<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2011-02-08</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Judith Siefring</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="A91431">
<STC T="W">P476</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99895864</BIBNO>
<VID>153466</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<P>A Farewel SERMON Preached in VVAKE-FIELD, <HI>January</HI> 1, 1655.</P>
<P>By <HI>Thomas Parker,</HI> Ma&s;ter of Arts, late Mini&s;ter of that Church.</P>
<P>Publi&s;hed upon the importunity, and for the &s;atisfaction of the good People of
<HI>Wakefield.</HI></P>
<Q><P><GAP DESC="foreign">. </P><BIBL>Heb. <HI>11.4.</HI></BIBL></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON:</HI> Printed by <HI>J. M.</HI> for <HI>Richard Lownds,</HI> at his Shop, at the White Lyon in <HI>St. Pauls</HI> Church|yard, 1656.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>To the ever Honoured, and my very good friend, Mrs. <HI>Frances Hustler,</HI> at
<HI>Lup&s;et.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Madam,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>IT was not any Ambition to be &s;een in the Pre&s;s, but the daily im|portunities of my ever dear people, which brought this Sermon to &s;ee the light; when I Preached it, I had no other thoughts of Print|ing it, th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">n in your brea&s;ts; I &s;hall think my pains well be&s;tow'd, if the eye may &s;o &s;econd the ear, that both may be an advantage to the Soul, and leave &s;o deep an impre&s;&s;ion of the true fear of God in your hearts, that you may be the Epi&s;tle of Christ, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.</P>
<P><HI>Madam,</HI> You will meet here with the words of truth and &s;ober|ne&s;&s;e, in a plain and homely dre&s;&s;e, that which an age never more wanted, nor could le&s;&s;e indure: Truth is like Beauty, never more fair, then when &s;he goes the plaine&s;t: This di&s;cour&s;e will meet with my Adver&s;aries, but be welcome to my friends; to who&s;e Con|&s;ciences, rather they their Clo&s;ets, I de&s;ire to commend it: For my own part, I de&s;ire to refer my &s;elf to the wi&s;edom of God, who knows how to chu&s;e be&s;t for me, and through his ble&s;&s;ing, whatever it co&s;t me, to run the Ermin's fate (fall into the hands of the Hunter, ra|ther then foul her body) The great &s;hare that New-Years day had in your tears, makes me bold to beg &s;ome intere&s;t in your Prayers; and I &s;hall not de&s;pair, in Gods good time, of my re&s;tauration to the Vineyard: In the mean time, I commend you and yours, to that bloud of &s;prinkling which &s;peaketh better things then the blood of <HI>Abel, Madam,</HI> I am</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>Your affectionate friend and &s;ervant in Chri&s;t Je&s;us,</HI> Tho. Parker.</SIGNED>
<DATELINE>From my &s;tudy at North|gate-head,
<DATE>June <HI>24. 1656.</HI></DATE></DATELINE></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<HEAD>ECCLES. 12.13.</HEAD>
<P>I Am this day to take my leave, not only of you (my good people) but of the Pulpit al&s;o; To bid farewell to that High Calling, the great Harve&s;t of Heaven, wherein I have for the&s;e eighteen years, painfully and faithfully, and I ble&s;s my God, fruitfully laboured. I do not herein &s;trive to ju&s;tifie my &s;elf, God knoweth my heart; if there be any glo|ry, it is the Lords, I know the Apo&s;tles Rule very well; <HI>Not he that commendeth him&s;elf is approved, but whom the Lord com|mendeth:</HI> 2 Cor. 10.18.</P>
<P>I know not well upon what account to commend this Ser|mon this day whether as a Farewel to you, or a Funeral to my &s;elf; for &s;o indeed it is: To impede the execution of that Cal|ling wherein we are employed, and whereby we &s;hould do God that &s;ervice for which he hath Commi&s;&s;ionated us; To force the ru&s;ting of the Talents, which our great Ma&s;ter hath com|manded us to put to u&s;ury: To &s;top our mouths, and put out our eyes, when our hands are at the Plough: What is it, but to bury a man alive, or to leave him like that wounded <HI>Pilgrim</HI> in the Go&s;pel,
<GAP DESC="foreign">? <HI>Luk.</HI> 10.30. How bitter would this Cup be, if the lips of the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t had not &s;weetned it? What an excellent &s;aying that is? <HI>The &s;ervant is not great|er then his Lord, nor the Di&s;ciple above his Ma&s;ter; If they have per&s;ecuted me; they will al&s;o per&s;ecute you,</HI> &amp;c. And le&s;t they &s;hould forget &s;o nece&s;&s;ary and u&s;eful a Doctrine, he puts a &s;pecial <HI>Memento</HI> upon it, <HI>Joh.</HI> 15.20.
<HI>Remember the words that I have &s;aid to you,</HI> &amp;c. What ever &s;hall befall me, or any of my fellow Labourers, We &s;hall ever pray that God may ble&s;s his Church; and I doubt not but he will in his good time re&s;tore her to her Purity, and her Peace.</P>
<P>Old Mercies, thankfully received, are &s;trong ingagements for new: Your &s;pirit will witne&s;&s;e with me this day, what cau&s;e I have to ble&s;&s;e God, as much, I think, as any man that ever laboured in his Vaneyard. Fir&s;t for my per&s;ecutions; It is an excellent &s;aying of St. <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 Cor. 12.10. <HI>I take plea&s;ure
<PB N="2" REF="3">in per&s;ecutions;</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> the words is a Go&s;pel Expre&s;&s;ion, and &s;igni|fies a willing, plea&s;ing Approbation, not without much inward contentment: The mo&s;t precious thing that good Apo&s;tle ever de&s;ired to receive, he expre&s;&s;eth by this word, namely, <HI>to be pre&s;ent with the Lord.</HI> 2 Cor. 5.8. And the mo&s;t precious thing that ever he de&s;ired to give, he expre&s;&s;eth by the &s;ame words, namely, <HI>The Go&s;pel of Chri&s;t, and his own &s;oul,</HI> 1. The&s;. 2.8. and here he makes u&s;e of it to &s;hew how well he was plea&s;ed, and how much he did approve of him&s;elf and his Doctrine, be|cau&s;e of the&s;e per&s;ecutions, as being undoubted evidences of the truth of Chri&s;t. I &s;hould for my own part have &s;u&s;pected my &s;elf, yea, and my Doctrine too, if both had not been per|&s;ecuted; I look upon my per&s;ecutions as love Tokens from Heaven, Pledges of Gods love, and Badges of my own Son|&s;hip: Let me tell you (my good people) there is no condition in the world, &s;o highly de&s;ireable, as that of &s;uffering for, and with Chri&s;t,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jam.</HI> 6.11.</NOTE> <GAP DESC="foreign">, this was Divini|ty in St.
<HI>James</HI> his days; Was it not the minute of his &s;uffer|ings, wherein <HI>Steven</HI> &s;aw the glory of God, and Je&s;us &s;tanding at his right hand? Shall we think our &s;elves worthy to be &s;tiled the Di&s;ciples of Chri&s;t, and run away, or deny him, when he comes to the Crucifying? When &s;he who is the Mother of us all is abu&s;ed, branded, and &s;truggles under pangs and agonies, with the mo&s;t helli&s;h and unthankful children, that ever Mo|ther bare; &s;hall we therefore forget to be Sons, or be a&s;ham|ed or afraid to &s;uffer? I mean, the Church of <HI>England,</HI> which every knowing and moderate Spirit, not bia&s;&s;ed, with factions or &s;elf-intere&s;t, mu&s;t needs acknowledg to be the brighte&s;t, and mo&s;t glorious re&s;emblance of Primitive purity, that ancient and holy faith, which for the&s;e twelve hundred years, any man ever had the honour of contending or &s;uffering for: Tell me, have not I great cau&s;e to look upon it as a ble&s;&s;ing, or have you any cau&s;e to be a&s;hamed of my troubles? What my per&s;ecutions have been, and of what nature, in relation not to my per&s;on only, but my Doctrine al&s;o; (the proper work of Hell) with what bit|terne&s;s, violence and inju&s;tice they have been carried on, your own eyes and ears can &s;ufficiently witne&s;s; I ble&s;&s;e God this day for the innocency of my own heart, and &s;hall have another day
<PB N="3" REF="3">more cau&s;e to rejoyce in my &s;ufferings, <NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>Cor.</HI>
1.12</NOTE> then my Per&s;ecutors in their victory; <HI>Our rejoycing is this the Te&s;timony of our Con&s;cience.</HI></P>
<P>The &s;econd Mercy I de&s;ire we may take notice of, is the &s;up|port and con&s;tant &s;upplies of the Spirit of grace, in and under all the&s;e &s;ufferings; a high and unexpre&s;&s;ible Mercy!
