as he is God but as he is God-Man as he is the Mediator and Head of the Church in which sense we are here to understand it And so he is variously exprest in Scripture as the Tree of Life as the Bread of Life as the Water of Life Christ he is every way and in all respects Life unto us both in reference to Grace and Glory I am come says he that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 Christ he is both the Author of our life and the matter of our life too He is the root and spring of it in whom it is and from whom it slows unto us And he is the substance of it in whom it consisteth because he only is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 He is our life as that which we feed on and are sustained and nourished by as a man is by his natural food in the life of nature His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and conveys life indeed by it There 's a threefold life which Christ does convey to all those who are true Believers First the life of Justification Secondly the life of Sanctification And Thirdly the life of Glory And in the conveyance of each of these unto them he is said to be emphatically the life as also in another place The life was manifested and we have seen it in 1 Joh. 1.2 First Christ is the life of Justification as to the pardon and forgiveness of our sins Persons that are condemned they are so far forth said to be dead namely as they are appointed to death they are dead in Law And this is the state and condition of us all by nature by reason of our first transgression there was a sentence of death past upon us and we were adjudg'd thereunto In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3.17 Now Christ he hath reverst this sentence and removed this death from us by dying for us By his obedience and suffering he hath satisfied the Justice of his Father and thereby hath reconciled us and put us into a state of life again Thus Col. 2.13 You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Mark He hath quickned you by forgiving you I orgiving it is a kind of quickning because it makes a man a child of life who was before a child of death And this is that which Christ hath done for us he hath quickned us thus so far forth as he hath absolved us and set us free from condemnation by taking our guilt upon himself and that 's called a Justification of life Rom. 13.18 Now this it hath another life which is pertinent and belonging hereunto and consequent from it which therefore we may look upon under the same head with it And this is a life of peace and spiritual comfort For as by reason of sin we are plainly and absolutely dead and have a sentence of condemnation past upon us So from hence where it is discovered to us and we are made sensible of it we come to be dejected and cast down in our selves We are not only all dead but we are all a mort likewise Therefore as answerable to one death of sentence we have need of a life of absolution So answerable to the death of despair which is apt to follow upon that death of sentence where it does not appear to be remitted we have need of a life of consolation to be bestow'd upon us And this is Christ also unto us He is our Peace as the Scipture stiles him not only in the thing it self but also in our own consciences not only as to our state but as to our spirit not only as to our state to make it justifiable but as to our spirit to make it comfortable And in that respect also our life Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce c. in Rom. 5.1 c. Secondly As Christ is the life of Justification so he is the life of Sanctification likewise When God pardoned our sins through the Blood of Christ he gives us Grace and Holiness from the Spirit of Christ as a fruit and consequent of that pardon and reconciliation And Christ himself does impart and communicate his Spirit unto us for this purpose He is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Not only from the law of death as to matter of guilt and condemnation but also from the law of sin as to matter of filth and pollution and hath put a new and another law into me which is the law of Grace and holiness of the Spirit This is the method wherein we partake of this spiritual life that it is first of all subjected in Christ and from him derived unto us The Spirit of God first sanctifies the humane nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us and conveys a new nature unto us Christ lives in us by his Spirit Gal. 2.20 And therefore call'd a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 This Life is further considerable not only in the principle of it but in the activity of it not only as that whereby we are simply enabled and made capable of doing our duty but also are made vigorous in it Christ is our life so far forth as we have a livelihood in any thing which is good And thus also the life of Sanctification Thirdly The life of Glory Christ is that likewise so far forth as he makes all his Servants to be partakers of it For so he does he raises up their bodies from the grave and he possesses both body and soul with eternal happiness And so the Scripture informs us Thus Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye c. Christ is the life of the resurrection forasmuch as his resurrection hath an insluence and effect upon ours and is the cause of it Whatsoever is done to us it is done first of all to him He lives and we live in him He is risen again and we shall rise again by him and from him According to that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power And again 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you And again Phil. 3.22 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Thus is Christ the life
day of our Visitation lasts and continues to us And more particularly that we may speak still to the Scope and Sense of the Text and my Drift and End in the undertaking and handling of it in the Time of Youth and tender years That so hereafter we may reap the fruit of a timely and early conversion in a sweet and comfortable old Age. That we may end our dayes in peace which at length must be ended and having been long acquainted with God may be the more willing to go to Him and to resign our Souls into His hands as into the Hands of a Faithful Creatour So much may suffice to have spoken of the second General part of the Text viz. The condition in the Extent of it And so likewise both of this whole verse and for this present time His Bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall shall lye down with him in the dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON X. Job 20.12 13.14 Though Wickedness be sweet in his mouth though he hide it under his Tongue Though he spare it and forsake it not but keep it still within his mouth Yet his meat in his Bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him There can never be said too much nor enough against the ways of Sin whether we look upon it in it own Nature and Consider the Miseries which are in it or whether we look upon it in our Nature and consider the propensities which are to it When one would think we had said all we can and almost all we need there is still somewhat yet remaining behind as very pertinent and sutable hereunto The last day wee took occasion to speak of the Sins of Youth and the Impressions which they made upon Age and riper Years and the Extent of them even to Death it self and after Death out of the 11th vers of this Chap. where Zapher describing the Estate of an ungodly Person gives the Character of it That his Bones are full of the sins of his Youth which shall lye c. Now in these following verses before us he does further proceed in the Amplification of this Argument to us by preventing of an Objection which might be made by the Patrons of Wickedness as to the Heartning and Incouraging both of themselves and others to it and that as taken from the present sweetness and Contentment in it and the cunning Carriage and Contrivance of it which he removes and takes away by shewing the sad Effects which notwithstanding are consequent upon it Though wickedness be sweet c. IN this present Text before us there are two General parts considerable of us First The Disposition of a Wicked man in regard of sin Secondly The Effect of Sin to a Wicked man The Disposition of a Wicked man in regard of sin that is laid down in verses 12.13 Though Wickedness c. The Effect of sin to a Wicked man that 's exprest in vers 14. His meat c. We begin with the First viz. A Wicked man's Disposition in regard of sin and that is here Exhibited to us in four particular Branches First His Complacency in it It is sweet to his mouth Secondly His Concealment of it he hides it under his Tongue Thirdly His Favourableness towards it He spares it c. Lastly His Thraldom to it He keeps it c. First This is Considerable in the Disposition of a Wicked man to sin his Delight and Complacency in it Wickedness it is sweet to his mouth This Expression together with the rest is a Metaphor taken from Natural and Corporal Food which is pleasing and delightful to the taste which is seated in the Mouth or Palate as the proper Organ or Subject of it so is sin to a carnal Heart it is very sweet and relishing to it Especially in the first imbracing and entertaining of it There is no Glutton or Master of Appetite as he is called there by Solomon in Prov. 23.2 Bagnal Nefesh Which takes more Contentment in his Delicacyes and Corporal Daintyes then a Carnal and unregenerate Person takes in his Lust It is sweeter to Him then Honey it self as the Philosopher speaks of Revenge to a Malicious man It is so with all kind of sin whatsoever to those which are addicted to it it has a kind of false sweetness with it in regard whereof we read in Scripture of the pleasures of sin The Ground hereof is this Because it is sutable and Connatural to Him Delight it is founded in Convenience and an Agreeableness of the Faculty with the Object And so it is here with a Wicked man in regard of his Lust he has an Heart fitted to it That which is in the Temptation without Him it is in the Spirit within Him and the one it is the Counterpain of the other as the Wax answering to the Seal We may judg of the Delight which a Wicked Person has in Sin according to the Proportion of a Gracious Person delighting in Goodness what is the reason that those which are Godly delight in the ways of Godliness and look upon them still as those which are ways of Pleasantness How sweet is thy word unto my mouth even as Honey unto my taste It is because they have a renewed Spirit which is fitted and qualified thereunto I delight to do thy will O my God and thy Law is within my Heart Psal 40.8 While God's Law is in our Hearts our delight will be in God's will and his Commandments will not be grievous to us but exceeding pleasant and so it is also on the Contrary in regard of Sin And then again Satan who is the great promoter of sin he inlarges and advances things to them and makes them seem greater then they are The Pleasure of Sin and the delight which is taken in that it is for the most part a matter of Fancy and Imagination Now the Devil he has a very Great stroke in working upon that He presents things more Amiable then they are and thereby does intangle and insnare foolish men and make them to be pleased with those things which have little pleasingness in them The Desires of People to sins they are Diseases rather then Desires they are Extravagances and Distempers in them and do proceed from somewhat which is amiss in the Frame and Disposition of their Spirits as we see it is in the Body what 's the reason here that some delight in Coles and Ashes and Walls and such trash as that Why it is because they have a distempered palate and a distempered Stomack and they are under the power of a Disease this makes those things sweet unto them which another Body cannot indure even so it also with the Souls of Wicked men they take pleasure in Sin which is odius to a Gracious Heart because they are overtaken with Lust and have a Spiritual Distemper upon them The Consideration of this point may serve to give us an account of the Difficulty of
