two-edged sword Prov. 5.3 4. Stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant Prov. 9.17 But after the mouth is filled with gravell Prov. 20.17 Though Wickedness be sweet in a man's mouth though he hide it under his tongue as men use to doe who would keep the tast of Sweet-meats long with them Yet his meat within him is turned into the Gall of Asps He hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of he Belly saith Zophar Job 20.12 14 15. The whole Books of the Proverbs and Job yea and the whole Bible are so full of such expressions as that a man scarce reads a Chapter but something or other occurrs to this purpose yea all sorts of Writers sacred and profane have left upon record their Observations concerning the attendance of Punishment upon Sin the lying of Sin at the door when Evil is done within the avenging Eye of God the Terrours that are subsequent when Conscience is awakened the secret and silent Lashes and Tortures of a guilty Conscience when Affliction Trouble the apprehension of Death or God's Anger seize on the spirit of a man We need not instance in Cain Saul Judas Felix and such like which the Scripture mentions nor such as Nero Caligula and others of whom the Roman and Greek Historians speak nor of Spira and others of later Times The Confessions of David the Complaints of Job the Lamentations of Jeremiah yield us pregnant proofs of this Truth Besides the forealleged Texts David tells us Psal 32.3 4 5. that when he kept silence his bones waxed old through his Roaring all the day long For day and night the Hand of God was heavy on him his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer till he acknowledged his Sin Psal 31.10 My strength faileth because of mine Iniquity Psal 38.8 that he was feeble and sore smitten that he roared by reason of the disquietness of his heart Job speaks thus to God Job 13.26 Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Sins of my youth And Jeremy Lament 1.14 The yoke of my Transgressions is bound by his hand they are wreathed and come up upon my neck he hath made my strength to fall and vers 20. Behold O Lord for I am in distress my bowels are troubled mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled This Anguish from the sense of Sin ariseth 1. From the nature of Sin which is really mischievous though seemingly pleasant Sin is of a Serpentine kind it hath a smooth Skin but a venomous Tail The sting of Death saith S. Paul is Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 It is a Sting and that deadly though it be hidden What Solomon saith of the Drunkard's Cup Prov. 23.31 32. though when the wine is red in the Glass giveth its colour in the Cup and moveth it self aright it is very delightfull yet at last it will bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder is true of every Sin There is a deceitfulness of Sin which hardens men in the committing of it Heb. 3.13 Men are fearless and secure while the pleasure of Sin beguiles them the consequent upon it is hidden from them they discern not God's Eye to be on them they delude their Souls with blasphemous imaginations as if he saw it not had forgotten it were such an one as themselves But it is otherwise when he sets their Sins in order before them rouzes up their sleepy Consciences causeth their Iniquities to stare in their faces then they find that there is a Sting in Sin the sweet drink which they swallowed down pleasantly gnaws and frets their bowels torments and corrodes their spirits so that they sigh and groan and are ready to destroy themselves to be rid of that Venome which they so easily and greedily drank down before 2. From the Properties of God ariseth the Dolour that is consequent on Sin 1. The Omniscience of God which discerns all the most hidden ways of man which caused Job to say Chap. 31.3 4. Is not destruction to the wicked and strange punishment to the workers of Iniquity Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps We are foolishly apt to imagine that God sees not through the thick Clouds that he hath forgotten that he regards not what we doe and thus we befool our selves with such devices as in the end ruine us We are like that Bird that puts its head in a hole as if thereby it were safe from the Fowler like Children we wink our selves and think none sees us because we see none A deceived Heart thus turns us aside that we cannot say Is there not a Lie in my right hand Quod nimis miseri volunt hoc facilè credunt But what saith the Psalmist Psal 44.20 21. If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hand to a strange God Shall not God search this out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart Hence doth Moses derive the Affliction of Israel in the Wilderness Psal 90.7 8. We are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance 2. The Purity of God makes God to hate Sin and so not to tolerate it Thou art of purer eyes saith the Prophet Habakkuk 1.13 then to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity Though he sees it yet he will not see it he knows it and looks on it yet turns away his face from it as we doe when we see some noisome unclean thing which we cause to be removed out of our sight And this must needs create Trouble As when the Sun shines not on the world Clouds and Darkness and Tempests quickly overspread the Heavens so when God hides his Face Sorrow and Anguish of spirit take hold on mens Souls Odium est Appetitus amovendi Hatred is a desire of removing of that which we hate from us I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me saith David Psal 101.3 It is much more true of God Psal 5.4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in Wickedness neither shall Evil dwell with thee The Foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of Iniquity Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing God's Holiness moves him to inflict Anguish on men for Sin 3. So doth also his Truth He hath given us a Law and hath fenced it with many Threatnings that it might not be broken He is true in his Threatnings as well as in his Promises as he is engaged to make good the one so to verify the other We are sure saith the Apostle Rom. 2.2 that the Judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things and again Rom. 3.4 Let God be true but every man a Liar as it is written That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest
of his Holiness in my Text. Now he is so termed in opposition to the unclean Spirit Matth. 12.43 or evil Spirit and Spirit of Devils which are in some men as the Holy Spirit is in others For as the Heathens imagined that every man had his good Genius or his bad his good or bad Angel so the Holy Scripture expresseth the Motions of men to be from the Spirit of God's Holiness in them who are sanctified and from Satan in them who are unholy as in Cain and Judas Now the Spirit of God is sometimes spoke of as God's Instrument by which he works in the works of Creation Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created and thou renewest the face of the Earth Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life When God bringeth any great thing to pass he doth it by his Spirit Zech. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit That which is in Matth. 12.28 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God is in Luk. 11.20 If I with the finger of God cast out Devils whence it appears that the Spirit of God is Digitus Dei God's Hand or Finger whereby he works But especially the works God doeth in and for the Saints are ascribed to the Spirit of God All these things worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally even as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 All those precious Qualities and Operations whereby we please God are termed Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 23. 2. This helps us to understand how the Holy Spirit may be taken from a person to wit by withdrawing from him those Operations of the Holy Spirit which are amiable to God or comfortable to us Now in this Petition it is to be considered that notwithstanding David's Sins he was not utterly bereft of God's Spirit for in this Psalm his humble Confession his ardent Supplication shew that there was some fire of God's Spirit remaining in him all the sparks were not gone out Yet he felt so little of the Vigour and Consolation of the Spirit that he feared its utter Extinction And because this would leave him in utter Darkness therefore he is importunate with God that he would not take his Holy Spirit from him but as it is in the next verse restore unto him the joy of his Salvation and uphold him with his free Spirit The Petition thus opened yields us these Observations 1. That the having of God's Spirit in us and with us is the most beneficial Gift which God gives to a Repenting Sinner 2. That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit 3. That a Repenting Sinner is an earnest Suitour to God for the Continuance of it to him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That God's Spirit is the most beneficial Gift that God bestows on a Repenting Sinner This is manifest from the words of Christ Luk. 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good Gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Which shews that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is a greater Gift and far better then that which earthly Parents give to their Children as bodily Food and the like and that God in giving his Holy Spirit to those that ask him shews an Affection far exceeding that which Parents have for their Children when they supply them with Corporall sustenance Adde hereunto that the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.14 in his Benediction of the Corinthians prays thus for them The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all Amen Whereby it is manifest that the Communion of the Holy Spirit is ranked among the best things he could beg for that people to wit the Grace of Christ and the Love of God Nor is this without reason for the Spirit of God removes all that Evil which is odious to God and noisome to our selves it washes away that Filthiness of flesh and spirit which is loathsome to God it cures that Blindness of Mind that Hardness of Heart that Perverseness of Soul that Impotency of Faculties which make us unable to doe any thing that may please God or rectify our own Actions It is this clean Water which being sprinkled on us by God makes us clean in his eyes so as to cleanse us from all our Filthiness and all our Evils It is that by giving of which we have a new heart and a new spirit is put within us God takes away the stony heart out of our flesh and gives us an heart of flesh which causeth us to walk in God's Statutes and to keep his Judgments and doe them Ezek. 11.19 20. In whom the Spirit of God dwells not there is a Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they do not hear even the Gospel is hid to them the God of this world blinds their minds lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image God should shine unto them they are held in the Snare of the Devil and are taken captive by him at his will An evil Spirit possesseth them so that they want the Consolations of God the Peace which passeth understanding which guards the minds of them that believe through Christ Jesus they are filled with Horrour of Conscience are under the spirit of Bondage they sow to the Flesh and of the Flesh reap Corruption On the other side where the Spirit of God inhabits it renews a man in the spirit of his mind so that he knows the things that are freely given him of God spiritually discerns the hidden wisedom of God in a mystery which God hath ordained before the world to our glory even those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Even to Babes are these things revealed by God's Spirit which the Princes of the world knew not but they were hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 Whence it is that they are made the Epistle of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord they are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.3 18. By which means they are made the Temple of God in that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them vers 16. and holy unto God an habitation of God through the Spirit they are joyned to the Lord one Spirit with him new Creatures in Christ and conformed to him Whence it is that Sin bath not dominion over them nor the Wicked one toucheth them They are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein they were held
the Fountain the Wheel to be broken at the Cistern as Solomon poetically describes that State Eccles. 12.3 4 5 6. These and innumerable more Weaknesses are incident to Man whereof some are natural common to all some adventitious by our own Folly Mens Injuriousness the Creature 's Harmfulness God's just Judgments which happen to men Yet all these the Spirit of a man will sustain By the Spirit is no doubt meant the Soul of man with its vital Faculties his Reason Will and Affections of which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2.11 For what man hath known the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him But then it must be understood of the Spirit of a man in its Rectitude and Integrity opposite to a wounded Spirit as the Antithesis in the latter part of the verse shews This Rectitude or Integrity of the Spirit consists 1. In the right use of Reason which is indeed the Sinews of the Spirit The less there is of Reason the more is the imbecillity of the Spirit and the weaker the Mind the less is the Patience Children can bear nothing upon every Lash every motion of a Rod presently they cry an ugly Vizor any strange Noise or unexpected Accident affrights them So it is with weak-spirited persons they are ready to faint at every Threat every Frown of a Superiour they think every Symptom of a Disease presageth Death and presently the Physician must be fetcht every Rumour of War puts them to a stand what to doe where to be every Loss is as if they were undone every Difficulty apprehended is as a Lion in the way When Gideon bids Jether his first-born up and slay Zeba and Zalmunna though they were in his hands under his feet yet the youth drew not his sword for he feared because he was yet a youth Judg. 8.20 Rise thou said they then to Gideon and fall upon us for as the man is so is his strength As is the man's Reason and Understanding so is his Courage and Fortitude of Spirit Mens cujusque is est quisque It is not the height of the Stature nor the bigness of the Bone nor the length of the Arm nor the vigour of the Members that inable a person to bear or act A little man with a lively Spirit can fight better then a Giant that is slow in motion and dull in contrivance a cunning Vlysses will overcome Difficulties and bear Storms better then a lusty Ajax Necessitas fortiter ferre docet Consuetudo facilé Men that have much Wit to find ways of evasion Skill to apply themselves to persons and times to foresee Means and Events will wind themselves out of Troubles when a man of a rude and boisterous Spirit by his self-vexing his fretfulness and fuming doth but hamper himself the more like the Bird that flutters in the Net Custome also makes many a Disease born without Disquietness many a dangerous Storm adventured through without Fear The more Experience men have of overcoming Afflictions the more are they armed against them Any way whereby Reason is confirmed Infirmities are abated The Foresight of Evils approaching makes them the less formidable Those Darts pierce least which are foreseen best Reason is indeed a Buckler that bears off many Blows which would cut a Fool to the heart The Argument of the Apostle is rational 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to men and therefore should be born Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes Nemo recusat is Reason in the Poet. How admirable were the Resolutions how constant were the Actings of spirit in Stoicks in bearing their Sufferings by the help of Philosophy Pains of the Stone Torture of the Rack were stoutly born without a Groan upon such Apprehensions as these This Evil reacheth not Me but my Sheath what is common to me with Beasts not that which is mine The Writings of Seneca Epictetus Suetonius and others are full to this purpose so are the Relations of the Lives of Philosophers Certain it is that for the sustaining of humane Evils Prudence is much availing That of Solomon is true of it Eccles. 7.19 Wisedom strengtheneth the wise more then ten mighty men which are in the City 2. But then 2ly Reason is much more strong when there is with it a Breast-plate of Righteousness a Conscience of Uprightness This is indeed Armour of proof such as no Infirmities no sad Accidents can penetrate Then is the Spirit of a Man whole and sound able to bear its Burthens of Afflictions and Injuries when he is Integer vitae Scelerisque purus of an innocent Life and unspotted Conscience Yea such hath been the height of Confidence in some moral Heathens such their Heroick Gallantry that they have provoked the most barbarous Tyrants to doe their worst have gloriously triumphed in the severest Tortures have vaunted of an undaunted mind though Heaven and Earth should be tumbled together Si fractus illabatur Orbis Impavidum ferient Ruinae What glorious talk have the Stoicks of their Vertues as of themselves sufficient to make them happy under any Pressures What sullen if not well-composed Deportment of Spirit have some of them shewed under Racks Strappado's and such like Engines of Cruelty What Euthymy or Tranquillity of mind have they had in Sicknesses yea in Death when Conscientia rectè factorum the consciousness of their well-doing specially for their Country hath animated them like strong Wine which chears the heart Holy Believers have if not with so daring a Spirit yet with a calmer and more gentle Submission to the Will of God held up their heads under the greatest Rebukes of God's Hand or Satan's Malice when they have appealed to God concerning their Sincerity in their Obedience to God's Will When Hezekiah was sick unto death and Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said Thus saith the Lord Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live he turned his face towards the Wall and prayed unto the Lord and said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.1 2 3. He was under a mortal Disease with sense of killing Pain had a sharp Message by the Prophet which might cut him to the heart yet this did not sink him but that he held up so as in the Conscience of his Uprightness to urge God to revoke his Sentence and lengthen his Life But of all the Instances of mere mortal mens enduring Afflictions no Example is like that transcendent Mirrour of Patience holy Job for notwithstanding all the Adversities wherewith Satan had laden him notwithstanding the Provocation of his froward Wife notwithstanding the injurious Criminations of his evilsurmizing Friends and the cross Arguings wherewith they a long while baited him yet he stood firm fell not into any kind of Dejectedness of mind
