inferiour It 's as if thou shoudest let swine or such unclean creatures come into thy choicest Chamber It was a sad calamity to Pharaoh when the frogs and lice crept up into his Chamber and he could not be quiet in his most retired room no lesse yea farre greater an evil it is when thou sufferest these fading creatures to get into the heart Keep that for God alone Nothing is to possesse that place but God himself He that filleth Heaven and earth and makes that his dwelling place doth also require thy heart Hence it is that the Apostle James calleth those who love
Church Vse 2. Of Exhortation to you the people Hath the Ministry been usefull to bring you effectually to Christ himself This is that Paul desired You may hear much you may pray much you may be much affected with the matter preached and yet all this while not close with Christ to receive him as a Saviour and to obey him as a Lord. A woman may have many Letters and Tokens of love from him whom she loveth and be much affected to him yet not married to him nor enjoy him as her Husband And so thou maist have some affections and good desires but thou art not yet united to Christ The work of the Ministry is not done till we can leave you in the arms of Christ Till we have prepared the way for Christ to lodg in your fouls Who then is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed The former part of this Text hath been considered Paul's modesty and sincerity in gaining people to Christ and not to himself Now let 's consider in what order or rank of Causes the Apostle puts the Officers of the Church and that is in the Instrumental Causes Wherein you may Observe the Effect viz. Faith 2. The Manner of working it it is by Ministery They are not principal Agents They are Ministers by whom you believed The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deacons And this is sometimes used for a special Office in the Church for those who had the care of the poor Thus the Elder and the Deacon are sometimes used for the setled Officers in the Church but in this place and many others the word is used largely for any Ministry or service And so the Apostles and Elders and Pastours may be called Deacons in this large sense viz. Such who by their labours and pains serve the Church and its good Observe that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as almost all the rest of the Greek words that denote the duty and quality of Church-Officers signifie no dignity or honour but care diligence and all solicitude Thus the most glorious creatures have Names signifying their Ministry and service The Hebrew word for the Sun comes from a root that signifieth to serve as also for an Angel to be sent by way of ministration So the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius makes to signify to make haste to runne to the markes end also as a man by this much striving stirreth up dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is dust like that of Virgil Pulverulenta fugâ Rutuli dant signa per agros So that the word in its native signification denoteth that earnest labour and striving which men that runne to some mark usually make by stirring up so much dust that doth even obnubilate the aire and from this it doth metaphorically signify that labour pains yea agony and striving which the Ministers of God ought to have in their work As Paul expressed it I have fought a good fight I have finished my course 2 Tim. 4.7 Thus the word is opened and it doth as we told you denote the quality and condition of the Officers of the Church in respect of their Auditours They are Ministers Instruments by which God works Faith in the Hearers Doct. That the Ministery in Gods Church is the Meanes and Instrumental Cause he hath appointed to work Faith and all other Graces in the Hearers This Point hath its good use for this will teach you what you should expect pray and hope for by the Ministry How doth it beget and increase Faith in thee How doth it wash thee and make thee clean But let us be more particular And 1. We shall shew you how it 's not an Instrumental Cause And 2 How it is Only take Rom. 10.14 for an eminent place to confirm this Truth where observe the excellent Gradation Paul makes None can call upon God or pray without Faith and none can believe unless they hear and none can hear unless they have a Preacher and none can be a preacher unless he be sent See what a dependence here is and how strong a place it is to prove the necessity of the Ministry This premised we go to the method proposed First When we say it 's the instituted meanes or Instrumental Cause it 's not to be understood as if the Ministry or Peaching of the Word by any inward natural power of it self can work grace in the hearts of the Hearers no Experience witnesseth that after ten thousand Sermons men remain as ignorant and as bruitish as before The words reach only to the ear but they make no forcible impression upon the soul So then the Ministry doth not beget grace as the fire burneth or the hatchet cutteth which are Instruments that work by their own inward dispotion and power to pruduce their effects This is good to observe that so still our hearts and prayers may be up to God who works in and by the Ministry Secondly Because it 's not a natural Cause therefore it doth not also work necessarily these Divine Effects in every subject but where and when God is pleased to apply it The Sunne shineth every where upon one thing as well as another The fire burneth alwaies every where in one place as well as another But the Ministry doth not so that is successfull in one place and not in another That works upon one Congregation and not upon another And herein Gods wisdom makes a wonderfull difference The most unlikely the most indisposed many times find the Ministry inlivening and quickning of them when others are blinded and hardned So that though we should have the Ministry of Angels and of the most eminent men that ever lived still we must take heed that by our unthanfulness negligence prophaneness we do not provoke God to withdraw his power and presence in the Ministry For if it be so as it is to be feared it is so to too many people then the Ministry is but a shadow or if a body a body without a soul It 's but a dead letter Yea not only the Law but the Gospel and all preaching is but the ministration of death and condemnation when without Gods Spirit and power As Elias servant though he had his Masters staff yet that could do no good to raise the dead Child till Eliah came himself Oh then say Lord be thou in their Sermons in their Ministry In the next place let us shew how it 's a Cause or Instituted Meanes And that is thus First God hath appointed the constant and diligent use of this in the Church and the peoples constant and diligent attending on it 2 Tim. 4.2 Preach the word in season and out of season That signifieth the diligent dispensing of the Word And then the people they are commanded to be swift to hear James 1.19 And As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2 2. So that God hath indispensably commanded all people of what degrees
errours and the more difficult it is to know when it is an errour the more art thou to be afraid In Levit. 13. you see it was a very hard matter to discern between the Leprosie and any other distemper some had not the Leprosie it was only a scab so some do not runne into grosse and damnable heresies but yet they have a scab a loathsome distemper upon them These things being the truths of Scripture and not the words of men pleading for their own interest and reputation should much prevail with you Fourthly They are defilements Because they pollute the conscience minde heart and whole life of a man Hence you have that phrase Men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6.5 2 Tim. 3.8 Destitute of the truth Thus mens consciences also are said to be defiled Tit. 1.15 So that the corruption of a man by errours is a Metaphore from the body which through sicknesse or death is corrupted Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption Act 2.17 That as from the dead body worms and putrid vermine grow and live So from minds corrupted and destitute of truth do flow these erroneous Doctrines Thus not only wickednesse may denominate men to be dead Let the dead bury the dead Mat. 8.22 And the wanton widow is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5.6 but even the erroneous and heretical minde is dead while it seemeth to have much 〈◊〉 And truly bodily corruptions in some sense are not so great as the corruptions of minde and conscience The Apostle in the second Epistle makes lustfull and libidinous waies to defile the body of a man which is Gods Temple but here you see errours and corrupt opinions defile the soul that is the more noble Temple of the Holy Ghost So that these mind-defilements make thy disease the more â—â—câ—rable This putteth out the eye this kils the spy and monitor of all thy actions Lastly Corrupt Doctrines are called defilements to shew how loathsome and abhominable they should be to us To hear the Scripture say That by false Doctrines the Church is polluted and defiled should make a man presently abhorre such waies Thou canst not abide dirt or vomit upon thy garments and canst thou endure these deformities upon thy soul Thou canst not endure to see a drunkard wallowing like a swine in the mire but to see men stagger and reel and even be drunk with giddy and vile opinions this should be a more loathsome sight Labour then for a Scripture judgment in these things and do not thou have more indulging thoughts towards errours then the Scripture alloweth I do not forbid thy charity to some persons erring but to errours If a godly man should be overtaken with drunkennesse or uncleannesse thou wouldst say the sinnes were abhominable though thou wouldst pitty the man and pray for him so it is here Vse of Instruction Wherein lyeth the purity of Churches Even in pure and sound Doctrine as well as in pure lives Some they cry out against purity in lives they love not such Puritans they cannot endure such strictnesse Others they love not this purity of Doctrine The Remonstrants deride the word Orthodox as if it were a spell used by some Writers Now in both waies we overthrow the purity of Churches To have pure Doctrine pure Ordinances and yet men to be impure in lives is a very dolefull sight Again to have men appearing with pure lives yet impure Doctrines is also very grievous to him who is endowed with a sound Faith If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy We have dispatched the sinne supposed we come to the punishment proposed Him shall God destroy A terrible sentence and that which may make all those who grow wanton in the matters of Religion like Belshazer to quake and tremble In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word with defiling the Temple They defile Gods Temple and God will defile them This is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places God will destroy Now this is meant of eternal destruction without repentance The Scripture cals eternal punishment destruction not in the sense of the Socinians heresie as if both body and soul were totally annihilated for that cannot be called a torment but rather a freedom from torment but because both body and soul are deprived of all comfort and happiness and so are exposed to all the curses and the tormenting wrath of God without ceasing So that this Text doth represent corruptions in the Doctrine and Worship of God under as terrible a consideration as any great sinnes committed For look upon the threatnings against the vilest monsters of sinners they can be no more then this Those will God destroy And so it is here of such as defile the Truths of God with errours even as Nadab and Abihu were wonderfully and terribly destroyed for offering strange fire upon Gods Altar though men may suffer them Though the parties themselves may blesse their condition yet God will destroy them if they do not recover out of these snares of the Devil Now that God will destory eternally such as defile this Temple without reformation will most fully appear by 2 Pet. 2.3 4. which Chapter should be an Allarum to these times For First Her fore-tels that as in the Old Testament there were false Prophets so in the New Testament notwithstanding all the light of the Gospel and the Truths of God revealed in his Word there should be false Teachers here you see it 's expressely fore-told that it should be no stumbling block to us we should not be offended at the truth nor at reformation out of Popery and superstitions because of such events Now these are described by their Actions They shall bring in damnable heresies Connder that expression All heresie is not innocent It 's not excusable as the Remonstrants plead for here are damnable heresies 2. The Manner how they shall privily bring in There is great craft and subtilty there is underworking as Moles do under-ground Then you have the consequent evil of this They bring upon themselves swift destruction Here is more then in my text not only destruction but swift destruction That is two waies swift First Because God will not delay He is so provoked that he cannot bear them long And then Secondly Swift in regard of their thoughts It comes before they thought of or expected any such thing And whereas it may be said They prosper they meet with no such visible wrath of God see verse 4. Whose judgment lingereth not and whose damnation sleepeth not All the while they are secure their judgment doth but watch the time the fittest time to make their destruction more dreadfull Now that still people may be afraid of errours and heresies he instanceth in three the most horride Examples of Gods vengeance and argueth thus that if God were so severe against them let not such as bring in damnable heresies expect better The
was for his eternal torment They call such things the blessing of God and so indeed in themselves they are but to wicked men they are curses For as the godly mans afflictions come from Gods love Whom he loveth he chasteneth Heb. 12. so wicked mens mercies come from Gods anger Had God loved thee thou hadst had it may be more afflictions more wants and exercises Secondly Wicked men have not the world Because they are overcome by it the world hath them rather Therefore they are called as you heard the world as if their very souls as well as bodies were made of the dust of the earth whereas the godly have the world as if they had it not they have God and the world too they have Heaven and Earth too they do not prâ—â— the worse their duties are not the more thinne and distracted As Abraham and David these were rich and great men in the world yet if you reade Davids Psalmes you will finde his heart set on God above all these things Thirdly Wicked men have not the world Because they do not own and acknowledge God as the giver of all neither do they live to him but the things of the world are instruments to draw out their lusts to make them the more wicked They take the good creatures of God and abuâ—e them to wickednesse Therefore Rom 8. The whole creation is said to groan under them as being weary of them The very Air the very Earth is weary of them yea the timber in the house and the stones of the wall do witnesse against them they are by the things of the world made more wicked Lastly They have not the world Because they have not an holy contentation of mind They are not quiet or satisfied in their condition they have no true peace notwithstanding all their abundance and the reason is because they have not pardon of sinne and enjoyment of Gods favour with these and they are only blessed who are so Matth 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth You see the whole earth is promised to a meek humble contented spirit whereas a wicked man is compared to the Sea that is alwayes foaming and never lieth still The Vse is two-fold 1. Of Comfort and Exhortation to the godly Comfort in what distresse and strait soever thou art in Say not I have not this I want this I am poor and miserable for thou hast Heaven and Earth onely set faith on work This is the hand to receive those treasures This faith is not a fancy it 's not a foolish imagination but a real investing of thee with all things But it 's of Exhortation also to have the world for thy spiritual use Take heed of the wickednesse of it We have not received the spirit of the world 2 Corin. 4. Oh it 's an excellent thing not to have the spirit of the world but of God! Vse 2. Of Instruction To shew the power and miserable estate of the richest and greatest men in the world that want godlinesse none is so poor so miserable as they Thou sayest this is thine and that is thine Alas because Christ and the Promise are not thine nothing is indeed thine If they be thine they are thy poison thy destruction thy damnation and thus they are thine Or Life We proceed to the third thing in order and that is the several Conditions or Estates we are in Life is yours and Death is yours Chrysostome and Grotius after him limit this to the life and death of the Ministers in the Church If they live enjoying their liberties and outward comforts it 's for you If they die if they lose their liberties and lives it 's for the Churches sake As Paul said He was willing to be a Sacrifice offered up for the Philippians faith Phil. 2.17 This is indeed a truth but as the world is a general so there is no reason but that we should take Life and Death in as General a sense And indeed this limited one may well come under the first enumeration Paul and Apollo all are yours At this time we shall treat of Life The Scripture speaks of a three-fold Life 1. Animal which is in beasts 2. Humane belonging to men as rational And 3. Supernatural or an heavenly life which onely deserveth the name of it The other being but shadows and dying lives Now we shall especially speak of this humane life being perfected with that supernatural life Observe That Godly men do onely live or The Godly onely doe make a spiritual use of their life Life is only theirs 1 Pet. 3.10 He that loveth life and would see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil let him eschew evil and do good Here you see the only way to live and to have good dayes is to avoid all evil and imbrace all good Hence Christ John 6. cals himself The bread of life and he giveth the water of life none liveth till they be united to him We shall insist on these things 1. That only godly men live 2. That wicked men though in the midst of all their jollity yet the Scripture doth not account of them as living persons And First The godly man only liveth Because he is united to God and Christ the fountain of life David doth often style God The fountain of life Psal 36.9 And in his favour there is life And in the New Testament especially by John Christ is made the Author of all life He is therefore compared to the Head and to the Vine If the members or branches be separated from these they die and wither presently as John 15. This is so frequent an assertion that we need not dilate on it If not a member of Christ there is no life in thee Aut es in membris aut in humoribus said Austin Thou art either among the members or the humours of the body of the Church Gal. 3.20 Paul said He no longer lived but Christ in him and the life he lived was by faith in the Sonne of God What did not Paul eat and drinke and enjoy the common Aire as we doe Yes this he doth not call his life Oh they live who no longer live but Christ in them Thy sense thy carnal reason thy corrupt affections thy worldly inclinations these no longer live but Christ in thee and his graces Secondly Onely the godly man liveth Because he hath a spiritual and a new life added to his animal life For as the soul is the life of the body so grace is the life of the soul Hence our Saviour cals all wicked men dead men Let the dead bury the dead Matth. 8.22 That is a strange expression but very true No dead corpse is more destitute of life and apprehension than their souls are of any heavenly motions any spiritual hungrings or thirstings All the merry and jolly men in the world they are dead men if living in their sinnes Therefore among the Pythagoreans who kept strict
