TORONTO A
SHERATON MEMORIAL LIBRARY
EASTER, 1906
Shelf No.
N
i
THE
WORKS OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOL. XIV.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGQ, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby terian Church, Edinburgh. /
4Tbitor. REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBURGH.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOLUME XIV.
CONTAINING
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL
LONDON:
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.
1873.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON
CONTENTS.
SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL— Continued.
SERMON XVIII. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain," £c., ver. 4, . 3
„ XIX. " By which he obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts," ver. 4, 12
„ XX. " By which he obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts," ver. 4, 22
„ XXI. " By faith Enoch was translated that lie should
not see death," &c., ver. 5, . . . 33
„ XXII. " By faith Enoch was translated that he should
not see death," &c., ver. 5, . . . 48
„ XXIII. " For before his translation he had this testi mony, that he pleased God," ver. 5, . 62
„ XXIV. " But without faith it is impossible to please
him," &c., ver. 6, . . . .72
„ XXV. " But without faith it is impossible to please
him," &c., ver. 6, . . . .81
„ XXVI. "But without faith it is impossible to please
God," ver. 6, . . . . 90
„ XXVII. " But without faith it is impossible to please
him," ver. 6, .... 97
„ XXVIII. " But without faith it is impossible to please
him," ver. 6, .... 106
., XXIX. "For he that cometh to God must believe
that he is," &c., ver. 6, . .114
VOL. xiv. 6
yj CONTENTS.
MOT
SERMON XXX. " For he that cometh to God must ibelieve
that he is," &c., ver. 6, . 128
w XXXI. "For he that cometh to God must believe
that he is," &c., ver. 6, , - . . 133
„ XXXII. "For he that cometh to God must believe
that he is," &c., ver. 6, ... 142
„ XXXIII. "And that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him," ver. 6, . .153
7, XXXIV. "And that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him," ver. 6, . 162
„ XXXV. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet," &c., ver. 7, . 173
„ XXXVI. " By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet," ver. 7, . . 183
„ XXXVII. " By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet," ver. 7, . . 191
„ XXXVIII. « Prepared an ark," ver. 7, . . . 201
„ XXXIX. "By the which he condemned the world,
and became heir," &c., ver. 7, . . 213
„ XL. " By faith Abraham, when he was called to go
out into a place," &c., ver. 8, . . 224
„ XLI. " By faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place," &c., ver. 8, . . 237
„ XLII. " By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country," &c., vers. 9, 10, . 248
„ XLIII. " By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country," &c., vers.<9, 10, . 260
„ XLIV. "Through faith also Sara herself received
strength to conceive seed," &c., ver. 11, . 272
n XLV. " These all died in faith, not having received
the promises," &c., ver. 13, . . . 280
* XL VI. " These all died in faith, not having received
the promises," &c., ver. 13, . . . 293
„ XLVn. « These all died in faith, not having received
the promises," &c., ver. 13, . 305
CONTENTS. Vil
PAGE
SERMON XL VIII. " These all died in faith, not having received
the promises," &c., ver. 13, . . . 315
„ XLIX. " For they that say such things declare plainly
that they seek a country," &c., vers. 14-16, 328
„ L. " Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God," &c., ver. 16, . .338
„ LI. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac," &c., vers. 17-19, . . 352
„ LIT. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac," &c., vers. 17-19, . . 360
„ LIII. " Accounting that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead," &c., ver. 19, . 369
„ LIV. " By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau con
cerning things to come," ver. 20, . . 380
„ LV. " By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed
both the sons of Joseph," &c., ver. 21, . 395
„ LVI. " By faith Joseph, when he died, made men
tion of the departing," &c., ver. 22, . 406
„ LVII. " By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid
three months of his parents," ver. 23, . 419
„ LVIII. " By faith Moses, when he was come to years,"
&c., ver. 24, .... 427
„ LIX. " By faith Moses, when he was come to years,"
&c., ver. 24, .... 437
„ LX. " Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God," &c., ver. 25, , . 449
„ LXI. "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt," ver. 26, 459
„ LXII. " Through faith he kept the passover and the
sprinkling of blood," &c., ver. 28, t . 473
SERMONS
UPON THE
ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE HEBREWS.
VOL. XIV.
SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI.
SEKMON XVIII.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh. — HEB. xi. 4.
Secondly, The second general means is to apply yourselves to the righteousness of Christ. There are many steps and progresses of the soul in this work — desire it, seek it, wait for it, take Christ upon any special offer, then upon the act of faith consider your privileges and make your claim ; and that your claim may he warranted, there must be a care of holiness.
1. Desire it earnestly. Grace is wrought by knowledge, but it is first known by desire and spiritual esteem. Appetite follows life ; so when God begins to infuse life in the soul, it is first discerned by desire : Mat. v. 5, ' Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.' How passionately doth Paul speak, Phil. iii. 9, ' That I might be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.' All things else he accounted dung, dog's-meat, loss rather than gain.
2. You must seek it. Lazy wishes are only the fruits of conviction. Men could wish they were interested in so great comfort. But now serious desires will put you upon endeavours : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof.' The great design and work of Christians should be to get a part in Christ, in God's kingdom, and God's righteousness, as the way to it ; seek it first, above all things, and above all pursuits. Men make it not their work, but their by-work, and regard it now and then in some pang of conscience. Oh, then for a garment to cover them, then for a righteousness to shelter them from wrath ! but this should be the first thing ; it is a worthy pursuit, and it will make amends for all the pains you are at in seeking it,
3. Wait for it. Grace is not at the creature's beck. Before ever God will show mercy, he will first declare his sovereignty : Isat xxvi. 8, ' In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee/ Though they meet with nothing but rough answers — though God seems to hide himself, yet in the midst of his judicial dispensations you should con tinue waiting. Nothing declares the creature's subjection to Gotl so much as tarrying of his leisure ; alas ! otherwise it is a sign we ascribe
4 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [&ER. XVIII.
to ourselves, when we prescribe to God, when we would have him come in at our time and pleasure. Eemember the righteousness of Christ is a great blessing, and God doth not owe it you ; God may give it to whom he will, and when lie will. Impatience always shows there is some confi dence in your own righteousness. You should say as the church doth : Lam. i. 16, ' My comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me ; ' 'but I have rebelled against him,' ver. 18. God suspends comfort, but it is not my due ; but I have rather merited the contrary. Thoughts of merit beget murmuring. When the soul is possessed of its own guilt, it will tarry the Lord's leisure. Consider, God hath waited long ere you. came to this, to look up to him for the righteousness of Christ ; there fore you have good cause to wait upon him for his good pleasure.
4. When there is any special offer in the word, do not delay, but take Christ ; do not draw back the hand of faith. I know a guilty creature will be full of suspicions; and the truth is, the grace of the gospel is so rich that we know not how to credit it. But when there is a fail- offer, do not let suspicion take in the hand of faith, but receive Christ when he is tendered in the promises of the word. Sometimes God doth, as it were, call you by name : John x. 3, ' He calleth his own sheep by name ;' he doth, as it were, point to you when he speaks to men in your case and condition. Oh ! consider, these are fair seasons of grace, and you must not let them slip : 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2, ' We beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain ;" for I have heard thee in an acceptable time. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation/ There are certain beautiful seasons wherein God will befound, when you see yourselves to be as it were pointed at. Look, as wicked men neglect seasons of conviction, so do believers many times dispute away seasons of grace, those that are in the way of faith. Poor lost creatures are apt to be suspicious ; but when the offer of grace is full and express to your case, do not neglect it ; as Benhadad's servants watched for the word 'brother,' so should you be asking for these gospel seasons. Jesus Christ will sometimes give a glimpse of his counten ance, and look through the lattice.
5. Upon the act of faith consider your privileges, and humbly make your claim. Whenever you have taken Christ upon those seasonable offers, consider what a great privilege you enjoy : John v. 24, ' He that believeth in me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem nation, but is passed from death to life.' Christians are wanting in their improving their spiritual interest ; they are willing to prize Christ, but do not consider what they have in him. If you cannot feel sen sible consolation, yet act spiritual reason and discourse. Consider, such an act gives interest in Christ ; why then should I not have Christ, and in Christ righteousness? Isa. xlv. 24: The church is brought in, speaking, « Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come/ This is glorying, or rejoicing in hope, Heb. iii. 6 ; that is, a reckoning upon our pVivilege, what we shall have and enjoy in Christ. Whosoever takes Christ, he puts him on ; then he is interested and invested with all tluit is Christ's : Gal. iii. 27, ^ As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ/ By the internal baptism we have an interest not only in his person, but in his righteousness, life, spirit, dignities, and merits ;
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 5
it is good to ampliate our thoughts according to the extent of our privileges.
6. That your claim may be warranted the more, there must be a care of holiness. Works are not the condition of justification, yet they are the evidence of it. Faith justifies, and works justify : James ii. 24, ' Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.' By the righteousness of faith we are acquitted from sin, and by the righteousness of works we are acquitted from guile and hypocrisy ; therefore this is the evidence that will make all sure: 1 John iii. 21, 22, ' If our hearts condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments/ &c. This will increase the confidence of faith, when there is a train of graces. Though works have nothing to do in the court of heaven in matter of justification, yet they have a voice and testimony in the court of conscience. Seldom do we receive any solemn assurance but upon the evidence of sanctification. Faith gives us a title to Christ's righteousness, but works give an evidence of it. Our comfort indeed is founded upon Christ's righteousness and his satisfac tion, but it is found in Christ's way ; therefore consider how the promises are diversified : Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me,' saith Christ, 'all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' ; but then, ver. 29, ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : arid you shall find rest for your souls.' The act of faith gives us an interest ; but that we may have the comfort of it, we must abide under his discipline. This is God's course ; first he pours in the oil of grace, then the oil of gladness, when our sanctifica tion is evidenced unto us. The apostle gathereth it out of the type of Melchisedec: Heb. vii. 2, 'First being, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem ; that is, king of peace/ First he sanctifieth and disposeth the heart to righteousness, then gives peace of conscience and comfort ; that is the order, he recon- cileth us to God by his own righteousness, and then gives peace in our souls by woiking our hearts to a holy disposition.
Use 2. To condemn them that seek righteousness in themselves. Nature is prone to this, and none more apt than those that have least reason. Former duties do not discover weakness, and so are more apt to puff up. Give me leave a little to speak of this ; partly because it is so natural to us, and partly because many decry resting in duties so far, that they decry the very performance of them, and instead of Papists turn Familists. This resting in our own righteousness is sometimes more gross and open, when men makeit their plea; sometimes more secret and imperceptible ; we may discover it by observing the disposition of the soul with reference to sins, mercies, duties, and comforts.
1. By observing the frame of the heart with reference to sin. Usually when men rest in duties, they make the performance of them to be the ground of an indulgence to sin, and take the more liberty to sin, out of a hope to make amends by their duties.
[1.] This indulgence is sometimes antedated before the performance, as when men allow themselves in present carnal practices by the pur pose of an after-repentance. It is as if men should distemper the body by excess, and then think to mend all by giving themselves a vomit ; or contract a sickness by drunkenness, hoping to cure all by physic.
6 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SER. XVIII.
Tune demum a peccatis desistam, cum baptizatus ero. Conviction would not let men sin so freely if they did not make fair promises of reformation : this is making a Christ of your repentance and prayers. So some men moil in the world, and dream of a devout retirement hereafter ; thus rich they will be, and then they will live privately, and mind religion.
[2.] Sometimes the indulgence is post-dated, which is most grossly done hy them that perform duties with an aim either to excuse or to promote sin : Prov. xxi. 27, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is abomina tion : how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind ? ' as Balaam's altars were built, and sacrifices made with this intent, that he might curse Israel, Num. xxiii. ; or more closely, by others who would redeem their negligence in one duty by the frequent perform ance of another, and please God by what doth not displease themselves ; as the Jews hoped to repair their want of mercy by the multitude of their sacrifices. The Pharisees tithed mint and cummin to excuse themselves from the weighty things of the law, Mat. xxiii. 23. Con science, like the stomach, will be craving ; and a man must do something to keep it quiet, as by a moral course, or some formal acts of piety. By others it is done yet more closely, that grow vain and wanton after some solemn duty: JBzek. xxxiii. 13, ' If he trust to his own righteous ness, and commit iniquity,' &c. Many times we find that the heart groweth loose, licentious, vain, wanton, and proud after solemn duties, which argueth a secret confidence in what we have done ; thus Josiah's breach with God was ' after his preparing the temple,' 2 Chron. xxxv. 20.
2. With respect to mercies ; and so observe the frame of your hearts in the want of mercies, or in the enjoyment of them.
[1.] In the want of mercies. Men expect blessings out of a conceit of some worth that is in themselves, and ascribe too much to their own duties. We all disclaim it ; but it may be known by this, if we murmur when God doth not come in at our times and seasons. Those that prescribe to God do ascribe to themselves : Isa. Iviii. 3, ' Where fore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge ? ' Luke xviii. 11, 12, ' I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican : I fast twice in a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' Because we do not break out into such bold challenges, we think ourselves innocent ; but murmuring argueth some thought of desert. Where nothing is due, we cannot complain if nothing be given. The plea of works may be plainly read in our discontents ; if God be not a debtor, why do we then complain ?
[2.] In the enjoyment of mercies, men secretly ascribe to themselves, as if God did see more in them than others : Deut. ix. 4, ' Speak not in thy heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land.' It rather manifests itself in thoughts than words. Now because these thoughts are not always impressed on conscience, men evade it; but here you will discern it again by some disdain at providence. Spiritual pride, or conceit of our own worth, entertaineth crosses with anger, and blessings with disdain ; discontent or disdain will discover it to you : Mai. i. 2, ' I have loved you, saith the Lord : yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us ? ' By a gracious, humble
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 7
heart all mercies are received with admiration. Where sin is great nothing can be little, nothing is theirs but sin; therefore they wonder that anything should be theirs but punishment: Luke. i. 43, ' And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ? ' so 2 Sam. vii. 18, ' Who am I, 0 Lord God ? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ? ' Not, Wherefore have we fasted ? but whence is it ? and what am I that God should do thus and thus for me ? Do but compare Mat. vii. 22, ' Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?' — they plead their gifts and employments in the church — with Mat. xxv. 38, 39, 'Lord, when sawwethee an hungered, and fedthee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? ' The one wonder God should reject them, who had done him so much service ; the other wonder Christ should take notice of such worthless services, though none perform duties with more care, none overlook them with more self-denial.
3. With respect to duties. Here also are two notes.
[1.] When men are not actually sensible of their own weakness, unprofitableness, and defects in duties. Men set a high value on their actions, and therefore reckon of the merit of. them. The elder brother pleaded : Luke xv. 29, 'Lo. these many years do I serve thee; neither at any time transgressed I thy commandment.' We rest upon that of which we are conceited. Formal men have least cause, and yet are most apt, to rest in duties, because they go on in a dead course, with out feeling their defects, or being sensible of their needing the supplies of the Spirit; as painted fire needeth no fuel. But the children of God perform them with more feeling of their own weakness and wretched ness ; and so their hearts are kept humble and thankful, both which check merit. Thankful : 1 Chron. xxix. 14, ' Of thine own have we given thee.' Humble, for there may be a show of thankfulness, and yet the heart may be conceited : Luke xviii. 11, ' God, I thank thee I am not as other men are ; ' but ' all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' Isa. Ixiv. 6. Now we must have actual distinct thoughts of this, or else it is impossible that such a proud creature as man should go out of him self. Christ requireth it in every duty : Luke xvii. 10, ' When ye shall have done all those things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants ;' therefore you do not discern this secret vein of guilt by gross thoughts of merit, but by high thoughts of duty. When a man is not always sensible of the imperfections of his services, he is apt to build upon them. How do you come off from duty ? You have more cause to be humble than to be lifted up ; for what is God's be thankful, for what is your own be humbled, arid pray, God be merciful to me!
[2.] When men are more careful of the work wrought than of the interest of the person ; when we would have the person accepted tor the work's sake rather than for Christ's sake, they lay the foundation of their comfort within themselves. Now this is not only by common people, who hope to be accepted for their prayers and their good mean ings, but in those that are careless to get an interest in Christ : James
8 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SER. XVIII.
v. 16, ' The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Most'men look to the qualification of the duty, not of the person ; but the person must be righteous, as well as the prayer fervent. It is not duty that worketh out your atonement with God ; our acceptation with God doth not depend upon the worth and merit of works. Do not think duties will serve the turn: 2 Cor xiii. 5, 'Know ye not your own selves, how that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? ' The word a&oKi/jioi, reprobate, is there taken in a mollified sense for those that are not in Christ ; and therefore, before duties, your great care should be not only to raise the heart, but to examine the state.
4. With respect to peace and comfort, take these notes.
[1.] If you were never driven to change your copy and tenure. Alt Adam's posterity is under a covenant of works, and seek to bd saved by doing. Those that never saw they rested in works, and were never driven to settle their comfort upon gospel terms, are in a dangeious case. The voice of nature is, What shall we do? and till we are frighted out of ourselves we never look farther. When the Israelites heard the thunderings, they were affrighted. Nature is put to flight: Heb. v>. 18, 'Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us;' Phil. iii. 9, 'And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith ;' Gal. ii. 19, 'For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God.' A man goes not 10 chancery till he is cast at common law.
[2.] When conscience is awakened, if men fetch their comfort from their duties. The law leaveth men wounded and raw, and they lick them selves whole again by some offers of obedience. Carnal men are careful of worship only upon some gripes ; they use their duties as men do strong waters in a pang; duties should be a thank-offering, and they make them a sin-offering — a sleeping sop to allay conscience. As when men have offended their superiors for a while they become more pliant and obsequious. It is good in gripes of conscience to observe whence you fetch your comfort, and how it groweth upon you ; the trial is most sensible: Ps. xciv. 19, 'In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.' Though every child of God hath not peace of conscience, yet it would much undeceive our hearts if we did observe how we come to be satisfied with our estate, and from whence that peace which we have doth arise.
[3.J Upon what terms do you constantly maintain your life and peace with God ; upon the foundation of works, or through the merits of Christ ? I confess works are a good encouragement, by way of evidence and assurance; but still the foundation must be Christ: 1 Cor. iii. 11, ' For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' The believing soul will never be diverted and taken off from Christ, but will still cry, What would become of me were it not for free grace ? Neh. ix. 31, ' Nevertheless, for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them and forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful Cod;' 1 C«»r. iv. 4, ' For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not thereby justified ; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.' Christ must still lie as a bundle of myrrh with us : Cant. L
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 9
13, ' A bundle cf myrrh is my well-beloved unto me ; he'shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.'