it is said Thou art a God ready to pardon or a God of Pardons gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindness And the Prophet Isa 55.7 exhorts the wicked to return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon It is then one of God's Jewells which his Crown is set with that he is not as a cruell Tyrant or infernall Fiend with whom there is nothing but Cruelty and Mischievousness but as a gracious King or loving Father in whom is Clemency as well as Justice affectionate Forgiveness as well as severe Correction Which that we may the better conceive it being that on which our Life lies it will be requisite that we consider 1. What Sins God forgives 2. For what Motive 3. To whom he forgives them 4. Why he forgives them I. For the first our Saviour hath resolved it in express terms Mark 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you All Sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness but is in danger of eternall Damnation What this Sin is and whether any be at this day guilty of it is a Question that requires some disquisition The Schoolmen as Aquinas make six Species of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Despair Presumption Impenitency Obstinacy Impugning the acknowledged Truth and Envying our Brother's Grace Protestant Divines taking in other Texts out of the Epistles to the Hebrews and Titus and out of S. John's 1. Epistle have formed such a Definition as this That it is a Blaspheming against the Gospel of Christ testified by a clear Conviction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Blasphemer arising out of a spightfull Hatred and obstinate Rejection of that Truth and Testimony of and by which he was convinced causing an oppugning of it and the Avouchers of it upon the strong possession Satan hath got in his Heart But the Text Mark 3.30 in which it is added Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit doth seem to restrain it to that spightfull belying Christ's Miracles done by the Spirit of God most evividently so as that they could not gainsay it as if they were done by the Prince of Devils and Christ were possessed and acted by an Unclean Spirit Which makes it very probable that none at this day can as things are commit it there being no such Miracles now done as can evidently shew the Operation of the Holy Spirit to be blasphemed as it was by the Pharisees Nor is Julian the Apostate sufficiently proved however so judged by some of the Ancients to have committed this Sin Much less have any of those doubting Souls who by reason of their Tenderness of Conscience which makes them very jealous and fearfull of their own Condition have been apt to charge themselves with this Sin any reason so to doe they being guilty of no such Blasphemy in words Rejecting of Christ Speaking evil of his Spirit or its Operations Oppugning of the Gospel or the Believers of it nor of any Obstinacy in any course of open Persecution or Disclaiming Christ and his Gospel Perhaps this which I have said may be of great use to some doubting and troubled Spirits who put themselves on the Rack through Mistakes arising from the Weakness of their Understandings and the Fearfulness of their Hearts As for any other Sins they are not in their own nature unpardonable other Blasphemies are pardonable Peter's Denying Christ though with Cursing himself if he knew him yet had Pardon Manasseh though notorious for his Cruelties as filling Jerusalem with innocent Bloud even of the Prophets of God though infamous for his setting up the most abominable Idolatries of the Gentiles though proceeding so far as to use Familiar spirits yet when he was humbled and prayed to God in his Affliction God heard him and forgave him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. I instance in these as seeming to come nighest to the Sin against the Holy Ghost the one sinning against Knowledge after Warning and solemn Promise to the contrary the other offending in the most hainous manner in Sins of the greatest Guilt with extreme Wilfulness and Violence Not to mention the Sins of David or Lot or Noah or Solomon If Cain meant it as the Vulgar Latin hath it Gen. 4.13 My Sin is greater then can be forgiven it might well be replied to him Mentiris Cain Thou liest Cain Thy Sin might have been forgiven if thou hadst had a penitent Heart and hadst begged Pardon from God Though in the Law God would not forgive some Sins as Blasphemy Murther Adultery Sins with an high hand so as to expiate them by Sacrifice and free the Sinner from death though God sware to Eli that the Iniquities of his House should not be purged with Sacrifice nor Offerings for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 though he never will pardon the Sin of Devils of Judas the Son of Perdition nor the final Impenitent and Unbeliever Yet Christ tells us plainly No kind of Sin or Blasphemy except one but is pardonable to the sons of men II. But then upon what Motive God forgiveth Sins is to be farther considered They that say that any Sins against God are venial ex genere suo the whole kind of them of their own Nature as having an evil or inordinate thing for their Object but not against the Love of God or our Neighbour or by reason of the Smalness of the matter in which or the sudden Motion by which they are done speak otherwise then the Scripture which makes the Wages of Sin simply and every Sin death Rom. 6.23 and him cursed who continues not in every thing written in the Law to doe it Gal. 3.10 They derogate from the efficacy of Christ's Bloud which alone is it that cleanseth from all Sin make it a light matter to sin against the Most high and infinite Majesty would excuse our First Parents Sin and harden men in Impenitency And when they make voluntary Works of Penance Satisfaction for such Sins Priests Absolutions Popes Pardons and saying of Divine Offices for the Sinner sufficient to take away the Guilt of Sin against God though they provide for their accursed Gain yet they derogate from the Necessity and alone Sufficiency of Christ's Bloud who is the onely Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins and the Sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. We learn Heb. 9.22 that without shedding of bloud is no Remission and that though the Sacrifices of the Law might procure Forgiveness in respect of some Penalties and sanctify to the purifying of the Flesh yet that it is the Bloud of Christ alone who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that can purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God vers 14. and that it is for Christ's sake whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith
Plagues require great Mercies and importunate Suing Now must the Bridegroom goe forth of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet The Ministers of the Lord all sorts of persons old and young must cry with Tears and Supplications Spare us O Lord and give not thy Heritage to reproach We must lift up our hands with our hearts to God in the Heavens as sensible that nothing but his Mercy can save us that he is ready to hear and help when we hope in his Mercy that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins We must mind God of his former Mercies trust on him as one that hath promised to deliver us when we call on him in the day of Trouble look unto him with Patience as being assured that they that wait for him shall not be ashamed 3. We must adde an unmovable Resolution to amend our waies to sin no more as we have done to abhor Evil and cleave to that which is good in Duties of Religion Prayer Hearing God's Word Praising of God Thanksgiving to be more frequent and serious to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts from double-mindedness to be upright in what we doe walking humbly with our God and seeking his Glory all our daies And in two things especially we are to deal rightly with God 1. In doing Justice to others if we be publick persons by punishing Sin and giving just Sentence for all that are wronged if private by restoring that which is not our own and righting those we have injured Remember that God abhors ex Rapina Holocaustum Robbery for Burnt-offerings and that the Prayers of the unjust are an Abomination to the Lord. 2. In shewing Mercy to others We are to be mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull chiefly when we beg Mercy at his hands This is a necessary Duty for a Fasting-day Isa 58.6 7. Is not this the Fast c Now especially is a time for this Duty in which there is so much Want by reason of the great Poverty that is come upon Families shut up now that Trading is decayed and Provision so dear and difficult to be got As you cry to God for Help so do others Necessities cry to you for Relief Have you then Bowels of Mercy for them as you would have Bowels of Mercy in God towards you Let your hand be open to them as you would have God's hand ready for you So may you expect Preservation in this time of Danger at least you may be assured however you speed now of Life eternall hereafter Which God grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE HEAVENLY CALL The Twelfth SERMON HEBREWS iv 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts THIS Passage is a Quotation with an Application of it beyond what at first the words seemed to import They were spoken by David but intended as a Monition to hear the Gospell They are a Summons or Writ of Appearance served upon Jews and Gentiles limiting them to a certain Day of accepting the offer of the Gospell without delay upon pretence of Business Profit or Pleasure by themselves without Attorney or Proxy The thing to be done is hearing his Voice the means thereunto is Removere prohibens to remove that which might hinder the Hardness of the Heart This being applied to the Gospell of Christ intimates 1. That the Preaching of the Gospel is the Voice of God 2. That it is to be heard 3. That it is to be heard to day 4. That to the end it may be heard to day the Heart must not be hardned I. OBSERVATION That the Gospel of Christ is the Voice of God It is the express Assertion of S. Peter 1. Epist 1.25 alluding to Isa 40.8 But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Which is demonstratively confirmed 1. By its own Evidence in respect of which it is termed the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Image of God 2 Cor. 4.4 It is not denied that it is the hidden Wisedom of God in a mystery which none of the Princes of the world knew yea it is such as eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man without Revelation from him it being not an humane Invention but a Divine Contrivance yet shining forth in the Preaching of it by Christ and his Ministers it exhibits such a Light as can come from none but God It is not like any Talmudicall Fable or Popish Legend or Poeticall Fiction or witty Romance the Brats of mens Fancy or subtile Composure But it is for the matter of it sutable to God's Wisedom Goodness and Holiness agreeable to the undoubted Oracles of God committed to the Jews foretold and prefigured by the Prophecies of the Old Testament and Shadows of the Law Whence S. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.16 We have not followed cunningly-devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and vers 19. that Christians had a more sure word of Prophecy to which they were to take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark place adding that the Evidence of the Gospell is as the Dawning of the Day and the Arising of the Day-star in the Christians hearts 2. And in truth the Gospel appears to be such by its Effects It doeth to the Heart what the Stars and the Sun do to the Eyes it enlightens it enlivens it warms it spirits the Heart It doeth that which Natural Reason could not doe Philosophy could not attain to the Law could not accomplish It discovers our selves to our selves the Being Properties Counsels of God to us It turns the Heart from Sin begets Men to God fills the Soul with heavenly Comforts strengthens and quickens the Spirit to doe the Will of God and to suffer for his Name It makes men to be of composed Spirits and celestiall Conversation beyond what either Stoicall Philosophy or Rabbinicall Dictates could raise men unto to be more noble and heroical then those renowned Worthies or Patriots which either Greeks or Romans have admired and magnified 3. And which puts it out of all doubt to be Divine it hath such Attestations as could be given by none but God For besides what John the Baptist saw and heard at Christ's Baptism besides what S. Peter and his Collegues testified who were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty when he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1.17 besides all this the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles did so convinced Nicodemus that he confessed We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can doe these Miracles which thou doest except God be with him Joh. 3.2 And that
Creatures are good God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1.31 Another in genere Moris a Good which makes the person truly good Such is the Goodness of God who is good and doeth good Psal 119.68 even by communicating Good to all Act. 14.17 And indeed He is the chiefest Good He is most transcendently perfectly originally Good from whom every good and every perfect Gift cometh James 1.17 And therefore rightly is it said by our Lord Christ Matth. 19.17 There is none good but one that is God And this Good we are to be Followers of Be ye Followers of God There is also a derivative Goodness from him which is communicated primitively to his Son concerning whom it is the Father's pleasure that in him should all Fulness dwell Col. 1.19 The Spirit is given him without measure Joh. 3.34 While he was upon Earth he went about doing good Act. 10.38 He might truly say I am the good Shepherd Joh. 10.11 And from him Good is redundant to us He hath plenitudinem Fontis and not onely Vasis With him is the fountain of Life and in his Light we see light Psal 36.9 Now the Good we are to be Followers of is also this Good which is in and from Christ the Good of his Word to know it the Good of his Example to imitate it the Good of his Gifts the Gifts of his Spirit to be zealous after them 1 Cor. 12.31 the Good of Righteousness and eternall Life which is from God by Jesus Christ to injoy it the Good of God's Favour in Christ to obtain it the Good of Communion with the Father and the Son to embrace it But though these sorts of Good are to be followed yet that which we are here required more specially to be Followers of is not so much Bonum Beatitudinis the Good of Blessedness for our selves as Bonum Sanctitatis the Good of Holiness whereby we may be like unto God be holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. and Bonum Justitiae the Good of Righteousness towards our selves and others such as may consist with a good Conscience and a good Conversation in Christ the Good of Innocency that we may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke Phil. 2.15 the Good of Benevolence and Beneficence willing and procuring good unto all Gal. 6.10 as we have opportunity doing good to all especially unto them that are of the houshold of Faith We must endeavour after the good Heart that may out of its Treasure bring forth good things Matth. 12.35 after the good Tongue that speaketh Wisedom and talketh of Judgment Psal 37.30 that uttereth that which is good to the use of Edifying that it may minister Grace to the hearers Eph. 4.29 after the good Hand that may work the thing that is good that it may have to give to him that needeth v. 28. In summe we must labour to become Vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the Master's use and prepared to every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 II. How this Good is to be followed 1. Universally all the Kinds of it are to be pursued not onely the Good of Religion towards God but also of Love towards Man The End of our Deliverance from the hands of our Enemies is that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our life as it is in the Benedictus Luk. 1.74 75. The Grace of God hath appeared to all men teaching them that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts they should live righteously soberly and godly in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. We know it is S. James his determination 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all Vertues are chained together the Law is copulative Bonum non nist ex integra causa He that is not intirely good is not good at all He that is all for the practice of Religious Ordinances but no whit for Charity he that is devout at Church but proud vain wanton uncharitable unrighteous intemperate at home is no Follower of that which is Good but an Hypocrite a meer Pharisee or painted Sepulchre And he that is much for Alms and Abstinence from Excess or prohibited Pleasures yet careless of Prayer Reading Hearing God's Word in publick and in private is a profane person be he never so much esteemed by men yet is he abominable before God 2. Nor must we be Followers of all Sorts of Good onely but also of all kinds of Good in the most eminent Degree What the Apostle prays for in the behalf of the Colossians Col. 1.9 10. should be the aim of every sincere Christian that he may be filled with the knowledge of God's Will in all wisedom and spiritual understanding that he may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being faithfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God So what he prays for in behalf of the Philippians Phil. 1.11 that he may be filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God that he may be abundant in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 As he is unjust that lets not the Buier have his full Measure so is he that doth not afford God the utmost of his Service that doth not love him with all his Mind with all his Soul and with all his Strength In this an Emulation is good which is implied in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some Copies have it in my Text and it is so rendred by Beza We should vie one with another as desirous to outstrip each other like Runners in a Race that strive who shall run fastest Yea in this it is good to be singular If ye salute your Brethren onely saith Christ Matth. 5.47 what singular thing or more then others doe ye intimating that a Christian that exceeds not a Philosopher or a Jew is not worthy of that name He must not onely doe good to them that love him but even to them that hate him vers 44. Though we own no Popish Evangelical Counsels no Monkish Vows as putting a man into a state of Perfection no Merit or Works of Supererogation yet he that will approve himself to God must endeavour to doe those Good works that are commanded to the utmost Extensivè Works of all Kinds and Intensivè in all their Degrees according to his ability 3. And this we are to doe sincerely as before God not as pleasing Men but God that trieth the heart 1 Thess 2.4 Not like the Pharisees who gave Alms Fasted Prayed that they might be seen of Men and therefore did all with Ostentation but in secret and private as well as in publick we should be Followers of that which is Good looking onely at God's Glory our Obedience to him
Desire of all Nations and that he was the Person whom the Godly did delight in and expect for what Reason appears by the III. OBSERVATION That the Certainty of the coming of Christ's Day was the Spring of Joy the Basis of Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits to Believers of old in the days of their Pilgrimage on Earth For this we have the words of S. Peter Act. 2.25 26 30. That David being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his Loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne spake concerning Christ that therefore did his Heart rejoyce and his Tongue was glad and his Flesh did rest in hope And Heb. 11.26 it is said that by Faith Moses esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt And of Simeon it is said that he waited for his coming in the Flesh as the Consolation of Israel and accordingly when he had seen him he took him up in his Arms and blessed God and said his Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.25 28 29 30. And conformable to these was also the frame of Spirit in all the Holy Believers when he appeared in the Flesh As persons over-joyed they were in a Rapture of Comfort so as that they could not contain themselves but must break out into holy Hymns of Praise My Soul doth magnifie the Lord said his Mother and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour For he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden And Blessed be the Lord God of Israel said Zacharias for he hath visited and redeemed his People and hath raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the House of his Servant David When the Wise men of the East saw his Star they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Matth. 2.10 And when the Angel had told the Shepherds that he brought them good Tidings of great Joy which should be to all People of the Birth of Christ in the City of David upon which there were with the Angel suddenly a multitude of the Heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men the Shepherds in hast went to view Christ in the Manger and upon their Return glorified and praised God Hallelujahs were then the Exercise of all that knew of his Birth and so they were of all the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets when they did by Divine Revelation foresee and by Faith wait for his Coming And the same spirit of Joy shewed it self after in all those that saw his Day either with their bodily Eyes or by the Eye of Faith When Andrew finds Peter as over-joyed he tells him We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ When Philip finds Nathanael he is in the same tune We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Joh. 1.41 45. And of succeeding Believers S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory So that I may by an Induction of Particulars raising the Observation from the Hypothesis to the Thesis conclude universally That the Day of Christ is to all Believers the Spring of their Joy the Basis of their Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits in the days of their Pilgrimage upon Earth The Reasons whereof are common to all Believers Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Though the Mystery of the Gospell was not so clearly nor so fully revealed before as it was by the Apostles Preaching but from the beginning of the world was in a sort hid in God yet in no Age was there Salvation in any other none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved He onely hath been the Way the Truth and the Life so that none come to the Father but by him Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and all the rest of the Holy Saints in foregoing Generations had Salvation by Faith in Christ as really as S. Peter and S. Paul or any of the Holy Martyrs and Confessours in the Catholick Church It is true the Knowledge of Christ was not so clearly revealed to the sons of men before his Coming in the Flesh as it was after when the Day-spring from on high visited us to give Light to them that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death to guide our feet into the way of Peace And therefore John Baptist exceeded all the Prophets foregoing he being the man that could say Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Yet the Apostles yea the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that can preach Christ Born Baptized Preaching Dying Rising Ascended into Heaven is greater then John the Baptist as having seen and heard that which many Prophets and Kings desired to hear and see but did not The Knowledge the Patriarchs had was Vespertine the Apostles and ours comparatively Meridian Besides before Christ's Ascension the Knowledge of him was not so amply revealed for though a few of the Gentiles found Christ yet the Way of Salvation was not prepared before the face of all People so as that Christ became a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the Glory of his people Israel But when S. Paul was made the Apostle of the Gentiles Christ was set to be a Light to the Gentiles that he might be for Salvation unto the ends of the Earth Act. 13.47 S. Peter was taught to call none common or unclean but to preach to the Gentiles as being those to whom also God had granted Repentance unto Lefe Act. 11.18 Whence the same way of Salvation was vouchsafed to Cornelius that was to Abraham Cornelius had his Faith imputed to him for Righteousness as well as Abraham God put no difference between them and us having purified their Hearts by Faith saith S. Peter Act. 15.9 He was the God not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles seeing it was one God which should justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.29 30. And hence as Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's Day so did the Wise men of the East and in all that were made Holy Converts by the preaching of the Gospel there was the same Joy for the kind which was in Abraham all with the same Spirit of Faith glorified Christ though some with more enlarged Hearts then others In the Effects of this Joy Praising God Loving Christ and Adhering to him there is the same Mind in all the same Hope the same Expressions though not to the same degree in all In some Ages the Joy was more extensive then in others in
