entertain them Page 10 †to be supprest Page 10 11 †good ones how to be raised a Page 11. ad 14 †bad ones how prevented a Page 14. ad 16 †evil ones how to be ordered when they intrudo Page 16 17 †good ones how to be ordered when they appear Page 17 18 †Time lost if not spent in getting Divine knowledge Page 463 4. Transubstantiation groundless Page 777. 815 6 7. 853. 1094. 11-10 Tree of Life no Type of Christ Page 730. Troubles Regeneration a comfort in them Page 115. and reconciliation Page 368. and saving knowledge Page 449. meditation on Christ's Exaltation would make us couragious under them Page 1107. Christ tender of his people in them Page 1156. Christ doth not remove but comfort under Page 1157. promise of the Churches stability a comfort in them Page 38 9 †sharp to be expected and provided for Page 53 †should not put us out of the way of duty Page 1217. 54 †56 †Vid. Afflictions Trust must be in God only Page 202 3. in God exercis'd by Christ Page 313. 904. the effect of saving knowledge Page 428. will be in God or something else Page 621. a strong ground for it in the Churches greatest miseries Page 37 †Truth of God overthrown by the Patrons of Free-will Page 159 160. appears in Regeneration Page 213. honoured in Christ Page 250 511. affronted by unbelief a Page 612. ad 616. the glory of God Page 613. highly valued by him Page 616. engaged for the safety of a believer Page 679. for the damnation of an Unbeleiver Page 702. rendred satisfaction by Christ necessary a Page 923. ad 926. the first object of Faith 1161. engaged for Sions stability Page 31 †Truths not believing some is not unbelief Page 606 7. those of Christ man an enemy to Page 714 15. Types of Christ things and persons that were so most largely spoken of in Scripture Page 261. of Christ's death a Page 947. ad 950. Vid. Sacrifices U. UNbelief how great a sin Page 298 284 304. an unworthy dealing with God and Christ Page 353 4. 655 spiritual apprehensions an antidote against it Page 554. the World understands it not to be a sin Page 558. the fountain of all sin Page 601 649. ad 652. the band of all sin Page 602 675. 6 7 8. t is the greatest sin proved in general a Page 602 ad 605. 908 9. what it is not a Page 605 ad 608. what is it Page 608 9 10. it affronts God in all his Attributes a Page 612. ad 623. its malignity against Christ a Page 624. ad 629 1149. and the spirit Page 629 630. as bad nay worse than the Jews crucifying Christ a Page 630. ad 640. like the Devils first sin nay worse a Page 640. ad 645 740. like Adam's sin nay worse Page 645 6 7. 730. a sin against the law of nature Page 647 8. 9. defiles the choicest faculties Page 652 3. most odious to God Page 653. the Patience of God where 't is total or partial great Page 653 4. 699. its blackness a motive to Faith Page 655. speculative irrational Page 656 7 8. 699. 734 5. 743. practical irrational Page 658 700 1. 699 700 1. 741. 743. ungrateful Page 659 687 8 9. inexcusable Page 659 689 690 1. what kind of misery follows it Page 659 695 6 7 8. all should be sensible of it and why Page 660 1 2. 743 4. watch against it Page 662 3. 744. endeavour to come out of a state of it Page 663 4. 742 3. praise due from those that are got out of it Page 664. eternal wrath unavoidably follows it Page 374 a 675. ad 686. 692 3 4. 908. 1201 2. why eternal wrath follows it a Page 686 ad 692. not the only sin that damns Page 675. Gods anger chiefly discovered against it Page 684 5 6. we should be sensible of the misery that attends it Page 703 4. and the justice of that misery a Page 704 ad 707. 't is just ibid. to be detested Page 707. common among professors Page 712 13. the sin of the old World Page 713 717. natural to man a Page 714. ad 719. its causes Page 284. a 730. ad 740. its frequency to be lamented Page 740 1. directions against it Page 742 3. Vnbelievers who are a Page 719. ad 730 786. Vnderstanding the first blot of sin was on it Page 153. of man its blindness Page 153 565. some notions left in it Page 179. Regeneration begins in it and how 't is wrought upon a Page 218 ad 220. 440 470. enlightned by the spirit in conviction Page 574. enlightned in a renewed man Page 92 †Vnregenerate their actions only seemingly good Page 22 3. their misery Page 49 50 51. 133. their condemnation whether simply for not being regenerate Page 178. conscience awakened accuses more for wilful sins than for being unregenerate Page 183. must not come to the Supper Page 777. a 780 ad 784. sin alive in them Page 1314. Vnion of the two natures fitted Christ to be a Redeemer Page 287 291. by the Holy Ghost Page 290. with God and Christ not without regeneration Page 31 2. of a believer with Christ the ground of imputation Page 869 1200. makes him happy Page 701. in the Lords Supper Page 762. explained Page 1339. by Faith Page 1200. the foundation of communion Page 1341 2. Vnworthy receiving the Sacrament what a Page 816. ad 819. its sinfulness Page 819. its danger Page 8â—0 to be examined and avoided Page 822. Voluntary services from a regenerate man and him only Page 24 89. Christs death was Page 384 837 877 918 106 †its voluntariness explained Page 877. 