instance we may see in Job whom when the Devil labor'd to traduce and slander he could do no mischief against him forasmuch as the Lord himself had acquitted him and set him free Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man c. Job 1.8 Secondly Men shall not be able to disturb nor cause trouble neither though they may indeavour bereunto And for instance here Job's friends they laid heavy charges against him as an Hypocrite and a desembler and I know not what but yet for all that they could not quite shake him of from his Confidence he appeals to God in these their censures of him Job 16.19.20 My witness is in Heaven and my record is on High my friends scorn me but mine Eyes powreth out tears unto God Job he had comfort in God even then when his friends spake against him and past hard sentences upon him And we see afterwards how the Lord acquitted him even to the shame of those his false accusers And thus will he likewise do upon occasion with others of his servants All the unreasonable suspicions and all the uncharitable opinions and all the hard censures which are at any time cast upon them shall not be able to prevail against them where God acquits a man it is no matter who speaks against him When he gives quietness none then can make trouble Thirdly Not a mans own misgiving and scrupulous Conscience that shall not cause trouble neither Where God himself will vouchsafe peace the Children of God sometimes through that weakness and infirmity which is in them are now and then false accusers of themselves and are ready to judge themselves to be in a worse Condition then they are as the generality and greatest sort of People offend in a way of self Presumption so there are some though not so many which also offend in a way of self suspition which lay hard inditements against themselves and their own Souls as Hypocrites as reprobates as such as have no truth or reality of Grace in them But now where God is pleased at any time to come in with a message and Testimony of Reconcilement all these doubts and fears and misgivings do presently vanish away When God will give quietness a man shall be freed from trouble from himself and his own Spirits If our Heart condemn us falsely God is greater then our Hearts and knows all things as it is said in another case Fourthly Not the Law of God that shall not cause trouble neither where it pleases God to give us his peace the Law that accuses and denounces also Joh. 5.45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust Moses that is the Law written by Moses c. And how does that pronounce sentence See in Galat. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Here is the hard rigor of the Law But his now shall be able to do no hurt where God himself will give peace forasmuch as Christ hath freed them from the condemning Power of it Galat. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us He hath not freed us from the Authority of the Law that power which it hath over us to command us and to be a rule unto us but he hath freed us from the rigor of the Law that power which it would have over us to condemn us and to inflict punishment upon us Christ hath so freed and exempted us from the Law by dying for us as that it shall be no longer troublesome to us in this sense and consideration There is no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Thus in all these several particulars is that Soul sure to be free from trouble which has once made its peace with God Neither Satan nor the World nor their own Conscience nor the Law of God it self shall be able to molest them that is so as any thing to prevayle or get the mastery of them So that we must still remember as an Explication of this present point that we take this trouble here as a trouble of Efficacy and Success not for a trouble of indeavour These may now go about to trouble such as those which are at peace with God but they shall not prevail against them no not the very gates of Hell it self The Ground of this truth is this namely because God is in those relations as must needs assure those of peace and Satisfaction whom he is at peace withall and that may be further declared in these particulars First It is he who is the Plantiff and the Party wronged and which enters the Action If any one should make a Christian trouble in regard of his Spiritual Estate it must be such an one whom a Christian has wronged and offended and trespassed against if he be satisfied and well-pleased who has any thing more to say against him why now this is the case here when God gives Spiritual quietness none is there able to make trouble Because the party offended is satisfied and he to whom the injury was done is now contented to take it up as you know Christ said in the Gospel to that woman which the Pharisees brought to him having taken her in the fact Joh 8 10.11 Woman sayes He where are those thine accusers Hath no man condemn'd thee She said No man Lord. And Jesus said unto her neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more When Christ himself did not condemn her none was able to lay any thing to her Because if any one had to do in forgiving her or accusing her it was he most of all who was God against whom she had sinned till she had received absolution from him she could not go away in quiet and when she had so it was no great matter what any other might say against her If God himself speak peace all is well in this regard and upon this consideration because he is the party most concern'd in the trespass it self Therefore David speaking of himself in Psal 51.4 He speaks after this manner Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest David had sinned against others also against Bathsheba and Vrijah against the rest of the people of God whom he had scandalized by his ill example But he sayes he had sin'd onely against God so as to call him to an account for this transgression at Gods tribunal and in his own Conscience He had sinned against God chiefly and he had sinned against God principally and he had sinned against God so as from him to beg and expect the perfect pardon and forgiveness of his sins this belong'd to God alone forasmuch as he was
Conscience and more immediate Impressions upon the Heart God does oftentimes so apply Himself to the Soul and Spirit of a Beleiver by inlarging it and filling it with his Grace and raising up holy motions and desires in it as from whence he may be said to bespeak as it were Communion with Himself and to say seek thou my face He knocks at the door of our Hearts and says open unto me This by the Prophet David is called a preparing of the Heart in Psal 10.17 Lor thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine Ear to hear Thirdly In the Dispensations of Providence and the things which God does in the World and especially to our selves here he calls to us for our seeking of his face as to instance in two or three particulars more especially above the rest First In any special business or Imployment which he puts upon us this is a sure rule That where God calls a man to any more eminent Services especially which is of more publique Concernment he does then more especially call him to seek first of all his favour towards him and acceptance of him Forasmuch as all Assistance and success comes from Him and it is he that must give a Blessing to every thing that is undertaken by us It is a very dangerous and hazzardous matter for a man to go about any busines of great importance in a state of difference and estrangement from God for then he will be ready to blast and to cross that work unto him We are apt sometimes to beg Gods Assistance but we should first of all beg his Favour which is the ground and foundation of all Assistance and Success whatsoever and without which we can never expect it Thou saydst seek my face In case of any special undertakings Secondly In case of some special outward trouble and calamity God herein sayes seek ye my face Forasmuch as this is oftentimes his very end in the sending of it He does it to bring men to Himself Because in affliction men are then apt to run God when he slew them they sought Him as it is said of the Israelits And in their affliction they will seek me early Hos 5.25 Lord in trouble they have visited thee they have poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Isa 26.16 And it becomes us so far forth to close and to comply with Gods ends to us in this particular Thirdly In Spiritual Desertions and the withdrawings of Gods Countenance from the soul when God hides his face from us He does then more especially call upon us to seek his face As when the mother hides her self she then puts the child upon looking for her and seeking after her even so is it here A constant and continued enjoyment of Gods countenance shining upon his servants is apt now and then through their corruption to make them a little more remiss but withdrawings of it quickens them to attendance and dependance upon them as it is in Isa 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the House of Jacob and will look for him Fourth In the Desertions of Friends when they shall at any time fail us or leave us and be taken away from us God then sayes to us more particularly seek ye my face when either they fail in their affections as not continuing still to be friends or when they fail in their Persons as not continuing still in the world but it may be removed and taken away out of it In either of these cases and conditions does God more especially call his servants to the perfeiting of their friendship with himself and the getting of a greater evidence of his Love and favours towards them First When they fail in their Affections as not continuing still to be friends for there 's an uncertainty in all these things There 's many a man loves to day and hates to morrow and of a Friend turns to be an enemy The