The Doctrine of Fasting and Prayer, Sermon 6
SERMON VI.
Novemb. 9. 1625.
FOlloweth now the third and last motive;Motive 3. that this is the best way to prevent the Lord from afflicting, and humbling our soules with his owne hand, when we have learned to humble, and afflict our owne soules. For this is a certaine truth; sinne will bring sorrow sooner or later, that cannot bee avoided. Sinne is therefore called sorrow; because sorrow is an inevitable effect, and consequent of it, Eccl. 11. When he had said, verse 9. Rejoyce, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheere thee in the daies of thy youth, and walke in the waies of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement: he addes verse 10. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evill from thy flesh. When sinne hath gone before, sorrow (even sorrow and affliction of soule for sinne) will follow, Prov. 29. 6. In the transgression of a wicked man there is a snare; that is, that that will fill their hearts with deadly sorrow and heavinesse, as appeares by the next words, but the righteous sing, and rejoyce, Ier. 2. 19. Thine owne wickednesse shall correct thee, know therefore, and see that it is an evill thing, and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my feare is not in thee. Thy sinnes certainly will be bitter to thee one day, sooner or later. Take this for an undoubted truth, thou must either temporally heere or eternally hereafter in hell, lament, and be waile, and weepe for thy sinnes, Luc. 13. 28. There shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Iacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdome of God, and your selves thrust out. How much more when they shall see, and feele the torments that are prepared in hell for them? Now when God as an angry judge strikes, and afflicts the soule with sorrow for sinne, even in this life; ô that sorrow is terrible, and intolerable, when hee smites the heart, he so sets it on as no man is able to abide it, Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Prov. 18. 14. A wounded spirit (that is, which God in his anger hath wounded) who can beare? Nah. 1. 6. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger? his fury is powred out like fire, and the rocks are throwne down by him.
And the best way to prevent the Lord from wounding, and afflicting our soules, is to smite, and afflict our owne hearts for our sinnes; the way to prevent those intollerable, and everlasting sorrowes which God in his fury will bring upon wicked men, is to worke our hearts to this godly sorrow our selves, and to humble our owne soules: this is plaine by that speach of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 11. 31. If wee would judge our selves, wee should not bee judged of the Lord, hee meanes as appeares in the next verse.
O thinke of this thou merry Greeke,Applic. that art all for mirth, and pleasure; thou drunkard and whoremaister that findest such joy, and sweetnesse in thy sinne; thou pleasant witted fellow, that canst so wittily breake jests upon religion, and the servants of God, that thou canst set all the company on laughing; the time will come when thy sinnes which thou canst not abide to thinke of, shall be set in order before thine eyes, that thou shalt not be able to looke of from them, they shall never out of thy thought, Psal. 50. 21. Thou that canst not abide to heare of thy sinnes, nor to be told of them, nor reproved for them by any of Gods servants, who are (as Elihu speakes, Iob 33. 6, 7, 8.) in Gods stead unto thee, formed out of the clay, aswell as thy selfe: whose terror need not make thee affraid, shalt one day heare the Lord himselfe reproving thee for them, Psal. 50. 21. I will reprove thee, saith he, and that will be such a kind of reproving as is mentioned, Psal. 2. 5. Then shall hee speake to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure; better to have an hundred of Gods poore servants, to reprove thee, then to have the Lord doe it. Thou that canst not abide to let any sadnesse or sorrow for sinne to come neare thy heart, but hatest sorrow as the Devill, and abandonest it from thee with all thy might, doe what thou canst sooner or later it will seize upon thee. When Gods servants (that have beene much given to mourning for sinne) shall sing for joy of heart, thou shalt cry for sorrow of heart, and howle for vexation of spirit, Esay 65. 14. Luke 6. 25. Woe unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourne and weepe.
Yea 2. thinke of this all you that feare God, were it not much better for you to take paines with your owne hearts to humble, and afflict them, then to leave it to God to doe it in his wrath. You have heard hee will certainly doe it if you doe it not, and the way to prevent him from doing it, is to doe it your selves.
And these are the motives that may stir up in every one of us a desire to seeke for this grace, of an humbled and broken heart.
It followeth now,Meanes of 2 sorts. that I shew you the meanes whereby you may atteine it. And these are of two sorts.
1. Some such as wherein you must use the helpe of others.
2. Some such as wherein you must be the agents your selves.
Of the first sort,1 Sort. I will name to you, but two.