Use 3. Information ; to direct us how to understand this great truth. For your better information, and because I will not perplex these discourses with disputes, I shall lay down several propositions ; take them all together —
1. That to justify is to account or accept as righteous.
2. None are accounted or accepted as righteous but those that indeed are so.
3. Every righteousness will not serve the turn, but such as will satisfy God's justice.
4. God's justice will never be satisfied till the law be satisfied.
5. The law will never be satisfied but by active and passive obedience.
6. This satisfaction is only to be had in Christ.
7. There is no having this righteousness in Christ but by imputation.
8. There is no imputation but by union.
9. There is no union but by faith.
[1.] To justify is not to make righteous, but to account or accept as righteous. This is the use and force of the word in scripture : Rom. ii. 13, ' Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' It cannot be taken for the infusion of righteousness, because the doers of the law are therefore righteous in themselves because they do the law ; but the meaning is, are accounted just. It is opposed to condemnation and accusation, therefore it must be taken for accounting righteous ; as Rom. viii. 33, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?' That which is opposed to accusation is justification ; and that it is meant of an accepting in court is clear by Ps. cxliii. 2, 'Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord, for in thy sight no man living shall be justified ; ' that is, in thy righteous and strict judgment none can be accepted as righteous.
[2.] None is accounted righteous before God but he that indeed is so ; for otherwise the rule standeth good : Exodus xxxiv. 7, ' He will by no means clear the guilty.' It is part of God's name that he pro claimed before Moses : it must be such a righteousness as will endure God's sight ; so that when God casts his eye upon it, he cannot choose but account you righteous, which cannot be by a fiction or an imaginary righteousness — ' For the judgment of God is according to truth,' Rom. ii. 2, be it in mercy or in judgment. And it is a thing God hates in Aian: Prov. xvii. 15, 'To condemn the just, and justify the wicked, are both an abomination to the Lord.' Therefore there must be such a righteousness as, God looking upon it, he must needs account you righteous.
[3.] Every righteousness will not serve the turn, but such only as will satisfy God's justice, because by the work of redemption the Lord is to suffer no loss; the repute of his justice is still to be kept up-, otherwise the notions of the deity would be violated. In the work of redemption he is not unrighteous ; therefore the apostle is very zealous : Rom. iii. 4, ' Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar ; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged/ &c ; God is necessarily just as well
10 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SEB. XVIII.
as necessarily merciful. Now both attributes must shine with equal glory. If he did altogether spare, where were his justice ? and it he did accept men upon ordinary terms, and did altogether save, where were his mercy? God's infinite wisdom hath determined the con troversy, and the apostle gives us an account of it : Horn. iii. 24, 25, ' Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins;' and it is again repeated— 'To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' God would not only glorify grace, but he would be just in justification; therefore, 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; ' and again, chap. ii. 1, ' We have an advocate with the Father, even Jes-us Christ the righteous.' God would not forgive sins, but so as that it- might stand with his justice, for mercy and justice are to shine with an equal glory.
[4.] God's justice can never be satisfied till the law be satisfied. Why ? because it is the outward rule of his justice, and the visible measure of his dealing with man ; and therefore the satisfaction of his justice must be carried on according to the tenor and terms of the law ; therefore was Christ made under the law. Now this was the great controversy how to salve the authority, power, and worth of the law. Christ professeth he came to fulfil it: Mat. v. 17, 18, ' Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil,' &c. And the apostle shows plainly the doctrine of justification doth not make void the law : Rom. iii. 3J , ' Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law ; ' therefore legal and gospel righteousness differ, because the one is not inherent in us, the other is ; and in the manner of receiving it.
[5.] The law can never be satisfied, as for fallen man, but by an active and passive obedience — that is, by suffering what is imposed, or by doing what is commanded by the law ; for in the law there were two things, the precept and the sanction, the duty and the penalty. The law doth not only say, Do, and live ; but, Sin, and die. To Adam it was proposed in the primitive form, Gen. ii. 17. Now the law must be fulfilled in the threatening and precept, that there may be a freedom from the curse, and a right to eternal life. And indeed Jesus Christ, by being made under the law, by sustaining the penalty and perform ing the obedience of it, hath done both : 1 Thes. i. 10, there is one part— 'Even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come;' and Ephes. i. 6, there is the other part — ' We are accepted in the beloved.' God freeth none from hell but those Christ suffered for ; and accepts none to life but those Christ hath performed obedience for.
[6.] This satisfaction can be performed by none but Jesus Christ; for, ala,s ! we could neither bear the penalty nor discharge the duty ; —not bear the penalty, for we should have always been satisfying, always paying, but never could be said to have satisfied ; and we could never discharge the duty of it, for the law is ' become weak through the flesh,' Rom.viii 3; that is, as the case stands now with man fallen. 'Those works that need pardon themselves can never satisfy : Acts iv. 12,
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 11
* Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'
[7.] There is no having of this righteousness from Christ but by imputation. I know here some boggle and say, Imputation is nowhere found in scripture. I answer, We do not stand upon words and syllables ; but this is most proper, and it may be well gathered, for Christ is said ' to be made righteousness/ 1 Cor. i. 30 ; righteousness is said ' to be imputed without works/ Rom. iv. 6 ; and ' faith is im puted for righteousness/ Rom. iv. 22. To clear the proposition, it must needs be by imputation — (1.) Because this righteousness must be in justificato, in the justified person. This righteousness, one way or other, must belong to the person justified, otherwise the Lord cannot look upon us as righteous. The man was cast out ' that had not on him the wedding garment/ Mat. xxii. 11-13. Now by infusion it can not be, all inherent righteousness being imperfect ; therefore it must be by imputation. (2.) Consider what imputation is. To impute is to reckon a thing to our score and account; and those things are said to be imputed to us which are accounted ours to all intents and pur poses, as if they were our own. Now in this sense our sins were imputed to Christ, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. The apostle makes the parallel : 2 Cor. v. 21, ' For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteous ness of God in him/ Look, as Christ was so dealt with as if he had been a sinner, so we are as if we were righteous. Our iniquities were not infused into Christ, but imputed and laid upon him : Isa. liii. 6, ' The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all ; ' so is h;s righteous ness upon all them that believe. And the apostle useth another com parison ; as Adam's guilt is laid upon us, so is Christ's righteousness ; — 'As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous/ Rom. v. 19. In short, the apostle saith, 1 Cor. i. 30, that Christ is 'made unto us of God righteousness ; ' and the whole righteousness is imputed to satisfy the obligation of the law, and to repair Adam's loss ; for we were guilty of death, and we came short of glory : Gal. iv. 4-6. ' When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law/ &c.
[8.] There is no imputation but by union. All interest is founded in union : Gal. iii. 27, ' As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ;' all his merits and satisfaction are theirs, as if performed in their own persons : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, a.nd sa notification, and redemption/' We are interested in all, as we are in him ; by being one with Christ we put him on.
[9.] There is no union but by faith ; then God receives us into grace : Rom. x. 10, ' With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.' It is the ordination of God that this grace should unite us to Christ, and so give us a right to all that is in Christ ; indeed it is the fittest grace to receive the fruits of union. I confess there is a moral union by love that gives comfort ; but faith begins the mystical union, and so gives safety.
]2 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SER. XIX.
SERMON XIX.
By tvhich he obtained witness that he ivas righteous, God testifying of his gifts — HEB. xi. 4.
Now I come to the second doctrine. AC 979, 'by which' may be referred to 8v<ria or irlffTt^ ; and I referred the righteousness to faith, and the testimony to the sacrifice. For the clearing of which you may remem ber, I observed that in this duty of sacrifice the two brethren did appeal to God, and put it to trial, whom the Lord would choose and design to be head of the blessed seed and race ; and the Lord by fire from heaven, which was the then visible teslimony of acceptance, determined the matter on Abel's side ; besides, the apostle proveth that the solemn testimony of his righteousness was first given to him by God's witness ing of his girts. Whence I observe —
Doct. 2. That upon the raised operations of faith with other graces in solemn duties, we usually receive the testimony of righteousness in Christ, or acceptance with God.
Abel's testimony was extraordinary, by fire from heaven ; but still God is not wanting to witness concerning the services of his people: all is not left in the dark, and to the decision and revelation of the last day. Instead of those outward dispensations, we now receive an inward testimony of the Spirit, and upon the exercise of grace God giveth us this testimony. Now there are two special seasons of the exercise of grace on our part, and so of the manifestations of comfort on God's part ; there is the season of afflictions and the season of duties ; and in both God's people receive from him the solemn witness and seal of the Holy Ghost. In afflictions when we need comfort, and in duties when we seek comfort, we have the sweetest experiences of the testimony of the Spirit. Upon afflictions, you have it set down : Heb. xii. 11, ' After ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby/ The sweet and last fruit and issue of it is peace of conscience ; so Rom. v. 3-5, ' Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed;' upon what ground? 'Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.' Affliction puts us upon the exercise of grace, and the exercise of grace occasioneth sweet experiences of God in our souls, by which hope is more and more kindled ; and this is ratified by the confirmation of the Spirit.
But we are to speak of experiences in solemn duties, wherein God is wont to open himself to his people, and all jealousies and misunder standings between him and his servants are cleared up ; and there he breaks in upon them sensibly for the furtherance of their joy.
I shall prove this is God's wonted course— (1.) By the experiences of the saints ; (2 ) By the promises of God ; (3.) By several arguments and reasons.
1. By the experiences of the saints. When the scriptures were written, God's ways were extraordinary, and therefore most of the instances are extraordinary ; but however, we do not urge the manner, bat the thing itself. The leading instance shall be that of Joshua the
VEK. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 13
high priest. When he was ministering before the Lord, it is said. Zech. iii. 3, 4, ' Joshua was clothed witli filthy garments, and stood before the angel ; and he answered, and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him ;' and God gave this testimony to him, ' I have caused thine iniquity to pass from tliee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.' I know that visional type doth mainly respect the restoration of the church of the Jews, the church of the Jews being represented in Joshua, who was the chief-officer of the church ; however, there is something moral in it. In the time of his ministration his filthy garments were taken away, which is the usual emblem of sin in scripture, and change of raiment is put on him, which is an emblem of the righteousness of Christ applied and put on by faith, as it is ex plained by the Spirit of God himself. So Cornelius, Acts x. 3, it is said an angel came about the ninth hour to assure him God had taken notice of his graces and duties : ver. 4, ' Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Note the circumstance of 'the ninth hour/ which was one of the hours of prayer : Acts iii. 1, 'Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour,' which this proselyte observes ; and therefore about the ninth hour, in the middle of his prayers and devo tions, an angel comes to him and assures him what acceptance he had found. So the prophet Daniel : chap. ix. 20, 21, 'And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin,' &c.; 'yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, the angel Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening-oblation.' The Spirit of God placeth a great deal of emphasis upon this circumstance. At the very instant of prayer, when he was earnestly pleading with God, God answers his request, and an angel is despatched to come and certify to him his acceptance ; God overtakes his duty by a speedy return of mercy. That way of assurance is extraordinary ; but God's wonted course is many times to give in a solemn assurance of his favour in the very time of our prayers; so Acts iv. 31, ' When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.' Mark, in the very rime and act of their prayer there is a mira culous descent of the Holy Ghost upon them ; the instances are singular and extraordinary, yet there is some analogy and proportion between them and ordinary cases. Though God's dispensations be now more spiritual, yet they are very sensible still ; though we cannot expect voices, raptures, shakings, oracles, and angels, yet we may expect to hear the trumpet of the assemblies, which the psalmist expressesby the * joyful sound,' Ps. Ixxxix. 15 : that is, the testimony of the Holy Ghost and spiritual experiences, as will appear more fully by the next head.
2. By the promises of God. God hath promised to meet his people with sensible comforts, to talk and confer with them in their duties ; the very aim of all duties is more immediate communion with God. •See God's promises to his old church, while grace was more sparingly dispensed : Exod. xxix. 42, ' At the door of the tabernacle of the con gregation, there will 1 meet with you, and speak there unto you.' It is meant of God's gracious and social presence with his people in duties
14 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SfiR. XIX.
of worship ; there he will meet, and speak, and confer with them for their comfort and satisfaction : Isa. Iviii. 9, ' Thou slialt call, and the Lord shall answer ; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I.' Mark, when complaints are heightened into cries, then God's answer will be more sensible ; when we come in an affectionate manner, not only call, but cry. Sometimes God plainly discovereth himself in the very time of the duty ; he meets with them in such and such ordinances, as if he should say, Poor soul, what would you have ? here am I to satisfy thee. He communeth, talketh with them, and tells them their sins are par doned, and they are accepted in Christ : Ps. xxxvi. 7-9, 'Thou shalt abundantly satisfy them with the fatness of thine house, and make them to drink of the rivers of thy pleasures ; ' there comforts are dis pensed, there flow the rivers of spiritual pleasure and chaste delights of the gospel.
Obj. But you will say, This is not always so ; there are many wait upon God long, and feel no comfort. I answer, It is true. Such dis pensations are free, they are not at the creature's beck : God will be master of his own mercies ; we have deserved nothing, and we cannot murmur if we receive nothing ; yet if ever they find spiritual consola tion, it will be in God's house. This is the established means ; if ever you taste the fatness and sweetness of grace, it will be by waiting upon him there. Earnest and affectionate duties are seldom without comfort and profit. And again I answer, that delight, which is a duty, makes way for delight which is a dispensation : Cant. ii. 3, ' I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.' When you delight in God, then the Lord will give in sensible consola tion. Delights are mutual and sensible ; God delights in us, and we in God. When we delight in him, in the word, in prayer, or in the supper, by way of return God sends us secret consolation : Isa. Ixiv. 5, ' Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.' Those that delight in God's company, that do good with a willing heart, are bountifully entertained, sweetly refreshed, and sent away with a feast of loves. In our affectionate and spiritual duties, Christ will come and say, ' Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into thy master's joy ! ' The present returns and recom penses, when we come before the throne of grace, carry some proportion with the entertainment we shall find with God hereafter when we come to be seated upon the throne of glory. I say, in earnest prayer, though we can prescribe nothing, but this is his wonted course, his answer is sensible in his ordinances. Saith Luther, Utinam eodem ardore, &c.— Would to God that I could always pray with the like fervency and earnestness ! Why ? for I sensibly receive this answer, Thy desires are granted, Fiat quod velis—Be it unto thee as thou wilt. When we rejoice to converse with God in the ways of righteousness, then his dispensa tions of grace are full of sweetness.
3. The reasons why God observeth this course ; to exhibit and give out more sensible manifestations of his grace in the time of ordinances, when our graces are raised and drawn out to the height. The question consisteth of two parts.
[1.] Why grace or sanctification is necessary to the receiving of the testimony of the Spirit ?
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 15
[2.] Why upon the raised operations of grace God is wont to give it into his people?
First, Why grace is necessary by way of evidence, though not by way of merit and cause ?
Ans. 1. Because this is the most sensible effect of God's spiritual bounty, for it is a work of God within us, and so more apt to give us an evidence. Election, that is in heaven, a secret which lies hid in the bosom of the Father ; redemption, that is without us, upon the cross ; justification is God's judiciary act, a sentence of the judge without us ; but sanctification is a work upon our heart, therefore it is called the ' earnest of the Spirit,' 2 Cor. i. 22, and ' the first-fruits of the Spirit,' Rom. viii. 23. Grace is an earnest to show how sure, and the first-fruits to show how good heaven is ; by grace God gives us a taste to show how sweet, and a pledge to show how sure all the privileges of Christianity are made over to our souls.
2. Because it is the best way to prevent delusion ; immediate revela tion would be more uncertain and liable to suspicion, and we may lie down in sorrow, notwithstanding flashes of comfort. There is no way to discern the operation of the Spirit from counterfeit ravishments, but by sanctification and grace. There is a great deal of deceit in flash y joys, but this is a solid witness and evidence : 1 John iii. 19, 'Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him; ' that is, without fear of presumption and hypocrisy, we may come and plead our interest before God. Acts of comfort are sweet and delightful when felt, but yet are but transient acts ; they soon pass away, they come and go, they are acts of God's royalty and magnificence, and you know every day is not a feast-day, God doth not always feast us with sensible consolation ; but grace is a solid and abiding evidence : 1 John ii. 27, ' The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you ; ' and 1 John iii. 8, ' His seed remaineth in him.' Lively acts of joy and comfort are but like those motions of the Spirit upon Samson ; it is said the Spirit came upon him ' at times,' Judges xiii. 25, heightening of his- strength and courage ; so these come upon us but at times. Therefore standing evidences which are drawn from grace are far more certain than sensible consolation.
3. Because the Spirit s witness is seldom single, but given in con junction with water and blood : 1 John v. 8, ' There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood;' not only the blood of Christ, which witnesseth their redemption, but the water of sanctification, which witnesseth their interest in that redemp tion ; and then the Spirit comes and seals it in the heart of a believer. The Spirit's testimony is made to be subsequent, and follows the testi mony of our renewed conscience, Rom. viii. 16 ; for the Spirit's witness is nothing but his owning of grace in the heart, which is his own impress and seal, and assuring the soul. This is a stamp and fruit of mine ; it is the ratifying of his own work to believers.
4. Because grace giveth most clearness, calmness, and serenity of mind, so that we are most able to judge of those experiences. Where- ever there is purity, there is a witness, for it brings in light and comfort into the soul. Lusts are the clouds of the mind, which darken the judgment and distress the conscience ; and therefore the apostle saith,
1C SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SfiR. XIX.
2 Peter i. 9, that when men neglect to grow in grace, 'they are blind, and cannot see afar off ;' they have no spiritual discerning, and are not ahle to judge of spiritual" matters. An impure soul is always in the dark, full of doubts and fears ; certainly the more grace, the more con fidence, for there is more clearness of discerning. Guilt begets a servile fear and awe. Shame and fear entered into the world with sin ; it weakens confidence. Compare Gen. ii. 25, with Gen. iii. 10 ; in the former place it is said, ' The man and the woman were both naked, and were not ashamed ; ' why ? because they were in a state of inno- cency ; but in the other place, ' I was afraid, because I was naked.' As soon as sin came into the world there was fear upon the conscience of the guilty creature.