your unmercifull and unrighteous dealings in your Closets regarding Pass-times more then holy Sermons reading in your Chambers rather wanton Comedies or light Poems then the Bible and Holy Writings Yea let me ask the devoutest of you whether at any time you do weep for your Sins of daily incursion Are you sensible of your too much Formality too little Fervency in your Prayers Do you weep for your vain Thoughts proud Imaginations inordinate Desires your Ignorance Forgetfulness of many Duties Slothfulness Passionateness Omissions of many Duties you should doe Uncharitableness Unthankfulness and many other Sins of Errour and secret Sins which God knows though men do not Sure a sincere Christian is a weeping Christian if God keep him from greater Enormities yet he will find cause enough to mourn for his daily Aberrations if he do as a true Penitent doth take notice of the Naughtiness of his own deceitfull Heart If you say daily the Lord's Prayer and be not sensible of your daily Sins do you not mock God when you say Forgive us our Sins Sure Christ when he directed the use of that Prayer appointed you to be examining and judging your selves every day to confess your Sins to bemoan them to ask Pardon for them to resolve and vow against them every day And Oh that God would give you a Heart of Flesh in stead of a Heart of Stone you that are guilty of more hainous Crimes such as I have named or any other your own Consciences can inform you of to imitate S. Peter to goe out immediately after this Sermon is ended and weep bitterly to break off your Sins by Righteousness as Daniel advised Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.27 And you that though unblamable towards Men yet are conscious of offending God by any privy Transgressions yea all of you who have any remainders of sinfull Corruption in you Oh that you would not defer but this day yea every day imitate holy David in his holy vocall penitential Weeping which hath been this day described to you And let every Affliction you feel or fear specially the thought of your Death bring you to a daily practice of Repentance and Supplication unto God that your Iniquities may not be your Ruine but that your Tranquillity may be lengthned here and you may be blessed for ever in the world to come Amen LAVS DEO THE PENITENT's PRAYER The Fourth SERMON PSALM li. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin WE find in this Text a Sinner struck with the sense of his Sins and pleading at the Mercy-seat of God for the Remission and Forgiveness of them If the Greatness of his Person or the Sacredness of his Function had been Antidote enough against Temptation Armour of proof against the fiery darts of Satan we had not this day heard of David a Sinner for he was a King and he was a Prophet and a man after God's own heart But since neither his Profession nor his Royalty could protect him from being a Sinner and that in so foul and crimson Crimes as Adultery and Murther which occasioned the penning of this Psalm 't is happy that we yet find him here a Penitent and a complaining one for we have him here a Supplicant at his Prayers on his knees with a Miserere mei Deus Have mercy on me O God c. What S. Paul said of himself that his Fall and Recovery was a Pattern to all that should believe in Christ may be as rightly said of David The Lord permitted him to sin that no man might presume but the strongest Saint might take heed lest he fall that none might be high-minded but fear and the Lord also recovered him by Repentance and hath left his Confession and Absolution upon record that none might despair but that his Example might direct them to return to God after their Wandrings and erect and keep up their spirits from sinking by the assurance of his Mercy so remarkably vouchsafed to so great a Transgressour And therefore if there be any Soul that hears me this day struck with a deep sense and horrour of his Sins lying groaning and trembling under the heavy pressure and burthen of them let him not despair of Pardon either by reason of the Quality or Quantity of them for here are Loving-kindnesses or kind Mercies a Multitude of tender Mercies well expressed by Zachary Luk. 1.78 the Bowells of Compassion of our God such as are in a Woman or rather exceeding the Compassion of a Woman on the Son of her womb Isa 49.15 Loving-kindness of God against Unkindness of Man Bowells of Mercy towards him who had no Compassion on himself mercifull Remembrance of him who forgat his God and himself awakening and saving him who in his insensible Lethargy of Impenitence would have destroyed himself Whoever thou art know that the Holy Ghost hath recorded this Story for thy Consolation not onely set David's Fall before thee but likewise the means of his Recovery the many and tender Mercies of his God As the Prophet Nathan was sent to David so David himself is sent to thee He extends and reaches out to thee the same Physick that he took himself And therefore distrust not thy Cure but come and hear David bitterly bewailing his Condition and with him bewail sadly thine own See him weeping and weep thou as fast Hear his Voice and Cry piercing the Clouds and be not thou dumb but as loud as he till thou hast awakened the Compassion of thy God Observe all this and say with him Have mercy upon me O God c. Which words are the main Petition of this Holy Supplicant in behalf of himself for pardoning Grace out of the deep sense of his great Sins and apprehension of God's great Mercies And they exhibit to us 1. David's Malady the Disease which pained him to the heart which made him groan cry out and be instant with the great Physician of Souls for Cure which is expressed with Aggravation in three words 1. Transgression a word that notes sometimes Rebellion or Revolt from God 2. Iniquity or Perverseness importing his Unrighteousness to Vriah his Wife Himself his Child by her his whole House and People who all tasted of the bitterness of his eating that forbidden fruit 3. Sin or Errour intimating the great Folly which he now deprehended in yielding so to his Lust as to erre from God's Command and for a little Pleasure to draw on himself the Wrath of God and the Horrour of Conscience now upon him He useth not mincing or diminutive terms as those that love their Sins as fond Parents do their Children and call their Monstrosities small Blemishes but paints out his Sins in their most ugly Deformity to shew his Hatred of them to the utmost and to justifie God fully Yea he useth those very terms to express his Sins by
which God himself used in his most blessed Declaration of himself when he proclaimed of himself Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin To which it is very likely he had an eye and that he made that Proclamation the rise of his Hope That though his Sins were great yet they were not any other then God had proclaimed of old he did forgive and after in his New Covenant he more fully assured the Condonation of them Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 2. The thing David requesteth of God and that is full Remission expressed in three terms 1. Of Blotting out his Transgressions a phrase used by the Prophet Isa 43.25 and 44.22 And it intimates that his Sins were written by God in his Remembrance as in a Book of Records in the sense that Job said 13.26 and 14.17 God did write bitter things against him and sealed up his Iniquity And the blotting it out is the putting it out of his Remembrance so as not to charge it upon him nor condemn him for it as it is explained Isa 43.25 2. Of Washing him throughly from his Iniquity a term noting frequent or abundant washing that is Absolution meant by Ablution 1 Cor. 6.11 where it comprehends Justification as well as Sanctification And so it is said Revel 1.5 Christ hath washed us from our Sins in his own bloud alluding 't is likely to the cleansing of men from their Leprosy and other Legall Pollutions in the Mosaicall Law 3. The third term is Cleanse me from my Sin by Emundation meaning Emendation purifying his Heart from the love of his Sin and his Life from the practice of it any more as it is expressed Isa 1.16 17. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well 3. The Third thing considerable in David's Petition which is indeed the Hindge on which all turns is the Loving-kindness or Benignity of God the Multitude of his tender Mercies such as are in the Womb or Bowells of a tender Mother towards her Child And this Loving-kindness and Multitude of tender Mercies is urged by David as the Motive the impulsive Cause or sole Reason of granting his Request of blotting out his Transgressions washing him throughly from his Iniquity and cleansing him from his Sin In the same manner as Moses pleaded with God for Israel Num. 14.17 18 19. after whose Copy this Petition seems to be framed and is an exact Pattern according to which a Penitent Supplicant is to address himself to God for Ease from under the pressure of his Sins teaching us these Points 1. That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner David complains not of other Evils incident to him and his but his own Sin 2. That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but setteth it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress 3. That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God 4. That we are to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out our Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation and Amendment of life 5. That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blotteth out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin 6. That the onely way to obtain these things is to beg them of God upon this consideration and no other You see a large field and copious matter is before us in which I might exspatiate far and prosecute a long time but I will endeavour to abbreviate and end with the time I. OBSERVATION That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner This is evident from their penitential Complaints In the many mournfull Elegies of David the great Pressure of his spirit lay in the Remembrance of his Sin Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my Foolishness And again Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me It is true Afflictions are hard to be born Poverty and Disgrace and Imprisonment and Pains of body are very heavy upon many persons Discontents and Fears of trouble Griefs and Sorrows for loss of Friends Wife Children do often quench mens spirits and sink them into the Grave Nor is it to be denied but that many times they cause men to prefer death before life and to chuse strangling before breathing Job 7.15 But upon the sense of Sin when the Conscience feels the weight of it when God shoots his Arrows into a man and haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the deadly Arrow sticks in his side then the Venome thereof drinks up his spirit is as the stinging of a Scorpion or fiery flying Serpent it tortures like Hell and is more bitter and terrible then Death it self The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 but a wounded spirit who can bear In other Afflictions there is some Remedy from Reason or Faith if not to comfort yet to quiet the Soul but in the sense of Sin committed till Pardon thereof be apprehended no Argument can be fastned but will be rejected Men in these Wounds of Conscience doe like persons in extreme Anguish who tear off their Plaisters that should ease or cure them so do wounded Consciences reject all Allegations of Scripture brought to allay their Anguish as if they belong'd not to them as Spira and others have done And that which is the Sting of Sin that most of all makes it deadly poisonous is the apprehension of God as angry as an Enemy unappeasable till it be acknowledged to be what it is an evil and bitter thing that we have sinned against the Lord and that his fear is not in us as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.19 Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but sets it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress So David besides the variety of terms he here paints out the Deformity of his Sins by adds also vers 3 4. I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight
thee Make the best thou canst of thine own Righteousness thou shalt find the way to Salvation by thine own Works a way unknown to the holy Saints untroden by them none there ever got thither that way That is not Scala Caeli the Ladder of Heaven by which the Saints climbed thither but Scala Gehennae the Precipice by which proud Pharisees superstitious Monks and Friers ignorant Quakers and formal Protestants that trust to their own Devotions and Good deeds tumble down to Hell I beseech you then as you love the Salvation of your Souls seriously examine your selves whether you that have sinned with David do repent with David Complain of your Sins be sensible of them as your most heavy Burthen confess them to God with detestation be instant for Cleansing from Sin through the multitude of God's Mercies hope for Pardon and Righteousness onely through Christ's Atonement by the Sacrifice of himself and his Intercession in Heaven have a settled purpose of Amendment of life be impatiently importunate with God for a new Heart and a new Spirit and expect these things and whatever Good your Souls want onely through the Loving-kindness and free Grace of God in Christ If it be so with you I may assure you of Blessedness and tell you from the Spirit of God that Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose Sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32.1 2. cited by S. Paul Rom. 4.7 8. to prove the Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works I may tell you from him Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit But if you be insensible of Sins unhumbled for them neither confess them freely nor bewail them mournfully fly not to the multitude of God's Mercies for Pardon trust to other things for Salvation then Christ's Merits find no change of your Hearts nor alteration of your Lives nor work of renewing Grace in your minds nor beg it of God as a thing most necessary for you I may truly say you stumble at the Stumbling-stone and that you will unless God awaken you and change your minds die in your Sins and perish for ever Be perswaded then to follow the Example of David S. Paul and other holy Saints find out by God's Law your Sins confess them to God bemoan them with hatred beg for Mercy in the Forgiveness of them trust to the Obedience of Christ in his dying for you his appearing with his Bloud before God magnify God's Grace and Christ's Love pray for a new Heart and study to live a holy Life and thou shalt be blessed Amen LAVS DEO THE TRUE PENITENT The Fifth SERMON PSALM li. 3. For I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me THIS Psalm is one of the Penitentials occasioned by the greatest Sins which David committed the greatest Rebuke which ever he underwent and therefore penned with the greatest Compunction of spirit and most vehement Deprecation of his Guilt and Punishment of any which he composed After the Inscription of the Psalm which shews that it was framed after his Conviction by Nathan the Prophet and the Denunciation of Divine Vengeance for his Adultery and Murther he instantly craves Pardon with variety of Expressions and most prevalent Motives doubling and redoubling his Petitions and adding this forcible Reason which the words of my Text yield For I acknowledge my Transgression c. Wherein 1. He professeth ingenuously his Agnition of his Transgressions as most hainous of deep dye Crimson Scarlet Sins Red Sins Bloud-guiltiness and damnable Uncleanness 2. That he did not slightly take notice thereof but that as his Sin stared in his face to his great Horrour so he set it before him for his deep Humiliation and that not onely for a fit while the Prophet's Conviction was fresh in his memory but for a continuance it was ever before him he mourned and intended to mourn for it all or most of his days to repent and abhor himself in dust and ashes God had set it before his face by his Prophet and he did set it continually before his face as an humble Penitent And therefore he importunes God with strong hope for mercifull Forgiveness In the Text we have many considerable things to be observed concerning the estate of an holy and humble Penitent As 1. He owns his Transgressions and his Sins as by and from himself My Transgression and My Sin 2. He doth not extenuate but aggravate them by various terms denoting their Criminousness Transgressions and Sin 3. He doth freely acknowledge and confess them to God and Men. 4. He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sin is ever before him He continues this Humiliation as just and equall by reason of the greatness of his Iniquity 5. He pleads this as a Reason to induce God to a compassionate relenting towards him and a gracious Condonation Of these briefly in their Order I. OBSERVATION A Penitent Sinner owns his Sin as from himself He doth not as Eve did father it on the Serpent or as Adam on Eve but imputes the acting of it to his own innate Pravity as the fountain and spring out of which it did issue And that is indeed a right derivation of it Every man saith S. James 1.14 15. is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lusts and enticed Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Perditio tua ex te O Israel said God to Israel Thy destruction is of thy self And the same may be said of all Sinners The Providence of God orders the Occasions of Sin but it is Man 's own Free will that chuseth to sin upon these Occasions God ordered Bathsheba's washing her self and David's walking on the roof of the house but he put not Lust into David's heart or the wicked contrivance of her Defilement Vriah's assaulting Rabbah and the Souldiers falling upon Vriah were by Divine Providence but the Plot of David and execution of it by Joab were of humane Maliciousness Impenitent Sinners charge their Wickedness on their ill Fortune unhappy Destiny unlucky Planet which is done with the like reason as if the Knife were to be blamed for a man's Self-murther or the Bread he eats as the cause that he is choaked or the Girdle he wears that he was strangled by it Planets and other natural Agents though they have Influence on the Body which may provoke to Evil yet they cannot necessitate the Mind to assent to it or to act accordingly Casual Concurrence of things may prompt but not compell to Sin Evil Company bad Counsel cruel Tyrants may have power on the Members not the Will It is true the Devil is the Father of Lies He that committeth Sin is of the Devil but were it not that