Love of the world it is no Foundation for any to build on in regard of the inconstancy of it Now here 's a special call to closer intimacy and acquaintance with God Acquaint thy self now with Him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee when a mans ways please the Lord he will make his enemies to be at peace with Him Prov. 16.7 Therefore now seek His face whose love is unchageable whose Purpose is immutable whose Affection is alwayes the same This is one thing which calls us hereunto And so secondly As in the failing of Affections so also in the failing of Persons when friends are removed and taken out of the world and ye see their face no more why then seek ye His face who never fails but abides for ever even from one Generation to another Lastly In the hour of death and at the Time of Dissolution when men are themselves going out of the world it concerns them then especially to seek the face of God and it should qualifie the thoughts of Death unto them being such as belongs to God to think that they shall now injoy it as David I will behold thy face in righeousness when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Psal 17.15 And so Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fullness of Joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Thus have we seen in what respects and cases God does especially call unto us to seek His face And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which is Gods invitation Thou saidest seek ye my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek The second is David's Answer to this Invitation of Gods as to the Acceptance and entertainment of it Thy face Lord will I seek Where before we come to speak of the main point which is here considerable of us here is somewhat to be taken notice of by us by way of Preparation As first Observe this That the Heart of a Cristian it is the Reflexion of the law of God Look what the Lord in his word does injoyn and Command to be performed that the Soul and Spirit of a Believer and regenerate Person so far forth as he is regenerate does incline and tend unto Thou saydst seek my face there was the tenor of Gods Command And thy face Lord will I seek there was the temper of Davids Spirit So Psal 40.7.8 I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my Heart And this is the difference betwixt a child of God and another person take another man and his heart rises and rebels against the word and love of God and he wishes there were no such thing as that is But a good Christian he has an agreeableness to it and from thence a Complyance with it it is as the wax answering the Seal A second Observation is this That a good and a gracious heart is carryed on to the doing
of Gods servants in this regard who dare not trust him with their lives and the preservation of them notwithstanding so many Gracious Promises and experiences which they have received from him As David he was but just before delivered out of his enemies hands and he presently cryes I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul even so it is with many others besides who as the Apostle speaks through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 Now for such as these they may be here said from this passage before us though God may bring them to danger yet as he sees cause he will deliver them from it as he did here with this servant David The Lord hath chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to death Secondly Where we partake of this mercy let us acknowlelge it with all thankfulness Thus does David do here we are to take notice not onely of his words but also of his Affection which is signified in them and the Spirit from whence they came from him he utters them with a great deal of feeling and sensibleness of Gods goodness to him And so they are not onely a narration of his present condition but an acknowledgement of Gods favour to himself to an answerable temper and disposition which he does here Express by the words which came from Him He hath not given me over to Death They are not words of Boasting and Vanity and Ostentation and Carnal Rejoyceing but the words of Soberness and Piety and Discretion And there are divers things intended by them First He would make it an Argument for Patience The escaping greater Evils should breed Contentation under less That as God afflicts us below our Deserts so also below our Capacities that he does not afflict us in the utmost Extremity and so to this purpose should we argue and reason with our selves he has taken away my Health but he hath not taken away my Life He hath exercised me in my Body but he has spared my Soul He hath deprived me of Earthly Comforts but he hath not deprived me of Heavenly of the Graces of his Spirit of the assurance of his Love of the Communion with himself of his own blessed and Gracious presence these he hath not denyed me but continued them still in the midst of all other Discouragements Secondly He would hereby silence the false rumours which were to the Contrary and the Insultations of his Enemies from them for their mouthes were full to this purpose and delighted to be so as these which spake according as they would have it as in the place before alledged Psal 41.6.7 And if he come to see me he speaketh Vanity his Heart gathereth Iniquity to it self when he goeth abroad he telleth it all that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt This was the Condition of David in regard of his Enemies They Tryumpht before the Victory and pleased themselves both in the thoughts and speeches of his supposed Ruine and Destruction now by this Expression here in the Text he does in an holy and Humble manner signifie their Mistake and Disappointment as if he had said unto them it is not so bad as ye thought it nor so bad as ye hoped it nor so bad as ye talked it I am through Gods goodness alive still for all the surmises The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death Thirdly Which is here namely Considerable David I say would hereby express his Thankfulness to God for this Mercy they are words of Praise and spiritual Rejoyceing as appears by those that follow in the 19 verse of this Psalm Open to me the Gates of Righteousness and I will go into them and will praise the Lord namely for this his Goodness to me This is that which we all should do as we have occasion for it and indeed there 's none of us all but have so one way or other though some more then other either by way of prevention in keeping of Evils from us or by way of recovery in delivering us out of those Evils and especially in these late Distempers which have been so rife and frequent amongst us for this year now last past wherein Death hath come up into our Windows as the Scripture speaks that we should not be given over to it is matter of due praise unto us and to be acknowledged by us And we cannot better nenew the year unto us then by such performances as these are And further stir up others to do so occasionally from our Example which is another thing here intended by David in this Expression he does not onely hereby signify his own Thankfulness but also excite and stir up others to praise God both for him and themselves upon the like occasion as we find him in another place Psal 34.2.3 My Soul shall make her boast of God the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnify the Lord with me and let us Exalt his name together But especially as a third Improvement of this point let us be careful to use our lives well which God has given us to his Glory and so give them back to him again who has first given them too us Life it is a Blessing as it used and ordered by us For men to live onely a Natural Life here in the word to Eat and Drink and take their pleasures like brute Beasts Alas what a poor thing is that for men to live onely for such a purpose as this is to fiill up the measure of their Sins and to aggravate their Account at another Day by thinking that they are delivered to commit such and such Abominations this is very sad and Miserable but then is Life indeed when it is improved to Gods Glory The doing of good in our several Opportunities the Furtherance both of our own and others Salvation and laying up in store a good Foundation against the time to come laying hold on Eternal Life Therefore I beseech ye let us be careful especially to look to this and that likewise those which are in the prime of their Years and Health and Strength let them not neglect so Blessed an Opportunity as that is those that are past it let them indeavour to redeem it for time to Come We should labour to find our lives given us and continued to us in Mercy and Love which we may know to be no otherwise then accordingly as we have hearts given us with them for the improvement of them as we may do any other Mercy besides where it has the stamp of Gods love upon it it makes us to serve him better with it and our selves to be really and indeed so much the better for it whereas when it is otherwise it is a fign it is in wrath and to harden us so much the more in Evil There 's none are so bad as those who are bad after Mercies Received both as having
behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn either to the right hand or to the left But now farther if we please we may take these words a little more at large as I in part hinted before When ye turn to the right hand or to the left not as touching it of two extreams but in reference to all the passages of our lives whatsoever they be When ye turn to the right hand or to the left that is whatsoever place ye are in whatever business ye are about whatever condition befalls you ye shall have the hints of the Word and Spirit of God assistant to you This is the promise which is made to the Saints and Servants of God And it is made not only here in this Text but also in divers other places besides as Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass So Prov. 3.