Law not the imbracements or love of the Gospel belonging The second thing observable is the Subject or Matter of the Apostles complaint Not as spiritual but as carnal This is not to be understood of all but of many amongst them for he doth acknowledg some wise and perfect to whom he was a debtor Now you must know this word or attribute carnal hath several significations in Scripture sometimes it signifieth no more than to partake of the same stock with us Thus the Apostle cals them carnal Masters or Masters after the flesh Ephes 6.5 And the Apostle makes a distinction between being in the flesh and walking after the flesh 2 Cor. 10.3 2. He is said to be carnal that although he hath a great measure of grace and with much spiritual fortitude doth conquer sinne yet it many times haled him away captive to those reliques and remainders of corruption in him And this as I remember is but in one place where Paul saith But I am carnal and sold under sin Rom. 7.14 3. The most frequent application of this word is to those who wholly give up themselves to the lusts of the flesh and make provision for them Even as customary sins are called the works of the flesh Ephes 2.3 This is the most general use of the word as we use it also in English 4. Carnal is used comparatively for those who are indeed godly but very weak and infirm retaining many corruptions and savouring much of the flesh though they for the main are godly And in this sense it is used in the Text. As unto carnal He useth the word As for mitigation sake and then explains his meaning calling them babes in Christ Observe That even among those who are truly and indeed of the visible Church of God there is a vast difference some are spiritual some are carnal some are men some are babes Though God created Adam and Eve in their full perfection yet he doth not regenerate us into a full stature in Christ Though it be the opinion of some Divines That at the Resurrection all the godly shall rise in their compleat perfection children in that stature they might have grown up unto yet it is not so here we are spiritually begotten babes in Christ and so have several degrees into which we are to grow yea one Christian may so far exceed another both in parts and graces that one would wonder that the same Heaven should ever receive them at last Yea one Christian in time may exceedingly differ from himself As the Apostles how rude and evil at first but how admirable and wonderfull when they had received the Spirit from above in a fuller measure Thus as one starre differeth from another in glory There is a vast difference between the Sunne and any of the lesse starres so it is many times in the visible Church To open this Point Consider First That it is a great Dispute Who are truly members of the visible Church The Papists they make all publick and grosse sinners to be truly of the Church even as a wicked or ungodly man may be truly and indeed a Citizen of such a City and have the Liberties thereof But the Reformed Divines they say Grosse and prophane men are not truly and indeed of the visible Church which is a company of sheep and not goats It is that through neglect of Discipline and want of godly order prophane obstinate men may abide in the Church who yet are to be cast out of it And this is not a ground for any to separate uncharitably and sinfully from the Church so polluted yet such wicked men continuing amongst believers are not internally but externally and in appearance only of the Church Even as a wicked branch or a dead hand is a part of the body equivocally it receiveth no life or influence so neither do these though they pray hear come to Church yet they receive no more spiritual benefit from Christ then the glasse eye doth vital operation from the soul And Bellarmine himself doth at last acknowledge That publick and open sinners though they be De corpore Ecclesiae yet they are not De Anima Happily therefore the Papists do not so much contradict the Doctrine of the Protestants as themselves For Amesius doth reject that Proposition which Bellarmine doth impose on us as if we held internal grace necessarily constituent of a member of a visible Church external profession of faith and of obedience to Christ is enough to this though Regeneration be wanting John said Some were not of them though they were amongst them 1 Joh. 2.19 Secondly In the primitive times they had a two-fold distinction of those that were in the visible Society There were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as did take care onely about the body and things pleasing to the sense which is the generality of people minding the necessities of the body and the pleasures thereof These are even like bruit beasts 2. There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animal or natural men and those indeed had the natural perfections of the soul learning parts morality and whatsoever in an humane way would elevate the reason of a man Lastly There were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spiritual ones who being sanctified by the Spirit of God did all things upon spiritual grounds and to spiritual ends Though this distinction may be allowed in an orthodox sense yet the Valentinians they made such a division and by their spiritual men meant such who could not sinne at all But the second and more common division of their hearers were into the Catechumeni such who were to be instructed and taught the principles of Religion For they admitted no grown person into Church-communion that were not competently taught the foundations of Religion Oh how many are amongst us though aged and married persons that need to be placed in this forme 2. Poenitentes the Penitents of whom there were several degrees and such were those who being Christians in profession did yet fall into grosse and scandalous sinnes such were kept from the Sacrament They had a distinct place in the Church as not worthy the communion of the rest Oh Beloved in the Apostles times in the primitive times when there was spiritual zeal for the glory of God a prophane impenitent man was no more owned for one of theirs than we would own a toad in our dishes or a swine in our garden No not with such an one not to eat Withdraw from such a man Cast him out saith the Apostle and thus for many hundred years after Christ But alas we are like so many Hospitals full of diseased persons The other were those that were initiated and received into their Society and made partakers of the Sacrament But 3. The Apostle in the Text he speaks of two degrees onely amongst the godly the Spiritual and the Carnal the men and the babes even as we speak of the Incipients and Proficients Now the
can be expected from a Church consisting of such Men speak of Houses where the Devils walk where spirits haunt men dare not dwell there I tell thee That a Family where ignorance and prophaneness is nourished is an house not only haunted but even possessed by Devils And how canst thou eat sleep and live in such a place Fourthly In the primitive times there were a rank of people that were called Catecumini as we said before Candidati or Competentes such who being converted from Paganism were not yet fully instructed in the matters of Religiâ—n and therefore they had time to get knowledg before ever they were admitted to Church-Communion And answerable to this there was a Catechist one whose work and office it was to instruct such before they were Baptized Thus you see how carefull in Antiquity they were that they might have no ignorant persons among them And certainly as in all Arts there are Principles which must be learned before they can come to Conclusions so it 's here in Religion And oh that we could see this Knowledge brought in amongst people To be a Christian is to be anointed and this Vnction teacheth us all things Joh. 2.20 viz. necessary to salvation Fifthly Principles of Religion largely so called are of two sorts either Corrupt Idolatrical and Heretical or true Sound and Consonant to the Scripture Now there are many in the world are too forward to infuse poysonous and dangerous Principles so great a matter is it to consider what men are seasoned with at first either privately or publiquely Thus many are infected with Popish and superstitious Principles many with erroneous and false Doctrines and these foundations being laid it 's very difficult ever to remove them As the vessel is first seasoned or the tree at first planted so it is likely to continue The Apostle cals those Jewish Ceremonies the beggerly elements Gal. 4.9 or Principles of the world Why so because the superstitious Teachers made them the first Elements the Principles the foundation of all and therefore they thought all Religion was taken away if they were removed And thus you have divers persons they have indeed some Principles of Religion but they are Popish and Superstitious such as put out the Knowledge of Christ and the Scriptures And It 's a two-fold labour as Socrates said to a perverted Disciple of his to teach them for they must first be untaught their erroneous Principles and then must be instructed in the truth Oh then look to this that thy Principles about Religion be not false ignorant and superstitious ones Sixthly The true Principles of Religion are reduced to severall heads and are both short and easie but necessary to be known The Doctrine about God and Christ and our selves which is the Credendum The Doctrine about Faith and Repentance which is the Agendum And about things to come which is the Sperandum About God we are to believe That he is and a rewarder of those that seek him About Christ This is eternal life to know Jesus Christ Joh. 17.2 and the holy Ghost for we are Baptized in his Name About our selves the desperate pollution of our natures the hainousness of sinne the aggravation of the curses of the Law The things to be done are Repentance which driveth out of our sins and Faith which driveth out of our own righteousness But because these are Divine Works therefore a man must be regenerated and born again And this Principle Christ insisted on to Nicodemus Joh 3. The things to come are The Resurrection of the Body The immortality of the Soul The Day of Judgment The Heâ—ven and Hell provided for the godly and the wicked These Principles are plain and easie not to flesh and blood but in respect of the manifestation of them They are laid down clearly in Scripture None without horrible impudency can deny them Indeed there are many sublime Disputes about the Trinity and about Christs Incarnation but these are not necessary to be believed by every one Oh then how great is thy ingratitude God hath made the necessary things easie and plain and yet thou art not acquainted with them If God had commanded some greater matter of thee If he had required all thy time all thy study thou wast obliged to have done it How much rather in things of so easie apprehension But now when we say These divine Principles are easie you must take heed of two mistakes 1. We do not mean that the divine Faith and Belief of them is easie to flesh and blood no but they are easie supposing the grace of God in respect of other particulars in Religion For otherwise To believe with a Divine Faith viz. by the Spirit of God inabling upon divine Authority which is only true Faith is the immediate work of Gods Spirit Therefore Faith though it be but Historicall and not saving is the gift of God When we desire a Knowledge and Faith of these Principles we mean not such a Faith as most men have a Faith of custom and humane education a Faith because they are brought up in such a Religion but upon Judgment and Knowledge grounded upon the Scripture That which is usually called the Colliars Faith To believe as the Church believes Is the Husbandmans and the Tradesmans and the rich mans and the poor mans Faith too much in the world So that as Christ saith His yoke is easie and yet also it is very hard Easie to the heart sanctified but grieveous to the unregenerate So it is here The Principles of Religion are easie and plain to the mind inlightned but they are either foolishness or absurdities to the greatest Scholar that is if hâ—s heart be not opened And thus Paul found himself derided and called a Babler amongst the Athenians 2. We do not mean that the bare saying of the Principles of Religian by heart and rote is the true believing and knowing of them As the Child is not said to be fed with milk unless it swallow it down and be nourished by it So neither can they be said to believe the Principles of Religion unless they do with understanding apply them and receive them into their hearts But this is all that most attain unto they can tell you God made them That Christ is their Saviour That they must repent of sinne But these things are by meer rote They learn them as formerly in Popery they learned their Prayers in Lattin they knew not what they prayed for so neither these what they do believe Now the Grounâ—s for Instruction in these Principles are First Because God accounts of no zeal nor devout affections if they be not the fruit of Knowledge Thus Christ told the woman that was so zealous for her Fathers worship Ye worship ye know not what Joh. 4 22. Though God once accepted bruit beasts as a Sâ—rifice to him Yet now saith the Apostle let 's offer up our selves a reasonable Sacrifice Rom. 12.1 The Jew had a zeal but
whole Ship He perfidiously denieth his Master with terrible cursings and execration We need not tell of David and others The Apostles how often did they discover their carnal frame of heart by contentions about honour and primacy Thus you see 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ven in the godly there are not only sparks and seeds of sinne but through negligence and carelesnesse they may notably backslide and fall into the hands of the Philistims into the handâ— of grosse sinnes It is greatly disputed Whether the sinnes they may fall into may be called reigning sinnes Some learned men say I some say No But they may be reconciled by a true explication of the word reigning for they do not so reign as to have full possession with plenary delight and constant content Indeed David did deliberate and wilfully consent to accomplish his wickednesse so that for the present there was no actual resisting in him yet there was the life of grace radically in him he was kept by Gods power and the promise against his own will And thus in regard of that dominion of sinne for a while it might be said to reign but because this was not perpetual grace quickening of him to recover again it is justly said not to reign Now because such sinnes may arise and carry the whole man away captive therefore the godly are exhorted To watch and pray 1 Pet 4 7. Yea constantly to pray That God â—ould not lead them into temptation Whereas if there were no tinder within upon which the sparks of temptation falling would presently blow up there need to be no fear of any temptation In the next place Let us consider Whence it is that the godly do not fully conquer sinne For if you respect Christ he is greater than the Devil and if you respect grace that is more efficacious than sinne How then should any lusts passions or motions abide in us Now the efficient grounds are these And then the final grounds shall be mentioned afterwards The efficient first Because original corruption which is the fountain of those streams is not wholly dried up We cannot expect the streams should be dried when that is not Marvel not then if the godly are carnal diffident earthly froward for that which nourisheth these is not destroyed Though Samsons hair be cut off yet it is not pulled up by the root There is the law of sin in the members as well as the law of God written in their inward parts So that there cannot but be those sinfull affections and corrupt desires stirring in thee these noisome vapours cannot but exhale as long as that filthy lake or bogge is within thee 2. The Spirit of God by which we come to mortifie these corruptions doth not put forth its full power It 's a free agent Rom 8. If ye through the Spirit mortifie So that by the Spirit of God we come to conquer and subdue sinne Now this is not in our power no more than the Apostles could miracles when and how much they listed though there be some difference between miraculous gifts and sanctification If the Spirit of God did come upon thee in the full measure of sanctification then thou wouldst of a leper become all over clean but Christ only received the Spirit without measure It 's stinted to thee thou seest more and more to be daily done in Christianity 3 Therefore doth corruption remain Because the instrument of Sanctification and Mortification that also is imperfect and weak Act. 10. Faith purifieth the heart Rom. 11. Faith receiveth the fatnesse of the Olive-tree Ephes 3. Christ dwels in the heart by faith Heb. 11. All those glorious works of righteousnesse were done by faith So that if our faith be weak the effects of it also will be weak and that every mans faith is weak appeareth Because we know but in part and so can adhere and apply but in part Lastly Therefore doth corruption abide in us Because the Law of God is spiritual pure and exact This is not an efficient ground so much as occasional to discover and manifest that this sour leaven still is in us The Law of God requiring the whole man an universality of the Subject and Object and of Degrees and of Time which it's impossible for us to do therefore the transgression of the Law makes it to be sinne If the Law have not forbidden weak love weak faith it had been no more sinne than weak health or weak strength It had been a languor or penalty only as the Papists say not truly and formally a sinne In the next place Observe the final grounds Why God who is thus able to bid us be whole at once Or as Christ whom he cured corporally he cured perfectly he wrought no half-cures why should he not do thus in spiritual healings as Castalio urgeth 1. Because God intends in this life to glorifie evangelical grace and the righousnesse of the Gospel by faith as the Epistles of Paul abundantly witnesse Now if we had a righteousnesse of our own works how could it be imputed without works How could we with Paul account our own righteousness dung and drosse for the righteousnesse of Christ by faith if ours were gold Oh then how wise should the godly man be Dost thou discover thy foul noisome heart Dost thou tremble to see so much of the flesh in thee Take the advantage to glorifie the grace of the Gospel say thou needest Christs robes all the day long for thy nakednesse 2. God suffers these reliques in us that there may be daily exercise for faith patience and other graces so that these are left to increase the crown of glory not to diminish it The people of Israel used themselves to warlike exercises they were to be taught the use of the Bow because their enemies were not totally subdued so that therefore God would have these things to try thee that thy spiritual valor and fortitude may the more appear Tempests and winds discover the skill of the Mariner Thou mayest turn these clods of earth into chaines of pearl 3. That we might not be puffed up in our selves nor others lift up by admiration For as the Heathens when they saw the viper fall off from Pauls hand and not hurt him changed their minds thinking they were gods but while the viper at first was on them they thought vengeance pursued him Thus when men see vipers cleave to thee as others thou hast thy infirmities thou hast thy weaknesses then thou art low in thy own and other mens eyes Lastly These thorns are still in thy side that Heaven may be the sweeter Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Then it will be no more a vile mortal body or a corrupt diseased soul Then pride unbelief dulnesse will be no more a trouble thou wilt be no longer in the valley but upon the Mount Vse 1. Of Instruction to the people of God that they should not despair under the discovery of daily infirmities I do not encourage