5. Because of the inseparable connection, that is, by the ordination and appointment of God, between grace and comfort: Eph. i 13, ' In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise/ In the original it is, TOJ Trvev/juari TT)S e7rayye\.tas rw dyta) — Ye were sealed by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise. There are three articles ; he seals as the Spirit of God, and as the Holy Spirit ; he will not seal to a blank, but where there is holiness and grace wrought in the heart. The apostle proves this is the method of God out of the names of Melchisedec : Heb. vii. 2, ' First being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem ; that is, king of peace.' First he bestows grace, and then gladness ; first he disposeth the heart to righteousness, then works peace in the eoul : Ps. cxix. 165, ' Great peace have they that love thy law ; ' they maintain and keep their comfort without interruption. Acts ix. 31, there is such another connection — ' The churches walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost: ' — the more grace, the greater comfort and satisfaction. This is the way which God hath -appointed.
Secondly, Why these graces must be exercised in holy duties.
1. Because thereby God would endear duty to the creature, by mak ing it the means of comfort. This is the best course to maintain the traffic and commerce that is between God and the creature. Look, as there is commerce between two distant places by trading, so between us and heaven, by exchange of duties and comforts ; our prayers come up before him, God's blessings come down to us. Who can expect gold from the Indies, but those that trade there in ships ? Who can expect these rich dispensations of God, but those that trade with him in holy service ? It is true, every time we bring our wares to God we do not make such a good market, because God rather gives than sells, and he gives at pleasure, though usually there is some defect in us, but this is God's established course. Or look, as the earth and the air maintain a commerce one with another : the sea and land send up vapours and exhalations into the air, and the air sends down sweet showers and sweet dews for the refreshing of the earth ; unless the earth sendeth up vapours, the air sendeth down nothing ; and so, unless we come and converse with God in holy duties, there are no dews and refreshments that come down from above for the watering of a parched heart ; and without the religious ascent of prayers and graces we have no influences from heaven. This is God's established order.
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 17
2. Because when our graces are exercised, then there is most rational likelihood that we shall receive this testimony from God. Consider it with respect to either witness that must concur to the settling your peace : for look, as under the law everything was to be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses, so it is in the great matters of our peace like wise. There is the Spirit and the renewed conscience, by which our peace is established ; and if we consider either, we shall find we are most likely to receive this testimony when grace is exercised. Look upon it—
[1.] On the Spirit's part. Those raised operations of grace are the special fruits of the Holy Ghost ; he not only works grace at first, but he gives actual help for the exercising of it ; and therefore when he hath moved and stirred us most, he is most like to seal. It is the con stant method of the Spirit first to work grace, and then to seal it ; the more conspicuous the work, the more of 'this sealing may we expect.
[2.] It is more rational upon our part ; for the more our graces are exercised, the more they are in view of conscience. Grace exercised and drawn out into action is more apparent and sensible to the soul ; acts are more liable to feeling than habits. Fire in a flint is neither seen nor felt, but when knocked against a steel, then you may discern it ; so when we draw out that which lies hid in the soul, then conscience can take the more notice of it. Hoots under ground in winter are not observed till they shoot forth in the spring ; the stream is seen when the fountain is hid ; the apples, leaves, blossoms, and buds are visible when the life and the sap is not seen ; EO acts are taken notice of by conscience when useless habits lie out of sight ; or if they be drawn out by imperfect operations, when our motions are faint and weak, they are like the waters of Siloah that run slowly — a man can hardly discern whether it be living water or a standing pool. No wonder our comfort is so weak, when sanctification runs so slow, and is scarce to be dis cerned. By experience we find that raised operations bring comfort and peace with them ; we feel a great calmness and serenity in our consciences after some solemn duty, because conscience can sweetly reflect upon the exercises of grace, and quiet itself with the discharge of its own duty ; then there is a peace and contentment within the soul.
3. I prove it by the rule of proportion. Look, as great sins destroy our comfort, so also the raised exercise of graces in duty increase our comfort. Scandalous sins, like a blot upon our evidences, do obscure them, waste conscience, and eclipse our comfort ; and when we return to folly, we smart for it : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' The Lord will speak peace to his people ; but let them not return to folly,' implying they hazard all their comfort when they give way to great corruptions : so on the contrary side, when we exercise our graces, they administer comfort. All that can be objected against this is, that there is no merit in duties as there is in sins ; but though duty do not merit comfort, yet it is the measure of it, for hereby the heart is prepared for peace, and usually according to the preparation of the heart ; so God comes in with the supplies of comfort : Ps. x. 17, ' Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.' When the heart is mightily drawn out in duty, answerable
VOL. XIV. B
IS SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SEE. XIX.
are the returns of God's grace. Vessels thus prepared are of a larger size, and can receive more of the bounty of God: Jer. xxix. 13, 'Ye shall seek roe and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.' God's answers of grace are according to the excitations of grace.
4. Because it is the best way to bring us to improve comfort. That which cometh from God and in God's way leadeth us again to God. There is nothing which raiseth the soul to such a degree of reverence and to such a wonder of grace as the experiences of duty do ; then the heart is full of joy and the mouth full of praise, and God hath all the honour : these are the lasting experiences that both endear God and endear the ways of God to us. (1.) They endear God : Ps. cxvi. 1, 2, ' I will love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my suppli cation ; because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.' (2.) They endear the ways of God to us. Comforts received in the way of duty come double to us : Ps. cxix. 93, ' I will never forget thy precepts, for by them thou hast quickened me ; ' I will never forget such a sermon and such an ordinance wherein I have received such quipkenings and such sweet enlargements from the Lord. The myrrh which Christ had left upon the handle of the lock made the spouse more earnest after Christ. What made David pant after God ? the sweet experiences of duty : Ps. Ixiii. 2, ' To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary/ Look, as when the springs are low, a little water cast into a pump brings up a great deal more ; so when God hath cast a few experiences into the soul, it breeds more affection, more love, and more joy. Now it is no wonder vain spirits question duties when God never ministered comfort to them that way ; they are full of satanical illusions and fanatic joys and conceits of comfort in the neglect of ordinances, but they never received the solid comfort of ordinances.
Use 1. It serves to inform us what little reason they have to complain of the want of comfort that are not diligent in the exercise of grace. Usually we lie upon the bed of ease, and expect God should drop comfort into us out of the clouds : 2 Peter i. 5, compared with ver. 10 ; ' Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,' &c ; then ver. 10, ' Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.' We must be much in the exercise of grace before ever the Lord gives us comfort. Whatever he may do for some out of the prerogative of free grace we cannot tell ; yet usually after much waiting and diligence, we receive this testimony from God. We find the Israelites in the wilderness were fed with manna from heaven, but the standing rule is — 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread/ Gen. iii. 19 ; ' And he that will not work, let him not eat,' 2 Thes. iii. 10. Comfort is the recompense of industry and the encouragement of faith and obedience. If we should gain assurance by neglecting the means, we should soon lose it again ; the Spirit would not speak so clearly as before. Comfort is a free dispensation, but always given in the use of means. The clock runs upon its own wheels; however, there must be weights hung- on, and we must draw them up at the appointed times. So God's dispensa tions run upon their own wheels ; they are free, but they have their proper weights ; and unless we pull up the weights by faith and prayer, the clock of mercy will stand still ; certainly it will speak no comfort
VEIL 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 19
nor sound peace to our souls. A fond expectation it is to look for comfort, and yet to live in sin, or else content ourselves with the low and faint operations of grace. Alas ! they that look for a full joy and yet walk in darkness, John will tell them plainly they lie, 1 John i. 6 ; and so men, distracted with the din and hurry of worldly cares and businesses, choke conscience, and so can never hear the voice of the Spirit. The children of God are to blame also ; their sane tin" cation is low ; and scarce to be discerned, therefore no wonder their comfort is but low. Grace, if any way exercised, is seldom without a witness. Never expect comfort either in the neglect or decay of holiness ; there will always be a doubting of the truth and a jarring between your consciences and desires.
Use 2. To press you to three things — to be much in duties, to draw out your graces to a high degree, and to observe your experiences.
1. To be much in duty. There are sweet comforts to be dispensed, there is marrow and fatness, and all you can desire ; comforts that differ only from the joys of heaven in the degree and in the manner of fruition ; rivers of pleasure that flow from God's house ; therefore be frequent in holy duties. Solomon saith, Prov. xxvii. 18, ' He that keeps the fig-tree 'shall eat the fruit thereof/ Certainly God is not a hard master ; if you keep close to Christ in duty, you shall taste of the fruit thereof ; but alas ! otherwise, if you neglect duties of religion, where will you have comfort ? He that is a stranger to God is and must necessarily be a stranger to the joys of the Spirit: Job xxii. 21, ' Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.' Usually we have peace and satisfaction after long acquaintance and familiarity with God, but those that are seldom or cold and customary in duties can never expect any solid joy.
2. To draw out your graces to some raised and high degree — ' Then thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer ; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I,' Isa Iviii. 9. It will be sweet to hear Christ say, ' Well done, good and faithful servant.' Look into the sphere of nature or sphere of grace, all excellent things are obtained with difficulty, and they will cost us much labour and sweat ; so will all ravishing sweet comforts cost us much pains in the duties of religion : Acts xxvi. 7, it is said, ' The twelve tribes served God instantly day and night.' In the original it is «/ eVrez/ei'a, with the utmost of their strength, with their extended abilities. You should seek God. and raise your graces to a vigorous degree and height ; then the Lord will come in : Jer. xxix. 13, 'You shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your hearts.' Alas ! many vainly accuse mercy when they themselves are idle, and do not seek God with all their hearts.
3. To observe experiences. It is good to listen to the softer whispers and suggestions of the Holy Ghost. Still be looking for God's answer and God's return ; as the psalmist saith, Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people.' Ah ! hearken and wait still, when God will drop out a word of peace and comfort, that you may be able to know the purposes of his grace. If the oracle be silent, beg the more: Ps. Ixxxvi. 17, 'Show me a token for good.' So go to God for some comfortable experiences of his grace, especially after great sins, deep distress, and strong desire :
2Q SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SZB, XIX.
Ps li 8 ' Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones that thou liast broken may rejoice ; ' his conscience was troubled, and he begs peace in his conscience.
Use 3 To put us on the trial, how shall we discern the testimony God giveth us in duties? I answer, Two ways: by impressions and by expressions, for God writeth and speaketh.
1. By impressions, which are left to be managed by our reason and discourse. By impressions I mean two things — ^
[I.] Those gracious experiences we have of quickening enlargement and actual excitation in the duty ; these are tokens for good : Ps. x. 17. ' Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble, thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.' Fire from heaven was the visible testimony of old ; that which answers it now is fire in the affections ; there is a communion with God in grace, though not in comfort; the motions of your hearts towards God 'are discovered by the enlargement of your desires ; unutterable groans are a fruit of the Spirit's presence as well as unutterable joys ; he is not only called 'the Comforter/ John xiv. 26, but ' the spirit of grace and supplication,' Zech. xii. 10.
[2.] The frame of the spirit after duty. Peace, as well as joy, is a fruit of the Holy Ghost : Eom. xiv. 17, ' The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' God giveth you a rest from the accusations from conscience, though not sensible consolations ; as when a man cometh from a prince cheerful because of his hopes, though he hath not received an actual answer to his request. Suavities and joys are mere dispensations : 2 Cor. iii. 17, < Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' Many of his children God keepeth in the lower way, and usually, though they have less of comfort, they have more of grace ; there is an impression of confidence and support is given, though not ravishment. By con versing with God Christians learn to rejoice in their hopes, though they have not enjoyment: Heb. iii. 6, 'Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.' It is a great matter to have impressions of confidence and encouragement in waiting.
2. By expressions ; when God doth, as it were, speak to us, and we are comfortably persuaded by the Spirit of God that we are accepted with him. Heretofore God spake to the ear audibly and by oracle : Gen. xv. 1, ' The word of the Lord came unto Abrarn in a vision, say ing, Fear not, Abram,' &c ; but now he speaks by his Spirit, not by voices and oracles ; such things are the dotages of distempered persons. A voice there is : Psa. li. 8, ' Make me to hear joy and gladness,' &c. ; David prayeth for it : Ps. xxxv. 3, ' Say unto my soul, I am thy salva tion ; ' but this voice is inward and secret, not to our ears, but to our hearts : 1 John v. 10, ' He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself ; ' Eom. v. 5, ' The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' God speaks to us by our own thoughts, which may be discerned to be the voice of the Spirit by the certainty and sweetness of it. The Spirit's voice can hardly be discerned from the voice of renewed conscience, because it insinu- ateth itself with our discourse and reason: Kom. ix. 1, 'I speak the truth
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 21
in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.' It can only be distinguished by its certainty and overpower ing light : Lam. iii. 24, ' The Lord is my portion, saith my soul ; ' and the Spirit assureth us it is true. Now the Spirit's witness is sometimes more sensible, and accompanied with sweetness ; but at all times certain, and accompanied with peace. The Spirit's witness concerning us must be understood with analogy to his witness concerning the word ; some times it is more high and sensible ; we cry, as the centurion, Mat. xxvii. 54, ' Truly this was the Son of God ; ' it is he, and it can be no other. At other times there is a more temperate confidence ; so here con science witnesseth we can be no other but the sons of God, and then it leaveth a marvellous sweetness upon the soul, and a reverence of grace. At other times confidence is more deliberate and temperate , and though there be not such a lively sweetness and strong consolation, that is, the effect of solemn duties, raised meditation, fervent prayer, and the like, yet there is serenity and calmness of mind, which is the same which I called peace of conscience before, but only that it is not built upon future hopes, but a present interest.
Use 4. To direct us how we should behave ourselves with reference to this matter.
1. If God giveth snstentation and support, we must be contented, though we feel no sweetness and sensible consolation. For —
[1.] God is not a debtor, and may do with his own what he pleaseth in dispensations of comfort, as well as dispensations of grace : Phil. ii. 13, ' For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' And —
[2.] We may want it without sin ; it is a preferment, and we must tarry till the master of the feast do bid us sit higher. We sin if they be despised : Job xv. 11, ' Are the consolations of God small with thee ? ' not if they be enjoyed ; it is not the want of comfort, but the contempt of it that is culpable. Such things as are mere dispensations and proposed as rewards are different from duties. To want grace, though it be God's gift, is a sin, because the creature is under an obli gation ; but not to want comfort, because that is merely given, not required.
2. When God speaketh comfort, you must hear ; you grieve the Spirit by resisting his witness, as well as his work. It is the duty of the crea ture to listen : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, 'I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints ; ' it is irreve rence and contempt when God speaketh, and we will not hear. A friend would take himself to be affronted at such a carriage ; if we are to wait, certainly we are to hearken. Now because persons of much fancy and great affection are wont to be full of scruples, and to underrate their own spiritual estate, and to suspect all that maketh for their comfort, let me tell you when comfort ought not to be suspected.
[1.] If it come in God's way, in duty, and upon the raised operations of grace, which note will distinguish it from delusions. Comforts and ravishments in the neglect of ordinances, as in fanatical persons, are always deceitful. God hath promised to talk with his people at the sanctu ary door, and to meet them that remember him in his ways : Isa. Ixiv. 5, ' Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and. worketh righteousness, those
22 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SfiB. XX.
that remember thee in thy ways. And so it is also distinguished from that confidence that Is in ignorant persons, which is nothing but a blind presumption, which would vanish if it did come to the light : John iii. 20, ' For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither coineth he to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' If in prayer or deep meditation God giveth in strong consolation, never suspect it.
[2.] If it lead us to God. Carnal security and presumption never urgeth to thankfulness, nor to a rejoicing in God ; they do not taste the sweetness of grace, and therefore have no reverence, no wonder at it : 1 Peter ii. 9, 'But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.' Fana tical joys put men upon pride, and a contempt of ordinances ; but in solid joys the soul is filled with reverence as well as sweetness : Ps. cxvi. 12, ' What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?'
SERMON XX.
By which lie obtained ivitness that lie ivas righteous, God testifying of his gifts. — HEB. xi. 4.
Doct. 3. That only the works of persons who are righteous are accepted with God.
It is clear from the apostle's argument — He obtained witness that lie was righteous. Why? God testified of his gifts. If God accept of his gift, he was a righteous person ; for God accepts the services of none but those that are righteous. First God accepts the person, and then the performance ; so Gen. iv. 4, ' God had 'respect to Abel, and to his offering ; ' first to Abel, and then to his offering. The person pleased him in Christ, and then his sacrifice. It is said, Judges xiii. 23, by Manoah's wife to him, ' If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering, nor a meat-offering at our hands.' She builds the acceptance of the person upon the acceptance of the service ; for God accepts the gifts arid offerings of none but those whose persons please him in Christ. So the Lord himself says, Mai. i. 10, ' I have no pleasure in you/ no delight in their persons ; then it follows presently, ' I will not accept of an offering at your hand.' Before the person pleaseth God, the work cannot, for these reasons —
1. Because this is the method of the covenant of grace, not to accept the person for the work's sake, but to accept of the work for the person's sake. God doth not accept us for our prayers and good duties ; that was the tenor of the first covenant, whereby our justification depended upon the worth and value of our works. It is not now, Do and live, but, Believe and live ; it is not according to the work that we are accepted, but according to our interest in Christ, Eph. i. G, ' He hath made us accepted in the beloved.' Ala.s ! when a man is out of Christ, it is not
VEK. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 23
enough for him to do his best ; the law is not relaxed ; it requires duty without abatement, or else it enforceth punishment without any mitigation. Do and live, sin and die. It doth not accept of our prayers, our tears, and our best, for the least failing renders us guilty of trans gressing the whole law ; so that, upon that supposition, ' if it were possible to keep the whole law, and offend in one point, he is guilty of all,' James ii. 10. That rule brooks no exception, until we change our copy ; till we be in Christ, one failing is enough to provoke God's disi >leusure. If a natural man could be supposed to keep the whole law and break but in one point, he is undone.
2. Because otherwise our duties receive defilement from our persons ; like precious liquor in a tainted and unsavoury vessel, or like that jewel put into a dead man's mouth, that loseth all its virtue : Prov. xxi. 27, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord ; ' mark, ' how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind ? ' When it is represented to God with all the advantages imaginable, yet it is abominable because it is a wicked man's prayer ; but usually there is some foul defect, that their very persons taint tbeir services.