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy pathes So again in Prov. 16.3 Commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy Thoughts shall be Established This Disposition in God towards his People is founded on his Affection to them He loves them and therefore he Counsels them and cannot abide to see them miscarry Love it is full of direction of the party which it is placed upon and will not suffer him to go out of his way And so it is with God to us This is a great Comfort and Incouragement to us and should quicken us especially in his service wherein especially we are sure to have him to guide us and go before us and be assistant unto us And that in the darkness of this World wherein we walk If a man have a bad way yet if he have a good guide it is some Comfort to him This is the Lord to his Servants He teaches them to go taking them by the hand as it in Hos 11.3 Oh how much should we be affected herewith Especially in this Age and Time wherin we live In which we have so many Labarynths and uncertainties that a great many do not know what to do nor what way to betake themselves to We have so many humours and conceits amongst us that we know not almost what to believe nor what to practise It is the case and condition of many people that they are at a nonplus and almost at their wits ends in this particular Well in all these uncertainties and distractions Here 's the Comfort and Incouragement of Gods servants which do not provoke him to do otherwise with them from some default or miscarriage in them in which case it may be suspended to them That they shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk in it when they turn c. But here it may partinently be demanded How this word shall be discerned and known because there 's a great deal of deceit and mistake in the particulars many taking that to be the word and spirit of God which is no more but their own foolish fancy and the suggestions and intimation of the Devil joyning with their own corrupt hearts It is the condition of many people now in these present days and never more than now it is For this There are divers Touchstones and discoveries of it which we will briefly instance in First Let this within thee be regulated by the word without thee And the motions and suggestions of the Spirit examined by the Rule of the Scripture and the written word of God to the Law and the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 God never speaks in the Conscience contrary to what he speaks in the Scripture for he is unchangeable and cannot deny himself If therefore we have any motions in us which are cross and opposite hereunto we have very greet cause to suspect them as coming to us from another hand yea to abandon them and to bid defiance to them For which as the Wind does not sit at the same time in two contrary corners North and South so neither does the Spirit breath in two contrary motions Good and Evil. The motions of the spirit are always suitable and agreeable to it self Secondly They are also orderly and regular They keep men within the compass of their Callings and the spheres and the place which God has set them in Motions either from mens own Spirits or the spirit of Satan acting in them they are many times out of course they carry them above their line and make them to stretch themselves beyond their measure as the Apostle speaks But those which come from God and the suggestions and inclinations of his spirit they confine them and keep them within bounds They order them and frame them and keep them within bounds suitable to their several stations and Relations and Conditions and Circumstances in the world which they have regard and heed unto So likewise which we may refer hereunto they are agreeable also to the law of Nature and Civility and ingenuity in us Therefore such motions as cross these they are not such as come from Gods spirit but from the spirit of the Devil when any are carried to such acts as are against Civility and common modesty it self Thirdly They are also mild and gentle and seasonable They are not ordinarily violent raptures but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does and reflexion upon it A man knows where he is and what he does while he is followed with them which in the motions of Satan is otherwise Fourthly They are discernable also from their Effects and the ends which they tend unto all the hints and motions of Gods spirit they still tend to make us better and to carry us nearer to himself one way or other they serve to promote Piety and Holiness in us and to better us especially and above all in our Inward man whereas those which are contrary and do serve to weaken Grace in us they have another spring for them Lastly In all these Cases the Spirit commonly brings his own Conviction and Evidence with him And as he says This is the way walk ye in it so he does likewise manifest that it is he that says it from whence the Soul of a Christian may be assured that he is not mistaken or deluded in it Look as those which had the Spirit of Prophesy they did by the same light know both the truth of the things themselves which they prophesied about as also that it was from God that message which they delivered even so is it with those also still which have any motions of the Spirit of God in them they do at one and the same time know both the things themselves which they are moved unto as also the Authour and Original of them But so much for that In these hints and suggestions of the Spirit this voice behinde us may be discovered by
in its severity and unsupportableness IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First an awakening Commination Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Secondly a convincing Expostulation To what end is it for you Thirdly an express Conclusion or Determination The day of the Lord is darkness and not light We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Commination in these words Woe unto you c. In which passage there are two terms to be explain'd by us First what is here meant by the day of the Lord. Secondly what is here meant by the desiring of this day of the Lord which is here censured and threaten'd in this people For the former the day of the Lord Jom Jehovah it may be here reduced to a threefold explication First to the day of death or personal dissolution Secondly to the day of captivity or National dissolution Thirdly to the day of Judgment or general Account Each of these are the day of the Lord and may promiscuously one with the other be understood of us here in this Scripture Now Secondly for the other term which is the desiring of this day and as it is here censured and threaten'd in this people this it may be taken three manner of ways First for their desiring of it rashly because they did not consider it Secondly for their desiring it scoffingly because they did not believe it Thirdly for their desiring it desperately because they did not fear it All these kinds of desire in reference to this day of the Lord in either of the fore-mentioned considerations are here condemned in them First Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly and foolishly because ye do not consider it Such desires as these of this day there are sometimes to be found in the world whether in reference to death and judgment or in reference to common and publick calamity First take it in reference to death and judgment There are divers persons sometimes which we meet withal who do seem very much to desire the day of the Lord in this sense though in the mean time if they duly consider it they have little cause or ground to do so Such as Job sometimes speaks of that long for death whiles it cometh not and dig for as more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3.21 22. Indeed there is a desire of such a day as this which in the right constitution of it is very noble and commendable and is sometimes made the character of the true servants of God to breathe after death and departure out of the world and to wait and long for the coming of Christ to Judgment Thus old Simeon when he had seen Christ come in the flesh and now had him in his arms he sings his nunc dimittas Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.29 30. And St. Paul he desired to depart and to be with Christ as in it self much better than to abide here in the flesh Phil. 1.23 And the Prophet Elijah as some interpret it out of an holy zeal he cryes out It is enough now Lord take away my life first for I am not better than my Fathers 1 King 19.4 Thus have the servants of God sometimes desired the day of the Lord as it concerned their own death and dissolution And this desire of theirs has been looked upon as very warrantable and commendable in them So likewise as it has concerned the last and general day of account they have desired this day of the Lord also And it hath been remarkable in them so to do Look as it was the character of the Servants of God in the days before Christ to desire and wait for his first coming his coming in the flesh Therefore Abraham is said to have seen his day and to have rejoyced and Simeon before-mentioned to have waited for the consolation of Israel So it is also now the character of God's servants in these days since Christ to desire and wait for his second coming his coming to Judgment These are compared to faithful Servants that wait for the coming of their Master and that with desire Thus Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus come quickly And the souls under the Altar they hasten his coming also Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 6.10 So St. Paul tells us that Christ will give a Crown of righteousness to him and not unto him only but also to all them that love and desire his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 So that it seems such persons as these are there have sometimes been and are still in the world which do desire this day of the Lord and that as having no woe belonging to them neither for so doing but rather the contrary which have not been threaten'd but rather encouraged for such desires as have been in them to this purpose But yet these here in the Text they have a woe denoune'd against them for their desire of the day of the Lord and so have many others besides as those who desire it rashly and foolishly as not considering for what end they do so We may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First from discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from presumption of their own innocency Thirdly from ignorance or misapprehension of the nature of the thing it self These people here in the Text they seemed to desire the day of the Lord thus and so are condemn'd and declared against for their desiring of it as that which is unwarrantable and unjustifiable for any to do so First They desired the day of the Lord that is the day either of death or judgment and in particular of their own personal and present departure out of a principle of discontentedness in their own conditions Because they had not all things to their mind and just as they would have therefore forsooth they would presently be gone and leave the world they wish for death and departure hence out of a spirit of impatience Thus it hath been sometimes even with some of God's Servants themselves when he has left them to themselves such fits of distemper as these have now and then discovered themselves in them Thus some have suspected it of Elijah in the place before alledged when he prayed to God to take him out of this present life it was out of the rediousness which he did conceive from Ahab and Jezebel's persecutions So Job though at other times noted for his admirable patience yet for the time he was surprized with this distemper Chap. 6.8 9. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let