up these eminent persons as heads of factions or that he did only by supposition attribute these things to themselves as may seem seem 1 Cor. 4.6 I shall therefore wave that Question and handle it when I come to consider these divisions in the heads of them and whether it be lawful for Christians to name themselves after the names of any men whereas then you see the Corinthians blamed for setting up these names though men of great worth and repute in the Church I observe That although it's the duty of people to have a great and high esteem of the Ministers of the Gospel yet they are not sinfully and inordinately to admire or rest meerly upon any mens persons You that are the sheep of Christ have a great duty required of you you are to abound in all love and ready submission unto the doctrine of your faithfull Shepherds and yet also not so to admire any person as thereby to be drawn into errours or falshoods they may possibly maintain The Apostle Jud. 12. makes one great cause of the errours these men followed he speaks of that they had mens persons in admiration That is when men love the truth for the persons sake not the person for the truths sake when men are of such an opinion or such a faith because those that they admire are so though they understand nothing in it whereas it is an excellent rule of Tertullian lib. de prescript Non fidem ex personis but personas ex fide dignoscimus This truth may much heal the disease of the times for men beleive much as they affect and admire and few have a sound mind and judgement to discerne of things that differ qui credit quod vult non quod est cupit errare but I shall speak little of this to this auditory Two parts there are in the Doctrine First That great and high respect is to be shewed to the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel Secondly Yet this respect must not degenerate into sinful admiration so as factiously to set up one Minister against another Let us consider the first part and here I shall not speak of that temporal respect and honour which Gods Word in several places commands lest by captious men we should be thought to plead for our own selves but for that spiritual respect and entertainment of the Ministery which is for your good not for ours people are apt to think if they come to hear us if they commend our Sermons that this is for an advantage No the powerfull receiveing of divine truths is for their good The wearied traveller that drinks of the spring by the way doth not benefit the fountain but advantageth himself now the spiritual respect or entertainment of the Ministery lieth in these particulars 1. Highly to account of the office and the work of the Ministery as being the divine institution and appointment of Christ in his Church Thus the Apostle Chap. 4.1 Let a man account of us as the stewards of Christ They are the officers set up in Christs house to give the food of life and God hath set in his Church pastors and teachers 1 Cor. 12.28 and Eph. 4.11 Act. 20.28 The Elders of the Church are said to be made overseers by God to feed the Church So that if any man set himself against the office of the Ministery to slight it or contemne it he doth immediately oppose the institution of Christ God hath set it and wilt thou endeavour to pull it down so that prophane and carnal men who argue against it know not what they talk of they consider not the Scripture nor the Word of God and if thy heart were not much hardened thou wouldst have an awfull reverence and fear of this divine office Even the very Heathens have exalted the office of their Priests that drew nigh to God and Aristotle well observeth that all religion yea and the notion of the gods themselves would be vilified when they that were imployed in that office were contemned 2. Your spiritual respect lieth in the hearing of the Word preached and the receiving the Word with all gladness of heart Thus Christ saith He that heareth you heareth me Luk 10.16 and therefore they are compared to Embassadours that do in Christs stead entreat you to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.20 Indeed prophane and ungodly Ministers or erroneus and superstitious Ministers they falsifie their trust they alter their embassage and therefore the Scripture compareth them to unsavoury salt that is fit for nothing but to be cast on the dunghill and God speaking of the corrupt Levites saith Mal. 2 3. I will spread dung upon your faces Thus God dealeth with those Ministers that walk unworthily but as for those that diligently and faithfully preach the Gospel such are to be heard and received withall joy How beautifull are the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of the Gospel Rom. 10.15 and there is nothing that God doth so much curse as the prophane rejecting of his Word and Ministery Jerusalem was quite off and there was no more remedy left for her when she refused the Prophets rising early and delivering the message of God to them 2 Chron. ult The tree that had often culture and cost bestowed upon it and yet barren was at last to be cut down and burnt in the fire so then as the Ministers are to pray God would give them an open mouth so you hear also open eares and open hearts Shall the advice of the Physician for thy body and the advice of the Lawyer for thy estate be accepted and not the advice of the Minister of God for thy soul Hence they are called guides Now what disobedience is it when they would guâ—d thee in the way of holiness they would lead thee out of the dangerous bogs and precipices thou venturest on yet thou will not follow Oh how will this cut thy heart one day that the Ministers of God would have guided thee in other wayes have lead thee to other actions but thou wouldst willingly fall in the ditch even into hell 3. You are not only to give them respectfull hearing and diligent waiting upon their Ministery but to obey and submit unto that work of the Lord which they enjoyn â—ou out of Gods Word Therefore twice in one Chapter Heb. 13.17 the Apostle calls on them To obey and submit themselves to such as watch for their souls and makes one of his Reasons this is good for you Prophane and proud men they are apt to scorn the truths we preach they will not submit to the doctrine we hold out but if they did rightly consider this is good for them how readily would they obey If therefore you become our living Sermons and turn the things you hear into practice though we shall rejoyce in it yet the advantage will be yours Oh then take heed how ye refuse to submit unto those things that out of Gods Word we enjoyne you If
doth divide the whole Ministerial employment in two parts planting and watering so it attributeth the cheifest and noblest of all to God without whom the other abilities are in vain The fat in the offerings was to be given to God and God gives the fat to us in spiritual services the soul and life of all is expressed in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is one word in the Greek but our English Translatours and so the Latin read it giving the encrease The Metaphor is easie As the Gardiner sets his herbs waters them but he cannot make them grow he cannot make the least flower that is though he hath never so much skill Thus it is here though they be Ministers of Seraphical affections and Cherubinical knowledge yet they cannot make the Word to prosper and to encrease in the hearer it 's God doth that Isa 55.10 Isa 61.11 There you have such similitudes so that this latter part is an admirable direction to look above the abilities above the parts and gifts of men We think Oh if we have such a Ministery all would be well whereas Apollo and Paul cannot give encrease Observe That it's God only who can and will give encrease and spiritual success to the Ministerial labours in the Church God that at first said to the earth which had no more natural power of it self then a stick or peice of wood Increase and bring forth fruit doth also speak to such exhortations instructions to convince and convert when there is no inward strength in them and therefore howsoever the preaching of the Word be compared often to rain that falls on the ground and makes the grass to grow yet there is this difference The rain workes by a natural power as a natural cause but the Word of God only as an instituted and appointed cause by him Did it work naturally all that hear would be converted every Sermon would work like those of the Apostles that brought home so many To open this Consider First That though God only gives the encrease yet it is only in and through the Ministery We must not make such cavils What use is there of Preaching What need of the Ministery Men will be as prophane and as ungodly as ever till God change the heart for you may as well urge What needs the Husbandman plow or sow or prepare the ground it 's God only that blesseth it No God hath instituted means to which he hath bound us and those that will not hear Paul planting or Apollo watering may justly expect God will give no encrease Therefore the Apostle foresaw that great evil of forsaking the Assemblyes the Ordinances and bids them take heed as the forerunner of Apostacy Heb. 10.25 26. If you take a tree from the River side where it grew and brought forth fruit and plant it in a wilderness it will quickly wither Secondly As God giveth the encrease only so the time when and the persons on whom is wholly at his good pleasure The Lord makes the Word prosperous at one time and not another sometimes it cometh like fire into the bosome it burneth thee all over at another time thou findest no operation To some people it 's like the leaves of the tree in the Revelation it 's the healing of the Nation it 's the healing of people it makes the ignorant to know the prophane to become holy it mollifieth the hard heart it turneth a wilderness into a garden But to another people it 's like salt that hath lost its savour or that maketh a place more barren it maketh no relish no tast no alteration You would wonder a people should sit so long under the beames of the Sunne and be no more coloured by it preaching and no preaching is all one to him this is the Lords doing it should be not only marvellous in our eyes but dreadfull to our ears To some it is given to know and understand but to others not Mat. 13.11 Now let us consider why God only giveth the encrease and then the ends that God hath in this First God only can give the encrease because he only hath a soveraignty and power over the heart Others may speak to the ear propound Arguments to perswade but to change the heart to perswade the heart indeed that God only can who made the heart Thus Noah prayeth or prophesieth God perswade Shem to dwell in the tents of Japhet God perswade him or God will perswade him we translate it enlarge as if he should say all the men of the world all Arguments cannot till God overpower his heart Gen. 9.27 So Ezek. 36.36 I will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh No Potentate no Emperour can say I will give a man another heart He may force the body but not change the heart Hence it is that the Scripture atttributes all the work of grace to Believe to Repent only to God Oh then lift up your hearts on high in every Sermon Look up to those Hils to Heaven from whence comes Conversion When the Apostles wrought Miracles they looked up to God and the people they glorified God They were convinced none could do such things but God And so we Ministers are to look up to God and you people that God may be glorified Secondly God only can give the Increase because the Increase is of spiritual and supernatural consideration It 's altogether Heavenly Now there is no proportion between humane abilities and heavenly graces There is no disposition Inter ordinem naturae ordinem gratiae The order of nature and the oder of grace All that the most able Ministers can do is within the compass of nature but the fruits being Heavenly must come otherwise As in man though a Child hath his body from the Father yet the soul comes immediately from God because it 's of an immaterial and immortal substance Thus also Faith and Repentance being immaterial Graces though the Minister may prepare and dispose the Subject yet the working of them is only from God It 's true indeed that the Parts and Abilities of one Minister may be objectively better for Conversion and more likely for profiting then another They may propound stronger Arguments to convince the Conscience They may set those Arguments home with greater life and vigour as Apollo was said to be potent in the Scripture Thus one Minister may exceed another in Glory as one Starre doth another Yet God only is the efficient Cause of every good and perfect Gift Thirdly Therefore God only giveth the increase because of the deep pollution that is in every man who is not only blind and deaf but dead Now to what purpose is an eloquent Pathetical Oration to a dead man David that did with so much affection weep over dead Absalom yet could not bring him to life So that the Preachers of the Word differ from all the humane Oratours Greek and Latin They might by their eloquence
doubt may be raised How Paul can say He layeth the foundation which is no other but Christ as appeareth at the eleventh verse seeing God appropriateth it to himself Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion a foundation stone c But The answer is God layeth this foundation 1. By his Decree appointing Christ thereunto And 2. By his temporal mission of him into the world but Paul layed the foundation only ministerially and declaratively by publishing Christ to be the Saviour especially to those who never heard of him before It 's a special part of the wisdome and heavenly art of the Ministers of the Gospel to lay a good and sure foundation in the hearts of their hearers This Paul makes the principal part of his wisdome that he began with a good foundation If people are not rightly built upon this any tempest that ariseth will throw down all theâ—r Religion Our Saviour speaketh a Parable Luke 6.48 49 like to this of the wise builder and the foolish builder And although there it be meant of every particular Christian yet we may apply it to every Minister He that doth not build up his people upon sure and Scripture foundations they are like the chaff and straw that the wind doth drive to and fro There is no true faith no truâ— godlinesse no true hope of salvation where the right and sure foundation is not laid The point therefore in hand is of great consequence both to the Preacher and to the Auditor to consider what foundation his Religion and Godlinesse is fixed upon For the opening of this Consider that Divines do ordinarily make a two-fold foundation The one they call Fundamentum cognoscendi The foundation of our knowledge and faith in matters of Religion and this is the Scripture only We can lay no other foundation for matters of Faith but the word of God Non credo quia non lego said Tertullian of old And Secondly There is Fundamentum essendi The Foundation of the being or existence of all our glory and salvation and that is only Jesus Christ He is the foundation-stone and every one is to believe in him only for Salvation and Justification So that as God made two great lights for the world so he hath done for the Church the Scriptures and Christ This Doctrine is true yet Heb. 6.1 we there reade of more foundations than one for there are practical fundamentals as well as speculative I shall therefore not limit my self to this one foundation mentioned by the Apostle but enlarge my self to the necessary foundations in our Christian life and shew you the necessity of that wisdom which will build upon these fundamentals And although I am not ignorant That the Dispute about what are foundations or fundamentals in Religion and what not is very hard and difficult yet I shall instance in four unquestionable foundations which are the four main pillars that support our Christian building The necessary things of Religion are these four Either 1. The Matters to be believed 2. The Worship and necessary service of God 3. The spiritual Benefits and mercies Justification and Salvation 4. The things to be done by us in our way to Salvation All these are fundamental and necessary in their kind to salvation and therefore it behoveth every Minister of the Gospel to principle and settle his people in all these particulars For herein is the danger not of mens bodies or estates but their immortal souls We will begin with the first The foundation of our faith or divine assent in matters of Religion What is that which every man must build his faith upon What is the foundation he must lay there And that is the Word of God declared and written for our instruction in those Canonical Books of the Scripture When we come to believe the matters of our salvation the ultimate motive into which all is to be resolved is Thus saith the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word of God hath spoken it It 's not antiquity universality or the laws of the Land or the tradition of our fathers that is the warrantable foundation but the Scripture only Thus Timothy is commended for attending to the Scriptures which are able to make him wise to salvation through faith 2 Tim. 3.17 18. So that although other things be required by way of helps and means as prayer interpretation of the Scripture Gods assistance the guidance of the Ministry yet by way of a Foundation or a Rule that is the Scripture only As God at first put all the light into the Sunne and the Starres shine by a borrowed light from it So God hath now put all supernatural light into the Scripture and all guides are to shine by that Hence it is so often compared to a light and a lamp unto our feet So that the Ministers of the Word do then lay a good foundation when in matters of Doctrine and truths to be believed they build them on the Scripture make them a Scripture-auditory a people that dare not that will not take any matter of faith but upon Scripture-grounds Thus those Bereans are commended for a noble and ingenuous people that compared what Paul preached with the Scriptures they then had whether it was consonant to them or no Act. 17 11. So that that people who know nothing of the Scripture are not instructed by the Word have not their faith their Religion from it all they offer to God is a Sacrifice without eyes they do believe they know not what Now that the written word of God is the only foundation of our Christian faith appeareth by these Reasons First A Christian faith ought to be a divine supernatural faith not a bare humane faith Now nothing can be the ground of a divine faith but a divine authority a divine Argument suggested by God himself Most men that call themselves Christians have no more than an humane faith in matters of Religion They believe thus because their parents did so because the Laws of the Land compell them to do so Thus they have no other grounds of faith then the Turks or Papists have for themselves but as copper is not gold so neither is this humane faith that holy and Christian perswasion which the Spirit of God through the Word works in man because revealed in the Word 1 Thess 1. They are commended That they did not receive the Word preached as the word of men but as indeed the word of God 1 Thess 1.13 So that whosoever hath an holy faith he must have a divine perswasion for this from the Authority of God that as an humane faith is because humane authority speaks it so a divine faith because God revealeth it in the Scripture But alas generally our people can no more look into these things then an Owl in the dazelling Sun How few are perswaded of the true Doctrine of Christ from this Divine Authority because God hath said thus God hath spoken thus Oh
must be subordinate to Christ Secondly We must preach Christ the foundation of all strength and power from whom we receive all ability to do any thing that is good To lay free-will for a foundation to preach up mans power for Christs power will be found stâ—ustble and hay if not worse when the fiery tryal shall come Thus Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing O there he doth excellently shew As the branch unless it be in the Vine must wither and can bring forth no fruit so unless a man be in Christ and abide in him he is not able spiritually to live or move And this is a necessary and excellent way of preaching Christ when he is set up as the only fountain of all our spiritual abilities when the humane strength of man is debased and contemned yea discovered to be not only impotent but abhominable and contrary unto God Hence Christ is compared to the Olive-tree from whence we have all our fatness Rom. 11. And he cals himself the life and the way Joh. 11.25 The way that is a Prophet The life that is a foundation of all spiritual strength Now in Popery when there was so much advancing of free-will and magnâ—fying the merit and worth of the good works we did Christ was much obsâ—ured Therefore â—e are not only to exhort you to pray to repent to reform but to preach Christ as him by whom you must have power to do those things People generally make little or no use of Christ in this respect when yet thou needest him all the day long I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4.13 Thirdly Christ is preached as a foundation when he is exalted in our Miâ—istry to be the head of the Church and he that governeth all things The head is for direction and government and also for lively influence and nourishment And thus Christ is 1 Col. 1. to the 15. What divine and admirable exaltations are there of Christ setting him up above all things and making him the head of the Church which is his body Oh the preaching of Christs Head-ship and supremacy is of great consequence There had never been such bold presumption to be an universal head in the Church never such tyranical government therein never such Angel-worship and invocation of Saints and a thousand of those derrogatory Doctrines had Christ been exalted as Head Paul saith They brought in worship of Angels because they held not the Head Col. 3.19 And that blasphemous Doctrine of making the Pope an head of the Church though they would extenuate it by calling him a ministerial head is a gross invasion of Christs right Though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet the Pope ought to think it robbery to be equall with Christ Who then can excuse Bellarmine from blasphemy who is not afraid to apply that promse of Esay Behold I lay in Zion a foundation stone to the Pope though secondarily Look we then that are Ministers and you that are people To keep this Doctrine pure Christ is the head of the Church All direction and government must be from him All vivificall influence into the Churches is by his spirit So that as the body cannot live or move without the soul so neither can the Churches of Christ spiritually move without life received from him The Scripture doth often delight to use this similitude Fourthly Christ is to be set up the only foundation in respect of mediation and intercession with God We can have no approach to God without him because of the great gulf sin hath raised between him and us He is a consuming fire and we are stubble without Christ Concerning Deus Absolutus as Luther would say The soul of a man may not think of him without horrour or despair but as he is Deus relatus related to us in Christ And this is indeed the primary and the most noble setting up of Christ as the foundation when we again and again instruct you of what distance and contrariety there is between God and a sinner and that only by his mediation there can be an agreement There is one Mediator saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 No man may can dare to draw nigh to God or think of him without this Mediatour Oh but how practically ignorant are people of Christ herein They do not go to God in Christs Name They do not desire by Faith to bring Christ as it were into Gods presence that he may behold us in him that we may be Jacobs in our eldest Brothers cloaths As Joah bid the Messenger tell David when his anger should rise because they had the worse in battell that Vriah is slain and this quieted David So it 's here When the wrath of God shall be ready to arise against thee Why hast thou bâ—oken this Command Why hast thou trasgressed this Law Then say Christ was killed Christ was the Lamb slain And this will appease the wrath of God Rev. 10.1 Christ is there described with a rainbow upon his head very fitly As God said He would not drown the world any more but look upon the rainbow and remember that Covenant of mercy So it 's here God will not damn the poor sinner repenting and believing but he will remember this rainbow he will look on Christ Now this preaching of Christ hath been wonderfully obscured in setting up other Mediatours other Intercessours so that Christ was seldom spoken of but the Virgin Mary St Francis and others And this very point was the first occasion of coming out of Popery The obscuring of Christs Mediatourship They equalized St Francis to Christ They indeed said the way to Heaven was by Christ but it was easier by St Francis So that if you look upon the Doctrine of other Mediatours about the Virgin Mary about their Canonized Saints about Images about Indulgences Oh the black clouds that were drawn over that glorious Sunne of righteousness Let then Ministers and people keep to this look to this For without it all the marrow of Religion is lost Only by Christ his mediation with God God is an enemy to me and I to God And for this end were all those Sacrifices appointed in the old administration to shew that by Christ was all reconcilement and atonement Do not thou then think thy teares must do that which belongs to Christs blood Thy teares thy humiliation thy broken heart for sinne is indeed necessary but to think by these to have a mediation with God is to build another foundation then what the Apostles laid And truly if sinne be rightly considered in the infinite aggravation of it we we must quickly yeeld none but who is an infinite person can be our Mediatour Fifthly From this floweth another necessary way of preaching Christ a foundation viz. Of acceptation of our persons and duties Our Justification is built only on him and all the sweet savour that our duties have is through him Thus Paul doth frequently make