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>P&s;al.</HI> 61, 2.</NOTE> When my &s;oul was over-whelmed, he laid my hands upon a Rock, a Rock that was higher then I. The more my per&s;ecutions grew, the more did the hand of the Lord appear, in, with, and for me: when the wickedne&s;s of my Per&s;ecutors grew &s;o high, and their &s;in &s;o &s;hamele&s;s, that they dur&s;t appear like tho&s;e <GAP DESC="foreign">, tho&s;e Noon-day-Divels, and declare their &s;in as <HI>Sodom:</HI> when they dur&s;t come into
<HI>Bethel</HI> it &s;elf, a Hou&s;e of Prayer, a place &s;et a part for divine Wor&s;hip; and there with faces harder then flint, out-dare the God and Ma&s;ter of that Hou&s;e, and being Whores, to out face Angels, the Attendants of that Place; when neither the &s;acredne&s;&s;e, nor dreadfulne&s;s of the place, nor my own performance of publique Duties, could &s;afe-guard me from their helli&s;h practi&s;es, (who&s;e only capacity is like <HI>Machiavels</HI> undertakers, to be wicked enough) even then the Angel of the Covenant, who&s;e I am, and whom I &s;erve, &s;tood by me; Then was the grace of the Lord with me, to uphold and &s;upport me; What &s;hall I render to my God for the&s;e his mercies? <HI>I will take the Cup of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord:</HI></P>
<P>The third Mercy to be remembred by us, is the continuance of mutual love, betwixt Mini&s;ter and People; a Divine love doubtle&s;s, becau&s;e la&s;ting unto the end: The reproaches and &s;candals dayly heaped upon me, could never alienate the heart of any one of my hearers, &s;o far, as to a de&s;ertion of me: Mu&s;t we not needs &s;ay, this was the work of God? Love built upon human foundation, is as the foundation it &s;elf, changeable. But here was more then the work of man, God him&s;elf herein owning my in|tegrity, and approving my Doctrine: I look upon all this, as a fruit of that Sacramental love, wherein our foundation was laid at my fir&s;t coming to you: I cannot, as I have de&s;ired, longer &s;erve you in my Preaching yet my Prayers &s;hall never be want|ing for you, to that God, who is love; that for tho&s;e Bowels of love wherewith you have refre&s;hed me, you may finde mercy
<PB N="4" REF="4">in that day when you &s;hall mo&s;t &s;tand in need of it.</P>
<P>But I mu&s;t to my Text: My fir&s;t entrance to you was in love, and the main end of my undertaking here, was this; That among this great people, I might be an In&s;trument of gaining &s;ome poor &s;ouls to God, (God is my Record, I lye not:) I cannot &s;ay but there were &s;ome other Con&s;iderations went along with it, but they were all &s;ub&s;ervient to this: How far I was from that &s;in of Covetou&s;ne&s;s, wherewith the people too much brand the Clergy, and &s;ometimes de&s;ervedly; I appeal to your &s;elves, I ne|ver made any Compact or Covenant with you, upon that ac|count; your offerings have been of free will, and God hath ble&s;&s;ed them: What my Conver&s;ation, and Deportment hath been among&s;t you, notwith&s;tanding the many provocations I have had, I refer to you all; I have not made the Pulpit (where the glory of God, and the riches of Chri&s;t, and the &s;alvation of poor &s;ouls is concerned) a Stage or Theater to act my own parts and pa&s;&s;ions in: I have endeavoured to walk inoffen&s;ive|ly towards God, and towards man: This al&s;o was the Lords work.</P>
<P>Such was my Entrance, and &s;uch hath my progre&s;s been, your Tears do abundantly witne&s;s this day, the &s;ad parting of a Mini|&s;ter and his people, God forgive them (if at lea&s;t it be lawful to pray for them) who have robbed us one of another, where there was &s;o much love, and &s;o much delight in each other, that we have found God delighting in us all, to do us good: We are now come to the Conclu&s;ion, and to that purpo&s;e I have made choice of a plain Text, and I &s;hall &s;peak to it with as much plain|ne&s;s. You have it</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<EPIGRAPH>
<BIBL><HI>ECCLES. 12.13.</HI></BIBL>
<Q><P>Let us hear the Conclu&s;ion of the whole matter; Fear God, and keep his Commandments; this is the whole duty of man.</P></Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>THat <HI>Solomon</HI> the Son of <HI>David,</HI> was the Penman of this Book, I think, is without di&s;pute; the Style is his, and
<PB N="5" REF="4">there was no other Son of <HI>David,</HI> King in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> but he: The di&s;pute is of the Title <HI>Choheleth,</HI> which the Lxx. render <GAP DESC="foreign">: We, the Preacher: and concerning that, there is a double Query. Fir&s;t, Why it is u&s;ed in the Feminine Gender; &s;ome &s;ay the word <HI>Nephe&s;h</HI> is to be under&s;tood, and &s;o it mu&s;t &s;ignifie a Preaching &s;oul: but how that can hold (it being a proper name, and never u&s;ed but in this Book, as <HI>Dru&s;ius</HI> ob&s;erves upon the place) I &s;ee not; Others tell us it is u&s;ual with the Hebrews to put Feminines names upon men; &s;o the Go&s;pel Preachers are called
<HI>Meba&s;eroth, P&s;al.</HI> 68.11. The Lord &s;pake the words, great was the company of Preachers or Publi&s;hers; <HI>Annunciatricum;</HI> But whether they did this to &s;et forth the purity of the Preachers of Chri&s;t, <HI>Prov.</HI> 9.3. Where they are called Wi&s;domes Maids; or tho&s;e <GAP DESC="foreign">, to which the Apo&s;tle relates, <HI>Gal.</HI> 4.19. thereby making out, not only the great Throws, but the tender and motherly af|fection of a faithful Preacher to his people: I &s;hall not now &s;tand to enquire.</P>
<P>But the &s;econd and main Query is, why it is called <HI>Sepher Cho|heleth,</HI> a Book of Gatherings or Congregations: Some will have it to be one of the names of <HI>Solomon;</HI> as
<HI>Jedidiah,</HI> or <HI>Lemuel:</HI> Some &s;ay, becau&s;e it was publiquely delivered by
<HI>Solomon</HI> him&s;elf to the Congregation; and &s;o it is in his Fathers &s;tile, giving God the glory in the great Congregation, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 40.10. We read of his ble&s;&s;ings, prayers and &s;acrifices, 1 <HI>Reg.</HI> 8. here of his preaching; <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Petagl.</HI> up|on the words. <GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> and thus <HI>Schindler</HI> &s;eems to expound it, of a gathering of men; Others will have it &s;o called, from <HI>Solomons</HI> being gathered, or re-uniting him&s;elf after his foul Idolatry and Apo&s;tacy from the Church; and the Book to be the words of a &s;oul or per&s;on brought back to the unity of the Church, or Congregation of the Saints: But I rather think, without any &s;training of the words, it relates to the &s;ubject or matter of the Book. It is a Book of Ob&s;ervations, experimen|tally gathered from Natural, Moral, Political, Dome&s;tical, and Di|vine things: Wi&s;dome is the &s;ouls great Endowment, nothing more precious, more &s;weet, more coveted, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Read Eccl. cap.</HI> 2.</NOTE> e&s;pecially &s;uch as <HI>Solo|mon</HI>'s was; it pur&s;ueth &s;uch high objects as may improve, and not vitiate the intelectuals; yet he tells us what the fruit of of it fre|quently is; helli&s;h policy pride, violence, oppre&s;&s;ion and cruelty, wi&s;edom to do evil: Plea&s;ures &s;uite well with the inferiour and bruti&s;h part of man, but in the exact enjoyment of them, there
<PB N="6" REF="5">is a mixture either of folly or want, they grow in time loath&s;ome and tedious to the po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors; he tells you of buildings and Vine|yards and Orchards, and Fi&s;h-Ponds, and Mu&s;ick, Vocal, and In|&s;trumental; and he concludes upon the &s;urvey, <HI>all is vanity:</HI> Rich|es, the great Idol of the world, the Gold and Silver, the mighty Herds of Cattel, which him&s;elf po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed in abundance; he tells us they are but Snares and Thorns, either to entangle or torment us; gotten with labour, kept with fear, and lo&s;t with &s;orrow: All external forms of wor&s;hip, where Chri&s;t is not in the heart, or not met with in the Ordinance, is no more then a fools Sacrifice; or as the word carrys it, the &s;ervice of hypocritical, light, and un|con&s;tant men: The&s;e and many other gatherings he makes out from his own experience.</P>
<P>After the&s;e di&s;coveries, he pre&s;cribes many excellent rules for the &s;ettlement of the &s;oul, in reference both to its pre&s;ent and fu|ture good: An humble acknowledgment under, and dependance upon, the providence of God, in all events; &s;inglene&s;s and &s;in|cerity of heart&punc; in his wor&s;hip and &s;ervice: The right u&s;e of wi&s;e|dom in di&s;cerning times, and judgments; contentedne&s;&s;e, and &s;weet repo&s;edne&s;s of &s;oul in every condition of life: Obedience and Loyalty to Superiors; Con&s;cientious walking in our particular Callings: Preparedne&s;s of &s;pirit again&s;t all tryals and afflictions; Moderation in the u&s;e of comforts in this life; and preparation through the fear of God, and obedience, for death and judgment, in the words of my Text: Hence he may well be &s;tiled a Gatherer, and his Book a Book of gatherings.</P>
<P>The grand enquiry of the whole Book, is that <HI>Summum Bonum,</HI> that puzzled all our blind Philo&s;ophers; The Preacher here di&s;covers that Stone, that turns all things into Gold, which they have long tired them&s;elves in &s;eeking for, and could never finde to this day. Ob&s;erve I pray you how he begins this Book, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> and how he ends it; He begins it with Vanity of vanities; <HI>All is vanity:</HI> Idols, light, vile, things of naught, as the breath of ones mouth, or the bub|ble in the water, vapours &s;oon vani&s;hing: Vanity of vanities; vain vanity, or extream &s;uperlative vanity: This our fir&s;t Parents &s;aw, and therefore called their &s;econd Son <HI>Hebel,</HI> or vanity; <HI>David</HI> confirms it,