besides If Heaven were a meer Fancy if Glory were no more but an Imagination it the state and condition of Believers hereafter were but an empty dream if there were not such glorious Mansions provided for us as are sometimes hinted to us certainly we should have been acquainted with it from Christ himself If it were not so I would have told you That 's the second General viz. The Rational Illustration The third and last is the Additional Encouragement in those words I go to prepare a place for you This is a very comfortable passage and such as deserves very much to be regarded and taken notie of by us as giving us an account of Christs departure and removal to Heaven now at this time it was for the god and benefit of his Church that he might promote their intererest and do that which was most expedient for them We see here where Christs chiefest thoughts were when he was now leaving the world they were not so much upon Himself as upon his poor Disciples how to comfort and encourage them and how to cast and provide for them that it might be well with them however it went with him They were loth now to part with him and were much troubled at the thoughts of it and now he satisfies them and pacifies them with this That he went away for their sakes He did not go away first to take away the place from them and to prevent them by going before no but to take up the place for them and to make room for them against they came themselves There were three special acts of Christ whereby he might be said to prepare a place in Heaven for Believers by his Death by his Ascension and by his Intercession First by his Death he prepared for them by that so far forth as the merit of that did reach and extend hereunto Christ by suffering of death and therein satisfying the Justice of God did obtain unto all his Members a right unto everlisting Life and Glory Thus 1 Pet. 3.18 it is said that Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the spirit Bring us to God how is that namely by reconciling us and re-joyning us to him again and so giving us an entrance into his glory according to that in Heb. 2.20 It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings And so likewise in Heb. 9.11 12 15. Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come not by the bloud of goats and calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtain'd eternal redemption for us And for this cause is he the Mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament they that are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance that is the eternal inheritance which was promised From these and the like places it is clear that Christ by his death did prepare Heaven for his people But if this be so it may be demanded What one may think of the Fathers that lived under the Old Testament and before he coming of Christ into the World If Christ by dying did prepare Heaven for Believers in what place were they who left the World before the death of Christ The Papists in answer hereunto tell us that they were in Limbo a place distinct from Heaven and in the confines of Hell which they have intended and devis'd for them But there 's no need at all for such a Device or Imagination as this is We say that they were even then in Heaven and that also by vertue of the Merit and Efficacy of the death of Christ which is of an infinite and eternal extent and reaching both forward and backward Forward to the salvation of all Believers that came after it backward to the salvation of all Believers that went before it Hence is Christ sometimes said in Scripture to be a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world not as to actual accomplishment which was perform'd in the fulness of time but as to virtual efficacy and extent as reflecting upon all Ages and Generations indefinitely and redounding to the special good and benefit of them as many as believed in them This is that which hath prepared a place in Heaven for all Believers under Both Testaments even the Death and Bloud of Christ According to that again of the Apostle Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a true and living way which he hath consecrated for us that is to say through the veil of his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near c. This serves so much the more to magnifie and advance the great love and kindness of Christ unto us that was pleased to take such a course as this was for us that he might procure and promote our happiness that was willing himself to die that we might live and to be crowned with a Crown of Thorns that we might be crowned with a Crown of Glory He went to prepare a place for us Went that is went unto the Cross And went that is went into the Grave he prepared it by his death and sufferings and the Virtue and Merit thereof That was the first way of his Preparation Scondly By his Resurrection and Ascension He prepared Heaven for us by going into Heaven before us After going to his Cross so also by going to his Grave When he had overcome the sharpness of death when he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 he did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Opened it by himself entring into it There was the opening of Heaven Christs Personal taking possession of it And it was the opening of it for us also who are said upon that account to be our selves already entred into it namely in Him who is our Head and hath entred into it afore us and in our behalf according to that of the Apostle in Ephes 2.6 He bath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ This was that whereby our Saviour desired at this time to satisfie the minds of his Disciples as concerning his departure and present going away from them that it was in order to their greater good He left Earth that so he might go to Heaven and he went to Heaven that so they might come to Heaven after him and come to Heaven by him as he signifies in the verse immediately following And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also
allowed in the heart it stops and hinders the profiting by the Word or any Ordinance whatsoever And these things they tend rather to the strengthning of this corruption than to the taking of it away The word of God is the savour of death c. And that 's the second account of this Point which is taken from the Qualification of the Hearer The third is from the different assistance and cooperation of the Spirit of God He bloweth where he listeth and he makes his Word efficacious and successful where himself pleaseth The election hath obtained it saith St. Paul but the rest were hardened Rom. 11.7 And the Apostle here in this Text makes the different entertainment of the Gospel to arise from their effectual calling Vnto them which are called it is the power of God c. Again 1 Pet. 2.8 A stone of stumbling to them which are disobedient whereunto they were also appointed Look as God himself is pleased more or less to concur with his own Ordinance and to make it successful so much more or less shall be the efficacy and successfulness of it It is Paul that plants and Apollos that waters but it is still God that gives the increase Look as it is in our corporal food so it holds in our spiritual food likewise Man lives not by bread but by every word which comes out of the mouth of God Not the word which comes out of the mouth of the Minister but the word which comes out of the mouth of God that 's the word which man indeed lives by Take all the means in the world if the Lord do not concur with them they are all in vain Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it It is true of the House of God the spiritual building as well as of any other and this is that which experience does too often make good What 's the reason that many people living under powerful means yet do no more profit under those means why 't is because the Lord himself does not bless the means unto them There 's many a soul in the world which God has pronounced a curse of barrenness upon it as he did sometime upon the barren figtree in the Gospel Never fruit grow upon thee more and that for the same reason as we see he did it there namely because he came to find fruit thereon and found none When men have enjoyed Preaching a long while and are still unfruitful under Preaching God does then in just judgment pronounce them to be unfruitful still and all the Preaching in the world in such cases will do them no good Thus we see an account of the Point from whence it so happens and comes to pass That the same kind of Preaching has not always the same kind of success but it is an offence to some whilst of others it is entertained Now the Improvement hereof to our selves may be drawn up to this Application First In a way of Caution that we take heed from hence of resting our selves satisfied in the enjoyment of the publick Ordinances and means of Grace They are things which we are to be thankful for but they are not things which we are to be satisfied with nor to rest our selves contented in alone in the bare enjoyment of them These people here in the Text they had the means in plenty enough The Apostles were not wanting in their work We preach Christ crucified But yet notwithstanding these means did not work any thing upon them to any good but rather the contrary The preaching of the Cross it is to them that perish foolishness but unto them which are saved it is the power of God The more spiritual and convincing truths we have at any time preached unto us and we not the better by them the more will it aggravate our judgment and condemnation at another day For this is the nature of these things that their miscarriage is there most dangerous where their success is most sweet and comfortable When ever men come to die their comfort then will not be this that they have enjoyed such and such means but that they have profited and thrived by them and where they have not done so their comfort will be so much the less Secondly We see from hence who are the truest objects of pity and compassion and cmmiseration namely such kind of Creatures as these are we pity those commonly who consume and pine away under the enjoyments of bodily sustenance but how much more are they to be pitied which wither in soul But so much for the general Doctrine which arises from these words as implying the different success in the Preaching of the Word We come now to the words more particularly and distinctly as they lye here before us where we find that this Doctrine of the Apostles it proved a cross and contrary Doctrine to two sorts of Persons to Jews and Gentiles both Vnto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness We begin with the first Vnto the Jews a stumbling-block or scandal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated a stumbling-block it is commonly rendered an offence It signifies properly as Suidas and Hesychius and some other Criticks tell us a crooked piece with a bait on it in Instruments to catch Wolves or Foxes or Mice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is derived as some would have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to halt in regard of the effect which it produces In Religion it is translated to any thing whereby a man is said to fall or stand still which hinders him and interrupts him in his way and is so in that respect prejudicial to him In a word there are three things which are briefly included in it and all applicable to our present purpose First Matter of Exception Secondly Matter of Temptation Thirdly Matter of Destruction All of these was Christ crucified to the unconverted Jews a scandal or stumbling-block in each of these respects as we shall see now made good unto us in the particular Explication of them to you yet passively all First He was matter of Exception Christ was a stumbling-block to the Jews that is he was an offence unto them he was one against whom they were prejudiced and took exception against him In Mark 6.3 it is said They were offended at him And this they were for sundry things As first for the meanness of his Birth and Parentage Christ he was an offence unto them here and so there in that place Is not this the Carpenter the son of Mary are not his sisters here with us c. If Christ had been some great Earthly Prince then it may be they would have looked after him but being such an one as he was they from hence came to despise him and to think meanly and scornfully of him Secondly the poorness of his Person and outward condition as he was one in