this your want of Repentance or the perfunctory doing of it And that you would bethink your selves that you may deceive your selves but cannot deceive God that your Dallying with God will end in your Damnation that you will never have Peace with him till you shew that you count and use your Sins as his and your Enemies Doe this then which David saith he did Search out your Sins impartially know them to be your own Brats that the least of them are of a Viperous brood that they will bring upon you everlasting Punishment without much Repentance and real Amendment Set your Sins before you in their ugly shape Set God before you as a severe Judge and yet withall a mercifull Prince Confess them to God with godly Sorrow Supplicate for Pardon with humbled Souls Sprinkle your Consciences with the Bloud of Christ by the hand of Faith and Resolve to leave your Wanderings and to follow Christ And then and not till then you shall have Peace with God which he grant for his Son's sake c. Amen LAVS DEO THE COMFORT OF THE Divine Presence Part I. The Sixth SERMON PSALM li. 11. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me OF all the Holy Patriarchs whose ways are recorded in the Old Testament there is none of whose Acts we have more relation remaining to us for our Imitation or our Caution then we have of David's In the constant course of his Actions he was so obedient to God that God gave this Testimony to him and said I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart which shall fulfill my will Act. 13.22 And yet he sinned so foully in the matter of Vriah that he is stigmatized by the Prophet Nathan sent by God to reprove him sharply for it as one that gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme 2 Sam. 12.14 He that in the time of his Persecution had shewed much Constancy in his Obedience to God and Adherence to him in the time of his Prosperity and greatest Tranquillity shewed his Instability so as to become a Reproach to the Profession of his God Whence it came to pass that as in his Afflictions he made many Psalms of Exultation in God and Exaltation of his Name so as to gain the Elogy of the sweet Singer of Israel so by reason of his great Fall in defiling Bathsheba he is fain to mourn as a Dove to change his tune to sing Lamentation to bewail his Transgressions and to cry Peccavi in this Penitential Psalm composed as the Title shews by reason of his Fall into those horrid Evils of Adultery and Murther For expiating of which though the Law yielded no Sacrifice yet the Grace of God he knew did and therefore he prays instantly both for Pardon of what he had done and for preventing Grace against future Relapses as the words of my Text import Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit or Spirit of Holiness from me In which words he deprecates two Evils as most pernicious 1. The Ejection out of God's Presence 2. The Loss of his Holy Spirit Concerning these it may be enquired how he could pray against that which elsewhere he seems to reckon as not fecible when he saith Whither shall I goe from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence Psal 139.7 which intimates as if there were no escaping God's Spirit or avoiding God's Presence And therefore it was in vain for him to petition God against that which could not be effected though God should goe about it To which I answer That it is true that God's entitative Presence is every-where and therefore there could not be a Casting him out of it nor could he goe any whither where he might hide himself or not have the Spirit of God to find him out and to reach him his Omnipresence Omniscience and Omnipotency make such an Exclusion or Subtraction unimaginable But there is a Presence of Favour of Assistence of Protection an having of the Spirit for Guidance Comfort and Ability for operation here meant which a person may be excluded from and destitute of such as Cain dreaded when he said My Punishment is greater then I can bear Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy Face shall I be hid And Cain went out from the Presence of the Lord Gen. 4.13 14 16. That is he was deprived of the light of God's Countenance filled with Horrour in his spirit out of the conscience of his unpardoned unnaturall Murther of his Brother God respected not his Offering admitted him not to any Communion with himself let the infernall Spirits haunt him delivered him into the hands of the Devil And this most horrible estate the Psalmist doth here deprecate since the conscience of his Guilt made him sensible that he might justly expect it Now to begin with the First Petition whence these Points are deducible 1. That God's Presence of Grace is most desirable 2. That the committing of great and enormous Sins doth endanger the Privation of it 3. That a Penitent Sinner begs earnestly against the Loss of it as his greatest Calamity and prays for the Continuance of it as his chiefest Good Dominus tecum cum spiritu tuo The Lord be with thee and with thy spirit are the most important Prayers in our Christian Liturgy To begin with the first of these That God's Presence of Grace is most desirable How desirable the Presence of God's Favour is to men may appear by that Dialogue between God and Moses which we meet with Exod. 33.14 15. wherein after God had made that terrible Commination of coming up into the midst of the people of Israel in a moment to consume them because of their great Provocation of him in making the Golden Calf and not to goe up with them vers 3 5. and Moses vers 12 13. had instantly made Supplication for God's Guidance in that great Expedition which he put him upon of bringing the people of Israel into the Land of Canaan the Lord tells him that his Presence should goe with him and he would give him rest Moses replies to God If thy Presence goe not with us carry us not up hence And gives this reason vers 16. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight is it not in that thou goest with us From which passage may be discerned how much Moses valued God's Presence as that without which he counted all his Undertakings as vain that he could not effect any thing prosperously not subdue Enemies nor rule that people nor successively accomplish any undertaking But on the other side with God's Presence he doubted not but that he should bring to pass that great Business and all other Designs which he should be put upon if God did vouchsafe it to him The same is true in
that they might bring forth fruit unto God serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter For though the Letter of the Law killeth being the ministration of Condemnation yet the Spirit giveth Life being the ministration of Righteousness which exceeds in glory And consequently they have liberty by the Spirit of God are beautified by it so as that Christ is formed in them They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit The mind of the Spirit is to them life and peace They have access by one Spirit unto the Father The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with their spirit that they are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that suffering with him they may be glorified together They are led by the Spirit sow to the Spirit and of the Spirit reap life everlasting through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness which is by Faith In a word that Life that Holiness that Beauty that Liberty that Joy that Hope that Fruit which a Christian hath from Christ is communicated by the Spirit and that Glory of Soul and Body which is expected hereafter that Quietness and Rest in life and death which is desirable is from the Spirit of God If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christ's But if Christ be in us the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8.9 10 11. So that I may safely infer from this enumeration of Benefits even the most precious Riches that a Spirit is capable of that the Gift of God's Spirit to a man is the greatest Commodity the Jewel of Heaven What Solomon saith of Wisedom is true of God's Spirit It is a Gift more precious then Rubies and all the things we can desire are not to be compared to it And therefore the Loss of it is the greatest Loss Which brings me to the Enquiry what endangers the Privation of it and that was asserted in the Second Proposition to be great Transgressions II. OBSERVATION That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit This is manifest from David's Petition in that by reason of his Sins he was afraid of its Loss and therefore begs the Continuance of it notwithstanding his foul Trespasses It is I confess a great Dispute Whether a person once regenerated by the Spirit washed sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God can totally and finally lose its Continuance with him I will not meddle with that Point But this is out of question That some Gifts of the Spirit may be lost else the Apostle 1 Thess 5.19 would not have premonished the Thessalonians that they should not quench the Spirit Such Gifts of the Spirit as are for others good to which the Salvation of a person is not promised may undoubtedly be totally lost by great Transgressions So Saul lost the Royal Magnanimity and other Princely Endowments which he had before by sparing Agag and by usurping the Priestly Office in offering Sacrifice Judas lost the Gift of Healing which he had with the rest of the Apostles and other Abilities to preach the Gospell by his traitourous Selling of his Master he fell from the Apostleship and Ministry by his Transgression Nor is it denied but that some who were once enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come might fall away and not be renewed again by Repentance that they might crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame that they might tread under foot the Son of God and count the Bloud of the Covernant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace Heb. 6.4 5 6. and 10.29 Yea those of whom God gave testimony that they did that which was right in the eyes of God as did David yet even they fell so foully as that they lost the Fruits and Comforts of the Spirit so as not to regain them in that degree they once had them Of Asa it is said that his Heart was perfect with the Lord all his days 1 King 15.14 and yet he put the Seer in prison being in a rage with him for reproving his Relying on the King of Syria 2 Chron. 16.7 10. and even in his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians vers 12. And Hezekiah though he walked before God in truth and with a perfect Heart and did that which was good in his sight yet when God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his Heart he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 31. Certain it is by David's and other Holy mens example that God doth sometimes leave men to themselves for a time so as to fall into such Sins as deprive them of the Joy of God's Salvation and the establishing virtue of God's Spirit so as not to be so active and constant in the exercise of Godliness as formerly at least for a time else why doth David pray in the next verse to my Text Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And however the event be yet there is great danger of an utter Loss of the Spirit of God not onely in respect of its Comforts and Motions but also of its inexistence and quickening virtue when men are so overcome by Lust as Solomon and David or Fear as Peter or other Temptations to sin so foully as they did The Reason whereof is because such Sins do grieve and vex the Holy Spirit For though the Spirit of God be not subject to humane Passions yet the Holy Scripture as it ascribes Repentance and some other Affections of men to God so doth it attribute Grief to the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 where it minds us that we grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption in respect of the effect that Grief hath in man which makes him withdraw from that which grieves him And so saith the Book intituled the Wisedom of Solomon Chap. 1.4 5. For into a malicious Soul Wisedom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject to Sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where Vnrighteousness cometh in Contraria se invicem expellunt There is a Contrariety between God's Spirit of Holiness and man's spirit that
or Despair of a good issue out of his Temptations though he swam in rough waters against the stream yet he kept up his head The knowledge of his Purity the assurance of his Witness in heaven supported him with strength to undergoe all his Sores to refute all his Adversaries to conquer Satan and to recover out of his Fluctuations so as with greater advantage to get safe to Land and to improve his Losses to a greater encrease of Favour and Acceptance with God and temporal Prosperity Saint Paul even when the malignant Jews came about him like Bees and were prepared to sting him to death before their malevolent Council bore himself up with this Protestation that he had lived in all good Conscience before God to that day Act. 23.1 And this made him bold before Felix when he could say in truth Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24.16 When he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come before Felix the Governour and Drusilla his Wife which was a Jewess he was without Fear whereas Felix whose Prisoner he was trembled vers 25. In a word though he had Afflictions as much as any yet in them all he rejoyced in this that he had the Testimony of his Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisedom but by the Grace of God he had his Conversation in the world even at that time of his Trouble in which he was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life 2 Cor. 1.8 12. 3. But there is yet a third Prop of the Spirit of a man besides right Reason Prudence and conscience of Innocency which doth enable it to sustain its Infirmities more steadily then the rest and that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ the chief part of the Divine Panoply or whole Armour of God And indeed Faith is the best Cordial to sustain the Spirit of a man in his Infirmities be they never so great by reason of which the same Apostle could say of himself out of experience 2 Cor. 4.8 9 11. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always delivered to death for Jesus sake yet the spirit of Faith vers 13. so upheld him that though the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city saying that Bonds and Afflictions did abide him yet none of those things did move him Act. 20.23 24. He was so rooted and grounded in Faith that what-ever inward Decays he found what-ever outward Storms beat upon him yet his Spirit stood firm with unmovable Resolution So it was with David at Ziklag when his Fellow-souldiers with himself had their City burnt their Wives Children and Goods carried away captive by the Amalckites he was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his Sons and for his Daughters yet he encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Faith then shewed its virtue it strengthened his Heart when the rest of the people in a womanish Sorrow fell a-weeping and he betook himself to God to inquire what was to be done which was followed with such Success that he recovered all that was lost But what speak I of these Infirmities these Afflictions which are nothing in comparison of what the Holy Martyrs bare through Faith of whom we reade Heb. 11.35 36 37. that though they were tortured yet they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection that when they had triall of cruel Mockings and Scourgings of Bonds and Imprisonments were stoned were sawed asunder were tempted were slain with the sword were destitute afflicted tormented they could take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Heb. 10.34 and so contentedly undergoe their Sufferings as to take their Persecutours for their best Benefactours and make the sweetest Melody in the most scorching Flames Innumerable Arguments Faith presents to the Spirit from God's Presence Appointment Love Power Promises which do invincibly arm a Believer in all Perils in all Assaults in all Oppressions and make him invulnerable Reason enables the Spirit of a man to sustain his Infirmities stoutly a good Conscience comfortably Faith triumphantly APPLICATION And now give me leave to apply this to your use You are often told and if you were not your Eyes and Ears and other Senses might inform you that Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble Which of you unless besotted with vain Dreams or drunken with sinfull Pleasures but hath some foresight of imminent Dangers some foretaste of future Sicknesses and consequent Dissolution Is there any of you of so unshaken a Spirit as that none of the things ye feel or fear do in the least move you Why do you distill Hot waters but to revive you in Faintings why do you get Friends but to help you in Troubles why do you take Physick but to help you in your Infirmities why do you lay up some Money others Counsell but to provide for times of Affliction But doe you any thing to enable your Spirit to sustain you in your Infirmities I deny not but the Providence you use may be commendable but if there be no more then that it will be insufficient Some Infirmities may be remedied by natural Means some may be prevented by moral Prudence but the Decumane waves of Sickness and Death the thoughts of Sin 's Guilt and of Judgment to come require a better Anchour then these to keep you up from being drowned when the Conscience of the one and the Fear of the other beat upon the Vessel of your Spirit These Storms your Soul will not ride out without the Conscience of a Reformed life without the strong Cable of a fast-holding Faith the sure Anchour of a lively Hope in Christ All the Trimming and Tackling besides be it Wealth Friends Beauty Bravery yea though it be a Form of Godliness a strict Profession with some measure of Sufferings for the Truth will not keep you from Sinking without an upright Heart an unfeigned Faith a stable Hope in Jesus Christ What-ever you doe then let these never be wanting in the Closet of your Breasts make not Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience what-ever you lose lose not them yea have them always in a readiness when any thing happens which may oppress you with Fear or sink you with Sorrow Yea forget not to exercise your Faith in God your Hope in Christ continually that when you shall need them you may not onely have them in habit but also in use not onely in the Root but also in the Fruit. Let your Life be a Life of Faith your Breath be a Breathing of Hope in God and then you may be assured though your Body fall to the ground your Spirit will mount upward to God that
gave it Which He grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE WEAKNESSE OF A Wounded Spirit Part II. The Ninth SERMON PROV xviij 14. But a wounded Spirit who can bear THE Life of man on Earth consists of Action and Passion of Doing his Work and Bearing his Condition And in both these there are innumerable Difficulties so that it becomes a hard Task either to doe what we ought or to suffer as it becometh us In Doing our Work we are commonly unskilfull and slothfull In Bearing our Burthens we are querulous and unquiet Man is born like a wild Asse's Coli saith Zophar Job 11.12 If you drive him he will not goe rightly if you put Burthens on him he will throw them off if he can if he cannot remove them he will wince and kick especially when his Back is sore his Mind galled in which case this of Solomon is by much experience found true A wounded Spirit who can bear So we reade but the Vulgar Latin hath it Who shall be able to sustain the Spirit that is easy to be angry But the word is more general and signifies not so much the Passions of one to be born by another in which case it is a truth That the Wrath Envy Insolency of some mens Spirits is intolerable as it is Prov. 27.4 Wrath is cruel and Anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before Envy But it is rather to be understood of the person's Spirit who is to bear Who of all men can bear his own Spirit when it is wounded or broken so as in that case his own Ability and all other mens is insufficient to bear up such a wounded Spirit Such a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek expresseth it one that hath but a little life in him It is onely God that revives the Spirit of the humble and revives the Heart of the contrite ones Isa 57.15 Now the Spirit is wounded or broken either by worldly Sorrows By Sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken saith Solomon Prov. 15.13 and S. Paul 2 Cor. 7.10 Worldly Sorrow causeth death or else it is broken by the sense of Guilt and the fear of Wrath. In respect of which David complains that his Bones were broken Psal 51.8 and more fully Psal 38.2 c. Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thy Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me to bear My Wounds stink and are corrupt through my foolishness I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I goe mourning all the day long For my Loyns are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the Disquietness of my heart In both these sorts of Wounds Experience hath proved the Imbecillity of mens Spirits to bear them or of any other man to keep them from falling untill there appear Deus è machina Divine help from Heaven So that I am to demonstrate to you That in the great Pressures of Spirit either through worldly Afflictions or by reason of the Conscience of Sin no man is able to hold up himself from sinking nor can any other support him besides God with the Reason hereof That God onely makes up the breach and closes the Wounds in the Spirit and how he doeth it That worldly Crosses break mens Spirits so as that they are weary of their Lives is evident in the instance of Ahitophel who was counted so wise a man that his Counsel was reputed as if a man had inquired of the Oracle of God yet barely because he saw his Counsell was not followed by Absalom God so over-ruling the heart of Absalom that he hearkened to Hushai rather then to himself his Spirit could not bear this Disappointment of his Design to be the grand Minister of State under Absalom but in stead of dissembling his Grievance he saddled his Ass got him home to his City put his house in order hanged himself died and was buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers 2 Sam. 17.23 Many more such Examples of men eminent in respect of Wisedome Dignity Power Wealth who upon some unexpected Loss Fear perhaps but the angry Looks of a Prince the Expulsion from Court or Deprivation of an Office have been impatient of their Lives and turned Executioners of themselves may be found in Histories or known by our own Experience And the Reason hereof is from the extreme Folly that is in men who lay so great a stress of their Happiness upon worldly things that when they fail them their case seems deplorable they have no Buttress to keep up their Spirits How great a number are there that trust in uncertain Riches and not in the living God And therefore when the Prop of their Wealth is gone then all is gone with them their Hearts are faint and they cast away their Life as if it were an unsupportable Burthen to them How many are there that depend on the Prince's Favour and make such account of Preferment by it that all their study is to get and keep it though with the loss of God's Favour But that being changeable and their Hopes thereupon frustrated there is no Acquiescence in God's Will but violent Impatience till they have dispatcht themselves How many have so set their Affections on some particular person as Amnon on Tamar that they wax lean from day to day because they cannot obtain their desire Yea the Inconstancy of their Mistress the miss of the hoped Match shortens their Lives brings down their heads with Sorrow to the Grave And it is just with God it should be so that those things should be cursed to us be as blasted Trees from which we seek that Fruit that Content and those Enjoyments which alone are to be had in God's Favour When our Hearts wander after some Creature and make it as our God love it trust in it in stead of God himself he will not brook it but remove it or make it our Vexation make it become our Perdition which was the means of our Corruption This is much more true when the Spirit is wounded by the Conscience of Sin against God In the former there is defect of Love to God in this express Enmity against him and therefore it is more intolerable Cain's Complaint Gen. 4.13 verifies this whether we reade My Punishment is greater then I can bear or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven How dolefull was his complaint when he said Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me vers 14. How terribly did the Sting of