Obj. 1. Is not God then a respecter of persons? will not this infringe the justice of God ? I might answer thus — If he should, he is under no rule ; the moral law is a rule to us, but not to God ; and he may do with his own creature as pleaseth him, and with his own grace as pleaseth him ; Mat. xx. 15, ' Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own ? '
But I answer rather, Respecting of persons, when it is sinful, is this, when in any cause we give more or less than is meet to any other person, because of something that hath no relation to the cause, as in judgment. When we wink at moral excesses, and acquit a man from the sentence of the law for his greatness, or when we deny right to a poor man because of his poverty. Now such a respect of persons can not be imagined in God ; for —
[1.] There is a cause why God should accept the services of justified persons, because he hath received a satisfaction in Jesus Christ. We are made comely in his comeliness ; Christ hath paid down a valuable consideration why all your persons and services should be accepted, though accompanied with weakness : Heb. x. 19, ' Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus ; ' this accept ance is purchased for us by the blood of Jesus. It was God's bargain with Christ, that he would love, bless, and justify all his seed, if he would lay down his soul as an offering for sin, Isa. liii. 10. There is the solemn bargain, ' When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.'
[2.] There is great reason why God should refuse the services of wicked men, because besides the state of their persons, there are gross defects in their services ; if he sacrifice, it is ' with an evil mind/ Frov. xxi. 27. For the principle, it is not out of obedience but custom ; for the manner, it is not with the affection of a child but with bondage ; for the end, it is not for God's glory but to promote secular interest. So that, a posteriori, these circumstances clear the justice of God; their most devotional aim is to please God, that they may the better quiet
24 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [$ER. XX.
themselves in their vanity and excess ; but the reason why they are not accepted is because they have no interest in Christ.
Obj. 2. Will it not open a gap to looseness ? If wicked men be not accepted, why do they pray and hear ? had they not as good do nothing ? I answer, No.
[1.] Because this would be a way to increase their sin, wholly to neglect them. There is no reason why God should lose his right be cause we have lost our power. Inky water will never wash the hands clean, and our sinftilness doth not take off our obligation ; God hath required it, and a wicked man is still under an obligation ; a drunken servant is not exempted from obedience though he be disabled for work. The command of God is absolute and peremptory, that all the sons of men should worship and fear him ; therefore to leave off duty would make the state more sinful. One sin cannot cuce another ; there is more sin in the total defect than in the bare performance of duty.
[2.] Because duties are the means God hath appointed to break off their sin, and come out of this miserable condition. If none of their works can please God, yet it is good to stand in the road of mercy, and to lie at the pool, John v. 7 ; though God doth not accept us for these things, yet these are the means God hath appointed for us to use. Simon Magus was bid ' to pray, if perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him,' Acts viii. 22 ; but the man that neglects the means cuts off himself from all hope, he reprobates himself and becomes his own judge ; he doth as it were say, I will never be saved. When men give over praying, and hearing, and reading, as the apostle saith, ' you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life,' Acts xiii. 46.
Obj. 3. From experience God doth reward many wicked men, there fore how can it be said their duties are not accepted ? 1 Kings xxi. 29, Aliab's humiliation kept off the judgment, and Nebuchadnezzar had the land of Egypt for his service against Tyre, Ezek. xxix. 18-20 ; that is nothing but a prophetical prediction. He did not think of accomplishing God's decrees, and the expression ' of giving him the land of Egypt for his labour' is taken from the manner of men ; when a servant doth his work, he hath his reward. But for God's rewarding of wicked men, I answer —
[1.] This is ex largitate donantis, out of the overflow of his own love and mercy ; they can claim and look for nothing : James i. 7, ' Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.' Though something may be given him, yet there is nothing theirs by way of promise ; all the promises being made and made good in Christ ; that is to them that have an interest in him : 2 Cor. i. 20, ' For all the pro mises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen.'
[2.] These mercies are not given for their sakes, but to give the world a document of God's bounty. Saith Calvin, Deus scepe rependit mercedem umbris virtutum, ut ostendat sibi placer e virtutes ipsos — God doth often reward the shadow of virtue that he might show that grace itself is very pleasing arid acceptable to him ; when Ahab doth but counterfeitly humble himself, God will suspend the judgment to show how he prizeth true repentance.
[3.] All the blessings that wicked men have are but temporal, and salted with a curse ; there is nothing of acceptance to life! Abab's
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 25
humiliation gained but a delay of wrath, and that increased his sin. Children have the bread of life, dogs have but the crumbs and offals of providence. Wicked men do not serve God with all their heart, there fore their mercies are defective as well as their duties.
Use 1. It serves for terror to wicked men. A natural man is in a wretched estate ; his most glorious acts, his very prayers, that are dressed up with a fair pretence of devotion, are abominable before God: Prov. xv. 8, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord ' — not only his sins, but his duties. It is the greatest despite that can be done to a man, that when he hath set himself to please, yet he is still hated. So it is with wicked men ; though they may preach, pray, and prophesy in Christ's name, yet nothing is well taken from them. Cain was punished for his murder, but was not accepted for his sacrifice. 'E-)(dp£>v Soapa a8(apa — the gifts of enemies are giftless gifts ; wicked men are God's enemies, and so nothing is pleasing that comes from them. It is true, Jesus Christ saith, Isa. xlix. 4, ' I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain ; ' but this was his com fort, 'his judgment was with the Lord, and his work with his God.' But with wicked men it is otherwise ; they labour and toil, but all in vain. It may be they may have their penny of profit in the world, and that their gifts may be useful in the church, and they may have temporal reward, but it is salted with a curse ; their sacrifice is but carrion, their prayer but babbling, and their table of the Lord is but the table of devils : Titus i. 15, ' To the pure all things are pure ; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.'
Use 2. To represent the privilege of persons justified: their persons please God, and so do all their works. You may improve it for comfort and thankfulness.
1. For comfort. When you are discouraged with your infirmities, your many failings in every duty, Christ will accept you : Ps. xxxiv. 15, ' The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.' Consider, thou art troubled about the imperfection of thy works ; they cannot be worse than thy person when God took thee into grace. God that pitied thee when thou wert in thy blood and perfectly evil, he will accept and love thee when thou art in thy person sanctified ; though there be abundance of dross, he can see there is some gold ; though abundance of wax, yet there is some honey : Cant. v. 1, ' I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey.'
2. For thankfulness. Oh ! what a mercy is this, that God should testify concerning our gifts, such worthless duties so tainted and defiled by the adherency of corruption ! There are many considerations to stir up our thankfulness.
[1.] That which is good is rather his own than ours, yet God will put it upon our account : 1 Chron. xxix. 14, ' Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort ? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.' When you come to God with the best enlargement and quickness of affection, it is the Lord that made us thus willing ; yet God counts them as our duties, though they may be fruits of his own Spirit. Then —
[2.] They are mingled with a great deal of weakness and defilement
26 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SliR. XX.
— Partus sequitur ventrem ; our duties have more of us than of the Spirit, therefore they are filthy and defiled. Observe the practice of the saints, their remarkable blemishes : Jacob seeks the blessing with a lie ; Eahab entertains the spies, but makes a lie about dismissing them ; Sarah calls her husband ' lord/ but her words are full of discontent and murmuring and distrust of God's promise. Moses smote the rock twice ; once in obedience and once in indignation. Who would think of such weak services, that God should accept of them ? nay, not only accept of them, but delight in them : Prov. xv. 8, ' The prayer of the upright is his delight ; ' that the holy God should delight in such creatures as we are ! We have imperfect conceits of God's holiness, otherwise we would wonder that he should accept of our faulty performances ; that the holy and pure God should not only accept, but delight in the prayer of a worthless creature. Then —
[3.] There is no profit redounds to God for all this, the advantage is ours : Prov. ix. 12, ' If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself ; ' 1's. xvi. 2, ' My goodness extendeth not to thee/ God is blessed for ever, sufficiently happy without the service of the creature. Job xxii. 2, there is a question propounded, 'Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable to himself? ' God is eternally and everlastingly happy ; he is incapable of improvement ; all the comfort and profit is ours, yet that he should delight in them !
Use 3. Direction to teach us what to do in our preparation to duties and holy exercises. If God accept the person and then the performance, look to your state, as well as to the frame of your hearts. Many men heap up duties upon duties, go round in a circle of religious exercises, as if they would work out their salvation that way, but do not regard the interest of their persons. Consider, examination is one of the preparative duties, as well as purgation of sin and excitation of the affections : 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.' We must prove our state still, otherwise we shall be disallowed. It is not necessary only to examine ourselves before the Lord's supper, but before other solemn ordinances. God would fain draw the creatures to a certainty, therefore he hath required often trial to look into their state. This is the method of God's acceptance ; first the Lord cleanseth, fits, and consecrates the person to be a spiritual priest, and then he is to offer: Mai. iii. 3, 4, 'He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.' Where God speaks of worship in the times of the gospel, first we must be purified and set apart for the priesthood, then offer up our gift; first there is a ' purging of the conscience from dead works,' then we are meet ' to serve the living God/ Heb. ix. 14 ; first we are ' washed from our sins in his blood ; ' and then ' made kings and priests to God/ Kev. i. 5, 6. There must be an interest founded, and a ground of acceptance for our persons. God will accept nothing at the hands of an enemy ; duties are but varnished sins. This should stir you up to the trial of yourselves, whether you are justified and reconciled to God.
But you will say, What shall men do that have no assurance, that cannot discern the interest of their persons in Christ ?
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 27
I answer, by distinguishing — The case concerneth either persons that have lost assurance, or those that have never gained it.
1. To those that have lost assurance by turning to folly, or tasting of the forbidden fruit of sin. By scandalous falls conscience is weakened, and prayer is interrupted ; as the apostle speaketh of family jars : 1 Peter iii. 7, ' Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered/ By allowance of passion, and wrath, and domestical disorder, the heart is .discomposed, and we cannot with such a holy boldness and confidence call God father. The like may bo said of many foul falls, by which conscience is wounded, and men have lost the peace and calmness of their spirits. Now, in such a case, men are not to come reeking from their sins and rush upon duty ; that would argue little reverence of God, and will find little acceptance with him,: Isa. i. 15, 16, 'When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood. Wash ye, make you clean, put ;i w;iy the evil of your doings from before mine eyes,' &c. Neither are they wholly to decline worship and restrain prayer ; that would increase the distemper, and add sin to sin. David got nothing by his silence: Ps. xxxii. 3, ' When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long ; ' Ps. li. 3, ' I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.' However, the main care of the next duty must be to get the person reconciled by these solemn acts.
[1.] There must be serious acknowledgment of sin with shame and sorrow. This is God's. established way for fallen saints : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' This is the saint's prac tice : Ps. li. 3, ' I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me ; ' and this is the most rational course. It is impossible it should be otherwise, either on God's part or ours. We are under a sequestration till we make suit to God : Num. xii. 14, ' If her father had spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?' Tender hearts will melt and mourn.
[2.] They must run to the old fountain opened for their uncleanness. There is no reconciling ourselves to God, but by Christ : Mat. iii. 17, ' This is my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased.' We must come with Christ in our arms : 1 John ii. 1, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' Duties are not our atonement, but Christ's intercession, which is the renewed application of his merit.
[3.] They must earnestly sue out their former estate, and the wonted effects of his favour: Ps. xxv. 6, 'Kemember, 0 Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindnesses, for they have been ever of old;' Ps. li. 12, ' Ptestore unto me the joy of thy salvation.' Christ doth not only intercede, but the believer must also, the earnest motions of the Spirit being the copy of his intercession.
2. It concerneth those that never got assurance. To those, I answer in several propositions : —
[1.] Assurance is very necessary and comfortable in our approaches
28 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XT. [SfiR. XX.
to God ; such addresses do most become his grace. Christ hath taught us to begin our prayers with ' Our Father ; ' Heb. x. 21, 22, ' Having an high priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water/ Having such free offers, such an abundant merit, such sweet experiences, God looketh that we should draw nigh in the assurance of faith : 1 Tim. ii.
8, ' I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting/
[2.] Every suppliant cannot sail with such full sails into the haven of grace, nor all persons at all times ; there is a weak faith as well as the faith of Abraham, and yet a weak faith is faith. David and Heman, two choice spirits, sometimes wanted comforts, and it is God's usual course still with many of his dear children ;, they have less peace, that they may have more grace ; and God withholdeth comfort out of wise dispensation to engage them in the more duty : every one hath not an abundant entrance into heaven, 2 Peter i. 11.
[3.] When we cannot reflect upon our actual interest, the direct and dutiful acts of faith must be more solemnly exerted and put forth.
(1.) You must disclaim earnestly your own personal righteousness. This complieth with God's end ; for therefore do his respects begin with the person, that the work may not be the ground of acceptance : Dan. ix. 18, ' We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies/ Every one cannot go to the highway of comfort; there is safety in going the low way of humiliation, and in the sense of your own unworthiness for all acceptance with God in Christ.
(2.) You must adhere to God in Christ the more closely; faith giveth safety, though assurance giveth comfort. There may be a dependence and renewing of confidence, and a waiting with hope, in every duty ; and a Christian, though he be without comfort, yet he is not without encouragement ; there are invitations to wait upon God, and they cast themselves upon God in this hope : Ps. xxii. 8, ' He trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver him/ It is good when you can refer yourselves to God's acceptance upon the hopes of the gospel.
(3.) There must be consecration when you cannot make application. It is sweet when we can say, mutually ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved^is mine,' Cant. ii. 16 ; but it is safe to say, 'I am my beloved's/ and he is mine by choice, though I cannot say he is mine by gift. A Christian resigneth up himself to God : Ps. cxix. 94, ' I am thine, save me/ David pleadeth his choice ; he taketh Christ as a Lord, though he cannot apply him as a saviour.
(4.) These direct acts may be pleaded to God in prayer: Phil. iii.
9, 'And be found in him, not having my own righteousness/ &c., and so casting ourselves upon God: Ps. cxix. 49, ' Kemember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope/
Secondly, ' By it he, being dead, yet speaketh/
The words are enigmatical, a holy riddle ; and they include a
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 29
seeming contradiction, that a man should speak, and yet dead ; there fore the words, as all dark places, are liable to several construc tions.
In the general, we are certain it must be some privilege and con sequent of his faith ; for the apostle saith, ' By it.' Some take the word's speaking, o-fi/e/c£o^<w?, for living, as if it intimated the resur rection ; though slain by Cain, he yet speaketh, converseth with the glorious saints above, to the praise and glory of the Lamb for evermore, upon whom he had pitched his faith. Certain it is that the Jewish doctors make it to be one of the great arguments of life after death, the crying of Abel's blood. Again, some translate AaXemu, passively ; he is yet spoken of, as if it implied nothing but his name living ; yet in the church that is the usual recompense of faith. God perpetuates the names of the godly when the names of the wicked shall rot ; but this the apostle had spoken of already, ' By which he obtained witness that he was righteous ; ' he is famous for his righteousness through all ages. Again, others take it as a metaphor, ' speaks ; ' that is, doth as it were speak, and it may be by way of exhortation or clamour.
1. By way of exhortation: though he be dead, yet still by his example, he preacheth to the church. Thus dead persons may be said to speak by their example ; and voice is often in scripture given to inanimate things ; the creature is said ' to groan/ Bom. viii. 22, and the heavens 'to declare the glory of God,' Ps. xix. 1, 2. Abel, the first martyr that died for the service of God, is a speaking instance and example for all ages. He speaks several lessons — (1.) That duty is not to be declined though we get hatred by it. (2.) That we must be obedient even to the death ; and when we are called to it, we must seal our faith and profession with our blood. (3.) That the rage of the wicked against the righteous is very great. (4.) That God will call wicked men to an account for our blood, as he did Cain for Abel's blood. But this cannot be the meaning, because this is no peculiar privilege of faith. All examples have a voice, the creation hath a voice ; but—
2. I suppose another speaking is intended ; the crying of his blood, a clamorous speaking for vengeance upon Cain. Two reasons for this —
[1.] Because it suits best with the expression of Moses : Gen. iv. 10, 'The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.' Now the apostle's design is to abridge the history in Genesis.
[2.] Because it suits with the other expression of the apostle. Abel's speaking is mentioned : Heb. xii. 24, ' The blood of sprinkling speak eth better things than the blood of Abel ; ' the blood of Abel speaketh after he was dead punishment, but the blood of Christ speaketh pardon.
Obj. An objection may be framed against this in the text — ' He being dead, yet speaketh ; ' ert, yet, or to this day.
I may answer, The present tense is put for the preterperfect tense — change of tenses is usual in scripture ; or ' yet,' that is, after his death, though not till the apostle's days. But I rather pitch upon another answer, because there is a special emphasis in the expression, Abel's blood is still crying. There are Cains alive to this day: some
30 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [&ER. XX.
that walk in the way of Cain, as Jude speaks, ver. 11 ; he was the patriarch of persecutors, therefore Abel's blood is not fully revenged to this day, but cries for vengeance still. Those that inherit the rage of former persecutors do always inherit their guilt ; for imitation is a kind of consent, as if we had been by and consented to the fact : Mat. xxiii. 35, ' That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from, the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zecharias, the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.' The blood of Abel was revenged upon the Jews that killed Christ. These two are mentioned because of two remarkable circumstances at their death. Of Abel it is said, Gen. iv. 10, ' His blood cried from the ground.' Zecharias, when he died, said, 2 Chron. xxiv. 22, ' The Lord look upon it, and require it.' All the martyrs join in one common cry against the persecutors of all ages : Kev. vi. 9, 10, ' I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony that they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' That is to be understood metaphorically. Passions of revenge being not proper to the glorified saints, the meaning is, their blood is as it were newly shed, and cries to God afresh, requiring vengeance ; so that Abel and all the saints still cry, though some succession of ages are passed since their blood was shed. Many things notable are implied in this clause. I shall despatch all in some brief hints.
First, Let us take notice of his dying — ' He being dead.' The history is in Genesis. There were probably two causes of the murder; one plainly expressed in scripture, the envy of Cain; the other implied — that is, indignation against the reproof of Abel.
First, One cause is plainly expressed. God accepted Abel ; he had a better offering, and therefore Cain slew him : 1 John iii. 12, ' Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother ; and where fore slew he him ? because his own works were evil, a-nd his brother's righteous/ The note is this —
Doct. 1. Persecution usually ariseth from envy.
Men malign what they will not imitate ; when others are holier than their interest and vile affections will give them leave, therefore they hate them. Our Lord himself was delivered for envy : Mat. xxvii. 18, ' Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered him ; ' his disciples sold him out of covetousness, and his enemies persecuted him out of envy.