the course of this present Text and Scripture which we have now read unto you where the Apostle gives us an account of the deliverance of him with his company from a great danger which happened unto them and therein expresses his thankefulness and holy rejoicing as also gives us an hint of expectation of further deliverance from the like dangers that might happen unto them and therein expresses his hope and most holy faith Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust also c. This passage it relates to a story which we meet withal in Act. 19.29 30. which we may read at our leisure though I suppose that most of us are already sufficiently skilled in it and acquainted with it So that I need not now rehearse it or declare it unto you IN this present Verse before us we have three General Parts considerable of us First The Commemoration of a Deliverance past Secondly The signification of a Deliverance present Thirdly The prognostication of a Deliverance to come The Commemoration of a Deliverance past Who delivered us from so great a Death The signification of a Deliverance present And doth deliver us The Prognostication of a Deliverance to come In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Here 's all that we can possibly desire for all the limits and periods of time whether past or present or future This Deliverance it is extended to each here 's matter of thankfulness and matter of joy-fulness and matter of hope We begin in order with the first viz. The Commemoration of the Deliverance past Who delivered us from so great a death Wherein again we may take notice of two Particulars more First the terms of the Deliverance or the evil it self delivered from and that is here exprest to be so great a death Secondly the Deliverance it self or the time for the vouchsafing of it Who hath delivered us First We have here the terms of the Deliverance or the thing delivered from so great a death For the evil it self death and for the aggravation of it a great death it is a deliverance from both Chrysostom together with some others gives it in the Plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great deaths And indeed there are more deaths than one which God does undertake to deliver his servants from and from which he delivered St. Paul with his Brethren and Companions amongst the rest And which it may not be amiss for our selves at this time by the way to take notice of though I shall insist chiefly upon that which is here chiefly intended and is most agreeable both to the scope of the Text and the present occasion First From spiritual death the death of sin that 's a very great death it puts a man into a state of death not only as exposing to wrath and future condemnation but likewise as disabling to the actions of Grace and Holiness alienating us and depriving us of that life of God which should be in us Ephes 4.18 For as there is a life of grace distinguisht from the life of glory so there 's likewise a death of sin distinguisht from the death of condemnation And this death of sin it is such as is to be numbered among great deaths and the deliverance from it reckoned among great deliverances Indeed it is not always counted so at least by the generality of the world they for the most part are ready to make nothing of it a light and small matter as for the death of the body do all they can to shun that but as for this body of death which the Apostle Paul so much complain'd of and blest God for deliverance from it this is such a thing as they are little troubled or solicitous about Well but every good Christian who has the eyes of his understanding inlightned and his heart truly sanctified with grace he looks upon this as a very grievous and fearful death and accordingly blesses Gods for his deliverance and redempton from it Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 25. Secondly Eternal death the death of wrath and condemnation that 's another great death also and such as follows likewise upon the former without recovery from it He that 's finally dead in sin he shall be certainly dead in judgment the death of sentence and condemnation follows upon the death of spirit and disposition This God has also delivered us from He hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 And we are saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 This is a great death among other Considerations in this respect forasmuch as it required so great a death for the expiating of it which was the death of no other than of the Son of God himself who therefore tasted of this death for the kind of it that he might free us from it We are reconciled unto God says the Apostle by the death of his Son What a sweet and blessed Saviour have we that cares not how great a death he dyes himself that so he might free us from death for whom he dyed We should take all occasions that may be to celebrate our deliverance from this which I am therefore so much the willinger to mention upon this phrase which I now here meet withal in the Text though it is not that which I desire to insist or stand upon I come to that which is more pertinent The third and that which is here particularly aim'd at is Temporal Death which though it be the least Death of all compared with the former yet it is great considered simply in it self and so much the greater according to the several circumstances and aggravations which it may be cloathed withal Which we may take in these following particulars First From the nature and kind of it A violent Death not a natural This is a great death and so consequently a great mercy to be delivered from it to be kept from accidents and casualties and mischances which we are subject unto when the Candle is not put out but goes out when our life is not taken away from us but ends of it self This is a Temporal Blessing and such as when it is granted to the Children of God is granted in love and answerably to be looked upon by them as a merciful dispensation which they are to be thankful for As for wicked men it is threatned as a judgment upon them Joh 27.20 That a Tempest shall steal them away and a storm shall hurl them out of their places and they shall lye down and not be gathered and such was this God thrusts them and turns them out of doors like a company of disorderly persons whom he will no longer have patience with but now as for the godly and righteous there 's an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair and kindly death which so far forth as they have an
circumstances and aggravations which I have now mentioned First For the nature and kind of it it was a death of violence it was a forced and unnatural death Unnatural indeed it was in a double consideration First It was unnatural actively in regard of those which complotted it and desired to inflict it For who I beseech you were they but those of our own Country Englishmen and bred at home The nearer at any time the relation the more unnatural still the rebellion Englishmen to destroy Englishmen as it has been in these latter times especially a most fearful and unnatural destruction contrary to the common principles of nature and that affection which God hath put into Heathen and strangers which never head of Religion This death which we now speak of it was such an one as this contrived and conspired by those which were of our own Land and Nation and came as it were out of our own bowels And then again it was unnatural passively as all deaths of violence especially are a taking away of mens lives from them and turning them out of the world a death of greater pain and reluctancy and indisposition and so it was great Secondly It was a great death if it had taken in regard of the suddenness it was the taking away of men without any warning or preparation at all the cruellest thing that could be in reference to the Patients and the cowardliest thing that could be in reference to the Instruments The manner and carriage and contrivance of it had the aggravations of a great death in it and made it more remarkable First I say it was cruel and very grievous in reference to the Patients or those which were designed to be so To come upon men on a sudden without any warning or preparation at all when they should neither settle their Temporal estates for this life nor yet which is more their spiriritual or eternal for a better what an unmerciful thing was this How great was that death wherein men should had no warning given them of avoiding everlasting death but have been in danger as much as men could make them of perishing both ways at once in body and soul And then besides how cowardly and unmanly also for those that acted it How unsuitable to the Principles of an Heroical and magnanimous spirit There was no skill in it but only violence no art at all but the black art no mystery but the mystery of iniquity It savoured and smelt of no other than Hell it self it was treachery and conspiracy and falshood the basest kind of killing of all as David said once of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 c. Died Abner as a fool dieth thy hands were not bound nor thy feet put into fetters As a man falleth before wicked men so sellest thou So had these Worthies died if they had been taken away as a man falleth before wicked men basely cowardly injuriously without any provocation for no cause for no wrong for no offence but only their goodness they had not died as sools had died Not by their own carelesness not by their own wickedness not by their own rashness not by any default of their own but only by the mischief of those which were the children of iniquity not by the hands of law and iustice their hands nor feet had not been bound but only by the hands of cruelty and rebellion Thus had