8 9. proved Page 880. necessary it should be Page 881. W. WAnts of believers shall be supplied Page 340. Watchfulness over our hearts a means of Mortification Page 1321. a means to pervert bad thoughts Page 15 †to be join'd with Prayer Page 17 †Weak Grace Vid. Grace Will those that are weak in Grace should see how that stands Page 117. naturally corrupt Page 143. 152. cannot regenerate it self a Page 144. ad 147 a 156. ad 174. cannot co-operate with God in Regeneration a Page 171 ad 174. its Liberty Vid. Liberty conceits of its freedom in spirituals groundless proud dangerous Page 198. ad 202. God only can work on Page 208. not left in indifferency in Regeneration Page 214 221 226. immediately wrought on in it Page 220 453. not compelled in it Page 221. subjecting Gods grace to it absurd Page 1353. of a renew'd man changed Page 92 †Vid. Regeneration Wilfulness the cause of mens ruin Page 705 6. Vid. Impotence Wisdom of God overthrown by the Patrons of free-will Page 157. in governing free agents Page 179. not disparaged in his commands and promises though special grace be denied Page 191. displayed in Regeneration Page 214. glorified in Christ Page 250 257 344 505. Christ filled with and why Page 295. 1133. known
erected his stately head to seise upon the prey then God wounded him put an end to Aegypts pride and the Israelites fear He loves to beat down the pride of the one and raise up the lowliness of the other When Herod will assume the title of a God given him by the acclamations of the People an Angel shall immediately make him a Banquet for Worms Acts 11.22 23. When Sennacherib had prospered in his Conquest of Judea had taken many strong Towns closely be leaguered Jerusalem thundred out blasphemies against God and threatnings against his People then comes an Angel makes an horrible slaughter in a night sends him back to his own Country where after the loss of his Army he lost his life by the hands of his own children A greater pride cannot be exprest than what the Apostle predicts of the Man of Sin and that hath been extant for some time in the world * 2 Thes 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God in additions to the word clipping the Institutions of God and adding new and canonizing new Mediators of Intercession who sits in the Temple of God in a profession of Christianity shewing himself that he is God assuming the name of God and the title of God in being called most holy And perhaps it will yet amount to a higher step than it hath yet done before he be consumed by the brightness of the Lord 's coming since all that yet lets and hinders is not taken out of the way The higher the pride the nearer the fall When Goliah shall defie the God of Israel a stone from a sling thrown by the hand of David our great David the Antitype shall lay him vomiting out his soul and blasphemies on the Earth We are many times more beholding to the Enemies insolence than our own innocence Deut. 32.17 Were it not that God feared the wrath of the Enemy i. e in their pride lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high a sinful Israel should not have so many preservations * Trap on Exod. p. 9. When they will ascend into Heaven and exalt their Throne above the Stars of God when they will ascend above the heights of the Clouds and be like the most High then shall they be brought down to Hell to the sides of the Pit Isa 7.13 14 15. The highest Towers are the fairest marks for Thunder and the readiest Tinder for the lightning of Heaven When Tyrus had set her heart as the heart of God then would God defile her brightness and make her die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the Sea Ezek. 28.6 7 8. 3. Eager malice Nothing would Satisfie the Aegyptians here but the bloud of the Israelites My hand shall destroy them they were under a cruel bondage attended with anguish of Spirit before God began their rescue The serpents seed have the same principles of craft and malice sown in their nature that are resident in his ever since the beginning he endeavoured to shape men into the same form and temper with himself Their rage would raze out the very foundation of Israel and not suffer the name to be had any more in remembrance Psa 83.4 They love to be drunk with the blood of the saints and are no more satisfied with blood than the grave with carcases they repair their arrows and watch for an opportunity to discharge them and never want poison but opportunity this is Gods time to deliver When Pharaoh would pollute the land with the blood of the Hebrew males and ordain them to be drag'd from the womb to the slaughter then God raises up himself to attempt the rescue of Israel yet he bears with his insolence punisheth him but not destroys him But when he would be still stiff against a sense of the multitude of plagues and a greater mercy of patience in them when he would arm for the field against that God the smart of whose force he had felt and resolves to destroy or bring back the Israelites upon the point of his Sword God would then bear no longer but make the water his sepulchre When Haman designs the ruine of the Jews procures the Kings commission sends dispatches to all the governours of the Provinces