To apply this let us hate this sin with the more indignation. Alas ! we are apt to envy each other's gifts, esteem sancity, and grace ; from thence arise contentions and quarrels, and they end in blood. The first man that ever died in the world was slain and murdered by envy. Pride gave us the first merit of death, and envy the first instance of it : Gen. xxxvii. 11, 'His brethren envied him ;' they envied Joseph, and then conspired his death. Envy may be impeached as the cause of most of the blood that hath been spilt in the world; that is the reason why envying and murder are so often joined together, Gal. iv. 21 .
Secondly, The second cause is implied — viz., indignation at reproof :
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 31
Gen. iv. 8, * And Cain talked with Abel his brother ;' what their talk was we find not. The hint is —
Doct. 2. Another cause of persecution is indignation at reproofs.
The world would lain sleep quietly in sin, and complain that these bawling preachers trouble their sinful rest. When a man holds out the testimony of Jesus, he torments and troubles them : Rev. xi. 10, ' The witnesses tormented the dwellers upon earth ; ' their testimony was the world's torment.
Use 1. It teacheth us to bear it the more patiently: James v. 10, ' Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.' Did you ever hear of any that spake in the name of the Lord, and the world not hate them ? The cross is very kindly to our rank and order ; Abel, that is but now a priest, presently is made a martyr.
Use 2. Bear reproof patiently. Storming at reproof is the cause of that hatred that is against the ministry: Jer. vi. 10, ' The word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; when he came to reprove, they thought he had railed.'
From the murder itself — ' He slew his brother.'
Doct. 1. Hatred of the power of godliness began betimes.
There is an old prediction : Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' There are two parties that will never be reconciled. And here are two brothers, one of them the seed of the woman, and the other the seed of the serpent ; though they were brothers, came of the same womb, and brothers of the same birth as is conceived. The apostle speaks of two other brothers of the same father, one persecuted the other : Gal. iv. 29, ' As then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, so it is now.' And in all ages of the world we may say, ' So it is now ; ' and so it will be for ever : this is the old hatred.
Then consider Abel's death, not only as the death of a saint, but as the death of a brother. The note will be —
Doct. 2. The strife of brethren usually ends in blood, or in sad and dreadful accidents.
Solomon saith, Prov. xviii. 19, 'A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city ; and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.' You may as soon surprise a strong city barred, as gain an offended brother. It is a hint useful to those families where discord ariseth by reason of difference in religion. Difference in brothers is like a rent made in the whole cloth ; a seam may easily be sewn, but a rent in the whole cloth cannot ; the nearer the union, usually the greater rent. A Spanish preacher that embraced the .Reformation was slain by his own brother. Some may be restrained by the severity of laws ; but in times of public tumult there have been many such sad instances among nearest relations.
It followeth, ' yet speaketh.' Consider it under a twofold regard, as the common murder of a man, or as the murder of a saint.
First, As the murder of a man ; this was a murder done in secret, yet Abel's blood speaks to God, that is, God took notice of the fact though past human cognisance. The note is —
Doct. 3. That murder is a crying sin.
?,2 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SER. XX.
It will out one way or other, God cannot want witnesses. We have seen in providence strange ways for the discovering of murder. Ke- rnember that is God's office, to be inquisitive for blood : Ps. ix. 12, ' When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them.'
Use 1. It is terror to them that are secretly guilty of murder. Many times wicked men act at a distance, nobody can tell who hath done the harm, yet God will find them out. Or if men should occasion public changes or confusions merely to promote their private interest, to build up a name to themselves, ' the stone out of the wall shall cry, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it/ Hab. ii. 11. Or if a man hath plotted the death of any merely to enrich himself, the Lord takes notice of it.
Secondly, Or look upon it as holy blood that was shed, as the blood of a martyr. The note is —
Doct. 4. The blood of a martyr hath a loud voice in the ears of God.
It implies two things — God's love to his oppressed children, and a certainty of vengeance to the oppressors.
1. God's love to his oppressed children. Vengeance is quick-sighted on their behalf. Though the children of God are dumb, like sheep before their shearers, yet their blood cries. Christ spake no words of revenge, but rather prayed for his enemies; yet for shedding his blood, 'Wrath came to the uttermost upon the Jews,' 1 Thes. ii. 16 ; Gen. iv. 10, it is, 'The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me.' Every drop was precious, and every wound hath a mouth open to God : Ps. cxvi. 15, ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' God hath a precious account of them after death. God's love lasteth after death. He is in covenant with their blood and with their dust when it is in their grave, therefore he will know what is become of them. Nay, he doth not only take notice of their blood but of their tears : Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle : are they not in thy book ? ' Men may burn their bodies, but they cannot blot their blood and tears out of God's register.
Use, This is comfort to the children of God. He doth not only take notice after their death of the cry of their blood, to avenge it on their enemies, but to recompense the innocent, to reward them ; for that is one effect of its crying. God doth not only take notice of Cain, but vindicates innocent Abel ; therefore is he slain, that he may live for ever ; slain, that God may bestow upon him a happy life. When your blood is shed for the testimony of God, treasure up this comfort ; God will not be wanting to reward it. The two first martyrs in the old testament and the new were Abel and Stephen. What doth Abel signify, but vanity and mourning ? and Stephen signifies a crown. Your mourning in the world doth but make way for a crown of glory : James i. 12 ; ' Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.'
2. It implies certainty of vengeance to the oppressors; when the parents did not accuse, yet the blood cried. The children of God may not know who harms them, yet their wrongs cry loud in the ears of God. Abel's blood did not only cry in God's ears, Gen. iv. 10, but cried in Cain's conscience, ver. 13. How many cries are there ? The affliction itself that cries ; God hath an ear for affliction. He heard the affliction
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 33
of Hagar, Gen. xvi. 11. Then your tears have a voice: Lam. ii. 18, ' Their heart cried unto the Lord, Let tears run down like a river day and night : give thyself no rest ; let not the apple of thine eye cease.' Then the prayers of saints have a voice : Luke xviii. 7, ' Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him ? ' The martyrs under the altar cry : Rev. vi. 9, ' The souls under the altar cried with a loud voice, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' Per secutors' consciences, they cry, 0 thou bloody Julian ! thou hast mur dered the children of God, and hast been guilty of oppression ! As is storied of the king of France, that was author of that bloody massacre, he could never sleep afterward, but was haunted with terrors in his conscience, and at his death blood issued out at all the pores of his body.
Use. What terror and astonishment should this be to the enemies of the church, be they secret or open ! Oppressed innocency will cry aloud ; they may forgive, but the Lord forgets not. The Lord will not only take notice of their blood, but bottle their tears : Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle : are they not in thy book ? ' God kept a register of David's sufferings ; every weary step was recorded in God's book ; it is but folly and madness to think to hide your practices, or to escape punishment.
SERMON XXI.
By faith Enoch ivas translated that he should not see death ; and iuas not found, because God had translated him : for 'before his trans lation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. — HEB. xi. 5.
THE apostle makes it his chief scope in this chapter to convince the Hebrews of the nature, and worth, and efficacy of saving faith. To that purpose he layeth down the acts of sanctifying faith, ver. 1, and through out the chapter he treats of the effects, fruits, and consequences of faith. Here we meet with a consequent or fruit of faith in the instance and example of Enoch, who, among the rest of -those glorious lights where with this chapter is adorned, shineth forth like a star of the first magnitude. Let me inquire why the apostle mentioned Enoch next to Abel, Seth and other holy patriarchs of the blessed line and race being passed by ? I answer, Though the Spirit of God is not bound to give an account of his method, and therefore is not to be vexed with the bold and daring inquiries of human reason, yet because all things in the scripture are ordered with good advice, a few humble inquiries are lawful and profitable.
1. Enoch was the next solemn type of Christ ; Abel was a type of Christ's death, and Enoch next proposed as a type of his ascension. Ton from un dedtcavit, the dedicated, or the dedicator, (Christ), ' hath consecrated for us a new and living way through the veil, that is to say,
VOL. xiv. c
34 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SEE. XXI.
his flesh,' Heb. x. 20; therefore he is called «p%^705 £<sn;?, ' the prince of life,' Acts iii. 15, and he said, John xiv. 3, ' I go to prepare a place for you.' Tertullian calleth Enoch, Candidatum ceternitatis ; and others have called him Obsidem et testem vitce ceternce, the pledge and witness of eternal life ; so was Christ dedicated to this purpose, that he might be the captain of life and salvation to the church, and he is gone to heaven as a pledge of our eternal glory.
2. Because between these two instances there is a fit proportion : Abel was an instance of the efficacy of faith, and Enoch of the conse quent and reward of faith ; Abel, he suffered for righteousness, and the instance of Enoch shows what is the fruits of suffering faith — that faith which doth engage us in suffering doth interest us in the reward. In Abel's death the holy patriarchs saw what they might expect in the world; and in Enoch's translation they saw what they should receive from God. The Lord would give them this perfect document both of the present operation of faith and the future reward of faith.
3. Because he was an eminent saint, the next that is taken notice of in the history of Moses. The apostle mentions not all the saints in the blessed line, but only the choicest. Now Enoch is many ways eminent and notable ; for his birth we find, Jude 14, ' He was the seventh from Adam ; ' usually that is the number of perfection. Some that would turn all things into an allegory descant thus : That as there were six from the creation that died, and the seventh was translated alive from earth into heaven ; so for six thousand years death shall reign, but in the seventh millenary it shall cease, and eternal life shall succeed. But this is but a fond conjecture ; they are more pious that observe that the seventh man was dedicated to God, and God takes him for his special servant, as he takes the seventh day for his special day ; but, chiefly, he is notable for his life and conversation : Gen. v. 24, ' Enoch walked with God ; ' that is, wholly dedicated himself to the service of the Lord — a phrase given to those that by express profession were set apart for the Lord, either as prophets, priests, or kings, for special service by office and ministration. But usually it is applied to persons employed in the exercises of piety and holiness : walking with God in the old testament, and well pleasing to God in the new, are synonymous terms. Another thing is notable in his life, that he lived as many years just as there are days in the year — three hundred and sixty-five years, Gen. v. 21, 22. Enoch was translated next after Adam's death, as will easily appear by chronology ; as soon as Adam died Enoch was translated. God in Adam would give the world a pledge of the fruit of sin, which was death ; in Enoch, a pledge of the fruit of holiness, which is immortality and eternal life.
In the words there is a proposition, and the confirmation of it.
1. The proposition or assertion of the apostle is, that b?j faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. The proposition implies two things — the blessing, and the means of obtaining it : the blessing — ' He was translated ; ' the means — ' By faith.'
2. The confirmation, which respecteth both the blessing and the means. He proves that Enoch was translated, out of that phrase of Moses ; for saith he, He was not found, because God had translated him. And then he proves that it was by faith in the latter part of the text
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 35
— For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. In which reasoning there is a perfect syllogism : whosoever is translated on or after his pleasing God is translated by faith. Enoch was trans lated on or after his pleasing God, therefore he was translated by faith. The major is proved by the sixth verse — ' Without faith it is impos sible to please God ; ' the minor by the history of Moses — ' For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.'
Let me illustrate the words.
' By faith ; ' that is, by faith in the being of God, and in the promise of the Messiah and of the world to come. Now the reason why his translation is attributed to faith is given by the apostle — ' For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.' His faith was the fountain of his godliness, and his godliness was the pledge of glory ; his faith respected his pleasing God, and his pleasing God was an evidence of his interest in eternal life.
' Enoch.' We read of two Enochs — one of the race of Cain, another of the line of Seth ; the hypocritical church imitating the true church, as in outward rites, so in having the same names : the Enoch here meant was of the family of Seth.
' Was translated,' transplanted — /jiereredr) : the apostle useth this word to note his transportation to heaven.
There are many questions for the opening of this translation ; as (1.) Whether he were translated in soul and body ? (2.) Whether he died in the translation ? (3.) To what place he was translated, whether to heaven or some earthly paradise ?
1. Whether he were translated in soul and body ? Some think he was translated in soul only, and not in body, as if there were nothing extraordinary in the history of Enoch, and his body was left on the earth. This is altogether improbable. The phrases imply something more than ordinary : Gen. v. 24, ' And Enoch walked with God, and was not ; for God took him.' Why should there be such special phrases, ' he was not,' and ' God took him/ if an ordinary thing were intended ? So the apostle here — ' That he should not see death.' It might have been enough to have said he died, as of all the rest ; therefore there was somewhat of miracle in it. for he was gathered by God into glory, both in soul and body.
2. Whether he died in the translation or no ? I answer, No, but was only changed ; for the apostle saith ' that he should not see death.' The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, and ' he was not,' Quid non mori eum fecit Deus — Onkelos, Non occidit eum Deus. Probably, as those that live at the last day, the apostle saith, ' We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed/ 1 Cor. xv. 51. He was transported to heaven in a moment, without the pains and horrors of a natural death ; and being purified in soul, and purged from corruption in his body, was presently clothed with a glorified body. As Elijah was carried alive soul and body into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11 ; so those that live at the Lord's coming ' shall be caught up alive into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air/ 1 Thes. iv. 7. And when the apostle himself would express his own desires, that he might go to heaven in this manner (for "le first believers thought the day of judgment was at hand), he saith,
Cor. v. 2, ' In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
36 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SER. XXI.
with our house which is from heaven ; ' and ver. 4, ' Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life ; ' that is,. he desired that glory might come on him without dissolution, without the trouble and pain of sickness and diseases — ' Not that I might be unclothed/ and put off the body, but ' clothed upon/ invested with the qualities of a glorified body.
3. Whither he was translated, to what place ? Some say to the earthly paradise, others to the heavenly paradise.
[1.] Some say to the earthly paradise ; so Haimo and others, there to stand in a happy condition until the last act of the world shall be brought on the stage, and then to fight with their imaginary antichrist. But that was defaced by the universal deluge and flood in Noah's time — 'The highest hills that were under the whole heaven were covered/ Gen. vii. 19, and the custody of the seraphims and flaming- sword was removed when the beauty and pleasure of it was gone ; and the most probable opinion is, that paradise was in Armenia. Now Armenia was covered, and Noah's ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, or Armenia, Gen. viii. 4.
[2.] Some say to a heavenly paradise, by which they understand not the heaven of heavens, but some third place, which is called in scripture paradise, and Abraham's bosom, in which the souls of some rest until the last day, not fully perfected and blessed. Tertullian, Austin, and many of the fathers, were of opinion that the souls of martyrs did straightways flit hence into the presence of God, but the souls of common Christians went to paradise, by which they understood secreta animarum receptacula, sedesque in quibus requiescunt — some unknown place, where they did enjoy happiness, congruous and con venient to their condition : and in such a place they would place Enoch. But all these things being devised without warrant and leave from the scriptures, little heed is to be given to them. Briefly, an earthly para dise it cannot be, that is defaced ; a third place it cannot be, that being devised without warrant from the scriptures. Heaven only remaineth, whither God translated him both in body and soul, there to enjoy the comforts of his presence ; it would have been an infringement of his happiness to separate him from his God, with whom he had walked here in spiritual communion. So the Targums, or expositions of the Jews, Jonathan, Translatus fuit, et ascendit in ccchim, &c ; Josephus calls it ava^coprjcri^ Trpos rov Oeov ; the Arabic version, Translatus est in paradisum.
That ' he should not see death ; ' that is, that he might not die a natural death by a dissolution of the body, but undergo a sudden change of qualities.
But you will say, How can this stand with the general curse of God pronounced upon all mankind in Gen. ii. 17, ' In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die/ thou and all thine ? and Gen. iii. 19, ' Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return ; ' or that eternal decree, Heb. ix. 27, ' It is appointed for all men once to die.'
I answer, This was an extraordinary instance, that doth not cross the rule ; it was a special dispensation that the Lord might give the patriarchs a document and instance of eternal life, and the sudden change of qualities was something analogical to death ; and were it
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 37
not for this special dispensation of God, he was under that obligation, but the Lord was pleased to privilege him for the great purposes of his glory.
'And he was not found.' The words relate to what is said, Gen. v. 24, ' And he was not,' The phrase is used, Jer. xxxi. 15, ' Rachel weep ing for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.' This phrase is often put for those that are dead : Gen. xlii. 36,' Joseph is not, and Simeon is not ; ' he supposed them dead, or knew not what was become of them, but it is taken for any disappearance.
' For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.' Some make it to be an inward testimony in his conscience ; others, some visible and public honour that was done to him before the world, the story of which is not now extant. Most probable, it is the testimony that is given him in scripture : Gen. v. 24, ' And Enoch walked with God,' which the Septuagint renders — evrjpeo-rrja-e rw 0ea>, in that and other places, which we shall hereafter explain.
But you will say, How can this be said to be before his translation, for the testimony of Moses was long after the translation of Enoch ?
I answer, The apostle is to be understood thus: Enoch had this testimony in scripture, so that before his translation the scripture witnessed he pleased God ; not before his translation he received this testimony ; and that is the order of Moses : GCD. v. 24, ' Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.'
A few hints from what hath been spoken before I begin the two main and principal points.
Obs. 1. There is a life everlasting prepared for God's children. The instance God would give the fathers was in the translation of Enoch ; the instance God would give believers in the times of the gospel was in the ascension of Christ. As soon as Adam died Enoch was trans lated. In Adam God would give the world a pledge of the fruit of sin, which is death ; and in Enoch God would give a pledge of the fruit of holiness ; and that is immortality and eternal life. Enoch was not merely translated for his own benefit and comfort, but for the comfort of other patriarchs against the fear of daily crosses in this life, and against the terrors of death ; they saw there was now like to be violence in the world. There was one martyr — Abel was slain. Now that they might have, comfort against this, God translated Enoch. The great instance God gives in the times of the gospel was the ascension of Jesus Christ ; when the human nature was carried into heaven, that was a pledge of our glorification. He carried our flesh into heaven, and he left his Spirit with us; he took our flesh into heaven that he might prepare a place for us, to receive heaven in our right, and he left his Spirit with us, that we might be prepared for heaven. Heaven is not only prepared for believers by Christ's ascension — ' I go to prepare a place for you,' John xiv. 2, but believers are prepared for heaven — ' vessels of mercy prepared unto glory,' Eom. ix. 23. Look, as in all contracts pledges are mutually taken and given, so Christ would take a pledge from us. even our nature, and give a pledge to us — his Spirit ; therefore we are as sure as ever Enoch was to be trans lated to bliss if we have an interest in Christ: John viii. 51, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, If any man keep my saying, he shall not see
38 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SfiR. XXI.
death.' Enoch was translated that he should not see death ; and Christ, under a deep asseveration, makes the same privilege to every believer. Death, since the death of Christ, will not be deadly to them ; in death itself they see life. It is true, Enoch was translated in body and soul ; yet, however, we are presently with the Lord in soul as soon as we are dissolved.