Ordinance Any duty without Christ is like the body without the soul the shadow without the substance Truly saith the Apostle our Communion and fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Thus Christ is said to come to us and sup with us By which phrases is implyed that the heart of a man should not rest in any duty and stay there but go to Christ in it As they that looked for Christs body were not content to see the linen where his body lay but did still seek after him It was not enough for the Church to be in the Garden where the Spices and Flowers did smell unless she found her Beloved there And thus it 's not enough to come to any duty to pray to hear to draw nigh in any Ordinance unless we meet with Christ himself But to whom are these things known Is it not with us as with little Children they can take a Book they look on it turn over the leaves but know not any of the sense of it Thus it is with many people they come to pray to hear to the Ordinances but to speak of Christ enjoyed by them to have spiritual Communion with Christ in them is such spiritual sense they understand not That was the great sinne of the Jews they rested in the Ordinances and duties of the Law and never looked out to Christ And against this the Apostle doth so vehemently dispute And thus we do with Ordinances of the Gospel people generally rest in the external performance of them and not on Christ in them aâ— if the Wise should be content with the Picture of her Husband not cariâ—g for the Husband himself The preaching of Christ as a foundation in this respect â—s of such practical necessity that all true godlinesse lyeth in this The Apostle speaking the quintessence of all godlinesse saith We are the Circumcision who have no confidence in the flesh but rejoyce in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.3 This is praying this is hearing this is the true performance of any religious duty when we have no confidence in them but rejoyce in Christ Jesus only Lastly We are to preach Christ not only as the foundation of our approaches to God but of all Gods gracious actions and visitations to us We are not only to come to God in Christs name but to expect that God will come to us through Christ God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 1.19 We are justified in Christ and saved in Christ All Gods gracious actions vouchsafed to us are founded upon Christ as the meritorious cause of them It 's rue the indeed predestination though it be in Christ for the accomplishment of all our spiritual mercies yet it was not for Christ This the Orthodox do well maintain by Scripture that Gods predestinating of us in the Original of it is wholly from the sovereign power and good counsel of God yea that Christ himself is the effect of Predestination from that good pleasure of his he gave his Sonne for us But then all the effâ—cts of Predestination Justification Adoption Remission Sanctification Salvation these all are bestowed for Christs sake They cost blood even the blood of his only Sonne ere we could be partakers of them Thus Christ joyneth Heaven and Earth together makes a Reconciliation between a provoked God and a sinfull sinner And this the Apostle considers when â—e saith That by him all things are reconciled in Heaven and in Earth Col 1.20 Thus you see Christ is a Fountain alwaies running We Ministers and you people may alwaies draw out there and yet the Fountain be never dry He is like those waters of Ezekiel that arise higher and higher In these an Elephant may swimme We may still discover more excellency more fulnesse in him The Queen of Sheba had no spirit to see Solomon in all his glory but behold a greater then Solomon here In the next place let us consider the Reasons why we Ministers are to lay no other foundation but Christ To make him all in all First It 's the main end and scope of the Scriptures only to exalt Christ and the end of the Ministry should be the same with the end of the Scripture All the Prophets before Christ they witnessed of the Messiah still they comforted the people with promises of his coming Abraham though so long before Christs Incarnation yet it 's said He saw Christs day and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 All those Sacrifices which were immediately â—t the beginning of the world did look to Christ they typified him Noah offered a Sacrifice and God did smell a sweet savour of rest Gen. 8. â—1 Alas Could the material Sacrifice do that God careth not for the Rammes and Bullocks upon the hils it smels there offensive but it was because of Christ Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices thou wouldst not have then said I Lord I come Heb 10.9 All those Rammes those Bullocks those Goats they all did typifie a Christ The people that then lived ought not to think that pardon of sin could be had by shedding of their blood Especially the Covenant of grace that God made with Abraham and renewed so many times did relate to Christ the seed in whom all Nations were to be made blessed And it 's good to consider how when the Church was in any great extremity the Prophets would then comfort it about Christ Isa 9. To us a Sonne is born And Isaiah 53. he doth as plainly prophesie Christs sufferings as the Evangelists relate it insomuch that some have called Isaiah the fifth Evangelist And the Prophet Micha He shall be our peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land Mich. 5.5 Thus then you see that all the Old Testament doth wholly tend to magnifie Christ and as for the New Testament that is wholly spent either in relating the History or the gracious Effects of Christ condemning all Doctrines and Opinions that would set up any thing in Christs room Secondly As the Scripture so Gods great purpose and counsell from all eternity was to set up Christ and to have him glorified Therefore would God take such a way as that by his Sonne all mercy should be obtained that so all honour glory and praise might be for ever given to him Hence it is that we read of God the Father sometimes appearing in a glorious manner and owning of him This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased viz. with man kind Mat. 3.17 hear him It 's disputed among Divines whether there could be any other way for our Redemption and Salvation but by him but who can tell what God absolutely may do or not do To be sure God hath determined on this way as that wherein the glory of the Father and of the Sonne may be more magnified If then God was pleased to have all glory given to Christ and to have him set up in all things it 's a great Reason we should honour him whom God would
implied 2. Repentance cannot be Evangelical and filial without Gods love in Christ Judas did repent the Scripture cals it so but because there was only gall in it and no honey only horrour and terrours and no faith to allay those waves Therefore his very repenting and despairing was a grievous sinne So then to preach such a repentance as driveth from God filleth the heart with cursed horrours and hated of God and thereby to runne to hils and mountains to cover us from God Or to put a man upon such penal and afflicting labours to the flesh that may satisfie and appease God This is to bid men bring wild and sour grapes for sweet This is to preach from Christ not to preach Christ But repentance truly preached is to have our sorrow for sinne accompanied with faith in the promises and a resting upon tht bloud of Christ Thus as it is in repentance so in every grace When we preach it we preach Christ because by him we only have ability to do it and through him only have acceptation and as we said though the Ministers in every exhortation do not thus name Christ yet this is to be supposed Lastly We do not transgresse this Text no not when we preach the Law the threatnings the torments of hell because these are to drive us out of our selves to make us see our own poverty and wickednesse that so Christ may be the more welcome Christ himself though sometimes he cals the heavy loaden to him in a meek way yet when he hath to do with such as trusted in their own righteousnesse and found no need of his Mediatorship he cals them Hypocrites he bids a woe to them he threatens them with hell And Paul tels you in his own experience he had never come to prize Christ to esteem him had not the Law discovered sinne to be out of measure sinfull then he died then he was undone then Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me What shall I doe And thus Peter converted three thousand by conviction of a particular sinne they had committed viz. the murder of Christ and the aggravation of it and this pricked them at heart And so Paul being called to preach of faith in Christ to Felix he presently preacheth about righteousnesse and temperance because Felix lived in the two contrary vices and also of the Judgement to come Thus he would have brought Felix to the esteem of Christ So that to preach the Law in the purity of it in the cursing nature of it to preach hell and the eternal torments thereof is necessary because this is to make way for Christ This is to put iron in the fire that so being softened it may be put into any fashion Thus we have removed the Objections and shewed you That though other things are to be preached besides Christ yet reductively all things are brought to him at last They are but as the rivers that come from the Sea and empty themselves therein I shall conclude thiâ— Text with shewing you The great advantages that people have who are built on Christ First They are a sound stedfast people not carried away as the chaff and straw is with every wind of Doctrine Heb. 13. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and for ever and then followeth Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines The Connexion is thus made by some The truth of Christ the Doctrine of Christ is still the same And therefore do you retain the same stedfast faith Oh when men are not built on Christs Doctrine but their own opinions their own conceits they have Reubens curse Vnstable like water Col 2. They that fell to the worshipping of Angels and Saints did not hold the head Look then to what thy faith thy soul is bottomed upon whether Christ be thy teacher or thou be thy own teacher Now this stedfastnesse and immoveablenesse of those that are founded on Christ appeareth in their resisting of the violence of persecution and the subtilty of heresies In the one the Devil is a roaring Lion In the other he is a glistring sliding Serpent The one is like the violent wind to the traveller that by force would pull off his garments The other like the hot Sunne-beams that by degrees maketh him throw them away Oh this is excellent comfort in the winnowing to be found wheat and not chaff in the fire to be gold and not drosse God you hear in this Text will have a fire to try all mens doctrines and if it be stubble and hay it will quickly be consumed My sheep hear my voice and a stranger they will not hear or follow John 10.5 Secondly A people built on Christ will not be formal and customary in religious duties resting upon the performance of them but carried out to Christ himself Oh who can bewail this enough How are all duties of Religion but as the picture without a substance as a body without the soul They pray and hear and hear and pray but close not with Christ in these things Thus as Rehoboam for the golden vessels that were in the Temple put in materials of brasse So whereas the people of God in their spirituality fervency and heavenly mindednesse had their hearts up to Christ Now they think all is done with the external labour of the lips or bowing of the body We may say to you thus affected in your duties as they that were looking for Christ in the Sepulchre He is risen he is not here As false teachers that brought in the works of the Law and the duties of the Law did put these in stead of a Christ so do Christians make their Duties their Ordinances their Performances a very Idol-Christ to save them but those that are built on Christ know better Thirdly Those that are setled and founded on Christ they have spiritual strength and holy vigour communicated to them in the wayes of godlinesse For though Christ be here called a foundation and that giveth only support yet in other places he is the root of the Vine the Head which denotes more than a meer foundation viz not only supporting but conveying all grace and lively nourishment to the godly heart whereby they grow up and increase to more degrees of holinesse Now this is a wofull spectacle to see a people the same both for knowledge and life they were many years ago no more understanding in heavenly things no more growth in faith in zeal in communion with God Even as the picture on the wall that is still the same not one cubit is ever made to the stature thereof Lastly Those that are built on Christ receive of the Spirit of Christ in all the works of it A spirit making thee pray with groans unutterable a convincing a sanctifying spirit or sealing and assuring spirit An auditory destitute of Gods Spirit is like a Golgotha a place of dead mens skuls or rather dead hearts They savour no spiriual duty priviledge or motive The
represâ—nt this though many learned men ancient and later have used similitudes because there is no such thing as a God besides the true God And therefore Basil said well to the Heâ—etique desiring a similitude to represent the Trinity Da mihi alium Deum aliam trinitatem tibi ostendam Thus we have laboured to establish your faith in this necessary point Now I shall shew Why the holy Ghost is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit The word at first did signifie wind Why then doth the Spirit of God assume this comparative expression of wind Or rather Why is he called a Spirit Even for these Reasons First Essentially For the simplicity and purity of his Essence and this is common to every other Person for God is a Spirit Secondly Hypostatically For his personal propriety because he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne by way of spiration the manner whereof we cannot comprehend no more than the generation of the Sonne Thirdly Effectively Many wayes 1. For the Incomprehensibility of the actions of the Spirit John 3. The wind bloweth where it lists and no man knoweth from whence it comes so is the Spirit 2. The Diversity of his operations As the breathings of the winde is from several corners the Spirits dispensations have not been alwayes alike 3. For the Efficacity moving the hearts of men to love good to hate evil 4. For the Impossibility of resisting this 5. For the Necessity of it to every good worke as the winde is to the ship Vse Is the holy Spirit God Then take heed of that blasphemous scoffing which many carnal and wicked people are guilty of which is to mock at the very name of the Spirit If a sinne against the holy Ghost be unpardonable and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace leaveth a man in an impossibility of recovering How darest thou let thy heart and tongue be thus set on hell fire Thy body and soul is to be the temple of the Spirit Thy duties are to come from this Spirit and doest thou deride it Vse of Admonition Take heed of entituling thy own fancies and delusions to the Spirit of God For seeing the holy Ghost is God it must be a capital crime to make such sinfull fancies and thoughts that come from thy corrupt heart to flow from the holy Spirit of God If to counterfeit the publick Seal or Coin of a Land be a capital crime How great a sinne is it to â—ake thy sinfull and carnal affections as if they were the workings of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you Two Propositions you heard were contained in these words First That the Spirit of God is God which hath been demonstrated Secondly That the Spirit of God dwels in his Church We therefore proceed to this second Doctrine And now to open this let us consider First What the phrase to dwell in the Church implieth Secondly How he dwels there As the Spirit of God is said to dwell in us so in other places God promiseth to dwell in his people 2 Cor. 6 16. And Christ is said To dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 All which are not to be understood of any visible or local habitation much lesse comprehensive that we cold comprehend God for he is as he said one whose circumference is every where and center no where The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him but it is meant in a mystical and spiritual manner Now this phrase To have the Spirit dwell in us denoteth First The propriety that it hath to us that we are his possession as an house is a mans own where he is Lord and Master And this is worthy of consideration That we who once were the Devils he dwelt in us He ruleth in the hearts of the disobedient Ephes 2. have now him expelled from us and the Spirit of God taking us for his possession We pity persons bodily possessed that they foame and rore and are throwne sometimes into the fire and sometimes in the water but he who is a wicked man the Devil possesseth his soul more dreadfully he puts him upon anger malice upon unclean lusts and noisome filthy wayes and though many be of the Church visibly yet in regard of their own particular they are thus possessed by the Devil who hath their heart their eyes their tongues their whole body so that they seem to be a walking Hell So that herein is a wonderfull change when the Spirit of God comes and takes possession of a people who before were captives to Satan and led aside according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Secondly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in a people it supposeth That he doth fashion and prepare them for himself For every lodging is not fit for so noble a guest but as great men carry their rich furniture with them to have convenient lodgings so also doth the Spirit of God raise up a people by illumination and sanctification to be a fit habitation for him As they say Anima fabricat sibi domicilium The soulâ— makes the body so curiously organized and diversified for it's self to be in So much more doth the Spirit of God put spiritual life and quicken up our dead hearts that we may be prepared for the enjoyment of him It 's said The Spirit of God moved upon those waters Genes 1. that covered the deep when the earth was without forme or void Thus the Spirit of God doth take us out of our natural confusion and horrible darknesse and makes us comely with those ornaments he puts upon us So that as it is impossible to have the Sunne but withall we must enjoy glorious light So we cannot have the Spirit of God but withall many precious and heavenly gifts will be bestowed upon us Oh then how few persons how few Congregations can endure the lustre of this Doctrine What heavenly or precious jewels have they of Gods Spirit Thirdly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in us it denoteth The familiarity and condescending Communion that God vouchsafeth unto his children To dwell with one is an act of communion Hence 1 Peter 3.17 Husbands are commanded to dwell with their wives Our Savior expresseth this familiarity by John I will come in and sup with him and he with me Revel 3.20 So that what was spoken of Moses as so rare a priviledge He spake to God face to face as one friend speaketh to another in some kinde of sense though not after the same manner is true of every godly person Hence the Spirit of God is said to enable us to cry Abba Father Galat. 4 6. which though it suppose a filial reverential frame in us yet also godly boldnesse and confidence Hence he is also said To witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. So that children being admitted to sit at their Fathers Table have that bread which dogs may not eat of They have