Conscience exagitate him when he went out from the Presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod as a Renegado from God and one that was pursued by his own Bloud-guiltiness Nor is the Case of Judas less pregnant to demonstrate how furious and inevitable is the pursuit of a guilty Conscience He had sold his Master the Lord of Glory for thirty pieces of Silver but his Mony was as Fire in his Bosome the remembrance of his devillish Act did so envenome his Spirit that he could find no Rest till he had disgorged his Money and rid himself of his Life too So that of him was verified what Zophar spake of others who sin in like manner Job 20.12 13 14 15 16. Though Wickedness be sweet in the Mouth though a man 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 Bowells is turned it is the Gall of Asps within him He hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his Belly He shall suck the poison of Asps the Viper's tongue shall slay him How many Myriads of men have there been in the Ages of the world who have ventured upon Sin without Fear have blessed themselves in the Success of their unrighteous Projects have delightfully for a season satiated themselves with the enjoyment of their prohibited Lusts yet in the conclusion the Remembrance thereof hath been as a Fire in their Bones as a heavy Burthen that neither their own strength nor the help of other men could support them under And the Reason hereof is Because to them that obey Vnrighteousness there is Indignation and Wrath from God and consequently Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Rom. 2.8 9. And this is that which makes the Heart to be affected as Belshazzar's was When he saw the finger of a man's hand writing over against the Candlestick and upon the plaister of the Wall of the King's Palace his Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loyns were loosed and his Knees smote one against another How shall thy hands be strong saith God to the Jews Ezek. 22.14 when I shall deal with thee The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 Therefore the Lord saith I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made Isa 57.16 Which leads us to that which is intimated OBSERVATION That though the Spirit of man when it is wounded with worldly Sorrows or with Conscience of Sin cannot sustain it self from sinking yet the Lord can and doth support it This is verified by experience in holy Job then whom none was ever more sorely handled except our Lord Christ when he bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree insomuch that he complained Job 6.4 For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my Spirit the Terrours of God do set themselves in array against me yet did the Consolations of God so support him that he could allege Behold my Witness is in Heaven and my Record is on high Job 16.19 so as that he could never be drawn to disclaim his own Uprightness or God's Righteousness Holy Paul though he were abundant in Sufferings so that he had the sentence of death in himself yet he would not relinquish his Trust in God whom he found the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort so as that with the abounding of his Sufferings he had also abounding Consolation After the like sort was it with Christ Jesus who though he was in great Agony in the Garden so that his Soul was heavy unto death in the days of his flesh he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from death yet he was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 David after he had committed that Sin against Vriah the Hittite when Nathan had discovered the Evil thereof His Bones waxed old through his Roaring all the day long Day and night the Hand of God was heavy upon him His moisture was turned into the drought of Summer His Bones his Soul were sore vexed Innumerable Evils compassed him about His Iniquities took hold upon him so that he was not able to look up therefore his heart failed him yet God restored unto him the Joy of his Salvation upheld him with his free Spirit took away his Sackcloath and girded him with Gladness The waies that God takes to sustain the Spirits of men in their Infirmities are various Sometimes by allaying the Sharpness of their Afflictions sometimes by a mixture of outward or inward Refreshings sometimes by moderating their Temptations not suffering them to be tempted above that they are able but with the Temptation making a way to escape that they may be able to bear it making it short though it be sharp But the chief way whereby the Lord supports the Spirit when it sinks of it self is by giving to some the tongue of the learned that they may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary Isa 50.4 whose business it is first to humble to search the Wound and then to pour in Oil first to discover the Malady and then to apply the Medicine This method is described at large by Elihu Job 33. from vers 15. to v. 29. When God hath spoken to man in sleep and otherwise to open his ears to seal his Instruction to withdraw him from his purposes to hide Pride from man He chasteneth him upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong pains so that his Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers Yet if there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto man his Vprightness to make known to him the Atonement which is made by the Bloud of the everlasting Covenant when he washeth himself with penitentiall Tears and sprinkles his Conscience with the Bloud of Christ by Faith Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransome He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with Joy for he will render unto man his Righteousness If when God looks upon men they say We have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited us not He will deliver their Soul from going into the Pit and their Life shall see the Light Thus did Hezekiah find it as he acknowledgeth Isa 38.16 17. O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my Spirit that is by God's undertaking for him vers 14. so wilt
thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
Mercies 2. By the Indesiciency of them Though men fail in their Duty though they fail in their Obedience though they be wanting in Returning to God though their Prayers be consumed yet his Compassions are not consumed and therefore they are not consumed And this is here alleged as a Door of Hope to the prophet that God would restore that People for to that end are these words brought in this place as that which follows in four Verses of this Chapter plainly shews From hence then this Explication of the words being premised these Observations do arise 1. That the Lord in Punishing of his People doth not consume them 2. That Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption 3. That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People 4. That these Mercies fail not 5. That the Non-consumption of God's People is to be ascribed to this 6. That the apprehension of this encourageth them to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Health and Peace Of these I shall speak in the order propounded and then apply them to the present state of things and so conclude I. OBSERVATION That the Lord doth not in Punishing of his People consume them This is equivalent to what God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth And he gives this Reason For the Spirit should fail before me and the Soul which I have made It is true the Devil is a roaring Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 He is the Apollyon the Abaddon the Thief that comes not to save but to steal and to kill and to destroy Joh. 10.10 because the Sheep are not his own He made nothing nor hath any Love to any thing and therefore seeks not to help any but to marre and doe mischief to all that God hath made But the People of God are the work of his hands and the Sheep of his Pasture Psal 100.3 and therefore he will have a desire to the work of his hands Job 14.15 What is our work we are loth to pull down So God doubtless doth not delight as Children to make a house of Sticks and then kick it down again As he made Man after his own Image so he is not easily induced to break him He that accounts it an hainous Injury to himself to curse Man with the Tongue who is made after his Image Jam. 3.9 and is so severe against what-ever shall destroy him that it is his strict Determination for Preservation of Mankind after the Floud that he will not let the killing of Man go unrevenged but enacteth this Law among his Precepts to Noah Gen. 9.5 6. And surely your bloud of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hands of every man's Brother will I require the Life of man Whoso sheddeth man's bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the Image of God made he man He doubtless is so chary of Men as not to consume them himself utterly till Iniquity is grown so daring as that there is no Remedy His own People it is true do sin and provoke God and he often brings them low yet he doth not make an utter end of them because they are not onely his Creatures as others but also his Redeemed and Chosen people Thus the Prophet Samuel told the Israelites 1 Sam. 12.20 22. Fear not ye have done all this Wickedness yet turn not aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name 's sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People That which a man hath purchased for himself he will hardly let it be taken from him with much more reluctancy will he cast it away Though Michal had been given to another and was defiled yet David would have her again 2 Sam. 3.13 because he had espoused her to him for an hundred Foreskins of the Philistines How much less will God let go those whom he hath purchased by his Son's Bloud He will not have him destroyed by our Meat for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 If any through the Watchman's failing to warn them perish their bloud will he require at the Watchman's hands Ezek. 3.18 Which shews that he hath a Fatherly Care of his own People that they be not consumed And though they provoke him so as to cause his Anger to wax hot against them yet in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He chastiseth as a Father doth not exterminate or extirpate as an Enemy If they break his Statutes and keep not his Commandments Then he will visit their Transgression with a Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Nevertheless his Loving-kindness he will not utterly take from them nor suffer his Faithfulness to fail Psal 89.31 32 33. Though he make a full end of all the Nations yet he will not make a full end of them but correct them in measure yet will he not leave them wholly unpunished Jer. 46.28 Wherein he manifests a mixture of Mercy and Justice And therefore in the next place II. OBSERVATION Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption This was the acknowledgment of Ezra Thou our God hast punished us less then our Iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 Though the Punishment of the Jews were exceeding great insomuch that our Prophet Lament 4.6 compares it to the Punishment of the Sin of Sodom and aggravates it as secundùm quid in some respect greater then it yet to speak simply and absolutely there was an ingredient of Mercy that did allay it and therefore they acknowledge their Sins to have deserved greater Evils then they felt Whence in all their Addresses to God they ascribe Righteousness to their Maker and take all the Blame of their Sufferings on themselves In the same Chapter vers 15. O Lord God of Israel saith Ezra thou art Righteous for we remain yet escaped as at this day But most fully the Prophet Daniel Chapter 9.11 12 13 14. We have sinned against the Lord our God And he hath confirmed the words which he spake against us by bringing upon us a great Evil for under the whole Heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem Yet made we not our Prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our Iniquities and understand thy Truth Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the Evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is Righteous in all his works which he doeth for we obeyed not his voice See also vers 5 6 c. of the same Chapter And indeed such Acknowledgments are
experience Psal 119.97 98 99 100. O how love I thy Law it is my Meditation all the day Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then mine Enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding then all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation I understand more then the Ancients because I keep thy Precepts And S. Paul tells Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 that the Holy Scriptures were able to make him wise unto Salvation The greatest Wisedom is that which guides a man to the greatest Happiness and that is when he avoids the greatest Evill and attains the enjoyment of the best Good No Evil is greater then God's Wrath no Good better then God's Favour Now to the escaping the former and obtaining the latter the Meditation on God's Precepts conduceth most effectually For thereby we avoid Sin against God which incites him to Anger and thereby we learn how to please him which procures his Favour And therefore it is most evident to be the wisest course we can take and whereby we can shew most Love to our selves to Reade to Hear to Study and lay to heart God's Word And herein likewise we shew the greatest Charity to others by seriously endeavouring to make them intelligent therein it tending most to their Good if with Meditation there concurre also a Respect to God's Ways Which leads us to the other part of this Verse and the Conclusions thence deduced III. and IV. OBSERVATIONS That in his Practice a Godly man heeds God's Direction and That God's Works are his Observation The word which is rendred I will have respect or I will look imports the fixing and intentiveness of the Eye upon God's Ways such as is in a Traveller when he walks or a Sailour when he sails in the Deep whom it concerns that they have their eyes waking and their minds observant the one of the Path he treads in the other of the Chanel he steers his Ship in lest the first either miss his way or stumble and fall or the second run aground on Quick-sands or split upon Rocks and Shelves and so miscarry The Commandment saith Solomon Prov. 6.23 is a Lamp and the Law is Light and Reproofs of Instruction are the way of life And therefore as the Eye makes use of the Lamp and Light for its Direction so doth the Soul of a Godly man observe the Way of God's Precepts for his Rule and the Ways of God's Acting to encourage him in his Course and to deterre him from wandering therefrom Nor are the Ways of God's Providence either towards our selves or others to be let pass without heedfull Observation For thereby we are accommodated with usefull Arguments to give God the Glory of his Truth Justice Goodness and Power We have Experiments fitted either to deterre us from Sinning against him who is a consuming Fire or to encourage us to serve him with holy Reverence and godly Fear or to strengthen our Faith in a firm Dependence on him and a Reliance on the Lord in our greatest Difficulties Thus Phineas argues Josh 22.17 20. Is the Iniquity of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed to this day Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a Trespass in the accursed thing and Wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished not alone in his Iniquity That he might by this Argument deterre the Trans-Jordan Israelites from a Schismaticall departure from the God of Israel and a Communion in Worship with the other Tribes on this side Jordan Thus David in the great Trial of his Faith and undaunted Fortitude which he shewed in his heroick Encounter with the Giant of Gath recollects his own Experience of Divine Assistence formerly and fortifies himself against the fear of that Monster by assurance of the like now He alleges God's former Providences as the reason of his gallant Resolution to encounter Goliah without any hesitancy now telling Saul 1 Sam. 17.36 Thy Servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seeing he hath defied the Armies of the living God As God hath given us his Word that thereby we may understand his Will so doth he exercise his Judgments that we may discern his Excellency As the Word of God his Precepts and Promises are to be remembred that we may believe and obey and therefore it is the Character of a Righteous person that the Law of his God is in his Heart and none of his Steps therefore shall slide Psal 37.31 so it is said Psal 111.2 3 4. The Works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein God having made his Work honourable and glorious that his wonderfull Works might be remembred And therefore a Woe is denounced by the Prophet Isa 5.11 12. against those Epicurean Sensualists that spent their time in voluptuous Drinking and pleasant Musick but regarded not the Work of the Lord neither considered the Operation of his hands To which answers that true Censure of the Prophet Jeremiah 5.4 Surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the Way of the Lord nor the Judgment of their God In having respect to both kinds of his Ways we glorify him in neglecting either we vilify him and live as it were without God in the World APPLICATION Hereby we may discern whether we have the same Spirit with David and other Holy persons in their generation who have always had their Eyes fixed on God in their Pilgrimage on earth and their Minds intent on what God saith and doeth as the principall Object whereon to imploy their Meditations and Exercitations When we reade of Enoch Noah Abraham and other Holy persons that they walked with God we may thereby collect that they moved in a higher Sphere then this lower World and though their Bodies were carried up and down on the Superficies of the Earth yet their Hearts and Spirits were with God him they set before them and kept close to him And so David professeth of himself Psal 18.21 22 23. I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God For all his Judgments were before me and I did not put away his Statutes from me I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity And S. Paul Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Surely they that seriously mind being with God hereafter must make it their business to get acquaintance with him here they that look for their Portion in Heaven must have their Conversation in Heaven while they are upon Earth As it is the description of a wicked man that God is not in all his Thoughts that God's Judgments are far above out of his sight that he casts God's Word behind his back that he hides his face from God So on the other side nothing is a more reall demonstration of a Holy person