Use 1. Is to reprove believers for minding the present life as much as they do. We busy ourselves too much in the world, and toil in gathering sticks to our nests, when to-morrow we must be gone and flit away. Here we ' dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth,' Job iv. 19, and we are con sumed by the blast of his nostrils. Man is but a little enlivened dust, and we are, like potsherds, soon broken. Hereafter we live, now we are dying every day, saith Austin, Nescio an vita mortalis, an vitalis mors nominanda est ; I do not know whether I should call this life a living death or a dying life.
Use 2. Is comfort to believers in the hour of death : John xi. 25, ' He that belie veth in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live/ When you go down to the grave, you may go down with this assur ance, that you shall live ; though you look upon your flesh as morsels for the worms, yet you may look upon it also as parcels of the resur rection. God is in covenant with a believer's dust ; the body, thai seems most to suffer, shall be raised up again.
Obs. 2. That life everlasting cannot be obtained but by some change, by flitting and removing out of this present life. Enoch died not, yet, however, he was changed ; God took him : \ Cor. xv. 50, 51, ' We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; ' that is, as now invested with these qualities.
Use. This may comfort believers against the terrors of death. The only use of death is to put off the old earthly qualities, that we may put on the new and heavenly ; death doth only pluck off the rotten garment. Christ will call the grave to an account : Kev. xx. 13, ' The grave gave up her dead ; ' as Joseph left his coat in his mistress's hand and fled away, so we leave the upper garment of the flesh in death's hands, but we fly away ; and Christ, at last, will say, Grave ! where 'is my Abraham, my Isaac, and my Jacob's dust ?
Obs. 3. That the body is a partaker with the soul in life eternal ; Enoch was translated both body and soul. It is a comfort we can say with Job, ' With these eyes we shall see God,' Job xix. 26, though our body be eaten up with worms. This body, as if he did knock upon his breast, ; This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,' 1 Cor. xv. 53 ; so Phil. iii. 21, ' Who shall change our vile body,' &c. Look, as the world, when consumed with fire, it is the same world for substance, it shall be only a purging fire ; so this corruptible body is the same body for substance, though God doth away the corruptible properties of it.
Use. This is a great comfort against the difficulties and inconveni ences of the holy life. The same eyes that have been lifted up to God in prayer, those eyes shall see Christ upon his white throne, and those spirits that are now spent and wasted in holy exercises shall be
VEIL 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 39
recruited. A body wasted in sin is a sad prognostic of the devouring burning, but a body wasted in duty shall be restored and repaired again ; so it is comfort against the inconveniences of the common life. Many indeed have a vile body, because subject to diseases, humbled with pains and aches, racked with the stone and the gout ; this vile diseased body shall be a glorious body. Christ's body was first vile, then glorious ; first scourged, mangled with whips, then crowned with honour and glory ; and he sat down with God. Oh ! let us bear all these ; they will be full of nimbleness, vigour, beauty, and glory, like Christ's glorious body.
Obs. 4. Heaven is but a translation to a better place. When you die, you are but translated. Enoch walked with God here ; but when he was translated, he lived with God in an uninterrupted glory. Many times Christ comes into his garden to gather lilies ; and they are cropped here, that they may be transplanted from the winter to the summer gardens, from the church and lower dispensation of the ordinances to paradise, that we may read divinity in the face of the Lamb for ever more, as scholars that are sent from the grammar-school to the uni versity.
Use. Let it not be irksome to us to be loosed from the body that we may be present with the Lord and joined to Jesus Christ ; it is but a removal and preferment, therefore it teacheth Christians to grow weary of the world. The world is the place of your pilgrimage, the place of sorrow and sin : certainly we have little reason to love the- world. (1.) It is Satan's circuit; when God calls Satan to an account, Job i. 7, ' Whence comest thou ? ' Satan answered, ' From walking to and fro in the earth.' (2.) It is sin's house of office, a place of defile ment : Isa. xxiv. 5, ' The earth is defiled under the inhabitants there of/ (3.) It is a common inn for all sorts of men, for bastards as well as sons: Ps. cxv. 16, ' The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men/ Wicked men have a creature-right, it is given to them, they have a right by provi dence ; nay, here we are not only fellow-commoners with wicked men, but fellow-commoners with beasts ; they have a creature-right too, as well as we. (4.) It is the shambles of the saints : Kev. xviii. 24, ' In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon earth ; ' there they are grieved, vexed, and slain. Now, who would grieve to be transplanted to a higher and happier region, where nothing that defiles grows, nothing troubleth in those holy, blessed, and quiet mansions ? Death is a preferment.
Obs. 5. That some are carried to heaven by a special and privileged dispensation. The entrance into glory is very different. God is not bound to the ordinary course of nature. Enoch and Elijah were both transported in soul and body ; Elijah was sent to heaven in a fiery chariot. And so shall those that live at the last day ' be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air/ 1 Thes. iv. 17. Look, as God took away Enoch without the pain of sickness and trouble, so he carries many more joyful and singing to heaven. And therefore, in giving grace and glory, God will use a liberty and the prerogative of free grace. Some seem to be rapt up into heaven by a fiery chariot, by strong elevation of comfort and joy in the Holy Ghost, but others are
40 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XT. [SfiR. XXI.
carried in the lower and darker way of sorrow, trouble, and soul-sick ness.
Use. It is the duty of believers to be doing what is required, and to refer mere dispensations to God's good pleasure. Free grace is dis pensed in a different way.
Obs. 6. That the persons which are honoured in this extraordinary way were Enoch and Elijah ; and what were they ? They were two that shined like stars in a corrupt age, those that contested with the corruptions of their own times. The note is this — viz., God's heart is especially set to honour them that are zealous for his glory in corrupt times. In the days of Enoch men were very corrupt, therefore the flood was threatened. Now Enoch kept a constant counter-motion to the times ; he did not only walk with God, but reproved the vices of others : Gen. v. 24, ' He walked with God/ an$ he reproved the ungodly men of his age, Jude 14, 15. It is a standing rule, God will honour those that honour him. Public and zealous instruments are carried on by a mighty hand of providence, and sent to heaven in a glorious way.
Use. Oh then, learn first ' to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,' and then ' to reprove them,' Eph. v. 11 ; contest zealously for God. God will put honour upon them in the eyes of the world ; not only give them glory in heaven, but public and visible honour here, that all might take notice of them.
I come to the points, which are two —
1. The right and interest of believers in the happiness of the eternal state.
2. The necessity of pleasing God, or walking with God, before we coine to the full enjoyment of him. Which two points afford two doc trines.
Dcct. 1. That the end and the great privilege of faith is to be trans lated out of the world into the happiness of the eternal state.
1. I shall prove the point by scripture : 1 Peter i. 9, ' Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.' Heaven is there proposed as the chief end and reward of faith ; all that we do, all that we suffer, all that we believe, it is with an aim at the hope of the sal vation of our souls. The last article of our creed is everlasting life. We begin with belief in God, and we end with life everlasting ; there is the sum and result of faith, eternal life and glory: John xx. 31, ' These things are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through his name.' The end of the word is faith, and the end of faith is eternal life ; all the duty part of the word may be reduced to faith, and all the promissory part to life. It is also the great privilege of faith : Eph. ii. 8, ' By grace ye are saved, through faith.' The foundation of glory is laid in mercy on God's part, and it is received by faith on our part : it is given of grace, not sold for works ; and received by faith, not purchased by desert.
2. I shall by a few reasons prove the interest of believers in eternal life, and why faith gives a title to glory.
[1.] Because by faith we are made sons ; all our right and title is by adoption. Children may expect a child's portion, as in natural
VJEK. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 41
things : the title follows the birth, natural or legal. We hold heaven as co-heirs with Christ: 1 John iii. 2, ' Now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; ' that gives us a right. Now faith in a juridical sense makes us sons : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ; ' he gave them fgovo-iav, as a right to the inheritance and sonship. So also in a real, though spiritual sense : 1 Peter i. 3, ' He hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled/ &c. The new birth is by the infusion of faith ; all relations to God are built on that change : our hope depends upon our new birth.
[2.] These are the terms of the eternal covenant between God and Christ, that believers should have a right to heaven by Christ's death ; therefore, whenever the Father's love, and Christ's purchase are men tioned, faith is the solemn condition. The Father hath meant to dispose of heaven to a sort of men, but upon what condition : John iii. 16, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten son,' — what to do ? and upon what terms ? — ' that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;' so again, John vi. 40, ' This is the will of my Father that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at the last day ; ' upon that condition Christ bargained with God, and God with Christ. So for the purchase of Christ : Heb. ix. 15, ' He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheri tance/ When Christ died, as the mediator and testator, he made believers his heirs. There is no other name expressed in his will and testament, but they that believe, and they that are called, which are all one ; therefore they are called, Heb. vi. 17, ' heirs of promise.' Our inheritance was dearly purchased, Christ was to be a mediator by means of death, but it is made over to believers by will and testament.
[3.] Because faith is the mother of obedience, which is the way to eternal life ; faith gives a title, and works give an evidence. This is the drift of the apostle here — Enoch pleased God before he was tran slated, therefore by faith he was translated; for 'without faith it is impossible to please God.' God hath no respect to works without faith ; the way to be made happy is first to be made holy, and all the influences of grace are received and improved by faith. Faith is the mother of grace, and grace the pledge of glory. All your works are not evidences of eternal life, but as they come from faith. It is faith that kindles love and inflames zeal, and quickens obedience.
[4.] By faith that life is begun which shall only be consummated and perfected in glory. The life of glory and the life of grace are the same in substance, but not in degree. Here faith takes Christ, and then life is begun, though in glory it is perfected : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son, hath life ; ' it is begun in him already. When the soul is changed by grace, there is a foundation laid for the changing of body and soul by glory: the Spirit will not leave his mansion and dwelling-place. When Christ hath once taken up his residence in the heart, and begun life there, he will not depart. Believers are said to be raised up at the last day by the spirit of holiness dwelling in
42 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [$ER. XXI.
them, Horn. viii. 11 ; and Eom. v. 2, ' By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Faith anticipates heaven, and begins the life of glory by hope and the joys of the Holy Ghost.
Use 1. To press you to get faith upon this ground and motive, it will give you an interest in heaven. Heaven is the portion of believers. Dogs, and they that are without, cannot have the children's portion. Unbelievers are strangers to the comforts of religion for the present, therefore much more hereafter, when the definitive sentence is passed upon them. Oh, who would not labour for faith upon this ground ? Faith must needs be an excellent grace, that bringeth such a salvation-, it giveth you an interest in Christ and heaven. Faith ennobles the blood ; no birth like it ; it entitles us to the highest inheritance that is in the world. No dignity like that to be a son of the king of heaven, to be of kindred with all the saints, to be of the royal and noble blood. See how the apostle compares one birth with another : John i. ] 2, 13, ' Who are born, not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God ; ' that is, not in that unclean lustful way that the children of the highest nobles and potentates of the earth are begotten. Faith can make the poorest beggar to be richer than the greatest monarch : James ii. 5, ' Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom ? ' the sons of the potentates of the world cannot show the like ; to be an heir-apparent of heaven is better than to be possessor of the whole world. Oh, do but consider the inheritance ! the birth is noble, but the estate exceeding large. If you would have me express it to you, I must tell you the best commendation of heaven is silence, when the great voice saith, Come up and see, then we shall know what heaven is ; but now our ear hath received a little thereof in the promises ; therefore I shall speak something of it.
[1.] Consider the evil we are delivered from. We are freed from hell — ' They shall not perish,' John iii. 16, and ' shall not come into condemnation,' John v. 24. Consider wicked men, their change is terrible. Wicked men grow upon the bank of hell, and when they are cut down they slip in, and there is their portion. When the inhabi tants of hell are described, those that hold hell by tenure, Eev. xxi. 8, ' The fearful and unbelievers/ are in the front. Hell is the portion of unbelievers that never would own the faith, and the portion of apos tates that have renounced the faith, and the portion of hypocrites that do but counterfeit faith.
[2.] Consider the good that is prepared for us, the excellency of the reward that God hath prepared for believers ; it is life, and a crown of life ; there is more in the accomplishment than in the promise. The word doth but speak of it in part, prophecy is but in part; the word is suited to our present estate ; we have not affections and apprehensions large enough for such an excellent glory ; God is ever better to his people than his word. The incomparable privileges a believer hath in this life, those pledges and first-fruits they here enjoy, do show the heavenly life must needs be glorious and excellent. The joy of the Holy Ghost is ' unspeakable and glorious,' 2 Peter i. 8 ; heaven there fore must needs be more excellent and glorious. Let me instance in two things. (1.) The perfection of your nature. In heaven there is
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 43
no want and no weakness ; the body remains in an eternal spring of youth, the blossoms of paradise are always green and the soul is rilled up with God ; every faculty finds a satisfaction. We see what we now believe, and possess what we now love. Alas ! here, though we know indeed that God is, yet we do not know what he is completely. The knowledge of God and the love of God shall be our sole employment, and we shall have constant communion with God, without weakness, weariness, and diversion, and God will be always fresh to us ; as the angels that have beheld his face for these thousand years, yet still delight in God ; we shall never be cloyed, because satisfied. And the perfection of heaven shall be so great, that, besides the personal glory of Christ there shall be a great deal of happiness redound by the glory of his saints ; Christ will so set forth the riches of his goodness that he will be ' admired in all them that believe,' 2 Thes. i. 10 ; that is, in the glory that he puts upon the saints. (2.) The communion and company you shall there have. As soon as the soul departs out of the body yon shall be carried by angels in triumph to Christ. Believers have the same entertainment which Christ had. Christ was welcomed to heaven with acclamations : Dan. vii. 13, it is said, ' One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.' He was ' brought,' that is, by a train of angels, and there conducted and welcomed to heaven with a Well done, and well suffered for the souls of men ! So shall your souls be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, Luke xvi. 22. Why into Abraham's bosom ? Christ himself was not ascended, therefore it is said into Abraham's bosom ; but you shall be carried into Christ's bosom. Look, as God did as it were take Christ by the hand when he ascended, therefore it is said, Acts ii. 33, ' Being by the right hand of God exalted.' It principally notes the power of the divine majesty ; but it is an allusion to the entertainment we give to a friend or guest we would welcome, we take them by the hand ; so will Christ entertain you. How sweet will it be when Christ shall give us the right hand of fellowship ? The eye that cannot now endure to look upon the sun .shall see the clarity and brightness of the divine essence beaming forth in Christ ; we shall see Christ himself upon his white throne, and see all the holy ones of God : Mat. viii. 11, ' We shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven,' and remain ever in his presence. It is sweet now to meet with the servants of God in an ordinance to praise God ; what will it then be when we shall praise God for ever in the great assemblies of the spirits of just men made perfect ? Consider, all this is made over by faith ; we have the right and title in this world, but the inheritance is in our Father's keeping, it is reserved in the heavens, therefore get and keep faith.
Use 2. It serves to direct you how to exercise and act faith in order to the everlasting state. Five duties believers must perform.
[1.] The first work and foundation of all is to accept of Christ in the offers of the gospel ; there is the foundation of a glorious estate. God excludes none from heaven that receive Christ into their heart. The first gospel commission that Christ signed and sent into the world contained this article — ' He that believeth shall be saved,' Mark xvi. 16. And when the jailer said in his trouble, ' What shall I do to be
44 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SER. XXI.
saved ? ' it is answered, ' Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,' Acts xvi. 31 ; receive Christ into your heart, and he will receive you into heaven. Let us bring our beloved into our beloved's house, into our hearts, and he will then bring you into those mansions that are in his father's house. The primary office of faith is to close with Christ. There the foundation is laid rightly to receive Christ ; and when the union is begun there is a pledge of glory : Col. i. 21, ' Christ in you the hope of glory.' The great work of a Christian should be to get Christ in him ; there is the beginning of heaven.
[2.] It directs you to exercise your faith, to believe the promise of heaven which God hath made. Certainly faith is very weak in this particular, else we should have more ravishment and enlargement of affec tion. And the reason of this weakness of faith is, partly because it is wholly future, and the promise seems to be checked and defeated by death, and partly, because of our great tmworthiness compared with the largeness of the recompense. Guilty sinners have low thoughts of the grace of God ; therefore it is a mistake of Christians to think they only doubt of their own interest, they doubt of the main promise : Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder/ &c ; it is one of the fundamental truths never closely and surely enough laid up in your souls. A guilty creature is apt to straiten the divine mercy ; and we cannot believe God will do all this. Consider the riches of God's mercy, and the sufficiency of Christ's merit, God's mercy is one relief ; it is rich enough and full enough to give us heaven and glory. When God gives, he will give like himself. The two great perfections of the godhead are im mensity and eternity ; he will give, with reference to his immensity, ' an exceeding weight of glory ; ' and, with reference to his eternity, ' an eternal weight of glory ; ' the apostle mentions both in 2 Cor. iv. 17, &c. This is a benefit fit for God to give. Then ruminate in your thoughts upon the abundant merit of Christ Jesus ; it is a high dignity, but remember it is purchased with a great price. Consider the humiliation of Jesus Christ, that you may believe your own exaltation. Certainly if God can abase himself, we may expect that the creature may be advanced and glorified ; and if Christ is clothed with our flesh, we may the better wait to be appareled with his glory. Consider, if Christ's glory could not hinder him from dying for us, certainly our misery cannot hinder us from reigning with Christ ; the giving of Christ makes all more credible : Rom. viii. 32, ' He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? ' These things will facilitate the belief of heaven.
[3.] Get your own title confirmed ; lay claim to your inheritance ; seize upon heaven as your right and your portion, so as not only to believe heaven is possible and credible, but that it is your right, and made over to you in the testament of Jesus Christ : 1 Tim. vi. 19, ' That you may lay hold of eternal life.' A Christian should possess and enter upon it as his own inheritance — This is mine. It was sweet when God said to Abraham, Gen. xv. 1, ' I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' Consider the grace that is wrought in you ; it is the earnest and the pledge of glory, it is the bud of glory ; there-
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 45
fore let us ' rejoice in hope of the glory of God/ when we have ' access to his grace by faith/ Rom. v. 2. A Christian should look upon his present standing as a pledge of glory. Heaven, the apostle calls it ' the prize of our high calling/ Phil. iii. 14 ; he that hath given me Christ, and called me, can glorify me. God hath called me to grace that I may wait upon him for glory ; therefore rest upon the promise till you come to enjoy it, and until God measures the performance into your bosoms.