this later way of Gods Spirit as formerly you heard dwelling in us is most comfortable and most to be regarded though the other be more admired The former did especially belong to the Church in its first plantation Hence Acts 2. we reade of the accomplishment of that glorious Prophecy Joel 2. To pour out his Spirit c. but now these miraculous operations are ceased Vse of Instruction What Congregations and what manner of persons we ought to be To be meer men cometh farre short of being spiritual men we ought to be above sense and all humane principles Take the most refined men for morality and civility the choisest for all humane abilities yet without the Spirit of God they are no more than Adams body till life was brethed into him no more than those bones in Ezekiel till the Spirit of God gathered them together Oh that our Congregations consisted of spiritual men Paul complained He could not preach to them but as carnal The Spirit of God would lift thee up to other affections other desires As the Spirit took some mens bodies and lifted them up into the air so would it doe to the soules of men they had the Spirit of God who said Our conversation is in Heaven They had the Spirit of God that did look for the coming of Christ They had the Spirit of God who had prayed with groanes unutterable and who had joy unspeakable But oh we poor worms and not spiritual men cold clods of earth destitute of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you We have heard what this inhabitation of Gods Spirit in his Church doth imply and how he may be said to dwell in us In the next place let us consider the special Workes and Effects of Gods Spirit in his Church For therefore partly hath he the name Spirit because of that power and efficacy he hath in the Church Hence he came downe in a mighty rushing winde and cloven tongues of fire So that he is called the Spirit internally and externally internally for his personall character whereby he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne Externally because of those admirable effects and demonstrations of his presence in the Church Now I shall not speak of these operations which he hath as God in creating and conservating of the world but what are more peculiar to the Church in which sense he is called The Spirit of Christ Romans 8.9 because Christ by his death did purchase such gifts and graces for his people the efficient whereof in an appropriated manner is the Spirit of God And First The very ministerial functions and abilities to discharge them are of the Holy Ghost in the Church For although Ephesians 4.11 it 's said That Christ after his Ascension and triumph over Death and Hell Gave gifts unto men Even as great Emperours when they ride in glorious triumph after a final Conquest over their enemies use to distribute large favours and many bountifull signes of honour yet because upon his Ascension he promised the Spirit of God in his absence as the divine Vicar of Christ therefore 1 Cor. 12. we find all operations and diversities of them attributed to the holy Ghost And Acts 25. the holy Ghost is said To make those overseers in the Church of Ephesus So that what Church-officers or what Church-ordinances or order we have and what Gifts and Abilities likewise there are to discharge them These are all of the holy Ghost and of the holy Ghost three wayes 1. In respect of their Institution and being For although it 's by man that such and such persons are elected and ordained to this or that Office yet the Office of it self is of the holy Ghost They are not the Institutions of men nor may men appoint some Church-officers which God hath not because their end is wholly supernatural As it 's said 2 Cor. 12.28 God hath set in his Church such Officers even as he hath set the Sunne and starres in the firmament so that all Officers lawfully called are of the holy Ghost either immediately as at the beginning or else mediately by the order and designation of the Church And as for their gifts it 's plain the extraordinary and miraculous gifts in the primitive times were from Gods Spirit The Scripture often attributeth them to it Only now it may be doubted Whether we can say that the gifts and the abilities that Ministers have now are from the holy Ghost because they are got by humane study and industry And is there any more required to understand the Scripture than any other humane Authour Plato or Aristotle Those cursed wretches Julian and Porphyrius who wrote against the Scripture they understood what they were so invective against yet it cannot be thought they were inabled by the holy Ghost Now to answer this even those natural abilities and humane indowments that men obtain by study are a gift of God they are a blessing which we see God giveth to some and not to other It 's Gods mercy thou art not a natural fool a mad man but when thou hast more understanding and better intellectual abilities than other thou hast a greater gift from God than others Hence in our very ordinary phrase we say such an one hath an excellent gift in his memory in his elocution c. And the Scripture is clear James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights which is to be understood universally both of naturals and supernaturals And what hast thou thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4. Hence in the Parable all abilities whether gracious or natural are called Talents and are given by one Master That is the first thing even those excellent abilities which the greatest Heretiques and enemies to the Christian Religion had were of God though the sinfull use of them came from the Devil and their own corrupt hearts They were talents of gold and they made Idols of them 2. As the gifts and abilities Church-officers have are from God so the right understanding of the Scripture and believing the sense contained therein is in a more particular manner a gift of Gods Spirit For although the Spirit of God doth not give us the sense and meaning of the Scripture in an extraordinary manner viz. without the knowledge of the tongues the comparing of places together c. yet in and by these means the Spirit of God doth help us to understand the Scripture I do not here speak of a saving knowledge of the sense of the Scripture but a meer literal knowledge of the meaning thereof This is plain by the Apostle No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12 3 The very historical believing of Scripture truths is from the Spirit of God So that here is required a more peculiar and particular assistance of Gods Spirit in ministerial abilities for the opening of the Scripture then for any humane Authour because the matter
in our hearts that our gifts may be successefull that our graces may flourish And that the Spirit of God dwels in you The first sort of the Spirits inhabitation in us viz. by Gifts hath been dispatched We now come to the more noble and excellent way which doth inseparably accompany salvation and that is the sanctifying graces of Gods Spirit By which indeed we may gather That God dwels in us For as when Daniel could so wonderfully open and interpret the Kings dreames they said The Spirit of the most high God was in him So if you see a people heavenly mortifying sinne walking in close communion with God you must needs conclude the Spirit of the most high God is in that man It 's not nature or moral virtues could raise him up to such an high Pinacle as this is And before we come to the particular effects of Gods in-dwelling after this manner it 's good to observe the Emphatical expressions that the Scripture useth equivalent to this of dwelling in us As Rom. 8. there it 's called Being in the Spirit as here The Spirit is in us So there we are in the Spirit Now that phrase is very emphatical and doth denote that all our lusts and sinnes yea our very selves are as it were swallowed up and nothing but the Spirit of God works and moveth in us To be in the Spirit denoteth the great efficacy and powerfull dominion in us as men are said to be in sinne because they no longer live but sinne nothing but sinne doth appear so it should be with the godly The Spirit of God not flesh not corruption not carnal or worldly principles should appear in them As the Prophets in the time of their Prophesie were said to be in the Spirit in an extasie minding no earthly or worldly thing Thus ought we to be emptied of our selves and filled with the Spirit of God Therefore John 3. it 's said Whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit in the very abstract We have also Gal. 4 pregnant expressions To live in the Spirit to walk in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit Oh let such expressions as these make you ashamed to see so much of a man or carnal affections stirring in you What believer hath these things in the full power thereof But to the Particulars First The Spirit of God dwels in us after a saving manner in the general By way of sanctification of the Spirit soul and body even the whole man 1 Thess 5. This is the general Every man is all over unclean filthy polluted full of enmity to what is holy Now the Spirit of God that makes an universal sanctification of all these Hence by way of Office it 's called The Spirit of sanctification and the holy Spirit as Creation is appropriated to the Father and Redemption to the Sonne so Sanctification to the Holy Ghost So then as Christ in respect of his body is said to be conceived by the Holy Ghost there was a preparing and sanctifying of it for the Personal Union and the work of Redemption So the Spirit of God sanctifieth the soul of every godly man it makes every part and faculty prepared for holy Duties in an holy man for as the soul is the life of the body that can doe no vital action without it So the Spirit is the life of the soul and that can doe no spiritual action without it Oh then consider this all ye that heare and ponder it in your hearts Have you thus been conceived and borne of the Spirit of God Thy other birth will availe nothing though borne rich or noble Yea Couldst thou be borne a thousand times in a naturall way thou wouldst still be a miserable wretched man What is a good or ingenuous nature What are excellent and choice abilities if thou art not sanctified by the Spirit of God Doe not thinke these things are fancies and notions The Spirit of God may as well be called a fancy as his operations fancies But more particularly The Spirit of God dwels in a saving manner First By Illumination and opening of the darke minde of every man Every man is darknesse it selfe he cannot discerne of spiritual things revealed in the Word till the Spirit of God enlighten him Therefore the worke of Gods Spirit is great upon the minde and understanding of a man it convinceth the soul of a man of those things it never believed before John 16.9 of sinne it makes a man see the woefull and damnable estate he is in It 's so plaine that he cannot deny it he believed and judged no such thing once in him but now such light shineth in his breast that he is a very dung-hill a very hell to himself and then he convinceth of righteousnesse viz. a Gospel-righteousnesse by Christ Now all his workes all his good duties are dung and drosse all that Religion he put confidence in is abandoned by him the Spirit of God convinceth him of a glorious righteousnesse without him which onely is able to cover his nakednesse Againe Another special worke on the understanding is To teach to guide and leade into all truth We cannot say Jesus is the Christ without the Spirit as you heard 1 Corinth 12.3 Spiritual things must have a spirituall ability to discerne them It 's true he leadeth in and by the use of meanes appointed but yet he onely doth efficiently dispell the darknesse and worke faith to holy Truths So then we see it 's the speciall worke of Gods Spirit not humane ability to be directed into truth And we must not onely study Books but pray to God and take heed of such sinnes which may drive Gods Spirit from us for then we are as a wilde horse without a rider like a ship in the midst of the sea without a Pilot. Secondly The Spirit of God quickens and reviveth those graces that by Regeneration were infused to us compared therefore to the winde as the blowing of that makes the flowers of the Gardens to send forth their sweet smels So it 's here It 's not enough to have the habit and principles of grace within us but we need a fervent and vigorous actuating of them And therefore is the Holy Ghost compared to fire and hence that phrase To be filled with the Holy Ghost which is applied to the godly sometimes doth as learned men observe denote some actual and vigorous impression upon their hearts Their graces were now put forth in a lively vigorous way Oh this is a blessed life when a Christian is constantly filled with the Holy Ghost that doth actually make his heart fervent and burning in all its duties towards God! If this were the life of the godly man there would not be such complaints such feares such doubts Oh they cannot tell what to say to themselves They are dull heavy earthly Alas all this is because the Spirit of God filleth not thy heart if this were working thou wouldst be like Ezekiels wheeles that
we called an house of prayer In Solomons prayer 1 Kings 8.48 the captives of Israel carried into another Land are supposed in their captivity to pray unto God with their face towards the Land of Israel and also towards the Temple Fourthly But from this Temple to argue for such holinesse in our Churches Yea and with Bellarmine and others to plead for private praying in the Church more than in other places as if there were more holinesse therein and for the places sake to have more acceptance is unjustifiable by Scripture John 4.21 24. The time is coming when they shall not worship in this mountaine or in Jerusalem but they shall worship him in Spirit and truth There is no Jerusalem now nor any place like Jerusalem and now God would have us in every place lift up holy hands in prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 It 's therefore unwarrantable by Scripture to pray in a Church for the places sake to have the prayer the more acceptable as Bellarmine pleadeth And indeed because there is no such peculiar institution nor no such peculiar promise therefore there cannot be such a relative holinesse Private prayers in the Church though pretended not to be done for the places sake while we are at the publick Ordinances are also incongruous and unwarrantable partly because they are against the nature of private prayer prescribed by our Saviour When thou prayest shut thy door after thee Mat. 6.6 Private prayer must be done in a private manner and partly because the Church is for publick Ordinances We meet together in spiritual communion and while the society is singing for thee to be privately praying is unsuitable to the duty in hand where there ought to be one heart one mouth and consent Fifthly Because the Temple was so glorious and Gods promise was in a special manner made to it therefore the Jews put all their trust and confidence in this though their lives were full of wickednesse and grosse impieties yet because they had the Temple that made them think themselves happy Hence the Prophet severely reproveth them for it saying Trust no more in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Jer. 7.4 Hence at last God was so provoked that he gave it up to idolatrous Heathens to be destroyed that a stone should not be left upon a stone For Hadrian the Emperor quite demolished it and in stead thereof built a place with a new name calling it Aelia and upon the gate set the Image of a Swine by way of scorn and derision to the Jews to whom that beast was unclean And thus truly God hath done with many glorious spiritual Temples under the Gospel Where are the seven Churches of Asia And where is the pure Church of Rome now The present Governours of that Church glory of their succession to their former Worthies Whose faith was spread over the whole world but they succeed them as vespae apibus Wasps many times do Bees or as night doth the day Lastly Our Churches therefore do not resemble the Temple an holy place dedicated to God but their publick Synagogues where they met together to pray and reade the Word and have it expounded Some find fault that we call this material building a Church but use of speech doth fully justifie this It 's an ordinary figure to put the place containing for the thing contained Thus it 's said All Jerusalem went out And Oh Jerusalem that killest the Prophets Mat. 23.77 which is meant of the Inhabitants thereof Thus we call a City or a Town the people of the Town But of this we have spoken formerly But though there is no such relative holinesse in these places as was in the Temple neither are the duties regarded for the places sake but the place for the duties yet there is a moral and civil decency or respect to be had to them as we do unto places appointed for solemn meeting and therefore are unfitly compared to barns or stables or to be polluted like them not because of any holinesse in them more than in other places but from a civil respect But these things only occasionally by the way The next main thing is That believers joyned in a Church way according to Scripture are Gods temple and that requireth these things First Purity and an undefiled life from the wicked wayes of the world Though they be in the world yet not of the world This is called pure Religion to keep a man defiled from the world Jam. 1.27 And we must not be conformed to the fashion of this world Rom. 12.2 We are to be as Lot in Sodome so farre from having fellowship with it that we are to grieve in seeing and hearing the evil deeds of others We are to be like the three Worthies in the midst of the fire and yet our hair not singed thereby Do not thou then judge of thy self as the Temple of God when thou art like a dung-hill thy heart is not a sacred Temple but an open Inne or Market-place all strange lusts may lodge in thee thou art to take Christ for an example not the world Secondly Dedication and giving up our selves wholly unto God Thy soul and body are to be one Temple onely thy soul is the Saxctum sanctorum there should only be admitted choice and sanctified thoughts and intentions Shall I take saith the Apostle the member of Christ and make it the member of an harlot 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Temple of God and make it a publick stew for all lusts As they said of their Temples Procul ô procul este prophani So do thou of all noisome and filthy sinnes As there were constant Porters to watch the Temple so do thou continually set a watch before thy heart and soul that no unclean thing enter in Thirdly Here is implied Vnion of the members of the Church together The Temple was not one stone or a few stones scattered up and down but exactly and curiously joyned together The Churches are compared to a body where there are several organized members and all usefull one to another Lastly Communion Not onely internal by faith and love which we have with Christ the Head and so with all the members For this communion is invisible but external in a visible society and fellowship one with another in the publique worship Hence they are greatly reproved That forsook the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10.15 Visible communion in Church-Ordinances brings much glory to God and great edification to our selves Vse of Instruction What kind of societies we should be who are Gods temple Gods house Gods Church What enjoyment of God What effectual participation of his presence The body by its senslesnesse doth quickly discover whether a soul be in it and the soul will quickly manifest whether God and Christ be in it if the Temple of God What holinesse and purity ought to be in our lives Oh this is the glory of the Church