sets up a gibbet for Mordecai and wants nothing but an opportunity to request the Execution he tumbles down to exchange his princes favours for an exaltation on the Gallows Est 6.4 Est 7.10 When the Serpent encreased his malitious cruelty and cast out a flood against the Church God makes the earth the carnal world to give her assistance and repel the force that Satan used against her * Rev. 12.15 16. The earâ—h helped the woman When multitudes shall gather together in the valley of decision then shall the Lord roar out of Sion and be the hope of his People and the strength of the Children of Israel Joel 3.14.16 And when Spiritual Aegypt shall make a war against Christ who sits upon the white horse and combine all their force for the destruction of his people then shall the Beast and the false Prophet be taken and brought to their final ruine and their force be broken in a lake of fire as that of Aegypt was in a Sea of water Rev. 19.19 20. The time of their greatest fierceness shall be the time of Christs fury he will strike them sorest when he finds them cruellest their rage shall rouze up his revenge when the men of Sodom to which the Antichristian state is likened shall be resolutely bent to wickedness they shall be struck with blindness and that blindness suceeded by destruction then will God set bounds to the outragious waves and snatch the prey out of the teeth of the Lyons 4. Confident security I will divide the Spoil my lust shall be satisfied upon them God lets the enemy come in like a floud and torrent with a confidence to carry all before him before he lifts up a standard against him Isa 59.19 Then shall the Spirit of the Lord stir up himself gloriously in the principles and actions of his people and the redeemer shall come to Sion God will set his force against their confidence break their impetuousness by his own power When the Enemies of the Church think they have intangled it in such a snare reduc'd it to so low a condition as to be secure of her ruine with a blast and puff then God will arise and set her in safety from them that puff at her Psa 12.5 This will be the case of Babylon when she shall say I sit as a Queen and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow then shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine for then God will stir up his strength to Judge her Rev. 18.7 'T is in the time of the Antichristian Polity and mutual congratulations with the highest security for their happy success triumphing over the dead bodies of the
Sanctuary Or do we delight in it not when our Tongues are most quick but our hearts most warm not because we have the best words but the most spiritualiz'd affections We may have Angels gifts in prayer without an Angels spirit 2. Is there a delight in all parts of a duty Not only in asking temporal blessings or some spiritual as pardoning mercy but in begging for refining grace Are we earnest only when we have bosom quarrels and conscience-convulsions but flag when we come to pray for sanctifying mercy The rise of this is a displicency with the trouble and danger not with the sin and cause 3. Doth our delight in prayer and spiritual things out do our delight in outward things The Psalmists joy in God was more than his delight in the Harvest or Vintage Psal 7.4 Are we like Ravens that delight to hover in the Air sometimes but our greatest delight is to feed upon Carrion Though we have and may have a sensible delight in worldly things yet is it as solid and rational as that we have in duty 4. Is our delight in Prayer an humble delight Is it a rejoycing with humbling Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with gladness and rejoyce before him with trembling If our service be right it will be chearful and if truly chearful it will be humble 5. Is our delight in Prayer accompanied with a delight in waiting Do we like Merchants not only delight in the first lanching of a Ship or the setting it out of the Haven with a full fraught but also in expectations of a rich return of spiritual mercies Do we delight to pray though God for the present doth not delight to give and wait like David with an owning God's Wisdom in delaying Psal 130.6 Or do we shoot them only as Arrows at random and never look after them where they light or where to find them 6. Is our delight in praising God when mercy comes answerable to the delight in praying when a wanted mercy was begged The ten Lepers desired mercy with an equal chearfulness in hopes of having their Leprosie cured but his delight that returned only was genuine As he prayed with a loud voice so he praised with a loud voice Luke 17.13 15. And Christ tells him his faith had made him whole As he had an answer in a way of grace so he had before a gracious delight in his asking the others had a natural delight and so a return in a way of common providence 3 Use Of Exhortation Let us delight in Prayer God loves a chearful giver in Alms and a chearful petitioner in Prayer God would have his children free with him He takes special notice of a spiritual frame Jer. 30.21 Who hath engaged his heart The more delight we have in God the more delight he will have in us He takes no