<HI>P&s;al.</HI> 144 4 <HI>Adam</HI> is as <HI>Abel,</HI> or man is like to vani|ty; there is an Allu&s;ion in the Original to both their names: And herein he makes out the in&s;ufficiency and di&s;ability of the Creature,
<PB N="7" REF="5">to confer any true happine&s;&s;e upon the Soul. And &s;econd|ly, ob&s;erve how he ends his book, <HI>Fear God, and keep his Com|mandments,</HI> methinks it is not much unlike to that of Chri&s;t to <HI>Martha;</HI> thou art troubled about many things, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Luke</HI> 10.41, 42.</NOTE> but one thing is needfull, <HI>Mary</HI> hath cho&s;en the good part, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> He begins you &s;ee, with nothing, he ends with all things; he &s;hews us what our fir&s;t e&s;tate is, an ob&s;ervance of lying vanities, and for&s;aking our own mercies, he &s;hews us what our be&s;t e&s;tate is; <HI>Fear God, &amp;c.</HI> We begin at Idols, and vanity, and never know what our beginning was, till we come to this end, never know that we are vain, till we arrive at the true fear of God.</P>
<P>My dear people, whom I love and mu&s;t ever love in the bowels of Chri&s;t Je&s;us, and mu&s;t ever call you &s;o, though now unhappily torn from you, let not my words this day fall to the ground, lay them up in your hearts; let it &s;uffice that you have &s;pent your time pa&s;t, in vanities and Idols, things of emptine&s;s and torment; let us not be like the people of tho&s;e countries, that what&s;oever they chance to &s;ee fir&s;t every morning, they wor&s;hip &s;olemnly all the day after; if &s;in have had the morning, let the evening be Gods, it is time we &s;hould come home to that only true happine&s;s the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t: Content not your &s;elves with any outward ble&s;&s;ings til you be &s;ure you injoy him to the Salvation of your &s;ouls: other excellencies may &s;et you out in the eys of men, genero&s;ity, obli|gingne&s;&s;e, wi&s;edom, learning, valour, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> every one of the&s;e, is &s;uf|ficient to be a &s;ober mans Idol, render a man prai&s;e worthy, but it is Chri&s;t only that makes us ble&s;&s;ed; other ble&s;&s;ings you may injoy and peri&s;h with them, but he that injoys Chri&s;t by true faith,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ioh.</HI> 3.16.</NOTE> &s;hall never peri&s;h, but hath everla&s;ting life.</P>
<P>The Text is <HI>Solomons</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, after a &s;olicitous inquiry, or the trea&s;ure of true happine&s;&s;e di&s;covered; it is in it &s;elf an exhortation or a duty, you may call it whether you plea&s;e, the &s;ub&s;tance is the &s;ame: There is not any thing remarkable in the Preface, &s;ave that in the Original it begins with a Capital Letter, as pointing out &s;ome high &s;ubject, and &s;tirring up the more &s;erious attention to the mat|ter in hand; which indeed, rightly weighed, is an <HI>Epitome</HI> of the whole Go&s;pel: Would you know after my long ob&s;ervations, what you are to tru&s;t to? What is the &s;um and &s;ub&s;tance of the whole matter; Where true and durable felicity may be found? It is in this, <HI>Fear God and keep his Commandments:</HI> without this, man
<PB N="8" REF="6">is but as one calls him, <HI>prae&s;tanti&s;&s;imum brutum;</HI> which puts me in mind of that &s;aying, <HI>Job</HI> 28.28. where the holy man concludes his &s;peech, as the Preacher here doth his book, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wi&s;edom, and to depart from evil, is under&s;tand|ing; man then becomes wi&s;e when he fears God, when Chri&s;t the wi&s;edom of the fatheres dwels in him.</P>
<P>We &s;hall not need, neither did I ever love to name a Text, the conclu&s;ion ri&s;eth plainly and naturally from it: <HI>To fear God and keep his Commandments, is the whole duty of man;</HI> or as it is in the Hebrew, the whole man, and &s;o the LXX render it, <GAP DESC="foreign">; where the true fear of God is once planted, it carries the whole man with it, &s;pirit, &s;oul, and body, guides and directs the whole man, rectifies and reforms the whole man; it is all in all, and through all, &s;ets a price and worth upon the whole man in this life, and crowns and glorifies the whole man in the life to come.</P>
<P>There is a natural fear ari&s;ing from the &s;en&s;e of humane weak|ne&s;&s;e, which is not in it &s;elf &s;infull; we have examples of it in the Saints, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> yea, and in Chri&s;t him&s;elf, <HI>Mat.</HI> 26.38. <HI>Heb.</HI> 5.7. he was heard in that he feared, which though the Rhemi&s;ts tran&s;late for his reverence, and charge us with the corrupting of the Text contrary to the ver&s;ion and &s;en&s;e of Antiquity, and the ordinary u&s;e of the Greek words; yet I find it, &s;ignifying as well a natural as a pious fear,
<HI>Acts</HI> 23.10. where a commotion being rai&s;ed, the chief Captain or Tribune, is &s;aid to be <GAP DESC="foreign">, afraid le&s;t <HI>Paul</HI> &s;hould be torn in pieces, which could not be a pious fear in him that was a Pagan, but a natural civil fear, le&s;t a Roman, a Pri&s;oner, and under his pre&s;ent charge &s;hould have been violently and tu|multuou&s;ly murthered between the Phari&s;ees and the Sadduces.</P>
<P N="2">2. There is a carnal fear, I may call it a fear of diffidence, be|cau&s;e ari&s;ing from unbelief, <NOTE PLACE="marg">Apoc. 21.8 <HI>They are liable to the &s;econd death, and joined with unbe|leevers.</HI></NOTE> the Apo&s;tles are called <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>Mat,</HI> 8.26. carnally fearfull, &s;o the word &s;ignifies, if you look <HI>Revel.</HI> 21.8. and why? becau&s;e
<GAP DESC="foreign">, they were of little faith; and this fear is directly &s;infull, when we fear the creature more then the Creator, ble&s;&s;ed for ever. This is that fear the Lord &s;peaks of
<HI>I&s;a.</HI> 8.12. <HI>Fear not their fear;</HI> and our ble&s;&s;ed Saviour, <HI>Luke</HI>
12.4, 5. <HI>Fear not them that kill the body, &amp;c.</HI> And though this fear may have, and frequently hath, natural weaknes for its foundation, yet it is only then &s;infull, where nature outvies grace, and &s;elf in|tere&s;ts are more valued then the glory of God: I deny not but there
<PB N="9" REF="6">is a fear due to man upon Gods account, <HI>Rom.</HI> 13.6. <HI>Fear to whom fear, &amp;c.</HI> there is a reverence due to the per&s;ons, and a regard to be had to the Laws of men: But God being alone the proper object of our fear, makes that fear which is due to man, due to him only, in, and for the Lord, who&s;e image he beareth in a more high and eminent manner, by vertue of &s;ome Authority or digni|ty derived to him from God, who is the Fountain of honour, and who&s;e &s;ole propriety it is to ordain powers, the words implying both invention and ratification, <HI>Rom.</HI> 13.1. the Powers that be, are ordained of God.</P>
<P N="3">3. There is a &s;piritual fear, and that is a filial, reverential fear of God, ari&s;ing partly from a &s;en&s;e of want in our &s;elves (which fear commonly &s;uppo&s;eth) and partly from the apprehen&s;ion of Gods excellency, not in his greatne&s;&s;e only, but al&s;o in its goodne&s;&s;e: <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> This is that fear which keeps the whole man in a religious re&s;pect, a holy dreadfulne&s;&s;e, a &s;weet dependance upon God, that com|mands him to walk as in the pre&s;ence of God, that his whole con|ver&s;ation &s;eems one undi&s;continued holy and religious adoration; take that one example of <HI>Jo&s;eph Gen.</HI> 30. This is that we call the grace of fear; the affection of fear is in all men naturally, but the grace of the fear of God, is a part of Sanctification, and is not found but in the elect: natural and carnal fear betray the &s;uccours of the &s;oul, but this &s;trengthens and confirms it: I call it &s;piritual, fir&s;t from the Object, which is God; &s;econd, from the efficient or working cau&s;e of this fear, which is the Spirit of God, called there|fore the &s;pirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, <HI>I&s;ay</HI> 11.2. Thirdly, from the Subject, the inward or &s;piritual man, hence is the fear of God inward and &s;piritual, the wor&s;hip of the mind, the heart, the con&s;cience, will, and affections, all hereby carried out to God. Fourthly, From that &s;piritual work or effect it hath upon the &s;oul, &s;piritualizing and &s;anctifying both our &s;elves and our &s;acri|fices, changing the whole man, from a carnal, worldly, &s;en&s;ual, &s;elfi&s;h intere&s;t, to a holy, heavenly, &s;piritual frame of heart.</P>
<P>Now this &s;piritual fear may either be taken generally, and &s;o it includes all graces and gracious di&s;po&s;itions of &s;pirit: As faith in|cludes all Evangelical graces in the New-Te&s;tament, &s;o doth the fear of God in the Old, compare <HI>Prov.</HI> 13.14. with
<HI>Prov.</HI> 14.27. Or el&s;e more particularly, for that &s;ingle grace, whereby the Soul is over-awed with the excellencies of God, the greatne&s;&s;e of God,
<PB N="10" REF="7">working the fear of him, as a Judge; and the goodne&s;&s;e of God, working the &s;ame fear as a father.</P>