the only wise God he sees their thoughts to be vain He seeth that Ahitophels that Tullies that Pharaohs thoughts even when they intend to deale wisely are vaine Let men applaud them yet God derideth them 2. The Lord knoweth the thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their reasonings their choisest acts of the understanding their best and most accurate Discourses all their Logick as it were to be a meer fallacy And then Lastly To be vain to be fruitlesse to be empty they make empty webs all the day long Domitian the Emperour is derided for spending time in catching of flies and yet as vain and foolish are all the thoughts and projects of every natural wise man So that what Motto the wise man would write upon every creature Vanity of vanity all is vanity So the same may be upon all the best thoughts meditations and counsels of the wisest men and if a mans mind be vain every thing else in him must needs be vanity for this is the salt that seasons a man and if that hath lost its seasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become a fool all is likewise foolish Observe That the choisest and best thoughts of the wisest men are vaine We may consider man in a three-fold capacity 1. Politicè as a political creature endued with civil wisdome and so is part of a society and thus his thoughts are vain 2. Ethicè as he is to walk according to the Rules of reason which sound and rectified nature doth guide a man in and thus he is vain 3. Theologicè as he is to look up to Heaven to obey God and to aim at supernatural happinesse And in this sense especially he is a most vain empty man and to this the Apostle relateth To open the Doctrine let us consider In what sense the Scripture useth the word vain and you shall see them fitly applicable to the wisest mens thoughts that what is said of mans body may also be true of his soul Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 And First That is said to be vain which is empty and void of that worth and excellency which ought to be within Thus a fool is called often a vain person because he is empty of that solid judgement and reason which ought to be in a man Hence foolish persons are compared to empty straws that are blown up and down with every wind because they have no weight in them Nabals name and his nature agreed he was a fool The word comes of a root that signifieth to wither As the withered branch hath lost all its sap and juice so a fool hath And thus the thoughts of all men naturally are empty void and destitute of true wisdome They knew not wherein true happinesse doth consist or what is the way that looketh to it they do not provide for eternity they consider not that upon this moment depends eternity they look not out to the best and choisest things in the first place all that inward juyce and sap of spiritual wisdom is taken from them Secondly That is said to be vanity which seemeth to have great happinesse and content in it but indeed it 's the clean contrary A vain thing is that which hath a goodly appearance but inwardly hath no profit As those apples of Sodome so much spoken of Thus Eve called her son Abel vanity because she thought that before she had brought forth the man the feed that should break the Serpents head but finding him to be without the Image of God and devoid of all holinesse subject to mortality she called him Abel as deceived in her expectations And thus it is with all the thoughts of the wisest in the world they think at first they have possessed a man brought forth that which will accomplish all their desires but upon experience they see it is an Abel it 's vanity So that as Solomon tels us of a vanity in all earthly comforts in riches and pleasures because though they have a goodly appearance yet there is indeed no substance no solidity like the thorns which have white flowers but thorns Thus it is with the best and choisest thoughts and projects of the wisest men they have a goodly lustre you would think such wise men could not but be happy their expectations are raised but the issue doth deceive them Call us not Naomi but Marah may they say Thirdly Vanity in the Scripture is often applied to a lie Every man speaks vanity to his neighbour that is a lie Psal 12.2 And thus the thoughts of the most wise are a lie Let God be true and every man a liar Rom. 3.4 All thy thoughts are so many lies Now a man is a liar two wayes 1. To himself And then 2. To others To himself all his thoughts are a meer lie They promise such happinesse glory and felicity to themselves and in the mean while they are very lies they prove as the Land-flood as a reed a man leaneth on The rich man that said Thou hast many goods laid up his thoughts were so many lies Those proud thoughts of Tyre and Sidon that set her heart as God and said No evil should come near them were nothing but lies And if this were only in temporal and fading things the deceit would not be so dangerous but it 's in spiritual things also All mens thoughts naturally are concerning the goodnesse of their heart the purity of their wayes the happinesse of their condition but in all things they lie most damnably What a dangerous lie was that of Laodicea who said She was rich and cloathed and wanted nothing when indeed she was naked miserable and wanted all things Revel 3.17 All the Pharisees thoughts whereby they trusted in their own righteousnesse and justified themselves were nothing but lies And thus John Baptist reproved the Jews for their vain thoughts Thinke not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father Mat. 3.9 The thoughts of men are never more dangerously vaine than when they please themselves about their good condition as to spirituals that all is well with them that God loveth them these are lying vain thoughts Again The thoughts of all men naturally are lies actively in respect of others They are full of falshood and dissimulation there is no truth or sincerity in men as David complaineth Psal 12. And the Prophet Isaiah complaineth Every one is an hypocrite the best is a liar Isa 9.17 That as the sheep runneth to the briars to shelter her self in a storm but they prove a lie because they tare her in stead of defending her Thus it is with all men therefore he is said to be cursed that puts his trust in men Jer. 17. For unlesse men have godlinesse and so are made sincere and unfeigned there cannot be any trust in them Hence are those Rules of wise men Nemini fidas in teipso spes tuas pone Fourthly Vanity is often in Scripture used for that which is
not Christ ours because though Christ was given for us yet it was as a Mediatour to work our peace that so thereby he might be exalted and might have the preheminence in all things So that the Church is for Christ not Christ for the Church Secondly Because all things in the world are ordered by his providence onely but the whole worke of God about his children is the effect of his Predestination Now Predestination is an act of his more immediate love than Providence is and the Providence of God is subservient to his Predestination Therefore is Gods care and government over all things that he may attain the ends of his Predestination Insomuch that there had been no Creation at first no world at all nor would there still be any sustentation or conservation of it were it not for the Churches sake Vse 1. Of Exhortation to the godly to live by faith on such principles What generous noble and heavenly dispositions would these thoughts breed Scito te Deum esse said one thinking the soul to be a beam of that Divine Essence but thou mayest truly say God hath made thee heir of all things It 's not the Devil but God that doth now shew thee the glory of the world and the Church and saith All these things are thine Consider then whether they be thine by that spiritual end they are intended for Do all creatures all conditions all events make thee more godly Do they work such divine effects upon thy soul Oh do not thou be thy own adversary herein Vse 2. Of Terrour to wicked men for it followeth by way of contraries Nothing is yours viz. for your spiritual good The Ministry God gives is not for you The mercies you have they are not for your souls health Oh the depth of thy unspeakable misery whether life or death all things help thee forward to hell Having asserted a comfortable and rich Doctrine out of these words for the godly we proceed to make some Objections or doubts about it which will be as file to the iron or like the Wine-presse to the Grapes to prâ—sse out the sweet Wine therein And indeed this truth seemeth Obnoxious to many Exceptions as in Religion there are many Doctrinal points which do amaze humane reason such as that of the Trinity the Incarnation of Christ the Resurrection of the body so there are also many Practical Positions which seem contrary to all reason and experince of which this in my Text is one All things are the godly mans It seemeth to be an Idea or meer fiction and expression if we consult with what befals the godly Come we therefore to Answer some of the Objections And First The doubt may be How are all things the godly mans for his use and spiritual edification when many times we see the godly man gets no goâ—d by these The Corinthians who had Paul and Apollo and all those eminent Teachers for their use yet by their Divisions and carnal Emulations they made no spiritual improvement of them How many Sermons and Sabboths do even the godly let go that there never appeareth any footstep of them as if they had never been And then as for their mercies and their afflictions how many times do these draw out their corruptions and they seem to be the worse for them To Answer this First We must distinguish between Gods intention in giving these and the godly mans actual improvement of them to that end When the Apostle saith All things are yours his meaning is on Gods part His love is so great that for the godly only all things in Heaven and Earth were created If so be therefore at any time these things turn to thy hurt blame thy self The Physician will tell the Patient sometimes All these Potions and all these Cordials they are yours you are to take them you may expect much good and ease by them But if the Patient be wilfull and disorder himself it is his fault not the Physicians that they do hurt So that the meaning is all things in their creation and Institution were for the godly mans good Therefore Secondly The godly man through his weaknesse and sinfulnesse not walking up to Gods order may make that an hinderance which God intended a furtherance A godly man may receive the Word and Ordinances sometimes in vain Sometimes afflictions may for the present make him more froward and passionate and mercies more presumptions and confident as the Examples of David and others shew So that our folly and corruptions mingle bitter things with Gods sweet and then we complain this Text is not true The foolishnesse of a man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19.3 When we do not our duty we think God doth not fulfill his Promise Our waies are unequall and then we think Gods are not equall So that you must understand this Promise All things are yours in a well ordered use of the means as all other Promises are It 's said The Spirit will lead you in all truth Joh. 16.13 Gods Word is promised to be accompanied with the fulnesse of the Lords blessing to those that are his But how If we order and prepare our selves If we do not put in some barre and obstructions For sinne that withholdeth good things from us that separates between God and us as also between these Promises and us Thirdly Though the godly may for a while make these things against their end and not for it yet this will not be alwaies Nay God will so order it that this decay of theirs or this disorder shall likewise be turned to their good As those who through mistake may swallow down some strong Physick though for the present they may be deadly sick and worse then ever they were yet afterwards it may be they are the better for such violent helps Fourthly When we say all things are the godly mans you must take them in their Collective cooperation as Rom. 8. All things work together This particular or that particular may throw thee down may make thee worse but then God bringeth about some other things that help altogether for thy good As they say of Aegypt All the venemous Herbs grow there and also all the Antidotes are to be had there Where there is a Malady there is also a Remedy And truly thus Gods dispensations are with his Children This or that particular may hinder thee this or that may prejudice thee but God hath appointed other things to correct these There is a benigne influence with the malignant as it were and both tempered together advance speedily towards Heaven The second doubt is this If all things are for the godly and only theirs exclusively to the wicked then this may seem to justifie all the wickednesse and impiety of ungodly men Why should they be blamed if they get no good by the Ordinances if they profit not under the Ministry for God did not intend them for their
a curse a punishment and so can be no more for good then hell and damnation can be Insomuch that to the wicked man death and hell are both alike they are of the same nature He can take no more comfort from one then from the other when death is approaching then also is hell and everlasting torments This is decreed immutably for every man once to die It was a vain boast of Paracelsus to think That if he had had the ordering of himself from his birth he could have preserved his life alwayes These are mad delusions Where sinne is there death followeth and it would be an excellent Antidote against sinne to consider what followeth it When thâ—u entertainest any sinne thou biddest death also come in at the door as pleasant and as delightfull as it is yet it brings death Thirdly Though death be in it self thus a curse and cometh as a punishment to wicked men yet unto the godly it is of a clean contrary nature The guilt and curse of it is taken away It 's no more the execution of that dreadfull sentence Thou shalt die but the chastisement of a loving Father because God loveth his children therefore they die death is made like Jacob's Chariot as the old man rejoyced when he saw that because it would carry him to see Joseph whom he so much longed for Thus doth death to the godly man It 's the glad messenger that comes to carry him to his Father to eternal glory It 's true the godly man dieth as well as the wicked he hath the same diseases the same paines but the Nature of them is farre different one is a curse to the wicked a beginning of hell and torments The other is a mercy to the godly and a passage to eternal glory Even as the afflictions which befall the godly they come from Gods love Whom I love I chasten Heb. 12. Thus it is also with death it self Lastly The ground why death is thus altered to the godly man why he should thus differ from the wicked men is wholly from Christ and his death as appeareth 1 Cor. 15.54 O death where is thy sting Death is swallowed up You would think the grave swalloweth up the godly man but his body swalloweth up the grave The sting of death is sinne if that be taken away the Snake cannot hurt now the guilt of sinne is removed by Christ Do not then think it impossible that ever such a terrible thing as death should be made lovely and the thoughts of it sweet and comfortable Yes by Christ all the terrour is done away As death had no power over him so neither shall it have over the godly These things premised Let us consider in how many particulars death is a godly mans it 's for his benefit and comfort And First In this respect Because by death he gaineth he is invested with greater glory joy and happinesse than this world can afford All the while a godly man liveth in this world he is a loser he is kept from his best treasures he is not enjoying his best blessings which will be vouchsafed to him This the Apostle you have admirably expressing Phil. 1.23 Paul is there in a great strait he knoweth not how to be content to live he can hardly satisfie himself to be kept from Christ so long To die is gain saith the Apostle and to depart and to be with Christ is farre better Paul is willing to live for the Churches good but yet that is not so good to him as to die Oh if a godly man could raise up his heart to such faith as Paul had he would even think this world an Aegypt this life a prison it 's to my losse to be here I might have better company better glory better joy every thing transcendently better Indeed we reade of Elisha and Jonah desiring death from impatiency because of the vexations upon them but that was sinfull But to long for and hasten the coming of Christ to be above the love of life and all outward comforts above the fear of death because of the heavenly affections the soul is transported with to Christ this is admirable Oh then that we were not such worms but like Larks could rise out of the earth and soar up into Heaven with holy joy and delight of spirit then death would be as a gain to us and life as a losse Yet this is not so to be understood as if death in it self were to be desired or to be prayed for for in it self it is a natural evil and so is only to be submitted to patiently not desired but the consequent of it viz. eternal glory this is to be prayed for as the Apostle doth fully expresse it 2 Cor. 5.4 We would gladly be cloathed with immortality yet to put off this mortal body is grievous as little children cry for their new garments and yet cry while they are putting them on Secondly Death is a godly mans Because it putteth a period to all those miseries and troubles he was here exercised with It 's the haven after all the tossings he had in this world If we had hope only in this life saith Paul 1 Cor. 15. we were of all men most miserable therefore death is that which makes them happy Alas were it not for death their reproaches would be eternal their persecutions would be everlasting Insomuch that death must be as welcome to them as the divisions of the waters of Jordan were to the Israelites to come out of Aegypt Mat. 24. Lift up your heâ—d for your redemption draweth nigh And Christs coming not only at the Day of Judgement but at the particular death of every godly man is the coming of the Bridegroom Then all tears are washed from their eyes Their happinesse doth not begin till death arrests them Now in this world for the most part the godly have the bitter things thereof Dives had the good things of this life when Lazarus had the bitter Besides the hatred and opposition in the world They groan under the guilt of sinne under the power of sinne Now death puts a stop not onely to worldly troubles but all spiritual diseases This flux of blood will run no more they shall have no more pride no more unbelief no more doubting about the pardon of sin in a moment their souls will be made like a paradise like the upper region no clouds no fears at all Thirdly Death is theirs Because it 's the finishing of all their worke and servâ—ce and by that they come for their wages How doth the labouring man long for the end of the day or the week that he may come to receive his wages Thus is death God putteth all his children on work he giveth them all talents and he takes them not away till they have done their work for which he appointed them Thus Moses Gods servant dieth Thus David served in his generation Thus Paul finished his course When they have done all their