[4.] Let us often renew our hopes by serious and distinct thoughts. This is the way to anticipate heaven, by musing upon it : Heb. xi. 1, ' Faith is the substance of things hoped for/ &c. Wherever there is faith it will send out some spies to look within the veil, and see the glory that is there. We should always be thinking and ruminating upon it. If a man were adopted to the succession of a crown, he would always be pleasing himself with the supposition of the glory ; so when poor creatures are called to such hopes, they should be creating sup positions and images. Worldly men feast their spirits with worldly hopes ; they are thinking of the increase of their trade and promoting their gain: James iv. 13, ' To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain ; ' so a believer will be sending out spies, and feasting himself with his glorious hopes. A child of God doth translate himself by degrees, and weans himself from the world more and more, and is putting his heart into heaven before his person is there ; he is ' seeking things that are above/ Col. iii. 1, and seriously musing upon them ; his heart is in heaven before his body — ' Our conversation is in heaven/ saith the apostle, Phil. iii. 2Q : all the business of their lives is laid so that they may look heavenward. As a man beyond the seas, when he hath gotten an estate there, will be forming his business so that he may draw it home ; so a Christian is compassing this in the whole course of his life, that he may get home, and return to his country. It is a hard matter to get the heart to the study of heavenly things ; the children of God should do so. The sabbath-day is the image of heaven, and the com munion we have with God in the ordinances is the pledge of that communion we shall have with God in heaven : God hath appointed that day on purpose for our help.
[5.] Another work of faith is earnestly to desire and long after the full accomplishment of glory. Faith bewrayeth itself by desires, as well as thoughts. All things hasten to their centre. Heaven is our home, and we should be hastening thither, not only in thoughts but desires. The world to a Christian is but libera custodia, a larger prison, where his soul is kept under a restraint, and from the full enjoyment of Christ ; therefore a Christian's life is spent in desires and groans : Bom. viii. 23, ' We that have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' Mark, ' we that have.' A man that once hath tasted of the clusters of Canaan, he is weary of the wilderness ; so a Christian is groaning for home, and for heaven, and for the full enjoyment of Christ, as the apostle saith, 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' They love his appearing.' Their hearts are always drawing towards Christ ; if Christ doth but say, I come, he echoes again, ' Come, Lord Jesus Christ, come quickly/ Rev. xxii. 20.
46 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SER. XXI.
Use 3. To exalt the mercy of God to believers ; once sinners, and by grace made believers. Observe tlie wonderful love and grace of God in three steps —
[1.] That he hath provided such an estate for believers. What a miracle of mercy is this that God should think of taking poor despicable dust and jishes, and planting them in the upper paradise, that they should be carried into heaven and made companions of the angels. How would we wonder if God should take a clod of earth and place it among the stars, that it may shine there ! And how much more may we wonder when the Lord is pleased to take us out of the grave, and out of the earth, and lift us up above all heavens ! when a man that is made of the dust of the earth is i:rdyye~\,os, equal to the angels.
[2.] That this state is provided freely, and upon such gracious terms. The terms are faith, and not merit ; that is the tenor of the new cove nant. Believe and live, not do and live ; but work's serve to evidence that interest. The Lord hath said, John in. 36, ' He that believes in the Son of God hath everlasting life ; ' he hath it, as sure as if he were possessed of it. God will exclude none that will but accept of the offer ; therefore if thou dost but rely upon Christ by a true and proper faith, thou art in a safe condition : John v. 24, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath ever lasting life/ Amen, amen. Will you believe Christ upon a double oath, when he plighteth his truth ? Let us not straiten the promises ; all that believe shall partake of that marvellous glory — all the difficult work was done by Christ — ' He was taken from prison and judgment/ Isa. liii. 10, that we might not come into condemnation.
[3.] That God should send up and down the world to offer this sal vation to men. The prophet saith, ' The salvation of the Lord is gone forth,' Isa. li. 5 ; and ' Wisdom hath sent forth her maidens,' Prov. ix. 3. And God hath sent forth his ministers, given us commission to open the grace of the gospel ; and yet how is it scorned by men as if heaven were not worth the taking. If we did believe that there were such a glory, and that our eyes should behold it, how would it raise our hearts in thankfulness to God.
Use 4. Comfort to God's children against wants, and against troubles and persecutions, and against death itself,
[1.] Against wants. Let us be content with any condition in the world, since we are so well provided for in a better. Alas ! after a short time we shall have no need of these things : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom.' Oh, you need not distract yourselves with worldly cares, there is a king dom provided ! It is grievous, I confess, to see wicked men abound with ease and plenty, and the children of God humbled with wants ; but consider, if you have not so much money and means as others have, yet you have a better portion in Christ. God hath given you faith, and you are rich enough in Christ : James ii. 5, ' Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him ?' Alas ! wicked men that have large possessions, yet they may perish, notwithstanding their outward enjoyments.
[2.] It is great comfort against troubles and persecutions. Let us
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 47
continue in the faith. There is comfort enough provided for us in the reward of faith : 1 Thes. iv. 18, ' Comfort one another with these words.' What words ? why, that Jesus Christ will come in the clouds and meet believers, and they shall be for ever with the Lord. We pitch too much upon a carnal hope, and we think that this way and that way deliverance will come from something we fancy in the world, but we do not look after the glory of the everlasting state. There is an eye of flesh, when there is no arm of flesh — suppositions of worldly help. God will whip us for this vain confidence. We should comfort ourselves that there is an everlasting portion. When the Lord would comfort the patriarchs concerning the murder of Abel, there was the translation of Enoch ; so when the apostle St Peter writes to the distressed Hebrews (he had much ado to wean those godly Hebrews from carnal thoughts of a temporal salvation and a temporal Messiah, from the pomp and splendour of an outward deliverer), he proposes this to keep up their joy : 1 Peter i. 9, ' Receiving the end of your faith, the salva tion of your souls.' The encouragements of the world run in another strain, looking for supplies in this and that corner of the world. St. Paul continued in steadfastness, not only under the difficulties but dangers of Christianity : 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.' Why ? — ' For hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness/ &c ; that is, that he was thinking of what comfort it would be when he should sit in heaven among the glorified saints with his crown of righteousness upon his head. The Christian's life is not only a race but a warfare. We must not only run, but fight; therefore the apostle saith, Heb. xii. 1, ' Eun with patience the race that is set before you.' Now that which should keep us up is a garland of immortality and glory which Christ hath wreathed for us. The primitive Christians, when they were under deep and dreadful persecutions, how did they comfort themselves with the kingdom that is above ? The heathens suspected them as if they intended to change the government. When you hear us talking of a kingdom, you vainly and without reason suppose it is a human and earthly kingdom ; no, we profess to hope not for an earthly but heavenly kingdom.
[3.] It is a comfort against death itself. There is a glorious state provided for believers. It is the end and privilege of faith to be tran slated out of the animal and corruptible life into that which is heavenly and immortal. Death to the godly is but a sleep, and the grave but a chamber of rest. Indeed the grave to wicked men is a prison, where their bodies are kept, that they may not infect and corrupt the church ; but to the godly their life is not extinguished, but hidden, Col. iii. 3 ; and when Christ, who is their life, appears, then the veil is taken off, and they shall appear with him in glory. Death to them is a transla tion ; life is not taken away, but changed — changed from a miserable and corruptible life to that which is blessed and eternal. It is true, death takes away the life of the body, which consists in the union of the body and the soul, and this it doth but for a while ; but it doth not take away the life of the soul, for that is immortal : it feedeth on your dust, but the soul is in paradise — in Abraham's bosom, and it hath nothing to do with the spiritual life ; still it is united to Christ. Look,
48 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SEE. XXL
as when Jesus Christ died (and Christ and a believer run parallel), the personal union did not cease ; so when we die, the union with Christ doth not cease ; we die as creatures, as members of the first Adam, but we are sure to live as members of Christ; Jesus Christ is our head in the grave. The death of the wicked is an execution ; it is indeed an act of vengeance. God orders death to be a trap-door to let them into hell ; but death to a godly man is an act of your Kedeemer to translate you, and bestow upon you the happiness of eternal glory.
SERMON XXII.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death ; and ivas not found, because God had translated him : for before his transla tion he had this testimony, that he pleased God. — HEB. xi. 5.
THE second general point is the necessity of the holy life.
Doct. 2. Those that would live with God hereafter must learn to please God ere they depart hence.
In the prsuance of this point I shall examine —
1. What it is to please God.
2. The necessity of pleasing God ere we depart hence. Where (1.) The necessity of the thing itself ; and there I shall show what respect and ordination the holy life hath to eternal glory. (2.) The necessity of the time, or the necessity of pleasing God, ere we flit out of the pre sent life.
First, What it is to please God — ' He had this testimony, that he pleased God.' It is a phrase by which the apostle interprets that place in Genesis, chap. v. 24, ' And Enoch walked with God.' In the Sep- tuagint it is evrjpea-Tija-e ra> #eo>, Enoch ' well pleased God;' so that to please God is to walk with God. The only difference between them is that the one relates to God, the other to ourselves. Pleasing of God implies his gracious acceptation, and walking with God implies our duty. Elsewhere the phrases of pleasing God and walking with God are joined in scripture ; as Col. i. 10, ' That you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing.' Walking notes the fixing and the holding of a settled course in our lives, that our intention and main scope must be to please God ; so 1 Thes. iv. 1, ' We beseech you,' saith the apostle, ' as ye have received of us how you ought to walk, and to please God, so you would abound more and more.' Walking notes the course of life, and pleasing on our part notes the aim of the believer ; all his care is to approve himself to God. On our part, it notes our endeavours ; on God's part, the success of our endeavours, his gracious acceptation. By this collation of places, we find that pleasing of God is all one with walking with God ; but because I intend to handle the phrase in the full latitude of it, I must make it yet more comprehensive ; for by the context you will find that it not only implies ' walking with God,' but, which is another distinct phrase of scripture, ' coming to God,'
- 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI.
49
as you may see ver. 6 for after he had said, ' Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God, he adds, 'For he that cometh to God ' &c as if pleasing- God and coming to God were all one. So that the whole duty ot man m the present life is comprised in this phrase of ' pleasino- God and it is explained by these two parts— by ' corning to God • ' and when we are come, ' to walk with God.' I shall inquire—
1. What it is to ' come to God ? '
2. What it is to ' walk with God ? '
First, What it is to ' come to God ? ' It is a usual phrase by which faith is set out m scripture. Coming and believing are all one : John yi. 65, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth m me shall never thirst,'— where coming and believing are put as terms of the same import and signification. Now this coming to God implies several acts of the soul, which must be explained with analogy and respect to outward motion. In every motion there are two bounds stages from which we come, and to which— Terminus a quo, et ad
1. That which we come from is the curse and misery of our natural condition, or else w-e can never please God; as the apostle proveth, Bom viii. 8, They that are m the flesh cannot please God/ Mark the distinctness of the phrase/ eV <rapKl 6We9, they that 'are in the
»n ; they that grow upon the old root, and are in their unregenerate state and condition. There is a great deal of difference between bein- in the flesh, and having the flesh in us. The children of God, as Ion- as they live in the world, have a mixed principle, they have flesh i£ them ; but they are not so properly said to be in the flesh, for that s an absolute immersion in the carnal state, as being in the faith notes a state of believing: 2 Cor. xiii. 5, 'Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith ; so being in the flesh notes a corrupt and carnal state. JNow they that are thus in the flesh can never please God that is, can never be accepted with him ; so that out of this state we must
3me if we would perform this great duty. Now this coming out of the flesh is done by several acts, several progresses and tendencies, by which the soul comes from the curse and misery of the carnal state.
[1.] By a sensibleness of our distance from God in such a condition inere is no coming but presupposeth a sense of absence. Guilty creatures are at a vast distance from God. There is a great ralch between us and heaven, an impassable gulph; therefore the natural state is expressed by the prodigal's ' going into a far country,' Luke xv. 13. There is a distance and departure from God ; therefore it is said, %? M T'r ™ U- we,re sometimes afar off, but now are made nigh by the blood of Christ ; afar off, not only out of the church, but Sit of the state of grace. Naturally we are all at a great distance in our minds and affections from God, and God is at a great distance from is; heaven is closed up against the access of a guilty creature. Arnono- other things this is one of the fruits of Adam's fall and disobedience" Adam did not only lose the image of God, but the fellowship of God •' therefore ever since, the soul and God are at great distance and elongation. So the psalmist expresseth it : Ps. Iviii. 3 ' The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born
VOL. XIV. J
50
SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SER. XXII.
speakino- lies.' There is a strangeness between us and God, and we cannot come mutually to converse together. Now actual sins make the breach wider and greater: Isa. lix. 2, 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God;' they make us careless of communion with God, and they make God resolved against any fellowship, or having any communion with us Fallen man at length, is not only come to be like the beasts, but like the devils ; he puts on not only the brutish disposition of the irrational creatures but disposition of Satan himself ; for the devils cannot endure the thoughts Of G0d— 'The devils believe and tremble,' James n. 19. Ihey hate their own thoughts of God ; therefore they cannot endure the pr< of Christ, but c"y out, Mat. viii. 29, ' Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come to torment us before the time ?' This was the language of devils- the presence of God was a bondage and a torment to them. So it is with guilty sinners ; they cannot endure' the presence of bod, they speak just like the devil, Job xxi. 14, 'Depart from us ^for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' Carnal men hate the thoughts of God. Now the first work of the Holy Ghost is to make the soul to be sensible of this distance and alienation from God.
[21 There must be also a sense of the misery of such a condition. Men care not for God till they are sore pinched and urged with their own wants. When the prodigal was in a far country (by which tl state of nature is represented), there with riot he spent his substance; but 'when he began to be in want,' then he thinks of returning to his father Luke xv. 14. Men do not desire to recover their commiimo: with God till they are thoroughly bitten with a serious remorse ; God sends his hornet and stings their consciences, then they think runnin- to God. All the addresses to Christ m the days of his flesh beo-an Fn the want of the creatures ; the blind and lame and deaf, some possessed with devils, their maladies and miseries brought them to Christ else there would not have been so great resort to him. b here ; men never come to Christ till they are displeased with their natural state. Look, as Joab neglected to give Absalom a visit till he burned his cornfield, 2 Sam. xiv. 30, 31. Joab had never come if he had not set his barleyfield on fire ; so the Lord lets m some sensible displeasure into the soul, and they begin to see the misery of a state of distance and alienation from God ; and then they think of returning to God, and cry out, Oh, that they might be united to God! as it is with believers in point of heaven, where there is the nearest communion with God ;— we are apt to neglect breathing and panting after heaven when it is well with us in the world ; but when the world is crucified to us, a dead and useless thing, oh, then, woe is me that my pilo-rimage is prolonged! as David, when he was driven from his own palace, and was forced to wander up and down, then he says Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar ! ft cxx 5 ._so also it is with sinners in point of communion with God grace; 'they do not think of returning to God and making up the breaches and removing the distance between God and them, till hath made them weary of their carnal state, by letting some sense ot his displeasure light upon their consciences.
[3.] There must be a sense of our inability to return and come i
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xr. 51
him. Man is a proud creature, and loth to be beholden ; he would be happy and sufficient to himself; we would eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel ; and if we could heal our own wounds we would never return to God. Conviction usually endeth in hypocrisy, when the soul is not wrought off from its own strength. If men can heal conscience, and dress up a form of religion, there they rest ; men stay in themselves till this be done. We are all by nature absent from God, and the scripture showeth us our inability to return. The state of fallen man is resembled by the wandering of sheep : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray/ Of all creatures, sheep are most apt to stray, and most unable to return. Swine and dogs know the way home again, but sheep do not : so it is with the soul. Saith Austin, Domine, errareper me potui, redire non potui • Lord, I could go astray, and wander by myself, but I knew not how to return. It is Christ's office to bring us to God ; God hath set up a mediator to make up our distance from God. It is Jesus Christ alone that must carry the strayed lamb home upon his own shoulder, as the Holy Ghost alludes to that similitude, Luke xv. 5. We can never go to God upon our own feet, but we must be carried home upon the shoulders of Christ ; therefore conviction will never be successful till it brings the creature to come and lie down at God's feet as utterly undone, and to say, Jer. xxxi. 18, ' Turn us, Lord, and then we shall be turned.'
2. The next bound and stage in this motion is, to whom we do return, and that is to God ; to God, through Jesus Christ, for other wise he can never be well pleased with us. He hath proclaimed from heaven he will never be pleased with his creatures till they become one with Christ : Mat. iii. 17, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased/ And Christ himself, when he professeth the quality of his offices, saith, John xiv. 6, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life/ Now the several tendencies of the soul towards God are a serious purpose to come to God, an earnest desire, and a constant waiting.
[1.] A serious purpose and practical decree issued forth in the soul. As the prodigal, when he was humbled with want, resolves, Luke xv. 18, ' I will arise, and go to my father ; ' so there is a resolution, I will arise, and go to God. All grace is founded in this practical decree. So David professeth his own shyness, that for a long time he kept off from God, and there was a distance between him and God ; but at length he took up a serious purpose and determination that he would go and humble himself to God : Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord/ &c. The soul, being inclined by grace, resolves to come to God through Christ. The scripture ascribeth much to this Trpodeats, and settled resolution, that ' with full purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord/ Acts xi. 23. Our own wants and needs will make us full of anxious traverses, but the resolution and decree of the soul comes from grace ; for herein lies the formal essence of faith, a resolved casting of the soul upon Christ, which is the issue and result of all those anxious and serious debates that were wont to be in the soul, by which, in the prophet's language, Jer. xxx. 21, ' The heart is engaged to approach to God ; ' when there is a charge laid upon the soul, by which the soul is engaged to come into his presence.
52 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [Sfill. XXII.
[2.] There is an earnest desire of enjoying communion with God in Christ: Ps. Ixiii. 8, 'My soul followeth hard'— or maketh hard pursuit— ' after God;' and the pursuance of the soul is by desires ; they are evidenced to be gracious, because they are not only after ease and comfort. Such desires may arise from self-love, but after a constant communion with God : Ps. xlii. 1, ' As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God ; ' not only after the sweetness and refreshment of grace, but after intimate converse with God: Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the^Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord,' <fcc. And they are after grace as well as after comfort : Ps. cxix. 5, ' Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! ' All the endeavours of a natural man are to go away from God ; but when a soul is touched with grace, it can never have enough holiness, and enough grace, and enough communion with God.