<P>It would be a task too large for the &s;mall time I have to &s;pend, to run through all the branches, properties, and effects of this fear: I &s;hall now &s;peak only to a few of them, and tho&s;e the mo&s;t u&s;eful for you, in reference to the pre&s;ent times, and your pre&s;ent wants; there are no words like tho&s;e in due &s;ea&s;on, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Pro.</HI> 25.11</NOTE> or upon their wheels; you &s;hall have them without nicene&s;&s;e or affectation (the common itch of the Pulpit) according to my wonted manner, with all plain|ne&s;&s;e; plain in&s;tructions be&s;t be&s;eem a dying father, and are the be&s;t remembred by his children; I &s;hall now wave all other ac|counts, and pre&s;ent it to you as a New-years gift, a rich Ring &s;et with precious &s;tones, which I &s;hall de&s;ire may be continually worn, and carried about with you.</P>
<P>And fir&s;t, to fear God, is to have faith in him; a precious &s;tone: this is called by <HI>St. Peter</HI> precious faith; without this we can nei|ther fear him nor plea&s;e him.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>Pet.</HI> 1.1</NOTE> What the Apo&s;tle &s;aies, <HI>Rom.</HI> 10.14. how &s;hall they call on him, in whom they have not beleeved? the like we may &s;ay of other graces, how can we either love or &s;erve, or fear, or glorifie God, except we believe in him? it was faith that made <HI>Enoch</HI>'s work acceptable, and was the ground of the tran&s;lating there &s;poken of whether the <GAP DESC="foreign">, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Heb.</HI> 11.5.</NOTE> mean exemp|tion from death, as <HI>Elias</HI> is &s;aid to have been under the Moral Law, or &s;ome other deliverance, it matters not, certainly it was through faith the Embleme of the Go&s;pel; it is &s;ometimes called the mouth and the ear, <NOTE PLACE="marg">Crede &amp; mandu ca|&s;ti, Augu&s;t
<GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> but mo&s;t properly the eye of the Soul; hereby we &s;ee through the things of this world, and above them, we meet with an object worth our loving and looking on: we &s;ee Chri&s;t, and God in Chri&s;t, and in him mercy, peace, &s;alvation; we look out of our &s;elves, <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.2. and meet with Go&s;pel truth, righteou&s;|ne&s;&s;e, in another, a Surety, a Mediator; we &s;ee the brazen Serpent that cures out wounded &s;ouls, <HI>John</HI> 3.14. therefore the words here u&s;ed for fear, is by the LXX. in the &s;eventh ver&s;e of this Chapter, rendred <HI>to &s;ee;</HI> noting, that to fear God and have faith in him, is to &s;ee God; and beyond rea&s;on to have an in-&s;ight into tho&s;e My|&s;teries, which were denyed to the Angels, 2
<HI>Pet.</HI> 1.12. As the eye in the body is the Organ by which we &s;ee things vi&s;ible, &s;o is faith in the &s;oul, to &s;ee the things of God; hereby we peep through the Curtains of earth and mortality, and take a view of Heavens
<PB N="11" REF="7">Trea&s;ures: Hence come our great priviledges, <HI>union with Chri&s;t, Eph.</HI> 3.17. and con&s;equently, an intimate and familiar commu|nion with him in his promi&s;es, Son&s;hip, Victories, Interce&s;&s;ions: Faith is that &s;piritual Ligament that makes us one with Chri&s;t; Other graces, as Love, Patience, Meekne&s;s, <HI>&amp;c</HI> may be the grounds of a moral Union; and make a man like Chri&s;t, but it is faith only that is the foundation of a my&s;tical Union, and makes a Beleever one with Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>I do not intend to in&s;i&s;t upon the Nature, Properties and Effects of Faith. I have heretofore made them out to you: My pre&s;ent Task relates to the pre&s;ent times, and your-both pre&s;ent and future benefit: There is not any grace more di&s;e&s;teemed and mi&s;e&s;teemed &s;lighted, and mi&s;-judged, then this branch of Divine fear: Let me therefore commend to you, two main Remembrances to be trea|&s;ured up by you, when your eyes &s;hall be deprived of your Teacher.</P>
<P>And Fir&s;t, I would advi&s;e you, ever to &s;et a high e&s;teem upon this grace to look upon it as the mo&s;t glorious Stone in the Ring: The re&s;t have their lu&s;ter, this is both re&s;plendent and medicinal, heals broken &s;ouls; It is no wonder if St. <HI>Jude</HI> give it the prehe|minence, &s;ince it is both the leading grace, and brings the fir&s;t glad tidings of &s;alvation; and al&s;o the Mother grace, whence all others have their birth and original: Without this what are all our works and duties, but as we &s;ay of the vertues of Heathens, <HI>Splendida peccata?</HI> Where faith is not layd as the foundation, all our devotions, acts of piety, charity, ob&s;ervance of Sabbaths, Or|dinances; nay, that great performance of Prayer, are but like that &s;tructure built on the &s;and, <HI>Mat.</HI> 7.26. Without this we can no more appear before the Tribunal of Gods ju&s;tice, then &s;tubble before a con&s;uming fire: In the word, it is faith that mu&s;t make us profitable, in obedience it is faith that mu&s;t make us cheerful; in prayer it is faith that makes us &s;ucce&s;sfull; and in all perform|ances it is faith that makes us acceptable: This is that wi&s;edome, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Job</HI> 28.16, 17, 18, 19. <GAP DESC="foreign"> 1 Pet. 1.8.</NOTE> the price whereof is above Rubies, the Topaze of <HI>Ethiopia</HI> cannot equal it, it cannot be valued with pure Gold: This will give com|fort, joy, and peace under all di&s;tractions, make the &s;oul skip like a Lambe, leap and dance for joy: Other divine qualifications may make you confident, but it is faith only that mu&s;t give you your a&s;&s;urance: There cannot be &s;uch an aba&s;ement where faith will
<PB N="12" REF="8">not lift up the head, and render you victorious: Ju&s;tice gives eve|ry man his own; temperance will re&s;train lu&s;ts; magnanimity will bear, and go through any hard&s;hip, prudence is an excellent guide to our actions, but it is faith that overcometh the world: in this
<HI>Paul</HI> in&s;ults and triumphs over men and Angels, Heaven and Earth, <HI>Rom.</HI> 8.38, 39.
<GAP DESC="foreign">, I am confident or per&s;waded <HI>That neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>&s;hall be able to &s;eparate us from the love of God, which is in Chri&s;t Je&s;us our Lord.</HI></P>
<P>You will have a better heart, both to the price and the e&s;teem of it, if you &s;eriou&s;ly advi&s;e with the&s;e con&s;iderations: The Au|thor: The Offices; and the Effects of it.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Look upon it as Gods gift, from whom every good and perfect gift cometh, as a fruit of his Spirit, <HI>Gal.</HI> 5.22. This will make it excellent and lovely: Let us a little view it in that great intere&s;t of our &s;ouls, the high act of ju&s;tification; we &s;hall there finde it to ju&s;tifie, <NOTE PLACE="marg">Infunden|do creat creando infundit.</NOTE> not as mans faith, but as the work of God in in the &s;oul: It is an excellent place, <HI>Eph.</HI> 2.8. <HI>By grace ye are &s;a|ved through faith, and that not of your &s;elves, it is the gift of God;</HI> faith may be in us, but it is not of us; that is, not from any power of our own, but it is a meer gift of God, both in the habit, and in the act of it: Ju&s;tification is is a free Act, of, and from eternity, without any condition on our parts: and that Evangelical righte|ou&s;ne&s;s by which we are ju&s;tified, is without us in Chri&s;t: It is the finger of God that works faith in the &s;oul, and having wrought it, puts it upon acting, thereby to evidence ju&s;tification to the &s;oul. As a father having layd up for his &s;on a great Trea&s;ure, in &s;ome &s;ecret place, tells him of it, and be&s;tows it freely upon him, but wanting the po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion and enjoyment of it, the &s;on is no rich|er for it, till the father lights a Torch, guides his &s;on to the hid|den Trea&s;ure, and puts him into the actual po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of it: Thus is Faith Gods In&s;trument, by which he di&s;covers to our &s;ouls the unvaluable riches of Chri&s;t (which in the minds and purpo&s;e of the Donor was ours from Eternity) and evidenceth us to be freely ju&s;tified, lending us that light of faith, whereby we apprehend, enjoy and apply Chri&s;t to our &s;ouls: It is called the evidence of things not &s;een, <HI>Heb.</HI> 11.1. Who&s;e evidence? Gods evidence gi|ven us, by which he declareth and manife&s;teth to our con&s;ciences tho&s;e <GAP DESC="foreign">, the invi&s;ible things of our ju&s;tification and &s;alvation,
<PB N="13" REF="8">and when given, it is our evidence al&s;o, by which we po&s;&s;e&s;s Chri&s;t, and pleads our actual ju&s;tification again&s;t all the accu&s;ations of the Law, &s;in and Satan, then we have the witne&s;&s;e in our &s;elves, 1 <HI>Joh.</HI> 5.10. <GAP DESC="foreign">, Gods witne&s;s; &s;o it is &s;ometimes read, witne&s;&s;ing to our &s;pirits, that we are the children of God, we are ju&s;tified freely by his grace, <HI>Rom.</HI> 3.24: The word <GAP DESC="foreign"> there, an&s;wering to the Hebrew <HI>Chinnam,</HI> excluding all, both hope of ad|vantage on Gods part, and preceding de&s;ert in man, upon any account whether of faith or works, excluding as well merit as re|wards; hereby intimating, that all our works are the works of God in us; yea faith it &s;elf in that great and high Act of ju&s;tifying, is Gods gift: I have here made a little digre&s;&s;ion to acquaint you with the excellency of this grace, that you may &s;et a higher value upon it, not only becau&s;e it is Gods gift, but &s;o high and precious a gift of his right hand, whereby he gives us an intere&s;t to Chri&s;t, and all his promi&s;es, and evidenceth eternal life to our &s;ouls.</P>
<P N="2">2. Con&s;ider the Offices of faith (which be&s;ides union to, and communion with Chri&s;t formerly named) are the&s;e two: Fir&s;t, ac|ceptance; wherby we are made willing to receive Chri&s;t upon Chri&s;ts own terms; what his terms are he him&s;elf tells you, <HI>Luke</HI> 9.23.