The first is the ministery of the Word.1. If thou wouldst have a soft heart, able to mourne for sinne, thou must conscionably frequent the faithfull ministery of the Word, strive to live under a forcible ministery, such as will search thy heart. No meanes in the world have ever wrought so mightily to the saving, humbling, and afflicting of the soule as this hath done. By this meanes they that had crucified Christ, and were so hardned in their sin, that when they saw that wonderfull miracle, even the Apostles that were poore Galileans speake in all languages the wonderfull things of God, they mocked them, and said, these men are full of wine, Act. 2. 13. were so pricked, and wounded in their hearts, that they knew not what to doe till the same hand that wounded them had healed them againe, as you may read, Act. 2. 37, 41. And what was it that brought David to such a saving sense of his sinne in numbring of the people, that his heart smote him for it, and he cryed, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, I have done very foolishly? 2 Sam. 24. 10. Surely God had sent G…d the Prophet unto him, as you may see in the next words, verse 11. For when David was up in the morning, the Word of the Lord came unto the Prophet G…d, Davids Seer, saying, &c. and though it be said of Manasses, 2 Chron. 33. 12. that when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himselfe greatly before him: yet if you looke into the 18. verse of that chap. you shall find, he had a mightier and stronger meane to worke that humiliation in his heart, then his affliction was, the Lord had sent to him Seers, and Prophets that spake unto him in the name of the Lord. His affliction was but a subordinate meanes, to make him the better able to receive profit by the word; the words and ministery of the seers, was that that wrought this mighty work. There is more force in the ministery of the Word, to worke sound, and saving humiliation then in all the afflictions in the world, Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy Law. See a notable experiment of this in Rehoboam, and the Princes of Iudah, 2 Chron. 12. 2, 6. When God had for their apostacy, sent Shishak King of Egypt, with a mighty and invincible army against them, and brought them thereby into extreame perill and distresse, hee sent Shemaj…h the Prophet unto them, to declare unto them the true cause of that judgement, and to bring them to an effectuall sight and sense of their sinne, and then (not before) they humbled themselves, and confessed that the Lord was righteous. Gods judgements and corrections without the word, vse not to worke savingly. Indeed they serve, 1. to prepare and make the heart fitter to receive, and profite by the word, 2. to stirre up those sparks, and make them to burne, which the word had before cast into the heart, and were covered as with ashes; but without the word, they use not to worke savingly. But the word even without affliction, hath done mighty things this way, Ier. 23. 29. Is not my Word like as a fire, saith the Lord? and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Wouldst thou then have thy heart softned? Bring it to this fire, if it be as hard as iron it will soften it, and make it plyable; bring it to this anvile where the hammer smiteth, and it wil breake it. For first this is ordained, and sanctified of God to bee a glasse that will cleerly, and evidently discover to us all our spots and deformities, as the Apostle teacheth us, Iam. 1. 23. Secondly, God hath promised to accompany this ordinance of his, with the divine power and efficacy of his holy Spirit, I will be with you (saith our Saviour, Mat. 28. 20.) unto the end of the world. And therefore it is no marvell though it be so mighty this way.
A likely matter will you say:Object. for where have you harder, and profaner hearts, then such as are daily beaten upon by this hammer?
I answer,Answr. 1. First, That the hardned, and reprobate heart is made the harder by the strokes of this hāmer specially such hearts as once were softned, and are growne hard againe: even as the Smiths iron is. To … the word is a savour of death unto death, 2 Cor. …
Secondly,Answ. 2. The true cause why so many heare us daily, and their hearts are never a whit mollified by it, is this, in many of our hearers the Lord works not with us, no alas, in these dayes the Lord works with us, but in few; and if he be not with us, if hee worke not with us, we can doe nothing. When God bad Moses take his rod, and smite the rock in Horeb, he told him he would stand before him on the rock; and then when God stood upon the rock Moses smote the rock, and water gushed out of it aboundantly, Exod. 17. 5, 6. If God had not beene there, Moses smiting the rock would have done nothing; so is it in this case.
Thirdly,Ans. 3. This I say, that such as God hath in mercy ordained to give a soft heart unto, shall feele their hearts mollified more by this then by any other meanes. And if this will not soften thy heart, I assure thee nothing will doe it.
This being so;Applic: 1. Oh that we who are Gods ministers would more diligently, & carefully apply our selves to this worke, and stir up our selves in our ministry not onelyonly to reprove sinne, but to doe it feelingly and conscionably, so as may be most effectuall, to bring Gods people to sound humiliation for sinne. If we would bring them to lament for sinne, we must mourne to them our selves, as our saviour speaketh, Mat. 11. 17. and not by our Epicurisme, and riotous lives proclaime unto them, that we are far from having humbled soules, in our selves for our owne sinnes.