they been taken away thus had they fallen at this time and had not this been a great deliverance Thirdly It was likewise great in regard of the untimeliness and immaturity of it it was the taking of Persons away before their time many in their very youth and many in their riper years and many in the midst of their hopes in the fulness of their strength for their bodies and in the height of their parts for their minds and in the midst of their counsels for their imployment It was the barbarousness of that Soldier in Syracuse that killed the Mathematician in his study and whiles he was drawing his lines even so as I may say it had been here men in the midst of their very work And what work was it to not a work of ordinary concernment neither but the setling of the affairs of the Kingdom in Church and State the establishing of good and wholsome Laws this was the work which stuck so much in their stomacks and which provoked them to this means of interrupting it as it was the reason which some of them gave for the choice of the place Fourthly It was great also in regard of the extent of it here it was great indeed First for the number and plurality of the persons how many had been involved in this death even the whole State it self the Representative Body of the Kingdom assembled in Parliament As he that wisht he could cut off Rome at one blow what a sweeping death had this been which had carried away so many at once And what an unmerciful conspiracy that had bowels left for none We see how unlimited and unbounded malice is that nothing will serve its turn but the ruining and undoing of all friend and foe hopeful and desperate one as well as another all should have gone to the pot without any difference These are the Principles of such kind of persons All 's fish with them that comes to net Secondly For the condition and quality of the Persons consider that to make it somewhat more a multitude of mean rank and condition they are more easily spared but the loss of those which are of greater worth and eminency for their parts and place this is more to be lamented The death of great men it is no other than a great death It was that which grieved David so much in the aforenamed slaughter of Abner not only the wrongfulness of the cause but the eminency of the person Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel 2 Sam. 3.33 If David made such a matter of it the death but of one great person what had been the death of so many great ones at once King and Prince and Nobles and all the Peers of the Land to have been taken away in one moment Head and Tail Branch and root in one day the stay and the staff the mighty man and the man of War the Judg and the Prophet the Prudent and the Ancient the Honourable man and the Counseller the cunning Artificer and the eloquent Orator this had been the case here and how great had this death been Thirdly Look upon this extent likewise yet further in that which they principally aimed at and propounded to themselves herein which was not only the ruining of persons but also the ruining of Doctrines and the faith and truth of Christ it self the death of he Gospel and the death of the Ordinances and the death of Religion and the death of our own precious and immortal souls And now tell me whether
and strengthen their faith and to take notice of such Dispensations as these to them we should not shut our eyes upon God's Providence in this particular but observe them and lay them to heart and be affected with them it is that which God expects from us in a suitableness to his dealings with us and that in the midst of many troubles which are upon us yet still see how God does deliver us So likewise for spiritual deliverances to apply it to that also God does here deliver after deliverances The vertue and efficacy of Christs Death which hath purchased deliverance for us it is extended beyond the time of his suffering to all following generations Now does Christ deliver us and now does he offer deliverance to us in such Ordinances as these are and now does his spirit strive with us and move us and incite us to good To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. which should move us also to take the present opportunity And so now I have done likewise with the second General part of the Text and that is the signification of a deliverance present exhibited to us in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And doeth deliver The third and last is the prognostication of a deliverance to come in these words In whom we trust also that he will yet deliver us We see here this excellent gradation how the Apostle proceeds from one thing to another from time past to time present and from time present to time to come What may we observe from hence Namely thus much That deliverances which are past are a very good ground for the hoping and expecting of deliverances to come or if ye will thus God that has delivered hitherto he will likewise deliver again Thus does Paul reason here he delivered us from the great danger in Asia and he will deliver us hereafter from others as occasion is afforded unto him and as we have for our part need of it Thus also in another place 2 Tim. 4.18 speaking of his deliverance from Nero I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work He infers one deliverance from another yea a general deliverance from a particular God had delivered him from that cruel Tyrant whom for his fierceness he calls a Lyon and from hence he concludes that he would deliver him from the suffering of any evil work besides for so we may understand it if we please not actively only but passively as from doing evil works himself so from suffering evil works from others in their attempts against him This was likewise the reasoning of David 1 Sam. 17.37 The Lord hath delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Bear and be will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine So again Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them What does he suppose from hence why that accordingly he would deliver himself too This is the sweetest heavenly reasoning of the Saints and Servants of God even to argue thus with themselves and to draw deductions and conclusions of expectation from former experience What God will do from what he has done and that also upon weighty Considerations First His Ability and Power In men this is many times defective so that we cannot so happily conclude of the one from the other of future goodness from former because their power and opportunity may be gone and they may not be so able to do that which has been formerly done by them but now as for God there 's no such fear his strength and power is the same that ever it was and what he has been formerly he is able to do the same still his hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear power and strength is his he is the rock of ages our Almighty God and mighty to save Ye know a spring or fountain it issues out streams continually in omne volubilis as you see water coming out of it to day so you expect it in like manner to morrow And why so why because it is a spring it has an indeficient sufficiency in it And this now is the Lord to his Servants he is a spring of preservations to them his Power is inexhaustible and so he is a Sun as he calls himself Psal 84.11 The Lord is a sun and shield a Sun which has light continually proceeding from it This is a very good Argument to reason froth as the three Children in the fiery furnace Dan. 3.17 The God whom we fear is able to deliver us And what follows thereupon and he will deliver us out of thine hand O king he is able and therefore he will in God it is a very good Argument in such cases as these are So to his Power we may joyn also his skill Those which do things by art and skill they can do them again wheras those which do them by chance and hap-hazard once is enough and sufficient for them Now the Lord he is a person of skill as men are for their parts skilful to destroy so is he for his part skilful to deliver And then further here is an Argument likewise from the greater to the less he that has done the one he can do the other too he that has delivered from so great a death he can much more deliver from a less or smaller danger where it happens unto us and that 's the first foundation of this Confidence viz. God's Ability and Power Secondly There is in God a perpetuity of affection too It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not Lam. 3.22 The Lord 's an unchangable God and therefore he will deliver for time to come as well as for time past I the Lord change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 there 's a great matter in that especially if we shall consider that himself is the original of the mercies and deliverances which he vouchsafes That he loves us freely and not so much for any thing in our selves If it were founded in us we had then little cause to expect it or to look for it because we for our part are ever and anon out of frame we are such as do continually provoke him and give him occasion very frequently to suspend his goodness towards us but the comfort is that lies in himself and in his own gracious nature and essence which is not subject to any kind of change or alteration at all Thirdly There is in God exactness and a desire to finish and perfect his own work now this he should not be able to do if together with deliverances which are past he should not join deliverances to come The deliverances of the Church of God though they are so many distinct actions consisting of distinct moments in a succession and