Christ 1. In Dying with him and that First to the World If ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Col. 2.20 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is crucified to me and I unto the World Gal. 6.14 Secondly to Sin Rom. 6.6 7 8. Knowing this that our Old man is crucified with him that the body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin For he that is dead is freed from Sin Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall live with him Thirdly by Suffering with him It is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. If so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Rom. 8.17 2. In his Resurrection and that First by walking in Newness of Life Like as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of his Father even so we also should walk in Newness of Life and thereby be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.4 5. Secondly by living to God As Christ in that he liveth liveth unto God so those that have put on Christ reckon themselves to be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord they yield themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and their Members as instruments of Righteousness unto God Rom. 6.10 11 13. Thirdly in seeking the things above as their Treasure as the Apostle inferrs Col. 3.1 2. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your Affections on things above not on things on the Earth I have insisted the longer on this Point of the Path of Life because it is the main thing that concerns us to know III. How God makes known or shews this Path of Life to them This Question is not hard to be resolved from that which hath been already said God shewed Christ the Path of Life 1. By his Promise to him mentioned before at his coming into the world 2. By his Providence he make it known experimentally to him when he was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father To us he makes known the Ways of Life 1. By his Son 's Appearing and his Gospel who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to life through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2. By his Spirit which he gives whereby we are assured that through it mortifying the deeds of the Body we shall live Rom. 8.13 We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 IV. Why God doth shew them this Path of Life The Reason of God's making known the Way of Life to Christ and to us is one and the same That as thereby Christ was to be strengthened in all his Temptations in all his Sufferings animated in all his Obedience to his Father's Will by having an eye to the Life which was propounded to him so should all the Disciples of Christ be confirmed in all their Sufferings encouraged in all their Actings for Christ by their Assurance of Life with Christ that they may live by Faith and not be of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul Heb. 10.38 39. That with Moses they may chuse rather to suffer Afflictions with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt as having respect unto the recompence of the Reward Heb. 11.25 26. Wherefore Christ assures Believers in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God To the Church of Smyrna vers 10 11. Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death To the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life APPLICATION I may say now with Moses Deut. 30.15 19. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evill Chuse therefore Life and take hold of the Paths of it Life is a thing naturally desired It is true in extreme Anguish men chuse Strangling rather then Life In his Fits of sore Pain Job was in such a mood as to desire Death most earnestly and to abhor Life Yet simply every living thing would fain live it struggles and strives what it can to keep Life men spare no cost to continue it though it be but for a while and that not without a mixture of Sorrow and Trouble to which the best Life on Earth is obnoxious Life we say is sweet nor is the Devil taken for a Liar in this when he saith Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life Job 2.4 But alas this Life is too much prized and that is the reason why a greater Death is consequent upon the immoderate affecting of it because they would still live here many die for ever in Hell That Life the Way of which was shewed to Christ and now to you is indeed worthy your knowing worthy your embracing and pursuing It is a holy Life a happy Life a safe Life an eternall Life If you live in Christ you shall live with Christ if you live in the Spirit you shall be quickened by the Spirit if you live the Life of God you shall live in his Presence In a word if you walk in the Paths of Life which I have this day shewed you you shall live not the Life of Men onely but of holy Angels you shall live a Life as far beyond the Life of Kings as Heaven is above the Earth The Life of the best and happiest Kings hath been attended with much Care and many Dangers nor is any Prince's Life-time so splendid but that the Day is sometimes darkened over him and Storms beat on him and perhaps his Sun sets in a Cloud 'T is otherwise to be conceived of this Life when once attained it is never darkened never eclipsed never ended Oh that you would then learn to die with Christ to Sin to the World to live by the Faith of the Son of God to be conformed to him by putting on the same mind that was in Christ to live to God to doe not your own will but the will of your Father which is in Heaven to commit your Souls in well-doing when you suffer for him as to a faithfull Creatour Is the Loss of Credit Goods Peace Liberty Life terrible to you Why the Life
right wits is always desired Now Joys are of several sorts according to the variety of the Objects Motives and Means of Rejoycing There are Objects of Joy within us and without us matters carnal or spiritual temporal or eternal present or future from faith or sight hoping or feeling natural and acquired longer or shorter in duration which make our Joys either more pure or mixed greater or lesser with great difference in degrees upon variation of Circumstances different apprehensions of the Object and the Good that accrues by it either comparatively with the precedent Evil felt or feared or absolutely as the thing is good in it self and its own nature or in respect of our Interest in it good to us Should I here make a Philosophical discourse of this Affection and exhibit to you a Scheme of the several kinds degrees properties and effects of this one Affection I might spend more then an hour upon this Subject But I pass to the next Head II. What Joys are in the Presence of God Those Joys are the best which spring from the embracing of the best and most lasting Good with least Defectiveness and greatest Latitude And such are the Joys that are in the Presence of God or with his Face and Countenance For therein there is 1. a perfect Freedom from all Evil 2. an entire Enjoyment of all Good in its Purity and Resplendency 1. The Evils a man is delivered from do much enhaunse his Joys He that is delivered from Dangers and Fears doth rejoyce and the Joy is the more if the Dangers were great and apparent the Fears of Evil imminent and oppressing still more when the Evils have been felt and that with much Anguish and long Continuance How do men rejoyce when they have overthrown their Adversary in a Law-suit in which if they had been cast they had been undone in their Estates How do men rejoyce when they have overcome their Enemies in Battel to whom if they had been Captives they had been led into Exile from their own Country How do Slaves rejoyce when they are redeemed from Turkish Bondage and in stead of rowing in their Gallies are returned to live with their own Masters in their own Families How do Prisoners condemned to the Gallows rejoyce when the King sends them a Pardon and they escape the hands of the Executioner These Deliverances do cause much Joy and Exultation in men and sometimes much Glorying though perhaps they be not long free from the Fear and Danger of their Evils but in the Change of Fortune fall into the same or greater Mischiess or if they escape them yet their Victory Pardon or Redemption though it bring them Liberty perhaps reduces them to Poverty and a low estate And which is worst although they overcome their Adversary on Earth yet the Devil their Adversary prevails against them though they get the Victory against their other Enemies yet they are led captive by their own Lusts which sight against their Souls though they be without Wounds by a Sword in their Bodies yet they have sore Wounds in their Consciences by their Sins though they be pardoned by the King yet they are condemned by the King of Kings though they are redeemed from Turks yet not from Hell And sure a Holy heart that prospers in the one and not in the other finds his Joys damped so as that he can scarce think those Deliverances worth the rejoycing in A Holy heart rejoyceth indeed with hearty Joy when he prevails against his Adversary the Devil and his Temptations when he is cured of the Wounds of his Spirit when he hath gotten power over that Body of death that makes him cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from it They are the Desertions of God the Domineering of his Corruption the Absence of God's Spirit his Decay in Prayer his Doubts of his Interest in God's Grace his Backslidings Inconstancy in good and such like Spiritual Evils that do most annoy him eclipse his Joys beget in him Lipothymies Fainting fits cold Sweats Trembling of Heart Fearfulness and Dejection of Spirit These break his Bones envenome his Spirits make him loathsome to himself as a man whose Wounds stink and are corrupt And therefore there is no Joy to such an one till he have the Joy of Salvation from God till in the multitude of the thoughts of his Heart the Comforts of God refresh his Soul till he finds the Presence of God accepting him till he sfinds that God prepares his Heart to Prayer and then inclines his Ear to hear till God speaks Peace to him sprinkles the Bloud of Christ on his Conscience and frees him from his Fear of God's Wrath and Condemnation till there be a Messenger an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto him his Righteousness till God be gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a ransome till he pray unto God and he be favourable unto him and he see his Face with Joy as Elihu speaks Job 33.23 24 26. He is not till then free from Anguish of Spirit and Anxiety of Soul In the day of my Trouble saith Asaph Psal 77.2 3 7 8 9. I sought the Lord my Sore ran in the night and ceased not my Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was overwhelmed Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies Thus mournfully also speaks Heman the Ezrahite Psal 88.3 6 7. My Soul is full of Troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the Grave Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deeps Thy Wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves And then expostulates vers 14 c. Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy Terrours I am distracted Thy fierce Wrath goeth over me thy Terrours have cut me off They come round about me daily like water they compassed me about together Such Complaints are frequent in the Psalms Job and Hezekiah's Song In the Penitentials of Holy men in the Relation of the Lives of Godly persons of tender Consciences Men and Women of former and later days we meet with such Apprehensions of their Sins dangers of Temptations want of God's Spirit hiding of his Face as benight their Souls take away their Joys fill them with Pensiveness Horrour and Fear of Divine Vengeance of Hell-sire of Apparitions of Devils that they can neither feed pleasantly in the day nor rest quietly in the night but look ghastly with dejected Countenances and goe mourning in the bitterness of their Spirit all their days But when these Clouds are seattered this Darkness taken away so as that
they can say with that Martyr He is come He is come Glover in Queen Mary's days burnt at Coventry when they can discern the Light of God's Countenance shining upon them can see him reconciled in Christ can hear the voice of Christ speaking to them Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee when they find the Spirit enabling them to pour out their Souls before the Lord when their Souls can send this Challenge to the Gates of Hell Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who shall condemn it is Christ that died or rather is risen again who also sitteth at the right hand of God making Intercession for us Who shall separate us from the Love of God Then there is rejoycing indeed then they rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Though they be in much Affliction they can sing in the Fire and clap their hands at the Stake in a poor Cottage in a Prison they can be as merry as if they were in a stately Palace for then they are delivered from their greatest Enemies and their greatest Fears Now the Joys that are in the Presence of God are for Deliverance from these Evils from all of them bodily and spiritual from unrighteous Sentences of men violent Captivity forcible restraint of Liberty Sickness Losses Sorrows Death and which is more from all Corruptions within Temptations to Sin from without from the Malice of men the Power of Satan the Hiding of God's Countenance the Absence of his Spirit the Fear of Hell They that are with God in his Presence doe as the Children of Israel did when they saw the Egyptians dead on the Sea-shore they triumphantly glory in their Deliverance they sing as it were a new Song before the Throne they sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb with the Harps of God saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy Ways thou King of Saints Rev. 15. v. 3. There they with the greatest glorying and magnanimity of Spirit take up the speech of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God that giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. The Joys that Believers have in God's Presence are not onely because of Freedom from all the Evils which in their life-time did annoy them but also by reason of the entire injoyment of all Good in its Purity and Resplendency Many things there are which men rejoyce in on Earth and if but in one single Excellency they find themselves goe beyond others how do they glory in it as if others were not to be named the same day with them Some rejoyce in their Descent and Parentage as Pharaoh I am the son of the wise the son of ancient Kings Isa 19.11 Some in their Beauty as Absalom that gloried in his unblemished Body and goodly Head of hair Some in their Wisedom and Skill their Riches and Prosperity as the King of Tyrus that had his Heart lifted up and said I am a God I sit in the Seat of God in the midst of the Seas Behold thou art wiser then Daniel there is no Secret that they can hide from thee With thy Wisedom and with thy Vnderstanding thou hast gotten thee Riches and hast gotten Gold and Silver into thy Treasures and thine Heart is lifted up because of thy Riches Ezek. 28.2 3 4 5. Some in their Honours as Haman did in King Ahasuerus his promoting him Esther 5.11 Some in their Righteousness as the Pharisee that boasted he was not as other men are nor as the Publican Luk. 18.11 Yea some can rejoyce in their unsociable Cynical sowr austere Deportment though it be but a Delusion if they conceive Holiness in it as Monks Anchorets Quakers and such like have done and doe at this day All these and many more things the Hearts of men can rejoyce in though they be some of them but vain things some but petty good things yea if they were enjoyed in their Confluence as Solomon enjoyed them who had Wealth and Wisedom and Beauty and Dominion and what-ever the carnal Heart of man affects and yet after his ample experience of the Sweetness of them gives this account of them Eccles. 1.2 Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity yea Vexation of Spirit they produce but a forced Mirth Sardonium Risum notwithstanding which in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull and the end of their Mirth is Heaviness As it was with Belshazzar Dan. 5.6 He was in his Royall Palace at Babylon carousing in gold and silver with his Wives and Concubines praising his Gods when on a sudden upon a Hand 's writing on the Wall the King's Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loins were loosed and his Knees smote one against another That which is worth rejoycing at indeed as begetting a permanent and genuine Joy sutable to the Spirit of a man is his Acquaintance with God his Knowledge of him God's Adopting him to an Inheritance with him his Relation to the Son of God the Habitation of his Blessed Spirit in him the Holiness of his Heart the Beauty that is in the hidden man of the Heart which is in the sight of God of great Price the hearing of his Prayers the accepting of his Works the glorifying of his God the Love of his Saviour In these things are the Joys of the Saints So saith S. Paul We are they that rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World saith the same S. Paul Gal. 6.14 Many there be that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased saith David Psal 4.6 7. And again I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches Psal 119.14 These things do indeed beget the most solid Joys which enlighten the Eyes and chear the Heart under many Wants many Dangers many Persecutions many Expectations of future Evils And yet these Joys are eclipsed to the most Holy man Sometimes by his own Sins and the Withdrawing of God's Spirit from him as the case was with David Sometimes by reason of Calamities and the sinfull Practices of his Children as it was also with him Sometimes from his Doubting of his own spiritual Estate from the want of such Feeling as once he had of the Efficacy of God's Grace in his Heart by the Motions of it to holy Exercises to Prayer Praising God and heavenly Meditations in the
besides him yea when there are very many very potent very malicious Enemies against them yet even then God makes them dwell in Safety and Confidence The Lord saith David Psal 27.1 2 3 5. is my Light and my Salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the Strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid When the Wicked even mine Enemies and my Foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell Though an Hoast should encamp against me my Heart should not fear though War should rise against me in this will I be confident For in the time of Trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me upon a Rock The many Experiences he had of remarkable Evasions and Deliverances when he was as it were in the Lion's mouth how he killed Goliah alone with a Sling and a Stone and cut off his Head with his own Sword how he slew the Lion and the Bear how he avoided Saul's Javelin cast at him escaped Apprehension in his Bed by his Wife Michal's Cunning Saul's Fury by his Rapture and Prophesying at Ramah the Treachery of the men of Keilah the Malevolence of the Ziphims the Design of the Philistines in the Court of Achish King of Gath these made him full of Confidence of God's Assistence in the greatest imminent Perils though he were Single and had none that he could trust to It was no news to David that God's Power is no whit abated by the Multitude of Enemies and the want of Helpers Abraham's Victory over the Kings that took Sodom Pharaoh's Overthrow at the Red Sea Sampson's Slaughter of the Philistines with the Jaw-bone of an Ass his carrying away the Gates of Azzah Shamgar's slaying of 600 Philistines with an Ox-goad Jonathan and his Armour-bearer's Victory over the same People were such Examples as made his Heart to be fixed and not to shrink at evil Tidings The like Assurance of God's Might made Asa when he was invaded by Zerah the Ethiopian with an Army of a Thousand thousand and 300 Chariots to cry unto the Lord his God Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power 2 Chron. 14.11 And of this Deliverance then Hanani the Seer minds him when he let go his Faith in God and relied on the King of Syria Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge Hoast with very many Chariots and Horsemen yet because thou didst rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand For the Eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose Heart is perfect towards him 2 Chron. 16.8 9. Elisha was not dismaied at the Army of the Syrians which besieged him in Dothan he knew there were more with him then against him though his Servant's eyes could discern none to be present but Enemies Hezekiah was not terrified by the proud Vaunts of Rabshakeh or the reviling menacing Letter of Sennacherib He knew that the God of Israel was the Lord even he onely that the everlasting God the Lord the Creatour of the ends of the Earth neither fainteth nor is weary there is no searching of his Vnderstanding that he giveth Power to the faint and to them that have no Might he increaseth Strength Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their Strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint as it is Isa 40.28 29 30 31. The same Spirit in a more ample measure was in the Holy Apostles when they were brought before the Jewish Sanhedrim S. Paul when it was foretold by Agabus that he should be bound at Jerusalem when he was brought before the Council of the Jews the Roman Governours Felix Festus and King Agrippa knew in whom he believed that he was able to keep the Depositum that which he had committed to him When he received the Sentence of death in himself he trusted in him that raiseth from the dead Thus S. Stephen when stoned commended his Spirit into the hands of his Saviour and fell asleep And this brings me to the III. OBSERVATION That in Assurance that God onely makes them though alone and destitute of Help from any else to dwell in Safety Confidence or Hope Holy Believers can quietly take their Repose lie down and sleep though environed with Enemies even the chiefest Hell and Death and him that hath the power of Death to wit the Devil This frame of Spirit Holy David did discover in many of the Psalms especially in the 31. where having avouched God to be his strong Rock and his House of defence to save him vers 2. he thereupon without any Commotion of mind deposits himself with God Into thine hand saith he I commit my Spirit Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth vers 5. He was assured that he was his God that his Times were in his hands that great was his Goodness which was laid up for them that fear him that he would hide them in his Presence from the Pride of man that he would keep them secretly in a Pavilion from the strife of Tongues that he preserveth the Faithfull and therefore exhorts them to be of good Courage and God should strengthen the Heart of all them that hope in the Lord vers 14 15 19 20 23 24. But in none was this Composedness of Soul so eminent as it was in our Lord Christ who though it pleased the Lord to bruise him to put him to Grief though he were injured more then any man he was inclosed with the assembly of the Wicked they pierced his Hands and his Feet though his Heart like wax was melted in the midst of his Bowells and he cried out O God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my Roaring though his Soul was made an Offering for Sin yet did he then pray for his Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they doe and when he had cried with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and so gave up the Ghost Luk. 23.46 He did no Sin neither was Guile found in his mouth when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.22 23. The same Tranquillity of mind did S. Stephen shew at his death And after the Example of the chief Shepherd of their Souls and the Protomartyr of the Christian Profession have the Holy Martyrs and Confessours in all Ages with the greatest Fortitude and Undauntedness of spirit conjoyned with Serenity and Calmness of mind unconquerable Patience and Submission to God's Will far beyond the Philosophers Insensibleness or Roman Stoutness which