And O that you that are Gods people,2. would seek for, and desire this helpe from us in our ministry to soften your hearts, and further you in this worke of humiliation of foule for sinne. Certainly you should desire and seek for all good helpes this way. When God denounced against his people the heavy judgement of the Babilonish captivity, and provokes them to humiliation, and repentance for the preventing of it. Consider yee (saith he, ler. 9. 17, 18.) and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for cunning women that they may come, and let them make hast, and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may runne down with teares, and our eyelids gush out with waters. He alludes to the custome they had in funerals, and such occasions of mourning to hire certain women, that by their skill in singing dolefull songs might increase their heavinesse, and make them more apt to mourn. But his meaning is to teach them that in such a time as that was, wherein they had also just cause to mourne, and humble themselves, they should use all the best helps they could to provoke themselves unto sorrow. And surely we should all learne to doe so in this case, seeing humiliation for sinne is so necessary, and the ministry of the word is a singular meanes to worke our hearts to it, we should therefore desire (so far as the good order that God hath established in his Church will permit) to heare such as whose ministry is most powerfull, and effectuall for the softning of a hard heart.
The second meane wherein we must use the help of others is the benefit of private admonition, and reproofe. They that would have their hearts softned to be able to mourne, and weepe for sin must not bee unwilling to be admonished and reproved for sin in private by some faithfull friend, either Minister or other, but count it a great benefit, and desire it rather.
First, certainly God hath given authority and a straight charge to all his people to watch one over another; and to call upon, and admonish, and reprove one another, Heb. 10. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works. 2 Thes. 3. 15. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Levit. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sinne upon him.
Secondly, God hath sanctified and ordained this for a meanes to reclaime poore sinners, to bring them to a saving sight and sense of their sinne, and keepe them from hardning their hearts in it, Matth. 18. 15. If thy brother shall trespasse against thee, go, and tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone: if he shall heare thee, thou hast gained thy brother; but if not, then (Verse 16. 17.) take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to heare them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to heare the Church, let him be to thee as a Heathen man, and a Publicane. As if he had said, count not his case desperate till this course have been taken with him.
Thirdly, God hath oft blessed this course wonderfully, Mel. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord, spake oft one to another, and the Lord hearkned, and heard it, and a booke of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. This was the meane whereby Gods people were kept from the prophanenesse and security of those times, and God was wonderfully pleased with it. Yea many a heart hath been mollified this way, which the publique Ministry could not soften. Nathans private dealing with David prevailed more with him than all the publique meanes he had enjoyed in a whole yeare, 2 Sam. 12. 7. 13.
Fourthly, Count it therefore a great blessing of God to thee to have such a friend or such a Minister as will watch over thee, and deale thus privately and plainely with thee: yea seeke for such friends. It is said of Ion…than, 1 Sam. 20. 8. that he had brought David into a covenant of the Lord with him. We should labour to get such friends as we might make this covenant with▪ Yea we should beg of God to give us such a friend, Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me, it shalbe a kindnesse; and let him reprove me, it shalbe an excellent oyle that shall not breake my head. And we have all great need of it: for selfe… love so blinds us, as we cannot see that that is amisse in our selves. In these last times especially men shalbe lovers of themselves, as the Apostle teacheth us, 2 Tim. 3. 2.
And what marvell then if there be now adayes so much security and hardnesse of heart among Christians.Applic. No man holds himselfe bound to watch over his brother, to admonish or reprove him, but every man saith in his heart as Cain, Gen. 4. 9. Am I my brothers keeper? The Papists shall rise up in judgement against us in this: for, they take all opportunities to gaine others to Antichrist. They (like the Scribes and Pharises of whom our Saviour speaketh, Mat. 23. 15.) do compasse sea and land to make one proselyte; but we have no care at all to gaine any unto Christ. And on the other side, all men are unwilling to be admonished and plainly dealt with in private, even by the Minister of God: but are apt to say to any that would admonish them, as the Sodomites did to Lot, Gen. 19. 9. Stand backe, this fellow will needs be a Iudge. But know for a certainty, that thou that art so unwilling to heare of thy sinne, and to be plainly dealt with about it, art in love with thy sinne, and hast no desire to bring thy heart to godly griefe and sorrow for it.