pleasure in a lumpish Service 'T is an uncomely sight to see a joyful Sinner and a dumpish Petitioner Why should we not exercise as much joy in holy duties as formerly we did in sinful practices How delightfully will men sit at their games and spend their days in gluttony and luxury And shall not a Christian find much more delight in applying himself to God We should delight that we can and have hearts to ask such gifts that thousands in the world never dream of begging To be dull is a discontentedness with our own Petitions Delight in prayer is the way to gain assurance To seek God and treat him as our chiefest good endears the Soul to him Delighting in Accesses to him will enflame our love And there is no greater sign of an interest in him than a prevalent estimation of him God casts off none that affectionately clasp about his Throne To this purpose 1. Pray for quickening grace How often do we find David upon his knees for it God only gives this grace and God only stirs this grace 2. Meditate on the Promises you intend to plead Unbelief is the great root of all dumpishness It was by the belief of the Word we had life at first and by an exercise of that belief we gain liveliness What maintains our love will maintain our delight the amiableness of God and the excellency of the Promises are the incentives and fuel both of the one and of the other Think that they are eternal things you are to pray for and that you have as much invitation to beg them and as good a promise to attain them as David Paul or any other ever had How would this awaken our drowzy Souls and elevate our heavy hearts and open the lazy eye-lids to look up And whatever meditation we find begin to kindle our Souls let us follow it on that the spark may not go out 3. Chuse the time when your hearts are most revived Observe when God sends an invitation and hoist up the sails when the wind begins to blow There is no Christian but hath one time or another a greater activeness of spirit Chuse none of those seasons which may quench the heat and dull the spriteliness of your affections Resolve before hand this To delight your selves in the Lord and thereby you shall gain the desire of your hearts A DISCOURSE OF Mourning for other Mens Sins Ezekiel 9.4 And the Lord said unto him Go thorow the midst of the City thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof WHen God in the former Chapter had charged the Jews with their Idolatry and the multiplicity of abominations committed in his Temple And v. 18. had past a resolve that he would not spare them but deal in fury with them though they should solicit him with the strongest and most importunate supplications In this Chapter he calls and commissions the Executioners of his just Decree Ver. 1. He cryed also in mine ears with a loud voice saying Cause them that have charge over the City to draw near even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand And declares whom and in what manner he would punish and whom he would pardon The Executioners of God's vengeance are the Chaldeans described by the situation of them from Judea and the direct Road from that Country to Jerusalem v. 2. Six men came from the way of the higher gate which lies towards the North. Babylon lay North-East from Jerusalem and this gate was the way of entrance for Travellers from those parts it led also into the Court of the Priests which shews from whence the Judgment should come and upon whom it should light Six men A certain number Whether the Holy Ghost alludes to a particular number of Nations which the Chaldean Army might be composed of under their Prince who reign'd over several Countries or respects the other chief Captains or Marshals of his Army which are nam'd Jer. 39.3 or speaks with reference to the other places wherein the City was assaulted by
throat is ready to swallow if he had a morsel for it 2. 'T is a sign of habitual sin a state of sin This temper manifests that the will is habituated in sin though the hand doth not outwardly act it The inherent power of sin must be great when a man is greedy to commit that to which he hath no outward allurements or when those allurements are ballanced with contrary considerations when he hath either no outward temptation to it or the cross impediments are as strong or stronger than the temptation When men in the midst of such bars long for a temptation it is such a kind of desire in one way as the Creature hath in an other for the manifestation of the the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 For the earnest expectation of the Creature waits for the manifestation 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a putting out the head to see if he can find any coming to knock off the fetters not of his sin but of his forced morality In this case take two men one Commits a great sin upon a temptation even as it were over-power'd by it and had no thoughts no inclinations before that temptation appear'd which began first to spirit him Another Commits a lighter sin or would fain Commit it upon a weak temptation and many bars lying in the way and his heart was hankering and thirsting for some opportunity to Commit it which