<HI>If any man will come after me, he mu&s;t deny him&s;elf and take up his Cro&s;&s;e daily, and follow me:</HI> This is the receiving act of faith, and is therfore called the hand of the Soul, not for its working quality purifying the heart, reviving the dead &s;pirit, working by love, carrying the Soul through all di&s;couragements; the&s;e are indeed the works of faith, but for its receiving and accepting quality, accepting righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e in Chri&s;t, receiving him as a gift of his fathers love, imbracing the promi&s;es afar off, and laying hold on eternal life: The working righ|teou&s;ne&s;&s;e is Chri&s;ts, the Office or act of faith, is accepting, applying, receiving, yeelding con&s;ent to that righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e.</P>
<P>The other Office or Act, of Faith, is re&s;ignation, whereby we give our &s;elves wholly up to Chri&s;t, &s;pirit, &s;oul, and body, to be gui|ded and bya&s;&s;ed by him, this is that &s;piritual marriage, <HI>Eph.</HI> 5.17. betwixt Chri&s;t and the Soul, by which, as the &s;oul hath a proprie|ty and right to the body, name, goods, table, po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions and pur|cha&s;e of Chri&s;t; &s;o &s;he doth reciprocally become all his, by an un|con&s;trained re&s;ignation of her will, ways, and de&s;ires, unto his guidance and government; we become the &s;ervants of Chri&s;t to be ruled, as well as to be aided and protected by him; then doth
<PB N="14" REF="9">Chri&s;t own us, and he &s;tands ingaged to watch over and care for us: Then mu&s;t the Soul have all Chri&s;t, and Chri&s;t the whole &s;oul, no &s;haring, no competition with any lu&s;t, but Je&s;us Chri&s;t becomes all in all to us, and we are made willing to follow the Lamb whi|ther &s;oever he goeth.</P>
<P N="3">3. Con&s;ider the admirable vertues or effects of faith, this al&s;o will help to put a high e&s;teem upon it. Faith di&s;&s;olves the Plots of all our &s;piritual enemies, it will give you a conque&s;t over &s;in, the Divel, and the World, it will quicken your &s;ouls, <HI>Gal.</HI>
2.20. <HI>San|ctifie and Purifie your hearts,</HI> Acts 15.9. hereby you &s;hall obtain whatever you &s;tand in need of, and God hath promi&s;ed; it will bear you up in all dangers, di&s;couragements, de&s;ertions, deaths; hereby you &s;hall &s;tand, live, walk, be &s;aved,
<HI>&amp;c.</HI> this will bring you to God, to whom no man comes but by Chri&s;t, nor to Chri&s;t, but by faith. I could be large in the&s;e things, if I had not formerly made them out to you: The Lord bring them home to the hearts of every one of you: This is the fir&s;t main remembrance; To have a high and precious e&s;teem of Faith.</P>
<P>Secondly, I would advi&s;e you ever to have a right judgment of Faith; Every fancy in the&s;e days is pretended for faith and light; and the &s;oul ea&s;ily mi&s;takes pre&s;umption or credulity for this great grace: therefore it will much concern you to know, and ever to remember, that is not a bare acknowledgment or a&s;&s;ent to di|vine truths, and the promi&s;es of Chri&s;t, as the Socinians would have it, but an application or clo&s;ing with Chri&s;t in tho&s;e truths and promi&s;es; for not the promi&s;es of Chri&s;t barely, but the per|&s;on of Chri&s;t, is the object of faith: It is a re&s;ting upon <HI>Jehovah,</HI> a rolling a mans &s;elf upon God; as one tired under his burthen, ca&s;ts both him&s;elf and his burthen upon &s;omething that &s;u&s;tains it.
<HI>Prov.</HI> 3.5. <HI>I&s;ai.</HI> 10.20. As <HI>Saul</HI> tired with fighting, leaned upon his Spear, 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 1.6. I do not mean in this place, that inferiour Act of faith, the tru&s;ting God with our temporal well being (though even this be a beleevers prerogative, and makes all tho&s;e dreams and wi&s;hes of the old Philo&s;ophers, the <HI>Scepticks,</HI>
<GAP DESC="foreign">, and <GAP DESC="foreign">; the <HI>Stoicks,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">; and the
<HI>Epicures,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, to become the reality and acqui&s;ition of a Chri&s;tian, a holy Epicuri&s;m, which faith, and only faith furni&s;heth us with) but I mean that faith which clo&s;es with the blood of Chri&s;t, for eternal life and &s;alvation: There is an excellent place in <HI>Rom</HI> 10.10, where
<PB N="7" REF="9">man is &s;aid to beleeve with the heart, noting that it is not a bare clo&s;ing with divine truths in our under&s;tandings; Jews and Devils will do that, but a con&s;ent or walking up to the goodne&s;s of God in Chri&s;t, whereby he is loved above all things, longed for, and tru&s;ted to above all things, becomes food, rayment, life, all things to us: And this you mu&s;t look upon as Gods work too, None can thus clo&s;e with him, but they who&s;e hearts the Lord openeth. <NOTE PLACE="marg">Acts 16.</NOTE></P>
<P>Before I pa&s;s this Branch of divine fear, there is one thing I would put you in mind of; it will much help your judgment of faith, and it is this; That true faith is ever waited on with &s;elf de|nial; where this is not, there is no faith nor fear of God; <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">. <HI>Luke</HI> 9.23.</NOTE> Faith carries with it an <HI>Abdication,</HI> not only of natural but &s;piritual &s;elf; the &s;oul findes vanity and nothingne&s;&s;e, not in rea&s;on only, but in duty al&s;o without Chri&s;t: In <HI>Jo&s;ephs</HI> vi&s;ion, the Sun, Moon,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Gene&s;is</HI> 37</NOTE> and Stars, did obey&s;ance to him, and all the &s;heaves in the field, bowed to his &s;heafe: In the &s;oul, life, way and work of a rege|nerate man, all moral abilities and endowments, all natural powers and faculties of the &s;oul; nay, all &s;upernatural gifts and graces pro&s;trate them&s;elves at the feet of Chri&s;t: Then will the &s;oul follow Chri&s;t in the knowledge of his will, in the belief of his promi&s;es, in the love of his truth, in the obedi|ence of his commands, then wilt thou lay a&s;ide thine own wi&s;|dom as an empty Lamp, thine own will as an evil commander; thine own rea&s;on as a fal&s;e rule; thine own affections as corrupt Coun&s;ellors; thine own ends as ba&s;e and corrupt marks to be aim|ed at:
<HI>Not a hoof &s;hall be left in Aegypt,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Exo.</HI> 10.26</NOTE> thou wilt empty thy &s;elf, that thou may&s;t be capable of Chri&s;t, go out of thy &s;elf, that thou may&s;t come to Chri&s;t: Chri&s;t will reign as that Centurion, <HI>Mat</HI> 8.8, 9. come or go, the poor heart is ready for him; take away this, your faith is no more then a pretence, a &s;elf flattery; you mu&s;t go quite out of your &s;elves, before you can enjoy a Sa|viour: The LXX. have not ca&s;t <HI>Adam</HI> into a &s;leep (as the Hebrew Text) but into an <GAP DESC="foreign">,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Gen.</HI> 2.21.</NOTE> a being hurried out of him&s;elf to make him capable of an helper; if you &s;hall not meet with this upon in|quiry into your own &s;pirits, your faith is naught, and all your &s;er|vice and wor&s;hip of God, and affront to your Redeemer, or to give it the be&s;t language, plain Phari&s;ai&s;m and Hypocri&s;ie, and God will one day ca&s;t all your duties as dung and dirt in your faces and &s;ay, <HI>Who required the&s;e things at your hand?</HI> The Lord
<PB N="16" REF="10">give you &s;elf-denying hearts; The Lord encrea&s;e faith in every one of you: This is the fir&s;t Jewel or Stone in the Ring: He that fears God, beleeves in him.</P>
<P>To fear God, is to wait on him and for him, an excellent and u&s;eful Lecture, frequently inculcated by the Prophet in the P&s;alms, as a fruit of the true fear of God; he doubles his expre&s;&s;i|on, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 27.14. Wait on the Lord, wait I &s;ay on the Lord: He joyns waiting upon God, and keeping his way, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 37.34. Ob|&s;erve what high promi&s;es the Scripture makes to this waiting: <HI>Im|munity from &s;hame,</HI> P&s;al. 25.3. <HI>The inheritance of the earth,</HI> P&s;al. 37.9 <HI>Renewing of &s;trength, mounting up with wings as Eagles, &amp;c.</HI> I&s;. 40.31 <HI>New &s;upplies of &s;pirit,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> when they &s;eem to be quite &s;pent and lo&s;t, a change to be better conditioned, flying over all difficulties they meet with; <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>I&s;a.</HI>
40.31.</NOTE> deliverance from enemies, <HI>Prov.</HI> 20.22. <HI>The fulfil|ing the de&s;ires of our hearts,</HI> &amp;c.</P>
<P>But how or wherein you &s;hould wait upon God, and expre&s;s your true fear of him, is my task now to acquaint you: Much of this I &s;hall from my own experience commend to you, and I hope you will not forget my words another day; They will be of great u&s;e to you: Wait upon God in his ways, and wait upon him in his time: I cannot commend any thing more advantagious to you, whether you look at the pre&s;ent di&s;tempers and di&s;tractions of the world, or the future comfort and &s;ettlement of your &s;pirits upon all accounts.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, wait upon him in his own ways, the ways of his Ordinan|ces, and the ways of his Di&s;pen&s;ations: Fir&s;t in the ways of his Ordinances, in hearing the word, attending at the Gates of Wi&s;|dome, in the honour and u&s;e of the Sacrament, in prayer, and other Divine In&s;titutions: This is the way Chri&s;t hath pre&s;cribed and in all ages wonderfully ble&s;&s;ed to his Church: I have experi|mentally found it in my &s;elf, and to my great comfort have had the acknowledgment of it from many of you, by, and under my Mini&s;try: The&s;e are the Channels of grace, the Conduit-pipes by which God conveys him&s;elf, and the waters of life to his people; here will your &s;ouls meet with God, and finde the enjoyment of him, and the due ob&s;ervation of them is a &s;trong Te&s;t of your obe|dience: I know that after my departure, you will meet with Fox|es and Wolves, &s;ome crying down all Ordinances, as things car|nal, and below a &s;piritual and rai&s;ed e&s;tate; they will tell you they are weak and low admini&s;trations, no more then walking by Moon