them meeting in this they bring good to the godly man And 1. There are happy and prosperous events Or 2. Adverse and afflicting ones And For the first What ever mercies or good things come about they are the godly-mans in these respects First They are for his necessary use and supply They come as so many gifts immediately given by God for thy necessities And when I say use I mean a sanctified use All the food raiment and wealth he hath are sanctified in their use to him and this the Scripture speaks of as a property to the godly only Wicked men may abound in wealth honours greatnesse but they are a curse to them they have them not from God as intending good to them thereby But as the Rule is Corpora impura quantò plus nutrias impuriora reddis The more you nourish unwholsome bodies the better food they have the more doth their disease increase So these worldly mercies draw out the lusts of wicked men the more Take notice of these two Texts Tit. 1.15 and 1 Tim. 4.5 There we may see a curse is upon every creature It 's unclean to a wicked man though he hath a civil right to his estate and comforts yet he can make no sanctified use of them for their own persons are not pure and sanctified and so nothing belonging to them is pure Seeing therefore there is a curse by Adams fall upon every creature Thy food thy raiment thy goods thy estate they neeâ—â—anctification by the Word and prayer Therefore the godly only have the sanctified use of them because they are humble in prayer for the cleansing of them But how atheistical are the men of the world They labour to have this state and that state still more and more not at all enquiring whether this come sanctified to them or not Doth not health wealth and all outward mercies come with the curse upon them they had at first The Devils Have not they a life Are not they preserved in their being Yet this is no mercy to them And thus it is with all wicked men We see what Paul saith Rom. 11.9 Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block It 's a terrible place A mans table his dainties his greatest pleasure may be made a snare to thee Wouldst thou receive the richest goods that are brought into thy house if the plague or infection were on them Couldst thou endure to have one at thy table to lay a snare to catch thee in thy words to bring thee in temporal danger And art not thou afraid thy house thy estate thy wealth may be made by God a snare to thee But how happy are the godly that how great soever the outward mercies are yet they are pure and sanctified to them The danger is taken off by Christs death Secondly These prosperous things are not only in a sanctified way to the godly but God alâ—o requireth that with joy and gladnesse we should make use of them for his glory It 's lawfull for them to eat and drink and enjoy the good mercies they hâ—ve with a cheerfull joyfull spirit I speak not of carnal and sinfull joy which quickly ends in terrour and trembling and is like the crackling of thorns that make a blaze but immediately go out No but of a well-ordered gladnesse and joy in the good things God bestoweth on them For God doth not call his people to a worldly dejected sorrow which worketh death but to a godly sorrow which causeth great joy and serenity of spirit Insomuch that Scripture speaks of it as a provoking sinne if we do not serve the Lord with joy and and gladnesse of spirit when he bestoweth these outward mercies upon us Deut. 28 47. Many terrible curses are there threatned to Israel Because they did not serve God with joyfulnesse and gladnesse of heart for the abundance of all things If therefore God giveth thee plenty of outward things and thou doest not serve him with joyfulnesse and thankfulnesse of heart it is a provoking sinne God doth not only love a cheerfull giver but a cheerfull receiver also of his mercies So then when prosperous things befall thee thou mayest with great joy of heart make use of them Thirdly These prosperous things are not only sanctified to them but they are also made sanctifying of them God giveth them those good things of the body to make their souls better Abraham had many outward mercies but these also were helpfull to his graces he was rich in faith as well as in cattel and great substance Thus Godlinesse hath the promise of this life and the life to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To have the good things of the world and not the gracious things of the Gospel and the glorious things of Heaven is to have a cistern but to be without the fountain to have a starre but to want the Sunne Art thou drawn near to God more improved in holinesse by all the mercifull things thou hast Then art thou beloved of God God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith Jam. 5. And The poor receive the Gospel Be afraid lest wealth and greatnesse make thee reject the Gospel When thy outward mercies are sanctified then art thou happy Fourthly These prosperous present things are theirs Because they know how to make the present use of them for Gods glory As life was theirs and death theirs because they only could live well and die well so present riches present death present comforts are theirs because they know how to make the present improvement of them The Scripture still presseth While we have opportunity to do good to lay hold on it and while it is called to day 2 Heb. 3.15 Do good with thy present wealth improve thy present strength thy present health for who knoweth how long thou mayest enjoy it especially of all present things the present time is a godly mans Redeem the time Ephes 5.16 And now is the acceptable time 2 Cor. 6.2 This is a great part of wisdome to make the present time ours even now to turn to God now to reform and amend One Heathen complained that his friends were fures temporis the thieves of his time they stole that precious jewel away from him by their visits Oh take heed that no lusts no pleasures no enticements and worldly delights steal away thy present time it is all thou hast and it 's but a moment yet on this moment depends eternity Well therefore is it for the godly who knoweth how to make the best improvement of all prices put into his hand A Christian is not called to ease but labour to a spiritual merchandize to make profit of every thing And thus it should be with every godly man there is nothing befals thee no good comes to thee but thou shouldst bethink thy self how can this be improved for God How may I make heavenly advantages of these things Thus be like the Bee sucking honey out of every herb
buâ— shew the worlds glory yet to shew here is to give to enjoy to make them to partake of it As Psal 60.3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things which was the making of them to drink the Wine of astonishment Even as to see Heaven to see death is to partake of them Observe That no Natural or Vnregenerate Man can lift up his heart any higher then unto a worldly Happinesse and content in the Creature When you have in the most powerfull and moving manner discovered spiritual duties and the necessity of Conversion to God yet they matter it not they will say Who will shew us any good That as it is with the Swine though Pearles and precious Flowers be thrown unto her yet she trampleth them under her feet and desireth her draffe and the loathsome mire so it is with them To bring this coal of fire into your bosome let us consider several Propositions First That herein lyeth the general Character of those two Citizens which Austin speaks of one who builds up Babylon and the other who builds up Jerusalem That the one doth frui utendis and uti fruendis but the other is clean contrary The whole world consists of two sorts of men the one who are of the world the other though in the world yet not of it As John 17. Believers are said to be given to Christ out of the world As a man may be in England who is not yet an English-man he cannot speak the language he cannot conform to the custom and manners of the Nation Thus it is here the godly they are indeed in the world and are of it also in respect of natural propagation but not by divine Regeneration As the Fowles though at first God created them out of the waters yet they fly up into the Heavens and delight to be soaring in the air Thus it is with the Regenerate man he is now made a new creature old things are past away and his affections are set upon things above This earth is turned into fire But the wicked man he like our body of the earth is earthly even his very soul is in a spiritual sense so and their love to the creature is the predominant quality and so like a stone he falls into this center Now Austin of old did fully expresse the contrary inclination of these two That the wicked man doth frui utendis that is he doth enjoy as his utmost end and terminateth his appetite in such things as his utmost happinesse which only he is to use as meanes to a further end As if the Israelite should have made the Wildernesse instead of the Land of Canaan to him This is the crooked and perverse inclination of the soul wholly contrary to that Image of God which man was made in So that the very Heathens could observe that though God made man with a countenance caelumque tueri yet they cried out O curvae in terris animae caelestium inanes The body is upright but the soul is bowed down like the bodies of beasts like wormes and Serpents that crawle on the ground And therefore the wicked are the Serpents seed not only because of enmity to the godly but because they lick up and live upon the dust of the earth even upon earthly things Every wicked man he makes some creature or other to be as a God and so the ultimate end to him To clear the hainousnesse of this wretched temper consider Secondly That all the good things which the creatures do afford unto us they are but as meanes to carry us to a further end They are but as the rounds of the Ladder not to stand upon but thereby to ascend higher even to Heaven So that as the world is a Glasse to represent the invisible Attributes of God his Wisdome Goodnesse and Power thus all the comforts we can have by any creature they are to be as so many mementâ—es that there is a better and more universal good and that we have the creatures to use only not to enjoy Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. They that buy as if they bought not they that use the world as not abusing it Some expound abuti as it is sometimes taken for valdo uti but howosoever he abuseth it that doth not use it as if he used it not with an holy weaned affection from it Hence then to enjoy any creature setting it in Gods room in the heart is a direct breach of that first Commandement Thou shalt have no other gods besides me And for this reason covetousnesse is called Idolatry Col. 3 5. Insomuch that every natural man hath one thing or other on which he commits Idolatry and therefore doth as highly offend God as he that worships stocks and stones giving divine adoration to them The Scripture cals that The abominable thing Thus it is when the heart of a man is fastned upon any creature as the ultimate scope and end of his desires we may say to him Oh do not this abominable thing Yea this Idolatry is more dangerous by how much it is the more secret and hidden in the heart And as the Papists have invented a world of subtile distinctions to make their Idolatry lawfull no lesse subtile is the heart of man in this soul Idolatry Thirdly Take notice that there is an higher and grosser sort of unregenerate men then happily this expression will comprehend and that is those who make such things as are formally and expressly evil the good things they would have shewed to them Such are all grosse and prophane sinners who live in the daily practice of some loathsome sinne These are a degree higher in wickednesse then those in my text though they may be reduced to them for here the Psalmist speaks of such things as are lawfull and good in themselves Honours Wealth humane greatnesse comfortable Relations these are good things in themselves and to say Who will shew us them in a mortifyed and subordinate manner to God had been no sin But when they come in competition with Gods favour they had rather have them then Gods light of his countenance this demonstrateth impiety But as for the prophane man his appetite is more corrupted for he cals evil things good he loveth those things excessively which he is not to love at all The other loveth Honey but he eateth too much of it and that kils him this eateth Poyson and feedeth of that one drop whereof is immediately mortal But to these I shall not enlarge my self Fourthly Consider this That the Schoolmen do well place in every sinne a a two-fold respect There is the Aversion from God and the Conversion to the creature For seeing the soul cannot like the earth hang upon nothing but it must have some Object or other to satiate it self with if it hath not God it hath the creature Now as soon as ever it turneth to the creature it turneth its back upon God I speak of the sinfulnesse of man
so that the King be safe Thus let honours creatures self and all perish so that God and Christ be exalted Every man even he that seemeth to be the best hath cause to search whether he be yet above creatures as well as sinne The Demonstrations of this Truth that no man Vnregenerate can ascend any higher then to some earthly content and Happinesse And first This will palpably evidence it that every man by nature hath lost the Image of God which only did elevate man and made him qualified for the enjoyment of God as his suitable Object God made man after his Image which was righteousnesse and true holinesse so that as he made a woman like man for man to delight in so man was made like God to delight in him Then Adam desired no other good but God While he continued he was above the creatures in his affection as well as in dominion He that had power given him to rule over all creatures could also rule over all his affections He did not over-love any creature or delight in it but subordinately to God Oh glorious and blessed estate But now we have lost all this this Image is defaced Now Sampson hath lost his hair Now the Bird is deprived of her wings Now we are not able to lift up our hearts to him Hence is that expression of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 17.6 His heart was lift up in the waies of the Lord. You see even a regenerate man hath much adoe to raise up his dull frozen and earthly heart to enjoy God in Christ He doth like the Artificer that with some Engine and great drawing gets a peice of timber up to the top of that House he is a building such heaving and pulling and tugging is a godly man forced to use to get his heart up to God An unregenerate man then who hath nothing of this Image of God repaired in him no wonder if he hath an heart like Nabal's even a very stone that sinketh down heavily within him This losse of Gods Image is that which beateth downward and makes the earth to swallow us up as it did Dathan and Abiram As the body deprived of the soul presently falls flat to the ground and there it lyeth thus doth every man destitute of Gods Image Secondly This Image of God being thus lost in the room thereof succeeds Original pollution For this light cometh an universal darknesse and confusion Now this native pollution that is a depravation of the whole power and all the faculties of the soul puts the soul off its hinges it takes off the Charriot Wheeles It makes man love where he should hate rest where he should move It makes Princes go on foot and Servants ride In a word the soul is now turned upside down God the Object whom he should with all his soul and might delight in now he loveth not at all and what he is allowed to love in measure and subordination that he doth over-love So that who so doth duely consider what disorder and confussion Original sinne hath put the heart into he will see it cannot be that God should be duely honoured and esteemed by a natural man This curious Watch is now broken all in pieces And as you see a Paralitical hand is weak and quaking not able to fasten upon any thing so is now the soul of man towards God Insomuch that Ambrose complained of it as our great misery that Cor nostrum non est in nostrâ poâ—estate our heart is not in our own power but is carried hither and thither up and down as the force of original corruption doth drive it How abominable then are those Doctrines that advance the power of nature Some determining that a man is able by nature to love God above all things and that it 's as easie to do things in reference to God as the creature If saith Molina no mean Jesuit I have power to throw my money into the Sea why cannot I as well give it to a poor man out of love to God Such presumptuous Doctrines as these arise from the ignorance of that horrible confussion and disorder which is now upon all by nature Thirdly If a godly man though regenerated and partaking of the Divine Nature do yet grapple and conflict with this sinne of creature affection above God then certainly an unregenerate man is over-mastered with it For this we may conclude on that what all the regenerate men are combating with that is victorious and predominant over all natural men It 's true the regenerate men differ in their fightings and conflicts some do find it a greater difficulty to loose and wean their affections from one thing more then from another and so the natural man one is more easily captivated to one earthly good then another yet in the general As â—here is no unsanctifyed man but one creature or other reigneth or ruleth in his heart so there is no godly man but something or other it is that he can hardly mortâ—fie some secret and subtile motions of soul he hath So that did not grace check and withâ—tand that creature that object would damn him at last If Eve though in a state of Integrity could be tempted by an object alluring sense how easily then may we be ensnared You read when our Saviour spake that amazing sentence That a Cammel might as well go through the eye of a needle as a rich man be saved they made this unversal exclamation Who then can be saved What rich man might have been a proper consequence but they say in the general Who then implying there is no man no not a godly man but if God should not keep down that Cammels bunch he would have some creature or other to be as affectionately and prejudicially to his salvation carried out unto as the rich man to his wealth I then the godly man can so hardly say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and in earth in comparison of thee no wonder if the earthly man fall down to the ground as the Aegyptians like a stone into the Sea That which is fighting and active in a regenerate man must needs be conquering in an unregenerate Fourthly That sinfulnesse which cannot be rooted out and conquered by those things that are above nature and are in the next degree to grace that certainly will abide prevalent till grace it self come That which Elisha's Servant nor his Staff will do but Elâ—sha must come himself that is hardly cured Now thus it is an unregenerate man may have great abilities may have the common gifts and graces of Gods Spirit he may be admirable in the whole way of Religion and yet this man who hath God and Christ so often in his mouth may have the world and creatures more in his heart So that he may in his heart say Who will shâ—w me any good when yet at that time he may say Lord lift up the light of thy countenance For this latter is not
had never seen him they had never known him If they had they would have been enammoured with him as well as the Church And thus when natural men wonder saying Why do these men thus pray thus mourn thus long after God Why is it that they are never satisfied but in him It 's a demonstration that this experimentall work hath never been upon thy heart If it had the spirit of Prophesie as I may so say would fall on thee also Thou wouldst admire the favour of God as well as they Seventhly Such only can desire the light of Gods countenance who have the Spirit of God working in them It 's that which maketh the soul go upwards We being like that man bowed down that Christ healed till the Spirit of God thus raise us up The holy Ghost came down in fire which denoteh the activty of it When fire assimilateth any thing into it self it makes it ascend upwards And thus when the Spirit of God converts and sanctifieth a mans soul it giveth it a contrary motion to what it had before Then it made provision for the flesh then it minded earthly things but now the Spirit of God hath raised it from the death of sinne That as you see it 's the mighty power of God which will make these bodies that are now corruptible heavy and pressing downwards to be immortal spiritual and so agile that they shall meet the Lord in the aire Even these bodies will be so transformed that they shall move in the air like Birds No wonder then if Gods Spirit is able so to work upon our hearts that they shall be constantly inclining to God And indeed none are to rest till they find God thus mightily prevailing upon them This excellent frame may be given by the Spirit and the Spirit is promised to such as ask for it Mat 6. Especially the Spirit of God as adopting enabâ—ling us to call God Father rebuking legall slavish feares and filling us with a filial and evangelical frame of heart Eighthly Therefore another Property of such who do thus highly esteem Gods favour is That they are diligent in Prayer and fervent in approaches to God Prayer is the ascending of the heart to God who is in Heaven The eyes lifted up argue what the heart should be Now Prayer is of this excellent advantage if spiritually and fervently performed that it carrieth up the soul to God and thereby God also manifests his loving kindnesse to his people Even as Moses upon his Communion with God had his face shine so gloriously that the people could not behold it and Christ himself upon Prayer had his countenance changed that his face did shine like the Sunne and his garments were white as snow So that such who esteem of Gods favour they are instant in Prayer They perform that duty with watching and attending thereunto which if so discharged then many consolations many irradiations of his favour are communicated to them So that a man diligent in Prayer is like the tree by the water side whose leafe will never fade Hence we have that encouragement No man seeketh Gods face in vain And no sooner did God command this but immediately David's heart yeelded to it Psal 7.8 Thy face Lord will I seek We cannot have it without seeking for it as that which is most precious and a very infinite Treasure And withall you see the encouragement God bespeaks it he saith Seek ye my face Lastly Such as prize the light of Gods countenance they walk closely with God and keep up strict Communion with him Slothfull and carelesse walking will never be blessed with this glorious advantage You read the Church was but once carelesse and negligent when Christ proffered himself and immediately Christ withdraweth so that though she runne up and down much perplexed to see the face of her Beloved again yet it cost her dear ere she could obtain it David began to have but some proud and presumptuous thoughts Psal 301.7 And God bid his face and then he was troubled You see a little thing a word a thought may do it Therefore those who desire to enjoy it they walk circumspectly lest they should do any thing that may make him angry with them Vse 1. Of Exhortation to Gods Children To keep up a tender mollified heart to take no rest till the light of Gods countenance shine upon thee Let not lusts passions or any thing be an eclipse between this glorious Sunne and you How can you live without this May not the Devil come with seven more tormenting Devils then ever if thou provoke God to withdraw his gracious presence To whom are woes To whom are sad terrours and perplexities of spirit but to such who cry out God frowneth on them Oh they feel his anger consuming of them Vse 2. Of Admonition to natural and unregenerate men To know there is a better good then ever yet they tasted Oh that thou couldst desire God as thou doest wealth and pleasures Is not the pleasant smiling face of some great Potentate a reviving to thee What endeavours for the favour of a great man who yet is mortal Will not this condemn thee at the Day of Judgment Oh how will the face of God be then esteemed of A Consideration of some false Grounds of a Perswasion of Gods Love We have declared already the Characters of such who can truly esteem the light of Gods favour let us now consider the condition of such who are mistaken herein and take that for Gods favour which is not And First There is the rich earthly or great man of the world He who aboundeth in all Prosperity and needeth nothing this man thinketh that Gods face is towards him in mercy They gather from all the mercies they enjoy that therefore God loveth them but this is a very dangerous mistake For 1. In the Scripture we read That chastisements and afflictions are sometimes an argument of Gods love and that God is never more angry then when he lets a mans waies be smooth and prosperous As it was with Moab because he was not moved often therefore he was setled upon the Lees. And thus in Hosea when God is angry in the highest manner then he threatens He will not punish their sonnes or daughters any more Hos 4.14 They therefore have little cause to boast in this That they are not afflicted as other men they are not in such bonds as others are For David Psal 73.6 did of old observe this That whereas the wicked of the world had all encouragements they had all temporal increase yet the godly were bowed down all the day long and that in those times when Promises of temporal abundance were in a larger way proposed to them If then the godly man had this measure in the Old Testamant no wonder if he meet with it much more in the New Testament where tribulations are made the Red Sea to go through into the Land of Canaan Hence the Apostle doth