things which they ought not for filthy lucres sake And the Apostle Peter in like manner does testifie against them also 2 Pet. 2.1 But there were false prophets among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable herestes even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction False Prophets of old and false teachers now answerably to them So likewise our blessed Saviour Matth. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven This corrupt teaching it is such as is on all hands condemned Seconly It is not Preaching at large neither but Preaching to you there 's an Emphasis upon his Heaters and persons Preached unto If these false teachers which the Apostle aims at had Preached their Errors only to the Gentiles or unconverted Jews it had not been so great a matter nor of so high an aggravation but to Preach thus to the Galatians which were now Christians and brought home to the faith this made it intolerable of all false teachers that are there 's none like to them who are seducers and who indeavour to make people to apostatize and to fall back from the truth received such were these here which St. Paul declared against and therefore deserved in a special manner to be accurst It 's bad enough an too bad to keep off others from the faith in a way of prevention but to turn them from it in a way of corruption this is hainous and grievous indeed This was that which the Apostle in another place did so abhominate in Elimas the sorcerer who sought to turn away Sergius Paulus from the faith Act. 13.8 9 10. O full of all subtilty says he and all mischief thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the righteousness of the Lord It is a mischievous and devilish disposition savouring of Hell it self to go about to put others out of the way of Truth and Righteousness This was that which Elimas did there and which the false teachers also did here in the Church of Galatia And therefore if there be any such as these let him be an Anathema though an Angel from Heaven Thirdly There 's an Emphasis also upon the Doctrine Si quis Evangelizaverit if any one Preach another Gospel every Doctrine that is Preach'd is not Gospel nor Preach'd under the notion of Gospel As the Law of Moses speculations of Philosophy and the like there were some which taught these barely and simply considered in themselves which the Apostle at this present did not trouble himself withal But those which obtruded these things as Gospel and as points necessary to be believed to salvation as some of them did such as these they deserved an execration and accordingly does St. Paul here inflict it and fasten it upon them If any one shall do thus let him be accursed In brief togive you a full account of the scope and main drift of this Scripture there are two things especially which are here excepted and protested against according to a double notion of the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes either against or besides as it denotes against so it is a caution against false Doctrine If any one teach contrary as it denotes besides so it is a caution against new Doctrine If any one add or put in their Preaching either of these are challenged and condemned here in the Text. First The Preaching of false Doctrine If any one Preach contrary the Apostle lays a Caveat against such which did expose the Doctrine and Truth of Christ which had been taught by himself and the rest of the Apostles This he signifies in the Verses immediately before the Text the sixt and seventh of this Chapter I marvel that ye are so soon removed from himthat called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and which would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel c. By which connexion it is evident this that the Apostles aim and main intent is thus much to deal with them which did thwart the Gospel and set against that as appears further by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we toucht upon before such Doctrines and Teachers as those are which do go cross and contrary to the Gospel they are such as are not to be endured in the Church of Christ This is the point which we have here before us drawn from these words as which is principally observable in them By the Gospel that ye may know what we mean is to be understood the Doctrine of Gods free grace in Christ by whom he hath been pleased to reconcile the world to himself that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word of reconciliation as the Apostle calls it in another place 2 Cor. 5 19. That 's the Gospel which is here spoken of Now whosoever shall nullifie this or impair it and diminish from it they are such as are here censured in this Scripture and not only here in this but likewise in somer others besides as we may observe if we search into them The reason of it is this because the Gospel is such a Doctrine as wherein God is more magnified and advanced than any other therefore to Preach down that that is in effect to Preach down God himself which he will not away with It is to disparage him in his sweet and gracious Attributes of mercy and goodness and loving kindness and such as these which are unseparably in him It is to frustrate him in his great design which he does propound to himself in the world and for the accomplishing whereof the whole world it self is continued Therefore let us by all means take heed of such points as those are which are injurious hereunto as the Doctrine of Papists teaching Justification by the Law The Doctrine of Socinians denying the Satisfaction of Christ The Doctrine of Antinomians introducing licentiousness of life and conversation All such as these and the like are contrary and directly opposite to that Gospel which was preached by Paul an the rest of his Brethren being a Doctrine of Grace ond sufficiency of strictness and exactness of obedience which is taught and held forth in it So much for that as here 's a caution against false Doctrine and preaching against the Gospel The second is a Caution against new Doctrine and preaching besides the Gospel the Spirit of God provides against this that there be no addition made to the Gospel but it be preserved whole and intire Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a lyer Prov. 30.6 It holds not only of the Law but of the Gospel Therefore in Jude v. 3. It is called the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Once and once for all as
ingagement to all men which are in such an estate to get out of it as soon as it is possible Secondly Here 's matter also of thankfulness to all those whom God has freed from this condition and brought into a better estate by Christ as these Romans here were they have great cause of praising and blessing God who hath dealt thus graciously with them who whiles before they were unfruitful and disgraceful and dead and lyable to destruction are now freed from all these and have the contrary qualities put upon them And as a special Testimony of our thankfulness indeed we should endeavour especially to live accordingly and to shew forth the praises or vertues of him that has call'd us out of darkness into his marvellous hight as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 2.9 This is the proper use which the Apostle Paul himself seems to make of it in the very next Chapter Rom. 7.5 6. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter This is that which we should all labour after whom it hath pleased God to deal thus withal as he had here done with these Romans before us And thus I have done with the third particular inconvenience of sin and so also with this whole Text in hand What fruit had ye them in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for c. SERMON XXXIX Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you It is the manner of all those which are exact and accurate work-men not to rest themselves satisfied at any time with any thing which is done by them till they have brought it to some perfection and accomplishment but where they essay any present flawes or defects in any of their work to return to it and come ouer it again for the rectifying of it And this is that which me may here observe in the carriage of the Apostle Paul to these Galatians to whom he here writes he had taken a great deal of pains with them to convert them and to bring them to the Faith and to acquaint them with the knowledg of Christ as we may see in the former part of the Epistle but they partly through their own negligence and non-attendency partly through Satans malice and the seducement of false-teachers amongst them were much apostatized and departed from the Truth in intermingling the Gospel of Christ with the Law and Ceremonies of Moses from whence the very Characters of Christ were as it were defaced and and obliterated in them Now St. Paul in this Scripture besore us does here signifie his endeavours towards them for the reducement and recovery of them and the restoring of this Image of Christ in them My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you This is the scope of the Text. IN the Text it self we have three General Parts considerable of us First The Compellation which the Apostle puts upon the Galatians and that is little children Secondly The Condition in which he stands in reference to them and that is that he travelleth in birth Thirdly The extent of this condition and that is till Christ be formed in them To begin with the first viz. The Compellation My little children Now this it hath a double notion or Emphasis which may be fastened upon it First An Emphasis of Affection And secondly an Emphasis of Diminution There 's love and disparagement both in this manner of Expression First There 's affection in it even the affection of a Father to his Children or a Mother to the fruit of her Womb which is also in a good Minister towards his People he tenders them even as his own bowels Thus did Paul these present Galatians Therefore as before in ver 12. he call'd them Brethren so here now in this 19th verse he calls them little Children The same affection does he likewise express towards some others in other places as 1 Thes 2.7 8. We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectiontely desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us So likewise the Apostle John often in his Epistles uses this phrase to Believers of little children all to express his good-will and affection towards them and that 's one thing which we may observe in it here Secondly As it has in it the Emphasis of affection as shewing the greatness of his love so it has also the Emphasis of diminution as shewing the tenderness of their growth and proficiency in Religion who were now but of a low stature and degree in Christianity Thus the word sometimes is taken also in Scripture as 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ So Heb. 5.12 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of rightenusness for he is a babe In which places and the like a weaker Christian is set forth by the name of a babe or little child And so here now in this Text before us We shall see the Resemblance made good in sundry particulars First From that which I mentioned before the smallness of their growth Little children they are but mean of stature and far short of manly perfections and so are weaker Christians and young beginners as to matter of Religion they are but infants and little children in comparison and therefore are to be perswaded to attend upon the means of growth not to stand always at a stay but to put on and to drive forward to perfection as the Apostle Paul professes of himself that he was careful to do Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus c. The contrary hereunto is that which is much to be bewail'd in divers Christians there are many which are well-grown and old men in reference to the world which yet are but babes and little children in Christ such as the Apostle complains of to the Hebrews chap. 5. vers 12. Who when as for the time they might have been teachers of others one had need to teach them again what be the first principles of the Oracles of God c. Nay we may go a little further than so not only which for the time may be teachers but which for the thing will be teachers and take upon them so weighty a work as that is who it they were well sifted and exawined and call'd to account would be found short in the common Articles