was accompanied with much inward Regret at their Sufferings Indignation against the Tyranny of them that oppressed them Vexation at their hard Destiny yea with Alacrity and Joyfulness of heart laid themselves down to sleep even in the midst of the Fire as if it had been in a Bed of Roses triumphing over the most extreme Cruelties of their violent Persecutours that were mad with Rage against the Sheep of Christ who herein followed their Shepherd who was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before the Shearers so opened he not his mouth Act. 8.32 This excellent Temper of spirit in Holy Believers ariseth from the Conscience of their Integrity and the vigour of their Faith A good Cause and an upright Heart are very prevalent to allay all inward Fluctuations of mind and to arm the Heart against outward though stormy Occurrences The Righteous saith Solomon Prov. 28.1 are bold as a Lion They that fear God need not fear Men or Devils Such as know the Uprightness of their Heart the Justice of their Cause especially when their Danger is for Righteousness sake for God can appeal to God with Confidence can mind God as Hezekiah did Lord remember that I have walked before thee with an upright Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.3 It was our Lord's Argument in that his Soliloquy with his Father that Bosome-prayer wherein he did expectorate himself open his Heart to his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was This was his Plea when he was to be betrayed and crucified It is so in like manner with all that doe the Will of God They know the work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever Isa 32.17 They know that God will keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusteth in him Isa 26.3 Faith doth assure them that he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep that as it is true Diabolus non dormit the Devil sleepeth not but goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour so Dominus non dormit the Lord sleeps not but his Eyes are open upon the Righteous He is that most vigilant Shepherd that keeps his Sheep night and day They know that if God be with them none either Tyrant or Devil can be against them That the Prince of Life hath by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death to wit the Devil and delivered them that through fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage That they may take up their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Triumph-song their Io Paean O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory That he that gave his own Son for them will with him freely give them all things That he is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which hath Foundations made and built by himself in a heavenly Country where no Nero's or Domitians or Diocletians no bloudy Bonner's or Spanish Inquisitours shall come where no Infernall Spirits nor Sons of Belial shall approach to hurt None shall be able to lay any thing to their charge they have God to justifie them Christ to intercede for them And therefore neither Height nor Depth nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor any Creature shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hereby they have that Peace of God which passeth all understanding which keeps as a Garrison their Hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus And therefore they can rest in their Beds without fear of humane Tortures or haunting Ghosts They can sleep in the dust of the Earth with expectation of a better Resurrection and after David's Example here they can resolve to lie down and sleep for that the Lord maketh them dwell in Safety and this with hope of Rising again to Life and of having Dominion over their Enemies in that Morning in which the Sun of Righteousness shall appear again from Heaven with Healing in his Wings APPLICATION And now I beseech you learn to discern between the Righteous and the Wicked How fearfull are the Minds of them that are troubled with an evil Conscience that are not armed with Faith in God! Every Report of an invading Enemy of a walking Ghost any ghastly Apparition any unusuall Noise terrifies them and takes away their Sleep Solitariness is a Terrour to them specially in the Night Cain gets him from the Presence of the Lord into the Land of Nod Caligula runs under a Bed at a Clap of thunder Adrian whines in his mournfull Ditty when he is to part with his Soul from his Body Sickness appalls others The message of Death makes a Saul fall all along on the Earth a churlish Nabal's Heart die within him as a Stone On the contrary Holy David sleeps quietly in a Cave though Saul's Army be near him he dies quietly though Adonijah go about to take his Crown from off his Head Job can trust God though he kill him S. Paul can trust in him that raiseth from the dead when he receives the Sentence of death in himself Oh then that you would consider these things to purpose Time may come wherein you may have the Name of Magor-missabib Terrour round about armed Souldiers may break into your Houses the Arrow of God may be shot into your Bodies Pestilence may enter in at your Windows sooner or later Sickness and Death will surprize you and seise on you If at that hour thy Spirit be wounded also and God call thy Sins to Remembrance if when the Decree goes forth This night shall they fetch away thy Soul from thee thou hast nothing but thy full Barns thy high Honours and Dignities the Favour of Princes to secure thee Oh how wilt thou be like Belshazzar when he saw the Hand-writing on the Wall Thy Knees will dash one against another thy Sleep will be gone thy Terrours will rush in upon thee like an armed man thou wilt feel Hell-Torments while thou art yet on Earth On the other side if thou hast Hezekiah's Uprightness and David's Faith thou wilt sleep in Peace and die with Comfort God's Grace will support thee here and advance thee hereafter He will guide thee with his Counsell and after receive thee to Glory Oh be wise then I beseech you Take heed of Sin which will defile you it will make your Bed as uneasie as if you lay on Flints or Thorns breed a Worm in your Conscience which will gnaw on you to Eternity kindle a Fire in your Bowells which will never be quenched but burn for ever produce the Sting of a fiery Scorpion which will never be cured Get
to know Wisedom and to know Madness and Folly I perceived that this also is Vexation of spirit For in much Wisedom is much Grief and he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth Sorrow Be he the wisest Statesman or profoundest Scholar be he Doctor profundus Angelicus Seraphicus though he have gotten those glorious Titles wherewith some have set out them whom they have esteemed yet if he review his Projects his Writings he will find cause to repent of them to say Non putâram This I considered not to make Retractations with S. Austin to charge himself with Folly and Errour That which we reade Prov. 9.10 is a Maxime aeternae veritatis of eternal truth The Knowledge of the Holy is Vnderstanding That Knowledge which is of God and his Will that is practical as well as speculative is the true Understanding 1. Because it is the Knowledge of the most excellent Object We much prize the Knowledge of the most abstruse things the things most abstract from sense The Knowledge of Transcendents Stars Motions Influences of the Heavens Angels and Spirits is with much Curiosity inquired into and they are rare Doctours who can discover such sublime things But the Knowledge of God his Properties Ways Precepts and Counsels is far more excellent as being of more glorious things We think the Knowledge of Reasons of State Arcana Imperii the Art of Governing Men and Kingdoms more excellent then the Knowledge of Husbandry how to order Beasts to plough and sow and plant to be a wise Statesman more excellent then to be a skilfull Rustick But Theology is much to be preferred before any of these yea a Doctour in Divinity before a Physician or a Lawyer as teaching the things of God which are most abstruse and of highest Speculation To be wise in these things is to be wise as Daniel who is made the Pattern of a wise man Ezek. 28.3 because the Spirit of God was in him Light and Vnderstanding to reveal the Secrets of God Yea it is to be wise as an Angel of God Angels being proverbially made the Exemplar of Wisedom 2 Sam. 14.17 whose excellency of Knowledge stands in their beholding God's Face by which though not as in a natural Glass according to the Conceit of them that talk of Speculum Trinitatis a Glass of the Trinity as if he that sees God must know all things by seeing him that sees all things that 's an Errour for then the Angels should be Omniscient but in a free clear Glass they see more of his Glory and Works receive more immediate Orders from him understand more of the affairs of Heaven and Divine Mysteries then men that dwell in houses of Clay and the more is revealed unto them of God's Actings Intendments or Appointments the more do they increase in Wisedom 2. Because this Knowledge of God is the most true clear certain satisfying Knowledge There is Imperfection in all other Knowledge as there is in the things that are known He that knows most and best of other matters yet finds no Rest or Satisfaction in them There is Uncertainty even in some things in the Mathematicks and in those things that are known best there is no great Content to the mind by their Knowledge because it is but of things that shall end Knowledge of humane things shall vanish away 1 Cor. 13.8 How many thousands of Learned men have at last after all their Studying Arguing Writing Reading come to Socrates his Determination Hoc unum scio quòd Nihil scio I know this one thing that I know Nothing How many the more they plod on the things of Nature and Art are the more puzzled One that was counted a great Wit of the world when he had studied the Cause of the Sea's Motions but could not comprehend it threw himself into it with this Saying Quoniam ego non capio te tu capies me Because I cannot perceive thee thou shalt receive me But in the Knowledge of God his Will his Laws and Counsels is Perfection Quietat Intellectum The Clearness Truth Beauty Stability of the Knowledge and things known satisfie the Mind I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad saith David Psal 119.96 There are wonderous things in God's Law vers 18. There is no Sophistry or Fallacy in any of God's Words there is none of the Poison of the old Serpent which deceiveth the whole world But as it is Psal 19.7 8 9. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting or restoring the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the Heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 3. The Knowledge of God and his Law is most desirable because it is that Knowledge which pleaseth God most 'T is true all the Works of God are worth the knowing The Works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal 111.2 God allows us to search out the Secrets of Nature and it is a great Excellency in men to find out the hidden Qualities and Virtues of Natural Bodies but to terminate our Knowledge on them and not to have respect to the Maker of them not to look unto him that fashioned the World long agoe as the Prophet speaks Isa 22.11 much more to deny his Work to ascribe it to a casual Concourse of Atoms to the Nature of the things themselves without acknowledging the First Cause Primum Motorem the First Mover and Universall Efficient is monstrous Madness and a thing extremely odious to the Divine Majesty Yea they that are the greatest Philosophers if they know not God's Will have not Understanding how to worship God and to doe his Pleasure are usually more brutish then others they are given up to vile Affections to a reprobate Mind to doe those things which are not convenient but against Nature such as Beasts doe not and none but besotted or bewitched men would doe Some kind of Knowledge is utterly forbidden us Well did those Converts mentioned Act. 19.19 who used curious Arts when they brought their Books together and burned them before all men though counting the Price of them they found it fifty thousand pieces of Silver All Knowledge of infernall Magick is abominable to God Then our Knowledge pleaseth God when we follow on to know the Lord Hos 6.3 when we understand what he reveals to us for our Duty and his Honour The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our Children for ever that we may doe all the words of his Law Deut. 29.29 4. Because the Understanding of God and his Law or Will is that which is of greatest Advantage to us and therefore most to be desired by us It is true which Solomon saith Eccles. 2.13 14.
that Wisedom excelleth Folly as far as Light excelleth Darkness The Wise man's eyes are in his head he avoideth many Dangers takes prosperous Courses by reason of his Prudence in discerning between things hurtfull and things helpfull to him for want of which the Fool walketh in Darkness stumbles often and falls into Pits and Precipices Yet as he saith vers 15 16. as it happeneth to the Fool so to the Wise as the Fool dieth so dieth the Wise Neither doth Wisedom in Sciences Arts Policy Cunning in Trading or any such Skill as men are most applauded for Civil or Military secure a man from Dangers without or Fears within common Calamities or particular Miseries Death or Damnation But the Wisedom that is from above whereby we know God's Will know the things of the Spirit of God which are freely given us of God arms us against Temptations Fear of Death and Judgment to come and comforts us in Tribulation It is that which is able to make us wise unto Salvation as the Holy Scriptures did Timothy It brings us to God as it comes from God Which leads us to the II. OBSERVATION That the Vnderstanding of God's Law and Will is the Gift of God and to be sought from him Every good and every perfect Gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights with whom is no Variableness neither shadow of turning And therefore if any lack Wisedom he is to ask it of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not James 1.5 17. Job after his inquiry Where shall Wisedom be found and where is the place of Vnderstanding resolves The Depth saith It is not in me and the Sea saith It is not in me Destruction and Death say We have heard the fame thereof with our ears God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof He declareth it prepareth it and searcheth it out Job 28.12 14 22 23 27. And indeed it is he onely that gives it and in such a measure as pleaseth him All Understanding is God's Gift he makes the wise and the foolish He can give Solomon Wisedom turn Achitophel's Counsel into Folly make foolish the Wisedom of the wise As they that trust to their own Wisedom lean to their own Vnderstanding do follow an Ignis fatuus that will lead them into Bogs and Precipices so they that seek Counsel of God Wisedom from him in all their Undertakings that fear themselves and work out their Salvation with fear and trembling are most prosperous It was Solomon 's Happiness that he asked Wisedom of God and it was his Unhappiness that he gave his Heart to injoy Pleasure and Mirth and so doted on his Wives that they turned away his Heart from God to set up Idol-service And therefore by Solomon 's Example we should beware of abusing our Knowledge by turning God's Grace into Wantonness and perverting our Understanding to the Service of our Lusts But which is the III. OBSERVATION When we understand God's Laws we should observe them The Observation of God's Law consisteth in two things 1. In Considering what it requires or makes known The word we translate keep signifies the Observance of a Watch-man who is intent on what he sees and attentive to what he hears And this should be the disposition and exercise of every one to whom God speaks I will hear what God the Lord will speak saith the Psalmist Psal 85.8 There is nothing more concerns a man then to have his Ear for God and his Eye on God All our Happiness is from him and therefore all our Thoughts should be towards him As a Servant that depends on his Master will have his eye on him and his ear open to him so should it be with us our Ear should hear and our Heart should consider what God speaks or acts The Blessed man's Delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Psal 1.2 And what-ever God does in the world especially towards us whereby he either answers our Prayers or rebukes us for our Sins either warns us of our evil Doings or encourages us in doing well should be observed by us for by so doing we shew we have an Heart to please God and cause him to take pleasure in us 2. In Doing of God's Law according to what we understand whether it be by departing from Evil or doing Good Vnto Man he said Behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisedom and to depart from Evil that is Vnderstanding Job 28.28 As God's Precepts cannot be observed without learning them so are they not well learned unless they be observed Theology is a practical Science for Action as well as Speculation If ye know these things saith Christ happy are ye if ye doe them Joh. 13.17 Practice is the end of Knowledge and increase of Knowledge is the fruit of Practice If any man will doe the will of God he shall know of the Doctrine of Christ whether it be of God Joh. 7.17 A good Vnderstanding have all they that doe his Commandments Psal 111.10 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven He that heareth these Sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him to a wise man that built his house on a Rock And the Rain descended and the Flouds came and the Winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a Rock And every one that heareth these Sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened to a foolish man which built his house upon the Sand And the Rain descended and the Flouds came and the Winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it Matth. 7.21 24 25 26 27. That Servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes Luk. 12.47 To him that knoweth to doe good and doeth it not to him it is Sin James 4.17 Sin in a higher degree Majoris est Criminis Legem spernere quà m nescire said Salvian In Ignorance there is Sin in Contempt of God's Law in Stubbornness much more in Hypocrisie most of all Which brings us to our IV. OBSERVATION That God's Laws are to be kept by us with our whole Heart And indeed God's Law is not kept unless the Heart keep it as well as the Tongue His Service requires the Inward parts as well as the Outward Apply thine Heart to Instruction and thine Ears to the word of Knowledge My Son give me thy Heart and let thine Eyes observe my ways Prov. 23.12 26. The Mouth of the Righteous speaketh Wisedom and his Tongue talketh of Judgment The Law of his God is in his Heart none of his steps shall slide Psal 37.30 31. It is the Heart that is the Principle or Fountain of good or bad A good man out