bitterness at the latter end If these pleasures would not turn into torment then it were something but as these have abounded so will thy torments and troubles also abound Thou canst not say with Agag the bitterness of death and hell are past What is the sad end of all Dives his joy Yea sometimes they are destroyed in the very midst of all their pleasures as the Philistimes and as Nabal were Fifthly The joy and gladness of a godly man is stable and perpetual because the ground and cause of it is unchangeable God never ceaseth to be his Father he shall never be cast out of the state of Justification he shall never lose his interest in Heaven now this rock alwayes abiding their joy must also be immoveable It 's true though the godly have cause alwayes to rejoyce yet they do not so actually for the present they may mourn and be in bitterness but that many times is caused by their own sinne and weakness or else God to give them more comfort afterwards doth suspend present comfort as the Sunne is most welcome after a tempestuous black storme but though this be yet the foundation of their joy remaineth sure there is the same cause why they should rejoyce alwayes Oh but thus it is not with the unregenerate man all his joy is but a blaze and all the cause or ground of it is very uncertain Every creature and condition they rejoyce in is it not mutable To day laughing to morrow crying To day cheerfull because thou hast it to morrow mourning because thou hast lost it Thus in Job Chap. 20.5 Zophar saith The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of an hypocrite for a moment The oil to this lamp will quickly fail thy honours thy life thy wealth these things will not last alwayes Oh then should it not be thy wisdome to lay up for such joy that will abide continually that will never leave thee Is it not evident folly to take thy delight in that which may be lost the next hour As Jonah took great content in his Gourd and within a day a worme breedeth therein and consumeth all Therefore say of thy worldly joy as thou mayest of thy life it self It is but a buble a vapour here to day and gone to morrow if thou couldest preserve all this delight continually and death it self could not rob thee of it then go on and make much of it But to thy terrour thou wilt find the instability of it as with the Sodomites The morning was fair and pleasant but fire and brimstone was upon them before night For ought thou knowest thou mayest go from laughing here to eternal roarings in hell the next moment Sixthly Spiritual joyes transcend earthly because the soul can better perceive them they are of a more spiritual and penetrating nature and efficacy The soul can receive them as the spunge doth water or the iron doth fire the soul may be filled with it but all bodily delights and joy they are more gross and thick This reason give the Schoolmen why all soul delights are above the body and much more if they be spiritual and heavenly As those sinnes which are immediately seated in the soul they are more deep and inward then bodily sinnes so that joy and delight which enters immediately into a mans soul is farre more soaking and pressing then that which is upon the body primarily For bodily joyes are like the Sunne-beames which come in at a cranny or little hole but foul delight is as when the Sunne comes in at a window or at a great door there is capacity enough to receive it Seventhly All earthly joy is to be moderated we may sinne in it we may go too farre we may over-joy Therefore the Psalmist exhorts Psal 2. to rejoyce with trembling While we take any joy in these earthly things we are to do it with trembling for then is a temptation to sinne then are we in greatest danger in the midst of heat we are subject to take cold Hence the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. Those that rejoyce must be as if they did not rejoyce So great a care are we to have that our joy be moderated we do not say it 's unlawfull to take delight and joy in the creatures the Scripture commands to eat and drink with joy of heart only we must not joy excessively we may quickly let this joy overflow the bankes and certainly the carnal and immoderate joy that men take even in lawfull things is no little part of their iniquity For why is it that thy heart can rejoyce in outward mercies thou canst take delight in these creatures but hast none at all in heavenly things A Fair a Market is thy delight when thou canst not call the Sabbath a delight Is not all this because thy heart over-joyeth in these things Vse of Exhortation not to be disheartned at godliness as if it were a sad melancholy mopish life Oh know thou never comest to have true joy til thou live the godly exact and precise life The closer thou walkest with God the more fearfull to commit any sinne the more unspeakable and solid is thy joy Oh call not that laughter and mirth of the wicked man joy Solomon saith it 's not joy it 's madness Do not ye see mad men they will laugh and hoot and leap with jollity when they are bereft of reason and lye in chains bound up in a dark Dungeon Such is all the worlds laughter They die laughing They go to hell laughing and is not this madness Yet who can perswade men to leave their carnal jollity and to tast how good and pleasant the wayes of God are Well go on and take thy delights thou wilt have laughing enough one day for Prov. 1. God will laugh at thy destruction and mock when thy fear cometh Of the Godly Mans Holy Security and Admirable quietnesse of Spirit as another Effect of the Light of Gods Countenance PSAL. 4.8 I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety WE have heard of one glorious Effect of the light of Gods countenance upon David viz. A gladnesse surpassing all the joy that can be in the world now in this verse we have a second and no lesse noble Effect of the same cause For as the Sunne hath many severall and notable effects upon the earth it doth not only enlighten or comfort but makes fruitfull and aboundeth also in many other effects Thus the favour of God where that is perceived it is not one or two but many glorious consequents flow from thence And this in the text is an holy security and admirable quietnesse of spirit free from all sinfull distempers let his danger be never so great So that this heavenly tranquillity is a fruit of that Faith which he had in God at this time though so greatly tempted Therefore in the words you have David's godly security a fruit of his Faith
that to repine or to be discouraged is to say in effect Why is not God wiser Why doth he not order things with more perfect knowledge Oh but as long as faith worketh as long as that puts forth it self so long it beholds matter of wisdome and admiration in all Gods proceedings Secondly It represents the tender love and bowels of God as a Father so that all those strokes they come from love It 's his very pity for a while to break and bruise them that they may be healed more effectually Is the Artificer angry with his plate when he breakes it and throweth it into the fire No it 's for to make it more compleat If so be that we were wholly without corruption if we could walk without sinne then God would no more afflict us here on earth then he doth the glorified Saints and Angels in heaven but our corruption is such that God did not love us or regard us if he did not chastise us Thirdly Faith represents the soveraignty and supream dominion which God hath over the hearts of his children therefore he is called the Father of Spirits Now neither man himself nor all the Angels of heaven are able to give such a composed frame As God only knoweth the hearts of men so he only fashioneth and frameth them If you ask How is it possible that David should be thus immoveable What could keep in his corruption and flesh from repining and disturbing I answer it 's God with whom all things are possible It is this that faith suggests though thy heart be impatient though thou canst not command the waves thereof to be still yet God in heaven can Oh it 's easily confessed that it is not flesh and blood that can make such quiet calmness of soul No it must be an omnipotent work of the great God Did not God put terrour into Cain's heart that though he had built Cities though he did all he could to allay his spirit yet still he trembleth and cannot but tremble Thus on thâ— contrary God he puts joy into the heart of a believer he bids it lye down and be content and although never so many Hornets come buzzing to sting him yet faith keepeth them off â—o that that very frame of heart which even a godly man thinketh it impossible for himself ever to have that he finds sometimes and wonders how it should be so it's God that either layes load on or takes burdens off from the spirit So that the very same sinnes and temptations which formerly they could not apprehend without even faintings and swoundings of the soul now they can remember and bless God with joy for the pardoning of them Vse 1. of Instruction to distinguish between carnal security and godly confidence You have many a prophane man will say the words in my Text I will lye down and sleep it may be at the very Sermon time howsoever under the apprehension of their pleasures and profits they will with Dives bid their soul take its ease But can they say for the Lord taketh care of thee No but it may be this night the Devils will fetch thy soul It may be this night thou must be arraigned at Gods Tribunal Oh how many are sick of this spiritual lethargy How many men lye down securely to sleep that may awake in hell But the godly mans confidence ariseth from spiritual Motives insomuch that though death and the day of Judgement appear yet he may and ought to be thus affected The Difference between Carnal and Gratious Confidence We have heard that it is the property of faith depending on God in a vigorous manner to compose and quiet the heart in the midst of all calamities as if there were none aâ— all Now because even in wicked men there is a carnal senseless spirit that though the anger of God be upon them though their sinnes have found them out yet they can take their ease and pleasures and lay nothing to heart and this is an Epidemical disease It is good therefore to search into the bottome and difference of a gracious confidence from a carnal Now there are two sorts of these carnally confident and secure men under their troubles First There is the Stoical man of whom Senecae and others of that sect do much boast They speak great and swelling words about that man who shall fully have received their principles and confirme himself therein They commend in such a man an indolency and an impassibility that let him be dashed upon by never so many decumane waves yet for all that he stands immoveable like a rock and is not troubled Hence is that speech of theires so famous that their wise man if he were burning in Phalaris his Bull he would cry out Dulce est ad me nihil pertinet Thus the Stoical Philosophy would serve to set forth as admirable and composed a spirit under tribulations as the Christian Religion But Let us discover the sinfulness of such a Stoical stupid spirit And First Although the Stoicks did thus Thrasonically boast in their Books and Seneca speakes high and transcendent speeches in this matter yet when they came to practise they were feeble and effeminate So that they were nothing but words and empty expressions witness that Stoick who in his health had maintained that pain was nothing it was but a fancy when he was grievously tormented with the Gout cryed out of his errour acknowledging when he said so he did not know what pain meant But now if we look upon the godly in the midst of their exercises we shall find they did really put forth such calm and joyfull spirits under the heaviest pressures David you heard said he had done thus as well as he would do so and the Apostles went out rejoycing from the Councel where they had been persecuted because they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ Act. 5.41 And thus the many thousands of Martyrs they did though not in Phalaris his Bull yet in as great torments cry out Oh how sweet and comfortable is this So that no sect in Philosophy the Stoicks nor none else are able to bring such a multitude of Martyrs as the Christian Religion hath Therefore it 's only Gods Word and the Spirit of God that can enable us to rejoyce and take our rest under sad afflictions Secondly The Stoical discipline did teach a brutish stupidity and senslesness under miseries They would destroy the very passions of grief and fear from a man Thus they make a man to be no better then a stock or a stone that is sinking under the hammer and axe that comes upon it but Christian Religion doth not take away affections but it moderateth and ordereth them David you see though thus calme in his spirit yet he is affected with his calamity he goeth bare foot covereth his head and weepeth as he goeth and Christ himself wept at Lazarus his death It 's the Scriptures rule neither to despise
that these very considerations which should take them off from such security through their corruptions they further themselves in See this notably described Esa 22 12 13. When God call'd to weeping and mourning there was eating flesh and drinking wine the clearn contrary And what moved them even the sad condition they were in Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Oh why not rather Let us mourn and humble our selves for we shall die But they are desperate They will take their pleasures while they may they know not how soon they may be deprived of them Such as these are filled up with desperate prophanenesse That as Saul and his Armour-bearers did desperately throw themselves upon the Spear to kill themselves Thus do these men laugh and drink and will have their pleasures though they know death will deprive them of all Such men are said to make a league with hell and the grave They will do well enough for all this Or rather they think they shall be damned their conscience secretly whispers that to them therefore they will have their pleasures while they can O miserable and wretched men wo be to such that ever they were born Fourthly This prophane security differeth from spiritual confidence in respect of the Author and efficient cause For it 's plain who giveth David this holy quietnesse it 's God that maketh him dwell confidently it 's God that commands rest and ease to the soul whereas this carnal security cometh wholly from the Devil It 's he that lulleâ—h them asleep Our Saviour discovered this in that parable when he said While the strong one kept the house all things were in quiet You would wonder to see a man curse and swear and follow all the pleasures of his heart yet that he can lay himself to sleep that he should not think his chamber would be as â—ull of Devils as Pharaoh's was full of frogs That he should not cry out Oh I dare not sleep for fear this night the Devils fetch my soul to hell Now all this carnal security in his spirit ariseth from the Devil who is said to reign in the hearts of the children of disobedience It 's he that filleth the soul with spiritual madnesse As when he possessed the bodies of men he threw them into the fire and water and made them cut and launce their bodies without any grief at all the like he doth upon the souls of men hurrying them into beastly wicked and ungodly waies and by that meanes even into hell it self as he did the Herd of Swine when he entred into them carrying them violently into the Sea What was it that made Judas so desperately betray innocent blood though he had so much warning so many admonitions to the contrary Though some were stricken down with amazement yet nothing will stop him The Devil did drive him The Devil had entred into his heart even as he did also fill Ananias his heart So that as you see it 's with godly men when filled with the holy Ghost they would boldly confesse Christ though they endured all torments for it Thus when the Devil hath possession of mens hearts and the Lord leaveth them to his temptations then they are mad and obstinate they scoff and mock at the Day of Judgment As the Apostle Peter tels us of such prophane mockers Where is the day of his coming Are not all things as they were 2 Pet. 3 4. Thus like Leviathan they laugh at the Spear and as the Prophets hearers because he so often preached the burden of the Lord therefore they took it up by way of scoff The burden of the Lord The burden of the Lord. Thus do they about hell and damnation Fifthly Carnal security differeth from this heavenly confidence in respect of the Concomitants and Companions For though David had this great quietnesse of soul knowing God would help him yet he doth carefully use all the meanes God hath appointed He doth not presume or tempt God but he prayeth to God and flyeth for his safety and getteth all the possible succour he can So in that grand assurance and confidence which the people of God have about their eternal happinesse there is also an holy fear and trembling Therefore the Apostle exhorts to work out their salvation with fear and trembling And Paul himself who had so much confidence as to say Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ yet he kept under his body lest when he had preached to others he himself should become a reprobate 1 Cor. 9.27 But as for the wicked carelesse man he promiseth himself all happinesse and future good though he sit still and stirre not a foot towards Heaven yea though he go in the contrary path yet he flattereth himself as if that were the way to happinesse Vse of Terrour and we To all those Laish and Laodicean spirits who sit at ease and say They are rich and want nothing when indeed they are poor and miserable and want all things Oh turn your joy into sorrow Go out with Ephraim and let God see you smite upon the breast and strike upon the thigh crying out Oh what have I done Oh mad wretch that I am merry and jolly when in the Devils dungeon when in the chains of darknesse when upon the very borders of Hell It may shortly be no more said such an one is eating and drinking but his body rotting in the Grave and his soul roaring in Hell The Reason of the Saints Confidence is That God alone is their Preserver Shewing also the Waies and Meanes by which he doth Preserve them PSAL. 4.8 For thou alone doest make me dwell in safety IN these words we have a Reason why David hath such confidence it 's not from any carnal and outward Motive but only from divine consideration For in this also might be shewed the difference between carnal security and holy quietnesse The one is a fruit of a godly and diligent obedience to the Law of God and so is a fruit of the Promise as Prov. 3.23 24. You may see there a notable Promise for rest safety and sleep to such as follow Wisdomes Advice And Dâ—vâ—â— found God faithfull in his Word Psal 127. For so thou givest thy Belâ—vâ—â— sleâ—p But all earthly security ariseth from some temporal hopes they loâ—â— at in their dangers and therefore while they look for peace God makes calamity to arise on the suddain as 1 Thes 5.3 When they say peace and safety then suddain destruction shall arise as of a woman with Child and they shall not escape Suddainly in the midst of their mirth and jollity will their inevitable destruction arise David therefore hath a more firm and immoveable Rock and that is Gods Power and Preservation Which is expressed in The Effect of it And The solitary Efficiency of it The Effect is To dwell in safety David though now in banishment and had no House of his own to lay his head in