<PB N="17" REF="10">light; they will tell you that Seraphical men, are above: and be|yond all Ordinances, and their Enthu&s;ia&s;ms of greater concern|ment then the Ordinances of Chri&s;t: you will meet on the other hand with tho&s;e, who &s;o far cry up Ordinances, that they make Idols of them, &s;lighting him who is the &s;ub&s;tance, men of Phari&s;aical Spirits and Intere&s;ts, who while they &s;hould preach Chri&s;t and him crucified, will preach them&s;elves, their own parts, pa&s;&s;ions and intere&s;ts, whereby you may probably be made weary both of them and their preaching: My ever dear people, let none of the&s;e things drive you from the Church of God, or deter or di&s;courage you from following Chri&s;t in tho&s;e ways he hath pre|&s;cribed; let it be your care to wait on him: I have known &s;ome who taking offence at the&s;e things (<HI>wo in the mean time to him by whom the offence cometh</HI>) have in the&s;e times declined either to Po|pery or Athei&s;m; I be&s;eech God ble&s;&s;e you: I hope better things of you, and &s;hould be heartily grieved to &s;ee &s;uch &s;ad failings in any of you: I have two things to commend to you in this Point, for your better &s;atisfaction.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Re&s;t not in a bare formal attendance upon the Ordinance. The Harlot can &s;ay, I have made my peace offerings to day, the Ordinance is but the means, the end is Communion with Chri&s;t, and fruition of him: The Jews promi&s;ed them&s;elves much from the naked pre&s;ence of the Temple,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ier.</HI> 7.4.</NOTE> though they had but &s;mall honour for the Lord of it:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Iudges</HI> 17.13.</NOTE> <HI>Micah</HI> promi&s;ed him&s;elf mountains when he had got a <HI>Levite</HI> to be his Prie&s;t, though he &s;till retained his Idols: The Phari&s;ees boa&s;ted they were the &s;eed of <HI>Abraham,</HI> when they did the works of the
<HI>Devil;</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ioh.</HI> 8.33.44.</NOTE> How many poor &s;ouls have thus turned the means of &s;alvation into the means of de&s;truction, feeds upon busks in&s;tead of the true bread: nay turned their food into por&s;on, not finding Chri&s;t in the Ordinances, nor being led home to Chri&s;t by them? My good people, think it not enough that you hav<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter"> <HI>Geheza</HI> with his ma&s;ters &s;taff; that you have Chri&s;ts Mini&s;ter, and Chri&s;ts word, but as that Shunamite, <NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>King</HI>
4.30.</NOTE> lay hold on Chri&s;t him|&s;elf, where every faithful &s;oul &s;ees, ca&s;ts, receives, enjoys in the&s;e Ordinances.</P>
<P>Secondly, when thou ha&s;t done thy be&s;t and pure&s;t &s;ervice, and met with Chri&s;t in the Ordinances, re&s;t not in the work done, loath your&s;elves, with a &s;incere acknowledgment of your own|unworthine&s;&s;e, and the unprofitablene&s;&s;e, imperfections and ini|quities of your mo&s;t holy things, ever re&s;ting upon free-grace:
<PB N="18" REF="11">Be &s;o careful of duty, as if there were no grace to ju&s;tifie you, and &s;o re&s;t upon grace, as if no work were to be done by you.</P>
<P>And then &s;econdly, wait upon God in the ways of his provi|dence and di&s;pen&s;ations, this is that excellent grace, a fruit of the &s;anctifying &s;pirit of God, whereby the &s;oul freely &s;ubmits not to the will only, but to the wi&s;dom of God, in all the cro&s;&s;e acts of Providence we meet with in this life, enabling us to bear our own burthens without inordinate &s;orrow, or fretting di&s;content: As by faith we injoy God, and by love we injoy our neighbour; &s;o through humble waiting, and &s;ubmi&s;&s;ion to the wi&s;edom of God, we po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e our own &s;ouls; This is an excellent le&s;&s;on, but hard for fle&s;h and blood to learn, to beleeve that God can chu&s;e be&s;t for us, better then we our &s;elves: Are not <HI>Abanah</HI> and
<HI>Parphar</HI> Rivers of <HI>Dama&s;cus,</HI> better then all the Waters of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> 2
<HI>R<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">g</HI> 5.12. Kinds of age, a few fatherly ki&s;&s;es and imbraces, a portion in my hand, this nature cries out for, and would be well pleas'd with; but the &s;oul that fears God, hath learned with <HI>Paul,</HI> to be content in every condition of life, hath learned that &s;ublime Phylo&s;ophy of &s;ub&s;cri|bing to Gods wi&s;edom, not to his will only (that he will force us to, and he is a kind of mad Athei&s;t that &s;hould deny it) but to his wi&s;edom, to acknowledge God the be&s;t chu&s;er for us, the &s;tripes he &s;ends more &s;uitable to us, then all the ble&s;&s;ings we pray for, his denying our demands, the mo&s;t divine way of granting them, re|&s;olving whatever he impo&s;es upon us, is be&s;t for us: his thoughts are not like our thoughts, Heaven and Earth are not alwaies of one opinion; <HI>Good is the Word of the Lord,</HI> &s;ays good <HI>Hezekiah,</HI> when de&s;truction was denounced to his whole family: <HI>It is the Lord Iet him do what &s;eemeth him good,</HI> &s;ays old
<HI>Eli,</HI> when be&s;ides the lo&s;&s;e of both his children in one day, God tells him,
<HI>there &s;hould not be an old man in his hou&s;e for ever: All things</HI> (&s;aith
<HI>Paul</HI>) <HI>work together for good to them that love God:</HI> This &s;ubmi&s;&s;ion to the Wi&s;dom of God, and the con&s;equent of it, <HI>Rejoycing in Tri|bulation,</HI> is that waiting upon God, which I would now in&s;truct you in, that better days may teach you humblene&s;&s;e, which is a part of this fear, <HI>Prov.</HI> 22.4. and wor&s;er days may teach you that Chri&s;tian patience, whereby you &s;hall be inabled to undergo the hands of heaven, to look after deliverance in the ways, and accept it upon the terms of God.</P>
<P>My dear people, you are my glory, and crown of rejoycing, let me commend the &s;erious remembrance of this to your Spirit; It
<PB N="19" REF="11">was never of more u&s;e then in the&s;e times of the Churches per&s;ecuti|on: You &s;hall &s;ee men &s;trangely and &s;everally wre&s;tling and tug|ging under Gods Di&s;pen&s;ations: In one man a &s;upine &s;tupidity; in another the relieving his melancholy thoughts in a cup of Lethe, a &s;leeping Pill of good fellow&s;hip; like <HI>Sauls</HI> &s;ending to the Min&s;trel when the evil &s;pirit came upon him, or his &s;econd addre&s;s to the Witch, to charm the judgment that was ready to invade him; you &s;hall &s;ee a third multiplying his &s;ins as fa&s;t as God his judgments, like the Elephants in the <HI>Maccabees,</HI> whom the blood of the Mulberies more enraged, hardning like <HI>Pharaoh</HI> under the rod; like <HI>Ahab,</HI> and
<HI>Ahaz,</HI> growing wor&s;e under the judgment: you will meet with more plau&s;ible effects then the&s;e, in one, a contempt of the world, his experience having acquainted him with the vanity, and his mi&s;eries with the vexation of it; In another, perhaps a contempt or weari|ne&s;&s;e of his life, like a di&s;contented <HI>Jonah; Take, I be&s;eech thee my life from me;</HI> or
<HI>Elias</HI> under the Juniper Tree, <HI>it is enough,</HI> &amp;c. and this is &s;ometimes accounted a &s;pecial piece of piety and mortificati|on: A third falls to his prayers, oftner then u&s;ual, and is importunate in the duty, as the tempe&s;t in <HI>Jonah</HI> ca&s;t the Heathen Mariners <HI>upon</HI> their knees; A fourth making &s;ome progre&s;s towards reformation, wi&s;hings and wouldings, that he were a better man, but all the&s;e make not up this breach of divine fear, this true waiting upon God, and &s;ubmi&s;&s;ion to his wi&s;dom: I &s;hall now de&s;ire for your future good to commend the&s;e In&s;tructions to you.</P>
<P N="1">1. Be &s;ure to eye God in all his di&s;pen&s;ations, whether of mer|cy or judgement, for all mercies &s;piritual and temporal return thanks to him from whom every good and perfect gift cometh, as a Pre&s;ent both to humblene&s;&s;e and thankfulne&s;&s;e; but that which I would now commend to you, is, the eying of God in the &s;everal di&s;pen&s;ations of his judgements; who&s;oever be the in&s;trument, look upon him as the author of the puni&s;hment; there is the hand and coun&s;el of God, <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>Acts</HI> 4.28. All the &s;in and furies, guilt and dam|nation of Hell, may be in the <GAP DESC="foreign">, the doing or executing Gods Will (<HI>Satan</HI> alone having the Patent of per&s;ecution, and every Per|&s;ecutor intrenching upon Hell for his Commi&s;&s;ion) but then all the mercy, and all wi&s;edom, &s;ometimes the redeeming of a World in the <GAP DESC="foreign">, the thing being done; <HI>Paul</HI> calls his &s;uffering,