do you think really is the greater offence in point of heart and affection The first appears blacker but it is an invasion the other is really blacker because it is an affection and shews sin to be rooted in the heart as its proper soil wherein sin delights to grow and the soil delights to nourish it The one shews sin to be a stranger and a thief which hath waylaid him the other evidenceth sin to be an inmate and intimate friend Such a man is not oblig'd to his will for his abstinence from sin but to the outward hindrances and the resolving act of the will to Commit it were those impediments remov'd is as real an act of sin in the sight of God as any outward act can be in the sight of man because God measures the greatness of sin by the proportion of the will allowed to it therefore many sins which may be little in our account may be greater in Gods account than the seemingly blacker sins of others because there may be a greater ingrediency of the heart and affection in them than in the other 3. 'T is against the nature of our repentance and first closing with God Repentance is a change of the purpose of the heart not to Commit the same iniquity again nor any other Job 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do no more 'T is the property of converting grace to make the Soul cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart Act. 11.23 This is essential to it though there may be some startings out by passion and temptation A Pilots intention stands right for the port though by the violence of the wind he may be forced another way It alters not his purpose though it defer his performance This purpose is a perpetual intent Psal 119.112 v. I have inclined my heart to keep thy statutes alway even to the end It was an heart-purpose and inclination It regarded all Gods statutes not for a fit but perpetually which he manifests by two words alwaies even to the end to shew that the perpetuity of it doth difference it from the resolutions of wicked men who may indeed have some fits to do good but not a fixed purpose to cleave to the Lord these flashy purposes are like the flight of a bird which seems to touch Heaven and in a moment falls down to the earth as Saul resolved not to persecute David but we soon find him again upon his old game pursuit Where there is true grace there is hatred of all sin for hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can a man be resolv'd to Commit what he hates No. For his inward aversion would secure him more against it than all outward obstacles As this inward purpose of a good man is against all sin so more particularly against that which doth so easily beset him David seems in several places to be naturally inclind to lying but he takes up a particular resolution against it Psal 17.3 I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have contrived to way-lay and intercept the sin of lying when it hath an occasion to approach me A good man hath not only purposes but he endeavours to fasten and strengthen those purposes by prayer So David v. 5. hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not He strengthens himself by stirring up a liveliness in duty and by avoiding occasions of sin v. 4. I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer Whereas a wicked man neither steps out of the way of a temptation nor steps up to God for strength against it Now if all this be true that in conversion the heart hath a fixed resolution for God and his ways and that perpetually against all sin and particularly against the sin of our natural inclination and all this backt with strong cries how can it have a fixed resolution to Commit it if the way were outwardly fair for it 4. 'T is absolutely against the terms of the Covenant God requires in that a giving up our selves to him to be his people with our whole heart and Soul as he gives himself to us with his whole heart He will not be a Sharer of the heart with sin much less an underling to it God will not indure a competitor in the affections To serve God and mammon are inconsistent by the infallible Axiom of our Saviour Luke 16.13 Now as God cannot be true to his Covenant if he had purposes against the articles of it on his part so neither can we be true to our covenanting with him if we have setled purposes of heart against the Conditions of it Therefore the instability in the Covenant ariseth only from the falseness of the heart Psal 78.37 Their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant The iniquity of our heels may compass us about and make us stumble in our walk yet our fears of being out with God may receive no establishment Psal 49.5 Wherefore should I fear when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about Whether he means by iniquity the sins of his ordinary walk or the punishment of them is all one But yet if purposes of iniquity settle their residence in the heart though we never act it by reason of obstacles 't is a sign we never sincerely closed with God in Covenant nor God with us The very regards of iniquity in the heart put a bar to the regards of God towards us It hinders all Covenant acts on Gods part because it is a manifest breach of