I. OBSERVATION That Afflictions Persecutions yea Death do not extinguish the Being of Saints who wash their Robes and make them clean in the Bloud of the Lamb. It is the saying of our Lord to Martha Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die It is true that believing Lazarus her Brother was then in the Grave and had been dead to her apprehension four days insomuch that she made no other account of him but as of a putrefied stinking Carkase yet even then Christ avoucheth him to have been alive And in like manner he judged Abraham and Isaac and Jacob though buried many Ages before yet even then when he conversed on Earth to be alive and so to continue for ever God being their God and he not being a God of the dead but of the living they must by consequence live unto him Luk. 20.38 Be the Dissolution of the Bodies from the Souls of the Saints never so violent their Flesh and Bones never so much consumed by the most vehement Flames torn and devoured by the most greedy and ravenous Beasts be they never so much putrefied and wasted with Sickness yet in their Dust and Ashes there is a Seed of Life It is with their Reliques as it is with Seed that is sown which though it be buried under the clods of the Earth and in appearance to men annihilated yet hath it a seminal Life which shall spring up again and flourish This Job was assured of when he said Job 19.26 27. Though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me But this is not all The Spirits of men even when their Bodies have onely a seminal Life have an actual Life they have a Life of Sense and Understanding they neither have their Life extinguished nor laid asleep without Feeling or Cogitation Though the Dust return to the Earth as it was yet the Spirit returns to God that gave it The Spirits that were sometimes disobedient when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing were in prison when S. Peter wrote 1 Epist 3.19 20. And it is the saying of the Authour to the Hebrews Chap. 12.23 Ye are come to the Spirits of Just men made perfect When Lazarus was raised from the Grave he had not a new Soul created which was not existent before but the same Soul brought back into his Body Neither at the Resurrection are other Souls joyned to the Bodies then those that before had lived in them For otherwise not the same Soul which had done good or evil should be rewarded but another When Act. 7.59 S. Stephen called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit he being full of the Holy Ghost was assured that though his Body were buried yet his Spirit should be with Christ And when the Apostle Paul expressed his willingness to be absent from the Body yet his expectation was to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It was his choice and option to depart and to be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1.23 He had learned that Christ was in Death Life that he that believeth on him hath everlasting Life that his Life was hid with Christ in God that the Spirit of God that dwelt in him was Life because of Righteousness and therefore he counted not himself to live but Christ in him And as Christ did commend his Spirit into the hands of his Father when he gave up the ghost being assured he should be in Paradise so doe all the Saints that have the Spirit of Christ even when they lie down in their beds of Earth they yield up their Spirits into the hands of their Father as assured to be with Christ who is the Way to the Father And this brings in the II. OBSERVATION That when Saints are removed from Men below they are placed before the Throne of God Though God be a Spirit dwelling in that Light unto which no man can approach whom no man hath seen nor can see yet the Holy Scriptures express him to us under the Similitude of a glorious King suppose a Solomon in all his Glory sitting on a Throne or Seat of Royal Majesty and that in the Heaven of Heavens where his Son termed the Lamb in this Chap. vers 9 10. hath his Throne also at the right hand of God for being ascended into the Most holy place as an high Priest he is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 There the Angels who are ministring Spirits unto him and the Elders all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessours as Kings and Priests unto God stand round about the Throne attending upon and beholding the King of Glory the number of whom is said Revel 5.11 to be ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands Now this place is by Christ termed Paradise Luk. 23.43 and by S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 4. said to be the third Heaven where is a place of Rest an Abraham's Bosome into which Lazarus is said to be carried by the Angels Luk. 16.22 Now though that were a great Happiness for a Beggar that lately lay at the Rich man's gate full of Sores and empty of Bread glad to have been fed with the crums which fell from the rich man's Table as the Dogs were who had more Compassion then the rich man for they licked his Sores when the rich man disdained to look on him or to pay for his Cure And though it be to all that undergoe sore Travail great Wants and Persecutions a very great part of their Blessedness that there remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. 4.9 and to the Saints which keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus after their patient Sufferings that a Voice from Heaven is heard saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in or for the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours Yet that is not the total Summe which completes their Felicity there is more in that which follows that their Works follow them so as to be approved in Heaven Their Persons are welcomed and entertained with Triumph over their Enemies they have the Crown of Righteousness conferred on them by the Righteous Judge of all the World their good Fight of Faith is applauded with an Io-Triumph as an Heroical act of the most gallant Fortitude by the Acclamation of the Celestial Quire of Angels and blessed Spirits they are cloathed with white Linen the Righteousness of Saints they are arrayed with the most sumptuous Apparel feasted with the Light of God's Countenance reign with Christ on his Throne are designed to be solemnly married to Christ and to be Judges of the World as Co-assessours with Christ at his Coming in the expectation of which they most delightfully see God
to the living God though they were in jeopardy of being stoned by them This is indeed the constant disposition of all upright-hearted men that they had rather suffer any Indignities Injuries Dammages Calamities themselves then have God's Glory and Honour be eclipsed they are willing that any Crime Shame Falshood should be imputed to them rather then the least Ignominy or Disgrace cast on God that their Names should become odious then God's have the least blemish And the Reasons are 1. Because they esteem themselves as nothing in comparison of God and therefore count it a small matter what Evil befalls them so that God be magnified When Abraham bespeaks God he useth this self-debasing preface Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes And Jacob Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of or as it is in the Hebrew I am less then the least of all the Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant And Job 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Chap. 42.5 6. Now mine eye seeth thee I abhor my self And David 1 Chron. 17.16 Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 1 Chron. 29.14 15. Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For we are strangers before thee and sojourners as were all our Fathers our days on the earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding On the other side they ascribe all Greatness unto God Moses in his Song Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders Deut. 32.3 4. Because I will publish the Name of the Lord ascribe ye Greatness to our God He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment a God of Truth and without Iniquity Just and Right is He. Psal 145.1 2 3. saith David I will extoll thee my God and my King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable The four living Creatures rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come They give glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the Throne who liveth for ever And the four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sate on the Throne who liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. Many more such expressions there are in the Songs of Hannah the blessed Virgin the 14000 Virgins and other Hymns of the Saints in the Old and New Testament which do fully shew that this is the constant disposition of all Holy hearts to nullify all their Excellency when it is compared with God and to extoll the Name of God as infinitely exceeding all created Beings and therefore they conceive it most equall that they should count the Disparagement of God as a more heavy Affliction then their own Sufferings 2. They know that God's Name is most tenderly regarded by him Num. 14.21 the Lord said Truly as I live all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord. Deut. 32.26 27. I said I would scatter them into corners I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men Were it not that I feared the wrath of the Enemy lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another neither my Praise to graven Images Isa 48.11 For mine own sake even for mine own sake will I doe it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another Ezek. 20.9 But I wrought for my Name 's sake that it should not be polluted before the Heathen among whom they were in whose sight I made my self known unto them In the Third Commandment Exod. 20.7 God chargeth Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And therefore the Godly are sensible of his Glory above their own Peace and more affected with any dirt cast on God's face then any wound given to their own persons 3. They know it is the Duty of all created Beings to prefer their Maker their Father their King and Lord before themselves They know they are engaged to fear this glorious and fearfull Name The Lord their God Deut. 28.58 as the Father that begat them the Rock that formed them Deut. 32.6 15 18. When S. John would have worshipped the Angel he forbade him See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this Book worship God Rev. 22.9 As David's people counted their King as all good Subjects do worth ten thousand of themselves 2 Sam. 18.3 and all honest Servants count their Master's Wel-fare and Credit far before their own yea his Life before their own so do all Holy persons God's Glory as being their Master their Father their King Croesus his Son that never spake before opened then his mouth and said Kill not King Croesus when a Souldier was about to slay him So will every Child of God be moved when his heavenly Father is blasphemed and his Name stricken through though he be silent when himself is abused Christ bids us pray Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name before he directs us to pray Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts The Relation of Creatures Children Subjects and Servants to God oblige every Holy person to mind and seek the sanctifying of God's Name though it be with never so great diminution and detriment to himself 4. And lastly They know that thus doing they shall best provide for themselves When David was little in his own eyes God chose him to be head of his people Israel He knew it to be true which God said to Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed As all Princes of worth will reward their loyal Subjects all good Parents their dutifull Children all wise Masters their obedient Servants so God will doe to all his true-hearted Subjects Children and Servants And this makes them regardless of themselves in comparison of God as knowing that they best provide for themselves when they are careless of their own
Estates but most carefull of his Glory APPLICATION 1. We may hereby judge of what spirit they are who neither in Sickness nor Health Adversity nor Prosperity are affected with the Worship of God with the Dishonour or Honour that is done to his Name Sure they have not the Heart of David who groaned unto weariness all the night made his Bed to swim and watered his Couch with his Tears because he wanted the opportunity of remembring God of giving him thanks in his Sanctuary by reason of his Sickness or Exile in which he was most afraid lest his Enemies should be highly injurious to God in speaking evil of him was less sensible of his own Suffering They who well or ill mind not to repair to the Assemblies to praise God that are no whit moved by the taking of God's Name in vain or the blaspheming of him if so be they may be quiet live at ease in wealth in content They are undoubtedly of a Devillish spirit that are enemies to the praising of God that inveigh against and oppose the solemn Service and Worship in holy Prayer Praises of God Preaching and Hearing of his most holy Word that deride those things and deterre men from them Much more damnable is their practice who glory in the profaning of the glorious Name of the Almighty God who make it their sport and their gallantry to abuse the High and Holy one in vain and false Swearing in direfull Blasphemies and Curses in impious Atheistical Jests and Scoffs which I wish were onely outlandish behaviour that could as heretofore be charged onely on Italianated Hispaniolized Papists that it were not the fashion of English Protestants who seem often to pray Hallowed be thy Name and when the Commandments of the First Table are read to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep these Laws yet neither have God for their God nor regard his Worship nor hallow his Name nor sanctifie his Day but pollute all with their impure Tongues and foul Feet Oh that you that are guilty of so doing would tremble at the Damnation due to these Sins and you who are not guilty would mourn for these Abominations in others and be affected as David was Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law 2. If God bring Sickness or any other Affliction upon you let this be a Grievance to you that you cannot be with them that are imployed in God's Worship when you are in Health at Liberty in Peace omit not to wait on God in his solemn Service Consider how unworthy a thing it is to mind your own things as if you owed nothing to God from whom you have All to forget that He is your Maker the Father that begat you your King your Lord your God who is good kind and mercifull to you Let the thoughts of God be dear to you his Name precious Be affected like David who could not be contented to dwell in a house of Cedar when the Ark of God dwelt within Curtains 2 Sam. 7.2 Be willing to further God's Honour and the Knowledge of him more then to furnish your own Houses adorn your own Backs and make provision for your own Tables Let them be your best Friends that glorifie God most and those your Enemies that take his Name in vain And let your Sighs and Tears be as much for neglecting God's Service as for omitting the pursuance of your own Ends your own Preferments Pleasures Profits In a word where you can endeavour to recover such from their Profaneness and Ungodliness who mind not his Worship or pollute his Name by any profane speeches or behaviour pluck them as Brands out of the fire with holy zeal for God and compassion to them And if you cannot amend them yet mourn for them as Samuel did for Saul when God was departed from him 1 Sam. 15.35 And for your selves take heed of suffering as Evil-doers but be not ashamed to suffer as Christians but glorifie God therein Amen LAVS DEO DAVID's GROANS Part III. The Third SERMON PSALM vi 6. I am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears THIS Verse hath held us twice already Inquiry being made of the Cause of such excessive Grief as is here expressed it hath been resolved That not onely Pain of Body or Bodily Restraint drew out such Groans such a Fountain of Tears as was let out when this Psalm was made Privation of God's Worship fear of the Dishonour that might accrue to God from his Enemies Reproaching God by reason of him are intimated vers 5 7 10. to have been likewise Causes of this immoderate Sorrow And accordingly I have already handled these four Points 1. That when God's hand is on any for Sin it is heavy and intolerable 2. Beds and Couches give not Ease when God brings Sin to remembrance 3. The want of opportunity of glorifying God is very grievous to a person that is Godly when he is under Affliction 4. That it aggravates his Affliction when by rearon of his Suffering Reproach is likely to be cast on God Thus far we have proceeded There is plus ultrà somewhat more to be gathered from this Flower Commonly this Psalm is styled One or the First of the Penitentiall Psalms And that these Groans and Tears were for Sin hath been gathered partly from other parallel places Psal 38.1 2 3 4. Psal 39.11 Psal 40.12 Psal 41.4 and others from the Prayer here vers 1. wherein he acknowledgeth his present Affliction Rebukes and Chastening from God and therefore for Sin and vers 8. ascribes an audible Voice to his weeping which argues his Tears were for Sin and with Supplication for its Pardon And hence these Conclusions or Propositions have been deduced 5. That Affliction brings Sin to Remembrance and that the Groans and Tears and Disquietness of an Holy person under his Affliction are as well or more for his Sins then for his Sufferings 6. In such sense of Misery or Sin the pious Penitent person bemoaneth himself to God confesseth bewaileth his Sin humbleth himself before him deprecateth his Wrath and earnestly seeketh by Prayer and Supplication for Forgiveness of Sin Healing and Peace from God And of these with Divine assistence I shall now speak V. PROPOSITION That Affliction brings Sin to Remembrance and that the Groans and Tears and Disquietness of an Holy person under his Affliction are as well or more for his Sins then for his Sufferings 1. That Affliction brings Sin to Remembrance is manifest by many Instances When the Sons of Jacob were in streights by reason of Joseph's seeming rough dealing with them in Egypt and his imprisoning one of them then they remembred their Sin which it seems they minded not before Gen. 42.21 And they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear
I may not be infinite in this though of all Points it be of most concernment the Gift of the Spirit the fulfilling of Prophecies delivered by Christ the wonderous Success of the Gospell in converting the World the direfull Judgments of God on the Opposers and Persecuters of Christ Christians and the Gospell both Jews and Romans do abundantly witness the Divine Originall of the Gospell of Christ and that it is the Voice of God which therefore is to be heard and that is the II. OBSERVATION That God's Voice is to be heard This not onely the Holy Scriptures tell us but even the Light of Nature dictates When Ehud told Eglon King of Moab that he had a Message from God to him he arose out of his Seat Judg. 3.20 All Nations repair to the Oracles of their Gods and take Counsel from them When Cornelius was advertised that S. Peter was sent to him from God with all submission and devotion he attends him telling him We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Act. 10.33 And great Reason it should be so He is a God of Truth that neither can be deceived nor deceive and therefore it is of greatest advantage to us to hear him Mens foolish Hearts hearken oftentimes to them that flatter them that speak pleasing things but it is to their Ruine The Devil's Oracles are so ambiguous so false that they delude they corrupt men to their Perdition But God's Voice the Gospell of Christ never misguides never perverts but leads men into all Truth for their present Benefit and their everlasting Happiness Besides God is a powerfull Lord the onely Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4.12 It is not safe to slight him it is the onely way of Salvation to hearken to his Voice We have so much wit as however we contemn our Inferiour's or Equall's words yet not to neglect our Superiour's Commands or Counsells Who is there that dares despise the Sayings of a Judge on the Bench or of the King on his Throne How obsequious in Attention how regardfull in Observance of what such Potentates say to them are all their Subjects They are aware that they speak with authority that they have Punishments and Rewards to accompany their Commands It is much more so with God He hath power of Life and Death Heaven and Hell are at his disposall And therefore it is necessary that his Voice should be heard which is a glorious Voice a mighty Voice heard with the Heart as well as the Ear with Subjection of Soul as well as Reverence of Body and that without any demurr or delay to day as it is in my Text. Which brings us to the next or III. OBSERVATION That the Gospell is to be heard to day By saying to day the Holy Ghost saith the Apostle limits a certain Day in which the Voice of God is to be heard which intimates that there is a day and but a day fixt for this transaction To day implies something inclusivè and something exclusivé That which is included is the Opportunity and the Duration That which is excluded is the Night succeeding the Day and all Duration after even to Eternity The Opportunity of hearing is while the Gospel is preached while the Spirit moves upon our Hearts while Christ stands at the door and knocks that we may open the door and he come in and sup with us and we with him While the Ministers of Reconciliation as Embassadours for Christ as Workers together with God beseech us that we receive not the Grace of God in vain is the accepted time and the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.1 2. It was Jerusalem's Day the time of her Visitation while Christ would have gathered them to him as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings It was the Old World's Day while the Spirit of God did strive with them while Noah prepared the Ark and was a Preacher of Righteousness to them The utmost extent is but during this present Life Perhaps it may be shortned by our Obstinacy by our Grieving the Spirit of God which moves God to withdraw the tender of Reconciliation and the Influx of his Spirit and to leave us to the Blinding of the God of this world and the Obduration of our own Hearts The time after this Life is quite excluded in this business I must work saith Christ Joh. 9.4 the works of him that sent me while it is Day that is while I am in this world as he expresseth it vers 5. the Night cometh when no man can work As in Sales by the Candle he that bids not the price before the Candle goes out buies nothing so it is in this great Merchandise of the rich Pearl of the Kingdome of Heaven he that sells not all before his Light is extinguished can never purchase the Inheritance There is no knowledge no wisedome no operation to this end in the Grave whither we goe Neither Priests Masses nor Monks Prayers nor large Alms nor continuall Obits can buy Remission of Sins or recover a man from the Infernal place or state of eternall Punishment when once the Grave hath shut its mouth upon him In the Grave there is no Remembrance of God to this effect there is no Praise of him or hearing of his Voice to Salvation much less at the day of Judgment When once the Master of the house is risen up saith our Saviour Luk. 13.25 27 28. and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying Lord Lord open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity there remains nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth If men slumber and sleep and get not Oil in their Lamps and Vessels no admission will be for them into the Wedding-chamber when the Bridegroom comes It will not consist with God's Majesty and Honour to be always waiting upon us to doe us good He is long patient but Laesa Patientia fit Furor his injured and abused Patience ends in Fury If while God assigns a Day to hear his Voice we make it a day of Provocation he will swear in his wrath we shall never enter into his Rest Besides the longer we defer the accepting of God's Grace the more we make our selves incapable of hearkening to God's Voice Custome in Sin hardens us therein They that are used to doe Evil hardly ever learn to doe well Often Sinning makes Sin habitual and that begets Hardness of Heart this must be removed if we will hear God's Voice which I propounded for the IV. OBSERVATION That we may hear God's Voice to day our Hearts must not be hardned The Heart in Scripture acception comprehends all the inward Intellectuall Faculties the Understanding Memory Conscience Will and Affections which must concur with the Ear in hearing God's Voice Rom. 10.17 They that had never