<GAP DESC="foreign">, the brands or prints of Chri&s;t, not only the tran&s;cripts of his &s;uffering, but the works of his hands al&s;o: I dare commend this to you from my own experience, I have found it a &s;trong &s;upport to
<PB N="20" REF="12">me under my &s;ad per&s;ecutions, and I have cau&s;e to ble&s;&s;e God this day, that he made me a &s;ufferer, and puni&s;hed me immediately for my &s;ins (a faire &s;tep to future Salvation) and not a Per&s;ecutor, whereby adding affliction to Gods anger, my own helli&s;h &s;pirit had wrapped me up to eternal de&s;truction.</P>
<P>Secondly, That you may rightly wait on him, you mu&s;t not only look upon the&s;e di&s;pen&s;ations, as Gods hand, but as his right hand, the hand of love, look upon your afflictions, as cau&s;tick Plai&s;ters, preparatory to the incarnative, the Knife and the Lance reckoned by <HI>Hypocrates</HI> among the <GAP DESC="foreign">, the mollifying Prepara|tions, which the Phy&s;itian mu&s;t ever carry about with him; as your new Arti&s;ts tels us of a Feaver, it is not properly a di&s;ea&s;e, but an in|deavour or &s;trife of nature to cure her &s;elf; ever look upon your af|flictions, as de&s;igned for your good, for the humiliation of your un|tamed &s;pirits, to bring you to a neerer &s;ight of your God, a neerer &s;ight of your &s;elves, a &s;tricter inquiry into your own hearts, to deal neer to God, to make your Peace with him and the like: Look not upon them, as things from chance or malice, tho&s;e two heathen prin|ciples of Theology, <GAP DESC="foreign">, but as &s;ent on purpo&s;e from love, and pondering from judgement and bowels, &s;ent not as a cur&s;e to you for &s;in, that is already &s;atisfied, to, and for the elect in Chri&s;t, but as tryals and fatherly cha&s;tizements to bring you to him&s;elf.</P>
<P>Secondly, as we are to wait upon God in his ways, &s;o it is a part of his fear to wait upon him in his times: It is recorded as an errour of Gods own people, that they limited the holy one of
<HI>I&s;rael, P&s;alm</HI> 78.41. <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> they would &s;ign, de&s;ign, circum&s;cribe God, write or deter|mine for or in&s;tead of God, bring him down and confine him to their own times, and their own wayes; a folly we are all naturally in|clined to, whether in ca&s;e of judgement inflicted, or mercies promi&s;ed and expected, we are all for the pre&s;ent time; but Gods times are not our times, <HI>My times are in thy hands,</HI> &s;ays
<HI>David, P&s;al.</HI> 31.15. as well the time of removing as aying on the burthen; we have met with evil times (God fit us for the wor&s;t) and we are prone to mur|mur both at the weight and continuance of our Pre&s;&s;ures, and to ex|po&s;tulare with God, and charge his ways as unequal and unrea&s;on|able; let me therefore commend this to you, wait Gods times in all events, learn to &s;tand &s;till, and you will &s;ee the &s;alvation of the Lord, you will reap in due &s;ea&s;on, if you faint not, <HI>Gal.</HI> 6.9. though it be trouble&s;ome, you will find it comfortable and u&s;efull to your &s;pirits,
<PB N="21" REF="12">when your rebellious hearts &s;hall put you on to murmuring and im|patience remember this, God hath his time to have mercy upon <HI>Si|on,</HI> and he will a&s;&s;uredly come, when the &s;ins of his enemies are come to maturity, become impudent and incorrigible, when our own &s;pi|rits are throughly humbled, and all hopes and helps in man &s;o far re|moved, that we have neither hope nor help but in God, then may we look for him, in the mean time I will wait: Thus he that feareth the Lord, waits contentedly and calmly for his return, he beleeveth in the Lord, and his feet &s;tand fa&s;t; This is that time I would intreat you to wait for; and it is the &s;econd precious &s;tone in the ring, to wait God in his ways and in his times.</P>
<P>The third is to walk with him, which is here in the Text called, <HI>Keeping his Commandments.</HI> The word <HI>Schamar,</HI> &s;ignifies not only to Keep, but to lay up, and hide, or trea&s;ure in the heart; as <HI>Ja|cob</HI> is &s;aid to have ob&s;erved, or laid up in his heart the &s;aying of <HI>Jo|&s;eph:</HI> It is tran&s;lated to take heed, 1 <HI>King.</HI>
2.4. to ob&s;erve or keep their ways, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 105.45. A compari&s;on taken from a Watchman in a City, or the Gari&s;on in a Fortre&s;s; all the&s;e expre&s;&s;ing that care, diligence, and &s;olicitude which all tho&s;e that fear God have in and about their obedience: This is that yoke of Chri&s;t I have often com|mended to you, an ea&s;ie yoke, <HI>Matth.</HI> 11.30. all plea&s;ure and pro|fit made up in the word <GAP DESC="foreign">, a yoke not like that of the Law, a weight and burthen, but fitted and &s;moothed by Chri&s;t to be an in|&s;trument of advantage, and make the burthen more ea&s;ie and &s;up|portable; a yoke wherein Chri&s;t him&s;elf draws with and for us, that we may the better undergo it: I know this part of the fear of God will relli&s;h har&s;hly with &s;uch &s;pirits as are unaccu&s;tomed to this yoke, unacquainted with the &s;weetne&s;&s;e of it: To take leave of our old ac|quaintance, to carry out the whole body of our lu&s;ts to their Fune|ral; it goes heavie with a heart under the power of &s;in, to &s;piritu|alize the fle&s;h, rack it, fetch it from the lees, to put on the yoke, enter the traces, and harne&s;&s;e for the future race; the&s;e are <GAP DESC="foreign">, the child-birth pangs of dying to &s;in; but to tho&s;e that fear God, the yoke is ea&s;ie, and the burthen light: No life like that of dying to &s;in, no way &s;o plea&s;ant as that of walking with God, no trea&s;ure &s;o de&s;ireable as to be rich in faith and good works, no com|fort like that &s;ecret contentment a true Believer hath in his con&s;cion|able walking with God: Remember this my good people, Hereby you &s;hall much honour that Go&s;pel which I have taught, and you have received, it is that very u&s;e which the Apo&s;tle every where
<PB N="22" REF="13">makes of the Go&s;pel of Chri&s;t, that we &s;hould walk as becometh the Go&s;pel, that we &s;hould in all things adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour, that we &s;hould walk worthy of him who hath called us to his Kingdom, and to his glory, &s;hew forth the vertues and prai&s;es of him who hath called us out of darkne&s;&s;e into his marvellous light, in all the&s;e making out the nece&s;&s;ity of walking with God in all tho&s;e that fear his Name.</P>
<P>The laft Stone or Diamond in this Ring, is the &s;incere love of God without hypocri&s;ie, giving him what is his own, the whole heart, without any re&s;erve for Satan, Mammon, or our &s;elves: No man can truly fear God, but he that loves him, nor can any man truly love God, who&s;e &s;oul is not fir&s;t ravi&s;hed with the apprehen&s;ion of the love of Chri&s;t to him: <HI>We love God, becau&s;e he fir&s;t loved us:</HI> This is that high heroical improvement and elevation of the &s;oul, the want whereof, whether to God or man, is as great a puni&s;hment, as it is a &s;in: There is as much of hell in the quenching of the one flame, as in the raging of the other. The Divel cannot po&s;&s;ibly pick out, or de&s;igne to his mo&s;t hated enemy, a greater cur&s;e then the want of love: My ever dear people, let me intreat you to re|member this,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Amor non ni&s;i donum amantis in amatum.</HI> Guil. Pari&s;.</NOTE> you will find many heavenly and comfortable fruits of it, it will call you out of your &s;elves, to the de&s;ire of an union, vi|&s;ion, and participation of the glory and pre&s;ence of God; the Soul will go to God, like <HI>Noahs</HI> Dove to the Ark, and with infinite &s;weet|ne&s;&s;e and &s;ecurity repo&s;e it &s;elf in him, it will cau&s;e you to re&s;igne the whole heart to God, to give up your &s;elves wholly to him, to conform affections and actions to his Will, to love every thing wherein your &s;ouls &s;hall find Chri&s;t, his ways, his words, his Ordi|nances, his Mini&s;ters, when the root is thus &s;ea&s;oned, you will find all corruptions and lu&s;ts falling off like dead branches: <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Timor tran&s;it in charitatem</HI> Greg.</NOTE> A good man is a good Angel, alwaies beholding the face of God, and the more he &s;ees him, the more he loves him; and the more he loves him, the more he fears him; he loves him in that fear, and fears him in that love. It is &s;aid of the two <HI>Marys, Mat.</HI> 28.8. That they went from the Sepulcher with fear, and great joy: A rare compo&s;ition of &s;o different affections! All other fear being pain, the fear of God brings joy, and love with it.</P>
<P>That which I would principally at pre&s;ent urge to you, is that Chri&s;tian Brotherly love, which the Go&s;pel frequently makes out, and this Age hath almo&s;t forgotten, which ari&s;eth from, and is accompanied with our true love to God; Every one that loveth him