[3.] Constant and industrious waiting. Many times God makes the soul wait long ; he hath waited long upon us, and therefore he makes us to wait long ere we receive the sensible effects of grace. Therefore this coming to God is described by an industrious and constant waiting ; as Benhadad's servants watched the king of Israel for the word ' brother, 1 Kings xx. 33, so the soul waits upon God for one glimpse of his love.' David expresseth this earnest waiting by the waiting of a sentinel or watchman for the dawning of the day : Ps. cxxx. 6, ' My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning ; I say, more than they that watch for the morning.' Look, as the weary sentinel that is stiff and wet with the dews of the night waits for the dawning of the morning, when he may be taken off from his charge and duty ; so doth the poor soul wait for the first dawning and breaking out of the rays of grace upon the soul. Now this is not only done by a Chris tian at his first conversion, but after coming and renewing his accesses to God by Christ.
Secondly, What it is to ' walk with God ? ' That is the original expression, from whence this of pleasing God is taken, Gen. v. 22. Now, what is the meaning of that ? Some read it, Vacavit Deo — he seques tered himself, to converse with God from the distraction of worldly affairs ; others render it, A inbulavit in timore Dei, — he walked in the fear of God ; the Targum of Jerusalem, He served, or laboured in the truth before the Lord. Others apply it to public office and service in the church, as if it were proper to those that were employed in the function of the priesthood : certainly in such a restrained sense it is taken, 2 Sam. xxx. 35. But this would be a sense too restrained, especially since it is here explained by the apostle by pleasing God. Therefore it notes any solemn profession of religion, or consecration and dedication to God's service ; for I find this phrase applied to persons that were of eminent and great holiness, especially in an evil and cor rupt age, as here to Enoch, when men degenerated, and a flood was threatened. So it is applied to Noah — ' Noah was a just man, and per fect in his generation ; and Noah walked with God,' Gen. vi. 9, con trary to the corruptions and manners of his age. So it is applied to Levi ; when the Lord speaks of the privileges of the house of Levi, he saith, Mai. ii. 6, ' He walked with me in peace and equity, and did
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 53
turn many from iniquity ; ' that is, he held on God's side against the re volt and rebellion of the other tribes that had gone away after the calves in Dan and Bethel. It noteth a consecration of our lives to God's service, and special communion with him. The metaphor seems to be taken from two friends that agree and resolve to go a long journey, that they will keep the same way and course, as the Lord himself explains his similitude, Amos iii. 3, ' Can two walk together except they be agreed?' In the context God threatens the alienation and estrangement of his presence from them ; for, saith God, You and I have gone hand in hand together ; but now, if you take different courses, we must needs part : as two travellers, whose journey is not the same, cannot long travel together ; so saith God, If you will take that path, I must break off communion with you, and withdraw my presence. Thus you find that he that by solemn vow and agreement with God hath set up his resolution to sequester and consecrate himself to the service of the Lord, is said to walk with God.
Now there are many parallel expressions, that differ only in sound ; as, walking before God ; so saith God to Abraham, Gen. xvii. I/ Walk before rne, and be thou perfect.' It notes the very same thing. Thus Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 3, ' I have walked before thee with a perfect heart.' The parallel phrases in the new testament are ' walking in Christ,' Col. ii. 6 ; and ' walking in the truth,' 2 John 4. In the general it notes special strictness and communion with God in the course of our lives ; more particularly, I shall show you negatively what it doth not imply ; then positively, what it doth imply.
1. Negatively, what it doth not imply.
[1.] Not such a strictness as to abridge ourselves of the holy use of the necessary comforts of this life. I ground this upon that place, Gen. v. 22, ' Enoch walked with God, and begat sous and daughters/ The holy and pure use of the creatures may stand with the strictest rules of profession. There may be a walking with God without monkery, and a sequestration of ourselves from worldly affairs. Enoch had a body as others had, and he needed the refreshment and support of meat, drink, and sleep, and the modest use of conjugal society, and yet walked with God ; that is, in all these comforts he enjoyed God.
[2.] It doth not imply such a strictness and exactness as is wholly exempt from infirmities ; for we read in scripture that Noah was one that walked with God, yet Noah was overcome with drink, Gen. ix. 21. Alas ! in our journey many times carnal affections creep upon us, and bewray themselves by some indecent and impure actions, yet the Lord pardons them out of grace ; though he be displeased with our sins, yet he accepts of our company still, accepts of our persons with%Christ. On God's part the society and fellowship is not broken off, because they are interested in Christ ; and on the believer's part the godly do not break off communion with God, because they recover themselves by repentance ; there is a vigilant custody over their ways, but treacherous nature will be tripping now and then, and draw us to inconveniences. Alas ! what then ? The people of God are restless till they rise again, and recover the sense of God's favour ; and when they stumble, they do not lie in the mire of sin, but endeavour to rise and keep on their journey ; their constant purpose is to walk in a constant communion with God.
54 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SER. XXII.
2. Positively, what is walking with God? There are two terms in the scripture ; there is ' walking ; ' and then walking ' with God.'
[1.] Walking, that doth imply a way, and some motion in that way.
(1.) There must be a way. If we walk with God, it must be in his own ways. Now there are several ways of God ; there are ways in which God walks to us, as Ps. xxv. 10, ' All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.' It is meant of the ways of his providence and dispensations to us ; they are all stamped with the character of mercy and truth. And then there are ways in which we walk to God, and with God, and those are spoken of: Isa. ii. 3, ' He will teach us his ways.' And what is that way ? that is his revealed will in the word. All our steps are but acts of obedience, conformed to the will of God ; our whole course is a declining of evil and doing of good. We walk alone when we go out of the broad path and road of duty : Ps. cxxv. 5, ' They that turn aside to crooked ways shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity/ When they are in any crooked deviations of spirit, which are constant and allowed, they are none of those that God will keep company with. God holds communion with us in all his ways. It is a mistake to think our communion with God is only when we are practising duties of the first table, in the exercises of religion; then we do more intimately converse with him in meditation, prayer, and hearing. This is indeed the heaven of a Christian ; but God holds communion with us also in the necessary duties of our calling — in the shop, as well as in the closet. A man walks with God, it is true, as travellers sometimes may sit down and refresh themselves, but all the day they keep company. That is somewhat like communion with God in ordinances ; but all the day we should keep God company. It is the dotage of foolish men to think all the world must be turned into a cloister, or we can have no company with God. We are indeed to sequester ourselves from the distractions of the world, but not from the employment of the world. There must be an even hand, that we may converse with God in worship, and in the duties of our calling : piety must not make us lazy, nor yet frugal diligence profane.
(2.) Walking doth not only imply choice of a way, but motion. In this motion there are two things — diligence and progress. (1.) An active diligence. Speculation doth not make us Christians ; no, nor a naked profession. We have a race to run ; God cannot endure idlers, and those that merely dress up a profession. Deeds speak louder than words in God's ear ; therefore there must be much spiritual diligence to pre vent what is displeasing to God, and to practise what is acceptable. Treacherous nature is always apt to draw back and fly out, therefore we had need make a solemn covenant with our mind, will, and senses ; with our mind, that we may not think evil, and provoke God with our thoughts ; and with our wills, that we do not consent to evil ; with our senses, that they may not be inlets to a temptation — all must be under the coercion of a severe discipline: Prov. iv. 23, 'Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.' Christianity was never made for idle ones and lazy persons ; as a bird in the air must always be moving on the wing, so we must be always in our flight and motion. There must be a constant diligence to guard the heart, to bring it to a serious performance of the duties of religion, and to keep it upright in. duty. (2.) A progress. .He that walks makes more steps than one ; so a Christian is in a continual journey, and God is in his company. Now
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 55
we must make a continual progress. It is said, Ps. Ixxxiv. 7, ' They shall go from strength to strength, till they appear before God in Zion.' The original word is, they shall go on from troop to troop ; for it is an allusion to the solemn journey to the temple thrice a year. This was their ambition, who should outreach one another. When they had overtaken one troop, they strove to overtake the other troop ; so in their solemn journey to heaven they shall gather new strength and courage, till they come to the triumphant church, and appear before God in Zion. A Christian in his journey is like a man going up a sandy hill, if he doth not go forward, he goes backward ; so we go backward when we do not make effectual progress ; or like a man rowing against the tide, if he do not ply the oar, he goes backward — if there be not an effectual progress, there will be a sensible decay.
[2.] I come to show what this term ' with God ' implies.
(1.) The company and presence of God. He must needs be present with us that walks with us. How can God be absent from any ? The apostle saith, Acts xvii. 27, ' He is not far from every one of us.' We are not so near to ourselves as God is to us. Who can keep his breath in his body for a moment if God were not there ? God is present with us ; but the meaning is this, that we must be present with God. Usually, we are at too great a distance in our minds and affections ; therefore walking with God implies actual thoughts of his presence ; he must be represented as the beholder of all our thoughts, words, and actions. The world is a great theatre, and the spectators are God and angels. I confess we little think of it ; there is a fond levity in our minds. As to us, the world is like a hill of ants ; you stand by, and they run up and down, and do not think of your presence and being there ; so the Lord stands by and observes all our motions, and we run up and down like busy ants, and do not think of God's presence ; there is a great hurry and clutter of business, and few thoughts of God. It is a description of carnal men : Ps. Ixxxvi. 14, ' They have not set thee before them.' There are some have never any thoughts of God ; they have nothing before their eyes but the world and worldly business. As it is storied of the panther, when she is hunted she hides her head, and when she doth not see the hunters, she thinks she is not seen by them ; so we do not think of God, and therefore vainly imagine that he doth not think of us. In heaven, indeed a man doth nothing else but think of God ; the divine essence is impressed there upon our minds, it is a part of our glory : Ps. xvii. 15, ' When I awake, I shall be satis fied with thy likeness ; ' we shall endlessly lose ourselves in the con templation of the divine perfections. Now for the present faith serves instead of vision. God must be acknowledged as present with us, as certainly present as those outward objects with which we do converse, or as a man is whom we see with our bodily eyes. The soul hath its object and its senses as well as the body. There is a commerce between spirits ; they see and hear, and converse with one another ; so must our souls with God and holy angels. A Christian can never be alone; by thoughts his soul converseth with God; they see him whom the world cannot see. We see that according to the different ranks of beings they have different objects : the beasts have eyes and senses to see external objects, and they judge by sight according to the form and outward appearance of things. Men have reason ; that is
56 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SlSR. XXII.
higher than sight. Keason corrects sense in many things ; as a star to^sense seems but like a spark or spangle, reason can judge it to be greater — as big as the world. Christians have a higher light ; they have faith to see him that is altogether invisible. Now this is the great advantage of religion ; to see God by us, with us, and in us ; nothing makes a man more holy than this. It is said, 3 John 11, 'He that doth evil hath not seen God ; ' that is, he doth not think of God's presence ; he is as if he had no God to see him. Now, because it is impossible in the present life to have perpetual actual thoughts and considerations of God's majesty and goodness, there must be set times to represent the truth and glory of his being to the soul, till at length it be habituated to us ; and when it is habituated upon every temptation, there will be actual discourses about his presence, especially when you are tempted to secret sins ; as Job speaks of his unclean glances, chap. xxxi. 4, ' Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps ? ' When1 there is an inward impure thought arising in the heart, it will be checked by this, Is not this liable to God's eye ? as Joseph, when he was tempted to sin by the advantage of privacy, Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Is any place private to God ? The majesty of God will always run upon the thoughts, upon every temptation. (2.) Familiarity. A beggar may be in the presence of a prince, but cannot be said to walk with him, for that noteth a social communion ; a servant may be in company with his master, but he waits upon him, doth not walk with him. But now God hath taken all his saints into the honour of his friends ; he is ours in covenant ', we do not walk with him as with a stranger, at a distance, and with wary reservation, as with another man's God, but with our friend — with our God, with our con federate in Christ, one that is in covenant with us. There is abundance of intimate converse and familiarity between God and believers : 1 John i. 3, ' Truly,' saith the apostle, ' our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' How ? by walking in the light : ver. 7, ' If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then have we fellowship one with another ; ' that is, we with God, and God with us, as two friends and companions would walk together. There is the familiarity of discourse. It is not a mute, silent walk, but such as is full of sweet and interchangeable discourses, many sweet dialogues between God and us. Sometimes God, and sometimes we begin the conference ; some times God speaks to the soul, and the heart answers God. God speaks to us by the injection of holy thoughts, by the motions and actual excitations of his grace ; and the soul again speaks to God by prayer, meditation, and pious addresses: Ps. xxvii. 8, 'When thou saidest, Seek ye my face ;^ my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' The heart, .-noyed and inspired by the spirit, gives God an answer. Sometimes, again, we begin the conference ; we ask counsel of God in doubtful matters, when the soul is engaged with many anxious traverses, and knows not what to do. Now God answers us by the whispers of his Spirit ; as the Israelites, Judges i. 1, ' Who shall go up for us against the^Canaanites? ' In all difficult and uncertain matters they make God their counsellor ; and then the Lord leads them by his Spirit, and gives them an answer by casting powerful and overswaying considerations into their minds ; as David saith, Ps. xvi. 7, ' My reins instruct me in the night-season.' In the silence of the night, when we are free from
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS xi. 57
the hurry of distractions, then God inwardly speaks to us by our own hearts and by our own consciences, and sometimes we crave his help as well as his counsel. There is not a day passeth but there is some occasion offered to confer with God for Christians that mind their work and their souls. Carnal men feel no impulses to prayer ; they are not only strangers to God, but to their own souls. God and they are un acquainted, and they and themselves are unacquainted; for if men did not converse1 with themselves, and mind the state of their souls, they would find there are many doubts need to be assailed, many wants to be supplied, many corruptions to be weakened and morti fied. But when they leave off conference with themselves, no won der they are so careless of holding conference and communion with God; when they and themselves are brought together, they will not be quiet till they and God are brought together. David speaks of sevenfold addresses in one day : Ps. cxix. 164, ' Seven times a day do I praise thee.' Oh, what a spirit are they of that can pass whole days and whole weeks and never speak a word to God, never give God a visit ! Can these be said to walk with him ? Now all our communion and speaking with God does not lie in prayer only ; for look, as wants put us upon prayer, so blessings upon praises. The vapours and showers do maintain a mutual commerce between the earth and the air ; the earth sends up vapours, and the air sends down showers ; so it is here — blessings and praises maintain a mutual communion between God and us ; God sends down the shower of blessing, and then we send up the vapour of praise, so that the soul lives in a holy sweet way of communion with him.
(3.) The fear of God. There must be a humble reverence if we keep God company. We are in the presence of the ' great king/ as the prophet calls him, Mai. i. 14 ; it is his pleasure to hold famili arity with us, but we must never forget our distance ; there must be a constant fear and a reverend respect to God. It is a profanation to think of him without reverence, as well as to speak of him without reverence. Our familiarity with God must not be rude and careless, but such as becomes the distance that is between God and us : Micah vi. 8, ' What doth the Lord require of thee, but to walk humbly with thy God?' When we converse with God, we must not forget ourselves ; we must remember the distance between infinite purity and a poor spotted creature. The angels and blessed spirits that enjoy the highest way of communion with God, they stand in dread of his presence. Fear is a grace in heaven as well as love ; the angels clap their wings and cover their faces, and cry, ' Holy, holy, holy,' &c., Isa. vi. 2, 3. Those immaculate spirits are abashed at the glory of his holiness, and do not only praise, but fear him ; for fear is an essential respect that is due from the creature to the godhead. It is true, faith is a grace which suits with our present estate, therefore it vanisheth in heaven, where we have full enjoyment ; but fear is a necessary respect of the creature to the supreme majesty ; there is a reverent and aweful, but a delightful dread in the angels ; they have higher apprehensions of his holiness than we have, therefore reverence him the more. We have but low thoughts of that which is his chiefest glory, his holiness, there fore we do not reverence him as the angels do. Now if the angels are
1 Qu. ' Did converse ? ' — ED.
58 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SfiR. XXII.
abashed at his presence, despicable dust and ashes have more cause to fear. Why ? because we have sin in us, and are not out of danger of punishment. But angels are out of danger of punishments ; they do not fear God for his commutative justice, but only reverence him for his holiness; but here we have sin in us, and can never have an absolute assurance of God's favour, therefore we have more cause to stand in dread. We may sadly reflect upon this, because we are guilty of such a negligent security, and we converse with God rather as an idol of our own fancy than a king of glory ; there is not a reve rent respect upon the soul. Oh, consider, there is practical atheism in irreverence ! It is hard to say which is worse, to deny God, or not to fear him; an atheist makes him nothing, and a careless person makes him an idol — Malo de me did nullum esse Plutarclmm, quam malum esse Pluiarclium ; and in the issue it is all one to deny his being and not to acknowledge his perfection, and to behave ourselves suitably. It is worse to behave ourselves to God as if he were a weak God, than absolutely to deny his being; but, alas ! we never tremble but when he thunders, and when God shows himself terrible in some instance of judgment and vengeance. Alas ! it is much for us, in our prayers and supplications, to be aweful in our special addresses to God, and yet fear is a grace that is never out of season and exercise : Prov. xxviii. 14, ' Happy is the man that feareth always ;' not that perplexeth himself with scruples and terrors — that is a torment, not a blessedness — but that bears a constant reverent respect to God's presence. So again, Prov. xxiii. 17, ' Be thou in the fear of God all the day long.' In secret and in company, in the shop and in the closet thou art still in God's company, and still God is to be feared. But you will say, This is very hard, to keep the soul under an actual awe and trembling, and in the fear of God ; therefore there must at least be a habitual awe ; that is, a reverent and serious constitution of spirit, so that a man would not do anything that is unseemly in God's sight.
(4.) A care of obedience, or a holy ambition to please God and approve ourselves to him. Now in this pleasing of God there must be —
1st. An avoiding of whatever is grievous and displeasing to him. He that seeth God to be always present certainly he will be afraid to displease him ; he will be always reasoning and discoursing thus in his soul, How will God like this with whom I am present, and before whom I am ? You know the question of Ahasuerus concerning Haman, when he threw himself upon the queen's bed, Esther vii. 8, * Will he force the queen before my face ? ' so, should I go about to grieve God before his face? to betray his cause, and comply with his enemies when he looks on ? It is impudence to sin before any looker-on, — before a man, or before a child ; but this in the presence