<PB N="23" REF="13">that begat, loveth him al&s;o that is begotten of him, 1 Joh. 5.1.2. How clo&s;e a connexion there is of the love of God, and the love of our Brethren? Be kindly affectioned Rom. 12.10; the word is very Emphatical, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> and &s;ignifies &s;uch a natural binding love and af|fection, as is betwixt Parents and children, a real, compa&s;&s;ionate, fervent melting love; The Lord Je&s;us hath le&s;t this both to bee our duty and our reward, the loving of the Brethren: would you know the rule you mu&s;t walk by, love them as your &s;elves, thou would&s;t not be hurt, hurt not thy Neighbour, thou would&s;t not be reviled, revile no man, thou would&s;t not be ill &s;poken of, &s;peak not ill of others, thou would&s;t not be per&s;ecuted, per&s;ecute no man, this is the Golden Rule; what&s;oever yee would that men &s;hould do to you, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mat.</HI> 7.12.</NOTE> do yee even &s;o to them, this is the Law and the Prophets, or on the&s;e two hang the Law and the Prophets Matth. 22, 40. This was &s;ure that fire in the Poet &s;tolne from Heaven to in&s;pire and warme the Lower World with; It is &s;aid to be a &s;peech of Chri&s;t, which the Nazarene Go&s;pel hath recorded, though our Bibles have it not, <HI>Nunquam laeti &s;itis n<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;i cum fratrem in charitate videritis;</HI> There is no other badge to difference a di&s;ciple of Chri&s;t from any other man but this, <HI>Ecce ut &s;e invicem diligunt;</HI> nay, the Devil cannot &s;o far be an Hypocrite, as to counterfeit this; All glorious Appearances without love are but empty &s;hadows, hereby wee become like the Saints in Heaven, of who&s;e ble&s;&s;ed e&s;tate all wee under&s;tand is onely this, that they are happy and love one another, and in that eter|nally happy, that they eternally love one another, Charity never fai|leth, and &s;o their bli&s;&s;e faileth not.</P>
<P>You &s;ee, my good people, what times wee are fallen into, what wrath, clamour, malice, bitterne&s;s, raylings, revilings there are among men, what di&s;affections, divi&s;ions, per&s;ecutions of the Church, even by tho&s;e that profe&s;&s;e they have given up their Names to Chri&s;t. So far from being Chri&s;tian, that they walk as men, nay they have put off man in exchange for Wolves, Panthers, and Tigers, nay wor&s;e then Wild Bea&s;ts, who are not Bea&s;t enough to devoure tho&s;e of their own kind, as <HI>Era&s;mus</HI> ob&s;erves. So Act as if they had made a &s;olemn Covernant with Hell and Death. Let the&s;e daily ex|amples from the Father of malice provoke you to love and good workes, to follow God who is love, and to walk in love as Chri&s;t al&s;o hath loved us. It will be hereafter a great rejoycing to my Spirit, to &s;ee you have thus learned Chri&s;t, live in love and peace, and the God of love and peace &s;hall be with you.</P>
<PB N="24" REF="14">
<P>There are many more branches of this fear of God, every Reli|gious Performance is a part of it, that of prayer e&s;pecially, as bene|ficial to the
<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">oule as the re&s;t. But I have not long ago treated of it, and cannot &s;tand now to make it out. I have already tyred you with Pre<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">ching that, I &s;hould rather have prayed for you, that God would plant his fear in the hearts of every one of you. I have but two words more to &s;peak in relation to 2. extreams or rocks, upon which this fear of God may be in danger to be &s;p&s;its, and I &s;hall give them you by way of Caution.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t in the defect, beware of carnal &s;ecurity in &s;in, promi&s;ing your &s;elves mercy and impunity, upon fal&s;e and empty bottoms, ble&s;&s;ing your &s;elves in your hearts,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Deutr</HI> 27.19.</NOTE> till your iniquity be found hate|ful, it will bring you at la&s;t to that dead and dedolent di&s;po&s;ition of Spirit, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>Eph.</HI> 4.11.</NOTE> that being pa&s;t feeling, ye &s;hall work all uncleanne&s;&s;e with greedine&s;&s;e, if wee &s;hall thus out dare God in his threatnings, and like that Behemoth, e&s;teem tho&s;e iron weapons as &s;traw, or as they &s;ay of the old Italians, &s;hoot off our great Ordnance, and Ring our bells, to drown the noi&s;e of Heaven's thunder, if wee thus pre|&s;ume, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Deut.</HI> 29.20.</NOTE> God will not &s;pare us, but the anger of the Lord and his jea|lou&s;y &s;hall &s;moake again&s;t us, &amp;c. remember that &s;aying <HI>Eccl.</HI> 8.12. Though a Sinner do evil an hundred times, and his dayes be prolon|ged, yet &s;urely it &s;hall bee well with them that &s;eare the Lord. This is a dangerous and common rock, upon which many a poor &s;oul &s;plits it &s;elf, and the more common it is, the more let it bee your care to avoid it.</P>
<P>The other is in the exce&s;&s;e, and that is a &s;ervile infernal fear of God as a Judge or Tyrant, whence ari&s;e in the &s;oul hard thoughts of God, <NOTE PLACE="marg">Quos mc|tacule odc|rint.</NOTE> hatred of him, a &s;ecret ri&s;ing up again&s;t him, a wi&s;hing there were no God, and the like. This is that great Engine wherewith Satan labours to batter our faith, when he cannot robb you of grace, and make you wicked, he will endeavour to robb you of comfort and bring you to de&s;paire, make you mi&s;erable. Hee will a&s;&s;ault you with doubts and feares, touching your Election, conver&s;ion, adoption, per&s;everance, with the greatne&s;&s;e and number of your &s;ins, with the Cur&s;e and horror of the Law, the Maje&s;ty and Ju|&s;tice of an offended God, who is a con&s;uming fire. In all the&s;e and &s;uch like temptations, let your eyes ever be fixed upon Chri&s;t and his blood, the &s;atisfaction given to the Ju&s;tice of God by his death, that redemption from the Cur&s;e of the Law, him&s;elf being made a cur&s;e for us; then will your &s;ouls &s;ay, <HI>Let the Lord live;</HI> then will your
<PB N="25" REF="14">de&s;ires be to the remembrance of his name; then will your hearts love him, and &s;ay, <HI>I will &s;ing unto the Lord becau&s;e he hath dealt boun|tifully with me,</HI> P&s;alm 23.6. This is the foundation again&s;t which the Gates of Hell &s;hall not prevail, when there is no light nor i&s;&s;ue, nor po&s;&s;ibility to e&s;dape, here will a doo, of deliverance flie open to you. Remember this al&s;o, I pray you, if once you come to &s;light or under|value this great mercy to tread under foot the Son of God, there re|mains no more, no other &s;acrifice for you; you may as much offend God by de&s;pairing, as by pre&s;uming of his mercy,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Heb.</HI> 10.29</NOTE> both are de&s;tru|ctive to the true fear of God: lay the&s;e things up in your hearts, the Lord of his mercy ble&s;&s;e them to you.</P>
<P>To all you that thus fear the Lord, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mal.</HI> 4.2.</NOTE> &s;hall the Sun of righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e ari&s;e with healing under his wings, joy in that day when all the Elect &s;hall behold their King and Redeemer in his Maje&s;ty and Glory. For all tho&s;e that thus fear the Lord, there is a book of remembrance written: It is &s;aid of <HI>Tamerlane</HI> the Scythian, that he had alwaies by him a Catalogue of the names and good de&s;erts of his &s;ervants, which he dayly peru&s;ed, and whom he duly rewarded; <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mal.</HI> 3.16.</NOTE> how much more &s;hal the Lord, who bottles up the tears of his people, puts their Prayers as upon the File, and records all their devotions. All tho&s;e that thus fear the Lord, he will own in that day when he makes up his Jewels, makes them up for him&s;elf, and takes them away from the mi&s;u&s;ages and malignities of the World. When one de&s;ired to &s;ee <HI>Alexanders</HI> Trea&s;ure, &s;hew him (&s;aid he to his Servant) not my Gold or Mo|nies, Plate or Jewels, but my friends: Henceforth, &s;ays Chri&s;t, I call you not &s;ervants, but friends, <HI>John</HI> 15.15. The&s;e are Gods Jew|els, his deare&s;t friends, his chief Trea&s;ure; none can plunder or pluck them out of his hands: They are called, <HI>the dearly beloved of his Soul,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> Jer. 12.7. the LXX read it, <HI>his dearly beloved Soul,</HI> noting Gods Saints to be as dear to him, as a mans life or his Soul is: All the&s;e, and the&s;e only, wil the Lord pity and &s;pare at that day, as a father &s;pareth his own &s;on that &s;erveth him.</P>
<P>I have now done both with the Text and the Times; I have pre|&s;ented you with a New-years-gift of an ine&s;timable value and worth, All I require from you is but this, That I may &s;ee you wear it; that as great Per&s;onages are known by their Rings and rich Jewels; &s;o you may be by the fear of the Lord: This Ring truly worn, will &s;eal to your &s;ouls a&s;&s;urance of &s;alvation in this life, and be to every one of you at your death a wedding Ring to marry you to the Lamb for evermore: Your tears at this time &s;ufficiently witne&s;&s;e, how &s;adly
<PB N="26" REF="15">you receive it from my hands; God wil I hope put your tears into his bottle; and that Fountain which he hath opened in your eys this day, &s;hall &s;well into Rivers of comfort and &s;alvation at that day, when God &s;hall wipe away all tears from your eys: All I can do, is to pray for you, &s;ince I mu&s;t no longer Preach to you; I pray God ble&s;&s;e his Church; I pray God ble&s;&s;e you all, and that God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Je&s;us, that great Shepheard of the &s;heep, through the blood of the everla&s;ting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well plea&s;ing in his &s;ight, through Je&s;us Chri&s;t, to whom be glory, and honour, now, and evermore.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
